4 editorial carlo granados-beltrán* we are pleased to present a new edition of this journal. it is evident that new times bring new challenges and the educational field is not the exception. for this issue, four of the researchers approached topics connected to one of the 21st century skills, named initiative and self-direction (trilling & fadel, 2009); these skills imply student’s capacity to set up attainable goals, to monitor and organize tasks according to priority, to be a self-directed learner, and to show commitment to life-long learning, among other skills. our first contribution, by ramírez, explored through action research ways to promote autonomy in university students, within an english course. secondly, garcía & durán present an inquiry about the influence students’ learning experiences have on their perception as learners – or self-efficacy – and how they contributed to their reluctant attitudes towards the learning of english. in this same line, but focusing more, on the 21st century skill related to teachers and learning to create together, is carreño & hernández’s contribution about co-planning and its implications for teachers’ practices and their professional development. the second set of articles is linked to specific features emerging from language skill work. garcía-ponce & mora-pablo, from mexico, focused on the ways in which the beliefs about providing corrective feedback when students engage in oral interaction in a foreign language. additionally, fallas & chaves also decided to go beyond the matters of unity, coherence, cohesion and accurate syntax to approach the issue of students’ authorial voice when writing academic texts. coates, gorham & nicholas, in italy, proposed the application of phonics instruction to particular phoneme/grapheme decoding, and therefore, second language learning. last but not least, and responding to the need of delving into the ways in which the postmethod pedagogy (kumaravadivelu, 1994, 2001) can be put into practice in the local contexts, bautista’s study aimed to characterize the development of socio-cultural awareness in an efl university classroom. no. 15 (july december, 2017) no. 15 (july december, 2017) 5 we at gist journal hope our reader will find in our contributors’ articles not only practical application for their own classroom context, but also a source of inspiration to share their research endeavours in their classrooms and institutions so that we could continue building a community of learning in the fields of bilingual education and language teaching. references kumaravadivelu, b. (1994). the postmethod condition: (e)merging strategies for second/foreign language teaching. tesol quarterly, 28(1), 27 – 48 kumaravadivelu, b. (2001). toward a postmethod pedagogy. tesol quarterly, 35(4), 537 – 560 trilling, b. & fadel, c. (2009). 21st century skills. learning for life in our times. san francisco: jossey – bass. *carlo granados-beltrán holds an ma in british cultural studies and elt from the university of warwick and an ma in applied linguistics to tefl from universidad distrital. currently, he is doing a phd in education at universidad santo tomás. he is a teacher researcher at the ba in bilingual education at única. he has been teacher of the language department at universidad central, the ba programmes in spanish and languages and spanish and english at universidad pedagógica nacional and the ba in modern languages at universidad javeriana. also, he has been guest lecturer for the ma in language teaching at uptc. no. 15 (july december, 2017) no. 15 (july december, 2017) 4 editorial carlo granados-beltrán* we are pleased to present this new issue of the education and learning research journal – gist. this edition covers three main topics: the impact of english in a content class, the knowledges and competences required for pre-service language teachers, and the pedagogical uses of technological devices to foster skills. our first contribution by maíz, from spain, describes how university lectures can take a different shape in terms of the type of questions posed when using english as a medium of instruction, instead of spanish. for bilingual contexts, this study is really useful at underlining how teachers and students’ use of questions varies depending on the language used for instruction. the second topic concerning the articles, initial teacher education, is a key element in the advancement of the countries, since teachers are the ones who help to cultivate new generations of subjects able to respond to the increasing demands of society, such as the development of informed citizenship, the adaptation to multilingual and multicultural societies, and the talent to take advantage of an ever-changing technological world. therefore, many professors in initial language education programmes are inquiring about the body of knowledge that might compose the education of pre-service teachers. arias-cepeda and rojas delve into linguistics as one of the foundational disciplines of foreign language teaching, but whose didactics has not been frequently explored. therefore, they share some partial results of a study aiming to re-interpret the role of this discipline in the curriculum of a bilingual education programme and the advantages it could offer to future english teachers. another concern in relation to teacher education is the way in which we can foster research competences. in this line of thought, camacho looks into french theory, specifically deleuze and guattari’s logic of sense and their notions of experimentation, in combination with inquiry-learning, to support research and argumentation skills to further the construction of teachers as transformative intellectuals. burgin and daniel also approach a common subject of interest for teacher educators, which is how to address multilingual and multicultural contexts, in this case, represented by indigenous no. 14 (january june 2017) no. 14 (january june 2017) 5 communities in ecuador. this study exemplifies the emergent interest in latin american countries in how to promote local practices in relation to foreign language teaching which better respond to contextual educational needs. becoming a transformative intellectual who inquires about ways to respond to local needs also implies being able to communicate research findings to local and international academic communities, action which is mostly done through academic writing. therefore, marulanda and martínez decided to take a multi-strategy integrated approach to strengthen this skill with a group of pre-service teachers. to close with this common thread of language teacher education, bautista shares a review of kumaravadivelu’s key work understanding language teaching. from method to postmethod, which has been paramount in encouraging new language pedagogies aiming to identify and respond to local needs, to foster the professionalization of language teaching – instead of its categorization as art and craft –; and to analyse how wider educational issues, such as political, economic and social phenomena impinge on language teaching. finally, two of the articles in this issue demonstrate how professors are trying to make the most of technological tools by combining them with a pedagogical basis. this is the case of devia and garcía who explored podcasting along with collaborative learning to promote oral skills in a group of tenth graders from a public school. also, celis, onatra and zubieta decided to use educational videos in combination with affective learning to help vocabulary learning in a group of fifth graders. it is our hope that this edition serves to encourage fellow members in the educational community to share results of their projects and to bring about new research that helps to strengthen our network and to contribute to the work being done in schools and universities. *carlo granados-beltrán holds an ma in british cultural studies and elt from the university of warwick and an ma in applied linguistics to tefl from universidad distrital. currently, he is doing a phd in education at universidad santo tomás. he is a teacher researcher at the ba in bilingual education at única. he has been teacher of the language department at universidad central, the ba programmes in spanish and languages and spanish and english at universidad pedagógica nacional and the ba in modern languages at universidad javeriana. also, he has been guest lecturer for the ma in language teaching at uptc. no. 14 (january june 2017) no. 14 (january june 2017) 5 no. 11 (july december 2015) no. 11 (july december 2015) editorial josephine taylor* in this issue of gist, as in recent issues, the editorial committee has chosen to publish a few studies on topics of great interest to local teachers in bilingual and other schools in bogotá. these issues may not coincide directly with the editorial focus of gist as they do not treat bilingual or language education per se. they do, however, represent the research interests of teachers enrolled in unica’s postgraduate program in bilingual education. these young teacher-researchers work at both public and private, elite and charity schools. their research interests stem from their daily teaching experience, which is much like that of teachers around the world. in the past two years, gist has published a number of these studies as a diversion from its main publication aim, but in the interest of pointing to the importance of treating local research interests and concerns. by far, the majority of the research projects in the program deal with non-cognitive issues in the classroom: behavior, motivation, self-regulation, executive function, attention, the role of feelings, resilience, inclusion, bullying, and metacognition; the cognitive studies lean towards critical thinking and attention. other studies examine the role of art and music programs on children’s resilience. although the program is a specialization degree in bilingual education, few students focus their final graduate project on language teaching or learning, as they are free to pursue their own chosen research topic within the field of education broadly. some projects do focus on the process of second language learning, and have pointed to the important role of the first language in this process, especially with preschool children who are new to the language. indeed, the breadth of research interests and the studies carried out have also pointed to the keen desire of teachers for more grounded training and professional development in non-cognitive areas. the research demonstrates that teachers generally cope with the challenges they face, and appear to be in some cases resourceful, implementing strategies to deal with a wide range of non-cognitive issues in the classroom. they do this in spite of little or no specific training on these issues. the research also points to the need for school-wide projects and initiatives to support teachers’ work and interest in the so-called “soft skills.” indeed, the literature on non-cognitive skills point to their crucial role in processes of academic achievement. 6 no. 11 (july december 2015) no. 11 (july december 2015) while gist will retain its dedication to studies and reflections on language learning and teaching as well as bilingual education, we feel that inclusion of this nascent research can shed light on current realities in schools in bogotá, which may be considered to be indicative of schools in many other places. these studies involving teacher-driven exploratory research consistently point to the key role of teachers in learning processes, and the resourcefulness of many of them when addressing the challenges of the classroom. it also clearly points to the need for institutional support and professional development, particularly in the areas most pertinent to teachers and students’ growth, mainly the behavioral, attitudinal and emotional connection with learning and school. aside from these local studies, gist is privileged once again in this most recent issue of the journal to have received and accepted articles from asia, europe, north and south america. teachers’ research interests continue to be varied yet highly relevant to their daily work in education practice, research and policy. they offer a summation and sharing of important experiences in different contexts including teacher preparation, higher education, global english environments and second language negotiation. in this regard, gist continues to enjoy the attention and support from its contributors and collaborators. we have gained wide and consistent interest and participation from peer reviewers, authors, and members of our editorial and scientific committees. just this month, gist was once again evaluated as a category b journal by colciencias, colombia’s scientific research evaluation agency. for a young journal like gist, this category is a positive qualification and speaks to the extent of gist’s international presence and focus. specifically, the studies this semester offer us a chance to learn from teacher-researchers in our own contexts, and we hope their work will inspire others to contribute. from colombia, sergio alonso lopera medina explores the effects of classroom assessment practices in a foreign language reading course. the study points to the impact of assessment for learning practices on students’ perceptions as well as learning outcomes. one of the studies mentioned at the outset of this editorial comes from david vargas alfonso, who explores the types of critical thinking evident in a range of academic subjects. data was collected from teachers, classrooms and students in english, spanish and french classes, and point to the ways in which teachers, and sometimes students promote critical thinking practices in class, even when teachers may not. katherine o’donnell christoffersen also explores students’ roles in their own writing processes, particularly the mitigation of disagreement in peer review sessions. she compares both l2 learners and native english speakers’ 7 no. 11 (july december 2015) no. 11 (july december 2015) use of these mitigation conventions as face-saving mechanisms in order to soften their critiques of one another’s work. the continuous focus on students is woven throughout this issue, as another graduate student from unica’s specialization program presents a case study of middle school students in bogotá, and explores the factors affecting academic resilience in these young people. luisa fernanda rojas’ study affirms the strong connection between family and individual protective factors and resilience on academic achievement. the study also offers a view from the context of vulnerable middle school students in bogotá. from turkey, turgay han examines the use of foreign language learning strategies by students in stem (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) programs in a turkish university. the study points to the wide range of strategies studied, and the preferences of students in terms of the strategies they employ. gist offers several reflective articles this issue as well. of particular interest in this context is the collection of multi-perspective reflections from a curriculum unification process in ecuador for english language teaching programs across the country. the article offers an interesting view into the many agendas represented in large-scale inter-governmental initiatives around english language learning. the players in this process include m. elisabeth serrano, cristina g. vizcaíno, daniel cazco, and natalie a. kuhlman. from an efl teacher education program in switzerland, holli schauber proposes a model for using the european portfolio for student teachers of languages (epostl) for dialogic reflection. the exploration of self-analytical and reflective tools for teachers in training is a key factor in promoting dialogic reflections of practice as an on-going tool for self-development in teaching. finally, nguyen cao thanh offers a thoughtful treatment of the differences between english and vietnamese spoken and written grammar in english. this reflection offers our readers an unusual glimpse into a lesserknown language, and specifically offers us the opportunity to contemplate the always present link between language, culture and code. gist hopes that readers enjoy this semester’s publication, and encourage everyone to contribute with research articles, reflections, literature reviews, and book reviews in future issues. 8 no. 11 (july december 2015) no. 11 (july december 2015) editor * josephine taylor received her ba in english and french from emory university and her ms in the teaching of english as second language from georgia state university, both in atlanta, georgia. she has been a teacher of english language and linguistics for more than 25 years, as well as administrator, curriculum designer, and external reviewer of language education programs in the u.s. and colombia. she has also worked extensively in english language publishing, as author, course developer and editor. josephine is currently the editor of gist education and learning research journal and adjunct professor in the undergraduate and graduate bilingual teaching programs at the institución universitaria colombo americana, única. gist1-2007.indd 144 english teaching and private enterprise in colombia: a business perspective and a challenge to educators debra mckinney gehman teaching english to employees, and maintaining the language levels of those already hired, is a constant and growing concern for those responsible for corporate education in colombia’s private sector. although it might be argued that acquisition and maintenance of a second language is an individual responsibility, when faced with an increasingly globalized economy and the resultant use of english as the language of business, private enterprise in colombia has had to intervene in a systemic problem resulting from deficiencies in private and public secondary and higher education, as well as in private language institutes. the situation has several aspects that merit consideration: how to confirm real achievements in use of the english language when new employees join the company; how to strengthen deficient english language skills among current employees; 145 how to maintain english language skills in employees who have little opportunity to practice the language they learned at some time in the past. the list is not complete. there are other significant difficulties that will not be covered in this article, such as retention of employees with good english and superior business skills in colombian companies whose salary scales and benefits do not compete with those offered by multinationals, and others that are more closely related to personnel administration than to corporate training and development. when a company hires a new employee, how can it check the candidate’s english skills in a simple, reliable and systematic manner? let us remember that the candidate’s potential superior or the company’s human resources professional has the same language deficiencies as the rest of the population; thus, it is unlikely that he or she will be able to personally check language skills through a personal conversation or by reading something written by the candidate during admissions tests. grades in english, whether from high school, university or a language institute, are so variable with respect to actual achievements that they are unreliable. few candidates have studied enough to have achieved an internationally valid certificate, or are wealthy enough to have graduated from a truly bilingual school. the remaining possibility is that the company send all promising candidates to a qualified person or entity to test and certify english language skills. for jobs that actually use english frequently, the cost is justifiable. but, what happens for the many jobs in which english is useful, though not used frequently? since this describes the great majority of cases, the company either wastes resources in an era of increased competition, or hopes that english won’t become critical in the future and chooses to ignore the problem. the first difficulty faced by companies seeking to hire candidates with good english language skills is that of finding a reliable, simple and inexpensive way to confirm potential employees’ specific english language skills. in addition to new hires, any colombian business already has a group of current employees with deficient english language skills. perhaps they have been in the company many years; and when they were hired, english was not a significant factor in the labor market. perhaps the company’s salary scale is not competitive enough to attract individuals with good english, in addition to other required skills. no matter what the reason, they are current employees in good standing with satisfactory performance reviews. therefore, terminating the contract debra mckinney gehman 146 english teaching and private enterprise in colombia is not usually a viable option, considering the additional costs imposed for “unnecessary” termination by highly protective colombian labor laws. what has caused this change in job requirements over the years? possibly, some of these employees have completed their educations and have been promoted over the years, finally reaching a professional or hierarchical level which makes english desirable or necessary. perhaps the evolution of the company itself has made english necessary – a buy-out by or a merger with a foreign company, newly-begun imports or exports, establishment of franchises or branch offices, or other similar situations. it might be simply that a greater degree of global competition and rapid obsolescence of knowledge has made constant reading and research necessary, without waiting for local translations. in any of these circumstances, the company normally takes an active role in strengthening its employees’ skills, either paying for all or part of english classes, providing classes in company installations, or making special agreements with universities or language institutes. there are, however, a series of considerations and difficulties worth reflecting upon: how will this english-learning experience differ from all the years of english classes in elementary, secondary and higher education taken and passed by these employees, in which they did not achieve basic skills? what will guarantee that this time they actually achieve the desired results? how do the changing needs of the workplace (travel, meetings, changing workloads) fit with the inflexibility of formal education and language institutes? in addition, how will these two aspects fit in with other normal and frequently non-schedulable requirements of adult family life? how soon will the company be able to perceive the specific achievements it requires? how do the company’s needs combine with those of the english teacher or english-language institute, and the interests of the student-employee? how does the company promote a positive view of strengthening english language skills among its employees, most of whom found their previous english classes to be difficult, irrelevant and/or dull? in synthesis, private companies face problems of quality, timeliness and relevance when seeking to strengthen the english language skills of their employees. colombian companies find it necessary to intervene in an unfamiliar process – teaching and learning english 147 – due to the business requirements of an increasingly competitive global economy. what role might language institutes and english teachers play in this situation? what creative, practical alternatives could they present? finally, there is yet another situation which is the logical result of the one described above. in order to avoid deficient english in future employees who might need it at a later date – for the same business reasons described previously – english language skills now are required for many technical and professional jobs. the problem is that colombian companies – in contrast to the multinationals – use very little english in their daily activities. with the exception of technical reading in special subjects, or receiving the visit of a foreign consultant or expert, business is conducted in spanish. as a result, the employees who entered the company with good english-language skills frequently achieved with a great deal of dedication and personal sacrifice are caught up in the daily grind of company and personal activity and use those skills infrequently. in a short time, their english skills deteriorate to a minimum. if at some future moment any of these individuals must use english in their work – due to changes in the business itself, buy-out or merger with a foreign company, promotion to a level which requires international travel, or due to the need for research or current specialized information – the company finds that its “english-speaking” employees are no longer able to use the skills they once had. both sides blame the other: the company blames the employee for not keeping his or her skills current, and the employee blames the company for workloads that make it difficult or impossible to maintain his or her language skills though study or recreation. obviously, both parties have good intentions, though they have both failed at execution. they might have been more proactive, by offering or seeking experiences which would have allowed them to maintain language skills, well aware that this would eventually occur. faced with this reality, what alternatives might formal and informal education offer to assist in maintaining language skills in adults who have few opportunities for practice? what are reasonable possibilities for working adults with family and personal responsibilities which would keep them from having to “enroll for life” in a language class? we may conclude that teaching and learning english has consequences far beyond the academic world. frequently educators focus so strongly on the task at hand that they forget the long-term objective. one long-term objective is that private enterprise in colombia have access to a pool of potential employees prepared to successfully face the immediate challenges of a global economy which, in turn, debra mckinney gehman provides worthwhile employment for individuals and leads to collective social and economic growth. one of the many skills that this future population of potential employees must have is the adequate use of the english language, the international language of business. reaching this goal will take time, and colombian society has many urgent, competing needs. however, there are short-term, practical, partial solutions which might help private enterprise and individual employees reach the final goal. in order to define them, i suggest that the professionals and institutions dedicated to teaching english carefully consider the questions i have posed. i am sure that they will find ample opportunities for dialogue and an enthusiastic response from the private sector in colombia. debra mckinney gehman is the director of centro de formación gerencial del grupo bolívar. e-mail: debra.mckinney@bolnet.com.co english teaching and private enterprise in colombia 148 147 using tasks to assess spanish language learning1 leonardo herrera mosquera2* universidad surcolombiana, colombia abstract the methodology of task-based teaching (tbt) has been positively regarded by many researchers and language teachers around the world. yet, this language teaching methodology has been mainly implemented in english as a second language (esl) classrooms and in english for specific purpose (esp) courses; and more specifically with advanced-level learners. the present experimental research study aimed at proving the feasibility of a task-based assessment (tba) approach in a different learning context: a beginning spanish class. that is to say, contrary to the traditional tbt-tba implementation, the experiment was conducted in a foreign language class with students bearing a low level of language proficiency. the research produced positive results in terms of students’ linguistic and communicative performance. keywords: task, task-based teaching (tbt), task-based assessment (tba). resumen la metodología de enseñanza basada en tareas (tbt, por sus siglas en inglés) ha tenido gran acogida por parte de investigadores y profesores alrededor del mundo. sin embargo, este enfoque ha sido implementado principalmente en programas de inglés como segunda lengua (esl) o en cursos de inglés con propósitos específicos (esp); y más enfáticamente con estudiantes de niveles avanzados. el presente trabajo investigativo experimental busca demostrar la viabilidad de una metodología de evaluación basada en tareas (tba) en un contexto diferente: una clase de español para principiantes. es decir, contrario a la tradicional implementación de tbt y tba, este experimento se llevó a cabo en una clase de lengua extranjera con estudiantes de un nivel bajo de competencia lingüística. la investigación arrojó resultados positivos en términos de desempeño comunicativo y lingüístico. palabras claves: tareas, enseñanza basada en tareas (tbt), evaluación basada en tareas (tba). 1 received: august 11th, 2011 / accepted: may 14th, 2012 2 email: lehemos@hotmail.com gist education and learning research journal. issn 1692-5777. no. 6, november 2012. pp. 147-158 no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) 148 resumo a metodologia de ensino baseada em tarefas (tbt, pelas suas siglas em inglês) tem tido grande aceitação por parte de pesquisadores e professores ao redor do mundo. entretanto, este enfoque tem sido implementado principalmente em programas de inglês como segunda língua (esl) ou em cursos de inglês com propósitos específicos (esp); e mais enfaticamente com estudantes dos níveis avançados. o presente trabalho investigativo experimental busca demonstrar a viabilidade de uma metodologia de avaliação baseada em tarefas (tba) em um contexto diferente: uma aula de espanhol para principiantes. melhor dito, contrário à tradicional implantação de tbt e tba, este experimento foi realizado em uma aula de língua estrangeira com estudantes de um nível baixo de competência linguística. a pesquisa deu resultados positivos em termos de desempenho comunicativo e linguístico. palavras chaves: tarefas, ensino baseado em tarefas (tbt), avaliação baseada em tarefas (tba). literature review in recent decades, tasks have become an important methodological tool within the language teaching and learning process, especially in the field of second language acquisition (sla). but what do researchers and teachers mean by task? a frequently cited author on this issue is long (1985), who offers a general definition that ranges from a non-verbal event such as painting a fence or dressing a child to a more communicative event such as taking a hotel reservation or borrowing a library book. according to long, almost any action people perform in their daily life can be called a task. this definition has been repeatedly used as a starting reference point by other theorists. nunan (1989) depicts a more communication-oriented definition stating that a communicative task is “a piece of classroom work which involves learners in comprehending, manipulating, producing or interacting in their target language while their attention is primarily focused on meaning rather than form. the task should also have a sense of completeness, being able to stand alone as a communicative act in its own right”. breen (1989) calls a task any language learning activity, no matter the level of complexity, that follows a structured workplan. this workplan is intended to provide learners with opportunities to develop using tasks to assess spanish language learning herrera mosquera no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) 149 their linguistic and communicative competences. breen adds that tasks need to have well-defined objectives, content, procedures, and outcomes in order to facilitate the language learning process. following on breen’s perspective of task, we could cite lee (2000), who offers a definition in which a structured workplan for the task is a requirement. lee emphasizes two fundamental elements for the accomplishment of a task: there must be a focus on meaning, and interaction must be the means through which the objective is met. other authors like bygate, skehan, and swain (2001) define tasks as activities that require learners to use language, with emphasis on meaning, to attain an objective. ellis (2003) defines tasks as activities that call for primarily meaningfocused language use. as we can see from these definitions, tasks call for a focus on meaning so that they resemble linguistic events that occur in real-life circumstances. these real-world tasks are also known as rehearsal or target tasks (common european framework, p. 157). making classroom tasks similar to real-life communicative acts was my main concern when designing assessment tasks for the study herein described. even if the object of study was a grammatical component, i adapted it in such a way that the assessment task would resemble a realworld communicative event. teaching methodologies that incorporate such tasks as central components of the curriculum are denominated task-based instruction (tbi) or task-based teaching (tbt). however, the present study focuses on just one portion of the tbt process: assessment or task-based assessment (tba). that is, tasks have been designed and implemented in this study as a means to assess students’ linguistic and communicative skills and to offer appropriate feedback. for the purpose of the present study, i designed communicative assessment tasks that combine elements of both types of assessment (system-based and performance-based). the themes, lexical items, and grammatical structures already stated in the spanish 1 syllabus were incorporated into the design of the tasks in a way that better resembled real-world communicative events, also known as target-language use (tlu) tasks. i also want to add that most of the tasks designed for this study were integrative in that they integrate two or more language skills (listening and writing, reading and speaking, and the like) or two or more linguistic components (grammar, vocabulary, pronunciation, etc.). methodology research design the present experimental research sought to measure the impact of a task-based assessment approach in the learning of spanish at a middle school level. the target population consisted of all spanish using tasks to assess spanish language learning herrera mosquera no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) 150 1 students in a middle school in the united states of america. the name of the school will not be disclosed for confidentiality reasons. the accessible population consisted of four classes or groups of spanish 1 students. these four classes were part of my teaching assignment during the 2009-2010 school year. since the groups (accessible population) were already established, the experimental group design implemented is the static-group pretest-posttest. an entrance test was administered to both the treatment and control groups, followed by a six-month treatment. an exit test was administered to both groups as well. differences in performance scores between the treatment and the control groups demonstrate the effect of the treatment considering all the intervening variables and factors. groups and sample a sample of convenience was used in this study. two out of the four spanish 1 classes were randomly selected as the treatment group and the remaining two classes were designated as the control groups. all four groups consisted of seventh and eighth grade students with ages ranging between 11 and 14 years. the characteristics analyzed in this study were group size, gender, grade level, and spanish background for both the treatment and the control groups. students who had had any kind of contact with the spanish language, whether at home or at school, qualified as having some background in spanish. this information was obtained from the entrance personal survey. instrumentation on the first day of class (september 2009), students filled out a form with information regarding personal data, their background in spanish, and their motivation to learn spanish. these data provided significant information for the interpretation of results. on the second day, a spanish entrance test was administered to all four groups (accessible population). this test consisted of 30 questions of vocabulary and grammar. the questions for this test were taken from the textbook online self-tests for the first two chapters. the treatment consisted of 10 task-based tests administered during the first semester, september 2009 to january 2010. these task-based tests were administered only to the two treatment groups. the two control groups were administered traditional quizzes such as multiple-choice, matching, and fill-in-the-blank type tests. the content using tasks to assess spanish language learning herrera mosquera no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) 151 for the task-based tests was dictated by the textbook syllabus and adapted according to real language demands. for example, instead of just asking students to complete drills with verbs in the present tense, students answered a survey of trends and preferences, which required the use of verb inflections in this tense. the process of adapting the tasks according to the spanish syllabus was completely done by the teacher-researcher. in some task-based models such as that proposed by breen (1987), students are responsible for performing their own needs analysis, designing procedures, and reflecting on the whole learning process. candlin (1987), in turn, proposes that teachers may bring curriculum specifications as options for students to consider in their task-designing process. students in the treatment groups received a complete description of the task (workplan) and started preparing with classmates in the allotted preparation time. the task handouts contained the task description, performance guidelines, and assessment rubric, if necessary. this phase when students learn about the task requirements is what i call pre task. the post task corresponds to the analysis of the task performance by the teacher and the students. by the end of the semester (january 2010), all groupsthe treatment and controltook the midterm written exam, which had already been designed by the foreign language department of the school. this test consisted of 139 multiple-choice questions, with 40 listening comprehension questions, 40 vocabulary questions, 40 grammar questions, and 19 textual comprehension questions. along with the midterm written exam there was a midterm speaking exam. on this speaking exam, all students from both the treatment and the control groups were interviewed by an external interviewer, another spanish teacher invited to participate in the research. this ten-question interview constituted the tenth assessment task and was titled entrevista de trabajo 2 (job interview 2). students were questioned about personal information, personality traits, favorite indoor and outdoor activities, school information, and other general topics such as dates and times. all instruments in this study were administered to all groups except for the 10 assessment tasks which corresponded to the treatment. similarly, all instruments were administered by the classroom teacher (researcher) except for the semester speaking test. the personal information form and the midterm multiple-choice exam were designed by the foreign language department of the school. the ten assessment tasks and the semester speaking test were designed by the researcher. yet, the speaking test was administered by a guest teacher who had the using tasks to assess spanish language learning herrera mosquera no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) 152 possibility to choose among a wide range of questions—that is, there was not a fixed 10-question interview. it was pivotal to invite an external interviewer for the speaking exam as well as to take the above-mentioned steps in order to make the study more valid. an external teacher or interviewer would not be able to exert any influence on the interviews nor on the results. they would not even know how groups were composed or which groups corresponded to the treatment or control. in this regard norris et al. (1998) state that validity is one of the main threats to the effective implementation of a task-based language approach. data collection the grading software “gradequick” was used to enter grades and calculate the groups’ averages (mean and median) for the entrance test and the midterm multiple-choice exam. the semester speaking exam was graded by the tester (guest teacher) using the rubric on the task handout. all ten assessment tasks were graded by the classroom teacher, but these grades were not used for the final analysis of this study. the grading by the teacher-researcher might threaten the validity of the study. the teacher’s journal of observations on the pre task, during, and post task phases were added to the analysis of the quantitative information. thus, qualitative and quantitative information were combined in the analysis. data analysis scores obtained on the semester written and speaking exams were compared to the scores obtained on the entrance test for each group. both the group means and the medians (arithmetic measures) were calculated in order to have a more reliable evidence of the results. the comparison between the entrance test and the exit test averages provided relevant information regarding the effect of the treatment (implementation of a task-based assessment approach). results an entrance test, a midterm speaking exam, and a midterm multiple-choice exam were the principal assessment tools used in the present study to measure the impact of a task-based assessment approach on the learning of spanish as a foreign language in a middle school in the united states. using tasks to assess spanish language learning herrera mosquera no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) 153 entrance test this test was administered on the first week of the 2009-2010 school year (september). it was administered to four spanish 1 classes in order to measure their initial level of spanish language proficiency. the test consisted of 30 multiple-choice questions assessing vocabulary and grammar. all four groups obtained scores in the 30-40 range on the entrance test, which meant that all groups were bearing a similar level of language proficiency. these numbers are intended to give us an idea of students’ level of language proficiency and background knowledge before undertaking the treatment for the present study. midterm multiple-choice exam the midterm multiple-choice exam consisted of 139 questions distributed as follows: 40 listening comprehension questions, 35 vocabulary questions, 40 grammar questions, and 24 questions for textual comprehension. this exam was designed by the foreign language department of the school in previous years. students took this exam on the last week of january 2010. it took them between 50 and 70 minutes to complete this test. the two treatment groups showed the highest averages (83 and 87 respectively), and the spread of the data for all groups was quite similar. even though the treatment groups were never assessed throughout the semester using multiple-choice type tests, they did very well on this midterm test to the point of obtaining higher scores than the groups who were always assessed using multiple-choice tests. midterm speaking exam the midterm speaking exam consisted of a 10-question interview covering topics such as personal information, likes and preferences, personality traits, school subjects, and other general questions about dates and times. these were the topics covered during the first semester by the four groups. the tester was a spanish teacher from the school who was invited to assess students in order to make the research more valid. this teacher has great experience teaching spanish 1 students as well as teaching the spanish curriculum of the target school. the tester was instructed to select the questions she wanted from a long list, or even to ask the questions she considered suitable for the conversation. these interviews were administered during two 90-minute class periods. using tasks to assess spanish language learning herrera mosquera no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) 154 once again, the treatment groups obtained the highest averages, 92 and 96 respectively. these results are consistent with the way students in these two groups were assessed throughout the semester. most of the tasks were aimed at speaking; therefore students were better trained to take this type of test. the difference in averages between the treatment and the comparison groups is both statistically and practically significant, which enables us to suggest the assessment treatment as a great alternative to use in the teaching of spanish. yet this suggestion as well as others will be more deeply explained in the following section, along with conclusions. statistical analysis this statistical analysis consisted of an independent samples t-test using the statistics program spss (statistical package for the social sciences). what this t-test did was to compare the difference in means obtained in both midterm exams (multiple-choice and speaking) by the treatment and the control groups. from this operation, it was determined if the difference in means was statistically significant. also calculated was the probability of obtaining the same result by chance. in order to make this conclusion, the .05 level of significance was used. that is, if the difference in means was of .05 or less, it would be considered statistically significant. if the difference in means was bigger than .05, the probability of obtaining the same result by chance is bigger and therefore the research hypothesis may not be well-supported. the statistical result showed that the difference in means was not statistically significant at the 0.05 level. that is, the significance (2 tailed) obtained (.391) is bigger than the 0.05 reference level. in other words, the possibility of obtaining the same difference in means by chance is 39.1 out of 100 (too large probability). however, as previously stated, this difference in means has a practical significance taking into account that the treatment groups were never assessed through multiple-choice type tests during the semester. yet, they obtained a two-point higher score in their means. on the speaking test, the mean for the treatment groups is 4.5 points higher than the mean for the comparison groups. the statistical operation showed that the difference in means was statistically significant at the 0.05 level. that is, the significance (2 tailed) obtained (0.024) is smaller than the 0.05 reference level. in other words, the possibility of obtaining the same difference in means by chance is 2.4 using tasks to assess spanish language learning herrera mosquera no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) 155 out of 100 (a small probability). this difference was expected because the treatment groups were mostly assessed through oral type tests during the entire semester. to sum up, the treatment groups obtained higher scores in both semester exams, but only in the speaking exam was the group score (means) considered statistically significant according to the independent samples t-tests. conclusions and recommendations the treatment applied in this study produced positive results in students’ performance on both semester exams. even though students in the treatment groups were never assessed through multiple-choice type tests, they obtained higher scores on the midterm multiple-choice exam than the control groups. this result indicates that students can be taught a language, in this case spanish, following a communicative approach and assessed through communicative tasks, and still be prepared for psychometric type tests (i.e. multiple-choice tests). the main conclusion that this study depicts is that task-based language assessment in a middle-school spanish class is not only possible but also effective. students were taught and assessed following a task-based language approach and when they were assessed at the end of the semester, their scores in both the speaking and the written multiple-choice exams were higher than those of the control groups. the language assessment approach implemented in this study is highly recommended in terms of high achievement on speaking tests and on multiple-choice type tests. in other words, the six-month treatment applied in the two spanish classes at this middle school produced higher levels of communicative and linguistic performance in students. however, for further studies in this specific area (tba in a foreign language class), it is suggested to have a more extensive period of teaching and assessment in order to confirm the results of this treatment. if future research studies confirm these results, the implementation of a tba can be generalized to other levels of language proficiency as well as to other language learning processes, as foreign or second language. if tba is to be adopted, i propose the following recommendations that can make task-based language assessment smoother and the learning process more effective. it was observed that students get very nervous when taking oral tests or performing oral tasks, especially those in which they are to speak in front of the class. then, it is highly recommended that teachers do significant preparation on the pre task stage so that students’ level of anxiety can be lowered and consequently their language performance can increase in spontaneity and fluency. using tasks to assess spanish language learning herrera mosquera no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) 156 that is why on the pre task stage students need to be given sufficient time to comprehend the task, to ask for clarifications, to practice, and to rehearse interactions. according to krashen (1985), once the anxiety variable is controlled and the motivation is enhanced, students are better prepared for language learning success (affective filter hypothesis). the post-task is another learning momentum for both teachers and students. on the one hand, the teacher can benefit from students’ reflection and feedback (metacognitive reflection) and make adjustments to the task or the task process. on the other hand, students can benefit from the teacher’s feedback regarding linguistic, communicative, or interactional performance. these two task stages will undoubtedly help students lessen their level of stress as well as reflect on their own language learning process. group tasks can also serve well the demands of some real-life tasks (due to their interactive nature) at the same time that help students cope with pressure. however, in group tasks teachers must ensure that all students have the same load of communicative information to produce during the task. another assessment alternative according to the students’ opinions is one-to-one oral interviews, preferably with the teacher. thus, a good combination of group conversations, dialogues, and interviews may compose a good repertoire of task-based language tests. since oral tests are generally more time-consuming than written tests, it is recommended that teachers design rubrics that can be easy to use by the teacher and easy to understand by students. these rubrics must be incorporated into the task description sheet so that students can refer to them before and after accomplishing the task. it is suggested that teachers use the same rubric, if possible, for each task so that both teacher and students get familiar with them. familiarity with the rubric will allow the teacher to maintain good control of time in order to not fall behind in the development of syllabus content. as stated throughout this article, despite the fact that task-based language teaching models have been traditionally applied in second language classrooms and special language programs (immersion, specific purpose, etc.), this experiment showed that a task-based language assessment model is possible in a foreign language classroom. as prahbu (1987) suggested, effective learning occurs when students are fully engaged in a language task, rather than just learning about the language. this experiment also showed that a task-based language model can be implemented in beginning language classes with positive results. the implementation process may not be as smooth as that in higher using tasks to assess spanish language learning herrera mosquera no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) 157 proficiency groups or that in specific purpose programs, yet a significant degree of communicative and linguistic competence can be achieved. as willis and willis (2007) put it, “this is one of the most valuable things we can give a learner: the confidence and willingness to have a go, even if their language resources are limited” (p. 2). finally, this study intends to serve as the foundation or complement of further studies on task-based language learning processes in foreign language classrooms. the results obtained in this research project are satisfactory, yet it is my expectation that more teachers and researchers will carry out similar experiments that confirm not only these results but also the benefits of the task-based language teaching methodology. references breen, m. (1989). the evaluation cycle for language learning tasks. in r. k. johnson (ed.), the second language curriculum. cambridge, united kingdom: cambridge university press. breen, m. (1987). learner contribution to task design. in c. candlin and d. murphy (eds.), language learning tasks (pp. 23-46). englewood cliffs, nj: prentice hall international. bygate, m., skehan, p., & swain, m. (2001). researching pedagogic tasks, second language learning, teaching, and testing. harlow, england: longman. candlin, c. (1987). towards task-based language learning. in c. candlin and d. murphy (eds.), language learning tasks (pp. 5-22). englewood cliffs, nj: prentice hall international. common european framework (2008). tasks and their role in language teaching, 7, 157-167. ellis, r. (2003). task-based language learning and teaching. oxford: oxford university press. krashen, s. (1985). the input hypothesis: issues and implications. beverly hills, california: laredo publishing co., inc. lee, j. (2000). tasks and communicating in language classrooms. boston: mc grawhill. long, m. (1985). a role for instruction in second language acquisition: task-based language teaching. in k. hyltenstam and m. pieneman (eds.), modelling and assessing second language acquisition (pp. 83-96). san diego, california: college-hill press. using tasks to assess spanish language learning herrera mosquera no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) 158 norris, j., brown, j., hudson, t., & yoshioka, j. (1998). designing second language performance assessment. technical report. hawaii university, manoa: second language teaching and curriculum center. nunan, d. (1989). designing tasks for the communicative classroom. new york: cambridge university press. prabhu, n.s. (1987). second language pedagogy. oxford, united kingdom: oxford university press. willis, d., & willis, j. (2007). doing task-based teaching. oxford: oxford university press. author * leonardo herrera mosquera has a b.a. in modern languages from universidad surcolombiana and m.a. in tesol from greensboro college. he is currently working as full-time professor in the department of teacher education at universidad surcolombiana. email: lehemos@hotmail.com using tasks to assess spanish language learning no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) 100 implementing critical literacy in a1 undergraduate students1 implementando la literacidad crítica en estudiantes universitarios de nivel a1 fredy alexander giraldo mahecha2* universidad de ibagué, colombia abstract the aim of this article is to analyze the current teaching practices utilized with undergraduate students at a private university in ibagué-tolima, who are required to complete reading comprehension coursework to obtain their professional degree. two different methods for critical literacy proposed by clarke and whitney, and mclaughlin and devoogd, are used as examples for piloting and implementation stages respectively. two different groups belonging to the same level were chosen to perform the activities during the second academic year of 2017. the collected data was analyzed using grounded thoery procedures. results showed that critical literacy is not a task that has been well developed at the language center. therefore, the author suggests that teacher education in the area of critical literacy should be implemented in pedagogical training. keywords: journals, teaching history, critical literacy, reading comprehension, peer observation. resumen el propósito de este artículo es analizar las actuales prácticas de enseñanza con estudiantes universitarios de una universidad privada en la ciudad de ibagué tolima, quienes deben tomar comprensión de lectura como requisito de su carrera profesional. se utilizaron dos métodos diferentes de lectura crítica propuestas por clarke y whitney, y mclaughlin y devoogd, son utilizados como ejemplos para el pilotaje y la implementación respectivamente. dos grupos del mismo nivel fueron los que realizaron las actividades durante el segundo semestre de 2017. los datos recolectados fueron analizados utilizandos procedimientos de teroría desde la base. los resultados mostraron 1 received: february 23rd 2018/accepted june 1st 2018 2 fredy.giraldo@unibague.edu.co gist education and learning research journal. issn 1692-5777. no.16 (january june) 2018. pp. 100-116. giraldo no. 16 (january june, 2018) no. 16 (janaury june, 2018) 101 que la lectura crítica no ha sido bien desarrolla en el centro de idiomas. por consiguiente, el autor sugiere que los docentes se capaciten en lectura crítica a través de cursos pedagógicos en dicha área. palabras claves: diarios, historia de enseñanza, literacidad crítica, comprensión de lectura, observación de compañeros. resumo o propósito deste artigo é analisar as atuais práticas de ensino com estudantes universitários da universidade particular em ibagué, os quais devem tomar compreensão de leitura como requisito da sua carreira profissional. utilizaramse dois métodos diferentes de leitura crítica propostas por clarke e whitney, e mclaughlin e devoogd, são utilizados como exemplos para a pilotagem e a implementação respectivamente. dois grupos do mesmo nível foram os que realizaram as atividades durante o segundo semestre de 2017. os dados coletados foram analisados utilizando procedimentos de teoria desde a base. os resultados mostraram que a leitura crítica não tinha sido bem desenvolvida no centro de idiomas. em decorrência, o autor sugere que os docentes se capacitem em leitura crítica através de cursos pedagógicos na mencionada área. palavras chaves: diários, história de ensino, literalidade crítica, compreensão de leitura, observação de colegas. giraldo no. 16 (january june, 2018) no. 16 (janaury june, 2018) 102 introduction in daily teaching, it is common for teachers to reflect upon their practice, and the most common way to keep record of their experiences is by using teaching journals. teaching journals are important because they often include aspects of the education process that cannot be seen, such as feelings, personal opinions, thoughts and perceptions of using techniques, students’ reactions to such techniques, difficulties, likes and dislikes of new strategies, and frustrations. gebhard (1999) defines a teaching journal as “a first person account of a series of teaching experiences… in addition, it can create an opportunity to confront the affective aspect of being a teacher, including what annoys, disconcerts, frustrates, encourages, influences, motivates, and inspires us” (p. 79). the journal i keep for the purpose of preparing my classes helped me discover one of the incidents i decided to analyze, because i want to make my teaching more process than product oriented (porter, goldstein, leatherman, & conrad, 1990). while clearly a personal teaching resource, richards and farrel (2005) state that “the journal … may be a source of information that can be shared with others” (p. 68). when one talks to one’s colleagues about issues that have been found in one’s teaching, the journal helps shed lights on certain important incidents that are happening in a given class and how to tackle these situations. additionally, griffee (2012) defines the diary journal as “a document maintained by an individual writing a report to himself or herself on some topic area, such as learning a language or teaching a course” (p. 204). another source of information that was used was peer observation. this source was relevant to discover some of the incidents which were not perceived at first. peer observation consists of watching another teacher’s class in order to obtain understanding of some aspects related to teaching, learning, or classroom interaction (richards & farrel, 2005). after observation comes feedback. giving feedback to one’s peer is the most important aspect of peer observation because it provides teachers with another point of view of the class. there might be aspects that the teacher cannot perceive while he or she is teaching, but the peer will have a new more objective perspective. in addition, reflecting upon one’s own class and having feedback can help a teacher in the process of self-evaluation. a third source, which i never thought would be useful for finding incidents to analyze, is teacher history. the idea of the teacher history comes from the approach of reflective teaching as a means of improving classroom practice (bartlett, 1990). the meaning of critical literacy in a1 students giraldo no. 16 (january june, 2018) no. 16 (janaury june, 2018) 103 reflection by kemmis (as cited in bartlett, 1990) states that “reflection is not just an individual, psychological process. it is an action oriented, historically-embedded, social and political frame, to locate oneself in the history of a situation, to participate in a social activity, and to take sides on issues” (p. 204). through the teaching history, i narrated why i decided to become a teacher, and what inspirations i had during my practice, and also included experiences i have had during my life. bailey (1990) asserts that collecting one’s personal relfections is practical for teachers because, in some cases, “we teach as we have been taught: the patterns that emerge in our current classroom behaviors may have been formed long ago” (p. 218). theoretical framework reading comprehension is a very important skill in everyday life because there are many things that can and need to be read and understood, such as news outlets, magazines, street signs, menus, newspapers, text messages, etc. lopez and giraldo (2011) state in a recent study that there is an urgent need to increase the reading skills of school-age colombian students. the icfes test (instituto colombiano para el fomento de la educación superior), a nation-wide standardized test for high-school students, shows that colombian high school graduates do not reach high levels of reading comprehension (p. 46). repeatedly colombian students in high schools do not achieve high results in exams. thus, students go to higher education institutions feeling frustrated and not knowing what to do when faced with activities related to reading. learning to read is instrumental in learning to think critically. the written word surrounds us daily. it enlightens and confuses, it amuses and depresses us, it heals and sickens us (brown, 2007). in his book pedagogy of the oppressed, freire (1972) states that “the word is more than just an instrument which makes dialogue possible; accordingly, we must seek its constitutive elements” (p. 87). in other words, students need to be more critical when they read a text, no matter what strategy they use to understand it. however, this is not easy because in colombia, the majority of people are not used to being active critical readers. implementing critical literacy to a1 students is not easy. first, before teachers start applying strategies for critical literacy with critical literacy in a1 students giraldo no. 16 (january june, 2018) no. 16 (janaury june, 2018) 104 learners, it is important for them to learn or have a clear understanding of what critical literacy is and of why it is important. “critical literacy is built on exploring personal, sociopolitical, economic and intellectual border identities” (bishop, 2014, p.52). once teachers become critically aware, they need to know how to teach learners to read from a critical view (mclaughlin & devoogd, 2004). a synonym for critical literacy is analytical reading (molden, 2007, p. 50), and it is defined, according to mclaughlin (2004) “as not only a teaching method but a way of thinking and a way of being that challenges texts and life, as we know it” (p. 50, as cited in molden, 2007). the origin of critical literacy evolved from the frankfurt school of critical society theory, which affirms that humans can change society through words and actions (wood, soares, & watson , 2006). the purpose of implementing critical literacy is to help students develop their capacity to use texts to analyze social fields and their systems of exchange (luke, 2012). in other words, teachers need to teach their students how to analyze texts, so that students can discern patterns, designs and complexities, and to develop the capacity to redesign and reshape the texts. the term critical literacy is not new among educators. critical literacy is often confused with critical thinking, but lee (2011) mentions that “critical literacy practices differ from critical thinking skills in that the former are set in a sociopolitical context oriented toward identifying unequal power relationships and serving social justice” (p. 97). in his article, lee also states that critical literacy is not only for higher level students, but that lower level students can also engage to these practices (p. 98); that is why i decided to implement some strategies for critical literacy in reading comprehension with my a1 level. according to king (2010) it is important to keep four variables in mind when it comes to learning how to read successfully: the reader, the text, the strategies, and the goal. reading, in other words, is not only comprehending a text, but also about how to address said text. there are four steps in practicing critical literacy with younger and less proficient learners (abednia, 2015). those steps are: 1) familiarizing learners with critical literacy, 2) negotiating readings, that is coming to an agreement with students about the texts that are going to be read, 3) asking critical questions, and 4) discussing questions collaboratively. with these four steps “critical literacy facilitates not only the integration of different ingredients of a second language but also a meaningful synthesis of language practice and development of critical consciousness” (p. 87). critical literacy in a1 students giraldo no. 16 (january june, 2018) no. 16 (janaury june, 2018) 105 as for the techniques to teach critical literacy, there are various authors who provide teachers with a great variety of activities to tackle reading. amongst these activities, clarke and whitney (2009) propose to work with jones’s framework and multiple perspective text which has three parts: deconstruction, reconstruction, and social action. also, mclaughlin and devoogd (2004) suggest some strategies such as problem posing, the rest of the story (which is an adaptation of problem posing), switching, alternative texts, juxtapositioning, mind and alternative mind portraits, and theme-based focus groups. the choice of the strategy depends directly on the teacher, and the context in which the teacher works. after having analyzed the three sources of information – teaching journal, peer observation feedback and teacher history – i found that one of the most critical drawbacks i had during the instruction of my classes was the lack of activities to analyze texts in my reading comprehension class. this class belongs to a group of students who study at a private universty in ibagué – tolima, and according to the new curriculum of the instituion, need to take three semesters of reading comprehension in english. they are required to complete the levels before they finish 50% of the credits of the degree they are studying. my students make up part of reading comprehension iii, a class which concludes with the writing of an essay. during the first two semesters, students explore important strategies to analyze a text. the texts are taken from authentic readings, not from coursebooks – which use texts for specific levels of learning – and the activities proposed in the booklet students follow in class are related to the strategies the students are studying. in the third semester, they have to review the strategies seen in the previous two semesters in order to place themselves in the position of writer. i tried to make this class different by implementing games such as kahoot, in which students are provided with multiple choice questions about the text they are supposed to read, and they have to answer to win points. it was only when i discorvered my lack of activities that i decided to take action. piloting for the purpose of this exercise, i implemented features of action research, which “specifically refers to a disciplined inquiry done by a teacher with the intent that the research will inform and change his or her practices in the future” (ferrance, 2000). the approach used in this exercise is a qualitative approach. critical literacy in a1 students giraldo no. 16 (january june, 2018) no. 16 (janaury june, 2018) 106 first, i started to read about critical literacy and decided to apply some of the strategies i found. for the piloting, i based my activity on the lyrics “so good,” a song performed by louisa johnson (mac, gimes, & drewett, 2016). according to wood, soares, and watson (2006), song lyrics “help students to key in on their interests and aspects of popular culture” (p. 58). beforehand, i decided to take some words out of the lyrics for students to complete after listening to the song twice. they were delighted to do this listening activity for the first time in their reading comprehension iii. i do not know if they had done something similar in the previous semesters. after the second listening, i went through the lyrics and students told me the answers to the gaps. they did better than i expected (see appendix a). after the initial listening activity, i asked students to read the lyrics of the song and find the message the writer intended to deliver. i provided learners with pieces of paper and markers in order to do the activity. while they were analyzing the lyrics, i wrote on the whiteboard the following questions: “with your partner, discuss: 1) who is the intended audience? 2) what does the author like doing?” the idea of this activity was to engage students to the song. after that, they worked in groups to develop more ideas via these questions: “1) what is the message of the song? 2) if you could ask the author any question(s), which question(s) would you ask?” they had to discuss the questions in small groups and write down their answers. after some time, students taped their work on the walls around the classroom and i had them walk around in order to see and read everybody’s answers to the questions. i call this activity “a gallery-walk”. see figure 1. sample 1 and figure 2. sample 2. figure1. sample 1 figure 2. sample 2 after the class, i started to reflect upon the activity and i decided to use the same one with my other reading comprehension iii class. critical literacy in a1 students giraldo no. 16 (january june, 2018) no. 16 (janaury june, 2018) 107 i wanted to see how different my classes were when analyzing from a critical stance. to my surprise, it was a little bit more difficult for this group, but i could see they were having fun while doing the activity. after reflecting upon the level of difficulty the second class had, one problem arises; are the classes being successful for the purpose of the university? this question requires to do a more specialized research project. once i had seen their work, i made the decision to apply a new strategy, but this time i was going to use two different texts for the first group, and only one for the second, because i observed that the second group had more difficulties developing their ideas from the questions i posed. implementation the strategy i chose for this implementation was switching, which is, according to mclaughlin and devoogd (2004), a strategy that can help show biases in the text as well as make the reader more aware of the author’s intention (as cited in molden, 2007). among the different switches, i decided to use gender switch and ethnic/race switch. the idea of gender switch is to tell the story using the opposite sex, and as for ethnic/race switch, it is to change character’s racial or ethnic characteristics. (p. 54) two of aesop’s fables (aesop, 2017) were given to different groups; androcles and frogs desiring a king. those who read androcles had to identify the moral of the story. then, they had to rewrite the story, this time telling it as though androcles were a girl. for frogs desiring a king, students had to tell the story with different characters, but following the same moral. (see appendix b) students in the first reading class had one hour to read each fable and rewrite the story. at the beginning, they were asking questions to confirm that what they were doing was what i had asked them to do. this first group was very commited to doing a good job, and they were working very well. after one hour, they asked me for more time because they had not finished. after seeing how well they were working, i granted them more time. unlike the first class, the second only had the fable of androcles and they were supposed to do the same activity the fisrt class had done. they had to find the moral and tell the story changing the gender. this group had more difficulties when rewriting the story. some students did not know what to do and they expressed this to me. i had to give them critical literacy in a1 students giraldo no. 16 (january june, 2018) no. 16 (janaury june, 2018) 108 more examples in order to help them write. some groups said, “nothing would change. the story would be exactly the same.” so i posed the question, “are you sure a girl would act the same way androcles did?” after that, they started to change the story. at the end of the class, i collected their pieces of work so as to analyze them. later, i started to reflect upon the activities i had done and wrote in my journal “the second group needs more input and they need to be taught how to think from a critical stance. on the other hand, the first group was more engaged and it was easier for them. what is happening?” after writing the entry, i knew i had to do a focus group to hear their voices regarding the activities. in order to analyze the data, i used the grounded theory, which involves the construction of theory through data collection and analysis (glaser & strauss, 1967). outcomes hearing students’ opinions about the activities was very important for the results. in the focus groups, students from both groups expressed their feelings towards the ambience of the class.3 they commented that “and it was more fun. both activities were good…,” “we try our best. we like to do the activities, it is not only reading and being bored because we have to.” they also stated, “the activities were more didactic,” “it is not an ordinary activity; read a text and answer questions related to it, but there were activities that made us learn. hence, these kinds of activities encourage us to learn english in a differen way.” others said, “i found the activitiy interesting, particularly the fable because it was something different from what we were doing” and “the activities were very good. we utilized new techniques that helped with the comprehension of english because they were not traditional activties mainly focused on reading and answering questions. to name one, the poster.” these impressions were entered in my teaching log. during the class i noticed how students were engaged in doing the activities. they seemed to enjoy what they were doing. “i felt my class was different. students were working well and they looked happy doing the activities,” i wrote. i also received feeback that was not wholly positive. some students believed that the activities were not easy at all, especially when they were asked to make the gender switch. some groups stated 3 students’ comments were translated by the author for publication purposes. critical literacy in a1 students giraldo no. 16 (january june, 2018) no. 16 (janaury june, 2018) 109 that the story would not change at all, because a woman could also behave as a man does. “it was difficult because we have a previous concept. for example, we said that she would never escape, but i said to her that that was something ‘chauvinistic’.” also, they mentioned that it was a different experience because the activities made them doubt as expressed in the focus group: “we start to doubt. we all doubted about the audience,” and “i think that it was more like a bittersweet feeling because we, as women, would act differently.” i appreciated that and wrote in my log that “i could see in their faces that they were thinking and thinking”, and asked myself, “was their level too low for the activity, or was the activity too difficult?” moreover, students felt they were doing a different activity in which they had to be in the author’s position, as if they were talking to the author. “i really liked the activity of being in the author’s feet because it helps infer what we understand.” another said, “cool. we already had an idea of what the fable was about and we put it in another context,” and another, “as for the questions, i think it was innovative because i had never wondered about the author.” ultimately, students reflected upon their daily reading practice and they think these kinds of activities should be used more often. one remarked, “these kinds of activities make you feel like attending class… like learning.” another commented, “in the regular courses we do, but not in reading comprehension.” the implementation of critical literacy strategies for readings was definitely effective, given the joy students felt, as well as the new things they learned in order to enjoy a reading class. “i think that we learn other abilities apart from learning english.” conclusions even though the activities were implemented in two different groups, i could see that the aim of having students read from a critical stance was accomplished. the difference in the level was not an obstacle to perform such activities; i just had to work differently in each group. as for the students, they realized that reading critically has many deviations and it depends on the readers to decide how to tackle the texts. both, students and i, were able to see how differently a text can be aimed and how fun a reading class can be. additionally, students were very committed to participating in the activities and they expressed their sympathy for having a fun and different class. as for the posters, they showed that aspects such as critical literacy in a1 students giraldo no. 16 (january june, 2018) no. 16 (janaury june, 2018) 110 grammar and vocabulary do not affect the result of the activity, but it is an issue that needs to be tackled in further classes. (picture c, d, and e) recommendations once the analysis of the focus group and the teaching log were done, one issue arose: teachers in the language center of the university where the strategies were applied may not know how to teach critical literacy. in order to overcome this situation, it is advisable to train teachers in this area of knowledge, so they can implement a critical view in the reading comprehension classes. for this reason, i have asked the director of the language center to create a space to share this concern and to have a workshop based on critical literacy in reading. the idea of training teachers in this aspect will help improve teaching situations so that classes may become more interesting and meaningful, without leaving aside the main purpose of the course, comprehension of texts – no matter what they study, they can analyze any kind of text. critical literacy in a1 students giraldo no. 16 (january june, 2018) no. 16 (janaury june, 2018) 111 references abednia, a. (2015). practicing critical literacy in second language reading. international journal of critical pedagogy, 6(2), 77-94. aesop. (2017). history world. retrieved from planet pdf: http:// history-world.org/aesops_fables_nt.pdf bailey, k. (1990). diary studies in teacher education programs. in j. richard, & d. nunan, second language teacher education (pp. 215-226). cambridge: cambridge university press. bartlett, l. (1990). teacher development through reflective teaching. in j. richards, & d. nunan, second language teacher education (pp. 202-214). cambridge: cambridge university press. bishop, e. (2014). critical literacy. bringing theory to practice. journal of curriculum theorizing, 51-63. brown, h. (2007). teaching by principles. new york: pearson education. clarke, l., & whitney, e. (2009). walking in their shoes: using multiple-perspectives texts as a bridge to critical literacy. the reading journal, 62(6), 530-534. freire, p. (1972). pedagogy of the oppressed. new york: herder and herder. gebhard, j. (1999). reflecting through a teaching journal. in j. gebhard, & r. oprandy, language teaching awareness. a guide to exploring beliefs and practices (pp. 78-98). new york: cambridge university press. glaser, b., & strauss, a. (1967). the discovery of grounded theory. london: weidenfeld and nicplson. griffee, d. (2012). an introduction to second language research methods. design and data. berkley, california: tesl-ej publications. king, k. (2010, july 22). fj auhxr’s virtual esl clasroom. retrieved april 30, 2017, from blogspot: http://mydaily2cents.blogspot.com. co/2010/07/reading-strategies-by-dr-kathleen-king.html lee, c.-j. (2011). myths about critical literacy: what teachers need to unlearn. journal of language and literacy education [online], 7(1), 95-102. critical literacy in a1 students giraldo no. 16 (january june, 2018) no. 16 (janaury june, 2018) 112 lopez velasquez, a., & giraldo, m. (2011). the english reading strategies of two colombian english pre-service teachers. ikala, revista de lenguaje y cultura, 16(28), 45-76. luke, a. (2012, january). critical literacy: foundational notes. theory into practice, 4-11. mac, s., gimes, c. m., & drewett, e. j. (2016). so good [recorded by l. johnson]. mclaughlin, m., & devoogd, g. (2004). critical literacy. enhancing students’ comprehension of text. new york: scholastic inc. molden, k. (2007). critical literacy, the right answer for the reading classroom: strategies to move beyond comprehension for reading improvement. eric, 44(1), 50-56. porter, p., goldstein, l., leatherman, j., & conrad, s. (1990). an ongoing dialogue: learning logs for teacher preparation. in j. richards, & d. nunan, second language teacher education (pp. 227-240). cambridge: cambridge university press. richards, j., & farrel, t. (2005). professional development for language teachers. strategies for teacher learning. new york: cambridge university press. wood, k., soares, l., & watson , p. (2006, january). empowering adolescents through critical literacy. middle school journal, 5559. critical literacy in a1 students giraldo no. 16 (january june, 2018) no. 16 (janaury june, 2018) 113 appendix a so good – louisa johnson i said i’m ‘bout minutes away one more stop and i’ll be off this i’m free any day of the week, always losing some i told myself i’ll be back by 10 trying to save myself for the but i know me, i hate to miss a don’t say, don’t say i didn’t warn you don’t say i didn’t warn you i live for the moment i wasn’t supposed to go out i should be at home, i got work at 9 shouldn’t be out here doing what i but it feels so good, so good i was only gonna be an hour or two i guess that now i’m here i’m going down with you but it feels so good, so good on my shoulder’s giving up on me no listening to him and i can hardly speak the they play makes me this way, oh yeah it was only 10, how did it get to 3? it’s like i’m in my ow machine but you know me, i’ll never leave don’t say, don’t say i didn’t warn you don’t say i didn’t warn you critical literacy in a1 students giraldo no. 16 (january june, 2018) no. 16 (janaury june, 2018) 114 just live for the moment i wasn’t supposed to go out i should be at home, i got work at 9 shouldn’t be out here doing what i but it feels so good, so good i was only gonna be an hour or two i guess that now i’m here i’m going down with you but it feels so good, so good cause everyone i know is here sours, crying tears living out the best years so keep on toasting shots, cheers know it feels so good i wasn’t supposed to go out i should be at home, i got work at 9 shouldn’t be out here doing what i but it feels so good, so good i was only gonna be an hour or two i guess that now i’m here i’m going down with you but it feels so good, so good critical literacy in a1 students giraldo no. 16 (january june, 2018) no. 16 (janaury june, 2018) 115 appendix b the frogs desiring a king the frogs were living as happy as could be in a marshy swamp that just suited them; they went splashing about caring for nobody and nobody troubling with them. but some of them thought that this was not right, that they should have a king and a proper constitution, so they determined to send up a petition to jove to give them what they wanted. ‘mighty jove,’ they cried, ‘send unto us a king that will rule over us and keep us in order.’ jove laughed at their croaking, and threw down into the swamp a huge log, which came downrplashto the swamp. the frogs were frightened out of their lives by the commotion made in their midst, and all rushed to the bank to look at the horrible monster; but after a time, seeing that it did not move, one or two of the boldest of them ventured out towards the log, and even dared to touch it; still it did not move. then the greatest hero of the frogs jumped upon the log and commenced dancing up and down upon it, thereupon all the frogs came and did the same; and for some time the frogs went about their business every day without taking the slightest notice of their new king log lying in their midst. but this did not suit them, so they sent another petition to jove, and said to him, ‘we want a real king; one that will really rule over us.’ now this made jove angry, so he sent among them a big stork that soon set to work gobbling them all up. then the frogs repented when too late. better no rule than cruel rule. androcles a slave named androcles once escaped from his master and fled to the forest. as he was wandering about there he came upon a lion lying down moaning and groaning. at first he turned to flee, but finding that the lion did not pursue him, he turned back and went up to him. as he came near, the lion put out his paw, which was all swollen and bleeding, and androcles found that a huge thorn had got into it, and was causing all the pain. he pulled out the thorn and bound up the paw of the lion, who was soon able to rise and lick the hand of androcles like a dog. then the lion took androcles to his cave, and every day used to bring him meat from which to live. but shortly afterwards both androcles and the lion were captured, and the slave was sentenced to be thrown to the lion, after the latter had been kept without food for several days. the emperor and all his court came to see the spectacle, and androcles was led out into the middle of the arena. soon the lion critical literacy in a1 students giraldo no. 16 (january june, 2018) no. 16 (janaury june, 2018) 116 was let loose from his den, and rushed bounding and roaring towards his victim. but as soon as he came near to androcles he recognised his friend, and fawned upon him, and licked his hands like a friendly dog. the emperor, surprised at this, summoned androcles to him, who told him the whole story. whereupon the slave was pardoned and freed, and the lion let loose to his native forest. gratitude is the sign of noble souls. author *fredy giraldo has a b.a. in biology and chemistry, is a specialist in translation english spanish, and is a candidate for the title as a magister in english didactics at universidad del tolima. fredy, a former icetex scholar in france, is a professor at universidad de ibague at the language center and at universidad del tolima. he has written articles, essays, and a course book on reading comprehension. critical literacy in a1 students no. 16 (january june, 2018) no. 16 (janaury june, 2018) 67 peer feedback in anonymous peer review in an efl writing class in spain1 retroalimentación entre pares en un proceso de revisión anónima por pares en un curso de escritura de inglés como lengua extranjera en españa robert a. coté2* university of arizona, tucson, usa abstract the present study reports the results of a process of peer feedback through anonymous peer review in an efl writing class. numerous studies have reported on the benefits of peer review (pr) in the esl/efl writing classroom. however, the literature also identifies social issues that can negatively affect the outcome of face-to-face pr. in this study, twenty-five students were enrolled in an expository writing class in an intensive english program (iep) of a private, american university in madrid, spain, where they attended 25 contact hours of english per week and experienced anonymous, or blind, peer review (pr). it was hoped that removing social interferences would force the participants to focus on the type and number of corrections they made to an unknown classmate’s essay and as well as increase the type and number of corrections s/he incorporates into her/his original essay. results indicate that writers accepted most of the changes proposed by the pr process (70%), an acceptance rate unprecedented in other studies. keywords: anonymous peer review, efl, writing error correction resumen el presente estudio reporta los resultados de un proceso de retroalimentación entre pares mediante el proceso de revisión anónima por pares en un curso de escritura de inglés como lengua extranjera. se han realizado numerosos estudios sobre los beneficios de la revisión por pares en los cursos de escritura de inglés como segunda lengua / inglés como lengua extranjera. sin embargo, la literatura 1 received: july 7, 2014 / accepeted: october 6, 2014 2 rcote@email.arizona.edu gist education and learning research journal. issn 1692-5777. no. 9, (julydecember) 2014. pp. 67-87. the use of first language no. 9 (july december 2014) no. 9 (july december 2014) 68 también identifica diversos aspectos sociales que pueden afectar negativamente el resultado de la revisión por pares cara a cara. en este estudio, 25 de los estudiantes se matricularon en un curso de escritura expositiva en un programa de inglés intensivo de una universidad estadounidense con sede en madrid, españa. los estudiantes asistieron a 25 horas de instrucción en inglés por semana con la finalidad de aprovechar al máximo los beneficios de la revisión por pares anónimos o doble ciego. se esperaba que al reducir las interferencias sociales, los participantes estarían obligados a enfocarse en el tipo y número de correcciones realizadas en el ensayo por un compañero anónimo, así como para mejorar el tipo y número de correcciones que el par incorpora en el ensayo original. los resultados indicaron que los escritores aceptaron la mayoría de los cambios sugeridos por el par en el proceso de revisión (70%), lo cual indica que se presenta una tasa de aceptación sin precedentes en el área de estudio. palabras clave: revisión por pares anónima; inglés como lengua extranjera; corrección de errores en la redacción de textos resumo o presente estudo reporta os resultados de um processo de retroalimentação entre pares mediante o processo de revisão anônima por pares em um curso de escritura de inglês como língua estrangeira. foram realizados numerosos estudos sobre os benefícios da revisão por pares nos cursos de escritura de inglês como segunda língua / inglês como língua estrangeira. entretanto, a literatura também identifica diversos aspectos sociais que podem afetar negativamente o resultado da revisão por pares cara a cara. neste estudo, 25 dos estudantes se matricularam em um curso de escritura expositiva em um programa de inglês intensivo de uma universidade estadunidense com sede em madrid, espanha. os estudantes assistiram a 25 horas de instrução em inglês por semana, com a finalidade de aproveitar ao máximo os benefícios da revisão por pares anónimos ou duplo cego. esperava-se que ao reduzir as interferências sociais, os participantes estariam obrigados a enfocar-se no tipo e número de correções realizadas no ensaio por um colega anônimo, assim como para melhorar o tipo e número de correções que o par incorpora no ensaio original. os resultados indicaram que os escritores aceitaram a maioria das mudanças sugeridas pelo par no processo de revisão (70%), o qual indica que se apresenta uma taxa de aceitação sem precedentes na área de estudo. palavras chave: revisão por pares anônima; inglês como língua estrangeira; correção de erros na redação de textos peer feedback in anonymous peer review coté no. 9 (july december 2014) no. 9 (july december 2014) 69 introduction incorporating peer review (pr) in efl writing classrooms is not a novel concept, and the traditional responsibility of the instructor providing feedback is often carried out by peers. such classroom dynamics are proving to be very beneficial for the students. rollinson (2005) explains, “in recent years, the use of peer feedback in esl writing classrooms has been generally supported in the literature as a potentially valuable aid for its social, cognitive, affective, and methodological benefits” (p. 23). one of the primary concerns with pr, however, is that factors other than target language competence, including race, native language, gender, and nationality may affect its intended outcomes. therefore, this study incorporated anonymous, or blind, pr to avoid bias and produce feedback based solely on the text itself and not its author. the qualitative data hails from a biographical survey and likert-based questionnaires (see appendix) and includes participant characteristics such as nationality, age, gender, first language(s), major, years of english study, academic performance, personality traits, and personal comments about pr. the quantitative data, based on the 490 suggested essay corrections the students collectively offered to one another during the pr, includes the type and number of questions and comments offered, the type and number of changes suggested categorized by type, size and function, and the type and number of changes accepted. additional quantitative data resulted from the coding of the two essays written by each participant and twe scores based on exams administered before and after the writing course. literature review brammer and rees (2007) report, “the process of having students critique each other’s papers has become commonplace in the composition classroom and in english composition textbooks” (p. 71), which has created a variety of scenarios in which non-native speakers (nns) are working together to develop target language skills. empirical studies have identified numerous benefits of pr, including clarifying ideas and improving rhetorical organization (berg, 1999); providing opportunities to give and receive advice and ask and answer questions (mendonça & johnson, 1994); making surface and meaninglevel changes (paulus, 1999); improving grammar and augmenting vocabulary (storch, 2005); and establishing and maintaining intersubjectivity between reader and writer (villamil & de guerrero, 1996, 1998, 2000, 2006). peer feedback in anonymous peer review coté no. 9 (july december 2014) no. 9 (july december 2014) 70 the literature also presents problems, yet does not often provide remedies. one troublesome aspect of peer collaboration is addressing students’ different cultural and linguistic backgrounds (foster, 1998; hewings & coffin, 2006; nelson & carson, 1998; zhu, 2001), not to mention age, race, gender and even religion, factors often deeply ingrained in the minds of students. levine et al. (2002) stated, “students may use culturally diverse rules for how much and what kind of criticism should be expressed” (p. 1). in addition, there is always the issue of power structure and politeness strategies. nelson & carson (1998) wrote, “socio-linguistic differences in expectations concerning amount of talk, the role of the speaker and listener, and politeness strategies contribute to high levels of discomfort in multicultural peer response groups” (p. 129). in this study, participants came from seven countries, spoke seven different first languages, and practiced four religions. for these reasons, anonymous pr was chosen to remove any possible biases and allow the students to focus solely on the text they would be correcting as opposed to personal characteristics of the author. methodology research design this study utilized a combination of research approaches, including ethnographic, action and participant observer. the criteria of ethnographic research, which “relies heavily on up-close, personal experience and possible participation, not just observation” (genzuk, 2003, p. 1), was met on several fronts. the researcher served as the academic advisor for all of the participants, taught some of their other esl classes, including grammar, and he was the instructor for the expository writing class in which the study took place, providing first-hand opportunities to interact with the participants daily in various contexts. in addition, the study utilized typical ethnographic research tools: interviews, observation, and documents. the researcher also employed action research, defined by craig (2009) as “typically conducted by teachers for teachers” (p. 4) and “a common methodology employed for improving conditions and practice in classrooms as well as other practitioner-based environments” (p. 3). this was done in order to determine, with empirical evidence, whether or not it is sensible to continue mandating pr in the esl/efl writing classroom if the negative attitude of some participants prevents them from conducting effective pr. peer feedback in anonymous peer review coté no. 9 (july december 2014) no. 9 (july december 2014) 71 finally, the researcher used participant observation, a process that requires “a researcher to become actively involved in the study of the environment and the parties who interact naturally with each other and with the environment” (craig, 2009, p. 5). the current study allowed the researcher to spend up to nine hours per day with the participants on the miniscule campus, allowing him to both observe and interact with them in many non-academic situations five days per week. most of the participants also lived in the same neighborhood as the researcher, so he also interacted with them during the evenings and occasionally on weekends in non-academic settings. as a result, although the microenvironment may have only been a 3-hour per week efl writing classroom, the macro-environments of a small college campus and a tight-knit madrid neighborhood also played important roles. context and participants because the students had not attained the minimum toefl or twe scores required to attend credit classes, they were enrolled in an intensive efl advanced writing class for three hours per week. their most recent twe scores ranged from 3.0 to 4.0, and their most recent paper-based toefl scores ranged from 443 to 593, with a class average of 513. the 25 participants, ages 18 to 25, came from various linguistic and cultural and were pursuing various degrees as shown in table 1. table 1. participants’ biographical descriptions peer feedback in anonymous peer review coté no. 9 (july december 2014) no. 9 (july december 2014) 72 data collection instruments participants were trained on how to conduct a pr on a multiparagraph cause and effect essay. before pr training, they completed a questionnaire on previous pr experiences to identify any predisposed positive or negative attitudes towards pr. students were also trained using a mock essay and liu and sadler’s (2000) examples of question types and comments that can be offered to a peer during review prior to reviewing a classmate’s essay. it was explained that the more explicit a comment or suggestion was, the more likely it would be understood by the author and help him/her to write a better second draft. although the training was time-consuming (4.5 hours), the students needed to experience peer editing firsthand in order to become proficient reviewers and assist their peers in creating a better final product, defined as one that contained fewer grammatical and organizational errors and whose ideas were clear to the reader. students were also encouraged to make positive comments. during the next class, some of the comments and suggestions they had made were shown to the students, and it was made clear that the author was not required to accept all suggested changes. next, the students attempted a pr for homework. everyone received a soft copy of an unknown student’s essay entitled “the causes and effects of war,” and was instructed to do a pr via track changes and inserting comments/questions. they brought their marked copy to the next class so that the researcher could see that they had done it successfully, and any issues could be resolved before going to the computer lab for the actual pr task. on the day of the actual pr task, participants were instructed to write a multi-paragraph essay either on the causes of happiness or the effects of immigration on spain in ms word under exam conditions. upon completion, draft one was emailed to the researcher. two days later, during the next lab, each student peer reviewed his/her partner’s essay and filled out an electronic pr worksheet, which required them to examine their partner’s essay for content, organization, grammar and punctuation. in the final class, the essays with the peer’s comments, suggestions and changes were forwarded back to the original author, who then incorporated them into the final draft, which was submitted to the researcher for analysis and grading. this study used several likert-based and open-ended question surveys before and after the pr training and writing tasks, including a biographical questionnaire based on levine et al. (2002), a pre-activity survey, an electronic pr feedback sheet that covered the quality of the introduction, body and conclusion, interest level, adherence to essay peer feedback in anonymous peer review coté no. 9 (july december 2014) no. 9 (july december 2014) 73 formatting, competence of numerous grammatical points, and a post activity questionnaire. data analysis and interpretation the quantitative data came from coding both essay drafts. first, the original essay was examined to count the number and types of questions and comments (liu & sadler, 2000) suggested by its reviewer, resulting in a total of 124 for all essays. then, the number and types of corrections (min, 2006) categorized by type, size and function, suggested by the reviewers, which numbered 490 in total, were tallied. finally, each original essay was examined to calculate the number of revisions made by a peer that were incorporated into the final draft per 50 words. figure 1 displays the distribution of the raw numbers of all comments, questions and suggestions offered to peers categorized as an evaluation, clarification, suggestion or alteration. fig. 1. comment and question types offered to peers the numbers clearly show that students were twice as likely to offer their peer an evaluation or suggestion as opposed to asking for more information (clarification) or suggesting that a specific change be made to the essay (alteration). if we compare these as percentages to liu & sadler’s similar study (2003, p. 205) which also used track changes and inserting comments for students via computer mediated communication (cmc) peer review (fig. 2) and upon which the current student was modeled, we see that the trends are similar except for alteration. peer feedback in anonymous peer review coté no. 9 (july december 2014) no. 9 (july december 2014) 74 fig. 2. percentages of comment and question types in computer mediated communication (cmc) across two studies (cote current study vs. liu & sadler 2003). a possible explanation for the divergence with respect to alteration comments is that in the current study, participants simply made the change themselves instead of explicitly commenting to a peer to “change x to y,” the specific phrase identified by liu & sadler (2000) as an alteration comment. examples of these can be seen in table 2, which shows replacements that are clearly alterations but do not contain the specific wording “change x to y.” table 2. alteration comments offered by participants (cote current study) had the participants used the phrase “change x to y” verbatim, the alteration percentage would have been closer to 35%, still not as high as liu & sadler’s (2003) approximately 47%, but at least trending in the same direction. next, the questions and comments were re-grouped as either global, affecting larger portions of the text or local, affecting only a word, clause or phrase. local comments outnumbered global ones by a peer feedback in anonymous peer review coté no. 9 (july december 2014) no. 9 (july december 2014) 75 margin of three to one, which is very beneficial to the authors as local suggestions, because they address specific words, phrases or sentences, are clearer to understand and easier to incorporate into the final draft. in other words, they are not open-ended questions or vague comments and do not require any guessing on the part of the essay’s author. comparing the percentages of the global and local revisions between the two studies, the percentages for the computer-mediated groups are identical: 28% for global changes and 72% for local ones. it was hoped that there would be similar percentages in the two studies, but for them to be identical was unexpected. finally, the essays were re-analyzed and coded for a third time based on whether or not the author was expected to make some type of revision. there were 100 revision-oriented questions and comments versus less than twenty non-revision ones resulting in a five-to-one ratio. this much higher number of revision-oriented questions and comments is important because it indicates that the reviewers made a strong effort to provide feedback, even negative, that was intended to encourage the author to make specific changes. on the other hand, the non-revision comments were all positive in nature, either commending the author in some way or simply suggesting that the text was acceptable in its original form and should not be altered. in terms of the revision versus non-revision types of comments and questions, percentage values in the current study were more balanced than liu & sadler’s computer-based group. the revision/nonrevision percentages here were 83% and 17% respectively, compared to liu & sadler’s computer-based percentages of 92% and 18% (2003, p. 207). this was likely due to the fact that the group in spain was weaker than the us group with respect to english language skills since the american group also included native speakers. due to the varying lengths of the essays, whose word count ranged from 209 to 476, it was necessary to standardize the corrections by calculating the number of comments and questions for every 50 words of text to determine if a participant offered more or less comments and question types relative to the other participants. an amount of fifty words was chosen as a guideline because while reading the essays, it became apparent that generally speaking, this was the number required for students to explain one thought. shorter texts did not usually contain complete ideas, while longer ones tended to cover more than one concept. to calculate the type and number of changes suggested to a peer, the corrections offered by the anonymous partners to the students’ original peer feedback in anonymous peer review coté no. 9 (july december 2014) no. 9 (july december 2014) 76 essays were coded using min’s (2006) method for categorizing essay revision suggestions based on sengupta’s (1998) earlier “framework for analyzing types, sizes, and functions of revisions” (p. 126). more specifically, revision types included addition, deletion, substitution, permutation (or rephrasing), distribution (re-writing information in larger chunks), consolidation or re-ordering (moving) text (min, 2006, p. 139). figure 3 shows the overall tally of revision types as well as the revision types as a percentage. fig. 3. number of revisions offered to peers categorized by type. this study found that substitutions (35%) were the most common type of revision, which is corroborated by previous studies (min, 2006; sato, 1991; sengupta, 1998;. however, min’s (2006) second and third rankings went to permutations (19%) and re-orderings (18%), unlike the current study where deletions (25%) and additions (24%) held the second and third places. permutation (7%) and re-ordering (7%) were ranked much lower and only accounted for less than 15% of the total, unlike the 37% reported by min. these differences could be contributed to the fact that min’s participants had much higher toefl scores, ranging from 523 to 550 (2006, p. 122) compared to the spain group, where only nine of the 25 participants had scores at or above 523. it seems the higher english language abilities of min’s participants allowed them to make more complex suggestions and revisions to their peers’ papers. in addition, the top three ranks in min’s (2006) study accounted for only 57% of the total revision types (p. 130), significantly lower than the nearly 85% of all revisions which made up the top three revision types in the madrid study. again, higher target language peer feedback in anonymous peer review coté no. 9 (july december 2014) no. 9 (july december 2014) 77 competence would likely result in more of a distribution among the various revision types as opposed to a clustering among the easier three types of addition, deletion and substitution found in the spain group. revision size was the next type of coding executed. size refers to symbol, word, phrase, clause, sentence or paragraph. figure 4 shows the revision distributions by size. fig. 4. number of revisions offered to peers categorized by size. in this study, the three most common revisions with respect to size were word (47%), symbol (25%) and phrase (14%), which when combined, represent 86% of all size-based revisions. this is quite different than what min (2006) reported, “the most frequent revision occurred at the level of sentence (32%), closely followed by paragraph (20%) and word (20%). the least revised part in terms of size of revisions was at the level of symbol” (p. 131). in this study, sentences (7%) and paragraphs (2.5%) were the least common, again likely due to the students’ english abilities, most of whose toefl scores were below 520, lower than min’s students. it is possible that the high number of symbol-size revisions in my study, which includes small scale items such as spelling, punctuation and inflectional morphemes, can be attributed to the frequent correction of punctuation in the students’ essays as well as the fact that i counted all inflectional morpheme changes, such as plural ‘-s’ and past tense ‘-ed’ as symbol revisions, for they only modified a verb’s tense or a noun’s number without affecting the word’s meaning or class. peer feedback in anonymous peer review coté no. 9 (july december 2014) no. 9 (july december 2014) 78 fig. 5. number of function-based revisions. revision functions, shown in figure 5, were classified as grammatical, cosmetic, texture, which makes the text more coherent” (min, 2006, p. 141), un-necessary expression or explicature. the current findings in terms of function were very different from those found by min (2006), who determined that the most common functions were texture (39%), explicature (29%) and cosmetic (21%) which the current researcher calculated as 14% for texture, 5% for explicature and 13% for cosmetic. at first, it seemed that my study contained some error in the coding. however, min (2006) may have inadvertently biased her students; she wrote, “it is likely that texture (concerning coherence) and explicature (concerning explanation) were the most commonly perceived functions of revision because two of the principal foci of the guidance sheet used in peer review training were format and content” (p. 131). this was not the case in the spain study because there was no particular focus in either the pre-activity training or the feedback sheet they completed during the pr in the computer lab. even more divergent between min’s (2006) and the current study is the percentage of grammar-based revisions, which made up the majority in spain and accounted for an impressive 61% of all functionbased revisions versus only 4% in min’s. the researcher made it clear to all participants both before and during the peer writing task that the primary purpose of the pr activity was to provide extensive feedback so that the partner could improve the chances of writing a better second draft. everyone was strongly encouraged to mark any irregularities in the essays they reviewed, included items that they did not understand, peer feedback in anonymous peer review coté no. 9 (july december 2014) no. 9 (july december 2014) 79 obvious grammatical and/or structural errors and anything that deviated from the expository writing style that had been taught in the classroom. one area of the pr process that is often overlooked despite its importance is the amount of feedback that a student writer accepts or rejects after receiving a classmate’s suggestions, comments and corrections. min (2006) acknowledged this issue when she wrote, “in contrast to the large number of studies centering on the cognitive, affective, social, and linguistic benefits of peer response/review groups, few studies have examined the extent to which peer feedback is incorporated into students’ subsequent revisions (chou, 1999; connor & asenavage, 1994; mendonça & johnson, 1994; nelson & murphy, 1993; lockhart & ng, 1993; tsui & ng, 2000). results from these studies reveal a low acceptance rate, ranging from 5% (connor & asenavage, 1994), 22% (chou, 1999), less than 50% (paulus, 1999; tsui & ng, 2000), to a little above 50% (mendonça & johnson, 1994; tang & tithecott, 1999)” (p. 119). incorporating or rejecting feedback is worth exploring because how beneficial can pr be if the recipients do not accept their peer’s suggestions. there is no way to enforce a student to implement suggestions made by a peer, but if all but 10 percent of the students are making some sort of modification to their papers after peer collaboration, this should be considered a significant accomplishment of pr. one interesting aspect of the current study is how participant 25 dealt with his partner’s suggested corrections; he ignored 11 out of 16, or approximately 69%, incorporating only .92 suggested revisions per 50 words, well below the group average of 2.28. this is not something expected, for the logical assumption is that a more positive attitude towards pr would result in more acceptance of feedback. what the researcher failed to take into account was the reality that some peer feedback will inevitably be bad. in this case, five of the eleven suggestions made by his peer were indeed incorrect, and by ignoring them, participant 25 avoided changing text that did not need to be changed, thus maintaining the quality and accuracy of his original text. additionally, he further revised three of the suggestions (two incorrect, one correct) resulting in a better final product (table 3). peer feedback in anonymous peer review coté no. 9 (july december 2014) no. 9 (july december 2014) 80 table 3. participant 25 text changes it appears that having his attention drawn to specific parts of his original text forced him re-analyze what he wrote. covill (2010) reported this trend from numerous studies writing, “the experience of critiquing someone else’s writing makes students look at their own writing with a more critical eye (herrington & cadman, 1991; nystrand, 1986; white & kirby, 2005)” (p. 205). p25 validated this assumption by stating, “i would like to add the experience [doing an electronic peer review in esl 112] helped me realize mistakes that i would not have noticed before.” he agreed that peer review was a valuable part of the writing process, adding “it helps me to improve my essay realizing mistakes that i won’t realize when i’m writing the first draft.” he also agreed that peer review improves student writing in general “because it is always possible to improve an essay by reviewing it.” results based on the positive effects of anonymity found in previous studies (johnson, 2001; lu & bol, 2007; zhao, 1998) it was expected that the anonymous pr activity would encourage students to incorporate as much feedback as possible into their final draft, resulting in a better final product. johnson (2001) believed that anonymity in pr writing could avoid unnecessary biases; he encouraged his students to submit papers without names on them to avoid being influenced by factors such as knowing an author’s past grades, gender, or target language proficiency (p. 10). to determine the amount of feedback that the participants’ incorporated into their final essays, the final drafts were analyzed based on the following: percentage of changes accepted and rejected per total number of changes received and the number of changes accepted per 50 words in order to determine if there was any correlation between their attitude towards pr and the number of suggested changes they incorporated into their original essay. peer feedback in anonymous peer review coté no. 9 (july december 2014) no. 9 (july december 2014) 81 surprisingly, participants accepted, on average, an impressive 70% of the revision feedback as a group, a rate unprecedented in any of the previous studies. this could be based on several factors. one is that in this study, the participants rewrote their essay and submitted it top the researcher for a grade. another is the fact that they were regularly scheduled class periods to rewrite their original essay; as a result, there was no imposition on their personal time. a third possible cause, and one that can only be surmised, is that the students were all aware that the researcher was going to be analyzing the essays for dissertation research, and considering the extremely high faculty evaluations he received from the group, it is entirely possible they made an extra effort simply to please him. analyzing the changes accepted per 50 words (figure 6), participants 10 and 22 clearly stand out as the two participants who incorporated the most peer-offered changes. fig. 6. changes accepted per 50 words while this is to be expected from participant 10, whose pre-activity attitude score of 3.85 was tied for the highest, it is very surprising for participant 22, whose pre-activity attitude score of 3.08 was second to the lowest. other unexpected outcomes were participants 7 and 25, both among the most positive at the start, yet with very low acceptance rates. in fact, calculating the acceptance rates revealed that there was in fact no correlation between a student’s attitude toward pr and the acceptance rate. looking at the most positive, neutral and most negative participants, in table 4, it appears that there is no relationship. peer feedback in anonymous peer review coté no. 9 (july december 2014) no. 9 (july december 2014) 82 table 4. participant attitude versus changes accepted to confirm this, a pearson correlation coefficient analysis was conducted comparing a participant’s pre-activity attitude score to the number of changes they accepted per 50 words. the coefficient of +.034 indicates too weak of a relationship between the two variables, and the sig (2-tailed) value of .892 further supports the conclusion that there was no statistically significant correlation between attitude and changes incorporated. conclusions this study provides extensive data on the number and types of questions, comments and correction types students made to an essay in anonymous electronic-peer review in an expository efl class in madrid, spain. it also shows the percentage of corrections students accepted (or rejected) from an anonymous peer and then incorporated into their original essays based on the feedback they received from a peer. however, it did not indicate any relationship between student willingness to participate in pr and the quality of a peer review. the reader must be cautioned to both address and attempt to lessen the misconception that most students have towards pr, namely that its purpose is “to be finding mistakes or problems in each other’s essays” (nelson & carson, 1998, p. 122). in addition, anonymous or blind pr should be encouraged to free students from the negative aspects of the collaborative writing process. in fact, the researcher believes that based on many of the social, cultural and academic factors mentioned in this paper, anonymous reviewers will be more comfortable conducting a thorough pr, will offer more and better constructive criticism and will be more honest in their critique, regardless of attitude towards the experience, simply because of the fact that they do not know whose essay they are correcting. peer feedback in anonymous peer review coté no. 9 (july december 2014) no. 9 (july december 2014) 83 in closing, classroom instructors must also keep in mind that pr may not always provide the expected outcomes. target language competence, individual personalities, and proper training in giving feedback must be taken into account before assigning activities that require peer collaboration in order for the participants to get the most benefit from the pr experience in the efl writing classroom. unlike most empirical studies on pr in the writing classroom, this study offered anonymous pr as an alternative to face-to-face pr, so students who do not enjoy or benefit from face-to-face interaction, for whatever reasons, would still be able to participate in pr, but through a different approach. this does not imply that face-to-face pr should be replaced with anonymous pr, only complimented by it when the proper setting, available technology and sufficient time are available. references berg, e.c. (1999). the effects of trained peer response on esl students’ revision types and writing quality. journal of second language writing 8(3), 215-241. brammer, c. & rees, m. (2007). peer review from the students’ perspective: invaluable or invalid? composition studies 5(2), 71-85. foster, p. (1998). a classroom perspective on the negotiation of meaning. applied linguistics 19(1), 1-23. hansen, j. & liu, j. (2005). guiding principles for effective peer response. elt journal 59(1), 31-38. hewings, a. & coffin, c. (2006). formative interaction in electronic written exchanges: fostering feedback dialogue. in k. hyland & f. hyland (eds.), feedback in second language writing: contexts and issues (pp. 225-245). new york: cambridge university press. johnson, r. (2001). the next frontier of the student-centered classroom: teaching students to recognize quality writing through the use of peer evaluation. opinion paper, u.s. department of education, office of educational research and improvement, educational resources information center (eric). pp 1-21. levine, a., oded, b., connor, u., & asons, i. (2002). variation in eflesl response. teaching english as a second language – electronic journal 6(3), 1-16. peer feedback in anonymous peer review coté no. 9 (july december 2014) no. 9 (july december 2014) 84 liu, j. & hansen, j. (2005). peer response in second language writing classrooms. ann arbor: the university of michigan press. liu, j. & sadler, r. (2003). the effect and affect of peer response in electronic versus traditional modes on esl writers’ revisions. journal of english for academic purposes 2(3), 193-227 liu, j. & sadler, r.j. (2000). the effects of peer versus teacher comments in both electronic and traditional modes on esl writers’ revisions. paper presented at the 34th annual tesol convention, 14-18 march, vancouver, british columbia, canada. lu, r. & bol, l. (2007). a comparison of anonymous versus identifiable e-peer review on college student writing performance and the extent of critical feedback. journal of interactive online learning 6(2), 100-115. macleod, l. (1999). computer-aided peer review of writing. business communication quarterly 62(3), 87-94. mendonça, c. & johnson, k.e. (1994). peer review negotiations: revision activities in esl writing instruction. tesol quarterly 28 (4), 745-769. min, h. t. (2004). the effects of trained peer review on efl students’ revision types and writing quality. journal of second language writing 15(2), 118-141. min, h. t. (2006). training students to become successful peer reviewers. system, 293-308. min, h. t. (2008). reviewer stances and writer perceptions in efl peer review training. english for specific purposes 27, 285-305. nelson, g. & carson, j.g. (1998). esl students’ perceptions of effectiveness in peer response groups. journal of second language writing 7(2), 113-131. nelson, g. & carson, j.g. (2006). cultural issues in peer response: revisiting “culture”. in k. hyland & f. hyland (eds.), feedback in second language writing: contexts and issues (pp. 41-59). new york: cambridge university press. paulus, t.m. (1999). the effect of peer and teacher feedback on student writing. journal of second language writing 8(3), 265-289. rollinson, p. (2005). using peer feedback in the esl writing class. elt journal 59(1), 23-30. peer feedback in anonymous peer review coté no. 9 (july december 2014) no. 9 (july december 2014) 85 storch, n. (2005). collaborative writing: product, process, and students’ reflections. journal of second language writing 14(3), 153-173. tsui, a.b.m. & ng, m. (2000). do secondary l2 writers benefit from peer comments? journal of second language writing 9(2), 147-170. villamil, o.s. & de guerrero, m.c.m. (1996). peer revision in the l2 classroom: social-cognitive activities, mediating strategies, and aspects of social behavior. journal of second language writing, 5 (1), 51-75. villamil, o.s. & de guerrero, m.c.m. (1998). assessing the impact of peer revision on l2 writing. applied linguistics 19(4), 491-514. villamil, o.s. & de guerrero, m.c.m. (2006). socio-cultural theory: a framework for understanding the social-cognitive dimensions of peer feedback. in k. hyland & f. hyland (eds.), feedback in second language writing: contexts and issues (pp. 23-41). new york: cambridge university press. zhao, y. (1998). the effects of anonymity on computer-mediated peer review. international journal of educational telecommunication 12 (4), 311-345. zhu, w. (2001). interaction and feedback in mixed peer response groups. journal of second language writing 10, 251-276. author *robert a. coté received his phd in second language acquisition & teaching from the university of arizona majoring in sociolinguistics and minoring in pedagogy and program administration. he began his career 20 years ago when he taught esl at a farm worker’s camp for literacy volunteers of america. since then, he has worked as an administrator, teacher trainer and classroom instructor in university iep’s, community colleges, adult education centers and public high schools in miami florida, nogales mexico, madrid spain, dubai united arab emirates, and guangzhou china. he enjoys teaching all aspects of the english language, and his research interests include teaching writing, peer review, generation 1.5 students, call and special needs. peer feedback in anonymous peer review coté no. 9 (july december 2014) no. 9 (july december 2014) 86 appendix pre-activity questionnaire • please define peer review. if you do not know what it is, write what you think it is. • have you ever done peer review before? yes or no a. if no, would you like to learn more about peer review? • if yes, a. where? b. when? c. for what classes? d. how many times? please state your opinion on the following statements. please try to agree or disagree. choose neither agree nor disagree only if you have absolutely no opinion in the matter. peer feedback in anonymous peer review coté no. 9 (july december 2014) no. 9 (july december 2014) 87 peer feedback in anonymous peer review coté no. 9 (july december 2014) no. 9 (july december 2014) 33 transactional communication strategies to influence pre-service teachers’ speaking skill1 estrategias de comunicación transaccional para influenciar la habilidad del habla de los maestros en formación wilfrido muñoz julio and odilia ramírez contreras2 * universidad santo tomás, universidad de caldas, colombia abstract this article is about an action research project carried out at a public institution in sincelejo, colombia. the research purpose was to determine the effect of transactional communication strategies (tcs) on pre-service teachers’ speaking skill. in a diagnostic stage, problems in the speaking skill were identified then an action stage was carried out consisting of six workshops including tcs; a researcher journal, a student self-assessment survey, and a non-participant observation were used for data collection; results suggested a positive impact of tcs on the participants’ speaking skill represented in significant progress related to vocabulary, grammar, fluency, attitude, pronunciation, and interaction. conclusions ratify the importance of tcs in the preparation of future elementary school teachers in response to national bilingualism policies. key words: attitude, fluency, grammar, interaction, speaking, transactional communication strategies, vocabulary, resumen este artículo explica un proyecto de investigación acción llevado a cabo en una institución pública en sincelejo, colombia. el propósito de la investigación fue determinar el efecto de las estrategias de comunicación transaccional (tcs) en la habilidad del habla de los maestros en formación. en una etapa de 1 received december 8th 2017/accepted may 17th 2018 2 wilfrido115@hotmail.com; maestriaucaldas@yahoo.com abridged novels in written and oral production gist education and learning research journal. issn 1692-5777. no.16 (january june) 2018.. pp. 33-55. no. 16 (january june, 2018) no. 16 (january june, 2018) 34 diagnóstico, se identificaron problemas en la habilidad del habla para los que una etapa de acción de seis talleres incluyendo (tcs) se implementó; un diario de investigación, una encuesta de autoevaluación del estudiante y observación de un externo fueron usadas para la colección de datos. los resultados sugieren un impacto positivo de tcs en el habla de los participantes representado en progresos significativo relacionado con vocabulario, gramática, fluidez, actitud, pronunciación e interacción. las conclusiones ratifican la importancia de (tcs) en la preparación de futuros profesores de primaria en repuesta a las políticas nacionales de bilingüismo. palabras clave: actitud, interacción, habla, estrategias de comunicación transaccional, vocabulario. resumo este artigo explica um projeto de pesquisa ação realizado em uma instituição pública em sincelejo, colômbia. o propósito da pesquisa foi determinar o efeito das estratégias de comunicação transacional (tcs) na habilidade da fala dos mestres em formação. em uma etapa de diagnóstico, foram identificados problemas na habilidade da fala para os que uma etapa de ação de seis oficinas incluindo (tcs) foi implementado; um diário de pesquisa, uma enquete de autoavaliação do estudante e observação de um externo foram usadas para a coleta de dados. os resultados sugerem um impacto positivo de tcs na fala dos participantes, representado em progressos significativos relacionados com o vocabulário, gramática, fluidez, atitude, pronunciação e interação. as conclusões retificam a importância de (tcs) na preparação de futuros professores de primária em resposta às políticas nacionais de bilinguismo. palavras chave: atitude, interação, fala, estratégias de comunicação transacional, vocabulário. transactional strategies for speaking skills muñoz & ramírez no. 16 (january june, 2018) no. 16 (january june, 2018) 35 introduction current trends in english language teaching (elt) in colombia promote the use of varied approaches and strategies to improve the proficiency of learners at all levels (men, 2016). this study searches to determine the effect of transactional communication strategies (tcs) in pre-service teachers’ speaking skill in the first semester of the complementary cycle of a public normal3 school in sincelejo, sucre. the information collected and analyzed according to (powell & renner, 2003) in a diagnostic stage displayed some difficulties in the speaking skill mainly related to fluency, vocabulary and interaction. participants spoke with long pauses, lacked of vocabulary to express ideas and with unclear pronunciation and some constraints to understand ideas in english that led to the research question. to what extent can transactional communication strategies influence the speaking skill of pre-service teachers at a public school in sincelejo? this research was based on the use of transactional communication strategies under the paradigm of a qualitative research and founded on the action research method; regarding the learners’ language development and the speaking skill the literature review included the teaching-learning principles by richards (2015), munro (2011), louma (2009) and burns and joice (1997). varied data collection instruments were used in the implementation stage that included a student selfassessment form, a journal, and an external observer form; data were submitted to analysis following (powell & renner, 2003). convenience sampling (cosby, 2008) was the technique to choose the participants who belonged to first semester in the complementary cycle at a public normal school. the findings showed that transactional communication strategies positively influenced the speaking skill of the pre-service teachers since vocabulary and grammar were improved. students learned new words and became better speakers in different contexts, they increased their speaking fluency and reduced their pauses when communicating orally, displayed more positive attitudes, improved their pronunciation and intonation, increased their oral interaction, and most importantly, they fostered their confidence and motivation when performing oral tasks. transactional communication strategies also proved to be useful in the pedagogical preparation of future teacher-researchers because 3 normal schools in colombia offer a teaching preparation program for future elementary school teachers; the program corresponds to grades 12 and 13 in high school which are known as ciclo complementario (complementary cycle). transactional strategies for speaking skills muñoz & ramírez no. 16 (january june, 2018) no. 16 (january june, 2018) 36 they can implement the strategies carried out in class on their own teaching settings in order to improve the speaking subskills, specifically concerning grammar, vocabulary, fluency, pronunciation, attitude, motivation, and interaction, to help students be more dynamic and selfconfident. pedagogical implications are discussed to provide the educational system in general, curriculum designers, and policy-makers with ideas to promote transactional communication strategies in the teaching of efl to normal students in order to impact the pre-school and elementary school levels. literature review the speaking skill when people interact, they use spoken language to express ideas feelings, thoughts, and intentions; this is what we call speaking. in this sense, louma, (2009) affirms “people may use their speech to create an image of themselves to others by using speed and pausing, and variation of pitch, volume and intonation” (p.10). in addition, the concept of speaking is also stated like “combining sounds in a recognized and systematic way, according to language-specific principles to form meaningful utterances are also named speaking” (comblet & all, 2001, p. 18). components of the speaking skill pronunciation. it refers to “the way for students to produce the utterance of words clearly when they are speaking” (kline, 1998, p. 69). in the same manner, “english pronunciation does not amount to mastery of a list of sounds or isolated words. instead, it amounts to learning and practicing the specifically english way of making a speaker’s thoughts easy to follow” (gilbert, 2008, p. 1). that is, pronunciation embodies a set of aspects, namely, stress, intonation, volume, and speech-pace that allow communication when two or more speakers interact. grammar. it is required for the learners to arrange sentences in an appropriate way when they exchange ideas both in written and oral forms. williams (2008) states that “grammar is the formal study of the structure of a language and describes how words fit together in meaningful constructions” (p.2). in other words, it is to fulfill with correct patterns of a language to have a clear delivery of the message. transactional strategies for speaking skills muñoz & ramírez no. 16 (january june, 2018) no. 16 (january june, 2018) 37 vocabulary. it is said that, “vocabulary can be defined as the words of a language, including single items and phrases or chunks of several words which convey a particular meaning, the way individual words do” (lessard, 2013, p. 2). likewise, vocabulary deals with words we communicate in oral and written form. receptive vocabulary refers to the words we recognize through reading and listening. productive vocabulary is related to the words we use to transfer information through writing and speaking (lehr, osborn, & hiebert, 2004). in brief, vocabulary is the lexicon that learners have to transmit and understand communicative intentions. fluency. it usually has to do with expressing oral language in a good pace without interruption. in teaching and learning process, if the teacher needs to check students’ fluency, “the teacher allows students to express freely without interruption. the aim is to help students speak fluently and easily. the teacher does not correct immediately whereas the idea being that too much correction interferes with the flow of conversation” (pollard, 2008, p. 16). this means that there should be a reasonable way to provide learners feedback or correction when speaking not to break the flow of the speech. equally, in order to communicate fluently, some students pause to avoid grammatical errors, make some false starts, reformulate sentences, construct phrases, and handle exchanges to keep in a reciprocal communication (cefw, 2016). interaction. it plays an important role in communication because students explore various forms to exchange ideas. they analyze, create, dispatch, and interpret verbal and nonverbal messages. thence, brown (2007) declares that “interaction is a collaborative exchange of thoughts, feelings, or ideas between two or more people, resulting in a reciprocal effect on each other” (p.212). in like manner, rivas (as cited in brown, 2007): “through interaction, students can increase their language store as they listen to or read authentic linguistic material, or even the output of their fellow student in discussion, skits, joint problem-solving tasks, or dialogue journals” (p.213). thus, interaction helps learners swap thoughts, feelings, emotions, and learn new information. motivation and attitudes in the efl class it is said that motivation is a balance between the value accomplished with an activity and one’s expectation of success in doing it. richards and schmidt (2010) define motivation as “a combination of the learner’s attitudes, desires, and willingness to expend effort in order to learn the second language” (p. 314). additionally, attitude is a settled transactional strategies for speaking skills muñoz & ramírez no. 16 (january june, 2018) no. 16 (january june, 2018) 38 way to think about something. in line with this, smith (cited in oroujlou & vahedi, 2011) states that “attitude is a relatively organization of belief around an object or a situation, predisposing one to respond in some preferential manner” (p, 997). micro and macro skills of speaking speaking is an activity that takes place in any community. speakers use language in a variety of events such as at work, in the restaurant, in bus stations, in a shop, in the airport, at the office, on the street, and so on. the aforementioned situations have to do with a transactional language that is to get something done depending on the context of each activity; related to this, micro and macro skills (brown, 2004) play an important role in oral communication because, on the one hand, “micro-skills of speaking refer to creating the smaller pieces of language such as phonemes, morphemes, words, collocations, and phrasal units” (p. 142). and macro-skills, on the other hand, help the “speaker’s focus on the larger elements; fluency, discourse, function, style, cohesion, nonverbal communication, and strategic options” (p.142). additionally, brown (2007) highlights micro and macro skills stating that “one implication is the importance of focusing on both the forms of language and the functions of the language” (p. 327). speaking as transactional and interactional purposes talk as interaction. richards (2008) states that “talk as interaction refers to what we normally mean by ‘conversation’ and describes interaction that serves a primarily social function. when people meet, they exchange greetings, engage in small talk, recount recent experiences, and so on” (p. 22). that means that with interaction individuals wish to be part of social situations and feel comfortable in that interaction with each other by means of exchanges that may be either casual or more formal, depending on the circumstances; richards summarizes the main features of interaction as follows: transactional strategies for speaking skills muñoz & ramírez no. 16 (january june, 2018) no. 16 (january june, 2018) 39 table 1. features and skills of talk as interaction according to richards (2008) interaction features interaction skills social function role relationship opening and closing conversation speaker´s identity choosing topics -making small-talk formal of casual recounting personal incidents and experiences use of conversational conventions turn-taking politeness using adjacency-pair use of generic word interrupting use of conversational register reacting to others. speaker-constructed table 1 displays features and skills of talk as interaction that fulfill social situations to interchange knowledge, culture, thoughts, feelings, emotions bearing in mind that the context in the action is taken with a purpose of social communication. talk as transaction. the message is the most important aspect when a person talks in these kind of circumstances. richards (2008) confirms this statement when he argues that “talk as transaction refers to situations where the focus is on what is said or done. the message and making oneself understood clearly and accurately is the central focus, rather than the participants” (p.24). also, burns (as cited in richards, 2015) distinguishes between two different types of talk as transaction: the first type involves situations where the focus is on giving and receiving information and where the participants focus primarily on what it is said or achieved (e.g., asking someone for directions). accuracy may not be a priority, as long as information is successfully communicated or understood. the second type focuses on obtaining goods or services, such as checking into a hotel or ordering food in a restaurant (p.3). it is relevant to say that talk as transaction is easier to plan and more comfortable to the students. these kind of transactions have their particularities as described by richards (2015): transactional strategies for speaking skills muñoz & ramírez no. 16 (january june, 2018) no. 16 (january june, 2018) 40 table 2. features and skills of talk as transaction according to richards (2015) transaction features transaction skills explaining a need or intention primarily information focus describing something main focus is the message not the participants asking questioning participants employ communication strategies confirming information questions, repetitions, and comprehension justifying an opinion checks frequently used. negotiation and digression clarifying understanding linguistic accuracy is not always important making comparison, agreeing and disagreeing the prior table represents talk as a transaction whose main function is to transmit the message in order to obtain something, for instance go to the doctor, register in hotel, order a food in a restaurant etc. also, when students are implementing this kind of communication, they use fixed sentences to have a clear intention to communicate the message. moreover, when teachers teach speaking as transaction, they have to take into account that there is a rich source of group activities such as information-gap activities, role-play, simulation, group discussion, and guided dialogue (richards, 2008). according to the author, it is important that teachers have knowledge about the “what” and “how” of this teaching process to be successful and practice realworld transactions. table 3 represents the steps typically involved in this model: transactional strategies for speaking skills muñoz & ramírez no. 16 (january june, 2018) no. 16 (january june, 2018) 41 table 3. model to develop transactional communication strategies (richards, 2015) stages concept preparing reviewing vocabulary, real-word knowledge related to the content, and context of role play (e.g., returning a faulty item to the store modeling and eliciting demonstrating the stages that are typically involve in the transaction eliciting suggestions for how each stage can be carried out, and teaching the functional language needed for each stage practicing and reviewing assigning student’s roles and practice role play and provide languages and other support. the principles that orient the process of transactional communication presented in table 3 start with a preparation stage in which students receive vocabulary, expressions, and grammar, using drawings or realia to learn content to proceed to the second section that is modeling the previous information, practicing communication drills, exchanging ideas, doing conversations, watching videos, among other activities. the last section is devoted to the practice and review of the learned strategy which includes presentation and feedback on the performance of the students. transactional communication strategy when individuals interact with each other, breakdowns might happen, as a result, they use communication strategies to overcome this problem; richards and schmidt (2010) state that a “communication strategy is a way used to express a meaning in a second or foreign language, by a learner who has a limited command of the language” (p. 98). in this sense, when learners try to speak, they may have to make up for a lack of knowledge of vocabulary and phrases, so they use transactional communication strategies to help them express better during the communication act. when language is used with a transactional focus the priority is to convey the message and make oneself understood; it is predictable, includes a lot of fixed sentences, functional expressions and communication strategies to make up for limitations presented in oral skill (richards, 2015). transactional strategies for speaking skills muñoz & ramírez no. 16 (january june, 2018) no. 16 (january june, 2018) 42 assessing speaking speaking is a complex skill demanding the simultaneous use of a different ability which often develops different components. one well known assessment tool is the readi oral proficiency criteria (finch & sampson , 2004) adapted from iatefl criteria and the canadian language benchmarks; this rubric includes the following criteria: table 4. speaking assessment rubric adapted from the readi (finch & sampson, 2004) aspect of earned speaking readi descriptors score score range the student’s low range make communication difficult. 1 (vocabulary, the student’s range almost supports communication. 2 grammar) the student’s range supports communication. 3 the student’s range enhances communication. 4 comments ease of speech the student’s low fluency makes communication difficult. 1 (fluency) the student’s ease of speech almost support communication. 2 the student’s ease of speech support communication. 3 the student’s ease of speech enhance communication. 4 comments attitude the student’s poor attitude makes communication difficult. 1 (motivation) the student’s attitude almost supports communication. 2 the student’s attitude supports communication. 3 the student’s attitude enhances communication. 4 comments delivery the student’s poor delivery makes communication difficult. 1 (pronunciation) the student’s delivery almost supports communication. 2 the student’s delivery supports communication. 3 the student’s delivery enhances communication. 4 comments interaction the student’s poor interaction makes communication difficult. 1 (communication the student’s interaction supports communication. 3 startegies) the student’s interaction enhances communication. 4 comments transactional the student’s poor use of transactional strategy in role-play strategies makes communication difficult. 1 (askin for the student’s fair use of the transactional strategy almost repetition) supports communication. 2 the student’s good use of the transactional strateg supports communication. 3 the student’s excellent use of the transactional strategy enhances communication. 4 transactional strategies for speaking skills muñoz & ramírez no. 16 (january june, 2018) no. 16 (january june, 2018) 43 as displayed in table 4, the readi scheme incudes four main aspects related to the oral performance: vocabulary and grammar range, ease of speech, attitude, delivery, and interaction; each component is assessed on the basis of a scale from 1 to 4, whose descriptors indicate the level of achievement on the intended aspect. a last item was added to measure the students’ use of the transactional strategy. methodology type of study this research project was developed under the model of qualitative research and has its bases in action research because it allows the teacher-researcher to identify their teaching context problems, analyze their own teaching practice, and produce changes in their language teaching and learning (powell, e & renner, 2003). it examines and understands the significance individuals or crowds assigned to a social problem (creswell, 2009), that is to say, a qualitative study helps to understand the social world in which students are immersed and contribute to solve problems in their day-to-day in and out of school. participants this study was carried out at a public school which is located in sincelejo-sucre, with a group of 35 pre-service teachers who were exposed to transactional communication strategies as the participants of this study; the group was in the first semester of the complementary cycle corresponding to grades 12 and 13 in the public school system; this course had 11 men and 24 women whose ages ranged between 17 to 20 years old; they came from sincelejo city; these learners came from different social strata, specifically, strata two and three. this was very important for this study because students had difficulty in speaking skill when they were interacting each other and by means of this project, they had the opportunity to communicate in a second language and improved their competences to be open to the world. the basic english level was evidenced after a diagnostic test, this result was obtained after having taken the oral proficiency exam cambridge ket in order to know what their english level was, that is targeted at basic level proposed by the common european framework of reference (cefr). transactional strategies for speaking skills muñoz & ramírez no. 16 (january june, 2018) no. 16 (january june, 2018) 44 data collection and instruments in this research, different data gathering techniques were used to capture the participants’ and some school members’ views and perspectives about the efl learning process, especially the speaking skill; table 5 summarizes the techniques, respondents and instruments used in the diagnostic and implementation stages of the project: table 5. data collection instruments and techniques in research project outcomes the data analysis in the diagnostic stage of this project revealed a problem in the pre-service teachers’ speaking skill. taking into account this problematic issue, the researcher implemented six workshops based on tcs (richards, 2008) that are listed in the following table: transactional strategies for speaking skills muñoz & ramírez no. 16 (january june, 2018) no. 16 (january june, 2018) 45 table 6. workshops based on transactional communication strategies each one of the workshops listed above followed the next sequence: in the first step a set of objectives was stated, in the second step, the setting stage, vocabulary and phrases related to the topic were presented; in the third step comprehensible input (vocabulary, grammatical structures, and transactional communication strategies) was exemplified and modeled; in the fourth step, the guided practice, role-plays, simulations, sketches, or guided dialogues were performed by using tcs. in the fifth step, independent practice, the main activity of the lesson was performed consisting of a speaking task in which the students were expected to use tcs. the last step was the assessment stage in which the pre-service teachers reflected on their own speaking process in each class by means of a self-assessment form; additionally, to measure the learners’ speaking performance an adaptation of the readi oral proficiency scheme (finch & sampson, 2004) was completed by the researcher to gauge the progress of every workshop. transactional strategies for speaking skills muñoz & ramírez no. 16 (january june, 2018) no. 16 (january june, 2018) 46 after the completion of each workshop, the researcher submitted to analysis data according to powell and renner (2003) using six preestablished categories chosen to assess the students’ performance: vocabulary and grammar, fluency, attitude, pronunciation, interaction, and transactional strategy use that were subsequently classified in sub-categories. table 7 shows the frequencies reported by each subcategory throughout the implementation of the six workshops: table 7 suggests that the objectives appointed in this research project were reached because the categories of analysis representing positive aspects surpassed the ones reporting negative issues implying significant progress in pre-service teachers’ speaking skill as discussed in the following paragraphs. table 7. categories and subcategories of analysis in research project implementation transactional strategies for speaking skills muñoz & ramírez no. 16 (january june, 2018) no. 16 (january june, 2018) 47 overcoming limited vocabulary and little control of grammar limited vocabulary and little control of grammar were challenges students faced throughout the six workshop, but by mean of the use of transactional communication strategies, such as i know what you mean, great, that’s interesting etc. they were able to use vocabulary ask for food, they progressively decreased at the end of the implementation stage; this means that the tcs helped the students to fulfill the use of correct patterns of the english language and to know how to transmit ideas in a clearer message (williams, 2008), for example, in workshop 1 the subcategories limited vocabulary with 29 occurrences and little control of grammar with 14 went down to only 7 and 6 respectively in the sixth workshop; this suggests that, at the end, students were including more words and connected expressions to their speech, for instance, they said precise instructions to prepare their favorite dishes of the region and the others asked them about ingredients used in the preparation of the food implementing transactional communication strategies effectively like asking for clarification; in fact, the learners spoke with good order in sentences, so that they surpassed the difficulties. it is also extremely important to highlight the subcategory good grammar and vocabulary range in an average of 11.84% of the data as evidence of students’ good performance during the workshops. as richards and renandya, (2002) state, a language speaker who has a good range of lexicon and who continually develops transactional strategies for learning new vocabulary, is a speaker who has more of possibilities to interact and exchange ideas in real language conditions. accordingly, pupils were engaged in speaking activities and communication was enhanced with transactional strategies use. reducing long pauses for better fluency another important outcome in this project relates to the reduction of long pauses when speaking. first of all, the subcategory long delays to speak which represented those learners who took long pauses to utter words and expressions represented an improvement because learners’ pauses were lessening in workshops 3, 4, 5 and 6; this finding evidenced that the learners ended up displaying few pauses in their speech, that is, communication kept on improving through the use of transactional communication strategies, according to hughes (2002) who affirmed that, fluency is the ability learners have to speak in an understandable way, with good pace and appropriate strategies in order not to break down communication because listeners may lose their interest in the message. to support what is mentioned above, the subcategory good transactional strategies for speaking skills muñoz & ramírez no. 16 (january june, 2018) no. 16 (january june, 2018) 48 speaking pace had a percentage of 11.30% in the overall findings which represents an effective use of a connected discourse in a fluent way which signified a positive impact on students´ speech in this research. promoting positive attitudes towards communication it is important to say that the subcategory positive attitude toward communication had average scores over 80 incidences in workshops 1, 2, 5, and 6, which indicated that pre-service teachers’ attitudes were positively influenced by the use of transactional communication strategies; testimonies and observations reported that the learners felt motivated in performing meaningful transactional communication activities from their real context ratifying what richards and schmidt (2010) state about motivation which is a combination of the attitudes, desires, and willingness that learners take to achieve an objective. as evidence, the data showed that the students encouraged their peers to fill a form to have a passport, they participated actively giving directions and descriptions of different people including among two or three adjectives to describe them. another evidence of the improvement in this attitudinal aspect is the subcategory lack of confidence that started with 16 frequencies in the first workshop and in the sixth one ended up with only seven occurrences. improving pronunciation among pre-service teachers the findings of this study reported that there was an important impact on the pre-service teachers’ pronunciation; the subcategory poor intonation to express ideas with 5.18% of the collected information proved that this pronunciation difficulty decreased little by little in each workshop; the data showed that the pre-service teachers’ intonation when pronouncing some words and expressions led to mispronunciation in a number of cases throughout the proposal, however, with the execution of varied speaking tasks involving transactional strategies their pronunciation was clearer aligning with hewing’s (1995) theory that states that the point is to expose english learners to as many pronunciation activities as possible in order to improve this aspect. in the implementation of this research project pupils were exposed to several oral tasks, for instance, completing a passport, getting a place in sincelejo city, ordering food in a restaurant in which they had the opportunity to ask and answer each other’s questions through transactional strategies for speaking skills muñoz & ramírez no. 16 (january june, 2018) no. 16 (january june, 2018) 49 a good use of the transactional communication strategies; they acted in different settings conveying ideas with appropriate intonation and few pronunciation difficulties. to ratify this progress, the subcategory effective intonation for communication with 11.78% of data displayed that some learners uttered their ideas with good stress and pace, they also uttered long sentences and words well to comply with the activity´s goals; so, the data showed that this subcategory had a steady progress during the implementation of the workshops. reaching an effective interaction level in speaking tasks another positive impact of the use of transactional communication strategies in the efl class corresponds to the improvement of the learners’ interaction in the speaking tasks. in the implementation stage, the subcategory effective interaction with 14.70% got the highest frequencies among all categories; students spoke with more security having been able to express many words and expressions; this was observed when they interacted and exchanged information asking for repetition, saying instructions in a reality show, giving and asking directions to different places and so on; these findings refer to brown´s (2007) theory which states that interaction is a collaborative exchange of thoughts, feelings, or ideas between two or more people, resulting in a reciprocal effect on each other. in the same manner, the subcategory limited interaction with only 1.65% in the final workshops demonstrated the significant impact of the implemented strategies in this research project. enhancement of communication with transaction strategies the findings of this study proved notable that the subcategory communication enhancement with transactional strategy got an outstanding percentage of the frequencies with 13.86% of the data; this means that a great number of students displayed an effective use of transactional communication strategies such as asking for repetition, showing interest, asking for more information, agreeing or disagreeing, asking for clarification with which they were able to exchange information in varied scenarios; in fact, richards (2015) claims that focus on transactional communication leads individuals to use communication strategies to make themselves understood and have a better interaction with each other in different scenes. with these strategies, the learners who participated in the study improved their communication skills and were able to give personal information to complete a form, they ordered different kinds of food and they described their favorite famous transactional strategies for speaking skills muñoz & ramírez no. 16 (january june, 2018) no. 16 (january june, 2018) 50 person. nevertheless, the subcategory poor transaction in 2.92% of the information dealt with those pre-service teachers who had some difficulties in communication and were confused to deliver the message in the target language. this negative aspect became in fair lessening in workshop 6 with only 11of the occurrences which was significant at the end of the implementation stage. to ratify the positive impact of transactional strategies on the pre-service teachers’ speaking skill, the teacher’s rubric results showed that the students’ scores were consistent with the triangulation table, as shown in the following table: table 8. average scores from adapted readi speaking assessment rubric according to table 8 the speaking assessment rubric reported that the speaking criteria concerning vocabulary and grammar range, fluency, attitude, pronunciation, interaction, and transactional strategy got averages over 3.8 in the sixth workshop; this information supported the finding that students integrated new vocabulary to their discourse and it was more contextualized grammatically while they were talking in the class events; this permitted them to be more secure to phrase thoughts and feelings in the oral communication act. conclusion this research project was about to what extent transactional strategies can influence the speaking skill of pre-service teachers led to the conclusion that this research reached the proposed objectives. to begin with, vocabulary and grammar enhancement with the use of transactional communication strategies allow students to recycle more words and improve their speech through the implementation of the transactional speaking range in different settings such as guided dialogues, and meaningful tasks that helped learners to become more confident to convey messages. transactional strategies for speaking skills muñoz & ramírez no. 16 (january june, 2018) no. 16 (january june, 2018) 51 also, the use of transactional communication strategies throughout speaking tasks in the classroom is a good way to better fluency because learners are exposed to the target language, using transactional communication to foster their use of the foreign language in real situations, which enables them to create a connected discourse, exchanging information to reduce long pauses and increase their communication flow at smooth paces. similarly, the attitude is essential when learners use the l2 because they need to be motivated to do the speaking task; that is, the use of transactional communication strategies contributes to the enhancement of positive attitudes, improving motivation, confidence, and security when efl pupils interact in different activities such as role plays, discussions, and simulations that allow them to be immersed in meaningful activities. transactional communication strategies make a great contribution to students’ pronunciation because if the learners are exposed to transactional speaking tasks, they alleviate their utterance mistakes on reason that this kind of activities are effective and lead to improve stress, intonation, even voice volume to communicate ideas so that pupils get the opportunity to interact with this transactional communication fostering their speaking pronunciation. transactional communication strategies are also essential to develop interaction due to the fact that students exchange information every day and with the transactional functions the language learners have clear speech. consequently, a good interaction through transactional communication strategies builds up a safe learning environment for learners in which they are able to collaborate, exchange information in a transactional way, and communicate successfully with each other and promote speaking skills (gillies, 2007). therefore, transactional communication strategies support students’ interactions since learners do activities in pairs or in groups in order to fulfill speaking tasks. transactional communication strategies reduce negative speaking aspects as limited vocabulary, little control of grammar, long delays to speak, lack of confidence, poor intonation to express ideas that are common when learners are exposed to oral communication; this type of strategies help learners swap information about their daily life making these weaknesses reduce. transactional communication strategies are useful in the pedagogical preparation of future teacher-researchers since they can apply this kind of strategy in order to improve speaking skill, specifically in the aspect of grammar, vocabulary, fluency, pronunciation, attitude, transactional strategies for speaking skills muñoz & ramírez no. 16 (january june, 2018) no. 16 (january june, 2018) 52 motivation, and interaction. taking this into account this, teachers in public normal schools in the region and in colombia, are advised to incorporate transactional communication strategies in their teachinglearning process in order to comply with current trends in efl, mainly concerning the suggested curriculum and national standards in order to prepare better elementary school teachers. transactional strategies for speaking skills muñoz & ramírez no. 16 (january june, 2018) no. 16 (january june, 2018) 53 references brown, d. (2004). principles of language learning and teaching. new york: pearson longman. brown, d. (2007). principles of language learning and teaching. usa: pearson logman. burns, a., & joice. (1997). focus on speaking. sydney. sidney: national center for english language teaching and research. cefw. (2016). common european framework for lanaguages. madrid: graficas fernandez. comblet, & all. (2001). the-language-of-speech-and-writing. london: tailor & francis e library. cosby, p. (2008). metholods in behavioral research. boston: mcgraw hill higer education. creswell, j. (2009). research design: qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods approaches. . los angeles: ca: sage. finch, a. e., & sampson , k. (2004, 07 13). knufle/book-2/tg/pdf/ tresources. retrieved from finchpark.com/: http://www.finchpark. com/knufle/book-2/tg/pdf/t-resources.pdf gilbert, j. (2008). teaching pronunciation: using the prosody pyramid. . cambridge university press. gillies, r. (2007). cooperative learning: integrating theory and practice. u.s.a:: sage publications. hewings, m. (1995). pronunciation tasks: a course for preintermediate learners. cambridge: cambridge university press. hughes, r. (2002). teaching and researching speaking. new york: pearson education. kline, j. a. (1998). speaking effectively a guide for air force speakers. alabama: congress books. lehr, f., osborn, j., & hiebert, e. ( 2004). focus on vocabulary. honolulu: pacific resources for education and learning. lessard, m. c. (2013). teaching vocabulary . virginia usa: editorial, thomas s.c. farrell. louma, s. (2009.). assessing speaking. cambridge: cambridge university press. transactional strategies for speaking skills muñoz & ramírez no. 16 (january june, 2018) no. 16 (january june, 2018) 54 ministerio de educación nacional. (2016, 12 23). http://aprende. colombiaaprende.edu.co. retrieved from pedagogical principles and guidelines: suggested english curriculum: http://aprende. colombiaaprende.edu.co/sites/default/files/naspublic/anexo%20 15%20pedagogical%20principles%20and%20guidelines.pdf munro, j. (2011). teaching oral language. acer press, 2011. oroujlou, n., & vahedi, n. (2011). motivation, attitude, and language learning, procedia. social and behavioral sciences, 997. pollard, l. (2008). teaching english a book to help you through your first two year in teaching. london: longman, second edition. powell, e. t., & renner, m. (2003, 02 05). assets/pdfs/g3658-12 analyzing qualitative data. retrieved 09 22, 2017, from university of wisconsin extension the learning store: https://learningstore. uwex.edu/assets/pdfs/g3658-12.pdf richards, j. (2015). key issues in language teaching. united kingdom: university printing house. richards, j. c. (2008). teachihg listening and speaking. united kindom: cambridge university. richards, j. c., & renandya, w. a. (2002). methodology in language teaching: an anthology of current practice. new york: cambridge university press. richards, j., & schmidt, r. (2010). dictionary of languaje teaching and applied linguistics. longman: pearson education. williams, j. (2008). teacher´s grammar book. . mahwah new jersy: soka university. transactional strategies for speaking skills muñoz & ramírez no. 16 (january june, 2018) no. 16 (january june, 2018) 55 authors *wilfrido muñoz julio holds a bachelor in foreign languages from corporación educativa del caribe (cecar). this year, he graduated from a master’s degree in english didactics from the university of caldas (colombia). he worked on a research study named: transactional communication strategies to influence preservice teachers’ speaking skill. he has been teaching for twelve years. currently, he works at the school normal superior of sincelejo and a part time teacher at university of santo tomas, as an english teacher for the foreign languages teaching, his interests are centered on classroom research in the field of efl. odilia ramírez contreras holds a master’s degree in english didactics from the university of caldas where she works as a research professor. she is also a public school principal in manizales with strong interest in elt education, bilingualism policies, and ict-assisted learning environments. her academic efforts focus on classroom research and teacher education in the field of efl curriculum design and development. professor ramirez also works as a thesis advisor and evaluator in the same field. transactional strategies for speaking skills muñoz & ramírez no. 16 (january june, 2018) no. 16 (january june, 2018) 118 no. 11 (july december 2015) no. 11 (july december 2015) using the epostl for dialogic reflection in efl teacher education1 el uso de epostl para la reflexión dialógica en la educación de los docentes de inglés como lengua extranjera holli schauber2* university of geneva, switzerland abstract for many pre-service english as a foreign language (efl) teachers and their mentors, the theory and practice driven european portfolio for student teachers of languages (epostl)3 occupies a prominent and practical role in their preparation programs as a delivery system of core pedagogical skills and knowledge. interest in the role that dialogical reflection plays in this process is studied in an efl teacher education program at a swiss university that relies heavily on the epostl for the professional development awareness-raising. while the epostl contributes valuable core knowledge to the processes of dialogic and mentored-reflection, certain program components provide more opportunities for scaffolded reflection than others. keywords: english as a foreign language, epostl, dialogic reflection 1 received: july 15, 2015 / accepted: october 16, 2015 2 holli.schauber@unige.ch 3 epostl http://archive.ecml.at/mtp2/fte/pdf/c3_epostl_e.pdf gist education and learning research journal. issn 1692-5777. no. 11, (july december) 2015. pp. 118-137. 119 no. 11 (july december 2015) no. 11 (july december 2015) resumen para muchos docentes en formación de inglés como segunda lengua extranjera y sus mentores, la teoría y la práctica guiada por el portfolio europeo para futuros profesores de idiomas – epostl, ocupa un papel importante y práctico en sus programas de preparación, al ser el núcleo fundamental para el desarrollo de conocimiento y competencias pedagógicas. la importancia del papel que juega la reflexión dialógica en este proceso, es analizado en un programa de formación de docentes de inglés como lengua extranjera en una universidad suiza, el cual se basa en gran medida en epostl para la sensibilización de los programas de desarrollo profesional docente. a pesar que epostl contribuye de manera valiosa al conocimiento fundamental de los procesos de reflexión dialógica orientada, ciertos componentes del programa proporcionan más oportunidades para generar una reflexión andamiada en comparación con otras. palabras clave: inglés como lengua extranjera, epostl, reflexión dialógica resumo para muitos docentes em formação de inglês como segunda língua estrangeira e seus mentores, a teoria e a prática guiada pelo portfolio europeu para futuros professores de idiomas – epostl ocupa um papel importante e prático nos seus programas de preparação, ao ser o núcleo fundamental para o desenvolvimento de conhecimento e competências pedagógicas. a importância do papel que joga a reflexão dialógica neste processo é analisada em um programa de formação de docentes de inglês como língua estrangeira em uma universidade suíça, o qual se baseia em grande medida na epostl para a sensibilização dos programas de desenvolvimento profissional docente. apesar de que o epostl contribui de maneira valiosa ao conhecimento fundamental dos processos de reflexão dialógica orientada, certos componentes do programa proporcionam mais oportunidades para gerar uma reflexão em comparação com outras. palavras clave: inglês como língua estrangeira, epostl, reflexão dialógica schauber 120 no. 11 (july december 2015) no. 11 (july december 2015) introduction the ongoing interest in reflective practices in efl teacher preparation remains widespread in recent research and teacher education materials (belvis, pineda, armengol, & moreno 2013; burkert & schwienhorst, 2008; cakir & balcikanli, 2012; farrell, 2012; harmer, 2015; velikova, 2013; yesilbura, 2011). reflective practices have become so commonplace in the discourse associated with teacher education that the notion is often included without a clear definition of the role it should play in shaping the professional development process (farrell, 2012). what we do know, however, is that we want trainees to engage in copious amounts of reflection so that they no longer need us after they exit our programs. reinforcement of this trend towards reflection in professional development can be found in the introduction of the epostl into the european discourse and educational policy initiatives on foreign language teacher preparation and learning (newby et al., 2007). developed by the european council on modern languages (ecml) in response to the search for practice and reflection-driven innovative approaches to foreign language teaching and learning, the epostl is one of several practical guides serving the english as a foreign language (efl) teaching and learning community. recognition of its value to teacher development and effective practice has meant a surge in its application internationally. newby (2012b) equates the epostl with seven categories of good practice in teacher preparation that include: promoting teacher autonomy, fostering a reflective mode, reinforcing the rationales and approaches to learning and teaching, making the scope and aims of teacher education transparent, rendering the competences explicit, facilitating selfassessment and promoting coherence in classroom practice. while these are good reasons to introduce the epostl into a teacher preparation program, our initial decision to adopt the epostl in 2008 stems from several additional pedagogical objectives. we sought to anchor our mentoring, supervision, practicum, and teaching processes to a theory and practice-driven tool that could deliver essential efl knowledge in ways that complemented our program model and in particular the dialogic reflection dimension it nurtures. our decision was further motivated by our view that effective efl teacher preparation grows organically out of dialogic reflection that is centered on constructive mentoring relationships that deliver and build teacher knowledge that is explicit and contextually driven, which we associate with significant teacher learning. it is likewise our view that the pedagogical conversations the epostl nurtures contribute to reducing the theory-practice divide that is so often a barrier to student-teacher buy-in during the induction process. using the epostl for dialogic reflection schauber 121 no. 11 (july december 2015) no. 11 (july december 2015) at the macro level, this article is concerned with innovation and best practices in efl teacher education, while at the micro level with how the epostl introduces a steady flow of dialogic reflection, and through that process, the didactic knowledge that enhances situated efl teacher learning and development. these concerns form the conceptual foundation for the view adopted in this article that the epostl and the dialogical reflection process it feeds represent a shift in how theory driven practical information should and can be delivered in practicum experiences and supervision initiatives. the purpose of the present reflection on efl teacher preparation is to examine where and how the epostl mediates and supports dialogic reflection in the six core components of our program: 1) methods classes and related research assignments; 2) lesson planning and teaching/learning objectives; 3) student and teacher observations and reports; 4) debriefing through dialogic reflection after observations; 5) independent reflection and goal setting; and 6) assessment criteria for certification meetings. after a descriptive overview of the epostl and the research it has generated, a review of the literature on dialogic reflection is provided followed by a discussion of the specific ways in which the epostl shapes the dialogic reflective dimension of our efl program model. the epostl as a tool for dialogic reflection what is the epostl? the epostl is a teacher-learning didactic tool that is organized around seven foreign language teaching and learning themes (see appendix 1 for the list of themes or use the following link to access the epostl4). each category has its own set of principled descriptors that are expressed as can do statements and which function as self-assessment and reflection opportunities for monitoring the understanding and use of the descriptors at various intervals in the teacher education process. each of the 195 descriptors conveys procedural know how and establishes a link between theory and practice. darling-hammond & bransford (2005) have suggested that getting teachers to analyze and theorize about their teaching as part of reflection can reduce the theory-practice divide. a primary goal of the epostl is to support teacher learning in different program components at the preand in-service levels. the epostl is sufficiently well-rounded that it acknowledges the types of teacher knowledge put forth by shulman (1987): 1) content; 2) general pedagogy; 3) curriculum; 4 http://archive.ecml.at/mtp2/fte/pdf/c3_epostl_e.pdf using the epostl for dialogic reflection schauber 122 context methodology resources lesson plannig conducting a lesson independent learning assessment of learning self assessment no. 11 (july december 2015) no. 11 (july december 2015) using the epostl for dialogic reflection schauber 4) pedagogical content; 5) learners and their characteristics; 6) educational contexts; and a more recent type of teacher knowledge focusing on 7) technological pedagogical content knowledge (koehler & mishra, 2009). these are reinforced and recycled through a core body of efl knowledge found in the extensions of the epostl’s seven categories. see figure 1. figure 1. epostl’s seven categories (http://archive.ecml.at/mtp2/fte/pdf/ c3_epostl_e.pdf) the following are several example descriptors taken from three of the above sections of the epostl. each descriptor signals a language learning principle and tells teachers what to consider and how to teach. • methodology: speaking and spoken interaction: “i can create a supportive atmosphere that invites learners to take part in speaking activities” (epostl, descriptor 1, p. 21). • resources: “i can locate and select listening and reading materials appropriate for the needs of my learners from a variety of sources, such as literature, mass media and the internet” (epostl, descriptor 3, p. 31). • conducting a lesson: lesson content: “i can vary and balance activities to include a variety of skills and competences” (epostl, descriptor 2, p. 35). 123 no. 11 (july december 2015) no. 11 (july december 2015) • assessment of learning: portfolios: “i can assess portfolios in relation to valid and transparent criteria” (epostl descriptor 4, p. 48) the epostl provides several access routes to the development of efl teacher pedagogical knowledge. it raises awareness about the ideas and views that are valued in efl teaching and learning while providing a practical expression of the language learning principle upon which each descriptor is based. the portfolio is set up to be used in light of the individual pre-service teacher’s areas of needs and objectives and as an outgrowth of core program content. johnson (2009) argued that language teacher preparation should give teachers the tools to interpret their instructional experiences in light of the prevailing theory about language learning and teaching. re-tooling professional development requires that trainees become managers and apprentices of the learning process. student teachers require a voice in the direction, planning, execution, and assessment of their teaching in concert with more seasoned professionals. through dialogic reflection, zones of proximal (teacher) development are created (johnson, 2009; warford, 2011). when these elements are present, teachers are more likely to consider their professional development relevant and authentic; this in turn makes teacher learning and improved teaching practice more likely. in our program model, the descriptors are explained and explored in methods classes, during mentoring, debriefing, or peer tutoring sessions, and through assigned readings. the student teacher may select a relevant descriptor as part of lesson planning, for independent reflection and self-monitoring after teaching, or it may be raised by the teacher educator in class, or by the field supervisor in a report to highlight its presence or absence in the lesson observed. it may also be raised in a debriefing session after an observation through dialogic reflection to set objectives for follow-up instructional planning or as criteria to evaluate teacher competence and development. epostl and reflection much of the recent literature on the epostl rallies around issues of autonomy and reflection. many existing models of efl teacher preparation organize teacher learning around the core paradigms of socially-mediated, reflective, and practice-driven processes (ball & forzani, 2009; grossman, hammerness & mcdonald, 2009; johnson, 2009). these processes rest on the idea that they help preand in-service teachers approach their instruction more proactively and in more informed and autonomous ways. within this framework, teacher educators and mentors present novice teachers with using the epostl for dialogic reflection schauber 124 no. 11 (july december 2015) no. 11 (july december 2015) resources and learning opportunities that promote dialogue through which reflection is modelled and cultivated with an eye toward developing situated and complex pedagogical knowledge. ultimately, the goal is to use reflection to move teachers toward positions of autonomy in their own classroom practices. this naturally has the best chance of occurring through contact with varied and valued sources of expertise, such as mentors. this does not negate the value of experiential knowledge nor the sanctioned literature to which they are exposed to in the coursework and the practicum experience. recent efl implementation studies have explored how to introduce new elements into a program to enhance the teacher learning process without corrupting or completely overhauling it (troyan, davin & donato, 2013). as a relatively new program element, the epostl, and the dialogic reflection it generates, operates in tandem with and as an outgrowth of the myriad ways that trainees are exposed to in the profession, whether they be the contextualized challenges of classroom practice, or the review of the principles behind certain theoretical assumptions being explored. the dialogic interaction around the epostl is both a proactive and reactive process about the essential practical elements necessary for effective efl teaching. in their review of the literature on practice-driven teacher education, hlas and hlas (2012) argue for the need to make visible those core practices that are quintessentially identifiable as foreign language teaching and those that novice practitioners are less likely to learn independently. while the epostl is not the unequivocally sanctioned list of core practices, its coverage and range is complex and relevant. while there is no present consensus about what (theory-driven) tools may improve the process of efl teacher preparation, or what ratio or type of mentoring, dialogic reflection or practicum experience may be necessary for teacher learning to occur, there is growing consensus about the value of specifying and discussing the micro-practices (strategies, routines, and moves) that can enhance pedagogical understanding and teaching. recently however, some have called for a more dialogically driven approach to raise awareness of these practices during the preand in-service stages to facilitate deeper understanding of the complexities of language teaching and learning (edge, 2011). dialogic reflection as mentoring the practice of mentored reflection is a highly valued and encouraged practice in efl teacher preparation, and has been understood through several explanatory prisms: that of rational thought, and as a creative and intuitive process (bean & patel stevens, 2002; dinkelman, 2003; loughran, 2002; yusko, 2004; dewey, 1933; schön, 1983). more recent views invoke the cognitive and affective dimensions involved in making sense of practical teaching experiences to promote professional development (osterman & kottkamp, 2004). mentored reflection on the professional development using the epostl for dialogic reflection schauber 125 no. 11 (july december 2015) no. 11 (july december 2015) process and on the specific and general content and criteria takes teacherlearners through several stages and levels of practice. rodgers (2002) refers to the reflection as a cycle that includes experience, description, analysis and action. she further argues that reflection that leads to change begins with resistance, and is followed by dialogue about making changes, then mimicry, and finally, implementation of the change. the competencies of pre-service practitioners are often intertwined with the competencies of the expert mentor and the references (epostl) examined through “dialogic engagement” (bakhtin, 1981). initiatives to improve teacher preparation and instructional practice tend to focus on either independent reflection or mentored-interaction rather than a combination of both, which underestimates the value of the combined force of the two. promoting reflection is key toward what is a necessary part of future efl teaching. despite the prevailing view of reflection as a solitary act, the epostl facilitates expert modelling of reflection for teacher-learners through dialogue around the issues that need attention in order for improvement and understanding to occur. schön (1988) describes teacher supervision as those activities that promote reflective practice. chief among these are modelling, prompting, inquiring, and mentoring that occur during reflection in and on action (schön, 1983). while pre-service teacher reflection has become commonplace in many teacher preparation programs, various distinctions exist. a distinction has been made between descriptive reflection, which is a detailed account of events; analytic reflection, which tries to explain the events and to suggest alternative options as part of the evaluation of instruction, followed by critical reflection on the socio-cultural and socio-political influences operating in the classroom, the institution and the community (marcos, sánchez & tilleman, 2008). in their case study research on the transformational outcomes of varied contexts of reflective inquiry, lyons, halton and freidus (2013) found that mentored reflection was crucial to learning and changes in stance and frames of reference. dialogic teaching, which stems from vygotsky’s emphasis on socially-mediated cognitive development, has become synonymous with pedagogical innovation and with being among the most beneficial approaches for learning (alexander, 2006; lyle, 2008). effective professional development and efl a brief overview of the studies of effective professional development, not specific to efl contexts, but still of particular relevance to them, has yielded a wide range of criteria. professional development is effective and meaningful when it considers the daily needs, concerns, and interests of individual teachers, promotes reflection and goal setting over an extended period of time, using the epostl for dialogic reflection schauber 126 no. 11 (july december 2015) no. 11 (july december 2015) provides trainee teachers with access to external resources and opportunities for collaboration with experts, and attempts to bridge the gap between theory and practice (darling-hammond, 1997; richardson, 2003). professional development that is effective also needs to be classroomembedded, and instructionally driven in order for teachers to view it as relevant and authentic. according to hunzicker (2011, p. 179), this requires changing tactics from a ‘one shot’, ‘sit and get’ model to one where teacher learning is an ongoing process. teachers approach contextualized professional development more seriously because it brings practice into focus and draws it closer to theory. the particular knowledge associated with efl professional development includes second language acquisition theory, knowledge of the language as a communication and linguistic system, methods for teaching efl, content area instruction, cooperative learning, and the socio-cultural dimensions of teaching a second language. part of the explanation for the gap between theory and practice lies in part on the absence of context in the discourse on practice and in part on the inability to render the theory in applicable terms, like the epostl descriptors do. in addition to guskey’s (2000) notion of effective professional development as “ongoing, intentional, and systematic” (p. 16), most of the literature on effective professional development cites reflection as essential, both independently and with a mentor, and dialogue as deliberation, discussion and negotiation. teacher preparation becomes interactive when trainees can reflect on their practice during dialogue with a mentor to identify problems, exchange ideas and collaborate toward solutions. hunzicker’s (2011) checklist serves as a guide for determining the most effective professional development practices. when professional development is supportive, job-embedded, instructionally-focused, collaborative and ongoing, teachers are more likely to consider it relevant and authentic, which is more likely to result in teacher learning and improved teaching practice. using the epostl the efforts using the epostl described in this article were recorded naturally as part of our day–to-day use of it in our teaching, supervision activities, observation reports and students’ reliance on it. we realized the dialogic thrust and potential of the epostl and sought to examine where in our program dialogic reflection was most prevalent and what the implications might be for our student teachers. this reflection is based on a two-year efl teacher preparation program at a public university in switzerland. the epostl was introduced into using the epostl for dialogic reflection schauber 127 no. 11 (july december 2015) no. 11 (july december 2015) the program in 2008 and operates as a stable element across all program components: didactic or methods classes, student observation reports and projects, lesson planning, field supervisor reports, debriefing sessions, working sessions, and mid-term and final written exams, and mid-term and final certification meetings. in the 2014-2015 academic year of the program, there were 13 first-year and 27 second-year students. in addition to coursework, only second-year students have a practicum experience in the public schools, while first-year students conduct a prescribed number of observations along with their coursework. students are exposed to the epostl in the first year and dialogic reflection goes into high gear in the second year as each student is paired with a field supervisor. two faculty members run and teach the program supported by seven field supervisors. by shifting assumptions about teacher education research and practice and the increasing attention being paid to the role of experience in the learning process, this paper attempts to contribute to the knowledge base in the field of efl teacher preparation. it recognizes that (dialogic) reflection, which involves returning to and recasting instructional experiences results in unforeseen insights, rendering the complexities of the teacher education and teacher learning process visible. this study refers to schön’s (1987) call for student–teachers’ reflection-in-action, constructing new ways to conceptualize their practicum experience, and hypothesizing about ways to mediate the instructional process through ongoing reflection on their experiences and feelings. the analysis and interpretation of our use of the epostl is organized around the themes of dialogic reflection present and recycled in the six professional development events listed below. the order is based on when student teachers first encounter the epostl. 1 methods class: in class video and case study tasks, projects, observation assignments, and written exams. 2 methods class and mentored dialogue: discussion about principles and relevance of the descriptors and the theories they represent. 3 mentored-dialogical reflection and student teacher lesson preparation: practicum lesson planning and objectives. 4 debriefing and mentored dialogic reflection: based on observation and goal setting for improvement and follow-up teaching. 5 observation reports: student teachers attach epostl descriptors to the elements of the lesson sequences they observe. 6 certification assessment meetings and mentored dialogic reflection: candidates are assessed in light of a percentage of epostl descriptors they have demonstrated in their teaching apprenticeship; in light of those that remain as objectives for continued professional development; and in using the epostl for dialogic reflection schauber 128 no. 11 (july december 2015) no. 11 (july december 2015) light of additional practical teaching ideas raised as extensions of those descriptors. our epostl narrative begins by meeting with student teachers to discuss the objectives and purposes associated with using the epostl, its contexts of use, and the dialogic, reflective and self-evaluative nature of the tool. each of the program components is approached through a process of mentored reflection much like a zone of proximal teacher development (warford, 2011). use of the epostl involves an ongoing process of deconstructing and reconstructing elements of practice both independently and through dialogue with more expert school and university-based mentors. the mentors or field supervisors are all familiar with the content of the methods courses and the readings. methods classes guiding theoretical principles are cornerstones of efl methods classes and the variables around which class content is organized. the epostl descriptors serve as a complimentary means of exposing learners to the specific didactic knowledge being explored. relevant epostl descriptors are introduced related to the given theme of the class. if the class is on listening, the epostl descriptors for listening are presented and a video of a listening sequence may be presented with a task asking students to match the descriptors to what was observed. a dialogue about which descriptors are relevant and what language teaching and language learning principles they express ensues. students are free to argue for their own choice of descriptor(s) to reflect a certain element in the sequence. within the methods classes there are also written tests and assignments that require students to consult the epostl as a reference for what they have observed in their practicum and also for what they have identified as the teaching and learning objectives in their project sequence. lesson planning during the practicum experience, students are expected to rely on the epostl to support their lesson planning. as part of lesson planning, trainee teachers identify descriptors that are relevant to the objectives set for the lesson. in many cases, the descriptors escort the lesson planning rather than follow it. when trainees plan lessons with their mentors, the epostl descriptors become an integral part of the mentored dialogue about the lesson objectives, content and organization. using the epostl for dialogic reflection schauber 129 no. 11 (july december 2015) no. 11 (july december 2015) student observations when students conduct their observations, the epostl stands as a reference for evaluating, assessing and analyzing what they have observed regarding the teacher’s objectives and execution of those goals. mentor reports after observations after each of the 10-12 lesson observations which mentors are required to conduct, reports are written and relevant epostl descriptors are highlighted in light of the contributions their presence or absence made to the lesson. in the reports, mentors set goals in terms of epostl descriptors, which the trainees see after the debriefing session. the identification of epostl descriptors launches the debriefing dialogue that follows every observation. debriefing after observations or during information sessions when mentors and beginning practitioners debrief, the epostl descriptors and the praxis elements they specify may be at the core of their discussion. during these debriefings, areas of need are identified and solutions are sought against the backdrop of the epostl. mentors encourage teacher-learners to reorient their practice guided by epostl descriptors. consciousness-raising occurs to promote awareness of the areas that need improving and to promote understanding of the principles that the relevant epostl descriptors represent. the mentored dialogue promotes a reflective stance and gets the teacher-learner to take responsibility for the lesson elements they implemented or not in light of the lesson plan and the epostl descriptors, included as objectives. to help students identify areas of strength and need, the mentor prompts the teacher-learner to engage in a process of reflection either by modelling the practice or by helping the learner select epostl descriptors that represent areas for improvement. objectives are set as part of the dialogue between the learner and the mentor for the follow-up observation. certification assessment the ability to act on those goals lies at the heart of the teaching evaluation process. the epostl is used both as a summative tool with exit and certification criteria and as a formative tool for setting goals and evaluating ongoing classroom-based teaching performance. trainees are expected to have demonstrated competence in 70% of two separate sets of descriptors halfway through and at the end of the practicum experience. failure to demonstrate competence, understanding or implementation of the descriptor’s core principle can lead to denial of certification and/or failure. using the epostl for dialogic reflection schauber 130 no. 11 (july december 2015) no. 11 (july december 2015) the epostl, mediated by a mentor, contributes to a process of sociallyconstructed teacher knowledge that ensues in part from scaffolded and dialogic reflection. the experienced mentor moves the novice practitioner along the continuum of professional development by identifying epostl descriptors that represent areas for improvement. change in the dialogue occurs when trainees act on their reflections and newfound awareness, and demonstrate the capacity to select and use the descriptor in class. that transformation is marked by the selection of different epostl descriptors for the next event of mentored and dialogic reflection. a review of the six components of the program reveals that three professional activities present the best opportunities for copious amounts of mentored and dialogic reflection. the first of these three events is the debriefing session after an observation. the trainee and field supervisor meet for a 60-120 minute session to review and evaluate the lesson. the epostl descriptors selected for the lesson plan are discussed and evaluated for their relevance and appropriateness, and the mentor poses questions, which may refer to other possible descriptors to prompt reflection on finding alternatives to improve or modify the lesson observed. micro-strategies, ideas and techniques are presented as part of the consciousness-raising process and references to epostl descriptors mark the dialogue. student teachers are exposed to contextually relevant support, which increases their ability to link the epostl descriptors to their practice and develop the complex professional knowledge that efl practitioners are expected to demonstrate. the second event is a one-to-one working session between the mentor and the student-teacher. working sessions can be requested by the studentteacher or recommended by the field supervisor in place of an observation. in a working session the focus of the session is typically decided beforehand because a conceptual or practical problem has been identified either by the mentor or the student-teacher. for example, one candidate was struggling with summative assessment for interactive speaking activities and was seeking help with the development of the criteria for an assessment grid. other candidates needed help with lesson planning and objectives and the mentor provided a framework for considering these through dialogic reflection. referring to the epostl was one of the organizing modes for addressing both these challenges. in their article on professional development design and its impact on outcomes, lauer, christopher, firpo-triplett & buchting (2014) report that teacher preparation programs that emphasize how to teach the target subject confer more benefits than those providing generic strategies. the final event where considerable amount of interactive reflection occurs is during the certification assessment sessions. dialogic reflection and mentored-awareness raising are equally present in the certification using the epostl for dialogic reflection schauber 131 no. 11 (july december 2015) no. 11 (july december 2015) assessment sessions that candidates and their mentors hold twice a year. in these sessions, review of the epostl descriptors takes place to determine which of the descriptors have been demonstrated in the practicum experience. if a sufficient number has been covered, then the candidate is awarded either an interim attestation or a final attestation to mark successful completion of the practicum. in these sessions, the students provide examples from their teaching linked to descriptors. a process of dialogic reflection ensues and practical ideas that spring from the practicum experiences are introduced. this is followed by an oral report from the mentor and field supervisor. the three teacher-learning events described above are not suggestive of a finite set of professional development possibilities. the epostl is a flexible tool because its shape grows organically out of the individual teacher using it. moreover, it can be configured for a number of developing teacher profiles as a theoretical and practical departure point of reference and integrated into the dialogue with mentors. in each of the contexts discussed above, the epostl initially exposes the trainee teacher to the descriptor’s underlying concept and then reinforces it through repeated exposure in follow-up encounters. in each case the epostl in concert with dialogic reflection functions as a delivery system of core pedagogical skills and knowledge for situated efl practice. conclusions there is an acknowledged shift in how the epostl’s varied components prompt the planning, observation, reflection, discussion and assessment of teacher learning and practice. that shift appears to have long tentacles. to borrow a term from management, it permits trainee teachers to deep dive into the criteria underlying effective efl teaching and to develop a repertoire of objectives and competence-driven expertise. dialogic reflection around the epostl communicates what gets valued and what is expected in effective efl teaching (newby, 2012a). the epostl operates much like a gps wherein destination coordinates are plugged in and a roadmap appears in the form of descriptors with intermittent stops along the way to review the route and the final destination. recalculating and reviewing the route to the destination occurs through socially-mediated processes. the epostl allows the trainee teacher to move through a zone of proximal teacher development during the induction and apprenticeship phase. a zone of proximal teacher development (zptd) is the distance between what trainee teachers can do independently and a proximal level they can achieve through dialogically-mediated support from more expert sources, including but not limited to the epostl. teacher knowledge does not develop solely through the transfer of facts, but rather by appropriating and configuring using the epostl for dialogic reflection schauber 132 no. 11 (july december 2015) no. 11 (july december 2015) meanings nurtured in part through the process of dialogic reflection (golombek & johnson, 2004, cited in warford, 2011). pre-service teachers determine what resonates with their understanding of the contextual challenges they face. here, situated learning is meshed with the epostl through the mediating role of the mentor. trainee teachers and their mentors build pedagogical knowledge through the use of a mediated tool. the epostl allows teachers to systematically anchor their instruction to a set of principled statements by merging those scientific concepts with local understandings and practices. the epostl merges theory with practice by front-loading and back-loading descriptors onto the experiential dimension of teacher preparation. the epostl tool should support trainee teachers in their analyses, planning, reflection, and self-assessment. the preparation of a learning autobiography sets the stage for a lifetime of professional growth, offering a diagnostic of directions toward which the candidate’s affective-volitional disposition might be most profitably directed and where they might benefit from sensitive, intensive mediation from the teacher-educator. while the epostl has oriented trainees and their mentors in a worthwhile direction, several shortcomings have been identified. concerns have been raised about the number of descriptors (195) and their connection to identifiable outcomes and the lack of any globally referenced benchmarks (burkert & schwienhorst, 2008). parallel criticisms can be made about the finite set of descriptors that ultimately restrict the kinds of claims that can be made about what the candidate has or still needs to acquire. second, the descriptors are often expressed in very general terms, which may fail to make important contextual distinctions regarding different efl learner profiles. third, there is an uneven distribution of descriptors across the different sections of the epostl with some categories containing far fewer descriptors than others. for example, vocabulary contains only three descriptors whereas speaking contains more than 10. this imbalance does not reflect current thinking about what gets valued in efl teaching, the materials that support practice, and the curricular goals upon which both are predicated. a further shortcoming is the non-standardized manner in which epostl users chart their progress and declare (in) progress, achievement (success), or failure. as such, the reliability of the tool as a formative assessment system or basis for certification may be limited. since epostl descriptors are stated as can do statements evidence of the ability to do something is not always presented through repeated trials and confirming observations. much of the self-assessment is on the honour system. a final drawback of the epostl in our program is the sheer number of descriptors and the limited timeframe in which to cover them. that combination has necessitated paring down the tool, in a hierarchical way, to descriptors using the epostl for dialogic reflection schauber 133 no. 11 (july december 2015) no. 11 (july december 2015) deemed essential for certification. the selection of the essential descriptors are discussed and voted upon, that means that those descriptors left out of the final list become marginalized and deemphasized. there is a coercive element to the epostl despite its flexibly adaptable nature. attempts to place them into a hierarchy may be counterintuitive because it may contribute to emphasizing one aspect more than another without knowing what the final impact will be from the unequal emphasis. research on how the epostl is used in other teacher preparation settings would further the discussion about its reliability as a training and reflection tool and contribute to harmonizing its use. further study might also lead to the development of a guide on how it can best be used across the different contexts identified in this article. a validation study could provide much needed reinforcement for statistically significant claims about the different micropractices contained within the epostl. survey research would 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(2011). reflection at the interface of theory and practice: an analysis of preservice english language teachers’ written reflections. australian journal of teacher education, 36(3), 104-116. yusko, b. (2004). promoting reflective teaching conversations: framing and reframing the problem. teaching education, 5, 363-374. author * holli schauber holds a doctorate in education and teaches in the institute for teacher education at the university of geneva, switzerland. her research and teaching are conducted as related activities and focus on teacher preparation, second language learning and use, and writing in a second language. using the epostl for dialogic reflection schauber 6 promotion of learner autonomy in a freshmen’s english course at a colombian university1 promoción de la autonomía del aprendiz en un curso de inglés para estudiantes de primer año en una universidad colombiana. alexander ramírez2* universidad del valle, colombia abstract this paper presents the results of an action-research cycle conducted at universidad del valle, which aimed at fostering learner autonomy in freshmen from a foreign languages program, within an english course. the study established the freshmen’s entrance profile regarding learner autonomy, and implemented a course based on the development of autonomous behaviors. finally, an exit profile was established to measure the impact of the intervention. the results show significant progress in the development of some behaviors and suggest that this type of initiatives need to be planned in a long-term basis. key words: independent learning, learner autonomy, learning strategies, self-access centers, autonomous behaviors. resumen este artículo presenta los resultados de un ciclo de investigación-acción llevada a cabo en la universidad del valle, cuyo objetivo fue fomentar la 1 this paper is issued from the research study “diseño, implementación y evaluación de dos cursos básicos de inglés basados en el fomento y desarrollo de la autonomía”, carried out in the preservice teachers program licenciatura en lenguas extranjeras inglés-francés, at escuela de ciencias del lenguaje, universidad del valle. it was sponsored by vicerrectoría de investigaciones from universidad del valle under the registration code ci-4329. received february 15th 2017/accepted august 29th 2017 2 alexander.ramirez.e@correounivalle.edu.co ramírez gist education and learning research journal. issn 1692-5777. no.15. (july december) 2017. pp. 6-28. no. 15 (july december, 2017) no. 15 (july december, 2017) 7 autonomía en estudiantes de primer semestre de lenguas extranjeras, en un curso de inglés. el estudio estableció el perfil de entrada de los estudiantes en cuanto a su autonomía como aprendices, y se implementó un curso basado en el desarrollo de comportamientos autónomos. finalmente se estableció el perfil de salida para medir el impacto de la intervención. los resultados muestran un progreso significativo en el desarrollo de algunos de estos comportamientos y sugieren que estas propuestas deben ser planificadas a largo plazo. palabras clave: aprendizaje independiente, autonomía del aprendiz, estrategias de aprendizaje, centros de auto acceso, comportamientos autónomos. resumo este artigo apresenta os resultados de um ciclo de pesquisa-ação realizada na universidade do valle, cujo objetivo foi fomentar a autonomia em estudantes de primeiro semestre de línguas estrangeiras, em um curso de inglês. o estudo estabeleceu o perfil de entrada dos estudantes em relação a sua autonomia como aprendizes, e foi implementado um curso baseado no desenvolvimento de comportamentos autónomos. finalmente, se estabeleceu o perfil de saída para medir o impacto da intervenção. os resultados mostram um progresso significativo no desenvolvimento de alguns destes comportamentos e sugerem que estas propostas devem ser planejadas ao longo prazo. palavras chave: aprendizagem independente, autonomia do aprendiz, estratégias de aprendizagem, centros de auto acesso, comportamentos autônomos. ramírez no. 15 (july december, 2017) no. 15 (july december, 2017) 8 introduction the development of learner autonomy constitutes a powerful tool to overcome social, cultural and institutional constraints that might interfere in the learning process (benson & voller, 1997; abril, 2014). an autonomous learner exerts total control over what, how and when he wants to learn, and therefore will manage to surpass any obstacle that prevents him from reaching his goals. in the field of language learning, autonomy becomes doubly important, as you need to be an independent learner as well as an independent user of the language (pennycook, 1997). on these grounds, the concept of autonomy has become a major topic in applied linguistics research, as societies and institutions have embraced it as an important and desired educational goal (benson, 2001; benson & voller, 1997; sinclair, 2000; paiva & braga, 2008). such is the case of universidad del valle, and more particularly of its school of language sciences, where the desire for autonomy is formally stated in the different official documents from the program curriculum, as well as in the institutional pei3. bearing this in mind, a research was conducted through the design of two basic english courses, based on the promotion and development of autonomy, for the foreign languages program, as well as the implementation and evaluation of the first course. the research had a twofold purpose: on the one hand, to give projection to previous local studies (hernández & quesada, 1999; cárdenas et al., 2001, cárdenas, 2006; areiza, 2010), around the concept of autonomy from a theoretical perspective, and materialize an applicable didactic proposal; and on the other hand, to fulfill the need to form autonomous learners, as evidenced in various studies (gómez & hurtado, 2012; gonzález, 2012; gómez, g., 2012), also local, carried out under the self-evaluation process for the accreditation of the program. throughout this paper, i intend to present a snapshot of the research design and the results eventually obtained. but beyond that, i put forward a frank reflection on some aspects, difficulties, and challenges to consider when it comes to transforming behaviors and motivate students to become autonomous subjects, hoping that this experience may serve as a tool to language teachers interested in such intricate task. 3 spanish acronym for: institution’s educational project learner autonomy in an english course ramírez no. 15 (july december, 2017) no. 15 (july december, 2017) 9 theoretical framework autonomy and its importance in language learning although the concept of autonomy is difficult to be encompassed in a short definition, several authors agree that, in general terms, autonomy in learning refers to the learner’s possibility of managing and making decisions about his/her own learning process (benson & voller, 1997; dam, 1995; sinclair, 2000). the prominence given to autonomy in the field of foreign language education goes hand in hand with the rise of the communicative approach. this latter implies a change in the roles of the teacher and the students, as well as a new conception of the language and, therefore, a new understanding of the way to teach it and learn it. on this grounds, paiva & braga (2008) state that “in the seventies, with the emergence of a new concept of language – language as communication – and the emphasis on the cognitive processes, autonomy appeared as a central feature in fl teaching” (p. 442). the importance of autonomy lies in the fact that it equips the student to overcome obstacles of different nature that may rise between him and his learning goals. in language learning specifically, learner autonomy is especially important given that the learner of a language needs to develop autonomy to learn and autonomy to use the language (pennycook, 1997). learner training for the development of autonomy for the purposes of this study, learner training was deemed a paramount element in the promotion of learner autonomy: in order for a student to become autonomous, he/she needs to be equipped, through training, to cope with a new vision of learning. there have been, however, dissenters to the view that a learner should be taught how to become autonomous, as the idea of receiving any sort of training can be understood as an automatized behavior and, therefore, an antonym of autonomy. holec (1980), for instance, lies at the heart of the discussion by claiming that “the basic methodology for learner training should be that of discovery […] by proceeding largely by trial and error he trains himself progressively” (p.42). as a rebuttal to this, authors like dickinson (1992) and esch (1997) argue convincingly that learner training can be explicitly carried out at initial stages of the learning process, and that such process does not refrain independent learning. on the contrary, learner training empowers the students with learning strategies and metacognitive tools that may boost motivation and independence towards learning. learner autonomy in an english course ramírez no. 15 (july december, 2017) no. 15 (july december, 2017) 10 to portray this issue in sturtridge’s terms (1997): “those who have received learner training will have already been made aware of the need to be aware of their own goals, to be able to monitor their own progress and evaluate their own performance” (p. 76). along similar lines, hernández (2016) puts forward the argument that language learners in a foreign language major must be explicitly trained into the use of learning strategies at an early stage of the process. for this author, an explicit training “informs the students about their possibilities for learning, generates motivation and desire to change the way they approach new knowledge, and improves their time finally, besides learning strategies, this type of training needs to incorporate reflection workshops on why autonomy is important in language learning, how to work in self-access centers and how languages are learned (ramírez, 2015; esch, 1997), all in all, “we do not expect a carpenter to learn to handle the tools of his trade, but to learn nothing of the properties of the wood” (sturtridge, 1997, p.78). autonomy and self access centers the use of self-access centers for the development of learner autonomy has been present for four decades now, with overwhelming evidence of their efficacy in catering to different learners’ needs, which has made them grow in popularity in different countries. reinders & lázaro (2008), for instance, report a study of 46 self-access centers in five countries, where these facilities are perceived as “a time-, and cost-effective approach to learning a second language, or that it has additional benefits to learning not offered by other types of learning environments” (p. 56). self-access centers can be defined as the facilities where appropriate resources are provided to learners, on behalf of an institution, to foster the development of autonomous behaviors (sheerin, 1997). in fact, such centers are an effective strategy, in cotterall’s (2008) words to “pay more attention to individual learners, and their unique motivations, experiences, and stories. an autonomy-fostering approach to language learning is therefore likely to focus first on individual learners’ psychological relation to the language learning process, and only then on the strategies they adopt” (p.119). although self-access centers can be the result of evaluating and adapting previous facilities with new purposes and goals, these centers must go beyond a mere collection of books, computers, cd’s and/ or software; they have to be a space where all resources are closely learner autonomy in an english course ramírez no. 15 (july december, 2017) no. 15 (july december, 2017) 11 related to the activities, objectives and methodologies promoted in the classroom, so that learners find room for the independent practice of languages, by means of materials they feel familiar with. according to sturtridge (1997), the provision of a successful selfaccess center implies the training and development of both the faculty and the learners. teachers from a given institution need to be trained in how to establish the link between the center and their courses, so that the center does not turn into a mere extension of the classroom, where learners’ activities continue to be controlled (trim, 1977). equally important, teachers need to be trained in the design of proper materials for self-access learning, as the meaningfulness of the materials and resources found in the center will determine the acceptance or rejection on the part of the students. furthermore, students need to be trained in how to make use of the center, how to choose suitable material, and how to select activities that are not too challenging that they may feel frustrated, or too easy as to not to make any progress at all. in other words, the teacher and the students must undergo substantial changes in the roles they have been traditionally assigned in education (voller, 1997). the promotion of learner autonomy through syllabus design often, research in autonomy proposes rich theoretical discussions. however, when it comes to intervention issues, the promotion and development of learner autonomy can be a challenge for many teachers who are looking for a practical model to incorporate concrete actions into their course designs, as stated by barbara (2007) and ramírez (2015). in this regard, cotterall (1995, 2000) develops a solid proposal on the elements that must be intertwined in a syllabus design. the author starts from the premise that autonomy cannot be “clipped on to existing learning programs” (cotterall, 1995, p.220) but must imply a totally new design, which must also be embraced as an institutional initiative. in this regard, hammond & collins (1991) argue that if a proposal based on the development of autonomy “ is not institutionalized but merely tolerated as a minor aberration, it is unlikely to be taken seriously by learners or faculty, and may well fail completely” (p. 208). thus, cotterall (1995, 2000) proposes a series of elements and principles (shown in italics) to take into account in a syllabus design. first, the author proposes that the course provide the opportunity to negotiate course goals with students, while encouraging them to set learner autonomy in an english course ramírez no. 15 (july december, 2017) no. 15 (july december, 2017) 12 shortand long-term objectives at all times. a training in learning strategies ensures that students have the necessary tools to undertake the course successfully (sturtridge, 1997; cotterall, 1995, 2000, hernández, 2016). the course should also offer a specific space for the learner/teacher dialogue, which is a context of tutoring, feedback and constant reflection on learning in general, and learning a language in particular. also, the syllabus should integrate the use of tasks and the design of materials, by the teacher and the students, who have free access to intervene in the class and propose themselves as leaders of a particular activity. finally, the students are encouraged to write a student record booklet, or journal, in which they record their experiences and can keep track of personal progress. building on these theoretical grounds, ramírez (2015) proposes some practical guidelines to incorporate cotterall’s elements and principles (1995, 2000) into a concrete syllabus design. methodology type of study this research featured a descriptive-interpretive nature in its initial phases, and a propositional phase that led into an intervention. analysis of data corresponds to a qualitative method, as the study was framed in a cycle of action-research, whose essential purpose is to guide decision-making and change processes that favor the improvement of educational practices (sandín, 2003). researchers such as cárdenas (2006) and fandiño (2008) emphasize the relation between action research and the development of autonomy because the former leads into didactic approaches that actively involve both students and teachers in learning experiences. context and participants the study was carried out with 20 first-semester students enrolled in the foreign languages (english-french) program from escuela de ciencias del lenguaje, universidad del valle (ecluv), in cali, colombia. all the students involved in the research process were between the ages of 16 and 18. most of them finished their high school in public schools in the city of cali, except for four students who graduated from private non-bilingual institutions. learner autonomy in an english course ramírez no. 15 (july december, 2017) no. 15 (july december, 2017) 13 research stages and data collection instruments the action-research cycle comprised three stages. the first stage, or diagnosis, started with a 1-year monitoring of two self-access centers (resource center and computer room) and the opportunities for the development of the autonomy offered by the institution. the objective was to determine if these centers actually played any role in the promotion of autonomy on behalf of the institution, and if there was relationship between these spaces and the syllabi designed by seven (7) professors who were traditionally in charge of first semester english courses. accordingly, english syllabi were analyzed and first semester teachers were surveyed to determine if autonomy was explicitly promoted and set as a course objective. finally, once the group of freshmen was enrolled for their first english course, they were inquired about their self-perceptions regarding their degree of autonomy and the autonomous learning behaviors they brought from their previous learning experiences, which led to the constitution of an initial autonomy profiles. data collection instruments in this phase included the self-access centers’ registration forms, one teachers’ survey and documentary study of the english courses’ syllabi, and one students’ survey to establish the initial profile. the second stage, also called design and implementation, encompassed the creation and execution of an english syllabus that was carefully tailored to fit the purpose of fostering learner autonomy. this syllabus design, which i report thoroughly in ramírez (2015), accounts for a practical model in which the principles proposed by cotterall (1995, 2000) and the methodology of task-based learning approach are interwoven into a didactic proposal for the development of learner autonomy. in a nutshell, and besides the conventional course contents, the syllabus also comprised a training program on learning strategies, specific individual and group sessions for teacher/student dialogue throughout the course, the design and implementation of tasks and learning materials by both the teacher and the students, the design of activities and materials for the self-access centers, and a series of supplementary talks that provided constant reflection feedback on autonomy-related themes. it should be noted that the integration of a task-based approach was paramount, since tasks encourage students to set their own goals and foster constant processes of dialogue, active participation, self-monitoring, and reflection upon feedback (ramírez, 2015). throughout this stage, data were collected from a teacher’s diary, students’ diaries and classroom observation forms. finally, the evaluation stage aimed at assessing the effects of the endeavor at the end of the first semester. to that end, all students learner autonomy in an english course ramírez no. 15 (july december, 2017) no. 15 (july december, 2017) 14 were surveyed once again with the same instrument used in the first stage, in order to come up with an exit profile. the contrast of the freshmen’s initial and exit profiles evinced the impact of the course in the acquisition or improvement of autonomous behaviors, learning strategies, and new study habits towards language learning. moreover, half of the group of freshmen participated in a focus group, in which they evaluated the experience and provided feedback for further syllabi design. students’ perceptions collected in the survey and focus group were triangulated with the teacher’s journal. results self-access centers, english course syllabi, and the institutional promotion of autonomy the data yielded in the diagnosis stage the lack of an actual promotion of learner autonomy in the institutional context. during the year prior to the arrival of the freshmen, the monitoring of the selfaccess centers revealed that these spaces were being underutilized and did not fulfill their purpose. the former foreign languages students were submerged in a sort of institutional culture of little use of the centers. in addition, a closer look at the behaviors of the few center visitors showed that these spaces were used mostly for leisure and relaxation rather than for learning activities and language practices. most english teachers also showed very little or no participation whatsoever towards the use of the self-access centers. all of them admitted ignoring the opportunities offered by the centers for the development of autonomy and recognized that they did not establish a link between these spaces and their course designs. in general, all of them expressed not knowing how to equip students to take full advantage of the materials and resources offered in self-access centers. two of the surveyed teachers claimed to have visited the center with their class, however the center’s registration form indicated that the teachers conducted a regular class under their total domain of class topics and activities, and in which there was no evidence of self-access activities on behalf of the students. in other words, these two teachers used the facilities of the centers as a mere classroom swap, but failed to understand the nature of the self-access center, institutionally conceived as a venue for students to make decisions in favor of their independent practice of the language. as a result, none of the centers has material designed by the teachers themselves or specific activities that enhance the independent practice of languages. learner autonomy in an english course ramírez no. 15 (july december, 2017) no. 15 (july december, 2017) 15 although autonomy is established as a desire and purpose of the institution according to its governing documents, the analysis of 14 english syllabi revealed the lack of direct relation to the concept of autonomy; only 2 out of 14 syllabi mentioned autonomy, although none of the course objectives actually aimed at it. moreover, the syllabi’s structure features the kind of mainstream course where setting goals, establishing content and choosing an evaluation system is under the exclusive domain of the teacher with no say from his/her students. on the basis of this evidence, one can put forward the claim that it is not possible to successfully implement a proposal for the development of autonomy if there is no institutional culture that supports such an endeavor, which must be solidly built on its teachers, curricula and resources. on these grounds, the new syllabus design and course implementation took into account the above-mentioned shortcomings, in order to provide an environment that is conducive to the development of learner autonomy. autonomy profiles before and after the course implementation before starting the course, all freshmen were given a survey that inquired about the presence of 30 autonomous behaviors (appendix 1). these behaviors were measured on a likert scale taking into account students’ previous english learning experiences in high school or language institutes. the same survey was completed by the students once they finished their first semester, in order to establish the exit profile and, consequently, the impact of the course. these 30 behaviors fit into five categories that allowed the contrast and analysis of the profiles of entrance and exit. the five categories are: table 1: autonomous behaviors categories learner autonomy in an english course ramírez no. 15 (july december, 2017) no. 15 (july december, 2017) 16 table 2 displays a sample of the way the students’ answers were classified on a likert scale: table 2: students’ answers in category 1 the first column in table 2 indicates the category evaluated, the second column shows the numbering of behaviors on the survey chart (appendix 1), columns 3 to 6 show the four values on the liker scale, under which the amount of students who chose each options is indicated. finally, the total percentage of students per choice is shown at the end of each column. the initial profile shows passive students with very little autonomy in the process of language learning. in the four categories analyzed, responses “rarely” and “never” obtained 38% and 53%, respectively, which means there was a 91% absence of autonomous behaviors in the population surveyed with regard to learning english experiences before reaching college. table 3 below shows the consolidated results of the freshmen’s entrance profile: table 3: freshmen’s autonomous behaviors before the intervention learner autonomy in an english course ramírez no. 15 (july december, 2017) no. 15 (july december, 2017) 17 after a semester of the implementation of the syllabus design, described in detail in ramirez (2005), the survey was re-applied to establish the exit profiles. table 4 shows a contrast between the percentages obtained at the beginning and at the end, only for the option “always”: table 4: contrast of entrance and exit profile for the answer “always” the contrast shows the increase in the frequency of occurrence of the behaviors comprised in each category, in this case for the response “always”. the most evident progress appears in categories 1 (setting goals) and 3 (development of learning strategies). such an improvement may be due to the fact that the behaviors in both categories correspond to concrete actions and tasks modeled and fostered by the teacher throughout the course, and replicated by the students in both the classroom and the self-access centers. it should be noted that, although students were exposed to a wide array of strategies during the training program sessions, only six strategies were emphasized throughout the course activities and tasks. these strategies belonged to the metacognitive, cognitive and memory categories proposed by oxford (1990, 2011). the rationale behind adopting a limited number of strategies complies with recommendations made by previous research works in the same institution; the findings of hernández (2016), for instance, suggest that working on a small set of strategies allows the teacher to monitor better their development, and provides the learners with enough practice to get a grasp of how strategies are applied, and to be able to choose wisely the ones that suit them best. different is the case of categories 2 (reflection, self-knowledge and metacognitive processes) and 5 (selection and design of learning materials) in which progress is much subtler, or category 4 (selfmonitoring and self-evaluation), which did not show any change; some thoughts on the possible reasons behind these results are presented in the discussion section. finally, table 5 displays the contrast between the entrance and the exit profiles regarding all five categories, and taking into account all the answer choices on the likert scale. learner autonomy in an english course ramírez no. 15 (july december, 2017) no. 15 (july december, 2017) 18 table 5: contrast of entrance and exit profile for all liker scale the contrast between the entrance and the exit profile of freshmen’s autonomy shows evident improvement in 3 out of the 5 categories analyzed. in category 1 (setting goals), for instance, freshmen indicated that before reaching college, only a 3% of them would set out short, medium, and long term goals to improve their english proficiency (2% always and 1% sometimes); after the first semester, 89% of this population claim to have set learning goals regarding english on a regular basis (80% always and 9% sometimes). the development of learning strategies (category 3) also reveals an interesting increase of 79% compared to the initial 13% established in the entrance profile (both percentages comprise the answers “always” and “sometimes”). a more subtle -yet valuableadvancement is observed with regard to the selection and/or design of materials and learning activities by the learners themselves (category 5). initially, 68% of students would never select or design a learning material on their own, while 32% of them would rarely do so. answers “always” and “sometimes” in this category were not chosen by any student in the entrance profile, as the design of learning activities and the selection of materials is usually attributed to the role of the teacher. the exit profile, however, shows an encouraging 20% of students who make decisions on materials and activities in favor of their learning process (12% always, 8% sometimes). there is still a significant 52% of students who report not doing so ever. categories 2 and 4 comprise the behaviors related to metacognition and self-evaluation, respectively. in category 2, the entrance profile indicates that 55% of the surveyed population would never make an introspective look into their learning styles, their personal needs or learner autonomy in an english course ramírez no. 15 (july december, 2017) no. 15 (july december, 2017) 19 their progress towards language learning; whereas 35% of them would rarely do it, for a total 90% of people showing a rather passive attitude in terms of metacognitive processes. after the course implementation, this 90% of the population only decreased to an 82% (40% rarely, 42% never). in the case of category 4, the lack of autonomy in terms of selfevaluating and self-monitoring behaviors was evidenced in 79% of the students in the entrance profile, which increased to an 84% in the exit profile. once again, monitoring and evaluation of learning processes are traditionally considered a responsibility of the teacher only, which might be the reason why the participants of this study struggled to take full control of these activities. discussion the entrance profile of students regarding autonomy showed a self-perception that was far from the profile established by the initial survey. the students had a blurred concept of autonomy, which they often confused with responsibility. most of them claimed to be highly autonomous because they attended classes regularly, because they handed in their homework on time, and because they did what they were asked to do; on the basis of these perceptions, it seems fair to suggest that there was certain degree of reactive –but not proactive autonomy (littlewood, 1999). later, through the element of student / teacher dialogue (cotterall, 1995) promoted throughout the course, all students reported having learned something on their own: one student had learned to play guitar by watching youtube videos, another one learned japanese on internet forums to interact in online videogames, another student was a self-taught cook, and so on, they all identified some kind of knowledge about which they had made the decision to acquire based on a particular need. however, when this was extrapolated to the educational field, all of the students agreed that when learning takes place framed formally in an academic institution, decisions about what, when and how to learn are delegated to the institution or teacher. therefore, the learning strategies that they have empirically developed in other facets of their lives, as well as the self-knowledge about their learning styles and preferences, are elements that the students unconsciously leave out of the academic institution. it is a culture that has been brewed over many generations and which takes time to be transformed. the positive results obtained in categories 1, 3 and 5 correspond to the principles proposed by cotterall (2000), on which the design of the implemented course was based. in the first place, the setting learner autonomy in an english course ramírez no. 15 (july december, 2017) no. 15 (july december, 2017) 20 of objectives by the students was one of the activities that was most emphasized during the course. in fact, students participated in the designed the syllabus’s objectives, as a course based on the development of autonomy must allow learners to identify their needs and plan their learning accordingly. the idea of someone else deciding what, when and how to learn does not make much sense, yet again, in the educational field this is the idea that implicitly prevails. therefore, every activity, every task, and every assignment students were exposed to, had an explicit objective, and throughout the course students were encouraged to set short and long-term goals for what they wanted and needed to learn. it is up to them to decide what level of proficiency they want to achieve in the language according to their personal purposes. in this sense, both the content and the pacing of the course, as well as the sequence in which the curriculum is distributed, are only a proposal that the learner can (and must, for that matter) modify and complement in favor of successful learning; this proposal is not a straitjacket with which learners must resign themselves and settle for. in fact, when a students is not willing to modify the syllabus or to complement it, he is assuming a passive behavior through which, unconsciously, the responsibility of choosing what, when and how to learn is casted over the teacher’s shoulders, as well as the student’s academic success or failure. also, the implementation of the course through a task-based approach allowed, on the one hand, for each task to be explicitly focused on the exploration and development of a specific learning strategy; on the other hand, it allowed for each task material to serve as a model for students to choose or design similar resources on their own, for their practices outside the classroom. in fact, for each task modeled in class, two or three more tasks were designed and left in the self-access centers, so that the material available for students’ retrieval and autonomous practices was related to the topics and methodology that students were familiar with. its stands to reason that this is the explanation for the positive increase of percentages in categories 3 and 5, in the exit profile, as well as the increase in visits to the self-access centers. conversely, categories 2 and 4, which did not evince a meaningful change, imply a challenge for the constant promotion of learner autonomy through the curricula. making a student aware of the need to evaluate both his own learning and the type of learner he/she is, give rise to a change in the traditional roles that have been culturally delegated to the teacher, as well as a gradual transfer of responsibilities to the domain of the learner. the challenge here lies in the fact that, in turn, the teacher learner autonomy in an english course ramírez no. 15 (july december, 2017) no. 15 (july december, 2017) 21 has to be aware and willing to transfer such responsibilities, without fear of losing control of the class, the group or even the institution. the biggest challenge, however, is not just for the students, but for all the people who make up the staff of a given institution. in administrative terms, the promotion of autonomy implies the commitment of the directives and the teachers towards the design of curricula in which the development of the autonomy is a transverse axis, with initial training that equips the learner to be gradually released into the decision-making path. in instrumental terms, this implies the design and implementation of courses that are closely related to the promotion of self-access, which will result in designing materials for the classroom and self-access centers, and thus could represent a little more work than a regular course. it is also very important to remember that any initiative to promote learner autonomy involves the joint effort of a whole team, and not just a couple of teachers, or a couple of isolated courses. if autonomy is a desire and an institutional goal, then the whole institution and its academic apparatus must concentrate on this aim, so that the learner perceives that autonomy is part of the general environment of the institution, and not of the preference of some isolated teachers. finally, the weaknesses and limitations of this study mainly lie on two facts. first, this study offers a snapshot of autonomous behaviors before and after an implementation, but the impact of such behaviors on language proficiency hasn’t been measured. future works, consequently, should observe students’ progress in their language proficiency; this however, needs to be done after students have been exposed to at least three or four courses based on the promotion of autonomy. second, the endeavor was undertaken by one english professor, in a major where students learn two foreign languages (english and french) compulsory and simultaneously. in this sense, future work needs to focus on implementing the proposal at a greater scale, involving teachers from the french department and other subjects, and monitoring the students’ progress in a wider scope comprising at least the first 3 semesters. conclusion the promotion of learner autonomy in a university implies a previous process of diagnosis and evaluation of the institution, the opportunities this latter offers for the development of independent learners and an introspective look into the institutional culture. these aspects should be taken care of before designing a curricular proposal. secondly, the curricular proposal must have a robust apparatus in learner autonomy in an english course ramírez no. 15 (july december, 2017) no. 15 (july december, 2017) 22 favor of autonomy at all levels of the instruction. in other words, the implementation must go beyond a single course, or a small training. although autonomy might be stated as a desirable goal, institutions are not always clear about what is needed to implement a true promotion of independent learning. both teachers and students are often the product of a culture and a long tradition, characterized by the lack of autonomous behaviors in formal educational context. therefore, changing the conception and roles points toward the adoption of new habits on both sides; but above all it points toward the implementation of long-term plans to beget the seed of an institutional culture, that goes beyond the personal desire of a teacher or the particular design of a single course. a good training program in autonomy and learning strategies at a university level should take place in a medium-term process, in which at least the first three semesters serve as the foundation, and from then on, the student will be empowered and released, little by little, into his/her own decision-making path. ideally, however, the endeavor of learner autonomy, in language learning and in all fields of knowledge, should be implemented as early as possible, starting in primary school and high school. learner autonomy in an english course ramírez no. 15 (july december, 2017) no. 15 (july december, 2017) 23 references abril, a. 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(1997) an exploration of the relationship between selfaccess and independent learning. in p. benson & p. voller (eds.), autonomy and independence in language learning (pp.35-53). harlow, essex: longman. sturtridge, g. (1997). teaching and learning in self-access centres: changing roles? in p. benson & p. voller (eds.), autonomy and independence in language learning (pp. 66-77). london, uk: longman. trim, j. (1977). some possibilities and limitations of learner autonomy. in e. harding-esch (ed.) self-directed learning and autonomy. (pp. 13-15) university of cambridge, department of linguistics. voller, p. (1997). does the teacher have a role in autonomous language learning? in p. benson & p. voller (eds.), autonomy and independence in language learning (pp.98-113). harlow, essex: longman. learner autonomy in an english course ramírez no. 15 (july december, 2017) no. 15 (july december, 2017) 26 author *alexander ramírez espinosa holds a bachelor in foreign languages and a master’s degree in linguistics, both degrees from universidad del valle (colombia). currently, he works at the school of language sciences, universidad del valle, as an english and linguistics professor for the foreign languages teaching program, the master program in crosslinguistic and intercultural studies, and the technology program in interpretation for the deaf and the deaf-blind. learner autonomy in an english course ramírez no. 15 (july december, 2017) no. 15 (july december, 2017) 27 appendix 1: autonomous behaviors survey note: this survey has been taken from ramirez (2015), who designed each utterance by adapting the characteristics of autonomous learners proposed by aparicio et al. (1995), cárdenas (2003), dam (1995), and dickinson (1992). read the following statements and choose the option that better describes their degree of certainty, as appropriate 1. at school, you were able to determine your level of english proficiency. 2. at school, you reflected about the relationship between english and the cultures associated to this language. 3. you discovered and explored your favorite ways of relating to the language. 4. at school you discovered your particular learning style and strategies to learn english effectively. 5. you used your knowledge, preferences, habits, and strategies to select and plan activities to learn english on your own. 6. you expressed your preferences for certain types of learning activities in class. 7. you used diaries or language portfolios to monitor your progress in learning english. 8. you set out short, medium, and long term goals to improve your english proficiency. 9. you used all resources available to study and practice english on your own (libraries, internet, software, music, literature, television, etc.). 10. you devoted time to study and practice english while you were not being monitored by your teacher. 11. you took on extra assignments or academic activities to learn english, even if this did not represent a course grade. 12. you looked for opportunities to learn and practice english outside of school. 13. you carried out extracurricular activities when you considered necessary to learn or reinforce a particular topic. a lw ay s o cc as io na lly r ar el y n ev er learner autonomy in an english course ramírez no. 15 (july december, 2017) no. 15 (july december, 2017) 26 no. 11 (july december 2015) no. 11 (july december 2015) evidence of critical thinking in high school humanities classrooms1 evidencias del pensamiento crítico en las clases de ciencias humanas en bachillerato david vargas alfonso2* colegio hispanoamericano – conde ansúrez, colombia abstract critical thinking skills (cts) are a group of higher order thinking abilities related with complex processes of learning like contextualization or problem solving. this exploratory research study identified whether critical thinking skills were present in high school humanities classrooms. the study was carried out in a private school in bogotá, colombia through qualitative methods and content analysis. the study sought to identify cts in students’ actual learning processes. data collection techniques included classroom observations, document analysis and focus groups to identify skills in teachers and eighth grade students from a humanities-focused high school curriculum. results demonstrated the presence of argumentation in written and oral classroom material. analysis was also evidenced through questioning, inferencing and other exercises. motivation was also an observable element, reflected in explicit expressions and gestures, and in the use of extra material in the classes. keywords: critical thinking, skills, argumentation, analysis, motivation 1 received: july 15, 2015 / accepted: september 21, 2015 2 profesordavidvargas@gmail.com gist education and learning research journal. issn 1692-5777. no. 11, (july december) 2015. pp. 26-44. 27 no. 11 (july december 2015) no. 11 (july december 2015) resumen las habilidades de pensamiento crítico hacen parte de las habilidades de pensamiento relacionadas con procesos complejos de aprendizaje como la contextualización o la resolución de problemas. esta investigación exploratoria ha sido desarrollada para identificar cuáles habilidades de pensamiento crítico son evidentes en un salón de ciencias humanas, a través de diferentes trabajos en clase y percepciones. el estudio fue realizado en un colegio privado de bogotá, colombia a través de métodos cualitativos y análisis de contenido. el estudio trató de identificar las habilidades de pensamiento crítico en los procesos de aprendizaje de los estudiantes. las técnicas de recolección de datos incluyen observaciones de clase, análisis documental y grupos focales para identificar dichas habilidades en profesores y estudiantes de octavo grado de la especialidad de ciencias humanas. los resultados demostraron la presencia de argumentación en el material oral y escrito propio de la clase. el análisis también es demostrado a través de preguntas, inferencias y ejercicios. se destaca en este punto, los debates autónomos dirigidos por los estudiantes. finalmente, se refleja la motivación en las expresiones explícitas, los gestos y el material adicional. palabras claves: pensamiento crítico, habilidades, argumentación, análisis, motivación. resumo as habilidades de pensamento crítico fazem parte das habilidades de pensamento relacionadas com processos complexos de aprendizado como a contextualização ou a resolução de problemas. esta pesquisa exploratória foi desenvolvida para identificar quais habilidades de pensamento crítico são evidentes em uma sala de aula de ciências humanas, através de diferentes trabalhos em classe e percepções. o estudo foi realizado em um colégio privado de bogotá, colômbia através de métodos qualitativos e análises de conteúdo. o estudo tratou de identificar as habilidades de pensamento crítico nos processos de aprendizado dos estudantes. as técnicas de recolha de dados incluem observações de classe, análise documental e grupos focais para identificar ditas habilidades em professores e estudantes de oitava série da especialidade de ciências humanas. os resultados demonstraram a presença de argumentação no material oral e escrito próprio da classe. a análise também é demonstrada através de perguntas, inferências e exercícios. neste ponto se destaca os debates autônomos dirigidos pelos estudantes. finalmente, se reflete a motivação nas expressões explícitas, os gestos e o material adicional. palavras chave: pensamento crítico, habilidades, argumentação, análise, motivação. vargas 28 no. 11 (july december 2015) no. 11 (july december 2015) introduction critical thinking skills (cts) are a group of skills that include criteria, analysis, inference and argumentation. cts have been receiving importance for the past thirty years, and philosophers, psychologists and educators have researched how to identify, develop and assess them. more recently, these skills are considered even more important in their conceptualization as 21st century skills, which are understood as innovative and learning skills that are requisites to succeed in this century. cts are also important because they enhance the understanding of arguments and the expression of points of view and critical judgments about any topic. in other words, when critical thinking skills appear in educational settings, they can be seen as guarantors of learning. consequently, research has tried to understand which demographical, cognitive or environmental elements are related with critical thinking in order to enhance their application in educational contexts. at the same time, studies have focused on how to improve instruments in order to develop and evaluate these skills, and to avoid other less effective tools. this study was guided by the following questions: what elements of the development of critical thinking can be observed in the eighth grade humanities classes? how do teachers develop critical thinking? how do students perceive the complexity of academic tasks? the study had as a starting point the following objectives: to identify if there was evidence of critical thinking, as well as development of critical thinking with the use of complex academic tasks. findings demonstrate some evidence of cts in high school classrooms within the humanities emphasis, specifically argumentation, analysis and motivation. this exploratory research points the way for a variety of possibilities and perspectives in order to continue researching the same skills, other cts, or even other higher order thinking skills in the same school. literature review critical thinking the complex process of thinking is divided into higher order thinking and lower order thinking. higher order thinking is used when someone relates stored and new information to solve extraordinary and difficult problems, or to obtain new ideas. lower order thinking is used to develop daily routines and mechanical processes. higher order thinking skills include contextualization, metacognition, creativity, insight, intelligence, problem solving and critical evidence of critical thinking vargas 29 no. 11 (july december 2015) no. 11 (july december 2015) thinking. critical thinking means to have criteria, analyze, infer, explain arguments, and develop them (king, goodson & rohani, 2009; pearson, 2011). many authors talk about higher order thinking skills (hots). king et al. (2009) trace their development historically and mention several key movers in this regard: dewey explained how thinking is evoked by problems, and bruner argued that inquiry is necessary in the learning process. piaget clarified that these skills are needed in the last developmental stages of thinking; on the other hand, bloom explained how hots require previous levels of knowledge. gagné put hots in the top of his taxonomy, and marzano situated these skills as a dimension of learning. glaser declared hots are the type of thinking for problem solving, and vygotsky affirmed that hots are necessary to move into the zone of proximal development. further, haladyna sustained that hots are a level of mental processes, and gardner declared hots are developed by our multiple intelligences (as cited in king et al., 2009). definitely, each theory posits a different way of understanding thinking and how to develop hots. there are also theories about the different skills themselves. however, one of the most important skills is critical thinking, divided also into other skills such as analyzing and solving problems, as well as creating new arguments (beyer, 1990; pearson, 2011). in fact, critical thinking has been studied by different sciences. philosophers like bailin, ennis, lipman, mcpaul and peck focus on what people are capable of doing under the best circumstances to get to the truth. psychologists like halpern, sternberg, and willingham tend to focus on how people actually think. finally, educators like bloom and marzano explain critical thinking based on research about their own experience in the classroom and observation of student learning (king et al., 2009; lewis & smith, 1993; pearson, 2011). barry beyer (1990), based on other philosophers’ theories (richard paul, matthew lipman and robert ennis), explains what philosophy offers to the teaching of thinking, and which facts have to be taken into account to develop critical thinking: reasoning to make systematic inferring of information, argumentation to structure thinking, critical judgment to judge according to prescribed criteria, point of view to contextualize information, dialogue to obtain with other the truth by asking and answering questions, and dispositions to deepen the things making probing questions walking to the truth. (pp. 55-58) critical thinking skills (cts) and education have been researched in different fields since the age of socrates (fahim, 2012). however, in the last fifteen years the majority of studies added pedagogical elements to improve these skills. other research studies try to identify if critical thinking is related with demographic information, cognitive aptitudes or environment. finally, evidence of critical thinking vargas 30 no. 11 (july december 2015) no. 11 (july december 2015) a few studies describe how to demonstrate and assess critical thinking in the classroom. improving critical thinking it is common to find studies in which participants of similar characteristics are divided into two groups. one of the groups receives direct instruction about critical thinking strategies (bensley, crowe & bernhardt, 2010; hove, 2011) or pedagogical tools like mind maps (d’antony, 2009), dialectic journals (enabulele, 2011), classroom discussions with student feedback (hayes, & devitt, 2008), different curricula models (hepner, 2012), different teaching strategies (miri, david, & uri, 2007), syllabi (mok, 2009), environmental based education programs (ernst, & monroe, 2004), or face to face communication (harrigan, & vincenti, 2004). after the intervention, participants are evaluated by tests. these studies generally found that after the intervention, participants show significant improvement in cts compared to the other students, except in the case of mind maps and dialectic journals. critical thinking and demographic elements another research tendency is to understand which demographic factors are related with cts. in these kinds of studies, researchers analyze significant numbers of participants from different schools that are chosen following specific characteristics. edman, robey, and bart (2002) selected a sample of 232 college and university students, mahiroglu (2007) studied a sample of 134 schools from turkish provinces, and yang and lin (2004) selected 1119 male senior high school students from military schools. the study sought to determine if these demographic elements isolated from others generate a disposition for cts by tests specially designed to identify disposition of critical reasoning, such as the minnesota test of critical thinking ii, a demographic information sheet, or a general survey mode. demographic studies have been carried out in the united states (edman, robey, & bart, 2002), taiwan (yang & lin, 2004), and turkey (mahiroglu, 2007). they found that demographic differences as gender, age, region, school, class, grades or parent’s education level are related significantly with ct disposition. critical thinking and cognitive aptitudes equally, researchers try to understand critical thinking skills and make hypotheses about internal structures that could generate the optimal conditions inside the brain to develop critical thinking skills. different instruments are used to measure participants’ thinking, for example, minute papers, online tests evidence of critical thinking vargas 31 no. 11 (july december 2015) no. 11 (july december 2015) or periodical questionnaires. stupnisky, renaud, daniels, haynes and perry (2008) focused on critical thinking disposition, perceived academic control, high school academic performance, and grade point average. ramasamy (2011), on the other hand, considered the age, discipline, program, grade point average, and number of reading hours of the participants. lapoint-o’brien (2013) analyzed understanding and reasoning. findings of these studies sustain only that disciplines, programs (humanities) and age directly influence results of cts tests positively. in fact, ramasamy (2011) concludes that age is an essential part of developing critical thinking. according to her, this is because age is related with maturity and only maturity helps making critical and complex judgments. evidence of critical thinking critical thinking skills are thinking abilities. as with other abstract concepts, they cannot be demonstrated in isolation, rather it is necessary to find them inside other processes. some researchers try to answer this last hypothesis and by searching for the best way to prove the existence of cts. these studies also use tests. however, it is more common to find observations, interviews or recording of classes to obtain data. it is not necessary to divide the group because variables belong inherently to the context. some studies in this area include shoemaker (2012), who argues that arts are the correct way to express ct. mizell and friedman (2012) suggest that ct is developed by students learning from primary sources. on the other hand, swartz (2004) looked for collaborative relationships and contextualized interaction. mcguire (2012) studied ct intervention during and after a specific ct semester course. the virginia adult education research network (2000) collects definitions made by students. these studies show how students’ spontaneous discussions in class reveal cts, such as comparison, judgment and evaluation of different situations. additionally, mizell and friedman (2012) concluded, based on their method, that videotaped classes could be used as a strategic opportunity to identify and to model ct in the students. assessing critical thinking which is the adequate method to assess ct? some studies analyze pedagogical processes and observe participants’ results. however, instead of focusing on people, researchers tend to center themselves on instruments. usually, studies apply tests at the beginning and end of observation exercises. in the exams, the most important elements are the form and the assessment evidence of critical thinking vargas 32 no. 11 (july december 2015) no. 11 (july december 2015) tool itself, not the pedagogical content. renaud and murray (2007) make a comparative study based on three pieces of research studies. in these experiments, they sought to find out if assessment could be accurate with higher order questioning inside trials. additionally, bissell and lemons (2006) identified whether questions are made considering topic and critical thinking skills. findings evaluating higher order questions show a positive impact because they give reference to teachers and students providing feedback, and remembering objectives of learning. however, to assess with higher order questions requires a long and continuous training for teachers and students. methodology research design in terms of qualitative research, this project intended to carry out an exploration of the use and development of critical thinking inside the classroom. it hoped to accomplish this through the analysis of behaviors, comments, perceptions and products of different classes. at the same time, it tried to infer how critical thinking is promoted and perceived by talking with teachers and students. this approach follows the parameters of qualitative research with ethnography and documentary components. after collecting the data, analysis was conducted via a triangulation process, proposed by cohen, manion, and morrison (2007), as a way to compare and synthesize information from different sources and make conclusions with more precision and quality of the academic elements studied. context the context for this study was a private school in bogotá, colombia. students at this school receive traditional education where values and academic responsibilities are very important. students’ families are low to middle-income and receive a scholarship from the school. this scholarship is preserved indefinitely if the students obtain the required grades. when students are in eighth grade, they receive education with special emphases, such as humanities, accounting and electricity. all the students receive core subjects in common, but parallel to this, they receive additional special subjects according to the emphasis they choose. accounting and electricity specialties at the end of high school receive a diploma from sena, the national system of vocational training. the humanities emphasis is focused on languages like english and french, and literature and social studies. because evidence of critical thinking vargas 33 no. 11 (july december 2015) no. 11 (july december 2015) each course from eighth grade on is divided into the specialties, these special subjects have 25 students maximum, fewer than in core subjects where there is an average of 40 students in a class. students are free to choose their area of emphasis. along with the smaller class size, this provides a positive and friendly environment inside the classroom. some classes in the humanities emphasis are conducted as seminars. usually, students choose their future career based on the area of emphasis developed in the school. all classes in the school use course books or guides developed by the teachers. these help instructors follow a similar pedagogical structure. each syllabus begins with a motivational class and ends with reinforcement and review classes. each subject is evaluated by specific activities previously agreed on with the students. because students’ scholarships depend on the grades they obtain, the majority of them maintain a high academic performance and disposition towards the classes. it is not common to have serious disciplinary problems in the school. participants participants in the study were fourteen to sixteen year old students from eighth grade. in the case of the humanities specialization, there were twenty-six students, all participants of the research. they went to four specific seminars directed by four different teachers, also participants of the study. three teachers have teaching certificates in their specific subject, but only have one or two years of experience after graduation. the social studies teacher is an exception, with four years of experience, and is studying a master’s in education as well. data collection instruments in the middle of the second semester, three qualitative instruments were applied to humanities students and teachers to obtain data in order to answer the research questions. classroom observation. this was used to analyze classroom realities in all the special subjects including social studies, literature, french and english. the method for classroom observation proposed was ethnographic and nonstructured observation in order to report the events of the classrooms and understand behavior and dialogues in context (cerda, 2008). four classes were audio recorded, transcribed and independently codified, one per each subject. it was hoped that the dialogues, relations, argumentation and class activities might reveal insights as to the use of critical thinking by both teachers and students. evidence of critical thinking vargas 34 no. 11 (july december 2015) no. 11 (july december 2015) document analysis. this analysis intended to identify written expression, arguments and other reflections in samples of student work such as class work, homework and tests from different subjects. it was hoped that these documents might speak to the degree of challenge in tasks, and the extent to which these activities demonstrated evidence of critical thinking. focus group. two focus groups were carried out: one session with students and another with teachers. as in the classroom observation, they were audio recorded, transcribed and independently codified. the objective of the students’ focus group was to explore their opinions about the humanities seminars through discussion, especially about aspects they might consider challenging or complex. it was hoped to possibly reveal students’ viewpoints of the subjects and to extract data about critical thinking practices identified in the observations. the teachers’ focus group had the aim of obtaining the point of view of the humanities teachers about their subjects. it was hoped to explore teachers’ attitudes and practices towards the development of critical thinking. data analysis and interpretation after collecting data with the different instruments, the triangulation and interpretation of data was made applying the principles of content analysis. codification was the first step to identify categories as evidence of critical thinking. the majority of categories were repetitive in the instruments. the common categories identified were argumentation, absent analysis, contextualization, contradictory indication, encouraging, exemplification, inference, lack of understanding, passion, questioning, students’ argumentation, student’s creations and teacher’ contextualization. later, a matrix was created as an instrument of analysis to count and identify core categories where the other categories seem to be repeatedly and closely related (strauss, as cited in cohen, et al., 2007). later, the frequency of codes allowed the researcher to deduce which areas are more important or significant. finally, conclusions were drawn based on relating findings and identifying common patterns between categories and to the theoretical framework (cohen, et al. 2007). results the results of the data collection, analysis and interpretation demonstrate clear evidence in all humanities classes of critical thinking in both teachers’ and students’ work. the results were divided into categories: argumentation, analysis and motivation, which were all determined as showing evidence of critical thinking (beyer, 1990). all categories are explained from teachers’ and students’ perspectives. evidence of critical thinking vargas 35 no. 11 (july december 2015) no. 11 (july december 2015) argumentation argumentation is the ability to create structured thinking through different statements to prove or demonstrate something. it is an important element to explain a topic or illustrate a point of view. it is also a required skill to debate with others, and creates a personal perspective (beyer, 1990). these skills of argumentation were present in different levels through the study, as discussed below. in only one case, in the language class, argumentation was not present in teachers’ speech; it was, however, evident in students’ speech. teachers’ argumentation. examples of teachers’ argumentation can be found in the course guides, which are like course books to study, review, practice content, and follow the learning process during the unit. teachers decide which content and activities will be developed, and they choose the sources to explain, illustrate and work with course content. the course guides are an institutional practice and are mandatory for all subjects. they are compilations, however, in which some parts were made originally by other teachers. arguments were more common in the course guides for social studies and literature than in english and french. oral argumentation was present in the focus group and in classroom observations. in the focus group, teachers explained their own method, objectives and feelings about the classes with clear reasons, and examples based on their experiences from the classroom. in classroom observations, some teachers made argumentation with their speech, adding examples and clarifications, persuading students about new meanings, contextualizing a reading and amplifying students’ sentences to create an argument. conversely, the only class observed that did not reflect teachers’ argumentation was the english class, which contained simple indications, such as “i want you to pay attention, be active,” or “please be quiet.” clarifications, however, were common in the class, even though they did not build complex reasoning by the teacher, just comments about students’ work. e.g. “improve your pronunciation, you have to improve.” students’ argumentation. argumentation was observable in the students’ focus group, where the students had the opportunity to defend their point of view about their classmates, teachers and subjects. most students in the focus group did this without effort, with common words and in a natural way. students’ use of arguments did not seem to be related to their academic performance. the only student who created arguments or coherent ideas to support his ideas in the english work was the average student. however, students with all levels of academic achievement demonstrated argumentation evidence of critical thinking vargas 36 no. 11 (july december 2015) no. 11 (july december 2015) in their work in the french and literature courses. in the case of social studies, the only student who evidenced argumentation in the written work was the student with higher performance. it is possible that students’ argumentation is related with defending a point of view or explaining a topic in specific tasks. however, this was only evidenced in some subjects. paradoxically, it was possible to observe that, at least in the classroom observations, when teachers do not create arguments in class, then students may seize the opportunity to do so. in fact, students were seen using argumentation during oral presentations in the english class. they even carried out this argumentation in the absence of such discourse on the part of the teacher. in this case, students explained and argued about the subcultures they were asked to present to the class. on the other hand, almost none of the students argued when teachers led the class. in some classes, teachers did not provide students time to do arguments orally. still, students’ argumentation was promoted in all the course guides analyzed, in the form of exercises designed by teachers, for example, creating an infograph in social studies, writing a story in literature, a letter in french, or an opinion paper in english. analysis analysis is a critical thinking skill related with critical judgment and point of view, to examine a topic with different elements and perspectives (beyer, 1990). similarly to argumentation, analysis was found present during the study, by both teachers and students. however, even when teachers failed to promote critical judgment, it was possible to observe students using it. teachers promoting analysis. teachers develop this critical thinking skill when they apply different pedagogic actions to relate content and real life; for example, the social studies teacher clarified concepts during class, and designed an analysis workshop on race discrimination in which students had to describe news, identify actors and actions, causes and how to solve conflicts. this teacher is conscious of his role as an analytical promoter when he said in the focus group, “we have to look facts and human actions without judgment and it is avoiding prejudgments and it is trying to generate other points of view.”3 the literature teacher promoted analysis by contextualization by relating content with student’ lives as well as his own life in order to engage them. 3 nosotros tenemos que mirar los hechos y las acciones humanas, sin juzgarlas, evitando los prejuicios, y tratando de generar otros puntos de vista. (teachers’ focus group) evidence of critical thinking vargas 37 no. 11 (july december 2015) no. 11 (july december 2015) “we live in an image world. there are movies that changed my life.”4 the teacher also assigned sensitivity exercises as homework in which he invited the students to act like the characters of stories. he defined his class as an experiment of trial and error, where students can make mistakes to learn and build original deductions. on the other hand, the french teacher developed her class by questioning. in this way, she promoted analysis of oral presentations and workshops on reading comprehension. she promoted analysis of mistakes through questions and arguments. she said, “i try to make them conscious of their mistakes. they provide feedback to each other. i didn’t say: ‘this, in this way.’ i change the sentence or situation, and they analyze it to identify their mistake.”5 in contrast, the english teacher tended to ask only simple questions related with grammar, pronunciation and class organization, so analysis was only related with simple problems like: “do you have more information or that’s all? do we have volunteers?” finally, the course books from the english and french classes included analytical exercises to improve vocabulary skills. these types of excercises are not common in other subjects. student analysis. students were analytical when they were encouraged to evaluate news, points of view, life styles, social problems and literature in class. however, in the classes observed, even when teachers did not promote analysis, students did it independently, in a similar fashion as with argumentation. one student debated about cosplay and motivated other students to participate. another one explained the otaku subculture and then led a discussion about it. additionally, students inferred from the teacher’s arguments and answered his questions. for example, in the observation of the social studies class, the teacher promoted analysis by questions and explanations and related the concept under discussion with others seen before. in other subjects students’ analysis was more evident in the worksheets than orally. in literature, students were asked to write an essay about anime and relate it to social conflicts. by comparison, in the social studies class, students were asked to analyze racial discrimination in the news. this exercise allowed students to infer and contextualize. 4 estamos en mundo de imágenes. hay películas que me cambiaron la vida (literature classroom observation) 5 yo hago que ellos se den cuenta que están cayendo en el error, cuando hago las correcciones, y ellos son los que se hacen las correcciones ellos mismos, o sea yo nunca tengo que corregir: “no esto es así, se dice así”. sino que lo llevo a otro lado para que ellos caigan en cuenta de cuál es su error. (teachers’ focus group) evidence of critical thinking vargas 38 no. 11 (july december 2015) no. 11 (july december 2015) students specializing in humanities evaluated their own process and recognize the analytical skills related with each subject. “i love humanities for languages and social studies. i begin to have criteria and rationalize more about everything with them. then, i’m going to be someone who matters.”6 motivation motivation is a critical thinking skill related with disposition, interest and a safe environment in the classroom. it is a group of reasons or causes to learn a specific subject, and can be expressed by gestures, postures and words (beyer, 1990). motivation is related with critical thinking because it is a requirement to learn and demonstrate academic skills. this element was evident through students’ actions, even when in some cases feedback or motivation was not provided by teachers. however, teachers’ actions, such as lack of encouragement or disapproval, interrupting or ignoring students, had a negative impact on students’ participation in class. teachers promoting motivation. if students experience novelty in their learning process by activities and topics, then they have a proper environment to develop critical thinking skills. this safe environment allows them to connect content and life experiences, and engages students with the dynamics of the class. teachers obtain this goal when they create meaningful experiences through creativity and appropriate relationships during explanations, exercises and evaluation activities. actually, students related the social studies and literature classes with learning and novelty. “it is more about research and we learn more about culture.”7 “i like literature because there we start to reflect about things i never had done before or had not considered important.”8 they feel motivated with innovation and different activities. in fact, the course book for social studies includes new learning strategies like infographs. the teacher expressed concern about generating motivation in the students, and when he described an ideal group, he described how he tries to motivate his class: “the ideal group is not related with exceptional skills but with motivation to learn about 6 a mí me gusto mucho estar en humanas, por los idiomas, como dije. y por sociales, porque empieza uno a tener más criterio y razonar más sobre las cosas. entonces, uno como que ya va a ser una persona que sí importa. (students’ focus group) 7 es como más investigativa y uno aprenda más como de cultura (students’ focus group) 8 me gusta literatura porque ahí digamos que uno empieza a reflexionar sobre cosas que uno no sabía, lo hace pensar en cosas que uno nunca pensaría que en realidad son importantes. (students’ focus group) evidence of critical thinking vargas 39 no. 11 (july december 2015) no. 11 (july december 2015) humanities.”9 “i always teach them with examples to project themselves more than just class work.”10 direct motivation to participate in class activities could be a good strategy to promote motivation for learning. positive reinforcement and expressions of encouragement were observed during the french class, such as, “we are going to sing together (a song created by students), and does not matter if sound bad or funny. we are going to try.”11 feedback and motivation. related to motivation, another important opportunity to develop and promote critical thinking is through assessment. when students are evaluated with clear criteria and they receive feedback on their work, they know how to progress and move on. one student said these assessment elements are absent in social studies. “sometimes i make a lot of effort making my duties but teacher puts a low grade, and other times i make my homework in a simple way and the teachers put a high grade. i do not think this is correct.”12 however, it is necessary to explore further to identify if this is an isolated experience or a characteristic of the class. students’ motivation. students showed motivation according to particular dynamics in each subject. in general, students were punctual and responsible in all classes. they asked about topics and activities in social studies during the classroom observation; they brought their homework and research material to class, and worked on the assigned activities. in this particular subject, it was interesting to note that it was not necessary to discipline students to work because the majority of the class did it. similarly, students created more material than required by the teacher in both the english and french classes. they explained that activities in which research was required and that were related with other topics were more enjoyable. “i love to record street interviews. we learn from other, we 9 sí, yo creo que el grupo ideal va como en el sentido de lo que decía e., no necesariamente en el sentido de que tengan grandes habilidades académicas, pero sí que tengan el interés por conocer las humanidades. (teachers’ focus group) 10 siempre les traigo a la clase como ejemplos para que ellos puedan proyectarse un poquito más afuera y no se queden solo en el ejercicio de hacer un trabajo. (teachers’ focus group) 11 démosle todo. no nos vamos a reír. va a sonar chistoso, pero vamos a cantar todos. (french classroom observation) 12 yo me siento bien en humanas, pero lo único que no me gusta es que en sociales, que digamos uno se esfuerza harto haciendo los trabajos. por ejemplo, a mí me ha pasado, y a l. que digamos en el infograma a él le pusieron 3.7. uno se esfuerza harto en los trabajos y el profesor coloca una nota, y me ha pasado que yo lo hago así porque sí y me coloca un 4.0 o un 4.3. no me parece que sea así. (students’ focus group) evidence of critical thinking vargas 40 no. 11 (july december 2015) no. 11 (july december 2015) learn investigating.”13 activities included composing a song to explain parts and elements of the house, creating a matching game, or making a video or audio interview. others brought toys or buttons to argue their presentations, and some of them came dressed like the urban tribe they were presenting. students expressed joy when it was their turn to present: “let’s do it”, “yeah, it is our turn to sell,”14 and it is common to hear merriment between the activities. however, these motivational signs were not recognized by teachers during any classroom observation or focus group. towards the literature class, on the contrary, students were divided in terms of their motivation. some students showed that they were engaged with the topic and encouraged by activities because they had a good posture and were working in the class, but some others showed signs of disapproval like “again the same” or postures of laziness such as lying down on the desk during class. these postures were evident during classroom observations. in general, students expressed that they feel the humanities specialized training is the best in the school. when asked which activities prefer, they described activities like debates, essays, games, multimedia activities, and oral presentations. conclusions clear evidence of learning through critical thinking skills such as argumentation, analysis and motivation were found in this research project in students and teachers’ work. teachers’ argumentation via oral explanations and written texts and course books was found in all subjects. teachers developed analysis with images, videos, questions and other exercises. they also promoted analysis when they invited students out to participate in classroom activities and when they designated homework with research and relationship elements. students answered this encouragement, but they also demonstrated their own internal motivation by creating more than required by teachers. they applied additional tools such as songs, games, videos and costumes in oral explanations. when encouraged to be analytical, students demonstrated this skill, as when they practiced critical judgment through assessment of their process and teachers’ work in the focus group. however, it is most notable that students were observed carrying out analysis and promoting their classmates 13 nosotros nos gusta por ejemplo las entrevistas a otras personas de la calle o cosas así. a parte que aprendemos de los demás, aprendemos diferentes cosas de los demás, nos gusta investigar, nos gusta esas vainas: entrevistas, todo eso, el video o audio. (students’ focus group) 14 ¡a vender! ¡sí!, somos nosotros. (french classroom observation) evidence of critical thinking vargas 41 no. 11 (july december 2015) no. 11 (july december 2015) to do so even when they were not persuaded by their teachers. students were interested in complex activities because they worked autonomously, and considered these opportunities for learning through investigation. as such, the research questions in this study were answered. teachers applied and promoted critical thinking skills with different strategies as hypothesized. however, students performed beyond expected. they demonstrated critical thinking skills with or without teachers’ encouragement. further, they are not overwhelmed but rather motivated by complex tasks. as mentioned in the literature review, there are studies about how to improve critical thinking, but just a few focus on evidence of critical thinking inside the classroom. this study sought to fill this research need. as with other investigations, this study was based on observation and did not divide the research group or modify it because variables belong inherently to the context. however, there are some limitations to this study. some teachers were not willing to provide sample papers or agree to meetings. more french language skill on the part of the researcher was necessary to analyze the french data with more precision, and more time was needed to apply the same instruments more frequently, or different instruments to deepen the data. nevertheless, it was possible to identify similarities between this study and others of the same type. students expressed critical thinking and felt motivated by activities promoting artistic development like songs, or interaction task like debates. these findings concur with shoemaker (2012) and swartz (2004), who argue that arts and collaborative relationships are proper instruments to reflect critical thinking skills, arts demonstrating metaphorical connections and teamwork, promoting complexity, flexibility and self-reflection. finally, this research project opens many possibilities to continue exploring cts. it could be useful for the school to explore these skills in the other departments, follow the process of the same group of students next year, or analyze other groups from humanities classrooms to assess, promote and apply cts in the classroom. other possibilities could be to analyze motivation and feedback, to research independently each cts, or to explore other hots such as creative thinking or metacognition to establish action plans and prepare students to be more competent than competitive in their academic purposes. evidence of critical thinking vargas 42 no. 11 (july december 2015) no. 11 (july december 2015) references american philosophical association (1990). critical thinking: a statement of expert consensus for purposes of educational assessment and instruction. fullerton: facione, p. bensley, a., crowe, d. s., & bernhardt, p. 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(ed445244) yang, s. c., & lin, w. c. (2004). the relationship among creative, critical thinking and thinking styles in taiwan high school students. journal of instructional psychology, 31(1), 33-45. author * david vargas alfonso holds a specialization in bilingual education from the institución universitaria colombo americana, única, and a ba in theology from unicervantina. he has published theological research articles in the revista agustiniana and is currently teaching philosophy and research in a private school in bogotá, colombia. evidence of critical thinking 125 exploring the effects of teachers’ and learners’ conflicting beliefs on the provision of corrective feedback during undisturbed classroom interactions1 explorando los efectos de las creencias conflictivas de maestros y alumnos sobre la provisión de retroalimentación correctiva durante las interacciones de clase sin perturbaciones edgar emmanuell garcia-ponce, irasema mora-pablo2* universidad de guanajuato, méxico abstract extensive research literature suggests that corrective feedback (cf), when effective, has a beneficial impact on the development of learners’ interlanguage. this is because cf provides learners with language data concerning the correctness of their utterances and thus pushes their oral production towards greater clarity, accuracy and comprehensibility. however, cf has been found to be considerably scarce during classroom interactions. in an attempt to understand its scarcity, the present study investigates the interplay between the amount of cf provided by teachers and learner peers and the effects of their beliefs during uncontrolled classroom interactions at a mexican university. by combining data collected from recorded classroom interactions, teacher interviews and learner focus groups, the findings show that there was a considerable number of errors which were avoided and not corrected by the teachers and learners during the classroom interactions. the findings also suggest that the scarcity of cf was in response to the teachers’ and learners’ conflicting beliefs about cf. this study provides a great opportunity to direct research towards the effects of 1 received: may 30th 2017/ accepted: november 17th 2017 2 ee.garcia@ugto.mx , imora@ugto.mx learners’ voice in academic writing efl gist education and learning research journal. issn 1692-5777. no.15. (july december) 2017. pp. 125-148. no. 15 (july december, 2017) no. 15 (july december, 2017) 126 teachers’ and learners’ beliefs on providing and receiving cf during classroom interactions, and find ways through which a socio-affective climate can be promoted in the language classroom in order to facilitate the provision of cf. keywords: accuracy, classroom interactions, corrective feedback, english as a foreign language, teacher and learner beliefs resumen un gran número de investigaciones han argumentado que la retroalimentación correctiva es de beneficio para el desarrollo del interlenguaje de los estudiantes. esto se debe a que dicha retroalimentación facilita información sobre la precisión de sus estructuras lingüísticas y promueve que su producción oral sea más clara, precisa y comprensible. sin embargo, estudios empíricos han encontrado que la retroalimentación correctiva es considerablemente escasa durante interacciones en el salón de clase. con la intención de entender su escasez, el presente estudio indaga sobre la relación entre la cantidad de retroalimentación correctiva (facilitada por maestros y estudiantes) y sus creencias en salones de clase de una universidad mexicana. al combinar datos recolectados de interacciones en salones de clase, entrevistas con maestros y grupos focales con alumnos, los resultados corroboran que hubo un número considerable de errores que no fueron atendidos y corregidos por los maestros y estudiantes durante las interacciones. los hallazgos también sugieren que la escasez de la retroalimentación correctiva se debe a la influencia de sus creencias. este estudio presenta una gran oportunidad de dirigir esfuerzos para investigar los efectos de las creencias de los maestros y estudiantes en la provisión de la retroalimentación correctiva y para encontrar alternativas que promuevan un ambiente socioafectivo en el salón de clase que permita la provisión efectiva de la retroalimentación correctiva. palabras clave: creencias de maestros y estudiantes, retroalimentación correctiva, inglés como lengua extranjera, precisión, interacciones de clase. resumo um grande número de pesquisas tem argumentado que a retroalimentação corretiva é de benefício para o desenvolvimento da inter-linguagem dos estudantes. isto se deve a que mencionada retroalimentação facilita informação sobre a precisão de suas estruturas linguísticas e promove que a sua produção oral seja mais clara, precisa e compreensível. porém, estudos empíricos encontraram que a retroalimentação corretiva á consideravelmente escassa durante interações na sala de aula. com a intenção de entender a sua escassez, o presente estudo indaga sobre a relação entre a quantidade de retroalimentação corretiva (facilitada por professores y estudantes) e suas crenças em salas de aula de uma universidade mexicana. ao combinar dados recolhidos de corrective feedback during classroom interactions garcía-ponce & mora-pabloefl no. 15 (july december, 2017) no. 15 (july december, 2017) 127 interações em salas de aula, entrevistas com professores e grupos focais com alunos, os resultados corroboram que houve um número considerável de erros que não foram atendidos e corregidos pelos professores e estudantes durante as interações. as descobertas também sugerem que a escassez da retroalimentação corretiva se deve à influência das suas crenças. este estudo apresenta uma grande oportunidade de dirigir esforços para pesquisar os efeitos das crenças dos professores e estudantes nas provisões da retroalimentação corretiva e para encontrar alternativas que promovam um ambiente sócio afetivo na sala de aula que permita a provisão efetiva da retroalimentação corretiva. palavras chave: crenças de professores e estudantes, retroalimentação corretiva, inglês como língua estrangeira, precisão, interações de aula. corrective feedback during classroom interactions garcía-ponce & mora-pabloefl no. 15 (july december, 2017) no. 15 (july december, 2017) 128 introduction the role of corrective feedback (henceforth cf) has been acknowledged in most second language theories and language pedagogy since it is viewed as language data that fosters linguistic accuracy and language learning (ellis, 2009). over the past three decades, extensive research has corroborated the beneficial effects of cf on learners’ language development (see nicholas, lightbown & spada, 2001; russel, 2009; sheen, 2001). based on this evidence, we can thus assume that there is no reason why teachers and learners should avoid providing cf in the language classroom. however, recent empirical studies suggest that the provision of cf is scarce during classroom interactions, despite teachers’ and learners’ stated value of it. it may seem possible that there is an interrelated set of instructional, interactional, practical and perceptual factors that compel teachers and learners to avoid providing and receiving this language data concerning the accuracy of their utterances. by combining interactional (from recorded classroom interactions) and perceptual (from teacher interviews and learner focus groups) data, the present study aims to develop an understanding of the interplay between the amount of cf that is provided during classroom interactions led by teachers (teacher-led interactions) and learners (peer interactions) and the effects of teachers’ and learners’ beliefs. due to practical constraints, the study is unable to encompass all the classroom factors that have effects on providing or avoiding cf. rather, it intends to determine the impact of teachers’ and learners’ beliefs on the provision of cf, and thus provide new insights into how these perceptual factors can be oriented towards enhancing its provision during classroom interactions. the study is guided by three research questions (rqs): rq1: what is the amount of corrective feedback during uncontrolled classroom interactions led by the teachers and learner peers? rq2: to what extent do teachers’ and learners’ beliefs influence the provision of corrective feedback during these interactions? rq3: what can be learned from rqs 1 and 2 in order to enhance the provision of corrective feedback? corrective feedback during classroom interactions garcía-ponce & mora-pabloefl no. 15 (july december, 2017) no. 15 (july december, 2017) 129 literature review in the classroom, there can be two types of feedback: positive and negative feedback. positive feedback signals the veracity of the content of a learner’s response or the correctness of an utterance (ellis, 2009). negative feedback, on the other hand, is language information provided by teachers or learner peers for learners to signal that their utterance lacks veracity or linguistic correctness (ellis, 2009; walsh, 2011). in other words, this latter feedback is other-initiated repair and corrective in nature. cf consists of: • an indication that an error has been committed, • provision of the correct target language form, and • metalinguistic information about the nature of the error, or any combination of these (ellis, loewen & erlam, 2006; cited in ellis, 2009). due to the asymmetrical roles in classroom interactions, the provision of cf is a ritual that is mostly initiated by teachers (walsh, 2006, 2011, 2013). both language teachers and researchers have paid careful attention to cf because cf promotes language learning (see ellis, 2009; ellis, loewen & erlam, 2006; garcía mayo & pica, 2000; mcdonough, 2004; walsh, 2006, 2011, 2013; to name just a few). in particular, cf is claimed to provide learners with opportunities to metalinguistically reflect on the clarity, accuracy, and comprehensibility of their output (martínez-flor, 1999; mcdonough, 2004), as well as opportunities to correct wrong language hypotheses and prevent errors from being fossilised (swain, 2005). it has been also argued that cf can be beneficial – when its initiation and moves to provide it are embedded in a collaborative interaction during which teachers and learners provide jointly owned affordances to solve linguistic problems (rassaei, 2014; swain & susuki, 2008). despite arguments that there is no reason why erroneous utterances should not be corrected in l2 classrooms, language teachers and researchers frequently disagree on the following conflicting actions regarding the provision of cf: 1. what errors to correct. 2. how and when to correct errors. 3. whether to correct errors, interrupt the interaction and avoid interlanguage fossilization. 4. whether to omit the error, continue with the interaction and maintain learners’ face. corrective feedback during classroom interactions garcía-ponce & mora-pabloefl no. 15 (july december, 2017) no. 15 (july december, 2017) 130 it has been found that the fourth action is motivated when learners perceive cf as face-threatening (yoshida, 2013a), evaluative (allwright & bailey, 1991), or a communication failure (tsui, 1995). learners’ perceptions of cf as face-threatening information, in influencing emotions, have significant effects on their self-concepts and perceived self-efficacy (e.g., learners’ self-perceptions of limited linguistic competence, poor pronunciation, limited vocabulary, etc.), which in some cases may deter them from fully participating and thus developing the target language (tsui, 1995; wesely, 2012). in light of the possibility that cf during classroom interactions may be perceived by learners as face-threatening and thus limit their oral production, research literature has suggested alternative techniques for providing learners with cf or information concerning their accuracy. for example, hendrickson (1978) suggests that teachers should only correct those errors that 1) hinder communication significantly; 2) have highly stigmatising effects; and 3) occur frequently in learners’ speech. tsui (1995) warns that teachers should not correct every error since it may discourage learners from answering questions and participating in future interactions. however, the immediate issue that emerges from an avoidance approach to providing cf is that learners’ opportunities to develop metalinguistic knowledge and push their utterances towards greater accuracy would be limited. in particular, this approach would also limit negotiations for meaning during which (implicit or explicit) cf is facilitated. it seems possible that the provision of cf in the language classroom is enhanced if research efforts are oriented towards understanding the perceptual factors that motivate learners’ perceptions of cf as facethreatening and thus limitations in its provision. therefore, the present study attempts to gain insights into the interplay between the amount of cf in uncontrolled classroom interactions and teachers’ and learners’ beliefs about cf with a view to enhancing the opportunities to provide learners with more effective cf in the language classroom. methodology the present study resided in an exploratory and naturalistic inquiry which adopts a multiple data-gathering approach with a view to developing an understanding of the participants’ classroom practices and meanings (lillis, 2008). the data collection instruments were: for interactional data: 1) recorded classroom interactions for perceptual data: 2) teacher interviews and 3) learner focus groups corrective feedback during classroom interactions garcía-ponce & mora-pabloefl no. 15 (july december, 2017) no. 15 (july december, 2017) 131 the rationale behind the use of the above instruments is that interactional and perceptual data provide insights into the interplay between classroom interactional behaviour and beliefs (wesely, 2012). moreover, these research instruments not only allow a thick description of what may prove to be potentially significant, but also help researchers maintain an openness to what may be important to the participants (lillis, 2008). research context and participants the present study took place at a university located in the centre of mexico. in this teaching and learning context, learners take subjects which train them to become language teachers or translators after a five-year ba programme. however, it is common in this context that most learners opt to major in efl teaching. learners are also expected to learn english throughout the programme. specifically, the study was conducted in three classrooms at basic, intermediate, and advanced levels. learners in courses at basic and intermediate levels practise english during six hours per week. at advanced levels, learners study english during five hours per week. the reason why this university decided to reduce the number of hours at advanced levels was to encourage learner autonomy outside the classroom. the total number of learners who voluntarily accepted to participate in the study was 63 (17 at the basic level; 26 at the intermediate level; and 20 at the advanced level). all the learners were mexican, their age ranged from 18 to 24 years, and their l1 was spanish. most of the learners had studied english before starting their university studies. some of them came from state schools, where language exposure ranges from four to five hours per week. a low number of learners had studied english in private schools, where the language is practiced from 15 to 20 hours per week. the teachers were also invited to participate in the study and accepted under no obligation. the three teachers were women, born and raised in mexico, and their mother tongue was spanish. they all stated that they had been learning english for 18 or more years, and teaching it for 11 or more years. data collection instruments classroom interactions at the three proficiency levels are claimed to provide a detailed and comprehensive description of teachers’ and learners’ interactional behaviour in a naturally-occurring way (larsenfreeman & long, 1991). following this claim, the interactions were corrective feedback during classroom interactions garcía-ponce & mora-pabloefl no. 15 (july december, 2017) no. 15 (july december, 2017) 132 recorded in two sessions of 100 minutes approximately at each proficiency level. in total, 600 minutes of classroom interactions were recorded, 200 minutes approximately from each proficiency level. after having recorded the interactions, the data were then transcribed completely, and segmented into teacher-led interactions (tlis) and peer interactions (pis). teacher interviews were included in this study in order to understand how the teacher participants make sense of the provision of cf in relation to the context which they inhabit (snape & spencer, 2003). the teacher interviews were conducted by one of the researchers, after the recorded classroom interactions. in order to guide the interviews, a list of ten questions was used to understand the teachers’ beliefs and practices regarding cf. in the case of the learner focus groups, gibbs (1997) maintains that they allow insights into people’s beliefs, attitudes and values from individual as well as group perspectives. this was of particular relevance for the study which seeks to investigate the extent to which learners’ beliefs influence the provision of cf. thus, three focus groups were carried out with five learners from each proficiency level. they were selected randomly from the teachers’ attendance list, and invited to participate free of obligation. they all agreed to participate in the focus groups which were arranged at their convenience. a list of 10 questions was used to facilitate and guide the oral interactions between the researcher and learners. the teacher interviews and learner focus groups lasted around 20 minutes. they both were conducted in spanish so as to avoid the learners’ anxiety about the correctness of their utterances in the l2. for analysis purposes, the oral interactions during the interviews and focus groups were recorded and transcribed in their entirety. all participants were informed of their right to withdraw at any time, and provided consent to participate. complying with their right to be protected from identification, the learners’ names and identities were carefully anonymised in the data. instead, abbreviations and pseudonyms are used. the word ‘learner’ (or letter ‘l’) and an identification number, e.g., learner 5 are used to refer to learners in the extracts. in the case of teachers, pseudonyms are also used to refer to the teachers: maría for the teacher at the basic level, tanya for the teacher at the intermediate level, and aranza for the teacher at the advanced level. corrective feedback during classroom interactions garcía-ponce & mora-pabloefl no. 15 (july december, 2017) no. 15 (july december, 2017) 133 data analysis and interpretation according to ellis (2006, 2009) and lyster (2004), moves to provide cf can be classified in the following way: table 1. taxonomy of cf moves input-providing recast output-prompting repetition clarification request therefore, the study investigates the incidence of recasts, repetitions and clarification requests that were initiated during the tlis and pis at the three proficiency levels. in order to identify these moves in the uncontrolled tlis and pis, it was necessary to find the cf episodes which involve a trigger, feedback and (optionally) uptake (see ellis, 2009), as shown in the following example: trigger l11: //the woman … call a taxi// feedback t: the woman? potential uptake l11: //calls a taxi// once identified, we classified each feedback move following the specifications summarised in table 2. table 2. cf moves move 1.clarification requests 2. repetitions 3. recasts specification these are mostly whor bipolar questions which are initiated to elicit clarification or new information of the interlocutor’s preceding utterance(s) (long, 1980; ellis, 2009; tedick & gortari, 1998). language information which is provided to reshape another speaker’s utterance (ellis, 2009; tedick & gortari, 1998). these are the most common types of feedback moves which usually contain an additional feature, for example, stress or lengthening of a segment, questioning intonation, etc. (chaudron, 1988). these are reformulations which are initiated to reshape or refine all or part of others’ utterances (walsh, 2006). recasts need to 1) contain content words of a preceding incorrect utterance; 2) reshape utterances in a phonological, syntactic, morphological or lexical way (braidi, 2002); and 3) focus on meaning rather than form (long & robinson, 1998). corrective feedback during classroom interactions garcía-ponce & mora-pabloefl no. 15 (july december, 2017) no. 15 (july december, 2017) 134 because the purpose of the study was not to test hypotheses but to explore the incidence of cf, the interactional data were calculated using simple totals and ratios. firstly, the total numbers were obtained by counting the instances when cf was provided and the moves that triggered them. secondly, ratios were calculated by dividing the total number of each move per the total minutes of each tli or pi. in order to understand the amount of errors that were attended during the interactions, we also counted the total number of errors, and calculated ratios by dividing the total number of errors per the total minutes of each tli and pi. prior to this analysis, we needed to establish what constituted an error. the following criteria were then coded for identifying and counting errors: • errors in word selection • errors in morphology • errors in syntax • errors in pronunciation • false starts, hesitations and self-corrections were excluded. the perceptual data from the interviews and focus groups were analysed following a meaning categorisation which is believed to facilitate the identification of patterns, themes and meaning (berg, 2009). this involved identifying extracts manually, and attributing them to theme categories and sub-categories which emerged from the data: perceptions about cf • positive attitudes towards cf • perceived benefits of cf • negative attitudes towards cf • teachers avoiding corrections perceived nature of cf • types of cf moves • cf at word level • no perceived need for cf • cf moves not initiated by learners • face-threatening cf • more cf episodes in pis corrective feedback during classroom interactions garcía-ponce & mora-pabloefl no. 15 (july december, 2017) no. 15 (july december, 2017) 135 results in order to address rq1 (i.e., what is the amount of corrective feedback during uncontrolled classroom interactions led by the teachers and learner peers?) and rq2 (i.e., to what extent do teachers’ and learners’ beliefs influence the provision of corrective feedback during these interactions?), this section firstly discusses the findings into the amount of cf at the three proficiency levels. it then explores the influence that the teachers’ and learners’ beliefs exerted on this amount. overall, the interactional evidence shows a considerable proportion of errors which went unnoticed or omitted by the teachers and learner peers, and a low number of cf moves to address them during the interactions at the three proficiency levels. the perceptual data suggests that the teachers’ and learners’ beliefs about cf are conflicting and important perceptual factors that heavily influenced the provision of cf. results of interactional data the findings of the interactional data are summarised in tables, and are presented by kind of interaction (tli or pi) at each proficiency level. the first two tables show the number of errors per minute and ratios of cf moves at the basic level: table 3. number of errors and cf moves during tlis at basic level table 3 shows that the number of cf moves per minute tends to be low compared to the number of errors per minute that the basic learners committed during the five tlis. it can also be seen in this table that there is a trend towards clarification requests, ranging from 0.1 to 1.3 clarification requests per minute. however, in some tlis, there is an absence of some moves. for example, in tlis 1 and 3, there is a lack of repetitions. in the case of tlis 1, 2 and 4, there is omission of recasts. it was only during tlis 2-4 that the basic teacher and learners attended to all the errors. however, as we will see in the remainder of corrective feedback during classroom interactions garcía-ponce & mora-pabloefl no. 15 (july december, 2017) no. 15 (july december, 2017) 136 this section, the interactional data indicate that there was a high number of errors which were unnoticed or omitted, but a considerable scarcity of cf moves during the tlis and pis at the intermediate and advanced levels. this was also the case of the basic pis: table 4. number of errors and cf moves during pis at basic level as in the tlis, table 4 shows that there is a high proportion of errors per minute to which a low amount of cf was provided, as indicated by the cf moves per minute during these interactions led by learner peers. for example, during pi 1, 3.6 errors per minute were committed, but only 0.6 clarification requests per minute were initiated to address them. moreover, there is a tendency towards a greater number of clarification requests (a range of 0.6 to 1.5 clarification requests per minute) than repetitions and recasts. it can also be seen from this table that there is a scarcity of repetitions, and a tendency of recasts in some pis (pis 2-5). similar to the tlis and pis at the basic level, tables 5 and 6 show that despite a high number of errors, there was a considerable scarcity of some cf moves across the intermediate interactions. table 5. number of errors and cf moves during tlis at intermediate level corrective feedback during classroom interactions garcía-ponce & mora-pabloefl no. 15 (july december, 2017) no. 15 (july december, 2017) 137 in table 5, it is evident that the number of cf moves per minute is lower than the number of errors per minute, indicating again that there was a high number of errors which were omitted by the intermediate teacher and learners. this table also shows that there is a low proportion of cf moves across the intermediate tlis, with a clear tendency towards clarification requests. in the case of the pis, the data indicates a greater scarcity of cf moves than in the tlis: table 6. number of errors and cf moves during pis at intermediate level as in previous interactions, table 6 indicates that there is a low number of cf moves compared to the number of errors that were committed during these learner-led discussions. due to the high number of errors during these and previous teacherand learner-led interactions, it seems possible that there are more pressing factors that compel these teachers and learners to avoid providing cf during the interactions despite the high number of errors. it can also be seen in table 6 that there was a low number of cf moves per minute across the six pis. again, clarification requests tended to be initiated more than repetitions and recasts. the following table shows the absence of errors and therefore the initiation of cf moves at the advanced tlis: table 7. number of errors and cf moves during tlis at advanced level corrective feedback during classroom interactions garcía-ponce & mora-pabloefl no. 15 (july december, 2017) no. 15 (july december, 2017) 138 in exploring these two tlis, it was possible to observe the lack of learners’ opportunities to contribute to the classroom discourse with freer and more elaborate utterances. it was the teacher who controlled these interactions; learners only had opportunities to respond to the teacher’s elicitations centred on grammar practice. this lack of opportunities to contribute to the classroom discourse with more creative utterances may explain the absence of errors and thus cf moves. this suggestion is supported by the advanced pis, during which learners were responsible of the discourse, and had more opportunities to experiment with the language, having perhaps an impact on the number of errors that they committed. table 8. number of errors and cf moves during pis at advanced level as shown in table 8, there is a considerable amount of errors for which a limited number of cf moves was initiated. for example, 7.7 and 7.6 errors per minute were committed during pis 1 and 2, respectively, but only 0.1 and 0.5 cf moves per minute were initiated to attend to these errors. as at previous proficiency levels, the advanced learners during these interactions opted to initiate clarification requests. overall, the above interactional data firstly showed a high proportion of errors which was not attended. in other words, there was a high number of errors which went unnoticed or avoided by the teachers and learner peers. the issue that emerges from this evidence is that the learners had fewer opportunities to notice erroneous utterances and thus push their oral production to be more accurate and comprehensible. the data also indicated that there was a varied, but low number of cf moves initiated by the teachers and learner peers across the interactions at the three proficiency levels. among the cf moves, it was clarification requests which tended to be initiated. it is possible that the teachers and learner peers relied more on clarification requests than repetitions and recasts because clarification requests were used as moves which provided cf but in an indirect way. that is, when an corrective feedback during classroom interactions garcía-ponce & mora-pabloefl no. 15 (july december, 2017) no. 15 (july december, 2017) 139 error was committed, the teachers and learner peers tended to initiate elicitations to signal that there was the presence of an erroneous utterance, but without modifying or correcting the utterance as in the case of repetitions and recasts. it seems possible that there are more pressing concerns or factors that compelled these teachers and learners not to initiate cf moves to attend to the high number of errors. particularly, the teachers’ and learners’ beliefs as important perceptual factors may reveal the motivation behind this avoidance strategy, and possible ways through which the teachers and learners can be assisted in providing cf and thus benefitting from greater opportunities to develop the target language. the following section attempts to address this. teachers’ and learners’ beliefs about cf during the teacher interviews and learner focus groups, various points concerning cf were suggested by the participant teachers and learners. in general, the three teachers claimed that they embrace the value of cf as a strategy for teaching and learning the target language, for example: extract 1 quote by maría (basic level) “it [cf] may be significant for them, like having an alarm to correct. then, they can produce the same sentence and if they make the same mistake, they will be able to correct it.” extract 2 quote by tanya (intermediate level) “it is a matter of giving you my [corrective] feedback so that you in the future see which one is the standard. then, making for the whole class, you realise that the learners are aware and say: ‘i can use this in this situation, and the other in another situation’ and all the class benefits from this [feedback].” maria’s and tanya’s statements clearly reveal their positive attitudes towards providing cf during classroom interactions. these statements also indicate perceived benefits for learners’ self-corrections. interestingly, they perceived that cf was beneficial not only for the learners to whom corrections are directed, but also to the whole class corrective feedback during classroom interactions garcía-ponce & mora-pabloefl no. 15 (july december, 2017) no. 15 (july december, 2017) 140 (for a discussion about this, see havranek, 2002; muranoi, 2000). the 15 learners during the focus groups also suggested responses which reveal positive attitudes towards providing and receiving cf. for example, learner 5 (basic level) said: “i think it is good that she corrects us.” however, the responses of the three teachers, one learner at the basic level and the five learners at the advanced level suggested that cf was scarce or absent during classroom interactions, as borne out by the interactional data. for example, in “we need that the teacher starts to correct us,” learner 1’s (basic level) suggestion points to a perceived scarcity of cf during the classroom discussions. this perceived scarcity is corroborated by aranza’s statement: “i seldom correct while they are speaking, […] i rarely correct them during classroom discussions.” the teachers’ responses point to one main reason that motivated this avoidance: extract 3 quote by aranza (advanced level) “maybe they are fluent but with many mistakes. thus, i have decided not to correct them so as not to affect” extract 4 quote by tanya (intermediate level) “it is give them something positive, something not very positive and not tell them that their speaking was wrong, you may inhibit them and you could spoil the interactions.” aranza’s and tanya’s statements suggest the feeling that correcting learners’ oral mistakes inhibited them from speaking, as indicated in “not tell them that their speaking was wrong, you may inhibit them, and you could spoil the interactions.” the feeling that cf inhibited learners from interacting was shared by the learners during the focus groups, for example: extract 5 quote by learner 4 (advanced level) “some people may feel pressed while talking to the teacher for fear of being corrected or something like that.” corrective feedback during classroom interactions garcía-ponce & mora-pabloefl no. 15 (july december, 2017) no. 15 (july december, 2017) 141 again, learner 4’s statement suggests a feeling that cf had a negative impact on learners. it thus appears that the teachers’ and learners’ beliefs about cf were conflicting. that is, the teachers’ and learners’ beliefs about the importance of cf appear to have conflicted with their beliefs about negative effects of it on learners’ oral production, as suggested in aranza’s statement: “it is funny because everybody agrees to be corrected, but when you do correct them, they [learners] don’t like it that much.” as indicated in “i have decided not to correct them so as not to affect [speaking]” (aranza, extract 3), it seems that these conflicting beliefs influenced aranza’s teaching decisions not to correct learners’ oral mistakes. the other two teachers’ responses also suggest teaching decisions influenced by these conflicting beliefs: extract 6 quote by tanya (intermediate level) “they perceive it negatively and take it personal, like exposing them. there are people who take it (corrections) personal […] you need to find like tactics, it is a delicate topic.” tanya’s explanation again points to a perception that cf had negative effects on learners, even at a personal level. as suggested in “you need to find like tactics, it is a delicate topic,” we see a perception that the conflicting beliefs around cf influenced her teaching decisions. the following two extracts suggest how the teachers’ and learners’ conflicting beliefs around cf influenced the basic and intermediate teachers’ teaching and interactional behaviour: extract 7 quote by maría (basic level) “depending on the intimacy for them to express, interact and tell them at the end [of the classroom discussion] where they were wrong.” extract 8 quote by tanya (intermediate level) “the provision of feedback is personalised and without other learners […] then, you have the freedom to tell them their mistakes and advise them.” “[…] i now do it in a personalised way so as to avoid peer criticisms.” corrective feedback during classroom interactions garcía-ponce & mora-pabloefl no. 15 (july december, 2017) no. 15 (july december, 2017) 142 as suggested in maría’s and tanya’s statements, we again see beliefs that cf was perceived as face-threatening (as implied in “depending on the intimacy for them to express”), and had a negative impact on learners (as indicated in “i now do it in a personalised way so as to avoid peer criticisms”). these beliefs appear to have influenced the teachers’ teaching decisions to avoid providing cf during the classroom discussions, as indicated in “i now do it in a personalised way” and “tell them at the end [of the classroom discussions] where they were wrong.” discussions in exploring the interactional data, it was found that there was a high number of errors that were unnoticed or omitted by both the teachers and learner peers during the classroom interactions. the number of cf moves was considerable low during the discussions led by the teachers and learner peers across the three proficiency levels. among the three cf moves explored in this study, it was clarification requests which the teachers and learners tended to initiate during the discussions. the study was unable to determine the extent to which these cf moves were effective in providing feedback which leads to uptake. however, we put forward the argument that the teachers and learners decided to initiate mostly clarification requests since they involve less face-threatening interactional work which, implicitly, encourage learners to reshape their own erroneous or unclear utterances. it is possible that the other two cf moves were perceived by the teachers and learner peers as facethreatening moves. based upon the evidence that cf moves were scarce during classroom discussions, the study found that the teachers’ and learners’ beliefs about cf were conflicting. that is, the teachers and learners valued the role of cf, but it was perceived by both teachers and learners to inhibit learners and thus limit their oral production. this thus implies that providing information concerning the correctness of learners’ utterances and thus push them towards greater accuracy may have been perceived as face-threatening or as a sign of incompetence to speak the target language. this is in accord with cathcart & olsen (1976) and allwright & bailey (1991), who also found classroom perceptions of oral corrections as face-threatening, despite the fact that learners claimed to value them (cathcart & olsen, 1976). however, the findings of this study suggest that it was actually the teachers’ and learners’ conflicting beliefs about cf which influenced teachers’ and learners’ behaviour, resulting in an avoidance strategy to save the learners’ face. corrective feedback during classroom interactions garcía-ponce & mora-pabloefl no. 15 (july december, 2017) no. 15 (july december, 2017) 143 based on the above interactional and perceptual data, and in addressing rq3 (i.e., what can be learned from rqs 1 and 2 in order to enhance the provision of corrective feedback?), it thus seems that the frequency and effectiveness of cf and its moves reside not only in teachers’ and learners’ value of them as opportunities which promote language learning, but also in their willingness to provide and receive strategic and supportive language data concerning the correctness of their utterances and thus promote others’ language development. drawing on the evidence that the teachers and learners of the study were able to reflect on their teaching, learning and interactional behaviour during classroom discussions, it may seem possible that this reflection ability may be directed towards the socio-affective climate between teachers and learners and learner peers, and the ways through which they can be encouraged to develop a positive attitude and behaviour towards initiating and receiving cf. this suggestion is supported by naughton (2006), who contends that the most relevant classroom discussions to interlanguage development is that in which teachers and learners share a need and desire to understand each other, and learn from them. as suggested by naughton (2006), classroom discussions can be exploited through a classroom climate in which challenging or modifying others’ utterances is not social taboo. under these conflicting circumstances, yang and kim (2011) raise the need to align teachers’ and learners’ beliefs with interactional behaviour that is more effective for classroom practices. in line with this, yoshida (2013) contends that teachers and learners can be assisted in breaking away from classroom behaviour influenced by their conflicting beliefs in order to promote the development and appropriation of new beliefs consistent with more effective teaching and learning practices. we might thus explore the possibility that opportunities to provide cf can be enhanced if teachers and learners are assisted in mediating their beliefs and other cognitive factors through awareness-raising processes (e.g., advice from tutors on more effective interactional behaviour, or reflective procedures) (see, for example, navarro & thornton, 2011; yang & kim, 2011; yoshida, 2013). these processes can assist them in raising an awareness of the interplay between actions and beliefs, resulting in co-constructed beliefs which have a beneficial impact on the socio-affective climate of classrooms and teachers’ and learners’ interactional behaviour (li & lian, 2012; yang & kim, 2011; yoshida, 2013), in this case, opportunities to provide and receive cf in both tlis and pis. in the language classroom, teachers need not abandon the provision of cf; its use during classroom interactions maximises learners’ opportunities to be exposed to information concerning the corrective feedback during classroom interactions garcía-ponce & mora-pabloefl no. 15 (july december, 2017) no. 15 (july december, 2017) 144 accuracy of their utterances (rassaei, 2014). teachers should make a conscious use of feedback in relation to the pedagogic goal of the moment (tsui, 1995; walsh, 2013). that is, teachers need to be aware of the effects of these moves, and use them depending on the aim of the teaching practice. in order to avoid learners’ loss of face, rassaei (2014) suggests that the provision of cf needs to be performed collaboratively, in a way that encourages learners to produce language and assists them in negotiating and solving their erroneous utterances. conclusions and further research the primary aim of the present study was to explore the interplay between the amount of cf and teacher and learner beliefs around this corrective language data. the study resided in a naturalistic as well as exploratory enquiry in order to understand better teaching and learning practices without controlling classroom variables. the study firstly found that the amount of cf, indicated by clarification requests, repetitions and recasts, was scarce or absent during the classroom discussions led by the teachers and learner peers, despite the high number of errors that were identified in the interactional data. in an attempt to understand this avoidance, the study found that the teachers’ and learners’ beliefs concerning cf were conflicting, and influential on teaching behaviour by avoiding these moves perceived by the teachers and learners as face-threatening. based on this evidence, the study puts forward the argument that in cases of low amount of cf, teachers’ and researchers’ attention should be directed towards the socio-affective climate in the language classroom where cf is seen not only as beneficial, but also as necessary to promote learners’ interlanguage development. as in any exploratory study, further research should be conducted in order to generalise from the findings of this study. research should explore the interplay between the nature of cf and the influence of teachers’ and learners’ beliefs in teaching practices with several aims. it would be interesting to know whether awareness-raising processes have a beneficial impact on the amount and quality of cf during classroom interactions. however, it is hoped that this study is useful for teachers and learners who endorse cf and its moved, but struggle to initiate them during classroom discourse. corrective feedback during classroom interactions garcía-ponce & mora-pabloefl no. 15 (july december, 2017) no. 15 (july december, 2017) 145 references allwright, d. & bailey, k. m. 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(2003). the foundations of qualitative research. in j. ritchie & j. lewis (eds.), qualitative research practice. a guide for social science students and researchers (pp. 1–23). london: sage publications ltd. swain, m. & suzuki, w. (2008). interaction, output, and communicative language learning. in b. spolsky & f. m. hult (eds.), the handbook of educational linguistics (pp. 557–568). oxford, uk: blackwell. tedick, d. & de gortari, b. (1998). research on error correction and implications for classroom teaching. the acie newsletter, 1(3). tsui, a. b. m. (1995). introducing classroom interaction. london: penguin english. walsh, s. (2006). investigating classroom discourse. london: routledge. walsh, s. (2011). exploring classroom discourse: language in action. london: routledge. walsh, s. (2013). classroom discourse and teacher development. edinburgh: edinburgh university press. wesely, p. (2012). learner attitudes, perceptions, and beliefs in language learning. foreign language annals, 45(s1), 98-117. yang, j. s. & kim, t.y. (2011). sociocultural analysis of second language learner beliefs: a qualitative case study of two studyabroad esl learners. system, 39(3), 325–334. yoshida, r. (2013). conflict between learners’ beliefs and actions: speaking in the classroom. language awareness, 22(4), 371-388. corrective feedback during classroom interactions garcía-ponce & mora-pabloefl no. 15 (july december, 2017) no. 15 (july december, 2017) 148 authors *edgar emmanuell garcía holds an ma in applied linguistics (uaemex, mexico), and a phd in english language teaching and applied linguistics (university of birmingham, uk). his research interests are centred on the interplay between classroom interactions and teacher and learner beliefs. he currently teaches in ba in tesol and ma in applied linguistics of english language teaching at the departamento de lenguas, universidad de guanajuato. irasema mora pablo holds an ma in applied linguistics (universidad de las américas-puebla) and a phd in applied linguistics (university of kent, uk). she coordinates the the master’s in applied linguistics of english language teaching at the universidad de guanajuato. she is a member of the national system of researchers (sistema nacional de investigadores) and her research interests are bilingual studies, identity and nativespeakerism. corrective feedback during classroom interactions no. 15 (july december, 2017) no. 15 (july december, 2017) 190 the reality of comenius projects in ten catalan educational institutions1 mar gutiérrez colón-plana2* universitat rovira i virgili, spain abstract this paper submits a qualitative study on different aspects of comenius projects undertaken in ten educational centres in catalonia during the academic year 0708. the objectives of this paper are to present these projects within the realities of particular school contexts, to emphasize the strengths and weaknesses of the projects, the difficulties the coordinators have to face as well as analyzing all the issues that should be improved. the data was drawn from 10 interviews (25-45 minutes) conducted with the coordinating teachers for such projects. the study concludes that the comenius project is a complex project in its development, completely adaptable to the reality of each centre, and very positive at primary, secondary and high school levels. however, it has also brought to light problems in our society and, especially, in catalan educational institutions, such as a general lack of knowledge of a second language, fear of other cultures, lack of policies to support continuity projects, as well as the workload of teachers. keywords: comenius projects, education, methodology, foreign students. resumen este artículo presenta un estudio cualitativo sobre diferentes aspectos de los proyectos comenius emprendidos en diez centros educativos de cataluña durante el año académico 2007-2008. los objetivos de este trabajo son presentar estos proyectos dentro de la realidad de contextos escolares particulares, destacar sus fortalezas y debilidades, las dificultades que los coordinadores tienen que afrontar, así como el análisis de todos los asuntos que se deben tener en cuenta para realizar las mejoras. los datos se obtuvieron de 10 entrevistas, cada una de 25-45 minutos, realizadas a los profesores coordinadores de dichos proyectos. el estudio permitió concluir que el proyecto comenius, es un proyecto complejo en su desarrollo, totalmente adaptable a la realidad de cada centro educativo y muy positivo en los niveles de escuela primaria, secundaria y preparatoria. sin 1 received: november 10th,2011 / accepted: may 22nd, 2012 2 email: mar.gutierrezcolon@urv.cat gist education and learning research journal. issn 1692-5777. no. 6, november 2012. pp. 190-212 gutiérrez colón-plana no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) 191 embargo, esto también ha sacado a la luz parte de los problemas existentes en nuestra sociedad, especialmente en las instituciones educativas catalanas, como la falta general de conocimiento de un segundo idioma, miedo de otras culturas, la falta de políticas de apoyo para la continuidad de proyectos, así como la carga laboral de los docentes. palabras claves: proyecto comenius, educación, metodología, estudiantes extrajeros. resumo este artigo apresenta um estudo qualitativo sobre diferentes aspectos dos projetos comenius empreendidos em dez centros educativos de catalunha durante o ano acadêmico 2007-2008. os objetivos deste trabalho são apresentar estes projetos dentro da realidade de contextos escolares particulares, destacar suas fortalezas e debilidades, as dificuldades que os coordenadores têm que enfrentar; assim como a análise de todos os assuntos que se deve ter em conta para realizar as melhoras. os dados foram obtidos de 10 entrevistas, cada uma de 25-45 minutos, realizadas aos professores coordenadores de ditos projetos. o estudo permitiu concluir que o projeto comenius, seja um projeto complexo no seu desenvolvimento, totalmente adaptável à realidade de cada centro educativo e muito positivo nos níveis de escola primária, secundária e preparatória. entretanto, isto também fez visível parte dos problemas existentes na nossa sociedade, especialmente nas instituições educativas catalãs, como a falta geral de conhecimento de um segundo idioma, medo de outras culturas, a falta de políticas de apoio para a continuidade de projetos, assim como a carga de trabalho dos docentes. palavras chaves: projeto comenius, educação, metodologia, estudantes estrangeiros. this paper submits a qualitative study of five different aspects of comenius projects undertaken in ten educational centres in catalonia during the academic year 2007-2008 as part of the research project avaluació de l’expressió escrita en lengua anglesa d’alumnes participants en projectes comenius (2006arie10065), awarded by the agència de gestió d’ajuts universitaris i de recerca of the generalitat (agaur). these five topics directly related to the comenius projects are: the comenius coordinators’ motivation, the objectives and topics of the school project, the school organization in order to be able to develop the comenius project, the specific activities gutiérrez colón-plana no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) 192 carried out by the school and finally, under the title ‘organisational and cultural aspects’, the problems related to the organisation of the comenius project at an institutional and school levels as well as everyday problems at a more personal level are presented. this paper presents the qualitative data gathered from the interviews made to comenius’ coordinators to evaluate the implementation of these projects. the qualitative data contains the coordinators’ answers to specific questions (see appendix 1) as well as some unexpected results such as feelings and opinions about the implementation of such projects in each educational centre. thus, we would like to put forward a research innovation within the field of european projects. in fact, this is a first study conducted on comenius projects applying a qualitative study by gathering data directly from the coordinators of those projects. theorical framework according to the study impact of the comenius school partnership on the participant schools (2007), the european parliament created the socrates project in 1995 (council decision no 819/95/ec). in 2000, a second phase was established by the european commission: socrates ii. this second phase included other sub-projects within the education and training section, specifically the lifelong learning program, in which comenius was framed. the comenius actions are part of the eu’s lifelong learning programme. the aim of these actions is for teachers and young students to better understand the european cultures and languages. some of its aims are to increase the mobility of pupils and teachers across eu; enhance partnerships among european schools, enhance innovative ict-based contents and better practices. according to the document “impact of comenius school partnerships on the participant schools”, the central aims of the comenius programme are to expand the knowledge of pupils, prospective and experienced teachers and teacher trainers in terms of their subjects, ways of working and foreign languages and to promote intercultural learning and the european consciousness. (2007: 3) the comenius programme was created out of three individual action programmes: comenius 1, to provide support to school partnership; comenius 2, to provide training to school staff; and the reality of comenius projects gutiérrez colón-plana no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) 193 comenius 3, to establish networks between projects. when a school decides to participate in a comenius 1 project, it must find a partner or a group of schools that are also looking for partners, contact them and sign a partnership contract. according to the information given by the coordinators of the projects, there are two common ways of finding partners. one way is the annual comenius call, which is an open invitation to all possible members. at this meeting, the centres get in contact with each other and sign their agreement. the other way is making contact by phone or e-mail after finding the school on a specialised website, e-twinning, created for this purpose. we visited the website of the ministry. there, we saw the database created where all data from all european high schools who want to participate could be found; so, we found some partners there. ies joaquim bau. (recording time: 1’ 09’’) it seems that it is more difficult to find a partner during these annual meetings because everybody is trying to do the same, and unfortunately, the great majority of centres are already engaged. the catalan schools that were interviewed established the following different partnerships: catalonia, germany and turkey; catalonia, portugal, turkey, malta, poland and romania; catalonia, italy and france; catalonia, poland, finland, austria, germany and italy; catalonia, poland, holland and portugal; catalonia, poland, france, luxembourg and belgium; catalonia, portugal, poland and slovakia; catalonia, england and germany; catalonia, england, germany, slovakia and slovenia; and finally catalonia, england and germany. in 2007, the activities of socrates ii were integrated into the lifelong learning programme. comenius is one of the four subprojects, 1. comenius (for schools); 2. erasmus (for higher education); 3.leonardo da vinci (for vocational education and training), and 4. grundtvig (for adult education) (a single umbrella for education and training projects). the comenius project is aimed at students from pre-school to high schools. the main objective of this project is to develop knowledge of different european cultures, languages and values, and the subjects are not only the students of the school, but also the educational staff (comenius: europe in the classroom, 2010) according to the comenius: europe lifelong learning guide for applicants (2010), the specific objectives of the comenius projects the reality of comenius projects gutiérrez colón-plana no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) 194 are the following: 1. to develop knowledge and understanding among young people and educational staff of the diversity of european cultures and languages and its value. 2. to help young people acquire the basic life skills and competences necessary for their personal development, for future employment and for active european citizenship. according to the document sectorial projects: comenius (2010), in order to carry out these objectives, this project calls for mobility of pupils and staff across europe, participation in training courses, development and partnerships between schools, multilateral projects to improve the quality of teaching and learning in the classroom, and the development of networks with the aim to promote co-operation in specific thematic areas within european schools. in its annual report (2007), the oapee states there were 2,035 comenius agreements signed and 3,238 agreements active during 2007 in spain. the same document stated that in 2008, there were 1,982 agreements signed and 2,153 active during that year. in catalonia, during the academic year 2007-2008, there were 110 multilateral projects, involving 62,484 students and 280 teachers3. when comparing the amount of comenius school projects that catalonia was granted in 2002-2003 and 2005-2006 to the other regions of spain (see the document informe sobre el estado y situación del sistema educativo -2007-), we were rated in second place (andalucia being the first). the aim of the study published under the report impact of comenius school partnerships on the participant schools (2007) is to investigate the impact of comenius 1 on the improvement of teaching quality on the integration of the european dimension in the work of the participating schools. the study concludes that the comenius programme is considered a “highly relevant instrument that, overall, has a very positive impact on the pupils, teachers and schools involved” (2007: 75). nevertheless, the positive impact is limited in time and has no continuation once the students finish school and it is lost as the teachers leave. libotton, van braak and garofalo (2002) submit a pilot project with the purposes of monitoring and evaluating comenius 3 projects. the results of their project indicate that the coordinators believe these courses are of great importance in developing intercultural awareness the reality of comenius projects gutiérrez colón-plana 3 this information is not published. it has been obtained directly by the author of this article from the department of education of the generalitat de catalunya (18/03/2010) no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) 195 as well as fostering collaborative transnational work. these projects also need the “active and committed support of the institutions involved to become a reality and more so when considering sustainability” (p.32). beernaert (2002) reports on the results of the assessment of the comenius 3 courses that ran between 1996-1999. he describes the positive and negative aspects of the comenius by both participants and organisers. on the whole, the conclusion is that even though the courses are thought to be very enriching, it is important to bear in mind all the negative aspects that can be improved. gordon (2001) suggests that schools provide plenty of answers regarding the evaluation of socrates programmes in schools, but “they also express the need for more support in defining what they want to do, less bureaucracy and more assessment of the results and outcomes” (p. 418). diamantopoulou (2006) carried out research to analyse the difficulties and benefits in the implementation of comenius programmes in greece. her conclusions are extremely revealing; she believes that there are many difficulties in the implementation of these programmes due to language problems, lack of technical infrastructure and limited prior experience. methodology this paper puts forward a qualitative study undertaken in ten public schools in catalonia during 2007-2008 within the frame of an agaur (agència de gestió d’ajuts universitaris i derecerca) research grant. the centres selected to the study were eip riera de ribes, ies torras i bages, ies joaquim bau, ceip mare de deu del portal, ceip montfalgars, ies vall d’hebron, col.legi cami ii, ceip pràctiques and ceip la roureda. all these schools coordinated a comenius 1 programme. the students involved in these programmes belonged to the last two courses of primary school (11-12-year-old children) and the second course of high school (up to 17 years old). the objective of this paper is to present and describe the comenius coordinators’ impressions about the implementation of these projects in their schools. according to mcnamara, interviews are particularly useful for getting the story behind a participant’s experiences. the interviewer can pursue in-depth information around a topic (1999). for this research, we used a general interview guide approach, with open-ended questions, as the method for carrying out this qualitative research because we required coordinators’ opinions, attitudes, and suggestions about their experience. likewise, we met the coordinators the reality of comenius projects gutiérrez colón-plana no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) 196 of the projects. as it is done with this type of interviews, the openended questions were prepared beforehand and served to guide both the interviewer and the interviewee. ten interviews were conducted, each lasting 25 to 45 minutes. the interviews were later transcribed for a closer analysis of the data. the content of the transcriptions was analysed and organised in topics. in order to analyse the transcriptions’ content, we coded it into different topics. that is, recurring themes and ideas were identified and thus all the information was organised in topics. findings the content of the interviews is very rich and diverse due to the many different topics covered by the interviewees. they showed their interest in letting us know and understand all the characteristics and details of the projects they were carrying out including their coordination, organisation, working methods, positive aspects and problems encountered. we decided to code the data into five meaningful categories according to the information provided by the interviewees: 1) motivation, 2) objectives and topics, 3) school organization, 4) activities 5) organisational and cultural aspects. motivation the first question that the coordinators were asked was why their schools had applied for a comenius project. most of them argued pedagogical reasons such as the idea to recreate a natural setting for learning english at school; the promotion of cultural exchanges and a considerable interest in knowing the educational system of other european countries. before applying for the comenius project, many centres already coordinated european exchange projects such as orator (this is a programme to enhance innovation projects based to the oral competence. it is granted by the departament d’ensenyament of the catalan govenment) and comenius 1 (this type of project is a collaboration with the universities). the interviewed teachers had also been trying to get in contact at a personal level with other teachers in some european schools in order for their students to communicate in an authentic situation. all these types of projects provide a great benefit (from the linguistic point of view) for both the students and the teachers (see conclusions), but it also requires a significant amount of work for those teachers who are responsible for the project. the reality of comenius projects gutiérrez colón-plana no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) 197 objectives and topics the comenius 1 projects start every two years under an established topic. then, the schools work within specific subtopics that they create. usually a group of schools from different countries work together under the same subtopic. it is interesting to see how the topics of the schools which apply for the comenius projects are different, but their main objectives coincide. the following are the most common aims of the projects: a) to improve students’ and teachers’ second language (in all the cases studied, it was english); b) to reinforce a european community feeling; c) to share the knowledge of other customs and cultures (for example a teacher commented that some catalan students were surprised when they saw that the romanian students addressed the teacher with the use of “usted”, which is the polite form of the personal pronoun); d) to enhance the feeling of community among students at the same centre; e) to motivate students in their learning of a foreign language as well as new subjects; f) to know and understand different cultures (as an example, several teachers commented that many parents did not allow their children to travel to other schools because they did not want their children to live with foreign families; g) to get used to living immersed in another culture to learn about tolerance, patience, and culture. the topics of the projects were completely different from one project to another. these are some of the topics that the schools had chosen to work with: renewable energy; the river llobregat (each school could choose a river in its area), the bands, celebrations, the city of barcelona (cities varied depending on the country), citizenship and democracy, and traditions. the topic areas were chosen and agreed upon by the coordinators at the annual meeting and, each school found a subtopic within the general one. these topic areas only had to meet two very important criteria: 1) all schools had to be able to work comfortably on the chosen topic and 2) the topic had to be broad enough for each school to find its own subtopic. school organisation before we decided to interview the coordinators of the comenius projects, one may believe that these projects had a framework of reference, and teachers only had to follow the guidelines to do the activities. however, after having carried out this research, one can see that each comenius project is a reflection of the energy, imagination the reality of comenius projects gutiérrez colón-plana no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) 198 and willingness to work by the coordinators and their teams. there is no a general plan for the activities or a specific methodology of work. the organisation of each project is done based on the schools’ needs and teachers’ participation: different examples of how schools have adapted the project to their necessities are presented in this paper. while there are schools that have involved all their students in the project (from kindergarten to high school levels), in some centres, the activities were carried out only by one whole class. in other schools, the students involved in the project were only volunteers. in this case, the activities took place at the end of the school day (always guided by a teacher). some centres preferred to choose the participating students, as they felt that the basic criterion to maximize this experience was the level of english, and therefore, just a few students were prepared to participate. some teachers acknowledged that in the beginning, only some volunteer students were involved in the project, but after experiencing the positive results, the coordinators decided to involve all students. in consequence, they organised a comenius meeting every week for each different course to include as many students as possible. one of the characteristics of this type of projects is the exchange of students and teachers between two centres from different countries. a group of teachers is expected to travel abroad and meet their colleagues and set up basic rules for each specific project. if the schools decide that the activity seems interesting enough for their students, they can also plan dates for the students’ exchange. at first glance, this aspect does not seem to be complex; nevertheless, it could be one of the most complex ones according to the gathered data in the interviews. in some schools, due to bureaucratic and economic factors, only the teachers could visit other centres; in other schools, both teachers and students could visit their partners. however, only in one of the centres, the whole class could travel abroad to visit their partners. in all cases, the foreign schools visited the catalan ones. at the end of the term, the teacher must write a detailed report of the work done by students and teachers. according to this report, all the coordinators stated that the work carried out by students and teachers during the course had been quite hard but also rewarding. generally, the schools involved in these projects upload to their website all information related to the activities and how they are being and have been carried out. one of the teachers interviewed explained that the two english teachers involved in the project were overwhelmed by the amount of work related to the project, and at the beginning of the course they expected others would help them upload some information the reality of comenius projects gutiérrez colón-plana no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) 199 to the website. nonetheless, nobody did it; so, they complained because the time was limited to update the page. in this case, we can see how important teamwork is and how significant the need of having big teams working on the same project is. activities as it has been described above, specific guidelines did not exist about how to conduct the project. from the interviews one can understand the coordinators must find and apply interesting and useful activities for all centres and groups. the coordinators use their experience with other european projects and school experiences to help the progress of their students. plenty of activities have been designed and carried out by schools within the comenius projects’ framework. according to the interviews, each school designs different types of tasks in compliance with its level of second language. for example, students prepare christmas cards (the youngest group), newspapers, a book on the theme of the project, blogs, presentations in power point, cd roms with audio files, activities with e-mails, and posters. a couple of schools once even prepared organic meals and traditional dishes for all the school members. organisational and cultural aspects for a better reading and understanding, this data was divided into two sections: 1. “organisational aspects” because they deal with problems related to the organisation of the comenius project at an institutional and school levels. the other section has been called “cultural aspects” because they cope with every day problems at a more personal level. organisational aspects the coordinators emphasised that one of the most problematic aspects that they faced when carrying out the project was the low level of proficiency in english; and most of the students could not accomplish the activities that the teachers had first created. for this reason, teachers often had to carefully adjust the activities that were originally scheduled and agree with the other partner schools. all teachers interviewed agreed that foreign language learning is the major unresolved issue of the education system in our country, and now with this type of projects, the problem is even more evident. for instance, a teacher could explain the reality of comenius projects gutiérrez colón-plana no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) 200 that in finland (as in practically the rest of europe except spain), films and television series are broadcast in english: teacher 1: this is the problem we have with the foreign languages. our children will never learn english if we do not broadcast the simpson in its original version as they do in finland... this is a reality. the pedagogy and methodology that finnish people apply to the acquisition of english as a foreign language is not half as well designed and organised as ours, but we do not obtain any positive results [...] [in finland] when you switch on the television, it can be seen in the original version. teacher 2: did you know that in findland this year it is very popular to study spanish? this year... last summer in finland you could watch los serrano4! in spanish! this is the right way of learning a language! ies la roureda (recording time 30’44’’) this teacher’s criticism about the lack of original versions on tv in our country went even further. he stated that to learn a foreign language, it is very important that it appears frequently in our lives (as the finnish government policy makes possible). according to this teacher, all the effort and money spent in our country on the development of new laws and methodologies for schools do not get any positive result if a foreign language is still seen as a strange element in life. another common problem is the large amount of extra work faced by teachers involved in a comenius project. because the work that has to be done by the students involves many different types of tasks, teachers have to carefully follow all the students’ processes as they complete these assignments. therefore, it happens that a single teacher has been the supervisor of a whole class of about 30 students who were searching for information in books and on the internet, preparing a power point presentation, designing posters, uploading materials to the web, and creating a blog. perhaps due to the knowledge of this large amount of extra work teachers must do, together with an insufficient english level, in many schools there is only a group of two or three teachers who are in charge of the project. this means a significant extra-workload for the volunteer teachers. another negative aspect that broke out in the interviews was the little amount of investment given to each project. the main coordinators’ complaint is that students must often afford their trip and expenses abroad by themselves. even though, nowadays, they can find the reality of comenius projects gutiérrez colón-plana 4 a very popular spanish serial no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) 201 cheaper flights with low-cost airlines, for many families this requires a large financial effort. schools usually pay for the trip of the visiting teachers, but they tend to stay in their colleagues’ homes, saving the school’s money. as well, some of the teachers interviewed thought the comenius projects are being promoted in quantity (that is, the more projects granted the better), leaving the quality in second place. economically, comenius projects do not reach... there’s enough money to the teacher (to travel) but not for the children. it is very lucky for us that these cheap airlines exist, because for example i remember that the cost of the trip for the students was 50 euros, return ticket. ies montfalgars. (recording time: 8’ 32’’) the coordinators of the projects expressed what seems to be a very common problem in many school centres: how some teachers are reluctant to allow their colleagues to leave the school for days to travel abroad. when this happens, the teachers stay in the school and they are in charge of all the tasks that the absent teachers cannot do. they feel that they are responsible for all the tasks, while their colleagues are “on a trip”. the interviewees wanted to make clear that those who complain do not belong to the comenius team, and therefore, they do not know the real tasks that these teachers perform. the root of this problem is the fact that the project does not provide money to pay for a substitute teacher during those periods of time. as we have stated before, the difficulties, problems and negative aspects of the comenius projects are not only organisational. if all the difficulties were of this nature, they could most likely be solved with some years of experience. however, we realised that many of the negative aspects expressed by the coordinators belong to a more complex area. we are talking about culture, customs and education. cultural aspects when teachers were asked about what aspect was one of the most difficult of the project, they all agreed that it was the coordination of various institutions from several countries. obviously, the main reason for this difficulty is the cultural differences and customs of various countries, but in some cases, these differences are big enough that teachers continuously face strains that make their work even harder. the different european school calendars and schedules are one of the major problems that affect these projects. for instance, it is difficult to organise a videoconference or chat (not to mention the the reality of comenius projects gutiérrez colón-plana no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) 202 extracurricular activities) after school because catalan schools end their schedule much later than other european schools. organising a year with different deadlines to exchange tasks with other schools is a very difficult job. the beginning and end of the school calendar, not to mention the holidays, are quite different in each country. these cultural differences are also reflected in the criteria that the coordinators set up to choose the group of students who are going to visit the partner school. it appears that in some countries like romania, the only criteria are the marks; students with the highest marks are rewarded with the comenius visit. in general, in our schools, it seems that the criteria are quite different. if not all students can travel, then the coordinators choose those that they believe will make the most of the experience. if teachers are still not sure about who deserves to go, they make a raffle with all those who want to go. another difficulty that coordinators sometimes face is the fact that some parents do not allow their children to travel abroad nor stay with unknown families. in such cases, teachers try to convince these parents by offering their positive experiences with the project. nevertheless, according to the teachers, most of time, it is difficult to accomplish all the tasks. discussion and conclusions all teachers who were interviewed believe that the experience of the comenius project has been extremely positive. they emphasised the idea that this project not only benefits pupils but teachers as well. according to the coordinators’ interviews, language teachers usually try to create class activities that are as close to a natural setting as possible. within the frame of the comenius project, the natural setting has been introduced to the classroom because the daily work has been transformed into task work and project work to accomplish specific objectives, in which the main goal is to communicate with a partner school where the l1 is different from ours. these real situations that have been brought to the classroom are also starting to appear in other curriculum areas, thus, the students feel more motivated in subjects like history and geography. several different comenius coordinators concluded that the students who participated in these projects no longer saw foreign languages as a compulsory subject but as a necessity to be able to communicate with their colleagues abroad. with this new view, students considered tasks like organisation, summarisation, and preparation of information to present to their comenius partners to be necessary steps for setting proper communication. the reality of comenius projects gutiérrez colón-plana no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) 203 at a more personal level, we also consider it very important to highlight that some of the catalan and foreign teachers have become close friends after several years in contact due to the organisation of the project, as the following quotation shows: with our present comenius partners it is the second time that we work together and we are practically friends. i have stayed at the coordinator’s home and he has stayed in mine. this already implies that we are friends, which means that we can work together in other projects. ies montfalgars. (recording time: 15’ 35’’) although this fact should be considered more like an anecdote than a general characteristic, it should be mentioned because the coordinators who mentioned this friendship also emphasised the idea that this could be very positive for their school because both their colleagues as well as their students could feel this close relationship between schools. another positive aspect is that because the teachers’ and students’ exchanges were carried out within the academic calendar, they could all see and learn how the other school was organised and also learn from their daily work. as an example, we can read in the following quotation how a headmaster from a catalan school explained to us that she was very surprised when she visited britain and learnt that a teacher could never be a headmaster. [...] we can see how different schools work and of course, the school management team... what we understand here as the figure of the headmaster ... there [in england] the school’s headmaster is the manager and director of the company, so he’s the one who makes the decisions. ies pràctiques. (recording time: 19’42’’) the other school that we visited... english ... and we found that one of the tasks that the director performed was to evaluate and control ... he visited all classes taking notes on how the different teachers managed their classes. ies pràctiques. (recording time: 20’35’’) most of the coordinators stated that due to the comenius, the teacher-student relationship had become closer and better. according to their opinions, this was due to the fact that during the project the teacher had to face many new situations and learn from them, making them feel like learners again. likewise they all had to carry out the same task; teachers agreed that the comenius project gave prestige to the school. apparently, there were parents who wanted to know if the school was carrying out a european project when they requested for information on the school before enrolling their children. furthermore, the parents of the reality of comenius projects gutiérrez colón-plana no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) 204 the comenius students were very proud of the work performed by their children and grateful to the teachers. the school is very proud of this [comenius]. during the doors open day parents of future students visit the schools to check if they like it or not... one of the things.... one of the things that make us be more proud of the school is the comenius project... it gives a great deal of prestige to the school[..]. it gives prestige to the neighbourhood, because other schools do not have these types of projects. ies la roureda. (recording time: 14’58’’) finally, the coordinators have also expressed their complaints about some aspects related to the organisation of the comenius project both at an institutional level and at a school level, and about specific problems that arose in the daily work when implementing the project. we can refer to this project as the document which brought to light problems that many schools have, and which sometimes can be extrapolated to our society. these problems may limit the possibilities of the comenius programmes both at international and national levels, and include diverse issues such as the learning of a foreign language by students, educators and a quite significant percentage of the population; the significant amount of the coordinators’ and school teachers’ workload (which prevents them from focusing on projects like this), the little economic support that the comenius project is given, the need of substitute teachers or extra teachers to help with the comenius project, differences in schools’ calendars, and different criteria for choosing the students that will travel overseas. it is interesting to see that our results (qualitative) coincide with those obtained by the large-scale study carried out by the european commission. in this report, there is a table in which we are shown the significant difficulties encountered during the comenius project, and in it, we can see that the first three items in the table (by order of importance) are the following: 1. vast amount of administrative burden arising from the comenius project (37%); 2. lack of acceptance of the project by teachers/colleagues not directly involved (19%); 3. lack of foreign language proficiency of teachers/ colleagues (16%)5 all the material collected has also allowed us to learn a very positive reality about the interviewed schools. we truly believe that the great energy and motivation that comenius coordinators and language teachers promote in these centres should be emphasised. sometimes, the reality of comenius projects gutiérrez colón-plana 5 impact of comenius school partnership on the participant schools. final report. http://ec.europa.eu/education/doc/reports/doc/comeniusreport_en.pdf no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) 205 when we think that nowadays schools and colleges have lost their energy and imagination to innovate in the classroom, we discovered with great pleasure that this is not always the case. there are many teachers who develop and implement new exercises, activities and projects to motivate their students. according to the data collected in these interviews, the image that one can get of the comenius projects are a very positive vehicle to bring new teaching methodologies and activities to the school. such projects involve observing subjects and concepts from a new point of view, implying a shift of objectives and aims and a translation from the theoretical to the practical. the problems identified by the coordinators need a thorough analysis for their improvement. they also need to receive more attention from the institutions. we also believe that they are in part due to the youth and short duration of such projects, but we cannot forget that some things have to change in order to be improved. even with these strains, and after listening attentively to the coordinators’ speeches, we can conclude that the positive aspects of the comenius project definitely tip the scales, not only in favour of the participating students, but also in favour of the teachers involved. without a doubt, this happens on many levels such as educational, social, cultural and personal. references beernaert, y. (2002). report on the evaluation of the action 3.2. in-set courses organised within the framework of action 3 of comenius. european journal of teacher education. 25:1, pp. 41-57. diamantopoulou, a. (2006). the european dimension in greek education in the context of the european union. comparative education, vol 42, n 1, pp 131-151. european comission (2010). sectoral projects: comenius. european comission. education and training. retreived march 20th, 2012 from http://ec.europa.eu/education/projects/llp/guide/structure/ comenius_en.htm european comission (2007). impact of the comenius school partnerships on the participant schools. final report. study on behalf of the european comission, dg education and culture. retreived march 20th, 2012 from http://ec.europa.eu/education/doc/ reports/doc/comeniusreport_en.pdf . the reality of comenius projects gutiérrez colón-plana no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) 206 european comission (2010). lifelong learning-guide for applicants. european comission. education and training. retreived march 20th, 2012 from http://ec.europa.eu/education/projects/llp/guide/ structure/comenius_en.html european comission. education and training (2010). a single umbrella for education and training projects. retreived march 20th, 2012 from http://ec.europa.eu/education/lifelong-learning-project/doc78_3n.html. european comission. education and training. (2010). comenius: europe in the classroom retreived march 20th, 2012 from http:// ec.europa.eu/education/lifelong-learning-project/doc_84_en.htm gordon, j. (2001). the internationalisation of education –schools in europe and the socrates programme. european journal of education, vol. 36, no. 4. liobotton, a; van braak, j, & garofalo, m. (2002). atee interactive co-ordination and educational monitoring of socrates comenius action 3 projects, european journal of teacher education, 25: 1, pp 19-32. mcnamara, carter. (1999). general guidelines for conducting interviews, minnesota. retreived march 20th, 2012 from http://208.42.83.77/evaluatn/intrview.htm . ministerio de educación y ciencia (2007). informe sobre el estado y situación del sistema educativo consejo escolar del estado. secretaria general técnica. subdirección general de información y publicaciones. retreived march 20th, 2012 from http://www. educacion.es/cesces/informe-2005-2006/portada_cd.pdf oapee. (2007). annual report. oapee 2007. spanish national agency for european educational projects. retreived march 20th, 2012 from http://www.oapee.es/documentum/mecpro/ web/weboapee/servicios/publicaciones/memoria/memoria07uk. pdf?documentid=0901e72b8003fd82 . pp 17. oapee. (2008). a single umbrella for education and training projects (2010). annual report. oapee 2008. spanish national agency for european educational projects. retreived march 20th, 2012 from http://www.oapee.es/documentum/mecpro/web/ weboapee/servicios/publicaciones/memoria/memoria-en-ingles. pdf?documentid=0901e72b800b09a2 pp 17. the reality of comenius projects gutiérrez colón-plana no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) 207 appendix 1: interviews with teachers 1. why have you chosen to participate in a comenius project? is it the first time you participate? are there any other project in the school (exchanges, foreign language projects, e-twinning) that may have influence on the comenius project? 2. are you the coordinator country? how many schools participate? which countries? how do you coordinate the different schools? how many meetings with the foreign schools do you plan to have? 3. how many teachers participate in the project? do they belong to the same subject or to different subjects? 4. is the school board an active member of the comenius management team? what is the implication of ampa (parents’ association)? 5. how often is the information given to the school board? 6. how many students participate? do all the students in the school participate? only a group? why? 7. how many hours per week / month are devoted to the project? what tasks are the students required to do? how often? 8. are there any project coordination meetings among teachers participating in the project? how many hours? 9. how have you planned to work in class? individually? in groups? are you planning to do some kind of tutoring or small group work? 10. what kind of feedback do you give? 11. what final tasks do students have to create? what are the objectives of the different tasks? 12. how will you make all the outputs and students’ tasks known by the teaching community? 13. are you going to have a final evaluation of the project in the school? do you take into account the students’ opinions? 14. are you going to have a final evaluation of the project with the other schools? 15. what do you expect of this comenius project? 16. do you think that participation in the comenius project will be useful for students? what things do you think they learn? 17. what aspects do you think will be the easiest and the most difficult of the project? the reality of comenius projects gutiérrez colón-plana no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) 208 appendix 2: teacher questionnaire please put cross in the answer that you think is the most correct. (1 = none, 2 = little, 3 = enough, 4 = a lot) 1. the dissemination of information on the comenius project. of these objectives, which do you think you are going to achieve with the comenius project? 1 2 3 4 total number of answers to foster in students the knowledge and understanding of various european cultures. 0 0 7 7 the learning and understanding of different european languages. 1 4 5 3 increase the use and understanding of english. 0 0 4 9 helping young people develop active european citizenship. 0 3 6 5 helping young people to work together. 0 1 4 9 promote the innovative use of information technologies and communication. 0 0 6 8 further improvement of the pedagogical approaches in the classroom. 0 0 8 5 work some of these themes: arts, environmental education, traditions, struggles against racism, etc.. 0 0 7 7 how is the diffusion of information among the different centres? students of various schools get in touch 1 2 3 4 total number of answers using e-mail 0 1 6 7 through the messenger 5 4 2 2 using blogs 9 2 1 0 using power point presentations 1 0 5 7 through the centre website 2 4 2 5 through a common project website 3 2 2 4 via videoconferencing 5 3 2 0 via post 5 3 1 4 the reality of comenius projects gutiérrez colón-plana no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) 209 2. degree of involvement of the groups involved (teachers, students, relatives, managers). 1 2 3 4 total number of answers the school staff supports the project 0 1 6 7 the board of directors knows and supports the project 0 0 2 12 more than one english teacher is involved in the project. 1 2 3 6 english teachers as well as other subject areas’ teachers are involved in the project. 0 2 5 7 the project helps teachers to improve professionally. 1 0 7 5 participating teachers have a special work permit (their teaching hours are reduced) to coordinate and develop the project. 8 3 2 0 the families know and participate in the project. 0 4 6 4 the students’ suggestions are taken into account when developing the project. 1 3 7 3 the project appears in the school’s web. 0 1 7 6 the teachers and students involved in the project are pleased with the work done together 0 0 2 12 satisfaction with the activities carried out for the project. 0 0 7 7 satisfaction with the students learning 0 0 10 4 satisfaction with the relationship of the schools involved. 0 0 3 11 the reality of comenius projects gutiérrez colón-plana no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) 210 3. coordination and planning of the project 1 2 3 4 total number of answers the coordination among schools is good 0 0 8 6 the preparatory visits are effective 0 0 2 12 the exchange of materials is good. 0 0 6 8 the work’s organization is good. 0 0 6 8 the relationship and sharing of information among different centres is smooth 0 1 9 4 4. the motivation of the groups involved. the participation in a comenius project: 1 2 3 4 total number of answers improves students’ learning outcomes 0 2 11 0 improves the classroom dynamics 0 5 7 2 improves the relationship among students 0 2 10 2 improves the relationship among the teachers 0 2 11 1 helps the families know what is done in the english classroom. 0 4 6 3 motivates teachers in their teaching process. 0 0 9 4 motivates teachers to work harder 0 0 10 3 it helps teachers work in teams. 0 1 9 3 it helps the students work in teams 0 1 7 5 it fosters teamwork among students and teachers 0 2 7 4 makes students appreciate their work 0 0 7 6 the reality of comenius projects gutiérrez colón-plana no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) 211 5. incentives to work in a comenius project. the participation in a comenius project is interesting for teachers because: 1 2 3 4 total number of answers they travel abroad and meet other educational systems. 0 0 2 12 they motivate students with language tasks similar to those carried out in a natural setting 0 0 8 6 they use more active and innovative methodologies. 0 0 8 6 they use new technologies 0 0 5 9 they continually improve their teaching methodology 0 1 6 7 they feel more valued by the headship 1 2 9 1 they feel more valued by the students 2 2 9 0 they feel more valued by the parents 2 2 10 0 6. the socioeconomic level of the school (material and financial resources, access to information technology and communication) and organizational conditions. 1 2 3 4 total number of answers the socioeconomic status of students is good 0 4 9 0 the school has many resources 0 3 11 0 when i need i have access to a computer room and there are enough computers for all the students. 0 0 9 5 the internet connection is very good 0 0 8 6 if i need materials or resources the school provides them for me. 1 1 6 6 the school library is good. 0 1 9 4 i work with small groups of students 0 1 8 4 i cannot spend all the time i would like in the project, because i must follow the textbook. 3 3 7 0 there are coordination meetings within the school timetable 4 1 6 3 students work in pairs / groups outside school hours. 2 8 1 3 the reality of comenius projects gutiérrez colón-plana no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) 212 7. access to ict by students 1 2 3 4 total number of answers most students have computer and internet. 0 1 10 3 most pupils are able to use a word processor. 0 1 6 7 most students are able to use multimedia presentations. 0 3 7 4 most pupils are able to seek information on the web. 0 0 8 6 most students use msn 2 1 6 4 most students use blogs. 8 3 1 1 author * mar gutiérrez colón-plana has a ph.d. in english philology from rovira i virgili university. she has been working as assistant professor in the department of english and german studies at rovira i virgil university. since 1996, she has also been teaching english language at universidad oberta de cataluña. dr. gutierrez is currently the coordinator of the master´s program in foreign language teaching (english as a foreign language). her research interests include second language learning and new technologies. email: mar.gutierrezcolon@urv.cat the reality of comenius projects no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) gist1-2007.indd diversidad lingüística y tolerancia en colombia néstor alejandro pardo garcía abstract this article deals with colombia’s linguistic diversity, and it examines diverse types of discrimination, from the exclusion of some languages in the count of colombian languages to the most subtle examples of discrimination through humor. it also discusses colombian sign language and the different dialects, both social and geographic, spoken in the country. finally it proposes some strategies that could reduce linguistic discrimination. resumen en este artículo se trata la diversidad lingüística de colombia y se examinan diversos tipos de discriminación, desde la exclusión de algunas lenguas en el conteo de lenguas colombianas hasta los más sutiles ejemplos de discriminación a través del humor. se incluye también una mención a la lengua de señas colombiana y a los diferentes dialectos, tanto sociales como geográficos, hablados en el territorio nacional. al final, se plantean algunas estrategias que podrían disminuir la discriminación lingüística. key words: linguistic diversity, sociolinguistics, linguistic imperialism, colombian indigenous languages, colombian languages, humor. palabras clave: diversidad lingüística, sociolingüística, imperialismo lingüístico, lenguas indígenas colombianas, lenguas colombianas, humor. diversidad lingüística en colombia. colombia es un país tradicionalmente poco metropolitano, con bajos índices de inmigración, quizá por la cantidad de dificultades que tienen los extranjeros que quieren ingresar y quedarse en el país, quizá por la situación difícil de orden público. sin embargo, colombia sigue siendo un país profundamente diverso en materia lingüística. en este 11 12 diversidad lingüística y tolerancia en colombia momento, se hablan aproximadamente 65 lenguas indígenas de catorce familias lingüísticas; 2 lenguas criollas: el criollo de san basilio de palenque y el criollo de san andrés y providencia; inglés, también en el archipiélago de san andrés; romanés, la lengua ancestral de los gitanos; lengua de señas colombiana; árabe, en buena parte del territorio colombiano; hebreo, hablado por parte de la comunidad judía en colombia; coreano y chino, hablados por los inmigrantes coreanos y chinos y sus descendientes y muchos otros idiomas de diversas procedencias, además del español, lengua oficial de todo el territorio colombiano. lenguas habladas en colombia en la siguiente página aparece una lista donde se incluyen las lenguas que tradicionalmente se han incluido en la bibliografía, más algunas lenguas que no suelen mencionarse como el romanés y la lengua de señas colombiana. además se incluyen lenguas que si bien se hablan en el país su estatus como lenguas colombianas debe ser confirmado con investigaciones sociolingüísticas rigurosas. dichas lenguas están marcadas con signos de interrogación entre paréntesis. el solo hecho de contar las lenguas del país es ya una tarea difícil. como se sabe, el decidir qué es una lengua y qué es un dialecto es un problema más de corte político que netamente lingüístico; esto se puede ver claramente en el caso de las lenguas tukano orientales habladas en el departamento del vaupés. allí, los hablantes de las diversas lenguas insisten en el hecho de que hablan lenguas distintas, a pesar de que se ha comprobado que en algunas ocasiones las lenguas que hablan son idénticas hasta en un 98% (ardila, o. 1998, 2004). la razón es clara: existe exogamia lingüística, es decir que una persona no se puede casar con otra que hable la misma lengua pues se consideran hermanos. obviamente, allí hay un continuo de 15 variedades con nombres distintos pero que desde el punto de vista léxico-estadístico serían variantes dialectales de una misma lengua. sin embargo, los hablantes insisten en que se trata de lenguas distintas y se debe respetar su punto de vista. entonces, ¿quién decide qué es una lengua y qué es una variedad? esta es una pregunta que no tiene una respuesta obvia. se podría decir que los hablantes saben cuando están hablando una lengua distinta o cuando una variedad dialectal; sin embargo, se ha probado en múltiples ocasiones que esto no es cierto, muchos hablantes no son conscientes de que hablan lenguas diferentes, como en el caso 13 néstor alejandro pardo garcía lenguas semíticas árabe (¿?) hebreo (¿?) lenguas indoeuropeas español inglés francés (¿?) alemán (¿?) romanés lenguas de señas lengua de señas colombiana lenguas criollas criollo de san andrés palenquero / criollo de san basilio de palenque lenguas orientales chino coreano lenguas indígenas familia lingüística lengua arawak achagua baniva kurripako kabiyarí piapoko tariano wayuunaiki yukuna barbacoa awa bora bora miraña muinane nonuya caribe carijona yuko/yukpa chibcha barí kuna chimila damana ika kogui tunebo chocó emberá waunana guahibo cuiba guayabero jitnu sikuani peba yagua yagua makú puinave puinave yujupde kakua nukak jupda familia lingüística lengua quechua inga quechua sáliva piaroa piaroa sáliva tukano occidental koreguaje siona oriental bará barasana cubeo carapana desano macuna pisamira piratapuyo siriano tukano tanimuka tatuyo tuyuca wanano yurutí tupi guaraní cocama geral uitoto ocaina uitoto por clasificar andoque kofán guambiano kamsá nasa-yuwe (paez) tikuna 14 de los criollos en los cuales muchas veces los mismos hablantes no tienen conciencia de que hablan una lengua distinta. pero si no son los hablantes, entonces ¿quiénes pueden decidir? ¿los lingüistas? si la comunidad lingüística gozara de prestigio y autoridad sobre la población esto podría llegar a ser cierto, pero la verdad es que no se ha visto país alguno en el cuál los lingüistas tengan tales atributos, más bien se les llama para preguntarles curiosidades idiomáticas y/o para que anuncien cual es la forma “correcta” de tal o cual expresión. si los lingüistas no gozan de tal prestigio y autoridad real, cualquier intento de su parte de imponer los límites entre lenguas y dialectos se vería, con razón, como una injerencia imperialista que viene desde fuera. la única forma de solucionar este problema es que la sociedad en general y, sobre todo, las personas encargadas de las políticas lingüísticas y educativas del país tengan una formación suficiente en lingüística como para saber que estos conceptos son complejos y ameritan una atención especial. del mismo modo, requerimos de un cuerpo de lingüistas hablantes nativos de las diversas lenguas de colombia, situación que desafortunadamente aún no se da, pues los lingüistas hablantes nativos de lenguas distintas del español son escasos. de otro lado, se encuentran las lenguas habladas en las fronteras y cuyos hablantes no se preocupan mucho de si son colombianos o ecuatorianos /venezolanos /brasileros /peruanos /panameños /nicaragüenses, etc., sino que se mueven con fluidez de acuerdo con la mejoría o el empeoramiento de sus precarias economías. ahora bien, si el hecho de contar las lenguas resulta problemático, decidir qué lenguas son colombianas tampoco es una tarea fácil. empecemos por el concepto de lengua colombiana, ¿son colombianas todas las lenguas que se hablan en colombia? evidentemente si llega un turista sueco con su familia y hablan en sueco mientras visitan el parque nacional natural amacayacú o la catedral de sal en zipaquirá sería un despropósito decir que esta es una lengua colombiana. sin embargo, la cuestión no es tan evidente en todos los casos. por ejemplo, en las décadas de los cuarenta y cincuenta muchos hablantes de árabe que aún tenían el pasaporte turco del extinto imperio otomano llegaron a colombia; en realidad eran sirios, libaneses, jordanos y palestinos, a los que conocemos como la diáspora árabe (los “turcos” en colombia). ahora bien, muchos de ellos se hicieron colombianos, algunos se establecieron con éxito y decidieron quedarse, otros simplemente no tienen un país al cual puedan regresar, como el caso de los palestinos. ellos también son ciudadanos colombianos. sus hijos hablan árabe y los que profesan el islám lo practican con asiduidad dentro de su diversidad lingüística y tolerancia en colombia 15 comunidad religiosa. ¿se puede decir que una lengua que hablan personas nacidas en colombia que nunca han vivido en el exterior sea una lengua “extranjera”? el caso de los hablantes del hebreo también es muy especial. dentro de la comunidad judía se hacen esfuerzos para que los jóvenes hablen hebreo además del español y el inglés. estas personas son colombianas pero reciben instrucción en hebreo desde su infancia; además, toda su tradición religiosa, así como los servicios en los que intervienen tienen el hebreo en un lugar central. muchos miembros de la comunidad judía viajan a israel con relativa frecuencia y se convierten en hablantes muy competentes del hebreo. si son colombianos, viven en colombia, aprenden hebreo desde su infancia y son hablantes fluidos de esta lengua ¿no es el hebreo una lengua colombiana? algo similar se podría decir acerca del yiddish. otra vez, hay aquí un panorama complejo que apenas estamos empezando a vislumbrar, pues las dinámicas son distintas para cada comunidad. por un lado están los chinos y coreanos que, al parecer, pierden su lengua en la tercera generación, mientras que están los japoneses que no pierden su lengua nunca, pues poseen una infraestructura educativa que les permite mantenerla de manera eficiente. están los libaneses católicos, que se integraron rápidamente a la cultura colombiana por su afinidad religiosa con la cultura dominante, y están los palestinos musulmanes cuya integración social y lingüística ha sido más tortuosa. el caso de la lengua de señas colombiana es aún más interesante y merece mención especial. la lengua de señas colombiana –lsc en adelantees la lengua que habla la comunidad con limitaciones auditivas, desde los sordos profundos, hasta los hipoacústicos. esta comunidad presenta características muy especiales; en primer lugar, no es una comunidad muy numerosa, dado que la discapacidad auditiva no es muy común, y además no están localizados en un mismo lugar, así que la comunicación entre sus miembros se torna compleja en algunos casos. las características sociodemográficas de sus miembros pueden ser muy disímiles: hay limitados auditivos ricos, pobres y de clase media; negros, mestizos e indios; de padres con una alta formación académica y con padres con muy baja formación académica; con residencia rural y con residencia metropolitana, etc. además, es una comunidad diferente de las demás en cuanto que, muchas veces, los padres no son miembros de ésta debido a que no tienen la misma discapacidad de sus hijos. todas estas características hacen complejo el trabajo con esta comunidad. néstor alejandro pardo garcía 16 hay otro gran grupo de colombianos que vive en nuestro país y son bilingües: los profesores de idiomas y egresados de los colegios bilingües. en su gran mayoría los colegios bilingües lo son en español e inglés. esto se debe a que se tiene la creencia, justificada en algunos casos, de que quien habla inglés tiene un futuro laboral más promisorio. existen otros colegios bilingües en los que las y los jóvenes salen como hablantes competentes de francés, alemán o italiano. si multiplicamos el numero de egresados por colegio bilingüe, por el número de años que lleva el colegio desde su primera promoción tendremos que las personas bilingües español-inglés en colombia es considerable, esto teniendo en cuenta solamente aquellos que alcanzan niveles de proficiencia muy altos. a esta población habría que añadirle el grupo de personas que viajan a países angloparlantes y que, como resultado de ello, hablan con fluidez inglés, se sabe que el negocio de los cursos de inglés en estados unidos e inglaterra es un negocio multimillonario, lo que querría decir que la población de bilingües va en aumento. más adelante hablaremos de los colegios de educación bilingüe que funcionan para las comunidades indígenas. así que en colombia, como en el resto del mundo se habla un inglés internacional y sería pertinente empezar a hablar de un inglés colombiano. pero aquí no para la cosa, en el español de colombia se pueden encontrar varias zonas dialectales definidas que nos permiten hablar del nariñense –o pastuso-, del bogotano, del boyacense, del llanero, del costeño – de la costa atlánticadel valluno, del paisa, del opita, del tolimense, del santandereano, etc. esto quiere decir que los colombianos tenemos relaciones con otras lenguas y con diversos dialectos de la misma lengua (español colombiano). de otro lado, tenemos lo que se suele llamar dialectos sociales, es decir, dialectos de un grupo o clase social. es evidente para cualquier habitante de la capital colombiana, que el bogotano del obrero de la construcción no es el mismo que el que habla el ministro o el cajero de banco. lo mismo sucede en todas las regiones. aunque para los teóricos el concepto de clase social presente dificultades en su definición, es innegable que la mayoría de los colombianos se pueden ubicar de manera poco problemática en una de las tres clases sociales tradicionales: alta, media y baja. del mismo modo son capaces de distinguir el habla particular de cada clase social, por lo menos cuando los individuos están hablando con miembros de su misma clase en condiciones cotidianas. diversidad lingüística y tolerancia en colombia 17 discriminación y lingüística la discriminación lingüística ha sido y es muy común en nuestro medio. aún hoy muchas personas no son concientes de la gran diversidad lingüística que posee nuestro país, simplemente porque eso no estaba –por lo menos no en todos los casosincluido en los contenidos curriculares de la materia “lenguaje” en los colegios y porque la diversidad (con todo lo que ella implica) no es un tema que se discuta dentro del marco del respeto al otro en el sistema educativo. ¿dónde y cómo podemos ver la discriminación lingüística? en primer lugar, la discriminación lingüística está asociada a un concepto más amplio que es el de imperialismo lingüístico. se entiende por imperialismo lingüístico a toda situación en la cual una lengua foránea se impone sobre las lenguas existentes. es decir que el imperialismo lingüístico es parte del imperialismo. en nuestro caso, históricamente la lengua imperial fue el español, traído por los invasores e impuesto a sangre y fuego en la mayoría de las comunidades de lo que hoy es colombia. si bien es cierto que no se puede saber con certeza cuántas lenguas se hablaban en colombia, se han hecho estimativos que ponen el número en alrededor de trescientos. con la llegada de los españoles se perdieron más de doscientas lenguas, en el conteo más optimista. el español se convirtió en nuestra lengua por imposición y las lenguas que sobrevivieron lo hicieron porque los pueblos que las hablan estaban ubicados, o fueron reubicados, en la periferia de las zonas productivas del país. se puede decir, sin temor a equivocarse, que el mapa de las lenguas indígenas en colombia es el mapa de la pobreza. aquí hay que aclarar algo que no siempre es evidente, cuando hablamos de lenguas no estamos hablando solamente de códigos abstractos, en este ensayo, como en la realidad, las lenguas son códigos usados por gente de carne y hueso que vive en una región determinada con unas condiciones específicas. así pues, las lenguas indígenas de nuestra nación desaparecieron porque sus hablantes fueron exterminados o porque fueron asimilados en el nivel más bajo posible de la sociedad, como fue el caso de los hablantes de muisca, que fueron asimilados como jornaleros, obreros no calificados, empleadas del servicio doméstico o en empleos similares. también desaparecieron las lenguas indígenas a través del mestizaje, pues en el caso de parejas con un hablante de español y un hablante de una lengua indígena, siempre prevaleció el español, en detrimento de la lengua indígena. esta situación no ha cambiado en absoluto. huelga decir que cuando se pierde una lengua no es únicamente el código lo que se pierde, sino que es una cultura, una cosmovisión, una tradición literaria, etc. cada vez que muere el último hablante de néstor alejandro pardo garcía 18 una lengua, muere con él la mayor parte de la cultura de ese grupo, es como si extermináramos a todos los hablantes de español y, de paso, quemáramos todos los libros escritos en esta lengua ¿qué nos quedaría? debemos tener en cuenta que los códigos como tales no generan actitudes o sentimientos homogéneos en la población. los idiomas no son bonitos o feos, románticos o bruscos, dulces o ásperos, lo que sucede es que no podemos desligar a los códigos, de las personas que los hablan, por tanto, nos es imposible pensar en el francés sin remitirnos a la idea que tenemos de los franceses, y así sucesivamente. el imperialismo lingüístico se sigue practicando hoy de muchas maneras, veamos algunas de ellas: español y lenguas indígenas en primer lugar, el español entra en contacto con las lenguas indígenas en las regiones en donde estas lenguas son usadas. a pesar de que la constitución dice que las lenguas indígenas son oficiales en las regiones en donde se hablan, esto se aplica solamente en el papel, pues para los indígenas colombianos es necesario hablar español para poder establecer contacto con los organismos gubernamentales en sus propias regiones. es más, los funcionarios –médicos, odontólogos, empleados de las alcaldías, gobernaciones, etc.se quejan con frecuencia del bajo nivel de español que hablan los indígenas en sus regiones y no se cuestionan, ni por un momento, el hecho de que ellos deberían por lo menos intentar aprender los idiomas de las regiones donde operan. los programas de enseñanza de lenguas indígenas para funcionarios estatales y privados son prácticamente inexistentes; de hecho los cursos de lenguas indígenas sólo se dan en algunas universidades. en el sistema educativo los hablantes de lenguas indígenas son discriminados de muchas maneras. en primer lugar, no hay un sistema que les permita aprender a los niños indígenas en la escuela el español como segunda lengua, lo que quiere decir, que los hablantes no nativos del español están sujetos a aprender con los mismos textos y métodos que los hablantes nativos de éste. lo que obviamente produce resultados deficientes en el proceso de aprendizaje, ya que no se atienden las necesidades de comprensión básicas de los niños. es como si a los hablantes nativos del español que viven en bogotá se les enviara a una escuela cuyos profesores fueran hablantes de tikuna y en donde todas las clases fueran dictadas en este idioma, ¿cómo diversidad lingüística y tolerancia en colombia 19 serían los resultados de ellos con respecto a los hablantes nativos de tikuna? en general, los programas de educación intercultural bilingüe son programas de transición en los cuales los alumnos pueden, en el mejor de los casos, alfabetizarse en español y en su lengua nativa. sin embargo, los conocimientos, tanto de la cultura dominante, como de su propia cultura generalmente son dados en español, pues no hay materiales para trabajar en las diversas lenguas colombianas. es decir, que no hay series de textos o guías de matemáticas, ciencias naturales, ecología, etc. en la lengua nativa de los estudiantes bilingües y, por consiguiente, el componente de lengua indígena se limita a los primeros grados de educación primaria, casi exclusivamente a cartillas de lecto-escritura. si bien las cartillas de lecto-escritura son fundamentales para el desarrollo de programas de educación intercultural bilingüe habría que pensar en desarrollar planes más ambiciosos. indiscutiblemente hay instituciones y personas que trabajan para lograr proveer materiales en las diversas áreas del conocimiento preparadas para las comunidades indígenas, pero estos procesos son lentos y resultan muy costosos, toda vez que aún hacen falta muchos hablantes nativos de estas lenguas que sean profesionales en educación en las diferentes áreas. además, hay que tener en cuenta que muchas de estas lenguas apenas cuentan con una descripción muy básica de su sistema gramatical, y para poder desarrollar material escrito en y sobre la lengua se necesita un conocimiento sistemático y sólido, es decir, se necesitan los resultados de investigaciones lingüísticas serias que se puedan aplicar tanto al área de lengua como a las demás áreas del conocimiento. si las lenguas no se pueden separar de las personas que las hablan debemos hablar del racismo/clasismo que persiste aún en nuestro país. si los indígenas siguen entrando a la sociedad dominante para ocupar los niveles socioeconómicos más bajos de ella, siempre van a ser discriminados, por lo tanto, se debe fomentar el ingreso y egreso exitoso de los miembros de comunidades indígenas a la educación superior. además, se deben poner en práctica políticas que propendan por el respeto de las comunidades ancestrales. esto se lograría con programas que hicieran evidente que debemos romper los estereotipos de indio que tenemos, para generar un respeto real al otro. la lengua de señas colombiana (lsc) por la misma naturaleza de la comunidad de hablantes de lsc hasta hace algunas décadas se consideraba en muchos ámbitos que el niño con discapacidad auditiva sufría algún tipo de atraso en su desarrollo néstor alejandro pardo garcía 20 cognitivo, lo que lo marginaba de la escuela. además, no existían programas especializados para los niños de esta comunidad, lo que desafortunadamente causó que muchos de los miembros de ésta no tuvieran acceso adecuado al sistema escolar, con todos los problemas sociales y personales que esto puede acarrear. asimismo, para muchos padres era angustioso que sus hijos no pudieran comunicarse, lo que los llevó a tratar unos sistemas de oralización que no siempre fueron exitosos. como si todo lo anterior fuera poco, la ignorancia reinante, aún en los departamentos de lingüística de las universidades del país, no ayudó en mucho. el estatus de lengua para la lsc no estaba, y no está aún, claro para muchas personas. muchas de estas personas conciben la lengua de señas como una forma de deletrear con las manos el español escrito, en cuyo caso no sería una lengua sino un sistema de “escritura” dependiente del español, algo así como el sistema braile de los limitados visuales. nada más lejos de la realidad, la lsc es una lengua que no depende de ninguna otra, posee su propia fonología, morfología, sintaxis, semántica y pragmática. tiene variaciones regionales y evoluciona. en este momento, cuando la comunidad de hablantes de lsc empieza a tener acceso sistemático a la educación superior con toda seguridad la lengua de señas va a modificarse y a enriquecerse con los tecnolectos propios de cada profesión y, del mismo modo, va a adquirir mayor visibilidad social. la situación se vislumbra mejor para la comunidad de hablantes de lsc. hay programas de apoyo para la inserción de los niños en el sistema educativo primario y medio, las universidades empiezan a asumir su responsabilidad con los hablantes de lsc. el insor y otras instituciones y asociaciones de limitados auditivos trabajan para sensibilizar a los hablantes del español acerca de la naturaleza de la lsc. ahora se necesitan lingüistas dedicados a la lsc, ojalá hablantes nativos de lsc, se necesita que miembros de la comunidad hablante de lsc ocupen puestos de poder en instituciones de todo tipo para que se dé un cambio de actitud ante la discapacidad auditiva, además del reforzamiento de las políticas estatales en este campo. dialectos de colombia dialecto es cualquier variación en la lengua que esté relacionado con el lugar dónde se habla. toda lengua con muchos hablantes tiene variaciones dialectales, en tanto que sus hablantes no pueden vivir en el mismo lugar. (cf. montes, 1982). como ya dijimos en el español colombiano hay muchos dialectos regionales, y muchos diversidad lingüística y tolerancia en colombia 21 microdialectos dentro de estos dialectos regionales. ahora bien, estos dialectos están lejos de ser juzgados de la misma manera socialmente. en colombia hay un dialecto que se considera como el español colombiano estándar. por razones históricas este dialecto es el español bogotano de clase media alta, pues es en esta franja donde se ha concentrado el poder y el prestigio desde los inicios mismos de la nación. podemos comprobar fácilmente cuáles son las características de esta variedad cuando vemos cómo hablan los y las presentadoras más importantes de los medios de comunicación nacionales. ahora bien, el tener un estándar no tendría mucho problema si no viniera acompañado de la discriminación de los otros dialectos, vistos como formas de hablar de gente poco educada o francamente estúpida. es así como para caracterizar a una persona tonta se le atribuye el dialecto pastuso, el dialecto boyacense o el costeño. para comprobar esto hace unos semestres hice un experimento con los alumnos de mi clase de sociolingüística de la universidad nacional. redactamos un texto acerca de un tema de economía que planteaba las ventajas y desventajas de cobrar impuestos a los terrenos baldíos. modificamos el texto base levemente para tener cuatro versiones ligeramente diferentes. revisamos las versiones y comprobamos que eran claras y estaban bien escritas. hicimos grabaciones de las cuatro versiones en cuatro dialectos: bogotano de clase media, paisa, costeño y pastuso. ya con las grabaciones nos dedicamos a hacer una encuesta muy sencilla; pusimos a diversas personas a escuchar los cuatro párrafos y a que nos dijeran cuál creían que era la propuesta más inteligente y más claramente expuesta. según los entrevistados la mejor propuesta era la bogotana, seguida de cerca de la paisa, después venía la costeña y la que recibió menos puntaje fue la pastusa. esto muestra claramente cómo los oyentes desprevenidos juzgan incluso el contenido de lo que escuchan más por como suena el hablante que lo emite, que por el contenido mismo. es necesario volver a un asunto que resulta de actualidad hoy en día: la relación entre humor y discriminación, tanto la social como la lingüística. se dice, creo que con razón, que los colombianos somos personas de muy buen humor y rápidas para hacer y comprender chistes de toda índole. se sabe, así mismo, que el humor es un recurso para hacer críticas políticas y para decir verdades que muchas veces no se pueden expresar en otros escenarios, de allí que no pocos humoristas han sido amenazados y hasta asesinados en nuestro país. lo que generalmente no se tiene en cuenta es que el humor de una comunidad, de una u otra manera refleja la posición ideológica de dicha comunidad. es decir, que hay algunas cosas de las cuales néstor alejandro pardo garcía 22 yo puedo hacer chistes y otras de las cuales los chistes no estarán bien recibidos. cuando un grupo hace chistes acerca de otro grupo de manera sistemática y alude a características negativas del mismo indiscutiblemente lo está discriminando. la excusa de que se trata solo de un chiste no es procedente. así pues, el chiste como acto de habla se constituye en una de las formas más claramente evidentes de discriminación social y lingüística. veamos, en grupos en los cuales se respeta a la comunidad afro-colombiana no se hacen chistes en donde se estereotipe al negro como un ser perezoso y falto de talento. sin embargo, en grupos racistas en colombia se tiende a decir algo como “yo no soy racista, es solo un chiste”. la verdad es que si no fuera racista, ni siquiera consideraría que un insulto a una comunidad es un chiste. el componente lingüístico es clave en la mayoría de chistes racistas en nuestro país. en cartagena cuando se va a hacer un chiste de alguien sucio o ignorante se empieza con “había una palenquerita…”. en el interior del país pasa algo parecido con los negros provenientes de las dos costas. hay chistes que hablan de los pastusos como tontos, de los tolimenses como lentos, etc. etc. ni que hablar de los indígenas, objeto de infinitos chistes desde siempre. lo mismo sucede con los dialectos sociales o sociolectos, los chistes abundan cuando se trata de gente pobre. en la mayoría de los casos quien cuenta el chiste debe imitar el acento de la persona para acentuar el efecto histriónico del chiste. huelga decir que son muy escasos los chistes en los que se caricaturiza a los bogotanos de clase media que hablan el español considerado el estándar colombiano. conclusiones existen diversos tipos de discriminación lingüística en colombia. algunos ni siquiera han sido considerados; por ejemplo, la no inclusión de algunas lenguas en el inventario de las lenguas colombianas es un caso de discriminación, en los inventarios lingüísticos del país raramente se incluye a la lengua de señas colombiana, para no hablar de otras lenguas como el árabe mencionado con anterioridad. el número de lenguas colombianas está lejos de ser claro. la discusión está abierta. ¿estamos condenados a ser discriminados o discriminadores por siempre? no necesariamente, la situación sí puede cambiar. lo primero es, nuevamente, hacer que en los medios y demás instancias de poder haya personas de todas las procedencias. esto entraría lentamente en la mente de los oyentes y los acostumbraría a escuchar a todo mundo de manera más o menos ecuánime. de otro lado, se necesitaría que diversidad lingüística y tolerancia en colombia 23 se establecieran políticas que propendan por el respeto de todos los colombianos y que involucren las instancias de mayor impacto social: los medios de comunicación, el sistema escolar en todos sus niveles, los organismos de control, etc. el camino hacia la justicia social y al respeto del otro pasa por lo lingüístico –aunque, obviamente, no se agota allí. el reto de construir una sociedad tolerante e incluyente no se puede lograr a través de un lenguaje irrespetuoso, estigmatizador y excluyente. los esfuerzos de los grupos discriminados por hacerse a una voz y por parar los actos de habla que denigran de ellos son loables y deben ser estimulados. no se trata de reducir la riqueza del lenguaje ni de ser menos graciosos, se trata de respetar y hablar con respeto. las caricaturas del lenguaje políticamente correcto son los últimos coletazos de una sociedad que siente como una pérdida el hecho de no poder burlarse de los que sufren algún tipo de discriminación. referencias ardila, o. 2004. lingüística aborigen colombiana. la problemática de las lenguas tucano. revista forma y función 17. departamento de lingüística. universidad nacional de colombia. . 1998. aspectos fonológicos de las lenguas tucano-orientales: una visión comparativa. revista forma y función 11. departamento de lingüística. universidad nacional de colombia. gonzález de pérez, m. & rodríguez de montes, m. (eds.) 2000. lenguas indígenas de colombia. una visión descriptiva. bogotá: instituto caro y cuervo. montes giraldo, j. 1982. dialectología general e hispanoamericana. bogotá: instituto caro y cuervo. néstor alejandro pardo garcía es profesor asistente universidad nacional de colombia. en el departamento de lingüística. además profesor catedrático en unica. m.a. linguistics. the university of texas en austin. licenciado universidad pedagógica nacional. correo electrónico: nalejo97@yahoo.com néstor alejandro pardo garcía 7 re se ar ch a rti cle s transnationals becoming english teachers in mexico: effects of language brokering and identity formation1 transnacionales convirtiéndose en docentes de inglés en méxico: efectos de la mediación lingüística y la formación de la identidad irasema mora pablo, leonardo arturo rivas rivas, m. martha lengeling and troy crawford2* universidad de guanajuato, universidad nacional autónoma de méxico, extensión san miguel de allende, méxico abstract the objective of this research was to explore the effects of language brokering upon identity formation within the family unit of students who have lived in the united states for a period of time and have come back to live in mexico. the participants are six students that are currently undertaking a ba in tesol (teaching of english to speakers of other languages) at a large public university in central mexico. findings from interviews, following a narrative approach, seem to show that these participants’ experiences as language brokers are highly valuable when they decide to become english teachers. most of them decide to become english teachers because they want to help others to learn the language and bring those experiences into the classroom. keywords: language brokering, identity construction, narrative inquiry, transnational gist education and learning research journal. issn 1692-5777. no. 10, (january june) 2015. pp. 7-28. 1 received: dec. 15, 2014 / accepted: april 13, 2015 2 imora@ugto.mx, leorivas.unam@gmail.com, lengelin@ugto.mx, crawford@ugto.mx no. 10 (january june 2015) no. 10 (january june 2015) 8 resumen el objetivo de esta investigación fue explorar los efectos de la mediación del lenguaje en la formación de identidad dentro del núcleo familiar de estudiantes que han vivido en los estados unidos por un periodo de tiempo y han regresado a vivir a méxico. los participantes son seis estudiantes que actualmente están cursando un programa de pregrado en licenciatura en enseñanza del inglés en una universidad pública en el centro de méxico. los hallazgos a partir de entrevistas, siguiendo un enfoque narrativo, parecen indicar que las experiencias de estos participantes como mediadores del lenguaje son altamente valoradas cuando deciden convertirse en profesores de inglés. la mayoría de ellos deciden convertirse en profesores porque quieren ayudar a otros a aprender el idioma y traen esas experiencias al salón de clases. palabras clave: mediadores del lenguaje, construcción de identidad, investigación narrativa, transnacional resumo o objetivo desta pesquisa foi explorar os efeitos da mediação da linguagem na formação de identidade dentro do núcleo familiar de estudantes que viveram nos estados unidos por um período de tempo e regressaram ao méxico para morar. os participantes são seis estudantes que hoje em dia estão cursando um programa de graduação em licenciatura em ensino de inglês em uma universidade pública no centro do méxico. as descobertas a partir de entrevistas, seguindo um enfoque narrativo, parecem indicar que as experiências destes participantes como mediadores da linguagem são altamente valorizadas quando decidem converter-se em professores de inglês. a maioria deles decidem converter-se em professores porque querem ajudar outros a aprender o idioma e trazem essas experiências à sala de aulas. palavras chave: mediadores da linguagem, construção de identidade, pesquisa narrativa, transnacional transnationals becoming english teachers mora, rivas, lengeling & crawford no. 10 (january june 2015) no. 10 (january june 2015) 9 introduction this study explores the effects of language brokering upon identity formation of six students currently undertaking a ba in tesol (teaching of english to speakers of other languages) at a large public university in central mexico. they acquired english in the united states as the children of immigrants and at the same time maintained their spanish by speaking it at home, with their families. they lived in the united states for an extensive period of time and have returned to live in mexico, where they are now employed as english teachers. in order to know their present, it is necessary to look at their previous experiences. these past experiences are connected with social and economic reasons which led their parents to make the decision to migrate to the united states, seeking a better life for their children. in most of the cases, these parents did not learn english and they relied on their kids to communicate with others, creating a new role for them as language brokers. the complex socio-political relationship between mexico and the united states has created the constant migration of mexicans looking for the “american dream” for many years. some of these migrants succeed; some others face more problems in the host country than in their homeland, due to their lack of knowledge of english, or the difficulties of adapting to a new culture. in the case of these six participants, they started taking on a more active role in the community and they started living in “bilingual worlds” mainly with spanish at home and english outside their homes, as the dominant language of the community. this article will present the students’ voices, showing their conflicts and challenges during their childhoods. these voices also show the role of language brokering and its relationship to their future identity formation. literature review transnationalism authors in different fields have used the term transnationalism to signify different phenomena (levitt & waters, 2002). however, for the purposes of this study, the term has been used to characterize the dense social networks that go beyond the national borders, created by the physical, emotional and economic movement of individuals and families, between countries and cultures (binford, 2000). the emergent approaches in migration theory describe transnational communities as: transnationals becoming english teachers mora, rivas, lengeling & crawford no. 10 (january june 2015) no. 10 (january june 2015) 10 ...dense networks across political borders created by immigrants in their quest for economic advancement and social recognition. through these networks, and increasing number of people are able to live dual lives. participants are often bilingual, move easily between different cultures, frequently maintain homes in two countries, and pursue economic, political and cultural interests that require their presence in both. (portes, 1997, p. 812) transnationalism is not the same as immigration. hornberger (2007) states that “…the latter involves a more permanent affiliation with the host country and separation from the home country while the former may imply no long-term intention to stay beyond what is economically necessary” (p. 326). therefore, transnationalism can lead to a process of ‘becoming other’ to both home and host national-cultural contexts (trueba, 2004), implying the development of transnational identities and social relations. this would mean that transnationals need to develop certain abilities that allow them to negotiate at the same time multiple contexts within local positions, which can become a cumulus of community contexts (zúñiga, 2000) that symbolically end up becoming a decontextualized cultural limbo. for a long time, mexico and the united states have had a difficult socio-political relationship. as a country, mexico is in the first place as an “expeller” country (www.data.worldbank.org). with the difficulties in the economy in the united states, many immigrants have returned to mexico. according to national institute of statistics, geography and information (instituto nacional de estadística, geografía e informática, inegi, 2010), 350,719 people returned to mexico in 2010, and about 48.8% of this population is between 20 to 34 years old. this means they are considered to be in a productive stage of their lives, meaning that they are at an age when they can work in different areas. this type of people are the participants who are part of this research. they are young adults who were raised in the united states with the role of language brokers, but now they have returned to mexico seeking a better future because they cannot go back to the united states for various reasons. some of them returned to mexico because they were deported, and some others because they could not find school opportunities due to their illegal status in the united states. in this situation of growing up in two countries without a legal status in one, children start developing their identities, by mirroring the dominant community. suárez-orozco (2000) explain this as “… all human beings are dependent upon the reflection of themselves mirrored back to them by others” (p. 213). sometimes this mirroring can be positive or negative. this can give us a better idea of how these transnationals becoming english teachers mora, rivas, lengeling & crawford no. 10 (january june 2015) no. 10 (january june 2015) 11 former immigrant children start developing a sense of fragmented identity which may include feeling part of the community or feeling rejected (petrón, 2009). while doing this, they are asked to perform as translators or interpreters for their parents, which contributes to their sense of rejection, or not, to the community and the language because these children enter a new culture and acquire the language without formal instruction. also, it alters the family status as they are placed in an unorthodox power position when translating for their parents. language brokering and the conflict of identity language brokering occurs when immigrant parents rely on their bilingual children to translate or interpret any given circumstance, whether spoken or written, since the parents are not speakers of the country’s native language (buriel, perez, dement, chavez, & moran, 1998; love & burial, 2007; morales & hanson, 2005; villanueva & buriel, 2010; weisskirch & alatorre, 2002). language brokering is the communication process where “individuals with no formal training (often children of immigrant families) linguistically mediate for two or more parties (usually adult family members and individuals from mainstream culture)” (kam, 2011, p 455). furthermore, playing the role of language brokers can lead these kids to experience complex and “adult-like” situations. for this reason, in 2002, california law makers introduced a bill to the state legislature prohibiting children from translating and interpreting in medical, legal, and social service settings (coleman, 2003). this role as language brokers can lead them to a sense of conflict of identity. the concept of conflict in identity development was elaborated by erikson (1963). he states that “it is crucial for children to be surrounded by a supportive social environment so that they can appropriately develop a positive sense of who they are” (as cited in brown, 2009, p. 4). in forming identity, there can be confusion and conflicts due to being able to establish a positive identity in the eyes of others and for not accomplishing personal values and expectations from two different cultures (hornberger, 2007). when being in the united states, transnationals are constantly reminded that they are not part of the culture, but when returning to their place of origin (mexico), they do not meet the expectations of this culture either (mora pablo, 2011a). yet, they return with a language skill that is in demand in the mexican educational system. transnationals becoming english teachers mora, rivas, lengeling & crawford no. 10 (january june 2015) no. 10 (january june 2015) 12 in order to be recognized by the community, a social group should be seen to be distinctive —itself— by others. a sense of ethnicity can only arise in the context of relationships and interaction with others (skeggs, 2008). “without difference, there is no similarity. defining us implies —if nothing stronger— an image of them” (jenkins, 2002, pp. 120-121). this is similar to what happens with the participants’ identity formation. their ambivalent feelings towards an american or mexican ethnic group make it difficult to define who they are and who they want to be in the future (taniguchi, 2002). according to gutierrez (1987), groups tend to name themselves (and are given these names by society as well) using hyphens such as mexican-americans, italianamericans, polish-americans and afro-americans. as murillo (1999) states, “the modern concept of community, based on the nation-state, common language, and experience has long become incapable to gain an understanding of the fragmented and often paradoxical identities that are negotiated between worlds” (p. 16). in this study, these participants have lived in two countries, they speak both languages but they do not completely meet the expectations of both communities, on either side of the border. however, they are forced at some point in their lives to serve as translators for their parents so they can survive in the host community of the united states. but when they are back in mexico, they are aware of this cultural and linguistic capital they possess and that makes them have an edge over those who do not have it and there are no legal restrictions, they are at an age of more social autonomy. as petrón (2009) suggests, these transnationals are “immediately classified as native speakers of english because of their fluency and native or native-like pronunciation” (p. 118). this is when they start to be questioned as not being mexican enough. zentella (2002) discusses that the problem with “transnationals” is that their ethnic identity starts to be questioned, because they are considered “ni de aquí ni de allá” (not from here, nor from there). this can be traced at different levels and one of them is at a linguistic level, in which the so-called gringos, pochos (meaning americanized mexicans) or “mexico-americanos” can face the linguistic pressure of losing their mother tongue (spanish), acquiring a new language (english) and then re-learning their mother tongue once they return to mexico (mora pablo, 2011b). as in petrón’s study (2009), these transnationals “[…] have been able to trade their transnational cultural capital for both economic and social advancement” (p. 118). this means that they have become english teachers even before they started their undergraduate studies in tesol, mainly because they were acknowledged as having an advantage over other potential teachers: they were considered native speakers of english and this was enough to qualify them as english teachers. transnationals becoming english teachers mora, rivas, lengeling & crawford no. 10 (january june 2015) no. 10 (january june 2015) 13 methodology research design the research approach was qualitative in nature. according to maycut and morehouse (1994), qualitative research “examines people’s words and actions in narrative or descriptive ways closely representing the situation as experienced by the participants” (p. 2). our research was also based upon narrative inquiry. nakamura (2002) mentions that “narrative inquiry is about building public expression of personal understanding of the events, experiences, and people in our professional lives […]” (p.117). in order to be able to understand and explain the statements of an interviewee/biographer concerning particular topics and experiences in his/her past, it is necessary to interpret them as part of the overall context of his/her current life and his/her resulting present and future perspective (rosenthal, 2007). this approach was the most suitable for the study since the main intention was to know the experiences that contribute to identity formation. webster and mertova (2007) emphasise, “narrative allows researchers to present experience holistically in all its complexity and richness. narrative illustrates the temporal notion of experience, recognising that one’s understanding of people and events changes” (p. 2). the following are the questions which guided our research: 1) what experiences have led these transnationals to choose a ba in tesol? 2) why do they want to become english teachers? our focus in this article is to explore how these participants’ experiences as language brokers played an instrumental part when they decided to become english teachers and during their identity formation context and participants the participants taking part in this project include six males between the ages of 19 and 29. they were all born in mexico and as young children migrated to the united states, specifically to the area of california and oregon. they lived in the united states an average of 17 years, but always maintained contact with their home country through relatives, cultural and linguistic practices. after a number of years, they returned to mexico. the reasons were varied: some of them were deported because they had problems with the police, as they were part of gangs; some others decided to return to mexico because they did not have a legal status in the united states and they were aware of transnationals becoming english teachers mora, rivas, lengeling & crawford no. 10 (january june 2015) no. 10 (january june 2015) 14 their difficulties to begin university degree programs. at the moment of the research, they had been living in mexico between one-to-three years. the research site is the language department of a large public university in central mexico, where the participants are studying an inservice tesol ba program. data collection instruments at an initial stage, participants were asked to write a short autobiography that served the purpose of a starting point of narrative inquiry. second, they were interviewed and recorded based upon relevant information from the autobiographies. for these interviews, we decided to adopt a life-story approach; that is, we drew upon an analysis concept, where we distinguished not only between the perspective of the interviewee in the past, but also the present (jaatinen, 2007). the interviews were recorded, transcribed, coded and analyzed. pseudonyms were given to the six participants in order to ensure the participants’ privacy. data analysis and interpretation the process of analysing the data was on-going and there were moments where we went back and forth between the autobiographies and the interview transcriptions. as part of the narrative analysis, we relied on paradigmatic cognition, which entails “classifying a particular instance as belonging to a category or concept” (polkinghorne, 1995, p. 9). we looked for similarities in the data and then grouped them in a same category. barkhuizen (2013) mentions that “thematic analyses follow the paradigmatic procedures of coding for themes, categorizing these and looking for patterns of association among them” (p. 11). the data used for this article is part of a larger study of return migration and their incorporation into the mexican educational system at the university level. results two main themes emerged from the data. the first theme is related to the beginning of their journey as bilinguals in a new country and how their parents established a language policy at home, in an effort to maintain their mexican heritage. the second theme refers to their experiences of how this language policy at home established by their parents was not followed when these needed help from their kids transnationals becoming english teachers mora, rivas, lengeling & crawford no. 10 (january june 2015) no. 10 (january june 2015) 15 and how this ability to use both languages influenced their decision to become language teachers. both themes revealed the complex identity formation of transnational bilinguals during their childhood, and how they project this in their current lives. first contact with both languages: forming identity often, children are the first to start using and mastering the language of the new country in public domains. this use thus makes the children take on the face of the family (buriel, perez, dement, chavez, & moran, 1998; hanson & morales, 2005; love & burial, 2007; villanueva & buriel, 2010; weisskirch & alatorre, 2002). in spite of the aforementioned, at home, parents often have a contradictory rule of first language only. craith (2012) explains that migrants may choose to use their native language but also learn or use the host country’s language to use it only when necessary. arriagada (2005) also notes that once english is accepted as the dominant language in public, the family’s native language will be used in more intimate settings, such as the home. mario, one of the participants in this study, states the following: well, ever since i can remember my dad he was very strict. he used to tell us “hey you know, at home you are going to be using spanish, ‘cus in school you’re gonna learn english more.” so he was very strict with us using spanish. in this excerpt it can be noted that the participant’s father made it clear that at home the language was spanish. furthermore, it seems as though the father justifies this use by stating that at school the participant will learn english. at home spanish is used as a language of maintenance (fishman, 1991; holmes, 2013; schecter & bayley, 1997). this situation may be a reason that also allowed the participants to become language teachers, as it will be explained later. since they have always been in contact and open to use english and spanish depending on the people they are surrounded with, it seems as though it would not be very difficult for the participants to switch between english and spanish and explain language to their students. nick recalls a similar situation at home: “my mother and my father didn’t want us speaking much english at home. they wanted us to speak spanish. we had to learn spanish”. in this case, the participant’s parents also justified the use of spanish at home and the following represents this: transnationals becoming english teachers mora, rivas, lengeling & crawford no. 10 (january june 2015) no. 10 (january june 2015) 16 now i know that this is because his brother had children and they didn’t speak any spanish and they were already teenager adults. they spoke really horrible spanish because they didn’t practice it while they were in the united states. they just spoke english, so he wanted us to speak spanish at home and we could speak english at school. it was my home, my home was really spanish centered. nick recalls that his uncle’s children were the reason why his father wanted them to use spanish so they could maintain their language and perhaps even their culture and ethnic heritage. he reflects on this as a positive influence on his current self-image and identity, when he says: in my family i feel powerful because out of all my cousins i am the most developed in both spanish and english. i’m the most developed in both spanish and english! the rest either speak mostly english or speak mostly spanish. by the time i left [esl classes], i was more proficient in the english language than the average student at school and since i was excelling in english because all of the drilling of practices. i was lead into honors class in english and that lead me to appreciate english even more. i came from not knowing enough to know more than the average student at school. this positive change in his use of english led nick to establish a positive image of himself and boosted his self-confidence. alba, logan, lutz and stults (2002) mention that some families recognize the advantages for being a bilingual and will work to help maintain their native language while children learn english at school. this could perhaps be a reason why some of the participants’ parents decided to use spanish at home. further, their families seem to be creating unity through their private language or perhaps maintaining authority over their children through language limitations. ready and brown-gort (2005) mention that “the latino family has a powerful influence on its members, and familial ties and loyalties probably exert an influence that is even more powerful than is typically observed in many nonlatino families” (p. 34). essentially, the participants’ parents are forcefully limiting which language their children are to use at home; it can be noted that they seem to be strict about it. consequently, during the participants’ childhood they became expert users of both spanish and english which may directly correlate with the fact that they are language teachers and also the ease and comfort they feel when using the languages. on the contrary, samuel had a somewhat different case or approach to the use of spanish at home: transnationals becoming english teachers mora, rivas, lengeling & crawford no. 10 (january june 2015) no. 10 (january june 2015) 17 with my parents, especially with my mom, i tried to speak more spanish to her because she wasn’t able to understand english that much. as to my father, he did kinda speak but the language there was mostly spanish just to make it easier for my parents. in this excerpt, a different tone can be noticed. it seems as if the decision of which language to use at home did not depend on his parents but on the participant himself. samuel seems to be taking an empathetic role with his parents in this moment of his life and as a consequence, he might find this empathetic expertise an innate ally in the classroom as a language teacher today. regarding which language was used with siblings, ivan recalls the following: “well, when she (my mother) wasn’t home and it was just me, my brother and my sister we would speak english but when she was home it was spanish.” mario mentions the following about which language he used with his siblings: on the side, you know, behind his back (referring to his father), i guess you can say like that my sister and i used english all the time. and even today we use both english and spanish. you know in one minute here we are talking in spanish and the next minute we are talking in english about the same topic. oscar recalls: with my mom, my dad, and my brothers i spoke spanish, with my older sister, and my older brother in english. they’ve been in the us for about, probably over thirty years. both mario and oscar had a specific language for different family members. this might indicate that the participants have developed and adopted different identities for different people based on their language. regarding spanish use at home, the participants were clearly limited by their parents. some of them justified why they could only speak spanish. nonetheless, it appears as though some of the participants disregarded parental rules about language whenever they saw an opportunity, particularly when speaking with siblings. it is possible that the participants were more comfortable with the use of english because they were growing up with the language and their parents were just an element that allowed them to maintain their mexican heritage through transnationals becoming english teachers mora, rivas, lengeling & crawford no. 10 (january june 2015) no. 10 (january june 2015) 18 perhaps their language. ivan questioned his mother at one point on the issue: well, we would sometimes like, i don’t know, question her about that. we would say “how come all we can speak at home is spanish and whenever we go out we have to speak english or you ask us to speak english?” and she would tell us: “no, cus i’m your mother. just do what i say.” this participant was the only one who mentioned having questioned the rule of spanish only at home; the others did not question the matter. while for some participants spanish at home was mandatory, others chose to do it in order to facilitate family affairs. moreover, the rule of spanish only at home was broken once the parents were not around which is an indication of not only the different roles they had in their house but also the different identities they were building at this time period in their lives. however, the rule of spanish at home started to take another direction when these transnationals were asked to perform a new role for the family, as language brokers, as it will be explored in the following section. language brokering all of the participants conducted language brokering in the united states starting at an early age, continuing into their adolescence and even in young adulthood in the united states. through their narratives, they recounted their experiences by mentioning difficult moments which can be recognized as communication barriers, but that indicate the beginning of their experiences as language brokers. nick recalls an episode that shows the moment when he decided that he needed to learn english in order to be accepted in the new community while in the united states. he and his mother faced a difficult moment when asking for a glass of water from an american: …she [my mother] asked me “well, since you are being educated here in the us you should at least know how to ask for a cup of water.” so that’s when she told me “ask them.” i didn’t know how to ask for water. i had not learned a lot of english so i told them. i just made signs. i pretended i had a cup in my hand and i opened my mouth and i did the action of drinking water. it’s like “me want water” and they didn’t understand. i said “ooohh.” finally they understood and they passed us, they gave us a cup of water and we went on our way. that was the first incident when i was like “oh god, i never want to be in that situation again. i have to learn english in order to communicate and just survive.” transnationals becoming english teachers mora, rivas, lengeling & crawford no. 10 (january june 2015) no. 10 (january june 2015) 19 this difficult experience influenced him to learn the language so that he would never feel embarrassed again and would get past the language barrier that he had to confront. but more importantly the link between language and social survival became evident. another participant, oscar, narrates a moment when he was asked to translate for his parents: i did it a few times, when my mom used to go to the doctor. i used to translate for her, and for my dad. i used to work with him and he didn’t know much english, so i used to translate for him and we also had a family business, and my dad had two employees, and sometimes whenever he wanted to say something, or bitch at people he would get me, “like tell this guy to…, that he’s not doing things right”. i’m like okay. in this excerpt, oscar relates two instances of language brokering, when visiting the doctor and when relaying messages to his father’s employees. of particular interest occurs in the last few words of this excerpt when he merely says: “i’m like okay.” the participant seems unaware of the importance of the role he was undertaking in his father’s business and accepts the task quite easily. perhaps he did not realize the importance of his new role within his father’s business. in greater depth, there is a reversed role where the participant takes on the role of boss of his father’s employees, thus becoming the face of his father’s business. villanueva and buriel (2010) mention that in language brokering there is a common reversed role where children often take on adult roles and have to relay potentially vital messages. it appears as though this circumstance in life has molded the participants into having an innate sense of assistance when situations that require translation (visiting the doctor and speaking to employees on behalf of the father) have taken place in their lives. in the following two excerpts we have similar situations. mario states: all the time…when we went to the doctor ‘cus when my dad had like an appointment or something he used to tell me for example: “dile al doctor que esto, dile al doctor que aquello” [“tell the doctor this, tell the doctor that”] and so…i used to help my dad a lot with that. samuel states: …when she [referring to the participant’s mother] would go to the hospital for her doctor’s appointment, at that time i was already…not a native speaker, almost, but i had enough conversation skills to keep up with the conversations as to…my brother, well he had a hard time understanding and translating so i was my mom’s translator. transnationals becoming english teachers mora, rivas, lengeling & crawford no. 10 (january june 2015) no. 10 (january june 2015) 20 mario appears to mention the task of language brokering as something he would do in a nonchalant manner similar to both oscar and samuel. furthermore, the situation of going to the doctor is mentioned repeatedly and it appears to be a critical moment which many of the participants were able to recall easily. furthermore, this incident is fundamental since it portrays a critical instance that shaped the participants identity and may have played a vital role when they chose to utilize their language abilities to make a career out of it as english language teachers. love and buriel (2007) state that language brokers often translate sensitive medical information for their parents. seemingly, such has been the case with all of the participants since they were young children. in this research, it is important to highlight their innateness in helping their parents in complex situations, whether at the doctor’s or with their parents’ employees. a salient element in utilizing children as interpreters has been pointed out; coleman (cited in morales & hanson, 2005) states that in 2002, california passed a law prohibiting the use of children as interpreters in the medical field claiming that they were too young to be handling what might potentially be sensitive and/or traumatic information. nonetheless, this happened long after the participants in this study fulfilled their obligation as language brokers in the state of california. samuel recalls a relevant moment in the following: it put me in a tough situation because i really had to understand what the doctor was saying in order for my mom to say to agree upon a surgery so it was kind of a tough situation. unlike the other participants, samuel recalls the psychological implications for him to interpret such important information. evidently, the participant was conscious of the implications of relaying incorrect information. morales and hanson (2005) state that there are a number of studies which point out that children who serve as interpreters do not necessarily feel positive about doing so and might even be affected negatively. language brokering has been a sort of transcendental factor for shaping their identity which in turn influenced not only their career choice but also who they are today as they realized the importance of the roles they were fulfilling for their families. additionally, the participants continue to fulfill this role nowadays, which they mentioned as a defining factor in their career choice, as mario mentions: transnationals becoming english teachers mora, rivas, lengeling & crawford no. 10 (january june 2015) no. 10 (january june 2015) 21 i decided to become an english teacher because i thought that was the only thing i was good at… and i wanted to help others so they didn’t experience the same as i did when i was in the states, struggling with a new language. helping my parents with the language made me realize i was patient enough to become an english teacher. for mario, helping his parents with the language was a pivotal factor in making his decision of becoming an english teacher. but also, he was exposed to a somewhat different kind of language brokering at school where mario had the opportunity to serve as an interpreter for school officials: …with the new students that came from mexico, went into the public educational system which was in middle school or high school they told me “hey mario, help us out. this student just came in and he doesn’t speak english so can you please tell him that… these are the rules that we gotta follow and this is what we have to do so”… i guess, in a way i was an interpreter or translator. in this excerpt, there appears to be an element of pride, and it seems as though once again the participant innately agrees to fulfill the role of language broker which he is already all too familiar with having done so for his family under different circumstances. this time was different since someone outside the family asked him to perform this role, as if they acknowledged his skills as bilingual speaker. moreover, after asking mario how he felt about his ability to be an interpreter he stated, “that is actually one of the reasons why i became an english teacher.” further, luis recalls his feelings towards being a language broker: when i think about those times, it made me feel proud that i was like helping my mom, number one. i was really proud of it and i think my brother was too. we were ok with it. it is quite evident that for this participant and his brother there was also a real sense of pride in their ability to fulfill the role and to help their mother or others. samuel also shares these feelings: “it was a great time for me ‘cus i did what i was expected to do at school. and i proved it by translating for my mom and she felt great.” these participants show pride when taking the role of interpreters or translators, which eventually influenced them in their career choice. having had to return to mexico to look for different alternatives in life, they may have been reminded of this satisfaction and helpfulness when they realized that transnationals becoming english teachers mora, rivas, lengeling & crawford no. 10 (january june 2015) no. 10 (january june 2015) 22 they could use their language abilities due to the level of english and the level of cultural and linguistic knowledge they had. sometimes, it was a family member who actually noticed this and encouraged the participant to pursue his studies as english teacher, as in the case of samuel: i came here [mexico] to study at the university but i didn’t know what, but then i took a year off. then i started to think, “well, the only thing that i’m good at is in school and i feel comfortable within the school.” then my aunt told me: “well, why don’t you just go to be a teacher? you were always helping your parents with english, you can help kids now.” and samuel became a teacher of english in a primary school. he acknowledges that he shares his experiences with his students when they ask him where he is from: they notice i have an accent in spanish and they immediately tell me. “teacher, you are not from here, where are you from?” and i only tell them that i lived in the states but that i’m mexican, like them, that they can learn the language as i did. another participant, luis, noticed he had linguistic superiority both in knowledge and competence at his ba program: when i started the ba for example i noticed i had an edge right away because of english. i noticed you know, i don’t want to be mean or anything or condescending or patronizing or whatever but i noticed that my english was a lot better than many of my classmates. he further stated that he wanted people to notice that, and he would participate a lot because of it and that he intentionally translated for his classmates when they did not know how to say some things. later he admits that he wanted to make a profit off of his linguistic ability by selling his assignments and help his classmates if they needed assistance with the language. eventually he stopped charging his classmates because of an article he read where students with more linguistic knowledge, competence and more target language culture were used as teacher’s aids. he mentioned that he stopped charging them and would just help his classmates. contrary to these positive feelings though, luis further recalls a feeling of being “embarrassed and ashamed” as a consequence of his mother not being able to communicate efficiently in english: transnationals becoming english teachers mora, rivas, lengeling & crawford no. 10 (january june 2015) no. 10 (january june 2015) 23 …at certain times you know…i felt…if my mom went to school for example and couldn’t speak to my friend’s moms or something i would feel embarrassed. i felt ashamed, i was like, “oh man, here comes my mom. oh man, they are going to make fun of me.” i felt a little bit of that, i mean it was ok; it wasn’t bad. it was just me, my sense of “come on, mom. you gotta learn some english woman, please. you have a job here, you know. why don’t you speak english?” and for many years i really looked down on my mom for that. in this case, the participant has very strong feelings about his mother’s inability to speak the language. at the end of the excerpt one might consider this participant to be somewhat condescending when he replies: “i really looked down on my mom for that.” however, an event changed the image he had about his mother: she’s never wanted to speak english to me, to me personally and i recently had a friend from france in my house and he speaks english and french, no spanish. i thought that i was going to translate again for my mother…but then… so i heard my mom talking to this guy [in english], this is recently and i’m like, “woah, my mom can speak english!” i mean even after 27, 28 years i didn’t know my mom’s potential! under circumstances such as the two cases just mentioned, and as morales and hanson (2005) have pointed out, the feelings of being interpreters are not always very positive. furthermore, the participants take on a superior role than that of their parents due to their language proficiency and interaction with society at a different level than other kids at the same age. this may also be a factor contributing to the participants’ identity formation which as we have seen, has taken different hues in public and private contexts through the language they have to use when speaking to parents, siblings, or others. with the comments concerning the negative feelings they have towards their parents, perhaps the participants’ identity can be seen as vulnerable. the concept of language brokering has had a great impact on the lives of the participants. many of them mentioned this as an accomplishment due to the positive impact they had on their family life. even though the participants recalled many moments which made them feel proud of their ability, some also expressed feelings of anxiety, frustration or embarrassment. this is the case with samuel who mentioned that at times it was difficult to do because of the type of information he was required to communicate. moreover, luis mentioned he looked down upon his mother which could perhaps have transnationals becoming english teachers mora, rivas, lengeling & crawford no. 10 (january june 2015) no. 10 (january june 2015) 24 had psychological repercussions in his family. it is possible that he did not see his mother as the leader of the family or role model. villanueva and buriel (2010) state that children often take on their traditional roles at home whereas in public domains they are given the role of authority which could potentially have additional “developmental challenges and stressors” (p.198). conclusions these students were placed in a situation where they were required to use language to survive. they served as a bridge for their parents socially and took a vital role in medical issues. these are all important elements in society that children normally are not asked to perform. so, it is important to understand that bilingual children experience life changing events that monolingual children may not. this makes these participants understand at an early age the power and value of language. also, they understand cultural differences because they experience a different value associated with their skills in each country. their diverse experiences and rich trajectories have shaped who they are. they take on the challenge of engaging in an identity struggle between their american self and their rooted mexican one often falling into a “grey zone” which is in the middle of both and which constantly shifts from one to the other depending on who they are with. participants then start to build bridges in order to connect their past experiences and their current situations, going back and forth between their american and mexican identities, forming a new identity that enables them to become professionals. the way the participants use languages as cultural and linguistic capital in their personal and family life plays a direct impact of their identity formation for their future. these young people have found themselves in a ba program where they can make more sense of who they are and their language and cultural skills give them a plus in their process of becoming language teachers in mexico. in essence, their identity development involves a stage where they exchange their brokering skills for teaching skills, creating a stepping stone for the creation of their professional identity that will always be founded in their childhood skills. transnationals becoming english teachers mora, rivas, lengeling & crawford no. 10 (january june 2015) no. 10 (january june 2015) 25 references alba, r., logan, j., lutz, a. & stults, b. 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(2010). speaking on behalf of others: a qualitative study of the perceptions and feelings of adolescent latina language brokers. journal of social issues, 66(1), 197-210. webster, l. & mertova, p. (2007). using narrative inquiry as a research method. new york: routledge. world bank. (n. d.). retrieved september 23, 2014, from world bank data website, www.data.worldbank.org zentella, a. c. (2002). latin@ languages and identities. in m. suárezorozco & m. páez (eds.), latinos: remaking america (pp. 321338). berkeley: university of california press. zuñiga, v. (2000). migrantes internacionales de méxico a estados unidos: hacia la creación de políticas educativas binacionales. in r. tuirán, (ed.). migración méxico-estados: opciones de política, méxico: consejo nacional de población/ secretaría de relaciones exteriores, pp. 299-334. transnationals becoming english teachers mora, rivas, lengeling & crawford no. 10 (january june 2015) no. 10 (january june 2015) 28 authors *irasema mora pablo is a full-time teacher at university of guanajuato, mexico, in the language department and currently coordinates the ma in applied linguistics in english language teaching. she holds a phd in applied linguistics, university of kent, uk. her areas of interest are bilingualism, latino studies, and identity formation. *leonardo arturo rivas rivas holds a ba tesol degree from the university of guanajuato. he has been an english instructor and trainer for eight years. currently he is the head of the english department at unam’s extension san miguel de allende. his research areas include identity and transnationalism. *m. martha lengeling holds a phd in language studies by the university of kent, uk, and is currently a full-time teacher at the university of guanajuato, mexico. her areas of interest are teacher development and socialization as well as identity formation of teachers. *troy crawford holds a phd in language studies by the university of kent, uk, and is currently a full-time teacher at the university of guanajuato, mexico. his areas of interest are second language writing and identity. transnationals becoming english teachers no. 10 (january june 2015) no. 10 (january june 2015) 6 questions in english as a medium of instruction versus non-english as a medium of instruction lectures1 las preguntas en clases magistrales impartidas en inglés como medio de instrucción (emi) frente a las clases no impartidas en inglés como medio de instrucción (non emi) carmen maíz arévalo2* universidad complutense de madrid abstract university lectures are by far the most common method of teaching at spanish universities. more recently, however, this knowledge transmission has become increasingly interactive. students’ participation and verbal output becomes especially important in classes where the language of instruction is not the students’ mother tongue but a second or foreign language such as english since it gives them the opportunity to produce output in that second language. one of the ways to allow for students to participate is the lecturer’s use of questions. the aim of this study is to compare the same lecturer’s use of questions in her mother tongue or l1 (spanish) versus her lectures in english (l2). more specifically, i intended to answer the following research question: is the frequency and type of questions affected by the language of instruction (spanish vs. english)? it is hypothesized that questions will be more frequent in english so as to boost verbal interaction between the lecturer and the students and allow them to produce verbal output in english. to test this hypothesis, a group of six lectures by the same lecturer (3 in english and 3 in spanish) was analyzed, involving two groups of students taking the same subject albeit in one of these two languages. according to expectations, results show that english lectures display a slightly higher frequency of questions than those in spanish. 1 received: november 10th 2016/ accepted: april 17th 2017 2 cmaizare@filol.ucm.es maiz gist education and learning research journal. issn 1692-5777. no.14. (january june) 2017. pp. 6-31. re se ar ch a rti cle s no. 14 (january june 2017) no. 14 (january june 2017) 7 however, a qualitative analysis also reflects interesting aspects of the type (and characteristics) of questions in english. key words: questions, english as medium of instruction (emi), tertiary education resumen la clase magistral sigue siendo el método más común de enseñanza en las universidades españolas. sin embargo, se ha experimentado un giro hacia una transmisión de conocimientos más interactiva en los últimos tiempos. la participación y producción oral de los alumnos cobra mayor relevancia cuando las clases se imparten en una lengua diferente (l2) a la lengua materna de los alumnos (l1), ya que se les da la oportunidad de emplear dicha l2 en un contexto más oral. una de las maneras en que se permite participar a los estudiantes es el uso de preguntas por parte del profesor. este estudio tiene como objeto comparar el uso de tales preguntas por parte de un profesor en clases impartidas tanto en su l1 (español) como en la l2 (inglés). más concretamente, mi objetivo es dar respuesta a la siguiente pregunta: ¿se ven la frecuencia y el tipo de preguntas afectadas por el idioma empleado para impartir la clase (l1 frente a l2)? mi hipótesis es que las preguntas serán más frecuentes en l2 con el fin de potenciar la interacción verbal entre el docente y sus estudiantes, permitiéndoles una mayor producción oral en inglés. para testar dicha hipótesis, se analizó un grupo de seis clases magistrales impartidas por la misma profesora (3 en inglés y 3 en español) y recibidas por dos grupos de alumnos que cursan la misma asignatura, pero en uno de estos dos idiomas. los resultados muestran que, parcialmente de acuerdo con lo esperado, las clases en l2 despliegan una proporción de preguntas algo mayor que las impartidas en l1. sin embargo, un análisis de tipo más cualitativo también refleja interesantes conclusiones sobre el tipo (y las características) de las preguntas en l2. palabras clave: preguntas, inglés como medio de instrucción, educación universitaria resumo a aula presencial continua sendo o método mais comum de ensino nas universidades espanholas. porém, recentemente ocorreu uma virada com relação à transmissão de conhecimentos mais interativa. a participação e produção oral dos alunos adquire uma maior relevância quando as aulas são transmitidas em uma língua diferente (l2) da língua materna dos alunos (l1), posto que se dá pra eles a oportunidade de empregar a l2 em um contexto mais oral. uma das maneiras em que os estudantes têm autorização de participar é com uso de perguntas por parte do professor. este estudo tem o objetivo de comparar o uso de tais perguntas por parte de um professor em aulas transmitidas tanto na sua l1 (espanhol) quanto na l2 (inglês). com mais exatidão, o meu objetivo é responder a pergunta a seguir: observa-se a frequência e o tipo de perguntas afetadas pelo idioma empregado para dar a aula (l1 diante da l2)? a minha maiz no. 14 (january june 2017) no. 14 (january june 2017) 8 hipótese é que as perguntas ocorrerão com mais frequência em l2, com o fim de potenciar a interação verbal entre o docente e seus estudantes, permitindolhes uma maior produção oral em inglês. para testar essa hipótese, foi analisado um grupo de seis aulas presenciais transmitidas pela mesma professora (3 em inglês e 3 em espanhol) e recebidas por dois grupos de alunos que cursam a mesma disciplina, mas em um destes dois idiomas. os resultados sinalam que, parcialmente de acordo com o esperado, as aulas em l2 desdobram uma proporção de perguntas algo maior que as transmitidas em l1. embora isso, uma análise de tipo mais qualitativa também reflete interessantes conclusões sobre o tipo (e as características) das perguntas em l2. palavras chave: perguntas, inglês como meio de instrução, educação universitária questions in e.m.i. in lectures maiz no. 14 (january june 2017) no. 14 (january june 2017) 9 introduction university lectures are by far the most common method of teaching at university level. this is usually the case in spanish universities where lectures are the traditional, cost-effective and most practical way of transmitting information to large numbers of undergraduates. in recent decades, however, this knowledge transmission has experienced a change from a more monological nature towards a more interactive, conversational style where both the lecturer and the students co-construct the discourse (ferris and tagg, 1996; flowerdew, 1994; hyland, 2009; morell, 2004, 2007; sánchez garcía, 2016, among others) even if the control of the conversational floor still lies in the lecturer’s hands. in northcott’s (2001, pp. 19-20) words, an interactive lecture can be defined as: a classroom learning event for a large (more than 20) group of students primarily controlled and led by a lecturer and including subject input from the lecturer but also including varying degrees and types of oral participation by students. more recent studies on academic spoken discourse also reveal that interaction helps develop a good rapport between the lecturer and students; therefore, creating a more relaxing atmosphere that enhances participation by the latter (crawford camiciottoli, 2004; fortanet, 2004; morell, 2004a, 2004b, 2007; ibrahim et al. 2009, among others). participation thus becomes a welcome class routine where knowledge is not simply transferred from the teacher’s notes to those of the students’. however, the popularity recently gained by interactive lectures does not merely respond to a change in teaching styles or the desire on the lecturers’ part to create a more relaxing atmosphere for students. it is also triggered by the deeply rooted belief that a more conversational, interactional style fosters the students’ comprehension and knowledge acquisition which are, after all, the main aims of any lecture (hall and verplaetse, 2000; seedhouse, 2004; walsh, 2006, inter alia). as pointed out by walsh (2006, p. 36), “conversation is the essence of all classroom dialogue, the prime force through which meanings are negotiated, concepts explained and understood, exchanges of opinion given”. this notion of interaction as the main motor for comprehension goes back to vygostky’s socio-cultural theory (1978). social constructivist pedagogy places the emphasis on the active interaction between teachers and students in order to co-construct knowledge and promote understanding as opposed to the more traditional transmission pedagogy, where the focus lies on “transmitting information and skills articulated in the curriculum directly to students” (cummins, 2005, pp. 113-114). questions in e.m.i. in lectures maiz no. 14 (january june 2017) no. 14 (january june 2017) 10 enhancing interaction can become more challenging if the language of instruction is not the learners’ mother tongue but a second language (l2). in these educational contexts like clil or classes where english is the medium of instruction (emi henceforth), a more interactive style plays a vital role since it can help these learners to improve both their levels of understanding and their linguistic competence in the l2 by allowing them to produce their own output (dalton-puffer, 2006; de graaff et al., 2007; flowerdew, 1994; flowerdew and miller, 1996; griffiths, 1990; ibrahim et al., 2009; nikula et al. 2013; núñez and dafouz, 2007; sánchez garcía, 2011; 2016; thompson, 2003; among others). interaction, however, is only real if lecturers both wish to provide for interaction and, more importantly, if they are aware of how to be genuinely interactive. one of the ways to allow for students to participate is the lecturer’s use of questions (walsh, 2006; bamford, 2005; crawford camiciottoli, 2008; dafouz & sánchez garcía, 2013; sánchez garcía, 2011; 2016) since, as argued by chuska (1995, p. 7), “all learning begins with questions. questions cause interactions: thought, activity, conversation or debate”. the aim of this study is to contrast the use of questions by the same lecturer in her l1 (spanish) versus her l2 lectures (english). more specifically, i intend to answer the following research question: is the type of questions (and their frequency) affected by the language of instruction? it is hypothesized that the type of questions employed (see section 2) will vary according to the language of instruction, with each type being also affected with regard to its frequency. to that purpose, a university lecturer of economics was video-recorded while delivering six lectures in the same subject (“financial accounting”), three of them in spanish and the rest in english. data was then manually analyzed from a quantitative3 and qualitative point of view. finally, a reflective feedback interview with the lecturer herself intended both to shed light on qualitative aspects of her teaching that the analyst might not have borne in mind and to raise the lecturer’s awareness of her own classroom discourse so as to attain more effective instruction. 3 given the limited size of the dataset, however, the quantitative analysis does not include statistic tests but focused on the tendencies observed regarding frequency. questions in e.m.i. in lectures maiz no. 14 (january june 2017) no. 14 (january june 2017) 11 literature review in his analytical framework, walsh (2006, p. 67) distinguishes 14 interactional features4. remarkably, four of these features are questions, which reaffirm their privileged status when it comes to promoting interaction between lecturers and their students. questions have long been considered as the most appropriate instrument to promote interaction since they require a response from the students when performed by the teacher and vice versa. as ibrahim et al. (2009, p. 96) point out, “questions during lectures serve as structuring devices to drive the talk forward, to introduce new topics and generally direct the focus of the interaction.” the importance of questions as specially interacting mechanisms explains the broad literature they have generated in second language education for several decades (e.g. banbrook and skehan, 1989; cullen, 1998; white and lightbrown, 1984; among many others). this interest has more recently extended also to clil and emi contexts from primary and secondary education to tertiary education (e.g. daltonpuffer, 2006, 2007; llinares and pascual-peña, 2015; menegale, 2011; nikula, 2007; nikula et al., 2013; pascual-peña, 2010; sánchez-garcía, 2010, 2016; to mention just a few). since results still do not allow for generalizations (nikula et al., 2013, p. 78), the present study intends to contribute to this area by providing additional data regarding the use of questions in emi classes in tertiary education, more specifically in university lectures where english is used as the medium of instruction to teach contents other than language (e.g. economics and finance). even if all questions share the fact of being performed in the interrogative mood (or in the declarative mood with rising intonation); the functions they perform in the discourse are markedly different. following previous taxonomies (e.g. dalton-puffer, 2007; sánchezgarcía, 2010; 2016), it is possible to distinguish five types in the corpus under study: rhetorical questions, display questions, comprehension checks, referential questions and clarification checks. rhetorical questions are those where the teacher asks a question for which s/he is not expecting any response whatsoever and hence does not provide listeners with any time to answer them. the main function of 4 these interactional features of the self-evaluation teacher talk (sett) framework are: scaffolding, direct repair, content feedback, extended wait-time, referential questions, seeking clarification, confirmation checks, extended learner turn, teacher echo, extended teacher turn, turn completion, display questions and form-focused feedback. questions in e.m.i. in lectures maiz no. 14 (january june 2017) no. 14 (january june 2017) 12 these questions is to serve as a discursive landmark for the introduction of new concepts or to make listeners think about a particular concept. in rhetorical questions, the speaker may provide the answer herself or the answer “is left up it in the air” (sánchez-garcía, 2010, p. 23). examples from the corpus are (1) and (2)5, both produced by the teacher, who asks and immediately answers her own question without producing any pause between the question and its answer, which shows they are not intended for the students to answer but as a rhetorical device: (1) [l1] what are the names that we use to call loans? load debt, bank debt (2) [l4] ¿tiene algún significado que yo ponga los gastos al haber y los ingresos al deber? no tiene ningún sentido. [does it mean anything that i put the expenses in debit and the income in credit. it doesn’t make any sense.] display questions are those where the information is already known by the teacher (dalton-puffer, 2007). morell (2004, pp. 4-5) defines these questions as those which serve “to verify students’ knowledge”. display questions encourage interaction in the sense that students are expected to provide a response. however, it is questionable whether they foster real interaction in as far as they do not involve real communication (although see boyd and rubin (2006) and lee (2006)). as argued by menegale (2011, p. 86), a major drawback of display questions is that by using this type of questions, teachers can keep control of the lesson procedure and of the time. yet, as a result, with the answer being nearly a univocal solution, students could be afraid of responding if unsure of the response and this unease can limit their participation to a greater extent. display questions characteristically follow the irf (initiationresponse-follow-up move) structure found in general educational discourse (sinclair and brazil, 1982), as illustrated by examples (3) and (4) below, where the teacher (t) produces the initiation move as a question (to which she knows the answer as the content expert) and students (ss) reply. the students’ correct response is positively evaluated by the teacher in the third move or follow-up: 5 all the spanish examples are immediately followed by their translation into english. in all the cases, each example is preceded by the number of the lecture [l…] where the example comes from. questions in e.m.i. in lectures maiz no. 14 (january june 2017) no. 14 (january june 2017) 13 (3) [l1] t: the company… purchases land and cash. is ok? so, land, what it is a land? ss: asset t: assets, ok [t nods approvingly] current or not current, what do you think? ss: not current t: not current assets, ok. ok? ok, another more? eh, iñigo, please, read it. (4) t: si tuviera el dinero limitado y hubiera que pagarle a alguno, ¿a quién le pagarías antes? ¿a los proveedores o a los acreedores? s1: a los acreedores. t: (she looks at the students and smiles) ¿a quién? s2: a los proveedores. t: a los proveedores. porque ellos son los que te están generando el beneficio luego si tú vendes. ¿lo ves? [t: if i had limited money and had to pay somebody, whom would you pay before? the providers or the creditors? / s1: the creditors. / t: (she looks at the students and smiles). who? / s2: the providers. / t: the providers. because they are the ones who are generating the benefit if you sell. do you see it?] comprehension checks are questions where the teacher monitors whether the students are following her explanations. they are usually performed linguistically in the corpus by formulaic expressions like “is it ok?” or the spanish “¿vale?”. example (5) illustrates another of these formulas in spanish (“¿lo veis?” –i.e. do you understand?). (5) [l4] t: [overlaps with student] ¡las mismas! pero si no hago nada, sí, de acuerdo. pero algo habrá que hacer, ¿no? porque mucha casualidad, mucha mucha casualidad tiene que pasar para que las existencias iniciales coincidan con las finales. ¿lo veis? entonces, lo que tenemos que hacer aquí [circles one part of the blackboard] es lo que se llama la regularización ¡qué nombre más feo! ¿verdad? regularización de las mercaderías. [the same ones! but if i don’t do anything, yes, okay. but something must be done, musn’t it? because it is a huge chance, very very big chance for initial stock to coincide with final stock. do you see it? then, what we have to do here is what is called regularization. what an ugly name, isn’t it? merchandizing regularization.] questions in e.m.i. in lectures maiz no. 14 (january june 2017) no. 14 (january june 2017) 14 as illustrated by (5), students are not really expected to respond to comprehension checks verbally as shown by the fact that the lecturer goes on holding the conversational floor without giving any response time. a non-verbal response –e.g. a nod –is enough to show students are indeed following the explanation. if they are not, they can produce a clarification request (see below). in contrast to the former types, referential questions are genuine questions to which the teacher does not know the answer and hence trigger authentic output from the students (musumeci, 1996; sánchezgarcía, 2010). examples (6) and (7) illustrate this type of questions in both languages: (6) [l1] t: no, first here. and you have to tell him the … what are you doing? tell. s: (inaudible) [talks to the teacher and the other student at the blackboard] (7) [l5] t: ah jaja, buena pregunta. ¿tú qué crees? (1’) s: que no. [t: ah, haha, good question. what do you think? /s: i think it doesn’t.] referential questions are particularly interactive since they promote real communication between the student(s) and the lecturer insofar as a real question is taking place and the student usually has to provide a more “creative” answer rather than simply remembering a piece of information or answering with a yes-no answer (which can even be non-verbal). as stated by dafouz and llinares (2008, p. 51), “display questions generate interactions that are typical of pedagogic or didactic discourse, while referential questions generate interactions typical of social communication”. despite their highly interactive potential, however, referential questions tend to be sparsely used in classroom discourse (cf. pascual peña, 2010; sánchez-garcía, 2010). for example, pascual peña (2010) found that only 17% of the questions used in her corpus were referential. however, not all referential questions boost interaction to the same extent. in this respect, it is worth pointing out the distinction between convergent and divergent referential questions. in menegale’s words (2008, p. 112): the difference between the convergent and divergent question is clear. whereas the convergent question, also referred to as ‘closed question’ (pica, 1994) as it is information-seeking in nature and results in simple elicitations of factual information, does not require original thought or critical reflection and the possible answers are limited, generally short and recall previously questions in e.m.i. in lectures maiz no. 14 (january june 2017) no. 14 (january june 2017) 15 memorized information, a divergent question requires the application of knowledge, not just the recalling of information. hence, divergent referential questions not only lead to high order thinking skills but also allow for more extensive students’ output in the l2. on the other hand, convergent referential questions may ask for information unknown to the teacher but lead neither to the student’s complex thinking processes nor longer conversational turns. clarification requests can be produced either by the teacher or the student and take place when communication has partially or totally failed and needs repairing, as illustrated by example (8), where the teacher had not heard the student’s comment and asked for clarification: (8) [l5] t (t has not heard s’s question) ¿perdona, cómo dices? [excuse me, what did you say?] in this case, the teacher had not properly heard the student’s response and she sought for clarification, so that the student had to repeat his answer. it could be argued, hence, that clarification requests are not interactive mechanisms proper since they are intended as conversational repair strategies when, for example, noise impedes correct hearing of the previous utterance (schegloff, 1992). for the sake of clarity, table 1 summarizes the different types of questions and provides a brief definition as well as an example of each type: table 1. types of questions questions in e.m.i. in lectures maiz no. 14 (january june 2017) no. 14 (january june 2017) 16 methodology the following section describes the methodology employed in the current study. more specifically, it starts by describing the participants and why they were chosen to be involved in the study. secondly, it focuses on the data-gathering process itself and describes the corpus compiled and employed in the present study. participants this study involves two groups of undergraduate students and their common lecturer. each group consisted of approximately 50 students of an average age of 18-19 years old. these students were doing its first year of the degree in economics and finance at the complutense university of madrid in spain. this degree is part of the university’s pilot program where the same degree is being taught in spanish with a simultaneous pilot version in english, which means both groups of students follow the same contents albeit in different languages. in this case, they also share the same teacher in the subject financial accounting as well as the same amount of teaching hours, with a total of four hours per week (two days a week). besides the students involved, this study focuses mainly on the lecturer. she is a spanish female teacher who taught economics at the complutense university for more than a decade. together with other colleagues, she took part in this pilot program without any special training, any previous experience of teaching in an l2 or any extra salary. however, she was extremely motivated and took part in this pilot project for five years. before the actual study took place, there was a prior informal interview with the lecturer, where she was informed of the research and she expressed her motivation and willingness, in her own words, “to know if i’m doing things right”. this led her to volunteer as a participant in our research group’s project and be videorecorded during her lectures6. as for the students, all of them were asked for their consent before recording the lectures. they all expressed no disagreement to have their lectures recorded. in addition, all personal identification was carefully avoided to protect their privacy. 6 the author would like to express her sincere gratitude to the lecturer who collaborated in this research. many thanks go too to her research colleagues for their support and constructive criticism as well as to the anonymous reviewers for their insightful comments. questions in e.m.i. in lectures maiz no. 14 (january june 2017) no. 14 (january june 2017) 17 data collection and corpus description as already pointed out, the lecturer and students were previously informed about the research, and they all consented to be recorded. hence, six parallel lectures on the same topic (three in english and three in spanish) were video-recorded by this researcher and other members of the research group to which she belongs. to avoid altering the normal development of the lectures as much as possible, the camera was placed in a side of the lecture room, facing the teacher and with the majority of the students sitting with their backs to the camera. researchers recording the sessions were present but refrained from speaking or moving around with the camera, which was fixed in the same position throughout all the sessions. this posed the advantage of not altering the normal developing of the lecture since both students and the lecturer admitted forgetting the camera was there after a while. however, it entailed a major disadvantage since the lack of mobility affected sound quality when the lecturer was distant from the camera and some of the students’ responses (especially those far from the camera) were inaudible. in this case, this has also been indicated in the transcription in square brackets (i.e. [unintelligible]), as have pauses and other paralinguistic aspects. the choice in the number of lectures followed seedhouse’s credo that “classroom research […] has considered between five and ten lessons a reasonable database” (2004, p. 87). the data gathered in this way amount to a total of 540 minutes and a word count of over 46,000 words. as already mentioned, transcription was kept simple for the sake of clarity and only pauses, inaudible segments or other paralinguistic information (e.g. the teacher raising her voice in anger when students were not paying attention) have been indicated by means of square brackets where this information is given. to ensure transcription was as loyal and valid as possible, several researchers compared their transcriptions and also counted on the lecturer’s help to complete unclear fragments. to ease comprehension, the lecturer also provided the researchers with the visual aids she used in her lectures (e.g. power point presentations). table 2 below summarizes the description of the corpus employed in the analysis in terms of number of words per language: questions in e.m.i. in lectures maiz no. 14 (january june 2017) no. 14 (january june 2017) 18 table 2. description of the corpus as can be seen, not all the lectures have the same number of words. this is due to the fact that, in some lectures where students were required to do exercises and tasks in class (e.g. lectures 2 and 5), there was more student collaboration in smaller groups whilst the teacher was monitoring their progress rather than lecturing as such. data analysis and interpretation once transcribed, a manual search for questions in the dataset was carried out. context (including co-text) was determinant to classify questions into the already mentioned five types: rhetorical questions, comprehension checks, display questions, referential questions and clarification checks. manual search was favored over (semi)automatic programs given that some elements may clearly be multifunctional and an automatic search might fail to identify these different functions. for example, “ok?” can be used as a comprehension check, a referential question or clarification check depending on the context. to measure the global frequency of questions over other speech acts, the total number of utterances was compared with the number of questions and the corresponding ratio was thus calculated (see table 3). secondly, the frequency of the different types of questions was calculated taking into account the total number of questions in the corpus (see table 4). table 3. ratio of questions per total number of utterances questions in e.m.i. in lectures maiz no. 14 (january june 2017) no. 14 (january june 2017) 19 results in the corpus under study, it is possible to distinguish these five types according to whether they involve more or less interaction between the lecturer and the students (see table 1). inspection of the data shows that results prove to be partially expected since the lecturer employed different types of questions in l1 and l2. more specifically, the following tendencies regarding the type of questions used were observed as illustrated by table 4 below: table 4. type of questions used in the english and spanish lectures close observance of the data reveals that rhetorical questions are much more frequently used by the lecturer in spanish than english (15.5% and 5.5% respectively). as already mentioned, however, rhetorical questions do not trigger interaction proper but serve as discursive device. this higher frequency of rhetorical questions in the spanish dataset may be due to spanish language academic style where rhetorical questions are to be expected and characteristic of such a style (vázquez, 2006). examples (9) and (10) illustrate rhetorical questions in spanish and english, respectively: (9) [l2] t: en el examen no no podemos hacer la estructura que nos dé la gana, tenemos que hacer esta estructura, ¿por qué? porque es la estructura de la ley. [in the exam we can’t, we can’t do the structure we feel like, we have to follow this structure, why? because it is the legal structure]. (10) [l3] t: how? the answer is how i record for these expenses in the books of my company? no, so we we don’t know. and the second question: what kind of information do you need to record in transaction? […] do you know it? that’s that’s that is what we are going to learn today. in (9), the teacher asks “why?” and immediately provides the answer herself, which shows this is intended as a rhetorical question. in (10) she does the same with “how?”, answering her own question. however, after her second question in the same conversational turn (“and the second question: what kind of information do you need to record in transaction?”), she pauses slightly as marked by […] and tries questions in e.m.i. in lectures maiz no. 14 (january june 2017) no. 14 (january june 2017) 20 to elicit the question from the students (“do you know it?”). however, she does not give any time to answer and uses her second question to frame the contents of today’s lecture (“that’s that’s that is what we are going to learn today”). in this latter case, it seems the teacher initially intended the question as a display question but by not providing enough thinking time for the students to answer, it turned into another rhetorical question which helped frame the lesson’s main contents. with regard to display questions, results show that the teacher employs them slightly more often in english than in spanish (40% and 33% of the cases). in fact, they are the most common type of question in the english dataset and the second one in the spanish sample. this is to be expected, since her questions are primarily targeted at retrieving from the students the fundamental concepts and the way they are expressed in l2. thus, even if the class is not a language class (or even a clil class proper), one of the mechanisms characteristic of efl lessons is mirrored in these emi lectures, as illustrated by examples (11) and (12) below, in english and spanish lectures respectively, where the display question by the lecturer is the initiation move (i), followed by the response move by the students (r) and, finally, a follow-up by the teacher (f). this is the classic i-r-f sequence of classroom discourse (sinclair and brazil, 1982): (11) [l2] t: here you have the search strategy. how many? ss: three t: three. (12) [l4] t: ¿cuál es forma jurídica más usual en españa? [what is the most common legal regulation in spain?] s: la sociedad limitada [the limited liability company] t: la sociedad limitada. [the limited liability company] more interestingly, comprehension checks behave against expectations, since the teacher uses them slightly more often in spanish (45.5%) than in english (39%). this is totally unexpected since it would seem more reasonable for the teacher to check comprehension when lectures take place in l2 rather than in the students’ mother tongue. quite remarkably, when asked in the feedback interview why she thought she acted this way, the lecturer claimed that students learning in l2 had the advantage of being what she called “blank slates” meaning that they did not come to class with the “vices” regarding terminology they had in their mother tongue. in other words, many of the concepts she explains in her classes had their spanish colloquial counterpart questions in e.m.i. in lectures maiz no. 14 (january june 2017) no. 14 (january june 2017) 21 with, sometimes, a totally opposed meaning. for example, the spanish word activo has a variety of meanings in spanish but its technical meaning in this field is “economic resources owned by a business that are expected to benefit future operations” (moreno alemay, 2008, p. 28). this polysemy, far from helping students understand better, may hinder their comprehension of the subject in their mother tongue. in contrast, learning such technical terms directly via a second language may actually help the students remember jargon better, since they are not influenced by their mother tongue. moreover, students may be more motivated to learn technical vocabulary given that, as moreno alemay (2008, p. 28) points out: when students hear these examples, they realize the importance of studying the subject of accounting in a foreign language, and feel they are building their vocabulary, because all these are words seldom learned in a languages course. regarding referential questions, inspection of the data shows that those employed in the english lectures double those employed in spanish (7% versus 3.5%, respectively). however, a qualitative analysis reflects that some of these questions may not really be referential questions. in fact, on the rare occasions where the lecturer employs these questions, she does so in two main contexts. on the one hand, she uses these questions in order to confirm students’ names: (13) [l6] t: ¿eras carolina también? “was your name also carolina?” (14) [l1] t: sorry, i forgot your name. what is your name? on the other hand, the lecturer also seems to employ these questions as indirect requests –e.g. to ask for silence, to tell students off or to ask for a volunteer, as in (15) and (16): (15) [l3] t: silence, please. what happens today? (16) [l4] t: no, first here. and you have to tell him the … what are you doing? tell. s: [inaudible] [talks to the teacher and the other student at the blackboard] hence, it could be argued that, even though the teacher does not know the answer, these are convergent referential questions where students can do with very short answers (i.e. their names) or even nonverbal responses (i.e. going to the blackboard to do the exercise at hand) rather than having a longer turn to produce their own output. questions in e.m.i. in lectures maiz no. 14 (january june 2017) no. 14 (january june 2017) 22 finally, clarification requests are slightly more frequent in english than spanish. when used by the teacher (0.5% in english versus 0.4% in spanish), they act as repair mechanisms when she has not heard the student’s answer7, as in (17) and (18): (17) [l3] s: the income statement? t: what? s: the income statement (18) [l4] s: [inaudible] t: ¿perdón? [excuse me?] however, clarification requests are typically carried out by students when they have a question related to the previous teaching or instructions, as exemplified by (19) and (20): (19) [l3] s: …so can we… decide xx? t: no, it’s depending on the… the evolution of the content. i mean i have plan around the second, the second week of march s: …ok. (20) [l5] t: ahora dice que, durante el ejercicio dos mil nueve, compra cincuenta lavadoras, vamos a hacer la compra, multiplicamos eh las cincuenta lavadoras por ciento cincuenta… [now it says that, during the year 2009, he buys 50 washing machines, we are going to go shopping, we multiply eh, the 50 washing machines for 150…] s: ¿por qué es un número distinto? [why is it a different number?] t: sí, porque lo he cambiado. luego si queréis hacemos ese, pero quería hacerlo más sencillo todavía. ¿vale? [yes, it is, because i have changed it. we can do that one later, but i wanted to do it even easier, ok?] in terms of frequency, clarification checks by students are more common in english than in spanish (8% versus 2.1% respectively). this may be due precisely to the fact that it is harder for them to follow the class in a foreign language and they feel more need to clarify doubts and make sure they have understood correctly than when the lecture is delivered in their mother tongue. quite interestingly, however, close 7 the large size of the classroom and its orientation (teacher-fronted) makes it hard to hear students’ comments, especially if they are sitting at the back. this was also a major limitation when video-recording the classes, since students’ comments and answers were mostly inaudible (except for those sitting next to the video-camera). questions in e.m.i. in lectures maiz no. 14 (january june 2017) no. 14 (january june 2017) 23 inspection of the data also reveals that students’ clarification checks follow a different pattern in spanish compared to english. in the english lectures, students usually wait for the teacher’s turn completion (or what learners intuitively regard as a relevant transition point). this is illustrated by extracts (21) and (22), where clarification checks by students have been marked in bold for the sake of clarity: (21) t: credit, yes, thank you. reserves and all the equity accounts are the credit balance. just see, please, in this place (points at board), capital includes the, huh, credit balance, ok? s: so, is it the balance [pause]? t: yes, but we always use balance, which means the difference between all the amounts in the debit and all the amounts in the credit. and the difference is the balance and always the assets, always the assets account has debit balance. all the equity and liability account have credit balance, always. s: [longer pause] (the student asks an inaudible question) t: yes! s: and the assets are called debit? t: yes, and expenses always the in the expenses account always have debit balance, cause it’s similar, the assets and the expenses are very similar. […] be careful, credit, always credit it is an asset cause is the money that you lend to another person, to other huh firm s: like clients t: no, other firm, it’s money, money that you. when you, when you ask for a loan, you receive money so you have a debt and we call bank debt. s: and the credit? t: and the credit is when you give money to other firm, this right we call credit. s: ah (22) s: ¿y el precio del coste es el mismo siempre o cómo? [s: and the costing price is always the same or how is it? ] t: ah jaja, buena pregunta. ¿tú qué crees? [ah, haha, good question. what do you think?] s: que no. [i don’t think so] t: vete a la vida real. la… [think about real life. the…] s: que no. questions in e.m.i. in lectures maiz no. 14 (january june 2017) no. 14 (january june 2017) 24 in contrast to english (see example 21), where students wait for the lecture to reach turn completion, in the case of spanish, the students tend to overlap with the lecturer (as in example 22) and do not wait for turn completion (“vete a la vida real. la… / que no”). it is difficult to determine whether these overlaps are due to the spanish fast conversational pace, where it is customary for overlapping and interruptions to take place (nikleva, 2009; gallardo-paúls, 1993) or to the fact that students feel more confident when speaking their mother tongue than a foreign language. a combination of both factors seems to be the most plausible explanation. confidence in the use of their mother tongue would also explain why students in the english lectures apparently take longer to ask for clarification than their counterparts. conclusions the present study intended to provide an answer to the following research question, repeated here for the sake of clarity: is the frequency and type of questions affected by the language of instruction (spanish vs. english)? it was initially hypothesized that questions would be more frequent in english (l2) so as to boost verbal interaction between the lecturer and the students and allow them to produce verbal output in english so as to ease comprehension and acquisition of the contents and the language. in addition, it was also expected that the type of questions employed would vary according to the language of instruction. table 3 presented the total number of utterances per lecture together with the ratio of questions. graph 1 below is a visual summary of the ratio of questions per language of instruction: figure 1. global frequency questions depending on language of instruction questions in e.m.i. in lectures maiz no. 14 (january june 2017) no. 14 (january june 2017) 25 inspection of the data reveals that the first hypothesis was only partially confirmed since, except for lectures 1 and 4, where lecture l1 (in english) presented a higher number of questions than its spanish counterpart (l4), in the rest of the cases, the number of questions was the same (lectures l3 and l6) or slightly higher in spanish (lectures l2 and l5). as for the second hypothesis, that the language of instruction (english or spanish) plays a role in the type of questions used, results showed the confirmation of this hypothesis. hence, the lecturer seems to favor some types in her spanish lessons and other types in the lectures she carries out in english. more specifically, rhetorical questions were more numerous in spanish than in english (15.5% versus 5.5%, respectively) possibly due to the fact that the spanish academic style traditionally favors the use of rhetorical questions as a way to organize discourse and to keep the audience’s attention. with regard to comprehension checks, these occurred more frequently in spanish (45.5%) than in english (39%). this result was unexpected since it was anticipated that a lecture in a second language seems to entail more difficulty for the students and hence the teacher might feel more prone to checking comprehension. when interviewed after the data had been analyzed, the lecturer herself explained this higher frequency of comprehension checks might be a result of the negative interference of spanish, where most of these technical terms have an informal, ordinary meaning, usually remarkably different (if not totally opposite). this forced her to make sure the students comprehended the actual technical meaning; hence the more frequent use of comprehension checks in spanish than in english. as for display questions, they were the type most commonly employed in english, maybe to make sure the students learned the technical vocabulary involved in the subject, which was new to most of them as they had never come across such terms in their general english lessons (moreno alemay, 2008). with regard to referential questions, they were more frequent in english than in spanish, doubling their occurrence in the second language. even though it is difficult to explain this result and the lecturer herself was not aware of such a difference, it could be a positive way of letting students produce more output in english to improve their knowledge of the second language. in any case, however, referential questions were still low in frequency and the lecturer commented that she would try to increase their use in future lessons, showing that research can have very positive effects when combined with future action(s) in the classroom (lasagabaster and sierra, 2011). questions in e.m.i. in lectures maiz no. 14 (january june 2017) no. 14 (january june 2017) 26 clarification checks happened to be more frequent in english maybe because of the higher difficulty to follow these lectures in a language which is not the participants’ mother tongue (either the lecturer’ or the students’). furthermore, clarification checks by students also displayed an interestingly different pattern in english and spanish, with more overlap in spanish as opposed to english. this may be due to self-confidence in the mother tongue and the intuitive grasping of the dissimilar conversational structures of spanish and english, with the former displaying more overlapping and the second being more prone to wait for the transition relevant points (tsui, 1994). finally, it is important to acknowledge an important limitation to the present study such as the fact that it focuses on just one lecturer’s discourse. however, this also allows for controlling some variables such as age, linguistic background, teaching experience, since we are dealing with the same teacher. furthermore, the three english lectures duplicate the three spanish lectures, which also avoids other variables (content taught, academic field, etc.) from playing a role. finally, even if generalizations are not possible in a limited study like the present one, we can still observe certain trends that can provide some tips towards most effective teaching styles based on self-observation. in fact, after the study was carried out, a reflective interview with the lecturer showed her willingness to implement future changes in her lessons such as the use of more referential questions, proving the importance of action research in the emi classroom (lasagabaster and sierra, 2011). questions in e.m.i. in lectures maiz no. 14 (january june 2017) no. 14 (january june 2017) 27 references bamford, j. 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(1984). asking and answering in esl classes. canadian modern language review, 40(2), 228-44. questions in e.m.i. in lectures maiz no. 14 (january june 2017) no. 14 (january june 2017) 31 author *carmen maíz-arévalo is professor of pragmatics and english at the complutense university of madrid, having obtained her phd in english linguistics in 2001. her fields of interest are mainly pragmatics and intercultural pragmatics; more specifically, speech act theory and verbal (im)politeness in computer-mediated communication. her most recent publications include the articles: “‘small talk is not cheap’: phatic computer-mediated communication in intercultural classes”, published in computer assisted language learning (2017); “jocular mockery in computer-mediated communication: a contrastive study of a spanish and english facebook community” in the journal of politeness research (2015), “just click ‘like”’: computer-mediated responses to spanish compliments”, published in the journal of pragmatics in 2013, ““was that a compliment?” implicit compliments in english and spanish”, also in the journal of pragmatics in 2012 or “you look terrific!’ social evaluation and relationships in online compliments”, co-authored with antonio garcía-gómez and published in discourse studies in 2013. she also acts as a reviewer for different journals such as the journal of pragmatics, sage open, verbeia (journal of english and spanish studies) or revista iberoamericana de tecnologías del aprendizaje. besides her research and teaching, carmen maíz-arévalo is currently the academic secretary of the department of english linguistics at the complutense university. questions in e.m.i. in lectures maiz no. 14 (january june 2017) no. 14 (january june 2017) gist final1.indd 5 editorial josephine taylor* this issue, gist continues its bi-annual publication schedule. we are also pleased as well with our growing international recognition, and widening network of scholars, researchers, editors and contributors. in this semester’s issue, gist features articles from asia, africa and the americas, from a wide range of countries. it is exciting to share this breadth of experiences and knowledge, to offer insights into the local and particular, and at the same time to take note of the commonalities of our inquiry. research shared in this issue ranges from topics featured in previous issues, from linguistic intraference in nigerian english to the incorporation of media and technology into language learning, and the effects of this on learners’ attitudes and performance. we also offer several studies probing teachers and students’ constructed and perceived identities as learners, and towards the content studied. the issue also highlights important subjects in language policy and the growth and acceptance (or not) of the dominant role of english in contemporary society. in this issue’s only article from colombia, letty hazbleidy contreras ospitia, sandra milena charry garzón, and angela yicely castro garcés describe how multimedia speaking tasks such as podcast and video recordings, as well as oral presentations contribute to building students’ speaking skills, and positively affect learners’ attitudes towards such tasks and english class in general. findings strongly indicate that teachers interested in improving students’ speaking skills should provide opportunities for challenging, meaningful performance tasks, and that the inclusion of technology and multimedia enhances student motivation. in a related article from turkey, turgay han and fırat keskin describe how the use of the mobile application whatsapp for speaking tasks helps lower learners’ foreign language speaking anxiety. many teachers may opt out of using speaking tasks with their students, as so many learners are unwilling or unable to complete them due to their reluctance to take risks, and general anxiety when speaking in english. no. 12 (january june 2016) no. 12 (january june 2016) 6 instead of assuming that learners will never speak, teachers should be heartened that such applications may provide students the protection and face-saving context necessary to be more willing to communicate. in terms of vocabulary recall, alireza karbalaei, ali sattari and ziba nezami describe how audio-picture annotations improve second language vocabulary recall over simple text-picture annotations. this study from iran argues the need for aural as well as written input as an aid to vocabulary learning. this issue, gist offers several narrative explorations into a range of issues related to teacher identity. in elsie l. olan and paula belló’s article on the relationship between language, culture and society, they use positioning theory and narrative research to describe teachers’ positions of agency, authority and empowerment. in a related article, maría cristina sarasa carries out narrative inquiry to explore preservice english teachers’ imagined identities. this study from argentina offers four accounts, demonstrating how participants co-author their imagined (future) identities as teachers. gist number 12 also features the work of frequent contributor and recognized expert omowumi bode steve ekundayo on the phonemic realizations of the letter <ii> and <yy> in standard nigerian english, and its implications for the teaching and learning of english as a second language in the country. this study is interesting in a global context as the existence of new varieties of english come to gain increased importance in many countries, and certainly penetrate and influence the teaching of whatever standard of english currently adopted in those countries. finally, from the us, rachel kraut, tara chandler, and kathleen hertenstein explore the very compelling construct of teacher self-efficacy, a complex set of elements and conditions that work together to describe and explain teachers’ work where other theoretical frameworks fall short. in their study, the authors trace how important issues such as teacher training, access to resources, years of experience and professional development work together in the construction of esl reading teachers’ perceived effectiveness. taken together, the results of this study underscore the need for esl teacher training programs and iep institutes to devote greater effort in preparing faculty to teach esl reading skills effectively. finally, gist is pleased to share an important critique from costa rica by cristhian fallas escobar, johanna ennser-kananen, and martha bigelow on the hegemony of monetary and career-based justifications for learning english as a foreign language. in colombia, no. 12 (january june 2016) no. 12 (january june 2016) 7 many professionals struggle with this hegemony daily as we confront the restricting discourses limiting students’ motivations for learning english to “getting a better job.” gist is keenly interested in seeking out and disseminating recent scholarship on deeper considerations of the benefits of language learning for learners, institutions and society. editor *josephine taylor earned her ba in english and french from emory university and an ms in teaching english as a second language from georgia state university, both in atlanta, georgia. she has been a teacher and teacher trainer for 30 years in the us, germany and colombia. she has also worked extensively in publishing, consulting, curricular innovation, and educational improvement projects. she is currently editor of gist education and learning research journal as well as professor/consultant at the institución universitaria colombo americana, única. no. 12 (january june 2016) no. 12 (january june 2016) 29 the design and implementation of an in-service efl teacher training model in the costa rican public school system1 el diseño e implementación de un modelo de capacitación para docentes de inglés en servicio en la educación pública costarricense patricia córdoba cubillo, xinia rodríguez ramírez and tatiana hernández gaubil2* university of costa rica and distance state university, costa rica abstract in response to the challenges of the 21st century and to the need for students in the public school system to have a higher level of english proficiency, english was declared an issue of national interest in costa rica in 2008. for this reason, a decree called multilingual costa rica was signed by the government, setting the stage for an in-service efl teacher training project. this article deals with the analysis of the design and the implementation of a training model, which led to the improvement of the linguistic skills of approximately 80% of the teacher population in the costa rican public school system. this study includes a description of the components of the teacher training model as well as the results of the linguistic performance of the participating efl teachers on the toeic© test administered prior to and after three years of training. keywords: efl teacher training, teachers of english from the public school system, improvement of english language proficiency, professional development in efl 1 received: dec. 15, 2014 / accepted: april 13, 2015 2 pcordobac@gmail.com, xiniarodri@yahoo.com, thgaubil@yahoo.com gist education and learning research journal. issn 1692-5777. no. 10, (january june) 2015. pp. 29-50. transnationals becoming english teachers no. 10 (january june 2015) no. 10 (january june 2015) 30 resumen en respuesta a los retos del siglo xxi y a la necesidad de la población estudiantil del sector público por poseer un nivel más alto en el dominio de la competencia lingüística en inglés, el idioma inglés fue declarado un asunto de interés nacional en costa rica en el año 2008. por esta razón, el gobierno costarricense firmó el decreto costa rica multilingüe, el cual permitió formular un proyecto para docentes de inglés como lengua extranjera. este artículo aborda el diseño y el análisis de la implementación del modelo de capacitación profesional para docentes de inglés como lengua extranjera del sistema educativo público de costa rica, que condujo al mejoramiento de las habilidades lingüísticas aproximadamente del 80% de la población docente del sistema escolar público costarricense. el estudio describe los componentes del modelo de capacitación docente así como los resultados del desempeño lingüístico de los docentes en la prueba toeic©, aplicada antes de la capacitación y tres años después de la misma. palabras clave: capacitación docente en inglés como lengua extranjera, docentes de inglés del sistema educativo público, mejoramiento del nivel de dominio del inglés, desarrollo profesional en inglés como lengua extranjera resumo em resposta aos desafios do século xxi e à necessidade da população estudantil do setor público por possuir um nível mais alto no domínio da competência linguística em inglês, o idioma inglês foi declarado um assunto de interesse nacional na costa rica no ano 2008. por este motivo, o governo costarriquense assinou o decreto costa rica multilíngue, o qual permitiu formular um projeto para docentes de inglês como língua estrangeira. este artigo aborda o desenho e a análise da implantação do modelo de capacitação profissional para docentes de inglês como língua estrangeira do sistema educativo público da costa rica, que conduziu à melhoramento das habilidades linguísticas aproximadamente 80% da população docente do sistema escolar público costarriquense. o estudo descreve os componentes do modelo de capacitação docente bem como os resultados do desempenho linguístico dos docentes na prova toeic©, aplicada antes da capacitação e três anos depois da mesma. palavras chave: capacitação docente em inglês como língua estrangeira, docentes de inglês do sistema educativo público, melhoramento do nível de domínio de inglês, desenvolvimento profissional em inglês como língua estrangeira design and implementation of an in-service efl model córdoba, rodríguez & hernández no. 10 (january june 2015) no. 10 (january june 2015) 31 introduction the importance of english for the costa rican social, economic, and cultural development has been historically acknowledged by political authorities. for this reason, different governments have sponsored several initiatives with the purpose of improving the teaching of english in the public school system of the country. córdoba, coto and ramírez (2005) report that the inclusion of english in the costa rican higher education curriculum dates back to the early 1800s. they add that english became a subject in the high school curriculum during the second half of the 19th century. however, english was officially incorporated into the curriculum of elementary schools until the end of the 20th century in 1994. today, the challenges that the 21st century poses, such as globalization, competitiveness, communication and information technologies, among others, demand a student population with a higher proficiency in english to have access to better opportunities in the labor market. as a result, english teachers also need to be better prepared and qualified for their jobs to help students achieve high levels of english performance. in response to these new challenges, the costa rican government signed a decree called multilingual costa rica in which english was declared of national interest in 2008 (decreto ejecutivo 34425-mep-comex; calderón & mora, 2012). as a result, the ministry of public education (mep), in collaboration with private and government institutions, designed the national plan of english, whose main goal was to help better the level of english in the public school system. the plan aimed first at improving the teachers’ english proficiency and teaching practice, and then at tackling the ultimate goal of a more proficient student population. to start with in 2008, the ministry of public education tested the language proficiency of its in-service english teachers through an international standardized exam. the results showed that only 14% of the teachers working in public schools in costa rica had a c1 level of proficiency, and the rest was placed within the intermediate and basic bands with 48% scoring at the b1 and b2 levels, 31% at the a2 level, and 7% at the a1 level, according to the common european framework of reference for languages (cefr).the results of the lower levels (a1, a2, and b1) were considered unsatisfactory by the ministry of public education to meet the challenges of the country. therefore, once the problem was identified, the next stage consisted of designing and implementing a training model that included linguistic skills courses for teachers with a low english proficiency level, and methodology skills courses for teachers at the most advanced levels. design and implementation of an in-service efl model córdoba, rodríguez & hernández no. 10 (january june 2015) no. 10 (january june 2015) 32 thus, the purpose of this article is to examine the design and implementation of this costa rican training model, as well as to present the results of the english teachers’ performance after taking the linguistics skills courses designed for the training process. literature review this section focuses on two areas: a brief review of two efl government initiatives conducted by other latin american countries and the curricular decisions for the design of the costa rican model. efl teacher training programs in other countries a look into similar recent training projects carried out in chile and colombia, where english is a foreign language, reveals different approaches when establishing national policies in regard to the teaching of english. these two government efl initiatives were reviewed. like the costa rican model, the chilean and colombian projects share a common goal: improving the level of english proficiency nationwide to increase productivity (de mejía, 2011). however, there are important differences in the issues involved in the articulation and implementation of the language policies. in the case of colombia, the national bilingual programme spanish-english was implemented in 2004 by the ministry of education in coordination with the british council. such program was based on the cefr standards to help define proficiency levels. according to de mejía (2011), the policy did not consider the local context of a multilingual and multicultural colombia that has dozens of indigenous languages. de mejía also calls attention to the debate regarding the exclusion of local experts in the design of the training. along a similar line, usma wilches (2009) criticizes “the standardization of language teaching and learning [which] depicts a lack of trust in teachers, universities and schools” and the tendency of adopting “international models of quality” (p. 136). in the chilean experience, the english opens doors program, created in 2003, included a variety of components and targeted both students and teachers in the process of improving english proficiency. the program, also based on the cefr standards, has implemented a teacher training strategy with linguistic skills and methodology courses, teacher networks, and classroom support for teachers of english through educational resources. the results of the diagnostic test administered to the teachers revealed that more than 50% ranked at the intermediate levels 2 and 3 according to the association of language design and implementation of an in-service efl model córdoba, rodríguez & hernández no. 10 (january june 2015) no. 10 (january june 2015) 33 testers of europe (alte) guidelines. however, results of the teachers’ performance after the training were not available at the time of this study. curricular decisions for program design before initiating a new language program, vital work in the form of information gathering must take place. the fact-finding stage provides answers to the curricular key questions in any program: who are the learners? who are the trainers? why is the program necessary? what will the goals of the program be? what will be taught? where will the program be implemented? how will it be implemented? what view of language learning will be considered? how will learners’ performance be assessed? what type of tests will be used? the information derived from these questions is necessary because “a curriculum [is] understood in the broadest sense as the philosophy, purposes, design, and implementation of a whole program” (graves, 1996, p. 3). the answers to such questions then become the basis for establishing policy and formulating goals in a communicative curriculum (dubin & olshtain, 2000). in addition, decisions at the macro level must be narrowed down to develop a local model to meet the specific learner needs (kumaravadivelu, 2012). therefore, the curricular decisions for the costa rican training model followed the previous process: starting from policy making for the learning of foreign languages in the country, and going through the stages of assessing the learners’ needs; developing goals and objectives; designing and implementing the courses; testing the learners’ performances; and evaluating the program (brown, 1996; graves, 1996; richards & renandya, 2002). all this process falls within the framework of a mixed-focus curriculum (finney, 2002) for language learning. finney explains that a mixed-focus curricular model is based on “an integrated approach, which is essentially learner-centered” and which combines “the productoriented model and the process-oriented approach” to english language teaching, proposed by nunan (as cited in finney, 2002, p. 74). taking into account a product and process orientation to curriculum design helps to reconcile two important components in a teacher training model: the product, in other words, the content or skills to be learned, and the process, i.e., the learners’ needs, interests, and strategies. regarding the view of language learning, the implementation of the in-service teacher training model was based on a number of design and implementation of an in-service efl model córdoba, rodríguez & hernández no. 10 (january june 2015) no. 10 (january june 2015) 34 teaching and learning principles for effective communication (brown, 2001). the participants were viewed as teachers capable of contributing their own experience as language learners, and as language teachers constructing learning communities (kumaravadivelu, 2012). thus, they could reach professional competence (pettis, 2010). within this perspective, the principles considered in the training model included also the development of communicative competence (canale & swain, 1981; hymes, 1972) within a learner-centered, safe environment based on meaningful learning experiences simulating real-life contexts (nunan, 1998). the view of language learning for this training model is also congruent with the position held by calderón and mora, coparticipants in the costa rican teacher training project, who state that professional development in linguistic skills should be obligatory for language teachers to guarantee quality in the efl class (calderón & mora, 2012, p. 10). finally, an important concern in any curriculum is the type of assessment used to diagnose and to test the learners’ linguistic performance. a decision in this regard includes whether to use an international standardized test or a teacher-created one. although standardized tests may have detractors with criticism ranging from ideological, cultural, and economic issues to linguistic ones (bradley & nagy, 2011; canagarajah, 2006), these tests have a number of advantages, for large-scale testing purposes, over those teachers create. according to brown (2004), when testing language proficiency, tests must be based on accurate “constructs of language ability” that allow teachers and program administrators to collect “legitimate samples of english language use in a defined context; therefore, “language teachers would be wise not to create an overall proficiency test on their own” (p. 45). thus, standardized tests are generally considered objective measures of proficiency that have undergone considerable item analysis, can be administered to large populations, and can be graded efficiently and objectively. however, it is important to mention that no single test can accurately determine a person’s language performance. within the high number of standardized tests available, toeic© has become a popular examination currently administered by a large number of organizations around the world to measure linguistic competence. it is used to make decisions in job-related contexts where english for international communication is a priority. design and implementation of an in-service efl model córdoba, rodríguez & hernández no. 10 (january june 2015) no. 10 (january june 2015) 35 methodology research design this study followed a mixed methods approach to find out if the training program designed for the costa rican in-service teachers of english in the public school system and carried out from 2008 to 2011 proved effective to help the trained teachers improve their linguistic performance in english. in order to determine the teachers’ level of proficiency before and after the training, the results the teachers obtained in the diagnostic (before training) and output (after training) toeic© tests were compared. the research also included a descriptive analysis of the components of the teacher training model that, in the long run, could have helped participants better their linguistic performance in english. context and participants the training program for in-service teachers of english was implemented nationwide from 2008 to 2011 in the 27 school districts in costa rica. the courses were taught in the facilities available in each region, for example, branches of the state universities, community centers, and schools. approximately 3,000 in-service teachers, representing all levels of the public school system, from kindergarten to 12th grade, took part in the training project. the teachers, who ranged from very novice to very experienced, worked in either academic, vocational, or bilingual schools in urban or rural areas. spanish was their l1, and most were full-time teachers with 40 instructional lessons a week. concerning their academic preparation, the teachers had university degrees in english teaching or in teaching with an emphasis in english from both private and public universities. data collection instruments diagnostic test of the in-service teachers’ language proficiency (before the training). the ministry of public education of costa rica (mep) and fundación para la cooperación costa rica–estados unidos (crusa) sponsored the test of english for international communication (toeic©) as the diagnostic test to evaluate the inservice teachers’ language proficiency in 2008. the ministry of public education selected this test after weighing the cost-benefit relationship of administering an international test and designing a whole new exam. design and implementation of an in-service efl model córdoba, rodríguez & hernández no. 10 (january june 2015) no. 10 (january june 2015) 36 nevertheless, it is important to mention that the costa rican teacher population took a modified version of the toeic© test that included an oral interview. to administer the diagnostic test and interview the participants, mep hired the costa rican american cultural center (cccn), the only accredited organization in the country. its certified raters, including mostly costa ricans and americans, were responsible for carrying out the application of the toeic© test to 91% of the teacher population working for mep in all school districts. cccn also scored the exams, ranked the participants, and sent the results to the ministry for decision making. after-the-training test of the in-service teachers’ language proficiency. the participants’ linguistic skills were evaluated through a subsequent administration of the modified version of the toeic© test that included an interview. the test was administered to all trainees as they were finishing the training in the years 2010 and 2011. this teaching population represented approximately 78% of those who took the diagnostic test and finished the training program. once again, the costa rican american cultural center (cccn) administered and scored the tests. data analysis and interpretation to gather information about the improvement of the in-service teachers of english in the public school system of costa rica, the results of the diagnostic and after-the-training toeic© tests were first analyzed. then, taking into account the standards of the common european framework of reference for languages (cefr), these results were compared to shed light on the progress of the participants regarding language proficiency. they [the results] are presented with a bar chart to show the migration of the teachers from 2008 to 2011 to the higher bands of cefr. results this section is divided into two parts: the first one is devoted to examining the elements involved in the efl teacher training model designed by the academic committee, and the second one is devoted to analyzing the impact of the linguistic courses on the participants’ proficiency level in english. design and implementation of an in-service efl model córdoba, rodríguez & hernández no. 10 (january june 2015) no. 10 (january june 2015) 37 the efl teacher training model the teacher training model was designed considering legal, administrative, logistics, and academic aspects based on the costa rican context and the ministry’s goal for the training. this training model might be replicated in other countries where english as a foreign language is taught by making the necessary adjustments, given local differences and needs. legal requirements. due to its national scope and complexity, this teacher training model required a legal framework to efficiently administer the funds allocated to the project. therefore, the ministry of public education and the universities in charge of the training signed a general cooperation agreement and annual specific agreements. the purpose of these specific agreements was to regulate the type of course; the number of groups and instructional hours; the regions to be covered per university; the responsibilities of the parties involved; and the budget administration regarding aspects such as the purchase of textbooks and learning materials, the trainers’ salaries, and their travel expenses. budget administration. the budget for the project was assigned by the ministry of public education (mep) to the teacher development agency (idp) for its annual allocation to the universities. mep invested a total of approximately 4.5 million usd to carry out the four-year training project, and the funds were transferred annually depending on the courses to be taught and the number of groups assigned to each university. the funds were administered either through the university’s main administrative office or through their research foundations. the latter proved to be the most efficient administrative system for three of the universities because of the expedited procedures for hiring trainers and clerical workers, paying salaries and travel expenses, and purchasing materials. in relation to the materials, it is important to clarify that, for each course, the participants were given a set of texts with no charge. the budget also included unforeseen occasional expenses such as courier services, classroom cleaning services, and classroom rental. logistics of the model. the implementation of this national training model required a lot of planning, coordination, cooperation, and supervision from the parties involved. given that the results of the toeic© test indicated that the proficiency level of many teachers was low, mep authorities considered the need of carrying out a teacher training program with the cooperation of the state universities (calderón & mora, 2012). this strategic alliance was due to the fact that the higher scores on the toeic© test were obtained by teachers design and implementation of an in-service efl model córdoba, rodríguez & hernández no. 10 (january june 2015) no. 10 (january june 2015) 38 who graduated from the state universities. thus, an inter-institutional academic committee was appointed to design and implement the training project for the in-service english teachers. the academic committee was formed by a representative from the ministry’s teacher development agency (idp) and two professors, with ample expertise in the field of tesol, from each public university: the university of costa rica (ucr), the national university (una), the distance state university (uned), and the technological institute of costa rica (itcr). based on their expertise and experience in other training projects, the academic committee joined efforts to design a feasible training model based on the ministry’s goal of improved linguistic proficiency for its efl teachers. the academic committee was in charge of course design, budget administration, and implementation of a four-year program. some specific responsibilities of the committee were the following: a. coordination with the ministry’s advisors and teacher development agency (idp), b. weekly meetings during the four-year period for decision-making and course design, c. design of a total of 10 courses with the selection of the corresponding materials, d. design of exams, guidelines, and rubrics for all courses, e. selection and recruitment of trainers and external evaluators, f. organization of workshops for the trainers before each new course, g. visits to the 27 school districts for observing and supervising classes, and conflict resolution when required, h. receiving and giving feedback to trainers and participants, i. coordination and supervision of approximately 200 groups every year, and j. elaboration of final reports for authorities. because it was necessary to establish a liaison between mep and the universities to deal with the distribution of all official communication, the selection of the training centers, and the distribution of material, mep authorities appointed the ministry´s teacher development agency (idp) as such contact. idp was responsible for distributing the ministry´s official communication to inform school principals about design and implementation of an in-service efl model córdoba, rodríguez & hernández no. 10 (january june 2015) no. 10 (january june 2015) 39 the trainees with a study permit. it is important to mention that this was a paid study permit. another official procedure consisted of having the participants sign a contract to make them accountable for their professional development. for this purpose, idp provided the official control forms for trainers to guarantee the participants’ mandatory attendance to the training because the training sessions were scheduled during working hours. idp also contacted school principals so that they made the necessary schedule adjustments in order not to affect students during school time. finally, in coordination with idp, the ministry’s regional advisors selected the teaching centers in the different schools districts of the country. they were also responsible for the distribution of the materials to the participants during the first two weeks of class and control the participants´ attendance to the training courses. the trainers. to make this model successful and effective, the selection of a highly qualified team of trainers was essential. most trainers recruited to teach the courses were university instructors, and some others were experienced high-school teachers. the trainers held a master’s degree in tesol, or pursued studies in a tesol master’s program. they were required to have worked a minimum of two years in a higher education institution or five years in a public high school. they had to show mastery of english in the job interview conducted by the academic committee, and also had to attend the required academic and administrative training sessions to learn about the objectives, contents, methodology, guidelines, and official documents of the courses to be taught. in addition to their regular teaching responsibilities, the trainers had to build a supportive learning environment by establishing an atmosphere of trust between trainers and participants; to motivate the participants and lower their affective filter; to build their confidence; to boost their professional image; and to effectively deal with conflict when required. one of the most important highlights of the trainers was the decision to establish collaboration networks to share lesson plans, materials, activities, and experiences with other trainers. although this idea was not originally part of the model, it became a successful component that ensured team work and uniformity in the courses, and therefore should be contemplated in similar teacher training programs. finally, the trainers’ role in this model was that of a facilitator of learning, based on the courses designed by the academic committee. the trainers facilitated learning by raising the participants’ awareness of their language learning process and by scaffolding the learning design and implementation of an in-service efl model córdoba, rodríguez & hernández no. 10 (january june 2015) no. 10 (january june 2015) 40 experiences through challenging activities adapted to their proficiency level. due to the flexibility of the curriculum of the model, the trainers could make their own decisions regarding the emphasis to be given to the objectives, the activities to design/adapt, and supplementary materials to use, depending on the participants’ needs. they were also required to provide feedback to the academic committee during and after each course to help make the necessary adjustments and, thus, better meet the participants’ needs in future courses. the learners. the following description of the learners in the training project was obtained from trainer reports, class observations by the academic committee members, and classroom reports from external evaluators hired by the academic committee. such learners’ description was based on the affective, the cognitive and the linguistic domains, congruent with brown’s language teaching principles (2001). regarding the affective domain, this population was more fragile and defensive (brown, 2007, p.72) than regular beginning learners because they were in-service teachers becoming language learners once again. it is important to mention that many participants started the training process showing rejection toward the training and questioning the results of the diagnostic test. once the courses began, the trainers reported that those participants did not feel confident when using the language; therefore, it was necessary to strengthen their self-confidence by providing opportunities for language use in a safe learning environment. concerning the cognitive domain, learners at the basic levels showed weak knowledge of the english language. as observed when interacting in class activities, the trainees in levels a1 and a2 were not fluent speakers; as a result, they often resorted to their l1 –spanish. in addition to their weak knowledge of the target language and their apparent lack of sufficient exposure to it, classroom observations revealed that participants concentrated more on form than on meaning and/or messages, and most were not autonomous learners (brown, 2007). in relation to the linguistic domain, the development of the learners’ communicative competence was crucial because a large segment of the in-service teacher population were at early stages of their interlanguage, as revealed by class observations and trainers’ reports. the courses. the course design stage. the course design stage for this training project was approached from the point of view of a mixed curriculum, which focuses on both the product and the process (finney, 2002). thus, the curricular decisions involved a) setting communicative design and implementation of an in-service efl model córdoba, rodríguez & hernández no. 10 (january june 2015) no. 10 (january june 2015) 41 objectives, b) using international standards for describing learner proficiency, c) having homogenized criteria for the syllabi and materials, d) implementing a communicative methodology, and e) allowing flexibility to respond to the evolving learners’ needs. each of these elements will be discussed below. to improve the participants’ level of proficiency, it was important to set communicative objectives to guide the curricular design of the different courses. the communicative objectives progressed from everyday, familiar contexts to less predictable ones, as the participants developed their skills. it was also necessary to use international standards that helped describe the participants’ proficiency level in relation to knowledge, abilities, and skills. the common european framework of reference for languages (cefr) was taken into account as one of the elements for the curricular design. therefore, the academic committee decided on the required number of hours for each course following the guidelines of the association of language testers in europe (alte) to achieve the cefr levels. thus, the courses ranged from 70 to 140 hours of instruction and were taught in sessions of five or six hours a day, once or twice a week, depending on the emphasis of the course. each course in the training project was planned with standardized criteria to get results that could be compared nationwide. the academic committee designed a communicative syllabus for each of the courses; the guidelines for quizzes, exams, and projects; and the evaluation rubrics to be used in the communicative activities of each course. depending on the task, this evaluation was either summative or alternative. for the training project, the academic committee also selected the instructional materials to be used in the different linguistic courses in the 27 school districts of the country. it is important to point out that such resources helped learners be exposed to authentic materials and be able to participate in communicative tasks. the methodology of the training model was not based on any particular method but rather on principled methodological decisions (brown, 2001; kumaravadivelu, 2012; richards, 2001). the courses integrated the skills that the participants needed the most, i.e., listening, speaking, and reading. even though a few writing tasks were included in the linguistic courses, writing was not taught explicitly. pronunciation, grammar, and culture were also considered to develop and consolidate language skills. even though the homogenized decisions were made at a macro level by the academic committee, the curriculum was flexible enough for the trainers to design their own activities, based on the course objectives. this flexibility allowed trainers to make the necessary design and implementation of an in-service efl model córdoba, rodríguez & hernández no. 10 (january june 2015) no. 10 (january june 2015) 42 changes considering the participants’ linguistic knowledge, affective situations, or any other situation that could come up along the way. without the trainers’ careful contextualization of their own courses, the standardized curriculum proposed by the committee would have probably failed. as coleman states “learning becomes impossible” when local contexts are not taken into account (as cited in kumaravadivelu, 2012, loc. 540). the following table shows the courses designed for the different in-service teacher populations in the training process from 2008 to 2011. table 1. linguistic courses designed for the efl teacher-training model in costa rica note. adapted from calderón, r., & mora, y. (2012). formación permanente del docente de inglés: una experiencia exitosa en costa rica. revista iberoamericana sobre calidad, eficacia y cambio en educación 10 (4). retrieved from http://www.rinace.net/reice/numeros/arts/vol10num4/art7. htm design and implementation of an in-service efl model córdoba, rodríguez & hernández no. 10 (january june 2015) no. 10 (january june 2015) 43 the linguistic courses. linguistic courses for basic users. in 2008, two different courses were designed for the population of basic users (a1 and a2) so that they began developing their skills. the participants were given intensive integrated courses in the four macro skills with an emphasis on listening and speaking. linguistic courses for independent users. the following years (2009-2010) the b1 population that joined the training took three courses, totalling 274 hours of instruction, while the population who started the training at the basic levels needed a total of 414 to 554 hours of instruction to consolidate the b1 level. two of the three courses focused on the developing of listening and speaking skills, and the other one was designed to help participants learn strategies for listening and reading comprehension in preparation for the post test (the toeic©). after the post test was administered, the results were analyzed to make further decisions regarding the participants’ linguistic needs at that particular point. two main findings were evident: a) 18% of the participants who were placed in b2-, according to the toeic© test, were ready for developing academic skills, such as argumentation, group discussions, critical thinking, among others, to consolidate their level. therefore, two courses on academic listening and speaking, with an online component, were designed, and b) there were still a few teachers placed in the level b1who were not ready for academic skills courses. as a result, two additional courses on reading and oral communication skills were designed for this population because the test showed these were their weakest areas. table 2 contains the additional linguistic courses designed for the teacher population still ranking in level b1-, corresponding to approximately 9% of the trainees, after a three-year period of training. design and implementation of an in-service efl model córdoba, rodríguez & hernández no. 10 (january june 2015) no. 10 (january june 2015) 44 table 2. linguistic courses designed for the population still ranking in b1after three years of training note. adapted from calderón, r. (2012). capacitación a docentes de inglés en servicio del mep: informe 2008-2011. san josé, costa rica: ministerio de educación pública. even the participants who did not require extra courses to reach higher levels of proficiency (b1 and b2) needed a higher number of instructional hours that varies considerably from the hours recommended by the association of language testers in europe (alte). the costa rican in-service teachers required approximately from 50 to 200 additional hours of instruction to become independent users. table 3 illustrates such differences. design and implementation of an in-service efl model córdoba, rodríguez & hernández no. 10 (january june 2015) no. 10 (january june 2015) 45 table 3. comparison of the approximate number of hours required to consolidate a cefr level in the costa rican in-service teacher training model note. adapted from c.e.f. (n.d.) a teachers’ guide to the common european framework [pdf]. new york: pearson longman and from calderón, r. (2012). capacitación a docentes de inglés en servicio del mep: informe 2008-2011. san josé, costa rica: ministerio de educación pública. the reasons why the participants needed a much higher number of instructional hours to increase their level could be attributed to factors such as the possible lack of exposure to the target language in their previous university programs, as the ministry of education found in their analysis of the in-service teachers’ performance (ministerio de educación, 2008), and the lack of practice in their work environments. it could be safely assumed that the participants started this training program with a not very strong professional competence that hindered their performance and slowed down their progress that due to their low level of english proficiency. impact of the training project as mentioned before, the impact of the training project on the participants’ linguistic performance was measured through a second administration of the toeic©. the results the participants obtained in the 2008 diagnostic toeic© test were compared to the ones achieved in the post test in 2011. thus, figure 1 shows the level of proficiency of the in-service teachers both at the beginning of the process and after approximately three years of training. design and implementation of an in-service efl model córdoba, rodríguez & hernández no. 10 (january june 2015) no. 10 (january june 2015) 46 figure 1. results of the linguistic performance of in-service teachers in 2008 and 2011. adapted from calderón, r. (2012). capacitación a docentes de inglés en servicio del mep: informe 2008-2011. san josé, costa rica: ministerio de educación pública. the comparison of the linguistic performance of the in-service teachers shows evident migration from lower to higher bands. it is important to point out that while 38% of the teachers ranked in levels a1and a2 at the beginning of the training, only 4% of the participants still ranked in level a2 after taking the courses of the training program. the percentage of participants at the b1 level also decreased in 10% because of those teachers who migrated to higher levels. another positive result was the fact that the percentage of teachers at the b2 and c1 levels at the beginning of the training more than doubled after three years of training. these results show that a significant 78% of the teacher population trained became independent (b2) and proficient (c1) users of the english language. design and implementation of an in-service efl model córdoba, rodríguez & hernández no. 10 (january june 2015) no. 10 (january june 2015) 47 conclusions this study revealed that, after taking the three-year training, approximately 80% of the costa rican in-service teachers were able to migrate to higher levels of proficiency. this positive result sheds light about the appropriateness of the decision-making process that gave birth to the teacher-training model. on the one hand, all major components—goals, objectives, course methodology, types of courses, number of instructional hours and course evaluation—were adequately articulated to design a coherent curriculum (dubin & olshtain, 2000; graves, 1996; richards & renandya, 2002). on the other hand, these components were conceived within a local framework (kumaravadivelu, 2012) that paved the way for a training model to be carried out within the costa rican context. in this way, both key curricular elements and local needs were reconciled to ensure success. the results are more significant when considering that the outcome of this teacher training model was evaluated by means of an international standardized exam— the toeic—as a measure of performance. however, an important drawback of the study is its sole reliance on test results to evaluate the model. two important sources of information (genesee, 2001) that could have been considered as part of the evaluation process of the model were the participants and the trainers. even so, the study sheds light about a teacher training model that offers the possibility of replication in similar efl contexts provided that the particularities of the setting are adjusted. design and implementation of an in-service efl model córdoba, rodríguez & hernández no. 10 (january june 2015) no. 10 (january june 2015) 48 references brown, h. d. (2001). teaching by principles: an interactive approach to language pedagogy. new york: pearson longman. brown, h. d. (2004). language assessment: principles and classroom practices. white plains, ny: pearson education. brown, h. d. (2007). principles of language teaching and learning (5th ed.). new york: pearson education. brown, j. d. (1996). testing in language programs. upper saddle river, nj: prentice hall. calderón, r., & mora, y. (2012). formación permanente del docente de inglés: una experiencia exitosa en costa rica. revista iberoamericana sobre calidad, eficacia y cambio en educación 10(4). retrieved from http://www.rinace.net/reice/numeros/arts/ vol10num4/art7.htm canale, m., & swain, m. (1980). theoretical bases of communicative approaches to second language teaching and testing. applied linguistics,1, 1-47. canagarajah, s. (2006). changing communicative needs, revised assessment objectives: testing english as an international language. language assessment quarterly 3(3), 229-242. c.e.f. (n.d.). a teachers´ guide to the common european framework [pdf]. new york: pearson longman. córdoba, p., coto, r., & ramírez, m. (2005). la enseñanza del inglés en costa rica y la destreza auditiva en el aula desde una perspectiva histórica. revista electrónica actualidades investigativas en educación, 5(2), 1-12. calderón mora, r. (2012). capacitación a docentes de inglés en servicio del mep: informe 20082011. san josé, costa rica: ministerio de educación pública. curriculum and evaluation unit. (n.d.). english opens doors program. ministry of education of chile. retrieved from http://www.ingles. mineduc.cl/ de mejía, a. m. (2011). the national bilingual programme in colombia: imposition or opportunity? journal of applied language studies 5(3), 7-17. design and implementation of an in-service efl model córdoba, rodríguez & hernández no. 10 (january june 2015) no. 10 (january june 2015) 49 decreto ejecutivo [executive decree] 34425-mep-comex. (march 28, 2008). la gaceta no. 61. retrieved from http://www.gaceta. go.cr/pub/2008/03/28/comp_28_03_2008.html#_toc194385851 dubin, f., & olshtain e. (2000). course design. new york: cambridge university press. finney, d. (2002). the elt curriculum: a flexible model for a changing world. in j. c. richards, & w. a. renandya, methodology in language teaching: an anthology of current practice (pp. 69-79). new york: cambridge university press. freeman, d. (1982). observing teachers: three approaches to in-service training and development. tesol quaterly, 16(1), 21-28. genesee, f. (2001). evaluation. in r. carter, & d. nunan, the cambridge guide to teaching english to speakers of other languages. cambridge: cambridge university press. graves, k. (1996). teachers as course developers. new york: cambridge university press. hymes, d. (1972). on communicative competence. in j. pride, & j. holmes (eds.), sociolinguistics. harmondsworth, uk: penguin books. kumaravadivelu, b. (2012). language teacher education for a global society. [kindle edition]. new york: routledge. ministerio de educación (2008 august, 06). “divulgación de resultados.” [press conference]. san josé, costa rica. nunan, d. (1988). designing tasks for the communicative classroom. cambridge, uk: cambridge university press. pearson-longman. (2002). teacher’s guide to the common european framework. new york: pearson education. pettis, j. (2010). developing our professional competence: some reflections. in j. c. richards, & w. a. renandya, methodology in language teaching: an anthology of current practice (pp. 393-396). new york: cambridge university press. richards, j. c. (2001). curriculum development in language teaching. london: cambridge university press. richards, j. c., & renandaya, w. a. (2002). methodology in language teaching: an anthology of current practice. new york: cambridge university press. usma wilches, j. (2009). education and language policy in colombia: exploring processes of inclusion, exclusion and stratification in times of global reform. profile 11, 123–142. design and implementation of an in-service efl model córdoba, rodríguez & hernández no. 10 (january june 2015) no. 10 (january june 2015) 50 authors *patricia córdoba cubillo is an associate professor of english at the university of costa rica. she holds a master’s in tesol from the university of costa rica. she has published different articles on linguistics, pronunciation and writing. she has also published some books on the listening skill for high school students of the costa rican public school system. her research interests are on english grammar, listening and writing. *xinia rodríguez ramírez is an associate professor of english at the university of costa rica in san josé. she received her master’s degree in tesol from indiana university of pennsylvania. her recent publications include let’s listen for 9th graders and let’s listen for 8th graders (editorial ucr, 2015). her research interests include english for specific purposes and efl composition. *tatiana hernández-gaubil works as a professor of english at distance state university, costa rica. she has ample experience in the field of tesol, working as english professor, outreach english program coordinator, curricular designer, and english consultant for the national teachers association (colypro) and oxford university press. she has also represented her university as speaker in national and international workshops and seminars. design and implementation of an in-service efl model no. 10 (january june 2015) no. 10 (january june 2015) 135 rethinking curriculum in the linguistics component of a major on bilingual education1 repensar el currículo en el componente lingüístico de un pregrado en educación bilingüe carlos arias-cepeda and sandra rojas2 institución universitaria colombo americanaúnica abstract the aim of this article is to report the partial findings resulting from a phenomenological study that intends to document the theoretical and empirical sources to inform a curricular proposal for the linguistic component of a major on bilingual education. from the theoretical point of view, this paper will present several perspectives about curriculum in tertiary education and the role of linguistics in a major on bilingual education. as for the empirical data, the paper will document how some professors in the second language teaching and linguistics fields, when analyzing the linguistic component of the curriculum in the major, advocate for a conscious use of metalanguage, the choice of content that empower student teachers to build their praxis and compete in their field, the use of the first and second language for instruction, and a switch towards the problemic nature of the object of study rather than the subdiscipline fragmentation of knowledge. this paper also triangulates some of the participants’ perspectives with existing theory in an attempt to reach more informed grounds for a curricular proposal. key words: linguistics, curriculum, bilingual education, tertiary education. resumen el objetivo de este artículo es reportar los resultados parciales derivados de un estudio fenomenológico que intenta documentar las fuentes teóricas y 1 received: february 20, 2017/accepted: april 28, 2017 2 carlos.ariasc@yahoo.com.co/ slrojasmo@gmail.com exploring english language teaching in ecuador gist education and learning research journal. issn 1692-5777. no.14. (january june) 2017. pp. 135-157. no. 14 (january june 2017) no. 14 (january june 2017) 136 empíricas que sustentan una eventual propuesta curricular para el componente lingüístico de un programa de pregrado en educación bilingüe. desde el punto de vista teórico este artículo presentará algunas perspectivas acerca del currículo en la educación terciaria y del papel de la lingüística en un pregrado de educación bilingüe. en cuanto a los datos empíricos, el documento reportará cómo profesores en las áreas de la enseñanza de una segunda lengua y de la lingüística, cuando analizan el componente lingüístico en el currículo del programa de pregrado, advocan el uso consciente de metalenguaje, la selección de contenidos que empoderen a los futuros docentes para construir su praxis y competir en su campo del conocimiento, el uso de la primera y segunda lengua como códigos y objetos de instrucción en lingüística y un cambio de enfoque hacia la naturaleza problémica del objeto de estudio en lugar de la fragmentación subdisciplinar del conocimiento. este escrito además triangula algunas de las perspectivas de los participantes con la teoría existente con el objetivo de lograr unas bases más sólidas para la propuesta curricular. palabras clave: lingüística, currículo, educación bilingüe, educación terciaria. resumo o objetivo deste artigo é reportar os resultados parciais derivados de um estudo fenomenológico que tenta documentar as fontes teóricas e empíricas que sustentam uma eventual proposta curricular para o componente linguístico de um programa de graduação em educação bilíngue. desde o ponto de vista teórico, este artigo apresentará algumas perspectivas acerca do currículo na educação terciária e do papel da linguística em uma graduação de educação bilíngue. em relação aos dados empíricos, o documento reportará como professores nas áreas do ensino de uma segunda língua e da linguística, quando analisam o componente linguístico no currículo do programa de graduação, defendem o uso consciente da metalinguagem, a seleção de conteúdos que dê poder aos futuros docentes para construir a sua práxis e concorrer na sua área de conhecimento, o uso da primeira e segunda língua como códigos e objetos de instrução em linguística e uma mudança de enfoque com relação à natureza problemática do objeto de estudo em vez da fragmentação subdisciplinar do conhecimento. este escrito também triangula algumas das perspectivas dos participantes com a teoria existente com o objetivo de conseguir umas bases mais sólidas para a proposta curricular. palavras chave: linguística, currículo, educação bilíngue, educação terciária. rethinking curriculum in linguistics arias-cepeda & rojas no. 14 (january june 2017) no. 14 (january june 2017) 137 introduction curriculum does not only work as a static and monolithic document that dictates the selection, organization, and delivery of contents based on the conceptual basis, the underlying theory, and the praxis to (gimeno & pérez, 2008), but rather it works as an active process in which continuous planning, acting and evaluating are intrinsically related to the teaching praxis (grundy, 1987). based on this fluid nature, it seems intrinsic to the nature of curriculum that those who enact it take a leading role in reflecting on it, reconceptualizing it, revising the scope of its achievements and redesigning it. the rationale behind curricular innovation could be triggered by the problematization of the knowledge discipline, the role of instruction, or the role of individuals in society. in fact the logical dynamics of knowledge production result in the obsolescence and banalization of contents (cepal, 1992), which might inform curricular revision. a pivotal factor in explaining a curricular update of content, is the progress in teacher’s development (diaz, 2003) -be it the result of teaching experience or further academic appropiation. currently, the need to empower individuals to exercise citizenship and be more competitive (dussel, 2005) is a tenet that also drives attempts for curriculum innovation. the study reported in this article aimed at the gathering of principles to inform a proposal for the linguistic component of the curriculum in a tensemester long undergraduate program on bilingual education (spanish-english) at a private college in bogotá. putting together a proposal for the linguistics curricular component of the major was a response to teachers’ and students’ perception of overlapping of linguistic contents, as well as to the need to strengthen student-teachers’ grounding on linguistics to boost their decision making as language learners, language users, and language (and content) educators. when conducting the study, the main purpose was to identify principles that could be used to inform a proposal that cared about the choice of contents, didactic practices, and practices within the linguistics component of the curriculum. thus, in its initial documentation stage the study resorted to three sources of data: i) a quest of the literature on the theoretical principles for the teaching/learning of linguistics in bilingual education majors; ii) the emic intersubjective perspective of graduates from the university regarding their needs and the assets resulting from their learning of linguistics in the undergraduate program; iii) the emic intersubjective perspective of professors teaching either second language, linguistics, or pedagogy. the principles were eventually rethinking curriculum in linguistics arias-cepeda & rojas no. 14 (january june 2017) no. 14 (january june 2017) 138 applied to the crafting of a proposal that was piloted and implemented as part of the curricular innovation that is allowed and promoted through the curricular committee’s maneuvering, this article is focused particularly on the stage previous to the crafting of the proposal. literature review the covert interests behind curriculum construction the extensiveness of the conceptual terrain that can be embraced by the term curriculum, which can be blurry enough to include dissimilar features such as the disciplinary content of a subject, the program of study, the students’ experiences of learning, and the dynamics of teaching and learning (fraser & bosanquet, 2006; posner, 2005). such inclusiveness offers space for the emergence of a critical perspective that considers curriculum as the space in which, by making choices about content and conceptualizing about education in a field, there is a struggle of power centers and social forces (englund & quennerstedt, 2008). this means that curriculum and curricular change are conceived as intrinsically related to the social, the economic, and the political forces that generate curriculum and curricular change (murphy & adams, 1998). o’neill (2015) acknowledged that curriculum design is marked by the influence of contextual filters which include the international, the national, the institutional, and the program and disciplinary regulations. these contextual filters can be enacted by means of formal, implicit, or prudential policies (kridel, 2010) and shape and instrumentalize the purposes of curriculum at the tertiary level through controlling curricular change at the mechanisms such as the involvement of universities in dynamics beyond the institutional domain; namely, practices of accountability like the quality accreditation processes, examinations, qualifications, and the establishment of authoritative figures (garcía & malagón, 2010; diaz, 2003). the instrumentalization of curriculum at the national level aims at materializing the intrinsic correlation between human thought and production dynamics. schooling reinforces the social anatomy of the nation through two context levels: a production context (material or symbolic) by which curriculum aims at constructing interpretations of material objects, knowledge, and social relations based on the premise of satisfying the needs of the existing social structures; and a reproduction context which aims at the transmission of an education that replicates the conditions of production despite the generation shifts, thus giving rethinking curriculum in linguistics arias-cepeda & rojas no. 14 (january june 2017) no. 14 (january june 2017) 139 curriculum an instrumental nature in the task of preserving the national social structures (lundgreen, 1992). on the other hand, the global filter, particularly at the tertiary level of education, instills the choice of contents and teaching/learning approaches that aim at allowing or even promoting the mobility of learners (o’neill, 2015). bentolila, pedranzani, & clavijo (2007) explain this as a logical consequence of the discursive construct of the global village, the neoliberal policies, and the dizzying pace of icts, which subject knowledge, as it happens with capital, to worldwide transactions. a critique to the instrumentalization of curriculum claussen & osborne (2013) and bourdieu (2000) argue that the formal education system is used to legitimize knowledge by means of imposing the cultural capital of a ruling social group to the rest of the social structure – which can be named as a ‘cultural arbitrary’ (bourdieu, 1986), an epistemologic injustice (gónzalez, 2015) or hermeneutic marginalization (fricker, 2007). this “contributes towards reproducing the power relations” (bourdieu & passeron, 1977 p. 31) and becomes a gatekeeper that discriminates between those individuals who have belonged to the privileged social group from which the cultural capital chosen has been accumulated through their habitus, and those for whom owing this capital is rather an institutionalized demand (jenkins, 2002). nonetheless, such cultural arbitrary is disguised in discourses of essentialism and intrinsic merit of contents emerging from the choice, which aims at a normalization discourse in education (foucault, 2006). schooling achievement, then is influenced by social inequality making education as a good to be traded, which is exemplified by parents having to pay for complementary educational services to make sure their children fit and do well in schooling (garcía & malagón (2010). nonetheless, claussen & osborne (2013) consider that schooling should keep a focus on those students “whose habitus does not readily provide access to the dominant forms of cultural capital” (p. 64) and try to alleviate and challenge the ‘symbolic violence’ emerging from the choice of a dominant cultural capital (bourdieu & passeron, 1977) by strengthening the literacy, knowledge, and criticality of the underprivileged populace. thus, as ironic as it might seem, it is by exposing the underprivileged to the discourses of the dominant cultural capital that social mobility can be made possible (brown, 2006). curriculum, rethinking curriculum in linguistics arias-cepeda & rojas no. 14 (january june 2017) no. 14 (january june 2017) 140 paradoxically, becomes a factor that both helps individuals conform to the existing social structures and emancipate from them, and it is through this clash between freedom and conformance that curriculum/ schooling are shaping the agentive roles of learners. curriculum as the space of convergence of cognitive and social interests the recognition of schooling and, therefore, curriculum as instrumental to the preservation of the existing social structures implies that curricular innovation also becomes a space of permanent power struggles. curricular innovation, then, is like a game where the participants need to acknowledge the cultural capitals (related to knowledge, ideas, values, etc.) that are at stake and be willing to compete by using their habitus to abide by the rules of the game (bourdieu, 2003). the transformation of cognition can set ground for social transformation; thus the social interests behind the construction of curriculum also end up shaping and being shaped by cognitive interests. to that respect habermas’ (1984) acknowledgement of three cognitive interests is very illustrative: the technical cognitive interest considers knowledge as simply owned, transmitted, and accumulated; whereas the practical cognitive interest offers space for interpretative approaches in the pursuit of using knowledge to improve reality. the emancipatory cognitive interest allows individuals to acknowledge and challenge the existence of hypostatized powers in the pursuit of free consciousness. grundy (1987), who applied habermas’ cognitive interests to the understanding of curriculum, described technical interests taking the form of classes in which technical interests predominate, thus giving a crucial role to the possibility of controlling the environment through empirical rule-following action. such curricular attitude towards knowledge results in an implicit interest in controlling pupils’ learning. in this way the approach towards their citizenship (their knowing, their doing, and their being) is a conformist one. grundy (1987) also defined the practical interest as fundamental “...in understanding the environment through interaction based upon a consensual understanding of meaning” (p. 14). a practical interest then gives a more agentive role to the dialogic nature of knowledge construction and highlights the importance of interaction as not limited to the topdown transmission of knowledge (popkewitz, 2008). instead, the focus is on the generation of novel understandings of the world and society and the rethinking curriculum in linguistics arias-cepeda & rojas no. 14 (january june 2017) no. 14 (january june 2017) 141 development of abilities that ease the discovery and inquiry; the emphasis is less on what the individuals should know, and has shifted more towards what they should do or be like (mceneaney, 2003). regarding the emancipator cognitive interest, grundy (1987) considered it as “a fundamental interest in emancipation and empowerment to engage in autonomous action arising out of authentic, critical insights into the social construction of human society” (p. 19). thus, this perspective genuinely intends to bridge the disciplinary nature of curricular content with the problem solving required to make a fairer society. reflecting about the linguistics component of curriculum adopting an informed perspective on what the linguistics component of the curriculum should be like in a major on bilingual teaching is essential provided that such epistemological choice will not just become instrumental to the learning/teaching of (a) language(s), but ultimately will have an effect on the theoretical appropriation of language, the framework for the production of knowledge in the field, and the pedagogical decisions that learners and teachers should make. therefore, it is not enough for linguistics to be made explicit, linguistics problematization should also shift from the positivistic approach to theoretical linguistics, and even further to an interpretative one that can generate new knowledge within a socio ethnographic description of learning realities, thus reaching even applied linguistics (within a critical framework, also) to the teaching of languages. explicit linguistic instruction seems to be a reasonable choice for the learning of a second language due to pedagogical and theoretical grounds. examples include the examination of the belief that exposure to metalanguage along with communicative practice can facilitate a shift from the declarative to the procedural knowledge of a given language feature (ellis, 2007), or the seemingly contradictory view that explicit linguistic instruction will only generate metalinguistic knowledge, without contributing much to the acquisition of implicit knowledge (doughty, 2003). this dialogue between pedagogy, english and spanish as objects of study, and linguistics is necessary due to the demands of a professional identity of bilingual teachers. the implicit needs of such identity include the development of high order thinking and communicative skills in both languages, as well as the understanding of what language is (both as contextually-independent and as contextually-situated), and rethinking curriculum in linguistics arias-cepeda & rojas no. 14 (january june 2017) no. 14 (january june 2017) 142 the understanding of educational principles that align with the learning and teaching of languages. regarding the distinctive learning needs of a major on second language education, correa (2014) acknowledges that learning linguistics in this kind of major differs from learning linguistics in a major on linguistics in english. also treffers-daller (2003) claims that, whereas the learning of linguistic content in major on linguistics works on generating knowledge about cognition, learning linguistics in a major on second language education is pivotal in facilitating the language learning process of those who will eventually teach language nonetheless, it is not just the learning of the second/foreign language that is boosted thanks to the inclusion of linguistic contents in the curriculum of a bilingual education major. it is unfair to expect the linguistic course in a language department to merely work as an instrument to facilitate language learning. in fact, the knowledge of linguistics also empowers pre service teachers in terms of their eventual teaching of the second language, since knowing the metalanguage can become the asset with which nonnative speaker teachers compete in a field where the learner tends to favor the native-speaker and his/her intuitive authority as language users-even if they do not hold language teaching majors (correa, 2014). going beyond the positivistic approach towards the role of linguistics in the learning and teaching of a second language, widdowson (2000) acknowledges that being fully knowledgeable of metalinguistic knowledge does not guarantee success in language teaching. ellis (2012) seems to agree when asserting that having a vast command of a language is not enough for the purpose of teaching it either. effective language teaching then might be the result of solid of reflective practices in the learning of a triad of contents that includes language pedagogy, applied linguistics, and theoretical linguistics as its pillars (johnston & goettsch, 2000). the development of a professional identity for bilingual education teachers implies somehow a new epistemological viewstand. one in which there is not the classical detachment between subject and object to be studied. this makes sense considering that knowledge about linguistics will eventually be more than the sheer content that will be used in the teaching, but also, as noted before, it constitutes a relevant resource for the development of the individual’s identity as a learner and teacher to be. thus, it is keen to consider that devicing the linguistic curricular component for the undergraduate program implies shifting from the rethinking curriculum in linguistics arias-cepeda & rojas no. 14 (january june 2017) no. 14 (january june 2017) 143 positivistic epistemology (which prescribes teaching recipes) to the interpretative epistemology (which advocates for the ethnographic descriptions of classroom learning realities), as johnston (2009) suggests. such espistemological shift will allow to consider the three dimensions of learning: the declarative knowledge (savoir), the procedural knowledge, or know-how (savoir faire), and the existential competence (savoir être), as delors (1996) would acknowledge. this threedimensional understanding of linguistic knowledge urges for an understanding of linguistics within the linguistics turn, which is rooted in the discipline itself, to generate ways of knowing about the language, but also to frame the knowledge within the social sciences. this latter approach will help learners/teachers-to-be understand language as a social phenomenon that is highly situational and contextuallydependent. furthermore, the path should be explicitly open for understanding the poststructural, and post-colonial turn that unveils the historical complicities between linguistics and colonialism and the call for linguistics and epistemological justice (pennycook, 2001). therefore, it would be savvy to adopt a new conception of the linguistics component of the curriculum that aligns with such understanding. ultimately, the approach that is given to curriculum will not be just accountable for the mastery of the language, and the existing language methodologies but will also result in the development of bilingual teachers’ identities (kumaradivelu, 2003) as passive technicians (whose teaching practices will be led by others’ expertise) reflective practitioners (who are not just consuemers of knowledge, but also producers of knowledge who deal with problem solving in their immediate teaching settings) and/ or asr transformative intellectuals (who take active part in curriculum development efforts and challenge the existing social structures). methodology research design the study is framed into a qualitative research paradigm that allows the intertwining of facts and values (marshall & rossman, 2006) that tandem with the dialogic construction of knowledge to gather the data to answer to the question: which theoretical and empirical sources can be used in the proposal of restructuration of the linguistic component of the undergraduate program on bilingual education? rethinking curriculum in linguistics arias-cepeda & rojas no. 14 (january june 2017) no. 14 (january june 2017) 144 such inquiry implied the need of resorting to i) the theoretical constructs that can inform a proposal to reform the linguistic component of curriculum, and ii) the validation of experiences and needs observed by professors (with experience teaching linguistics and/or second language at the tertiary level of education in similar majors) and graduates (from the bilingual education program at the university) as input to be considered in the crafting of a curriculum proposal for the linguistics of the major. the construction of the principles that make up the curriculum proposal seen through the lens of multiple individuals (researchers’ appropriation of literature included) imply that the approach being followed is a phenomenological one (creswell, 1998). context and participants the study was conducted at a bilingual education teachers’ college in bogotá. colombia. at the moment that the study started, the existing contents in the curriculum included subjects that dealt with linguistics from the social/post structural turn in the beginning of the major. content such as ‘intercultural communication’, ‘communication theory’, or ‘sociolinguistics’ was dealt with in the early stages of the major. the classes were conducted in the foreign language in the pursuit of helping learners develop language through content and content through language. no linguistics subject was being taught in the learners’ first language. besides, towards the seventh semester students were exposed to systemic linguistics classes (where they were expected to learn about language as a system). the intention of the study is to inform an eventual curriculum proposal for the linguistic component of the major without sacrificing the existing quality of the student -teachers as certified by positive results obtained in pruebas saber pro and mide, which are two standardized high stakes assessment procedures from the men (national ministry of education) in aspects like critical reading and written communication, and way above the reference group in english. the main concern is offering an informed proposal for the restructuration of the linguistics curriculum with the premise of maintaining, and, if possible, improving the evident quality of the education offered till then by the college in its curriculum design and curricular practices. the participants in this research included 8 linguistic and language teachers with experience in efl (english as a foreign language) education majors, 5 graduates with a highly reflective profile and a furtherly developed career path. there was a phenomenological convenience sampling; professors and graduates’ profile allowed their rethinking curriculum in linguistics arias-cepeda & rojas no. 14 (january june 2017) no. 14 (january june 2017) 145 informed reflection based on experience and knowledge of pedagogy, languages and linguistics with an emic (insider’s) perspective due to either having taught at similar majors (in the case of professors) or having graduated from the college and pursued a career in teaching (which for most of the participants included even further graduate studies). from interviewing the students, graduates, and teachers, one could read that this approach to linguistics seemed to generate both satisfying results in the generation of a professional identity but also some setbacks (namely overlapping contents, or the feeling that the understanding of language as a system came in too late in students’ learning path). graduates’ perceptions towards their linguistic learning allowed the emergence of a consciousness of language and linguistics as a body of knowledge that they had often accumulated declaratively, but which was difficult to manipulate for the purposes of handling with ‘out of the norm’ challenges when teaching the language (e.g. the challenge of helping large classes learn the pronunciation of th sounds or simple past, the teaching of third person conjugation in present tense, etc.). data collection instruments the study was conducted by resorting to three main sources of data, intending to gain insight on the theoretical and empirical sources that could be used in the proposal of restructuration of the linguistic component of the undergraduate program on bilingual education (which the research question aimed at). the three main sources of data were: i) literature and state of the art (related to curriculum, linguistics, and esl/ bilingual education teaching), ii) interviews to 8 teachers, linguists, and professors who have experience teaching linguistics and/ or second language at the level of tertiary education, and iii) interviews to 6 college graduates with solid academic profile and experience teaching. the data collected from the sources was used for the purpose of addressing theory, experience, and expectations and also to align with the vision of a curriculum that can address the educational, the experiential, and the existential dimensions (council of europe, 2010), as explained in the review of the literature. rethinking curriculum in linguistics arias-cepeda & rojas no. 14 (january june 2017) no. 14 (january june 2017) 146 results the meatalinguistic discourse permits the belonging to a society of knowledge metalinguistic knowledge allows student–teachers to resort to theory and researchbased explanations for their learning and eventual teaching of language(s), and also permits that they generate knowledge in the efl field by being able to name and document their own learning and teaching experiences as a valid researchable sources. the participants pointed out that learning the metalanguage resulting from instruction on linguistics facilitates the development of knowledge. “a common discourse facilitates the cognitive divulgation, the academic rigor, and the acceptance within the academic community.” (interviewee 2). such perspective seems to be theoretically backed up since language teacher education does have a tradition of including training on linguistics (lafond & dogancay-aktuna, 2009), and at the tertiary level education programs do not give much value to superficial knowledge that is purely declarative (biggs & tang, 2007). through their learning of linguistics, studentteachers gain ’knowledge of how language is structured, acquired, and used’(johnson & golombek, 2002, p. 8) and empower themselves to be able to understand and diagnose student problems better, provide better explanations and representations for aspects of language, and have a clearer idea of what they are teaching (bartels, 2005). the metalanguage facilitates that language educators rationalize their role as language acquirers, language users, and language makers (gomes de matos, 2014), thus boosting their opportunities of generating new knowledge about language. it is this epistemological dimension in which the knowledgeable subject is as important as the object to apprehend in which knowing the linguistic terms can offer an agentive role to the student-teacher as a source of linguistic knowledge and boost him/her as a researcher. as an example, despite the fact that research on linguistics has resorted to the consolidation of linguistic corpora (an initiative that might be rooted in the quantitative approach), there is need for an inquirer, someone who intuitively asks questions, generates hypotheses, and interprets data departing from the linguistic corpus data (kabatek, 2014). cots and arnó (2005) view the language teacher as a professional who fulfils roles involved in language, linguistics, and teaching, thus being a language user, a language analyst, and a language teacher. the pre-service teacher does not come as a tabula rasa, neither does s/he rethinking curriculum in linguistics arias-cepeda & rojas no. 14 (january june 2017) no. 14 (january june 2017) 147 simply analyze linguistic data. s/he is an empathic linguist (kabatek, 2014): a language user and language maker who in his/her own activity as speaker –hearer develops the ability to identify noteworthy phenomena not just from the (system) language itself but also from the languages s/he knows and learns. as bilingual beings who have acquired a mother tongue and have taken instruction to learn a foreign language, the pre-service teachers have a metalinguistic background that allows them to analyze their language use, identify deviations of norms, categorize and hypothesize phenomena, and inquire systematically to generate new knowledge of language, languages, and language teaching/learning. the premise is that the speakers can observe their own linguistic activity and judge not just whether a sentence is grammatically correct or not, but also can generate contrastive linguistic inquiries, and can examine learning from an emic, experiential view point that can later inform their instruction, and eventually generate knowledge about the content (linguistics), its teaching, and its learning. the need for a balance between homogeneity and heterogeneity in the choice of content participants agree that the choice of content for the linguistic component of the major needs to be coherent with the vision that the institution ascribes to the role language and linguistics in the construction of the professional profile of its graduates. such vision must keep a balance between homogeneity and heterogeneity when compared to the value given to linguistics by similar majors in other universities. homogeneity of content choice (choosing contents similar to the ones provided by similar majors in other universities) guarantees that the graduate from the college will be competitive when compared to other professionals in the field: “a language program needs a serious foundation on linguistics… four, five, six subjects of linguistics that have contents that are established everywhere. generally, there is a course of sociolinguistics. which are the topics of a sociolinguistics class? the same ones everywhere… the socio-phonic variables, socio lexical variables, sociogrammatical variables, bilingualism, etc. that means that there are some topics in the linguistic courses that are instructed worldwide at the undergraduate level. contents are relatively standardized” (interviewee 1). rethinking curriculum in linguistics arias-cepeda & rojas no. 14 (january june 2017) no. 14 (january june 2017) 148 this participant argues that homogeneity is a requirement that allows graduates to be ready to compete at the local and the international academic contexts: “if one deviates from the common contents, it is likely that the graduates become less competitive at the international level, and that is relatively harmful” (interviewee 1). such homogeneity in the choice of content (when compared to other similar majors in other universities) seems to be applicable to the study of language from an intradisciplinary perspective, which seems to align with pastor’s (2001) idea that a sine qua non choice in linguistic contents is the understanding of language as a system— phonology and phonetics, morphology, syntax, semantics. such kind of intradisciplinary perspective is also favored by the content choice of similar majors in latin america. heterogeneity of content choice, on the other hand, can result in the generation of an added value for the major when compared to other competitors in the area. “the program profile is established by the universities when they state “we want this sort of professionals.” the subjects are chosen based on such profile. even optative subjects are chosen based on it. they can offer a course on conversation analysis, a course on linguistics applied to computerized teaching of languages… there are numberless courses that can be created in that space…they are some sort of identity mark, an added value”. (interviewee 1) the offer of either compulsory or elective courses on some of the subdisciplines of linguistics seems to be for this participant one of the reasons why a conscious content choice can strengthen the university identity giving the learners competitive advantages over other colleagues once they graduate. changing the focus: problematizing rather than specializing content nonetheless, (and radical though it might seem) another participant asserts that it is not necessary to label the linguistic courses (e.g. phonetics, syntax, etc.), since by naming them one is arbitrarily isolating instruction and producing some sort of fragmentation of knowledge. she considers that such fragmentation does no guarantee learning. rethinking curriculum in linguistics arias-cepeda & rojas no. 14 (january june 2017) no. 14 (january june 2017) 149 “if it is necessary to include labels, they should be thought always as the result of the binding emerging from problems found in the teaching praxis”. (interviewee 5). this latter participant (along with what could be read from the data collected of other participants) inclines for a change of focus that prioritizes the problemic nature of instruction over the subdiscipline level of content specialization. the relevance of theoretical and structural content, according to the participants’ opinions, could/ should be accompanied by a practical focus: “in the didactics of linguistics, one has the possibility of making the studentteachers work on concrete problems from day one of instruction (…) concrete problems that can be solved the very moment explanatory instruction is provided” (interviewee 1). this convergence on content as resulting from the problematization of the object of study advocates for a synthetic approach (rather than an analytic one) to the generation of knowledge. this based on the fact that reality is not as fragmented as the subdiscipline specialization of content implies. from that view, curricular proposals should depart from the object of study and its problemic nature to eventually allow the convergence of the disciplines and sub-disciplines in a field for the appropriation of knowledge. “the labeling of content subjects is a fatidic fact since it compartmentalizes knowledge. it separates phonetics from semantics, and both from pragmatics, instead of joining them. the isolation of contents results in a poor, less meaningful, learning. if it is necessary to label the subjects, such labeling should be thought as the result of the connections and be always based on problems that have been determined in the teaching practice. phonetics connects with english and its teaching. it is difficult to understand how a first semester learner can start to learn english without getting familiar with the sounds, without distinguishing which sounds we do not have in spanish. that is why they always say /tri/ to mean the number. if phonetics is not worked communicatively from the beginning such familiarization is difficult” (interviewee 5). a bilingual student-teacher needs ample knowledge of the structure of the language and its usage, but also competences to apply such knowledge to his/her immediate reality. the learning and teaching problems that emerge out of experience can urge the individual to join a systematic and collective search for solutions. joining a research group, for instance, allows students to acknowledge and appropriate the links rethinking curriculum in linguistics arias-cepeda & rojas no. 14 (january june 2017) no. 14 (january june 2017) 150 between disciplines and thus find meaning for their learning events (jurado, 2014). the teaching and learning challenges occurring inside the classroom and the teachers and students’ approach to them become valuable input for the teacher to exert his/her role as a responsible active citizen who will not be a giver of methodology or content, but rather someone who will understand his /her profession as subjected to constant change. code of instruction: using the ‘language as a resource’ perspective rather than the ‘language as a problem’ when teaching linguistics in a bilingual education major the ‘language as a resource’ perspective (baker, 2006) conceptualizes language diversity as a capital promoted by the discourse of human capital flow and global citizenship (rasool 2004). for the purpose of understanding linguistics and the knowledge of language as a cultural construction, as vehicle of cognition and as a functional system, the fact that the learners can resort to two languages (l1 and l2) should be considered an advantage and not a problem. the language (tongue) used to get knowledge of language should be a solid instrument and not an obstacle. learners must be able to use the language they are using as code of instruction for a linguistics class as a tangible materialization to recognize linguistic phenomena (e.g. distinguishing allophones), make grammatical judgments, or simply understand content of theoretical linguistics; however, after even some 6 or 7 semesters of instruction in a second language, students are not fully capable of doing all of this in the l2 (correa, 2014). five of the participants acknowledged that it is necessary to approach the understanding of the language by departing from the mother tongue as the vehicle of instruction, and then, progressively, incorporating the foreign language. “i would lean for formal teaching of linguistics in the first language and then to deepen it in the second language” (interviewee 1). “it is important that the learner have knowledge in the mother tongue and then use it to move on to the second language” (interviewee 2). such position does not exclude the learning of linguistics in the early stages of the efl learning: “it is necessary that both codes play a role in the early stages of formation in an alternate and balanced manner” (interviewee 3). rethinking curriculum in linguistics arias-cepeda & rojas no. 14 (january june 2017) no. 14 (january june 2017) 151 nonetheless, for one of the participants it is pivotal that the content of linguistics be not detached from the learning of the language(s) (the l1 and l2), neither should it be detached from research or pedagogy. an integrative perspective as such in the learning of linguistics is intended to facilitate the understanding of the linguistic features of the mother tongue, the language being learned, and the more informed choice of tools so that the linguistic knowledge boosts eventual pedagogical decisions and the critical analysis of theories of bilingualism in the immediate and further contexts. this set of opinions from the interviewed participants suggests that we avoid demonizing any of the linguistic codes (languages) in any stage of linguistics teaching. one of the participants even suggests that the learning of linguistics be aided by professionals in the two languages: “we should understand bilingualism as the co-existence of two linguistic codes in perfect harmony, thus both codes should be accepted. two languages in one same subjectenglish classes with readings in spanish, and the other way around, for example.” (interviewee 4). this interviewee’s opinion validates both languages as the objects and means of study linguistic phenomena; language is viewed both as human construction and a capability (jiménez, 2011) that is worth looking in depth at. pastor (2001) considers the contrastive analysis of languages essential to disentangle the linguistic distance between first and second language thus improving our acknowledgement of the most common mistakes caused by language interference. that seems to be in agreement with one of the participants’ perspective, who advocates for not demonizing the use of the first language: “we need to make the bilingual studentteacher understand that the two languages are not a threat to one another but there are mechanisms of construction of knowledge in a language that can be used in the learning of the other one. it is important that the educators then be ‘very bilingual’ in order to help understand such mechanisms. the native spanish speaker who has a very competitive command of english and has gone through the exercise of analyzing his own language and the one he has been learning, can really help the bilingual learner” (interviewee 5). thus, the first language is a resource that can be used not just as a vehicle to transmit the knowledge of linguistics but also as an instrument to understand language’s system and structure more rethinking curriculum in linguistics arias-cepeda & rojas no. 14 (january june 2017) no. 14 (january june 2017) 152 tangible. besides, the use of the l1 as the code for linguistic content can facilitate the appropriation of the concepts and its application to generate more sophisticated knowledge of the mother tongue and further its sophisticated development. the beliefs of experienced teachers, include the idea that a solid knowledge of the first language should be fostered, since it facilitates an eventual contrastive analysis with the l2 (cortés, cárdenas & nieto 2013). conclusions linguistic instruction in bilingual education has mostly been problematized from an intra-disciplinary edge with contents that consider language as a functional system (phonetics, morphology, syntax, semantics, etc.), and as a discipline that is fed with interdisciplinary contents (which signals the ties that linguistics has with other fields of knowledge from the social sciences resulting in sub disciplinary labels such as psycholinguistics, sociolinguistics, neurolinguistics, etc.). however, the curricular needs of bilingual teachers urge for an appropriation of applied linguistics, and particularly linguistics for the teaching of (content in) english for speakers of spanish as a mother tongue. decisions to innovate in the existing curriculum of an undergraduate program on bilingual education cannot be taken, not even proposed, without having a responsible glance at the myriad of sources that from theory and from experience can inform a curriculum proposal. both literature and participants converge in the principle that linguistics is necessary for such a major, but that not any linguistics, but one linguistic approach that matches the needs of bilingual student teachers. that is, linguistic contents that are not solely chosen on the basis of the traditional fragmentation of knowledge, but rather based on the problemic nature of the object of study: the language, and the languages. thus, the particularity of the academic bilingual context implies the recognition of both languages not just as valid codes of instruction, but also as examples of the materialization of the principles by which language as a human construct works. the restructuring of the linguistic component of the curriculum can be fed with the pedagogies used in teaching in general, and in the teaching of the second language in particular. such conclusion also resulting from the data analyzed out of interviews carried out, can be gathered to align with principles of constructivism, the competences of the 21st century, problem based learning, project and task based learning, linguistics as an instrument for the construction of peace, and the organization of contents by departing from thematic units that foster authentic performance. rethinking curriculum in linguistics arias-cepeda & rojas no. 14 (january june 2017) no. 14 (january june 2017) 153 references baker, c. 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(2003) variation in teaching: two perspectives on teaching linguistics. llas ocassional papers, 1214. widdowson, h (2000) object language and the language subject: on the mediating role of applied linguistics. annual review of applied linguistics 20, 2133. rethinking curriculum in linguistics arias-cepeda & rojas no. 14 (january june 2017) no. 14 (january june 2017) 157 authors *carlos augusto arias-cepeda holds an m.a. in applied linguistics to tefl from universidad distrital francisco josé de caldas and is currently studying a phd on education with emphasis on elt in the same university. he is currently working as a fulltime professor at the institución universitaria colombo americana (única), where he has taught linguistics, pedagogy, research, and english. his research interests include efl, linguistics, language identity, and critical discourse analysis. *sandra liliana rojas molina holds a b.a in philology and languages from unviersidad nacional de colombia and a m.a. in applied linguistics to the teaching of languages from barcelona university. she is currently working as a parttime professor at the institución universitaria colombo americana (única), where she has taught subjects including linguistics, language and society, pedagogy and second language, and communication theory. rethinking curriculum in linguistics arias-cepeda & rojas no. 14 (january june 2017) no. 14 (january june 2017) gist noviembre 2008final(segundas correcciones).p65 ����� ��������� � ���� �������� ������� �� ������ � ����� ���������� � ������� � ������� ��������� ������� �� ��������� ��������� ���� ! 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'� ����%���� ��*�3���1��� � :e /�� �(������0�#�/����������������1� ����� ������,� �+������������&�������������$��%��������� ���������&����$� ��$2��� � �$�������� ��� � ����4���� ��1�������"� �� . �5�����$�����$�6��$������ f; ����������+������������ �����&���$�����$��� /�(�������� ��$������ ��������$� �3��'��� ����$�� � ������ ��.�����2�$�)�) e$ %������� �� ��$� ������������������ ��/�'���4������5� '� ����1������2�$�)�) $f �$� ��$����������������+�$$��6��������� � ��� � � � ��� ��������2�$�)�) ;# 158 understanding language teaching from method to postmethod b. kumaravadivelu,1 (esl & applied linguistics professional series) taylor & francis e-library, 2008. reviewed by nancy bautista perez2* universidad del tolima professor b. kumaravadivelu presents his second widelyacclaimed book, understanding language teaching, about the macrostrategy framework designed to empower both beginning and experienced language teachers to develop their own theory of practice which gives them autonomy. this book is a response to the many challenges teachers have to face in their english classroom, but at the same time is a calling out for a coherent and comprehensive framework for teacher preparation in these times of globalization, 1 received: november 30, 2016/accepted: april 26, 2017 2 nybautistap@ut.edu.co bautistagist education and learning research journal. issn 1692-5777. no.14. (january june) 2017. pp. 158-164. no. 14 (january june 2017) no. 14 (january june 2017) 159 rapidly accelerating social, technology, cultural and economic changes and trends that implies that new studies advocate the construction of pedagogies of world englishes and english as a lingua franca as suggested by jenkins (2006) are needed; and the postmethod framework is a great opportunity to start this process. this macrostrategy framework is considered by many scholars and practitioners as the answer to years of limitations of the traditional methods or as defined by kumaravadivelu “the postmethod pedagogy is an alternative to method rather than a method, while alternative methods are primarily products of top-down processes, alternatives to method are mainly products of bottom-up processes” (kumaravadivelu, 2003, p.33); this postmethod framework is considered the most comprehensive because it includes key concepts and combines elements of the field of english language teaching (elt) of both allwrigth’s and stern’s frameworks previously to kumaravadivelu’s thoughts , which is founded on three parameters based on social, cultural, economic and politic dimensions that have permeated the process of language teaching, at the same time those parameters are complemented by ten macrostrategies or classroom principles. (kumaravadivelu, 2003). although, this gripping book was published in 2008, the postmethod pedagogy is considered a sustainable approach to language teaching in latin america because it is sensitive to local particularities and involves a critical awareness of local conditions and needs. therefore, in countries such as brazil and argentina researchers and language teachers have carried out projects to analyze and develop their own pedagogies inspired and based on this framework; an example of it can be found in one of the mercer’s articles published in 2013 in brazil. also, in the 39th faapi conference in argentina in 2014, researchers and scholars emphasized on the benefits for the bilingual education that this pedagogy offers. however, in colombia little implementation and studies have been conducted and most of them are about teaching culture, influenced by the post-method thoughts as fandiño, (2014) shows his concern about the incorporation of culture into the teaching of english as a foreign language within the context of colombia bilingüe, in his article, teaching culture in colombia bilingüe: from theory to practice. thus, the author has called this book “the pattern which connects” all the elements to what language teachers are expected to do in the classroom nowadays (kumaravadivelu, 2008. p. xiii); it means that the teacher should be a mediator and generator of learning opportunities by connecting the classroom with the local and global community, as stated by byram and risager (1999) teachers act as mediators between cultures. bautista no. 14 (january june 2017) no. 14 (january june 2017) 160 the text is divided into three main parts and each part is split up into chapters and most of the chapters are characterized by presenting a review of theories regarding the fundamental features of language, language learning and teaching along with critical reflection and examples from real classroom practices. part one: language, learning, and teaching. addresses general features and contributions that applied linguistics has done to l2 is highlighted by the author. it is divided into three chapters: chapter 1: language, concepts and precepts explores the fundamental concepts of language and introduces three different pedagogical concepts: language as a system, as discourse and as ideology and discusses the principles of each one from different researchers and scholars. chapter 2: learning: factors and processes analyzes the concepts of intake, intake factors, and intake process to understand the factors and processes that will contribute to successful learning or non-learning of l2 (second language acquisition) and how the language teacher should construct a pedagogy to promote language learning in the classroom. chapter 3: teaching: input and interaction. this chapter focuses on some aspects of input, interaction, and syllabus design that impact classroom instruction and consequently the language acquisition. part two: language teaching methods. it is divided into three chapters; four, five and six. the author takes a critical look at some established and well-known language teaching methods and connects them to the fundamental features addressed in part one; then concludes with the theoretical principles and classroom procedures of languagelearner-, and learning-centered methods. chapter four: constituents and categories of methods, which explains and provides rationale behind the categorization of language methods presented in the book. it distinguishes between method and methodology: approach, method and technique, approach, design and procedure, principles and procedures. it also classifies the language teaching methods: languagecentered methods, learner-centered methods, learning-centered methods, and summarizes them into a figure and introduces the taskbased language teaching (tblt). chapter five: language-centered methods clarifies how language teaching methods have evolved and improved over time due to dissatisfaction, therefore a new one emerged. also, it discusses some historical, psychological, and linguistic factors that shaped the language-centered pedagogy for almost 25 years. in addition, it reviews some theoretical principles and the classroom procedures, and how the dissatisfaction with the language centered pedagogy motivated the search for a better method resulting on the advent of the communicative language teaching as an example of the learner-centered pedagogy. chapter six: learner-centered methods understanding language teaching bautista no. 14 (january june 2017) no. 14 (january june 2017) 161 explains how this pedagogy has influenced in the classroom procedures that emphasizes in the communicative language teaching from its earlier and later versions. however, some experts like (nunan,1987 and thornbury, 1996), revealed without any doubt that the so-called communicative classrooms are anything but communicative. nunan concluded that in one of the classes he observed “there is growing evidence that, in communicative class, interactions may, in fact, not be very communicative after all” (nunan, 1987,p.144). chapter seven: learning-centered methods or pedagogy defines and describes the theoretical principles and classroom procedures regarding to the natural approach and communicational teaching project that represents the learning-centered pedagogy and how to develop appropriate interactional activities, for example krashen himself laments that the “only weakness” of the na “is that it remains a classroom method, and for some students this prohibits the communication of interesting and relevant topics” (krashen, 1982, p. 140). this chapter discusses and concludes about the limitations of the concept of method and highlights some of the attempts to transcend those limitations. part three: postmethod perspectives. it is the last part of the book and it shows, in three chapters, the new challenges and opportunities that the new millennium has brought to the learning and teaching pedagogies and classroom procedures. scholars such as allwright (1991), pennycook (1989), prabhu (1990), and stern (1992) have not only cautioned language-teaching practitioners against the uncritical acceptance of untested methods but they have also counseled them against the very concept of method itself. also, it analyzes how methods go through endless cycles of life, death, and rebirth. and presents what the author has called the postmethod condition as an alternative to the new challenges to elt, english language teaching field. chapter eight: postmethod condition shows the limits of method as, the meaning of method and the death of method. most of the definitions about method coincided that is something planned and implies an order. in addition, it analyzes five myths about methods according to what research has disclosed. for example, kumaravadivelu, (1993), nunan, (1987); swaffer, arens, & morgan, (1982) have revealed four interrelated facts that kumaravadivelu (2008, p. 166) summarizes like this “in other words, teachers seem to be convinced that no single theory of learning and no single method of teaching will help them confront the challenges of everyday teaching. they use their own intuitive ability and experiential knowledge to decide what works and what does not work”. to sum up, this chapter attempts to deconstruct the existing concept of method, the antimethod sentiments and delineates the emerging postmethod condition. chapter nine: understanding language teaching bautista no. 14 (january june 2017) no. 14 (january june 2017) 162 postmethod pedagogy discloses the foundation for the construction of pedagogies that can be considered postmethod in their orientation. the author considers that the proposals that have the requirements are only three: 1.stern’s three-dimensional framework, allwright’s exploratory practice framework and his own, kumaravadivelu’s macro-strategic framework. in this chapter he analyzes and exemplifies each of them. furthermore, this chapter introduces the pedagogic wheel which has an axle represented by the three parameters; particularity, practicality, and possibility interconnected with the ten macrostrategies. finally, the aim of this framework is to empower teachers to construct their own macrostrategies and microstrategies (tasks) according to local context needs. it clarifies that this is the first step and this framework is still evolving. chapter ten: postmethod predicament considers the challenges and changes teachers should face when trying to implement the postmethod pedagogy. there are two main barriers the pedagogical and the ideological. it concludes by arguing that the transitional path from the long established methods-based pedagogy is, no doubt, paved with challenging barriers. the way this book was written “based on theoretical, experimental and experiential knowledge, teachers and teacher educators have expressed their dissatisfaction with method in different ways”. kumaravadivelu (1993b), offers a unique opportunity to language teachers to reflect upon their teaching practice through the analysis of different experts’ opinions, microstrategies and examples taken from real classrooms. it captivates and helps readers to be aware of what pedagogical practices are required today and what teachers who are concerned with the ethical, sociocultural, historical, and political issues that impact the students’ lives are expected to do to prepare them as local and global citizens. to sum up, this book is a great contribution to the elt field since it empowers institutions, language teachers and students to be more aware of the importance of teaching and learning english and the status it has as an international language. “a language achieves a genuinely global status,” observes david crystal (2003, p. 3), the author of english as a global language, “when it develops a special role that is recognized in every country.” and finally, the role of the 21st century education which is to establish links with society and prepare students for the demands of the social necessities and working world by developing competences that students need to use in the workplace and society; these competences are clearly exposed in each macrostrategy of the postmethod framework that recognizes that the nature of any language pedagogy should be socially-realistic and contextually-sensitive. understanding language teaching bautista no. 14 (january june 2017) no. 14 (january june 2017) 163 references allwright, r. l. (1991). the death of the method (working paper #10). the exploratory practice centre, the university of lancaster, england. byram, m. and risager k. (1999). language teachers politics and cultures, multilingual matters ltd., philadelphia, usa. crystal, d. (2003). english as a global language, second edition, cambridge university press, united kingdon. jenkis, h. (2006). where convergence culture: where old and new media collide, university press, new york krashen, s. (1982). principles and practice in second language acquisition. new york: pergamon press. kumaravadivelu, (2003) beyond methods: macrostrategies for language teaching. yale university press new haven london. published with assistance from the louis stern memorial fund. copyright © 2003 by yale university. kumaravadivelu, b. (1994a). the postmethod condition: (e)merging strategies for second/foreign language teaching. tesol quarterly, 28:1:27–48. kumaravadivelu, b. (1993b). the name of the task and the task of naming: methodological aspects of task-based pedagogy. in g. crookes & s. gass (eds.), tasks in a pedagogical context (pp. 69– 96). clevedon, england: multilingual matters. nunan, d. (1987). communicative language teaching: making it work. elt journal 41/2:136–45 pennycook, a. (1989). the concept of method, interested knowledge, and the politics of language teaching. tesol quarterly, 23, 589– 618. prabhu, n. s. (1990). there is no best method—why? tesol quarterly, 24, 161–176. stern, h. h. (1992). issues and options in language teaching. oxford: oxford university press. swaffar, j., arens, k., & morgan, m. (1982). teacher classroom practices: redefining method as task hierarchy. modern language journal, 66, 24–33. understanding language teaching bautista no. 14 (january june 2017) no. 14 (january june 2017) 164 thornbury, s. (1996). teachers research teacher talk. elt journal, 50: 279– 88. a.p.i.s.e. asociación de profesores de inglés de santiago del estereo. faapi conference 39th. english language teaching in the postmethod era: a view from argentina. isbn 978-987-24550-1-9. , santiago del estereo, argentina, 2014. colombian applied linguistics journal, 16(1). 81-92.teaching culture in colombia bilingüe: from theory to practice. printed isn 01234641 (pages: 81-92), vol.16., january-june 2014. http://dx.doi. org/10.14483/udistrital.jour.calj.2014.1.a07 rbla, revista brasileira de linguística aplicada, issn: 1676-0786, belo horizonte, v.13,n.2,p.375-398. 2013. rblasecretaria@gmail. com, universidade federal de minas gerais. the text is available at:https://flteducation.wikispaces.com/file/view/kumaraposmethod. pdf this book review has not been previously published, and is not being considered for publication elsewhere. author *nancy bautista pérez has a b.a. in english, a specialization in english teaching and is working on a research project for an m.a. in english didactics at tolima university. she has twelve years of experience as a language teacher in both english and portuguese. she has worked for universidad de ibagué, and universidad del tolima, currently, she is a full time professor at the universidad cooperativa. in 2009 she participated in a “diplomado in lingua portuguesa” in leticia amazonas, and in 2015 she was one of the speakers in the 3rd.conference of foreign language research at the tolima university the topic was about the importance of understanding and reflecting upon language policies. understanding language teaching no. 14 (january june 2017) no. 14 (january june 2017) 138 no. 11 (july december 2015) no. 11 (july december 2015) the differences between spoken and written grammar in english, in comparison with vietnamese1 las diferencias entre la gramática oral y escrita del idioma inglés en comparación con el idioma vietnamita nguyen cao thanh2* tan trao university, vietnam abstract the fundamental point of this paper is to describe and evaluate some differences between spoken and written grammar in english, and compare some of the points with vietnamese. this paper illustrates that spoken grammar is less rigid than written grammar. moreover, it highlights the distinction between speaking and writing in terms of subordination and coordination. further, the different frequency of adverbials and adjectivals between spoken and written language is also compared and analyzed. keywords: spoken and written grammar, english, vietnamese 1 received: july 15, 2015 / accepted: september 10, 2015 2 thanhthu7580@yahoo.com gist education and learning research journal. issn 1692-5777. no. 11, (july december) 2015. pp. 138-153. 139 no. 11 (july december 2015) no. 11 (july december 2015) resumen el principal objetivo de este artículo es describir y evaluar algunas diferencias entre la gramática oral y escrita del idioma inglés y comparar algunos aspectos gramaticales con el idioma vietnamita. esta revisión muestra como la gramática oral es menos rígida que la gramática escrita. por otra parte, se destaca la distinción entre el hablar y el escribir en términos de subordinación y coordinación. además, la diferencia en el uso de adverbios y adjetivos entre la gramática oral y escrita también es comparada y analizada. palabras clave: gramática oral y escrita, inglés, vietnamita resumo o principal objetivo deste artigo é descrever e avaliar algumas diferenças entre a gramática oral e escrita do idioma inglês e comparar alguns aspectos gramaticais com o idioma vietnamita. esta revisão mostra como a gramática oral é menos rígida que a gramática escrita. por outro lado, se destaca a distinção entre o falar e o escrever em termos de subordinação e coordenação. além do mais, a diferença no uso de advérbios e adjetivos entre a gramática oral e escrita também é comparada e analisada. palavras chave: gramática oral e escrita, inglês, vietnamita cao 140 no. 11 (july december 2015) no. 11 (july december 2015) introduction in early times, there was no writing, and people exchanged information only by speaking. through the historical stages of development, the writing system was shaped. nowadays, writing is an indispensable means of communication for people in life as well as work. parallel to writing, speaking has also become more adequate and perfect day by day. as a result, research into spoken and written language in english, the global language, has been properly addressed. one of the principal aims of this reflection is to analyze how to distinguish between spoken and written grammar. based on this, the teaching of english at school may take the direction of differentiating between spoken and written grammar. there are many different definitions of spoken and written language. however, in a minor scope of the paper, i will give a definition given by horowitz and samuels (1987): oral language is typically associated by linguists with conversation that is produced, processed, and then evaluated in the context of face-to-face exchange and grounded in interpersonal relationships that are often clearly established. oral language is adapted to a specific audience and to socio-cultural settings and communities that are presumably present, functioning in a context of here and now. (p. 56) in contrast: written language is typically associated with language of books and explanatory prose such as is found in schools. written language is formal, academic, and planned; it hinges on the past and is reconstructed in such a way that in the future it can be processed by varied readerships. (p. 21) table 1. the oral-written dichotomy (horowitz and samuels, 1987) oral language written language talk text face to face conversation with reciprocity between speaker and listener face to text with limited reciprocity between author and reader narrative-like expository-like action-oriented idea-oriented event-oriented argument-oriented story-oriented explanatory here and now future and past in given space and time not space – or time – bound differences between spoken and written grammar cao 141 no. 11 (july december 2015) no. 11 (july december 2015) informal formal primary discourse secondary discourse natural communication artificial communication interpersonal objective and distanced spontaneous planned sharing of context (situational) no common context ellipsis explicitness in text consciousness structureless highly structured cohesion through paralinguistic cues cohesion through lexical cues single predication multiple prediction repetition succinctness simple linear structures complex hierarchical structures paratactic patterns hypotactic patterns right branching with limited subordination left branching with multiple levels of subordination fleeting permanent unconscious conscious and restructured from the above definition, this paper will attempt to distinguish some differences between spoken and written grammar. english and vietnamese are adopted to be compared. the foundation of this paper is partly based on the author’s personal understanding and mostly on a collection of arguments from other authors. literature review from historical research up to now, there have been a variety of understandings about spoken and written language in english. however, it is undeniable that oral and written narratives are two components constructing english. as a result, the aspects of spoken and written language such as grammar are always a current topic for researchers. there are many different ideas about the occurrence of written and spoken language, such as the frequency in narrative, which is more important, and whether they work together or separately. townend and walker (2006) suppose that both spoken and written language are closely interdependent. they emphasize that from primary time, spoken language was a means to express ideas and information while written language was a symbol system to represent the spoken form. cook (2004) differences between spoken and written grammar cao 142 no. 11 (july december 2015) no. 11 (july december 2015) states that although there are some similarities of the systems of speech and writing, there are many differences. written language can easily show various words by varying the spelling. “many of the devices of written language have no spoken equivalent” (p. 12). biber (1986) also shows that “linguistic differences between speaking and writing have been attributed to differing processing constraints and to differing situational characteristics” (p. 23). from the above evaluations, it can be seen that although there are some similarities, there are also remarkable differences between spoken and written grammars in english. actually, in grammar books, the concentration is on written grammar, and students are usually taught this rather than spoken grammar. it should be recognized that normally, when people speak, they often do not pay much attention to the words, sentences, structures or conjunctions. as a result, grammar in spoken language is usually not strict; it is less rigid and more flexible than in writing. as in townend and walker’s analysis, there is an interdependence between spoken and written language, but they still have to find the answer for the question, “why does language have two parts?” because of that, there should be a distinction between spoken and written language. at school, besides written grammar, spoken grammar should also be properly addressed because it has been an indispensable part of languages in general and english in particular. spoken grammar less rigid than written grammar in spoken language, the participants usually do not pay much attention to lexical content and meaning, which are strictly used in written language. biber (1986) gives two examples (p. 15-16), one from face-to-face conversation and one from an official document. text sample 1 (face-to-face conversation) b: it doesn’t need to but it does in fact by tradition all the a: finalists b: finalists go and so the others mmm the others sort of feel differences between spoken and written grammar cao 143 no. 11 (july december 2015) no. 11 (july december 2015) that things won’t go on much longer a: well they really haven’t any reason to because i mean finalists are b: mmm a: and they actually do finish b: exactly of course they do a: and the others don’t well i don’t know b: but i don’t think it’s feasible i mean i know this is the first time i’ve done it and i’m not in a main line paper but i’m sure it’ll take me all my time to do it in three weeks i mean i’ve seen what it’s been like for you i know… had more on the other hand i must allow myself good time the first time i do it a: i don’t think i’m going to go on with it b: are you doing two or one paper this year a: only one text sample 2 (official document) the university expects its students to conduct themselves at all times in an orderly manner creditable to the good name of the university. regulations for the maintenance of good order and discipline are promulgated from time to time… the official dates of university terms are published in the calendar apply to all students. students (other than new students at the opening of a session and research students) are required to arrive in hull on the first day of term and, except with the special permission of the dean of their faculty, may not go down until the last day. the first and last days of term as published are regarded as travelling days on which no lectures or classes will be held… differences between spoken and written grammar cao 144 no. 11 (july december 2015) no. 11 (july december 2015) text sample 1 uses interpersonal interaction and personal attitude (i, you, are you doing?, …feel that i don’t think that, i know this is…, what it’s been…). text sample 2 uses longer and more academic words to present meaning (an orderly manner creditable to…, regulations for the maintenance…). additionally, in spoken narratives, people often use elliptical and abbreviated forms. when somebody asks us “what are you doing?” we can answer “cooking” or “studying.” the answer stands for the complete sentence, “i am cooking” or “i am studying,” which is unnecessary in the form of the question. townend and walker (2006) typify an instance: a child went to find his grandmother in another room, saying as he left “better see … bromma’s up to.” grandfather who overheard this repeated it later to grandmother as “i’d better see what grandma’s up to” (p. 18). it is quite complicated to understand the content if we do not base on specific context, but it is often accepted in spoken language. horowitz and samuels (1987) show that in writing people use complete sentences, but in speaking we usually use incomplete sentences. they take the following example: people can say, “just going to check the reserve stock out of the back. won’t be a minute” (p. 27). the written version of this would be “i am just going to check the reserve stock out the back. it won’t be a minute.” it should be noted that in conversations or speech, people speak to exchange information with each other in a restricted context. in contrast, in writing, the author presents his or her ideas for the public, so the style must be academic and formal. according to leech (1998), conversation, which is the most common type of spoken language, takes place in real time, so it often expresses personal politeness, emotion, and attitude. specifically, conversation usually uses syntactic reduction such as you better…, what you doing? we gonna… moreover, people also use familiarizing vocatives like honey, mum, guys, dude, mate… when people desire others to do them a favour or ask someone to do something, they often use polite formulae and indirect requests such as thank you, sorry, please, would you…, could you…, can i… another feature of the spoken language is that, when people speak, they often use expletives such as god, jesus christ, my gosh, bloody hell, geez. in addition, other exclamations are also seen in spoken language like, what a rip off, you silly cow, the bastard, good boy, the bloody key! it can be explained that spoken language often does not require strict rules, so it is less rigid and more flexible than the written language. moreover, people communicate with each other anytime and anywhere, so most of the frequency of spoken language is informal and less academic. this is the reason why speakers can have chances to use vocatives, expletives, exclamation and differences between spoken and written grammar cao 145 no. 11 (july december 2015) no. 11 (july december 2015) abbreviations. in contrast, the language in writing is often formal and academic, so it usually needs strict and appropriate words. unlike english, which usually uses the elliptical and abbreviated form, vietnamese does not have this characteristic either in spoken or written language. in english, especially in using modal verbs, the speaker and writer often use the reduced form such as won’t (will not), can’t (cannot), shouldn’t (should not) or couldn’t (could not). on the contrary, in spoken and written stories in vietnamese, the full form must be used. people have to speak and write fully không thể (cannot, could not), sẽ không (will not), không nên (should not). some following examples are the typical demonstrations. ngày mai tôi sẽ không đichơi. (i will not go out tomorrow) anh không nên làm việc đó. (you should not do that stuff) cô ta không thể trả tiền cho tôi. (she cannot afford to pay me money) not unlike english, spoken grammar in vietnamese is less rigid and informal than written grammar. binh (1971) shows that there are many spoken sentences in vietnamese which have no subjects, while they are strictly constructed in the written language. he demonstrates a few forms: • the negative forms đừng, chớ and hãy are often used in sentences which contain no subjects. hãy đợi một chút nữa (let’s wait one little more) chớ đi nhanh quá (no go fast very) • ‘half-questions’ is also one kind of the questions containing no subjects, for instance: cơm chưa? (eaten yet? lit.: eat question word?) đi đâu đấy? (where (are you) going? lit.: go where final particle?) ăn không? (want to eat? lit.: eat question word?) đẹp thế nào? (how beautiful (is that lady)? lit.: beautiful how?) subordination one of the fundamental distinctions between spoken grammar and written grammar is subordination. tannen (1984) defines that “subordination is the asymmetrical relationship between an independent and dependent clause(s) in which the dependent clause is introduced by an overt subordinating conjunction” (p. 24). the use of subordination between spoken and written language is not balanced and depends on different types and various functions differences between spoken and written grammar cao 146 no. 11 (july december 2015) no. 11 (july december 2015) differences between spoken and written grammar cao of the whole sentence. two of the subordinating factors, which clearly exhibit the differences between written and spoken language, are adjectivals and adverbials. adjectivals. with regard to adjectival relative pronouns, this type of subordination occurs more frequently in spoken than in written language. keenan (1975) summarizes the use of adjectival in the following table: table 2: frequency indices and percentages of occurrence of each adjectival relative pronoun in spoken and written peer narratives (keenan, 1975, p. 60) spoken written total frequency index 11.7 (147) 6.9 (49) restrictive relatives 8.0 (101) 4.8 (34) non-restrictive relatives 3.7 (46) 2.1 (15) who 33% (48) 31% (15) which 11% (17) 29% (14) that 46% (68) 20% (10) where 5% (7) 2 (1) whom (0) 2% (1) table 2 shows the frequency index for relative clauses and the percentages of overall occurrence for each relative pronoun in spoken and written peer narratives. overall, the occurrence of relative pronouns in spoken language is approximately three times that of written language, (147 in the spoken while 49 in the written). restrictive relative clauses are considerably more frequent in both the spoken and written stories than non-restrictive relatives. the occurrence of pronouns is also not balanced. referring to table 2, the relative pronoun that is used in spoken much more than in written language (46% in the spoken and 20% in the written). there are some typical examples for that: the man that lives next door is very friendly. where is the fruit that was in fridge? everything that happened was my fault. in contrast, there is a preference for which in written narratives with 29% while 11% in spoken narratives. it would account for the social uses of language based on pragmatics and sociolinguistics. is it possible, argue critical pedagogues, for teachers to embrace a pedagogy which empowers students to intervene in the making of history? (zyngier, 2003, p. 43) 147 no. 11 (july december 2015) no. 11 (july december 2015) knight suggests the test or benchmark of a democratic education is not just the difference it makes to the lives of the students but also to the community to which the students belongs. (zyngier, 2003, p. 44) in vietnamese, relative pronouns are rarely used in either spoken and written language (can, 2001). usually, the use of relative pronouns in vietnamese causes statements and utterances to become more complicated and redundant. some following examples can demonstrate this: example 1 anh co biet nguoi phu nu song o phong ben canh khong? anh co biet mot phu nu, nguoi song o phong ben canhkhong? (do you know the woman who lives next door?) example 2 anh co biet dia diem toi sap chuyen den khong? anh co biet dia diem, noi ma toi sap chuyen den khong? (do you know the place where i am going to move to?) the meaning of the two sentences in example 1 is the same, and in example 2 as well. however, vietnamese speakers rarely use the pronoun nguoi (who) as in 1.2 or noi (where) in 2.2, especially in written narratives. adverbials. the difference is not the same in every adverbial, but in general, adverbials in written language are much more frequent than in spoken language (tannen, 1984). tannen constructs a table to show this distinction (p. 19). table 3: frequency indices for adverbial subordinate clauses in spoken and written peer narratives spoken written when 1.6 (20) 3.7 (26) as 1.3 (16) 3.7 (26) while .8 (10) 2.3 (16) because 1.3 (16) (0) if 1.3 (17) (0) whether (0) .8 (6) differences between spoken and written grammar cao 148 no. 11 (july december 2015) no. 11 (july december 2015) after .2 (3) .6 (4) where .5 (6) .4 (3) like .9 (11) .3 (2) since .2 (2) .3 (2) (al)though .1 (1) .1 (1) as if (0) .3 (2) before .2 (2) .1 (1) so that .2 (2) (0) wherever (0) .1 (1) whereby (0) .1( 1) once (0) .1 (1) total 8.4 (106) 13.0 (92) there are some instances for the use of adverbial clauses: i fell asleep while i was watching television. i didn’t get the job although i had all the necessary qualifications. as you know, it’s tom’s birthday next week. (murphy, 1995, p.46) the above statistics are quite similar to what o’donnell (1974) found for adverbial clauses in his research: 22 for spoken and 33 for written per 100 units. in total, the adverbial clauses occurred more frequently in written (13.0) than in spoken language. however, the occurrence among clauses is different. for example, there is no whether in spoken language while there are 0.8 (6) in written. moreover, with the subordinators wherever, whereby and once, the frequency in spoken narratives is zero, but they frequently occurred .1 (1) in written samples. there are also some adverbial clauses such as like. this clause is used more in spoken than in written language: .9 (11) and .3 (2). it is possible that the frequency of adverbial subordinate clauses is not always fixed between spoken and written narratives. rather, it depends on the contexts and specific situations of spoken narrative; for instance, a speech in a conference is usually more formal than a conversation between friends. in vietnamese, the adverbial subordinate clause is quite balanced between spoken and written language (tu, 2002). in tu’s statistics, the occurrence differences between spoken and written grammar cao 149 no. 11 (july december 2015) no. 11 (july december 2015) of adverbials in both spoken and written language is approximately 9.5 % of 93 stories. the following examples are typical illustrations for the use of adverbials in vietnamese language: dậu phải báncả con vì chồng cô rơi vào cảnh nợ nần. (dau has to sell her daughter, because her husband was in debt.) anh ta gọi điện cho tôi trước khi đến (he called me before coming) (ngo, 1979) similarly to english, vietnamese language rarely uses có hay không, được hay không (whether) or như thể, cứ như là (as if) in spoken language. coordination sil international (2004) defines “a coordinating conjunction is a conjunction that links constituents without syntactically subordinating once to each other” (p. 23). this could be understood as the coordinating conjunction being used to join two independent clauses which are equally important. a coordinating conjunction usually uses a comma, and it is often in the middle of sentence. there are some important coordinating conjunctions such as and, but, so and or. examples: he lives in melbourne, and he studies at latrobe. i was sick, so i went to the doctor. she is italian, but her father is french. in the comparison between spoken and written language, the use of coordinating conjunctions is more frequent in spoken discourse than in written (tannen, 1984, p. 17). her statistics illustrate this distinction: table 4: frequency indices for coordinating conjunctions in spoken and written peer narrative spoken written and 72.9 (918) 35.9 (254) but 4.8 (61) 2.1 (15) differences between spoken and written grammar cao 150 no. 11 (july december 2015) no. 11 (july december 2015) so 4.2 (55) .8 (6) or 1.1 (14) .1 (1) and so 1.3 (16) (0) total 84.5 (1064) 39.0(276) from the above table, it is clearly recognized that the use of and is much more preferred in the spoken (72.9 in the spoken and 35.9 in the written). according to martinet (1964), “the use of and contributes to the fragmented quality of speech. this greater use of filler words and the characteristic of chaining numerous clauses together with and can be attributed to speakers’ lack of tolerance for silence” (p. 9). the following examples typify the feature of spoken discourse: and then he gets down out of the tree, and he dumps all his pears into the basket, and the basket’s full, and one of the pears drops to the floor, and he picks it up, and he takes his kerchief off, and he wipes it off, and places it in the basket which is very full. it can be seen that coordinating conjunctions are one of the important factors in both spoken and written language. depending on the specific characteristics, the occurrence of coordinating conjunctions is dissimilar between speaking and writing. this is evident in the above evaluation in a speaking situation when people do not feel confident or do not have enough words to express themselves, they usually use conjunctions such as and or so to fill the silence and make the narrative coherent. conclusions the fundamental point of this paper is to describe and evaluate some differences between spoken and written grammar in english. some of the above points were also compared with vietnamese. this paper has illustrated that differences between spoken and written grammar cao 151 no. 11 (july december 2015) no. 11 (july december 2015) spoken grammar is less rigid than written discourse. moreover, the distinction between speaking and writing in terms of subordination has been highlighted. relating to this point, the different frequency of adverbials and adjectivals between spoken and written languages is also compared and analysed. in addition, the study also examines the distinguishing features between spoken and written components in terms of coordinating conjunctions. pragmatically, results of this study could significantly contribute to the teaching of english to vietnamese speakers. the above evaluation shows the crucial roles of both spoken and written english. clearly, both spoken and written discourse are two indispensable facets of language in general, and of english in particular. although there are considerable differences between speaking and writing in terms of grammar, they are always interdependent of each other. furthermore, the english grammar taught at school should be balance of both spoken and written language in order to provide learners comprehensive and clear understandings about the similarities as well as differences of spoken and written english. differences between spoken and written grammar cao 152 no. 11 (july december 2015) no. 11 (july december 2015) references biber, d. (1986). spoken and written textual dimensions in english: resolving the contradictory findings. los angeles: university of southern california. binh, t.d. (1971). a tagmemic comparison of the structure of english and vietnamese sentences. the hague: mouton. can, l.v. (2001). structure of vietnamese sentences. hanoi: hanoi education university. cook, v. (2004). the english writing system. london: hodder headline group. donnel, r. c. (1974). syntactic difference between speech and writing: american speech. 49, 102-10. horowitz, r & samuels, s. (1987). comprehending oral and written language. bingley, england: emerald group. keenan, e. (1975). variation of universal grammar: analyzing variation in language. in r. fasold & r. shuy (eds.), pp. 13648. washington, dc: georgetown university press. leech, g. (1998). english grammar in conversation. lancaster, uk: department of linguistics and modern english language. retrieved from: http://www.tuchemnitz.de/phil/english/chairs/linguist/real/ independent/llc/conference1998/papers/leech/leech.htm murphy, r. (1995). english grammar in use. cambridge. cambridge university press. ngo, n. (1979). written grammar in vietnamese. social sciences publish house: hanoi. o’donnell, r. (1974). language and context. london: wellington house. sil international. (2004). what is a coordinating conjunction? sil international. retrieved from: http://www.sil.org/linguistics/glossaryoflinguisticterms/ whatisacoordinatingconjunction.htm tannen, d. (1984). coherence in spoken and written discourse. norwood, nj: ablex publishing corporation. townend, j. & walker, j. (2006). structure of language: spoken and written english. london: whurr publishers. tu, c. d. (2002). the subordinate clause in vietnamese. hanoi: education and training ministry. differences between spoken and written grammar cao 153 no. 11 (july december 2015) no. 11 (july december 2015) zyngier, d. (2003). connectedness: isn’t it time that education came out from behind the classroom door and rediscovered social justice. social alternatives, 22(3). author * thanh nguyen finished his phd in education at la trobe university, australia in 2013. he is currently undertaking the role as deputy head in the department of science management and international relations at tan trao university, vietnam. dr. nguyen has a number of publications, and is editor of several science journals. his areas of interest include language studies, student learning and cultural identity. differences between spoken and written grammar cao editorial josephine taylor* it is no longer necessary or novel to point out the increasingly pervasive role that technology plays in our lives, and by extension, in education and learning. as so many of our daily encounters and experiences are mediated through technology, and specifically online communication and information, these have come to define us. so swiftly have computer-mediated experiences come to characterize many, or for some, most of our interactions, operations and discussions, it has become quite difficult to describe this reality at any given moment. in fact, many of us no longer turn to print publications for information or trends, but rather are participants in the global online reality that unfolds and is simultaneously the subject of commentary and opinion as we experience it. print and even online academic publications struggle to keep up, and research on the subject of technology in particular is growing, but changes in online communication and information often outstrip the insights that are the subject of many research studies. such is the challenge for a publication such as gist when reviewing articles dealing with technology and learning. it is necessary for editors to participate in the continuing conversation on the subject so that we might have the criteria to judge the current state of debate and research. for example, it is necessary to push inquiry beyond certain well-treated themes. for example, scholarship that solely extols the benefits of technology for teaching and learning does little to provide insights into its use. obviously, technology is neither good nor bad; rather it is a given mediator of human relationships and activity, which like any tool, may be used in a wide variety of ways, with infinite purposes, good, bad, useful, or harmful. another perhaps insightful, but already well-treated topic in the literature is that of digital natives vs. immigrants, often used to explain why students’ lives are more mediated by technology than those of many teachers. this situation has led some or many teachers to be put in the uncomfortable position of knowing less than our students. however, the conclusions here are also clear and obvious. learning from students is a vital part of any teaching-learning relationship. as far as learning about and using technology, teachers have a responsibility as with any tool to explore the ways in which these tools might aid us in our desire to engage our learners in relevant experiences and in-depth encounters with content. 5 no. 9 (july december 2014) 6 what is needed in the scholarship on technology and language is inquiry into how phenomena such as multimodal discourse and digitally mediated interaction affect language and communication, teaching and learning. in general, educators would benefit from wellresearched questions dealing with key issues that emerge from within those experiences mediated by online or digital tools and resources; both of these in an effort to understand more deeply how technological and digital tools impact teaching, learning and communication. in this spirit, gist is quite pleased this semester to offer several such studies in the hopes that our journal may contribute to a deeper understanding of technology in our classrooms and our lives. this issue of the journal also offers a range of other studies from asia, africa and america, dealing with the teaching of specific language skills, namely speaking, as well as writing and literacy. it also offers studies that provide insights into the ever-challenging issue of engaging school-aged learners of english in contemporary issues such as the environment and problems of violence in our schools and neighborhoods. our issue this semester leads off with a study by palacios and chapetón of a program in a public school in bogotá that focused on the use of contemporary songs to raise students’ awareness of issues affecting their lives and to provide a vehicle through which to engage learners with the english language. results demonstrate that by connecting with students’ realities and interests, teachers can tackle the common refrain that “students are just not interested in english” in a positive way. liliana niño’s article on differentiated instruction provides insights into the procesos básicos program in bogotá, which offers literacy and english language instruction to internally displaced persons. this article also demonstrates the complexity of making instruction effective in circumstances of delayed or interrupted schooling while at the same time ensuring learners of their rights. mara salmona shares important research from a bilingual immersion school in bogotá that suggests that the use of and instruction in the first language with very young learners acts as an important support for learning the second language. gist is particularly proud to publish this study, and solicits the bilingual community in colombia to continue with relevant research into this topic. this study, as most research on this topic, points to the supportive role of the first language when learning a second language. these findings run counter to pervasive thinking on the topic in our context, which in many cases, has led most bilingual immersion schools to prohibit the use of the first language under the assumption that it interferes with or delays second language learning. no. 9 (july december 2014) no. 9 (july december 2014) 7 this issue also shares studies on processes of language learning and teaching, in both cases offering strong cases for researching learning processes from learners’ rather than solely teachers’ perspectives. the first in these articles is robert coté’s study of the process of peer review in a writing course. the study argues for the benefits of peer assessment and demonstrates that learners are both capable of providing pertinent feedback as well as considering and following their peers’ input. karbalaei and taji investigate the use of compensation strategies in students’ speaking. their findings are consistent with research on the topic that demonstrates that learners are active agents in their own construction of meaning, resorting to a range of communication, specifically compensation strategies when attempting interaction in a foreign language. the active role of learners as active agents in their own language use is given voice in carlos arias’ narrative case study of an individual from the island of san andres (colombia). the article outlines how the subject assumes an active and agentive role in constructing his linguistic identify through the conscious use of english, spanish and creole in daily, context-specific interaction. it is with great satisfaction that gist contributes to the discussion on technology and learning described earlier with the contributions of three articles dedicated to the subject. steve bode ekundayo provides a timely, well-documented, in-depth study of conventions of textese and e-mailese in nigerian english. his findings argue that the development of these new conventions are linguistic devices coherent with the evolution of language and communication, and do not pose a danger to the language in the form of “improper” usage. yuranny marcela romero discusses the role of online interaction in a blended english language learning environment, and roux, trejo and gonzález contribute further to this discussion in their study of students’ perceptions of support in a distance education course. both studies point to the importance of mentoring and support in the online environment. these findings urge teachers and researchers to devote attention to the ways in which said support might be more effective and sustained in order to benefit learners. further support for learners’ active engagement with media and content is provided by castillo and rojas’ action research study of blending content on environmental care in the english language class with school-aged children. findings are consistent with palacios and chapetón’s article that students can connect with language through attention to stimulating topics and linkages to events in their own lives. no. 9 (july december 2014) no. 9 (july december 2014) 8 this semester’s issue offers one reflection article, also dealing with the integration of technology and hands-on student-centered learning experiences in biliteracy centers for spanish and english speakers in the u.s. the centers proposed focus on the development of integrated projects focusing on language arts and other academic content areas. the projects are supported by literacy development and a wide range of digital tools. proposals such as this form an important basis for future research as to their effectiveness. finally, gist is pleased to provide a book review of a new local publication, teaching and learning another language strategically, by rigoberto castillo, also an author in this issue. aglaya weidner reviews the text and offers first-hand experience using it with learners in germany. with this review, our final issue this year gives voice to local and international scholars and researchers, and continues to foster connections and discussion through their efforts. we hope that our readers find the journal relevant and thought provoking at the same time, and we welcome all comments and contributions. editor *josephine taylor received her ba in english and french from emory university and her ms in the teaching of english as second language from georgia state university, both in atlanta, georgia. she has been a teacher of english language and linguistics for more than 25 years, as well as administrator, curriculum designer, and external reviewer of language education programs in the u.s. and colombia. she has also worked extensively in english language publishing, as author, course developer and editor. josephine is currently the editor of gist education and learning research journal and adjunct professor in the undergraduate and graduate bilingual teaching programs at the institución universitaria colombo americana, única. no. 9 (july december 2014) no. 9 (july december 2014) gist final1.indd 96 a narrative inquiry into preservice english teachers’ imagined identities1 una investigación narrativa sobre las identidades imaginadas de profesores de inglés en formación maría cristina sarasa2* universidad nacional de mar del plata, argentina abstract this paper explores co-construction processes of eil (english as an international language) pre-service teacher identity in an undergraduate english teacher education program at an argentinean state university. the study focuses on the professional nature of future language teachers’ identities expressed in the individual stories the young people co-composed with the author working as participant researcher. the design employed narrative inquiry as a research methodology whose techniques allow the gathering of field texts inside and outside the program’s classrooms. the overall study included 24 sophomores whose professional identities were conceptualized narratively during the 18-month-long inquiry. this paper offers four participants’ accounts, evincing the co-authoring of an imagined (future) teacher identity. after rendering the students’ stories, we briefly discuss some implications this power of envisioning the (prospective) teaching self may have for eil teacher education. keywords: higher education, in-service english teacher education, narrative inquiry, identity co-construction process. resumen este trabajo explora procesos de co-construcción de la identidad profesional de docentes de ili (inglés como lenguaje internacional) durante su formación como profesores de inglés en una universidad estatal argentina. el estudio se centra en el carácter profesional de las identidades de estos futuros docentes 1 received: december 15, 2015 / accepted: march 8, 2016 2 mcsarasa@hotmail.com gist education and learning research journal. issn 1692-5777. no.12. (january june) 2016. pp. 96-114. sarasa no. 12 (january june 2016) no. 12 (january june 2016) 97 expresados en las historias individuales compuestas conjuntamente con la autora que trabajó como investigadora participante en el proyecto. el diseño metodológico empleado fue la investigación narrativa cuyas técnicas permiten la recopilación de textos de campo dentro y fuera de las aulas de clase del programa. el estudio completo incluyó 24 participantes cuyas identidades fueron concebidas de modo narrativo durante 18 meses. este artículo presenta los relatos de cuatro estudiantes, resultado de la construcción conjunta de la futura identidad docente imaginada. después de la interpretación de las historias de los estudiantes, el artículo discurre brevemente sobre algunas implicancias de visualizar la identidad docente en la formación de profesores de inglés. palabras clave: educación superior, formación inicial de profesores de inglés, investigación narrativa, procesos de co-construcción identitaria. resumo este trabalho explora processos de co-construção da identidade profissional de docentes de ili (inglês como linguagem internacional) durante a sua formação como professores de inglês em uma universidade estadual argentina. o estudo se centra no caráter profissional das identidades destes futuros docentes expressados nas histórias individuais compostas conjuntamente com a autora que trabalhou como pesquisadora participante no projeto. o desenho metodológico empregado foi a pesquisa narrativa cujas técnicas permitem a recopilação de textos de campo dentro e fora das salas de aula do programa. o estudo completo incluiu 24 participantes cujas identidades foram concebidas de modo narrativo durante 18 meses. este artigo apresenta os relatos de quatro estudantes, resultado da construção conjunta da futura identidade docente imaginada. depois da interpretação das histórias dos estudantes, discutiuse brevemente algumas implicações de visualizar a identidade docente na formação de professores de inglês. palavras clave: educação superior, formação inicial de professores de inglês, pesquisa narrativa, processos de co-construção de identidade. sarasa no. 12 (january june 2016) no. 12 (january june 2016) 98 introduction the teaching and learning of english as an international language (eil) in spanish-speaking south america constitute rich areas for studying processes of in-service teacher identity construction, which have remained to date mostly under researched in this milieu (renart & banegas, 2013). as opposed to english as a second language (esl) and english as lingua franca (elf) contexts (norton, 1997, 2013), our setting constitutes an interesting field for exploring the professional aspects of that identity (czerniawski, 2013; day & sachs, 2009), away from essentialist native-nonnative speaker dichotomies (holliday, 2009). this paper stems from an overall narrative research aimed at understanding meaningful local, situated, identity construction processes of future english teachers studying in an argentinean state university by posing the interpretive question “how do these undergraduates’ stories negotiate the development of their professional identity?” to carry out this qualitative research, we utilized the methodology and field-text gathering processes of narrative inquiry (connelly & clandinin, 2006), working inside and outside the eil classroom with 24 sophomores whose identity narratives in english—the language of instruction in their teacher education program—we co-composed over an 18-month-long phase. through narrative analysis (creswell, 2012) and contra punctual reading of the literature, we coined four teacher identities as desired (zembylas, 2007), passionate (day, & sachs, 2009), fluid (giroir, 2014), and imagined (anderson, 1983). this article focuses on the imagined identities of four undergraduates. their storied negotiations of their envisioning how to become eil teachers suggest insights into the complexities of initial teacher education curriculum and practices framed within a south american spanish-speaking setting. literature review initially, elt signaled its concern with the relationship between teacher and learner identity in 1997 with the publication of tesol quarterly’s seminal monographic volume. moving beyond linguistics, the editor defined the concept as indicating “how people understand their relationship to the world, how that relationship is constructed across time and space, and how people understand their possibilities for the future” (norton, 1997, p. 410). the paper’s preoccupation hinged on the last terms, i.e. “the ownership of english,” problematizing the rights of property to which speakers (self)characterized as belonging to different ethnic, socio-cultural, geographical, and linguistic a narrative inquiry into pre-service sarasa no. 12 (january june 2016) no. 12 (january june 2016) 99 backgrounds, should be entitled—or not. these questions are relevant to those esl/elf spaces (kaypak & ortaçtepe, 2014), in which identification issues concerning native/non-native speakers’ economic, social, cultural, linguistic, and symbolic capitals (bourdieu, 1984), together with their ethnicity, have been revealed away from simplifying polarities (canagarajah, 2007). research on students’ motivation and investments in their esl/ elf learning selves (norton, 2000, 2013); their member status in varied discursive groups (canagarajah & wurr, 2011); and efforts to suppress splits between the subjectivities of native and non-native speakers of english (holliday, 2009) has progressively emerged in esl/elf, mostly within north america, europe, and asia. for example, norton’s ground-breaking work (2000, 2013) has focused on the constraints of ethnicity, gender, and class, and how these constrictions affected the investment that migrant female esl learners (polish, vietnamese, czechoslovakian, and peruvian) made to acquire the language in canada. benson and nunan’s (2005) work originating in their narrative research in hong kong presents studies carried out in the uk, wideranging asian locations, and new zealand, with european, (east) asian, and middle eastern students of english who were constructing their language-learner identities. more recently, nunan and choi (2011) have compiled identity narratives by european, american, australian, and asian instructors, students, specialists, and researchers. english teachers’ identities have increasingly become the focus of many studies. tsui’s (2007) narrative inquiry into a chinese eil teacher struggling to position his multiple identities was pivotal in her country where research has been gradually carried out on the pedagogical identity crises suffered by an efl university teacher (liu & xu, 2011). others include studies of efl teachers’ narrative construction as university researchers (xu, 2014); and hong-kong’s and mainland china’s pre-service efl teachers’ identities (gu & benson, 2014). hayes’ (2009) case study of an efl thai teacher in a state school has underscored the need to learn about teachers and teaching in world places—such as ours in the southern cone—where most english is taught but the least research is done. in the us, zacharias (2010) probed into the identity construction processes of 12 asian teachers in a tesol graduate program. in continental europe, ruohotie-lyhty & moate (2015) recently studied the development of agentic identity in freshman efl finnish student-teachers. hispanophone south america is a large area with long standing eil (sharifian, 2009) learning and teacher education programs. a narrative inquiry into pre-service sarasa no. 12 (january june 2016) no. 12 (january june 2016) 100 however, teachers’ and students’ voices regarding their identity construction processes have remained basically under-represented and deemphasized in the literature (barahona, 2016), albeit in some recent contributions (arias, 2014; renart & banegas, 2013; sarasa, 2014). in our own preand in-service teacher education, identity is examined in terms of its professional features, rather than non-existing local dichotomies between native and non-native speakers. the term professional has signposted the “complex amalgam combining teacher biography, identity work, and the values embedded within different communities of practice” (czerniawski, 2013, p. 383), another comparatively novel category indicating “groups of people… bound together by shared expertise and passion for a joint enterprise” (wenger & snyder, 2000, p. 139). along these lines, narrative inquiry has defined teacher professional identity as “narrative life compositions” (clandinin, cave, & cave, 2011, p. 1), expressed by “stories to live by” (clandinin, downey & huber, 2009, p. 141). thus, ontologically and epistemologically, “thinking of life as a story is a powerful way to imagine who we are, where we have been, and where we are going… we live stories. when we talk to others about ourselves we tell life stories (connelly & clandinin, 1994, pp. 149-150). for over a decade now, studies on english teachers’ and students’ identities have converged with narrative inquiry (bell, 2002; pavlenko, 2002). the profession has fairly lately coined the notion of narrative knowledging as “an umbrella term to refer to the meaning making, learning or knowledge construction that takes place at all stages of a narrative research project” (barkhuizen, 2011, p. 5). these developments have been probing rewardingly into those local, situated teachers’ identity construction processes advocated by the literature (canagarajah, 2005) as vital to the fields of elt and eil. those endeavors are also fundamental to underpin continuous professional development (johnson & golombek, 2011) in a world zone like ours, where eil is taught and learnt for worldwide communication beyond its continental borders. methodology research design our research is inscribed in the qualitative paradigm (denzin & lincoln, 2005). it involves a narrative inquiry into the development of pre-service eil teachers’ professional identity. ontologically and epistemologically, narrative inquiry—originally created by connelly and clandinin in their pivotal 1990 paper—encompasses “the study a narrative inquiry into pre-service sarasa no. 12 (january june 2016) no. 12 (january june 2016) 101 of experience as story” (dewey, 1998/1938), thus requiring a narrated “view of experience as phenomenon under study” (connelly & clandinin, 2006, p. 375). context and participants the local context involved 24 argentinean undergraduates attending an advanced english language communication course in an english teacher education program at an argentinean state university. most narratives were gathered in the second semester of 2014, during ten classes taught exclusively in english, led by the assistant professor, and accompanied by two teaching assistants. the year 2015 was devoted to co-composing 24 individual narratives and to validation encounters. since i am a teacher educator within the program, my research evinces strengths and weaknesses inherent to a qualitative study involving a participant researcher. apart from requesting and obtaining students’ informed consent, i took ethical safeguards (clandinin & murphy, 2009) in order to render the inquiry transparent while shunning power asymmetries or infliction of undue discomfort. data collection instruments instruments for registering oral and written field texts (clandinin & caine, 2013) within and without the classroom drew on life story interview techniques (mcadams, 2008), including the following, performed in english, the language of instruction in the course and the teacher education program: a) a personal information sheet; b) narratives on fictional and family stories, educational and linguistic biographies, memorable teachers, real life heroes, and significant challenges; c) an identity essay; d) a memory box on life’s turning points; and e) a group dialogue on wise academic decisions. communication with participants also involved bilingual (english-spanish, as the inside/outside of class settings dictated) face-to-face exchanges, emails, and interaction on the virtual learning environment to co-compose the content of the 24 narratives while emerging categories were validated (creswell, 2007, 2012) during virtual and personal exchanges throughout 2015. the decision to gather the texts within the classroom—in the context of an advanced english communication course—and through the medium of the english language was grounded in several reasons. first, university english teacher education programs in argentina only accept candidates with an advanced command of the language. this means that most cultural, linguistic, and pedagogic courses involve academic a narrative inquiry into pre-service sarasa no. 12 (january june 2016) no. 12 (january june 2016) 102 disciplines taught in english, using authentic materials suitable for native speakers of the language studying those same subjects at college level. in this milieu, students naturally expect, and are expected, to use only english in the classroom, the means and object of instruction, and the content they will one day teach. second, the literature reports on the benefits inherent to non-native speakers’ writing experiences in eil since identity reflection is enhanced when voiced in the target language. this also allows them to manifest their voices through their vast eil linguistic resources (norton, 1997, 2000, 2013). finally, the use of eil involves our participants’ very teaching identities while the fact that they are hyper-aware eil users enhances their stories’ verisimilitude (kramsch & lam, 1999). data analysis and interpretation the co-configuration of stories and their analysis involve the researcher’s narrative categorization of participants’ identities (creswell, 2007, 2012) since retelling means conceptualizing (britzman, 2003). identities were first structured along a throughline obtained from students’ accounts. i categorized four original identity plotlines conceptualized as desired, passionate, imagined, and in transit. due to space constraints, we present imagined teacher professional identities emerging from four participants’ own compositions in the english language—the means and object of instruction in the teacher education program—highlighting their original authorial english quotes in the texts below, according to the long-established tenets of narrative inquiry (cortazzi, 2001). results drawing on students’ narratives, we coined professional identities driven by desire (zembylas, 2007); passion for teaching (day, & sachs, 2009); fluidity (giroir, 2014); and imagination. these four stories of envisioned identity resignify anderson’s imagined communities, whose “members… will never know most of their fellow-members… yet in the minds of each lives the image of their communion” (1983, p. 6). james nicholas white with enough hard work and planning i am certain that anyone can find one’s own style and become a great teacher. a narrative inquiry into pre-service sarasa no. 12 (january june 2016) no. 12 (january june 2016) 103 james was born in a nearby city in 1990. his chosen pseudonym combines his translated names with white fang’s surname in london’s eponymous novel. james loves the epic genre he has read in the iliad and watched in spartacus because it “portrays some of the greatest virtues of men, such as love, brotherhood, honor, and perseverance.” his hero is american social engineer jacque fresco, “whose idea of a global socioeconomic system based on social cooperation and scientific methodology will come true.” james attended a catholic parochial school in our city where he started english in second grade. when he began watching american tv series with his elder siblings, he picked up the sounds of the language by relating them to their spanish screen subtitles. at about 11, he started playing video games whose english captions he read out loud, acting out character roles and imitating the pronunciations heard on tv. by age 14, “i had learned a lot more english at home than at school and it was no wonder how i was getting good grades. the more i learned english on my own, the more i thought i had a gift and my motivation to keep learning kept growing.” his family could not afford private lessons but a schoolteacher spotted his “virtues” and encouraged him to continue learning on his own. his educational experience was not smooth since in junior high he was bullied as a “geek” by the “cool kids.” when he started playing basketball he found an exit from this “dark place.” his identity essay reflects these struggles: i am one of the billions of people who have been heartbroken, hurt, bullied, or abused in any way at some point in their lives. i am one of the people who are still standing. i am one of the people who see every difficult experience as a learning experience and an opportunity to grow stronger… i am one of the people who are reluctant to go to a shrink for that kind of counseling, believing the answer lies within them. james’ memorable schoolteachers include his exact science instructor who tailored her lessons to foster understanding of newton’s third law of motion. his physics teacher introduced gravity empirically, encouraging his students to think critically. james is aware of “that kind of teaching [that] draws me more into pedagogy than the teaching of a specific discipline.” when he graduated from school, he enrolled in biochemistry. with hindsight, he realized he had been overconfident and underprepared. his neglect of his studies was compounded as he started dating a classmate who left him devastated when she ended their relationship. in 2010, he entered the english teacher education program “to do something i had always been good at: english… so i figured i might use that talent as a future profession.” a narrative inquiry into pre-service sarasa no. 12 (january june 2016) no. 12 (january june 2016) 104 in his personal information file, james indicated that, by august 2014, he had taken 11 finals out of the 32 the curriculum prescribes. two freshman courses proved to be enlightening for him. in the first, he underwent an epiphany after reading frank mccourt’s teacher man, a book he deems should be compulsory for its power to confirm students’ vocation as it did his own. i am… one of the very few men who intend to become english teachers, and one of the even less future english teachers that have a scienceoriented former education. i am one of the countless people who stumbled across the field of pedagogy and found themselves, to their own surprise, loving the discipline. in the second course, there was a lecturer “whose… way of making jokes and providing bizarre examples used to call everyone’s attention… his style made it easier for everyone to focus in class and follow the explanations.” his respect for this teacher increased after he realized the humor was carefully planned. although he is not working as a teacher yet, he believes that, as he puts it, even if “not everyone can get to be a funny or likeable teacher… with enough hard work and planning i am certain that anyone can find one’s own style and become a great teacher.” emma i had to work extremely hard and retake several subjects. i think this is the way to achieve my goal: becoming an english teacher. emma was born locally in 1990. her selected name alludes to austen’s eponymous character. her preferred fiction is pride and prejudice, “i found that period in england was even more interesting than i thought. i also liked how austen described how being in love at that time was.” emma attended a local catholic school where she remembers several teachers. one “explained the main topics in a significant way” while another motivated them to continue learning. these “teachers had an impact on my life as i see myself doing that as a teacher in the future.” her political ideas teacher’s “lectures were so clear and memorable that sometimes we did not have to study for the tests.” emma owes her deepest learning experiences to taekwondo, whose principles initiated a new life for her at 16. her taekwondo master is her memorable teacher and real-life hero. a narrative inquiry into pre-service sarasa no. 12 (january june 2016) no. 12 (january june 2016) 105 his wisdom has helped me to overcome the most difficult situations. he has never shown me the solutions but rather he had made me reflect upon my behaviors and choices so that i could come up with an answer. apart from earning a black belt, she also became a certified international instructor after completing a specialized course. at five emma started babbling away in “what i thought was english. i loved doing it because i thought i was very fluent.” in her early teens, she shared an english tutor at her cousins’ house where she had a revelation: i do not remember the grammatical aspect… but i do remember the topic: the triangular trade… i was dealing with that historical subject at school… i became aware that english was not just about grammar and vocabulary; i realized that there was an entire new world waiting for me. in 2009, she enrolled in our program since she was interested in teaching and loved english “literature, history, and culture.” she suffered a number of setbacks because she had “believed that i knew a lot” whereas she realized she needed sustained work rather than innate talent. by august 2014, she had completed 13 out of the 32 mandated courses, several of which she had to attend again during “years of frustration and hard work.” she also learnt to prioritize study time, momentarily quitting taekwondo and volleyball training. emma values the care of a teacher in a freshman course who offered positive feedback, encouraging her to capitalize on her mistakes. not only has emma overcome academic obstacles, but she has also surmounted personal ones. when she narrated her greatest personal challenge, she asked a classmate to read a text about abused women’s belief. [they believe that] they are the problem because they have been continually told that by their abusive partner… [who] may quickly switch between verbally abusive and more caring behavior which means the woman is often unsure of what to expect. today, she feels proud about having ended this relationship thanks to her friends’ advice and her own strength. this is the reason why she is able to represent herself as a narrative inquiry into pre-service sarasa no. 12 (january june 2016) no. 12 (january june 2016) 106 [i am] one of the people who have to work hard to achieve their goals. i am one of the people who are not talented but are passionate about the things they do. i am one of the people who were mistreated by the person they loved. i am one of the people who had to overcome years of suffering after being told they would never succeed. i am one of the people who want to help their friends when they are facing similar problems. i am one of the people who would not let anyone hurt their feelings again. i am one of the people who now appreciate their friends’ pieces of advice… i am one of the people who think that sacrifice is the key to achieve success. currently teaching english in her old school’s kindergarten, she envisages attaining her goal of becoming a graduated english teacher. fátima i am going to try it hard, even though it takes me three times more than the time it is supposed to take. fátima was born locally in 1980. her name purposefully alludes to ildefonso falcones’ novel la mano de fátima. her parents met in portsmouth, uk, where her father arrived on board a navy submarine and happened to assist her british mother on a skating rink. after dating for seven years, they married and settled down in argentina. her mother initially spoke english to her children until a kindergarten teacher claimed the practice was harmful. fátima never spoke english again until 24. however, she understood the words her mother spoke to uk relatives on the phone or during private lessons at home. fátima attended a primary catholic school for girls where “the academic level was quite good,” and “the nuns [were] very tough and strict”. then, she transferred to a state high school whose “academic level was not a very good one, so i got high grades without trying very hard.” however, she portrays two memorable teachers. her literature instructor encouraged students to analyze books personally and to choose some readings. her history teacher had “a way of telling us historical events that seemed stories” since “she liked to tell us ‘gossips’.” fátima was unable to opt for english, being forced to take up french. we used the same book throughout the five years. besides, my group of classmates was a rather rebellious one, and the french teacher had weak character which meant that we did not let her deliver her classes properly. when fátima graduated from high school, she “spent a year doing nothing, so my parents started getting angry.” she finally enrolled in a narrative inquiry into pre-service sarasa no. 12 (january june 2016) no. 12 (january june 2016) 107 architecture but, disliking it, dropped out after two years. then she got married and traveled to spain in 2005, working with her husband in a tourist resort for five years, and returning to argentina to remain with their parents. in spain, at 24, fátima learnt english for the first time in her life attending classes at an institute where teachers were kind and students’ ages wide-ranging. there, she found out that her childhood listening skills had remained intact. before arriving in argentina in early 2011, fátima had already enrolled online in our program since she had decided to continue studying english. by august 2014, she had finished 11 out of the 32 curriculum subjects. i like what i am studying and the people i’ve met there. i think that most of the teachers… are very good teachers with a great knowledge of english. however… there are some teachers that do not show their love for what they do. her greatest challenge has been to start the program “at thirty, married, and with a job.” she quit this full-time job, and though missing its economic benefits, she acknowledges the impossibility of studying while working. in 2015, she started delivering private english classes at home. considering these experiences she reflects along the following lines: i am one of the people who had the possibility to attend university after secondary school, but one who missed this opportunity because i did not know what course of study i would like to do. i am one of the people, who after ten years started studying at university again. and i am also one of hundreds (or thousands?) of students who are taking the english teacher training course at [university] and that yearns to graduate in a near future. i am one of the people who enjoy being on their own, reading a book while sunbathing, and listening to quiet music in bed. i am one of the people who keeps on buying books i would like to read, but does not have time to read them. fátima knows that her struggles are not over: i know that it is difficult, that there are some subjects that are “impossible to pass,” and that many students have gone to other “easier” institutions to become english teachers… i have convinced myself that i am going to try it hard, even though it takes me three times more than the time it is supposed to take. i know that if i was able to pass almost fifty percent of the subjects i am going to be able to pass the other fifty percent. a narrative inquiry into pre-service sarasa no. 12 (january june 2016) no. 12 (january june 2016) 108 juana i can see myself as an english teacher in the future. juana’s elected name belongs to one of her aunts. she was born locally in 1990. because of her father’s work they moved regularly along the country. every two years she readapted to a new school, “a new city, a new house, new friends, new everything.” consequently, she felt unwilling to relate to each new milieu although she considers that this transitoriness has been her best instructor. her deepest learning experience occurred while attending a catholic school in a small riverside border town. before moving there, i lived in a wealthy neighborhood… when i first arrived, everything seemed normal to me, i had lived in [the province] before, so i was used to the weather and the countryside. but the second time i was there i was old enough to be aware of what was happening around me… i recall one moment… the government sent the school a survey for us, students, to complete. questions ranged from ‘does your family own a microwave?’ up to ‘what is the floor of your house made of?’ options included ‘no floor at all’, and ‘do you have a toilet?’ at first i thought the questions made no sense, but when i looked around, some of my classmates were actually ticking on the options saying they were missing what for me was fundamental house equipment… at one point one ticked on the option of ‘one bedroom for the whole family’ and just laughed about it. he was not ashamed of it; he did not feel bad about it… i was fourteen at the time, and it was the first time i remember i thought i should not take everything i have for granted. at this school, juana met catherine, her real-life hero. this friend was the second of six children whose mother had committed suicide, abandoning them to a worthless father. as the eldest sister had left home, the second undertook housekeeping and mothering duties. today, catherine is a kindergarten teacher who looks after her sisters while feeding three small neighbors whose mother works. juana confesses that “i do not think i ever told catherine how much i admire her…. she is definitely a one of a kind person.” juana’s mother is an english teacher. unwilling to instruct her children but eager for them to learn the language as early as possible she sent them to private classes in every location they inhabited. “the classes i attended were not always properly prepared for young children, or i did not have many classmates my age and, therefore, i hated english classes.” about to finish junior high, she attended a a narrative inquiry into pre-service sarasa no. 12 (january june 2016) no. 12 (january june 2016) 109 bilingual school in the capital where she learned informally with her peers while they watched tv or listened to music. juana also watched series with her mother, who bought her english books. she graduated from a catholic school in our city, where she also took english classes at an institute. juana’s struggles to find a course of study taught her to accept “life’s uncertainties.” doubting what to study, she opted for architecture, which she soon loathed. her subsequent enrollment in biochemistry was short-lived and displeasing. she ended up working in a call center. “i had wasted my time… i felt really lost, and under a lot of pressure from my family.” quitting her job and enrolling in our program in 2012 proved a turning point. my unstable linguistic story is what made me love the english language and, at the same time, what made it so hard for me to take the decision of whether i wanted to be a teacher or not… i literally cannot think of a period during my childhood or adolescence when i did not attend english classes, so i considered them as a part of me rather than something i could study professionally. by august 2014, juana had completed 13 out of the 32 courses and begun teaching english. her itinerant childhood and adolescence have led her to her current place, where she feels at ease and able to visualize the future. conclusions our interpretive construction of an imagined (anderson, 1983) teacher identity through these narratives can be reinscribed as envisioning membership in potential communities of practice (wenger & snyder, 2000) during a powerful act of creation mediated (norton, 2013) by eil, which constitutes the four participants’ content and medium of pre-service learning and (future) instruction. james, emma, fátima, and juana have managed to draw their more or less adjacent horizons of professional expectations based on the spaces of experience (koselleck, 1985) provided by their schooling, their itineraries learning (and teaching) english, and their private lives. our future teachers’ power to envision their co-creation (clandinin & caine, 2013; clandinin, downey, & huber, 2009) as future graduate instructors of english involves an outstanding degree of agency and performativity together with identity co-authorship (mcadams, 2008) a narrative inquiry into pre-service sarasa no. 12 (january june 2016) no. 12 (january june 2016) 110 allowing them to make choices for furthering their education. james’, emma’s, fátima’s, and juana’s imagination also involves resilience (day & sachs, 2009), understood as their positive capacity to overcome problems within and without education by flexibly redirecting strengths and capitalizing on them. this socially situated and dialogically expressed (bakhtin, 1994) agency highlights the proactive nature of preservice teacher identity construction vis-à-vis reproductive conceptions of teacher education as mere training (ruohotie-lyhty & moate, 2015). surprisingly, the social and discursive negotiation of our four participants’ imagined identities as (future) english teachers did not include their self-recognition as non-native students of the language or their longing to resemble ideal native speakers. because of their south american socio-linguistic setting, where english is a language of international/global/communication, these participants differ from instructors and learners in other isl/ilf milieus (benson & nunan, 2005; hayes, 2009; norton, 1997, 2000, 2013). james’, emma’s, fátima’s, and juana’s unique focus lies on the development of their linguistic and pedagogic content knowledge at university, leading up to the attainment of the professional degree facilitating their legitimate membership within the argentinean eil teaching community of practice (czerniawski, 2013; wenger & snyder, 2000). we can see that emerging teacher identities are co-created within tensions between what is given and unmovable, what proves (im)possible, and what seems (in)existent. although we have chosen a throughline for each of the four stories, and conceptualized their identities as imagined, they are neither immutable nor essential. each narrative evinces ambivalences, conflicts, expectations, dreams, loves, and antagonisms. we have strived to suggest that—rather than the fixed targets of top-down-circumscribed graduate professional profiles so dear to curriculum designers—pre-service teachers exist as oxymora (britzman, 2003) in-between the apprentice and the instructor. however, although they are not yet graduates but live instead a process of becoming, their professors often expect them to act as ‘real’ teachers in their practicums while wishing them to remain acritical recipients of lectures in the university classrooms. our narrative inquiry into these individual and situated, yet complex, itineraries of eil teacher identity co-construction may contribute towards the design of preand in-service development programs (johnson & golombek, 2011) made up by an academic, experiential, and vital curriculum (murphy, huber & clandinin, 2012), thus enhancing and illuminating multiple ways of becoming a teacher. a narrative inquiry into pre-service sarasa no. 12 (january june 2016) no. 12 (january june 2016) 111 references anderson, b. 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(2014). becoming researchers: a narrative study of chinese university efl teachers’ research practice and their professional identity construction. language teaching research, 18(2), 242-259. zacharias, n. t. (2010). the teacher identity construction of 12 asian nnes teachers in tesol graduate programs. the journal of asia tefl, 7(2), 177-197. zembylas, m. (2007). risks and pleasures: a deleuzo-guattarian pedagogy of desire in education. british educational research journal, 33(3), 331-347. author *maría cristina sarasa is a teacher educator at the eil teacher education program within the department of modern languages and a researcher with clacso member multidisciplinary educational research center at the school of humanities, universidad nacional de mar del plata, argentina. a narrative inquiry into pre-service no. 12 (january june 2016) no. 12 (january june 2016) 9 no. 11 (july december 2015) no. 11 (july december 2015) effects of classroom assessment practices in a foreign language reading course1 efectos de las prácticas de evaluación en el salón de clase de un curso de lectura en lengua extranjera (le) sergio alonso lopera medina2* universidad de antioquia, colombia abstract this article analyzes the various types of information that alternative assessment and traditional assessment practices provided in an english foreign language (fl) reading course for graduate students at a public university in medellín, colombia. this study followed the principles of qualitative research, and a case study was used as a research method. there were five instruments to collect data: questionnaires, observations, tests, focus groups, and the diary of the teacher. findings suggest that the assessment practices applied in this course helped students and teachers recognize that learning occurred. the assessment practices also helped language practitioners learn more about the teaching and learning processes in fl reading. conclusions suggest that language practitioners should include both alternative and traditional assessment in order to have a wider picture of the process of teaching and learning. keywords: alternative/traditional assessment, foreign language reading 1 received: april 22, 2015 / accepted: july 27, 2015 2 serggiolop@hotmail.com gist education and learning research journal. issn 1692-5777. no. 11, (july december) 2015. pp. 9-25. re se ar ch a rt ic le s 10 no. 11 (july december 2015) no. 11 (july december 2015) effects of classroom assessment practices lopera resumen este artículo analiza los diferentes tipos de información de las prácticas de evaluación alternativa y la evaluación tradicional que se brindaron en un curso de lectura de inglés como lengua extranjera ofrecido a estudiantes de postgrado en una universidad pública en medellín, colombia. este estudio siguió los principios de una investigación cualitativa y se utilizó el estudio de caso como método de investigación. se aplicaron cinco instrumentos para recolectar la información: cuestionarios, observaciones, pruebas, grupos focales y el diario del profesor. los resultados indican que las prácticas de evaluación aplicadas en este curso ayudaron tanto al profesor como a los estudiantes a reconocer que se generó aprendizaje. las prácticas de evaluación también ayudaron a los involucrados a aprender más acerca de los procesos de enseñanza/aprendizaje en lectura en (le). las conclusiones sugieren que la comunidad educativa debe incluir tanto la evaluación alternativa como la evaluación tradicional para obtener una mirada más amplia de los procesos de enseñanza y aprendizaje. palabras clave: evaluación alternativa/tradicional, lectura le resumo este artigo analisa os diferentes tipos de informação das práticas de avaliação alternativa e a avaliação tradicional que se ofereceram em um curso de leitura inglês como língua estrangeira oferecida a estudantes de pós-graduação em uma universidade pública em medellín, colômbia. este estudo seguiu os princípios de uma pesquisa qualitativa e se utilizou o estudo de caso como método de pesquisa. aplicaram-se cinco instrumentos para recolher a informação: questionários, observações, provas, grupos focais e o diário do professor. os resultados indicam que as práticas de avaliação aplicadas neste curso ajudaram tanto ao professor quanto aos estudantes a reconhecer que se gerou aprendizado. as práticas de avaliação também ajudaram os envolvidos a aprender mais sobre os processos de ensino/aprendizado em leitura em (le). as conclusões sugerem que a comunidade educativa deve incluir tanto a avaliação alternativa quanto a avaliação tradicional para obter uma mirada mais ampla dos processos de ensino e aprendizado. palabras chave: avaliação alternativa/tradicional, leitura le 11 no. 11 (july december 2015) no. 11 (july december 2015) introduction assessment is an important part of teaching and learning in classroom settings. some scholars have seen assessment as testing, but assessment involves a deeper concept in which the learning process is involved (aebersold & field, 1997; alderson, 2000; frodden, restrepo, & maturana, 2004). davies, brown, elder, hill, lumley and mcnamara (1999) define assessment as “a term often used interchangeably with testing; but also used more broadly to encompass the gathering of language data” (p. 11). this means that assessment is any methodical procedure to gather information about students’ learning. testing, on the other hand, is a method that determines students’ abilities to complete a task, but is only one way to assess (for example a multiple choice test). it is worth noting that testing has been the traditional form of evaluating students, also used to make management decisions (aweiss, 1993). new trends in assessment, such as alternative assessment, incorporate different forms of evaluation such as self-assessment, observation, homework, among others (aebersold & field, 1997). some researchers suggest that taking the best parts of both traditional3 and alternative assessment in classrooms leads to more effective instruction (aebersold & field, 1997; alderson, 2000). this article reports the effects of traditional and alternative assessment practices applied in a foreign language reading comprehension course for graduate students at a public university in medellín, colombia. this study is derived from a larger study on the effects of face-to-face instruction and web-based instruction in (fl) reading comprehension for graduate students in the same university. the study reported in this paper aims at identifying the effects of classroom (face-to-face) assessment practices on students. the research question that guides the inquiry is “what do classroom assessment practices tell language practitioners about the learning process of a fl reading comprehension course for graduate students?” findings suggest that the assessment practices applied in this course helped students and teachers recognize that learning occurred. 3 traditional assessment is a conventional method of testing. a quiz, an exam or a standardized test are examples of traditional assessment. effects of classroom assessment practices lopera 12 no. 11 (july december 2015) no. 11 (july december 2015) effects of classroom assessment practices lopera literature review assessment shohamy, inbar-lourie, and poehner (2008) state that most researchers pay little attention to what teachers do in their classrooms to assess students. they argue, on the other hand, that much research has been carried out to see the effects of standardized tests because large-scale tests have a greater impact on test-takers’ lives as well as institutions. rea-dickins (2004) and rea-dickins and gardner (2000) highlight the importance of doing assessment research in classrooms because it guides scholars to make decisions such as promotion, program admission, or learning support services. recently, some researchers have begun to integrate classroom-based assessment and teaching in classroom. nowadays, there is a growing interest about the practices the teacher does in the classroom, and some studies have focused on second and foreign language teaching contexts (cheng, rogers, & hu, 2004; davison, 2004; leung, 2004; muñoz, 2009; rea-dickens, 2004; sánchez & morrison-saunders, 2010). these researchers have explored teachers’ practices and beliefs related to assessment through surveys and the impact of these assessment practices in external norm-setting and tests. researchers have also explored the instruments teachers have used in classrooms such as self-assessment, diaries, and peer-assessment. to illustrate this, torrance and pryor (1998) report that language arts teachers in primary schools in england were familiar with different types of assessment practices such as cloze tests or performance assessments, but did not have a clear picture in order to implement assessment activities that would result in student learning. muñoz (2009) explored the assessment practices teachers had in fl reading, and found that teachers lacked familiarity with alternative assessment. nevertheless, the author found that teachers used diverse practices in assessing reading comprehension. quizzes, multiplechoice tests, presentations, class participation, workshops and class attendance are examples of this diversity. he also found that teachers were concerned about verifying the achievement of learning objectives; that is, some teachers expressed the need to implement traditional assessment practices (such as quizzes or final exams) due to the fact that they provide precise information of learning. finally and due to the fact that teachers lacked familiarity with alternative assessment, muñoz (2009) found that students also lacked familiarity with assessment practices. rea-dickins (2004) and brown (2004) highlight the importance of the role of teachers in assessing the learning process of students. the researchers 13 no. 11 (july december 2015) no. 11 (july december 2015) argue that fl teachers can be seen as active agents of assessment in the sense that they usually design and implement assessments. in fact, rea-dickins (2004) states that the role of the teacher has two main functions: as a facilitator of students’ effort to learn a language, and as a judge of learner performance. reading reading is an active process in which there is a dialog between the reader and text. alyousef (2005) states, “reading is an interactive process between a reader and a text. the reader should interact dynamically with the text with the intention to understand its message” (p. 14). in order to understand the text, the reader needs to possess two vital elements: linguistic knowledge and background knowledge. linguistic knowledge involves awareness about the language such as grammar or vocabulary structure. background knowledge relates to the familiarity the reader has with the reading. cassany (2006), gonzález (2000), grabe and stoller (2002), and weir (1993) also argue that reading involves a process of cognition because readers have to predict, memorize information, interpret, pay attention, and make hypotheses when they decode a written message. cassany (2006) affirms that that fl readers have to make a greater effort because they may face difficulties with grammar, vocabulary or even culture in the readings. that is why the role of the teacher is important in order to guide students to apply some reading strategies. models of reading. there are two important models or processes for reading: bottom-up processes and top-down. in the first model, readers have to build the text from small units beginning from letters to words, and then from words to sentences (aebersold & field, 1997). in the second model, readers have to link the text to their existing knowledge that involves historical, cultural or linguistic elements. grabe and stoller (2002) suggest an interactive model that includes both bottom-up and top-down processes as readers need to recognize words quickly, and they also need to activate background knowledge in order to understand the text. reading strategies. different authors support the importance of teaching reading strategies to students (chamot, barnhardt, el-dinary, & robbins, 1999; hosenfeld, 1979; janzen, 2001; mikulecky & jeffries, 2004; osorno & lopera, 2012). reading strategies help learners apply a task, pay attention to what textual cues they have to focus on, and know what to do when they have troubles (block, 1986). teachers can use both simple reading strategies (e.g., previewing or scanning) and complex ones (e.g., inference or summarizing) with students. effects of classroom assessment practices lopera 14 no. 11 (july december 2015) no. 11 (july december 2015) effects of classroom assessment practices lopera janzen (2001, p. 369) proposes five classroom activities to work with reading strategies: • explicit discussion of the reading strategies and when to use them • demonstration of how to apply a reading strategy (modeling) • involvement with the reading in terms of reading aloud and sharing the process while applying the strategies • discussion of the activities in the classroom • practice with the reading material of the course researchers have explored some reading strategies in classrooms, and their conclusion is that they are beneficial for learners (arismendi, colorado & grajales, 2011; block, 1986; carrell, 1998; lopera, 2012; mikulecky & jeffries, 2004; poole, 2009). reading assessment practices. reading assessment practices are important because they tell the language teacher what to do in the course. gersten (1999) suggests that assessment should be aimed at collecting information from students’ reading abilities and then teachers should use that information in order to plan and implement classes. cross and paris (1987) give three important purposes when implementing reading comprehension assessment: • sorting: it helps not only to predict learners’ academic success but also to indicate mastery. • diagnosing: it helps to gather information in order to make decisions about the learning process. • evaluating: it helps to determine the effects of a program. teachers can also implement assessment practices in reading in order to enhance fluency, word recognition, vocabulary knowledge, text structure, discourse organization, main ideas, inference, among others (grabe & stoller, 2002). aweiss (1993) asserts that teachers can use different instruments to apply assessment practices, and they vary from unstructured and spontaneous gathering of information during instruction to more formal situations such as structured tests. aebersold and field (1997) propose six methods of alternative assessment that aim at students’ learning as well as their participation in classrooms for reading comprehension: • journals: they can be done in audio or written forms. this helps both teachers and learners monitor the reading comprehension process. 15 no. 11 (july december 2015) no. 11 (july december 2015) • portfolios: this may include students’ journals, but items such as drafts, homework, exams, or summaries can also be integrated here. • homework: this helps students identify what they do not know. • observation: this helps the teacher evaluate students’ comprehension and participation. the teacher can also observe if students work in groups, in pairs or individually. • self-assessment: this helps students be part of the learning process because they reflect on their own practices and achievements. • peer-assessment: this guides students to evaluate each other’s participation in a given activity. finally, some authors support the idea of including both traditional and alternative assessment in the classrooms because readers respond to texts in many different forms (aebersold & field, 1997; alderson, 2000). in fact, aebersold and field (1997) encourage “reading teachers to become thoughtful, attentive, reliable assessors, able to use both alternative and traditional assessment measures that are beneficial to all” (p. 167). methodology research design this study followed the principles of qualitative research, and a case study was used as a research method (cresswell, 2007; merriam, 1998; tellis, 1997; yin, 2003). the study also involved the methodology of an exploratory multiple case study as researchers wanted to identify the effects of classroom assessment on students’ reading comprehension. the grounded approach was used when researchers categorized the data (freeman, 1998). context the research was carried out at a public university in medellín, colombia. in order to be admitted to the second semester of their graduate program, students in specialization programs4 have to certify reading comprehension in a foreign language. they have two options to certify: taking a proficiency test or attending a classroom course. a research group in teaching and learning 4 especialización (specialization) is a graduate program that usually lasts one year. the main objective of these programs is to update students in their academic areas. effects of classroom assessment practices lopera 16 no. 11 (july december 2015) no. 11 (july december 2015) effects of classroom assessment practices lopera languages designed a web-based course in 2007, and this course became a third option. the reading comprehension course. the course is designed to guide students to use reading strategies in a fl, and aims at developing readers who interact with different types of texts. the name of the course is english reading comprehension for graduate programs (competencia lectora en inglés para postgrados). it is a 120-hour course with five main units. table 1 includes a description of the reading comprehension program. table 1. the reading comprehension program unit name topics 1 word and their meanings dictionary use, parts of speech, cognates, affixes, word meaning in context. 2 reading strategies prediction, skimming, scanning, and graph interpretation. 3 development of reading skills sentence structure, topic, main idea, and referents 4 text organization methods cause and effect, comparison and contrasts, description, narration, argumentation , and classification and categorization 5 critical reading fact and opinions, tone, and arguments participants the teacher. the teacher holds a master’s degree in teaching foreign languages and has more than ten years of experience teaching reading comprehension for undergraduate and graduate students. he taught the course in spanish to facilitate students’ learning, but the readings and exercises were in english. the students. there were 27 students in the course (17 women, 10 men), and only one student withdrew from the course. age ranged between 20 and 51 years old. all participants were in the first semester of different specializations in the law department: social security law, constitutional law, family law, administrative law, and procedural law. 17 no. 11 (july december 2015) no. 11 (july december 2015) data collection instruments four alternative assessment instruments (questionnaires, observations, focus groups, and the diary of the teacher) and one traditional assessment instrument (test) were used to gather data. the objective of each instrument is explained below: questionnaires. three questionnaires were administered: evaluation of the course and the teacher, reading strategies and motivation, and selfevaluation. for the purpose of this paper, the self-assessment questionnaire was analyzed in order to see the effects of assessment practices. tests. there were two types of tests: before (pre-test) and after (posttest) the pedagogical intervention, and different tests for each unit. in the pre-test and post-test, there were two readings in each test with 13 multiple choice questions (questions and readings simulating standardized tests like the toefl). inferencing, scanning, identifying topics and main ideas are some of the topics covered in the tests. the unit tests included short paragraphs on the topic of every unit, and multiple choice as well as open questions. diary of the teacher. the teacher kept a diary in order to record his observations and reflections about the teaching and learning process in reading (jeffrey & hadley, 2002). the teacher wrote an entry for each class. the purpose of this diary was to gain insights from the teacher about the course. observations. this instrument was used to examine behaviors, interaction, and participation in the classroom (brown, 2001). two different members of the research group observed two sessions for each unit, and the observations were recorded using a format designed ad-hoc by the research group. focus group. at the end of the course, students were invited to have a focus group session in order to discuss the academic experiences in a deeper way. the sessions were guided by the research advisor, and then transcribed. fourteen students participated. data analysis interpretation ten researchers participated in the analysis of the data (the research advisor, six teachers, and three undergraduate students). all researchers read and labeled the data individually and then compared some important ideas in groups. after that, they coded the data and constructed categories. finally, researchers triangulated the information in order to validate data (freeman, 1998). researchers translated some excerpts from spanish to english in order to support findings. effects of classroom assessment practices lopera 18 no. 11 (july december 2015) no. 11 (july december 2015) effects of classroom assessment practices lopera results researchers found the following issues after analyzing the assessment practices applied in the foreign language reading course: self-assessment questionnaire the questionnaire asked students about their motivation, reading strategies, the course, and the teacher during the learning process. students expressed that the course offered different topics to be applied in readings. one theme that emerged from the self-assessment questionnaire was positive methodology. comments by students out of 26 indicated this issue: i like the methodology used by the teacher because he is active and clear with his explanations. the teacher is quite organized with the course and is quite active. the methodology was great. twenty students also expressed that they had improved their reading comprehension in the fl, and that they had applied different strategies such as skimming, scanning, previewing, and prediction. one of the students reported, “i have learnt pre-reading strategies: prediction, skimming, scanning.” however, five students reported that one of the main obstacles was the lack of vocabulary when interacting with readings, and the lack of time to practice due to their job duties. some comments include the following: one of the main difficulties i have faced with readings is the vocabulary well, the lack of time to practice in his diary and in order to support this issue, the teacher also reported that students faced difficulties with the vocabulary, especially at the beginning of the course. in one of his entries, he expressed that students had difficulties with the vocabulary, even when they had the option to use the dictionary. he wrote: students had difficulties understanding how english words could have different meanings according to the context they had. students were used to writing the first meaning they had in the dictionary without further considerations on the context; therefore, students had some difficulties understanding the meaning of words. i didn’t plan to have students learning to use the context to understand word meanings in one class; however, i was concerned about students’ motivation because this topic was one of the issues students complained about when they said english was a difficult language. 19 no. 11 (july december 2015) no. 11 (july december 2015) tests when students took the pre-test, the teacher wrote in his diary that students were nervous, uncomfortable, and worried about the length of the test. he also noted that students had difficulty understanding the readings, completing the test, and that they translated many words into spanish. this experience contrasts with the post-test, in which students were more comfortable and did not translate as many words as on the first test. the teacher also noted that students understood the readings and applied the reading strategies. researchers wanted to verify in a quantitative way if students applied reading strategies so they compared statistically the preand post-test (the same test was applied). it is worth noting that the quantitative analysis helps support the qualitative one. table 2 shows the following results: table 2. statistical analysis of the pre-test and post-test statistics tests pre-test post-test number of participants 26 26 minimum 2,000 7,000 maximum 11,000 10,000 median 6,000 9,000 mean 5,654 8,885 variance (n-1) 5,595 0,506 standard deviation (n-1) 2,365 0,711 statistics support that the effect of the reading comprehension course in english as a foreign language was quite positive as the mean increased. this means that the course was effective for students. the teacher also wrote that in his diary that the students were quite nervous taking the tests for each unit. students’ anxiety was so high that they even asked the teacher if they could take the test with a partner. the teacher also noted that their anxiety was mainly based on the score, and tried to lessen their anxiety. the teacher reported in his diary: they didn’t feel very confident to take a test in english, and they still believed it was very difficult; this is why students asked repeatedly to do the test with a classmate, but i told them that it was not possible. i tried to calm down students about the test, by explaining how they would only be asked on the exercises and topics we studied, but students didn’t pay attention and were very nervous to take the test. although students did a very good effort during the exam, they asked effects of classroom assessment practices lopera 20 no. 11 (july december 2015) no. 11 (july december 2015) effects of classroom assessment practices lopera a lot of questions trying to get some approval of their work, so they could be confident of getting a good grade. finally, the teacher sometimes asked the students to assess each other after a test of a reading activity. he said the correct answer in front of the whole group and then asked students to correct their peers. this activity helped learners not only to confirm their knowledge but also to take responsibility for their own learning. this issue was validated in the observations. diary of the teacher the teacher began the course explaining the objectives, methodology, content, and assessment. the teacher wondered if students had observations regarding the assessment part as they did not suggest or mention anything about it. the teacher said in the diary: i explained the assessment methodology and students agreed, as they didn’t suggest further changes or disagree. i wonder if they really understood. this was the feeling i had during the class and all the issues i mentioned. the teacher also reflected on students’ issues such as attitude, contact, motivation, confidence, and improvement in reading. for instance, he stated that the close contact with students makes it possible to provide an immediate solution when students face learning problems; he said: by getting close to students there is a chance to get to know what students may be able to do during learning, and there is also a chance to provide immediate solutions to learning difficulties. the teacher also observed that students’ attitude was positive and they read for comprehension and not for a score in order to improve their skills, he mentioned: students’ attitude is quite positive. they wanted to understand what they were reading. they didn’t want to just complete the exercises for obtaining a grade, they really wanted to take the opportunity to improve their english language skills. moreover, the teacher stated that students had gained confidence when facing texts in english: these students also remark how it is easier for them to face texts in english – not that they are going to understand everything at once – but at least they said they had more elements for understanding. the teacher noted that students had improved with the process of applying reading strategies and understood the information from the readings, he said: 21 no. 11 (july december 2015) no. 11 (july december 2015) i could notice how students were actually doing a good job on understanding information from different types of text. while i collected information from students’ class tasks, i could notice very good answers to the information required. finally, the teacher observed that some students showed extrinsic motivation as they had to certify reading in a foreign language in order to be admitted to the second semester of their law specializations. he argued that some students had taken the proficiency test while attending the reading course in order to accomplish the reading requirement and only one passed it. at the end, only one student passed the test and he didn’t go back to class, he didn’t even say good bye. it was quite surprising to realize that after two months of instruction some students were only worried about obtaining the certification, that’s it, there is no other interest. observations at the beginning of the course, researchers observed that students used the dictionaries quite often when they came across an unknown word. at the end of the course, learners did not use the dictionary that much and researchers interpreted this decreased dependence on the dictionary as improvement in reading. the observers and the teacher also noted that students’ participation was a constant aspect, and they were willing to do it. researchers interpreted this issue as a motivation factor in students. finally, the teacher corrected class exercises and gave oral feedback to students in some sections of the class. researchers validated that the teacher applied formative assessment in students. focus group during the focus groups, students expressed that the methodology was motivating and that they had learned how to read in a fl. one of the students said, “i now feel more confident to read texts in english and understand more.” another student said that she felt so confident reading that she “started to read in english in the internet.” on the other hand, some students complained about the requirement to certify a foreign language in order to be registered in the second semester of their graduate program, and suggested removing this requirement. one student said, “we felt pressure due to the requirement to certify a foreign language. it would be a good idea not to be a requirement.” finally, students questioned the idea of interacting with readings from different topics and suggested that the readings be in the law area as they were effects of classroom assessment practices lopera 22 no. 11 (july december 2015) no. 11 (july december 2015) taking a graduate program in law, one student commented, “it would be nice to interact with readings related to our field.” conclusions both alternative and traditional assessments were analyzed in a foreign language reading comprehension course in order to see the effects of reading instruction. findings suggest that the course helped both students and the teacher recognize that learning occurred. the assessment instruments applied in this course also helped language practitioners learn more about the teaching/ learning practices in fl reading. in fact, researchers not only noted that students’ motivation was mainly extrinsic, as they had to certify reading in a foreign language, but also that students’ anxiety was high. researchers also noted that students faced difficulties with vocabulary. on the other hand, these assessment practices helped to examine learning processes in an objective way. the statistical information analyzed supports the assertion that students improved as the mean increased leading to state that the course was effective to students. one important element of applying both alternative and traditional assessment is that students are involved in the learning process and they reflect on their own practices and achievements. the call to include learners in the assessment practices is crucial in today’s teaching, and this may help scholars to make changes in order to improve ongoing or future teaching practices. finally, the results of this paper may enlighten scholars to integrate both alternative assessment and traditional assessment in classrooms in order to have a wide picture of the process of teaching and learning languages. effects of classroom assessment practices lopera 23 no. 11 (july december 2015) no. 11 (july december 2015) references arismendi, f., colorado, d., & grajales, l. 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(3rd ed.). thousand oaks: ca. sage publications. author * sergio lopera medina holds an ma in linguistics, is a phd candidate in linguistics and a specialist in teaching foreign languages. he is a full time professor and a research member of eale (enseñanza y aprendizaje de las lenguas extranjeras) at the universidad de antioquia. his research interests are teaching efl reading comprehension and pragmatics. effects of classroom assessment practices lopera 7 editorial devin strieff* the importance of culture the articles we have published in this, the sixth edition of gist, represent our ongoing commitment to providing readers with research articles that deal with a subject that is becoming increasingly important in today’s globalized community: bilingual education. educators are constantly searching for new techniques to better reach their learners, and this edition, like those that came before, contains a number of articles that detail innovative strategies to do just that. yet educators must sometimes also deal with another topic of interest in bilingual learning centers, that of culture. this edition of gist includes several enlightening studies related to that topic, and we feel the discoveries made can be of use to many educators in all parts of the world. it is no secret that english language education is in high demand around the world. yet in many cases, there are significant challenges that have arisen regarding a learning population’s heritage culture and language, as well as specific difficulties related to the individual needs of a student population. this edition contains an article that examines the struggles that a bilingual educator faces when she lives and works in two different cultures with two different languages, and does not feel that she fits completely in either. we have also included a study that details efforts by teachers to incorporate heritage culture aspects into the second language content courses, with some encouraging results. yet another article examines the role of topics that are included in widely-available english textbooks and how they do or do not address the needs of a local population that, in many cases, will never visit the places and experience the cultures detailed in the textbooks. another fact that we are proud of at gist is the inclusion in this edition of a broad range of articles from many parts of the world. writers contributed studies from no fewer than four continents. this wide-ranging scholarship from differing cultures only serves to enrich our collective knowledge base and increases our capacity to provide the best learning environment for learners. the learning techniques and strategies, as well as the discoveries related to culture, included in this journal may serve readers as no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) 8 instruction, reinforcement or even inspiration. we at gist hope that readers will find something within these pages that they can apply to their own efforts in education, no matter what part of the world they are in. as language educators we must always be cognizant of the fact that we are building bridges between not just differing rules of grammar and vocabulary, but between cultures, as well. summary of articles the first article by sandra patricia mercuri examines how language choices and cultural practices can affect the identity development of minority students in the united states. through an analysis of interviews with a latina educator, the article shows the effects of language ideologies on her cultural identity and literacy development. the interviews show the challenges faced by many minority educators working with second language learners of english, educators who in many cases must struggle with being torn between the english-speaking world and the spanish-speaking world. the article also discusses the loss of and later efforts to regain their heritage language and how this experience informs them as they attempt to stress the importance of defining and strengthening the inherent cultural identity of their students. in the second article, sandra i. musanti, sylvia celedónmattichis and mary e. marshall investigate the perceptions, practices and equity issues of k-1 teachers as they integrate contextualized problem solving into their curriculums in an effort to adapt instruction to better serve latino students who are still in the process of learning the english language. the study took place during a professional development program in an elementary school in the southwestern region of the united states. the study shows how teachers valued the integration of this type of problem solving into their curriculum, as well as how they used language and culture in scaffolding to facilitate the instruction of complex mathematical concepts. the study also shows how teachers prioritized both the use of the native language in their teaching and equitable teaching by the promotion of a student centered approach. the third article, by maría carolina moirano, aims to discover teachers’ attitudes towards culture in the efl classroom through a study of three different efl textbooks. a questionnaire was given during interviews with the teachers and a content analysis using an a priori approach was carried out to determine how well these textbooks address argentine students’ cultural needs. the results of this study no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) 9 show that the textbooks in question fall short of providing the local students with the cultural topics that they need, and also that teachers hardly notice the problem and do little to change the situation. the fourth article, by mayra c. daniel and john e. cowan, shows the results of an investigation into the perceptions that teachers have regarding the contributions that the use of technology has in classrooms of bilingual learners. the researchers asked teachers how teacher-made digital movies impact learning, and what factors limit the infusion of technology into classrooms. data was collected in focus groups and surveys, and shows that teachers believe that the use of appropriate technology can provide greater access to academic language for bilingual learners. our fifth article was written by carmen a. rodríguez cervantes and ruth roux and investigates the communication strategies used by two efl teachers and their beginner level students in the language center of a mexican public university in the northeast of the country. it also discusses the potential factors that influence those communication strategies. data came from audio recording in the classrooms, interviews with the teachers, and observation notes taken during classes. the results of the research show that the strategy used most often was language switch, but that there was some difference in the strategies used depending on how involved the teacher was with the students. the researchers conclude that among the factors that influence the strategies used were class size, seating arrangement, and learning activity types. the next article by yuli andrea bueno hernández shows the impact and results of the implementation of three cognitive strategies used to teach science in english. data, which was collected from observations, field notes, surveys, interviews, videotapes and photographs, showed that the implementation of strategies helped the students understand not only the content and language, but also the class tasks. her findings showed that students, through the use of cognitive strategies, achieve more autonomy and independence in their learning. she also found that, for teachers, these strategies made it easier for teachers to manage their classrooms and keep students engaged. her recommendation is for the gradual implementation of learning strategies for all content classes. our seventh article, by leonardo herrera mosquera, aims to prove the applicability and value of a task-based assessment approach, which is often associated with english learning classes, to a different context: a beginning spanish class. the research was conducted at a middle school in the united states in a beginning spanish i class. no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) 10 the author found that the implementation of this treatment showed positive results in students’ performance on both semester exams. his research suggests that students can be taught a language following a communicative approach and assessed through communicative tasks and still be prepared for psychometric type tests, which should be of interest to language educators who must prepare students for standardized tests. the next article was written by sasan baleghizadeh and yahya gordani and is the product of research conducted at shahid beheshti university in tehran, iran. the researchers investigated the effects of different types of feedback given to graduate students enrolled in an academic writing class. they provided groups of students with three types of feedback: direct feedback, student-teacher conference, and no corrective feedback. the study found significant positive effects for those students who received student-teacher conference type feedback, which suggests that improvement in writing can be at least partially attributed by the type of feedback that students receive. the ninth article, by jeisson rodriguez bonces, is related to the implementation of content and language integrated learning (clil), in particular the characteristics and considerations in a context as diverse as colombia. he outlines the aspects of innovative education and stresses the need to innovate. a definition of clil through its dimensions is then provided. finally, the article offers a broad view of clil in the colombian context and its dimensions and influence in that country. the final article in this volume comes from spain and was written by mar gutiérrez colón-plana. the article is a qualitative study on different aspects of comenius projects undertaken in catalonia during the academic year of 2007-2008. it presents some of the strengths and weaknesses of these projects, the difficulties the coordinators have to face, and analyzes all the issues that need to be improved. data was gathered from a series of interviews with the coordinating teachers for the projects. the study concludes that the comenius project is very complex, adaptable to the reality of each center, and has a positive effect on students at primary, secondary and high school levels. the paper also addresses some problems in catalan society and especially its educational institutions. no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) 11 editor *devin strieff is a new editor of gist – education and learning research journal. he has worked in the corporate environment, drafting and editing client correspondence at international law firms in san francisco, california and caracas, venezuela. his education background is in history and political science from the university of oregon in eugene, oregon, and visual journalism from brooks institute in santa barbara, california. he currently teaches academic writing both at the undergraduate and graduate level at única. the curriculum includes the preparation, research, writing, revising and proper citation process of composing formal academic research papers. no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) 179 sensitizing young english language learners towards environmental care1 sensibilización ambiental para jóvenes aprendientes del idioma inglés rigoberto castillo and maría del pilar rojas2* universidad distrital francisco josé de caldas, escuela superior de administración pública, colombia abstract this paper reports an action research study aimed at understanding how to sensitize young english language learners towards caring for the environment. the pedagogical intervention in a 5th grade class consisted in the use of creative writing strategies to express learners’ ideas. three stages were followed: recognizing facts, reflecting on them and proposing a solution to a problem. the progress learners made at each stage was analyzed. the findings suggest that learners made significant gains in language development and environmental awareness from the opportunities offered by self-expression and debate. keywords: content based instruction (cbi), environmental education, environmental raising awareness, sensitizing, young learners, writing resumen este artículo reporta un estudio de investigación acción cuyo propósito fue entender cómo sensibilizar a los estudiantes de quinto grado sobre el cuidado y la protección del medio ambiente. se incentivó a los estudiantes a expresar sus ideas usando estrategias de escritura creativa. la intervención pedagógica siguió tres etapas: reconocimiento de los hechos, reflexión para finalmente plantear una solución al problema ambiental identificado. los avances logrados en cada etapa fueron analizados y los resultados indican que a partir de las oportunidades de auto-expresión y de debate, los estudiantes avanzaron significativamente en el desarrollo del lenguaje y en la conciencia ambiental. 1 received: june 17, 2014 / accepted: october 3, 2014 2 rcastlephd@yahoo.com, pilirojita@hotmail.com gist education and learning research journal. issn 1692-5777. no. 9, (julydecember) 2014. pp. 179-195. distance education for efl teachers no. 9 (july december 2014) no. 9 (july december 2014) 180 palabras clave: instrucción basada en contenidos (cbi), educación ambiental, conciencia ambiental, sensibilización, jóvenes aprendientes, escritura. resumo este artigo reporta um estudo de pesquisa, ação cujo propósito foi entender como sensibilizar os estudantes de quinta série sobre o cuidado e a proteção do meio ambiente. incentivou-se os estudantes a expressar suas ideias usando estratégias de escritura criativa. a intervenção pedagógica seguiu três etapas: reconhecimento dos fatos e reflexão, para finalmente propor uma solução ao problema ambiental identificado. foram analisados os progressos conseguidos em cada etapa, e os resultados indicam que a partir das oportunidades de auto expressão e de debate, os estudantes avançaram significativamente no desenvolvimento da linguagem e na consciência ambiental. palavras chave: instrução baseada em conteúdos (cbi), educação ambiental, consciência ambiental, sensibilização, jovens aprendizes, escritura. introduction educators are concerned with how best to work on issues that affect the ecosystem. this article attempts to provide the reader with an analysis of the instruction, underlying theory, and some practice that can contribute to environmental action. sensitizing students towards the environment has become essential and urgent. this demands from the educational curriculum the incorporation of current and cross-curricular topics in the classroom (unesco-unep, 1987). the authors noticed that the youngsters at the school under study did not seem to have quality information or practices about caring for the environment even if it was a matter of discussion in other school subjects. we wondered how relevant it would be to address this lack of awareness while teaching another language (l2). thus, one of the aims of the pedagogical innovation, mediated by creative writing, and content-based instruction (cbi), was to promote the understanding and the development of a conscientious attitude to recycling and saving resources. literature review content-based instruction (cbi) and environmental education (ee) constitute the main constructs of this study. brinton, snow and sensitizing young english language learners castillo & rojas no. 9 (july december 2014) no. 9 (july december 2014) 181 wesche (1989) define cbi as “the integration of content with languageteaching aims” (p. 2). jacobs and cates (1999) say that “l2 learning has a crucial role in helping people to learn about and participate in the protection of the environment” (p. 4). in addition, curtain and pesola (1994) contend that cbi in l2 instruction supports the incorporation of a variety of thinking skills and learning strategies that lead to language development, including information-gathering skills, absorbing, questioning, organizing skills, categorizing, comparing, representing, analyzing, identifying main ideas, identifying attributes and components, identifying relationships, patterns, generating skills, inferring, predicting, and estimating. likewise, stoller (1997) suggest that the pervasiveness of language in the teaching of all subjects and the close ties of written language to thinking make cbi the most influential way of promoting thinking. similarly, shih (1986) states that the use of a content-based approach to writing enables students to make judgments about the meaning of texts after thinking carefully about them, to improve language skills through the study of these texts, and to think about specific subject matters critically. in a similar vein, heid (2005) contends that when learners feel comfortable with a manner in which they can express themselves and convey meaning, they may be persuaded to continue their schoolwork. this study uses drawing as a pre-writing task, taking into account the connection that sheridan (1990) establishes, that children think symbolically in variety of ways, making marks intended to have meaning. they are clearly able to reflect upon what they see, hear, say, read, and write. these skills can be used at the same time to create knowledge by transferring information from one mode of representation to another. this has been called cross modal practice. for pasek (2004), environmental education takes place within the practice of searching for creativity and discovery, and the exploration of realities unnoticed. in this perspective, awareness is understood as the process by which teachers and learners, as individuals constructing their own knowledge, reach a growing awareness of both the sociocultural reality which shapes their lives, and their ability to transform this reality (freire, as cited in pasek, 2004). we coincide with leff (2008), who affirms that environmental awareness is not only learning the concepts concerning the impact of human activities on ecosystems, but also the use of this knowledge to understand the situation we are in, to determine how we arrived to those circumstances, and to create alternatives to change them. sensitizing young english language learners castillo & rojas no. 9 (july december 2014) no. 9 (july december 2014) 182 methodology research design framed within the qualitative research method, action research allowed us to study students’ learning in relation to teaching and to instructional practices (florida department of education, 2004). the teacher-researchers intervened to understand what happened in the stages carried out with the aim of monitoring learning (see appendix 1). “the idea of action research is that educational problems and issues are best identified and investigated where the action is: at the classroom and school level. by integrating research into these settings and engaging those who work in research activities, findings can be applied immediately and problems solved more quickly” (guskey, 2000, p. 46). the inquiry moved around the questions: how might cbi contribute to fostering the development of environmental awareness in a 5th grade class? and: how do fifth graders perceive changes in their attitudes towards environmental issues after engaging in environmental topics? context and participants thirteen boys and seven girls, ages 9 and 10, participated. we followed kahyaoglu and kiriktaş (2013), who contend that “the sooner starting the environmental education, the better is the outcome. because the interests and attitudes formed in pre-school and primary school period shape the future behaviors. especially, the attitudes and value judgment developed in early age as childhood and adolescence are highly important to form the love of nature and the empathy in the relationship with nature” (p. 6). for people to become actively involved in solutions to environmental problems and develop awareness, they need to learn early to love everything that the environment encompasses (gürsoy, 2010). pedagogical intervention in the pedagogical intervention, learners were encouraged to express concerns, feelings, opinions, arguments, judgments, critiques and means of actions while discussing the ecosystem. previous knowledge was activated with observations, videos, and readings. the language needed for expression was provided. learners drew and wrote in english about their drawings. afterwards, learners showed their work and talked about it in order to promote discussion. three stages were proposed: recognizing, reflecting, and creating (see appendix 1). sensitizing young english language learners castillo & rojas no. 9 (july december 2014) no. 9 (july december 2014) 183 recognizing. participants developed tasks that involved labeling pictures, and drawing and writing to describe and reflect on issues. the tasks attempted to display information and to recognize the importance of the environment for living. learners were required to name the problem that appeared in a picture or in a passage. reflecting. this stage encouraged participants to reflect on behaviors that cause damage to the environment. videos, short stories and visuals were used as well. the class provided their insights by drawing and by drafting a short paragraph. creating. this stage brought lesson plans in which learners were shown actions that are taken around the world to protect the environment. worksheets modeled writing while the teacher encouraged reflection on the role of humans. students represented their ideas in drawings and then they described them. data collection instruments artifacts, participants’ journals, and questionnaires were used in each stage. a questionnaire was administered at the end of each stage to examine the learners’ responses to the activities. the questionnaire contained one open-ended question: do you think that the tasks proposed have contributed to change your thoughts on environmental care? if so, why? the other items on the questionnaire were two modified likertscaled statements with faces indicating more or less agreement: 1. i think that the activities carried out in english class about environmental problems help me make decisions in favor of the environment, inside and outside school. 2. my daily habits have changed these past months so they are more in favor of the environment. for purposes of validation, the same data was collected using the same methods during the stages, comparing and analyzing common actors to confirm the progress achieved (burns, 1999). the data was consolidated, reduced, and interpreted in relation to theory and in connection to what was observed in the process (huberman & miles, 1984). data analysis and interpretation the data gathered was named, grouped, related to other data, and displayed (freeman, 1998). the analysis established categories and sub-categories. table 1 lists the categories and sub-categories in reference to the research questions. sensitizing young english language learners castillo & rojas no. 9 (july december 2014) no. 9 (july december 2014) 184 table 1. resulting categories and subcategories going green from our own experiences. going green means that participants went through a gradual process of awareness, first understanding environmental issues, then recognizing their own negative actions towards the environment, and finally, managing to propose alternative solutions for their contexts. expressing understandings and concerns about local environmental issues. in stage one it was found that drawings and writing allowed participants to voice their concerns. they recognized problematic situations in their neighborhood, school and home. according to fischer (2007), understanding includes being able to reorganize, follow the sequence of facts and make inferences. this was revealed when students connected ideas to their previous knowledge and to their personal experiences. an example that shed light on the appraisal of current problems comes from student 5’s drawing, in which he numbered each statement to organize his ideas and to refer to pollution. at the time, flooding had caused a total collapse in the city of bogota (see figure 1). student 5 drew and wrote his concerns in several propositions: people are littering there is garbage. this is contamination. there are floods in fontibón.3 people can die. this student went through the chain process to convey the idea. he also depicted the condition of floods happening at the time. he expressed how these affect people when he wrote, “people can die.” 3 a neighborhood in bogotá. sensitizing young english language learners castillo & rojas no. 9 (july december 2014) no. 9 (july december 2014) 185 figure 1. “there are floods in fontibón.” we found that learners developed descriptive knowledge and understanding as they recognized causes and effects of the phenomenon (hirose, 1995). they also tried to go through the chain process, which helped them to feel part of the problem, identifying the issues that disturb their own context. their journals corroborate this aspect. after stage one, students wrote a journal entry in which they discussed and voiced concerns about their context. s2: we are close to the bogota´s river and it reeks for contamination. water pollution is serious and causes fish and plants to die4. by connecting readings and experiences, learners rationalized the causes and consequences of those concerns. this suggests an understanding of the issues discussed. as stated by leff (2008), it is possible to say we have developed environmental awareness when we apprehend the impact of human activities on ecosystems. this, according to unesco (1997), becomes an essential part of what environmental education stands for. the learners’ understanding of these topics helped them identify their responsibility as citizens for the damage caused by their actions, as in the ensuing sub-category. sensitizing young english language learners castillo & rojas 4 original spanish: “nosotros estamos muy cerca del río bogotá y huele muy mal porque hay contaminación. la contaminación del agua es muy grave porque genera que los peces se mueran y las plantas se toman esa agua sucia y después nosotros la necesitamos para vivir.” no. 9 (july december 2014) no. 9 (july december 2014) 186 judging one’s own actions that may cause environmental impact. another aspect that supports the core category going green from own experiences is judging one’s own actions that may cause environmental impact. in stage 2 of the intervention, learners reflected and organized actions they may have taken and recognized the consequences. the evaluation of the content was found to be expressed with adjectives, such as good / bad / excellent / poor / kind / cruel, able / unable. adverbs were also used, e.g. honestly / fairly / properly / intelligently. verbs appeared: (cheating / abuse / cajole / persuade) (martin & white, 2005). to develop their reflections, some students depicted their ideas through several images, describing the beginning, the consequences, or the end of the situation in a sort of cartoon-strip, as in the sample from student 9, who made seven drawings, and under each, he described the actions: i am eating an ice cream. i have the paper, i am littering. the paper is on the floor. i am thinking is not good. i feel sorry. there is a trash can. he used language that evaluates his behavior with expressions including, “i am littering,” “it is not good,” “i feel sorry,” and “i am thinking is not good.” drawing and lexical choices conveyed the message and enabled the learner to communicate and share his feelings. the category of judgment is associated with the actions that constitute evaluating behaviors related to environmental care. figure 2. child’s drawing to describe his action and to evaluate his behavior. sensitizing young english language learners castillo & rojas no. 9 (july december 2014) no. 9 (july december 2014) 187 the learners’ journal supported the above. after completing task 7, students 1 and 2 wrote: s1. when i brush my teeth the water runs. this is wrong. i am wasting water, and water has become scarce. this does not help the environment.5 s2: i was able to reflect on what we do daily, and which damages the environment: wasting water and paper. reflecting is cool so we can improve. the economic commission for latin america and the caribbean (2000) recognizes the importance of taking into consideration the link between one’s actions and their impact on environment to change behavior and to increase awareness. proposing green personal solutions. proposing green personal solutions refers to the learners’ ability to express their contributions to protect their immediate environment. in the creating stage, the learners proposed solutions and willingness to action. these were described from their own possibilities and from what they could at home or at school. a learner drew a girl by a faucet with running water and wrote, “i am going to save water, because water is important for the planet.” this awareness is mentioned by grauer (1989), who suggests that it is indispensable to think globally, but to act locally. when learners propose solutions within their own possibilities, they are making a difference. as stated by unesco (1987), in order to develop environmental awareness, it is necessary to search for solutions and possible means of action. additionally, the learners’ work shows the development of procedural knowledge (hirose, 1995), as they created and proposed solutions. this is corroborated by student 9, who proposes to address the problem by “i am going to use a plastic glass* and i can save water”. 5 “he podido reflexionar sobre las cosas que hacemos a diario que causan daño al ambiente, como desperdiciar papel, y gastar el agua, es chévere porque podemos mejorar.” sensitizing young english language learners castillo & rojas no. 9 (july december 2014) no. 9 (july december 2014) 188 similarly, student 10 said and wrote, “there is a lot of garbage. we can reuse the things and make art with this, and decorate the school and the houses.” learners attempt to propose proenvironmental actions. being environmentally concerned and having access to adequate information facilitates these initiatives (economic commission for latin america and the carribbean, 2003). similarly, learners expressed and reported their solutions and reflections in their journals: s8. to save the environment we should start by ourselves and do things that make a difference. at school we should display our drawings and show other children what we did in our english class: and also display what can be done to take care of the environment. s9: to save the world i should save water. i am going to use a cup when i brush my teeth. as stated by unesco (1997), reflections are an essential part of what environmental education should be, that is equipping individuals with knowledge and attitudes that raise concern for the environment. from drawing and writing to express taking action. this category refers to the students’ perceived change in attitude. questionnaires for capturing their perceptions were administered to all participants after each stage (see appendix 2). an open-ended questionnaire was also administered after lessons to students randomly selected in each stage in order to validate the responses. to develop a better interpretation of what the data presented, we refer to the widely cited definition by allport (1935), who argues that attitude refers to thoughts, emotions and behaviors. it is the tendency to act in a particular way due to both an individual’s experience and personal attitude which can be inferred through verbal expressions and observed behaviors. after the intervention, we found that the learners’ ideas had evolved. by drawing and writing, they expressed actions to change routines and to favor of the environment. the participants’ responses to the questionnaire also brought insights. we found out that 18 out of 20 participants strongly agreed (sa) or agreed (a) that “the english class helped us change our ideas about environmental protection.” this was also supported by the responses in the open-ended questionnaire: “do you think the class activities contributed to changing your idea about environmental care? why?” sensitizing young english language learners castillo & rojas no. 9 (july december 2014) no. 9 (july december 2014) 189 s11: for me, environmental care means doing things for a prettier world: recycling, reducing waste, no littering, and saving water at school and at home; care also means encouraging others to protect the environment.6 s9: now i know that environmental care also depends on us.7 participants reflected that expressing and sharing their ideas with others help them enrich their knowledge about environmental issues and to build possibilities to change together. s8: i have been able to think about environmental damage. we need to start by ourselves for preventing it. we need to make a difference.8 s5: i liked some of my classmates’ ideas and i plan to follow them; such as the one of using a bottle to reduce the water your toilet wastes.9 in sum, language allowed students to think critically and analytically while proposing solutions. the l2 was used for idea generation and as a vehicle for self-expression. for unesco (1994), language serves as a means of reflection and understanding: “through language we can explore and express our understanding of cultural values and social customs” (p. 83). results the first finding deals with the approach. the young learners benefitted from the combination of content and language study. as brinton, et al. argue (1989), cbi allowed the integration of a sensitive topic, which made learning significant, and it provided learners with opportunities to communicate. besides, drawing and writing proved to be a strategy that allowed the youngsters to expand their expression and move towards critical thinking, which would lead them to behaviors that are friendly to the environment. the second findings reveal strong evidence of language development. when learners expressed themselves by drawing and 6 “para mí cuidar el medio ambiente es hacer cosas por un mundo mejor: reciclar, no desperdiciar, no ensuciar, y ahorrar agua en la escuela y en la casa. cuidar es también animar a otros para que protejan el ambiente.” 7 “ahora sé que la protección al ambiente depende también de nosotros” 8 “he podido pensar sobre el daño ambiental. para evitarlo debemos empezar por nosotros mismos”. 9 “me gustaron las ideas de mis compañeros y voy a usarlas; como la de poner una botella en el tanque del inodoro para reducir el desperdicio de agua.” sensitizing young english language learners castillo & rojas no. 9 (july december 2014) no. 9 (july december 2014) 190 composing, they could plan their writing and make language choices. learners managed to connect sentences, organize them, and to find their voice. besides, their writing brought paragraphs, larger use of conjunctions, and logical connections, suggesting diverse processes to manage a text (martin and white, 2005). the third finding relates to learners becoming sensitive towards environmental care. they first developed an understanding of the issues and then their self-expression guided them to proposing green solutions. the tasks allowed them to develop descriptive, analytical, and inferential thinking. the forth finding deals with the change of attitude. the participants’ explanation attests to that. in the diagnosis stage, students were asked about their perception of environmental protection. student 9, for example, stated that it meant not producing smoke in the environment. after the intervention, the same student complemented his idea by affirming, “environmental protection depends on us.” he also mentioned actions, like littering, as having negative impact. similarly, student 10 stated that he reflected on his actions, and through the activities carried out in class, he could come to those proenvironmental ideas. the findings concur with what freire (as cited in pasek, 2004) maintains that environmental awareness takes place “when teachers and students as constructive individuals of their own knowledge, reach a growing awareness of both the socio-cultural reality which shapes their lives, and their ability to transform this reality” (p. 38). learners were found to develop environmental awareness as they searched for solutions and possible means of action. as stated by hauschild, poltavtchenko and stoller (2012), environmentally friendly actions inside and outside the classroom naturally lead students to meaningful language use. classroom discussions about the importance of green habits lead to authentic communication, and at the same time, the likelihood that students will put their newly acquired knowledge into practice increased. conclusions the purpose of this study was to inquire how cbi may contribute to fostering environmental awareness in young learners. cbi helped learners re-shape their perceptions and attitudes towards environmental care. the pedagogical intervention encouraged interdisciplinary teaching as it enabled us to combine work on language, biology and the arts. sensitizing young english language learners castillo & rojas no. 9 (july december 2014) no. 9 (july december 2014) 191 in addition, the three stages of the intervention, recognizing facts, reflecting on them, and proposing a solution to a problem, provided evidence of critical thinking development. when learners expressed themselves by combining drawing and composing, they were able to plan their writing and make language choices. with the teacher’s assistance, youngsters managed to express themselves. their work on key vocabulary, grammatical structures, and the elaboration of ideas in paragraphs shows that they made progress in l2. beginning learners also showed sensitivity to the issues. they first developed an understanding, and then their self-expression guided them to gain environmental awareness to the point of proposing green solutions themselves. this is in line with leff (2008), who argues that environmental awareness should move us to action. furthermore, this intervention enlightened reflective teaching. the teacher-researchers were pleased with the learners’ creativity to propose solutions, and with their commitment to carrying them out. we feel we made a tiny contribution to environmental care. references allport, 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(1995). social psychology of environment and consumption. nagoya: nagoya university press. huberman, a. m. & miles. m. n. b. (1984). innovation up close: how school improvement works. new york, plenum press. jacobs, g. m., & cates, k. (1999). global education in second language teaching. kata, 1(1), 44-56. kahyaoglu, m. & kiriktaş, h. (2013). the research of the relationship between primary school students’ environmentally responsible behaviors and conscious consumer behaviors. international journal of educational research and technology, 4(3). retrieved from: http://soeagra.com/ijert/ijertsept2013/1.pdf leff, e. (2008). discursos sustentables. méxico: siglo veintiuno editores. martin, j., & white, p. (2005). the language of evaluation. appraisal in english. london: palgrave macmillan. pasek, e. (2004). hacia una conciencia ambiental. educere, 8(2), 34-40. sheridan, s. r. (1990). drawing/writing: a brain-based writing program designed to develop descriptive, analytical and inferential thinking skills at the elementary level (doctoral dissertation). retrieved from: http://scholarworks.umass.edu/dissertations/aai9022744 shih, m. (1986). content-based approaches to teaching academic writing. tesol quarterly, 20(4), 617-648. sensitizing young english language learners castillo & rojas no. 9 (july december 2014) no. 9 (july december 2014) 193 stoller, f. (1997). project work: a means to promote language content. forum, (35)4. unesco-unep. (1987). international strategy for action in the field of environmental education and training for the 1990s. paris. unesco unesco. (1997). educating for a sustainable future: a transdisciplinary vision for concerted action. paris: unesco. resources video: energy, let’s save it!. http://videoclips.mrdonn.org/ science.html. a narrative in prezzi. http://prezi.com/6csu0f9dxn1c/flowerstory/ authors *maria del pilar rojas obtained a ba in tefl at the universidad distrital francisco josé de caldas and a ba in public administration from escuela superior de administración pública, esap in colombia. she has served as a teacher and a research assistant at both universidad distrital francisco josé de caldas and esap. she is combining her expertise in education and in administration in a project of the local education authority in bogotá that assists public schools in transforming their curricula and pedagogies. *rigoberto castillo holds a phd in foreign language education from the university of texas at austin. he teaches in the doctoral program at the universidad distrital francisco josé de caldas in bogotá. he has lectured and consulted for several organizations in latin america. recipient of the national award of the colombian association of teachers of english. his recent book on strategic learning was nominated to the british english language teaching award (eltons). the text is reviewed in this issue of gist and is available at http:// die.udistrital.edu.co/node/9278. sensitizing young english language learners castillo & rojas no. 9 (july december 2014) no. 9 (july december 2014) 194 appendix a. stages of the pedagogical intervention sensitizing young english language learners castillo & rojas no. 9 (july december 2014) no. 9 (july december 2014) 195 appendix b. questionnaire in the creating stage sensitizing young english language learners castillo & rojas no. 9 (july december 2014) no. 9 (july december 2014) 196 technology-based biliteracy centers for the 21st century learner1 centros de biliteracidad basados en el uso de la tecnología para el estudiante del siglo xxi sandra mercuri and laura ramos2* university of texas brownsville, spring branch isd, usa abstract the purpose of this reflective article is to present an alternative that incorporates the four language skills in all content areas through technology-based duallanguage centers for emergent bilinguals at the elementary level. the authors propose a matrix to plan the centers and include three examples to facilitate language transfer in english and spanish to foster biliteracy. the planning of the three projects is discussed as well as results from their implementation with elementary grade learners. keywords: language transfer, technology, literacy centers, biliteracy, content development, digital literacy. resumen el objetivo de este artículo de reflexión es presentar una alternativa que incorpore las cuatro competencias lingüísticas (escuchar, hablar, leer y escribir) a las áreas de contenido a través de centros de biliteracidad basados en el uso de la tecnología para estudiantes bilingües emergentes de primaria. las autoras proponen una matriz para planificar los centros e incluyen tres ejemplos para facilitar la transferencia del lenguaje de inglés a español y viceversa, en aras de fomentar la biliteracidad de los estudiantes. la planificación de los tres proyectos es discutido así como los resultados de su implementación con estudiantes de primaria. palabras clave: transferencia lingüística, tecnología, centros de alfabetización, biliteracidad, desarrollo de contenidos, alfabetización digital. 1 received: july 15, 2014 / accepted: october 8, 2014 2 sandra.mercuri@utb.edu, laura.ramos@springbranchisd.com re fle ct iv e ar tic le s gist education and learning research journal. issn 1692-5777. no. 9, (julydecember) 2014. pp. 196-216. mercuri & ramos no. 9 (july december 2014) no. 9 (july december 2014) 197 resumo o objetivo deste artigo de reflexão á apresentar uma alternativa que incorpore as quatro competências linguísticas (escutar, falar, ler e escrever) às áreas de conteúdo através de centros de bilateralidade baseados no uso da tecnologia para estudantes bilíngues emergentes de ensino fundamental (de 1ª a 5ª série). as autoras propõem uma matriz para planejar os centros e incluem três exemplos para facilitar a transferência da linguagem de inglês a espanhol e vice-versa em prol de fomentar a bilateralidade dos estudantes. o planejamento dos três projetos é discutido, assim como os resultados da sua implantação com estudantes de ensino fundamental (de 1ª a 5ª série). palavras chave: transferência linguística, tecnologia, centros de alfabetização, bilateralidade, desenvolvimento de conteúdos, alfabetização digital. introduction during this age of academic accountability in american schools, the growing number of students who speak a language other than english present a challenge to educators across the country. teachers are faced with the difficult task of helping these students develop the academic language needed for school success while learning grade-level specific content connected to district and state standards (mercuri, 2009; mercuri and yarussi, 2014). we borrow the term emergent bilinguals (ebls) from garcía, kleifgen and falchi (2008) who explain that “english language learners are in fact emergent bilinguals. that is, through acquiring english, these children become bilingual, able to continue to function in their home language as well as in english, their new language and that of school” (p. 6). in order to address the linguistic needs of this growing population of emergent bilingual students, many school districts have implemented dual language programs to provide students, identified as second language learners of english and native english speakers, the opportunity to develop biliteracy skills as they learn academic content in two languages (hamayan, genesee & cloud, 2013; howard, sugarman & christian, 2003). in dual language classrooms, all students are emergent bilinguals because they are all learning in another language as well as in their first language. based on the student population, these programs are called oneway or two-way dual language programs. in one-way programs, all students are native speakers of the minority language, for example, spanish. in two-way programs, approximately half of the students are mercuri & ramos no. 9 (july december 2014) no. 9 (july december 2014) 198 native speakers of the minority language and half are native speakers of english. in addition, and based on time allocation and literacy practices, dual language programs could be 50/50 or 90/10. in 50/50 programs, students receive 50% of the instruction in each language. however, in 90/10 models, all students learn to read first in the minority language and english is gradually introduced beginning with 10% in kindergarten and first grade, and up to 50% in fifth grade (freeman, freeman & mercuri, 2005; howard, sugarman, christian, lindholmleary & rogers, 2007; mercuri, in press). dual language programs have the goal of “preparing bilingual, biliterate, and bicultural students for the linguistic complexities and demands of our global society” (mercuri, in press, p. 6). while these goals are worthy, putting them into practice is difficult, especially because so much emphasis is given to test results. even when teachers know what the best approach for teaching ebls is, they often find themselves following ineffective practices in an attempt to prepare students for tests they are not ready to take (garcía & kleifgen, 2010). the key to long-term success in school for all students is to develop high levels of literacy and proficiency in using academic language (freeman & freeman, 2009). for emergent bilinguals trying to develop literacy in a language other than their native language, this process is especially challenging. keeping the needs of the growing numbers of spanish-speaking emergent bilingual students in u.s. classrooms in mind, the purpose of this reflective article is to present an alternative to incorporate the use of all four language domains, listening, speaking, reading and writing, in all content areas to foster biliteracy through technology-based dual language centers, also called workstations. literature review research shows that the most effective way to teach biliteracy is by teaching language through content (freeman, freeman and mercuri, 2005). in addition, embeddeding language and literacy in interdisciplinary units of inquiry facilitates language transfer (beeman & urow, 2012) and acquisition of content knowledge. furthermore, the use of technology as a learning tool in the 21st century has demonstrated to be engaging and positive to the learning process of all learners (warschauer, 2006). while the quality of teacher instruction is important, the quality of literacy centers is of importance as well. this section highlights research in the field that supports the technologybased alternative for biliteracy development presented in this reflective article. technology-based biliteracy centers mercuri & ramos no. 9 (july december 2014) no. 9 (july december 2014) 199 biliteracy and emergent bilinguals while many studies have been done on the literacy development of students learning english as a second language, limited research on the development of bilingualism and biliteracy of bilingual learners exists (dworin, 2003). dworin’s review of the literature also suggests that there are multiple paths to biliteracy development and that children’s biliteracy development is bidirectional. in other words, the relationship between spanish and english literacy occurs simultaneously and builds from each other when appropriate exposure and instruction occurs. other researchers in the field (garcía, 2009; grosjean, 2010; reyes, 2012) explain that the development of biliteracy is different from the development of literacy of monolingual students. the common monolingual perspective we found in most bilingual education research does not clearly articulate the development of biliteracy of emergent bilingual students as dynamic (garcía, kleifgen and falchi, 2008). this requires a reconceptualization of biliteracy development of emergent bilinguals in dual language classrooms with a focus on “its potential intellectual consequences where students establish and mediate relationships between two language systems and their social worlds to create knowledge and transform it for meaningful purposes” (dworin, 2003, p. 182). others researchers like hornberger (2003) explain that bilingualism and biliteracy should be considered as a continua of competencies, and that the relationship between oral and written language is important for biliteracy development and maintenance of competencies in both languages. her model proposes “an array of continua representing a series of complex, interrelated social dimensions that account for the individual speaker and the context, medium, and content of language use” (reyes, 2012, p. 309). moreover, grosjean (2010) states that the connection between bilingualism and biliteracy is poorly understood, which translates into ineffective classroom practices for emergent bilinguals. more recently, kabuto (2011) articulates the complexity of biliteracy development by making a distinction between the written form and the structures of the two languages that emergent bilinguals need to be able to manipulate, and the complex social and cultural factors that speakers of one or more languages need to understand as users of the language based on context and audience. furthermore, reyes (2012) discusses biliteracy processes in the classroom and more in particular the concept of interliteracy (gort, 2006) as the application of rules of the language individuals know to the language they are learning as part of their writing process. this creative use of both languages by emergent bilinguals allows them to effectively develop technology-based biliteracy centers mercuri & ramos no. 9 (july december 2014) no. 9 (july december 2014) 200 high levels of metalinguistic awareness, which in return supports biliteracy development (fránquiz, 2012; gort, 2012; martínez, 2010). technology in the classroom there is a new volume of research on digital communication also called “new digital literacies” and the use of new technology for teaching and learning in classrooms (milton & vozzo, 2013). nowadays, the concept of a literate individual includes not only traditional literacies such as reading and writing print text but also reflects the needs of students living and learning in a digital world (leu, mallette, karchmer, & kara-soteriou, 2005). barone and wright (2008) explain that new literacies include innovative text formats (multiple media or hybrid texts), new reader expectations such as non-linear reading and a new set of activities different from the traditional classroom tasks (website publication; blogs). they also extend traditional literacy practices with comprehension of information on the internet; effective use of search engines to locate information; communication using e-mail, texts, and chats; and the use of word-processing programs (international society for technology in education, 2007). as students use technology as a tool for teaching and learning, they are in an active role rather than the passive role of recipient of information transmitted by a teacher or textbook. when these opportunities are provided for students, they actively make choices about how to create, obtain, manipulate, or display information moving from teacher-led instruction to more student-centered education. similarly, when technology is used the teacher’s role changes as well. the teacher takes on the role of facilitator, providing guidelines and resources, moving around the classroom supporting individual students or groups as needed with suggestions to achieve the goals of the activity and appropriate resources to accomplish the task (kajder, 2005). while this approach seems to have an impact on students’ engagement with learning, writing competency and critical thinking (warschauer, 2006), it also presents some concerns. hutchison and reinking (2011) found in their study that teachers felt unprepared to use technology in the classroom. moreover, they found a disconnection between teachers’ beliefs about technology in the classroom and the actualization of their beliefs in their classroom practices and for literacy development. according to hew and brush (2007), teachers face additional challenges such as problems with resources (lack of technology, time, or technical support), teacher knowledge and skills (inadequate technological and pedagogical knowledge), and school technology-based biliteracy centers mercuri & ramos no. 9 (july december 2014) no. 9 (july december 2014) 201 leadership (lack of school planning or scheduling). to close this gap, they suggest that teachers and students should be familiarized with the use of different technologies to enhance students’ learning and to engage their students with reading and writing e-books to facilitate literacy development beyond the use of printed materials. while korat and shamir (2007) explain that teaching strategies to create and to read e-books to students enhances comprehension and understanding of the features of text, other researchers (bus, verhallen, & de jong, 2009) suggest that attractive multimedia richness could divert students from the actual text. schugar, smith and schugar (2013) recommend that teachers demonstrate to students how to apply strategies they use in reading and creating printed texts to e-books in order to make the use of technologies in the classroom purposeful and meaningful for all learners. literacy centers walsh (2011) indicates that multimodal literacy “may also include listening, talking, enacting and investigating as well as writing, designing and producing such texts” (p. 12). with the introduction of new literacies approaches, teaching literacy in schools also changes into new digital pedagogies (carroll, 2011). digital pedagogies evolve from a constructivist perspective and have as a central tenet the coconstruction of knowledge. in addition, they promote higher-order thinking skills as students move from remembering content to gaining a deep understanding of concepts by using blogs, i-phones and i-pads for learning (kent & holdway, 2009). research shows that digital pedagogies could facilitate the development of literacy in the classroom and could be an innovative way to address the biliteracy development of emergent bilingual in dual language classrooms by encouraging browsing, selecting and sampling strategies, incorporating images, sound and interactive elements when creating digital texts instead of the linear process required by the traditional reading and writing of printed texts (walsh, 2011). this new approach to literacy includes the application of digital literacy practices in learning centers. while we build from ford and opitz’s (2002) definition of a literacy center as a “small area within the classroom where students work alone or together to explore literacy activities independently while the teacher provides small-group guided reading instruction” (p. 711), we also consider the importance of teachers’ guidance as students work with new digital literacies in the classroom. for that reason, we created our own operational definition of a biliteracy center. a technology-based technology-based biliteracy centers mercuri & ramos no. 9 (july december 2014) no. 9 (july december 2014) 202 biliteracy center is an area within the classroom where students work alone or in small groups to explore literacy activities independently using their linguistic repertoires in both spanish and english while the teacher provides small-group guided reading instruction or walks around the classroom supporting individual students or groups in their technology-based projects. in well-developed literacy centers, children have the opportunity to practice important skills needed to become effective speakers, listeners, readers, and writers (halle, calkins, berry, & johnson, 2003). in addition to learning specific literacy skills, children also have the opportunity to increase knowledge in all curriculum areas, learn about new worlds, and improve social interactions. gregory and chapman (2007) also explain that a center should be a collection of materials designed purposely with a goal in mind and should help students 1) enhance or extend knowledge on a skill, concept, or standard, 2) explore topics in different content areas, 3) work at their level of need and be slightly challenged, 4) be creative and critical problem solvers, and 5) be able to manipulate a variety of texts. at each center, students are responsible for their learning as they develop, discover, create, and learn the assigned task at their own pace. furthermore, they suggest that effective literacy centers should have an accountability component to enhance time on task and improve students’ learning outcomes (reutzel, 2007). the following section aims to apply the concepts discussed in this literature review to literacy centers that focus on the development of biliteracy for emergent bilinguals. teaching for biliteracy through technology-based centers in dual language classrooms, the target is to achieve biliteracy, that is fluency in all language domains in two languages (freeman, freeman & mercuri, 2005), usually english and spanish. achieving academic proficiency in one of those languages can positively affect the acquisition of the second language (cummins, 1981; 2008). in addition, when students use technology, the rigor and relevance of the class activities can be increased. bigelow and bokoun (2005) state that having different technologies and allowing student choices facilitates literacy development and engagement. in this context, biliteracy centers are incorporated into daily instruction as a tool towards the development of both languages. this new alternative to biliteracy development presents a matrix that includes traditional literacy centers in addition to activities involving technology and language in context. this matrix serves as a tool to facilitate language transfer in english and spanish in technology-based biliteracy centers mercuri & ramos no. 9 (july december 2014) no. 9 (july december 2014) 203 elementary bilingual emergent students. thoughtful planning of each one of the centers is a fundamental step in the effective implementation of this new alternative to biliteracy development. the matrix consists of a table that includes language modality, language objectives, content objectives, for both, the teacher and the student, technology objective as well as vocabulary and scaffold, as shown in table 1. table 1. planning table for dual language centers the activities at each center are designed around all content areas. in each content area, there are four activities targeting each one of the language domains: reading, writing, listening and speaking. finally, the activities include a multimedia component. in other words, students engage in activities using technology to complete their final product. in this way, students are able to produce academic language in meaningful activities purposefully designed to develop biliteracy. in this article, we present and discuss three examples of dual language centers from a one-way second grade dual language classroom. the classroom is in a title 1 school (title i provides federal funding to schools that have low poverty levels. the funding is meant to help students who are at risk of falling behind academically) that serves about 450 english language learners; 77% of them are spanish speakers but only 288 students are enrolled in the one-way dual-language program. in this one-way dual-language classroom, students have access to an array of technology. i-touches are multi-purpose touchscreen-based electronic devices designed to reproduce audio and digital animations. they connect to the internet via wi-fi. some of the applications allow the user to record and edit audio. net books are portable, small, lighttechnology-based biliteracy centers mercuri & ramos no. 9 (july december 2014) no. 9 (july december 2014) 204 weight computers that include a web camera and microphone. active boards are interactive whiteboards with a large screen that connects to a computer and projects the content from the computer screen. they can project pictures, videos, or special interactive presentations called flip charts. active votes are accessories of the active board that allow the users to select responses in a multiple option format. a listening station is an area in the classroom that includes a recorder or an audio player where students can practice their listening skills. some of the materials in this station may include songs, poems, audio books, etc. the 18 students participating in these centers are between eight and nine years old. there are eight boys and ten girls and all come from low socio-economic homes. all students have been in the school since kindergarten and therefore have been exposed to the dual language program. the following section presents three technology-based centers with a focus on biliteracy development. the first center, a book about, aimed at developing writing in english. the second center, flip with a twist, targeted the acquisition of oral language in both, english and spanish. finally, poster with glogster pointed towards reading comprehension in spanish. technology-based dual language centers for biliteracy development a book about. this center focused on the development of writing in english, specifically the spelling patterns of verbs tenses ending in –ing. at the same time, the students were studying a unit about bird behaviors in science and the concept of multiplication and division in mathematics. in this center, students were asked to create word problems using the vocabulary acquired in science (see table 2 below). this center had several steps. first, students were given a book with multiplication and division word problems to analyze the sentence structure of the problems. second, students focused on verb endings and noted the spelling patterns in a sentence strip. third, the students created their own word problems in a paper-based book that was finally transcribed into the website storybird.com. this website allowed students to create their own personalized e-book with colorful illustrations. in addition, the website allowed the students to design the format and structure of their book including font, color, page design and illustrations. once the books were published, the class became part of a club of readers and writers. students consumed, produced, and commented on the materials available in the website in the format of a conversation in the page of the author of each e-book. technology-based biliteracy centers mercuri & ramos no. 9 (july december 2014) no. 9 (july december 2014) 205 table 2. planning table for a book about flip with a twist. this center focused on the production of oral language in english and spanish. originally, the idea of flipping a classroom requires the teacher to record videos about a topic to be learned at school. flipping the classroom is an instructional approach that has the goal of reducing the lecturing time from part of the teacher technology-based biliteracy centers mercuri & ramos no. 9 (july december 2014) no. 9 (july december 2014) 206 in the classroom. the educator is to lecture students through videos that are to be watched by students as assignments at home. in this way, students come to the classroom with questions and are ready to work on the activities about the topic of study while the teacher uses the time helping and answering the students’ questions. however, the limits of this approach widens in homes where the access to technology is limited. in addition, although the teacher is no longer giving lectures in the classroom, the role of the students can be limited in matters of language, background, schooling, and other factors, especially for emergent bilinguals (bergmann & sams, 2012). for this reason, in flip with a twist, the emphasis is no longer on the teacher as the lecturer but on the students. the emphasis at all times is on the students’ language acquisition as well as their academic achievement. in this center, the activity was modified in a way that students could record themselves explaining a topic in math in both languages, english and spanish. in addition, the material was recorded in spanish for parents. this home integration was helpful for those parents who sought to help their children with their math homework at home. the center integrated math and speaking. more specifically, the students used this center to practice grade-level content area vocabulary in context and to internalize academic vocabulary and mathematical processes in english and spanish. the students used their notes, textbook, manipulatives and a camera. this center also had several steps. first, students in groups of three selected a topic of their choice that was already learned in the class. second, they used information from different sources and planned a storyboard. in the storyboard, they sequenced the concepts and transitions to be used to explain the math concept in the language of their choice. third, they divided the roles of director, camera operator and presenter. the director was in charge of supervising the flow of the video, making sure that the presenter included all the components that were mentioned in the storyboard. the camera operator recorded the presenter, and the presenter presented the mini-lesson using manipulatives and other materials selected by the students. finally, students took turns and switched roles. in this center, students were motivated and eager to record themselves. the use of a camera allowed the students to work together and plan toward a common goal: presenting a mini-lesson about a math concept. below is the planning table for this center. technology-based biliteracy centers mercuri & ramos no. 9 (july december 2014) no. 9 (july december 2014) 207 table 3. planning table for the center flip with a twist poster with glogster. the focus of this center is the development of writing through reading. through research and reading with a purpose, students were able to apply their first and second language. the students were asked to create a poster about the hero or patriotic figure of their choice. in order to accomplish this task, the students needed to complete several steps. first, the students were briefly introduced to the lives of several heroes of the united stated through short videos. second, a list of heroes was presented, and in bilingual pairs, the students chose the person that they would like to learn more about. third, after selecting their hero, the students received guidelines specifying the components of their research project. fourth, students found written materials about their historical figure online and in books from the library. then, in pairs students decided what information was relevant to their guideline and took notes accordingly. students prepared technology-based biliteracy centers mercuri & ramos no. 9 (july december 2014) no. 9 (july december 2014) 208 a draft that included the information that they wished to present. during their research and exploration of sources, the second graders in this class discussed with their partners, read different sources and wrote their notes in their first and second languages. in small groups, students helped each other editing their notes making corrections as necessary. once the written components were ready, students looked for pictures in a database. finally, they used their images and edited documents to create a poster that was posted and presented to their classmates. table 4. planning table for glogster technology-based biliteracy centers mercuri & ramos no. 9 (july december 2014) no. 9 (july december 2014) 209 discussion the research discussed in the literature review section supports different aspects of each one of the technology-based dual-language literacy centers examples described in this paper. as warschauer’s study (2006) suggests, the implementation of these innovative technology-based centers enhances students’ learning and motivation and represents one of the many paths to biliteracy (dworin, 2003). for example, in e-book projects like a book about, students have an active role as they make choices about how to create, obtain, manipulate, or display information on the digital text (kajder, 2005). the storybird. com website allowed students to be creative with the format or layout of their final product. for instance, students had the choice of placing their text at the bottom, top, or sides of the page by dragging a textbox. in the same way, they could select the type and size of picture that would fit their needs. by having this choice, students were able to use their time efficiently, develop their creativity and improve their digital literacy skills needed in the 21st century globalized world. these types of center activities facilitate the acquisition of both languages by considering biliteracy development as a dynamic process (garcía, 2009; garcía, kleigfen and falchi, 2008) where students read and write in different languages to collect information and have the choice to create a product in either language for an audience that also can access the information in both languages, or to facilitate access to content like in flip with a twist. this process explains the potential intellectual advantages that emergent bilinguals could achieve by mediating the two languages and their social worlds to construct knowledge (dworin, 2003). the a book about project is an example of the new literacies that could be included in the classroom for teaching and learning and, more in particular, for biliteracy development. in a book about, students were able to apply science, math, and language concepts in context and through meaningful activities that represent the digital worlds most of them are familiar with (leu, mallette, karchmer, & kara-soteriou, 2005). in addition, the storybird.com website promoted the use of the written and oral language of the students in both languages. the main component of storybird.com is images without text. these images stimulated the students’ language production in the language of their choice. although their final product in the example discussed here was in english, students use both languages to analyze and construct their story. moreover, the website allows students to type stories in english and/or spanish. technology-based biliteracy centers mercuri & ramos no. 9 (july december 2014) no. 9 (july december 2014) 210 furthermore, the advantage of this center was that the teacher could measure the progress of students over time. because the e-books worked as an e-portfolio, the teacher and students could go back to the website to review and assess students’ language acquisition (cummins, 1981). while e-books are different text types from printed materials, they can be read and written using the same strategies that we use with more traditional printed materials (schugar & schugar, 2013). this is particularly important for e-books that will be uploaded to the classroom site and will be available to all classmates as optional reading materials across content areas. additionally, students are able to share their book not only with their classmates in their class but with peers in other nations once it is uploaded. for this reason, the number of readers was greater in digital books than in paper-based books. finally, storybird.com engages students through an extensive collection of artwork available to them. this visual repertoire kept students motivated because they analyzed and selected the images that they considered aligned with their text. even the most reluctant writers had an inner motivation to create an e-book that would carry the images of their choice. however, this rich selection of artwork affected the performance of a few students who would spend more time looking at the images than writing their stories. at the same time, once the students selected an image, their choices would be limited. that is, the artwork belonged to a specific folder and artist in storybird. the students could not use more than one folder per book. therefore, their selection became restricted to the images of one artist per book. regardless of this limitation, storybird.com made the written experience more relevant because it provided students with a real world experience. the students became self-published authors by writing, designing, and sharing their e-books. they lived the writing process and were able to see a digital book almost identical to the books they read in the classroom, with the only difference that this book was digital. a closer look at the flip with a twist project demonstrates that students at this center could use an array of oral and written competencies in both languages based on the audience to demonstrate content knowledge. this exemplifies hornberger’s continua of biliteracy (2003) as students apply their knowledge of the selected topic of a discipline and use all their linguistic competencies in both languages. for monolingual spanish-speaking or english-speaking parents, students can develop spanish and english videos to promote home-school connections while at the same time enhancing their biliteracy development (kabuto, 2011). technology-based biliteracy centers mercuri & ramos no. 9 (july december 2014) no. 9 (july december 2014) 211 in the example presented in this paper, the students planned and delivered a lesson in a video that worked as a preview and review of the material to be studied for an audience beyond the classroom (mercuri, in press). in this way, the videos served as a preview activity for first graders, or as a review for students in the same grade level. as a preview, students from first grade explored the materials that they would be covering in the future. as a review, second grade students clarified and reaffirmed their learning at home or in the classroom. in addition, this center served as a home-school connection because parents could access the videos in the language of their choice, and therefore, they could better help their children in the school assignments. in sum, authentic activities like video recording allowed students to have an audience in their classroom, school and beyond. because students knew that their videos would serve as a tool to teach students and adults, they made sure that their message was clearly transmitted. for this reason, it was through collaboration that the students listened to and corrected each other’s mistakes when necessary. in addition, students were aware that once the video was recorded, they would not be able to modify their words. for this reason, the students relied on reviewing their recordings consistently before selecting their final version. this use of both languages for academic purposes fosters high levels of metalinguistic awareness enhancing emergent bilinguals’ biliteracy development (gort 2012; fránquiz, 2012). lastly, the analysis of poster with gloster showed that the students were able to demonstrate high levels of bilingualism and biliteracy by using their linguistic skills in both languages (reyes, 2012). glogster allows students to develop their reading and writing skills as if they were part of a cycle. students at the beginning had to read to collect the information necessary to create their poster. then, after they published their poster, they read other posters from other classmates. in this way, the process of reading and writing became part of a repetitive sequence where reading and writing skills were developed. students used conventions and capitalization with care because they were aware that their product would serve the need of informing other students about their heroes. this goal allowed the students to become writers who had the readers in mind. through this process, languages were not kept separate, but rather students were able to select and navigate in the language of their choice. garcía (2014) refers to this skill as translanguaging, that is, the ability to generate new meaning and understanding as students use both languages to accomplish the task. by reading in both languages, students enriched their language acquisition and proved their comprehension through writing in their technology-based biliteracy centers mercuri & ramos no. 9 (july december 2014) no. 9 (july december 2014) 212 language of choice. technology was part of the students’ learning process not only as a part of a final product, but also as an embedded element throughout their research process through new digital literacies (milton & vozzo, 2013). the alternative to traditional centers discussed in this paper presents a path to teaching for biliteracy. in all three examples students were able to extend their literacy skills in both languages and to learn the content of the content areas (halle, calkins, berry, & johnson, 2003; gregory and chapman (2007). in sum, based on these classroom examples, the use of technology-based biliteracy centers have the potential to facilitate the acquisition of both languages and content knowledge of emergent bilinguals in both types of dual language programs, 50/50 and 90/10. references barone, d., & wright, t. e. 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(2006). laptops and literacy: learning in the wireless classroom. new york: teachers college press. authors *dr. sandra mercuri is an associate professor at the university of texas, brownsville. she teaches courses in bilingual education and biliteracy. her research interest is on academic language of the content areas, the development of scientific literacy and the effect of long-term professional development on teachers of english learners. she provides training for teachers nationwide and presents at national and international conferences dr. mercuri has also published articles in professional journals in spanish and english. dr. mercuri is the author of the book titled supporting literacy through science. she has also co-authored the books closing the achievement gap and dual language essentials with drs. yvonne and david freeman and researchbased strategies for english language learners with denise rea. *laura ramos is a bilingual teacher in houston, texas. she has eight years of experience teaching in the upper and lower grade levels in dual language programs. she is interested in language acquisition, educational technology and biliteracy. she received her master’s of education in bilingual education and esl in the university of texas at brownsville and holds a bachelor’s degree in communications and media. she presents regularly at international, national, and state conferences including tesol (teachers of english of speakers of other languages), tabe (texas association of bilingual education) and la cosecha dual language conferences. technology-based biliteracy centers no. 9 (july december 2014) no. 9 (july december 2014) 88 the logic of sense incorporated to the notion of inquiry as an orientation for learning: two classroom experiences1 la lógica del sentido incorporada a la noción de investigación como una orientación para el aprendizaje: dos experiencias en el aula. gonzalo camacho vásquez2* universidad del tolima abstract a reflection about two classroom experiences is presented in the attempt to incorporate the logic of sense into the notion of inquiry for learning. the author used the method of experimentation introduced by deleuze and guattari, who based its principles on philosophical conceptions by baruch spinoza. the first experience is conducted with students from the subject called reading and speaking workshop from the ba in english teaching at tolima university. the researcher designed a reading protocol which, in an initial stage, allowed students to comprehend the texts assigned for the class. afterward, this protocol enabled students to reach levels of application and evaluation through the formulation of questions based on the series of the logic of sense. the second experience was carried out with students from the masters in english didactics from the same university. the same reading protocol format was used; but, this time the questions constructed let students envision perspectives in the design of new curricular proposals. key words: experimentation, innovation, inquiry for learning, logic of sense. 1 received: november 5, 2016/ accepted: april 28, 2017 2 gcamachov@ut.edu.co camachogist education and learning research journal. issn 1692-5777. no.14. (january june) 2017. pp. 88-106. no. 14 (january june 2017) no. 14 (january june 2017) 89 resumen se presenta una reflexión en torno a dos experiencias de aula en las que se incorpora la lógica de sentido a la noción de indagación en el aprendizaje. el autor utiliza el método de experimentación, propuesto por deleuze y gauttari, y el cual a su vez se basa en principios filosóficos de baruch spinoza. la primera experiencia se realizada con estudiantes de la asignatura taller de lectura y conversación, perteneciente al programa de licenciatura en inglés de la universidad del tolima. el investigador diseña un protocolo de lectura para desarrollar inicialmente niveles de comprensión de los textos asignados para la clase. posteriormente, los estudiantes alcanzan niveles de aplicación y evaluación a través de la formulación de preguntas basadas en las series de la lógica del sentido. la segunda experiencia se aplica con estudiantes de la maestría en didáctica del inglés. el mismo formato de protocolo, utilizado con estudiantes de pregrado, es aplicado; pero, esta vez las preguntas formuladas permitieron visualizar perspectivas en el diseño de nuevas propuestas curriculares palabras claves: experimentación, innovación, indagación para el aprendizaje, lógica del sentido resumo é apresentada uma reflexão ao redor de duas experiências de sala de aula nas que se incorpora a lógica de sentido com relação à noção de indagação na aprendizagem. o autor utiliza o método de experimentação, proposto por deleuze e gauttari, o qual ao mesmo tempo se baseia em princípios filosóficos de baruch spinoza. a primeira experiência é realizada com estudantes da disciplina oficina de leitura e conversação, que pertence ao programa de licenciatura em inglês da universidade do tolima. o pesquisador desenha um protocolo de leitura para desenvolver, em princípio, níveis de compreensão dos textos designados para a aula. logo, os estudantes alcançam níveis de aplicação e avaliação através da formulação de perguntas baseadas nas séries da lógica do sentido. a segunda experiência é aplicada com estudantes do mestrado em didática do inglês. o mesmo formato de protocolo, utilizado com estudantes de graduação, é aplicado; mas, dessa vez as perguntas formuladas permitiram visualizar perspectivas no desenho de novas propostas curriculares. palavras clave: experimentação, inovação, indagação para a aprendizagem, lógica do sentido camacho no. 14 (january june 2017) no. 14 (january june 2017) 90 introduction “en vez de preguntar y responder dialécticamente, hay que pensar problemáticamente” (foucault, 1995, p. 27) knowledge at school seems not to be constructed, or even contradicted. it is, most of the times, assumed as a product, which students need to learn. in this way, questions are most of the time a kind of mechanism that enables the assimilation of preestablished knowledge. they function as a strategy that enables to confirm the pure comprehension of the theory (dialectical thinking in the words of foucault). for this french philosopher, questions should go beyond comprehension (foucault, 1995). they should envision problems, which are understood as a possibility to think differently: nowadays, we come across the idea of knowledge as a problem: thinking the unthinkable, emphasize the difference and see the statements as happenings (wiesner s, 1999, p. 10) 3 there have been many attempts to change these dialectical practices. among these attempts, i can highlight: cultural historical activity theory (chat) founded on the bases of vigostkian theory, global citizenship education (gce) which intends to connect education with the idea of forming global citizens through the principles of emancipation proposed by paul freire, and inquiry-oriented curriculum. this reflective article is based on a qualitative study that seeks for new manners of conceiving the concept of “problem” in the perspective of an inquiry-oriented curriculum through the use of the logic of sense (deleuze g, 1989). i experimented with the concept of problem proposed by deleuze and guatari in the construction of a learning proposal that changes the dialectical role of questions. the experience was conducted in two groups of students from universidad del tolima: experience 1: the course called reading and speaking workshop. fourth semester b.a. program in english teaching. experience 2: the course called curriculum: design, implementation and evaluation, second semester, masters in english didactics. the model was applied to both groups with different purposes. the data collected was analyzed in terms of the possibility of conceiving an inquiry-oriented curriculum. translated by the author for publication purposes. the logic of sense as an orientation for learning camacho no. 14 (january june 2017) no. 14 (january june 2017) 91 literature review the notion of “problem” for the logic of sense in order to understand the concept of problem for deleuze (1989), we need firstly to elucidate the images that people commonly have about the concept of “problem”. most of the times, a problem is seen as an obstacle. it is frequently associated with a solution. if a problem exists, there must be a solution; or at least we need to look for one. for the logic of sense, a problem does not necessarily imply a solution. when a problem finds a solution, it dies, it is not a problem anymore. from this perspective, the problem seems to have a positive connotation. deleuze (2005) understands the problem as the crossing of three series: the series of concepts, which is composed by images and ideas; the series of questions, and the series of happening or events. figure 1: the problem for the logic of sense according to this model, problems do not exist they are constructed through questioning the concepts inside the discourse: problems and questions are not defined according to lack. it is not that subject does not know something and therefore has a problem and asks questions. instead, problems determine objects and cannot eliminate the problem as determining, since the evolution and genesis of objects, their singularities and signs, are determined by the problem. so, in the same way that instances problems and generating questions for a body of knowledge allow it to be understood better, the problem and questions are a positive aspect of the object rather than a lack or insufficiency to be negated and eliminated (williams, 2013, p.88) the logic of sense as an orientation for learning camacho no. 14 (january june 2017) no. 14 (january june 2017) 92 as a result, concepts are made of images or ideas that need to be contradicted by means of questions that become new possibilities, new ways of seeing. they are made of paradoxes that allow us to turn the concepts around. a question is problematic when it makes us see a happening; but a happening is not what commonly occurs in daily life; on the contrary, a happening is an accident, a turning point in our lives, a possibility, a proposal, a new state, a new dimension. inquiry as an orientation for learning gordon wells (2002) presents an interesting approach to what inquiry means in the organization of a curriculum. through clear examples, he lets us realize on the importance of questions in the establishment of problems that define not only the content of a syllabus, but also the sequence of learning by considering the singularities and interests of learners. in a typical lesson about the time, beyond learning how time is measured, students question the same essence in the idea of measuring time: why is it necessary to measure time? how did ancient civilizations keep track of time? could there be other ways of measuring time? the notion of time is something that everyone assumes as a fact, without hesitating or doubting it. inquiry as an orientation takes students to the field of questioning notions that we assume as part of our daily routines. we use time every day, but we never think about it: can time be conceived in a different way? what could happen if an innovative method to measure time were invented? bearing the former idea in mind, we can see the connection of the logic of sense with inquiry as an orientation for learning: both of them expose students to think the unthinkable. with regards to the learning and teaching act, for wells (2002), problems have the following characteristics: 1. they may be spontaneous; they need to be opened to unplanned situations. 2. they are social constructions and as such have to be understood from the perspectives of cultural historical activity theory (chat) 3. they arise in the course of ongoing activities in which students are affectively and intellectually engaged. 4. they have no single correct answer; nevertheless, a solution has to be constructed for the participants to be able to continue to act effectively and responsibly. the logic of sense as an orientation for learning camacho no. 14 (january june 2017) no. 14 (january june 2017) 93 m. foucault and gilles deleuze would disagree with the fourth characteristic of problems stated by wells in the sense that the reason of being in the problem is the problem itself and not the solution: problems as complex themes resist a seventh postulate of the image of thought whereby truth and falsity are said to apply solutions of problems rather than to problems themselves. there are no technical, practical or theoretical solutions to problems that finally dispel their capacity to regenerate and raise novel questions and challenges (williams, 2013, p 139) in other words, it is the problem the one that keeps the mind looking for new alternatives; some of them become happenings when they are in the way of innovation. methodology research design i applied experimentation as a method (lichilín, 1999, p 16-18) in the sense that the philosophical foundations on the logic of sense were incorporated to the notion of inquiry oriented learning and teaching. in the first experience, the logic of sense was applied in the subject of reading and speaking workshop from the b.a. program in english teaching through the creation of a reading protocol (appendix a) that problematized concepts in the text that were part of the syllabus. the reading protocol asked students in item 5 to make problematic questions based on the contents of the text. these questions must accomplish the conditions presented in figure 1. in the second experience, students from the masters in english didactics used the logic of sense as part of the procedure to design an innovative curriculum proposal. as lichilín (1999) says, experimentation as a method is not the same as the experimental method from research traditions. the latter aims at scientifically demonstrating the effectiveness of a research variable by applying it to an experimental group in reference to a control group that is not intervened (griffee, 2012, p. 71-72). the former must be understood as a relation with the plan of immanence in baruch spinoza. for this philosopher, a thing is not defined by its form, its organ, its function, its substance or its subject, but because of its velocity, affective states and dynamic charges (deleuze, 1988) in this order of ideas, the research problems for experimentation would be located in the realm of immanence or consistency. that is to say, changes that transform an established state of things are those that the logic of sense as an orientation for learning camacho no. 14 (january june 2017) no. 14 (january june 2017) 94 affect its essence; while a change that modifies, the form belongs to the realm of organization or extension. deleuze (1998) gives a typical example of the two planes when he says that the change from the result of pouring a jar of water into two cups is in the plane of extension, while boiling a jar of water and pouring it into two cups will not result in 50 degrees celsius each. temperature is a quality that cannot be subdivided. figure 2: experimentation as a method: the extensive and the intensive planes from this assertion, we can tell that real changes in education will not occur in the extensive plane: when more desks are put into a classroom, more rooms are built in a school or more teachers are trained; but in the intensive plane: when there is a relation of affection with knowledge that moves a community to learn. in this sense, the question that leads the conducted research study is located in the intensive plane, since it wants to affect students’ perception of knowledge through the idea that this is not a universal truth legitimized by its scientific denomination, but a singular act that becomes a creation of mind, when knowledge is contradicted: what could happen when the notion of problem taken from the logic of sense is incorporated to an inquiry oriented learning experience? what new insights will students be able to see in the reading texts when questions are created to contradict the authors’ concepts through the use of the logic of sense? the logic of sense as an orientation for learning camacho no. 14 (january june 2017) no. 14 (january june 2017) 95 learning experiences two learning experiences were designed for the two groups of students already described. experience 1: a reading protocol the aims of this tool were firstly to ensure comprehension of the texts that were part of the syllabus of this subject; and secondly to lead students to inquire on the content of these texts through the application of the logic of sense. the protocol consisted of 5 steps: title, author(s), key words, thinking map and problematic questions. the first three parts were intended for students to identify the texts, the thinking map enabled the comprehension of the texts through the organization of information according to the purpose of the author(s). thinking maps consist of eight established maps, each one of them connected to the development of a mental skill (see appendix b). students were trained in the identification of each map, and the association of them to the purpose of the reading passage. that is to say, in the text called “teaching esl vs teaching efl. principles and practices” by daniel krieger (2005), and as the author describes similarities and differences, the proper map to use from the eight proposed by thinking maps is a double bubble map (yeager and hyerle, p. 37) finally, the problematic questions were constructed by using the following model: the author says/establishes/asseverates that “ ”; however/nevertheless, what could happen if/ what if/ how could it be ? the model to construct the question corresponds to the three series proposed by deleuze in the logic of sense: the series of concepts, which is composed by images and ideas, the series of questions, and the series of happenings or events (see figure 1) experience 2: a model for designing an innovative curriculum proposal as a final project of the course called curriculum: design, implementation and evaluation, students were required to design an innovative proposal and present it at the end of the semester in a poster session. the proposal was based on a needs analysis conducted at the institutions where the ma candidates worked and it had to consider the logic of sense as an orientation for learning camacho no. 14 (january june 2017) no. 14 (january june 2017) 96 the main concepts constructed during the development of the course. it could be related to any of the curricular elements or combination of them, such as: syllabus design, methodology, materials, or evaluation. designing an innovative curriculum proposal is not an easy task and the hardest part seemed to be: “how to guide students to construct a problematic question that let them see a clear proposal for the design?” the experience of learning consisted of three stages: 1. students were encouraged to reflect on their teaching and learning habits and beliefs by reading and discussing the text “examining our beliefs and practices through inquiry” by kathy g. short and carolyn burke (1996). the authors present some change stories to exemplify the ways curriculum may be reformed. in one of these stories the authors show: a belief: as teachers we remain in control of the standards and the communication, mostly by sending home report cards and announcements. a question: how can schooling be a collaborative venture among parents, teachers, and students? a proposal: establish a three-way communication by using exchanging dialogue journals. 2. students were exposed to the idea that an obstacle, a difficulty or scarcity may be an opportunity to see innovative ways of conceiving learning. to achieve this purpose, i showed the group a video entitled “embrace the shake” (2013) in which phil hansen developed an unruly tremor in his hand that kept him from creating the pointillist drawings he loved. hansen was devastated, floating without a sense of purpose. until a neurologist made a simple suggestion: embrace this limitation ... and transcend it. for the purpose of the model, the video was summarized by equating deleuze original triad: figure 3: summary of the video “embrace the shake” the logic of sense as an orientation for learning camacho no. 14 (january june 2017) no. 14 (january june 2017) 97 3. the original triangle proposed by deleuze in the logic of sense was transformed in order to include beliefs and habits that teachers commonly have about the curriculum. these beliefs and habits were questioned by using the base “what could happen if/what if / how would it be?” application the two learning experiences were applied under the following conditions: experience 1: the group of 16 students from the fourth semester wrote 4 reading protocols. each protocol was part of a learning unit that lasted 4 weeks. students wrote protocols on these texts: protocol 1: the role of metacognition in second language teaching and learning (anderson, 2002) protocol 2: tips for reading extensively (ono l, day r, and harsch k, 2004) protocol 3: the teaching tool box. reconciling theory, practice, and language in teacher training course (vanderwoude a, 2012) protocol 4: using the simpsons in efl classes (ruckynski j, 2011) experience 2: the model to design an innovative curricular proposal was administered in the group of 7 students from the second semester of the masters in english didactics during three sessions of 12 hours each. each student designed a curricular proposal that was presented in a poster session and a written report. data collection experience 1 the data from the reading protocol model was collected by using a language portfolio. the problematic questions content in the protocols were taken and analyzed in two moments: one in the middle of the process and the last one at the end of the semester. the purpose of this division was to evaluate the effectiveness of the model in the construction of problem questions and make further decisions on the sequence of learning. the logic of sense as an orientation for learning camacho no. 14 (january june 2017) no. 14 (january june 2017) 98 experience 2 the seven curricular proposals were presented in a written report that included an introduction; the problem question connected to the habits, beliefs and concepts, as well as the happening that resulted from the crossing of the first two series. besides, students presented a poster which contained an abstract of the paper orally. data analysis and interpretation experience 1 students from 4th semester wrote a total of 57 reading protocols: 13 students wrote protocol 1, 14 students wrote protocol 2, 14 students wrote protocol 3, and 16 students wrote protocol 4. as i said before, i divided the total of protocols into 2 groups: the first group comprised protocols 1 and 2, and the second group comprised protocols 3 and 4. these are the results of the first group of questions: figure 4: data from the first group of questions this is the data collected from the second group of questions: figure 5: data from the second group of questions the logic of sense as an orientation for learning camacho no. 14 (january june 2017) no. 14 (january june 2017) 99 as can be seen in figure 5, most of the questions formulated by the group of students included obstacles; nevertheless, after providing extra practice, the number of questions that included a proposal increased an 8%. i can infer that more practice in the use of the model could enlarge the percentage of problematic questions. experience 2 the information of the seven curriculum innovation proposals is presented in the table below: table 1: curricular innovation proposals from the masters in english didactics students results experience 1 in the first group, as it can be seen in figure # 4, most of the questions showed an obstacle instead of a proposal. this is an example of a question as an obstacle that students wrote in their reading protocols: the author explained that activities to work with the simpsons’ show are just thought to be worked in class; however, what could happen if students have already watched the episode we want to use for the class at home? the logic of sense as an orientation for learning camacho no. 14 (january june 2017) no. 14 (january june 2017) 100 this is an example of a problematic question that contains a proposal: the authors say that in order to understand the content of american tv shows like the simpsons, viewers need to be culturally literate; as a result, how could it be a learning unit if a cultural aspect such as political humor is discussed without watching the episode? taking into consideration that most of the students tended to formulate questions that contained an obstacle (false questions in terms of deleuze) i found it necessary to make an intervention in the group in order to make students aware of this phenomenon. i provided further practice in the way problem questions should have been formulated and expected to see the improvements in protocols 3 and 4 (see figure # 5 for analysis of data). experience 2 bearing in mind the notion of logic of sense proposed by deleuze, previously explained in the conceptual background through figure # 1, it was found that 85% of the questions in the curriculum proposals were formulated in terms of providing what gilles (2005) defined as a “happening”: a happening is not what commonly occurs in daily life; on the contrary, a happening is an accident, a turning point in our lives, a possibility, a proposal, a new state, a new dimension. to refer to only one case, at a suba compartir school in bogotá, students are used to having access to a book bank in each classroom. students count on the books, but they are not allowed to solve the exercises or write side notes. this habit is questioned by asking: what could happen if the 21 students from 401 at a suba compartir school designed their own material as a support to work on their everyday english classes? this question takes the problem into a new insight in the moment that the in-service teacher who wrote the proposal sees the possibility of changing the idea that resources, in this case books, are elements that are provided to the teacher and students. instead, he considers the idea of incorporating students’ needs, likes and interests in the design of the material; also, he sees that the learning process starts in the moment when students and parents are involved in the analysis of needs, the development of the materials and the evaluation of the process. the logic of sense as an orientation for learning camacho no. 14 (january june 2017) no. 14 (january june 2017) 101 conclusions after analyzing the two experiences and taking into account the initial research question, the most important findings were: in the formulation of questions, postgraduate students were able to link english teaching with other areas of knowledge and aspects of human dimensions; especially what wells and claxton denominate as the principles of chat. this group of students tend to be more skillful than undergraduate students at linking theory with practice. being in contact with real teaching environments enables graduates to detect cultural needs, habits and beliefs. i also found that setting examples such as the video about “embrace the shake” and formulas like the inquiry triangle enable comprehension and ease the path to get to a problem question; however, examples and formulas tend to minimize students’ mental effort. besides, problems established through the formulation of questions fostered students’ engagement in both groups. this aspect may be an interesting area for further research. students from both groups focused more on solving the task than on being aware of the rules of the language. as a result, language acquisition was unconscious, and reduced levels of anxiety. as an english teacher, i learned that the logic of sense and inquiry as an orientation for learning seem to be a path to be what kumaravadivelu (2003) calls a transformative intellectual: an educator committed with introducing change to the community where he lives. the current study allowed me to see that students struggle with the formulation of problem questions. there is a tendency to make questions that present obstacles more than proposals to the established habits, beliefs or concepts; moreover, most of these obstacles function like “tags” that students use for every question. in this way, these tags become excuses that block any type of change. on the other hand, getting to a problem question demands time and effort from the teacher as well as from students. the effort implies the use of mental capacities and think what have not been thought. students appear not to be prepared to formulate questions and, what is worst, they look like not being exposed to formulate questions before. with regard to language use, proficiency limitations seem to be an obstacle to develop high order thinking skills, which are a requirement to inquire. finally, since this study is in the field of experimentation, little has been said about the use of the logic of sense and inquiry as an orientation applied to language learning, the author of this article the logic of sense as an orientation for learning camacho no. 14 (january june 2017) no. 14 (january june 2017) 102 has carried out other studies where the former method has been used to criticize learning philosophies like the thomas the aquinas pedagogical model (camacho, 2013) and the pedagogical project of tolima university (camacho, 2013). the logic of sense proposed by deleuze may be a valuable research tool to open new insights in the dominant educative discourses, and as a result, propose new ways of conceiving teaching and learning. the logic of sense as an orientation for learning camacho no. 14 (january june 2017) no. 14 (january june 2017) 103 references anderson, n. (2002). the role of metacognition in second language teaching and learning. washington dc: center for applied linguistics. camacho, g. (2013). el pensamiento rizomático en la construcción de un modelo didáctico que vivencie la formación integral en el esquema de educación virtual de la universidad santo tomás bucaramanga. espiral, revista de docencia e investigación. 2 (2), 91-102 camacho, g. (2013). hacia un modelo pedagógico que vivencie la misión en el proyecto educativo institucional de la universidad del tolima. revista perspectivas educativas. volumen 6 (enerodiciembre), pp. 233-241. deleuze, g. (2005). quinta serie del sentido: “novena serie de lo problemático”: “vigesimoprimera serie: del acontecimiento. la lógica del sentido. barcelona: editorial paidós studio. pp.50,72 – 77 y 151-157 deleuze, g. (1988). spinoza and us. in spinoza practical philosophy. san francisco: city light books deleuze, g. (1989). la lógica del sentido. en especial el aparte titulado “serie novena de lo problemático” barcelona: editorial paidós studio. foucault, m. (1996). theatrum philosophicum. barcelona: anagrama. griffee, d. (2012). an introduction to second language research methods: design and data. berkeley: tesl-ej. hansen, p. (2013). embrace the shake. ted conference. retrieved from: https://www.ted.com/talks/phil_hansen_embrace_the_shake krieger, d. (2005). teaching esl vs teaching esl. principles and practices. english teaching forum. volume 43, number 2 kumaravadivelu, b. (2003). conceptualizing teaching acts. beyond methods. new haven and london: yale university press. lichilín, a. (1999). métodos: arqueología, cartografía y experimentación. cuarto módulo serie investigación. maestría en educación. campo de profundización en educación para la convivencia. bogotá: javegraf may, t. (2005). gilles deleuze. an introduction. united kingdom: cambridge university press. page 84 the logic of sense as an orientation for learning camacho no. 14 (january june 2017) no. 14 (january june 2017) 104 ono, l., day r., and harsch, k. (2004). tips for reading extensively. english teaching forum. volume 42. issue 4. pp. 1-18 ruckynski, j. (2011). using the simpsons in efl classes. english teaching forum. volume 49. number 1. pp 8-17 short, k. and burke, c. (1996). examining our beliefs and practices through inquiry. language arts, volume 73 (february, 1996). pp.97-104 vanderwoude, a. (2012). the teaching tool box. reconciling theory, practice, and language in teacher training course. english teaching forum. volume 50, number 4. pp 2-9 wiesner, s. (1999). el saber cómo problema. maestría en educación. campo de profundización en educación para la convivencia. bogotá: javegraf. williams, j. (2013). gilles deleuze’s difference and repetition. a critical introduction and guide. edinburgh: edinburgh university press yeager, c., and hyerle, d. (2007). thinking maps. a language for learning. author *gonzalo camacho vásquez is full-time teacher at universidad del tolima. he holds a ba in language teaching and a ma in education. he has been as an english instructor and teacher trainer for more than 12 years. he participated as an exchange teacher in the united states with visiting international faculty program (vif program). his areas of interest are foreign language teaching didactics, critical thinking and philosophy of education. the logic of sense as an orientation for learning camacho no. 14 (january june 2017) no. 14 (january june 2017) 105 appendix a 1. title: 2. author(s): 3. key words (from 5 to 10) 4. summary of main ideas (use a thinking map) 5. problematic questions about the text the logic of sense as an orientation for learning camacho no. 14 (january june 2017) no. 14 (january june 2017) 106 appendix b thinking maps a language for learning the logic of sense as an orientation for learning no. 14 (january june 2017) no. 14 (january june 2017) �1 building background: what it takes to really make a lesson connect with students jennifer paola calderón pachón, b.a. milena patricia jiménez vargas, b.a. abstract/resumen seeking the best pedagogical practices for bilingual higher education and guided by the principles of the sheltered instruction observation protocol (siop), we describe a sub-study of the sheltered instruction research project (sirp) which deals with how professors at única college in bogotá, colombia implement one of the components of the model: building background (bb). this siop element involves the connection of prior learning and experiences with the new content material instructors teach. such connections allow for students to gain better understandings by recalling facts and concepts from previously studied topics. the sources of data used to fulfill the purposes of this 30-day sub-study included class observations, a workshop and a questionnaire. the research explores the usage of direct experiences and childhood memories as the most effective means for uniting a topic with student feelings, age, needs, preferences and realities. en busca de las mejores prácticas en la educación superior y guiados por el modelo pedagógico protocolo de la observación de la instrucción protegida (siop), se desarrolló el proyecto investigativo de la instrucción protegida (sirp) el cual describe la manera en la que los profesores de la única, universidad localizada en bogotá, colombia, implementan uno podcasting �2 de los componentes de este modelo: la construcción del conocimiento previo (bb). este hace referencia a la conexión de aprendizajes adquiridos y experiencias pasadas que hacen los estudiantes con el nuevo contenido; tales conexiones les permiten tener una mejor comprensión recordando hechos o ideas acerca de cierto tema. las fuentes de información usadas para alcanzar los objetivos de este estudio de 30 días fueron observaciones de clases, un cuestionario y un taller. la investigación explora el uso de experiencias directas y recuerdos de la infancia como los medios más efectivos para conectar un tema con los sentimientos, la edad, las necesidades, las preferencias y las vivencias de los estudiantes. keywords/palabras claves: building background, direct experiences, childhood memories, recall; construcción del conocimiento previo, experiencias directas, memorias de la niñez, memoria introduction studies carried out on various contemporary educational methodologies have established that classroom teaching should take into account the reality of student’s lives: their ages, preferences and needs. in other words, lesson content, classroom environments and teaching techniques should “fit” with students. to use an old adage: teachers should be able to put themselves into their students’ shoes. different pedagogical theorists have made reference to the principles of bb, but in different terms. for example, ausubel (in shapiro, 2004) states that the foundation for learning is the incorporation of new knowledge into prior knowledge. he has named this the assimilation theory. he posits that learners have certain pre-established cognitive structures, and that these are available for the assimilation of new material. a key to teaching is recognizing so that the existing structures can be activated during different parts of the learning process. also, barlett in cook (1997) expounded upon the importance of prior knowledge in the acquisition of new. his schema theory explains how learners’ collective experiences assist them in retaining mental representations. around the world, especially in many united states (us) english as a second language (esl) programs, bb approaches are already being applied. one such model which uses bb theories is the sheltered instruction observation protocol (siop). this model was designed in order to enable english second language learners (eslls) to be successful in content classes and to develop strong second language skills. by connecting student past experiences with new knowledge, information becomes comprehensible for eslls. currently, in colombia, a handful of professors and some students from the institución universitaria colombo building background calderón & jiménez �3 americana (única)1 are conducting research on the applicability of this model in a higher education context. due to the bilingual vision which guides the school, its faculty began the sheltered instruction research project (sirp) in 2007, led by the college’s academic dean, dr. barbara noel. as of the time of the writing of this article, the research on the first component, lesson preparation, had been completed. the participants have already been able to see how the application of siop lesson preparation principles motivates teachers to work hard at designing and structuring effective lesson plans which utilize appropriate materials and activities in order to encourage students. the second of the 8 sub-studies in the sirp is bb. this aspect of the siop framework offers guidelines for teachers so that they may make a connection between their students’ past learning/past experiences and the new content being taught. building background becomes a helpful pedagogical tool to make student learning processes more relevant. if applied by the teacher, students will be able to connect what they have already experienced with the new knowledge. what follows are researcher observations and analysis of how professors at única implement the bb elements in their classes. context the goal of incorporating the bb element in classes at única is to use the student knowledge and personal worldview (already mentally constructed) to provide a basis for understanding, learning, and remembering facts and ideas (mcneil in echevarria, vogt & short, 2004). in order to carry out this sub-study on the bb component, the researchers observed three content classes delivered in english. the purpose of the presence of researchers within the classroom was to investigate precisely how three different professors built background and included the elements that make up the bb component. the professors under observation voluntarily offered their participation. the students were from the fourth, seventh and eighth semester groups of the bilingual education undergraduate program offered at única. the application of the siop model fits with the nature of the college’s curriculum since it was originally designed to assist eslls become english teachers. the sub-study followed a traditional 7-step research process which included the following: an area of focus statement, a research question, data collection, data analysis and interpretation, findings, an action plan, and final thoughts. 1 única is a teacher’s college in bogotá, the capital city of the republic of colombia. its education department grants english teacher certification to graduates. building background calderón & jiménez �� in the investigative process, professor researchers identified weaknesses and strengths while supplementing bb principles into their work. in the course of the research, they were active participants, doing peer and self-assessment on their pedagogical style. additionally, the faculty involved in the sirp joined a workshop in which they reviewed and shared their doubts, thoughts and suggestions about different bb elements. the workshop gave the authors a space in which they could witness the professors’ willingness to improve. through it, the authors involved both the faculty as well as the students in a critical analysis of the practical ramifications and benefits of implementing bb in the college’s educational activities. area of focus statement this research project attempts to find out how well única professors understand both the concept and the subcomponents of bb. another objective is to observe how well these professors understand the application of bb in content courses for eslls. the authors of this report, as student team-members, consider the inclusion of bb elements to be vital for instructor’s lesson planning because bb helps to avoid both boring repetition and the fragmentation of subjects in a curriculum. furthermore, a well-developed bb activity inspires the involvement of students, especially freshmen who might otherwise feel detached and shy. thus, the purpose of this study is to describe how the faculty at única includes bb in their lessons and whether such an inclusion has allowed them to deliver more effective classes. such classes would be those which connected the subject being taught with other subjects (an example would be a successful connection of english ii with british literature). another characteristic of what would be considered to be an effective class is when the professor explores and handles the topic with applicability to the student’s lives. expert professors will be able to accomplish such a contextualization without any particular regard to the language in which the class is given. that is, a skilled professor will be able to have colombian students, whose native language is spanish, see the relevance of the lesson even while the class is taught in english. variables the authors identified the following variables in the research project: 1. the way in which the professors at única connect students’ background with new concepts. 2. how the professors at única connect students’ past learning with new concepts. building background calderón & jiménez �� 3. what these professors do to include key vocabulary. 4. what they do to include activities related to colombia as a point of reference for new learning. research question how do professors at única include bb principles in lessons in order to make them effective? intervention the researcher’s participation in this study was carried out on the basis of the knowledge of professor’s lesson plans as well as observations made on professor lesson-delivery performance. also, the instructors were videotaped so that researchers could studiously observe any modifications or improvements with bb techniques. finally, the information was analyzed and findings were shared with professors so that they could work on any areas they would care to reinforce. membership of the action research group together, the researchers had to find out how the professors were implementing bb methodologies in their classes. each researcher was responsible for designing the questions which would inform them about how each professor involved in the study perceived the usefulness of bb. the researchers were also responsible for collecting data from classes. appropriate data was collected by observing the siop checklist which the researchers decided would aid for monitoring professor progress. of particular interest were professor abilities in the design of content lesson plans which included bb. the relevance of analyzing the content classes in the research is that at the college it has been observed that students learn better when the focus is not directly on the language itself, but rather upon its usefulness for professional and academic purposes. negotiation since the researchers first needed to observe bb activity deliveries, they were required to get permission to observe classes. with that end in mind, a permission form was sent to each professor and to their students. through the use of the form, faculty and students could indicate their decision to either participate or not in the videotaping. needless to say, there were no professors who refused to participate, and neither were there any students who expressed uncooperativeness with the research project. resources the necessary resources in order to carry out the sub-study included: a video camera and one questionnaire. building background calderón & jiménez �� data collection during the project’s 30 days, five different means of data collection were utilized to help the researchers see how the educators involved in the study included the bb component in their lesson plans and how they delivered their lessons. the tools used for data collection included: 1. written reflections from professors based on a questionnaire which had the following questions: ● what do you understand by building background? ● what do you consider to be important when building background? ● how do you build background related to colombia? 2. tape recordings and notes taken by the researchers during the meeting discussions based upon what the professors said. 3. class observations and video recordings of three volunteer professors’ classes. 4. written reflections from the professors on their experience doing bb activities. 5. tape recordings and notes taken by researchers during the workshop which was on bb theory. data analysis and interpretation analyzing professor answers to the first question on the questionnaire, “what do you understand by building background?” the researchers found that a first reaction to the topic of bb is general knowledge; the term seemed to be self-explanatory to them. consequently, participating professors were challenged to delve more deeply into the issues. for example, 8 of the professors in the workshop demonstrated a deeper comprehension of bb theories through the learning center activities designed for them such as acting out hypothetical classroom situations in which a teacher would use bb. the workshop was considered to be a success. professors appreciated the skills shared for using bb in reallife situations. the professors, having gained a working knowledge of key vocabulary, as well as having come to fully understand the meaning of students’ past experiences/past learning, afterwards worked on the second question of the questionnaire, “what (information) do you consider to be important when building background?” in answer to the question, professor researchers mentioned the importance of taking into account student proficiency, age, cultural background, expectations and interests. building background calderón & jiménez �� an actual example (used in the workshop) of how worthwhile it is to consider those individualities can be taken from an everyday classroom situation. the example was given of a teacher in a tropical country who was trying to explain sports to a group of third grade students, but who focuses on winter olympic events. for those youngsters it would be extremely difficult to connect winter sports to their reality and therefore a solid understanding of the topic would not be accomplished. a wellprepared lesson plan which included sports practiced in the home country would provoke meaningful results for both the teacher and the students. the siop theory manual states that these are precisely the issues that a teacher of an esll class should address as he/she makes an attempt to build bridges from past knowledge to new content. of course, there are other tools which the professor would be wise to use as well, such as teaching vocabulary for stimulating predicting skills and introducing a conceptual framework (echaverria, p. 123). for the third question, “how do you build background related to colombia?,” professors affirmed that it was necessary to bear in mind the reality of public education in colombia when designing bb activities; obstacles such as the lack of resources, student behavior, and social problems (such as family violence) could put the effectiveness of those activities at risk. after months of observations in two bogotá public schools, we noticed a scarcity of computers, limited possibilities of internet use, as well as an observable shortage of other kinds of supplementary materials (construction paper, educational games, modeling clay, among others) which are factors that could work against the progress of education in bogotá. after sharing ideas and participating in hands-on activities during the second meeting and the workshop on bb, professors demonstrated that they had clarified their ideas, and they seemed to have resolved their doubts and questions. having them do presentations and act out student roles was a fundamental part of the comprehension of the bb component. they also received and gave peer assessment with feedback. the group as a whole demonstrated that they realized the importance of knowing about bb theories. they reported that they were satisfied with having this space to clarify both its meaning and usefulness in their work. class observation and videotaping of three volunteer classes the volunteer professors under observation came up with activities that dealt with student’s emotional needs. in one activity created to teach the importance of listening to others, half of the class was asked to leave the classroom while the other half stayed, listening to professor’s instructions. these students were told to ask their classmates about the building background calderón & jiménez �8 most important moment in their lives and act as if they did not care about it, being inattentive listeners. after the students told their stories, the professor in charge asked them about how the conversation went, to which they replied complaining about their partners’ attitude, admitting to their feeling ignored and disrespected. this experience touched students’ feelings deeply. through it, they were made to understand the characteristics people must have to make peer assessment and teamwork successful. key words like thoughtful, good listeners, cooperative, and supportive were introduced to define what students need to expect when working together. this bb activity was designed with the purpose of connecting real experiences with content. peer assessment and teamwork were not new for the participating students since they were reminded of their relationship with the daily situations they are exposed to. as the professors instructed and touched upon student’s feelings, it was observed that those particular classroom experiences opened up something in the learners so that the professors would be able to achieve lesson objectives more readily. also, it was noticed that as professors shared personal experiences they were able to get their students’ attention much more readily; even to such a degree that they were able to highlight key concepts and develop class objectives, something which students many times see to be boring. to exemplify that students learn meaningfully when the content taught involves everyday situations shared by the instructor, a research project class in which the main concept was disclosure revealed much. the professor started talking about an experience she had over the weekend. her husband had invited her to go biking up a hill to which she responded affirmatively. however, she hadn’t imagined how difficult and painful it would be (something she discovered waking up to cramps the next morning) because she did not have any previous information about the place. she was not mentally prepared. with this story as the backdrop, the professor introduced the concept of disclosure to the class. the connection of a new word with everyday life made the lesson complete. the sharing of personal experiences opens a way for students to recall and relate information. furthermore, students develop analytical thinking skills which should allow them to develop their own pedagogical strategies. another useful element identified in the use of student’s background for lessons was the inclusion of higher-order questions. according to the siop model, higher-order questions enable students to obtain more precise understandings as well as the thinking skills required in meta-cognitive processes. some such questions are: can you describe (something) with your own words? how is (something) related to (something else)? what would happen if...? what do you think about...? building background calderón & jiménez �9 findings based on both data analysis and interpretation, the following findings of the sub-study of how professors at única include bb in their lesson planning to deliver an effective lesson are presented: sharing personal experiences, movie clips, key vocabulary for key concepts, and recognition of national context. sharing personal experiences through the observations, when connecting student background with new concepts, professors allowed time for students to talk about their own personal experiences to tie in the lessons with student’s feelings. this approach to instruction (particularly, using class content to achieve class objectives) engaged students during the whole lesson, using the class content to drive students towards achieving class objectives. movie clips to establish links between students’ past learning and new concepts, some professors used students’ childhood memories, recalling them by means of movies students had seen when they were children. these professors helped us as researchers to understand the usefulness of video clips in pedagogy. through the clips, professors succeeded in connecting students past learning with new concepts. an example of the use of childhood memories came up during the introduction of the terms ethic and moral in an intercultural communication class. these two words can be difficult to teach since they involve a degree of subjectivity. nonetheless, the professor’s explanation was based on a scene from the lion king when one of the brothers had to decide whether or not to let the other live. the relationship between the two characters opens a big discussion about what would be the ethical thing to do. in turn, the perception every student had about morality was challenged. questions were raised by students along the lines of: what would you do if…? or, is it proper to...? key vocabulary for key concepts during the bb meetings, some professors expressed their confusion in reference to the difference between key vocabulary and key concepts, whereby the research leaders established that key vocabulary would be the words students need to know in order to grasp key concepts. those key concepts relate directly with the content of the class. key concepts characterized a topic. building background calderón & jiménez �0 recognition of national context regarding colombia and how bb activities related to it, the instructors stated that at any given moment while delivering a class it is conducive to bear in mind the real life concerns of their students. factors such as age, preferences, lifestyle, religious inclination and many other characteristics of their specific group were seen to be of the utmost relevance for teaching effectively. action plan an agreement to deliver a list of strategies for bb was made with the faculty. this list wold be utilized in the future as a tool in activity design. the agreement was in response to what was shared after taking the workshop. at that time, professors expressed a need to brainstorm different bb techniques. they were concerned with adding variety to the methods that they had used in connecting past learning or past experiences with a new topic. in addition, it was recognized that peer as well as self-assessment should always have their place in the teacher-training process. such assessment allows for pedagogues to improve strengths and correct any weaknesses. the researchers suggested to the administration that workshops be given at appropriate times throughout the yearly calendar wherein professors will be able to keep themselves updated and informed about how bb theory relates to practice. semester workshops would allow professors at única to be free from confusion on the bb concepts and the significant elements that make up the bb component such as: the explicit linking of concepts with students’ background experiences, past learning as well as the emphasis of key vocabulary (echevarria, vogt & short, 2004). final thoughts the professor researchers mentioned that bb was a way for awakening student’s curiosity as well as a space for listening to student’s ideas. they also observed that imposing absolutes upon students is not as productive as instead giving students a chance to create their own schemes. the professors believed this modified bb approach, what we are calling a co-construction of background, is highly advisable for use in classrooms. through it, both students and professors participate actively; the students working individually or in groups, coming up with ideas useful for understanding defined topics, with professors working as monitors, helping students focus and support their opinions. those professors who apply the siop model are advised to take into consideration that there are two types of background involved when teaching a second language: one related to the second language culture building background calderón & jiménez �1 and the other which grows with regard to new knowledge and concepts. in other words, connections should be made not only with the content, but with the culture of the second language. thus, the vocabulary used to develop a class should not just be focused on content. a teacher must address the usefulness vocabulary has for students within various cultural contexts. one aspect of the lesson is the second language culture, and the other is that which grows with regard to new knowledge. considering the cultural/linguistic aspects first when building background, a teacher should also transmit the key concepts of the lesson and should point these out specifically (together with the new vocabulary). the professor researchers agreed on the fact that key concepts and key vocabulary must be introduced, written, repeated and used while delivering the class. the researcher’s suggestion in response to that issue was that since students almost always use a textbook related to the lesson, key words could be emphasized by highlighting them in the text. likewise, the content and language objectives of the lesson must be designed carefully. the professor researchers noted that there should be greater awareness of academic knowledge tiers of difficulty in the composition of lesson objectives. one quite useful instrument is bloom’s levels of reasoning. building background activities are often the first step in completing lesson objectives. references ausubel, d., & fitzgerald, d. (1961). meaningful learning and detention: intrapersonal personal variables. retrieved december 15, 2008, from http://www.bases.unal.edu. co:2065stable1168901?& search= yes&term=david&term=ausub el&list=hide&search uri=%2faction%2fdobasicsearch%3fquer y%3ddavid%2b ausubel%26gw%3djtx%26prq%3dausubel%26 search%3dsearch%26hp%3d25%26wc%3don&item=14&ttl =1767& returnarticleservice=showarticle&cookieset=1 cook, g. (1997). key concepts in elt: schemas. elt journal 51, 1 january 1997. oxford university press. retrieved november 25, 2008 from http://eltj.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/reprint/51/1/86.pdf echevarria, j., vogt, m. e., & short, d. (2004). making content comprehensible for english language learners: the siop model (2nd ed.). boston: pearson/allyn & bacon. shapiro, a. (2004). how including prior knowledge as a subject variable may change outcomes of learning research. retrieved november 30, 2008, from http://www.bases.unal.edu.co:2065/ stable/3699387?&search= yes&term=prior&term=knowledge&lis building background calderón & jiménez �2 t= hide&searchuri=%2faction%2fdobasicsearch%3fquery%3d prior%2bknowledge%26gw%3djtx%26prq%3dshapiro%26 search%3dsearch%26hp%3d25%26wc%3don&item=1&ttl =235574&return articleservice=showarticle jennifer paola calderón pachón is an única graduate, having been awarded the bachelor’s degree in bilingual education in 2009. she has worked over the last 3 years with children in different schools as a second language teacher. in 2008, she participated as a student researcher in the siop higher education level research project which is reported in this article. after presenting the results, she traveled to the us to work in a spanishlanguage immersion program with first grade students at a public school in north carolina. at this moment, she continues working with first graders at colegio nueva granada in colombia. milena patricia jiménez vargas graduated with a bachelor’s degree in bilingual education from única. she has been working the last 3 years in different institutions teaching english. adults, teenagers and children have been part of her professional development as well as a variety of experiences in and outside colombia. her second practicum, in the us, allowed her to grow significantly. she was part of the research team for the higher educational level application of siop. the sirp research allowed her to develop important tools for teaching using the multiple elements that meet esl learner’s needs. currently, she is working at colegio nueva granada in bogotá. building background 217 teaching and learning another language strategically la enseñanza y el aprendizaje estratégico de otro idioma by rigoberto castillo, universidad distrital francisco josé de caldas, 2014, 123 pp., isbn 978-958-8832-71-5 / isbn digital 978-958-8832-72-2 for many years, researchers and writers in the field of second language acquisition have attempted to provide insights on the strategies employed by learners when learning a language. most learning strategies are framed within cognitive and metacognitive views. although these efforts are significant in attempting to understand how languages are learned, many of them seem unclear. in spite of these circumstances, most theories conclude that language learning strategies are vital for l2 learning and teaching. the uses learners make of language learning strategies mark the difference between the l2 and l1 acquisition processes. it has been assumed that language learning strategies help individuals evaluate their learning process when approaching an l2. in this manner, students reflect on their efforts to learn a second language. consequently, the fact that language learning strategies can be taught makes them appealing for language learners and teachers (pavičić takač, 2008). it also provides bo ok r ev ie w gist education and learning research journal. issn 1692-5777. no. 9, (julydecember) 2014. pp. 217-221. technology-based biliteracy centers no. 9 (july december 2014) no. 9 (july december 2014) 218 for both the ground for exploring different alternatives, such as media and other materials available for optimizing learning (castillo, 2014). in different opportunities, and recently at the 2014 mitteldeutschen sprachenkongress in germany, it has been discussed that the variety of languages spoken by immigrants in europe may benefit european societies at several human, social, cultural and economical levels. hence, researchers, teachers and academic institutions are interested in building interest in learning languages. they are also concerned with how teaching can provide better conditions for learners in order to become competent in a foreign language. the most interesting circumstance is, these views are not only present in europe; they are present all around the world when we talk about language competency and communication. propitiously, the book teaching and learning another language strategically is a precious resource for language teachers, teachers of other subjects, pre-service teachers, teacher-educators, in-service teachers and researches. a wide range of readers may approach the book as it suggests several tasks for different learning contexts. the book provides a useful view of the most famous and up-to-date theories on the types of knowledge involved in listening, speaking, reading and writing (castillo, 2014), by providing valuable examples and practice methods. the text also approaches the challenges teachers face today in a world rich in information technology, and attempts to encourage teachers to reflect on their processes as teachers and also as continuous learners, who are able to provide creative learning settings. as the author states, this book was written as the result of the observation that educators should be informed about aspects such as the nature of language, the role of language in learning, and the types of knowledge involved in the different language skills. the text presents a new proposal for which it was nominated for “the macmillan education award for innovative writing” of eltons in the united kindom. the main thesis of this publication is that strategic learning should take place in school curricula since linguistic or topic syllabi presents serious limitations to helping students construct language or construct with language. it argues other difficulties as well, for example, the ability to learn about the functioning of language. the author indicates that strategic learning is linked with the movement of learning to learn (castillo, 2014). it suggests that individuals can be active in their learning process by using strategic knowledge. it also provides recommendations for motivating teachers to make decisions about using language for learning and how a bridge between l1 and l2 can be constructed. teaching and learning strategically weidner no. 9 (july december 2014) no. 9 (july december 2014) 219 the text is divided into six chapters. each chapter presents theory on the topic along with reflections by the author and methods teachers can implement in order to apply strategic teaching. the book is divided according to the four language skills: reading, listening, speaking and writing. this feature allows the reader to focus on theories about strategic learning for each language skill through clear, precise and substantial reviews. in addition, examples based on theory from different experts and methods are proposed. these examples are based on the author’s studies and analysis of different approaches in classroom settings. for this reason, the information is reliable and effective. chapter 1: theories that illuminate strategic learning presents a review of theories which draw on insights as to strategic behaviours in the four language skills. these theories will help teachers decide how to investigate language acquisition and understand what they can do to enrich their practices (castillo, 2014). the author proposes that strategies may act and develop simultaneously and fluently. this view has a significant impact on instructional design since strategies are not isolated, but rather constitute a didactical choice. the author proposes that teachers should encourage learners to be “achievement oriented.” this situation allows students to think about their learning once teachers provide deep approaches in teaching and offer appropriate reward and assessment. examples on how to apply these theories are provided. a key aspect is the use of visuals as a means to activate background information and the retention of concepts in long-term memory. tables and illustrations are useful for readers to obtain a better view of literature in the field. chapter ii: strategic learning and reading competence reviews literature pertinent to the connection between strategic learning and reading. it describes the role of motivational, cognitive and language processes. finally, the author cites bouvet’s monitoring framework for advanced readers (bouvet, 2000). the main feature in this chapter is the discussion of the types of knowledge reading calls for and their suitable strategies. this provides teachers and course designers with a valuable element when approaching reading, as well as real methodologies for teaching reading, along with didactic and procedural suggestions. these suggestions present a holistic, reliable and relevant methodology for teachers to structure reading lessons. most books revised when writing this review provide theories about reading, but few proposals to be implemented. therefore, the text has a great advantage in illustrating how reading takes place and provides feasible suggestions for teachers to approach in their lessons. teaching and learning strategically weidner no. 9 (july december 2014) no. 9 (july december 2014) 220 in chapter iii: strategic learning and listening competence, the author explains the significant relationship between reading and listening, and describes factors which define each. while other authors present the different types of listening as strategies to approach in lesson planning (harmer, 2006), this text shows different competences in order to understand how listening takes place. it is crucial that strategic listening leads to effective communication. this part is useful for educators who wish to explore the obstacles learners need to overcome when conducting real life listening, also within classroom or testing situations. important contributions on how to structure listening are of great value here. examples such us studies made on toefl and other listening tests are also quite useful for course and material designers. these examples illustrate areas where test takers present difficulties. this aspect gives teachers the chance to approach listening material under a critical and analytical approach. in chapter iv: strategic learning and speaking competence, the author explains that in school settings, the topics, tasks, feedback and promotion of communication strategies account for the development of speaking. this chapter revises some theories as a means of proposing how to enhance learners’ speaking skills. this part is useful for teachers who are interested in notions on working towards fluency. chapter v: strategic learning and writing competence presents an original and practical inventory of the types of knowledge called upon in writing and the strategies that go along with them. it gives a view on theory and practice. it also provides examples on how teachers can train learners on the use of graphics and visual representations to organize information and give structure to a text. real examples presented here were tested by the author in his previous studies and compared with theory. this chapter is of great significance since it gives teachers tips on how to structure writing lessons and for learners how to approach texts. graphics and descriptions are useful for busy teachers and for students to have a wider spectrum of strategies they might use. in chapter vi: implications of strategic learning for language education, the key principle highlighted is how schools can integrate strategic knowledge into their syllabi. in this manner, teachers and learners can become active in examining, understanding and judging the world. the author provides useful methods for applying strategic knowledge in classroom settings. the author also encourages readers to start further research on testing the relationship between the types of knowledge included in his proposal and their relationship with age, as well as the impact of strategic knowledge in instruction (castillo, teaching and learning strategically weidner no. 9 (july december 2014) no. 9 (july december 2014) 221 2014). ideas on how to do this are given, but readers are free to use their creativity. as a language teacher, since i started reading the text in the middle of september, i have been following professor castillo’s proposals in my experience of teaching english and spanish to german l1 speakers. for example, the use of venn diagrams to explain the difference between present continuous and simple present has helped students to understand these concepts, which are difficult for many german speakers to cope with. the use of visuals to structure more effective learning and products has also helped quite a bit. more data needs to be gathered, but the first impression is that students are more motivated to learn and instruction is more structured in terms of competences and long-life learning. the great feature is that this book approaches international contexts; for this reason, it is possible to implement the material in any setting in any country. a further reading section is presented along with appendix and references. it provides the chance for readers to be creative, work on their own processes, and be critical thinkers. references castillo, r. (2014). teaching and learning another language strategically. bogotá: universidad distrital francisco josé de caldas. harmer, j. (2006). the practice of english language teaching. 3rd ed. malaysia: pearson education. parrish, b. (2004). teaching adult esl: a practical introduction. new york: mcgraw-hill esl/elt. pavičić takač, v. (2008). vocabulary learning strategies and foreign language acquisition. clevedon, uk: multilingual matters. the text is available at: http://die.udistrital.edu.co/sites/default/files/ doctorado_ud/publicaciones/teaching_and_learning_another_ language_strategically/teaching_and_learning_another_language_ strategically.pdf. aglaya weidner volkshochschule jena and volkshochschule saale-holzland-kreis, germany email: adrpinfo@gmail.com teaching and learning strategically weidner no. 9 (july december 2014) no. 9 (july december 2014) gist noviembre 2008final(segundas correcciones).p65 speaking in colors: a window into uncomfortable conversations about race and ethnicity in u.s. bilingual classrooms ��$*���� 7��*� !'�$�� $ �� ������� ��� �-��� ��0 =�% �� ����� � 5��� � p��5�r ����� ��� ����� �' � � � ��� �% � ������� ������ �� � ��6% � ��� �������������� ��� ����� �� 5�-���� ��� %����� ���� ��� a�� ��%%�������6 �� � ��� �� ����� � ����%� c��� � �� ��� ��� �-�����6� 5��� ��� �� ��������� 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la clase de inglés como lengua extranjera nancy yolanda bautista pérez2* universidad cooperativa de colombia, colombia abstract this article reports an action research project carried out with a group of 24 undergraduate students in a private university in ibagué, colombia. the study aimed to characterize the development of university students’ sociocultural skills, to analyze their perceptions and to examine the teacher’s procedures and possible implications required to implement the raising cultural consciousness macrostrategy taken from the postmethod pedagogy. to reach these objectives a series of interconnected tasks were designed and implemented in three different stages. to collect the data, five data collection methods were used: the students’ artifacts, teacher’s field notes, questionnaires, video recordings and a focus group. the findings revealed that these university students became gradually aware of the importance of having the opportunity to develop tasks that allowed them to connect the english classroom with the local and global context. furthermore, students suggested that this type of pedagogy should be an explicit component of the curricula of their professional programs. a review of the literature also showed that in our local context this kind of sociocultural study with a postmethod orientation is scarce, thus this study intends to bridge this gap in the colombian elt field. key words: postmethod pedagogy, macrostrategy, sociocultural skills, local and global context. 1 received: july 10th 2017/ accepted: december 11th 2017 2 nancy.bautista@campusucc.edu.co corrective feedback during classroom interactions gist education and learning research journal. issn 1692-5777. no.15. (july december) 2017. pp. 149-172. no. 15 (july december, 2017) no. 15 (july december, 2017) 150 resumen este artículo reporta un proyecto de investigación acción realizado con un grupo de 24 estudiantes de pregrado en una universidad privada colombiana en la ciudad de ibagué. los objetivos del estudio fueron caracterizar el desarrollo gradual de las competencias socioculturales, analizar las percepciones de los estudiantes universitarios, examinar los procedimientos del profesor y las posibles implicaciones requeridas para implementar la macro-estrategia incrementando la conciencia cultural seleccionada de la pedagogía del posmétodo. para alcanzar estos objetivos, fue necesario diseñar una serie de tareas que se implementaron en tres ciclos. los instrumentos que se utilizaron para recolectar la información fueron los materiales hechos por los estudiantes, las notas del profesor, cuestionarios, videos y un grupo focal. los resultados revelaron que los estudiantes universitarios comenzaron gradualmente a ser conscientes de la importancia de tener la oportunidad de desarrollar actividades que les permitieron conectar su clase de inglés con el contexto local y global, también sugirieron que esta pedagogía debería ser parte de sus currículos en sus diferentes programas de formación profesional. además, se evidenció que en el contexto local este tipo de estudios con la orientación de la pedagogía del posmétodo son escasos, por lo que este estudio intenta contribuir a llenar este vacío en el campo de la enseñanza del inglés en colombia. palabras claves: pedagogía posmétodo, macro-estrategia, conciencia sociocultural, contexto local y global. resumo este artigo reporta um projeto de pesquisa-ação realizado com um grupo de 24 estudantes de curso de graduação numa universidade colombiana na cidade de ibagué. os objetivos do estudo foram caracterizar o desenvolvimento gradual das competências socioculturais, analisar as percepções dos alunos universitários, examinar os procedimentos do professor e as possíveis implicações requeridas para implementar a macro-estratégia incrementando a consciência cultural; a qual foi selecionada da pedagogia do posmétodo. para alcançar estes objetivos, foi necessário desenhar uma serie de tarefas “tasks” que foram implementadas em três ciclos. os instrumentos utilizados para recolher os dados foram: os materiais feitos pelos estudantes, notas de campo do professor, questionários, vídeos e um grupo focal. os resultados revelaram que os estudantes universitários começaram gradualmente a ser conscientes da importância de ter a oportunidade de fazer atividades e conectar sua classe de inglês com o contexto local e global, eles também sugeriram que esta pedagogia deveria ser parte de seus currículos nos diferentes programas de graduação. além disso, se evidenciou que no contexto local este tipo de estudos com orientação da pedagogia do posmétodo é escasso; por isso, este estudo intenta contribuir a encher esse vazio no campo do ensino de inglês na colômbia. palavras chaves: pedagogia posmétodo, macroestratégia, consciência sociocultural, contexto local e global. socio-cultural awareness in efl bautista no. 15 (july december, 2017) no. 15 (july december, 2017) 151 introduction good communication skills in english is one of the demands in this globalized world of permanent evolution and changes that have affected our thoughts, beliefs, behavior and interests. consequently, the way we teach and learn, as it has been said by many researchers and scholars. these trends and changes imply the development of new pedagogies and approaches in the efl classroom to give students the opportunity to develop their linguistic skills and sociocultural competence to better prepare them for life. as a result, from this huge demand in teaching and learning english, methods and approaches with a sociocultural orientation have evolved and emerged in an attempt to meet the fact that learners’ needs and interests have changed too. in this regard, johnson (2009) emphasizes that today it is important to reflect about who teaches english, who learns english and why. also to know about the sociopolitical and socioeconomic contexts in which english is taught. in response to these challenges and responsibilities for school, university and teachers regarding the english learning process, an action research project was undertaken during the second academic semester in 2016, at a private university in ibagué, with a group of 24 students from different undergraduate programs. the study aimed to characterize the development of students’ sociocultural skills, to analyze their perceptions and to examine the teacher’s procedures and possible implications. to achieve these goals, the raising cultural consciousness macrostrategy and its guiding principles were implemented in the english classroom. this macrostrategy was taken from the postmethod pedagogy framework, which is considered by many scholars such as stern (1992), allwright (1984), giroux (1988), johnson (2009), and byram (2002), a sustainable approach to language teaching around the world due to its sensitivity to local particularities and the involvement of critical awareness of local conditions and needs. furthermore, some local researchers as, fandiño (2014), aldemar & bonilla (2009) and ramos (2013) have manifested that this is a suitable pedagogy for latin america. the outcomes of the study evidenced that by gradually empowering students to go beyond the walls of the classroom, they were able to expand their global and local knowledge. foucault (1984) suggests that being able to read the community critically is part of the learning process; it means questioning reality, raising awareness, transforming self and rewriting the world. socio-cultural awareness in efl bautista no. 15 (july december, 2017) no. 15 (july december, 2017) 152 in this paper, i present a discussion and description of the theoretical constructs that supported the study, the implemented methodology, the results and, finally the conclusions and pedagogical implications. literature review understanding the postmethod pedagogy the main construct of this project is the postmethod pedagogy. this pedagogy emerged as an answer to the teachers and teacher educators’ voices of dissatisfaction with prescriptive methods of teaching and as part of the elt evolution and the new challenges the new millennium has brought. these changes have gradually evolved over the years thanks to the critical thinkers that have questioned not only the pedagogical limitations but the insidious, sociocultural and political agenda that have permeated our educational system. macedo (1994) called for an “anti-methods pedagogy” he said that any pedagogy should include a critical understanding of the sociocultural context that guides teachers’ practices (p.8). kumaravadivelu (2003) defines the postmethod pedagogy as “a search for an alternative to method rather than an alternative method” (p. 32). he considers that alternative methods are primarily products of top-down processes and alternatives to method are mainly products of bottom-up processes. in other words, teaching practices and policies should emerge from the daily-classroom activities. he assures that the postmethod condition empowers practitioners to construct personal theories of practice that gives teachers autonomy. following these ideas, kumaravadivelu and other scholars recognize that “the nature of any language pedagogy should be sociallyrealistic and contextually-sensitive” (kumaravadivelu, 2003, p.32). grasping the pedagogic wheel and the macrostrategies the postmethod pedagogy proposed by kumaravadivelu can be visualized as three-dimensional system or framework consisting of three pedagogic parameters: particularity, practicality, and possibility. he designed the pedagogic wheel to show how the three parameters interweave and interact with each other and the systematic relationship among the ten macrostrategies. as illustrated in the pedagogic wheel. (kumaravadivelu, 2003, p.41): socio-cultural awareness in efl bautista no. 15 (july december, 2017) no. 15 (july december, 2017) 153 “these three parameters are based on social, cultural, economic and political dimensions that have permeated the process of language teaching; at the same time those parameters are complemented by ten macrostrategies or classroom principles” (kumaravadivelu, 2003, p.41). this framework encompasses the most relevant elements that surround people’s life; for this reason, teachers are required to be aware of the students’ sociocultural background as well as their linguistics needs. kumaravadivelu states that it is the teacher’s discretion to implement one, two, or whatever macrostrategy as needed, or experience teachers can even create their own ones. i explored all of them to seek which one was the most appropriate to develop my project, and i selected the raising cultural consciousness macrostrategy, which appeared to be the most suitable according to the needs analysis and the students’ characteristics. the raising cultural consciousness macrostrategy as it is well known, teaching culture has been an integral part of language class and it is viewed as a cognitive component. the postmethod pedagogy, proposes that the cultural dimension as “an obligation we, language teachers, have to our students” (kumaravadivelu, 2003, p. 284). in this sense, stern (1992) points out that teaching culture should include three components: the cognitive, affective and behavioral to help students to gain an understanding of the native speakers, their cultural values, attitude and diversity. this macrostrategy also indicates that the global cultural consciousness is a requisite in the english language teaching and learning process. kumaravadivelu (2003) asserts that nowadays teacher should not be considered as the sole cultural informant; teachers need to treat learners as cultural informants as well. teachers can encourage learners to be engaged in a process of participation by identifying the cultural knowledge learners bring to the classroom and share their own individual perspectives with the teacher as well as with other learners; such a multicultural approach can dispel stereotypes that create and sustain cross-cultural misunderstandings and miscommunications, as it was evidenced in this study. socio-cultural awareness in efl bautista no. 15 (july december, 2017) no. 15 (july december, 2017) 154 addressing culture in the efl classroom brown (2007) argues that culture is an integral part of the interaction between language and thought. it means that culture involves a series of cultural patterns and customs that shape the way we think and understand the world around us. williams (1976) defines culture as one of the two or three most complicated words in the english language because it “brings to mind different images to different people…such as the mental habits, personal prejudices, moral values, social customs, artistic achievements, and aesthetic preferences of particular societies” (p.87). additionally, kramsch (2013) describes culture as the meaning that members of a social group give to the discursive practices they share in a given space and time and over the historical life of the group. “she states that language learners learn who they are through encounters with the other. they cannot understand the other if they don’t understand the historical and subjective experiences that have made them who they are” (p. 61). in this regard, the term third place is seen as a place of contact or encounter between speakers from two different countries. learners occupy a position where they see themselves both from the inside and from the outside; and that is what she has called a “third place” of symbolic competence that regards to language-in-context for the making of meaning. kramsch (2005) uses the term “thirdness” as a way of seeing the relation of language, thought and culture. the above concepts and thoughts helped me to create encounters in and outside the classroom, where students had the opportunity to reflect about them and the other, and were able to expand and to understand the concept of culture as it is evidenced in the outcomes of the project. on account of these kind of sociocultural encounters with the other the intercultural competence merged as it will be explained in the next section. tackle the intercultural competence in the english classroom the term ‘intercultural’ emerged in the eighties in the fields of intercultural education and intercultural communication. both are part of an effort to increase dialogue and cooperation among members of different national cultures within a common european union or within a global economy (jackson, 2012; kramsch, 2001). byram (2000) visualizes intercultural competence as the ability ‘to see relationships between different cultures – both internal and external to a society – and to mediate, that is interpret each in terms of socio-cultural awareness in efl bautista no. 15 (july december, 2017) no. 15 (july december, 2017) 155 the other, either for themselves or for other people’. it also encompasses the ability ‘to critically or analytically understand that one’s own and other cultures’ perspective is culturally determined rather than natural.’ (p.10). he states that globalization has put individuals in contact with one another at an unprecedented scale. it has brought forth a general challenge to traditionally recognized boundaries of nation, language, race, gender, and class. for this reason, byram (2000) and others like kramsch (2011) consider that teachers should promote the intercultural skill in the classroom. sociocultural perspective another important construct of the study was the sociocultural perspective that views human learning as a dynamic social activity that is situated in physical and social contexts and it is distributed across persons, tools, and activities (vygotsky, 1978). according to johnson (2009), a sociocultural perspective assumes that human cognition is formed through engagement in social activities. this perspective refers to the social relationships and the culturally constructed materials, signs, and symbols that mediate those relationships that create uniquely human forms of higher-level thinking and as a consequence of it. this means, that learning takes place in interactive processes mediated by culture, context, language, and social interaction. community-based pedagogy community-based pedagogy is a perspective inspired on the work of educators such as freire (1988) and, more recently, murrell (2001). freire insisted that curriculum be locally generated and generative and that learners and their worlds be invited into the project and process of education. a community-based pedagogy curriculum reflects a close link between the community and school. furthermore, murrell (2001) observes that this pedagogy is informed by sociocultural approaches and that teachers are called to research the knowledge of the cultures represented by children, families and communities. thus, i based my study on this approach because one of the aims was to encourage students to inquire about their surroundings; such as their neighborhoods, inside and outside the university, etc. in order to connect the efl classroom to the local context and to expand their awareness, experiences and very likely to take action on what they found needed or feasible. socio-cultural awareness in efl bautista no. 15 (july december, 2017) no. 15 (july december, 2017) 156 teacher’s decision-making: moving from theory to practice as part of the advent of new approaches and pedagogies, the teacher’s role in the efl classroom has also changed and evolved. zeichner & liston (1996) suggest that the notion of the teacher as a selfreflective, inquiring, and critically motivated practitioner is required today. allwright & bailey (1991) have stated that this tendency is accelerating interest in research in elt environments. however, it is important to consider that every teacher has her/ his personal theory of teaching and learning, which kelly (1955) calls personal constructs. “teachers make decisions to act on the basis of his/her sense and understanding; in order for teachers to transform the personal constructs, they need to adapt them to reach a common understanding together with others” (williams & burden, 1997, p. 28). furthermore, freeman (1998) called such a reflective thinking inquiryoriented teacher research. he defines as “a state of being engaged in what is going on in the classroom that drives one to better understand what is happening—and can happen—there” (p.14). in the following figure, i summarize the process and the challenges i had to tackle as a teacher researcher in order to connect the theory and practice and to accomplish the aims of the project. the figure 1. includes the theoretical framework and the six main dimensions that i explored in order to design the curricular units for each cycle in order to get students sociocultural aware. figure 1. teacher’s decision making socio-cultural awareness in efl bautista no. 15 (july december, 2017) no. 15 (july december, 2017) 157 background the postmethod pedagogy is considered a sustainable approach to language teaching around the world including latin america, mainly, because it is sensitive to local particularities and involves a critical awareness of local conditions and needs. however, after searching for similar studies; i realized that most of them are focused on discussions, analysis of theory and the way of teaching english and culture in the efl classroom influenced by the postmethod pedagogy. nonetheless, i selected two practice-oriented studies that have been carried out in latin america: the first one was reported in argentina by porto & byram (2015) that aimed to combine the language teaching and education for citizenship; she called her study intercultural citizenship. this project is part of a network of projects coordinated by michael byram. findings revealed that porto’s project is scarce in latin america and her study intends to fill an empirical gap; thus, it has given me some elements to refine my study, which is also a contribution to bridge the existence gap in the sociocultural studies in colombia with a postmethod pedagogy orientation. the second study was held in colombia by fandiño (2014), whose work has been influenced by the postmethod pedagogy and the sociocultural approaches. he proposes five strategies to facilitate a better understanding and implementation of culture in the colombian efl classroom to help teachers to understand and become aware of the social conditions. this study enhanced my view of teacher’s agency, freedom and autonomy, which led me to design activities to foster students’ awareness with respect to culture in our local context. methodology research design this project was based on action research methodology, which is defined as a process that is characterized as a spiral or cycle of movements between action and research. it suits the specificity and particularities of every teaching context and situation through permanent and systematic actions of reflection, observation, planning, action and evaluation (johnson & christensen 2004; burns, 2005; kemmis & mctaggart, 1988). based on this methodological design, the project aimed to answer the research questions: socio-cultural awareness in efl bautista no. 15 (july december, 2017) no. 15 (july december, 2017) 158 main question: what does the implementation of the raising cultural consciousness macrostrategy, taken from the postmethod pedagogy, show with respect to the development of a group of university students’ sociocultural skills in their english learning process? subquestions: 1. what do university students’ perceptions reveal regarding the implementation of the raising cultural consciousness macrostrategy? 2. what characterizes the teacher’s decision making when implementing the raising cultural consciousness macrostrategy in the english classroom? context and participants the study was conducted at a private university in ibagué, during the second academic semester in 2016. the participants were 24 students from different undergraduate programs who attended english classes every monday from 10:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. for 16 weeks. the students’ ages ranged between 18 to 24 years old. they were in the third level of english, which is a requirement to graduate. each english level is characterized by a predetermined set of language competencies students are expected to achieve according to the curriculum. instructional design the instructional design involves all the process and the interconnected activities that were implemented in each of the three stages of the study. figure 2 summarizes all the process, the implementations done and the instruments used in each stage. each cycle was divided in alignment with the three academic periods. in the first cycle students started to raise their sociocultural awareness, in the second cycle students continued expanding their sociocultural awareness, and in the third cycle, they were able to take action about sociocultural issues that affect their community. socio-cultural awareness in efl bautista no. 15 (july december, 2017) no. 15 (july december, 2017) 159 figure 2. action research process data collection instruments to collect the data, five data collection methods were used: the students’ artifacts, teacher’s field notes, questionnaires, video recordings and a focus group. all the data gathered through these instruments helped me to analyze and triangulate the information to find out to what extend the research questions were answered. the students’ artifacts were collected and analyzed in each cycle of the process. they reflected the students’ sociocultural awareness development during the whole process. then, questionnaires in spanish were applied at the end of each cycle. this instrument was very valuable to know the students’ opinions and impressions about the different tasks done in class. the teacher’s field notes were taken during each class to analyze reactions, interactions or behaviors during or after the implementation of the different activities. in addition, most of the activities were recorded, which was very useful because it let me go back as many times as i needed to analyze the students’ opinions or to discover new insights of the project. finally, a focus group was held to give students the opportunity to discuss and give their opinions freely about the different activities and strategies socio-cultural awareness in efl bautista no. 15 (july december, 2017) no. 15 (july december, 2017) 160 implemented by the teacher during the whole process, and to reconfirm previous data collected with other instruments. data analysis and interpretation according to burns (1999), the reflexive nature of action research means that analysis occurs over the entire investigation; she adapted a framework from mckernan (1996) to shape the overall processes of analysis. burns says that throughout a process of constant checks that lead the analysis and triangulation, the data provide the evidence for the research insights or outcomes. thus, the data analysis and interpretation of this study was based on the grounded theory that allows concepts and categories emerge from the data and produces knowledge as stated by glaser & strauss (1999). table 1 illustrates the four categories and the subcategories that merged from the data in order to answer the research questions. figure 3. categories and sub-categories regarding the research question students grasping the postmethod pedagogy to answer the main question, since the very beginning, students were initialized in a process of raising their sociocultural awareness, then they continued expanding their sociocultural awareness and in socio-cultural awareness in efl bautista no. 15 (july december, 2017) no. 15 (july december, 2017) 161 the last stage, they were able to take actions about sociocultural issues. according to kumaravadivelu (2003), students should be aware of the complex connection between language use and cultural identity to sensitize themselves to better understand and value the cultural richness that surrounds their lives. for this reason, one of the first activities aimed to recognize the students’ understanding of global culture. they started to analyze the status of english in this global world and the relation with their lives as citizens and future professionals in order to develop an awareness of empathy regarding the english language. these excerpts confirm that this group of students already possessed a sociocultural background and knowledge about the world and it was easier for them to become familiar with the postmethod thoughts. “most of the students considered that by learning english they can have better job opportunities and can have access to international business. others thought about the possibility to travel abroad to study”. (field notes, august 15, 2016) “these group of students recognized that globalization affect our lives in many ways, such as the language the world speaks, the way we communicate, dress, and so on”. (field notes, august 15, 2016) students getting familiar with the postmethod parameters and macrostrategies let me recall that the selected macrostrategy for the purpose of this study was the raising cultural consciousness macrostrategy. to implement this macrostrategy, i designed some microstrategies that i called activities or tasks to develop their sociocultural skills and give them the opportunity to create knowledge. therefore, in the second stage of this study, i designed a microstrategy based on a comedy movie called spanglish. it contains a lot of nonverbal communication and relevant cultural and cross-cultural information. after analyzing the students’ opinions about this activity, it was found that students enhanced their understanding of culture and identified other aspects of culture such as language, cultural barriers and stereotypes. they stated that the movie helped them to understand the difficulties and problems an immigrant has to face when travels to another country to pursue a dream and commented that some of them knew a person that has experienced the situation of being illegal in another country. students recommend the movie as a way to expand socio-cultural awareness in efl bautista no. 15 (july december, 2017) no. 15 (july december, 2017) 162 their intercultural competence and recognized how important is to speak english in a foreign country. the following excerpts were taken from a video recording after the film activity: s1. “esta actividad nos ayudó a practicar, pronunciar y mejorar el inglés y aprender sobre diferentes culturas”. s3.“recomiendo la película pues permite tener una visión más amplia de la cultura de otros países y reconocer la importancia de hablar bien inglés”. s4:“me ayudó a tener una visión más amplia de mi cultura y de la cultura de otros países”. students constructing sociocultural awareness social awareness involves both the will and the skill to interact with others, involving motivation, attitude, self-confidence, empathy and the ability to handle social situations (byram 2002). this category shows how students became conscious and expanded their knowledge about the difficulties their communities have and even took part in possible solutions. when students presented their final papers and oral presentations regarding local and global issues, data showed that they have expanded their social and cultural awareness, were ready to explore global and local issues, and were able to take action about problems related to their communities, such as the university, neighborhood and the city. the following five questions, students attempted to answer in their final tasks, is an example of it: 1. we are concerned about how to develop awareness in the university directors about the drug addiction? 2. what can be our contribution to reduce the amount of garbage in the streets of ibague? 3. how to improve security in ibague city, especially near the cooperativa university? 4. this group of students was concerned about the corruption that has been affected our country and especially this city, which is considered one of the biggest sicknesses of this century. 5. what can we do to reduce domestic violence in the city of ibague? socio-cultural awareness in efl bautista no. 15 (july december, 2017) no. 15 (july december, 2017) 163 students understanding and expanding the concept of culture students understood and expanded the concept of culture during the development of different cultural oriented tasks. the tasks involved observation and reflection about other’s cultures thus students had the opportunity to cross the borders from their local to the global culture with computer and technology to gained intercultural competence. my cultural heritage, a posters session, was one of the activities that helped students to expand their understanding about culture. the first step of this activity comprised that students worked in small groups and drew mind maps to express their understanding of culture. this task involved observation and reflection about other’s cultures and the faceto-face interaction with the native assistant who is part of the english language program. students developing the intercultural competence according to stewart (2007), the intercultural competence is the continuous evolution and transformation of the society as a result of science, technology and globalization, that force intercultural objectives to evolve and reflect to be able to respond to the needs of modern citizens and communities. this appreciation, confirms that today’s students are modern citizens whose learning habits are permeated by the facts already mentioned. for this reason, i also included technology in the classroom. a good example on how these students expanded their intercultural skills was when they watched the movie spanglish and in the post-viewing stage, they drew some mind maps and made a contrast between three cultures; colombian, mexican and american. the mind maps showed that language is the main barrier to get a good job in a country like the united states. they found that colombian and mexican cultures are more traditional than americans’ culture. also, that mexico and colombian have faced similar social problems such as the violence, trafficking and corruption. even though the movie spanglish is a funny comedy, students addressed critical opinions to social and cultural differences: s1:“recordaré la película como una actividad diferente y al contrastar las culturas me llama la atención como cada país ve al otro, dependiendo del status de éste”. (questionnaire, october 10, 2016) s2. “recomiendo la actividad de la película porque nos ayudó a ser capaces de ser más conscientes de las diferencias con otras culturas” (focus group, november 14, 2016) socio-cultural awareness in efl bautista no. 15 (july december, 2017) no. 15 (july december, 2017) 164 s3.”mexico and colombia, pensé que no debían ser muchas las diferencias, pero cuando comencé a investigar habían diferencias culturales, en la forma de hablar el español. (field notes, october 10, 2016) s4.”así estén cerca hay muchas diferencias entre méxico y los estados unidos, por ejemplo en la película las dificultades que tiene que afrontar la mujer son por no conocer la cultura y no hablar el idioma. (field notes, october 10, 2016) students developing critical thinking the students were immersed in a series of activities that were sociocultural and political oriented as suggested by halpern (1996) who asserts that “a forward –looking education must be built on the twin foundations of knowing how to learn and knowing how to think clearly about the proliferating information with which we all have to contend” (p.4). the decisions teachers make in the classroom will affect not only the class, but also generations that come; our students. therefore, in the third cycle of this study, i took advantage of a crucial moment our country was facing up, the peace process in colombia, which has been a controversial topic of discussion during the last years. the first thing i did was to elicit information from the students to see how much they knew about it. since most of them were not well informed about this process, i asked them to be followers of this process during two weeks, just before the plebiscite, and to be ready to participate in a round table session. during the round table students discussed about this topic that requires they move to a higherlevel of thinking. the following excerpts correspond to some teacher’s field notes and some opinions students wrote in spanish to answer a questionnaire: s1. “yo si estoy más enterado del proceso de paz” (field notes, october 16, 2016) s2. “es muy difícil decirlo en inglés, porque en español para mí no es tan fácil, pero se aprende mucho” (questionnaire, october 24, 2016). s3. “aparte de aprender sobre este proceso de paz, aprendí mucho vocabulario nuevo en inglés y soy más conciente de la importancia de votar”. (questionnaire, october 24, 2016) socio-cultural awareness in efl bautista no. 15 (july december, 2017) no. 15 (july december, 2017) 165 s4. “me considero una víctima indirecta y directa porque es nuestro país y nos afecta todo lo que pase en el” ((questionnaire, october 24, 2016). the above extracts evidenced the students’ awareness about events that surrounded their lives, even though most of them had never debated or participated in political issues. students expanding local knowledge canagarajah (2005) indicates that local knowledge is a “process rather than a product and it is constituted by the beliefs and practices of the past […] the most important is the locality that shapes our social intellectual practice” (p. 3). reflecting on canagarajah’s appreciation, i noticed that the development of the sociocultural competence in these students who were strongly influenced by their previous knowledge. it means that students brought to the english classroom knowledge from their fields of study. let me recall that this group of students belongs to the programs of civil engineering, veterinary and accounting. then, they shared in class their personal beliefs, values and experiences during the different activities, and finally their global and local knowledge that includes all the information they possess and express regarding their communities and the world. in this sub-category, i will highlight some instances, where students expressed their global and local knowledge about social issues: s1: “cuando analizamos los diferentes problemas sociales, recordamos que tenemos muchos, lo bueno es que intentamos sugerir soluciones”(focus group; november 14, 2016) s2: “observamos que algunos compañeros están consumiendo drogas, o la han consumido en el pasado, por eso nos llamó la atención este problema”.(field notes; october 17, 2016) s1:“we know that drug-addiction is a global problem. it does not only happen in colombia or ibague” (field notes; october 31, 2016) socio-cultural awareness in efl bautista no. 15 (july december, 2017) no. 15 (july december, 2017) 166 teacher shifting from traditional to non-conventional decisions this project could not be done without considering the teacher’s role during the process. kumaravadivelu (2001) observes that the most relevant key component and the heart of the postmethod framework is to empower and promote the teacher’s autonomy. it gives him/her the elements to become more confident and able to empower learners to construct their own knowledge. following these thoughts, as a language teacher at a higher educational institution, i am aware that one of the challenges we have is to promote competences university students need to improve their quality of life. for these reasons, i generated opportunities for the students to develop a series of interconnected tasks that were designed and implemented according to their needs, english level and the articulation with the english university program. it was necessary the creation of learning environments that foster the students’ sociocultural understanding and to continuously analyzed and reflected about the results of each of the tasks. this ongoing process guided me to accomplish the project. the following excerpts correspond to students’ opinions about the change from traditional to non-traditional class: s1. “pues a mí me llaman mucho la atención las actividades que realizamos, porque es una forma más de desarrollar la habilidad lingüística y cultural. si, en lo particular me gustó el cambio es más significativo.” (focus group, november 14, 2016) s2. “en general aprendimos mucho, sobre todo vocabulario, que en una clase tradicional nunca lo hubiéramos hecho. si fue una experiencia única.” (focus group, november 14, 2016) s3. “pues pienso que es muy bueno, pues algunos de esos temas son interesantes para nosotros y abordarlos en inglés es todo un reto. digamos, lo cultural, lo político y esto nos obliga a trabajar mejor el idioma. fue una experiencia significativa y fuimos progresando paso a paso”. (focus group, november 14, 2016) results regarding the main question, the findings revealed that this group of university students became more aware of the importance of having the opportunity to develop tasks that led them to connect the socio-cultural awareness in efl bautista no. 15 (july december, 2017) no. 15 (july december, 2017) 167 english classroom with the global and local context. they expressed that it should be part of their learning process as future professionals. additionally, data showed that through the development of the different sociocultural oriented tasks, students activated their previous knowledge, expanded their intercultural competence, and positioned themselves regarding social issues. with respect to the second question, these students demonstrated that by connecting the english class with their surroundings there were unlimited opportunities for them to move to a higher level of thinking, to create meaningful learning, and to become independent learners (johnson, 2009). they also recognized that this type of sociocultural activities offered them a unique opportunity because they had to face challenges that led them to generate and expand their linguistic skills and raised their sociocultural awareness. in relation to the third and last question, the data indicated that teacher plays an important role in the creation of learning environments that should give students the opportunity of exploring, discovering, analyzing and evaluating meaningful information. these were the main features of the tasks and microstrategies implemented during this process to reach the aims of the project. conclusions and pedagogical implications after the implementation of the raising cultural consciousness macrostrategy taken from the postmethod pedagogy through a series of interconnected activities along the academic semester; this group of university students demonstrated a deeper social consciousness about different local-context realities that they brought to the class because they are part of their sociocultural background. they evidenced improvement in the process of being better citizens by opening their minds to social issues. they recognized that they went beyond the classroom walls and found the english learning process more meaningful and challenging. students believed that this project provided a unique opportunity to share and compare their ideas, values and beliefs about their culture and others’ culture. furthermore, students changed their perceptions of the english class. during the execution of the final task, students did not only analyze social issues, they applied surveys, sent letters to official institutions, talked to community’s leader and to university’s directors; in sum they thought of possible solutions to a problem. even though some students admitted, it was really challenging to them to do oral socio-cultural awareness in efl bautista no. 15 (july december, 2017) no. 15 (july december, 2017) 168 presentations of sociocultural topics, some of them also said, “we will never forget this experience”. from the teacher’s perspective, this pedagogical experience has changed my point of view about my role as a teacher, the way i teach, and the way i view students. after this unique experience, i will never be the same teacher. although, there were some limitations such as the lack of experience in this kind of projects, the time constrains due to the amount of work i had to do. one of the biggest challenges i had to face was how to start the process of raising the students’ sociocultural consciousness, and at the same time be in alignment with my institution english program. to sum up, being an innovator and a critical thinker in education is not an easy job. there are some boundaries in our context; such as, some local policies, lack of resources, similar studies, learners’ attitude or interests, time constrains; despite that i started to walk into the sociocultural perspective and i was able to connect the classroom with the global and local context. thus, when one of the students said “teacher esa proeza que tu hiciste de salirte del libro, del tablero, de combinar de llevarnos a un plano más actual, de hacernos pensar como ciudadanos y futuros profesionales, creo que fue lo que hizo más atractivo y se diferenció tu clase de los demás compañeros. el hacer que pensemos más acerca de lo que estamos viviendo y percibiendo creo que ha sido lo más novedoso de lo que nos has enseñado”. (focus group; november 14, 2016). i was very excited because in a way he summarized the complexity that implies to become a kind of pioneer innovator in this particular field of the elt process. even though, kumaravadivelu (2003) does not consider the higher education population in his work, and in our local context, these kind of sociocultural projects with a postmethod and sociocultural orientation are scarce. this study shows the process, the results and implications in the colombian context with undergraduate students. socio-cultural awareness in efl bautista no. 15 (july december, 2017) no. 15 (july december, 2017) 169 references aldemar, j., & bonilla, m. (2009). addressing culture in the efl classroom: a dialogic proposal. profile, 11(2), 151-170. allwright, d. (1984). the importance of interaction in classroom language learning. applied linguistics, 5, 156-171. allwright, d., & bailey, k. 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(1996). reflective teaching: an introduction. mahwah, new jersey: lawrence erlbaum. socio-cultural awareness in efl bautista no. 15 (july december, 2017) no. 15 (july december, 2017) 172 author *nancy bautista pérez holds a specialization in english language teaching and a b.a. in english. she is candidate to an english didactics master’s degree from universidad del tolima. she has been teaching english and portuguese for more than twelve years, and is currently working as a full-time professor at universidad cooperativa de colombia in ibagué. she was the winner of the third meaningful experience competition at national level in 2017 with her pedagogical innovation “constructing sociocultural awareness from the efl classroom”. her main research interests are the sociocultural and intercultural dimensions of english language learning and teaching. socio-cultural awareness in efl no. 15 (july december, 2017) no. 15 (july december, 2017) 4 editorial carlo granados-beltrán* welcome to a new edition of gist journal. the collection of research articles for this edition show very clearly what the concerns are for education and the role we are to play as teachers in the current world. it is key as educators that we start fostering in students skills in critical thinking and critical literacy, especially in a world embedded in fake news and extreme polarisation. in this line of thought, luis fernando gómez contributes a case study in which news are used as a means to develop students’ critical intercultural competence in relation to different cultural communities. teachers understand that literacy nowadays imply more than just decoding or encoding written messages. literacy implies being able to read implicit messages in text, to read images, such as ads, cartoons, or online images such as memes. in this area, fredy alexander giraldo contributes a study aiming to develop critical literacy at an undergraduate programme in ibagué; also, maría teresa esteban, adriana márquez and jhon everth ortíz explored how political cartoons could serve the purpose of enhancing critical thinking in an english teacher preparation program, raising awareness about the need to become committed and active citizens. the development of skills has always been a concern for language teachers in the country, and we continue to explore different ways in which they can be strengthened. gladis arias and eliana roberto delved into how abridged novels could not only help students’ oral and written production, but also expose them to other cultural worlds. odilia ramírez and wilfrido muñoz decided to investigate about the way in which transactional communication strategies could boost elementary school pre-service teachers’ in sincelejo. also, in the field of teacher preparation, frank giraldo and daniel murcia decided to approach how pre-service teachers are learning about assessment with an emphasis on the link between theory and practice, assessment of bilingual processes, and knowledge of local policies related to this issue. no. 16 (january june, 2018) no. 16 (january june, 2018) 5 diana durango, clara gonzález and enrique arias’ concern about inequalities in education for upper and lower classes motivated them to investigate about how audiovisual material could help in the implementation of an early bilingual program for pre-school age children of low socioeconomic background. additionally, we have a very timely reflection paper about self-plagiarism by sergio lopera which calls for a joint effort between editors and writers in the interest of maintaining the quality of our publications. we expect our readers find our contributors’ experiences valuable to probably implement similar studies in their own context and also to share with us the results of their current studies to continue building a community of learning and teaching in the fields of bilingual education and foreign language teaching. *carlo granados-beltrán holds an ma in british cultural studies and elt from the university of warwick and an ma in applied linguistics to tefl from universidad distrital. currently, he is doing a phd in education at universidad santo tomás. he is the academic director at the ba in bilingual education at única. he has been teacher of the language department at universidad central, the ba programmes in spanish and languages and spanish and english at universidad pedagógica nacional and the ba in modern languages at universidad javeriana. also, he is guest lecturer for the ma in language teaching at uptc. no. 16 (january june, 2018) no. 16 (january june, 2018) 31 the effects of differentiated instruction on the literacy process of learners with interrupted schooling1 los efectos de la instrucción diferenciada en el proceso de lectoescritura de los estudiantes con escolaridad interrumpida liliana niño santisteban2* colegio cundinamarca, colombia abstract this research study analyzes the literacy and foreign langauge processes of learners in the procesos básicos program. the participants were 15 spanishspeaking children and young adolescents, whose highest level of education was first grade. eight of the 15 children were internally displaced persons (idps), and the others were affected by violence, family issues, and cognitive difficulties. these groups of students attend a public school located in bogotá colombia. most of the students have faced interrupted schooling due to different social factors. as a consequence, there are children of different ages and social backgrounds, including idps, in each classroom. differentiation was used as well as ganag (goal, activating prior knowledge, new information, aplication, generalization) reading formats in both english as a foreign language (efl) and spanish (mother tongue) literacy classes. results show that there was little impact of differentiated instruction on writing production or vocabulary acquisition. however, there was evidence of an impact on reading comprehension when inferring and comparing and contrasting narrative texts. keywords: differentiation, reading comprehension, writing production, vocabulary acquisition, literacy, idps population. 1 received: july 2, 2014 / accepted: october 6, 2014 2 rooster24163@gmail.com gist education and learning research journal. issn 1692-5777. no. 9, (julydecember) 2014. pp. 31-49. students’ responses to the use of songs no. 9 (july december 2014) no. 9 (july december 2014) 32 resumen el estudio analiza el proceso lectoescritor de un grupo de estudiantes de procesos básicos de un colegio público de bogotá, colombia. los participantes fueron 15 niños hisponoparlantes y jóvenes adolescentes, cuyo nivel más alto de educación corresponde a primer grado de primaria. 8 de los 15 niños pertencen a población desplazada y los otros fueron afectados por la violencia, problemas familiares y dificultades cognitivas. estos grupos de estudiantes asisten a una escuela pública ubicada en bogotá, colombia. la mayoria de estos estudiantes ha visto interrumpida su escolaridad debido a diversos factores sociales. en consecuencia, en cada salón de clase existen niños de diferentes edades y estratos sociales pertenecientes a la población desplazada. para intervenir el grupo se usó la instrucción diferenciada, formatos de observación en lectura, escritura y planeación a través de ganac (goal, activating prior knowledge, new information, aplication, generalization), tanto en las clases de lectoescritura como de inglés. los resultados mostraron por un lado, que hay poco impacto de la instrucción diferenciada en la producción escrita y en la adquisición de vocabulario y por otro, que la instrucción diferenciada sí impactó la comprensión lectora especialmente al hacer inferencias, comparar y contrastar textos narrativos los cuales fueron seleccionados para el estudio. palabras clave: diferenciación, comprensión de lectura, producción escrita, adquisición de vocabulario, proceso lectoescritor, población desplazada. resumo o estudo analisa o processo lectoescritor de um grupo de estudantes de processos básicos de um colégio público de bogotá, colômbia. os participantes foram 15 crianças hispano-falantes e jovens adolescentes, cujo nível mais alto de educação corresponde à primeira série do ensino fundamental (no sistema educativo de onze anos). 8 das 15 crianças pertencem à população deslocada e as outras foram afetadas pela violência, problemas familiares e dificuldades cognitivas. estes grupos de estudantes estudam numa escola pública situada em bogotá, colômbia. a escolaridade da maioria desses estudantes foi interrompida por diversos fatores sociais. em consequência, em cada sala de aula existem crianças de diferentes idades e níveis sociais, pertencentes à população deslocada. para intervir o grupo, usou-se a instrução diferenciada, formatos de observação em leitura, escritura, e planejamento através de ganac (goal, activating prior knowledge, new information, aplication, generalization), tanto nas aulas de lectoescritura como de inglês. os resultados mostraram por um lado, que há pouco impacto da instrução diferenciada na produção escrita e na aquisição de vocabulário e por outro, que a instrução diferenciada sim, impactou a compreensão leitora, especialmente ao fazer inferências, comparar e contrastar textos narrativos, os quais foram selecionados para o estudo. palavras chave: diferenciação, compreensão de leitura, produção escrita, aquisição de vocabulário, processo lectoescritor, população deslocada. the effects of differentiated instruction niño no. 9 (july december 2014) no. 9 (july december 2014) 33 introduction statistics are clear about displacement around the world. according to unesco and the national bank (ferris & winthrop, 2010), there are more than 40 million refugees and idps (internally displaced persons), forcibly displaced by armed conflict. of these, more than 4,088,770 displaced persons were colombians by the end of 2013 (the un refugee agency, unhcr, 2013). the united nations protects vulnerable populations with the guiding principle 23, which affirms that all idps must receive assistance and protection from national governments, including education. however, most of the national governments do not do this; only three of the 10 largest idp population countries have drafted laws or policies about idp children or youth: colombia, iraq, and turkey. in terms of education for idps, the national government and individual colombian districts have created programs that determine the level of students who are over the average student age or have been outside the education system. local school authorities, along with a non-governmental organization, dividendo por colombia, deliver elementary and high school programs for vulnerable or displaced populations. this program is divided into two parts: procesos básicos (basic processes) and aceleración (acceleration). the procesos básicos group brings literacy support for children from eight to twelve years old, and aceleración is established for teenagers. in the case of this study, a public bilingual school located in a lower-income neighborhood of bogotá implements both programs. in the morning shift, there is the procesos básicos group. there are 15 children from eight to 15 years old, whose highest level of education is first grade. eight of the 15 children are idps, and the others are affected by violence, as well as family and cognitive problems, which in academic terms means they are struggling readers or find it difficult to read and write because of economic, social and cognitive factors (taylor & ysseldyke, 2007). in a year, children are taught literacy skills and basic arithmetic through the negret method (barreto, 2006), which takes into account piaget’s genetic constructivism, vygotskys’ relationship between socialization and the linguistic act, and teberosky’s classic systems of literacy in order to impact children’s cognitive development. based on that theory, the objectives of reading and writing in procesos básicos are integrating curricular areas, and developing communicative skills in reading comprehension and written production in spanish. english is an additional subject at one of the schools since it is a bilingual school. english is taught in a communicative way to develop the four skills, but the effects of differentiated instruction niño no. 9 (july december 2014) no. 9 (july december 2014) 34 especially listening and speaking as students are learning how to read and write in the mother tongue. after finishing the process in procesos básicos program, children are integrated into regular schooling. however, they still have to face the common problems of reading and writing in both languages, english and spanish. as a consequence, most of the students neither adapt to their new classmates nor to the classroom routines, which is why most of them fail the year or dropout because of behavioral or academic problems. according to tomlinson (1999), differentiated instruction might help these children since it is a process that takes into account the varied needs and strengths of students’ strategies, and it also addresses diversity through adjustments to instruction based on how students interact with the material. gregory and burkman (2011) also take into account the importance of respecting diversity through positive relations between students and teachers, a supportive classroom and innovating instructional strategies for students to perform better in the classroom. in addition, studies reveal that the differentiated instruction approach is successful, particularly in reading-writing, mathematics, and biology (taylor & ysseldyke, 2007). although there is a lot of evidence of the effectiveness of differentiation instruction on increasing students’ success, performance, and motivation by enabling their active participation in the learning process and also in decreasing events of misbehavior, there are no scientific applications or studies of this issue on idps or vulnerable populations in colombia. therefore, there is a need for a study that would examine the effect of the differentiated instruction approach on students’ reading comprehension, vocabulary acquisition and writing performance, as well as on teachers’ behavior and instruction on the procesos básicos group. in line with this aim, the following research question was addressed: what is the impact of differentiated instruction on students’ reading comprehension, vocabulary acquisition and writing performance? to support this question, the following was also asked: what is the role of the teacher in a differentiated classroom? what are the key factors of differentiated instruction? and how can we find evidence of differentiation? the effects of differentiated instruction niño no. 9 (july december 2014) no. 9 (july december 2014) 35 literature review literacy education for refugees and internally displaced persons (idps) literacy is a complex process and is more difficult when learners are facing social, economic and personal traumas due to internal and political conflicts. populations of refugees and idps have dramatically increased around the world. as the school is often in the middle of these conflicts, it has to create solutions for the special needs of these kinds of populations. according to unesco (ferris & winthrop, 2010), displaced persons are those people who have to leave their homes for three main reasons: escaping the effects of conflict, hiding from armed groups, or suffering disruption of economic and social life (barrs, as cited in ferris & winthrop, 2010). additionally, displaced people are divided into refugees and idps. a refugee is defined in the 1951 convention relating to the status of refugees “as a person who, owing to a well-founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion, is outside the country of his nationality and is unable or, owing to such fear, is unwilling to avail himself of the protection of that country” (ferris & winthrop, 2010, p. 6). although both groups are similar, they have different rights and political status. even though refugees have advantages over idps, they also have to face discrimination, learning a new language, conditions of poverty, and a lack of opportunities in a foreign country. additionally, the governments in charge of refugees are not prepared for fulfilling refugees’ educational, psychological and economical needs (mccarthy & vickers, 2012). today, literacy is considered as a right, and it is also an indicator of social development (unesco, 2005). when parents are poorly educated and there are conditions of poverty, children may have marked difficulties in the literacy process. although the different social backgrounds between the second language learners and the native speakers could negatively affect the literacy process, instruction could narrow this gap. due to the fact that the refugee population has increased in the united states and in other developed countries, it constitutes an extra challenge for teachers since most of the refugee students have had interrupted schooling, are over age, and have low levels of literacy in their first language (gottieb, 2006). this is why teachers have to apply the effects of differentiated instruction niño no. 9 (july december 2014) no. 9 (july december 2014) 36 effective and inclusive instructional strategies that avoid equity gaps and take into account student diversity (gregory & burkman, 2012). among these strategies, there are differentiated instruction strategies that improve students’ learning. “avoiding making assumptions, teaching students how to ask the right questions, allowing students who speak the same language to speak that language in class, making connections in the first language and with the other learning” are some of the strategies suggested by gregory and burkman (2012, p. 25) to accelerate growth and learning in refugee classrooms. there is substantial research on refugee education, and specifically literacy. most studies fall into four broad categories: educational, social, linguistic and psychological. all of them have pointed out refugees’ special psychological and emotional needs (jones & rutter, as cited in sidhu & taylor, 2011). most of the research dealing with educational systems focuses on school policies and teacher training. this kind of research also brings a general perspective of refugee education. macnevin (2012), brown, miller & mitchell (2006), taylor (2008) and howard and taylor (2011) voice similar concerns and findings about teacher training and school policies. in addition, they discuss the importance of school leadership (howard & taylor 2011; taylor 2008), the importance of adapting text to refugees’ ages (brown, miller, & mitchell (2006), the inclusive approach, and celebrating diversity (taylor, 2008); they also include cooperative learning, parent support teams, tutoring, monitoring, and implementation of a curriculum (howard & taylor, 2011) to push students to success in literacy and in the inclusion process. educational systems. most of the research dealing with educational systems focuses on school policies and teacher training. this kind of research also brings a general perspective of refugee education. macnevin (2012) finds that educational systems in canada are not functioning for refugees since refugees are not a priority for governments. most of the teachers from the interviewed schools reported that there is no professional development. it is evident that teachers at high and junior school need to be trained in literacy. this training is generally exclusive to primary school teachers. the interviewed teachers also address the importance of knowing about students’ backgrounds, psychological support and post-traumatic stress. according to macnevin, there are four basic areas that teachers and schools take into account to succeed with intermediate and high school refugee students: “1) teaching basic literacy skills to youth in intermediate and high school, 2) differentiating instruction, 3) the effects of differentiated instruction niño no. 9 (july december 2014) no. 9 (july december 2014) 37 determining background knowledge of students, and 4) promoting social interactions between students” (p. 59). brown, miller& mitchell (2006), taylor (2008) and howard and taylor (2011) also voice similar concerns and findings about teachers training and schools policies. in addition, they discuss the importance of school leadership (taylor 2008, howard & taylor 2011), texts adapted to refugees’ ages (brown, miller, & mitchell (2006), the inclusive approach, and celebrating diversity (taylor 2008); they also include cooperative learning, parent support teams, tutoring, monitoring, implementation of a curriculum ( howard & taylor 2011) to achieve student success in the literacy and the inclusion processes. the linguistic perspective. the main themes of linguistic research papers are language acquisition and literacy. however, connections among the texts and reality are also important in acquiring language and literacy skills. dooley (2009) found that many students of african origin who are mainly non-literate, have low literacy or have experimented disrupted education are not prepared for age-based placement programs. due to this fact, both schools and teachers have to implement programs and strategies for students to be able to acquire english and literacy skills at the high school level. in terms of programs, these include the critical pedagogy approach, content-area esl teaching, and literacy skills. in regards to strategies, preschool and primary esl strategies from reading education; the use of concept maps, retrieval charts, and other graphic organizers for note taking; homework clubs, scaffolding, and linking cultural texts such as hip-hop are the most appropriate ways to allow students to connect concepts and content and relate to their conditions as marginalized youth in refugee situations. in addition, dooley finds that the mix of literacy resources and deep and critical tasks help refugee students build conceptual knowledge. sarroub (2007) also finds that making connections helps students’ understanding. by linking something from refugees’ popular culture to what is being discussed in the classroom, refugee students can make sense of the curriculum and connect it to the reality of their lives, since academic learning and popular culture both offer survival tools (monje, as cited in sarroub, 2007). in the case of windle and miller (2012), they analyze refugees’ autonomy regarding language development and skills. they have also found through their research that scaffolding, written resources, teacherfocused activities, checklist models, classroom routines and high-order questioning contribute both to students’ literacy and to their autonomy. the effects of differentiated instruction niño no. 9 (july december 2014) no. 9 (july december 2014) 38 the psychological perspective. medley (2012) explains how knowing about trauma can be aligned with effective language. the author at first provides information about the effects of trauma in the refugee student population and then identifies teaching approaches that are sensitive to the needs of those affected by the trauma. he also includes multiple intelligences (gardner, 1993), especially those that are not traditionally encompassed in a language class (kinesthetic, musical, spatial, interpersonal, intrapersonal and naturalistic) as a way to address the needs of trauma-affected youth and help them access multiple channels for self-expression and language learning. in short, this perspective affirms that trauma-affected learners are like all the other learners in the classroom: they can process new language better if they are able to draw on the types of intelligence that work best for them. differentiated instruction differentiated instruction meets the needs of each student and addresses the diversity in classrooms (o’meara, 2010). it is described by tomlinson (1999) as the way a teacher teaches the whole class, small groups and individuals, providing multiple ways of learning and assessment to ensure students’ understanding and adjusting instruction to learners’ needs. these needs are classified according to students’ readiness, interest and learning profiles. according to tomlinson and cunningham (2003), readiness has to do with students’ preparedness to work with a prescribed set of understanding, knowledge and skills. interest refers to children’s affinity, passion or curiosity (tomlinson, 1999), and it is a factor of motivation (tomlinson & cunningham 2003). the learning profile refers to students’ preferred way or ways to learn or the way a learner learns best. students’ gender, culture, learning styles, or intelligence preferences are the main factors that shape the learning profile (tomlinson & cunningham, 2003). methodology research design the study was designed as an action research study, which involves applying a process or systematical data collection and analysis to understand and solve the question at hand. in addition, qualitative and quantitative data techniques were implemented to answer the research question, which related differentiation instruction and literacy. the effects of differentiated instruction niño no. 9 (july december 2014) no. 9 (july december 2014) 39 context and participants the participants of this study were a group of 15 spanish-speaking children andtwo teachers of the procesos básicos group of a bilingual public school in bogotá, colombia. from the 15 children, five were female and ten male from eight to fifteen years old, whose highest level of education was first grade. in addition, eight of the 15 children were idps, and the others were affected by violence, familiar and cognitive problems. at the end of the observation, four children left school because of family conflicts.teachers included two female teachers, one in charge of the literacy process and the other of the english classes. both teachers participated in the observation, planning and ganac modified classes. students were selected because of their academic and social conditions. additionally, in the near future they have to adapt to regular schooling, and the study might bring them tools to have better academic results. both students and teachers volunteered to be part of the study because they were interested in implementing other ways of teaching which help them improve their literacy process. data collection instruments various data collection techniques were used in order to answer the research question as to whether the differentiated instruction approach causes any changes in the students’ reading comprehension, vocabulary acquisition and writing performance. surveys. students filled out a 29-question closed survey to give information regarding student-student and student-teacher interaction, classroom environment, evidence of differentiation, reading materials, learning styles and interests regarding reading. interviews. after students filled out the survey, the teacher was interviewed to compare and contrast answers from the students’ interviews, which concerned classroom environment, as well as teacherteacher and teacher-student relationships. additionally, the interviews helped identify differentiation elements and reading comprehension techniques. observations. two observation formats served to collect information and identify differentiation practice regarding to reading and vocabulary, comprehension skills in both spanish and english classes. the first format was divided into six items: 1) developing classroom routines that contribute to success, 2) teacher’s behavior, the effects of differentiated instruction niño no. 9 (july december 2014) no. 9 (july december 2014) 40 3) students’ behavior, 4) evidence of differentiation, 5) context goal setting, and 6) students’ assessment.this observation format was adapted from tomlinson (1999, 2003). the second format was divided into three items: pre-reading, reading and post-reading activities suggested by taylor and ysseldyke (2007). video recordings of each class served to identify evidence of differentiation and the students’ and teachers’ roles in action. there were a total of seven observations, the observations lasted in total 22 hours. four of the observed lessons were not modified. three were modified using the ganag (goal, new information, apply, generalize) model, which is the acronym of a daily lesson planning schema created by marzano, pickering and pollock (2001), which is designed to optimize students’ learning and in our research increase and demonstrate practices of differentiation, reading comprehension, vocabulary and text production. a differentiation format was also used to compare and contrast those differentiated practices in the intervened and the non-intervened classes. in addition, a reading comprehension observation format was designed to collect information from the intervened classes. data analysis and interpretation for the observations, an axial coding analysis (strauss & corbin, 1990) was used to create the following categories: differentiated instruction, literacy and classroom environment. a hierarchical classification of the themes was also included in order to find evidence of differentiation before, during and after classroom intervention. lastly, statistics were used to compare and contrast initial and final data in order to verify how differentiated instruction impacted reading comprehension, vocabulary acquisition and writing production in both spanish and english. to analyze the collected data, the information given in the interview, the surveys and the observations was compared and contrasted. graphics were used to find evidence of differentiation and changes in literacy practices concerning reading comprehension, vocabulary acquisition and writing production in both spanish and english. the effects of differentiated instruction niño no. 9 (july december 2014) no. 9 (july december 2014) 41 results the analysis of the data revealed a number of key themes related to language and literacy issues, which will, for the purposes of discussion, be divided into classroom environment, evidence of differentiation reading comprehension and writing production. it should be noted that despite of a high evidence of differentiation after intervening the literacy and the english classes, students had better results in reading comprehension than in written production. while the lack of vocabulary especially in english had an impact on the low writing production, the use of visual aids and graphic organizers helped students, increasing their reading comprehension. in addition to these key topics, it also found that group work and making connections were important issues in order to answer the research questions. classroom environment classroom environment contributes both to classroom efficiency and building community (tomlinson & cunningham, 2003). it is determined based on the physical conditions of the classroom, which are space, desk distribution, and interaction between members of the class, all of which are factors that make a safe place. all these elements promote students’ learning. specific questions about student and teacher interaction in the interview and the survey format, the developing classroom management routines in the observation format, and the observations themselves during the english and literacy classes were useful in determining how the classroom conditions and the interactions among students and teachers serve to benefit the literacy process in the procesos básicos class. first, when asking questions about physical conditions and environment, both the students and the teacher agreed on feeling comfortable with the classroom conditions and the way they interacted. when asking about teacherstudent interaction, there were 6 (six) questions about this aspect in the survey. in 5 of the 6 items a 100% of the students affirmed that they felt respected, and they considered the teacher to be kind. in addition, there were no complaints about the classroom conditions. similar data was collected when observing the class. the classroom continued to be considered a safe environment when qualifying students’ behavior, especially regarding the use of selfdiscipline and participation and working with classmates. however, there was no evidence of optimal conditions for promoting learning. the effects of differentiated instruction niño no. 9 (july december 2014) no. 9 (july december 2014) 42 for example, the classroom conditions do not allow for easy grouping. this is due to a mix of internal and external factors: the classroom is not big enough for moving the tables, and there is a lot of noise outside. however, in general, the collected data demonstrated that there is a positive environment in the procesos básicos group, and it also showed that the adverse physical conditions of the class had not interfered with students’ behavior. student behavior as demonstrated during observations in the literacy class, there was no evidence of group work or peer work. on the other hand, there was ample evidence of using self-discipline, task behavior and students’ participation. after the intervention, there was more evidence of student behavior related to differentiation mainly because students were able to work on their own and in small groups, which facilitated how and when students participated when doing different tasks. teachers’ behavior tomlinson (1999) conceived an idea in which the teacher, the content and the students form the parts of an equilateral triangle, which technically does not have any top. however, for differentiation purposes the teacher has to be the top of the learning triangle. in other words, the teacher is a leader who recognizes students as people. in addition, the teacher knows what to teach and modifies how students learn according to the content (tomlinson & cunningham, 2003). bearing in mind that point of view, we decided to do a class observation focused on teachers’ behavior and classroom routines in literacy and english classes. the tendencies of teachers’ behavior in both literacy and english classes had been modified after class intervention. only gathering information on students’ interests, dreams and aspirations made a difference in the two intervened classes. that happened because we did not use the students’ survey when planning the english class. that survey was used for the literacy class instead in order to develop differentiated activities based on students’ likes, interests and multiple intelligences from gardner (1993). taking into account that there is evidence of the desired teacher’s behavior from the differentiated instruction (tomlinson, 1999), we could consider that there was also evidence of effective instruction: how, when, and why to teach the instructional strategies that guide teachers in looking at the students in small groups, rather than only the effects of differentiated instruction niño no. 9 (july december 2014) no. 9 (july december 2014) 43 as a whole class (tomlinson & cunningham, 2003). for that reason, observing the classroom routines could verify that piece of information. in sum, intervention helped develop differentiated instruction routines that assisted teachers in gathering information and using instructional strategies effectively, depending on students’ readiness, needs, interests and learning profiles. evidence of differentiation when differentiating, students are able to choose. according to gambrell (1996) and graves (1994), choice is a motivating factor in reading and writing. concerning content process and product, which according to tomlinson (1999) constitute the main items of evidence of differentiation, there was little implementation of tasks in multiple modes, product assignments with multiple modes of expression or variety of assessment tasks. additionally, before the intervention there was no evidence of a variety of reading levelsas most of the activities were based on a textbook and students did not work in groups. during the intervention which consisted of the modification to the existing special needs class, the ganag format as well as differentiated instruction was used to increase students’ participation and impact reading comprehension skills, vocabulary acquisition, and writing production. the intervention significantly increased the evidence of differentiation.those items that had the lowest range in the non-intervened classes (tasks in multiple modes, product assignments with multiple modes of expression and variety of assessment tasks, and choices about how to work) notably increased, allowing students opportunities to learn (tomlinson, 1999). observations also showed evidence of differentiation in english class. although there were significant changes, when compared with the literacy class, the english class had less impact. there may have been several reasons this happened: no pre-assessment survey was given before starting the class, and students presented the tasks in just one way, with venn diagrams. in the case of the literacy class, the preassessment survey helped teachers know how students learned, and that is how decisions were made about different ways of presenting the products or the ways students demonstrate what they have learned (tomlinson, 1999). results showed that most students demonstrate their learning by building, reading and acting. those pieces of information determined how students could present their graphic products through modeling, acting or writing when planning with differentiation. the effects of differentiated instruction niño no. 9 (july december 2014) no. 9 (july december 2014) 44 reading comprehension and writing in terms of lesson structure, there were three ganag lessons in each unit. all the lessons focused on narrative text, since narrative texts allow interaction with new and known words and increase students’ vocabulary levels (taylor & ysseldyke, 2007). in addition, there is ample documentation that correlates vocabulary knowledge with school success and reading comprehension (anderson & freedody; anderson & naggy; backer, simmons & kate, as cited in taylor & ysseldyke, 2007). each lesson lasted three hours. there was co-teaching between the literacy and english teachers. both teachers used narrative texts to develop reading comprehension skills and written production. the reading format was divided into pre-reading activities, during the reading and after the reading. during the pre-reading activities, students were able to make predictions about the topic. in the case of the english class, they did the pair and share activity in which students had different picture sequences about the story, “the little red hen.” such predictions were given in spanish since students lacked english vocabulary, as suggested by wiggins and mctighe (2007). although all students expressed that they had not read the story before, most of the predictions corresponded with the main topic of the story; however, there was no evidence of drawing inferences about how students felt about the topic. still, students had opportunities to talk about the text with each other in order to give opinions and share predictions about the topic. when doing the pre-reading activities in literacy class, the kwl chart was used. although the literacy teacher explained several times how to use the chart, it was difficult for students to complete it. in addition, the teacher presented a video about a folk tale, and students had to brainstorm about the video, which was also difficult for them. when reading, the teacher presented vocabulary using a vocabulary chart which helped students identify picture-word relations. there is no evidence of directly presenting the vocabulary in the literacy class. both teachers asked questions to verify comprehension, clarify story elements and promote metacognition. after the reading, in both classes students retold the stories – in the case of the english class, redoing the story sequence, and in the case of the literacy class through graphic organizers and diagrams. additionally, in both classes, students compared the original story with other stories through venn diagramming in english and through jigsaw readings they selected. most of the text-to-life connections occurred in the literacy class. since most of the population came from rural areas, they could tell anecdotes about legendary characters from their region and storytelling from their grandparents. the effects of differentiated instruction niño no. 9 (july december 2014) no. 9 (july december 2014) 45 in regards to the writing activities, there was no significant production in english due to the lack of vocabulary. in the case of the literacy class, there was evidence of using vocabulary when describing fictional characters. moreover, students had the opportunity to choose and write a text. for that reason, three rubric formats were used for each written production. although there were a lot of opportunities for written production, students were unclear on text structure. conclusions the aim of this study was to determine the impact of the differentiated instruction approach on the students’ reading comprehension, vocabulary acquisition and writing performance, as well as on teachers’ behavior and instruction. in line with this aim information was collected through interviews, surveys and class observations. although the results demonstrated few incidences of differentiated instruction in written production, there was more evidence of higher incidence in reading comprehension skills (predicting, drawing inferences and identifying the parts of narrative texts). the planned activities, especially those concerning evidence of differentiation, helped promote student interaction with the text and their life experiences. in other words, those activities helped students make connections. graphic organizers and venn diagrams demonstrated that students were able to identify the parts of narrative texts (tales and legends) and compare and contrast story elements. in addition, it was also evident, although students had acquired little vocabulary in english, that they were able to identify the parts of the story through a poster. in general, visual representation was useful in ensuring students’ understanding of the text. adding to that, taking into account that the procesos básicos students belonged to the struggling readers group because of their conditions (disrupted schooling, socioeconomic conditions), the use of spanish when making predictions or giving opinions constituted a tool that also served to identify students’ understanding (taylor & ysseldyke, 2007; strickland, ganske & morrow, 2006; tomlinson, 2003). group work was also important in reading comprehension because it allowed students’ interaction, sharing opinions and building reading skills together. in conclusion, this study shows that some of the findings from the literature reviewed relate to the findings of the action research. the studies reviewed, such as sarroub (2007) and windle and miller (2012), refer to making connections as a tool that helps students understand and includes items from students’ culture in the classes. similarly, in the effects of differentiated instruction niño no. 9 (july december 2014) no. 9 (july december 2014) 46 this study the selected reading text concerned tales and legends, which are folklore narrations that help students connect to the text and to the context. according to taylor and ysseldyke (2007), this allows students to make predictions about the text, which is a key element of reading comprehension. regarding differentiated instruction as described by tomlinson (1999, 2003), choices help students improve their reading comprehension skills by allowing them to select readings and presenting their results according to their likes, abilities, and interest. this generates moments in which reading becomes an active process that allows students interact with others and the texts in meaningful ways. in other words, the use of reading strategies bring students opportunities to connect self with the text and with the context. in addition, as seen in this study, the use of graphic organizers and visual aids facilitate students’ reading comprehension by helping them to identify the parts of narrative texts (tales and legends) and compare and contrast story elements and social interaction. on the other hand, there are no findings in the literature about written production or vocabulary acquisition for struggling readers and writers, more specifically for idps. in general, as suggested by sidhu & taylor (2011), there is little research about idps since governments in general do not worry about this world-wide issue. however, as demonstrated by windle and miller (2012), classroom routines contribute to both students’ literacy and their autonomy, as observed in this action research through pair and group work. in terms of future research, these might include learning centers, and individual dibels and snap tests (taylor & ysseldyke, 2007) to validate data information through international skills tests. in addition, it is suggested that there should be more research about the topic to help determine the impact of home literacy and the influence of context on the vocabulary acquisition and written production process. the effects of differentiated instruction niño no. 9 (july december 2014) no. 9 (july december 2014) 47 references barreto, e. (2006). leer y escribir con significación. bogotá: ecoe. brown, m., miller, j. & mitchell j. (2006). interrupted schooling and the acquisition of literacy: experiences of sudanese refugees in victorian secondary schools. australian journal of language and literacy, 29(2), 150-162. dooley, k. (2009). re-thinking pedagogy for middle school students with little, no or severely interrupted schooling english. teaching: practice and critique, 8(1), 5-22. doi: http://e prints.qut.edu.au ferris, e. & winthrop, r. (2010). education and displacement: assessing conditions for refugees and internally displaced persons affected by conflict. london: unesco. howard, a. & taylor, l. (2011). immigrant children and youth: enabling their success at school. ucla: center for mental health in schools. doi: http://smhp.psych.ucla.edu/pdfdocs/immigrant.pdf gardner, h. (1993). multiple intelligences: the theory in practice. new york: basic books. gottieb, m. (2006). assessing english language learners: bridges from language proficiency. thousand oaks: corwin press. gambrell, l. b. (1996). creating classroom cultures that foster reading motivation. the reading teacher, 50(1), 14-25. graves, d. (1994). a fresh look at writing. portsmouth: heinemann. gregory, g & burkman, a. (2012). differentiated literacy strategies for english language learners. thousand oaks: corwin press. mccarthy, m, & vickers, m. (2012). refugee and immigrant students: achieving equity in education. new york: age publishing inc. macnevin, j. (2012). learning the way: teaching and learning with and for youth refugee backgrounds on prince edward island. canadian journal of education, 35(3), 48-65. marzano, r., pickering, d., & pollock, e. (2001).classroom instruction that works: research-based strategies for increasing student achievement. alexandria, va: association for supervision and curriculum development. medley, m. (2012) a role for english language teachers in trauma healing situations. tesol journal, 3(1), 110-125. the effects of differentiated instruction niño no. 9 (july december 2014) no. 9 (july december 2014) 48 o’meara, j. (2010). beyond differentiated instruction. thousand oaks: corwin press. sidhu, r. & taylor s.b. (2012). supporting refugee students at schools: what constitutes inclusive education? international journal of inclusive education, 16, 39-56. sarroub, l. (2007). seeking refuge in literacy from a scorpion bite. faculty publications: department of learning and teacher education, 34. doi:http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/teaching faculty strauss, a. & corbin j. (1990). basics of qualitative research: grounded theory procedures and techniques. london: stage. strickland, d., ganske, k. & monroe, j. (2006). supporting struggling readers and writers. portland: sten house publishers. taylor, b. & ysseldyke, j. (2007). effective instruction for struggling readers k-6. new york: teacher college columbia university press. taylor, s. (2008). schooling and the settlement of refugee young people in queensland: “the challenges are massive.” social alternatives, 27(3), 8-65. doi: http://e prints.qut.edu.au tomlinson, c. (1999). the differentiated classroom: responding the needs of all learners. alexandria, va: association for supervision and curriculum development. tomlinson, c. & cunningham, s. (2003). differentiation in practice: a source for differentiated curriculum. alexandria, va: association for supervision and curriculum development. unesco, (2005). education for all: global monitoring report 2006. retrieved from http:// unesco.org/new/en/education/themes/leadingthe-international-agenda/efareport/reports/2006-literacy/ unhcr, (2013). country operations profile – colombia: working environment. retrieved from:http://www.unhcr.org/ pages/49e492ad6.html windle, j. & miller, j. (2012). approaches to teaching lowliteracy refugee background children. australian journal of language and literacy, 35(3), 317-333. wiggins, g. & mctighe, j. (2007). schooling by design: mission, action and achievement. alexandria, va: association for supervision and curriculum development. the effects of differentiated instruction niño no. 9 (july december 2014) no. 9 (july december 2014) 49 author *liliana niño santisteban holds an undergraduate degree in spanish and english from the universidad pedagógica nacional de colombia and a specialist’s degree in bilingual education from the institución universitaria colombo americana, única. she has been teaching for 12 years in public and private schools. she is currently teaching at the colegio bililngüe ied where she became interested in literacy process of the procesos básicos program. her research interests include literacy and teaching. the effects of differentiated instruction niño no. 9 (july december 2014) no. 9 (july december 2014) 157 distance education for efl teachers: perceptions of learner support1 educación a distancia para docentes de inglés como lengua extranjera: percepciones sobre el apoyo al estudiante ruth roux, nelly paulina trejo guzmán and elsa fernanda gonzález2* universidad autónoma de tamaulipas, méxico abstract this article reports the findings of a qualitative study exploring in-service efl teachers’ perceptions of the learner support resources provided to them while they were taking a teacher research distance course. findings indicate that students valued videoconferencing technology because it facilitated interacting with adviser, peers and instructor to get academic assistance, a different perspective on their work, enthusiasm, and feedback, as well as opportunities to confront ideas and to share feelings. the course management system was perceived as highly beneficial to their learning because of the amount and variety of support resources, and the multidimensional learning it promoted. results may help language teacher educators interested in enhancing the quality of research courses, web-based course developers involved in providing learner support, and researchers engaged in teacher research and distance education. keywords: teacher education; distance learning; foreign languages; higher education; teaching resumen este artículo presenta los resultados de un estudio cualitativo que explora las percepciones de un grupo de docentes de inglés en servicio, sobre los recursos de apoyo en un curso de investigación a distancia. los hallazgos indican que los estudiantes valoraron la tecnología de videoconferencia debido a que 1 received: august 5, 2014 / accepted: october 16, 2014 2 rrouxr@uat.edu.mx, ntrejo@uat.edu.mx, efgonzález@uat.edu.mx gist education and learning research journal. issn 1692-5777. no. 9, (julydecember) 2014. pp. 157-178. interaction in a blended learning environment no. 9 (july december 2014) no. 9 (july december 2014) 158 ésta les permitió interactuar con el asesor, los compañeros, e instructor para obtener apoyo académico, conocer una perspectiva distinta sobre su trabajo, recibir retroalimentación, motivación, así como una oportunidad para debatir ideas y compartir sentimientos. los docentes consideraron la plataforma de administración del curso sumamente beneficiosa para su aprendizaje debido a la cantidad y variedad de recursos de apoyo y el aprendizaje multidimensional que ésta fomentó. los resultados pueden ser de utilidad para los formadores de profesores de inglés que deseen mejorar la calidad de sus cursos de investigación, los diseñadores de cursos en línea que quieran implementar apoyos para el aprendizaje, y para los investigadores interesados en desarrollar docentes investigadores y educación a distancia. palabras clave: formación de profesores, educación a distancia, lenguas extranjeras, educación superior, enseñanza resumo este artigo apresenta os resultados de um estudo qualitativo que explora as percepções de um grupo de docentes de inglês em serviço, sobre os recursos de apoio em um curso de pesquisa a distância. as descobertas indicam que os estudantes valoraram a tecnologia de videoconferência pelo que a mesma lhes permitiu interagir com o assessor, os colegas e o instrutor, para obter apoio acadêmico, conhecer uma perspectiva diferente sobre o seu trabalho, receber retroalimentação e motivação, bem como uma oportunidade para debater ideias e compartilhar sentimentos. os docentes consideraram a plataforma de administração do curso sumamente favorável para a sua aprendizagem, devido à quantidade e variedade de recursos de apoio e a aprendizagem multidimensional que a mesma fomentou. os resultados podem ser de utilidade para os formadores de professores de inglês que desejem melhorar a qualidade dos seus cursos de pesquisa, os desenhistas de cursos em linha que queiram implementar apoios para a aprendizagem, e para os pesquisadores interessados em desenvolver docentes pesquisadores e educação a distância. palavras chave: formação de professores, educação a distância, línguas estrangeiras, educação superior, ensino distance education for efl teachers roux, trejo & gonzález no. 9 (july december 2014) no. 9 (july december 2014) 159 introduction distance education offers potential advantages for teacher training because it can help us satisfy the large demand of efl teachers. it is economically efficient, and teachers can study when and where it is convenient for them. a crucial component of distance education is the learner support it offers (farajollahi & moenikia, 2010; mcloughlin, 2002; oliver, 2001; oliver & herrington, 2003). learner support focuses on providing learners with the assistance they need to achieve their desired outcomes. tait (2003) defines learner support as the range of services and resources that facilitate and enhance distance learning. traditionally, learner support has been identified as being a completely different set of activities from those associated with course production. however, in the implementation of distance learning, this distinction does not always hold and the line between the two sets of activities has become more blurred (thorpe, 2003). a distance course may consist of no more than a syllabus and a reading list, with the content being created through interaction between learners and course facilitator. on the other hand, a distance course may offer a range of aids that promote its effectiveness. the choice of what is offered depends on the values, educational philosophy, resources available, learner characteristics and needs, and type of course or program. research can help us to continually reflect on the rationale for our distance education practice, as it evolves. an important question to ask in this case is whether learner support resources actually accomplish what we have designed them to do. this study focused on the perceptions of 18 in-service mexican efl teachers of elementary, middle school and high-school, while they were taking a teacher research course that was part of a distance undergraduate program. the aim was to investigate their views on the learner support resources provided through a commercial course management system, and the extent to which they considered that distance education technologies had helped or not their learning. the research questions that the study aimed to respond are the following: 1. what forms of learner support are more valued by the participants? 2. to what extent does videoconferencing technology facilitate their learning? 3. to what extent does videoconferencing technology hider their learning? distance education for efl teachers roux, trejo & gonzález no. 9 (july december 2014) no. 9 (july december 2014) 160 4. to what extent does the course management system facilitate their learning? 5. to what extent does the course management system hinder their learning? answers to these questions are expected to contribute to our knowledge about learner support, help language teacher educators enhance the quality of the distance courses they teach, and benefit distance course developers involved in providing learner support resources. literature review distance education and efl teachers distance education has been defined as “institution-based, formal education where the learning group is separated, and where interactive telecommunications systems are used to connect learners, resources, and instructors” (schlosser & simonson, 2010, p. 1). an essential component of this definition is that some form of interactive telecommunications must be available for students to interact with each other, with the teacher, and with the learning resources. telecommunication means communicating at a distance, which does not necessarily involve the use of electronic media, but can include other forms of non-electronic communication such as the postal system, telephone or fax. the means by which education is accomplished in most distance programs are videoconferencing, web-based communications, and audio-conference technologies, or any combination of electronic communication and course management tools. instruction may be delivered with students and teachers communicating in real time (synchronously) or at different times (asynchronously), or a combination of the two. videoconferencing technology brings together –synchronously, visually, and aurallyteachers and students otherwise separated geographically. the medium has many benefits: it provides remote access to expert input, which is academically advantageous for learners; it is economically efficient for institutions; and compared to other methods of distance education, it has benefits in terms of real-time interaction, immediacy, motivation and collaboration (bates, 2005). videoconferencing technology as a teaching tool also presents challenges, mainly related to flexibility and pedagogy. a fundamental problem of videoconferencing is that when technology fails, there is no alternative that can be used immediately. also, videoconference distance education for efl teachers roux, trejo & gonzález no. 9 (july december 2014) no. 9 (july december 2014) 161 technology restricts the autonomy of the learner. unlike online courses which allow users to access materials whenever they wish, students need to be present at the videoconferencing site, at a set time, to access the class coming from another location. the quality of interaction in the videoconferencing medium can be another problem. interaction through a screen is often of a social rather than a cognitive nature. social interaction is considered essential to support learning but not enough to promote learning (knipe & lee, 2002). videoconferencing technology is generally combined with web-based technologies such as course management platforms. one of those platforms is blackboard, a commercial product for online course delivery commonly employed by colleges and universities. the course environment in blackboard is designed by the instructor to include syllabus information, course content materials, discussion forums, blogs, and assignment instructions, with submission links, group projects, and e-mail. tracking-data are collected by the course management system and a printable history of the data is available to the instructor throughout the course. mexico has a long history of distance education. the use of radio for adult literacy programs goes as early as 1934. at present, there are distance programs for primary, secondary and tertiary education. a study that involved 123 institutions of higher education in mexico (anuies, 2000), indicates that 85% of the universities offer distance programs using satellite networks (42%), videoconferencing systems (26%), computers (24%) and radio (8%) to deliver courses. information is transported through the use of ip (40%), isdn (22%), frame relay and dial up (13%), and cable (12%). this infrastructure has allowed the delivery of approximately 66 programs that contribute to improving the quality of courses (81%), diversifying learning environments (79%), increasing opportunities for disperse students (66%), reducing costs for students (58%), reducing class time (46%), reducing costs for the institutions (36%), and increasing enrollment (23%). almost half of the students who attend those programs are at undergraduate level. distance education is particularly relevant in efl teacher education in mexico because of the scarcity and dispersion of qualified language teacher educators. especially in the northeast corner of the country, universities face the challenge of professionalizing large numbers of teachers of english for primary, secondary, and tertiary education. to connect language teacher educators and student teachers, a distance undergraduate program was designed to deliver courses in six locations through the use of a multipoint ip videoconference system distance education for efl teachers roux, trejo & gonzález no. 9 (july december 2014) no. 9 (july december 2014) 162 and a web-based course management system (blackboard). this distance undergraduate program was the context of the study reported in this article. distance education research until recently, experimentation was the dominant mode of inquiry in distance education. most studies in the field compared distance instruction to classroom education. invariably, those studies showed no statistically significant difference between the two course formats on different measures of learning outcomes (schulte, 2011). researchers often asked the same basic question: is distance education as good as, or better than, traditional education? the question assumed that traditional education was truly a superior modality. the studies were one-dimensional in their design focusing only on the delivery medium, neglecting the multidimensional aspects of teaching and learning. another characteristic of early studies on distance learning is that they were rarely framed by a theory or based on concepts and constructs (saba, 2000). in the 1990’s, researchers started to conduct rigorous studies based on theories of related fields. cognitive speed theory (fulford & zang, 1993), social presence theory (gunawardena, 1995), group development (mcdonald & gibson, 1998), and interaction (chen & willis, 1999) are examples of the theories and concepts investigated. in the new lines of research, methods such as surveys, interviews, conversation and discourse analysis were used to collect data from smaller samples. these studies disclosed the complexity of distance education and its diverse constituents. in a review of research in distance education that examined 1,419 research articles and dissertation abstracts over a nine year period (1990 -1999), berge and mrozowski (2001) found that the ten content themes addressed, from higher to lower frequency, included the following: 1) design issues, 2) learner characteristics, 3) strategies to increase interactivity and active learning, 4) technology selection and adoption, 5) policy and management issues, 6) roles of participants, 7) operational issues, 8) learner support, 9) equity and accessibility, and 10) cost/ benefit trade-offs. in terms of research methodologies, 74% of the articles and abstracts involved descriptive research, 8.57% used case study, 8.16% correlational research, and 7.35% experimental research. this study responds to the need for empirical evidence on the research area of learner support (lee, 2003; tait, 2003), and uses descriptive research methodology. distance education for efl teachers roux, trejo & gonzález no. 9 (july december 2014) no. 9 (july december 2014) 163 learner support learner support refers to the assistance or aids provided to students during the process of study to facilitate their learning process (tait, 2003). mcloughlin and marshall (2000) define learner support from a socio-cultural perspective as “the resources that learners can access in order to achieve learning outcomes and procedural scaffolds that support the communication process” (p. 1). the provision of learner support through web-based technologies contributes to the effectiveness of distance education programs (farajollahi & moenikia, 2010; mcloughlin, 2002; oliver, 2001; oliver & herrington, 2003). mcloughlin and oliver (1998) discuss the forms of scaffolding that are required to foster higher order thinking in distance education settings mediated by technology. they suggest that effective support needs to include encouragement of reflective thinking; social support for dialogue; and extension of ideas on emerging issues through the use of feedback from peers and mentors. these features, they argue, represent core elements of support for the learning processes in technology mediated environments. different information and communication technology tools can be used to provide this support. examples of technologies are: discussion forums, document exchange resources, databases for student work, printed guides, web links, and audio and video materials. learner support is a useful concept for the design of distance learning web environments if we consider that students perceive themselves as isolated when they do not have enough interaction (stodel, thompson, & macdonald, 2006). this sense of isolation is connected to problems of attrition, instructional ineffectiveness, poor academic achievement, negative attitudes and overall, dissatisfaction with the learning experience (park & choi, 2009). distance learners can easily feel isolated if they do not feel connected to the course, the program or the university, and they may even drop out of a course because they do not feel part of a community (rovai, 2002). there are infinite variations of learner support forms in distance education practice, depending on the technologies used, the type of course, and the characteristics of the learners and the instructor. distance learners have become more diversified and demanding and course designers are struggling to better meet their needs. unfortunately, there is a lack of empirical studies on the use of learner support and the uses of technology are largely based on practicalities rather than on research findings (hannafin, hill, oliver, glazer, & sharma, 2003; lee, 2003). also, many of the studies on distance learning only look into the distance education for efl teachers roux, trejo & gonzález no. 9 (july december 2014) no. 9 (july december 2014) 164 points of view of faculty members teaching the courses or the course designers. while faculty-based studies are important for understanding the potential value of web-based learning, the learners’ perspectives are needed to build learner support systems in accordance to their needs (hara & kling, 2000). the distance research course in which this study was developed included several learner support resources through the course management system (blackboard). students posted their drafts and finished papers to receive feedback comments from others. they were also able to participate in forums to discuss common concerns and to help each other. participants also had the support of a resource area with research articles and books to interact with content related to their specific research interest. in order to communicate with the instructor or adviser, students were able to contact them via email. methodology research design this is a qualitative interpretive study. interpretive description (thorne, 2008) is an inductive analytic approach used to capture themes and patterns within subjective perceptions. this approach builds upon relatively small purposive samples, using interviews, participant observation or documentary analysis to articulate a coherent and meaningful account of the participants’ experience. the product is a coherent conceptual description of the phenomenon that is being studied. most studies on learner support use surveys as the main data collection technique. surveys are effective in providing information about the scale of particular phenomena and their importance across a population of learners. thorp (1993), however, suggests that before doing quantitative survey research, qualitative studies are more indicated when the evaluators are becoming familiar with the different issues. participants participants of the study were 18 in-service teachers of english enrolled in a distance education research course, an instructor, and a research collaborator. the class included 24 student teachers, however, six of them did not return the letter of informed consent and therefore the information they provided was not considered in the analysis. distance education for efl teachers roux, trejo & gonzález no. 9 (july december 2014) no. 9 (july december 2014) 165 the group of participants was composed of 17 female and 1 male efl teachers of elementary, middle and high-school. their ages were between 24 and 52. they were native speakers of spanish, in their final year of undergraduate studies. their english language proficiency was varied; their itp-toefl scores ranged from 480 to 610 points. their teaching experience was of four years or more. although the efl teachers were in service, they were, at that point, in the process of acquiring a teaching undergraduate degree. in méxico, until recently, elementary, middle and high-school language teachers, especially in private schools, only required communicating fluently in english. working requirements for english language teachers are gradually changing and more teachers are entering higher education. student teachers in this study were in six different university locations which they attended once a week for four hours. the authors of this article were also participants of the study. the first author was the instructor of the course and also conducted the fieldwork. the second author, who was not part of the class but a research collaborator, acted as peer de-briefers. peer debriefing is the process of exploring and discussing aspects of the inquiry that may otherwise remain implicit in the inquirers’ mind. the task of the debriefer was to probe the inquirer’s bias, explore different meanings of the data and clarify interpretations (lincoln & guba, 1985). context the distance undergraduate english language program included 36 courses on four areas of knowledge: a) english language and culture, b) language teaching pedagogy, c) pedagogic content, and d) research knowledge. this knowledge base was provided to the students via videoconference and a combination of email, telephone, fax and special mail delivery services. it was for the last of the three research courses that a course management platform was incorporated into the distance education program for the first time. teaching teachers how to inquire into their own teaching is a complex process because it involves not only introducing them to diverse research methods and techniques, but also discussing the assumptions of teacher research and how it is produced. many teachers, for example, associate research with scientists, experiments and statistics (borg, 2009). it takes a considerable amount of reading, writing and discussing about teacher research to accept that the goal of teacher research is to understand rather than to prove; that teaching and distance education for efl teachers roux, trejo & gonzález no. 9 (july december 2014) no. 9 (july december 2014) 166 researching are compatible activities; and that teachers’ own thinking can be the focus of their inquiry. the research courses were delivered through ip videoconferencing technology. technology was used to give presentations, participate in discussion, group-building and decision-making activities. the web course management system blackboard was used to provide the students with two main sections: pre-designed learning activities and learner support. learner support included a discussion forum for goal-oriented dialogue, a blog to express thoughts and reflections, a portfolio to display drafts and finished research products, and email to communicate with the instructor and peers. learner support through blackboard also included an area of full-text articles, books and other materials to read or print for offline independent learning. each student teacher was also allocated an adviser as an additional source of academic support. advisers were members of the academic staff of the program who taught other courses. students selected their advisers and they could contact them by email to discuss research interests and problems. each adviser could not have more than four advisees. on the first day of the course, students were trained for one hour in the use of blackboard and the different learner support sources. the instructor gave a guided tour of the site while students took notes and asked questions. data collection instruments data for the study came from two sources: the transcripts of the participants’ comments in the discussion forum and the transcripts of their comments on a blog. the research course lasted 15 weeks. in the third week, the participants signed an informed consent letter. in weeks 7, 8 and 9, three open-ended questions were posted on the discussion forum to investigate: 1) support needs of students that had not been considered for the course, 2) advantages and challenges perceived in the use of videoconference technology to acquire research knowledge and skills and 3) advantages and challenges perceived in the use of blackboard to learn how to develop classroom investigations. in week 14, a blog was created for students to react to five comments that corresponded to the research questions of this study. six paragraph-length comments were obtained from each participant, making a total of 108 comments. comments were printed from the blackboard archives and assigned a number. pseudonyms were given to each participant to protect their identity. distance education for efl teachers roux, trejo & gonzález no. 9 (july december 2014) no. 9 (july december 2014) 167 data analysis and interpretation data were analyzed using the constant comparative approach (glaser & strauss, 1967). the analysis consisted in taking one piece of data (the comment of one participant) and comparing it with all others that could be similar or different, in order to develop conceptualizations of the possible relations between various pieces of data. the unit of analysis for this case was the comment or response to a question. the procedure for data analysis was the following. first, the first author separated the comments for each of the three research questions. then, for each question, each comment (either obtained from the discussion forum or the blog archives) was analyzed and compared with each of the rest of the comments. the cycle of comparison and reflection on “old” and “new” material was repeated several times. all similar comments or units of analysis were placed together and assigned a category. it was only when all units were assigned to one of the already existing categories that the first stage of the analysis ended. the first author then gave the list of categories and the comments to the de-briefer, who independently classified the comments into each of the categories. the second stage of analysis consisted in comparing the analysis of the first author with the analysis of the second author. agreement resulted in 87% of the cases. all discrepancies were discussed until consensus was reached. results what forms of learner support are more valued by the participants? the three most valued forms of learner support were the adviser, the peers, and the instructor of the research course. most student teachers placed the highest value on the interaction with their research advisers through email. they appreciated having someone to contact for specific questions related to their written work, or when encouragement, selfconfidence or motivation was needed. the social and academic support was definitely a combination that distance learners needed to reduce their stress. the following comment made by rachel is an example of how a number of participants perceived the support given by the adviser by email. what i have valued the most during the course is the help of my adviser. when i was struggling with the literature review and the collection of data, she suggested some readings that really helped me in conducting the study. at times she also gave me moral support to keep going until finishing the study. (rachel, c-12) distance education for efl teachers roux, trejo & gonzález no. 9 (july december 2014) no. 9 (july december 2014) 168 another benefit that the participants valued of the contact with advisers was the opportunity to analyze things from a different perspective. when the process of knowledge construction was interrupted for some reason, exposure to a different view helped the writing process retake its flow. a quote from helen’s response illustrates this view. my adviser’s support has been the most valuable help. when i was working on my literature review, i ran out of ideas, i didn´t know how to continue or where to go. i tried to work on my own, i felt drained. finally, i decided to contact my adviser and she gave me another point of view on my work. everything changed. i was able then to see my paper from another perspective. having an adviser that you can contact through email when you are stuck makes things so much easier. (helen, c-5) some participants enjoyed the interest that some advisers showed in their research themes and activities. positive attitudes and enthusiasm were highly appreciated by students. martha made a comment related to this characteristic of her adviser. well, my adviser was always prompt to help. her comments were very sensible and full of constructive criticism. she sent me a lot of well selected literature reviews that helped me throughout all the stages of my study. i regard her as a scholar who enjoys what she does, and her enthusiasm shows through everything she does and says. (martha, c-2) careful judgment and evaluation were also considered helpful by some of the participants when interacting with their advisers. feedback and revision are necessary in academic work and some students were more aware of this than others. this is the case of cynthia, who expressed the following opinion when commenting about the most valuable support she received during the course. i think the positive and negative comments of my adviser on my paper were most valuable. this has been very important to improve my work because i got a feel of the things that were not clear, or where i needed to add more detail. (cynthia, c-6) maria’s comment also pointed to the feedback provided by her adviser and the way it helped her in writing her report. the following was her point of view. my adviser, he gave me feedback and his suggestions improved enormously my work. his comments were very useful and helped me focus. he always had something extra for me to read to understand. he was the most important source of help. (maria, c-14) distance education for efl teachers roux, trejo & gonzález no. 9 (july december 2014) no. 9 (july december 2014) 169 the second most valued support reported by the participants was their peers, both during the videoconference and on the discussion forums. weekly whole-class discussions on different research topics and issues through videoconferencing technology opened opportunities to confirm or confront the thoughts and opinions the students had developed during the previous week as a result of the reading and writing activities done at home. meeting with distant peers helped their understanding. this can be inferred from the response given by sylvia. the help of my classmates was a very helpful support. in the videoconference sessions and when i asked something in the discussion forum. i listened or read their opinions and i could understand things differently. i think i would have felt very confused and desperate without other people´s ideas; i just wouldn´t have made it through the course. (sylvia, c-9) ann also considered that the views expressed by peers during the videoconference classes gave her insights into different issues of research that seemed unclear at the start. she viewed peer support as a source of clarification, as it can be interpreted from the following comment. peer support was most important for me. when i read at home, i sometimes got confused, as with validity and reliability, for example. when people talked about the terms, i learned a lot. i could ask them my doubts and i even took notes of things they said. classmates gave me very opportunities to clarify my understanding. (ann, c-18) other participants valued the support given by their peers in the blog, in which they expressed feelings and ideas. talking about worries and problems can be a very good way of releasing some of the stress that builds up when distance students work alone. it works best when they have opportunities to talk to someone who is in a similar situation. understanding and advice that distant learners provide to each other helped them feel less isolated. the following comment was made by pat, who reported that the kind of support that she had valued the most was peer support. i got a lot of support from my fellow students. when i was frustrated because i didn´t know how to go about something, i shared my feelings on the blog and that made me feel better. then i read cynthia’s comments and she was feeling the same. so i thought, it’s not only me; it’s normal, it’s ok. (pat, c-1) distance education for efl teachers roux, trejo & gonzález no. 9 (july december 2014) no. 9 (july december 2014) 170 lastly, students placed a high value on the contact with the instructor. although peer interaction and group cohesion that developed in their sites were considered important, interacting with the instructor seemed much more useful to them. laura, who was not in the same site of the instructor, expressed her concerns. the following is what she wrote. for me the most important support was the instructor, although with the enormous inconvenience of having her at a distance, which doesn´t give a chance to develop in the affective sphere, and does not facilitate the clarification of doubts. we are a large group, with all the socio-cultural issues going on, a variety of opinions and a lot of doubts. (laura, c17) rebecca, on the other hand, took her class in the same location as the instructor. the following is her comment. i feel that the most important support i had was the instructor of the course. having her in the same location is of great help. we got a lot of support and the appropriate follow up to the activities. i don´t feel the same when the instructor is in another place. (rebecca, c-13) to what extent does videoconferencing technology facilitate their learning? perceptions of videoconferencing technology were mixed among participants. while some student teachers acknowledged its benefits in terms of real-time interaction and immediacy, others complained about the lack of contact with instructors in the remote sites. the strengths of videoconference technology mentioned were largely related to having questions answered by the instructor in real-time. this characteristic helped them learn course content. many of the positive comments on videoconference technology point to the specific contents learned, as in the case of pat. the following was her comment: videoconferencing technology was good because through the transmission of the class, i learned about the characteristics of quality research, different research methods, how to design questionnaires and surveys, and the use of elicitation techniques. i could also clarify the doubts raised by the readings. the videoconference had its problems sometimes, like the blurred screen or when the audio disconnected. but this did not happen all the time. videoconferencing is the only way to take this program and got used to it very quickly. even to the problems. (pat, c-19) other participants focused on the advantage of being able to interact with distant peers. this interaction provided exposure distance education for efl teachers roux, trejo & gonzález no. 9 (july december 2014) no. 9 (july december 2014) 171 to different perspectives on the topic in turn, and contributed to the construction of the participants’ identity as researchers. the opinion given by susan illustrates this point. technology has highly contributed to my learning, because it has been an important means of communication with my teacher and my peers. the videoconferencing system helped me to solve doubts, to check my progress, and it gave me the opportunity to listen to and speak with my teacher/advisor directly to ask for support. during videoconference i have been able to listen to my peers’ experiences and their comments have helped me to analyze their different styles of carrying out a study. this has facilitated my growth as researcher. in addition, through videoconference i have learned the theory about doing research. (susan, c-25) as in a face-to-face classroom, some students viewed in the videoconference environment opportunities to learn from the instructor, from other learners, and from the interactions between instructor and learners. this characteristic of videoconference was mentioned by tom when he was asked, through the discussion forum, to express his thoughts and opinions about the ways in which videoconferencing had facilitated his learning. the doubts that may have emerged while working on the project at home were clarified during the videoconference sessions. there were times when something asked by someone from another site was my own doubt and was clarified with the teacher’s answer. i learned hearing the questions made by others and the explanations that the teacher gave them. (tom, c-26) to what extent does videoconferencing technology hinder their learning? the only perceived challenge of this technology to learning was the physical absence of the instructor in the remote sites. students assumed that learning was better when there was face-to-face contact with the instructor, and while in a videoconference situation learning could occur, it was not full or complete. students seemed to perceive that learning was not of the same quality when the instructor was not present. having the instructor on a screen rather than in person discouraged them from making questions, which may have inhibited their learning. rachel was in such case. the following was her opinion. i think that videoconferencing is not a hundred per cent effective because as student i sometimes felt frustrated by not having the teacher in front of me, to solve my problems and questions. i had to use the internet to distance education for efl teachers roux, trejo & gonzález no. 9 (july december 2014) no. 9 (july december 2014) 172 communicate and many times teachers don’t get the messages or they take too long to respond. i couldn’t get to know how my study was going. then i had to use the phone to ask and it became a bit complicated because of the professor’s schedule and my own schedule. (rachel, c-30) to what extent does the course management system facilitate their learning? the majority of the participants of the study perceived the course management platform as convenient and helpful. they liked having all the different components of the course concentrated in a single place. they recognized the value of the research articles organized by theme, the research methods books, the forums to discuss emergent issues and concerns, the portfolios to read their peers’ work and publish their own, and the email to contact their adviser, the instructor or other students. the platform was used for the first time on the research course, and it became an asset to the program. the process of getting acquainted with the system did not take long. elsa referred to this process in the following excerpt. blackboard was the means to receive the theory about how to do research, specific material about my topic, the way to turn in my research drafts, and to receive feedback and my grades. i learned how to use this system and took advantages of technology to read my peers’ work and make comparisons to develop my study. i could say that when i began using the blackboard, more than being a benefit, it was an obstacle. i had hard times while learning how to use it to receive or send information. but now i feel more confident when working with this system. it’s nice to have everything there. (elsa, c-51) students seemed satisfied with the course management system. they were aware of all the capacity blackboard has to bring together, in a single place, classified information using scanned documents and internet links. irene perceived the capacity of the platform and its potential to contribute to her learning. the following is an excerpt of what irene reported. for me the blackboard system is by all means an incredible way of learning. the interactive learning-teaching that goes on has enriched my view of learning. perhaps i would have liked more advice about the full use of the resources we can access through it, and make full use of those. it helped me to see an array of potential places to look for background information i need, and especially because it helped me to see not only theory and guidelines, but also to read some actual research studies by teacher researchers from other parts of the world. (irene, c-52) distance education for efl teachers roux, trejo & gonzález no. 9 (july december 2014) no. 9 (july december 2014) 173 perceived benefits of the platform included the multidimensional kind of learning that it promotes. while developing research knowledge, the participants were also enhancing their computer skills and becoming aware of the complexity of distance learning. this learning condition is not possible in a regular classroom and by course books only. employing technologies such as the internet, applying collaborative learning, making course management tools accessible to learners, and using distance learning applications such as videoconferencing systems, create information-rich, stimulant conditions for learning of different kinds. in a very short text, sylvia reflects on how the course environment contributed to her learning. blackboard helped a lot to communicate timely and effectively with my instructors and classmates. i think blackboard helped me understand the idea of distance learning. it was very rewarding to read our work online. i grew as a teacher and as a researcher. it also helped me understand technology more. (sylvia, c-45) to what extent does the course management system hinder their learning? the perceived weaknesses of blackboard had to do with reading preferences and time management skills. although most students were used to spending many hours working on the computer, some of them complained of having to spend on printing materials because they did not feel comfortable reading online. the fact that all reading materials were online was not helpful for pat, who perceived that blackboard did not meet her needs. she referred to the problems she had with the platform in the following terms. personally, i need to have the printed material because i get very tired of being in front of the computer. also, there is the problem that some professors take too long in uploading materials. i think more people should be hired to help the instructor in replying to emails, uploading materials and all the activities involved. (pat, c-1) distance learning takes an enormous amount of preparation time from the instructor and from students. distance education students must be well organized, self-motivated, and possess a high degree of time management skills. some students with heavy workloads and family commitments have more difficulties than others to cope with the demands of online learning. this was the case of ann, who preferred printed materials. distance education for efl teachers roux, trejo & gonzález no. 9 (july december 2014) no. 9 (july december 2014) 174 i think blackboard is very interesting and useful but also demanding because you need to be constantly connected and most of the time this is hard with all the other obligations one has. (ann, c-54) conclusions evidence from this study indicates that distance students valued videoconferencing technology for the support provided by their research adviser, their peers, and the instructor. they received academic assistance, a different perspective on their work, enthusiasm, feedback, opportunities to confront thoughts and opinions, and to share feelings. the challenge perceived in the videoconferencing environment was the physical absence of the instructor. the course management system was perceived as highly beneficial to their learning, mainly because of the amount and variety of support resources concentrated in the site; and because it stimulates different kinds of learning. some students, however, were not comfortable reading online. the first implication of these findings is that the combination of videoconferencing and course management technologies is perfectly suited to develop research knowledge in language teacher education programs. borg (2006) has stressed the importance of continued support from a more experienced individual and opportunities to participate in a community of colleagues as necessary conditions to develop research knowledge in efl teachers. the participants gave different examples of how technology facilitated opportunities to collaborate, to discuss research issues, and to develop a sense of community. distance education did not seem to hinder in any way the teachers’ efforts to engage in research. on the contrary, they received more proper and richer guidance because web-based technology facilitated the provision of a larger and more diversified array of reading materials in a more organized way. moreover, teachers could request and receive assistance in oral or written form, depending on the medium they decided to use or the kind of support needed. for academic assistance, they could resort to the instructor, the adviser or peers, either through the videoconferencing system, the portfolio, the discussion forum, the blog, or email. to feelings, the discussion forum seemed to be to be most frequently used. the possibility of communicating with an adviser was considered important, given the nature of the course. based on the value that students placed on this kind of support, we suggest that distance research courses include local or distant advisers, and that more research is carried out to identify better ways to provide distance tutoring. distance education for efl teachers roux, trejo & gonzález no. 9 (july december 2014) no. 9 (july december 2014) 175 borg (2006) has called for more empirical studies on the conditions that facilitate research in particular contexts. research knowledge is a precondition for teacher research and distance learning environments can provide opportunities to develop such knowledge. however, not all student teachers in this study were able to take advantage of the available resources due to skills, preferences and beliefs about learning. teachers who valued technology highly, and those that perceive it as useful, seemed to have fewer problems using it. interaction with others seemed to be what students valued more and looked for when using both videoconferencing and course management technologies. however, people from different cultural backgrounds may prefer other modes of support. cultural differences could have implications for the mode of support student teachers prefer and the effectiveness of the support they seek. further research may investigate these issues. on the other hand, this study did not attempt to investigate in any detailed way the different ways in which interaction was constructed by the students. further studies could analyze samples of recorded utterances of students engaged in different types of activities through different communication tools to understand how specific supports contribute to and improve the development of research knowledge. this field study was not without limitations. one of such limitations was the exclusive use of transcript analysis. despite this limitation, even interpreted tentatively, results can contribute to the current body of research on the broad areas of distance education and language teacher education, as well as the specific areas of learner support and research knowledge. distance education for efl teachers roux, trejo & gonzález no. 9 (july december 2014) no. 9 (july december 2014) 176 references anuies (2000). diagnóstico de la educación superior a distancia. méxico: sep/inegi bates, a. 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(eds.), routledge farmer studies in distance education, (pp. 123-141). london: routledge farmer. authors *ruth roux has a phd in education from the university of south florida. she teaches research methods and academic writing courses in the ba in applied linguistics program at the universidad autónoma de tamaulipas in méxico. *nelly paulina trejo guzmán has a phd in education from the university of exeter. she teaches research methods and second language acquisition courses in the ba in applied linguistics program at the universidad autónoma de tamaulipas in méxico. *elsa fernanda gonzález is a student of the phd in modern languages at the university of southampton and teaches course design and educational linguistics courses in the ba in applied linguistics at the universidad autónoma de tamaulipas in méxico. distance education for efl teachers no. 9 (july december 2014) no. 9 (july december 2014) 63 no. 11 (july december 2015) no. 11 (july december 2015) gist education and learning research journal. issn 1692-5777. no. 11, (july december) 2015. pp. 63-78. factors affecting academic resilience in middle school students: a case study1 factores que afectan la resiliencia académica en estudiantes de bachillerato luisa fernanda rojas f.2* volunteers colombia abstract this research was carried out with the purpose of identifying how and which risk and protective factors affect academic outcomes. the study explored how different family and individual environmental factors foster academic resilience. the exploratory study took place with a group of six students from a public school in bogotá, colombia. the school is located in a low-income and marginalized area of the city, where social problems such as poverty and violence are common. data collection techniques included document analysis, as well as interviews with teachers and parents. the data collection was focused on identifying how academic resiliency skills can be developed in vulnerable young people. it was found that it is possible to identify and describe different protective factors from the family, such as family guidance, family support, and opportunities for meaningful family involvement that explicitly foster academic resilience in at risk-students. it was also possible to address how individual characteristics also foster positive outcomes, including optimism, perseverance, or motivation. keywords: academic resilience, risk factors, protective factors, low income, family factors 1 received: july 15, 2015 / accepted: october 6, 2015 2 serggiolop@hotmail.com 64 no. 11 (july december 2015) no. 11 (july december 2015) factors affecting academic resilience rojas resumen esta investigación se realizó con el propósito de identificar cómo y qué factores de riesgo y de protección afectan los resultados académicos. el estudio exploró cómo los diferentes factores como la familia, ambientales e individuales promueven la resiliencia académica. el estudio exploratorio se llevó a cabo con un grupo de seis estudiantes de un colegio público en bogotá, colombia. el colegio está situado en un sector de bajos ingresos y en un área marginada de la ciudad, donde los problemas sociales como la pobreza y la violencia son comunes. las técnicas de recolección de datos incluyen el análisis de documentos, así como entrevistas con los profesores y los padres. la recolección de datos se centró en identificar cómo las habilidades de resiliencia académica se pueden desarrollar en los jóvenes vulnerables. se encontró que es posible identificar y describir los diferentes factores de protección de la familia, como la orientación familiar, el apoyo de la familia, y las oportunidades para la participación familiar significativa que explícitamente fomentan la resiliencia académica en estudiantes en riesgo. también fue posible abordar cómo las características individuales también fomentan resultados positivos, entre ellos el optimismo, la perseverancia, o la motivación. palabras claves: resiliencia académica, factores de riesgo, factores de protección, bajos ingresos, factores familiares resumo esta pesquisa se realizou com o propósito de identificar como e que fatores de risco e de proteção afetam os resultados acadêmicos. o estudo explorou como os diferentes fatores como a família, ambientais e individuais promovem a resiliência acadêmica. o estudo exploratório foi realizado com um grupo de seis estudantes de um colégio público em bogotá, colômbia. o colégio está situado em um setor de baixos ingressos e em uma área marginada da cidade, onde os problemas sociais como a pobreza e a violência são comuns. as técnicas de coleta de dados incluem a análise de documentos, bem como entrevistas com os professores e os pais. a coleta de dados se centrou em identificar como as habilidades de resiliência acadêmica se podem desenvolver nos jovens vulneráveis. encontrou-se que é possível identificar e descrever os diferentes fatores de proteção da família, como a orientação familiar, o apoio da família, e as oportunidades para a participação familiar significativa que explicitamente fomentam a resiliência acadêmica em estudantes em risco. também foi possível abordar como as características individuais também fomentam resultados positivos, entre eles o otimismo, a perseverança, ou a motivação. palavras chave: resiliência acadêmica, fatores de risco, fatores de proteção, baixos ingressos, fatores familiares 65 no. 11 (july december 2015) no. 11 (july december 2015) introduction resilience is the process of adapting in the face of adversity. research has shown that this trait is usual, not unusual, as people commonly demonstrate resilience through life experiences (chung, 2008). this is because resilience is not a characteristic that people either have or do not have. for this reason, resilience involves behaviors and actions that can be learned and developed in any person. a combination of protective factors and risk factors affect resilience in individuals. risk factors are those factors that increase the likelihood of a future negative outcome. protective factors refer to those variables that buffer against the effects of risk factors (wright & masten, 2005). many studies show that the most important protective factor affecting resilience is having supportive family relationships. on the other hand, different risk factors from family also directly affect the development of resilience. both of these directly affect children’s academic performance as well. academic resilience is defined as the ability to deal with adversity, stress or pressure in academic settings. students who are affected academically by family risk factors may be labeled as non-resilient students. the opposite can be described as resilient students, students who succeed academically in school despite the presence of adversity (grotberg, 2001). the purpose of this project was to identify academic resilience in a group of eighth grade students from a school that for the purposes of this study will be called el triunfo. the study aimed to determine which risk factors affect these skills to overcome adversity. the questions that guided this research project were the following: how do family risk factors and protective factors affect academic outcomes in three teenage students with academically diverse performances? how can academic resiliency skills be developed in vulnerable teenage students?, and how can positive academic outcomes be developed in vulnerable teenage students? it was possible to conclude that a powerful predictor of the academic outcome for children is the quality of the immediate care-giving environment. however, factors such as the characteristics of the individual and the environment also contribute to academic performance. finally, the project proposed of value to establish whether, as research suggests, family support and parenting skills are the result of specific protective factors affecting risk factors that foster academic resilience despite adversity. factors affecting academic resilience rojas 66 no. 11 (july december 2015) no. 11 (july december 2015) factors affecting academic resilience rojas literature review resilience is the ability to overcome challenges. in fact, resilience can be seen when people face difficult experiences and know how to deal with or adapt to them. according to schoon (2006), resilience is a dynamic process in which individuals show adaptive actions when experimenting significant adversity. adversity is defined as environmental conditions that interfere with or threaten the accomplishment of age-appropriate developmental tasks (schoon, 2006). resilience is a dynamic process whereby individuals show adaptive actions when they experience adversity. therefore, those fundamental conclusions refer to the ability that allows an individual to overcome adverse life events successfully and gain competence or skills from the process of overcoming challenges and adversity (chung, 2008). fostering adaptive development depends on the cultural context, as well as academic, emotional, behavioral and physical adjustment. understanding these different areas is how individuals achieve optimal functioning. through the five key principles of the life-course approach, individuals might have optimal functioning. the reason is that human development is a life-long process in which individuals construct their own life. however, resilience depends not only on an individual’s environment, but also on the individual development. consequently, this relation between the environment and individual development produces an elevated probability of an undesirable outcome, which is labeled as a risk. from a resilience view, there are risk factors. wright and masten (2005) argue that risk factors are “measurable characteristics in a group of individuals or their situations that predict negative outcomes” (p. 18). on the other hand, protective factors are concerned with the quality of a person, context or their interaction that predicts better outcomes, specifically in situations of risk. protective factors also moderate the impact of adversity on adaptation (wright & masten, 2005). according to chung (2008), two protective factors help individuals reintegrate the disruption with resiliency: individual personal characteristics and environmental characteristics that the individual experiences. for these reason, fostering resilience is an important task because it is how individuals overcome challenges and face difficult experiences. in addition, by fostering resilience, people can develop lifelong skills such as communication and problem-solving skills, and the ability to make realistic plans and be capable of taking the steps necessary to follow through with them. 67 no. 11 (july december 2015) no. 11 (july december 2015) many studies have explored which elements increase resilience in vulnerable children. by understanding resilience, it is possible to develop preventative packages, support strategies for parents and schools, and plans to foster resiliency. nettles, mucherach, and jones (as cited in waxman, gray, & padron, 2003) found that family and community experiences create protective factors through the access of social resources, including caring parents, participation in extracurricular activities, and supportive teachers. many studies are focused on educational resilience and how to lead advances in the education of students at risk of academic failure. studies focus on defining the differences between resilient students, students who succeed academically in school despite the presence of adversity, and non-resilient students. some of the differences identified include family environment, perceptions of the classroom, school environment and problems caused by poverty, health and explicit social conditions. johnson (1997) proposes that human relationships are the most critical factor in student resiliency, followed by student characteristics, family factors, community variables, and school programs. methodology research design the proposed methodology for this research was a case study. the project sought to understand how risk factors affected academic resilience in six middle school students, and how protective factors were developed in order to build academic resilience. the exploratory methodology made it possible to discover which risk factors were of particular importance in academic performance or resilience, and how academic resilience, as a result, became a protective factor that impacted learners’ lives. in the case of risk factors, family and context, the literature points to the importance of developing and fostering academic resilience in children. the literature, however, did not describe which or how risk factors in contexts similar to this could remove protective factors from families. for this reason, the data collection proposed sought to identify which risk factors affected skills to overcome adversity and also describe the role of the family as a potential support strategy as a protective factor to foster academic resilience. finally, the data sought to establish which risk factors and protective factors existed in participants’ contexts. factors affecting academic resilience rojas 68 no. 11 (july december 2015) no. 11 (july december 2015) context and participants the context for this study was a public school located in a marginalized, low-income area of bogotá. for the purposes of the study, the school has been given a pseudonym, el triunfo. at the time of the study, the school was what is known as a colegio de concesión.3 colegios de concesión are public schools that the local school authority temporarily contracts through public tender to recognized educational institutions and non-profit organizations, which then operate the schools for an agreed period, with the goal of raising standards of quality. el triunfo school is located in an area of the city which, according to the district planning office of bogotá (secretaria distrital de planeacion, 2009), has had one of the most marked levels of basic needs in the city, characterized by high economic dependence on families headed by single mothers, high rates of school dropouts, overcrowding and poor housing conditions. the participants were six students from el triunfo school. the participants were eighth grade students, between twelve and fifteen years old. the six students were chosen based on their academic records in 2014: two low achievers, two average students, and two high achieving students. three teachers were also chosen for the study, mathematics and music, as these were the subjects that most students failed. the art teacher was also selected because he was the homeroom teacher. the names of all the participants have been changed for the purposes of this study. data collection instruments in order to gather a wide range of data inputs for the case studies, three different techniques were used and described: academic records, interviews, and biographical research. academic records. academic records were used to identify potential participants in the case study. three groups of students were chosen: above average, average and below average. during the case study, teachers’ academic assessments of students was also sought in order to establish students’ academic performance and possible related resilient behaviors. interviews. interviews took place with three teachers, six students, and parents of three of the students. it was intended that, by carefully choosing the 3 colegios de concesión can be roughly translated as “outsourced schools.” factors affecting academic resilience rojas 69 no. 11 (july december 2015) no. 11 (july december 2015) participants to be interviewed, a wide range of responses could be obtained. open-ended and semi-structured questions were designed intending to gain insight into the importance of academic resilience and protective factors. the objective of the interview with the teachers was to know their perceptions or insights about the students’ families in order to identify risk factors and protective factors. the objective of interviewing parents was to identify how and which practices promoted academic resilience in their children, and to analyze how risk factors affected protective factors. biographical research. the objective of this was to identify which situations affect academic resilience and analyze which skills students use to become resilient. the students were asked to keep a personal journal in which they were to represent (write or draw) a difficult situation they experienced each week. the objective of this was to recognize what experiences or events affected or possibly promoted academic resilience in their daily life. the students also had a space each tuesday in which they shared personal ideas they felt or perceived. planned activities by the researcher were carried out in each week’s session to attempt to address the research questions. data analysis and interpretation the following techniques were used to analyze the data: exploratory data analysis for interviews, participant diaries and activity sessions, and a reflective research diary after interviews and sessions. it is important to point out that the case study eventually focused only on three students: mateo, pablo and miguel (high, average and low academic achievers). this is because not all the information could be gathered from all participants. the majority of information was collecterd from these participants. interviews-sessions-diaries analysis. each interview, weekly sessions with the students and the reflective diary were transcribed and analyzed for recurring themes, such as risk factors and protective factors. these themes are presented in tables 1 and 2. table 1 represents the environmental risk factors and protective factors resulting from exploratory analysis of interviews, sessions and diaries from the participants. factors affecting academic resilience rojas 70 no. 11 (july december 2015) no. 11 (july december 2015) table 1. environmental risk factors and protective factors academic resilience environmental risk factors environmental protective factors poverty low family stress family dysfunction child relationship family conflict parenting skills lower economic status child attachment lack of social support role models marital conflict and domestic violence high expectations harsh discipline family support parent is less supportive, affectionate and playful family guidance lack of positive parenting skills opportunities for meaningful family involvement respectful communication table 2 illustrates individual factors fostering academic resilience resulting from exploratory analysis of interviews, sessions and diaries from the participants. table 2. individual factors academic resilience individual factors optimism empathy self-steem direction or mission determination perseverance motivation problem solving skills factors affecting academic resilience rojas 71 no. 11 (july december 2015) no. 11 (july december 2015) crtitical thinking autonomy internal locus of control sense of purpose in this case study, content analysis was undertaken after all interviews, sessions and diaries were conducted and transcribed. first, risk factors and protective factors were identified. afterwards, a list of environmental risk and protective factors that emerged from the data collection was created. each of them was interpreted. finally, a summary of the main features was written in three individual “stories” from the results of the instruments used in the research, combining findings from all the data collected (interviews, sessions and dairies). significant concepts were identified and highlighted as well as problems, and areas for additional research. results the case study reveals how different risk factors related to the family environment and the individual characteristics of three students from el triunfo school affect academic resilience in terms of students achieving high educational outcomes despite adversity, and how specific protective factors as family guidance, parenting skills and positive role models develop resilience skills in vulnerable teenage students. case 1: mateo mateo was born in 2001 as the first of three children to married parents. mateo’s parents both left school at the age of 11. mateo’s parents work at a mini-market close to their home. they live in one of the poorest, most violent, and overcrowded neighborhoods in bogota. mateo’s parents show keen interest in his education. mateo has performed well in all academic tests. he has shown no behavior problems. his teachers rated his performance as either “average,” or “above” in all subjects. based on the results of the five sessions and the interviews with his mother and his teachers, mateo demonstrates in the characteristics of an individual with academic resilience despite the experience of socio-economic adversity, taking into account his academic average and his two consecutively grades of excelencia. mateo’s family environment appears to be stable and supportive, based on the interview with mateo’s mother. she described some activities they do on factors affecting academic resilience rojas 72 no. 11 (july december 2015) no. 11 (july december 2015) weekends and how they help their children complete homework. his mother takes an active interest and involvement in mateo’s education including career planning. the mathematics teacher expressed that mateo is an independent and autonomous student and that his family has strong and clear agreements about schoolwork. the teacher reported that she truly believes that mateo shows interest for learning. as a result of the findings, we can describe this case as an academically resilient student because it is possible to consistently find a larger network of social support and higher satisfaction with that support. the student demonstrates a more autonomy-oriented and open climate in his tasks. the findings also illustrate the principle of resilience as a successful adaptation despite risk and adversity, mateo is in a high ability group, he enjoys school, and is described by his teachers as a well-behaved boy. he shows a realistic appreciation of his abilities and preferences and he knows what he wants to achieve in life. case 2: pablo pablo is the youngest of five children was born in 2001. his parents both have the same level of education, and both completed university studies. at this moment, his mother is completing a specialist degree in psychology. his father works as paralegal for the mayor’s office of bogota, and his mother works in a call center. at age two, pablo’s family lived in rented, overcrowded accommodation, but by age nine, they had moved into a new rented home. they live in a house with a cousin, so there are eight people in the house, as well as two pets. his parents are interested in pablo’s education. his mother reported, “if he has to make a poster, or model, he calls me at the office, tells what is needed to be done and i buy the materials if necessary, and i also ask him to make a draft of the assignment and as soon as i get home. i help him with the project, which is usually drawing the posters with markers, for him”4 pablo has not performed well in all academic tests, and he has shown some behavioral problems. the high school coordinator has a system to follow up students that arrive late to class, and pablo has the worst attendance record of his grade. his teachers rated his performance as “on the average” in all subjects. 4 original spanish: si tiene que hacer una cartelera o una maqueta, me llama a la oficina me cuenta que hay que hacer yo compro los materiales si es necesario y le pido que haga un borrador de lo que necesita y cuando yo llegue a la casa le ayudo hacer lo que necesita, usualmente es pasar a marcador las carteleras. factors affecting academic resilience rojas 73 no. 11 (july december 2015) no. 11 (july december 2015) based on the results of the five sessions, the diary, and the interviews with his mother and his teachers, pablo demonstrates the characteristics of an individual with factors that increase resilience, namely optimism and empathy, but shows a lack of determination and perseverance. in terms of the family environment, his family demonstrates a supportive family environment evident in the activities they do on weekends. depending on the situation, the family organizes a plan to keep family bonds strong. for most of the teachers, it is difficult to hold a meeting with his mother to talk about pablo’s difficulties. she cannot attend these meetings because of her job and studies. as a result of the findings, we can categorize pablo as a resilient student who is not successful academically. his family shows some protective factors that increase resilience, but academically pablo does not show most of the self factors. pablo’s family does not evidence these environmental protective factors, including parenting skills (supervision and discipline), low family stress and family guidance. pablo’s case illustrates the exent to which parenting skills have a direct impact on academic resilience, but also how the individual characteristics foster resilience as well. case 3: miguel miguel was born in 2001 as the third of three children to married parents. miguel’s mother left school in ninth grade. miguel’s father studied a technological program at sena, the national vocational training institute. miguel’s mother works as a secretary and his father is a car mechanic. his parents in 2014 did not show a strong interest in miguel’s education. the mathematics teacher reported in the interview that miguel’s parents were just in the process of asking what is going on when there is nothing to do because he has not learned what he needed to learn during the school year. “this is the typical case in which the parents start showing interest about their children’s performance around the months of october or november5 when they are about to fail the school year, i ask myself, every time the parents come worried running to my door, asking what are assignments they need to turn in order to pass, where were those parents months ago to show their support their child needed?”6 5 the regular school calendar in colombia goes from february to november. 6 este es el tipico caso en el que los papás se empiezan a interesar por sus hijos cuando ven que ya en octubre o noviembre van a perder el año, yo me pregunto siempre que llegan angustiados a mi puerta a saber que trabajos debe entregar donde estan sus papas hace meses para brindarle el apoyo que necesitaba. factors affecting academic resilience rojas 74 no. 11 (july december 2015) no. 11 (july december 2015) miguel has not performed well on any academic test, and he failed the academic year. he showed some behavior problems, was absent to different classes, and did not complete homework. his teachers rated his performance as “below average” in all subjects. based on the results of the five sessions, the dairy and the interviews with his father, his sister and his teachers, miguel demonstrates the characteristics of an individual with a lack of optimism, direction or mission, self-esteem, determination or perseverance. in terms of the family environment, his family demonstrated a lack of a stable and supportive family environment. his family does not appear to take an active interest and involvement in miguel’s education including career planning. his mathematics, arts and music teachers have the same point of view about miguel’s family. as a result of the findings, this case demonstrates a non-academically resilient student because of the lack of environmental protective factors such as low family stress, child relationship, parenting skills, child attachment, high expectations, family support, family guidance and opportunities for meaningful family involvement. conclusions this case study sought to understand how and which risk factors related to the family environment affect the academic outcome of six students from el triunfo school, and also to explore how and which protective factors compensate specific risk factors. the findings of this study in general support the literature reviewed. from the data analyzed from this study, it was possible to conclude that a powerful predictor of the academic outcome for children is the quality of the immediate care-giving environment. according to schoon (2006), there are two broad sets of variables working as protective factors that may impede adverse experiences. these factors include characteristics of the individual and the family environment, also presented in the data analysis and interpretation. for this reason, in this case study, risk and protective factors are characteristics of the individual and characteristics of the environment. in the analysis of information of the six participants, the study can conclude that there are specific family and individual risk factors that affect academic outcomes, and that protective factors from the family environment that minimize the effect of different risk factors: • caring and support: according to chung (2008),”despite the burden of parental, family discord, or chronic poverty, most children identified as resilient have had the opportunity to establish a close bond with at least factors affecting academic resilience rojas 75 no. 11 (july december 2015) no. 11 (july december 2015) one person [not necessarily the mother or father] who provided them with stable care” (p. 46). • high expectations: associated with high expectations are different family characteristics such as structure, discipline, and clear rules and regulations. schoon (2006) argues that families that establish high expectations for their children’s behavior from a nearly age play a role in developing resiliency. • encouragement of children’s participation: rutter (1993) argues that families that create environments characterized by the qualities of caring, high expectations, and opportunities for participation provide support and opportunities for their children. • parenting strategies: one of the factors most consistently associated with positive academic outcomes is responsive parenting. according to masten and reed (2002), a wide variety of specific parenting practices are associated with children’s positive adjustment, including consistent discipline, responsiveness, structure, and monitoring. • parent–child relationship quality: the quality of the parent–child relationship has been examined in relation to positive child academic outcomes. luthar (2003) argues that having a good relationship with a parent prepares the child to engage in healthy productive relationships with other people in the social environment. grouping the students based on their academic performance the study determinate the following: “average and above” students. gonzalez and padilla (as cited in waxman, gray, & padron, 2003) found that students’ sense of belonging to school was a predictor of academic resilience. high-achieving students reported reading more pages per week, doing more homework, and having higher grades than low-achieving students. based on the present study, mateo is an academically resilient student. he has similar protective factors including parenting skills (supervision and discipline), child attachment, role models, high expectations, family support, family guidance, opportunities for meaningful family involvement and respectful communication. “average” students. according to johnson (2008) local activities and relationships are also important because potential and reinforce school structures and processes in which transform resilient students relationships into better support. pablo showed some protective factors like family support, opportunities for meaningful family involvement and respectful factors affecting academic resilience rojas 76 no. 11 (july december 2015) no. 11 (july december 2015) communication, but what made the difference between him and the “average and above” students was the individual characteristics, pablo presents a lack of optimism, perseverance and determination. “below average” students. johnson (1997) proposes that human relationships are the most critical factor in student resiliency. miguel is not resilient a student because he does not succeed academically in school despite the presence of adversity. in addition, with miguel, it was difficult to collect all the information, his parents did not attend the meeting, and he did not present his diary or attend the weekly sessions. in this specific case, there are more risk factors than protective factors that affect miguel’s academic outcome. finally, resilience comes from supportive relationships with parents, peers and others, as well as cultural beliefs and traditions that help people handle with the inevitable problems in life. wright and masten (2005) argues that “every child capable of developing a resilient “mind-set” will be able to deal more effectively with stress and pressure, to deal with everyday challenges, to develop clear and realistic goals to solve problems” (p. 4). limitations of the study included a lack of data sources and the limited time available for in-depth interviews, sessions and dairy register. further research includes four next steps: 1) design a tool to collect information from all families students; 2) define clear support strategies for families who do not show protective factors; 3) create sessions for parents focused on how to foster academic resilience; and 4) teacher coaching and training. factors affecting academic resilience rojas 77 no. 11 (july december 2015) no. 11 (july december 2015) references chung, h. f. (2008). resiliency and character strengths among college students.proquest. (unpublished doctoral dissertation). the university of arizona, tucson. goldstein, s., & brooks, r. b. (2005). why study resilience? in s. goldstein, & r. b. brooks, (eds.), handbook of resilience in children (pp. 4-11.) new york: springer. grotberg, e. h. (2001). resilience programs for children in disaster. ambulatory child health, 7(2), 75-83. grotberg, e. h. (2003). the international resilience project findings from the research and the effectiveness of interventions. center for research on education, diversity & excellence. review of research on educational resilience. university of california, santa cruz: grotberg, e. h. johnson, b. (2008). teacher–student relationships which promote resilience at school: a micro-level analysis of students’ views. british journal of guidance & counselling, 36(4), 385-398. johnson, g. m. (1997). resilient at-risk students in the inner-city. mcgill journal of education/revue des sciences de l’éducation de mcgill, 32(1), 35-50. luthar, s. (2003). resilience and vulnerability: adaptation in the context of childhood adversities. new york. cambridge university press. masten, a. s., & reed, m. j. (2002). resilience in development. in c. r. snyder & s. j. lópez (eds.), handbook of positive psychology (pp. 74–88). new york: oxford university press. rutter, m. (1993). resilience: some conceptual considerations. journal of adolescent health, 14(8), 626-631. schoon, i. (2006). risk and resilience: adaptations in changing times. new york. cambridge university press. secretaria distrital de planeacion. (2009). conociendo la localidad de (neighborhood): diagnóstico de los aspectos físicos, demográficos y socioeconómicos. bogotá: alcaldia mayor de bogota. waxman, h. c., gray, j. p., & padron, y. n. (2003). review of research on educational resilience. center for research on education, diversity & excellence. santa cruz, ca: university of california, santa cruz. wright, m. o. d., & masten, a. s. (2005) resilience processes in development. in s. goldstein, & r. b. brooks (eds.), handbook of resilience in children (pp 17-25). new york: springer. factors affecting academic resilience rojas 78 no. 11 (july december 2015) no. 11 (july december 2015) author * luisa fernanda rojas flórez is an industrial designer from jorge tadeo lozano university and bilingual education specialist from única (institución universitaria colombo americana). she has worked as a professor in industrial design program at the jorge tadeo lozano university. she was also part of the first cohort of enseñar por colombia, teaching english in elementary and high school in a disadvantaged neighborhood school in bogotá. she currently work is at a non-profit organization, volunteers colombia, where she is the pedagogical coordinator. factors affecting academic resilience � editorial, versión español thomas harold finken jr, m.div. la publicación de la tercera edición de gist es un logro significativo para el equipo de única por el hecho de que una gran parte de la investigación es propia de la institución. la mayoría de los escritores (9 de los 16 representados en 5 de los 9 artículos) están vinculados con la universidad. cinco autoras son egresadas del teacher training institute, dos lo son del programa de licenciatura en educación bilingüe, uno es profesor en el pregrado y por último, la dra. noel es la decana académica de dicho programa. el gobierno colombiano concibe las universidades del país como espacios de investigación, enseñanza y proyección social. de acuerdo con esta visión, la actual edición de gist hace patente que única está haciendo academia: perfeccionando una pedagogía con base en la investigación para beneficio de la sociedad. a la vez que nuestra universidad se consolida en la investigación, quisiéramos también reconocer la gran importancia de los autores de los otros cuatro trabajos publicados en esta edición. el beneficio inmenso de poder conocer el trabajo de otras universidades permite que única se autoevalúe y reflexione sobre su papel en el progreso de la educación bilingüe. destaco además la labor de los pares académicos quienes realizaron una revisión y crítica experta dando grandes aportes, los cuales sirven de manera significativa a la revista y contribuyen al avance del ámbito. la educación bilingüe efectiva es un factor clave para el futuro de nuestro mundo globalizado tal como ha sido en el pasado cuando naciones interactuaban de manera cercana (ese fue el caso en la época de los persas, griegos y de los imperios romano y británico). aunque se puede argumentar que las culturas del mundo se han unido de maneras nunca vistas por las generaciones pasadas, esta aseveración requeriría abundante explicación histórica, y no es un tema que nos compete � editorial, english version thomas harold finken jr, m.div. the publication of the third edition of gist is a significant achievement for the única team due to the fact that a great part of the research is the institution’s own. the majority of the writers (9 of the 16 represented in 5 of the 9 articles) are part of the school. five authors are graduates of the teacher training institute, two are alumni of the undergraduate teaching degree in bilingual education, one is an undergraduate professor and finally, dr. noel who is the academic dean of that same program. the colombian government conceives of the country’s universities as places for research, teaching and social outreach. in line with this vision, the current edition of gist makes it clear that única is putting education to work: perfecting a research-based teaching methodology for the good of society. at the same time that our college is consolidating its research, we would like to also recognize the tremendous importance of the authors of the other four articles published in this edition. the immense benefit of being able to familiarize ourselves with the work being done at other universities allows for única to do a self-evaluation and to reflect upon its role in the progress of bilingual education. i would also like to highlight the work of the peer reviewers who carried out an expert critique and review, sharing marvelous ideas, which greatly help both the journal and the progress of the field. effective bilingual education is a key factor in the future of our globalized world in much the same way that it has been in the past when nations have interacted closely (this was the case in the times of the persians, the greeks and the roman and british empires). although it could be argued that cultures have merged in ways never before experienced in former generations, such an assertion would require quite a bit of historical explanation, for which we have no space now. it � ahora. sería más sencillo y concreto preguntarnos: ¿hay evidencia de la internacionalización en nuestros colegios locales? por ejemplo, ¿ya están confrontados nuestros estudiantes con la necesidad de comunicarse interculturalmente? la respuesta, por supuesto, es que sí. el bilingüismo se ha convertido en una necesidad tanto en el nivel local como en el nivel internacional porque lo local ya está altamente interconectado con lo internacional. las habilidades comunicativas lingüísticas son más necesarias hoy que nunca. por estas razones, la gran temática del actual volumen de gist es el rol de la educación en la producción del bilingüismo en las esferas local y global. las cuatro esferas de educación y bilingüismo que abordaremos incluyen: el nivel del aula, del colegio, de la ciudad y también el nacional/regional. seguro que los primeros tres artículos serán de interés para profesores, pero mientras se avanza en la lectura, los artículos se volverán gradualmente más llamativos para administradores y creadores de política educativa. esperamos que puedan encontrar tanto información como inspiración, y que éstas les sirvan para su propio desarrollo profesional. gist tomo 3 es un llamado a los educadores para que comprendan e integren todos los planos de bilingüismo, del local al universal. para aquellos que ya están trabajando en el nivel de la política internacional, no sería justo imaginar que su trabajo no involucra la comprensión de lo que está pasando en el nivel de la escuela local. de igual forma, mientras los maestros están ayudando a los niños y adolescentes a superar problemas locales, si promueven los estudios, la investigación publicada dará a conocer sus experiencias a otros colegas alrededor del mundo para que se beneficien de ellas. los métodos pedagógicos que tienen bases en investigación funcionan. aplicados, tienen el potencial para traer todo el mundo hasta el aula; pero tienen también poder para transformar el aula en un portal al mundo. la educación bilingüe une estudiantes locales con culturas globales, preparándolos para enfrentar su entorno internacional. les presentamos gist volumen 3 a nuestros lectores como un espacio de reflexión, con la expectativa de que sea una herramienta eficaz en mejorar los sistemas de educación del mundo actual.  � may be simpler and more concrete to ask instead: is there evidence of internationalization in our local schools? for example, are our students already confronted with the need to communicate inter-culturally? the answer, of course, is “yes.” bilingualism has become a need on the local as much as the international level because the local has become so highly interconnected with the international. linguistic communication skills are more necessary than ever. because of this, the great theme of this present volume of gist is the role of education in producing bilingualism in both the local and global spheres. the four spheres of education and bilingualism we’ll look at include: the classroom, the school, the city and also the national/regional levels. the first three articles will surely be interesting for teachers, but as one progresses in the reading, the articles will become gradually more appropriate for administrators and policy makers. we hope that you will be able to find both the information and inspiration which will assist you in your own professional development. gist volume 3 is a call for educators to both comprehend and integrate all levels of bilingualism, from the local to the universal. for those who are already working on the level of international policy, it wouldn’t be right to imagine that their job does not involve understanding what’s happening on the local school level. correspondingly, while classroom teachers are helping children and adolescents to overcome local problems, if they promote research projects, published research will bring their experiences to light so that colleagues around the world may benefit from them. research-based teaching methods work. if they are applied, they have the potential to bring the whole world to the classroom; but they also have the power to transform the classroom into a doorway to the world. bilingual education unites local students with global cultures, preparing them to face their international surroundings. we present volume 3 of gist to our readership as a space for reflection, with the expectation that it will be an effective tool in improving the educational systems of today’s world.  gist final1.indd 29 using a mobile application (whatsapp) to reduce efl speaking anxiety1 uso de la aplicación móvil (whatsapp) para reducir la ansiedad al hablar en inglés como lengua extranjera turgay han and fırat keskin2* kafkas university, fırat university turkey abstract several experimental studies have examined the effect of the use of mobile applications on improving language skills, but little research has explored the impact of using these applications in efl speaking classes on alleviating foreign language speaking anxiety (flsa). this study examines the effect of using whatsapp activities in undergraduate level efl speaking classes on students’ speaking anxiety, and their feelings about the activities conducted. thirty-nine undergraduate level participants carried out the tasks on whatsapp in efl speaking courses for four weeks. the flcas was administered at the beginning and end of the study. participants’ views about the mobile application activities were also examined through face-to-face interviews. results showed that whatsapp experiences significantly impacted the students’ language acquisition by lowering efl speaking anxiety. key words: efl speaking anxiety, mobile applications, mobile assisted language learning resumen diferentes estudios experimentales han analizado el efecto del uso de aplicaciones móviles para mejorar las habilidades lingüísticas, pero son pocas las investigaciones acerca del impacto del uso de estas aplicaciones en las clases de conversación en inglés como lengua extranjera para reducir la ansiedad al hablar un idioma extranjero. este estudio examina el efecto de usar whatsapp 1 received: january 15, 2016 / accepted: april 13, 2016 2 turgayhan@kafkas.edu.tr / firatkeskin@firat.edu.tr gist education and learning research journal. issn 1692-5777. no.12. (january june) 2016. pp. 29-50. speaking skills development no. 12 (january june 2016) no. 12 (january june 2016) 30 en actividades con estudiantes de pregrado que en sus clases de conversación de inglés experimentan ansiedad cuando hablan en una lengua extranjera y sus sentimientos acerca de las actividades realizadas. 39 participantes de pregrado desarrollaron tareas de los cursos de conversación de inglés como lengua extranjera en whatsapp durante cuatro semanas. las flcas fueron aplicadas al inicio y al final del estudio. las opiniones sobre las actividades desarrolladas en la aplicación móvil fueron analizadas a través de entrevistas personales. los resultados mostraron que la experiencia del uso de whatsapp afecta significativamente la adquisición de un idioma reduciendo la ansiedad al hablar inglés como lengua extranjera. palabras clave: ansiedad al hablar inglés como lengua extranjera, aplicaciones móviles, aprendizaje de idiomas asistido por móvil resumo diferentes estudos experimentais analisaram o efeito do uso de aplicações móbeis para melhorar as habilidades linguísticas, mas são poucas as pesquisas acerca do impacto do uso destas aplicações nas aulas de conversação em inglês como língua estrangeira para reduzir a ansiedade ao falar um idioma estrangeiro. este estudo examina o efeito de usar whatsapp em atividades com estudantes de graduação que em suas aulas de conversação de inglês experimentam ansiedade quando falam em uma língua estrangeira e seus sentimentos acerca das atividades realizadas. 39 participantes de graduação desenvolveram tarefas dos cursos de conversação de inglês como língua estrangeira em whatsapp durante quatro semanas. as flcas foram aplicadas no começo e no final do estudo. as opiniões sobre as atividades desenvolvidas na aplicação móbil foram analisadas através de entrevistas pessoais. os resultados mostraram que a experiência do uso de whatsapp afeta significativamente a aquisição de um idioma reduzindo a ansiedade ao falar inglês como língua estrangeira. palavras chave: ansiedade ao falar inglês como língua estrangeira, aplicações móbeis, aprendizagem de idiomas assistido por móbil using a mobile application (whatsapp) han & keskin no. 12 (january june 2016) no. 12 (january june 2016) 31 introduction using technology is an inevitable part of almost every aspect of life and educational environments are no exception. computers, used as assisting tools for both teachers and students, have had beneficial uses in efl classrooms. the use of computers to assist learning, or computer-assisted language learning (call), has gained popularity in language studies, even though, as warschauer and healey (1998) mention, this is not something new. however, due to the development of technology and the information era, it is a promising trend for language studies. the rise in popularity has not been in vain. it has been suggested that call may have many advantages. for example, call-based glossing is more efficient compared to paperbased glossing; moreover, writing is much easier and more successinclined in terms of accuracy when it is applied on computers (taylor, 2013; ulusoy, 2006; usun, 2003). nevertheless, recent developments in technology have shown that technology assistance is not limited to computers any more. almost all the capabilities of computers have been fit into mobile devices, such as phones and tablets, which have increased access to technology in many classrooms. martin and ertzberger (2013) studied the difference between the use of computers and mobile phones in a classroom setting and found that students show more enthusiasm towards mobile devices. the application of mobile devices in classrooms has been welcomed by both the teachers (albirini, 2006; şad & göktaş, 2014), and the students (al-fahad, 2009; hsu, 2013; ilter, 2009). in sum, their perceptions towards mobile-assisted language learning (mall) have been generally positive. this brief review suggests that using technologies in efl classrooms has been successful and promising; moreover, using these technologies has been welcomed positively by both teachers and learners (arnold, 2007; albirini, 2006; cui & wang, 2008; golonka, bowles, frank, richardson & freynik, 2014; hashemi, azizinezhad, najafi & nesari, 2011; şad & göktaş, 2014; tayebinik & puteh, 2012; taylor, 2013; ulusoy, 2006; usun, 2003). in the world of mobility, millions of users communicate in seconds with each other, and for this purpose, they use a variety of applications. whatsapp messenger is one of the most popular applications, with 30.496.683 downloads on playstore, the application supplier for android users. other application suppliers do not compare in the number of downloads: ios has 169978 ratings, and blackberry has 504772 reviews. whatsapp “is a cross-platform mobile messaging app which allows you to exchange messages without having to pay for sms” (whatsapp official webpage, 2015). further, whatsapp allows using a mobile application (whatsapp) han & keskin no. 12 (january june 2016) no. 12 (january june 2016) 32 users to communicate by sending text messages, voice messages, videos, and pictures. using a familiar application in the classroom environment may help students to overcome some anxiety problems. anxiety in a number of manifestations is a problem for efl classrooms (burgucu, han, & engin, 2011; han, tanriöver, & sahan, 2016). speaking anxiety itself is a recognized and undisputed phenomenon. as effective speaking requires face-to-face interaction, it is reasonable to question whether or not call, which could often remove the “face-to-face” aspect of communication, would be helpful for reducing speaking anxiety or not. in response to this question, arnold (2007) cites multiple studies that show that call helps learners reduce or control their anxiety. mobile devices have been researched in several aspects in terms of assisting language learning/teaching. some studies handle the subject from a general effect/impact view (e.g. jones, edwards, & reid, 2009; miangah & nezarat, 2012; ono & ishihara, 2011; wang, shen, novak, & pan, 2009), while others focus on skills such as vocabulary (e.g. alemi, sarab, & lari, 2012; başoğlu & akdemir, 2010; çavuş & i̇brahim, 2009; hayati, jalilifar, & mashhadi, 2013; lu, 2008; stockwell, 2010; zhang, song, & burston, 2011), pronunciation (saran, seferoglu, & çağıltay, 2009), speaking and listening (tsou, wang, & tzeng, 2006), reading (hsu, hwang, & chang, 2013; tsou, wang, and tzeng, 2006), and grammar (baleghizadeh & oladrostam, 2010). in addition, others examine perception (al-fahad, 2009; hsu, 2013), motivation (ilter, 2009) and factors (liu, han, & li, 2010) about mall. however, there are few to no studies exploring the link between speaking anxiety and mall. therefore, this study aims to bridge this gap by examining the effect of using a mobile application (whatsapp) in reducing efl speaking anxiety. briefly, using whatsapp activities in efl/esl speaking classes has become popular in recent years, as it allows for unique and versatile learning opportunities. while using whatsapp, students have the chance to individualize their learning, especially the language they have been working on. for example, they can monitor and check their language output for mistakes. further, students are able to practice their pronunciation (accent, intonation, speed of speech) while rehearsing for the recording, all while exposing themselves more to the language and building positive feelings towards speaking. it is well known that anxiety is “a mental block against learning a foreign language” (horwitz, horwitz, & cope, 1986, p.125) however, even if it is well known that mobile phones ease increased access to information, it is less known how mobiles promote new learning (valk, rashid, & elder, 2010). in this sense, this study also aimed to bridge this research gap using a mobile application (whatsapp) han & keskin no. 12 (january june 2016) no. 12 (january june 2016) 33 through examining the link between using mobile application activities and reducing efl students’ fla levels. whatsapp speaking activities are aimed at reducing the language anxiety of learners. the activities were applied in a classroom context for four weeks. the impact of these activities on the students’ anxiety levels was examined. further, the students’ feelings regarding the link between these activities and their anxieties were qualitatively analyzed. the main research question that guided this study was if applying whatsapp activities in efl speaking classes would reduce the students’ anxiety levels and positively impact their perceptions. more specifically, the research questions of this study are the following: 1. to what extent do the whatsapp activities impact the students’ fla? 2. are there any significant differences between male and female students in terms of fla before and after the application of whatsapp activities? 3. how do the students feel about the whatsapp experience? results indicate that the application has a significant impact on lowering students’ level of speaking anxiety. literature review while the use of mobile devices in the language classroom is not a new topic for researchers, the rapid changes and advancements in technology continuously extend the list of unanswered questions. opinions towards mall seem generally positive in the existing literature. many studies point out how advantageous mall is and how it positively affects learners (jones et al., 2009; miangah & nezarat, 2012; ono & ishihara, 2011; wang et al., 2009). further, several studies have investigated the use of the mall in classroom atmosphere to teach language skills, and have pointed to its advantages (e.g. başoğlu & akdemir, 2010; lu, 2008; zhang et al., 2008). for example, başoğlu and akdemir (2010) investigated mobile assisted vocabulary learning and the use of flashcards using mobile phones in a turkish efl context. lu (2008) compared the efficacy of mobile-assisted vocabulary learning with paper-based methods of vocabulary learning. alemi et al. (2012) and çavuş and i̇brahim, (2009) examined mobile-assisted vocabulary learning methods in efl classrooms. regarding pronunciation, saran et al. (2009) found that there were positive effects of the use of mobile devices on pronunciation. tsou et using a mobile application (whatsapp) han & keskin no. 12 (january june 2016) no. 12 (january june 2016) 34 al. (2006) found that online story telling contributed to the improvement in multiple skills. regarding reading skills, it seems that teaching this skill via mobile devices is quite new. in a study, hsu et al. (2013) the groups that used mobile devices were successful and they had very high positive perception of mobile learning. there have also been studies analyzing the effect of mall on grammar learning. baleghizadeh and oladrostam (2010) examined the possible development of their grammatical abilities when using mall in iranian efl context. it was found that the use of mobile devices also helps learners improve their grammar, in addition to other language skills. although existing research demonstrates advantages to mobileassisted vocabulary learning, there may be some disadvantages to this method. for example, zhang et al., (2011) demonstrated that the disadvantages include mobile phones possibly causing distractions and forgetting. similarly, hayati et al. (2013) indicated using mobile devices may lead teachers to take a passive role in the classroom, and teacher-based interaction is better and more effective than mobile devices. stockwell (2010) identifies similar results in his research favoring previous studies. as previously indicated, utilizing mobile technology, especially mobile phones, in classrooms is widespread. however, bringing technology into the classroom is not an automatic key to success. according to liu et al. (2010), important factors to consider when implementing mall include: (1) being a technology user versus being an m-learner, (2) m-learners’ consumer role, and (3) perceptions of m-learners. liu et al. (2010) indicated that students’ success does not depend only on having the necessary tools, but also on understanding the concerns and willingness of the learners. to interpret learners’ concerns and willingness, two concepts are particularly important to understand: perception and motivation. hsu (2013) emphasized that the concept of perception depends on the student profile and the affordability of the devices. this may be a problem as students’ family economic profiles may be too low to afford technological devices in the aforementioned study. hsu’s (2013) study demonstrated that such devices could not replace teachers. al-fahad (2009) culminated positive perception results in the study including 186 students replying questionnaires. however, the latter of the two studies took place in a single country, whilst the former contained an international sampling. therefore, as this issue is culture-based, perceptions may depend on the country and living conditions. using a mobile application (whatsapp) han & keskin no. 12 (january june 2016) no. 12 (january june 2016) 35 as a second learner-based variable, motivation plays a significant role for learners to adapt or to use m-learning. ilter (2009) conducted a study of 350 university students to analyze the effects of mall on their motivation. the results indicated that using technology enhances learners’ motivations. interestingly, another result of the study was that female students showed more enthusiasm for using technology in language classrooms than male students. however, to the best of our knowledge, no experimental research has investigated how to reduce foreign language anxiety, using mall. therefore, this study aimed to investigate the impact of whatsapp speaking activities on reducing the language anxiety of students in speaking classes. given the fact that language anxiety is a challenging issue in teaching and learning in both efl and esl contexts, this study aimed to examine anxietyalleviating whatsapp activities and their capacity to create a lessanxiety producing learning atmosphere in speaking classes. the reason that whatsapp was the chosen mobile application is that it is a tool that students use on a daily basis. they know how to use it. second, voice recording on whatsapp is less embarrassing than using a video recording, where a student’s image is associated with their audio. methodology research design this mixed-research study followed the one group pretestposttest design as a pre-experimental research model in which the fla of the learners before and after the application of whatsapp activities was compared. in this research design, the quantitative data included responses in the flcas scale while the qualitative data included faceto-face interviews with a randomly selected sub-sample of volunteer students from the participants. data for this study was collected in four phases. first, 39 volunteer students responded to the 33 items in the scale prior to the study (e.g. pre-course scale). the data obtained from the participants at the beginning of the study was used to examine their flca levels. second, volunteer students were invited to participate in the experiment. they were informed on how to use the whatsapp dialogue activities in the new classroom context instead of the traditional classroom teaching context (e.g. classrooms without iwbs and teacherbased interactions) because using whatsapp can turn a classroom into a non-traditional teaching context. how to use the activities was modeled for the students. the students attended whatsapp activity using a mobile application (whatsapp) han & keskin no. 12 (january june 2016) no. 12 (january june 2016) 36 classes for four weeks. first, student pairs had to write mini-dialogues using something they had learned that day. as they finished writing the dialogue, they were instructed to call their teacher to have a quick look for simple corrections for grammatical mistakes (5 mins). then, they practiced and recorded it within their whatsapp group. they listened to their dialogues to see if they were clear and also listened to dialogues by student pairs in the rest of the classroom. the speaking/recording activity was conducted every other class or even at the end of every class. mini-dialogues (about 5 lines) were proposed; these took about 10 minutes. five minutes were spent creating dialogues, and another five spent practicing and recording. the study took three weeks. during the mini-dialogue task, students were put in pairs or small groups of three to write down the dialogue. as soon as they finished, they could call their course teachers to have a look at the most serious mistakes that should be corrected. all the students were required to be added in a whatsapp group. they met with their whatsapp groups in class and recorded the dialogues using the application. the dialogues were shared, so that apart from learning from their own dialogues they could learn from each other. then, the students completed the same scale at the end of the experiment (e.g. post-course scale). the aim of collecting this data was to compare students flca before and after the experience. finally, face-to-face interviews were conducted with a random sub-sample of five students from among the participants. semistructured interview questions were predetermined and directed to them after they took the same scale. they were interviewed about the feelings they experienced during the activities. the interview was conducted in turkish, the students’ native language, to ensure the results were accurate and complete. these interviews were recorded and then transcribed. participants the target population of the study is all students receiving undergraduate level efl students in a state university in turkey. the study participants were 39 volunteer students who were receiving intermediate level foundation courses at the time of the study. although more students participated in the pre-course and post-course scale, some of them failed to attend some classes; therefore, they were excluded from the analyses. these students were attending several language skill-based courses in english at the time of the study. the using a mobile application (whatsapp) han & keskin no. 12 (january june 2016) no. 12 (january june 2016) 37 medium of instruction and exams was english. their ages ranged from 18 to 24. they were taking intensive english foundation courses in the preparatory program before starting courses related to their major. the students were assigned to the preparation-class based on a test in a criterion-referenced framework designed by the school of foreign languages of the university. the test included two sections: one testing their speaking and writing skills, and the other testing their listening, reading, grammar, and vocabulary skills. all the participants could not pass this exam based on criterion-referenced assessment. if they had passed this test, they could have been accepted as first year students and started their degree programs. data collection instruments first, a turkish version of the horwitz’s foreign language classroom anxiety scale (horwitz, horwitz, & cope, 1986) was implemented before and after the experiment to compare the students’ level of speaking anxiety. it is a tool extensively used in classroom research. the flcas includes five levels of fla in the classroom: (a) degree of anxiety, (b) extent of understanding others when speaking the foreign language, (c) fear of making mistakes in the foreign language, (d) feelings of one’s own competence, and (e) divergence from general communication apprehension. the reliability coefficient (cronbach alpha) for the turkish version of the flcas by dalkılıç (2001) was .90 (n = 126). permission to use the scale was obtained for this study. further, face-to-face interviews were conducted with a sub-sample of the volunteer participants to examine their feelings about the link between the use of the mobile application in efl speaking classes and their fla. next, whatsapp was used to carry out the dialogue activities. finally, semi-structured interview questions were applied to examine the students’ feelings about the use of whatsapp speaking activities and their level of anxiety. data analyses and interpretation a series of descriptive statistical analyses (e.g. the mean and standard deviation) and inferential statistical analyses were performed on the quantitative data. the purpose of conducting these statistical analyses was to examine the participants’ flca before and after the experience. a coding and classifying approach was used for the qualitative data analysis. first, the students’ responses pertinent to the research using a mobile application (whatsapp) han & keskin no. 12 (january june 2016) no. 12 (january june 2016) 38 questions were arranged together, categorized, and finally, analyzed according to the recurring themes (gay, mills & airasian, 2009) results the quantitative results are presented first, followed by the qualitative results. the quantitative analyses included descriptive statistics (e.g. mean and standard deviations of scores by female and male students in pre-course and post-course scale) and inferential statistics (e.g. paired and independent sample t-test results for the comparison between the scores by female and male students in pre-course and postcourse scale). table 4.1 provides the descriptive statistics while table 2, table 3, and table 4 present inferential statistical results for the data obtained from responses used in the analysis. following quantitative analyses, the qualitative analysis, including the focus group interviews, is presented. quantitative data analysis descriptive results. the descriptive data analysis was used to answer the following first research question: to what extent do the whatsapp activities impact the students’ fla? table 1. descriptive statistics for the students’ pretest and posts tests table 1 provides the detailed descriptive statistics regarding the participants’ anxiety level before and after the whatsapp experience. first, the mean score difference between females and males increased in the post-course scale (e.g. after the whatsapp experience) compared to pre-course scale (e.g. before whatsapp experience). however, the mean score difference of the females between pre-course and postusing a mobile application (whatsapp) han & keskin no. 12 (january june 2016) no. 12 (january june 2016) 39 course scale was higher than the males’ score, indicating that males were experiencing higher levels of anxiety than females, yet the females lowered their anxiety after the four-week whatsapp course. the standard deviations in both pre-course and post-course are very similar, but the deviations between males and females are quite different, indicating that males and females had different levels of foreign language anxiety. inferential statistical results. the inferential statistics including independent and paired sample t-test were used to answer the second research question: are there any significant differences between male and female students in terms of fla before and after the application of whatsapp activities? table 2. independent sample t-test results for the comparison between female and male students flca levels in the pre-course scale table 2 shows the independent sample t-test results for the comparison of male and female students before the whatsapp experience. the results proved that there was no significant difference between males and females in terms of fla (p > 0.05), indicating that female and male students had similar levels of fla before the experiment. table 3. t-test results for the comparison between female and male students’ flca levels in the post-course scale table 3 shows the independent sample t-test results for the comparison between male and female students after the whatsapp experience. the results demonstrate that there was no significant using a mobile application (whatsapp) han & keskin no. 12 (january june 2016) no. 12 (january june 2016) 40 difference between males and females in terms of fla (p > 0.05), indicating that female and male students had a similar level of fla after the experiment. table 4. paired sample t-test results for the comparison between female and male students’ flca levels in the posttest table 4 shows the paired sample t-test results for the comparison of the students’ fla before and after the experience. the results indicate that there was a significant difference between the fla levels of the students before and after the experience (p > 0.05) and the mean score decreased after the experience. this result indicates that the whatsapp experience impacted the students’ fla levels and they were able to alleviate their anxiety to some extent. overall, both the descriptive and inferential statistics showed that although female and male students had different levels of anxiety before and after the whatsapp experience, females were able to alleviate their anxieties more than males. furthermore, using whatsapp in speaking classes significantly impacted their fla levels, indicating that they experienced less anxiety after the experience. qualitative data analysis results this section includes analysis of the focus group interviews conducted with the sub-sample of five interviewees in turkish. first, the voice-recorded interviews were transcribed by one of the researchers. then, the researcher translated the students’ responses from turkish to english. the other researcher of this study doublechecked both the transcriptions and translations. the aim of conducting the interview in the learners’ native language (e.g. turkish) was to encourage more detailed responses. finally, the analysis was made based on recurring themes following gay, mills and airasian’s (2009) coding and classifying approach. these analyses were used to answer the following research question: how do the students feel about the whatsapp experience? using a mobile application (whatsapp) han & keskin no. 12 (january june 2016) no. 12 (january june 2016) 41 the analysis of the students’ feelings about the whatsapp activity experience indicated that they mostly liked the idea of using whatsapp in the classroom and they felt that it contributed to their language performance. however, student a did not have positive feelings about the experience. some excerpts from the interviews are below: actually i do not think it made me gain some experience. i was just a part of it because you want me to do it. i do not think it contributed anything to me. i try to pronounce words accurately and clearly. [student a] i think it was very helpful. listening my own voice afterwards over and over again helped me improve myself. [student b] i think it improved our writing, speaking, and pronunciation. it made us see and understand ourselves in a better way. [student c] i think this study was really good. i improved my pronunciation, and i speeded up making sentences. now i think i can make conversations with my friends in english. i think it is a good activity. i recommend this. i liked it. [student d] i have very positive opinion about it. using such social application in education is really good. you had mentioned us that it may help us improve our speaking and make us gain more self-confidence. i already do not have such problems but i can see, and i hear some of my friends talking how they overcame such problems thanks to this activity. [student e] next, students were asked to indicate the thing that affected them most during the experience. the students gave different answers to this question. three students reported that it created an opportunity for listening to their voice-recordings themselves and this enabled them to find their mistakes. furthermore, they felt they had more freedom in creating sentences while writing and speaking. another student reported that feeling being able to speak and being listened to by other students affected him/her most. i was just wondering how my voice was on the recording. it was the only thing i cared. [student a] listening to my own voice afterwards over and over again, and the fact that other people listen the way i speak affected me most. [student b] it helped me write well, and it made me understand my mistakes as i listen to myself. [student c] firstly, my pronunciation gets faster and improved. instead of thinking, i speeded up making sentences not only in writing but also and speaking sentences. i liked it. [student d] using a mobile application (whatsapp) han & keskin no. 12 (january june 2016) no. 12 (january june 2016) 42 i had pronunciation problems. before we recorded our speaking, we had help of our teacher to correct us. then, we recorded ourselves after we practiced those pronunciations. therefore, it helped me correct my pronunciation [student e] finally, students indicated if they are eager to continue using whatsapp for improving their language skills as a part of classroom activity for the future. two students responded negatively; one student felt that the experience was boring and the other student was reluctant. however, other students reported that they could continue using whatsapp either in classroom atmosphere or by making groups. if you want me to i will otherwise i won’t because i think it is boring. [student a] i don’t think i will because 3 weeks was enough for me to improve myself. [student b] it is hard to go on outside but if it went on in the classroom yes i want to continue. if the necessary conditions were present, i would continue. [student c] yes, i think maintaining this in the school. especially with my foreign friends. [student d] yes, because when we do such group work, we improve ourselves as we both speak and listen others speaking. [student e] conclusions the quantitative data analysis suggests that even though males were experiencing higher level of anxiety than females, the females could lower their speaking anxiety more than males after the whatsapp experience. furthermore, the whatsapp experience significantly impacted the students’ fla levels and they were able to lessen their anxieties somewhat and therefore they experienced less anxiety after the experience. the qualitative data analyses explained how this effect occurred. first, interview data analyses showed that the students mostly liked the whatsapp activity experience and they felt that it could improve their language performance. second, the students reported that the experience gave them a chance to listen to their voice-recordings themselves and have their recordings evaluated by an audience, thus enabling them to self-evaluate by questioning their mistakes. in addition, the experience fostered their creativity in constructing new sentences in speech and writing. using a mobile application (whatsapp) han & keskin no. 12 (january june 2016) no. 12 (january june 2016) 43 lastly, students were not sure about continuing to use whatsapp for improving their language skills in a classroom atmosphere, but there is still a possibility to use it during in-class activities. there are two major limitations that need to be addressed regarding this study. first, the interview data examined the situation from only students’ perspectives; this might have limited the qualitative results of the study. additionally, observations for student-student and student-teacher-interaction may be a viable alternative to interviews. second, this study collected data only from english major students. participants from different fields and from different proficiency levels in english may lead to different results. in light of the limitations mentioned above, the following suggestions are proposed. first, the students were mostly enthusiastic toward the idea of using whatsapp in classroom based on the interviews; this enthusiasm can foster language development. this result was supported by some previous literature (e.g. al-fahad, 2009; hsu, 2013; ilter, 2009). even though this study did not examine the experience from the teachers’ perspectives, several previous studies again confirmed that both teachers and students like using mobile devices in efl classrooms (e.g. arnold, 2007; albirini, 2006; cui & wang, 2008; golonka et al., 2014; hashemi et al., 2011; şad & göktaş, 2014; tayebinik & puteh, 2012; taylor, 2013; ulusoy, 2006; usun, 2003). therefore, this study aligns with prior work (ilter, 2009) that demonstrates that students can be motivated toward foreign language learning using such mobile technologies. krashen’s affective filter hypothesis states that if learners have low motivation and high anxiety, such affective variables will act as obstacles for the delivery of input to the language acquisition device (mclaughlin, 1987). second, the students in this study reported that the whatsapp experience offered them a chance to listen to their voice-recordings themselves and be evaluated by an audience. this made them feel good; therefore, they could become positively self-aware in self-evaluation by questioning their mistakes. learner characteristics such as “inability to comprehend, self-perceived low level of anxiety, competitiveness, perfectionism, self-awareness, speaking activities, test anxiety, fluent speakers’ presence, students’ beliefs about language learning, lack of group membership with peers, fear of negative evaluation, negative classroom experiences, etc.” (nimat, 2013, p.23) cause anxiety. it can be suggested that the motivation and positive self-awareness levels of students can be increased by such a tool, and then they could develop a lower level affective filtering toward input. using a mobile application (whatsapp) han & keskin no. 12 (january june 2016) no. 12 (january june 2016) 44 third, the students reported that they could see improvement in their pronunciation and other language skills. this result aligns with previous research (alemi, et al., 2012; çavuş & i̇brahim, 2009¸ lu, 2008). therefore, efl students should be trained to use this mobile application by forming groups with their classmates to improve language skills. students could even be trained on how to use whatsapp as a vocabulary learning strategy tool. for example, sharing new vocabulary they learnt after each class. training students to use strategies plays an important role in fostering learner autonomy; learners become more autonomous as they take responsibility of their own learning (ellis, 2008). in addition, some students reported that it is not a good idea to use whatsapp as an out-class activity. this may be because they are accustomed to teacher-based interaction in a conventional classroom setting. some studies supported this finding (hayati et al., 2013; liu et al., 2010; stockwell, 2010) as they suggested that such tools cannot replace teacher roles. therefore, it can be suggested that teachers can develop new whatsapp activities for pronunciation and vocabulary learning as in-class or out-of-class activities because some studies have found positive effects on improvement of pronunciation and vocabulary (alemi, et al., 2012; başoğlu & akdemir, 2010; lu, 2008; saran, et al., 2009) lastly, the quantitative results of this study showed that there were greater decreases in anxiety among females after the whatsapp experience. as reported by previous research (ilter, 2009), females have more enthusiasm for using technology in language classrooms. this may explain why their anxiety levels decreased more than the levels of anxiety in the males. in conclusion, from the perspective of educational practice, this paper provides new experimental data on the topic of mall. it also gives evidence the use of mobile phones contribute to improvement of educational outcomes specifically promoting new learning (valk, rashid & elder, 2014). as such, it helped students to individualize their learning. these research results might be included in the materials for teachers’ continuing professional development (cpd) programs, language learning and teaching materials (hayati et al., 2013) and might be taken into account within foreign language course planning procedure, particularly in course syllabi. finally, this study did not examine the link between anxiety and students with different efl proficiency levels and furthermore, teacher perspectives are not within the scope of this study. further research should include participants with varying efl proficiency levels and language teaching professionals. using a mobile application (whatsapp) han & keskin no. 12 (january june 2016) no. 12 (january june 2016) 45 acknowledgements we would like to thank dear ana maria menezes, -online moderator of connect me education-, for her invaluable suggestion in the design of the activities. also, we would like to thank gist’s editorial team, especially josephine taylor, for their critical comments on this manuscript. using a mobile application (whatsapp) han & keskin no. 12 (january june 2016) no. 12 (january june 2016) 46 references al-fahad, f. n. 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(1998). computers and language learning: an overview. language teaching, 31(02), 57-71. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s0261444800012970 whatsapp official webpage (2015). how it works. retrieved from https://www.whatsapp.com/?l=en on 09.10.2015 zhang, h., song, w., & burston, j. (2011). reexamining the effectiveness of vocabulary learning via mobile phones. turkish online journal of educational technology-tojet, 10(3), 203-214. using a mobile application (whatsapp) han & keskin no. 12 (january june 2016) no. 12 (january june 2016) 50 authors *turgay han is assistant professor in the department of english language and literature, faculty of letters of kafkas university. his areas of research centre on individual differences in language learning, technology and language learning, efl measurement and assessment issues. his areas of scholarship include assessing language skills, using generalizability theory to examine score variability and reliability of efl writing assessments. *fırat keskin is an english instructor at fırat university, school of foreign languages, and he is also an ma student at department of english language and literature, faculty of letters of kafkas university. his areas of research are educational technologies in foreign language teaching/learning, and efl measurement and assessment. using a mobile application (whatsapp) no. 12 (january june 2016) no. 12 (january june 2016) 142 interaction in a blended environment for english language learning1 interacción en un ambiente combinado para el aprendizaje del inglés yuranny marcela romero archila2* universidad pedagógica y tecnológica de colombia, uptc, colombia abstract the purpose of this research was to identify the types of interaction that emerged not only in a virtual learning environment (vle) but also in faceto-face settings. the study also assessed the impact of the different kinds of interactions in terms of language learning. this is a qualitative case study that took place in a private colombian university. theories related to interaction, foreign language learning, and the use of technology in the efl classroom were taken into account for analyzing the data. the data revealed a new type of interaction and the need to have specific subdivisions of the established types of interaction. keywords: blended learning (b-learning), english as a foreign language, interaction, virtual learning environment (vle) resumen el propósito de esta investigación fue identificar los tipos de interacción que surgieron no solo en los ambientes virtuales de aprendizaje sino también, en los ambientes presenciales. además, este estudio evaluó el impacto de los diferentes tipos de interacción en función de aprendizaje de una lengua extranjera. ésta es una investigación cualitativa que se llevó a cabo en una universidad colombiana privada. teorías relacionadas con interacción, aprendizaje de inglés como lengua extranjera y el uso de la tecnología en el aula de clase fueron tenidas en cuenta para el análisis de la información. los resultados revelaron un nuevo tipo de interacción y la necesidad de tener sub-divisiones específicas de los 1 received: july 21, 2014 / accepted: october 6, 2014 2 yurannymar@hotmail.com gist education and learning research journal. issn 1692-5777. no. 9, (julydecember) 2014. pp. 142-156. romero no. 9 (july december 2014) no. 9 (july december 2014) 143 tipos de interacción establecidos. palabras clave: aprendizaje combinado (b-learning), inglés como lengua extranjera, interacción, ambientes virtuales de aprendizaje (ava) resumo o propósito desta pesquisa foi identificar os tipos de interação que surgiram não só nos ambientes virtuais de aprendizagem senão também, nos ambientes presenciais. além do mais, este estudo avaliou o impacto dos diferentes tipos de interação em função da aprendizagem de uma língua estrangeira. esta é uma pesquisa qualitativa efetuada em uma universidade colombiana privada. teorias relacionadas com interação, aprendizagem de inglês como língua estrangeira e o uso da tecnologia em sala de aula, foram consideradas para a análise da informação. os resultados revelaram um novo tipo de interação e a necessidade de ter subdivisões específicas dos tipos de interação estabelecidos. palavras chave: aprendizagem combinado (b-learning), inglês como língua estrangeira, interação, ambientes virtuais de aprendizagem (ava) introduction this research has two core aspects: interaction and blended learning. the former is one of the topics that concerns most of language teachers because as brown (1994) mentions, “in the era of communicative language teaching, interaction is, in fact the heart of communication; it is what communication is all about” (p. 169). therefore, the main purpose of learning foreign languages is to interact with other people to broaden perspectives in order to better understand and comprehend our own culture and also to be aware of cultural differences. blended learning, the latter, can be understood in different ways; sharma & barrett (2007) define blended learning (b-learning) as follows: “blended learning refers to a course which combines a face to face classroom component with an appropriate use of technology” (sharma & barrett 2007: 7). the university in question has its own virtual platform for pedagogical purposes; nevertheless, it had not been previously used for foreign language teaching and learning and research in this area since its implementation. consequently, the purpose of this research was to design and implement a virtual module based on a blended learning approach and then, identify and analyze the emergent types of interaction for language learning in both settings (on-line and face romero no. 9 (july december 2014) no. 9 (july december 2014) 144 to face). the interaction models of gilbert & moore (1998) and hanna, glowacki-dudka & conceição-runlee (2000) were taken into account for the development of this research project. the results revealed a new type of interaction and the need to have specific subdivisions of the established types and subtypes of interaction. literature review blended learning for language learning according to sharma & barrett (2007), the term blended learning (b-learning) was first used by business people for situations in which employees could work, and at the same time take a training course without interfering with their work activities, saving time and money. authors such as frendo (2005), bonk & graham (2005), and others have defined blended learning as a mix between face-to-face instruction and online classes. in sharma & barrett’s words, “blended learning can exploit the best of both worlds” (2007, p. 8). lam, akkerman, horst, de laat, and monachesi (as cited in klink, 2006) mention, “the correct blend of blended learning must be aimed so that there is an overlap in the resources, because the students should be able to obtain the same information by means of several formats and manners” (p. 26). however, some blended learning courses have been designed in such a way that there is no combination between the delivery methods. the connection between blended learning and language learning has had a long process. technology has been used in different fields of knowledge including learning of english as a foreign language. call stands for computer assisted language learning and is commonly defined as using computers in the language classroom. kessler (2007) suggests that call is not being used adequately due to the lack of teachers’ knowledge in the area of creation and preparation of call materials to be used by students. kessler (2007) also gives some steps when using call; those steps include pre-, duringand post-computer work. it means that the work done in the computer should not be isolated from the activities done in class. this is exactly the purpose of b-learning, to integrate the contents students receive in the platform and in classroom to reinforce knowledge. leakey & ranchoux (2006) connect call and blended learning as follows: blended learning in call is the adaptation in a local context of previous interaction in a blended learning environment romero no. 9 (july december 2014) no. 9 (july december 2014) 145 call and noncall into an integrated program of language teaching and learning drawing on different mixes of media and delivery to produce an optimum mix that addresses the unique needs and demands of that context. (p. 398) thus, there are advantages to using blended learning for language learning, including the variety of activities teachers can develop, bearing in mind the students’ needs, not only by using computer resources, but also with the use of non-computer resources. interaction interaction is a broad term; for this reason, authors such as kumaravadivelu (2003), gilbert and moore (1998), and hanna, glowacki-dudka and conceição-runlee (2000) have studied and classified different types of interaction, but in two different fields of study. the former has focused on second language learning and the latter in blended learning. student-content interaction, studentstudent interaction and student-teacher interaction are the three types of interaction (gilbert & moore, 1998). this is complemented by hanna, glowacki-dudka, and conceição-runlee (2000), who classify interaction in blended learning approaches as human and non-human interactions. human interaction as mentioned by hanna, et al. (2000), this type of interaction includes student-student interaction, student-teacher interaction and student-guest interaction. according to moore (1989), studentteacher interaction has as main purpose to motivate students to use the contents and provide them with enough material to practice it. studentstudent interaction, as mentioned by gilbert and moore (1998), is quite important for learning, but it depends on different factors such as students’ ages, experience with the language, and how autonomous students are. non-human interaction non-human interactions include student-tool interaction, studentenvironment interaction, and student–content interaction. student-tool and student-environment interactions are similar in essence because both refer to the communication between the student and the vle. this involves knowing how to use the tools as well as the vle, and having interaction in a blended learning environment romero no. 9 (july december 2014) no. 9 (july december 2014) 146 the appropriate technological skills. gilbert and moore (1998) define learner-content interaction as “the process of intellectually interacting with content that results in changes in the learner’s understanding, the learner’s perspective, or the cognitive structures of the learner’s mind” (1998, p. 2). hillman, willis and gunawardena (1994) added learnerself interaction which is about students’ reflections and analysis over their own learning process and which could be integrated to human interaction. methodology research design this is a qualitative research because it does not aim to count how many times interaction is present in a blended learning setting for language learning or to show a cause-effect relationship between two or more variables. rather, it seeks to describe and analyze the ways in which interaction might be found in a blended learning environment for language learning at a private university in colombia. the main question of this study is the following: how is interaction when using a blended learning approach for foreign language learning? context and participants the study took place at a private mid-sized university in colombia. the study participants were 17 people; 1 english teacher and 16 third semester students (5 males and 11 females) enrolled in a nonenglish major program (students of different health care undergraduate programs), and who were enrolled in a first level english i class. instructional design of the vle. the university has its own vle divided into eight different resources including the following: 1) free content, 2) forums, 3) team activity area, 4) true/ false tests, 5) multiple choice tests, 6) glossary, 7) activity reception area and 8) a specific area where the tutor can track how students explore the vle. the true/false and multiple choice tests have no limit of tries. this virtual module lasted 13 weeks. students from the school of health sciences developed different activities, both on the vle as well as in the classroom as part of the face-to-face component. there was an overlap in the activities designed for each of the environments; the material and activities in both environments were closely connected so that students could go back and forth from one environment to the other to complement the information. interaction in a blended learning environment romero no. 9 (july december 2014) no. 9 (july december 2014) 147 data collection instruments semi-structured interviews were used in order to have a clear direction and theme, but still allowing the participants to express their points of view and expand on answers. those interviews were conducted at the beginning and in the middle of the study. the students’ reflections were used in order to gain information about their insights and views in respect to their english learning on a blended learning environment. in addition, physical and virtual artifacts were also used to analyze the different types of interaction found in the vle and in the classroom. finally, another instrument included a diary kept by the teacher/researcher in order to write and reflect on students’ responses and attitudes in terms of interaction and other evidenced aspects. data analysis and interpretation for this study, the category construction approach was followed, which consists of organizing the collected data, reducing text and generating categories by finding similar patterns (bogdan & biklen 1992). during the analysis, the data gathered through the instruments was compared to find consistencies and differences. after analyzing the data, two categories emerged: the first category is the three “ws” of interaction (whom, when and where). it received this name because interaction happened among people (who), who changed depending on the environment (where), and occurred in different circumstances and moments (when). the second category includes the factors that influenced interaction in blended learning environments for foreign language learning. it was possible to see aspects that positively or negatively influenced the interaction. results by analyzing the sources of data, it was possible to evidence that human and non-human interactions were present in the vle and face to face settings; however, the degree of the subtypes of human interaction changed depending on the delivery method (on-line or face to face). there were also other external factors that hindered both interaction and other factors that fostered them. additionally, a new type of interaction that was not previously discussed appeared. the information was organized into the following categories. interaction in a blended learning environment romero no. 9 (july december 2014) no. 9 (july december 2014) 148 the three “ws” of human interaction in this study, it was necessary to have a sub-division of the types of interaction discussed earlier, specifically human and non-human interaction, because the delivery method (virtual or face-to-face) modified how human interaction occurred. for instance, there was permanent student-student interaction in face-to-face activities, but there was no student-student interaction in the vle because participants did not have the need to use the vle for interacting with their classmates. further, having more contact with the teacher in the vle encouraged some of the participants to interact with her in both environments. in the first subcategory, there is an analysis of human interaction for language learning, not only in the vle but also in face to face settings. interacting with students and teacher. interacting in the foreign language should be one of the main goals for language teachers because languages are for communicating; interaction as mentioned by brown (1994) is an important part of communication. nevertheless, by analyzing the sources of data, it was possible to see that there was no student-student interaction for language learning in the vle. there were no replies to classmates’ opinions in forums, nor was there feedback or discussion among students even though there were spaces designed for this kind of interaction. there was no student-student interaction throughout the four proposed forums, and none of the participants wrote a reply to his/her classmates. when questioning students about the reasons for not using this tool, most of the participants expressed that it was because they did not feel the need to interact in this environment since they were in constant contact with their classmates in the face to face settings. they gathered together in order to develop a specific activity of the class. for instance, for the group activity in the vle, most of the students looked for specific moments to get together with classmates in order to fulfill the task, as could also be evidenced and registered in the diary. students discussed and planned the group work to be posted in the vle: “see you in the library on thursday at 10 to practice english.”3 “who can practice on wednesday at 5?4 interaction in a blended learning environment romero 3 “nos vemos el jueves a las 10 en la biblioteca para trabajar lo de inglés.” 4 “¿quién puede practicar el miércoles a las 5?” no. 9 (july december 2014) no. 9 (july december 2014) 149 however, some students did read other classmates’ opinions as a basis for their own participation. “…one can see others’ opinions in the forum, and it helped me to write my own text, for instance, i did not know what the participation was about, i knew it was a self-presentation but i did not know it was so specific with likes and dislikes. so, one can see the forum of other people and use them as a guide to write mine.”5 student-student interaction is “regarded as essential by many educators and highly desirable by many learners” (moore, 1989, p. 2). in the classroom, there was studentstudent interaction in the foreign language. first, there were dialogues which were prepared in advance, which is not acknowledged as interaction by herazo (2010) who argues that student-student interaction in the efl class should be spontaneous with no preparation in order to be authentic oral communication. however, these rehearsed dialogues were not the end of the activity because at first, students followed the model and then spontaneity appeared when students asked their classmates questions about a specific topic without previous preparation or talk about unrehearsed topics thanks to the input given in the vle and in the classroom. student-teacher interaction in the foreign language increased in face-to-face settings as well as in the online component. students were eager to use the language with the teacher, as the following entry of the diary says: “i met some students at the cafeteria and they say hello and try to talk in english, this is something unusual on them” this indicates that teacher-student interaction transcended the classroom walls allowing students more opportunities to interact informally with the teacher using the foreign language without fear of making mistakes but with the purpose of expressing an idea. another example in a face-to-face setting occurred when students were interacting with the biomechanics teacher, they asked for information about the human body, joints and muscles by using simple structures. these interactions were recorded in one of the entries of the diary: “students were excited to be in the physical therapy lab; they tried to speak in english with the biomechanics teacher and with the 5 “… en el foro uno puede ver las opiniones y basarse mucho, por ejemplo, yo no sabía bien de que era que se trataba la participación sabía que era la presentación pero no sabía que era tan especifica con lo que le gustaba, no le gustaba, entonces uno puede ver los foros de las otras personas entonces es como basarse para uno poder hacer el de uno.” interaction in a blended learning environment romero no. 9 (july december 2014) no. 9 (july december 2014) 150 classmates. this is what i could listen: student 1: ‘what is this?’ (pointing to a skeleton) biomechanics teacher: fibula student: write please (the teacher wrote the word on a blackboard) as can be seen, students used simple language to communicate with their teachers and classmates, and they also reflected on how similar spanish and english are in technical terminology. the teacher was not seen as someone who was always transmitting knowledge but as someone who was learning from students too because as students were familiar with the topics and they had some background knowledge, it was easier for them to use the language and there was an exchange of knowledge; one of the entries of the diary says: “it was fun! students had to explain to me the differences between the joints and where i can find them; i’m learning too” the use of the vle allowed more contact and interaction between teacher and students where distance and time was not a problem, as evidenced below: figure 1. example of student-teacher interaction in the vle. interaction in a blended learning environment romero no. 9 (july december 2014) no. 9 (july december 2014) 151 in student-teacher interaction, there was no error correction but rather stimuli for the student to provide more information and at the same time use the language for expressing their own perceptions and ideas. at the beginning of the study, the tracking system made it possible to identify that there was no student-environment interaction. participants did not read or analyze the information posted in the virtual module. one of the teachers wonder about this as expressed in one of the entries of the diary: was the language used too complex for the level of students? were the contents too long or were students not interested on the contents? with this reflection it is possible to evidence one new type of interaction which has not been studied yet, and which is called teacherself interaction, in which she questions herself on the way in which the information was posted in order to have a better understanding of what was happening. in other words, it allowed herself to reflect about her teaching process. factors that influenced interaction in blended learning environments for foreign language learning. in the second category, there is an analysis of different factors that influence interaction in the vle at the university. this is because the use of technology is not a guarantee of a successful learning, nor does it not mean than interaction can be taken for granted in these environments. sometimes it is taken for granted that students know how to use different technological tools because they are young and belong to the digital generation (prensky, 2011). however, it is necessary to have in mind that in colombia there is a digital divide, in which not all people have the same access to technology and consequently, computer literacy is not the same. as mentioned before, students did not receive any face-to-face introduction to the vle, which limited their specific knowledge on the use of certain tools and aspects of the vle. in this study, the unfamiliarity with the virtual learning environment operation influenced interaction because some students did not know how to use and take advantage of the available tools in the vle for practicing the language. furthermore, interaction was hindered due to some problems with the server and the instability of the network system. consequently, a sub-category emerged about an analysis of the factors that influenced interaction positively or negatively. struggling with the vle and facing technical problem. students were not only dealing with learning a foreign language; some of them also tried to figure out how to use the vle and they faced different interaction in a blended learning environment romero no. 9 (july december 2014) no. 9 (july december 2014) 152 technical problems. interaction between the learner and the interface was an obstacle to having other types of interaction (hillman, willis and gunawardena, 1994). this may be because the lack of knowledge on how to use the vle affected other types of interaction and also students’ performance in the online activities. their responses show awareness on the need to know how to use the vle in order to keep up with the class activities: “hi teacher, i don’t know but i would like to have a practice class about the virtual module and the main doubts such as how to follow the content and the activities to be developed ….”6 in several entries of the diary, it was possible to identify some issues related to how the unfamiliarity with the vle hinders a proper interaction in this kind of environment: “how can students have access to the available material if they do not know how to get it? the explanation in the vle is really superficial and does not show in deep all the resources it offers to students; we are investing time of the class for showing students how to post a comment in a forum.” if all students know how to use the vle, there are equal opportunities for all when using it. this did not happen in this study, and as a result, students who lacked this basic knowledge invested more time that could have be used in the development of activities instead of trying to figure out how to start the work. for example, in one of the virtual artifacts (the forum for uploading the activity), 78% of the participants spent more time asking about how to upload a document than doing the exercise. this is the case of the recording, in which students spent a lot of time in understanding how to record their voice and upload it and some of them did not pay too much attention on the pronunciation as evidenced in the artifacts (recordings). this might not have happened if students knew how to upload the document in advance. on the contrary, 22% of the students used the time to practice pronunciation and repeat it several times as evidenced in the second interview and in the artifacts, when asked about the amount of time they were using for practicing the foreign language in face to face settings and also in the vle; they said: 6 “hola profe no se, pero me encanaria [encantaría]uqe [que] tubierams [tuviéramos] una clae [clase] practica en cuanto a al[al] odulo [modulo] virtual, algunas de las mayores dudas son como seguir con el contenido de las activoades [actividades]….” interaction in a blended learning environment romero no. 9 (july december 2014) no. 9 (july december 2014) 153 “i laughed when i listened to my recording, i did not like it; so i had to record it over and over again.” 7 “…repeating it like for an hour, just tos ay the first part of the text.”8 these previous examples also show that students were reflecting on their own performances and it enabled student-self interaction because they spent more time to reflecting on the content and their own performance rather than finding a solution to a technical problem. because of the technical problems, interaction with the teacher increased. in some cases, this student-teacher interaction was focused on technical issues and problem solving, and this situation empowered the teacher to use english to help students to decipher what the problem was; this interaction took place not only in the vle but also in face-toface settings. “at the end of the class, students asked some questions about the use of certain tools in the vle and some pronunciation tips.” some people criticize e-learning for language learning because it does not allow real interaction or a real use of the language. in this research, it was possible to demonstrate how students were using the language for communicating about technical problems and they did it in the foreign language. as brown (1994) explains, people learn to interact by interacting with others and taking the risk to communicate something in the foreign language because we have a purpose for expressing ourselves, in that moment. in the forums, students were free to exchange opinions in spanish or english, and some of them gradually started to use the foreign language. they made some mistakes, but the message was understood and it was possible to give a reply. in addition, there was interaction and communication in the foreign language with the teacher in order to solve technical problems. for instance, in the “questions forum” which was designed to solve different students’ inquiries, a student wrote: “hi teacher the activity is very good, is a very good way agreeable and entertained to learn english, but teacher i have a problem, the crossword me does not appear that i doooooooooooooooooooooooooo? can you help me??? ahhhhhhhhh (so crazy!!!!) jajajaj thank you good night and take care.” interaction in a blended learning environment romero 7 “yo me reía de escucharme, y no me gustaba entonces me tocaba grabar una y otra vez.” 8 “…repitiéndolo, como una hora para decir el primer pedacito del texto.” no. 9 (july december 2014) no. 9 (july december 2014) 154 the previous example shows that the student was trying to express herself in english even though she was allowed to write in spanish. in this case, the interaction is person-to-person, and it was not limited by time or space (cámara, 2006). the student expressed herself and gave her opinion in the foreign language; she wanted to communicate a message and was free to use english to express what she wanted. conclusions in general terms, it is not only necessary to divide interaction in two main (human and non-human) types and its specific divisions; it is also significant to have subdivisions depending on the environment this takes places because, for example, student-student was evidenced in face-to-face, but it was not observed in the vle. the use of the virtual module did not promote any student-student interaction in the vle among students because students did not feel the need to work in the vle, and also due to a lack of knowledge of the available tools in the vle. on the contrary, in the face to face settings, the student-student interaction increased. they looked for different opportunities to use the foreign language in simple sentences to express opinions and ask questions. furthermore, the support given by the teacher in the virtual module helped to enhance student-teacher interaction in the vle, and consequently, students were also willing to interact in the foreign language with the teacher outside the class. it also occurred because it was a stress free environment. the anxiety level decreased because interaction was not directly focused on error correction but on the use of the foreign language for communicative purposes. the inclusion of the virtual component was time consuming because it was necessary to give a comment to all the students’ responses, so that they could feel that they were not alone in their language learning process. a new type of interaction emerged in human interaction called teacher-self interaction. this is as important as the other types of interaction because the teacher is also reflecting on the teaching process for helping students with their own learning process. nonhuman interaction was limited due to insufficient computer skills and not enough knowledge on the use of the vle by some students. it is also required to maintain the faceto-face introduction of how to use the vle as it used to be in this specific context for helping students better understand the platform and its main tools. however, there is still a interaction in a blended learning environment romero no. 9 (july december 2014) no. 9 (july december 2014) 155 need to do some changes in the vle, so that students can have a limit of tries or a limit of time and consequently, the tutor can know more about the students’ performance; a different kind of feedback should be given to students in this kind of environment. references bogdan, r. & biklen, s. (1992). qualitative research for education: an introduction to theory and methods. boston: allyn & bacon. bonk, c. & graham, c. (2005). handbook of blended learning: global perspectives, local designs. san francisco, ca: pfeiffer publishing. brown, h. (1994). teaching by principles. englewood cliffs, nj: prentice hall. cámara, p. (2006). el uso de una plataforma virtual como recurso didáctico en la asignatura de filosofía. una investigaciónacción en bachillerato. spain: universidad autónoma de barcelona. retrieved from http://www.tdr.cesca.es/tesis_uab/available/tdx1031107-155233/mpcs1de1.pdf ellis, r. (1999). learning a second language through interaction. amsterdam: john benjamins. frendo, e (2005). how to teach business english harlow: longman gilbert, l. & moore, d. (1998). building interactivity into web sources: tools for social and instructional interaction. educational technology, 38(3), 29-35. hanna, d., glowacki-dudka, m. & conceição-runlee, s. (2000). 147 practical tips for teaching online groups. essentials of web-based education. madison: atwood publishing. herazo, j. (2010). authentic oral interaction in the efl class: what it means, what it does not. profile, 12(1), 47-61. hillman, d., willis, d. & gunawardena, c. (1994). learner-interface interaction in distance education: an extension of contemporary models and strategies for practitioners. the american journal of distance education, 8(2), 30 – 42. kessler, g. (2007). formal and informal call preparation and teacher attitude toward technology. computer assisted language learning, 20(2), 173-188. interaction in a blended learning environment romero no. 9 (july december 2014) no. 9 (july december 2014) 156 klink, m. 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(1989). three types of interaction. the american journal of distance education, 3(2), 1-6. prensky, m (2001) digital natives, digital inmigrants. retrieved from: http://www.marcprensky.com/writing/prensky%20-%20digital%20 natives,%20digital%20immigrants%20-%20part1.pdf sharma, p. & barret, b. (2007) blended learning: using technology in and beyond the language classroom. thailand: macmillan su, b., bonk, c. j., magjuka, r., liu, x., lee, s. h. (2005). the importance of interaction in web-based education: a program-level case study of online mba courses. journal of interactive online learning, 4(1). retrieved from http://www.ncolr.org/jiol/issues/ pdf/4.1.1.pdf author *yuranny marcela romero archila, holds a bachelor’s in education in foreign languages and an ma in foreign language teaching from the universidad pedagógica y tecnológica de colombia (uptc). currently, she is a full time teacher at the uptc and belongs to the research groups bilingüismo y aprendizaje autónomo and joie. she has taught students from kindergarten to university levels in private and public institutions. interaction in a blended learning environment no. 9 (july december 2014) no. 9 (july december 2014) 32 oral skills development through the use of language learning strategies, podcasting and collaborative work1 el desarrollo de la habilidad oral a través del uso de estrategias de aprendizaje de lengua, los podcasts y el trabajo colaborativo martha sedeida devia grisales and andersson smith garcía cruz2* universidad del tolima, colombia abstract this article describes an action research project carried out at a public school in ibagué, colombia. through a qualitative approach, the project aimed to illustrate the impact of using podcasting, language learning strategies and collaborative work in the development of tenth graders’ oral skills. the intervention involved planning, implementing, monitoring and evaluating oral tasks including contextualized and meaningful settings; students’ performance was analyzed with the help of surveys, questionnaires, and the podcasts themselves. the results evidenced how students were positively influenced by these strategies to improve their oral skills. keywords: language learning strategies, metacognition, podcast, collaborative work. resumen este artículo describe un proyecto de investigación-acción llevado a cabo en una escuela pública en la ciudad de ibagué, colombia. a través de un método de investigación cualitativo, el propósito del estudio fue el de ilustrar el impacto del 1 received: january 17, 2017/accepted: april 17, 2017 2 msdevia@misena.edu.co/ asgarciac@ut.edu.co devia & garcíagist education and learning research journal. issn 1692-5777. no.14. (january june) 2017. pp. 32-48. no. 14 (january june 2017) no. 14 (january june 2017) 33 uso de podcasts, estrategias de aprendizaje de lengua, y el trabajo colaborativo en el desarrollo de las habilidades orales de estudiantes de décimo grado. la intervención incluyó la planeación, implementación monitoreo y evaluación de tareas de habla que hacían uso de escenarios contextualizados y significativos. el desempeño de los estudiantes se analizó con la ayuda de encuestas, cuestionarios, y los mismos podcasts. los resultados evidenciaron cómo los estudiantes fueron influenciados de manera positiva por estas estrategias para mejorar sus habilidades orales. palabras clave: estrategias de aprendizaje de lengua, metacognición, podcast, trabajo colaborativo. resumo este artigo descreve um projeto de pesquisa-ação realizada em uma escola pública na cidade de ibagué, colômbia. através de um método de pesquisa qualitativo, a finalidade do estudo foi a de ilustrar o impacto do uso de podcasts, estratégias da aprendizagem de língua, e o trabalho colaborativo no desenvolvimento das habilidades orais de estudantes de 2º ano do ensino médio. a intervenção incluiu o planejamento, implementação monitoramento e avaliação de tarefas de fala que usavam cenários contextualizados e significativos. o desempenho dos estudantes foi analisado com a ajuda de enquetes, questionários, e os mesmos podcasts. os resultados evidenciaram como os estudantes foram influenciados de maneira positiva por estas estratégias para melhorar as suas habilidades orais. palavras chave: estratégias de aprendizagem de língua, metacognição, podcast, trabalho colaborativo. devia & garcía no. 14 (january june 2017) no. 14 (january june 2017) 34 introduction being able to successfully communicate ideas orally is a fundamental skill in language learning and represents a huge challenge for beginners. especially at a high-school level, students usually struggle with expressing themselves and would usually avoid active participation in communicative activities, which can hinder their language learning process and can affect their attitudes towards the language. with that concern in mind, we decided to put into practice different language learning strategies (lls) which could make language learning more effective and also fun for students (oxford, 1989), and at the same time involve collaborative work which could allow to generate more communicative opportunities, maximize learning (crandall, 1999), and have a positive impact on students’ relationships and psychological health (smith, 1996). complementary, it was decided to take advantage of podcasts as a tool which could help create a more learner-centered pedagogy and generate authentic engagement (middleton, 2009). the objective of this project was to analyze the impact of taking into account lls, collaborative work, and the usage of podcasts for planning and performing speaking activities, on the development of students’ oral skills, therefore, the questions that guided this research project were the following: what implications does the use of cognitive, metacognitive, social and affective language learning strategies have in the students’ speaking development? what and how language learning strategies are evidenced during the development of speaking activities by 10th graders? this project was carried out taking into account the cyclical process of action research (ar) as described by kemmis & mctaggart (1988), which involves intertwined cycles of observation, reflection, planning and acting. for this study, two interventions were applied where the voices of the students were heard, as their interests and ideas were considered in the planning of the tasks. it was found that students improved their fluency and accuracy and most of them were able to put new vocabulary into practice in a meaningful way; also, students appeared to be more confident and self-regulated their emotion when they had to participate in different oral activities in the classroom. oral skills through podcasting and collaboration devia & garcía no. 14 (january june 2017) no. 14 (january june 2017) 35 literature review language learning strategies in order to understand what lls refer to, it is necessary to recall some concepts from the cognitive theory. shuell (1986) describes the way that individuals are said to ‘process’ information and defines the thoughts involved in this cognitive activity as ‘mental processes’. such processes are required in all learning procedures and according to their nature they have been classified under three categories: cognitive, metacognitive and social-affective. the strategies identified by different authors as being part of language learning, are called lls. oxford (1989, p. 235) asserts that “language learning strategies are behaviors or actions that learners use to make language learning more successful, self-directed and enjoyable”. with that in mind, the application of self-regulation procedures are determining in this implementation, given that even when students work collaboratively, each one has specific roles and duties that they self-regulate to lead to effectiveness of oral projects. in view of that, lls can be considered as those thoughts, actions, and decisions in the style of students’ productive skills (speaking and writing) that configure the language background that students build with each communicative experience. in conformity with this theory, the construct of this analysis is based on types of strategies divided into higher categories of cognition, metacognition and social/affective strategies. cognitive learning strategies rubin (1981) identified six general strategies that may contribute directly to language learning: clarification/verification. this process is implemented by the students once they require information about meaning, pronunciation or the application of any communicative statement, in this way, students expand the formal knowledge of the language and validate the productions of words, phrases or sentences in order to communicate effectively. guessing/inductive inference. it refers to the kind of strategies which take into account already internalized knowledge coming from different sources in order to understand a particular concept or language form and deduce a precise rule for a given situation. deductive reasoning. deductive reasoning has to do with a general decoding process of different communicative situations in oral skills through podcasting and collaboration devia & garcía no. 14 (january june 2017) no. 14 (january june 2017) 36 order to infer meaning for the understanding and the organization of the language as a whole. practice. it refers to the kind of strategies which help establish a sound source of information regarding language forms which the learner refers to while looking for accuracy. these strategies include: imitation, rehearsal and repetition memorization. it is the ability for retaining and storing any kind of information in our mind that is internalized and available to be used when necessary; this strategy is mediated by the use of repetition and practical uses to ensure the capture and retain the information. monitoring. it refers to strategies that learners use to verify the use of linguistic and communicative structures; the learner notices errors and face them to improve their production. this strategy requires a high level of engagement and consciousness for students to evaluate and validate their learning. metacognitive learning strategies metacognitive strategies can be defined as thinking about our own thinking. these strategies are meant to “oversee, regulate, or self-direct language learning” (wenden & rubin, 1987, p. 25), which means that learners try to take control of their own learning process by planning, monitoring and evaluating their learning activities (wenden, 1982, 1986). learners who use this kind of strategies are able to create profound learning and improve performance (anderson, 2002) as they understand what is that they need to acquire knowledge. social/affective strategies these strategies involve “either interaction with another person” or exercising control over emotional or affective responses to learning (o’malley & chamot, 1990, p. 45). such strategies could involve asking questions for clarification or discussing one’s worries about language learning with another person. generally, they are considered applicable to a wide variety of tasks. some strategies are: • cooperation, or working with peers to solve a problem, pool information, check notes, or get feedback on a learning activity. • questioning for clarification, or eliciting from a teacher or peer additional explanation, rephrasing, or example. • selftalk, or using mental control to assure oneself that a learning activity will be successful or to reduce anxiety about a task. oral skills through podcasting and collaboration devia & garcía no. 14 (january june 2017) no. 14 (january june 2017) 37 all strategies mentioned before were presented to students, and they were encouraged to use them as they required them. accordingly, different strategies were used by students, depending on their needs and objectives and also the type of activities they were to carry out. collaborative learning vygotsky (1978) affirms that collaborative learning is a method for helping students strengthen their confidence in themselves which can be achieved through performing tasks by groups or peer work. he also presents the idea of zone of proximal development (zpd) in which a more experienced individual helps create an appropriate environment for the development of knowledge and skills in others and himself. accordingly, we understand cooperative learning as carefully structured group work which provides opportunities for students to learn and use the language by maximizing the peer interaction in the classroom, such work being the basic context for communicative practice (crandall, 1999) and the development of collaborative dialogues which allow for language learning opportunities and the building of knowledge (rivera, 2010). podcasting in this study podcasts were incorporated because they offer teachers one outlet for technology integration. podcasting refers to the authoring of or subscription to audio and/or video files, these files can be downloaded and played back on a wide range of mobile devices such as mp3 players and ipods (dale & pymm, 2009). podcasting holds the capacity to capture and share learning voices (middleton, 2009) in an effort to communicate, create, and share ideas, it can also be a recording created by a teacher to enhance the learning and teaching process within and beyond the classroom or a podcast or radio program created by pupils. increasingly, the term is also being applied to video (vodcast) as well as audio recordings. the use of podcasts is said to have the capability of improving students’ motivation (hegelheimer and o-bryan, 2007) and attitudes towards the class (li, 2010), and when implemented as a form of cooperative work can also enhance students understanding of the subject matter and improve students interaction (stoltenkamp et al. 2011). furthermore, the implementation of podcasts has also reportedly shown good results boosting students’ listening and speaking proficiency (lu, 2007). oral skills through podcasting and collaboration devia & garcía no. 14 (january june 2017) no. 14 (january june 2017) 38 methodology research design action research (ar) as defined by kemmis and mctaggart (1988, p. 1) “is a form of collective self-reflective enquiry undertaken by participants in social situations in order to improve the rationality and justice of their own social or educational practices”. hence, the implementations carried out during this research process attempted to guide the teaching and learning process towards more successful and appropriate practices. this study made use of a qualitative approach to analyzing data with the aim of understanding how the blend of lls, podcasts, and collaborative work could impact students’ oral skills. the information collected through surveys, questionnaires, and podcasts was triangulated following the approach of cohen, manion, and morrison (2007), to determine convergence of information from different sources, then it was analyzed following glaser and strauss’ (1967) precepts of grounded theory (gt) to reconfigure the information into categories by comparing diverse content in the data collection. this methodology set the way for us to address and analyze data in order to deepen in the analysis and come to clear and meaningful results. context and participants this study was carried out with 40 students of 10th grade from a public school in ibagué (colombia) whose ages ranged from thirteen to seventeen. the school is located in the outskirts of the city and most of its students come from a low socioeconomic context. consequently, students are not unfamiliar with different types of social issues which affect their school life and which are mostly related to parents’ unemployment, dysfunctional families, sex, and drugs abuse. regarding english classes, different factors such as lack of institutional resources, educational policies, and students’ conflictive contexts are believed to affect students’ attitudes and proficiency in a negative way. in spite of difficulties, the educational community is characterized for being receptive and getting involved in students’ activities; there is still a good atmosphere and students have positive attitudes when they are aware of what they can gain and learn if they modify some behaviors. some limitations found in the study had to do with students’ low language proficiency, some of their beliefs regarding group work, and also the amount of students and the limited time allowed to the english class. oral skills through podcasting and collaboration devia & garcía no. 14 (january june 2017) no. 14 (january june 2017) 39 data collection instruments the data were collected using instruments that provided relevant and sufficient information for a qualitative analysis. needs analysis survey. this was the initial instrument with four questions to identify which of the four communicative skills students wanted to improve, it triggered students’ thoughts about what they wanted to learn in class, how they wanted the class to be, and their interests and ideas to improve. lls survey. this instrument was designed to collect information and quantify students’ cognitive, metacognitive, social and affective, strategies. a second part of this instrument involved open questions about the students’ perceptions regarding lls, podcasting and collaborative work. podcasts. two final podcasts were presented by the group of students, these were socialized with the teachers for feedback and later these were transcribed and analyzed in order to examine how students advanced or were jammed along the reaching of the goal. data analysis and results once we had collected information, it was analyzed and triangulated in order to find patterns, furthermore, principles of gt (glaser and strauss, 1967) allowed us to determine commonalities or dissimilarities and revealed some code categories and subcategories related to feelings (fears, worry, nerves, stress, and anxiety), students’ awareness or procedures (self-regulation, self-monitoring, selfconfidence, and lls usage) and accuracy in oral production (vocabulary, fluency, pronunciation, and grammar). each one of the categories were grouped in a chart for deeper analysis and triangulation revealing deeper patterns and categories related to (1) speaking improvement, evidenced enhancement on vocabulary, pronunciation, grammar, and fluency; (2) useful lls, cognitive, metacognitive, and social or affective type; and (3) psychological resilience, students’ improvement of fears, stress, nerves, and lack of confidence, and also self-regulation, self-monitoring, self-assessment, and self-confidence. speaking improvement for starters, the needs analysis survey allowed to identify that 74% of students wanted to improve their speaking skills more than listening (17%), reading (7%) or writing (2%). these results showed oral skills through podcasting and collaboration devia & garcía no. 14 (january june 2017) no. 14 (january june 2017) 40 how important it was for students to be able communicate orally in the target language, or as hymes (1972) puts it, to have the capacity to communicate effectively within a particular speech community. in this area, the analysis showed that students were able to improve this capacity mainly in the following respects: vocabulary. the ability of learners to successfully expand their vocabulary, which is an essential aspect of learners’ language development (harmon, wood, & keser, 2009) (linse, 2005), was dynamically expanded through this study. comparatively speaking, at the beginning of the implementation students’ were less aware of the importance of using the right words, and were therefore not interested in expanding their vocabulary. nevertheless, as the study progressed it was evidenced how, through a planning stage, students could naturally increase their vocabulary without being forced directly to do that. the challenge for the students’ improvement in this area was the chance to talk about their own life and real interests. the meaning of some words was reasoned through processes of inference and clarification, strategies from the cognitive order. grammar. grammatical competence refers to the knowledge of grammatical resources and the ability to put them into practice (artunduaga, 2013), be it in a written or oral way. in this respect, during this study students evidenced a development of this competence and were able to orally express themselves with improved grammatical accuracy. at the beginning of the implementation, students frequently omitted subjects and produced syntactical mistakes, made inappropriate word choices, used wrong verb tenses, and showed lack of coherence and cohesion. these mistakes were noticed when podcasts were listened and transcribed. after the collaborative assessment, teacher’s feedback and the identification of these mistakes, students were able to self-correct and self-regulate their mistakes and were more precise to record their dialogues, providing then more appropriate and carefully applied grammatical resources. pronunciation and fluency. pronunciation has a great deal of responsibility for intelligibility (seidlhofer, 2001), and consistently, in this study it was one of the aspects students were the most eager to improve as they felt the need to successfully communicate their ideas. students felt motivated to achieve pronunciation accuracy and devoted a lot of time to the improvement of this skill, some of them repeated their intervention as many times as necessary, gaining confidence and self-regulating their linguistic processes. students showed great awareness, hard work, and commitment in the process of improving their second podcast and more successfully express themselves oral skills through podcasting and collaboration devia & garcía no. 14 (january june 2017) no. 14 (january june 2017) 41 most useful lls data analysis allowed us to identify the students’ learning strategies that helped them to improve their oral skills. the most relevant strategies found through all the instruments were: practicing. (cognitive strategies) it was a behavior that students assumed in class and at home in order to attain high quality in their performance, given this would guarantee a cognitive contribution to them. students said that such practice strengthened their learning every time they gave information or studied for their presentations. additionally, when students practiced together, they enjoyed and assisted each other, they gained confidence to ask freely about their doubts; accordingly, it could be inferred that students strengthened their self-esteem and found reasons and intrinsic motivation to enhance performance and keep going each time better than the last. figure 1. percentage of students who use each one of the cognitive strategies. planning. (metacognitive strategies). it was a quite necessary stage, figure 2 displays that 70% of learners implemented this strategy. we found that when students had enough time to discuss about a topic, a task or even about their role, it became meaningful to them because they were actively involved on the reflection. in the same way, when they were autonomous to decide about something that was appealing to them, they negotiated, made decisions and transformed what may have been a boring task into a more engaging and productive activity. other procedures that emerged in planning had to do with monitoring and self-assessment, given that learners noticed errors (both linguistic and communicative) and observed how messages were received (rubin, 1981). oral skills through podcasting and collaboration devia & garcía no. 14 (january june 2017) no. 14 (january june 2017) 42 figure 2. percentage of students who use each one of the metacognitive strategies. cooperation (socio-affective strategies) 76% of students selected cooperation from this group of strategies and it was one of the most relevant methods in this study, once into the groups of work, they discussed to help individual members better their attitudes therefore they were able to work together as a team. this experience was meaningful for the majority of students who took advantage of collaboration to improve individual challenges, some students affirmed that they helped, motivated and supported each other. smith (1996) revealed several positive outcomes from cooperation such as achievement/productivity, positive relationships, and psychological health, accordingly, we confirmed that students perceived cooperation as an opportunity to support each other, not only in terms of language proficiency but also to regulate their emotions. figure 3. percentage of students who used each one of socio/affective strategies. oral skills through podcasting and collaboration devia & garcía no. 14 (january june 2017) no. 14 (january june 2017) 43 psychological resilience resilience refers to the “adaptation and survival of a system after perturbation, often referring to the process of restoring functional equilibrium, and sometimes referring to the process of transformation to a stable new functional state” (masten, 2001, p. 9), in other words, it has to do with being able to adapt and recover from different psychological threats. in this study resilience was possible because of the safe environment activated by working in collaboration, which also facilitated students’ to avoid feelings of stress, nerves, lack of confidence, and anxiety. moreover, students who had the capability to check inside and evaluate themselves evidenced the highest metacognitive levels that represent their own awareness to reflect upon what they were learning, how they were acting, and which could be the easiest way of learning. it was found that students self-assessed their behavior, their relationships with others, and their oral productions and attitudes; they also increased their self-confidence because socializing was an effective way to correct each other. such behaviors were evidenced in comments such as the ones below: “i’m giving the best of me and i want to achieve my goals, such words motivate me to change and keep going…” 3 “i commit to improve my work and allot more time to present good quality activities…” 4 “i have concentration and speaking problems, but i am progressing…”5 “in previous activities when i made wrong, i did not present my activities again, now in collaboration i felt sure and motivated to keep working and improve”.6 3 “estoy dando lo mejor de mí y quiero lograr mis metas, palabras así me motivan a cambiar y seguir adelante…” 4 “me comprometo a mejorar mis trabajos y dedicarle más tiempo para presentar actividades de buena calidad”. 5 “tengo problemas de concentración, de habla pero voy avanzando”. 6 “en actividades anteriores, cuando me equivoqué, no presenté mis actividades nuevamente, ahora en colaboración, me siento más seguro y motivado para seguir trabajando y mejorar”. oral skills through podcasting and collaboration devia & garcía no. 14 (january june 2017) no. 14 (january june 2017) 44 conclusions working with lls could be one of the many alternatives that english teachers have around in order to guide and empower their students to strengthen their language skills. yet, we find it essential that teachers introduce students to the use of cognitive, metacognitive and social or affective strategies through the use of collaborative work and technological tools such as podcasting in order to construct better educational environments in general. on the whole, lls are behaviors or actions that learners use to make language learning more successful, self-directed and enjoyable (oxford, 1989); in this study we noticed how students strengthened their mental processes, increased their own consciousness regarding their own learning development, and helped them to control their emotions and gain self-confidence and self-esteem, all of which was evidenced in their performances in which linguistic features such as fluency, pronunciation, vocabulary, or grammar were visibly improved. the use of technological tools such as podcasting was suitable to help these tenth graders improve their oral skill, students felt comfortable to perform in class because through the process of creating the podcasts they overcame fears and concerns and felt prepared and self-confident to do their oral interventions directly, face to face. podcasting facilitated students to self-regulate and self-monitor their performance as they could listen to their recordings many times and make corrections to produce better utterances improving pronunciation, fluency and grammatical issues. collaborative work was supportive as it involved processes of psychological health in participants since students were able to control their fear, stress and, anxiety they started to enjoy the task. in collaboration, students felt secure and sure to participate in class, they uncovered great abilities they did not even know they had. the challenge to work in groups encouraged their patience, creativity, organization of ideas and task design. all the groups improved together and exchanged genuine ideas towards the same objective. the use of lls, collaborative work, and podcasts can help students to understand and regulate the quality of their performances and learning overall and contribute to the development of the language system that the learner constructs and that affect learning directly (rubin, 1987). moreover, as it was evidenced during the implementation of this project, students can enhance their motivation, achieve higher levels of self-confidence and self-esteem (psychological resilience) when they are given the opportunity of developing and presenting their own ideas. oral skills through podcasting and collaboration devia & garcía no. 14 (january june 2017) no. 14 (january june 2017) 45 allowing students time for planning is fundamental for the development of meaningful and contextualized learning processes, given that students have the time they need for organizing ideas and interacting around tasks which require involvement, analysis, reflection, and production. oral skills through podcasting and collaboration devia & garcía no. 14 (january june 2017) no. 14 (january june 2017) 46 references anderson, n. j. (2002). the role of metacognition in second language teaching and learning. retrieved from eric database. (ed463659). artunduaga, m. t. (2013). process writing and the development of grammatical competence. how journal. 20 (1). cohen, l., manion, l., & morrison, k. (2007). research methods in education. london: routledge/ falmer. crandall, j. (1999). cooperative language learning and affective factors. in j. arnold (ed.), affect in language learning (pp. 226307). cambridge: cambridge university press. dale, c. & pymm, j. m. (2009). pedagogy: the ipod as a learning technology. active leaning in higher education, 10(1), 84-96. glaser, b. & strauss, a. (1967). the discovery of grounded theory. chicago: aldine press harmon, j. m., wood, k. d. & keser, k. (2009). promoting vocabulary learning with interactive word wall. middle school journal, 40(3), 58-63. hegelheimer, v., & o-bryan, a. (2007). integrating call into the classroom: the role of podcasting in an esl listening strategies course. recall, 19(2), 162-180. hymes, d. h. (1972). on communicative competence. in pride, j. b., & holmes, j. (eds.), sociolinguistics, (pp 269-293). baltimore, usa: penguin education, penguin books ltd. kemmis, s., & mctaggart, r. (1988). the action researcher planner. victoria: deakin university. li, h. (2010). using podcasts for learning english: perceptions of hong kong secondary 6 esl students. journal – début: the undergraduate journal of languages, linguistics and area studies, 1(2), 2010. linse, c. t. & nunan, d. (ed). (2005). practical english language teaching: young learners. new york: mcgrawhill esl/elt. lu, j. (2007). ‘podcasting: a fresh solution for old problems’. in m. thomas (ed.), wireless ready e-proceedings: podcasting education and mobile assisted language learning, (pp. 83-95). nagoya, jp: nagoya university of commerce & business. oral skills through podcasting and collaboration devia & garcía no. 14 (january june 2017) no. 14 (january june 2017) 47 masten, a. s. (2001). ordinary magic: resilience processes in development. american psychologist, 56(3), 227-238. middleton, a. (2009). beyond podcasting: creative approaches to designing education audio. alt-j, research in learning technology, 17(2). o’malley, j. m. & chamot, a. u. (1990). learning strategies in second language acquisition. cambridge: cambridge university press. oxford, r. l. (1989). use of language learning strategies: a synthesis of studies with implications for strategy training. system, 17(2), 235247. rivera, j. (2010). authentic oral interaction in the efl class: what it means, what it does not, teachers` professional development, 12(1), 47-61. rubin, j. (1981). study of cognitive processes in second language learning. applied linguistics, 11, 117-31. rubin, j. (1987). learner strategies: theoretical assumptions, research history and typology. in: wenden, a. & rubin, j.(eds.) learner strategies in language learning. hemel hempstead: prentice hall international. seidlhofer, b. (2001). pronunciation. in r. carter & d. nunan (eds.), the cambridge guide to teaching english to speakers of other languages. cambridge: cambridge university press. shuell, t. j. (1986). cognitive conceptions of learning. review of educational research 56(4),411-36. smith, k.a. (1996). cooperative learning: making “groupwork” work. in: c. bonwell & t. sutherlund. (eds.) active learning: lessons from practice and emerging issues. san francisco: jossey-bass. stoltenkamp, j., et al. (2011). rolling out podcasting to enhance teaching and learning: a case of the university of the western cape. international journal of instructional technology and distance learning, 8(1), 1-21 vygotsky, l. s. (1978). mind in society: the development of higher psychological processes. cambrigde: harward university press. wenden, a. & j. rubin, (1987). learner strategies in language learning. englewood cliffs, nj: prentice hall. oral skills through podcasting and collaboration devia & garcía no. 14 (january june 2017) no. 14 (january june 2017) 48 authors *martha sedeida devia grisales graduated in modern languages at universidad del tolima in 2003. in december 2009, she specialized in teaching english. currently, she studies a master’s in english didactics at universidad del tolima. she has been teaching english for 17 years. she is a full-time teacher in a public school and part time teacher at universidad del tolima. she is deeply interested in helping students to improve communicative skills by means of contemporary strategies. *andersson garcía graduated a ba program and is currently pursuing a master degree in english didactics. he has worked as an english teacher for over 7 years in different universities and is currently working as a part-time teacher at universidad del tolima. he has been part of different research groups and is currently working on a research project on critical thinking and language education. oral skills through podcasting and collaboration no. 14 (january june 2017) no. 14 (january june 2017) 97 exploring teachers’ use of technology in classrooms of bilingual students1 mayra c. daniel and john e. cowan2* northern illinois university abstract this article presents results of an investigation that documents teachers’ perceptions of the contribution of technology use in classrooms of bilingual learners. study questions asked how teachers perceive teacher-made digital movies impact learning, and what situational factors delimit technology infusion. data gathered in focus groups and surveys indicate teachers perceive appropriate technology gives bilingual students greater access to academic language. results strongly suggest that school administrators control access to technology. keywords: technology, multi-modal instruction, bilingual learners, academic language resumen es articulo presenta los resultados de una investigación sobre las percepciones que tienen los docentes frente a la contribución de la tecnología en el aprendizaje de estudiantes bilingües. las preguntas de investigación pretenden conocer la apreciación de los docentes sobre el uso de material digital diseñado por ellos mismos, el impacto que estos generan en el aprendizaje de los estudiantes y los factores situacionales que limitan el uso de la tecnología. los datos obtenidos a través de los grupos focales y las encuestas aplicadas a los participantes revelan que los docentes perciben que el uso adecuado de la tecnología permite a los estudiantes bilingües ampliar el acceso al lenguaje académico. los resultados sugieren que los directores de las escuelas controlan el uso de la tecnología. palabras claves: tecnología, enseñanza multimodal, estudiantes bilingües, lenguaje académico. 1 received: july 28th, 2012 / accepted: august 15th, 2012 2 email: mcdaniel@niu.edu, jcowan@niu.edu gist education and learning research journal. issn 1692-5777. no. 6, november 2012. pp. 97-110 no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) 98 resumo este artigo apresenta os resultados de uma pesquisa sobre as percepções que têm os docentes frente à contribuição da tecnologia na aprendizagem de estudantes bilíngues. as perguntas de pesquisa pretendem conhecer a apreciação dos docentes sobre o uso de material digital desenhado por eles mesmos, o impacto que estes geram na aprendizagem dos estudantes e os fatores situacionais que limitam o uso da tecnologia. os dados obtidos através dos grupos focais e as pesquisas de opinião aplicadas aos participantes revelam que os docentes percebem que o uso adequado da tecnologia permite aos estudantes bilíngues ampliar o acesso à linguagem acadêmica. os resultados sugerem que os diretores das escolas controlam o uso da tecnologia. palavras chaves: tecnologia, ensino multimodal, estudantes bilíngues, linguagem acadâmica. exploring teachers’ use of technology in classrooms of bilingual students in this investigation we collaborated with a group of educators enrolled in a program to satisfy requirements from the state of illinois in the united states (us) to teach bilingual students. we asked the teachers to integrate digital media technology, windows moviemaker, into a lesson designed to promote academic english language acquisition and also focused on formative assessment. two professors, one with a background in preparing teachers to work with bilingual students, and one who prepares teachers to integrate technology in instruction, guided the educators as they developed their lessons. besides supporting the educators in the design of their lessons, we asked the teachers to consider their use of technology as participation in a system of activity that includes rules, tools, and people (engeström, 1987). we involved the teachers in the tasks of creating the technology as well as examining how their school system made it possible or difficult to add a technology component to instruction. study results demonstrate that it can be an arduous task for teachers to get around protocols in their schools that control access to technology even when they want to do so and believe it benefits their students. exploring teachers´ use of technology in classrooms of bilingual students daniel & cowan no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) 99 bilingual learners in schools student populations are changing in their linguistic diversity and teachers are responding by looking for ways to make disciplinary specific language comprehensible to all learners. in the us approximately a quarter of all children are born to immigrant families (suárezorozco & suárez-orozco, 2009). these learners speak about 460 different languages (kindler, 2002), and the overwhelming majority, some 79.5%, speak spanish as their primary language (goldenberg & coleman, 2010). the teachers who were part of this study were in graduate school as a reaction to their need to learn new strategies to work with bilingual learners. many were monolingual mainstream teachers teaching students from different language backgrounds at various levels of english language proficiency. considering the changing demographics, advocacy and quick action are needed to develop and implement curricula to effectively teach academic language and help teachers to design and implement pedagogies that incorporate current technology. please note that in this article we will refer to bilingual learners as english language learners (els). academic language researchers support multi-modal instruction for els because it provides them scaffolds to understanding with pictures, words, music, and text that adds context to the learning (chamot, 2009; echevarria, vogt, & short, 2008). appropriate technology can help a teacher develop this student centered pedagogical approach. technology can facilitate second language acquisition because it can be used to enhance intercultural communication (erben, ban, jin, & summers, 2007). task-based and content language instruction that involves learners as active participants emphasizing process over product came to the fore in the 1990’s (nunan, 1999; snow and brinton, 1988). we cannot overlook what research suggests benefits second language learners. with the right technology, els can collaborate with classmates to complete interactive tasks that make good sense to them and result in language learning. we know that it is not easy for els to learn the majority language as well as master the content they are taught (august & shanahan, 2006; short & fitzsimmons, 2007). we also know that good teachers address the culturally influenced learning styles of their students (pang, 2005; chow & cummins, 2003). they investigate the els’ funds of knowledge in order to assure the learner can relate to what is taught (gonzález, moll, & amanti, 2006). multi-modal instruction can be a exploring teachers´ use of technology in classrooms of bilingual students daniel & cowan no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) 100 medium to offer content-rich contexts that both address and add to els’ funds of knowledge while focusing on listening, speaking, reading, writing, and discussion (cummins, brown, & sayers, 2007; kelley, lesaux, kieffer, & faller, 2010). it is important to find the right balance to teach disciplinary content and develop cross-disciplinary skills and strategies (chamot, 2009). in addition, cummins’ early development of the basic interpersonal communication skills (bics) and cognitive academic language proficiency (calp) dichotomy (cummins & swain, 1986), as well as his later work (cummins, brown, & sayers, 2007), suggest els need something that technology can help deliver; explicit instruction. teachers can use many different technologies to scaffold instruction and to engage students in small group collaborative tasks that require listening, speaking, reading, and writing. because of this multimodal capacity, technology has the potential to allow students to work at their own level and within their areas of strength. when instruction is planned so that students work at their zone of proximal development they can acquire academic language while experiencing low stress levels (vygotzky, 1986). movies offer print, music, and visually appealing pictures that deliver an inviting less stressful classroom environment (krashen, 1981; erben, ban, jin, & summers, 2007; lesaux, kieffer, faller, & kelley, 2010). we propose that the sensory contexts of movies facilitate the creation of a third space for productive classroom inter and intra-personal dialogue (bhabha, 1994). in these spaces, students who are literate, as well as those on the path to biliteracy or multiliteracy can identify the similarities between their linguistic and cultural capital, the teachers’, and their monolingual classmates’ (daniel, taylor, schwarzer, garcia, despagne, peigne, & cohen, 2011). garcia’s (2009) definition of translanguaging as acts that give bilinguals access to different linguistic features, supports the use of technology. her work aligns with what gutiérrez, baquedano-lópez, alvarez & chiu (1999) label as hybrid language practices. it seems clear that instruction delivered through appropriate technology has to be beneficial for els. technology as an instructional tool hunter (1971) addressed the need to capture the student’s attention when beginning a lesson. technology can be this tool that adds context to the learning. it also supports thinking because it asks a learner to use short and long-term memory. short-term memory involves listening and seeing (norman, 1982) while long-term memory asks the learner exploring teachers´ use of technology in classrooms of bilingual students daniel & cowan no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) 101 to retrieve and use acquired knowledge without conscious monitoring. when els interact with new language numerous times, ideas can pass from short to long-term memory. technology affords els the scaffolds to develop control over a text through this processing of auditory and visual input (norman, 1993). norman argued that learning is a balance between acquiring, retaining and retrieving information (1982; 1993). we know that acquiring fluency in a new language is a taxing process that requires both a conscious and unconscious focus on language (krashen, 1981; 1982). until an el can unconsciously retrieve and use a second language, he/she needs explicit instruction. technology can help a learner travel down this path of consciously focusing on language to using it. use of technology in instruction can help the el reach the state of flow (czikszentmihalyi, 1990; 1998) when he/ she is immersed in an activity to the degree that everything else fades into the background and self-consciousness disappears. it appears that technology infused instruction expedites this process. research questions in this study, we identified a population of teachers who had enrolled in graduate school to learn how to better work with their populations of els. we used a modified design-based research approach (wang & hannefin, 2005) and basic elements of engeström’s (1987) ast model in an attempt to identify insiders’ perspectives on specific factors supporting or inhibiting the use of technology in classes with els. the questions that guided this study were: 1. how do teachers perceive teacher made movies help els develop academic language? 2. what factors control teachers’ use of technology? methodology participants were 26 teachers, 2 males and 24 females from rural areas of the state of illinois in the us. fifteen taught at the elementary level, nine worked at the secondary level, and two were middle school administrators. what the teachers had in common was that they were completing coursework to become highly qualified to work with els. they were enrolled in their sixth graduate course together. course delivery was in a format of four face-to-face sessions and ten on line classes. one participant was latina, three were english spanish bilinguals, and the rest were monolingual english speakers. the exploring teachers´ use of technology in classrooms of bilingual students daniel & cowan no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) 102 teachers represented 16 different school districts covering a range of approximately 150 miles. all schools were at least 40-50 miles from the city of chicago, il. the teachers were part of a grant project focused on preparing teachers to work with els in rural school districts. we showed the teachers how to use the microsoft windows moviemaker application. their task was to work in teams over a period of four months to design and each teach one lesson to els with identified english language and content objectives. the lesson would include a performance assessment task and a pre and a post-evaluation of learners. the teachers could choose to incorporate their movie any time during their lessons; as part of or after the anticipatory set, and/or as an assessment tool at any point in the lesson. we told the teachers their role was to be participants/collaborators in the research. we used the term collaborators out of respect. many of the teachers had master’s degrees and were well-seasoned educators. they were pleased that we valued their expertise. we shared the study’s questions and explained their role during class time. we enrolled the teachers in our research by explaining that they would be asked to write reflectively about their experience of integrating technology. we showed them engeström’s ast triangle as a model for capturing activities (1987) and explained its components. refer to figure 1 for a pictorial definition of tools, rules, and labor. figure 1. engstrom’s ast triangle data collection and analysis each participant completed an open-ended survey and participated in a focus group of ten people. survey prompts asked the teachers to share what supports or inhibits their use of technology with their students, and to evaluate the effects of the technology use on els’ learning. the exploring teachers´ use of technology in classrooms of bilingual students daniel & cowan no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) 103 teachers were asked to examine their students’ learning informally and not with a summative examination. focus group questions involved the teachers in a conversation related to their experience designing, creating, and using the movies. refer to table 1 for the questions used in the focus groups. table 1. focus group questions what types of technology do you use in your teaching? besides for teaching, how do you envision using your new found skill as a movie maker? what did you learn from this experience? how did adding the movie impact instruction? will you show your elss how to make their own movies? what types of technology do you require your els to learn and use in their assignments? what would make it easier for you to use technology in your teaching? what is unique about using technology with els? what technology challenges do you encounter in your teaching? the focus group conversations were analyzed qualitatively and quantitatively in order to identify recurring or absent themes (strauss & corbin, 1990), themes that promoted new pedagogies, collaboration and/or difficulties faced by the teachers, and strong reactions in participants. symbolic convergence theory (sct) (daniel, 2002) was used to analyze the themes that caused the greater emotional responses. sct has been used in previous studies with teachers engaged in focus group conversations to document the development of ideas. in this study, the themes that evoke greater emotional responses are those that constitute the reality of life in the schoolhouse for the teachers (bormann, 1983). we independently coded the survey responses and the focus group conversations prior to comparing our findings. we also examined the reflective piece that was part of the lessons the teachers prepared. exploring teachers´ use of technology in classrooms of bilingual students daniel & cowan no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) 104 results teacher comments in both the focus groups and the open-ended survey questions highlight that regardless of the funding available to a school district, the teachers either experience high-tension levels as they attempt to integrate technology into the curriculum, or face very few tensions. furthermore, the main determinant of whether or not a teacher experienced high or low degrees of tension was the support or lack of support for the use of technology from the administrators. noteworthy themes in this research can be divided into four categories: engagement of els, available technology, access to technology, and support for technology use. engaging els although creating movies was a new experience for all but two participants, as a group the teachers unanimously agreed that the movies they prepared helped the els in their classrooms to gain greater access to the curriculum. the teachers also shared that their movie-making efforts garnered approval by their students. one teacher commented, “omar (a pseudonym) made a movie with pictures of his uncle’s friends to tell the story of their salsa band and brought it to class.” teacher comments suggest they initially perceived technology would serve the learners well as a medium for introducing new language and discussing content. however, once they designed their movies and used them, they discovered that they could also use them to guide learners as they completed assignments, and as evaluation protocols. gloria (a pseudonym), an older teacher from a group of four shared, “now that i know how to make a movie, the next step is to ask my students to do it. and i will use it to replace the test. i will be able to evaluate what they have learned in a way that won’t punish them.” this foursome was an interesting group of educators because two of the teachers were mother and daughter and were employed in two different districts. it was the mother who was so amazed at the student involvement. as a reaction, the group discussed the benefits of modeling the technology for their students. it seemed that all participants saw how easily they could better connect with the technologically savvy generation. there seemed to be an element of surprise present as the teachers made links between their observations and the cognitive academic language learning approach (calla), one of the textbooks they had used in the course they had completed the prior semester (chamot, 2009). calla is a reflective approach to lesson planning for teachers of els. it divides teacher responsibilities into five stages; exploring teachers´ use of technology in classrooms of bilingual students daniel & cowan no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) 105 preparation, presentation, practice, self-evaluation, and expansion. teacher comments demonstrate agreement across all participants that teacher made movies improve instruction at all stages. one group of teachers reported using the movies to “ activate prior knowledge, use new vocabulary, and to explain and model.” another group used the movies “to teach students strategies and self-assessment.” yet a third group reported the movies “worked well in the anticipatory set and in expansion activities.” one group of teachers excitedly shared, as one spoke over the other, and the rest nodded in agreement, “we feel that the videos helped all students, not just the els, better understand the information included in our unit, as well as develop ideas and insights into the altars they were making for a culmination of this unit.” one teacher’s statement wholeheartedly supports technology as part and parcel of all classroom instruction. this teacher stated, “after learning to make digital movies and implementing my movies into a lesson, i hope to learn how to better implement my movies in my lesson planning. the els love using this type of technology.” the teacher seated next to her added, “this component of instruction has created great interest. they are using the language in the movie.” available technology the teachers seemed accepting of whether or not they had available technologies. one district administrator shared, “there’s nothing built into school budgets about how many computers a school should have.” the other administrator in the group acknowledged the problems in his district when he said “there’s typically a 10 year cycle for replacing computers in budgets.” none of the participants considered their expertise as needing to be nurtured or as an available technology tool. it is of interest that many of the schools represented have plenty of current technologies such as digital cameras, smart boards, and document cameras financed by grants. although the teachers were cognizant that grants were financing the new technologies they were confident that their schools would not be adversely affected by a lack of grant monies in the future. some of the teachers mentioned issues such as broken equipment, inadequate staff development, and low student to computer ratios. one teacher complained that in her district “there is one mobile laboratory for 1500 students.” exploring teachers´ use of technology in classrooms of bilingual students daniel & cowan no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) 106 access to technology access to technology was an ongoing repeated theme and a major problem in the majority of the schools represented. in some schools accessing the internet and downloading new programs is never a challenge while in others, there is great tension. many of the teachers expressed their frustrations when they assign their students to do research on the internet and many sites are blocked. one teacher’s statement captures the tensions in her low functioning system. she said “in my school we are required to email problems to the tech staff. how can we email if our computer breaks down? so we have to go to another classroom to email them. and then they don’t come.” although on the one hand the teachers accept their limitations, technology access created an uproar in the groups. community support for technology teachers from high-tension systems report being held back by administrators who control access to technology. several of the teachers mentioned “friction between colleagues who oppose technology infusion.” they believe the “lack (of) time needed to develop technology expertise is an issue.” in the focus group conversations there was unanimous agreement that working in groups had allowed them to collaborate because “when i didn’t know the answer there was someone to help me.” the teachers emphasized their need to have time to collaborate. they shared that it was the support they gave each other that kept them committed to finishing the movie-making project. one teacher group even admitted to having gone on the internet and asked questions of a 14-year-old who was technologically savvy. conclusions and implications for practice implications from this study are that school districts that support teachers using technology make it possible for their teachers to better address their els’ needs. there was great enthusiasm on the part of the teachers even in the face of the frustrations they shared. it is revealing that the obstacles identified in this study do not suggest that teachers are unwilling to learn new approaches. instead, they support collaborative curriculum development. it appears that school district personnel apply for grants and the training grant subsidies finance but often do not go beyond this to make technology part and parcel of their curriculum. exploring teachers´ use of technology in classrooms of bilingual students daniel & cowan no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) 107 references august, d. & shanahan, t. 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(2005). design based research and technology enhanced learning environments. educational research and development, 53(4), 5-23. exploring teachers´ use of technology in classrooms of bilingual students daniel & cowan no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) 110 authors * mayra c. daniel is an associate professor in the department of literacy education at northern illinois university, de kalb, il. she earned her ed. d in curriculum and instruction from illinois state university. her research interests include critical literacy, multicultural education and reading and writing in a second language. email: mcdaniel@niu.edu * john e. cowan has a ph.d in language, literacy and sociocultural studies from the university of new mexico. he is an assistant professor in the department of educational technology and research at northern illinois university. his research interests include educational technology, training and learning technologies. email: jcowan@niu.edu exploring teachers´ use of technology in classrooms of bilingual students no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) 88 compensation strategies: tracking movement in efl learners’ speaking skills1 estrategias de compensación: seguimiento al nivel de avance de la expresión oral de los estudiantes de inglés como lengua extranjera alireza karbalaei and tania negin taji2* farhangian university, kish international branch, islamic azad university, kish, iran abstract the present study aimed to determine the compensation strategies used by iranian elementary efl learners across the speaking skill. the participants of this study were a sample of 120 efl elementary male and female learners whose ages ranged between 11 and 25 at a language institute in rostam, iran. the main participants were homogenized through the standardized key english test (ket). after the administration of the proficiency test, some oral exams consisting of different speaking topics were administered in the first and following sessions of the course with the purpose of observing and identifying the compensation strategies used by the efl learners with the same proficiency level. oxford’s typology of compensation strategies was prepared in form of a checklist to facilitate fast recording of observable compensation strategies in an oral exams. the students’ speaking on the given topics merely served as an opportunity to observe students’ use of compensation strategies. the results indicated that iranian efl students tended to use various kinds of compensation strategies in communicating their intended meanings. keywords: communicative competence, strategic competence, compensation strategies, language learning strategies 1 received: june 6, 2014 / accepted: october 6, 2014 2 alireza_karbalaei_2007@yahoo.com , tarane.negin@yahoo.com gist education and learning research journal. issn 1692-5777. no. 9, (julydecember) 2014. pp. 88-102. karbalaei & negin no. 9 (july december 2014) no. 9 (july december 2014) 89 resumen el presente artículo intenta determinar las estrategias de compensación utilizadas por los estudiantes iraníes de primaria a través de la expresión oral. la población objetivo del estudio fueron 120 estudiantes (hombres y mujeres) de primaria, cuyas edades oscilaban entre los 11 y los 25 años, en un instituto de inglés en rostam, irán. se aplicó el examen estandarizado de inglés ket para homogenizar la muestra. después de la administración del examen de competencia, algunos exámenes orales consistían en diferentes temas de lengua, los cuales fueron administrados en la primera y en las siguientes sesiones del curso con el propósito de observar e identificar las estrategias de compensación usadas por los estudiantes de inglés como lengua extranjera con el mismo nivel de competencia. se utilizaron estrategias de compensación correspondientes a la tipología oxford para el diseño de la lista de control, en aras de facilitar la rápida grabación de estrategias de compensación observadas en el examen oral. los temas asignados a los estudiantes para el examen oral sirvieron simplemente como una oportunidad para observar las estrategias de compensación usadas por los estudiantes. los resultados indicaron que los estudiantes iraníes tienden a usar varios tipos de estrategias de compensación para comunicar el significado exacto de lo que pretenden transmitir. palabras clave: competencia comunicativa, competencia estratégica, estrategias de compensación, estrategias de aprendizaje de una lengua resumo o presente artigo tenta determinar as estratégias de compensação utilizadas pelos estudantes iranianos de ensino fundamental (de 1ª a 5ª série) através da expressão oral. a população objetivo do estudo foram 120 estudantes (homens e mulheres) de ensino fundamental (de 1ª a 5ª série), cujas idades variavam entre os 11 e os 25 anos, em um instituto de inglês em rostam, irã. aplicou-se a priva padronizado de inglês ket para homogeneizar a amostra. depois da aplicação da prova de competência, algumas provas orais consistiam em diferentes temas de língua, os quais foram aplicados no ensino fundamental (de 1ª a 5ª série) e nas seguintes sessões do curso com o propósito de observar e identificar as estratégias de compensação usadas pelos estudantes de inglês como língua estrangeira com o mesmo nível de competência. utilizaram-se estratégias de compensação correspondentes à tipologia oxford para o desenho da lista de chamada, em prol de facilitar a rápida gravação de estratégias de compensação observadas na prova oral. os temas designados aos estudantes para a prova oral serviram simplesmente como uma oportunidade para observar as estratégias de compensação usadas pelos estudantes. os resultados indicaram que os estudantes iranianos tendem a usar vários tipos de estratégias de compensação para comunicar o significado exato do que pretendem transmitir. palavras chave: competência comunicativa, competência estratégica, estratégias de compensação, estratégias de aprendizagem de uma língua karbalaei & negin no. 9 (july december 2014) no. 9 (july december 2014) 90 introduction much attention has been focused on learning strategies since the late 1970s, and the investigation in the domain of language learning strategies has increased our comprehension of the processes learners apply to advance their competency in a second or foreign language. reiss (1985) states that within the past decade, attention on the research of foreign language had changed from the teacher to the student, and pedagogical studies had clarified a number of criteria that justify some of the diversities in how learners learn. nevertheless, harlow (1988) insists that although the instructional process involves both teacher and learner, much of the research on instruction has concentrated upon techniques of teaching, while ignoring the prominence of learner himself. as rubin (1975) discuses, many foreign language teachers are so concerned with detecting the best method or with getting the accurate reply that they fail to attend to the process of learning. as such, instructors can have an active and noteworthy role, which can promote the work of language teachers. additionally, o’malley et al. (1985) also recommend that good language learners’ strategies, once clarified and successfully instructed to learners of lower competency, could have notable effect for increasing the improvement of second language skills. keeping these facts in mind, we would like to recommend that if language instructors recognized more about what the successful students did, we might be capable of teaching these strategies to learners with poorer competency to promote their success. thus, the idea proposed in this paper was that “an understanding and awareness of learning strategies on the part of teachers as well as students may provide valuable insights into the process of language learning” (fleming & walls, as cited in karbalaei, 2013). a major research area in second language acquisition is the clarification and explanation of learning strategies applied by language students and the relationship of these strategies with other student variables such as motivation, gender, age, proficiency level, and the like (chamot & eldinary, 1999; el-dib, 2004; green & oxford, 1995). contemporary research is also studying the impact of the task itself on the choice and application of learning strategies, such as the effect of the target language (chamot & keatley, 2004; oxford, cho, leung & kim, 2004). communication strategies are “techniques of coping with difficulties in communicating in an imperfectly known second language” (stern, 1983, p. 411). three characteristics associated by compensation strategies karbalaei & negin no. 9 (july december 2014) no. 9 (july december 2014) 91 many with such strategies are that they are problem-based (used when communication problems arise), conscious and intentional. tarone’s (1977) typology of communication strategies was an influential and early one, subsequent important ones including faerch and kasper’s (1983) and bialystok’s (1990). most studies have been concerned with lexical strategies, and various have attempted to relate communication strategy use to variables such as learner proficiency, task type and learner personality, while there have been attempts (notably in bialystok, 1990) to draw parallels with the use of l1 strategies, particularly by children. a few writers have considered the role communication strategies play in the learning process, but clear conclusions are not yet available. there are also differences of opinion as to the value of training of learners in strategy use. it is possible to observe that many iranian learners have study habits that discourage their target language learning. in fact, they are often incapable of dealing with failure in interaction and other language skills as reading and writing because of their restricted linguistic and non-linguistic knowledge in the area of the target language. commonly, they use compensation strategies, which enhance their accomplishment. for example, students simply refrain from conversation or topics for which they have no adequate vocabulary knowledge; they switch to their first language or ask for help (moattarian & tahririan, 2013; pazhakh, 2007; tajeddin & alemi, 2010; zarei & elekaei, 2013;). an overview over of the related literature reveals that, in spite of its undeniable importance, the concept of css has been considered as just one factor of oxford’s strategy inventory language learning (sill). however, the basic aim of this inventory is supporting all language leaning strategy (lls) use of a special group of fl/esl learners. accordingly, the study of compensation strategies has been limited to the superficial review of these strategies in the wider skeleton of lls. moreover, many of these studies have attempted to find a relationship between proficiency levels and llss, therefore leaving the other major issues neglected, such as the application of cs to other language skills. the use of special compensation strategies may be grounded in culture. however, apart from that, it is crucial for learners to apply the strategies that assist them in conserving the conversation, to better comprehend the target language, to deal with vocabulary and grammar shortcomings, or to obtain a higher score. besides, when learners experience favorable communication in the target language in spite of their lack of knowledge, their self-confidence improves and compensation strategies karbalaei & negin no. 9 (july december 2014) no. 9 (july december 2014) 92 this encourages them to achieve more active involvement in language learning tasks. based on this problem, the present research attempted to answer the following main questions: what are the compensation strategies used by iranian elementary efl learners across the speaking skills, and is there any significant difference between male and female iranian elementary efl learners across the speaking skill? literature review there is a large bulk of research investigating language learning strategies, and compensation strategies as a subcategory of it, both in iran and in other educational contexts (rahimi et al., 2008; tajeddin & alemi, 2010). the majority of these studies have employed oxford’s (1990) strategy inventory for language learning (sill). compensation strategies, which have gained status in the wider language learning strategies framework, are investigated from different viewpoints, mainly their frequency of use, and their relationship with proficiency level, gender, learners’ beliefs and learning style. hong-nam and leavell (2006) perused the use of language learning strategy of 55 esl learners with various linguistic and cultural backgrounds in an intensive english learning context. they observed that there was a curvilinear connection between english proficiency and strategy use; that is, there was more use of learning strategies among intermediate learners than beginning and advanced students. in a more recent study, fewell (2010) examined the use of language learning strategy (lls) by japanese college efl students with different proficiency levels. the results of his study indicated that although the overall average of the sill scores were approximately even, the learners in the low proficiency group used social and compensation lls to a higher degree. tajeddin and alemi’s study (2010), as one the studies specifically focused on compensation strategies, addressed high and low proficient students’ preferences for two compensation strategies: compensating and guessing the missing knowledge and the sources of them. the authors concluded that “there is progression from l1and avoidancebased strategies to l2-based and guessing strategies. this arises from proficient learners’ movement beyond the threshold level to capitalize on linguistic clues to more guesses and to use general l2-based resources to compensate for deficiency in a particular area” (p. 52). similarly, zarei and elekaei (2013) investigated the effect of attitude on the choice of compensation and meta-cognitive strategies of compensation strategies karbalaei & negin no. 9 (july december 2014) no. 9 (july december 2014) 93 iranian efl university students. the results indicated that unlike metacognitive strategies, the level of attitude had a statistically significant effect on the choice of students’ compensation strategies (f = 19.407). margolis (2001) tried to prepare an empirical foundation of learner strategies to compensate for missing knowledge or deficiencies in listening and speaking ability. these outcomes reveal that learners most often use the strategy of getting help by asking for more information or confirmation compared to the other strategies. the second most utilized strategy was making guesses. a range of other strategies including coining words, synonyms and antonyms, using gestures and mime, etc., were the least observed strategies. methodology research design the design used in this study was of descriptive nature because the researcher only considered the qualitative data. context and participants the participants were iranian efl language learners. in fact, a total number of 120 students were distributed in eight intact general english classes, four classes of male participants and four classes of female participants. in fact, 15 learners attended each class and they were male and female learners within 11-25 age span. the male learners attended on odd days and the female ones attended on even days. they were placed in the elementary level according to the ket proficiency test conducted prior to the main study in order to homogenize the participants. the classes were taught by two female teachers, the present researcher and one of her female colleagues, and two other male teachers with at least five years experience in language teaching. the materials used were based on the topics covered in the relevant books within a period of four weeks during which eight sessions were managed. data collection instruments oxford’s typology of compensation strategies was prepared in the form of a checklist to facilitate quick recording of observable css in an oral exams. the students’ speaking on the given topics merely served as an opportunity to observe students’ compensation strategies compensation strategies karbalaei & negin no. 9 (july december 2014) no. 9 (july december 2014) 94 use (margolis, 2001). the students were not informed about the aim of speaking on the topics and consider them as a kind of placement or achievement test since they were administered at the beginning as well as during the course. identifying cs is difficult; however, the criteria proposed by bhaskaran (as cited in khanji, 1996), first used for identifying compensation strategies employed by jordanian efl learners and later adopted by other researchers, can be utilized to identify the cs that learners use in listening and speaking. the typology of compensation strategies proposed by oxford (1990) is the main instrument used in this study. the purpose for selecting this framework is that it is one of the few instruments, and of course the one most frequently one, proposed to address cs. additionally, it involves the cs in all basic language skills because oxford (1990) believed that compensation happens not only in comprehension of the new language but also in producing it. this typology is divided into two broad categories: a) guessing in listening and reading, and b) overcoming restrictions in speaking and writing. together, these comprise 10 compensation strategies across four basic language skills. it is worth mentioning that this study focused only on the second category since we were going to peruse the compensation strategies across the speaking skill. as such, the framework used is made up of eight compensation strategies across the speaking skill. data analysis and interpretation for the purpose of the study, a placement test, ket, was administered and we made sure about the same proficiency level of the learners. in the second phase the oxford’s typology of compensation strategies was prepared in form of a checklist to facilitate fast recording of observable css in oral exams. the ideas on the given topics merely serve as an opportunity to observe students’ use of compensation strategies (margolis, 2001). the students were not informed about the aim of these exams and considered them as kinds of placement or achievement test since they were administered at the beginning of the course. before the beginning of the course, the teachers were instructed how to use the checklists. in the case of unpredicted strategies not included in the checklist, the teachers were asked to write down the strategy and the number of times that students employed it. in the third phase, some oral exams consisting of different speaking topics were administered in the first and the following sessions of the course with the purpose of observing and identifying the compensation strategies compensation strategies karbalaei & negin no. 9 (july december 2014) no. 9 (july december 2014) 95 used by learners with the same proficiency level. students were required to share their ideas on a topic in line with their regular course books and typical class sessions. for example, one of the topics was about traveling alone or with a group of friends. another topic was about studying alone or with a group of students. all of the participants received the same topic every session. a total number of eight topics were provided for the participants during the experiment. it is possible to illustrate some compensation strategies used by the participants on the following topic as an example: some people think that they can learn better by themselves than with a teacher. others think that it is always better to have a teacher. which one do you prefer? why? 1. switching to the mother tongue participant 1: i think both (in farsi) teacher and (in farsi) students are important (in farsi). in this example the learner did not know the words both and and in english and she switched to her mother tongue and told the words in farsi. 2. using mime or gesture by participant 2: when i have questions in my mind (pointing to her head), i can ask my questions from my teacher. in this example, the learner did not know the word mind in english, so she pointed to her head to convey her meaning without speaking farsi. 3. using a circumlocution or synonym by participant 3: teachers come to your home and get more money are better for students and they learn fast. in this example, the learner was trying to refer to tutors by providing easy definition and circumlocution of the word. 4. coining words by participants 4: i had a personal teacher and he helped me pass last term. like the last example, in this one the learner was trying to refer to a tutor by providing easy definition and making a new equivalent for the word. compensation strategies karbalaei & negin no. 9 (july december 2014) no. 9 (july december 2014) 96 finally, learners’ oral speech was tape-recorded, transcribed, and then analyzed. after listening to these recordings, learners’ oral descriptions and ideas of topics were identified, marked and labeled on the css. each utterance presented by the students, whether short, long, or silent was transcribed and identified. results the data obtained by the checklists from the instructors were subjected to various statistical analyses. to answer the question, descriptive and inferential statistics was utilized to calculate the frequency and percentage of total cs used by the iranian efl learners. a total number of 1080 examples of compensatory strategies were clarified in the process of data collection over the eight introduced topics during the task of speaking topics (see table 1). table 1. case processing summary beginning with the most frequently used kind of strategies the frequency of these strategies is shown in table 2 in order to answer the question of the study, what are the compensation strategies used by iranian elementary efl learners across the speaking skill? table 2. frequency of the strategies used by all participants compensation strategies karbalaei & negin no. 9 (july december 2014) no. 9 (july december 2014) 97 as it is clear from the above table, iranian elementary efl learners used different kinds of compensation strategies across the speaking skill. the most widely used strategies included switching to the mother tongue (23.51%), using a circumlocution or synonym (17.03%), avoiding communication partially or totally (15.55%), and adjusting or approximating the message (13.42%). at least one of the above communication strategies was applied by all of the learners. the least utilized strategies included getting help (11.388%), coining words (9.166%), selecting the topic (6.759%), and using mime or gesture (3.148%). in order to show the differences between the preferences of male and female participants in using these strategies, data were analyzed as shown in tables 3 and 4. table 3. chi-square tests as shown in table 4, there is a statistically significant difference between male and female in using compensation strategies. table 4. frequency of the strategies used by all participants the results indicated that the males tended to use some of these strategies more frequently than others compared to the female participants; on the other hand, females used the others more frequently than males. in the case of the first strategy, switching to the mother tongue, the female participants used it 147 times whereas the females ones used it 107 times, concluding that the males were more interested in using this strategy. regarding the second strategy, using a circumlocution or synonym, female students used it in 107 different examples, but the compensation strategies karbalaei & negin no. 9 (july december 2014) no. 9 (july december 2014) 98 males used it in 76 different examples, concluding that the female learners were more interested than males in using this strategy. as far as the third strategy is concerned, avoiding communication partially or totally, 94 examples were gathered in which the male participants utilized this strategy whereas the female learners used it in only 74 examples, showing that the males were more willing to apply this strategy than the females. in the case of the forth strategy, adjusting or approximating the message, the female participants showed greater interest in using this strategy, 86 times, but the male learners utilized it in producing 59 sentences. with regard to the fifth strategy, getting help, the male students had a greater tendency and used it 81 times, but the female learners used it only 42 times. concerning the sixth strategy, coining words, the male participants showed to be more willing again and produced 61 sentences using this strategy. the female participants used this strategy 38 times, which indicates that they are not interested in applying this strategy as much as the males. in the case of the seventh strategy, selecting the topic, 41 examples were recorded for the male learners, but 32 ones were recorded for the female learners. finally, in the case of the eighth strategy, using mime or gesture, 19 examples were recorded for the male learners, but 15 ones were recorded for the female learners. to sum up, we can claim that the male learners were more interested in using these kinds of compensation strategies by using them 578 times than the female leaners who used the compensation strategies 502 times. based on the descriptive and statistical analyses of the data presented, the following results have been found. iranian efl students tended to use various kinds of cs in communicating their intended meanings. they widely depended on switching to the mother tongue. this demonstrates that the participants of the study were eager to communicate in english rather than avoiding it. elementary male students used more cs than elementary female students. this could mean that male participants were more enthusiastic and more interested in carrying out communication than female students. elementary male students depended more than female students on switching to the mother tongue, avoiding communication partially or totally, getting help, coining words, selecting the topic, and using mime or gesture in getting their ideas across. they tended to use similar words and phrases, and get round the items and forms more than the female students. elementary female students depended more than elementary male students on using a circumlocution or synonym and adjusting or approximating the message in getting their ideas across. elementary female students used more circumlocution or synonym than did elementary male students. compensation strategies karbalaei & negin no. 9 (july december 2014) no. 9 (july december 2014) 99 this could mean that elementary female students had more linguistic resources than did elementary male students. it was also found that students who tended to use more switching to the mother tongue in their communication, tended to use less mime or gesture. students who employed more switching to the mother tongue in their communication, tended to use more cs. conclusions many learners have problems in expressing their communicative purposes. this is as an outcome of the gaps in their linguistic knowledge. if learners are capable of anticipating difficulties in interaction or when they face one, they often seek for alternative ways to get their meaning conveyed. these alternative ways such as switching to the mother tongue, using a circumlocution or synonym, avoiding communication partially or totally, adjusting or approximating the message, getting help, coining words, selecting the topic, and using mime or gesture are generally referred to as learners’ compensation strategies. the knowledge of all the issues discussed so far and the insights provided should assist teachers. the present study obtained some valuable results and surely can provide some enlightenment to efl learning in iran. however, there are still some uncertainties and limitations needing further research. finally, it is hoped that the findings of this study provide further directions and guidelines for researchers and those interested in speaking skills with the aim of enhancing learning and supporting the needs and requirements of learners. it is also hoped that by integration of compensation strategies in oral skills, more opportunities are provided for all to benefit equally from learning and education. for pedagogical purposes, the following implications can be offered. in order to develop the strategic competence of the students and in order to enhance learners’ proficiency in the tl, efl teachers should set an acceptable model for learners by attempting to speak in english most of the time and encourage learners to speak and discuss issues through english. this method will develop students’ english input and reduce the chance of depending on l1-based compensation strategies (e.g. literal translation and code switching) or avoiding interaction. it also reduces anxiety level of learners and helps them build positive attitudes towards the english language. it also helps in promoting learners’ self-esteem and motivation. compensation strategies karbalaei & negin no. 9 (july december 2014) no. 9 (july december 2014) 100 in order to aid students in learning the language, not about the language, and to make it a part of their linguistic proficiency, instructors should involve learners in real life interactive activities, and actual and contrived discussions. moreover, language syllabi and programs should involve learners in problem solving activities. this, in turn, helps learners in overcoming their apprehension while interacting (i.e., shyness caused by anxiety and fear when interacting with others) and helps in developing learners’ motivation and self-esteem. it is highly recommendable that the greatest attention should be paid to the actual use of language and to conveying intended meaning, not to grammatical correctness. to assist learners in building strategic competence, communication should be focused on teaching english. learners should also be instructed on accurate examples of communication strategies derived from learners’ actual utterances by analyzing these instances and finding the css used. teachers should also motivate learners to increase a goal of proficiency in english language rather than a goal of fulfilling a requirement because positive attitudes toward the tl would be appeared and more learners might be engaged in learning the language. teaching achievement strategies and l2-based css are suggested since these css help to keep up interaction and to convey the message. references bialystok, e. 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(1990). learning strategies in second language acquisition. cambridge: cambridge university press. o’malley, j. m., chamot, a. u., stewner-manzanares, g., russo, r. p. and kupper, l. j, (1985). learning strategy applications with students of english as a second language. tesol quarterly, 19, 557-584. oxford, r. l. (1990). language learning strategies: what every teacher should know. boston, ma: heinle & heinle publishers. oxford, r., cho, y., leung, s., & kim, h-j. (2004). effect of the presence and difficulty of task on strategy use: an exploratory study. international review of applied linguistics, 42, 1-47. compensation strategies karbalaei & negin no. 9 (july december 2014) no. 9 (july december 2014) 102 pazhak, a. (2007). an investigation on iranian efl learners’ application of avoidance strategies in their writings. iranian journal of language studies (ijls), 1(1), 1-14. reiss, m. a. 1985: the good language learner: another look. canadian modern language review, 41, 511-523. rubin j. (1975). what the “good language learner” can teach us. tesol quarterly, 9(1), 41-51. stern, h. h. (1975). what can we learn from the good language learner? canadian modern language review, 31, 301-318. stern h. h. (1983). fundamental concepts of language teaching. oxford: oxford university press. rahimi, m., riazi, a. and saif, s. (2008). an investigation into the factors affecting the use of language learning strategies by persian efl learners. canadian journal of applied linguistics, 11(2), 31–60. tajedin, z., & alemi, m. (2010). less proficient vs. more proficient l2 learners’ preferences for compensation strategies: l1-based, l2-based, and non-linguistic. libri. linguistic and literary broad research and innovation, 1(2), 48-55. tarone, e. (1977). conscious communication strategies in interlanguage: a progress report. in h. d. brown, c. a. yorio, & r. c. crymes (eds.), on tesol ’77 (pp. 194-203). washington, dc: tesol. zarei, a. a., & elekaei, a. (2013). the effect of attitude on l2 learners’ choice of compensation & meta-cognitive strategies. international journal of applied linguistics & english literature, 2(1), 350-356. authors *alireza karbalaei holds a phd in tef and is a faculty member of farhangian university, and head of english department in kish international branch, islamic azad university in iran. he is the editor of different journals and has published 45 articles in the area of tefl. his research interests lie in reading, listening, and vocabulary strategies, and discourse analysis. *tania negin taji received her ma in tefl in kish international branch, islamic azad university in iran. she is currently working as a teacher in different institutes in shiraz, iran. compensation strategies no. 9 (july december 2014) no. 9 (july december 2014) gist final1.indd 115 the phonemic realisations of the letter <ii> and <yy> in educated nigerian english accent and its implications for esl teaching and learning1 las realizaciones fonéticas de la letra <ii> y <yy> en el acento del inglés nigeriano estándar y sus implicaciones para la enseñanza y aprendizaje del inglés como segunda lengua omowumi bode steve ekundayo2* university of benin, nigeria abstract this paper examines the phonemic realisations of the letter <ii> and <yy> in educated nigerian english accent (enea) as a second language. it is based on the concept of intraference. examples were gathered from 2005 to 2013 in a national survey through interviews, participant observation and the recording of spontaneous speeches. the method of analysis is eclectic: qualitative textual analysis and description, and quantitative statistical presentation of data. ordinal data are presented in percentile and frequency tables and charts and the linguistic texts are described, explained and compared with rp variants. the study established that educated nigerians redeploy the various british rp realisations of the letters <i> and <y> indiscriminately to pronounce words in which the letters appear in a manner that rp and other native english accents may not pronounce them, thereby producing phonological variants. since the variants emanate from the (un)conscious redeployment of underlying rp phonemic realisations of the letters and since they are institutionalised in ene, the paper proposes that they be treated as variations that characterise esl and educated nigerian english accent (enea). 1 received: december 15, 2015 / accepted: april 20, 2016 2 ekuns20@yahoo.com gist education and learning research journal. issn 1692-5777. no.12. (january june) 2016. pp. 115-131. a narrative inquiry into pre-service no. 12 (january june 2016) no. 12 (january june 2016) 116 key words: intraference, letters <i>and <y>, phonemic realisations, enea, phonological variation. resumen este artículo examina las realizaciones fonéticas de la letra <ii> y <yy> en el acento del inglés nigeriano estándar como segunda lengua. esta revisión se basa en el concepto de intraferencia. los ejemplos fueron recopilados desde el 2005 al 2013 en una encuesta nacional a través de la aplicación de entrevistas, observación participativa, y el registro de discursos espontáneos. se utilizó el método de análisis ecléctico: análisis textual cualitativo, descripción y presentación estadística de los datos. los datos ordinales son presentados en tablas de frecuencia, porcentaje, gráficos y los textos lingüísticos son descritos, explicados y comparados con variantes de pronunciación recibida, rp. el estudio estableció que la población nigeriana educada reorganiza las variadas realizaciones de las letras <ii> y <yy> de acuerdo a la pronunciación recibida rp del inglés británico de manera indiscriminada para pronunciar palabras en las que aparecen palabras en la manera en que rp y otros acentos nativos de inglés podrían no ser pronunciados por ellos, de esa manera produciendo variantes fonológicas. dado que las variantes provienen de la inconsciente redistribución subyacente de las realizaciones fonéticas de las letras y desde que se institucionalizaron en ene, el artículo propone que pueden ser considerados como variaciones que caracterizan esl y (enea). palabras clave: intraferencia, letras <i> y <y>, realizaciones fonéticas, enea, variación fonológica. resumo este artigo examina as realizações fonéticas da letra <ii> e <yy> no sotaque do inglês nigeriano padrão como segunda língua. esta revisão se baseia no conceito de intraferência. os exemplos foram recopilados desde 2005 até 2013 em uma pesquisa de nacional através da aplicação de entrevistas, observação participativa, e o registro de discursos espontâneos. utilizou-se o método de análise eclética: análise textual qualitativo, descrição e apresentação estadística dos dados. os dados ordinais são apresentados em tabelas de frequência, porcentagem, gráficas e os textos linguísticos são descritos, explicados e comparados com variantes de pronunciação recebida, rp. o estudo estabeleceu que a população nigeriana educada reorganiza as variadas realizações das letras <ii> e <yy> de acordo com a pronunciação recebida rp do inglês britânico de maneira indiscriminada para pronunciar palavras nas que aparecem palavras na maneira em que rp e outros sotaques nativos de inglês poderiam não ser pronunciados por eles, dessa maneira produzindo variantes fonológicas. dado que as variantes provêm da inconsciente redistribuição subjacente das realizações fonéticas das letras e desde que se institucionalizaram em ene, o artigo propõe que podem ser considerados como variações que caracterizam esl e (enea). palavras chave: intraferência, letras <i> e <y>, realizações fonéticas, enea, variação fonológica. the phonemic realisations bode no. 12 (january june 2016) no. 12 (january june 2016) 117 introduction nigerians speak english in the way they have been taught formally in school, according to the information they gather from grammar textbooks and pronunciation cues from educated speakers, standard dictionaries and naturally in the way they use their languages. for these reasons, interference features abound in nigerian english varieties. quirk, greenbaum, leech and svartvik (1985) say that esl variations emanate from interference and that some of the “interference varieties are so widespread in a community and of such long standing that some believe them stable and adequate enough to be institutionalised and hence to be regarded as varieties of english in their own right…” (pp. 27-28). however, it is shown in this paper that some esl variations emanate not from interference but from intraference, which is a lexicalised conceptualisation of such well-known terminologies as ‘intralingual interference’ (richarda & sampson, 1984, p. 6), the ‘overgeneralisation of linguistic rules and items’ (selinker, 1984, p. 37) and ‘the internal principle of linguistic change’ (labov, 1994, p.84). the paper examines how intraference manifests in enea in the articulation of letters the <i> and <y> (pronounced in the same way in rp and other native english varieties). nigerian english (nige) is one of the leading english as a-second-language (esl) varieties in the world at present. english is the official (but not national) language in nigeria. however, nigerian english is not a homogeneous entity. it is often assessed, described and categorized from the perspectives of region, linguistics, sociolinguistics and formal education. many varieties come to the fore at the regional level; for example, hausa, yoruba, igbo, urhobo, edo, etc varieties. ethno-linguistic and phonological deviations are usually used to categorize regional varieties. three varieties of basilect, acrolect, and mesolect are invariably delineated on the sociolinguistic plane. the basilect is the lowest variety at the base of the sociolinguistic pyramid associated with nigerians who do not have higher formal education and wide socio-educational interaction. the mesolect is a variety associated with a majority of literate nigerians who may not be so highly educated such as secondary school leavers, junior civil servants, young sales men, the rank and file of military and para-military personnel, among many others. the acrolect, which is the focus of this paper, is the quintessential variety of nige at the top of the social pyramid. it is associated with highly educated nigerians such as graduates, lecturers, writers, journalists, senior government officials, etc. the typologies of nigerian english according to educational and linguistic criteria are the most popular ones. (brosnahan, 1958; the phonemic realisations bode no. 12 (january june 2016) no. 12 (january june 2016) 118 adekunle, 1979; banjo, 1970, 1996; odumuh, 1980; udofot, 1997). banjo’s and odumuh’s identical classifications of varieties (v) 1, ii, iii and iv are the most popularly used or cited. accordingly, v.i is the lowest type that is associated with primary school pupils and leavers and some secondary school students. this variety is characterised by egregious grammatical errors, mispronunciation and broken structures. v. ii is an improvement on v.i. it is the variety that over 70% of literate and educated nigerians use. errors of grammar and articulation, according to the standards of rp/british english and highly educated nigerians, are reduced in this variety. v.iii is the educated variety. like the acrolect, it is the variety associated with highly educated nigerians which is very close to sbe and rp in syntax and pronunciation. this variety is also called educated nigerian english or standard nigerian english. it is the same as the acrolect. according to banjo, these classifications are not clear-cut, for there are overlaps. “there can, in truth, never be any firm dividing lines” (banjo, 1996, p.79). although the phonemic trends examined manifest in all the varieties, this paper concentrates on the cases in ene. the paper is an expanded version of an integral part of a major survey of intraference variations in ene from 2005 to 2013. it was designed to answer these questions: (i) do educated nigerians articulate the letters <i> and <y> differently from the way native speakers pronounce them? (ii) are there significant cases of such differences in ene? (iii) why do nigerian users of english as a second language pronounce the two letters differently from native speakers? and (iv) how do we treat the variants in the teaching and description of esl? the paper adopted the concept of intraference to (1) demonstrate how the phonemic realisations of the letters <i> and <y> intrafere with (substitute or replace) one another, (2) present examples and patterns of the realisations and (3) propose how these features should be treated in teaching and learning english in esl settings. literature review the concepts of interference and intraference underlie this paper. in esl, interference and contrastive analysis (james, 1950; weinreich, 1957) were the more popular concepts which linguists used to predict sources of errors and deviations prior to the 1960s (akere, 2009, p. 5; surakat, 2010, p. 102). interference, also called negative language transfer, is a language user’s habit of transferring the features, rules and meanings of his/her native language to his/her foreign or second language. it occurs at all levels of linguistic organisation, the most common being the phonological ones which manifest in phonemic the phonemic realisations bode no. 12 (january june 2016) no. 12 (january june 2016) 119 change/replacement and prosodic features. for example, most nigerians pronounce <the> as /di/ or /di:/ as against rp /ði:/ or /ðə/ because the voiced dental fricative /ð/ and schwa /ə/ are not in nigerian local languages; hence they are often replaced with the nearest alveolar stop /d/ and the vowels /i/, /e/ or /a/ for /ə/. according to ekundayo (2006), interference and contrastive analysis do not examine critically how the rules and dynamics of the second language itself make learners produce coinages and variations, an issue which corder (1980), selinker (1971) richards (1984), among others, “took up vigorously in the turn of the 1960s” and started making a strong case for intralingual interference, the overgeneralisation of linguistic features, among other terms used (p. 40). the term intraference in this field is not as popular as interference. the application of the word intraference may be traced to several independent outstanding works separated by time and long distances: barry hale (2000), an australian video artist, uses the term ‘intraference mirror’ in a non-linguistic or extra-linguistic context to denote a simple video feedback loop which he manipulates to create evolving images in real time (www.barryhale.intraferencemirrors). in linguistics, william croft (2000, 2003) uses the term as later ekundayo (2006, 2014). according to croft “different elements of the same language can interfere with each other if they share enough linguistic substance,” and that intraference occurs when language items are affected by different dialects, sociolinguistic variants or other structures of the same language (croft, 2000, pp. 111-165). ekundayo (2006) conceptualises intraference as “the habit of transferring the rules and dynamics of a language from a section where they have been established and where they acceptably operate to another section within the language where they hitherto used not to operate. since such a transfer is within the language, it is better tagged intraference, which is the reverse of interference” (p. 20). ekundayo (2014) argues that intraference emanates from two major factors: psychosociolinguistic features, on the one hand, and linguistic dynamics, on the other. these two forces combine to influence a nonnative speaker of a language to produce phonological, morphological, syntactic, semantic and orthographic variants. the psycho-sociolingustic is an amalgam of two sub-factors. the first is the social knowledge, context and setting of the speakers; for when a new concept, experience, event, etc confronts nonnative speakers, and even native speakers of a language, they fall back on the dynamics, features and rules of the language and (re)deploy them to express the new experience and idea. this linguistic habit may generate a new linguistic structure, or add a new layer of meaning to an existing structure. the second sub-factor of the psycho-sociolinguistic set is the brain or mind mechanism of the users, the way the users the phonemic realisations bode no. 12 (january june 2016) no. 12 (january june 2016) 120 view and rearrange features of the language creatively or otherwise in their minds. precisely, it relates to chomsky’s (1965) competence and performance. competence refers to the underlying innate linguistic knowledge of a speaker and performance denotes the practical, actual use of language in a given situation. intraference cases are found in performance, but they first originate from competence because the speaker has a measure of competence (knowledge) of the language, either in restricted or elaborated code, in bernstein’s (1971) terms. the social knowledge and context, as in the esl context of this study, often influence the redeployment of the language features and rules (the linguistic factor). the linguistic factor generates the five major types of intraference: phonological, graphological or orthographic, morphemic or morphological, morpho-syntactic and lexico-semantic with many sub-divisions, which ekundayo (2006) and (2014) surveyed in educated nigerian english (ene). the phonemic realisations of the letters <i> and <y> are a small sub-set of the phonological type. in summary, ekundayo (2006, 2014) uses intraference to round up a number of linguistic habits in (but not restricted to) a second language. it is used to conceptualise, describe and account for (i) the linguistic features of a variety which emanate from the redeployment of the internal features and rules of a language in new contexts without reference to another language, (ii) the features in a particularly variety arising from the interaction of the variety with another variety of the language; for example, americanisms in nigerian english are not interference but intraference features: english a (nige) assuming the features of english b ame (see awonusi, 1994; igboanusi, 2003). take the word <advertisement> for example, which is /əd’vʒ:tɪsmənt/ in rp but /ædvər’tɑɪzmənt/ in ame and /ædvæ’tɑɪzment/ or /ædvæ’tɪzment/ in nige. the american variant was initially (and still is) a product of linguistic intraference because it is the redeployment of the wellknown phonemic realisations of the letters <i> as /ɑɪ/, <er> as /ə/ and <s> as /z/ in the english language that generate(d) the american variant. these phonemes are all in english and therefore intra-. the nige variant similar to the ame variant may be explained as either the intraference of americanism or simply as phonological intraference. as the intraference of americanism, it means that the pronunciation is borrowed from ame accent (intraference of americanism in another variety of the same language). as phonological intraference, it means that nige adopt(ed) the same process which ame redeploy(ed) to produce the variant /ædvæ’tɑɪzment/ or /ædvæ’tɪzment/: the redeployment of /æ/ for <a> and <er>, and /z/ for <s>. all considered, most educated nigerians do not necessarily listen to americans before the phonemic realisations bode no. 12 (january june 2016) no. 12 (january june 2016) 121 they attempt to articulate words in performance. they would rather first pronounce it according to their phonological competences. ekundayo also uses intraference to denote spelling pronunciation, the creative (re) application of language features and rules to fabricate new structures and meanings; for example sickler in nige for ‘ss genotype carrier or one who regularly falls ill’; aristo babe for ‘a girl or lady who flirts and has sex with aristocrats (rich men) to earn a living or make money.’ in phonology, intraference involves the reapplication and extension of segmental and suprasegmental features and rules to structures in which they do not apply in rp. the letters <i> and <y> in rp are realised phonemically as follows: /ɪ/-------------it, dig, graffiti, city, tidy letters <i, y>, /j/------------young, yet, joyous /i:/-----------machine, police /aɪ/-----------shine, iron, cry, why. simo bodda (1995) shows that nigerian and cameroonian english varieties substitute /i/ for rp /ɪ:/, /ɪ/ and /aɪ/, /a/ for rp /æ/ and /ə/, as in nigerian <beer> /bia/, <fear>/fia/, etc for rp /bɪə/ and /fɪə/. bobda’s study covered a broad spectrum of nigerian and cameroonian english varieties encompassing the idiolects of the educated and uneducated (pp. 249-255). some of the cases in his inventory do not or hardly occur in enea, which is the focus of this paper. enea, the spoken variety of ‘standard nigerian english’ (sne) or ene is similar to rp. ugorji (2010) also shows how educated nigerians reassign the phonemic realisations of letters <i> and <y> to different words in his survey of the basilect, mesolect and acrolect of nigerian english, a situation where /ɪ/. i: or /i/ occurs in ‘queen, seed, invitee, sick, sit, pill,’ among other examples (p.90). ugorji says that that /i/ and /ɪ/ are variants in the acrolect of nigerian english. ubong and babatunde (2011) equally observe that “more than one phoneme may function as alternants and variants for a single rp model” (548). for example, rp /i:/ and /ɪ/ are realised in nige as /i/, /ɪ/ and /i:/. ugorji’s inventory of the phonological features of nigerian english takes the acrolect very close to rp, a closeness which jowitt (retrieved 2016) also admits: “educated, acrolectal nigerian speakers of english have in their vowel system sounds which are to a great extent those of british rp, although there are a considerable number of variants which are also found in the relevant ‘regional’ basilect-mesolect” (p.11). ekundayo, longe, and teilanyo (2012) further show that nige articulation of words like <omniscience> /ɔmni’saiens/ for rp the phonemic realisations bode no. 12 (january june 2016) no. 12 (january june 2016) 122 /’ɔmnisɪəns/, <dwarf> /dwa:f/ for rp /dwɔ:f/, <lettuce> /’letus/ for rp /letɪs/, <incumbent> /’inkumbent/ for rp /ɪn’kʌmbənt/, etc are the outcomes of phonological intraference, not interference (pp. 90-93). although a number of works have treated the articulation of various phonemes in nige, predominantly from the perspective of interference, (jubil, 1979; amayo, 1986; ikara, 1986; awonusi, 2007; soneye, 2008; dadzie & awonusi, 2009; etc), none has isolated the letters <y> and <i> to determine in a nation-wide survey how educated nigerians redeploy and redistribute the underlying rp and/or native english phonemic realisations of the letters, a gap that this paper fills. the paper documents thirty-six words in which the underlying rp phonemic realisations of the letters <i> and <y> are redeployed in patterns different from rp. as a result of phonological intraference, educated nigerian speakers of english as a second language often mix up the phonemic realsations of the letters <i> and <y> as /ɑɪ/, /ɪ/ and /i:/ respectively. methodology research design the paper is a survey of the linguistic occurrence of intraference features in nigerian esl. it adopted an eclectic approach: the qualitative method of textual analysis and the quantitative method of statistical presentation of ordinal data in simple percentile, frequency tables and graphs. it was assumed that the phonemic realisations of letters <i> and <y> ‘intrafere’ with (substitute, displace) one another in the spoken english of educated nigerians. focus was on currency of the variants and educational status of the population as defined in context and participants below; not necessarily on age, sex and individual ranks of the educated people surveyed. the transcription used is ipa. specifically, daniel jones’ phonetic symbols in cambridge english pronouncing dictionary (2006, inside front page), also in longman dictionary of contemporary english (2007, inside front page) and in awonusi (2009, p. 10, column b) were used for the rp/native english transcriptions of the cases here. context and participants the study was carried out in nigeria. educated nigerians were surveyed from may 2005 to may 2013. nigerians in the continuum of national diploma (nd) minimum to ph.d./professor, those who have post-secondary school certificate/qualifications, civil servants and workers with many working-year experience are considered educated the phonemic realisations bode no. 12 (january june 2016) no. 12 (january june 2016) 123 in this study. informants were between 19 and 70 years, comprising lecturers and final year students in english and literature, linguistics, and international studies and diplomacy, mass communication, theatre arts and other departments in ten government-owned universities and other schools tested the six geo-political zones of nigeria: the south-west, the multi-lingual south-south, the south-east the north central, north eat and north west. the universities and institutions visited are ahmadu bello university, zaria, bayero university, kano (north); university of lagos, lagos, federal university of technology, akure (west); university of nigeria, enugu campus, nnamdi azikiwe university, awka (east); university of ilorin, ilorin, university of abuja, federal capital territory (north-central); university of benin, benin city, edo state, and the university of port harcourt, port harcourt (south-south). four federal government-owned polytechnics were also surveyed. they are federal polytechnic, auchi (south-south), federal polytechnic, ede osun state (west), federal polytechnic offa, kwara state (middle-belt, north central), kaduna polytechnic, kaduna state (north) and federal polytechnic, oko, anambra state (east). in addition, some cases were elicited from the live performances of ten trained nigerian television authority (nta) newscasters and ten trained newscasters with state-owned television stations and five with three private television stations: african independent television (ait), independent television (itv) and silver bird television (stv). where 0 -29 of the respondents used a variant, it is tagged isolated, 30 to 44% is emerging variant, 45-49% is free variant 51-59% is common, 6079% widespread and 80-100% entrenched. data collection instruments speech recording, participant observation and interview were used to gather data. the interviews and observations were mainly unstructured and conducted in both formal and informal settings such as university classes and lecture theatres, staff rooms, lecturers’ offices, churches and social gatherings where the researchers either participated in or observed linguistic events. for this sub-section of the nation-wide survey, thirty-six (36) words were written in charts and flexible banners for students to pronounce or on papers for individual respondents to articulate. before each interview, the researcher counted or established the number of informants on the spot and after the articulation of the words, those who articulated them in rp or native english accent were counted and isolated from those who pronounced them in nige accent. the tallying and percentile counts for the words were done manually from 2005 to 2013 and then arranged in a table. the phonemic realisations bode no. 12 (january june 2016) no. 12 (january june 2016) 124 data analysis and interpretation thirty-six variants are presented and annotated in the table below. table 1. words with the intraference of /aɪ/ and /ɪ/ or /i/ for the letters <ii> and <yy> the phonemic realisations bode no. 12 (january june 2016) no. 12 (january june 2016) 125 the phonemic realisations bode no. 12 (january june 2016) no. 12 (january june 2016) 126 table 2. frequency distribution table for table 2 note that the frequency table has 40 words instead of the 36 in table 1. the reason is that several words generated variants and common pronunciations at the same time. the graph below shows the degree of spread for each type. figure 1. summary bar graph for the variants examined as shown in the tables and chart, the cases examined are largely widespread and entrenched in ene. some variants are absolutely institutionalised so much that none of the nigerians surveyed here pronounced them in the rp way. these are variant numbers 3, 17, 18, 26, 27, 29 and 34 in the table. there are others which have very low the phonemic realisations bode no. 12 (january june 2016) no. 12 (january june 2016) 127 scores for rp such as variant numbers 2, 3, 4, 5, 12, etc. in enea the letters <i> and <y> are articulated as /i/ and /ɪ/ where rp uses /ɑɪ/ as in awry, advertisement, annihilate, divisive, etc, and as /ɑɪ/ in enea where rp uses /ɪ/ or /i:/ as in diffuse, divorce, elite, bigots, etc. the substitution of /i/,/ɪ/ for /ɑɪ/ and vice versa is not occasioned by phonological interference but by phonological intraference, i.e. the replacement of one phoneme for another in the same language, not from outside it. a good example of the redeployment of the phonemic realisations of letter <i> is in the acronym ‘inec’ (‘independent national electoral commission,’ number 23 in the table), which does not exist in sbe and other native english varieties. the acronym has two popular variants arising from the redeployment of /ɑɪ/, /i/ and/or /ɪ/, two underlying phonemic realisations of the letter <i>. educated nigerians pronounce it as either /ɑɪnek/ or /ɪnek/. many of the respondents, being educated nigerians pronounced the words in the rp accent, which accounted for the percentage of rp in the third column. conclusions the paper examined the phonemic realisations of letters the <i> and <y>. thirty-six examples were presented to demonstrate the patterns of the pronunciation of letter <i> and <y> in enea. the results and presentation reveal clear differences between the rp and enea variants of the phonemic realisations of the letters <i> and <y>. the 36 examples here are by no means exhaustive of all the cases in enea. intraference and interference, teaching habits and institutionalised deviant forms facilitate the use and spread of these features in esl. the variants have implications for the study, description and teaching of esl. teachers and grammarians of ene often treat as errors most of the features of nige that do not conform to rp, yet the local variants keep flourishing. ugorji (2010) also draws attention to the emergence of nativised varieties which suffer from pedagogic confusion in which the rp is in principle desired and proposed but not targeted or welltaught because teachers cannot reach it and are not competent in it. so, no matter how hard they try, they find it difficult or impossible to achieve total native english mastery of the language dynamics and they keep spreading the entrenched nonnative patterns unconsciously. meanwhile the nativized varieties have not also been codified and standardized for effective authoritative teaching and learning. ugorji (2010) describes the situation as ‘pedagogic anarchy’ (p.26). the phonemic realisations bode no. 12 (january june 2016) no. 12 (january june 2016) 128 against this backdrop, it is here proposed that those that have become widespread, entrenched or institutionalised should be treated as veritable esl and enea variations. this does not prevent those who prefer the rp variants from using them. all considered, intraference plays a huge role in differentiating between bre and ame articulation of many words. even in native english, intraference has influenced the emergence of the free phonemic variants of <i>; for example, <anti> is either ame /æntɑɪ/ or bre /æntɪ/, either /’dɪrekt/ or /’dɑɪrekt/ for <direct>, and /’fɪnæns/ or /’fɑɪnæns/ for <finance>, etc. in terms of teaching, these features may be regarded as institutionalised variations which characterise esl/enea and should be taught alongside the rp variants. this option or position is the most sociolinguistically expedient for pedagogy and effective communication and the description of the features of esl. for examination purpose, particularly at the secondary school level where examiners use nigerian examples as deviations or errors and rp variants as the correct forms, students should be told that where the two variants appear in a question, the rp variant should be picked as the answer since that is the one the examiners intend as the answer. however, efforts should be expedited to reorient nigerian examination bodies to change their prescriptive and judgmental attitude to entrenched nigerian variants. nigeria’s endonormic standard should equally be codified, as the nigeria english studies association and ice (international corpus of english) nigerian project are undertaking at present. the ‘anarchy’ that ugorji described may remain till standard nigerian english becomes so firmly rooted even at those examination levels that examiners will no longer see the entrenched nigerian variants as errors for examination questions. the reality on the ground here is that differences exist between examination english and real life performance english. fortunately, however, some standard dictionaries and glossaries of the features of nigerian esl have been published recently, for example, the 2014 a dictionary of nigerian english compiled by the nigerian english studies association (nesa) which turned english studies association of nigeria (esan) in september 2015. the phonemic realisations bode no. 12 (january june 2016) no. 12 (january june 2016) 129 references adekunle, m. 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(1980). error analysis and interlanguage. oxford: oxford university press. the phonemic realisations bode no. 12 (january june 2016) no. 12 (january june 2016) 130 croft, w. (2000). explaining language change: an evolutionary approach. harlow, essex: longman. croft, w. (2003). the relevance of evolutionary model in historical linguistics. in o. nergaard thomsen. (ed.), competing models of linguistic change: evolution and beyond (pp. 1-40). london: john benjamin publishers. crystal, d. 2009. a dictionary of linguistics and phonetics. 6th ed. oxford: blackwell. ekundayo, b. s. (2006). the concept of ‘intraference’ in english: the morphemic examples in nigerian english as second language. (unpublished master’s thesis). university of benin, benin city, nigeria. ekundayo, b. s. (2014). intraference in educated nigerian english (ene). (unpublished doctoral dissertation). university of benin, benin city, nigeria. ekundayo, b. s., longe, v. u, and teilanyo, d. i. (2012). the redeployment of english phonological rules as ‘intrafernce.” journal of the nigerian english studies association (jnesa), 15(1), 77-100 dadzie, abk & awonus,s. (2009). nigerian english influences and characteristics. new ed. lagos: sam iroanusi. hale, b. (2000). intraference mirror. retrieved from www.barryhale. intraferencemirrors may 2012. igboanusi, h. (2003). knowledge, use and attitude towards americanisms in nigerian english. world englishes, 22(4), 599604. jubril, m. (1979). regional variation in nigerian spoken evglish (4353). in ebo ubahakwe. (ed.). varieties and functions of english in nigeria. ibadan: african university press. ikara, b. (1986). some linguistic and socio-cultural variables in nigerian variety of english.. in s. unoh, (ed.). use of english in communication: the nigeria experience (pp. 39-59). ibadan: spectrum. jowitt, d. (2016). nigerian received pronunciation. retrieved from https://cuvillier.de/uploads/preview/public_file/9172/leseprobe.pdf labov, w. (1994). principle of linguistic change. vol.i, internal factors. oxford: blackwell. longman dictionary of contemporary english. (2007). edinburgh: pearson. the phonemic realisations bode no. 12 (january june 2016) no. 12 (january june 2016) 131 odumuh, a. o. (1980). the syntax and semantics of nigerian english. (unpublished doctoral thesis). ahmadu bello university, zaria, nigeria. quirk, r., greenbaum, s., leech, g., svartvik, j. (1985). a comprehensive grammar of the english language. london: longman. richards, j. c., & sampson, g. (1984). the study of learner english. in j. c. richards j.c. (ed.), perspectives on second language acquisition (pp. 13-18). london: longman. selinker, l. (1984). interlanguage. in j. c. richards j.c. (ed.), perspectives on second language acquisition (pp. 1-54). london: longman. soneye, t. (2008). ch digraph in english: patterns and proposition for esl pedagogy. papers in english linguistics 9, 9-20. surakat, t. y. (2010). categorising varieties of nigerian english: a socio-psycholinguistic perspective. journal of nigerian english studies association (jnesa), 13(2), 97-110. ubong. e. j & babatunde s. t. (2011). standard nigerian english phonemes: the crisis of modelling and harmonization. world englishes, 30(4), 533-550. udofot, i. (1997). the rhythm of nigerian english. (unpublished doctoral dissertation). university of uyo, uyo, nigeria. ugorji, c. u. c. 2010. nigerian english phonology. lagos: chinedum publishers. author *omowumi bode steve ekundayo teaches english grammar and writing in the university of benin, benin city, nigeria. he holds a ba ed, ma, and phd in english and literature. he has published many articles in many local and international journals. his areas of interest and research are phonology, syntax, semiotics, semantics, stylistics, discourse analysis and creative writing. the phonemic realisations bode no. 12 (january june 2016) no. 12 (january june 2016) editorial josephine taylor* gist is quite pleased this issue to offer reports of research from the u.s., latin america and africa. the articles in this issue point to the need to go beyond the standard recommendations of effective teaching practices, and delve into a deeper appreciation of classroom realities, cultural and contemporary issues of language use, teacher training and language policy. while much of the information teachers are presented with often reduces classroom practices and teaching or training models to set formulas or trite recommendations, gist strives to offer the work of practitioners who have taken the time to investigate, document, gather and analyze evidence from their settings in an effort to contribute to on-going understanding and conversations around a variety of issues facing teachers, coordinators, directors and principals in our daily practice. mora, rivas, lengeling and crawford contribute to a series of publications in gist on the issue of language brokering, particularly in the case of mexican transnationals who return to mexico to become english teachers. the study reveals the important role these individuals play as language brokers, particularly in their role as future teachers. córdoba, rodríguez and gaubil outline the design and implementation of an in-service teacher training program for efl teachers in costa rica and its role in improving the english language level of the majority of the country’s teachers. from chile, pelusa orellana offers an exploration on the use of the seminar format with pre-service english teachers. implementation of socratic dialogue and the paideia seminar protocol led to an increase in more elaborated arguments and overall sophisticated thinking in students. paula ramirez marroquín reports on the articulation of formative research and the classroom projects implemented at a university in bogotá. this study is interesting as it includes student and teachers’ voices as key perspectives in the examination of classroom practices and department policies and curriculum. oliva and núñez explore how integrating language and content with second language learners may play a role in the development of learner autonomy. 5 no. 9 (july december 2014) 6 jenny melo león explores the promotion of critical thinking in preschool classes in an immersion school setting in bogotá, colombia. this baseline study helps argue the need to investigate classroom realities first before advocating the implementation of particular techniques or even curricular projects. in terms of the intersection between language change, culture and current usage, and the challenge this presents to language teaching, gist is pleased once again to publish work by omowumi steve bode ekundayo, in which he explores the issue of orthographic intraference in examples of educated nigerian english. finally, juan david parra explores the current paradigm of critical realism in language policy debates and the need to involve educators and their experiences in the public discourse. it is our hope that readers enjoy this issue, find it thought provoking, and are stimulated to contribute with research of their own in upcoming issues. editor *josephine taylor received her ba in english and french from emory university and her ms in the teaching of english as second language from georgia state university, both in atlanta, georgia. she has been a teacher of english language and linguistics for more than 25 years, as well as administrator, curriculum designer, and external reviewer of language education programs in the u.s. and colombia. she has also worked extensively in english language publishing, as author, course developer and editor. josephine is currently the editor of gist education and learning research journal and adjunct professor in the undergraduate and graduate bilingual teaching programs at the institución universitaria colombo americana, única. no. 10 (january june 2015) no. 10 (january june 2015) 177 content and language integrated learning (clil): considerations in the colombian context1 jaisson rodriguez bonces2* universidad central, colombia abstract the present article seeks to encourage reflection on the characteristics and considerations when implementing content and language integrated learning (clil) in a diverse context such as the colombian one. initially, the general aspects of an innovative and changing education in a globalized world are presented by stating the need to innovate. secondly, content and language integrated learning is defined along its implications by critically addressing clil dimensions. lastly, the article offers a broad view about the inclusion of clil in the colombian context. in general, the article presents the implications about the use of clil, specifically its dimensions and influence in colombia. keywords: clil, content based instruction, clil dimensions resumen el siguiente artículo tiene como finalidad motivar a la reflexión sobre las características y consideraciones para implementar el aprendizaje y enseñanza de lengua a través de contenido (content and language integrated learning) en un contexto tan diverso como el colombiano. inicialmente se presentan las generalidades de una educación innovadora y cambiante en un mundo globalizado que exige docentes que incorporan metodologías apropiadas a las necesidades e intereses de los estudiantes. seguidamente se define el aprendizaje y enseñanza de lengua a través de contenido y sus implicaciones para así abordar sus dimensiones de manera crítica. finalmente, el texto ofrece una visión más amplia con respecto a la inclusión de clil en el contexto colombiano. en general, a lo largo del artículo se reflexionará acerca de las implicaciones del uso de clil, específicamente sus dimensiones y su influencia en colombia. palabras claves: clil, enseñanza y aprendizaje por contenidos, dimensiones clil 1 received: august 17th, 2012 / accepted: september 4th, 2012 2 email: jeijeto@hotmail.com gist education and learning research journal. issn 1692-5777. no. 6, november 2012. pp. 177-189 no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) 178 resumo o seguinte artigo tem como finalidade motivar à reflexão sobre as características e considerações para implementar a aprendizagem e ensino de língua através de conteúdo (content and language integrated learning) em um contexto tão diverso como o colombiano. inicialmente se apresentam as generalidades de uma educação inovadora e cambiante em um mundo globalizado que exige docentes que incorporam metodologias apropriadas às necessidades e interesses dos estudantes. seguidamente se define a aprendizagem e ensino de língua através de conteúdo e suas implicações para assim abordar suas dimensões de maneira crítica. finalmente, o texto oferece uma visão mais amplia com respeito à inclusão de clil no contexto colombiano. em geral, ao longo do artigo se reflexionará acerca das implicações do uso de clil, especificamente suas dimensões e sua influência na colômbia. palavras chaves: clil, ensino e aprendizagem por conteúdos, dimensões clil introduction language teachers have used many influential methods and approaches that have made their mark on the field of english language teaching. the historical progression of foreign language teaching and every one of its methods and approaches have taken place within a framework where the term innovation is fundamental. the world has changed radically, globalization has gathered pace rapidly, and the english language has come to dominate the way new ideas, methods and approaches have grown out of reactions to the dominant paradigms of previous periods. due to this, it seems strange now to think that many educators ignore or disdain the significance of being innovative in their practice which means to be proactive, creative and dynamic. in a straight response to these changes many teachers in colombia are adapting methodologies to improve their teaching practices in such a way that they motivate and engage students while reaching language standards. in this sense, content and language integrated learning (clil) has been used in the colombian context as a way to teach content through english. content and language integrated learning (clil) rodriguez bonces no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) 179 towards a definition of clil although clil has been used in europe or in the united states labeled as content based instruction (cbi), in colombia it is a new paradigm shift in the field of language teaching since it entails innovation in methods and approaches. the acronym clil was originally defined in 1994, and launched in 1996 by unicom, university of jyvaskyla in finland and the european platform for dutch education. according to marsh (2002), it describes educational methods in which “subjects are taught through a foreign language with dual-focused aims, namely the learning of content, and the simultaneous learning of a foreign language.” this definition clearly shows how clil not only implies the teaching of content through english but remarks the importance language has when teaching content. that is to say, educators need to pay close attention to the fact students are learning content through a language that demands instruction and background knowledge. as a result, it is advisable that educators plan content lessons that include a target language goal. if one considers the dual focus expressed in the previous paragraph, the term clil becomes an umbrella term to cover “learning through any language that is not the first language of the learner” (ball, 2006). in consequence, the educational community needs to be aware that using a foreign language when teaching content incurs in language learning since structures, vocabulary, and pragmatics, among other linguistic features, are implicit in the topic being taught. clil entails teaching the foreign language while students learn subject – matter. marsh (2003) adds that clil also includes procedure when it is implemented effectively. for instance, when students learn a subject; namely, history, geography and/or science through the medium of a foreign language; the foreign language acts as a vehicle for learning, thus educators plan integrating not only content and language but also procedures by stating how content will be addressed in such a way that it is meaningful for every learner, no matter their proficiency level. as a result, clil is also an instructional approach. content and language integrated learning (clil) refers to any dual-focused educational context in which an additional language, thus not usually the first language of the learners involved, is used as a medium in the teaching and learning of non-language content. it is dual-focused because whereas attention may be predominantly on either subject-specific content or language, both are always accommodated. (marsh, 2003, elc information bulletin 9) content and language integrated learning (clil) rodriguez bonces no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) 180 clil is focused on interdisciplinary curriculum or cross curricular planning. in this regard, educators teaching english as a medium of instruction (emi), language across the curriculum (lac), content based instruction (cbi), content based language teaching (cblt), english for specific purposes (esp) or any form of bilingual education, are all applying clil. english has turned out to be the dominant language in our society, therefore a need for language and content integrated learning arises in order to prepare future professionals to face this changing world. this situation gives the learning of a foreign language the importance that it had never had before in the curriculum, as it provides innumerable advantages if we are to accompany the new trends in the world we are living in. apprentices need to learn a language to confront the demands of a new society; the studied language may provide a better status and the possibility to use it for different needs. in order to show the use of language, learners may do cross curricular connections by doing project work, for example. in summary, when using clil, both language and content are simultaneously given attention and they are both essential in the learning process. the language is used as a tool to learn the contents of the subject, and those contents are used as a meaningful medium to learn and use the language communicatively. clil, dimensions and focuses marsh et al. (2001) mentioned five fundamental dimensions that characterize clil as an instructional approach: figure 1. clil dimensions content and language integrated learning (clil) rodriguez bonces no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) 181 ball (2006) thinks that these dimensions are the basis for clil. keeping in mind content and language imply both communication and knowledge, it is certain to consider these five dimensions provide a framework for the approach. first, culture dimension contributes to the growth of intercultural knowledge resulting in most of the cases in cultural understanding. likewise, culture dimension helps to introduce wider cultural context, learning at the same time about specific neighboring countries, regions and minority groups. it emerges as a means to handle issues relating to regional-political conditions where even if cross-border contact has been minimal in the past, the future invites much greater contact. colombia as multicultural and diverse as it is, offers a wide spectrum to assume a cultural position in regards to one´s own perception and the foreign language. clil is used to promote understanding and awareness through language-enhanced methodologies. second, regarding the environment, clil prepares for internationalization which is nowadays one of the main goals of the educational system in colombia. the programme curriculum may be heavily influenced by specific environmental needs or opportunities identified in the institution. in the same way, thanks to this internationalization, there is an international certification access. students have preparation for future studies or work that involves different languages, so they are ready to face any culture with all the necessary skills to take an exam in which their proficiency is valued. when integrating content and language, students have the opportunity to acquire both basic interpersonal communications skills (bics) and cognitive academic language proficiency (calps) with the former being all the social language skills and the latter the language skills to cope with academic requirements (cummins, 2000). being able to communicate academically and socially opens new borders and encourages students to explore and travel around the world. third, in terms of content, clil is seen as helping to provide opportunities to study content through different perspectives. marsh et al (2001) claim that “languages, and the cultures associated with them, sometimes reveal differing world-views that can be seen in the ways in which some content is taught.” one obvious example lies in how educational curricula in different countries may describe shared historical events. however, traditions in the different disciplines can lead to significantly diverse ways of approaching and understanding similar phenomena. clil enables learners to study through these different perspectives that can lead to achieving a deeper understanding of the subject matter. tackling a topic from different perspectives content and language integrated learning (clil) rodriguez bonces no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) 182 undoubtedly fosters critical thinking and broadens students’ perspectives on different issues. the content dimension even offers access to specific target language terminology. students acquire new lexicon in order to understand concepts or express academic language accurately. clil is suitable for all levels of education, from elementary to graduate or vocational to professional education. fourth, marsh (2001) affirms that in terms of learning dimension, clil complements individual learning strategies. clil is specifically geared to learner-centered methodologies that attempt to improve learning by giving attention to individuals’ needs in terms of social and thinking skills. one broad issue relates to how the brain processes information (sousa, 2006). recently, it has been posed relevant to how the brain learns; for instance, brain differences among boys and girls, different learning styles or even how the arts influence learning. likewise, this learning dimension suggests that clil helps to increase learner motivation which is at the heart of all education. lastly, in terms of language dimension, clil is a significant approach to improve overall target language competence. using marsh’s (2001) words, this is one of the most common reasons, both historically and more recently, for the introduction of clil. this focus stresses language competence in general and therefore includes reading, writing, speaking and listening skills. clil furthers the language experience through the integration of language and non-language teaching. in the same way, this language dimension proposes that the practicing of oral skills can be done in a ‘utilitarian’ way that is to provide opportunities to use the language as a tool to communicate. this means that methods to be used are the ones that lead to a high degree of interaction within the class. in such cases, even if desirable it is not necessary for a teacher to have native-like competence in the target language; what it truly matters is the ability to interact and transmit knowledge by means of the target language. finally, these five dimensions build students’ profile and attitudes by being competent in the foreign language. this focus often involves a learner being able to use a language for specific purposes while developing cultural, personal and social understanding. marsh et al. (2001) pointed out that the dimensions are idealized and should not be viewed as standing alone, because they are usually heavily inter-related in clil practice. it is useful to distinguish the dimensions because it allows to identify the separate, yet inter-locking reasons why clil is implemented in diverse contexts. content and language integrated learning (clil) rodriguez bonces no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) 183 considerations when implementing clil many scholars claim that for clil to work effectively there are a number of conditions to be met. rodríguez-bonces (2011) affirms that there are four areas that researchers, educators and anyone else involved in the field need to work on in order for clil to suit the colombian scenario. those aspects are the following: 1) language learning approach; 2) teacher training; 3) materials development; 4) cultural and intercultural competence. (p. 85) with teacher training being one of the most applicable. subject teachers must be adequately trained in the target language while language teachers teaching content need to be trained in the core subject. it may be said that clil promotes real cooperation between teachers from different areas or departments, as well as collaborative teaching. the implementation of clil encourages careful analysis of existing methods and appropriate adaptation. for instance, bilingual models such sheltered instruction observation protocol (siop) advocate for careful planning, meaningful learning, gradation of content and assessment according to students’ background and educational needs. in clil all these factors play a pivotal role at some point or another. clil is a coherent way of doubling the amount of exposure to the language, without the necessity of adding more room in the timetable for language (only) lessons. in the long term, using clil from primary school would be beneficial since it would allow those students to study other languages in high school or university. students increase language instruction time while acquiring new concepts. the language can be acquired by natural means, leading to authentic use of it. clil is based on language acquisition rather than enforced learning. furthermore, teaching subject content in the foreign language makes the use of that language more contextualized, real and meaningful for students. as language is used to fulfill real purposes, its use is authentic and much more meaningful for the students; as a consequence, motivation is increased. the use of innovative materials and methods can be an engaging factor for students and teachers. by using materials that address topics that students are familiar with and, if possible, that they have recently studied in their mother tongue, students are able to learn more as they will already know a lot of the content and context. this familiarity enables them to pay attention to details that they would otherwise miss. as previously mentioned when explaining the clil dimensions in content and language integrated learning (clil) rodriguez bonces no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) 184 terms of language, content and environment, materials need to be chosen according to social contexts and students’ level and interests. materials should consider existing knowledge, contextual clues and thinking skills and if possible the inclusion of interdisciplinary experiences that bring active engagement. implementing clil demands that schools provide teachers with plenty opportunities for professional development and enhanced teaching practice. as it can be inferred, classes following a clil approach differ from efl (english as a foreign language) ones. in typical efl, the topics are pre determined by interest or age related factors. in one unit, students can be talking about friendship and in the next one about global warming. the contents are disposable, they serve to introduce or practice a linguistic objective, and they are not goals themselves. nevertheless, with clil students are using the language meaningfully and higher cognitive skills are being developed: analyze, argue, compare, judge, categorize, etc. it develops oral communication skills and cultural awareness. educators need to be trained on how to address different topics, on how to plan lessons for diversity or multilevel skills. besides, teachers need guidance on how to assess students when the focus is content but the means is language. moreover, we all know that for the new technologies, internet, the world wide web and other ways to be connected with the outside world, english is the lingua franca, so clil also provides the opportunity of social inclusion and a wider cultural consciousness. however, not many teachers have the knowledge of how to incorporate the information communication technologies (icts) in the classroom. it is evident that topics such as lesson planning for clil, ict´s in the classroom, differentiated instruction, scaffolding techniques, and assessment, among others, should be part of any professional development program. no method or approach can work well if instructors are not supported in their work by educational authorities who believe in teachers’ expertise and their capacity to successfully implement changes. implementing clil in diverse educational contexts clil may be used not only in elementary or high school settings; it may also be applied in undergraduate programs since students take some of the subjects of their major in english. in fact, some universities are offering bilingual teacher preparation programs. similarly to high school, in many institutions all the students in the different programs have to take and pass four or six compulsory levels in order to get their degree. at this point, educational background influences learning content and language integrated learning (clil) rodriguez bonces no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) 185 approach. in fact, many students find english very difficult because they did not have good training in secondary school. bearing this situation in mind, clil has to be implemented gradually. it may be initially used in a couple of courses towards the end of the students’ programs once learners have had the chance to catch up with their knowledge of the language. in the same way, students´ background influences the learning context and teachers’ educational background affects teaching approach. as regards teachers, core area teachers with an acceptable level of english could perfectly deliver their classes in the target language and students could benefit from such an approach. however, it is difficult to imagine language teachers delivering highly specific contents at university level unless, of course, backed up by the subjects’ teachers. such implementation would require both subject and language teachers working hand in hand in order to complement each other in the same class. another distinction needs to be made between rural and urban contexts. although clil has been used in europe, conditions in latin america, specifically colombia are different: for instance, in terms of students’ mobility or school resources. another consideration to bear in mind is about the professional training teachers receive. clil requires subject teachers with foreign language skills and vice versa, unfortunately, this characteristic is not fulfilled by the majority of the educators. in fact, in colombia there are some areas where teachers are not equipped with adequate training and even resources. it seems most of the educational capacity is in the big cities, with small towns or villages being isolated in the implementation of new approaches such as clil. there is also a divergence between the context of private and public institutions. alvarez and ayala (2005) point out that public institutions teachers differ from private institutions teachers. one main difference is the professional training teachers receive. specially, in reference to foreign language education, private schools teachers often are experts and hold an undergraduate or graduate degree in the subject they teach. in addition, they are offered more training and methodological updating, for example publishing houses train teachers on how to use textbooks as part of the teaching methodology even in other subjects different to english-, but they are also teaching them using english as the vehicle for learning. in contrast, in public education teachers from different subject matters such as social studies, literature and others usually have to teach for instance the subject of english (or vice versa) without previous training. content and language integrated learning (clil) rodriguez bonces no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) 186 obviously some adjustments have been introduced by the government last year, although there is still a lack of more professional development training. alvarez and ayala (2005) also note, in regards to logistics, private schools are funded independently; they are not subject to the limitations of state education budgets and have more freedom to invest in new technologies and materials. opposite to that, public schools must follow all state and local laws in education. these laws also include regulations about program and curriculum development different from private school regulations which are freer in their curriculum design. as a consequence, these two settings (private and public schools or institutions) need to be considered as two separate worlds. perhaps this is another reason that would make the use of clil impossible in some specific contexts. it is true educators need to make some adjustments in the curriculum and programs in the teaching courses in order to succeed, no matter if they belong to public or private systems. clil suggests and requires a large degree of language exposure. the correlation with the proficiency levels proposed by the common european framework (cef) is another aspect to consider. the cef asserts that c1 language proficiency level is attained after one thousand hours or more of independent work and exposure to the target language. our contextual characteristics and educational system are not ready yet for such a challenge. the average number of hours of a foreign language class in a public school in colombia is four hours per week while in private schools it is eight hours. therefore, variation in the number of hours of english language instruction will inevitably affect proficiency levels. in terms of language policies, authorities need to consider the contexts described above. many teachers have complained about the conditions in which they try to teach languages and the blindness or deafness of education authorities to teachers’ claims and /or suggestions. it is absolutely essential that governmental policies acknowledge the importance and value of clil through their national education plans (long and short-term). if the national educational authorities do not clearly spell out how the bilingual plan is going to be implemented, most likely local education ministries or boards will not easily accept changes in the current curricula, thus blocking the way to any initiative that may later prove beneficial for all the actors in this complex context. the last aspect to take into account is the diversity of curriculums. clil appears as a very interesting proposal to promote interdisciplinary curriculum or co-teaching. however, this approach content and language integrated learning (clil) rodriguez bonces no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) 187 is difficult to implement due to the fact that some subject teachers are not even basically prepared in a foreign language. one option to solve this issue would be co-teaching by having language teachers teaching parts of the different subjects of the curricula. for instance, the english teacher may invite the art teacher to do a hands on activity about the topic being studied. the art teacher speaks in english, he/she gives the corresponding instructions to follow in order to create the mask; subject integration supports the learning experience. in conclusion, in order to implement clil in diverse contexts, everyone involved in the educational process needs to consider the following aspects: 1. adequate target-language competence. 2. adequate subject-knowledge. 3. adequate materials in the target language. 4. explicit institutional and national policies 5. teacher co-operation. conclusion innovation in education implies the adoption and adaptation of approaches and methodologies. clil as an instructional approach that fosters content knowledge through language involves careful planning according to the different contexts and current times. there are many considerations when implementing clil; for instance, language proficiency, subject knowledge, intercultural communication, teacher training and policies among others. english teachers have to work closely with subject teachers to ensure that language development is appropriately catered to, in other words, to guarantee that content and languages are truly integrated. this article is an invitation to reflect about what is needed to implement instructional approaches so that students and teachers succeed by engaging in academic performance, critical thinking, collaboration, and multiculturalism through different interactions in the classroom. as english becomes an essential add-on to any curricular program around the world, it is moving into a position where it becomes a subject that students learn in order to do something else. clil, with its dual-focused aims, encapsulates perfectly this utilitarian view of the english language. “clil is about using languages to learn… it is about installing a ‘hunger to learn’ in the student. it gives opportunity for him/ content and language integrated learning (clil) rodriguez bonces no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) 188 her to think about and develop how s/he communicates in general, even in the first language” (marsh, marsland & stenberg, 2001). all in all, clil views language as a vehicle to learn through english. references ball, p. 2006. defining clil parameters. retrieved from http://www.onestopenglish.com/clil/methodology/articles/ june 2012. cummins, j. (2000) language, power and pedgogy: bilingual children in the crossfire. clevedon: multilingual matters dalton-puffer, christiane. 2007. discourse in content and language integrated learning (clil) classrooms. john benjamins publishing company. darn, s. 2006. clil content and language integrated learning. http://www.stevedarn.com/?writings::clil%3a_content_and_ language_integrated_learning marsh, d. 2002. content and language integrated learning: the european dimension actions, trends and foresight potential. http://europa.eu.int/comm/education/languages/index/html marsh, d. et al, (2001): profiling european clil classrooms: european commission (handbook). marsh, d. (2003). the relevance and potential of content and language integrated learning (clil) for achieving mt+2 in europe. elc information bulletin 9 april 2003 retrieved from: http://userpage. fu-berlin.de/elc/bulletin/9/en/marsh.html rodriguez-bonces, m. (2011) clill: colombia leading into content and language learning. in ikala revista de lenguagje y cultura. vol 16. no 28/ mayo-agosto. antioquia: universidad de antioquia. sousa, d. (2006). how the brain learns. california: corwin press sage zárate, j. & álvarez, j. (2005). a perspective of the implications of the common european framework implementation in the colombian socio-cultural context. colombian applied linguistics journal (9), bogotá, colombia: fondo de publicaciones universidad distrital francisco josé de caldas. content and language integrated learning (clil) rodriguez bonces no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) 189 the author * jeisson rodríguez-bonces holds an m.a. in applied linguistics to tefl and is currently doing an m.a. in spanish as a foreign language. he is a teacher and teacher trainer at universidad central and unitec. adults and teenagers have been part of his teaching experience as well as experience outside colombia. his areas of interest include language teaching and learning and bilingual education. email: jeijeto@hotmail.com content and language integrated learning (clil) rodriguez bonces no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) gist noviembre 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��-���� ��� �� ����� � � � �� 5� ��� ����� � �� ��������� �������� ��� ����� ���6 ��� �� a��0��� �� � � ����� �� � ��%� �� �� ���� ��� ������� ������ ����� �� �� ��� 5�� � ���������� a���"������� ������� �� , ���� �� ��������� %����� � �������� ��� � ���� ������a�� � 5��� � %� � �������� �� �������� ��� ��� ��������� ���� � �� � �� ���� � �� � ���� ������� ��d�������� ��� ������������' � ��� �������� ��� �5* ����� �� �� 1�� ( ����� -�� ���� %������ ������ � �� %��� ������� 9������� ����� ��������� � ��� �� ��� ��%%�������� �� � ���� ������� ���� � ���� ��������� %������ �� �,�5j* x���� ��6' ,��0��� +����� ��� �"��� 9������� 5-�� ���� ��=���-�� � ����0� ����� ������.������ � ��j������ �����%� ����� ���� ������a��1��� l���� ��� 1���� /� ��� ��� *�������# �����'��������������� ������%� ������%��� ����a��1 ��� � �� �������������� ��� �� gistseptiembre2010final.indd 10� vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) language learning strategies developing foreign language teacher standards in uruguay1 natalie a. kuhlman2* san diego state university abstract this article documents the development of foreign language (fl) teacher standards in uruguay. it begins by discussing what it means to be a teacher, what standards are and are not, and how they can be helpful or misused in teacher development. in the proposal, a distinction is made between teacher preparation programs that are course-based and those that are standards-based, where standards cross particular course boundaries. finally, the collaborative process used to develop the standards for the situation in uruguay is described, which was based, fundamentally, on the tesol p-12 esl teacher preparation standards. keywords: tesol p-12 esl teacher standards, standards-based programs, performance indicators, teacher training, uruguay resumen el presente artículo documenta el desarrollo de estándares para la educación de docentes en uruguay. comienza con una discusión de lo que significa ser docente, y explicita qué son los estándares (y qué no son) y cómo éstos pueden apoyar o impedir el desarrollo docente. dentro de la propuesta, se discute la relevancia de modelos curriculares que enfatizan la organización de contenidos a través de cursos separados y aquellos en los que se priorizan estándares de desempeño que cruzan las fronteras de varios cursos particulares. finalmente, se describe el proceso colaborativo que implicó el desarrollo de los estándares para la realidad uruguaya y que se basó, fundamentalmente, en los estándares para la preparación de docentes p-12 de tesol. palabras claves: estándares de docentes de inglés como segundo idioma tesol pre-escolar a 12°, programas con base en estándares, indicadores de desempeño, formación de maestros, uruguay 1 an earlier version of this paper was presented at the 2nd modern foreign languages forum in montevideo, uruguay on october 10, 2009. received: january 19th, 2010 / accepted: july 15th, 2010 2 dr. kuhlman works in the united states. correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to natalie a. kuhlman. e-mail: nkuhlman@mail.sdsu.edu gist education and learning research journal. issn 1692-5777, pp. 107-126 10� vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) for more than 20 years, standards have replaced competencies and sometimes even objectives as the measurable goal of learning in the elementary and secondary schools in many parts of the world, especially in the united states (us; darling-hammond, 1993; cavanaugh, 2009). these standards have taken many forms. in some cases, they are prescriptive and are presented in terms of what students or teachers will learn; in others, they have merely been guidelines. due to these differences, standards have also been very controversial, particularly when they are aligned with tests that are supposed to show what students know and can do (wang, beckett, & brown, 2006). at the same time, standards have served to bring consistency both to how students are taught, and to how teachers who teach them are prepared. most countries have criteria for becoming a teacher. these vary greatly, however, from just completing a specialized high school curriculum, to five years of university study. while in many countries, these criteria are set at the national level, within the us, each state has its own criteria for becoming a teacher. most states use standards to determine what teachers should know and be able to do, while a few may use other criteria such as core principles. however, to become a recognized teacher preparation institution in the us, a college or university must go through a rigorous process of self-evaluation, which is reviewed either by the national council for the accreditation of teacher education (ncate), or the teacher education accreditation council (teac). both agencies are recognized by the national government, but only the ncate requires the use of standards. within the ncate accreditation process, specialized content areas such as mathematics, the sciences, social studies, and fls also may go through a review, which may lead to national recognition of the college or university’s program. this article will examine the process one country used to adapt the ncate standards for english as a second language (esl) teachers [developed by the teachers of english to speakers of other languages (tesol) organization] to meet their own need of transforming an eclectic model for preparing teachers into one that has consistency throughout the country. the article begins with a discussion of what it means to be a teacher, what standards are, how they are used and misused, and is then followed by a description of the process that the uruguay national department of education used in developing their own fl teaching standards. what does it mean to be a teacher? most people around the world have some idea of what it means to be a teacher. they may think it is just someone who has content standards in uruguay kuhlman 10� vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) standards in uruguay kuhlman knowledge; but there is much more to it than that. some might wonder if being a teacher is even something that can be taught, rather than just what is within a person. a teacher is a thinker, a stimulator, a challenger, a facilitator, a risk taker, at times a lecturer, and often a storyteller too. teachers are jugglers, timekeepers, and, when necessary, someone who keeps all the ducks in a row. according to smith (2009), teachership cannot be suitably defined by standards. it is that indefinable innerself that has the passion, the commitment, to make a difference in the classroom and wherever else one teaches. however, standards can make a difference in determining the rest of what is needed to become a teacher. people may not consciously think about what a teacher needs to know in order to teach, such as theories of child development, strategies for classroom management, and strategies for motivating students. they may just assume that teachers have taken lots of classes about methods and the content of what they teach, and that suffices. some might even wonder if teachers would be better off just doing their student teaching practicum, or simply taking an examination and not taking coursework at all. since becoming a teacher is much more complicated than that, standards can provide the guidelines to insure consistency in the basics of what teachers need to know and be able to do. they can also be used to inform the public as to what is required to become a teacher. what does the term standard mean? the term standard as it relates to language has been used in many ways. for example, there is a standard form for some languages as determined by recognized linguistic authorities. the spanish in spain has the real academia española. france has l’académie française. to begin with, the merriam-webster online dictionary (2009) defines a standard as a “criterion, gauge, yardstick, something established by authority, custom, or general consent as a model or example.” dalton (1998) defines standards as “banners guiding the way at the front of a procession.” this definition would be too general for the matter this article addresses. recently, gottleib (2009) defined standards as “predictable stages of language development,” which would be a definition too language-learning specific for this research. the one given by o’malley and valdez-pierce (1996) seems to capture the teachertraining sense of the term well. they define standards as “benchmarks for accountability or goals that students (or teachers) will attain.” this is consistent with the earlier merriam-webster’s definition that standards are a criterion or guideline. whichever definition is chosen, there is a good reason why standards are needed for teacher preparation. they are necessary so that 110 vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) we know where we are going (the standard); how we are going to get there (the curriculum based on the standard); and how we know we have arrived (the assessment of the standard). according to such a pattern, consistent and realistic goals can be set. there can be an overall plan. use and misuse of standards standards may be needed for consistency and to have an overall plan, but falk (2000) points out that while they can be helpful, they can also be harmful, depending on how they are used. when standards are misused, controversy occurs. table 1 summarizes the benefits of well-prepared standards and contrasts them with those which are detrimental. table 1 helpful and harmful standards when teacher standards are used well, they provide the criteria (or benchmarks) of what an organization agrees to be what is needed to be a teacher. meeting high-quality standards can also help the public to see educators as professionals, and not just as people that are doing something that anyone else could do. a teacher preparation program without standards a teacher preparation program doesn’t have to have standards. instead, an individual or a committee may decide what the curriculum (courses and requirements) will be, what textbooks will be used, and what will appear on any tests that are given. in such cases, it is fair to ask: how do they decide? do they have a plan, an ideology? is the plan based on the latest research in the field, or on what has always been done? are there common goals, or are they just one person’s perspective on what should be learned in order to be a teacher? 111 vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) conceivably, one person’s perspective could lead to fl teachers just taking theoretical linguistics courses with no application to language teaching at all, if whoever decided on the curriculum was convinced that theory was all that was needed. full fluency in the fl may not even be required, for example, if only print literacy is the goal. a committee might also decide that what fl teachers need is lots of literature in the language training, because (according to what they think) learning the literature of the language is all that is important. alternatively, and it is not uncommon even today, native english speakers living in foreign countries, from south america to the far east, may be asked to teach english solely because they are native speakers. they may have no academic preparation at all, standards-based or not. perhaps they will only lead conversation groups, or follow the exact directions of a textbook, and they may not need much preparation. the goal for the institution which hires these native speakers is simply to get their pre-service teachers exposure to authentic spoken english. there are many scenarios such as these, and without an overall plan, without an overall concept of what makes a good fl teacher, these examples are likely to be what a fl teacher-preparation program will look like: a reflection not of standards, but of some one’s or some group’s perception of what is important for language education.3 the situation in uruguay currently, portuguese, english, french, and italian are taught in uruguayan schools. english has become very important to the country, and is now being taught in both elementary and secondary public schools, which are including some immersion and bilingual programs in their curriculums. however, as reported to me by numerous teachers and students, no consistent curriculum, common goals, or programs had been officially put in place prior to december 2009 for preparing fl teachers in uruguay. the coursework in teacher preparation programs was not necessarily based on the latest approaches, nor was it based on an overall concept of what a good fl teacher is. the programs appeared to entail a group of courses created over the years, which were subsequently unified in a curriculum. due to this lack of an overall plan, the frustration was apparent in those with whom i spoke. this is a similar frustration i have found in other countries i have visited, where too much emphasis has been 3 the examples given are taken from countries in which the author has had real experience with language teacher training. however, names of countries are not given. the idea behind the examples mentioned is simply to identify a ubiquitous issue in teacher training worldwide, and not to set anybody apart. 112 vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) placed, for example, on literature, and too little on methodology and language acquisition theory. in other places, too much emphasis has been placed on correct pronunciation or grammar, and not enough on high levels of literacy (reading and writing) for future teachers. similar scenarios were reported to me also in uruguay. along with not having had a set curriculum, there were also a series of exams that pre-service teachers took each year in uruguay, but it was unclear what these exams were based on. it was also unclear to me, after several discussions with educators, whether these exams changed each year, and even who created them. i asked my colleagues: “are the exams consistent from year to year?” i gathered from my discussions that there was no 4-year goal as to what a teacher should be or be able to do. i heard of no specific criteria for these exams to reflect, nor did there appear to be any form of accountability established by those individual teachers in charge of designing the exams. consequently, i asked the group: “how would future teachers know what was expected of them for each class, the whole program, or for the exams? how would they know what the overall goals were, what they would learn, why or how they would be graded?” their surprising reply was always: “pre-service teachers don’t know these things.” another issue was that, without an overall plan or standards, does certification obtained from one institution mean the same thing as getting certified by another? if a student attended the instituto de profesores artigas4 (ipa), for 4 years (where, up to the year 2009 one became licensed to teach, but did not receive an academic degree), was that the same as attending a 4-year university where students do receive a degree? what does it mean to be a teacher? what should a teacher know and be able to do, and who decides? the ipa project i was invited to montevideo, uruguay in the fall of 2009 under the auspices of the us fulbright foundation to facilitate the development of a standards-based fl teacher preparation program which was to be used nationally. to that end, gabriel díaz, m.e., the director of foreign language teacher education in uruguay, had gathered together a group of some 30 uruguayan educators with experience in fl teaching in both public and private, elementary and secondary schools, and who also had experience in teacher preparation, whether at the ipa or somewhere else. while this group provided a diversity of input, it also was a challenge in terms of decision making (due to the varied backgrounds of the participants). 4 [artigas teacher’s institute] standards in uruguay kuhlman 11� vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) standards in uruguay kuhlman the project was to begin with a series of intense seminars and discussions over a period of a week, to provide a foundation for the development of the standards.5 this would be followed by large and small group meetings over a period of several weeks, so that all the participants would have an opportunity to contribute and to be an active part of the process of standards development. before i arrived, the decision had already been made for uruguay to have a standards-based fl teacher preparation program. however, there were several other decisions that also needed to be addressed. i began the first seminar with a series of questions to stimulate participation. these questions led us to put together a long list of characteristics that fl teachers should have. we then turned the list into groups of content areas and looked to see how well they aligned with existing domains (e.g., those of the tesol p-12 esl teacher standards, 2009). the next seminar focused on what exactly standards encompassed, as described in the introduction to this article. we then discussed the difference between a course-based and a standards-based program. as the facilitator, i suggested that a course-based program is a group of courses that together are considered to be a program, which was what existed in uruguay at that time. i showed how a course-based program may or may not have an overall plan or an ideology. the rest of what i shared appears in the following paragraphs, and in the present tense, very similar to the way it was shared in a powerpoint presentation at the seminar in uruguay: a course-based program may or may not be based on research or on current theories about teacher preparation. each course is autonomous and may or may not have connections with other courses, which may result in program redundancy. in a course-based system, teachers are less likely to collaborate with one another because they do not see a “big picture.” those instructors who work part-time most likely will teach a course and have no connection with those who are teaching other courses, although this can happen with full-time faculty too. grades are specific to courses, and students are not given an overall program evaluation. the program doesn’t necessarily have an identity or ideology; it’s just a group of courses. a standards-based program, on the other hand, reflects how things complement each other and how they overlap. there is an overall plan, an identity for the program usually in the form of a theoretical framework. the program has building blocks, in other words, there is a reason for each course, and for the order in which courses are taken. 5 the author of this article was the facilitator of the seminars and discussions. 11� vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) they make an integrated whole. each course also specifically identifies which standards are met in the course’s objectives. the program as a whole is transversal, that is, it crosses disciplines (e.g., linguistics, psychology, and culture). it is autonomous as a whole, as well as in its parts, and it takes the macro and the micro into consideration. portfolios are often used to provide for a standards-based, quality assessment of such a program. they are intended to provide a fair profile of overall accomplishment, not just the accomplishments of a student in one course. they are a collection of in-progress (formative) and final (summative) work that highlight different aspects of growth. they tell us who this person is becoming, as a whole teacher. table 2 summarizes some of the differences between a standards-based and a course-based program. table 2 key differences between educational programs the pie perspective: seeing the difference another way to look at the difference between program philosophies is with pie charts. if there isn’t an overall plan, a pie chart representation of a program will appear lopsided, with too much emphasis on certain dimensions of teacher preparation. in other words, the pieces won’t fit together well if there is no theoretical cohesion. figure 1. the course-based pie chart. standards in uruguay kuhlman 11� vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) standards in uruguay kuhlman on the other hand, when a program is well-designed, a pie chart that reflects it will appear balanced, often with overlapping areas, and it will be interconnected. figure 2. the standards-based pie chart. it became clear in the ipa project meetings that the standardsbased pie better fit the needs of uruguay’s language teacher training development. there were a few who still wanted to maintain their autonomy via a course-based system, but after a lengthy discussion, all agreed that having a consistent and balanced program would enhance the preparation of fl teachers in uruguay. types of standards next, the following questions were posed: “what standards should be used in uruguay? should we start from scratch, or should we adapt existing standards?” in order to make these decisions, we needed to examine existing standards to see how well they fit with the needs of pre-service uruguayan teachers. however, even before looking at existing standards, it was necessary to discuss the kinds of standards that exist. typically in education, two broad types of standards are discussed: content and pedagogical standards. falk (2000) defines content standards as those which specify “what the important aspects of a subject area are and provide broad conceptions of the discipline itself” (p. 141). content standards are usually of two types: a declarative knowledge standard consists of what one knows, or one’s knowledge of concepts and facts, while a procedural knowledge standard is what one knows how to do (these are also called performance standards). pedagogical standards, on the other hand, focus on the methods and curriculum used to apply that knowledge to the classroom (horn, 2004). after a general discussion about these types of standards, there was a consensus that both content and pedagogical standards would be 11� vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) needed. there was also a consensus that there would need to be a way to assess those standards or there would be no accountability. we left that matter to discuss in a later session. instead, i shared with them what i know about standards for teachers in the us. existing fl teacher standards in the us, standards have become a way of life in the education system. state departments of education and local school districts establish standards for all content areas (e.g., math, science, social studies, and english language arts) for elementary and secondary students. the us government is currently proposing common standards across the country for math and english, and soon will be proposing them for science (cavanaugh, 2009). for esl, existing student standards include those developed by tesol (2006), and by the world class instruction design and assessment organization (wida, 2007), which is a consortium of 22 us states that have developed a performance-based standards and assessment system for esl. foreign language teacher standards have been developed by the american council on the teaching of foreign languages (actfl, 2002). these were based, however, on those developed for esl teachers by tesol. several individual states within the us have also developed their own standards (e.g., california and illinois). after the uruguayan ipa project group had an opportunity to examine these existing us standards in small groups, there was a whole group discussion, at which time they indicated that they particularly liked the way illinois had adapted the tesol standards for use in that state. however, they also wanted to examine some existing standards from other countries. we then looked at how mexico had summarized a variety of fl teacher preparation models from around the world, and now has draft teacher standards of its own. we discovered that australia also has such standards. we observed that the european union has a framework for teaching fls, but does not establish standards for fl teachers, per se. all these models were made available to the general group who again examined them in small groups and by viewing them through the internet. there was much animated discussion about all of these possible sources of inspiration for the uruguayan standards that they were to organize. after the discussion, it was decided to use the tesol p-12 esl teacher standards as the primary source for developing uruguayan standards. other existing standards would also inform specific needs. for example, actfl and the common european framework have very complete sets of competencies for fl proficiency, which would prove standards in uruguay kuhlman 11� vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) standards in uruguay kuhlman helpful. the teacher standards developed by tesol do not include language proficiency since it is assumed that all teachers in the us will be native or at least native-like users of english. the tesol p-12 esl teacher standards the tesol standards (2009) were first developed in 2002 as a response to a request from the national council on the accreditation of teacher education (ncate), a us-based organization that accredits over 650 teacher-preparation institutions nationally. within the accreditation process, institutions may submit program reports to specialty organizations known as specialty program areas (spas), which document that the institution’s program is in alignment with a spa’s standards. the spa organization (in this case, tesol) reviews such reports and makes recommendations about whether these programs show evidence that their teacher candidates meet the standards, and that the program should be nationally recognized. there are over 20 spas in the ncate structure, including tesol. others include actfl, and the national councils for: math (ncme), english (ncte), social studies (ncss), and science (ncse). while currently ncate does not accredit programs internationally, they are researching the possibility of doing so, a matter which made the tesol standards even more attractive to the uruguayan group. the first version of tesol’s standards were approved both by the tesol board of directors and ncate in 2002. revised standards were approved in october 2009, which were the ones used in the current project, since they reflected the most current thinking in the field of fl education. as can be seen in figure 3, the tesol standards are organized around five domains (all of which overlap one with the other), with 1 to 3 standards for each domain, for a total of 11 standards. there are 2 foundational or content domains: language and culture. these are seen as the building blocks or the core content areas that are needed for those preparing to teach language. these foundational core domains are then applied to 2 application or pedagogical domains: instruction and assessment. at the core of these four domains is the fifth, professionalism. in a report by the us national academy of education, the importance of professionalism is cited (national academy of education, 2005). the full set of tesol standards can be found in appendix a. 11� vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) figure 3. tesol p-12 teacher standards (without uruguayan modifications; tesol, 2009). performance indicators with assessment rubrics the tesol standards are further modified through the use of performance indicators (pis). these are sub-sets of the standards and help to more fully explain the different aspects of each of them. for example, in table 3 we can observe tesol’s language standard 1b (tesol, 2009) with one of its pis. each of the pis includes a rubric, which establishes how close the future teacher is to being ready to teach in that area. the rubric also provides a more objective guideline to make the future assessment of the standard possible. table 3 example of a tesol language standard and performance indicator standards in uruguay kuhlman 11� vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) standards in uruguay kuhlman the term approaches indicates that the future teacher has knowledge, awareness, or understanding of the pi, but is not yet able to apply it to the classroom. when future teachers meet the performance indicator, they are able to apply the pi to the classroom, and when the future teachers go beyond the entry level needed to teach, they are considered to exceed the pi. when the pis for a standard are met, then the standard itself is met. decisions will need to be made by program designers if all pis need to be met, or if only certain key ones need to be met to determine readiness to teach. the kind of evidence required for making these decisions will also need to be decided upon. standards development with all of the theoretical and systematic information at hand, we began the process of creating the new uruguayan fl teacher standards. but before we actually began, we needed to establish and agree to guidelines to use when writing the standards. first, we needed to discuss how many standards there would be. the number of standards and pis needed to be sufficiently limited so that they could be covered in the teacher-preparation program. the final product had 13 standards. these needed to be limited to specific topics appropriate for each domain. the standards also needed to be limited to what educational professionals who are completing fl preparation programs must know and be able to do. the standards needed to be related to the domains and components. content that would be “nice” but not essential, would not be included in the standards. rather, such content might be taught in addition to the core standards when teacher trainers so desired; or it could be included as pis. also, the language used in the standards needed to be consistent and understandable. while workshops would be conducted around the country, the teacher trainers needed to be able to follow them on their own, so the vocabulary needed to be specific and clear. as an example, table 4 shows the concise language that was consistently used in the tesol standards for the pi rubrics. table 4 tesol language for rubrics 120 vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) with these guidelines in place, we were ready to begin to create the standards. since the group had already decided to base the uruguayan standards on tesol’s, the participants volunteered to work with one of five groups, one for each domain. before that, however, there was some lively discussion in the general group about whether it was necessary to separate out the domains in order to write the new standards, as tesol had done, or to address them all together (see figure 3). they accepted that there would be overlapping but that the different groups would have opportunities to review each group’s work to see where overlapping, and not redundancy occurred. after this discussion, they all decided it was best to work with the domains separately. the task for each group was to decide (for their domain) what teachers should know to be able to do to teach a fl to elementary and secondary students. the ipa working group then began to adapt the tesol standards, making modifications, additions, and deletions. for example, within the language domain, they added a third standard specifically on language proficiency. professionalism was also modified to address the needs of the uruguayan context more specifically. stimulating discussions took place within the groups as they reviewed the tesol standards for their domain. for example, the culture group spent hours on philosophical discussions about the nature of culture and the implications of cross-cultural conflict within uruguay. they brought scholarly books to their group meetings to support their various positions. at one point, i, as the facilitator, reminded them that the goal was to create standards for beginning fl teachers, not for doctoral dissertations. the group eventually came to a consensus on two new standards for culture. some groups had difficulty reaching a consensus, particularly differing on the balance between theory and practice. this sometimes led to a participant dropping out of a group, but consensus was eventually reached with those remaining. after several weeks of work, the first drafts for all five domains were completed. then, each domain group shared their work with the other groups, who then served as reviewers and made recommendations both on content and clarity. by the end of october 2009, after several revisions, the standards and their performance indicators were completed for all five domains. they were then temporarily posted on a private survey website so that feedback could be obtained from all the stakeholders: the future teachers already in programs, fl teachers from throughout uruguay, teacher educators throughout uruguay, and a few esl experts in the us who have had extensive experience with standards development and the tesol standards themselves. after being edited by the ipa staff, the standards were published in december of 2009 (appendix b shows a summary of the topics posted, in spanish). standards in uruguay kuhlman 121 vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) standards in uruguay kuhlman future work as of the writing of this article, the group still needs to decide on what curriculum the fl teacher preparation program will need to meet the standards. in other words, the standards still need to be aligned with existing courses. this will include deciding what new courses might be needed, what ones need to be modified, and what existing courses can be omitted. uruguayan educators in the field are providing feedback in this area as the ipa staff introduces them to the standards. the ipa project teacher educators also need to decide on how fl teacher-preparation program instructors will know that candidates have met the standards. they need to decide what kind of evidence will be needed for that, such as exams or interviews. they will be developing rubrics (arter & mctighe, 2001) for assessing the standards and examining courses to test their adequacy with the new standards. possibilities to show evidence of meeting standards and pis include some kind of portfolio of teacher candidate work (e.g., lesson and unit plans, reflective journals, and practice teaching evaluations). hopefully these will all be in place when the standards are fully implemented. references actfl (2002). actfl proficiency guidelines. retrieved from http://www. actfl.org/i4a/ pages/index.cfm?pageid=4236 arter, j. & mctighe, j. (2001). scoring rubrics in the classroom. thousand oaks, ca: corwin press. cavanaugh, s. (2009). revised draft of “common core” standards unveiled. education week online. retrieved from http://www.edweek.org/ew/ articles/2009 /09/21/05standards.h29.html&levelid=2100 dalton, s. (1998). pedagogy matters: standards for effective teaching practice. washington dc: center for applied linguistics (cal). darling-hammond, l. (oct. 1993). developing content standards: creating a process for change. the consortium for policy research education (cpre) policy brief. retrieved from http://www2.ed.gov/pubs/cpre/rb10stan. html falk, b. (2000). the heart of the matter: using standards and assessment to learn. portsmouth, nh: heinemann. gottleib, m. (sept. 2009). standards: a metric for language teaching and learning. tesol symposium on english language teaching standards. panama city: panama. horn, r. (2004). standards primer. new york: peter lang. 122 vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) merriam-webster online dictionary. (2009). retrieved from http://www. merriamwebster.com/dictionary/standard national academy of education. (2005). preparing teachers for a changing world. washington dc: national academy of education. o’malley, j. m. & valdez-pierce, l. (1996). authentic assessment for english language learners. white plains, ny: addison-wesley. smith, k. (sept. 2009). standards: of help or hindrance to professional development? tesol symposium on english language teaching standards. panama city: panama. tesol. (2006). pre-k-12 esl standards. alexandria, va: tesol. tesol. (2009). tesol p-12 esl teacher standards. alexandria, va: tesol. wang, l., beckett, g. & brown, l. (2006). controversies of standardized assessment in school accountability reform: a critical synthesis of multidisciplinary research evidence. applied measurement in education, vol. 19, no. 4, 305-328. wida. (2007). world-class instructional design and assessment. retrieved from http://www.wida.us/accessforells standards in uruguay kuhlman 12� vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) standards in uruguay kuhlman appendix a: overview of tesol p-12 esl teacher standards domain 1: language standard 1.a. language as a system standard 1.b. language acquisition and development domain 2: culture standard 2. culture as it affects student learning domain 3: planning, implementing, and managing instruction standard 3.a. planning for standards-based esl and content instruction standard 3.b. implementing and managing standards-based esl and content standard 3.c. using resources and technology effectively in esl and content instruction domain 4: assessment standard 4.a. issues of assessment for english language learners standard 4.b. language proficiency assessment standard 4.c. classroom-based assessment for esl domain 5: professionalism standard 5.a. esl research and history standard 5.b. professional development, partnerships, and advocacy 12� vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) appendix b: resumen de los estándares uruguayos para maestros de lenguas extranjeras6 dominio 1: lengua estándar 1.a. la lengua como sistema social de comunicación. los futuros docentes demuestran comprensión de la lengua como un sistema semiótico y social de comunicación, y que conlleva el dominio de la fonología, morfología, sintaxis, semántica, y pragmática. estándar 1.b. aprendizaje de la lengua. los futuros docentes conocen y aplican teorías y resultados de investigaciones sobre el aprendizaje y la enseñanza de lenguas extranjeras como forma de apoyar el desarrollo de la lengua extranjera y la alfabetización en la misma, así como para el aprendizaje de contenidos curriculares. estándar 1.c. proficiencia en la lengua extranjera. los futuros docentes demuestran proficiencia en el uso de la lengua extranjera. se pueden comunicar en forma adecuada y fluida en todos los ámbitos en los que les corresponde actuar. dominio 2: cultura estándar 2.a. abordaje intercultural. los futuros docentes comparan y contrastan culturas y median el encuentro de los alumnos con aspectos culturales provenientes de diferentes comunidades lingüísticas en las que se utiliza la l2/le. los futuros docentes son capaces de analizar y posicionarse teniendo en cuenta nociones vinculadas a la cultura. estándar 2.b. conocimiento sociocultural. los futuros docentes poseen conocimiento de las sociedades y cultura(s) de la(s) comunidad(es) en que se habla la lengua extranjera y del saber pragmático vinculado a ellas. éste comprende la importancia de conocer y utilizar eficazmente las destrezas necesarias–lingüísticas y paralingüísticas–en el uso social de la lengua. dominio 3: enseñanza estándar 3.a. planificación para la enseñanza a través de contenidos curriculares. los futuros docentes conocen, entienden, y aplican conceptos, investigaciones, y mejores prácticas para planificar la enseñanza, en una atmósfera donde existe un andamiaje adecuado del aprendizaje de los alumnos. los futuros docentes planifican actividades diferenciadas para alumnos con diversos niveles de desempeño, a través de contenidos curriculares. standards in uruguay kuhlman 6 [summary of the uruguayan fl teacher standards] 12� vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) standards in uruguay kuhlman estándar 3.b. organización de la enseñanza basada en contenidos curriculares. los futuros docentes conocen, manejan, e implementan una variedad de estrategias y técnicas de enseñanza para el desarrollo integrado de las macro-habilidades. los futuros docentes habilitan el acceso al cuerpo del currículo, enseñando la lengua a través de contenidos curriculares relevantes. estándar 3.c. uso adecuado de recursos y tecnologías para la enseñanza de lenguas extranjeras y contenidos curriculares. los futuros docentes conocen la variedad de recursos y tecnologías disponibles y son capaces de seleccionarlos, adaptarlos, y utilizarlos eficazmente en la enseñanza de lengua y de contenidos curriculares. dominio 4: evaluación estándar 4.a. consideraciones sobre la evaluación de alumnos de lenguas extranjeras. los futuros docentes comprenden las influencias que afectan la evaluación del desempeño de sus alumnos en la lengua extranjera y adecuan sus prácticas evaluativas a las necesidades del contexto en el que actúan. estándar 4.b. evaluación del desempeño en la lengua extranjera. los futuros docentes pueden utilizar una variedad de instrumentos orientados a la evaluación del desempeño para recoger información sobre el desarrollo en la lengua extranjera y el aprendizaje de contenidos curriculares de sus alumnos y así orientar su enseñanza. estándar 4.c. la evaluación en el aula de lenguas extranjeras. los futuros docentes utilizan una variada gama de estrategias e instrumentos de evaluación para informar y orientar su práctica. dominio 5: profesionalismo estándar 5.a. investigación e historia de las didácticas de las lenguas extranjeras. los futuros docentes demuestran conocimientos de la historia de los diferentes enfoques metodológicos, de las políticas educativas, están familiarizados con la investigación en este campo, y se mantienen actualizados con respecto a la implementación de estos conocimientos en el proceso de enseñanza-aprendizaje. estándar 5.b. profesionalismo y colegialidad. los futuros docentes participan en instancias de enriquecimiento y crecimiento personal y profesional, además desarrollan las competencias necesarias para establecer relaciones de cooperación con todos los actores de las comunidades educativas donde se desempeñan. 12� vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) the author *professor natalie kuhlman has her ph.d. in linguistics from the university of arizona. she is professor emeritus at san diego state university in california in the college of education and has worked extensively in the area of esl/efl teacher standards and assessment. dr. kuhlman currently chairs the tesol/ncate esl teacher standards committee and represented tesol on the national council for the accreditation of teacher education (ncate) board of directors from 20042010. previously, she was on the board of directors of tesol, and is a past president of california tesol (catesol). dr. kuhlman also served as the resident director for the bilingual teacher preparation program for the california state university in querétaro, méxico. gist final1.indd 51 a comparison of the effect of text-picture and audio-picture annotations in second language vocabulary recall among iranian efl learners1 una comparación del efecto del uso de anotaciones de texto-imagen y audio-imagen para facilitar la recordación de vocabulario en segunda lengua en estudiantes iraníes de inglés como lengua extranjera alireza karbalaei, ali sattari and ziba nezami 2* farhangian university, kish international branch, islamic azad university, iran abstract the present study compared the effect of text-picture and audio-picture multimedia annotations in second language vocabulary recall among iranian efl learners. the participants were selected from two classes of 80 students who were studying advanced-level english at in a language institute in iran. their level of english proficiency was determined on the basis of their scores on the pet proficiency test. sixty-two students were selected for the main procedure, and were then randomly divided into two experimental groups: the textannotation and audio-annotation group; and a control group. after answering a vocabulary pretest, participants clicked on the highlighted unknown words to access available annotations while reading. the text-picture group was able to see textual explanation and pictorial description, and the audio-picture group was able to see pictorial description explanation and hear a spoken explanation. after reading, students completed the post-tests. the results of the study demonstrate that audio-picture annotation is more effective than text-picture 1 received: february. 28, 2015 / accepted: january 16, 2016 2 karbalaei2008@gmail.com / ali.sattari.2014@gmail.com / nezami_ziba@yahoo.com gist education and learning research journal. issn 1692-5777. no.12. (january june) 2016. pp. 51-71. using a mobile application (whatsapp) no. 12 (january june 2016) no. 12 (january june 2016) 52 annotation in facilitating immediate l2 vocabulary recall. the results suggest that providing audio or text annotation of new words can help recall of new vocabulary when reading. key words: text annotation, audio annotation, multi-media annotation, vocabulary resumen el presente estudio comparó el efecto del uso de anotaciones multimedia de texto-imagen y anotaciones de audio-imagen para facilitar la recordación de vocabulario en segunda lengua en estudiantes iraníes de inglés como lengua extranjera. los participantes fueron seleccionados de dos aulas de clases de 80 estudiantes de nivel avanzado de inglés de un instituto de idiomas en irán. el nivel de inglés de los participantes se determinó a partir de sus calificaciones en la prueba de proficiencia pet. fueron seleccionados 62 estudiantes para el estudio general y posteriormente fueron divididos aleatoriamente en dos grupos experimentales: grupo de anotaciones de texto, grupo de anotaciones de audio y un grupo de control. después de responder la prueba de vocabulario, los participantes hicieron clic en las palabras desconocidas para tener acceso a las anotaciones disponibles mientras realizaban la lectura. el grupo de estudiantes que utilizaron anotaciones de textoimagen pudo visualizar la explicación textual y la descripción pictórica y el grupo que utilizó anotaciones de audioimagen pudo ver la descripción pictórica y escuchar una explicación oral. al terminar la lectura, los estudiantes finalizaron el examen final. los resultados del estudio demostraron que el uso de anotaciones de audio-imagen es más eficaz que el uso de anotaciones texto-imagen para la recordación inmediata de vocabulario en segunda lengua. los resultados sugieren que el proporcionar anotaciones de texto o audio de nuevas palabras puede ayudar a recordar vocabulario nuevo al leer. palabras claves: anotación de texto, anotación de audio, anotación multimedia, vocabulario resumo o presente estudo comparou o efeito do uso de anotações multimídia de textoimagem e anotações de áudio-imagem para facilitar a recordação de vocabulário em segunda língua em estudantes iranianos de inglês como língua estrangeira. os participantes foram selecionados de duas salas de aula de 80 estudantes de nível avançado de inglês de um instituto de idiomas no irã. o nível de inglês dos participantes se determinou a partir de suas qualificações na prova de competência pet. foram selecionados 62 estudantes para o estudo geral e posteriormente foram divididos aleatoriamente em dois grupos experimentais: grupo de anotações de texto, grupo de anotações de áudio e um grupo de controle. depois de responder a prova de vocabulário, os participantes fizeram clique nas palavras desconhecidas para ter acesso às anotações disponíveis enquanto realizavam a leitura. o grupo de estudantes que utilizaram anotações de texto-imagem pôde visualizar a explicação textual e a descrição pictórica, e a comparison of the effect of text-picture karbalaei no. 12 (january june 2016) no. 12 (january june 2016) 53 o grupo que utilizou anotações de áudio-imagem pôde ver a descrição pictórica e escutar uma explicação oral. ao terminar a leitura, os estudantes finalizaram a prova final. os resultados do estudo demonstraram que o uso de anotações de áudio-imagem é mais eficaz que o uso de anotações texto-imagem para a recordação imediata de vocabulário em segunda língua. os resultados sugerem que o proporcionar anotações de texto o áudio de novas palavras pode ajudar a lembrar do vocabulário novo ao ler. palavras claves: anotação de texto, anotação de áudio, anotação multimídia, vocabulário a comparison of the effect of text-picture karbalaei no. 12 (january june 2016) no. 12 (january june 2016) 54 introduction second language (l2) learners at all levels of ability encounter the problem of learning vocabulary. according to nation (2001), a native speaker of english is aware of 20,000 word families. this poses a challenging task for english as a second language (esl) learners. vocabulary learning has generally been long overlooked within the field of second language acquisition (sla) (nation, 2001, zimmerman, 1997). recent years have observed augmented interest in l2 vocabulary research. according to gass (1999), one relevant discussion is between incidental and intentional vocabulary learning. the difference between the two learning conditions involves the learning task, learner attention and the instructional context of the learning (read, 2004). both approaches have been found to aid the gradual learning of l2 vocabulary (hulstijn, 2001). second language research has also treated incidental vocabulary learning through reading (nation, 2001). as jacobs et al. (1994) states, this conforms to l2 learners’ reports that vocabulary learning happens, in most cases, accidentally during reading or listening. however, l2 incidental vocabulary learning tends to be incremental and slow. jacobs, dufon & fong (1994), joyce (1997) describe how annotation has been a standard characteristic in l2 reading, which aids in simplifying comprehension, and in which l2 vocabulary learning happens as a by-product. as an instructional intermediation, a note draws learner attention away from reading, and concentrates it on the form and meaning of the word, thus raising vocabulary learning and reading comprehension. this reflects the interactionist view of sla (long, 1996) and the depth of processing hypothesis. rott, williams, and cameron (2002) and watanabe (1997) describe how studies on the influences of text notation on l2 vocabulary learning and reading comprehension have produced mixed findings. al-seghayer (2001) stated that different from the traditional marginal notation, multimedia notations can draw vocabulary information in multiple modalities, including audio (sound) and visual (text, picture and video). studies have also taken into consideration the effects of various kinds of multimedia notations on incidental l2 vocabulary learning, specifically, the utilization of picture notation and video notation accompanied with text notation (al-seghayer, 2001). according to paivio (1990), these studies scaffold double-coding theory and accept the cognitive theory of multimedia learning (mayer, 2001), which describes how meaningful learning involves learners in both verbal and visual cognitive processing systems. yoshii (2000, as cited in ala comparison of the effect of text-picture karbalaei no. 12 (january june 2016) no. 12 (january june 2016) 55 seghayer, 2001) represented double notation of text and picture or text and video are unanimously discussed to be better than single notations in simplifying incidental l2 vocabulary learning . in addition, svenconis and kerst (1995) and yeh & wang (2003) stated that research suggests that that the increase of an audio element to dual annotations does not seem to have a deterministic effect on l2 vocabulary learning. one possible illustration is that the information sent at the same time through different modalities (audio, verbal and visual) might excess the cognitive processing. an overview of the studies on l2 vocabulary annotation, particularly multimedia annotation, offers that there is little information about how different dual annotations, specifically text-picture and audio-picture annotations, influence l2 vocabulary learning and reading comprehension in iranian efl context. this information is required to recognize the extent to which multimedia learning can be utilized in l2 reading teaching and the role of multimedia in l2 vocabulary learning in iranian efl context. the slight information on audio annotation in multimedia l2 learning in comparison to other multimedia annotations verdicts more examination. furthermore, incidental and intentional vocabulary learning in a multimedia environment has never been studied. the influences of multimedia double notation using different modalities on l2 vocabulary learning and reading comprehension in incidental and intentional learning conditions remain unclear. motivated by prior studies on multimedia annotation and available slots in this literature, the overarching question considered in this study was how different dual annotations influence l2 vocabulary recall and reading comprehension in both incidental and intentional environments. this study was designed to expand our indelibility of the use of multimedia leaning in a second language acquisition setting through the framework of cognitive theory of multimedia learning to second language vocabulary learning and reading comprehension. it investigated the ways in which two different types of dual annotation, namely, text-picture and audio-picture, influenced l2 vocabulary learning and reading comprehension. furthermore, it noticed the influential of multimedia annotation on l2 students’ vocabulary learning in both incidental and intentional learning conditions. this study was guided by the following research questions: 1) does text-picture annotation play any significant role in facilitating l2 vocabulary immediate recall among iranian efl learners? 2) does audio-picture annotation play any significant role in facilitating l2 vocabulary immediate recall among iranian efl learners? and 3) is there any significant difference between the effect of text-picture and a comparison of the effect of text-picture karbalaei no. 12 (january june 2016) no. 12 (january june 2016) 56 audio-picture annotations in facilitating l2 vocabulary immediate recall among iranian efl learners? literature review text annotation and l2 vocabulary learning in printed reading materials, text annotations are often placed in the margin, at the bottom, or at the end of the reading text. in multimedia texts, when students click on an annotated word, they can observe the meaning of the word in a certain place of the computer screen. in this part, debate will be first concentrated on text annotation in printed reading texts, followed by a review of text annotation in multimedia texts. hulstijn, hollander, and greidanus (1996) examined incidental vocabulary learning for second language learners. their study showed the utilization of marginal text annotation as an influential method. other studies accepted that text annotation in printed reading text could reinforce second language learners’ retention of vocabulary (hulstijn, 1992). dufon and hong’s (1994) study on l2 spanish reading used three formats: (1) no gloss, (2) l1 gloss and (3) l2 gloss. their results demonstrated that students who had access to glosses did better than students without glosses on the immediate vocabulary translation posttest. therefore, the effectiveness of gloss was not discovered in the delayed post-test four weeks later. due to this, jacobs et al. noticed that although gloss is preferred over no gloss, gloss only has a potentially positive effect on vocabulary acquisition with sufficient l2 competence. furthermore, certain proficiency level was requisite to make effective use of l2 gloss. in conclusion, the positive relation between gloss and vocabulary learning was held, at least for immediate retention if not for long-term retention. in order to examine the possible distinction between l1 and l2 glosses, ko (1995) utilized a similar design as jacobs, dufon and hong (as cited in al-seghayer, 2001) with 189 korean college students learning english as a foreign language (efl). students took a vocabulary pre-test and were asked to read an 854-word english text. contrary to dufon and hong (1994), the multiple-choice vocabulary post-test immediately after reading displayed important difference between l1 and l2 gloss. in other words, students with access to l1 gloss significantly outperformed those with access to l2 gloss. the effect was found significant in the delayed post-test one week later. a comparison of the effect of text-picture karbalaei no. 12 (january june 2016) no. 12 (january june 2016) 57 the effectiveness of l2 over l1 gloss in vocabulary retention was also challenged by laufer and shmueli’s (1997) study. hebrewspeaking high school efl students (n=128) were asked to read an english text in which 10 target words were glossed in hebrew and another 10 in english. multiple-choice assessment was used in both the immediate and delayed post-test five weeks later. both tests showed that l1 gloss resulted in more vocabulary retention than l2 gloss. this conflicts with the finding by jacobs et al. (1994), but students’ level of the second language in laufer and shmueli (1997) might be used as an explanation. certain proficiency of the second language was necessary to fully utilize glosses in l2. picture annotation visual assists have long been hypothesized to profit second language learning. tuttle (as cited in omaggio, 1979) discussed that “foreign language students can profit from many kinds of visual material to be a rich resource in the foreign language classroom” (p. 9). the use of imagery display of foreign words by real objects or imagery was also displayed by kellogg and howe (1971) to facilitate children’s vocabulary acquisition in a foreign language. a number of researchers have also investigated the effect of visual stimuli on l2 vocabulary learning and reading comprehension. kellogg and howe’s (1971) study contrasted written words and pictures as key words for oral acquisition of spanish vocabulary by children. the pictures produced faster learning of new words than the written stimuli. the effect was also kept in the long term as displayed by greater recall of words represented in pictures. terrel (as cited in kost et al, 1999) suggested that combining the form and visual representation of unknown l2 vocabulary assisted learners to acquire concrete ideas and references. in reviewing the techniques used in learning l2 vocabulary, oxford and crookall (1990) expressed the effectiveness of visual imagery and maintained that “most learners link new information to notions in memory by means of meaningful visual images, and that visual images make learning more influential” (p. 17) and “the pictorialverbal combination contains many sections of the brain, thus providing greater cognitive power” (p. 17). omaggio’s (1979) study focused on pictorial contexts to french as a second language students such as advanced organizers. it was assumed that the preparation of the other visual context would simplify reading comprehension. the outcomes represented that students with a pictorial context did significantly better on the recognition test and a comparison of the effect of text-picture karbalaei no. 12 (january june 2016) no. 12 (january june 2016) 58 recall than those with access only to text. this supported evidence of the positive effect of pictures on reading comprehension. in annotation studies, picture annotation has been used to clarify the meaning of those unknown words second language learners encounter in reading. according to dual coding theory, the way learners comprehend pictures differs greatly from that of comprehending textual information (paivio, 1990). in other words, text is processed by the verbal cognitive subsystem, while a picture is processed by the nonverbal cognitive subsystem. research has compared l2 vocabulary learning from text annotation, picture annotation, and a combination of text and picture annotation. audio annotation it is worth noting that little research has been done on audio annotation. audio annotation gives pronunciation, a sample sentence, and definition or meaning of a target word in spoken form. it has never been studied separately from other annotation modes, but mostly as an additive component. the only format in which audio annotation has been studied is the pronunciation of target words. findings on audio annotation are rather mixed and uncertain. svenconis and kerst (1995) investigated the effectiveness of semantic mapping techniques in l2 vocabulary learning in a hypertext environment. the participants (n=48) were english-speaking high school students in grades 9 through 12 learning spanish as a second language. the 72 target words were presented in word listing and semantic mapping. in the multiple-choice vocabulary post-test, no significant effect was found for the word presentation method, which suggested that semantic mapping does not necessarily lead to better vocabulary retention than the traditional word listing method. but the group of semantic mapping with sound produced the highest overall mean score, higher than the other three groups. chun and plass (1996) challenged the positive effect of audio annotation. in their studies, an audio component was added to three different annotations types (text, text-picture, and text-video); that is, a german native speaker pronounced each target word. of the three successive studies, participants from the first and second studies were asked to report their use of retrieval cues for vocabulary learning. the authors suggest that the audio component was not useful in learning vocabulary since it showed very limited importance as a retrieval cue. a comparison of the effect of text-picture karbalaei no. 12 (january june 2016) no. 12 (january june 2016) 59 methodology research design training program. the interactive multimedia program used in this study was designed by the researcher to help intermediate efl students with vocabulary learning. the program provided students with annotations for unknown words via hypermedia links in two different modes: text-picture and audio-picture. the annotations were used to assist the learning of unknown words. the program was written in html. html was chosen as the programming language due to its user-friendly integration of hypermedia and its compatibility for both pc platforms. the picture annotations were processed with adobe photoshop 6.0 (adobe, 2000), and the audio clips were processed with vegas 4.0 (sonic foundry, 2003). the screen was divided into two frames. the left screen was used for the reading text with the title at the top, and the right screen was reserved for the annotation. in the text-picture version, when participants click on a highlighted word, the right screen offers a textual definition of the words together with a picture that describes the word. in the audio-picture annotation, when participants click on a highlighted word, they could see on the right screen a picture that depicts the meaning of the word and hear an audio clip that explains the meaning of the word. procedure. the study was conducted during the participants’ regular class time, and required two consecutive 50-minute sessions. the participants were randomly assigned to a control and two experimental groups: text-annotation and audio-annotation groups. in the first 50-minute session, the researcher first gave a brief introduction of the study and answered any questions that the participants might have. then, two neighboring students had access to different annotations, one text-picture and the other audio-picture. in the computer lab, the researcher gave a brief introduction of the online reading activity. headsets were used for those who were in the audio-picture annotation group. during reading, the participants clicked the highlighted unknown words to access available annotations. the text-picture group was able to see textual explanation and pictorial description, and the audio-picture group was able to see pictorial description explanation and hear a spoken explanation. when they finished reading, they raised their hands to receive the post-tests. participants the participants in the study were selected from two intact classes consisting of 80 students studying english in at advance level in bandar a comparison of the effect of text-picture karbalaei no. 12 (january june 2016) no. 12 (january june 2016) 60 abbas, iran. they had a mean age of 24 and had been studying english translation as their field of study. their level of english proficiency was determined on the basis of their scores on the pet proficiency test. based on the results of pet proficiency test, those participants placed between one standard deviation above and below the mean were regarded as the main participants. finally, 62 students were selected for main procedure and data analysis based on the research question. then they were randomly selected to two experimental groups including text-annotation group and audio-annotation group, and a control group. because some of the students were absent during the implementation of one of the tests, they were excluded from the main subjects resulted in 38 participants in the respective experimental groups and 20 in the control group. data collection instruments general english proficiency test. the pet proficiency test was utilized to assess the subjects’ level of proficiency in english. this test included 30 multiple-choice vocabulary, grammar, and reading comprehension items. the researcher piloted the test with 27 students with the same level and similar characteristics to those of subjects of this study. it should be mentioned that the reliability of pet proficiency test estimated by kr-21 (kudar richardson) formula appeared to be .69. reading material. the reading text, “european settlers of australia,” was written by the researcher based on three criteria: text length, syntactic complexity, and content. in terms of length, the text has 449 words (including the title). it consists of short, uncomplicated sentences and simple past tense is used throughout the text. there is an average of 6.8 sentences in each paragraph, and an average sentence contains 10.8 words. the percentage of simple sentences in the text is over 80%. with regard to the content, it seems reasonable to assume that esl students knew more or less the same amount of general information about the european colonization of australia and have comparable background knowledge of the reading text (i.e., since none has been to australia and its history is foreign to all participants). the content of the text does not require any specific culturally related knowledge. the readability of the text is considered to be between grade level 5 and 6 based on the flesch-kincaid measure. it tells of the story of the european colonists in australia in the 1800s. the text was given to experienced efl instructors who teach reading/writing classes and was confirmed to be appropriate for advance students. the student’s cloze score of 67% indicate that the reading text was appropriate for advanced students in terms of difficulty level. a comparison of the effect of text-picture karbalaei no. 12 (january june 2016) no. 12 (january june 2016) 61 target words. the 20 target words were all nouns. they were selected for frequency. based on the word frequency corpora of francis and kucera (1982), the 20 target words have a mean of 12.7 per million words. the reading text was modified into two different forms: a text with text-picture annotations, and a text with audio-picture annotations. the 20 target words were highlighted in both texts. word recognition test (wrt): the participants were asked to complete a word recognition test (wrt) as pretest at the beginning of the study. in this test, the 20 target words were presented in their original context taken from the reading text. for each word, the participants were asked to choose one correct meaning out of four given choices. of the four choices, one was the correct meaning, and the other three were distractors. data analysis and interpretation research question 1: does text-picture annotation play any significant role in facilitating l2 vocabulary immediate recall among iranian efl learners? in order to see whether we are able to use t-test as a parametric test, first we should check whether the data have been normally distributed or not. if the level of significance is more than 0.05, it indicates the normality of data distribution. therefore, we can use parametric test for further data analysis. table 1. one-sample kolmogorov-smirnov test for text-annotation, audio-annotation and control group a comparison of the effect of text-picture karbalaei no. 12 (january june 2016) no. 12 (january june 2016) 62 as it is evident from table 1, the result of normality test shows that p values of three groups (.229, .112, and .123) are more than significance level (0.05). therefore, we can accept the assumption of normality and we can use paired sample t-test for comparing the results of pretest and posttest in text-annotation, audio-annotation and control group. table 2. paired sample test for preand posttest vocabulary knowledge scores for samples in in text-annotation, and control group as is evident from table 2, there is a significant difference between preand posttest in text-picture annotation group in iranian efl context (t=-20.407; p= .000). in other words, participants scored higher in posttest (m=10.39, sd=1.680), when they were exposed to text annotation during their reading, than pretest (m=4.33, sd= 1.680). with respect to this point, the first hypothesis (text-picture annotation does not play any significant role in facilitating l2 vocabulary immediate recall among iranian efl learners) is rejected. in other words, text-picture annotation could play a significant role in learning new vocabularies during reading text. regarding the control group, there is no significant difference between the students’ vocabulary knowledge during pre and posttest (t=1.234; sig= .232). research question 2. does audio-picture annotation play any significant role in facilitating l2 vocabulary immediate recall among iranian efl learners? a comparison of the effect of text-picture karbalaei no. 12 (january june 2016) no. 12 (january june 2016) 63 table 3. mean preand posttest of vocabulary knowledge scores for samples in audio picture annotation and control group as is evident from table 4, there is a significant difference between preand posttest in audio-picture group in iranian efl context (t=-16.496; p= .000) when they were exposed to audiopicture annotation during reading. further, it is clear from table 3 that students learned new words better when they were exposed to audiopicture annotation (posttest) than the time they were not exposed to (pretest) (mean=12.55 and 4.25, respectively). therefore, the second hypothesis (audio-picture annotations does not play any significant role in facilitating l2 vocabulary immediate recall among iranian efl learners) is also rejected. in other words, audio-picture annotation could play a significant role on increasing adult efl learners’ vocabulary knowledge. as far as the control group is concerned, as it is observed from table 4, there is no significant difference between the students’ performance in vocabulary knowledge after reading the text without any kind of annotation (t=1.234; p= .232). table 4. paired sample test for preand posttest vocabulary knowledge in audio-picture and control group a comparison of the effect of text-picture karbalaei no. 12 (january june 2016) no. 12 (january june 2016) 64 research question 3: is there any significant difference between the effect of text-picture and audio-picture annotations in facilitating l2 vocabulary immediate recall among iranian efl learners? in order to answer the third question, the vocabulary posttest in text-picture, audio-picture and control group were computed and then anova was used to see whether there was any significant difference among the three groups in posttest stage. the following tables show the results: the results of data analysis (anova) in table 5 below indicates that there is a statistically significant difference between text-picture group, audio-picture group and control group in the results of posttest because obtained f value of 181.376, was found to be significant at .001 level (p=.000). in other words, the third null hypothesis (there is no significant difference between the effect of text-picture and audiopicture annotations in facilitating l2 vocabulary immediate recall among iranian efl learners.) is confirmed. table 5. results of anova for mean posttest scores of samples in textannotation, audio-annotation, and control group in order to see where the difference stands, the post hoc scheffe test (see table 6) showed that the audio-picture group performed significantly better than text-picture group (mean=12.55 vs. mean=10.39). finally, text-picture group performed significantly better than control group (mean =3.78 vs. 10.39). the results indicated that the scores of audio-picture group increased at a significantly higher rate than the text-picture and control group. as a result, audio-picture annotation was recognized to be the best method for learning new words during reading comprehension text. a comparison of the effect of text-picture karbalaei no. 12 (january june 2016) no. 12 (january june 2016) 65 table 6. post hoc scheffe test results on the basis of the quantitative analyses, annotation provides an efficient way for learners to expand their vocabulary knowledge. annotation can promote noticing of the target form, in semantic processing. the first and second research questions addressed the effect of text type and audio type annotations. on average, participants retained 70% of the 20 target words on the vocabulary knowledge scale. the average retention rates were comparable to previous multimedia annotation studies (e.g. al-seghayer, 2001; yoshii, 2000). the results confirmed the impact of annotation in helping second language vocabulary learning. according to paivio (1990), the main reason can be related to the dual-coding effect that words annotated with both verbal (text or audio) modes of information lead to effective vocabulary retention. this study was designed to compare the effectiveness of textpicture annotation with audio-picture annotation on l2 vocabulary immediate recall. as shown by the above table, the audio-picture annotation group consistently outperformed the text-picture annotation group. the dual channel assumption, especially the modality principle, of the cognitive theory of multimedia learning can be used to explain this finding (mayer, 2001). mayer distinguishes the two separate channels for processing visual/pictorial and auditory/verbal information. the modality effect articulates that working memory has partially independent processors for handling visual and auditory information. the effective capacity of working memory could be increased by using both visual and auditory channels (mayer & moreno, 1998). text annotation and audio annotation are both verbally-presented information; thus both annotations contain a combination of verbal and non-verbal information. based on the modality principle (baddeley, 1999; mayer, 2001), text annotation and picture annotation will be a comparison of the effect of text-picture karbalaei no. 12 (january june 2016) no. 12 (january june 2016) 66 processed by the visual channel, while audio annotation will be processed by the auditory channel. therefore, in text-picture annotations, the simultaneous register of both text and picture caused the visual channel to be overloaded. this led to an information processing that was, at least initially, carried out solely in the visual working memory. thus, the cognitive resources available in the visual working memory had to be divided between textual and pictorial information, whereas the auditory (phonological) working memory was left unused. in comparison, in audio-picture annotations, the audio was registered by the auditory channel and processed in the phonological working memory, while the picture was registered by the visual channel and processed in the visual working memory. this combination allowed cognitive resources in both working memories to be used. in other words, more cognitive resources were utilized in audio-picture annotations than in text-picture annotations. the preference of audio-picture annotation on l2 vocabulary immediate recall can also be explained with the split-attention principle (mousavi, low, & seller, 1995). participants with access to text-picture annotations had to split their attention in the visual working memory between multiple visual resources (written text and picture). participants with access to audio-picture annotations approached the audio as an auditory resource and the picture as a visual resource through auditory working memory and visual working memory respectively, which did not require an attention split in either of the working memories. in this way, effective working memory might be increased by presenting information in a mixed (visual and auditory) rather than a unitary mode (visual only). hence, audio-picture annotation resulted in higher vocabulary immediate recall than text-picture annotation. conclusions previous studies have examined the effects of multimedia annotations on l2 vocabulary learning. these studies have supported the effectiveness of multimedia annotations in facilitating l2 vocabulary learning. however, no study in second language acquisition has examined audio annotation in combination with text as a dual multimedia annotation type. this study focused on this issue by comparing audio-picture annotation to text-picture annotation in their effects on l2 vocabulary immediate recall. the results of the study demonstrate that audio-picture annotation is more effective than text-picture annotation in facilitating l2 vocabulary a comparison of the effect of text-picture karbalaei no. 12 (january june 2016) no. 12 (january june 2016) 67 immediate recall. the results suggested that providing the new words whether in audio and text annotation during reading comprehension can help recalling new words. some scholars investigated the effect of presenting different words and the results were inconsistent. for example, mckeown (as cited in read, 2004) suggests that current dictionary definitions are not effective even in initiating the process of understanding word meaning, at least for younger learners. nagy and scott (as cited in read, 2004) indicated a chief strength of definitions because they provide explicit information about word meanings that is normally only implicit in context; therefore, if a student is to learn a word, giving the specific meaning of a word may provide the best chance for competence. it is possible that older students may have a better understanding of how explicit definitions work and how to manipulate the meaning into other contexts. it is important to note that students will need to be prepared to read and use weak or insufficient clues to unlock the meaning of new words in a variety of texts. this study suggests the need to allow more instructional time to support different types of annotation and to identify stories with well-developed clues so that students can develop a repertoire of different strategies to unlock the meaning of words in the different contexts in which the words are encountered. it is hoped that the findings of this study will shed some light on blurred issues of text annotation and audio annotation and its effect on reading comprehension performance. regarding theoretical implications, the findings of this study suggest a number of implications and extensions for the classroom. firstly, this study adds to the growing body of research in multimedia annotation studies in second language acquisition. previous multimedia annotation studies have focused on the comparison of text-picture annotation to text-only annotation or picture only annotation (yoshii, 2000) or on the differences between text-picture annotation and text-video annotation (al-seghayer, 2001). however, audio annotation, as a different sensory modality from visual (text, picture), has never been studied before. the present study fills this gap in the literature. this study provided the much-needed information on the effect of audio annotation on l2 vocabulary learning. by comparing audiopicture annotation to text-picture annotation, it shed light on the use of different dual annotations for multimedia l2 learning. the thesis has established that audio-picture annotation is superior over textpicture annotation in facilitating l2 vocabulary immediate recall. this contributes to the extension of the cognitive theory of multimedia a comparison of the effect of text-picture karbalaei no. 12 (january june 2016) no. 12 (january june 2016) 68 learning to second language learning by verifying both the modality effect and split-attention effect. in addition to the contributions and implications for the field of second language acquisition, especially in the area of multimedia annotation research, this study provides some insights for call material designers in choosing the right combination of modalities in facilitating l2 vocabulary learning. this study confirmed that the use of audio-picture combinations facilitates l2 vocabulary immediate recall in a more effective manner than text-picture annotation. in designing multimedia courseware or materials, this finding could be taken into consideration when making decisions about presenting information in different modes. this could also inform language teachers and administrators in making decisions about the most effective multimedia programs to enhance l2 vocabulary learning. a comparison of the effect of text-picture karbalaei no. 12 (january june 2016) no. 12 (january june 2016) 69 references al-seghayer, k. (2001). the effect of multimedia annotation modes on l2 vocabulary acquisition: a comparative study. language learning & technology, 5(1), 202-232. baddeley, a. d. (1999): working memory (oxford psychology series, no 11). new york: oxford university press. chun, d. m., & plass, j. l. (1996). effects of multimedia annotations on vocabulary acquisition. the modern language journal, 80(2), 183-198. gass, s. (1999). incidental vocabulary learning. studies in second language acquisition, 21(2), 319-333. hulstijn, j. h. (2001). intentional and incidental second language vocabulary learning: a reappraisal of elaboration, rehearsal and automaticity. in p. robinson (ed.), cognition and second language instruction (pp. 258-286). cambridge university press. hulstijn, j. h., hollander, m., & greidanus, t. (1996). incidental vocabulary learning by advanced foreign language students: the influence of marginal glosses, dictionary use, and reoccurrence of unknown words. the modern language journal, 80(3), 327-339. jacobs, g. m., dufon, p., & hong, f. c. (1994). l1 and l2 vocabulary glosses in l2 reading passages: their effectiveness for increasing comprehension and vocabulary knowledge. journal of research in reading, 17(1), 19-28. kellogg, k. s., & howe, a. j. a. (1971). using words and pictures in foreign language learning. alberta journal of educational research, 17, 87-94. ko, m. h. (1995). glossing in incidental and intentional learning foreign language vocabulary and reading comprehension. unpublished ma thesis, university of hawaii at manoa. kost, c. r., foss, p., & lenzini, j. j. jr. (1999). textual and pictorial glosses: effectiveness on incidental vocabulary growth when reading in a foreign language. foreign language annals, 32(1), 89-113. laufer, b., & shmueli, k, (1997). memorizing new words: does teaching have anything to do with it? relc journal, 28, 89-108. mayer, r. e. (1997). multimedia learning: are we asking the right questions? educational psychologist, 32, 10-19. a comparison of the effect of text-picture karbalaei no. 12 (january june 2016) no. 12 (january june 2016) 70 mayer, r. e. & moreno, r. (1998). a split attention effect in multimedia learning: evidence for dual processing systems in working memory. journal of educational psychology, 90, 312-320. mousavi, s., low r. & sweller, j. (1995). reducing cognitive load by mixing auditory and visual presentation modes. journal of educational psychology, 87, 319-334. nation, i. s. p. (2001). learning vocabulary in another language. cambridge: cambridge university press. omaggio, a. c. (1979). pictures and second language comprehension: do they help? foreign language annals, 12(2), 107-116. oxford, r., & crookall, d. (1990). vocabulary learning: a critical analysis of techniques. tesl canadian journal, 7(2), 9-30. paivio, a. (1990). mental representation: a dual-coding approach. oxford, uk: oxford university press. read, j. (2004). research in teaching vocabulary. annual review of applied linguistics, 24(1), 146-161. rott, s., williams, j., & cameron, r. (2002). the effect of multiplechoice l1 glosses and input-output cycles on lexical acquisition and retention. language teaching research, 6(3), 183-222. svenconis, d. j., & kerst, s. (1995). investigating the teaching of second-language vocabulary through semantic mapping in a hypertext environment. calico journal, 12 (2/3), 33-57. zimmerman, c. b. (1997). do reading and interactive vocabulary instruction make a difference? an empirical study. tesol quarterly, 57(1), 121-140. a comparison of the effect of text-picture karbalaei no. 12 (january june 2016) no. 12 (january june 2016) 71 authors *alireza karbalaei earned his phd in tefl from mysore university in india. he is a faculty member of farhangian university in iran and head of the english department at the kish international branch. he is working as an editorial member of different international journals. his main research areas include reading strategies, affective variables, language acquisition and learning, tefl, and tesl. dr. karbalaei has published 60 papers on these subjects in various journals. *ali sattari obtained his ma in tefl in the qeshm international branch. he has been teaching english at high school in hormozgan province. *ziba nezami obtained her ma in tefl in maraghe azad university. she is the translator of the nursing and midwifery department of tabriz university. she is currently is teaching at different english language institutes in tabriz. a comparison of the effect of text-picture karbalaei no. 12 (january june 2016) no. 12 (january june 2016) 117 motivating english language use by using the benefits of technology1 motivar el uso del idioma inglés a través de las bondades de la tecnología adriana maritza rivera barreto 2* universidad santo tomás, colombia abstract this paper shares the results of a small-scale research project focused on using technology to motivate the use of english. tenth semester students from a university in tunja was the target group to develop the project. it also had as an objective to promote a virtual learning environment to boost english as a foreign language. a field diary, an online forum, a survey, and students’ artifacts were used to gather information in this action research study. findings revealed two categories, firstly, collaborative work to instill motivation which explains why students tend to work better while working in groups and secondly the use of technology to enhance language learning where it is described how the use of technology makes students more confident to learn english. key words: ict, foreign language, collaborative work, motivation resumen este documento comparte los resultados de un proyecto de investigación a menor escala enfocado en emplear la tecnología para motivar el uso de la lengua extranjera inglés. este proyecto se llevó a cabo con un grupo de estudiantes de décimo semestre de una universidad en tunja. este tuvo también como objetivo promover un ambiente virtual para estimular el aprendizaje de una lengua extranjera como el inglés. un diario de campo, un foro, una encuesta y las actividades desarrolladas por los estudiantes fueron usados para recolectar información en esta investigación acción. los resultados revelaron 2 categorías, la primera, trabajo colaborativo para favorecer la motivación 1 received: february 23rd 2017/ accepted: june 5th 2018 2 riveraadriana10@gmail.com gist education and learning research journal. issn 1692-5777. no.16 (january june) 2018. pp. 117-140. riveracritical literacy in a1 students no. 16 (january june, 2018) no. 16 (janaury june, 2018) 118 la cual explica por qué los estudiantes tienden a trabajar mejor en grupos; y en segundo lugar, el uso de tecnología para motivar el aprendizaje de un idioma donde se describe cómo el uso de recursos en línea permite que el estudiante gane confianza e interés por aprender. palabras claves: ict, lengua extranjera, trabajo colaborativo, motivación. resumo este documento compartilha os resultados de um projeto de pesquisa a menor escala, enfocado em empregar ferramentas virtuais de aprendizagem para motivar o uso da língua estrangeira inglês. este projeto foi realizado com um grupo de estudantes de décimo semestre de uma universidade em tunja. o mesmo teve como objetivo empregar tecnologia para incrementar a motivação dirigida à aprendizagem de una língua estrangeira como o inglês. um diário de campo, um foro, uma enquete e as atividades desenvolvidas pelos estudantes foram usados para coletar informação nesta pesquisa ação. os resultados revelaram 2 categorias, a primeira, promover a motivação através do trabalho colaborativo a qual explica por quê os estudantes tendem a trabalhar melhor em grupos; e em segundo lugar, o uso de tecnologia para motivar a aprendizagem de um idioma donde se descreve como o uso de recursos em linha permite que o estudante ganhe confiança e interesse por aprender. os resultados revelaram que, através das oficinas, os estudantes ganharam confiança para aprender inglês. palavras chaves: ict, língua estrangeira, trabalho colaborativo, motivação motivation in english language use and technology rivera no. 16 (january june, 2018) no. 16 (janaury june, 2018) 119 introduction the integration of information and communication technology (ict) in modern life has caused a transformation in fields such as education. in my particular case as a teacher, it is considered important to embrace new virtual tools to support teaching. the lack of appropriate ict in classroom activities and the importance of adopting different teaching strategies highlight the need to increase interest in practicing a foreign language; hence, the objective of this study was to employ virtual learning tools in order to foster motivation in english as a foreign language (efl). the idea of the present research came from three issues: 1. the teachers’ lack of interest or disregard in developing the digital competence of students. 2. the teacher’s reflection and identification of the students’ needs as evidenced in the class. 3. the unsatisfactory experiences of university students while learning english. a potential solution was considered to be the new pedagogical materials offered by the internet which increase interest in learning. data was collected through a variety of research instruments. firstly, a field diary was used in order to record information that was not visible in the written assignments. secondly, students’ artifacts (e.g. written assignments), which showed the use of the virtual learning tools, were collected. lastly, comments on the discussion forum revealed students’ perceptions after employing learning tools to foster their knowledge of english. statement of the problem currently, some teachers of the language department in a university in tunja, give traditional classes, where a book is the main resource used to teach. other teachers use the moodle platform to share links where students can reinforce the language and grammar topics; it means students can autonomously go to the platform and develop exercises on their own. there is no interaction or feedback among the teacher and the students, and therefore their motivation to learn english is low. based on this, the researcher suggested creating a learning environment for tenth semester students from the law faculty, which included the use of technology in the teaching sessions in order motivation in english language use and technology rivera no. 16 (january june, 2018) no. 16 (janaury june, 2018) 120 to answer the question “how might technology contribute to foster students’ motivation in the english class?” literature review in this section, the concepts that were considered in this study were ict, collaboration, computer assisted language learning (call), and motivation. but firstly, it is worth mentioning that some research studies about motivational impacts of ict already exist within a wide range of literature; to start with, there is a study called ¨the influence of ict on learners’ motivation towards learning english¨ undertaken by kreutz and rhodin (2016), which was conducted in a swedish school and investigated whether ict influences students’ motivation and in what way that motivation was affected. in this regard, andersson (2003), cited by kreutz and rhodin (2016), asserts that many students are bored since swedish schools still keep old teaching traditions. the data was analyzed and collected through survey questionnaires and it showed that students’ motivation increased in a positive way while using ict in different lessons in the efl classroom. based on the information provided, this study concluded that ict increases motivation in order to learn another language. on the other hand, the research report entitled ¨the motivational effect of the ict on pupils¨ developed by passey, rogers, machell and mchugh (2004) intended to investigate the impacts of ict on pupil motivation and consider the ways in which teachers could enhance motivational impact for pupils, therefore, 17 schools from across england were taken as a sample and interviews, observations, and questionnaires were implemented for this study. the findings advised that ict definitely has a positive influence in the majority of students . it was also reported that, within an appealing environment, most pupils enjoyed using ict and teachers widely reported that ict supported learning through teaching. in this case, once again the idea of using technology in the classroom brings positive outcomes to adapt activities with which students could demonstrate their technological competence. to end up, the research entitled ¨the benefits of using ict in the efl classroom: from perceived utility to potential challenges¨ led by azmi (2017) reveals that the use of ict promotes autonomy, motivates learning and helps to better performance in the efl classroom. this was a document review research which considered and examined the literature produced over the last two decades (1990-2014); the review of research documents unveil that the appropriate implementation of ict in the classroom can make the difference. however, the study advise motivation in english language use and technology rivera no. 16 (january june, 2018) no. 16 (janaury june, 2018) 121 the need to plan carefully and set well-defined objectives. moreover, appropriate training in the use of ict is required and the pedagogical planning is crucial to produce satisfactory results. in this case, the review done displays other important issues related to training in the use of ict because it is not just matter of using an attractive tool from a multimedia point but to demonstrate mastery of it to really transform teaching. therefore, the previous studies concerning ict and motivation are relevant to the teaching field and as such they serve as the starting point for the commencement of a similar study, considering the context, content, and participants. accordingly, technology makes part of our daily life, which has contributed to develop social and intellectual skills and, thanks to it, teachers may take advantage to increase motivation to learn a foreign language. information and communication technology from the past, the human being has used different means of communication such as language, symbols, and other tools to transmit and transform information and then establish communication using different technologies as mechanisms to manage, transmit, and process all the information that is created and received. some teachers now tend to propose a new methodology in the classroom and change the traditional class, where there were established customs to develop a class and it was focus on the traditional ¨chalk and talk¨ into an online learning environment as a way to communicate. however, virtual contexts can intimidate other teachers who are used to face-to-face sessions (sarkar, 2012). these teachers may feel reluctant to adopt new teaching strategies ignoring that they could help students to learn more effectively and efficiently. unesco (2002) asserts that one of the main purposes of ict is to unveil what we can do with it to improve education. for this reason, the tools developed on the internet and the recent knowledge model generated by information technologies have produced several impacts on society. then ict looks for new means of how people can communicate, interrogate, make decisions, and solve problems; so to have access to all of the above, professional development in icts is crucial especially for teachers to acquire knowledge and skills that contribute to their work. based on the british educational communications and technology agency , becta (2007) teachers lack competency with modern learning tools and this could be because new teaching strategies have not been fully explored. motivation in english language use and technology rivera no. 16 (january june, 2018) no. 16 (janaury june, 2018) 122 today young people and adolescents have a natural affinity for technology because we can observe them doing up to five tasks at once, such as sending text messages, uploading and downloading videos, watching movies, among other activities. the above leads to a change in the pedagogical model where the apprentice is recognized as the center of the class. in this regard, tapscott (2009) states that a big change happened 20 years ago when the computer, the internet and other technologies appeared along with what is known as the net generation. in this manner, childhood starts to assimilate technology as one environment more and adults become accustomed to it; we can clearly observe how easily teenagers fit into this new environment so that it becomes part of a daily routine of an individual and indicates the need to dominate emerging technologies and change the paradigm people have about the weakness of learning due to age. on the other hand, it can be indicated first, that information and communication technologies have become a tool of daily use for the individual who has in some way become dependent on them for the usefulness that they provide as they facilitate the connection with other learning environments. second, ict provide a variety of devices that increase storage capacity, and third, emerging technologies have provided different means through which the person receives and analyzes all the information they obtain. finally, these emerging technologies such as wikis, blogs, and interactive boards, among others, offer progress to the community despite the barriers that can be identified either from hardware or software, but no matter what these barriers are, because ict demands a transformation of the classroom to have a transcendence in students’ lives and, in this way, change the traditional concept of education. collaborative work collaborative work is the means by which knowledge can be shared and enriched in the academic process; in this way, teachers and students have the possibility to analyze different opinions from different perspectives. oxford (2011) asserts that collaborative learning focuses on ‘social constructivism’ whose purpose is to invite apprentices to take part in a community. then, once the sense of community is created and sensitized, it is essential to offer the apprentices a pleasant environment to potentiate their learning and thereby, the teachers could avoid the absence of commitment. this is where the teacher plays an important role where they must be actively involved in the process of orientation of the apprentices providing them with learning opportunities considering motivation in english language use and technology rivera no. 16 (january june, 2018) no. 16 (janaury june, 2018) 123 their motivations and expectations. hence, bearing in mind the above assertion the most important aspect while working with others to achieve the same goal is that this goal can be reached if there is a guide that assures the group is working in the right direction. additionally, collaborative work requires individual transformation that leads to participation and contribution. blatchfors, kutnick and baines (2007) assert that the relationship among the members of a group plays an important role seeing that it provides a more effective working group, and consequently, an effective classroom context. thus, based on the assertions made by the previous authors, it is stated that smaller groups single–sex or friendship-based relationships with the purpose of exchanging meanings and learning from the same group of friends. consequently, learning can be strengthened through social interaction the role of the teacher is essential for having a meaningful experience. in short, it is necessary to raise awareness about the importance of implementing collaborative tools in the classroom that point to communication and make students active members of a community; therefore, some responsibility must be assigned to students to identify when and where to seek guidance, and reinforce autonomous learning. computer assisted language learning levy (1997) adopted the concept of computer assisted language learning (call) and defines it as the exploration and analysis of the application of computers in the teaching and learning process of language learning. in addition, warschauer (1996) suggests that computer assisted learning offers a wide range of uses for language teaching and mentions that the teacher is in charge of stimulating the practice of the activities through the web, interaction, and research. consequently, training in the use of learning environments is crucial to renew abilities and competencies, considering that technology provide great opportunities to create and present significant contexts to new pupils who come to the classroom with previous competency in technology and are at the forefront in the use of virtual learning tools. for the mastery of new technologies, it is necessary to lead the students and increase their interest in learning by using new educational strategies. thanks to call, teachers have the opportunity to implement pedagogical advances and new concepts related to digital competence into practice; likewise, teachers have the opportunity to design materials to improve language learning or to adopt materials by using technology, for example, videos, didactic products, and several tasks considering the learners’ needs. motivation in english language use and technology rivera no. 16 (january june, 2018) no. 16 (janaury june, 2018) 124 lastly, technology has a high potential in the field of language learning and instruction, however, these advances are in an initial state of agreement; higgins (1993) claims that the full development of call in education, among other things, depends on the change in the concept of technology as assistance to instruction for the adoption of technology as a support for learning. motivation considering that motivation influences learning and it is recognized as a fundamental factor for teachers and researchers in any area of study, the teacher’s work is to stimulate and increase students’ interest and help them meet the established goals. dörnyei (2006) states that without sufficient motivation, individuals with extraordinary abilities could not meet long-term goals. in the specific case of learning a language, dörnyei et al. (2016) indicate that a more complex situation is presented due to the nature of the language itself, which involves the incorporation of the culture of a second language (l2); in other words, the student is immersed in a new context to get in touch with the reality of other countries to learn about customs, food, celebrations, and everything that deals with a new culture and that is why the importance of motivating them to use another language other than the mother tongue. in different learning environments, it is possible to identify unmotivated students who are not involved in activities and act in a passive manner by performing tasks that do not make sense to them. based on noels (2009), lack of motivation can be generated by several aspects, for example, when they do not value the type of activity to perform, the feeling of inability to carry out an exercise, or when they underestimate the quality of their work. therefore, it is necessary to study how to address and increase motivation in the students towards the learning of a foreign language as in this case; so there is a need to offer authentic material and contextualize real situations to show the importance of employing another language. additionally, another factor that can influence students’ motivation is the methodology adopted by the teacher where a throwback to the 50s can be achieved and mainly the board and chalk came first. that is why chen (2010) argues that in many ways technology offers a wide variety of tools for teaching and learning without limitations of place or time and due to the aforementioned, today’s student finds it more motivating to learn. consequently, it is crucial that teachers adapt their methodology according to students’ interests and promotes lifelong learning. motivation in english language use and technology rivera no. 16 (january june, 2018) no. 16 (janaury june, 2018) 125 methodology type of study the type of study conducted was action research, which is a kind of research that emerges from the classroom itself. according to sagor (2005), action research is an investigation conducted by someone who is able to take steps concerning their own actions, with the purpose of improving their future practices. he proposes an action research process which consist of four stages: firstly, clarifying your vision/ target, whose purpose is to identify the problem and think about a solution; secondly, articulating your theory, to plan how to achieve the outcome; thirdly, implementing your theory, which means taking action and collecting data; and finally, reflecting on results to see what the data tells and decide how to act on it. research instruments in order to collect the data, a field diary, students’ documents, an online forum, and a survey were used to gather information. the research diary was used to collect information in case the researcher forgot or did not include important details that occurred during a class or specific session, bearing in mind the teacher could reflect on the notes later and state new ideas for future lessons. students’ documents show the process students have followed during a period of time and give the opportunity to check what students create, in this case, activities developed by using virtual learning tools; this contributed to identify their interest in and improvement of the language used. moreover, the forum can be considered as an efficient tool, which contributes to collaborative learning and the construction of knowledge, given that students could comment on each other’s work and receive feedback about their assignment. finally, a survey was applied to obtain more relevant information from students where a few questions are asked. setting and participants for the present study 16 students from the law faculty at a private university in tunja were involved in the project; they belonged to tenth semester and the english classes were taught twice a week. english is currently a compulsory subject which is included in their curriculum, classes are developed taking into account the communicative approach. motivation in english language use and technology rivera no. 16 (january june, 2018) no. 16 (janaury june, 2018) 126 research stages to start executing the study, students were surveyed to identify their insights towards the use of technology to learn english (stage 1); it helped to set out the current study; during the implementation of the small-scale project, the moodle platform let students share their activities and the comments they wrote for their classmates in the forum (stage 2). in this way, the researcher could review students’ performance in every assignment they uploaded (stage 3). eventually, a survey to analyze students’ perceptions after using technology was administered. to end up, the researcher started examining the data by analyzing it and revising theory in order to plan future actions (stage 4). following the third stage offered by sagor et al. (2005), two activities were planned to carry out this study, thus students received a list of virtual learning tools and the topics of the activities were selected based on the content included in the syllabus to respect the requirements of the course and the level; students could work in groups or individually. as mentioned previously, it was important to make an informed choice of ict tools then, the researcher strove to find manageable online tools of easy access and tried to select those resources which could attract students’ attention. the first activity was related to the environment then, students had to create their presentations and once they had the link to the online resource they used, they shared it on the moodle platform. in the discussion forum, students wrote about how appealing the use of virtual tools was and any other perception they had during the development of the first activity. likewise, the students had to comment on each others’ work, and finally, the tutor wrote an encouraging comment for each group to motivate them to keep working. for the second activity, students had the chance to explore some online resources to make a decision about one. finally, they decided to work with mind42 which is free online mind mapping software that lets students collect ideas in a graphic way and visualize connections between different topics. in this case, students created a mind map to foster the topic related to cybercrime and once again they shared the link and participated in the forum. results this study adopted the grounded data analysis approach; hence, the processes of disassembling and reassembling data considered by freeman (1998) were taken into account during the whole process. in general, the data collection displayed two categories. motivation in english language use and technology rivera no. 16 (january june, 2018) no. 16 (janaury june, 2018) 127 category 1: collaborative work to instill motivation this category analyzes the results of how collaborative work instills motivation after employing technology. the data shows that students prefer to work in groups, in terms of organization and content, when they receive support and an objective is set. mcgrath (2003) says that working in groups lets students solve problems which may arise during the development of an activity. when students explored the online resources they felt confused and given this situation, different groups started collaborating among themselves by sharing the easiness of some virtual learning tools and in this way tried to solve which tool could be better to use. subsequently, johnson, johnson & smith (2014) point out the importance of every group member because, as a group, it is crucial to strive hard for encouragement in the completion of a task, hence, they also mention that the purpose is to make each member stronger to perform and complete a given assignment. it can be said that interpersonal relationships among students help with the outcomes that come from collaborative efforts. at the beginning, students explored different online resources to deliver the class assignment and in this way identify which learning tool was the most appealing to use. beforehand, the teacher explored the different online resources and became familiar with them in case the students inquired about how to use the tools and she could lead them in the process of choosing the most interesting. this study also demonstrated that, with the teacher and group’s support, learning is more comfortable; for instance, in the first activity about the environment, students were asked to research an environmental problem our country was facing, to describe the situation, explain it, and illustrate the actions taken to tackle the problem and what colombian law says specifically about the environmental problem. once they had the information, they needed to select an online resource to create their presentation with the information collected. in the following sample, the product created by one of the groups for the first activity is evidenced. the online resource used was piktochart; in this application the user can create infographics, then, graphics, gifts, images, and videos can be included. teamwork was essential, students not only discussed about the presentation, but also about the information; it is evident, students got familiar with the online tool what motivate them to deliver an outstanding assignment. motivation in english language use and technology rivera no. 16 (january june, 2018) no. 16 (janaury june, 2018) 128 figure 1. the crisis water (pérez & moreno, 2014), sample # 1 the sample reveals how this group managed to employ an online tool, what led to discuss what kind of information they could share and at this point language use became important. consequently, blatchford, kutnick, and baines (2007) demonstrated that relationships are fundamental for effective group work because all members can contribute to the group interaction, support each other, and deliver good work on time. although, sometimes students are seated or working in some form of grouping and these groupings probably inhibit learning and the interest to learn. for this reason, group work can be more effective when students have the chance to select the members of the group. the next annotation acknowledges students’ confusion and evidence that students chose the tool based on ease of use; however, it is important to remark the purpose of the study was to employ technology to boost motivation while learning english as a foreign language more than the potential these resources could provide. excerpt no.1 ¨ students look confused and indecisive about what online tool they could choose. some online tools look appealing for them at the first sight but when they explore them students think the online tools are difficult to handle. the teacher tries to lead the different groups and suggest them to see a tutorial about the online tool they want to use. finally, most of the groups agree in the use of calameo because it is easier to use [sic]¨ (teacher’s diary, august 4, 2017) motivation in english language use and technology rivera no. 16 (january june, 2018) no. 16 (janaury june, 2018) 129 once students had finished the assignment, they had to share their link in the discussion forum available in the platform students were using to share their assignments, to answer some questions about the group work, and finally, to express whether the activity was engaging. the purpose of the forum was to make students interested in the activities, receive feedback from their work, as well as encourage them to keep working and improving students’ interaction. below are some comments from the students: excerpt no. 2 ¨.the working group was held according to the thematic view in class and each complement our work [sic]. it is exciting because it offers different tools for sharing information [sic]¨ (forum # 1, activity #1, august 24, 2017) excerpt no. 3 ¨it was very interesting work, where we work as a team and bring each of us with documents that had to do with the theme. this tool motivates us to explore, investigate and interact with new ways to do work of a more dynamic and creative way [sic]¨. (forum # 1, activity 1, august 25, 2017) excerpt no. 4 ¨the work as a group was excellent… the virtual tool motivated us because it´s innovative form, not using the same things, like a pen and paper like it’s common [sic] ¨ (forum # 1, activity 1, august 25, 2017) excerpt no. 5 ¨the work at group was good… it was a motivation to write because we were interested in the way of using the different tools [sic]¨ (forum # 1, activity 1, august 27, 2017) as is evident in excerpts 2, 3, 4 and 5 the experience of using technology is described as interesting and positive thanks to the group motivation in english language use and technology rivera no. 16 (january june, 2018) no. 16 (janaury june, 2018) 130 work. according to the previous information, it was a successful experience that provided the reinforcement of competencies such as technological competence. garcía, basilotta, and lópez (2013) state that collaborative learning methods involve group work among students, and therefore, they help each other to work together to reach the same objective. this also lets us consider the activities from different perspectives and create an environment where students can practice their social abilities and leadership. moreover, it is said that information and communication technology offers the possibility of social intervention to open collaborative environments which allow students to execute the activities planned. a survey was applied as the last instrument of data collection. questions were written in english and students kept the same language while answering them. it helped to support the empathy students experienced by working collaboratively and it provide them confidence and scaffold motivation; the last question was about how different english classes were after using technology to deliver the assignments. excerpts no. 6, 7 and 8 demonstrate that the use of technology increases students’ motivation. excerpt no. 6 ¨rarely we use virtual learning tools because we spend more time reading, english is difficult and technology helps increase interest.[sic]¨ (survey, question # 3, october, 04, 2017) excerpt no. 7 ¨is motivating the use of computational resources in english learning [sic]¨ (survey, question # 3, october, 04, 2017) excerpt no. 8 ¨the virtual tools facilitate the classwork because helps understanding of the topics [sic]¨ (survey, question # 3, october, 04, 2017) hence, it can be affirmed that once an activity is set, it is crucial that the group supports it, considering that it can possess complexity, motivation in english language use and technology rivera no. 16 (january june, 2018) no. 16 (janaury june, 2018) 131 and given its nature, it may require the whole group to work together to achieve the same purpose. on the other hand, it is evident the use of language in students’ writings; the online tools became an excuse to make students learn vocabulary about their program and reinforce grammar structures. importantly, group work took students into a discussion about current environmental problems, what can be considered as a meaningful learning. category 2: the use of technology to enhance language learning the teacher-researcher concludes from the collected data that ict use plays an important role for language learning, given that technology is a source of motivation that helps to capture the interest of students and support learning through teaching. it definitely provides a space to negotiate learning and scaffold language through reading and writing. about the benefits that the technology offers inside the classroom, gordon, wesley, grites (2011) comment that technology is a potential means of producing a positive attitude towards learning. thereby, apart from the emotion that managing a virtual tool can elicit, substantial interest is added, which takes us to new academic experiences; additionally, the teacher needs to know how to manage the online tools they propose, in case the students become confused. therefore, the resources must be carefully chosen in order to suit a particular teaching situation and to meet the specific needs of students. technology also lets teachers provide a significant context for the communicative activities and, in this way, involve students through real and authentic experiences, which favor motivation and the learning process. in the following sample, the development of the second activity is evidenced. it was suggested to use mind 42, because last time students took a lot of time trying to decide what online tool they could employ; therefore, this tool let students create mind maps and was simple to use and fast to learn. they read about cybercrime, types of cybercrime, causes, history, and summarize the information to share it online motivation in english language use and technology rivera no. 16 (january june, 2018) no. 16 (janaury june, 2018) 132 figure 2. students’ artifacts unlike activity # 1, this online resource was considered easier to handle since there are only a few options to create a mind map offered by mind 42. when using this tool, students felt comfortable because they learnt, for example, how to upload an image or delete it in case they wanted to change it. motivation was displayed while developing the assignment because students could master the online resource. however, the teacher’s support helped to solve doubts. based on becta’s ict research network (2003), it is evidenced that ict has a positive effect on students’ learning and strengthens their feelings of responsibility towards their established assignments. likewise, ict boosts independence and motivation for the self-directed learning which allows the teacher to maximize students’ self-confidence and explore new opportunities to improve their pedagogical practice, particularly in the creation of more stimulating and pleasant lessons. once participants did their mind maps, they had to share the link and describe briefly whether the chosen tool was appealing and interesting to know the perceptions and support the idea that ict is convenient for pedagogical practice. the activities planned provided the opportunity to put into practice, students’ writing and reading skills to foster the foreign language. based on the above mentioned, one of the perceptions gained by one of the groups was the following: motivation in english language use and technology rivera no. 16 (january june, 2018) no. 16 (janaury june, 2018) 133 excerpt no. 9 ¨this application is an easy way to understand a text is what your goal, and more importantly shows a specific topic [sic]¨ (forum # 2, september, 18 2017) excerpt no.10 ¨the motivation for using a virtual tool is wanting to make an innovative activity [sic]¨ (forum # 2, september, 18, 2017) excerpt no. 11 ¨the classes were different because one learns to use other learning tools that as a group were unknown, what contributes to the learning of students [sic]¨ (survey, question # 3, october, 04, 2017) considering the previous samples, the members of the groups had a highly positive response when using technology; it is noticeable that students also cared about the content of the assignment by highlighting the importance of understanding it. therefore, it demonstrates that students are fostering the language by using ict and raising interest in developing their other skills and that is why it is fundamental to explore other learning environments which might help teachers. based on harmer (2001), motivation is essential for success; accordingly it is fulfilled in the execution of the second activity because students were not as blank as in the first activity; moreover, their success could not be achieved without working in groups where they had the chance to combine their strengths and learn from one another, bearing in mind that a student can have different abilities in the same area. subsequently, excerpt 12 evidences students’ change of, considering they did not look confused, but sure, while using the online resource. motivation in english language use and technology rivera no. 16 (january june, 2018) no. 16 (janaury june, 2018) 134 excerpt no. 12 t: ¨in the planned activity for today class, students show a more trustful attitude towards the new online tool set to work on unit 2 that is about cybercrime… some groups start asking how to insert a node or images and once the teacher gets closer they seem to have the solution…: [sic] (teacher’s diary, august, 30, 2017) it is demonstrated in the use of the online resource taking into account students’ attitude and skills to solve doubts and understand how to include or delete information. lastly, the results of the first two questions stated in the third research instrument are exposed, which contributed to the data analysis. is it important to include ict in english language classes? figure 3. survey results, question # 1 based on the first question, it is clear that for the 18 surveyed students more than 50% of them consider the incorporation of ict in english class to be very important. this once again demonstrates the positive impact that ict has on the academic performance of a large number of students and the justification for this second category. on the other hand, the 18% of the participants considered the implementation of ict in english classes to be important; they also noticed the pertinence of changing the way in which classes are delivered. bearing in mind the results and considering the context in which this strategy was applied, it is possible to muse on the idea of adopting ict in different language levels. in that regard, frydrychova (2014) mentions that languages teachers try to employ ict in their teaching to make a motivation in english language use and technology rivera no. 16 (january june, 2018) no. 16 (janaury june, 2018) 135 more effective and motivating learning process, that is why he suggests using several web sites to strengthen the different language skills; to keep communication with native or non-native speakers through the use of e-mail, skype, chat, or other web applications and the creation of an online course. additionally, analyzing the answers of the second question: do english language classes change when implementing ict?, all participants are leaning towards a positive attitude, which makes it evident that if one decides to opt for another teaching strategy, the teacher can captivate students in their subject. from the results, the participants’ satisfaction after incorporating technology to boost english language learning is 100%. there were no negative responses. this could imply that students felt motivated and knew that using technology to learn english is at least not a negative change and the classes would definitely change, some of the explanations given by the participants in this same question are revealed. excerpt no. 13 ¨se hace un poco más fácil el aprendizaje y hay mayor acceso a herramientas que contribuyen al enriquecimiento por ejemplo del vocabulario [sic]¨ (survey, question # 2, october, 04, 2017) by using ict, learning seems easier and there is a wider access to online tools which contribute to motivate language enrichment for example regarding vocabulary. excerpt no. 14 ¨si porque las tic brindan nuevos métodos para aprender el idioma, para los estudiantes es una herramienta dinámica y permite una nueva relación entre los estudiantes y el profesor [sic]¨ (survey, question # 2, october, 04 2017) yes, because ict provide new methods to learn a language; for students ict is a dynamic tool which allow a new relationship among students and the teacher. after analyzing excerpts 13 and 14, it can be said there is an interest for the inclusion of new information and communication technologies as a didactic and pedagogical strategy. motivation in english language use and technology rivera no. 16 (january june, 2018) no. 16 (janaury june, 2018) 136 technology permits the development of technological competencies, which allows students to be prepared for the challenges of the modern world; likewise, it helps with the acquisition of vocabulary when the students are performing a given task and increases motivation through the use of technology, providing learning opportunities for the practice of a language. this could indicate that if most of the students have positive attitudes towards ict, the rest could be affected and develop a more positive attitude towards ict. conclusion based on data collection instruments, it is identified that ict motivated students to work collaboratively and they could also foster their language skills through the use if vocabulary related to their program.. when there is commitment to learn and develop an activity, it is because students show a different attitude while developing class activities. technology has made teachers reflect about how to increase students’ interest and how to focus their attention; so, throughout discussions and negotiations students can scaffold their learning and foster critical thinking skills. consequently, the context where learning takes place must be considered bearing in mind the type of learners we have in the classrooms. to boost lifelong learning, and considering students were about to finish their major, i considered that it was important and appropriate to show them how they could keep developing their technological competence by being familiar with some online tools. besides this, it was important that the teacher involved students in activities that caught their attention to empower them in their learning process. the teacher, as a part of any learning process, supports their students to make sure they build their own knowledge, promote autonomy, initiative and creativity. then, in this case, the students were invited to become involved in their own learning process by keeping an active dialogue with the different groups which enhanced collaborative work and fostered language learning. collaborative work was evidenced when the different groups shared their knowledge about the use of the online resources, found new information about the topic proposed in class, but most importantly, strove hard to achieve the same goal, which was to present their final product. subsequently, learning was reinforced through social motivation in english language use and technology rivera no. 16 (january june, 2018) no. 16 (janaury june, 2018) 137 interaction, which had a positive effect while exchanging meaningful experiences. based on the data analysis it is also recognizable that there is a lot to understand about the mixed environments that strengthen not only the foreign language but the use of technology in the learning and teaching practice. in this manner, it can be affirmed that the integration of a foreign language and technology can be generated if they are inside the contents of the area considering the creation of mixed courses through the use of technology leads to an increase in the interest towards learning and reinforces, as in this case, a language as english. motivation in english language use and technology rivera no. 16 (january june, 2018) no. 16 (janaury june, 2018) 138 references azmi, n. 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(ed.). multimedia language teaching (pp. 3-20). tokyo: logos international. retrieved from http://www. ict4lt.org/en/warschauer.htm author *adriana maritza rivera barreto is phd student at universidad pedagógica y tecnológica de colombia, she holds an ma in english language teaching autonomous learning environments from universidad de la sabana and a ma in elearning from universidad camilo josé cela. currently, she is a full time english teacher – researcher at universidad santo tomás – tunja. motivation in english language use and technology no. 16 (january june, 2018) no. 16 (janaury june, 2018) 107 exploring english language teaching in an ecuadorian urban secondary institution1 explorando la enseñanza del idioma inglés en una institución secundaria urbana ecuatoriana ximena burgin and mayra daniel2* northern illinois university abstract this article presents a case study focused on the pedagogy of nine english language teachers’ pedagogy in ecuador. the significance of this study is its potential to inform practitioners, teacher educators, and policymakers in countries where teachers need to be prepared to teach in multilingual settings, such as ecuador. data analyses of nine observations of practicing teachers seems to suggest the curriculum used to prepare english teachers does not fully meet the educational needs of teachers or students. observations of secondary level english teachers were conducted using the classroom observation checklist (2010). this instrument is useful to analyze teachers’ delivery of content, lesson organization, classroom interactions, verbal and non-verbal communication in the classroom, and integration of media during instruction. one major theme emerged from data analyses; english language teaching appears to follow teaching as a foreign language paradigm. the validation of the results of this exploratory study through the participation of a larger sample size of classroom teachers would be important to provide a more robust conclusion regarding teaching diverse student populations. key words: teacher preparation, multilingual students, multilingual educational context, english language teaching 1 received: june 23, 2016/accepted: april, 25, 2017 2 xrecald1@niu.edu/mayra.daniel@gmail.com the logic of sense as an orientation for learning gist education and learning research journal. issn 1692-5777. no.14. (january june) 2017. pp. 107-134. no. 14 (january june 2017) no. 14 (january june 2017) 108 resumen este artículo presenta una investigación exploratoria que examina la pedagogía de nueve maestros de inglés en ecuador. este estudio ofrece posibilidades para informar a maestros, profesores, y líderes gubernamentales en países multilingües como ecuador. se utilizó la escala de observación (2010) para observar a nueve maestros. este instrumento facilita la observación de la pedagogía en la práctica dividiendo lo observado en cinco categorías: la forma de presentar el contenido de las lecciones, la organización de las lecciones, las interacciones en el aula, la comunicación verbal y no verbal, y el uso de la tecnología como parte integra de la instrucción. el tema principal que emerge del análisis de las observaciones es que la enseñanza del inglés en ecuador refleja la pedagogía del aprendizaje de un idioma como lengua extranjera. en el futuro, validar los resultados de este estudio exploratorio con un mayor número de participantes sería importante para proporcionar conclusiones más sólidas sobre la enseñanza de estudiantes en ecuador. palabras clave: preparación de maestros, estudiantes multilingües, contextos educacionales multilingües, enseñanza del inglés resumo este artigo apresenta uma pesquisa exploratória que examina a pedagogia de nove mestres de inglês no equador. este estudo oferece possibilidades para informar a mestres, professores e líderes governamentais em países multilíngues, como o equador. foi utilizada a escala de observação (2010) para observar a nove mestres. este instrumento facilita a observação da pedagogia na prática, dividindo o observado em cinco categorias: a forma de apresentar o conteúdo das lições, a organização das lições, as interações na sala de aula, a comunicação verbal e não verbal, e o uso da tecnologia como parte integral da instrução. o tema principal que emerge da análise das observações é que o ensino do inglês no equador reflete a pedagogia da aprendizagem de um idioma como língua estrangeira. no futuro, validar os resultados deste estudo exploratório com um número maior de participantes, seria importante para proporcionar conclusões mais sólidas sobre o ensino de estudantes no equador. palavras chave: preparação de mestres, estudantes multilíngues, contextos educacionais multilíngues, ensino do inglês, exploring english language teaching in ecuador burgin & daniel no. 14 (january june 2017) no. 14 (january june 2017) 109 introduction this case study of nine english language teachers in ecuador offers future english language educators insights into effective instructional practices in multilingual and multicultural contexts. in ecuador, many learners grow up speaking an indigenous tongue at home and in their communities, studying in spanish at school, and even english since the current curriculum includes its study as an additional language at many levels (malik, esaki-smith, lee & ngan, 2015). most ecuadorians might therefore be considered multilingual speakers because, first, they are expected to achieve literacy in the dominant language of their society, spanish, and many speak the indigenous languages of their communities (ethnologue, 2016). indigenous languages merit validation because they provide links to the cultures of the past and knowledge of these facilitate communication in the present. english language teaching (elt) introduces students to the cultures of the english-speaking world, and is the foreign language of choice in ecuador. thus, ecuadorian language educators face numerous challenges in addressing the different educational needs of the learners in their classes. three teacher educators whose work focuses on the preparation of teachers to work with culturally and linguistically diverse students collaborated on the research reported in this article. two of the researchers are native speakers of spanish, and all are highly proficient in this language. one researcher was born in ecuador and completed an undergraduate engineering degree. another, a native of cuba, attended elementary school up to the sixth grade in her country. she is a spanishenglish-french trilingual speaker. the third investigator completed a master’s degree in mexico. an experienced english language teacher who resides in ecuador was invited to mediate the collaboration across both countries, ecuador and the united states (u.s.). she became the main contact who helped organize the logistics to implement the study in ecuador. data gathered in this investigation is relevant for educators in diverse educational environments. this case study impacts practical issues, including the design of teacher preparation programs tailored for educators who work in multilingual communities. drawing from qualitative data, including teacher observations and open-ended questions, this work aims to uncover what teachers need to gain in teacher preparation programs. based on findings limited by the context and the number of participants, recommendations are suggested for future research and dialogue focused on identifying what tertiary program curricula is needed to prepare english language educators to work in diverse contexts. exploring english language teaching in ecuador burgin & daniel no. 14 (january june 2017) no. 14 (january june 2017) 110 this study began with an informal conversation related to recent and significant educational reforms occurring in ecuador, a multilingual context for language teaching and learning. the research team explored the implications of government issued educational reforms on teachers that addressed literacy such as ecuador’s national plan of good living and the ten year education plan discussed by van damme, aguerrondo, burgos & campos (2013) and gallegos (2008). they consulted the organic bilingual law decree 1241/ reglamento general a la ley orgánica de educación intercultural decreto no. 1241 (2012) which guaranteed free public education to all learners through the high school years, including provision of books. they examined federal mandates per ecuador’s constitution (2011), and considered governmental mandates aimed at raising the level of english proficiency for the country’s future citizens (gordon, 2015). ecuador’s leaders are evidencing a systemic effort to raise the levels of literacy (organic law, 2012) and also to add effective models of elt across the curriculum (gallegos, 2008). the constitution decreed that “it is the right of every person to engage in inter-personal inter-cultural communications in all dimensions.” (constitución de la república del ecuador, 2011). ecuador’s ministry of education reported that between the years 2010 to 2011, a total of 171, 970 teachers took part in at least one professional development course (van damme, aguerrondo, burgos & campos, 2013). these efforts aimed to improve both teachers’ pedagogy and their english language proficiency through professional development offered in ecuador and at select universities in the u.s. (ambrecht, 2014). with support from the u.s. embassy a modified version of the tesol standards was developed for the ecuadorian context (serrano, et al., 2015) and models of teacher preparation were aligned to the standards for preparing teacher professionals set forth by the teachers to speakers of other languages organization (tesol) (2009), an international evaluative body for tertiary teacher preparation programs. the research team discussed the role of multicultural and multilingual factors in the ecuadorian educational context, both at the tertiary level and at pre-k-12. the overarching goal of this study was to examine the pedagogy being implemented in english language classrooms. in order to begin to explore this objective, we conducted formal observations of nine practicing teachers in classes focused on english instruction. participating teachers were also asked two openended questions focused on (1) how they adjust their literacy/reading strategy instruction for bilingual students and, (2) what they do to create a welcoming classroom environment that validates the multiculturalism exploring english language teaching in ecuador burgin & daniel no. 14 (january june 2017) no. 14 (january june 2017) 111 of ecuador’s demographic. this study was guided by the following research question: what philosophies of elt undergird participants’ practice? literature review language diversity in ecuador considering ecuador’s linguistic and cultural diversity is key to offering an equitable education to all students (constitución de la república del ecuador, 2011). students who come to school with mastery of indigenous languages and are better able to express their thoughts in their home language rather than in spanish, the dominant language of society, cannot be expected to learn through a tongue they do not know (daniel & burgin, 2016: garcía & wei, 2014; bialystok, 2011; grosjean, 2008; cummins, 1991). ecuador ‘s diversity is evident in its demographic. it is a latin american nation where many citizens are multilingual speakers of the country’s official language, spanish, and an indigenous language. chisaguano (2006) documented 13 indigenous languages spoken in ecuador, the newspaper el tiempo (2015) identified 14, and ethnologue (2016), a reliable source of information for world languages, traces 25 individual indigenous languages for the country with 24 in the category of living languages, and 21 categorized as indigenous. these facts require consideration in the schoolhouse. rationale for exploring english language education in ecuador ecuador’s leaders espouse visions of equity and multiliteracy for its citizens. the country is engaged in a process to advance its educational system and develop teachers’ expertise to serve multilingual populations (cariola-huerta, 2015; constitución de la república de ecuador 2008, 2011; cevallos-estareda & bramwell, 2015). curricular requirements for k-12 students in the year 2015 added english language instruction (cevallos-estaredas & bramwell, 2015; malik, esaki-smith, lee & ngan, 2015). english is now taught as part of the elementary curriculum at public and private schools; beginning at age 5 (initial 2nd level) in private schools and in the 8th grade in public school settings (cevallos-estarellas & bramwell, 2015). in order to begin to frame elt in ecuador it is important to analyze what participating ecuadorian teachers’ instructional paradigms reveal to be their challenges as they plan and deliver english language exploring english language teaching in ecuador burgin & daniel no. 14 (january june 2017) no. 14 (january june 2017) 112 instruction. no one could argue that methodological approaches to elt delineate and control teachers’ instructional methods. teachers’ pedagogical knowledge base and what they were taught is effective practice directly impacts learners’ academic achievement. without a doubt, a consideration of equity and social justice are an integral part of effective elt (daniel, 2016a: freire & macedo, 2005: vygotsky, 1986; atkinson, 1997). this study’s theoretical framework considers what the professional literature suggests equates to best practice for elt (daniel, 2016b; choi & morrison, 2014; coleman & goldenberg, 2010; brisk, 2008; hornberger, 2002) while emphasizing the sociocultural context of learning (gonzález, moll, & amanti, 2005). this case study is based on an exploration of the philosophies underlying elt instructional methods as evidenced in practicing teachers’ work in ecuador. we asked if educators in ecuador are encouraged to “…adopt a conceptualization of integration of language practices in “…the person of the learner” as they plan instruction that makes it possible for “… bilinguals to enter into a text that is encoded through language practices with which they are not quite familiar,,” and “..to truly show what they know..” (garcia & wei, 2014, p. 80). this study examining elt in ecuador offers an initial glimpse to how current reforms are changing this nation’s educational system. gallegos (2008) proposes that the requirement of english study for learners up to the high school level is a scaffold to economic success and to building a nation where all citizens have equitable access to life -success. exploring pedagogy in elt through teacher observations and open ended questions seems an appropriate step to document the effects of reforms aimed at ensuring learners in ecuador master english. this research investigates the current study of english as a mandatory part of the curriculum in ecuador’s schools. to date few studies have been conducted solely focused on elt in ecuador (daniel & burgin, 2016: cevallos-estarellas & bramwell, 2015). serrano, vizcaíno, cazco & kuhlman (2015) summarized their findings of what composes a key instructional problem in elt in ecuador. they stated unequivocally that “the majority of english teachers in ecuador have neither the language proficiency nor the methodologies to teach english effectively in the schools” (p. 109). this claim is alarming yet reported and it invites ecuadorian researchers to conduct a deeper analysis of elt in ecuador. exploring english language teaching in ecuador burgin & daniel no. 14 (january june 2017) no. 14 (january june 2017) 113 methodology research design this case study addressed observed components of english language teachers’ practice in ecuador. the overarching question asked what philosophies of english language teaching (elt) undergird participants’ practice? observations of practicing teachers focused on how english language educators: 1. consider the multiculturalism and multilingualism in their society in instructional planning? 2. organize the delivery of their lessons to present content? 3. encourage the direction of student to student and student to teacher classroom interactions? 4. address verbal and non-verbal communication in the classroom context? 5. incorporate current technologies in classroom instruction and student tasks? context/participants the study was performed in a secondary level public institution located in a northern province of ecuador. observations of nine practicing teachers were conducted with each participant observed once for 90 minutes. participant volunteers were invited to participate by the ecuadorian educator who served as the mediator for this research. participants received a consent form indicating that the purpose of the project was to observe classroom teachers and to interview them using open-ended questions focused on factors related to instruction of linguistically and culturally diverse learners (monolinguals and multilingual). six participants were females and three were males. all nine teachers were mestizo. in addition, participants’ teaching experience varied from four to 28 years. data collection instruments this study utilized a classroom checklist to observe teachers’ practices and two open-ended questions to explore the level of multicultural understanding among the participants. the classroom observation checklist, originally written in english (appendix 1) (center for educational innovation, 2010) was modified and translated exploring english language teaching in ecuador burgin & daniel no. 14 (january june 2017) no. 14 (january june 2017) 114 to spanish (appendix 2). after the translation, two additional spanish teachers reviewed the instrument to ensure that the constructs, language, and scale were applicable to the ecuadorian context. the instrument included five categories with a total of 39 items. these are: (1) content – seven items, (2) organization – eight items, (3) interaction – seven items, (4) verbal/non-verbal – 12 items, and (5) use of media – five items. each item was evaluated based on a five-point likert scale (1 = very poor, 2 = weak, 3 = average, 4 = good, 5 = excellent, na = not applicable). in addition, participants were asked the following two open-ended questions: do you adjust your reading strategy instruction/ interventions for bilingual students? and, do you strive to create a multicultural classroom environment? data analysis and interpretation mean, median and frequencies were calculated for each item and by each category of the observation scale (see appendix 3). the two open-ended questions were analyzed individually to determine if there were patterns among the participants’ responses or practices. in addition, the questions were analyzed to decide if the participants’ practices compared to current practices and strategies recommended by the professional literature. results participant responses to two open-ended questions provided a beginning scaffold to understanding elt within a multilingual context and to identify recurrent themes in teachers’ comments. we follow our analysis of the open ended responses with analyses of data gathered in the quantitative analyses of observations conducted using the classroom observation checklist. data analyses of the observations and openended questions from nine participants yielded data that served to paint a picture of elt at the secondary level in one ecuadorian institution and to analyze what the impact of systemic governmental movements and expenditures have been up to this moment in time as acknowledged by the instituto nacional de evaluación educativa (2016). open ended interview questions in this section we discuss findings after examination of responses to the following two open-ended questions asked of the nine participants observed. exploring english language teaching in ecuador burgin & daniel no. 14 (january june 2017) no. 14 (january june 2017) 115 1. in what ways, do you adjust your instruction/ strategies for instruction/interventions for bilingual students? 2. how do you strive to create a multicultural classroom? adjusting english instruction for bilingual students an open-ended question asked the nine participants to share how they modify instruction for bilingual students. four participants indicated that they do not adjust their instruction for bilingual students. out of these four participants, two did not share any information about bilingualism affecting learning. the other two participants indicated that adjusting instruction was necessary. one of them stated that “it is not necessary [to adjust instruction] because our institution is not bilingual.” in addition, one participant commented that students are not interested in learning only interested in being promoted to the next level. the other participant mentioned that “learning is not impacted [by bilingualism] because students are used to the influence of both languages so students apply them based on their needs.” it appears that the participants may not share a common definition of what it means to be a bilingual student or what it takes to reach biliteracy. we wonder if biculturalism is a consideration for ecuadorian teachers or if perhaps the greater focus is on teaching following efl models and the cultural and contextual nuances are not a consideration. while some of the teachers stated they adjust instructional strategies/ interventions for bilingual students in their instruction, the definition they hold of multiculturalism and multilingualism represented by students’ understanding of other cultures and languages is unclear. ecuador is a multilingual nation and one would expect teachers to note this diversity within their student demographic and instructional planning. it is a concern that two of nine teachers shared that they do not adjust the reading strategies they teach nor their implemented instructional interventions for bilingual students, because they do not consider their institutions to be bilingual. creating a multicultural classroom conversations related to the second open-ended question are significant for this case study because six participants did not answer the question and the three teachers who provided responses indicated they make efforts to create a multicultural environment in their own classrooms. one participant stated that “a multicultural classroom exploring english language teaching in ecuador burgin & daniel no. 14 (january june 2017) no. 14 (january june 2017) 116 involves learning about the ideas of great authors that express political, cultural and learning in latin-american and european societies.” another participant indicated that a multicultural classroom is created when “the student uses known vocabulary in home language and then use those words in the language he/she is learning.” a third teacher emphasized that a multicultural classroom can be created when “a needs assessment is performed to diagnose multiculturalism and then the teacher adapts instruction based on the students’ needs.” based on the data collected, we interpret that the participants’ responses suggest that not enough attention is given to this in programs of teacher preparation and/or in professional development. participants’ responses document that their exposure to multiculturalism occurs from studying international literature, subsequent interpretation of ideas in the home language, and through translation of materials from spanish to english. although according to the ministry of education (2017) a total of 15 million hours of professional development were given to teachers between 2014 to 2016, participants in this study did not indicate that professional development about multiculturalism occurred. thus, it would be beneficial to conduct further research with a larger sample to corroborate these findings. analyses of data using the observation scale in this section, we interpret the data gathered using the categories in the classroom observation checklist (center for educational innovation, 2010); manner of presenting content, lesson organization, media use (technology infusion), classroom interactions (leadership roles), and verbal/non-verbal communication. we use mean, median and frequencies to develop the story of elt in the context of this case study. we address three recurrent themes using the foci of the categories of the observation scale: 1. elt in practice 2. leadership roles 3. components not present in lessons elt in practice the focus of lessons was english instruction centered on the language devoid of a focus on contextual factors. learners’ cultural capital and an awareness and consideration of how this facilitates higher levels of comprehension was not observed. six of the teachers exploring english language teaching in ecuador burgin & daniel no. 14 (january june 2017) no. 14 (january june 2017) 117 read a book in class to their students focused on the objectives of the lesson, asked the learners to repeat some words and responded to questions. although three teachers stated they adjust instruction to learners’ cultural background, and this suggests there is an awareness of constructivist perspectives that places teachers and students in the role of collaborators, observational data does not provide evidence of this in practice. the teachers gave students definitions of the meaning of unknown words and did not appear to consider how meaning making could occur during the process of interpreting text. evidence of the philosophy that students will achieve greater comprehension of text when reading the word and the world (freire & macedo, 2005) was not observed. data indicate professional development has not addressed the possibility of teachers and students functioning as co-learners in the classroom. components of teachers’ lessons and organization in our observations, we hoped to establish if the organization and presentation of lessons reflected selection of lesson topics that were “relevant, culturally comprehensible, reflective of the learners’ realities, and not offensive (daniel, 2016b, p. 32). if evident, this would provide evidence that the backgrounds of multilinguals learners are a consideration. three of the nine teachers observed incorporated materials in their lessons aimed at helping students with a multilingual/ multicultural background gain access to lesson topics. we documented many positives in teachers’ instructional design and their efforts to organize and deliver lessons. the teachers observed transitioned effectively from one activity to another, began lessons with a clear intent to capture students’ attention, and demonstrated an ongoing concern that their efforts needed to lead students to understand. their lessons evidenced their ability to scaffold instruction (even if this did not consider learners’ cultural capital), and the ways they summarized their daily lessons at the end of the day addressed what they had covered as they linked the day’s work to past and future lessons. during lessons the teachers effectively held the students’ attention even when curricular materials were not selected keeping in mind students’ cultural capital. the questions that remain relate to whether or not teachers’ expertise has been tweaked to address elt, and if teachers’ professional development has been adequate given the priority that it should receive. observations related to lesson delivery document that the teachers implemented skills based english instruction. they used appropriate exploring english language teaching in ecuador burgin & daniel no. 14 (january june 2017) no. 14 (january june 2017) 118 body movements to illustrate content, made good eye contact with their students, and modeled english well because they spoke the language in a comprehensible manner and did so at an appropriate rate of speech. in contrast to these positives, only four of the teachers appeared aware that language and verbal cues are an important factor in cross/linguistic communication in the classroom. we ask if only instructional components related to elt have been incorporated in teacher preparation. social justice in elt was not a focus in lesson planning. the power that english holds in the world as well as the need to validate indigenous languages was not a part of classroom conversations. pedagogy that would promote greater economic success for all students, including its indigenous, was not a focus in the teachers’ pedagogy. leadership roles in the classroom classroom interactions between the teachers and students were teacher directed. teachers asked questions and students answered. teacher led instruction included asking students to share examples written in english and responding to their questions in order to clarify concepts. the teachers engaged in an ongoing evaluation of students’ comprehension and did not deviate from what appeared to be their lesson plans for the day. teachers were the instructional leader whose word was not questioned by the students. this may have been because classroom activities were limited to questions and answers and/or because teachers may have been teaching exactly as they were taught prior to the mandates of the 2008 constitution (constitución de la república del ecuador, 2011 components missing in lessons the mean, median and frequency values revealed what was present and what was noteworthy due to its absence in elt in ecuador. in this section, we present data from the classroom observation checklist in an interpretation of teachers’ use of current technologies. current technologies it was evident that governmental investments had resulted in the availability of the current technologies in the classrooms. four teachers were observed to use a computer and a projector. no students were assigned tasks that involved using computers. exploring english language teaching in ecuador burgin & daniel no. 14 (january june 2017) no. 14 (january june 2017) 119 conclusions and the future this exploratory case study addressed how nine english language teachers in ecuador address their society’s multilingualism and multiculturalism in their instruction. ecuador’s 2008 and 2011 constitutions proposed far reaching modifications were needed to ensure education was equitably offered to all of its citizens; from young ages to students at the university level (constitución de la república del ecuador, 2011). in this article, we also considered if changes in teacher preparation programs, such as requiring teacher candidates to complete clinical hours, was evidenced in the teachers’ instruction. themes documented in this investigation highlight that practicing teachers need ongoing professional development that will allow them to pass the baton of leadership to their students. we viewed much teacher led instruction with few opportunities for the students to take on the role of leader. we noted the absence of opportunities for students to engage in debates or to present their ideas as most instruction reflected a question and answer format. the teachers welcomed student questions but they were the sole providers of the answers. implementing critical thinking paradigms will require teachers to incorporate more dyadic and small group work in their classroom. this will change the schoolhouse completely because it will introduce the possibility that students, and not just the teacher, will have answers. this research suggests that more time is needed for changed paradigms of instruction to become the norm but that changes have begun. these will support governmental efforts to empower all learners. helping future ecuadorian teachers to critically analyze text as they teach english would empower them and provide a medium for them to voice their ideas. we noted transmission models of education rather than proactive models of advocacy. students are encouraged to ask the teachers questions to clarify their understandings rather than to state and justify their point of view. no observations revealed a focus on empowerment in the pedagogy of the nine observed teachers. this case study data suggests this study’s participants are open to widening their knowledge to the education needs of multicultural/ multilingual students. there appears to be a push for constructivist perspectives in the ecuadorian schoolhouse but more work is needed to help the teachers achieve this goal. teachers need time to explore how to address constitutional mandates and incorporate a thoughtful focus on multicultural communications in the classroom. nevertheless, it is encouraging that professional development is taking teachers in new directions and, in some instances has been guided by a modified exploring english language teaching in ecuador burgin & daniel no. 14 (january june 2017) no. 14 (january june 2017) 120 version of the tesol standards developed for the ecuadorian context (serrano, et al., 2015). observations of teachers suggest elt incorporates classroom tasks such as games, dialogues, group work, and experiential activities based on everyday events. while students are required to memorize songs, translate narratives, and then discuss what they read in english, curricular design does not reflect a teaching philosophy that recognizes the society’s language and cultural diversity. teachers want to begin this process but have not been taught how to more deeply examine the societal context in learning. this research supports teachers’ need for professional development that addresses their english language proficiency and asks them to implement learner-centered pedagogy (serrano, vizcaíno, cazco & kuhlman, 2015). once teachers engage in ongoing models of professional development, it will be essential to collect data to analyze how they experiment and implement revised instructional paradigms. evaluation of students’ outcome data will provide a better understanding of the effectiveness of the interventions implemented. it is important to recognize that the processes of changing educational paradigms is painstaking and a long-term endeavor which requires learning, exploration, and reflection. at this juncture, we wish to ask a few questions of ecuador’s educational leaders. given the massive government funding to improve the schoolhouse, do they note sufficient changes? we were privy to both positive and negative thoughts and perceptions on the part of educators. a teacher commented that “government expenditures have improved the infrastructure in schools. now schools have enough space for students and the number of students per classroom is restricted.” teachers’ comments merit being part of a larger conversation with educational leaders. it is important that teachers know how to improve their pedagogy not only by implementing tools and strategies to address the subject matter, but also using data they themselves gather to draw conclusions that will lead them to develop new instructional approaches. we propose ecuadorian teachers could participate in professional development that places them in the driver’s seat and makes it possible for them to follow educational mandates that validate teachers’ significant role in student academic achievement. we note some possible areas for improvement in the ecuadorian school system that would be effectively addressed if professional development were improved and perhaps guided by more teacher input. we interpret the exploring english language teaching in ecuador burgin & daniel no. 14 (january june 2017) no. 14 (january june 2017) 121 following observations as challenges. first, student examination results are being interpreted to reflect teacher competency when examinations are most likely not designed for assessment of teachers. secondly, teachers may be evaluated for their knowledge of state mandated curriculum and not necessarily on their teaching practices. lastly, teachers are afraid to lose their jobs if they do not do well on their evaluations. we want to encourage educational leaders in ecuador to keep in mind that “learning is enhanced when teachers prepare learners to critically analyze their world. problem-solving pedagogy welcomes learners to co-design new ways of interacting in communities 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(2015). latinoamericanos tienen bajo nivel de inglés y ecuador no es la excepción. diario el comercio. retrieved from www.elcomercio.com/tendencias/ecuador-niveldeingleslatinoamerica-idiomaseducacion.html hornberger, n. h. (2002). multilingual language policies and the continua of biliteracy: an ecological approach. language policy, 1(1), 27–51. instituto de evaluación educativa (2016). resultados educativos, retos hacia la excelencia. retrieved from http://www.evaluacion. gob . ec /wp-con t en t / up loads /down loads /2016 /12 /cie_ resultadoseducativos-retosexcelencia201611301.pdf exploring english language teaching in ecuador burgin & daniel no. 14 (january june 2017) no. 14 (january june 2017) 124 malik, z., esaki-smith, a., lee, t., & ngan, b. (2015). english in ecuador: an examination of policy, perceptions, and influencing factors. england: british council. ministerio de educación (april 20, 2017). expertos educativos analizan los programas de formación docente. retrieved from https:// educacion.gob.ec/expertos-educativos-analizan-los-programas-deformacion-docente/ reglamento general a la ley orgánica de educación intercultural decreto no. 1241 (2012). educación de calidad. retrieved from http://educaciondecalidad.ec/ley-educacion-intercultural-menu/ reglamento-loei-texto.html el tiempo (2015, november 23). en el ecuador se hablan 14 lenguas ancestrales. retrieved from http://www.eltiempo.com.ec/noticias/ ecuador/4/363211/en-el-ecuador-se-hablan-14-lenguas-ancestrales resultados pruebas censales. (2008). retrieved from http:// educacion.gob.ec/wp-content/uploads/downloads/2012/08/ resultadopruebasweb.pdf serrano, m. e.,vizcaíno, c. g., cazco, d., & kuhlman, n. a. (2015). un modelo para restructurar la formación de profesores de inglés en ecuador. gist education and learning research journal, 11(2), 103-117. tesol/ncate teacher standards committee. (2009). standards for the recognition of initial tesol programs in p-12 esl teacher education (2010). alexandria, va.: teachers of english for speakers of other languages. retrieved from http://www.tesol.org van damme, w., aguerrondo, i., burgos, c. c., & campos, m. r. (2013). a story of change: how ecuador seeks to sustain its development agenda through large scale educational reform. paper presented at ukfiet international conference on education and development – education and development post 2015: reflecting, reviewing, re-visioning. oxford, england. vygotsky, l. s. (1986). thought and language. cambridge, ma: mit press. exploring english language teaching in ecuador burgin & daniel no. 14 (january june 2017) no. 14 (january june 2017) 125 authors *ximena d. burgin holds an ed.d in instructional technology and an ms in educational research and evaluation from northern illinois university. her research interests relate to the implementation of research-based methodologies in the classroom to improve students’ academic outcomes. she has developed and evaluated a variety of state and federal programs in k-12 education and adult education, leading her to understand the impact of diverse interventions on academic achievement through the employment of different methodological techniques. she has also taught graduate research classes and she has mentored doctoral students throughout the dissertation process to completion. *mayra c. daniel, professor at northern illinois university in de kalb, il, us, is the bilingual coordinator for the college of education. her work centers on preparing teachers to empower culturally diverse students and their families. she experienced second language acquisition by immersion because at age 10 she and her family fled cuba to escape communism. her parents left their homeland with little money but armed with the benefits that an education provides. her research reflects her belief that all students must receive appropriate instruction to master english in classroom environments that embrace and applaud cultural difference. exploring english language teaching in ecuador burgin & daniel no. 14 (january june 2017) no. 14 (january june 2017) 126 appendix 1 observaciones fecha de la observación: grado: materia: género: m f experiencia en la docencia: años sección i observación del docente de aula escala de clasificación (1= muy pobre, 2 = débil, 3 = promedio, 4 = buena, 5 = excelente, na = no aplicable) contenido las ideas principales son claras y específicas ................ 1 2 3 4 5 na suficiente apoyo para la información ............................ 1 2 3 4 5 na ideas relevantes fueron claras ........................................ 1 2 3 4 5 na pensamiento critico o de orden superior era necesar ..... 1 2 3 4 5 na el instructor relacionó ideas con conocimientos previos ....1 2 3 4 5 na se compartió el significado del vocabulario .................. 1 2 3 4 5 na contenido es modificado de acuerdo a los antecedentes culturales de los estudiantes ..................... 1 2 3 4 5 na organización la introducción capturó la atención de los estudiantes ...... 1 2 3 4 5 na la introducción indicó la organización de la lección .... 1 2 3 4 5 na las transiciones fueron efectivas (con resúmenes claros) .. 1 2 3 4 5 na la lección fue bien organizada ...................................... 1 2 3 4 5 na concluyó resumiendo ideas principales ......................... 1 2 3 4 5 na conectó otras clases anteriores ...................................... 1 2 3 4 5 na conectó con materiales de clases futuras ....................... 1 2 3 4 5 na la organización ayudó a los estudiantes multilingües y multiculturales ........................................ 1 2 3 4 5 na exploring english language teaching in ecuador burgin & daniel no. 14 (january june 2017) no. 14 (january june 2017) 127 interacción preguntas del instructor son a diferentes niveles ........... 1 2 3 4 5 na da suficiente tiempo para las respuestas ........................ 1 2 3 4 5 na los estudiantes pregunta ................................................ 1 2 3 4 5 na comentarios del instructor sobre los trabajos de los estudiantes los ayudan ......................................... 1 2 3 4 5 na instructor incorporó las respuestas de los estudiantes ... 1 2 3 4 5 na hay una buena relación con los estudiantes .................. 1 2 3 4 5 na el profesor fue sensitivo/a con los estudiantes multilingües y multiculturales ..................... 1 2 3 4 5 na verbal/no verbal la explicación fue comprensible ................................... 1 2 3 4 5 na articulación y pronunciación clara ................................ 1 2 3 4 5 na ausencia de pausas verbalizadas (eh, ah, etc.) .............. 1 2 3 4 5 na instructor habló espontáneamente .................................. 1 2 3 4 5 na acento no distrajo los estudiantes .................................. 1 2 3 4 5 na calidad de voz efectiva .................................................. 1 2 3 4 5 na volumen de la voz fue suficiente para ser oído .............. 1 2 3 4 5 na la información fue compartida a velocidad apropiada .. 1 2 3 4 5 na el movimiento del cuerpo y gestos fueron eficaces ....... 1 2 3 4 5 na contacto visual con los estudiantes ............................... 1 2 3 4 5 na confiado y entusiasta ..................................................... 1 2 3 4 5 na uso del lenguaje verbal y no-verbal es entendido por todos los estudiantes con diversos antecedentes culturales y varias lenguas. .......................................... 1 2 3 4 5 na uso de los medios de comunicación contenido expresado fue claro y bien organizado ........ 1 2 3 4 5 na las materias visuales se leen fácilmente ...................... 1 2 3 4 5 na instructor proporciona una guía/manual ....................... 1 2 3 4 5 na instrucción computarizada es eficaz ............................. 1 2 3 4 5 na la tecnología promueve al aprendizaje de los estudiantes multilingües y multiculturales .................... 1 2 3 4 5 na exploring english language teaching in ecuador burgin & daniel no. 14 (january june 2017) no. 14 (january june 2017) 128 sección ii ajusta sus intervenciones/estrategias de lectura para estudiantes bilingües? si no ¿en caso afirmativo, podría darnos un ejemplo? si la respuesta es no, sabe acerca de cómo el desarrollo del aprendizaje de lectura se ve afectada por el bilingüismo? si no sabe cómo creara un aula multicultural? si no ¿en caso afirmativo, podría por favor darnos un ejemplo? sabe cómo usar investigación-acción para ajustar la instrucción en el aula? si no ¿en caso afirmativo, podría por favor darnos un ejemplo? exploring english language teaching in ecuador burgin & daniel no. 14 (january june 2017) no. 14 (january june 2017) 129 appendix 2 classroom observation checklist date of the classroom observation grade: subject: gender: m f how many year as a teacher:: section i classroom teaching observation rating scale (1 = very poor, 2 = weak, 3 = average, 4 = good, 5 = excellent, na = not applicable) content main ideas are clear and specific ................................... 1 2 3 4 5 na sufficient variety in supporting information .................. 1 2 3 4 5 na relevancy of main ideas was clear ................................ 1 2 3 4 5 na higher order thinking was required ............................... 1 2 3 4 5 na instructor related ideas to prior knowledge ................... 1 2 3 4 5 na definitions were given for vocabulary ........................... 1 2 3 4 5 na content modified according to student cultural background ..................................................................... 1 2 3 4 5 na organization introduction captured attention ...................................... 1 2 3 4 5 na introduction stated organization of lecture .................... 1 2 3 4 5 na effective transitions (clear w/summaries) ...................... 1 2 3 4 5 na clear organizational plan ............................................... 1 2 3 4 5 na concluded by summarizing main ideas ......................... 1 2 3 4 5 na reviewed by connecting to previous classes ................. 1 2 3 4 5 na previewed by connecting to future classes .................... 1 2 3 4 5 na organization aided in understanding for multilingual/multicultural students ................................ 1 2 3 4 5 na exploring english language teaching in ecuador burgin & daniel no. 14 (january june 2017) no. 14 (january june 2017) 130 interaction instructor questions at different levels ........................... 1 2 3 4 5 na sufficient wait time ........................................................ 1 2 3 4 5 na students asked questions ................................................ 1 2 3 4 5 na instructor feedback was informative .............................. 1 2 3 4 5 na instructor incorporated student responses ...................... 1 2 3 4 5 na good rapport with students ............................................ 1 2 3 4 5 na instructor was sensitive to language minority status ..... 1 2 3 4 5 na verbal/non-verbal language was understandable ....................................... 1 2 3 4 5 na articulation and pronunciation clear ............................. 1 2 3 4 5 na absence of verbalized pauses (er, ah, etc.) .................... 1 2 3 4 5 na instructor spoke extemporaneously ............................... 1 2 3 4 5 na accent was not distracting ............................................. 1 2 3 4 5 na effective voice quality ................................................... 1 2 3 4 5 na volume sufficient to be heard ........................................ 1 2 3 4 5 na rate of delivery was appropriate ................................... 1 2 3 4 5 na effective body movement and gestures ......................... 1 2 3 4 5 na eye contact with students .............................................. 1 2 3 4 5 na confident & enthusiastic ................................................ 1 2 3 4 5 na use of language and non-verbal cues understood cross-culturally/linguistically ...................... 1 2 3 4 5 na language was appropriate to scaffold multilinguals understanding ........................................... 1 2 3 4 5 na use of media overheads/chalkboard content clear & well organized ........................................................... 1 2 3 4 5 na visual aids can be easily read ....................................... 1 2 3 4 5 na instructor provided an outline/handouts ....................... 1 2 3 4 5 na computerized instruction effective ................................ 1 2 3 4 5 na use of media enhanced learning for multilingual/multicultural learners ................................ 1 2 3 4 5 na exploring english language teaching in ecuador burgin & daniel no. 14 (january june 2017) no. 14 (january june 2017) 131 sección ii do you adjust your reading strategies/interventions for bilingual students? yes no if yes, could you please provide an example? if no, do you know about how reading development is impacted by bilingualism? yes no do you create a multicultural classroom? yes no if yes, could you please provide an example? do you use action research to adjust instruction in the classroom? yes no if yes, could you please provide an example? exploring english language teaching in ecuador burgin & daniel no. 14 (january june 2017) no. 14 (january june 2017) 132 appendix 3: observations of content presentation content md m 5 4 3 2 1 q1. main ideas are clear and specific 5 4.56 7 78% 0 0% 2 22% 0 0% 0 0% q2. sufficient variety in supporting information 5 4.22 6 67% 1 11% 0 0% 2 22% 0 0% q3. relevancy of main ideas was clear 5 4.78 7 78% 2 22% 0 0% 0 0% 0 0% q4. higher order thinking was required 4 3.78 4 44% 2 22% 1 11% 1 11% 1 11% q5. instructor related ideas to prior knowledge 5 4.33 5 56% 3 33% 0 0% 1 11% 0 0% q6. definitions were given for vocabulary 4 4.33 4 44% 4 44% 1 11% 0 0% 0 0% q7. content modified according to student cultural background 3 2.78 3 33% 0 0% 2 22% 0 0% 4 44% 1 = very poor, 2 = weak, 3 = average, 4 = good, 5 = excellent observations of lesson organization organization md m 5 4 3 2 1 q8. introduction captured students attention 5 4.56 7 78% 0 0% 2 22% 0 0% 0 0% q9. introduction stated organization of lecture 5 4.11 5 56% 2 22% 0 0% 2 22% 0 0% q10. effective transitions (clear w/summaries) 5 3.89 5 56% 1 11% 1 11% 1 11% 1 11% q11. clear organizational plan 4 4.33 4 44% 4 44% 1 11% 0 0% 0 0% q12. concluded by summarizing main ideas 5 4.33 6 67% 1 11% 1 11% 1 11% 0 0% q13. reviewed by connecting to previous classes 5 4.11 5 56% 1 11% 2 22% 1 11% 0 0% q14. previewed by connecting to future classes 4 3.22 4 44% 1 11% 0 0% 1 11% 3 33% qin15. organization aided in understanding for multilingual/ multicultural students 2 2.56 2 22% 1 11% 1 11% 1 11% 4 44% 1 = very poor, 2 = weak, 3 = average, 4 = good, 5 = excellent exploring english language teaching in ecuador burgin & daniel no. 14 (january june 2017) no. 14 (january june 2017) 133 observations of classroom interactions interaction md m 5 4 3 2 1 q16. instructor questions at different levels 5 4.33 6 67% 1 11% 1 11% 1 11% 0 0% q17. sufficient wait time for students’ answers 4 3.78 4 44% 1 11% 3 33% 0 0% 1 11% q18. students asked questions 5 3.89 5 56% 1 11% 1 11% 1 11% 1 11% q19. instructor feedback was informative 4 4.00 4 44% 2 22% 2 22% 1 11% 0 0% q20.instructor incorporated student responses 5 4.44 6 67% 1 11% 2 22% 0 0% 0 0% q21. good rapport with students 5 4.78 7 78% 2 22% 0 0% 0 0% 0 0% q22. instructor was sensitive to language minority status 4 3.44 4 44% 1 11% 1 11% 1 11% 2 22% 1 = very poor, 2 = weak, 3 = average, 4 = good, 5 = excellent observations of verbal / non verbal communication verbal/non verbal md m 5 4 3 2 1 q23. language was understandable 5 4.44 5 56% 3 33% 1 11% 0 0% 0 0% q24. articulation and pronunciation clear 5 4.67 7 78% 1 11% 1 11% 0 0% 0 0% q25. absence of verbalized pauses (er, ah, etc.) 4 4.00 4 44% 2 22% 2 22% 1 11% 0 0% q26. instructor spoke extemporaneously 5 4.33 6 67% 1 11% 1 11% 1 11% 0 0% q27. accent was not distracting 5 4.44 6 67% 2 22% 0 0% 1 11% 0 0% q28. effective voice quality 5 4.44 5 56% 3 33% 1 11% 0 0% 0 0% q29. volume sufficient to be heard 5 4.56 7 78% 0 0% 2 22% 0 0% 0 0% q30. rate of delivery was appropriate 5 4.44 5 56% 3 33% 1 11% 0 0% 0 0% exploring english language teaching in ecuador burgin & daniel no. 14 (january june 2017) no. 14 (january june 2017) 134 q31. effective body movement and gestures 5 4.89 8 89% 1 11% 0 0% 0 0% 0 0% q32. eye contact with students 5 4.78 7 78% 2 22% 0 0% 0 0% 0 0% q33. confident & enthusiastic 5 4.33 5 56% 2 22% 2 22% 0 0% 0 0% q34.use of language and non-verbal cues understood cross-culturally/linguistically 4 3.89 4 44% 2 22% 2 22% 0 0% 1 11% 1 = very poor, 2 = weak, 3 = average, 4 = good, 5 = excellent observations of media use use of media for communication md m 5 4 3 2 1 q35. overheads/ chalkboard content clear and well organized 5 4.33 5 56% 2 22% 2 22% 0 0% 0 0% q36. visual aids can be easily read 5 4.11 6 67% 0 0% 1 11% 2 22% 0 0% q37. instructor provided an outline/handouts 5 4.33 5 56% 2 22% 2 22% 0 0% 0 0% q38. computerized instruction effective 3 2.78 2 22% 2 22% 1 11% 0 0% 4 44% q39. use of media enhanced learning for multilingual /multicultural learners 3 3.00 2 22% 2 22% 1 11% 2 22% 2 22% 1 = very poor, 2 = weak, 3 = average, 4 = good, 5 = excellent exploring english language teaching in ecuador no. 14 (january june 2017) no. 14 (january june 2017) 51 using the seminar format to explore pre-service teachers’ argumentative abilities in english as a foreign language1 el uso del seminario socrático como formato para explorar las habilidades argumentativas de futuros docentes de inglés como lengua extranjera pelusa orellana2* universidad de los andes, chile abstract the current study describes the introduction of seminar discussions in a literature course to track students’ growth in argument production across the semester. sixteen students enrolled in a required teacher education course were asked to plan and facilitate a 50-minute seminar discussion on a literary text, following the paideia seminar protocol. the course was taught in english, although the students’ first language was spanish. over the course of the semester, i monitored students’ progress in developing evidence-based coherent arguments and counterarguments. pre-service teachers not only gained expertise as seminar facilitators, but their oral and written responses to seminar issues revealed an increase in more elaborated arguments, use of textual references, counterargument production, and overall sophisticated thinking. keywords: argumentation, teacher education, socratic dialogue, preservice teachers 1 received: dec. 15, 2014 / accepted: april 13, 2015 2 porellan@uandes.cl gist education and learning research journal. issn 1692-5777. no. 10, (january june) 2015. pp. 51-73. design and implementation of an in-service efl model no. 10 (january june 2015) no. 10 (january june 2015) 52 resumen este estudio describe el uso de discusiones socráticas en un curso de literatura en pregrado para hacer un seguimiento a la producción argumentativa de los estudiantes durante el semestre. participaron dieciséis estudiantes de un programa de formación docente, quienes planificaron y lideraron un seminario de discusión de 50 minutos sobre un texto literario siguiendo el formato del seminario paideia. aunque la lengua materna de los estudiantes era el español, el curso de dictó en inglés. durante el curso, se monitoreó el progreso de los estudiantes en relación al desarrollo de argumentos y contraargumentos coherentes. los estudiantes no solo adquirieron experiencia como facilitadores del seminario sino que sus respuestas verbales y escritas a las temáticas discutidas revelaron un aumento en la habilidad para elaborar argumentos más elaborados, uso de referencias textuales, contraargumentos y una reflexión general más sofisticada. palabras clave: argumentación, formación docente, discusión socrática, docentes en formación resumo este estudo descreve o uso de discussões socráticas em um curso de literatura em graduação para fazer um seguimento à produção argumentativa dos estudantes durante o semestre. participaram dezesseis estudantes de um programa de formação docente, os quais planejaram e lideraram um seminário de discussão de 50 minutos sobre um texto literário seguindo o formato do seminário paideia. mesmo que a língua materna dos estudantes fosse o espanhol, o curso de foi ditado em inglês. durante o curso, monitorou-se o progresso dos estudantes em relação ao desenvolvimento de argumentos e contra-argumentos coerentes. os estudantes não só adquiriram experiência como facilitadores do seminário senão que suas respostas verbais e escritas em quanto às temáticas discutidas revelaram um aumento na habilidade para elaborar argumentos mais elaborados, uso de referências textuais, contra-argumentos e uma reflexão geral mais sofisticada. palavras chave: argumentação, formação docente, discussão socrática, docentes em formação using the seminar format orellana no. 10 (january june 2015) no. 10 (january june 2015) 53 introduction argumentation has become a topic of growing interest among researchers over the past 30 years, and a much desired educational objective (van eemeren, grootendorst & snoeck, 1996). students who are able to develop higher cognitive abilities are more likely to perform better in school, pursue secondary education, and have access to better job opportunities (kuhn and udell, 2003; mercer, 2011). recent research has also shown that argumentative abilities can and must be taught. students’ acquisition of these skills is strongly dependent on having opportunities to practice argumentation (gillies & khan, 2009), and on having teachers who model the use of good arguments in the classroom (simon, erduran, and osborne, 2002). however, recent assessments and reports have highlighted the difficulties students show in both identifying and producing arguments (kim, anderson, nguyen-jahiel, & archodidiou, 2007; means & voss, 1996, reznitskaya, anderson, & kuo, 2007). this difficulty has been attributed to the lack of authentic discussion contexts in which students can use argumentative skills. it has been observed that many discussion contexts continue to exhibit traditional recitation formats where no open-ended questions trigger argument production. the absence of actual systematic instruction, scaffolding, and modeling of effective argument construction prevents students from gaining the necessary competences to effectively engage in argumentation (kuhn & udell, 2003; lin, 2012; rojas-drummond & mercer, 2003). research evidence has also pointed out that explicit teaching and monitoring of argumentation skills takes place in late middle school and high school, and is often not addressed in the elementary grades (lazarou, 2009; kuhn, 2011). for example, it has been demonstrated that children can make an opinion and provide reasons for it quite early in their school lives (mccann, 1989), and can provide reasons to back up arguments at around fourth or fifth grade (ferretti, lewis, & andrews-weckerly, 2009). more complex argument-related abilities, such as developing counterarguments may be more challenging and should probably be incorporated later in the curriculum (leitao, 2003; nussbaum & kardash, 2005). we also know from research that teachers tend to replicate instructional practices they were exposed to as students (darlinghammond, 2006). therefore pre-service teachers, who never experienced authentic discussion or explicit argument-building strategies, seldom implement these practices in their own classrooms. the responsibility of ensuring that pre-service teachers develop these abilities and put them to practice is left to teacher education programs, using the seminar format orellana no. 10 (january june 2015) no. 10 (january june 2015) 54 particularly in the area of content knowledge and general pedagogical knowledge (shulman, 1986). one way to make pre-service teachers aware of the need to assist students in acquiring these strategies is creating instances in which they learn to observe and engage in quality arguments, ask questions that trigger discussion and reasoning while at the same time scaffold argument production. seminar discussions are a suitable context for future teachers to engage in argumentation, to understand how to use discussions that foster reflection and divergent thinking, and for instructors to assess the quality of arguments. literature review argumentation and dialogic discussion interest on argumentation stems from the belief that social interaction is the basis for individual thinking (reznitskaya, anderson, mcnurlen, nguyen-jahiel, archodidou, & kim, 2001; cazden, 1988), and from the fact that argumentation is inherently a human activity (voss & van dyke, 2001). proactive citizenship and social interaction are strongly linked to our ability to participate in discussions and debates about issues that affect our lives (walzer, 2004). such participation is enriched and becomes productive when we are capable of building sound and coherent arguments that rely on sensible data, and where argument components are feasible and well supported. an ample body of research indicates that student participation in discussion leads to better argumentation (reznitskaya et al, 2001; chinn, anderson, & waggoner, 2001; kim et al, 2007). it has also been observed that discussion settings facilitate the acquisition of more sophisticated argumentative strategies, as children tend to imitate certain argumentative practices they observe in other learners (anderson, nguyen-jahiel, mcnurlen, archodidou, kim, reznitskaya, tillmans, & gilbert, 2001; nussbaum, 2002; maloney & simon, 2006). unfortunately, dialogic discussion is far from being a habitual practice in many classroom settings (carbonaro & gamoran, 2002). for example, in a study where 48 high school social studies teachers were observed, nystrand, gamoran, and carbonaro (2001) found that up to 90% of total instruction time did not include any discussions. many claim that discussion has been left aside as a result of high-stakes testing requirements and reading programs in which teachers must follow a scripted routine, leaving no space for reflection on texts and their ideas (allington, 2002; noguera & cohen, 2006). on the other using the seminar format orellana no. 10 (january june 2015) no. 10 (january june 2015) 55 hand, teacher educators hold that there also seems to be a need for teachers to experience discussion as a way of teaching and as a way of learning, before they can actually feel confident about using it in their own classrooms (rojas-drummond & zaparta, 2004; pedrosa, silva, moreira, & watts, 2012). one would expect that dialogic discussion instances in the classroom be like windows into students’ thinking processes. such instances help students analyze a topic in a non-threatening environment, and engage in conversations that go beyond literal messages or commonly accepted opinions. researchers have identified the features that characterize such conversational contexts (e.g., nystrand, wu, gamoran, long, & zeiser, 2003; goldstein, crowell, & kuhn, 2009). among these features are: the use of open-ended questions as conversation starters, student control and choice over discussion topic and turn taking, and the complexity and ambiguity of the topic being discussed. examples of conversationrich and cognitively productive contexts are collaborative reasoning, paideia seminars, literature circles, and instructional conversations. a paideia seminar is “a collaborative, intellectual dialogue facilitated with openended questions about a text” (billings & roberts, 2006, p.1). in a paideia seminar, learners collectively explore an artifact (literary document, artwork, musical piece, and math or science problem) and through discussion come to a more elaborate understanding of its meaning. paideia seminars foster dialogue through more complex intellectual questions that often challenge students to go beyond literal meaning, and to build elaborate textual interpretations. active dialogic participation not only leads students to read with understanding and move beyond surface meaning, but most of all, it allows students to think for themselves rather than replicate scripted answers (haroutunian-gordon, 1991; nystrand, gamoran, kachur, & pendergast, 1997). in a paideia seminar, participation and topic control are less restricted, so students can tailor the discussion more freely, while at the same time maintain intellectual rigor by having to provide textual evidence or use prior knowledge as support for their arguments. similarly, in studies about the use of open-ended authentic questions (nystrand et al., 2003; chinn et al., 2001), researchers have observed that the overall quality of discourse increases when teachers use openended questions to guide discussion. theoretically, the frequent use of challenging questions in paideia seminars should increment the production of high quality argumentation because they refer to ambiguous issues, address complex ideas in the text, and often require participants to face them from more than one perspective. when teachers use challenging open-ended questions, using the seminar format orellana no. 10 (january june 2015) no. 10 (january june 2015) 56 it is more likely that divergence of ideas should emerge. it is also more likely that, because not everyone agrees on a given aspect, more complex arguments and counterarguments are created. it seems reasonable to believe that, if the above-mentioned conditions occur in paideia seminars, they should facilitate the development of high quality argumentation. the maieutic frame as a tool to assess argument quantity and quality the maieutic frame is a construct that i have created to describe the structure of the kind of talk that happens when students discuss texts guided by open-ended questions. the maieutic frame outlines the components within a portion of discourse occurring within a paideia seminar discussion. it allows us to divide a seminar discourse transcript into sections that contain those elements that make seminar dialogue maieutic. the notion of maieuticness derives from the socratic idea of using dialogue, and particularly questions, to assist learners in bringing out meaning and understanding. i have borrowed the concept from the socratic method, which is, precisely, maieutic in nature. given that this is a new construct, existing research on classroom discussions about texts can provide a framework that can help us understand the importance of maieutic frames, particularly with regard to how it relates to argumentation. i have also relied on the theory and research about discussion in general because paideia seminars are one form of classroom discussion. although classroom talk and discussions tend to be one of the most widely used pedagogical tools, not all discussions are instances of argument creation. the kinds of conversations that foster argumentation are usually built around open-ended questions that demand the use of textual or external references, and that lead students to interpret and explain ideas using their prior knowledge and experience. these argument-rich conversations exhibit inductive and exploratory talk in which participation is open and not structured by the teacher. what researchers have found out about the associations between classroom discussion and quantity and quality of argumentation is, largely, very similar to what maieutic frames are made of, and to what happens in a paideia seminar. these findings can therefore contribute to interpreting and understanding maieutic frame presence in paideia seminars. maieutic frames make the structure of the kind of talk that unfolds in a paideia seminar visible. in a way, maieutic frames can be a window into students’ thinking, because they allow us to observe how maieutic using the seminar format orellana no. 10 (january june 2015) no. 10 (january june 2015) 57 moments occur, in which students, with the adequate scaffold, can make meaning independently. if such maieutic moments emerge, students will have constructed their own understandings of the text without replicating the teacher’s or the author’s words. a maieutic frame identifies the elements of a seminar that provide the necessary scaffolding for students to construct arguments as they examine a text. for example, maieutic frames may reveal the extent to which students use textual references to explain or interpret a text, or the extent to which prior knowledge is used to make meaning, or understand ideas. similarly, a maieutic frame may show what triggers divergent thinking or new understanding, how disagreements about interpretations are solved or unsolved, or which questions trigger more argumentation building, and which ones do not. by looking at the ways in which maieutic frames unfold, teachers might plan seminars that facilitate the emergence of maieutic moments in which participants, referencing the text and relying on their knowledge and experience, can acquire an enriched understanding collaboratively. knowing which aspects of the seminar to target, teachers can develop challenging questions that will gauge discussion in such a way that dialogue will be divergent and argumentative. methodology research design the study uses using both qualitative and quantitative data and attemps to answer the following questions: 1) is the degree of maieutic frame present associated with quantity and quality of argumentation in a paideia seminar? and 2) as students gain more expertise in paideia seminar facilitation and participation, is there an increase in the quantity and quality of their arguments? context and participants sixteen female pre-service teachers enrolled in a literature course participated in the study. the course is a requirement of the bilingual elementary teaching program at a chilean university. the students’ level of english is intermediate. the course is designed for students to understand the structure of narrative fiction, and to develop critical understandings of various narrative works. for the study, each participant was asked to choose one of the selected readings, to plan and facilitate a 50-minute paideia seminar. pre-service teachers were using the seminar format orellana no. 10 (january june 2015) no. 10 (january june 2015) 58 already familiar with seminar discussions as participants, but not as facilitators, so i taught and modeled seminar planning and facilitation. participants were asked to complete a standard seminar plan format, and i provided feedback on their seminar questions prior to facilitation, as well as immediately following the seminar discussion. at the end of the semester, students were asked to assess the discussions in terms of its impact on their learning and as a teaching strategy to be used by them later as in-service teachers. data collection instruments data consisted of six audio files from six seminar discussion sessions held at different points in time during the semester. it also included individual students’ seminar plans, and seminar mapping for each session. i made sure that the samples represented different moments in time, so as to track the improvement of argumentation throughout the semester. two of the samples correspond to seminars held at the beginning of the course, two were held towards the middle of the semester, and two at the end. discussion texts are a core component of successful paideia seminars. a good text is usually ambiguous and challenging both in terms of content and language. quality literary texts can foster argumentation and dialogic reasoning if they deal with issues that are of participants’ interest, and if these ideas are presented from multiple perspectives. in terms of ideas and values (adler, 1998), the selected short stories deal with the topics of love, human relationships, making choices, and maturity, all of which are typically relevant to young adults. language complexity and richness can also foster argumentation, as it allows for multiple interpretations and connotations. these criteria were used in the selection of the stories that students were required to read and discuss in the current study, with the exception of the greek myth cupid and psyche, which is an anonymous, so the version is an adaptation. data analysis and interpretation transcripts were parsed into statements as units of analysis (whaley, 1981). to determine where each transcript began, i decided that the first statement in the transcript would be the facilitator’s first opening question. the last statement on each transcript was the statement prior to the facilitator’s prompt to close the seminar discussion, or the instructions given to students for their post-seminar activity. using the seminar format orellana no. 10 (january june 2015) no. 10 (january june 2015) 59 coding of maieutic frames. the first step in the coding process was to identify the first open-ended question in the transcript, to signal the beginning of a maieutic frame. questions had to a) initiate a discussion, b) set the stage for topic exploration from various viewpoints, c) have more than one right answer, or, d) add rigor to the discussion. these open-ended questions were labeled “maieutic questions.” next, i examined every statement between each maieutic question, and coded it for the other two maieutic features: 1) elaboration of ideas and 2) inductive and exploratory talk. evidence of elaboration of ideas might include the presence of a. textual references (tr), b. connection across texts (ct), or c. elaboration using prior knowledge or experience (pk). evidence of inductive and exploratory talk included one or more of the following: a. interpretation (in), b. explanation (ex), c. diverging idea (di) or d. new understanding (nu). after statements were coded, i identified the end of a maieutic frame, which was signaled by either a new open-ended question, a change in the discussion topic, or a drastic change in participation structure; for example, if participants who had not spoken before entered the discussion (stubbs, 1983). to be considered a maieutic frame, a frame had to include: 1. an open-ended maieutic question that triggered the discussion, 2. at least one indication of elaboration of ideas (at least one tr, ct, or pk), and 3. at least one evidence of inductive and/or exploratory talk (at least one in, ex, di, or nu). figure 1 summarizes the above-mentioned components. figure 1. components of a maieutic frame. using the seminar format orellana no. 10 (january june 2015) no. 10 (january june 2015) 60 once maieutic frames were identified, they were numbered on a coding sheet. the same procedures were conducted for each transcript. in four of the six seminar transcripts i identified nine maieutic frames, whereas two of the transcripts contained ten frames. the average of frames per transcript is 9.33. coding of argumentation. each transcript was also coded for presence of argumentation. first, i examined every statement in the protocol to determine which ones were claims for possible arguments. a claim could be an assertion, the establishment of a fact, a proposition, or something that the speaker wanted to prove. second, i examined the statements following the claim and coded them as either “data,” “warrant,” “backing,” “qualifier,” “rebuttal,” or null (ø) if they did not fall into any of the categories. a statement was considered data and coded as such if it provided information, facts, or grounds to support the claim (toulmin, 1958). a statement was coded as “warrant” if it functioned as a link between the claim and the data. warrants are hypothetical statements that asserted that there was a reasonable or logical relationship between the claim and the data (toulmin, 1958). a statement functioned as backing and was coded as such if it was an additional assurance to the warrant. a statement was coded as a qualifier if it established conditions under which the claim was supported by the data, or determined the relative strength of an argument. statements that function as qualifiers contain adverbs of degree such as generally, usually, seldom, probably, presumably, etc. finally, a statement was considered a rebuttal and was coded as such, if it was an objection to the claim, or if it presented circumstances under which the claim would not be held true. third, after all statements were coded, i determined the beginning and the end of an argument. the beginning of an argument was marked by the claim that started each argument in a transcript. the end of an argument was marked by a claim that brought about a new argument, i.e., a claim that introduced a new topic, or a rebuttal that initiated a new argument. an argument could also end with a concession of the claim—the acceptance of the argument’s feasibility. fourth, after arguments and their components were identified, they were numbered on the coding sheet. procedures 1 to 4 were conducted for each of the transcripts. coding of quality of argumentation. after each statement in an argument had been labeled according to its function in the discourse, i examined each argument and assigned each of them a quality level, using osborne, erduran, and simon’s (2004) analytical framework for using the seminar format orellana no. 10 (january june 2015) no. 10 (january june 2015) 61 assessing the quality of argumentation. the framework contains five quality levels based on the type and amount of argument components found in each argument. for example, an argument that contained a single claim and a counterclaim, with no additional grounds (data, warrants, backings), would be a level 1 argument in the framework by osborne et al., and would be labeled as such. on the other hand, an argument that contained more than one claim, several ground sources, and more than one rebuttal would be considered a level 5 argument and would be labeled as such. thus, each argument was labeled as level 1, 2, 3, 4, or 5, with 1 being the lowest quality level, and 5 being the highest quality level. table 1 illustrates the coding categories for argumentation. table 1. argumentation coding categories (adapted from osborne, erduran, & simon, 2002) level argument description 1 arguments containing one claim and one counter claim or two simple claims 2 arguments containing more than one claim plus data, warrants or backings, but no rebuttals 3 arguments containing several claims and counter claims with data, warrants or backings and one or more weak rebuttal 4 arguments containing a claim with a clearly identifiable rebuttal, and, but not necessarily, additional claims and counter claims 5 arguments which are extended and contain several rebuttals inter-coder reliabilities were acceptable for transcript parsing into statements, identification of maieutic frames in each transcript, as well as for number of arguments and their quality. on average, each transcript in the current study contained 3.75 arguments per 100 statements, ranging between 2.50 and 5.34 arguments per 100 statements. in terms of quality, the arguments were given an average of 2.70, with values ranging between 2.05 and 3.8. using the seminar format orellana no. 10 (january june 2015) no. 10 (january june 2015) 62 to examine the potential association between number of maieutic frames and quantity and quality of argumentation in each seminar transcript, correlational analyses were conducted. prior to that, data was examined using descriptive analyses. non-parametric correlations (spearman’s rho) were used to determine magnitude and direction of correlations. results as was previously mentioned, on average, seminars contained 9.33 maieutic frames in total, which means that there was, on average, .324 maieutic frames every 100 statements. on the other hand, the average number of arguments per 100 statements was 3.6, with values ranging between 2.50 and 5.34. in order to determine whether the variable distributions and relationships performed in expected ways, descriptive values were analyzed. table 2 displays the means, standard deviations, and values for the selected variables, for each of the six transcripts. table 2. descriptive statistics number of maieutic frames per 100 statements it would be expected that, if students had mastered seminar facilitation at more or less similar levels, and if seminars were of a similar time length, seminar transcripts would exhibit similar number of frames per statements. results show that the number of maieutic frames per 100 statements in the selected transcripts ranged between .32 and .38, with a difference of only .05, so in general, it could be inferred that the number of maieutic frames that emerged in each seminar was fairly similar, and thus transcripts are comparable. using the seminar format orellana no. 10 (january june 2015) no. 10 (january june 2015) 63 on the basis of previous transcript analyses (e.g., author, 2008), a second expectation would be that seminars about more complex texts would elicit more maieutic frames than those where language is less sophisticated and ideas are not as complex. this would be especially true of paideia seminars where authentic texts, such as philosophical or historical documents tend to facilitate the occurrence of cognitively productive talk among participants, because of linguistic sophistication and intellectual challenge (adler, 1984). of the six seminar texts (short stories), “hills like white elephants”, by ernest hemingway, “the secret miracle” by jorge luis borges, “the lady or the tiger?” by frank stockton, and “appointment with love” by s.i. kishor, are all original texts; that is, they are not adapted versions as would be the case of “jack and the beanstalk” and “cupid and psyche.” table 3 displays the selected transcripts, in the order in which they took place during the semester, and the values for each of the variables. it can be observed that, in terms of number of maieutic frames, the seminars with a higher number of frames and number of arguments are “the secret miracle” and “the lady or the tiger?” however, when one looks at argument quality, the highest quality can be observed in the transcripts from “appointment with love” and “the lady or the tiger?” in both cases, that is, seminars with the highest numbers of maieutic frames as well as with the highest argument quality levels, unabridged versions were more productive in terms of number of frames and argument quality. this finding ratifies adler’s belief that quality texts produce quality discussions (adler, 1984; author, 2008). table 3. selected variable distribution for each seminar transcript. associations beween degree of maieutic presence and degree of quantity and quality of argumentation in order to determine the potential associations between number of maieutic frames and quantity and quality of argumentation in each seminar transcript, non-parametric correlational analyses between the using the seminar format orellana no. 10 (january june 2015) no. 10 (january june 2015) 64 three variables were conducted, looking at the rank order of the scores in each variable. for number of maieutic frames per 100 statements and number of arguments per 100 statements the correlation was .873. a highly positive correlation was also observed between argument quality and number of arguments per 100 statements (.624), which seems to indicate that, as the number of arguments increases, so does the quality of such arguments. however, the correlation between argument quality and number of maieutic frames per 100 statements was only .285. post-hoc tests were conducted to confirm that test distribution was normal. to determine whether maieutic frame presence and increase in argument quality were related, we conducted correlational analyses. spearman correlations confirmed the assumption that seminars where more maieutic frames were observed also displayed more arguments per 100 statements, and that the quality of those arguments was of a higher degree than that of arguments in seminars with fewer maieutic frames. this positive relationship can be explored in more detail using examples of how argument quality unfolds in transcripts with more versus those with fewer maieutic frames. the analyses and interpretations allow us to state that presence of more maieutic frames in a seminar discussion is positively associated with increased amount of quantity and quality of argument development on the part of the students. we have also noticed that there also seems to be a positive correlation between text type and argument quantity and quality, and that certain text features, such as their degree of ambiguity and lexical complexity, seem to foster or hinder the rate at which these arguments emerge, as well as their quality. this finding has important implications for preand in-service teachers in terms of choosing more complex texts for classroom discussion, especially if the purpose is to set a terrain fit for the development of higher order thinking skills. the following excerpt from “the lady or the tiger?” is an example of a discussion containing more maieutic frames and more arguments per 100 statements, in which the quality of argumentation is also higher. the excerpts that will be used for the purposes of exemplifying argument quality (both high and low) are all part of one maieutic frame, in which 14 arguments were identified. the number in parentheses following each identified argument indicates the quality assigned to each argument. facilitator: what do you think about the king’s method of administering justice? using the seminar format orellana no. 10 (january june 2015) no. 10 (january june 2015) 65 student 1: i don’t think it was not, i’m not sure if the reading… if it was really clear or not, the trial itself, because how he conveyed it, how he said it, somewhere it said that it could never be wrong so we don’t really know, i mean, if it could never be wrong, then it must be fair. (3) student 2: and also, at that time in history it did’t say what time it was, but there was an arena, maybe people believed more in fate than we do nowadays, so they say it’s up to fate, so for nowadays maybe it’s not fair. so if he says so, he´d open the door. (4) student 3: nowadays i would say it’s not fair because it’s a matter of love, but in those days when people believed more in destiny and being predetermined about what was bound to happen in your life, i believe it was fair because, for them, what was bound to happen would happen. (4) in the previous excerpt, because the story does not provide much specific information regarding the historical and/or sociocultural context of the events, students rely on their knowledge of ways of life and beliefs that people who presumably lived in a semi barbaric period must have had. in this sense, they assume that fate or predetermination might have been a common belief, and that therefore, the characters may have accepted their luck on the basis of predetermination. on the basis of such premise, then, the kings’ ways of administering justice do not seem out of place. students also use textual references to support their views, and tend to agree that the king’s method of administering justice is fair given the context. here students have used their historical background knowledge to interpret the events in the story without getting into the moral dimensions of the dilemma, except for student 6 who later brings in the fact that the trial was not fair because the accused did not have a chance to defend himself: facilitator: i’d like to go back to what the people were saying about is it because it´s right that it’s fair? what do you think? student 4: i have one on the first page, it says, “this was the king’s semi barbaric method of administering justice its perfect fairness is obvious, because the criminal could not know…” student 4: so maybe like student 3 said, in those days, fate was very important, so they believed that the door that the thief would open would be the right one for his fate. (3) facilitator: so here we’re thinking fair equals fate, whatever fate says is fair, and therefore right? student 5: and also if it was wrong, it says that in its perfect fairness the person would not know which door is the one with the lady, so in that using the seminar format orellana no. 10 (january june 2015) no. 10 (january june 2015) 66 sense i think that it could be fair because the supposed criminal doesn´t have a way to cheat the jury. (4) student 4: and yes, then it says the decision of this criminal was not only fair; they, they were positively determined, the guilty person was instantly punished. and (if he was) innocent, he was rewarded of his fault. facilitator: hmm, and how do you think that the king demonstrated he’s a semi barbaric king? student 2: i was impressed by the way that either the idea or the author was to put this opposite of two extremes, like one extreme was to be eaten by a tiger and to die, right? and the other extreme was like happiness with a woman; that´s, i mean, because you may say, sadness or happiness could be on either door, but they compared the exchange and happiness with a woman, even if they were married, so i think that was barbaric also, maybe the personality was like extremist, and i would really think that if (inaudible) i don´t know if anybody else realized that. (5) student 2: and also they are extremes, but if you look at it, since it says in the text that even if the man was married or had children, he would have to marry the girl, so that may also be a punishment, so it’s not always a reward. (4) student 4: you were obliged to what he said, ‘cause nowadays if you, like, the prize you can use it, or if you don’t, you can return it, but if you win the woman you have to marry her, even if one of the two doesn’t want to. (4) the above excerpts are all examples of student reasoning supported by textual references, elaborating on each other’s thinking and extending talk as they explore ideas beyond the literal. it is possible to see that overall argument quality is high and that there is some evidence of looking at issues from more than one viewpoint. the next excerpt was taken from the discussion of “jack and the beanstalk”, the first seminar that the students engaged in. for comparison purposes, we have selected one maieutic frame, which illustrates weak argumentation quality: facilitator: several of you have said that he (jack) was ambitious as a characteristic, right? but, where exactly in the text do you, because, does the narrator really tell us that he was ambitious? all: no student 1: he repeatedly goes up the beanstalk to find more and more… student 1: …to steal things he goes back and then he goes again. it never says, maybe i don’t know he wants to get more money to help his family, using the seminar format orellana no. 10 (january june 2015) no. 10 (january june 2015) 67 or to get the things back from his father. it never gives a reason, so that’s why (2) student 2: all he says is that he´s got the bag of coins. it never says anything else, it never gives a reason, it just says that. (2) while it is true that the text does not literally say that jack was ambitious, in this discussion excerpt we can see students attempting to justify a character trait that is easily drawn from the story text. their choice of trait—ambition—does in fact characterize jack; yet, in trying to explain how this is true for the character, they move between speculation about text meaning, and hypothetical situations. students also tend to bend more towards rather “expected” interpretations of characters’ actions, such as stealing to feed jack’s mother, which prevent participants from moving beyond the text. this conversation feature is also observable in the third discussion session (“cupid and psyche”), a text that, like “jack and the beanstalk”, seemed to be too self-contained and unambiguous and thus prevented discussion from moving into deeper thinking and argumentation. another aspect worth analyzing is the extent to which opportunity to acquire expertise in discussion facilitation plays a key role in the acquisition of such skill. the pre-service teachers in this study showed a significant improvement in their mastery of seminar facilitation, and this was evidenced in their ability to gradually make more sophisticated contributions and seminar questions. they also showed considerable improvement in their seminar participation, both at becoming more expert in finding evidence and presenting it in a convincing way, as well as providing higher-quality rebuttals to build new arguments. in a similar way, one would expect students to improve their argumentative ability as a result of continuous exposure to opportunities to participate in highly intellectual discussions. with careful scaffolding, students should gradually gain the expertise needed to scrutinize texts more critically in order to construct high-quality arguments. along with classroom opportunities, an even greater challenge is to prepare teachers to become skilled facilitators, regardless of the discussion method that is used. preparation implies not just formal understanding about the procedures of any dialogic discussion format, but ideally, a personal experimentation of various ways of doing discussion. unfortunately, few teacher education programs provide preparation in this area, and most teachers become familiar with dialogic approaches to learning after they have spent several years in the profession. using the seminar format orellana no. 10 (january june 2015) no. 10 (january june 2015) 68 conclusions the current study examined the development of argument quantity and quality among pre-service teachers enrolled in a literature course by means of facilitating paideia seminars. results showed that as argument quantity increased so did quality. it was also possible to observe that as students became more experienced participants of seminars, the quality and quantity of argumentation in the seminars also increased. finally, from a more qualitative perspective, we were able to determine that certain text features such as their complexity and ambiguity did, in fact, contribute to the improvement of argument quantity and quality. these results point to the usefulness of seminars as a pedagogical tool to help pre-service teachers develop their own thinking skills and, by acquiring expertise in seminar facilitation, implement this technique with their future students. it is also necessary to acknowledge some of the limitations of the study. first, the small number of seminars included in the analyses prevents us from generalizing findings. second, a larger sample of transcripts from discussions held by pre-service teachers across different programs and/or universities would provide richer results by comparing argument structure, frequency, and quality across different populations. from a practical perspective, another limitation was the fact that of all 16 transcripts only six were used because the audio quality of ten of the recordings did not allow proper transcription. besides establishing the interrelationship between argument quantity, quality, and text complexity, the current study has shown that the maieutic frame as a construct can allow us to examine argumentation from a more quantitative standpoint, and by doing so, to explore how it can be incremented with the proper conditions. by exploring argumentation in discussion segments that are framed by specific features such as the ones that define the maieutic frame, it is possible to identify associations between features and argument components that shape the amount and quantity of arguments in talk. future studies should extend these analyses in ways that help us better understand how thinking can be enriched in discussion settings and how teachers can contribute to its improvement. argumentative skills and the ability to think critically about knowledge and the world are much-desired educational objectives. as can be drawn from evidence, the attainment of these abilities is not solely dependent on curriculum content and material, but especially on the existence of classroom instruction instances that force students to use higher order thinking skills, and the presence of models that using the seminar format orellana no. 10 (january june 2015) no. 10 (january june 2015) 69 exemplify the use of arguments in discourse. teachers can demonstrate the use of quality argument development if they have acquired such skills and if they can identify instances for students to engage in rich argumentative discussions. the dynamic relationship between student thinking, text complexity and rigorous questions is important to note. teacher education programs need to address and encourage argument development among pre-service teachers by making them familiar with instructional techniques and contexts that facilitate argument production, and also by constantly monitoring their participation in argumentative discourse. in the current study, we have shown how, by using paideia seminars for classroom discussion, teachers not only learned to facilitate seminar discussions, but also had the opportunity to improve their argumentative abilities. future teachers learned that argument quality can be tracked and improved by carefully selecting material and planning questions that trigger cognitive conflicts (almasi, 1995). the use of paideia seminars in courses that foster dialogic participation, careful reading and interpretation, can facilitate the development of higher order thinking skills, while at the same time allow teachers to use the maieutic frame as a tool to explore and monitor argument quality. in this way, pre-service teachers learn to understand how argumentative discourse unfolds, how quality arguments can be identified, and how productive discussion contexts can be created. using the seminar format orellana no. 10 (january june 2015) no. 10 (january june 2015) 70 references adler, m. 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(2008). maieutic frame presence and degree of quantity and quality of argumentation in a paideia seminar. unpublished doctoral dissertation. the university of north carolina at chapel hill. osborne, j., erduran, s., and simon, s., (2002). enhancing the quality of argumentation in science classrooms. journal of research in science teaching, 4(10), 994-1020. pedrosa-de-jesús, h., silva, b., moreira, a., & watts, m., (2012). higher education challenges to teach argumentation. higher education, 64(4), 557-571. reznitskaya, a., anderson, r. c., mcnurlen, b., nguyen-jahiel, k., archodidou, a, & kim, s., (2001). influence of oral discussion on written argument. discourse processes, 32(2&3), 155-175. reznitskaya, a., anderson, r., & kuo, l., (2007). teaching and learning argumentation. the elementary school journal, 107(5), 450-472. reznitskaya, a. & anderson, r., (2006). analyzing argumentation in rich, natural contexts. informal logic, 26(2), 175-198. rojas-drummond, s. & mercer, n., (2003). scaffolding the development of effective collaboration and learning. international journal of education, 39, 99-111. rojas-drummond & zaparta, m., (2004). exploratory talk, argumentation and reasoning in mexican primary school children. language and education, 18, 109-117. using the seminar format orellana no. 10 (january june 2015) no. 10 (january june 2015) 73 shulman, l., (1986). paradigms and research programs in the study of teaching. in m. c. wittrock (ed.), handbook of research on teaching. (pp. 3-36 ) new york: macmillan. simon, s., erduran, s., & osborne, j., (2002). enhancing the quality of argumentation in school science education. paper presented at the annual meeting of the national association for research in science teaching, april 7-10, 2002 new orleans, usa. stubbs, m., (1983). discourse analysis. the sociolinguistic analysis of natural language. worcester, u.k.: the university of chicago press. toulmin, s., (1958). the uses of argument. london: cambridge university press. van eemeren, f. h., grootendorst, r. & snoeck henkemans, f. (1996). fundamentals of argumentation theory: a handbook of historical backgrounds and contemporary developments. mahwah, nj: erlbaum. voss, j. f., & van dyke, j. a. (2001). argumentation in psychology: background comments. discourse processes, 32(2&3), 89-111 walzer, m., (2004). politics and passion: toward a more egalitarian liberalism. new haven, ct: yale university press. whaley, j. f., (1981). story grammars and reading instruction. the reading teacher, 34, 762-771. author *pelusa orellana holds a phd in education from the university of north carolina in chapel hill. she has been dean of the school of education for nearly 12 years and currently holds the position as associate dean for research. her areas of research are reading diagnosis, reading assessment and motivation, where she currently works on two grants, one investigating the connection between reading motivation and achievement differences between boys and girls (grades 3-5), and the other determining the norms for reading sub-processes in chilean students based on a reading diagnosis assessment platform she has developed. using the seminar format orellana no. 10 (january june 2015) no. 10 (january june 2015) 12 understanding the interconnectedness between language choices, cultural identity construction and school practices in the life of a latina educator1 sandra patricia mercuri2* university of texas at brownsville, usa abstract this qualitative research looks at the effects that language choices and cultural practices have on identity development in the education of minority students in the united states. it examines the educational journey of irma, a latina educator. through the analysis of interviews with the participant, this paper intends to show the effects of language ideologies on her cultural identity and literacy development. the interviews with this latina educator exemplify how language, cultural identity, and loss change one’s life. they also exemplify the constant struggle of many minority educators working with second language learners of english who have lost and later regained their heritage language and now understand the importance of defining and strengthening their inherent cultural identity. in re-establishing her personal and professional identity, irma contributes to the process of breaking the vicious cycle of cultural deprivation and reproduction of the social structure that has put speakers of a language other than english at a disadvantage in life and in society. in adulthood, irma continues to re-construct her cultural identity, re-define her bilingual position in society, and re-gain her sense of self. keywords: language choice, language ideology, language loss, cultural identity, latino education. resumen este estudio cualitativo se centra en los efectos que causan la elección del idioma y las prácticas culturales en el desarrollo de la identidad en la educación 1 received: august 28th, 2011 / accepted: february 23rd, 2012 2 email: sandra.mercuri@utb.edu gist education and learning research journal. issn 1692-5777. no. 6, november 2012. pp. 12-43 mercuri no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) 13 de los estudiantes pertenecientes a las minorías en los estados unidos. este artículo pretende mostrar los efectos de las ideologías lingüísticas sobre su identidad cultural y el desarrollo de sus habilidades lectoescritoras por medio del análisis de las entrevistas realizadas a una educadora latina, las cuales ejemplifican como la pérdida del idioma y la identidad cultural cambian la vida de una persona. además, se evidencia la constante lucha de muchos educadores de grupos minoritarios de estudiantes de ingles como lengua extranjera que han perdido su lengua materna y con el tiempo la han recuperado y ahora son consientes de la importancia de definir y fortalecer su propia identidad cultural. la experiencia de esta educadora latina contribuye a romper el círculo vicioso de privación cultural y la propagación de la estructura social que ha puesto a los hablantes de una lengua distinta al inglés en una situación de desventaja en la vida y en la sociedad. en la edad adulta, irma continúa reconstruyendo su identidad cultural y redefiniendo su rol en el entorno bilingüe al que pertenece con el propósito de recobrar su sentido de identidad. palabras claves: elección de un idioma, ideologías lingüísticas, pérdida del idioma, identidad cultural, educación latina resumo este estudo qualitativo centra-se nos efeitos que causam a escolha do idioma e as práticas culturais no desenvolvimento da identidade na educação dos estudantes pertencentes às minorias nos estados unidos. este artigo pretende mostrar os efeitos das ideologias linguísticas sobre a sua identidade cultural e o desenvolvimento das suas habilidades de leitura-escritura por meio da análise das entrevistas realizadas a uma educadora latina, as quais exemplificam como a perda do idioma e a identidade cultural mudam a vida de uma pessoa. além do mais, evidencia-se a constante luta de muitos educadores de grupos minoritários de estudantes de inglês como língua estrangeira que perderam sua língua materna e com o tempo recuperaram e agora são conscientes da importância de definir e fortalecer a sua própria identidade cultural. a experiência desta educadora latina contribui a romper o círculo vicioso de privação cultural e a propagação da estrutura social que puseram aos falantes de uma língua distinta ao inglês em uma situação de desvantagem na vida e na sociedade. na idade adulta, irma continua reconstruindo a sua identidade cultural e redefinindo seu papel no entorno bilíngue ao que pertence com o propósito de recobrar seu sentido de identidade. palavras chaves: escolha de um idioma, ideologias linguísticas, perda do idioma, identidade cultural, educação latina mercuri no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) 14 understanding the interrelations of culture, language, and identity is important for all teachers but especially for teachers who work with diverse learners and students who are learning in a second language. a person’s culture is an essential element of their identity. it contributes to their self-image and influences their group identity i.e. the groups to which they feel they inherently belong (bakhtin, 1981). culture reflects the totality of our being, our values, and our beliefs. it is the foundation of each specific ethnic group which inherits their specific values and beliefs from previous generations and will pass them on to subsequent ones. it not only encompasses the external aspects of a person’s life, such as the food they eat, the clothing they wear, what they choose to celebrate and how they choose to do so, but it also influences the intangible aspects such as religious beliefs, the nature of language, as well as the shared values that shape the way a person thinks, behaves, and views the world (monzo & rueda, 2009; nieto 2010). language is intrinsically related to culture. it performs the social function of communication of the group values, beliefs and customs, and fosters feelings of group identity (bakhtin 1981). in other words, language is the medium through which groups preserve their innate cultures and keep their traditions alive. for this reason, it is important that people maintain their culture. research shows that the loss of language means the loss of culture and identity (baker, 2001), and in years past, latino children in the united states have experienced the loss of their first language. even today, they are continuing to lose their first language. in addition to weakening their inherited culture, moving away from their home languages also has significant implications for ells’ cognitive development (gonzalez, 2001). according to garcía, kleifgen, and falchi (2008), in 2001-2002 seventy-seven percent of the english language learner population in the united states was latino and forty-five percent of the latino children attending school were english language learners. garcía et al. also explain that despite the research proving the positive effect of students using their primary language to learn english, instruction in a student’s primary language is used less and less in american education. in the last twenty years, federal education policy has slowly moved away from considering students’ first languages and cultures and has increasingly emphasized an english-only policy for instruction (crawford, 2008). while proficiency in english is critical for successful participation in american society, proficiency in one’s first language is a critical marker of one’s identity and connection to one’s cultural heritage understanding the interconnectedness between language choices, cultural identity, construction and school practices mercuri no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) 15 (smolicz, et.al, 1998). norton (2000) explained that our language is where our sense of self, “our subjectivity” (pp.9), is constructed. by omitting a student’s first language, schools covertly communicate to students that their first language is inappropriate or of no value. this message has a detrimental impact on their sense of identity and the link to their family, and their cultural community is broken (monzó & rueda, 2009). in the long run, denying the value of the native language deprives children of the linguistic and cultural heritage that will help them develop both a strong sense of identity and the cognitive basis for future learning (sánchez, 1999). this paper focuses on the effects that language choices and cultural practices have on identity development in the education of minority students in the united states. it examines the educational journey of irma, a latina educator. through the analysis of interviews with the participant, this paper intends to show the effects of language ideologies on her cultural identity and literacy development. the ideas presented in the following section are central to understanding the relationships between language choices, school practices, and cultural identity construction. defining culture nieto (2010) defines culture as being multi-faceted. nieto outlines seven key characteristics for culture. first, culture is dynamic and always changing. in reality, people select and reject particular elements of culture as they fit in their situational contexts. nieto discusses the concept of surface and deep structure of culture using an example of youth culture. she explains that young people from different backgrounds may share the same taste in music, food, or clothes (surface structure of culture), but they may hold deep values from their own ethnic heritages (deep structure of culture). second, culture is shared and identities and roles fluctuate throughout any given day. cultural identification goes beyond race and ethnicity. people create their own identities based on differences and preferences such as skin color, time of arrival to the country, language use, sexual orientation, and family dynamics, etc. third, authentic cultural knowledge is the product of the context in which it exists and cannot be separated from the daily lives of the individuals. fourth, culture is contextualized by socio-economic factors as well as history and differential access to power. in reality, the dominant group determines what counts as culture and, by establishing itself as the “norm”, makes others automatically become the “culturally deprived and powerless group”. over time those who have been named understanding the interconnectedness between language choices, cultural identity, construction and school practices mercuri no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) 16 as “culturally deprived” began to believe it. bourdieu’s (1986) concept of cultural capital is of importance in this discussion. he defines cultural capital as the acquired tastes, language, and values of the privileged social and cultural class. these are unconsciously learned and are not inherently better, but because they are considered to have more prestige by the dominant group they have higher status. this gives children of white american descent an advantage over minority children when entering the american educational system. fifth, culture is socially constructed through daily interactions and the relationships between existing power structures and society. nieto further explains that “cultures change as a result of the decision that we, cultural agents, make about our traditions, attitudes, behaviors and values” (2010, p. 143). those decisions are shaped by the power relations among the participants in society. sixth, culture is learned through our families and communities. bilingual/bicultural education exemplifies the intent of communities and individuals to keep language and traditions alive through a curriculum that embraces the cultural background of the students, validates their languages, and fosters intercultural tolerance. nevertheless, this has proven to be a very difficult task. finally, culture is dialectical and beyond broad labels such as “good” or “bad”. culture has been changed by historical and social conditions and necessities of the individuals. moreover, cultural beings do not have to embrace all manifestations of a particular culture to be considered in nieto’s terms “an authentic member of the culture” (2010, p. 144). in sum, cultures are conflicted and not without tensions. the following sections discuss the concepts of cultural and social capital and the idea that language is deeply rooted in culture and indivisible from identity. cultural and social capital schools systematically devalue the culture and the language of the students in the subordinate groups. the effect is magnified by the lack of social capital these groups have. bourdieu (bourdieu, 1986) defines cultural capital as the general cultural background, knowledge, and skills passed on from generation to generation including language practices and values. this term is intimately connected to the notion of social capital. social capital is defined as social relationships individuals capitalize on to obtain their goals and solve problems. working class students gain social capital from middle class peers and adults in institutional contexts rich in social & cultural capital (advanced placement classes, extracurricular activities, etc.). the “connections” or close relations between minority students and parents, school understanding the interconnectedness between language choices, cultural identity, construction and school practices mercuri no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) 17 personnel, and peers have played a key role in the socialization process that helps shape a pro-academic identity and facilitates adherence to the educational system’s moral order and ideological foundation (coleman & hoffer, 1987). it also inculcates competencies necessary for literacy development and school success. minority students who are able to develop those types of relationships experience more educational success (stanton salazar, 2004). in addition, language use and equal opportunities to access education determine the type of literacy skills that students develop in schools. schools have a crucial role in mediating the development of literacy and identity of minority language speakers in that they have control over what they teach and how they teach it (including language choice). in other words, becoming literate entails knowing not only the processes but also the symbolic representations of the culture in which individuals are socialized. this creates a place of struggle for second language speakers who try to negotiate literacy skills across cultures. language and cultural identity language and identity are inseparably associated with each other. while language is the medium used by individuals to negotiate a sense of self in different contexts (pierce, 1995; norton, 2000), identity construction is a social and cultural process which is accomplished through discursive practices. therefore, the ability to use a specific language in a specific context influences the development of cultural identity (trechter & bucholtz, 2001) by creating a tension between the discourse of the dominant culture and the discourse of the subculture of second language speakers. in other words, the manner in which language, in this case english, is used determines to which social group individuals are allowed entrance. those who speak english will be admitted to social groups with greater amounts of social and political power than those who do not (fairclough, 2001). when the english language learner’s (ells) first language is devalued and the language of the socially and politically dominant society is imposed on all of the students in schools, the ell’s identity is threatened, and inequitable social relationships between ells and native speakers of the dominant language are produced (pierce, 1995). as cummins (1996) notes, the unequal relation of power between dominant and minority languages can serve to constrain multiple identities that minority language speakers can negotiate at school and in society. moreover, because their culture is devalued and their language is not supported through primary language instruction, many second-language-speakers who attend understanding the interconnectedness between language choices, cultural identity, construction and school practices mercuri no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) 18 american schools experience the pressure of a predominant english only ideology and lose their language and culture altogether (norton, 2000). in sum, the imposition of the predominant english-only ideology and the devaluation of the ell’s language and culture force second language speakers to lose their heritage language and native culture. as a consequence, they fail to develop both a strong sense of identity and the cognitive basis for future learning (sánchez, 1999). bucholtz and hall (2004) characterize language as “the most flexible and pervasive symbolic resource” (p. 369) that is at the center of the cultural reproduction of identity. the cultural identity associated with the politically, economically, and socially dominant western european-american culture is seen as the norm and that to which other social groups in the united states should aspire (martinez, 2006). although it appears innocuous, the dominant western europeanamerican group possesses pervasive and covert power. for example, the english-only ideology is seen as a norm in all public schools and institutions. students are viewed as having adequate knowledge only if they know english. it is also understood that english is the language which should be used in all instructional situations. moreover, in this time of accountability, the results of mandated, standardized assessments are only valued if they are administered in english. these practices not only send the message that other languages and cultures are not valued in schools, but they also limit english language learners’ opportunities for school success (crawford, 2008). from a critical theory perspective, watson-gegeo, and gegeo (1999) explain that language is central to cultural ways of thinking. they argue that “language is essential to identity, authenticity, cultural survival and people’s learning and thinking processes” (p.25). this concept is manifested when english language learners in most american schools must recreate knowledge through a second language, thereby losing their personal cultural identity and their authentication of self. when the link between language, cultural identity, and ways of thinking limit access to knowledge, second-language-learners’ opportunities for literacy development are diminished. language, access to knowledge and literacy practices critical educational theorists explain that the social construction of knowledge refers to the symbolic representation of the world that we create as we interact with others. this knowledge construction is influenced by our culture, the context, and the historical moment in which it happens (mclaren, 2003). following habermas’ (2004) understanding the interconnectedness between language choices, cultural identity, construction and school practices mercuri no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) 19 definition of knowledge, we encounter three different forms: technical, practical, and emancipatory. habermas refers to technical knowledge as the knowledge that can be quantified and measured. it is the knowledge of school used by educators to control students. practical knowledge helps individuals to shape their daily actions in the world through the description and analysis of social situations. the third type of knowledge is the emancipatory knowledge that helps us understand how social relationships are distorted and manipulated by relations of power and privilege (freire 1998; habermas 2004). language, culture, place, and time will influence how individuals construct different types of knowledge of the world based on their interactions with others and shaped by their cultures and languages (mclaren, 2003). students access each of habermas’ form of knowledge through the use of language and literacy skills. when students are denied their primary language and cultural identity at school, they are also denied access to knowledge. moreover, these exclusionary practices diminish their opportunity for literacy development and their future education and personal success (cummins, 2001). literacy in multilingual societies is a very complex concept (schleppegrell & colombi, 2002). schools are providers of literacy and have the power to determine what is considered the appropriate language and literacy practices. when opportunities to become literate are provided only to students of the majority language, students of the minority language are denied access to knowledge, the chance to become literate, and the chance of being successful in schools. in the united states, students are considered to be literate only when they are literate in english. in this context, the entrenched english language ideology puts second-language speakers of english at a disadvantage (martinez, 2006). several researchers have discussed the concept of academic literacy. scarcella (2003) defines literacy as the ability to develop advanced levels of proficiency in the four modes of language: reading, writing, listening, and speaking. academic language not only allows students to explore complex concepts and ideas through advanced reading skills, but also to understand and use those words in spoken and written communication (p.10) in a more advanced manner. the need for academic language has direct implications for teaching and learning. in other words, to grow academically is to use language (reading, writing, speaking, and listening) to explore complex concepts in various contexts, and then to communicate the resulting thoughts and ideas in an appropriate way. for that to be possible, the learner understanding the interconnectedness between language choices, cultural identity, construction and school practices mercuri no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) 20 must have a firm grasp on the language in which the content is written. an “english –only” environment intrinsically puts english language learners at a greater disadvantage in their academic pursuits. gee (2002; 2008) argues that the focus of literacy studies should not be only on language or literacy, but on social practices. his position focuses on the social context in which the literacy event happens and where social and cultural practices intervene to shape the literacy experiences of the students. students from diverse backgrounds need opportunities to negotiate the meaning-making process by participating in the different communities of practices to which they are exposed through their schooling. gee (2002) further elaborates on the relationship between language, identity and discourses by explaining that in the context of institutions such as schools, literacy practices also define identity positions within the context of the school or classroom, such as a high achieving student, an english learner, or a struggling reader. according to gee (2008) individuals have more than one discourse. students’ primary discourse refers to the cultural foundation of the language they speak in everyday life that gives them a sense of self. when this primary discourse of the students is not perceived to be of value in school, it affects the students’ sense of self and their identity development. as students interact with others in different social networks, their primary discourse changes. the discourses that students acquire within institutions like schools are called secondary discourses. for minority students who come to school speaking a language other than english, their primary discourse is usually changed into the institutionalized secondary discourse. when this change happens, disenfranchised students are not given the same opportunities to negotiate their identities (cummins, 2001) and to access knowledge needed to achieve the educational success that more advantaged learners achieve. method the purpose of this study was to collect qualitative data on the effects of an english only language ideology imposed on the cultural identity and literacy development of one hispanic woman. it describes the life struggles of irma, a latina educator who embarks on a journey to regain her lost language and her cultural identity. this study was guided by the following research questions aiming to understand the relationships between language choices, school practices, and cultural identity construction: understanding the interconnectedness between language choices, cultural identity, construction and school practices mercuri no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) 21 1) how did language ideologies affect the school, parents, and the participant’s language choice? 2) how did language choice at school and home affect the participant’s cultural identity development? 3) how did language choices affect the participant’s access to knowledge and literacy development? 4) in what ways, if any, did the participant re-gain her language and cultural heritage? for this study, a group of teachers who attended a program for paraprofessionals and later a teacher education program at a local university was selected as the non-probability sample group (creswell, 2005). in a nonprobability sampling the individuals are selected because they are available, convenient and represent some characteristic the researcher wants to investigate. in this study i wanted to look at how the language ideologies in school and society have shaped their identity development. of the selected group, only three teachers responded to the invitation to participate in this study. from the three respondents, the life and educational experiences of only one participant made her a suitable candidate for the study. the participant, irma, is a native spanish speaker with no academic preparation in spanish. she came to the us from mexico before she was old enough to attend school. she entered kindergarten as a monolingual spanish speaker. she attended school during a period when mexican children were punished for speaking spanish at school. her parents believed that speaking only english could benefit their daughter, so when she started school, although they possessed limited english skills, they only spoke english at home. because she was stripped of her native language both at home and at school, the participant lost most of her ability to communicate effectively in spanish. she began to struggle in school because of her newly situated identity which resulted from being immersed in multiple, unfamiliar discursive practices and being alienated from her primary discourse (gee, 2008). at her school there was no real support for english learners. irma struggled academically throughout her schooling. by junior high she was advised by a counselor to drop out of school, and she did. she married and had children and worked in menial jobs in a packing plant. working at the packing plant made her re-evaluate different aspects of her life. during this time she forced herself to relearn her native language and to finish her ged requirements with hopes to attend understanding the interconnectedness between language choices, cultural identity, construction and school practices mercuri no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) 22 college. eventually, she became a bilingual teacher’s aide. she went back to school and earned her ba degree through a support program for diverse paraprofessionals in the school district. later, she entered a teacher education program that prepared dual language teachers. irma studied spanish at the university and is now able to read and write spanish at a minimal level. based on the work of rubin & rubin (2004) and willis (2004), three in-depth personal interviews were conducted for this study. indepth interviewing allowed irma to explore her perspectives on her language socialization process through her experiences at home and at school. three one-and-a-half hour interviews were conducted during a semester time. interview data was analyzed following the steps of interpretational analysis (gall, gall & borg, 1999; merriam; 1998). first, the database for each interview was created. second, data was divided into meaningful chunks of information and was sorted into heuristic groupings that have something in common and reveal information relevant to the study. in this study, meaningful chunks of information included reference to schooling and cultural and linguistic assimilation, language use and experiences inside and outside the school, language loss and implications for literacy development, and irma’s journey to regain her cultural identity. third, categories were constructed from the interview data. these categorical lenses were used to explain in what ways, if any, the english language ideology had affected and changed irma’s cultural identity and literacy development. the following tables show the categorical lenses used: table 1. english language ideology’s effect on irma’s literacy development school home cultural linguistic implications practices practices assimilation assimilation for literacy debelopment understanding the interconnectedness between language choices, cultural identity, construction and school practices mercuri no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) 23 table 2. english language ideology’s effect on irma’s identity development throughout her life’ events events in irma’s life language loss culture loss intent to regain her cultural identity elementary grades upper grades middle school high school getting married working at the packing plant relearning spanish and ged becoming a paraprofessional going to college earning a ba becoming a bilingual teacher mutual trust between the researcher and the participant was not a concern due to our ongoing relationship though professional development and student teacher placement experiences that i had with this district, especially with irma. this researcher-subject close relationship allowed for the data to be more honest and valid (bryman, 1988). while this is a strength of qualitative research it is also a weakness in that it could lead the researcher into subjectivity (merrian, 1998). in order to avoid subjectivity, i transcribed the interviews, and for reliability purposes, transcripts of the interviews were sent to the interviewee who was invited to correct, comment, or change the information if it was not accurate. then, a research assistant and i read the data one more time to add or revise the themes with irma’s input. each of us worked independently from each other. this procedure allowed for crosschecking the analyses and assured reliability of the findings. it also helped to clarify the findings as pieces of data were organized, coded, and grouped into categories. through reflexivity and by the triangulation of the data, i tried to maintain objectivity. from understanding the interconnectedness between language choices, cultural identity, construction and school practices mercuri no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) 24 the analysis of the data several themes arose. first, i discuss the theme of english language choice by parents and imposed by school as a marker of assimilation. second, irma’s cultural identity struggles are presented. third, the theme of the dynamic between language, access to knowledge and literacy development is examined. lastly, examples of her intent to regain her primary language as a conduit to regain her cultural identity are discussed. this small qualitative research has several limitations. first, the size was too small. in order to make the results generalizable it would need to be done with a larger number of participants who are latino educators. second, as the data was analyzed, several questions arose that were not asked during either of the interviews. these questions would have helped clarify the interviewee’s understanding of culture beyond the concepts of celebration, holidays and heroes. lastly more questions about irma’s struggles in regaining her cultural identity should have been asked to better understand the cultural conflicts that occurred during irma’s identity struggle. findings the research questions that guided this study aimed to understand the relationships between language choices, school practices, and cultural identity construction. the findings show the pervasive impact of language ideology on language choices of minority students. the results represent the effects of language ideology on the cultural identity development of a second-language speaker forced to assimilate because of the norms of the dominant english group (cummins, 2001), the effects of school practices on the literacy development of the participant of the study, and her commitment to regain her language and cultural identity as an adult. english language choice as a marker of linguistic and cultural assimilation the language choices made by irma’s school and her parents during her school years have had consequences for irma’s language, literacy, and identity development. schools’ language choice several examples of the negative effects of the english-only movement arose from the data related to the discourse practices of understanding the interconnectedness between language choices, cultural identity, construction and school practices mercuri no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) 25 national language standardization which supported the exclusion of primary language use at school in favor of english instruction. irma explained: instruction was all in english, and once i forgot that spanish that i brought with me in kindergarten, that it happened right away (barely audible), everything was english at school and at home (sad voice). it is clear that irma’s school supported an english-only policy, and the primary language and culture of minority students were not valued. her comment exemplifies monzó, rueda, (2009) and sánchez’s (1999) positions on the effects of school denials of primary language services and demonstrates that the pervasive language ideology that fosters the reproduction of the social structure in public institutions such as schools has a devastating effect on students’ second language and identity development. moreover, the fact that irma assimilated to the mainstream, losing her primary method of discourse, also supports gee’s (2008) discussion on devaluing and replacing primary language discourse with secondary discourses which are more widely accepted by the mainstream. irma reported the challenge she faced during her elementary school years: i started school only speaking spanish, umhmm, i spoke spanish at home /, i was born and raised in south texas where everyone speaks spanish /, but in those times it was difficult in school \ (barely audible). i never received any support in spanish. everything was done in english \ (sad voice). i have a hard time in school, especially after second grade. i remember my first grade teacher, a hispanic woman /, she punished us if we spoke spanish with other spanish-speaking girls. spanish was considered bad in the school context those days= in my need for learning english i forgot spanish and was never fully literate (participant lowers her head and looks at the floor for a few seconds). as baker (2001) explains, the english language ideology entrenched in the educational system contributed to irma’s language loss by devaluing her first language and establishing english as the marker of success. the loss of her native language forced her to assimilate into the mainstream and abandon most of her connections to her native culture and identity. because language is one marker of cultural identity, stripping irma of her native language created an identity struggle. the loss of her primary, native language had negative consequences for irma’s identity development. understanding the interconnectedness between language choices, cultural identity, construction and school practices mercuri no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) 26 as monzó (2003) explains, the devaluing of the primary language of second language learners forced students like irma to see their culture and language as inferior. for that reason, irma acquired the language and culture preferred by the dominant group, and in doing so, she lost her native language and changed her cultural identity reflecting watson-gegeo & gegeo’s (1999) critical theory perspective. irma’s comments reflect this phenomenon. i remember singing in french in 5th grade. i do not recall what we sang but i remembered been a big fuzz to learn that song in french. i also remember that by 4th or 5th grade i have lost my spanish / \ completely \ and i was in survival mode in english \ . nieto (2010) explains that in cases like irma’s, language is used as power. there is an unequal power distribution between english and minority languages or languages considered of low status (not the case of french) in the united states. it is not uncommon for native spanish children to refuse to speak their primary language once they learn english. the low status of spanish in the united states makes them feel embarrassed to speak it, and they prefer to speak only english (fitts & weisman, 2010). the fact that irma had lost her language by 4th grade and was struggling with english instruction shows that the english language ideology which permeates american schools has negative implications, not only at the emotional level, but at the academic level as well. this puts students like irma at a greater risk for failure in school. it is clear that the subliminal messages that come from the media and the organization of school curriculum illustrate which language is valued in the american society. as monzó and rueda (2009) explain, the effects of language ideology on one’s language practices at school are also reflected in the family’s decision to privilege english over spanish as the language to be spoken at home. parents’ language choice irma’s language and culture loss began when her first language and culture were not validated at her school. this was exacerbated by the pressure mainstream society exercises on minority parents to favor english as the marker of success. in this context, irma’s parents also succumbed to the english-only ideology. the fact that irma and her parents abandoned their language and cultural practices at home in favor of using english in a limited way and practicing the mainstream culture accelerated irma’s primary language loss. irma’s parents understood the value of english in american society and pushed their children to learn understanding the interconnectedness between language choices, cultural identity, construction and school practices mercuri no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) 27 the language that would give them better possibilities for success and less exposure to discrimination. what they did not understand is that they could have kept their language and traditions alive and in doing so would have developed better english skills and a stronger identity as a mexican-american (cummins, 2001). my mother spoke little english but tried her best with me to keep up with the language. my father, on the other hand, spoke better english with an accent but he encouraged me to speak only english / (moving her head from left to right) = you know/. he was / determine / that their kids {(quite and slow) will learn english and be fully mainstream.} my parents wanted us to speak english so they can learn it better, so there was no spanish music, there was no spanish t.v… like many other minority parents, irma’s parents’ goal that their children achieve the american dream made them sacrifice their language and culture in order to conform to the american societal norms. in doing so, they exchanged their heritage for becoming the americans they envisioned but without the privileges that middle class americans have. the lack of primary language literacy affected her development of english literacy and, in return, did not allow her to access the privileges of a middle class education and a position of power in society. irma’s parents’ choice for english did not work as the springboard for social mobility it was envisioned. irma’s parents’ acceptance of the english-only language policy at school and their selection of english as the language to be used at home seem to be the result of prior language discrimination experiences both in school and in society. as irma explained: my dad was a victim of racism. growing up he resisted the culture and the language even, as i told you before he was very “mexican” looking. … (irma covers her face with her hands for a second, takes a deep breath and then starts talking) i remember my father getting very upset when at a restaurant the waitress asked him what he wanted for lunch in spanish /. my father very upset answered her that he did not spoke spanish /, / that lingo / as he used to say and that he was an /american /. later in the interview she provides another example of her father language preference: i remember when i was trying to get into the teaching credential program i was afraid of telling my dad that i was going to be a bilingual teacher. understanding the interconnectedness between language choices, cultural identity, construction and school practices mercuri no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) 28 i had talks with him and he said: “i am proud of you mija, but why don’t you teach in english? it is clear from the last statement that even during irma’s adult life her father continues to demonstrate a belief that english carries a higher social status. this view of english as the language of power and success is shared by many minority parents. in irma’s case, parental denial of primary language happened because they did not perceive the consequences of total english assimilation. minority parents push for english because, as monzó (2003) and nieto (2010) claim, it is the language of power and success. in the following sections i discuss the other themes identifiable from the data. irma’s cultural identity struggle language loss and cultural identity the push for english prevented irma from full participation in both american and mexican cultures and has been a source of identity struggle throughout her adult life. irma’s experiences epitomize norton (2000), trechter, bucholtz (2001), and fairclough’s (2001) ideas on how language use at home and at school shape the development of one’s cultural identity. irma’s parents’ language preference also affirms monzó and rueda’s (2009) claim that the loss of language and cultural practices has detrimental effects on students’ sense of identity and on their connections to their heritage and families: there was no celebrating spanish holidays, it was…. it was.. my family pushed away the mexican side of us [with sadness]. it is sad but we did not keep our traditions alive. we did not listen to ranchera music or used zarapes or other traditional clothing. we never did even the traditional religious stuff. my sister maría did. she married a mexican guy and re-learned all the cooking, music and language traditions at a young age. sanchez’ (1999) concerns about the effects of devaluing the student’s linguistic and cultural heritage on the development of a strong sense of self is clearly shown through irma’s limited access to mainstream education and to full participation in her own culture. after all the years of seeking her cultural identity, irma feels deprived of the experiences of her native language and culture. moreover, this dispossession prevents her from connecting with her traditions, understanding the interconnectedness between language choices, cultural identity, construction and school practices mercuri no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) 29 important family members in her childhood, and the bilingual students she teaches in her adult life. norton (1999) also claims that language doesn’t express identity directly, but indirectly through the use of a specific language by members of a particular group as they interact socially. irma expressed her identity as she tried to maintain her membership with the spanish speaking community and her family by using the limited primary language she was able to maintain: i could understand my mom speaking to me in spanish but i answered to them in english and .. it was strange \ … i remember that i could understand it but as the years went on i couldn’t speak the language…. i forgot everything (firm voice and loud). i remember telling my grandma: “ yo sé español. caballo, casa” and that was it / . i couldn’t hold a conversation, i couldn’t \. it was nothing and. i must have been in the fifth grade when i told my grandmother that. as bucholtz and hall (2004) explain, language is the most flexible and pervasive symbolic resource for the cultural reproduction of identity. the language ideology of english has embedded its power throughout the educational system and has silently forced secondlanguage speakers like irma to adhere to the english norm and to change their cultural identity in the process (fairclough, 2001; norton, 2000). the preference of english in school and at home deprived irma of her cultural identity as a latina and forced her to develop a borderline mainstream identity that validates buscholtz, hall, and norton’s claims. irma as a multi-faceted cultural being the operational definition of culture used in this study comes from nieto’s (2010) idea of culture as being multi-faceted. as i analyzed irma’s responses to the interview questions, several characteristics of culture were identified. first, irma’s culture is dynamic and has changed overtime. her parents rejected her cultural aspects of being mexican at an early age by not using the spanish language at home or listening to traditional music or celebrating their heritage. as an adult, she also rejected certain aspects of culture like her language to fit her situational context, in this case in the context of marriage. i married young too but i married a mexican – american that spoke only english so we continue speaking english at home and our kids were raised monolingual english speakers. understanding the interconnectedness between language choices, cultural identity, construction and school practices mercuri no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) 30 it is important to disclose here that what irma refers to in her culture is what nieto calls surface structure of culture or experiences of food, clothing, language and music. from the analysis of the interviews, there are also manifestations of what nieto calls deep structure of culture, the deep values from her own ethnic heritage. the sa -same teacher that helped me move to more advanced classes came and talked to my father in law about coming back to school pregnant because, = you know = at that time, it was -it was new but they allowed girls that were expecting to go back to school and finish their academic year / , but i was not lucky enough \ , my father in law did not allowed me to go back to school \ . he said to the teacher that the wife needed to stay home and take care of her husband, house, and kids. he also said that i did not need school anymore. = so i raised my kids, three of them, took care of the house, my husband and worked in a packing plant for 18 years, yeah, {18 years (soft voice)} but i never gave up my dream of going back to school some day, yeah, someday \ this analysis reveals that even though irma was linguistically assimilated she has not done so at the deeper level of culture. the respect she demonstrates for the father-in-law’s decision about her role in life and her devotion to her family is a deep cultural aspect of most mexican families (valdés, 1999). while irma seems to only consider culture as experiences related to ethnicity or race, this analysis shows that she has had multiple cultural identifications throughout her life, many of them often conflicting with each other (nieto, 2010). she has a mexican –american cultural identity, but she also is a daughter and a wife. these multiple identities were not manifested equally. her identities as a submissive wife and a respectful daughter were stronger than her mexican-american cultural identity. during her early years she was not able to balance these identities in the same way that she tried later in life. as an adult, she also developed the identities of a student and a bilingual-teacher and embraced her mexican-american identity by re-learning spanish. as is evident from the above, an analysis that goes beyond racial and ethnic grouping captures the realities and complexities of the cultural identities of individuals like irma. another aspect of culture identifiable from the data is that it was created and socially constructed by irma. culture is complex and evolves because human beings apply changes to it through their daily experiences. overtime irma became an agent of change of her own cultural identity. through daily decision-making and interactions with others, she developed spanish as one marker of her cultural being. understanding the interconnectedness between language choices, cultural identity, construction and school practices mercuri no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) 31 i was working at the packing plant and my kids were in high school and my friend … during the last four years at work has been re-teaching me spanish. she also became a student, which in return helped her to gain access to an education that has been denied through schooling in her younger years. so -so we decided to go back to school and get our ged, […] i …well … it was -it was much later than = you know -that i should’ve got it(voice soft like regretting the time that had passed before this accomplishment) = you know… my – (shaking her head ) my dad, he had told me that i could do it so he asked what’s next.. because i haven’t thought of what was next. i have been caught in {difficult to understand from audiotape} but i liked it ... so my dad said so what was next ! well . i guess college? but we had no idea. irma’s cultural identity was always a place of struggle. from teachers who jumped to conclusions regarding her ability to go to college, to her parents’ inability to understand her potential as a bicultural /bilingual individual, and her immediate family’s limited views of her roles in life, this analysis reveals that irma’s identity could be considered hybrid. it implicates the access to power and privileges exhibited in the context in which students like irma live and the social markers that differentiate them from others on a position of power or those belonging to the cultural norm as defined by mainstream society (nieto, 2010). lack of cultural and social capital research shows that learning builds on experience. this is not, however, a human endeavor accessible to all people. the differences students like irma encounter in life are magnified by the opportunities experienced at school (nieto, 2010). this is called cultural capital. bourdieu (1986) explained the concept of cultural capital as the values, behaviors, and cultural identities such as language and ethnicity. there were several examples from the collected data that reflect the lack of cultural capital irma had. this lack put her at a greater disadvantage in educational life. it was only on my own because, uhm…uhm [long pause] my parents were not very well, well read and my mother would always asked me “why are you always reading?” [with emphasis] “go outside and play. i do not know what a book have”. she was not down playing education she did not understand because she has not gone to school and my dad wanted us to get an education but he did not know how to help us. my family was very poor. understanding the interconnectedness between language choices, cultural identity, construction and school practices mercuri no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) 32 students from less privileged backgrounds are placed at a greater disadvantage because their experiences and identities have not prepared them for academic success. moreover, cultural capital cannot be separated from the concept of social capital. social capital is defined as the relationships that enable individuals to have access to power and other forms of privileges that they would not have otherwise (bourdieu, 1986). irma’s trajectory reveals the lack of support of both social and cultural capital. as a younger student, the lack of cultural capital was evident as the parents denied her of her language and cultural manifestations as well as the school system imposition of the english-only ideology for instruction. she experienced the lack of social capital at home: my father always told me: go to college! go to college! / but he never said why or how. he is very proud of me and every time he told us that.. i -but he never told us how (like wondering with sadness) and at least for me, i drop out as a junior in high school but .. even so:: .. none of the counselors at the school ever told me that i needed to go to college. you would have thought that by the time you were a junior you would have though about the sat, when to take it and why. {i did not know any of that (slowing and softening; a very sad memory)}. i didn’t \ . i know {they told me college wasn’t for me soft barely audible)} that i should -that i had aptitude for business, that i should be a secretary -but -the secretary proved them wrong but =um-hmm = anyway … (with resentment). and also at school: i was placed in the non college track even though i always wanted to go to college but = um-hmm = you know… the counselors determine your life for you / (very upset) and i did not have anyone during 9th and 10th grade that would have guided me and prepare me to move to more challenging classes in order to attend college. but in 11th grade i had a teacher that saw something… some potential in me = you know… like i was able to do better that i was doing and she worked with me and was able to move me to more advanced classes in math and science but it was sad to realize that it was already too late to catch up, we, mexicans are -are always catching up but at the end we are always behind \ , it is sad but we need to learn how to make the best of it \ (acceptance of failure by the system). as an adult she also experienced lack of cultural capital: yes! our families accepted the challenge because, um-hmm, = you know, we were not quitting the job or our responsibilities at home, understanding the interconnectedness between language choices, cultural identity, construction and school practices mercuri no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) 33 we were going to study after long hours of work and we were determine to get our ged. on the other hand, she found the support of people that contributed to her social capital and facilitated her professional success later in life. a:::h…a teacher helped my friend …{(slowly remember the steps she took) i just called the college and asked what do i need to do and they said to come} \ and i take a placement test first and i was:: -i asked questions … i am always asking questions / , =you know me (laughs), that’s me and nowadays to help kids (very sad voice) they need to know all this information upfront because not everyone would wanted to ask questions to find out language choices and equal opportunities to access education through social and cultural capital enhance the type of literacy skills that students develop in schools. schools have a crucial role in mediating the development of literacy and identity of minority language speakers in that they have control over what they teach and how they teach it (including language choice). in other words, becoming literate entails knowing not only the processes but also the symbolic representations of the culture in which individuals are socialized. this creates a place of struggle for second language speakers who do not have the necessary social and cultural capital, and who try to negotiate literacy skills across cultures. the dynamic between language, access to knowledge and literacy development in american schools, such as the ones irma attended, knowledge was socially constructed and influenced by the english-only mentality (mclaren, 2003). as an adult, the analysis of her personal and educational trajectory has allowed her to examine the forces of schooling that limited her options and control over her life. moreover, the schools irma attended were aligned with this pervasive language ideology and made decisions on what to instruct and in what language. furthermore, the type of curriculum that english learners receive and the overt emphasis on assimilation puts second-language english speakers like irma at a disadvantage in school and society. it not only deprives them from their cultural identity, but also has long lasting negative effects in their access to knowledge and literacy development. irma struggled throughout her schooling in english until she dropped out of school in the tenth grade. while she was able to read in english, she was not able to do demanding academic content area work. understanding the interconnectedness between language choices, cultural identity, construction and school practices mercuri no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) 34 i always love inquiry and school since i was a little kid but i remember not being able to do the type of work i would like to do or that i knew i was able to do because i could not perform in english as i was expected to (signs of sadness in voice and body language and posture). i did o.k… i think… i did o.k. up to 6th grade / . but in junior and in la high school it was different / . i was placed in remedial reading classes in junior high even though i was in advanced classes in math and was able to do science at grade level (sarcastic intonation) … {(but la high school was difficult … ) quiet and slow – barely audible) {quickening (it was different)}… {(it was different from the beginning) softening} (painful memories). irma’s case supports fairclough’s (2001) claim that the knowledge imparted in school through english perpetuates the unjust power relations among groups in society leaving second-language learners of english like irma behind their native english speaking counterparts. this language and cultural deprivation of minority-language speakers like irma, starts early in their educational experiences and continues to affect them throughout their schooling. in irma’s case, she was placed in lower track classes with a less challenging curriculum and never developed adequate literacy skills in either english or her native language. la high school was difficult. \ it was bad from the beginning. i was placed in the non-college track even though i always wanted to go to college but i did not have the level of english language and have not taken the more challenging classes needed to attend college. irma’s educational and personal journey also exemplifies the previously discussed types of knowledge presented by habermas (2004): technical, practical, and emancipatory. the knowledge imparted to irma at school could be considered technical knowledge. it was used to control and shape her educational and personal future. for students like irma, the lack of opportunities to access the type of knowledge that is valued in school makes academic success a more challenging endeavor: “i dropped out of school as a junior in high school. i remember that none of the counselors at the school ever told me that i needed to go to college.” starting in her college years and through her adult experiences, irma developed practical knowledge. this type of knowledge allowed her to change her personal and educational future through the analysis of her social situation: “i was determined to go back to school and understanding the interconnectedness between language choices, cultural identity, construction and school practices mercuri no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) 35 regain my language”. as she continued with her education, and later as a professional, she achieved emancipatory knowledge through selfreflection. she became interested in the way her history and biography has expressed itself and how it has shaped her sense of self, her roles in life, and social expectations. research shows that students who become literate in their first language develop stronger literacy skills in their second (cummins, 2001). irma is conscious of how her lack of primary-language development has affected her literacy level in english which was one of the causes of dropping out of school in the tenth grade: in my need for learning english i forgot spanish and… was never fully literate in either language. i think i developed good conversational skills in english, and.. yes, i did develop good reading skills in english because i was an avid reader , i think…i think more than for the classes that i was placed in at school […] weeeell, only if i have had the opportunity of taking more spanish classes, it would have help me develop the academic spanish that i now need for my teaching situation. it was really hard. i see how hard it is for these poor kids learning english because i have re-learned spanish as an adult and i did not have the academic language needed for the demands of the college work in spanish or\... even in english. schools have a crucial role in mediating the development of literacy, and the identity of minority-language speakers in that they have control over what they teach and how they teach it, including language choice. even though schools in the united states serve high numbers of students whose language is other than english, literacy in english is the only type of literacy that is valued. in this context, irma developed an identity that was neither fully american, nor fully mexican. this borderline identity has prevented her from full participation in american society and has had implications in her literacy development. as martinez (2006) explains, language use marked by the failure to recognize the importance of primary-language development at home and at school, and unequal opportunities to access education created a place of struggle for second-language speakers such as irma who tried unsuccessfully to negotiate literacy skills across both languages and cultures. understanding the interconnectedness between language choices, cultural identity, construction and school practices mercuri no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) 36 re-gaining language as the conduit to regaining her cultural identity watson-gegeo and gegeo (1999) have explained the role of language in cultural identity development and the cultural survival of the group. when individuals lose their heritage language and can no longer identify with their native cultural groups, they struggle to understand their heritage and their membership in the culture with which they identify. irma has expressed her constant struggle for affirmation of her cultural identity during her adult life. in the interviews there are examples of her efforts to re-gain the language as a mark of regaining her cultural identity which was lost through home and school experiences. irma explains her own struggles in regaining her language as a marker of her lost cultural identity: yes, (proud of the accomplishment) i did graduate. i was working at the packing plant and my kids were in high school and my friend … during the last four years at work has been re-teaching me spanish. i was determined to regained my language at all costs / and my friend was helping me with that. it was hard \ and i still struggle with the language but i am very proud of what i have accomplished with my spanish. the process of regaining her language and culture later in life has not been easy for irma. her limited language skills gained through prior schooling were a challenge and have put her at a disadvantage as a student and as a bilingual professional. irma explains her experiences and her concerns: it was...it was as if i have never learned spanish before and i could understand it only if they speak slowly. academic language was very tough for me…yeah.. the books that i had to read were very difficult and… and oh my goodness! i had my dictionary with me and the words were difficult and still are for me and … and even though i was a good reader it took me a lot to read the books that were assigned to the class and ..[pause] these were interesting books to read but the demand of the language was too high and i just did not have the skills [soften the voice as she speaks in decrescendo] it was very frustrating because i have never read in spanish before never!. i think that i am doing the children a disservice because i cannot deliver well a meaningful curriculum that targets both academic language and content in spanish… as seen in the statements above, teaching bilingually is also a constant struggle for affirmation of her cultural identity. when referring to her bilingual teaching position, she remembers her father’s request for her to teach only in english, and expresses her determination to understanding the interconnectedness between language choices, cultural identity, construction and school practices mercuri no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) 37 help students maintain their own cultural identity through her teaching in two languages. i had talks with him and he said: “i am proud of you mija, but …why don’t you teach in english? and i said to him: “because it is important daddy, because of what we lost. we lost our heritage, our..our language and i want to be sure that no other child does that”. because it feels….[pause] because until this day i feel that lost, when my students ask me : “señora villa have you been there or have you done that” [with sadness] i do not share a lot of their experiences. they ask me about those [with emphasis and almost yelling the word out] cultural experiences [voice decrescendo]. i wasn’t aware about multiculturalism and issues of other cultures until i took a college class that put me in contact with my own culture and other cultures struggles in american society irma’s examples of her school years and adult, professional life is testimony of the power relations in school and society manifested through discursive practices (mclaren, 2003). to understand her struggles, it is important to consider gee’s (2008) distinction between primary discourses, acquired by the students in their interactions from birth, and secondary discourses, acquired within institutions such as school. for minority students who come to school speaking a language other than english, their “primary discourse” could make alignments with other institutionalized “secondary discourses” and incorporate their practices into their socialization process if their languages and cultures are valued. this has not happened in irma’s personal and educational histories. as a result of her assimilation to english, she was not comfortable teaching bilingually due to her lack of academic vocabulary and literacy skills in spanish which were needed to teach a demanding curriculum in an upper grade dual language setting. as a teacher, irma is trying to enhance students’ possibilities for success by valuing their language and culture. by teaching bilingually she is empowering her students and providing equal access to a meaningful education. she wants to give her students the opportunities that her teachers and the system did not give her in the past. in sum, irma’s personal and educational journey from disconnectedness through a gradual process of connection and belonging to her roots has given her a renewed sense of self that she is determined to nurture and continue to develop for her personal fulfillment and the benefit of her students. understanding the interconnectedness between language choices, cultural identity, construction and school practices mercuri no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) 38 conclusion irma represents a large group of spanish speakers in this country who have lost, or nearly lost, their first language. often, these students have struggled through school because the classes were taught exclusively in english. furthermore, she also represents adult spanish speakers who wish to teach bilingually, but in order to do so, they need to work on their conversational and academic spanish, and often on their academic english as well. irma’s school and home experiences have created repercussions in her academic development. the lack of access to a challenging curriculum imposed by the tracking system placed her at a disadvantage in comparison with her native english-speaking peers. moreover, the lack of support at school and at home and the failure to recognize the value of her primary language gave her limited skills in both languages. while she has consciously tried to develop her primary language and regain her cultural traditions, the intent has been limited in scope and has not provided her with the necessary skills to do academic work in spanish at the college level or to teach a demanding curriculum in an upper grade dual language setting. irma’s struggles, however, went beyond her limited experiences with literacy in both spanish and english, as language is culture made manifest. for her, school was the context in which discourse practices collided, and her dual identities were not supported. the situational identity at school differed from her situational identity at home, and because her heritage values and beliefs were devalued and not supported by either her family or the social institutions, they were weakened to the point of nonexistence. while irma had her sister as a role model who married early and chose to regain her language and culture at that time, irma’s home situational context limited her from achieving that and forced her to limit her own children from the possibility to become bilingual and bicultural. these contradictions created an unfit sense of self, and developed a borderline identity that prevented irma, and students like her, from full participation in american society. throughout the interviews, irma was able to clearly identify the events and the feelings that she experienced growing up as a borderline speaker of both languages. the memories were still lucid and painful for her as seen by the discursive marks in her speech. a closer look at this interview reveals patterns of speech that showed her feelings as she reflects on her personal and professional trajectories. every recollection of language loss, cultural deprivation, and identity affirmation struggle ends with a falling intonation, an emphasis on her statement or sadness in her voice or expression. these marks of speech also show how deep the english language ideology has affected her identity development and how difficult it has been to regain a sense of cultural self as an adult. understanding the interconnectedness between language choices, cultural identity, construction and school practices mercuri no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) 39 the interviews with this latina educator exemplify how language, cultural identity, and loss changes one’s life. they also exemplify the constant struggle of many minority educators working with second language learners of english who have lost and later regained their heritage language and now understand the importance of defining and strengthening their inherent cultural identity. in re-establishing her personal and professional identity, irma contributes to the process of breaking the vicious cycle of cultural deprivation and reproduction of the social structure that has put speakers of a language other than english at a disadvantage in life and in society. in adulthood, irma continues to re-construct her cultural identity, re-define her bilingual position in society, and re-gain her sense of self. references baker, c. (2001). foundations of bilingual education and bilingualism. (3rd edition). clevedon: multilingual matters. bakhtin, m. (1981). discourse in the novel. in m. m. bakhtin. the dialogic imagination. four essays. austin: university of texas press, pp. 259-422. bryman, a. (1988). quantity and quality in social research. london: routledge. bucholtz, m. & trechter, s. (eds). (2001). white noise: bringing language into whiteness studies. journal of linguistic anthropology 11, (1): 1-21. bucholtz, m. & hall, k. (2004). language and identity. in duranti (ed). a conmpanion to linguistic anthropology. blackwell companions to anthropology. ucla, ca. coleman & hoffer, 1987). public and private high schools: the impact of communities. new york: basic books. crawford, james. (2008). advocating for english learners. clevedon: multilingual matters cummins, j. (2001). language, power and pedagogy. clevedon: multilingual matters. fairclough, n. (2001). language and power (2nd ed.). harlow: longman. freire, p (1998). pedagogy of the oppressed (20th anniversary ed.). new york: continuum. understanding the interconnectedness between language choices, cultural identity, construction and school practices mercuri no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) 40 garcia, o., j.kleifgen & l. falchi. (2008). from english language learners to emergent bilinguals. new york: teachers college gee, j. (2008). social linguistics and literacies: ideology in discourses. new york: routledge. gee, p. (2002). literacies, identity and discourses. in schleppegrell, m., & colombi, c. (eds.). (2002). developing advanced literacy in first and second languages. meaning with power. lawrence erlbaum. mahwah, n.j. gegeo, d. & watson – gegeo, k. (1999). “adult education, language change and issues of identity and authenticity in kwara ‘ae (solomon islands)”. anthropology and educational quarterly 30, 1: 22-36. gonzalez, virginia. (2001). the role of socioeconomic and sociocultural factors in language minority children’s development: an ecological research view. bilingual research journal, 25 (2001), pp.1-2, 1-30. habermas, j., aurbindo, sri & giri, b. (2004). knowledge and human liberation. european journal of social theory, 7: 85-103. martinez, g. (2006). mexican americans and language. tucson: the university of arizona press. mc.laren, p. (2003). critical pedagogy: a look at mayor concepts. in darder, a., baltodano, m. & torres, r. (eds). the critical pedagogy reader. routledge falmer. new york, ny monzo, l., & rueda, r. (2009). passing as english fluent: latino immigrant children masking language proficiency. anthropology & education quarterly, 40(1), 20-40. norton, bonny. (2000). identity and language learning. harlow: longman. pierce, b.n. (1995). social identity, investment and language learning. tesol quarterly, 29(1), 9-13. rubin, h.j. & rubin, i.s. (2004). qualitative interviewing: the art of hearing data (2nd ed.). thousand oaks, ca: sage publications. sanchez, sylvia. (1999). issues of language and culture impacting the early care of young latino children. nccic publications. scarcella, r. (2003). academic english: a conceptual framework. understanding the interconnectedness between language choices, cultural identity, construction and school practices mercuri no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) 41 the university of california linguistic minority research institute. technical report 2003-1. schleppegrell, m., & colombi, c. (eds.). (2002). developing advanced literacy in first and second languages. meaning with power. lawrence erlbaum. mahwah, n.j. smolicz, j.j., hudson, d.m. & secombe, m.j. (1998). border crossing in ‘multicultural australia’: a study of cultural valence. journal of multilingual and multicultural development, 11(4), 314-335. stanton-salazar, r. d. (2004). social capital among working-class minority students. in school connections: u.s. mexican youth, peers, and school achievement edited by margaret gibson, patricia gándara and jill peterson koyama. new york: teachers college press, columbia university. willis, g.b. (2004). cognitive interviewing: a tool for improving questionnaire design. thousand oaks, ca: sage publications. understanding the interconnectedness between language choices, cultural identity, construction and school practices mercuri no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) 42 appendix a. transcription code adapted from gumperz and berenz, 1993; schiffrin, 1994. . one second pause … 3-5 seconds pause [ ] overlap between two speakers / rising intonation \ falling intonation :: lengthened segments italics first degree of emphasis bold second degree of emphasis all caps shouting ( ) comment by researcher {( )} characteristic of talk { } best guess of barely audible speech = latching ? question ## number line understanding the interconnectedness between language choices, cultural identity, construction and school practices mercuri no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) 43 author *sandra patricia mercuri has a ph.d. in education with emphasis in language, literacy and culture from the university of california and an m.a. in bilingual cross-cultural education from fresno pacific university. she currently works as an assistant professor at the university of texas, brownsville. she has over 20 years of experience in teaching in argentina and the united states in k-12 schools and at the college level. she teaches courses in bilingual education and biliteracy and is working on research on the development of academic language across the content areas and the effect of long-term professional development for teachers of english learners. she provides training for teachers nationwide and presents at national and international conferences on issues of second language acquisition and bilingualism, teacher training and esl strategies. dr. mercuri has also published articles in professional journals about bilingual learners and the application of second language theories into classroom practice in the tesol quarterly, talking points and the nabe journal. she has also co-authored the books closing the achievement gap and dual language essentials with drs. yvonne and david freeman and research-based strategies for english language learners with denisesrea. e-mail: sandra.mercuri@utb.edu understanding the interconnectedness between language choices, cultural identity, construction and school practices mercuri no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) 79 no. 11 (july december 2015) no. 11 (july december 2015) gist education and learning research journal. issn 1692-5777. no. 11, (july december) 2015. pp. 79-102. foreign language learning strategies in the context of stem education1 estrategias de aprendizaje de lenguas extranjeras en el contexto de la educación stem turgay han2* kafkas university, turkey abstract this study aims at providing an insightful evaluation of the efl strategies used by firstyear stem (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) students, and their perceptions of their own use of strategies. the 147 participants were undergraduate level, first-year engineering students at a state university in turkey. their ages ranged from 18 to 24. they took the young learners’ language strategy use survey (lss). in addition, a sub-sample of students was interviewed about the strategies they used in learning language skills. the results showed that the students tended to employ various strategies in learning different language skills, but did not frequently use or practice these strategies. further, vocabulary strategies and pronunciation skills were believed to be effective in conveying and deciphering meaning. these results suggest that language learning strategy training should be provided in stem education. keywords: language learning strategies, engineering students, english as a foreign language 1 received: july 15, 2015 / accepted: september 10, 2015 2 turgayhan@kafkas.edu.tr 80 no. 11 (july december 2015) no. 11 (july december 2015) resumen este estudio tiene como objetivo proporcionar una profunda evaluación de las estrategias en el aprendizaje del inglés como lengua extranjera utilizadas por los estudiantes de primer año de stem (ciencias, tecnologías, ingenierías y matemáticas) y sus propias percepciones sobre el uso de estas estrategias. los participantes fueron 147 estudiantes de primer año de la carrera de ingeniería de una universidad en turquía, cuyas edades oscilaban entre los 18 y 24 años. se aplicó el instrumento (young learners´ language strategy use survey) para identificar las estrategias de aprendizaje utilizadas por los participantes. asimismo se seleccionó una submuestra de estudiantes para entrevistarlos sobre las estrategias que utilizan en el proceso de aprendizaje de idiomas. los resultados mostraron que los estudiantes solían emplear diversas estrategias en el aprendizaje de idiomas, sin embargo no las utilizan con frecuencia. además, se asume que las estrategias de vocabulario y habilidades de pronunciación son eficaces en la transmisión y comprensión del significado de las palabras. estos hallazgos sugieren que es necesario proporcionar entrenamiento en estrategias para el aprendizaje de idiomas en la educación en ciencia, tecnología, ingeniería y matemáticas (stem). palabras clave: estrategias de aprendizaje de una lengua, estudiantes de ingeniería, inglés como lengua extranjera resumo este estudo tem como objetivo proporcionar uma profunda avaliação das estratégias no aprendizado de inglês como língua estrangeira utilizada pelos estudantes de primeiro ano de stem (ciências, tecnologias, engenharias e matemática) e suas próprias percepções sobre o uso destas estratégias. os participantes foram 147 estudantes de primeiro ano da carreira de engenharia de uma universidade na turquia, cujas idades oscilavam entre os 18 e 24 anos. aplicou-se o instrumento (young learners´ language strategy use survey) para identificar as estratégias de aprendizado utilizadas pelos participantes. da mesma forma se selecionou uma subamostra de estudantes para entrevistá-los sobre as estratégias que utilizam no processo de aprendizado de idiomas. os resultados mostraram que os estudantes tinham o hábito empregar diversas estratégias no aprendizado de idiomas, porém não as utilizam com frequência. além disso, se assume que as estratégias de vocabulário e habilidades de pronúncia são eficazes na transmissão e compreensão do significado das palavras. estas descobertas sugerem que é necessário proporcionar treinamento em estratégias para o aprendizado de idiomas na educação em ciência, tecnologia, engenharia e matemática (stem). palavras chave: estratégias de aprendizado de uma língua, estudantes de engenharia, inglês como língua estrangeira foreign language learning strategies han 81 no. 11 (july december 2015) no. 11 (july december 2015) introduction strategies are deliberate observations and mental actions actively employed by learners to improve their language learning, for example, observing how others take notes in a lecture and thinking over one’s own background before engaging with a text (anderson, 2005). the term has also been used interchangeably with behaviors, tactics, and techniques (ellis, 2008). however, there is no fully agreed upon classification of strategies nor a thorough scientifically validated hierarchy of strategies (oxford, 1990). ellis (2008) describes the most widely accepted strategy classifications: those made by o’malley and chamot (2010) (e.g. cognitive, metacognitive and socialaffective learning strategies), and oxford (1990) (e.g. direct and indirect strategies). further, several researchers have examined the robust link between strategy use and l2 proficiency (e.g. huang & nisbet, 2014; kayaoğlu, 2013; kouritzin, 2012). however, the literature indicates that very little research has specifically targeted foreign language learning strategies (lls) used by stem students in content-based instruction. in this sense, this study aims to bridge this research gap by examining foreign lls employed by engineering students who had previously received english language instruction and were receiving content-based engineering instruction at a turkish state university. the study posed these questions: what strategies do the engineering students frequently employ while learning english-as-a-foreign language and how do they perceive them? further, the following sub-research questions were asked: what are the strategies students frequently use in learning and employing each language skill (e.g. speaking, listening, reading, writing, vocabulary and grammar)? how do the students perceive their strategy use? literature review inventories used in lls research several inventories and surveys have been devised to examine language learning strategies (lls). the most frequently referred to in the literature include oxford’s (1990) strategy inventory for language learning (sill). several research studies on lls have benefited from sill (e.g. demirel, 2012; patil & karekatti, 2012) for the purpose of providing “a general picture of the individual learner’s typical strategy use, rather than a specific portrayal of the strategies used by the learner on a particular language task” (oxford, 1999, p.114). it has been used in different language contexts and levels of study foreign language learning strategies han 82 no. 11 (july december 2015) no. 11 (july december 2015) (oxford, 1999). the great advantage sill is to provide reliable and valid data (anderson, 2005). likert-type items in the sill are classified into two main, and six sub-categories of strategies: direct strategies (e.g. memory-related, cognitive, and compensatory), and indirect strategies (e.g. metacognitive, affective, and social strategies) (oxford, 1999). the cronbach alpha internal consistency index of the 80-item version of the scale in efl/esl or translated contexts is between .94 and .98.the reliability of the 50-item version of the sill is .89 and .90 when administered in english in efl contexts (oxford, 1999). another more sophisticated taxonomy is purpura’s (1999), which examines the psychometric properties of cognitive and metacognitive lls (e.g. comprehending, retrieval and memory strategies) through the applications of the structural equation model approach. the survey of reading strategies (sors) (mokhtari & sheorey, 2002) is another commonly used likert-type scale, which examines metacognitive strategies used while reading in the target language. it includes three sections: global reading, problem solving reading strategies, and reading support strategies. sors has a well-established psychometric property and a reliability co-efficiency of .93. finally, cohen and oxford’s (2002) young learners’ language strategy use survey (lss) defines strategies regarding language skills. this taxonomy uses 76 items, which are constructed to examine strategy uses in learning language skills such as listening, speaking, reading, writing and other language features including vocabulary and translation. content based instruction (cbi) and science, technology, engineering and mathematics (stem) education stem is an acronym coined in the competitive and modern world and mostly refers to interdisciplinary science, technology, engineering and mathematics education. these four areas are entangled rather than separated into four disciplines because these skills, required in real world applications, are considered for success. stem education mostly aims to support undergraduate level students in developing the skills needed for a stem career, which responds to the need for competent professionals in the real world (reeve, 2014). for a long time, language course content has been selected from a particular profession or academic discipline, such as that of airline pilots or computers scientists. this is because this type of cbi enables the integration of language and content learning, and contributes to the naturalness of content for language instruction (larsen-freeman, 2000). further, cbi “speed[s] up the learning and teaching of the second language in question” (van els, 2005, p. 973). this tendency may be a result of the position of english as the language of technology around the globe. the professional world and the labor market in several fields force foreign language learning strategies han 83 no. 11 (july december 2015) no. 11 (july december 2015) students to have not only technical competencies, but also a strong command of english, the lingua franca of science and technology today (gimenoa, seiza, siqueiraa, & martínez, 2010). research into lls several studies on lls have been conducted in the last three decades (e.g. anderson 2003; cohen 1998; ellis, 2008; huang & nisbet, 2014; kayaoğlu, 2013; kouritzin, 2012; naiman, fröhlich, & todesco, 1978; oxford, 1990). some mainly investigated learners’ engagement towards learning new things, and the strategies they frequently employed to understand, memorize and retrieve information (e.g. oxford, 1990). others compared more successful language learners to those less successful, and identified the qualities of good learners in terms of lls (e.g. kayaoğlu, 2013). typically, there is generally a robust link between strategy use and l2 proficiency. some learners are better at foreign and second language learning than others even though they receive the same education in the same setting (lee, 2010). it has also been argued that less successful learners do not generally show considerable progress due to their repeated use of the same strategies. on the other hand, successful language learners possess a variety of strategies ready to be employed in different occasions (anderson, 2005). other studies that have frequently examined the relationship between strategy use and language learning performance, and specifically on esl (bialystok, 1979; eslinger, 2000; rubin, 1975; vann & abraham, 1987), and the link between different efl proficiency levels and strategy use (ehrman & oxford, 1995; oxford & nyikos, 1989). more recent studies have examined lls use from different perspectives: studying the link between reading strategy use and reading proficiency among adult esl learners (huang & nisbet, 2014); the link between high and low learners’ language learning beliefs and language strategy use (kayaoğlu, 2013); male and female foreign language learners’ lls (tercanlıoğlu, 2004); the link between lls, gender and academic achievement (demirel, 2012); and the link between explicit metacognitive strategy instruction and efl reading comprehension (durgun, 2010). regarding stem education, very few studies have examined lls used by science and engineering tract students (cheng, xu & ma, 2007; kouritzin, 2012; minh & intraraprasert, 2012; patil & karekatti, 2012). among the first of such studies, cheng, xu and ma (2007) investigated engineering students’ lls while learning english. questionnaires were used to investigate their strategy use, frequency of strategy use and utilization of learning strategies in practice. the findings indicated that students frequently used more cognitive strategies than social/affective strategies, and metacognitive strategies were foreign language learning strategies han 84 no. 11 (july december 2015) no. 11 (july december 2015) employed less often. further, the result suggested that participants believed in the positive effect of strategy use on language learning. in another study, minh and intraraprasert (2012) investigated languagelearning strategies used by science-oriented students in vietnam. thirty students majoring in science, technology and health science in six different vietnamese universities were interviewed to extract a lls inventory to represent the strategies they used. the results suggested two main categories of strategies: language skills enhancement and general language knowledge enhancement. following minh and intrarapraseet, patil and karekatti (2012) examined lls employed by engineering students and their perceptions on the use of strategies in learning english in the indian context. the sill (oxford, 1990) was used to collect data from 60 engineering students from four engineering colleges. the findings indicate that students prefer metacognitive, cognitive, compensatory and social strategies, but they rarely use memory and affective strategies. further, students are not aware of the benefits of using lls to learn english. finally, kouritzin (2012) investigated the similarity between studying foreign languages and the study of stem subjects in the canadian context. the findings showed that stem lead to greater opportunities when compared to foreign language study, regardless of whether the students receive foreign language study or not. it was found that the knowledge of a foreign language was not necessary for business or social success in canada, and that english was an international language of science. in the turkish cbi context, the medium of instruction and the course content related to professional fields are in english at several universities (e.g. bau, boun, itu). however, in the turkish research context, to the best of our knowledge, there has been little substantial research that specifically selects its target sample from stem majors at the undergraduate level. only kayaoğlu (2011) has investigated efl physics-track students’ language beliefs and approaches to language learning. the participants were taking foundation efl courses in a turkish state university. in this study, the participants responded to horwitz’s (1987) 34-item beliefs about language learning inventory. the results indicated that the students frequently believed that foreign language learning requires a special ability, a good ear, and good memory skills. the students’ beliefs and their fixed ideas about aspects of learning foreign language impacted their lls. briefly, foreign language learners try to employ several different strategies to complete language learning tasks such as reading or writing. in foreign language learning strategies han 85 no. 11 (july december 2015) no. 11 (july december 2015) this sense, they could be successful in completing the tasks if they employed the appropriate lls (richard, 1994 cited in lee, 2010). the above review has shown that very little research has specifically targeted foreign lls use by stem students in content-based instruction. methodology research design this mixed methods study used both quantitative and qualitative methods. specifically, using the convergent parallel design, the researcher concurrently collected the quantitative and qualitative data. the quantitative and qualitative analyses were carried out separately, and then the results were merged to assess the general interpretation (creswell & clark, 2011). context and participants the participants were 147 first-year students studying in different undergraduate level engineering departments at a turkish state university. their ages ranged from 18 to 24. students took an intensive english course in the preparatory program before starting their faculty education in which they attended several content-based courses in english. the medium of instruction and exams were conducted in english. students were tested using a criterionreferenced framework designed by the school of foreign languages at the university. the test included two sections, the first which tested their speaking and writing skills and the second which tested their listening, reading, grammar, and vocabulary skills. all the participants passed this exam based on criterionreferenced assessment. table 1. shows the participants’ profile. table 1. participants’ profile department f % f % age software/computer engineering 24 16.3 11 7.5 18-24 metallurgical and material engineering 13 8.8 29 19.7 automotive engineering 72 49 58 39.5 mechanical and machine engineering 12 8.2 39 26.5 electric and electronic engineering 11 7.5 9 6.1 energy system engineering. 15 10.2 1 .7 total 147 100 147 100 foreign language learning strategies han 86 no. 11 (july december 2015) no. 11 (july december 2015) data collection instruments cohen and oxford’s (2002) young learners’ language strategy use survey (lss) was used in this study. this 76-item taxonomy investigates strategy use in different skills (e.g. listening, speaking, reading writing, and other language features including vocabulary and translation). the reliability checks are positive. the reliability coefficients are: learning structure and vocabulary (r = .85), speaking (r = .77), listening (r = .83), reading (r = .67), and asking for clarification (r = .79) (paige, cohen & shively, 2004) a reliability check for this present study was also conducted. the results showed that the total reliability is very high (r = .925). further, while the reliability coefficients were over .7 for listening (r=.79), speaking (r=.78), reading (r=.78) and writing (r=.75), the reliability coefficients were lower than .7 for vocabulary (r=58) and translation (r=55). data for this study was collected in two phases. first, 147 students responded to the 76 items on the scale. then, a focus group interview was conducted with a random sub-sample of four students. these participants were randomly selected from volunteers who were studying at different departments to maximize differences among the participants. six interview questions were pre-determined and directed to the students after they took the survey. the questions related to the strategies used in learning every language skill and their individual experiences. the students discussed their perceptions about strategy use. the interview was conducted in turkish to maximize participant responses. the interviews were voice recorded and then transcribed. data analysis and interpretation a series of descriptive statistical analyses (e.g. the mean and standard deviation) were performed over the quantitative data. the purpose of conducting these statistical analyses was to determine which lls were most frequently used. a coding and classifying approach (gay, mills & airasian, 2009) was used for the qualitative data analysis. first, the student responses determined to be pertinent to the research questions were arranged together. they were categorized, and then analyzed according to recurring themes (huang, cunningham, & finn, 2010). in terms of the focus groups, the interviews were conducted with the subsample of four interviewees in turkish. first, the voice-recorded interviews were transcribed. then, the researcher translated the students’ responses from turkish to english. the aim of conducting the interview in the learners’ native foreign language learning strategies han 87 no. 11 (july december 2015) no. 11 (july december 2015) language (e.g. turkish) was to encourage more detailed responses. finally, the analysis was made based on recurring themes following gay, mills and airasian’s (2009) coding and classifying approach. these analyses were used to answer the following research question: how do the students perceive of their strategy use in learning english-as-a-foreign language? results the quantitative results are presented first, followed by the qualitative results. the quantitative analyses included descriptive statistics (e.g. mean and standard deviations of strategy use for each skill). the tables provide the descriptive statistics for the data obtained from responses used in the analysis. finally, the analysis of the focus group interview is presented. quantitative data analysis the quantitative data was used to answer the following research question: what are the strategies students frequently use in learning and practicing each language skill (e.g. speaking, listening, reading, writing, vocabulary and grammar)? foreign language learning strategies han 88 no. 11 (july december 2015) no. 11 (july december 2015) table 2. descriptive statistics for listening strategies if the statement really describes you if the statement isn’t like you if the statement is somewhat you like general mean general s.d. f % f % f % mean sd. what i do to listen more… -781 .0825 1. i listen to the radio in the language. 45 30.6 44 29.9 58 39.5 ,904* 0,84 2. i watch tv shows in the language. 46 31.3 35 23.8 66 44.9 ,789 0,87 3. i go to movies that use the language. 43 29.3 41 27.9 63 42.9 ,850 0,84 4. i listen to the language if i am in a or go see movies in the language. 54 36.7 29 19.7 64 43.5 ,762 0,90 5. if i hear people speaking the language, i listen 47 32.0 41 27.9 59 40.1 ,878 0,85 what i do to understand sounds 6. i find sounds in the language that are like sounds in english. 41 27.9 38 25.9 68 46.3 ,796 0,84 7. i try to remember unfamiliar sounds i hear. 49 33.3 27 18.4 71 48.3 ,701 0,89 8. i ask the person to repeat the new sound. 41 27.9 24 16.3 82 55.8 ,606 0,87 9. i listen to the rise and fall of sounds (the music of the language). 56 38.1 25 17 66 44.9 ,721 0,91 what i do to understand what i hear 10. i listen for the important words. 48 32.7 44 29.9 55 37.4 ,925* 0,84 11. i listen for what seems interesting. 49 33.3 25 17 73 49.7 ,674 0,90 12. i listen for words that are repeated. 43 29.3 32 21.8 72 49 ,728 0,87 what i do if i still don’t understand what someone says: 13. i ask the person to repeat. 43 29.3 42 28.6 62 42.2 ,864 0,84 14. i ask the person to slow down. 44 29.9 35 23.8 68 46.3 ,776 0,86 15. i ask a question. 48 32.7 30 20.4 69 46.9 ,735 0,88 16. i guess the meaning from the person’s tone (such as angry or happy). 48 32.7 35 23.8 64 43.5 ,803 0,87 17. i guess the meaning from how the person moves or stands. 52 35.4 32 21.8 63 42.9 ,789 0,88 18. i guess the meaning from what i heard before. 55 37.3 28 19 64 43.5 ,755 0,90 foreign language learning strategies han 89 no. 11 (july december 2015) no. 11 (july december 2015) table 2 provides the detailed descriptive statistics for the responses given for the listening strategy category. both the mean and standard deviations are very similar across each strategy item, indicating that students employ similar listening strategies. the mean scores are close to 1.0, indicating that the students use these listening strategies to some extent. the standard deviations are slightly below 1.0, indicating that the students employ similar listening strategies. further, item #1 and item #10 received higher mean scores, indicating that the students mostly listen to the radio and pay attention to important words when listening. table 3. descriptive statistics for vocabulary strategies if the statement really describes you if the statement isn’t like you if the statement is somewhat you like general mean general s.d what i do to memorize new words f % f % f % mean sd .704 .0582 19. i group the words by type (e.g.. nouns. verbs. adjectives). 54 36.7 28 19 64 43.5 ,748 .89968 20. i match the sound of the new word with the sound of a word i know. 42 28.6 25 17 80 54.4 ,626 .87655 21. i use rhymes to remember new words. 58 39.5 25 17 64 43.5 ,735 .91320 22. i make a picture of new words in my mind. 56 38.1 21 14.3 70 47.6 ,667 .92406 23. i write the new word in a sentence. 44 29.9 32 21.8 71 48.3 ,735 .86816 24. i write the new word on a card. 36 24.5 36 24.5 75 51 ,735 .83030 25. i go over new words several times at first. 47 32 22 15 78 53.1 ,619 .90077 26. later i go to remind myself about words i learned earlier 43 29.3 35 23.8 69 46.9 ,769 .85769 table 3 provides the detailed descriptive statistics for the responses given for vocabulary strategy use. both the mean and standard deviations are very similar across strategy items, indicating that each student employs similar vocabulary strategies. the mean scores are approximately 1.0, indicating that the students use these vocabulary strategies mentioned above in the table. again, the standard deviations are slightly below 1.0, indicating that the students employ very similar vocabulary strategies. foreign language learning strategies han 90 no. 11 (july december 2015) no. 11 (july december 2015) table 4. descriptive statistics for speaking strategies if the statement really describes you if the statement isn’t like you if the statement is somewhat you like general mean general s.d f % f % f % mean sd .761 .0630 what i do to practice speaking 27. i make the sounds of the language until i can say them well. 57 38.8 27 18.4 63 42.9 ,755 .90567 28. i imitate the way native speakers talk. 56 38.1 35 23.8 56 38.1 ,857 .87586 29. i say new expressions over to myself. 48 32.7 32 21.8 67 45.6 ,762 .87798 30. i practice using new grammar forms when i talk. 52 35.4 29 19.7 66 44.9 ,748 .89392 what i do to talk with other people: 31. i start conversations. 53 36.1 25 17 69 46.9 ,701 .90757 32. i change the subject if i don’t have the words i need. 53 36.1 26 17.7 68 46.3 ,714 .90459 33. i plan what i am going to say. 55 37.4 28 19 64 43.5 ,755 .90072 34. i ask the other person to correct me when i talk. 57 38.8 33 22.4 57 38.8 ,837 .88364 when i can’t think of a word or phrase i want to say: 35. i ask the person to help me. 49 33.3 30 20.4 68 46.3 ,741 .88575 36. i try to say it a different way. 49 33.3 29 19.7 69 46.9 ,728 .88858 37. i use words from my own language. 50 34 29 19.7 68 46.3 ,735 .89057 38. i use words from my own language, but utter them with sounds from the new language. 51 34.7 24 16.3 72 49 ,674 .90660 39. i move my hands or body so the person will understand me. 51 34.7 40 27.2 56 38.1 ,891 .85540 table 4 provides the detailed descriptive statistics for the responses given for speaking strategy use. both the mean and standard deviations are very similar across strategy items, indicating that students employ similar speaking strategies. the mean scores are somewhat near 1.0, indicating that the students use above mentioned speaking strategies. again, the standard deviations are slightly below 1.0, indicating that the students employ very similar speaking strategies. foreign language learning strategies han 91 no. 11 (july december 2015) no. 11 (july december 2015) table 5. descriptive statistics for reading strategies if the statement really describes you if the statement isn’t like you if the statement is somewhat you like general mean general s.d f % f % f % mean sd .763 .0830 what i do to read more 40. i read a lot in the language. 52 35.4 28 19 67 45.6 ,735 .89699 41. i read for fun in the language. 49 33.3 26 17.7 72 49 ,688 .89673 42. i find things to read that interest me. 51 34.7 35 23.8 61 41.5 ,823 .87319 43. i look for things to read that are not too hard 57 38.8 24 16.3 66 44.9 ,714 .91580 what i do to understand what i read 44. i skim over a reading to get the main idea. 56 38.1 38 25.9 53 36.1 ,898 .86380 45. i look for important facts. 64 43.5 25 17 57 39.5 ,850 1.230* 46. i read things more than once. 54 36.7 31 21.1 62 42.2 ,789 .88968 47. i look at the pictures and what is under the pictures. 54 36.7 30 20.4 63 42.9 ,776 .89308 48. i look at the headings. 40 27.2 35 23.8 72 49 ,748 .84818 49. i think about what will come next in the reading. 49 33.3 16 10.9 82 55.8 ,551 .92006 50. i stop to think about what i just read. 51 34.7 29 19.7 67 45.6 ,742 .89235 51. i underline parts that seem important. 48 32.7 27 18.4 72 49 ,694 .89167 52. i mark the reading in different colors to help me understand. 51 34.7 29 19.7 67 45.6 ,741 .89235 53. i check to see how much i understood. 80 54.4 24 16.3 43 29.3 ,871 .88243 what i do when i don’t understand what i read 54. i guess the meaning by using clues from other parts of the passage. 55 37.4 31 21.1 61 41.5 ,796 .89042 55. i use a dictionary to find the meaning. 48 32.7 34 23.1 65 44.2 ,789 .87207 table 5 provides the detailed descriptive statistics for the responses given for reading strategy use. both the mean and standard deviations are very similar across strategy items, indicating that students employ similar reading strategies. the mean scores are somewhat near 1.0, indicating that the students use the above mentioned reading strategies. again, with the exception of item foreign language learning strategies han 92 no. 11 (july december 2015) no. 11 (july december 2015) #45, standard deviations are slightly below 1.0, indicating that the students employ very similar reading strategies and differ only in looking for facts to understand what they have read. table 6. descriptive statistics for writing strategies if the statement really describes you if the statement isn’t like you if the statement is somewhat you like general mean general s.d f % f % f % mean sd .791 .0816 what i do to write more 56. if the alphabet is different. i practice writing it. 62 42.2 44 29.9 41 27.9 1,020* .82761 57. i take class notes in the language. 58 39.5 27 18.4 62 42.2 ,762 .90619 58. i get write other notes in the language. 57 38.8 26 17.7 64 43.5 ,742 .90911 59. i write letters to other people in the language. 44 29.9 36 24.5 67 45.6 ,789 .85769 60. i write papers in the language 56 38.1 26 17.7 65 44.2 ,735 .90829 what i do to write better 61. i plan what i am going to write. 48 32.7 43 29.3 56 38.1 ,912 .84223 62. i use a dictionary or glossary. 46 31.3 36 24.5 65 44.2 ,803 .86224 63. i read what i wrote to see if it is good. 52 35.4 34 23.1 61 41.5 ,816 .87761 64. i ask someone to correct my writing. 57 38.8 30 20.4 60 40.8 ,796 .89496 65. i rewrite what i wrote to make it better. 45 30.6 27 28.4 75 51 ,674 .88317 66. i use the spell checker on the computer. 52 35.4 27 18.4 68 46.3 ,721 .89999 67. i use the grammar checker on the computer. 48 32.7 34 23.1 65 44.2 ,789 .87207 what i do if i cannot think of a word or phrase i want to write 68. i ask someone for the word or phrase i need. 57 38.8 33 22.4 57 38.8 ,837 .88364 69. i try to say it in a different way. 58 39.5 25 17 64 43.5 ,735 .91320 70. i use words from my own language. 53 36.1 29 19.7 65 44.2 ,755 .89527 71. i use words from my own language but add new endings to those words. 57 38.8 28 19 62 42.2 ,769 .90217 foreign language learning strategies han 93 no. 11 (july december 2015) no. 11 (july december 2015) table 6 provides the detailed descriptive statistics for the responses given for writing strategies. both the mean and standard deviations are very similar across strategy items, indicating that students employ similar reading strategies. the mean scores are somewhat near 1.0, indicating that students use the above mentioned reading strategies. again, standard deviations are slightly below 1.0, indicating that students employ very similar reading strategies. the mean score is over 1.0 for the item #56, indicating that they mostly prefer practicing writing the alphabet when they know it is different. table 7. descriptive statistics for translation strategies if the statement really describes you if the statement isn’t like you if the statement is somewhat you like general mean general s.d. f % f % f % mean sd .871 .0545 what i do when i translate 72. i plan what i want to say or write in my language and then translate it into the new language. 47 32 40 27.2 60 40.8 ,864 .85147 73. i translate when reading to make sure i understand it. 51 34.7 34 23.1 55 37.4 ,809 .87655 74. while i am listening to someone, i translate parts of what they say into my own language to remember it. 58 39.5 34 23.1 55 37.4 ,857 .87952 what i do to think in the new language 75. i put my language out of my mind. 50 40.1 34 23.1 54 36.7 ,864 .87909 76. i try to understand without translating. 57 38.8 42 28.6 48 32.7 ,959 .84582 table 7 provides the detailed descriptive statistics for the responses given for translation strategies. both the mean and standard deviations are very similar across strategy items, indicating that each student employs similar translation strategies. the mean scores are somewhat near 1.0, indicating that the students use these above mentioned translation strategies. again, standard deviations are slightly below 1.0, indicating that students employ very similar translation strategies. briefly, the results are quite similar for all strategies. although the descriptive statistical results suggest that the students use the above 76 language lls similarly to some extent, they do not apply all these strategies with the same frequency. foreign language learning strategies han 94 no. 11 (july december 2015) no. 11 (july december 2015) qualitative data analysis regarding the profile of the participants in the focus groups, student b and student d were mechanical engineering majors, student a was a mechatronic/mechanical engineering major, and student c was a computer/ software engineering major. when asked about their self-assessment of their l2 levels, the four students expressed that they had an intermediate level of english proficiency. the analysis of the students’ preferences on speaking skills indicated that they emphasized appropriate vocabulary choice and pronunciation. i try to pronounce words accurately and clearly. [student a] first i check the meanings of words and then try to speaking using these words. [student b] generally i watch films and find words that i do not know. then, i try to speak. [student c] i generally try to pronounce words accurately. [student d] the students mostly reported that they try to understand spoken language using their lexicon and well-known words. a student emphasized that pronunciation is a clue to understand what is heard. i try to understand the whole speech departing from the meanings of each word that i know on the subject. [student a] i try to solve pronunciations. [student b] i learn new words and then try again to understand. [student c] i try to understand depending on the meaning of words that i know. [student d] for reading comprehension, the students mostly prefer to employ a bottom-up strategy. in other words, they first focus on each word that they are acquainted with and then relate word meanings with each other based on the text context. a student reported that he/she first attempts to use a dictionary to find the meaning of unknown or new words and then reads the text a few times. i try to understand a text depending on the meaning of words that i know. [student a] i select words then relate them with the whole text to understand it. [student b] i find the meanings of words that i do not know well. then, i try to understand the text by reading it repeatedly. [student c] foreign language learning strategies han 95 no. 11 (july december 2015) no. 11 (july december 2015) i depart from the meanings of each word to understand a text. [student d] regarding writing skills, the students mostly prefer to employ prewriting strategies and attempt to find the meanings of new words. they then construct messages into sentences before writing. first i imagine, then i carefully try to construct sentences using basic vocabulary based on my proficiency level. [student a] i use vocabulary strategically. [student b] first i design what i am going to write then try to write. [student c] first i find vocabulary that i do not know and then i focus on messages conveyed with sentences. [student d] when it comes to the challenges they experience for each skill, student b and student d reported that the most challenging skill is pronouncing words correctly. they try to cope with this through repeated practice. student a reported that vocabulary retention poses a challenge for him/her and to overcome this sort of problem he/she prefers to learn vocabulary using sentences in context and using visual aids. i forget the meanings of words that i learnt earlier, therefore i prefer to learn words using them in sentences and with visual aids rather than writing. [student a] i experience challenges with pronunciation yet i cannot do anything. [student b] while learning english i experience challenges in speaking and writing; so, i watch films and read books in english. [student c] i face difficulty in pronunciation, so i usually do exercises and revisions but i do not think that they are effective. [student d] their opinions regarding how english should be learnt and taught are diverse. student a states that using english in daily life may impact learning. teachers should consider students’ proficiency levels and help students to lean new vocabulary rather than teaching them only grammar. student b emphasizes that teachers should avoid revisions. student c gives utmost importance to speaking. student d believes that teaching the same things repeatedly does not improve student language skills. i think that we should place english in many aspects of our lives; as a result, we will encounter them continuously and then we would learn permanently. while teaching english, teachers should consider students’ proficiency levels and help them to learn new vocabulary rather than grammar. [student a] foreign language learning strategies han 96 no. 11 (july december 2015) no. 11 (july december 2015) while teaching english, revisions should be avoided. [student b] while teaching english, i think students should be helped to speak frequently. [student c] while teaching english, there is a monotonous situation and therefore i do not think that such a teaching will not contribute to learning. [student d] briefly, although the students mostly use language learning strategies, they employ various strategies for different language skills. for speaking, they place emphasis on appropriate vocabulary choice and pronunciation. for writing skills, they mostly employ pre-writing strategies and attempt to find meanings of new words rather than construct messages in sentences before writing. further, they have reported that vocabulary retention and pronunciation are the most challenging skills, and they follow rote-learning tactics for accuracy (e.g. repeating until remember). they try to cope with these problems by employing different strategies. also, they suggest that language learning and teaching should be aligned with the students’ learning styles and their learning preferences. conclusion the quantitative data analysis suggests that the engineering students employ various strategies in learning different language skills. the qualitative data analyses explained their strategy use. first, interview data analyses showed that pronunciation was both the most challenging and important skill. when speaking and listening in english, the students give importance to pronunciation strategies. further, to be competent in pronunciation, practicing is perceived as a good strategy for accuracy. second, the students also considered vocabulary to be a challenging skill and a key factor in reading, listening, and writing skills. appropriate vocabulary choice is reported to be a good strategy for speaking skills. further, they also reported that they could understand spoken language better depending on the number of the words they knew in what they heard. to understand a written text, the students mostly began by focusing on each word they knew and then guessed the meanings of unfamiliar words based on context. interestingly, the students related their ideas on language learning and teaching with their strategy use. that is, they mostly aligned their strategy use with their expectations regarding language learning and teaching. as such, they believed that using language skills in real-life contexts may be effective. further, vocabulary was believed to be more important than grammar. finally, they believed that revisions regarding grammar were not good for language learning progress. foreign language learning strategies han 97 no. 11 (july december 2015) no. 11 (july december 2015) there are two major limitations that need to be acknowledged and addressed regarding this study. first, scant interview data might have limited the qualitative results of the study. instead, more sophisticated qualitative methods could be used in data collection. for example, concurrent data could be collected through think-aloud protocols to provide deeper evidence of what students think while employing strategies. several strategy studies have used this data collection procedure (e.g. alhaisoni, 2012; ohly, 2007). additionally, observations may be a viable alternative to interviews. second, this study collected data only from engineering students. participants from different fields and from different educational levels in the stem context may lead to different results. in light of the above limitations, the following suggestions are proposed. first, identifying strategies and providing strategy training can foster interlanguage development indirectly (ellis, 1997). the engineering students in this study reported that vocabulary was both of paramount importance in reading, listening, and writing, was a challenging skill as well. vocabulary strategy training can be implemented within teaching programs. this suggestion is supported by previous research (e.g. demirel, 2012). as reported by ellis (1997). the results of the research on training on strategies and vocabulary learning suggested that different ways of meaning associations with new words or linking l1 words to a “mental image” that encompasses the meaning of l2 words can contribute to retention and recall. other research has also suggested that training teachers to teach students language learning strategies would contribute to students’ development (demirel, 2012). training students to use strategies plays an important role in fostering learner autonomy; learners become more autonomous as they take responsibility of their own learning (ellis, 2007). second, the qualitative data of this study did not show any sign of students’ awareness of the positive impact of strategy use on their language development. an earlier study found that engineering students are not well aware of the benefits of using lls in learning english (patil & karekatti, 2012) even though another study indicated that students believe that strategy use has positive effects on language learning (cheng, xu& ma, 2007). there are still contradictions among the results of studies. some research has suggested that effective lls training should be applied explicitly, integrated into regular class work activities (e.g. chamot, 2004). therefore, explicit strategy use training could be applied in stem education contexts. overall, from the perspective of educational practice, this paper provides new experimental data on the topic. the research results might be included in the materials for teachers’ continuing professional development programs and might be taken into account within foreign language course planning foreign language learning strategies han 98 no. 11 (july december 2015) no. 11 (july december 2015) procedure as far as stem education is concerned. finally, comparing students’ efl proficiency levels and strategy use based on gender is not within the scope of this study. further research should include participants with varying efl proficiency levels from different fields of stem education. acknowledgements i would like to thank gist’s editorial team, especially josephine taylor, for their critical comments on this manuscript. also, i would like to thank to my ma student, fırat keskin, who helped me while preparing the data. foreign language learning strategies han 99 no. 11 (july december 2015) no. 11 (july december 2015) references alhaisoni, e. 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(1990). strategies of unsuccessful language learners. tesol quarterly, 24(2), 223-234.http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/35868980 author * turgay han is assistant professor at the department of english language and literature, kafkas university, turkey. his areas of research center on esol learning and teaching, and efl measurement and assessment issues. foreign language learning strategies gist noviembre 2008final(segundas correcciones).p65 :e las actitudes lingüísticas frente a las formas de habla locales: un estudio sociolingüístico en la trifrontera brasilcolombia-perú ��� ��� ��������)�:��������� !'�$�� $ ,-�� a��0 �� ��� � �� � �������� ��� ����6h��� ����������� ������� � �� ���-�������� �� �������=��������=+ �8 ���� � ��� � ����� � �+������ � ��� 5%�������������� ���� �� � �� � �� ' �� a �� �� ��� ������� � a�� � ���� �� �%��� ��� �� ��� =�a���-��� ��� ��� �� � �� � ���� ���� ���������� �������� ,-������� ��� a� ��� ��� �� ��� �������' �-�� a��0 ����6h � ���������� ������� � ���� �-� ��� 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implementación pedagógica. maria teresa esteban nuñez, adriana marquez medina and jhon everth ortiz cubides2* universidad pedagógica y tecnológica de colombia, colombia abstract this article reports a pedagogical implementation carried out with preintermediate english students, in an english teacher preparation program at a public university in colombia. this pedagogical implementation aimed to provide this population with a space to enhance their critical thinking skills through the implementation of a variety of task-based workshops where they were asked to observe, analyze, reflect and discuss about some political cartoons. the data to answer the research question was collected using class video-recordings, students’ artifacts and a focus group. as a result of the pedagogical implementation, it was possible to identify how these students became aware of some social and political issues affecting them and their close context, and the importance of stating a position in front of them. furthermore, students suggested that the workshops developed had shown them a possible pedagogical path they could follow in their future as language teachers. key words: political cartoons, critical thinking skills, task-based approach. resumen este artículo reporta una intervención pedagógica desarrollada con estudiantes de inglés pre-intermedio, de un programa de formación de maestros en una 1 received: january 31st 2018/ accepted: june 5th 2018 2 aireste@yahoo.es; adri.marquez1995@hotmail.com; jhon.e-123@hotmail.com gist education and learning research journal. issn 1692-5777. no.16 (january june) 2018. pp. 141-163 . motivation in english language use and technology no. 16 (january june, 2018) no. 16 (january june, 2018) 142 universidad pública en colombia. esta intervención pedagógica buscaba proveer a esta población con un espacio para mejorar sus habilidades de pensamiento crítico a través de la implementación de una variedad de talleres basados en tareas donde se le pidió observar, analizar, reflexionar y discutir sobre algunas caricaturas políticas que fueron abordadas en sus clases de inglés. para recolectar datos para analizar la pregunta de investigación se usaron grabaciones de video de las clases, artefactos de los estudiantes y un grupo focal. como resultado de la implementación pedagógica, fue posible identificar cómo estos estudiantes tomaron conciencia de algunos problemas sociales y políticos que afectan a ellos y su contexto cercano y la importancia de establecer una posición frente a ellos. además, los estudiantes sugirieron que los talleres desarrollados les habían mostrado un posible camino pedagógico que podrían seguir en su futuro como profesores de idiomas. palabras clave: caricaturas políticas, habilidades de pensamiento crítico, enfoque basado en tareas. resumo este artigo apresenta uma intervenção pedagógica desenhada para prover a estudantes de inglês pré-intermédio, de um programa de formação de mestres em uma universidade pública na colômbia, um espaço para melhorar o seu pensamento crítico através da implementação de oficinas baseadas em tarefas onde observavam, analisavam, refletiam e discutiam sobre caricaturas políticas que foram abordadas nas suas aulas de inglês. para coletar dados para analisar a pergunta de pesquisa se usaram gravações de vídeo, artefatos dos estudantes e discussões de grupo. como resultado da implementação deste estudo, os estudantes reconheceram o papel ativo como cidadãos que devem assumir responsabilidades nas suas comunidades, eles também argumentaram que as oficinas foram úteis para melhorar o seu pensamento crítico e ao longo de cada atividade foi possível evidenciar como seus argumentos foram fortalecendo-se. palavras chave: caricaturas políticas, pensamento crítico, enfoque baseado em tarefas. critical thinking through political cartoons esteban, marquez & ortiz no. 16 (january june, 2018) no. 16 (january june, 2018) 143 introduction education should contribute in the construction of autonomous, active and critical beings, capable of analyzing, reasoning, reflecting, making decisions, and solving problems not only in their lives but also in their societies. as language teachers, we considered that one of the main objectives of english foreign language education is to open spaces where students can move along the different cognitive processes previously mentioned. our research study focused on implementing five task-based workshops that were designed based on social and political issues portrayed in political cartoons. our main intention was to provide participants with a space for them to reflect, discuss and state positions in front of the issues approached in those new texts: political cartoons. this study was developed with pre-intermediate english-students. currently information is presented through different types of texts; one of these texts is political cartoons which commonly are designed to show particular realities in a satirical manner. in the colombian context, cartoons, but specifically political cartoons have been used as texts to portray social and political issues affecting the colombian society. the cartoons selected for this research reflected different problematic situations like corruption, gender inequality, obsession to social networks, migration, and global warming which are common in colombia and therefore in the contexts where these participants live in. these cartoons could be placed in what el refaie & horschelmann (2010) identify as political cartoons. for these authors political cartoons describe reality of social and political issues from a critical point of view. dougherty (2002) states that “political cartoons are an excellent classroom tool to build students’ critical thinking skills, to generate lively classroom discussions, and to get students excited about politics” (p. 258). these were the main reasons why political cartoons were proposed for this group in particular. our intention was to identify and analyze whether or not the implementation of some political cartoons developed or fostered pre-intermediate english students’ critical thinking skills. as researchers, we strongly believe that beyond teaching students how to read the word, it is necessary to guide them to read the world; therefore, it is necessary to enhance students’ critical thinking skills. with this purpose in mind five task-based workshops were designed to critical thinking through political cartoons esteban, marquez & ortiz no. 16 (january june, 2018) no. 16 (january june, 2018) 144 provide these students with spaces where they analyzed, discussed and reflected about different political cartoons. the next section of this paper presents some national and international studies conducted by other teacherresearchers who have approached cartoons and critical thinking skills to foster their teaching and learning processes in higher education. the objective of this section is to establish the relevance of previous research to our general field of study: critical thinking. literature review arango, gomez & gomez (2009) conducted a research study where cartoons were considered as a tool for higher education teaching. its objective was to establish conditions and characteristics cartoons should have as tool for teaching. they concluded that cartoons has a didactic potential, which has been underused for teaching and that higher education institutions should encourage its use and do research for validating its potential. el refaie & horschelmann (2010) studied young people’s responses to a newspaper cartoon as a way of exploring the concept of multimodal literacy. the study aimed to elicit the geopolitical views of 16-19-year-olds in a multiethnic british city by using cartoons as a way of encouraging them to talk about their thoughts and feelings towards recent political events. they found that contrary to popular perceptions, political cartoons are complex and could have more than one meaning, and therefore require a particular form of literacy. ibarra & ballester (2015) explored the relationship between comic, interculturality and literary education and they provided an illustrative picture of the emergence of multiculturalism in contemporary cartoon. they observed the use of comics as a top pedagogical strategy by different institutions and highlighted the interest of the new generations in this type of text. these three previous studies provided us with different information related to theoretical constructs to support our study. their findings in terms of cartoons as didactic resources and the activities developed by these researchers guided the design of the workshops we applied in our pedagogical implementation. a different study conducted by arias (2014) focused on showing how music can help students to enhance their critical thinking processes through the implementation of implicit content of songs in the efl critical thinking through political cartoons esteban, marquez & ortiz no. 16 (january june, 2018) no. 16 (january june, 2018) 145 classroom. this last study remarks the importance of applying-problem based activities in order for students to have a critical vision of the issues that affect the current world. this study motivated us to explore and create a different environment for our classes bearing in mind our students’ previous knowledge and their experiences. carvajal, poveda and rojas (2012) conducted an action research study focused on critical thinking skills development in an ngo with displaced children of elementary english language level. these researchers designed a didactic unit with the objective of contributing in the development of some critical thinking skills in the population under study. their findings evidenced the progress these kids had in two dimensions: cognitive and affective. they also identified that questioning was one of the most effective strategies to develop critical thinking skills. based on the results presented in the study conducted by carvajal et al. (2012), we decided to include questions in the five workshops as a fundamental component for each of the workshops developed during the data collection process. these questions were addressed at different stages during the task-based cycle. theoretical framework this study is held on a frame of constructs that guided and supported our path to explore and find answers to our inquiry. we begin by defining critical thinking, then critical thinking skills; finally, we conceptualize the concept of cartoons and describe the core of our study: political cartoons. critical thinking critical thinking is a complex term and it has been defined in several ways. scriven & paul (2007) have defined it as “the intellectually disciplined process of actively and skillfully conceptualizing, applying, analyzing, synthesizing, and/or evaluating information gathered from, or generated by, observation, experience, reflection, reasoning, or communication, as a guide to belief and action” (p.1). however, that process is not a static one. critical thinking involves the constant analysis, evaluation and reevaluation of the information that is received or produced. for scriven and paul (2007) a critical thinker is always improving the quality of his or her thinking. critical thinking through political cartoons esteban, marquez & ortiz no. 16 (january june, 2018) no. 16 (january june, 2018) 146 this process requires a disciplined analysis and assessment of what is thought and said. elder & paul (2010) propose six stages any person should pass through to become a critical thinker. these stages start with what they have called the unreflective thinker stage, moving through other four stages: the challenged thinker, the beginning thinker, the practicing thinker, the advanced thinker, and finally reaching the master thinker stage. becoming a critical thinker goes beyond the simple purpose of thinking different. for these authors, changing the way of thinking and acting is a long-range project. facione (1990), using the two-sentence definition of critical thinking generated from the delphi report, identified critical thinking as ‘’the process of purposeful, self-regulatory judgment. this process gives reasoned consideration to evidence, context, conceptualizations, methods, and criteria’’ (p. 5). this author also suggests that critical thinking involve both skill and habits of mind and dispositions. considering the previous definitions, but particularly facione’s one, we as researchers concluded that critical thinking is the constant and never-ending interactive process of observing, analyzing, reflecting and evaluating a reality; and this process can take place only when students are asked to address a situation and come up with a solution. this means that critical thinking is not a process enclosed inside the brain, but rather the development of critical thinking skills that human beings can develop with others. critical thinking skills regarding that the purpose of this study was to provide spaces for students to enhance their critical thinking skills, here it is relevant to define the concept of critical thinking skills. although bloom’s taxonomy is not the only framework of critical thinking, it is the most widely known and used by scholars. bloom (1956) presents a taxonomy that divides the way people learn into three domains: cognitive, affective and psychomotor. the study here presented focused mainly on the cognitive domain which emphasizes intellectual outcomes. this domain is further divided into six categories: knowledge, comprehension, application, analysis, synthesis and evaluation. critical thinking through political cartoons esteban, marquez & ortiz no. 16 (january june, 2018) no. 16 (january june, 2018) 147 anderson & krathwolh (2001) proposed a revision of bloom’s taxonomy where they re-named the categories aforementioned and provided some verbs to describe the actions a critical thinker displays. the following figure exemplifies this process of re-naming bloom’s taxonomy: figure 1. revising bloom’s taxonomy taken from: https://sharemylesson.com/blog/what-no-one-tellsyou-about-blooms-taxonomy these new categories involve some cognitive skills that individuals should practice or master to become critical thinkers. as each category implies different cognitive skills, it is necessary to clarify that the actions proposed by anderson & krathwolh (2001), in each of those categories, were at the center of the critical thinking skills we wanted to enhance in our students. in the following table there is presented the structure of the cognitive processes proposed by krathwolh (2002) for the cognitive dimension. critical thinking through political cartoons esteban, marquez & ortiz no. 16 (january june, 2018) no. 16 (january june, 2018) 148 table 1. cognitive processes of the cognitive process dimension adapted from krathwohl, 2002, p. 215 regarding the information presented previously about critical thinking and about critical thinking skills, the following criteria were considered and applied along the different workshops to enhance our participants’ critical thinking skills: critical thinking through political cartoons esteban, marquez & ortiz no. 16 (january june, 2018) no. 16 (january june, 2018) 149 1. these critical thinking skills should be constructed socially, that is to say by means of cooperative work. 2. they require a personal effort and commitment to have a progressive process. 3. we should start from the particular to the general; it means learners have to analyze their immediate reality first, and in that way, to have better understanding of the global phenomena. 4. it is necessary that learners make a constant assessment of their process, in order for them to be aware of their difficulties and strengths. finally, we consider that based on the previous criteria, learners should have the ability to act more critically towards the improvement of the world’s reality. cartoons cartoons portray different events that occur in societies. the objective is focused on criticizing in a satirical and humoristic way particular issues and features that affect reality. for monzon (2005) cartoons are an art in which life, customs and thought of a time or a town are expressed. its highest value lies in discovering hidden but decisive qualities of a person or situation, provoking a smile or a frank laugh, as well as creating reflection and reaction analysis. the encyclopaedia britannica (macro-paedia, vol.3) cited in onakpa (2014, p. 34) states that “cartoons sharpen the public’s view of a contemporary or topical issue, event, political or social trend.” it means that tendencies in the current world could be analyzed and criticized by the common population, and in some cases, change their perception of a particular reality, since, they are presented in an attractive and accessible way for people. besides, cartoons have two different purposes: to amuse and to inform people. during this research, cartoons were used combining its two purposes: to amuse since it uses sarcasm, exaggerated drawings; and to inform due to the social content they include. cartoons can also be classified into animated cartoons and editorial cartoons where political cartoons are situated. critical thinking through political cartoons esteban, marquez & ortiz no. 16 (january june, 2018) no. 16 (january june, 2018) 150 political cartoons. political cartoons are a type of cartoons that is focused only on social or political events. they involve an image that shows exaggerated details of a politician, social problematic or famous event in order to picture a situation in a particular and very unique way. the idea of a political cartoon is to know the reality of a political system in an accessible and easier way, since it is shown through humoristic and funny graphics that catch people’s attention to be active participants of society. political cartoons can be used as a pedagogical tool to promote critical thinking since they can be considered as a way to get information in a simple and entertained way. walker (2003) claims that “one of the most powerful weapons that a cartoon has is its seemingly humor whose message can be absorbed easily, without much reflection or resistance” (p.16). however, as our population was teenagers, we wanted to approach political cartoons with the intention of moving them into a deeper analysis of this new type of text. we consider political cartoons as a new text; since this was the first time they were introduced and studied in this particular class. political cartoons also have the ability to summarize throughout pictures extended information that could be found in newspapers, critical articles and news in general. they generally are thought-provoking and attempt to educate the viewer about a current issue. they also have the purpose of dissecting and criticizing deeply a social and political issue, catching the audience’s attention instantaneously (wintz, karaca, and lang, 2003). it could be said that political cartoons were a different type of texts the participants had to read about the reality that surrounded them. in the study here presented political cartoons were used as the main strategy to introduce the participants in the analysis of different political and social issues regarding the colombian and the international context. political cartoons were the excuse to go beyond those problems, to analyze them and to state a critical position about them. instructional design throughout the first semester of 2017 year, five task-based workshops were developed with the pre-intermediate class. these workshops lasted two hours each one; meetings were scheduled every fifteen days during their english classes. critical thinking through political cartoons esteban, marquez & ortiz no. 16 (january june, 2018) no. 16 (january june, 2018) 151 in order to enhance critical thinking skills in this group of students, we selected five contemporary topics that were related to their context and world’s reality. table 2 presents the topics and workshops developed based on those topics. table 2. topics and workshops after selecting the topics for the five workshops, we began a search for the political cartoons in the newspapers, internet and social media to work each topic. the topics presented in the next table approached a social or political issue we wanted to address in our classes; however we decided to state a title for each workshop that could be more attractive and meaningful to our participants. we presented this title as a warming up to introduce the issues to be approached in each workshop. the workshops were designed around the taskbased approach proposed by willis (1998). this author suggests that tasks are activities used to achieve a communicative objective, by using the target language. throughout these tasks, our intention was also to promote and foster students’ critical thinking skills. the tasks allowed students to analyze the political cartoon, reflect and interact with their partners to share their ideas, opinions and concerns in relation to the problematic issues there presented or portrayed. this approach is developed by implementing six different types of task. these types include: listing, ordering and sorting, comparing, problem solving, sharing of personal experiences and creative tasks (willis, 1998). based on the tasks mentioned previously, five workshops were designed. these workshops included creative, diverse, fun and enjoyable content to promote critical participation in students. the structured model of task-based learning proposed by willis and willis (2007) was considered to organize the stages of each workshop. this model includes: pre-task, task preparation and post task. critical thinking through political cartoons esteban, marquez & ortiz no. 16 (january june, 2018) no. 16 (january june, 2018) 152 here it is presented briefly what each stage of the different taskbased workshops entailed: pre-task: during this stage, an introduction was made to get students’ attention and prepared them for the topic that was going to be presented further on. this introduction was developed by using different videos, games and songs. during this stage the political cartoons for each workshop were presented and shared with the students. students had the chance to observe each political cartoon and comment around the topics there portrayed. task preparation: in this stage, students were able to elaborate the central task, where they could analyze, explore their imagination, creativity, and share ideas among them. students were involved in developing scale models, performances, posters and videos creation. along the workshops, diverse activities for this stage were proposed to avoid repetitive activities. post task: this was the last stage of the workshops. based on the activities the students developed during the task preparation stage, learners develop performances, exposition of the posters, and explanation of their own political cartoons and scale models. this was considered as the stage where the researchers could identify the critical thinking skills fostered or developed in each workshop. type of research this study followed the action research method which according to koshy (2005) and varcalcel (2009), consists of teachers studying class situations to improve their pedagogical practice. four steps were taken into consideration as the action research principles state: observing, planning, acting and evaluating. in the first step (observing) the lack of spaces to develop critical thinking in the language classes in the modern language program was identified; for that reason, the researchers agreed to foster this skill by implementing political cartoons as a pedagogical innovation for this class. during the second step (planning) a structural plan conformed by five (5) workshops was created, it included pre-task, task, and posttask phases, implementing the task based model proposed by willis and willis (2007), in which students accomplish a communicative goal by means of small tasks and using the target language. critical thinking through political cartoons esteban, marquez & ortiz no. 16 (january june, 2018) no. 16 (january june, 2018) 153 in the third step, (acting) the workshops were implemented. during a series of two-hour sessions students developed the proposed activities in the workshops. during the last step (evaluating) the researchers condensed the information gathered in the workshops and analyzed it in order to support the theory. setting and participants the study was conducted at a public university in colombia during the first academic semester in 2017. this university has two english teaching preparation programs: the foreign languages bachelor program and the modern languages bachelor program. the class selected for this study was a pre-intermediate level course according to the common european framework. they were in the 3rd semester of their major and at this level they were expected to continue developing their communicative competence as well as to enhance their critical thinking skills. the students’ ages ranged between 18 and 21. this group studies an average of five (5) hours of english per week. for the study 10 out of 16 students accepted to participate voluntarily in the study and that was the data we analyzed. in this paper the names of the participants were replaced by s and a number. data collection three collection methods were used: class video-recording, students’ artifacts and a focus group. these instruments allowed the researchers to analyze and triangulate the data needed to answer the research question. class video-recording edwards and westgate (1987) consider class video-recording allows a retrospective analysis of data. students were recorded to analyze their behavior, interaction, and responses to the activities to determine the impact and effectiveness of them. it also let researchers to analyze the critical thinking skills that were enhanced in each workshop. critical thinking through political cartoons esteban, marquez & ortiz no. 16 (january june, 2018) no. 16 (january june, 2018) 154 students’ artifacts they are “the range of written and symbolic records kept by or on participants in a social group” (goetz and lecompte, 1984, cited in merriam, 1991, p.105).this instrument provided pertinent information about students’ experiences and their process in the classroom to know their perception of different topics. in this sense, during the workshops students created a variety of artifacts like posters, reflective writings, performances, scale-models, and their own versions of political cartoons. the student’s artifacts were mainly developed during the post – task stage. these artifacts were also analyzed to identify critical thinking skills. focus group conducting focus groups is a qualitative research method that allowed researchers to collect a large amount of data from a substantial group of people in a relatively short amount of time (bell, 2010). this focus group was conducted at the end of the study to go deeper in students’ reflections, concerns and thoughts about the workshops and topics presented. some unstructured questions were designed to allow students to express spontaneously about the social issues treated in class, the materials and how this had an impact in their immediate context. the group discussion was done with all the students of the class during one hour at the end of the study. findings grounded theory was applied to analyze the data. according to strauss and corbin (1990) grounded theory is a qualitative research method in which theory emerges from the students’ data through the implementation of an inductive process rather than a deductive one. taking into account the grounded theory method, we collected, transcribed, labeled, analyzed and interpreted data to answer the research question proposed for this study. this process required a constant revision and reading of the information gathered from the sources that were applied with the intention of perceiving relevant aspects of the topic under study (glaser and strauss, 1967). in this case, this research aimed to analyze to what extent the implementation of political cartoons enhances critical thinking in pre-intermediate english level students. critical thinking through political cartoons esteban, marquez & ortiz no. 16 (january june, 2018) no. 16 (january june, 2018) 155 in order to integrate the collected information from the instruments, it was necessary to take into consideration the methodological triangulation proposed by krathwohl (1993) which allowed us to use different sources to collect data and to confirm their reliability and veracity. the samples that support the data analysis are presented as students produced them, therefore grammar or spelling mistakes can be observed in those samples. the findings were organized around two main categories: connecting the word with the world and identifying a path to follow. the names of these categories were established by the researchers during the labeling process. the data analysis here presented evidences that critical thinking skills cannot be separated and analyzed in isolation due to they are cognitive processes that cannot be separated, on the contrary these processes are overlapped and complemented. connecting the word with the world this category emerges from the analysis of the different instruments applied to collect data. while analyzing the data, it was possible to identify that the english language classroom was transformed into a space where the participants were learning not only about the language, but that language was transformed into a vehicle to learn, reflect, analyze and discuss about different current social and political issues. here, there are presented some samples connected to this category: ‘your mental jail will protect you from reality’ (s3, workshop #3 social life, poster about social networks, may 16) “people now believe that social networks can help in real life, but that is incorrect because that is not a solution” (s6, workshop #3 a social life; video recording #1, minute 2:50, may 16) in terms of critical thinking skills and based on the previous samples we can say that these students were reflecting about what people consider as real life. it can be said that these students were identifying that sometimes people are not able to recognize the reality they are living in and, according to participants’ analysis, it can happen because of the different media people are involved with every day. this same situation was also observed by s2: “we can see some pictures or photos on social networks, and that give us an idea of a “perfect life” (workshop #3 a social life; video recording # 2, minute: 1:5; may 16) critical thinking through political cartoons esteban, marquez & ortiz no. 16 (january june, 2018) no. 16 (january june, 2018) 156 in the same line of thought, the students s7, s8 and s9, complemented that idea with the following reflections: the social networks create fake lives” (workshop #3, a social life; poster about social networks; may 16) “social network is the modern slavery, because they (people) are always looking for new messages in whatsapp or new posts on facebook, or new stuff that doesn’t have any meaning in the real life.” (s5, workshop # 5, focus group, minute: 20:05; june 1) these participants are giving a description of what social networks mean to them and, in the case of s5, it is possible to evidence how he was able to state his own definition by comparing it with a modern slavery people accept, and he concluded stating that situation is not part of the real life. from these reflections we could see that participants perceive the social networks as spaces people use to escape from what they consider real life. however, reflecting and comparing were not the only critical thinking skills that we could observe in the data analysis. we could perceive that while they were demonstrating understanding of information, facts and ideas by giving descriptions and stating main ideas, they were also presenting and defending opinions by making judgments about the same information, ideas or facts (facione, 1990). the next samples evidence this analysis: “you must recycle because the world needs you now” (s3, s6, s9, workshop # , 5 no planet, no life, class videorecording, minute: 00:12; june 1). and, they concluded with the next idea: “the solution to clean and protect the world is in your hands. recycle!” (minute: 01:20). in the previous sample, it is possible to see that these participants were connecting the situations happening outside the classroom and the possible solutions to the pollution issue. according to them, this problem can be solved if each person assumes that the world is in his/ her hands. in this sense, we could say that this group of students was not only identifying the problem, but they were also hypothesizing about a possible solution. they were aware of the problems that are in their immediate reality and they developed the necessity of attacking them by means of a systematically plan (elder & paul, 2010). this same situation was also evidenced in the next samples: “we should change our society. a society blaming to the other is not the solution. the change is inside each one of us, being honest and critical thinking through political cartoons esteban, marquez & ortiz no. 16 (january june, 2018) no. 16 (january june, 2018) 157 good persons” (s3, workshop # 4, corrupted minds, reflective writing activity; may 23, see annex 3) based on the previous analysis, it is possible to say that during the different workshops these students were enhancing different critical skills because they were not only reflecting about some social issues, but they also were demonstrating understanding of the facts presented in the political cartoons; they were also organizing their ideas to identify the causes of some current problems, but at the same time they were proposing solutions to those problems. all these cognitive processes are considered critical thinking skills (krathwohl, 2002) showing a path to follow the name of this category was identified in the different data collected. it was possible to see the impact that political cartoons cause on this group of students. different participants were writing and discussing about the role of those cartoons in their life as students and also in the possibilities of using them in their future as language teachers. the next samples evidence this situation: “cartoons are a creative way to keep our active role like citizens and think beyond our eyes” (s9, workshop # 4, corrupted minds, reflective writing activity; may 23) “the workshops helped us to realize the bad situations of the society and in our college, because sometimes we live outside of the reality, and we believe some problems don’t affect us” (s3, workshop # 5, focus group, class video-recording; minute: 23:10; june 1st) a similar statement was found in the same workshop. it was proposed by s1, but in this case, he mentioned specific issues that affect our society: “problems like corruption, powerful people can manipulate our society. through political cartoons we can face those situations and analyze all the factors hidden on it” (workshop # 4, corrupted minds, reflective writing activity; may 23) on the other hand, some students proposed that society needs a deep change and it depends on people’s acts to achieve it. it is the case of s7, when she said: “all the scenarios that we have seen are the reflection of a society that has a lot of things to change. we need to know more about our context, about our problems and how those situations can change our critical thinking through political cartoons esteban, marquez & ortiz no. 16 (january june, 2018) no. 16 (january june, 2018) 158 life” (workshop # 4, corrupted minds, reflective writing activity; may 23, see annex 3) according to the students’ samples, we can identify that they were able to recognize that even though many societies seem to be manipulated by corrupted governments, it is our responsibility as citizens to struggle with this, taking honesty, respect and tolerance as main principles. these previous samples also evidence the critical thinking skills students were enhancing. they are not only reflecting about an issue but they were also proposing alternatives to face those social and political issues. these participants also expressed that this pedagogical implementation was meaningful for their professional lives as future teachers. it was possible to evidence that they were aware of their responsibility as future language teachers and their commitment on generating changes. the next samples evidence this observation: “like future teachers we should try to change the point of view of our students, invite to create a better world” (s7, workshop #4 corrupted minds, reflective writing; may 23) s4 fostered the previous reflection, by mentioning some aspects that highlight the responsibility and the important role that teachers play in societies. “we as teachers should try to create awareness in our students because we are creating a new generation and we can influence in our students and give them new tools to change the situations” (s4, focus group, minute: 15:16; june 1) likewise, s3, s6, s10, manifested what teachers have to do nowadays, especially in the colombian context: “teachers have to construct something that is destroyed” (workshop # 4 corrupted minds, class video-recording, minute: 01:48; may 23) with this analysis, we can say that at this level, students were able to enhance some critical thinking skills and they had the possibility to expand their critical vision about some social and political issues; although it was possible to see they were able to identify their roles as citizens and as future teachers, we consider there is still a life-long road they should follow to become skillful critical thinkers. to sum up, it is important to highlight that students’ critical thinking level had a progressive and meaningful improvement through critical thinking through political cartoons esteban, marquez & ortiz no. 16 (january june, 2018) no. 16 (january june, 2018) 159 the implementation of the five workshops carried out along the semester. they were able to go beyond analyzing local and global issues to look for solutions and new alternatives to overcome them. this progression can be related to the third and four stages proposed by elder and paul (2010) that individuals go through in order to become critical thinkers. conclusions taking into account that this study was designed to identify and analyze whether or not the implementation of some political cartoons enhanced or fostered pre-intermediate english students’ critical thinking, and to determine how these could emerge with the implementation of some political cartoons, the participants were invited to actively participate in five workshops where they produced artifacts and participated in discussions related to diverse political issues. political cartoons was a different didactic alternative for this population since they were involved into the analysis of different political and social issues by using a different type of text that allowed them to connect the word with the world and therefore contributed into the enhancement of different critical thinking skills. based on the previous data analysis, it is possible to say that we could see our population was enhancing some critical thinking skills, since they were able to reflect, discuss, analyze and evaluate information presented in a political cartoon. they were also contrasting the issue presented in the cartoon with their own realities and they were proposing solutions to the problematic presented. however, we consider that it is necessary a constant practice to foster the development of these and other critical thinking skills. students argued that they achieved a critical opinion about the cartoons, because they could reflect about the topics that affect the society. they also highlighted that when they worked in groups they had the opportunity to listen to more points of view about the topics, so they had the possibility to reflect on them. they became more critical in regards to the society issues, because they realized those problems can affect them. we, as language teacher-researchers consider necessary to continue creating spaces where students can learn not only the language but with the language. it is our responsibility to develop sharp, open and analytical minds to face the current globalized world. we should never forget that all education is political and that we teachers are called to empower kids to read the word and the world. 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(2003). understanding the world of political cartoons. the seattle times company newspapers in education. retrieved from https://www.world-affairs.org/wpcontent/uploads/2013/10/2003-understanding-political-cartoons. pdf critical thinking through political cartoons esteban, marquez & ortiz no. 16 (january june, 2018) no. 16 (january june, 2018) 163 authors * maría teresa esteban núñez holds a ba in modern languages and an ma in language teaching from universidad pedagógica y tecnológica de colombia. she is a full time teacher-researcher in the undergraduate and postgraduate programs at the same university. she is a member of the research group knowledge in action (kia). adriana márquez medina holds a ba in foreign languages from universidad pedagógica y tecnológica de colombia. she is a member of the research group knowledge in action (kia) in the same university. she has worked also as project developer in rural and urban contexts. currently, she is an english teacher in a private institution. jhon everth ortiz cubides holds a ba in foreign languages from universidad pedagógica y tecnológica de colombia. he is a member of the research group knowledge in action (kia) in the same university. he currently works as a teacher assisstant at robbinsdale spanish immersion school in minneapolis, mn in the usa. critical thinking through political cartoons esteban, marquez & ortiz no. 16 (january june, 2018) no. 16 (january june, 2018) 50 the use of first language in the second-language classroom: a support for second language acquisition1 el uso de la lengua materna en el salón de la clase de inglés: un apoyo para la adquisición de una segunda lengua mara salmona madriñan2* colegio nueva granada, colombia abstract this action research project was carried out in order to identify the role of first language in the second-language classroom. this study was conducted in a colombian international school with an english immersion program for kindergarten students attending their first year of school. the purpose of this study was to identify if the use of the mother tongue in the classroom increases comprehension and facilitates the second language acquisition process. two lesson plans were designed: the first one using only english as the language of instruction, and the second one using both languages, spanish and english. the results demonstrate that students do benefit from the use of the first language in the classroom, transferring concepts from their mother tongue to the new language. keywords: second language acquisition, language transfer, first language acquisition, language of instruction resumen esta investigación acción fue desarrollada con el fin de identificar el rol de la primera lengua en el salón de clase con un programa de inmersión a la segunda lengua. este estudio se llevó a cabo en un colegio internacional colombiano 1 received: july 15, 2014 / accepted: october 6, 2014 2 marasalmona@hotmail.com gist education and learning research journal. issn 1692-5777. no. 9, (julydecember) 2014. pp. 50-66. salmona no. 9 (july december 2014) no. 9 (july december 2014) 51 caracterizado por su programa bilingüe de inmersión al inglés. el objetivo de esta investigación era identificar si el uso de la lengua materna en el salón de clase aumenta la comprensión y facilita así el proceso de adquisición de la segunda lengua. para desarrollar esta investigación, se desarrollaron dos planeadores de clase: el primero usando inglés únicamente durante la instrucción y el desarrollo de la actividad, y el segundo alternando entre español e inglés durante la instrucción y el desarrollo de la actividad. los resultados demuestran que los estudiantes sí se benefician del uso de la primera lengua puesto que pueden transferir conceptos de su lengua materna al nuevo idioma. palabras clave: adquisición de una segunda lengua, transferencia lingüística, adquisición de lengua materna, lengua de instrucción resumo esta pesquisa ação foi desenvolvida com a finalidade de identificar o papel da primeira língua na sala de aula, com um programa de imersão à segunda língua. este estudo foi realizado em um colégio internacional colombiano, caracterizado pelo seu programa bilíngue de imersão ao inglês. o objetivo desta pesquisa era identificar se o uso da língua materna na sala de aula aumenta a compreensão e facilita, assim, o processo de aquisição da segunda língua. para desenvolver esta pesquisa desenvolveram-se dois planejadores de aula: o primeiro, usando inglês somente durante a instrução e o desenvolvimento da atividade; e o segundo, reversando entre espanhol e inglês durante a instrução e o desenvolvimento da atividade. os resultados demonstram que os estudantes sim, se beneficiam do uso da primeira língua, já que podem transferir conceitos da sua língua materna ao novo idioma. palavras chave: aquisição de uma segunda língua, transferência linguística, aquisição de língua materna, língua de instrução introduction as globalization and population movements are increasing, different cultures come into greater contact with each other, resulting in the need for communication between societies (hamers & blanc, 2000). thus, being bilingual has become a vital aspect for becoming a successful professional, making bilingualism the main component in education. in fact, a bilingual person has more opportunities to obtain a better job and to have more achievements than a monolingual person. therefore, elementary schools, high schools, and universities have to face the need for bilingualism by educating students who are able to work in these multicultural societies. if students receive bilingual education from their first years of school, the level of proficiency in the second language should increase. in fact, the more salmona no. 9 (july december 2014) no. 9 (july december 2014) 52 students are exposed to a new language, the easier they learn the target language due to brain development (piaget & inhelder, 1969). that is why today, teachers in bilingual schools and language teachers are challenged to teach children to help them reach the level of proficiency required for learning demanding academic content and ensuring complete cognitive development. cognitive development is understood in this study as the construction of thought processes, including problem-solving, decision-making, reasoning, and language development (piaget & inhelder, 1969). this research was conducted at a private international school in bogotá. this large urban institution is an example of a bilingual school with an english immersion program where students are exposed to english from their first year of school. from kindergarten to 12th grade, students receive all classes in english, except spanish and extracurricular activities. during the first years in immersion schools, students face academic content in a language they have never been exposed to before, making the learning process a challenge. in fact, if children use a language which is not well developed during writing, speaking, reading or listening activities, the cognitive system will not function at its best (cummins, 2000). according to the curriculum for kindergarten at this school, the number of hours in english (second language) and spanish (first language) are not equivalent. as students are learning a second language, most of the classes are in english. even though the school has changed the curriculum during the past two years, due to the importance of developing the mother tongue from the first year at school, the amount of hours in spanish and english are not the same. in fact, kindergarten students (the first year of school) only receive three hours of spanish per week and the rest of their classes in english. the subjects in this study were kindergarten students between four and six years old. they were all colombians and most of them received a little exposure to english at their nursery school in order to prepare them for elementary school. moreover, it is mandatory that at least one of the parents speaks english in order to apply to this school. however, students only know a few words in english, as for example to count up to five or to name the colors. during the first year of school, students are supposed to learn the alphabet, both in english and spanish. the common underlying proficiency model proposed by cummins suggests that the languages in a bilingual or multilingual person do not work independently; they work through the same processing system (cummins, 2000). in fact, a student who knows how to multiply in the use of first language salmona no. 9 (july december 2014) no. 9 (july december 2014) 53 spanish does not need to be taught how to do it in english because the processing system is the same. however, if the student does not have a well-developed language of instruction, he will not perform effectively, and therefore due to the lack of understanding, cognitive development will not be as good as it could be. furthermore, as we are talking about kindergarten students starting their literacy process, it is important to take into account the stages of language development. in fact, during the first stages of language acquisition it is important to constantly refer to the mother tongue in order to make connections (cummins, 2001). previous knowledge in kindergarten students is a starting point for acquiring a new language, leading to language transfer (baker, 2001). language transfer is understood as the use of the first language during the second language acquisition, which represents the first stage of language acquisition (krashen, 2003). moreover, during the first year of school it is vital that the first language is developed in students. in fact, first language development is required in order to have good strategies to transfer to the new language. if students do not have good strategies in their mother tongue, they will not have good strategies to transfer to the new language, and therefore the cognitive development will be reduced (friedlander, 1997). due to the importance of first language development, the school in this study has now increased the number of spanish hours in kindergarten. in the second language acquisition process, it may be useful for teachers to teach the new language using the mother tongue as support in order to develop not only the target language but also the cognitive development required to be academically and professionally successful. it is a very important aspect in education because second language teachers in bilingual schools need to ensure that their students acquire a level of proficiency that will allow them to deal with academic content during the school year. it has been found that the use of first language in the second-language classroom helps students make connections with their existing knowledge of the mother tongue, facilitating the process of understanding. research suggests that the first language should not be banned in the second-language classroom but that neither should its use be constantly encouraged, otherwise the mother tongue may replace the target language rather than support it. the present study seeks to address the following question: does the use of the first language as support in a second-language classroom increase understanding in kindergarten students during their first year of school? the use of first language salmona no. 9 (july december 2014) no. 9 (july december 2014) 54 literature review as bilingualism is nowadays a key factor in society and in education, it is important for schools to understand the process by which a second language should be taught. bilingualism in schools has become one of the most important aspects of education; in fact, schools not only look for the cognitive and social development of their students but also for developing bilingual professionals. there are many theories about bilingualism; some are opposed and some complement each other. this paper focuses on bilingual theories that suggest how a second language should be taught. first, bilingualism is described, then bilingual theories are contrasted, and finally, language acquisition theories are described and integrated with bilingualism. bilingualism and bilingual theories bilingualism is defined as the alternate use of two languages by the same individual when the process is not accompanied by loss of the native language (bloomfield, 1935; mackey, as cited in beardsmore, 1986). a bilingual person is then someone who can speak, read, listen and write in two languages at different levels of proficiency. second language acquisition is a process that has different stages that teachers should be familiar with in order to ensure students’ learning. since students in bilingual schools may have little or no exposure to the second language outside the classroom, it is important for teachers to understand the process by which a second language (l2) should be taught, using the first language (l1) as support in order to ensure understanding and learning (dixon et al., 2012). there are many theories about bilingualism and, therefore, different opinions. on the one hand, the balance theory suggests that the two languages exist in balance. in fact, the theory is better explained by the analogy of two balloons inside the head, each one representing a language. a monolingual person has only one filled balloon while a bilingual person has two less-filled or half-filled balloons. it is called the balance theory because it states that as one language balloon increases, the other decreases (baker, 2001). cummins refers to this theory as the separate underlying proficiency model of bilingualism (cummins, 2000). in fact, this model describes the two languages as operating independently, without transferring from one language to the other. however, when there is interference during the process of acquiring a second language, it is considered an indicator of l2 acquisition. interference is the use of the first language in the process of second language acquisition, which represents the first stage of the language the use of first language salmona no. 9 (july december 2014) no. 9 (july december 2014) 55 acquisition, known as the silent period (krashen, 2003). on the other hand, the iceberg analogy promoted by cummins opposes the balance theory. the iceberg analogy represents the common underlying proficiency model of bilingualism, where the first and the second language are represented by two icebergs separated above the surface of the water but fused underneath. that means that the two languages are visually different but operate through the same processing system (cummins, 2000). furthermore, since the two languages operate through the same system, previous knowledge is a starting point for acquiring a new language in all learning situations, and therefore language transfer will occur. in fact, transfer occurs consciously when there is a gap in the learner’s second language knowledge, and unconsciously either because the correct form is not known or because it has not been completely automatized (benson, 2002). moreover, first language development has a direct impact on the writing process in english as a second language. research has shown that writers will transfer their writing abilities and strategies, whether good or deficient, from their first language to the second (friedlander, 1997). hence, if students do not have effective writing strategies in their mother tongue, they will not have efficient strategies to transfer to the new language (eldesky, in friedlander, 1997). that is because the process used for specific skills is the same no matter what language is used. for example, a student who learned how to multiply in spanish does not need to be taught how to do it in english because the thinking process is the same (baker, 2001). in addition, writing, speaking, reading or listening in the first or the second language helps the entire cognitive system to develop. however, if children use a language that is not well developed, the cognitive system will not function effectively. that is why it is important to constantly refer to the first language to ensure students’ complete cognitive development (baker, 2001). stages of language development it is important for teachers to understand and take into account the second language acquisition stages. the first stage, called preproduction, is a silent period where language learners may have up to 500 words in their receptive vocabulary, but they are not yet speaking. teachers might use visual aids and constant repetition in order to help the students understand. during this first stage, it is very important the use of first language salmona no. 9 (july december 2014) no. 9 (july december 2014) 56 for teachers to use the environment – such as visual aids – and body language to help students understand. in fact, if students only have limited receptive language, teachers need to ensure their understanding based on the use of the environment. students acquire second language by repetition, thus it is vital for teachers to use constant repetition in order for students to understand it and, therefore, use it. when students are ready they move on to the next stage, called early production stage, where they are expected to produce basic sentences using simple vocabulary. and finally, in the final stages (speech emergence, intermediate fluency and advanced fluency) they are able to communicate using more complex vocabulary, and they are able to understand more complex conversations, becoming fluent (krashen, 2003). there is substantial research that addresses the role of the first language in second language learning and instruction. some studies point to the positive effect of the first language on the learning environment. schweers (1999) found that first language use in the classroom creates a comfortable environment, and therefore an environment that enhances learning. in fact, in a study where teachers and students were interviewed about the use of the mother tongue in the classroom, most of the teachers reported the use of spanish (mother tongue) in the classroom to build relationships with students. students reported that they would like spanish to be used to explain difficult concepts, which would help them feel more comfortable and confident in the classroom. furthermore, burchinal, fiel, lópez, howees & pianta (2012) demonstrated the importance of the use of the first language in the second language classroom. the study indicates that teachers who speak spanish in the classroom may create a more culturally sensitive environment that enhances learning and communication for children. consequently, the use of the first language is more useful at certain stages of development. the mother tongue is most useful at beginning and low levels, where l1 can be used to introduce the major differences between l1 and l2. as students acquire more english, the use of the first language may be reduced, and the use of visual aids and body language as well. it is important that beginning learners of english are exposed to situations that require the use of the second language to develop their acquisition. however, some argue that teachers should avoid situations where students are forced to operate entirely in english (friedlander, 1997). in fact, vygotsky’s theory stipulates that the development and learning of a child depends on the presence of mediating agents in the child’s interaction with the environment. this interaction develops the zone of proximal development, which is the difference between what the use of first language salmona no. 9 (july december 2014) no. 9 (july december 2014) 57 a learner can do without help and what he or she can do with help. in the language learning context, vygotsky suggests that interaction with pairs in the first language increases the zone of proximal development (kozulin, 2003). studies have demonstrated that the use of the first language is seen as a natural psychological process in language development (stern, as cited in ghorbani, 2011). in fact, ghorbani’s (2011) findings are related to vygotsky´s theory because he suggested that during group activities, the first language is used to extend learners’ zone of proximal development. language transfer from l1 to l2 furthermore, teachers need to take into account students’ levels of development in their first language in order to ensure not only the second language acquisition, but also full cognitive development. research has shown that in order to read and write fluently, a child needs to understand the spoken language and understand how this spoken language is represented in written form through the use of symbols (juel & prefetti, as cited in durgunoglu & öney, 2000). in fact, the literacy development process, previous knowledge and personal background are used as tools to help students move from the first stage of literacy to the next one. if children already understand the symbolic role of characters or are familiar with letters, they can easily start reading and writing. however, since we are talking about students that have never been exposed to the second language before, they have no previous knowledge or background, so the literacy development in the new language becomes more complicated. it is through students’ experiences that children become familiar with characteristics of their language and develop an understanding of the functions of literacy (juel & prefetti, as cited in durgunoglu & öney, 2000). therefore, it is in the classroom that the second language background is built, using the first language as a bridge between previous and new knowledge. the second language will always activate first language associations, no matter what level of proficiency the person has (spivey & marian, as cited in horst, white & bell, 2010). even if teachers avoid and forbid the use of the mother tongue in the classroom, the connection and links between both languages will always exist in the learners’ minds (cohen, as cited in horst et. al, 2010). in the early stages of second language acquisition, learners process the new language, making connections with their mother tongue. the links between both languages can make learning contexts even richer (horst et al. 2010). the use of first language salmona no. 9 (july december 2014) no. 9 (july december 2014) 58 although certain language skills can be positively transferred and may assist in the development of corresponding skills in another language, the first language must be sufficiently developed before exposure to the new language (cummins, as cited in gebauer, zaunbauer & möller, 2012). studies indicate that students who begin school in kindergarten with higher levels of their first language acquire the new language more easily. the study suggests a relationship between first language skills and second language acquisition. in fact, students who had stronger reading skills in spanish (first language) performed better reading in english at the end of the year than the students who had lower reading skills in their mother tongue at the beginning of the year (cárdenas-hagán & carlson, 2007). methodology research design this study emerged at an international school with an english immersion program where students are exposed to english even more than they are exposed to their mother tongue. due to this difference in the language development, this study looks to demonstrate the importance of developing both the native language and the second language simultaneously in this specific context. therefore, the study followed an action research approach based on a specific situation that occurs actually at the school. moreover, qualitative data collection techniques were used. context and participants this study was conducted at an international bilingual school in bogotá. this is a large urban institution with and english immersion program through which students are exposed to english starting in their first year of school. the participants in this study were kindergarten students between four and five years old attending their first year of school. since the participants were all colombian, they had little or no exposure to english beforehand. data collection instruments to address this study, qualitative data collection techniques were used. as the research question of the study was to determine if the use of first language as a support in a second language classroom increases understanding among kindergarten students during their first year of school, two lesson plans were designed, one using only english as the use of first language salmona no. 9 (july december 2014) no. 9 (july december 2014) 59 the language of instruction, and the other one using both spanish and english. at the end of the reading activity, students were asked to make a written production to evaluate their understanding. both lesson plans were observed through non-participant observation. the teacher and students were observed during the development of the activities, and the observations were recorded in a chart. during the lesson plan an observation chart was used, reporting students’ involvement in the activity by taking note of the number of interruptions during reading aloud, the level of participation of the students in answering and asking questions, and their engagement with the activity. additionally, the kindergarten teachers were interviewed about the impact of the development of the first language on the second language acquisition process. teachers answered the following questions: what’s the impact of developing the first language in kindergarten students on a second language acquisition process? does increasing the amount of spanish hours per week show any progress among your students’ level of proficiency? data analysis and interpretation to gather all the information, triangulation was used, where the non-participant observations during the lesson plan and the written production of the students were contrasted. first of all, during the two lessons, students’ engagement in the activity was evaluated through their participation and the number of interruptions during the activities. we understand “participation” to refer to the interaction between students and teachers, such as following the story and asking and answering questions. “interruptions” are understood in this study as a behavior that disrupts the reading activity, such as playing with classmates or talking with others about a topic not related to the story. students’ participation was contrasted with the non-participant observations. in fact, the teacher was observed during the read aloud activity, taking into account the strategies that she used in both activities; reading strategies as well as the classroom management techniques that she used. on the other hand, students’ written production was contrasted with the non-participant observations during the read aloud activities. moreover, the teachers’ interviews were also contrasted with the balance of the read aloud activities and the students’ written production. the use of first language salmona no. 9 (july december 2014) no. 9 (july december 2014) 60 results from analysis of the interviews, observations of the activities during the lesson plan, and the students’ written production, three main themes emerged. the use of first language in the second language classroom first of all, students were more engaged during the activity that used code switching. their level of participation was higher, which made room for teachers to connect with other activities and deepen understanding. when students are engaged, the lesson runs in a smoother and positive way, and therefore the teacher and students can make the most of every activity, thus enriching learning. the first lesson observed was a read-aloud activity where the teacher read who will be my mother? using only english during both instruction and reading time. this will be called activity a. the second lesson observed was a read-aloud of a button for corduroy, but this time the teacher used code switching between english and spanish (activity b). figure 1 illustrates data collected from activity a. as it is clear on the graph, students participated 13 times during this read-aloud activity, but they also interrupted almost as many times as they participated (11 times). however, figure 2 illustrates students’ behavior during activity b. it is evident through the chart that during this activity, students participated more than they interrupted (20 and 5 times respectively). figure 1. students’ participation and interruptions during activity a the use of first language salmona no. 9 (july december 2014) no. 9 (july december 2014) 61 figure 2. students’ participation and interruptions during activity b comparing the results of both activities, it is evident through the graphs that students were more engaged in the second activity. in fact, not only was the number of interruptions lower, but the amount of participation was also higher than in the first activity. the use of the first language in the activity was related to students’ behavior during class time. these results might illustrate that students were more engaged during the reading-aloud activity that included both languages than the reading that used only english. according to krashen’s theory of the stages of second language acquisition, during the pre-production stage language learners are not yet speaking and only have up to 500 words in their receptive vocabulary (krashen, 2003). in kindergarten, as it is the students’ first year of immersion in english, they are in the pre-production stage. as they only have a limited receptive vocabulary, their attention and understanding might be lower when the teacher uses only english during the activity. however, as we are talking about children, it is important to take into account other factors such as the interest in the book in every activity; this might have influenced students’ participation and motivation. even if students were more engaged during the activity that used both languages, that does not necessarily mean that their understanding was higher. students’ understanding of the story even though the lesson using english as the language of instruction had a lower level of participation, and a higher level of the use of first language salmona no. 9 (july december 2014) no. 9 (july december 2014) 62 interruptions, students were able to perform the task correctly. in fact, in both activities students were able to retell their favorite part of the story through a drawing. a rubric was designed to evaluate their drawings, taking into account students’ own descriptions of the image and the correspondence of their description to the drawing. there were no main differences found between activity a and activity b. in fact, all students were able to draw their favorite part of the story using elements from the book, such as characters or settings. even though students were more engaged during activity a, in both activities students were able to describe their favorite part of the story, describing a specific part of the story recreating the characters, the setting and the situation. therefore, the level of participation and the number of interruptions did not interfere with students’ understanding. there were no main differences found between the two exercises, and therefore the language of instruction was not a key factor in determining understanding during reading activities. in fact, even though students were more distracted during the english only activity, their performance during the written production was similar to their performance during activity b. thus, it is important to add that the activities were conducted by the same teacher, and therefore using the same reading strategies. however, due to the number of interruptions during the english activity, the lesson was more difficult to accomplish. in fact, the pace of the class was not the same because the teacher needed to interrupt the reading in order to control the group of students. nevertheless, the importance of using visual and kinesthetic aids when working with children in a second language classroom is evident, because it is the key factor in ensuring understanding. in the light of krashen’s theory, in this first stage of second language acquisition it is very important to use repetition, as well as visual and kinesthetic aids to help students understand. in the two activities developed in this study, the same teacher taught both lessons, using the same visual aids in both activities. that might explain why students’ understanding was similar in both activities. nevertheless, even if they were able to retell the story, the lesson in english was more interrupted, students’ participation was lower, and therefore the outcome of the lesson was not what it could have been. language transfer between spanish and english even if there were no differences in the written exercise between the two lessons, there are some differences evident throughout the school year. kindergarten teachers were interviewed about the impact of the the use of first language salmona no. 9 (july december 2014) no. 9 (july december 2014) 63 development of the first language on the second language acquisition process. teachers agreed on the importance of developing the first language in a second language classroom; for example, when students are learning prepositions of place it seems to be easier for them to learn the concepts of up and down, below and beside in spanish and then use them in english. in fact, teachers believe that increasing spanish hours during the first year of school is a key factor in the second language acquisition process. it is evident for kindergarten english teachers that increasing the amount of spanish is beneficial for acquiring a new language. spanish and english teachers work in parallel ways, so students can understand difficult concepts first in their mother tongue, which is easier, and then transfer their knowledge to english, making learning easier and richer. teaching students who are able to transfer knowledge from their mother tongue to the second language enriches learning. that means that in all learning situations, previous knowledge, in this case first language experience, is a starting point for acquiring the new language (cummins, 2000). it would be interesting to go further with this study, applying a code-switching lesson in order to teach some difficult concepts. conclusions this study focused on the importance that the first language has during the second language acquisition process. nowadays, bilingualism is a key factor in becoming a successful professional, and thus, bilingualism has become the main component in education. many theories debate the way in which a second language should be taught. this study was conducted at an immersion international school in bogotá, and the results demonstrated and supported cummins’ theory: the development of the first language during the first year of immersion school benefits the second language acquisition process. in fact, the theory suggests that even if the two languages are visually different, they do operate through the same processing system. in all learning situations, previous knowledge is a starting point for acquiring a new language (cummins, 2000). however, even if there were no main differences in students’ understanding between the two activities, it was demonstrated by teachers’ opinions that students with a more developed mother tongue and with more concrete concepts seem to transfer their experiences to the new language, making the second language acquisition process easier. the use of first language salmona no. 9 (july december 2014) no. 9 (july december 2014) 64 moreover, throughout this study, krashen’s theory about the stages of second language acquisition was also supported. in fact, it was evident in the study that students had limited receptive vocabulary during the first stage of language acquisition (krashen, 2003). however, despite the limitations of vocabulary, students were able to understand and follow a story during a read-aloud activity. these results demonstrate the importance of teaching techniques such as visual aids, the pace of the reading, and the use of body language. in fact, the teacher used the same strategies during both activities, which facilitated and ensured students’ understanding. this study demonstrates the importance of developing the mother tongue during the first year of immersion school. students who have strong first language skills are able to acquire the second language more easily due to language transfer. having spanish and english teachers work in parallel ways is a key factor in ensuring complete second language acquisition and, thus, cognitive development. however, to collect data for this study, two lesson plans were applied with a reading activity. it would be interesting to continue this study with a lesson where concepts are taught. in fact, it would be interesting to see if language transfer is evident in this lesson, comparing a lesson in english without the spanish background. furthermore, this study was conducted in a short period of time; the data was collected in less than six months, which can interfere with the results of the study. it would be interesting to deepen these findings with a longitudinal study, in which students are observed during more than one year of school in order to be able to reach more conclusive results. moreover, it would be interesting to compare students that were exposed to the new curriculum with more spanish hours per week in kindergarten, and those who had received fewer hours of spanish during their first year of school. this paper demonstrated the importance of developing the first language in the second language classroom. the mother tongue could be used as support for the second language acquisition process, which makes the learning process easier for students and teachers. the use of first language salmona no. 9 (july december 2014) no. 9 (july december 2014) 65 references baker, c. (2001). cognitive theories of bilingualism and the curriculum. in baker, c. (3rd ed.) foundations of bilingual education and bilingualism,163-180. clevedon: multilingual matters ltd. benson, c. (2002). transfer/cross-linguistic influence. english language teachers journal, 56(1, 68-70. beardsmore, h. b. (1986). bilingualism: basic principles. clevedon: multilingual matters. burchinal, m., field, s., lópez, m. l., howes, c., & pianta, r. (2012). instruction in spanish in pre-kindergarten classrooms and child outcomes for english language learners. early childhood research quarterly, 27, 188-197. cárdenas-hagán, e., & carlson, c. d. (2007). the cross-linguistic transfer of early literacy skills: the role of initial l1 and l2 skills and language of instruction. language, speech, and hearing services in schools, 249–259. cummins, j. (2000). language, power and pedagogy: bilingual children in the crossfire. clevedon: multilingual matters. dixon, q. l., zhao, j., shin, j. y., su, j. h., burgess-birgham, r., gezer, m. u. & snow, c. (2012). what we know about second language acquisition: a synthesis from four perspectives. review of educational research, 82(5), 5-60 durgunoglu, a. y. & öney, b. (2000). literacy development in two languages: cognitive and sociocultural dimensions of crosslanguage transfer. a research symposium on high standards in reading for students from diverse language groups: research, practice & policy. washington, d.c friedlander, a. (1997). composing in english: effects of a first language on writing in english as a second language. in b. kroll (ed.), second language writing (pp. 109-112). cambridge: the press syndicate of the university of cambridge gebauer, s. k., zaunbauer, a. c. m., & möller, j. (2012). crosslanguage transfer in english immersion programs in germany: reading comprehension and reading fluency. contemporary educational psychology, 38, 64-74. ghorbani, a. (2011). first language use in foreign language classroom discourse. procedia: social and behavioral sciences, 29, 1654 – 1659. the use of first language salmona no. 9 (july december 2014) no. 9 (july december 2014) 66 hamers, j. f. & blanc, h. a. (2000). bilinguality and bilingualism. new york: cambridge university press. horst, m., white, j., & bell, p. (2010). first and second language knowledge in the language classroom. international journal of bilingualism, 14(3), 331-349. kozulin, a. (2003). vygotsky’s educational theory in cultural context. cambridge: cambridge university press. krashen, s. d. (2003). principles and practices in second language acquisition. oxford: pergamon press inc. piaget, j. & inhelder, b. (1969). the psychology of the child. new york: basic books. schweers, c. (1999). using l1 in the l2 classroom. english teaching forum. retrieved from http://dosfan.lib.uic.edu/usia/e-usia/ forum/acrobat/p6.pdf author *mara salmona madriñan is a kindergarten teacher with a bachelor of arts in psychology and a minor in italian language and culture at universidad de los andes in bogotá, colombia. working with children from different backgrounds has always motivated her. therefore, she started working at the colegio nueva granada and enrolled the teacher training institute becoming a bilingual education specialist, always engaged in continuous learning in order to broaden her knowledge and experience working with children. the use of first language no. 9 (july december 2014) no. 9 (july december 2014) 103 no. 11 (july december 2015) no. 11 (july december 2015) gist education and learning research journal. issn 1692-5777. no. 11, (july december) 2015. pp. 103-117. transformation: a model for restructuring the preparation of english teachers in ecuador1 un modelo para reestructurar la formación de profesores de inglés en ecuador m. elisabeth serrano, cristina g. vizcaíno, daniel cazco and natalie a. kuhlman2* universidad laica vicente rocafuerte de guayaquil, universidad del pacífico, guayaquil and quito, ecuador, san diego state university, usa abstract as english has become the language of business, the economy and social media around the world, it is more and more necessary to start teaching english in schools. countries such as ecuador have seen the immediate need to review how they prepare teachers of english to meet this new demand. this article shares a reflection on the process of moving from an autonomous university preparation program to a unified approach based on international standards for teachers of english in ecuador. this transformation is discussed from four perspectives: the us embassy in quito that organized the effort; the facilitator who guided the process; the universities that train english teachers and whose programs were to be revised; and the language institutes that provide intensive english instruction to all university students. these last two points of view are provided by two academics that have been part of the group that collaborated in the creation of the proposal. the end result is a new curriculum based on international efl/esl teacher standards and, most importantly, created through collaboration among different entities that had not previously worked together. keywords: standards, collaborative educational programs, curricular change, standards-based curriculum, collaborative work. 1 received: july 15, 2015 / accepted: october 16, 2015 2 melisega@yahoo.com / cris_viz@hotmail.com / danielcazcom@hotmail.com / nkuhlman@ mail.sdsu.edu re fle ct iv e a rt ic le s 104 no. 11 (july december 2015) no. 11 (july december 2015) resumen ya que el inglés se ha convertido en el lenguaje de los negocios, la economía y los medios de comunicación social en el mundo, es cada vez más necesario enseñar inglés en las escuelas y colegios. países como ecuador han visto la necesidad de revisar la forma en que preparan sus maestros de inglés para satisfacer esta nueva demanda. en este artículo se reflexiona sobre el proceso de pasar de programas individuales de cada universidad a un programa unificado basado en estándares internacionales para la enseñanza de inglés. este cambio se lo analiza desde cuatro perspectivas diferentes: la de la embajada de los estados unidos en quito que organizó este esfuerzo, la de la especialista que guio el proceso; la de las universidades que preparan profesores de inglés y cuyos programas debían ser revisados y la de los institutos universitarios que dan clases intensivas de inglés a toda la comunidad universitaria. estos dos últimos puntos de vista son proporcionados por dos académicos que colaboraron en el proceso de construcción de la propuesta. el producto final es un nuevo plan de estudios basado en estándares internacionales de efl/esl resultado del trabajo colaborativo entre diferentes entidades que no habían trabajado juntos previamente. palabras clave: estándares, programas educativos colaborativos, cambio curricular, programa de estudios basado en estándares, trabajo colaborativo. resumo já que o inglês se converteu na linguagem dos negócios, a economia e os meios de comunicação social no mundo é cada vez mais necessário ensinar inglês nas escolas e colégios. países como o equador tem visto a necessidade imediata de revisar a forma em que preparam seus professores de inglês para satisfazer esta nova demanda. este artigo dá a conhecer uma reflexão sobre o processo de passar de programas individuais de cada universidade a um programa unificado baseado em padrões internacionais para o ensino de inglês. esta mudança se analisou desde quatro perspectivas diferentes: a da embaixada dos estados unidos em quito, a qual organizou este esforço; a da especialista que guiou o processo; a das universidades que preparam professores de inglês e cujos programas deviam ser revisados e a dos institutos universitários que oferecem aulas intensivas de inglês a toda a comunidade universitária. estes dois últimos pontos de vista foram emitidos por dois acadêmicos que fizeram parte do grupo que colaborou no processo de construção da proposta. o produto final é um novo plano de estudos baseado em padrões internacionais de efl/esl resultado do trabalho colaborativo entre diferentes entidades que não tinham trabalhado juntos previamente. palavras chave: padrões, programas educativos colaborativos, mudança curricular, currículos baseado em padrões, trabalho colaborativo. transformation: a model for restructuring serrano, vizcaíno, cazco & kuhlman 105 no. 11 (july december 2015) no. 11 (july december 2015) introduction the teaching of english around the world has inspired the creation of new models for preparing those who will teach english in the public schools (burns & richards, 2012; burns, 2005). in ecuador, until recently, universities were both independent and autonomous in how they prepared their teachers, but that has changed. from 2011-2015 teacher educators from across the country have come together as unlikely collaborators to create a new international standards-based (tesol, 2010) curriculum. through the sponsorship and guidance of the u.s. embassy in quito and several of the educational agencies in ecuador, this model represents a mind-set change that may result in more effective english teachers capable of increasing the language proficiency of their students. the rationale for a standards-based model comes from many sources (e.g. burke, 2012; darling-hammond, 1997; genesee & harper, 2010; kuhlman, 2010; kuhlman & kneževic, 2013; staehr fenner & kuhlman, 2013). in education, standards are generally defined as benchmarks for accountability (o’malley & valdez pierce, 1996) or goals that students (or teachers) will attain. standards call for consistency in what is expected from both students and teachers, and various assessment measurements are developed to determine if standards are being met. darling-hammond (1997) suggests that unless we move toward keeping more consistent goals rather than always making exceptions to the goals, our educational reforms “will surely evaporate in a very short time, long before good schooling spreads to the communities where it is currently most notable by its absence” (p. 211). standards are a way to provide the stability and consistency, darling-hammond advocates. four perspectives on this process of standards and curriculum development are presented in this article. first, the representative from the u.s. embassy reflects on how the project started and the role of the embassy. the esl specialist brought by the u.s. embassy to assist in the project reflects on her role as facilitator. from one of the participating universities, the previous coordinator of the english teacher preparation program reflects on why the project was needed, and how the experience changed the perception of autonomy by the universities. finally, a coordinator from one of the university language institutes (which provide foreign language courses for all its university students) reflects on the changing role of university language institutes, and how collaboration rather than autonomy has changed their purpose. transformation: a model for restructuring serrano, vizcaíno, cazco & kuhlman 106 no. 11 (july december 2015) no. 11 (july december 2015) transformation: a model for restructuring serrano, vizcaíno, cazco & kuhlman from the u.s. embassy perspective in 2011, while performing duties as the cultural specialist for the u.s. embassy in quito, i was asked to increase the portfolio of english language education programs. the emphasis was to look into ways in which the u.s. government could assist the efforts of the ecuadorian government concerning english language learning in public schools. until then, the english language programs portfolio had been reduced and limited to providing specialists to participate in english language conferences, a few professional development scholarships for ecuadorian teachers, and a few english language-learning scholarships for low-income public school students. the first steps were to find out the needs of the ecuadorian government and the resources available from the embassy, the regional english language office and the bureau of education of the u.s. state department. my research showed that the needs surpassed by far any of the programs, tools, and resources available from the u.s. government. the ecuadorian government was looking for ways to bring 7,000 quality english language teachers from abroad to teach in ecuadorian public schools while training new ecuadorian teachers to take their place in a few years. these teachers would be teaching high school students to comply with the ecuadorian government mandate that all ecuadorian high school students graduate with a proficiency level of english equivalent to b1 in the common european framework (2010) (low intermediate). this goal seemed too ambitious even to try to attempt, not to mention the economic resources it would have demanded. nevertheless, shortly after the meeting where the needs were expressed by the ministry of education (moe), the ecuadorian government announced and actually devoted enough money in an attempt to accomplish the initial task of bringing well trained english teachers to ecuador. unfortunately, the project was not directed to the area of concern but to university level teachers. the program is still known as prometheus. it is not focused on english language teaching or learning, however, rather on recruiting phd’s in every area of knowledge into ecuadorian academia in order to increase the quality of university instruction. shortly after the ministry of education’s (moe) request for help, relations between the u.s. and ecuador were disrupted due to the “wikileaks” of a cable the u.s. ambassador sent to a colleague that was critical of ecuador’s political climate. the result was for the ecuadorian government to request the immediate removal of the u.s. ambassador. this meant an obvious rupture in official relations between the two countries. as a result, english language education became more important than ever before for the u.s. embassy. this was seen as the only area where cooperation with the u.s. would be accepted 107 no. 11 (july december 2015) no. 11 (july december 2015) by the ecuadorian government and was a means to maintain dialogue with government authorities. nevertheless, the magnitude of the challenge required a creative and possibly long-term solution to the needs identified prior to the political rupture. considering the resources available, there was a proposal to offer the ministry of education (moe) of ecuador a specialist that could help assess the actual needs they had in english language education. the intent was that the specialist would guide the moe to a strategy that could lead them to a more effective and efficient professional development program, with the ultimate goal of raising the level of english proficiency of ecuadorian students. the moe desired that the strategy include international english teaching/learning standards (e.g. tesol, 2010) that could help bring students to the desired level of fluency by the end of high school. for this reason, the english language programs office of the u.s. state department provided an esl specialist to work with moe, with prior experience in various countries, and specifically, having developed a similar project in uruguay (kuhlman, 2010). this collaboration re-established a fruitful dialogue between the u.s. and ecuadorian governments that later on helped to normalize their bilateral relations. the specialist’s work with the moe over a six-month period demonstrated that it would not be enough simply to create standards for existing teachers. a long-term solution was necessary to address the lack of well-prepared teachers. consequently, the u.s. embassy-quito submitted a request for her to return, this time to address the source of the problem that the ecuadorian moe faced, specifically that english teachers graduating from ecuadorian universities were generally unprepared. this was the first step to a four-year project that resulted in the production of a universal curriculum for english language teaching majors in ecuador. this became a collaborative project in which 32 universities initially signed on to participate, and 17 actually presented the proposal to the education authorities in charge of its validation, evaluation, and adoption. when i submitted the proposal to the u.s. embassy-quito for consideration, i did not anticipate it would become almost a full-time job to lead the participating universities, coach the participants, lobby with the university authorities, and mediate with the government institutions. time was devoted to having the large and always changing number of participants agree to collaborate for the greater good, to obtaining the economic resources from the embassy and the participating universities, and maintaining hours of discussions with participants and the specialist. nevertheless, all the work paid off when the proposal was officially introduced to the ministry of education transformation: a model for restructuring serrano, vizcaíno, cazco & kuhlman 108 no. 11 (july december 2015) no. 11 (july december 2015) transformation: a model for restructuring serrano, vizcaíno, cazco & kuhlman to all the participating universities, government education entities, and general public on january 30, 2015. this huge collaborative project is an example that with devotion and patience, agreements can be reached. the process, however, was never free of difficulties. the biggest were created by the continuous changes in higher education regulations announced by the higher education council (ces), a newly created board that did not demonstrate a strong understanding of the needs and specifications of learning of a second language by both educators and learners. beyond this obstacle, which in my opinion was the most critical one, were those created by the uncertainty and fear of change that most of the participating academics exhibited while the process was carried out. this was an exercise in patience for both the specialist and myself. i also had to continuously seek support from government institutions. despite all these and other minor challenges, i strongly believe that this process was educational beyond its final objective. it helped people understand that academic work is a mandatory contribution, a right, and a need. it helped institutions to agree and collaborate to obtain mutual benefits and to contribute to society at large. it created a collaboration model that was unknown in ecuador before the group started to work together, which is now considered as a model for other academic areas that are currently collaborating under similar conditions and for similar purposes. based on the above, i can say that the experience was highly beneficial for all of those who participated directly or indirectly. unfortunately, the anticipated results were not as foreseen. due to the continuous process of change in the regulations pertaining to education from the higher education council, the proposal was not accepted in full. nevertheless, the contents of the work are widely used by both the universities that worked on it as well as others who did not have an interest in creating an english language teaching major. therefore, we can say that the impact of the project was greater than expected. results of the implementation of the project are yet to be measured and evaluated. my recommendation before i left the position of cultural specialist at the u.s. embassyquito was to bring in the specialist at least two more times to evaluate the actual impact of implementing the proposed curriculum and to see its effectiveness or what areas might need to be modified in order to validate the project further. complementary projects should also be carried out. the most important include professional development for those who will prepare the new english teachers under this plan, and for in-service teachers in order for them to reach a high level of english language proficiency and be able to use current methodologies. 109 no. 11 (july december 2015) no. 11 (july december 2015) from the facilitator’s perspective in april, 2011, i was invited as an esl specialist by the u.s. state department to work with the ministry of education (moe) in quito in developing standards for in-service english teachers. at the same time, the universities were asked to revise their curriculum so that students could transfer to other universities without losing credits. my original expectation was to help create standards for in-service teachers. we accomplished that within six months, using an adaptation of the tesol p-12 esl teacher standards (tesol, 2010). these were adopted and published on the moe website (moe, 2011). i never expected the project to become a national one, expanded to all universities that prepare english teachers or that it would be a four-year project, but that is what happened. as english has become the lingua franca around the world (burns, 2005), the social and economic reasons for ecuadorians to learn english have increased substantially. at the same time, the majority of english teachers in ecuador have neither the language proficiency nor the methodologies to teach english effectively in the schools. further, before recent reforms in government regulations, universities were autonomous in their teacher preparation programs. change was needed, and a standards and researchedbased approach was required by the authorities. all the universities that originally participated agreed that a common curriculum was overdue. there needed to be consistency so that students graduating from any university in ecuador would have the same competencies. by doing this, there was a better possibility that the english taught in the schools would improve. the first meetings that were held with the universities were in december, 2011. they were in the form of five-day retreats, fully sponsored by the u.s. embassy-quito under the guidance of the cultural specialist. half of the universities met in the north in ibarra, and half in the south, in cuenca. at these initial meetings, i introduced the entire concept of standards (benchmarks to be achieved), which was new to most of the participants, and i also shared the adopted ecuadorian ministry of education in-service teacher standards. perhaps one-third of those present were from the language institutes at their universities, not from teacher education programs, and even the concept of teacher preparation was new to them. as we progressed during the week, the group began to understand the complexity of the problems that they faced in changing how english teachers were prepared in ecuador. what followed was four years of meetings in which university representatives created a complete curriculum, with standards aligned to courses aligned to an exit-portfolio. while the university participants did the majority of the work, as the facilitator, i oversaw the project, made suggestions, provided feedback on the overall plan, kept the groups on track, and edited the documents. the new transformation: a model for restructuring serrano, vizcaíno, cazco & kuhlman 110 no. 11 (july december 2015) no. 11 (july december 2015) transformation: a model for restructuring serrano, vizcaíno, cazco & kuhlman standards-based curriculum that was created would never have happened, though, if there had not been substantial collaboration. as the facilitator for the project, i have seen collaboration in various forms, but each one is unique. similar to uruguay (kuhlman, 2010), the project in ecuador involved a large number of participants. however, while some key people remained throughout the four-year process, many participants changed, and so the act of creating collaboration had to be continually revisited. further, while some participants came with an attitude of compromise, others had their own agendas and were firm about what they thought the new curriculum should include. agreement regarding the standards, however, was easily attained since the group found that those already adopted by the moe could apply to both in-service and preservice teachers. several things have changed as a result of the project, and yet some remain the same. a new curriculum, with syllabi, assessments, a final portfolio, and timeline by semester are complete and ready to be used. intensive english has been included in the curriculum to ensure the language proficiency of the new teachers. previously, some universities had no requirements for language proficiency, and others had very high requirements. now they would be all the same. the possibilities for a major change are there, and the authorities, while not mandating the new curriculum, have agreed that universities can implement it if they choose. one of the major changes that has occurred, though, was having teacher educators from universities from all over ecuador talk to each other, share their perspectives and create the new curriculum. the resulting product has the possibility to change significantly how teachers are prepared in ecuador. the question is whether it will actually be implemented, and whether there will be sufficient professional development for the instructors in the program for real change to occur. as a result of this project, i see many new teachers being better prepared to teach english. however, without the support of the educational authorities, both nationally and at the universities, this will not happen. the u.s. embassyquito has been instrumental in providing needed support, not just to bring me as the facilitator over the four years, but also in organizing, pushing and encouraging all the participants. it is hoped that the u.s. embassy will continue to provide this support. for me personally, this has been an amazing experience. in 2011, there were some 30 universities that were autonomous, preparing teachers however they felt was right, and language institutes teaching university students english without special attention to those who would become teachers. four years later, we have a core group of 17 universities who have agreed on this new way of preparing teachers, integrating the teaching of english with preparing teachers to teach english. 111 no. 11 (july december 2015) no. 11 (july december 2015) from the university perspective out of my 34 years as a university professor, i have been a member of the teaching staff of the school of languages at the universidad laica vicente rocafuerte (ulvr) in guayaquil, ecuador for 27 years. i have also had the opportunity of serving as the assistant director from 1992 to 2007 and as director from april 2011 to july 2014. it was while i was in charge of directing the school that i participated in the project started by the u.s. embassy to bring together the directors from the institutions that train english teachers to analyze the possibility of creating a universal curriculum for the preparation of english teachers at the universities in ecuador. the first meeting was held in december, 2011 in cuenca (a second group met in ibarra a week after). it turned out to be a highly beneficial gathering for those of us who attended. it was the first time we talked about international standards for the teaching of english and the preparation of teachers, something most of the participants were not aware of. unfortunately, i must say, up to that moment there were no specific regulations as to how to run a teacher preparation program in university departments of languages. the school of languages at ulvr offered english as a major for the first time in 1979. the outstanding characteristic was that all the subjects during the four years of study were to be taught in english. as one of the former students, i had the opportunity to experience the benefits of attending a full english program. most of the students reached an advanced intermediate level after finishing the first two years of studies. in the third year, the students began to study subjects such as linguistics and pedagogy, all of them related to their future profession: to be english teachers. a thesis and oral defense were also required for graduation, and both had to be completed in english. there has always been a high demand from primary and secondary schools in guayaquil to hire the graduates from ulvr. most of these institutions send their requests while the students are still in the classroom, thus assuring them a teaching position as soon as they graduate. the story of the school of languages at ulvr is a story that was only shared by a few other schools in the country. most of the university programs were half in spanish, half in english, perhaps because it was difficult for them to find and hire teachers to teach subjects in english. the result was low english proficiency in their graduates. the attraction of this new project for me was that it might nationalize what ulvr had been doing for the past 30 years. however, even though some of the universities thought they were preparing english teachers “the right way,” none of the programs, including ulvr’s, were aligned with international standards or the fluency levels stated in the common european framework of reference (council of europe, 2011). transformation: a model for restructuring serrano, vizcaíno, cazco & kuhlman 112 no. 11 (july december 2015) no. 11 (july december 2015) transformation: a model for restructuring serrano, vizcaíno, cazco & kuhlman this background is useful to try to explain the importance of the meetings at cuenca and ibarra. leaders of the different english teacher preparation programs were sitting together at the table talking about international standards for the first time. we were aligning the standards with the ecuadorian reality and accepting the challenge and the commitment to work as a whole in favor of english language teaching and the preparation of effective professionals in the field. how do you train teachers if the challenges they will be facing are not known? as a preamble of future decision-making, it was necessary first to learn about the new changes in english language programs instituted by the ecuadorian ministry of education. that first meeting was not only about learning about standards. for the first time, it was an opportunity for the participants to learn about each other’s programs, as participants made presentations about the programs they ran. we became involved in analyzing and discussing how the various programs did or did not fit ecuadorian needs. six months later, a second meeting was held in quito. at that meeting, another reality was faced. most of the universities, if not all, run two different english programs. english as a major, whose purpose is to prepare future teachers of english, and english as a requirement for graduation in any field. this finding caused somewhat of a setback as it was difficult for participants to understand that these were indeed two different programs. finally, two groups were formed: those who prepared teachers and those who taught english in the language institutes. both would be teaching english to university students but for different purposes. with the teaching roles well defined, a third meeting was called. this time university representatives met in guayaquil, a city on the coast of ecuador. it seemed more inclusive to meet in different places. the main agenda for the meeting in guayaquil was to do a first draft of a common study plan for the preparation of english teachers. this was the hardest task yet. it was common for participants from the different universities to defend the programs they had implemented for years rather than seek compromise in order to draft a common preparation program for all institutions. essentially, there were two agendas: those who favored pedagogy as a basis for preparation programs, and those who favored linguistics. this debate was quite serious, but the prompt intervention of the facilitator, dr. kuhlman, brought us back together. it was difficult for many universities to accept a new study plan that meant a break with old paradigms. eventually, most saw this as an opportunity for growth and professional development by sharing the expertise and giving birth to a new proposal that would benefit future english teachers. 113 no. 11 (july december 2015) no. 11 (july december 2015) after several more meetings, the first draft was finally completed, but future meetings were needed to polish it. after the draft was finally accepted by the whole group as the new study plan, it was then necessary to write the contents of each one of the proposed courses and design a portfolio that would be used to show that teacher candidates met all the requirements (i.e. standards). the final product, signed by 17 universities, was presented at a celebration in january, 2015 at the ministry of education, where this project began. now it all depends on the higher education authorities to accept and implement the program. from the language institutes’ perspective for the first time, in 2011, 30 language institutes and english teacher education programs from different universities in ecuador received an invitation from the u.s. embassy-quito to participate in an english network that would be created. in ecuador, university language institutes provide language teaching for the entire university, not just the english teacher preparation programs. the coordinators and/or directors who attended this first of many meetings started working together to understand the reality of the english institutes in our universities, and most of all, the quality of english education in our institutions. one of the important issues we noted were the differences from one university to another. i wanted to be part of this network so that we could standardize english teaching and teacher education in our country, and produce graduates who would be more proficient english teachers in the schools. for example, at that time, the english program in one university offered three hours of english a week, while others offered ten. still others taught only english for specific purposes (not including education), and some did not even have an english program. the situation was one of chaos, and the diversity of programs was great. even today, directors of many university language institutes do not support the concept of english teacher education at all. another reality was that in our english institutes there was a serious need for qualified english teachers. most of the universities have the problem of hiring teachers with a low level of english proficiency and without the methodology to teach students at the university level even though they graduated from english teacher preparation programs. one objective of the network then was to find a solution for the lack of qualified teachers. without them, a new standards-based program would not make a difference. all the universities that came to those first meetings asked to be part of this dream and started working hard. at every meeting, we worked diligently transformation: a model for restructuring serrano, vizcaíno, cazco & kuhlman 114 no. 11 (july december 2015) no. 11 (july december 2015) to accept different points of view. everything we did was to achieve a new perspective and a revolutionary change in english teacher education in our country. as the laws and regulations in ecuador were changing, it was necessary at the same time for universities to work together in order to save time, money and provide a new vision for english education. my university supported my participation in this project because of the potential results that we could achieve. from my perspective as the director of the academic english institute, we created an english program for students majoring in english language teaching, and we supported the idea that new english teachers needed a strong knowledge of the language they were going to teach. our role was to create an intensive nine-level, two-year english program, in which the new pre-service teachers would acquire what they needed to succeed and be quality professionals. collaboration was a necessary tool to create and standardize opinions from the participants. from my point of view, it was the first time that representatives from the universities across ecuador came together to work. i could see the willingness towards compromise and an attitude of working towards a common goal that would benefit english education. of course, there were problems along the way, particularly different opinions, but in the end, the university representatives collaborated in the process. directors from english teacher preparation programs and from english institutes were working towards a common curriculum for english teacher preparation programs. the process worked. now, universities have the option of selecting this curriculum for their programs. it is necessary to insist on the importance of having a standardized and standards-based english curriculum so that ecuador can develop quality english teachers and professionals in the field. that said, it may be difficult for public universities to implement this program due to governmental regulations, but for private universities it is the best program ever created in ecuador. after completing this four-year process, i consider that the result is a very comprehensive english teacher preparation program. in my own case, i will use the curriculum to create a new english teacher preparation program in the institution where i currently work. i believe this curriculum can be used as a national and international model to be followed. the exit portfolio for teachers exemplifies the quality of the program. transformation: a model for restructuring serrano, vizcaíno, cazco & kuhlman 115 no. 11 (july december 2015) no. 11 (july december 2015) conclusion from 2011-2015 representatives from more than twenty university english teacher education programs and language institutes came together for the first time to collaborate in the transformation of the way that english teachers are prepared in ecuador. with support from the u.s. embassy and several ecuadorian educational agencies, with guidance from an esl specialist sponsored by the u.s. embassy, this group that had previously been autonomous, collaborated, discussed, challenged and created a new curriculum, based on international esl teacher standards, for the preparation of english teachers in ecuador. it was not an easy task. there were times when the whole project could have exploded, but it did not. the four perspectives presented here represent the challenges and the solutions that this eclectic group was able to accomplish. as a by-product of this work, a new organization, ecuatesol has been formed for the first time to support the english teaching profession in ecuador. the possibilities are great. the reality is unknown and it can only be hoped that this transforming model will be implemented and in tomorrow’s world the children of ecuador will have the opportunity to become proficient in english that will open doors to the world. transformation: a model for restructuring serrano, vizcaíno, cazco & kuhlman 116 no. 11 (july december 2015) no. 11 (july december 2015) references burns, a. (2005). interrogating new worlds of english language teaching. in a. burns (ed). teaching english from a global perspective. alexandria, va: tesol. burke, k. (2012). from standards to rubrics in six steps. (3rd ed). thousand oaks, ca: corwin press council of europe. (2011). common european framework of reference for languages: learning, teaching, assessment. cambridge: cambridge university press. darling-hammond, l. (1997). the right to learn. san francisco: jossey-bass. ministerio de educación (2011). ecuador in-service teacher standards. retrieved from: http://educacion.gob.ec/wp-content/uploads/downloads/2013/03/estandares_2012_ ingles.pdf genesee, f. & harper, c. (2010). introduction to the tesol p-12 professional teaching standards. alexandria, va: tesol. kuhlman, n. (2010). developing foreign language standards in uruguay. gist education and learning research journal 4, 107-126. kuhlman, n., & kneževic, b. (2013). the tesol guidelines for developing efl professional teaching standards. alexandria, va: tesol. o’malley, m., & valdez-pierce, l. (1996). authentic assessment for english language learners: practical approaches for teachers. ny: addison-wesley. richards, j. & burns, a., (2012). pedagogy and practice in second language teaching: an overview of the issues. in, j. richards & a. burns (eds). pedagogy and practice in second language teaching. cambridge: cambridge university press. staehr fenner, d. & kuhlman, n. (2013). preparing effective teachers of english language learners: practical applications of the prek-12 tesol professional standards. alexandria, va: tesol. tesol (2010). p-12 professional teaching standards. alexandria, va: tesol. authors * elisabeth serrano holds a ba in education and was the cultural specialist at the u.s. embassy in quito for the past twelve years. while serving as specialist, part of her portfolio included the management of english language programs in ecuador. in that capacity she was the coordinator for the national curriculum project described in this article, and acted as liaison between the embassy, the universities, and the government institutions that participated, acting in that capacity up to the completion of the project in january, 2015. currently ms. serrano is exploring other areas of interest but remains an active member of the elt community, including as a member of the board of directors of ecuatesol, a new english teacher oriented organization in transformation: a model for restructuring serrano, vizcaíno, cazco & kuhlman 117 no. 11 (july december 2015) no. 11 (july december 2015) ecuador that is applying to become a tesol affiliate. she also is doing consultant work about the quality of education in ecuador. * cristina g. vizcaíno is a doctoral candidate at the universidad nacional mayor de san marcos in lima. she holds a degree in linguistics with a major in english language and literature as well as a degree in social communication sciences. her experience includes teacher training, educational administration, research, seminars and workshops. * carlos daniel cazco holds a ba in business administration, and a certificate in tefl. he is currently pursuing an ma in tefl and an ma in education. he has five years experience in university english education, teaching general english and esp. he also has three years experience managing educational projects with different institutions. he also worked as the language department director at the universidad técnica del norte in ibarra and is now the english language department director of the universidad del pacífico in quito and guayaquil. profesor cazco is the vice-president of ecuatesol, a new english teacher organization in ecuador that is applying to become a tesol affiliate. * dr. natalie a. kuhlman is professor emeritus in the dual language department, college of education, san diego state university. she is the co-author with diane staehr fenner of preparing effective teachers of english language learners: practical applications for the tesol p-12 professional teaching standards (tesol, 2012); with bozana knezevic, tesol efl guidelines for teacher standards development (tesol, 2014); and the author of an introduction to language assessment in the k-12 classroom (elt advantage, cengage, 2006). she is past president of catesol, was on the board of directors of both the national council for the accreditation of teachers (2004-2010), and tesol (1996-99). she was an original member of the tesol p-12 esl teacher standards team (1999-2012) and the accreditation standards expert group (aseg) that created short-term certificate standards (tesol, 2015). dr. kuhlman has worked in ecuador, uruguay and albania to apply the tesol standards to english teacher preparation. transformation: a model for restructuring serrano, vizcaíno, cazco & kuhlman 113 a baseline study of strategies to promote critical thinking in the preschool classroom1 un estudio de base sobre estrategias para la promoción de pensamiento critico en las aulas de preescolar jenny melo león2* gimnasio la montaña, colombia abstract the purpose of this study was to identify the different incidents of critical thinking in five preschool classrooms in one school, and the instructional strategies preschool teachers employed in the development of children’s critical thinking. the participants in this study were five self-contained preschool teachers and their corresponding groups. the study explored teachers’ beliefs in regards to the role of critical thinking in their classrooms. data collection techniques included classroom observations, document analysis, and interviews with teachers. two over-arching findings include: a) it is possible to observe and describe numerous instances in which critical thinking is paid attention to explicitly by teachers, and b) it is possible to observe a range of classroom interactions and techniques that explicitly develop these skills among preschoolers. keywords: critical thinking, instructional strategies, classroom interactions, preschoolers, teachers’ beliefs, development of thinking. resumen el propósito de esta investigación fue identificar los diferentes aspectos del pensamiento crítico en cinco aulas de preescolar en un colegio, y las estrategias de instrucción usadas por los profesores en el desarrollo de este tipo de pensamiento en niños en edad preescolar. los participantes de este 1 received: dec. 15, 2014 / accepted: april 16, 2015 2 jennymelo@glm.edu.co gist education and learning research journal. issn 1692-5777. no. 10, (january june) 2015. pp. 113-127. an approach to integration no. 10 (january june 2015) no. 10 (january june 2015) 114 estudio fueron cinco profesoras de preescolar con sus respectivos grupos. este estudio exploró las creencias de los profesores respecto al rol del pensamiento crítico en sus aulas. las técnicas para la recolección de información incluyeron observaciones de clases, análisis de documentos institucionales y entrevistas con profesores. se identificaron los siguientes resultados generales: (a) es posible observar y describir numerosos ejemplos en los que los profesores prestan especial atención al pensamiento crítico y (b) es posible observar una variedad de interacciones y técnicas de clase que explícitamente desarrollan las habilidades de pensamiento crítico en los niños de preescolar. palabras clave: pensamiento crítico, estrategias de instrucción, interacciones del aula, niños preescolares, creencias de profesores, desarrollo de pensamiento. resumo o propósito desta pesquisa foi identificar os diferentes aspectos do pensamento crítico em cinco salas de aula de pré-primária em um colégio, e as estratégias de instrução usadas pelos professores no desenvolvimento deste tipo de pensamento em crianças em idade de pré-primária. os participantes deste estudo foram cinco professoras de pré-primária com seus respectivos grupos. este estudo explorou as crenças dos professores com relação ao papel do pensamento crítico em suas salas de aula. as técnicas para a coleta de informação incluíram observações de classes, análise de documentos institucionais e entrevistas com professores. identificaram-se os seguintes resultados gerais: (a) é possível observar e descrever numerosos exemplos nos que os professores prestam especial atenção ao pensamento crítico e (b) é possível observar uma variedade de interações e técnicas de aula que explicitamente desenvolvem as habilidades de pensamento crítico nas crianças de pré-primária. palavras chave: pensamento crítico, estratégias de instrução, interações da sala de aula, crianças de pré-primária, crenças de professores, desenvolvimento de pensamento. strategies to promote critical thinking melo no. 10 (january june 2015) no. 10 (january june 2015) 115 introduction preschool age is a very important age among humans. in this period, young children are keenly interested in learning everything with a very exciting attitude. it is considered by many people that this age is when young children blossom and gain knowledge as never again in their lives. all areas, including motor, communicative, cognitive, affective and social aspects are rapidly developed in order to enable children to interact with and understand the world around them. in terms of cognitive development, one of the most important skills to develop in preschoolers is the thinking process. every new situation becomes an opportunity for young children to assimilate and accommodate information in order to create new conceptual structures on their own (piaget, 1952). thus, studying the way critical thinking demonstrated in preschoolers becomes an important issue the academic world should consider. there has been a fair amount of discussion about the importance of promoting critical thinking in students; however, there is little evidence and few studies that focus on the way young children demonstrate critical thinking. most of the studies reviewed for this article are focused on adult acquisition of critical thinking skills. this research studied the practices of critical thinking development through incidents observed in five preschool classrooms of a school, the different thinking strategies employed by children, and the teachers’ roles in the development of this kind of thinking. the process of collecting and anayzing data went guided by the following research questions: 1) what incidents of critical thinking are possible to observe in preschool classrooms? 2) what instructional strategies do teachers employ in order to develop preschoolers’ critical thinking skills? 3) what are teachers’ beliefs about the role of critical thinking in preschool classrooms? findings indicate that it is possible to observe and describe numerous instances in which critical thinking is paid attention to explicitly by teachers, and that it is also possible to see a range of classroom interactions and techniques that explicitly develop these skills among preschoolers. strategies to promote critical thinking melo no. 10 (january june 2015) no. 10 (january june 2015) 116 literature review definitions of critical thinking critical thinking is known as a basic competence of the 21st century. this skill is acquired in a life-long process and is developed starting in infancy. this ability comes from an inner capacity of structuring cognitive structures that include high levels of complexity (piaget, 1952). further, the mental capacity for higher-level thinking continues to develop across the life span (piaget, 1952). critical thinking has been defined in many ways; for some authors it refers to the ability to interpret, analyze and evaluate ideas and arguments (facione, 2011). according to glesser (as cited in fisher, 2011), this kind of thinking refers to the attitudes to consider a problem in different, thoughtful ways within an experience. some others define critical thinking as reasonable and reflective thinking, the act of thinking about thinking, thinking moved by reasons, and the development of metacognitive understandings, among others (kuhn, 1999). different theorists have posited the importance of promoting critical thinking in the learning process and how students can learn in more thoughtful ways. some of these theorists have related the development of critical thinking with the term active experience. dewey and kolb are the most representative authors that proposed the idea of giving value to experience opose learning. dewey (1933) claimed that the quality of thinking is directly related to the experiences a person has. he defined experience as the act of living and having constant interactions between individuals and the environment (dewey, 1933). he called the relationship between subjects and their worlds transaction. one of the main points in dewey’s theory is that experience leads to an inquiring process, which promotes critical thinking in the student and consequently, thoughtful actions. this transaction is also called the “learning by doing” approach (dewey, 1933). glaster argues that critical thinking refers to the attitude of being inclined to think about the ways to face problems (as cited in fisher, 2011). this thinking process implies knowledge of methods of logical inquiry and reasoning. ennis defines critical thinking as the reasonable and reflective thinking focused on deciding what to believe or do (as cited in fisher, 2011, pg.4). considering the array of scholars who have been included above, for this study was considered that critical thinking is a process that implies reasoning and reflecting thoughtfully. scriven (as cited in fisher, 2011) mentions an important element that can show the level of critical thinking developed. it has to do with strategies to promote critical thinking melo no. 10 (january june 2015) no. 10 (january june 2015) 117 the language of reasoning. some language expressions may alert the ways in which one is thinking. when someone uses words such as “since” and “because”, there is an indication of reasoning. evidence, opinions, proofs, supports and fallacy are some language expressions that show higher understanding and development of critical thinking (fisher, 2011). bailin, case, coombs & daniels (1999) explain it this way: critical thinking is done with the purpose of making up one’s mind about what to believe or do. it must be described in terms of adequately accomplishing certain intellectual tasks. this kind of thinking allows the fulfillment of standards of adequacy and accuracy in one’s thinking. thinking catalogued as critical thinking must be done with a purpose whether it is to answer questions, make a decision, solve a problem, resolve an issue, devize a plan or carry out a project. (p. 273) based on dewey’s studies, kolb came up with a notion of learning that focuses on transformable experiences as a source of knowledge (as cited in elkjaer, 2009). he talked about the experiential learning cycle in which experience is transformed. this cycle shows the transformation of experience into a real, significant and thoughtful learning experience. the innovation in kolb’s proposal is in the different learning styles that arise throughout the transformation of experience (elkjaer, 2009). recent research on young children has focused its attention on how these learners may develop critical thinking and how different approaches in learning may lead to better outcomes. the role of instructional strategies, questions, play and curiosity instructional strategies. some studies conducted in different preschool contexts have shown the effectiveness of applying different instructional strategies in order to foster critical thinking in young children. in a project carried out by collier, guenther & veerman (2002), it was shown that using the following strategies strongly affected in a positive way the development of higher level of thinking, in which students were able to question and construct what was learned. the strategies included journaling, problem-based learning, questioning techniques, computer programs, graphic organizers, story mapping, quiet game, pneumonic device, kwlh chart, among others. these instructional strategies also allowed the students to better understand the concepts taught in class and in addition helped them organize their thoughts and ideas in a visual way, promoting well-structured thinking. strategies to promote critical thinking melo no. 10 (january june 2015) no. 10 (january june 2015) 118 the use of predictable routines was another instructional element analyzed (collier et al., 2002). it was clear how the environment became a safe, calm and pleasant atmosphere that easily promoted learning because of the use of predictable routines. scheau (2012) also mentions that instructional strategies in developing critical thinking can be more effective in students if the teacher creates a favorable environment in class for thinking, where students are allowed to formulate questions, share opinions, collaborate and communicate with each other. questions. a research project carried out in turkey with a group of preschoolers analyzed how children’s questions play an important role in the development of higher thinking (şahhüseyinoğlu, 2010). the researcher noticed that children’s questions were connected to their areas of interest or curiosity. they were able to make assumptions through questioning about the topic selected play and curiosity. according to şahhüseyinoğlu’s (2010) research, it was found that children experience curiosity and wondering about every new setting and environment they encounter. in this study, researchers observed that young children started asking their teacher questions about the items they saw as they entered the classroom. in the same study, the researchers also noticed that children could reach conclusions and share ideas by playing games and participating in role-plays. student development personal development. some recent studies have shown that children can develop personality characteristics according to the learning approach they experience in school. scheau (2012) observed that teachers perceived critical thinking to be helpful in developing students’ personalities. the group of teachers in this study believed that critical thinking develops a personal development plan, in which primary and elementary students set their own learning goals based on their interests. behavior and motivation. since young children are always stimulated to learn and question their world, it is considered that they have a high level of motivation in their learning process. for şahhüseyinoğlu (2010), stimulating curiosity is effective in supporting the academic motivation and continuity. when children feel they can control and study what they are interested in, they feel like independent learners that are able question what is shown and learned. this causes a high level of motivation in their process of education; when children feel in control of their learning they may be more likely to remain strategies to promote critical thinking melo no. 10 (january june 2015) no. 10 (january june 2015) 119 engaged for longer periods of time which might lead to higher levels of thinking. accountability and timing. some studies have shown that preschool students may make gains in acquiring accountability and pacing skills through learning by inquiring. bell (2010) found that preschool children learn to be self-reliant when they plan and organize their ideas. bell showed that the use of graphic organizers and thinking strategies such as brainstorming helped the students to better understand procedures to develop a specific investigation task and self-monitor their progress in learning. social skills. studies about developing critical thinking skills in preschool contexts have revealed that students develop certain social skills since they build knowledge with others. in a study by şahhüseyinoğlu (2010), the results demonstrated how sharing tasks and setting group goals benefit a collaborative learning environment and subsequently better interactional skills. children were able to develop communication, collaboration and negotiation skills through the intervention. cognitive skills. two different studies focused on the development of critical thinking through the use of different strategies and didactics. collier et al. (2002) found that after the application of the research activities, students showed a higher development of critical thinking skills, including recall, describing, problem solving, prediction and estimation. scheau (2012) concluded that critical thinking methods increase student’s imagination, co-operation (teamwork), communication, active behavior and immediate application of theory. fostering critical thinking and teacher education there was a negative aspect found in the studies reviewed, which had to do with poor quality and/or insufficient amounts of teacher training teachers aimed at fostering students’ critical thinking. studies conducted by collier et al. (2002) and rahman, yasin, & yassin, (2011) report that teachers do not have an interest in or have little knowledge of how to develop students’ critical thinking, or why it is important. according to these authors, teachers lack training in teaching critical thinking skills as well as evaluating them. this is because there are few tools or accessible materials. even though most of the research studies reviewed above include findings about the gains and benefits young children may experience when having an instruction that fosters critical thinking, there is still strategies to promote critical thinking melo no. 10 (january june 2015) no. 10 (january june 2015) 120 the need of more research and information on how to observe and foster crtical thinking among preschoolers. methodology research design this study followed the principles of qualitative and naturalistic research to describe and analyze the different aspects about critical thinking in preschoolers. the purpose was to provide a baseline that describes and analyzes the forms in which critical thinking is presented in the preschool classrooms. the study also focused on investigating the view of the teachers about the importance of critical thinking for preschoolers. three data collection instruments were selected: classroom observation, documents analysis and interviews. the variables taken into account for these techinques were the following: a) the presence of critical thinking in students, b) the incidence of teacher’s instruction in the development of critical thinking and the presence of pedagogical strategies that promote critical thinking skills, and c) teachers’ beliefs as to the importance of developing critical thinking in preschoolers. context the setting for this research was a private catholic english immersion school serving an affluent community in bogotá, colombia. this research was held in the preschool department. the preschool program serves children from kindergarten to first grade. they receive instruction in both english and spanish. the preschool curriculum has been changed along the years, but recently there has been a special interest in fostering 21st century skills. thus, an interdisciplinary preschool group of teachers from the school was formed to develop and lead those transformations in the current preschool curriculum. this interdisciplinary teaching team has worked on developing a new sense of early childhood education, reviewing and restating concepts such as child development, the concept of childhood, dimensions of development, and promotion of thinking. one of the members of this team was the leader of this research. participants children. the participants in the study were 98 children between six, seven and eigth years old at the preschool level. the students were strategies to promote critical thinking melo no. 10 (january june 2015) no. 10 (january june 2015) 121 enrolled in five different classes at three levels (kindergarten, transition, a year in the colombian system between kindergarten and first grade, and first grade). their mother tongue is spanish. in this group, there are also some children with curricular accommodations. teachers. the participants were selected at random and comprised a group of five bilingual preschool teachers (out of 90 teachers in the school). all of the teachers hold undergraduate degrees in education, psychology, music or administration. approximately 25% of the participants hold advanced degrees. the age of the teachers ranges from 22 to 45 years old. the participants’ teaching experience ranges between one and 15 years with an average of seven years. the participant teachers were told about purpose of the study and informed consent was obtained. data collection instruments observation was used in order to collect information regarding the presence of critical thinking in preschoolers, and the frequency in which this form of thinking happens in classroom interaction and the incidence of teachers in promoting critical thinking. it was non participant, which means that the observer did not have any contact or talk with the observed group. the observation was recorded in field notes. transcripts were then coded based on critical thinking indicators mentioned above. there were a total of five classes observed. each class was observed once for a length of 55 minutes. the second technique was document analysis. documents regarding teachers, students and school role were analyzed in order to find evidence of the real situations and issues that help describing the form critical thinking is promoted and seen at preschool level. the documents reviewed included the following: one lesson plan for each teacher, school long range plans by subjects (english and mathematics), four students’ notebooks and folders for each class, school cognitive objectives, and the preschool area project. for the third technique, teachers participated in a semi-structured interview with the five participant teachers. the teachers’ awareness about critical thinking and its implementation in their classes were analyzed. this interview questions focused on four key aspects that included behavior, feelings/ perception, experience and training. the interviews were carried out with each teacher separetely and the length was about 25 minutes. some sample questions include: what tells you that a child/student understands something you teach? strategies to promote critical thinking melo no. 10 (january june 2015) no. 10 (january june 2015) 122 do you accept when a child refutes with arguments what you say or explain? how do you know they are learning what you teach? do you think you students show their thinking in the classroom? how? data analysis and interpretation a first coding exercise was implemented in which different categories were created that were common across the three data sources. each classroom observation was transcribed and analyzed for recurring themes. the categories that emerged were the following: language of thinking, teachers and student´s interactions, use of resources and environment, type and accuracyof tasks, and behavior as indicators of thinking. the school documents were also analyzed for recurring themes. these themes were grouped into the following categories: indicators of critical thinking, classroom interaction that promoted critical thinking, materials and environmental accomodations that promote thinking, and teacher strategies that promote critical thinking. teachers’ interviews were also analyzed using content analysis to identify recurring themes. these themes were divided into the same categories listed above. results after collecting and analyzing data from the three sources, it was found that it is possible to observe and describe numerous instances in which teachers pay explicit attention to critical thinking. it was also possible to observe a range of classroom interactions and techniques that explicitly develop these skills in preschoolers. finally, teachers reported a generally positive and enthusiastic attitude towards the development of critical thinking in their classrooms, willingly participated in training, and desire more training on the subject. classroom interaction that promotes critical thinking one of the classroom interaction patterns found was the use of thinking language by children and teachers. both teachers and students used a wide variety of expressions and vocabulary that have been shown to lead to the development of critical thinking. it was found that students’ questions were highly concentrated in the “what” and “because” forms. for teachers, the thinking language seen in students is based on the level of questioning they show. for teachers, students’ questions are determinant indicators of thinking and understanding. strategies to promote critical thinking melo no. 10 (january june 2015) no. 10 (january june 2015) 123 there is a relationship between the degree of teacher questioning and evidence of students’ thinking and understanding. class methodology and skills development another pattern observed in the classroom observation notes, interview transcripts and document analysis has to do with the class methodology implemented for developing critical thinking in students. all five classes and planners analyzed showed a logical and sequential order that chronicled the goal of helping students develop thinking. the planners recorded methodologies that were used in the three main skill areas: fine motor (including coordination and visual perceptual skills), communicative and thinking. these planners belong to the five participant teachers and were created on their own. during the interviews, teachers stated that there is no predominance of any one of these skills and that they try to develop each one with the same depth. however, when analyzing the data, it a predominance of certain skills was found, according to the age and level of the children, as seen in the following figures: figure 1. skills focus in kinder per teachers’ planners figure 2. skills focus in transition per teachers’ planners strategies to promote critical thinking melo no. 10 (january june 2015) no. 10 (january june 2015) 124 figure 3. skills focus in first grade per teachers’ planners the data illustrate a tendency to focus the class work on the three skills mainly promoted in preschool: fine motor, thinking and communication skills. for the kindergarten grade, more attention is focused on the development of fine motor skills. for the transition level, the attention is focused on the development of communicative skills. in the case of first grade, the attention is mainly focused in the development of thinking skills. these results were reached by counting the number of activities children had on each skill. thinking processes throughout the lessons it was also found that there are several processes and thinking operations planned and applied for every class or activity implemented by the teacher. the following are the main processes planned and developed by the group of teachers along the observation period: exemplification, comparison, explanation, retelling, naming, identifying, projecting/introjecting, observing, comparing, memorization, attention, concentration, and perception. at least four to five of these processes are listed for each activity planned. teachers stated that they take into account these processes based on what is set in the cognitive curriculum of the school. it was evident that some of these processes are strongly developed during certain moments. accurate task performance in the development of critical thinking class tasks are one important part in the daily school lives of preschoolers. it was found that young children face many different types of activities that help them in the development of skills and habits. the way children perform when solving the assigned task is strategies to promote critical thinking melo no. 10 (january june 2015) no. 10 (january june 2015) 125 an indicator that tells teachers about the understanding of the students. teachers interviewed stated that the more accurate the task is done, the better understanding is reflected. this is what teachers think works and what they believe is needed to support critical thinking skils. another aspect found in this area has to be with the types of activities children carry out; depending on the purpose of the activity, critical thinking skills can be developed. preschoolers were exposed to different types of tasks, the most common being the following: handwriting tasks, video analysis, problem solving routines, ordering of events, identification of cause and effect relationships, stating facts, mistakes finding, and class discussions. teachers’ training and use of resources it was found that the all of the five participant teachers had taken a training course offered by the school called conceptual pedagogy. in general, teachers think that this course has helped them in understanding students’ cognitive development. they argued that there are positive aspects of the training, but they also admit that it is not useful for all levels, ages or subjects. teachers also mentioned that they had not received any further cognitive training and that they would like to receive more training in the field of critical thinking. the use of concrete materials and other aids in order to help students’ understanding of the topic was another aspect found. teachers said that they try to use as much concrete and real material as possible. some of the resources frequently use by teachers are auditory, visual, concrete, kinetic (manipulative), and graphic materials. they found these important for the age because they observe more motivation in children when they use this kind of material. resources and environmental arranges have strong presence in the activities planned by the teachers; however, it is not evident that these kind of resources are specially designed to help children developing critical thinking skills. it seems it is done more by chance than for real purpose in the development of thinking. strategies to promote critical thinking melo no. 10 (january june 2015) no. 10 (january june 2015) 126 conclusions this study sought to identify the incidents of critical thinking in five preschool classrooms in one school. documentation on the different instructional strategies preschool teachers employed in the development of critical thinking in preschoolers were identified, as well as teachers’ beliefs in regards to the role of critical thinking in their classrooms. there are classroom interactions that were predominant and may lead to the development of critical thinking. these included the language of thinking and the promotion of curiosity, questioning, discussion and reflection during class time. teacher practice in the preschool classes is centered on the development of certain activities and skills that are predetermined by the teacher. it was believed by teachers that should more predominance be placed on the development of activities in which skills are the core, specifically thinking skills, there will be more possibilities for students’ to develop critical thinking. thinking processes are a component that need to be included into teachers’ planners and class delivery. when teachers focus their lesson planning on the development of specific thinking process, they are more likely to extend the possibilities of developing critical thinking in their students. transference and application of what is learned, the level of participation in class, inferences and problem solution were also believed to indicate degree of critical thinking. the presence of these indicators may also contribute to raising the level of the development of critical thinking. class environment also plays an important role in the development of critical thinking skills in students. teachers who have a more clear purpose of promoting thinking and reflection in the students apply more environmental modifications and use many more resources before and during the lesson. in terms of limitations of this study, since the data analysis was based only on the interaction with teachers, reading of documents and observation of classes, there was a limitation in terms of the role of children in this process. it was not possible to talk to the participant children and inquire about their perception towards the issue of critical thinking. it was not also possible to evaluate the level of critical thinking acquired by these children in the moment the research was held. this research showed a different perspectives of the development of critical thinking in preschoolers and opens the opportunity of researching different aspects, but especially in terms of diagnostic tools to determine the level of critical thinking development in preschoolers as well as teachers believes in supporting children`s critical thinking. strategies to promote critical thinking melo no. 10 (january june 2015) no. 10 (january june 2015) 127 references bailin, s., case, r., coombs, j. & daniels, l. (1999). conceptualizing critical thinking. journal of curriculum studies, 31(3), 285302. bell, s. (2010). project-based learning for the 21st century: skills for the future. the clearing house: a journal of educational strategies, issues and ideas, 83(2), 39-43. collier, k., guenther, t., & veerman, c. (2002). developing critical thinking skills through a variety of instructional strategies. (unpublished master’s thesis). saint xavier university. chicago, il. dewey, j. (1933). how we think: a restatement of the relation of reflective thinking to the educative process. boston, ma: heath. elkjaer, b. (2009). pragmatism: a learning theory for the future. in k. illeris, (ed.), contemporary theories of learning. (pp. 75-88). new york, ny: routledge. facione, peter a. critical thinking: what it is and why it counts. millbrae, ca: the california academic press fisher, a. (2011). critical thinking: an introduction. cambridge: cambridge university kuhn, d. (1999). a developmental model of critical thinking. educational researcher, 28(2), 16-46. piaget, j. (1952). the origins of intelligence in children. new york: international university press şahhüseyinoğlu, d. (2010). children as researchers: a report from 6 year old turkish students ‘science’classroom. procedia-social and behavioral sciences, 2(2), 5152-5156. scheau, i. (2012). the influence of critical thinking on pupil’s development and at the level of didactic activities. procedia-social and behavioral sciences, 51(3), 752-756. author *jenny melo león is a self-contained teacher at the gimnasio la montaña. she has been working on preschool education for more than 10 years. she is a licensed teacher in preschool education, specialist in educational management and holds a master’s in education, all from the universidad de la sabana. she has recently graduated from the specialization in bilingual education from única. strategies to promote critical thinking melo no. 10 (january june 2015) no. 10 (january june 2015) 49 improving english language learners’ academic writing: a multi-strategy approach to a multi-dimensional challenge1 mejorar la escritura académica de aprendices de inglés: un efoque de multiestrategia a un desafío multideminesional nora lucía marulanda ángel, ph.d. and juan manuel martínez garcía2* universidad tecnológica de pereira abstract the demands of the academic field and the constraints students have while learning how to write appropriately call for better approaches to teach academic writing. this research study examines the effect of a multifaceted academic writing module on pre-service teachers’ composition skills in an english teacher preparation program at a medium sized public university in colombia. four written samples from sixteen students were analyzed throughout the two academic periods of 2016. analytical rubrics measured six writing features quantitatively. results showed that this multifaceted academic writing module significantly improved pre-service teachers’ competences such as discourse, syntax, vocabulary, mechanics and language conventions. key words: academic writing, peer review, tutoring, writing lab, systemized feedback, toefl practice, process approach resumen los requerimientos del área académica y las limitaciones de los estudiantes al aprender a escribir exigen mejores estrategias para la enseñanza de la escritura académica. esta investigación examina el efecto de un módulo multifacético de 1 received: december 19, 2016/accepted: april 17, 2017 2 lucia.marulanda@utp.edu.co / jumamartinez@utp.edu.co oral skills through podcasting and collaboration gist education and learning research journal. issn 1692-5777. no.14. (january june) 2017. pp. 49-67. no. 14 (january june 2017) no. 14 (january june 2017) 50 escritura académica en las habilidades de composición de maestros de inglés en formación inicial en una universidad pública mixta de mediano tamaño. cuatro muestras escritas de dieciséis estudiantes fueron analizadas a lo largo de los dos períodos académicos de 2016. rúbricas analíticas midieron cuantitativamente las características de escritura de los estudiantes. los resultados mostraron que este módulo multifacético de escritura académica mejoró significativamente las habilidades de escritura de los maestros de inglés en formación inicial a nivel local y global. palabras claves: escritura académica, evaluación entre pares, tutoría, centro de escritura, retroalimentación sistemática, práctica toefl, enfoque basado en procesos resumo os requerimentos da área acadêmica a as limitações dos estudantes quando aprendem a escrever, exigem melhores estratégias para o ensino da escritura acadêmica. esta pesquisa examina o efeito de um módulo multifacético de escritura académica nas habilidades de composição de professores de inglês em formação inicial em uma universidade pública mista de tamanho médio. foram analisadas quatro amostras escritas de dezesseis estudantes no curso dos dois períodos acadêmicos de 2016. rubricas analíticas mediram quantitativamente as características de escritura dos estudantes. os resultados mostraram que este módulo multifacético de escritura acadêmica melhorou significativamente as habilidades de escritura dos mestres de inglês em formação inicial ao nível local e global. palavras chave: escritura académica, avaliação entre pares, tutoria, centro de escritura, retroalimentação sistemática, prática toefl, enfoque baseado em processos improving academic writing marulanda & martínez no. 14 (january june 2017) no. 14 (january june 2017) 51 introduction academic writing tasks pose real difficulties to english language learners (ell) at all levels of education and school subjects, especially to those students with limited academic literacy skills in their native languages (schleppegrell, 2004; gomez, 2011; zhu, 2001). indeed, once students enter universities and become part of learning communities, writing becomes more of a daunting task. as cognitive, content, and academic demands increase, the development of ell’s writing skills becomes a multi-dimensional challenge for students and for professors and institutions. students struggle with the processes of learning to write while writing to learn (marinetti, 1985). at the college level, there is a need to learn how to read and write for multiple purposes. the nature of writing tasks, mainly argumentative and expository texts, involves critical literacy and it requires synthesizing information from a variety of linguistically-demanding sources. professors from different faculties often expect that students enter universities with the required reading/writing competences to embrace academic writing tasks (zhu, 2004). furthermore, many of them believe that teaching writing is solely the responsibility of language teachers, and paradoxically assume that learners will get to write better on their own; as a consequence, when they assign elaborate complex academic papers to their students, with little or no support, they often get lowquality written products. after all, “writing tasks are assigned without clear guidelines for students about how a particular text type is typically structured and organized” (schleppegrell, 2004, p. 2). grounded on cummins’ (1991) common underlying proficiency (cup) hypothesis, which suggests that learners of a second language draw upon skills from their native language, and according to studies reported by garcia (2009) on transferability, students’ writing performance in english can be affected by their literacy competences in spanish. furthermore, the demands of writing tasks at the college level require more sophisticated levels in the argumentative and interpretive dimensions of language. students’ lack of knowledge of academic genres’ rhetorical features, combined with very limited writing experiences that involve argumentation and interpretation, constitute a multi-dimensional challenge in this pre-service teacher program. these teachers in development need to learn the language of the academia, which is often very structured and complex (snow, 1987). these highly literate contexts require students to master advanced levels of grammatical forms and sophisticated vocabulary to interpret improving academic writing marulanda & martínez no. 14 (january june 2017) no. 14 (january june 2017) 52 and produce a variety of texts from different genres. as future english teachers, they must overcome their academic discourse limitations while learning to teach english reading and writing. in fact, in order to graduate from the program, students must reach a c1 language proficiency level, measured by a standardized test. in response to years of professors struggling in their english teacher preparation classes with large, heterogeneous groups of students across different english writing proficiency levels, a new academic writing course was created in 2016. the goal was to design an academic, genre-based curriculum that was closely connected to the writing tasks students were typically assigned in other courses, and that offered support mechanisms such as peer review and ongoing tutoring in order to develop academic writing skills and foster transferability among the classes. this two-semester action research study seeks to explore the impact that the new academic writing course has on the pre-service teachers’ academic writing skills. this article provides a description of the instructional strategies that have been used in the academic writing course throughout the two semesters the class has been offered, and presents a quantitative analysis of four different academic writing tasks carried out during semesters one and two of 2016. the leading question of this research study is: how has a newlycreated, multi-strategy approach to teaching academic writing impacted english pre-service teachers’ composition skills? literature review this newly-created, multifaceted academic writing module has four key components that are supported by research findings regarding the effectiveness of the process approach to writing, the positive aspects of teacher and peer review, the latest insights gained from several universities’ writing labs, and the significant effects on students’ academic discourse of on-going practice of the toefl integrated writing task. process approach to writing after gaining attention in the 1960s, second language (l2) writing has become more of an important skill to develop for language learners. the literacy demands of information technologies have brought about more focus to writing, which now transcends classrooms and positions itself as a daily-life need (onozawa, 2010). decades ago, writing was improving academic writing marulanda & martínez no. 14 (january june 2017) no. 14 (january june 2017) 53 seen as a rigid skill inseparable from grammar instruction and, as susser (1994) asserts, its focus was “on controlled composition, correction of the product and correct form over expression of ideas” (p. 36). however, despite the deterministic acknowledgement of some authors of the usefulness of this product-oriented approach to writing (dykstra, 1973; paulston & bruder, 1976), new visions came upon writing as discussions about first-language (l1) composition transferred to the esl (l2) field. opposing grammatical proficiency, adherents to the expressionist movement believed that “the primary emphasis should be upon the expressive and creative process of writing” (zamel, 1976). since the 1980s, the process approach to writing in l2 has evolved, and according to susser (1994), it also has encountered several opponents in regards to its validity as a pedagogy. nevertheless, its importance for composition studies is undeniable. nowadays, the process approach keeps shedding light on how writing happens and what actions writers follow when composing texts. as indicated in graph 1, adapted from coffin (2003), writing happens as a recursive progression with different stages that range from prewriting to editing and where writers exercise different thinking skills in order to shape their work. this cycle susser (1994) suggests, “helps make students aware that writing is a process, and that there are different processes for different kinds of writing.” (p. 34). therefore, l2 writers avoid following strict and narrow schemes and get to suit themselves to the different tasks they are assigned. current analysis like (onozawa, 2010) and research studies like (goldstein & carr, 1996; pritchard & honeycutt, 2006; akinwamide, 2012; bayat, 2014) demonstrate the positive impact of the process approach as a pedagogy that is both reliable and rewarding. figure 1. process writing cycle. adapted from coffin (2003). improving academic writing marulanda & martínez no. 14 (january june 2017) no. 14 (january june 2017) 54 systematized feedback provided by teachers and peers feedback is particularly valuable for learners of a foreign language. when it comes to writing, corrective feedback can guide students in textual and compositional features in order to improve their final product. written feedback needs to be properly provided so students can benefit from it, however, “research shows that most esl writing teachers make similar types of comments and are more concerned with languagespecific errors and problems” (maarof, yamat & li, 2011, p.30). as has been shown in recent research (williams, 2003), inappropriate feedback results in students’ writing frustration and apprehension. this implies that feedback must be restructured if teachers aim to have better writing learning outcomes. one possibility that has been envisioned is supplementing teacher feedback with peer-reviewing. peer review can be understood as feedback provided by learners to learners at the same level. for jahin (2012), peer reviewing gives learners a purpose to write as well as multiple views on their written work. also, he asserts that “much research has indicated the positive effect of peer reviewing on the writing process and on the writer’s product” (p. 61), leading not only to local and general improvements in learners’ composition skills, but also in their confidence and affective filter. additionally, peer reviewing finds support in theoretical frameworks such as process writing and collaborative learning (hansen & liu, 2005). despite the fact that several studies cast doubts on the effectiveness of peer review when compared to teachers’ thorough observations, maarof, yamat and li (2011) conclude from their study that the majority of students had a positive perception of the use of both teacher and peer feedback since they both improve and enhance their writing skills. on-going tutoring in a writing lab tutoring has also found a place in the formation of students’ composition skills. in the present, several educational institutions, specifically universities, have writing centers or labs with trained tutors who provide personalized support to the community both face-to-face and online, one example being purdue’s owl (landsberger, 2001). however, as reported by molina natera (2014), there are currently less than ten universities with writing labs which offer support only in spanish. nevertheless, when in place, tutoring can serve as an advantageous underpin for the development of writing. as sullivan and cleary (2014) show by citing topping (1996): claims made about the benefits of peer tutoring for both the tutor and tutee include the development of metacognitive skills, improving academic writing marulanda & martínez no. 14 (january june 2017) no. 14 (january june 2017) 55 improved cognitive processing, increased interaction/reduced isolation, more immediate feedback and prompting, lower anxiety, a higher level of disclosure and increased learner autonomy (sullivan & cleary, 2014, p. 57). this means that tutoring sessions can benefit the written product per se and also enhance writers’ attitudes and beliefs regarding text composition. in a study conducted by adams (2011), students reported positive outcomes of tutoring sessions claiming they “fully enjoyed [the session] and left the meeting feeling positive about the future of my assignments.” (p.114). even though providing tutoring might result cumbersome and costly for institutions, if well implemented, it can be conducive to learning. furthermore, shrestha and coffin (2012) found that tutoring “is an effective way of providing the kind of reflective, dynamic mediation that is able to effectively support students’ academic writing development” (p. 57). writing complexity can therefore be lessened if learners feel supported throughout the process of composition. standardized test-taking practice (toefl) as taken from the concept of washback (bailey, 1999), which is the impact of test results on students’ attitudes, standardized tests can influence both teaching and learning. however, limited studies have investigated the effects of high-stakes language tests on both practices (green, 2007; soleimani & maahdavipour, 2014). although investigations like (hill, storch & lynch, 1999) call into question the relation between language proficiency measured by standardized tests and academic performance, the rapid growth of the demand of these tests to gain access to advanced education force students to be familiar with the dynamics that exams like toefl or ielts contain, which tend to be academic in nature. indeed, as shown by hosseini, taghizadeh, abedin and naseri (2013), students’ knowledge does not suffice to be successful in academic contexts, and thus, they must become proficient in such academic tasks, particularly those targeted in standardized tests. additionally, recent research points out the favorable view both teachers and students have on standardized test practice and its effect on academic performance (read & hayes, 2003). it has also been noted that standardized test companies have made their tasks more authentic, fostering a better measurement of writing skills (soleimani & mahdavipour, 2014). despite the reputation of these exams becoming too pervasive in academic curricula, their usefulness in the language teaching classroom remains to be explored more deeply. improving academic writing marulanda & martínez no. 14 (january june 2017) no. 14 (january june 2017) 56 methodology research design action research was selected for this project since, as proposed by (dörnyei, 2007), it encourages participants to reflect on pedagogical practices, their effectiveness, shortcomings and possible ways to modify them to ensure positive effects on teaching/learning processes. the research study is based on the quantitative measurement of students’ progress in the production of academic texts on a one-to-fivepoint analytical rubric. researchers collected data from february to june of 2016 (first semester of new academic course) and from august to december of 2016 (second semester of the course implementation). context and participants this research study has been conducted in an english teacher preparation program at a medium-sized, public, coeducational university in colombia. students’ age ranges between 18 and 25 years old, they speak spanish as a native language, and their english level oscillates between a2 and b1, according to the common european framework of references for languages (2001). this population is characterized by the limited exposure to academic writing experiences in high school and its weak literacy skills in their native language, as it is the case for the majority of students in public universities in colombia, as reported by gómez (2011). the new academic writing class is a four-credit course offered in seventh semester with an intensity of four hours a week. the course started out in 2016 (semester one) with some elements of a former composition class whose curriculum focused on grammar and sentence writing review. currently, the structure of the academic writing course encompasses four key elements: the development of several genrebased tasks using the process writing approach, systematized feedback provided by the professor and peers, on-going tutoring to students in a writing lab, and repeated test-taking practice on toefl writing tasks. first of all, the course’s main objective is to engage students in the construction of several writing pieces from different academic genres through the use of the process writing approach in order to foster awareness regarding the cyclical nature of writing (coffin, 2003). in other words, students are taught to maximize on the fact that written language can be reviewed and polished as opposed to oral discourse. in addition, students are exposed to the particular discourse features improving academic writing marulanda & martínez no. 14 (january june 2017) no. 14 (january june 2017) 57 of academic genre such as descriptions, summaries, reflections and argumentative essays. task-specific rubrics, developed by the course’s professor, are designed to guide students through the development of each product. these assessment tools become instrumental for the professor and students to provide systematized, integrated feedback. sometimes students evaluate each other’s texts before turning them in; in other occasions, students pair up to analyze the feedback provided by the professor. the nature of the feedback provided in this class is systematized in the sense that it targets specific features (e.g. organization, cohesiveness, language mechanics, etc.), depending on pre-determined foci. this targeted and systematic way of giving feedback facilitates students editing work, and it prevents learners from feeling overwhelmed. moreover, the feedback students receive is integrated so that teaching and revising are combined. another fundamental aspect of this multifaceted academic writing module is the support offered in an academic writing lab to students with writing difficulties. there is a virtual platform where materials are posted as lessons’ reinforcements and grammar reviews, in addition to personalized tutoring provided by monitors. the tutorial sessions are focused on the improvement of specific macro and micro writing features depending on students’ needs and professor’s observations. last but not least, is the incorporation of the toefl writing tasks as an instructional tool. this is a refreshing way to look at standardized tests since it helps students become familiar with real testing conditions and it engages them in highly-targeted academic writing tasks. in the first semester of 2016, there were 16 students in the class, and eight students (cohort one) were selected randomly as participants in the project. the same sampling procedure was used for cohort two (second semester). role of the researchers there are two researchers conducting the study: one is the academic writing course professor who acts as a participant observer since the analysis is based on her insights regarding the evolution of the class and its students. the monitor, who works with the students in the writing lab, is also a participant observer given the fact that he was involved in the analysis of students’ samples as a way to cross examined data results. improving academic writing marulanda & martínez no. 14 (january june 2017) no. 14 (january june 2017) 58 data collection instruments for the data collection, four writing samples from each cohort were selected as representative of the work that was produced throughout each of the semesters. these written products were scored with rubrics with levels of performance that ranged from 1 to 5 (low to high, respectively). cohort one: descriptive and summary paragraphs, descriptive essay and toefl integrated essay. cohort two: descriptive paragraph, reflective essay, opinion essay and toefl integrated essay. these writing pieces were scored using analytical rubrics to assess students’ progress at the beginning, in the middle and at the end of each of the semesters, in terms of the following language features: discourse (task purpose and audience), organization, coherence, sentence structure, conventions and vocabulary. the features analyzed in the rubrics were selected based on emerging patterns of difficulties and strengths students presented in their written work. furthermore, these linguistic features play significant parts in the development of wellstructured academic texts as “the ability to adopt linguistic features of ‘literate-style’ language enables students’ success in a variety of schoolbased tasks…” (schleppegrell, 2004, p.34). data analysis and interpretation four writing samples representative of different academic genres were analyzed in terms of discourse, syntax, vocabulary, conventions, and language mechanics for each of the 16 participants. discourse evaluates students’ ability to address the task purpose and audience; organization relates to coherence and cohesion; syntax assesses students’ mastery of sentence construction; vocabulary focuses on the range of academic lexicon, and conventions determine students’ grammatical competences, and the appropriate use of capitalization, parts of speech and punctuation. the students’ scores obtained in each of the writing tasks, based on the aforementioned language features, were collected and averaged in order to measure progress throughout the semester, considering that each task was incrementally more demanding, as seen in tables 1 and 3 (cohort 1) and tables 2 and 4 (cohort 2). in the first semester of the project’s implementation, all participant students exhibited high-level performances in academic writing features such as discourse and text organization. these two aspects of improving academic writing marulanda & martínez no. 14 (january june 2017) no. 14 (january june 2017) 59 writing were emphasized in many tasks throughout the semester, not only during class sessions but also in the writing lab’s tutorials. as seen in table 1, academic vocabulary scores were high possibly due to a number of reasons. first of all, the topics selected for each of the writing pieces were academic in nature (e.g. reflective paper based on classroom observation, description essay about best teacher). indeed, the toefl topics and prompts were highly academic as well (e.g. large-class vs. small-class advantages and disadvantages, lecture and discussion types of teaching styles, etc.). finally, the reinforcement exercises provided in the virtual component of the writing lab were taken from academic writing textbooks (savage & mayer, 2005). vocabulary was also heavily worked through the toefl practice sessions. the toefl writing tasks, particularly the integrated, are based on a twomillion, academic-word data bank, taken from educational institutions in the united states, as reported by fox, wesche, bayliss, cheng, turner and doe (2007). on the other hand, awareness and control of the syntactical and grammatical organization of academic texts represented the biggest challenge for students in cohort one. as a matter of fact, as shown in table 1, five out of eight students scored below four in language conventions (grammar, spelling, punctuation). a grammatical component was not part of the academic course syllabus since students take several english courses as prerequisites for this class and grammar is taught up to advanced levels. nevertheless, the results shown in table 1 raised an important issue related to the need of incorporating grammar reviews in the academic writing course. however, considerable work was done around sentence construction and combination of clauses. such practices helped students grow in the elaboration of sentences but they still struggled with the process of combining them to construct a text. table 1. writing features average in cohort 1. s1 s2 s3 s4 s5 s6 s7 s8 discourse 5 4.75 5 4.5 5 5 5 5 organization 5 4.5 5 4.75 4.75 4.75 4.75 4.75 syntax 3.75 4.25 4 3.75 4.75 4.25 5 4.25 vocabulary 4.75 4.75 4.5 4.75 4.75 4.75 4.75 4.25 conventions 3.75 3.5 3.5 3.5 4.25 4.5 3.5 4.5 improving academic writing marulanda & martínez no. 14 (january june 2017) no. 14 (january june 2017) 60 during the second semester of the course implementation, students’ performance in language conventions (grammar, spelling and punctuation) and syntax improved considerably since systematic reviews of complex grammatical structures and sentence construction were incorporated in the writing lab exercises. in fact, as illustrated in table 2, only one student out of eight received scores below four. discourse and text organization scores continued to be strong as they were for cohort one given the course’s revised orientation, the process writing approach, repeated toefl test-taking strategy video lessons and practice, as well as the continuous support provided to the students in the writing lab’s tutoring sessions (see table 2). table 2. writing features average in cohort 2 s1 s2 s3 s4 s5 s6 s7 s8 discourse 5 5 5 5 4.25 5 5 5 organization 5 4.75 5 4.75 5 5 5 4.75 syntax 4.75 4 4.5 4.5 4.5 4.75 5 5 vocabulary 4 4.75 5 5 4.75 5 5 5 conventions 3.5 4 5 4.25 5 4.75 4.75 4.75 in terms of students’ performance in tasks (different genres) written throughout the first semester of the project, most of the students performed very well on summary and descriptive writing products since these were two of the academic genres that were taught and practiced several times during the course, both in classes and in the writing lab’s sessions (see table 3). the toefl integrated essay scores were lower than the rest, even though it was the final task of the semester; as seen in table 3, two out of eight students scored below four in their compositions. the explanation for this may be twofold. first of all, for the most part of the semester, time was spent writing at the paragraph level, focusing on syntax. secondly, students were under pressure since this task was their final exam. improving academic writing marulanda & martínez no. 14 (january june 2017) no. 14 (january june 2017) 61 table 3. task performance average in cohort 1. s1 s2 s3 s4 s5 s6 s7 s8 summary paragraph 4.4 4.2 4.4 4.2 5 4.6 4.4 4.8 descriptive paragraph 4.8 4.8 4.6 4.4 4.8 4.4 4.6 4.4 descriptive essay 4.6 4.6 4.4 4.6 4.8 5 5 4.8 toefl essay 4 3.8 4.2 3.8 4.2 4.6 4.2 4.2 in spite of the fact that the tasks carried out during the second semester were more academically demanding, students’ performance was much higher than in cohort one (see table 4). there are several hypotheses that may explain the improvements in students’ written products such as curriculum modifications, more grammar and syntax reviews, a better selection of academic tasks, and more systematic student participation in the writing lab. there were changes made to the course syllabus in order to incorporate the argumentative genre; also, the number of products was decreased to allow more time to work one of them. in the virtual component of the writing lab, numerous exercises were uploaded to practice advanced grammatical forms and syntax such as nominalization, phrasal verbs, reduced adverb clauses, among others. these variables might have influenced the quality of the written products. table 4. task performance average in cohort 2. s1 s2 s3 s4 s5 s6 s7 s8 descriptive paragraph 4.2 4 4.6 4.4 4.4 4.8 5 4.8 reflective essay 4.4 4.6 5 5 5 5 4.8 5 opinion essay 4.6 4.6 5 4.8 4.6 4.8 5 5 toefl essay 4.6 4.8 5 4.6 4.8 5 5 4.8 in terms of data dispersion (table 5), graphs a, b and d, particularly the latter, showed that there is an impact of the strategies utilized throughout the academic writing course on students’ writing skills. however, graph c illustrates that students from cohort 1 had difficulties in applying their improved usage of writing features to the academic writing tasks assigned. improving academic writing marulanda & martínez no. 14 (january june 2017) no. 14 (january june 2017) 62 table 5. data dispersion of writing features (graphs a&b) and task performance (graphs c&d) conclusions and recommendations from the data obtained, it can be inferred that in order for students to write college-level, academic products, they must have a solid foundation on the grammatical and syntactical features of complex texts. such finding has significant implications for the teacher preparation program of this study since it calls for an evaluation of the content and standards of prerequisite courses that supposedly address the sub-skills required for an academic writing course. the positive results of students’ written work throughout the first two semesters of the implementation of the new multifaceted academic writing module could be explained by the combined use of the multiple instructional and assessment strategies mentioned throughout this study. moreover, students must be continuously reminded, required and supported to use academic writing across all disciplines, being mindful of content-specific lexicon. this is especially crucial in a context where students are future english teachers who have the responsibility of breaking vicious cycles of educational inequity and poor academic literacy skills. in order to obtain a more comprehensive view of the impact of the academic writing course on students’ academic writing abilities, the quantitative results obtained in this study should be crossexamined through questionnaires and interviews to assess students’ and improving academic writing marulanda & martínez no. 14 (january june 2017) no. 14 (january june 2017) 63 professors’ perceptions regarding the development of the writing skills and transferability to other courses. grounded on the data obtained from cohort 1, in terms of writing features and performance in academic tasks, several curricular modifications were made (e.g. extended practice of academic genres and grammatical exercises), also tutoring sessions were extended as well as systematized feedback. such modifications, as shown in table 5, resulted on cohort 2 students’ overall improvement of their academic writing skills. nevertheless, further research must be conducted to explore the effectiveness of the process approach, systematized feedback, and ongoing tutoring in increasing students’ metalinguistic awareness and the quality of their academic written products. improving academic writing marulanda & martínez no. 14 (january june 2017) no. 14 (january june 2017) 64 references adams, j. 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(2004). faculty views on the importance of writing, the nature of academic writing, and teaching and responding to writing in the disciplines. journal of second language writing, 13, 29-48. improving academic writing marulanda & martínez no. 14 (january june 2017) no. 14 (january june 2017) 67 authors *nora lucía marulanda ángel, ph.d. currently works as a full-time professor in the english teacher preparation program at the universidad tecnológica de pereira. she is also an adjunct professor in the masters’ program in english didactics at the universidad de caldas. dr. marulanda has worked in the field of english language development, as a school teacher, administrator, university professor and educational consultant for over 25 years in ohio, california and colombia *juan manuel martínez garcía is a senior student from the english teacher preparation program at universidad tecnológica de pereira where he directs a bilingual reading club. he currently works as a facilitator at instituto de lenguas extranjeras (ilex) and as the workshop coordinator of little stories, a non-profit initiative of reading promotion for children, conducted at banco de la república library in pereira. he is interested in the fields of bilingual literacy, second-language acquisition and pedagogy. improving academic writing marulanda & martínez no. 14 (january june 2017) no. 14 (january june 2017) 56 language assessment literacy for pre-service teachers: course expectations from different stakeholders1 literacidad en la evaluación de lenguas para futuros profesores: expectativas de un curso desde diferentes partes interesadas frank giraldo and daniel murcia2* universidad tecnológica de pereira, colombia abstract in the field of applied linguistics, for the past fifteen years, there have been discussions about language assessment literacy (lal) —the knowledge, skills, and principles related to assessing language ability— (davies, 2008; fulcher, 2012). however, the field lacks research on the professional development of language teachers, particularly pre-service language teachers, through training in language assessment. our paper focuses on the preliminary findings of an action research study whose goal is to identify the impact of a language assessment course for pre-service teachers in a language teaching program in a state university in colombia. data collection for the diagnostic stage of the action research cycle used a multiple-choice questionnaire for student needs and wants, an open questionnaire for professors, an interview with an expert, and researchers’ journals. preliminary findings indicate that there is a need to combine theory and practice of language assessment, with an emphasis on current methodologies for language teaching, assessment in bilingual education, and local policies for assessment. the paper highlights recommendations and challenges when designing a language assessment course based on insights from existing literature and includes implications for professional development. keywords: language assessment literacy, language testing, language policies, bilingual education. 1 received: january 8th 2018/ accepted may 8th 2018 2 icaros@utp.edu.co; dmurcia@utp.edu.co gist education and learning research journal. issn 1692-5777. no.16 (january june) 2018.. pp. 56-77. giraldo & murcia no. 16 (january june, 2018) no. 16 (january june, 2018) 57 resumen en los últimos quince años, el campo de la lingüística aplicada ha desarrollado una discusión sobre la literacidad en la evaluación de lenguas (lel) — los conocimientos, destrezas y principios para evaluar la competencia lingüística — (davies, 2008; fulcher, 2012). sin embargo, el campo carece de investigación en el desarrollo profesional de docentes de lenguas, particularmente profesores de lenguas en formación desde la evaluación de lenguas. este artículo se enfoca en los hallazgos preliminares de una investigación acción que tiene como objetivo identificar el impacto de un curso en evaluación de lenguas para profesores en formación de un programa para docentes en una universidad pública en colombia. para la recolección de datos en la fase de diagnóstico como primer ciclo de la investigación acción se utilizó un cuestionario múltiple para las necesidades y expectativas, un cuestionario abierto para profesores, una entrevista con una experta, y diarios de los investigadores. los resultados preliminares indican que existe una necesidad de combinar teoría y práctica en evaluación de lenguas, enfatizando en metodologías para la enseñanza de lenguas, la evaluación para la educación bilingüe y políticas locales de evaluación. se resaltan recomendaciones y retos en el diseño de un curso en evaluación de lenguas basados en tendencias del estado del arte y se discuten implicaciones para el desarrollo profesional docente. palabras clave: literacidad en evaluación de lenguas, evaluación de lenguas, políticas lingüísticas, educación bilingüe. resumo nos últimos quinze anos, a área da linguística aplicada tem desenvolvido uma discussão sobre a literalidade na avaliação de línguas (lal) — os conhecimentos, destrezas e princípios para avaliar a competência linguística — (davies, 2008; fulcher, 2012). porém, a área carece de pesquisa no desenvolvimento profissional de docentes de línguas, especialmente professores de línguas em formação desde a avaliação de línguas. este artigo se enfoca nas descobertas preliminares de una pesquisa ação que tem como objetivo identificar o impacto de um curso em avaliação de línguas para professores em formação de um programa para docentes em uma universidade pública na colômbia. para a coleta de dados na fase de diagnóstico como primeiro ciclo da pesquisa ação se utilizou um questionário múltiplo para as necessidades e expectativas, um questionário aberto para professores, uma entrevista com uma experta, e diários dos pesquisadores. os resultados preliminares indicam que existe uma necessidade de combinar teoria e prática em avaliação de línguas, enfatizando em metodologias para o ensino de línguas, a avaliação para a educação bilíngue e políticas locais de avaliação. ressaltam-se recomendações e desafios no desenho de um curso em avaliação de línguas, baseados em tendências do estado da arte e discutem-se implicações para o desenvolvimento profissional docente. palavras chave: literalidade em avaliação de línguas, avaliação de línguas, políticas linguísticas, educação bilíngue. giraldo & murcia no. 16 (january june, 2018) no. 16 (january june, 2018) 58 introduction educational policies in colombia include broad guidelines for the assessment of/for learning (decreto 1290 from 2009 by the ministerio de educación nacional, men). teachers in schools are expected to assess student learning, and that includes english language teachers. in the case of language learning, the currículo sugerido (suggested curriculum) (men, 2016) defines summative and formative assessment as two approaches to language assessment. however, there are no documents to guide this type of assessment, which is unique due to language as a central construct (inbar-lourie, 2008). notwithstanding the importance of assessment for language teachers (davison & leung, 2009), the lack of published guidelines derived from empirical evidence exercises a great impact on language teacher education programs. training for pre-service and in-service teachers, however, is needed and encouraged (herrera & macías, 2015; lópez & bernal, 2009) in these programs. language teachers make decisions based on assessment data, whether this endeavor involves reporting achievement or improving learning (brown & abeywickrama, 2010). since data on language ability is used for decisions, they directly influence learning, teaching, and schools. against this background, there is a need to improve the language assessment literacy of language teachers, a crucial stakeholder group in language assessment (giraldo, 2018). in general, language assessment literacy (henceforth lal) refers to the knowledge, skills, and principles for contextualizing, planning, developing, executing, evaluating, and interpreting language assessments, whether these are devised in the classroom or out of it (fulcher, 2012). to foster lal among teachers, brindley (2001) proposes that professional development programs include at least three modules: one around the why of assessment (purposes), one around the how (methods for language assessment), and one about the what (the meaning of language ability). while this proposal is indeed welcomed in the language testing field (see inbar-lourie, 2012, for example), research seems to be in beginning stages in colombia. in the past five years, there has been an emergence of lal research targeting in-service language teachers (see kremmel, eberharter, holzknecht, & konrad, 2017; yan, fang, & zhang, 2017). however, there is scarce research on lal development of pre-service language teachers. specifically in colombia, restrepo and jaramillo’s (2017) preliminary findings on preservice language teachers’ lal has led them to suggest that language testing courses do have a positive impact on participants: these courses language assessment for pre-service teachers giraldo & murcia no. 16 (january june, 2018) no. 16 (january june, 2018) 59 help them become aware of the meaning and purpose of language assessment –the how, why and what in brindley’s (2001) proposal. as of the time we wrote this article, restrepo and jaramillo’s study was the only available research in colombia targeting the lal of pre-service language teachers. because of the need to further conduct research on lal (inbarlourie, 2013; taylor, 2013), we are currently investigating the impact that a language assessment course can have on pre-service language teachers at a state university in colombia. the language assessment course under scrutiny had its first cohort during the second semester of 2017, and was added to the language teaching program thanks to a recent curriculum modification (see details in methodology below). specifically, we report the preliminary findings of the action research study underlying our approach to professional development in lal. the results in this paper come entirely from the diagnostic stage of the action research cycle, whereby we collected the needs and wants from multiple stakeholders on what they would expect from a language assessment course. therefore, the diagnostic stage in our study was a needs assessment exercise in curriculum development and sought to listen to stakeholder voices to foster lal (inbar-lourie, 2017b). the overarching goal of our study is to characterize the impact of a language assessment course on pre-service foreign language teachers, while the goal of the diagnostic stage was to characterize the needs and wants for a language assessment course for pre-service teachers. literature review assessment literacy and language assessment literacy in education, assessment literacy refers to the skills and knowledge for the practice of assessment by stakeholders such as teachers and school administrators. this rather general definition by stiggins (1995) has broadened in scope and more recently includes issues such as design and evaluation of assessments and knowledge of how students learn; such knowledge, as brookhart (2011) contends, should inform assessment practices. language assessment literacy (lal), on the other hand, shares these generic definitions in education; however, it has been stressed that what is specific in lal is the central construct for assessment: language (davies, 2008; inbar-lourie, 2012). in general terms, therefore, lal refers to the knowledge, skills, and principles that stakeholders possess for the exercise of language assessment (davies, 2008; fulcher, 2012, our emphasis). such language assessment for pre-service teachers giraldo & murcia no. 16 (january june, 2018) no. 16 (january june, 2018) 60 exercise includes language assessments for specific contexts, purposes, populations, and decisions; as authors argue, language assessment as a process is planned, monitored, and evaluated. while there is discussion that lal involves several stakeholders (pill & harding, 2013; taylor, 2013), clearly language teachers remain a central group of stakeholders that need to have adequate levels of lal (giraldo, 2018; inbar-lourie, 2017b). consequently, in addition to the core components outlined and explored by davies and fulcher, scarino (2013) argues that language teachers’ worldviews are indeed part of their lal and helps them shape this set of skills. in a review of lal for language teachers, giraldo (2018) proposes a core list of knowledge, skills, and principles that this group is expected to have, according to discussions in the field. knowledge specifics include theories and methodologies for language teaching and learning, theoretical issues such as validity and authenticity, and personal contextual issues such as institutional guidelines for assessment. besides, the author brings attention to instructional skills such as collecting classroom data on language development; design skills for closedand open-ended instruments; statistical skills such as calculation of descriptive statistics; and technological skills such as the use of statistical software. finally, specific principles include ethics, fairness, democracy, and transparency. as can be observed, the construct of lal has embraced a wide variety of issues in language education, and it is now a central discussion in language assessment. in fact, lal has gained specific entries in language testing literature (see for example, shohamy, may & or, 2017). related research research studies tapping into language teachers’ lal have indicated that, in general, teachers want training in a wide variety of topics. the findings in fulcher (2012) and vogt and tsagari (2014) state that in-service language teachers require training in issues such as test design and skills for test evaluation. an interesting trend in the research conducted with teachers is that this group prioritizes the practical aspect of language assessment, while not entirely disregarding theory. fulcher (2012) and kremmel et al. (2017) have suggested that language teachers want to learn about the construction of items for multiple-choice questions, for instance. however, as their results show, teachers do not seem to be interested in language assessment for pre-service teachers giraldo & murcia no. 16 (january june, 2018) no. 16 (january june, 2018) 61 topics such as ethics and fairness in language assessment, which have been topics of heated debate in the field (kunnan, 2003). other studies have helped language teachers to increase their lal rather than diagnose their needs. for example, the study by walters (2010) empowered teachers to become critical towards standards-based testing by means of developing test specifications. in the study by arias, maturana, and restrepo (2012), colombian in-service teachers improved their assessment practices and made them more valid, ethical, fair and democratic. in conclusion, lal is an expanding construct, welcoming what inbar-lourie (2017b) calls the genesis of assessment literacies. thus, more research is being encouraged and welcomed to help characterize lal. as a response to the call for contributing to the lal discussion, we present a research study that brought together the perceptions of what a language assessment course should include, viewed from the lenses of pre-service teachers and language teacher educators. methodology context and participants this action research study was conducted in the b.ed. in bilingualism with an emphasis on english language teaching from a state university in colombia. this program modified its curriculum based on the requirements established by the men in decrees 02041 and 18583 published during the years of 2016-2017. because of this modification, a course titled seminar in language assessment was added to the program’s curriculum for the 8th semester. the seminar meets four hours a week, and the second semester of 2017 was the first time it was offered to students. lal contents for the course derived from the diagnostic stage of this study. the participants for the diagnostic stage of the research were professors (n= 5) who completed an open questionnaire, and one language teacher education expert; the expert participated in a semistructured interview. these participants have been full-time professors in the aforementioned program for more than six years, were active members of the curricular transition, and participated in an event in 2017 on the concepts of bilingualism and national language policies. another group of participants in the diagnostic stage were preservice teachers of the program (n= 30) whose age ranged from 17 to 25 years old. these participants were enrolled in the professional language assessment for pre-service teachers giraldo & murcia no. 16 (january june, 2018) no. 16 (january june, 2018) 62 development course, a subject in the seventh semester, which explores concepts related to national language policies and bilingualism in language education. the students were selected as they were going to be part of the seminar in language assessment for the upcoming semester. they expressed their expectations regarding the possible contents for a course in language assessment through a multiple-choice questionnaire, which was administered during the first semester of 2017. as a response to the diagnostic stage, we concluded that for the first month of the course, the pre-service teachers needed to have an overall review of approaches and principles in language assessment; the following two months, students would deal with the design of language assessments; finally, the last month of the semester should be focused on issues such as bilingual assessment and general policies for assessment in colombia. data collection and analysis the approach in the diagnostic stage of our study was antipositivistic (burrell & morgan, 1979) as it sought to collect data from stakeholders’ views. our methodology followed mostly the tenets of qualitative research because we collected information from an openquestion survey, an interview, and researchers’ journals. the survey for professors asked them to express what knowledge, skills, and principles for language assessment the students in the course should develop. the interview with the expert had open questions (e.g. what knowledge of language assessment do you think the students of this program should learn about?) and probes (e.g. in your opinion and experience, what areas of language assessment have you noticed students in the program have difficulties with?). journal entries were guided by key phrases such as “trends we have identified in the data” and “deciding upon topics for the language assessment course”. additionally, our method had a quantitative approach to data collection, through a questionnaire adopted and adapted from fulcher (2012). results from this instrument led us to calculate percentages and ranks on language assessment topics to be included in the course. the questionnaire had 28 topics the pre-service teachers could choose from (e.g. history of language testing, writing assessment tasks and items), and an open question: what other topics about language assessment should the course include? for the qualitative side of the research, we used grounded theory for the data from three instruments: the answers to the open-question language assessment for pre-service teachers giraldo & murcia no. 16 (january june, 2018) no. 16 (january june, 2018) 63 survey, the transcription from the interview, and five comprehensive entries from our researchers’ journals. we followed three levels of iterative data analysis in grounded theory (glasser & strauss, 1967; dillon, 2012). open coding –an initial list of trends in the data– occurred as each one of us looked through answers in all instruments and compiled a list of emerging codings; both open lists were then merged to create one open list with fifteen categories; this list was used in the next analysis level. for axial coding (which examines and groups trends across open codings), each one of us looked over the merged list and made a second, more specific list of axial codings, using data from all instruments to confirm trends. we then compared both axial lists and calculated how much agreement there was between the two researchers. inter-rater agreement for axial coding was 88%; we discussed disagreements and came to a consensus on different codings. this agreement led us to the last data analysis level: selective codings, whereby axial codings were further grouped to arrive at major categories supported by research data. finally, we discussed selective codings (i.e. we talked about what they should be labeled, according to data from all instruments) and brought everything down to five major categories that emerged from the diagnostic stage of our study, as follows: a. overall awareness of language assessment b. theoretical foundations in language assessment c. praxis in language assessment, including design, score interpretation, and test critique. d. bilingualism and language policies on learning, teaching, and assessment in colombia e. washback and impact from language assessment results and discussion the purpose of the diagnostic stage in this action research study was to characterize the knowledge, skills, and principles for language assessment that a group of stakeholders would expect to have in a language assessment course. the data below shed light on the lal expectations of pre-service teachers and professors from a language teaching program in colombia. we first present the results from the questionnaire administered to students, then answers from the survey provided by professors, sample data from the interview with the language teaching expert, and journal entries from both researchers. the results below are divided into three major expectations: the first one focuses on designing assessments, the second one on general language assessment for pre-service teachers giraldo & murcia no. 16 (january june, 2018) no. 16 (january june, 2018) 64 language education issues vis-à-vis language assessment, and the third one on other pertinent issues for language assessment. overall emphasis on the practice of language assessment table 1 ranks the three top topics chosen by the pre-service teachers in our study. the two topics with the highest rank are related to the design of instruments for assessing language skills, and the third topic refers to the connection between language assessment and specific methodologies for language teaching. the data stress the need to have praxis in language assessment within a coherent theoretical context for language education (e.g. clil). this may indicate that pre-service teachers have a lack of training in the design of instruments for assessing language skills. besides, this group of stakeholders may consider the practical side of assessment as a priority, rather than a focus on theory they may already be familiar with, however superficially. to illustrate, the instrument uses the word “design”, which may trigger among the students the idea of practical –not theoretical– language assessment. lastly, the program the students are enrolled in has approached them through clil teaching, hence the evident expectation to learn about clil assessments. table 1. three top topics from questionnaire for pre-service teachers based on the quantitative results of table 1, the conclusion that the pre-service teachers want a course that deals with the practical aspects of language testing mirrors what scholars have found in different parts of the world. studies investigating in-service language teachers’ lal (kremmel et al., 2017, yan et al., 2017) have shown that teachers want to develop skills for item-writing, which is consistent with the results we are presenting. what is interesting about the overall results of these studies is that both populations seem to have similar interests for their professional development in language assessment. language assessment for pre-service teachers giraldo & murcia no. 16 (january june, 2018) no. 16 (january june, 2018) 65 table 2, on the other hand, lists the bottom three topics ranked by the pre-service teachers. based on these data, the topics with fewer respondents are not altogether connected to the design of language assessments; in other words, topics such as ethics and test administration generally occur once an assessment has been designed and used; topic ranked 13 (test specifications), however, deals with a theoretical-practical aspect of language testing, which is writing instructions on how to write a test item or task. in this case, there may either be a contradiction in students’ responses, or lack of knowledge of what test specifications are. the data in table 2 suggest that the pre-service teachers would expect little attention to these matters, or it may be the case that they are not aware of what these issues imply in language assessment. the data also seem to reiterate what we present in table 1: these pre-service teachers appeared inclined towards the design of language assessments. it may also be the case that ethical considerations and test administration are topics the pre-service teachers could be taking for granted; according to these stakeholders’ responses, these two topics should not be prioritized in a language assessment course. table 2. three bottom topics from questionnaire for pre-service teachers overall, the results above show a lack of interest in specific language assessment issues, a trend which has been observed in other studies. for example, in the study by fulcher (2012), participating inservice teachers showed little interest in test administration. similarly, in-service teachers in kremmel et al. (2017) and yan et al. (2017) showed low interest in ethics and fairness in language assessment. however, in fulcher’s study, there was a high level of interest for training in item specifications, which differs from our study. in conclusion, it appears that preand in-service language teachers do not seem to want training in administrative and ethical issues for language assessment. language assessment for pre-service teachers giraldo & murcia no. 16 (january june, 2018) no. 16 (january june, 2018) 66 lastly, table 3 displays the list of subsequent highly ranked topics which link language assessment with theoretical issues. all topics have the same number of respondents (21 pre-service teachers) and include the selection of contextually sensitive type of language assessment, exploration of validity and how to validate language assessments, and how language assessment operates within bilingual contexts. the percentages in this table (70%) reveal that the pre-service teachers in our study seem to have some previous conceptions of theoretical aspects of language assessment and, most interestingly, that they perceive these topics as fundamental in their professional development. in the case of the first topic (assessments for own purposes), we believe this item directly addresses a need: the participants might want to consider assessments for their future practice, so selecting these assessments might be a relevant task for which lal is needed. as for the second topic, we infer that students have studied validity before and, given their background, attach importance to it. the words validity and validation are crucial in language assessment, and these students may be aware of this fact. finally, the program the participants are studying has the word bilingualism in its name, which should be a reason why assessment in bilingual contexts is a topic that ranks high. table 3. sample of topics related to theoretical issues in language assessment the tendency in table 3 depicts the need of pre-service teachers for in-depth exploration of the selected topics for a language assessment course. these theoretical issues align with the knowledge dimension in the core list of lal by giraldo (2018). however, as the author and others emphasize (davies, 2008; fulcher, 2012), the three components of lal should not be seen separately but integrated. all three tables above show that, at least, attention to knowledge and skills must be present in the language assessment course for these pre-service teachers. language assessment for pre-service teachers giraldo & murcia no. 16 (january june, 2018) no. 16 (january june, 2018) 67 close connection between theory in language education and practice in language assessment the data below comes from qualitative research instruments, specifically answers to the open question survey, and insights from the interview and researchers’ journals. overall, the data samples below confirm the stakeholders’ need to have a course that combines theory and practice in language assessment. particularly, the samples highlight practical aspects such as assessment methods and theoretical issues like knowledge and purposes for rubrics. in the survey, professor#4 states his wants: “variety of methods for assessing second language proficiency (beyond testing). general policies for assessing learning in the colombian education system and its articulation with theoretical principles.” the language education expert comments on the mix between theory and practice: they (students) should develop the competence for doing that, so meaning that their theoretical knowledge: how is it, or what is it and what are their purposes and um, what are their criteria for developing them but also the practical part where they can develop rubrics further, the reflection below comes from one of our researcher’s journals and further highlights the need for the theory-practice connection: entry 2, topic 2, (17/07/17): it is crucial then, the capacity to link notions like testing and rubric design, marking, adoption and adaptation of materials, and language teaching approaches which are connected from theoretical perspectives to evaluation and assessment and which have been superficially covered throughout the semesters of the student-teachers’ academic program to their current practice in institutions or schools. our first interpretation from these results is that stakeholders are not conceiving language assessment as a grade or test but rather as a universe of closely connected practical and theoretical issues. the range of topics to be included in the course may be signaling this fact. furthermore, as it has been shown in other studies, when teachers have the chance to choose topics to improve or learn about, they tend to require as many topics as possible; this trend is also evident in the data we are presenting. specifically, the topics these stakeholders want to include not only language assessment as an act of doing or using tests, but as an integration of contextual matters in language education; see results such as variety of assessment methods, assessment policies in colombia, and methodologies for language teaching. language assessment for pre-service teachers giraldo & murcia no. 16 (january june, 2018) no. 16 (january june, 2018) 68 similar attention to theory and practice of language assessment has in fact been highlighted by language assessment scholars (davies, 2008; fulcher, 2012; inbar-lourie, 2013). they argue that language teachers need to critically relate knowledge, skills, and principles for their language assessment practice. specifically, in the study by vogt and tsagari (2014), the in-service teachers reported that they needed training across the spectrum of language assessment. taken together, the findings in our study and those of others’ studies seem to point to a comprehensive need for furthering professional development through training in language assessment for language teachers. other issues for training in language assessment for this last section of our findings, the data come from journal entries, the survey for professors, the open question in the questionnaire for students, and the interview with the expert. additionally, we interconnect data in this section with data from tables in the previous two sections. we identified particularities that the language assessment course should address. according to participants in our study, the course should include information about methodologies for language teaching (e.g. clil -content and language integrated learning) and their relationship with language assessment. as one of the entries in the journal shows (entry 1, topic 1, 20/04/17): “most of the students are currently involved in projects that use clil as the instructional approach and they still require much guidance on the conceptions of testing when content is embedded in the educational practices of language teaching.” this trend is reiterated in table 1, specifically the three top themes from the questionnaire for students. the stakeholders expect information about general policies for assessment in the colombian context. professor#1 expects “regulations or agreements from the national authorities regarding testing and evaluation.” professor#4 echoes: “general policies for assessing learning in the colombian education system and its articulation with theoretical principles.” finally, student#20 expects the following: “national policies for language assessment.” another issue the course should target, according to the expert, is the impact of language assessment on learning and teaching. the sample data below shows her view on this matter. language assessment for pre-service teachers giraldo & murcia no. 16 (january june, 2018) no. 16 (january june, 2018) 69 [impact on teaching] and the thing is that evaluation from my point of view should also include how am i doing as a teacher. what is the effect of my course. is it being successful? [impact on learning] assessment is not something instrumental, assessment is something that also has uh effects and consequences on the person who’s assessed. lastly, assessment of bilingualism is a topic that should be part of the language assessment course reported in the present study. as professor#5 suggests: “i would include evaluation in bilingualism: translanguaging and evaluation of l1 and l2.” table 3 above reiterates this theoretical issue in language assessment. the combination of the four issues above seem to suggest that stakeholders have a determination for contextualizing professional development through language assessment. as may be suggested by the data, each of these issues could have some degree of relation to the curricular transition the program experienced, especially when it comes to bilingualism and language policies in colombia. for instance, the samples above address clil as an approach which has been explored in the curriculum design course given its close relation to bilingual education and language policies. there is also evidence to connect national language policies in colombia (a topic students address in their practicum courses) and language assessment practices. lastly, the language teaching expert expresses her views on the impact of language assessment for pre-service teachers; she seems to be highlighting a comprehensive purpose for assessment, rather than seeing it only as a grading tool. data displayed above strongly suggest the need to merge theory, practice, and general assessment issues in language assessment. therefore, it is not surprising that the participants in our study want to have varied topics in the course. this is indeed a trend in the literature on lal, whereby in-service teachers have expressed their wish to learn about diverse topics proposed in questionnaires (for an example, see vogt & tsagari, 2014). an interesting emergent finding from the present study is that participants expect to learn about language assessment within a broader context for language education, which includes approaches such as task-based language teaching, clil, and bilingual education. our findings point to what may be an overlooked area in the research on lal. participants in our study believe it is important to learn about language assessment alongside colombian policies for assessment in education. discussions about lal have not explicitly language assessment for pre-service teachers giraldo & murcia no. 16 (january june, 2018) no. 16 (january june, 2018) 70 highlighted how general education policies may or may not have an impact on language assessment, but davison and lynch’s (2002) idea of test mandate (a norm that officially establishes the need for a test) may come close to such discussions. however, there are no discussions as to how documents like the decreto 1290 can illuminate and/or constrain language assessment, particularly in the case of colombian language teachers, assessment in bilingual education, and contemporary methodologies for language teaching. specifically, existing english language policies like the suggested curriculum have not explicitly linked the decreto 1290 to overall paradigms in language assessment; for instance, formative and summative assessment. this lack of discussion serves as an argument for inbar-lourie’s (2017b) call to listen to different stakeholders who can collectively understand “assessment targets, tools, procedures, analysis and intended but also unintended consequences” (p.267) around language assessment practices. thus, we believe that a research avenue worth pursuing should include studies on how general assessment policies –along with general approaches to language teaching– coexist with language assessment issues. conclusions and recommendations language assessment literacy is an expanding area of debate in applied linguistics. the topics and research presented at the 39th language testing research colloquium (international language testing association) held in bogota in july 2017 attest to this fact. in the colloquium’s closing plenary, inbar-lourie (2017) argued that, instead of lal, the field of language testing should embrace the genesis and development of lals. that different stakeholders —as shown in our study— want to see national policies for assessment in a solely language assessment course supports inbar-lourie’s invitation. more importantly, our study reiterates language assessment as a key dimension of language teacher education, best encapsulated in this excerpt from the interview with the expert: they look at assessment as something that is final with a purpose of just giving students a grade. and that is one of the areas that i, i think that we, that the course should emphasize on: on the purposes of assessment, on the usefulness of assessment, other than just giving students a grade. language assessment for pre-service teachers giraldo & murcia no. 16 (january june, 2018) no. 16 (january june, 2018) 71 the findings in our study show that the participants would like to have a course that deals primarily with practical issues in language assessment (e.g. item writing), even though not avoiding issues such as content-based assessment, purposes of assessment, colombian assessment policies, and bilingualism. in fact, the data lead us to infer that these topics should be critically combined in the language assessment course to be administered. therefore, the course should contribute to pre-service teachers’ overall awareness of what language assessment means, its implications, and its overall impact on language learning and teaching. in turn, such heightened lal should contribute to their overall professional development. regarding the issue of bilingualism, we suspect that the contents stakeholders want in the course under scrutiny were influenced by contextual factors. recently, the program where the course belongs went through a reform, and its name now explicitly includes the word bilingualism, which is now reflected on the expectation to have assessment of this construct in the course. finally, we wish to highlight two recommendations and a related limitation in our study. first, none of the participants mentioned ethics and fairness as principles that a language assessment course should include, despite the allusion of such themes in lal literature (davies, 2008; kunnan, 2003). we wonder why this was the case and warn that inclusion of these two topics, if not identified in a needs analysis, will merely be a judgement call. second, fulcher’s (2012) questionnaire does not specify what classroom assessment (a topic in his questionnaire) involves, i.e. subcategories of classroom assessment. because of this lack of specificity, we realized that there was no information on topics such as portfolio assessment, arguably a pertinent issue for language teachers’ lal. thus, we feel this was a limitation –and indeed an artifact–of our research, and recommend that researchers wanting to use ready-made questionnaires have a critical stance towards these instruments to adapt them, even if they come from experts. overall and in tandem with inbar-lourie’s (2017b) call to further research in lal, we especially encourage language teacher education programs to share information on the development and impact of lal courses, let alone when lal is expanding and welcoming. language assessment for pre-service teachers giraldo & murcia no. 16 (january june, 2018) no. 16 (january june, 2018) 72 references arias, c., maturana, l., & restrepo, m. 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(2017, july). understanding language assessment literacy profiles of different stakeholder groups in china: the importance of contextual and experiential factors. paper presented at the language testing research colloquium, bogotá, colombia. language assessment for pre-service teachers giraldo & murcia no. 16 (january june, 2018) no. 16 (january june, 2018) 75 authors *frank giraldo holds a b.ed. in english language teaching from universidad tecnológica de pereira (utp), colombia; an ma in english didactics from universidad de caldas, colombia; and an ma in teaching english as a second language, from university of illinois at urbana-champaign, the united states. he works as an academic consultant for the instituto de lenguas extranjeras (ilex) at utp and as a professor at the licenciatura en bilingüismo con énfasis en inglés (utp). daniel murcia holds a b.ed. in english language teaching and an ma in linguistics from universidad tecnológica de pereira (utp), colombia. daniel belongs to the academic staff at the licenciatura en bilingüismo con énfasis en inglés in utp, risaralda. he works as a professor and coordinates the intercultural area of the program. language assessment for pre-service teachers giraldo & murcia no. 16 (january june, 2018) no. 16 (january june, 2018) 5 presentación maría lucía casas pardo, m.ed. rectora única desde el momento en que el concepto de globalización dejó de ser una formulación teórica para convertirse en un modo de relación entre las naciones y las personas, no sólo fue preciso dejar de pensar en límites artificiales entre los países sino que se hizo perentorio idear escenarios y modos de encuentro para los ciudadanos globales. definitivamente el avance de las tecnologías, que va desde la universalización de la información en internet hasta la adopción cada vez más masiva de las redes sociales como mecanismos de interacción entre las personas y los grupos, ha hecho que acaben de desaparecer los límites geográficos entre países y continentes. las barreras que los habitantes del planeta azul tenemos que trascender hoy son más de carácter cultural, ideológico o lingüístico, que físico. por eso presentar a la comunidad académica una nueva entrega de gist, en la que se celebra la diversidad cultural y se publican resultados de investigación que abordan situaciones locales pero que resuelven inquietudes globales es una contribución importante, de la que nos sentimos orgullosos. como educadores bilingües, como investigadores, como ciudadanos de la aldea global, entendemos que la escuela es un espacio privilegiado para la construcción de propuestas que acerquen las culturas, diriman diferencias, permitan trabajar en la construcción de valores universales que propendan por la calidad de vida, la equidad social y el desarrollo sostenible. el ejercicio realizado por los autores de los artículos que publicamos en esta entrega de gist parte de la identificación de problemáticas específicas a una comunidad o a un campo del conocimiento, pero los resultados de sus reflexiones y hallazgos se hacen válidos para abordar temáticas similares casi en cualquier lugar... ese es el incuestionable valor que tiene la investigación rigurosa, y esa la fuerza enorme que tiene el habernos convertido en una gran aula global en la que aprendemos los unos de los otros. retos y dificultades que afrontan los docentes en entornos multiculturales. interrogantes que surgen cuando se trabaja con minorías y se busca garantizar calidad en la formación y evitar la no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) 6 discriminación. opciones que se abren cuando vamos a analizar las percepciones y los sentimientos de los docentes frente a su práctica. desafíos que se presentan al buscar empoderar a los alumnos para que a través del desarrollo de estrategias diferenciadas logren asumir una relación autónoma con sus procesos de aprendizaje…. son entre otros los temas que aquí presentamos a la comunidad académica. vistos desde la perspectiva de autores en distintos rincones del mundo, para el maestro global. no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) gist final1.indd 152 monetary and career based motives at the core of efl programs: problems and solutions1 programas de inglés como lengua extranjera basados en fundamentos económicos y profesionales: problemas y soluciones cristhian fallas escobar, johanna ennser-kananen and martha bigelow2* universidad nacional, costa rica, boston university, university of minnesota, usa abstract in this paper, we discuss the dominant discourses that use monetary and careerbased reasons to justify the learning and teaching of english in costa rica by drawing parallels to similar phenomena taking place in japan, korea, canada, and colombia. we argue that the propagation of these discourses has resulted in the commodification of efl teaching and learning in costa rica, as programs are designed to meet narrow material-based interests and purposes. the reflection includes an analysis of publicity around efl learning, a national initiative to improve efl teaching/learning, a specific efl program in a public costa rican university, and the opinions of students from this program. we demonstrate how the construction of english as the means by which professionalism, economic growth, and wealth can be accomplished has shaped efl curricula in particular ways, thereby neglecting diverse motivations for efl learning. we finish the paper by advocating for the creation of more democratic spaces in efl classrooms where both teachers and learners can critique in constructive ways the impact that these dominant discourses have on themselves as individuals and on efl curricular at large. 1 received: december 15, 2015 / accepted: february 26, 2016 2 cristian.fallas.escobar@una.cr/prongsquib@hotmail.com/ jennser@bu.edu / mbigelow@umn.edu re fle ct iv e ar tic le s gist education and learning research journal. issn 1692-5777. no.12. (january june) 2016. pp. 152-173. fallas, ennser & bigelow no. 12 (january june 2016) no. 12 (january june 2016) 153 keywords: commodification of english, corporate-oriented english teaching and learning, critical discussions, diversifying efl curriculum resumen en este artículo discutimos los discursos dominantes que utilizan razones económicas para justificar la enseñanza y el aprendizaje del inglés en costa rica, estableciendo paralelos entre fenómenos que ocurren actualmente en japón, corea, canadá y colombia. la propagación de estos discursos ha dado como resultado la mercantilización de la enseñanza y aprendizaje del inglés en costa rica, impactando así el diseño curricular de los programas para satisfacer propósitos e intereses económicos. la reflexión incluye un análisis de la publicidad a nivel nacional en torno al aprendizaje del inglés, de algunas iniciativas nacionales orientadas al mejoramiento de esta área, de un programa de inglés como lengua extranjera ofertado en una universidad pública en costa rica, y de las opiniones de estudiantes de este programa. se hace hincapié en cómo la construcción del inglés como medio para la movilidad social, riqueza y profesionalismo ha impactado los programas de inglés como lengua extranjera, causando que estos, en su mayoría, pasen por alto diversas motivaciones que los aprendices puedan tener para el aprendizaje del inglés como lengua extranjera, debido a la prioridad que se le da a los intereses materiales y económicos del sector productivo. por último, este artículo aboga por la creación de espacios democráticos en los cuales tanto profesores como estudiantes puedan criticar de forma constructiva el impacto que los discursos dominantes antes mencionados tienen sobre los individuos y el currículo en inglés como lengua extranjera en general. palabras clave: comodificación del inglés, enseñanza del inglés orientada al sector productivo, discusiones críticas, la diversificación del currículo en inglés como lengua extranjera. resumo neste artigo discutimos os discursos dominantes que utilizam razões econômicas para justificar o ensino e a aprendizagem do inglês na costa rica, estabelecendo paralelos entre fenômenos que ocorrem atualmente no japão, coréia, canadá e colômbia. a propagação destes discursos deu como resultado a ‘co-modificação’ do ensino e aprendizagem do inglês na costa rica, impactando assim o desenho curricular dos programas para satisfazer os propósitos e interesses económicos. a reflexão inclui uma análise da publicidade ao nível nacional em torno à aprendizagem do inglês, de iniciativas nacionais orientadas ao melhoramento desta área, de um programa de inglês como língua estrangeira oferecida em uma universidade pública na costa rica, e as opiniões de estudantes deste programa. enfatiza-se em como a construção do inglês promove a mobilidade social, riqueza e profissionalismo e como tem impactado os programas de inglês como língua estrangeira, que na sua maioria passam por cima diversas motivações que os aprendizes possam ter para a aprendizagem do inglês como língua estrangeira, devido à prioridade que se dá aos interesses fallas, ennser & bigelow no. 12 (january june 2016) no. 12 (january june 2016) 154 materiais e econômicos do setor produtivo. finalmente, este artigo opta pela criação de espaços democráticos nos quais tanto professores como estudantes possam criticar de forma construtiva o impacto que os discursos dominantes antes mencionados têm sobre os indivíduos e o currículo em inglês como língua estrangeira em geral. palavras clave: co-modificação do inglês, ensino do inglês orientado ao sector produtivo, discursões críticas, a diversificação do currículo em inglês como língua estrangeira. monetary and career based motives fallas, ennser & bigelow no. 12 (january june 2016) no. 12 (january june 2016) 155 introduction the learning and teaching of english as a foreign language (efl) has proliferated rapidly around the world, but even more so in regions attempting to actively participate in the so-called global economy, such is the case of costa rica. to respond to this everincreasing demand for english, the number of efl programs has also multiplied at all levels of education nationwide, creating a societal push that has positioned english as the only logical foreign language to learn and has granted it a mandatory status in k-16 (álvarez, valenzuela, & villalobos, 2008). the rapid rise of efl teaching/learning, however, requires an examination of the forces fueling the choice for efl in the country and the pressures these forces exercise on efl curricula in costa rica at the college level. in this paper, we discuss the circulating discourses portraying efl learning as a desirable/inevitable pursuit connected to monetary gain and career advancement, and argue that these may be not only drawing the attention of individuals but also shaping efl curricula in costa rica in particular ways. to this end, we examine how the discourses disseminated by efl advertisements, combined with the pressures exercised by a national government-supported foundation, have caused the efl program in a public costa rican university to be reduced to business/career advancement ideals. our claim is that programs such as this one fail to consider the wide range of motivations driving learners to engage in efl learning. to demonstrate this, we analyze the multiple reasons that 30 students in the program provide for their efl endeavor. based on this analysis, we advocate for democratic/ constructivist spaces, where both teachers and learners can examine diverse motivations for efl learning and the extent to which learning english truly serves the promises disseminated by the discourses connecting english to monetary gain and career advancement. literature review this paper deals with the discourses that connect efl teaching and learning to monetary gain and career advancement in the business sense, and the impact these have had on individuals’ choices for what foreign languages to learn and on efl curricula in costa rica at large. according to mayr (2008), “discourse is a difficult and fuzzy concept as it is used by social theorists (e.g. foucault, 1972, 1977), critical linguists (e.g. fowler et al., 1979) and finally, critical discourse analysts (e.g. van dijk, 1990), all of whom define discourse slightly differently and from their various theoretical and disciplinary standpoints” (p. 7). our monetary and career based motives fallas, ennser & bigelow no. 12 (january june 2016) no. 12 (january june 2016) 156 use of the term ‘discourse’, however, does not refer to the structuralist paradigm that looks at language as separate from the social use it is given and the social context in which it originates. instead, we endorse a more functionalist view in that we take discourse to be any instance of language-in-use that rationalizes social practices and thus constructs a version of reality. that is, we understand discourse to, “...deal with meaning in social, cultural, and political terms, a broader approach to meaning than is common in much mainstream linguistics” (gee, 2011: ix). our argument is that a barrage of discourses has legitimized particular social constructions of english. the ideologies (ideascapes) contained in such discourses, which position english as an inevitable/ desirable endeavor and call for a link between efl and the corporate sector to be established, have become undeniable truths, fueled by advertisements and nationwide polices (mediascapes) (appadurai, 1996). as the ideascapes that english is the only logical foreign language to learn and that efl programs must respond to the corporate sector gain more force, these ideologies become regimes that teachers, administrators, and learners of efl programs agree to believe in and act upon. in various countries, but especially in costa rica, dominant discourses circulate, which construct efl learning as an indispensable tool that guarantees material and monetary gains and position efl learning as a non-negotiable, inevitable task that must meet the needs and demands of the corporate sector. as motha and lin (2014) put it, the present efl landscape is filled with discourses connecting the lack of english proficiency to a disconnection from an imagined international community and an exclusion from access to economic gain and professionalism, thus compelling individuals to regard english as worthy of pursuit and efl program administrators and curriculum writers to reshape such programs in ways that serve the business sector. one illustrative example of how english has become a soughtafter foreign language is park’s (2010) study of success stories published in the press in korea at the same time that an ‘english frenzy’ was developing as a result of the government and the business sector joining efforts to position english as an indispensable asset in the global economy. these stories, normally written from the perspective of a journalist, but at times composed as self-reports, consisted of accounts portraying individuals who succeeded at learning english as “… character[s] whose achievements in language learning attest to [their] grand potential for endless self-development and self-improvement celebrated in the new economy” (p. 23). the publication of these monetary and career based motives fallas, ennser & bigelow no. 12 (january june 2016) no. 12 (january june 2016) 157 success stories was coupled with the upgrading of the english curricula to emphasize communicative competence, the creation of immersion programs, and more aggressive competition among universities to offer courses taught in english. all in all, these stories contributed to the transformation of english in korea from “…mere preparedness for employment” to being “… about living up to the vision of what constitutes the ideal human subject in the neoliberal world” (p. 27). another example of the push for english is found in kubota’s study (2011) of the discourses propelling the efl industry in japan. in her study, she explains that the current linguistic instrumentalism, taking place in japan, is rooted in the assumptions that efl competence is necessary to participate in a global economy and that english proficiency enhances economic gain for both nations and individuals. kubota argues that the language education policies and the language teaching and testing industries in japan have perpetuated these discourses of linguistic instrumentalism and although there is a general consensus that the entire population is to acquire basic skills in english, the business sector has made it practically mandatory for japanese professionals to develop efl proficiency to meet corporate demands. as the efl testing industry further institutionalizes the ideology that english is a requirement in the present labor market, more individuals resolve to engage in efl learning and efl programs adopt a business and work-skills orientation. yet another example is heller’s study (2002) of the transformation in the ideology and practice of english-french bilingualism in canada unfolding over the last four decades, which she claims is filled with contradictions between language as a mark of belonging and language as a marketable commodity. she discusses that in canada “… young people expect their bilingualism to translate into privileged access to jobs in the service and information sectors,” (p. 59). although heller’s study focuses on the push for french as a second language, she clearly illustrates how monetaryand career-based discourses manage to spread the need for foreign/second language learning as connected to the corporate sector, under the promise of access to wealth and professional advancement. this, in turn, points to the fact that not only english is subject to commodification, but that other languages with symbolic power may be undergoing similar processes of instrumentalism. even closer to the context under scrutiny, guerrero’s study (2010) around the force that english is gaining in the ‘expanding circle’ countries where english has no official status but where it is largely used as a foreign language, also serves to illuminate the point we wish to monetary and career based motives fallas, ennser & bigelow no. 12 (january june 2016) no. 12 (january june 2016) 158 make. in her study, she examines the colombian national bilingualism project and claims that the initiative serves to perpetuate the symbolic power of english by constructing it as a necessary tool for academic and economic success. she assesses how this project constructs english “… as the magic formula that will solve [their] economic, social, cultural, and political problems…” (p. 305). to this, however, she adds that, “in such a complex, competitive, rich, plurilingual, pluricultural world like the one we live in, it is very narcissist and egocentric to think that speaking an important language like english is the key to solve all our problems” (p. 306). while the alignment between efl programs and the demands of the commercial sector is not necessarily in itself ethically or even pedagogically wrong, the reduction of efl programs to focus only on monetary gain and corporate professionalism runs the risk of neglecting other motivations for efl learning. although not necessarily present in public discourses about english learning, individuals are likely to have a wide range of reasons for choosing a foreign language. while some learners may be driven by an interest in cultures and people, a desire to broaden their view and avoid provincialism, a desire for new stimuli and challenges, a need for achievement, or a desire to integrate into a new community (dörnyei, 1990), others may do so fueled by a desire for travel, knowledge, and friendship (clément & kruidenier, 1983). and still others may simply have the goal of speaking a difficult or exclusive language (oxford & shearin, 1994), or relating to the international community (yashima, 2009) by going abroad, associating with members of other cultural/linguistic groups, and engaging in foreign affairs. in efl programs driven by the profit-based and careeradvancement mentality, learners’ diverse motivations can easily be overlooked, as the priority becomes “... to be the provider of human capital and the engine for economic growth” (block, gray, & holborow, 2012, p. 7), which inevitably leads to the exclusion of alternative purposes for learning english. higher education institutions are particularly pressured to provide individuals with the skills required in a highly capitalist economy (holborow, 2012, pp. 14-32). as mayr (2008) puts it, “...there has been a tendency to run universities like commercial businesses, with students being their customers. this development in turn has been promoted by the government’s pro-managerial discourses and policies, which espouse an entrepreneurial culture and educational system” (p. 3). in other words, universities have undergone changes in the direction of adopting a free-market and corporate business viewpoint, which have implications for efl programs. monetary and career based motives fallas, ennser & bigelow no. 12 (january june 2016) no. 12 (january june 2016) 159 as a matter of fact, for universities in costa rica, the dominant circulating discourses mentioned above have gradually allocated the learning of english a mandatory status. but not only that, these discourses have also led to the re-structuring of efl programs so that they meet the narrow needs and interests of the productive corporate sector, which necessitates workers to possess only technical, business, job-related, and managerial skills. the status of english as the mandatory foreign language to learn and the practice of shaping efl programs in ways that respond to corporate demands in turn has resulted in limiting learners’ choices as to what foreign languages to learn and what purposes to learn them for. in the next section, we explain the approaches we used to demonstrate that the costa rican efl landscape, specifically at the university level, resembles the phenomena currently taking place in japan, korea, canada, and colombia. pressures shaping efl programs in costa rica devoid of any contextual knowledge, one cannot understand the forces fueling the choice for efl in costa rica and the pressures these forces exercise on efl curricula in costa rica at the college level. for this reason, we present examples of language learning advertisements found in flyers, billboards, magazines, and newspapers that are publicly displayed and illustrative of dominant public discourses in costa rica. in other words, we provide a glimpse into costa rican ideascapes/ mediascapes (appadurai, 1996) around efl. as we reflect upon these advertisements, we also draw connections to the pressures applied by a foundation in costa rican on efl programs nationwide, as well as the structure and institutional status of one particular efl program in a public university in the country, with an emphasis on an analysis of its textbooks and testing practices. zooming in from the broader societal context of costa rican ideascapes and mediascapes and the local environment of the target efl program, we also present and examine data collected by means of a survey of 30 students in the efl program under scrutiny, here and after called inglés para todos (english for all), regarding their motivations for engaging in efl learning. the participants, taking the third level of the program, were in majors such as economics, environmental management, international affairs, administration, history, visual arts, topography, gender studies, and biology. at the time of this study, there were only three level-three courses, and so the participants were randomly selected from out of these three groups (10 students from each group). looking at all these facets of the cost rican efl landscape monetary and career based motives fallas, ennser & bigelow no. 12 (january june 2016) no. 12 (january june 2016) 160 allowed us to see not only the push for efl in the nation but also the effects this push has had on the efl program inglés para todos. the table below summarizes the data sources examined in this paper. table 1. sources of data utilized for analysis the media, nationwide initiatives, and the corporate sector in costa rica, the public is exposed to a barrage of advertisements about english teaching and learning filled with discourses portraying the language as a desirable and inevitable endeavor that brings monetary gain and career advancement, connected to the needs and demands of the productive corporate sector. these advertisements, which can be seen on billboards, in newspapers, magazines, and in social networks, encourage costa ricans to study english, by linking its learning to being a competent professional in a ruthless job market, to higher possibilities of getting a promotion or better-paid job, and to opening doors to a lucrative business world in the entrepreneurship sense. although this is not an in-depth study of the construction of efl by the costa rican media, an overview of advertisements that abound in costa rica serve as an illustration of the ideascapes/ mediascapes (appadurai, 1996) currently circulating monetaryand professionalism-oriented reasons for efl learning. specifically, four major ideascapes were embodied in the advertisements we found in various sources: (a) thinking in english was equated with thinking big, causing creativity, success, and the pursuit of dreams to be associated with proficiency in english; (b) efl learning was associated with monetary and career based motives fallas, ennser & bigelow no. 12 (january june 2016) no. 12 (january june 2016) 161 increasing profits and allowing professionals to offer better services, which clearly connects efl proficiency to money-related outcomes; (c) a lack of oral proficiency in english was compared to being mute, thus constructing receptive bilingualism (understanding written and spoken english but not being able to speak it as an unfortunate situation that positions individuals in a place of deficit and disadvantage; (d) an implicit promise was made that being proficient in english would improve individuals’ professional profile by granting them better chances of being hired; and (e) speaking english was described as an unavoidable requirement to get a job in the current competitive job market, portraying efl learning as a competition in which those who learn the language have a competitive edge. this kind of advertisement and the discourses it contains tap into people’s desires and fears by connecting english proficiency to success, profit, professionalism, and a ruthless job market. these circulating discourses have constructed the learning of english as a desirable endeavor, thus pushing costa ricans to choose english as their additional language, based on the belief that it unlocks doors to wealth, social mobility, and professional development in a highly business-oriented setting. against the backdrop of these circulating discourses, english has become a high-demand and profitable area of education in costa rica by those aspiring to access economic mobility. as the belief that speaking english automatically translates into access to better paid jobs and material gain, learning english has become more widespread and even gained the support of the government, which has created the conditions to further endorse efl learning as the only logical choice and to reshape efl programs. in costa rica, more recently, the efl programs that have flourished are commonly those that have been reduced to the aforementioned ideologies and purposes, thus contributing to the exclusion of alternative motivations for investing in efl, in favor of utilitarian purposes. driven by the english frenzy (park, 2010) also present in costa rica, more and more parents make tremendous sacrifices to enroll their children in the schools with the strongest efl programs, hoping to secure a prosperous future for their children. this pressing need for english also resembles the efl landscape of korea, where due to active promotion of english as a crucial resource “for competition in the global economy, university students and white-collar workers struggle to acquire and improve english language skills to render themselves marketable in the increasingly flexible job market, and parents strain themselves financially and emotionally trying to provide their children with the best opportunity for acquiring english” (park, 2010, p. 23). monetary and career based motives fallas, ennser & bigelow no. 12 (january june 2016) no. 12 (january june 2016) 162 by and large, the dominant discourse in the country seems to be that efl learning and teaching is worth it, mainly to the extent that it serves economic growth, as is discussed below. in costa rica, the government has granted efl learning a mandatory status in elementary and high school education (álvarez, valenzuela, & villalobos, 2008). this situation has been further institutionalized by the creation of a national foundation whose objectives include a) generating knowledge for decision-making on public policies related to the teaching of foreign languages, b) orchestrating actions with international volunteer programs focused on language teaching, designing educational processes that emphasize the development of language skills for the workforce, and c) building public-private partnerships to carry out language programs on a national level. as evident in the objectives in italics, this governmentsupported foundation is to become involved in public policies related to efl, focusing on creating a stronger link between efl and the acquisition of skills for the productive corporate sector. although this foundation states that it works as a catalyst for the teaching of various foreign languages, their efforts point to positioning english as the foreign language in costa rica, and not as much work has been done geared towards other languages. compelled by the objectives described above, this foundation has provided massive amounts of efl teacher training across the nation, focused on improving the teachers’ efl proficiency and their efl teaching methodologies. in addition, the foundation has also created mandatory efl programs in the five public universities in the country, which to a greater or lesser degree, have taken the shape of esp twoyear programs, characterized by a particular choice of textbooks. of specific interest is the four-level efl program inglés para todos in one of these public universities. granted, the university where this program operates offers other foreign languages such as japanese, mandarin, and portuguese, but the efl program in question is the one that has been given the most priority, as seen by the fact that for 27 out of 36 majors, taking this efl program has institutionally been declared mandatory and that while the university does offer few courses in other foreign languages (three to four for each language at the most), up to 27 efl groups are opened every semester. the projection of authorities in this university, however, is for the program to become mandatory in all majors in the near future. monetary and career based motives fallas, ennser & bigelow no. 12 (january june 2016) no. 12 (january june 2016) 163 efl textbooks, testing practices, and the corporate sector a quick overview of the contents of the textbooks utilized in the program under scrutiny reveals an interesting trend. the content of the textbooks for levels one and two center on a number of topics including: personal details, my region, leisure, home and away, buying and selling, services, work, gadgets and technology, food, journeys, body and mind, and getting together. the topics seem fairly varied but many of these units are developed in office and work related contexts. levels three and four topics include working life, projects, leisure time from work, services and systems at work, customers, customer service, guests and visitors at a company, security at the workplace, teamwork at the workplace, logistics of business projects, decision-making at the workplace, innovations at the workplace, and evaluation of processes and performance at the workplace. in this second textbook, it becomes more evident how the learners are introduced to the world of business with units that connect english to economic growth, money-related outcomes and professionalism, thus reducing english to just business. none of the units of the second book include alternative uses for english. one might think that a textbook is only a textbook and that the teachers have the power of agency to include alternative materials and activities, but the sole existence of a pre-selected textbook often results in instructors keeping the textbook at the center of all teaching and learning. this is true even more so when the textbook selected is coupled with the administration of a standardized final exam at the end of each course, which centers on the units contained in the textbook. for example, the standardized final exam administered to students finishing level three in the second semester of 2015 was comprised of the following items. the listening sections included 1) listening to two people talking about their strong and weak points in applying for a job, 2) listening to a woman talking about what she likes and dislikes about business trips, and 3) listening to a man talking about how to create an effective and appealing business website. the reading sections involved 1) matching people to potential jobs according to their qualifications and provided job descriptions, and 2) solving a multiple-choice exercise based on a text about investments. the writing section comprised the following tasks: 1) writing about their dream job, 2) writing a complaint letter to a business manager, 3) writing a new proposal for a company, 4) writing an e-mail to the human resources manager about the importance of work-life balance, and 5) describing a strategy to launch a new product. the speaking section included 1) showing an international business partner the premises of the company he/she is visiting, 2) describing an entrepreneurial initiative to a potential monetary and career based motives fallas, ennser & bigelow no. 12 (january june 2016) no. 12 (january june 2016) 164 business partner, 3) explaining to the staff of a company changes in the structure of the business, and 4) engaging in speed networking to find business partners. the clear match between the units in the textbook and the final standardized exam is a factor that may force teachers to allow the business-oriented textbook to guide their teaching. the textbooks selected for the inglés para todos and the privileged standardized testing practices resemble the trend of english for specific purposes (esp), “which incorporate[s] concerns like ‘negotiations’, ‘meeting skills’, ‘preparation skills’....” (cameron, 2002, p. 71). although esp is, of course, a valid and important option to have, the predominance of esp topics in textbooks, the abundance of esp courses/programs, and the reduction of efl to the learning of work-based and business-oriented skills stifle learners with diverse motivations from the opportunities to learn the language for alternative purposes, favoring the interests of those concerned about business and profit making. needless to say, our aim is not to criticize the existence of esp courses and programs but to problematize the marginalization of alternative motivations for efl learning and the assumption that esp equals guaranteed professional advancement. the efl classroom: a complex landscape of motivations given the particular textbook selection and testing practices in inglés para todos, a survey was conducted with 30 efl students taking their third semester of english, to learn about their motivations to study the language. the participants were majoring in economics, environmental management, international affairs, administration, history, visual arts, topography, gender studies, etc. in the survey, they were given a list of possible reasons to study english, were asked to choose three that coincided with their own motivations, and to rank them in order of importance. this list included studying abroad, getting to know the culture of english-speaking countries, finding a job, getting a promotion, meeting general interest in foreign languages, meeting general interest in learning more about english, facing a personal challenge, expanding their knowledge of the world, traveling, making/ maintaining relationships with english speakers, fulfilling an academic requirement, and setting up their own business. as regards their first motivation, figure 1 below shows that although the biggest force driving the respondents to engage in foreign language learning coincides with the discourses spread by the media and government-supported initiatives, their efl endeavor is also fueled by other various motivation of a more personal type. monetary and career based motives fallas, ennser & bigelow no. 12 (january june 2016) no. 12 (january june 2016) 165 figure 1. motivation #1 to study english regarding their second motivation for studying english, most students report to have money-related motivations such as finding a job or getting a promotion, as well as career-based reasons including studying abroad and academic requirement. however, it is important to note here that the money-related motivation fell from a 60% to a 26% whereas career-based motives remained stable. additionally, the informants also reported to have other motivations. clearly, as they explore other reasons why they engage in efl learning, other alternative motives not related to money or career building start to emerge and become more prevalent. figure 2. motivation #2 to study english monetary and career based motives fallas, ennser & bigelow no. 12 (january june 2016) no. 12 (january june 2016) 166 finally, as to their third motivation, the picture becomes a bit more complex, in which the majority reported to be interested in meeting a general interest in understanding english better and personal reasons, as well as career-based motivations. figure 3. motivation #3 to study english these figures demonstrate that individuals normally have multiple motivations for engaging in efl learning, that even the majority of students who are driven by moneyand career-oriented purposes have other motivations as well, and that the classroom is a complex landscape of motivations. as demonstrated in the figures above, learners walk into efl classrooms driven by diverse motives and hoping to accomplish multiple objectives that programs focusing on moneyand career-related outcomes fail to meet. the high percentage found in the respondents’ first motivation to study english shows that the discourses that connect the learning of english to thinking big, to granting skills to offer a better professional service, to boosting one’s professional profile and opportunities to get hired in a competitive job market, are pushing individuals to believe that efl learning is a desirable and unavoidable task, thereby fueling an english frenzy (park, 2010). our task as teachers of english as a foreign language in light of the ‘english frenzy’ (park, 2010) spreading in japan, korea, canada, colombia, and costa rica, and the proliferation of efl programs that respond to narrow motivations for efl learning, it is monetary and career based motives fallas, ennser & bigelow no. 12 (january june 2016) no. 12 (january june 2016) 167 essential that we as efl professionals take measures to bring about change geared towards a more diverse efl curriculum. to this end, the design and implementation of efl curricula must consider that not all learners are invested in efl learning for the reasons advanced by circulating discourses and that those who are, may also have other alternative motivations. we insist that learners be critical of their motivations because even when the discourses connect english to promises of material gain and career advancement, both teachers and learners must examine the extent to which these promises can become a reality. this critical examination of motivations is possible by opening spaces in efl classes in which the forces pushing people to learn english and guiding language curricula are discussed to move the current desire for english from an unconscious to a conscious plane (motha & lin, 2014). the resulting new awareness can constitute an important starting point for teachers and students to start to question their own motivations and their connection to dominant circulating discourses around efl and to seriously examine what english can do for them. this dialogue can potentially allow them to make liberating decisions about their efl learning endeavor and about what they will do with the english they learn. again, critical discussions should center on an examination of how dominant monetary and career advancement discourses impact individuals and efl curricula. this dialogue can be a process to come to terms with the many contradictions efl teachers feel between their altruistic reasons for joining the field and the oftenlimiting ways of being an efl professional in programs that favor moneyand career-based motivations. in the direction of catering to multiple motivations for efl learning within the curriculum, we generated some examples of activities and topics teachers may incorporate into their lessons to cultivate a multi-faceted rationale for studying english: (1) using english for volunteering or working for international altruistic aims, (2) exploring aesthetic uses of language such as composing music e writing poetry and short stories, (3) learning not only about english speaking countries but also about the world through different perspectives, given how much media is produced in english, (4) participating in and promoting youth culture by consuming, analyzing and creating content from a youth culture perspective, (5) taking a stand to support minority or indigenous language rights and revitalization, (6) turning aesthetic reading into an everyday classroom practice, and (7) discussing the need for social and not only economic entrepreneurship. monetary and career based motives fallas, ennser & bigelow no. 12 (january june 2016) no. 12 (january june 2016) 168 these seven ideas are rarely tackled in the books that are currently used in efl programs in costa rica, and are never to be found in the current advertising for efl learning nor in the goals and projects of the national government-supported foundation. by integrating such topics and activities into an efl curriculum, students may find themselves more engaged, more successful, and may develop more and better communicative proficiency, which in turn may serve them very well in the marketplace. but more importantly, these may allow efl learners to see the multiple purposes for which english can be used, other than the moneyand career-based ones comprising the dominant circulating discourses. one good example of the ideas exposed above is the caracola creative languages project by alice emery, luz cadavid and wendy garcía, located in new haven, connecticut, whose vision is to provide socially engaged language teaching and learning founded in the principles of experiential learning, artistic creation as a transformative exercise, and communication. in their philosophy, they state that while they are aware that speaking multiple languages brings about numerous opportunities for growth, they seek to open spaces for exciting cultural experiences in collaboration with members of the community. this, they claim, may serve to bridge the social divides that may exist at the community level. to this, we would add, that a curriculum that departs from the expressed needs of the learners is more likely to help those learners become successful at communicating in the second or foreign language that they are learning; skills that may as well serve them for job and money related purposes or any other motivations they may have. the caracola creative languages founders understand this and have managed to translate it into a curriculum that responds to their learners. our idea is not to stop individuals from choosing efl or to shut down esp-oriented programs but to call for the diversification of efl curricula so that it includes various motivations and to educate individuals to become conscious of their own motivations and critical towards circulating discourses connecting english to profit, career advancement and success. one good starting point to initiate dialogue in the efl classroom is the question, “how might english be a language that allows us to be more, rather than just to have more?” (pennycook, 2000, p. 220). efl needs more critical language teachers and learners capable of taking actions towards diversifying efl curricula. fueled by the discourses in advertisements and the pressures from the government-supported foundations, english itself and efl programs in costa rica are being commodified, where individuals’ fears monetary and career based motives fallas, ennser & bigelow no. 12 (january june 2016) no. 12 (january june 2016) 169 of a competitive job market take priority over their aspirations to travel, to get to know the world, to keep and maintain friendships with native and nonnative speakers of english, to expand their perspectives of the world, to set up their own business, to take on a personal challenge or simply to learn more about a foreign language. a program that excludes non-money related motivations runs the risk of leaving little to no room for discussions around diversity, equity and justice; for the development of critical thinking skills; for activism around important current issues such as immigration and human rights. programs that mostly focus on work skills, as seen in the textbook and testing practices favored in inglés para todos, exclude topics such as social entrepreneurship, as it responds to the needs of the industry and not to studies that focus on prospective students and their various motivations to engage in efl learning. interestingly, at the national level, needs analyses seem to be done on the industry and corporate sector and not on the learners themselves. governments and universities seem to operate upon the premise that serving corporations equals serving people’s needs, dreams and aspirations. conclusions this discussion is grounded in the costa rican context, specifically that in higher education. the consequences of monetary and career-based motives for studying english are likely to apply to primary and secondary school settings as well, but this is outside the scope of this paper. we speculate that the issues raised here are repeated all over latin america, but again, this discussion focuses the analysis on the situation in costa rica. we also acknowledge that is paper is not an in-depth study of ideology in any given institution’s efl program. it is merely a scholarly reflection on and critique of the current state of affairs in efl teaching in higher education in costa rica. in this article, we explored international literature on the proliferation of english for monetary and career-based motivations and then linked this literature to the unique context of costa rica, with a small set of data serving to illustrate some of the issues raised. by engaging in the actions described in the section above, the satisfaction many teachers may feel is to know that while they are part of the teaching force of one of the most powerful languages in the world, they did not succumb to a prescribed curriculum without critical examination of alternative perspectives to those offered by the dominant discourses. opposition to the current commodification of efl teaching and learning and its reduction to profit and career purposes is monetary and career based motives fallas, ennser & bigelow no. 12 (january june 2016) no. 12 (january june 2016) 170 a big challenge that is already long overdue. the ideology –real and imagined– that english serves the “broadest possible communication” and that “it is an instrumental ‘necessity’ for getting a good job” (gal, 2012, p. 39) is so much a part of our everyday lives that it becomes unthinkable for society to start operating otherwise. but in hindsight, every effort counts in changing a landscape of foreign language teaching that still puts the market at the center of human activity and leaves humans and their diverse reasons for engaging in efl learning at the periphery. our discussion aims to articulate a problem in the field of efl teaching and learning; namely, that we should not allow the study of english to be defined entirely by the demands of the market. there are many reasons to study a language and by tapping into or even cultivating these multiple reasons for english learning, we have the opportunity to engage learners in dynamic, current, authentic language teaching and learning. monetary and career based motives fallas, ennser & bigelow no. 12 (january june 2016) no. 12 (january june 2016) 171 references alvarez g., valenzuela n., & villalobos n. 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(1994). language learning motivation: expanding the theoretical framework. the modern language journal, 78(1), 12-28. park, j. s. -y. (2010). naturalization of competence and the neoliberal subject: success stories of english language learning in the korean conservative press. journal of linguistic anthropology, 20(1), 2238. pennycook, a. (2000). language, ideology and hindsight: lessons from colonial language policies. in t. ricento (ed.), ideology, politics, and language policies: focus on english (pp. 49-65). philadelphia: john benjamins north america. yashima, t. (2009). international posture and the ideal l2 self in the japanese efl context. in dörnyei, z., & ushioda, e. (eds). motivation, language identity and the l2 self (pp. 144-163). bristol, uk: multilingual matters. authors *christian fallas escobar holds an ma in second languages and cultures from universidad nacional de costa rica, and a certificate in teacher training from the school of international training. he has been an efl instructor for over thirteen years and currently works in the escuela de literatura y ciencias del lenguaje at the universidad nacional. among his areas of interest are critical thinking, reflective teaching, multiculturalism monetary and career based motives fallas, ennser & bigelow no. 12 (january june 2016) no. 12 (january june 2016) 173 & multilingualism, translanguaging, and the intersection between economics, politics and efl. he has co-authored a textbook for efl and published several papers dealing with translanguaging in efl contexts, bilingualism in latin america, and neoliberal discourses and their connection to the rise of efl. *johanna ennser-kananen is clinical assistant professor of language education at boston university. her work focuses on language ideologies, multilingual language practices, and linguistic legitimacy in school and classroom settings. in addition, she has analyzed the spread of neoliberal processes in various educational contexts. ennser-kananen has published her work in the international journal of language studies and the encyclopedia of applied linguistics and presented it at national and international conferences such as the annual conventions of aera, aaal, and actfl. she is co-editor of the routledge handbook of educational linguistics. *martha bigelow is professor of second language education in the department of curriculum and instruction at the university of minnesota. she is a former peace corps volunteer in the dominican republic and english teaching fellow in panama. she currently teaches in a graduate program which prepares language teachers and researchers to work in a wide range of educational settings on issues related to foreign and second language learning. she has published in a range of books and journals including: tesol quarterly, studies in second language acquisition, writing systems research, theory into practice, the new educator, diaspora, indigenous and migrant education, and annual review of applied linguistics. she has published two books related to her work with adolescent somali refugees in the united states: (1) literacy and second language oracy (2009, oxford university press) with elaine tarone and kit hansen and (2) mogadishu on the mississippi: language, racialized identity and education in a new land (2010, wiley blackwell). she is the co-editor with johanna ennser-kananen for the routledge handbook of educational linguistics (2015). her advocacy and public engagement includes serving on boards of immigrant non-profits, long-term teacher education initiatives, and statewide leadership in education and policy issues related to teaching immigrant adolescents and adults. monetary and career based motives fallas, ennser & bigelow no. 12 (january june 2016) no. 12 (january june 2016) gist journal reviewers no. 12, 2016 (january – june) gist would like to thank the following reviewers for their valuable comments and thoughtful revision: carlos augusto arias, institución universitaria colombo americana, única, colombia mauricio aldana, institución universitaria colombo americana, única, colombia ricardo amórtegüi, centro colombo americano bogotá, colombia j. petra cole, holy trinity primary school, australia carlo granados beltrán, institución universitaria colombo americana, única, colombia sandra mercuri, the university of texas rio grande valley, usa sandra liliana rojas, institución universitaria colombo americana, única, colombia joellen simpson, bnc colombo americano cali, colombia astrid wilches, centro colombo americano bogotá, colombia hans-georg wolf, university of potsdam, germany 45 no. 11 (july december 2015) no. 11 (july december 2015) gist education and learning research journal. issn 1692-5777. no. 11, (july december) 2015. pp. 45-62. mitigation of disagreement in peer review among l2 learners and native speakers in a college writing class1 mitigación del impacto de las opiniones de desacuerdo en el proceso de revisión por pares entre estudiantes de una segunda lengua y hablantes nativos en una clase de escritura a nivel universitario katherine o’donnell christoffersen2* university of new mexico, united states abstract peer review is now a commonplace practice in process-oriented writing instruction. a crucial aspect of peer review is assessing another classmate’s work, which encompasses the act of disagreement. given its prevalence in the classroom, it is necessary to analyze how l2 learners mitigate disagreement in the context of peer review with other l2 learners and native speakers. the present paper presents a qualitative analysis of action research from an introductory english writing class at the university level including native speakers of english and international students from different linguistic and cultural backgrounds. the conversation-based peer review sessions were analyzed for various mitigation strategies including token agreement, hedging, prefacing positive remarks and requests for clarification. the analysis shows that l2 learners and native speakers of english use similar mitigation strategies, and it demonstrates the coconstruction of meaning in peer review interactions. keywords: disagreement, mitigation, l2, peer review 1 received: july 15, 2015 / accepted: october 6, 2015 2 odonnka1@email.arizona.edu 46 no. 11 (july december 2015) no. 11 (july december 2015) resumen actualmente la revisión por pares es una práctica común en la instrucción que orienta los procesos de escritura. un aspecto importante de la revisión por pares, es evaluar el trabajo de otro compañero de clase, lo cual puede provocar opiniones de desacuerdo. dada la incidencia de esta situación en el aula de clase, es necesario analizar cómo los estudiantes de una segunda lengua pueden mitigar el impacto de las opiniones de desacuerdo generadas durante el ejercicio de revisión por pares con otros estudiantes de una segunda lengua y con hablantes nativos. este artículo presenta un análisis cualitativo de un proyecto de investigación acción desarrollado en una clase introductoria de escritura de inglés a nivel universitario, con la participación de hablantes nativos de inglés y estudiantes universitarios de diferentes orígenes lingüísticos y culturales. el análisis de las conversaciones generadas durante el proceso de revisión por pares fue realizado teniendo en cuenta diversas estrategias de mitigación, entre ellas, llegar a acuerdos simbólicos, manifestar con cortesía la opinión de desacuerdo, realizar comentarios positivos, y solicitar clarificación. el análisis muestra que los estudiantes de una l2 y los hablantes nativos de inglés usan estrategias de mitigación similares y demuestra la construcción conjunta de significado en las interacciones del proceso de revisión por pares. palabras clave: desacuerdo, mitigación, l2, revisión por pares resumo atualmente a revisão por pares é uma prática comum na instrução que orienta os processos de escritura. um aspecto importante da revisão por pares é avaliar o trabalho de outro companheiro de classe, o qual pode provocar opiniões de desacordo. dada a incidência desta situação na sala de aula, é necessário analisar como os estudantes de uma segunda língua podem mitigar o impacto das opiniões de desacordo geradas durante o exercício de revisão por pares com outros estudantes de uma segunda língua e com falantes nativos. este artigo apresenta uma análise qualitativa de um projeto de pesquisa ação, desenvolvido em uma classe introdutória de escritura de inglês a nível universitário, com a participação de falantes nativos de inglês e estudantes universitários de diferentes origens linguísticas e culturais. a análise das conversações geradas durante o processo de revisão por pares foi realizada tendo em conta diversas estratégias de mitigação, entre elas, chegar a acordos simbólicos, manifestar com cortesia a opinião de desacordo, realizar comentários positivos, e solicitar esclarecimento. a análise mostra que os estudantes de uma l2 e os falantes nativos de inglês usam estratégias de mitigação similares e demonstra a construção conjunta de significado nas interações do processo de revisão por pares. palavras chave: desacordo, mitigação, l2, revisão por pares mitigation of disagreement o’donnell 47 no. 11 (july december 2015) no. 11 (july december 2015) introduction since the 1970s, peer review has become a significant mainstay in the writing classroom (elbow, 1973; lundstrom & baker, 2009; mendoca & johnson, 1994). peer review, also referred to as peer editing or peer response, is defined as “use of learners as sources of information and interactants for each other in such a way that learners assume roles and responsibilities normally taken on by a formally trained teacher, tutor, or editor in commenting on and critiquing each other’s drafts in both written and oral formats in the process of writing” (liu & hansen, 2002, p. 1). this collaborative revision technique stems from the change in perspective from writing as a product to a process (emig, 1971), and is now a common feature of process-oriented writing instruction (applebee & langer, 2013; caulk, 1994; paulus, 1999). the teaching of writing as a process places emphasis on the stages of planning, revising, editing and working collaboratively with peers to improve a writing assignment. from the perspective of pragmatics, assessing a peer’s writing involves expressing disagreement which could potentially damage the hearer’s face or esteem in some way as a face-threatening act (brown & levinson, 1987). in this situation, interlocutors often attempt to mitigate, or soften, a disagreement through a variety of strategies including token agreement (i agree with you, but…), hedges (maybe, kind of, i think), giving explanations, and requesting clarification. while research has investigated mitigation strategies in disagreement in a variety of contexts, relatively little research has explored mitigation among second language (l2) learners (bardovi-harlig & salsbury, 2004), especially in naturally-occurring contexts combining native speakers and l2 learners. the present study aims to fill this gap in the literature by providing a qualitative analysis of the strategies for mitigated disagreement employed by l2 learners and native speakers in an introductory english composition class at a university. in particular, this research seeks to shed light on how l2 learners and native speakers mitigate disagreement in peer review in l2 learner groups, native speaker groups and l2 learners with native speakers. this paper first reviews the study of disagreement along with relevant literature followed by a detailed description of methodology. then, the paper presents a description of relevant disagreement typologies and mitigation strategies as well as a description of the qualitative data analysis. finally, it offers conclusions based on the findings from this data set. mitigation of disagreement o’donnell 48 no. 11 (july december 2015) no. 11 (july december 2015) literature review the analysis of disagreement is essentially a study of assessment. pomerantz (1984) proposes that assessment is a routine feature of social interactions. in order to make her point, she presents the following example: j: let’s feel the water. oh, it … r: it’s wonderful. it’s just right. it’s like bathtub water. (p. 57) furthermore, it depicts assessment as an interactional activity with a clear link between participation in an event and assessment of an event. the assessments are viewed as “products” of that participation. in the context of peer review, the “products” students have to offer are not always pleasant (expressions of agreement), rather oftentimes negative (expression of disagreement). the expression of disagreement in the case of peer review is a potentially face-threatening act (brown & levinson, 1978), since the hearer may lose esteem or face. one common way that interlocutors deal with potentially face-threatening acts is to mitigate the loss of face through a variety of mitigation strategies. while there is substantial research on the topic of disagreement and mitigated disagreement, “relatively less research on agreements and disagreements has been conducted on the speech of learners and non-native speakers” (bardovi-harlig & salsbury, 2004, p.200). the existing studies include written discourse completion tests (dcts), conversational interviews, and online peer review collaborations. the following review of recent literature on l2 learner disagreement is organized by methodology. discourse completion tasks (dcts) are one of the most common types of data collection on disagreements, consisting of written descriptions of specific scenarios followed by a conversational turn for the informant who is to write responses exactly as they would respond in the situation (bardoviharlig and hartford, 1993). overall, studies have found important differences among l2 speakers of english and native speakers of english. for example, behnam and niroomand (2011) found that iranian efl leaners used a limited number of strategies due to proficiency level in english; however, bavarsad et al. (2015) found that persian efl speakers used more mitigating strategies than american english speakers in expressing disagreement. in studies on chinese english learners, chen (2006) and guodong and jing (2005) found the tendency to over-perform non target-like linguistic features such as certain types of mitigation, due in part to pragmatic transfer from chinese. in a study of esl learners from a variety of different countries and english proficiency levels, kreutel (2007) notes a tendency for l2 learners to use ‘undesirable’ mitigation of disagreement o’donnell 49 no. 11 (july december 2015) no. 11 (july december 2015) strategies which she defines to include abandonment of the message, use of the performative i disagree, lack of mitigation, bare exclamation of no and blunt statements of the opposite. researchers have used audio-recorded interviews, role-plays and conversations to obtain similar types of information on disagreement. for example, lawson (2009) audio-recorded responses to ten controversial statements by japanese speakers of english, and the responses demonstrated expressions of mitigated disagreement were as frequent as ns of english, although ns of english used slightly more positive politeness including partial agreement, humor and positive comments, while japanese speakers of english used more hedges. in a study on l2 learners of spanish and native spanish speakers, students discussed one of three issues on campus and ranked possible solutions, and were informed to defend their choice in an audio-recorded conversation with another student. in this study, flores-ferrán and lovejoy (2014) witnessed redundant mitigation strategies from l2 learners compared to a wider variety of mitigation strategies from ns of spanish. bardovi-harlig and salsbury (2004) audio-recorded role-plays among l2 learners of english and native speakers of english during a longitudinal research project and found improvement in acquisition of pragmatic competence over time. while students began with open disagreements, that changed as time passed. finally, other research has examined naturalistic interactions in classroom environments, including online contexts. bell (1998), for instance, recorded classroom interactions in an esl class and revealed a tendency for korean l2 learners to express disagreement in direct and unmitigated ways. greek l2 learners of english also showed a tendency for unmitigated disagreement or disagreement at the beginning of a turn in an analysis of classroom discourse (kakava, 1993). shabaka fernandez (2013) discovered conflicting results for dct among egyptian l2 speakers of english and their posts on facebook; in the former, egyptians used unmitigated disagreement, but egyptians used more token agreements and hedges on facebook. in a study of online disagreements among students in an english as a lingua franca class, maízarevalo (2014) discusses how students avoided strong agreement and favor mitigated disagreement, as well as the importance of proficiency as a factor in determining native-like patterns of disagreement. so, while there is evidence that certain cultures may prefer unmitigated styles, the context and proficiency levels also appear to be influential factors. taken together, these findings demonstrate differences in l2 learners’ expressions of disagreement compared to native english speakers. since roleplays, tasks and dcts may differ substantially from naturalistic conversations and activities (shabaka fernandez, 2013), it is imperative to further explore what is actually happening in the context of the classroom. the research on mitigation of disagreement o’donnell 50 no. 11 (july december 2015) no. 11 (july december 2015) classroom and online course contexts cited above demonstrate that korean (bell, 1998) and greek (kakava, 1993) l2 learners of english tend to express unmitigated disagreement, while a class of students from varied cultural and linguistic backgrounds favors mitigated disagreement (maíz-arevalo, 2014). the present study furthers this line of research by providing a qualitative analysis of audio-recorded peer review sessions from a university english class consisting of native english speakers and international students from varied linguistic and cultural backgrounds. methodology research design there were several important reasons for the research design chosen for the present study. the chief aim of the study was to analyze the act of disagreement embedded in the commonplace classroom task of peer review, especially how students negotiate this through oral conversation-based peer review. in order to heighten the reliability of the data, the peer-review for the second assignment was analyzed after students were more comfortable with the classmates and the peer review process. the peer review process in the students’ own classroom with their own classmates embodies natural consequences of maintaining face with peers. the ipod recording kits using nano ipods provided a technology that was familiar to students as well as small and unobtrusive in the classroom. finally, the classroom itself is well suited for this type of study given the mix of native speakers and non-native speakers. in particular, this study allows us to see how students engage in disagreement among l2 learners, between l2 learners and native speakers and between native speakers. context/participants the participants in the study include 21 first-year students at a large public university in the united states. of these, eight students were native english speakers and the remaining thirteen were international students who were intermediate english speakers, having passed a test to enter the class. of the students, 13 were males and 8 females. they ranged in age from 18 to 25 years old. the class itself was the second semester of first year composition, consisting of an introduction to writing for research. by this point in the year, students had been through the peer review process at least four times, including the previous introductory first year writing class. as such, students were well aware of the expectation to assess other students’ writing and that other students mitigation of disagreement o’donnell 51 no. 11 (july december 2015) no. 11 (july december 2015) would assess their writing, expressing disagreement with certain aspects. this understanding of the peer review process impacts the context of analysis greatly. in this way, students understood themselves to be working in a collaborative assignment to improve their papers for later submission for a grade. an additional important aspect of the class itself is the presence of native english speakers and l2 learners of english. it is likely that international students and native speakers of english may assign the native speakers a higher status in the context of the english writing classroom and the written english assignment. this certainly would impact patterns of disagreement and mitigation. table 1. groups of students including pseudonyms, gender and countries of origin peer review group pseudonym gender country of origin ns-ns charles m u.s. diana f u.s. l2-l2 nari f korea areom f korea l2-l2 daiyu f china chang m china l2-l2 ji m china hwan m korea l2-l2 aarav m india ji-min f korea ns-l2-l2 liling f china thaksin m thailand tim m u.s. ns-l2 steve m u.s. bin m india ns-l2 stephanie f u.s. muqsit m pakistan ns-l2 ai m china nick m u.s. mitigation of disagreement o’donnell 52 no. 11 (july december 2015) no. 11 (july december 2015) ns-l2 yuan m china evan m u.s. data collection instruments the peer review session was based on students’ second writing assignment for the class, a short research-based article incorporating at least three scholarly sources. the brief instructions for the written assignment are as follows: for this essay, you will focus on your country of origin and explore a current issue or controversy through gathering research. investigate several positions of an issue or propose different solutions to an observed problem. when students brought their full draft into the classroom, they were instructed, “comment on what works and what doesn’t work.” students first read the paper, commenting in pencil or pen on the copy, and then they began to discuss what they saw in an oral peer review session. i-pod recording kits were used to audio-record these conversation-based peer review sessions. these sessions amounted to 80 minutes of audio-recordings, which resulted in 13,239 words of transcript. due to the limited data set, the subsequent data analysis is qualitative only. data analysis and interpretation disagreement in the present study will be analyzed with regard to the linguistic realizations of disagreement, especially focusing on the mitigation of disagreement. this is first due to the absence of strong disagreement or unmitigated disagreement in the corpus. secondly, and on a related note, it is also due to the context of the situation. even as students were well accustomed to the context of peer review as a collaborative effort with the goal of improving their papers for better grade, and the use of negotiation to maintain their own and each other’s face in their conversation, they were faced with a relatively pragmatically complex situation. various typologies or classifications have been developed throughout the literature on disagreement, including weak and strong disagreement (pomerantz, 1984), strong, strong yet mitigated, and mitigated (kakava, 1993), and softened, unmodified, and aggravated (rees-miller, 2000). kreutel (2007) distinguished between desirable and undesirable features for esl/efl. later, maíz-arevalo (2014) modified this classification system to be entitled strong and mitigated disagreement. as previously mentioned, the corpus of the present study was exempt of strong disagreement, and for this reason the attention will be solely on mitigation strategies, using maíz-arévalo’s (2014) mitigation of disagreement o’donnell 53 no. 11 (july december 2015) no. 11 (july december 2015) classification. below both strong and mitigated disagreement strategies are listed, in order to provide the reader with a clear comparison. table 2. strong and mitigated disagreement (maíz-arévalo, 2014, p. 209) strong disagreement mitigated disagreement use of bare negative forms (e.g. “no” “no way” “of course not”) token agreement (e.g. “yeah…but”) use of the performative “i disagree” use of hedges (e.g. “i guess” “it seems” “i don’t really know”) use of the performative negation i didn´t agree” or “i can´t agree” requests for clarification (e.g. “maybe i don’t understand, could you explain it more clearly?”) blunt statement of the opposite expressions of regret (e.g., “i’m sorry but i don’t agree with you…”) use of insults and negative judgments (e.g., “you are a moron) use of prefacing positive remarks toward the addressee (e.g., “that’s a very good analysis”) suggestions (e.g., “how about doing this in a slightly different way?”) giving explanations results since there was an absence of strong agreements in the collected data, the following data analysis will focus on forms of mitigated disagreement. the qualitative analysis of linguistic forms of mitigated disagreement will be organized according to the participants in each peer review group: interactions among ns, interactions among l2 learners, and interactions between l2 learners and ns. this structure is relevant to the rationale for this study and how it may further inform the field in terms of how l2 leraners and ns perform disagreement in a naturalistic classroom learning task of peer review. the mitigated disagreement strategies will be discussed in the context of the particular examples. mitigation of disagreement o’donnell 54 no. 11 (july december 2015) no. 11 (july december 2015) ns-ns peer review the students were divided into groups randomly, as had been the practice during the course of the semester, and only one of the ten groups was composed of only ns of english. in the following examples, charles is commenting on diana’s essay on peta advertisements. (1) charles: well uh i really liked the introduction, although i did find some grammatical errors. (2) charles: cultural fear, then then maybe i was gonna say, add a little bit more or like, cuz your thesis is, um, is this one? “by looking at various sources, the aspects of how peta uses feminist, feminine attributes// (3) charles: i was going to give a suggestion but there’s only two days. diana: oh, it’s okay, it’s okay. charles: i was going to say something like maybe talk about peta’s actions as well. but that’s a whole nother, that could be a whole nother paper. in these three examples, charles mitigates disagreement in different ways. in (1), he uses a prefacing positive remark to the comment on grammatical errors. in (2), he uses hedges such as maybe, a little bit, and i was gonna say. also interesting, charles expresses hesitation to disagree (3), and even when encouraged by diana backs down from his suggestion with “but that’s a whole nother paper.” diana also uses prefacing positive remarks and hedges, along with questions for clarification (4) and explanations (5). (4) diana: and um the main question i was thinking was um why do you like pinpoint the us? like, you mention how it will affect the us and why the us should not like ignore the situation, but what about like other countries? like, you know, what about the us makes it like a main target to that it needs to, that the us also needs to focus on this issue. (5) diana: pulling everybody out of germany, whatever, whatever kind of caused this whole thing, so a paragraph kind of explaining how this all occurred. cuz um you’re really explaining the problems really well, like the problems are really in-depth. and with a map, it would be easier to understand but it it really, like i love how you word it. and you really like put the details in there it’s very understandable. but you haven’t really explained the problem as much. in (4), diana frames her disagreement as a question, stating “the main question i was thinking was…”, followed but other related similar questions mitigation of disagreement o’donnell 55 no. 11 (july december 2015) no. 11 (july december 2015) to demonstrate a hole in the paper’s argument. also, after suggesting that charles explain the problem more thoroughly, diana gives a long explanation including positive remarks (5). l2-l2 peer review in the four groups of l2 learners, disagreement was mitigated through a variety of strategies including questions for clarification, hedges, token agreement and prefacing with positive remarks. examples of the question include: (6) chang: i think uh your first paragraph is good. but i didn’t know how or why you used this citation. so i didn’t know. (7) ji-min: ok, i think the third pages, i think it’s kind of off topic. so um i think so. so i don’t know why you’re mentioning about the corruptions. so i guess you have to make little changes why you’re talking about the corruption. chang, a chinese student, and ji-min from korea use questions for clarification. although the “i don’t know how” (6) and “i don’t know why” (7) are couched as declarative statements, they are still in essence questioning aspects of their partner’s papers, expressing a point that is unclear. as in the other examples, the mitigating strategies are not alone. for example, chang uses several hedges in the same turn, i think and so, i didn’t know (6), and jimin uses repetitions of i think, i guess, and little changes (7). hedges were very frequent throughout the recorded peer review sessions, including modifiers such as really, probably, i think, and little bit. the use of modals as a hedge was the least common, with just one instance (9). (8) areom: and the thesis is not that clear. i can’t really find it. (9) daiyu: i think your introduction is too long, and i think you might want to use a hook to grab the attention. (10) nathan: and even if you want to bring in your opinion, you should probably bring in like last page or something. because that’s what she had said. you should probably continue with how people react to this stuff. bring in the media of korea. (11) ji-min: ok, so on the second page you’re also like keeps to keeping to talks about the background of the india. i think uh you reduce about it, just before the first paragraph. little bit, because there are some parts that are not really necessary. l2 learners also made use of token agreement and positive prefacing remarks during their peer review sessions, mentioning understanding certain mitigation of disagreement o’donnell 56 no. 11 (july december 2015) no. 11 (july december 2015) points (12), a funny topic (13), or a “good” overall essay (14) before expressing disagreement. (12) hwan: so i understand where your thesis and your main point but i do not understand the chinese, the background of the chinese background gender discrimination. so yeah, i want to know the(..) the background. so you should add explanation of the background of china. (13) areom: hi nari, i think your topic is pretty funny em but i think maybe you can make the hook more interesting. (14) nathan: yeah, i think it’s in a very good shape with your essay. how you could make it even better is just try and keep your perspective out of here and try to make it more source-based. and you need to have more sources. like where the different stars are suggesting in korea. the l2 learners also demonstrate usage of a wide variety of mitigated disagreement during their peer review sessions, including hedges, questions for clarification and prefacing positive remarks and token agreement. ns-l2 peer review many similar strategies were characteristic of the peer review sessions between ns and l2 learners of english, such as hedges and modals, prefacing positive remarks and token agreement. hedges were once again very frequent and evident in all transcripts. (15) ai: i think you might want to put it in the conclusion. and this part is like generally your idea, you should make this decision, related to the topic. (16) stephanie: yeah, i think i think mostly that since you’re like stating your thesis in this paragraph and kind of forming an outline maybe you should list the causes of inflation here instead of just saying and they’re going to be listed later. (17) muqsit: so your introduction, it just, it does not have a hook. so if you could write a hook, like how it all started and since how the immigrants from mexico started increasing. that would be a good overview before the introduction, hook. (18) tim: uh, for that part. and there’s i think maybe you meant to say drop out from school, not drop off. (19) liling: i think it’s a little too long the introduction, so you should short your introduction. mitigation of disagreement o’donnell 57 no. 11 (july december 2015) no. 11 (july december 2015) again ns and l2 learners use a variety of hedges; the ns use primarily i think and maybe (16, 18) while the l2 learners use just (17) and little (19) to hedge their disagreements. modals are less frequent, although muqsit from pakistan does use the modal could (17). prefacing positive remarks and token agreement were once again common aspects of the interactions. an interesting difference surfaces, however, in the prefacing positive remarks among the two groups. ns tim and nick provide more lengthy positive remarks, a full three (20) and six (21) sentences before issuing their disagreement, while l2 learners tend to use just one sentence (22, 23). (20) tim: um, i like your beginning. the hook is very well developed. i like your thesis. you state the two arguments that you want to talk about, the part, the positive and negative of economic growth. i think maybe you need to shorten this statement a little bit. (21) nick: well, it’s balanced. and it’s really organized, so that’s really good. it’s organized a lot. there’s an introduction and its preview. there’s different viewpoint, there’s moderate. and the conclusion comes right after that. the only thing that i think though was you say why you want to, why this should be changed, and it’s mostly personal, which i mean, it’s fine. but you might also what to say what it would do for the greater good. (22) muqsit: you did excellent job on this so far i think. the only thing that makes it weird is when you say “however, other studies show that it is not true.” (23) liling: i like your point, because you always have clear point. each// thaksin: //your topic sentence really clear and strong. liling: but thaksin: and you follow up really good on your illustration. liling: but tim: more explanation. liling: and a quote. tim: this is a quote, but i actually need to thaksin: you need to cite. as the only three-person peer review group, (23) provides an interesting example of the co-construction of disagreement. l2 learners liling and thaksin take of the same mitigation strategy of a prefacing positive remarks, and then ns tim adds in his own analysis of what is needed, issuing a self-assessment or disagreement with his own writing. mitigation of disagreement o’donnell 58 no. 11 (july december 2015) no. 11 (july december 2015) another interesting aspect of the l2-ns peer review sessions, only ns used the explanation strategies, as exemplified below. (24) tim: i think in this last statement, it is a little too much negative. uh, cuz you say, “nobody is going nowhere it does not” (25) stephanie: i think that would make your conclusion sound a lot better, because you seem to be doing that a lot in your main paragraphs as i was reading, saying like the same thing in the first and last sentence. explanations were also a feature in the ns-ns peer review group. larger scale studies would be needed to determine whether explanations are a feature of mitigation of disagreement among ns of english. conclusions the present study provides a qualitative analysis of the strategies for mitigated disagreement employed by l2 learners of english and native english speakers in an introductory composition class at a university. in particular, this research sought to answer how l2 learners and native speakers mitigate disagreement in peer review in the context of l2 learner interactions, ns interactions, and l2-ns interactions. results demonstrate that l2 learners and ns use a variety of mitigated disagreement strategies including hedges, modals, questions for clarification, prefacing positive remarks, and token agreement. however, noticeably, ns tended to use lengthier and more specific prefacing positive remarks, similar to lawson’s (2009) findings that ns used more positive comments overall. additionally, ns used explanations in their mitigation of disagreement, a strategy not found in l2 learners in this corpus. since this is only a limited data set, further research is needed to determine whether explanation is indeed a mitigation pattern that is specific to ns of american english and uncommon among l2 learners of english. the lack of strong or unmitigated disagreement in the corpus of peer review data and the l2 learners effective use of mitigating strategies (such as questions for clarification, hedges, token agreement and prefacing positive remarks) suggests that the students understood this as a collaborative learning task. additionally, students’ experience with peer review for the first two writing assignments as well the previous english composition course in the prior semester may have influenced international students (l2 learners) to adapt to cultural pragmatic norms for peer review interactions and disagreements. if this were the case, it would support findings which demonstrate how l2 learners mitigation of disagreement o’donnell 59 no. 11 (july december 2015) no. 11 (july december 2015) adapt to cultural pragmatic norms over time (bardovi-harlig & salsbury, 2004). the use of mitigation by l2 learners may also be related to interactions with ns peers who may be perceived as higher status in the english classroom. other research has found that status is an important factor in disagreement (lawson, 2009). future research on a larger corpus of data is needed to corroborate these findings, and it would be beneficial as well to carry out a longitudinal study of students throughout the two-course series of first year english composition in order to observe changing patterns of mitigated disagreement in peer review. mitigation of disagreement o’donnell 60 no. 11 (july december 2015) no. 11 (july december 2015) references applebee, a. & j. langer. 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(2009). to give is better than to receive: the benefits of peer review to the writer’s own writing. journal of second language writing, 18, 30-43. maíz-arévalo, c. (2014). expressing disagreement in english as a lingua franca: whose pragmatic rules? intercultural pragmatics, 11(2), 119-224. mendoca, c., & johnson, k. (1994). peer review negotiations: revision activities in esl writing classrooms. tesol quarterly, 28(4), 745-770. paulus, t.m. (1999). the effect of peer and teacher feedback on student writing. journal of second language writing, 8, 265–89. pomerantz, a. (1984). agreeing and disagreeing with assessments: some features of preferred/dispreferred turn shapes. in atkinson, j. & heritage, j. (eds.), structures of social action: studies in conversation analysis, (pp. 57-103). cambridge: cambridge university press. rees-miller, j. (2000). power, severity, and context in disagreement. journal of pragmatics, 32, 1087-1111. shabaka-fernández, s. (2013). the linguistic realization of disagreement by efl egyptian speakers. proquest dissertation database. acknowledgments i am first very grateful to the student and class speech community for their willingness to participate in this research project. additionally, i am grateful to the reviewers and editors of this journal for their thoughtful comments in the revision of this manuscript. mitigation of disagreement o’donnell 62 no. 11 (july december 2015) no. 11 (july december 2015) author * katherine o’donnell christoffersen earned her phd in second language acquisition and teaching at the university of arizona in 2015. she holds an ma in english language/linguistics from the university of arizona. her primary research interest is exploring bi/ multilingualism and sites of language contact, especially through the use of qualitative, ethnographic, and discourse/conversation analytic methods. mitigation of disagreement 68 educational videos: a didactic tool for strengthening english vocabulary through the development of affective learning in kids1 videos educativos: una herramienta didáctica para el fortalecimiento del vocabulario en inglés mediante el desarrollo del aprendizaje afectivo en niños jonnathan celis nova, clara isabel onatra chavarro and any tatiana zubieta córdoba2*. universidad libre, colombia abstract the following paper seeks to develop a proposal, observing to what extent educational videos and affective learning can strengthen vocabulary in an efl setting. this action research study was done with fifth grade students belonging to a public school, who showed a low degree of motivation in the english class, making it difficult to acquire the language. the instruments that were applied are pre/post-tests, pre/post questionnaires, field notes and class workshops. grounded theory was implemented for the data analysis. results evidence the enhancement students had in vocabulary acquisition along with educational videos and affective learning. keywords: english as a foreign language, educational videos, affective learning, vocabulary. 1 received: february 28, 2017/ accepted: april 26, 2017 2 jonnathan.celisn@unilibrebog.edu.co/tatianazubieta@gmail.com/ clarai.onatrac@unilibrebog.edu.co celis, onatra & zubietagist education and learning research journal. issn 1692-5777. no.14. (january june) 2017. pp. 68-87. no. 14 (january june 2017) no. 14 (january june 2017) 69 resumen el presente trabajo busca consolidar una propuesta, observando hasta qué punto los videos educativos y el aprendizaje afectivo pueden fortalecer el vocabulario en un entorno de inglés como lengua extranjera. este estudio de investigación acción se realizó con estudiantes de quinto grado pertenecientes a un colegio público, quienes mostraron un bajo grado de motivación en la clase de inglés, dificultando la adquisición del idioma. los instrumentos que se aplicaron son diagnóstico inicial y final, cuestionario inicial y final, notas de campo y talleres de clase. se aplicó la teoría fundamentada para el análisis de datos. los resultados demuestran la mejora de los estudiantes en la adquisición de vocabulario con videos educativos y el aprendizaje afectivo. palabras clave: inglés como lengua extranjera, videos educativos, aprendizaje afectivo, vocabulario resumo este trabalho procura consolidar uma proposta, observando como os vídeos educativos e a aprendizagem afetiva pode reforçar vocabulário em um ambiente de inglês como língua estrangeira. este estudo de pesquisa-ação foi realizado com alunos do quinto ano (do sistema educativo de 11 anos), de uma escola pública, os quais demonstraram pouca motivação na aula de inglês, causando dificuldade na aquisição do idioma. os instrumentos utilizados para medir o aprendizado são: o diagnóstico inicial e final, questionário inicial e final, notas de campo e atividades de aula. foi aplicada a teoria fundamentada para a análise dos dados foi aplicado. os resultados demonstram a melhoria dos estudantes na aquisição de vocabulário, com vídeos educativos e a aprendizagem afetiva. palavras-chave: inglês como língua estrangeira, vídeos educativos, aprendizagem afetiva, vocabulário. celis, onatra & zubieta no. 14 (january june 2017) no. 14 (january june 2017) 70 introduction the purpose of this paper is to describe to what extent innovative teaching tools can facilitate english learning, particularly in the area of vocabulary. this refers to a research proposal applied with fifth graders, who showed a lower degree of motivation for english classes, making it difficult to acquire the language. hence, the importance of looking for different methodologies was evident, which encouraged in students the interest to learn a foreign language. according to the objectives of this study, activities are implemented in order to impact the child from the emotional side (affective), using technology, in this case, “educational videos” (taken from different online sources), to create new perspectives in the acquisition of a foreign language. considering the above, this study is based on the following three constructs, first, vocabulary, that is the topic to be strengthened in pupils. second, educational videos, as the main motivating agent, and finally, the affective learning that facilitates a change in accordance with the social needs of the target population. now, going further, it is important to consider the research methodology that embraces the approach: type of research, intervention and analysis, (which shows the action plan to reach to the pedagogical solution for the target population). finally, the paper will draw the conclusions to answer the query of the present study: to what extent the use of educational videos and affective learning help to strengthen the acquisition of vocabulary. literature review vocabulary the first construct to be addressed in this research corresponds to vocabulary. according to schmitt & mccarthy (2011), vocabulary represents one of the most important points around the teachinglearning process of any language. some of the frequent questions, we, as researchers have asked, are: what does vocabulary mean? what comprises students’ acquisition? what should be the basic knowledge to master a language? how should an approach be adopted for the student to successfully learn, when the context is not centered in learning? based on those queries, we begin by describing what the concept of vocabulary is from some experts’ viewpoints, which are going to be mentioned below. according to nation (2001), one of the relevant things when educational videos for strenghtening english vocabulary celis, onatra & zubieta no. 14 (january june 2017) no. 14 (january june 2017) 71 learning a foreign language is vocabulary. it takes into account level, accuracy, motivation, ages and aptitude, among other factors, which are the basis of a learning process. in other words, the communicative emphasis is on vocabulary, not as a complex system far from the students, but as a means of bringing the context closer to them, and at the same time to daily reality. in the same respect, schmitt (2000) establishes that “lexical knowledge is central to the communicative competence and to the acquisition of a second language” (p. xi). it means, vocabulary has the power of creating and enhancing communication among people, due to the pragmatic use to express ideas. in relation to vocabulary, probably the first idea that arises is words. that formulation was admirably suited for non-professionals, but for anyone interested in exploring the subtlety and magic of lexicon, the word “term” is too general to encapsulate the various forms of vocabulary. taking the latter into consideration, schmitt (2000) conceived vocabulary, not as individual words, but as complex forms that must be analyzed. consequently, these postulate multiplicity of meanings according to the context in which they are used. for example, these five words represent the meaning of death: ”die, expire, pass away, bite the dust, kick the bucket, give up the ghost among”, schmitt (2000, p. 1). previously we could find, not only the typical way to refer to death, but also to propose, describe or exemplify the meaning of the word according to idioms. that is, vocabulary can be considered as the words of a language, including individual parts or several words that are grouped into meanings. on top of that, vocabulary also means communication among people, as wilkins (1972) says, cited by lessard (2012): “while without grammar very little can be expressed, without vocabulary nothing can be transmitted.” (pp. 111-112). in any language, it is essential to possess a certain number of words so that there is a good productive development in a context, communicatively speaking. however, vocabulary is mistakenly conceived as a grammatical approach, as schmitt (2010) establishes it, “students carry dictionaries and not grammar books to communicate with” (p. 4), this implies that vocabulary is the channel for interacting with others, their learning is vital, not through grammar, but from individual and social development. educational videos the concept of educational videos, according to bravo (2000), refers to the use of audiovisual material, which provides skills in the teaching-learning process. in addition, nikitina (2009) states that the educational videos for strenghtening english vocabulary celis, onatra & zubieta no. 14 (january june 2017) no. 14 (january june 2017) 72 use of videos in classes is necessary because the language develops the learning teaching process through other contexts. also, coleman (1992), cited in kumagai, lópez-sánchez and wu (2016), discusses that the visual process of the video provides an interesting and enjoyable learning experience for students. hence, this procedure activates language skills as the linguistic or communicative ones, strengthening new vocabulary leading learners to imitate a real world from images. in this way, the student acquires a linguistic and sociocultural awareness through images. what is more, as mentioned by goldfard (2002), the potential of the video contains millions of elements to boost content in teaching a language; the convergence of technology with students’ real life sets new standards as long as they are active and creative. likewise, these tools are proposed to motivate students towards social interaction, acquiring the knowledge like a source of memory or significant learning. also, educative videos, according to cavallero (2010), are taken as a developer of the learning process, as a connection between reality and classroom environment. all of this is possible thanks to the easy way in which the video is promoted and because, it is always to the reach of people. therefore, regarding the application of educational videos, the integration of contents in the classroom is vital. it should be noted that the objectives of this implementation are linguistic; this does not indicate that they should be presented only structurally, but on the contrary, a purpose for the video should be found. it has to be contextualized with multiple elements that direct the students’ attention and provoke an adequate motivation-setting in the classroom. hence, educational videos are a very practical tool since the use of these is an expressive support to any class as a means for the development of teaching. this situation leads to a motivation in class that has to do with the next theoretical construct. affective learning another important construct presented here, on which this research is based, is the affective influence that is currently proposed in the teaching-learning of a foreign language. most studies have suggested a relationship between affect and performance present when learning a foreign language. some of which have showed that students may perform very poorly due to factors such as lack of interest, selfconfidence, teaching method, previous negative emotions, among others. in this respect, brown (2007) makes a complete definition of affective factors as the origins of the affective learning, through the educational videos for strenghtening english vocabulary celis, onatra & zubieta no. 14 (january june 2017) no. 14 (january june 2017) 73 krashen’s affective filter. all of this is about how the feelings of a human being are, proposed as the main factor in the educative process, because what is related to the emotional part controls the way how knowledge can be supported. likewise, oxford (1990) states that this type of learning refers to affective activities, all of which contribute to foster students’ autonomy, meaning an environment of student dialogue, cooperative learning, role play, video viewing. all of the above are directed by the teacher, who creates patterns of control and at the same time has dynamic classes, generating new expectations in the learners to fulfill their goals, influenced by individual development, cognitive styles and motivation. furthermore, gano-phillips (2009) establishes that affective learning brings the possibility to present students’ internal and external feelings. this means how the personal emotions impact the learning process through the point of view of a person. in other words, motivation, reactions, bullying and all the factors presented in the classroom are the focus of education especially around learning a foreign language. according to king (2009), motivation is related to a hierarchy of the needs of human development, such as physiological, safety, love, belonging, self-esteem and self-fulfillment. likewise, it is possible to conceptualize that this is the opportunity the student has for construction of knowledge. for example, as csizér & dörnyei (2005) state: “along with aptitude, motivation is the variable that influences in a determinant way in the learning of a foreign language, since although a person has aptitude, if there is no motivation he will not learn the target language or not will do with maximum effectiveness; on the other hand, if someone does not have a great aptitude, this lack can be compensated with a high degree of motivation “ (p.39) as a result, the student’s motivation is proposed as one of the main factors for a successful learning process from students to the society. according to gardner (2007), the student is generally influenced by social surroundings and culture, since the apprehension of knowledge depends on the perspective that the subject has of its context. here is where video and affective learning play an important role due to they recreate a reality as a goal, without having a direct contact with native speakers or real contexts of the language. also, it is important to recognize the role of inner emotions in a person at the moment of learning a foreign language. educational videos for strenghtening english vocabulary celis, onatra & zubieta no. 14 (january june 2017) no. 14 (january june 2017) 74 methodology context and participants the population chosen for the development of this project was a 5th grade class of a public school, located in engativá, bogotá. this course comprises a mixed group of students aging between 11 and 12 years old, with 24 learners enrolled, 10 boys and 14 girls. their social stratum was 2 and 3. we noticed students’ problems were low vocabulary level, their lack of motivation for learning english, scarce participation and other troubles during the scholar process. as a result, this project sought to give a solution to those specific situations in the classroom. research design this action research proposal consists of the implementation of educational video activities. it was used as a dynamic tool for strengthening vocabulary, while implementing affective learning as an influential factor in the development of the teaching-learning process making an effective environment for the english as a foreign language class. hence, the implementation of data instruments is carried out according to the construction based on the use of educational videos and affective learning in class. in this way, the results were organized in eight interventions inside the class as follows: table 1. implementations of educational videos. educational videos for strenghtening english vocabulary celis, onatra & zubieta no. 14 (january june 2017) no. 14 (january june 2017) 75 as it can be seen the researchers applied eight video-based interventions. these videos were taken from different online sources with a pedagogical purpose. topics were according to the syllabus proposed by the researchers taking into account the standards of foreign languages by the colombian ministry of education (2006). activities encouraged students to participate actively in class. in relation to the development of the study, the following figure shows how the affective learning was used; this is the proposal of this study. figure 1. affective learning methodology data collection instruments pre-test and post-test at first, the pretest was an instrument to demonstrate that students’ vocabulary level was low, however, after the implementation, the results increased. hernández, fernandez & baptista (2014) defined this instrument as “a form of evaluation creating an organization process machinery that is related to one or more variables.” (p. 217) in this case two diagnostic tests were carried out, one at the beginning of the classes and another after the implementation. initial and final questionnaire to know the interests or opinions, we gathered all the questionnaires as a form to consult both students and teachers about english learning as a foreign language. tamayo (2004) indicates that the preparation of the questionnaire requires researching prior knowledge of the phenomenon under investigation, which must be done in the first stage educational videos for strenghtening english vocabulary celis, onatra & zubieta no. 14 (january june 2017) no. 14 (january june 2017) 76 of the work. in this sense, eyssautier (2002), affirms that the questions must be carefully prepared based on the relationship of the problem being investigated and the hypotheses to be checked. in this case two questionnaires were applied in order to investigate the students’ initial and final opinion, which were important for the development of this study. field journals the purpose of this instrument was to find out the teacher’s experiences inside the classroom, due to we could help to get a better contextualization of situations in the research project. ten field journals were carried out throughout the process. hernández, fernandez & baptista (2014) refer the following about it: “it is common that the annotations are recorded in what is called a field diary or logbook, which is a kind of personal diary (pp. 373 374) class workshops finally, we implemented class workshops as a method to integrate competences into the pedagogical implementations. we developed in total eight class workshops in this project. according to quintana & montgomery (2006), “the workshop is a technique for collecting information, analyzing and planning” (p.72). in this case, the class workshops were working at the end of each class involving the process of feedback around knowledge. data analysis and interpretations the present analysis is based on grounded theory. this introduces the research methodology used for this study and how it guided data collection, analysis and development of theory. barney & strauss (2012) propose the grounded theory as a form of giving sociological views for quantitative data. it also implies to analyze the obtained information in order to present it in a clear way for all people. at the same time, the researcher can find and show how the results were obtained, through the details of the process, all of this could not be divorced one from another when data and analysis come from the research method. also grounded theory is the focus on everyday life experiences and valuing participants’ perspectives. this theory can be applied by requesting some information interactive process between the researcher educational videos for strenghtening english vocabulary celis, onatra & zubieta no. 14 (january june 2017) no. 14 (january june 2017) 77 and respondents, describing and relying on student’s descriptions. the data collection and analysis for this study follows a cyclical process typical for grounded theory, by using early findings to shape the ongoing data collection. in accordance with the development of the research, this study proposed some strategies in order to achieve an approach according to students’ needs in relation to the proposed question: “to what extent is the use of educational videos and affective learning strengthening english vocabulary in fifth grade students?” results the results obtained show that the video along with affective learning, lead students to feel motivated to learn a foreign language, strengthening their vocabulary as a goal for each class. they also participated in all the activities proposed and their attitude was critical. taking into account the above, this analysis will show a main category and three emerging subcategories, after having carried out the process of open, axial and selective coding, where it is sought to answer the research question. the central or core category is emotional videos as vocabulary builders and the subcategories are presented in figure 2, they will be developed later on. figure 2. the core category and subcategories first subcategory: strengthening my vocabulary in english refers to how students can use methods to learn different words in a foreign language acquiring motivation and emotional knowledge. the analysis applied in all the instruments evidences an increase in vocabulary. for example, in the question, do the english classes educational videos for strenghtening english vocabulary celis, onatra & zubieta no. 14 (january june 2017) no. 14 (january june 2017) 78 encourage you to learn more vocabulary? the students answered between 1 and 5; 1 being the lowest value, and 5 the highest. prior the implementation the average was 3.5, indicating that learners were aware of taking the english class as a way for them to strengthen their vocabulary. subsequently, in the final survey, the same question was asked again, obtaining from the students’ view a new perspective, the average was 4.8. this result supports that the english class had innovative strategies where learners were enhancing vocabulary. figure 3. students’ questionnaire also, another instrument that showed improvement in vocabulary was the pre and posttests. the results presented in figure 4 correspond to the evaluation of vocabulary through a series of implementations with educational videos, this test has a scale from 1 to 5, with 1 as the lowest value, and 5 as the highest. in the pretest, 70% of students had scores between 1-3, and the other 30%, between 3 and 4. so, as it can be analyzed, they did not reach a grade of 5. however, when students did the posttest, the results obtained after the proposal, supported that educational videos were an effective strategy as an emotional method, where the results were that 100% of students improved their test grade surpassing the average level. educational videos for strenghtening english vocabulary celis, onatra & zubieta no. 14 (january june 2017) no. 14 (january june 2017) 79 figure 4. pre-test & post-test results additionally, questionnaires showed improvement in vocabulary as well. they had a question about students’ likes in the english class in both, before and after the implementation. these were the answers by the students: what do you like from the english class? (pre-questionnaire) “i learn to speak english, to write well in english and many things”. what did you like from the english class? why? (postquestionnaire) “we learned about videos and vocabulary. also, we learned a lot of things in english”. the answers provided by the students show that at first they were learning english as a general thing, and after the intervention, they were focused on educational videos and vocabulary. the english class was a space where pupils could learn, enjoy and practice along with the teacher. moreover, it intended to be one of the classes where topics may be significative for them. finally, in the reflection that students did in the classby-class process, one student wrote this after the following question: what topics did you learn today in class? “comida y bebida [food and beverages]: 1) hot dog, 2) milk, 3)water, 4)hamburger, 5)egg, 6) salad, 7) juice, 8) lemonade” educational videos for strenghtening english vocabulary celis, onatra & zubieta no. 14 (january june 2017) no. 14 (january june 2017) 80 this student wrote items in english, it means a lot since the student was actually strengthening his vocabulary. furthermore, the linking process between videos and a real context goes beyond class. as nikitina (2009) says, the student needs to see the learning process in other contexts, a world different from the one given at the school, where people could get the knowledge without any problem. second subcategory: watching and learning defined as a process where the student feels motivated visualizing educational topics while easily learning vocabulary in english. the video was characterized as an essential tool, since it requires the ict use, which is related to knowledge, making a meaningful appropriation of contents during the reception of the message. when referring to a learning process in a foreign language, it is important to talk about new resources that engage students in the classroom creating new projects. this study suggested eight implementations with educational videos in english promoting new perspectives as a pattern base for positive results. for instance, in figure 5, it is showed how the use of educational videos has enhanced the english learning in the target population. it was evident, not only in terms of building knowledge, but also as a motivational tool. the last affirmation is very close to what almenara, sánchez & ibáñez (2000) establish about the motivational function of videos. figure 5. students’ questionnaire as it can be seen, the results present that prior the implementation, 100% of students scored learning with videos with a 3,0. in comparison with the final questionnaire, it is evidenced the change around students’ perspectives, demonstrating that the average increased after the intervention. thus, educational videos make the development of educational videos for strenghtening english vocabulary celis, onatra & zubieta no. 14 (january june 2017) no. 14 (january june 2017) 81 positive attitudes towards the possible contents. according to zhu (2012), educational videos imply an important advantage during the teaching-learning process. they extend the students’ curiosity; in this case, because videos not only show pictures or sounds, they are known as a motivating tool. in the post questionnaire, there was a question, whose answer supports this subcategory: what did you like from the english class? why? (postquestionnaire) “the videos because i ended up learning what i had not before”. many times students have questions, but social pressure inside the classroom is so strong that pupils prefer not to ask. for that reason, something is necessary to recapitulate and build knowledge, in this study, educational videos were the tool provided to have an adaptation to the english class, recycling what students had seen previously. another question from the post questionnaire will be referred below. has the methodology used in the english class impacted you in any way? how? why? (post-questionnaire) ● “because the videos impacted me, i learn in a very fun way and also we play in fun ways and i learn”. ● “yes, especially the games, the videos that teach something, because sometimes the teacher makes questions, i have to participate and when we watch the videos or play”. we would like to highlight the word “impact” because it implies a strong feeling in people’s lives. in other words, the opportunity of acquiring knowledge, through other ways is meaningful for students, because they need a backdoor to learn, even it is necessary to make use of resources according to pupils’ age and likes. teachers have to adapt to their students, and technological devices are demonstrated to be an important tool in class to make it different and enjoyable. third subcategory: emotional learning. motivation is related to how the students work in class, it is shown as a positive influence to acquire knowledge. also, with motivation the feelings are an excellent option for learning a new language as a factor to increase the degree of interest. according to the statistics, the results presented in figure 6 seem to corroborate that the proposed model of affective learning was a great choice due to the initial average students had regarding motivation, it was 4.5, and at the end of the project, it was 4.9, promoting the confidence, self-esteem and participation as a good strategy to engage learners. educational videos for strenghtening english vocabulary celis, onatra & zubieta no. 14 (january june 2017) no. 14 (january june 2017) 82 figure 6. students’ questionnaire as it can be seen in the figure above, students increased their motivation to learn english after having experimented the affective learning process. in this case, it is possible to refer to dörney (2005), who says that motivation is the variable that influences, in a determinant form, the learning process in a foreign language. also, in figure 7, students manifested that they enjoyed the activities carried out in class, which in the present study were educational videos. this led the learning process to be successful and at the same time fun for students. figure 7. students’ questionnaire another instrument that showed how students felt in class was the questionnaire applied to the students after the implementation. these were the answers of the following question: educational videos for strenghtening english vocabulary celis, onatra & zubieta no. 14 (january june 2017) no. 14 (january june 2017) 83 what did you like from the english class? why? “i liked the english class because we made “master chef” and it was awesome. thanks for everything”. “everything that the teacher does and i like the activities we do with him. the teacher is very fun and he makes an effort when teaching”. as it can be observed, students showed a very positive attitude towards the english class, the activities and the teacher’s role. in addition, the affective learning was an important ingredient in the relationship between the teacher and students, both inside and outside the classroom, reinforcing interaction and motivation at the same time that pupils were learning. conclusions firstly, it should be emphasized that the results obtained in the data analysis show that educational videos and affective learning are an adequate method for students, due to their vocabulary was strengthened. secondly, it must be highlighted that the use of affective learning is an important methodology for teaching and learning a foreign language. this is because the model is effective in involving students to acquire new vocabulary since they feel motivated to learn. thus, from the point of view of personal efficacy, students work on emotional intelligence making possible the construction of emotional attitudes, meaningful learning, social integration and other values. additionally, educational videos and affective learning led to different social functions, for instance, the ability to create a new critical and meaningful perspective. this means that the student has the opportunity to learn about other people’s contexts, appropriating new knowledge through curricular practice while using technology in the classroom in a suitable environment. furthermore, based on our experience as educators, this study intends to emphasize the importance of the teacher’s’ role, not just for transmitting knowledge of immediate use, but also for a change, generating new actions that produce in the student a motivation for learning. as a result, the classroom signifies more than a place of study, a space where students can experiment meaningful experiences when learning a foreign language. finally, as a way of recommendations, we number the following: create spaces that encourage the practice of affective learning, seeking educational videos for strenghtening english vocabulary celis, onatra & zubieta no. 14 (january june 2017) no. 14 (january june 2017) 84 to motivate students to approach a foreign language. promote between teachers the usage of new technological visual tools, which can make easy the language learning. implement audio, visual and affective strategies that could promote vocabulary strengthening. introduce students to the benefits of learning a foreign language. increase the number of hours for the english class, because the teaching-learning process can be improved through the student-teacher interaction. educational videos for strenghtening english vocabulary celis, onatra & zubieta no. 14 (january june 2017) no. 14 (january june 2017) 85 references almenara, j., sánchez, f. & ibáñez, j. 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(2012). vocabulary learning and teaching: pedagogy, research, and resources. in christians in english language teaching (celt 2012). conference teaching with excellence strand.–chinese university of hong kong. hong kong, china–2012. retrieved from https://www.academia.edu/1711441/vocabulary_ learning_and_teaching_pedagogy_research_and_resources educational videos for strenghtening english vocabulary celis, onatra & zubieta no. 14 (january june 2017) no. 14 (january june 2017) 86 ministerio de educación nacional de colombia. (2006). estándares básicos de competencias en lenguas extranjeras: inglés [basic standards of foreign languages: english] retrieved from: http://www. mineducacion.gov.co/cvn/1665/articles-115174_archivo_pdf.pdf nation, i. s. p. (2001). learning vocabulary in another language. cambridge: cambridge university press nikitina, l. (2009). student video project as a means to practice constructivist pedagogy in the foreign language classroom. jurnal pendidik dan pendidikan, jil, 24, 165-176. retrieved from: http://apjee.usm.my/apjee_24_2009/jpp24_10_ larisanikitina_165-176.pdf oxford, r.l, (1990). language learning strategies: what every teacher should know. boston: heinle & heinle. quintana, a & montgomery, w, (2006). psicología: tópicos de actualidad. [psychology: current topics] lima. universidad nacional mayor de san marcos. schmitt, n. & mccarthy, m, (2011). vocabulary: description, acquisition and pedagogy. cambridge: cambridge university press. schmitt, n. (2010). researching vocabulary: a vocabulary research manual. houndmills, basingstoke, hampshire: palgrave macmillan. schmitt, n. (2000). vocabulary in language teaching. new york: cambridge university press tamayo, m. (2004). el proceso de la investigación científica. méxico: editorial limusa. zhu, y. (2012). principles and methods in teaching english with multimedia. in advances in computer science and education (pp. 135-139). springer berlin heidelberg. educational videos for strenghtening english vocabulary celis, onatra & zubieta no. 14 (january june 2017) no. 14 (january june 2017) 87 authors *jonnathan celis nova holds ba in languages from universidad libre. he has experience as an english teacher in the extension courses at the same institution. his research interests include language, history and biology. *clara isabel onatra chavarro is currently enrolled in a phd program in education at universidad de baja california. she works as a professor at universidad libre and universidad nacional de colombia in the ba in languages program. her research interests are ict in education, self-direction and applied linguistics. *any tatiana zubieta córdoba holds ba in languages from universidad libre. she has been a languages teacher (english, french and spanish). she had the opportunity to participate in an exchange of international teachers with the amity program. her research interests include applied linguistics, languages and art. educational videos for strenghtening english vocabulary celis, onatra & zubieta no. 14 (january june 2017) no. 14 (january june 2017) mora, rivas, lengeling & crawford.indd 128 the implications of orthographic intraference for the teaching and description of esl: the educated nigerian english examples1 implicaciones de la intraferencia ortográfica para la enseñanza y descripción del inglés como segunda lengua: ejemplos inglés nigeriano formal omowumi steve bode ekundayo2* university of benin, nigeria abstract this paper examines orthographic intraference and its implications for teaching and describing english as a second language (esl). orthographic intraference is used here to denote instances of single word spelling, acronyms, mix up of homophones, homonyms and compound word spelling arising not from interference but from orthographic rules and features of the english language. the paper is based on the concept of intraference and examples were gathered from nigerian english, the educated variety, from 2005 to 2013 with questionnaires and recording of spontaneous speeches and from secondary sources. the study established that orthographic intraference cases are widespread and common in educated nigerian english. consequently, the paper proposes that teachers of esl identify, teach and drill learners on them to make learners internalize the generally accepted standard forms. keywords: orthographic intraference, derived spelling, acronymisation, compound words, signs. 1 received: dec. 15, 2014 / accepted: april 16, 2015 2 ekuns20@yahoo.com gist education and learning research journal. issn 1692-5777. no. 10, (january june) 2015. pp. 128-148. bode no. 10 (january june 2015) no. 10 (january june 2015) 129 resumen este artículo examina la intraferencia ortográfica y sus implicaciones para la enseñanza y descripción del inglés como segunda lengua. en este caso, la intraferencia ortográfica es utilizada para denotar ejemplos ortográficos de palabras simples, siglas, combinación de palabras homófonas y homónimas y ortografía de palabras compuestas derivadas no sólo de la intraferencia sino también de las reglas ortográficas y las características del idioma inglés. este artículo se basa en el concepto de intraferencia y los ejemplos fueron recopilados del idioma inglés nigeriano formal desde el año 2005 hasta el año 2013 mediante la aplicación de cuestionarios y la grabación de entrevistas espontáneas y consulta de fuentes secundarias. el estudió estableció que los casos de intraferencia ortográfica son generalizados y comunes en el inglés nigeriano formal. por consiguiente, el artículo propone que los profesores de inglés como segunda lengua identifican, enseñan y entrenan a los estudiantes sobre la manera en la que pueden interiorizar las formas estándar generalmente aceptadas. palabras clave: intraferencia ortográfica, derivada ortográfica, acrónimo, palabras compuestas, signos resumo este artigo examina a interferência ortográfica e suas implicações para o ensino e descrição do inglês como segunda língua. neste caso, a interferência ortográfica é utilizada para denotar exemplos ortográficos de palavras simples, siglas, combinação de palavras homófonas e homônimas e ortografia de palavras compostas derivadas não só da interferência senão também das regras ortográficas e as características do idioma inglês. este artigo se baseia no conceito de interferência e os exemplos foram recopilados do idioma inglês nigeriano formal desde o ano 2005 até o ano 2013 mediante a aplicação de questionários e a gravação de entrevistas espontâneas e consulta de fontes secundárias. o estudo estabeleceu que os casos de interferência ortográfica são generalizados e comuns em inglês nigeriano formal. em decorrência, o artigo propõe que os professores de inglês como segunda língua identificam, ensinam e treinam os estudantes sobre a maneira na que podem interiorizar as formas padrão geralmente aceitas. palavras chave: interferência ortográfica, derivada ortográfica, acrônimo, palavras compostas, signos bode no. 10 (january june 2015) no. 10 (january june 2015) 130 introduction orthography is a major dimension of graphology. crystal (2005) says that graphology is “the writing system in standard, everyday use, which consequently attracts most study” (p. 194). the smallest meaningful unit of graphology is the grapheme, which is analogous to the morpheme in morphology and the phoneme in phonology. graphemes are individual letters or combinations of the letters of the english alphabet in writing. a letter such as <t> is a grapheme or monograph and a combination of letters like <ch> or <ph> is a digraph. orthography is at times used in the place of graphology and vice versa. while graphology is all-embracing of the writing systems, visual images, graphics and calligraphy, orthography is limited to writing symbols and their uses. central to orthography are the following features: (1) the use of small and capital letters both small and capital letters, (2) spelling system and rules, (3) ‘a particular system of punctuation’ and punctuation marks, (4) ‘the use of arabic numerals (1,2, 3…)’, (5) ‘the specialised use of certain’ signs or symbols like # and & (trask, 1999, p.219). a sign is a mark, sketch, object or image on a paper, or somewhere, which stands for what it shows or represents something else. three types of signs are used in english to communicate. these are icons, index and symbols. an icon is a mark that is similar or identical to the idea or thing it represents; for example a sketch, picture, or an effigy of somebody. an index is a sign that shows a causal (cause-and-effect) link between the sign and what it represents or what follows, so that whenever we see an indexical sign, we immediately are reminded of the cause or result, e.g. smoke is the index of fire. symbols, unlike icons and indexes, are conventional and sociocultural signs, which one is taught to interpret. there may be no connection between the symbol and its meaning in actual nature, unlike icons and indexes. symbols and their meanings are handed down from generation to generation. thus they differ from place to place and culture to culture. language is a clear example of symbolic representations, particularly in the written medium. bloomfield (1934) says that “a symbol ‘represents’ a linguistic form in the sense that people write the symbol in situations where they utter the linguistic form, and respond to the symbol as they respond to the hearing of the linguistic form” (285).this paper concentrates on the use of symbols, not icons and indexes, in writing. it examines how symbolic signs, orthographic rules and features are redeployed from one area of the language to another based on the influernce of intraference (see theoretical background). examples are drawn from nigerian english (nige). the implications of orthographic intraference bode no. 10 (january june 2015) no. 10 (january june 2015) 131 literature review the paper is based on the concept of intraference. according to ekundayo (2014), the term and concept of intraference arises from a lexicalisation of the concepts of interlingual interference (richards & sampson, 1984), the overgeneralisation of linguistic features (selinker, 1984), and labovian (1994) internal principles of linguistic change. the application of the word intraference may be traced to several independent outstanding works separated by time and long distances: barry hale, an australian video artist, uses the term ‘intraference mirror’ since 2000 to denote a simple video feedback loop which he manipulates to create evolving images in real time (www.barryhale. intraferencemirrors); william croft (2000, 2003)uses the term in the same sense that ekundayo (2006, 2014) subsequently conceptualises it. croft (2000, 2003) says grammaticalisation, interference and intraference occasion language change. he says that “different elements of the same language can interfere with each other if they share enough linguistic substance”, and that intraference occurs when language items are affected by different dialects, sociolinguistic variants or other structures of the same language (croft, 2000, pp. 111-165). ekundayo (2006), conceptualises intraference as the habit of transferring the rules and dynamics of a language from a section where they have been established and where they acceptably operate to another section within the language where they hitherto used not to operate. “since such a transfer is within the language, it is better tagged intraference, which is the reverse of interference” (p.20). in ekundayo (2013), intraference is conceptualised as follows: intraference is concerned primarily with (nonnative) language speakers who do not understand their (second) language perfectly and are affected by such psycho-sociolinguistically relevant conditions as memory limitations, distractions, shifts of attention, interest and sociocultural context. they are further affected by such linguistic dynamics as the phonological, morphological, syntactic, semantic and orthographic rules and items that characterise their (second) language, as they apply their knowledge in actual performance. (17) in this conceptualisation rendered in a phraseology reminiscent of chomsky’s (1965) eminent linguistic theory, ekundayo mentions two major factors that affect the competence and performance of (second) language users: ‘the psycho-sociolinguistic’ and ‘the linguistic’. ekundayo says that the psycho-sociolinguistic is an amalgam of two sub-factors. the first is the social knowledge, context and setting of the speakers; for when a new concept, idea, experience, event, etc the implications of orthographic intraference bode no. 10 (january june 2015) no. 10 (january june 2015) 132 confronts nonnative speakers, and even native speakers of a language, they fall back on the dynamics, loopholes and rules of the language and (re)deploy them to convey the new experience and idea. this effort may generate a new linguistic structure, or an existing term may be expanded to accommodate an additional meaning for the new experience. naturally placed in a multilingual esl setting far away from a native english-speaking community, and vulnerable to distraction, ignorance, loss of attention and memory, educated nigerians redeploy the features of english to create new structures or similar structures to some of the existing ones in the language. the second sub-factor of the psycho-sociolinguistic is the brain or mind mechanism of the users, the way the users view and rearrange features of the language, creatively or otherwise, in their minds. precisely, it relates to chomsky’s (1965) “competence” and “performance.” competence is the underlying innate linguistic knowledge of a speaker. performance denotes the practical, actual use of language in a given situation. as native speakers possess competences, so do educated nonnative speakers possess some competences, which are not on a par with those of native speakers. however, both native and nonnative speakers must necessarily put their competences to use. different competences generate different instances of use and performances. intraference features emanate from the reassignment and redeployment of a language items and rules that nonnative speakers/writers have in their competences to hitherto new areas and contexts. the linguistic factor generates the five major types of intraference: phonological, graphological or orthographic, morphemic or morphological, morpho-syntactic and lexico-semantic with many sub-divisions in ekundayo (2006, 2013). the orthographic type is subdivided into ‘intraference of writing symbols in sms and informal email’ and ‘orthographic intraference.’ in orthographic intraference, the rules and features of writing are redeployed from areas where they are well-established and acceptably used to new areas in the language where they are not well-established and then questionably used. for example, a spelling error so-called, or a variant, may have been influenced by the spelling of its root or base, e.g. ‘sustain’ and ‘maintain’ influence the spelling of ‘maintainance’ and ‘sustainance.’ a similar spelling, or the rule for spelling similar structures, may influence another. for instance, the spelling of ‘complete,’ ‘replete,’ ‘deplete,’ etc influence the analogical spelling of ‘interprete’ instead of ‘interpret.’ homophones and homonyms (words which sound alike or are identical, e.g. where/ were, sight/cite/site, collaborate, corroborate, etc) at times ‘intrafere’ with one another, that is they are sometimes unintentionally used to the implications of orthographic intraference bode no. 10 (january june 2015) no. 10 (january june 2015) 133 substitute one another within the same language. educated people with high linguistic competence do fall into the intraference of homophones and base forms, a linguistic habit which has nothing to do with their mother tongues, incompetence or downright ignorance. after all, they can and do correct them when such slips are pointed out to them. acronyms and regular words are another features that intrafere with each other. an acronym is a combination of the first letters of the words in a concept, organization or name, which can be pronounced as a word, but they are not like regular, established words; for example, ufo, where u stands for unidentified, f for flying and o for object). acronyms are usually written in capital letters: un, ecowas, imf, etc, while regular established words are written in small letters, e.g. anger, opinion, or written with initial capital if they are proper nouns, e.g. jackson, steve, or in full capital letters when they are stressed or used as headings/titles, e.g. aspects of the theory of syntax. in writing acronyms, educated nigerians tend to downgrade them to regular words by writing them in small letters or a mixture of upper and lower cases. this tendency is a transfer from the regular way in which established words are written (see 3.3). another orthographic intraference emanates from the spelling of compound formations. often, writers are confused about how a compound word is or should be written: combined, hyphenated or separated. how do we write ‘nonnative’ and ‘gentlemen’ for example? should they be written as they have been written above or in the other two forms: ‘non-native’ or ‘non native’ and ‘gentle-men’ or ‘gentle men’? quirk et al (1985) write ‘nonnative’, either as an adjective or noun (p. 3). many educated nigerians use ‘non-native’ or ‘non native.’ tomori (1977) also questions this phenomenon and reveals that in ‘a recorded speech of a native speaker, the difference between the articulation of gentle man written separately and gentleman blocked was known to be absent’ (p. 17). these are examined under ‘compoundword-spelling intraference.’ all the examples in this paper are elicited from the educated variety of nigerian english. esl and enl are often contrasted with english as a native language or mother tongue (enl, emt). efl denotes foreigners’ english variety, which is used for restricted purposes like international diplomacy, trade and travelling in countries that have their national and/or official language, or a second language other than english. the people who use english in efl settings are very few indeed compared with enl and esl settings; e.g. english for the chinese, japanese and italians. emt is used to denote native speakers’ variety, e.g. british the implications of orthographic intraference bode no. 10 (january june 2015) no. 10 (january june 2015) 134 english, american english and australian english, which esl and efl countries see as the exonormic models. esl refers to the variety spoken outside native english settings or perhaps in native english settings by nonnative immigrants who have their own native language or mother tongue but acquired english formally and informally in esl settings as a lingua-franca, the language of formal education and scholarship, official broadcast, government, intranational and international commerce, diplomacy, sports, among others. nigerian english is the leading esl model at present worldwide. the varieties of english used in nigeria are usually assessed against the features of sbe or sae. region, formal education and (psycho)sociolinguistic parameters are used to classify nigerian english varieties (jowitt, 2008; surakat, 2010). there exist many regions and different regional varieties of nigerian english (abbreviated ne or nige): hausa, yoruba, igbo, efik, urhobo, izon, egbira, etc. each regional variety has its linguistic variations and similarities to the others. phonological variations in the main distinguish regional varieties. several classifications have been made with formal education and linguistic features, the most prominent being banjo’s (1970, 1996) varieties i, ii, iii and iv. variety i is the lowest, which reflects vulgar errors of grammar and broken structures often used by primary school pupils and those with half-baked formal education. variety ii, which is an improvement on variety i, is used by secondary school students, school certificate holders and a majority of nigerians. variety iii is spoken by highly educated people, graduates, teachers, lecturers, professors, writers, broadcasters, etc. banjo proposes this model for nigerian english. his variety iii is often referred to as standard nigerian english (sne) or educated nigerian english (ene). lastly, variety iv of banjo is like native english standard spoken by few nigerians who were born in native english-speaking countries or have a parent of english origin and consequently acquired english as their first language (banjo1996). but this variety is considered too foreign and affected. three ‘–lects’: basilect, mesolect and acrolectare often depicted at the sociolinguistic level (ogbulogo, 2005). the mesolect is the lowest variety analogous to banjo’s variety i. the basilect is the most popular and widely used in nigeria by junior civil servants, secondary school students and not-so-educated youths. the acrolect is used by few very highly educated nigerians. it has the greatest prestige and international intelligibility. banjo’s variety iii, which is also the acrolect on the sociolinguistic pyramid, is the variety being paraded as nigerian standard. nevertheless, these classifications are not clear-cut, the implications of orthographic intraference bode no. 10 (january june 2015) no. 10 (january june 2015) 135 for there are overlaps. ‘there can, in truth, never be any firm dividing lines’ (banjo, 1996, p.79). spelling deviations are widespread in all in all the varieties. however, we concentrate on the cases in ene. saussure (1966) decries the english writing system as a “huge edifice of confusion,” replete with “inconsistencies”, “aberrations,” and “absurdities that cannot be excused” (saussure, pp. 22, 31). firth (1937) also says that “english spelling is so preposterously unsystematic that some sort of reform is undoubtedly necessary in the interest of the whole world” (p. 48). jowitt (2008), bezrukova (2011),yule (1978, 1991), upward (1995) and onose (2003) have also reemphasised unsystematic nature of english spelling. many studies for over a century now have shown that reformed spelling would enable children and learners to read more easily than in traditional orthography (yule, 1991; ekundayo, 2014; seymour, 2001).in ene, orthographic intraference cases, which are occasioned by psycho-sociolinguistic factors, manifest in derived/ transferred spelling, homophonous mix ups, acronyms with blends and in the spelling of compound words. methodology research design the paper, on the one hand, applied the qualitative method, which is mainly non-statistical, and often adopted for linguistic studies to examine causal processes and purposeful responses by informed and self-directing participants. this method is used to describe, explain and discuss the linguistic texts in the paper. on the other hand, the quantitative method, which is statistical, was also adopted because of the sociolinguistic nature of the paper. this method facilitated the presentation of ordinal data in simple percentile, frequency tables and charts. it was assumed that the orthographic dynamics and features of the language influence educated nigerians to spell words in certain ways, produce acronyms and mix up the three ways in which compound words are spelt. the paper adopted the concept of intraference to (1) show how base form spelling influences derived spelling, (2) present homophones and homonyms that intrafere with one another, (3) demonstrate how the three spelling rules for compound words intrafere with one another and (4) propose how these features should be treated in teaching and learning english in esl settings. the implications of orthographic intraference bode no. 10 (january june 2015) no. 10 (january june 2015) 136 context and participants the study was carried out in nigeria, the largest esl country at present. educated nigerians were surveyed from 2005 to may 2013. nigerians in the continuum of national diploma (nd) minimum to ph.d./professor are considered educated. subjects were between 19 and 70 years, comprising lecturers and final year students in english and literature, linguistics, and international studies and diplomacy, mass communication, theatre arts departments and other departments in ten government-owned universities and other schools tested in five of the six geo-political zones of nigeria: the south-west, the multi-lingual southsouth, the north central, the south-east and the multilingual middlebelt. the universities and institutions are ahmadu bello university, zaria, bayero university, kano (north); university of lagos, lagos, federal university of technology, akure (west); university of nigeria, enugu campus, nnamdi azikiwe university, awka (east); university of ilorin, ilorin, university of abuja, federal capital territory (middlebelt); university of benin, benin city, edo state, and the university of port harcourt, port harcourt (south-south); four federal government owned polytechnics: federal polytechnic, auchi (south-south), federal polytechnic, ede (west), federal polytechnic offa (middlebelt), kaduna polytechnic, kaduna (north) and federal polytechnic, oko. for the examples of the derived and transferred spelling forms’, thirty thousand sheets of a questionnaire were distributed and twenty thousand collated and analysed between 2005 and 2013. for compound words, 25,000 educated nigerians were tested with questionnaire. however, 10,000 copies were analysed for this paper. in all, 30,000 of the responses were collated and analysed. few other examples were extracted from secondary sources and speeches. the percentage of users for each case tested is simply indicated in front of each example. below 30% is tagged ‘isolated.’30-39% is tagged ‘emerging trend,’ which means that the variant is not popular in ene, 40-49 is a ‘variant’ or ‘free variant,’ 50-59 is ‘common,’ 6079% is tagged ‘widespread’ and 80-100% is tagged ‘entrenched’ or ‘institutionalised’. data collection instruments the primary data were from the two questionnaires collated and analysed from 2005 to 2013. a few cases were extracted from spontaneous speeches and secondary sources such as books, newspapers, scholarly articles and other printed matters. the implications of orthographic intraference bode no. 10 (january june 2015) no. 10 (january june 2015) 137 data analysis and interpretation derived and transferred spelling. derived spelling intraference comes into derivatives from the base or root word. examples are in the table below: table 1. derived and transferred spelling s/n ene variant percentage similar sources sbe variants percentage degree over 20,000 of intraference over 20,000 of spread in the language 1 cementery 10,000/50% cement, country, cemetery 3,000/ common cementry 1,500/7.5% commentary, isolated cementary 6,000/30% documentary, etc emerging cemetary 5,500/27.5% 2 enterpreneur 9,000/45% enterprise, entrepreneur 9,000/45% variant enterpreniur 2,000/10% enter, etc. isolated 3 grievious 15,000/75% the transfer of grievous 5,000/25% widespread –iousin words like precious, obvious. 4 mischievious 15,000/75% same as above mischievous 5,000/25% widespread 5 pronounciation 12,000/60% as in announce/ pronunciation 8,000/40% widespread announcement, pronounce/ment 6 interprete 17,000/85% influenced by interpret 3,000/15% entrenched similar words like complete, deplete, replete, effete, etc 7 shinning 17,000/85% the rule of shining 3,000/15% entrenched doubling a consonant before adding a suffix, as in beginning, banning, fanning. 8 dinning hall 17,000/85% as above dining hall 3,000/15% entrenched 9 priviledge 15,000/75% influenced by privilege 5,000/15% entrenched words like edge, knowledge, porridge, pledge, etc. the implications of orthographic intraference bode no. 10 (january june 2015) no. 10 (january june 2015) 138 10 bossom 12,000/60% the transfer of bosom 8,000/40% widespread the spelling of loss, blossom, crossed, possess, etc. 11 superintendant 13,000/65% intraference of superintendent 7,000/35% entrenched the noun suffix –ant, as in attendant, participant, etc. (superintend+ant) 12 forment trouble 18,000/90% influence foment 2,000/10% entrenched of torment. 13 expantiate 18,000/90% expand entrenched transferred to expantiate. 14 definate(ly) 12,000/60% intraference of entrenched the suffix -ate in words like decimate, defecate, inundate, etc. indestructable 11,000/55% intraference of indestructible 9,000/45% entrenched the suffix –able, as in formidable, durable, etc. 15 miscellanous 15,000/75% the redeployment miscellaneous 5,000/25% widespread of the adjectival suffixous, as in proteinous, intravenous, etc. anointed 16,000/80% doubling of anointed 4,000/20% entrenced consonants as in annotated, annoy, announce, etc. table 2: summary of the degree of spread of the items in table 1 types entrenched widespread common variant emerging isolated total number 10 5 1 1 1 2 20 the implications of orthographic intraference bode no. 10 (january june 2015) no. 10 (january june 2015) 139 homophonous/homonymous intraference. below are some typical examples from written works and spontaneous speeches. although they were not tested in a questionnaire, the researcher used his knowledge and experience as an educated nigerianand a teacher of english for over twenty years to tag them accordingly as entrenched, widespread, common, etc. 21. ‘love portion’ instead of sbe ‘love potion (entrenched) “he gave her love portion to eat and since then she does anything he says.” 22. pottage/porridge (entrenched) “in a corner of the market, women were sweating over sizzling pots of fried yam, yam pottage, rice and beans” (okediran, 2009, p. 170). sbe is porridge. pottage has a different meaning not related to cooked food. 23. their/there (common) “the road was very clear and their were signs of rain…” (uniben exam e/r: 07555: 2) 24. sight/cited/site (common) “we had not gotten to delta state when i sited a car at our back (uniben exam e/r: 00562 :2). 25. teaming/teeming (entrenched) “there is no food for the teaming population” (ekundayo, 2005, p.37). 26. lacking /lagging (entrenched) “you are lacking behind” (ekundayo, 2009, p.138). sbe is …lagging behind 27. wigs/wicks (entrenched) “have you fixed wigs in the stove?” (wicks), entrenched. 28. cannon/cannon (widespread) “they shot canons during their father’s burial” (cannons), entrenched. 29. tangle/tango (widespread) “it takes two to tangle” (tango), entrenched. the implications of orthographic intraference bode no. 10 (january june 2015) no. 10 (january june 2015) 140 30. seeming/seamy (widespread) “destitute are on the seeming side of life” (seamy), entrenched. 31. past/pass (widespread) “she just walked pass me” (past), entrenched. 32. stationery/stationary (common) “the vehicle is stationery” (stationary), entrenched. 33. career/carrier (widespread) “these are carrier women who don’t want to settle down” (career). regular word spelling intraference in acronyms 34. obj/obj (entrenched) obj, for olusegun obasanjo, a three-time nigerian headof state and president (1976-1979, as military head of state, and 1999-2007, as civilian president). 35. uniben/uniben (instead of uniben, or uniben, entrenched) “i was very glad and anticipated the day i would step into the gates of great uniben” (uniben exam booklet, e/r: 03708:3). 36. delsu (rather than delsu, or delsu), entrenched. 37. unilag (rather than unilag or unilag), entrenched. university of lagos. 38. nifor (nifor), entrenched. nigeria institute for oil-palm research. 39. nipost (nipost), entrenched. a clip and blend for ‘nigerian postal services.’ 40. jambite/jambite (entrenched) this is written as if it were not an acronym (jamb: joint admission and matriculation board, which conducts entrance examination to nigerian universities) combined with the suffix –ite. the fabrication has simply been raised to the status of an established word and written as such. this also occurs in sbe; for example, internet, laser, (quirk et al, 1985, p.1582).a jambite is a fresh, new student on campus, a novice or starter. the implications of orthographic intraference bode no. 10 (january june 2015) no. 10 (january june 2015) 141 compound-word intraference. all the respondents/responses collated and analysed (10,000 in all) admitted misspelling some words and mixing up the three ways in which compound words are spelt. furthermore, the twenty two compound words dictated for them to spell were spelt indiscriminately in any of the three ways. table 3 shows how the twenty-two compound words dictated were spelt. (a) is sbe variant. table 3. cases of compound word spelling intraference s/n compound percentage degree of spread comment 1 a. at least 2,000/20% entrenched in these examples, the b. atleast 7,000/70% nonsbe forms are more c. at-least 1,000/10% popular, the combined form atleast being the most popular. 2 a. day break 1,500/15% widespread b. daybreak 6,000/60% c. day-break 2,500/10% 3 a. day dream 2,000/20% widespread b. daydream 6,500/65% c. day-dream 1,500/15% 4 a. dry cleaner 2,000/20% common b. drycleaner 3,000/30% c. dry-cleaner 5,000/50% 5 a. every day 2,000/20% widespread b. everyday 7,000/70% c. every-day 1,000/10% 6 a. fish pond 3,000/30% widespread b. fishpond 5,000/60% c. fish-pond 2,000/10% 7 a. frying pan 2,500/25% variant b. fryingpan 3,500/35% c. frying-pan 4,000/40% 8 a. gas cooker 5,000/50% common b. gascooker 1,000/10% c. gas-cooker 4,000/40% again, the non-sbe form are more common, the combined form having 60%. the blocked form leads here. here, the hyphenated and blocked forms lead, the hyphenated form having 50%. the blocked form is the most popular here for both noun and adjective. sbe uses the blocked form as an adjective and the open form as a noun: ‘an everyday problem happens every day the blocked form is the most popular followed by the sbe form. the hyphenated form leads here with the blocked form next. the three are popular. sbe and the hyphenated forms are more popular for this word. the implications of orthographic intraference bode no. 10 (january june 2015) no. 10 (january june 2015) 142 9 a. girl friend 3,500/35% common b. girlfriend 5,000/50% c. girl-friend 2,000/20% 10 a. goal keeper 2,000/20% variant b. goalkeeper 4,500/45% c. goal-keeper 3,500/35% 11 a. hand shake 1,500/15% common as in 10 above. b. handshake 5,000/50% c. hand-shake 3,500/35% 12 a. in fact 500/5% widespread b. infact 9,000/70% c. in-fact 500/5% 13 a. lap top 2,000/20% common b. laptop 5,000/50% c. lap-top 3,000/30% 14 a. navy blue 2,000/20% variant b. navyblue 4,000/40% c. navy-blue 4,000/40% 15 a. schoolboy 6,000/60% widespread b. school boy 1,000/10% c. school-boy 3,000/30% 16 a. smallpox 4,000/40% variant b. small pox 3,000/30% c. small-pox 4,000/40% 17 a. steam engine 2,000/20% widespread b. steamengine 2,000/70% c. steam-engine 6,000/10% 18 a. sugar cane 2,000/20% common b. sugarcane 5,000/50% c. sugar-cane 3,000/30% 19 a. wedding ring 2,000/20% common b. weddingring 3,000/30% c. wedding-ring 5,000/50% 20 a. yellow fever 2,000/20% variant b. yellowfever 3,500/35% c. yellow–fever 4,500/45% 21 a. youth club 3,000/30% variant as in 18 b. youthclub 4,000/40% c. youth-club 3,000/30% 22 a. zebra crossing 3,500/35% widespread b. zebracrossing 2,000/70% c. zebra-crossing 4,500/45% the blocked form is ahead in this example. preference is for the combined and hyphenated forms. the blocked type is entrenched in ene. the popular types are the combined and hyphenated forms. the combined and hyphenated types are the more popular variants. the sbe form, which is blocked, is most popular. the hyphenated form is also common. the sbe form and the hyphenated form are variants here. preference is for the hyphenated form. the combined form is most popular. the hyphenated form leads in this word. the blocked and hyphenated forms are the popular variants. the sbe form and the hyphenated are more popular for this word. the implications of orthographic intraference bode no. 10 (january june 2015) no. 10 (january june 2015) 143 table 4. frequency table for compound-word-spelling intraference s/n type frequency percentage 1 entrenched 1 4.5% 2 widespread 8 36.3% 3 common 7 32% 4 variant 6 27% 5 emerging 0 0% 6 total 22 100% as shown above, compound spelling intraference is widespread and common in ene. table 3 shows that the three forms compete with one another, with higher preference for the combined and hyphenated forms. asked to state how best compound words should be written to avoid confusion, the respondents suggested one-way rule only. five thousand and eight hundred (5,800/58%) suggested the hyphenated type while four thousand and two hundred (4,200/42%) proposed the combined form. indeed, it makes no difference to meaning and it scarcely affects pronunciation if a compound word is written in any of the three forms. quirk et al(1985) also acknowledge the inconsistencies that characterise writing compound words. at times, a compound word is acceptably written in the three ways possible; for example, “a flower pot, a flower-pot, a flowerpot.” furthermore, they observe that hyphenation is more common in bre than in ame, where compound words tend to be written more in combined form (p.1569). table 5. summary table for all the cases examined types entrenched widespread common variant emerging isolated total number 23 18 11 7 1 2 62 percentage 37% 29% 18% 11.2% 1.6% 3.2% 100% the implications of orthographic intraference bode no. 10 (january june 2015) no. 10 (january june 2015) 144 figure 1. summary bar graph for all the cases examined conclusions the paper examined spelling variants in ene from the perspectives of derived and transferred spelling, homophones, homonyms, acronymisation and compound words. cases of transferred and derived spelling are often treated as writing errors even though some of them have fossilised so much that they characterise the written variety of nigerian english. examiners who can identify them as different from standard dictionary or sbe spelling treat them as errors and penalise writers for them, particularly in standardised examinations like general certificate of education (gce), west african school certificate examination (wasce), national examination council (neco), etc; and in language-based departments of higher institutions of learning. since ene does not condone spelling mistakes and as nige is still being standardised (a dictionary of nigerian english just got released in september, 2014), individual words that are misspelt for one linguistic or psycho-sociolinguistic reason or another, and homophonous/ homonymous mix ups should be treated as deviations or errors because homophonous and homonymous mix ups create confusion and distort meaning. so, they are not tenable as features of ene. teachers of composition in esl ought to identify and teach learners how to avoid or spot them during proofreading. however, acronyms and regular the implications of orthographic intraference bode no. 10 (january june 2015) no. 10 (january june 2015) 145 word-spelling intraference may be brooked because they are justifiable. they do not impede meaning and they are proudly nigerian. those that have become institutionalised as regular words should be allowed to be, e.g. ‘jambite’ or ‘jambite’ never written as ‘jambite’ or ‘jambite’ in ene. as regard compound-words, it has been shown that the spelling of compound words lacks consistency and uniformity in the two most popular english models of the world. therefore, the suggestion of our respondents presented below should be adopted. either a or b (as shown below) can be adopted for writing all compound words in all contexts, instead of the three ways in which they can occur, which confuse even the most conscious of writers: a b brotherinlaw or brother-in-law commanderinchief or commander-in-chief cassavaflower or cassava-flower stonehearted or stone-hearted sergeantatarm or sergeant-at-arm headofstate or head-of-state the researcher’s preference is for b because the blocked form often gives the impression that it is a single entity when indeed it has two base forms, and the separated form also gives the impression that they are two words in a basic or simple noun phrase. writing the hyphenated form only will be clearer and easier to teach, internalise and write. alternatively, writers should be at liberty to use any of the three forms to write any compound word whatsoever, as in the example of ‘flowerpot,’ ’flower-pot’ or ‘flower pot.’ the teaching (and teachers) of esl should identify the areas of orthographic confusion examined here, teach, demonstrate them and make learners write exercise regularly on them to internalise their dynamics and correct features until such a time that the english spelling system is reformed to eliminate irregularities, as ekundayo (2014) has proposed and demonstrated. the implications of orthographic intraference bode no. 10 (january june 2015) no. 10 (january june 2015) 146 references banjo, a. (1970). the english language and the nigerian environment. journal of nigeria english studies association. 4(1) 51-60. banjo, a. (1996). making a virtue of necessity: an overview of the english language in nigeria. ibadan: ibadan university press. bezrukova, m.k. (i2011). what english do you need? kareen’s linguistics issues. http://www3.telus.net/linguisticsissues/index. html. 1 jan. 2011. bloomfield, l. (1934). language. british ed. chicago: urwin books. chomsky, noam. (1965). aspects of the theory of syntax. cambridge: mit press. croft, w. (2000). explaining language change: an evolutionary approach. harlow, essex: longman. croft, w. (2003, 2006). the relevance of evolutionary model in historical linguistics. in ole nergaard thomsen. (ed.). competing models of linguistic change: evolution and beyond. london: john benjamin publishers. crystal, d. (2005). the cambridge encyclopedia of the english language. cambridge: cambridge university press. ekundayo, b. s. (2006). the concept of ‘intraference’ in english: the morphemic examples in nigerian english as second language. (master’s thesis). project. university of benin, benin city, nigeria. ekundayo, b.s. (2009). everybody’s english handbook. 5th ed. benin: nobel publishers. ekundayo, b.s. (2013). intraference in educated nigerian english (ene). (doctoral dissertation). university of benin, benin city, nigeria. ekundayo, b. s. o. (2014). suggested spelling reform in educated nigerian english: who bells the cat? sage open 2014, 37-50. firth, john rupert. (1937). tongues of men. london: watts. hale, b. (2000). intraference mirror. retrieved from www.barryhale. intraferencemirrors jowitt, d. (2008, 28 march). varieties of english: the world and nigeria. inaugural lecture. university of jos, jos, nigeria. okediran, w. (2009). tenants of the house. lagos: nelson publishers. the implications of orthographic intraference bode no. 10 (january june 2015) no. 10 (january june 2015) 147 ogbulogo, c. 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(doctoral dissertation). monash university. the implications of orthographic intraference bode no. 10 (january june 2015) no. 10 (january june 2015) 148 author *omowumi steve bode ekundayo is on the academic staff of the department of english and literature, university of benin, benin city, nigeria, where he teaches grammar, writing, phonetics and phonology. he holds a ba.ed, ma and phd in english and literature. his areas of interest and research are sociolinguistics with sbe-esl/nige bias, applied linguistics, semiotics, stylistics, language varieties, phonology, poetry and creative writing. he has authored many books and scholarly articles in both local and international journals. the implications of orthographic intraference no. 10 (january june 2015) no. 10 (january june 2015) gistseptiembre2011final2.indd 84 explicit vocabulary instruction in an english content-area course with university student teachers: when comprehensible input needs to be comprehended1 héctor manuel serna dimas2* universidad del rosario, colombia abstract this action research study explores explicit vocabulary instruction in an l2 (english) content-area course with a group of university student teachers. the study reviews several positions on the treatment of vocabulary in l2 contexts. the researcher takes up the teaching of explicit vocabulary through class activities and the students’ completion of vocabulary entries in a word study notebook. the data collection procedures included the teacher´s lesson plans, the students´ word study entries, and their opinions on both their vocabulary learning and their notebook completion through a final interview. research findings reveal that the word study notebook did contribute to students’ learning since they had a grasp of the vocabulary used in the class in terms of participating in the instructional conversations led by the professor and doing the class activities. key words: explicit vocabulary instruction, word study notebook, instructional conversations resumen esta investigación acción explora la enseñanza explicita de vocabulario, en un curso de contenido en segunda lengua (inglés), con un grupo de docentes en formación. la investigación analiza varias perspectivas en la enseñanza de vocabulario en contextos de segunda lengua. el investigador asume la enseñanza explicita de vocabulario a partir de actividades de clase y las anotaciones de vocabulario en un cuaderno de estudio de palabras realizadas por los estudiantes. los procedimientos de recolección de datos incluyeron los 1 received: january 12th, 2011 / accepted: july 21st, 2011 2 email: hectormanuel68@hotmail.com gist education and learning research journal. issn 1692-5777. no. 5, november 2011. pp. 84-103 no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) 85 planes de clase del docente, las anotaciones en los cuadernos de los estudiantes y una entrevista final con las opiniones de los mismos en cuanto a su aprendizaje del vocabulario y su diligenciamiento del cuaderno. los resultados de la investigación revelan que el cuaderno de vocabulario contribuyó al aprendizaje de los estudiantes en cuanto ellos se apropiaron del vocabulario empleado en la clase en las conversaciones guiadas por el maestro y participación en la misma. palabras claves: enseñanza explícita de vocabulario, cuaderno de palabras de estudio, conversaciones de clase resumo esta pesquisa ação explora o ensino explícito de vocabulário, em um curso de conteúdo em segunda língua (inglês), com um grupo de docentes em formação. a pesquisa analisa várias perspectivas no ensino de vocabulário em contextos de segunda língua. o pesquisador assume o ensino explícito de vocabulário a partir de atividades de classe e as anotações de vocabulário em um caderno de estudo de palavras realizadas pelos estudantes. os procedimentos de coleta de dados incluíram os planos de classe do docente, as anotações nos cadernos dos estudantes e uma entrevista final com as opiniões dos mesmos em quanto a sua aprendizagem do vocabulário e seu preenchimento do caderno. os resultados da pesquisa revelam que o caderno de vocabulário contribuiu à aprendizagem dos estudantes em quanto eles se apropriaram do vocabulário empregado na classe nas conversações guiadas pelo maestro e participação na mesma. palavras chaves: ensino explícito de vocabulário, caderno de palavras de estudo, conversações de classe scholars who have worked in the teaching and learning of l2 vocabulary have used a variety of approaches which james coady (1997) summarized in four main positions. the first position has to do with the contextual acquisition of vocabulary. this view is based upon the claim that individuals’ vocabulary learning will be a spin-off of extensive reading. the second perspective is strategy instruction whose proponents doubt the context alone approach and advocate for the teaching of explicit strategies to students in their vocabulary learning. a third view maintains that learners need the explicit teaching of certain vocabulary through various activities making an emphasis on word lists at the early stages so that eventually learners will rely more on context. the fourth position pays special attention to the explicit teaching of vocabulary through specific classroom activities. in this view of vocabulary instruction, teachers use vocabulary handbooks so that learners use textbooks as guides of their vocabulary development which can also be divided in levels from beginners to advance. no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) 86 in this action research project, i argue that l2 learners in contentareas at university level require explicit vocabulary instruction. my claims are also in favor of those scholars who have taken the position that input, in this study vocabulary, actually requires to be comprehended by students so that learning takes place. i do not think it is enough to list key vocabulary for students to memorize or to talk about words as part of reading comprehension sessions in content area classrooms. on the one hand, teachers working in content in l2 need to make vocabulary part of their lesson plans and instructional conversations (cazden, 1988) so that students actually have opportunities to encounter concepts in their contexts. on the other hand, students learning content need to develop a very good command of the concepts they are learning because many of them are not just words they need to recognize to guarantee their successful reading comprehension; they are notions they need to know so that they can develop further elaborations on a concept or a network of concepts to really grasp the theoretical foundation of a particular subject. i address the issue of explicit vocabulary instruction in an l2 content-based course with a group of student teachers at institución universitaria colombo-americana, única in bogotá, colombia. first, i briefly describe the background to the study and my area of focus in order to help readers establish an idea of the context where i conducted my research. next, i review some empirical studies on the nature of both l2 vocabulary acquisition and learning. the theoretical tenets for my study stem from social interactionism, sociocultural theory, activity theory, and theories of second language vocabulary acquisition. in the following section of the article, i deal with the action research methodology displayed in this specific classroom exploration, the data collection procedures and the data analyses. i offer some findings on the role of explicit vocabulary instruction and learning in l2 a contentbased area. i end the article by establishing both the limitations and the conclusions of the study. background única is a private university founded by a group of business people concerned with the present and future of colombian education. one of the main goals of the university is to integrate professional bilingual teachers in different walks of society so that they contribute to improving the quality of instruction in english as well as to spreading bilingual education in different strata in colombian society. única students receive instruction on a variety of subjects that are clustered around some fundamental elements of their preparation explicit vocabulary instruction serna dimas no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) 87 such as language, culture, research, administration, linguistics, second language acquisition and identity. the course on phonetics and phonology is part of the linguistics component of the student teachers formation; it intends to explore both the theoretical and practical aspects of english phonetics and phonology in both language learning and teaching. one of the main goals for única professors is to work with their students using the most recent approaches to teaching l2 learners. one of such approaches is the sheltered instruction observation protocol (siop), both a methodology and a protocol to work with l2 learners in content-areas. echevarría, short, and vogt (2004) coined the acronym and developed a methodology based on empirical research with l2 learners in the educational system in the united states. the research findings that support the siop helped these scholars to create a teaching cycle with eight components: lesson preparation, building background, comprehensible input, strategies, interaction, practice/ application, lesson delivery, and review and assessment. each one of the components is meant to help both teachers and students to develop sheltered instruction-that is, instruction whose main goal is to make content accessible to students at all times. the siop component on building background establishes that teachers need to pay explicit attention to the vocabulary demands that the course or a particular class may impose on students. echavarría, short, and vogt consider that the siop needs to address academic language regarding vocabulary in three key elements “content words, process/function words and word parts that teach english structure” (p.59). area of focus this study of explicit vocabulary instruction started as an exploration on the nature of students’ oral language use for academic settings. the initial investigation was on the levels of language elaboration students demonstrated in class. a preliminary gathering of data, their analyses, and further academic discussions in the sirp (sheltered instruction research project) at única helped me to focus my inquiry on the area of vocabulary. única students seem to perform in both spoken interaction and production at a b1 grade level according to the common european framework of reference for languages (cefr) (council of europe, 2001). nevertheless, the analyses of some of their speech samples showed that they had difficulties in both recalling and using concepts in explicit vocabulary instruction serna dimas no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) 88 their attempt to articulate their ideas in academic english. the above situation allowed me to hypothesize that students would improve their oral language production in academic content classes if they received explicit vocabulary instruction in this area. i further hypothesized that students would widen their word knowledge in the content areas if they committed themselves to self-assess their own class participation. i tested this second hypothesis by having students make a word study notebook for their phonetics and phonology class. the notebook was also meant to give students the opportunity to articulate their ideas orally by participating actively in the professor´s instructional conversations. the formulation of two research questions is the result of articulating my particular line of inquiry into the role of explicit vocabulary instruction in an english content-based course in tertiary education. research questions 1. what is the influence of explicit vocabulary instruction in students’ oral language production for academic english at única? 2. how do students self-assess their own vocabulary learning and oral participation in academic activities through their keeping of a word study notebook? literature review arnaud and savignon (1997) conducted a study entitled rare words, complex lexical units and the advanced learner. the researchers’ goal was to see how the learners’ level of language may parallel that of native speakers as they increase their study of “passive” knowledge of rare words and complex lexical units. the test results among several groups of both native and nonnative specialists showed that native-like performance was achieved in the case of rare words, but not in the handling of lexical complex units. part of the explanation has to do with the constant exposure to these words; nevertheless, there are other causes for this situation to happen; one of these causes is that there is not an accurate way to measure the amount of language exposure that french teachers got in english prior to the study. reading has also been one of the most common scenarios to enact l2 vocabulary acquisition; this particular setting was chosen by grabe and stroller (1997) who analyzed the relationship between reading and vocabulary development in a personal case study conducted by william grabe, one of the researchers. the intention of the study was to explore reading and vocabulary development in an l2 by using a case study explicit vocabulary instruction serna dimas no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) 89 methodology. reading was a good scenario for the improvement of the researcher’s reading abilities in the second language. this positive experience very much aided the researcher´s learning because he had the chance to read from a variety of genres and had the support of a good bilingual dictionary. the researcher had a good grasp of specific words which may have to do with the fact that he was a constant dictionary user, so the improvement was notable. the researcher experienced difficulties with words he could not relate to any reading experience. the word family association did not always work for the researcher encountered words whose meaning he could not figure out based on a possible association. there was a connection between the improvement of both listening and reading abilities. the exposure to particular genres also made a difference in the levels of language development since the researcher was more familiar with conversations, dialogues, and lectures during his five-month stay in brazil. regarding oral production and vocabulary development as another setting related to vocabulary acquisition and development, the research study entitled oral production of vocabulary by altman (1997) demonstrated that there are important contextual factors such as opportunity and need to practice language items which support vocabulary development. some of the researcher´s answers stated that the confluence of opportunity and the need to produce in terms of both instruction and language itself were made noticeable to the learner. the more awareness was raised on language forms, the more they became imprinted on the learners’ language repertoire. it is worth adding that both the confluence of opportunity and the need to practice have to do with the actual encounters that the learners had with words which triggered one another. snellings et al. (2002) carried out a study whose purpose was to see the effects of written lexical retrieval enhancement in classroom settings. the study wanted to determine if the experimental treatment of fluency in lexical retrieval in an l2 could be effectively increased in an educational context. the findings demonstrated that there was a speedup in the lexical access of words by learners when they were asked to retrieve words in exercises oriented towards detection, correction, and translation. the study also demonstrated that training focusing on both speed and immediate feedback could change effectively the l2 cognitive word processing in production. the researchers concluded that their study allowed them to see that it was possible to develop a methodology to train learners in a specific skill in the classroom setting. explicit vocabulary instruction serna dimas no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) 90 the next two research studies have to do with the use of notebooks to promote students engagement in vocabulary learning. fowle (2002) conducted a study entitled vocabulary notebooks: implementation and outcomes. the researcher wanted to study the introduction of vocabulary notebooks in a high school in thailand in order to help students increase their lexical competence as well as to promote their learning autonomy. even though the results regarding vocabulary learning were not calculated thoroughly, the students were more actively involved in the learning of vocabulary as a result of the notebooks use. the use of the notebooks also promoted in students the use of self-management strategies as they took active part in designing their notebooks as well as selecting their entries. another study on the use of notebooks was conducted by mccrostie (2007). the author wanted to look into the vocabulary notebooks kept by 124 first year english majors at a japanese university. the study found that students selected most of their words from their textbooks but they paid special attention to certain parts of speech over others. they had difficulties finding high frequency words, and they considered that the words they did not know were equally important. the researchers obtained information on how the uses of notebooks do not always match with the learning needs that learners may have as it appears in one of their conclusions. theoretical framework language is fundamental in helping people to build their social worlds. it is at the heart of this social world that the ideas of both vygotsky and feuerstein gave rise to social interactionism. one of the key concepts developed by both theoreticians is the idea of mediation –that is, the active role that significant people have in learners’ lives through symbolic activities. these people have the ability to shape experiences in order to help learners make sense of their own learning. vygotsky’s take on this idea is called the zone of proximal development (zpd) which williams and burden (1997) define as “working together with another person, either an adult or a more competent peer at a level that is just above a learner´s present capabilities is the best way for the learner to move into the next layer” (p.40). feuerstein’s views of mediation, on the other hand, are based on the learner´s abilities to cope with the demands of the context, as he believed in the individual´s capacity to learn in the notion of structural cognitive modifiability. in other words, each individual has the potential to modify his cognitive structures over time. another explicit vocabulary instruction serna dimas no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) 91 key notion in feuerstein´s thinking is the idea of mediated learning experiences. these experiences are the ways in which learning can be shaped so that learners get the most of the learning experience. the idea of mediation also has to do with giving learners appropriate skills and technologies to deal with life in a changing society; it also implies the active participation of the learner in the process with the intention to reciprocate the interaction. moreover, mediation entails that one of its outcomes is the learner´s progression towards self-direction. it is important to add to the idea of mediation the notion of artifact which does not only carry the idea of an object per se. an artifact according to lantolf and thorne is “both the material and the conceptual aspect of a human-directed activity in which this artifact contributes to the activity and it is constitutive of it” (p.62). the scholars emphasize the importance of debunking the material aspect of artifact for a human mediated activity in which agency is essential in determining the nature of the artifact. a third constituent of this theoretical framework is activity theory as an alternative to understand human activity. lantolf and thorne state that the theory intends to resolve the constant dichotomy between the biological aspects of cognition, and how this cognitive capacity allows the individual to take part in culturally organized activities (p.210). the theory provides a framework to understand the relationships among a community and its conditions to regulate relationships as wells as the actions of the individuals and the artifacts in creating activities for the collective. social interactionism, sociocultural theory, and activity theory conceptualize a series of elements that are very relevant for the particular context of my action research study. first, they all theorize about the relationship among individuals around the negotiation of meanings through symbolic activities and technologies whose ultimate goal is the construction of collective activities. second, this negotiation of meaning around the production of cultural artifacts is oriented towards rendering outcomes in terms of teaching and learning for the parties involved namely teachers and students. last, the explicit vocabulary instruction through classroom activities position both teachers and students as active participants in the mediation of cultural artifacts oriented towards the conceptualization of ideas in a course on academic content. vocabulary has been recognized as an area of important work for l2 learners in their processes of second language acquisition and learning. the distinction between social and academic uses of language explicit vocabulary instruction serna dimas no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) 92 also applies for vocabulary since the repertoire of words that learners need to command match different communicative purposes. on the one hand, learners need to have a good grasp of function words that are highly productive in the language use and are mainly used in spoken english; some of these content words correspond to what grammarians would call parts of speech. on the other hand, there are sets of words that only occur in academic settings and are mainly used in written english. many times these words are part of what most academic fields define as their particular registers which usually call for special meanings of words in specific contexts. in these circumstances the study of vocabulary in a content-area requires from teachers explicit treatment since these words will be the building blocks for teachers and students to negotiate meanings and ultimately reach the course learning objectives. nation and newton (1997) in an article on the teaching of vocabulary argue for an approach that uses both direct and indirect vocabulary teaching. the former in the sense of explicit attention to words and the use of vocabulary exercises of various types. in the latter the teacher´s concern will be to include rich vocabulary activities so students get exposure to words. nevertheless, vocabulary will not be the entire focus of the class. some of the guidelines that these scholars suggest have to do with the use of familiar vocabulary to introduce the targeted vocabulary so that learners are not overloaded with information. another aspect to consider is the inclusion of unfamiliar vocabulary where it appears to be meaningful in order to maximize the learner´s independence from both dictionaries and the teachers; the authors add that the task level difficulty should not defeat the purpose of vocabulary learning. research design i elicited data from my own teaching by means of my lesson plans, instructional conversations, and explicit vocabulary activities. i also obtained information from my students’ actions in their writing of a word study notebook together with their participation in class vocabulary activities and instructional conversations. students’ thoughts were included in the data collection through their participation in a final interview based on their personal making of the word study notebook (freeman, 1998). i illustrate my sources of data and research instruments for classroom research with the following diagram: explicit vocabulary instruction serna dimas no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) 93 figure 1. sources and instruments of data collecti on this pyramid intends to show how the sources of data and the instruments of data collection are closely intertwined, so the trustworthiness of the present study is based on how each one of the participants in the research process contributes to enacting the class vocabulary activities and instructional conversations from the perspectives of what each brought to the classroom namely the teacher´s lesson plans and the students´ word study notebook entries which are the most talked about activities in the present study. the lesson plans were developed following the siop templates which have a specifi c section for both content and language objectives as well as key vocabulary. most lessons addressed content words that were essential for understanding the material being studied. a moment of the class was also devoted to developing a vocabulary activity that worked to build background knowledge and eventually to initiate the instructional conversations between the professor and the students. students had to come prepared with their notebook entries for each one of the lessons. they usually had the task to either complete the vocabulary activity for the class or share their particular entries of the key vocabulary in order to be part of the instructional conversations. explicit vocabulary instruction serna dimas no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) 94 table 1 . sample siop lesson and vocabulary acti vity explicit vocabulary instruction serna dimas no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) 95 table 2 . sample class acti vity: cloze procedure. table 3. positi onal variati on interviews: the use of the word study notebook at the end of the semester, eight out of the nine students participated in an interview whose purpose was to refl ect upon the use of the word study notebook. they were asked the following questions: • how did you use your word study notebook? • how did it help you in the course? • in what ways did the word study notebook not help you in your learning? • will you use the word study notebook for future courses? data analysis and interpretation the data collection exercise allowed me to keep track of students’ individual work with the class activities and their completion of the word study notebook. the number of students in the course was rather explicit vocabulary instruction serna dimas no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) 96 small, so i could pay attention to their class progress regarding their use of their notebook and their class participation with both the vocabulary activities and instructional conversations. all nine students gave their consent for their information to be used in the project, yet their names are pseudonyms to safeguard their confi dentiality. explicit vocabulary activities each class had a moment to work on a specifi c vocabulary activity as it was exemplifi ed earlier in the cloze procedure. students had to complete defi nition exercises, to answer specifi c questions, or to provide the defi nition for a particular concept. the instructional conversations used to start with the concepts that were not understood at all, or concepts whose defi nitions were confl icting in the students’ vocabulary activity or word study entries. the confl icting concept defi nition was aimed at letting students articulate their ideas so that a class conversation would give the most plausible answer in the students own words. i think this aspect became relevant since many students claimed that their levels of participation were aided by the possibilities to moderate their approximations to the course concepts by correcting their vocabulary activities or sharing their entries. these two opportunities allowed vocabulary to be an important part of the instructional conversations developed in the class sessions. pedro and rosa were perhaps the students whose vocabulary activities matched both their class participation in the instructional conversations and their actual word study notebook entries. their work was consistent in both keeping their notebook and participating actively in exercises that intended to conceptualize key ideas in class as we can see in the following excerpts from the class exercises. pedro’s class exercises on vocabulary ideas. table 4 explicit vocabulary instruction serna dimas no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) 97 table 5 rosa’s class exercises. table 6 table 7 explicit vocabulary instruction serna dimas no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) 98 both pedro´s and rosa´s vocabulary activities show their levels of elaboration. in some cases they understood the concept, yet the ways of expressing their ideas were not that clear. in other cases, they tried to look for a phrase or an example to clarify their concepts in written form. pedro and rosa also seem to be responding to the instructions in the exercises that asked them for concise ideas, complete sentences, or accurate ideas. usually instructional conversations tried to shape students articulation of class concepts so that their notions were clear in their own terms regardless of what either the class readings or the professor stated. final interview on the use of the notebook this personal interview allowed students to share their own ideas on how they kept their word study notebook. the questions were oriented towards disclosing students’ views on this artifact as well as its contribution in their learning processes regarding their vocabulary learning and their participation in the class activities. students were also asked if they would use the notebook in other courses in the future. how did you use the word study notebook? some of the students in the course agreed that their use of the word study notebook was to keep track of important key concepts that appeared in both the readings and the class discussions. some others used the notebook to prepare for their evaluations as it was the case for students such as emma and luisa whose comments appear here below: emma: i used the word study notebook to check concepts before reviewing for the class materials for an evaluation. luisa: i checked concepts, but did not study them in depth. that made a big difference between the grades from my first and second quiz. only one student found it useful just for the class purposes since he did not use it that much beyond the class sessions. how did the word study notebook help you in the course? the class participants agreed that the use of word study notebook worked well for most of them since it helped them keep track of the course and take active part in the class activities such as the explanations and the exercises. however, the uses they gave to it varied from some class annotations as a class dictionary to a record of the class proceedings. one student recognized that the notebook replaced the actual class readings. these various ways students exploited the word study notebook seem to agree with lantolf and thorne’s idea of the use of artifacts as mediated classroom activities in which individual agency is fundamental in determining the purpose and the use of the artifact itself. explicit vocabulary instruction serna dimas no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) 99 i think this particular question and the students’ answers may motivate further research in terms of how students conceptualize and use learning artifacts for the purposes of working in different class scenarios such as instructional conversations, class activities, and evaluations. i consider that some sources of conflict in teaching and learning happen because of the mismatches between the mechanisms of mediation pursued by teachers and students in classrooms. nevertheless, the teacher is responsible for finding and solving the sources of contradiction so that students have the best resources to learn the class materials. in what ways did the word study notebook not help you in your learning? the answers to this question varied as well. for some students the notebook did not work since it did not match their learning style, or it was not enough as a source for outside practice of concepts. for instance, pedro considered that the vocabulary was not part of their daily use of words, so it was difficult to retrieve their meanings in terms of conversational topics. nevertheless, he added, it did help him to be prepared for the class activities. pedro´s remarks support the idea of exploring the suitability of relationships among the classroom activities intended to bring together teaching and learning. will you use the word study notebook for future courses? all students will use the word study notebook again in future courses. nevertheless, some of them gave some answers that are worth citing because they are related to the sociocultural concept of mediation and the use of artifacts in the teaching-learning process. some students do identify the use of the notebook beyond the here and now in order to have it as a tool for their learning. some these answers are presented as follows: maría: i used it in other classes such as second language pedagogy, english and communication. i used it to choose important words that i consider key concepts from the readings. jorge: i am teaching a course at the moment. i am asking my students to keep some sort of mini-dictionary where they write new words with their transcriptions and some pictures to go with them. maría acknowledges the fact that the keeping of a word study notebook contributes to establishing key concepts from class readings; moreover, she seems to be using it as a learning artifact for other courses. jorge, on the other hand, encourages his students to keep some sort of dictionary for their english classes. each student had a different use for the word study notebook based on their own ideas about its advantages as a learning tool. explicit vocabulary instruction serna dimas no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) 100 findings allocating specific class time and activities for exercises on vocabulary instruction helped students to pay attention to key concepts that were part of the class instructional conversations. in fact, they all could follow the instructional activities designed by the professor. nevertheless, some students used their notebooks to write down ideas without much elaboration, so they were not really willing to engage in the actual class discussions where many of these concepts were studied beyond their mere definitions. consequently, it is difficult to establish realistically how much they improved in their oral language proficiency for academic english. i consider that this idea of language elaboration does provoke more research in the area of students’ oral abilities in content-based english. i believe researchers can pursue the crossroads of areas such as pragmatics and rhetoric for academic purposes which will be instrumental for esl learners and scholars who would be interested in presenting their ideas in professional conferences. the use of the word study notebook helped students assess their own learning in various ways. first, they admitted the notebook helped them keep track of the class progress. second, it was clear to them that keeping their notebooks updated contributed to their class participation. again this idea becomes very important since it supports that both the explicit exposure and constant encounters with vocabulary assure learning. third, some students claimed the notebook was a valuable source to prepare for their evaluations. perhaps one of the most important findings was the fact that some of the students were keeping a notebook for other classes in which they were either students or teachers. furthermore, this idea adds to the notion of self-direction as one of the outcomes of mediation in sociocultural theory. fourth, all students claimed the notebook became an important source to help them face the class readings and instructional activities. moreover, all participants considered the word study notebook a device where they could determine some possible scenarios for learning. for some of them, it was merely vocabulary; for some others, it actually became an element they could use for other classes as a mechanism to help them learn. limitations of the study one of the difficulties of the present study was to determine the real improvement of students’ oral language proficiency due to the technical nature of the words they studied. even though students had the chance to engage in all of the instructional conversations, the levels of participation showed the same individuals participating most of the time. another element that may become a pitfall is the completion explicit vocabulary instruction serna dimas no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) 101 of the word study notebook; some students might have taken it as a requirement which granted them another grade for their course individual progress. consequently, they just updated their concepts prior to the class or the semester terms when the professor collected their notebooks for revisions. conclusions the study contains some findings for university professors and students who are involved in content-based instruction in tertiary education. i show that students require explicit instructional activities guided by the teacher in order to help them contextualize class concepts and articulate them. i also illustrate how students need to invest in their own ideas and time to determine artifacts that help them with their learning. the making of these artifacts demonstrates the idea of mediation operating in the learners’ conscious attempts to study either words as vocabulary words or concepts in theoretical courses. second language vocabulary learning is still a complex task that requires careful planning and serious commitment on both teachers and students in order to see their long term benefits not only cognitively but also linguistically. this study also suggests an interesting research avenue in the way teachers and students take part in instructional conversations and the role of vocabulary in oral language proficiency in l2 academic settings. the research findings and the conclusions of the investigations reviewed together with my own intervention suggest that l2 vocabulary development has a fundamental rather than instrumental place in l2 content-area learning. they also seem to point in the direction of specific attention and explicit treatment of vocabulary closely associated with another language skill such as reading, writing, or speaking. in all the studies vocabulary was at the heart of classroom activities which indicated that these activities needed to be part of teachers’ lesson plans and instructional conversations. the research analyses and findings also indicate areas of future research in vocabulary learning from the perspectives of pragmatics and academic english rhetoric. another area of work in content area instruction has to do with the sources of match and/or mismatch between what both teachers and students make of their artifacts as the result of the classroom mediation. finally, explicit vocabulary instruction in academic settings poses several challenges for both teachers and students. on the one hand, explicit vocabulary instruction serna dimas no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) 102 it is the teachers’ job to find the most plausible activities to promote vocabulary learning beyond lists of words or key concepts that aid reading comprehension. on the other hand, students need to figure out the most suitable means for vocabulary use and learning. references altman, r. (1997). oral production of vocabulary. in james coady and thomas huckin (eds.). second language vocabulary acquisition. cambridge applied linguistics. cambridge. cambridge university press. pp.69-97. arnaud, j.p and savignon, s (1997).rare words, complex lexical units and the advanced learner. in james coady and thomas huckin (eds.) second language vocabulary acquisition cambridge applied linguistics. cambridge. cambridge university press. pp. 157-17. cazden, c. (1988). classroom discourse: the language of teaching and learning. portsmouth, nh: heinemann. council of europe (2001). common european framework of reference for languages. retrieved from http:// www.coe.int/t/dg4/linguistic/ source/framework_eng.pdf. echevarria, j., vogt, m.e., & short, d. (2004). making content comprehensible for english language learners: the siop model (2nd ed.). boston: pearson/allyn & bacon. fowle, c. (2002). vocabulary notebooks: implementation and outcomes elt journal, volume 56:4, october. oxford university press. pp. 380388. freeman, d. (1998). doing teacher research: from inquiry to understanding.toronto. heinle and heinle publishers. grabe, w., and stoller, f (1997). reading and vocabulary development in a second language. in in james coady and thomas huckin (eds.) second language vocabulary acquisition cambridge applied linguistics. cambridge. cambridge university press. pp. 98-122. lantolf, j. p. & thorne, s.l. (2006). sociocultural theory and the genesis of second language development. oxford. oxford university press. explicit vocabulary instruction serna dimas no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) 103 nation, p., and newton, j. (1997). teaching vocabulary. in james coady and thomas huckin (eds.) secondlanguagevocabularyacquisition. cambridgeappliedlinguistics. cambridge. cambridge university press. pp.238-253. mccrostie, j. (2007). examining learner vocabulary notebooks elt journal, volume 61:3, july. oxford university press. pp.246-255. snellings, p et. al. (2002). lexical retrieval: an aspect of fluent second language production that can be enhanced language learning. 52:4, december. pp. 723-754. williams, m. & burden, r.l.(1997). psychology for language teachers. cambridge. cambridge university press. the author * héctor manuel serna dimas is a doctoral candidate in composition and tesol at indiana university of pennsylvania. professor serna has worked in bilingual education in k-12 schools and at college level for over 16 years. he has been a lecturer in english at universidad pontificia bolivariana, universidad nacional de colombia, institutición universitaria colombo americana -única, and more recently universidad del rosario where he is the coordinator for the center of the study of languages and cultures. professor serna has published books and articles in teacher education and classroom practice in journals such as universitas científica, universidad pontificia bolivariana; ikala, universidad de antioquia, and the colombian applied linguistics, universidad distrital francisco josé de caldas. currently, he is working on his doctoral dissertation on bilingual literacy processes with elementary school children. professor serna´s research interests are bilingualism, academic literacy, and teacher development. e-mail: hectormanuel68@hotmail.com explicit vocabulary instruction serna dimas no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) 164 a reflection about self-plagiarism1 una reflexión acerca del auto plagio sergio alonso lopera medina2* universidad de antioquia, colombia abstract this paper explores self-plagiarism in three different articles that reported results of the same research project on reading in a foreign language. this article follows the qualitative research method and an exploratory case study was used. results support that both inadequate paraphrasing and adequate paraphrasing were given. regarding inadequate paraphrasing some similar words and ideas were found. on the other hand, using different authors in a specific idea, having different numbers of words in a common issue, and being versatile to present information might lead to adequate paraphrasing. conclusions suggest that a dialog between editors and authors must be given in order to clear self-plagiarism up. finally, conclusions also suggest that editors should consider the inclusion of some similar information in articles written by the same author or the same research members. key words: dialog; reading a foreign language; self-plagiarism. resumen este artículo explora el auto plagio en tres diferentes artículos que reportaron los resultados de un mismo proyecto en lectura en lengua extranjera. este artículo sigue el método cualitativo de investigación y se utilizó el estudio de caso múltiple. los resultados indican que se presentaron tanto parafraseo inadecuado como parafraseo adecuado. con relación al parafraseo inadecuado se encontraron algunas palabras e ideas similares. en contraste y en relación con el parafraseo adecuado, se encontró que utilizar diferentes autores en una idea, utilizar diferentes números de palabras en un elemento común y ser versátil para presentar la información puede ayudar al parafraseo adecuado. las conclusiones sugieren que debe existir un diálogo entre los autores y editores para aclarar el auto plagio. finalmente, las conclusiones también sugieren que 1 received: september 29th 2017/ accepted: may 25th 2018 2 sergio.lopera@udea.edu.co gist education and learning research journal. issn 1692-5777. no.16 (january june) 2018. pp. 164-184. lopera no. 16 (january june, 2018) no. 16 (january june, 2018) 165 los editores deberían considerar la inclusión de información similar en artículos escritos por el mismo autor o los mismos miembros de investigación. palabras clave: auto plagio; diálogo; lectura como lengua extranjera. resumo este artigo explora o autoplágio em três diferentes artigos que reportaram os resultados de um mesmo projeto em leitura em língua estrangeira. este artigo segue o método qualitativo de pesquisa e foi utilizado o estudo de caso múltiplo. os resultados indicam que ocorreram tanto parafraseio inadequado como parafraseio adequado. com relação ao parafraseio inadequado se encontraram algumas palavras e ideias similares. em contraste e em relação com o parafraseio adequado, encontrou-se que utilizar diferentes autores em uma ideia, utilizar diferentes números de palavras em um elemento comum e ser versátil para apresentar a informação, pode ajudar ao parafraseio adequado. as conclusões sugerem que deve existir um diálogo entre os autores e editores para esclarecer o autoplágio. finalmente, as conclusões também sugerem que os editores deveriam considerar a inclusão de informação similar em artigos escritos pelo mesmo autor ou os mesmos membros de pesquisa. palavras chave: autoplágio; diálogo; leitura como língua estrangeira lopera no. 16 (january june, 2018) no. 16 (january june, 2018) 166 introduction after a lengthy process of reviewing, one of my articles was going to be published in a journal in colombia. suddenly, i received an e-mail from an editor stating that i self-plagiarized a paragraph of an article and therefore she made the decision to decline the article. she also mentioned that she would consider declining another article i had previously submitted. i then apologized and tried to explain that i did not do it on purpose and i proposed to correct a paragraph that contained 72 words of verbatim plagiarism to amend self-plagiarism. moreover, i proposed to hold a meeting with the academic committee to have a talk and share our insights about this issue. fortunately, she accepted and invited the committee to have a meeting. in that meeting she illustrated the reasons why she declined the article (self-plagiarism, reuse of information) and i, in turn, presented my reasons (not on purpose, small amount of information, self-plagiarism is debatably). a month later, i received a letter from the editor apologizing for her decision and she informed me that the article was going to start again the process of reviewing. she also mentioned that the other article would continue with the process of reviewing, too. this anecdote led me to reflect on self-plagiarism, feeling that this issue should be taken further. for this reason, i decided to analyze some information that i have used in different articles in order to explore self-plagiarism. this article begins with the review of literature and the methodology. then, the results are presented and finally the conclusions and implications are given. plagiarism in the academic world to give proper credit to the source is a must and authors’ ideas need to be protected in order to avoid plagiarism. the oxford online dictionary defines plagiarism as “the practice of taking someone else’s work or ideas and passing them off as one’s own”. many journals have in their policies the call to avoid plagiarism and editors play a pivotal role in order to control ownership of articles (gist education and learning research journal; ikala revista de lenguaje y cultura; profile issues in teachers’ professional development; colombian applied linguistics journal; how). different cases of plagiarism have been found in medicine and chemistry (bloemenkamp, walvoort & hart, 1999; schein & paladugu, 2001; schulz, 2008). in fact, shahabuddin (2009) reports that a phd student was fired due to the fact that she took extensive verbatim appropriations of a book. masic (2012) also exemplifies a young researcher who published different reflection about self-plagiarism lopera no. 16 (january june, 2018) no. 16 (january june, 2018) 167 articles in clinical cardiology and involved faculty colleagues but were not or minimally included in the research project. on the other hand, there is no any official guide or regulation to control plagiarism and situations may vary depending on the case and field. in fact, enders and hoover (2004, cited in shahabuddin, 2009:355) state that editors do not have a formal policy when they find cases of plagiarism such as unattributed sentences, unattributed proof from published paper, privately collected data, among others. editors have to make difficult decisions and they sometimes question if they have made the right decision to decline an article. types of plagiarism the harvard guide to using sources3 divides plagiarism into six categories: 1. verbatim plagiarism: this is given when the writer copies word by word in an academic paper. 2. mosaic plagiarism: that occurs when the writer copies pieces of information from a source or different sources and changes some words of the original one without paraphrasing or quoting properly. 3. inadequate paraphrase: this is given when the writer does not use his/her own words to relate the information or when his/her words are very similar to the original source. 4. uncited paraphrase: this occurs when the writer uses his/her own words to describe another writer’s ideas, but the former does not cite the latter. 5. uncited quotation: this happens when the writer uses quotation marks but does not credit the author of that source. 6. using material from another student’s work: this occurs when a student uses ideas that were given in discussions in groups and does not cite the group or classmate in a foot note. for the purpose of this paper, inadequate paraphrase will be considered. although some researchers (kumar & tripathi, 2009; rojas, 2012; soto, 2012) use other types of plagiarism such as false authorship, double submission to different journals, unauthorized 3 https://usingsources.fas.harvard.edu/what-constitutes-plagiarism. reflection about self-plagiarism lopera no. 16 (january june, 2018) no. 16 (january june, 2018) 168 copying, direct plagiarism, incorrect paraphrasing, complex plagiarism using a reference, plagiarism with loose quotation marks, self-recycling, sources not cited, sources cited but still plagiarized, and other types of plagiarism (copy and paste, word switching, data plagiarism, among others) the previous guide encompasses all of them. the harvard guide to using resources is a good option to take into as it gives examples of plagiarism and how to avoid it. self-plagiarism another kind of plagiarism is self-plagiarism. spinak (2013) defines self-plagiarism as “using a previous piece of one’s own research and presenting it for publication as something new and original.” the author suggests that there are different reasons why self-plagiarism happens but not all are unethical. one of the reasons is that a research project may have different phases and old and new information is combined, and this leads to intermingle the same information in different articles. another reason has to do when the results of a research project are divided into small parts (salami publishing) and sent to different journals. it can happen that these parts repeat important information of the research project. a third reason involves the awareness of selfplagiarism presented in the policy of journals. the instructions should contain some explicit restrictions about self-plagiarism as well as self-citing. finally, self-plagiarism may occur when a person uses information from his/her thesis and publish it in articles. however, the writer can use an entry of a foot-note to explain this. on the other hand, self-plagiarism is debatable as authors can use their own ideas in different published materials. samuelson (1994) mentions some factors that support the use of previous published words: the new contribution has to do with the previous work as it is the basis of the topic; the new evidence or the new arguments are based on previous work and substantial information needs to be repeated; the audiences are different; the previous information is well developed and it is not worth telling that information in a different way. samuelson (1994) suggests a rule of thumb in which self-plagiarism could be acceptable up to 30% but this could vary from area to area. the author also states that it is not possible to establish a legal maximum limit. in fact, balbuena (2003) and akst (2010) report that a person cannot plagiarize himself/herself due to the fact that the same author is involved. finally, the american psychological association (apa, 2010) indicates that a limited scope could be possible to repeat words but the acceptable limit is difficult to determine. reflection about self-plagiarism lopera no. 16 (january june, 2018) no. 16 (january june, 2018) 169 methodology this inquiry is based on qualitative analysis, as i explored selfplagiarism. it is also an exploratory case study (creswell, 2007; yin, 2003) due to the fact that i analyzed different articles that reported results of the same research project. three articles are taken as source to verify self-plagiarism: motivation conditions in a foreign language reading comprehension course offering both a web-based modality and a face-to-face modality (lopera, 2014), diary insights of an efl reading teacher (lopera, 2013), and interaction in an efl reading comprehension distance web-based course (osorno & lopera, 2012). context eale (enseñanza y aprendizaje de lenguas extranjeras) research group carried out a project titled the “effects of web-based and face-to-face instruction modalities in the reading comprehension of graduate students at universidad de antioquia”. the project began in 2009 and finished in 2011 and the main objective was to compare the effects of each modality. two reading comprehension courses were offered to graduate students at the school of law: a web-based course and a face-to-face course. it is worth noting that the same teacher taught both courses and was part of the research group, and the academic content of the foreign reading course was the same. the course was divided into five units (word and their meanings, reading strategies, development of reading skills, text organization methods, and critical reading). the web-based course was designed using a moodle based platform. there were a total of 38 students registered in this course and 27 in the face-to-face course. results the common parts of the three articles were only taken into account in order to analyze self-plagiarism. literature review about reading, the methodology and instruments described, and the introduction of findings were analyzed. in the next sections are the analyses of each part: literature about reading the three articles contain the concept of reading: reflection about self-plagiarism lopera no. 16 (january june, 2018) no. 16 (january june, 2018) 170 table 1: concept of reading articles one and two have about the same amount of words (92 and 99 accordingly) and the same author is cited (alyousef, 2005). however, the introduction of the concept of reading is different as article one states that the process of reading interactive and it involves the words writer and reader. in contrast, article two involves just the role of the reader. the definition of reading in article one is shorter than article two and was deleted regarding the original source that is presented in article two. at the end of the definition, articles one and two give the same information but it is paraphrased in a different form. however, they contain many similar words (linguistic knowledge; background knowledge; about the language; the former; the latter). finally, article reflection about self-plagiarism lopera no. 16 (january june, 2018) no. 16 (january june, 2018) 171 three is totally different from one and two as the definition of reading is shorter (32 words) and the authors are different. regarding the reading process in foreign languages, the three articles provide the following information: table 2: the reading process in foreign language reflection about self-plagiarism lopera no. 16 (january june, 2018) no. 16 (january june, 2018) 172 in this occasion, the number of words are different in all three articles (106, 43, 81, accordingly). articles one and three have the same authors cited but are presented in different moments: article one introduces the idea that reading involves a cognitive process and then the authors, whereas the third article presents the authors of reading first and then the idea that reading involves a cognitive process. another difference has to do with parts of speech. article one uses verbs to describe the cognitive process: predict, memorize, interpret, pay attention to, and make. in contrast, article three uses nouns: prediction, interpretation, attention, memory. moreover, both articles one and three have the same idea that cassany presents at the end, but the information was paraphrased and some words were different: cassany (2006) argues (article 1), cassany (2006) reports (article three); students, reader (one and three accordingly); reading processes, these processes. however, some words or ideas are the same: processes are more complex in a foreign language because; thus, very important. it is worth noting a better paraphrasing would have been used to avoid repetition of words. on the other hand, article two is totally different from one and three as only one author is presented, and the cognitive view is not given. regarding the part of reading strategies, almost the same analysis is given: reflection about self-plagiarism lopera no. 16 (january june, 2018) no. 16 (january june, 2018) 173 table 3: reading strategies the number of words in articles one and three are not quite different (67 and 59 accordingly). in contrast, article two contains more words than articles one and three (83). the articles also present different authors cited (article one: chamot, barnhardt, el-dinary, and robbins (1999), janzen (2001); article two: (chamot, barnhardt, el-dinary, & robbins, 1999; hosenfeld, 1979; janzen, 2001; lopera, 2012; mikulecky & jeffries, 2004; osorno & lopera, 2012); article three: (block, 1986) but i appear in article two and this helps avoid selfplagiarism. nonetheless, articles one and three are not well paraphrased at the end, due to the fact that the idea as well as words are quite similar (reading strategies, range, from, eg, scanning, complex, inference) leading to inadequate paraphrasing. reflection about self-plagiarism lopera no. 16 (january june, 2018) no. 16 (january june, 2018) 174 methodology all three articles contain the same information about methodology but paraphrasing is more accurate in all of them. article one describes a research design, exploratory case study, and mentions the comparison of two modalities. it also describes that participants had to sign a consent form. article two begins by describing the principles of the methodology, mentions the reason to use this methodology (support the teacher’s diary insights), and the grounded approach. it finishes with the guided question to analyze data. finally, article three describes in detail the methodology used and gives the reasons why researchers followed this methodology: to do deepen exploration, real-life events, and personal insights. in short, being versatile in presenting information might lead to adequate paraphrasing, as the information was presented in different order. regarding numbers of words, article one has 77 and article two has 74. article 3 has the highest number of words 189. it is worth noting that all three articles contain the same authors. the following table depicts the information: table 4: description of methodology reflection about self-plagiarism lopera no. 16 (january june, 2018) no. 16 (january june, 2018) 175 on the other hand, all three articles describe the information about the teacher in a very similar form in articles one and three (title of the teacher, experience in teaching, first experience in web-based education, and motivation). conversely, article two is different, since it just gives information about the face-to-face course and it mentions the place the teacher works for. the number of words in article one is 77, number two is 42, and number three is 70. reflection about self-plagiarism lopera no. 16 (january june, 2018) no. 16 (january june, 2018) 176 table 5: description of the teacher all three articles have the same information about the program of the reading comprehension course: table 6: the reading comprehension program reflection about self-plagiarism lopera no. 16 (january june, 2018) no. 16 (january june, 2018) 177 it is important to consider that the three articles contain the same information, due to the fact that it is an institutionalized program and it is shown in the same way. the instruments the description of the instruments was different as the author used third person (article two), first person (article three), and passive voice (article one) in the articles. also, the authors cited are different. besides, the number of words is totally different: article one contains 144 words, article two contains 182, and article three contains 221. finally, the instruments are displayed in different form: table 7: description of the instruments reflection about self-plagiarism lopera no. 16 (january june, 2018) no. 16 (january june, 2018) 178 introduction of findings the introduction of findings differs in all articles. first, the number of words is different: article one has 82, article two has 107, and article three has 36. second, authors cited are also different in the articles, except freeman (1998) that is mentioned in articles one and two. third, each introduction involves its scope: article one motivation, article two diary, and article three interaction. on the other hand, articles one and two share some common information such as the procedure of analyzing data, but adequate paraphrasing was given, as article one gives in detail the people involved in the research (ten researchers: six teachers, three undergraduate students, and an advisor). it also mentions how the analysis was made and how researchers obtained the categories. in contrast, article two begins describing the combination of data reading processes and the transcription part. after, it mentions the individual reading of researchers and how they then shared ideas in groups. these differences might lead to present information in a reflection about self-plagiarism lopera no. 16 (january june, 2018) no. 16 (january june, 2018) 179 versatile form. finally, the paragraphs finish with different as well as specific information of each article, as it is shown in the following table: table 8: introduction of findings reflection about self-plagiarism lopera no. 16 (january june, 2018) no. 16 (january june, 2018) 180 conclusions in this article an effort to analyze self-plagiarism has been made. the author analyzed three different articles that were a product of the same research project in reading as a foreign language. results support that both inadequate paraphrasing and adequate paraphrasing were given. regarding inadequate paraphrasing some similar words and ideas were found. on the other hand, using different authors in a specific idea, having different numbers of words in a common issue, and being versatile to present information might lead to adequate paraphrasing. it is important to take into account that the results could be subjective as the author analyzes himself. the objective of this paper is to cause awareness of self-plagiarism and to generate discussion about the same information used in different articles. in my case, it was really difficult to paraphrase some similar parts of the articles and i sometimes committed inadequate paraphrasing. due to the fact that some authors argue that you cannot self-plagiarize yourself (akst, 2010; balbuena, 2003; samuelson, 1994; spinak, 2013), this paper is opened to be criticized by the academic community. it is worth noting that some articles emerge from the same research project and it is inevitable to repeat some information. my proposal for editors is to permit include the same information in the following sections of the article: part of the theoretical framework, methodology, and instruments. regarding the results, i also propose to report just the ones that are being developed under the topic of analysis. when reporting results of the same research project in different articles a dialog between editors and authors must be given to clarify this issue. it is not a matter of declining of just accepting an article, but a way of constructing academic discussions in publications. in fact, when different articles contain some similar information, this has to be explained to editors. even if journals do not have the policy of selfplagiarism, authors themselves should clarify this upfront. as i did not do this, this caused a debate with the editor. finally and based on my case presented here and the production of different articles from the same research project, editors should consider the use of the same information when other members of the research project produce other articles. this interjection is common in all reports and it may show fairness in publications. but now a difficult question emerges: how much similar information could be acceptable? reflection about self-plagiarism lopera no. 16 (january june, 2018) no. 16 (january june, 2018) 181 bibliography akst, j. 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(3rd edition). thousand oaks, ca: sage publications. reflection about self-plagiarism lopera no. 16 (january june, 2018) no. 16 (january june, 2018) 184 author *sergio lopera medina, phd and ma in linguistics; specialist in teaching foreign languages. his research interests involve teaching efl reading comprehension and pragmatics. he is a member of the research group eale (enseñanza y aprendizaje en lenguas extranjeras) and a full time professor at universidad de antioquia (medellín colombia). reflection about self-plagiarism no. 16 (january june, 2018) no. 16 (january june, 2018) 103 agency in the reconstruction of language identity: a narrative case study from the island of san andrés1 el rol agentivo de fidel en la reconstrucción de su identidad lingüística: un estudio de caso de la isla de san andrés carlos augusto arias2* institución universitaria colombo americana, única, colombia abstract the adoption of the english language paradigm and the subsequent implementation of bilingual policies worldwide are generating new linguistic hierarchies. these have an effect on the linguistic diversity at the sub-national level and on individuals’ linguistic human rights. this article reports the results of a case study on an individual’s re-engineering of his in-group language identity. through the analysis of a narrative written by the participant (fidel), this article intends to show the effects of language ideologies on the discursive and sociocultural practices of a member of a raizal community from san andrés (colombia). as a multilingual individual surrounded by multiple ideologies of language, covert and overt language policies, and language hierarchies of prestige dictated by a scope larger than his immediate social group, fidel preserves, challenges, and transforms his in-group linguistic identity. keywords: linguistic identity, language policies, linguistic human rights resumen la adopción del paradigma del inglés y la implementación de políticas bilingües alrededor del mundo, basadas en los intereses nacionales de cada país, están generando nuevas jerarquías lingüísticas, y tienen un efecto en la biodiversidad 1 received: june 26, 2014 / accepted: september 22, 2014 2 carlos.ariasc@yahoo.com.co gist education and learning research journal. issn 1692-5777. no. 9, (julydecember) 2014. pp. 103-123. compensation strategies no. 9 (july december 2014) no. 9 (july december 2014) 104 lingüística a nivel sub nacional y en los derechos humanos lingüísticos. este artículo reporta los resultados de un estudio de caso acerca del rol agentivo que tiene un individuo ‘raizal’ en la reconstrucción de su identidad lingüística de grupo. a través del análisis de una narrativa escrita por el participante (fidel), este artículo trata de mostrar los efectos que las ideologías del lenguaje tienen en las prácticas discursivas y socioculturales que él tiene como miembro de la comunidad ‘raizal’ de san andrés, colombia. como individuo multilingüe rodeado por múltiples ideologías del lenguaje, políticas lingüísticas encubiertas, explícitas, y jerarquías lingüísticas de prestigio dictadas por un campo que excede su grupo social inmediato, fidel preserva, reta y transforma su identidad lingüística de grupo. palabras clave: identidad lingüística, políticas del lenguaje, derechos humanos lingüísticos resumo a adoção do paradigma do inglês e a implementação de políticas bilíngues ao redor do mundo, baseadas nos interesses nacionais de cada país, estão gerando novas hierarquias linguísticas, e têm um efeito na biodiversidade linguística ao nível subnacional e nos direitos humanos linguísticos. este artigo reporta os resultados de um estudo de caso sobre o papel agentivo que tem um indivíduo ‘raizal’ na reconstrução da sua identidade linguística de grupo. através da análise de uma narrativa escrita pelo participante (fidel), este artigo tenta mostrar os efeitos que as ideologias da linguagem têm nas práticas discursivas e socioculturais que ele tem como membro da comunidade ‘raizal’ de san andrés, colômbia. como indivíduo multilíngue rodeado por múltiplas ideologias da linguagem, políticas linguísticas encobertas e explícitas, e hierarquias linguísticas de prestígio ditadas por um campo que excede seu grupo social imediato, fidel preserva, desafia e transforma a sua identidade linguística de grupo. palavras chave: identidade linguística, políticas da linguagem, direitos humanos linguísticos introduction the present article reports the results of a study whose main inquiry aimed at analyzing how multiple linguistic ideologies conveyed by overt and covert language policies, and the discourses generated through them, have an effect on a multilingual individual’s reconstruction of his linguistic identity. the context for the study includes the implementation of a national bilingualism plan in colombia, which overlooks the linguistic diversity of the country by reducing the bilingualism paradigm to spanish-english (de mejía, agency in the reconstruction of language identity arias no. 9 (july december 2014) no. 9 (july december 2014) 105 2006). this language policy has adopted the tenets of the english language paradigm, assuming that english is a lingua franca that paves the road to democracy, a global economy, and human rights (phillipson & skutnabbkangas, 1996). such a policy approach establishes the learning of english as the condition for colombia’s competition in the international marketplace. multiple studies (sánchez & obando, 2008) have questioned the necessity of and the preparedness for the implementation of the national bilingualism plan in colombia. others (de mejía, 2006, guerrero, 2008) question the effects that this policy may have on the linguistic diversity of the country. nevertheless, there are individual multilingual speakers in colombia whose linguistic identity has been secluded due to their attachment to a vernacular language. their voices presuppose a counterpart to the globalizing imperialistic english language paradigm (phillipson, 1992; phillipson & skutnabbkangas, 1996), and are just now starting to be documented (escobar & gómez, 2010). the main goal of this study was to document an individual voice from this multilingual reality. the research questions that guided this study were the following: what language ideologies does fidel, produce, reproduce or challenge (van dijk 1998) within the discourse and attitudes embedded in the construction of his linguistic identity? how does fidel construct, preserve, transform, and/or challenge the linguistic identity that he has inherited from his raizal social group? concretely, this article focuses on the agentive role played by a multilingual raizal individual from the island of san andrés (fidel) in the re-engineering of his in-group linguistic identity. the study inquires explores how fidel dialogues with in-group discourse about the raizal linguistic identity, and his own socio-cultural practices in and out of this community. the main discourse artifact is a narrative in which fidel renders his own experiences and perceptions. the term agentive role is taken from bourdieu’s (1986) concept of habitus, which is the place for the interaction of objectivism and subjectivism. bourdieu asserts that individuals play a role in understanding what seems to be an objective, yet discursive and artificially constructed social reality. playing an agentive role implies precisely that individuals generate such discursive and sociological practices that might transform the so-called objective reality. agency in the reconstruction of language identity arias no. 9 (july december 2014) no. 9 (july december 2014) 106 literature review linguistic complexity on the island of san andrés the case of san andrés’ linguistic diversity goes beyond the mere recognition of creole as a language. indeed, the case of multilingualism in san andrés includes a threelanguage equation: caribbean english, creole or bende, and spanish (etxebarria & trillos, 2002; moya, 2010). it is also characterized by a complex linguistic diversity embedded in a linguistic continuum that includes multiple social dimensions. multilingualism in san andrés has been researched from a sociohistorical perspective (clemente, 1991), which includes the origins of the raizal populations as descendants of puritans, the early economic ties with the united states and jamaica, and the 1950s implementation of cultural assimilation strategies that disregarded the islanders’ cultural diversity in the process of consolidating the colombian nationhood over san andrés. san andrés’ creole has also been documented from the origin of the vernacular and its development as a consequence of the historical interaction between the lexifier superstrate english and the substrate creole of african origin. due to the lack of contact between the current creole substrate with its original english lexifier, spanish has become its new lexifier (patiño, 2000). san andrés’ linguistic diversity has also been analyzed as sharing an analogue sociolinguistic situation with some other countries from the anglophone caribbean as a result of the similarity of the colonial circumstances (sanmiguel, 2007). because of the socio-historical events and ideologies generated, those countries that host creole languages held the standard variety of english in high regard in contrast to the negative values associated with the creole languages, which were conceived as corrupted variations that were more barriers than opportunities for social advance (winford, 1994). the raizal identity was also bonded to the larger field of afrocolombianity, social inclusion and the legal acknowledgement of ethnic and cultural difference. studies have demonstrated through narrative excerpts how raizal individuals exhibit a particular pride and familyrooted protectionism beyond the difficult conditions framed in their current social subordination (mosquera, rodríguez & león, 2009). the voices of raizals by means of memoirs and narratives have also been used to reconstruct and substantiate the raizal voice in relation to the colombianization processes that shattered the autochthonous cultural diversity of the island (guevara, 2007). guevara sees islanders’ agency in the reconstruction of language identity arias no. 9 (july december 2014) no. 9 (july december 2014) 107 narratives as fluctuant negotiation processes and political instruments that empower them to understand the origins of the current social subordination and to confront it. creole plays a symbolic role in the cohesion and identity of raizals, as the vehicle and an important piece of the cultural heritage, as well as the phenomenology of group identity (moya, 2010). yet, the dominant discourse, aligned with the prestige of majority languages, has begun to permeate the language choice of raizal individuals and has caused them to re-engineer the role of creole as a component of identity. attitudes towards multilingualism multilingualism is an ethos which argues for respect and coexistence of multiple languages in daily life in plurilingual societies (unesco 2003). however, if individual languages are supported institutionally either overtly or covertly, there is a different set of dynamics by which languages become the vehicle and the path to exert symbolic domination, and at the same time to collaborate or resist domination (heller, 1995). planned multilingualism generates subtractive and additive perspectives on language acquisition. the subtractive perspective, which promotes the learning of a new language at the risk of the mother tongue (skutnabbkangas 2000), is based on an ideology that equates national identity to monolingualism. the one-language-onenation equation (hornberger, 2002) is a proven red herring that is also challenged by ruiz’s (1984) acknowledgement of three visions towards language: “language as a problem, language as a right, and language as a resource” (p. 17). the vision of language as a problem conceives of language as a powerful homogenizing tool to construct shared national identity (biseth, 2009). this vision of language was the dominant ideology that dictated the orientations of major language policies until the 1980s (mühlhäusler, 1996). this problematic vision deals with linguistic diversity in terms of majority or minority national languages (unesco, 2003), allowing majority language mother tongue speakers to define the values that constitute a national culture (biseth, 2009; osler & starkey, 2000). this approach results in the consideration of minority languages as more a threat to nationhood than a cultural resource as such. the language as a resource perspective on linguistic diversity has renewed its strength thanks to two seemingly contradictory agency in the reconstruction of language identity arias no. 9 (july december 2014) no. 9 (july december 2014) 108 perspectives. first is the view of multilingualism as capital promoted by the discourse of human capital flow and global citizenship (rasool 2004). unfortunately, this market-based impulse of language as a resource tends to disregard minority languages that may be perceived as being of lesser value for international trade (baker, 2006). the second vision argues that minority languages play a vital role in the protection of natural resources and identity from globalization since they function as the encoders of cultural knowledge and the prerequisite transmission of that knowledge within oppressed communities (skutnabbkangas, 2001). in regards to language as a right, unesco (2003) acknowledges, “language is not only a tool for communication and knowledge but also a fundamental attribute of cultural identity and empowerment, both for the individual and the group” (p 16). this recognizes instruction in the mother tongue as an inalienable principle in the pursuit of conditions of equality in education. besides, language and language choice are “an intimate part of social identity” (mcgroarty, 1996, p. 3). language ideologies and social anatomy language plays an important role in the transmission of ideologies and in the development of an individual’s social identity and selfconcept. “language is much more than a system of communication, it is a symbolical marker that distinguishes who belongs to a group and who is outside” (boscoboinik, 2008, p. 7). in fact, language is not just the vehicle for the transmission of ideology; language and languages can also become subject of ideologies, hence playing an important role in the stereotyping of in-group – out-group distinctions. kelly (2002) expresses the value of language in the consolidation and transmission of identity with these words: “individuals use language to both index and construct their everyday worlds and, in particular, their own social roles and cultural identities and those of others within them” (p. 42). language is a core feature in enacting social identity and constituting social life (miller, 2000), and it should not be seen just as the means by which group ideologies are expressed. language in itself, considered as a resource of group cohesion, is the content of ideology and plays a meaningful role in the development of identity. woolard and schieffelin (1994) claim that language is not just a vehicle for ideologies, but also the core of ideology itself. thus, language is intrinsically linked to social and individual identity. language in itself becomes part of a group’s identity, determined by ownership and agency in the reconstruction of language identity arias no. 9 (july december 2014) no. 9 (july december 2014) 109 otherness paradigms that ascribe a high or low value to language as a group resource (baker 2006; ruiz, 1984; skutnabbkangas, 2001; winford, 1985). be they positive or negative, “language attitudes are often contradictory, combining, in a complex manner, aspects of positive identification and rejection, nationalistic consciousness, and self-deprecation” (francis & ryan 1998, p. 26). thus, the value ascribed in the larger society to language as the resource of a social group can be an indicator of the value ascribed to the group at large. bourdieu (1977) implies that individuals are gauged by means of both the value ascribed to the language(s) the individuals speak, and to the group(s) to which the individuals belong. “just as the level of relations between groups, a language is worth what those who speak it are worth, so too, at the level of interactions between individuals, speech always owes a major part of its value to the value of the person who utters it” (p. 652). thus, ideologies about languages are also a key factor in the structuring of a society’s anatomy since competition between social groups for the consolidation of dominant dominated paradigms concurs with competition between ideologies about distinct languages. “just as competition for limited bioresources creates conflict in nature, so also with languages. if a small fish gets in contact with a big fish, it is the smaller which is more likely to disappear” (mackay, 1980, p 35). in the competition for establishing dominant dominated paradigms, dominant groups intend to perpetuate unequal social and economic structures by legitimizing their establishment based on their own value systems (bourdieu, 1986). since “human beings through their actions have made language a determinant of most social and economic relationships” (tollefson, 1991, p. 2), languages are given a “loading of moral and political interests” (irvine, 1989, p. 255), and arbitrary language ideologies can take the form of arbitrary language policies also used as instruments to perpetuate paradigms of social domination (mühlhäusler, 1996; phillipson 1992). in multilingual communities with majority/minority language situations, language choice varies from older to younger generations based on higher status and the more fashionable image of the majority language (baker, 2006). this, combined with a subtle deprivation of the rights of a minority language, by means of de facto policies like othering a minority language when establishing the requirements for job access, confines its use to older generations, and to a domestic role, thus posing a threat over the linguistic human rights. agency in the reconstruction of language identity arias no. 9 (july december 2014) no. 9 (july december 2014) 110 methodology research design this study was framed within the qualitative research paradigm due to its suitability for documenting epistemological problems concerning human experiences (moustakas, 1994), and also because it validates the dialogic construction of knowledge, which intertwines facts and values (marshall & rossman, 2006; wallace, 1998). the adoption of this paradigm allowed for the spontaneity and the adaptation of interaction between the researcher and the participant informant in the search of apprehending a phenomenon of interest that would unfold naturally (patton, 2002). the discovery of patterns and connections in qualitative data lead to the description, interpretation, and analysis of subjective meanings by resorting to the participants’ emic point of view (burns, 1999) and by capturing the research subject’s voice (wolcott, 1990). they also include the researcher’s acknowledgement of his own biases (gale, 1990). this post-positive approach, driven by the philosophical assumption that social reality is constructed by the individuals who participate in it, fits within a case study methodology. the case, which can be a person (merriam, 1998), is bound to a context, time, and place (creswell, 1998). the knowledge generated through case study research is concrete, context-dependent and based on the principle of relativism in nature (flyvbjerg, 2006). it intends to create a rather holistic description and analysis of “complex functioning thing” (stake, 1995, p. 2). context and participants the participant, fidel, is a trilingual speaker (creole, english, spanish) who, as he acknowledges, is a raizal due to his heritage and conviction. in the moment of the data collection, he was 27 years old. he was about to graduate in engineering from the university, and was clearly trilingual. he happened to be my student, but also my neighbor, which allowed me to witness some of his interactions in creole with other raizal relatives and friends. he was also able to talk about politics and language policies proficiently, both in english, and spanish. besides possessing strong linguistic capital, fidel was also very aware of his agentive role in society, and within the scope of san andrés. he was well informed about policies since his relatives worked agency in the reconstruction of language identity arias no. 9 (july december 2014) no. 9 (july december 2014) 111 in the cultural and political arenas of san andrés. he engaged in the research convinced that he could contribute to the divulgation of his immediate social identity affiliation as a raizal, and his multilingual profile. he made himself readily available for interviews or informal conversations. besides, he was willing to consign reflections resulting from our semi-structured interviews, and eventually crafted such reflections together in a narrative, which served as the main source of data for this study. fidel was not chosen based on principles of random selection (huberman & miles 2002) or under the premise of an objective sampling as a particular instance to illuminate a general problem, as in microscopic methodology (giddens, as cited in yin, 1994). conversely, it was the intrinsicality of fidel’s case, and its very uniqueness (abramson, 1992; adelman, jenkins & kemmins, 1983; creswell, 1998; flyvbjerg, 2006), along with the accessibility to the informant and his subjective factors such as thoughts, feelings and desires (broomley, 1986), which constituted the principles for case choice. data collection instruments the case study was built through viewpoints of the participant via multiple sources of data (tellis, 1997). the data was gathered mainly from a written narrative written by fidel, and triggered by a set of dialogic conversations we held both about his identity as a raizal and his linguistic identity. the narrative reflects fidel’s voice, but it also “reflects other voices that have been experienced previously in life, in history, in culture.” (moen, 2006, p. 3). it becomes the scheme by which fidel’s human experience is rendered meaningful (gudmundsdottir, 2001; polkinghorne, 1988). fidel’s narrative served the purpose of gathering data about his case, and also became a useful tool for the narrator himself by helping him construct sense of the experience through a multi-vocal dialogic process that involved description and reflection. this took place at the core of multiple cycles of narrative construction, selection, and interpretation (moen, 2006), through the “the culturally situated voices that ventriloquate through the singular voice that is claimed by an individual” (gudmundsdottir, 2001, p. 235). data analysis and interpretation in the analysis of the overarching forces of fidel’s narrative, the multilingual context (freeland, 2003) present in his narrative, i resorted to fairclough’s approach towards critical discourse analysis agency in the reconstruction of language identity arias no. 9 (july december 2014) no. 9 (july december 2014) 112 (1995). adopting critical discourse in the interpretation of data boosts the analysis of the interwoven relations between language, discourse, and social action. following fairclough’s triadic model, text, discourse practice, and sociological practice are analyzed in three stages: a) the descriptive (linguistic analysis of the text); b) the interpretive (text discourse practices); and c) the explanatory (discoursesocial practices). in the descriptive stage, analysis was done from the narrative by resorting to a checklist of language elements, based on grammatical resources for ideational, interpersonal, and textual meanings (halliday, 1985). the list includes lexicalization, patterns of transitivity, the use of active and passive voice, the use of nominalization, the thematic structure of the text, the information focus, and the cohesive devices. the patterns that emerged across the linguistic functions were correlated to the situational context and the intertextual context involved in the processes of production of the text. this interpretative stage generated the identification of the discourses that dialogue with fidel’s discursive aims. results fidel’s narrative, then, should be understood as a discursive practice nested in the core of a sociocultural reality that is not synchronic, but is rather the product of historical background. fidel’s multilingualism, likewise, is not solely the product of his individual life circumstances or conscious decisions, but has to do with his identity as a member of a social group that also has experienced the development of a multilingual ethos based on their shifting demographic realities. the ideational construction of raizal linguistic identity fidel’s first discursive aim is the construction of an ideational representation of what being a raizal implies in terms of linguistic identity. in such a task, fidel discovers three conflictive phenomena that constitute the raizal in-group identity. first, migration is one of the main constituents of in-group raizal identity, but at the same time the demographic shift generated by migration is the main threat to the raizal culture. one salient aspect about the migration of the lineages that can be named as raizals is that their families migrated to the archipelago before or long before the 1950s. there is no person whose lineage can be considered raizal if that lineage migrated to the archipelago after 1953. (fidel’s narrative, line 20) agency in the reconstruction of language identity arias no. 9 (july december 2014) no. 9 (july december 2014) 113 therefore, the 1950s migration milestone became almost the sole element of convergence for the raizal culture, along with the adoption of creole as a key feature of the raizal population’s the language identity. second, despite the pre-eminent historical role played by creole in the foregathering of a raizal identity, it is not a fully reliable in-group identity feature. some people think that the only thing that makes an islander raizal is the language, but i do not agree. there are people on san andres that know creole, but they are not raizal, and raizal people who don’t know creole. (fidel’s narrative, line 19) third, there is a trans-generational dissonance in the linguistic capital of in-group raizals. fidel offers a diagnosis of the transgenerational juxtaposition of language codes and the shift of language choice in the archipelago even in the bosom of the raizal family and its trans-generational language identity. my family is very typical. all my aunts, uncles and cousins speak creole, and my grandmother can barely speak spanish. by my mother side, my family is almost the same, but i have some cousins that grew up in a paña majority neighborhood, so they usually speak spanish like me, but they speak in english or creole at work or when it is necessary. (fidel’s narrative line 50) when fidel meets with other raizal generations from his family, there is a trans-generational mismatch of language choice. the older the generation, the more fond of creole language the individual is, and conversely, the younger the generation, the more spanish the individual speaks. fidel’s language choice could originally be de-problematized and regarded just as a younger generation identity issue. nonetheless, his attitude has an agentive role in the preservation of creole, since as mufwene (2004) claimed, “language endangerment is the cumulative outcome of individual practices of speakers” (p. 218). language choice is an instrument by which multilingual speakers are allowed both to attempt to wield and also to resist the power of the symbolic domination that is exercised institutionally (heller 1995). fidel’s language choice in favor of spanish, when being with his relatives, may well be based on the deprivation of status exercised institutionally on creole (baker, 2006), but also on fidel’s free competitive adaptation to the new socioeconomic ecologies. besides, fidel has also assigned a negative connotation to the language interference that occurs from his knowing creole to his using agency in the reconstruction of language identity arias no. 9 (july december 2014) no. 9 (july december 2014) 114 english. this approach is very conclusive in terms of gauging fidel’s agency in the preservation of his linguistic identity. i started studying english in bogotá to try to correct this mixing of languages, but it seems impossible. it looks like for every islander it is difficult to separate creole and english when we are in san andres or even in colombia. maybe the only way to get it is going to another country. (fidel’s narrative, line 75) the use of the word “correct” to refer to his intention behind taking english lessons implies that fidel gauges his creole-english code-switching and code-mixing as a negative trait. this language as a problem attitude can be understood as a consequence of the discourses that give a higher value to english over creole, and even over spanish. the preservation of fidel’s in-group linguistic identity fidel’s language choice demonstrates that in the new raizal generations there is an inversely proportional relation between closeness to the raizal social structure and their fondness of creole. that is, when fidel has a family get-together, he takes the role of the advocate of spanish within the bosom of the core raizal structure; nonetheless, when he is far from san andrés, namely in bogotá, his language choice favors creole whenever possible. when i finished school, i stayed a semester in san andres and then i came to bogotá where i lived with some cousins. my first semester i met a lot of raizals and i had to talk in creole with them. they didn’t know me, but since i am raizal, they deduced that i could talk creole. living with my cousins was cool. we used to play a game in which whoever said a word in spanish had to clean the bathroom. it was really difficult because not every word in creole is in english. there are also words that come from spanish. (fidel’s narrative, line 60) fidel’s agency in the preservation of his in-group linguistic identity is signaled by seemingly contradictory paths that merge both the preservation and the transformation of the role of creole language as a critical attribute of raizal identity. these contradictory paths could be reduced to the following events. 1) fidel avoids the use of creole when he is closer to the core of the raizal social group, like his older relatives. 2) when fidel is with raizal individuals who are his contemporaries, he resorts to code-switching and code-mixing between spanish and creole. 3) when fidel is in bogotá, which implies a physical distance with his from his raizal identity, he intends to keep his linguistic identity alive, by speaking creole. the code-switching, language choice, and english language learning intention of fidel does not exhibit an agency in the reconstruction of language identity arias no. 9 (july december 2014) no. 9 (july december 2014) 115 exclusively positive agency in the preservation of his in-group language identity; thus, there is room for the consideration of his agency in the transformation or destruction of his in-group language identity. transforming and re-constructing the role of creole as an ingroup critical attribute as a multilingual individual belonging to the raizal community, fidel’s role goes beyond the mere reproduction and perpetuation of the deterministic cultural capital owned by his social group; in fact, as rasool (2004) claims, there is an element of choice in the construction of his individual and his in-group social identity. bourdieu and passeron (1977) also resort to the concept of habitus to acknowledge individuals’ agency in the formation of in-group identity. habitus is conceptualized as the place in which the internalization of objective reality and the externalization of subjective perception converge. fidel’s language choice in favor of spanish within his in-group interactions, and his attempts towards correction and standardization of his english show that he cares about the linguistic capital he owns, even if it seems to focus mostly on the majority language (english) rather than on creole. however, reconstructing and re-inventing the role of language choice and language use as a binding device of raizals can lessen his individual responsibility and remorse, thus attributing his language choice to the circumstantial and deterministic nature of his language encounters. from that perspective, fidel’s transformation of the in-group linguistic identity can be consistent with what other raizals of his generation are doing. from that perspective, fidel would not be threatening his linguistic identity; on the contrary, he would be preserving the new shade given to the in-group linguistic identity by his generation. re-defining and lessening the role of creole as a raizal identity marker some people think that the only thing that makes an islander raizal is the language, but i do not agree. there are people on san andres that know creole, but they are not razial and raizal people who don’t know creole. (fidel’s narrative, line 1) this excerpt can be contrasted with the one following: from the colonial times, the raizal culture developed out of the mixture of ethnicities and cultures, but had creole and english as is backbone. (fidel’s narrative, line 18) agency in the reconstruction of language identity arias no. 9 (july december 2014) no. 9 (july december 2014) 116 the apparent contradiction between these two excerpts could be discarded by addressing the time dimension, by which the first quote would refer to a rather present or general time of raizal identity whereas the latter is referring to the origins of the creole culture and the creole language. besides, it could also be argued that the focus of the first excerpt is to discard the creole language as the only constituent of raizal. however, by releasing some of the load of creole in the convergence of raizal identity, fidel opens space for the justification of the new raizal generations’ language choice patterns, and his own. language choice plays a pivotal role in the endangerment of languages in contact. depending on the perspective being adopted, be it deterministic or agentive, there are two triggers of language choice that play a role in the endangerment of a language: competition and/or selection (mufwene, 2004). the term competition suggests the political, economic, cultural, and social domination of one population by another that exerts control over the production and consumption of language values. the generation of socioeconomic ecologies regulated by the dominant group result in the mechanics of language ecology that inform an individual’s favoring the use of one language over another one. selection implies that the individuals are the ones who assign values to the languages in their community. it acknowledges the agency of individuals as speakers who through their language choice may cause one language to thrive and another to become endangered. fidel legitimates the young raizal generation’s language choice by acknowledging spanish as a lexical donor to creole. adopting the premise that transformation is not destruction, fidel gives a personal insight on the creole-spanish ecology, his ownership of the languages, and the language contact phenomenon that emerges out of his own language choice, such as like code-switching and language borrowings. but when i am in a group of raizals, we usually mix up both languages: spanish and creole. (fidel’s narrative, line 46) the language contact phenomenon being referred to in fidel’s conversing with his raizal acquaintances is code-switching. the speakers are proficient in both languages, and they may mix the languages randomly, or based on the topic and context, nest the conversations, which would give this code-switching a diglossic value (windford, 1985). the language contact between creole and spanish among the raizal community has also triggered some borrowings that fidel acknowledges as a condition of creole as a living language. agency in the reconstruction of language identity arias no. 9 (july december 2014) no. 9 (july december 2014) 117 creole is hard influenced with spanish. whenever we don’t know a word in english or creole, we use the spanish word. it is funny that even creole speakers sometimes have not noticed that influence. one day, a san andresana paña friend working in a lawyer’s office was visited by a man wanting to leave his resume. this man was speaking creole, and instead of saying “resume,” he said “hoja de vida.” my friend understood that he meant to leave his resume and told him to leave it aside on a desk. the guy was surprised that she had understood creole. then, my friend had to explain to the man that she did not speak any creole, but she understood him because he had used the word in spanish. (fidel’s narrative, line 67) concepts such as résumé do not have a term in creole, so due to language contact, creole speakers have borrowed the term hoja de vida from spanish and have included it in their linguistic repertoire, taking for granted its being a creole concept. fidel interprets language borrowings from spanish to creole as a fact that shows that creole is a living language. i am not trying to say that it is bad. i believe that this fact shows that creole is a living language. (fidel’s narrative, line 69) however, allowing and promoting these language borrowings and language code switching does not necessarily represent the natural ethos of peaceful language ecology between spanish, a language with a high status, and creole, the minority language code. the fact that fidel has accepted these borrowings as natural attests to the powerful nature of the ideologies that are used as premises in the structuring of larger social entities and their power relations. the asymmetrical and ideologically loaded discourses that constitute the main stream of the river that drags with its power not just fidel’s linguistic ideology, and the raizal linguistic ideology, but also convulses the local linguistic paradigms, thus generating a new and naturalized hierarchy in the ecology of languages. conclusions this study used critical discourse analysis as a tool to interpret data from the narratives rendered by an intrinsic case study informant, fidel, to determine how the construction of his linguistic identity as a raizal individual performed two effects. first, he executed and voiced some the external discourses as well as the de jure and de facto language ideologies, including acculturation, national homogenizing language policies, and the internationalizing language policies of global inclusion. second, he played an agentive role in the generation of an in-group social identity of raizals. agency in the reconstruction of language identity arias no. 9 (july december 2014) no. 9 (july december 2014) 118 fidel concludes that creole is still a constituent of raizal identity, that creole is alive, that its contact with spanish is not pervasive since spanish is now a lexical donor. further, that although creole and english are two distinctive languages, he considers his code-switching as a pathological trend that needs to be corrected by pursuing the learning of a standard version of english. this study allows for conclusions about how ideologies and language policies played a role in the generation of both fidel’s individual and in-group identity as a raizal. however, the limitations and area for further research is grounded in the fact that findings are rather bounded to a time and a space, and no generalizations can fully be made from an individual as a case informant. it is also worth mentioning that the narratives from which the data was analyzed were gauged within the parameters dictated by the axial coding that was framed within the area of inquiry, yet such narrative is much more than a sheer source of data. it provides the soil for an intersubjective dialogical construction of knowledge, and becomes an empowering tool that gives voice to the individuals that have to endure the application of top-down language policies. it offers a human and individual perspective that is very often left aside in the logical positivistic approach that informs the planning, execution, and materialization of language policies worldwide. a final comment should be made in regards to the fact that this study is the result of two subjective perspectives; the rather emic one from fidel, and the one of an outsider who has gathered the data and analyzed it, again subjectively following the parameters of the critical discourse analysis approach to a case study research. thus, it is worth acknowledging that the readings of reality and data might well be biased, which does not necessarily lessen the value of the findings. agency in the reconstruction of language identity arias no. 9 (july december 2014) no. 9 (july december 2014) 119 references abramson, p. e. 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(1991). planning language, planning inequality: language policy in the community. new york: longman. unesco (2003). education in a multilingual world. paris: unesco. retrieved from http://unesdoc.unesco.org/ images/0012/001297/129728e.pdf agency in the reconstruction of language identity arias no. 9 (july december 2014) no. 9 (july december 2014) 123 van dijk, t. (1998). ideology: a multidisciplinary approach. london: sage. wallace, m. (1998). action research for language teachers. cambridge: cambridge university press. winford, d. (1985). the concept of “diglossia” in caribbean creole situations. language in society, 14(3), 345-356. windford, d. (1994). sociolinguistic approaches to language use in the anglophone caribbean. in m. morgan (ed.), language and the social construction of identity in creole situations (pp. 43-62). los angeles: center for afroamerican studies publications. wolcott, h. (1990). on seeking -and rejecting -validity in qualitative research. in e. eisner & a. peshkin (eds.), qualitative inquiry in education: the continuing debate (pp. 121-152). new york: teachers college press. woolard, k., & schieffelin, b. (1994). language ideology. annual review of anthropology, 23(55 – 82). yin, r. k. (1994). case study research: design and methods. thousand oaks, ca: sage. author *carlos augusto arias holds an m.a. in applied linguistics to tefl from the universidad distrital francisco josé de caldas. he is currently working as a full-time professor and head of the english department at institución universitaria colombo americana, única. his research interests include efl, critical discourse analysis and clil. agency in the reconstruction of language identity arias no. 9 (july december 2014) no. 9 (july december 2014) gistseptiembre2010final.indd �0 gist education and learning research journal. issn 1692-5777, pp. 30-49 vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) using graphic organizers as a tool for the development of scientific language1 sandra p. mercuri2* university of texas, brownsville abstract this observational study examines the effectiveness of graphic organizers two elementary teachers in california, united states use to teach the content and the academic language of science. the study was done during the 2006-2007 school year. the data was collected through field-notes and the audio recording of instructional activities, and they were clarified through interviews with the teachers. the cross-case analysis (borman, clarke, cotner, & lee, 2006) of the two teachers’ teaching practices makes clear the different ways in which the teachers’ use of graphic organizers supported both the development of content knowledge and language development in science education. keywords: science education, academic language, graphic organizers, second language learners (slls), instructional activities (ias), dual language resumen este estudio de observación examina la eficacia de los organizadores gráficos que dos maestras de escuela primaria en california, estados unidos utilizan para enseñar el contenido y el lenguaje académico de las ciencias. el estudio se llevó a cabo durante el año escolar 2006 a 2007. los datos fueron recogidos a través de apuntes tomados durante las observaciones y de grabaciones audios de actividades de instrucción y fueron aclarados a través de entrevistas con las maestras. el análisis de casos cruzados (borman, clarke, cotner, & lee, 2006) de las prácticas pedagógicas de las dos maestras aclara las diferentes maneras en las cuales el uso de las maestras de los organizadores gráficos apoyó en ambos el desarrollo del conocimiento del contenido y el desarrollo del lenguaje de la educación en las ciencias. palabras claves: educación en las ciencias, lenguaje académico, organizadores gráficos, estudiantes de una segunda lengua, actividades de instrucción (ias), lenguaje dual 1 received: april 3rd, 2010 / accepted: july 16th, 2010 2 correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to sandra mercuri, university of texas, brownsville, college of education, 80 fort brown, brownsville, texas, 78526, usa. e-mail: sandra.mercuri@utb.edu mercuri �1 vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) mercuri since 2000, and more particularly under united states national policies such as the no child left behind act, there has been a move toward a standards-based curriculum and assessments in different areas of the elementary school curriculum, which has prompted adding science to the currently tested subjects of reading, writing, and mathematics (lee & avalos, 2002). in this context, the type of literacy that is required for school-related tasks involves not only the development of reading and writing skills, but also the development of more abstract and more demanding language (scarcella & merino, 2005). the academic language of science as defined by snow (2010) uses technical words and complex grammatical structures with a high density of information. the inclusion of science in schools’ accountability signals the need to examine the ways the teachers in bilingual classrooms help students learn the content knowledge and the academic language of science. the question guiding this study is: what strategies do teachers use for instruction to help students develop both content knowledge and academic language in science? to address this question and to contribute to the literature on teachers’ practices with bilingual learners in science education, this study examines the strategic practices two elementary teachers use to teach science and the way in which the use of graphic organizers helps the students to develop the academic language of science. literature review the theoretical framework of this research includes studies relevant to science education with second language learners (slls). it is focused mainly on the elementary level (k-5). the literature review is organized into three sections: firstly, research on elementary science teaching and learning is discussed. secondly, research on the development of academic language through content is presented and analyzed. finally, strategic practices for the development of both academic language and content are also discussed. research on elementary science teaching and learning the role of constructivism as it relates to science teaching and learning is of particular relevance to this study. according to tobin (2000), constructivism is a way of thinking about how students can learn best, depending on the situational context of the learning event, how others can mediate learning for students, and how the activities or tasks provided by the teacher help students acquire the necessary knowledge shaped by their own experiences with the concepts to be learned. according to this perspective, the teaching and learning of science occurs in a community of practice in which certain discursive �2 vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) styles of the participants such as talking, writing, representation, and cognition, are constantly changing. learning science concepts with more capable peers who use their own discourse as a springboard for learning, allows students to develop a science-like discourse acceptable to the scientific community. this is similar to the concept of the zone of proximal development (zpd) developed by vygotsky (1978), wherein students can arrive at a higher level of understanding by working with a more capable peer or with the teacher, as a mediator of learning. according to vygotsky, the role of the teacher is to identify the resources available according to students’ needs, and to explicitly demonstrate how and when to access those resources for learning purposes. in zpd, teacher and students need to learn how to interact and communicate with each other, and to use their previous knowledge and experience to learn (lee, 2008). above all, teacher and students should co-participate in the classroom community to co-construct their knowledge of science. tobin (2000) explains that students should use what they both know and are able to do as a foundation for the scientific knowledge they are trying to learn in the classroom context. his framework takes into consideration how students can negotiate meaning as they interact with others and with artifacts, how students can demonstrate their knowledge about the subject, and properly express their need for feedback to confirm accuracy. this is similar to what teachers of slls need to consider as they work with students on the development of language proficiency. research on the development of academic language through content research on language acquisition has shown that language is best learned when it is organized and taught around the content areas (richard-amato, 1996; snow & brinton, 1997). disciplinary literacy research and theory shows that students need academic language to be able to perform tasks related to school science (i.e., reading science texts, writing about scientific explorations, and discussing science concepts or activities orally). when teachers work with students who are learning in a second language (l2), they become both content and language teachers. because of the nature of teaching, the teacher’s content knowledge should be coupled with the pedagogical practice of transmitting the strategies and knowledge needed to learn an l2 (moje, 2007). scarcella and merino (2005) looked at the low performance levels in science (of students of a similar demographic profile to those of our present study) and reviewed effective practices for teaching science to this population. they concluded that “in order to learn science, students using graphic organizers mercuri �� vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) using graphic organizers mercuri must master the academic literacy that the subject requires” (p. 2). academic literacy, as presented by scarcella and merino, encompasses subject matter knowledge, strategies, and skills which include vocabulary as an essential component. this has several implications for teachers: a) it includes the use of multiple scaffolds to help slls develop both the language and the content of science, b) it integrates standard-based instruction of language and science content, and c) it incorporates structured and meaningful inquiry-based activities that will help students build their language skills and knowledge of science, among other academic areas. strategic practices for academic language and content development other researchers have also discussed the relationship between science learning and academic language. according to lee and fradd (1998), slls are at risk of performing poorly in science because they usually lack the linguistic, cognitive, and social behaviors that science learning requires. when teachers plan science units with an embedded language arts curriculum, students engage in authentic communicative interaction which both enhances the development of academic language (lee & fradd, 1998) as well as their understanding of science concepts. the embedded language arts curriculum also serves to engage students in critical thinking activities (rosebery, warren, & conant, 1992). research shows that teachers should use a myriad of strategies to enhance slls’ understanding of advanced academic concepts across disciplines and they should also facilitate the learning of those concepts (bentley, 1998). fradd and lee (1999) similarly reinforce the idea that appropriate instruction for slls, one in which these have the opportunity to construct knowledge through concrete experiences, enhances their proficiency and literacy levels. one of the strategies teachers use are graphic organizers. the use of graphic organizers has at least four purposes in the development of both academic language and content. first, graphic organizers are powerful, easy to implement tools that allow teachers to examine their students’ thinking and learning on a particular topic of study (struble, 2007). second, a graphic organizer is a visual representation of a concept or topic that helps students sort, summarize, show relationships among ideas, and make meaning from texts (gallavan & kottler, 2007). third, graphic organizers also reveal students’ prior knowledge and promote their oral and written participation, all of which facilitate comprehension (kirylo & millet, 2000). fourth, teachers can use graphic organizers to assess ongoing learning and also to design and modify instruction to meet students’ needs. graphic organizers �� vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) are particularly helpful for assessing students who are developing l2 skills. strategies such as graphic organizers are part of a supportive classroom environment in which thematic integrated instruction is the conduit for the comprehension of science knowledge and for the acquisition of academic discourse in science. research design this study is designed as a cross-case analysis (borman, clarke, cotner, & lee, 2006) of two classroom teachers working in a duallanguage school. through an in-depth study of each case, the researcher examines key instructional activities (ias) occurring in these two teachers’ classrooms, focusing on students’ academic language development during science instruction. the examination of these two teachers’ pedagogical practices makes what teachers do to support both the development of content knowledge and language development in science education visible. time frame of the study the research was conducted during the 2 semesters of the 20062007 school year and was carried out in two phases. phase one lasted 3 months; during which i collected detailed field notes of both the teachers’ instruction and their interactions with students. a second round of observations and interviews lasted approximately 3 months. during that phase, i audio-recorded different classroom instruction events and reflections on practice. the recorded lessons were transcribed for analysis. analysis was done using all categories from the literature review. selection of site and teacher participants the site. the school selected for the study was doyle elementary school (pseudonym). it was selected because of its fulfillment of the following criteria: • the school was one of the few in the district that had purposefully arranged the schedule to provide time for science. • it earned standardized exam scores that were similar or slightly higher than other schools in the district that were likewise serving largely low-income students. • the school administration performed school and district presentations based on analyzed students’ data using multiple measures (standardized assessments, portfolios, and district benchmarks). these presentations made it clear that the students who were in different programs performed differently (i.e., students in the dual language strand performed better in all measures by 4th grade). using graphic organizers mercuri �� vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) using graphic organizers mercuri the school is an inner-city elementary school in a medium-sized city (population of approximately 500,000 inhabitants) in the central valley of california. doyle elementary school serves low socioeconomic level students from the surrounding community. according to the school website,3 the student population is 70% hispanic, 18% asian, 6% african-american, and 6% white, non-hispanic. of the total school enrollment, 53% are considered english language learners (ells). the school has two different program models to serve the needs of the students: english-only classes and dual language classes. of the total school enrollment, one quarter of the students was enrolled in the dual language strand. my study focused on this strand which includes programs that have both native english speakers and speakers of another language. together these two groups are learning language through content in both english and their native language (lindholmleary, 2003). doyle elementary school uses the 90/10 dual immersion program model.4 the participants. in this qualitative study, the sampling strategy used is what gall, gall, and borg (1999) refer to as the criterion strategy, reflecting a conceptual rationale. of a total of 32 teachers that work at the selected site, only 9 are teachers in the dual language strand. from the dual language pool of 9 teachers, one teacher in grade 3 and one in grade 5 were selected. the selection of the third grade classroom was based on the consideration that third grade provides the foundation for the transition to a more rigorous fourth grade curriculum where content is more language-demanding. the selection of the fifth grade classroom was motivated by recent state policy mandating that students in fifth grade pass a standardized science test in conjunction with the california standards test that focuses only on language arts and math. both teachers involved in this project are latinas who selfidentified as having good literacy skills in both english and spanish. they have very different educational backgrounds and experiences which have shaped their understanding of teaching and learning. each teacher was considered as a separate case. both cases provide key information on the importance of the development of academic 3 this web-site is not included in bibliography due to the anonymity of the school being researched. if there is any issue that needs to be resolved, personal communication with the author is recommended. 4 the 90/10 model refers to the amount of time devoted for instruction in each language at the beginning of the program. students from both language groups are taught in both languages moving from more spanish instruction at the early grades toward more english in the upper grades. by grade 6, students are receiving half of the instruction in each language. �� vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) language in science and on students’ possibility for success in doyle elementary school. data collection multiple sources of data were collected, including: classroom observations, audio-recordings of classroom interactions, teacher interviews, and student work samples, including pictures. a database was created for each teacher. during science class time, my field observations focused on the unit of study and the different elements of the ia to be analyzed. these included introduction to the topic, academic language used in the classroom, materials used to support academic literacy development, strategies such as graphic organizers used for instruction and academic discussions, writing assignments, and hands-on projects. these elements provided a framework for content knowledge and academic language development. for this study, i focus on two definitions of ia. the more general definition from merriam-webster’s dictionary (1998) defines an ia as an organizational unit for teaching. it can take the form of whole-group lecture, small-group dialogue, independent-group work, one-on-one interaction, or individual tasks. i also used freeman and johnson’s (2005) operational definition of an ia as an “interplay among the actions of participants that creates a meta-level of activity that is a language class in itself” (p. 75). these writers consider that the use of tools (overhead projectors, texts, visual aids, etc.) is necessary to accomplish or to organize activities depending on its purposes. i performed follow-up informal interviews in order to probe and clarify the data. all the observation notes and the transcribed interviews were coded into themes by data source and then compiled by categories. i used the research question and sub-question to organize the database of each teacher. the research question: what strategies do teachers use for instruction to help students develop both content knowledge and academic language in science? allows for the exploration of a specific sub-question: how do teachers use graphic organizers to develop scientific content-specific and general academic vocabulary as well as higher-order thinking skills? table 1 shows the different types of data collected and the data analysis approach used to address the research question. using graphic organizers mercuri �� vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) using graphic organizers mercuri table 1 data collection sources and data analysis approach for each case data analysis data in this study was analyzed in two stages: a within-case analysis and a cross-case analysis. in the within-case analysis, each classroom teacher was considered to be an individual case. each case was analyzed using the steps of interpretational analysis presented by gall, gall, & borg (1999). i began by preparing the database which contained all the information collected for each case study. then, i divided the data into meaningful chunks of information such as student-teacher short dialogues, classroom scenarios of teacher-strategic instruction, students’ inquiry discussions, and different artifacts such as teachermade graphic organizers and pictures. finally, i created categories from the data or they were developed based on the research described in the review of the literature. during the data analysis procedure, the researcher focused on the identification of the strategies each teacher had used to help students develop the academic language of science across multiple ias. both teachers selected graphic organizers as one of the strategies they used in the ias that focused on the teaching and learning of general academic and content-specific vocabulary as well as critical thinking. categorical lenses were used to explain what teachers do to support students’ academic language development in english and spanish in the content area of science. once findings were identified for each case, the two teachers were compared and contrasted in order to demonstrate how they helped students develop academic language. the two sub-questions that were derived from the research question guided the focus of the analysis. findings it is clear from the analysis of the data that each teacher used a variety of instructional strategies that encompassed the four language learning skills (listening, speaking, reading, and writing) to support her students’ development of academic language in the ias in science. based on the definitions of an ia by mirriam-webster’s dictionary (1998) and �� vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) freeman and johnson’s (2005) described earlier, table 2 illustrates the use of graphic organizers for the development of academic language in two selected instructional activities (ia1 and ia2) by both teacherparticipants involved in the study; the initials t1 represent the third grade teacher, mrs. lee, while t2 is used for the fifth grade teacher, mrs. saldana. this table takes into consideration the above mentioned definitions, and reflects a total of 42 different lessons which were observed and/or audio-recorded during the course of a year. table 2 cross-case analysis of the used of graphic organizers by each teacher during two different ias the following discussion provides an analysis of the use of graphic organizers for the development of the academic language of science by each teacher in the selected ias as presented in table 2. examples of classroom dialogues and excerpts from interviews are used to exemplify the analysis and justify the findings. first, mrs. lee’s examples are presented and discussed. second, mrs. saldana’s excerpts from her ia are analyzed. the analysis of these teachers’ strategic teaching practices is twofold in that it focuses on the use of graphic organizers that foster both vocabulary building and higher-order thinking. mrs. lee’s focus on vocabulary building and higher-order thinking the ias presented and analyzed here from mrs. lee’s classroom are part of multiple lessons from a long-term unit on ecosystems. throughout this theme, students learned about the different habitats; including the animals, plants, and climate types that exist in each one. the topic of the first ia was “characteristics of the tropical rainforest.” the second ia contextualized the concept of tropical rainforests with a discussion about different types of forests, and a focus on the age of trees. through these activities and by reading different types of texts, using and discussing graphic organizers with color-coded information, as well as using scaffolded questioning techniques during scientific explorations, mrs. lee provided students with multiple opportunities using graphic organizers mercuri �� vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) using graphic organizers mercuri to discuss, develop, and acquire content-specific and general academic vocabulary, as well as opportunities to think critically about scientific concepts and language. table 3 exemplifies mrs. lee’s uses of strategies with a focus on vocabulary building and higher-order thinking during ia1. (t = teacher, s = student)5 table 3 analysis of mrs. lee’s ia1 (translation from the spanish) 5 inserted in the transcription of the table is some information about how the data was collected. for example, (2007, l obs 21) means that the dialogue was recorded in 2007 during observation #21 in mrs. lee’s classroom (represented by an l). �0 vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) excerpts from the audio-recorded lessons and classroom observation notes provided the data for this analysis. the ia1, which describes the tropical rainforest, started with the teacher reading aloud the book dentro de la selva tropical [inside the tropical rainforest,willow & jackes, 1993]. because each page of the book presented a selection of plants and animals that live in the tropical rainforest, an added opportunity for oral language development and content-specific knowledge was provided. after the teacher read the book to the class and they finished with the academic discussion, the students were asked to gather at the rug area to create a graphic organizer using the shared knowledge from the whole class. as students focused on features of language and learned new vocabulary through this ia, cognitive development was also activated while they completed the descriptive graphic organizer. the informational text on the tropical rainforest provided a context for the academic language discussion. dickinson and tabors (2001) demonstrate that oral language practice through meaningful activities serves as the input for data that learners internalize and use to express their own meanings in their interactions with others. mrs. lee’s communicative exchange with students supports this claim and shows her understanding of the interplay between language, and content teaching and learning. the same interplay is shown in the analysis of the second ia, which is discussed in the following paragraphs. mrs. lee’s second ia is part of the long-term unit on ecosystems. the focus of this activity is on the age of trees contextualized in different types of forests. table 4 represents the analysis of the strategic teaching in mrs. lee’s classroom. we observed findings which are similar to those of the analysis of the activity. i use examples and excerpts from observation notes and tape-recorded lessons to exemplify the categories used. using graphic organizers mercuri �1 vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) using graphic organizers mercuri table 4 analysis of mrs. lee’s ia2 �2 vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) this ia has multiple layers of analysis including: questioning techniques, content-specific vocabulary, discussions about sentence structure, as well as a review of science concepts which were previously learned. it exemplifies the high level of integration of academic language with science content that mrs. lee manages in her pedagogical practice. the following section presents examples of mrs. saldana’s ias and the strategic practices she uses to teach both language and content in science. mrs. saldana’s focus on vocabulary building and higher-order thinking in mrs. saldana’s case, data were collected from a pool of 18 audio-recorded lessons, 24 observed lessons, and 2 interviews done in a 2-semester period. the two examples used here were judged as being representative of most of mrs. saldana’s lessons and activities. the following criteria were used: classroom arrangements, instructional materials used for lesson delivery, the format of the lesson, communicative exchange between the participants, and the focus of the lesson. the first activity presented here is part of a life science unit on the body’s systems. this activity was planned for the science block and was organized as an introduction or background knowledge builder for the rest of the unit which discussed multi-cellular organisms, the skeletal, muscular, circulatory, respiratory, digestive, and nervous systems. the lesson began with students following along with the text as they listened to a tape about the body systems. here, mrs. saldana used a trade book, inside your body (freed & hill, 2004), to provide an opportunity for understanding for all of her students. this book, from the collection reading a-z, had pictures for clues and was accessible to all of the reading levels in the class. once students finished the listening activity, mrs. saldana introduced the brace map and explained that it was an appropriate graphic organizer to use for analyzing whole objects and its parts. mrs. saldana displayed the graphic organizer on the overhead projector for students to fill out as they came to the front, selected the picture of a part of the body, and placed each part where it belonged in the human body figure. once they completed both the figure and the graphic organizer, students returned to their seats. during this activity, mrs. saldana and the students discussed the functions of each system of the human body, defined each system broadly, and provided examples to make connections to the readings. table 5 shows the analysis of the graphic organizer used by mrs. saldana and the students during ia1. using graphic organizers mercuri �� vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) using graphic organizers mercuri table 5 analysis of mrs. saldana’s ia1 the information in this table reflects mrs. saldana’s emphasis on academic science concepts and vocabulary development. at many points in the ia, mrs. saldana used different strategies to teach scientific information about the human body and its systems, reinforcing language skills and reviewing content. a similar analysis is done with the second physical science ia which was on matter, volume, weight, and chemical reactions. the lesson started with an overarching question to use for students to focus their reading and discussion: ¿cuáles son las propiedades físicas de la materia? [what are the physical properties of matter?] table 6 summarizes the analysis of ia2 and provides examples from the data to support the analysis. �� vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) table 6 analysis of mrs. sadana’s ia2 as described in table 6, mrs. saldana used multiple strategies to help students understand concepts better. these strategies ranged from contextualizing the instruction and building students’ schema through the use of a graphic organizer, to making multiple connections, and were useful in bringing the difficult material to life. all the actions that the students and the teacher engaged in demonstrate the complexity of many of the ias that occur simultaneously in every classroom. mrs. saldana’s classroom is no exception. here, students use reading strategies to find information in the text, complete a graphic organizer, discuss contentspecific vocabulary with their neighbor, and share definitions orally as they use different tools such as an overhead projector, textbooks, etc., to accomplish the task. multiple cognitive domains are activated as students define key terms, search for information, and represent the information from the text in a different form through the graphic organizer. this multiplicity fosters the development of higher-order thinking skills. unpacking the findings of both cases through the cross-case analysis of the two ias of both teachers, it is clear that both of them pre-taught vocabulary, focused on definitions, and had oral discussions with students about the content vocabulary they needed to learn. the teachers made connections to prior knowledge and students’ personal experiences to enhance comprehension of difficult concepts. they also pointed out cognates and did extensive readings from a variety of sources to enhance comprehension of the key terms and scientific concepts. a difference evident between the two teachers was the degree of depth and complexity that each one used in the teaching of vocabulary. mrs. lee used an inquiry-based approach to frame the teaching of science vocabulary. she created multiple-layered activities where students were able to learn the vocabulary in context. she activated using graphic organizers mercuri �� vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) using graphic organizers mercuri students’ cognitive processes by using color-coded information and graphic organizers to help students acquire the vocabulary needed to perform well in scientific tasks. on the other hand, mrs. saldana used reading to frame her instruction of content-specific vocabulary. she read to and with the students and focused on finding definitions in the text. her expectation for students was that they would be able to respond to questions as the reading progressed based on their new understanding of key content words. in both of the classes, i observed an emphasis on the use of graphic organizers. both teachers used graphic organizers, but they used them for different purposes and with a different degree of complexity. mrs. lee used graphic organizers with the goals of activating students’ metacognitive processes such as categorizing different types of ecosystems and of developing their metalinguistic skills. for example, she worked to help them understand the use of specific terms and correct syntax in order to express scientific ideas more clearly. mrs. lee used graphic organizers for different purposes from those of mrs. saldana. she used them to compare and contrast key scientific concepts; to describe the characteristics of scientific phenomena which students were studying; to categorize information; and to organize ideas for a science report. in addition, students were challenged to discuss at the metacognitive level what type of graphic organizer better served the purpose of the activity. through wonder and metacognitive questions, mrs. lee helped students develop higher-order thinking skills as they completed different types of graphic organizers. conversely, in mrs. saldana’s class, only one type of graphic organizer was used. in both ias analyzed, mrs. saldana used a brace map, a visual representation which utilizes braces {like these} to identify the physical parts of a whole object, developing part-whole reasoning skills (struble, 2007). mrs. saldana used the brace map to categorize information and describe concepts such as different systems of the human body and properties of matter: density, solubility, weight, mass, and volume. while mrs. saldana used these graphic organizers often, they were used as a fill-in type of activity to record concepts that students needed to learn for a test. the graphic organizers were provided by the teacher and were completed by the students as the teacher read to or with them from different resources. students at this grade level were not able to discuss the value of each graphic organizer in consideration of the purpose of the activity. students were encouraged to use the graphic organizers to prepare for the test and for their few writing opportunities they had during this unit being studied. in sum, both teachers used graphic organizers effectively but with different degrees of depth in the application. this dissimilar use �� vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) of graphic organizers by each teacher in the study supported students in their development of higher-order thinking skills, the enhancement of vocabulary acquisition, and the development of their academic language of science. it also provided diverse opportunities for the development of the academic knowledge of science as the students reasoned, talked, and developed their scientific literacy in different instructional contexts. conclusion contrastive analyses across the two teachers’ data made it clear that in order to support student learning of academic language and science content, the teachers needed to have a wide range of content, pedagogical, and linguistic knowledge. the examples used in this paper demonstrate the effectiveness of using graphic organizers with students who are simultaneously developing language and content in an l2. the study showed that graphic organizers in particular were tools that allowed both teachers to examine their students’ thinking and learning on the topic which the class was studying (struble, 2007). also, the creation of a visual representation of a concept or topic through the different graphic organizers used by both teachers helped their students sort, summarize, show relationships among ideas, and make meaning from texts. moreover, through the use of graphic organizers, teachers were able to connect with students’ prior knowledge and promote the active oral and written participation of all of their students to facilitate comprehension, regardless of levels of linguistic proficiency. lastly, both teachers used graphic organizers to assess ongoing learning, and for designing and modifying instruction to meet students’ needs. therefore, graphic organizers were proven to be useful in a future-focused view to improving educational situations, such as the ones examined in this article. using graphic organizers mercuri �� vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) using graphic organizers mercuri references bentley, m. l. (1998). constructivism as a referent for reforming science education. in larochelle, m., bednarz, n., & garrison, j. (eds.). constructivism and education. pp. 233-249. melbourne: cambridge university press. borman, k. m., clarke, c., cotner, b., & lee, r. (2006). cross-case analysis. in g. c. j. l. green, & p. b. elmore (eds.), handbook of complementary methods in education research (pp. 123-139). mahwah, nj: lawrence erlbaum. dickinson, d., & tabors, p. (eds.), (2001). beginning literacy with language: young children learning at home and school. baltimore, md: paul h. brookes publishing. fradd, s. h., & lee, o. (1999). teachers’ roles in promoting science inquiry with students from diverse language backgrounds. educational researcher, 28(6), 14-20, 42. freeman, d. & johnson, k. (2005). toward linking teacher knowledge and student learning. in diane tedick (ed.), second language teacher education. international perspectives (pp. 73-95). lawrence erlbaum, mahwah, new jersey. gall, j., gall, m. & borg, w. (1999). applying educational research. a practical guide. longman, new york, ny. gallavan, n. p., & kottler, e. (2007). eight types of graphic organizers for empowering social studies students and teachers. the social studies, 98, 117-23. kirylo, j., & millet, c. (2000). graphic organizers: an integral component to facilitate comprehension during basal reading instruction. reading improvement, 37. lee, o. (2008). science education with english language learners. review of educational research, 75(4), 491-530. lee, o., & avalos, m. (2002). promoting science instruction and assessment for english language learners. the electronic journal of science education, 7(2). lee, o., & fradd, s. h. (1998). science for all, including students from nonenglish language backgrounds. educational researcher, 27(3), 12-21. lindholmwdual language education. clevedon, england: multilingual matters. merriam-webster’s collegiate dictionary (10th ed.). (1998). springfield, ma: merriam-webster. moje, e. b. (2007). developing socially just subject-matter instruction: a review of the literature on disciplinary literacy teaching. review of research in education, 31, 1-44. �� vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) richard-amato, p. a. (1996). making it happen: interaction in the second language classroom (2nd ed.). new york: longman. rosebery, a. s., warren, b., & conant, f. r. (1992). appropriating scientific discourse: findings from language minority classrooms. the journal of the learning sciences, 21(1), 61-94. scarcella, r. & merino, b. (2005). teaching in to english learners. university of california linguistic minority research institute newsletter. vol. 14(4), summer 2005. snow, catherine, e. (2010). academic language and the challenge of reading of learning about science. science, vol. 328, april 2010. snow, m. & brinton, d. (eds.), (1997). the content-based classroom. addisonwesley longman publishing: white plains, ny. struble, j. (2007). using graphic organizers as formative assessment. science scope, 30, 69-71. tobin, k. (2000). constructivism in science education: moving on. in d. c. phillips, constructivism in education (nsse yearbook). chicago, illinois: the university of chicago press, 227-253. vygostky, l. s. (1978). mind in society: the development of higher psychological processes. cambridge, ma: harvard university press. willow, d. & jackes, l. (1993). dentro de la selva tropical. watertown, ma: charlesbridge publishing. using graphic organizers mercuri �� vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) using graphic organizers mercuri the author *dr. sandra mercuri is an assistant professor at the university of texas, brownsville. she has over 18 years of experience in teaching in argentina and the united states in k-12 schools and at the college level. she teaches courses in bilingual education and biliteracy and is working on research on the development of academic language across the content areas, the role of language in the development of scientific literacy, and the effect of long-term professional development for teachers of english learners. she provides training for teachers nationwide and presents at national and international conferences on issues of second language acquisition and bilingualism, dual language education, teacher training and esl strategies. dr. mercuri has also published articles in professional journals about bilingual learners and the application of second language theories into classroom practice in the tesol quarterly, talking points, ejlts, and the nabe journal as well as professional journals in spanish such as gist. she has also co-authored the books closing the achievement gap and dual language essentials with drs. yvonne and david freeman and research-based strategies for english language learners with denise rea. dr. mercuri, a native of argentina, is a fluent speaker of spanish. 173 lesson co-planning: joint efforts, shared success1 planeación conjunta de clase: esfuerzo colectivo, éxito compartido laura carreño and luz stella hernandez ortiz2* universidad de la sabana, colombia abstract the present article reports the results of a qualitative research study conducted at a higher education institution in bogotá colombia. the study aimed at examining the lesson planning practices conducted by english language teachers at the proficiency program of the institution. the participants were a mix of the mentors in charge of each level and teachers who agreed on being part of the study. data was collected through two online surveys and one semi-structured interview; three categories were obtained from the data analysis; they focus on the planning stages, the impact of co-planning on teachers´ performance and the role of resources for lesson planning. the findings suggest that lesson planning collaboration among teachers provides them with the opportunity of improving their practices, and helped participants identify professional strengths and weaknesses. key words: lesson planning, teacher collaboration, professional development, planning resources, teaching practices. resumen el presente artículo presenta los resultados de un estudio de investigación cualitativa realizado en una institución de educación superior en bogotá, colombia. el estudio tuvo como objetivo examinar las prácticas de planeación de clase de los profesores de inglés de la institución. entre los participantes se incluyeron los mentores a cargo de cada nivel y los profesores que aceptaron ser parte del estudio. los datos se recopilaron a través de dos encuestas en línea y una entrevista semiestructurada; se obtuvieron tres categorías del 1 received: november 1st 2017/ accepted: january 15th 2018 2 lauracb@unisabana.edu.co, luz.hernandez2@unisabana.edu.co socio-cultural awareness in efl gist education and learning research journal. issn 1692-5777. no.15. (july december) 2017. pp. 173-198.. no. 15 (july december, 2017) no. 15 (july december, 2017) 174 análisis de datos las cuales se centran en las etapas de planeación, el impacto de la planeación conjunta en el desempeño de los docentes y el papel de los recursos usados para la planeación de las lecciones. los hallazgos sugieren que la colaboración entre los docentes para la planeación de lecciones les brinda la oportunidad de mejorar sus prácticas además de identificar sus fortalezas y debilidades profesionales. palabras clave: planeación de clase, colaboración docente, desarrollo profesional, recursos de planeación, prácticas de enseñanza. resumo o presente artigo reporta os resultados de um estudo de pesquisa qualitativa desenvolvido em uma instituição de educação superior em bogotá, colômbia. o propósito do estudo é examinar as práticas de planejamento de aula realizadas por professores de inglês no programa de competência da instituição. foram obtidas três categorias da análise de dados, as quais se enfocaram nas etapas de planejamento, o impacto do planejamento coletivo no desempenho dos professores e o papel dos recursos para o planejamento de aula. as descobertas sugerem que o planejamento de aula colaborativa entre os professores os provê com a oportunidade de melhorar suas práticas, e ajuda os participantes a identificar suas fortalezas e debilidades profissionais. palavras chave: planejamento de aula, colaboração docente, desenvolvimento profissional, recursos de planejamento, práticas de ensino. lesson co-planning; efforts and success carreño no. 15 (july december, 2017) no. 15 (july december, 2017) 175 introduction lesson planning is a demanding task that language teachers embark on every day. for this reason, the question as to whether this task should be done individually or in teams, has puzzled the teaching staff of the languages department (ld) at a higher education institution for quite a long time. but, why is it that english teachers, find it difficult to plan their lessons and are constantly re-thinking their practices? authors such as richards and bohlke (2011) argue that: language teaching is not only a field of practical activity but also a discipline that draws on a considerable body of knowledge and practice. there are long traditions of theory, research, and practical experience to support contemporary approaches to language teaching (p. 3). lesson planning is an essential component of teaching. independently from what is taught, lesson planning gives teachers a ‘route map’ which guides their actions in the classroom. harmer (2001) highlights that “planning helps, then, because it allows teachers to think about where they’re going and gives them time to have ideas for tomorrow’s and next week’s lessons” (p. 21). however, lesson planning is not an easy task. there are many factors such as students’ specific needs, time allotment, equipment or resources needed and possible problems; among others, that have specific roles in the planner teachers write for every single lesson; lesson planning is not only about listing a series of activities that provide teachers with ideas on how to develop a session. the proficiency program offered by the ld has devoted more than 20 years to finding suitable language teaching methodologies and to improving teaching practices that help university students reach the language level they need. these efforts are made not only for students to comply with requirements set by their faculties, but also to have access to better work and study opportunities once they graduate. the program has specific parameters which teachers should bear in mind while teaching their classes; and, for teachers to get familiar with those parameters, the ld offers continuous training and a mentoring system that supports teachers all along the semester. in this system, mentors are teachers who coordinate all the administrative details related to the correct functioning of the level they are in charge of. they also provide teachers with lesson-planning and evaluation items and support both, teachers and students whenever issues arise. given that mentors provide weekly lesson-planning, each teacher is assigned with two weeks a semester to help mentors enhance lesson co-planning; efforts and success carreño no. 15 (july december, 2017) no. 15 (july december, 2017) 176 or create class planners. for this task, teachers and mentors use the textbook and the planner used in the previous semester as a way to guide the planning to be done for the current semester. planning is supposed to be done as a team, this means, teachers and mentors are not supposed to just split sections and decide who is in charge of each component and then put everything together; however, because of time constraints, this is what used to happen before a co-planning strategy started to be implemented. the co-planning strategy proposes that teachers and mentors come together to analyze the resources available, evaluate how useful they were in the previous semester (in case they have already taught the level) and sit down together to brainstorm new ideas. they also need to consider the current needs of the level to come up with an improved final class-planner which would be the result of joint efforts made by the mentor and the teacher in charge of the weekly co-planning. as stated by smith and scott (1990), “collaboration depends inherently on the voluntary effort of professional educators to improve their schools and their own teaching through teamwork” (p.2). this is the main intention of having ld teachers planning together, since they are the ones who are using the planners, they are the ones who know what works best and how their practices can get better every semester. literature review lesson planning & planning resources planning lessons might be a matter of personal choice for teachers; but, is lesson planning a relevant component for students’ academic success? even the most experienced teachers might consider important to have a general idea on what the objectives and outcomes of a lesson might be. a lesson plan should not become a straitjacket that forces teachers to strictly follow the plan; on the opposite, teachers must be ready to adapt their teaching to the conditions and demands of the lesson. there are many factors that could prevent teachers from strictly following the plan they had, factors such as “equipment not working, bored students, students who have done things before, students who need to ask unexpected questions or who want or need to pursue unexpected pathways, etc.” (harmer, 2001, p. 121). therefore, teachers cannot be expected to follow the plan and stick to it even if they notice that something might not be going as it was planned. lesson co-planning; efforts and success carreño no. 15 (july december, 2017) no. 15 (july december, 2017) 177 lesson planning does not only benefit teachers. students are able to notice when a lesson has been planned; they can realize when teachers know where they are going and the time they have devoted to planning the lesson. in the end, as stated by woodward (2001), “the students we work with are the real reason for the whole learning/ teaching encounter” (p. 16). therefore, we cannot ignore the fact that our students will definitely be the first to judge the quality, effectiveness and efficacy of the lesson we plan, and then, execute. it is also important to consider the role of lesson-planning resources. teachers and mentors in the ld use three main resources when planning their lessons: the course syllabus, the course textbook and the planning format. of course, there are other resources included (ict, worksheets, etc.), but these are the core elements that guide teachers every week. in the case of the syllabus, it presents the general content that students in the level should learn and an exit profile that describes the abilities that students should count on by the end of the course. in addition, the course syllabus includes the description of the project tasks that students must carry out along the semester to complete the final product (group work). the course syllabus is available for all students and in general, for all the academic community of the university to have an idea of what the course offers. ur (2009) asserts that “underlying this characteristic is the principle of accountability: the composers of the syllabus are answerable to their target audience for the quality of their document” (p. 177). the author (ur, 2009) also suggests that a syllabus should at least contain “content items (words, structures, topics), process items (tasks, methods), also; it should be ordered (easy, more essential items first), have explicit objectives (usually expressed in the introduction)”. this certainly aligns to what is stated as the philosophy of the ld for language teaching and learning. (ur, 2009) adds that a syllabus is a “public document that may indicate a time schedule, a preferred methodology or approach, and may recommend materials”. for the ld, the syllabus plays a crucial role for class planning. it lets teachers know about the grammar structures, vocabulary and book units that must be covered in each term. without a syllabus, it would be impossible to keep track of students expected outcomes. besides, the syllabus shows the progress of students in alignment with the common european framework (cef). in the same manner, the syllabus aligns to the type of teaching methodology that the ld takes as the basis for its proficiency program. in regards to this matter, saraswati (2004) states lesson co-planning; efforts and success carreño no. 15 (july december, 2017) no. 15 (july december, 2017) 178 that “it is impossible to think of any course of study which has no prespecified syllabus or curriculum. in fact, syllabuses play a significant role in pedagogy.” (p. 45). another important resource is the textbook used in each level. usually a single textbook is used for 2 levels; it means that if the textbook has ten units, then each level covers half of the book. this is done with the purpose of allotting a pertinent amount of time to studying each of the units in the book. textbooks for the ld are not the core component of the course, therefore, as ur (2009) suggests, they are used “selectively, not necessarily in sequence, and they are extensively supplemented by other materials” (p.183). many professionals in the language teaching field find themselves having mixed feelings regarding the use of textbooks for their courses. among the positive aspects that a textbook can offer to language teaching are: clear framework, ready-made tasks, economy, guidance, and autonomy. however, there are also negative aspects such as inadequacy, limitation, variety of levels of ability and knowledge, and over-easiness (ur, 2009). all of these factors have been considered by the ld and given that it has not been possible to find a ‘perfect’ textbook that adapts to all the requirements of the program, the ld has opted for using the textbook as a complementary resource, which guides students’ autonomous work and which also, serves as practice material during the class. accordingly, teachers adapt the activities offered by the textbook to adjust the level of difficulty, the type of task they want students to work on, etc. teachers’ mentoring & team work mentoring and team work have become core aspects of the proficiency program at the ld. ever since the beginning of the program, the ld has considered it important to count on academic coordinators (now level mentors) who can be visible heads in each level. of course, the program has a general director who supervises all the details regarding the correct academic and logistic functioning of the program itself. mentoring contributes to the improvement of several aspects of the program, and especially to teachers’ professional development in terms of the implementation of new teaching strategies, evaluation of such strategies, reflection upon teaching practices and experiences and identification of professional assets and shortcomings (diaz-maggioli, 2004). lesson co-planning; efforts and success carreño no. 15 (july december, 2017) no. 15 (july december, 2017) 179 accordingly, level mentors do have a supervising’ role in terms of operational matters, but most of all in terms of academic matters. level mentors are supposed to be familiarized with the core aspects of the program to guide the team of teachers in his/her level. but learning how to teach is not a one-way road in this institution; by mentoring, level mentors also learn from their colleagues who might even be more experienced professionals who just happen to be devoted exclusively to teaching at the moment. however, mentoring is not an easy task and it may lead to controversy or disagreement at times, diaz-maggioli argues that “because mentor as well as mentee must scrutinize and reflect on one another´s attitudes, beliefs and behaviors while simultaneously building trust and respect, the process can be difficult to many” (p. 48, 2004). randall and thornton (2005) cite varied definitions regarding the word ‘mentor’. among these definitions, it is mentioned that mentors are people who should be either older or more experienced, but it is not the case of the ld. mentors are people who have demonstrated enough skills as to be able to perform the tasks expected from them, either academic or operational. for the ld, mentors should be people who “advise younger or newer colleagues” (smith & west-burnham, 1993, p.8) and people who “support, facilitate and coach new teachers” (earley & kinder, 1994, p.79). for this mentor-teacher relationship to work, it is crucial, that the atmosphere created be a warm, welcoming one. mentors in the ld are the ones who guide teachers all along the semester, and teachers plan lessons along with mentors on a bi-weekly basis; therefore, communication and closeness play a key role in the success of the whole process. randall and thornton (2005) exemplify how for many institutions this system has been a successful one. in this regard, they highlight: heads of departments and directors of studies generally work with their teachers as “teams” i.e. they operate as a group to provide lessons and often teach alongside the colleagues that they supervise. thus, there tends to be an atmosphere of shared responsibility for getting a task done (i.e. teaching) in which there is generally not a great distance between the manager and the worker” (p. 18) shared responsibility for the ld is core to the process. teachers and mentors are in charge not only of lesson planning, but also of all the duties that are part of a successful teaching-learning experience. teachers and mentors also design and validate evaluation items, solve lesson co-planning; efforts and success carreño no. 15 (july december, 2017) no. 15 (july december, 2017) 180 students’ inquiries and face any kind of difficulty that might arise along the road. this is the main reason why the ld is concerned about motivating its team members to create and maintain a comfortable and rewarding working atmosphere. in this sense, the ld has also thought of providing teachers with constant support and professional development opportunities, and as part of this process, class observation is conducted and conceived as a moment of self-evaluation and reflection regarding teaching practices. the class-observation process should then benefit all the professionals involved, as argued by randall and thornton (2005): the very act of observing and offering advice should benefit not only the one being observed but also the one observing. being able to discuss lessons with young peers in a non-judgmental and open forum is seen as an essential step along the road to being an autonomous and reflective practitioner”. (p. 20) although the class-observation process entails a high level of formality and teachers might feel that their weaknesses and flaws are put on the spot, the ld uses this process as a way to enhance the quality of the proficiency program offered to students and as an opportunity to encourage teachers to become better professionals. the ld counts on specific items assessed in each class-observation, which are included in a checklist that is presented to teachers at the beginning of the semester. in this way, teachers are expected to become familiar with the aspects to be taken into account when their classes are visited. a checklist contains a list of different features of a lesson, which you complete while observing a lesson. checklists provide a clear focus for observation; however, they can only be used for certain aspects of a lesson, such as features that are easy to count. there are several published checklists; alternatively, you and your cooperating teacher can develop your own checklists (richards and farrell, 2011, p. 94). once teachers have been observed, both the observer and the teacher complete reflection formats and later they meet and discuss the class observed; their conversation should be surrounded by an atmosphere of confidence and respect. this is an opportunity for the teacher to reflect about his/her teaching practices and experience; and for the observer to provide feedback on the positive and negative aspects of the lesson as well as to see if there is progress in case the teacher has been previously observed. it is crucial to highlight that although class observation is a formal process and all teachers are observed at different stages, the ld does not rely on this process only when assessing a teacher’s performance. lesson co-planning; efforts and success carreño no. 15 (july december, 2017) no. 15 (july december, 2017) 181 for the ld, teachers are integral professionals who perform a variety of tasks that are taken into account when making decisions. the ld teaching staff has a low turnover, and is increased by few teachers (3-4) every semester in response to the continuous growth of student population at the university. methodology research design as stated above, the main intention of the present study is to describe the implementation process of a planning strategy that was intended to help both teachers and students to reach their goals. in order to illustrate how the strategy was planned, implemented and then analyzed, a basic qualitative study (merriam, 1998) was designed. according to merriam (1998), a basic qualitative research study is conducted in order to understand “how people interpret their experiences, how they construct their worlds and what meaning they attribute to their experiences” (p. 23). for this study, the researchers intended to find out what the experiences of co-planning language lessons had been like for teachers at the ld. interpreting teachers’ perceptions regarding co-planning was of great importance given that such strategy was implemented thanks to a previous diagnosis in which teachers were asked regarding their preferences when planning their lessons. therefore, it was necessary to evaluate how useful the strategy was for teachers and for the program itself to take actions, either to continue improving the strategy or to rethink the way it had been implemented. context and participants the present study took place at a higher education institution in colombia, south america. the study was conducted at the languages department with the english proficiency program. the english proficiency program is one of high importance given that the university has specific requirements regarding the language level students must have to be able to graduate. to fulfill the language requirements, students must pass all the levels of the program and must take an international exam (toefl, ielts, and fce) that certifies their language proficiency. for years, the ld has made big efforts to offer students a high-quality program that can prepare them to use the target lesson co-planning; efforts and success carreño no. 15 (july december, 2017) no. 15 (july december, 2017) 182 language in different contexts; preparation of students for international tests is only one of the objectives of the program. as stated by benson and nunan (2005), “effective learners not only develop a high degree of autonomy but the development of autonomy is associated with a view of language as a tool for communication rather than as a subject to be studied in the same way as other school subjects” (p. 28). initially, 13 teachers and mentors were selected and invited to participate in the study in order to answer a survey and respond to an interview that intended to find out their co-planning experiences and insights. the teachers and mentors were selected following the criteria underlying purposeful sampling (patton, 2002); “purposeful sampling is about selecting information-rich cases to study, cases that by their nature and substance will illuminate the inquiry question being investigated” (p. 265). the sample of teachers and mentors was chosen taking into account the time they had worked with the ld, that is to say, participants who had been able to experience both the previous planning methodology (mentor in charge of class-planners), and the new co-planning strategy implemented (mentor-teacher every week). in total, 5 teachers and 5 mentors answered the survey. 7 out of 10 participants have a master’s degree in areas such as education, linguistics, and learning environments, among others. the other 3 participants have a bachelor’s degree in languages. on average, the participants have worked with the ld between 1.5 and 4.5 years. this fulfills the most important requirement established to participate in the study. the levels teachers and mentors have taught are not relevant given that all levels must follow the same guidelines for lesson planning and evaluation. this in accordance with what patton (2002) described as credibility concerns which deal with the necessity of finding “the kind of arguments that will lend credibility to the study as well as the kind of arguments that might be used to attack the findings” (p. 308). data collection procedures and instruments for this particular study, data were collected from two surveys and one semi-structured interview conducted with the participants who were a mix of the mentors in charge of each level and the teachers who agreed on being part of the study at the end of the semester 2016-1. the first survey was conducted right after the strategy had been implemented for the first time. in this survey, teachers and mentors shared their views on how this new strategy had worked for them and the differences (if any) they had perceived. lesson co-planning; efforts and success carreño no. 15 (july december, 2017) no. 15 (july december, 2017) 183 in a preliminary phase of the study, a survey was conducted to ask teachers and mentors what their roles during the first stage of the implementation had been. in previous semesters, only mentors were in charge of structuring weekly planners for each of the levels, that is to say, mentors planned by using the textbook suggested and the planners from previous semesters; then, planners were shared with the teaching staff in charge of carrying out the activities suggested in the planner. based on the results of the first survey conducted, it was decided that some changes needed to be included in the structure of the strategy and the class planning methodology. in the analysis of the first survey some teachers claimed that they did not feel comfortable by receiving and following a lesson plan designed by one person (the mentor in charge of the level). this feeling was caused by the fact that they constantly saw themselves in the need to adapt and, in some cases change the different activities proposed by the mentor. teachers argued that at times, they did not feel comfortable developing the activities suggested, simply because they considered the activities proposed in the planner did not help their students accomplish the objectives established. in a second stage, and to find out teachers and mentors’ perceptions regarding the co-planning strategy which had already been implemented for over 3 semesters by that time, a survey was designed. as stated by seliger and shohamy (1989), surveys offer several advantages such as anonymity of the participants, which allows for more honest responses regarding the phenomenon under study; also as surveys are responded by participants on their own, the time allotted for data collection reduces, which results in a more efficient data collection process. separate surveys were shared with the participants given their roles in the program; however, the questions had very similar intentions regarding the type of information being collected. the survey had 3 main sections: 1. background information, 2. co-planning experience and perceptions, and 3. teachers and mentors’ roles. the first section asked the participants to provide very specific information regarding their academic background and degrees obtained. the second section asked the participants to describe the co-planning process they had followed in their particular levels; the aim was to identify differences even though all the levels were supposed to follow the same procedures for class-planning. the third section of the survey asked teachers and mentors to portray the strengths and weaknesses they had found along the process; this was done to identify successful aspects and possible lesson co-planning; efforts and success carreño no. 15 (july december, 2017) no. 15 (july december, 2017) 184 areas of improvement in the future implementation of the strategy. in the next section, teachers and mentors described the roles they had performed along the process, to know how they saw themselves, as they were active participants of the different stages of the process. finally, the participants were asked to express their feelings regarding the strategy, more specifically, to say how they felt while being part of the implementation and their preferences regarding the continuation of the strategy. to gather complementary data to that collected from the survey, a round of semi-structured interviews was planned with the 11 individuals who accepted the invitation to participate in this second phase of data collection. the use of semi-structured interviews is usually highly informative due to the nature of the instrument. “the researcher develops an interview protocol that includes a list of questions or topics to be addressed in the interviews with all participants (…) it helps guide the collection of data in a systematic and focused manner” (lodico et al., 2010, p. 301). although an interview protocol was written, each interview varied according to the insights provided by each participant. what is most interesting about this instrument is that it is an opportunity to discover unexpected perceptions that emerge from participants’ spontaneous views. regarding semi structured interviews, zohrabi (2013) highlights that: this type of interview is flexible and allows the interviewee to provide more information than the other ones. this form of interview is neither too rigid nor too open. it is a moderate form in which a great amount of data can be elicited from the interviewee (p. 255). the interview conducted was a great opportunity for teachers to open themselves, they were able to contribute to the improvement of a process that had been implemented for over a year and a half, and which had brought a great deal of advantages that had remained unexplored and which emerged from what teachers could share by using this data collection instrument. by using semi-structured interviews, it was possible not only to broaden the views collected in the survey but also to empower the participants by showing them how valuable their views were since they were the ones who were actually present in all the stages of the implementation of the strategy. lesson co-planning; efforts and success carreño no. 15 (july december, 2017) no. 15 (july december, 2017) 185 all data were analyzed under the parameters of the grounded theory approach, which allows researchers to go from specific characteristics to more general features that are then grouped to find commonalities that portray the nature of the data collected. charmaz (2006) asserts that “grounded theory coding consists of at least two phases: initial and focused coding; during initial coding, we study fragments of data – words, lines, segments, and incidents – closely for their analytic import” (p. 42). this method was chosen given that it allowed the researchers to explore data and start identifying repetitive features that were used to understand the phenomenon of study. results and discussion during the data analysis process, several aspects regarding the co-planning strategy experienced by mentors and teachers emerged. in figure 1 below, a display of the categories that resulted from the data analysis carried out is shown. figure 1. categories and sub-categories in this study, the data analysis process was carried out taking into account the parameters suggested by creswell (2009), who mentions how in grounded theory “there are systematic steps which involve generating categories of information (open coding), selecting one of the categories and positioning it within a theoretical model (axial coding), and then explicating a story from the interconnection of these categories (selective coding)”. (p. 184). bearing this in mind, the researchers opted for a systematic analysis that aimed to identify repetitive patterns of information that showed participants’ views and insights regarding the focus of the study. the categories shown before are the result of the patterns that predominated in the data analysis and that focused on several aspects that were key for a thorough comprehension of the co-planning phenomenon in the particular context where the study took place. lesson co-planning; efforts and success carreño no. 15 (july december, 2017) no. 15 (july december, 2017) 186 during the analysis process, each of the researchers analyzed specific portions of information and then gathered the patterns obtained to compare and merge the resulting codes. however, it was revealing to see that the patterns identified by each of the researchers coincided and it was more a matter of agreeing on the names of the codes to be used to label data. each of the stages suggested by the grounded theory approach was followed and as a result, 3 categories and 11 sub categories were obtained. category 1: following steps: the path to a successful co-planning experience: figure 2: category 1 the first category is called “following steps: the path to a successful co-planning experience”, this category is devoted to the analysis of teachers and mentors’ perceptions regarding the co-planning strategy, its advantages and disadvantages. in this category, it was identified that the co-planning strategy was divided into 3 main stages that made-up the whole process: a pre-planning, a while planning, and a post-planning stage. during the ‘pre-planning’ stage teachers had to think of the necessary components to create a planner that could fulfill the needs of the level, and which helped teachers and students reach the objectives proposed in the course syllabus. for this ‘pre-planning’ stage, teachers were aware of how important it was to follow certain steps that led to a successful coplanning experience. first, level mentors were supposed to share the planner used during the previous semester; in some cases, the planner used coincided lesson co-planning; efforts and success carreño no. 15 (july december, 2017) no. 15 (july december, 2017) 187 with the week and topic to be covered in the current semester. this step was meant to help teachers and mentors know what had been done and to avoid starting from scratch; however, it was expected that teachers would propose new activities and look for new resources that could contribute to an enhanced and more efficient version of the classplanner. most of the teachers who work with the ld have been teaching at the institution for quite some time and are familiar with the levels and the methodology used. therefore, if teachers had already taught the level assigned, that stage became a great opportunity for them to re-structure their teaching and evaluate how efficient their practices had been in the previous semester and from that, improve the lesson structure, the resources used or any other aspect that they considered needed an intervention to suit their current course and students’ needs. the second stage, the ‘while-planning stage’ is about the logistics teachers and mentors went through for actually sitting down and planning their lessons. in this stage, the principal factor to be taken into account was time management. for teachers and mentors, it was difficult to find the time to meet and devote to lesson-planning; therefore, finding strategies such as sharing class-planners in advance (pre-planning) and thinking of what went well and what went wrong in previous semesters was a mandatory step to save time and make the process more efficient. one of the most important aspects to consider was how students had perceived the activities and resources proposed. although it was quite challenging to attempt to satisfy all of the students’ preferences with the activities and resources proposed, teachers and mentors always tried to choose activities and resources that could appeal to the target ages and social conditions of the students in each level and to the trends found in society nowadays. time management was also a crucial factor when teachers and mentors met to discuss and agree on the activities and resources that were going to be included in the final planner. in most cases, teachers and mentors could actually meet for 1 or 2 hours at the most; so, time had to be fully taken advantage of to achieve the main goal. during those meetings, time was mainly devoted to making suggestions and reaching consensus based on the analysis of previous planners and on the selection of the new activities and the resources that teachers and mentors would propose for inclusion in the new version. for some mentors, it was hard to deal with the fact that teachers had innovative ideas and that it was absolutely necessary to open space for their ideas to refresh class-planning given that teachers usually have more groups than mentors and have a wider perspective regarding students’ needs. lesson co-planning; efforts and success carreño no. 15 (july december, 2017) no. 15 (july december, 2017) 188 during the second stage, it was possible to identify that the coplanning strategy was not only a way to enhance class-planners, but also a way to actually get to know teachers in terms of their strengths and weaknesses. for teachers who had been working at the ld for some time, it was easier to understand the nature of the strategy and adapt to it; for new teachers, it was harder to adapt. however, as teachers were expected to plan two weeks in the semester, it was easier for them to plan the second week assigned, once they had become more familiar with process. i have found the two profiles, teachers who already know how we work and come to the meetings with some proposals and we both agree in regards to class-planning and resources. with some new teachers, the co-planning process was more about explaining to them how it worked and showing them what a class was like, how we do classes, what we focus on, what kind of activities we use, etc. interview 1. june 21st, 2016. participant 3. in this interview extract, one of the participants highlights how teachers’ profiles influence the process and how mentors adapt to the kinds of teachers that compose the team. it is necessary for mentors to be aware of the roles they need to assume depending on the teacher they are working with every week. figure 3: co-planning process stages implemented at the dcl the third stage was the result of teachers’ suggestions regarding their experience with the co-planning strategy. this is a stage that had not been officially included in the process, but it was suggested by lesson co-planning; efforts and success carreño no. 15 (july december, 2017) no. 15 (july december, 2017) 189 teachers and mentors during the interviews conducted as a necessary step to successfully conclude the process. during the ‘post-planning’ stage, teachers and mentors would have to meet again, after the class-planner has been implemented to evaluate the success of the activities and resources proposed. the purpose of that stage was to optimize the ‘pre-planning’ stage of upcoming semesters, so that either experienced or novice teachers would receive a version of the class-planner that had already been implemented and assessed based on course syllabus objectives and how successful the activities were with students in terms of effectiveness, efficiency and how entertaining and appealing they were. category 2: co-planning as a way to empower teachers: figure 4. category 2 this second category is about how co-planning was not only a strategy to class-planning, but also a path to improve all the aspects concerning the process. including teachers in lesson planning allows institutions to identify strengths and abilities that contribute to the improvement of the program. displaying such characteristics can later become a crucial factor when determining future mentoring roles. regarding this aspect, some teachers see this strategy as an opportunity to learn how to plan and consequently improve their teaching practice. mentors should then be open to suggestions and possible changes that teachers make to class-planning; however, this is not always the case. in an interview extract, one of the participants mentions how discouraging it was for her to see that some of the resources she had suggested for both of the levels she was planning had not been included lesson co-planning; efforts and success carreño no. 15 (july december, 2017) no. 15 (july december, 2017) 190 in the final class-planner. however, she is also aware that her mentor might have made this decision due to specific reasons. maybe, something that happened to me with both mentors, was that searching for suitable activities, videos, etc. was not easy, and at the time of receiving the planner, they did not use the video that i had sent, then one feels a little ... ah ok, it wasn’t taken into account, my time was wasted. but, if we get back to the point, i think they also have a more general vision of the level and teachers and students’ needs, so they know what would be more useful. but, in the end i didn’t use the video suggested by the mentor, so, sometimes it’s more about individual perspectives. interview 1. june 21st, 2016. participant 4 in this extract, the participant tried to put herself in the mentor’s shoes and understand the reasons why mentors sometimes made decisions that might seem unfair to teachers. however, at the end of the extract, she also mentioned that she made a decision regarding the class-planner and omitted one of the resources suggested, which brings up the need for a more personalized class-planner. as mentioned in a previous section, before the implementation of the co-planning strategy, mentors were the only ones in charge of class-planning and teachers were only expected to follow the planners proposed by mentors. in the first survey conducted, it was possible to see that teachers identified the need for including more communicative activities that allowed students to increase their spoken abilities and activities that aimed at increasing the level of interaction among learners. in addition, teachers expressed that the previous lesson planning strategy had not included learning strategies and had not taken different learning styles into consideration. therefore, a co-planning strategy has been implemented as a way to provide solutions to the problems found and to provide teachers with an opportunity to contribute to the program and become more active participants of the process. in some cases, teachers had contradictory points of view that might have arisen when they had to use planners that had not been proposed by them. in the following extract, it is evidenced how the participant highlights advantages and disadvantages of the strategy. i get the planner and i go back and change some things then, i check it and again i go back and i say, yes this is cool but i think this wouldn’t work for this group, i know my students, and, in lesson co-planning; efforts and success carreño no. 15 (july december, 2017) no. 15 (july december, 2017) 191 the end i end up making more changes even at the moment of implementing the planner, of course without changing the essence of the lesson or the topics or anything, but i end up putting other activities or modifying the way they are done, then sometimes i think, i do not know if all that work that other people did is being lost, because sometimes it doesn’t work for me; and, i’m not saying that my activities are the only ones which work for my class, but definitely some activities don’t work for me. there are also super cool activities that i would not have thought of and i say, uh, cool, this is very interesting, i would not have thought of this and it’s nice, it’s cool… interview 1. june 21st, 2016. participant 6. although this teacher mentioned that some activities were replaced according to the needs of the groups, she was also aware that some of the activities were actually very innovative and offered a new perspective on the concepts that were to be taught. the participant also made an analysis regarding the amount of work that the planners required and how this work might have been lost if teachers did not make use of the resources and activities proposed. for this strategy to work, team communication becomes a key factor, mainly because level teams are made out of almost 10 teachers in average, so it would not be efficient to have all of them sit together to receive and discuss the planner. keeping constant communication with all the members of the team through the forum, where lesson plans are uploaded to improve planning practices arises then, as a necessary component of the process. in this way, teachers would suggest activities, resources and successful practices to enrich lesson planning. when listing the advantages of the strategy, it is possible to see that one of the major strengths provided by co-planning was that ideas, resources and activities would vary and contribute to more dynamic lessons that fulfill learners’ needs and which tackle several learning styles. what is more, by co-planning, teachers’ sense of belonging and commitment to the program increases, given that they are now in charge of the most important step for the success of the whole program. this also contributes to the knowledge that teachers have regarding the philosophy underlying the institution’s program. lesson co-planning; efforts and success carreño no. 15 (july december, 2017) no. 15 (july december, 2017) 192 category 3: the co-planning resources: figure 5. category 3 for this category, the examined aspects were the role of the planner format used, the textbook and the course syllabus. the main reason to analyze these aspects was that teachers and mentors are demanded to follow the course syllabus to ensure the standardization of the procedures to be carried out by teachers in terms of course content, project implementation and evaluation criteria. the textbooks used in the program are selected based on the approach to language teaching adopted by the institution (task-based learning). in the planner format, the co-planning team is requested to complete specific sections that go hand in hand with the approach previously mentioned. in this sense, the ld provides teachers with a fixed format that contains specific sections (warm up, introduction, practice, application and independent work) that guide lesson-planning and in which the co-planning team records the objectives of the lesson, the learning strategies to be used, the skills to be reinforced, the activities suggested, the resources needed and the time allotted among others. lesson co-planning; efforts and success carreño no. 15 (july december, 2017) no. 15 (july december, 2017) 193 figure 6. planner format the data collected evidenced that the planner format was quite clear for teachers so they had no problem to understand the purpose of the planner. teachers highlighted how the planner helped them to create a cohesive lesson since the sections suggested easily connect to each other. teachers claimed not to have trouble when reading the planners, even if they were not part of the weekly co-planning team. among the disadvantages mentioned by the participants of the study was the fact that not all lessons need all the sections specified in the planner, so teachers suggest that, according to the lesson, the sections can be modified or omitted; sometimes, the sections were completed with unnecessary content just because they were in the format. another aspect that emerged was that the descriptions of the activities included were sometimes too long and unnecessary information was included, and this, instead of helping teachers understand the lesson, made it harder to actually see the purpose of the activities. what happens is that, there are certain activities that do need a description, for example, a game, then, i can look at the photocopy where the game is, but if for me it is still not clear, then, i can look at the planner. but, if the activity is in the teacher’s book, it has the game or the exercises and those already have an explanation, so i just take a look at the book and that’s it. i would say that it depends on the activities; there are others that just need to be mentioned and you already know what to lesson co-planning; efforts and success carreño no. 15 (july december, 2017) no. 15 (july december, 2017) 194 do. certain activities require a full description and, at the same time we can use them with students, so, sometimes it is quite useful. interview 1. june 21st, 2016. participant 1. for this teacher, it was evidently unnecessary to include such detailed descriptions in the planner, because in most cases, they are experienced teachers who have taught the same level and who know the activities (if they have been used in previous semesters). therefore, it would be better to mention the activities and let teachers look for further instructions (teacher’s book, photocopiable material, etc.) if necessary. for teachers, the role of the syllabus and course books goes hand in hand with the planner format. in the weekly planner, the planning team should always include the components of these two resources that are necessary for the achievement of the goals established for the week. as mentioned in the review of literature, the ld has made great efforts to find textbooks that respond to the demands of the program regarding aspects such as an appropriate methodology, fun and challenging tasks, topics which incentivize students’ communicative production, and critical thinking skills. the textbooks should also include extra material that can scaffold students’ learning and that can lead them towards the achievement of the objectives set. conclusions all along the document many arguments in favor of the mentoring and co-planning strategies have been presented. there are several benefits and advantages that this strategy can offer to any institution interested in the improvement of the processes involved in the language teaching experience. the advantages mentioned along the documents are not only concerning institutional matters. the participants of this strategy at the ld highlighted various positive aspects regarding this implementation and expressed the reasons why they considered this was an effective and efficient methodology to lesson-planning. co-planning opens the door to many possibilities, for instance, teachers highlight how co-planning allows them to have access to a variety of activities and resources that they would not be able to think of on their own; as a result, classes can become much more interesting and motivating for students. additionally, having different perspectives integrated in the class-planner is a lot more inclusive than having one person in charge of the planner. teachers then, feel more empowered, comfortable and at ease with the activities and resources proposed; thanks to the inclusion lesson co-planning; efforts and success carreño no. 15 (july december, 2017) no. 15 (july december, 2017) 195 of other team members in class-planning, a wider view of students’ needs is included. regarding mentoring, the study revealed that it is not only a matter of class-planning; the ld conceives mentoring as a key factor in the success of the whole program. when talking about co-planning and teachers’ mentoring, it should be highlighted that the person who is in charge of mentoring his/her colleagues should be aware that teachers will turn to them in case of a doubt or a difficulty. however, mentors are also required to be careful when dealing with requests and suggestions made by teachers; not all of the suggestions or requests can be solved or included, so mentors should be knowledgeable professionals who count on arguments and criteria to make decisions in the level assigned. in this regard, communication between team members (mentors and teachers) should be optimized to increase the quality of the process. teachers argued along the data collection process that they sometimes felt that mentors had some difficulty accepting suggestions and comments. however, it is also important to take into account that level mentors have a much more global vision of the process given that they possess much more information about the good and bad aspects going on in the level. it is crucial that teachers and mentors are willing to negotiate and contribute to students’ success. it should be considered that all the efforts made by the ld have a principle that revolves around students’ well-being in all senses, which makes us more concerned about the high impact of teaching practices on students. in this context, the mentor is the one who monitors, guides and accompanies the process, therefore, teachers are also students’ mentors. lesson co-planning; efforts and success carreño no. 15 (july december, 2017) no. 15 (july december, 2017) 196 references benson, p., & nunan, d. 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(2005). advising and supporting teachers. cambridge: cambridge university press. lesson co-planning; efforts and success carreño no. 15 (july december, 2017) no. 15 (july december, 2017) 197 richards j. c. & bohlke, d. (2011). creating effective language lessons. retrieved from http://www.cambridge.org/other_files/ downloads/esl/fourcorners/pedagogical_books/creating-effectivelanguage-lessons-combined.pdf richards, j., & farrell, t. (2011). practice teaching: a reflective approach. cambridge: cambridge university press. doi:10.1017/ cbo9781139151535 smith, p.; west-burnham, j. (1993). mentoring in the effective school. harlow: pearson education. ur, p. (2009). a course in language teaching: practice and theory. 176-177. https://doi.org/http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/cbo9780511732928.011 woodward, t. (2001). planning lessons and courses. cambridge: cambridge university press. zohrabi, m. (2013). mixed method research: instruments, validity, reliability and reporting findings. theory and practice in language studies, 3, 254-262. http://dx.doi.org/10.4304/tpls.3.2.254-262 lesson co-planning; efforts and success carreño no. 15 (july december, 2017) no. 15 (july december, 2017) 198 authors* laura carreño bolívar holds a ba in modern languages and a master’s degree in applied linguistics to tefl from universidad distrital francisco josé de caldas (bogotá, colombia). she has been an english teacher for over twelve years in different higher education institutions holding numerous positions. laura has been a speaker in numerous national and international academic events and has also led teacher-training projects. her research interests include teachers´ professional development, intercultural competences and clil. luz stella hernandez ortiz studied modern languages at universidad industrial de santander and holds a master’s degree in education with emphasis on english didactics from universidad externado de colombia. she has worked in the teaching field for about 20 years and she is currently working at universidad de la sabana as a teacher and academic programs director of the department of foreign languages and cultures. lesson co-planning; efforts and success no. 15 (july december, 2017) no. 15 (july december, 2017) 129 teaching science in english through cognitive strategies1 yuly andrea bueno hernández2* institución universitaria colombo americana-única, colombia abstract this study shows the impact and results of implementing three cognitive strategies in science teaching in english. the three-month study was carried out with 144 second grade students at a public school of bogota’s bilingualism program, but only 40 students contributed in the data collection process. data collected from observations and fieldnotes, surveys, interviews, videotapes, and photographs revealed that the use of the strategies helped children understand not only the content and language, but also the class tasks. preliminary findings showed that students are the main actors of their learning, and they gain certain autonomy and independence using the cognitive strategies. on the teachers’ side, strategies facilitated classroom management and engagement. the author recommends the constant and gradual implementation of learning strategies not only in science classes, but also in the rest of the content classes to integrate language and content easily. keywords: cognitive strategies, science teaching, sheltered instruction, students’ learning and emotions. resumen el presente artículo muestra el impacto y los resultados de la implementación de tres estrategias cognitivas en la enseñanza de ciencias naturales en inglés. el estudio, que tuvo una duración de tres meses, se llevó a cabo con 144 estudiantes de segundo grado de un colegio público, que hace parte del programa de bilingüismo de bogotá, pero solo 40 estudiantes contribuyeron en el proceso de recolección de información. los datos recogidos a partir de observaciones y notas de campo, encuestas, entrevistas, videos y fotografías revelaron que el uso de las estrategias ayudó a los niños a comprender no sólo el contenido y el lenguaje, sino también las actividades de clase. los resultados preliminares mostraron que los estudiantes son los actores principales de su aprendizaje y adquieren cierta autonomía e independencia utilizando las estrategias cognitivas. por el lado del docente, las estrategias facilitaron la gestión del 1 received: february 23rd, 2012 / accepted: may 14th, 2012 2 email: sopia_170@hotmail.com gist education and learning research journal. issn 1692-5777. no. 6, november 2012. pp. 129-146 no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) 130 aula y el compromiso con la misma. el autor recomienda la implementación constante y gradual de las estrategias de aprendizaje no solo en las clases de ciencias naturales, sino también en el resto de las materias de contenido para integrar el lenguaje y el contenido fácilmente. palabras claves: estrategias cognitivas, enseñanza de ciencias naturales, instrucción dirigida, aprendizaje y emociones de los estudiantes. resumo o presente artigo mostra o impacto e os resultados da implantação de três estratégias cognitivas no ensino de ciências naturais em inglês. o estudo, que teve uma duração de três meses, foi realizado com 144 estudantes de segunda série de um colégio público, que faz parte do programa de bilinguismo de bogotá, mas só 40 estudantes contribuíram no processo de recolha de informação. os dados recolhidos a partir de observações e notas de campo, pesquisas de opiniões, entrevistas, vídeos e fotografias revelaram que o uso das estratégias ajudou as crianças a compreender não só o conteúdo e a linguagem, senão também as atividades de classe. os resultados preliminares mostraram que os estudantes são os atores principais da sua aprendizagem e adquirem certa autonomia e independência utilizando as estratégias cognitivas. pelo lado do docente, as estratégias facilitaram a gestão da aula e o compromisso com a mesma. o autor recomenda a implantação constante e gradual das estratégias de aprendizagem não só nas aulas de ciências naturais, senão também no resto das matérias de conteúdo para integrar a linguagem e o conteúdo facilmente. palavras chaves: estratégias cognitivas, ensino de ciências naturais, instrução dirigida, aprendizagem e emoções dos estudantes. introduction based on my experience, i consider that teaching english is not the same as teaching science in english. the difference lies mainly on the fact that content instruction in english implies specific teaching methodologies as well as strategies to help students learn the language while learning the content. if teaching english is by itself a complicated matter, teaching science in english to spanish speakers is exponentially more challenging. teaching science in english through cognitive strategies bueno hernandez no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) 131 language is central to teaching and learning every subject. teachers use language to help students learn contents, and students use language to explore content and to express what they have learned. so, science students who are simultaneously learning english need to have a good command of the language to master the content. however, when they struggle with the language, they fall behind with the content, too. thus, teaching science in english through the use of the sheltered instruction principles is necessary to help students learn content concepts and develop their language skills simultaneously. however, this is not enough, which brings into life the use of strategies to make learning meaningful and to achieve the goal of bilingualism. in my experience as a student-teacher in a public school, i taught science to second grade students following not only the curriculum of the school, but also the sheltered instruction and cognitive strategies. therefore, the aim of this study is to describe the effects and implications of using three cognitive strategies (classify, acting out, and imagery) with second-grade students at a public school of bogota’s bilingualism program, particularly regarding their english and science learning, and emotions. this action research study took place at a pilot public school of bogota’s bilingualism program from march to may, 2011. it is a coed school, which is starting to implement the national ministry of education bilingual project. this project has been advised by the universidad nacional through the linguistics department. the target population of the study includes four second grade courses, whose number of students range from 35 to 37. however, not all of them participated in the data collection process; 10 students (5 girls, and 5 boys) were chosen from each course (giving us a total of 40 students) to provide their ideas, experiences, and feelings regarding the class. the students’ selection process was at random to avoid bias. the students’ ages range from 6 to 8 years old. data from the study were collected through daily observations and fieldnotes, surveys to the 40 students, interviews with two teachers, weekly videotapes, and photographs. theoretical framework integrating language instruction with subject matter instruction is still a challenge for educators, especially if they lack training and knowledge. content-based instruction has been carried out in many grade levels and educational programs. however, how do we know if the focus of this trend, content in language instruction, is effectively applied or not? not many primary teachers in colombia know or use the teaching science in english through cognitive strategies bueno hernandez no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) 132 sheltered instruction approach in content-based instruction, which has been used to help students with a limited english proficiency to learn english through content areas simultaneously. it has been proved in the united states that this instructional approach works and is effective in primary levels, but little research has been done in colombia in this regard. it is therefore important to find out if this method helps teachers develop optimal ways to present content and at the same time keep it understandable to second-grade students, who are beginning to learn the language of instruction (english) and the content (science). for this reason, this study attempts to point out how the implementation of the sheltered instruction approach along with the use of strategies of the cognitive level in science classes makes learning and teaching different. to have a deeper understanding of this study, a short explanation of what sheltered instruction and learning strategies are will be given. sheltered instruction it is defined as “an approach for teaching content to english learners (els) in strategic ways that make the subject matter concepts comprehensible while promoting the student’s english language development” (echevarria, et al 2004, p. 2). such instruction came out as the result of developing strategies to foster second language development and academic learning through the use of the second language (peregoy & boyle, 2003, p. 78). sheltered instruction or sdaie (specially designed academic instruction in english) provides access to the core curriculum, english language development, and opportunities for social interaction. basically, this model is a resource teachers can count on to improve their teaching and help learners to grasp content and language simultaneously. its primary goal is to show teachers the way to teach content effectively to english learners while developing their language proficiency. learning strategies this refers to the mental processes that enhance comprehension, learning, and retention of information (echevarria, et al 2004, p. 81), which in other words are the special thoughts or behaviors that exhibit these outputs (o’malley & chamot, 1990, p. 1). furthermore, “researchers have learned that information is retained and connected in the brain through mental pathways that are linked to an individual’s existing schema” (echevarria, et al 2004, p. 81). this suggests that the initiation and use of learning strategies activates mental processes teaching science in english through cognitive strategies bueno hernandez no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) 133 through the associations between new and old learning. in the same way, the explicit teaching of learning strategies that facilitate the learning process involves teaching students to access information in memory, helping students make connections between what they know and what they are learning, assisting students in problem solving, and promoting retention of newly learned information. three types of learning strategies have been identified (o’malley & chamot, 1990). they are: metacognitive strategies, cognitive strategies and social/affective strategies. for this study, only the cognitive strategies will be considered, which according to echevarria “help students organize the information they are expected to learn through the process of self-regulated learning” (as cited in paris, 2001). besides this, the ultimate goal of using these strategies is to foster independence in students and have student-centered classes for teachers. as it is very difficult for beginner students to initiate an active role in the use of the strategies, sheltered instruction teachers should scaffold their use and should help learners to focus their mental energy on their thinking development skills. from the cognitive level strategies, only three strategies are the target of the study: classifying or grouping, imagery and acting out. the first strategy, classifying or grouping, is focused on relating or putting words within categories according to their attributes, and the mental process that is expected from students is to remember information. the second strategy, imagery, is related to the creation of images to represent information, and it requires that students visualize knowledge, create a mental picture and draw it. it is also called imaging and it encourages students to create an image in their minds to support the understanding of concepts or problems to be solved (o’malley & chamot, 1990). finally, the last strategy, acting out, is about creating different gestures and movements with the body to visually represent ideas, concepts, and vocabulary. it involves creativity and the ability to remember and connect information. the good point of this strategy is precisely the opportunity that students have to create experiences with which to link the new vocabulary. review of related literature teaching content in english is by far more demanding than teaching english only. “teachers of english language learners (ells) face several challenges, not the least of which is facilitating students’ simultaneous acquisition of academic content and english language and literacy” (hart, & lee, 2003, p. 476). thanks to the sheltered instruction teaching science in english through cognitive strategies bueno hernandez no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) 134 approach not only can teachers face this challenge in strategic ways, but also students get better preparation in terms of language and content (diaz, 2010). however, there is little evidence of this in colombia, except for the research studies pioneered by unica university, which is one of the reasons why this study is going to be carried out. the main issue with content-based instruction is that ell students do not have enough support from the teacher to handle content concepts in a yetunmastered language (lee, 2005). furthermore, in some cases, teachers lack preparation on how to provide linguistic and content support to students so that they can learn both things simultaneously and develop skills. science is one of those subjects that students learn through rote learning because they do not find sense in what they are learning, and they just need to pass a test. thus, incorporating cognitive strategies to teach content-based instruction may facilitate students’ learning and change the traditional way science has been taught. motivation when teaching science or any other subject in a foreign language, in this case english, with the use of strategies, it is not only important to consider that students will have to deal with language, content and strategies, but teachers should think of how to integrate those components and foster motivation. this aspect affects how hard students are willing to work on a task, how much they will persevere when they are challenged, and how much satisfaction they feel when they accomplish a learning task (chamot, et al, 1999). several studies have found connections between motivation for language learning and strategy use. in a large-scale study of us college students, oxford and nyikos (1989) found that more motivated learners used four out of five categories of strategies more frequently than did less motivated students. also, okada, oxford, and abo (1996) conducted a study with 36 learners of japanese and 36 learners of spanish and they found that there was a very strong relationship between the use of metacognitive, cognitive and social strategies and several motivational aspects in both language groups. students tended to be more engaged in their classes, they participated more and they felt eager to continue learning. however, all these studies converge in the same concern, causality: whether motivation fosters strategy use or, conversely, strategy use leads to better language performance, which in turn increases motivation and thus leads to increased strategy use (okada et al. 1996). teaching science in english through cognitive strategies bueno hernandez no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) 135 proficiency and achievement each time a teacher implements something new in his or her class, the ultimate goal is always to achieve a positive change in learning, teaching and even in students’ performance. this is one of the major reasons to research strategy use in language learning: to determine the relationship between strategies and proficiency. in a study carried out with 78 japanese college english majors, takeuchi (1993) reported that some 60 per cent of the variance in the comprehensive english language test (celt) scores was associated with strategy use on the sill. in the same way, a study by park (1997) conducted with 332 korean university students found a close linear relationship between sill strategies and english proficiency measured by a practice version of the test of english as a foreign language (toefl). these studies suggest that there is a direct relation between strategy use and the achievement and improvement in second language proficiency. content-based learning strategies instruction a number of studies on the cognitive academic language learning approach (calla) related to learning strategies instruction in content-based esl have been investigated, and they reported successful use of strategies by students. one example of this is the study carried out by chamot, dale, o’malley, & spanos (1993) where teachers in esl mathematics classrooms implemented learning strategies instructions to assist students in solving word problems. mainly, the study consisted of teaching students how to use the following strategies: planning, monitoring, problem-solving, and evaluating in a sequential order to solve word problems. it was found that students who had been provided with explicit and frequent strategies instruction (high-implementation) performed better on a word problem think-aloud interview than students in low-implementation classrooms. in the same way, another study in the science area carried out by varela (1997) shows the effects of calla learning strategies instruction in a middle-school esl-science classroom compared with a similar classroom that received equivalent instruction without the learning strategies. students in the intervention classroom were taught how to use strategies in their oral report on the science fair projects. it was found that students in the strategies group reported using significantly more strategies than the control group students did. also, their performances showed considerable improvement over the performances prior to the strategies instruction. teaching science in english through cognitive strategies bueno hernandez no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) 136 research design context this action research study was carried out in a pilot public school of bogota’s bilingualism program from march to may, 2011. it is a coed school, which is starting to implement the national ministry of education bilingual project and this project has been advised by the universidad nacional through the linguistics department. the aim of the project is to get students acquainted with science concepts in english and the dynamics of learning a subject matter in a foreign language. however, not all the school teachers are trained in both aspects, language and content, but they are getting prepared. so, this gave way to my intervention as science teacher in the school. regarding the time intensity, students take 4 hours of science class in english and 5 hours of english class a week. this time is not only devoted to learning the language and the subject content matter concepts, but also to train students on basic commands and expressions to communicate in english. participants the participants in this study were students and teachers of second grade at a public school in bogota. the total of students who participated in the study was 114, but only 10 students (5 girls, and 5 boys) from four second grade courses, whose number of students range from 35 to 37, participated in the surveys. these 40 students’ selection process was at random to avoid bias. they provided their ideas, experiences, and feelings regarding the class. the students were little children, whose ages range from 6 to 8 years old, of a low to middle-low economic status, and their native language is spanish. regarding teachers, an adult science teacher and a pedagogical assistant from universidad nacional contributed in the interviews. they were sometimes passive observers in the science classes. data collection instruments in this study, qualitative data collection techniques were used as the primary research method. direct active participant observations. this technique was useful to observe the outcomes of using cognitive strategies in terms of learning and emotions. also, this allowed me to monitor the effects of my teaching and adjust instruction accordingly. teaching science in english through cognitive strategies bueno hernandez no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) 137 fieldnotes. daily notes from the observations were taken. they were divided in two parts: one-month field notes, and two-month field notes. in the one-month field notes, i focused my attention on the problem and class structure without the use of the strategies as well as my implicit implementation of the three cognitive strategies. in the two-month field notes, the target was to capture the effects of using cognitive strategies and the impact of their explicit teaching. surveys. one survey was applied to 40 second grade students (20 girls and 20 boys) to gather information about their feelings, experiences, and thoughts in regards to the use of the three cognitive strategies (classifying, acting out, and imagery) in the science class. these surveys were applied by the end of may after students were familiarized with the use of strategies and had received explicit instruction about their use. the questions had options to facilitate the analysis. semi-structured interviews. after a three-month intervention in science class as observers, two teachers were interviewed to know their opinions about the impact of using the three cognitive strategies. the homeroom teacher that was interviewed accompanied me every class during the last two months and the other teacher was the pedagogical assistant of the universidad nacional. videotapes. one class a week was videorecorded during two months. the focus was the use of the three strategies, the instruction of tasks, their accomplishment, the students’ intervention in the class, and the outcome and input of the strategies. photographs. this tool was useful to capture the work done by children after using a strategy. it evidences their learning and it is a physical way to demonstrate the mental processes expected when using strategies. data analysis and interpretation after analyzing the data collected from the different sources, the following themes came up. it is important to mention that the following data results are not only due to the implementation of the strategies, but also the use of some sheltered instruction principles. teaching science in english through cognitive strategies bueno hernandez no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) 138 simultaneous english and science learning according to the results from the surveys, all the population surveyed agreed on having learned science and english simultaneously during my intervention as science teacher. however, their reasons varied as shown in figure 1. it is shown that only 10.2% of figure 1. why have you learned science and english simultaneosly? the students think that their science and english learning is due to the use of the three cognitive strategies and their usefulness. the rest of the students share the opinion that the activities, the teacher instruction, and their own interest are what have determined their dual learning. however, my intervention as a teacher and the activities developed in class were focused merely on the strategies and the principles of sheltered instruction, which reveals that these students indirectly are recognizing their learning thanks to the strategies. one reason for not mentioning the strategies in their answers may be that as students are second graders, they are not conscious of their learning process and they cannot reflect upon it yet, even though the strategies were made explicit during the classes. children perceived the strategies as a tool, but not as the cause of their learning due to their lack of awareness. in this regard, in the interviews teachers revealed that indeed students are learning both things (language and content) simultaneously due to the use of strategies and the process the teacher has had with them. however, they also consider that their english learning at this level is focused on vocabulary, the pronunciation of key science concepts, some simple grammatical structures, and basic english commands. they made emphasis on the fact that learning english and science simultaneously is a process, which takes time and needs to be constant to achieve results in the future. in addition, the surveys showed that 89% of the representative population of second grade considers that they feel happy learning teaching science in english through cognitive strategies bueno hernandez no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) 139 science and english simultaneously; none of the students expressed that they felt bored or sad. in the same way, in the interviews teachers confirmed this information by saying that children felt fine, relaxed, and happy to learn; they considered learning to be a game and they liked to learn. based on my fieldnotes, at the beginning, i perceived that english in the science class was considered to be a barrier for children to learn because they demonstrated that they had learned the content, but they were not able to express things because of the language. then, i realized that they were lacking training and familiarity with the language, not to say that they are in a silent period. in the first classes during the first month of observation, i talked in english 100% of the class, and children were unresponsive, but attentive. it was probably the first time somebody gave them a class in english. they all looked at me with a lost gesture on their faces, but the body movements and the drawings helped them to create an idea of what i was saying, which was not always the right one. the homeroom teacher told me to speak in spanish and to use english merely for the key science words, but that translating them would be a lot easier for children. thus, i realized that their “dual” learning was aimed at learning a list of isolated english vocabulary. during the next two-month observation period, when i started to implement some sheltered instruction ideas (lesson-planning, scaffolding processes, clear instruction, adaptation of content, setting objectives, using visual aids) along with the three cognitive strategies (classifying, imagery, and acting out), changes in their dual learning (content and language) were noticed. children started to associate and retain english words in context; they knew what they meant without having to translate them, they learned their pronunciation through games and songs, and they were able to complete simple written prompts related to the vocabulary studied. in the same way, vocabulary was recycled in each lesson, and students got used to listening to me in english. they were able to understand when i spoke in english, although i obviously had to change the speed of the speech. i used english 90% of the class, and the remaining 10% was in spanish to give instructions, clarify information related to content, or get students’ attention. students’ learning process 100% of the students agreed on saying that the use of the strategies has helped them learn, but their reasons differed a bit. 15 out of 40 students, which correspond to 37.5 % of the students, think that the teaching science in english through cognitive strategies bueno hernandez no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) 140 strategies have helped them learn because they are interesting and easy to apply, while 17.5% attribute this to the fact that the strategies have helped them either retain information easily or do things they like, such as drawing or acting. this suggests that disregarding the reason they attribute to their learning, students recognized the strategies as a factor for their learning (when formally asked) although they are not totally aware of them, which does not mean that they do not know how to use the strategies. in this aspect, teachers manifested that even though 36 or 37 students are not easy to manage, they agreed on the fact that about 75% or 80% of the students are learning, and they demonstrated this through the way they use vocabulary, structures and content within the classroom when developing their tasks. students were asked about the changes they perceived with the strategies and the results show that the answers are homogenous in the four courses and that 47% of the students consider the “better grades” factor as the main way in which the strategies benefited them. it is just 25% of the students who think that enjoyment in class, better understanding, and better grades altogether are the changes they have undergone with the use of the strategies. this information is confirmed in the interviews, where teachers expressed that the impact the strategies have had on the students’ learning process is positive and meaningful since they are doing things (drawing, acting out, and classifying) that they like and enjoy and which creates stronger connections in their minds. the pedagogical assistant of universidad nacional stated that “the impact of those strategies on the children is basically lifetime learning.” thus, they suggested that those cognitive strategies not only were useful for learning during that period, but they will facilitate their future learning if the strategies are used. similarly, the information gathered from the videotapes and fieldnotes is evidence of the fact that children learned thanks to the strategies, and also they showed the impact the strategies had on students’ learning in terms of autonomy, creativity, understanding, and involvement. during the first-month observation period, it was observed that students were not thinking, they were filled out with nonsensical information; their role was limited to copying information from the board, but little attention was paid to their thinking processes. children were not able to associate information, apply knowledge, and not even transfer ideas to other contexts. with the use of the strategies, children started to wake up their minds; their learning process was strengthened by providing them with the tools and not the products. teaching science in english through cognitive strategies bueno hernandez no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) 141 another benefit and change of implementing those cognitive strategies in terms of the students’ learning process is that they understood concepts easily because definitions at this age do not say much to children, but doing something tangible and real allowed them to grasp concepts and to retain them for a longer time period. the strategies facilitated the students’ understanding and they helped children clarify ideas. also, when using the strategies children tended to be more focused on their task, and their levels of concentration increased. as the activities required students to do something and sometimes to interact, children had to strain their minds to think and connect ideas, which guarantees learning for life and not merely for a class. furthermore, these cognitive strategies were also useful to recall information (concepts and vocabulary) and to have students respond for their own learning; they gained certain autonomy and independence in their work. in fact, when applying the strategies, children had to remember the main aspects of the input, and they had to associate that information with their previous knowledge in order to be able to do their task using the strategy. however, when children had not understood the concepts, they happened to understand them through the use of the strategies. also, in the photographs, the students’ efficient use of the strategies shows progress through the science tasks’ accomplishment and the quality of the students’ work as the time goes by. motivation and students’ emotions based on the analysis from the survey results, it was found that 87% of the second grade students felt happy using the cognitive strategies (acting out, classifying, and imagery), and none expressed feeling bored or sad using them. similar results were revealed by the teachers in the interviews, where they affirmed that children felt different in the science class since the strategies resulted in something innovative for children. they are separated from paper-pencil activities, and different things were combined (drawing, acting, classifying, matching, giving names to categories, etc) which made them feel comfortable and relaxed enough to learn in the class. also, the teachers agreed on saying that children felt more motivated and happy in the science class compared to the rest of the classes, in which they merely wrote. this shows that the use of these cognitive strategies (classifying, acting out, and imagery) created the desire to learn in the science class. besides this, when students were asked in the survey whether or not they liked the science class, 100% of them said that they did like teaching science in english through cognitive strategies bueno hernandez no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) 142 the class. then, they were asked for their reasons and 19 out of 40 students which correspond to the majority reported that they liked the science class because both the topics and the class were fun. 17 out of 40 students said that they liked the class because they learned a lot, so once again they were not explicitly acknowledging that the strategies were the cause of their like for the class, but indirectly they agreed on this because if they learned a lot and the class was fun, it was due to the implementation of the strategies and the teacher intervention. in the fieldnotes, i also noticed that children enjoyed using the strategies and different from having to write merely, they kept their minds busy with something that required them to think, which encouraged them to work and learn. it can be said that when children used the strategies in the science class, their level of motivation increased and it was demonstrated through the children’s enthusiasm to participate and work in class. class dynamics changes according to the fieldnotes and videotapes of the first-month period, it can be said that the class was a bit harder to manage and instruction was the focus. science classes were teacher-centered and there was some, if only a little, student involvement. as the groups were difficult to manage in terms of discipline, teachers assigned worksheets where children had to color and paste, but content and language were left aside. the classes tended to be very disorganized and noisy, and children got distracted because they did not know what they had to do. afterwards, when the strategies started to be implemented and children started to be trained in their use, children were a bit more attentive to the input, but anyway they tended to get distracted because they did not understand instructions and as it was the first time they had to do something different from writing, they felt insecure. fortunately, with time, students got adapted to the use of the three cognitive strategies (acting out, classifying, and imagery) and the results were dramatic not only in terms of learning, but also in the class structure and in the teacher’s role. there was a noticeable change in classroom management with the strategies; when using the strategies, children were so concentrated and focused that they did not disturb each other and the times they stood up and walked around the room decreased. there was little noise in the room and i could speak without having to scream. when using the acting out strategy, children tended to get so excited that they shouted and it was difficult for me to control them, but as they wanted teaching science in english through cognitive strategies bueno hernandez no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) 143 to continue using the strategy, i could control them with it. children were more concentrated when using the strategies and even though they interacted more with each other, they did not get disorganized, and their behavior changed for the better. in the same way, i could perceive that the classroom climate changed with the implementation of strategies because the class could be delivered, students respected each other, and they were not nervous about making mistakes. in addition, the strategies benefitted my instruction as a teacher in the sense that with the use of the strategies i could create more dynamic and challenging activities, where children had to think and do mental processes necessary to accomplish tasks. the strategies were useful to avoid lectures as one interviewed teacher said, and also they allowed me to create tasks from which children could benefit in terms of learning and enjoyment. also, with the strategies, students knew what to expect from the class, and they knew what they had to do. in the same way, the strategies facilitated the teacher role since students already knew how to apply the strategies to the different topics and activities. “students got used to the application of strategies and they were already familiar with them, so that the teacher did not even have to explain what they had to do” (extracted from fieldnotes april 25th, 2011). thus, the strategies allowed the teacher to separate from formal instruction, give the opportunity to children to develop thinking skills, and have a focused-output class. besides this, strategies were reported to be useful for both teachers-students’ assessment and self-assessment. when students used the strategies effectively, that is to say with the set purpose and to accomplish the assigned activity, the teacher could notice if students understood the topic and if further practice or teacher instruction was necessary. the strategies allowed the teacher to perceive the learning process of students, if they were learning or if they were merely doing a task. as in all classes the topic of the last class was reviewed and articulated with the new topic, and it was noticed if children made connections with past learning and new knowledge using the strategies. in the same way, through the use of strategies, children could, to a certain degree, monitor their learning in the sense that they were aware of their mistakes and they could check their understanding of the topic. however, as they are children and they are just starting their learning process, they noticed their mistakes with the teacher’s assistance, and not by themselves. teaching science in english through cognitive strategies bueno hernandez no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) 144 findings this study revealed that the use of the three cognitive strategies (classifying, imagery, and acting out) integrates the students’ dual learning (science and english) and makes the language and content concepts easier to grasp for students and to teach for teachers. in the same way, some of the benefits found with the use of the strategies were: they allowed children to build vocabulary, support their understanding, organize information mentally, and provide language support. not only did the strategies have an impact in students’ learning process, but also in their learning skills. besides this, the efficient use of the strategies facilitated the task accomplishment and they guarantee learning through thinking; students had better mental processes. even though second graders are starting to get acquainted with simultaneous english and science learning, they were able to associate information, apply knowledge, recall ideas, and sometimes transfer ideas to other contexts thanks to the use of the strategies. also, the students’ level of understanding, engagement, autonomy, creativity and concentration increased when using the three cognitive strategies (classifying, imagery, and acting out). by teaching children how to use the cognitive strategies, they got more efficient in task accomplishment and they were independent users of the strategies. another important finding was that the use of the strategies in the science class created the desire to learn in students, they were more motivated and enthusiastic to work, and they, in turn, became more active learners. however, the strategies had a strong impact not only in students, but also in the classroom dynamics. the effective use of cognitive strategies in large-size groups worked as a classroom management technique and changed students’ behavior for good, but teachers should not expect to achieve a quiet environment, but a place where students interact and the level of discipline problems decreases. to use strategies as part of the teaching methodology is useful to avoid lectures, and have a more student-centered class, where different types of activities can be created. so, the strategies implementation keeps students focused on their task and they give way to well-structured focused-output classes with clear expectations for both students and teachers. conclusion this study showed that thanks to the explicit training on the use of the cognitive strategies along with the implementation of the teaching science in english through cognitive strategies bueno hernandez no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) 145 sheltered instruction principles, the role of the teacher and the students was turned 180 degrees; the teacher could separate from lectures and create more dynamic activities, and the students were the owners of their learning. the class was more motivating and students developed a love for learning when the strategies encouraged them. thus, the use of strategies became a factor for motivation and students’ motivation fostered the use of strategies; this was a cycle. however, it is important to know how to apply the strategies, especially carrying out a scaffolding process to ensure good results. the cognitive strategies use generated a better class structure and increased students’ level of understanding and enjoyment. finally, it can be said that implementing learning strategies in any class is a great way of complementing instruction and making learning easier and delightful for students. references chamot, a., barnhardt, s., beard, p., & robbins, j. (1999). the learning strategies handbook. new york: addison wesley longman, inc. chamot, a., dale, m., o’malley, j., & spanos, g. (1993). learning and problem solving strategies of esl students. bilingual research quaterly, vol. 16 no. 3&4, 1-38. diaz, m. (2010). siop model strategies: an approach to effective science learning of middle school students. unpublished manuscript. echevarria, j., vogt, m., & short, d. (2004). making content comprehensible for english learners: the siop model (2nd edition). boston, us: pearson education, inc. hart, j., & lee, o. (2003). teacher professional development to improve the science and literacy achievement of english language learners. bilingual research journal, vol. 27, no.3. lee, o. (2005). science education with english language learners: synthesis and research agenda. review of educational research, vol. 75, no. 4. okada, m., oxford, r., & abo, s. (1996). not all alike: motivation and learning strategies among students of japanese and spanish: an exploratory study. language learning motivation: pathways to the new century. manoa: university of hawai’i press. o’malley, j. m., & chamot, a.u. (1990). learning strategies in second language acquisition. cambridge, england: cambridge university press. teaching science in english through cognitive strategies bueno hernandez no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) 146 oxford, r., & nyikos, m. (1989). variables affecting choices of language learning strategies by university students. the modern language journal, vol.3, no.73. park, g. p. (1997). language learning strategies and english proficiency in korean university students. foreign language annals vol. 30, no. 2. peregoy, s., & boyle, o. (2003). reading, writing and reading in esl: a resource book for k-12 teachers. united states of america: pearson education, inc. takeuchi, o. (1993). language learning strategies and their relationship to achievement in english as a foreign language. language laboratory 30: 17-34. varela, f. (1997). speaking solo: using learning strategy instruction to improve english language learners’ oral presentation skills in content-based esl. unpublished doctoral dissertation, georgetown university, washington, dc. author * yuli andrea bueno holds a b.a in bilingual education from única. she currently works as a teacher for the centro colombo americano in bogotá. email: sopia_170@hotmail.com teaching science in english through cognitive strategies no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) 96 efl learners’ development of voice in academic writing: lexical bundles, boosters/hedges and stance-taking strategies1 desarrollo de la voz en la escritura académica en aprendices de inglés como lengua extranjera: estrategias de paquetes léxicos, de refuerzo/ cobertura y de toma de posición christian fallas escobar and lindsay chaves fernández2* universidad nacional de costa rica, costa rica abstract in efl composition courses, teaching and learning normally orbit around norms of unity, coherence, support, and sentence skills that l2 learners are expected to comply with, at the expense of opportunities to develop voice. against this backdrop, we resolved to examine the extent to which students’ exposure to and practice with lexical bundles, boosters/hedges and stancetaking strategies allows them to build a stronger discoursal and authorial voice as future academic writers. evaluation of the students’ works revealed their level of success in this endeavor and analysis of student surveys unveiled the tensions and struggles they faced along the way. at the end of this paper, we advocate for academic writing courses to be transformed into spaces where students not only come to terms with the basic norms they have to conform to, but also build a discoursal and authorial voice as l2 writers. keywords: academic writing, lexical bundles, boosters/hedges, stancetaking strategies, learners’ voice, discoursal and authorial voice. 1 received: august 29th 2017/ accepted: november 21st 2017 2 prongsquib@hotmail.com, lindsay.chaves.fernandez@una.ac.cr fallas & chaves gist education and learning research journal. issn 1692-5777. no.15. (july december) 2017. pp. 96-124. no. 15 (july december, 2017) no. 15 (july december, 2017) 97 resumen los cursos de escritura en lengua extranjera normalmente se enfocan en las normas de unidad, coherencia, sustento, y estructuras gramaticales, a costas de múltiples oportunidades que los estudiantes podrían tener para desarrollar su ‘yo’ discursivo y autoral. por esta razón, nos dimos a la tarea de investigar hasta que punto exponer a los discentes a fraseología académica, intensificadores lingüísticos/evasivas académicas, y estrategias para el posicionamiento crítico les permite escribir con mayor destreza y confianza. la evaluación de los textos escritos por los estudiantes revelan el impacto positivo que la exposición a y práctica de los elementos retóricos y lingüísticos antes mencionados tuvo en sus trabajos escritos. por otra parte, los cuestionarios aplicados a los estudiantes al final del curso revelan las tensiones y dificultades que ellos enfrentaron a lo largo del proceso. concluimos este artículo con un llamado a que los cursos de escritura en lengua extranjera sean transformados en espacios en los que los discentes puedan no solo cumplir con las normas básicas de la escritura académica, sino también construir un ‘yo’ discursivo y autoral más fuerte y sólido. palabras clave: escritura académica, fraseología académica, intensificadores y evasivas académicas, posicionamiento crítico, el concepto de voz, ‘yo’ discursivo, y ‘yo’ autoral. resumo os cursos de escritura em língua estrangeira de um modo geral se enfocam nas normas de unidade, coerência, sustentação, e estruturas gramaticais, decorrente de múltiplas oportunidades que os estudantes poderiam ter para desenvolver o seu ‘eu’ discursivo e autoral. esse é o motivo pelo qual decidimos pesquisar até que ponto expor aos discentes à fraseologia acadêmica, intensificadores linguísticos/evasivas acadêmicas, e estratégias para o posicionamento crítico permite-lhes escrever com maior destreza e confiança. a avaliação dos textos escritos pelos estudantes revela o impacto positivo que a exposição e a prática dos elementos retóricos e linguísticos antes mencionados tiveram em seus trabalhos escritos. por outro lado, os questionários aplicados aos estudantes no final do curso revelam as tensões e dificuldades que eles enfrentaram ao longo do processo. concluímos este artigo chamando a atenção a que os cursos de escritura em língua estrangeira sejam transformados em espaços nos quais os discentes possam não somente cumprir com as normas básicas da escritura acadêmica, como também construir um ‘eu’ discursivo e autoral mais forte e sólido. palavras chave: escritura acadêmica, fraseologia acadêmica, intensificadores e evasivas acadêmicas, posicionamento crítico, ou conceito de voz, ‘eu’ discursivo, e ‘eu’ autoral. fallas & chaves no. 15 (july december, 2017) no. 15 (july december, 2017) 98 introduction in efl composition courses, students are often construed as ‘notknowing’ novices in need of expert guidance if they are to gain membership into the academic writing discourse community. in these courses, teaching and learning generally orbit around norms regarding unity, coherence, support, and sentence skills that l2 learners are expected to comply with. puzzled and discouraged, these students find themselves forced to draft and submit writing pieces that feel dry, dispassionate and alien to them. sadly, regardless of the learners’ evident confusion and frustration, composition courses continue to revolve around these norms at the expense of opportunities for them to develop discoursal voice and authorial voice (ivanič, 1998). in the spirit of problematizing this practice, we created spaces in two composition courses so that the learners could experience using diverse rhetorical devices. the central inquiry in this study was the extent to which students’ exposure to and practice with lexical bundles, boosters/ hedges and stance-taking strategies would allow them to build a stronger discoursal/authorial voice as future academic writers. evaluation of student essays and surveys unveiled the tensions and struggles they faced as they tried using the different rhetorical devices to construct their own voice. at the end of this paper, we give specific recommendations regarding the inclusion of the aforementioned linguistic and rhetorical devices so that l2 student writers develop their discoursal/authorial voice. literature review as academic writers and teachers of composition, we are familiar with the pressures that abound within the academic writing discourse community. our own trajectory from apprentice to active writers has brought its rewards, but also left us with questions regarding the hardships we faced and the compromises we made along the way. although we acknowledge that the pressures exercised within academic writing circles are intended to safeguard the highly-valued features of scholarly writing, we also concede that overemphasis on these features jeopardizes the possibility of developing one’s discoursal/authorial voice (ivanič, 1998). thus, herein we address the features of traditional academic writing and the notion of voice in academic writing. learners’ voice in academic writing fallas & chaves no. 15 (july december, 2017) no. 15 (july december, 2017) 99 traditional academic writing: a focus on compliance to norms the academic writing discourse community claims that ‘good’ writing ought to be impersonal, objective and informational (rahimivand & kuhi, 2014) and grounded in the specific highly-valued features of literacy, relevance and politeness (farrell, 1997). ‘literate’ texts are expected to be objective, analytical and sequential, and thus organized in ways that showcase symmetry, order and logical thinking. similarly, in scholarly writing, relevance is central to establishing meaning, as the expectation is for all the ideas to refer back to the main thesis at the onset of the text. additionally, the notion of politeness in argumentative writing is central, given that writing ‘too directly’ is taken to be arrogant, aggressive and rude. these norms of academic writing exercise pressures on composition instructors, who frequently feel compelled to center on conventions such as unity, coherence, support and sentence skills, at the expense of students’ possibilities to build and reflect a sense of voice in their writing. academic writing, however, is not only about the communication of ideas in an impersonal, detached, and objective manner, but also about the representation of voice (ivanič, 1998), since the act of writing itself is inevitably influenced by the author’s life histories and the “multiple who’s” of their identity (gee, 2008)3. opposite to common belief, research suggests that, “...academic prose is not completely impersonal, and that writers gain credibility by projecting identity invested with individual authority, displaying confidence in their evaluations and commitment to their ideas” (hyland, 2002, p. 1091). more and more composition scholars agree that one crucial pragmatic competence of writers is to know how to construct a credible representation of themselves in their work, at the same time that they comply with the norms of the academic writing community (hyland, 2002, p.1091). thus, it follows that writing is not a neutral activity (ivanič, 1998), but an exercise in balancing out one’s own voice with the many norms one has to abide by (trepczyńska, 2016). unfortunately, more often than not, the pragmatism that characterizes traditional academic writing, where the focus is on compliance with the pre-set institutional requirements (benesch, 2001, p. 3), robs instructors of the possibility to problematize their practice, and thus they become accomplices in the trend of training students to comply with institutionally identified needs. contrary to common wisdom, the emphasis in composition courses should be more on how 3 this view coincides with the cultural and rhetorical approaches to discourse analysis proposed by tracy & robles (2013). learners’ voice in academic writing fallas & chaves no. 15 (july december, 2017) no. 15 (july december, 2017) 100 topics are studied dialogically rather than didactically (benesch, 2001, p. 67), with teachers taking a critical writing rather than process writing approach to composition, in which the search for voice is combined with the search for collectiveness (norms of academic writing). yet, this require that instructors provide learners with intellectually engaging experiences that allow for the development of discoursal/authorial voice; also known as authoritativeness/presence (hyland, 2008). l2 learners’ voice in academic writing: rhetorical and cultural perspectives in exploring the interconnectedness of writing to identity and voice, le (2009) argues that writing “...involves processes of negotiation, adaptation, appropriation and resistance that can occur during the acts of conceptualisation, drafting and writing” (p. 136) and insists that students’ prior experiences as writers and individuals should find validation in composition courses. that is because neglecting to nurture a sense of voice, “... place[s] students at a rhetorical and interpersonal disadvantage, preventing them from communicating appropriate integrity and commitments, and undermining their relationships to readers” (hyland, 2002, p. 1092). le (2009), nonetheless, also rightfully asserts that finding one’s voice is not a linear path with a clear finish line, but rather filled with negotiation and contestation between the many norms and expectations of the academy and one’s own desires about how to represent one’s voice in writing. despite the aforementioned difficulty in addressing voice, scholars agree that voice plays in fundamental role in both l1and l2 academic writing (konnor & kaplan, 1987; shen, 1989; li, 1996; ivanič, 1998). it is for that reason that l2 learners must be explicitly taught about the linguistic and rhetorical features (devices) that enhance a writer’s voice (matsuda, 2001), as projecting individual voice is a part of acceptable english writing (stapleton, 2002). although “voice has been viewed as fuzzy, slippery, hard to define, and nearly impossible to teach” (sperling and appleman, 2011), we agree (1) with ivanič and camps (2001) that l2 learners should be guided to develop authoritativeness and presence in their writing since the beginning in composition courses and (2) with matsuda (2001) and stapleton (2002) that voice is an indispensable tool that should be brought to the forefront, especially when dealing with persuasive writing (javdan, 2014). sperling and appleman (2011) explain that voice can be understood from two perspectives that need not be mutually exclusive. as an individual accomplishment, voice is viewed from a linguistic learners’ voice in academic writing fallas & chaves no. 15 (july december, 2017) no. 15 (july december, 2017) 101 and rhetorical lens that implies a particular threshold of linguistic and identity achievement, assumes the self to be stable, coherent, unitary and autonomous, and constructs voice as a possession. given the linguistic and rhetorical slant of this perspective, voice is not taken to be a window into the writer’s true self but into who the writer claims to be at a particular point in time and for a particular purpose. that is, writers write in different voices at different times. as a social/cultural accomplishment, voice is assumed to be “…essentially the result of a social and cultural mediation with the individual” (sperling & appleman, 73). from this perspective, voice consists of the writers’ representation of their social/cultural worlds and its emergence is said to be shaped by the contexts in which they live and inevitably overshadowed by other voices. discussions of voice as social and cultural accomplishment are largely based on bakhtin’s (1981, 1986) thesis that “…voices and utterances exist in response to previous utterances and in anticipation of future utterances,” which in turn suggests that “voice reflects one’s assimilation, reworking, and reaccentuating of other voices” (sperling & appleman, 74). in sum, we concur with sperling and appleman (2011) that “… voice is a language performance – always social, mediated by experience, and culturally embedded” (p. 71). that is to say, we view voice as identity performance and as a series of rhetorical movements situated within historical, material and social settings. as such, we believe that part of the students’ socialization into academic writing implies learning about how selecting from lexical, linguistic and rhetorical resources available allows them to build a stronger discoursal and authorial voice that is valued within the academic writing community. there lies the amalgamation of voice as individual and social/cultural accomplishments that we espouse. therefore, we will be looking at how including instruction about particular linguistic and rhetorical devices can potentially guide the students to develop discoursal and authorial voice in their academic writing. lexical bundles, boosters/hedges and stance-taking strategies according to ivanič (1998), there are three interrelated strands of voice: autobiographical voice, discoursal voice, and authorial voice. the first one refers to the life histories student writers bring with them; that sense of voice shaped by previous life experiences and literacy practices. the second alludes to the self-representation that emerges from the text, is constructed by means of selected discourse features, and reflects the values, beliefs and worldviews the student writers hold; learners’ voice in academic writing fallas & chaves no. 15 (july december, 2017) no. 15 (july december, 2017) 102 the persona they consciously or unconsciously take on when writing and the voice they want readers to hear. the last one encircles an accomplished sense of worth that allows student writers to compose with authority. these three interrelated strands are seldom explored in traditional academic writing courses despite the fact these are likely to allow student writers to build a stronger sense of worth in the work that they produce. in this paper, we focus on ivanič’s concepts of discoursal and authorial voice (1998), with an emphasis on student writers’ use of lexical bundles, boosters/hedges, and stance-taking strategies. lexical bundles refer to sequences of words that are frequently used in academic writing, serving to perform definable discourse functions: stance expressions, discourse organizers, and referential expressions (biber & barbieri, 2007). discourse organizers, which is the focus in this paper, are multi-word phrases that help signal introduction of new material, elaboration/clarification, contrast/comparison, cause/effect relationships, and argumentation. see table 1. for some examples of the phrases students were taught about and requested to utilize.4 table 1. lexical bundles • many scholars/experts claim/sustain that... • ... is a hotly-debated topic that often divides opinions. • ... is often discussed yet rarely understood. • first of all, it is worth considering.... • another point worth noting is.... • another factor to consider is... • with respect to.... • there are those who argue that... • research has found that... • according to experts, ... • weighing up both sides of the argument... • taking everything into consideration, … • on the whole,... / by and large,... 4 for this study, we chose the lexical bundles that were related to the types of essays they had to write, especially their final argumentative essay. learners’ voice in academic writing fallas & chaves no. 15 (july december, 2017) no. 15 (july december, 2017) 103 as regards boosters and hedges, we center on the student writers’ use of these rhetorical devices to express degree of directness: the subtleness or bluntness with which they express their ideas. although levels of directness may include diverse devices (see tables 2 and 3 below for some examples)w, we focus on boosters, which increase authorial commitment at the same time that rhetorical space for alternative views is closed, and on hedges, which signal weaker authorial commitment and openness to alternative views (lancaster, 2014). by using these rhetorical devices, students can express certainty, skepticism, (dis)belief, and authority (tracy & robles, 2013). table 2. boosters/hedges boosters hedges quite probably really hardly very slightly extremely somewhat completely barely exceptionally mildly totally moderately absolutely partly utterly practically particularly reasonably certainly possibly rather apparently strongly presumably highly supposedly strikingly allegedly excessively nearly/almost remarkably 5 for this study, we chose boosters/hedges and stance-taking strategies related to the types of essays they had to write. learners’ voice in academic writing fallas & chaves no. 15 (july december, 2017) no. 15 (july december, 2017) 104 table 3. deductive, inductive and inferential point-making claim reasons reasons claim telling a story (deductive point-making) (inductive point-making) (inferential point-making) claim reason 1 story/anecdote of reason 1 reason 2 reasonable length that reason 2 reason 3 indirectly makes a point reason 3 claim without stating it. finally, stance, a writerand reader-oriented concept (lancaster, 2014), refers to the student writers’ use of linguistic and rhetorical devices to overtly or covertly indicate their position and attitudes towards the topic under discussion and their confidence (or lack thereof) in the truth of the propositions expressed (phang, 2010; hyland & guinda, 2012). in other words, the focus is on student writers’ evaluation of the topic under discussion (tracy & robles, 2013). although student writers can express contrastive and agreement stances in multiple ways, we wish to concentrate on the ways they use self mentions, disclose their attitudes, mildly/strongly commit to their ideas, and introduce/comment on citations (lancaster, 2014). see table 4. below for examples. table 4. stance taking strategies self-mentions disclosure of attitudes i strongly believe that.... surprisingly, ... / it is surprising that... in my opinion, ... alarmingly, ... / it is alarming to note that... i am utterly convinced that... interestingly, ... from my point of view, ... fortunately/unfortunately, ... i have no doubt that... most importantly, … as far as i am concerned, ... ideally, ... it seems to me that... paradoxically/ironically, ... i am certain that... oddly enough, ... / most strikingly, i am absolutely convinced that... it is difficult to believe that... in this essay, i argue/sustain that.... it comes as no surprise that... learners’ voice in academic writing fallas & chaves no. 15 (july december, 2017) no. 15 (july december, 2017) 105 strong/mild commitment introduction/commentary of citations the fact is that.... brown rightfully asserts that... it is a fact that/ it is a well-established fact that... brown is quite right when he claims that... it has been scientifically proven that... i strongly agree with brown’s claim that... it goes without saying that... in the words of noted scholar, dr. brown, ... this proves/shows/demonstrates that... brown convincingly argues that... it is obvious/clear that... brown provides clear/convincing evidence that.... there is no doubt that.... dr. brown, authority in the field of education, asserts… this seems to suggest that... brown’s assertion demonstrates that.... thus, it seems reasonable to assume that... considering brown’s claim, it follows that... considering the above, it would seem that... considering brown’s claim, we can reasonably thus, it appears that... our contention is that the student writers’ mastery of the basic norms of academic writing —unity, coherence, support and sentence skills—does not suffice to develop a strong discoursal and authorial voice. they also need to gain skill in the use of lexical bundles, boosters/ hedges and stance-taking strategies, which has the potential to aid them in developing a stronger discoursal and authorial voice, which in turn can make them feel more confident about their own writing and help them write more academically. this, however, does not come without complications, as appropriate use of these devices “… requires making decisions (usually tacitly) about such matters as when to tune up or down one’s level of commitment to assertions, whether and how to comment on the significance of evidence, whether and how to engage with alternative perspectives; how to construct a text that engages with the imagined reader…” (hyland 2004, 2005; qtd in lancaster, 2014). not addressing these much-needed skills in composition classes may imply leaving the students on their own to guess what is taken to be good writing in academic spheres. and while some may argue that this is an impossible mission, students’ awareness of these aspects may constitute fertile ground for them to better understand their professors’ feedback and continue to work on their own to navigate unity, coherence, support, sentence skills, coupled with lexical bundles, boosters/hedges and stance-taking strategies, as they develop skill in making rhetorical moves that fit their purpose(s) and align with the highly regarded features of scholarly writing (rhetorical and cultural view). learners’ voice in academic writing fallas & chaves no. 15 (july december, 2017) no. 15 (july december, 2017) 106 methodology as foreign language teachers and learners, we have gone through the tensions and struggles that writing an academic paper entails. when we were efl students, however, there was nothing we could do to resolve the feelings of anxiety and alienation triggered by our writing tasks. yet, now that we are seasoned efl instructors, we resolved to change the customary composition class to help our pupils build a stronger discoursal/authorial voice in their academic writing pieces6. the participants and the context of the study we worked with two groups of students from two majors at universidad nacional in costa rica (una): (1) b.a. in tesol and (2) b.a. in efl. both groups were in their second year and taking their second composition course. group 1 was comprised of eight students whose ages ranged from 19 to 25 whereas group 2 had a total of 15 students whose ages ranked from 19 to 24. throughout the semester, they had to write classification, comparison/contrast, cause/effect, and argumentative essays. for this study, however, we analyzed their last essay (argumentative) because they had had 5 months of exposure to sample essays and feedback about their use of the target devices. as part of this study, students were given three workshops along the second semester of 2016. in the first one, they were exposed to examples of lexical bundles and given a published paper to identify instances of how professional writers used them. for the second, they were part of a session on boosters/hedges and were given a handout with ‘neutral’ statements, which they had to re-write using boosters/ hedges (an activity they thought was helpful because it allowed them to see how one can intensify or tone down one’s ideas). before writing their argumentative essay, they participated in a session on stancetaking strategies, followed by sample essays/papers to illustrate their use. for every essay up to the final one, we gave them feedback on the target devices. 6 this is not a pre-test/post-test type of study. thus, it is out of the scope of this paper to compare their present writing skill to their past one. we aimed to collect their perceptions regarding their struggles and tensions as they tried incorporating the target linguistic and rhetorical devices in their writing. as two of the composition professors in the department, we know for certain that this was the first time the participating students were introduced to these target devices, which they also acknowledged in the surveys. learners’ voice in academic writing fallas & chaves no. 15 (july december, 2017) no. 15 (july december, 2017) 107 data collection and interpretation upon completion of the course, we requested the students’ permission to use digital versions of their essays, which we examined by quantifying the number of instances of lexical bundles, boosters/ hedges, and stance-taking strategies. this analysis allowed us to notice which of devices the students embraced more willingly or had the most difficulties with. in addition, we passed a survey to collect their opinions regarding the extent to which the devices helped them gain confidence in their writing and develop a stronger discoursal and authorial voice. we used the patterns that emerged from this analysis to shed light on their use of each of the devices in their argumentative essays. in sum, we approached data analysis and interpretation both qualitatively and quantitatively. results of the study the analysis presented here is based on two sources of data: student surveys and the students’ final essay (argumentative). first and foremost, the student surveys allowed us to collect their opinions regarding the impact of using lexical bundles, boosters/hedges and stance-taking strategies on their overall writing skill and their struggles with the implementation of these linguistic and rhetorical devices. secondly, examination of their argumentative essays served to confirm the impressions gathered from the surveys and to track the devices that were more predominant in their writing. our analysis is divided into three major themes: (1) usefulness of the target devices, (2) instances implementation, and (3) tensions and struggles. usefulness of the target devices when asked about the impact the target devices had on their overall writing skill, students from both groups held diverse opinions. with regards to lexical bundles, while students from group 1 considered that these devices added coherence and unity to their writing (see figure 1), those from group 2 thought that these had multiple applications: professionalism, formality, easiness, elegance, variety of lexicon, relevance, and coherence (see figure 2). both groups combined, the highest number of students reported that lexical bundles added coherence (group 1) and professionalism (group 2) to their essays. learners’ voice in academic writing fallas & chaves no. 15 (july december, 2017) no. 15 (july december, 2017) 108 figure 1. student survey group 1 figure 2. student survey group 2 with respect to boosters and hedges, students’ opinions were not that divergent. learners from both groups coincided that boosters and hedges allowed them to state their opinions/positions more clearly and also to emphasize or de-emphasize (i.e. adjust the level of directness) certain ideas in their essays. as to their differences in opinions, subjects from group 1 stated that these devices boosted their overall writing skill whereas members of group 2 claimed that these also helped them to disclose their emotions and somehow connect to an imagined reader. this last aspect is worth noting, given that imagining a target reader and writing with the reader’s is normally difficult for students in composition courses. learners’ voice in academic writing fallas & chaves no. 15 (july december, 2017) no. 15 (july december, 2017) 109 figure 3. student survey group 1 figure 4. student survey group 2 finally, pertaining to stance taking, pupils from both groups concurred that these strategies enabled them to be critical and develop a strong position/voice throughout their papers. additionally, students from group 1 sustained that these strategies also added a sense of professionalism and naturalness to their writing, which they thought was one of the greatest gains in the course. students from group 2, on the other hand, claimed that these allowed them to imprint their own voice in their essays, which they think is a skill they will be able to transfer to other courses. overall, the highest number of students mentioned that stance-taking strategies had an impact on how they depicted their position/voice in their essays (authorial voice). learners’ voice in academic writing fallas & chaves no. 15 (july december, 2017) no. 15 (july december, 2017) 110 figure 5. student survey group 1 figure 6. student survey group 2 despite the differences of opinions, it is worth highlighting that all the students regarded the use of lexical bundles, boosters/ hedges and stance-taking strategies as having a positive effect: they all noticed that these different devices enable them to accomplish diverse purposes in their writing. beyond that, they referred to being critical, connecting to the reader, professionalism, unity, and coherence; concerns that are normally the domain of composition teachers. we interpret this as students realizing that academic writing is based on specific values and that writing is not about satisfying the professor but about communicating ideas that they can shape and adjust to portray themselves in their essays and connect to the reader. learners’ voice in academic writing fallas & chaves no. 15 (july december, 2017) no. 15 (july december, 2017) 111 instances of implementation as part of this study, we analyzed the students’ argumentative essays and counted the number of times they used each of the linguistic and rhetorical devices to trace any possible preferences. as shown in figure 7, the least employed device was lexical bundles (147 instances), which, as they explained, oftentimes weakened their own voice. although they reported that stance-taking strategies (200 instances) allowed them to position themselves in the paper, they also sustained that boosters and hedges were most useful (228 instances), as these enabled them to better connect to the reader by appealing to reason, ethics and emotions in the way they treated the topic under discussion and developed the arguments they were putting forth. figure 7. student survey groups 1 and 2 although not all uses of these three devices were accurate (as evident in their essays), we could notice they had started making rhetorical moves that enabled them to be cautious when suggesting or criticizing, to be passionate and firm about long-held values/beliefs, and to treat the topics with relative authority and confidence. next, we showcase excerpts from the argumentative essays to illustrate the students’ use of lexical bundles, boosters/hedges and stance-taking strategies. it is important to point out that by the time they wrote this essay, they had already employed lexical bundles and boosters/hedges in two previous written pieces (comparison and contrast / cause and effect), but it was their first time using stance-taking strategies. for the purpose of clarity, we designated excerpts of essays written by students from group 1, the letter a and from group 2, the letter b. as notable in excerpt b, student 1 utilized three lexical bundles (discourse organizers), two boosters and four stance-taking strategies (disclosing emotions and providing criticism) in one of the body learners’ voice in academic writing fallas & chaves no. 15 (july december, 2017) no. 15 (july december, 2017) 112 paragraphs of her essay on dating and the role of women. contrary to our finding of students’ preference for boosters/hedges, this student clearly favored lexical bundles, which added coherence and flow to her piece. on the contrary, as evident in excerpt a, student 2’s choices reflect students’ overall inclination for boosters. in her paragraph, she used two lexical bundles, five boosters and two stance-taking strategies not only to show her commitment to the topic and claim, but also to validate her own experience as a mother. (b) there has always been the common belief that, when it comes to dating, women must adopt a passive role and wait for men to make the first move. by the contrary, when a woman takes the initiative, all of society, including her female counterparts, disapproves of her behavior and alleges that she is doing wrong. even women themselves think twice before attempting such an approach. as was pointed out in the previous paragraph, this is due to the teachings given to girls in their childhood by their families and society. nevertheless, it is important to state that those backward thoughts are completely wrong and not properly sustained. truth be told, the fact that women make the first approach does not undervalue their integrity, either as women or as human beings. one major drawback of this female mentality is that women worry more about what other women think of their actions and do not take into account men’s perspective, which is ironic seeing that men do not see this behavior as wrong. on the contrary, for some of them, being asked out by a woman is nice and admirable. (dating – student 1) (a) it has been scientifically proven that breastfeeding is utterly important for both the mother and child. i strongly believe that there is nothing pointless in giving breast milk if there is a high chance to reduce cancer. moreover, infant formula will never supply children with all the substances that breast milk does. the author convincingly argues that, “it is important to note that the antioxidant potential in breastmilk is more efficient than infant formula and bovine milk” (kannan, 424). even though infant formula was created to feed babies, it is not the best option if mothers can provide breastmilk. (public breastfeeding – student 2) figure 8. excerpt from students’ argumentative essay another pattern we noticed is that not all students, in either group, abundantly included rhetorical devices they were exposed to during the essay course. as exemplified in the following excerpts, some learners used boosters (1a: 3; 1b: 2), lexical bundles (1a: 0; 1b: 0), and stance-taking strategies (1a: 1; 1b: 2) much less than their peers, who incorporated boosters (2a: 3; 2b: 6), lexical bundles (2a: 2; 2b: 4), and stance-taking strategies (2a: 3; 2b: 1) in a greater number of instances. learners’ voice in academic writing fallas & chaves no. 15 (july december, 2017) no. 15 (july december, 2017) 113 (1a) “more than half of lgbt workers hide their sexual orientation in their workplace” (catalyst.org). you can ask yourself, why do they do that? the answer is very simple; they hide their sexual preferences because they have been discriminated against or they are extremely afraid of being judged. nowadays, homosexual people are still being criticized because of their sexual inclination. even though a lot of people still think that being gay or lesbian is wrong or evil, i am absolutely convinced that it is something very natural, and homosexuals deserve our respect. (the wrong idea – student 3) (2a) second, it is unpleasant that parents think they do not have any responsibility in their children’s health. it is a fact that what kids see, especially from their parents, is something they will be imitating during their development, and that is why it is extremely common to see obese adults (parents) with obese kids. it seems to me that they think it is normal, and even though genetics have a lot to do in these situations, i am absolutely convinced that if parents are aware of their children’s health, they will provide them a better adolescence and adulthood. in fact, if these kids’ parents have unhealthy eating habits like eating junk food or lots of fats, or sedentary behaviors such as staying at home watching television and doing nothing, their children are possibly going to imitate those behaviors because those are seen as normal. (childhood obesity – student 4) (1b) how would you feel if you adopted a child and everyone started pointing at you to judge the decision you made? what would you do if you had to deal with the challenging legal processes and the people’s opinion just to have the kid you were not able to have by yourself with your partner? these are not just questions for homosexual people. certainly, the main reason for any couple to adopt is for they cannot have biological children by themselves, and this affects homosexual couples as much as heterosexual couples since the will of having a kid transcends sexual orientation. but what makes the difference between a heterosexual and a homosexual couple adopting? it comes as no surprise that it is the people and religious organizations that are against homosexuals adopting. it can eventually become a legal and social challenge for homosexual people since these others believe that homosexuality is a sin and the child should never be exposed to this kind of behavior. it is an evidently rough process that they have to deal with, and i strongly believe that it should not be that way since they are not doing wrong to anybody. (same sex marriages – student 5) (2b) the idea of making decisions through logical and rational thinking has always been supported by numerous philosophers and stoic individuals. it is believed that emotions should not be involved when an important task or decision is at stake, otherwise, the results would be highly negative. due to this, the significance of emotions regarding decision-making has been strikingly ignored. notwithstanding the above, there have been several studies and analyses that have revealed learners’ voice in academic writing fallas & chaves no. 15 (july december, 2017) no. 15 (july december, 2017) 114 the importance of emotions when it comes to decision making and action taking. even though rational thinking is one of the most effective tools in order to face life and its challenges, the role of emotions in decision making -and many other aspects with respect to life is imperative and unavoidable. (emotions and decision making – student 6) figure 9. excerpt from students’ argumentative essay another relevant aspect that stood out was the absence, in some cases, or fewer instances, in others, of hedges throughout students’ essays. in the following excerpts (a and b), the use of boosters is tangible since paragraph a contains five and paragraph b, seven. by contrast, zero hedges were utilized in passage a and b. in fact, we noticed that the use of hedges was not a common practice among our learners. by way of further illustration, figure 12 below shows pupils’ preference for boosters over hedges. this figure demonstrates that from a sample of six argumentative essays from each group, students employed boosters 3.5 times more often than they did hedges. (a) as a conclusion, it is really important to say that the closure that the death penalty provides for victims, the cost of the death penalty versus life in prison, and the fear that the death penalty causes on would-be criminals are not the only reasons many people use as arguments to agree with this capital punishment. even though those are not the only ones, i can certainly say that it does not matter which reason people bring, i will totally disagree with the death penalty. if the goal of any punishment, as stated above, is to teach us those things we should not do, then the justice system should more adequately teach the criminality of killing by refusing to partake in it. (the death penalty – student 7) (b) further, recent evidence suggests that socio-affective bond is another area in which euthanasia evidently has a huge impact. marc groenhuijsen is quite right when he claims that many people have “vastly diverging opinions” and “strong feelings” while discussing about euthanasia (3). there is no doubt that when a person wants to undergo euthanasia his/her family will be utterly concerned about this decision, particularly because it is not great news to find out that a loved one is about to die. it is obvious that it is one of the reasons why people are against this practice, even if they or one of their relatives have to face extreme pain before dying. it is important to mention that even though it is hard for family members to accept euthanasia being applied to one of their relatives, the ultimate decision is that of the patient who is suffering from pain, which is the reason euthanasia is difficult to understand in terms of life choice. (euthanasia – student 8) figure 10. excerpt from students’ argumentative essay learners’ voice in academic writing fallas & chaves no. 15 (july december, 2017) no. 15 (july december, 2017) 115 figure 11. students’ argumentative essay samples all in all, students’ inclination for boosters/hedges and stance taking strategies may be attributed to the fact that lexical bundles are pre-fabricated phrases that they need to incorporate into their writing – something they have been asked to do in previous courses and towards which they show resistancewhereas the other two are devices they can more easily tailor into their writing. as reported by the students, the ready-made phrases oftentimes seemed alien, dry and void to them; reason why they relied more on boosters/hedges more often. they also claimed that these last two gave them the tools to accomplish something they had not been given a space for in previous composition courses: take a strong stance and reflect more of themselves in their work. likewise, while the trend was for students to rely more on boosters/hedges and stance-taking strategies, this was not always the case. a few students seemed to have no problems with lexical bundles and used them abundantly in their essays. interestingly, these students also employed fewer instances of the other two devices. we could assume that these few students are comfortable with following structure and including prefabricated phrases (discourse organizers), but also feel less confident about or ready to develop a stronger authorial self. additionally, the finding that whereas most students used the target devices rather copiously and that a few decided to use them scantily, we interpreted in two possible ways: (1) they may have been showing resistance to the inclusion of the devices or (2) they feel they still need more systematic practice with them. similarly, the students’ clear overreliance on boosters over hedges may point to a similar conclusion. these two points are further examined in the subsequent section. learners’ voice in academic writing fallas & chaves no. 15 (july december, 2017) no. 15 (july december, 2017) 116 tensions and struggles while all the students from group 1 asserted that the usage of lexical bundles, boosters/hedges and stance-taking strategies helped them position themselves in the essays and better portray their own voice as beginner writers, students from group 2 had diverse opinions (see figure 13 below). in this latter group, eight learners said that these devices enabled them to develop a sense of voice, five were hesitant as to the impact of the target devices on their voice, and two claimed that there was no direct impact. these last two students, however, reported that the devices gave them a sense of direction or that they were still in the process of developing this sense of voice (discoursal and authorial voice). these numbers show that throughout the course, they faced tensions and struggles, which they voiced in the student surveys. figure 12. student survey as student 7 reported, “it was very strange because sometimes i felt that i had a voice, but in other essays i felt that i had lost it. at the end, what i found was that indeed all of them were part of my voice, but i don’t know how to categorize it or describe it.” student 8 provided a similar opinion regarding the development of her sense of voice: “i am aware i have a style and a voice, but i truly don’t know how to name it; however, it is there somewhere.” by and large, both comments reflect the ambivalence implicit in developing one’s discoursal and authorial voice. these two students have noticed that finding their voice is not an easy endeavor, but one filled with hesitation and uncertainty. other students gave different reasons for this lack of sense of voice despite exposure to lexical bundles, boosters/hedges and stancetaking strategies. while student 9 was grateful that he was given a space to develop his voice, he also pointed to the importance of time and more extended exposure: “before this course, i was not aware of this voice that each writer should have. along the course, i’ve been trying to learners’ voice in academic writing fallas & chaves no. 15 (july december, 2017) no. 15 (july december, 2017) 117 know more about myself in regards to writing; however, i think i have not found or discovered it, yet. some people figure it out easier than others.” likewise, student 10 voiced a similar concern: “i think those are useful weapons that helped me to find or to be close to my own voice, but i think i need to keep using them from now on because i want to include them in my writing in a natural way, not thinking about where and how i should use them.” as noted by these two students, natural use of the target devices takes time and practice. they rightfully assert that only by using them over and over, will they become able to employ them accurately in ways that actually reflect their own voice and help them develop a stronger sense of discoursal and authorial voice. another student (11) was more specific and direct as to what helped her develop her voice and what did not: “i think that lexical bundles are very useful for academic writing, but not for the voice. for example, in my case, my voice gets lost when i use them. boosters and hedges have helped me to identify my voice. however, i cannot be only direct or indirect all the time, so that may affect my voice a little bit. when i take a stand, i totally find my voice since i have the opportunity to say what i think.” she unabashedly expressed that not all strategies equally helped her, placing lexical bundles as the least advantageous and boosters/hedges, coupled with stance-taking strategies, as the most useful. her comment reveals the constant struggle students face in finding a balance between the expectations of academia and the diverse ways in which they can imprint their own style in their work. in fact, student 6, pointed to this when she wrote: “i think these strategies have helped us to find a balance between what academia expects from us and our voice when writing. all of us have different voices and styles and these can be noticed in the strategies, words, topics, and references we use.” needless to say, all the students in both groups reported that lexical bundles, boosters/hedges and stance-taking strategies added coherence, unity, professionalism, elegance, formality, and variety of lexicon to their writing – clearly sought-after features in the academic writing discourse community. even more importantly, they claimed that they could tone up or down the directness of their ideas, better state their position, and connect to the reader in ways they had not been able to, prior to this course. what they failed to see was a connection between these linguistic and rhetorical devices and their own voice as beginner writers, which comes as no surprise given the difficulty of finding middle ground between the highly valued features of academic writing and their own desire to write in ways that reflect their own voice. learners’ voice in academic writing fallas & chaves no. 15 (july december, 2017) no. 15 (july december, 2017) 118 conclusions all in all, the study of lexical bundles, boosters/hedges, and stance-taking strategies in composition courses renders positive results that can be observed in the sample student essays included above. as the participating students reported: (1) lexical bundles added professionalism, coherence, formality, and elegance to their writing, and (2) boosters/hedges, together with stance-taking strategies, helped them develop a stronger voice or position in their essays and connect to an imagined reader. as the student surveys and essays seem to suggest, socializing students into academic writing, while at the same time introducing them to lexical, linguistic and rhetorical sources (voice as individual and social/cultural accomplishment), is advantageous. they all reported that, to varying degrees, these devices equipped them to improve their overall writing skill, and more specifically, allowed them to state their positions more strongly and in ways that were more critical than in the past; all of which serve to justify the inclusion of voice in composition courses. although the overall results of the surveys and essays pointed to the students’ positive stance toward the inclusion of lexical bundles, boosters/hedges and stance-taking strategies, they showed a certain resistance to the inclusion of lexical bundles in their essays. this finding was illuminated by their opinions and perceptions that lexical bundles obscured their voice and felt alien to them. equally important it is to consider that some still failed to see how these target linguistic and rhetorical devices could translate into the development of their own discoursal and authorial voice. in hindsight, however, this study did not expose them to the many multiple purposes for which these devices are used nor to sufficient practice. this may be why they did not clearly see how these tools can potentially strengthen their discoursal and authorial voice. as instructors of the courses, however, we had the obligation to cover the official course contents/objectives, which limited the time we had to deliver longer workshops and provide abundant practice. even further, while the participants in this study were found to use the target devices vastly (in most of the cases) and to make certain rhetorical moves to connect to the reader and more clearly state their position, the scarcity of usage of hedges was evident. despite some exposure and practice with the target contents, these students did not seem to be aware of the importance of using hedges, which can be dangerous because: (1) the absence of these devices could be interpreted by the readers as arrogance and close-mindedness on the part of the writer, and (2) overuse of self-mentions, excessive disclosure learners’ voice in academic writing fallas & chaves no. 15 (july december, 2017) no. 15 (july december, 2017) 119 of feelings and unnecessary employment of boosters may undermine professionalism and seriousness in their written works. needless to say, we acknowledge that appropriate use of lexical bundles, adequate usage of boosters/hedges and conscientious stance taking are not easy to teach or learn, as it “… requires making decisions (usually tacitly) about such matters as when to tune up or down one’s level of commitment to assertions; whether and how to comment on the significance of evidence; whether and how to engage with alternative perspectives; how to construct a text that engages with the imagined reader…” (hyland 2004, 2005; qtd in lancaster, 2014). this was true in our study because at times our students felt that they were skillful at implementing these devices, and at other times, they felt otherwise. this unsteadiness of their skills with the target linguistic and rhetorical devices can also be verifiable in their essays. given that this study was conducted over the span of one course, it comes as no surprise that some (if not most) of the students did not feel fully confident using the target devices. recommendations in light of the findings discussed above, we now want to give the following recommendations, which we hope will guide future attempts at better understanding the benefits of including the concept of voice in composition courses: 1. for future studies with a similar purpose, the learners should be more explicitly taught how hedges -of the evidentializing and conjecturing typescan be utilized to mitigate criticism, suggest courses of action, and problematize the ideas/works of others. they should be made aware that hedges allow them to make such subtle shifts in emphasis by means of which they can connect to the reader more and accomplish particular rhetorical purposes. similarly, they should be shown abundant examples of how the strategic usage of lexical bundles helps them add to their work the features that the academic writing discourse community seeks for and highly values. finally, students should be made aware that stance-taking strategies are used both to agree and disagree. 2. the landscape described above calls for a systematic approach to the teaching of lexical bundles, boosters/hedges, and stance-taking strategies. as some students reported, the natural and accurate implementation of the target devices requires time and arduous practice. that is why we suggest that the english department learners’ voice in academic writing fallas & chaves no. 15 (july december, 2017) no. 15 (july december, 2017) 120 that hosts the programs these students are completing modify the composition courses and officially include lexical bundles, boosters/hedges and stance-taking strategies. this would allow for more time to be devoted to direct and extensive teaching and analysis of examples of the target devices as found in published papers written by experienced and seasoned academic writers. if these students are to graduate with solid academic writing skills, their development of their discoursal and authorial voice cannot be overlooked. 3. were lexical bundles, boosters/hedges, and stance-taking strategies to be officially included in the courses, composition instructors should be aware that attempts at helping students develop discoursal and authorial voice is an endeavor filled with ambivalence and uncertainty, as it “...involves processes of negotiation, adaptation, appropriation and resistance that can occur during the acts of conceptualisation, drafting and writing” (ivanič, 1998, p. 136). tensions and struggles, as was the case in this study, especially arise in composition courses where students are learning to write in their l2 at the same time that they are learning the contextually valued ways of academic writing. by and large, voice should then not be regarded as an easily teachable and measurable aspect of writing, but as a quality of writing that emerges over time. that been said, the assessment of voice should be approached with caution. 4. future studies of voice in l2 writing would also profit from the perspective taken in literacy studies, in which voice is understood (1) as ideological, (2) as a dialogically shaped perspective and (3) as appropriation and revoicing. the first one acknowledges that “individuals struggle with the tensions inherent in the voice that mediate their environment as they develop their own,” which is pivotal given that it recognizes that all writing ideological and “… a process of appropriating and expropriating others’ words” (sperling & appleman, 75). the second admits that the composition classroom, as a site where multiple ideas and perspectives about what constitutes good writing are shaped and negotiated, can potentially silence students’ voice (sperling & appleman, 75), as their own competes with other stronger voices such as the instructor’s and those of other seasoned writers. the last one recognizes that, as students compose, they engage in the process of shifting and amalgamating perspectives with their own as they develop their own voice; thereby appropriating and revoicing others’ voices (sperling & appleman, 77). all of these learners’ voice in academic writing fallas & chaves no. 15 (july december, 2017) no. 15 (july december, 2017) 121 perspectives alert us to the fact that the composition class can become a space where attempts at nurturing students’ voice can actually threaten, suffocate or suppress it. final remarks to conclude, as previously stated, neglecting to nurture a sense of voice, “... place[s] students at a rhetorical and interpersonal disadvantage, preventing them from communicating appropriate integrity and commitments, and undermining their relationships to readers” (hyland, 2002, 1092). forming confident, skillful writers calls for an exploration of the norms of academic writing, not only at the unity, coherence, and sentence skill levels, but also at the discoursal and authorial levels. students who find ways to put more of themselves in their essays are more likely to build a stronger sense of worth in the work that they produce. not addressing these much-needed skills in composition classes may imply leaving the students on their own to guess what is taken to be good writing in academic spheres. and while some may argue that this is an impossible endeavor, students’ awareness of these aspects may constitute fertile ground for them to better understand their professors’ feedback and to continue to work on their own to navigate unity, coherence, support, sentence skills, coupled with lexical bundles, boosters/hedges, and stance, as they develop a stronger sense of authoritativeness and presence in their writing. learners’ voice in academic writing fallas & chaves no. 15 (july december, 2017) no. 15 (july december, 2017) 122 references benesch, s. 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(2011). voice in the context of literacy studies. reading research quarterly. 46.10.1598/ rrq.46.1.4. stapleton, p. (2002). critiquing voice as a viable pedagogical tool in writing: returning the spotlight to ideas. journal of second language writing 11, 177-190. tracy, k., & robles, j. s. (2013). everyday talk: building and reflecting identities. trepczyńska m. (2016) “in this paper i will prove …”: the challenge behind authorial selfrepresentation in l2 undergraduate research paper writing. in: chodkiewicz h., steinbrich p., krzemińskaadamek m. (eds) working with text and around text in foreign language environments. second language learning and teaching. springer, cham learners’ voice in academic writing fallas & chaves no. 15 (july december, 2017) no. 15 (july december, 2017) 68 revisiting the concept of selfefficacy as a language learning enhancer1 revisando el concepto de autoeficacia como un potenciador del aprendizaje de idiomas carol andrea garcía gutiérrez and norma constanza durán narváez2* universidad del tolima, colombia “ if i have the belief that i can do it, i shall surely acquire the capacity to do it even if may not have it at the beginning” mahatma gandhi abstract individuals’ self-efficacy beliefs determine the ways they perform in any domain, since they reflect the extent to which people feel capable to achieve certain accomplishments bandura (1997). this paper describes how a group of intermediate school students’constant failure in the exams, demotivating attitudes, apathy and reluctance to learn english as a foreign language, relate with their perceived capability, self-perception and their prior experiences as language learners. this descriptive and exploratory case study was developed in a private language centre and involved 11 participants. the goal of the study was to understand the causes of the students’ demotivation and reluctance to the language. for this purpose, autobiographies become a springboard to examine students’ language learning experiences. this information was analysed based on the grounded theory approach proposed by freeman(1998), and findings reveal that the inadequate teachers’ discourse, classroom environment, rapport and feedback strategies influenced students’ perceived capability to perform in the english class. in addition, the data showed that the supportive role of parents and relatives, encouraged learners to adopt a resilient attitude with respect to the difficulties while learning the language. 1 received: august 29th 2017/ accepted: november 21st 2017 2 carolgarciagutierrez@outlook.com; ncduran@ut.edu.co garcía & durangist education and learning research journal. issn 1692-5777. no.15. (july december) 2017. pp. 68-95. no. 15 (july december, 2017) no. 15 (july december, 2017) 69 keywords: selfefficacy beliefs, students’ reluctance, autobiographies, teachers’role, efl context. resumen las creencias de los individuos acerca de su autoeficacia determina la manera en la que se desempeñan en cualquier escenario, puesto que éstas reflejan la manera en la que las personas se consideran capaces de alcanzar ciertos logros. bandura (1997). este artículo, describe la forma en la que la continua pérdida, la desmotivación, la apatía y el rechazo hacia el aprendizaje de la lengua extranjera de un grupo de estudiantes de nivel intermedio, se relacionan con su autoeficacia, su auto percepción y experiencias como aprendices de inglés como lengua extranjera. debido a su carácter cualitativo y exploratorio, este estudio de caso fue llevado a cabo en un centro de idiomas de carácter privado y comprendió la participación de once estudiantes. el propósito del estudio se enmarcó en la comprensión de las causas por las cuales dichos estudiantes mostraron desmotivación y rechazo al idioma. por ello, las autobiografías se convierten en una herramienta para indagar acerca de las experiencias de aprendizaje en lengua extranjera de los estudiantes . la información fue analizada a través del análisis temático propuesto por freeman (1998), y los resultados revelan que un inadecuado discurso por parte del docente, el ambiente de clase, la falta de empatía con los estudiantes y las estrategias de retroalimentación utilizadas, influyeron en la autoeficacia de los estudiantes para desempeñarse en la clase de inglés. por otra parte, la información mostró que el apoyo que los estudiantes recibieron de sus padres y familiares, los motivó a adoptar una actitud resiliente con respecto a sus dificultades durante el aprendizaje del inglés. palabras clave: creencias sobre la autoeficacia, rechazo de los estudiantes al idioma, autobiografías, contexto de aprendizaje del inglés como lengua extranjera. resumo as crenças dos indivíduos acerca da sua autoeficácia determinam a maneira na que se desempenhem em qualquer cenário, posto que as mesmas refletem a maneira na que as pessoas se consideram capazes de alcançar certos aproveitamentos. bandura (1997). este artigo, descreve a forma na que a contínua perda, a falta de motivação, a apatia e a rejeição em relação à aprendizagem da língua estrangeira de um grupo de estudantes de nível intermédio, relacionam-se com a sua autoeficácia, a sua auto percepção e experiências como aprendizes de inglês como língua estrangeira. devido ao seu caráter qualitativo e exploratório, este estudo de caso foi realizado em um centro de idiomas de caráter privado e compreendeu a participação de onze estudantes. o propósito do estudo se delimitou na compreensão das causas pelas quais os referidos estudantes mostraram falta de motivação e rejeição ao idioma. por isso, as autobiografias se convertem em uma ferramenta para indagar acerca das experiências de aprendizagem em língua estrangeira dos garcía & duran no. 15 (july december, 2017) no. 15 (july december, 2017) 70 estudantes. a informação foi analisada através da análise temática proposta por freeman (1998), e os resultados revelam que um inadequado discurso por parte do docente, o ambiente de classe, a falta de empatia com os estudantes e as estratégias de retroalimentação utilizadas, influíram na autoeficácia dos estudantes para desempenhar-se na aula de inglês. por outro lado, a informação mostrou que o apoio que os estudantes receberam dos seus padres e familiares, motivou-os a adotar uma atitude resiliente com relação a suas dificuldades durante a aprendizagem do inglês. palavras chave: crenças sobre a autoeficácia, rejeição dos estudantes ao idioma, autobiografias, contexto de aprendizagem do inglês como língua estrangeira self-efficacy as a language learning enhancer garcía & duran no. 15 (july december, 2017) no. 15 (july december, 2017) 71 introduction the concept of self-efficacy, entails to what extent individuals believe they are capable of accomplishing something under several circumstances bandura (1997). this construct becomes an eye opener at the time of understanding the myriad of reasons that interfered with the students’ performance in the language learning classroom. this qualitative study aimed at exploring the correlation between the high school learners’ prior language learning experiences and their recurrent failure of the english courses, that led them feel demotivated, and have a poor perception of their own potential as language learners and their ability to overcome difficulties. this ten month research was carried out with a group of 11 students from a private school , who took classes in a private language institute in ibague. to accomplish the aim of this research, autobiographies became a powerful source to dig into the students’ language learning experiences. with respect to this, coffey & street (2008), assert that “the analysis of first -person accounts of the language learning process has gained legitimacy as a qualitative method of inquiry giving voice to the learner’s own view of factors both predisposing and sustaining different trajectories of language learning.” (p.452). furthermore, barkhuizen, benson, & chik (2014) assert that “autobiographical accounts tend to bring the emotional dimensions of language teaching and learning, which are often suppressed by other research approaches, to the fore.” (p.12). this helped us to understand the relevance of this type of instrument at the time of inquiring into students’ experiences, and made us aware of the importance of narrative inquiry as a useful approach to make sense of the learners’ experiences and the way they represent them to others barkhuizen et al., (2014). the reasons above, guided the following research question: how are the relationships between students’ language learning experiences and their perceived capability evident in learners’ narratives? which has to do with the role of autobiographies in informing about students’ previous experiences, and their relationship with their sense of capability or self-efficacy to learn and be successful in the language learning. the decision of inquiring into students’ language learning experiences by means of autobiographies uncovered a range of complexities of human behavior that may not be explored through other sources. moreover, the results of this study revealed the importance of revisiting the concept of self-efficacy in the language learning processes, self-efficacy as a language learning enhancer garcía & duran no. 15 (july december, 2017) no. 15 (july december, 2017) 72 since it can be a foremost alternative to expand the view of teachers with respect to the need of creating safer learning environments and opportunities for students´ improvement, and the decisive role of the educators in students’ willingness or unwillingness to learn. as researchers, we strongly believe that exploring new avenues to understand how emotional competence unfolds becomes at the core of language teaching and learning scenarios. consequently, this study shows how the concept of self-efficacy regains relevance, and becomes a magnifying glass to see teaching and learning through a new lens. the oncoming sections of this article will discuss the methodology followed, the different categories that emerged from the analysis of the students’ autobiographies in relation to their self-efficacy as language learners and lastly, we present the findings and the conclusions. literature review this study is supported on a body of constructs and related research that illuminated our path to explore and find answers to our inquiry. we begin by clearing the ground on the notion of selfefficacy, the sources that nourish individuals’ self-efficacy beliefs and then present some research that has been undertaken in the field of language teaching. finally, we conceptualize the autobiographies and inform about some studies in which they have been used to inquire into individuals’ experiences. revisiting the concept of self-efficacy to conduct this study, we took largely into consideration the definition of self-efficacy coined by bandura (1997), since he started to do some research on the field, which has enriched the scope of the topic in studies done by some psychologists and educators, as well as encouraged new researchers to expand knowledge in the direction of learners’ perceived capability. bandura (1997), states that self-efficacy is related to how capable individuals believe they are at the moment of carrying out a specific task in any domain. according to this author, the individuals’ self-efficacy influence their thought processes, level of persistency, motivation and affective states. that is, the individuals’ self-efficacy determines the performance of individuals increasing or diminishing their beliefs concerning their capability to do something; therefore, we can say that people also build some self-efficacy beliefs. to understand this concept self-efficacy as a language learning enhancer garcía & duran no. 15 (july december, 2017) no. 15 (july december, 2017) 73 more deeply, it is necessary to elaborate on the notion of beliefs as follows. in line with pajares (1992), beliefs represent a subject of inquiry in different fields, which makes them feasible to be explored through the appropriate methodologies and designs. in addition, sigel (1985) described that beliefs are “mental constructions of experienceoften condensed and integrated into schemata or concepts” (p.351). sigel’s definition is complementary to the one provided by rokeack (1968), since he considers that beliefs have two additional components apart from the one that represents the mental constructions of experience: the affective and behavioural. the affective component incites emotion and the behavioural one is activated when certain actions require it. this implies beliefs are a representation of what a person thinks about certain situations in relation to their emotions and the different settings that demand a specific behaviour from their part. these components are distinctive features of the individuals’ self-efficacy beliefs, which can be weak or strong. with respect to this, bandura (1997) states: people who doubt their capabilities in particular domains of activity shy away from difficult tasks in those domains. they find it hard to motivate themselves or increase their confidence to carry out a task since they slacken3 their efforts or give up quickly in the face of obstacles. (p. 39). on the contrary, people whose self-efficacy beliefs are strong can overcome difficult situations easily because they conceive them as challenges instead of threats to avoid. additionally, they set challenging goals and are consistent to achieve them in spite of failures or setbacks, which they surpass quickly. these outcomes make individuals have successful orientations towards the accomplishment of certain performances, and confirms that self-efficacy beliefs are “active producers instead of merely foretellers of attainments, which makes them the unique dispositional make up of efficaciousness of any person”(bandura,1997, p.42). due to the characteristics already mentioned, self-efficacy beliefs form part of the big term called self-efficacy which was defined above and is related to factors such as self-regulation and motivation, and operates as a key factor in a generative system of human competence or performances. 3 to become less productive or fail. self-efficacy as a language learning enhancer garcía & duran no. 15 (july december, 2017) no. 15 (july december, 2017) 74 it’s important to say that according to bandura (1997), people build their self-efficacy beliefs selecting, interpreting and integrating the different information they receive. to do so, there are four main sources where they get this information, which correspond to enactive mastery experiences, vicarious experiences, verbal persuasion and physiological and affective states. enactive mastery experiences: this is related to the different successful or unsuccessful experiences an individual has had. in turn, these appear closely connected to the cognitive, behavioural and selfregulatory tools people use to face and overcome different kinds of circumstances without diminishing their self-efficacy beliefs. vicarious experiences: bandura (1997) claimed that “social comparison operates as a primary factor in the self-appraisal of capabilities” (p.87). this social comparison, refers to the vicarious experiences a person can have, that is, the second-hand experiences that model people’s level of perceived self-efficacy, in the sense that the performance of others are useful to make them conscious of their own capabilities to succeed and get the same or even, better results; this way their self-efficacy beliefs can be increased. verbal persuasion: this source refers to the encouragement given by others to recognize one’s capabilities and efforts to do certain attainments. in line with bandura (1997), people who are persuaded verbally regarding their capabilities to do something successfully, are more able to mobilize great effort and sustain it even in harder circumstances. thus, self-efficacy beliefs can be encouraged through verbal persuasion. physiological and affective states: it refers to the way people judge their capabilities by getting information from the somatic indicators they show when facing situations of vulnerability or aversive arousal for them. hence, as teachers, to help students get the right information from this source we are expected to “(…) enhance physical status, reduce the stress levels and negative emotional proclivities, and correct misinterpretations of bodily states” (bandura & cioffi, 1997, p.106) these sources constitute a way to understand the origin of the students’ perceived capability. in the case of this study, the sources mentioned showed how the students’ self-efficacy was influenced by the different experiences they lived in the english classroom, which made them have a good or a poor attitude towards the language learning. self-efficacy as a language learning enhancer garcía & duran no. 15 (july december, 2017) no. 15 (july december, 2017) 75 self-efficacy and english language teaching previous studies have reported interesting research in the field of self-efficacy, english language teaching and learning and other domains of knowledge. although the investigations undertaken don’t represent a considerable number, some important contributions are acknowledged below. shi (2017), an assistant professor of the china university, presents a review with respect to self-efficacy, based on previous research done in the sla field, specifically in the motivation area. according to the writer, the term self-efficacy is part of a paradigm called the expectancy value theory, which proposes that learners’ motivation is influenced greatly by their expected success in a task and the value they give it. some of the studies this professor presents, refer to the research done by teng (2005), tilfalioglu and cinkara (2009), rahimi and abedini (2009), naseri and zaferanieh (2012), and idrus and sivapalan (2010). these authors whose studies were conducted in taiwan, turkey and iran, found a correlation between the participants’ self-efficacy and their self-directed learning, as well as their reading and listening comprehension skills. besides, the researchers also pointed that the individuals’proficiency level, their writing and speaking performance and the ability to acquire new vocabulary, could be successful or not depending on their self-efficacy beliefs. these studies document how the subject of self-efficacy has been explored in the elt field, which supports the nature of this study and suggest the exploration of the language learners’ self-efficacy beliefs in light of theory. another important study that confirms the influence of the individuals’ self-efficacy beliefs in their development was conducted by bandura, caprara, barbaranelli, gerbino, & pastorelli (2003). these authors explored and measured 464 adolescents’ self-efficacy beliefs to regulate negative affect as well as positive and negative emotions to carry out interpersonal transactions and academic tasks. according to the findings, having a strong sense of self-efficacy to manage one’s positive and negative emotional life, that is to say having strong selfefficacy beliefs to control one’s affective states contributes to the development of successful academic activities. likewise, the analysis of the data showed that the perceived self-efficacy of individuals is a general contributor to manage academic issues and to develop a perceived self-efficacy that improves the individuals psychological functioning. self-efficacy as a language learning enhancer garcía & duran no. 15 (july december, 2017) no. 15 (july december, 2017) 76 with reference to the role of self-efficacy in human functioning, the research project conducted by bandura, martinez pons, & zimmerman (1996) gives also relevant information. these authors selected 102 ninth and tenth graders to answer two different scales, referred to the type of self-regulating strategies they used and the strategies they implemented to reach a successful academic achievement in the social studies subject. in line with the results, the learners’ self-efficacy beliefs for academic achievement influenced their final score considerably. moreover, it was found that the students’ perceived self-efficacy for achievement had a direct influence on their outcomes and goals. at a local level, some interesting research studies have been conducted, and one of those was aimed at developing students’ selfefficacy. cardona, j., & novoa, l. (2013), encouraged 20 students from a private and a public school to develop their self-efficacy to write argumentative texts using modeling strategies and giving constant feedback. after interpreting the data collected through written samples, questionnaires and semi-structured interviews, findings revealed that students’ motivation to write increased markedly, and attitudes like persistence and resilience were constant when they had to carry out different written tasks. another relevant research study was done by contreras, f. e., j. esguerra, g. haikal, a. polanía, a. rodríguez, a. (2005). these teachers identified the self-efficacy beliefs of 120 highschool students from a private school in bogota, to analyse the extent to which self-efficacy and anxiety were related to students’ performance in five specific subjects: arts, english, social studies and mathematics. to identify learners’ beliefs, they used a general scale used for these purposes. data revealed that the students’ self-efficacy beliefs were producers of their academic development, that is, the learners’ self-efficacy beliefs influenced their performance in the areas mentioned above, which verifies their vital role in humans’ performance. although the studies above show the importance of the topic of self-efficacy in the language learning process, there has not been an extensive research on the field in our country. therefore, we consider this study can contribute to the understanding of the different ways students have built their self-efficacy beliefs throughout their experiences as language learners, and how these ones give information on their possible reluctance, apathy and poor performance in the language. self-efficacy as a language learning enhancer garcía & duran no. 15 (july december, 2017) no. 15 (july december, 2017) 77 autobiographies and students’ language learning experiences since this study seeks to inquire into the students’ self-efficacy beliefs, we decided to dig into their language learning experiences, so we could get relevant information of the ways they have built their perception of english as a foreign language and how this perception has influenced their perceived capability as learners. to do so, we chose the autobiographies as the main source of information in this study, because they are useful to explore peoples’ beliefs and perceptions towards the learning process, and to understand how individuals construct meaning out of the experiences they have lived. durán, lastra, & morales (2013). furthermore, johnson (1999), asserts that autobiographies shed light on people’s prior experiences and beliefs, so they can be analysed critically to comprehend how complex is their understanding of the learning process; in other words, autobiographies can inform about people’s experiences, which may give important insights about how they have learnt and use the language. a study that confirms how autobiographies help teachers dig into students’ experiences is the one conducted by barclay-mclaughlin, kershaw & roberts (2007). the participants were aimed to write an autobiography including different stages of their childhood, elementary, middle and high school, the people that related to these phases and the context where these events took place. after sharing the personal accounts to each other, they found out that the cultural autobiographies enhanced the individuals’ selfand social awareness, and also the understanding of others. it’s also important to say, that autobiographies have been used in other areas of education to explore student attitudes and behaviors, as tse (2000) claims in her research report, concerning the analysis of students’ autobiographies in the english classroom. in this study, the researcher asked 37 undergraduate and graduate students to write some autobiographies in order to get to know their experiences as language learners, and their attributions to success and failure. after analysing the data, the researcher concluded that learners considered that an appropriate classroom atmosphere and a caring teacher were essential to succeed when learning a language, together with the contribution of family or community sources tse (2000). that is why they also claimed that attributions for failure also included the teacher, the classroom environment and the teacher-student interactions. clearly, due to its main characteristics, autobiographies can give important information on the ways learners build their self-efficacy beliefs in the process of learning the language selecting, interpreting self-efficacy as a language learning enhancer garcía & duran no. 15 (july december, 2017) no. 15 (july december, 2017) 78 and integrating several information from the four sources mentioned by bandura (1997). because of this, we considered these were an appropriate method and an object of inquiry to advance the understanding of students’ poor perception as learners and their unwillingness to study english, going beyond their academic performance and exploring their affective dimension, which in line with brown (2007) “is the emotional side of human behaviour and can be juxtaposed to the cognitive side” (p.153). that is to say that both affective and cognitive sides are important when talking about a person’s learning process, in the sense that the beings’ personality and sociocultural factors are taken into consideration to understand his or her development. in words of arnold (1999) and brown (2007), these factors can be categorized as individual and relational and refer to anxiety, inhibition, self-esteem, motivation, resilience, receptivity, willingness to communicate, risk taking, empathy and classroom transactions, and relate to the recognition of emotion, feeling, mood or attitude in the english class. it is also worth noting, that the studies above provided an important opportunity to advance in the understanding of autobiographies as a source of inquiry, and reclaims the relevance of narratives at the moment of exploring people’s experiences, as barkhuizen, benson, & chik (2014) claim: “a focus on narrative content can certainly contribute to a richer and more rounded understanding of language teaching and learning as lived experience” (p.3). this is verified by an important study carried out by beheshti & noor (2013), in which the authors were intended to analyze the impact of different journaling techniques on sixty iranian language learners. the results of the study showed that encouraging students to keep a journal through which they could reflect about their experiences as learners maximized the sources that nourished their self-efficacy beliefs. in keeping with the previous literature review, it is evident that the issue of self-efficacy is of central importance for teachers, and in particular language teachers to understand the reasons behind the learners’ poor or successful performance at the time of learning english as a foreign language. indeed, the previous studies showed how the students’ self-efficacy can have a positive or a negative impact in their performance, which gives support and relevance to the exploration of the students’ language learning experiences in relation to their selfefficacy beliefs. self-efficacy as a language learning enhancer garcía & duran no. 15 (july december, 2017) no. 15 (july december, 2017) 79 methodology research design this study falls in line with the principles and procedures of a qualitative case study since it pursues “an intensive, holistic description and analysis of a bounded phenomenon such as a program, an institution, a person, a process or a social unit” merriam (1988) p.14. in this case and as the same author states, the interest is in the process rather than outcomes, in the context, rather than specific variables, in discovery rather than confirmation and it is reflected in the following research question that guides the study: how do students’ narratives inform about the relationships between their language learning experiences and their perceived self-efficacy in the language learning process? furthermore, for the purposes of this study it is clear that the understanding of the relationship between students’ language learning experiences and their self-efficacy, is central to improve practice, as it will be shown at the end of this chapter. by the same token the grounded theory approach proposed by freeman (1998), becomes the mode of exploration of the phenomenon of the self-efficacy of the students and its relation with their language learning experiences. this was done by the establishment of commonalities between the data and their possible connections with the phenomenon under study. in this way, as researchers we could go beyond the apparent students’ reluctance and indifference towards learning and lack of interest, to turn failure into a new challenge or opportunity to move forward. the form of narrative considered for the purposes of this study was the autobiographies, which are also defined as histories in this case of language learning. according to benson (2011), the term history suggests a long term account as well as periods over a person has learned a language such as a year, or semester or an incident that lasts not more than a few minutes. this was a key aspect for this exploration because the study lasted ten months, and the participant students had taken english courses during two years approximately which turned into an interesting amount of time and range of experiences to look at. context and participants the population who participated in this study was a group of 11 intermediate students who were ninth and eleventh graders, and their ages ranged from 13 to 15 years old. the criteria for the selection of this population, was the presence of a phenomenon of constant failure and reluctance of the students towards learning the foreign language, and the purpose of understanding the situation further and hopefully to self-efficacy as a language learning enhancer garcía & duran no. 15 (july december, 2017) no. 15 (july december, 2017) 80 come up with alternatives to overcome the issue under study, in these students and others in similar circumstances. the students were enrolled in an agreement between their school and a recognized language centre of the city, which established 16 levels of english (two per month) as a requirement to graduate from high school; that is to say the learners had to go to the institute to have english lessons two days (five hours) a week, so, they could take the courses as a school subject. data collection instruments the participants were encouraged to write an autobiography (see appendix 1) using a time line through which they could talk about the most important experiences and childhood memories they have lived as kids or youngsters, and as students of english as a foreign language. subsequently, the teacher researcher showed them their own autobiography (see appendix 2), in order to motivate them to do the activity and give them some ideas. it is important to say that learners were guided through some questions (see appendix 3 ), which were aligned to their former language learning experiences and the sources they used to learn english. this was done to see eventual connections between those facts and the way they have built their self-efficacy beliefs. with the purpose of conducting the study ethically, it was considered the parents’ permission to use the students’ narratives taking into account their ages. consequently, the parents signed a consent form (see appendix 4) where they were told the information was going to be used for research purposes only. data analysis and interpretation the autobiographies were collected and immediately read as the first step in the analysis, which was supported on the grounded theory approach as it was mentioned before freeman (1998). in this sense, the data was read repeatedly and colour coded according to the recurrence of themes. patterns in the themes which connected the autobiographical accounts were identified leading to the interpretation of them. this interpretation was done through the categorization of data extracts and their reorganization under thematic headings polkinghorne (1995). the preliminary categories were also generated from the analysis of points of similarity and difference throughout the data to have a broader analytical viewpoint and later, they were rearranged based on theoretical self-efficacy as a language learning enhancer garcía & duran no. 15 (july december, 2017) no. 15 (july december, 2017) 81 arguments to provide more validity to the findings, as it is shown in the following figure: figure 1. similarities and differences of data the themes above were specified and explicit to display initial findings and interrelations, and subsequently configure the categories that emerged from the data analysis. the following categories bring to surface issues connected to students’ previous experiences, and different dimensions of interactions in and outside the classroom, that seem to have shaped the way they see themselves as successful or academically disadvantaged learners. next there are the two main categories that were generated out the data analysis: learners’ discouraging experiences and students’ negative states. discouraging experiences: particularly, after the analysis the data through the grounded theory approach, it was found that the majority of the students’ have had discouraging experiences when learning english. one of the consequences of these demotivating experiences is their repetitive failure of the english courses and the exams. according to the data and grouping commonalities, this continuous deficiency could be explained by the aspects below: teachers’ discourse and didactics: turning to the teachers’ discourse and didactics, students mentioned how the inadequate classroom management and error correction techniques used by their teachers, as well as their poor appraisal to learners’ work, the teachers’ centred lessons, and their inadequate discourse remarks made them feel apprehensive, inhibited and demotivated to learn the language. this implies that the teacher’s performance seems to have influenced self-efficacy as a language learning enhancer garcía & duran no. 15 (july december, 2017) no. 15 (july december, 2017) 82 learners’ states in the english classroom, which have tended to be negative, as it is shown next: “pues una de mis malas experiencias fue con una profesora del centro de idiomas, por su forma de enseñar no le entendía nada y eso me frustraba un poco y pues su forma de corregirnos no era la más apropiada, por lo que daba miedo y pues el inglés no es una de mis materias preferidas y así como que menos uno le halla el gusto” (participant g, personal communication, june 25, 2015): “hasta donde tengo memoria, unos pocos profesores mostraron interés por mi proceso de aprendizaje a lo largo de los años. una profesora llamada dora, fue la única de los profesores que fue paciente conmigo. sus clases eran dinámicas y algunas otras eran normales (…) dora me decía que le gustaban mis presentaciones y la manera como ponía atención en clase, porque ella siempre esperaba sentirse orgullosa de nuestro aprendizaje y avance, más allá de darnos una nota. para ella, enseñar era más que un trabajo” (participant b, personal communication, june 25, 2015). classroom transactions: according to arnold (1999) and brown (2007), classroom transactions imply that learners need to be encouraged and assisted in the classroom. in this respect, students’ autobiographies showed that most of them were not motivated enough to learn and use the language in their english classes; on the contrary, they were inhibited, embarrassed in public and demotivated instead, as a consequence of the inadequate classroom transactions and the inappropriate discourse. these are factors educators tend to take for granted, or assume as a common place in the classroom daily basis practice or discourse, disregarding the negative influence these traits bring to the students’ prospective performance and behaviour: “lo mismo me pasó con el mini proyecto; lo hice pero cuando iba a la mitad de la presentación me dijo: “si no va a aprender que usted se tiene que memorizar lo que trajo no lo presente; y además yo no la pienso pasar con cosas tan mediocres. desde ahí fue cuando comencé a decirme que soy una bruta que no sirvo para nada etc”. (participant f, personal communication, june 25, 2015) “yo siempre sentía que ella me tenía rabia ya que no era como unos niños que sabían más que yo. entonces yo nunca le participaba porque ella nunca me dio esa confianza, siempre me sentía insegura en todo no podía hacer algo sola porque siempre pensaba que me iba a quedar mal ya que ella siempre me ignoraba o todo me decía que me quedaba mal; nunca me explicaba.” (participant f, personal communication, june 25, 2015). self-efficacy as a language learning enhancer garcía & duran no. 15 (july december, 2017) no. 15 (july december, 2017) 83 once again, it is shown that learners’ self-efficacy beliefs could have been diminished dramatically by some of their teachers through an inappropriate discourse and classroom transactions that show they neglected students’ affective domain, which according to brown (2007) is “the emotional side of human behaviour and can be juxtaposed to the cognitive side” (p.153). this explains why educators need to create good conditions that predispose students positively to learn the foreign language and handle adversity in a proactive way. wright (2005). students’ negative states: it is important to say that students’ negative states can be categorized into individual and relational factors. according to arnold (1999), these factors express students’ behaviour as individuals and as participants in a sociocultural context. under these circumstances, some of the negative states learners have had during their experience refer to anxiety, inhibition, low self-esteem, lack of motivation, and lack of empathy from the teachers; as well as other negative emotions, such as fear and frustration, which could be possible consequences of the teachers’ inappropriate discourse and classroom transactions. the next extracts from the students confirm this: “diría que fue la primera vez en el centro de idiomas pues con este profesor entendía muy poco él no pensaba si entendíamos o no las cosas que él le explicaba, y si hacíamos la actividad mal se ponía furioso y nos regañaba... recuerdo que no entendía nada, este nivel lo perdí, el castigo fue duro y desde ahí le temo a equivocarme o a perder un nivel”. (participant l, personal communication, june 25, 2015). “porque me siento insegura con lo que hago y me dan muchos nervios (…) cuando pienso cosas negativas de mí misma (…) cuando pienso en mis padres en que los he hecho perder mucho dinero en los niveles”. (participant f, personal communication, june 25, 2015). it is important to say that according to bandura (1997), people judge how capable they are to do something based on the somatic indicators they show when facing certain situations that are aversive or difficult. these indicators are negative states that prevent learners from performing adequately. for this reason, if students feel: anxiety, fear, confusion, inhibition, nervousness, selfdisappointment, or if they experience: frustration, lack of confidence or low self-esteem when doing certain attainments, their self-efficacy beliefs could be low . an evidence of this is provided by the excerpts of the students, which show the learners may have a low level of perceived capability since the negative states mentioned above emerged when they needed to do a specific task. this may be related to the fact that the teachers were not making enough effort to create the optimal conditions for students self-efficacy as a language learning enhancer garcía & duran no. 15 (july december, 2017) no. 15 (july december, 2017) 84 to learn and use the language in class. besides, this also suggests that students’ negative states seemed to be linked directly to the kind of rapport their teachers built in the classroom, which is also related to the classroom climate of the lessons wright (2005). that is to say that learners tended to feel uncomfortable with their educators’ teaching style and the kind of relationship they built with them, which seemed to be distant and made students feel fear and other negative states already mentioned. according to the analysis above, it is evident that the main relationships between the students’ language learning experiences and their perceived capability can be understood by the way these experiences shaped their self-efficacy beliefs and the different sources from which they build them. these sources, as it was mentioned in the literature review, refer to enactive mastery experiences, verbal persuasion and physiological and affective states. a discussion of how these experiences influenced the self-efficacy beliefs of the learners in this study through the sources mentioned will be provided as follows: enactive mastery experiences: as reported in the autobiographies, the students were exposed to discouraging experiences in the language where the teachers’ discourse and didactics, as well as their classroom transactions and the methodology used created an inadequate classroom climate, that made them feel threatened to express themselves using the language. according to the data, this demotivated them to study and made them feel reluctant towards english. evidently, this first source coined by bandura (1997), was not nourished appropriately, which explains why their self-efficacy beliefs were not strong. verbal persuasion: in agreement with the learners’ personal accounts, the continuous discouragement given by their teachers as well as the inadequate error correction techniques and classroom transactions made them feel insecure and increased their reluctance to the language. as bandura (1997) argued, when a person is encouraged and praised verbally, the verbal persuasion source is heightened, and as a consequence, his or her perceived capability; in this case, the majority of the students were not encouraged verbally, which may have weakened their self-efficacy beliefs. however, it is important to say that a few of the learners received a support from their parents and relatives that contributed to the enhancement of this source. physiological and affective states: in consonance with the data, this was one of the sources that was diminished the most, since it was evident the way students’ negative states such as anxiety, inhibition, fear, frustration, nervousness among others, came into surface when self-efficacy as a language learning enhancer garcía & duran no. 15 (july december, 2017) no. 15 (july december, 2017) 85 they tried to participate in class, do oral presentations or take written and oral exams. besides, the analysis showed how the learners’ perception about themselves was affected in a negative way, since the continuous discouraging experiences they have faced and the lack of rapport between them and their teachers, made them feel less confident when learning and using the language in the class; this explains their constant failure patterns in the regular courses. to summarize, it is evident how the students’ language learning experiences shaped their self-efficacy beliefs, which made the learners show a poor performance in the language, have a constant failure in the courses and be reluctant and apathetic to the learning process as a consequence. moreover, it is clear that the autobiographies were a very valuable instrument to inquire into the participants’ language learning experiences, and that this information was validated against the theory and the results of previous studies. discussion of the findings undeniably, the categories obtained after the analysis of the autobiographies which referred to discouraging experiences, students’ lack of commitment, teachers’ discourse and didactics, classroom transactions and students negative states, provided relevant information about how weak or nourished were the four main sources proposed by bandura (1997) related to enactive mastery experiences, verbal persuasion and physiological and affective states, so the learners’ selfefficacy beliefs could be explored. with regard to the question: how are the relationships between students’ language learning experiences and their perceived capability evident in learners’ narratives?, the ideas stated in the personal accounts showed that the negative experiences of the students when learning, the lack of rapport in the classes, the continuous embarrassment and discouragement they were exposed to, the fear they started to feel to participate, and the fact that their work did not seem to be valued enough in class, weakened three of the afore mentioned sources proposed by bandura (1997). these aspects, explain why the relationships between the students’ language learning experiences and the self-efficacy beliefs they acquired during the process were intertwined, since they were shaped by their teachers’ discourse and didactics, the classroom environment of the lessons and the classroom transactions that took place and made the students show a continuous reluctance and apathy to the language. self-efficacy as a language learning enhancer garcía & duran no. 15 (july december, 2017) no. 15 (july december, 2017) 86 evidently, the autobiographies gave representative information about this such symbiotic relationship, confirming what durán narváez, lastra ramírez & morales vasco (2013) indicate in their research article about this type of narrative, as a useful tool to dig into the individuals’ experiences and to get to know their identity as learners. in short, it can be claimed that the relationships between students’ language learning experiences and their self-efficacy beliefs, were clear in learners’ autobiographies. as a result, the research question of the study was answered extensively, and the theoretical constructs that support the relationships between students’ self-efficacy beliefs, language learning experiences and narratives were verified in this study. conclusions in line with the information presented in this study, which was part of a larger one, findings reveal that the implementation of autobiographies in the english class can give information on the engagement patterns teachers build in the classroom, which reflect their teaching style, classroom management strategies and the climate where students learn the language wright (2005). under these circumstances, implementing autobiographies can shed light on the roles teachers and students perform. the use of autobiographies enables an understanding of the way students feel when they are heard and valued in the english classroom, since the participants of this study expressed their insights about their language learning process freely for the first time without being judged. surprisingly, during and after the autobiographies implementation, learners started to be willing to learn the language and go to class, which led them to see english differently. indeed, feeling that their voice counted in the teaching learning process and their histories were important for the teacher, made students get more interested in the language. this study confirms earlier work done by bandura (1997) who asserted the influence of the role of self-efficacy beliefs in the individuals’ performance. moreover, the data demonstrated that the students’ self-efficacy beliefs in the language were not strong, which was a result of the discouraging learning experiences they have been exposed to. in consequence, these experiences weakened the learners’ perceived capability, which led them show reluctance and apathy to english as well as constant failure patterns. self-efficacy as a language learning enhancer garcía & duran no. 15 (july december, 2017) no. 15 (july december, 2017) 87 this project was restricted by time constraints and the difficulty of the participants to express themselves clearly through the personal accounts, since it was the first time they had the opportunity to write about their learning experiences in the foreign language. this made the grounded theory analysis more extensive but rich, meaningful and fruitful at the same time. for further research, it would be interesting to expand learners’ life stories to understand the way their experiences shape their performance, attitude and above all, their perception and identity as learners. it can be concluded that inquiring into the learners’self-efficacy beliefs can help the academic community to understand the students beyond the texts books and the grades they can get in a classroom, giving importance to their affective dimension, which underlies their feelings, perceptions, classroom patterns, the type of environment built in the lessons and the different teaching styles that emerge in each encounter. the issue of re-thinking the role of the teachers in education is of central importance since little attention has been paid to the appraisal of students’ previous experiences, the affective dimension in class and the creation of safer classroom environments that boost students’ learning; this might be done by becoming educators that empower students “with a profound trust in people and their creative power” (freire, 1969, p.24) and by recognizing learners’experiences: children’s... experiences are tremendously valuable resources for education. our role as teachers is to build upon these experiences and to create an environment where students can make connections to other experiences, construct personal meaning out of what they are learning and become open to new possibilities for growth... their experiences need to be taken seriously and woven integrally into the curriculum... there must exist continuity between the child and the curriculum in order for learning and growth to occur. hytten (2000) p. 460 (as cited in banks-joseph, gilmore and shawer ,2008) (p.4) self-efficacy as a language learning enhancer garcía & duran no. 15 (july december, 2017) no. 15 (july december, 2017) 88 authors *norma constanza durán narváez hold an ma in applied linguistics to tefl from universidad distrital francisco josé de caldas and a specialist in english language teaching from universidad del tolima (colombia). her research interests include teacher learning and professional development, cognition processes in teacher education and efl teaching and learning processes. she is currently a full time teacher in the b.ed in english program and part time teacher in the english didactics master program at universidad del tolima, colombia. carol andrea garcía gutierrez is enrolled in the english didactics master program at universidad del tolima, colombia. in the last two years, she worked on a research study named: exploring students’’ self-efficacy in the language learning process, from which the information discussed in the article is part. she has been a teacher for ten years and managed different types of audiences such as: children, intermediate school students and undergraduate learners. she has also worked in private schools, language learning centres and at the university of tolima as well. she is currently teaching english in the language centre at universidad militar nueva granada, colombia. self-efficacy as a language learning enhancer garcía & duran no. 15 (july december, 2017) no. 15 (july december, 2017) 89 references arnold, j. 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(2005). classroom management in language education. palgrave macmillan. self-efficacy as a language learning enhancer garcía & duran no. 15 (july december, 2017) no. 15 (july december, 2017) 92 apprendix 1 autobiographies samples self-efficacy as a language learning enhancer garcía & duran no. 15 (july december, 2017) no. 15 (july december, 2017) 93 appendix 2 teacher’s autobiography self-efficacy as a language learning enhancer garcía & duran no. 15 (july december, 2017) no. 15 (july december, 2017) 94 appendix 3 questions (students’ autobiographies) 1. tus profesores de inglés han tenido en cuenta tu forma de aprender y tu personalidad en el desarrollo de sus clases? 2. describe las experiencias exitosas en el aprendizaje del inglés. 3. describe las experiencias frustrantes o poco satisfactorias en el aprendizaje del inglés 4. que recursos y/o personas han sido fundamentales en tu proceso del aprendizaje del idioma? 5. que recursos y/o personas han interferido en tu proceso de aprendizaje del inglés? 6. de qué manera piensas que el inglés te puede ayudar en tu vida futura? por qué? 7. que aspecto/ aspectos han influido en que ganes o apruebes los exámenes y los niveles de inglés? 8. que aspecto/ aspectos inciden o han influido en que pierdas las pruebas y los niveles de inglés?. self-efficacy as a language learning enhancer garcía & duran no. 15 (july december, 2017) no. 15 (july december, 2017) 95 appendix 4 consent form self-efficacy as a language learning enhancer garcía & duran no. 15 (july december, 2017) no. 15 (july december, 2017) gistseptiembre2011final2.indd 66 bilingual teacher beliefs and practice: do they line up?1 celia den hartog king and claudia peralta nash2* boise state university, usa abstract a qualitative study used observation and collection of artifacts to examine the pedagogical strategies of six teachers; four taught in a two-way bilingual education school, while the other two were first-year teachers in a school setting with large numbers of english language learners. informal interviews were conducted throughout the time of the study; semi-structured interviews were conducted at the end of a semester of observation and recording of field notes. some interviews attempted to uncover the beliefs teachers had about student learning, and in particular, that of culturally and linguistically diverse students. teachers were asked about the influences and sources of their beliefs. other interviews explored teacher identities as educators of culturally and linguistically diverse students and how these identities fit in school settings that were or were not welcoming of such students. transcripts of taped interviews were compared with field notes and collected artifacts in order to determine the degree to which teachers used strategies related to what they said they believed to be important for culturally and linguistically diverse students. it was determined that there were numerous cases where teacher practice confirmed statements made in interviews. keywords: pedagogical strategies, bilingual education, teachers´ beliefs resumen este estudio cualitativo utilizó la observación y recolección de información para examinar las estrategias pedagógicas de seis profesores; cuatro de ellos enseñan en una escuela de educación bilingüe mientras que los otros dos, son docentes de primer año en una escuela que cuenta con un gran número de estudiantes de inglés como segundo idioma. se realizaron entrevistas informales a los largo de la investigación, entrevistas semiestructuradas al final de un semestre de observación y registro de notas de campo. algunas entrevistas intentaron identificar las creencias que tenían los docentes sobre el 1 this article is based on a research conducted in 2005-2006 in the u.s. received: march 24th,2011 / accepted: july 26st, 2011 2 email: cperaltanash@gmail.com, kingcelia@gmail.com gist education and learning research journal. issn 1692-5777. no. 5, november 2011. pp. 66-83 no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) 67 aprendizaje del estudiante y, en particular aquellos que pertenecen a diversos contextos culturales y lingüísticos. igualmente, se les pregunto a los docentes sobre los orígenes y factores que influyen en sus creencias. oreas entrevistas exploraron las identidades de los profesores como educadores de estudiantes cultural y lingüísticamente diversos y como estas identidades encajan en ambientes escolares en los cuales eran o no bienvenidos estos estudiantes. las transcripciones de las entrevistas grabadas fueron comparadas con las notas de campo y la información recolectada con el fin de determinar el grado en que los docentes utilizaban estrategias relacionadas con lo que ellos creían que era importante para los estudiantes procedentes de diversos contextos culturales y lingüísticos. la investigación reveló que existen numerosos casos donde la práctica docente confirma las declaraciones de los docentes en las entrevistas. palabras claves: estrategias pedagógicas, educación bilingüe, creencias de los docentes resumo este estudo qualitativo utilizou a observação coletada de informação para examinar as estratégias pedagógicas de seis professores; quatro deles ensinam em uma escola de educação bilíngue enquanto que os outros dois, são docentes de primeiro ano em uma escola que conta com um grande número de estudantes de inglês como segundo idioma. realizaram-se entrevistas informais ao longo da pesquisa, entrevistas semi-estruturadas no final de um semestre de observação e registro de notas de campo. algumas entrevistas tentaram identificar as crenças que tinham os docentes sobre a aprendizagem do estudante e, em particular aqueles que pertencem a diversos contextos culturais e linguísticos. igualmente, se perguntou aos docentes sobre as origens e fatores que influem em suas crenças. outras entrevistas exploraram as identidades dos professores como educadores de estudantes cultural e linguisticamente diversos e como estas identidades encaixam em ambientes escolares nos quais eram ou não bem-vindos estes estudantes. as transcrições das entrevistas gravadas foram comparadas com as notas de campo e a informação recolhida com o fim de determinar o grau em que os docentes utilizavam estratégias relacionadas com o que eles achavam que era importante para os estudantes procedentes de diversos contextos culturais e linguísticos. a pesquisa revelou que existem numerosos casos onde a prática docente confirma as declarações dos docentes nas entrevistas. palavras chaves: estratégias pedagógicas, educação bilíngue, crenças dos docentes no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) 68 research on teacher thinking is abundant and thriving. critics have questioned how its findings can be of use to teachers or teacher education. researchers suggest that another perspective should be explored to better understand teacher behaviors that focuses on the things and ways that teachers believe (e.g. clark, 1988; nespor, 1987). this view is based on the assumption that beliefs are the best indicators of the decisions individuals make throughout their lives (bandura, 1986; dewey, 1933; rokeach, 1968). few would argue that the beliefs teachers hold influence their perceptions and judgments, which in turn, affect their behavior in the classroom. nor do they question that understanding the belief structures of teachers is essential to improving their teaching practices (ashton, 1990). we believe that it is important to explore teachers’ beliefs about the nature of teaching knowledge, where teaching knowledge is defined as all knowledge relevant to the practice of teaching. in this investigation, knowledge is viewed as being actively constructed by the individual on the basis of his or her personal experience and reason (e.g., hoefer, 2000, 2004; wod and kardash, 2002). in this paper, beliefs and knowledge will be used interchangeably, taking into consideration clandinin and connelly’s (1987) suggestion that many of the personal knowledge constructs are simply different words meaning the same thing. this paper explores how seasoned bilingual teacher and novice bilingual teacher beliefs were reflected in and influenced their pedagogy. even though various studies have explored teacher beliefs through qualitative methods (anning, 1988; irujo, 1998; flores busto, 2000) further studies are needed to investigate bilingual education teacher beliefs. the teachers in the study were committed to working with students who are culturally and linguistically diverse and believed their efforts could change the possibilities and opportunities for their students. observations sought to discover whether their beliefs matched the practices held in the classroom when working with bilingual/esl students. theoretical framework because of the discussion of the domain specificity of beliefs and the calls to assess beliefs at an appropriate level of specificity (e.g. buehl, and alexander, 2006; pajares, 1992) we proposed to examine teachers’ beliefs about the nature of teaching knowledge where teaching knowledge is defined as all knowledge relevant to the practice of teaching. it is important to understand the nature of the relationship bilingual teacher biliefs and practice king and peralta no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) 69 between knowledge and belief on the one hand, and teacher behavior and student outcomes on the other. it is also important to understand the relationship between belief and knowledge themselves. richardson (1996) points out that attitudes and beliefs are “a subset of a group of constructs that name, define, and describe the structure and content of mental states that are thought to drive a person’s actions” (p.102). taylor (2003) has defined beliefs as “strong personal propositions” (p. 60). beliefs may be on various levels, including epistemological, motivational, and pedagogical (archer, 1999), while others such as roehler, duffy, herrmann, conley, and johnson (1988) believe that knowledge must take priority over affect, in the form of beliefs, although they understand that beliefs influence thinking. they argue that beliefs are static and represent truths that remain unchanged in the teacher’s mind; knowledge is fluid and evolves as new experiences are interpreted and integrated into existing schema. philosophical beliefs, too, enter into the mix of influences on what teachers do in classrooms. in fact, “teachers’ philosophical beliefs are considered as the cornerstone of their teaching practises and their beliefs concerning teaching and learning” (charalambous, philippou, & kyriakides, 2002, p.1). as difficult as it is to define beliefs precisely, we do know they are important in influencing teacher pedagogy (donaghue, 2003). it is important that teachers reflectively examine personal beliefs and philosophies in order to make informed decisions relating to their students. expósito and favela (2003) believe this reflective process is especially important for teachers of diverse populations. reflecting about their ideology and how their belief systems impact the interaction with linguistically and diverse students and families is crucial as their impact can make a difference between students’ academic success or failure. teacher beliefs in general, and some that relate particularly to bilingual education settings or those where english language learners are found, have numerous sources that include: teacher education programs; prior experiences in schools, either as students or teachers; personal or life experiences, including growing up as a member of a parallel culture; and experiences as a bilingual or with bilinguals; world view; and family. some of these factors interact with each other. there is, however, a lack of consensus on which of these truly affect what teachers do in practice. although some studies (an, 2000; cohen & tellez, 1994; mueller & zeidler, 1998; richardson, anders, tidwell, & lloyd, 1991) found a correlation between teachers’ stated beliefs and their classroom practice, richardson (1996) suggests, “the perceived relationship between beliefs and actions is interactive. beliefs are bilingual teacher biliefs and practice king and peralta no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) 70 thought to drive actions” (p.104). this is, however, more consistent at some times than others. in order to understand the relationship between teacher beliefs and practice, it is important to consider the factors that may work against teachers’ ability to implement methods in which they believe. fang (1996) relates, “earlier researchers have noted that the complexities of classroom life can constrain teachers’ abilities to attend to their beliefs and provide instruction which aligns with their theoretical beliefs” (p.53). he adds that “administrator and collegial attitudes” (p.54) and the “psychological, social and environmental realities of…schools” (p. 54) may affect the degree to which teachers are able to make instructional decisions that support their beliefs. alignment of theory with beliefs is particularly important for teachers of english language learners, as there are several divergent camps related to beliefs on how best to teach a language. these range from drill and memorization approaches to those that emphasize acquisition of language in a more natural way through the highly contextualized teaching of content. fang (1996) cites johnson’s (1992) study of english as a second language (esl) teachers as an example of the impact of teacher beliefs about language learners. fang states: the majority of…esl teachers possess clearly defined theoretical beliefs which consistently reflect one particular methodological approach. further, the study [johnson’s] showed that esl teachers who possess clearly defined theoretical beliefs provide literacy instruction which is consistent with their theoretical orientation and that teachers with different dominant theoretical orientations provide strikingly different literacy instruction for non-native speakers of english. (p.52) when attempting to determine whether bilingual/esl teachers’ beliefs are consistent with their practices, it is important to keep in mind school factors such as support for the theoretical model of language learning used by teachers, as well as other factors that relate to the teaching of culturally and linguistically diverse students that may enter into what happens in classrooms. setting four of the teachers involved in this study were faculty at a small (76 students) k-2 two-way bilingual charter school in the northwest. the school’s population is a mix of latino and anglo saxon children. approximately 20% of the students speak spanish as their first language, bilingual teacher biliefs and practice king and peralta no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) 71 although about 85% of students come from latino households. the school is located in a mid-size, somewhat rural, culturally diverse city. the other two teachers were hired at schools in the same area; one of these was designated as an english language learner school. data from the district shows that the designated english language learner school has a total of 256 (k-3) students of which 32% are white, 68% hispanic, and 49% are english language learners (as cited in school records). the second school, a middle school, has a total of 742 students, of which 46 % are white and 51% hispanic; 12% are english language learners. participants the six participants were teachers in schools in the northwest. all had attended a bilingual/esl teacher education program at a northwestern metropolitan university. the participants consisted of two male and four female teachers. both males (gael, ramiro) and two females (veronica, elizabeth) were latino; two females (carie, donna) were european american. gael and carie were also co-directors of the two-way bilingual charter school in which a portion of the study took place. ramiro and donna were the first-year teachers. four of the participants grew up speaking spanish and english at home and continue to do so socially and in their jobs. the european american participants learned spanish in college and by participating in a sixweek program in mexico. data collection one researcher spent full school days at the dual language school, one day a week during a school semester. detailed field notes taken each day included information about classroom layout and resources; observations of teachers and students; teacher talk; notes about lessons and strategies used; student responses; and informal conversations with faculty, staff and students. artifacts collected included documents pertaining to curriculum plans and school policies, and samples of student work. a formal, semistructured interview with mostly open-ended questions was conducted with each of the four teachers. these interviews were audiotaped, and then later transcribed. the other researcher acted as an observer/mentor for the novice teachers, meeting with them on a weekly basis for a year at their schools and in more relaxed social settings. discussions were audiotaped and transcribed. bilingual teacher biliefs and practice king and peralta no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) 72 each data segment presented here was taken verbatim from the data collected. after reflecting on the data, we coded the transcripts and organized them into thematic “chunks” (rossman & rallis, 1998). the process involved taking text data, creating common categories, and labeling those categories (e.g., teacher education program, prior teaching experiences, life experiences, being a member of a cultural or linguistic sub-group, student learning and empowerment.) the field notes and artifacts were used to triangulate the data (coffey & atkison, 1996). specifically, the data revealed the influence of specific beliefs and how these impacted the pedagogical decisions made in the classroom. highlighted below are the themes that emerged from the data with specific examples given by the teachers. what we learned impact of teacher education programs research generally supports the fact that teacher education programs tend to have little impact on how teachers teach because most students come into such programs with a preponderance of life experiences that have already shaped beliefs (o’loughlin, 1995). exceptions may be when experiences in teacher preparation programs affirm the beliefs with which students enter, or when educational experiences totally disconfirm what students believe. carie stated that the critical theory emphasis of her undergraduate program made her feel “grounded, and [i] knew where i was going” (personal communication, 8/27/2005). gael, on the other hand, who also demonstrates security in his position as spanish-language teacher of kindergarten and first grade, came to this point in spite of the more traditional methods classes that made him feel like he always “collided with the professors.” some of the undergraduate classes for his minor in bilingual education had a critical flavor, but it was not until he reached the graduate level that he found a program built on critical pedagogy that resonated with his teaching beliefs and style. his beginning teaching experiences put him at odds with more traditional teachers and administrators, but he persisted in teaching in a way that he felt was relevant for his diverse students. prior teaching experiences gael felt his beginning experiences as a teacher were rocky, but that they helped him to solidify his own beliefs related to effective teaching. when confronted by a colleague who tried to load him up with a “big stack of…ditto stuff…and synthetic-looking things” on his first day of teaching, gael’s polite but firm response after an hour of accompanying lecture was, “it doesn’t apply to the structure of teaching bilingual teacher biliefs and practice king and peralta no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) 73 that i’m conducting in two languages with the kids, and…thank you” (personal communication, 8/4/2005). he then proceeded to come in to work early every day and make up his own curriculum. he summarized, “i learned on the job.” even today, gael and his colleagues continue to make up many learning activities for students, believing that in this way they can tailor learning to the specific needs and interests of their students. elizabeth mentioned two positive experiences she had while teaching that impacted her greatly. the first was being requested by teachers at her first school to be their instructional assistant. she feels that this show of confidence in her abilities built her own confidence to become a teacher. the second experience, which also moved her closer to becoming a classroom teacher, was a result of a visit made to the charter school by several state education officials. during the visit, elizabeth had to fill in for carie in the kindergarten classroom to free her up to talk with the officials. after they left, gael mentioned to elizabeth that one man had made a compliment to him about her teaching. “oh, mrs. lara, mr. so-and-so was so impressed with your teaching. he said ‘you have a wonderful kindergarten teacher’” (personal communication, 9/15/2005). elizabeth downplayed the comment, but it was obvious that this had had a great impact on her. as a result of her positive experiences, elizabeth was preparing to take on the new role of kindergarten teacher the next school year. life experiences perhaps the strongest influences on teaching beliefs and pedagogy are those of life and family. elizabeth grew up in a migrant family, dropping out of school early because of the difficulty of juggling work and school. when her high-school age son started asking her to help him with his homework, she began to understand the importance of education, not only for her son, but also for herself. she returned to get her ged, and then continued on to obtain her associate’s degree. elizabeth also stated that she has a greater empathy for children who are struggling with math because of the challenges she, herself, faced with a college math course. gael related his experience with a lady at the ged testing center as one of the strongest influences on his teaching. i guess for me it has to be one very specific [experience]…and that’s when, in the spring of ’97, i went to get my ged, and a lady there, della wright, she was so passionate about her belief in me. and i was already 27, almost 28 years old, and so that passion that she had, that belief in me, that it didn’t matter how old i was, or my lack of english proficiency…(personal communication, 11/23/2005) bilingual teacher biliefs and practice king and peralta no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) 74 ramiro also commented that the belief that his grandmother had in him inspired him to continue his education. he shared that he attended a very segregated high school, and many times he was told to drop out, and to get a job because “he would never make it.” but he kept on hearing his grandmother’s messages of encouragement. having someone believe in them and their abilities in spite of educational and linguistic strikes against them have made gael and ramiro compassionate teachers who affirm their students. they attempt to infuse the same confidence and belief into their students that della did into him. another life influence gael mentioned was the work ethic instilled in him by his father, who “never walked away from duty, from work, from responsibility.” this is seen in his teaching when gael expects students “to put in their share, put in their part,” holding high expectations for them. an entry from field notes for october 23rd reveals another major influence on gael’s beliefs about educationthe fact that he had dropped out of school at the 6th grade to help his family, and then returned to education at 27 years of age. his personal experience taught him to appreciate formal and informal knowledge, thus helping connect with many of the families of his students. veronica told me about her childhood, sharing that her family did not have much in the way of physical things, but they did have a closeness that helped build “really awesome memories.” two memories have affected how she treats her students today. she admits that she was a poor reader. i wasn’t a good reader, and i was in title one, even though i didn’t know that that’s what it was. but the love for literature now that i have, that i didn’t have then... i’m trying to make up for it now, and so i try to pass that on to the kids, and i think when a teacher is passionate about a thing, whether it’s reading or math, it just really reflects on the kids. (personal communication, 11/3/2005) the second influence on veronica’s classroom is her view of herself as “a shy little kid” when she was growing up. today, she endeavors to create a place where “the kids feel safe” and can trust the adults and other children around them. “if they can’t trust you and if they don’t feel safe with you, then they shouldn’t be with you” (personal communication, 9/15/2005). bilingual teacher biliefs and practice king and peralta no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) 75 experiences of cultural or linguistic “difference” teachers of color know from personal experience what it is like to be a member of a racial/ethnic minority group in the united states. their experiences as students in the system have shown them schools are not neutral. during an interview ramiro revealed: “i saw the disparity of latino/spanish-speaking teachers and students and wanted to work for a change” (personal communication, march 4, 2005). he often pointed out that mexican americans are silenced, or are asked to be quiet and follow the school (dominant) rules and to “just do their work” in all of the other classes. he understands the importance of letting students have a voice by giving them opportunities. he believes that the relationships developed in school are important to the way students feel about themselves. “i try to allow students to express themselves and get used to the idea that they can be heard through expression of different mediums” (personal communication, may 4, 2005). veronica shared a negative experience related to the discrimination she felt because of her race. “you know the memories that were hurtful, when i was a little bit older in high school, when you get to know what discrimination was like, you hear things, you hear people saying things about ‘those mexicans’ or things like that, and that’s when you really start to wonder. you know, i really don’t remember…i remember it being bad, i remember thinking, how could people treat other people like that? i mean, we’re just the same, only different colors” (personal communication, 11/3/2005). veronica’s experiences have made her determined to affirm the value of all children. she understands that to improve the education of culturally and linguistically diverse students, it is imperative that educators understand the relationship between the students’ home culture and school learning (peralta nash 2003). student learning several of the teachers expressed the opinion that all children learn differently, and that you sometimes have to keep trying different things until you find what works for each child. “a teacher has to adjust her teaching to accommodate that child. we can’t expect them all to learn the same way” (elizabeth, personal communication, may 23, 2005). another aspect of effective teaching, as expressed by the participants, was that of using real life experiences to enhance and guide lessons. carie spoke at length about the importance of using what students brought with them to make classroom experiences more relevant and meaningful. in her view, this did not minimize the importance of having a lesson plan and knowing the content and state standards. however, these often acted as the backbone for a lesson that changed shape at times because of what children brought up in bilingual teacher biliefs and practice king and peralta no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) 76 class or wrote about in their notebooks. “you have to be able to listen and say, ‘how can i turn that into a major, dynamite lesson?’” carie characterized her teaching as “off the cuff,” although this meant she was flexible and responsive, rather than unprepared. another example was shared by elizabeth: yesterday when i was teaching math, i was doing math with the first-graders, and a lady, she brings in 2 bunnies for show and tell for her little girl, you know. i thought, ok, gotta think of something different here. so we stopped math and went to the carpet and did show and tell, but of course i was still going to do math. so i said, “ok, we’re still doing math.” and they were asking the little girl questions, like, “well, how much does it cost?” you know, and the mom told them $8.00. so i said, “two rabbits, they each cost $8.00. how much were they altogether?” and so right away, they starting working together and trying to figure it out, and they came up with $16, so… (personal communication, 10/ 23/2005) ramiro decided to discuss the topic of gangs in the middle school setting. he felt that many of his students were acting tough and often defied him but he knew that the “toughness” was only skin deep; they were putting up a front, trying perhaps to cover their lack of understanding of content. student empowerment it was judged important for students to feel empowered in their education and life experiences. several factors contributed to a sense of empowerment. language when asked how they specifically validate the students’ language and culture, gael said that, from the inception of the school, they wanted to send a message to the community about the value of spanish. the school logo contains its motto in both spanish and english, with the spanish located at the top, and english underneath. as gael pointed out, “traditionally, english is always on the left, or always on the top, and spanish is on the bottom.” he and carie, as co-directors, agreed to “put that emphasis on the spanish so people see it and go, ‘oh, this is different!’” (personal communication, 7/5/2005) other ways language is valued include: conducting school community meetings in both languages; sending school communications to families in the primary home language; writing school documents in both languages, often with spanish first; and conducting parent group meetings in two languages, bilingual teacher biliefs and practice king and peralta no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) 77 alternating which language goes first from meeting to meeting. parents who come to visit the school are addressed in their preferred language in order to make them feel as comfortable as possible. children are encouraged to shine in the language that is their strongest because of the dual language setup of the school. the model gael and carie decided on was weeklong time periods in each language. this gave students a longer period of consistent exposure to both the language they were learning and the one that was their native language, and also gave them more opportunities to “be the expert” in one classroom or another. voice carie declared: “it’s really powerful for kids to know that they count, that what they say matters” (personal communication, 10/12/05). veronica’s opening activities with her class on my field notes shows this: as she called out each child’s name, she made a personal comment such as: “so glad you’re here, antonio!” “great to see your smile today, marisol!” “you were sick yesterday, and we’re glad you’re better.” she also took that opportunity to thank a student for bringing her tomatoes. “i know that took a lot for you to bring those, because you don’t like tomatoes!” each child smiled broadly or giggled as veronica addressed him or her. (field notes, 10/14/ 2004) veronica was enthusiastic about community time in her classroom: “and it’s their voice. it’s their celebrations, it’s their concerns, it’s their joys, the class’s concerns, the class’s joys and celebrations, and that is the most valuable piece of the day” (personal communication, 11/3/2005). she makes it a policy to start at a different point in the circle every day so that all have an opportunity to go first. carie believes that giving progress reports and assessments in students’ strongest language is another way of making room for student voices. by allowing them to show what they know in a way that is most comfortable for them, she builds on their strengths. carie also encourages her students to share their writing, not only within her class, but also with the school community. a heavy emphasis on literacy activities in two languages gives students a way to express their thoughts, feelings, and knowledge. carie reports that all children, not only the more outgoing ones, are encouraged to share their writings. this type of validation encourages children to continue writing and bilingual teacher biliefs and practice king and peralta no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) 78 speaking to make their voices heard. high expectations the participants felt that part of valuing their students highly meant holding them to high standards. this was seen both in expecting mutual respect among students and teachers, and in stretching children to achieve educational standards that are higher than the district requires. donna implemented literature circles in her school to model expectations for all students. she facilitated this by creating discussion groups that included balanced bilingual students, english only and students learning english. beginning english language learners were encouraged to use either language to share their understanding of the readings, relying at times on the bilingual students. she believes students deserve a curriculum that is culturally responsive and relevant. thus, she created a “science fair” where students, after researching scientific concepts, share their findings with not only the other students in the school, but also staff , parents and community members. this supports her belief in the value of all her students. students empowered by a culturally relevant learning experience “have the ability to influence their personal, social, political, and economic worlds” (banks, 1994). discussion teacher education programs, prior teaching experiences, life experiences, experiences of cultural or linguistic differences, and student learning not only influenced teacher beliefs but also permeated teachers’ pedagogy. through the study, participants’ pedagogical decisions arose from the beliefs or assumptions about culturally and linguistically diverse students and families, classrooms, and materials to be taught. the study of beliefs is critical to education specifically because the study shows that personal knowledge lies at the heart of teaching. it is important to note that four of the six participants worked at a high consensus at a school where there was flexibility in shaping the curriculum. the data shows evidence that spaces were made for student voices to be heard, not only as they shared events of their lives, but also as they faced new learning opportunities, thus mirroring the opportunities that the teachers had to embed their beliefs. in this setting there were no competing beliefs among the faculty, allowing them to grow more certain about their practices. ramiro and donna, the first year teachers, felt that their beliefs provided them with the platform to become agents of change within their schools. for example, donna was determined not to perpetuate the status quo of sorting students by ability levels. she was committed to providing all of her students the bilingual teacher biliefs and practice king and peralta no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) 79 opportunity to learn from each other and to experience literacy in a meaningful way. the results of the study demonstrated that the beliefs teachers held do not operate in isolation, but influence thoughts, actions and motivation. conclusion this study was done on a very small scale, with only six teachers. in light of the dearth of research about teacher beliefs and practice as they relate to teachers in bilingual or esl programs, and also because of the ever-increasing diversity of school student populations, it is important to conduct more research of a similar nature. a larger sample size, and one that represents a cross-section of areas of the united states, could yield results that would further inform the education community. longitudinal studies on bilingual teachers could provide insight into how beliefs are shaped across time and experiences. also, based on responses from teachers that the bilingual classes with a critical theory emphasis they had in their teacher education programs influenced them more heavily than classes with a more traditional focus, it may be important to conduct further research into the types of teacher preparation classes that might potentially lay a better foundation for all teachers who will be working with diverse populations. as long as the trend continues of pre-service teachers belonging mostly to the anglo saxon, middle-class category, it will become increasingly important to do everything possible to prepare them to meet the needs of their future students. references an, s. 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(1987). knowledge and teaching: foundations of the new reform. harvard educational review, 57, 1-22. sugar martínez, e. (2000). ideological baggage in the classroom: resistance and resilience among latino bilingual students and teachers. in h. t. trueba, and l.bartolomé (eds.), immigrant voices: in search of education equity (pp. 93-106). new york: rowman & littlfield. taylor, e. w. (2003). the relationship between the prior school lives of adult educators and their beliefs about teaching adults. international journal of lifelong education, 22(1), 59-77. wood, p. & kardash, c. (2992). critical elements in the design and analysis of studies of epistemology. in b. k. hoefer and p.r. pintrich (eds.). personal epistemology: the psychology of beliefs about knowledge and knowing (pp. 231-260). mahwah, nj: erlbaum. bilingual teacher biliefs and practice king and peralta no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) 83 the authors * claudia peraltanash, ph.d. in social, multicultural and bilingual education, equity and cultural diversity from the university of colorado, and m.a in multicultural and bilingual education from california state university, chico. she is an assistant professor in the department of professional studies in education at california state university, chico. her research interests include ethnographic and sociolinguistic research on social construction of knowledge in classrooms, language and literacy in bilingual classrooms, and cross-cultural education. e-mail: cperaltanash@gmail.com * celia den hartog king, ph. d. in education and m.a. in bilingual education from boise state university. she has been an educator for more than 25 years. more recently, she has also been a writer and editor. her main interest is in issues related to language learners in schools. currently she teaches in fairbanks, alaska. e-mail: kingcelia@gmail.com bilingual teacher biliefs and practice king and peralta no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) 44 reflexiones sobre lenguaje, cultura y equidad en la enseñanza de matemáticas en una escuela primaria bilingüe de estados unidos1 sandra i. musanti, sylvia celedón-pattichis and mary e. marshall2* university of texas at brownsville, university of new mexico, albuquerque public schools, usa resumen esta investigación cualitativa explora las prácticas y percepciones de dos maestras (k-1), así como los asuntos de equidad implícitos en la integración curricular de problemas de matemáticas contextualizados para adecuar la enseñanza de estudiantes latinos que están aprendiendo inglés como segunda lengua. este estudio se basa en tres enfoques: el enfoque cognitivo guiado de la enseñanza de matemáticas, el lenguaje y la cultura como recursos pedagógicos, y la enseñanza de matemáticas para la equidad. la investigación se desarrolla en el contexto de una iniciativa de desarrollo profesional situado entre maestras bilingües e investigadoras en una escuela primaria del suroeste de estados unidos. los datos recogidos incluyeron observaciones de aula, clases grabadas en video y entrevistas con las maestras. los hallazgos indican que ambas maestras (1) valoran la integración en su currículo de problemas de matemáticas culturalmente contextualizados para apoyar la comprensión de conceptos matemáticos complejos, (2) priorizan el uso de la primera lengua en la enseñanza y la incorporación de diferentes modos de comunicación matemática de sus ideas y estrategias, y (3) priorizan una enseñanza para la equidad al valorar y promover un modelo de aprendizaje centrado en las capacidades de los alumnos y en la construcción de la identidad de los estudiantes como sujetos capaces de aprender matemáticas. palabras claves: educación bilingüe. enseñanza de matemáticas. equidad en educación. desarrollo profesional docente. 1 received: july 30th, 2012 / accepted: august 6th, 2012 2 email: sandra.musanti@utb.edu, sceledon@unm.edu, mary.m1210@gmail.com gist education and learning research journal. issn 1692-5777. no. 6, november 2012. pp. 44-70 musanti, celedón & marshall no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) 45 abstract this study investigates k-1 teachers´ perceptions, practices, and equity issues in the integration of contextualized problem solving into the curriculum as a way to adapt instruction to meet the needs of latino students who were english language learners. we draw from three bodies of literature: cognitively guided instruction, language and culture as pedagogical resources, and equity issues in mathematics. this qualitative study takes place in the context of a situated professional development between bilingual teachers and researchers in a southwestern elementary school in the united states. data sources included classroom observations, videotaped lessons, and interviews with the teachers. through classroom episodes, this study illustrates how both teachers: (1) valued the integration of contextualized problem solving into their curriculum and used language and culture to scaffold understanding of complex mathematics concepts, (2) prioritized the use of the native language in their teaching and the development of different ways to communicate mathematically their ideas and strategies, and (3) prioritized equitable teaching by valuing and promoting a student centered approach to teaching as well as students´ identity as mathematics learners. keywords: bilingual education. mathematics education. equity in education. teacher professional development. resumo esta pesquisa qualitativa explora as práticas e percepções de duas professoras (k-1), assim como os assuntos de equidade implícitos na integração curricular de problemas de matemática contextualizados para adequar o ensino de estudantes latinos que estão aprendendo inglês como segunda língua. este estudo se baseia em três enfoques: o enfoque cognitivo guiado do ensino de matemática, a linguagem e a cultura como recursos pedagógicos, e o ensino de matemática para a equidade. a pesquisa se desenvolve no contexto de uma iniciativa de desenvolvimento profissional situado entre professoras bilíngues e pesquisadoras em uma escola primária do sudoeste dos estados unidos. os dados recolhidos incluíram observações de aula, classes gravadas em vídeo e entrevistas com as professoras. as descobertas indicam que ambas as professoras (1) valoram a integração no seu currículo de problemas de matemática culturalmente contextualizados para apoiar a compreensão de conceitos matemáticos complexos, (2) priorizam o uso da primeira língua no ensino e a incorporação de diferentes modos de comunicação matemática das suas ideias e estratégias, e (3) priorizam um ensino para a equidade ao valorar e promover um modelo de aprendizagem centrado nas capacidades dos alunos e na construção da identidade dos estudantes como sujeitos capazes de aprender matemática. palavras chaves: educação bilíngue. ensino de matemática. equidade em educação. desenvolvimento profissional docente. musanti, celedón & marshall no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) 46 introducción los latinos son el segmento con más rápido crecimiento de la población de estados unidos. de acuerdo con los datos suministrados por el departamento de educación de ee.uu. en el año 2009 una proporción sustancial de los estudiantes latinos eran estudiantes del idioma inglés (37% en 4to grado). estas afirmaciones cobran especial relevancia si se considera que muchos estudiantes latinos en los estados unidos reprueban las clases de matemáticas y obtienen muy bajos puntajes en los exámenes estandarizados debido a la persistente inequidad educativa (boaler, 2008; flores, 2007; kohler y lazarín, 2007). el consejo nacional de maestros de matemáticas de estados unidos (nctm, nacional council of teachers of mathematics) contribuye con importantes lineamientos que son importantes considerar a la hora de reformular las actuales propuestas de enseñanza vigentes en las escuelas primarias con un gran porcentaje de niños latinos que hablan inglés como segunda lengua. según nctm (2008) las políticas y prácticas, relacionadas con la enseñanza y el aprendizaje de las matemáticas deben ser evaluadas continuamente para asegurarse que todos los estudiantes tengan igualdad de acceso a los recursos y estrategias con mayor potencial para promover el aprendizaje. esta situación muestra la urgencia de investigaciones centradas en comprender cómo los maestros pueden crear oportunidades para un aprendizaje eficaz y cómo pueden mejorar los métodos de enseñanza de matemáticas adecuándolos con el propósito de garantizar un acceso más equitativo a una educación de calidad para todos (celedón-pattichis y ramirez, 2012). importantes investigaciones han demostrado la efectividad de la enseñanza bilingüe (cummins, 1986; lindholm-leary, 2001; thomas & collier, 2002). recientes investigaciones en el área de la educación matemáticas de latinos concluyen sobre la importancia del uso de la primera lengua como recurso pedagógico (celedón-pattichis, 2008; khisty & chval, 2002, moschkovich, 2006; 2010) y de la necesidad de anclar el aprendizaje en las experiencias cotidiandas y prácticas culturales propias de los diferentes grupos étnicos (gonzález, moll, y amanti, 2005; civil y andrade, 2002). aún sigue siendo muy necesario el aporte de investigaciones que se enfoquen en describir la complejidad de prácticas de enseñanza de matemáticas en aulas bilingües que promuevan la comprensión de conceptos matemáticos complejos (moschkovich, 2010). este trabajo es parte de un estudio cualitativo descriptivo desarrollado por un período de tres años con un grupo de maestras en una escuela bilingüe del suroeste de los estados unidos. el presente trabajo reflexiones sobre lenguaje, cultura y equidad en la enseñanza de matemáticas musanti, celedón & marshall no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) 47 se enfoca en los resultados derivados del análisis de datos del último año del estudio y se concentra en dos maestras, una de kindergarten y otra de primer grado. el propósito es explorar sus percepciones y prácticas respecto de la integración curricular del enfoque cognitivo guiado (ecg) de enseñanza de matemáticas [cognitively guided instruction] (carpenter, fennema, franke, levi, & empson, 1999) y específicamente las características de la incorporación sistemática de problemas matemáticos contextualizados. las preguntas de investigación abordadas son las siguientes: (a) ¿cuáles son las percepciones de los maestros bilingües sobre la importancia de integrar en su planificación problemas de matemáticas contextualizados? (b) ¿cómo adaptan su enseñanza a las necesidades de aprendizaje de los alumnos latinos en consideración al lenguaje y la cultura? en el análisis se realiza especial énfasis en las cuestiones de equidad implícitas en las percepciones de los maestros, así como en la toma de decisiones sobre cómo abordar la enseñanza de matemáticas con los estudiantes latinos. los resultados del estudio se presentan a través de dos casos de clase que demuestran las características de las interacciones típicas entre los estudiantes y las maestras. en el análisis de estas escenas exploramos el uso de la lengua materna, la consideración de los aspectos culturales y de equidad subyacentes a las prácticas de enseñanza implementadas por las maestras durante las clases de matemáticas con estudiantes que hablan español. marco teórico el enfoque cognitivo de la enseñanza de las matemáticas nuestra investigación tuvo lugar en el contexto de un proyecto de desarrollo profesional con maestros centrado en la comprensión de las implicaciones para la enseñanza de las matemáticas desde un enfoque cognitivo guiado (ecg) (carpenter, y otros, 1999). este enfoque afirma que es importante que los maestros comprendan por qué los niños, especialmente en los primeros grados, necesitan una enseñanza que priorice múltiples oportunidades para resolver una gran variedad de problemas verbales en matemáticas y para comunicar, en forma oral y también por escrito, sus estrategias de resolución (ver tabla 1. tipos de problemas). como franke, carpenter, levi y fennema (2001) explican: ecg se centra en ayudar a los maestros a comprender el razonamiento matemático de los niños, ayudándoles a construir modelos del desarrollo del pensamiento matemático en relación con contenidos específicos. no se provee ningún material de enseñanza o pasos específicos para la práctica, sino que los reflexiones sobre lenguaje, cultura y equidad en la enseñanza de matemáticas musanti, celedón & marshall no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) 48 maestros desarrollan sus propios materiales de enseñanza y prácticas a partir de ver y escuchar a sus estudiantes tratando de entender lo que ven y oyen. (p. 657) esta propuesta se centra en entender las estrategias y conocimientos informales que los niños tienen sobre las matemáticas y como pueden ser utilizados para resolver problemas verbales vinculados con su vida cotidiana. una estrategia de enseñanza que se desprende de este enfoque es la utilización de problemas matemáticos centrados en el contexto, dado que esto permite a los niños entrar en un mundo matematizado y utilizar sus experiencias culturales para dar sentido a los números y comprender sus relaciones (hiebert y carpenter, 1992). investigaciones anteriores han demostrado que el uso de historias familiares para contextualizar la resolución de problemas ayuda a los estudiantes latinos a entender los conceptos y explicar su razonamiento matemático (turner y celedón-pattichis, 2011). el lugar del lenguaje y la cultura en el aprendizaje de las matemáticas muchos de los estudiantes de estados unidos que obtienen bajos resultados en la escuela han crecido hablando, leyendo, y escribiendo en un lenguaje o en una variación del inglés que difiere del que se usa en la escuela, el cual es refrendado por el currículo, los libros, los exámenes estandarizados, y valorado por maestros y estudiantes que representan las clases dominantes. en general, los niños provenientes de familias de sectores minoritarios como los latinos, muchas veces no han tenido el tipo de experiencias con el lenguaje oral y escrito que sus pares y éstas en general son las experiencias que se necesitan para poder tener éxito en una escuela que privilegia y valora el capital cultural y lingüístico de ciertos sectores más que otros (zwiers, 2008). de esto se desprende la necesidad de que las escuelas y los maestros entiendan la importancia de integrar y valorar el lenguaje y el capital cultural que traen los niños para que sirva de puente hacia el aprendizaje del lenguaje académico propio de la escuela y para que los niños también puedan valorar su lengua, sus conocimientos previos y sus experiencias de vidas. sabemos que el lenguaje es central para el aprendizaje de los estudiantes. consideramos que el uso de la primera lengua en la educación es un derecho humano (skutnabb-kangas, 2000) y un recurso central en la enseñanza de matemáticas (moschkovich, 2006, 2010). varias investigaciones han documentado como la primera lengua desempeña un importante papel en la enseñanza de las matemáticas reflexiones sobre lenguaje, cultura y equidad en la enseñanza de matemáticas musanti, celedón & marshall no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) 49 (celedón-pattichis, 2008; moschkovich, 2006; secada y de la cruz, 1996). estas investigaciones han mostrado que cuando los estudiantes aprenden conceptos matemáticos en su primera lengua esto les posibilita su posterior transferencia al segundo idioma (cummins, 1989, 2001). por ejemplo, cuando un estudiante aprende a dividir en su primera lengua, este concepto no tiene que volver a ser aprendido en la segunda lengua. lo único que los estudiantes necesitan aprender es la palabra (división) en el segundo idioma. sin embargo, las investigaciones también muestran que el desarrollo del lenguaje académico necesario para que los estudiantes realicen las tareas escolares que tienen una alta demanda cognitiva puede tomar de cuatro a siete años o más en el segundo idioma (cummins, 1986; thomas y collier, 2002). asimismo, es importante no perder de vista que aprender un segundo idioma y además aprender simultáneamente matemáticas es una tarea cognitivamente -y también emocionalmente-exigente y esto puede obstaculizar el proceso de aprendizaje de las matemáticas. es importante destacar que recientes investigaciones proponen la necesidad de ir más allá del lenguaje académico hacia la construcción de comunidades de discurso matemático en el aula (willey, 2010), dado que esto permite superar propuestas de enseñanza centradas en el vocabulario que, en general, derivan en una visión deficitaria de aquellos alumnos que no demuestran poseer el lenguaje académico esperado. estos autores proponen prácticas que se centran en la construcción de conceptos matemáticos en contexto y en la interacción social, desarrollando en el proceso el lenguaje propio de las matemáticas (celedón-pattichis y ramirez, 2012). secada y de la cruz (1996) argumentan que a fin de mejorar los resultados que los latinos obtienen en las pruebas matemáticas en estados unidos, los estudiantes deben aprender matemáticas de modo comprensivo (hiebert y carpenter, 1992). además del idioma, consideramos que es importante hacer visibles los tipos de conocimiento que los alumnos y sus familias tienen y valorarlos como recursos culturales e intelectuales legítimos que deben ser tomados en cuenta por los educadores como base para el aprendizaje (luna villalón, 2010; zwiers, 2008). esto es lo que gonzález y otros (2005) denominan los fondos de conocimiento (en inglés funds of knowledge) de las comunidades, los conocimientos, habilidades y prácticas culturales de los hogares de los estudiantes que deben integrarse a la enseñanza y el aprendizaje en el aula de matemáticas (civil y andrade, 2002; luna villalón, 2010). es decir que los maestros pueden facilitar el aprendizaje significativo si tienen una comprensión profunda de las comunidades a las que pertenecen los estudiantes y las prácticas matemáticas en los que sus familias y ellos participan cotidianamente. por ejemplo, turner reflexiones sobre lenguaje, cultura y equidad en la enseñanza de matemáticas musanti, celedón & marshall no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) 50 y sus colegas (2008) encontraron que la práctica de contar historias matemáticas desarrolladas en kindergarten con niños latinos resultó en un incremento significativo de la participación y motivación de los niños para resolver problemas matemáticos complejos. en sus clases, los maestros apoyaban la resolución de problemas y el pensamiento matemático a través de la práctica de contar y compartir historias de la vida cotidiana, que incluían formas familiares de hablar y negociar el significado. equidad y enseñanza de matemáticas con estudiantes latinos el énfasis de los estándares de aprendizaje de matemáticas en estados unidos se orienta cada vez más hacia currículos centrados en la resolución de problemas y en la comunicación de las estrategias de resolución. en este contexto, el andamiaje del aprendizaje a través del uso de la primera lengua para estudiantes latinos que no hablan inglés como primera lengua es cada vez más importante (nctm, 2000). los estudiantes necesitan las habilidades lingüísticas que se requieren para participar en las discusiones de clase acerca de sus ideas matemáticas, comunicar su pensamiento, explicar sus respuestas, hacer conjeturas y justificar sus conclusiones. moschkovich (2006, 2010), y khisty y chval (2002) sostienen que las discusiones en clase son útiles para los estudiantes cuando los maestros les permiten valerse de todos los recursos a su disposición para promover la comunicación y, especialmente los instrumentos legítimos para la expresión verbal o escrita, incluyendo su lengua materna, expresiones cotidianas, gestos y objetos concretos. sin embargo, la equidad en la enseñanza de las matemáticas va más allá de las competencias lingüísticas. los estudiantes en los primeros grados de la escuela primaria y en el nivel inicial deben tener oportunidades de participar en la producción de ideas matemáticas y sobre todo tener la oportunidad de resolver los problemas relevantes y desafíos cognitivos en tanto involucran importantes conceptos matemáticos (nctm, 2000). con demasiada frecuencia, en estados unidos los niños latinos de niveles socioeconómicos bajos son asignados a maestros que creen que para aprender esos estudiantes necesitan una enseñanza centrada en la ejercitación y en la retención de hechos matemáticos más que en la comprensión de conceptos. la práctica repetitiva de ejercicios es la forma predominante de actividades de enseñanza con escasas oportunidades de participar en actividades cognitivas más interesantes como la resolución de problemas (secada, 1991). reflexiones sobre lenguaje, cultura y equidad en la enseñanza de matemáticas musanti, celedón & marshall no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) 51 congruentemente, boaler (2008) sostiene que el logro de mayor equidad en la enseñanza de las matemáticas depende de que los maestros puedan desarrollar estrategias efectivas que permitan a los estudiantes participar en prácticas de aprendizaje centradas en la resolución de problemas, el razonamiento matemático, su justificación y su comunicación (nctm, 2000). asimismo, destaca la importancia de la conciencia social y cultural y la sensibilidad de las maestras así como el valor del rediseño de materiales curriculares sobre la base de la comprensión de las experiencias culturales de los alumnos. basándonos en desarrollos teóricos e investigaciones recientes, entendemos que la equidad educativa requiere de una enseñanza que tenga como meta principal que los estudiantes se vean a sí mismos como efectivos participantes de una comunidad discursiva matemática y que desarrollen una identidad como estudiantes de matemáticas (schleppegrell 2010; willey, 2010). en este sentido, allexsaht-snider y hart (2001) afirman que el compromiso, pertenencia y confianza en el aprendizaje matemático son indicadores de que los alumnos se ven a sí mismos como parte de una comunidad de aprendizaje de matemáticas. los principios de una comunidad de discurso matemática y las ideas presentadas respecto de la equidad educativa, y el rol del lenguaje y la cultura en la enseñanza guiaron nuestro trabajo con los maestros. de esta manera, se diseñó una propuesta de desarrollo profesional situado para maestros centrada en la integración de la primera lengua, la cultura, y matemáticas. desarrollo profesional situado en el aula las conceptualizaciones actuales sobre el desarrollo profesional de maestros hacen hincapié en la generación de comunidades de prácticas en las que estos aprenden en colaboración con otros, reflexionan sobre sus prácticas y enfoques de enseñanza y tienen oportunidades para discutir y planificar con colegas propuestas de enseñanza que respondan a las necesidades de sus estudiantes (franke y otros, 2001; musanti y pence, 2010; wenger, 1998). nuestra premisa central consistió en implementar una propuesta de desarrollo profesional desde una perspectiva situada, es decir, teniendo en cuenta la singularidad de cada situación y respondiendo a las necesidades culturales y lingüísticas de la población estudiantil, y también a las necesidades profesionales y personales de sus maestras, reconociendo que cada salón de clases involucra una dinámica única entre los estudiantes, su maestra y el contexto (celedón-pattichis et reflexiones sobre lenguaje, cultura y equidad en la enseñanza de matemáticas musanti, celedón & marshall no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) 52 al., 2010; cobb, mcclain, lamberg, y dean, 2003; musanti y otros, 2011). esta propuesta de capacitación se desarrolló sólo con aquellas maestras que voluntariamente decidieron que querían capacitarse sobre el enfoque cognitivo de enseñanza de matemáticas y la influencia de factores como el lenguaje y la cultura en la enseñanza y el aprendizaje de los estudiantes latinos. nuestro trabajo con este grupo de maestras fue esencialmente colaborativo, centrado en un trabajo conjunto con las maestras en el aula, y prolongado en el tiempo (musanti y pence, 2010). la propuesta involucró: seminarios intensivos de verano. estos seminarios versaron sobre el enfoque cognitivo guiado de la enseñanza de matemáticas (carpenter et al., 1999) con énfasis en que los maestros profundicen la comprensión de la enseñanza a través de la resolución de problemas, y el rol del lenguaje y la cultura en el aprendizaje. se desarrollaron dos seminarios durante el verano, con una duración de dos semanas cada uno que otorgaron créditos de posgrado, los cuáles podían ser usados como parte de los créditos de maestría o doctorado. instancias de apoyo y colaboración en la clase. durante las visitas de frecuencia semanal, las investigadoras observaban las lecciones, modelaban lecciones sobre ecg y resolución de problemas, conversaban con las maestras sobre formas de poner en práctica las actividades de resolución de problemas, colaboraban en la planificación y ejecución de las clases sobre resolución de problemas trabajando en pequeños grupos con los estudiantes, aportaban recursos para complementar currículo de matemáticas y/o discutían con las maestras al final de cada sesión de trabajo sobre los acontecimientos relacionados con cada lección, los obstáculos encontrados por los alumnos, sus logros, etc. talleres. se realizaron seis talleres de dos horas cada uno durante el período 2007-2008. participaron todas las maestras de la escuela que estaban interesadas en la implementación de ecg en sus aulas. los talleres se centraron en el aprendizaje de ecg y en el análisis de las producciones de los alumnos durante las clases centradas en la resolución de problemas. metodología contexto el estudio se llevó a cabo en una escuela primaria ubicada en una ciudad en el suroeste de estados unidos. la población de la escuela donde se desarrolló el estudio está conformada por un 90% reflexiones sobre lenguaje, cultura y equidad en la enseñanza de matemáticas musanti, celedón & marshall no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) 53 de inmigrantes mexicanos para quiénes inglés es su segunda lengua. todos los estudiantes reciben desayuno y almuerzo gratis. la escuela implementa un programa bilingüe de doble inmersión que incluye en el kindergarten el 90% de la enseñanza en español y el 10% en inglés. en primer grado es el 80% en español, aumentando gradualmente el uso del inglés al 50% en los grados cuarto y quinto (lindholm-leary, 2001). las clases analizadas incorporaban la enseñanza de matemáticas en español y los alumnos recibían una clase de inglés como segunda lengua durante las tardes sobre el desarrollo de vocabulario académico básico. en cuanto a la enseñanza de matemáticas, la escuela ha adoptado una propuesta curricular que se enfoca en los principios de la reforma de la enseñanza en estados unidos (nctm, 2000). este plan de estudios hace hincapié en los procesos de resolución de problemas matemáticos, la comunicación, el razonamiento, las conexiones y la representación. nuestra propuesta de desarrollo profesional para los maestros participantes enfatizaba la necesidad de complementar este plan de estudios mediante la introducción de estrategias centradas en la resolución de problemas matemáticos contextualizados, en la comprensión del pensamiento matemático de los estudiantes y en la posibilidad de comunicar efectivamente sus ideas y estrategias a través de múltiples formas de representación (dibujos, símbolos, ecuaciones y texto) (chval & khisty, 2009). participantes si bien nuestro trabajo involucró a siete participantes en el curso de tres años, en este artículo se presentan datos relativos a dos maestras, carmen y norma3. carmen es maestra de nivel inicial y enseña en kindergarten. inmigró desde méxico junto con su familia cuando era adolescente. cuando se realizó el estudio, carmen era considerada una maestra principiante ya que sólo contaba con 5 años de experiencia en la enseñanza. norma es una maestra de primer grado oriunda de perú y vive en estados unidos desde muy joven. es una maestra con más de 10 años de experiencia enseñando la mayor parte en primer grado. ambas maestras hablan inglés como segunda lengua y han realizado cursos de posgrado en educación bilingüe y de estrategias de enseñanza a estudiantes que aprenden en una segunda lengua. antes de la iniciación de este estudio, ninguna de estas maestras había tenido formación en el enfoque cognitivo guiado para la enseñanza de matemáticas reflexiones sobre lenguaje, cultura y equidad en la enseñanza de matemáticas musanti, celedón & marshall 3 los nombres son seudónimo no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) 54 (ecg). las maestras participantes de este estudio fueron seleccionadas porque estaban interesadas en aprender sobre ecg, porque estaban de acuerdo con integrar en sus planes de clase la resolución de problemas verbales matemáticos, y porque la mayoría de los estudiantes hablaban español como primera lengua en sus aulas bilingües. ambas maestras participaron en talleres sobre ecg durante el ciclo lectivo 2007-2008. recolección de datos este artículo se basa en datos recogidos durante el último año de un estudio cualitativo de tres años desarrollado entre 2006 y 2009, por lo tanto los datos presentados corresponden a un análisis de corte transversal. específicamente, se analizan datos provenientes de entrevistas semi-estructuradas, transcripciones de videograbaciones de clases seleccionadas, y notas de observaciones de aula durante el trabajo de campo. entrevistas. durante el ciclo lectivo 2007-2008, se realizaron dos entrevistas semi-estructuradas con cada maestra, de 45-60 minutos de duración. las entrevistas se centraron en explorar las percepciones de las maestras respecto del currículo de matemáticas, aspectos específicos de la enseñanza y el aprendizaje de matemáticas, la integración curricular de problemas matemáticos, el impacto de la cultura y el idioma en el aprendizaje de matemáticas en la escuela primaria y el conocimiento de las maestras respecto de las necesidades de los estudiantes. las entrevistas fueron grabadas y posteriormente transcriptas. observaciones. se observaron las clases de matemáticas semanalmente (salvo excepciones por cambios o imprevistos) en horarios acordados previamente con las maestras y durante el desarrollo de las clases basadas en el ecg. durante las observaciones las investigadoras recolectaron notas de campo de 23 lecciones en la clase de norma y de 16 en la clase de carmen. video grabaciones de clases. durante el otoño de 2007 y la primavera de 2008 varias de las lecciones sobre resolución de problemas fueron grabadas en video, 12 lecciones en el aula de norma y 7 en el aula de carmen. para cada video se creó un registro de contenido que sirvió para seleccionar los segmentos que se transcribieron para su análisis. se seleccionaron videos que integraran más elementos relativos a ecg y al razonamiento matemático de los estudiantes. análisis de datos el análisis de los datos se abordó a través del método comparativo constante (strauss y corbin, 1998) con el propósito de reflexiones sobre lenguaje, cultura y equidad en la enseñanza de matemáticas musanti, celedón & marshall no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) 55 explorar las percepciones y prácticas de las maestras respecto de la implementación de estrategias centradas en la resolución de problemas verbales contextualizados en su plan de clases. específicamente se analizaron las transcripciones de las entrevistas, las notas de campo de las investigadoras, los registros de contenidos de los videos y las transcripciones de los videos seleccionados según los criterios anteriormente especificados. cada investigadora realizó de forma individual una codificación abierta de los datos (strauss y corbin, 1998) en busca de temas y patrones que dieran cuenta de las prácticas específicas de integración del ecg en el currículo, las reflexiones de las maestras respecto del rol del lenguaje y la cultura en la enseñanza de matemáticas, y características de la enseñanza de matemáticas para los alumnos latinos que no hablan inglés como primera lengua identificadas por las maestras como vinculadas con mejores resultados de aprendizaje. en la siguiente sección se presenta un análisis de los resultados del trabajo desarrollado con estas maestras. los dos casos de clase son considerados como representativos porque ilustran los resultados del análisis. a través del primer caso se exploran las implicaciones que tiene para estas maestras el hecho de abordar la enseñanza de las matemáticas a partir de la resolución de problemas familiares a las experiencias de sus alumnos. luego, el segundo caso ilustra el lugar central de la primera lengua en el aprendizaje de conceptos matemáticos y en la posibilidad de comunicar el pensamiento a partir de la adquisición del lenguaje o discurso académico de la disciplina en cuestión. por último, se discute la importancia que estas maestras atribuyen a desarrollar la confianza de sus alumnos en sí mismos como “aprendices” de matemáticas, y en la construcción de una identidad como sujeto de aprendizaje capaz desde la valorización de sus capacidades, conocimientos previos, lenguaje y cultura. caso clase no. 1. la clase de norma comienza cada miércoles trabajando sobre problemas de matemáticas. la maestra inicia estas lecciones situando a sus estudiantes en un contexto familiar o conectando lo que va a desarrollar con experiencias recientes o conocidas y compartidas por ellos con sus familias. por ejemplo, en la clase que se describe a continuación norma recupera la narración de la fiesta de cumpleaños de rodolfo que los niños habían compartido durante las noticias del día, un segmento de la clase destinado a los sucesos importantes que los niños o la maestra quieren destacar y compartir con la clase. la maestra y los niños comentan sobre la fiesta de cumpleaños de rodolfo, cuando uno de los niños expresa que no fue una fiesta. la maestra utiliza este comentario para anclar el problema de matemáticas: reflexiones sobre lenguaje, cultura y equidad en la enseñanza de matemáticas musanti, celedón & marshall no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) 56 maestra: tú me has dicho que no, pero yo creo que sí le han hecho una fiesta porque vinieron sus tíos, sus abuelos y sus primos y para mí que eso es como una fiesta. vamos a suponer que en la fiesta de rodolfo...había 25 globos. alumnos: ¡veinticinco! ¡ohh! maestra: veinticinco globos...y que de repente vinieron varios niños entre los primos y le dieron a cada uno de los que vinieron un globo. …y vinieron diez de sus primos...y a cada uno le dieron un globo. ¿cuántos globos quedaron al final? [los niños levantan la mano para participar] maestra: primero piensen [señalando su cabeza] ¿cuántos globos había en la fiesta de rodolfo? alumnos: veinticinco. maestra: veinticinco. podemos poner el número para ayudarnos. [escribe el número en la pizarra.] había veinticinco globos... y vinieron diez niños y le dieron a cada uno un globo. ¿cuántos globos quedaron al final? los niños dan diferentes respuestas. algunos alumnos dicen veinticinco, otros dicen 5. una niña parece decir: sacaron 10. otro niño: quedaron 5 maestra: a ver, la historia es: había 25 globos . . .había 10 de sus primos, a cada niño le dieron un globo para que se llevara a su casa. ¿cuántos globos quedaron? alumnos vuelven a responder 5. maestra: a ver, vamos a poner lo que me están diciendo, sonia dice que quedaron 5 (escribe 5 en pizarra). josé: quince alumna: ¡quince! ¡quedaron quince! maestra: quince (escribe en la pizarra) a ver josé, ¿cómo lo podemos averiguar? ¿cómo sabes? todos piensen. (dirigiéndose a quiénes dieron las respuestas.) ¿cómo sabes tú que quedaron 5? y ¿cómo sábes tú que quedaron 15? josé pasa al pizarrón a mostrar como pensó que eran 15. dibuja los 25 globos. al finalizar, tacha de uno en uno diez globos. luego cuenta los reflexiones sobre lenguaje, cultura y equidad en la enseñanza de matemáticas musanti, celedón & marshall no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) 57 restantes. para finalizar la maestra le pide que explique cómo lo hizo. como a josé le cuesta explicar, la maestra le va haciendo preguntas cómo: ¿qué hiciste primero? ¿y luego? ¿cómo supiste que quedaron 15? resolución de problemas en “contexto” como andamiaje del pensamiento matemático como muestra el caso de clase descrito anteriormente, la contextualización de los problemas de matemáticas en los primeros grados requiere que los maestros conozcan y valoren las experiencias de vida, la cultura, y los conocimientos previos de sus alumnos. para crear historias con contenido matemático, norma recurrió al conocimiento de sus estudiantes, especialmente apelando a lo que gonzález y otros (2005) denominan fondos de conocimiento. siguiendo el enfoque cognitivo de la enseñanza de matemáticas, la formulación de problemas involucraba a los alumnos como actores principales de las historias que las maestras creaban. esta estrategia mejora las posibilidades de comprensión de los alumnos y el análisis de las situaciones de la vida cotidiana matemáticamente. ellas les contaban historias a sus alumnos en una manera informal y conversacional, incluyendo variada y rica información sobre el contexto, invitando a sus alumnos a responder a preguntas y comentarios, involucrándolos activamente en la conversación y en la trama de la historia que se les presentaba. esta forma de encuadrar o situar los problemas a través de la narrativa permite que los maestros puedan hacer uso de las formas de hablar, interactuar y negociar significados propios de los contextos familiares de sus alumnos. además, la presentación de los problemas de esta manera permite que los alumnos utilicen la estructura narrativa de la historia para pensar matemáticamente sobre los conceptos presentados. en el caso de clase descrito más arriba se puede observar varias estrategias de andamiaje del razonamiento matemático utilizadas consistentemente por esta maestra, entre las cuales se destacan: 1) presentación del problema matemático conectado con una situación familiar a los alumnos que los representa y los involucra; 2) la narración de la historia que contiene el problema para que los alumnos capten la secuencia de eventos, identifiquen la información que presenta el problema y practiquen sus habilidades de comunicación oral; 3) identificación de las palabras o segmentos de texto que contienen información relevante, y 4) formulación de preguntas para que los alumnos recuperen los datos importantes para poder resolver el problema. norma explica que es importante “andamiar” la comprensión de la situación y el problema y la habilidad de comunicar el pensamiento de sus alumnos: “si es en forma oral. . . tratamos, reflexiones sobre lenguaje, cultura y equidad en la enseñanza de matemáticas musanti, celedón & marshall no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) 58 con los problemas de preguntar cuál es la historia, “cuéntame sobre qué es la historia, cuál es la pregunta” así ellos lo dicen. esa es una manera.” (traducido del inglés, entrevista con norma, 2007). la importancia de comprender textos orales y escritos es reconocida como una competencia significativa también en matemáticas, especialmente porque esto les permite a los alumnos entender la situación y generar estrategias de resolución. en la siguiente cita, esta maestra explica la interconexión entre las situaciones de aprendizaje en la escuela y la vida cotidiana de los alumnos: en los últimos dos años, me di cuenta. . .de que antes no lo hacía. la resolución de problemas (del tipo ecg) no era parte del currículo. pero el hecho de tener una hora (semanal) únicamente para esto, significa que trabajamos, un poco cada miércoles, y los chicos se están acostumbrando a hablar más, a explicar más, a ser más claros. . . yo creo que esto es crucial. y está conectado con lo que se espera que logren, no sólo en matemáticas sino también en lectoescritura. ellos necesitan hacer conexiones durante la lectura. la historia que lean la tienen que poder conectar con su propia vida. (traducido del inglés, entrevista con norma, 2007). desde una perspectiva sociocultural de construcción del conocimiento, diferentes investigaciones han mostrado la relevancia de integrar estrategias de enseñanza y aprendizaje de matemáticas que surjan y se integren al contexto cultural y lingüístico de los alumnos (celedón-pattichis, 2008). caso de clase no. 2. el año escolar estaba llegando a su fin. carmen ha trabajado todo el año con sus alumnos resolviendo problemas que ellos llamaban “historias de matemáticas.” durante la hora de historias de matemáticas este grupo de niños kindergarten (equivalente al salón de 5 del nivel inicial) escuchan y resuelven historias creadas por carmen o a veces por ellos mismos. por ejemplo, algunas historias narran que la mamá de josé suele hacer tacos para cenar. esta vez ella hizo 10 tacos. josé llegó con hambre de la escuela y se comió 6 tacos sin que su mamá lo vea. ¿cuántos tacos quedaron para que coman los hermanos de josé? (ver tabla 1 sobre tipos de problemas). para muchos de estos niños esta fue su primera experiencia de escolarización, al principio del año muchos niños no podían contar hasta 5, tenían dificultades para permanecer en la actividad, comunicarse oralmente, prestar atención y seguir instrucciones básicas. pero este grupo trabajó mucho y mostró un importante progreso durante ese año según lo reportado por la maestra. reflexiones sobre lenguaje, cultura y equidad en la enseñanza de matemáticas musanti, celedón & marshall no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) 59 hoy carmen los invita a sentarse en la alfombra, un sector del aula delante del pizarrón donde cotidianamente se desarrollan actividades que involucran a todo el grupo. la maestra se sienta en su silla. los alumnos se preparan para escuchar lo que ella tiene que contar. esta vez, carmen decidió presentar un problema de multiplicación (ver tabla 1), los cuales suelen ser muy difíciles de resolver para sus alumnos de kindergarten: “yo tenía tres cajas. en cada caja tenía 5 chupetines. ¿cuántos chupetines tenía en total?” después de repetir el problema una vez más, les pide que piensen y levanten la mano para compartir la respuesta. andrés y carlos comparten su solución al problema y explican como lo resolvieron. andrés explica cómo supo que la respuesta era 15: “usted tenía 3 cajas y la caja tenía cinco y yo conté con mis dedos así, [muestra con dedos mientras cuenta] uno, dos, tres, cuatro, cinco, seis, siete, ocho, nueve, diez y luego once, doce, trece, catorce, quince.” luego es el turno de carlos para explicar cómo supo que eran 15: “es que primero conté de cinco en cinco y luego conté cinco, diez y luego quince, y luego supe que era quince.” entonces carmen inició un intercambio con sus alumnos para examinar como andrés y carlos resolvieron el problema y comparar sus estrategias: maestra: ¿pero vieron que los dos tienen razón? alumnos: sí. maestra: ¿están equivocados o están bien? (refiriéndose a las respuestas) alumnos: están bien. maestra: ¿pero cómo saben que están bien? ¿por qué están tan seguros de que están bien? alumno1: (mostrando con sus manos) porque hay unos que lo cuentan de dedos en dedos, así lo van contando (muestra como cuenta con los dedos) y luego él (su compañero) como los contó de cinco en cinco salteándose en cada número, . . .ya supo que eran quince . . maestra: y entonces los dos tenían razón, uno contó de uno en uno y otro contó de cinco en cinco, pero ¿los dos están bien? alumnos: ¡siiii! maestra: ¿y cuál fue más rápido? ¿el que contó de uno en uno o el que contó de cinco en cinco? reflexiones sobre lenguaje, cultura y equidad en la enseñanza de matemáticas musanti, celedón & marshall no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) 60 alumnos: de cinco en cinco. maestra: ¿por qué? alumnos: porque es más rápido. alumnos: cinco, diez, quince, veinte. maestra: muy bien, fue más rápido. la primera lengua como recurso pedagógico y la construcción del lenguaje académico matemático este caso de clase muestra la integración en el currículo de un problema de multiplicación que tiene un alto nivel de dificultad para los niños de kindergarten (carpenter y otros, 1999), una práctica regular de estas maestras quienes tenían altas expectativas para el aprendizaje de sus alumnos. además, el caso ilustra la importancia del papel de los maestros en apelar al uso del lenguaje como medio de comunicación en el aula para ayudar a los estudiantes a comprender las matemáticas formales. por ejemplo, la maestra apela al uso de preguntas específicas para lograr que los alumnos puedan pensar sobre las respuestas dadas al problema, de tal manera que puedan identificar y explicar cómo saben cuál es la respuesta correcta. además, la maestra utiliza específicamente la estrategia de reformular las respuestas dadas por los alumnos usando el discurso matemático específico cuando dice: “uno contó de uno en uno y otro contó de cinco en cinco”. esto también contribuye a redirigir la conversación y ayudar a que los alumnos puedan identificar las características de las estrategias matemáticas utilizadas en las respuestas. este tipo de prácticas discursivas contribuyen a que los alumnos comiencen a participar de las formas de decir y pensar propias de las matemáticas, además de incorporar la terminología necesaria para comunicar conceptos claves como formas de contar u operaciones matemáticas (willey, 2010). para finalizar la lección, carmen se enfocó en trabajar sobre lo que se considera una estrategia de resolución del problema más rápida y más eficaz, mientras que valida otras maneras de llegar a la respuesta correcta. un aprendizaje importante en matemáticas que no es comúnmente enfatizado en el currículo de kindergarten es que los alumnos puedan identificar las características y la efectividad de las estrategias en uso. este tipo de intercambio verbal fue un patrón en la clase de carmen durante las clases ecg y refleja las prácticas que concuerdan con una visión de la enseñanza centrada en valorizar las reflexiones sobre lenguaje, cultura y equidad en la enseñanza de matemáticas musanti, celedón & marshall no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) 61 capacidades de los alumnos y en construir con ellos una comunidad de discurso matemático (celedón-pattichis y ramirez, 2012; willey, 2010). el mejoramiento del rendimiento de los alumnos de carmen para resolver problemas de multiplicación y lograr reflexionar sobre los elementos que caracterizan una estrategia de solución más eficiente es posible en el contexto de una enseñanza más equitativa (allexsahtsnider, 2001; boaler 2008). este abordaje de la enseñanza enfatiza la participación de los niños en la creación de comunicación haciendo uso de múltiples formas de representación de ideas matemáticas. al final del año, carmen reflexionaba sobre la importancia de brindar oportunidades para la construcción del lenguaje académico propio de matemáticas en español, la primera lengua de sus estudiantes: como le decía, al principio ellos (los estudiantes), muchos de ellos, señalaban lo que querían pero no lo podían decir. no tenían las palabras o no sabían los nombres de las cosas, pero ahora no, ahora pueden decir lo que quieren o les está pasando con palabras. (entrevista con carmen, 2008) es importante que estos estudiantes, que provienen de entornos más desfavorecidos, tengan suficientes oportunidades para interactuar con diferentes tipos de textos (incluyendo los matemáticos), de experimentar cotidianamente la lectura y la escritura y de desarrollar el lenguaje académico que se demanda en la escuela. esto es parte importante de la construcción de formas de comunicación propias de las matemáticas. resulta evidente que es una cuestión de equidad educativa que a los estudiantes latinos provenientes de sectores de bajos recursos se les ofrezcan oportunidades para aprender conceptos matemáticos complejos y el lenguaje académico apropiado en su lengua materna para aprender de modo comprensivo y para comunicar su razonamiento matemático en forma efectiva (turner y celedón-pattichis, 2011). en el caso de clase 2, el alumno 1 explica por qué los estudiantes llegaron a la respuesta correcta a través del uso de estrategias diferentes y válidas y lo hace utilizando un lenguaje académico apropiado (ejemplo: “y los contó de cinco en cinco”) para explicar las diferentes estrategias de conteo. la construcción de lenguaje académico en la primera lengua del estudiante requiere que los maestros no sólo se centren en desarrollar el uso apropiado del vocabulario específico, sino fundamentalmente la progresiva incorporación de formas y estructuras más precisas de explicar sus ideas y estrategias (cummins, 1989; thomas y collier, 2002), y como resultado la participación efectiva en el discurso matemático (willey, 2010). reflexiones sobre lenguaje, cultura y equidad en la enseñanza de matemáticas musanti, celedón & marshall no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) 62 la equidad educativa y una enseñanza centrada en la construcción de la identidad como sujeto capaz de aprender matemáticas un logro central e inesperado de nuestra investigación fue verificar la importancia de construir confianza tanto en las maestras, por la posibilidad de enseñar efectivamente matemática, como en los alumnos, en relación con la capacidad de aprender matemática. crear un ambiente de clase en el que los estudiantes sientan que pueden ser escuchados y que pueden pensar libremente sin ser castigados o etiquetados es fundamental para fomentar la confianza en su capacidad para aprender matemáticas. por ejemplo, carmen era consciente que sus experiencias anteriores como estudiante de matemáticas le habían dejado una sensación de frustración que le generó malestar y redujo su confianza en sí misma como maestra. durante una entrevista, carmen nos explicaba: antes de empezar a trabajar con ecg, yo tenía muchas preguntas. tenía muchas preguntas sobre como yo enseñaba matemáticas, pero después de ecg (se refiere a la capacitación) empecé a darme cuenta de que entendía mejor matemáticas. nunca fui una buena estudiante de matemáticas… tuve que cursar álgebra tres veces [curso de secundaria]. todavía no sé como me dejaron cursarla tres veces, porque no era buena para matemáticas. siempre le tuve miedo, nunca pensé que podía llegar a entenderla. pero ahora me siento más segura, con más confianza y más capacitada para enseñarla. . . (entrevista con carmen, 2007) sostenemos que el cambio en el conocimiento y la práctica sucede cuando los educadores entienden que el cambio en la enseñanza puede tener un efecto en el aprendizaje de los alumnos y no al revés (guskey, 2002; musanti y pence, 2010). tanto carmen como norma pudieron observar como sus alumnos incrementaron su sentimiento de confianza como aprendices de matemáticas y como esto impactaba en su percepción de sí mismos y en su identidad. por ejemplo, los estudiantes de carmen (caso de clase no. 2) muestran confianza en su capacidad para resolver los problemas y encontrar la respuesta, y además son capaces de explicar su razonamiento usando lenguaje específicamente matemático (ej. “contando de cinco en cinco”). enseñar con equidad requiere lograr que todos los alumnos crean en sus capacidades para aprender y que los maestros los definan a través de un modelo de aprendizaje centrado en sus capacidades y no en el déficit. tanto para norma como para carmen implica que “que matemáticas no los asuste, que sepan que lo pueden hacer” (entrevista con carmen, 2007) y esto requiere que logren: reflexiones sobre lenguaje, cultura y equidad en la enseñanza de matemáticas musanti, celedón & marshall no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) 63 . . . construir confianza en sí mismos, si entienden lo que están haciendo, y saben que lo pueden hacer, y que lo pueden hacer bien, y si ellos pueden mostrarle a alguien o explicarle a alguien, sea otro adulto o un compañero. . .para mí eso es el verdadero logro (de la enseñanza) (entrevista con norma, 2007). enseñar con equidad requiere que los maestros, especialmente en los primeros grados de la escuela primaria y en el nivel inicial, se centren en diseñar propuestas de enseñanza para que los alumnos se construyan a sí mismos como sujetos que pueden, cuyo aprendizaje es valorado. esto requiere de maestros con altas expectativas hacia el aprendizaje de matemáticas de sus alumnos (turner y celedón-pattichis, 2011). la importancia del trabajo de un maestro yace en “demostrarles que pueden resolver con éxito problemas matemáticos complejos, aún antes de que dominen los hechos matemáticos básicos” (carmen, entrevista 2008). así es como durante el transcurso del año, los estudiantes de ambas clases fueron incrementado su sentido de confianza en sus capacidades, fueron capaces de crear “historias matemáticas” para que sus compañeros las resuelvan, comenzaron a tomar riesgos resolviendo problemas de diferentes maneras aún cuando no lograban la respuesta correcta, y mejoraron sus habilidades comunicativas orales para explicar sus estrategias a la maestra y a sus compañeros utilizando diferentes representaciones escritas (dibujos, símbolos, palabras y oraciones) para representar los problemas y sus soluciones. este fue el resultado de un trabajo intenso de ambas maestras para validar la voz, pensamiento y capacidades de sus alumnos. conclusiones este estudio explora e ilustra prácticas de enseñanza de matemáticas con estudiantes latinos en contextos bilingües que sitúan el aprendizaje en relación con la lengua y la cultura de los alumnos, promueven el uso de la primera lengua como recurso pedagógico, y aspiran a enseñar contenido matemático complejo. las maestras que participaron en este estudio demostraron consistentes y altas expectativas de aprendizaje para sus alumnos, reflexionando sistemáticamente sobre el impacto del lenguaje usado en la enseñanza y las cuestiones culturales en el aprendizaje de sus estudiantes, y sobre cómo podían responder con sus estrategias de enseñanza de matemáticas a las características y necesidades de sus alumnos. las estrategias ilustradas a través de los dos casos de clase muestran la importancia de generar formas efectivas de apoyar la reflexiones sobre lenguaje, cultura y equidad en la enseñanza de matemáticas musanti, celedón & marshall no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) 64 construcción del pensamiento matemático de los alumnos utilizando el lenguaje, y los intercambios con los alumnos para que puedan desarrollar herramientas que les permitan mejorar su razonamiento matemático y la capacidad para comunicarlo efectivamente a otros tanto en forma escrita como oral. para esto es necesario que los maestros comprendan el rol que el maestro tiene en la construcción del lenguaje académico en relación con áreas de contenido y la importancia de que los alumnos participen activamente en la construcción de prácticas propias del discurso matemático. consideramos que este estudio contribuye a la comprensión de la importancia de la primera lengua como un recurso pedagógico en contextos donde los alumnos estén aprendiendo la lengua de instrucción como segunda lengua. el objetivo de este estudio no era establecer comparaciones entre aulas bilingües y aulas donde la enseñanza es solamente en inglés. de acuerdo con moschkovich (2010), la intención del estudio era explorar las prácticas de enseñanza que recuperan las capacidades propias de los estudiantes y que están diseñadas específicamente para alumnos minoritarios cuya primera lengua es español integrando la complejidad lingüística y cognitiva necesaria para que los alumnos avancen en el aprendizaje de conceptos matemáticos en su primer idioma. por otra parte, se ha documentado las prácticas de enseñanza que pueden marcar una diferencia ofreciendo oportunidades de aprendizaje significativas para la solución de problemas matemáticos complejos y de esta manera contribuir a generar propuestas educativas para la equidad que contribuyan a mejorar el rendimiento educativo de los estudiantes latinos. en este sentido, cobra particular importancia la posibilidad de que los maestros accedan a oportunidades de desarrollo profesional situado donde puedan reflexionar sobre sus prácticas de enseñanza identificando los factores que contribuyen a mejorar el aprendizaje. en este estudio, las maestras coincidieron en la centralidad de crear ambientes de aprendizaje que promuevan que los alumnos latinos crezcan valorando sus capacidades y desarrollando su identidad como sujetos que aprenden matemáticas. estas prácticas sólo son posibles cuando los maestros creen en las capacidades de aprendizaje de todos sus alumnos, considerando sus raíces culturales y lingüísticas como recursos intelectuales en el diseño de prácticas de enseñanza. reflexiones sobre lenguaje, cultura y equidad en la enseñanza de matemáticas musanti, celedón & marshall no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) 65 tabla 1. problemas verbales seleccionados (versión en español, adaptado de carpenter et al., 1999) estructura del problema problema cambio creciente (con resultado desconocido) cambio creciente (con cantidad de cambio desconocido) cambio decreciente (con resultado desconocido) multiplicación división partitiva división medida comparación cintia tenía 8 caramelos. su hermana le da 8 caramelos más. ¿cuántos caramelos tiene cintia ahora? pablo quiere comprar un avión de juguete que cuesta 19 pesos. ahora sólo tiene 9 pesos. ¿cuántos pesos más necesita pablo para poder comprar el avión de juguete? mariana tiene 25 galletitas. ella se come 5. ¿cuántas galletitas le quedaron a mariana? juan tiene 6 bolsas de bolitas. hay 5 bolitas en cada bolsa. ¿cuántas bolitas tiene juan en total? mario tiene 20 bolitas. el comparte sus bolitas con 4 amigos de modo que cada uno tenga la misma cantidad de bolitas. ¿cuántas bolitas le toca a cada amigo? (mario no se queda con ninguna bolita.) diego tiene 15 caramelos y algunas bolsas. el quiere poner 3 caramelos en cada bolsa para darle a sus amigos. ¿cuántas bolsas puede hacer? alicia tiene 12 muñecas. su hermana carolina tiene 9. ¿cuántas muñecas más tiene alicia que carolina? reflexiones sobre lenguaje, cultura y equidad en la enseñanza de matemáticas musanti, celedón & marshall no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) 66 referencias allexsaht-snider, m. & hart, l. e. (2001). “mathematics for all”: how do we get there? theory into practice, 40(2), 93-101. boaler, j. (2008). creating mathematical futures through an equitable teaching approach: the case of railside school. teachers college record, 110(3), 608-645. carpenter, t., fennema, e., franke, m., levi, l., & empson, s. (1999). children’s mathematics: cognitively guided instruction. portsmouth, nh: heinemann. celedón-pattichis, s. 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(2006). bilingual mathematics learners: how views of language, bilingual learners, and mathematical communication impact instruction. en n. nassir and p. cobb (eds.), improving access to mathematics: diversity and equity in the classroom (pp. 89-104). new york, ny: teachers college press. moschkovich, j. (2010). recommendations for research on language and mathematics education. in j. moschkovich (ed.), language and mathematics education: multiple perspectives and directions for research (pp. 151-170). charlotte, nc: information age publishing. musanti, s. i., marshall, m., ceballos, k., & celedón-pattichis, s. (2011). situating mathematics professional development: a bilingual teacher and researchers’ collaboration. in téllez, k., moschkovich, j. n., & civil, m (eds.), latinos and mathematics: research on learning and teaching in classrooms and communities. charlotte, nc: information age publishing. (pp. 215-232). musanti, s. i., celedón-pattichis, s., & marshall, m. e. 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(1998). basics of qualitative research. techniques and procedures for developing grounded theory (second ed.). thousand oaks, ca: sage. thomas, w. p., & collier, v. p. (2002). a national study of school effectiveness for language minority students’ long-term academic achievement. santa cruz, ca: center for research on education, diversity and excellence, university of california-santa cruz. http://repositories.cdlib.org/crede/finalrpts/1_1_final/ turner, e., celedón-pattichis, s., & marshall, m. a. (2008). cultural and linguistic resources to promote problem solving and mathematical discourse among hispanic kindergarten students. en r. kitchen & e. silver (eds.), promoting high participation and success in mathematics by hispanic students: examining opportunities and probing promising practices [a research monograph of todos: mathematics for all], no 1, 19-42. washington d.c.: national education association press. turner, e., & celedón-pattichis, s. (2011). mathematical problem solving among latina/o kindergartners: an analysis of opportunities to learn. journal of latinos and education, 10(2), 1-24. wenger, e. (1998). communities of practice: learning, meaning, and identity. new york: cambridge university press. willey, c. (2010). teachers developing mathematics discourse communities with latinas/os. in p. brosnan, d. erchick & l. flevares (eds.), proceedings of the 32nd annual meeting of the north american chapter of the international group for the psychology of mathematics education (pp. 530-538). columbus, oh: the ohio state university. zwiers, j. (2008). building academic language. essential practices for content classrooms. san francisco, ca: jossey-bass. reflexiones sobre lenguaje, cultura y equidad en la enseñanza de matemáticas musanti, celedón & marshall no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) 70 agradecimientos esta investigación fue cofinanciada por la fundación nacional de ciencias (nacional science foundation) subsidio no. esi-0424983 – center for the mathematics education of latinos/as (cemela). las opiniones, resultados, y conclusiones o recomendaciones expresadas en este material son de los autores y no reflejan necesariamente la visión de la fundación nacional de ciencias (estados unidos). las autoras están en deuda con las maestras y estudiantes quiénes tan generosamente abrieron las puertas de sus aulas y sus vidas, compartiéndolas con las investigadoras durante la duración del proyecto. authors * sandra i. musanti has a ph.d. in philosophy from the university of new mexico. she was a postdoctoral fellow at the center for the mathematics education of latinos/as (cemela) and a consultant for the argentinean ministry of education and a visiting professor at universidad nacional de san martin, buenos aires, argentina. she is currently an assistant professor in the department of language, literacy and intercultural studies at university of texas, brownsville. her research interests include teacher education, teacher development and collaboration, and bilingual education. email: sandra.musanti@utb.edu * sylvia celedón-pattichis has a ph. d. in bilingual and mathematics education from university of texas at austin. she is currently an associate professor at the university of new mexico in the department of language, literacy, and sociocultural studies, as well as, co-principal investigator of the center for the mathematics education of latinos/ as (cemela). her research interests include linguistic and cultural influences on the teaching and learning of mathematics with latina/o students learning english as a second language. email: sceledon@unm.edu * mary e. marshall is an instructional mathematics coach with the albuquerque public schools system. she was previously a doctoral fellow of the center for the mathematics education of latinos/as (cemela). email: mary.m1210@gmail.com reflexiones sobre lenguaje, cultura y equidad en la enseñanza de matemáticas no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) 74 the articulation of formative research and classrooms projects in the language and culture class in an undergraduate english teaching program1 articulación de prácticas de investigación formativa con los proyectos de aula de las clases de lengua y cultura anglófona en un programa de licenciatura en lengua extranjera paula ramírez marroquín2* corporación universitaria minuto de dios, colombia abstract this article shows the results of a research project which searched to answer how to articulate formative research with classroom projects in an undergraduate english teaching program. to accomplish the purpose of this paper, the document will focus on the two specific objectives of this qualitative research: document revision, and knowing about students’ and teachers’ perceptions about the projects, to finally show the main elements to articulate the formative research with the classroom projects in the anglophone language and culture course. the article develops three theoretical concepts: formative research, classroom projects and praxeological pedagogy. the results presented come from the revision of the current methodological guides about the classroom projects in the program and students’ and teachers’ perceptions about them. 1 received: jan. 16, 2015 / accepted: april 16, 2015 2 paurami844@gmail.com gist education and learning research journal. issn 1692-5777. no. 10, (january june) 2015. pp. 74-91. ramírez no. 10 (january june 2015) no. 10 (january june 2015) 75 finally, the article ends with the presentation of the principal elements to articulate formative research from the classroom projects in the program. keywords: formative research, classroom projects and praxeological pedagogy resumen el presente artículo muestra los resultados de un proyecto de investigación que buscaba articular las prácticas de la investigación formativa con los proyectos de aula en una clase de inglés de un programa de licenciatura. para alcanzar este objetivo, el artículo se centrará en los dos objetivos principales de esta investigación cualitativa: la revisión documental y las percepciones de estudiantes y docentes acerca de los proyectos de aula actuales del programa, para finalmente mostrar los elementos que permiten articular la investigación formativa con los proyectos de aula de la asignatura de lengua y cultura anglófona. el artículo desarrolla tres constructos teóricos: investigación formativa, proyectos de aula y pedagogía praxeológica. los resultados que se presentan se derivan del análisis de las guías metodológicas de los proyectos de aula del programa y de las percepciones de los estudiantes y docentes acerca de los mismos. finalmente, el artículo cierra con la presentación de los elementos principales para articular la investigación formativa con los proyectos de aula del programa. palabras claves: investigación formativa, proyectos de aula, pedagogía praxeológica resumo o presente artigo mostra os resultados de um projeto de pesquisa que buscava articular as práticas da pesquisa formativa com os projetos de classe em aula de inglês de um programa de licenciatura. para alcançar este objetivo, o artigo se centrará nos dois objetivos principais desta pesquisa qualitativa: a revisão documental e as percepções de estudantes e docentes acerca dos projetos de aula atuais do programa, para finalmente mostrar os elementos que permitem articular a pesquisa formativa com os projetos de aula da disciplina de língua e cultura anglófona. o artigo desenvolve três construtos teóricos: pesquisa formativa, projetos de aula e pedagogia praxeológica. os resultados que se apresentam se derivam da análise das guias metodológicas dos projetos de aula do programa e das percepções dos estudantes e docentes acerca dos mesmos. finalmente, o artigo encerra com a apresentação dos elementos principais para articular a pesquisa formativa com os projetos de aula do programa. palavras chaves: pesquisa formativa, projetos de aula, pedagogia praxeológica ramírez no. 10 (january june 2015) no. 10 (january june 2015) 76 introduction formative research has become one of the pioneers at the moment to include research in pedagogical dynamics in order to take students beyond the simple and instrumental management of knowledge. in this respect, parra (2004) affirms that to reflect about research in the university is to reflect about the university itself; this makes research a very important process in higher education, since this should not be an “extra” aspect in the entire education process, rather its main and inherent aspect regarding its function in the society (gutierrez, 1989). this type of research is then used to build knowledge and find a clear perspective of academic work by teachers and students. in the same way, there is a necessity of research that goes beyond instruments and methods, to become a “culture” and an attitude to be sown in students and teachers by giving them the possibility to reflect about their reality. guided by this inevitability of including research in the different academic processes in higher education, particularly in the development of foreign language competences, this research project was born under the question: how to articulate educational research with the classroom projects in the anglophone language and culture subject? to answer this question, this project focused on the design of a syllabus from which to work on formative research with classroom projects in the anglophone language and culture course in an undergraduate foreign language teaching program in a university in bogotá, colombia. for this purpose, three main aspects were followed: first, the definition of what characterizes research in the institution; second, the analysis of the elements that have guided the classroom projects so far in the course; and third, the analysis of the perceptions of students and teachers about the classroom projects. finally, these aspects were combined with theoretical elements about formative research and classroom projects. literature review formative research research is a process that contributes to different dynamics in the field of education, in terms of methods and as a possibility of approaching knowledge in a different way, where creativity and innovation play a very important role (restrepo, 2003). this breaks with the traditional the articulation of formative research ramírez no. 10 (january june 2015) no. 10 (january june 2015) 77 view of research mainly seen as a static process in terms of hypotheses and results, and moves towards searching for knowledge and new forms of learning and teaching. in a more specific sense, formative research has been somewhat contradictory in comparison to research in a strict sense although its importance regarding pedagogy is undeniable. for parra (2004), research is the process that keeps the logical and methodological structure, and it will be educative if its function is to contribute to the teaching purpose. in other words, this is the idea of research to show positive and exact results changes at the moment of being included within the educative field, where it is possible to be used to improve and enrich pedagogical practice. this should not be seen as a negative aspect; rather this makes research more dynamic and multidimensional. this aspect moves teachers to a different place in their teaching exercise since this is not only assumed in terms of strategies and tools, but as the living field where research can be born: their practice as the field of their construction of knowledge. thus, formative research is the first step to work on research from different academic activities in the school because university education does not end with professional or technical education (gutiérrez, 1989). with respect to this, formative research may be seen as the first step to include research in different aspects of the academic life in the university: “formative research is not only about content but about how to impart this content” (parra, 2004, p. 59). concerning the implementation of formative research in the real educative context, the most important thing to understand is that it is not one-dimensional (restrepo, 2003) since it offers several possibilities in terms of research and pedagogy in which there are two possibilities: incomplete problems in which students solve everything, and a problem set presented by the teacher. similarly, “research inside the classroom is a whole procedure of organizing knowledge that takes pedagogy further than the simple transmission of knowledge centered in the curriculum and seen as a product, in which the plan and the objectives are implemented by the teacher in order to produce the desired knowledge on the part of students” (grundy, 1991, p. 45). formative research explores a pedagogy that seeks for active students in their own processes through the research dynamics, which also implies a different relation to knowledge. on the other hand, formative research develops several competences that are useful in terms of research and pedagogy. these competences are not only important when developing learning processes, the articulation of formative research ramírez no. 10 (january june 2015) no. 10 (january june 2015) 78 but also to take students to a more comprehensive education which goes further than the management of information or content. from anzola’s (2005) perspective, the role of research in the university is essential in order to develop students’ critical and argumentative skills. in this way, formative research not only brings research skills, but also competences which are very important in the cognitive development of students, such as the unlimited use of language to facilitate the communication, thinking in terms of a process, and evaluation in terms of decisions and attitudes. additionally, formative research implies a different view about building knowledge about reality. this means that the way that students and teachers observe and analyze their real context –and its problems -is more critical and requires them to show their own interpretation about it since formative research investigates problems that can be analyzed in different fields. this new perception of knowledge and subjects immersed in reality also implies a different way of approaching, reading and understanding reality, since “this is not far from the school but it is thought from the school as a possibility of building knowledge from the reality itself will determine the course and development of the knowledge production and the education of researchers” (cerdá, 2007, p. 62). finally, formative research contributes to the change in the ways of learning and teaching. “it considers the learning process as a knowledge building process, and the belief of the correlation of theory and pedagogical experience” (anzola, 2005, p. 70). according to this, it is possible to conclude that formative research is a perspective that goes two ways: the possibility of guiding students’ learning processes to develop pedagogical and research competences in a new perspective of building knowledge from their own reality, and the possibility for teachers to reflect about their practice and change it by turning it into in their first source of research. classroom projects classroom projects can be considered as a route to be followed in the learning process. they can be assumed as a way of organizing teaching and processes, and as a combination of activities destined to a specific purpose that can be used in different situations (estarico, 1999). in this way, the organization of the cognitive process is seen as the development of different abilities and competences in students while they acquire and use contents to respond to a specific task, in which content is not the main point but yet another element in the development the articulation of formative research ramírez no. 10 (january june 2015) no. 10 (january june 2015) 79 of cognitive and research competences. similarly to formative research, the starting point of classroom projects is the observation of reality as a problematic phenomenon that can be analyzed. from here, it is possible to see how the learning process starts by observing the reality in which students and teachers are immersed critically. this means, as a didactic tool, classroom projects imply a different view of the learning and teaching processes since the main element is not the content but the real problem to be solved by the participants. in addition, the development of competences through classroom projects is not centered in only one ability. further, projects are very comprehensive in terms of knowledge and attitudes developed in students. in estarico’s (1999) words, classroom projects contribute to discovery and knowledge building. they are related to the theories and practices that promote pedagogy and research. in this sense, classroom projects are similar to formative research since both include pedagogical and research competences while they are developed in the classroom. moreover, classroom projects favor the discovery and construction of knowledge, are cooperative and promote the integration of knowledge (estarico, 1999). they also promote a different way of seeing teaching and learning processes besides a new relation with knowledge, which is not given but built along the route. a classroom project starts from an objective to be reached and the plan of a series of activities to achieve it (hernández et al., 2011). according to the authors, a project is a pedagogical activity in which a specific problem taken from reality is studied. the participants understand the objective of the activities, which are planned corresponding to the learning objectives. students’ work is systematized in order to allow for further reflection. the priority is the educational objective, and there is constant revision of what has been done to see if something needs to be changed in order to reach the pedagogical purpose. in addition, when working on a classroom project, it is first necessary to define a task goal, and afterwards to set the pre-tasks to be developed to reach the final objective. nevertheless, before planning an activity a needs analysis should be done in order to make decisions about the contents and the methodology in the course (vilas, 2012). in spite of the possibilities that classroom projects offer, stoller (1997) maintains some general stages that a project shall follow in methodological terms: 1) to agree on the topic of the project; 2) to determine the final product; 3) to structure the project; 4) to collect information about the topic of study; 5) to gather and analyze the information; 6) to present the final product; and 7) to evaluate the project. this is what is called the organization of the learning process, the articulation of formative research ramírez no. 10 (january june 2015) no. 10 (january june 2015) 80 in which competences and results expected shall be included. besides, it is important to clarify that the topic should come from the analysis of real problems, and the first and main objective is to answer or to give an alternative to the situation identified as a problem to be solved. to summarize, classroom projects agree with formative research in terms of the way that the learning process starts, which is with the statement of a problem from the real context, the competences that students develop during the process and the way that knowledge is not given but built. praxeological pedagogy praxeological pedagogy is the educative model that guides the institution in which research is carried out. juliao (2014) explains that praxeological pedagogy comes from the necessity of locating pedagogy in a more specific place in the educative field, and it mainly considers an essential difference between practice and praxis. practice has to do with following some rules or a model to develop a skill that may become a mechanical exercise; praxis refers to the reflection about what is done, including the forms of the subject who does the reflective process, from which the practice may be changed and transformed. this means that there is an essential difference in praxeological pedagogy in terms of the role of the subject according to the process realized because there is a reflective process in which the participants have an important role because they contribute from their reflection about their own practice. on the other hand, this pedagogy is a disciplinary and professional field where students and teachers’ knowledge and experiences converge to reflect, think, transform and give a new sense to the reality inside and outside the classroom, where the participants are active subjects (juliao, 2011). this agrees with the view of knowledge proposed by formative research in which knowledge is a construction of teachers and students working together. one of the most important characteristics of praxeological pedagogy is the reflection of participants involved in the educative process. according to durkheim (as cited in juliao, 2014), reflective thinking considers two stages: a perplexity and doubt stage that gives origin to a thought and a search or inquiry to dispel the doubt. thus, reflection may be understood as a mental act, as social praxis and as a critical view of the reality in which we are and with which we interact. this perspective is interested in the curiosity and motivation to guide the observation and reflection processes which lead to real inquiry by the learner (juliao, 2014). with respect to the application of praxeological pedagogy in the learning and teaching processes, the praxeological approach has four the articulation of formative research ramírez no. 10 (january june 2015) no. 10 (january june 2015) 81 stages: to see, as an explorative and analytical phase to answer what happens; to judge, as an action phase to answer what may be done; to act, as a phase to answer what to do specifically; and creative feedback as a phase of reflection in the action to answer what was learned from what was done and where all the knowledge acquired is reflected (juliao, 2011). these four stages coincide in terms of the competences that students develop in the research process: to identify and analyze a problematic situation, to think about what may be done to solve that situation and to reflect about the process. methodology research design this study is a qualitative research due to its emphasis on exploring a problem and developing a detailed understanding of a central phenomenon (creswell, 2002), which is the articulation of formative research with the classroom projects. johnson (2008) affirms that in this type of research the most important aspect is the qualitative data collection and the objective exploration of reality. this is seen in this project from two different activities: the revision of the institutional documents in which the perspective of the research inside the university is presented, and the exploration of students and teachers’ perceptions about the role of classroom projects in the learning process. with respect to the methodology, this project agreed with the six steps in the process of research suggested by creswell (2002): 1) identification of the research problem which was taken from the real practices regarding to the classroom projects; 2) reviewing of the literature, which was done by reviewing the institutional documents; 3) specifying a purpose and research questions, which was the articulation of formative research with the classroom projects; 4) collecting data, which was done by the document revision, questionnaires and interviews; 5) analyzing and interpreting data, the data collected from a priory approach; and 6) reporting and evaluating the research. in this frame, this research project corresponds to an action research approach due to its main purpose of improving the practice of education, with researchers studying their own problems or issues in a school or educational setting (creswell, 2002), in this case, the necessity of the institution to articulate formative research with the academic activities. the articulation of formative research ramírez no. 10 (january june 2015) no. 10 (january june 2015) 82 context and participants this project was carried out in a higher education institution in the undergraduate english language teaching program, in the anglophone language and culture course, in which students develop the four language skills and learn how to communicate in the context of their own reality. the participants were 88 students from the six levels of the course, three students from a research course, six students from the final semesters, and six teachers from the program. data collection instruments the instruments used for this project were documents, questionnaires and interviews. the documents analyzed were the methodological guides for classroom projects, which are a kind of syllabus in which teachers explain the guidelines for the development of classroom projects. these were used since they are a ready-made source of data accessible to the investigator (merriam, 1998). the second instrument used was a questionnaire administered in order to find out students’ perceptions about the classroom projects. this agrees with wallace’s (2006) proposal in which questionnaires are used to obtain information about the feelings, thoughts, perceptions and beliefs of the participants. the third instrument used were semi-structured interviews administered to students and teachers “in order to tap into the knowledge, opinions, ideas and experiences” (wallace, 2006, p. 124), in this specific case, the experience with the projects in the classroom. the questions for the questionnaire and the interviews considered items such as the topics of the projects and their relation with real life, the relation with different fields of knowledge, the contribution of the projects to students’ pedagogical practice, competences, and the relation between process and product. data analysis and interpretation the analysis for this study was done from an a priori approach that, according to freeman (1998), starts from some pre-existing categories before the analysis, which in this project was done by taking patterns from the institutional documents, and the theory about formative research, projects and praxeological pedagogy. afterwards, these patterns became the pre-established categories used to analyze the data. these categories were the basis for the analysis, which sought out instances of these in the data (freeman, 1998). the articulation of formative research ramírez no. 10 (january june 2015) no. 10 (january june 2015) 83 posing a question from the critical reflection of reality. regarding this category, the methodological guides showed that there is a topic for the project, such as traditions in some countries, but not an analysis of the reality to make a question. the students expressed that there is a distance between the topics of the projects and their own reality, or at least with problems related to their field of study: we started the project from a context which is not connected with us, we did not go deep, it was only a sketch of the topic. i think there should be deepening to make changes in our reality. (student from the final semester)3 here it is possible to demonstrate that the contents are more focused on the description and search of information, but there is a lack of reflection about the reality or problems related to the culture in the foreign language learning process; this happens because the topics are related to traditions in english-speaking countries, historical events, food or important dates, which is far from students’ realities, as expressed by one of the participants. in addition, the students and teachers expressed that some projects start from a question, but that is not necessarily problematic and it does not promote transformation in the real context. appropriateness of the topics and relation with other fields of knowledge. the students and teachers agreed that the topics are appropriate for the projects in terms of the foreign language learning process, but that there is not a direct relation with other fields of knowledge. nevertheless, from the students’ perceptions it was possible to see that they recognize the rich field of culture and that this is a phenomenon which goes beyond the simple linguistic code. still, they do not see the relation to other areas. the teachers also reported that there is no relation to different fields of knowledge despite of the richness that the cultural topic implies. objectives to answer a question. the current project guides contain both pedagogical and research objectives. it was possible to see some steps such as exploration, deepening, socialization and discussion – very close to the praxeological stages-to be developed during the process. however, there is not a clear difference in pedagogical and research terms. the objectives are to describe, create, compare, evaluate, and learn, but they are not specific about the pedagogical or research process in terms of the initial question. the students expressed that 3 original spanish: estábamos empezando el proyecto por un contexto que digamos no se acomodaba a nosotros, nosotros no profundizábamos sino que mirábamos era todo por encimita. habría sido mejor profundizar para poder hacer digamos cambios en nuestra realidad. the articulation of formative research ramírez no. 10 (january june 2015) no. 10 (january june 2015) 84 the objectives of the projects are not very clear for them, but they are aware that they must follow some stages to accomplish the final product. although teachers say they are clear about what to do with the projects in the class, students are not aware they are following a process. competences to be developed. from the analysis of the methodological documents, it was possible to see how the current projects are focused on the pedagogical competences related to the process of learning a foreign language, but there is a lack in terms of research competences. the guides talk about linguistic, communicative, intercultural and technological competences, but there are no research competences mentioned. on the other hand, most of the students said that the classroom projects develop different competences, but specially linguistic and communicative. nevertheless, it is evident for them that competences related to research are omitted, as one of the students expressed: it is important for students to have the chance of developing competences such as how to do a methodological table or a theoretical framework, if this is fostered in the culture and language class it is good because that makes the thesis project easier and that students do not have problems with that. (student from final semester)4 for the teachers, the projects may help develop research, argumentative and critical thinking skills and competences. nevertheless, the problem statement and initial question are essential to develop these competences as it was evidenced in one of the teacher’s opinions. i think it is important to work the critical thinking and reflection of some aspects, we need researchable realities in which a question is possible to be made, to search and synthetize information. (teacher from the undergraduate program)5 teachers recognize that the classroom projects allow students to develop different pedagogical and research competences and we shall take advantage of this. 4 es importante que los estudiantes que tengan la oportunidad de desarrollar esas competencias de digamos de cómo saber hacer un cuadro metodológico, o saber cómo hace un marco teórico, si eso se fomenta desde las clases de cultura anglófona yo creo que sería bueno para que sea más fácil para los estudiantes y que no tengan problemas a futuro. 5 yo creo que sería importante trabajar el pensamiento crítico de algunos temas necesitamos realidades investigativas en la que podamos plantear una pregunta, que podamos buscar fuentes de información, que podamos sintetizar información. the articulation of formative research ramírez no. 10 (january june 2015) no. 10 (january june 2015) 85 answer to a question and a proposal to the problem. the guides show questions about specific topics related to culture, but the necessity or process to answer the questions is not explicit, which means that the process in research terms does not exist. nevertheless, the students expressed in the questionnaire that the questions do not require a direct answer to a real problem. although the main final product is clear, this is a remarkable aspect since it is possible to interpret that the most important thing for them is to have a final product, not to answer the question or propose an alternative or solution to a problem. as one of the students expressed: i think the topics as they are being worked do not have a lot of impact because when we talk about a festival we are only giving information, actually, we are not going further than the topic… it was not something to be transformed, to make social or personal changes. (student from the research course)6 in the teachers’ perception, there is a question in some projects, but there is no real research process required to answer the question. in this sense, the projects do not reach an interpretation process, which is where students use their real knowledge and point of view, which is the final stage in the research process. process and product relation. from the analysis of the guides, the projects include final products such as videos, oral presentations, plays, posters, etc., but there is no relation with the process, or with a research product. in this respect, the students expressed that the relation between process and product along the projects is superficial, and there is a stronger emphasis on the product rather than on the process; thus, the main task is to make a video or a poster than to show results and interpretation. the way in how the projects are presented does not have a relation the stages of the projects and its final product, most of the times we do not understand the reason for the final product and either the stages that take us to the final product. (student from the research course)7 in terms of time, teachers consider that there is limited time to monitor students’ work; additionally, they mention that there is no clear 6 yo pienso que los temas que se están trabajando no tienen impacto porque cuando hablamos de un tema solo buscamos la información pero no estamos yendo más allá en el tema… no es nada para que transformemos, para hacer cambios personales o sociales. 7 la manera como se presentan los proyectos no establecen una relación entre las fases y el producto, muchas veces no entendemos él porque del proyecto y no entendemos esas fases que nos van llevando como en un escalón hasta el producto final. the articulation of formative research ramírez no. 10 (january june 2015) no. 10 (january june 2015) 86 methodology to work on the projects and join the students with the process: the process should be standardized to know what must be done in each stage, a first stage that is started from the first week and it is also important to take the time into consideration. (teacher from the bachelor program)8 in addition, the final product is coherent with the topic but this does not show the process followed by the students. the evaluation is centered on the product and not on the building process done by the students. contribution to the students’ pedagogical practices. according to the data analysis, the guides do not mention this aspect explicitly, and for students this is not very clear either; even so, they said that the projects help them in different aspects such as in linguistic and the communicative competences: i think the topics should be joined by the pedagogical aspect… and also the reflective part should be related to the pedagogical one, how that may be taught, how to do students see that topic” (student from the research course)9 for the teachers, this contribution is not evident, but they have noticed that the projects foster linguistic competence when students are exposed to information other than class content: the projects contribute to the students’ communicative competence when they have to present, they must think about how to produce a message, how to set an oral presentation, how to structure visual material, all this helps their professional development”10 according to the previous opinion, students develop cognitive skills in terms of the selection of information, and increase their didactic knowledge and performance. 8 hay que por lo menos estandarizar el proceso, saber que hay que hacer en cada etapa una etapa clara que uno comienza a seguir desde la primera semana y me parce que también hay que mirar el tema de considerar las limitaciones de tiempo. 9 yo pienso que acompañado con los temas debería ir ahí a la par aplicado lo pedagógico… y también en la parte de la reflexión de que el tema debería ir pegado a la pedagogía, a cómo enseñarlo, como hacer que sus estudiantes vean esto. 10 yo considero que aporta a las competencias comunicativas de los, es decir cuando tienen que hacer la presentación de su proyecto ellos por lo menos tiene que desarrollar como emitir un mensaje, como estructurar la presentación oral, como estructurar por ejemplo el material visual, entonces todo esto aporta a su desarrollo profesional. the articulation of formative research ramírez no. 10 (january june 2015) no. 10 (january june 2015) 87 results the main objective of this paper that was to show results from the revision of the project guides, and to know students and teachers’ perceptions about the classroom projects. based on the findings in the previous section, it is possible to say that the classroom projects do not start with a question based on critical reflection of reality. this was demonstrated in two ways. first, the methodological guides showed that the starting point is a general topic mainly related to english-speaking countries. second, the students evidenced in their opinions that they do not find a connection with their own reality. similarly, the topic is not worked on deeply nor critically because, as students expressed, the context of the topic is not connected with them, and it does not produce changes in their own reality. third, students and teachers consider the topics of the projects as accurate according to the language learning process although the inclusion of different fields of knowledge is not explicit. on the other hand, the methodological guides do not show a difference between pedagogical, learning and research objectives. objectives corresponding to praxeological pedagogy are more focused on the pedagogical issue. similarly, for students and teachers, there is no difference between research and pedagogical objectives in the projects. they considered that they are more concerned with the foreign language competences; nevertheless, both are aware they are following some stages to reach a final product. similarly, the methodological guides showed an emphasis on linguistic and learning competences. this aspect is supported by the students and teachers’ opinions in which they recognize that the linguistic and the communicative competences in foreign language improved highly through the projects; however, they felt the projects should be used to foster research competences as well. these competences would allow for the development of argumentation, synthesis, critical thinking, as well as different methodological processes connected to the research process. regarding the answer of an initial question and a proposal to a problem by the students, the methodological guides do not show a process to be followed to accomplish this even though they consider some learning objectives and competences. according to the students’ opinions, although there is a final product, there is not an answer to a question and they do not propose an alternative to solve a problem; for them this happens because they only give information about the topic. they do not make an analysis; as a consequence, it is not possible to give a solution to a problem or create personal or social changes. for the teachers, since there is no clear answer for a problematic question, the interpretation process in which the students use their real knowledge and point of view is wasted. the articulation of formative research ramírez no. 10 (january june 2015) no. 10 (january june 2015) 88 the analysis of methodological guides showed that the products of the projects are not part of a research process. according to the students’ perceptions, the projects are more focused on the product than in the process and the relation between these two aspects is superficial and unclear, they do not understand the reason of the final product regarding the process. for teachers, the main problem with this issue is the time, which is not enough to follow the whole process, and the lack of a clear methodology to follow clear steps to make the relation between the process and the product closer and coherent. finally, in terms of contribution of the classroom projects to students’ pedagogical practices, both students and teachers consider the projects very valuable to improve communicative and linguistic competence, which are the bases of their future teaching practice as english teachers. nevertheless, for the students particularly, the inclusion of the pedagogical aspect is important. for the teachers, the didactic and cognitive competences that students develop by doing the classroom projects is a valuable aspect because they are also important for their pedagogical knowledge and practice. conclusions in terms of the articulation of formative research and classroom projects, the theory, findings and results suggest that the starting point to accomplish this articulation is the critical view of reality in order to make a problematic question. this aspect is coherent with cerdá (2007) and juliao (2014), who argue that the research and learning process should begin with the inquiry and critical view of reality in order to have students make a question about their real context. for this, the context and the problem may be close to the students’ realities, in contrast to what students expressed about what happen with the topics with which they are currently working. ramírez (2007) remarks that work centered on topics and not on problems reduces the students’ discursive production since these topics are a small representation of a given reality. this makes the process of interpretation and critical thinking difficult as the starting point is a general topic, usually with no contextualization. since the process and projects should start with a problem and a question, there should also be clear research and pedagogical objectives in order to answer that question. both kinds of objectives are possible because, according to cerdá (2007), research and pedagogical exercises are not totally different, and can be developed to reach the same objective. these objectives must be shared by teachers and students, and gonzález (2009) affirms that there should be a clear plan and objectives the articulation of formative research ramírez no. 10 (january june 2015) no. 10 (january june 2015) 89 for teachers and students to work together; these objectives should transcend the simple stages, as currently happens in the classroom projects in the program. those objectives must correspond to the process to be developed. similarly, research and pedagogical objectives should agree with the competences in the same process. currently, it is agreed that there are some basic and general competences appropriate to develop cognitive activities, and useful for research and for pedagogy (cerdá, 2007). on the other hand, cerdá (2007) points out that a research process starts with a question about the reality. juliao (2011) also states that the pedagogical process starts by reflecting about reality to do an inquiry about it. this principle also means that the research and pedagogical processes finish with the answer to that initial question, by students proposing a solution to the problem or giving an alternative. this implies a process of interpretation, analysis and contribution from students’ perspectives, which is an aspect that is missing in the current projects, according to what teachers expressed. following this, another remarkable aspect to connect formative research with classroom projects is to make the process-product relation logical. in stoller’s (1997) view, the sixth step in classroom projects is to present the final product, but there should be coherence between the process and the product. this starts by proposing a research product that reflects the process followed and the objectives of the projects finally accomplished. anzola (2005) suggests the following as products from formative research: theoretical essays, case studies, problem based learning tasks, cross curricular projects and problem cores. products such as videos or posters are also possible, but as a summary of the ones mentioned by anzola (2005), not as the main final product. finally, regarding the contribution to students’ pedagogical practices, the inclusion of formative research in higher education contributes to the preparation of future professionals, especially future teachers (cerdá, 2007). this means that at the moment of doing research, future teachers develop pedagogical and didactic knowledge and understand their practice beyond the classrooms. in addition, restrepo (2003) affirms that creativity and innovation play a very important role in formative research, which is also important for teaching. this way, formative research and classroom projects provide possibility to promote learning and research in the classroom by making students think about reality, inquire about it, and find answers to contribute to change in their real lives as teachers and actors in society. the articulation of formative research ramírez no. 10 (january june 2015) no. 10 (january june 2015) 90 references ausubel, d, novak, j.d. y hanesian, h. 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(2006). action research for language teachers. cambridge: cambridge university press. author *paula andrea ramírez marroquín holds a master’s in foreign language teaching and teacher in humanities, spanish and foreign languages from the universidad pedagógica nacional. she is a teacher and researcher at corporación universitaria minuto de dios, uniminuto. her teaching experience and research interests include the field of linguistics, such as sociolinguistics and discourse analysis in the foreign language area. she is also the leader teacher of the group of student researchers at uniminuto. the articulation of formative research ramírez no. 10 (january june 2015) no. 10 (january june 2015) 92 an approach to integration: the integration of language and content to promote l2 learner autonomy at the college level1 un acercamiento a la integración: el aprendizaje integrado de lengua y contenidos para promover la autonomía del estudiante de lengua extranjera en la universidad pablo m. oliva parera and maría pilar núñez delgado2* middlebury institute of international studies, usa universidad de granada, spain abstract this article reports the preliminary findings of an action research on the effects of autonomy on a group of university students at the post-graduate level taking their first spanish course through the content and language learning (clil) methodology. the participants, whose spanish was at the low/mid intermediate level (actfl, 2012), were exposed to content related to their masters’ degrees at a university in the united states. the sample consisted of 13 students in the experimental group and 14 in the control group. results showed that students in the experimental group who followed a clil class experienced more autonomy than students in the control group who followed a more traditional class with a textbook. pedagogical implications reflect advantages of planning curriculum according to the students’ interests and career objectives. keywords: autonomy, content and language integrated learning (clil), metacognitive knowledge, portfolio, university level. 1 received: dec. 15, 2014 / accepted: april 16, 2015 2 pablo.oliva@miis.edu, ndelgado@ugr.es gist education and learning research journal. issn 1692-5777. no. 10, (january june) 2015. pp. 92-112. oliva & núñez no. 10 (january june 2015) no. 10 (january june 2015) 93 resumen el artículo reporta los hallazgos preliminares de un estudio de investigación acción tendiente a mostrar la repercusión de la autonomía en estudiantes universitarios de posgrado que están cursando una clase de español como lengua extranjera a través de la metodología del aprendizaje de lengua y contenidos (aicle). los participantes en la clase tienen un nivel intermedio bajo/medio según (actfl, 2012) y estudian en la clase temas relacionados al itinerario de estudios de sus maestrías que se dictan en inglés en una universidad estadounidense. la muestra consistió en 13 alumnos en el grupo experimental y 14 en el grupo de control. los resultados mostraron que los alumnos matriculados en la clase aicle desarrollaron mayor autonomía que los estudiantes en el grupo de control que tomaron una clase más tradicional con un libro de texto. se valoran los resultados por las implicaciones pedagógicas derivadas para futuros cambios a nivel curricular que considera el itinerario de sus carreras en el diseño de las clases. palabras clave: autonomía, aprendizaje integrado de lengua y contenidos (aicle), conocimiento meta cognitivo, nivel universitario, portafolios resumo o artigo reporta as descobertas preliminares de um estudo de pesquisa ação sobre os efeitos da autonomia em um grupo de estudantes universitários de pós-graduação que estão cursando uma aula de espanhol como língua estrangeira mediante a metodologia aprendizagem integrada de conteúdo e língua estrangeira (aicle). os participantes tinham um nível de espanhol intermédio baixo/médio segundo (actfl, 2012) e durante a aula estiveram expostos a conteúdos relacionados com temas relacionados ao plano de estudos dos mestrados que cursaram nos estados unidos. a amostra consistiu em 13 estudantes no grupo experimental e 14 estudantes no grupo de controle. os resultados mostraram que os estudantes matriculados na aula que utilizou a metodologia aicle desenvolveram maior autonomia que os estudantes no grupo de controle que tiveram una aula mais tradicional usando um libro de texto. as implicações pedagógicas refletem as vantagens do planejamento curricular de acordo com os interesses e objetivos profissionais dos estudantes. palavras chave: autonomia, aprendizagem integrada de conteúdo e língua estrangeira (aicle), conhecimento meta cognitivo, nível universitário, portfólios oliva & núñez no. 10 (january june 2015) no. 10 (january june 2015) 94 introduction autonomy is a buzzword in nearly every educational textbook, program and syllabus. however, autonomy is not a new concept—there has been interest in self-directed learning since the nineteenth century (candy, 1991), and this interest expands when adult learners are included (holec, 1981). despite the passage of time, the degree of autonomy in both curricula and educational organizations remains constant (council of europe, 2004; marsh, 2013). in europe, the bologna declaration of 1999 influenced the european higher education area (ehea) by placing the student at the center of the learning arena. in this paradigm, the development of autonomy is essential for achieving the ultimate goal of education: the formation of the whole individual (salaburu, haug & ginés mora, 2011). the europal project has also benefited these collaborative efforts in the educational field by maintaining an inventory regarding autonomy both in education and in the area of foreign languages in several european countries (miliander & trebi, 2008, jiménez raya, 2009). as a result, various studies in the field of linguistics over the last decade have attempted to determine what characterizes an autonomous language learner. benson (2010) recognizes that autonomy is a complex construct, capable of presenting obstacles if the researcher does not specify beforehand what “construct” is being studied. therefore, benson (2010) suggests that one define the construct accurately in order to avoid future problems. one definition of autonomy that is often cited is related to “control.” in other words, benson (2010) holds that “autonomous language learners are, therefore, learners who are in some sense ‘in control’ of important dimensions of their learning” (p. 79). for sinclair (1999), just observing students in the classroom is insufficient for determining their level of autonomy. the author instead proposes making this determination by measuring students’ metacognitive knowledge or “capacity” to make informed decisions about language learning. this idea becomes more relevant within the framework of a clil language class that adopts a portfolio because it eventually provides practitioners with information to improve their teaching experiences. in other words, the portfolio allows the teacher to delve more deeply into students’ interests, reflections, and metacognitive knowledge in order to better understand how students’ capacities relate to their own learning. for this reason, this study is designed to begin to fill a gap in the study of autonomy. this study has been operationalized through an approach to integration oliva & núñez no. 10 (january june 2015) no. 10 (january june 2015) 95 students’ metacognitive knowledge in a clil classroom setting. based on the results of analysis stemming from a european portfolio model, this study has been adapted to the american university classroom format. this research included 27 students in the fall semester of 2011. the didactic implications arising from this study suggest that changes in curriculum design should be implemented in future courses. research questions and hypotheses questions that motivated the study were as follows: q1. does the clil class promote autonomy? q2. does the portfolio promote learner’s autonomy in this particular class? from these questions, the following hypotheses emerged: h1. students taking the clil spanish class will demonstrate greater autonomy than students who did not take the (clil) spanish class. h2. the portfolio will promote autonomy. literature review according to the analyzed literature, there seems to be a lacuna in the l2 class, especially in the clil context, where the topics studied follow the interests and concentration of students’ areas of study. prior to discussing this gap in greater detail, this literature review considers content and language integrated learning (clil), content-based instruction (cbi), and the use of language portfolios in terms of their contributions to autonomy. content and language integrated learning and content-based instruction content and language integrated learning (clil) is a methodology that enhances not only autonomy but also motivation (dalton-puffer, 2012;grabbe & stoller, 1997; madrid & madrid, 2014). it is also the medium through which the language taught is the vehicle to integrate academic content (coyle, hood & marsh, 2010). in addition, there seems to be a keen interest in university students all over the globe to learn a new language for job purposes or to fully function abroad in social situations; as a result, clil provides an opportunity to more fully engage students (fortanetgómez, 2013). an approach to integration oliva & núñez no. 10 (january june 2015) no. 10 (january june 2015) 96 in this article, we will be referring to clil and cbi (contentbased instruction) interchangeably in the sense that both share pedagogical essential aspects and also considering llinares’s (2015) idea of integration: the actual concept of integration. what it entails and how it can be materialized in the classroom, should receive more attention by researchers and practitioners, no matter whether the context at hand is a so-called immersion setting in canada or a so-called clil school in the netherlands. (p. 59) this resemblance has also been supported in cenoz (2015), coyle et al., (2010) and dalton-puffer (2007). clil is the term that is widely used in europe, while cbi is more popular in the united states and canada. despite its differing origins, clil intends to boost minority languages and support the learning and teaching of foreign languages. as indicated in the clil eurydice report (fortanetgómez, 2013), cbi has been more associated with lep students. certain researchers have outlined aspects of clil that differ from perspectives supported within cbi; in particular, immersion has been considered in some depth (cenoz, genesee & gorter, 2014; perezcañado, 2012). integrating content and language in institutions several researchers have reported success in the integration of content and languages in educational establishments in europe and in the united states during the last twenty years (grabbe & stoller, 1997; marsh, 2013; mehisto, frigols & marsh, 2008). in europe, interest in content-based methodology has increased across the continent, partially due to socio-educational policy. the european centre for modern languages published the european framework for clil teacher education (marsh, mehisto, wolf & frigols, 2011) with information regarding the objectives and responsibilities that teachers should consider for optimal performance: the role of the student, curriculum integration, integration of content and language teaching, professional development, and teacher preparation to face the challenges presented. on the american continent, the efforts carried out in the experimental field using integrated curriculum planning are reflected in the teaching of esl in primary and high schools (bigelow, dahlman & ranney, 2006; kaufman & crandall, 2005; wegrzecka-kowalewski, 1997). it also can be seen at the university level in the teaching of efl in colombia (bedoya hernández, 2012; gonzales moncada & sierra an approach to integration oliva & núñez no. 10 (january june 2015) no. 10 (january june 2015) 97 ospina, 2008). the literature also reveals an abundance of linguistic programs for teaching languages, such as spanish, russian, japanese, chinese and french, in some american universities where academic content is taught in various levels of these languages (bailey, 2009; dupuy, 2000; jourdenais & springer, 2005). in spain, there are varied proposals dealing with faculty development work and research related to clil methodology, ranging from different levels of language assessment to language and cognitive development (breeze, llamas saiz martínez sala pasamar & tabernero, 2014, madrid & madrid, 2014). as a result, there has been a tendency for teachers to work collaboratively. those who happen to teach the same group of students exchange ideas to improve and develop the curriculum. from the learners’ standpoint, an important contribution of clil is that it supports their cognitive academic language proficiency (cummins, 1989) because students work with different academic content and use this content as a vehicle to develop their language skills. for example, students working with topics such as human rights will be able to work and increase their vocabulary specific to this topic while simultaneously focusing on various linguistic aspects. another way of promoting autonomy in the l2 classroom is through the language portfolio, which will be described in further detail below. the language portfolio because of its ability to promote autonomy and motivation (little 2002, 2005; sisamakis 2010), the language portfolio is increasingly being used in l2 classes (canga & fernandez, 2012; klenowski, 2012; sobrino-morrás, pérez-sancho & naval durán, 2009). through the portfolio, students reflect upon their learning, evaluate their own work, and make decisions regarding their learning. this perspective is important when considering students at the university level because through the adoption of the portfolio, instructors gather important information that can serve many purposes, such as improving the curriculum based on the students’ needs, giving the students the opportunity to self-rate their work, and allowing students greater participation in the teaching and learning experience. to achieve these lofty goals, teachers must consider what students have to say when they are analyzing their own work; metacognition is closely related to different degrees that the students show when they are in control of learning situations or contexts. we aim to shed more light on this area because several researchers have called for further investigation (benson, 2010; gao & jun zhang, 2011; sinclair, 1999). an approach to integration oliva & núñez no. 10 (january june 2015) no. 10 (january june 2015) 98 a strong example of the power of portfolios can be seen in the european portfolio for languages (pel). the language policy division of the council of europe (council of europe, 2001) developed this portfolio to serve as a guide in the teaching, learning and assessment of different languages in different countries. the portfolio also reflects efforts to promote the development of learners’ autonomy, to develop multilingualism and to increase mutual understanding through intercultural dialogue. to date, there have been ongoing efforts and discussions related to the adaptability of the portfolio in various contexts. for example, debates have taken place about the importance of different ministries in each country as well as the relationships between stakeholders at all levels, including parents, students and supervisors. the pel contains three distinctive elements. the first is the section called “language passport,” where one can identify the learner’s skills. the second component is the “language biography,” which is considered the axis of portfolio. here, students reflect upon and evaluate their progress in learning the language. this section also allows the teacher to access information regarding the student’s experience with the language, both inside and outside the classroom. the third component is the dossier used for storing information or skills mentioned in the passport and the portfolio’s language biography. the european portfolio was developed in conjunction with the common european framework of reference for languages (cefr) (council of europe, 2001). according to the cefr, one of the portfolio’s objectives is to facilitate language study by students in the european community. nonetheless, this research has adapted the portfolio for use in the graduate university context at an american university. through this adaption, the research aims to broaden the research base of the pel, thus providing more insight into the role of portfolios in encouraging student autonomy in other contexts. methodology research design the current study falls under the category of action research because it has been carried out by instructors investigating aspects of their own practice in order to make changes or better classroom situations (bailey & nunan, 2009). this qualitative-quantitative action research method allowed us to thoroughly investigate the autonomy of graduate students, operationalized as “the ability to justify or make informed decisions about learning.” since we were unable to randomly an approach to integration oliva & núñez no. 10 (january june 2015) no. 10 (january june 2015) 99 select the participants, the sample included regularlyoccurring classes, placing this study’s participants into the intact groups category. operationalization of the constructs autonomy in this research was operationalized as “the ability to justify or make informed decisions about learning.” the clil class has been operationalized as a “spanish course where the topics chosen are closely related to the topics of the participants’ master’s degrees.” this group did not use a textbook, and the instructor selected different topics associated with the students’ careers. the grammar and vocabulary lessons were mostly dictated by the content used. the spanish class that did not follow the clil format has been operationalized as “a spanish class that follows a traditional textbook.” the textbook used was published in the united states and intended for students at the intermediate level (actfl, 2012). the textbook includes the following units: personal relationships, pastimes, daily life, health, wellness, travel and nature. students in this group also had access to ancillary materials from the textbook online. this material helped them to reinforce vocabulary and practice grammar. context and participants the sample consisted of 27 students. the experimental group was composed of 13 students, and the control group included 14. the median age in the experimental group was 31 years, while in the control group, it was 25. in regards to gender distribution, the female percentage was higher than male in both groups (62% in the experimental group and 86% in the control group). all students were american, except for one who was italian. in all cases, the mother tongue or (l1) was english, except for that of the italian student. students took a placement test, and based on the results, they were placed into low/mid intermediate level classes (actfl, 2012). in the experimental group, the class curriculum was based on topics selected by the instructor; these topics were chosen based on typical areas of study in the students’ master degree programs. the topics presented were the aborigines, the environment, and human rights. students in the control group used a textbook published in the united states. the duration of both classes was a semester, and the groups met twice a week for two hours. an approach to integration oliva & núñez no. 10 (january june 2015) no. 10 (january june 2015) 100 data collection instruments data for this study came from two sources: a survey and a portfolio analysis. first, students took a survey based on a set of questions adapted from sinclair (1999). the survey questions were piloted prior to actual administration. students answered the questions immediately following every oral presentation. the information was collected following their first oral presentation (third week of class) and their final oral presentation (last week of class). the questions used were the following: 1) why did you decide to work on this topic? 2) did you like it? why? why not? 3) how did it go? 4) why did you organize your research the way you did? 5) what do you think about the way you worked? 6) did you have any problems? if so, what were they? 7) why did you have them? 8) what else would you have done differently? (questions adapted from sinclair, 1999, p. 97). the second source of data stems from the analysis of portfolios submitted by students at the end of the semester. we used the following criteria (table 2) based upon the operationalization of autonomy used in this research. table 2. rubric used in the analysis of the portfolio autonomy a) student exercises “control” in the portfolio b) student reflects on his/her learning the rationale for sentence a) states that the student can exercise a high or low level of self-control (candy, 1991). in other words, he/ she can be autonomous or not. with regards to b), we determined that autonomy means questioning, reflecting and contributing (ushioda, 2009). as a) and b) in the rubric seem to be broad categories, we noticed an approach to integration oliva & núñez no. 10 (january june 2015) no. 10 (january june 2015) 101 a need for clear guidelines in order to analyze each portfolio. therefore, we decided to elaborate on a few descriptors for future categorization results. a 7-point likert rating scale was used for the evaluation of each portfolio. we encountered a few disagreements between the raters in both groups and resolved them through discussions and peer agreement. data analysis and interpretation to process the answers to the research questions, the researchers followed sinclair’s three-level categorization where each level describes learners’ meta-cognitive knowledge. the categories suggested by sinclair (1999) are as follows: level 1: “largely unaware,” level 2 “becoming aware”, and level 3 “largely aware.” for example, if the language used by the student in describing his/her experience offered little or insubstantial justification, improper use of metalanguage, or lacked logical arguments, the level of metalinguistic knowledge was marked as 1, “largely unaware.” however, if the student supported statements using anecdotes and resorted to self–analysis and metaphors, these responses could be categorized as 2, “becoming aware.” if a student made use of what has already been described and also provided various alternatives of how he/she could have worked, this response could be categorized as level 3, “largely aware.” the data collection was performed in the learners’ l1 because the purpose was not to analyze their interlanguage; rather we sought to analyze the construct of autonomy. results results of the pretest/posttest based on sinclair (1999) in the following table, we notice that 28% of the answers in the experimental group could be categorized in level 3 because they were able to provide different alternatives when answering the questions. 47% of the answers could be grouped in level 2 and 25% in level 1. regarding the control group, we notice that most of the answers fell under levels (1&2). an approach to integration oliva & núñez no. 10 (january june 2015) no. 10 (january june 2015) 102 table 3. total values for the first oral presentation in order to offer more substantial evidence to complement the table above, the following section presents a few extracts voicing the students’ opinions compiled from the answers at each level. level 3 (largely aware) s1. i looked for general information related to the miskitos. there wasn’t a lot of available information so i had to find 3 different types of sources and piece together my presentation from that information. i then used a powerpoint to present in class. s2. i could have practiced in front of spanish speaking people, and not just in front of a mirror or alone. i should film myself at home too. s3. i wanted initial background facts about the shipibos, and wikipedia was very useful. i then used keywords, such as ‘shipibos, shipibos beliefs,’ ‘shipibos current problems’ and other variations of helpful search words. i was also curious if there were any youtube videos about the shipibos, their native language, or anything else that maybe of interest to me that i wanted to share with my classmates. i accidentaly found the you tube video ‘shipibos en lima sos’ and i watched the 9:47 minute video clip over and over because i was in shock, and at which point, i knew i had to include it as part of my presentation. level 2 (becoming aware) s4. i chose the kuna peoples of panama because i had seen some kuna women while traveling briefly in panama in 2005. i had always wondered what their history was but never took time previously to find out. s5. i searched online for the characteristics of the tarahumaras and then i chose what i found most interesting. s6. i could have put a few bullet points on my powerpoint to assist with less reading directly from my notes in the presentation. an approach to integration oliva & núñez no. 10 (january june 2015) no. 10 (january june 2015) 103 level 1 (largely unaware) s7. i looked for information in the internet. s8. i looked up for information about shakira and translated it. then, i looked for pictures and video to match. s9. nothing. the table illustrates that the highest values in both groups are expressed in the category “becoming aware.” in other words, students resorted to anecdotal evidence, introspection and meta-language. in terms of the final oral presentation, we observe the following. table 4. total values for the final oral presentation below, we include a few extracts of student voices quotes that fall under the category of level 2, “becoming aware.” s1. the main thing is to make myself understood. i chose this topic knowing that it was complicated to explain in spanish. there were lots of words to learn and remember. i tried not to use my paper. s2. i think i did a job. i found that walmart now has organic products. i felt more comfortable this time. i know i need more practice to speak in public. s3. i don’t see this as an issue but i spent a lot of time looking for photos to tell my story. i’m not sure if i made myself understood. sometimes i feel i have the intention to say something and when i say it in spanish, it does not sound as what i wanted to say. s4. the pronunciation problems are due to nervousness, and even when i prepare i still get nervous speaking in spanish in front of a classroom. in the experimental group, the level three values have increased. an explanation for this could be that students resorted to alternative strategies that helped locate the answers at this level. table 5 provides a summary of both presentations. an approach to integration oliva & núñez no. 10 (january june 2015) no. 10 (january june 2015) 104 table 5. summary of values found in both groups based on the answers provided in the experimental group, we observe that the majority of values fall into categories 2 and 3. in the control group, most values fell into the level 2 category. we offer a few possible explanations for this finding, which will be elucidated upon in the conclusion. inter-rater reliability to test the inter-rater reliability, we decided to use the kappa cohen test electronic calculator, which is available online3. for the interpretation of results, we used the landis and koch (1977) rating scale. table 6. agreement between evaluators according to cohen kappa test following the landis and koch rating scale (1977), the percentage found (k = 923 076) was almost perfect because, according to the rating table, the number is between 0.81 and 1.00. in other words, the 3 the calculator used to find the k value using kappa cohen can be found in [http://justusrandolph.net/kappa/] an approach to integration oliva & núñez no. 10 (january june 2015) no. 10 (january june 2015) 105 evaluators did not differ significantly when rating the experimental group (category 1). regarding level 2, “becoming aware,” the following difference was found: k = 692,307. following the same procedure, the percentage is ‘substantial’ as the value of k is defined by the values .61 and .80. similarly, in level 3 “largely aware,” the value was k = 692307. we observed that in the control group, the value for level 1was also substantial. level 2 was also reported to be substantial, while level 3 was ‘almost perfect.’ taking this into account, and with respect to the first hypothesis at the beginning of the study, we can say that, indeed, the students who took the clil class demonstrated greater autonomy at the time of the posttest. raters categorized their responses to the questionnaires mostly at levels 2 “take control” and 3 “with great control.” results of portfolio analysis to analyze the portfolio, the researcher used a rubric with the following categories: a) student exercises “control” in the portfolio and b) student reflects on his/her learning (table2). further descriptors were used, and two raters evaluated the portfolios before comparing the experimental group with the control group. the following sections describe the results first for the experimental group, then the control group. experimental group. with respect to “student exercises control in the portfolio” (see rubric-section a), students in both classes completed all parts of the portfolio (85%). we identified progress in at least two skills. in terms of “student reflects on his/her learning” (see rubric section b), the results show the following: most students (61%) show evidence of reflection in their writing. this evidence was collected from various parts of the portfolio: assessment needs, linguistic bibliography, longand short-term learning goals. control group. with regards to “student exercises control in the portfolio” (see rubric-section a), we observed that only 57% of the class presented all of the different parts of the portfolio. as for the criteria of “student reflects on his/her learning” (see rubric-section b), 57% of students reflected on their short/long-term goals in writing, both in the needs assessment, and in the linguistic bibliography and other components. considering the second hypothesis in this research, we observed that the portfolio promotes greater autonomy in those learners who took the clil class. upon analyzing the learners’ autonomy, we found an approach to integration oliva & núñez no. 10 (january june 2015) no. 10 (january june 2015) 106 evidence that 85% of the students in the experimental group showed evidence of all parts of the portfolio, while in the control group only 57% of the students demonstrated this capacity. for exemplification, we will present student extracts from the portfolio (linguistic bibliography). these extracts were written in spanish and are here transcribed in english. students in the experimental group in the future, i hope to attend classes in the business field. i am an mba student and i want to learn things about my profession. (s.1) my long-term objectives are to communicate with other people in the language and have the right level to work with an organization. (s.2) i want to live in a country where spanish is spoken and work with people whose expertise is environmental studies. (s.3) my writing, speaking and listening have improved enormously. i need to learn more vocabulary and spanish terms related to economics so that i can use the language in my future career. (s.4) students in the control group my knowledge of the language has grown a lot. besides, the chapter about nature has helped me increase the vocabulary about environment. my grammar has improved as well. in spite of this, i need help in a lot of things. (s.1) next semester, i hope to continue learning more about grammar and improving my comprehension, listening… (s.2) i learned a lot of vocabulary but i do not know every word or phrase from the book. i do not like the exercises from the supersite. i am fed up with the supersite i understand the reason to use it. i can use and study with the supersite in the future. (s.3) i would like to learn more verb tenses. i would like to speak more. i think i can write more or less. i know i need to practice speaking more. (s. 4) an approach to integration oliva & núñez no. 10 (january june 2015) no. 10 (january june 2015) 107 conclusions we noticed that 40% of the students were able to justify their answers in category 3, “largely aware,” but the control group’s answers demonstrated a lower value (12%) in that category. a possible explanation might be that students in the experimental group resorted to the selection and presentation of topics that were closely related to their concentrations in their masters’ degrees. when asked the last question “what else would you have done differently?” they offered examples of alternatives, which permitted their responses to be categorized as level 3. in several instances, we noticed that students’ answers demonstrated knowledge that they were acquiring in their current studies, previous experience, or in their bachelor’s studies and job-related experiences. the majority of the students in the control group opted to select topics related to their books. in their presentations, the atmosphere became monotonous, and many of the presentations overlapped with what others had said. for example, many students presented the topic of “traveling.” a possible explanation for this overlap was that students found their repertoire of choices restricted. this restriction led students to answer questions using statements without strong justifications or deeper insight, which explains why those answers were categorized in level 1. at level 2, the experimental group and the control group are nearly equal, at 44% and 48%, respectively. we noticed a difference in level 1 in both groups (40% control and 16% experimental). we also saw in the experimental group that most of the answers were categorized in level 2 because learners provided sound and justifiable explanations. regarding the portfolio, the difference between both groups might be explained by the fact that in the experimental group, students found the content of the class to be rich, varied and more in sync with their concentrations and interests. students presented topics that were closely related to the issues dealt with in class. therefore, students were able to reflect upon topics of interest; by comparison, the students in the control group exhibited less motivation. the pedagogical implications of this research demonstrate the importance of fostering teamwork with teachers and/or experts of content classes at the university level. such collaboration could assist in refining the didactic rationale in spanish foreign language classes that follow the content-based instruction format. secondly, this research also highlighted the importance of planning activities related to the interests of adult students studying different specializations. regarding the limitations of the study, we believe that the following factors need to be noted. first, the age groups should be an approach to integration oliva & núñez no. 10 (january june 2015) no. 10 (january june 2015) 108 considered, as the students in the experimental group seemed to have more work-related experience than the participants in the control group. second, in the experimental group, students had the chance to work with material that they studied in their own concentrations, whereas the control group worked only with topics related to their books. at this point, we believe in the importance of incorporating more specific topics related to students’ interests and needs, especially at the university and graduate levels. future research should focus on content-based instruction formats where autonomy could be operationalized in other aspects, including the sociocultural aspect. future studies should contemplate motivation and autonomy in students as well as other variables, such as students’ use of the target language outside of the language classroom. an approach to integration oliva & núñez no. 10 (january june 2015) no. 10 (january june 2015) 109 references actfl (2012). actfl proficiency guidelines. retrieved from: http://www.actfl.org/publications/guidelines-and-manuals/actflproficiencyguidelines-2012. arter, j., & spandel, v. 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(2011). españa y el proceso de bolonia: un encuentro imprescindible. retrieved from: http:// academiaeuropea.org/pdf/espana%20y%20el%20proceso%20 de%20bolonia.pdf sinclair, b. (1999). wrestling with a jelly: the evaluation of learner autonomy. in b. morrison (ed.), experiments and evaluation in selfan approach to integration oliva & núñez no. 10 (january june 2015) no. 10 (january june 2015) 112 access language learning (pp.95109). hong kong:hong kong association for self-access learning and development. sisamakis, m. (2010). the motivational potential of the european language portfolio. in b. o’rourke & l. carson (eds.), language learner autonomy: policy, curriculum, classroom (pp. 351-371). oxford, uk: peter lang. sobrino morrás, a. s., sancho c. p., & durán, c. n. (2009). el uso formativo del portafolios: docente en el ámbito universitario. revista panamericana de pedagogía, 14, 57. ushioda, e. (2009). a person-in-context relational view of emergent motivation, self and identity. in z. dörnyei & e. ushioda (eds.), motivation, language identity and the l2 self (pp. 215-228). bristol: multilingual matters. wegrzecka-kowalewski, eva, (1997). content-based instruction: is it possible in high school? in m. snow and d. brinton (eds.) the content-based classroom. new york: longman. authors *pablo m. oliva parera received his master’s of arts in educational leadership at east carolina university. he is a phd candidate at the universidad de granada. he has been teaching spanish through content-based instruction and distance learning formats in the united states since 2006. *maría pilar núñez delgado is a researcher and professor at the universidad de granada, where she received her phd in philology. she has been leading the research group étimo since october 2008. this group is in charge of researching and publication related to the didactics of the spanish language. an approach to integration no. 10 (january june 2015) no. 10 (january june 2015) 9 re se ar ch a rti cle s students’ responses to the use of songs in the efl classroom at a public school in bogotá: a critical approach1 respuestas de los estudiantes al uso de canciones en la clase de inglés en un colegio público de bogotá: un enfoque crítico nilsen palacios and claudia marcela chapetón2* ied fabio lozano simonelli, universidad pedagógica nacional, colombia abstract this article reports the findings of an action research stydy aiming at fostering interest, participation, and self-expression in an efl classroom at a public school in usme, in the southeast of bogotá. the study focuses on students’ responses to the use of songs with social content within a framework of literacy as a situated social practice and taking a critical view of pedagogy. a group of 11th graders participated in the study. data was collected through questionnaires, field notes, interviews, and artifacts of students’ work. results indicate that using songs as a socially-situated literacy practice in the efl class can encourage students to participate in a more active and critical way. it can also trigger meaningful connections to real life issues allowing students to read the world and build bonds with their peers, using music as an opportunity to share ideas, thoughts, and feelings in a comfortable, respectful, and friendly environment. keywords: responses to songs, songs with social content, efl in a public school classroom, literacy as a situated social practice, critical pedagogy. 1 received: july 15, 2014 / accepted: october 3, 2014 2 nilsenpm21@yahoo.es , cchapeton@pedagogica.edu.co gist education and learning research journal. issn 1692-5777. no. 9, (julydecember) 2014. pp. 9-30. no. 9 (july december 2014) no. 9 (july december 2014) 10 resumen este artículo reporta los hallazgos de un proyecto de investigación acción cuyo objetivo general era promover el interés, la participación y la expresión en la clase de inglés en un colegio público de usme, al suroriente de bogotá. el estudio se enfoca particularmente en el análisis de las respuestas de los estudiantes al uso de canciones con contenido social en inglés, entendida como práctica social situada y bajo la perspectiva de la pedagogía crítica. un grupo de estudiantes de once grado participó en el estudio. los datos fueron recolectados a través de cuestionarios, notas de campo, entrevistas y artefactos producidos por los estudiantes. los resultados indican que el uso de canciones como una práctica social situada en la clase de inglés puede motivar a los estudiantes a participar de manera más activa y crítica. también puede generar conexiones significativas con aspectos de la vida real permitiendo hacer lecturas del mundo y construir lazos con compañeros de clase mediante el uso de la música como una oportunidad para expresar y compartir ideas, pensamientos y sentimientos en un ambiente de aprendizaje armonioso, respetuoso y amigable. palabras clave: respuestas al uso de canciones, canciones con contenido social, inglés como lengua extranjera en colegio público, alfabetización como práctica social situada, pedagogía crítica. resumo este artigo reporta as descobertas de um projeto de pesquisa ação cujo objetivo geral era promover o interesse, a participação e a expressão na classe de inglês em um colégio público de usme, no sul-oriente de bogotá. o estudo se enfoca particularmente na análise das respostas dos estudantes ao uso de canções com conteúdo social em inglês, entendida como prática social situada e sob a perspectiva da pedagogia crítica. um grupo de estudantes de terceiro ano do ensino médio participou no estudo. os dados foram coletados através de questionários, anotações de campo, entrevistas e artefatos produzidos pelos estudantes. os resultados indicam que o uso de canções, como uma prática social situada na aula de inglês pode motivar os estudantes a participar de maneira mais ativa e crítica. também pode gerar conexões significativas com aspectos da vida real, permitindo fazer leituras do mundo e construir laços com colegas de aula mediante o uso da música, como uma oportunidade para expressar e compartilhar ideias, pensamentos e sentimentos em um ambiente de aprendizagem harmonioso, respeitoso e amigável. palavras chave: respostas ao uso de canções, canções com conteúdo social, inglês como língua estrangeira em colégio público, alfabetização como prática social localizada, pedagogia crítica. students’ responses to the use of songs palacios & chapetón no. 9 (july december 2014) no. 9 (july december 2014) 11 introduction the growing importance of learning and teaching english as a foreign language in the different levels of education in colombia has given rise to a number of efforts by teacher-researchers to look into classroom practices with the aim of improving and/or transforming those practices. many problematic situations have been identified as starting points for conducting research in this field. however, when it comes to teaching english in the public school setting, the most salient obstacles perceived by efl teachers are related to the lack of interest students have in learning the foreign language. informal talks with colleagues and observations of our own experience tell us that it can be quite difficult to get adolescent students in public schools interested in participating in the efl class. students in this particular socially deprived setting, which is characterized by increasing urban violence, few opportunities for social promotion, and economic adversity (guzmán, 2006; parga, 2011), seem not to be motivated to take an active role in the class sessions for a number of possible reasons. they may feel learning the foreign language is not relevant since they do not need it for authentic communicative purposes in their social surroundings. they may also feel distanced from the foreign language since they have little contact with it. they may not have confidence enough to talk or interact in english (duarte, tinjacá, & carrero, 2012), or they may simply not like it. in view of this problematic situation present in the particular context where this study took place, it was our purpose to propose a course of action in which participants could (and would want to) engage in the development of class activities. using a critical approach that takes literacy as a situated social practice, songs with social content were used as a pedagogical strategy to foster self-expression, reflection, and meaningful participation in the efl class. songs can be used as authentic communicative performances (guevara & ordoñez, 2012) as they contain authentic language that is produced in situated contexts that refer to real life issues. further, students’ interest, involvement, and participation in efl learning can be encouraged through songs that can be selected to suit their needs, interests, and likes, thus personalizing learning. finally, using songs with social content as a literacy practice in the efl classroom may allow students to find opportunities to freely express their opinions, feelings, life experiences, and ideas while establishing meaningful connections with their personal context. the main objective of the study we report here was to describe 11th grade students’ responses to the use of songs with social content in the efl classroom when songs are approached students’ responses to the use of songs palacios & chapetón no. 9 (july december 2014) no. 9 (july december 2014) 12 from a critical perspective within a framework of literacy as a situated social practice. literature review traditional views of literacy see it as the ability we have to read and to write by coding and decoding language from a text. going beyond this traditional perspective, this study takes a socio-cultural approach that sees literacy as constructed and produced “by historically and culturally situated social practices of which reading and writing are only bits, bits that are differently composed and situated in different social practices” (gee, 2003, p. 42). we consider school-based practices as social and situated since they take place in particular social contexts and through interactions that are situated in a specific moment. literacy in this study is thus understood as a situated social practice (baynham, 1995) where both contextual and individual aspects are relevant. according to giroux (2001), literacy should be understood as a set of discourse forms and cultural competencies that make it possible to establish and recognize the relations and experiences that exist between learners and the world. in this way, literacy can also be a reference for critique. it is necessary that human beings locate themselves in their own histories in order to become agents, thus expanding the possibilities of human life on freedom. also, freire (1985) states that literacy has to be predominately social; he considers that teachers need to use methodologies which change the learners’ view, and that these methodologies have to encourage students to be critical of their own reality. he also points out that to understand the nature of being social is to learn to read the world. similarly, freire and macedo (1987) argue that literacy is social because language is a social process developed through situated interactions between individuals; these interactions are held through literacy and they imply interpreting, analyzing, and taking actions in relation to social realities. one of this study’s aims of developing literacy as a situated social practice through the use of songs with social content was to allow students to feel free to express their opinions, ideas, and feelings. it was also sought to provide them with the opportunities to read the world and to contribute to the efl class development, becoming the main agents of their own histories. baynham (1995) points out that literacy has social purposes. when we are creating and switching over meaning, it is recognized in context, and students should be able to understand meaning as a social power with a critical point of view since literacy is a “concrete human activity” (p. 1). in this way, he refers to the concept of critical literacy, students’ responses to the use of songs palacios & chapetón no. 9 (july december 2014) no. 9 (july december 2014) 13 and defines it as the use of reading or writing to reach social purposes in contexts of use. from this critical perspective, literacy allows people to live within a community, establishing ties with the society, and having critical perspectives in the context where they exist. baynham (1995) also states that what makes literacy critical could be an approach in which the main idea is to provide literate people with the opportunity to go beyond traditional practices of reading and writing, and to encourage them to ask, analyze, and propose about their environment. in this way, individuals may be able to develop critical awareness through readings of the world. this study is based on the assumption that a critical approach to language education needs to focus on contextual issues and the ways in which research looks to transform the current situation (pennycook, 2004). with a transformative pedagogy in mind, this study goes beyond the linguistic features present in the text so that students can interact with it to “transcend their own environments” (freire & macedo, 1987), and to free students’ voices so that they can express their ideas, opinions, and feelings about the practices in which they are immersed. freirean critical pedagogy (freire, 1985, 1998, 2002) argues that the underclasses should educate themselves, developing an emancipatory education which allows individuals to undertake a transformation from object to subject and become more fully developed human beings. in classroom practices, students should thus find opportunities to thematize issues of study, engage in dialogue with teachers, and fully participate in the educational process. this requires the construction of learning opportunities that foster empowerment and social transformation rather than, as kellner (2000) puts it, conforming to dominant views and values. in sum, as mclaren (2006) points out, critical pedagogy has to go further than teaching sets of rules and structures to be used in a mechanical way. it aims to create awareness of purposeful social problems not only making classroom teaching and learning more meaningful but also empowering students to take a critical position and active roles that pursue transformative objectives. with this critical approach in mind, songs are seen in this study as texts that can be read by every individual from their own perspectives having critical positions. texts are understood as “everything possible to be read and to be rewritten; our own realities and life experiences are texts we can read aloud and rewrite by being critical readers of them” (chapetón, 2007, p. 30). text in this study refers to the contents of the songs that have a social nature. songs, as texts, can be read and interpreted by each individual, allowing students to bring to mind issues of their real life contexts, connecting those with the way in which social processes are being portrayed in the songs, and thus, encouraging an students’ responses to the use of songs palacios & chapetón no. 9 (july december 2014) no. 9 (july december 2014) 14 active role in the development of class activities. accordingly, instead of finding information in the songs, this critical approach allows students to interact with them and shape texts by reacting and responding aesthetically (rosenblatt, 2002) through their emotions, sensations, tensions, and current lived ideas and experiences (chapetón, 2005). it is widely accepted that using songs in the efl classroom can be a great source of motivation, interest, and enjoyment that can trigger emotions, help to develop an aesthetic taste (cakir, 1999), enhance learner involvement, and encourage students to learn the foreign language. this is done by providing a relaxed environment and a change from the routine procedures in the classroom (giudice, 1986; reeve & williamson, 1987, brewster, ellis, & girard, 1992). research into this pedagogical strategy has shown that songs are very useful tools to build up language abilities, especially oral skills, vocabulary, and grammar (castro & navarro, 2014; cuestas, 2006; duarte, et al., 2012; perez, 2010). it has been found that songs also serve as a vehicle that helps students express themselves in a comfortable way. cuestas (2006) offered her tenth graders opportunities to choose and talk about their favorite songs in class. this not only improved learners’ oral production but helped them express their ideas freely displaying favorable attitudes such as participation, relaxation, cooperation, and self-confidence. duarte et al. (2012) used songs to encourage sixth graders to learn new vocabulary and pronunciation. unknowingly, students also developed teamwork and created a non-threatening environment that fostered confidence and motivation to learn the foreign language. methodology research design this is a qualitative study. according to johnson and christensen (2004), qualitative research is an approach of inquiry that looks into human behavior as it occurs naturally in its social, situated, particular, and local context. the qualitative method used in this study attempts not only to examine and describe what, where, or when a situation happens but also why and how people react and respond in front of that specific situation. thus, data is described and interpreted in order to elicit meaning from the participants, gain understanding of their responses to the use of songs with a critical approach, and develop empirical knowledge (corbin & strauss, 2008). since the main goal is not only to describe the phenomenon but also to intervene in order to offer possibilities for transformation through students’ responses to the use of songs palacios & chapetón no. 9 (july december 2014) no. 9 (july december 2014) 15 an action plan, this study follows an action research approach. sagor (2000) states that action research “is a disciplined process of inquiry conducted by and for those taking the action” (p. 34). thus, action research is a classroom-based research guided by teachers in order to reflect upon teaching practices. in addition to reflection, it is a cyclical process that entails planning informed action, implementing action, and doing observation in order to identify ways in which teaching practices can be improved. context and participants this research was carried out at a public school in the locality of usme, in the south of bogotá. a group of 42 students in 11th grade participated in the study. they were between 15 and 19 years old. all of them belong to the second level of a system of six socio-economic levels or strata in the city. most of them belong to low income families in which the parents did not have access to education. finally, it is important to mention that participants live in a context in which there are a variety of social problems related to violence, forced displacement, poverty, drugs, and gangs. as shown by an initial questionnaire, most of these students spend most of their free time with their friends on the streets or they stay alone at home because their parents have to work all day long. in addition, none of them has taken any english course in other institutions. data collection instruments four instruments were designed, piloted, and used to gather data: questionnaires, field notes, interviews, and students’ artifacts. in order to build the students’ profile and learn about their music background, interests and preferences, an initial questionnaire was administered. to observe students’ interactions and participation in the efl classroom, field notes were systematically taken for ten weeks, in two class sessions per week. also, three semi-structured interviews were used at the end of each cycle in order to explore students’ opinions, perceptions, and feelings about the process that was being carried out. students’ productions (artifacts) were collected in different moments of each cycle and they provided information about the activities carried out in each class session in which a song was used. a final questionnaire was administered after the intervention had taken place in order to look at the outcomes of the experience of using songs with a critical approach. the instructional design, developed in three cycles, pursued themes related to different aspects of the students’ lives (their social students’ responses to the use of songs palacios & chapetón no. 9 (july december 2014) no. 9 (july december 2014) 16 context, their relationships with others, and themselves). three songs with social content were selected along with students and used in each one of the cycles (for a total of nine songs3). according to griffee (1995), songs can create a friendly atmosphere, which is important for language learning. songs also frequently bring to mind particular feelings, ideas, and experiences that are more straightforwardly unforgettable. the song activities designed for this study involved the use of both video and audio (the former only when the resources were available at the school) and allowed students to express feelings, thoughts, ideas, and opinions freely, regardless of their command of the foreign language. since the main purpose was to describe their responses and reactions to the use of songs in the efl classroom, students were free to express themselves in the language they felt more comfortable with. because of the low level of english these public school students have, their responses were expressed in spanish, their mother tongue. data analysis and interpretation with the aim of gaining insights from the data gathered, this qualitative study used the grounded approach for data analysis (corbin & strauss, 2008). this inductive method starts with line-by-line examinations of the raw data from the different instruments and allows findings to emerge through interacting with them. this process involved naming and labelling, grouping, finding relations, and displaying data in mind maps, always using grounded codes. as freeman (1998) suggests, following this way of analyzing data permits researchers to have a complete perspective of the situation being studied and the innovative role of the activities implemented. the process involved what freeman (1998) calls making the regular appear new as well as looking at the regular development of classes and activities from an innovative standpoint. results this study sought to discover how students respond and react to the use of songs with social content in the efl classroom when songs are approached within a framework of literacy as a situated social practice. 3 the songs used in this study were: “eagle fly free” (helloween), “gangsters’ paradise” (coolio), “where is the love” (black eyed peas), “welcome to my life” (simple plan), “family portrait” (pink), “another day in paradise” (phil collins), “it’s my life” (bon jovi) and “freewill” (rush). students’ responses to the use of songs palacios & chapetón no. 9 (july december 2014) no. 9 (july december 2014) 17 three main themes emerged from the analysis of the data: 1) becoming interested in learning english through songs, 2) songs as a possibility to read the world, and 3) building up relationships with peers. becoming interested in learning english this refers to the way students’ reacted towards the use of songs with social content in the efl classroom. first, the data showed that the students demonstrated a positive change of attitude towards class activities. it was discovered that when songs with social content are used within a framework of literacy as a situated social practice, students are more likely to become interested in participating in the efl class: s40: well, i liked the activities a lot because with those songs i felt i had a better performance in [the efl] class. (final questionnaire, december 5)4 s18: i think this is a good proposal because that way the lessons are a lot more dynamic and we learn more about english and this makes us feel more inclined towards the subject because sometimes it is only grammar and exercises and one starts getting annoyed in class. (final questionnaire, december 5)5 phillips (2003) claims that songs are a significant element in the development of any language. he considers music and rhythms important in the learning process for learners and teachers to have as a useful instrument in all aspects of learning a language. music can help in learning structures and vocabulary, but the most relevant aspect is that learners take pleasure in learning through music. through their responses to the use of songs in the efl class, students showed that they felt free and motivated to participate. it was found that these responses were given mostly because of the use of songs with an approach that focused on the content. as illustrated below, students showed interest in the activities being carried out; there is initiative, motivation, and commitment: 4 original spanish: s40: “pues a mí me gustaron mucho las actividades porque con esas canciones yo me sentí con un mejor desempeño en la clase.” 5 s18: “me parece una propuesta buena ya que así las clases son más dinámicas y aprendemos más sobre el inglés y esto nos hace inclinarnos más hacia la materia porque es que a veces eso es solo gramática y ejercicios y uno le coge como fastidio a la materia.” students’ responses to the use of songs palacios & chapetón no. 9 (july december 2014) no. 9 (july december 2014) 18 the student s4 volunteers to participate in presenting the activity; he is paying attention to the directions. (field notes, november 2) s34: the activities we did in class were very interesting because, for the first time, i felt motivated to participate in the english class because i didn’t like it before, but i could participate expressing what i think and feel about things that happen to us. (final questionnaire, december 5)6 these responses indicate that songs can be considered as a way to awaken students’ interest in learning english. students can become motivated to learning the foreign language through the use of songs with a critical approach since they can find it enjoyable, interesting, and a means to express themselves through activities related to real contexts. the following excerpts show that students can become interested in learning english through songs because it was easier to learn in this way. since music is something that students like, they also remarked that the classes became more dynamic: the student s3 says that learning english this way is “más chévere” (much cooler) because he can enjoy it and develop the activities in an easier way. (field notes, november 2) s39: i think it’s cool to work like this in class because it makes it easier to learn. (2nd interview, november 15)7 s8: when we work with this type of activities i learn more, and [i realize] that english is not that difficult to learn as it seems to be if you work [in class] doing activities that are so cool. (1st interview, october 30)8 6 s34: las actividades desarrolladas en clase fueron muy interesantes ya que por primera vez me sentí motivado a participar en la clase de inglés porque antes no me gustaba, pero pude participar expresando lo que pienso y siento de cosas que nos pasan. 7 s39: me parece bacano trabajar así porque es más sencillo aprender. 8 s8: al trabajar con este tipo de actividades aprendo más, y que el inglés no es tan difícil como parece si se trabaja haciendo trabajos tan chéveres. students’ responses to the use of songs palacios & chapetón no. 9 (july december 2014) no. 9 (july december 2014) 19 students also stated that they were interested in learning english by using different strategies that allowed them to be more engaged, avoiding the common lack of interest in the foreign language. this issue may hint at the importance of using activities that involve real life issues that go beyond the teaching of grammatical structures in the efl classroom. this seems to arouse students’ interest in the development of the activities that give them opportunities for practicing other issues of the language such as pronunciation and vocabulary: s8: well, one learns vocabulary and understands the song. (2nd interview, november 15)9 s7: in my opinion, one learns in a different way that is not that common and that makes it more interesting than just repeating grammar although it is important to be able to get on better in the simple issues of the english [language]. (2nd interview, november 15)10 s13: i liked this methodology better because i learned a little bit more about the pronunciation of words that i didn’t know and this was through songs that made the class more enjoyable and i started to see english [the language] as something cool. (3rd interview, december 3)11 we can see here that students became interested in working in class using songs as it allowed them to look at english learning from a different perspective. they were able to work in a better way because they were interested in learning in a different way from the one they were used to. in the following excerpt taken from the final questionnaire, a student mentions how comfortable he feels because songs allow him to learn more vocabulary developing activities related to his daily life: s11: i think it is very interesting to use songs in the english class because through them [the songs] we can remember and learn very important 9 s8: pues uno aprende vocabulario y entiende la canción. 10 s7: para mí uno aprende de forma diferente y por lo tanto no tan común y eso lo hace más interesante que solo repetir gramática aunque esta sea importante para poder desenvolverse mejor en lo simple del inglés. 11 s13: me gustó más esta metodología porque aprendí un poco más sobre pronunciación de palabras que no conocía y esto por medio de canciones que hacían más divertida la clase y empecé a ver el inglés como algo más chévere. students’ responses to the use of songs palacios & chapetón no. 9 (july december 2014) no. 9 (july december 2014) 20 words that are frequent in the english language, and also relate them with our everyday lives. in addition, the class becomes more dynamic and with things that are easy to find [in everyday life]. (final questionnaire, december 5)12 the student observes that songs not only helped him to improve his language skills, but also helped him to make connections to his real life experiences and allowed him to be interested in learning english. as illustrated in the next excerpt, this was due to the nature of the song content and the approach that was used permitting students to work in a comfortable and different way: s25: this is a nice experience, we learn more because of the use of songs with those themes [social content]. besides, the class work we produced was of good quality. in addition, we can apply concepts we learned and in that way increase fluency in the language. i think one learns in a different way. (final questionnaire, december 5)13 it can be said that students regard working with songs as useful not only for improving their english skills through this kind of activities, but also because it provides them with the opportunity to become active agents who can participate and contribute to the classroom activities. in this research, most students’ responses contributed to the successful development of the process. however, there were some reactions from students that hindered class work or did not facilitate the activities using songs, mainly because they found it difficult to comprehend the lyrics, as shown in the following students’ responses: s29: i did this handicraft this way because that’s what i understood from the song and i don’t think it was that good. (student’s artifact, october 25)14 12 s11: me parece muy interesante el uso de canciones en las clases ya que por medio de estas podemos grabarnos y aprender palabras muy importantes que son frecuentes en el idioma inglés, y además relacionar las vivencias diarias. también la clase se vuelve más dinámica y con cosas que son fáciles de encontrar. 13 s25: es una experiencia buena porque aprendemos más debido al uso de canciones con estas temáticas; además los trabajos que se elaboraron fueron muy buenos; además podemos aplicar conceptos vistos y así tener fluidez en el idioma. creo que se aprende de manera diferente. 14 s29: realicé esta maqueta así porque fue lo que comprendí de la canción y no me pareció tan buena. students’ responses to the use of songs palacios & chapetón no. 9 (july december 2014) no. 9 (july december 2014) 21 s12: some songs didn’t allow me to work well [in class] because it was difficult to me to understand the lyrics, but anyway i did all the activities. (final questionnaire, december 5)15 at the beginning, using songs with social content for enhancing literacy as a situated social practice motivated different responses among the students, including panic because the foreign language made them feel limited. the data revealed that at the beginning of the process the students felt scared or embarrassed due to the fact that their level of english was not very high; however, as the study advanced, they realized that the topics discussed in the songs facilitated and motivated their participation and interactions during the activities: s4: at the beginning, i thought it was going to be more difficult to express my opinions and to reflect because it’s a little bit embarrassing, but with the use of songs it gives an idea of how my life experiences are related to the songs. this gives me more self-confidence to express myself. (3rd interview, december 3)16 songs as a possibility to read the world considering chapetón’s (2007) definition of text as something that goes beyond the printed word, in this study, songs are understood as texts that allow students to read the world and be active agents in their immediate context and in the society. in this regard, the data showed that songs with social content could become a way to read and understand the world and through this reading, participate actively in the efl classroom. students had the possibility to state their critical positions in order to share their different perspectives about the way they see and understand what happens around them and in the world in general, as shown below: 15 s12: algunas canciones no me permitieron trabajar bien porque me era más difícil entenderlas, pero de igual manera realicé todas las actividades. 16 s4: al comienzo pensé que iba a ser más difícil expresar opiniones y reflexionar ya que da un poco de vergüenza, pero con el uso de canciones da una idea de cómo se relacionan mis vivencias con la canción dándome así más confianza al expresarme. students’ responses to the use of songs palacios & chapetón no. 9 (july december 2014) no. 9 (july december 2014) 22 s29: each person has a way to see the world, and these songs make you see the reality captured in the lyrics. they [the song lyrics] also make you take a position on issues that affect us in our everyday life. (student’ artifact, november 8)17 s12: each person sees the world in a different way, but this does not stop you to change the way you see it if you can create links with people you thought were different from you. (final questionnaire, december 5)18 as freire (1998) states, as teachers we have the responsibility of providing students with the tools for thinking critically about their real issues. here, we can see that songs allowed students to express their points of view, assuming critical positions and expressing how they see the world. we observed that students can question everything around them (giroux, 1994) in the process of reading the word and the world (freire, 2002) through songs in the efl class. through the class activities, students acknowledged that each person is different and has different points of view but this does not limit the construction of a relationship with the world they live in, reflecting upon it, and sharing their experiences: s1: gangs are part of our everyday life in the neighborhood but i think that those are disoriented guys that steal and rob and can’t control themselves, but if measures were taken everything could change, because anyway i have some friends who belong to gangs. (3rd interview, december 3)19 s6: the experience we had with the workshops was very enriching because of the way we could see the world. [i could] see how i am emotionally, if i could fix those situations, how could i fix them, and 17 s29: cada persona tiene su forma de ver el mundo y estas canciones hacen que uno pueda ver la realidad plasmada en letras y asumir una posición frente a los hechos que nos afectan, en nuestro diario vivir. 18 s12: cada persona ve diferente el mundo pero esto no impide que uno cambie la manera de verlo y pueda crear vínculos con personas que creía diferentes. 19 s1: las pandillas es el diario vivir en el barrio pero yo creo que ellos son muchachos desorientados que roban y atracan y no se controlan, pero si se tomaran medidas todo cambiaría, porque igual yo tengo algunos amigos que pertenecen a pandillas. students’ responses to the use of songs palacios & chapetón no. 9 (july december 2014) no. 9 (july december 2014) 23 see who are the ones next to me, who are the ones by my side, and all these through songs that are meaningful in my context. that is why i feel confident when presenting my class work and expressing my points of view. (3rd interview, december 3)20 students expressed that they wanted to be active agents in the society, constructing a better immediate world, making their learning process more useful, and taking part in class and the development of society. it is evident that students became aware of their important role in the construction of a friendlier environment. the data revealed that working with this type of activities made students conscious about things they can do that contribute to constructing and living in a better social environment from a more realistic perspective using songs as a possible way to read the world. s14: the activities were good because one can construct a better social environment from the content of the song that is from a different country, but that contains the reality of the world. (final questionnaire, december 5)21 data showed that when students read the world they used literacy as a situated social practice recognizing their surroundings, being critical of their own reality, and also emitting a judgment of the world’s current situation. when understanding the lyrics of the songs, students related the songs to daily life issues, and listened to their classmates’ points of views and experiences as they interpreted and expressed what they thought about a problematic situation: s40: my cartoon is like that, with two crossed guns, because gangs cross offenses, bullets, and everything they can to terrify. (students’ artifact, october 23)22 20 s6: la experiencia vivida con los talleres fue muy enriquecedora por la forma de ver el mundo, de cómo estoy sentimentalmente, de si puedo arreglar estas situaciones, de qué forma y quiénes están a mi alrededor, de quiénes son los que me rodean, y esto a través de canciones que son significativas en mi contexto y por eso siento confianza al exponer mis trabajos y puntos de vista. 21 s14: las actividades fueron buenas porque uno construye un mejor entorno social, a partir del contenido de una canción que además es de otro país, pero contiene la realidad del mundo. 22 s40: mi caricatura es así con dos armas cruzadas porque las pandillas cruzan ofensas, balas y todo lo que pueden para atemorizar. students’ responses to the use of songs palacios & chapetón no. 9 (july december 2014) no. 9 (july december 2014) 24 a student expresses what he thinks about the song making a reflection about his social and personal reality. (field notes, november 29) s4: when i understood the lyrics of the songs, which talk about cultural and social issues, i understood that i’m not alien to those situations. (students’ artifact, october 11)23 it was possible to see that students were interested in learning english through song activities that were meaningful for them and allowed them to express what affected their personal and social lives. on the other hand, students’ self-confidence was constructed because they liked songs with social content, and the activities that were implemented made them feel encouraged to read the realities of their worlds. since actual facts were present in the songs, and they were related to the students’ environments, students were able to make connections to their social realities and share experiences in a natural, spontaneous way. this social-situated reading and sharing encouraged participation and interaction in the efl classroom and promoted the construction of (better) relationships, as discussed in the next section. building relationships with peers this category shows how working with songs with social content can help students to build better relationships with peers and become self-confident regardless of their different points of view. when students developed activities with songs, they established better relationships with peers as they interacted from a different perspective. here, the construction of a relationship goes beyond the practice of the foreign language and grammar; it means social interaction when sharing readings of the world and joint construction in the efl classroom. s15: the experience with these workshops is very enriching because of the way one can see the world and the way one can share with classmates thus building a closer relationship through the songs and the topics brought up [by the songs]. (2nd interview, november 15)24 23 s4: cuando entendí las canciones que hablan de temas culturales y sociales comprendí que no soy ajena a esas situaciones 24 s15: la experiencia con estos talleres es muy enriquecedora en la forma de ver el mundo y de compartir con los compañeros creando así una relación más cercana a través de las canciones y las temáticas planteadas. students’ responses to the use of songs palacios & chapetón no. 9 (july december 2014) no. 9 (july december 2014) 25 students used songs to reflect on how they could contribute to solving social issues in their daily life interaction; they discovered that they had the tools to listen to each other, discuss through dialogic interaction, and create a better environment by recognizing that there are different ways to read the world, which even if not shared, are also important. thus, they acknowledged the fact that each person is different and has different points of view, which does not hinder the construction of a relationship with partners as can be seen in the following excerpts: s7: i can say that each person sees the world in a different way and that those songs, in certain moments, make you be more open to the opinions and life expectations [of other classmates] thus motivating me to be more coherent. (final questionnaire, december 5)25 s4: the way i see the world after working with the songs and discuss with my classmates is the same, but the difference is that now i know how others think. although the world is the same, i learned to see the difference understanding that i’m not the only one who is right, because there are a lot more thoughts/ideas that are different but are important as well. (3rd interview, december 3)26 s10: the activities are cool ‘cause they allow us to reflect upon each song and find the social content. besides, [the song contents allow me] to be more critical about my surroundings and be able to interact more with my classmates and have a better relation with my school surroundings. (1st interview, october 30)27 students stated that they were cautious to present their ideas and feelings about the topics of the songs, but at the same time, it was significant for them to construct their meaningful points of view 25 s7: puedo decir que cada persona ve de forma diferente el mundo y que estas canciones en ciertas ocasiones hacen que uno sea más abierto a las opiniones y expectativas de vida así motivándome a ser más coherente. 26 s4: la manera de ver el mundo después de trabajar con las canciones y discutir con mis compañeros es igual, sino que la diferencia es que ya sé cómo piensan los demás, aunque el mundo sea igual, aprendí a ver la diferencia entendiendo que no sólo yo tengo la razón. porque hay muchos pensamientos que son diferentes y también importantes. 27 s10: las actividades son chéveres pues nos permiten reflexionar sobre cada canción y encontrar el contenido social, y además a ser más crítica sobre mi entorno y así interactuar más con mis compañeros y tener una mejor relación en mi entorno escolar. students’ responses to the use of songs palacios & chapetón no. 9 (july december 2014) no. 9 (july december 2014) 26 for connecting with their classmates and being able to communicate in a meaningful way. in this respect, giroux (1994) states that critical pedagogy allows building up relationships among students and teachers and students. he states that relationships need to be based on reciprocal confidence and respect, and for this reason, they can interact in a better way. s31: songs with this type of contents help us to express our point of view from our daily school life making us be more [mature] (…) besides i can express without fear what i feel. (final questionnaire, december 5)28 the data also showed that students liked sharing their work with their partners because they considered they had the ability to do it, and that what they did was quite valuable. it was thus implied that students wanted to establish better relationships with their peers, and to do this, they expressed that they were careful to present their ideas and feelings. in addition, the activities not only made them recognize that they may share similar points of view (affiliation) but also allowed, facilitated, and motivated students to help each other (cooperation), creating supportive and affective ties among them: s1: with some of my classmates we shared [had the same] ideas without knowing until we started to develop the activities with songs. (3rd interview, december 3)29 s7: i’m not good at drawing but a classmate helped me, i just explained to him what i wanted. (students’ artifact, october 23)30 students constructed relationships with others when they felt confident in showing their work because they felt there was a respectful position towards others’ points of view. as previous experience with this particular group of students had shown, it was usual that students 28 s31: las canciones con ese tipo de contenido nos ayudan a dar nuestro punto de vista desde nuestra convivencia haciéndonos más personas (…) además puedo expresar lo que yo siento sin sentir temor. 29 s1: con algunos compañeros compartimos ideas sin saberlo hasta que empezamos a realizar las actividades con canciones. 30 s7: yo soy mala dibujando pero un compañero me ayudó, yo solo le expliqué lo que quería. students’ responses to the use of songs palacios & chapetón no. 9 (july december 2014) no. 9 (july december 2014) 27 did not respect others’ points of view, but the data demonstrated that during the development of the activities in this study, students assumed a respectful position towards their classmates’ ideas and opinions. this can be exemplified in the next excerpt obtained from the final questionnaire: s6: i like to share with my classmates because we interact in different forms[sic] and this kind of activities allow[sic] us to have different points of views. (final questionnaire, december 5) the data showed that students liked to share thoughts with classmates through dialogic interaction and using different song-related activities in the process of developing literacy as a situated social practice. this allowed them to be self-confident, taking into account their classmates’ voices and expressing what they felt, thought, and believed without any restrictions. data has revealed in this study that students can show active participation in social construction through a critical approach in the efl class. according to giroux (2001), literacy should be understood as a set of discourse forms and cultural competencies that make it possible to establish and recognize the relations and experience that exist between the learners and the world, all of this through interactions, in this case in the foreign language classes. conclusions after examining students’ responses and reactions to the use of songs with social content in the efl class, we can say that taking literacy as a situated social practice within a critical approach encouraged students to participate in a more active and critical way. it also helped them interact with their peers using music as an opportunity to share ideas, thoughts, and feelings in a comfortable, respectful environment. students showed a positive attitude towards the use of songs with social content which seemed to spark their interest in both participating in the efl class and learning the foreign language. the study showed that when songs are related to students’ real lives, they feel motivated, committed, and willing to take an active part in the class as it becomes enjoyable and meaningful. it was also found that using songs with this approach can have a facilitating role that helps students shorten the felt distance with the l2. students’ responses to the use of songs palacios & chapetón no. 9 (july december 2014) no. 9 (july december 2014) 28 results also indicate that using songs as a social-situated literacy practice in the efl class can trigger connections to real life issues allowing students to read the world, going beyond the printed word, and to express critical positions towards their reality. through the activities, the students were able to question what happens around them and to become active participants in society, sharing their experiences and expressing their points of view. one of the most salient findings of this qualitative action research is that using songs, framed within this critical approach, can be a powerful tool to build relationships among peers. the class activities allowed students to listen to each other, find similarities and differences in their opinions, help each other, and value their peers’ voices. consequently, they found themselves creating bonds with their classmates and most importantly, building up a respectful, comfortable, and friendly environment in the efl class. references baynham, m. 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(2006). life in schools: an introduction to critical pedagogy in the foundations of education. boston: allyn & bacon publishing co. students’ responses to the use of songs palacios & chapetón no. 9 (july december 2014) no. 9 (july december 2014) 30 parga, f. (2011). cooperative structures of interaction in a public school efl classroom in bogotá. colombian applied linguistics journal, 13(1), 20-34 pennycook, a. (2004). critical applied linguistics. in a. davies & c. elder (eds.), the handbook of applied linguistics (pp. 784-807). oxford: blackwell publishing. perez, d. (2010). the role of music in young learners’ oral production in english. profile, 12(1), 141-157. phillips, s. (2003). young learner: songs and chants. oxford: oxford university press. reeve, c., & williamson, j. (1987). look what you’ve done to my song. modern english teacher, 15(4), 83-85. rosenblatt, l. (2002). literatura como exploración. méxico: fondo de cultura económica. sagor, r. (2000). guiding school improvement with action research. alexandria, va: ascd. authors *nilsen palacios holds a ba in modern languages (spanish and english) from the universidad distrital francisco josé de caldas, colombia and an ma in foreign language teaching from the universidad pedagógica nacional, colombia. he is an efl teacher for the secretary of education in bogotá at ied fabio lozano simonelli. *claudia marcela chapetón holds a phd in applied linguistics from the university of barcelona (spain), an ma in applied linguistics and a ba in english and spanish, both from the universidad distrital francisco josé de caldas (colombia). she is an associate professor at the universidad pedagógica nacional de colombia (colombia) where she teaches postgraduate seminars on tesol research. her research interests include reading, literacy as a situated social practice, critical pedagogy, metaphorical uses of language, and corpus linguistics. she has authored school and university efl teaching materials and textbooks. students’ responses to the use of songs no. 9 (july december 2014) no. 9 (july december 2014) gist1-2007.indd 115 currículo emancipatorio y enseñanza de lenguas extranjeras, ¿ficción o realidad? nancy agray vargas artículo escrito con base en la ponencia presentada en el ii coloquio internacional de lingüística aplicada y sociedad. universidad de la habana , cuba. diciembre 2001. abstract this article analyzes the pertinence viability and implications of a curriculum proposal based on the emancipatory curriculum focus for the general context of foreign language teaching, particularly at the pontificia universidad javeriana. it deals with a reflection motivated by the author’s participation in a research project carried out in the language department of this university, called “the general curriculum proposal for foreign language teaching.” resumen en este escrito se analiza la pertinencia, viabilidad e implicaciones de una propuesta curricular basada en el enfoque curricular emancipatorio para el contexto general de la enseñanza de lenguas extranjeras, en particular en la pontificia universidad javeriana. se trata de una reflexión motivada por la participación de quien escribe, en un proyecto de investigación acción realizado en el departamento de lenguas de la p. u. j., denominado “propuesta curricular general para la enseñanza de lenguas extranjeras”. 116 key words: emancipatory curriculum, foreign language teaching, foreign language learning curriculum design, curricular approaches. palabras clave: currículo emancipatorio, enseñanza de lenguas extrajeras, aprendizaje de lenguas extranjeras, diseño curricular, enfoques curriculares este texto esta organizado en cinco apartados cortos, en el primero se presenta de manera sucinta el enfoque curricular emancipatorio, en el segundo, lo relacionado con las lenguas extranjeras, en el tercero se establece la relación enfoques curriculares y enseñanza de lenguas extranjeras, en el cuarto se presentan las implicaciones de esta relación y en el quinto, se presenta una conclusión general. para el análisis se toma como punto de partida una de las deficiencias detectadas en el campo disciplinar de la enseñanza de lenguas: la escasa comprensión y utilización del concepto “enfoque curricular”, entendido como aquél que explicita el fundamento filosófico que caracteriza y sustenta un currículo. deficiencia por la cual se ha generalizado la utilización del término “enfoque” como sinónimo de método o técnica para la enseñanza de lengua extranjera y se ha considerado suficiente con definir únicamente los conceptos de lengua, de enseñanza y de aprendizaje para abordar el complejo campo de la enseñanza y el aprendizaje de las lenguas extranjeras. currículo emancipatorio el concepto de currículo emancipatorio se enmarca en el planteamiento de la autora shirley grundy (1994) en su libro “curriculum: product or praxis?” quien define el currículo como una construcción cultural y como una manera particular de organizar las prácticas educativas. lo anterior implica aceptar la concepción de que las creencias y experiencias de las personas involucradas, así como su manera de interactuar, determinan la forma y el tipo de sus prácticas educativas, es decir, el currículo. en esta medida, dice shirley grundy, cabe preguntarse por el tipo de creencias acerca de la gente y del mundo que deberían guiar la construcción de un determinado tipo de prácticas educativas, pregunta ante la cual responde proponiendo tres tipos de enfoques curriculares por los cuales pueden estar orientados los currículos: el enfoque curricular técnico, el práctico y el emancipatorio. grundy currículo emancipatorio y enseñanza de lenguas extranjeras, ¿ficción o realidad? 117 propone estos enfoques curriculares con base en los tres tipos de intereses cognitivos propuestos por habermas: el interés técnico, el práctico y el emancipatorio. el enfoque que nos interesa aquí es el emancipatorio el cual, como ya se mencionó, está ligado al interés emancipatorio en la propuesta de habermas. este interés tiene en cuenta dos conceptos fundamentales como determinantes para la búsqueda de independencia de todo lo exterior al individuo: la autonomía y la responsabilidad, posibles sólo por la autorreflexión. el hecho de que se hable de la independencia del individuo de todo lo exterior a él, no significa, sin embargo, que se trate sólo de un problema individual pues, por la naturaleza interactiva de la sociedad, la libertad individual no puede separarse de la libertad de los demás. en la caracterización de este enfoque, además de identificarse los conceptos de autonomía y responsabilidad, se conciben de manera particular los elementos relacionados con el currículo y con la construcción curricular. estos elementos se han organizado en el proyecto de investigación “propuesta curricular general para la enseñanza de lenguas extranjeras” en 14 categorías de análisis1 a saber: meta esencial de formación humana, proceso de formación, visión general del currículo, proceso curricular, gestión del currículo, papel del lenguaje, función del currículo frente a la cultura, interacción educando-educador, experiencias educativas, contenidos, métodos y técnicas, evaluación, función de las teorías y términos claves. veamos a continuación cada una de estas categorías. la meta esencial de formación humana o el concepto de hombre que en el enfoque curricular emancipatorio se pretende formar, es el de personas que perciben y actúan en el mundo a partir de una transformación de conciencia sobre la propia existencia y que se involucran en el encuentro educativo. en el proceso de formación, se da prioridad a la promoción de una conciencia crítica, para lo cual es básico el discernimiento entre lo nancy agray vargas 1 para establecer la manera como en el enfoque se entienden los elementos se ha tenido en cuenta: -el concepto de “interés emancipatorio”; los criterios propuestos por flórez en posner (1998) “criterios de elegibilidad de una teoría verdaderamente pedagógica”; y otras categorías identificadas principalmente en grundy y en ewert (1991). 118 natural (inmodificable) y lo cultural (modificable) y convirtiéndose la praxis en la forma de expresión de esta conciencia crítica. en este proceso, la experiencia de aprendizaje involucra tanto la experiencia del aprendiz como la del maestro y los dos la reconocen como problemática a través del diálogo y la negociación. se entiende, entonces, el aprendizaje como un acto social y la enseñanza como un proceso de aprendizaje. por otra parte, en el enfoque curricular emancipatorio, el currículo se entiende como praxis, es decir como la interacción constante y recíproca entre acción y reflexión colectiva que lo configura como una construcción social de sentido en el mundo social y cultural. así, la construcción del currículo, o proceso curricular es un proceso activo en el que la planeación, la acción y la evaluación están recíprocamente relacionadas e integradas en el mismo y en el que todos los actores curriculares toman parte y se dividen el trabajo equitativamente; es decir, el currículo deja de ser un conjunto de planes diseñados por unos para ser implementados y evaluados por otros. de igual manera, en la gestión del currículo, se interpreta y evalúa la naturaleza de los deseos y necesidades de uno mismo y de los otros, adoptándose una actitud reflexiva hacia los estándares de valor y determinando críticamente la adecuación de los existentes. la gestión del currículo exige capacidad para liberarse de las restricciones impuestas por las creencias y dogmatismos personales y una actuación racional autodeterminada y reflexiva frente al contexto y las tradiciones culturales, que permita evaluar y criticar las percepciones que se tienen de la realidad, propiciando la emancipación a partir de un proceso de reflexión y acción. dado que la emancipación se alcanza a partir de un proceso de reflexión y de acción, el lenguaje y la cultura juegan un papel determinante en ella; el primero, porque es el medio para la transformación de la conciencia sobre la propia existencia y para el involucramiento de los participantes en el encuentro educativo; la segunda, porque deja de ser sólo un conjunto de ideas predominantes de un grupo social específico e impuestas en el proceso educativo para convertirse en objeto de análisis crítico que transforma, tanto a la construcción curricular como al acto pedagógico, en construcciones culturales. en el acto pedagógico, se concibe la interacción educando-educador currículo emancipatorio y enseñanza de lenguas extranjeras, ¿ficción o realidad? 119 como el principio de la relación pedagógica y se parte de que educando y educador enseñan y aprenden a través del diálogo. dadas las existentes relaciones de poder entre estudiantes y profesores, para el enfoque es importante que se proteja la posibilidad de un aprendizaje auténtico y por ello, las experiencias educativas son, en esencia, un asunto de negociación y construcción de consensos entre profesor y estudiantes alrededor de distintos aspectos como son los objetivos de aprendizaje, las acciones, la función de las acciones (para emancipar a través del proceso de aprendizaje o para otra cosa), etc. por lo anterior, los contenidos los métodos y las técnicas tienen como función principal la de motivar el ejercicio del pensamiento crítico y se constituyen en objeto de negociación entre profesor y estudiantes, sin separarse del evento educativo. esta manera de concebirlos da una mayor amplitud de escogencia de los mismos para el aprendizaje del estudiante, dentro de ciertos criterios de selección. igual ocurre con la evaluación cuya principal función es la de ayudar a la construcción del juicio crítico y que, como parte del proyecto de construcción de significado del grupo, no se puede separar del evento educativo. el control para emitir juicios sobre la calidad y significado del trabajo recae en los participantes (profesor y estudiantes) en la situación de aprendizaje, siguiendo algunos criterios claros para emitirlos, tales como la comprensibilidad de los enunciados dentro del grupo, la veracidad de los componentes proposicionales del discurso del grupo, la autenticidad de los hablantes, y la exactitud y adecuación de las acciones en las cuales el grupo está inmerso. los procesos de evaluación, y particularmente los de autorreflexión permiten a los grupos emitir juicios sobre su organización como un indicador de orientación (enlightment) y de emancipación. por su parte, la función de las teorías es la de ser punto de partida para la definición de los conceptos acerca de las personas y de la sociedad que explican cómo la coerción y la distorsión operan para inhibir la libertad. y, por último, los términos claves de este enfoque son los de crítica, emancipación, responsabilidad, autonomía, diálogo, negociación y praxis. nancy agray vargas 120 enseñanza de lenguas extranjeras la enseñanza de lenguas extranjeras ha pasado por diferentes etapas que se pueden caracterizar por alguna de las siguientes tendencias: disociación entre teoría y práctica. prioridad a la práctica frente a la teoría. simplificación de casi todo lo relacionado con el aprendizaje de l2 al componente lingüístico (gramatical). creencia en que existe un método rápido, fácil y eficaz para aprender una lengua extranjera. la aceptación y práctica de estas tendencias ha conducido a que la enseñanza de lenguas extranjeras se haya centrado en el hacer (el cómo), es decir en el método, dejándose de lado el por qué y el para qué de la enseñanza. esta aceptación a-crítica del método como elemento central de la enseñanza ha hecho olvidar, inclusive, la necesidad de definir el término, que por sí mismo es ambiguo y vago pues existen múltiples definiciones que van desde las que lo entienden como los contenidos o las actividades de un curso, hasta las que lo definen como “la complejidad de la actuación docente” (sanchez, 1997). además de la situación problemática en relación con el método está la relacionada con los modelos curriculares para la enseñanza de lenguas extranjeras. se ha olvidado la necesidad de proponer explícitamente la concepción filosófica que sustenta la construcción de los modelos curriculares y dentro de ellos, la adopción de métodos y prácticas pedagógicas. sin fundamento filosófico la enseñanza se queda en practicismo, sin modelos y métodos la concepción filosófica se queda en especulación. como respuesta a estas problemáticas en el proyecto de investigación mencionado, proponemos partir de una concepción filosófica, las teorías críticas, y de un enfoque curricular particular, el enfoque emancipatorio, para la construcción curricular en enseñanza de lenguas extranjeras, y luego sí adoptar un método de enseñanza acorde con ellos. esta estructura de principios, conceptos y método puede permitir, por una parte, realizar la actividad pedagógica diaria con una visión más clara de lo que significa enseñar una lengua extranjera, y por otra, rescatar la dimensión cultural de la práctica pedagógica que va más allá del desarrollo de destrezas en el manejo de estructuras lingüísticas, que es lo que, desafortunadamente, se sigue haciendo en muchos contextos. currículo emancipatorio y enseñanza de lenguas extranjeras, ¿ficción o realidad? 121 enfoques curriculares y enseñanza de lenguas extranjeras en la revisión realizada dentro del proyecto, así como no se ha encontrado explícitamente la base filosófica que sustenta los diferentes métodos, tampoco se ha encontrado una relación directa entre enfoques curriculares y métodos de enseñanza de lenguas extranjeras. las razones parecen ser las mencionadas en el apartado anterior con una adicional: la creencia de que los métodos de enseñanza de lenguas son autosuficientes, es decir, que no es necesario tener un enfoque curricular como guía de la praxis pedagógica en enseñanza de lenguas extranjeras. romper con esta creencia requiere, por una parte, aceptar la necesidad de contar con un enfoque curricular que “guíe” los procesos de enseñanza y aprendizaje de lenguas extranjeras y por otra, revisar los enfoques curriculares existentes para adaptar aquél que esté en concordancia con el proyecto educativo institucional, con la meta de formación propuesta y con el compromiso social de formar profesionales idóneos para la enseñanza de lenguas extranjeras. es por ese camino que hemos llegado a la propuesta del enfoque curricular emancipatorio para la enseñanza de lenguas extranjeras en la universidad javeriana, que puede ser una realidad si se tiene en cuenta que ya existen métodos propuestos recientemente, con posibilidad de adecuación y adaptación a los principios de este enfoque. estos métodos son: método o enseñanza mediante tareas, método por proyectos y método integral, propuestos dentro del enfoque comunicativo, llamado enfoque pero entendido en realidad más como un método. algunas de las características de estos métodos que los hace compatibles con el enfoque emancipatorio son: tanto profesor como estudiantes son agentes activos del acto pedagógico, dentro de un clima de respeto, participación y responsabilidad mutua. se privilegia la comunicación como fin último (más habilidad oral, intercambio, negociación y transmisión de significado). la gestión de la clase es coparticipativa. los objetivos, contenidos y materiales son determinados de manera participativa según las necesidades de los estudiantes. la evaluación hace parte integrante de todo el proceso de aprendizaje. la lengua que se aprende le debe permitir al aprendiz incluso integrarse a una comunidad lingüística distinta de la propia. nancy agray vargas 122 sin embargo, a pesar de que dichos métodos poseen algunas características que los hacen compatibles con el enfoque curricular emancipatorio, es necesario adecuarlos y adaptarlos para lograr los objetivos centrales del enfoque como son: la promoción de la conciencia y el juicio critico, la transformación de la conciencia por medio del lenguaje; el aprendizaje como construcción cultural; la emancipación como proceso de reflexión y acción; la negociación del significado no sólo en lo lingüístico; la coparticipación de todos los actores curriculares en los diferentes aspectos de construcción, implementación y evaluación del currículo; la evaluación como aspecto integral del proceso, asumida de manera responsable y autónoma por todos los participantes en el acto educativo; y la conciencia crítica sobre la responsabilidad que cada actor tiene en el acto pedagógico (responsabilidad y autonomía), es decir, emancipación. por ello, la pregunta inicial se mantiene, ¿es la relación mencionada un asunto de ficción o de realidad? afirmar que la relación currículo emancipatorio y enseñanza de lenguas extranjeras es actualmente un asunto de ficción sería negar los desarrollos teóricos de la pedagogía crítica y los de la lingüística aplicada desde una perspectiva crítica que toman su base filosófica en una teoría crítica de la sociedad. sin embargo, afirmar lo contrario, es decir, que dicha relación es una realidad porque existe una teoría pedagógica y una base filosófica crítica sería caer nuevamente en la disociación teoríapráctica, disociación que como lo hemos afirmado, ha generado una visión reduccionista de la enseñanza de lenguas extranjeras. entonces, una posible solución al dilema es poner a prueba los principios del enfoque en la práctica de las dinámicas culturales de comunidades específicas. esta actividad es la que se ha intentado realizar al interior del proyecto en la universidad javeriana, involucrando diferentes actores curriculares: los coordinadores de programas de lenguas, los profesores de planta del departamento de lenguas y los profesores de cátedra de inglés. a partir de la experiencia con estos grupos parecería posible, aunque complejo y a largo plazo, lograr la transformación de la propia conciencia por la reflexión, la autonomía, la responsabilidad y el involucramiento y por tanto, tratar de hacer realidad lo que teóricamente hemos tratado de sustentar, es decir, que a partir del enfoque curricular emancipatorio se puede adaptar un método de enseñanza de lenguas extranjeras que promueva, desde y en el aula de clase, la emancipación y la conciencia crítica del profesor y del educando. currículo emancipatorio y enseñanza de lenguas extranjeras, ¿ficción o realidad? 123 igualmente, esta experiencia nos ha permitido ser más conscientes acerca de las implicaciones que supone para todos los actores curriculares, adoptar este enfoque curricular. estas implicaciones se convierten en requisito indispensable no sólo para que la relación enfoque curricular emancipatorio y enseñanza de lenguas se promueva y se logre, sino también para que haya coherencia entre el pensar, el decir y el hacer. a continuación se presentan algunas de ellas. implicaciones comprender de manera profunda el enfoque curricular emancipatorio e involucrarse con él. en los procesos investigativos realizados sobre este tema, se ha podido validar la relación directa entre comprensión e involucramiento y la importancia de la presencia de ambos para concretar en la práctica los principios que le subyacen. asumir la enseñanza de lenguas extranjeras como praxis, es decir como interacción permanente entre acción, reflexión y acción cualificada. replantear permanente el por qué, el para qué y el cómo de la actuación en el aula. contemplar las categorías de análisis establecidas anteriormente para el enfoque curricular emancipatorio al tomar la decisión sobre el método que se adoptará y adaptará con el fin de mantener la coherencia entre enfoque y método. tener en cuenta que para el enfoque curricular emancipatorio los métodos de enseñanza deben promover el desarrollo del pensamiento crítico, ser producto de la negociación entre los participantes, y promover la solución de problemas, el diálogo, la comunicación y la negociación. evaluar siempre los métodos que se quieran adoptar y adecuarlos y adaptarlos al enfoque curricular emancipatorio. conclusión como respuesta a la pregunta que sirve de título a este escrito, podemos afirmar que un currículo emancipatorio puede ser una realidad en un proceso de construcción colectiva mediado por la negociación, la comprensión real de las bases filosófica y teóricas y el involucramiento total y permanente de los participantes. nancy agray vargas 124 aunque es mucho el camino ya recorrido, el reto se mantiene: hacer de la enseñanza de lenguas extranjeras un todo coherente en el que teoría y práctica, acción y reflexión, trabajo individual y colectivo nos permita ayudar a formar y a formarnos como unos mejores seres humanos para una sociedad mejor. referencias ewert, g. 1991. habermas and education: a comprehensive overwiew of the influence of habermas in education literature. en: review of educational research. vol. 61 no.3. grundy, s.1987. curriculum: product or praxis? london: the farmer press. posner, g. 1998. análisis de currículo. bogotá: mcgraw-hill international. sánchez, a. 1997. los métodos en la enseñanza de idiomas. evolución histórica y análisis didáctico. madrid sgel educación. nancy agray vargas es licenciada en filología e idiomas (español-inglés) de la universidad nacional de colombia, sede bogotá; magíster en enseñanza del español como lengua extranjera de la universidad antonio de nebrija en madrid, españa. actualmente directora de la licenciatura en lenguas modernas de la pontificia universidad javeriana. correo electrónico: nagray@javeriana.edu.co currículo emancipatorio y enseñanza de lenguas extranjeras, ¿ficción o realidad? 29 the efficacy of phonics-based instruction of english as a second language in an italian high school: a randomised controlled trial1 la eficacia de la instrucción basada en pronunciación en una clase de inglés como segunda lengua en una escuela secundaria italiana: una prueba controlada aleatoria. robert alexander graham coates, judith gorham, and richard nicholas2* università commerciale luigi bocconi, italy abstract recent neurological breakthroughs in our understanding of the critical period hypothesis and prosody may suggest strategies on how phonics instruction could improve l2 language learning and in particular phoneme/grapheme decoding. we therefore conducted a randomised controlled-trial on the application of prosody and phonics techniques, to improve phoneme-grapheme decoding, to test these findings on a typical late high school cohort of italians. a trial group of 24, 17-18 year-olds followed a short 10-week, 20-hour trial course and were compared to a control (14 students) preparing for the cambridge first certificate exam. the trial group were given phoneme/grapheme decoding material and event-related-potential reinforcement in substitution of traditional exam practice, taught from a current textbook and web-site material. results showed that the trial-group significantly improved in both orthography (p=0.048) and pronunciation (p=0.000), in particular in the long vowel and digraph categories. 1 received: march 8th, 2017/accepted november 8th, 2017 2 robert.coates@unibocconi.it, judith.gorham@unibocconi.it, richard.nicholas@unibocconi.it learner autonomy in an english course gist education and learning research journal. issn 1692-5777. no.15. (july december) 2017. pp. 29-67. no. 15 (july december, 2017) no. 15 (july december, 2017) 30 furthermore, they significantly improved in a shortened interview category (p=0.024), for lexis, discourse and pronunciation. due to the trial’s small size, we concentrated on reducing type 2 statistical errors to a minimum. we believe that our results confirmed the neurological findings of the use of prosody in tesol and confirmed the validity of phonics techniques for l2 teaching. we also consider that the results are sufficiently robust to warrant a full-sized trial of phonics and prosody as a valid tesol teaching technique. key words: critical period hypothesis, prosody, phonics, orthography, pronunciation, phoneme-grapheme decoding, tesol. resumen los recientes avances neurológicos en la comprensión de la hipótesis del período crítico y la prosodia pueden sugerir estrategias en como la instrucción en fonética puede mejorar el aprendizaje de una segunda lengua l2 y, en particular, decodificar los fonemas/grafemas. por tal razón, se condujo una prueba controlada aleatoria sobre la aplicación de técnicas de prosodia y fonética para mejorar la decodificación fonema-grafema y probar estos hallazgos en una cohorte normal de una escuela secundaria italiana. un grupo de prueba de 24 estudiantes entre los 17 y 18 años siguieron un curso corto de 10 semanas de 20 horas en total y se comparó con un grupo de control de 14 estudiantes que se preparan para el examen cambridge first certificate. al grupo de prueba se le entregó material para la decodificación de fonemas/grafemas y refuerzo potencial relacionado con el evento en sustitución de la práctica tradicional para el examen que se enseña de un libro de texto y material web. los resultados mostraron que el grupo de prueba mejoró significativamente tanto en ortografía (p=0.048) como en pronunciación (p=0.000), en particular en la vocal larga y categorías de dígrafos. además, mejoraron significativamente en una categoría de entrevista abreviada (p=0.024) en léxico, discurso y pronunciación. debido al pequeño tamaño de la prueba, nos concentramos en reducir los errores de tipo 2 al mínimo. creemos que nuestros resultados confirmaron los hallazgos neuronales del uso de la prosodia en tesol y confirmaron la validez de las técnicas de fónica para la enseñanza de la segunda lengua l2. consideramos que los resultados son lo suficientemente robustos para garantizar una prueba a gran escala de fónica y prosodia como una tecnica válida de enseñanza en tesol. palabras clave: hipótesis sobre el periodo crítico, prosodia, fónica, ortografía, pronunciación, decodificación fonema-grafema, tesol, resumo os recentes avanços neurológicos na compreensão da hipótese do período crítico e a prosódia podem sugerir estratégias em como a instrução em fonética pode melhorar a aprendizagem de uma segunda língua l2 e, em particular, decodificar os fonemas/grafemas. por esse motivo, conduziu-se uma prova controlada aleatória sobre a aplicação de técnicas de prosódia e fonética para efficacy in phonics based instruction in esl coates, gorham & nichols no. 15 (july december, 2017) no. 15 (july december, 2017) 31 melhorar a decodificação fonema-grafema e provar estas descobertas em uma coorte normal de 7ª a 9ª série e segundo grau na itália. um grupo de prova de 24 estudantes entre 17 e 18 anos seguiram um curso curto de 10 semanas de 20 horas em total, e foi comparado com um grupo de controle de 14 estudantes que se preparam para a prova cambridge first certificate. ao grupo de prova foi entregue material para decodificar de fonemas/grafemas e reforço potencial relacionado com o evento em substituição da prática tradicional para a prova que se ensina de um libro de texto e material web. os resultados sinalaram que o grupo de prova melhorou significativamente tanto em ortografia (p=0.048) quanto em pronúncia (p=0.000), principalmente na vocal longa e categorias de dígrafos. além disso, melhoraram significativamente em uma categoria de entrevista abreviada (p=0.024) em léxico, discurso e pronúncia. devido ao pequeno tamanho da prova, nos concentramos em reduzir os erros de tipo 2 ao mínimo. achamos que os nossos resultados confirmaram as descobertas neuronais do uso da prosódia em tesol e confirmaram a validade das técnicas de fônica para o ensino da segunda língua l2. consideramos que os resultados são o suficientemente robustos para garantir uma prova a grande escala de fônica e prosódia como uma técnica válida de ensino em tesol. palavras chave: hipótese sobre o período crítico, prosódia, fônica, ortografia, pronúncia, decodificação fonema-grafema, tesol. efficacy in phonics based instruction in esl coates, gorham & nichols no. 15 (july december, 2017) no. 15 (july december, 2017) 32 introduction the use of phonics techniques as defined as ‘a system for encoding speech into written symbols.” (mesmer & griffith, p 2. 2004), is well established, as a means of teaching the basis of literacy in most l1 english speaking countries (ehri, nunes, stahl & willows, 2001, stuart 2005, torgersen, brooks & hall, 2006). however, despite a long tradition (for example, chomsky & halle, 1968, jones, 1996) of acceptance that the relationship between phonology and orthography and in particular the phoneme-grapheme code is crucial, decoding skills are still considered peripheral in the tesol literature. there has been recent neurological linguistic research that points to the link between prosody and the application of teaching methods (nickels, opitz, & steinhauer, 2013). these are in effect basic phonics techniques, specifically related to improving both orthography (phoneme-grapheme decoding pg) and pronunciation (grapheme-phoneme decoding gp). the aim of this randomized trial was to create a classroom environment to test the validity of these inter-disciplinary findings on a group of students who would normally be beyond the usual primary age considered as benefitting from l1 phonics techniques, i.e., 17-18 year old students. the problem in italy in italy, the classroom approach to teaching english is still heavily influenced by the grammar-translation method, with a supplement of communicative strategies principally taught by native-speaker (ns) teachers (ministero d’istruzione dell’universita e della ricerca’ 2012). furthermore, italy regularly ranks below the oecd average and recently results have been worsening (pisa 2015). the problem with all instruction (ns or nns) is that there is no or little possibility to teach pg/gp decoding. this lack of instruction on the phonemic structure of english or phonics rules, means that there is no systematic knowledge at any level or age of basic literacy skills as conceived in l1 educational systems (ehri et al. 2001). we could therefore consider that both spelling and pronunciation errors derive directly from an l1 interpretation of the decoding system. this is particularly a problem for italians, and with other similar ‘transparent’ languages such as spanish, (martinez, 2011) given the relative lack of correspondence between vowels and digraphs, as a quick glance at the respective phonemic charts will illustrate (see appendix 1). we therefore hypothesize that a short classroom course concentrating on these decoding skills could improve basic communication and literacy skills, even for older students. efficacy in phonics based instruction in esl coates, gorham & nichols no. 15 (july december, 2017) no. 15 (july december, 2017) 33 definitions it is important to define the basic aspects of our argument to clarify the link between decoding skills and improved communication for young adult tesol students. we concentrated on phonics techniques which taught both pg decoding, the ability to recognise and spell correctly any given oral expression, and gp decoding, or the ability to pronounce written sentences correctly. these phonics techniques, according to nickels et al. (2013), concentrated on the prosodic emphasis of supra-segmental phrasing. thus, in the terms of this trial, prosody is defined as a series of exercises (see appendix 3), which use the natural prosody of rhymes, songs or dictation to reinforce phonic patterns. these in turn, create event related potential (erp) events, which nickels et al. (2013) among others, describe as being crucial to open neurological circuits for efficient learning. erps can be defined as neuro-imaging, which potentially show effective events/ methods that could scaffold an individual’s learning process. finally, in the context of this trial, we define meta-cognitive phonics techniques as the concentration on exercises that teach phonics patterns rather than sight words (khabiri, and rezagholizadeh, 2014), so that the students, when taught for example, ‘–ment’ or ‘–tion’, would be able to recognise or even invent new lexis intuitively (see for example, dickerson, 1975), rather than relying on memorized sight words. this would give classroom confirmation of hensch’s (in bardin 2012) interpretation of how older students could overcome cph barriers to learning by relying on cognitive reasoning rather than rote learning. problems of apply phonics for l2 instruction there are several possible explanations of why phonics-based approaches in l1 english teaching have not led to research in tesol. perhaps the most obvious is that l2 learners, especially at low levels, have much less english phonemic awareness than l1 primary learners. in particular the l2 creates interference patterns in their ability to decode english phonemes (trofimovich & baker, 2006). using phonics to establish phoneme and grapheme decoding skills simultaneously is clearly very different from building literacy skills from already established l1 phonemic patterns. therefore, our first task was to establish how and whether it was useful to translate typical pg/gp decoding skills from typical l1 phonics techniques into l2 teaching methodology in a tesol classroom. it is evident that gp correspondences in english are less overt than in other more transparent languages such as spanish (martinez, 2011) efficacy in phonics based instruction in esl coates, gorham & nichols no. 15 (july december, 2017) no. 15 (july december, 2017) 34 and italian, or even relatively closely related languages such as dutch (de graaff, bosman, hasselman & veraven, 1999), which have simpler phoneme-grapheme correspondences. martinez (2011), did show the advantages of using english l1 phonics techniques for spanish tesol learners. she found that for successful l2 acquisition, students used their own l1 phonics patterns, which coincided with english patterns. a secondary aim of our research was to discover precisely which phonics patterns should be taught to improve english orthography and pronunciation for italian learners. while the term ‘phonics’ is not common in tesol literature, many important aspects of it have been dealt with comprehensively under other guises. ur (2012) amongst others, very clearly recognized the importance of phonemic awareness and in particular decoding skills, in l2 language learning. there is some recognition of phonics in the tesol literature (for example, khabiri; roqayeh rezagholizadeh, 2014 and johnson, r. c., tweedie, g. r, 2010); it is however rarely considered a valid technique in itself. other phonics-related research, is now dated (for example, dickerson, 1975 and wong, 1992) but did touch on elements such as prosody and decoding. more recent work by jenkins (2002), looked at the distinction between core and peripheral pronunciation skills, although this does not consider the importance of phonemic decoding. she pointed out that intonation and especially the use of schwa sounds is not always core for understanding. this may be so for general comprehensibility but overlooks the importance of the systematic nature (ehri, 2001) of the gp decoding process. interestingly, venezky (1999), looked at the link between spelling and pronunciation, but still considered it as a separate written norm, not an essential part of the whole. another interesting exception is gardner’s (2008) discussion of phonics techniques in eal (english as an additional language) lessons. she discusses the changes in the uk curriculum concerning languages, which we also consider, and shows how they transformed teaching practice in the us and the uk, as she notes – (phonics) “..produced the transformation that here benefitted, the linguistic, sociocultural and cognitive development of learners, particularly eal.” (gardiner 2008, p 263). our thesis is, if this is so for eal (english as an additional language) and l1 language learners, why is phonics not considered for l2 tesol learners? another secondary aim was to investigate the link between decoding skills and to explore whether they could improve l2 communicative strategies. efficacy in phonics based instruction in esl coates, gorham & nichols no. 15 (july december, 2017) no. 15 (july december, 2017) 35 finally, recent and pertinent neurological and psychological research has re-proposed the importance of both the cognitive and prosody-related aspects of phonics for l2 english learning. the neurologists hensch and bilihoral (for example, 2008) looked at neurological aspects of language learning in their work on the critical period hypothesis (cph). this has redefined the age-old linguistic problem of how languages are learned and offers glimpses of how learning problems may be overcome, even outside critical periods. this is best summarized by bardin (2012) in an editorial in the journal nature. the use of prosody, rhyme and music has been shown to switch on the neurological processes as also shown by nickels, opitz and steinhauer (2013). they found in a class of adult german l2 english learners, that by creating event related potentials (erps), neurological links were created that made l2 language learning easier. these findings are buttressed by the extensive work of the british neurologist goswami (2004) and co-workers, who established the role of rhyme and music in overcoming dyslexia in l1 english speaking children. the psychologist, suggate (2016) also considered the importance of phonics for the retention of reading capacity for children with learning disabilities. we believe that these inter-disciplinary insights, considering neurological and psychological data need to be tested empirically in a tesol classroom in order to consider their full practical significance. by using a quantitative approach, we aimed to establish measurable criteria, applied to a recognized tesol certificate, in our case the cambridge first certificate exam (fce). we also needed to eliminate as far as possible, any type-two statistical errors, i.e., bias between the content of the trial and control cohorts, bias in the teaching techniques and bias in evaluation criteria and marking. if we could establish that a phonics-based approach was at least as effective as a traditional exam preparation approach for the fce, then we could look in more detail at the content and material of phonics in tesol. review of the literature there are relatively few studies pertaining strictly to phonics in the tesol literature, in a meta-analysis, shanahan and beck (2006) found 52 studies concerning phonemic awareness and 38 specifically on phonics instruction for l1 literacy. in contrast, they found only five empirical studies on phonics instruction for l2, all on reading skills, and no qualitative work. since then (suggate 2016), there has been some additional research which we will consider here. to fill this gap in the literature, we carried out an inter-disciplinary approach following efficacy in phonics based instruction in esl coates, gorham & nichols no. 15 (july december, 2017) no. 15 (july december, 2017) 36 four basic streams: 1) inter-disciplinary work mainly from a medical (neurological, paediatric and psychological) perspective on language learning and language disorders, 2) phonics in the l1 literature and how it may relate to tesol; 3) elements of a phonics and decoding in past tesol literature, including prosody and meta-cognitive approaches; 4) research on decoding in l2 language learning. neurological and psychological developments on language learning there has been some ground-breaking research on medical aspects of language learning that under-scores this trial. in particular, the neurological work of the japanese american neurologist hensch, summarized in bardin (2012) on the ‘ungluing’ of the neural circuitry implicit in the cph, fixed in childhood, is fundamental to understand the changes in conception of cph for language learning. hensch and bilihorial (2008) previously showed how it would be possible to shift emphasis away from a simple linguistic approach to an abstract cognitive one as the receptive neurological window remains open longer. thus, older students could benefit from the staggered opening and closing of their relative ‘critical periods’. linguistically, singleton and muñoz (2009) and indeed nikolov (2009) also noted the importance of cph on various elements, (motivation, age group etc.). interestingly, zang (2009) in an article on semantic prosody also called for efl educators to be instructed in semantic prosody and for it to be integrated into efl curricula. in another neurological slant on language learning, nickels et al. (2013) looked at the effects of event related potentials (erp), neurological events which aid retention, on l2 acquisition. they show that prosodic activity neurologically ‘switches’ language acquisition on through erps, even in a classroom-only environment. they came to the conclusion that by using the advantages of prosody in learning, even older tesol students could benefit. finally, in a series of significant neurological research studies, goswami (2004), huss, verney, fosker, mead, and goswami (2011) and cumming, wilson, leong, colling and goswami (2015), look at the importance of rhyme and song on developing prosody in children with dyslexia. they showed that it may be an inability to recognize prosodic clues rather than ‘word blindness’, which is a cause of dyslexia, a factor which can be largely overcome by learning nursery rhymes and songs. summarizing, both segmental and supra-segmental elements have been shown to modify the neuro-cortex that influences language learning. efficacy in phonics based instruction in esl coates, gorham & nichols no. 15 (july december, 2017) no. 15 (july december, 2017) 37 l1 phonics literature due to the vast depth of l1 phonics literature, we have been highly selective in the choice of many sources, considering here only a small selection of seminal work. ehri, nunes, stahl and willows (2001), established the fundamental link between grapheme and phoneme decoding and literacy, as did byrne, fielding and barnsley (1989) and kidd, villaume and brabham (2003). furthermore, phonics instruction is not only explicit but also systematic. de graaf, saskia, bosman, hasselman and verhaeven (1998) and mesmer and griffith (2005) looked at the importance of systematic and analytical phonics. they found that a systematic approach was more efficient than a random introduction of phonics patterns. we relate this systematic nature to an l2 environment where many phonics patterns are already established thanks to the subjects’ l1 phonics patterns. however, in contrast to de graaf, we recognize that ‘systematic’ in l2 phonics is fundamentally different to l1 instruction, based primarily on the interference between the english and italian phonetic systems. torgerson, brooks and hall (2006), stated that systematic phonics training can benefit children at different achievement levels. we developed this insight here, as our cohort was older than a typical phonics cohort (i.e., early primary or even pre-school children). in terms of the actual methods used during instruction, rasinski, rupley, nichols christensen and bowey (2005) proved instrumental in the choice of material. these authors looked at the link between phonics and fluency and in particular the use of rhymes and songs, an aspect well developed neurologically by huss et al. (2011) and cummings et al. (2015). there has also been some specific work on decoding, relevant to this study. morgan, moni and jobling (2006) look at the implications of using phonics for young adults with learning difficulties. the implications of their work is that phonics can be a valid technique for this age groups. furthermore, rasinki, rupley and nichols (2006), link the two basic elements of phonics and prosody, in their case, phonics and fluency as an element of reading and performing poetry. elements of phonics in the tesol literature as already mentioned, while the term ‘phonics’ is not common in tesol literature, many important aspects of it have been dealt with comprehensively. as mentioned earlier, the link with phonemic awareness is amply explored by ur (2012). however, this recognition efficacy in phonics based instruction in esl coates, gorham & nichols no. 15 (july december, 2017) no. 15 (july december, 2017) 38 is not followed up by examining phonics in l2 teaching or any specific reference to pg decoding. other research did explore other aspects related to phonics but these were generally before the full development of communicative language teaching developed in the 80’s and 90’s. this early work included, for example, the role of pronunciation (dickerson, 1989) reading skills (wong, 1992), the development of selfmonitoring skills implicit in explicit/systematic phonics (for example in firth, 1987) and prosody (wang, 2009). wong (1992) looked at spelling and generative phonology and made the connection between listening comprehension and reading, all are crucial in phonics. the importance of self-monitoring and meta-cognition, emphasized by morley (1991) and hall, myers and bowan (1999), amongst others, could directly be considered an element of explicit phonics instruction. as mentioned earlier, zang (2009) called for an integration of semantic prosody into efl instruction anticipating nickel et al (2013). venesky (1999) also made the link between spelling and pronunciation. however, he still considered orthography as a discipline in itself rather than making the logical step of considering pg decoding as being a fundamental element of literacy. ur (2012), states in no uncertain terms the importance of phonemic awareness and hence the need to empirically test a phonics-based course to evaluate its effects on phonemic awareness. finally, kaushanskaya, jeewon and van hecke (2013) looked at whether phonological familiarity exerted any effects on lexis learning for familiar versus unfamiliar referents and whether successful vocabulary learning is associated with an increased second-language experience. if decoding skills is based on the introduction of familiar references in word groups, then it follows that this could rationalize instruction for lexis learning. another approach to pronunciation moved away from l1 pronunciation patterns to l2 user models (cook, 1999:185). this is acceptable for l2 pronunciation models but does not recognize the affect that decoding patterns may have on production or on literacy skills. here, we attempted to look at the link between decoding ability and general communication skills. l2 phonics research there has also been a limited amount of work on phonics in the l2 classroom. jones (1996) pointed out the potential advantages of using phonics for l2 instruction, also illustrated in heidi (2014). they both describe the basic similarity of l1 and l2 phonics instruction and the possibility of students benefitting from l1 instruction insights. martinez efficacy in phonics based instruction in esl coates, gorham & nichols no. 15 (july december, 2017) no. 15 (july december, 2017) 39 (2011) described the specific benefits of explicit and systematic tesol phonics for spanish speakers, particularly for literacy skills and reading comprehension. the difficulty her spanish-speaking subjects had with long vowels is comparable with the problem our italian students had with short vowels. this point was also developed by helman (2004). considering spanish learners’ pronunciation of english, he noted the importance of considering l1 interference (helman, 2004). this would suggest that l2 phonics instruction involves discovering how an l1 may either interfere or aid pg decoding in english. certain l2 meta-cognitive studies suggest how phonics could be applied in tesol. samuel (2010) expands on the importance of meta-cognitive techniques and in particular conscious pattern-finding exercises. this approach is also shared by gardner in what she describes as student ‘experience and empowerment’ (gardner, 2008). share (1999, 2001) also emphasized the importance of self-teaching, important in language learning and an essential aspect of phonics’ patterns acquisition. kahraman, (2012) showed the importance of pronunciation correction for l2 arab speaking teachers and therefore gp decoding. meta-cognition is also treated by nishanimut, johnston, joshi, thomas and, padakannaya, (2013) who found that using l1 metalinguistic knowledge seemed to benefit literacy skills in english for esl students. finally, pittman (2007) also noted a phonemic approach could overcome these difficulties with african american vernacular english (aave) speakers, which would occupy the middle ground between l1 and l2 instruction. finally, alshaboul, looks at how l1 phonemic awareness relates to l2 literacy. in particular alshaboul, asassfeh, alshboul and alodwan (2014), investigate the difficulty that arab speakers have due to l1 phonemic interference on reading efl texts. they explain that the recognition process leads to slow and less accurate l2 lexical recognition. methodology study design our study design, a randomised controlled trial, directly compares a control and trial group of 17-18 year-olds during an extra-curriculum preparation for the fce exam. the fce exam was chosen because the teaching and testing criteria are well established and widely available and therefore both the experimental protocol and materials can be replicated. it is also an exam used by many schools internationally as a communicative adjunct to curriculum l2 english. given our need for direct comparison, the student ‘t’ test was considered the most efficacy in phonics based instruction in esl coates, gorham & nichols no. 15 (july december, 2017) no. 15 (july december, 2017) 40 appropriate statistical tool to show the significance between the delta of an initial test and final test after the teaching period. the deltas were compared to examine the relevance of orthography, pronunciation and a general oral skills test based on independent criteria, i.e., on criteria published on the fce resources for the teacher web-site (cambridge esol, 2016), that is criteria based on grammar, discourse, lexis and pronunciation. these comparisons would indicate whether phonics could be a valid tool for tesol instruction. we then applied an anova (analysis of variance) multi-factor analysis of the control and trial cohorts to find whether there was any relative advantage of the teaching techniques used. all statistic calculations used the applicative program (primer) statistica per discipline biomediche stanton a glantz, (italian edition adriano decarli). obviously, this would then need to be verified on a larger scale, precisely as occurred in the large l1 studies in the us and the uk (ehri et al. 1999, torgensen et al. 2008). the study groups were initially between 17–24 (both trial n= 24 and control n=17), 17-18 year-olds from the same school, randomly assigned to each group by the school. there was a slight majority of female students and all students were pre-tested at b2 level, according to the council of europe criteria (2001), intermediate level. a level of b1 (lower-intermediate) or c1 (upper-intermediate) were considered exclusion criteria, although no students were excluded on this basis. each student signed an informed written consent agreement, which explained the purpose of the research. as the study classes were optional, attendance was not compulsory and there was a certain degree of random dropout (final numbers: trial n= 23, control n=14). however, attendance remained high enough, especially for the trial group, to consider the results to be statistically robust. as winter (2013) points out, it is not the size of the samples in these cases that is important when considering statistical relevance, but rather the avoidance of type 2 statistical errors, a point we explore in depth in the discussion. trial lessons consisted of 10 two-hour extra-curriculum sessions. all students followed their regular english lessons during class hours. these regular sessions generally followed a grammar-translation method with non-native language teachers concentrating principally on grammar, syntax, sentence level structure and literature. the students came from a variety of different classes and were randomly assigned to the trial lessons by the english teacher organising the course and the school administrative staff. efficacy in phonics based instruction in esl coates, gorham & nichols no. 15 (july december, 2017) no. 15 (july december, 2017) 41 both the trial and the control lessons were taught by two ns teachers. both control and trial teachers had passed through the schools’ selection process, had the same amount of experience teaching these courses. the difference in teaching materials was based on the type of lessons involved, principally phonics for the trial course and only exam practice for the control course. thus, the content of the exam practice for the fce exam included oral, listening and writing exercises, as well as recognition of exam procedures and mock exams. these exercises can be found in the text (brook-hart, 2008) used as well as from the cambridge english esol web-site (2016). in the trial class, phonics techniques replaced the oral exam practice components and consisted of at least 60 minutes of the twohour lessons. it should be noted that all students were still given other exam preparation tasks. these included essay writing skills (paragraph writing and construction), sentence construction and exam procedure recognition. however, the main difference between the trial and control cohorts were the phonics techniques summarized in appendix 3. it should be noted that with the exception of the dictation exercises (a common technique for all students during curriculum lessons), there was no explicit instruction in orthography. we tried to assure that the testing material excluded any specific items that had been introduced during the trial class, so these students had no direct advantage in the orthography test. one exception was the word ‘love’ for the vowel + ‘v’ group, a high frequency lexis, which should have been recognised by all students regardless of experimental group. furthermore, both cohorts received approximately the same amount of time spent on the oral skills inherent in the pronunciation and interview fce tests. the general pattern of the phonics component of the trial lessons was as follows: each lesson concentrated on one phonics pattern, for example the first being the cvc rule, consonant + vowel + consonant = short vowel. the patterns deemed to create problems for italian learners had been identified in preliminary work at the school and can be summarised in table 1. briefly, these areas were phonemic areas which differ from italian to english, i.e. there was l1 interference in the decoding process. the students were asked to recognise the phonics pattern in question by using word games or other devises (for example, pelmanism, word family recognition etc.) based on drilling the phonics pattern in question. much of this material was very similar to the ‘silly questions’ material described by gardiner (2008). the patterns were reinforced and peer corrected using either dictation or exercises the phonics text book used in class (hornsby, shear and pool, 2007), or other reinforcing exercises, for example inventing words (de graaff et efficacy in phonics based instruction in esl coates, gorham & nichols no. 15 (july december, 2017) no. 15 (july december, 2017) 42 al. 2009), to strengthen meta-cognitive retention. finally, an erp was created either using pre-existing learning rhymes or songs (for example ‘the digraph chant’), or adapting other online material (for example, the adaption of the beatles’ song, ‘all you need is love’). a full list of the material used can be seen in appendix 3. table 1. phonemic categories presenting problems for italian l1 students trial there were three basic statistical tests in which improvements in the delta (difference between preand post-test scores) per cohort were first analysed individually using a student ‘t’ test and then compared to each other using an anova analysis. the student ‘t’ test was the basic statistical test used, as we wanted to find the relative improvement of the trial and control groups, although the anova data also measured cohort improvements relative to each other. the tests were sub-divided based on the principal phonics categories (short vowels, long vowels, consonant-plus-vowels, digraphs), we had previously identified as being the principal gp decoding problem areas for italian speakers. these categories can be categorised as differences between english and italian phonemes and therefore decoding and are not meant to be definitive but rather a start for possible future research into l2 decoding problem areas, although not restricted to italian (martinez, 2009). overall results there were statistically significant improvements overall for both pronunciation and orthography for the trial cohort compared to the efficacy in phonics based instruction in esl coates, gorham & nichols no. 15 (july december, 2017) no. 15 (july december, 2017) 43 control. these general improvements were concentrated statistically in two categories, long vowels and digraphs, with improvements in the other categories, which however were not statistically relevant. thus, large improvements in long vowels (p <000) in the digraph category for both pronunciation and orthography) compensated for relatively weak results in the short vowel and the consonant-plus-vowel sections. these weaker areas were as much interest as the areas that did improve and will be subsequently analysed in detail. the interview section also improved statistically significantly for the trial cohort compared to the control. this section was originally conceived to incentivise the students, by giving them a test more similar to the oral test in the final fce exam. the test also highlighted the course content’s relevance for general spoken skills. it must be pointed out that the general improvement was quite surprising as only the pronunciation category (p <0.000) of the four categories described in the cambridge criteria was considered core to our phonics’ instruction criteria. only the grammar section did not improve significantly (p = 0.203), with statistically significant improvements for discourse (p =0.034), lexis (p <0.000) and pronunciation (p <0.000). to understand these and to eliminate any statistical bias we need to look at the sub-categories for each test separately. orthography (phoneme-grapheme decoding) the orthography test consisted in an examiner reading out aloud twice, a series of 32 sentences, each of which contained three or four elements of one phonics pattern. the students were instructed to write these sentences down and urged to write what they had perceived, even if they felt they had not fully understood the sentence. this was important as we did not want the students to leave gaps whenever a group of phonemes was not recognised, but rather we wanted to see the students’ perception of unfamiliar phonemes. each of the 3-4 elements of the pattern had to be correct in order to score one point. the rationale of the marking system was to test recognition of phonics patterns rather than individual words. one correct word may have represented a learned ‘sight word’ (an individually learned word with no recognition of the pattern). thus, the first eight sentences tested short vowels, the next group, long vowels and so on. it was important to perform the orthography test first, in order to introduce the lexis and context, thus aiding comprehension and giving a cognitive schemata for the subsequent pronunciation test. efficacy in phonics based instruction in esl coates, gorham & nichols no. 15 (july december, 2017) no. 15 (july december, 2017) 44 figure 1. cohort compared improvements in amounts of errors made (orthography) graph shows improvements (fewer errors) with the exception of the long vowel category in the control cohort. improvements in the long vowel and digraph categories were statistically significant (p values both p<0.000). indeed, there was no appreciable improvement at all for the long vowel section in the control cohort (+ 0.17 errors), underlining that generally spelling is a persistent and stubborn problem to overcome. we believe the improvement for the trial group was due to the recognition of the relatively simple morphophonemic patterns, the mainstay of phonics in l1 learning. the richness of material, even considering the obvious cognitive gap (the material was designed for 8-12 year old l1 learners, compared to our older cohort) also helped reduce the affective filter of the trial group making the whole course seem more ‘fun’. there was virtually no improvement in either cohort for the consonant-plus-vowel category (score +0.17). at the time of the study, we had no specific material to aid instruction so this category was introduced in a more traditional explanation-practice technique with no erp inducing material. subsequently, we found material for this category, which we intend to use in future research. it should also be noted that in l1 teaching these categories are systematically taught within a considerably longer time framework, whereas here, they were introduced as stand-alone lessons. efficacy in phonics based instruction in esl coates, gorham & nichols no. 15 (july december, 2017) no. 15 (july december, 2017) 45 table 2. cohort compared improvements in orthography all statistically significant (p < 0.05) differences are shown in gray, f (anova) t-test p statistical significance short vowels 2.71 1.645 0.109 n.s. long vowels 20.13 4.486 0.000 consonants + vowel 0.05 0.232 0.817 n.s. digraphs 18.29 4.295 0.000 total 4.21 2.053 0.048 n.s. = not significant, statistical significance set at p<0.05 pronunciation (grapheme-phoneme decoding) the pronunciation test consisted of each student reading sentences aloud, and was assessed on the same series of 32 sentences used for the orthography test. this test follows the orton-gillingham method (1997) (in de graaff et al. 2009: 322-323) for testing pronunciation. there was an important exception in that we tried to give all words a context (that is they were given in sentences rather than individual words) and were chosen from lexis that the students’ regular teachers had indicated should have been familiar and had been introduced during their regular curriculum lessons. this was important as it is generally recognized that it is difficult to pronounce unknown vocabulary or lexis out of context (yule, 2010). graph shows improvements (fewer errors) with the exception of the long vowel category in the control cohort. efficacy in phonics based instruction in esl coates, gorham & nichols no. 15 (july december, 2017) no. 15 (july december, 2017) 46 figure 2. cohort compared improvements in amounts of errors made (pronunciation) there was a statistically significant improvement for both long vowels and digraphs (both p<0.000). we believe that this was due to the large amount of material available as reinforcement (see appendix 3) and to the relative ease of relating to new grapheme representations (such as, /ð/, /θ/, /tʃ/, /ʃ/) which, although different in italian, do not constitute a serious phonological problem. while short vowels did improve, they did not do so statistically (p = 0.283). we believe that this may be due to the fact that the italian vowel system does not have true short vowels but what can rather be considered allophones (especially the /i/, /ɔ/ and /u/) (see italian phonemic chart, appendix 1). the consonant-plus-vowel area also did not improve significantly. again, during the trial we had had no access to additional erp material, which we intend to include in the future. table 3. cohort compared improvements in pronunciation delta post – pre-test of control and trial cohorts difference in number of errors. f (anova) t-test p short vowels 1.19 1.089 0.283 n.s. long vowels 6.01 2.452 0.019 consonants + vowel 0.03 0.186 0.854 n.s. digraphs 119.01 10.856 0.000 total 20.93 4.575 0.000 n.s. = not significant, statistical significance set at p<0.05 efficacy in phonics based instruction in esl coates, gorham & nichols no. 15 (july december, 2017) no. 15 (july december, 2017) 47 the interview the interview test was based on four categories outlined in the cambridge syndicate’s guidelines i.e., grammar, pronunciation, discourse and lexis. for our purposes, we were mostly interested in pronunciation and to a lesser degree lexis, due to the introduction of word families in the trial cohort. the other categories were not considered to be related to the trial methodology except in as much as they affected the overall significance of the test results. the interviews were shorter (between 3-5 minutes) than the actual oral tests carried out during cambridge exams, although the criteria used were the same and both examiners were qualified and experienced fce examiners. it should be noted that the interviews were not meant to replicate the fce oral exams and cannot be considered a direct indicator of final fce oral score. the marking system was expressed as a score from 1-5, divided into half points. so, unlike the previous two tests where the reduction in errors was counted, here, there was a positive score count. figure 3. improvement (average improvement in scores) for the interview the improvement in the trial cohort was statistically relevant for the overall score (p = 0.024) and for pronunciation (p <0.000), discourse (p <0.034) and lexis (p <0.000), although not for grammar (p <0.074). as already mentioned, the improvement for pronunciation was the main category we were interested in. the improvement for the lexis group may have been due to the inclusion in the trial group of efficacy in phonics based instruction in esl coates, gorham & nichols no. 15 (july december, 2017) no. 15 (july december, 2017) 48 teaching word families and word creation, typical phonics’ exercises. thus, once the construction of a suffix (or prefix) such as, for example, ‘–ment’ or ‘–tion’ were understood, then students could ‘invent new lexis intuitively’ (dickerson, 1989). the improvement in discourse for the trial group is less easy to explain. possibly, the emphasis of suprasegmental pharsing as explained by nickels et al. (2013) in prosody exercise, aided oral discourse. however, given that this category was not under examination here except as being part of the global interview score, we cannot make any assumptions about the efficiency of phonics techniques to improve discourse. table 4. cohort compared improvements for the interview (anova). f (anova) t-test p grammar 3.39 1.841 0.074 n.s. pronunciation 37.83 6.151 0.000 discourse 4.86 2.205 0.034 lexis 518.31 22.766 0.000 total 5.59 2.364 0.024 improvement in score (1-5), n.s. = not significant, statistical significance p<0.05 overview the results of the test clearly showed that the trial cohort improved in all three overall categories significantly more than a traditional, exam practice course of 10 weeks. furthermore, long vowels and digraphs improved remarkably for both orthography and pronunciation, whenever abundant prosodic material was available. it was only the short vowel and consonant-plus-vowel categories, which did not improve significantly. the short amount of time available could explain our inability to statistically improve short vowel recognition due to the recognised problem for all l2 learners to improve allophone recognition and production. the consonant-plus-vowel category on the other hand was complex, had no readily available material on line to create erp exercises and had relatively little time dedicated to it during the ten-week course. however, the difficulty of improving this area does emphasize even more the relative success of the other categories. it also poses the question of why certain areas improved considerably while others did not. we will now exam these differences. efficacy in phonics based instruction in esl coates, gorham & nichols no. 15 (july december, 2017) no. 15 (july december, 2017) 49 discussion we need to return to our primary objective to consider the implications of these results. as we noted, phonics and a prosodic approach to tesol is not currently the object of widespread research, so many doubts remain concerning its efficacy or indeed theoretical base. recent neurological research on the role of cph (bardin, 2012) and the opening of language reception windows, prosody for l2 classroom learning (nickels et al. 2013) and prosody, rhyme and music (cummings et al. 2015) in treating dyslexia, have established a theoretical base which could indicate an important role for phonicsbased instruction in tesol. our primary objective was to relate these results directly to the tesol classroom. if positive, we could move on to try to understand how phonics works in tesol, how it differs from l1 phonics teaching and finally, what materials need to be developed to exploit any possible benefits of a phonics-based approach. this would need to be examined, in more extensive and intensive research than this current work was designed to fulfil. before considering the validity of these results, we need to examine the possibility of any type 2 bias in the statistical results, especially given the relatively small size of the cohorts involved. we therefore need to look at the study trial design to gauge whether these results are valid and what needs to be improved in future research. we will consider cohort composition, both teachers and students, the course content and finally the testing methods and variables. the classes both classes were of comparable age, sex, motivation and ability and had been randomised by the school before the trial began. while the randomisation process had not used computer-randomising programs, there is little reason to expect any bias in composition, as the school had no knowledge of the protocol or which cohort (control or trial) the students were assigned to. the trial teachers were of comparable experience and the only difference between the cohorts was the trial teaching material. the content of the control course was dictated by the content of the exam practice book and on-line material available (cambridge esol, 2016) for the fce exam. this material is considered standard and while the approach of individual teachers may differ, it can be considered the communicative-based norm for this type of examination preparation course. the trial-cohort lesson content is described in the methods section and is illustrated in appendix 3. the emphasis of the course was to introduce phonics patterns metaefficacy in phonics based instruction in esl coates, gorham & nichols no. 15 (july december, 2017) no. 15 (july december, 2017) 50 cognitively, allowing students to recognise the patterns and then create prosodic exercises as erps to reinforce retention (nickels et al. 2013), or music as in cummings et al. (2015). any trial results should therefore be the result of the instruction techniques deployed. the testing the aim of the pre/post-tests was to measure improvements in orthography and pronunciation (de graaf et al. 2009), and in the interview, to test general oral skill improvement. neither trial nor control cohort received any explicit advantage in these test items in terms of practice with the trial techniques. this is true with the possible exception of the following; 1) dictation exercises (although not the tested items) are a very common technique in curricula courses so neither groups would have been at an advantage. 2) the control group did have more time to practice the interview section of the trial although the results did not show any appreciable advantage for the control group. we did not follow-up the students to understand their real fce results as their final result would have involved too many other variables to be relevant for this research. the variables, grammar and discourse, in the interview were not the subject of this research so we do not claim any relevance for these results accept in as much as they affected the final interview score. the lexis category, although not central to this research, was introduced as a phonics exercise in trial classes due to the use of word family exercises and meta-cognitive word creation. the pronunciation category was central to the research. the examiners the examiners were both qualified fce examiners and therefore can be considered competent and appropriate for the task involved. they had no prior knowledge of the research protocol and were blinded to which students belonged to which cohort. the students they tested were randomised for both preand post-test, so neither examiner had either all trial or all cohort subjects (i.e., they were cross-tested). the interview was not a duplicate of the fce but was a shorter interview based on personal information, which is available to the general public on the fce website (cambridge, 2016), so it cannot be claimed that the results would predict final fce test results. the main criteria for the interview were to provide indications of general oral skills in terms of fluency and accuracy, not to duplicate fce criteria. efficacy in phonics based instruction in esl coates, gorham & nichols no. 15 (july december, 2017) no. 15 (july december, 2017) 51 trial results the statistically significant results for all three categories, orthography (p = 0.048), pronunciation (p < 0.000) and the interview (p = 0.024) would indicate that the phonics techniques used did achieve our objective of providing successful instruction in l2 orthography, pronunciation and general interview skills. this was not fce specific, so therefore we believe that these techniques can be applied to other age groups and/or objectives. this would give us the opportunity to test phonics and prosody in other teaching environments or ages, and understand the wider significance of this approach. this is essential in applying the findings of hensch and bilihorial (2009), nickels et al. (2013), huss et al. (2011) and cummings et al. (2015) in a tesol environment and to test their efficacy. the results of each of the categories, short vowels, long vowels, consonants-plus-vowels and digraphs, are also very interesting, as they give an insight into what worked well, and what still needs to be refined. the long vowel and digraph categories improved equally for both orthography and pronunciation, a result underlined by the statistical significance of the pronunciation category in the interviews. in both these categories, there was ample material available on-line, the prosodic material was simple, clear and effective and there was relatively little phonological difficulty for the subjects. furthermore, during feedback, the students expressed the sentiment that they had become aware of simple language procedures for the first time. it was the importance of ‘raising awareness’ of phonics patterns that the students instinctively already knew, and subsequent reinforcing them with erp material that seemed to have been most effective. further qualitative data would be useful to understand how students perceived the tests. the relatively small degree of progress in the short vowel and consonant-plus-vowel categories reinforces the importance of both meta-cognitive recognition of patterns and erp reinforcing. the short vowel category is particularly important, as according to crystal (1997: 216) a third of all english vocabulary includes the short vowel, consonant plus vowel plus consonant phonics pattern. while there was on-line material available for short vowels, the noted problem of allophonic interference from the l1 created a great deal of problems for most subjects. this was so especially for short vowels, /ɪ/, /o/, or /ʌ/, which are interchanged or difficult to reproduce for italian l1 speakers (see italian phonemic chart appendix 1). efficacy in phonics based instruction in esl coates, gorham & nichols no. 15 (july december, 2017) no. 15 (july december, 2017) 52 for the consonant-plus-vowel category, for example, as in war, walk and work /wɔr/, /wɑk/, /wək/, there were no simple patterns to follow and we used little on-line prosodic material, especially of the correct cognitive level (most material was designed for a younger age group). clearly, both a didactic strategy and materials need to be developed to make these areas more accessible for most students. furthermore, our subjects had passed the initial cph peaks, especially after 14/15 years old, during which pronunciation drills would be more efficient. however, the fact that when the prosodic material was not available, this strategy was less effective would reinforce the neurological rationale proposed by hensch (2008). in comparison with the control cohort, we can say that the trial technique was more effective. according to the anova tests, all areas improved more in the trial (overall results for orthography anova f value 4.21, pronunciation, 20.93 and interview, 5.59) than the control, and were statistically significant for the long vowel and digraph categories. given the short duration of the course, it would be difficult for control parameters to improve significantly whereas in the trial, subjects benefitted from the understanding of patterns rather than individually learnt sight words or practice. indeed, given the emphasis on exam practice the control cohort actually had more exam practise, which was not reflected in their final scores. conclusions in a total final cohort of 38 high school students preparing for the fce exam during a 20-hour preparatory course, the trial teaching methodology was shown to be statistically effective as a preparatory technique. in particular it was an effective means of improving orthography (p = 0.048), pronunciation (p < 0.000) as well as general oral skills (p = 0.024) as proscribed by the fce examination criteria. it was also statistically more efficient than a traditional exam preparation course, for (anova f value) orthography = 4.21, pronunciation = 20.93 and general oral skills = 5.59. while the sample was small, the results were statistically robust and as far as possible, avoided statistical type 2 errors. we believe that the results could be the basis of more widespread phonics/prosody based empirical tests for a wider l2 population. despite the efficacy of the meta-cognitive approach to teach phonics patterns for our older subjects, we would suggest that research is carried out on a younger age group (primary school) of l2 english learners to overcome phonologically difficult areas such as allophone recognition. efficacy in phonics based instruction in esl coates, gorham & nichols no. 15 (july december, 2017) no. 15 (july december, 2017) 53 in general terms, we showed that within the scope of this trial, a relatively short twenty-hour teaching course did have significant results in improving not only pg and gp decoding skills, but also improved the fce interview skills of discourse, pronunciation and lexis. this would indicate, if replicable on a large scale, that attention to l1 interference of phonemic recognition could make a significant impact in the english l2 learning classroom. furthermore, this improvement was not linked to the relatively short learning window that phonics techniques are usually taught in the l1. by using the meta-cognitive ability as defined in this study of recognising phonics patterns, our 17/18 year olds significantly improved their l2 performance, even when linked to a general language test such as the fce. given the widespread nature of phonics l1 teaching, the decoding material used is both plentiful and free available on-line. the only real challenge is to adapt this material to a cognitively older age group. thus, even a small amount of instruction in de-coding skills and attention to l1 interference can lead to significant improves, at least for languages such as italian (and possibly spanish), where english phonics patterns different considerably. research drawbacks as we have mentioned, the small size of the samples was the principal drawback of this study, especially for the control cohort (originally n = 17). the dropout rate from the control reduced the power of the control’s significance, although not that of the trial cohort results. given that we aimed to test the viability of applying this method for other experimental settings rather than wanting to prove the general viability of the method, we believe that the sample was sufficient. we are presently working on classes with obligatory attendance, which would further alleviate this problem. according to winter (2013), it is not the size of the sample which is crucial, but rather the avoidance of type 2 statistical errors which is the principal test of robustness. here, our main concern was to eliminate these errors. the relative small size of the control group did not affect the efficacy of the trial techniques. the only factor that we believe could have negatively affected the results, was the relative efficacy of each of the teachers. in a larger study, we hope to be able to supply guidelines to other l2 teacher in order to eliminate this variable and test the hypothesis on a wider scale, excluding any teacher specific influence. the repeatability of the techniques could also be a point of contention. the errors of trying to apply a universal standard was amply demonstrated in the controversy of applying l1 phonics efficacy in phonics based instruction in esl coates, gorham & nichols no. 15 (july december, 2017) no. 15 (july december, 2017) 54 techniques in england after government intervention (stuart, 2005) rather than relying on teacher interpretation of techniques as shown in the clackmannanshire study (ellis, 2007). however, we believe that the development of materials and the efficacy of prosodic erp techniques as shown here, need to be understood fully in order to confirm the neurological findings in hensch (in bardin, 2012), nickels et al. 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(2006) learning second language suprasegmentals: effect of l2 experience on prosody and fluency characteristics of l2 speech, studies in second language acquisition, volume 28 / issue 01 / march 2006, pp 1-30 ur, p. (2012). a course in language teaching: practice and theory: cambridge, cambridge university press, venezki, r . l, (1999) the american way of spelling: the structure and origins of american english orthography, the guilford press, new york. winter j c f. (2013). using the student’s t-test with extremely small sample sizes, practical assessment research and evaluation, vol. 18, n. 10, 1-12. wong, r. (1993). pronunciation myths and facts. english teaching forum oct. 1993, 45-46. zang, w. (2009) semantic prosody and esl/efl vocabulary pedagogy tesl canada journal, vol. 26, issue 2, 2009 efficacy in phonics based instruction in esl coates, gorham & nichols no. 15 (july december, 2017) no. 15 (july december, 2017) 60 authors *robert coates graduated from edinburgh university, with a general arts degree followed by an m.a. in history, i subsequently gained an m.a tesol from sunderland university (uk) in 2014. i worked at brescia university, initially in the medical faculty teaching medical english, where i started cooperating with various medical doctors in publishing articles in medical journals as a medical writer. this led to my first esp research area of medical publishing in english. my interest in using medical approaches to linguistic studies particularly for empirical research, stemmed from early interest. subsequently, following my ma tesol, i became interested in learning strategies both at schools and for older students. given the widespread use of phonics for l1 teaching, i was particularly interested in the possibility of applying these techniques to l2 teaching, both for children and for older students. again, contact with both psychologists and neurologist cultivated a strong interest in ‘cross-fertilized’ research, applying findings from medicine in linguistics. judith gorham after graduating in fine art from newcastle university. i took a pgce before coming to italy to teach at the british council in 2000. i took the delta in 2002 and worked in the tertiary sector in northern italy. i have been teaching at bocconi university for 15 years while currently finishing an ma in education (applied linguistics) from the open university. i am interested in systemic functional linguistics and currently working on english as a medium of instruction in italian universities. richard nicholas holds an ma tesol from university college london and teaches at the università commerciale luigi bocconi, in milan, italy. he has worked for over 15 years in the field of english language training, development and assessment. his interests lie mainly in the socio-economic and geopolitical relationships which influence the teaching of english as well as second language acquisition. efficacy in phonics based instruction in esl coates, gorham & nichols no. 15 (july december, 2017) no. 15 (july december, 2017) 61 appendix 1. the english phonemic vowel chart efficacy in phonics based instruction in esl coates, gorham & nichols no. 15 (july december, 2017) no. 15 (july december, 2017) 62 appendix 2 pre and post tests calini preliminary language test phonics: teacher’s copy. short vowels /ae/ the black cat is sitting there next to her bag. / ɛ / let me have a look at your pet dog. can it beg? / ɪ / please sit down here on the seat. there is a bit of cake and you can sip the water. / ɑ / what have you got! please don’t eat it from the pot as it is very hot! / ^ / the rugby ball is in the tub, can you take it to the club. after v’ / ə / i do love wearing my gloves in winter, they’re as hot as an oven. before th’ /ə / and / ɑ/mother and father sat together with their brothers. / ɪ / compared with / i / you must always sit on your seat, see your shoes fit your feet correctly. long vowels two vowels / i / there is a lot of meat here. take a seat and we can decide how to eat it. / e / the house was very plain and uninteresting. its main attraction was its garden, which i’d like to see again. / o / would you like to come on my boat. don’t worry it floats but you will need a rain coat. /aj / last night i had a fright. i saw a mighty dog bite a man. double vowels / ʊ / look out! you nearly put your foot onto my new book. magic ‘e’ / e / this is my mate. we were both very late last night and missed our train. i /cons/ e / aj / the sun rises at five in the morning. we can then drive in our car. efficacy in phonics based instruction in esl coates, gorham & nichols no. 15 (july december, 2017) no. 15 (july december, 2017) 63 u/(con)/e / u / you must follow the rules and not be rude especially in june. consonants and vowels and grammatical morphemes /a:/¬+ r /ɑr/ shall we take the car? it’s not so far but we can stop afterwards. w +/o:/. / ər / this world would be nice if we didn’t have to work so much /h/ the huntingdon hotel has a horse on a sign over the door. /-ed/ he studied so much and learned so little because he liked to say he had finished the course. /-er/ / ə / (schwa) did you know that his father is a computer expert and his sister is a teacher. /wa/were/ –/ wə/what did you say they were? i said that one was a wasp not a bee. /-ing/ / ŋ/ he was singing a tune and playing along while the teacher was bringing the class to an end. /s/ /z/ there are several reasons for why he says you want some flowers digraphs and various blends or combinations /th/ / ð / that is the first question. you must then move to the second one. /th/ /θ/ thank you very much for thinking about the cloth for the dress. /sh/ / ʃ/ i wish you would brush the shampoo out of your hair. /ch/ / tʃ/ there is an old church, where the french play chess in the afternoon. /ph/. /f/ the photographer was taking pictures and framing them on the wall for the physician. /wh/ /w/ when will we be able to whistle the new tune? while it is still winter i hope? / dʒ / you need a sponge to wipe down the mess made by the orange / ə/ the money that the company raised was enough to go to london. (typical error) . . indicates tested lexis efficacy in phonics based instruction in esl coates, gorham & nichols no. 15 (july december, 2017) no. 15 (july december, 2017) 64 calini preliminary language post test phonics short vowels /ae/ the fat man had a very impressive lap-top computer / ɛ / the ten stones were set in silver and belong to ben . / ɪ / he decided it was a good fit for his thin build, so he bought the pin-stripped jacket. / ɑ / can you mop the floor and stop complaining. its not hard! / ^ / it will be great fun! i don’t want to run in so much mud. after v’ / ə / we discovered a plane above us despite the cloud cover before th’ / ə / and / ɑ/don’t smother the taste, it will be a bother to make another. / ɪ / compared with / i / you will feel the heat if you hit the cup too much. just fill it please. long vowels two vowels / i / it was a grey and bleak day on the beach, but we wanted to watch the sea. / e / the train was travelling fast across the plain, which we didn’t do again. / o / there was a funny goat, which was eating oats and moaning. /aj / it was quite a sight! a fight between the black knight and a dragon. double vowels / ʊ / what a fool! he nearly broke the stool by the swimming pool. magic ‘e’ / e / it was fate that she would be late and missed the main plate of the evening. i /cons/ e / aj / you must write down your name to say your grandmother is alive and smiles a lot. u/(con)/e / u / you can take the tube in london and use your ticket, it makes pure sense. consonants and vowels and grammatical morphemes /a:/ + r /ɑr/ the army used a special gun so as not to harm the shark. w +/o:/, / ər / this word is worth a lot in the exam. it works a lot. /h/ the harm that a hamster can do is more than half its value. efficacy in phonics based instruction in esl coates, gorham & nichols no. 15 (july december, 2017) no. 15 (july december, 2017) 65 /ed/ he showed that he had received the box as it was packaged in plastic. /-er/ / ə / (schwa) the manager helped me to show the expert her place. /wa/were/ –/ wə/it was a warm day so the swarm of bees moved towards the hive.. /-ing/ / ŋ/the bell was ringing as he had wrung it with all his strength. /s/ /s/ /z/ stones will help the waves break. the bygone then crashes on the beach digraphs and various blends or combinations /th// ð / there was a difficult silence as the stranger then moved across the room. /th//θ/thanks-giving is celebrated in thirteen states, throughout the world. /sh/ / ʃ/ he was very shy but silly, shameless but not stupid. /ch/ / / tʃ/ much has been said about the difference between chilling wine and cooling it. /ph/. /. /f/ philosophy was studied previous to physics, but after maths preparation. /wh/ /w/ can you tell me whether it will be good or bad and when the weather will improve? / dʒ / the cartoon character was bright orange and the shape of a square sponge. / ə/i thought the honey was well worth the money we spent in london. efficacy in phonics based instruction in esl coates, gorham & nichols no. 15 (july december, 2017) no. 15 (july december, 2017) 66 appendix 3 summary of lesson content with web-site addresses 5. summary of lesson content and web links in appendix 3. 1. short vowels/cvc rule. allophone recognition /difficulty to recognize/repeat as a contrast in following lessons (here contrasted to long cv pronouns). ‘short vowel song’ video posted to https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4tjct7gto3u and https:// www.youtube.com/watch?v=hnvhx3vk1jg , simple and reverse dictations, students asked to write and then read their own dictations; peer corrected/teacher controlled 2. long vowels (contrasted with short vowels). minimal pairs to underline difference/introduction of ‘magic e vowels – elicit rule. word invention (included nonsense words). ‘magic e song’ video posted to https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bzhl6ycrxzq long vowels and double vowels (contrasted with short vowels (cvvc). minimal pair games/ gap fillers / dictations omega and alpha. ‘when two vowels go a walking song’ video posted to (https://www. youtube.com/watch?v=7fb3pdt8kxg) 3. introduction: film daunbailò (down by law) jim jarmusch (1986), video posted to https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7rk3s_bp9ke, elicit use of homophones (‘i scream for ice scream’), pelmonism and elicitation of homophone categories – peer correction to reinforce meta-cognitive approach, dictations. 4. v’ rule/ ou/ other long and short vowel contrasts. vrule silent approach (mime followed by eliciting of rule followed by reinforcing the activity with beatles’ ‘all you need is love’, song, video posted to https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cletgrurtjo. 5. consonants: grammar morphemes -ing/-ed/-s/’ve/. to underline phoneme/grapheme correspondences. (noughts and crosses) – peer review correction of pronunciation (and grammar use) – students able to convert high degree of language use to phonics groups. also limited use of phonetics (especially for -gn/ng) –activating grammar –translation knowledge to transfer to meta-cognitive rules. (introduction of schwa) 6. digraphs, wh-/th-/gh-/kn-/phintroduction again of homophones to create phonics patterns. concepts of types of words e.g., wh questions, ph –scientific various –gh for function words and adjectives. peer reviews to create a meta-cognitive framework. efficacy in phonics based instruction in esl coates, gorham & nichols no. 15 (july december, 2017) no. 15 (july december, 2017) 67 ‘the digraph song’. video posted to https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=bfq2g_azw4c 7. consonants changing vowels r/ wcar/word/work/. introduced from –gh digraph. dictations from hornsby-students elicit rules. recognition of word groups from fce reading exercises. 8. consolidation – creation of word family tables e.g., nouns: -ment, -er/or,-tion, -ology, adjectives: al/-ical, adverbs: – ly prefixes/ suffixes for word recognition: pre-, un-, disetc.. round of prosodic activities based on web phonics exercises: 10. final test and individual feedback given to students. efficacy in phonics based instruction in esl coates, gorham & nichols no. 15 (july december, 2017) no. 15 (july december, 2017) �3 reading comprehension from a first to a second language florencia montes, b.a. maría patricia botero, b.sc. tracy pechthalt, b.a. abstract/resumen the purpose of this action research paper is to disseminate the results of a 2-month study which focuses on how a student’s first language (l1) reading comprehension skills affect the same skills in their second language (l2). the subjects of the study are sixth grade girls, ranging in age from 11 to 13 years old. they attend a private bilingual school in bogotá, colombia. the school instructs young people mostly from the higher socio-economic population. outcomes presented are correlated with both established theories and research. el objetivo de este trabajo de investigación activa es difundir los resultados de un estudio de 2 meses realizado a estudiantes con el fin de dilucidar la manera en que las habilidades de comprensión de lectura de la primera lengua (l1) afectan estas mismas destrezas en la segunda lengua (l2). los sujetos de esta investigación son adolescentes entre los 11 y 13 años de edad quienes cursan sexto de secundaria en un colegio bilingüe de estrato socio-económico alto ubicado en la ciudad de building background �� bogotá, colombia. los resultados descritos se correlacionan con teorías e investigaciones establecidas. keywords/palabras claves: reading comprehension, literacy, competency, transference, assessment; comprensión de lectura, alfabetismo, competencia, transferencia, evaluación introduction the research presented focuses on the important and significant influence of a student’s l1 (spanish) on the reading comprehension process of their l2 (english). although the students under research were sixth grade schoolgirls, the principles involve learners of all ages. students of all levels of maturity build, broaden, and strengthen their l1 by acquiring new vocabulary and developing reading comprehension skills. it makes sense to suppose that those same skills are transferred to reading comprehension abilities in their l2, but only scientific experimentation can verify the hypothesis. as skill transference takes place, learners begin to enjoy much more the process of reading, often discovering that it may be done for pleasurable as well as academic purposes. this joy of reading also develops because, as one begins to really comprehend a literary piece, one more easily relates it to prior learning, background experience and knowledge. a strong concern and interest among teachers is for this to occur more frequently and to a larger number of their students. since literacy is essential to intellectual development, this action research project investigates how the development of one’s l1 affects the reading comprehension process in one’s l2. the research was carried out at a high socio-economic profile private school in bogotá, colombia during the months of february and march of 2009. it is an all-girls catholic school offering grades k-12 and was established 45 years ago by benedictine nuns from the united states. most students from the school have had opportunities to travel abroad, participate in summer camps and school-sponsored international education programs with emphases in the english language. this international educational experience is for fifth graders and has an 80% participation rate. in elementary school (first to fifth-grade), students are involved in an immersion program with math, science and social studies being taught in english.1 when they arrive at high school (sixth to eleventh-grade), students only receive english and english speech classes in english. 1 the statement is true, with one exception: the colombian history social studies class, which is taught in spanish. reading comprehension montes, botero & pechthalt �� this is done to ensure an in depth understanding of the more difficult content in other subjects. the number of students per classroom ranges from 20 to 30. there are usually 3 groups per grade. at the start of a student’s experience, in the nursery school program, girls are randomly assigned to a group. every year those groups are reorganized trying to get a positive balance of achievement and behavior, taking friendship groupings into account as well as recommendations from teachers, psychologists and parents. the particular group selected to participate in the study was group 6b. twenty-nine energetic girls were in the group. their ages ranged from 11 to 13 years old. they represented a third of the sixth-grade student population. area of focus statement the purpose of this study is to describe the effects of l1 (spanish) reading comprehension on l2 (english) reading comprehension in sixth grade students at an all-girls catholic school in bogotá, colombia. research question how does l1 reading comprehension affect l2 reading comprehension? theoretical framework there is a growing number of english language learners (ells) who are experiencing difficulties in reading comprehension more than any other linguistic skill. many struggle during the reading process with how to decipher a text in english, grasping isolated bits which, in the end, are not harmonized. understanding where these difficulties originate in order to design a smooth pedagogical transition from l1 to l2 would allow teachers to give considerable assistance to their ells. understanding how one’s l1 skills influence or transfer to one’s l2 development, especially during the reading comprehension process, is a key for improving ell performance. the researchers of this study supposed that an ell’s competence in l1 reading comprehension affects or transfers to competency in l2 reading comprehension. the theorists and theories which supported that idea were both james cummins (the threshold theory as well as the developmental interdependence theory), as well as virginia collier and wayne thomas (the prism model). the study refers to a student’s first language as l1, and second language as l2, terms found in the glossary of tefl acronyms (2008). for this study, reading comprehension will be defined as a process for constructing meaning (fountas & pinell, 1991). during the reading process, readers try to understand the text and the world. comprehension is essential in reading comprehension montes, botero & pechthalt �� constructing the foundation of the self-extending system (fountas & pinell, 1991); a system that is constantly growing and improving, consequently empowering the reader to continue in the process of learning. a reader’s understanding of the text is influenced by background knowledge, expectation to make sense out of the text, and the meaning the student seeks to unravel. before reading, the reader’s predictions and anticipation of the text marks the onset of reading comprehension. this will continue after reading begins as the student applies personal experience and expands upon it (fountas & pinnell, 1991). the threshold theory cummins’ threshold theory proposes that the degree to which bilingualism is developed in a child will trigger either positive or negative cognitive consequences (ahearn et al., 2002). the theory has been portrayed as a 3-floor house separated by 2 thresholds or levels (see figure 1). figure 1. an illustration of j. cummins’ threshold theory. the first floor represents students with below age-level bilingual competence resulting in negative cognitive effects with bilingualism (ahearn et al., 2002). this is known as either subtractive bilingualism or semi-lingualism. by these terms we mean to say that the students lack the vocabulary, abstract thinking and other cognitive aspects of the language (cummins, 1979). as for the second floor of the threshold theory, cummins suggests that children with age-level proficiency in at least one of the two languages might experience both positive and negative cognitive effects (ahearn, childs-bowen, coady et al., 2002), which is what he called dominant bilingualism (cummins, 1979). the third floor (which is also the top floor) symbolizes children with age-level competency or proficiency in both languages enjoying positive cognitive, reading comprehension montes, botero & pechthalt �� linguistic and academic advantages in bilingualism (ahearn et al., 2002), referred to as additive bilingualism (cummins, 1979). the common underlying proficiency theory from cummins’ theory another originated, the developmental interdependence theory, also known as the cup or common underlying proficiency theory (cummins, 1992). with it, cummins proposes that there is a shared operating system between l1 and l2, the cup. he believes that a child develops a set of skills and knowledge, the cup, from which he draws when learning an l2. this underlying proficiency is the base and foundation which supports the development of l1 and l2 or any additional languages. the l1 and l2 have also been illustrated as dual icebergs, joined together underwater by the cup (ahearn et al., 2002). what these icebergs show is that the cup of l1 unites and completes the underlying knowledge of a child’s l2 (shoebottom, 1996). what cummins illustrates is that if an ell has fully developed a conceptual framework or conceptual abilities in his l1, these concepts are, in great part, shared with those of the l2 (cummins, 1992). therefore, a child should not have to work as hard relearning concepts, but can concentrate only on adding a new label, or renaming the concept in the l2 (shoebottom, 1996). cummins believes literacy proficiency and academic skills in l1 transfer to l2 (cummins, 1992). he says that to the degree that l1instruction is effective in supporting l1proficiency, transfer of proficiency to l2 can occur, but only if there is an appropriate exposure to the l2 as well as appropriate stimulation to learn it (cummins, 1998). the prism model wayne thomas and virginia collier’s prism model is closely related to cummins’ theory on the interdependence of the first and second language. the prism model explains the developmental processes children go through when acquiring an l2, and the need to be supported at school. the prism model consists of 4 major components that promote language acquisition: socio-cultural, linguistic, academic and cognitive. at the heart of the prism is the ell whose learning is influenced by socio-cultural processes (collier & thomas, 2007). reading comprehension montes, botero & pechthalt �8 figure 2. the prism model. the socio-cultural processes are emotional, social and cultural factors that may inhibit or enhance a student’s l2 learning. particularly, a supportive home environment will help the ell to successfully transfer academic language proficiency in the l1 to academic language proficiency in the l2 (collier, 1996). the linguistic component is closely related to the ell’s language development (collier & thomas, 2007). it “targets four literacy domains of listening, speaking, reading, and writing” (collier, 1996, p. 1). it is the subconscious and formal teaching of language. a student’s highly developed oral and written system in the l1 will trigger cognitive success in the l2. the third component, the academic component, argues that the ell’s academic development in the l1 will immediately transfer to the student’s l2. the final component of the prism model is the cognitive component. this represents an ongoing process that begins from birth and extends beyond schooling. first language and l2 cognitive developments guarantee academic success in the student’s l2. these 4 components or processes are both interconnected and interdependent, through l1 and l2 (collier & thomas, 2007). numerous theories have been disproved while others have survived the criticism of their opponents. cummins, in spite of criticism, has been able to explain the influence and transfer of l1 to l2 (cummins, 1998). beneath the superficial language features (the “tips” of the icebergs) lies a great common operating system that needs to be expanded and nurtured if it is expected that ells are to experience the long-term positive effects of bilingualism. it can be assumed in this study based on cummins, collier and thomas’ theories, that a sturdy l1 academic and language framework is the cornerstone for bilingual and cognitive success in l2. it may also be assumed that the ell’s proficiency in l1 reading comprehension montes, botero & pechthalt �9 reading comprehension affects or transfers to competence in l2 reading comprehension. review of related literature for centuries, but especially in the present post-modern era of globalization, grade-school teachers, university professors, researchers and institutions in the field of language education have been challenged to develop efficient l2 programs. one of the recurring inquiries expressed by such professionals has been with reference to the transference of reading strategies from a native language to the l2. in order to compare the related studies to the investigation at hand, a thorough literature review is presented. the review is organized according to 4 variables or areas of focus, which can be seen in the following 4 headings: the transference of literacy knowledge strategies from l1 to l2 watkins-goffman and cummings (1997) researched the context in which dominican ells acquire l1 literacy (reading and writing skills) in order to improve english instruction. they found that a high literacy in l1 increased l2 content area comprehension. rivera (1999) found similar results in her research about the role of l1 literacy in ells. when describing the foundations of native language and literacy improvement, she mentions the results of two studies, one with adults and another with children. these results indicated that second language learners’ reading ability in their l1 facilitates and supports the learning and reading processes of an l2. regardless of the students’ age and first language, a transfer of literacy skills from l1 to l2 was observed and described. she concludes that l1 increases l2 reading comprehension because it provides strategies and foundations to read l2 texts. in conclusion, the research cited on bilingual education validates the helping role which l1 literacy represents in the learning and reading processes of an sll (watkins-goffman & cummings, 1997; rivera, 1999). the influence of l1 and l2 proficiency level in l2 reading comprehension multiple studies indicate that intermediate and high proficiency l2 readers have the ability to identify ways to apply reading strategies during reading (rivera, 1999; kong, 2006). moreover, these studies specify that while successful l1 and l2 readers applied meta-cognitive and cognitive reading strategies, the less effective readers had difficulties or lacked the ability to do so (mckeown & gentilucci, 2007; avalos, 2003; butler & hakuta, 2006). thus, the researchers conclude that the bilingual student readers’ l1 proficiency level either enhances or diminishes the l2 reading comprehension process. similarly, singhal (2001) describes hosenfeld’s reading comprehension montes, botero & pechthalt �0 study in which a relationship was identified between the use of reading strategies and the l2 proficiency level. as in mckeown and gentilucci’s (2007) study, it was indicated that while reading, the successful reader ignored unimportant words, never lost the meaning of the text, and read using a holistic strategy. however, the unsuccessful reader demonstrated the opposite reading behaviors. since their attention was focused on decoding and understanding words, the meaning of the text as a whole vanished. highly proficient slls applied reading strategies more, and with greater frequency and effectiveness than the low-proficiency readers. readers who had a high proficiency level in l1 also developed a high proficiency level in l2 and transferred the reading strategies from l1 to l2, improving their reading comprehension process in l2. l1 as a teaching strategy and tool to improve l2 reading comprehension watkins-goffman and cummings (1997) and rivera (1999) concluded that when bilingual students’ l1 literacy, experiences, cultural and social backgrounds were considered for instruction, there was improvement in their l2 literacy. these researchers concluded that instructional programs that focused on making meaning out of l2 texts, benefitted by incorporating the learners’ native tongue because students’ l1 strengths and strategies were transferred to the english (l2) reading comprehension process. mckeown and gentilucci (2007) concluded that the success of thinkaloud strategies in ells depends on their l1 and english (l2) language proficiency. they state that while reading, low-intermediate english learners are focused on decoding: the mechanics of reading. on the other hand, proficient readers have reached a level of linguistic development in l1 adequate enough for building up metacognitive strategies (schema, predicting, inferring, etc.) in an l2 content area (such as social studies or science) reading comprehension. avalos suggested some instructional strategies. he recognized that proficient l1 and l2 readers had the necessary literacy level to be taught the l2 strategy of “reading to learn rather than learning to read” (2003, p. 195). therefore, the instruction of these students could be oriented towards the development of new academic, cognitive and reading skills. additionally, avalos cites cummins’ and krashen’s statements about the benefits of extensive l2 reading in bilingual students. that is, he also recognizes that readers who interact with large amounts and varieties of texts “have access to the low-frequency vocabulary and grammatical structures found in texts, as opposed to the high-frequency vocabulary and syntax of everyday conversational language” (2003, p. 175). these studies concluded by stating that bilingual instruction should not only be reading comprehension montes, botero & pechthalt �1 oriented towards the improvement of l2 literacy skills, but also towards that of l1 literacy skills (avalos, 2003; haritos & nelson, 2001). cognitive factors involved in l1 & l2 reading comprehension mckeown and gentilucci (2007) described the effects of the thinkaloud srategy on l2 content-area reading comprehension in middle school students. to explain their study, the researchers defined the concept of meta-cognition as the mental process readers assume while reading, a process which consists of both thinking and being aware of their own (reading and thinking) processes. the think-aloud strategy is explained as a method that activates meta-cognition and thus increases the reading comprehension of slls. the purpose of the think-aloud strategy is to assist l2 learners in the application of monitoring (self-regulating) strategies to increase their l2 reading comprehension. mckeown and gentilucci concluded that in a middle school social studies class they had researched, the intermediate english learners had success with think-aloud strategies because they had reached an adequate linguistic development in l1 to build up meta-cognitive comprehension strategies in l2. butler and hakuta (2006) described the similarities and differences in cognitive and meta-cognitive skills of l2 and native english (ne) elementary students. they found that ne students and ells with high literacy levels had similar reading skills and behaviors. also, the same traits were found among the struggling readers in both groups. according to the authors, these results confirm the connection between the cognitive and meta-cognitive competencies and the reading comprehension process. when reading an english text, the receptive vocabulary size and the vocabulary related skills were the only differences between ne students and ells. august (2006) identifies and describes the factors involved in the acquisition of l2 reading strategies in adults. he concludes that the cognitive processes which take place during adult l2 reading are different from those of children. this confirms the importance of taking into account the age variable in bilingual students. like singhal (2001), august explains that adults have developed higher-level thinking skills, have learned reading strategies, and have had more personal and academic experiences in l1 to which they can refer to as a means to understand an l2 text. on the other hand, children’s cognitive and academic development as well as their social and emotional experiences (both in l1 and l2) are still in the process of being established. in addition to the research purposes, this study attempts to identify teaching, learning and cognitive strategies that could improve the acquisition of english as a second language in the native spanish speakers reading comprehension montes, botero & pechthalt �2 who are the object of the study. the existence of a transference process will be determined through the study of l1 and l2 reading comprehension processes. taking into account the research already carried out, it was predicted that l1 reading comprehension would positively influence l2 reading comprehension. the researchers admit their pre-research theorization that second language learners would refer to their l1 (spanish) in order to improve reading comprehension in l2 (english). data collection for this study, the main sources of data were collected from the students themselves as well as their spanish and english teachers. both existing records and new records were taken into account. data sources several data collection tools and techniques were used. first, existing records were examined: the first semester grades. first semester grades specifically include 2 sets of grades, 1 from the first grading period (the first bimester) and the other from the second grading period (second bimester). the records that were used included first semester (augustdecember 2008) reading comprehension grades and final grades in spanish. when asking for the spanish grades, a short informal interview was conducted with the spanish teacher to better understand her grading system and the skills that were evaluated. additionally, the first semester reading comprehension (rc) grades and final grades in english were used. the english teacher was a participant in the study; therefore, no further interviews were needed. new records were established by having the students read identical rc passage assessments followed by a set of multiple-choice rc questions. the students were purposefully given the reading passages in english first, then in spanish. the spanish and english grades gathered were later compared on a matrix. this crosscheck was done to see if grades increased, decreased or remained the same. the rc passage assessment grades were also taken into consideration in the matrix. next, inquiries were made by having the students answer 2 questionnaires about their reading behaviors. one questionnaire used closed questions and the other used open-ended questions. on a smaller matrix, the results from the 2 questionnaires were compared. it focused on the 4 most important questions from the short answer questionnaire and a summary of their answers from the open-ended questionnaire. this second matrix focused on the students whose patterns were not clear. finally, a video was made of 3 students. these were specifically chosen to represent an a, a b, and a c-or-lower student, based on the results of the previous information gathered. they were given a prereading comprehension montes, botero & pechthalt �3 selected text to read aloud. the purpose of the oral experiment was to observe their reading behaviors. for instance, researchers observed what students would do when they encountered a word they didn’t know or couldn’t pronounce. the researcher watched to see if pupils were resigned to use l1 phonology or their l1 base to make observable transfers. immediately after the reading, they were also tested orally on their comprehension. data analysis and interpretation as a result of the analysis, several general themes on the class level emerged: general classroom level analysis first, an overall analysis of the spanish and english grades at the classroom level was carried out. then, an overall analysis of the results of the 2 english and the 2 spanish assessment passages was done. next, we summarized the students’ self assessment questionnaire about their rc in l1 and l2. finally, a summary of the long-answer questionnaire was written about writing behaviors by using coding while looking for themes to emerge. at that point, the researcher felt like the analysis was still not producing a specific answer to the research question. as additional support, 3 students were videotaped and observed while reading the same selection aloud followed by rc questions. to gather more insight, the preschool and primary school directors and the sixth-grade spanish teacher were interviewed. step 1: individual student analysis. after a 1-on-1 session, the instructor helped a researcher realize that she didn’t need more data sources, but only needed to do a deeper analysis of the data that had already been collected. instead of doing the analysis at the classroom level and generalizing, the decision was made to do the analysis at the individual student level and combine the 3 most valid data sources. those sources were the first semester spanish and english grades and the rc assessment grade. the analysis was to compare the first and second english grading periods (which make up the first semester grades) as well as the spanish grades to see if they increased, decreased, or stayed the same; then to compare school grades with the rc assessment grade and evaluate whether they produced a pattern. this comparison was done on one large matrix. additionally, the first period spanish grades were compared to the english grades. this same analysis was done for the second period spanish and english grades to confirm a pattern. reading comprehension montes, botero & pechthalt �� comparing first to second grading period changes in spanish and english grades. there were 5/29 students whose grade decreased in spanish and 3/29 whose english grade decreased during the second grading period. one might assume that 3 of the 5 were the same students, however, the researchers found that 2 went down in spanish, but up in english; 2 went down in spanish, but stayed the same in english; 1 went down in both spanish and english. therefore only 1 followed the pattern of l1 affecting l2. these grades show no definite pattern. it could be assumed that when the spanish grade went down and the english grade went up, that the students were putting more effort into the english class and less into the spanish class, or that the content in spanish was harder and the english content was easier. a final analysis can only presume that there were outside and individual circumstances that caused these random changes. comparing individual student’s spanish grades to their english grades. in plain terms, what is being sought is the answer to the issue of whether a student is an a student in spanish, is she also an a student in english? if she is a b student in spanish, is she also a b student in english?, and so forth. the analysis shows that 17 students had the same spanish and english grades the first period and also 17 students had the same grades in spanish and english the second period. the question is, were they the same 17 students? it was found that they were not exactly the same. thirteen students that were b students in spanish during the first grading period were also b students in english. four students that were c students in spanish were c students in english. in the second grading period, only 6 out of 13 b students were the same students that maintained the same grades in both spanish and english. only 3 out of 4 c students remained the same during the second grading period. the other 7 b students all went up in english; only 1 went down. these findings support the prediction that the content in english is easier than the content in spanish. the findings also support the theory that their progress in l1 helped them excel in l2. comparing rc assessment results with first and second period grades in english and spanish. the assumption that the results of a student who had high grades in spanish and english was that she would also have a high score on the rc assessment. as the curtain unfolded, the expected pattern emerged. the girls with high first semester grades in both l1 and l2 had high scores on the rc assessment (usually 5/5 correct). one observation was surprising. four consistently low-mark students in l1 and l2 had high scores on the rc assessment. the researchers found no explanation for this phenomenon. the other element that was confirmed was that students who showed a lower l1 and higher l2 throughout their grading history tend to show the same on the rc reading comprehension montes, botero & pechthalt �� assessment: they scored better on the english version than the spanish version. the students who have the same grades in l1 and l2 seem to score exactly the same on both the english and spanish versions of the assessment. again, all these previously mentioned patterns support the theories in the review of literature. step 2 of individual student analysis: small matrix. secondly, a smaller matrix was made based on the 4 most important questions from the short answer questionnaire and a summary of the students’ comments from the long open-ended question questionnaire. this matrix focused on the students whose patterns were not quite clear. recommendations for these students were also made. the patterns that evolved allowed researchers to move closer to answering their questions. short matrix: 4 main questions from short questionnaire and comments from long questionnaire. students who excel in both l1 and l2 expressed a love for reading and had a positive attitude for reading in both languages. they expressed that through reading they had developed a larger vocabulary, expanded their cultural and academic knowledge, and felt that their general comprehension on varied topics more fluent. it can be seen that students who had a high l1 and a low l2 in the first grading period improved their l2 in the second grading period. this improvement is explained by their attitude towards reading. they read in l1 and l2 for school, but enjoy reading in l2 for pleasure. the authors believe that recreational reading in l2 is a major reason for rc improvement in l2. this is particularly seen in 2 students who expressed their enjoyment reading in l2. (they reported that such pleasure was due to their delight in reading magazines and novels which highlight teenage issues). students who have a high l1 and a low l2 usually read for pleasure in l1. it was recommended that they begin looking for interesting short articles to read in l2 with the hope that their l2 grades would see improvement. even though this part of the study was only designed for looking at and focusing on the students whose patterns were not quite clear, the researchers decided to look at a few consistently low students and a few consistently high students to see what their opinions were about reading. there was a particular concern for one student who consistently has low grades and who scored poorly on the rc assessment. this particular student’s self-evaluation of her reading behaviors is devastating. she doesn’t like to read in either l1 or l2 and only reads when somebody obligates her. she reported that she might read when there is absolutely nothing else to do. she would like to read faster, but doesn’t think anyone can help her. she consistently requires personalized motivation and attention from others. reading comprehension montes, botero & pechthalt �� the video recordings of one a student, one b student and one c student confirmed several points. first, reading aloud made comprehension more difficult. students focused so much on pronunciation, intonation and fluency that they lost the semantics of the readings. new vocabulary was introduced, making comprehension even more difficult. for instance, the word quarter, not previously part of their lexicon, produced some difficulties. students were less likely to answer the questions that pertained to the last part of the reading, probably because they were less focused at that point, being fatigued from the work. at times their pronunciation was poor, but this did not adversely affect rc. overall, the a students answered more questions correctly, precisely and quickly. after an interview with the primary school director, we concluded that the academic structure of the school strongly supports the threshold theory. the students are receiving a firm foundation in their l1, while living and socializing in their l1 environment. the immersion in l2 in grades 1-5 is not overwhelming for students because they have such a broad, solid base in their l1 upon which they are able to build a solid comprehension of l2. by fifth grade they are ready to successfully spend a month in canada and come back feeling confident about their l2. this experience is later reinforced in grades 8-10 when the students are encouraged to travel to england. also, their social background allows them the privilege to frequently travel to the us on vacation where they again have the opportunity to use their l2 in a native english-language environment. these international experiences, whether sponsored by the school or family, support the prism theory’s socio-cultural aspect. findings there is a correlation between the first and second grading period spanish grades and the same grades in english. in step number 1 of the analysis, a correlation between the first grading period spanish grades and the first grading period english grades was found. each student had almost exactly the same grade in english as in spanish. it was as if the sixth grade english teacher had conferred with the sixth grade spanish teacher to give the same grade, when in truth the english teacher had never spoken to the spanish teacher before this research project. they didn’t even know each other, personally or professionally. this realization led to a strong recommendation (included the section entitled action plan). additionally, based on the same comparison of the first grading period spanish and english grades, it was found that 17/29 students had exactly the same grade in english as in spanish, 9 english grades were 1 grade higher than the spanish grades and only 3 spanish grades were higher. for the 2nd grading period grades, it was again found that 17/29 students had exactly the same grade in english as in spanish, 12 english reading comprehension montes, botero & pechthalt �� grades were 1 grade higher than the spanish grades, and no spanish grades were higher than the english grades. these findings heavily support cummins, collier and thomas’ theories and related studies done by watkins-goffman and rivera, that a student’s l1 is strongly connected to a student’s l2. the reason why 9 students had a higher english grade than spanish grade is most likely due to the school’s policy of deliberately maintaining the l2 (english) one grade level behind the l1 (spanish), therefore, it is not as academically challenging as their l1. action plan and recommendations considering the conclusions and findings, it is recommended that the following steps be taken: first, as a general recommendation, it is extremely important for grade-level teachers in all subjects to know each other in order to interact. some may already do this because they know each other on a personal level, but the practice should be made deliberate. at the school which is participating in the research, employees seem to be very departmentally (or “vertically”) focused. the researchers observed that teachers were satisfied with a “vertical alignment.” through an institutional selfevaluation carried out for the accreditation process, it had already been observed that a horizontal alignment is lacking in teachers on all grade levels. this present research project served to reinforce the critique of this deficiency. as a result of the finding, it was highly recommended that teachers have bi-weekly grade-level meetings beginning in the next school year (august 2009-june 2010). the purpose of these grade-level meetings should be to discuss and share thoughts about students and revise crosscurriculum planning. to get cross-curriculum dialogue started, it was recommended that two additional meetings be held; one at the end of the year (june 2009) to study what cross-curricular planning entails and to build a general foundation for each teacher’s particular cross-curricular planning; and one at the beginning of the next school year (august 2009) to fine-tune decisions made in june 2009. to increase leisure reading in l2 and therefore increase student immersion in l2, it is recommended that a reading center, stocked with teen magazines, be set up in all sixth grade classrooms. for those students who get consistently low marks, individual motivation and attention is needed from an outside source. the names of these students will be given to the spanish teacher and the english department director so they may monitor the students more closely to have them reading successfully soon. reading comprehension montes, botero & pechthalt �8 the video showed that students should read silently for deeper comprehension. if the purpose is to work on intonation, fluency and pronunciation, then reading aloud is acceptable. the most important discovery was in the area of pronunciation. while it is well known that the only advantage of having an immersion program any earlier than age 8 is to acquire a more native-like pronunciation, the school is not achieving its stated goals in this area, as the recording illustrated so vividly. to improve pronunciation, primary school teachers should put more emphasis on phonics and phonetic awareness. final thoughts and conclusions in conclusion, several connections between the theoretical framework, the literature review, and this particular study were found. first and foremost is the study by watkins-goffman and cummings (1997) in which they researched the context of how dominican ell students acquire l1 literacy in order to improve english instruction. they found that high literacy in l1 increased l2 content-area comprehension. based on cummins’ cup (1992), there is a common operating system underlying student l1 and l2 knowledge from which students draw their literacy knowledge and skills. likewise, the linguistic processes in the prism model (collier & thomas, 2007) that involve the 4 literacy components of speaking, listening, reading and writing sustain that an ell’s highly developed literacy will allow her to succeed in l2 literacy as well. similarly, this study found that colombian students with high literacy in l1 (spanish) were able to transfer that high level of literacy to their l2 (english). this was seen by comparing their spanish and english grades, testing their reading comprehension in a cold reading, asking oral comprehension questions after reading a selection aloud, and by analyzing their feelings on l1 and l2 reading. according to rivera (1999) sll’s reading abilities in their l1 facilitate and support the learning and reading processes in their l2. in another similar finding, kong (2006) suggests that there is an obvious transference process of reading strategies from l1 to l2 in moderate to high l2 proficiency-level students. just like cummins (1992), collier and thomas (2007) uphold that there is an l1/l2 language interdependence from which the ell transfers literacy skills from l1 to l2. however, this pattern was not observed in students with low l2 proficiency levels. moreover, ells showed more confidence when reading in their l1 than when reading a text in english. in addition to these previous findings, this study found that when reading aloud, students dip back into their l1 for pronunciation. surprisingly, these pronunciation mistakes do not interfere in their comprehension of the selection being read. what is affected is the listener’s comprehension. reading comprehension montes, botero & pechthalt �9 avalos (2003) cites cummins and krashen’s views that bilingual students “have access to the low-frequency vocabulary and grammatical structures found in texts, as opposed to the high-frequency vocabulary and syntax of everyday conversational language” (p. 175). very closely related to these findings, this study found through different interviews with preschool and primary directors, the sixth grade spanish teacher, and the sixth grade english teacher, that these particular sixth grade students have been exposed to an array of fictional novels starting in third grade. they will continue to be exposed to american and british literature combined with biographies throughout their high school careers. therefore, these sixth grade students have and will continue to develop stronger l2 reading abilities by extensively reading in their l2 as cummins and krashen state when cited by avalos (2006). cummins (1998) stated that, to the extent that instruction in l1 is effective in supporting proficiency in l1, transfer of this proficiency to l2 will only occur if there is an appropriate exposure to l2 and an appropriate stimulation to learn l2. based on this statement, it was also seen that many of the sixth grade students in this study rely on their spanish foundation during rc. they translate concepts into english, search for cognates, manipulate prefixes, suffixes and root words. they transfer their background and content knowledge from their l1 to their l2 to support them in interacting with the text. based on the theories mentioned in the theoretical framework and the reviewed studies, an ell is more likely to develop and apply cognitive and meta-cognitive reading strategies (inferences, predictions and prior knowledge) during the reading process if he/she is highly proficient in l1 and l2 (butler & hakuta, 2006, mckeown & gentilucci, 2007). in our study, this theory was made evident among some of the fully bilingual students whose command of both spanish and english allows them to enjoy meta-cognitive advantages over their peers. they are better able to monitor their rc and are aware of the strategies they use to better understand the text. overall, the school is on the right track by having first established a firm l1 foundation, its allowing for a non-threatening introduction to l2 through song and play during the early preschool years, and by first grade formalizing the way the l2 is taught through content in the curriculum. in order for them to continue this process, it is recommended that at least one other content course be taught in high school english, instead of only having english-intensive classes. reading comprehension montes, botero & pechthalt �0 references ahearn, c., childs-bowen, d., coady, m., dickson,k., heintz, c., hughes, k., et al. (2002). the diversity kit: an introductory resource for social change in education. retrieved february 21, 2009 from http://www.alliance.brown.edu/tdl/diversitykitpdfs/dk_ lan25-52.pdf august, g. (2006). so, what’s behind adult english second language reading? bilingual research journal, 30( 2). retrieved february 13, 2009 from http://brj.asu.edu/vol30_no2/art1.pdf avalos, m. a. (2003). effective second-language reading transition: from learner-specific to generic instructional models. bilingual research journal, 27(2). retrieved february 10, 2009 from http:// brj.asu.edu/content/vol27_no2/art1.pdf butler, y. g. & hakuta, k. (2006). cognitive factors in children’s l1 & l2 reading. academic exchange, 23-30. retrieved february 13, 2009 from http://www.stanford.edu/~hakuta/publications/ (2006)%20butlerhakuta(2006)academic%20eq.pdf collier, v. (1996). the prism model highlights of the four dimensions retrieved february 22, 2009 from http://coe.k-state.edu/about/ download/profdev/perez_diversity1.pdf collier, v. p. & thomas, w. p. (2007). predicting second language academic success in english using the prism model. international handbook of english language teaching (pp. 333-348) springer international handbooks of education, 15. retrieved february 22, 2009 from http://books.google.hn/books?id=zxbufm3arkuc&p g= pa333&lpg=pa333&dq=collier’s+prism+model&source=bl&o ts=2gjg3sgchg&sig=eord6vx4i5xsiu38ptdrys_uyo0&hl=es& ei=nowgsbtceqkkmqejlrykdq&sa=x&oi=book_result&resnu m=4&ct=result cooney, c. b. (1992). flight 116 is down. new york: scholastic, inc. cummins, j. (1998). beyond adversarial discourse: searching for common ground in the education of bilingual students. retrieved february 25, 2009 from http://ourworld.compuserve.com/ homepages/jwcrawford/cummins.htm cummins, j. (1992). bilingual education and english immersion: the ramírez report in theoretical perspective. bilingual research journal, 16(1&2), 91-104 retrieved march 01, 2009 from http:// scholar.google.hnscholar?q=cummins,+j.+(1992).+bilingual+edu cation+and+english+immersion:+the+ram%c3%adrez+report reading comprehension montes, botero & pechthalt �1 +in+theoretical+perspective.+bilingual+research+journal,+16,+ p.+91-104.&hl=es&lr=&um=1&ie =utf-8&oi=scholart cummins, j. (1979). linguistic interdependence and the educational development of bilingual children. los angeles, california: evaluation, dissemination and assessment center (eric document reproduction service no. ed257312). retrieved march 15, 2009 from http://eric.ed.gov/ericdocs/data/ericdocs2sql/ content_storage_01/0000019b/80/32/07/83.pdf fountas, i. c. & pinnell, g. s. (1991). guided reading: good first teaching for all children. portsmouth, nh: heinemann educational. fountas, i. c. & pinnell, g. s. (2001). guiding readers and writers. portsmouth, nh: heinemann educational. glossary of tefl acronyms. (2009). retrieved february 09, 2009 from http://www.teaching-english-in-japan.net/acronyms/l2 haritos, c. & nelson, k. (2001). bilingual memory: the interaction of language and thought. bilingual research journal, 25(4). retrieved february 21, 2009 from http://brj.asu.edu/v254/articles/ art10.html hughes, k., dickson, k., & rodrigues, b. (2002). the diversity kit: an introductory resource for social change in education. retrieved february 21, 2009 from http://www.alliance.brown. edu/tdl/diversitykitpdfs/dk_lan25-52.pdf kong, a. (2006). connections between l1 and l2 readings: reading strategies used by four chinese adult readers. the reading matrix, 6(2). retrieved february 28, 2009 from http://www.readingmatrix. com/articles/kong/article.pdf mckeown, r. g. & gentilucci, j. l. (2007). think-aloud strategy: metacognitive development and monitoring comprehension in the middle school second-language classroom. journal of adolescent & adult literacy, 51(2). retrieved february 10, 2009 from http:// web.ebscohost.com/ehost/pdf?vid=5&hid=104&sid=acac5094bf9d-4ad3-bb37-d5b26e2914b6%40sessionmgr104 richards, j. c. (1998). new interchange, english for international communication. new york: cambridge university press. rivera, k. (1999). native language literacy and adult esl education. eric digest. retrieved february 28, 2009 from http://www. ericdigests.org/2000-4/esl.htm reading comprehension montes, botero & pechthalt �2 shoebottom, p. (1996). second language acquisition: essential information. retrieved february 21, 2009 from http://esl.fis.edu/ teachers/support/cummin.htm singhal, m. (2001). reading proficiency, reading strategies, metacognitive awareness and l2 readers. the reading matrix, 1(1). retrieved april 9, 2009 from http://www.readingmatrix.com/ articles/singhal/ thinkexist.com. retrieved march 1, 2009 from http://thinkexist.com/ quotation/it_is_the_theory_that_decides_what_can_be/194898. html watkins-goffman, l. & cummings, v. (1997). bridging the gap between native language and second language literacy instruction: a naturalistic study. bilingual research journal, 21(4). retrieved february 18, 2009 from http://brj.asu.edu/articles/ar3.html florencia montes is a kindergarten teacher at the discovery school in tegucigalpa, honduras, a bilingual multicultural small-classroom instruction institution. she studied early childhood education for 2 years at st. mary’s university in lawrence, kansas. she also studied political science and earned a b.a. in french from the university of kansas. she has completed a specialization in bilingual education at única through the teacher training institute, bogotá. she worked in the read to succeed program and with at-risk kindergarteners in colegio nueva granada. florencia also has a diploma in learning disabilities from fundación pro educación especial, san salvador, el salvador. maría patricia botero graduated as a psychologist from the universidad de los andes in bogotá. she has worked for 6 years in human resources and consulting around colombia. she volunteered for 3 years at the hogar nueva granada, a school for low-income children. there, she participated in developing literacy awareness, also helping to establish the school library. she earned a teaching certificate in bilingual education from única in 2009. as a student-teacher she co-taught efl and worked in the read to succeed program of the primary school at colegio nueva granada where she also has been a teacher assistant. tracy pechthalt has been teaching esl for the past 23 years. she has spent most of her time teaching in cali and bogotá reading comprehension montes, botero & pechthalt �3 (colombia), although she also taught for five years in miami, florida. she has a wide range of experience, having taught students from preschool to adults. presently, she is teaching esl with the faculty of a bilingual school in bogotá. in april 2009, she received the certificate in bilingual education from the institución universitaria colombo americana. she is also a consultant for vedi travel, a company which offers international educational immersion programs in english and french in canada and england. e-mail: tpechthalt@aol.com reading comprehension montes, botero & pechthalt 185 efl learners’ intercultural competence development through international news1 el fortalecimiento de la competencia intercultural de estudiantes de inglés mediante noticias internacionales luis fernando gómez2* universidad pedagógica nacional, colombia abstract this case study analyzed how a group of english learners built critical intercultural awareness through the discussion of cultural events as reported in news media such as the new york times, the u.s. news, and the telegraph. learners’ critical reflections on controversial social conflicts related to injustice, gender inequality, and stereotypes in different cultures constituted the core data collected through field notes, logs, and one questionnaire. findings revealed that english learners not only gained new knowledge about beliefs, values, and behaviors that cause conflict in other cultural communities, but compared them critically to their own culture. this research concluded that integrating news in efl education can be a salient instructional material to help efl speakers become more critical intercultural individuals through topics belonging to deep culture. key words: intercultural communicative competence, news, english as a foreign language, efl learners surface culture, deep culture resumen este estudio de caso examinó cómo un grupo de estudiantes de inglés construyó conciencia intercultural crítica mediante la discusión de eventos culturales reportados en varias noticias de periódicos internacionales tales como the new york times, the u.s. news, y the telegraph. las opiniones críticas de los estudiantes sobre temas sociales controversiales como la injusticia, la 1 received: november 7 2017/ accepted: may 1 2018 2 lfgomez@pedagogica.edu.co gist education and learning research journal. issn 1692-5777. no.16 (january june) 2018. pp. 185-208 gómezreflection about self-plagiarism no. 16 (january june, 2018) no. 16 (january june, 2018) 186 desigualdad de género y los estereotipos en diferentes naciones constituyeron los datos centrales que se recogieron mediante notas de campo, diarios y un cuestionario. los hallazgos indicaron que los estudiantes de inglés no solamente adquirieron nuevo conocimiento sobre creencias, valores y comportamientos que causan conflicto en otras comunidades culturales, sino que los compararon críticamente con su propia cultura. esta investigación concluye que la incorporación de noticias en la enseñanza del inglés puede ser un material importante para preparar a los estudiantes a ser individuos interculturales críticos por medio de temas pertenecientes a la cultura profunda. palabras clave: competencia comunicativa intercultural, noticias, inglés como lengua extranjera, cultura superficial, cultura profunda. resumo este estudo de caso examinou como um grupo de estudantes de inglês construiu consciência intercultural crítica mediante a discussão de eventos culturais reportados em várias notícias de jornais internacionais tais como the new york times, the u.s. news, e the telegraph. as opiniões críticas dos estudantes sobre temas sociais polêmicos como a injustiça, a desigualdade de gênero e os estereótipos em diferentes nações constituíram os dados centrais que se recolheram mediante anotações de campo, diários e um questionário. as descobertas indicaram que os estudantes de inglês não somente adquiriram um novo conhecimento sobre crenças, valores e comportamentos que causam conflito em outras comunidades culturais, senão que os compararam criticamente com a sua própria cultura. esta pesquisa conclui que a incorporação de notícias no ensino do inglês pode ser um material importante para preparar os estudantes para serem indivíduos interculturais críticos por meio de temas pertencentes à cultura profunda. palavras chave: competência comunicativa intercultural, notícias, inglês como língua estrangeira, cultura superficial, cultura profunda. efl intercultural competence gómez no. 16 (january june, 2018) no. 16 (january june, 2018) 187 introduction intercultural communicative competence (icc) has been a focus of inquiry in efl education over the past two decades, since one of the current learning goals is to train efl learners to build intercultural communication with individuals coming from multiple cultural settings. verbal communication and linguistic forms are no longer the only aspects to be learned in the language classroom. lázár (2003) states that foreign language teaching should emphasize “intercultural consciousness and intercultural skills” of “discovery of ‘the other’” (p. 7). similarly, the cef4 (2001) states that learning a language implies “to discover otherness– whether the other is another language, another culture, other people or new areas of knowledge” (p. 12). thus, there is a need to prepare language learners to become interculturally competent in an increasing globalized world (byram, 1997; lázár, lussier, & christian 2007; liddicoat & scarino, 2003; moeller & nugent, 2014). framed within an intercultural perspective, this research study claims that one significant way to help efl learners develop critical intercultural awareness is through the discussion of international news, since news articles contain controversial issues belonging to the level of deep culture, namely social inequality, power, racism, and prejudice in many countries. furthermore, this research study claims that news is authentic language that can enable efl learners to use the foreign language more meaningfully while building icc at a critical level. in this sense, four efl learners took part in this case study who engaged in building their icc with the support of news articles from the new york times, the u.s. news, the washington times, and the telegraph, all available in the internet. an in-depth description of how these learners started to develop icc in the target language through issues of deep culture is analyzed here. statement of the problem despite the fact that almost 20 years ago influential authors, including kramsch (1993), byram (1997), and lázár (2003), stated the importance of fostering icc in efl education, more work needs to be done in the present to ensure that our teaching practices in latin american countries not only place special emphasis on the study of grammar and communicative functions, but also on intercultural communication. many efl classrooms have failed to incorporate intercultural topics to prepare learners to become part of a global society (mai hoa, 2011; hesar et al. 2012) because teachers mainly teach surface culture, underlining static, representative, and visible elements of the target efl intercultural competence gómez no. 16 (january june, 2018) no. 16 (january june, 2018) 188 culture such as festivals, tourist destinations/landmarks, celebrities, and typical food (hinkel, 2001). however, these visible aspects of culture will never prepare learners to encounter cultural identity, difference, and culture shock in real communication. hanvey (1979), cited by shaules (2007), affirms that superficial or “shallow intercultural experiences,” i.e. tourism, food, and architecture only “involve the explicit” (p. 98) understanding of facts that other cultures proudly celebrate. therefore, there is an imperative need to recognize that culture cannot longer be studied from celebratory perspectives only, assuming that it is always fixed, archetypal, and happy. quite to the contrary, efl teachers must start preparing efl learners to observe that, as greenblatt (1995) and levy (2007) suggest, culture is transformative and evolves in time and, in many occasions, is chaotic and conflictive up to the point that it revolts long-established norms. such is the case of traditional conceptions on women’s chastity and the sacred value of marriage which have not only changed significantly over the past 50 years, but have caused conflict and resistance among older and younger generations that strive for keeping or refusing those cultural rules. in order to adopt a more critical and realistic approach to the study other cultures in the foreign language, this research study attempted to enhance a group of efl learners’ icc through international news, authentic materials that portray deep cultural content, ideologies, and beliefs that differ from one country to another. radio, tv, printed, and internet news keep people informed about the social, political, and cultural events that happen around the world. hence, they can be useful material to enhance critical icc. theoretical framework deep culture deep culture or invisible culture can be understood as those complex meanings related to the norms, worldviews, beliefs, values, and ideologies that, in general terms, are shared by a group or community (hinkel, 2001, p. 444). these cultural meanings are complex and many times conflictive because the fact that they are adopted and sometimes imposed in a given community does not necessarily mean that all the members of that community accept and obey them. there is always exception to the cultural norm depending on diverse social, economic, ideological, and even personal views and circumstances. for instance, there is the cultural value in many countries that children have the right to education. however, because of poverty and social disadvantages, many children are forced to work long hours in order to support their efl intercultural competence gómez no. 16 (january june, 2018) no. 16 (january june, 2018) 189 family subsistence. therefore, while many families value education as a privilege for children to succeed in life, and have the means to afford it, some others, who do not have money, value hard work as an honest and dignified cultural practice to make the most of their lives. hence, deep cultural meanings are relative because they are transformed by people over time (greenblatt,1995) and can be whether individual or collective, context-dependent, and transformative as they are not always suitable and homogenous for all the members of a nation. intercultural communicative competence in efl education icc is a difficult term to define because it is part of an ongoing discussion conducted by several authors and fields (moeller and nugent, 2014). in efl/esl3 education, icc is understood as “the ability to cope with one’s own cultural background in interaction with others” who “hold different linguistic codes” and “different sets of values and models of the world” (lázár, 2004, p. 9). it involves language learners’ capacity to accept other perceptions of the world and be aware of other peoples’ differences and ways of seeing life (byram 1997; byram et al., 2009). according to byram (1997), icc is developed in social interaction during the process of communication. the language learner necessarily has to use the foreign language to learn about and cope with deep, maybe strange, and even conflictive cultural values during the process of meaning negotiation. icc cannot be enhanced by just identifying and learning by heart lists of general facts of surface culture such as tourist places, holidays, historical events, food, etc. by contrast, icc requires a deep and “dynamic interactive process of intercultural relationships” as individuals from different cultures confront “a relatively more abstract level of cultural difference, …develop empathy (the ability to look at things from the perspective of our cultural hosts), and learn to construct cultural difference better” (shaules, 2007, p. 100). because icc is necessarily linked to the process of communication, efl teachers in latin-american countries might think that icc development is a hard, almost impossible task to be accomplished, since the majority of learners have a few or no opportunities to interact with citizens from other cultures of the world to establish real intercultural communication. moreover, it is a fact, that most of english teachers in efl settings are neither native speakers, nor members of the anglosaxon culture. therefore, creating actual intercultural relationships and communication in efl education is still complicated. 3 efl: english as a foreign language/ esl: english as a second language. efl intercultural competence gómez no. 16 (january june, 2018) no. 16 (january june, 2018) 190 however, byram (1997) clarifies that in educational contexts the intercultural speaker can actually make evaluative analysis of “documents” and “events” to become aware of conflicts and ideologies, and understand “explicit and implicit values” in one’s own and others’ cultures (p. 63). not only learning about culture through oral interaction, but also through reading and analyzing culture-based “documents” (such as news featuring real language and “cultural events”), constitute a point of departure to help learners develop icc in efl classrooms. as icc is still a topic of constant debate and research, it has been lately associated with the notion of global literacy. in fact, kumaravadivelu (2008) calls it global cultural consciousness, bennet (2008) and fantini (2010) call it global competence, and focho (2011) names it global literacy. bennet (2008) and fantini (2010) clarify that although icc is being used with diverse names by authors from different fields, those names ultimately aim at accomplishing a shared goal: the ability to cope with cultural differences in a more globalized society. in this sense, icc or global literacy involves the social skills to acquire critical understanding of current national and international events in order to function effectively as a “world-minded person” (schuerholzlehr, 2007, p. 183). it represents a social concern about global controversial conflicts that affect humankind in general regarding race, religion, gender, and social clashes. that is why several researchers, including nakamura (2002), revelo (2008), and focho (2011), support intercultural awareness and global communication in efl classrooms so that students are instructed on democratic values, human rights, and respecting “difference” in a world that is still intolerant and prejudiced. the saviors of intercultural communicative competence byram’s (1997) icc, an educational model designed for foreign language teaching, consists of three components or saviors (byram, 1997): 1. knowledge of surface culture (emblematic and easy observable elements) and knowledge of deep culture (not easy observable beliefs, values, and ideologies). 2. skills of discovery, of relating, and of interpreting that enable the intercultural speaker/reader to compare and contrast cultural meanings that are different and unknown to him/her. 3. attitudes (openness, readiness, and curiosity) that lead the intercultural person to appreciate and deal with strange cultural practices in a more flexible and positive way. efl intercultural competence gómez no. 16 (january june, 2018) no. 16 (january june, 2018) 191 with these three saviors, all interrelated and interdependent, esl/ efl intercultural learners should build an additional savoir that byram (1997) calls critical intercultural awareness, which is the ability to evaluate perspectives, practices, and products in one’s own and others’ culture. the role of news in efl education most of published research on using news in efl education has been mainly directed to help learners improve the four language skills (reading, listening, speaking, and writing) as well as grammar and vocabulary (gebhard, 1996; nunan, 1999). such are the cases of prominent efl teacher (teng, 2015; bahrani and tam, 2012; cross, 2011; berber, 1997) who have conducted relevant research on how news articles can support communicative competence development. however, moglen (2014) says that because of the limited inclusion of news in esl/efl learning processes, further research is required. hence, moglen’s statement led this research study to examine the integration of news articles in the efl classroom from a different standpoint: one that was not only concerned about how international news could contribute to improve language competence, but also build efl learners’ critical icc, since little research has been conducted from this intercultural perspective. news can motivate efl learners to listen to, read, speak, and write critically about the problems of real life in different nations because one of their “main advantages” is to include “authentic cultural information” (berardo, 2006 p. 64). byram et al. (2002) equally suggest that “newspapers with different political or cultural perspectives” can be a “rich source” to “promote the intercultural dimension” (p. 23) when learners are encouraged to examine them from a critical perspective. similarly, peterson and bronwyn (2003), kukulska-hulme (2010), dema and moeller (2012), and bastami (2013) indicate that news articles, magazines, and videos are authentic sources to analyze cultural events that happen in other nations of the world. international news is the product of many cultural groups that can lead learners to identify deep-rooted social aspects and social struggles that members of a community are not even aware of (frank, 2013). learners can be encouraged to identify which values, beliefs, and ideologies on race, gender, power, sex, morality, etc. influence or dominate foreign cultures. also, news can motivate learners to analyze how those cultural ideologies transform and evolve in time and space and differ from one country to another. these contents can help efl intercultural competence gómez no. 16 (january june, 2018) no. 16 (january june, 2018) 192 learners to enhance intercultural awareness critically as they can start to consider how to eradicate expressions of hatred, exclusion, and human rights violation, while, in turn, become intercultural speakers of modern civilization. methodology research design based on merriam’s (2004) and yin’s (2003) guidelines on research design, this was a qualitative case study that examined in-depth and analyzed how a small group of colombian efl learners fostered their icc while being asked to provide critical reflections on several controversial cultural issues reported in international news sources (see table 1). the research question leading this study was: how could international news enhance a group of efl speakers’ intercultural communicative competence? participants four colombian university efl learners participated in this case study, all having different degrees and lifestyles, but sharing a common reason to study english: they wanted to improve their english level because they had been offered jobs and study opportunities abroad. margarita4 was a 30-year-old english teacher who was planning to travel to the usa to pursue a master’s degree. violeta, was a 28-yearold computer technician who had been offered a job in the usa. anahí was a 26-year-old student of modern languages at a university who was doing the paperwork to apply for a university in england. camilo was a 28-year-old student who needed to study english as a requirement to finish his undergraduate studies. these learners had an intermediate english proficiency level (b15) according to the cefr because they had already taken several english courses in the past. however, they still needed to improve accuracy, fluency, and pronunciation. 4 the names of the participants are pseudonyms as their real identity has been protected for ethical and research reasons. 5 level b1: according to the common european framework of references to languages, b1 indicates that the speaker “can understand the main points of clear standard input on familiar matters regularly encountered in work, school, leisure, etc. can deal with most situations likely to arise whilst travelling in an area where the language is spoken … can describe experiences and events, dreams, hopes and ambitions and briefly give reasons and explanations for opinions and plans.” (2001, p. 24). efl intercultural competence gómez no. 16 (january june, 2018) no. 16 (january june, 2018) 193 setting this case study was conducted in the context of a conversation club where participants addressed critical discussion of cultural contents as depicted in international news. the conversation club was scheduled on saturdays’ afternoons from mach 05 to may 07 of 2016. in the first meeting, students were invited to start creating awareness of how they could become better intercultural speakers, and were tutored on some initial notions of the term icc based on byram’s model. then, they were informed that they were going to read authentic news from the new york times, the u.s. news, cnn, and the washington times (see table 1) in english as a means to start building icc. table 1. news discussed in the conversation club data collection instruments in the follow-up sessions, participants came prepared with the reading of the news (see table 1) as they had previously done reading tasks in some worksheets (artifacts) containing questions that arose concern about topics of deep culture. they read the news individually in order to start creating cultural awareness and come to the conversation club with initial reactions and opinions to share with and analyze with their partners. through the analysis of different news, they started to understand and discuss cultural ideologies, values, and beliefs, and gradually became more reflective intercultural learners while using the foreign language. three topics were chosen at random to be analyzed in this article (see table 1). however, students discussed other topics during the experience. 6 islamic sharia: a religious law of the islamic tradition. sharia means “god’s divine law.” its application in modern times has caused debate between traditionalist and reformist muslims. efl intercultural competence gómez no. 16 (january june, 2018) no. 16 (january june, 2018) 194 to answer the research question, three data collection instruments were used: the researcher took field notes every single meeting supported by audio-recordings. after each session, the notes and the recordings were reviewed several times in order to complement the notes related to learners’ critical comments on culture generated during the discussion of the news. artifacts (worksheets) were the second data collection instrument (see appendix a) on which participants wrote personal opinions about the news before and after each club session. these artifacts contained a link to the news available in the internet and several questions that headed participants to express their personal reactions about conflictive cultural topics reflected in the news. the third instrument was a questionnaire that encouraged participants to respond freely open and closed-ended questions linked to the main subject being investigated (wallace, 2006). this instrument was administered when the conversation club finished. data analysis content analysis (dawson, 2002) was used to analyze the data collected. field notes were analyzed first, a step that required reading the data many times until patterns related to participants’ similar reflections on aspects of deep culture were identified. for instance, data showed participants’ repetitive and similar comments on the new cultural information that they were learning through the news and that they did not know about before. thus, the researcher grouped and classified these patterns into an initial category called: learning about unknown cultural practices and beliefs. initial categories represented the sets of patterns found and associated with icc development in the conversation club. as triangulation (freeman, 1998) is a required procedure in the analysis of qualitative data, the patterns in the field notes were later compared to participants’ opinions in the artifacts and in the questionnaire in order to confirm if similar patterns and initial categories related to icc were present in all the three data collection instruments. once having a set of patterns and pre-categories, final categories arose which were lastly refined and restated as findings. findings news helped efl speakers to learn about controversial beliefs and practices that belonged to deep culture. a significant finding was that, instead of simply learning about emblematic and “shallow” (shaules, 2007) information of surface efl intercultural competence gómez no. 16 (january june, 2018) no. 16 (january june, 2018) 195 culture such as holidays, tourist places, and typical food, the learners recognized that they learned about controversial cultural traditions and complicated beliefs of deep culture that are popular and socially accepted in other nations, but that these learners did not know about and found them difficult to understand and appreciate. for example, when discussing the news on race relations in the us, anahí affirmed that after reading the news articles “america has a big race problem” (nesbit, 2016) and “race and reality in america: five key findings” (agiesta, 2015), she learned that there had been a civil war in the us in the past because of race issues. she also said that after doing more research about this topic, she found out that this war had been caused because of ideological positions about slavery as a legitimate institution in southern states. anahí said that the “southern states approved slavery because whites saw black people as inferior beings while northern states defended the abolition of slavery because it was an unjust practice” (field notes, march 26). similarly, violeta said that this news article mentioned the words “jim crow laws” in the sentence “we’ve certainly made substantial progress since the repeal of the jim crow laws. but we also clearly have substantial work to do in america” (nesbit, 2016). she admitted that although the news explained the current racial tension between whites and african-americans in the usa, the “jim crow law” was not a clear term for her. so, she needed to do research to understand it. she said that she had found out that this law was a “policy of segregating or discriminating against black people at public places, on public transportation, or employment from 1876 and 1965” based on the idea that “black people were seen as inferior and animals” (field notes, march 26). she also reported that the article denounced that racist and segregating attitudes towards black people still continued in the usa in the present times as americans’ ideologies about whites as a superior race hadn’t changed much since then. new knowledge about controversial topics of deep culture was also gained when learners read the news “the ugly truth about sharia law” (riddell, 2016), since learners affirmed that they had never heard about this law before. for instance, camilo commented that he had learned from the news that the “sharia law was a legal code based on the quoran that controlled the lives of people living in the middle east like afghanistan, iraq, and pakistan” (field notes, march 26). margarita equally stated that she had learned that “the sharia law was a strict law that punished muslims with death if they disobeyed religious beliefs listed in the quoran” (margarita’s worksheet, march 26). efl intercultural competence gómez no. 16 (january june, 2018) no. 16 (january june, 2018) 196 the previous examples evidenced that these efl learners started to develop icc through international news as they were aware that these documents enabled them to gain new cultural knowledge about contentious viewpoints and behaviors related to race, segregation, domination, and religion as conceived by other groups different from their own cultural environment. as proposed by byram’s (1997) model of icc, these learners became intercultural speakers who gained the savoir knowledge as they learned about sociopolitical facts when being encouraged to confront abstract and ingrained elements of culture in the news, instead of dealing with celebratory and easy observable elements of culture. in fact, data in the questionnaires showed learners’ recognition of the significant role of the news as authentic material to help them build new intercultural knowledge: i knew there was slavery in the usa in the past, but i had never known about the division between the southern and the northern states and about the jim crow law, and how that law had influenced racist attitudes in the present times. all that information is new for me, and is hard to deal with (violeta’s questionnaire, may 7). the news about the sharia law in the middle east is new information for me. i never paid attention to the news reporting about problems of domination in saudi arabia and syria due to religious beliefs that control and subject people unjustly . . . that news were not important for me then. (margarita’s questionnaire, may 7). according to data, learners admitted that they had never paid attention to those conflictive behaviors and ideologies reported in foreign news because they had never been interested in intercultural issues. moreover, data indicated that learners started to be interested in global issues, leading them to become more world-minded citizens who were concerned about unjust conflicts that have affected humankind through history. the four speakers stated that this was the first time in their lives that they had learned about cultural clashes in other foreign cultures in a deeper and more realistic way, this being evidence of their initial icc development in the foreign language as they became aware of other cultural realities that are not always congratulatory and emblematic in other nations. news led efl learners to interpret and evaluate controversial ideologies from other cultures. these participants not only gained knowledge of other cultures’ practices, but interpreted and evaluated critically the events reported in the international news by expressing their opinions about implicit meanings of deep culture. such was the case when learners read the efl intercultural competence gómez no. 16 (january june, 2018) no. 16 (january june, 2018) 197 news “the ugly truth about sharia law” (riddell, 2016), since they assumed a critical position about the fact that the members of the islamic group isis7 used the sharia law to murder homosexuals through cruel and inhumane practices. camilo said that it was shocking for him that “isis was a powerful militant group that pushed gays from the roofs or stoned them to death in public places in syria” (field notes, april 2). as a language learner dealing with complex cultural ideologies about sexuality and gender, camilo was critical to say that it was unjust how straight men manipulated a religious law to kill, in the name of god, those who had a different sexual orientation. anahí also pointed out critically the following: the news says that children were incited by angry mobs to stone homosexual to death in syria. i don’t agree with how adults involve children in these cruel practices that go against human rights. children should not learn to be cruel and hate others who are different (anahi’s worksheet, april 2) these critical reflections show that learners questioned how complex ideologies about gender and sexuality, already adopted by many muslims through the sharia law, were used to exert power and violence against minority groups. anahí questioned the fact how deep-rooted traditions about sexuality in other nations perpetuated the cultural belief that sexual diversity was immoral. in her opinion, it was a mistake that adults encouraged children to murder those neighbors who were different. violeta, on her part, was critical about another conflictive gender issue reported in some news: i read in other related news that the sharia law also oppressed women in muslims countries, and that many men have distorted the meaning of this law to dominate women. i think this is a dangerous practice because muslim women will never have the right to be independent in their own countries (violeta’s worksheet, april 2). violeta’s critical statement referred to how some muslims cultural groups have twisted the initial principles of the sharia law in order to establish patriarchal hegemony on women through intimidation and physical abuse. these reflections showed that learners analyzed how the arab world has different cultural viewpoints and values about human rights, respect for life, equality, and justice, and how many children are indoctrinated by the cultural construct that homophobia and misogyny are normal ideologies of their national identity. 7 isis: the islamic state of iraq and syria. efl intercultural competence gómez no. 16 (january june, 2018) no. 16 (january june, 2018) 198 icc was also developed critically with topics of deep culture that were more closely related to learners’ own lives and expectations. when reading the news “marriage ‘no longer the foundation stone of family life’” (bingham, 2013) and “now, the bad news on teenage marriage” (kershaw, 2008), learners were also critical about marriage as a deep-rooted tradition in many cultures. margarita stated that the news informed that the traditional belief in having sex and children only after getting married had almost disappeared in great britain because young generations had become more individualistic and had embraced their own moral code about marriage (field notes, april 9). camilo added to the discussion that, according to the news, 48% of teenagers in great britain who married before 18 tended to divorce within 10 years. clashing views took place about this topic because, while margarita and anahí believed that teenagers should follow the traditional norms to have sexual relations and children after getting married, camilo and violeta argued that marriage was just an imposed norm, and that there should not be any kind of impediment for young couples to have sexual relations before getting married. similarly, margarita and anahí defended the idea that “if a couple really loved, they should marry because it was a serious decision to confirm real love and commitment.” camilo and violeta counter-argued that “real love did not require a legal marriage, and that marriage never guaranteed true love and happiness” (field notes, april 9). it can be observed that the news caused adverse reactions based on participants’ individual and collective values on marriage. the fact that two participants defended traditional views on marriage and the other two had more liberal opinions constituted a clear example of how learners addressed conflictive topics of deep culture, since they discovered that beliefs about marriage have changed over time, and that marriage is not always a fixed, congratulatory, and shared cultural practice. in the questionnaires, learners wrote that this topic was an important deep cultural issue that enhanced their icc because they were influenced by their cultural and personal views on marriage. in general, this finding showed that learners interpreted and evaluated critically controversial themes and values from other cultures associated with power, discrimination, gender, and marriage. they not only became intercultural learners through the incorporation of news in the english learning process, but were able to use the foreign language to discuss those complex cultural meanings at a critical level. news empowered learners to compare cultural practices between their own and other cultures. efl intercultural competence gómez no. 16 (january june, 2018) no. 16 (january june, 2018) 199 data in the field notes and the questionnaire showed that learners, as intercultural individuals, were able to compare cultural values and behaviors among other cultures and their own as presented in the news while questioning what they believed were morally right or wrong. for instance, the news about racism and racial tension in today’s us, allowed them to analyze how stereotypes imposed on africanamericans were similar to those imposed on black people in their own country, colombia: many american think that blacks are dirty, lazy, and less intelligent than whites. it is a similar opinion we have of blacks in our country (field notes, march 26). we are racist when we reject black people and say they are lazy and “bullisiosos.” we create bad opinions about them and these classifications ruin their life conditions without better opportunities … also, americans have similar unjust opinions about blacks (camilo’s artifact, march 26). learners were able to discuss cultural stereotypes assigned to black people in two different cultural sites associated with low levels of intelligence and negative traits of their personality. learners recognized that they, like many other people, created pejorative and insulting perceptions of other cultural groups without justification. they became aware that the spread of these generalized stereotypes ultimately defamed and marginalized blacks, and that their opportunities to improve their life conditions in a world controlled by the western white hegemony were reduced due to racist labels. learners concluded that colombia was also a racist country that despised and marginalized minority groups such as blacks and indigenous people. furthermore, the discussion about the current racial tension in the us and the historical research that these learners did about slavery in the american south in the past, led them to establish relationships about the history of slavery in colombia: there was slavery in colombia, too, as you know. spanish people brought many african people as soon as they colonized us, i think in the xvi century. spanish not only slaved africans, but all the indian tribes, and they raped women and killed blacks and indians who disobeyed their rules (camilo, field notes based on audio recordings, march 26). learners found out and compared similar ideological, but unfair and questionable views about slavery and racial discrimination imposed and practiced as normal precepts in two distinct cultural settings in efl intercultural competence gómez no. 16 (january june, 2018) no. 16 (january june, 2018) 200 the past. the fact that they criticized those ideological precepts show how these learners were able to discuss deep and conflictive cultural concepts about race that have transformed through the history of these two nations, but that still affect negatively the situation of many african-americans and african-colombian citizens who continue being discriminated in the present because of racist attitudes that still prevail in today’s societies. interestingly, margarita and anahí said that in the same way that some colombian people discriminated against other ethnic communities, including blacks, indigenous groups, and mulatos, colombians and latinos were, in turn, discriminated against by whites in the us, since latinos often suffered from derogatory stereotypes and were looked down when they went to that country (field notes, march 26). moreover, learners discussed that racist positions in the us were even worse than in colombia because the news reported several cases in which some white americans had killed black people in the us, like the case in south carolina where a white man went into a black church during a bible study and killed nine black parishioners in 2015. this event led learners to not only discuss that racism is a problem in many nations, including their own culture, but that hatred was an immoral practice that generated murders against minority groups in the us. learners analyzed how an overdeveloped country such as the us still had conflicts related to race and multiculturalism. another example that showed how learners made comparisons between their own culture and the british culture was when they discussed the two pieces of news about the decline of marriage in england: i conclude that young generations in england and in colombia have more liberal views on marriage. many don’t want to marry and they have sex before getting married. the concept of the family has changed. young people want to have sex and enjoy life before they marry (margarita’s artifact, april 9). our culture is influenced by the liberal views on marriage in other countries such as england and the us. marriage is not the first option to have a family. many have sexual relations and have children without getting married. thus, marriage is not that sacred like it was in the past (violeta’s questionnaire, may 7). data indicate that language learners were able to compare deep cultural meanings and practices as they questioned how england, the us, and colombia have changed strict traditions of marriage and the concept of the family through time. these comparisons generated efl intercultural competence gómez no. 16 (january june, 2018) no. 16 (january june, 2018) 201 controversial discussion about how younger generations are breaking traditional moral standards and how culture transforms over time. these cultural comparisons also evidenced how efl learners developed icc when being encouraged to study conflictive and deep cultural topics through critical approaches based on debate and contestation, rather than studying neutral and representative aspects of surface culture. limitations of the study the short time to collect data was one of the main limitations due to the fact that participants lacked time to meet more often. they had to work and study during week days, so the only possibility was to hold the conversation club on saturdays. however, this case study represents a further practical step of how efl learners can enhance critical icc through different materials and resources. it is also important to clarify that this research project identified aspects that indicated how participants were able to enhance initial levels of intercultural awareness because it cannot be assured that they became complete intercultural learners with this single experience. the conversation club was an educational space, a sort of artificial context that attempted to create awareness of diverse cultural beliefs and ideologies belonging to deep culture. icc is fluid and contextdependent, and participants were not exposed to real intercultural exchanges with people from other cultures in which they might have behaved and reacted differently as intercultural speakers. therefore, in efl classrooms, intercultural competence should be understood as “a model for the acquisition of icc in an educational context [that] includes educational objectives because it has educational dimensions; it includes specifications of locations of learning and of the roles of the teacher and learner” (byram, 1997, p. 70). in fact, the conversation club in which this study was conducted held educational specifications and objectives: the role of news articles as authentic culture-based materials to enhance english learners’ icc in an efl context. more research on incorporating news and other documents in efl education to develop icc is needed in larger educational settings in colombia. conclusions this research study indicates that including news in the efl context can enhance learners’ icc development at a critical level. news are authentic language in use that can increase cultural understanding of controversial events and ideologies of deep culture, efl intercultural competence gómez no. 16 (january june, 2018) no. 16 (january june, 2018) 202 namely discrimination, racism, misogyny, homophobia, prejudice, and stereotypes that continue affecting human relationships in a so-called globalized society. this study showed that the news reported by u.s. news, the new york times, the washington times, the clarion project, and the telegraph helped efl learners to develop relevant aspects of their icc. they acquired knowledge of the current political and social climate and identity of several countries. they enhanced some critical skills, including interpreting, comparing, and analyzing individual and collective behaviors, actions, and beliefs in their own culture and other foreign cultures, such as england, the us, and syria. the third aspect is that learners created attitudes, namely readiness and empathy for other human beings that not only suffered from social injustice and prejudice, but whose lives were subjected to strict cultural norms. this research claims that encouraging learners to become intercultural through controversial topics of deep culture and through the incorporation of real world events reported in the news should be a more common practice in efl education. it is a fact that efl materials and topics to learn about target cultures often include emblematic, happy, and surface elements of culture, but those materials rarely encourage learners to discuss issues of identity, prejudice, social injustice, oppression, and power which also shape and transform all cultural groups worldwide. helping learners foster their icc requires more work in the english classroom. news is one of the potential options that can facilitate it. however, the debate is open to find other possible resources that may enhance icc so that students can be prepared to participate actively in intercultural communication. learning a language does not only mean to learn the linguistic system, but to act as intercultural speakers that understand, deal with, and resist, if necessary, cultural boundaries in a world that is still a long way from really being an intercultural and a more inclusive globalized space. efl intercultural competence gómez no. 16 (january june, 2018) no. 16 (january june, 2018) 203 references agiesta, j. 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(2011). developing efl learners’ intercultural communicative competence: a gap to be filled? in r. nunn & s. sivasubramaniam (ed.). from defining eil competence to developing eil learning (pp. 86-99). asian efl journal press. merriam, s. (1998). qualitative research and case study applications in education. texas: jossey-bush publishers. moeller, a. k. and nugent, k. (2014). building intercultural competence in the language classroom. faculty publications: department of teaching, learning and teacher education. paper 161. http:// digitalcommons.unl.edu/teachlearnfacpub/161 efl intercultural competence gómez no. 16 (january june, 2018) no. 16 (january june, 2018) 206 moglen, d. (2014). tuning in: using the news for a content-based esl class. the catesol journal, 26(1), 29-36. nakamura, k. (2002). cultivating global literacy through english as an international language (eil) education in japan: a new paradigm for global education. international education journal, 3(5), 64-73. doi: 10.1.1.116.2825 nesbit, j. (2016, march 28). america has a big race problem. u.s. news. retrieved from: http://www.usnews.com/news/articles/2016-03-28/america-has-a-bigrace-problem peterson, e., & bronwyn, c. (2003). culture in second language teaching. eric digest. retrieved from http://www.cal.org/ resourceoooos/digest/digest_pdfs/0309peterson.pdf revelo, e. (2008). exploring citizenship education at the university level in colombia. in t. jimenez & s. sheehan (ed.). global citizenship in the english language classroom (pp. 29-34). england: british council. riddell, k. (2016, june 13). “the ugly truth about sharia law.” the washington times. retrieved from: http://www.washingtontimes. com/news/2016/jun/13/ugly-truth-about-sharia-law/ shaules, j. (2007). deep culture: the hidden challenges of global living. clevedon, uk: multilingual matters. teng, f. (2015). efl vocabulary learning through reading bbc news: an analysis based on the involvement load hypothesis. english as a global language education (egle) journal, 1 (2), 63-90. doi:10.6294/eagle.2015.0102.03 wallace, k. (2014, september 10) “children: the silent victims of domestic violence.” cnn. retrieved from: http://edition.cnn. com/2014/09/10/living/impact-of-domestic-violence-on-childrenparents/ wallace, m. (2006). action research for language teachers. cambridge: cambridge university press. yin, r. (2003). case study research: design and methods. usa: sage publications. efl intercultural competence gómez no. 16 (january june, 2018) no. 16 (january june, 2018) 207 author *luis fernando gomez rodríguez. holds a ph.d. in english studies from illinois state university, usa, and a m. a. in education from carthage college, usa. he is a fulbright scholar. he is an associate teacher of the language department at universidad pedagógica nacional de colombia. he has published research articles in several indexed journals and is the author of some books. his main research interests are intercultural competence, critical literacy, global literacy, and the teaching of literature in efl education. “this article is the result of an independent research study conducted in the first term of 2016 in a conversation club in bogota, colombia. it was sponsored by the researcher’s own sources.” efl intercultural competence gómez no. 16 (january june, 2018) no. 16 (january june, 2018) 208 appendix a sample of data collection instruments, artifact: worksheet 1 topic: race relations in the us read the news about race tensions in the us today in the following web page: “america has a big race problem” (nesbit, 2016). http://www.usnews.com/news/articles/2016-03-28/america-hasa-big-race-problem critical opinions based on reading 1. what cultural information does the news article contain about issues of race in the us? 2. what causes the race tension between whites and africanamericans in the us? why does this tension continue in the present? 3. what stereotypes have been created about african-americans’ identity and race? why? 4. what is your personal opinion about the race conflicts in the us? is it right or wrong? 5. what information was new for you in terms of ideologies and beliefs about race in the us? efl intercultural competence no. 16 (january june, 2018) no. 16 (january june, 2018) gist1-2007.indd 138 literary creation and the supernatural in english romanticism maría del pilar bravo abstract english romanticism was an artistic and spiritual movement that took place in the 19th century. it attempted to depict emotional matter in an imaginative form, and imagination was believed to be superior to reason. the romantics cultivated love and worship of nature, along with its simplicity and richness. among other concurrent elements of english romanticism are the exploration of the supernatural and the “wise innocence” of childhood; dreaming as a field to exploit imagination; and apocalyptic and gothic depictions of reality. all these elements enriched the creative power of the romantic writers. resumen el romanticismo inglés fue un movimiento artístico y espiritual que tomó lugar en el siglo ixx. en él, se intentaba representar las emociones de una manera imaginativa y la imaginación se concebía superior a la razón. los románticos cultivaban el amor y la devoción por la naturaleza y su simplicidad y riqueza. entre otros elementos recurrentes del romanticismo inglés se encuentran la exploración de lo sobrenatural y la “sabia inocencia” de la infancia, el soñar como un espacio para explotar la imaginación y las representaciones apocalípticas y góticas de la realidad. todos esos elementos enriquecieron el poder creativo de los escritores románticos. palabras claves: romanticismo, imaginación, creación, naturaleza, razón, sobrenatural, infancia, soñar, gótico. key words: romanticism, imagination, creation, nature, reason, supernatural, childhood, dreaming, gothic. 139 the birth of the 19th century was also the beginning of a renewing force for literature: romanticism. in england as in the rest of europe, this spiritual and artistic movement strongly rejected rationalism as a constraint for imagination, creativity and artistic autonomy. classicism was also seen as a threat to freedom of creation, which provoked a whole new conception of man. we no longer could see ourselves as the measure of everything around us, but as just one more component of that great source of life and creativity: nature. english romanticism was peculiarly characterized by its conception of creation as an artist’s natural gift or faculty. this implied that each painter, writer, sculptor, etc. was able to construct his own world by means of his own imagination. no work was better or worse than that of others, because it was the creation of god, with his own intentions and feelings: “the great achievement of english romanticism was its grasp of the principle of creative autonomy, its declaration of artistic independence” (engell & jackson, 1983, 148) . thus, literary creation was for the romantics, the artist’s production after having reconstructed or given a new interpretation to the world around him. it was the offspring of imagination applied to the writer’s impressions from real life. in some cases, such as in wordsworth’s, this literary creation is the result of depicting reality in such a way that exhorts us to open our eyes to the beauty of life. in a way, he makes as feel like we spend our existence being unable to appreciate it on our own. he was recognized as a romantic for his allusions to childhood, nature, the self and faith as opposed to reason, more than for his exploitation of the supernatural: “mr. wordsworth, was to (…) give the charm of novelty to things of every day, and to excite a feeling, analogous to that of the supernatural, by awakening the mind’s attention to the lethargy of custom and directing it to the loveliness and the wonders of the world before us”1 . in other cases such as in coleridge’s, blake’s and shelley’s, literary creation was the product of transforming reality into something beyond reason, but not beyond the imaginable: the supernatural. it was for most romantics an attack on the pre-established limits of reason. it was also the possibility of creating fantastic characters, situations, places and objects to give the human mind relief from the saturation of moral and social patterns and taboos. these aspects 1 colleridge, samuel taylor. biographia literaria. chapter xiv. page 527 maría del pilar bravo 140 literary creation and the supernatural in english romanticism would not have allowed shelley, for example, to imagine a scientist who broke the laws of nature in order to create a human being in a laboratory – if she had not been a romantic in essence. although the supernatural is not present in all the romantics’ creations, it was an important strategy for romanticism to achieve its purposes. with the supernatural, the romantics took for granted the readers’ “faith” or disposition to believe in the situations they proposed. through their literature, they offered the reader the possibility to experience new worlds, which they could hardly see in real life. now, let’s consider some aspects of the supernatural in the english romantics’ works. in shelley’s frankenstein, she dreamed of a scientist creating a human being by injecting life into a body of desired characteristics. this creature became the symbolization of the absurdity of human reason; the symbolization of the extreme desire of dr. frankenstein to produce a perfect man. shelley added to her story the ingredient of horror with which she has impressed her readership throughout history since her novel first appeared. in coleridge’s rime of the ancient mariner, he also added horror to the story of a heartless mariner who kills a “harmless” bird: an albatross. then, it becomes an evil spirit and claims revenge on its murderer, who must go through every kind of calamity to get rid of the curse for having committed such a sin. some other features that show us the presence of the supernatural in this poem are the personification of death and life-in-death in an evil couple, and the appearance of angels. in these two stories – frankenstein and the ancient mariner-, we can see a common aspect: the coming back to life after death that shows us, once more, the writers’ power to create and destroy and to rebel against gods as prometheus did. in the case of byron, the supernatural is present in his dream of “darkness” and keats, in la belle dame sans merci, tells us about a supernatural woman with whom a knight falls deeply in love. she is the idealization of a man’s love, the product of that man’s imagination, so believable so as to destroy his life. the supernatural was not the only distinctive aspect of english romanticism. there were other important aspects that must be mentioned in order to understand the whole picture of this movement. childhood, for example, is a recurrent topic for writers such as wordsworth and blake. these two romantics also refer to childhood 141 as the age of wisdom and innocence, from which every adult should learn: “the child is father of the man” (wordsworth, 1888). it is, for them, the ideal stage of human life. childhood is sometimes referred to with nostalgia, as in wordsworth’s intimations of immortality: “there was a time when meadow, grove and stream,/ to me seem/ apparelled in celestial light,/ the glory and the freshness of a dream./ it is not now as it hath been of yore…”(wordsworth). for blake, on the other hand, the innocence of childhood, as opposed to the experience of man, is the source of imagination that loses its intensity with physical growth. nature is also a compelling topic of recurrence in romanticism. in almost every work of the romantics, nature is present. it is for them the muse of their creations: “nature is thought of, not so much as a structure or system presented objectively to man, but rather as a total creative process in which man, the creation of man, and the creation of man’s art, are all involved” (frye, 1963). nature is the source and end of life. in blake, we find the tree of life and the poison tree. in coleridge and shelley we find the sea as the setting where the life of many mariners and the life of a monster, a product of human consciousness, end. nature is also the scenery of these romantics’ dreams. in coleridge’s kubla khan, the dream was about a “savage place as holy and enchanted as ever beneath a waning moon was haunted”. in this poem coleridge remarks on the elements of nature with unparalleled exoticism, depicting the environment where he sets his visions of a legendary character: kubla. in blake’s a dream a sad tone is present for an “emmet lost its way”. in this case, the emmet represents a soul befuddled by some calamity in life, and tired of looking for its direction. in byron’s darkness, the dream is apocalyptic, where lights are extinguished as nature and life are, by starvation. dreams were also a romantic strategy to introduce the reader to a world of possibilities, parallel to reality. the gothic feature is also present in many of the romantics’ creations. sometimes it also involves supernatural phenomena, mystery and horror. for example, we have the darkness of the apocalyptic dream of byron, or that of the many scenes in which the stories of frankenstein maría del pilar bravo 142 and the ancient mariner are told, as well as the gloomy places of the same frankenstein’s story. the apocalyptic vision of some romantics was the aspect that impresses the readership the most. in byron’s darkness, for instance, there is a detailed description of the way a man saw the end of life on earth. in his dream – his imagination this apocalypse was the end of man’s passions, which are represented by light and its heat: “…the icy earth swung blind and blackening in the moonless air…and men forgot their passions in the dread…” it was a moment of hopeless turmoil, where people and animals struggled to avoid starvation, until finally, darkness and desolation invaded the universe. this poem seems to be the product of a sudden moment of melancholy, since it is full of gloomy and macabre descriptions. in mary shelley’s frankenstein, in the last scenes of the novel, the monster expresses, with an apocalyptic tone, his resolution to kill himself as the last resort – after having killed his creator and all his familyin order to exterminate his wretchedness and remorse: “…the bitter sting of remorse will not cease to rankle in my wounds until death shall close them forever…i shall ascend my funeral pile triumphantly and exult in the agony of the torturing flames.” here, the apocalyptic tone has a purpose: to end a chain of hatred and misery. for blake, the apocalypse also has a purpose. for him, it is the need to die from ignorance and to be reborn to be able to create, to imagine. in his marriage of heaven and hell, he shows us the knowledge of hell as an enriching one. on the contrary, religion is for him an attempt to destroy existence, since it endeavours to reconcile the devourer and the prolific, whose eternal and mutual hatred is necessary, in order to keep balance on earth. in order to convey his apocalyptic vision, blake uses divine and horrific beings as the bible does. for example the book of the apocalypse: “an angel came to me and said…”. “the cherub with his flawing sword”, “dragon-man”, “eagle-like man”, “giants”, etc. in plate 14, blake says: “the ancient tradition that the world will be consumed in fire at the end of six thousand years, is true as i have heard from hell”, but, as i said before, this apocalypse is for him necessary in order to be reborn with a new capacity to imagine and see things as infinite as they are: “if the doors of perception” – senses -“were cleansed, everything would appear to man as it is, infinite”. literary creation and the supernatural in english romanticism 143 in conclusion, the essence of romanticism, and the principle that allowed the romantics to create a new conception of the world around them, was their belief in the power of creativity and imagination. imagination gave the romantics the possibility to dream of situations that surpassed reality; situations that poked fun at reason, by playing with the supernatural. the supernatural, together with elements such as the emphasis on the simplicity and richness of nature, the innocence and wisdom of children and country people, the continuous desire to explore and exploit the enigma of death and existence, among other trends, made romanticism one of the most far-reaching literary movements in england. references frye, northrop. 1963. blake after two centuries, in fables of identity. (1st ed.). new york: harcourt, brace & world. engell, j. & jackson, w. 1983. biographia literaria. princeton, new jersey: princeton university press. wordsworth, w. 1888. the complete poetical works. london: macmillan and co. maría del pilar bravo holds a degree in philology and languages from national university of colombia and is candidate for a master’s degree in education in the externado university. she is an english language teacher at the centro colombo americano, bogotá. e-mail: piliexpress@yahoo.com maría del pilar bravo gist noviembre 2008final(segundas correcciones).p65 > critical literacy for monolinguals and bilinguals-in-the-making ��*��� ��/����������/� !'�$�� $ ,-�� ������ ������� �7 p;r ,� ����� a-6 ��� � ��� ��' ��� �� %��������� �-�� �� �%��� �� �� ��d������ � � ���� ������� ' � � ��� ���� �������� ��� ���6 �%%����� ���' p r j�� �� ���� ������ ��� ����������� �-�� a��� �% � ��� �� ��� ��� � ���� ������������ �6 d� ����� � c� ��� �a����� ��� ���)���� %� � ����37 p;r 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5%�������� �5��� ���� ����6 �� ��a�' ��a� ���6' ��' ��� � ���� � �� �� 5%������� /� ������ �5��� ���� ����6 �� ��a�' ��a� ���6� � ��� �����' ���� � �����6 a � %��� �� ������ a�� �� ���������� a-� �� � ������n� ��������� � ��� �� ����� � 5��� � �� ;<e;� � ���� �� ����0 �� ��������� %������� �� �������� �� ���� �� �-�����' ��������' a� � �����6 � ��� �' � � ��� � �������-��� a�6' �-���� ��� ������ 5���� ���6 a��0� a���������� a-� � ����������� %�%�������� �� ����� � 5��� � �� � � �� q=; � . � ���� �� �� %� %�� � ���� a-� a��� %����� ����� ���6 ��� �������� %��������� ����� �� ����� � ����� 12 bilingual and esl pre-service teachers learn about effective instruction for ells through meaningful collaboration1 estudiantes de educación bilingüe y maestros de inglés como segunda lengua aprenden sobre la enseñanza efectiva del inglés por medio de la colaboración significativa alma d. rodríguez2* university of texas at brownsville, usa abstract this article presents the results of a study conducted to identify the perceptions of bilingual and esl pre-service teachers regarding the integration of a collaborative service learning project in a key course of their teacher preparation program. pre-, process, and final reflective essays were written by participants as they engaged in the development of an esl unit to teach language through content to ells. the analysis of participants’ reflections revealed that preservice teachers connect the learning they acquire in their teacher education program with their life experiences, which contributes to their identity formation as prospective teachers of ells. in addition, participants discovered the value of collaboration in their professional development as they applied and articulated effective practices in the instruction of ells. the integration of meaningful collaborative projects and reflective exercises in teacher education programs is suggested. key words: bilingual teacher education; esl teacher education, collaboration, reflection, effective practices for ells, identity development 1 received: december 13, 2012 / accepted: may 14, 2013 2 email: alma.rodriguez@utb.edu gist education and learning research journal. issn 1692-5777. no. 7, november 2013. pp. 12-34 rodríguez re se ar ch a rti cle s no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) 13 resumen este artículo presenta los resultados de una investigación que se realizó con el propósito de identificar las percepciones de estudiantes de educación bilingüe y docentes en formación de inglés como segunda lengua en relación a la integración de un proyecto colaborativo de enseñanza en un curso fundamental de su programa de formación como maestros. los participantes escribieron ensayos de reflexión al inicio y al final a medida que se involucraban en el desarrollo de una unidad de inglés como segunda lengua en la que integraron la enseñanza del lenguaje con la enseñanza de contenidos académicos. el análisis de las reflexiones reveló que los futuros maestros establecieron conexiones entre el nuevo aprendizaje y sus vivencias, lo que contribuye al desarrollo de su identidad como futuros maestros de aprendices de inglés. asimismo, los participantes descubrieron el valor de la colaboración en su desarrollo profesional a medida que aplicaron y articularon prácticas efectivas en la instrucción de los aprendices de inglés. se sugiere la integración de proyectos significativos y colaborativos así como ejercicios de reflexión en los programas de formación de maestros. palabras clave: formación de maestros bilingües, formación de maestros de inglés como segunda lengua, colaboración, reflexión, prácticas efectivas para los aprendices de inglés, desarrollo de identidad resumo este artigo apresenta os resultados de uma pesquisa que se realizou com o propósito de identificar as percepções de estudantes de educação bilíngue e docentes em formação de inglês como segunda língua em relação à integração de um projeto colaborativo de ensino em um curso fundamental do seu programa de formação como mestres. os participantes escreveram ensaios de reflexão no início e no final, na medida em que se envolviam no desenvolvimento de uma unidade de inglês como segunda língua na que integraram o ensino da linguagem com o ensino de conteúdos acadêmicos. a análise das reflexões revelou que os futuros mestres estabeleceram conexões entre a nova aprendizagem e suas vivências, o que contribui ao desenvolvimento da sua identidade como futuros mestres de aprendizes de inglês. da mesma forma, os participantes descobriram o valor da colaboração no seu desenvolvimento profissional na medida em que aplicaram e articularam práticas efetivas na instrução dos aprendizes de inglês. sugere-se a integração de projetos significativos e colaborativos, assim como exercícios de reflexão nos programas de formação de mestres. palavras chave: formação de mestres bilíngues, formação de mestres de inglês como segunda língua, colaboração, reflexão, práticas efetivas para os aprendizes de inglês, desenvolvimento de identidade rodríguez no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) 14 introduction the number of english language learners (ells) in the united states continues to increase (genese, lindholm-leary, saunders, & christian, 2005; goldenberg, 2008; short & fitzsimmons, 2007), and many of their teachers are not qualified to provide them with adequate instruction (meltzer & hamann, 2005; short & fitzsimmons, 2007). for example, more than 40% of teachers in the united states taught at least one ell in the 2001-2002 school year. of those teachers, only about 23% had a bilingual or english as a second language (esl) certification (meltzer & hamann, 2005). therefore, the preparation of bilingual and esl teachers is a topic that deserves attention. in an effort to monitor and improve the quality of experiences acquired through a bilingual and esl teacher education program, a study was designed to explore the perceptions of bilingual and esl pre-service teachers regarding the integration of a collaborative service learning project in a course that is a key component of their teacher preparation program. literature review service learning service learning can be defined as “a teaching method that engages students in service to their communities” (bollin, 2007 p. 178). the integration of service learning projects in the united states is increasing both at the k-12 and college level. the goal of service learning is to develop responsible citizens who are committed to addressing social problems (bollin, 2007). service learning can be integrated into a particular college course (bollin, 2007; boylebaise, 2002). bollin (2007) explains that a service learning course has several characteristics. first, students learn through carefully planned activities that meet real community needs. second, students apply their newly-acquired knowledge to real situations within their community. in addition, students learn beyond the classroom and are encouraged to care for others. finally, students must engage in guided reflection about their experience in the service learning course (bollin, 2007; boyle-baise, 2002). service learning follows constructivist principles as students build their own knowledge by being actively engaged in meaningful tasks (miller & gonzalez, 2009). service learning projects are learner-centered, meaningful, and purposeful because students are able to use their knowledge to meet the needs of the community. similarly, instruction for ells should be learner-centered, meaningful, and purposeful (freeman & freeman, bilingual and esl pre-service teachers rodríguez no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) 15 1998). therefore, bilingual and esl pre-service teachers must learn to design instruction with these characteristics. types of ells in order to design effective instruction for ells, pre-service teachers must understand the students whom they will teach. teachers must understand that ells are very diverse in their personal and schooling experiences as well as in their academic needs (maxwelljolly, gándara, & mendez benavides, 2007). freeman and freeman (2011) distinguish between three types of ells: newly arrived students with adequate schooling, newly arrived students with limited or interrupted schooling, and long term ells. newly arrived students with adequate schooling generally do better in school than the other two groups. this is in part because students with higher levels of first language (l1) development do better than those who did not receive sufficient instruction in l1 (short & fitzsimmons, 2007). long-term ells comprise the largest group of ells. in fact, close to 80% of ells at the elementary level and close to 60% of ells at the secondary level are us born (goldenberg, 2008). moreover, long-term ells are “falling through the cracks… [they] are likely to be segregated in their classrooms and in their communities… they are also likely to be taught by teachers who lack the preparation and skills to meet their academic needs” (horwitz, uro, price-baugh, simon, uzzell, lewis, & casserly, 2009, pp. 3-4). as can be noted, ells conform a heterogeneous group with needs that are distinct from one another (ncte, 2008). it is not possible to place all ells in the same category because they come from different backgrounds, have different levels of english proficiency, and have different levels of academic proficiency (goldenberg, 2008; ncte, 2008; short & fitzsimmons, 2007). although there is not a single answer to address the needs of ells (ncte, 2008), bilingual and esl pre-service teachers may benefit by becoming familiar with effective practices that will allow the students to succeed both linguistically and academically. effective practices for ells teaching language and content. one way in which teachers can address the needs of ells is by combining the teaching of language and content. ells need to acquire the english language, but they also need to bilingual and esl pre-service teachers rodríguez no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) 16 acquire academic concepts. in fact, short & fitzsimmons (2007) explain that adolescent ells have “double the work” as their english dominant counterparts since they must not only learn the academic content, but they must learn it in a new language (p. 1). in addition, in order to do well academically, ells must develop both conversational and academic language proficiency in english (goldenberg, 2008; harper & de jong, 2004). cummins (2008) explains that academic language is the language of school. it is the language register that students need in order to follow instruction and to complete assignments. by teaching the english language in combination with academic content, ells are given the opportunity to develop the academic language they need. there are a variety of approaches to teach language through content (herrera & murry, 2011). integrated content-based instruction (icb) integrates language and content by providing students with authentic activities and real-life experiences that facilitate the use of academic language in relevant ways. sheltered instruction is another approach to integrate language and content instruction. krashen introduced sheltered instruction in the 1980s as a way to safeguard ells from negative affective factors that may interfere with their acquisition of english. since then, a series of variations have developed, such as content-based english language teaching (celt), specially designed academic instruction in english (sdaie), and the sheltered instruction observation protocol (siop), among others (herrera & murry, 2011). when language is being taught through content, instruction should be organized around themes (freeman & freeman, 2007; ncte, 2008; short & fitzsimmons, 2007). freeman and freeman (2007) explain that thematic instruction allows students to make connections between the different content areas and facilitates academic language development which is repeated naturally. in addition, freeman and freeman (1998) suggest that instruction for ells should have meaning and purpose. when ells see that language serves a real purpose and experience the need to communicate using the english language either orally or in writing, they are more likely to complete the tasks presented in the new language. learner-centered instruction that values students’ first languages and cultures. ells need opportunities to use english in meaningful and relevant ways (freeman & freeman, 1998; goldenberg, 2008). tapping on students’ backgrounds makes instruction relevant and learner-centered. meltzer and hamann (2005) stress the importance of connecting instruction to students’ prior experiences and background knowledge. ells comprehend reading material better when it relates bilingual and esl pre-service teachers rodríguez no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) 17 to their cultures (goldenberg, 2008). in addition, ells benefit when clarifications and explanations are provided in their first language (goldenberg, 2008). moreover, students’ native language is a resource that facilitates english language development (meltzer & hamann, 2005; ncte, 2008). providing comprehensible input. krashen (2008) explains that individuals acquire a second language when they comprehend the messages they receive. he calls this comprehensible input. teachers of ells must provide students with comprehensible input when teaching language through content by integrating a variety of sheltered strategies into their lessons. sheltered instruction is used to adapt instruction to the students’ level of language proficiency when teaching content to ells in english. instruction is made comprehensible and academic language development is promoted (echevarría, vogt, & short, 2013). there is a wide variety of sheltered strategies such as the use of visuals, realia, and manipulatives, adapted speech to the level of students’ language proficiency, controlled vocabulary, collaboration among students, etc. (echevarría, et al., 2013). integration of the four language skills. ells should receive instruction that promotes the development of listening, speaking, reading, and writing in english simultaneously (freeman & freeman, 1998; short & fitzsimmons, 2007). research shows that reading and writing skills support one another, and that literacy is facilitated by oral language development (short & fitzsimmons, 2007). ells can acquire academic language when the language classroom provides integrated opportunities to listen, speak, read, and write (short & fitzsimmons, 2007) about content in collaboration with others (harper & de jong, 2004). promoting social interaction. as mentioned before, ells need opportunities to develop both social and academic language proficiency. when students interact in the language classroom, they are given the opportunity to use english in meaningful and authentic ways (goldenberg, 2008). research studies have shown that group work contributes to raise the achievement level of ells when they collaborate on meaningful tasks (aguirre-muñoz & amabisca, 2010). for example, brooks and thurston (2010) found that ells are more academically engaged in content area classrooms when they interact in small groups. therefore, teachers of ells should promote cooperative learning (harper & de jong, 2004). johnson, johnson, and holubec (1994) explain that cooperative learning has five essential elements: positive interdependence, individual accountability, interpersonal and bilingual and esl pre-service teachers rodríguez no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) 18 small group skills, face-to-face interaction, and group processing. in cooperative learning tasks, students depend on each other to succeed while each group member is required to do their part, and each student is held accountable for knowing all of the material. collaboration among teachers. not only do ells benefit from collaborating among themselves, but they benefit when their teachers collaborate in the planning and delivery of instruction (russell, 2012; short, cloud, morris, & motta, 2012; york-barr, ghere, & sommerness, 2007). york-barr, et al. (2007) found that collaboration among teachers fosters improvement in ells’ academic achievement, behavior, and relationships. collaboration among teachers can take different forms. for example, esl and mainstream teachers can plan instruction together and even team-teach (york-barr, et al., 2007). collaboration can also occur as teachers receive professional development on meeting the needs of ells (brancard & quinnwilliams, 2012; martin-beltrán & peercy, 2012). teachers can also mentor one another on how to provide effective instruction for ells (spezzini, austin, abbott, & littleton, 2009). teacher identity pre-service teachers are in the process of developing their identity as educators. teacher identity formation is shaped by the individuals’ past experiences in combination with the newly acquired knowledge and experiences in their teacher preparation program (bustos flores, riojas clark, guerra, & sánchez, 2008). in the case of bilingual and esl pre-service teachers, their first language and culture also shape their identity formation as prospective teachers of ells (galindo & olguín, 1996). as was previously mentioned, due to the need to prepare highly skilled teachers who can address the needs of a growing ell population, a collaborative service learning project was designed to help bilingual and esl pre-service teachers understand best practices in language teaching and help shape their identity as educators. a study was conducted to identify bilingual and esl pre-service teachers’ perceptions regarding this collaborative project. bilingual and esl pre-service teachers rodríguez no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) 19 methodology research design the purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of a collaborative service learning project in which bilingual and esl pre-service teachers created an esl unit to teach language through content to english language learners (ells). the aim of the research study was examined by answering two research questions: 1) what is the effect of service learning on the professional development of preservice teachers? and 2) what is the effect of service learning on the comprehension of second language teaching methods by bilingual and esl pre-service teachers? context and participants this study was conducted in a hispanic serving institution in south texas. the sample for this study consisted of 53 juniors and seniors majoring in elementary esl or bilingual education. participants were enrolled in one section of a course on foundations of bilingual education and esl during one of three semesters in which the study was conducted. there were 49 female and 4 male pre-service teachers who participated in the study. all but one of the participants were hispanic. data collection instruments part of the course requirements of the foundations course in which participants were enrolled included designing instruction to teach english to ells through content. because the city where the study was conducted identified the need to educate the children of the community about how to properly take care of their pets, pre-service teachers were asked to create an esl unit organized around a pet welfare theme. participants were asked to include activities that children in the community could complete to learn about proper pet care. participants were informed that the best activities would be donated to be used with the students in the community to instruct them on pet welfare. participants worked in groups to create their esl units which included lessons, booklets, coloring books, skits, and games, among other activities. as they developed their units, pre-service teachers applied their newly-acquired knowledge about second language teaching methods with a real and meaningful purpose. in order to collect data to answer the two research questions, the principal investigator asked participants to write three reflective bilingual and esl pre-service teachers rodríguez no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) 20 essays (bussert-webb, 2009). the first essay, or prereflective essay, was written before engaging in the pet welfare project. the process reflective essay was written as pre-service teachers were engaged in the development of their esl units. the post reflective essay was written after participants had completed their projects. the reflective essays were part of the course requirements as was the development of the esl unit on pet welfare. however, participation in this study was voluntary. therefore, the data analyzed includes only those reflective essays from students who agreed to participate in the study. figure 1 includes the topics on which participants were asked to elaborate in each of their essays. prereflective essay major expected date of graduation ethnicity educational background experience with service learning experience creating curriculum materials for ells expected learning anxieties and/or questions process reflective essay description of individual work description of group work similarities and/or differences between the quality and quantity of their work in this project as compared to other projects service learning post reflective essay acquired learning connection to the course service learning final comments figure 1. reflective essay topics data analysis and interpretation a systematic textual analysis of reflective essays was conducted. the reflective essays were read as they were graded during the semester they were submitted. the essays were read a second time after the completion of the third semester in which the data was collected. all pre-reflective essays from the three semesters were read first. the data was segmented by topics. subsequently, a thematic analysis was conducted by focusing on repeated ideas. a block and file approach was used to organize the resulting themes. through this approach, data segments are grouped in columns with categorizing headings (grbich, bilingual and esl pre-service teachers rodríguez no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) 21 2007). the same procedure was followed with the process reflective essays and with the final reflective essays. results the data analysis revealed a series of themes regarding the perceptions of bilingual and esl pre-service teachers about the impact of the collaborative service learning project in their preparation as teachers of ells and also in the development of their own identities as teachers. these identities were beginning to shape as participants’ previous personal experiences intersected with the formal instruction they were receiving in the college classroom. pre-reflective essays development of bilingual and esl teacher identity. participants elaborated on their background in their pre-reflective essay. as they explained their schooling experiences, it was evident that 20 participants were ells themselves. in addition, 19 of those 20 participants were also immigrants to the united states. as will be explained below, most participants fell under the category of immigrants with adequate schooling, although there were a few with interrupted schooling and some long term ells. as participants shared their ethnicity and educational background, several themes emerged: first, participants expressed pride in their hispanic background (n=4). one participant wrote, “being a mexican gives me motivation to reach all my goals in life because i want to raise my culture up high and never become assimilated to the point my identity falls apart.” another participant elaborated on her hispanic identity: ethnicity, for example makes me a strong and open minded individual, especially being hispanic i get to take the best out of two cultures and take them and make one of my own. i was molded to who i am because of my race, traditions, culture and family. second, many participants shared their childhood experiences, which coincide with the different types of ells they will encounter in their future classrooms. some participants described themselves with the characteristics of immigrant students with adequate schooling (n=9): at the age of 10 years old, my family decided to move to … [a city in texas] in search of a better life and education for my brother and me. living in… [a city in mexico], i always attended school and was bilingual and esl pre-service teachers rodríguez no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) 22 an excellent student. when i moved here …, my grades remained the same. i was getting good grades on all content areas, but i had so much difficulty speaking english. at home everyone spoke spanish, and i only heard english at school… participants who displayed the characteristics of ells who arrive in the us with adequate schooling struggled with the language more than with the academic content, but were capable of succeeding due to the academic and literacy skills they had developed in their first language: when i first came to the united states, i didn’t imagine it would be this hard to adapt myself to school. i entered middle school without english and the school placed me in an esl classroom where i learned some english. the rest of the content classes were all in english and that is where i had trouble. i took this opportunity as a challenge that i accomplished already. before coming to the united states, i lived… in mexico, where i had received my previous schooling. i attended elementary in mexico with a high level of education and with good grades and i think that helped a lot when i came here. i knew the content, but not the language. as time passed, i learned the language and now i am here in college ready to graduate next year. other participants elaborated on characteristics that described them as ells with interrupted schooling (n=2): i have now come to realize that i wasn’t taught using the best methods. i was a bilingual student, whose parents only spoke spanish. my parents had very little education in their native country. i was also a migrant who traveled frequently up north. my schooling was at times interrupted, and was exposed to different methods of teaching which didn’t encourage the acquisition of my first language and only focused on acquiring english. this class has helped me realize why i struggle in certain areas. throughout the years i have struggled to communicate orally in either language and although i have gotten better in communicating in english, i find myself struggling to communicate in spanish. i have always wanted to help students such as me and i hope to get the opportunity to do so soon. finally, a few participants described their educational experiences with characteristics of long term english learners (n=3): bilingual and esl pre-service teachers rodríguez no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) 23 i grew up as a bilingual student, but unfortunately the bilingual program i was in was not a very good quality program. due to the low quality bilingual program that i was in, i never fully acquired my first language and my english is not as great as i would like for it to be. this is why i want to be a bilingual teacher so that i can help students in maintaining their first language and also be successful in english. the above examples display the intersection of personal past experiences with the knowledge acquired in the college classroom, shaping the identity of the participants as prospective teachers of ells. participants expressed a desire to impart effective instruction for ells with whose backgrounds they can relate. participants also elaborated on the development of their bilingual skills. some participants were grateful to their bilingual and esl teachers who helped them succeed in schools. expectations regarding service learning. participants also elaborated on their expectations about the service learning project in their pre-reflective essays. it is important to keep in mind that these reflective essays were written before beginning to work on their esl unit on pet welfare. there were several themes that summarized participants’ expectations about service learning, which are represented in figure 2. figure 2. participants’ expectations of service learning first, bilingual and esl pre-service teachers wanted to impact the community (n=16). for example, one participant wrote, “with this bilingual and esl pre-service teachers rodríguez no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) 24 project we can make a difference and start the education process early and in turn, break the terrible cycle of animal abuse and negligence.” second, participants wanted to gain teaching experience through service learning (n=13) as one participant explained: “i am looking forward to begin my service learning to gain proper skills and knowledge of my future career.” third, participants expected to learn about planning lessons specifically for ells (n=11): “i expect to learn how to create appropriate curriculum materials, especially for ells as i am a novice in this area. in addition, i am also expecting to learn what curriculum works best with ells…” fourth, participants wanted to gain general knowledge as they engaged in the project (n=6). one participant wrote, “i would like the opportunity to do service learning not only to help others, but to learn from it.” finally, participants expected to apply what they learned in the classroom (n=4). one participant stated, “i am looking forward to experience service learning and be able to put into work what i am learning.” process reflective essays participants wrote their process reflective essays as they were working in groups designing their esl units on pet welfare. there were three themes that emerged from participants’ reflections, which are depicted in figure 3. figure 3. participants’ perceptions of collaborative service learning project bilingual and esl pre-service teachers rodríguez no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) 25 the most salient theme that emerged from the process reflective essays was the value participants placed in cooperative learning (n=31). participants elaborated extensively on how they communicated with group members, how they divided the work, and how they managed their time. they also appreciated the structure of the assignment and the grading system which fostered positive interdependence as well as individual accountability. regarding positive interdependence, one participant wrote, “everyone is doing their part because everyone has a different topic working towards the same goal.” another participant elaborated on individual accountability by stating: in other projects we have not had much equality. some group members had more work or did more work than others. here we each have one lesson to do. we write what we are contributing to the project as a whole we keep track of what we are writing, what information we have obtained and so on. in addition, participants emphasized the importance of communication in cooperative work. for example one participant wrote, “the important thing is to always have good communication skills and take advantage of the many ways in which we can relay information to each other.” another participant explained, “ our communication is great and we really work well together. we have been emailing each other back and forth and have not had any disagreements.” participants also realized the benefit of working with others to refine their ideas: “doing it with a group brings so many ideas to the table.” another participant wrote, as a group we gave each other an opportunity to toss out all of our ideas and then go through the process of tweaking the ideas until we came to an overall consensus of what topics and different activities we could use. participants also expressed in their process reflective essays that they were gaining a variety of knowledge as they worked on their esl unit (n=18). they elaborated on how much they learned about pet welfare through the extensive research they had to conduct to create a unit on the topic (n=6). they also elaborated on how they were learning about pedagogy and second language teaching methods (n=8). for example, one participant wrote, “i never thought that a theme like pet welfare could be taught through content such as history, mathematics, and science but i learned it sure can.” participants also expressed that they improved their academic skills (n=2) and grew professionally (n=2), for example through improved self-confidence. bilingual and esl pre-service teachers rodríguez no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) 26 in their process reflective essays, participants also indicated that the collaborative service learning project implied more work than other projects completed for other classes (n=13). they found that this project required careful work to create learner-centered lessons. moreover, they were very clear in indicating that the real purpose behind the project made it meaningful and encouraged them to work harder. one participant wrote, “i have had to work much harder. service learning projects require for us as students to deliver the information in a way that will be beneficial, interesting, and fun for students to learn.” another participant explained, “in order to complete this project successfully, we would have to work as a team and treat this project as if we were actually preparing to teach our students because ultimately it may be used to do just that.” finally, participants explained that the esl unit on pet welfare was helping them design learner-centered instruction (n=6). for example, one participant wrote, “we are making a lesson that is relevant to the students’ lives, and this is how students are motivated to learn.” another participant expressed that “the most difficult aspect of this project is trying to create an activity that meets all of the requirements but yet is still fun and engaging for the students,” while a third participant explained that they “also had to make sure that the quality of the work would provide meaningful connections to the students.” final reflective essays after participants completed their projects and presented the outcomes to the class, they were asked to write a final essay in which they reflected on their overall perception of the project as well as on their understanding of service learning. learning effective practices for ells. participants continued to elaborate on the value of cooperation and communication in the learning process. they also expressed that they learned from other groups as they listened to their presentations. most importantly, bilingual and esl preservice teachers comprehended second language teaching methods as they were successfully able to apply them in their work and elaborated extensively about how to teach ells appropriately. figure 4 displays the effective practices for teaching ells that participants included in their final reflective essays. bilingual and esl pre-service teachers rodríguez no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) 27 figure 4. effective practices for teaching ells participants gave examples of the learning they acquired when engaging in this project and on how they integrated effective practices in their esl units. one important category in this theme was valuing ells’ native languages and cultures (n=16). one participant explained that through this project she “learned how to connect the student’s first language and background with the lesson and curriculum.” even though the project was designed to teach esl, participants understood that when teaching ells, their first languages must be valued, respected, and used as resources, even when teaching in english, which differentiated this project from other projects that participants had developed for courses where the focus was not ells. participants responded positively to this aspect of the project. for example, one participant wrote, “something that i really liked about this project was that students have the opportunity to use their first language which can help build their selfesteem and motiv[ate] them to freely give their opinions and engage in this project.” another participant expressed, “this service learning project helped me learn and understand that respecting a student’s primary language is the most important factor and it should be above anything else.” participants also reflected on the integration of sheltered strategies when teaching ells (n=15). one participant wrote, “i learned to use visuals, body language, and manipulative objects.” another participant explained, the purpose of our pet welfare unit is to teach ells english through comprehensible material. in order to accomplish this we have learned that we need to use… [sheltered] strategies, for example, visuals, videos, an over-head projector, gestures, as many things in order to make it comprehensible.” bilingual and esl pre-service teachers rodríguez no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) 28 another important effective practice when teaching ells is the integration of the four language skills into instruction. participants successfully acquired this concept as they engaged in the development of their project (n=16). in this respect, one participant wrote, incorporating reading, writing, speaking, and listening was also not complicated. i just had to be creative with my activities to use all four of the … [language] skills in a few simple short activities. i tried my best to make them flow smoothly and not be choppy or out of place. participants also learned the importance of providing ells with learner-centered instruction (n=10). one participant explained that “it is essential to value the students’ culture and relate it during their learning experiences.” another participant wrote that it is important to ensure that they are teaching “something they [ells] are interested in… [so they can] have fun as well.” a third participant clearly elaborated on this point: “it is simply a learner centered project that allows students to have fun because the learning activities are meaningful, authentic, and designed for the students to have fun; students get to choose from a variety of them.” finally, participants also understood the importance of organizing instruction based on themes when teaching language through content (n=7). one participant mentioned, “during this project i learned that if you include in your lesson relevant topics like in this case ‘pets welfare’ the students get more engaged, and they participate more…” another participant explained, “the children can relate thru [sic] a thematic instruction which will make it easier for the children to understand.” one of the participants summarized how the project helped her understand effective practices for ells as follows: by using the different strategies in our lesson… [ells would] be able to listen, speak, read, and writing [sic] through our unit service learning project. we had to make our unit engaging to the students, but at the same time meaningful. i believed our overall service learning unit was focusing on strengths and not weakness[es] of students. the material was designed to meet the students’ level academically through content… understanding service learning. in their final reflective essays participants also elaborated on their understanding of service learning. some participants were able to explain the concept of service learning (n=15). one participant explained it is an “opportunity that we as students have to make an impact in our community to apply what we bilingual and esl pre-service teachers rodríguez no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) 29 have we learned in our courses.” another participant wrote, “it is great to know that my group efforts could make a difference in showing children the importance of taking care of their pets.” a third participant expressed, “i have come to understand that i can help the community in many ways without having to be physically there.” nevertheless, other participants wished they would have had the opportunity to interact with the children as part of their service learning project (n=5). for example, one participant explained, “i thought it was a little unusual since my previous classes literally required our presence in a precise place” when conducting service learning. one very interesting finding was that some participants conceptualized service learning as a practice they could implement in their future classrooms (n=9). one participant explained, “i hope to use this method one day in my own classroom because students will be able to take with them meaningful information about the topic i choose to teach.” several participants envisioned their future students engaging in service learning (n=9). for example, one participant explained that service learning “helps students enhance their academic skills and to become conscious about community problems.” finally, a few participants (n=4) viewed this project as a way to communicate the importance of contributing to their community as was stated by the participant who wrote that service learning would “give our students and our community valuable material to inform them about important issues like pet welfare.” conclusions a collaborative service learning project was implemented in a course on foundations of bilingual education and esl for three semesters. the results of the study indicated that the collaborative project had a positive effect on the professional development of bilingual and esl pre-service teachers. participants valued cooperation and communication among peers as they engaged in the development of their esl units on pet welfare. the essential elements of cooperative learning identified by johnson, et al. (1994) were embedded into the structure of the project. participants discovered the importance of well-structured cooperative learning projects. moreover, participants realized the importance of cooperation as part of their professional development, as one participant explained: “with this experience, i would like to be able to team-teach or at least plan lessons with someone else in the future when i become a teacher.” this type of attitude will facilitate the type of teacher collaboration that bilingual and esl pre-service teachers rodríguez no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) 30 has been found to positively impact the achievement of ells (russell, 2012; short, et al., 2012; york-barr, et al., 2007). in addition, as pre-service teachers reflected on their work, the shaping of their identities as teachers of ells was evidenced. preservice teachers shared personal experiences and connected those to the newly acquired knowledge in their teacher preparation program. this finding is aligned with bustos flores’, et al. (2008) claim that educators begin to develop their identities before they start teaching, with factors such as personal experiences and teacher education playing important roles in their identity formation. interestingly, the concept of service learning was clearly developed by about one third of the participants. the rest of the participants elaborated on the possibilities of incorporating service learning in their future teaching, or on the value of sharing information with students regarding issues that impact the community. this may have been due to the lack of contact with students throughout the project. it can be hypothesized that, if pre-service teachers would have delivered their lessons to students instead of donating their activities to bilingual teachers, they might had been able to appreciate more the service they provided through their work. based on this finding, a service learning project was designed where bilingual and esl pre-service teachers would work directly with ells providing support in the students’ classrooms. further research will be conducted to assess pre-service teachers’ perceptions of that service learning project. the results of the study have valuable implications for teacher preparation programs. it is evident from the findings that pre-service teachers engage in the projects and assignments given in their coursework with the intention of maximizing their learning and with the hopes of implementing the acquired learning in their future classrooms. therefore, teacher educators should carefully design meaningful and purposeful assignments as part of the professional development of future teachers. in addition, teacher educators benefit from assessing the perceptions of pre-service teachers regarding their experiences in their teacher education program. moreover, reflective exercises are ideal to assess the meaning pre-service teachers extract from the instruction they receive and how they connect such meaning with personal experiences to further refine their developing identities as teachers. finally, participants were able to clearly articulate effective practices for second language instruction. they expressed the importance of researching topics of interest to provide meaningful, learner-centered instruction to their future ell students. moreover, bilingual and esl pre-service teachers rodríguez no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) 31 participants gained knowledge about effective practices in the instruction of ells, such as integrating sheltered strategies and the four language skills, and valuing students’ first languages and cultures as they planned a unit that integrated language and content instruction for ells. this collaborative project had a positive effect in the preparation of bilingual and esl teachers, as was expressed by one participant: “i learned that with proper research and preparation i can teach esl students. my confidence in myself and my abilities has grown.” given the great need for well-prepared teachers of ells in the united states (meltzer & hamann, 2005; short & fitzsimmons, 2007), it is important to engage bilingual and esl pre-service teachers in meaningful projects that help them develop the necessary skills to take on the challenge of educating ells. references aguirre-muñoz, z., & amabisca, a. a. (2010). defining opportunity to learn for engish language learners: linguistic and cultural dimensions of ells’ instructional contexts. journal of education for students placed at risk, 15, 259-278. doi: 10.1080/10824669.2010.495691 bollin, g. (2007). preparing teachers for hispanic immigrant children: a service learning approach. journal of latinos & education, 6(2), 177-189. boyle-baise, m. (2002). saying more: qualitative research issues for multicultural service learning. international journal of qualitative studies in education, 15(3), 317-331. brancard, r., & quinnwilliams, j. (2012). learning labs: collaborations for transformative teacher learning. tesol journal, 3(3), 320-349. brooks, k., & thurston, l. p. (2010). english language learner academic engagement and instructional grouping configurations. american secondary education, 39(1), 45-60. bussert-webb, k. (2009). gardening, tutoring, and service by and for latinos: la esperanza. education research and perspectives, 36(2), 81-109. bustos flores, b., riojas clark, e., guerra, n. s., & sánchez, s. v. (2008). acculturation among latino bilingual education teacher candidates: implications for teacher reparation institutions. journal of latinos and education, 7(4), 288-304. doi: 10.1080/15348430802143550 bilingual and esl pre-service teachers rodríguez no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) 32 cummins, j. (2008). bics and calp: empirical and theoretical status of the distinction. in b. street & n. h. hornberger (eds.), encyclopedia of language and education, 2nd edition, volume 2: literacy (pp. 7183). new york: springer science + business media llc. echevarría, j., vogt, m. e., & short, d. (2013). making content comprehensible for english learners: the siop model. boston: pearson. freeman, d., & freeman, y. (2007). english language learners: the essential guide. new york: scholastic. freeman, d., & freeman, y. (2011). between worlds: access to second language acquisition. portsmouth, nh: heinemann. freeman, y., & freeman, d. (1998). esl / efl teaching: principles for success. portsmouth, nh: heinemann. galindo, r., & olgín, m. (1996). reclaiming bilingual educators’ cultural resources: an autobiographical approach. urban education 31(1), 29–56. doi: 10.1177/0042085996031001002 genese, f., lindholm-leary, k., saunders, w., & christian, d. (2005). english language learners in u.s. schools: an overview of research findings. journal of education for students placed at risk, 10(4), 363-385. goldenberg, d. (2008, summer). teaching english language learners: what the research does – and does not – say. american educator, 32(2), 8-44. grbich, c. (2007). qualitative data analysis: an introduction. los angeles, ca: sage. harper, c., & de jong, e. (2004). misconceptions about teaching english-language learners. journal of adolescent & adult literacy, 48(2), 152-162. herrera, s. g., & murry, k. g. (2011). mastering esl and bilingual methods. boston: pearson. horwitz, a. r., uro, g., price-baugh, r., simon, c., uzzell, r., lewis, s., & casserly, m. (2009). succeeding with english language learners: lessons learned from the great city schools. retrieved from http://www.cgcs.org/publications/ell_report09.pdf johnson, d. w., johnson, r., t., & holubec, e. j. (1994). the new circles of learning: cooperation in the classroom and school. alexandria, va: ascd. bilingual and esl pre-service teachers rodríguez no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) 33 krashen, s. (2008). the comprehension hypothesis extended. in t. piske, & m. young-scholten (eds.), input matters in sla ( pp. 8194). bristol: multilingual matters. martin-beltrán, m., & peercy, m. m. (2012). how can esol and mainstream teachers make the best of a standards-based curriculum in order to collaborate? tesol journal 3(3), 425-444. maxwell-jolly, j., gándara, p., & mendez benavides, l. (2007). promoting academic literacy among secondary english language learners: a synthesis of research and practice. davis, ca: uc davis school of education. retrieved from: http://escholarship.org/uc/ item/5m14j4vp meltzer, j., & hamann, e. t. (2005). meeting the literacy development needs of adolescent english language learners through contentarea learning. part two: focus on classroom teaching and learning strategies. providence, ri: brown university. retrieved from: http:// www.alliance.brown.edu/pubs/adlit/adell_litdv2.pdf miller, k. k., & gonzalez, a. m. (2009). service learning in domestic and international settings. college student journal, 43(2). 527-536. ncte (2008). english language learners: a policy research brief produced by the national council of teachers of english. urbana, il: author. retrieved from: http://www.ncte.org/library/nctefiles/ resources/policyresearch/ellresearchbrief.pdf russell, f. a. (2012). a culture of collaboration: meeting the instructional needs of adolescent english language learners. tesol journal, 3(3), 445-468. short, d., & fitzsimmons, s. (2007). double the work: challenges and solutions to acquiring language and academic literacy for adolescent english language learners – a report to carnegie corporation of new york. washington, dc: alliance for excellent education. retrieved from: http://www.all4ed.org/files/doublework.pdf short, d. j., cloud, n., morris, p., & motta, j. (2012). cross-cultural collaboration: curriculum and professional development. tesol journal, 3(3), 402-424. spezzini, s., austin, j. s., abbott, g., & littleton, r. (2009). role reversal within the mentoring dyad: collaborative mentoring on the effective instruction of english language learners. mentoring & tutoring: partnership in learning, 17(4), 297-315. bilingual and esl pre-service teachers rodríguez no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) 34 york-barr, j., ghere, g., & sommerness, j. (2007). collaborative teaching to increase ell student learning: a three-year urban elementary case study. journal of education for students placed at risk, 12(3), 301-335. author *alma d. rodríguez is an associate professor at the university of texas at brownsville. she holds a ph.d. in curriculum and instruction, a master’s degree in english as a second language (esl), as well as a bachelor’s degree in spanish and bilingual education. dr. rodríguez has over 15 years of experience working with hispanic english language learners (ells) in the united states at all levels: elementary, secondary, and higher education. she has held teaching as well as administrative positions at the elementary and secondary levels in schools with high numbers of ells. currently, as a teacher educator, dr. rodríguez specializes in the preparation of bilingual and esl teachers at the undergraduate and graduate levels. her research interests include bilingual and esl teacher education and the use of literature in bilingual and esl classrooms. she has published articles and book chapters on those topics in english and spanish. bilingual and esl pre-service teachers no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) 76 implementation of audiovisual material in an early sequential bilingual model during the early years1 implementación de material audiovisual en un modelo bilingüe secuencial temprano para la primera infancia diana carolina durango isaza, clara inés gonzález marín, and enrique arias castaño ph.d2* universidad tecnológica de pereira, colombia abstract this research arose from the need to consolidate a meaningful bilingual methodology for children from three to five years of age from low socioeconomic backgrounds belonging to the public education system, where they could begin learning english and spanish by means of a bilingual methodology that provides them with the same opportunities as middle to upper class children. its aim is to implement an early sequential bilingual methodology model in a public early childhood development center ecdc (centro de desarrollo infantil cdi), and to collect data from class observations, student’s responses, early childhood teachers’ and english teachers’ views as well as parents’ perceptions towards its methodology and implementation in order to consolidate the model. likewise, it will provide children with new opportunities to develop higher cognitive and high order thinking skills that can maximize their academic performance throughout their school years. this present early sequential bilingual model is a descriptive case study funded by a public university in colombia and was implemented in a public ecdc (cdi) in pereira (risaralda-colombia) based on the bilingual methodological proposals portrayed by rodao (2011) and arias et al. (2015). this research project depicts and systematizes the most predominant methodological techniques employed when teaching english at public ecdcs (cdis) and interprets their effectiveness based on the data collected from 1 received: december 12th 2016/accepted: may 8th 2018 2 diana.c.durango@utp.edu.co; claraigoma@utp.edu.co; earias@utp.edu.co gist education and learning research journal. issn 1692-5777. no.16 (january june) 2018.. pp. 76-99 durango, gonzález & arias no. 16 (january june, 2018) no. 16 (january june, 2018) 77 interviews, fieldnotes and surveys. this article describes the responses of three to five-year-old children to audiovisual material implemented in class. keywords: spanish/english bilingual early childhood, early sequential bilingual methodology, reducing social gaps, equal educational opportunities, public early childhood education. resumen esta investigación surgió de la necesidad de consolidar una metodología bilingüe significativa para niños de tres a cinco años de edad, pertenecientes a niveles socioeconómicos bajos y que hacen parte del sistema de educación pública. el proyecto busca fortalecer el inglés y el español a través de una metodología bilingüe que les proporcione a estos niños las mismas oportunidades que tienen los menores de estratos medio y alto. este estudio tiene como objetivo implementar una metodología bilingüe secuencial temprana en un centro de desarrollo infantil (cdi) público, y recolectar información de observaciones de clase, respuesta de los infantes, percepciones de los educadores tanto de primera infancia como bilingües y de los padres de los niños que hicieron parte del proyecto con respecto a su implementación y su metodología para así consolidar el modelo de educación bilingüe para la primera infancia. así mismo, se ofrecerá a los niños nuevas oportunidades para desarrollar habilidades cognitivas y neuronales que permitan maximizar su rendimiento académico durante los años escolares. esta investigación cualitativa es un estudio de caso descriptivo financiado por una universidad pública colombiana, y fue implementado en un cdi en pereira (risaralda-colombia) basado en una propuesta metodológica bilingüe presentadas por rodao (2011) y arias et al. (2015). esta investigación detalla y sistematiza las técnicas metodológicas más predominantes utilizadas en la enseñanza del inglés en un cdi público e interpreta su efectividad basada en los datos recogidos en encuestas, entrevistas, y notas de campo. este artículo describe respuestas de niños entre tres y cinco años de edad a material audiovisual implementado en clase. palabras claves: primera infancia bilingüe en español/inglés, metodología bilingüe secuencial temprana, reducción de brechas sociales, igualdad de oportunidades, educación pública en primera infancia. resumo esta pesquisa surgiu da necessidade de consolidar uma metodologia bilíngue significativa para crianças de três a cinco anos de idade, pertencentes a níveis socioeconômicos baixos e que fazem parte do sistema de educação pública. o projeto busca fortalecer o inglês e o espanhol através de uma metodologia bilíngue que proporcione a estas crianças as mesmas oportunidades que têm os menores de estratos médio e alto. este estudo tem como objetivo implementar uma metodologia bilíngue sequencial precoce em um centro de desenvolvimento infantil (cdi) público, e coletar informação de observações de aula, resposta dos infantes, percepções dos educadores tanto de primeira durango, gonzález & arias no. 16 (january june, 2018) no. 16 (january june, 2018) 78 infância como bilíngues e dos pais das crianças que fizeram parte do projeto com relação a sua implementação e sua metodologia, para assim consolidar o modelo de educação bilíngue para a primeira infância. da mesma forma, oferecer-se-á às crianças novas oportunidades para desenvolver habilidades cognitivas e neuronais que maximize o seu rendimento acadêmico durante os anos escolares. esta pesquisa qualitativa é um estudo de caso descritivo financiado por uma universidade pública colombiana, e foi implementado em um cdi em pereira (risaralda-colômbia) baseado em uma proposta metodológica bilíngue presentadas por rodao (2011) e arias et al. (2015). esta pesquisa detalha e sistematiza as técnicas metodológicas mais predominantes utilizadas no ensino do inglês em um cdi público e interpreta a sua efetividade baseada nos dados coletados em enquetes, entrevistas, e notas de campo. este artigo descreve respostas de crianças entre três e cinco anos de idade a material audiovisual implementado em aula. palavras chaves: primeira infância bilíngue em espanhol/inglês, metodologia bilíngue sequencial precoce, redução de brechas sociais, igualdade de oportunidades, educação pública em primeira infância audiovisual materials in a sequential bilingual model durango, gonzález & arias no. 16 (january june, 2018) no. 16 (january june, 2018) 79 audiovisual materials in a sequential bilingual model durango, gonzález & arias introduction the effectiveness of audiovisual material during the implementation of an english early sequential bilingual model is one of the findings from a macro research project conducted with the aim of consolidating a bilingual education model designed for threeto five-year-old children of public early childhood development centers. this model aims to bridge the gap in the current ministry of education early childhood legislation and the bilingual policies in colombia to ensure egalitarian bilingual education to all colombian children during their preschool years, regardless their socioeconomic background. this study was guided by the following question: what is the result of using audio visual material during the implementation of an early sequential bilingual methodology? likewise, it had the following objective as a starting point: to describe the responses of the three to five-year-olds, belonging to a public early childhood development center, in regard to the use of audio visual material as a teaching technique during the implementation of the early sequential bilingual methodology. findings reveal that these kinds of materials play an important role in capturing children’s attention as they create enjoyable learning environments that end up contributing to their second language acquisition process. literature review bilingual early childhood espinosa (2010) states that the typical myth surrounding early childhood bilingualism that children acquiring two different structures and vocabulary sequentially could get them confused and overwhelmed is untrue. the author affirms that children have an innate ability to learn any type of language at any time. hence, she declares that children should be stimulated to acquire an additional language as soon as they have a chance, since it will help them take advantage of the academic, cognitive, cultural, economic, linguistic, literacy, and social benefits of bilingualism. ashworth and wakefield (2005) assert that bilingual children will develop their creative thinking and problem solving skills as well as autonomy in their own language acquisition process. along with krashen (1981), espinosa (2009) affirms that the teacher plays an essential role in the process of second language acquisition. thus, early childhood professionals should strive to understand what is required no. 16 (january june, 2018) no. 16 (january june, 2018) 80 to expose children to an additional linguistic system as well as to determine how to accomplish it following high quality methodological standards. espinosa further explains that there are several factors that play an important role for a child to acquire a second language rapidly, such as context, children’s attitude and personality, linguistic aptitude, motivation, as well as the quality and quantity of input received. nevertheless, she affirms that the sooner children are exposed to a second language methodology the faster they will acquire it. ashworth and wakefield (2005) emphasize that children are triggered by their motivation, and constant development of their cognitive and linguistic skills while interacting with others. they state that teachers could spark children’s imagination and enhance their creativity by employing meaningful activities such as storytelling, singing, playing, painting, among others. in addition, teachers should pay attention to children’s curiosity, praise them, as well as rough-tune their language to make it as comprehensible as possible. furthermore, the authors affirm that when children get in contact with a new language, they commence to transfer their native language experiences to their second language as part of their acquisition development, which makes it easier to assimilate. finally, they recommend that, during this stage, it is best to consolidate both languages and content to accelerate the learning process. in addition, mclaughlin (1984) claims that children from two to six years of age develop their language competences through a natural acquisition process, and if they are exposed to additional linguistic systems, by the time they reach formal schooling, they will have mastered them exceptionally. the author also states that during those ages, children, driven by their curiosity, begin creating and experimenting with the new language. additionally, she emphasizes that exposing children to an additional tongue is considered second language acquisition when children begin their process at the time when their listening and speaking skills in their mother tongue are welldeveloped. moreover, titone (1972) states that children that are around four to five years old are in the best age to acquire a second language. he affirms that during this period of life, children are eager to socialize with everyone and they are curious to experiment with the language. this is because they are less inhibited in comparison to formal education students. likewise, he emphasizes that at this age children have the capacity to imitate and assimilate specific elements of the language such as phonology, morphology, syntax, semantics, and even pragmatic and sociolinguistics aspects of the language more easily. audiovisual materials in a sequential bilingual model durango, gonzález & arias no. 16 (january june, 2018) no. 16 (january june, 2018) 81 early sequential bilingualism to begin with, genesee (2009) makes a differentiation between early sequential bilingual and late sequential bilingual children. the former are children that commence acquiring a second language after having a basic command of their native language, usually during their first five years of age. the latter represents children that are exposed to a second language during their teen to adult years. also, the author claims that since early sequential (successive) bilingual paradigms are not that popular, parents and teachers tend to be skeptical about having their children learn both language systems sequentially; nonetheless, this could be avoided by sharing the benefits and advantages of being bilingual. purcell, lee, and biffin (2006) propose three stages of early sequential bilingualism. the first one is characterized by a silent period. in this stage, children listen and observe speakers of the target language non-verbal hints. this stage could take a couple of months and teachers should allow it to happen without pressuring children since this is when they begin to understand the form of the new language. during this stage, children interpret and use body language, gestures, facial and deictic expressions to communicate and later repeat some memorized fixed phrases that they hear from their teachers. throughout the second stage, children create their own sentences to communicate in the second language. it is essential that teachers become aware of children’s language development as to provide them timely feedback, praise them, and support them along the process. finally, in the last stage, children are able to communicate with the new linguistic code with a more accurate pronunciation, lexical and grammatical use. it is crucial to mention that during this stage, children begin switching their native language with the second language back and forth. additionally, purcell et al. (2006) state that this characteristic is typical of bilingual users and it helps to increase their fluency rate. moreover, purcell et al. (2006), as well as espinosa (2009), insist that teachers should find out as much information as possible about their students. knowing their interests, needs and motivations will facilitate the design of appealing lessons according to their age, likes, experiences, and culture. furthermore, genesee, paradis, and crago (2004) affirm that teachers should not combine both language systems within sentences since students need to be exposed to the new language structure as steadily and sustained as possible in order for their sequential language acquisition process to occur. audiovisual materials in a sequential bilingual model durango, gonzález & arias no. 16 (january june, 2018) no. 16 (january june, 2018) 82 implementing audiovisual material in the early years fernández (2014) explains that the use of audiovisual material in early education has certain advantages for language learning. first, motivation increases due to the fact that students improve their comprehension skills since they focus consciously on the language they are watching and listening. these kinds of material also motivates visual and auditory learners as they will be learning based on their learning style. a second advantage that king (cited by fernández, 2014) points out, is that students will be exposed to authentic language. therefore, students will improve their listening skills by the exposure to various accents and expressions. another benefit of implementing audiovisual material is that it helps children to create schemas of words. according to evans and green (as cited by ramirez, 2013), children during the process of learning a second language make connections between what they already know and what they are learning. in that sense, canning-wilson (2001) declares that the use of audiovisual material helps children to make associations between what they are watching with what they are listening to. the author also states that audiovisual material will also aid children to increase vocabulary learning as they will have an immediate image in their brain to support the language they are learning; thus, creating new schemas that help them to represent their reality. the state of the art of colombian early childhood bilingual models little research on early childhood bilingualism have been conducted in colombia. in the last decade, salgado and beltrán (2010), rodao (2011), and arias, atehortúa, chacón, giraldo, tamayo, vélez, and vidal (2015) conducted qualitative studies in this field that drew conclusions on the importance of implementing contextualized materials and meaningful activities to foster early childhood second language acquisition. as the first point, salgado and beltrán (2010) carried out research in a private institution in bogotá, in which they identified the most employed pedagogical strategies when teaching an additive bilingualism methodology to six-year-old preschoolers. those children belonging to the middle and high socioeconomic sector that participated in the study had been exposed to this bilingual methodology for more than 2 years at the time the data were collected. the results showed the importance of audiovisual materials in a sequential bilingual model durango, gonzález & arias no. 16 (january june, 2018) no. 16 (january june, 2018) 83 conducting classes supported by thorough lesson planning and suitable ludic materials according to the learners’ age. similar to salgado and beltrán, rodao (2011) conducted research in bogotá as well, where she designed and implemented a methodological proposal for threeto five-year-old children from a public early childhood development center. the author concluded that learning environments that include kinesthetic activities, arts and crafts, coloring, singing, and games foster second language acquisition. nevertheless, in order to make these activities meaningful for children, their interests and needs must be taken into account. on the other hand, arias et al. (2015) proposed and implemented a simultaneous bilingual methodology in a public early childhood development center located in a rural area of risaralda. the results showed that the acquisition of a second language occurs when being exposed to it naturally by means of ludic materials and activities. to sum up, these studies contribute to this research as they provide insights on how early childhood bilingual education should be conducted in colombia. though they were carried out under divergent conditions, their implications serve as a starting point to strengthen this early sequential bilingual methodology which was designed and piloted during its first phase back in 2015. additionally, for the sake of this project, the first investigation conducted by salgado and beltrán (2010) with six year olds from a private school shed light on how the socioeconomic status influences children’s receptive and productive english skills given that children commence the bilingual immersion in that private institution from three years of age onwards. subsequently, rodao (2011) raised awareness on how children’s emotional, economic, social, and political factors need to be taken into account before exposing them to bilingual education, as issues such as family care, health, nutrition, proper guidance, and even shelter may affect the implementation and their acquisition process. lastly, arias et al. (2015) highlights how the lack of an official early childhood curriculum for early childhood development centers in which the didactic units and syllabus could be identified makes it hard for english language teachers to align their l2 lessons to the ecdc’s lessons. as a result, english teachers end up constantly inquiring the early childhood teachers for what they taught in their previous lessons in order to catch up with the first language lexicon and content presented. all in all, being able to compare and contrast the early childhood bilingual methodologies conducted in our context enable us to acquire the necessary insights needed to conduct this research. moreover, it audiovisual materials in a sequential bilingual model durango, gonzález & arias no. 16 (january june, 2018) no. 16 (january june, 2018) 84 added weight to the endeavor that the aforementioned studies have pursued in regard to the importance of standardizing an early sequential bilingual methodology, which sets the course for a future public bilingual early childhood education program for threeto five-year-old children in colombia. this way, justice and equality could finally be spread among all ecdcs across the country. methodology research design the type of study selected for this research was a qualitative case study. merriam (2009) defines it as ‘an in-depth description and analysis of a bounded system’ (p. 43). interviews, surveys and observations were employed to gather information about the result of using audio visual material during the implementation of this early sequential bilingual methodology conducted with threeto five-year-old children. context and participants the context for this study was a public early childhood development center ecdc (centro de desarrollo infantil cdi) in pereira, colombia. the ecdc has two branches located within the urban area whose socioeconomic strata is level 1 to 2 (very low), where 270 children from vulnerable families attend to receive integral care and education. both branches are equipped with suitable spaces and elements to offer children integral care. a total of 162 non-literate monolingual preschoolers were part of the implementation process during a period of four months and a half with an hourly rate of english instruction of two hours per week. the classes were directed by three english language teachers (pre-service teachers), all of them studying a bachelor’s degree in english language teaching. additionally, there were five early childhood teachers and five early childhood teaching assistants. finally, 28 parents were also participants of the study. data collection instruments semi-structured interviews, surveys, and observations were the three qualitative instruments used in order to obtain information to validate this research. two of the three semi-structured interviews were done to the five early childhood teachers and their five corresponding audiovisual materials in a sequential bilingual model durango, gonzález & arias no. 16 (january june, 2018) no. 16 (january june, 2018) 85 teaching assistants. also, two online surveys were conducted through google forms prior to and following the implementation process. these surveys obtained information from the english teachers in regard to their perceptions, feelings, beliefs and opinions towards the early sequential bilingual methodology in place and the materials implemented. besides, 17 observations were carried out with the aim of identifying specific elements regarding the use of materials, giving instructions, grouping, among others, as well as children’s responses. (for samples, check appendices in durango, garzón, and rodriguez, 2017) data analysis and interpretation the triangulation and interpretations of the observations, surveys, and interviews were originated using the method of content analysis. after all the information was transcribed as part of the precoding process, a variety of colors were selected in order to identify the concurrent topics observed. also, in order to ensure validity and reliability, each co-researcher corroborated the data by independently pre-coding the data. next, they discussed their outcomes, revised them and agreed on the topics to be scrutinized, as part of testing out the system of criteria created. subsequently, the actual coding process took place, where all the data were segregated, condensed, and coded thoroughly and comprehensively. in the coding process, the assigned codes derived from information from each of the data collection methods, when and where it took place, participants, and their role. results and discussion at the outset, the use of audiovisual materials implemented by the english language teacher helped to promote a meaningful learning environment which aided children to increase their motivation towards their second language acquisition process. hence, during the implementation process, videos were used as pedagogical strategies to engage children, to practice the vocabulary and sentences learned in previous sessions, and to foster second language acquisition. subsequently, the effectiveness of the strategies implemented throughout the audiovisual sessions will be analyzed and described below, as well as the impact they had according to children’s responses. furthermore, in the following fragment extracted from an observation field note, the english pre-service teacher had already presented the vocabulary about means of transportation through audiovisual materials in a sequential bilingual model durango, gonzález & arias no. 16 (january june, 2018) no. 16 (january june, 2018) 86 flashcards. after reviewing the vocabulary, the teacher showed a video to engage children in the lesson and practice pronouncing various means of transport in the target language. in the video, the little ones were able to hear and identify elements such as the place, the characters, what they were saying, their actions performed, among others. observation excerpt one: ‘there are many ways to travel’ video ss: (ss stared at the video, 4 ss are dancing along) s1: carro (car) (did car movements with his hands while watching the car in the video) t: car (by pointing at the video and pantomiming a car with her hands) ss: ¡bus! (bus) (ss replied in l1 while watching the bus in the video) t: bus! (t corrected pronunciation while pantomiming the bus with her hands) t: train! (t said out loud when it appears in the video while pantomiming the train with her hands) ss: train t: airplane (while pointing at the video and pantomiming an airplane with her hands) ss: airplane ñaann, ñañannn! (onomatopoeic sound) (3ss mimed an airplane by moving their extended arms up and down) (video finished) note. t = english pre-service teacher; s1/s2 = student 1, 2, etc.; ss = students in the previous sample, the english pre-service teacher was repeating all the phrases in the video while children were looking at it and repeating after the teacher. after the image of the train came up the teacher modeled by shouting ‘train!’ to produce a sense of excitement, to what the children said ‘train’. then the teacher said ‘airplane’ while pointing at the image of an airplane displayed in the video and as a result, the students repeated ‘airplane’ and three of them were making airplane movements with their extended arms. moreover, the teacher pantomimed the characteristic movements and sounds of the means of transportation that appeared in the video in order for the children to correlate the words with their corresponding meaning better. while the video was playing, the teacher said the words in english out loud for the students to repeat them after her in order for them to audiovisual materials in a sequential bilingual model durango, gonzález & arias no. 16 (january june, 2018) no. 16 (january june, 2018) 87 practice their pronunciation. for instance, when the train appeared in the video, the teacher repeated along with her pupils the word ‘train’. to support these ideas, mukherjee and roy (2003) assert that employing visual aids such as videos during language lessons is a useful tool to contextualize spoken speech as it allows students to connect what is being said with what is being observed in the video. the authors advocate that students are able to understand more than 30% of what is being said with proper visual support than without it. in other words, videos are useful to enhance students’ understanding of the messages conveyed thanks to all the features that can be identified in videos, such as the place, the speakers, the actions they are doing while speaking, among other elements, which enable children to comprehend the interactions in an enjoyable way. additionally, videos enhance children’s motivation while enriching their second language acquisition. this is noted in the above observation field note sample, where one student expresses how much he liked the video by saying out loud ‘otra vez’ requesting the educator to play the video one more time. also, motivation signs are also highlighted during the next early childhood teacher’s interview conducted at the end of the implementation. interview excerpt one: (early childhood teacher one) ‘bueno la motivación de muchos en general si fue muy buena porque todos participaban, estuvieron muy atentos cuando la profe traía los frisos, los videos, todos estuvieron muy atentos a lo que ella les explicaba’. (‘well the motivation of most students in general was very good because they were participative, they were attentive while the teacher brought out fliers containing images, and the videos, they all were very attentive to what she was explaining’.) thus, this teacher implies that videos as well as other resources such as flashcards enhanced children’s motivation and allowed them to participate in the sessions given that they were attentive and engaged. in other words, the use of videos triggered positive effects in terms of attention as it was evidenced during most observations, that audiovisual material allowed children to be more concentrated and to focus on the topics being studied while improving their listening skills, vocabulary, and comprehension. audiovisual materials in a sequential bilingual model durango, gonzález & arias no. 16 (january june, 2018) no. 16 (january june, 2018) 88 in the same fashion, videos created a fun and interesting learning environment for children on the grounds that at the end of the vocabulary presentation right before the video, as evidenced in the example above, children started to talk to each other, but as soon as the educator played it, they immediately stopped chatting and began looking at it. subsequently, this same occurrence was corroborated by one of the english language teachers in the post-implementation survey displayed below. survey excerpt one: (english teacher one) ‘the second technique was the use of videos as warm-ups to make students stretch and sing in order to prepare them for the next activities of the class, these activities were really useful because when i showed videos, the students that were not paying attention instantly look at them’. hence, that english teacher expresses that she employed videos as part of her warm-up activities repertoire in order to engage students so they could focus and be prepared for the rest of the activities to come. likewise, english language teacher one implies that videos enhanced children’s attentiveness and concentration. this can be identified when she commented ‘when i showed videos, the students who were not paying attention instantly look at them’. as mentioned above, videos play an essential role when hooking students back into the lessons as videos trigger students’ attention and are motivating for them. as a matter of fact, tomalin (1991) asserts that incorporating videos into lesson plans are highly motivating for young students as they find them interesting and fun to watch. the author affirms that videos enable children to acquire words and phrases while they watch them. in other words, while engaging students back into a lesson through videos has a motivating effect on them, children are provided with the opportunity to practice words and phrases; thus, their second language acquisition process gets fostered. bearing this in mind, the following sample, extracted from an early childhood teacher’s post implementation interview, provide further evidence on the positive impact that audiovisual materials have in terms of engagement and children’s responses. audiovisual materials in a sequential bilingual model durango, gonzález & arias no. 16 (january june, 2018) no. 16 (january june, 2018) 89 interview excerpt two: (early childhood teacher two) ‘a ver las que fueron más efectivas (…) eee (…) fueron los videos y las imágenes grandes llamativas. (…) eee (…) a los niños les (...) les llama mucho la atención observar y como diariamente no tienen el televisor encendido, cuando se les prende y es para algo didáctico ellos prestan mucha atención, así que los videos y las imágenes grandes fueron las que más llamaron la atención’. (‘let’s see, the most effective ones (…) eee (…) were the videos and big appealing images. (…) eee (…) observing catches children’s attention a lot and since they do not have the television on every day, when it is turned on and if it has a pedagogical purpose they pay a lot of attention, so videos and big images were the ones that caught more their attention’.) in this case, the early childhood in-service teacher two recognizes the role that audiovisual materials had when acquiring english through the early childhood bilingual methodology implementation. that teacher mentions how given the fact that using a tv is not that common inside their classroom, when used for pedagogical purposes, it ends up capturing her pupils’ attention. she also implies that videos big and appealing images end up making children concentrate on what is being displayed and heard. early childhood teacher two also reports that audiovisual material was the most effective strategy used during the bilingual implementation. ‘a ver las que fueron más efectivas eee fueron los videos y las imágenes grandes llamativas’. as a result, it can be inferred that videos effectively foster children’s second language acquisition on the grounds that they allow them to review previously studied vocabulary and as when they are engaged they feel motivated to practice the new language presented. this was evidenced throughout the responses of children’s participation while teachers were eliciting information out of images and videos. in addition, it is important to highlight how this teacher agrees with what the early childhood teacher one previously said in regard to children being attentive in class as a result of exposure to videos. since videos catch children’s attention, it is easier for them to assimilate the new information. following this idea, tomalin (1991) claims that audiovisual materials in a sequential bilingual model durango, gonzález & arias no. 16 (january june, 2018) no. 16 (january june, 2018) 90 videos contribute significantly to the process of language acquisition and teaching since they combine education and entertainment; thus, videos stimulate children’s motivation to acquire the target language. as it was mentioned before, the use of videos allowed children to easily comprehend the interactions in the second language in an entertaining way. moreover, the use of videos as a strategy to foster second language acquisition in children played a significant role in the implementation of this early sequential bilingual methodology as they served as a tool to practice, review, and recycle vocabulary taught in previous sessions. the extract mentioned below illustrates how teachers employed videos to practice vocabulary in specific stages of the lesson to foster the language acquisition process. observation excerpt two: t: now we are going to watch a story, vamos a ver una historia que se llama treasure island. ¿cómo se llama la historia? (we are going to watch a story called...) ss: treasure island (they shouted) t: ¿qué van a encontrar?, ¿qué va a encontrar molly? (what are they going to find? what is molly going to find?) ss: ¡ un tesoro! (a treasure!) (1s shouted the answer as well) t: a treasure? t: what is that? (2x pointing at the soil) ss: potato (1 student shouted) t: potato (t reinstates tilting his head up and down in sign of approval) t: ¿qué va a encontrar él? (what is he going to find?) ss: zanahoria (carrot) (1s shouted) t: carrots? ss: (no one answered) t: what’s that? (t asked pointing at the soil) s: cabbage! (a student took a guess) ss: onion! (all students shouted, once they saw what it was) t: onion! (x2 nodding in sign of approval) (another explorer digs out an onion as well on the video) ss: onion! (ss shouted without the teacher asking) audiovisual materials in a sequential bilingual model durango, gonzález & arias no. 16 (january june, 2018) no. 16 (january june, 2018) 91 t: the teacher played ‘cho cho train’ song on youtube, kids get very enthusiastic and start singing and walking out of the room. early childhood teacher smiled at t’s great gesture. note. t = english pre-service teacher; s1/s2 = student 1, 2, etc.; ss = students the previous fragment was extracted from an observation field note where the teacher presented a video whose main character is digging some vegetables out of the ground while looking for a treasure. after the teacher introduced vocabulary of fruits and vegetables in the first stage of the session, he decided to study and practice the new vocabulary learned by playing the video. while the video was playing, the teacher elicited the name of some vegetables by asking ‘what is that?’ and pointing to the vegetables on the screen, to which children answer most of the time in english. for instance, when the teacher pointed to an onion on the screen and requested its name by asking ‘what’s that?’ one student made a guess and answered ‘cabbage’ but when all students managed to recognize the vegetable, they shouted ‘onion’ in response to the teacher’s question. therefore, it can be inferred that children were able to relate the topic being studied with the mental image of it which led them to predict first the vocabulary and then identify and internalize the words due to the link made between the word and its visual representation. accordingly, canning-wilson (2001) affirms that videos serve as a tool to provide visual stimuli such as the environment which leads to prediction, speculation and activates background schemata when viewing a visual scene re-enacted. in other words, when children are provided with visual stimuli they are able to predict what is happening in the scene by connecting the language recently learned with what they are watching. on the other hand, one of the english pre-service teachers that was part of the implementation commented on her experience of utilizing videos during her lessons. survey excerpt two: (english teacher two) ‘during the implementation of the project i noticed that children learn more easily when they are exposed to material like videos, songs among other sources’. audiovisual materials in a sequential bilingual model durango, gonzález & arias no. 16 (january june, 2018) no. 16 (january june, 2018) 92 in the above fragment of a conducted post-implementation survey, the english pre-service teacher two recognizes the usefulness of exposing children to material such as videos to enhance children’s attention and foster second language acquisition. it is important to mention that most of the videos implemented in classes contained songs and chants as background music as well as appealing images. when the teacher asserts that ‘children are able to learn more easily when they are exposed to videos’, she validates the effectiveness of employing this type of material, during the implementation of a bilingual methodology, as they strengthen the comprehension of the topics studied in the target language. the teacher also emphasizes on the fact that videos are a strategy that facilitates children’s language acquisition. in other words, it makes the process of acquiring a linguistic system easier. however, as the early childhood teacher mentions during the above interview, this strategy works if employed with a pedagogical purpose. in order to clarify this idea, it is portrayed that videos can foster second language acquisition on the grounds that they serve as a bridge to connect the language being studied with its mental representation which leads to internalization. nonetheless, it is crucial when children get exposed to videos during their english language lessons, for teachers to interact with the videos and to ask their pupils to do the same in order for them to be more engaged and to avoid possible misbehaviors. the importance of interacting with videos is illustrated in the next sample, where an english teacher played some videos without interacting along with them which lead to misbehavior during the session. observation excerpt three: t: t played ‘ears, eyes, nose and mouth’ video ss: (ss stared at the video. 1s at front started to dance) t: played ‘the numbers’ video (t did not engage students before playing the video) ss: (most seemed to enjoy this video. they started to sing along and count with their fingers. some ss at the back were not paying attention) t: played the video ‘move your legs’ ss: (all students looked at the video. some of them got up and danced and some others danced while sitting on their chairs) t: played another video related to parts of the face. (t did not interact with the video) audiovisual materials in a sequential bilingual model durango, gonzález & arias no. 16 (january june, 2018) no. 16 (january june, 2018) 93 ss: (ss looked at the video. they were not asked to do anything with it. some of them were playing with their friends) note. t = english pre-service teacher; s1/s2 = student 1, 2, etc.; ss = students in this case, the teacher played those videos to review vocabulary in the target language. throughout the observation it was identified that the teacher did not engage children before playing the videos. consequently, some students were playing and chatting while some others were staring at the video. it is clear that videos are motivating for children, but when children are not engaged before watching them, they lose their purpose, which in this particular case was to review english vocabulary. moreover, if there are no english teacher’s interactions present along the course of the video such as dancing, singing, or drilling, among others, children lose interest and begin carrying out other activities like chit chatting or playing with their classmates. in that sense, the role of the teacher is crucial when implementing audiovisual material. according to this, santos and osorio (2008) affirm that teachers’ intervention is vital while playing videos to avoid behavioral issues during the class. in order to do so, the authors assert that the videos employed during class must have a purpose according to the stage of the lesson where they are displayed. in this way, children will be more motivated, attentive, and engaged with the video. in addition, richert et al. (2010), found that children will acquire more vocabulary through videos when there is an intervention whether from their parents or their teachers in comparison to those who are just left unsupervised while watching them. conclusion the use of strategies that enable teachers to promote second language acquisition are essential. nonetheless, there are some implications surrounding the use of audiovisual material in the bilingual classroom, especially when concerning early childhood. to begin with, during this research children were exposed to videos by means of lcd tvs that teachers employed for specific purposes and instances of their lessons. as a result, it is essential to count with technological devices that enable teachers to display them during their implementations. further, it was identified that english teachers must take into account children’s age and needs when implementing videos, as well as their interests in order to increase their attention span during the lessons. audiovisual materials in a sequential bilingual model durango, gonzález & arias no. 16 (january june, 2018) no. 16 (january june, 2018) 94 moreover, this research concluded that pedagogical tools such as audiovisual materials can be exploited either to capture children’s attention and/or to control behavioral issues, or also to recycle previously learned vocabulary. additionally, the use of contextualized and appealing audiovisual material allows children to acquire vocabulary effectively as they concentrate more on the lesson and get motivated to produce the language. in general, employing videos during early childhood bilingual education permits practicing vocabulary previously learned which leads to its internalization on the grounds that it enables children to establish connections between the vocabulary words in the target language with their visual representation. the results also portray that when videos are implemented purposefully throughout the lesson, they are a useful strategy to acquire words and phrases in an entertaining way as children find them appealing and interesting to watch. what is more, these aspects enhance children’s motivation and participation which are essential elements to enhance their acquisition process and performance due to the fact that with these type of materials they are eager to participate as they find them interesting and enjoyable. moreover, for teachers to achieve their goals with video implementations, it is essential for them to interact along with the videos by singing, drilling, dancing, among other actions which can facilitate children’s engagement and will allow them to be more concentrated and willing to watch the video to understand and learn. in addition, language teachers can employ videos related to the lesson as warm-ups to catch children’s attention and to activate prior knowledge. it was evidenced during the implementation of this project that the atmosphere of the class changed when audiovisual materials were implemented. the number of students who were interested and participated throughout the implementations significantly increased. furthermore, english teachers should provide children with different opportunities to practice the target language, in that sense audiovisual materials become a great tool to be used in the early childhood classroom. that is to say that, the use of videos empowers the learning of new words in a fun and dynamic way. in addition, yazara and arifoglu (2012) indicate that children from two to five years old have the capacity to imitate the behaviors and events they observe. they also claim the importance of presenting language considering their interests and needs since in this way learning occurs effectively, in the case of this age group they like cartoons. in that sense watching videos becomes a great tool to learn as they can audiovisual materials in a sequential bilingual model durango, gonzález & arias no. 16 (january june, 2018) no. 16 (january june, 2018) 95 aid comprehension and create an enjoyable learning environment, so children can learn by repetition, absorption, miming and imitation. however, the teachers’ use of body language, gestures, prompting, and asking concept checking questions while playing videos, are essential to make this strategy worthwhile for young learners. additionally, the results demonstrated that videos are useful to foster children’s participation while they acquire a second language considering that children show enthusiasm while dancing, interacting, and repeating the vocabulary displayed during video time. it also shows the importance of the teacher’s interaction and participation while implementing these tools. finally, it is important to point out that few studies have been conducted regarding early childhood bilingualism for public education in colombia. this finding is part of the second phase of the research project directed by enrique arias castaño and clara inés gonzález marín. the second phase was conducted by durango, garzón, and rodríguez (2017) and its main goal is to work towards enhancing bilingual education and promoting equal bilingualism exposure during the early years, especially of the most disadvantaged colombian children with low socioeconomic status. these kinds of projects might enhance early childhood bilingual education as they provide insights about the most suitable teaching techniques to implement while working with young language learners. audiovisual materials in a sequential bilingual model durango, gonzález & arias no. 16 (january june, 2018) no. 16 (january june, 2018) 96 references arias, e., atehortúa, y., chacón, y., giraldo, j., tamayo, l., vélez, d., & vidal, m. 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(2011). hacia el diseño de una propuesta pedagógica para la enseñanza de inglés a niños de 3 a 5 años del centro de desarrollo integral: ‘semillas de vida’ (undergraduate thesis). retrieved from http://hdl.handle.net/10554/5922 rodríguez lópez, b., & varela méndez, r. (2004). models of teaching foreign languages to young children. didáctica (lengua y literatura), 16, 163-175. salgado, d., & beltrán, d. (2010). aprendizaje de la segunda lengua en edad preescolar: estrategias didácticas para la enseñanza en el aula. (undergraduate thesis). retrieved from http://hdl.handle. net/10554/6665 audiovisual materials in a sequential bilingual model durango, gonzález & arias no. 16 (january june, 2018) no. 16 (january june, 2018) 98 santos miranda-pinto, m., & osório, a. j. (2008). las tic en la primera infancia: valorización e integración en la educación inicial a través del enlace @rcacomum. revista iberoamericana de educación, 46(9), 1-12. retrieved from https://rieoei.org/rie/article/view/1889 titone, r. (1972). bilinguismo precoce e educazione bilingue. rome: armando. tomalin, b. (1991) teaching young children with video. in s. stempleski, and p. arcano, eds.) video in second language teaching: using, selecting and producing video for the classroom. teachers of english to speakers of other languages, inc. yazart, t., & arifoglu, g. (2012). a research of audio visual educational aids on the creativity levels of 4-14 year old children as a process in primary education. procedia social and behavioral sciences, 51, 301-306. audiovisual materials in a sequential bilingual model durango, gonzález & arias no. 16 (january june, 2018) no. 16 (january june, 2018) 99 authors *diana carolina durango isaza is currently pursuing a master’s degree in childhood at universidad tecnológica de pereira (utp), holds an english in early childhood specialization certificate from the british council. has earned her bachelor’s degree in elt from the utp and a certificate in tefl from the university of maryland. she holds a virtual teacher certification from the utp and has also worked at the colombo americano pereira. she is registered as a researcher in colciencias. her main fields of interests are: early childhood bilingual education, translanguaging and clil. she has participated in international and national conferences as a presenter. clara inés gonzález marín holds a degree in business administration, a bachelor’s degree in education, and a master’s degree in linguistics. has worked as an english teacher in different schools and institutions and currently works at the licenciatura en bilingüismo con énfasis en inglés program at universidad tecnológica de pereira. has advised and evaluated several undergraduate research projects. she belongs to the applied linguistics research group – poliglosia and has participated as a presenter in international and national conferences regarding early childhood bilingual education, curriculum design and renovation, cultural awareness and the development of the intercultural competence in teaching training programs. enrique arias castaño, ph.d. is a doctor in science in education, his dissertation is about a dynamic bilingual model for public schools based on the integration of language, content and translanguaging. he is currently the dean of the fine arts and humanities faculty at universidad tecnológica de pereira (utp). directed the bachelor’s bilingual teaching program at utp. he earned a m.a. in applied linguistics in elt, with a research line in bilingualism and bilingual education. he has participated in international and national conferences as lecturer and presenter. his research interests focus on applied linguistics, language planning, bilingualism, and bilingual education. audiovisual materials in a sequential bilingual model durango, gonzález & arias no. 16 (january june, 2018) no. 16 (january june, 2018) gistseptiembre2010final.indd �0 gist education and learning research journal. issn 1692-5777, pp. 50-61 vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) modelos de bilingüismo: ¿fortalecen o debilitan el proceso oral comunicativo en contextos de inglés como lengua extranjera en estudiantes de quinto grado de primaria?1 andrés barón ávila2* universidad pontificia javeriana, bogotá abstract this project presents a common and mistaken use of language that a group of fifth graders at a private bilingual school in bogotá (colombia) experienced at class time. in a common english as a foreign language (efl) classroom situation which encompasses models of bilingualism that may be considered “difficulties,” the author proposes some strategies to improve the communicative oral process in english, avoiding code switching and code mixing in their speech. the present research is part of a proposal on class time reading and oral activities and its applicability is up to date due to the fact that it is based on current research-tested language strategies. i conclude that code switching and code mixing may be correlated to the student’s deficiency in target language competence, but i also conclude that if the activities focus on the three aspects of accuracy, rate, and prosody, students can experience an improvement in their communicative oral process. likewise, it was observed that the use of the native language in the form of code switching can be accepted for the clarification of a message, but only in specific circumstances (as long as teachers do not let students use the language inappropriately). the present research is offered to scholarly communities to perhaps be organized into a workshop which may make language users aware of how to improve the linguistic, syntactic, and semantic usages of a second language. key words: bilingualism, code switching, code mixing, oral production/ speaking, spanglish 1 models of bilingualism: do they strengthen or weaken the oral communicative process in english as a foreign language contexts in fifth grade students? received: january 21st, 2010 / accepted: july 6th, 2010. 2 correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to andrés barón ávila, universidad pontificia javeriana, facultad de comunicación y lenguaje, transversal 42-00, edificio arboleda (67), bogotá, colombia. e-mail: baron.a@javeriana.edu.co barón ávila �1 vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) barón ávila resumen este trabajo presenta un uso errado y común de lengua que experimentaron en el salón de clase un grupo de estudiantes de quinto grado de primaria de un colegio bilingüe privado de bogotá, colombia. en una situación propia escolar en un contexto de inglés como lengua extranjera, en la cual los modelos de bilingüismo suelen considerarse como dificultades, el autor plantea algunas estrategias dirigidas a mejorar las destrezas de producción oral en inglés evitando el cambio de registro (cr) y la mezcla de código (mc) en el discurso estudiantil. esta es una propuesta que ofrece actividades lectoras y orales para el aula de clase y su aplicabilidad es vigente gracias a sus bases en estrategias propias de la lengua. se concluye que el cr y mc pueden relacionarse con la deficiencia del estudiante en las competencias de la lengua objetiva; sin embargo, si las actividades se enfocan hacia tres aspectos como la precisión, el ritmo, y métrica, los estudiantes podrán experimentar mejoría en su proceso comunicativo de producción oral. asimismo, se observó que el uso de la lengua materna en forma del modelo de mc puede ser aceptado únicamente en circunstancias específicas para dar claridad a un mensaje en tanto que los profesores no permitan que el estudiante use el lenguaje inapropiadamente. la investigación se ofrece a comunidades educativas para ser usado como taller dirigido a concientizar a los usuarios de un idioma de un mejor uso lingüístico, sintáctico, y semántico del mismo. palabras claves: bilingüismo, cambio de registro (cr), mezcla de código (mc), producción oral, espanglish el lenguaje es una de las herramientas de comunicación más importantes del hombre, ya que con él se expresan sentimientos y pensamientos que hacen parte de la comunicación propia de cada persona. por ello resulta importante pulir y, en ocasiones, adecuar un modo de comunicación que permita entender las variaciones en el uso del lenguaje, mucho más cuando se trata del aprendizaje de una lengua extranjera (le). para comprender mejor este proceso lingüístico de aprendizaje se tomó un grupo de 18 estudiantes para el desarrollo del presente proyecto. los alumnos provienen de un contexto de educación bilingüe con un programa de estudios de alta calidad certificado por icontec y bureau veritas certification, con énfasis en letras, inmersos en inglés, y con un trabajo en habilidades denominadas bics (basic interpersonal communication skills) en el grado quinto. el trabajo se desarrolló durante 16 semanas con una intensidad de 6 horas semanales de clase de inglés, de las cuales se tomaban 3 para hacer el seguimiento al proceso de los estudiantes. si bien la filosofía de la institución apunta a formar desde el humanismo, el desarrollo de sus procesos de pensamiento como la construcción de competencias comunicativas en inglés, sin �2 vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) detrimento del español, van de la mano del respeto a las diferencias, el valor que tienen otras culturas, y la necesidad de afianzar la identidad colombiana. pregunta de investigación el autor propone estrategias que ayudarán a estudiantes y profesores a establecer canales de comunicación claros que permitirán construir y usar adecuadamente las estructuras de la le, ya que de acuerdo con las observaciones de aula hechas durante el trabajo con los estudiantes, se observó que en varias ocasiones se llenaban los vacíos conceptuales en inglés utilizando el español como recurso inmediato para comunicarse, evadiendo la recursividad en uso de sinónimos o expresiones afines a lo que se quería expresar. así, también se apuntó a generar estrategias para superar las deficiencias en la oralidad de la le que se observaron en la población objetivo. en este punto, surge la pregunta: “¿cómo es que el uso de lecturas reforzadas con actividades de producción oral mejora la producción comunicativa en inglés, evitando la mc en el discurso de los estudiantes de quinto grado?” propuesta este proyecto pretendió implementar una serie de actividades como instrumentos pedagógicos en estudiantes de quinto grado, con el fin de ayudarles a resolver problemas de información imprecisa que se presentan debido a un uso indisciplinado del lenguaje. asimismo, presenta ideas de carácter metodológico y pedagógico que podrán ser modificadas o adaptadas de acuerdo al tema que los estudiantes estén trabajando y a los objetivos que apunte el profesor en su clase. por ejemplo, pedir a los niños que hagan uso de las expresiones idiomáticas (dentro y fuera de clase, aprendidas, o en proceso de aprendizaje) mediante actividades individuales o grupales y, así aplicar lo estudiado en el programa de la clase. se identificaron dos situaciones significativas en el proceso de aula hecho: primero, en ciertas situaciones comunicativas, los estudiantes no utilizaron adecuadamente el vocabulario y al no comprender una idea, mezclaron palabras en español e inglés. segundo, en otras ocasiones los profesores no corrigieron a los estudiantes durante o después de sus intervenciones, de manera que la práctica se dio con errores en su producción oral. por consiguiente, los alumnos hablaban sin atender reglas y sin desarrollar una conciencia clara de la pronunciación. además, tuvieron un uso indisciplinado en el contexto de las estructuras gramaticales y el vocabulario visto en clase, elemento básico para hacer fluir un proceso comunicativo oral enriquecedor. algunos ejemplos de estas situaciones se dan en la próxima sección. modelos de bilingüismo barón ávila �� vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) modelos de bilingüismo barón ávila dentro del trabajo de campo fuera de clase, en el uso de diarios de campo a través de la toma de notas en diferentes momentos escolares tales como el descanso, el almuerzo, y actividades deportivas, se observó la interacción de los estudiantes con el inglés entre sí y con sus profesores. allí se encontró que la mayoría de la población estudiantil no practicaba el inglés, ni lo aplicaba en sus relaciones con sus pares. al contrario, de acuerdo con las políticas de la institución, lo ideal sería practicar el inglés en la cotidianidad. pero el inglés lo ubicaban únicamente como medio de comunicación dentro del aula de clase con el profesor. un aspecto importante en esta falencia de la educación bilingüe se relaciona directamente con la frecuencia de producción oral en una le. es claro cómo la lengua materna (l1) puede interferir con el discurso del estudiante en la le, sobre todo cuando interactúa cotidianamente sin absolutamente ningún uso de la le. marco teórico considerando el contexto bilingüe del colegio dentro de una ciudad no bilingüe, el cr, definido por numan y carter (2001) como “el fenómeno de cambiar de un idioma a otro en el mismo discurso” (p. 275), se da del inglés al español en los estudiantes. este cambio se evidencia cuando los estudiantes regresan a casa después de la jornada escolar y el trabajo desarrollado con la le dentro del colegio no recibe el seguimiento que se requiere para alcanzar una mayor fluidez. esto se debe a que en la mayoría de los estudiantes su entorno cultural y social no les permite interactuar ni practicar con frecuencia el inglés como medio de comunicación. así, los estudiantes se ven forzados a mezclar entre la l1 y la le, haciendo uso o préstamo de vocabulario y de estructuras propias de cada una. ¿discurso bilingüe o no? teniendo en cuenta la definición de numan y carter de cr, con referencia a estudiantes y profesores, utilizaremos el término discurso como la ocurrencia natural en el uso del lenguaje en el aula. además, observaremos que los idiomas que se alternan por el cr son la l1 de los estudiantes y la lengua extranjera en la que esperan adquirir competencias. el cambio de registro (o de lengua) ocurre cuando una persona alterna dos idiomas durante su discurso. crystal (1987) dice que una persona legítimamente bilingüe puede alternar los dos idiomas que conoce durante un diálogo, pero es capaz de comunicarse en la le con proficiencia. esta definición incluye a las personas que utilizan con irregularidad la le y a quienes son capaces de usar una le pero no lo han hecho por un tiempo (los que tienen un bilingüismo inactivo), y/o aquellos que tienen cierta facilidad para los idiomas. es decir, lo �� vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) significativo del bilingüismo legítimo es la capacidad de comunicarse en una le, no necesariamente la misma cantidad de práctica que tiene. haciendo énfasis en la problemática de los estudiantes del colegio bajo estudio, se observa claramente que cuando los estudiantes entrelazan palabras de ambos idiomas en oraciones simples, se da lugar a las situaciones de cr y mc. en ellas, el español influye con mayor fuerza en el léxico y la gramática del inglés, originando incorrecciones gramaticales en la l1 o en la lengua extranjera, faltas ortográficas, cambios en la jerga, préstamos lexicales incorrectos, e ideas poco claras. cinco ejemplos reales de esta misma problemática tomados del grupo bajo investigación son: 1. teacher is that i no pude come to class because i was having a chévere time. 2. teacher i didn’t entendí. puedes explain me again? 3. i didn’t was. i was tipiando my name. 4. teacher, i didn’t bring my carpet (instead of folder). 5. i don’t know what is the differencia between . . . estos ejemplos muestran incorrección en vocabulario y estructuras gramaticales (oración 1); poca precisión para expresar ideas en inglés en la hora de clase (ejemplo 2); una mala adaptación del español que dificulta la comprensión y la adaptación de un verbo en inglés a una regla del español (oración 3); en algunos casos el mensaje puede encontrarse fuera de contexto debido al uso incorrecto de las palabras (oración 4); el estudiante reemplaza una palabra en inglés con desenfado vocabulario de español básico (oración 5). estos ejemplos refuerzan la observación que: [algunos hablantes] . . . emplean y establecen una forma de expresión diferente al lenguaje estándar, que no sólo comprende variaciones fonéticas [y sintácticas], sino que en ocasiones puede constar de un vocabulario específico del grupo con el cual pueden llegar a comunicarse de una manera no convencional pasando por alto elementos lingüísticos básicos de la lengua. (énfasis agregado; reina, 2008, p. 21) el cr, la mc, y el espanglish actualmente, el cr y la mc juegan un papel significativo en el aprendizaje de una le muy conocida: el inglés. la globalización ha difundido el uso de términos y expresiones idiomáticas que se van fundiendo dentro de las lenguas. algunos ejemplos como internet, clutch, taxi, pizza, cocktail, o e-mail, son híbridos o adaptaciones literales del inglés. una palabra ubicua como okay sí es idiomática, diferente a lo que se llamarían términos prestados del inglés/anglicismos como: break, modelos de bilingüismo barón ávila �� vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) modelos de bilingüismo barón ávila affair, hard drive, o happy hour. todos estos híbridos se han extendido fácilmente y es común notar cómo su influencia convoca seguidores y cómo una mezcla lingüística crea su propio camino. por ejemplo, en los estados unidos, donde 45 millones de personas hablan español en casa según wikipedia (2010), las mezclas lingüísticas entre español e inglés se presentan a diario. al observar este fenómeno, escribe un autor: “un híbrido de inglés y español conocido como spanglish se escucha en varias áreas que son predominantemente hispanas, tanto que se encuentra en televisión y en películas” (traducción del autor de wilson, 2006). el uso que la gente da a los híbridos se define como cr y mc. por una parte, el cr se presenta cuando el hablante cambia de una lengua a otra en medio de un discurso, y donde la yuxtaposición de la l1 y la le no viola las reglas sintácticas de ninguna de las dos lenguas (wilson, 2006). por otra parte, “la mc ocurre cuando el hablante utiliza pequeños componentes de un idioma mientras está hablando principalmente en el otro” (wilson, 2006). en consecuencia, es importante contextualizar el concepto del espanglish en una población específica, y con unas recomendaciones apropiadas para la mejoría del fenómeno: 1. frente a expresiones como: la clase dura sólo two hours, teacher (mc), el profesor debe corregir inmediatamente: the class lasts for just two hours, teacher. 2. frente a: sorry, i forgot my homework at home. pero mañana seguro te la traigo, teacher (cr), debe salir al paso la forma correcta: sorry, i left my homework at home. i’ll surely bring it to you tomorrow, teacher. como se puede ver, en los dos casos se presentan cambio y la mezcla de códigos, que los estudiantes utilizan indistintamente. cada profesor decide si es algo que hará el esfuerzo para corregir o si lo dejará tranquilo. ¿qué son la mezcla de código y el cambio de registro gramaticalmente? la mc surge de varias unidades lingüísticas (fonemas, morfemas, cláusulas, frases, y oraciones) de dos sistemas gramaticales participantes (en este caso, el inglés y el español), dentro de una sola oración. la mc es intrasentencial, es decir, se encuentra dentro de una oración. la mc está controlada por principios gramaticales. esto se aplica en oraciones completas que implican cambios gramaticales sin violar reglas sintácticas de un idioma. un ejemplo de mc está dado en el párrafo anterior en el numeral 1. �� vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) el cr se refiere a la combinación de varias unidades lingüísticas (palabras, frases, y oraciones) de dos sistemas gramaticales participantes, en la extensión de una oración dentro de un discurso. el cr es intersentencial, es decir, consiste en elementos que se encuentran entre estructuras más amplias como oraciones/frases conectadas. el cr está sujeto a ciertos principios del discurso y también se origina en motivos sociales y psicológicos. esto implica cambio en el vocabulario o cambios en las unidades lingüísticas dentro de estructuras macro como oraciones compuestas. funciones básicas y benéficas en el cambio de registro si se enseñan los últimos conceptos con respecto a cr y mc de ciertas funciones comunicativas, los hablantes no nativos pueden utilizarlos o trabajar con ellos. por ejemplo, el uso del cr de los profesores no siempre es consciente. sin embargo, consciente o no, necesariamente cumple el cr funciones básicas que pueden ser benéficas para aprender un idioma. flymann-mattson y burenhult (1999) denominaron algunas de éstas funciones básicas como cambio de tema, funciones afectivas, y funciones repetitivas. cambio de tema. en casos de cambio de tema, el profesor puede alterar su idioma de acuerdo al contenido que se está discutiendo en clase. en su mayoría, estos casos se presentan en las instrucciones gramaticales cuando los profesores cambian de la le a la l1 de sus estudiantes, teniendo en cuenta los temas gramaticales particulares que enseñen en ese momento. por ejemplo, el profesor dice, “open the book to page thirty, please” y luego replica “la página treinta, ¿okay?” en tales situaciones, la atención de los estudiantes está dirigida al nuevo conocimiento, de manera que el cr aclara y facilita la comprensión de ideas. cole en davis y bernhardt (2007) decía que un profesor puede aprovecharse de la experiencia previa de aprendizaje de sus estudiantes de una l1 para incrementar su comprensión de una le. funciones afectivas. en términos de sus funciones afectivas, el profesor autor del artículo emplea el cr para lograr solidaridad y establecer buenas relaciones interpersonales con sus estudiantes. así los profesores pueden dar un papel oculto al cr o recibir una contribución del mismo para crear un entorno de fortalecimiento del idioma en el aula de clase (sert, 2005). funciones repetitivas. y por último, están las funciones repetitivas. aquí, el profesor emplea el cr con el fin de transferir claramente el conocimiento necesario a los estudiantes. teniendo en cuenta el objetivo del idioma, el profesor cambia a su l1 para aclarar el significado y enfatizar la importancia del contenido de la lengua modelos de bilingüismo barón ávila �� vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) modelos de bilingüismo barón ávila extranjera, para tener una comprensión eficiente y no como una mera traducción que a menudo omite un proceso de aprendizaje/adquisición (sert, 2005). un nuevo aspecto dentro de la propuesta ahora bien, esta propuesta también dirige el uso de lecturas y actividades orales de refuerzo. entonces se vuelve a la pregunta “¿cómo es que el uso de lecturas reforzadas con actividades de producción oral mejora la producción comunicativa en inglés, evitando la mc en el discurso de los estudiantes de quinto grado?” las estrategias y técnicas en lengua son totalmente válidas para la realidad de los colegios (los que son bilingües, los de intensidad alta en inglés, y los que tienen énfasis en inglés) porque se aplican a situaciones específicas, teniendo en cuenta las necesidades de una población en particular y buscando soluciones para resolver un problema. por consiguiente, el objetivo apunta a destacar las habilidades orales relacionadas con la fluidez y la precisión en los estudiantes quienes emplean la mc o el cr en su discurso. pese a lo anterior, se debe reconocer que dentro de la cotidianidad del campo educativo aparecen y desaparecen conceptos y opiniones sobre cómo se extiende el cr en salones de clases de english language training (elt) y cómo hace parte del discurso del estudiante o del profesor; así, basado en la experiencia vivida con el proyecto, el autor ha encontrado que el cr no siempre es un bloqueo o una deficiencia en el aprendizaje de un idioma sino que, bajo ciertos parámetros, es una estrategia útil en la interacción dentro del salón de clases, siempre y cuando el objetivo sea aclarar significado y transferir conocimiento a los estudiantes en forma eficiente. el cambio de registro, parte del bilingüismo el cr dentro del campo del bilingüismo, ha sido transformado en uno de los conceptos más complejos en la educación actual en el mundo y se ha convertido en lema para muchas instituciones educativas que ofrecen educación bilingüe en su currículo. según baker en universidad de navarra (1997), la gente debe distinguir entre habilidad bilingüe y uso bilingüe. mientras algunas personas bilingües pueden tener fluidez en dos idiomas pero tienden a favorecer uno de ellos, otras pueden tener menos fluidez en sus dos idiomas pero cambian entre ellos con más frecuencia. en éste último ejemplo, el uso se puede apreciar durante las clases. pero “la habilidad bilingüe se refiere a la competencia lingüística de una persona en cuatro niveles lingüísticos: comprensión oral, expresión oral, comprensión lectora y expresión escrita” (universidad de navarra, 1997). �� vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) en medio de esta diferencia entre habilidad y uso, el panorama es más complicado porque ahora se entenderá que no siempre son verdaderamente bilingües quienes han aprendido un segundo idioma en el colegio, la universidad, o como afición. lo anterior representa que saber el alfabeto, vocabulario, y gramática de una le no significa vivir la cultura de dicho idioma. muchas personas pueden leer libros en una le y entablar una conversación básica con un hablante nativo, pero no por ello están empapados del acervo cultural inherente a esa le. idioma y cultura están profundamente relacionados; uno puede vivir en dos culturas, hablar dos idiomas como parte de estas culturas, y entender todo lo que hay detrás de ellas. “cada cultura tiene ciertos valores subliminales, predisposiciones, y creencias que constituyen suposiciones y percepciones más íntimas como nuestro sentido por la belleza o de distancias adecuadas entre personas o las nociones de placer y dolor” (hoffman, 1997). métodos en el trabajo con el grupo de estudiantes, las actividades con lecturas guiadas a través de la aplicación de estrategias como la lectura grupal en voz alta, la lectura silenciosa por parejas o la lectura de textos en voz alta por turnos, fueron recursos importantes para ir afianzando su pronunciación, vocabulario, y la identificación de errores. estas actividades tuvieron un contenido variado teniendo en cuenta el tipo de texto, es decir, si era descriptivo, narrativo, en prosa, u otro género. dichas actividades se aplicaron en sólo estudiantes hombres. las actividades sirvieron como refuerzo del orden gramatical de las oraciones a través de un uso consciente y constante. otras actividades fueron las sesiones dedicadas al trabajo a través de instrucciones orales guiadas, aplicando ejemplos de ejercicios con diferentes componentes. dichas actividades comprenden la lectura con eco (el profesor lee una oración, un párrafo, o una página en voz alta y los estudiantes en grupo repiten en voz alta ese segmento), y los audio-textos (los estudiantes escuchan y leen al mismo tiempo con un cd/casete y libro). igualmente, como apoyo al material de lectura se adoptó el texto guía de literatura del programa escolar de la institución (grade 5 reading resources, 2001), el cual contenía diferentes tipos de historias con actividades de comprensión de vocabulario y de lectura, con actividades puntuales de vocabulario, y con ejercicios de ampliación de conocimiento a través de la investigación personal hecha en casa por cada estudiante. resultados el uso de lecturas reforzadas con actividades orales mejoró la producción comunicativa en inglés, evitando la mc en el discurso de los modelos de bilingüismo barón ávila �� vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) modelos de bilingüismo barón ávila estudiantes, demostrando cuánto afecta el uso del espanglish la fluidez de los hablantes al momento de interactuar formal e informalmente en clase. asimismo, se facilitó el planteamiento de nuevas ideas y técnicas para que los profesores estén atentos y hagan conscientes a sus estudiantes de los errores que se generan al mezclar idiomas al azar en el momento de establecer una conversación coherente. adicionalmente, hace más de 50 años que se documenta que las ayudas visuales sirven para mejorar el aprendizaje de inglés de los estudiantes (cauley, 1945). por tanto, la meta de alentar a los estudiantes a que aprendieran y ampliaran su vocabulario por medio de apoyos visuales como afiches, tarjetas de vocabulario, y loterías (entre otros) estuvieron relacionados con los objetivos del tema planteado de acuerdo con las lecturas seleccionadas, las actividades de refuerzo diseñadas, y los ejercicios de producción oral propuestos. estas ayudas educativas relacionadas con propósitos pedagógicos dieron validez a la propuesta planteada en el trabajo, donde se pudo comprobar el progreso de los estudiantes en la fluidez y apropiación de vocabulario nuevo. asimismo, se destaca el estímulo de la producción oral en inglés dentro y fuera de clase realizando actividades tales como presentaciones orales en eventos del área de inglés dentro del colegio, o los que sirven como guías en las exposiciones literarias hechas por ellos mismos, apoyaron la interiorización de la información de textos orales y escritos. a través de la propuesta de estrategias individuales o grupales relacionadas con la producción oral se promovieron niveles más altos de fluidez, velocidad, y entonación en inglés, haciendo que los estudiantes fueran más conscientes de sus propios errores cuando utilizan en exceso la mc en un diálogo, en especial el orden gramatical de las oraciones. con el grupo de 18 estudiantes se realizó una prueba de entrada para identificar sus fortalezas y debilidades en el manejo oral del inglés teniendo en cuenta los aspectos de uso del idioma, fluidez, ritmo, métrica, cohesión, coherencia, y uso del español frecuente. estos resultados fueron evaluados bajo los criterios de evaluación de 1 a 10 dados por la institución y por el profesor participante de la investigación. en un primer momento, los resultados arrojados fueron bajos (por debajo de 4 en la escala), en especial, en los aspectos de uso del idioma, fluidez, y cohesión de ideas. posteriormente, en la prueba de salida, hubo mejoras y los resultados aumentaron positivamente en los aspectos en que se hizo mayor énfasis como lo fueron el uso del idioma y fluidez; hubo también resultados satisfactorios en coherencia y cohesión. quedó pendiente un trabajo de mayor exigencia en las categorías de ritmo y métrica [rate and prosody]. �0 vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) conclusiones el cr y la mc interfieren en el avance de la oralidad de una le, inglés en este caso. para vencer estas situaciones, se debe ayudar a los niños a reconocer los errores para superarlos y aplicar actividades intensivas de refuerzo para lograr el perfeccionamiento dentro del aula de clase y fuera de la misma. a partir de la experiencia del autor y el trabajo en el aula, se permite concluir que la producción oral en clase puede ser más productiva siempre y cuando se desarrollen actividades para ampliar el vocabulario y la fluidez de los estudiantes. de este modo, se estimula a los estudiantes para que empleen un lenguaje real y se les dan herramientas (lecturas) para mejorar su producción oral. muchos profesores apoyan esta aplicación de técnicas comunicativas en el entorno de enseñanza de una le, pero se oponen a utilizar cualquier forma de comunicación en su l1 para las instrucciones en el aula. sin embargo, se observó en dos ocasiones específicas que la complejidad de una instrucción no logró que un buen número de estudiantes diera con el objetivo de la actividad. así, el uso de la l1 empleando el cr en circunstancias específicas puede servir como una estrategia efectiva estrechamente relacionada con la continuidad en el discurso, sin que represente una interferencia en el idioma. asimismo, este uso de la l1 empleando el cr también actúa como una herramienta de transferencia de significado cuando un estudiante establece un primer contacto con un hablante de una le y necesita transmitir sus ideas para hacerse entender. al crear conciencia sobre el uso correcto de una le, para no crear malentendidos ni cometer errores injustificados que podrían alterar completamente el significado, el contenido, y la audiencia de un mensaje, es fundamental presentar a los estudiantes alternativas en el uso del idioma para que no abusen de derivaciones como el espanglish o el cr. con las sugerencias presentadas, conocidas todas ellas, los estudiantes se vuelven más cuidadosos cuando están hablando en la le, tratando de ser sus propios correctores. referencias carter, d. & nunan, d. (2001). the cambridge guide to teaching english to speakers of other languages. cambridge, inglaterra: cambridge university press. cauley, t. (1945). using visual aids in teaching english. the english journal, 43(6) (sept.), pp. 316-319, national council of teachers of english. recuperado de http://www.jstor.org/stable/809242 crystal, d. (1987). the cambridge encyclopedia of language. (2a. ed.) cambridge: cambridge university press. modelos de bilingüismo barón ávila �1 vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) modelos de bilingüismo barón ávila davis, g. & bernhardt, k. (eds.) (2007). lingua et linguistica 1.2, 1(1). recuperado de http://books.google.com/books?id=72wo1wtuwtuc&print sec=frontcover&dq=lingua+et+linguistica&hl=es&ei=06hktnl-kop68a apzvzbca&sa=x&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0ccoq6a ewaa#v=onepage&q&f=false flyman-mattsson, a. & burenhult, n. (1999). code-switching in second language teaching of french. recuperado de http://lup.lub.lu.se/luur/downl oad?func=downloadfile& recordoid =528694&fileoid=624446 grade 5 reading resources-encinitas union school district. (2001). recuperado de http://www.eusd.net/for_students/resources/hm5.htm hoffman, e. (marzo de 2008). bilingüismo ¿qué quiere decir ser bilingüe? recuperado de http://web.mit.edu/21f.714/www/spring01/uslatinos/bilinguismo/siendobilingue.htm reina, a. j. (2008). configuración de la jerga de los estudiantes de la licenciatura en lenguas modernas de la pontificia universidad javeriana, desde una perspectiva sociolingüística. trabajo de grado no publicado. pontificia universidad javeriana, bogotá, colombia. sert, o. (agosto de 2005). the functions of code switching in elt classrooms. the internet tesl journal, 11(8). recuperado de http://iteslj.org/articles/ sert-codeswitching.html universidad de navarra. (1997). introducción a los conceptos de bilingüismo y educación bilingüe. recuperado de http://www.unavarra.es/tel2l/es/ intrombe.htm wikipedia. (2010). spanish language in the united states. recuperado en junio de 2010 de http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/spanish_language_in_the_united_ states#cite_note-5 wilson, t. v. (2006). how spanglish works. recuperado de http://people. howstuffworks.com/spanglish.htm el autor *andrés barón ávila es licenciado en lenguas modernas de la pontificia universidad javeriana, bogotá. actualmente, se desempeña como profesor de idiomas en la misma universidad en el departamento de inglés. andrés es apasionado por la enseñanza, la lectura, y la investigación; de esta manera, ha desarrollado diferentes investigaciones acerca de temas como storytelling, ayudas didácticas en la enseñanza del inglés, y ahora, modelos de bilingüismo. gist1-2007.indd 39 bilingüísmo: la lengua materna ante la globalización juan alberto blanco puentes abstract the present article recognizes the value of bilingualism as a tool to gain access to globalization as the new world order. three substantial concepts are involved: bilingualism as such, maternal language and globalization. they are substantial elements of a learning process that will allow us to enter and leave the great village, which the world is becoming. resumen el presente artículo se encarga de reconocer el valor del bilingüismo como herramienta para acceder a la globalización como nuevo orden mundial. los tres conceptos sustanciales del mismo: bilingüismo como tal, lengua materna y globalización son elementos sustanciales de un proceso de aprendizaje que nos habrá de permitir entrar y salir de la gran aldea, en la que se está convirtiendo el mundo. key words: access to globalization, teaching-learning, education and culture, computer science and bilingualism, new languages. palabras clave: acceso a la globalización, enseñanza-aprendizaje, educación y cultura, informática y bilingüismo, nuevos lenguajes. desde antes de ingresar en la historia recibimos como herencia toda una tradición para acceder al mundo. más adelante, empezamos a reescribir la historia y la cultura. el español, como lengua romance, se ha paseado incólume por los tiempos. desde siempre lo hemos 40 bilingüísmo: la lengua materna ante la globalización vitalizado, con la mejor variedad dialectal desde que el castellano se originó como resultado de la mezcla del latín con las lenguas residentes en españa. ayer, el mundo accedió a la modernidad. hoy, ingresamos al siglo xxi, la modernidad es un lejano recuerdo, que se confunde con modernización y modernismo; la postmodernidad es una mezcla de contemporaneidad y de “neovanguardias”, aunque es atrevido el término; un nuevo rasgo, más contemporáneo, vitaliza dicha postmodernidad: la globalización. conceptos (lingüísticos) iniciales hemos de reconocer tres conceptos fundamentales que nos guiarán a través de nuestra reflexión, y que nos decantarán las intenciones que rigen la lectura de estas líneas. el primero de ellos es, bilingüismo, en general entendido como: el uso de por lo menos dos lenguas por parte de un individuo o por un grupo de hablantes, como los habitantes de una región o nación concreta; y en particular, una persona bilingüe, es una persona que conoce y usa dos lenguas, y se hace referencia a que habla, lee y comprende dos lenguas igual de bien (bilingüe equilibrado), pero una persona bilingüe generalmente tiene un conocimiento mayor de una de las dos lenguas, por múltiples razones, entre ellas: utilizar cada lengua en diferentes situaciones, o para objetivos comunicativos diferentes (richards et al, 45). el siguiente concepto, lengua materna, se refiere (normalmente) a la primera lengua que se adquiere en el hogar; dicha lengua se puede relacionar con el concepto de lengua nativa, la que una persona adquiere en su infancia porque es la lengua que se habla en la familia y/o es la lengua del país en el que vive. con frecuencia la lengua nativa es la primera lengua que adquiere un niño, pero hay excepciones (242-43). hemos de reconocer la importancia de ser la primera lengua de acceso al mundo, como la primaria razón para que el aprendizaje de dicho sistema de signos (escritura como expresión gráfica de la lengua), facilite el acceso al mundo y al conocimiento. así mismo, es importante reconocer la fortaleza de la lengua materna, pues le da al individuo las herramientas -gramática, semántica, fonológica, semiótica, morfosintácticapara acceder a una segunda lengua, y otras más, dado el caso. para terminar de contextualizar nuestra reflexión, recogemos el concepto de globalización, para comprender sus significados, recojamos primero la expresión “la gran aldea mundial”, vemos como se recoge el término “aldea”, concepto primitivo que nos remite al pretérito de las organizaciones sociales, políticas y territoriales de los antiguos pobladores del mundo. con la modernidad el globo terráqueo se 41 fragmentó, como consecuencia matemática de la aplicabilidad de un cartesianismo sin fronteras. los límites de los estados y de las naciones están solamente en la cartografías de sus ideas. un mundo sin fronteras -ni ideológicas, políticas, sociales, culturales, económicas, lingüísticas, étnicas o religiosas-, como el lugar utópico para que las nuevas generaciones se (re)descubran con sus nuevos significados y con sus nuevas estéticas y semióticas, logrando con ello garantizar la libertad y el respeto de todos los individuos, componentes en constante movimiento dentro de un “burbuja” que encierra el nuevo mundo. reconocernos como híbridos (combinación étnica y cultural), nos convierte en una posibilidad para identificar las múltiples manifestaciones socio-culturales. desde finales de la edad media accedimos al aprendizaje del español como lengua materna, proceso que desde la infancia tiene un carácter imitativo. no puede haber dudas en que aprendemos nuestra lengua materna por imitación de las personas que nos rodean. la comunidad parlante impone de buenas a primeras un sistema cerrado y autosuficiente de signos verbales que el niño trata de imitar; y el proceso de imitación y ajuste a la norma social recorre varias etapas, con velocidad variable según las facultades miméticas individuales y según la presión mayor o menor que el medio familiar, primero, y social después, ejerce sobre cada niño (gili gaya, 11). a partir de entonces nos convertimos en criaturas del lenguaje, reconociéndonos como individuos pertenecientes a una comunidad determinada por su pensamiento, momento histórico en nuestro aprendizaje, pues ligamos lenguaje y pensamiento (relación binaria que nos proveerá de nuevos argumentos para acceder al mundo). hemos convertido lo que pensamos en expresiones lingüísticas, la lengua al servicio de las ideas. entonces la lengua/el lenguaje se correlacionan con el esfuerzo intelectual (miller, 184) que implica el aprendizaje del mundo; igualmente, nos complacemos cuando entablamos diálogo entre lenguaje y conocimiento, lenguaje y realidad y lenguaje, conocimiento y cultura (schaff, 141-265)1, pues de esta manera solidificamos el concepto aristotélico de que el hombre es un ser sociable por naturaleza. juan alberto blanco puentes 1 para complementar la relación entre lenguaje y realidad, es bueno establecer consonancia con el concepto de visión de mundo, pues “sólo con la ayuda de la lengua nos es posible captar el mundo, sus objetos, diferencias, propiedades y relaciones; y lo aprehendemos con una determinada lengua y de una determinada manera: cada lengua contiene una visión de mundo, una específica representación del mundo y su estructura, una ontología propia” (kutschera, 325). 42 sistema de apoyo de la adquisición del lenguaje (saal) cada vez que aprendemos una nueva lengua, lo hacemos siguiendo los patrones de aprendizaje utilizados cuando aprendimos nuestra lengua materna; en ese sentido, el sistema de apoyo de la adquisición del lenguaje (saal)2, permite usar nuestra experiencia para fácilmente acceder al segundo idioma. dicho sistema comprende cuatro etapas, que al superarse nos asegurarán la continuidad de la comunicación prelingüística a la lingüística, dichas etapas son: inicialmente, destacar: “para el interlocutor adulto se hace factible realzar aquellos rasgos del mundo que para el niño ya son destacados y que tienen una forma gramatical básica o simple” (bruner, 42), es decir, el adulto ayuda al aprendiz a entrar en el lenguaje cuando destaca los aspectos de la realidad que convergen entorno al principiante, y que para él se han acentuado a través de la observación de su entorno comunicativo; llegando a tal “sincronización” en la relación de interacción, entre los actuantes, logrando que el neófito vaya de su expresión conceptual a una apreciación de su representación lingüística relacionada con las distinciones, tanto en el habla como en la realidad, entre sucesos específicos y no específicos, entre estados y procesos, entre hechos “puntuales” y continuos y entre acciones causativas y no causativas. seguido de, sustituir: “estimulando y modelando sustitutos lexicográficos y fraseológicos para los recursos gesticulares y vocales necesarios para efectuar diversas funciones comunicativas” (43). es decir, que el adulto crea expresiones que suplen o reemplazan los gestos tanto del otro sujeto -el aprendiz-, como de sí mismo, en aras de comunicarse con los demás. es el deseo de comunicación con los otros, lo que inicia al sujeto en el camino hacia el lenguaje propio. destacándose la función “mágica” de la palabra, pues no sólo la gestualidad sustituye, también la palabra misma lo hace, remplaza el referente mencionado, lo evoca/lo invoca, e incluso lo hace presente. en tercer momento, jugar: “el formato de los juegos esta particularmente formado por “hechos” estipulados o constitutivos que son creados por el lenguaje y luego recreados en la demanda por medio del lenguaje” (44). es decir, el juego como espacio lúdico, es el 2 este sistema, en inglés, lass –language acquisition support system–, “enmarca o estructura la entrada de lenguaje e interacción en el mecanismo de adquisición del niño (del aprendiz), de modo que implique <<hacer funcionar el sistema>>” (bruner, 22). el sistema al cual se refiere jerome bruner, y que interactúa con el lass o nuestro saal, es el lad –language acquisition device–, planteado por noam chomsky. bilingüísmo: la lengua materna ante la globalización 43 momento ideal para aprender a usar el lenguaje, puesto que existen juegos que están constituidos por el lenguaje y que sólo pueden existir donde el lenguaje está presente. el rol desempeñado por los agentes del juego, permite la interacción indiscriminada del sujeto, a partir del conocimiento propio de la lengua. de ahí que los papeles asignados en las situaciones conversacionales, no impidan el reconocimiento de las normas comunicativas. finalmente, generalizar: “una vez que la madre y el niño entran en formatos rutinarios se ponen en juego varios procesos psicológicos y lingüísticos que se generalizan de un formato a otro” (44), es decir, los formatos poseen elementos en común, lo cual hace posible, crear reglas de comportamiento y actuación que son susceptibles se utilizar en todo tipo de formato, sin que esto altere ni el desarrollo, ni el feliz término del formato tanto en su acción como el uso del lenguaje: el habla. es bueno recordar que un formato es una pauta de interacción estandarizada e inicialmente microcósmica entre dos o más sujetos, quienes utilizan los formatos como instrumentos que sirven para transmitir la cultura y su lenguaje; como ejemplo tenemos: el saludar, el pedir información, el dar instrucciones, entre otros. hemos de decir que la existencia del sistema de apoyo de la adquisición del lenguaje (saal), elabora la interacción entre los seres humanos, de forma tal que ayuda a dominar los usos del lenguaje a los que aspiran a usarlo. tal sistema es el que proporciona una disposición funcional que no sólo hace posible la adquisición del lenguaje, sino que hace que tal adquisición se desarrolle en el orden y con el ritmo con el que habitualmente se produce. se convierte el lenguaje en una forma sistemática de comunicarse con los demás, de afectar su conducta, de compartir la atención y de construir realidades a las cuales, nos adherimos de la misma forma que lo hacemos a los hechos de la naturaleza. entonces, el sistema de apoyo de la adquisición del lenguaje (saal), se activa, cada vez que iniciamos el aprendizaje de una nueva lengua; sólo que esta vez, el aprendiz cuenta con una gran cantidad de información lingüística desde su lengua materna; en tal sentido no debemos olvidar que las lenguas poseen elementos en común, además de su raíz lingüística, tales como el uso de un sistema de signos, el manejar categorías gramaticales, el modificarse acorde con las circunstancias histórico-culturales del individuo, entre otros; de igual forma, si bien existen particularidades lingüísticas, estas permiten la diferenciación entre ellas, como el caso de rasgos geográficos, especialmente. juan alberto blanco puentes 44 los nuevos rumbos que ha tomado el mundo, en pro de la globalización nos ha convertido en agentes necesitados del conocimiento que podemos adquirir de otras culturas por medio del lenguaje, en ese sentido se orienta la última parte de nuestra reflexión, que nos sitúa en el momento histórico que estamos llamados a convertir en nuestro. pues la globalización no elimina el concepto de región, sino que lo fortalece en la medida en que ha de convertirnos en sujetos activos de un proceso mundial, en el cual el lenguaje se vitaliza en la medida en que a través de él, podemos acceder a un sin fin de aspectos sociales. lengua materna, bilingüismo y globalización existe un concepto subyacente al subtítulo: cultura, en tal sentido nos atrevemos a considerar la cultura en tres momentos, desde la filosofía: “los griegos la denominaron paideia y los romanos humanitas, es decir, la educación del hombre en sí, el estudio de la poesía, la filosofía, la elocuencia, etc., que corresponde a lo que llamaban buenas artes, es decir aquello que diferencia al hombre del resto de los animales” … “en la edad media este concepto se amplió en el sentido de que, además del estudio de lo que llamó artes liberales (únicas dignas de los hombres libres), que comprendía el trivio (gramática, retórica, dialéctica) y el quatrivio (aritmética, geometría, astronomía, música)3, el individuo debía prepararse para la comprensión, la defensa, y hasta donde fuere posible, la demostración de las verdades religiosas” … “a partir del fenómeno de la ilustración, ser culto ya no significó poseer el conocimiento de las artes liberales, sino, hasta cierto punto, conocer las ciencias naturales, la matemática y la física, además de las disciplinas filosóficas e históricas” (martínez, 118-19). de otra parte, nos es pertinente el significado de cultura, “en el sentido de civilización, (término) utilizado…por sociólogos y antropólogos, para indicar el conjunto de formas de vida creados, aprendidos y transmitidos de una generación a otra entre los miembros de una sociedad” (119), que consecuentemente lleva a la civilización, “la forma más alta y madura de una cultura determinada” (spengler, citado por martínez, 119). sin olvidar que en un momento determinado del desarrollo de la humanidad, precisamente situados en el proyecto de la modernidad, vemos como el fracaso de dicha modernidad es sintomático del 3 la sumatoria del trivium y el quatrivium dio como resultado el septennium, grupo en el cual la religión estaba situada por fuera y por encima, como ciencia suprema, de las demás artes liberales a que se reducía la ciencia profana durante la edad media (barthes, 134). bilingüísmo: la lengua materna ante la globalización 45 malestar en la cultura (freud, 1988); quizás el paso más grande de unificación de las civilizaciones ha sido la declaración universal de los derechos humanos (ddhh), por parte de las naciones unidas (parís, 1948), pues muestra a las claras “que los seres humanos somos fundamentalmente semejantes, no sólo en lo tocante al parentesco biológico, sino también más allá, en cuanto a nuestra capacidad de producir símbolos, ideales y organización social, es cosa comúnmente admitida” (savater, 73). a partir del momento en el que nos damos a la tarea de conseguir el bienestar del mundo, con la búsqueda incesante del equilibro entre el hombre y la naturaleza; como comunidad, como sociedad, como agentes culturales hemos también de acceder a nuevos conceptos de mundo, de libertad, de tolerancia, de respeto; entonces, el lenguaje será el mecanismo que elimine “implícitamente” el concepto de uno y otro para ser nosotros. es el momento en el cual la lengua materna se fortalece a partir del aprendizaje de otra nueva lengua, el pasaporte para acceder a un proceso universal. el individuo inscrito en un nuevo orden accede a una cultura y a la asimila, a analiza, la estudia; es decir, la convierte en texto de lectura. la globalización es un momento histórico que requiere cambios en nuestra actitud hacia el mundo. de hecho, habrá quienes asuman una actitud reticente, pero quizás son más los que buscan vías para volver a tener aún presente que “todos los caminos conducen a roma”. sólo que el mundo se ha expandido, se ha convertido y revertido en sí mismo para adecuarse al proceso histórico que la globalización está fomentando. y que realmente no es nuevo, la idea de crear bloques de países, unidos por la economía, la política, la religión o la sociedad, tiene varios antecedentes históricos: un ejemplo, sería la idea de la gran colombia, establecida por simón bolívar, más adelante disuelta, pos cuestiones políticas; el grupo de naciones aliadas para dar término a la segunda guerra mundial y la división de alemania, que años después, con el advenimiento de la perestroika (1987), de mijail gorvachov, termina por derribar el muro de berlín -muro de la infamia-, y nace consecuentemente, la unión europea: con su propia moneda, su propio parlamento, y quizás, más adelante, su propia lengua. sin embargo, un eco en la historia nos recuerda que “el universo en el que los opuestos se reconcilian tiene una firme base para tal unificación; su provechosa destructividad” (marcuse, 96). confiamos plenamente en que el carácter lapidario de la frase de marcuse no lo sea tal, sino más bien el revulsivo que habrá de permitir la fusión de la gran diversidad de dimensiones humanas. juan alberto blanco puentes 46 y es la lengua el indicio más fuerte de que pertenecemos a una cultura determinada, hablamos español, o una de una de sus variaciones dialectales, hablamos inglés o una acepciones geográficas, y así sucesivamente con cada una de las posibilidades que el mundo nos ofrece. es más, el lenguaje es el mecanismo que permite la interdisciplinariedad en toda su magnitud, pues con el lenguaje se establecen vínculos entre las artes y las ciencias, entre las actividades humanas y sus representaciones, es decir, entre la cultura y sus textos, ya que, cuando se habla de cultura también estamos hablando de interpretación, de hermenéutica. de neohermeneútica, diremos con propiedad. por supuesto ha habido hermenéuticas instaurativas y hermenéuticas reductivas. unas que centran toda la interpretación a partir de un único modelo; otras que abren la interpretación desde espacios divergentes. la cultura, entonces, -en cuanto acto de lectura se mueve entre la “voluntad de escucha” y “una voluntad de sospecha” (vásquez, 73). y no por ello, “estamos, en otras palabras, condenados a improvisar. somos como actores que entran en el escenario sin tener ningún papel estudiado de antemano, ningún cuaderno con el argumento, ningún apuntador que nos pueda susurrar al oído lo que debemos hacer. tenemos que elegir por nuestra cuenta cómo queremos vivir” (gaarder, 562). la globalización no permite la improvisación, hemos de estar preparados para asumir el rol en el nuevo orden mundial, y es el momento en el que el ser bilingües, además de facilitarnos el acceso al mundo nos permiten acceder a otros lenguajes, pues las lenguas entre sí se unen gracias a mecanismos invisibles pero reales, tal es el caso de la internet como posibilidad globalizante del conocimiento comunicativo. la informática y su incesante desarrollo ha convertido al mundo en un libro de fácil acceso, en una especie de obra abierta, como diría umberto eco, un ejercicio de análisis que requiere de la acción convergente de nuevas estéticas, un mundo enteramente entregado a la interpretación, como si quisiera ser redescubierto, búsqueda incesante de nuevos significados y significantes que parten de nuevos referentes. darle orden al nuevo caos que se ha suscitado a través de la historia, será el interés primario de quienes están empezando a reorganizar el mundo. sin embargo, algo está carcomiendo a los muchos estudiosos. el desplazamiento que ha sufrido el libro por parte del texto virtual; los jóvenes ahora evitan recurrir a los libros, y se sumergen en la virtualidad. pues es una actividad de moda, acorde con los nuevos tiempos, es una forma de ser actuales y si la afirmación de que la internet ha globalizado el conocimiento, también ha de implicar la afirmación del libro como espacio visualizador del mundo. bilingüísmo: la lengua materna ante la globalización 47 recapitulación nunca hemos negado nuestro carácter bicultural, producto del encuentro de dos culturas, en 1492. y si la distancia a hoy es muy lejana, quizás la memoria lingüística sea la única capaz de situarnos en el momento en que el nuevo siglo ha comenzado. un nuevo momento en el que la humanidad se ha multiplicado en acepciones para lo bilingüe, lo bicultural, lo binacional, lo biétnico, lo biteológico, y una infinidad recurrente, que con el paso el tiempo ha de convertirnos en agentes de una “neopostmodernidad”, término atrevido para ingresar en la estética donde los discursos regionales se difuminan y establecen un nuevo camino de acceso a la gran aldea global. consecuentes con el momento trazado por la historia, hemos de convertir a la globalización, en algo más que un asunto de los estados o de los gobiernos, en un asunto personal que nos reconoce como actores de un proceso económico, étnico y cultural, que ha convertido al mundo en escenario, el lugar sin límites, donde las fronteras son ilusiones que van más allá de las ciudades invisibles de italo calvino, donde hemos de reconocernos como habitantes de un milenio caracterizado por la “levedad”, la “rapidez”, la “exactitud”, la “visibilidad”, la “multiplicidad” y la “congruencia” (calvino, 1989). sumado a lo anterior, el bilingüismo se ha de tomar como el proceso de adecuación de la lengua materna, y su uso -pragmáticaal desarrollo del mundo sin fronteras. un mundo que converge en el sujeto bilingüe, capaz de acceder a nuevas visiones de mundo. un momento en el cual el entendimiento de la humanidad se permite nuevos diálogos, nuevos actos comunicativos que trascienden el inclemente paso del tiempo. hoy el bilingüismo se ha convertido en una actitud que va más allá del letrado, va más allá de la instauración de una nueva nación, lleva a fundar una nueva gran tribu donde su resemantización, nos incita a ser consecuentes con el nuevo sistema orbital, con su propia realidad: la convivencia y la paz. referencias barthes, r. 1995. el placer del texto. méxico: siglo xxi, blanco p., j. 1994. la influencia del entorno socio-cultural en el desarrollo de la función de denominación en niños de preescolar. tesis de grado. bogotá: universidad distrital francisco josé de caldas. bruner, j. 1990. el habla del niño. barcelona: paidós. calvino, i. 1999. las ciudades invisibles. madrid: millenium. juan alberto blanco puentes 48 . 1989. seis propuestas para el próximo milenio. madrid: siruela. eco, u. 1992. obra abierta. barcelona: planeta-agostini. freud, s. 1988. el malestar en la cultura. madrid: alianza. gaarder, j. el mundo de sofía. bogotá: siruela/norma. gili gaya, s. 1972. estudios de lenguaje infantil. barcelona: biblograf. gorbachov, m. 1987. perestroika. bogotá: oveja negra. kutschera, f. 1979. filosofía del lenguaje. madrid: gredos. marcuse, h. 1984. el hombre unidimensional. barcelona: orbis. martínez echeverri, l. y martínez h. 1997. diccionario de filosofía. bogotá: panamericana. miller, g. a. 1985. lenguaje y habla. madrid: alianza. richards, j. c., platt j. y platt h.1997. diccionario de lingüística aplicada y enseñanza de lenguas. barcelona: ariel. vásquez rodríguez, f. 2002. la cultura como texto. bogotá: pontificia universidad javeriana. savater, f. 1994. sin contemplaciones. bogotá: ariel. schaff, a. 1964. lenguaje y conocimiento. méxico: grijalbo. juan alberto blanco puentes es escritor y ensayista. profesor de la universidad colegio mayor de cundinamarca y de única. editor de la revista cuadernos de literatura de la universidad javeriana. lector-evaluador de tesis de postgrado. magíster en literatura de la pontificia universidad javeriana y licenciado en lingüística y literatura de la universidad distrital francisco josé de caldas. correo electrónico: jabp7@hotmail.com bilingüísmo: la lengua materna ante la globalización gistseptiembre2010final.indd �2 vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) what form of language education do immigrant parents want? an investigation into the educational desires of members of ontario’s arab community1 bobbie lynn r. shoukri2* the university of western ontario abstract the purpose of this study is to investigate the language education desires [whether they be english as a second language (esl), french as a second language (fsl), and/or heritage language classes] and needs of one segment of ontario’s esl population, arabic speakers, and to determine if those desires vary from the current language education offerings in ontario’s elementary schools. the findings in this study, provided by data collected from document analysis and an online questionnaire, suggest that members of ontario’s arab community strongly value the learning of multiple languages. also, although all participants agree that learning french is important; most agree that learning english is more important. furthermore, in addition to supporting ontario’s bilingual language education program, members of ontario’s arab community also desire heritage language classes. the majority of participants in this study would like their children to have access to arabic at school to maintain their l1 and this desire is further supported by the almost 87% who agree that their children’s use of arabic is decreasing. keywords: arabic language, language education, ontario language policies, language education desires of immigrant parents, ontario language programs, english as a second language (esl), french as a second language (fsl), language maintenance, heritage languages 1 received: january 22nd, 2010 / accepted: july 17th, 2010 2 correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to b. lynn shoukri, the university of western ontario, faculty of education, london, on, n6g 1g7, canada. e-mail: lshoukri@rogers.com shoukri gist education and learning research journal. issn 1692-5777, pp. 62-77 �� vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) shoukri resumen el propósito de este estudio es investigar los deseos lingüísticos [sean ellos de inglés como segundo idioma (esl), francés como segundo idioma (fsl), y/o clases del idioma ancestral] y necesidades de un segmento de la población esl de ontario, los hablantes de la lengua árabe, y a determinar si aquellos deseos varíen de las ofertas actuales en idiomas en los colegios primarios de ontario. los hallazgos del estudio, provistos por información colectada de análisis de documentos y una encuesta en-línea, sugieren que los miembros de la comunidad árabe de ontario valoran fuertemente el aprendizaje de múltiples idiomas. también, aunque todos los participantes están de acuerdo que es importante aprender el francés; la mayoría está de acuerdo que aprender el inglés es más importante. además que apoyar el programa lingüístico de educación bilingüe, los miembros de la comunidad árabe de ontario también desean las clases del idioma ancestral. la mayoría de los participantes de este estudio quisieran que sus hijos tengan acceso a la lengua árabe en el colegio para mantener su lengua materna y este deseo se apoya aún más por los casi 87% que reportaron que el uso de la lengua árabe de sus hijos se va menguando. palabras claves: idioma árabe, educación de lenguas, políticas educativas lingüísticas en ontario, deseos de padres inmigrantes en el aprendizaje de lenguas, programas de idiomas de ontario, inglés como segundo idioma, francés como segundo idioma, mantenimiento de lenguas, lenguas ancestrales language policy remains a continuously debated concern internationally (skutnabb-kangas, 2008). since the 1960s, canada’s language policy has focused on the development and support of an officially english/french bilingual country (yalden, 2007), yet the 2002 census figures indicate that the goal of canadians becoming bilingual in the country’s two official languages has not yet been met (zakaluzny, 2003). current ontario language education policies support the ideological goal of official bilingualism in canada through mandatory fsl education (ontario ministry of education, 2001b). accordingly, as a minimum, every child in the ontario elementary school system receives fsl education for 40 minutes a day beginning in grade 4. no other international language classes are required to be offered. mohan (2007) states that with classrooms becoming more diverse, there is a need to develop new approaches to curriculum to improve the educational experiences of the minority students in our schools, yet ontario’s language education policies fail to include heritage language3 classes as an option within the elementary school system. 3 heritage language refers to one’s home or ancestral language (encarta world english dictionary, 2009). in canada, where both english and french are recognized as official languages, heritage language would refer to a home language other than english or french. �� vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) in recognizing the growing number of english language learners (ells) in its schools, the ontario government has increased funds and curriculum documents to support its esl programs (ontario ministry of education, 2003). are these language programs (both fsl and esl), however, satisfying the interests of ontario’s esl communities? are the first (or heritage) languages of minority children being sufficiently supported as these children learn a second language (english) or a third language (french)? finally, how do the members of one specific minority language group in ontario, ontario’s arab4 community, feel about the language program offerings? the canadian arab federation (1999) documents that arab countries represent “six of the top twenty source countries for business class immigrants” in canada (p. 4). this statement supports the research findings which declare that “the arab population in canada are [sic] highly educated with only 13% having less than a grade nine education” (caf, 1999, p. 5). it therefore may be concluded that education is valued by the arab community; but specifics pertaining to their language education desires have not yet been identified. the purpose of this study was to investigate the language education desires (whether they be in favor of esl, fsl, and/or heritage language classes) and needs of a particular segment of ontario’s esl population, arabic speakers, and to determine if those desires vary from the current language education offerings in ontario’s elementary schools. this subject was worth investigating because the canadian federal expectations for official bilingualism are accepted (government of canada, 2003; vandergrift, 2006), ontario’s language education programs and policies are clear (ontario ministry of education, 1998, 2001a, & 2001b), and research statements regarding second language acquisition (sla) are known (cummins, 1979; lambert, 1975; wong fillmore, 1991), but what is unknown is whether the wants and necessities of our ells and their families are being recognized. furthermore, the ontario government continues to provide new curriculum and educational support documents and funding for esl programs (ontario ministry of education, 2003) and fsl programs are firmly in place, but it is unclear whether these programs are in accordance with what research has stated to be most effective for sla and with what the parents of the arab community support. 4 according to the columbia encyclopedia (2008), the term arab refers to people “whose primary language is arabic” (p. 1). the term no longer refers to country of origin. ontario’s arab community shoukri �� vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) ontario’s arab community shoukri guiding frameworks cummins (1981) explains that there are two levels of language proficiency: basic interpersonal communicative skills (bics) and cognitive/academic language proficiency (calp). the term bics refers to one’s ability to participate in communication where there are supports in place to aid in understanding (i.e., facial cues, feedback, and non-verbal support). baker (2006) adds that bics is apparent in studentto-student conversations during play or interactive communication between a student and a teacher. on the other hand, calp requires a far greater understanding of the second language (l2), occurring in academic situations that require higher-order thinking skills to complete tasks such as problem solving in context-reduced situations. the purpose of the distinction in levels of proficiency is to emphasize the different time periods needed for immigrant children to obtain conversational fluency in their l2 versus grade-level academic proficiency in that language (cummins, 1981). cummins’ (1981) research concludes that bics can be achieved within 2 years of initial exposure to the l2, however, calp requires at least 5 years for development. this distinction is imperative for understanding the language-education needs of ontario’s ells. the majority of ells who enter ontario schools at an early age appear to learn english fairly quickly. many of these young ells begin to comprehend and use english shortly after entering the school system. researchers attribute this quick language acquisition to the fact that these students are surrounded by english at school, through the media, in their communities, and are ultimately forced to learn the english language as a means of survival (cummins, 1981; wong filmore, 1991). as cummins’ (1981) work outlines, however, this demonstrated language proficiency cannot be the sole evidence used to deem these students fluent in english. baker (2006) cautions that ells’ basic communication skills can potentially mask their actual inadequacies in l2 proficiency. these shortcomings, therefore, directly affect their successes in the classroom both cognitively and academically. an understanding of these two levels of language comprehension and fluency must be taken into consideration to provide appropriate supports and equitable programming for ells. this understanding, however, comes into question particularly when curriculum and standardized test expectations are considered—do these expectations take into consideration the academic-language comprehension level of ells? in addition to language proficiency, this study considered lambert’s (1975) work on additive bilingualism. additive bilingualism, as stated by lambert (1975) is when one maintains fluency in one’s first (or heritage) language while adding an l2. subtractive bilingualism, on the other hand, is when one loses �� vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) one’s l1 while learning an l2. lambert and taylor (1988) believe that “integration into a new society need not entail the loss of heritage languages and cultures. instead, the new language and culture can be added, without necessarily replacing the old” (p. 84). lambert and taylor (1988), along with the majority of applied linguists, feel that additive bilingualism is more beneficial to language learning than subtractive bilingualism. cummins (1979) states that additive bilingualism aids in language learning as “access to two languages in early childhood can accelerate aspects of cognitive growth” (p. 229). he continues by saying that additive bilingualism leads to high levels of proficiency in both languages whereas subtractive bilingualism can lead to less than native-like proficiency in both languages. cummins (1979) believes that “the major educational implication . . . is that if optimal development of a minority language child’s cognitive and academic potential is a goal, then the school program must aim to promote an additive form of bilingualism involving literacy in both l1 and l2” (p. 247). the advantages of additive bilingualism, however, are not limited to academic achievement. cummins (2005) and wong fillmore (1991) express the importance of l1 maintenance for social reasons. cummins (2005) states that a student’s l1 is crucial in many walks of life—school, home, and family. wong fillmore (1991) believes that the consequences of subtractive bilingualism affect “the social, emotional, cognitive, and educational development” (p. 342) of minority students in addition to the “integrity of their families and the society they live in” (p. 342). she explains that when minority children begin to lose their l1, communication with parents becomes a challenge. passing on traditions, beliefs, and values is then difficult and can lead to families losing the intimacy of their relationships. king and mackey (2007) also support the social benefits of additive bilingualism as they state that l1 maintenance is “an important source of pride and self-esteem for [the] child” (p. 12). in sum, if additive bilingualism is the ideal, do ontario’s esl and fsl programs support and meet this model? are the l1s of minority children being amply supported as they learn an l2 (english) or a third language (french)? where lambert, cummins, and wong fillmore focus on the academic and social implications of additive bilingualism, skutnabb-kangas shares convictions on the importance of additive bilingualism, but from a language rights perspective. skutnabb-kangas (1994) believes “there should be no need to debate the right to maintain and develop the mother tongue” (p. 625), therefore supporting additive bilingualism. she states that it is a basic linguistic human right (lhr) for all people to be able to identify with their mother tongue and to have that l1 respected by others, saying, “. . . ontario’s arab community shoukri �� vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) ontario’s arab community shoukri necessary individual rights have to do, firstly, with the right to a languagerelated identity and secondly, with access to the mother tongue(s)” (skutnabb-kangas, 2000, p. 498). what is meant by lhrs is that each person has the right to learn his mother tongue “orally and in writing . . . and to use it in many official contexts [in addition to learning] at least one of the official languages in the country of residence.” skutnabbkangas concludes that effective language-education programs should result in a multilingual model, yet many “educational policies often limit . . . access to high levels of multilingualism” (2000, pp. 625-626) as evidenced by ontario’s ministry of education curriculum documents (1998, 2001b). delpit (2006) and skutnabb-kangas (1994) suggest that even the nicest teachers with the best intentions can have a negative effect on minority-student learning if the program is insufficiently meeting the needs of those students. it is imperative, therefore, to determine whether current educational-language policies and programs respect one’s basic lhrs to learn and maintain his mother tongue (skutnabbkangas, 2000). additionally, do ontario’s language programs support additive bilingualism and the lhrs of the members of ontario’s arab community? finally, what are the thoughts and opinions of ontario’s arab community regarding lhrs and how ontario’s current programming is being delivered? methodology the research for this study was qualitative in nature and data was collected through document analysis5 and an online questionnaire that i developed. to gain pertinent background information and to build a foundation for my research, i examined various government documents and sla research (government of canada, 1982 & 2003; office of the commissioner of official languages, 2004; ontario ministry of education 1998, 2001a, 2001b, 2003, 2005, 2007a, 2007b, & 2008; rehorick, 2004; vandergrift, 2006; yalden, 2007; cummins, 1979; lambert, 1975, wong-fillmore, 1991; skutnabb-kangas, 2002). the online questionnaire was conducted through a link provided by the canadian arab federation (caf) in their october 26, 2009 issue of the caf weekly bulletin. the participants self-selected to participate in the online questionnaire. the participants were canadian immigrants of arab descent who had at least one child in an ontario elementary school. 5 the details of the document analysis are not included in this article; however, they are available upon request to the author. �� vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) the online questionnaire created for this study included both open-response questions and likert scale closed-response questions. part 1 of the online questionnaire was designed to collect pertinent background information from the participants. the questions were all open-response and included items such as country of birth and language(s) spoken in the home. part 2 of the online questionnaire employed a closed-response likert scale format with an option to explain responses or expand answers in an open-response box. these questions were designed to quickly determine the thoughts and opinions of the participants as they pertain to the current language education that their children receive while providing additional space for participants to further express themselves or to provide clarification. questionnaire responses were collected over a 1-month period beginning on october 26th and ending on november 26th, 2009. findings part 1 of the questionnaire revealed that all 30 participants were indeed immigrants to canada. the responses showed that 4 participants were from egypt, 4 were born in syria, 8 participants were from jordan, and the highest number of participants, 14, were born in lebanon. this section of the questionnaire revealed that no participants had lived in canada for less than 7 years and no participants had yet lived in canada for more than 32 years. more specifically, it can be noted that 13% had been in canada for less than 10 years, more than half of the participants, 53%, had lived in canada between 10 and 20 years, and approximately 33% had immigrated to canada more than 20 years ago. additionally, we learned that all participants (with the exception of one) were speaking arabic and english in the home. this participant, from syria, shared that arabic and french are spoken in her home. furthermore, the 14 participants from lebanon spoke french in addition to arabic and english. finally, the majority of participants, 15, currently have 2 children in ontario’s public elementary schools. seven participants have 1 child in ontario’s public elementary schools, and 8 participants have 3 there. it is important to note here that 3 participants from lebanon disclosed that their children are in ontario public french immersion schools and are therefore learning english as a subject and french through the teaching of all other subject content. as there was no specific question pertaining to the school program of the participants’ children, there is no way of knowing whether other participants’ children were also in french immersion schools. the following is a summary of the responses collected from part 2 of the online questionnaire: ontario’s arab community shoukri �� vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) ontario’s arab community shoukri 1. i am satisfied with the esl support that my child(ren) receive(s). responses to question 1 of the online questionnaire revealed that the majority of participants are not satisfied with the english language support that their children are currently receiving as 43% somewhat disagreed to being satisfied with the current esl support and almost 7% strongly disagreed. 2. i would like my child(ren) to have opportunities to speak his/ their first language at school through arabic language classes. twenty-six of the 30 participants believe that their children should have opportunities to speak arabic at school. however, a total of 4 participants disagreed. two of the participants who somewhat disagreed explained that their children currently receive arabic language education at an arabic school outside regular school hours. participant #6 (who shall hereon be referred to as yasmine, and who strongly disagreed) stated, we live in canada which is an english speaking launage [sic] and french as a second laungae [sic] therefore school should be english. how are our children to learn to speak proper english if they are to continue speaking arabic. this why they have heritage school on the weekend for their children to advance in their mother speaking tongue. 3. i believe that my child(ren) should learn arabic during the school day. question 3 revealed that 90% of the participants believe that their children should learn arabic at school: 14 participants somewhat agreed and 13 participants strongly agreed. three participants explained that arabic should be offered as an option, 2 participants believe that their children should learn arabic at school as learning multiple languages is important, and 1 participant, who somewhat agreed, explained that his/ her children are also learning arabic in the home. a final open-response was provided by yasmine who somewhat disagreed to her children learning arabic in school. yasmine reiterated her beliefs (previously stated in question 2) that her children should be learning english and french in school, as those are the official languages of canada. 4. my child(ren)’s use of arabic is decreasing. responses to question 4 show that the majority of participants believe that their children’s use of arabic is decreasing. one participant who somewhat agreed that his/her children’s arabic is decreasing explained that his/her children are using english and arabic together. �0 vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) the other open-response provided was shared by a participant who strongly agreed and stated that his/her children use “more english now.” yasmine was one of 4 participants who disagreed and explained that, “as long as we keep on speaking arabic [sic] in the house they will always remember. some reponsiblities [sic] have to be on the parents and not on the school if the children forget their arabic.” 5. i believe that learning french is important. one hundred percent of the participants agreed that learning french is important. furthermore, one participant stated that “all languages are important,” and yasmine believes that learning french is important as it is canada’s second language. 6. it is more important that my child(ren) learn(s) english than french. although all participants support the learning of french in school, question 6 reveals that the majority of the participants believe that it is more important that their children learn english than french. of the 13 participants who disagreed with this statement, 6 explain that they disagree with english being more important than french as they believe that one language is not more important than another. additionally, yasmine, who selected no response, believes that english is, in fact, more important than french; “english is more important than french becaues [sic] everywhere you go it is english ex. when the child goes to university it is english however french would be an assest [sic].” 7. it is alright that my child(ren) be removed from french class to receive english language support. sixty percent of the participants did not believe that it is alright that their children be removed from french class to receive english language support. open-responses revealed a common belief that esl support should be given at another time. 8. i believe that a child should develop english skills before learning french. two-thirds of the participants disagreed with this statement and various open-responses support the ability to learn two languages simultaneously versus the need to acquire one language prior to another. 9. i want my child(ren) to be bilingual or multilingual. one hundred percent of the participants indicated that they strongly agree that they want their children to be either bilingual or multilingual. ontario’s arab community shoukri �1 vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) ontario’s arab community shoukri macro findings this data clearly reveals that ontario’s arab community values l1 maintenance and the learning of additional languages. as the majority of participants expressed their discontentment with the current esl support that their children receive, there is valid reason to be concerned: these parents feel their children will encounter difficulties in the classroom due to a lack of acquired academic-level english skills (cummins, 1979). though all but one participant document that english is spoken in the home, we do not know the level of proficiency of the english spoken. applying cummins’ (1979) research, one may assume that these children have good bics in english, however, without appropriate esl support, they may not quickly develop the calp required to succeed academically. additionally, 2 participants stated that they questioned the quality and effectiveness of the esl support being provided. this issue coincides with mohan’s (2007) concerns that the additional funding provided for esl programs in 2003 was not designated appropriately. english as a second language programming, however, is not the only area of importance expressed by the members of ontario’s arab community. as almost 87% of participants agree that their children’s use of arabic is decreasing, it is not surprising that the majority of participants would like their children to learn arabic at school. this strong support for l1 maintenance should be applauded as it is ideal for sla. mother tongue maintenance promotes additive bilingualism (lambert, 1975) and more effective language learning (cummins, 1979; wong-fillmore, 1991). even yasmine, who does not believe that arabic should be learned in ontario’s public elementary schools, still supports l1 maintenance through weekend heritage language classes. an important point to highlight, though, is yasmine’s view that l1 maintenance should not figure into the regular school day. this distinction between when and where arabic learning should occur (i.e., on the student’s own time versus during the regular school day), and the support expressed for l1 maintenance through alternative language education programs, is important to this study as it relates to delpit’s (2006) work. in this study, a combined 23% of all participants disagreed with the option of having their children learn arabic during the regular school day. as an l2 teacher, i would have assumed that all participants would have embraced this opportunity for their children to learn arabic at school. these survey results, however, demonstrate that there are a significant number of parents who feel differently. the difference between what my assumptions (as an educator and l2 researcher) are as they pertain to l2 education and the actual language educational desires expressed by this group of parents directly �2 vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) links with delpit’s (2006) findings. as previously noted, delpit (2006) explains that teachers can only provide effective education when there is consensus between program offerings and parental desires. perhaps this group of parents prefer an islamic religious-based arabic program or perhaps, as expressed by yasmine, this group of parents would like their children to adjust socially, that is, to experience “being canadian” at school, which for her means education in the two official languages of canada. this notion of “being canadian” ties in with the final area of discussion. though participants’ opinions of ontario’s language education programs vary, members of ontario’s arab community clearly support having access to learning multiple languages. this group of ontario’s esl population share the desires of skutnabb-kangas (2002) who proposes the maintenance of linguistic diversity within a country and recommends that heritage languages be supported. as a final note, these views link with safran’s (1992) beliefs; namely, that a country need not limit their official language policies to a unilingual or bilingual structure, as he believes that multilingual policies are attainable when minority members are firm in their language and beliefs. based on the results of this data and the thinking of safran’s (1992) work, language policies in ontario could shift from a bilingual focus to a multilingual structure as this minority group has clearly shown itself to be firm its beliefs and support for learning english, french, and arabic. conclusion based on the responses provided in the online questionnaire and the information learned through document analysis, i was able to construct the following responses to this study’s three sub-questions: a) do current ontario language education policies and programs support the educational desires of ontario’s arab community? in upholding canada’s desire for bilingualism, ontario’s language education policies support the teaching of english, esl, and fsl (ontario ministry of education, 1998, 2001a, 2001b, & 2007a). this study, however, shows that members of ontario’s arab community are not satisfied with ontario’s current language education policies and programs. this study shows that although this community supports the learning of fsl, they believe that the esl program is insufficient in both time allotment and quality. finally, members of ontario’s arab community support the offering of arabic language education during the regular school day, yet ontario’s language education policies and programs do not offer or support heritage language classes. ontario’s arab community shoukri �� vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) ontario’s arab community shoukri b) do the desires of ontario’s arab community coincide with how best to learn a second language or are those members in need of additional information? the majority of participants from this study disagreed with the idea that english needed to be learned prior to developing french language skills and many explained that children can learn the two languages simultaneously. additionally, members of ontario’s arab community wish to have their children participate in arabic language classes, therefore documenting an obvious desire for l1 maintenance. these expressed desires for language acquisition programming directly coincide with what the majority of applied linguists deem ideal. these parents are supporting additive bilingualism (lambert, 1975) and the preservation of their heritage language (cummins, 2001; wongfillmore, 1991; skutnabb-kangas, 2002). though the arab community has expressed their language education preferences, and most applied linguists concur with their viewpoint, ontario’s language education policies do not follow the same ideals. c) are current ontario language education policies and programs in agreement with current research? unfortunately, ontario’s language programs and policies do not coincide with current l2 acquisition research. participants in this study believe that esl programs are inconsistent and are not being offered to all students who are eligible. as baker (2006) explains, although a student may appear to be fluent in english, this may simply be his bics masking weak academic language abilities. students require at least 5 years of english language support to develop calp (cummins, 1981), and it appears that ontario’s esl program is falling short of this expectation. additionally, sla research clearly demonstrates the importance of l1 maintenance while acquiring a new language (cummins, 1979). however, ontario’s ministry of education still deems it illegal to teach through the medium of a language other than french or english (taylor, 2009). finally, the new set of policies and procedures to address the needs of ells and esl/english literacy development (eld) programs (ontario ministry of education, 2007a) makes no reference to incorporating a student’s l1 into the english language learning program. in sum, members of ontario’s arab community strongly value the learning of multiple languages. although all agree that learning french is important, most agree that learning english is more important. this is cause for concern as the majority of the participants believe that their children are not receiving sufficient english language support. in �� vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) addition to supporting ontario’s bilingual language education program, members of ontario’s arab community also desire heritage language classes. the majority of participants would like their children to have access to arabic at school to maintain their l1 and this desire is further supported by the almost 87% who agree that their children’s use of arabic is decreasing. recommendations other than my general recommendation that there be further, more in-depth research into the language education desires of ontario’s arab community, i would like to put forth three other recommendations. firstly, there is a clear desire for improvement to the current esl support that the children of the arabic community are receiving. although the arabic community values french language education and arabic language education, the findings in this study reveal that the majority of these parents believe that english is the most important language for their children to learn in ontario’s public elementary schools. these schools, therefore, need to ensure that appropriately qualified esl teachers are providing sufficient support for all ells as per the criteria and recommendations outlined in the language learners, esl and eld programs and services (ontario ministry of education, 2007a). additionally, as 60% of the participants believe that their children should not be removed from french class to receive esl support, teachers need to respect the parents’ desire (delpit, 2006) for multilanguage learning and provide esl support in a different space in the schedule than the one already allotted to french class. secondly, as almost all participants agreed that their children should have access to learning arabic at school, such a strong notion needs to be seriously investigated. a desire for arabic language classes during the regular school day is also consistent with the wants expressed by the caf to the toronto district school board (canadian arab federation, february 4, 2008) and with the ontario ministry of education (canadian arab federation, august 2, 2007). it is my recommendation that the ontario ministry of education strongly consider offering heritage language classes as optional language classes in addition to fsl. detailed investigation into edmonton public schools in conjunction with the institute in innovation in second language education (edmonton public schools, 2009) could provide the ontario ministry of education with a framework and necessary foundation to build its own multilingual education programming. finally, before any new language education policies and programs are created and implemented, the ontario ministry of education must speak with and listen to the members of the arab community to fully ontario’s arab community shoukri �� vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) ontario’s arab community shoukri understand their desires. programming that does not meet the needs and desires of the parents will not be meaningful or effective for students (delpit, 2006). references baker, c. (2006). foundations of bilingual education and bilingualism (4th ed.). clevedon, england: multilingual matters. canadian arab federation. (1999). a profile of arabs in canada. retrieved from http://ceris.metropolis.net/virtual%20library/community/arab1/ arab1.html canadian arab federation. (august 2, 2007). educational priorities consultative meeting with minister wynne. unpublished manuscript. canadian arab federation. (february 4, 2008). educational priorities consultative meeting with john campbell, tdsb chair. unpublished manuscript. columbia encyclopedia, the. (2008). arabs. retrieved from http://www. encyclopedia.com/topic/arabs.aspx cummins, j. (1979). linguistic interdependence and the educational development of bilingual children. review of educational research, 49(2), 222-251. cummins, j. (1981). age on arrival and immigrant second language learning in canada. a reassessment. applied linguistics, 2, l32-l49. cummins, j. (2001). negotiating identities: education for empowerment in a diverse society. (2nd ed.). los angeles: california association for bilingual education. cummins, j. (april, 2005). diverse futures: rethinking the image of the child in canadian schools. joan pedersen distinguished lecture. the university of western ontario. delpit, l. (2006). other people’s children: cultural conflict in the classroom. new york: the new press. edmonton public schools. (2009). eps second language education. retrieved from http://languages.epsb.ca/en/about-the-institute encarta world english dictionary. (2009). heritage language. retrieved from http://au.encarta.msn.com/dictionary_1481581853/heritage_language.html government of canada. (1982). canadian charter of rights and freedoms. the constitution act. retrieved from http://laws.justice.gc.ca/en/const/annex_ e.html#i government of canada. (2003, march). the next act: new momentum for canada’s linguistic duality. the action plan for official languages in canada. retrieved from http://www.cpfnb.com/articles/actionplan_e.pdf king, k., & mackey, a. (2007). the bilingual edge. new york: harper collins. lambert, w. e. (1975). culture and language as factors in learning and education. in a. wolfgang (ed.). education of immigrant students (pp. 55-83). toronto: �� vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) oise press. lambert, w. e. & taylor, d. m. (winter, 1988). assimilation versus multiculturalism: the views of urban americans. sociological forum, 3(1), 72-88. mohan, e. (2007, march). challenging multiculturalism: is it right for everyone? journal of cases in educational leadership, 10(1), 7-13. office of the commissioner of official languages (canada). (2004). a look at bilingualism. retrieved from http://www.ocol-clo.gc.ca/docs/e/brochure_ e.pdf ontario ministry of education. (1998). the ontario curriculum: french as a second language: core french (grades 4-8). retrieved from www.edu.gov. on.ca ontario ministry of education. (2001a). the ontario curriculum: 1-8 english as a second language and english literacy development: a resource guide. retrieved from www.edu.gov.on.ca ontario ministry of education. (2001b). the ontario curriculum: french as a second language: extended french (grades 4-8), french immersion (grade 1-8). retrieved from www.edu.gov.on.ca ontario ministry of education. (2003). new funding for esl and literacy programs. retrieved from www.edu.gov.on.ca ontario ministry of education. (2005). many roots, many voices: supporting english language learners in every classroom. retrieved from www.edu.gov. on.ca ontario ministry of education. (2007a). english language learners, esl and eld programs and services: policies and procedures for ontario elementary and secondary schools, kindergarten to grade 12. retrieved from www.edu. gov.on.ca ontario ministry of education. (2007b). the ontario curriculum grades 9 to 12: english as a second language and english literacy development. retrieved from www.edu.gov.on.ca ontario ministry of education. (2008). supporting english language learners with limited prior schooling: a practical guide for ontario educators, grade 3 to 12. retrieved from www.edu.gov.on.ca rehorick, s. (april, 2004). plan twenty thirteen (2013) strategies for a national approach in second language education. retrieved from http://www.pch. gc.ca/pgm/lo-ol/pubs/plan_2013-eng.pdf safran, w. (1992). language, ideology, and state-building: a comparison of policies in france, israel, and the soviet union [electronic version]. international political science review, 13(4), 397-414. skutnabb-kangas, t. (1994). mother tongue maintenance: the debate. linguistic human rights and minority education. tesol quarterly, 28(3), 625-628. ontario’s arab community shoukri �� vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) ontario’s arab community shoukri skutnabb-kangas, t. (2000). linguistic genocide in education–or worldwide diversity and human rights? mahwah, nj: lawrence erlbaum. skutnabb-kangas, t. (2002). why should linguistic diversity be maintained and supported in europe? some arguments. strasbourg: council of europe. skutnabb-kangas, t. (october, 2008). non-mother-tongue-medium teaching for indigenous and minority children is an educational weapon of mass destruction. paper presented at the unesco executive board debate protecting indigenous and endangered languages and the role of languages in promoting efa in the context of sustainable development. paris. taylor, s. k. (2009). the caste system approach to multilingualism in canada: linguistic and cultural minority children in french immersion. in t. skutnabbkangas, r. phillipson, a. k. mohanty, & m. panda (eds.), social justice through multilingual education (pp. 177-198). clevedon, uk: multilingual matters. vandergrift, l. (2006). new canadian perspectives: proposal for a common framework of reference for languages for canada. retrieved from http:// www.pch.gc.ca/progs/lo-ol/pubs/new-nouvelles_perspectives/framework_ e.pdf wong fillmore, l. (1991). when learning a second language means losing the first. early childhood research quarterly 6(3), 323-346. yalden, m. (2007). official languages act (1969). retrieved from http://www. thecanadianencyclopedia.com/printerfriendly.cfm?params=a1arta 0005889 zakaluzny, r. (2003, march 21). new plan won’t lead to a bilingual country. retrieved from http://temagami.carleton.ca/jmc/cnews/21032003/ opinionprint.shtml the author *bobbie lynn r. shoukri has recently completed the master of education degree through the university of western ontario. having taught fsl in various ontario elementary public schools over the past 8 years, she has developed a passion for language policy and language rights. her experience at the university of western ontario has provided her with an incredible opportunity to research the language education desires of a large immigrant population—the arab community. it is her hope that this research be used as a foundation for further exploration into the language education needs, desires, and rights of minority groups. 276 teaching pronunciation: a course book and reference guide, 2nd edition, by marianne celce-murcia, donna m. brinton, and janet m. goodwin, with barry griner, cambridge university press 2010, 556 pp., us$ 100, isbn: 9-780521-729765 the teaching of pronunciation is frequently cited as one of the language skills that receives the least attention in the classroom. this lack of attention is ironic if we consider the fact that pronunciation is one of the most salient features of language, and that which contributes perhaps most strongly to speakers’ identities (pennington, 1996). nevertheless, pronunciation acquisition and instruction have gone relatively unnoticed in the paradigm shift from form-based to more communication-based teaching and towards learner-centered methodologies. this ambivalence towards pronunciation teaching and learning may stem from a number of reasons, perhaps related to the lack of updated resources for teachers, or also the fact that many english gist education and learning research journal. issn 1692-5777. no. 7, november 2013. pp. 276-279 taylor bo ok r ev ie w no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) 277 language teachers are non-native speakers of the language themselves and may feel insecure or uncomfortable assuming the role of a model of standard pronunciation (brown, 1991). further, the entire conception of language standards is in flux due to english’s global status as a lingua franca (celce-murcia, 2010; seidlhofer, 2008). no longer is it possible to consider one global standard for english such as received pronunciation or british english, or north american standard. in fact, there are many global standards or new english varieties today usually corresponding to geographical or geopolitical areas (pennington, 1996). regardless of what standard variety we use as reference point in our classrooms, building awareness of the phonological system of english can help our learners cope with an element of language that is essential in providing meaning on the levels of lexis, syntax and utterance (celce-murcia, 2010). still, a quick survey of some of the most common general efl textbooks today reveals that there continues to be little innovation in pronunciation instruction. in fact, almost all pronunciation practice continues to take the form of “listen and repeat” exercises. there seems to be little concern for the role of pronunciation in the context of real-life listening or speaking tasks in english. there is also little explicit attention given to developing strategies for using, identifying or applying phonological patterns within a broader communicative framework. this is lamentable, given the importance of pronunciation, especially when linked to speaker meaning at the level of prosody (gilbert, 2011). fortunately for teachers, an excellent, comprehensive textbook has been available for several years now, and has recently been released in its second edition. first published in 1996, the new 2010 edition of teaching pronunciation: a course book and reference guide provides a thorough treatment of phonology and pronunciation within the context of teaching english as an international language in today’s classroom. the book is perfect for english teachers who are non-native speakers, as it provides a solid grounding in all relevant aspects of the phonological system. each aspect is presented in the context of teaching english internationally, and includes important points to consider for speakers from many different languages. the material comes alive for teachers in a way that many typical phonetics reference books do not. frequent “notes to teachers” interspersed throughout the text help remind readers that they live in the real world with real students, for whom different aspects of pronunciation may present a challenge. one of the most attractive aspects of the text is the communicative framework for teaching pronunciation, which is presented in detail taylor no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) 278 and then applied in each chapter. this framework provides teachers with an extremely useful and accessible tool for planning short or long pronunciation lessons that move beyond “listen and repeat” to include discrimination and practice exercises, as well as ideas for communicative practice in order to implement the patterns in authentic situations. with some modifications, the framework is also suitable for young learners. each chapter includes several examples and suggestions for implementing specific stages of the framework. with a little practice, most teachers should be able to easily adopt this invaluable framework to their own classrooms. the second edition of the text has been updated to contemplate even more strongly the lingua franca status of english, and the emergence of new english varieties and standards around the world. the appendix has been expanded to include important elements such as digital resources and activity ideas like dramatic use of video clips and discussion cards. while the standard point of reference for the text is north american english, and the audio provided contains samples in this variety, the appendix does provide items on both pronunciation and spelling differences between north american and british english. an exciting addition to the second edition also includes an entirely new section that demonstrates how the sound system of english intersects with other areas of language, specifically listening, morphology and spelling. this section is extremely important for language teachers because it may enable them to feel more comfortable reinforcing pronunciation within the context of vocabulary or listening activities. whether to teach pronunciation, and which variety to teach is an important issue for teachers and learners of any language. in the case of english, learners’ enjoy access to a wide range of speech varieties and accents today that were previously unavailable. in addition, learners’ own speech continues to contribute to a large degree to how they are perceived as language users. now more than ever, it is relevant for teachers of english to understand the phonology of english and to raise students’ awareness of its importance. resources developed specifically for english language teachers in a global context can aid these efforts and may enable teachers and students to approach pronunciation instruction from the perspective of current language use in authentic contexts. teaching pronunciation taylor no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) 279 references brown, a. (1991). teaching pronunciation. london: routledge. celce-murcia, m., brinton, d. & goodwin, j. m. (2010). teaching pronunciation: a reference for teachers of english to speakers of other languages. (2nd ed.). cambridge: cambridge university press. gilbert, j. (2008). teaching pronunciation: using the prosody pyramid. new york: cambridge university press. pennington, m. c. (1996). phonology in english language teaching: an international approach. london: longman. seidlhofer, b. (2008). language variation and change: the case of english as a lingua franca. in dziubalska-kołaczyk k / przedlacka, j. (eds.). english pronunciation models: a changing scene (pp. 5974). bern: peter lang ag. josephine ann taylor institución universitaria colombo americana, colombia email: gisteditor@unica.edu.co teaching pronunciation taylor no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) gist1-2007.indd editorial cuando hace ya más de tres años la institución universitaria colombo americana unica – inició labores, tenía como propósitos rectores el de contribuir al mejoramiento cualitativo de la educación en colombia, y el de apoyar el bilingüismo como un mecanismo de fortalecimiento de la competitividad de nuestro país y su integración al mundo académico, al mundo cultural, al mundo tecnológico, al mundo global en el que afortunadamente vivimos hoy. ambos propósitos se han ido cumpliendo juiciosamente desde nuestras aulas. pero es claro que unas metas tan ambiciosos se logran de manera muy limitada si no se accede a otros escenarios, y no se busca llegar a más maestros e investigadores, a más escuelas y universidades, a más comunidades de aprendizaje y a más ciudades. por ello hoy presentamos orgullosamente a gist, publicación orientada a la investigación y la pedagogía en y para el bilingüismo. el término gist hace referencia “a lo fundamental, a lo esencial” y eso es lo que esperamos que represente nuestro aporte a la comunidad educativa desde esta revista. gist pretende ser el órgano a través del cual la comunidad académica exprese aquello qué es pertinente, relevante y qué hay que decir sobre innovación pedagógica, sobre formación de maestros, sobre bilingüismo y multiculturalismo. queremos ser un medio de diseminación del conocimiento que están generando los investigadores en nuestras universidades, ya sean lingüistas, educadores, sociólogos, antropólogos. incluso deseamos generar un espacio para que los futuros licenciados incursionen en forma rigurosa en el terreno del debate académico y presenten a la comunidad sus necesidades, sus hallazgos, sus contribuciones como sujetos del aprendizaje y como futuros líderes de procesos educativos. nuestra publicación es por definición, por esencia, bilingüe. y ello significa mucho más que el hecho de estar escrita en inglés y en español. en realidad quiere invocar un espíritu plural que genera 5 6 inteligencia entre dos culturas y permite que desde el sector educativo construyamos comunidad global, entendimiento entre pueblos, conocimiento innovador, ruptura de paradigmas, construcción de nuevas propuestas pedagógicas y debate intelectual. invitamos a aquellos que creen en la investigación como camino para la generación de nuevo saber, a aquellos que entienden el bilingüismo como una manera de trascender fronteras y a la educación como una oportunidad para buscar equidad y desarrollo social, a que encuentren en estas páginas un espacio para compartir sus ideas y para contribuir a la misión de hacer del futuro un lugar sin límites, fascinante, prometedor. maría lucía casas, m. ed rectora única institución universitaria colombo americana 190 21st century skills and the english foreign language classroom: a call for more awareness in colombia1 habilidades del siglo xxi y el aula de inglés como lengua extranjera: un llamado para generar mayor conciencia en colombia yamith josé fandiño2* universidad de la salle abstract the 21st century demands the explicit integration of learning strategies, digital competences and career abilities. schools in general and efl classrooms in particular should provide students with practices and processes focused on acquiring and developing, among other things, creativity, critical thinking, collaboration, self-direction, and cross-cultural skills. in this regard, the partnership for 21st century skills (2007) argues for the explicit integration of learning and innovation skills, information, media and digital literacy skills, and life and career skills. despite its relevance, a basic review of colombian scholarly publications suggests that little has been done in order to infuse the efl class with some of these ideas. consequently, this paper seeks to inform and motivate colombian efl teachers to incorporate meaningful and intellectually stimulating alternatives that allow students not just to learn english, but more importantly to understand complex perspectives, use multiple media and technologies, and work creatively with others. key words: 21st century skills, new literacies, technology, english language teaching, english as a foreign language. 1 received: october 23, 2013, 2012 / accepted: may 14, 2013 2 email: yfandino@unisalle.edu.co gist education and learning research journal. issn 1692-5777. no. 7, november 2013. pp. 190-208 fandiño re fle ct iv e ar tic le s no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) 191 resumen el siglo xxi exige la integración explícita de estrategias de aprendizaje, competencias digitales y habilidades profesionales. las escuelas en general y las aulas de inglés como lengua extranjera en particular deben proporcionar a los estudiantes prácticas y procesos centrados en la adquisición y el desarrollo de creatividad, pensamiento crítico, colaboración, auto-dirección, habilidades interculturales, entre otras cosas. en este sentido, la asociación para las habilidades del siglo xxi (2007) abogó por la integración explícita de habilidades de aprendizaje e innovación, habilidades de información, medios y tecnología y habilidades para la vida y la profesión. a pesar de su relevancia, una revisión básica de revistas académicas colombianas sugirió que poco se ha hecho para infundir algunas de estas ideas en la clase de inglés como lengua extranjera. en consecuencia, este artículo busca informar y motivar a los profesores de inglés colombianos para que incorporen alternativas significativas e intelectualmente estimulantes que les permitan a los estudiantes no solo aprender inglés sino particularmente comprender perspectivas complejas, hacer uso de múltiples medios y tecnologías y trabajar de forma creativa con los demás. palabras claves: habilidades del siglo xxi, nuevas alfabetizaciones, tecnología, enseñanza de la lengua inglesa, inglés como lengua extranjera. resumo o século xxi exige a integração explícita de estratégias de aprendizagem, competências digitais e habilidades profissionais. as escolas em geral e as aulas de inglês como língua estrangeira em particular devem proporcionar aos estudantes práticas e processos centrados na aquisição e o desenvolvimento de criatividade, pensamento crítico, colaboração, auto direção, habilidades interculturais, entre outras cosas. neste sentido, a associação para as habilidades do século xxi (2007) advogou pela integração explícita de habilidades de aprendizagem e inovação, habilidades de informação, meios e tecnologia e habilidades para a vida e a profissão. apesar da sua relevância, uma revisão básica de revistas acadêmicas colombianas sugeriu que pouco se fez para infundir algumas destas ideias na aula de inglês como língua estrangeira. em consequência, este artigo busca informar e motivar os professores colombianos de inglês para que incorporem alternativas significativas e intelectualmente estimulantes que lhes permitam aos estudantes não só aprender inglês senão particularmente compreender perspectivas complexas, fazer uso de múltiplos meios e tecnologias e trabalhar de forma criativa com os outros. palavras chave: habilidades do século xxi, novas alfabetizações, tecnologia, ensino da língua inglesa, inglês como língua estrangeira. fandiño no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) 192 there is a new argument taking centre stage. it is no longer the usual debate over standards and structures but instead a discussion about how young people best learn in the 21st century, and how we can make schools (and those who work in them) catalysts for vibrant engagement, not simply achievement. by looking at how young people choose to learn, what motivation and love of learning mean in the context of school, and how we can give more emphasis to student engagement and voice, there is an almost inevitable sharpening of focus upon what goes on in and out of the classroom (paul hamlyn foundation, 2008, p. 3). introduction undoubtedly, our world and our lives are increasingly globalized and digitized (brown, lauder & ashton, 2008). such globalization and digitization, explained varis (2007), have consequences and demands on people’s working and educational life. not only is there a growing awareness of the need for promoting the role of information and communication technology (ict) in different fields of the working life, but there is also rising concern over the effective use of educational approaches on how to become literate in today’s knowledge society. for varis (2007), governments and schools should focus on removing barriers to access and connectivity, supporting professional development, accelerating e-learning innovation, promoting digital literacy, and implementing lifelong learning. in a similar vein, lotherington and jenson (2011) state that globalization and digitization have reshaped the communication landscape, affecting how and with whom we communicate, and deeply altering the terrain of language and literacy education. on the other hand, english foreign language (efl) students tend to have varied backgrounds, a multiplicity of achievement levels, and diverse learning styles, which impact their ability to learn and use the foreign language (ananiadou & claro, 2009). at the same time, these learners are not simply interested in achieving a high command of the different language skills needed in social situations, they are also 21st century skills fandiño no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) 193 concerned with the acquisition of the formal academic skills demanded in university3. similarly, the languages and literatures department of st. john’s university (2013) states that in an increasingly interdependent world success depends greatly on the ability of individuals to function as successful members of a global village whose members speak a variety of languages. therefore, the efl classroom needs to move away from traditional methods focused on language mastery in order to start incorporating new approaches aimed at integrating content, culture, technology, and lifelong skills (taylor, 2009). it goes without saying that today’s efl classroom should be different from that of the mid-to-late twentieth century. shoffner, de oliveira and angus (2010) maintain that today’s english classroom requires an extended understanding and enactment of literacy. rather than an all-inclusive single literacy, english teachers must accept the changing and flexible nature of literacies that address areas as diverse as technology, multimedia, relationships and culture. these areas, in turn, require the english classroom to be a space capable of addressing the increasing multiplicity and integration of different modes of meaningmaking, where the textual relates to the visual, the audio, the spatial, and the behavioral. one possible way to answer to the new interests and demands of our learners and our society is the explicit, but critical work with what experts have called the 21st century skills. 21st century skills according to ledward and hirata (2011), 21st century skills are a blend of content knowledge, specific skills, expertise, and literacies necessary to succeed in work and life. ledward and hirata point out that these skills are more than technological literacy and include proficiency in critical thinking, problem solving, communication, and team work. ultimately, these skills allow people to thrive in the new economy since they help people a) access, synthesize, and communicate information; b) work collaboratively across differences to solve complex problems; and c) create new knowledge through the innovative use of multiple technologies. 21st century skills fandiño 3 in the context of bilingual education, cummins (2008) distinguished between the development of basic interpersonal communicative skills (bics) needed to acquire conversational fluency and the achievement of cognitive academic language proficiency (calp) necessary to use language in decontextualized intellectual situations. no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) 194 the partnership for 21st century skills (2007b) maintains that while today’s schools show the influence of industrial and information age models, the modern 21st century school must bring together rigorous content and real world relevance, by focusing on cognitive skills as well as those in affective and aesthetic domains. to help schools achieve such challenging goals, the partnership (2007a) have created a framework for 21st century learning, which consists of core subjects (english, reading, language arts, world languages, arts, mathematics, economics, science, geography, history, and government and civics) as well as interdisciplinary themes (global awareness, financial, economic, business, entrepreneurial literacy, civil literacy, health literacy, and environmental literacy). these subjects and themes center on three core skills: life and career skills, learning and innovation skills, and information, media, and technology skills. according to trilling and fadel (2009), each of the three core skills addresses particular areas people need to acquire and develop. life and career, for instance, describe the ability to be flexible, adaptable, selfdirected, socially aware, accountable and responsible. for their part, learning and innovation include the ability to be creative and innovative, critical, problem-solving, communicative and collaborative. finally, information, media and technology consist in the ability to access and use information, to create and analyze media products, and to apply technology effectively. once studied and incorporated into curriculum, instruction, and assessment, these skills can help schools and teachers set up learning environments capable of developing the essential abilities needed in the 21st century (lai & viering, 2012). in order to structure the analysis of 21st century skills, several conceptual models have been created. one of those models is the one proposed by the north central regional educational laboratory and the metiri group (lemke, 2002). lemke (2003) explains that this model provides a framework to define what students need to thrive in today’s digital age. the framework identifies four general skills through four dimensions: digital-age literacy, inventive thinking, effective communication and high productivity. the first dimension involves being able to use digital technology and communication tools to create, manage, and evaluate information in order to function in a knowledge society. inventive thinking has to do with people’s cognitive abilities to apply information technologies in complex and sustained situations and to understand the consequence of doing so. the third dimension includes the ability to clearly communicate with others either orally or in writing using a wide range of media and technology. finally, high productivity covers abilities to prioritize, plan and manage for relevant and high quality products and results. see table below. 21st century skills fandiño no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) 195 table 1. the engauge dimensions of 21st century learning digital age literacy inventive thinking basic, scientific and adaptability technological literacy managing complexity visual and information literacy and self-direction cultural literacy and global awareness curiosity, creativity and risk-taking higher-order thinking and sound reasoning effective communication high productivity teaming, collaboration and prioritizing, planning interpersonal skills and managing for results person, social and civic responsibility effective use of real-world tools interactive communication ability to produce relevant, high-quality products in 2010, cisco systems, intel corporation, and microsoft corporation sponsored the initiative “assessment and teaching of 21st century kkills (atc21s).” this initiative created a model that defined ten universally accepted 21st century skills into four broad categories of competencies. these skills, assert atc21s, can help schools and school systems to prepare students for success in the workplace and as global citizens. see table 2. table 2. overall conceptual 21st century skills model according to atc21s 21st century skills fandiño broad competencies universal skills ways of thinking creativity and innovation critical thinking, problem solving, decision making learning to learn, metacognition ways of working communication collaboration and teamwork tools for working information literacy research of sources, evidence, biases ict literacy living in the world local and global citizenship life and career personal and social responsibility cultural awareness and competence no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) 196 overall, frameworks for 21st century skills tend to be largely consistent with each other. they all agree on the fact that the abilities individuals should have for life, career, citizenship, and self-actualization in the 21st century are different from those needed in the 20th century. these differences have basically emerged from the changes in the ways we communicate, use technology, produce knowledge, and interact with others. these changes demand students, workers, citizens, and individuals equipped with a new set of competences that allows them to act, think, and network successfully. despite its significance, schools and teachers need to be cautious when redefining and transforming their practices and processes based on the 21st century skills movement. there are certain aspects of this movement that institutions and educators need to consider carefully. 21st century skills: some criticism undoubtedly, recent social and economic changes have had a great impact on education and learning. in this regard, wyn (2009) states that not only does the pace of change demand new skills to be learned more frequently, but also the amount of contemporary technology requires new interactions to be adopted both in personal life and work settings. to her, these new needs mean that individuals must be able to regularly develop varied abilities and take up unprecedented work options in order to survive. consequently, according to wyn, researchers, policymakers, teachers and other stakeholders need to reflect on the skills and attitudes that people need in order to participate effectively in work and society, and the role of schools and educators in nurturing those abilities and dispositions. at first sight, it seems reasonable to assume that education, teaching and learning need to be able to satisfy the needs and interests that people have as a result of new work and technological demands. however, there are aspects of such discourse that need to be carefully considered. in this regard, van dijk (2001) argues for the relevance of studying how power, domination and social order are imposed, reproduced, and controlled through discourse. to him, education tends to enact institutional and professional practices associated with power abuse and discursive reproduction; in particular, such abuse and reproduction are present when particular topics, actions and rules are standardized and formalized according to the interests and needs of a specific set of actors. in a similar vein, rogers (2004) claims that educators need to analyze discourse critically to be able to describe, interpret, and explain the current relationship among the economy, national policies, and educational practices. 21st century skills fandiño no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) 197 a critical analysis of the discourse of the 21st century skills movement reveals, among other things, certain predispositions or preconceptions towards particular epistemological, methodological and axiological perspectives. since a thorough analysis of such situations goes beyond the purpose of this paper, i briefly discuss some of the premises and emphases that are favored or promoted by 21st century skills discourse. to begin with, it appears that advocates of 21st century skills believe that knowing how to think critically and creatively are abilities specific to today’s society. in this regard, silva (2009) explains that it is misleading to assume that critical and creative thinking is unique to the 21st century since much of the same has been argued by philosophers and educators from ancient socrates to 20th-century john dewey. in a similar vein, mishra and kereluik (2011) declare that skills such as critical thinking, problem solving, and synthesis rather than being novel to the 21st century, have been abilities required one way or another for successful learning and achievement at different historical periods. on the other hand, the 21st century skills movement appears to believe that education should be rooted in skills-driven learning and hands-on experiences. to hirsch (2007), skills-driven learning ignores core knowledge through the erroneous belief that individuals should become experts in solving problems critically and creatively instead of burdening their heads with fixed facts. in contrast, hirsch argues that education should create a symbiotic relationship between core knowledge and skills because general-purpose knowledge helps transform all-purpose abilities into critical-thinking skills. similarly, ravitch (2009) maintains that educated people do not only learn from their own experiences, but from the knowledge of others. to her, a true practitioner of critical and creative thinking is able to understand the lessons of history, the adventures of literature, the inner logic of science and mathematics, and the meaning of philosophical debates by studying them. furthermore, the 21st century skills movement emphasizes the idea that educational systems need to develop students’ varied literacies as a result of pressing economic and technological reasons. the economic rationale is that supply and demand in a global marketplace intensifies competition for workers who can be more competitive if they are able to apply complex thinking and communication skills to new problems and environments. for its part, the technological justification is that people must have access to knowledge and the ability to use it in order to participate, take advantage of and be creative in the new technological environment. due to their importance, advocates of the 21st century skills fandiño no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) 198 21st century skills highlight the role of economy and technology in education reform. some concerns need to be raised about the previous emphases on economy and technology. first of all, the purposes of education go beyond preparing people for participation in the economic and working life. in a study conducted in 1999, schofield affirmed that education should primarily help people belong to their societies successfully. to her, such successful belonging involves knowing how to exercise active citizenship that involves the development of free, active and equal individuals with the capacity to choose their identities, entitlements and duties. in a similar vein, seymour (2004) claims that education should first and foremost help people think and live in ways conducive to the emergence of an integral, deeper, and more inclusive mind. concretely, he believes that education should focus on helping us understand who we are since this aspect is more important than what we can know or do. in addition, education reform requires ethically-centered and futureoriented deliberation and action. kurth-schai and green (2009) affirm that reforms in education cannot simply consist of implementing new political and pedagogical practices. not only that, such reforms need to be composed through collaborative discourse aimed at providing access for all citizens to common literacies. besides, these reforms need to focus on promoting social justice, equity and change, and encouraging full development and integration of mind, heart, body, and spirit. undoubtedly, the 21st century has brought about changes in the way people live and learn. the partnership for 21st century skills and the assessment and teaching of 21st century skills are examples of how certain organizations and research projects have tried to identify common skills, standards, and models. despite its relevance, the 21st century skills movement needs to be analyzed and criticized. some of its premises and emphases convey values and interests that may bring about disparities and inconsistencies. however, it is worthwhile exploring how some of its basic tenets can also help improve and transform the teaching and learning of english as a foreign language. nevertheless, a basic review of articles published in three colombian foreign language journals show that this topic has not been approached or discussed directly (see table 3 below). it is, then, important that the colombian efl community asks itself some key questions: how should the 21st century movement impact the efl field? how can the discourse about 21st century skills be considered in efl classrooms? how can skills dealing with life and career skills, learning, innovation, and media and technology be implemented in efl classes? in the following sections of this paper, i offer some basic guiding principles 21st century skills fandiño no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) 199 that can help colombian efl practitioners to address and integrate the 21st century skills discourse and movement into their everyday practices and processes. table 3. basic classification of articles published in three colombian foreign language journals (20072012) research topics profile íkala gist u. nacional universidad de unica de colombia antioquia language (skills and components) 20 5 5 fl learning/learner 5 5 2 fl teaching/teacher 24 16 6 fl methods, approaches, strategies 18 4 8 fl syllabus and materials 3 1 2 fl classroom/class 5 1 call and technology 15 3 2 lingustics 2 28 3 literature 2 1 translation 25 1 evaluation/ assessment 5 4 1 bilingualism 2 3 12 culture 6 4 2 educational policies 12 9 5 the efl classroom in the 21st century before discussing the relationship between the 21st century skills and efl learning and teaching, i want to start by briefly characterizing the efl context today. rogers (2000) stated that the 20th century saw an immense amount of activity in language teaching methods and approaches. one of the most well-known methods was and still is communicative language teaching (clt). with its emphasis on communicative competence, learner-centeredness and interaction, 21st century skills fandiño no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) 200 not only has clt influenced syllabus design and methodology; it has also paved the way for new methodologies such as contentbased instruction (cbi), task-based instruction (tbi) and content and language integrated learning (clil) (richards, 2006). however, some authors believe that methods are expert-constructed prescriptions for practice which have both pedagogic limitations as well as insidious sociocultural and political agendas (allright & bailey, 1991; stern, 1992). in this light, kumaravadivelu (1994) identifies what he calls the ‘postmethod condition,’ where teachers must be capable of adapting their own approach in accordance with local, contextual factors, while at the same time being guided by a number of macrostrategies4 . these macrostrategies, explains kumaravadivelu (2004), are broad guidelines that teachers use to generate their own situation-specific classroom techniques and, ultimately, to construct their own theory of practice. on the other hand, english cannot be treated as a simple linguistic code or, even, as a set of competences. instead, english should be regarded as a global language that people can use to express their local identities and to communicate intelligibly with the world (crystal, 2006). as a consequence of this new perspective, eaton (2010) states that today’s efl classroom should no longer be focused on grammar, memorization and learning from rote. rather, it should be conceived of as a space to learn to use language and cultural knowledge as a means to connect to others around the globe. as a result, argues eaton, there is a case for a reconceptualized field that is more learnercentered, collaborative and technologically driven. as part of that reconceptualization of the efl classroom, teachers can resort to new and innovating frameworks and approaches. i strongly believe that one area that efl teachers could and should explore is that of 21st century skills. but, one question needs to be addressed: how can these skills be incorporated into the efl classroom? 21st century skills and the efl classroom when reflecting about what students really need to be learning today, armstrong and warlick (2004) assert that an increasingly digital and networked world requires students to be able to demonstrate knowledge, employ information and express ideas compellingly. 4 kumaravadivelu talked about 10 macrostrategies. among those strategies, different authors (alemi & daftarifard, 2010; can, 2009) have emphasized four: maximizing learning opportunities, activating self-discovery, ensuring social relevance, and raising cultural awareness. 21st century skills fandiño no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) 201 students need to become not only literate, but also able to use that literacy within their personal information environment in order to succeed now and in the future. the use of that literacy, maintain armstrong and warlick, involves, among other things, being able to read deeply for meaning in multimedia content, handle appropriate software tools to process information, use practical and technical skills to communicate knowledge with multimedia, and know the ethical use of the information highway. in 2001, warschauer asked a very interesting question, one that is still valid today: what is the role of language teaching in the information technology society? to him, the answer to this question provides english language teaching with new teaching purposes. to begin with, english language educators need to develop activities that engage learners in the kind of authentic tasks and problemsolving activities that they will actually need in the future. warschauer suggested that such engagement can be achieved by having students carry out complex project work involving negotiation, collaboration, goal-setting, meaningful communication, and the development of challenging products (p. 55). as a result, students need to learn to develop a whole new range of english language literacies, which involve emerging forms of communication, reading, and writing using online technologies. concretely, warschauer affirmed that english teachers need to use learner-centered collaborative projects, in which students work together with their classmates and with other around the world, using a variety of technological means. following the proposal of the new london group (1996), he suggested incorporating four basic elements in those projects. see table below. table 4. suggested elements for learner-centered collaborative projects 21st century skills fandiño immersion in situated practice practice in authentic communication situations similar to those learners will encounter out of class. overt instruction opportunities to explicitly analyze the content, coherence, organization and pragmatics of communication. critical framing effective use of information found in online networks through critical interpretation of cross-cultural communication. transformed practice working for a higher-quality outcome, or applying what has been learned in new social and cultural contexts. no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) 202 for their part, chang and tung (2009) contend that efl students should not be asked to work alone on assignments emphasizing shortterm content memorization, nor should they do assignments which focus on translation or allow sloppily put-together pieces of model phrases and sentences from the textbook. instead, they suggest using project-based learning (pbl) to help students analyze problems, investigate possible solutions, make decisions, create designs, and solve problems. on the one hand, pbl encourages students to work relatively autonomously over extended periods of time to come up with realistic products or presentations in the end. on the other hand, instructors act as facilitators, who do not directly provide students with correct answers but rather guide them in the learning process and offer feedback. pbl seems, then, to be a valid alternative for incorporating 21st century skills into the teaching of english. additionally, black (2009) states that english language learners need activities based on new technological tools and semiotic forms that can offer them opportunities for the development of both standard language proficiency and digital literacy and 21st skills. she believes that multimodal practices such as instant messaging, social networks, digital storytelling and media redesigning should be used to teach and learn english so that students can engage in creative manipulation of popular cultural and textual artifacts. by doing so, she argues, students cannot only represent themselves, but also communicate in online spaces by mixing text, image and sound. after reading this section, some colleagues and researchers may wonder if this is not “more of the same.” undoubtedly, the efl literature has provided us with a reasonable number of texts on negotiation, collaboration, projects, technology, and multimodality. then, what new alternatives can the 21st century skills movement propose to the colombian efl community? in the next and final section, i attempt to provide a preliminary answer. how to incorporate 21st century skills into the efl classroom in order to infuse the efl classroom with 21st century skills, i believe teachers and students can work with both or either multiliteracy and multimodal communicative competence. according to dupuy (2011), multiliteracy expands the traditional language-based notion of literacy – the ability to read and write – to include not only the ability to produce and interpret texts, but also a critical awareness of the relationships between texts, discourse conventions, and social and cultural contexts. such ability, asserted dupuy, prepares learners to participate in diverse discourse communities and fosters the critical 21st century skills fandiño no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) 203 engagement they need to design their social futures. in this regard, elsner (2011) maintains that language learners today need to be able to cope with different kinds of texts, including interactive, linear and nonlinear texts, texts with several possible meanings, texts being delivered on paper, screens, or live, and texts that comprise one or more semiotic systems. however, haut (2010) points out that efl teachers should not only incorporate different types of texts, modes of language and discourses, they should also give explicit instruction detailing the inherent conventions so that students can learn to move between discourses and become both aware and critical of the intrinsic features that are portrayed. on the other hand, royce (2007) states that, given the changes in communication modes and conventions in recent years, efl classrooms need to be increasingly concerned with developing students’ multimodal communicative competence. to him, teachers should begin to focus on and develop students’ abilities in visual literacy, and to develop a pedagogical metalanguage to facilitate these abilities when images co-occur with spoken and written modes. in this line of thought, heberle (2010) defines multimodal communicative competence as the knowledge and use of language concerning the visual, gestural, audio and spatial dimensions of communication, including computermediated-communication. to her, the familiarization of efl learners with different kinds of multimodal texts and semiotic meanings can help them be better prepared for different literacy practices in their professional and sociocultural experiences with native and non-native speakers of english. concretely, she suggests using task-based or content-based instruction with interpretive analysis and discussions of images in order to make efl learners approach images as sociocultural constructions and, ultimately, to expand their skills in learning english. conclusion the 21st century demands the explicit integration of learning and innovation skills, information, media and digital literacy skills, as well as life and career skills. consequently, schools in general and efl classrooms in particular should provide students with practices and processes focused on acquiring and developing, among other things, creativity, critical thinking, collaboration, media literacy, initiative and self-direction, and social and cross-cultural skills. ultimately, efl classrooms need to be filled with meaningful and intellectually stimulating activities, practices, and processes that allow students to not just articulate thoughts and ideas effectively using oral, written and 21st century skills fandiño no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) 204 nonverbal communication, but to also understand complex perspectives, use multiple media and technologies, make judgments and decisions, and work creatively with others. as a result, teachers need to analyze critically what the 21st century movement offers in order to enrich their pedagogical processes and instructional practices. additionally, this analysis can inspire them to innovate in order to provide their students with opportunities to develop the literacies needed in today’s world. ultimately, not only can such innovation keep the education service flexible, responsive, and self-renewing, but it can also promote a sense of well-being in the teaching profession (hamilton, 1996). references alemi, m., & daftarifard, p. 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(2004). educating for humanity: rethinking the purposes of education. in m. seymour (ed.), educating for humanity: rethinking the purposes of education (pp. 1-10). boulder, co: paradigm publishers. shoffner, m., de oliveira, l., & angus, r. (2010). multiliteracies in the secondary english classroom: becoming literate in the 21st century. english teaching: practice and critique, 9(1), 75-89. silva, e. (2009). measuring skills for 21st-century learning. phi delta kappan, 90(09), 630-634. stern, h. h. (1992). issues and options in language teaching. oxford: oxford university press. 21st century skills fandiño no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) 208 taylor, f. (2009). authentic internet in the efl class. modern english teacher, 18(1), 5-9. the languages and literatures department (2013). why learn a foreign language. usa: st. john’s university. retrieved from http://www. stjohns.edu/academics/graduate/liberalarts/departments/languages/ why.stj trilling, b., & fadel, c. (2009). 21st century skills: learning for life in our times. san francisco, ca: jossey-bass. van dijk, t. (2001). critical discourse analysis. in d. tannen, d. schiffrin & h. hamilton (eds.), handbook of discourse analysis (pp. 352-371). oxford: blackwell. varis, t. (2007). new technologies and innovation in higher education and regional development. revista de universidad y sociedad del conocimiento, 4(11), 16-24. retrieved from http://www.uoc.edu/ rusc/4/2/dt/eng/varis.pdf warschauer, m. (2001). millennialism and media: language, literacy, and technology in the 21st century. in d. graddol (ed.), applied linguistics for the 21st century (pp. 49-59). milton keynes, uk: aila. wyn, j. (2009). touching the future: building skills for life and work. camberwell, victoria: acer press. author *yamith josé fandiño holds a ba in english philology from the national university of colombia and an ma in teaching from la salle university. he has taught efl to young and adult learners. he currently works at the school of education sciences at la salle university as a full time teacher-researcher. his research interests range from efl teacher education and professional development to foreign language learning and teaching. he has published papers in areas such as action research, language learning strategies, ict, and pre-service and in-service teacher education. 21st century skills no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) 71 teaching the students and not the book: addressing the problem of culture teaching in efl in argentina1 maría carolina moirano2* universidad nacional de la plata abstract the aim of this study was to discover teachers’ attitudes towards culture in the efl classroom in three different institutions in la plata, argentina. in order to do this, eleven efl teachers who were using three different efl textbooks (world english 3, laser b1+, and upstream b2+) were interviewed using a semi-structured questionnaire. also, with the aim of determining to what extent these textbooks reflect “the global coursebook” and whether they address argentine students’ cultural needs, a content analysis using an a priori approach was carried out. the results showed that these textbooks tend to deal with and to avoid the same topics and that they are not identity enhancers for local students. as for teachers’ attitudes towards culture teaching, the results also indicate that teachers hardly notice this problem and do very little to remedy it. keywords: global coursebook, evaluating coursebooks, multicultural education, cultural identity, parsnips, textbooks sanitization. resumen el objetivo de este estudio fue descubrir las actitudes de los profesores de tres instituciones de la plata, argentina con respecto a la enseñanza de cultura en la clase de inglés como lengua extranjera. para llevar a cabo tal propósito, once profesores que estaban usando tres libros de texto diferentes (world english 3, laser b1+, y upstream b2+) fueron entrevistados usando un cuestionario semiestructurado. además, se realizó un análisis de contenido para determinar hasta qué punto estos libros reflejan el fenómeno del “libro global” y si tienen en cuenta las necesidades culturales de los estudiantes argentinos. los resultados 1 received: august 1st, 2012 / accepted: august 15th, 2012 2 email: carolinamoirano@gmail.co gist education and learning research journal. issn 1692-5777. no. 6, november 2012. pp. 71-96 no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) 72 mostraron que estos libros tienden a tratar y evitar los mismos temas y que no ayudan a reforzar la identidad de los alumnos en cuestión. finalmente, los resultados indican que los profesores difícilmente notan este problema y hacen muy poco para solucionarlo. palabras claves: libro de texto global, evaluación de libros de texto, educación multicultural, identidad cultural, parsnips, saneamiento del libro de texto. resumo o objetivo deste estudo foi descobrir as atitudes dos professores de três instituições de la plata, argentina com relação ao ensino de cultura na classe de inglês como língua estrangeira. para realizar tal propósito, onze professores que estavam usando três livros de texto diferentes (world english 3, laser b1+, e upstream b2+) foram entrevistados usando um questionário semiestruturado. além do mais, realizou-se uma análise de conteúdo para determinar até que ponto estes livros refletem o fenômeno do “livro global” e se tiverem em conta as necessidades culturais dos estudantes argentinos. os resultados mostraram que estes livres tendem a tratar e evitar os mesmos temas e que não ajudam a reforçar a identidade dos alunos em questão. finalmente, os resultados indicam que os professores dificilmente notam este problema e faz muito pouco para solucioná-lo. palavras chaves: livro de texto global, avaliação de livros de texto, educação multicultural, identidade cultural, parsnips, saneamento do libro de texto. the present work is a summary of the thesis for a master’s degree in english language from universidad de belgrano, buenos aires, argentina. it focuses on the teaching of culture in the foreign language classroom and attempts to show the importance of including culture, both source and international, in foreign language education. my interest in this topic arose out of my own personal observation that the english textbooks i was using in the different institutions where i work include very little information about international culture, not to mention the local culture. i observed that, most frequently, textbooks deal with the british culture and occasionally the american culture, teaching the students and not the book moirano no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) 73 but place little emphasis on other countries’ cultures or on involving students’ culture in the discussions. acculturation agents such as schools and teaching institutions should pay special attention to the issue of not leaving culture aside when teaching language. acculturation is closely linked to identity development. identity typically refers to an awareness of one’s culture. as there is no nation without an identity, we argentines should start by teaching our students about their own culture; only then will we be part of a united nation, a nation with an identity of its own. also, cultural diversity should be taken into account in order to raise awareness of differences and to teach students to be tolerant of these differences. there is a real need to avoid problems among students in multicultural regions where argentine students share a classroom with students from border countries such as bolivia and peru. argentina receives families from border countries who come to work and send their children to state schools. at school they have to share a classroom with argentine students and problems derived from cultural differences arise. these problems could be avoided if intercultural matters were dealt with. english, being an international language, is necessary for all students, not necessarily now, but in their future working lives. if the english class could be used as an excuse to learn about different countries’ cultures, including the argentine, peruvian and bolivian ones, many of the problems mentioned could be solved. textbooks are an integral part of language learning in the classroom. as sheldon (1988) has suggested, they “represent the visible heart of any elt programme” (p.237). however, a number of researchers such as porecca (1984), florent and walter (1989) and clarke and clarke (1990) have demonstrated that many efl/esl textbooks are socially and culturally biased. the question to be asked here is: what kind of cultural elements are introduced into elt instructional materials? do our teachers notice this? do they do anything to incorporate the teaching of cultures not mentioned in these books? do teachers teach about local culture? this, together with the issue of global coursebooks with prescribed topics sanitized for commercial purposes represent the main focus of the present research article. literature review the works of nelson brooks (1968) persuaded efl teachers to recognize that the study of culture goes beyond the artistic expression and should focus on the personal side of culture, “the distinctive life-way of a people” (brooks, 1968). there are now two widely accepted types teaching the students and not the book moirano no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) 74 of culture learning. the first type is that referred to in current literature as ‘high-brow’ culture with a capital ‘c’, which involves the study of literature, art, history, music, etc. the other type emphasizes informal and often hidden patterns of human interactions and viewpoints, referred to as little/small-c culture (alatis, straehle, gallenberger, ronkin 1996:148). it is this last type that can be introduced to students at all levels of language learning. as language and culture are inseparable, it is absolutely necessary to include culture in the language teaching process. in her book context and culture in language teaching, kramsch (1993) states that cultural awareness and the learning of a second culture helps the acquisition of a second language. also, understanding the relationship between culture and language is important for understanding and becoming proficient in the process of intercultural communication (matsumo, 2003). according to snow (2001), every time students use their english for genuine communicative purposes, they virtually always include an intercultural communication component. intercultural communication skills prepare students for interaction with foreigners from a broad range of nations and cultural background. research done by dunnett et al. (1998) shows that intercultural understanding offers three benefits: it eliminates cultural imperialism, it raises students’ cultural awareness, and it solves some of the dilemmas of intercultural classrooms, for example, possible loss of cultural identity. intercultural understanding, then, helps students to stabilize their self identity while comparing their culture to that of others. english becoming an international language has resulted in positive and negative reactions and interactions between global and local forces with its logical linguistic, ideological, sociocultural, political and pedagogical consequences. for some individuals and communities, english has meant marginalization and hegemony; for some others, it has meant empowerment and upward mobility. the concept of english as an international language, does not refer to any particular variety of english; on the contrary, the concept emphasizes that english is a language of international and, as a consequence, intercultural communication. over the last two decades, particularly since the publication of robert phillipson’s 1992 linguistic imperialism, there has been a steady flow of books and articles with a critical stance towards the growth of english as the world’s most widespread and dominant language. phillipson sees english as the language of world capitalism and world domination. he defines english linguistic imperialism as the teaching the students and not the book moirano no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) 75 dominance asserted and retained by the establishment and continuous reconstitution of structural and cultural inequalities between english and other languages. his theory critiques the historic spread of english as an international language and the continued dominance of that language. one of the areas of elt that has significant implications for teaching and learning is language testing. when eil emerged as a paradigm, a number of scholars have questioned the validity of traditional approaches to english language testing. these tests, and the textbooks used to study for these tests, measure proficiency against the so-called ‘native-speaker’ norm on the assumption that l2 speakers would use english only to communicate with native speakers (e.g. brown, 2004; jenkins, 2006b), which goes against reality. if we continue importing ideologies and content from english speaking countries in the west, efforts to teach english as an international language will be in vain. in order to promote english for international communication, assessment practices must also be linked to cultural and contextual realities. cross-culture interactional competence is increasingly important in societies where neighbours, co-workers, and colleagues are likely to come from different linguistic and cultural backgrounds. to ignore cross-cultural pragmatics will only lead to prejudice, stereotyping, and alienation. only when english is used to express and advocate local culture and values will it truly represent an international language (smith, 1976).this is why it is important to evaluate the kind of textbook we are using, the kind of culture teaching it provides, the messages it passes, and it is also very important not to lose focus: if we want to learn about other cultures we first need to know about our own culture. elt publishing is a growing and highly competitive industry. at present, some publishers still provide lists of proscribed topics, while others rely informally on the acronym parsnips (politics, alcohol, religion, sex, nudity, israel, pork and smoking (helgesen, 2005). these are based on customers’ perceived sensitivities. foreign buyers may reject materials that they see as culturally offensive. consequently, coursebooks begin to look very much alike, the target culture(s) may be altered, and content can become uninteresting. the “one-size-fits-all” philosophy underlying the global coursebook means that safe topics recur again and again, resulting in coursebooks which are sanitized for commercial purposes (gray, 2002). teaching the students and not the book moirano no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) 76 research design research questions 1. to what extent do world english 3, laser b1+ and upstream b2+ reflect the phenomenon of “the global coursebook”? 2. do these textbooks help argentine students reinforce their own cultural identity? 3. do teachers who use these textbooks compensate for the lack of local elements? how? setting the institutions chosen to carry out the interviews were three: escuela de lenguas (universidad nacional de la plata), instituto cultural argentino británico (icab) and colegio nacional rafael hernández (universidad nacional de la plata). escuela de lenguas is a school of languages. the languages taught there are english, french, german and portuguese. it is part of universidad nacional de la plata, which means that all its teachers are graduates from this university, and therefore, share the same teaching methodologies. classes are of a size of about 10 students each. students come from a similar socio-economic background. they belong to upper/middle-class families. in general, they attend private schools and practice sports and take english classes as extracurricular activities outside school. instituto cultural argentino británico (icab) is an english language school. it is a representative institution in la plata because it was the first english school funded and the only examination centre for cambridge international tests in this city. it shares most characteristics with escuela de lenguas. colegio nacional rafael hernández is a secondary school which is part of universidad nacional de la plata. it is a state school, which means that students belong to all socio-economic backgrounds. as it is a famous school for its good reputation, families who could afford a private school still choose to send their children to this one. being part of universidad nacional de la plata, this school prepares students for university life, training them on how to become independent learners. its teachers are also graduates from unlp. this is the only state school in the city –together with two other secondary schools from unlpin which students acquire an upper-intermediate level of english. teaching the students and not the book moirano no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) 77 these three institutions were chosen for a number of reasons. on the one hand, as my subject of study is culture in textbooks, the best option was to choose intermediate/upper-intermediate levels. these are levels that allow for a better exploitation of the topic, given that students are already prepared to understand texts with almost any level of difficulty. public schools do not reach this level of the language, so i was forced to choose private institutions, such as the language schools i mentioned. on the other hand, however, these institutions are not very representative of all sectors of society because all their students belong to the same socio/economic class. this is why i decided to choose colegio nacional, the only state school in the city which reaches this level of english and also has a population of students which belongs to all social strata. textbooks the selection of the textbooks depended on the textbooks of intermediate/upper-intermediate levels that these three institutions were using. therefore, the choice of the institutions defined the textbooks i would be working with. participants in order to choose the participants in my study, i contacted the coordinator of each institution and asked them to let the teachers know i would be contacting them. i also asked them to provide me with the name of one of the teachers who was using each textbook. when a teacher agreed to be interviewed and we had already met, i asked that teacher to provide me with the name of another teacher who was using the same book. i continued with this snowball sampling technique until i could find no more teachers who were using the same textbook in the same institution. the result was 11 interviews: 3 at colegio nacional, 4 at icab and 4 at escuela de lenguas. these 11 teachers were all middle-class women ranging between 28 and 60 years old who obtained their degree from universidad nacional de la plata. it is worth mentioning here that contacting teachers and persuading them to participate in the study was not an easy task. many times a second or even third email had to be sent because no answer was received. i assume this must be due to time constraints. this is the reason why the coordinator was contacted first -for them to encourage teachers to participate. teaching the students and not the book moirano no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) 78 data collection textbooks content the basic method chosen was to analyze the textbooks using an a priori approach. first, i explored some concepts connected to culture and culture teaching from different authors; and then i analysed the coursebooks. such concepts helped me to see what kind of cultural information the books contain. some of the concepts used to design the instrument for analysis were: the definition of culture described by authors like matsumo (2003), lado (1986), chastain (1988), brown (2001) kroeber and kluckhohn (1952), tylor (1929) and brooks (1968); the distinction made by brooks (1968) between culture and culture, kramsch’s ( 1993) view of culture, the need for conceptual bridges between the cultural familiar and the unfamiliar described by alptekin and alptekin (1984), mackay’s (2004) questioning of the appropriateness of the native speaker model, lantof’s (2000), holliday’s (1994) and kramsch & sullivan’s (1996) idea of respecting and building on local values and beliefs to strengthen students’ identity, cortazzi & jin’s (1999) categorization of textbooks according to their cultural orientation, gray’s (2002) distinction between the local and the global coursebook, and finally helgesen’s (2005) definition of the concept of parsnip. the following are the questions i used to analyse the cultural content of the textbooks: 1. does the textbook present any exclusive section for culture? 2. does the textbook teach about any of the following “c” culture items: literature, art, history, music, geography, science, sport, institutions? if so, which item and from which country? 3. does the textbook teach about any of the following “c” culture items: beliefs, values, norms, habits, attitudes, rituals, ceremonies? if so, which item and from which country? 4. is the textbook culturally oriented towards the source culture, the target culture or international cultures? how can you tell? 5. do listening passages present a variety of accents? are these all native speakers’ accents? 6. does the textbook help to build conceptual bridges between the cultural familiar and the unfamiliar? if so, how? 7. does the workbook present activities connected to cultural issues or does it just expand on activities connected to the four basic skills presented in the student’s book? teaching the students and not the book moirano no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) 79 8. does the teacher’s book suggest activities to include/compensate for the lack of the local? 9. does the textbook bring any kind of complementary materials such as video dvds? if so, do these materials deal with cultural matters? target, international, or local? 10. are any of the following topics dealt with: politics, alcohol, religion, sex, nudity, israel, pork, smoking (parsnips)? interviews after the analysis of the textbooks, i compared the findings with those from semi-structured interviews with teachers who were using these textbooks. the questionnaire was intended to evaluate whether teachers are aware of the issue of culture teaching. the questions did not mention culture explicitly until the last one so as to obtain more honest answers and not give away the real purpose of the interview. the questions teachers were asked were open-questions connected to their likes and dislikes as regards the textbook they were using, their students’ likes and dislikes, supplementary materials that they used and the reasons for using them, the appropriateness of the topics dealt with in the textbook and their idea of the concept of “cultural competence” together with its application in class. (see appendix a). the kind of interview selected was a semi-structured one (bogdan and bikten, 1992, p.270). this kind of interview allows researchers to capture the specificity of the situation. whereas a structured interview has a limited set of questions, a semi-structured interview allows new questions, called follow-up questions, to be brought up during the interview as a result of what the interviewee says. open-ended questions invite an honest, personal comment from the respondents; it can catch the authenticity, richness, depth of response, honesty and candour which are the hallmarks of qualitative data. a funnelling process was also chosen. this is a process in which the interviewer moves from the general to the specific, asking questions about the general context or issues first and then moving towards specific points. a filter was used to include and exclude certain respondents; to decide if certain questions were relevant or irrelevant. the question format followed an indirect approach; the interviewer asked about a different thing and then made inferences. by making the purpose of the questions less obvious, the indirect approach is more likely to produce frank and open responses. this is also the reason why the questions in the interview were designed in spanish; to avoid making the interviewee feel that their english teaching the students and not the book moirano no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) 80 performance was being evaluated. the interview questions were piloted before carrying out the actual interview with the following objectives in mind: to check the clarity of the questions, to gain feedback on the validity of the interviews, to eliminate ambiguities in wording, to check the approximate time taken on each interview. data analysis and interpretation textbooks table 1. english textbooks upstream b2+ laser b1+ world english 3 systematic section on culture 4 x x c culture topics 4 4 4 c culture topics 4 4 4 cultural orientation target international international & source listening passages british british american (ss’ book) variety (video clips) conceptual bridges 4 only 4 personalization culture in workbook x x 4 (in reading comprehension sections) culture in teacher’s book x x 4 (in “expansion activities”) culture in complementary 4 materials x x ( in dvd) parsnips x x x the chart above reveals that only one of the textbooks, upstream b2+, presents a systematic section on culture, but such section is always about an aspect of either the british or the american cultures only; and it appears every other unit, not in all units. as regards topics connected to “c” culture, the three books deal with a variety of topics. history is dealt with in the three books, and teaching the students and not the book moirano no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) 81 then other topics present are science, inventions, sports, education systems, art and literature. what is worth mentioning is that upstream b2+ deals mainly with literature topics, all of them connected to british or american writers. laser b1+ and world english 3 are more neutral in connection to that. as for “c” cultural topics, the three books present a variety of topics; but only upstream b2+ places a marked emphasis on topics connected to the british culture. some such topics are: public phones in the uk, fengshui in the uk, british jobs and unusual houses in britain. in connection with the cultural orientation, it could be said that laser b1+ is internationally oriented; its topics seem to be mostly neutral, not attached to any particular country or culture. upstream b2+ is clearly oriented towards the target culture. most topics deal with the british culture or, on rare occasions, with the american culture. and world english 3 is clearly internationally oriented but with an emphasis on the source culture. the textbook is always suggesting activities in which students have to talk or investigate about their own culture. the speakers in listening passages in laser b1+ and upstream b2+ are native british speakers, and in world english 3 they are native american. however, the videos of this last book present non-native speakers, such as moroccan or peruvian people speaking english, of course with their own accent. as regards conceptual bridges between the familiar and the unfamiliar, the chart shows that laser b1+ does not help to build such bridges, in fact, it only personalizes topics to involve students in the topic. students just have to talk about the topic under discussion in connection to themselves, their town or their country. in the case of both upstream b2+ and world english 3, the treatment is different. they go beyond the general “personalization” kind of exercise and ask students to investigate more specific aspects of culture. in connection with the activities of the workbook, both laser b1+ and upstream b2+ only expand on the same kind of activities and topics as in the student’s book, they do not add any cultural content. however, in world english 3, usually while doing a reading comprehension activity, students read about something else connected to culture. as for the teacher’s books, laser b1+ has got a section called “additional task” which suggests teachers the kind of “personalization” activity mentioned before, but it does not go into detail in connection with the source culture. upstream b2+ teacher’s book just explains how to go about the exercises in the student’s book, but it does not suggest teaching the students and not the book moirano no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) 82 any kind of extra activity; and world english 3 teacher’s book has got a section named “expansion activity” which does advice teachers on how to focus on the source culture as well as the international culture. with regard to complementary materials, laser b1+ brings a cd rom with extra vocabulary, grammar and use of english sections, none of them dealing with cultural matters. upstream b2+ does not bring any complementary materials; and world english 3 brings a dvd with short videos, some of which deal with international cultural matters. finally, none of the books deal with or even mention topics connected to parsnips. world english 3 seems to be the most internationally oriented in connection to culture. it also seems to focus more on “c” culture topics than on “c” culture topics. precisely, it is in the “c” culture topics that one can gain a better appreciation of how much emphasis is placed upon cultural matters associated with a variety of countries and cultures. also, this textbook is apparently the one that pays the most attention to including the source culture (that is, the learners’ culture) in topic discussions. it systematically presents activities in which students have to do research about their own culture and compare it to the one under study, which is not necessarily the british or american one. the textbooks upstream b2+ and laser b1+ prepare students to sit the cambridge first certificate exam (fce), which is clearly the reason why the focus is placed on the british culture. now, it could be argued that the organizations that promote this kind of exams, in this case, cambridge university, make use of the “excuse” that they are testing students’ level of proficiency to help spread their own culture and values. this is in line with phillipson’s (1992) theory of linguistic imperialism, which holds that the british council fosters the promotion of “hegemonic” culture and values through the medium of english. and this is the reason why traditional approaches to english language testing have many times been questioned; they still measure proficiency against the so called “native speaker” norm, as is the case of the fce. according to phillipson’s (1992) theory: linguistic and cultural imperialism, by spreading english the way they do, english speaking nations -especially the uk and the usa, which are countries very much devoted to the english education businessbenefit in a variety of ways. no other language provides work for so many of its speakers. they can work as teachers, translators, materials writers, and publishers, to mention but a few. teaching the students and not the book moirano no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) 83 the solution to this inevitable imbalance of resources and power in the world might be in line with kumaravadivelu’s (2006) and canagarajah’s (2002) suggestion: decolonizing the approaches to tesol by emphasising the local. teachers’ interviews the following chart shows the most relevant information obtained from the interviews. what is included is my translation of verbatim transcription. teacher likes dislikes cultural component t1 (icab 34 years old upstream b2+) t2 (icab35 years old upstream b2) t3 (icab 53 years old upstream b2) “the emphasis on writing.” “the way grammar is exploited.” “the units are very long, they have a lot of drilling.” “it’s too similar to other books. the topics are not very meaningful.” “the design.” “the layout.” “cultural competence means having the tools to participate in different cultural settings”. “it is connected to using the foreign language in contexts where the foreign language is the mother tongue.” “cultural competence is using one’s culture to be able to transmit meaning and understand the other person.” “the topics in the book are appropriate for the students. the book deals with technology, the environment (which is such a european topic...) i think students feel totally identified with the topics.” “i think that textbooks are very rich, that we teachers of english teach much more than english, all the books bring a lot of world knowledge, there are a lot of references. i think that a teacher of english has a general view of the world through english textbooks….i think working with textbooks written abroad is very much enriching. we, argentineans, are always looking abroad, they –foreigners-aren’t. our life is abroad, we know a lot about everywhere; they don’t. no matter they are cultured or not”. teaching the students and not the book moirano no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) 84 teacher likes dislikes cultural component t4 (icab 28 years old upstream b2) t5 (60 years oldcolegio nacional-world english 3) t6 (37 years oldcolegio nacionalworld english 3) t7 (50 years oldcolegio nacionalworld english 3) “the division into modules.” “it has very nice pictures.” “it’s very complete; you’ve got a dvd....” “the way topics are presented, the fact that topics are appropriate for students, the fact that it’s authentic materials the book presents...” “i don’t like anything.” “cultural references.” “it’s too demanding, too long for the little time we have.” “it has little practice for weak students.” “i particularly don’t like it’s approximation to transformational and structuralist grammar.” “i don’t like some questions that have to do with the cultural references. maybe, they are a bit far away from our particular context, as it happens with most textbooks. but one always tries to find ways of getting it closer to students. there are things that students don’t get to understand, maybe because they have never been in a situation like the one the book brings up.” “i’d like a book which presented listening activities with a variety of accents; for example from south african or asian people speaking english as a second language; which is a more real situation than the ones this book presents.” “cultural competence is being connected with other types of knowledge, previous knowledge...” “i think the book aims at that, at looking at diversity and making students aware of it or making them know other realities different from theirs and learn to accept them and give an opinion about them. it has to do with that: with being able to evaluate their and other people’s realities, valuing their own culture in relation to that of others and learning that there is no culture that is better than another.” “cultural competence is the respect for what is different.” teaching the students and not the book moirano no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) 85 teacher likes dislikes cultural component t8 (42 years old escuela de lenguaslaser b1+) t9 (55 years old escuela de lenguaslaser b1+) t10 (38 years old escuela de lenguaslaser b1+) t11 (45 years old escuela de lenguaslaser b1+) “i like the fact that it has a specific preparation for fce.” “i like the topics, they are interesting for the age of students, and the organization.” “it provides good preparation and training for fce.” “the design, the pictures, the organization.” “i suppose cultural competence refers to the knowledge that students can acquire of the culture of the language they are studying.” “i suppose cultural competence refers to the general knowledge about different topics.” “...there are many students who come from schools that belong to universidad nacional de la plata, so they have good cultural knowledge. maybe what the book does not present -which is one of the topics being mentioned in methodology these daysis the different cultures, intercultural awareness. this book hasn’t incorporated that yet, and maybe it’s difficult for us teachers too, at least for me. i find it difficult to bring those kinds of topics to students; which are interesting... the fact that there is no one single “correct” english, but there are many, which also depends on the function, where we use it, what for, etc.... but i believe that one, as a teacher, has to provide that knowledge…” “i think cultural competence is connected to being able to relate what students are seeing in the book with what happens in other cultures.” “it lacks contextualization.” “it’s a bit monotonous, the activities are predictable.” “the vocabulary section lacks contextualization.” “no, there is nothing i don’t like.” as regards teachers’ likes, two of them mentioned the topics (t6 and t9). they said they were appropriate for the students but did not make any reference to the issue of culture. teaching the students and not the book moirano no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) 86 out of all the teachers in the interviews, only two of them mentioned topics as part of what they did not like about this book, but only one (t4) made an explicit allusion to cultural references. she said that they are far away from students’ realities. what she meant by this is that the topics dealt with in the book do not match everyday aspects of their lives –“c” culture topicsso students do not completely come to understand what they are discussing because their everyday context is different, because they find themselves discussing situations they have never experienced, such as earning a living or writing a letter applying for a job. it is important to mention here that the teacher who showed herself aware of the cultural issue under discussion was the youngest. one could conclude that a possible reason for this is that she is less “automated” in her everyday work than the rest of the teachers. she has been working for less time -let alone preparing students to take the fceand it is also less time since she has finished university and her training may be fresher than that of the rest of the teachers. one encouraging conclusion that can also be gathered from this is that, at least nowadays at universidad de la plata -which is where this teacher studiedthe importance of reflecting upon culture appears to be emphasised. older teachers are either too immersed in the preparation of students for the fce and they have become less critical of textbooks and methodologies, or they were not trained to identify this kind of flaw in textbooks when they did their teacher training course. as regards the issue of what is meant by “cultural competence”, it seems that such concept is little developed or in its early stages here in argentina, or at least among this particular group of teachers and institutes, because the answers to this question were too varied. teachers hesitated considerably when they gave an answer. here again, the teachers who were the closest to the intercultural issue were again the youngest, especially t4. she suggested doing listening tasks in which students could listen to two non-native speakers communicating in english, a clear sign that she is well aware of the present-day need for multiculturalism. when asked about the concept of cultural competence, t10, one of the youngest, was the only one to mention the concept of “intercultural awareness”, to realize that the book she is using lacks it and to admit that it is also the teacher’s job to show the local cultural knowledge to students. another teacher (t6) mentioned comparing students’ own culture to that in other countries, but the rest referred only to the acquisition of general cultural knowledge and the acquisition of teaching the students and not the book moirano no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) 87 knowledge about the culture students are approaching by learning english (the target culture), as if the english language had to be associated with one culture only. as for the rest of the questions in the interview, they are not worth mentioning because the issue of culture did not come up. at no time did teachers realise the questions were heading towards that direction until the last two questions arrived, in which the word “culture” was explicitly said. results the analysis of the three textbooks together with that of the interviews has revealed the following. as regards textbooks, topics vary very little from book to book, especially between the two books that prepare students to take the fce. the three textbooks share the topics of education and the environment. other common topics shared by at least two of the three textbooks are: people, transport, communication, travelling, art, sport, health, money and emotions -all of them very general and little controversial topics. no textbook deals with topics connected to the local culture; what they do is –to a greater or lesser extenttry to make learners talk and do research about their own culture. and no textbook deals with any of the topics connected to the parsnips acronym. however, there are marked differences between the american edition and the two british ones, and we can speculate about some possible reason for these differences. on the one hand, the american textbook is not oriented towards any international exam, at least explicitly; therefore, it does not need to follow any exam pattern, or the typical topics in any of those exams. on the other hand, the two british editions are oriented towards the preparation of the fce; therefore, the kind of activities and the topics are very much like those in the test. besides, the fact that world english 3 is produced by heinle and the national geographic can explain a lot about the greater amount of cultural information in it. the national geographic is a well-known monthly magazine that has been published by the non-profit national geographic since 1888. it has an international circulation. its articles deal with a range of subjects, some political in nature, and most relating to the natural world and its intersection with modern culture. consequently, the combination of an international circulation and modern culture could be the key to the explanation of this emphasis on international culture. teaching the students and not the book moirano no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) 88 as regards teachers, there is a parallelism between their age and their level of awareness of the presence/absence of (local) cultural content in the textbooks they use. the younger the teacher, the more aware they are of this issue. sometimes there is also a parallelism between this awareness and their work place. the teachers who work at the instituto cultural argentino británico – the only cambridge examination centre in la plataseem to be the ones that notice the least the lack of (local) culture and are focused the most on making students succeed in the actual exam. it could also be said that their level of awareness is in line with their level of compromise to revert such situation. i might also speculate about some possible reasons for this disinterest in cultural matters on the part of teachers. one reason for this could be a lack of a strong national identity. we argentines seem to share an identity only in connection to football. only once every four years, when the world plays a football world cup, do we seem to share a common identity, a nationality and a flag. otherwise, we are a discontent people, always admiring and praising other societies. one of the interviewees expressed it very clearly. she said: “i think that textbooks are very rich, that we teachers of english teach much more than english, all the books bring a lot of world knowledge, there are a lot of references. i think that a teacher of english has a general view of the world through english textbooks….i think working with textbooks written abroad is very much enriching. we, argentineans, are always looking abroad, they –foreigners-aren’t. our life is abroad, we know a lot about everywhere; they don’t. no matter they are cultured or not.” (my translation) another reason, yet connected to the previous one, might be the traditional tendency of middle-class argentineans to see ourselves as europeans. this explanation coincides with the fact that the teachers who do not see european textbooks as foreign are the middle-aged and above. the youngest, who are more distant from this tradition, were the only ones to notice alien elements in the textbooks under analysis. it seems the traditional view of the “generation of the 80s” is still alive. the project of this group of presidents consisted in, as regards the economic aspect, inserting our country in the international division of work by means of producing raw materials and food, and importing most of the processed products consumed in the internal market. as regards the social aspect, it consisted in trying to change native habits through the immigration of working force and making our customs more similar to those in europe. as for the political area, the idea was to form a modern state by imitating those in europe in order to offer guarantees to the foreign companies which invested in our country. teaching the students and not the book moirano no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) 89 one further possible reason for teachers not noticing cultural issues in textbooks might be the unrealistic syllabus in connection to time that teachers have to cope with both at school –colegio nacional rafael hernandezand at private institutes. in the case of private institutes which use textbooks oriented to preparing students for international exams the problem is time constraints plus commercial interests. parents still have the idea that what is foreign is far better, and it is they who want their children to have a foreign certificate of english. this idea is what encourages private institutions to make a profit off education. some private institutions are so much at the service of their “clients” that they only devote themselves to making their “clients” pleased with their service, in this case, making their students pass foreign exams. the result: no time left for issues outside the syllabus. it will be remembered that phillipson’s (1992) concept of ‘educational imperialism’ states that local decisionmakers in the educational field which maintain strong links to inner circle countries tend to promote the educational ideologies of those countries, hence strengthening the hegemony of inner circle countries and restricting the ownership of language to ‘native speakers’ or countries located in the ‘inner circle.’ as jenkins (2006a) suggested, by accepting and promoting the use of only standardized tests developed in the english speaking west, such as the fce, a tacit acceptance is created that the countries that develop these tests are the custodians of english and the rest of the world their “clients.” teachers who work in these kinds of places are so indoctrinated that they accept orders as they come and do not stop to question the kind of education they are providing, especially teachers who have been working in the same institution for a considerable number of years. limitations this study would certainly have greater validity if a larger number of participants selected from a broader set of contexts and also a larger number of different textbooks had been studied. in the social sciences, a triangulation method is often used to compensate for possible biases in results, to facilitate validation of data through cross verification from more than two sources. in particular, it refers to the application and combination of several research methodologies in the study of the same phenomenon. the idea is that one can be more confident with a result if different methods lead to the same result. therefore, more than two methods are used in studies to double or even triple check results. teaching the students and not the book moirano no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) 90 one way of carrying out such method could be to study the reactions that students themselves have in connection to the study of their own culture, which could be done by means of different possible methods such as class observation, interviews with students, surveys or students’ diaries. this would provide us with one more tool to come to conclusions as regards teachers’ attitudes to the teaching of argentinean culture. usually, students’ reactions reflect in some way or another that of their teachers. therefore, a three-dimensional study: publishers, teachers, and students would allow us to gain a deeper sight into this topic. conclusions going back to the original aims of this study, we can conclude that these three english textbooks do reflect the phenomenon of the “global coursebook”. the topics they discuss are all rather general with no attempt to discuss any controversial issue that could offend any culture. no topic in the list of “prohibited” topics are mentioned (politics, alcohol, religion, sex, nudity, israel, pork and smoking), which makes most textbooks very much alike. as gray (2002) suggested, these kinds of “global” textbooks are sanitized for commercial purposes. the more general/global the textbook, the more worldwide publishing houses can sell without the need to devote any extra money to the writing of different editions according to the different cultures’ demands. the second research question referred to whether these textbooks helped argentine students reinforce their cultural identity. laser b1+ and upstream b2+, which focus on the preparation for the fce do not offer any help in this regard. as for world english 3, it does, but in an indirect way, by suggesting activities in which students have to investigate about and discuss their own culture, but at no point do we find any explicit information or any explicit intention of dealing with the argentine culture. finally, as regards the third question, most teachers do not even notice the lack of the local in textbooks, if anything they notice that some topics are quite apart from students’ realities but they do not link this to the issue of culture. and if they happen to try to compensate for this lack, it is just by bringing the topics closer to their students’ lives, which does not mean treating topics exclusive of the argentine culture. it is a fact that english has become an international language; therefore it does not belong only to native speakers in english-speaking countries. the fast and wide spread of english suggests that english need not always be linked to the culture of those who speak it as a teaching the students and not the book moirano no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) 91 first language. instead, as mckay (2004) suggested, the purpose of an international language is to describe one’s own culture to others. the main aim of culture teaching, as recognized by most scholars today, is to develop students’ intercultural understanding and help them with intercultural communication. to be able to fulfill this aim, learners need cultural knowledge, cultural awareness, and a set of skills, which comprise the learners’ intercultural competence. to improve the situation of culture teaching in efl in argentina, more attention in the future should be paid to the training of teachers. working teachers should have in-service training for them to understand the importance of (multi)culture teaching and to learn how to incorporate it in class, even when the books they are using do not deal with the issue. more comprehensive and in-depth education of teachers would be one way to get closer to the ideal situation in which culture forms an integral part of each language class. although the present research does not pretend to be exhaustive, it accomplished its main aims and provided an insight into culture teaching and learning. clearly, the topic requires further research as well as more diverse research methodology, such as classroom observation and interviews with students. this would give a better overview of the reasons behind the unsystematic culture teaching and would give feedback for teacher trainers on what kind of training teachers especially need. it is also hoped that teachers and their institutions will be encouraged to take a critical, adaptive approach to applying material. references alatis j. e., straehle c. a., gallenberger b., 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(2001) amity foundation. teaching toward english as an international language. second international conference on the teaching of english: acquisition of english language and literacy in asian context. 11-13 july 2001, nanjing. taylore-knowles s. (2008) laser b1+. student’s book. macmillan. tylor, e.b. (1929) primitive culture. researchers into the development of mythology, philosophy, religion, language, art and custom. london: john murray. teaching the students and not the book moirano no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) 95 appendix a. interview questions 1. ¿qué es lo que más te gusta del libro que usas? (what do you like most about this book?) 2. ¿qué es lo que menos te gusta del libro que usas? (what do you like least about this book?) 3. ¿qué es lo que más les gusta a tus alumnos del libro que usas? (what do your students like most about this book?) 4. ¿qué es lo que menos les gusta a tus alumnos del libro que usas? (what do your students like least about this book?) 5. ¿usas material extra para complementar el libro? ¿por qué? (do you use extra materials to complement the book? why?) 6. si es así, ¿qué secciones del libro consideras que es necesario complementar ó adaptar y qué tipo de material extra usas? (do you think it is necessary to complement or adapt any section in the book? which? how do you do it?) 7. ¿te parece que los temas que trata el libro son adecuados a la realidad de tus alumnos? (are the topics appropriate for your students?) 8. muchos autores hablan de la “competencia cultural” de los alumnos ¿qué entiendes por “competencia cultural”? (what do you understand by “cultural competence”?) 9. ¿cómo se enseña la competencia cultural? (how can you teach it?) follow up questions (question 7) 10. ¿cómo harías para acercar el libro a la realidad de los alumnos? ( how would you make the book come closer to students?) 11. ¿crees que los alumnos se beneficiarían de alguna manera? (do you think students would benefit in any way?) 12. ¿en qué forma se beneficiarían? (how?) teaching the students and not the book moirano no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) 96 author * maría carolina moirano holds two bachelor´s degrees, one in english language and literature from universidad nacional de la plata and another in english language teaching from universidad caece. she also holds an m.a. degree in english language from universidad de belgrano, argentina. she is currently teaching english in a primary school at escuela de lenguas de la universidad nacional de la plata and runic language center. her research interests include bilingual education and teaching. email: carolinamoirano@gmail.co teaching the students and not the book no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) gist final1.indd 72 the relationship between language, culture and society: teachers of english as a foreign language (efl) positioning in society1 la relación entre lenguaje, cultura y sociedad: el posicionamiento de los profesores de inglés como lengua extranjera en la sociedad elsie l. olan and paula belló2* university of central florida, usa abstract this paper reports on efl teachers’ career choices and societal positioning in different regions of the world. the researchers conducted a qualitative narrative study to analyze, understand and interpret the relationship that exists between language, culture and society in the positioning identified by international efl teachers. positioning theory and narrative research were used as the study’s theoretical framework, and data collection tools included reflections, narratives and counter-narratives. teachers’ personal narratives show their strength in the illocutionary force through which they demonstrate their positions of agency, authority and empowerment. key words: efl teachers, career choices, societal positioning, narratives, counter-narratives, qualitative research 1 received: july 17, 2014 / accepted: april 12, 2016 2 elsie.olan@ucf.edu / bellopaula@knights.ucf.edu gist education and learning research journal. issn 1692-5777. no.12. (january june) 2016. pp. 72-95. olan & belló no. 12 (january june 2016) no. 12 (january june 2016) 73 resumen este artículo presenta un análisis de las opciones profesionales de los profesores de inglés como lengua extranjera y su posicionamiento social en diferentes regiones del mundo. las investigadoras realizaron una investigación cualitativa basada en narrativas con el propósito de analizar, comprender e interpretar la relación que existe entre lenguaje, cultura y sociedad en el posicionamiento identificado por los profesores de inglés como lengua extranjera en el mundo. la teoría del posicionamiento y la investigación narrativa fueron usadas como marco teórico para el estudio, y las herramientas de recolección de datos incluyeron reflexiones, narrativas y contranarrativas. las narrativas personales de los profesores reflejan su fuerza ilocucionaría a través de la cual expresan su posicionamiento como agentes con autoridad y empoderamiento. palabras clave: profesores de inglés como lengua extranjera, opciones profesionales, posicionamiento social, narrativa, contranarrativa, investigación cualitativa resumo este artigo apresenta uma análise das opções profissionais dos professores de inglês como língua estrangeira e seu posicionamento social em diferentes regiões do mundo. as pesquisadoras realizaram uma pesquisa qualitativa baseada em narrativas com o propósito de analisar, compreender e interpretar a relação que existe entre linguagem, cultura e sociedade no posicionamento identificado pelos professores de inglês como língua estrangeira no mundo. a teoria do posicionamento e a pesquisa narrativa foram usadas como marco teórico para o estudo, e as ferramentas de coleta de dados incluíram reflexões, narrativas e contra-narrativas. as narrativas pessoais dos professores refletem sua força ilocucionária através da qual expressam seu posicionamento como agentes com autoridade e empoderamento. palavras clave: professores de inglês como língua estrangeira, opções profissionais, posicionamento social, narrativa, contra-narrativa, pesquisa qualitativa olan & belló no. 12 (january june 2016) no. 12 (january june 2016) 74 introduction scholars have agreed on the expansion of english as an international language (mckay, 2002; pennycook, 2010, 2014; phan, 2008; phillipson 1992, 2009). as troike argues (in phillipson, 1992), english developed its leadership in international communication between the 17th and 19th centuries, while great britain was leading in territorial conquest, colonization, and international trade. the influence of the english language increased after world war ii when the united states of america became the world’s most powerful military and technological power. during the postcolonial era, governments and private agents have been investing money to expand english in an international market that was looking for international commerce, development and communication (pakir, 2009). the expansion of the english language came with the promotion of english language teaching and learning worldwide (graddol, 1997; phillipson, 1992, 2009; yano, 2001), and this scenario favored the proliferation of professional teacher development programs in different institutions around the world. the population, which is interested in attending these methods courses, are mainly composed of efl inservice teachers, and in certain cases in-service teachers of english as a second language (esl). consequently, the researchers expect that this narrative study designed to analyze and understand efl in-service teachers’ reflections, narratives and counter-narratives about their career paths, career choices and beliefs about the relationship between language, culture and society can serve as a basis for improving teacher programs to develop the professional careers of teachers with varied backgrounds and expertise around the world. both researchers in this study have a special interest in teachers’ professional development as well as in the education of future teachers who attend teacher education courses in international settings. they work in teacher development and research within different areas of knowledge related to the development of teacher education programs and teacher professional development. the researchers designed a longitudinal international study to inquire into the lives and work of in -and pre-service teachers working and living in different regions of the world. during the first stage, participant in-service teachers of english as a foreign language (efl) were granted a non-threatening space and produced written reflections, narratives and counter-narratives about their career paths, specifically referring to the factors that influenced their career choices and their relationships with efl, the culture and the society in various regions the relationship between language, culture and society olan & belló no. 12 (january june 2016) no. 12 (january june 2016) 75 of the world. expanding to more teachers around the world, the study also contemplated the gathering of narrative data from efl pre-service teachers, as well as data from preand in-service english language arts teachers from the u.s. the first stage of the study involved data collection from efl in-service teachers from different countries in the world, through both face-to-face encounters and via internet. these data consisted of written reflections, life stories and histories triggered by a semi-structured questionnaire, to which participants could refer freely. the second and third stages included the gathering of data from efl pre-service teachers, as well as from in-and preservice english language arts teachers in the u.s. invitations were sent throughout the world and to local teacher education programs and schools. the study was conducted with efl in-service teachers from different regions in the world. the research questions that guided this study are: 1how do efl teachers in developing countries reflect about their positioning with language in culture and society? 2how do efl teachers’ reflections, narratives and counternarratives reflect their career choice and beliefs about language, culture and society? the researchers conducted a qualitative narrative study to analyze, understand and interpret the relationship that exists between language, culture and society in the positioning identified by international efl teachers. positioning theory and narrative research were used as the study’s theoretical framework, and data collection tools included reflections, narratives and counter-narratives. the researchers used reissman’s (2008) thematic analysis to analyze twenty-five efl inservice teachers’ narratives, counter-narratives and reflections. the researchers recognized 107 significant statements, which were clustered in 13 themes where efl in-service teachers express their positioning within language, culture and society in diverse regions in the world. teachers’ personal narratives show their strength in the illocutionary force through which they demonstrate their positions of agency, authority and empowerment. the relationship between language, culture and society olan & belló no. 12 (january june 2016) no. 12 (january june 2016) 76 literature review the international growth of english in the last 45 years, english has been recognized as the most widespread foreign language in the world. there are 115 million english learners added to 275 million native english speakers in the uk, the usa, australia, new zealand, canada and some ‘anglophone’ countries in asia and africa in the 1970’s (gage & ohannessian, 1974). the central and eastern european countries expected 30 million english learners during the 1990’s (1989/90 british council annual report, as cited in phillipson, 1992). further, by 1995, there were 1,400 million people living in countries where english was the official language, and it was calculated that one out of five of the world’s population spoke english at a certain level of proficiency (press release on british council’s english 2000 project, as cited in graddol, 1997). in the 2000’s, the number of english learners (els) in china reached 300 million (ragan & jones, 2013). along this continuous growth in numbers of speakers and learners, english has reached a dominant position within a myriad of domains as varied as science, medicine and technology, international business, diplomacy, mass media, entertainment, journalism and education (graddol, 1997; kachru, 2006; phillipson, 1992; yano, 2001). english dominance has been established by its functional importance, its outreach and extent of influence, especially closing language barriers in situations of international communication (kachru, 2006; phillipson, 1992; yano, 2001). undoubtedly, english has been used as a means of mutual understanding in an era of multilateral and multicultural relations. nevertheless, the unprecedented linguistic expansion of english has been considered problematic. minor languages have been menaced with extinction, and a monolingual, monocultural understanding of english-speaking countries and their values and beliefs about the world have been imposed (kachru, 2006; yano, 2001). specialists have analyzed the historical dissemination of english in the world according to patterns of acquisition and functionality in which the language is used across different cultures and in contact with other languages. phillipson (1992) refers to them as the core and periphery (p. 17). kachru (1985, 2006) analyzes english expansion using three concentric circles: the inner, outer (or extended), and the expanding circles. yano (2001) explains further that within the inner circle, english is spoken as a native language (enl), within the outer circle it is a second language (esl), and in the expanding circle, it is a foreign language (efl). yano (2001) proposes some modifications to the relationship between language, culture and society olan & belló no. 12 (january june 2016) no. 12 (january june 2016) 77 kachru (1985)’s concentric circles, especially between the inner and the outer circles. in this view, some esl varieties are under a process of becoming more established as a result of the english language’s functional and extensive penetration in diverse social, educational, administrative and academic domains in society. consequently, more esl speakers portray themselves as native, or “functional” native speakers, relying on their intuition to produce and/or judge grammatical and appropriate linguistic forms applicable to different situations (graddol, 1997; kachru, 1985, 2006; yano, 2001). this analysis is directed towards the removal of the concentricity model proposed by kachru (1995, 2006) in favor of a parallel, comparative disposition of all english varieties, those spoken by native speakers, by “functional” native speakers and by nonnative speakers. moreover, some efl speakers can also become “functionally esl speakers” because of their intensive and extensive exposure to and use of english. the rationale behind this is to overcome the monocultural and monolingual position british, american and other well-accepted standards of english have traditionally had as the model of language correctness. the tendency is to consider each “one of the varieties of english” as valuable means of communication within communities (kachru, 2006; yano, 2001). the promotion of english language teaching and learning. seldom does english pedagogy look into the political, economic and military relationships existing between the english language dominance and its educational promotion. english language teaching (elt) has mainly developed a focus on linguistic or pedagogical matters, whereas in its core concept it is an activity with international political, economic, military and cultural implications (graddol, 1997; phillipson, 1992, 2009; yano, 2001). as discussed above, market demands on english as the language for progress and prosperity influenced english-speaking countries’ language policies. english-speaking countries have been investing funds in promoting the teaching and learning of english worldwide. consequently, english has been traditionally taught to support opposing objectives, on the one hand the development of specific scientific areas and education, and on the other hand, to spread a flavor for the institutional organizations and ways of thinking developed by english the cultures of speaking countries (phillipson, 1992, yano, 2001). elt in different regions of the world. according to okushima (1995), and pakir (1999), english has become a “glocal” language which has an international outreach, i.e. it affords global communication, but the relationship between language, culture and society olan & belló no. 12 (january june 2016) no. 12 (january june 2016) 78 at the same time favors local self-identity meaning within a social group among speakers in the outer circle (as cited in yano, 2001; graddol 1997; kachru, 2006). other scholars (canagarajah, 2006; pakir, 2009; seidhofler, 2004) have described a different situation for speakers in the expanding circle (kachru, 2006), who make use of english more as a ‘lingua franca’ (elf) (canagarajah, 2006; pakir, 2009; seidhofler, 2004). seidhofler (2004) defines elf as a language that serves as a means of communication among people who do not share a common l1 and/or a common cultural background. consequently, the paradigm of english as an international language has been challenged in the 21st century by new alternatives of language use or appropriation, as well as innovative ways of teaching, learning and researching the english language and efl teachers (pakir, 2009). when analyzing the reflections, narratives and counter-narratives elaborated by efl in-service teachers, these alternative and innovative ways of teaching, learning and communicating in english open the door to new understandings of teachers’ discourses and positionality in regards to efl, culture and society. post-colonial theory scholars (ashcroft, griffiths & tiffin, 2006, canagarajah, 1999; 2006; menezes jordao, 2008) have analyzed both linguistic and personal issues emanating from previous situations of domination in the ex-colonies. postcolonial theory has discussed experience in diverse areas including hybridity, migration, slavery, resistance, agency, representation, difference, race, gender, and place, in the midst of historical, philosophical and linguistic studies that follow english monocultural, monolingual traditions (ashcroft, griffiths & tiffin, 2006; menezes jordao, 2008). in opposition to these monopolistic discourses, post-colonial theory has discussed the concept of hybridity, which has influenced linguistics (canagarajah, 1999), as well as other areas of social life. menezes jordao (2008) discusses hybridity by means of explaining the concept of difference, which is a process of identification constructed discursively. the subject is also constructed and determined by means of discourse and at the same time, the subject determines discourse. consequently, the individual is fragmented, contradictory and subject to change, exactly as the process of meaning-making, which fluctuates from moments of fixation but never becomes permanently fixed. these movements and fluctuations leave spaces in-between in which meanings can be created before becoming fixed and changed again (menezes jordao, 2008). the in-between spaces mentioned above allow the development of concepts like resistance and agency (bhabha, 1985; 1994; menezes jordao, 2008), which can be defined as systems developed from individuals’ personal positioning in a ‘bordering place’ or ‘third space’. the relationship between language, culture and society olan & belló no. 12 (january june 2016) no. 12 (january june 2016) 79 these new spaces, also called ‘hybrid spaces’, allow individuals to develop counter-narratives that challenge totalizing discourses, to express the in-stability of meanings and to reflect about their conflicting representations (bhabha, 1995; 1994). hybridity allows diverse forms of knowing and the development of agency and resistance that include uncertainty, ambivalence and doubt about former coherent discourses. agency introduces different forms of representation (of self and others) and transformation through discourse. individuals develop agency in their process of meaning-making, when producing discourses through which they define their ideas, kinds of knowledge and forms of knowing (bhabha, 1985; 1994; costa, 2006; menezes jordao, 2008). the previous discussion explains the researchers’ decision to use positioning theory as framework in this study. the career choice of efl in-service teachers had been analyzed taking into account the teachers’ cultural contexts, countries and regions of origin, as well as the sociopolitical and economical systems in which they live and in which they have made their professional decisions (olan & belló, 2016). however, the exploration of positioning theory to analyze the emergent themes in efl teachers’ narratives in regions of the world, the expanding circle according to yano (2001) and kachru (2006), can shed more light to the understanding of this population’s career choices, career development and professional needs. positioning theory in order to develop the concept of positioning theory, harré and van langenhove (1999) pay attention to the local moral order as well as to the local system of rights, duties and obligations valid within different social groups. such a system of local moral order is in a continuous process of change in which mutual and contestable rights and obligations come to life through the individuals’ acting and speaking. positioning allows us to: a) conduct a discursive analysis of personal stories that become comprehensible as social acts within which narrators have positioned themselves and, b) analyze new theoretical developments within the psychology of interpersonal encounters (harré, 1998; harré, moghaddam, cairnie, rothbart, & sabat, 2009; van langenhove & harré, 1999). harré (1998) defines “positioning theory” and compares the concept with that of the older framework of role theory. he describes roles as relatively fixed and long lasting in comparison to the more changeable and transitory positions in which individuals usually show a struggle for victory between opposing forces or interests. the relationship between language, culture and society olan & belló no. 12 (january june 2016) no. 12 (january june 2016) 80 the concept of position receives a specific meaning in the analysis of people’s interactions, which are mediated by symbols that demonstrate their personal positions as individuals and as representatives of their groups. the technical meaning of position includes a collection of personal attributes, which dominate interpersonal, intergroup and intrapersonal actions led by individuals. individuals act according to the assignment of rights, duties and obligations in which they have been positioned or in which they have positioned themselves (harré & van langenhove, 1999). methodology research design narrative research analyzes experiences in the form of stories lived and told by individuals, both in oral and written form (clandinin & connelly, 2000; creswell, 2013). personal efl in-service teachers’ reflections, narratives and counter-narratives are used as a tool in educational research and professional development. narratives afford individuals, in this case, teachers, the opportunity to analyze their past and present experiences, re-analyze their positions within the social contexts in which they live, and express their individual and subjective interpretation of the circumstances in which they live (clandinin & connelly, 2000; hale, snow-gerono, & morales, 2008; nieto, 2003). riesman (2008) argues in favor of narratives that provide stories with more power than resistant subversive acts. new interest is being devoted to telling the story, which “makes the moment live beyond the moment” (riesman, 2008, p. 11). recently, researchers, teacher educators and scholars interested in teacher development are turning to narratives to foster meta-cognitive reflections, re-examination of assumptions, and shed light on implicit beliefs about teaching and learning. hinchman and hinchman’s (1997) definition of narrative is used when depicting teachers’ stories: narratives (stories) in the human sciences should be defined provisionally as discourses with a clear sequential order that connects events in a meaningful way for a definite audience and thus offers insights about the world and/ or the people’s experiences of it. (hinchman & hinchman, 1997, p. xvi) the previous definition includes three common features, temporality, meaning and social encounter, which are also referenced as the triadic nature of stories. goodson & gill (2011) further explicate the relationship between language, culture and society olan & belló no. 12 (january june 2016) no. 12 (january june 2016) 81 these features by noting that these qualities, temporality, meaning and social encounter, characterize the nature of narratives (stories) as used in this study. they share a common assumption that there is a connection between “life as it is lived and life as told in personal narratives” (p. 4). goodson & gill (2011) define temporality by establishing that (a) “all narratives encompass a sequence of events,” meaning is defined as (b) “all the personal significance and meaning[s] are externalized through the telling of lived experiences,” and social encounters because (c) “all narratives are told to an audience and will inevitably be shaped by the relationship between teller and the listener” (p. 4). these three features are salient in teachers’ stories and evidenced by our own examination of our participants’ process of self-discovery, inquiry and growth. narratives and counter-narratives. milner and howard (2013, p.542) consider narratives and counter-narratives as valuable research tools with teacher populations, as they provide a means of elaborating and sharing lived experiences. especially noticeable is the presence of counter-narratives within teachers’ life stories and histories, defined as narrative spaces in which narrators share their experiences in ways they have never done before. ladson-billings (1998) argues in favor of counter-narratives as a means to study and define realities that are juxtaposed to prevalent narratives. counter-narratives open doors to disruptions and re-interpretations of reality as expressed through pervasive, socially accepted stories. participants data were collected from different groups of efl in-service teachers coming from different countries. twelve of the participants were efl in-service teachers from developing countries, namely tajikistan, uzbekistan, armenia, jordan, argentina, ivory coast, dominican republic, haiti and egypt. they had received a scholarship from the us department of state via the bureau of educational and cultural affairs (eca) to attend professional development courses at the largest metropolitan public research university in a southern-eastern state in the usa for six weeks. these teachers participated in the teaching excellence and achievement program (tea) organized by irex, an international nonprofit organization that provides leadership and innovative programs to promote positive global lasting change (irex, 2014). the majority of these in-service teachers (n = 25) are middle aged (m age) = 40.32, sd = 7.028), and consequently traversing the middle stage of their careers. the majority (80%) are females, and (20%) are males. the relationship between language, culture and society olan & belló no. 12 (january june 2016) no. 12 (january june 2016) 82 figure 1. participants’ countries distribution the other thirteen participants (mainly efl teachers in latin american countries) were contacted via e-mail. the first step consisted of sending an informed consent document, an introductory letter containing the study’s general objectives, a semi-structured questionnaire and a demographic document. from the original large group that received the documents via e-mail, only thirteen efl in-service teachers responded, eleven from argentina and the other two from brazil and chile. the emic perspective of the participants was displayed by adding thorough description of their realities, not disregarding the limitations that might have existed during the process of data collection, as well as, within the participants’ contexts (gall, gall, & borg, 2007, p. 450). data collection instruments the semi-structured questionnaire contained ten open-ended questions intended to elicit participants’ written reflections, narratives and counter-narratives about their career paths, especially paying attention to their experiences surrounding their choice of career, their process of selection, the role of school and family among others. they provided relevant demographic data useful for the study’s purposes (including nationality, age, gender, educational background, etc.). both groups, the one that answered the semi-structured interview during the face-to-face meeting and the one that responded via e-mail, were granted a non-threatening space, plus the necessary time to compose the relationship between language, culture and society olan & belló no. 12 (january june 2016) no. 12 (january june 2016) 83 narratives, counter-narratives and reflections about their previous and present lived experiences, thus providing the researchers with deep insight into the factors that influenced their career decision-making process. researchers examined data produced by the participants taking an emic position and drawing from their own experiences as former teachers (munro, 1998; smith, 2012). data analysis and interpretation the researchers decided on a thematic analysis (riesman, 2008) to provide an analysis according to the research questions that had been established to guide the study. after analyzing twenty-five efl in-service teachers’ narratives, counter-narratives and reflections, the researchers recognized thirteen themes in which efl in-service teachers express their positioning within language, culture and society. a total of 107 statements were analyzed and 13 themes identified in the reflections, narratives and counter-narratives produced by the teachers. findings and discussions are fundamental to draw important implications to influence necessary changes in teacher education programs and professional development programs. the following analysis addresses the first research question: how do efl teachers from different regions in the world reflect about their positioning with language in culture and society? table 1. efl teachers’ positioning within language, culture and society the table below shows the main themes analyzed and their frequency as per the second research question: how do efl teachers’ reflections, narratives and counter-narratives reflect their career choice and beliefs about language, culture and society? the relationship between language, culture and society olan & belló no. 12 (january june 2016) no. 12 (january june 2016) 84 table 2. efl teachers’ reflection about their career choice and beliefs about language, culture and society. there are nine (n= 9) themes and 91 sentences analyzed (n = 91). the positioning triangle the following below depict the three background conditions that guarantee the meanings of symbolic interactions that determine each other: a) an illocutionary force of discourse and acts, i.e. the social significance of what is being said and done at a specific place and time (austin, 1959); b) pre-existing, socially accepted positions individuals use; and c) human episodes shaped by one or more story lines on which the participants agree (harré, 1998). the schematic representation is as follows: position (s) illocutionary force(s) story line(s) efl teachers’ reflections, narratives and counter-narratives represent their interpersonal relationships, need to find a job, to establish a teaching career and demonstrate language mastery. tables 3 a) and b) explain the thematic analysis corresponding to the illocutionary discursive force and the pre-existing socially accepted positions developed along efl teachers’ lives. table 3a. efl teachers demonstrate language mastery by referring to their pride in their knowledge of efl and the power with which there are endowed the relationship between language, culture and society olan & belló no. 12 (january june 2016) no. 12 (january june 2016) 85 table 3b. category 1: efl teachers represent interpersonal relationships table 3b. category 2: efl teachers need to find a job/establish a teaching career 1 results positioning and pedagogical storylines data analysis provided examples of reflections, narratives and counter-narratives in which participants follow different story lines (harré, 1998) to refer to their positioning in relationship to language, culture and society. maria’s narrative reflection forcefully explains her position of authority in the career decision she had made, establishes how important the analysis of her past experiences are and shows a clear story line in which different actors played a role, at the same time as they defined their own positions. when i graduated, i was confused as to what career i wanted to pursue. i was in between psychology and english. either road i decided to take, i knew i was going to be working with people, which i have always thought it fit my personality. in many ways, a teacher sometimes plays the role of a counselor in her students’ lives, so my choices were not too far apart. in the end, i picked english. my choice was influenced by my naïve impression the english i had taken for over ten years at a local school in my hometown was more than enough to afford me outstanding grades in the english program. little did i know about the difficulties i would face in not just dealing with the complexity of the language but also the meanness of some of my professors. my decision was also the relationship between language, culture and society olan & belló no. 12 (january june 2016) no. 12 (january june 2016) 86 influenced by my mother’s insistence. i was usually too sensitive and too sympathetic to people’s feelings to become a professional, emotionally detached therapist. i do not know if i would have made a good therapist or not. my mother was probably right about her assessment of my character and suitability (or lack of) for a career in psychology. even then, i feel that my capacity for compassion has proved to be a great asset in my teaching career. however, at the time i started the english program i was not thrilled about teaching. i had yet to discover my passion for it. (maria, argentina). language – thought and language – action relationships thinking has an intrapersonal dimension as well as an interpersonal scope because it can be both a private and a social – public activity. examples from the present data set include episodes in which thinking spreads out and covers the individual and the public domains, especially when teachers reflect on their career choice decision-making process privately, but they also seek to discuss it publicly seeking for advice on the best course of action from their families and friends. indirect influences from these opinions show in their actions and declarations (harré, 1998). an example provided by silvia shows the intermingle between thinking being a private and social activity: a couple of times i needed help because i felt confused as regards my career. i doubted, i didn’t know if i was competent enough in the foreign language. my teacher helped every time i needed. i remember that i had failed an exam, something that surprised her very much since i was doing it very well and i studied very hard. she called me and had a few words with me. those words made me changed my mind. since i felt frustrated i wanted to quit the career. she didn’t know anything about it but she talked to me at the right time. she said that learning a language was like learning a musical instrument, you need to have the ability, your hearing is essential. she also told me that she could observe -according to her vast teaching experience-that some students didn’t have that capacity, they insisted on learning english and in the end they failed. she concluded by saying “you can play a musical instrument, i bet you can. after this conversation i decided to continue with my studies and i finished my career.”(silvia, argentina). positioning, selfhood and discourse harré & van langenhove (1999) develop the concept of identity as a conjunction of the personal identity evidenced in the word “self” or in each individual’s personal agency and the “selves” presented in the relationship between language, culture and society olan & belló no. 12 (january june 2016) no. 12 (january june 2016) 87 public interpersonal interactions in the everyday world, sometimes called “personas.” individuals display their particular selfhood by using discursive devices as the first person pronoun “i” with which they indicate their ownership of their sayings and acts, as well as their commitment to the contents and consequences expressed in their discursive acts. these authors discuss that indexicals, like “i”, “you”, “we”, “this” and “now” express each individual’s personal identity and agency. the meanings implied in the use of indexicals can only be completed with the knowledge of the speaker or narrator that used them, as well as of the place and time in which they were used (harré, 1998; harré & van langenhove, 1999, p.7). the following examples from the data set provide us with a clearer idea: usually in jordan we go to the university according to our grade in an standardized exam and because english, and foreign language, are the best opportunity to find a good job, that is why i choosed it. (hanadi, jordan). this is what i have been doing since 2003 and i love it. i love being amongst teachers, sharing and learning with them. i had the chance to work with teachers for the last 10 years and i can say this is really fulfilling for me. (daniela, brazil). individuals display their “personas” in discursive acts including declarations and written narrations. in the specific case of written narrations, narrators introduce themselves and others as characters and choose the needed vocabulary to tell their stories. the indexicals “i”, “me”, “myself”, “my” and “mine” are used to tell publicly the lived experiences of the individual “self” (harré & van langenhove, 1999, p.8). consider the following examples: may be my dad had once mentioned the fact that i could have travelled abroad to study politics. i thought about that for a while but could not see myself anywhere else but teaching and learning from my students!!! (guadalupe, argentina). i make decisions by myself but sometimes with my family. (ruslan, uzbekistan). there is a singularity of the “self,” but a multiplicity of “personas” dependent on the social context. the present data analysis expresses different positioning of the teachers, for example: their decision to leave out direct references about students and the teaching-learning process, their agency in the process of decision-making, their authority in the the relationship between language, culture and society olan & belló no. 12 (january june 2016) no. 12 (january june 2016) 88 position as teachers, their satisfaction with their careers and pride in their command of the english language. for example, sana states the following: i selected my career following the career of my father and my english teacher. i liked the language the way it sounded and the power it endowed me with. (sana, jordan). in each different position, the “persona” and his/her behavior are different given the exigencies of the social situation. each particular case of “self” is constructed according to the constant exchange and interrelationship with the environment. the meaning implied by the narrator will be understood depending on the storyline created and on how coherent is the public “self” that has been developed in the situation (harré & van langenhove, 1999, p.9). caring following the construct of positioning we would like to discuss the concept of the caring relation in which there is a person who is the carer and another who is the cared-for (noddings, 2012). noddings (2012) notes that the carer is in a sense “feeling with” the cared-for by attending to his or her needs; however, the cared-for plays an extremely important role, i.e. responds to the carer and acknowledges that the act of care has taken place. both parties need to recognize the response in order for it to be a true caring relation. the author distinguishes virtuecaring as the relationship in which there is no response from the caredfor versus the relationship in which carer and cared-for play an important role. noddings (2012) refers to this mutual recognition of the response as reciprocity. in order for the carer to continue the caring relation with the cared-for, he or she needs the support of a caring community. this caring community may or may not contribute to this reciprocity. noddings (2012) also points out that caregiving activities supported by people who are genuine carers tend to promote the development of a caring attitude or disposition. in this particular study, the relationship between carer and caredfor is demonstrated through language mastery and language learning. this creates distinction between what noddings (2012) refers to as virtue-caring in which there is no response from the cared-for and the relation in which both parties play an important role. the in-service teachers’ reflections, narratives and counter-narratives afforded the researchers a different perspective to caregiver-student relationship. the relationship between language, culture and society olan & belló no. 12 (january june 2016) no. 12 (january june 2016) 89 cultures of care are important to understanding the purpose of this study. these teachers had opportunities to express in written form their career choice process, the relationship language, culture and society play and how caring is situated in their teaching and learning. conclusions drawing from the past discussion, we consider that more research is necessary as regards the factors that influence efl teachers’ career choices. positioning theory has provided an excellent framework to demonstrate the positions of agency and authority in which participants identify themselves. participants move away from the “carer” role society has traditionally endowed them with, towards a more movable and challenging position of self-assurance and empowerment. mastery of efl grants them a privileged position in society. this study has provided participants with a framework for reflection, a nonthreatening space and a valid opportunity to express their own voice. the concept of narrative pedagogy (goodson & gill, 2011) has been introduced as a facilitating framework within which individuals can reflect deeply, re-visit their own selves, collaborate with meaningful others in their process of self re-definition and provide meaning to their past experiences and lives through the lenses of their present historical reality. thus the value of narrative pedagogy in education, especially in helping the individual shape learning experiences from within (pp. xi-xii). even when goodson & gill (2011) have analyzed different areas related to narrative pedagogy, a deeper understanding of this construct can favor its application in teacher education and professional development programs. further research is necessary to collaborate with a more general process of pedagogical innovation conducive towards the application of narrativity in the macro spectrum of education (goodson & gill, 2011). it is the researchers’ hope to draw pedagogical and institutional implications from the present study. in-service teachers demonstrate that they can revisit and reflect on their lived experiences, collaborate with others in dialogic interactions and develop a reflective stance when guided through inquiry driven activities to formulate narratives, counter-narratives and written reflections. in-service teachers would benefit from specially designed professional development methods courses in which they are afforded non-threatening spaces to elaborate on the experiences that surrounded their career choice for them to approach new learning and practical experiences more effectively. the relationship between language, culture and society olan & belló no. 12 (january june 2016) no. 12 (january june 2016) 90 further research is necessary to analyze efl teachers’ process of identity re-definition, levels of sustained motivation and satisfaction and the needs they have while traversing the middle stage of their professional lives. more in depth discourse analysis can shed light on how language plays a paramount role in the development of their professional identities. the relationship between language, culture and society olan & belló no. 12 (january june 2016) no. 12 (january june 2016) 91 references austin, j. l. 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(2001). world englishes in 2000 and beyond. world englishes, 20(2), 119–131. the relationship between language, culture and society olan & belló no. 12 (january june 2016) no. 12 (january june 2016) 95 authors * elsie l. olan is an assistant professor in the school of teaching, learning and leadership at the university of central florida. her research interests and foci are in two areas, both which have grown from her professional work: (a) the role of language and writing, literacy, literature and diversity in learning and teaching in language arts education and st(r)e(a)m fields, and (b) in teaching and teacher education: teacher’ narratives, inquiry and reflective practices in (national and international) teaching environments and professional development settings. *paula belló is a doctoral candidate pursuing a phd in education (tesol) teaching english to speakers of other languages at the school of teaching, learning and leadership at the university of central florida, fl, usa. she had taught english as a foreign language (efl) in argentina for 18 years and received her ma in english language teaching (elt) from the university of warwick, united kingdom. at ucf she has been working as graduate teaching and research assistant. her research interests are multiculturalism and language and literacy issues, narrative pedagogy in teacher education, qualitative research methods and reading and writing in foreign or second languages. the relationship between language, culture and society olan & belló no. 12 (january june 2016) no. 12 (january june 2016) gist ii semestre 2016-9.indd 148 high school students’ attitudes and experiences in efl classrooms equipped with interactive whiteboards1 actitudes y experiencias de los estudiantes de inglés como lengua extranjera de secundaria en aulas equipadas con tableros interactivos2 turgay han and semih okatan3* dept. of english language and literature, ordu university, ordu, school of foreign languages, kafkas university, kars, turkey abstract the purpose of this study was to examine ninth grade efl students’ experiences and attitudes towards classrooms equipped with interactive whiteboards (iwb). the data were collected with a questionnaire about attitudes towards iwb use in efl classes, and observations from three different classrooms in three different high schools. the study indicated that the efl students were not fully aware of how to use iwbs in learning english although they had a background of iwb use. in addition, there was no statistically significant difference in the attitudes of the male and female students towards using iwbs. overall, the results revealed that efl students’ attitudes towards iwbs were positive although there were some technical challenges in iwb classrooms. keywords: fatih project, interactive whiteboards, english as a foreign language, english teachers, ninth grade students 1 this study is produced from a part of an ma thesis. this study was presented at the 15th world lumen congress – logos universality mentality education novelty – wlc2016, april 12-17, 2016 and its abstract was published in wlc2016 working papers volume. 2 received: april 22, 2016 / accepted: september 23, 2016 3 turgayhan@yahoo.com.tr / semih3636@hotmail.com gist education and learning research journal. issn 1692-5777. no.13. (july december) 2016. pp. 148-165. han & okatan no. 13 (july december 2016) no. 13 (july december 2016) 149 resumen el propósito de este estudio fue indagar sobre las experiencias y actitudes hacia las aulas equipadas con tableros interactivos de un grupo de estudiantes de inglés como lengua extranjera de noveno grado. los datos fueron recogidos por medio de un cuestionario para conocer las actitudes de los estudiantes hacia el uso de este tipo de herramienta tecnológica y las observaciones de tres diferentes clases entre tres diferentes colegios. el estudio indicó que los estudiantes de inglés como lengua extranjera no estaban completamente informados de cómo utilizar los tableros interactivos para el aprendizaje del inglés pese a conocer los antecedentes del uso de iwb. además, no se observaron diferencias significativas en términos estadísticos en relación a las actividades de los estudiantes de género masculino y femenino hacia el uso de iwb. en general, los resultados revelaron que los estudiantes de inglés como lengua extranjera tenían una actitud positiva hacia el uso de iwb a pesar de presentarse algunos problemas técnicos en las aulas. palabras clave: proyecto fatih, tableros inteligentes, inglés como lengua extranjera, docentes de inglés, estudiantes de novena grado resumo o propósito deste estudo foi indagar sobre as experiências e atitudes em relação às salas de aula equipadas com quadros interativos de um grupo de estudantes de inglês como língua estrangeira de primeiro ano do ensino médio. os dados foram coletados por meio de um questionário para conhecer as atitudes dos estudantes em relação ao uso deste tipo de ferramenta tecnológica e as observações de três diferentes grupos entre três diferentes colégios. o estudo indicou que os estudantes de inglês como língua estrangeira não estavam completamente informados de como utilizar os quadros interativos para a aprendizagem do inglês apesar de conhecer os antecedentes do uso de iwb. além do mais, não se observaram diferenças significativas em termos estadísticos em relação às atividades dos estudantes de gênero masculino e feminino com relação ao uso de iwb. em geral, os resultados revelaram que os estudantes de inglês como língua estrangeira tinham uma atitude positiva com relação ao uso de iwb apesar de ter ocorrido alguns problemas técnicos nas salas de aula. palavras chave: projeto fatih, quadros inteligentes, inglês como língua estrangeira, docentes de inglês, estudantes de primeiro ano do ensino médio han & okatan no. 13 (july december 2016) no. 13 (july december 2016) 150 introduction recently, integrating technology with education has gained more and more importance as the internet has taken a place in foreign language learning (aydın, 2007). by administering activities based on multimedia in the classroom, students are led to take part in a social and collaborative environment, which helps them support and supplement each other’s knowledge, skills, and points of view (lee, 2005). studies in the field of language teaching and learning have indicated that technology use in efl classes can bring many opportunities in terms of using a foreign/second language (l2) in real life (chapelle, 1998; cloke & sharif, 2001; gerard, widener, & greene, 1999; schmid, 2006). therefore, the activation of learners’ auditory and visual abilities by bringing authentic materials into the classroom can be provided or supported by the use of such a tool. korkmaz and cakıl (2013) have indicated that iwbs provide perceptibility and make a great contribution to the learning process. these motivational and engaging effects, easy access to every kind of resource, and students’ positive attitudes can promote learning and help students put their knowledge into practice (essam & asiri, 2012). for example, in an experimental study by han and keskin (2016), it was found that speaking activities conducted by a mobile phone application can reduce efl students speaking anxiety to some extent. following computer assisted language learning (call), turkey launched an educational technology project named the fatih project (the movement to enhance opportunities and improve technology) in 2010 (meb, 2014). every classroom from grade 5 to 12 has been equipped with iwbs to create an effective educational platform. with the help of the fatih project, which aims to provide equality in education and to equip all classrooms with the technology (meb, 2014), learners have been able to find opportunities to use iwbs in efl classrooms. in spite of the fact that there has been great technological development in education, some problems with regard to language teaching and learning through iwbs might occur: a) teachers’ lack of competence using iwbs (korkmaz & çakıl, 2013), b) low motivation towards using technology (al-faki & khamis, 2014), c) the fact that it may be time consuming to redesign materials and integrate materials with these technological tools (johnson, ramanair & brine, 2010), d) technical problems (gursul & tozmaz, 2010), and e) exposing too much information and teaching very quickly (schmid, 2008). in this sense, the main aim of this study was to investigate the attitudes and reactions of 9th grade students in efl classes towards the use of iwbs in one of high school students’ attitudes han & okatan no. 13 (july december 2016) no. 13 (july december 2016) 151 the eastern cities of turkey. this study might be helpful in identifying the drawbacks occurring in the use of iwb in efl classrooms. literature review research has indicated that technology has played an effective role in language teaching and learning since it penetrated into the educational field, and iwb use in efl classes has generally been regarded as an effective tool in terms of motivation, interaction, effective teaching, broadening the learning environment, and improving language skills (aydın, 2007; aydınlı & elaziz, 2010; conacher & royall, 1998; johnson, et al., 2010; katwibun, 2014; öz, 2014; schmid, 2008; türel & johnson, 2012). johnson, et al. (2010) conducted a study on efl students’ and teachers’ perceptions of iwbs. it revealed that most of the students and teachers were positive towards iwb use as it provided interaction and a variety of materials. likewise, in a study by schmid (2008), the pedagogical benefits of multimedia use in efl classrooms equipped with iwbs were examined. the study revealed that multimedia use had a positive impact on motivation, attention, concentration, and vocabulary. in addition, the study proved that iwb use in classes helped learners to understand the content of the lesson better, and that it might make the lesson more active. another study conducted by katwibun (2014) aimed to investigate the effect of iwbs on vocabulary teaching in the eleventh grade. the result indicated that there was an increase in terms of students’ in-class participation and vocabulary, and that most of the students had a positive attitude towards the iwb. studies conducted in the turkish context have supported the results of studies carried out in other contexts and have proved that iwb use in efl classes is more efficient and effective than the use of traditional whiteboards (twbs). öz (2014) investigated efl teachers and students’ perceptions of iwbs and revealed that although there was no significant difference in teachers and students’ perceptions in terms of gender, students’ proficiency levels and weekly iwb use resulted in a significant difference. this study showed that the participants were positive towards iwbs in efl classes. similarly, türel and johnson (2012) examined teachers’ perceptions and the impact of iwb use in efl classes in a large group ranging from 6th to 12th grade. the study indicated that collaboration among teachers, sufficient training on iwbs, and the frequency of use improved teachers’ competency in using technology and made the classes more effective and practical. aydınlı and elaziz (2010) examined 458 students and 82 teachers’ attitudes high school students’ attitudes han & okatan no. 13 (july december 2016) no. 13 (july december 2016) 152 towards iwbs. the study indicated that both teachers and students had positive attitudes towards iwbs and that the iwbs provided motivation and in-class participation. i̇pek and sözcü (2016) carried out a descriptive study on the preferences and attitudes of students and teachers towards the use of iwbs in grades 7-12. in the study, student and teacher questionnaires were used to examine participants’ attitudes, preferences, awareness, and consideration. the study revealed that both groups of the participants had positive attitudes towards iwbs. finally, thanks to the tasks presented through iwbs, students’ interaction with their peers increased and they encouraged each other to write, highlight, and correct the texts. they also found themselves in natural written and spoken activities (johnson, et al., 2010). challenges of using iwb the reasons why most teachers do not use this technology in their own classes include lack of competency, low motivation, lack of time required for material design, and technical problems (korkmaz & çakıl, 2013). in a study, korkmaz and cakıl (2013) investigated the difficulties that teachers faced while using iwbs. interviews with 17 teachers revealed that although teachers had a positive attitude towards this technology and believed that iwb use in classes was beneficial, they did not know how to use it effectively. the study revealed that teachers did not have sufficient competency in using this technology. similarly, al-faki and khamis (2014) examined the challenges in using iwbs in the saudi efl classroom context. the study revealed that the challenges were four-fold: a) lack of a pedagogical framework and competency for teachers, b) lack of administration support, c) a lack of technical support, and d) low motivation of students. the study carried out on students and teachers’ perceptions of iwbs revealed that although most of the students and teachers were positive towards iwbs, they believed that redesigning materials took a lot of time (johnson, et al., 2010). further, a study carried out by gursul and tozmaz (2010) revealed that using iwbs involved some technical problems, such as technical errors in calibration settings. they added that these kinds of problems wasted time as calibration is time consuming. in order to cope with such problems, necessary support was identified as a factor that could improve teachers’ integration with technology (kim, et al., 2013). finally, another problem is that in iwb based lessons, learners might be exposed to information and stimuli overload as teachers can access materials quickly and may do the activities very fast (schmid, 2008). therefore, learners might have difficulty in matching the teacher’s speed and be unable to engage in the learning process. high school students’ attitudes han & okatan no. 13 (july december 2016) no. 13 (july december 2016) 153 briefly, numerous studies have been conducted with a view to investigating the aforementioned drawbacks and advantages of iwbs. however, in the turkish research context, such studies have been conducted in the western part of the country or metropolitan regions, but in the eastern part of the country, there has been a lack of interest in this field. therefore, there might be some problems in generalizing iwb use and its benefits in teaching and learning an l2. the pursuit of the relationships between such technology literacy and educational factors in countries like turkey could be rewarding (dogan & abd-elkhalick, 2008). while all public schools receive a similar amount of funding, support, and staffing, communities in well-off cities generally contribute to their local schools with additional resources, which, in turn, leads the overall educational milieu in these schools to become rather different from that in schools in cities that have fewer accessible communal resources (dogan & abd-el-khalick, 2008). further, a lack of educational infrastructure leads to inequalities and “polarization in educational opportunities,” and the biggest inequalities are “related to the urban–rural division and regional differences between the west and east” (smits & hoşgör, 2006, p. 547). this study might be of help in generalizing the previous research results and shed a light to overcome the problems mentioned above. the following research questions guided this study: 1. what are the 9th grade students’ attitudes towards using iwbs in efl classes? 2. do the students’ attitudes towards iwbs significantly differ by gender? 3. what is the teaching and learning atmosphere like in iwb classrooms? methodology research design a mixed-research design was followed in this study. specifically, the explanatory design was used to provide “additional information to flesh out the results” (fraenkel, wallen, & hyun, 2015, p. 559). first, quantitative and then qualitative data were collected “to follow up and refine the quantitative findings” (fraenkel, wallen, & hyun, 2015, p. 559). an attitude questionnaire and field notes (e.g. observations) were used to collect the data. one of the researchers took field notes high school students’ attitudes han & okatan no. 13 (july december 2016) no. 13 (july december 2016) 154 while observing the classrooms of three different high schools. the field notes were “complete and descriptive, and include everything the researcher/observer feels in addition to what is actually observed, field notes often contain the observer’s feelings and reactions toward the events observed,” and observation is also frequently “referred to as fieldwork” (best & kahn, 2006, p. 265). therefore, this study used the terms “observations” and “field notes” interchangeably. in this study, the participant observation was covert in which the participants do not know that they are being observed (fraenkel, wallen, & hyun, 2015). one of the researchers obtained permissions from three ninthgrade english teachers in high schools for observation. the data were collected in four steps. in the first step, the application for permission from the ministry of national education was completed. in the second step, the questionnaire was administered to the participants. later, classroom observations were conducted in three different classrooms at three different schools. in the third step, the collected data were compiled according to the schools. in the fourth step, the quantitative data were computed and analyzed using a statistical computer program and the qualitative data were analyzed according to recurring themes (ryan & bernard, 2003) and classified according to key words. participants participants included 483 efl students (191 male and 292 female) in 9th grade of seven high schools that participated in the study. all the participants were selected by convenience non-random sampling. the students were regarded as having the same english level, a1 or a2 according to the small-scale proficiency exam done by the schools at the beginning of the educational year. although a great number of the students (455) had not taken a computer course before, nearly all of them claimed that they knew how to use a computer. most of the students (377) used the internet for social networking and doing research. it might be concluded that the students use technology intensively and that this might affect their iwb use in efl classes. data collection instruments questionnaire. in order to obtain the quantitative data, a student questionnaire including background information and likert-scale items was administered to the participants. the questionnaire used in this study was developed by aydınlı and elaziz (2010). they did the cronbach alpha reliability check (.79) for their adapted version. high school students’ attitudes han & okatan no. 13 (july december 2016) no. 13 (july december 2016) 155 the cronbach alpha reliability check was .92 for this study. the questionnaire included the following sub-sections: a) general attitudes, b) attitudes towards technical issues, c) general positive attitudes, d) attitudes towards motivation, e) attitudes towards time management and organizational issues, f) attitudes towards traditional boards vs. iwb. the questions in the background section were modified by the researcher according to the features of the participants. classroom observation. to determine students’ attitudes and reactions after a lesson taught with iwb, a researcher in this study carried out observations. the observation was performed in three different classrooms from three different high schools for one lesson period. the observation list including open-ended and multiple choice questions, and field notes were organized so as to examine students’ attitudes in the classrooms. the aim of the observation list was to obtain enough data to determine the challenges and the problems that students encountered during the lessons in which iwb was used. the participants were not informed that they were being observed, so the observer was a complete participant (gold, 1958). this was a covert follow-up observation. the observation was also recorded. data analysis and interpretation descriptive and inferential data analyses were conducted to examine students’ attitudes towards iwbs by gender. the qualitative data were analyzed based on recurring themes (ryan & bernard, 2003), using coding and classifying approach (creswell & miller, 2000; creswell, 2012; gay, mills, & airasian, 2009). results both quantitative and qualitative data showed that a high percentage of students had a positive attitude towards learning and teaching efl through iwbs. however, the t-test results (p > .05) indicated that there was no statistically significant difference in the attitudes of the male and female participants towards iwbs, indicating that gender was not a determining factor in the use of iwbs. finally, iwb users could face some challenges and technical problems while using iwb. the results of this study are discussed in terms of the research questions. high school students’ attitudes han & okatan no. 13 (july december 2016) no. 13 (july december 2016) 156 quantitative data results students’ attitudes towards iwb use. in this section, the tables were designed according to the levels in the questionnaire and the research questions. table 1. summary of descriptive results table 1 reveals the efl students’ attitudes towards learning through iwbs. the mean scores are near four, which means that the majority of efl students think that there is a relationship between iwb use and the teaching and learning process. as iwbs provide many opportunities for learners, such as making the learning process easy, exciting and understandable, they have positive attitudes. second, the table reveals students’ attitudes towards technical issues such as sunlight or recalibration that might impede visibility of the board. third, the table shows that all students have a positive attitude towards iwb use in their own lessons. in addition, the students show no hesitation while using iwbs, nor do they have negative attitudes towards iwb equipped lessons. next, the table gives efl students’ attitudes towards attention, motivation, and interaction. the mean scores are above three and somewhat near to a score of four, indicating that efl students think that they are easily motivated with the help of iwbs and that iwb equipped lessons have a positive impact on their concentration and in-class participation. finally, regarding the results for students’ attitudes towards time management and organizational issues, a high percentage of the students think that iwb use in lessons saves time, lessons are well organized, and the time for the lessons and activities in the classroom can be organized easily with iwbs. high school students’ attitudes han & okatan no. 13 (july december 2016) no. 13 (july december 2016) 157 briefly, a high percentage of students had a positive attitude towards learning and teaching efl through iwbs. iwb use in classes affects not only the participants’ attitudes but also the learning elements, which make the learning process easier and more understandable, as in the study carried out by schmid (2008). in this sense, it is possible to mention that there is a one-to-one relationship between participants’ positive attitudes and the effective use of iwb in efl classes because there is an interaction between the user and iwb (chapelle, 1998). further, these results revealed that iwbs provided some positive factors such as saving, source diversity, and increased attention, motivation and interaction. with the help of iwbs in efl classes, learners have a high level of motivation as it makes audio-visual materials available and attracts their attention. compared to twbs, iwbs are believed to be more effective because they provide extra supplementary materials and interaction. the interaction is not one-way in iwb-equipped classes. they enable the direction of interaction from teacher to student, from student to students, or from the iwb to learners. this kind of interaction can be based on the multi-dimensional interactive teaching model (zeng, lu, & zuo, 2010), as well as the interactionist model (chapelle, 1998). learning through iwbs could become more permanent and effective than learning through twbs. such a learning style can be based on multimedia learning supported by mayer’s cognitive theory (mayer, 2003). this theory can be related to learning through iwbs as it claims that combining pictures with words can produce deeper learning in students (mayer, 2003). from the teachers’ perspectives, they generally believe that iwbs may provide better learning because the visual materials presented to the learners might stimulate more than one of the learners’ sensory organs (korkmaz & çakıl, 2013). in terms of gender, there was no difference in attitudes towards the use of iwbs. tables 2 and 3 show the students’ attitudes towards iwbs by gender. table 2. t-test results about male and female students’ attitudes towards iwb use. gender n mean sd t df p male 190 3.67 .76 .476 479 .634 female 291 3.33 .74 table 2 indicates that there is no statistically significant difference in the attitudes of the male and female students (p > .05) in terms of their attitudes towards iwb use. high school students’ attitudes han & okatan no. 13 (july december 2016) no. 13 (july december 2016) 158 table 3. t-test results of item (i prefer lessons that are taught with iwb) gender n mean sd t df p male 158 3.78 1.44 .722 386 .471 female 230 3.67 1.47 table 3 clearly shows that there is no statistically significant difference between male and female students’ preferences regarding iwb use. the mean scores of the groups are near to four, indicating that males and females have a positive attitude towards iwb use. when the male and female groups are compared in terms of positive attitude, the male students have a slightly more positive attitude than the female participants. in sum, gender is not a determining component in using iwbs in language learning (öz, 2014). however, a study carried out by aydın (2007) on internet use in efl classes revealed that gender and age were correlated with internet use because younger and female participants were more eager about internet use than other participants. qualitative data results students’ reactions to the use of the iwb. the students showed a positive reaction in the lesson in which the exercises or tasks were done through iwbs. a lesson taught in this way increased the students’ in-class participation and fired their desire to take an active role in the learning process. sometimes it was difficult for the teachers to control the classroom as the students made noise. when authentic materials or colorful activities were presented, most students took an active role by making comments. this interaction was not one way but included interaction from teacher to students, from students to students, or the interaction transformed itself into a new form and occurred from students to iwb when the students touched the screen, listened to a track or watched a video. attracting students’ attention. during the lesson, the teacher asked some questions related to the topic and wanted students to answer the questions by constructing a bridge between the related topic and their own experiences. when the topic in the lesson was presented together with audio-visual materials, it was very easy for the students to envisage the events experienced before. communication attracted the high school students’ attitudes han & okatan no. 13 (july december 2016) no. 13 (july december 2016) 159 students’ attention most because the dialogues presented by the teachers consisted of colorful figures. reading and grammar also attracted the students’ attention as teachers easily could reach supplementary materials for these two skills on the internet. writing activities were of less importance than these three skills. the information in the course books and a sheet of paper were directly used for nearly all writing activities. student performance in iwb lessons. most of the students were able to improve in skills. the students could easily show a reaction to the stimulus presented through iwb. the reaction to the stimulus ensured that students used the language effectively and they took part in learning as a user of the target language by trying to speak, make comments, or ask questions. challenges. most of the students were competent enough in using iwbs. nearly all of the students who came to the board to do activities could use the iwb easily. the others whom the researcher could not observe were shy students who did not want to use the iwbs. some of these students had difficulty in keeping up with the teaching process. in addition, there were other difficulties such as those caused by sunlight, and technical problems with the screen. another technical problem was poor sound quality. teaching and learning atmosphere in iwb classrooms. this research question attempted to determine the learning and teaching atmosphere in iwb classrooms. although the analysis indicated that the general tone was positive, some challenges could occur during the teaching and learning process. given iwb use in efl classes, it is undeniable that there are some technical challenges that iwb users encounter during the lessons. these challenges include electricity cuts and the recalibration of the iwb. when the electricity is cut off, the recalibration of iwb takes a long time and this reduces the time that may be allotted to the activities. therefore, such a problem is a waste of time. these findings were supported by the study carried out by gursul and tozmaz (2010). overall, the study revealed that iwb provided source diversity, motivation and time-saving. as well as these positive factors, some specific components have come to the fore in the light of quantitative and qualitative data results such as challenges and technical problems while using iwb. high school students’ attitudes han & okatan no. 13 (july december 2016) no. 13 (july december 2016) 160 conclusions overall, the study suggests that the use of iwb could create learner-centered learning. in addition to teachers’ roles, the role of the learners is also important in terms of using iwbs. effective iwb use in language teaching and learning depends on an understanding of how it can be used in a classroom. to the extent that iwb users remain focused on learner-centered activities and learning objectives, iwb use in efl classrooms remains effective and beneficial. this is because iwbs contribute to students’ productive communication and thinking so that their knowledge can be built up by the active engagement that iwb provides and by teachers’ strategies (kershner, mercer, warwick, & kleine staarman, 2010). second, a high percentage of the students have positive attitudes towards this technological tool. iwb use in the lessons was observed to be helpful in developing their skills because iwb supports teaching and learning interaction factors (liang, huang, & tsai, 2012). further, a high percentage of the students found it easier to concentrate and remain motivated, which affected their in-class participation. therefore, the students have positive attitudes towards time management and organization as iwb use in the classes saves time, and lessons could be better organized. third, technology use in efl classes can provide students with several opportunities to use an l2 in real life (chapelle, 1998; cloke, & sharif, 2001; gerard, widener, & greene, 1999; schmid, 2006). nevertheless, if english teachers are to use iwbs well in efl classrooms, they should acquire iwb technical knowledge and skills, and learn teaching methods for iwbs so as to be able to integrate current materials with the content of the topic (türel & johnson, 2012). to overcome technical and methodological barriers, teachers should be educated with effective professional help so as to build up efficacy, on the basis of long-term collaboration and with positive supervision that provides for self-reflection and facilitates student engagement with digital media (desantis, 2012). fourth, suitable materials and an appropriate approach to their use in classes equipped with iwb are necessary in order to render iwb an efficient tool. sözcü and i̇pek (2012) indicated that applying, designing and developing materials was necessary for teaching and learning outcomes. fifth, while using iwb in classrooms, some points should not be ignored in terms of teachers’ pedagogy and students’ general backgrounds in ict. all efl teachers and administrators must be trained on how to use iwbs effectively. periodic in-service training programs should be organized to overcome the aforementioned difficulties in using iwb. high school students’ attitudes han & okatan no. 13 (july december 2016) no. 13 (july december 2016) 161 iwb use in education supports the student learning outcomes, but iwb use alone is not sufficient. so iwb use should be supported by teachers’ experiences, software, and enough technical and pedagogical training to make teachers’ progression permanent (sweeney, 2010). finally, thanks to the fatih project, which is still being carried out, a high percentage of the classrooms are equipped with iwbs, but there are still some discrepancies in using it as an effective multimedia tool at high schools. there is a lack of awareness about technology use in efl classes. so it is necessary to develop awareness among iwb users and the differences between iwb and twb should be monitored. learning and teaching methods were not handled in this study. the scope of the study included only 9th grade efl students, so the study might be extended to other grades in which iwb is effectively used, especially in efl prep-classes where iwbs are 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(2008). potential pedagogical benefits and drawbacks of multimedia use in the english language classroom equipped with interactive whiteboard technology. computers and education 51, 1553-1586. doi: 10.1016/j.compedu.2008.02.005 high school students’ attitudes han & okatan no. 13 (july december 2016) no. 13 (july december 2016) 165 smits, j., & hoşgör, a.g. (2006). effects of family background characteristics on educational participation in turkey. international journal of educational development, 26(5), 545–560. doi:10.1016/j. ijedudev.2006.02.002 sözcü, ö. f. & i̇pek, i̇. (2012). instructional, technological and psychological approaches of using iwbs: a framework. procediasocial and behavioral sciences 55, 990 – 999. doi: 10,1016/j.sbspro.2012.09.589 sweeney, t. (2010). transforming pedagogy through interactive whiteboards: using activity theory to understand tensions in practice. australian educational computing, 2(24), 28-34. türel, y. k., & johnson, t. e. (2012). teachers’ belief and use of interactive whiteboards for teaching and learning. educational technology & society, 15(1), 381–394. zeng, l., lu, x., & zuo, m. (2010). research into application of interactive whiteboard to interactive educational mode. paper presented at computational intelligence and software engineering (cise), 2010 international conference.doi: 10.1109/ cise.2010.5676988. authors *turgay han (phd) is an assistant professor of english. after teaching for ten years at kafkas university, he joined ordu university in 2016. his areas of research center on efl measurement and assessment issues, individual differences in language learning, and his areas of scholarship include assessing language skills, using g-theory to examine score variability and reliability of efl writing assessments. *semih okatan graduated from the department of english language and literature, yüzüncü yıl university, turkey in 2002. he worked as an english teacher at ministry of national education for ten years. later on, he has started to work as an instructor at kafkas university. he received his master’s degree from kafkas university, department of english language and literature in 2014. he is currently doing his phd at istanbul aydın university. his research interest includes teaching language skills. high school students’ attitudes han & okatan no. 13 (july december 2016) no. 13 (july december 2016) gist final1.indd 8 speaking skill development through the implementation of multimedia projects1 el desarrollo de la habilidad oral a través de la implementación de proyectos multimedia letty hazbleidy contreras ospitia, sandra milena charry garzón and angela yicely castro garcés2* universidad del tolima, colombia abstract the purpose of this study was to examine the way the implementation of podcasts, videos and powerpoint projects fosters the speaking skill development in efl sixth graders. in this action research, data were collected through an initial diagnosis and a final development test, a focus group interview, participant observation and students’ artifacts derived from podcast, video and powerpoint projects. the data were then analyzed in a mixed method approach and results suggested that the majority of students became highly engaged in communicative situations, which allowed them to improve their limited language proficiency. keywords: speaking skill development, multimedia projects, project work, high school students resumen el propósito de este estudio fue examinar la forma como la implementación de proyectos de podcast, videos y powerpoint motiva el desarrollo de la habilidad oral en estudiantes de sexto grado. en este proyecto de investigación acción los datos se recolectaron a través de un examen diagnóstico inicial y un examen de desarrollo final, una entrevista de grupo focal, observación participante y artefactos de los estudiantes, derivados de proyectos de podcast, video y re se ar ch a rti cle s 1 received: december 15, 2015 / accepted: march 27, 2016 2 aycastrog@ut.edu.co / lettyco05@hotmail.com / samichaga@hotmail.com gist education and learning research journal. issn 1692-5777. no.12. (january june) 2016. pp. 8-28. contreras, charry & castro no. 12 (january june 2016) no. 12 (january june 2016) 9 powerpoint. los datos fueron analizados con un enfoque de métodos mixto y los resultados sugieren que la mayoría de los estudiantes se involucró en gran manera con situaciones comunicativas, lo cual les permitió mejorar su limitado nivel de proficiencia. palabras clave: desarrollo de la habilidad oral, proyectos multimedia, trabajo por proyectos, estudiantes de secundaria resumo o propósito deste estudo foi examinar a forma como a implementação de projetos de podcast, vídeos e powerpoint motiva o desenvolvimento da habilidade oral em estudantes de sexta série. neste projeto de pesquisa ação os dados se recolheram através de uma prova diagnóstica inicial e uma prova de desenvolvimento final, uma entrevista de grupo focal, observação participante e artefatos dos estudantes, derivados de projetos de podcast, vídeo e powerpoint. os dados foram analisados com um enfoque de métodos misto e os resultados sugerem que a maioria dos estudantes se envolveu em grande maneira com situações comunicativas, o qual lhes permitiu melhorar seu limitado nível de competência. palavras clave: desenvolvimento da habilidade oral, projetos multimídia, trabalho por projetos, estudantes de ensino médio contreras, charry & castro no. 12 (january june 2016) no. 12 (january june 2016) 10 introduction the desire that teachers have to help students with the development of their speaking skills is often made difficult by the context, number of students per class, limited time and scarce material available. this concern led the researchers in this study to explore ways to improve classroom practices, taking advantage of what is at hand. the action research project was designed in order to facilitate reflection and promote progress following burns’ (2005) notion of exploring a common problem in a specific context in order to gain understanding, create meaning, and improve educational practices. the aim was to help sixth grade students develop speaking skills through the implementation of multimedia projects, including podcasts, videos and powerpoint presentations. more specifically, the project sought to help students improve pronunciation, vocabulary and fluency. six projects were implemented along a six-month period in order to engage learners in the use of the language with communicative purposes. the multimedia tools used motivated students to see language in a fun and engaging way. as stated by butler-pascoe and wiburg (2003), “the use of computer technology fosters interaction and presents students’ language in a graphically and linguistically enhanced manner” (p. 86). as such, the use of multimedia projects could possibly motivate not only the improvement of their learning performance, but also the development of speaking skills. the questions leading this research focused on the three components of speaking: how do efl sixth graders better their pronunciation through the use of podcast projects? to what extent do video projects promote the acquisition of vocabulary in efl sixth graders? and how do ppt projects support the development of fluency in efl sixth graders? therefore, the tools designed and the implementation of projects allowed us to identify students’ challenges and gains throughout the process. literature review the main constructs that supported our research were the use of multimedia tools (podcasts, videos and presentation software), communicative language teaching, speaking skills (pronunciation, fluency and vocabulary), and project and group work. speaking skills development contreras, charry & castro no. 12 (january june 2016) no. 12 (january june 2016) 11 the use of multimedia tools technology has enjoyed a widespread acceptation in society, especially in teenagers. it has changed the nature of sharing, storage and handling of information. according to rathore (2011), the application and association of ict with social, economic and cultural matters has had an effect on education. therefore, these contextual issues have had a significant impact on the use of technological devices or multimedia tools in language teaching to design, develop, manage and assess students’ performance with the unique objective of enhancing efl learning. the integration of call (computer assisted language learning) in colombian education has been widely discussed by researchers, who have explored the blending of technologies in second language teaching learning (clavijo, quintana, & quintero, 2011). teachers have also dedicated attention to the role of computers in the classroom, especially to find or create better ways to implement effective strategies that improve students’ language skills. it is extensively believed that technology in the classroom helps teachers promote a constructive class environment, and technology is viewed as having an influential effect on the teaching and learning process (muir-herzig, 2004). however, the integration of computers in the classroom has not been accepted by some educational communities because they think that those devices are disturbing elements in the learning process. in colombia, educational policies follow the tendency of other countries in promoting the integration of icts in all school levels. the colombian ict plan 2008-2019 proposes the use of educational environments with comfortable infrastructure and devices to facilitate autonomous and collaborative learning mediated by computers and tablets that help students in the enhancement of their learning process (ministerio de comunicaciones, 2008). clavijo, et al. (2011) argue that the increased use of technological devices by students at all levels of education outside the school environment is a challenge for teachers who have not understood the impact of technology. therefore, teachers must be prepared to be upto-date with the educational process of students today, who have grown up using different types of technologies as digital natives. prensky (2001) stresses, “they have spent their entire lives surrounded by and using computers, videogames, digital music players, video cams, cell phones, and all the other toys and tools of the digital age” (p. 1). for that reason, students may be eager to find technological environments in educational activities within the school context. speaking skills development contreras, charry & castro no. 12 (january june 2016) no. 12 (january june 2016) 12 furthermore, according to tomlinson (1998), students are an important element to consider when designing and carrying out learning processes, so it is necessary to take into account their interests and needs in order to develop materials and appropriate contents that can strengthen their prior knowledge, and foster the use of language. consequently, the implementation of multimedia projects with the students in this project sought to create new activities to expand students’ learning opportunities, using alternative tools that involve their learning styles. crystal (1986) states, “one of the most interesting developments in the field of language teaching in recent years has been the concern to provide students with ‘authentic’ spoken materials with which to work” (p. 411). hence, this study gave us the opportunity to discover whether the use of multimedia projects as authentic learning materials was effective in terms of improving fluency, pronunciation and the acquisition of vocabulary. stanley (2006) and pun (2006) have pointed out the strong benefits that podcasting may offer to language education, especially in reference to developing students’ listening and speaking skills. furthermore, videos have always been an excellent efl language learning activity that requires learner participation in a variety of ways. now, with the relatively recent advances in digital video technology and the free use of editing software, video projects have become an even more powerful teaching and learning tool in the efl classroom; examples and testaments to the usefulness of drama for speaking skills and pronunciation are provided by different authors (carkin, 2004; hardison & sonchaeng, 2005). they report many projects focused on the creation of video dramas that may improve efl learners’ fluency and pronunciation. in terms of tools to aid the development of speaking skills, microsoft powerpoint is a powerful visual tool that can support students’ oral expression through images, diagrams and bullet points that allow them to develop speaking skills with more fluency and confidence to express themselves. “students with low english proficiency can be assisted by ppt in making persuasive presentations through the use of multimedia tools such as audio recordings and graphic representations” (apple & kikuchi, 2007, p. 107). the idea of an interactive efl presentation is to make the development of students’ speech more interesting and attractive to reach the goal of improving their fluency and self-confidence. speaking skills development contreras, charry & castro no. 12 (january june 2016) no. 12 (january june 2016) 13 project and group work blake (2013) points out that the proper integration of technology into the curriculum can accelerate the focus on the student-centered classroom and adapt him/her to a digital culture. therefore, it may change our students’ way of learning, thinking and communicating, making them active participants of their learning process and engaging them in collaborative projects using project work to achieve the learning objectives. furthermore, dörnyei (1997) explains that cooperative group work tasks not only increase the amount of mediated input but also encourage motivation, self-confidence, critical thinking, and autonomy. thus, students’ interaction may help them overcome psychological limitations such as, shyness, fear and anxiety to use the language. in addition, freire and macedo (1987) assert that collaborative participation in the teaching and learning process can change learners’ expectations to be students with more autonomy, agency and creativity, achieving important changes in the social and cultural perspective of language. students benefit from the implementation of multimedia projects in efl as they follow the structural elements of a project: plan, research, develop, review and present a final product. thomas (2000) affirms, “project-based learning (pbl) is a model that organizes learning around projects. according to the definitions found in pbl handbooks for teachers, projects are complex tasks, based on challenging questions or problems, that involve students in design, problem-solving, decision making, or investigative activities” (p. 1). therefore, students can develop their skills in critical thinking and the expression of their own ideas through the design and performance of such projects. project work naturally leads to argument about either the interpretation or presentation of the information collected. moreover, jones, rasmussen and moffitt (1997) summarize projects as complex tasks, based on challenging objectives or problems that involve students in design, problem-solving, decision making, or investigative activities. therefore, projects give students the opportunity to work autonomously and collaboratively to obtain realistic products to be presented in academic settings. communicative language teaching and speaking skills multimedia projects can be developed in a creative and interactive way. with this in mind, learning may become an enjoyable experience for students as they develop language skills and sub-skills. speaking skills development contreras, charry & castro no. 12 (january june 2016) no. 12 (january june 2016) 14 pronunciation in foreign language teaching, for example, has often been marginalized because teachers do not have enough time in class to perform pronunciation activities or the instructional training to teach it. pennington and richards (1986) assert that “pronunciation is often viewed as having limited importance in communicative curricula” (p. 207). nonetheless, authors such as carkin (2004) and hardison and sonchaeng (2005) note the benefits and usefulness of speaking activities, fluency and pronunciation. they argue that with the use of drama, students may acquire habits of repetition and correction helping them to identify their own mistakes to improve their speaking performance. on the other hand, the role of vocabulary is remarkable as rupley, logan and nichols (1998) argue, “vocabulary is the glue that holds stories, ideas and content together… making comprehension accessible for children” (p. 339). chall (1983) describes recognition and meaning as key factors in vocabulary learning that may lead students to enhance not only their reading ability but also their speaking skills. there are many software applications that allow to work vocabulary through voice recognition, virtual world applications and the use of podcasts. there is a notorious need for more vocabulary instruction at all levels to gain english proficiency. frequently, the process of communication in students is measured based on the number of words that they can use to express their ideas. beck, mckeown, and kucan (2002) indicate that the number of new words on average that students should add to their vocabulary in a year is 3,000. there are, in fact, different technological tools to develop sufficient vocabulary for learners to reach that goal. fluency, understood as the ability to speak a foreign language easily and effectively, is an evident problem in language learners and the result of lack of vocabulary and poor pronunciation. vocabulary and memory are key aspects in the development of fluency. in broad terms, speaking is a complex process of choosing, remembering and organizing words into grammatical sentences to be able to express their communicative intention. tarone (2006) says that learners must simultaneously attend to content, pronunciation, lexis, discourse and information structuring leaving at side the communicative purpose for better speaking skill. speaking skills development contreras, charry & castro no. 12 (january june 2016) no. 12 (january june 2016) 15 methodology research design this action research was done with a mixed methods approach to examine the way in which the implementation of podcast, powerpoint, and video projects fosters the development of speaking skills sixth grade efl students. this study was undertaken as action research to explore a common problem in a specific context in order to gain understanding, create meaning, and improve educational practices (burns, 2005). reason and bradbury (2001) explain that the primary purpose of action research is to produce practical knowledge that is useful to people in every conduct of their lives. also, a mixed methods approach was necessary to carry out a deep quantitative and qualitative analysis of the process students underwent. thus, as greene and caracelli (1997) establish, mixing different types of methods can strengthen the understanding of a research study because inquiry can become a complex social phenomena in which the researcher may need different kinds of methods to interpret data. therefore, the researcher can go beyond the representation of quantitative information and make a deeper qualitative analysis of the relevant issues found to enrich the development ofthe research process. context and participants this research study was carried out at a private religious school in ibagué, colombia, with sixth grade efl students. there were ten girls and five boys between 11 and 13 years old. sixty-five percent of students belong to the religious denomination of the school, the rest to other churches. students were all required to follow the school principles, which sometimes limited the amount of time that students could spend using technology in class. students received five hours of english instruction per week and all demonstrated a low language proficiency level. all of them had some computer skills and were able to use multimedia tools with minimal help from the teacher. data collection instruments the data collection instruments included an initial diagnosis and a final development test, a focus group interview, participant observation and students’ artifacts derived from podcast, video and powerpoint projects. speaking skills development contreras, charry & castro no. 12 (january june 2016) no. 12 (january june 2016) 16 data analysis and interpretation the initial diagnostic test intended to identify students’ skills in vocabulary, pronunciation and fluency. the test design helped to explore and determine the strengths and weaknesses of each one of the participants in terms of their speaking skills. it was done through a reading comprehension activity in which students did the process in two cycles. the first cycle included the identification of vocabulary to understand and comprehend the reading, and following instructions for completing the written test that contained five questions related to the topic of the reading. the second cycle was reading aloud to determine students’ level of pronunciation and fluency. based on the results of the initial diagnostic test, students participated in a focus group interview in order to examine their knowledge about some of the technological skills they possessed and important concepts that were going to be applied in the implementation of multimedia projects. patton (1990) affirms that “focus group interviews involve conducting open-ended interviews with groups of few people on specially targeted or focused issues” (p. 173). hence, the purpose was to help analyze students’ knowledge, skills, perceptions and expectations to participate in this project. for the focus group, a semistructured interview was done at the beginning of the implementation of the projects, and the second interview was an informal discussion at the end of the implementation. this second interview was developed after the teacher gave students feedback about their speaking skill development during the implementation of the projects. participant observation was undertaken as a method to analyze different phenomena that occurred during the implementation of the projects. researchers took field notes and video-recorded to better capture specific details. delamont (2004) argues that it is important to write and think about what you are observing and to test insights systematically. participation in this sense means interacting with people while they are carrying out activities such as teaching or studying to identify some educational issue. students’ artifacts collected during the implementation of projects were used to analyze their speaking skills development. these artifacts included a video of a play, podcasts of reading aloud and dialogues, and videos of the presentations. patton (1990) suggests that audio and video recordings provide more opportunities to identify hidden issues that may not be perceived along the process. speaking skills development contreras, charry & castro no. 12 (january june 2016) no. 12 (january june 2016) 17 results uncovering students’ attitudes and aptitudes towards the language and the multimedia tools used in the projects was essential in order to have a better understanding of students’ background knowledge and therefore a better intervention process. in that regard, the initial diagnostic test and the focus group interview were administered at the beginning. initial diagnostic test (idt) during the exploratory stage of this study we could realize that students were afraid of learning english, even more when it came to speaking in the language; for this reason, the idt design surprised students as they were used to doing only activities related to the contents of a book, such as completing crossword puzzles, filling in the gaps or simply working on isolated vocabulary. however, this test had them see the language in a more communicative way. the results of the idt, which will then be compared to the results of the final development test, revealed their limited skills in vocabulary, pronunciation and fluency, as well as their lack of confidence and low motivation when they were encouraged to use the language. figure 1 outlines those results. figure 1. initial language level the data above indicate that in a scale from one to five, which goes from no demonstrated proficiency to displaying certain level of language development, students’ oral skills were limited to what is speaking skills development contreras, charry & castro no. 12 (january june 2016) no. 12 (january june 2016) 18 described in item number four of table 1, which means that no student had the ability to answer personal questions and self-correct their mistakes. eight students were in the two most basic levels of language understanding and production, as presented in figure 1. although the other seven students had better language skills, their language proficiency was still limited and none of them could reach level five. the test results disclosed students’ low language level in the sub skills evaluated. students had little vocabulary, pronunciation difficulties and therefore low fluency. table 1. rubric to evaluate students focus group after the diagnostic test, the focus group was administered in order to deepen the understanding of what students brought with them in terms of language and multimedia tools. to open the discussion in this interview, we did a brief explanation of the importance of technology in efl learning. students also wanted to know what role they would have in the implementation of multimedia projects and what type of technology could be used in efl learning. they had different understandings of what a project is and were concerned about how this work would contribute to their language skills. afterwards, we talked about the way some multimedia tools could be blended into language learning and the benefits and limitations of using them in our english classes. they felt identified with the word “multimedia,” and they mentioned that this could be an easier way to learn, to be creative and to have a pleasant environment. nevertheless, some students were not familiar with some of the terms used during the conversation, which made us wonder to what extent the implementation of those projects would be a success. speaking skills development contreras, charry & castro no. 12 (january june 2016) no. 12 (january june 2016) 19 the last question referred to the identification of students’ computer skills. we asked them about the type of technology they frequently used and they listed the tools they had used in their experience as students, among their answers they mentioned search engines (internet), and basic microsoft office applications (word processing tools), such as microsoft word to make written documents, microsoft powerpoint to make standard presentations, and microsoft excel to make tables or lists. few participants used these tools to develop other types of activities. finally, only a few students had the skills to use more advanced applications, such as editing software for videos and audio recordings, and no one knew the meaning of podcasts and its use for educational aims. figure 2. students’ computer skills none of the students had heard the word podcast, so we explained how this multimedia tool would be implemented in the projects through the use of feedback from the teacher, and by hearing their own audio recordings in a pre and post activity. having a better understanding of the process made them curious and interested in having it as a learning tool. they concluded that this tool would help them to be aware of their own mistakes, so they could improve them. even though the school has a virtual platform, only 46% of the participants had developed enough abilities using internet (e-mail, e-learning environments and search engines). forty percent had not gone beyond the use of basic word processing tools to complete some occasional assignments, many of them because of their religious beliefs. speaking skills development contreras, charry & castro no. 12 (january june 2016) no. 12 (january june 2016) 20 these beliefs called for limited time for students to use computers, internet, or particular online programs. in many cases, they were allowed to use computers only to work on microsoft office, but never to access the web. the remaining 14% had more advanced computer skills in the edition of videos and other types of files, which was very beneficial for the development of the projects. participant observation during the implementation of the projects, students said they were now learning english, which seemed to change their perceptions of the subject and increase their motivation. english had not been seen as a relevant subject before, as something they would learn for life, but as a course they only had to take and pass. students’ learning styles had not been catered to; therefore, they had not been exposed to the possibilities of studying the language with tools tailored to them, or with strategies that would help each individual learner. it could be evidenced how each new project raised their motivation and language level at the same time. podcast projects podcast projects were implemented through two applications. the first was a smart voice recorder for mobile phone and the second one was the audacity program for pc. one of the podcast projects contained a conversation between two participants; each situation was accompanied by the script composed by students with the support of the teacher-researcher. learners used these scripts to rehearse and practice. while they were recording and listening to their conversations, they could identify their own mistakes using a podcast sample of the conversation. the second podcast project was a reading aloud exercise of the story “philip the grasshopper,” in which participants worked collaboratively; in pairs with a defined role, one as a narrator and the other one as an imitator. this allowed them to gain powerful linguistic resources to enhance their pronunciation with the teacher monitoring and students’ self-correction. students reached the goal of podcasting in spite of their initial anxiety, lack of confidence, and reluctant attitude toward performing these activities. for the assessment of pronunciation, participants carried out a preand post-recording in which they noticed that podcasts were highly suited for the improvement of phonetics and pronunciation problems. figures 3a and b exemplify students’ progress from podcast one to two. speaking skills development contreras, charry & castro no. 12 (january june 2016) no. 12 (january june 2016) 21 figure 3a. initial pronunciation assessment figure 3b. pronunciation follow-up the assessment was done by the teacher in charge of the group during class time and podcast projects were focused on specific topics and vocabulary worked in class. moreover, students had the chance to rehearse the script and the readings right after the first feedback session. in the second phase, students recorded the final podcasts. results showed that students became more responsible for their own learning, and the majority of them overcame many of their pronunciation mistakes. the result of this final podcast was a surprise for students’ classmates who noticed that the participants were interpreting a tale of 383 words in a speaking skills development contreras, charry & castro no. 12 (january june 2016) no. 12 (january june 2016) 22 way that was almost identical to the sample podcast of the book. it was remarkable because 40% of the participants had an excellent language performance, making fewer than 10 pronunciation mistakes. video projects this was a project planned collaboratively that helped learners internalize their acquired knowledge and increase collaborative learning and motivation. the initial video project was a play that was taken from the previous podcast project of the reading “philip the grasshopper” and was adapted to a script. the other video project was a representation of a conversation at a supermarket, and the vocabulary was taught in a pre-teaching activity. students reviewed their part of the script in advance so they could assimilate the content. although students showed a positive disposition and attitude towards the recording of videos, different feelings arose each time the video camera was on. one of the most common feelings was the fear to look at the camera lens; they commonly forgot part of their script while anxiety increased. nevertheless, little by little they became more familiar with the camera so that video recording was seen as a natural part of the class. the video projects were a source of motivation for students because they dressed up and acted out the the vocabulary with authentic language situations. they could explore their creativity and imagination and some of them demonstrated their abilities to use multimedia tools, as they were in charge of editing the videos using camtasia application. powerpoint projects the use of powerpoint and other multimedia tools like prezi and powtoon to make presentations is more popular for students at university level, but school aged students can also benefit from it. the environment at this school was not so welcoming for these kinds of projects at the beginning because most teachers are very traditional and were reluctant to use technology. the implementation of powerpoint projects brought an added value to the class; students participated in the planning and organization of topics and presentations. they also had to prepare their speech based on some questions designed by themselves and the teacher through collaborative work. their presentations were completely visual and contained bullet points as guides. students were able to express the information and answer the questions with self-confidence supported speaking skills development contreras, charry & castro no. 12 (january june 2016) no. 12 (january june 2016) 23 by interactive presentations that showed them whether the answers were correct or incorrect. results showed that there were significant differences in students’ oral production during the preand post-presentations. additionally, this tool motivated students to explore their creativity and find different ways to present their work, which increased their confidence to speak in english. chapelle (2001) explains that powerpoint is seen as an innovative and easy tool that has meaningful real world experiences for educational purposes with important relevance outside the classroom, giving the projects a sense of authenticity for students to engage with the use of language. rather than viewing this tool solely as a means of practicing english or presenting simple standard slides, these projects open a window to the handling of future multimedia tools and motivate students to develop computer literacy skills, as well as linguistic and communicative skills. final development test this test was applied in order to assess the evolution of students’ speaking skills and to identify how the multimedia projects implemented during this research helped students in the improvement of their language performance. this test was slightly different from the initial diagnostic test so that students did not feel that it was the same evaluation after the implementation of the projects. it was more visually attractive and graphically divided into four parts for students to identify what was being evaluated. there was a reading comprehension part in which pronunciation and fluency were assessed; after that, students had to answer some questions orally. students were more at ease than in the first test. it was rewarding to see them reading aloud with good pronunciation and a better attitude towards communicative tasks. shyness and anxiety, which were highly evident at the beginning, were now left behind as learners improved their pronunciation and expanded their vocabulary. although different variables interact in language learning, students’ attitudes toward the language should be considered. therefore, it was important to use different strategies to increase students’ motivation as a way to have a more effective learning process. speaking skills development contreras, charry & castro no. 12 (january june 2016) no. 12 (january june 2016) 24 figure 4. final test the final development test gave some evidence of students’ improvement in their speaking skill. all of them advanced up to the point that level 5 was reached, which did not happen in the idt. the rubric to evaluate students presented as table 1 served for the analysis of this final test as well. students accomplished the goals set during projects development and went beyond their language and personality limitations. focus group follow up once all the projects had been administered, it was considered necessary to carry out a follow up of the focus group interview. this was done with the purpose of knowing from the students’ voices their perceptions and changes experienced. some of their comments are presented below3. i am doing well in this subject. i have the best attitude in class and i have improved my english language because i know more words. we had the opportunity to listen to each other in this class because the teacher recorded us and then let us listen to ourselves to get feedback on our weaknesses and strengths. i loved this class! i liked this class because we could make conversations with our classmates. this allowed us to train our ear and enrich our vocabulary. 3 original text in spanish, translation made for publication speaking skills development contreras, charry & castro no. 12 (january june 2016) no. 12 (january june 2016) 25 this was a good class because the teacher brought us podcasts with her pronunciation. this helped us mirror her pronunciation to pronounce in front of the class. she recorded a podcast of us then. i think this was a good class because the teacher always had something new for us to learn with technological devices. learning was pleasant because we could talk with our classmates and receive instructions to make a project with ppt slides to present to the class. we practiced our english a lot. recording a video and then watching us speaking in english was nice. my classmates looked good on their costumes. this final encounter with students to know their perceptions and gains confirmed that it was worth the time invested in this project to help students and the school community understand that incorporating multimedia tools in classes with a structured design can bring up benefits for students’ learning. conclusions this action research brought benefits to the students who could be seen more engaged and enthusiastic during the lessons. their perceptions and attitudes towards the class changed for the good, which gave the teacher more motivation to continue innovating and improving. it seems that the use of multimedia projects in efl learning in the context of a private school was perceived as an effective strategy to develop speaking skills in sixth graders because it helped students engage with real communicative situations. even though the transition from traditional classes to implementing multimedia tools during the lessons was rather complicated and time consuming at the beginning, the accomplishment was evident. it was also observed that through the implementation of such projects, students had better academic performance. not only were their class grades higher, as they did better in class, but also their confidence and oral communication improved. these multimedia tools fostered the acquisition of vocabulary and the improvement of pronunciation and fluency. moreover, students perceived this experience as a learning opportunity in which their needs and interests were taken into account. to conclude, it is essential to create class activities that involve students’ own realities so as to have meaningful learning that lasts a life-time. speaking skills development contreras, charry & castro no. 12 (january june 2016) no. 12 (january june 2016) 26 references apple, m., & kikuchi, k. 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(2005). theatre voice training and technology in teaching oral skills: integrating the components of a speech event. system. 33, 593-608. speaking skills development contreras, charry & castro no. 12 (january june 2016) no. 12 (january june 2016) 27 jones, b. f., rasmussen, c. m., & moffitt, m. c. (1997). real-life problem solving: a collaborative approach to interdisciplinary learning. washington, dc: american psychological association. ministerio de comunicaciones. república de colombia. (2008). plan nacional de tic 2008-2019. retreived from http://www.eduteka. org/pdfdir/colombiaplannacionaltic.pdf muir-herzig, r. g. (2004). technology and its impact in the classroom. computers & education, 42, 111-131. patton, m. (1990). qualitative evaluation and research methods. beverly hills, ca: sage. pennington, m. c., & richards, j. (1986). pronunciation revisited. tesol quarterly, 20, 207-226. prensky, m. (2001). digital natives, digital immigrants. on the horizon, 9(5), 1-6. pun, s. w. (2006). the educational applications of podcasts. hong kong association for computer education 2006 year book. retreived from: http://www.hkace.org.hk/publication/pub_newsletter.htm/ rathore, b. (2011). language learning through ict. journal of technology for elt, 1(1). reason, p., & bradbury, h. (2001). handbook of action research: participative inquiry and practice. london sage publications. rupley, w. h., logan, j. w., & nichols, w. d. (1998). vocabulary instruction in a balanced reading program. the reading teacher, 52(4), 336-346. stanley, g. (2006). podcasting: audio on the internet comes of age. tesl-ej, 9(4). tarone, e. (2006). the language classroom: a co-production of all participants. in i. miller & s. gieve (eds.), directions in classroom language learning and teaching: a festschrift for dick allwright (pp. 163-174). new york: palgrave macmillan. thomas, j.w. (2000). a review of research on project-based learning. san rafael, ca: autodesk. tomlinson, b. (1998). materials development in language teaching. new york: cambridge university press. speaking skills development contreras, charry & castro no. 12 (january june 2016) no. 12 (january june 2016) 28 authors *letty hazbleidy contreras ospitia is a computer engineer, has a specialization in pedagogy and is an ma in english didactics student at the universidad del tolima. she has worked as english and computer teacher for 12 years, improving her teaching development supported on her students’ learning experiences. *sandra milena charry garzón has a ba in english teaching and is an ma in english didactics student at the universidad del tolima. she has worked as an english teacher for five years and is very interested in developing research studies to improve her teaching practice. *angela yicely castro garcés holds a ba in modern languages, a specialization in pedagogy of reading and writing from the universidad del cauca, and an ma in tesol from ball state university. she is an associate professor in the ba in english and ma in english didactics programs at the universidad del tolima. speaking skills development no. 12 (january june 2016) no. 12 (january june 2016) 7 editorial josephine taylor* initiation and order in academic publishing first time authors face a number of difficulties when submitting and publishing articles for the first time. the context of academic publishing is in general a closed order of discourse which allows participation only by the initiated. newcomers are subtly or overtly discouraged. as foucault describes, the order of this discourse is dictated from above and its hegemony is protected, often violently, through the filters of peer reviewers, editors and outside evaluating entities. this order is imposed in the interest of “quality;” in the case of colombia, a clear preference for original research or exhaustive literature reviews over other forms of academic expression, for example short articles, research reports, teaching ideas or editorials. as the governing and evaluating entities in colombia mention explicitly, this quality is necessary to fuel the desired broad exchange of views which extend beyond the boundaries of the publishing institution, the region or the country. nevertheless, this supposed broad exchange of views adheres even more closely to one standard univocal discourse than sometimes within country-specific publications, where less attention may be paid to the rigors of the reigning stamp of the word, and more freedom of expression and liberty of form may be evident. in general, publication in international journals requires authors to master a set of very rigid standards of discourse and form, as well as a clear preference for one standard format for research articles. editors in particular are entrusted with the task of enforcing this set discourse through a process of sometimes violent interventions into the voice of the author and the words she chooses to use to express herself. by aiding new authors to publish for the first time, more novices are initiated into the elite group of the published. being published is the mark of arriving as an academic today. those who have published vs. those who have not, and what they have published is constantly under review and speculation by the community at large and the specific discipline. in spite of the daunting prospect of writing for publication for the first time, new initiates readily accept the challenge and the sweat of multiple revisions and corrections of their work for the privilege of membership in this select group. no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) 8 the dichotomy of exclusion and inclusion, of novice and expert, of first-time author and established expert is a pervasive reality in academic publishing in colombia and elsewhere. while it is certainly worthwhile to encourage alternative forms of expression within the academic community, it remains the charge of academic journals such as gist to publish within the accepted scope of academic discourse. it is also incumbent upon publications such as ours to disseminate, in first order, original research in the field of bilingual and language education and learning. it is with this task that gist set out this year to recruit and mentor a number of first-time authors in this seventh number of the journal. the fruits of our labor can be seen in this year’s issue of the journal, in the form of first-time publications by local teacher-scholarresearchers, whose work rests alongside studies by well-established and veteran authors from several countries. the result is a testimony to the interest, perseverance and talent within our own community, and the potential of local authors to join, if they wish, the order of academic discourse internationally. it is our hope that this number of gist manages to establish the rich exchange of viewpoints which is the proposed intention of academic scholarship. gist this year features a number of related articles clustered around several areas of interest, including culture, community, teaching, language policy and teacher development. in terms of the bond between language and culture, sasan and moghadam examine teachers’ beliefs about teaching culture and contrast that with their actions in the classroom, exploring the apparent discord between the two. leonardo herrera explores the changing linguistic standards in mass cultural media. three articles deal with the value of connections to the community, beyond the walls of the classroom, and how this might be particularly beneficial to teachers in training as well as students’ education. alma rodríguez describes how pre-service teachers work within real-life contexts to develop meaningful community-based projects, such as pet welfare campaigns. peralta and galaviz both argue the impact of recognizing the home culture and understanding the relationships between home, school and community in pre-service teachers’ students’ education. castillo and camelo explore how parental involvement can be beneficial to children’s english language education even though parents may not speak the language themselves. the thread of teacher education extends to two articles which explore crucial junctures in the lives of teachers in training. rebeca no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) 9 tapia explores pre-service teachers’ expectations of thesis supervisors and points out the fundamental role they play in guiding students through this final stage of becoming licensed teachers. mary anne mcdanel de garcía addresses the issue of how novice student teachers acquire the ethical and moral judgment required to assume personal and administrative responsibilities in professional contexts. a number of articles in this issue deal with information and communication technology (ict). ariza and súarez sánchez share a study in which the integration of ict tools in autonomy training resulted in significant steps on the part of teachers-in-training towards autonomous learning processes. carolina rodríguez argues for the need for general ict and e-moderating competencies in training programs for online english language tutors. related to the use of strategies for language learning, margarita arango presents evidence that strongly supports the integration of writing strategies in general task-based language classes for teenagers. an important contribution that colombian scholars can make to the broader academic debate is by sharing local language education issues. this enriches the understanding more generally of language and pedagogy and may possibly encourage reciprocal scholarship from countries with similar conditions and challenges. in this year’s issue, gist is privileged to share a number of reflections on the issue of bilingualism policies in colombia and the complexity inherent in their articulation and implementation in real academic settings. joya and cerón argue the need to examine bilingual language policy within the context of globalization, particularly in the case of latin america. carlo granados shares the challenging task of implementing language policies and practices in the concrete setting of university language education in bogotá and points to the need for a systematic approach to their implementation. in terms of implementing language practices in colombian contexts, yamith fandiño argues for the need for the english language teaching community in colombia to move far beyond the existing paradigm of 21st century skills and to promote the development of language programs that are designed to develop these skills in an integrated fashion. another localized but increasingly relevant area of research on use of english in university settings is presented by ricardo nausa, who reviews the relevant literature on the use of lexical bundles in academic presentations by non-native speakers of english. the international connection of this issue completes its circle as gist is particularly honored this year to feature an article no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) 10 by stephen krashen, renowned linguist, researcher and scholar. his article explores the role of the monitor under conditions of direct pronunciation instruction. continuing the thread, our seventh number closes with a review of a publication on teaching pronunciation for language teachers in training. it is gist’s hope and conviction, in keeping with the institution’s mission, to continue aiding and mentoring novice researchers and firsttime authors from within our own community. we would encourage any newcomers who have completed research articles to submit their work to the journal in the hopes that our publication might continue to open new threads of inquiry and usher in a new generation of teacherscholar-researchers into the discourse community editor *josephine taylor received her ba in english and french from emory university and her ms in the teaching of english as second language from georgia state university, both in atlanta, georgia. she has been a teacher of english language and linguistics for more than 25 years, as well as administrator, curriculum designer, and external reviewer of language education programs in the u.s. and colombia. she has also worked extensively in english language publishing, as author, course developer and editor. josephine is currently the new editor of gist education and learning research journal and adjunct professor in the undergraduate and graduate bilingual teaching programs at the institución universitaria colombo americana, única. no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) gist1-2007.indd 65 intercultural communication competence through experiential learning: the importance of student-initiated strategies and dialogic encounters josephine ann taylor acknowledgement many thanks are due to the students of intercultural communication, 2nd semester 2005, of the institución universitaria colombo americana for their participation in the subculture project and their permission to reprint their experiences and findings here: angela ardila, jennifer calderón, milena jiménez, viviana morales, angélica peña and diana salcedo 66 intercultural communication competence through experiential learning abstract approaches to intercultural communication competence (icc) generally argue the need for objective knowledge about another culture as well as knowledge about and the ability to achieve appropriate behaviors of that target culture. most of these approaches continue to base themselves on a conception of culture as comprehensive but static. intercultural contact in this sense is a matter of contrasting and overcoming differences between one’s own culture and the host or target culture. other approaches, however, are adopting a more multicultural and pluricultural view of intercultural competence, and a more fluid and dynamic conceptualization of culture. these approaches tend to see the intercultural dynamic as an opportunity for “third places” to emerge where entirely new cultural knowledge and behavior can be constructed through cross-cultural contact and the interaction process in itself. this view sees cultures not as fixed entities to be learned and then copied, but rather as a hybrid and emergent phenomenon of today’s societies. what are needed, it is argued, are individuals who are more aware of their own linguaculture in a much deeper way, and who are open to exploring new identities and perspectives as part of their daily contact with others. here, the other is not only the different culture, with the emphasis on “different,” but rather the other may be anyone with whom the individual chooses to interact. this paper explores the subculture adaptation project conducted with third semester students in the bilingual education program at the institución universitaria colombo americana. students were asked to choose a subculture to which they wanted to or needed to belong, and complete a series of tasks to document the adaptation process. this exercise reveals that students who achieved the greatest degree of adaptation were those who were not limited to focusing on differences between themselves and members of the subculture. rather, these students consistently sought out emergent third places where they could construct relationships and interactions that brought together self and other in dialogic encounters where new understandings, relationships and identities could emerge. resumen distintas propuestas sobre la competencia comunicativa intercultural (cci) plantean la necesidad de poseer un conocimiento objetivo acerca de la otra cultura, al igual que de la habilidad de adquirir comportamientos propios de ésta. la mayoría de estas propuestas continúan basandose en la idea de que la cultura es amplia, pero estática. en este sentido, el contacto cultural se considera como una cuestión de contrastar y superar las diferencias entre la cultura propia y la cultura huesped u objeto. otras propuestas, sin embargo, están adoptando una visión más multicultural y pluricultural de la competencia intercultural, y una conceptualización más dinámica y fluída de la cultura. estas propuestas tienden a concebir la dinámica intercultural como una oportunidad para que aparezcan “terceros lugares” en donde se puedan construir un conocimiento y un comportamiento cultural completemente nuevos por medio del contacto entre-culturas y el proceso de interacción mismo. esta aproximación asume que las culturas no son entidades rígidas, que deben ser aprendidas y luego copiadas, sino que son un híbrido y un fenómeno que surge de las sociedades de hoy. se necesita, explican, de personas que sean más concientes de su lenguacultura a un nivel más profundo, y que estén abiertos a explorar nuevas identidades y perspectivas como parte de su contacto diario con otros. en este caso, el otro no es sólo la otra cultura diferente, con un marcado énfasis en su caráter de “diferente”; por el contrario, el otro puede ser alguien con quien la persona decide interactuar.este escrito explora el proyecto de adaptación cultural que se llevó a cabo con estudiantes de tercer semestre de la institución 67 universitaria colombo americana. en éste, se le pidió a los estudiantes que escogieran una subcultura a la que necesitaban o querían pertenecer, y que hicieran una serie de tareas para documentar el proceso de adaptación. este ejercicio muestra que los estudiantes que alcanzaron los niveles más altos de adaptación fueron aquellos que no se limitaron a enfocarse en las diferencias entre ellos y los miembros de la subcultura que estudiaron. por el contrario, estos estudiantes buscaron de manera consistente aquellos “terceros lugares” que surgían, a partir de los cuales construyeron relaciones e interacciones que integraban su yo y el otro en encuentros donde se daba el surgimiento de nuevos entendimientos, relaciones e identidades. key words: intercultural competence, cultural contact, cultural adaptation, culture, identity. palabras clave: competencia intercultural, contacto cultural, adaptación cultural, identidad. introduction the concept of intercultural communication and more specifically intercultural competence has become more frequent in contexts of foreign language learning since its inclusion in the general competences of the common european framework (council of europe, 2001). still, many treatments of intercultural competence are based on the concept of culture as a set of fixed parameters for thought and action and intercultural communication as a matter of contrast, essentially, between one’s own and others’ beliefs and behaviors. in this light, intercultural competence is a matter of achieving a smooth transition between one’s own culture and that of others by acquiring objective knowledge about the target culture as well as expertise in and the ability to achieve appropriate behaviors in that culture recently, however, other approaches are adopting a more multicultural and pluricultural view of intercultural competence, and a more fluid and dynamic conceptualization of culture. this view sees cultures not as fixed entities to be learned and then copied, but rather as a hybrid and emergent phenomenon of today’s societies (areizaga, 2001; carr, 1999; trujillo sáez, 2001). some have compared culture and intercultural communication to the construction of different discourses or realities on an interpersonal or inter-group level (palfreyman, 2005). the “assumptive world of the individual” (barna, 1998) is a highly significant, although subjective perspective of reality, and it is common for individuals to routinely encounter difference in their perspectives of the same thing. difference according to age, gender, profession, religious affiliation, organizational or family membership josephine ann taylor 68 are common, and we could argue that distinct perspectives of reality, values and patterns of behavior are constructed within these groups, much in the way they are in different cultures according to an ethnic dimension. achieving effective communication between members of different groups, not only ethnic or regional groups, is a challenge for living in today’s diverse communities. many authors (gudykunst & ting-toomey, 1988) consider the role of culture in interpersonal communication much in the way that it has been considered for intercultural communication in the traditional sense. these latter approaches tend to see the intercultural dynamic as an opportunity for “third places” to emerge where entirely new cultural knowledge and behavior can be constructed through cross-cultural contact and the interaction process in itself (lo bianco, j. et al, 1999; carr, 1999). what are needed, it is argued, are individuals who are more aware of their own linguaculture in a much deeper way, and who are open to exploring new identities and perspectives as part of their daily contact with others. here, the other is not only the different culture, with the emphasis on “different,” but rather the other may be anyone with whom the individual chooses to interact. this paper explores the subculture adaptation project conducted with third semester students in the bilingual education program at the institución universiatria colombo americana. students were asked to choose a subculture to which they wanted to or needed to belong, and complete a series of tasks to document the adaptation process. this exercise reveals indeed that students who achieved the greatest degree of adaptation were those who were not limited to focusing on differences between themselves and the subculture, but rather who sought out emergent third places where they could construct relationships and interactions that brought together both self and other into dialogic encounters where new understandings, relationships and identities could emerge. what is culture? perspectives about intercultural competence and ideas about how to achieve it are rooted in one’s underlying conception of culture. the traditional definition of culture, and perhaps the most common still remains some version of e.b. tyler’s famous 19th century statement that culture is “that complex whole which includes knowledge, belief, art, morals, law, custom, and any other capabilities and habits acquired by man as a member of society” (in lustig & koester, 1999, 28). these beliefs, norms and patterns of behavior are also considered to form a hidden superstructure that acts as a filter through which members intercultural communication competence through experiential learning 69 of a group see things (geertz, in berthoin & friedman, 2003). this group is usually considered according to an ethnic dimension, that is, as having a distinct country, regional or territorial affiliation, or at least a hereditary dimension since it is assumed that culture is learned and passed along through the generations as well. while it is still frequently seen and appeals to common sense as well, this traditional definition is accompanied today by other conceptualizations of culture that definitely impact the approach to intercultural communication and attempts at developing or studying intercultural competence. today’s concepts of culture include three important distinctions from the above. first, that culture can involve different domains, and is not an overriding set of norms applicable to all domains that most people inhabit on a daily basis. second, that it can reside in both the individual and the group (gudykunst & tingtoomey, 1998¸ palfreyman, 2005). third, that culture is not a fixed set of parameters, but is rather fluid and emergent, and particularly influenced by the interaction process itself (fairley, 2000). in this way, culture might not even be the appropriate term, but rather might relate more closely to what is known in post-structuralist theory as a discourse (foucault, in palfreyman, 2005; gee, in carr, 1999), which is “a way of interpreting and describing the world that is constructed through language and that appears across different contexts” (palfreyman, 2005, 213). this new interpretation is highly relevant when attempting to explain and address the difficulties that many people have communicating across boundaries of identity with others of different groups, not just different ethnic groups, but also across boundaries of age, gender, class, organizational or professional affiliation, or even across boundaries of identity constructs such as hobbies, personalities, and subculture identification. again, while much of the material on intercultural competence refers to culture in the traditional way and perceives intercultural communication as a problem of two different ethnic worldviews coming into contact, for our purposes it is relevant to draw on these latter considerations in order to address, as well, the communication problems most immediate and common in our setting. indeed, the subculture project described in this paper assumes the following: first, that interpersonal encounters and interaction across boundaries carry a similar dynamic as intercultural contact in the traditional sense. second, that experiential learning is possible through a josephine ann taylor 70 combination of theoretical study and exercises of reflection relevant to the adaptation process. this learning occurs without the need for intercultural encounters in the traditional sense; i.e. through visits to foreign countries or contact with foreigners. third, that the project would afford students important lessons for future encounters with others in terms of improved intercultural awareness and communicative competence across cultural and other boundaries and eventually more productive and peaceful relationships in their daily interaction in today’s society. perspectives on intercultural competence there are a variety of frameworks for dealing with intercultural awareness, communication and competence, as well as the adaptation process to a new culture. most of these frameworks and models presuppose one or another conceptualization of culture, as discussed above, and may be considered more or less useful to our discussion. nevertheless, it may be useful to examine several of them here. traits, competences and behaviors most of the models for developing intercultural competence assume the need to possess or acquire specific traits, characteristics, skills or competences in order to be more successful at dealing with members of other cultures, or with other individuals as well (lambert, 1999; lustig & koester, 1999). it is assumed that these items may be identified and in some cases even taught in order to increase an individual’s competence. in general, this approach looks for indicators of higher levels of global awareness as well as relativity and include such traits as flexibility, openness, patience, empathy and tolerance for ambiguity. by competence, most agree that the concept includes aspects such as effectiveness as well as appropriateness (lustig & koester, 1999). these competences include the ability to establish interpersonal relationships, as well as the awareness of the implications of cultural differences. other competences are the ability to communicative effectively and appropriately, the ability to adhere to norms and get help and the ability to collaborate in order to accomplish something of mutual interest or need. an obvious, but often overlooked element also includes proficiency in the target language (fantini, 2001). once the process has begun, the development of intercultural competence normally involves an on-going and lengthy process, occasionally even with plateaus and set-backs, and normally with no definable end. intercultural interactions are considered to be similar intercultural communication competence through experiential learning 71 to interpersonal interactions, but with many more variables. we could imagine a continuum of interactions with intimates or strangers within one’s own culture, interaction with people within a different subculture, interaction with others from other cultures in the home culture, and interaction with others in the host culture. each stage on the continuum presents more and more variables that make interactions less and less predictable (fantini, 2001). other approaches include the behavioral, which is not just what people think but what they do. this approach looks at specific communication behaviors during interactions. this approach looks for both the appropriateness and effectiveness of interactions and includes such evidence as the following: display of respect, orientation to knowledge, empathy, task role behavior or how to get something done, relational role behavior or how to relate to others, interaction management, and tolerance for ambiguity (koester & olebe, in lustig & koester, 1999). the above traits, competences and behaviors tend to intersect with cognitive, affective and behavioral dimensions of intercultural competence. some authors, however, devote particular attention to the affective dimension and refer specifically to the development of intercultural sensitivity (bennett, 1998; chen, 1997). chen, specifically, separates intercultural awareness, sensitivity and competence according to the cognitive, affective and behavioral dimensions, respectively, and gives particular priority to sensitivity as a pre-requisite for the other dimensions to be developed. bennett’s developmental model of intercultural sensitivity (1998) explores the process of cultural adaptation, beginning in stages of ethnocentrism and moving towards stages of increased ethnorelativism. goals and adaptation development one drawback of the above approaches is the lack of attention as to how individuals are expected to acquire the traits, competences, attitudes or behaviors needed to be successful at intercultural encounters. the following approaches devote more attention to issues arising directly out of processes of adaptation and spaces of interaction between selves and others. success at acquiring intercultural competence is linked to the purpose and goals of the interaction. for some, a goal might be to achieve native-like behavior; for others, it may be to gain acceptance in the host culture; and for still others, it might be just to survive (bradford josephine ann taylor 72 et al, 1998). fantini’s (2001) yoga framework or “your objectives, guidelines, and assessment” allows participants to define their own objectives, guides them throughout the experience and also provides an assessment tool for use at various stages of the process and at the end. this framework is also unique in that it includes both the guest’s (outsider) and host’s (insider) perspectives. this illustrates well the view of competence mentioned above as being that which is not only effective behavior (from the guest’s viewpoint) but also as appropriate behavior (from the host culture perspective). this model includes four dimensions: educational traveler, sojourner, professional, and specialist (fantini, 2001). the bhawuk and triandis model of intercultural expertise development (1996) accounts for the relationship between cultural knowledge, theoretical knowledge and experience in the development of intercultural competence. it includes four categories of expertise along a continuum: lay, novice, expert and advanced expert. moving along the scale depends on the individual’s level of theoretical knowledge and length of time in the host country. it is assumed that more training and theoretical knowledge of intercultural concepts, along with extended stay will develop knowledge (and expertise) at the level of application (knowing how to apply theory to experience) and eventually will allow for automatic knowledge where an individual might know how to behave at the moment of interaction. this model is interesting because it correlates strongly with the experiences of students in the subculture project, described later, where they were able to understand their experiences more deeply through their increasing contact with theoretical knowledge. this model is important as well because it stresses the limited developmental potential in pure experience, and attempts to explain why long-term residents of foreign countries often know how to behave but rarely know why certain behaviors or norms are preferred. avoiding and dealing with cross-cultural misunderstanding some of the literature about adaptation is specifically interested in the analysis or prevention of cross-cultural misunderstandings. although considered by many as an out-of-date piece of scholarship, gordon’s 1974 study of homestays in bogotá, colombia is quite useful for its challenges, even today, of typical folk wisdom surrounding intercultural encounters, especially in reference to those traits and characteristics thought to be important. indeed, not only intercultural sojourners, but most people do not normally consider themselves closed, difficult, intercultural communication competence through experiential learning 73 arrogant or inflexible people. yet most people routinely have mild to serious misunderstandings with others on an almost daily basis. the subjects in gordon´s study were all individuals who were highly motivated to live in colombia and participate in their host families’ lives. still, as gordon points out, “goodwill and intelligence are not enough” (gordon, 1974, 3) to prevent unintended but serious misunderstandings capable of undermining not only a guest’s ability to adapt to a homestay, but also capable of generating and perpetuating cultural stereotypes on the part of both north americans and colombians. gordon proposes a syllogistic analysis of the situations surrounding misunderstandings where the underlying cultural assumptions and patterns as well as situational premises are the source of many misunderstandings among people who actually have a strong desire or intention to communicate well (gordon, 1974). another interesting perspective on the source of misunderstandings is related to what is known as the “assumptive world of the individual,” where one person’s individual reality, regardless of cultural background, may be quite distinct in relationship to another (barnlund, 1998). …people see the world through templates which force them to construe events in unique ways. these patterns or grids which we fit over the realities of the world are cut from our own experience and values, and they predispose us to certain interpretations. industrialist and farmer do not see the “same” land; husband and wife do not plan for the “same” child; doctor and patient do not discuss the “same” disease; borrower and creditor do not negotiate the “same” mortgage; daughter and daughter-in-law do not react to the “same” mother. the worlds people create for themselves are distinctive worlds, not the same worlds others occupy. they fashion from every incident whatever meanings fit their own private biases. these biases, taken together, constitute what has been called the “assumptive world of the individual.” the worlds people get inside their heads are the only worlds they know. and these symbolic worlds, not the real world, are what people talk about, argue about, laugh about, fight about. barnlund (1998, 41). later in the subculture project, we will examine this perspective more in detail as participants were given a specific assignment in reference to this concept. students also found particularly helpful a collection of over-riding caveats, pointing out common errors in intercultural josephine ann taylor 74 and even interpersonal communication. barna (1998) points out six stumbling blocks to intercultural communication that may also be applied to communicating with others even inside the same culture. they are: assumption of similarities, language differences, nonverbal misinterpretations, preconceptions and stereotypes, tendency to evaluate and high anxiety. the preconceptions and stereotypes of others and the preference for similarity especially lead to the practice of “othering.” othering refers to “the ways in which the discourse of a particular group defines other groups in opposition to itself: and us and them view that constructs an identity for the other and, implicitly, for the self” (woodward, in palfreyman, 2005). othering can perpetuate generalizations and stereotypes and cause major barriers to successful communication. interactional perspectives related to newer views of culture mentioned earlier, there are also alternative perspectives of intercultural communication competence which perceive culture and intercultural encounters as more fluid and unpredictable in terms of creation, emergence and interaction. hammer (in fairley, 2000, 9) states “it is not the communication skill per se that contributes to the various adaptation and or effectiveness outcomes… rather, it is the individual interactants’ judgments of self and other competence based upon the communication performances engaged…” casmir (in fairley, 2000) provides a model of intercultural communication that moves away from the unidirectional emphasis of previous models, proposing that the model should mirror the interactionality and participatory nature of real human encounters. he suggests that new cultures can emerge through intercultural interaction since individuals are actually more than the boundaries of cultural norms to which they may belong. this is particularly relevant when viewing subcultures since most individuals move in a fluid fashion from subculture to subculture throughout their daily routines, adapting, modifying and creating themselves in the process, and that it is precisely the qualities that enable this daily adaptation that are the same qualities and competences required when facing “foreign” or “new” cultures and subcultures. this alternative view sees culture linked to the concept of identity, and cultural identities as emerging, modifiable and situational, negotiated during interactions, much in keeping with the not-only-ethnic, discoursenatured concept of culture outlined earlier. in this view, culture is actually intercultural communication competence through experiential learning 75 emerging, dynamic, and created even within the contexts of interaction, subject to change (casmir, in trujillo sáez, 2005). competence in this context is not characterized by universal or general aptitudes (tolerance, respect, empathy) applicable to any and all situations, but rather dependent on the particular situation or context and one’s interaction with it. intercultural communication is not just for divergent groups or contexts, but is actually characterized by the coming together through interaction and shared experience and the third culture that emerges from this interaction (lo bianco et al, 1999). it is argued that these “third spaces” are in fact the most valuable in terms of their potential for generating opportunities for interaction, dialogue, and even conflict, which at its root provides the most fertile ground for “productive dialogue between existing and new understandings” (carr, 1999, 106). this approach challenges the need for learning appropriate behaviors or acquiring useful traits for future encounters when it is virtually impossible to predict cultural behavior. rather, it relies on experience, including failure experience as a teaching tool and rejects the notion that being competent necessarily involves being appropriate. this approach also embraces the newer conceptualizations of culture as a highly emergent, individual and hybrid and views the spaces of interaction between cultural beings as opportunities for dialogic encounters and heteroglossia (bakhtin, in carr, 1999) where many voices come together to form a new culture. it is interesting that precisely this multi-voicing and dialogue were strategies developed by students in the subculture adaptation project. the subculture adaptation project in order to explore these frameworks and theories in a practical and experiential exercise, it may be interesting to document several findings from the “the subculture adaptation project,” carried out with third-semester-university students enrolled in the undergraduate bilingual education program at the institución universitaria colombo americana in bogotá, colombia. the objective of the project was for each student to follow his or her personal process of adaptation to a new subculture. this paper assumes that a subculture can be defined as a slice of the host culture, a group to which one belongs in addition to belonging to the umbrella culture of, for example, colombians or bogotanos. examples of subcultures include professions and families, each with their own rules and patterns of behavior, insider knowledge, discourses and beliefs. other examples can include those chosen in this study: hip-hoppers, millionarios or santa fé soccer team fan clubs, gym-goers, or members of classrooms or a particular group josephine ann taylor 76 of friends or social circle. the goal of the project was not necessarily that students adapt completely, but to carry out an attempt at the adaptation process and to learn from the experience. the rationale for the project is connected to the university’s philosophy of learning as involving the acquisition of not only content but skills and language as well. hence, the objective of the course was for students to not only demonstrate knowledge about theories of intercultural communication, but also to carry out systematic chains of action in order to gain and demonstrate competence as well. in the case of intercultural communication, the approach to culture argued above made it possible to carry out experiential learning without an international experience with a “foreign” culture or with the culture of the target language, that being english. as stated above, encounters with members of other subcultures or individuals within one’s own culture carry an intercultural dimension that is significant but often overlooked. in a previous course, communication theory, students were exposed to the concept of a subculture, and had spent an entire semester studying insider meaning within the subcultures they belonged to, for example, metal-heads, billiard players, jehovah’s witnesses, soccer teams, families, musical groups, salsa clubs, dance-dance-revolutionaries, and more. students were able to observe and analyze all aspects of insider meaning, including symbols and artifacts, use of space and environment, cultural patterns, values and beliefs, verbal and nonverbal communication. they acquired tools and techniques such as ethnographic fieldnotes, participant observation, use of informants, and had learned to analyze the observed phenomena according to general theories of meaning creation within groups. two of the most important theoretical figures in the course included edward t. hall and roland barthes, and students used these frameworks in their analysis of cultural patterns, artifacts, symbols and space. the intercultural communication course was an extension of this previous training and provided new theoretical concepts related to cultural variation, the adaptation process, and intercultural competence. task 1: choose the subculture the subculture project was divided into four tasks. in the first task, students were asked to choose the subculture to which they wished to adapt and to explain the reasons for their choice. personal motivations for the choice of subculture differed, but most expressed a real need intercultural communication competence through experiential learning 77 and desire to adapt to the group. in three cases, students chose a new class with a new teacher who was a foreigner (north american and british). other students related their choice to social needs and relationships with friends or boyfriends who belonged to different subcultures that the student felt the need to join: e.g. a different social circle, millionarios and santa fé soccer team fan clubs, gym-goers. many students saw the subculture project as a way to confront their own preconceptions about the group and saw the project as a way to overcome difficulties that they might have experienced previously, or to deal with issues related to difference, miscommunication, misadaptation, and the existence of preconceptions, stereotypes and generalizations. for example, angela chose the “world deport” gym where her best friend worked out even though she admitted that “i do not like to exercise and i have a bad preconception about people who go there. for me, these people are superficial and plastic. it means that they only want to look good and they do not care about knowledge.” milena chose her boyfriend’s social circle despite previous difficulties. “for me to make an integration with them has been hard because of many reasons. first, i feel unsure of my own knowledge and personality in front of them. second, my boyfriend’s friends have another style of life. for instance, they have families and other kinds of experiences that i do not have, so their perspective is different from mine.” jennifer chose her research teacher, a north american. she noted that the adaptation would not only involve an individual from a foreign culture, but to a new group of classmates as well. “besides adapting to my new research teacher, i have to share with people i have not worked with before.” most voiced feelings of anxiety and anticipation about facing new situations and new people, nervousness about facing the new experience, but optimism about the project as a way to help them learn how to adapt to new situations. some even presented a list of objectives, or a plan to mentally visualize how the project would develop. viviana wrote, “based on my experience with my english teacher, who is an american, i am positive that i can learn much more through differences because they lead me to develop adaptation strategies.” josephine ann taylor 78 jennifer says, “many times i have to tell my research teacher; ‘excuse me, could you please explain…?’ it is embarrassing. but i will overcome misunderstandings and later on i will laugh with my classmates about the professor’s jokes” milena comments, “when i was in my boyfriend’s office, i felt a little nervous because there were people i did not know, so i was thinking, ‘how do i have to behave here?’” angela: “i feel anxious because i know that it can be difficult for since i have to do physical exercise. but, i also want to meet new people and ways of thinking.” task 2: “the assumptive world of the individual” this task made reference to a theoretical concept, the “assumptive world of the individual,” which students had encountered in barnlund (1998). this concept is relevant to the development of intercultural competence since it explores the existence of reality from within each individual rather than in reference to an “objective” world outside of our heads. this explains why two cultures, groups, or even individuals can perceive “the same thing” from entirely different perspectives, a phenomenon that lies at the heart of many, if not most, intercultural or interpersonal misunderstandings. this concept is also important because it helps us move beyond the typical consideration of culture as something static and predictable by groups, comprised of predictable common beliefs and patterns of behavior. rather, it helps us explore culture as something more flexible, emerging and variable, articulated in individual or group discourses. most students in this task related an incident that had taken place in their new subculture and then attempted to analyze and explain the basis for misunderstanding through the distance between their own perspective of the event vs. that of the member or members of the subculture. angelica writes, “when i saw the police woman in el campin, (football stadium) i smiled like saying ‘hi!’ but she thought that i had something strange because of my smile. i did it because i was quite nervous.” angelica was given an extra-complete frisking and had her belt confiscated as a “reward” for her “polite” behavior. angela encountered what she considered “strange behavior” on her first visit to the gym. she writes, “the first time i was there i felt intercultural communication competence through experiential learning 79 uncomfortable because people looked at me as an alien. after telling my friend how i felt, she told me that they always behave like that with new people… usually we see, hear, smell and feel according to our own reality, rather than based on the insiders’ one….not everybody understands and interpret behaviors in the same way. today i am conscious about it, and it is really helpful.” here we can see the emergence of strategies employed by the students as they attempted to investigate the “insider” meaning vs. their own understanding. they used participant observation, informants, sometimes multiple informants, sometimes asking the member of the subculture directly, reflection, class discussion and time as tools to understand the incident from another perspective. diana writes about her british teacher, “i do not like it when my teacher says ‘shut up.’ some of my classmates say that it is a way to control; others interpret this expression as ‘callese la jeta.’ after asking my teacher about this phrase, i could understand that she just wants us not to talk among ourselves in order to lead us to ask her in case of any doubt.” jennifer writes, “’i like risks, or why do you think i am here in colombia?’ it was not funny for me, but it was for most of the class because they already know the kind of jokes that the research teacher tells. for me he was a little rude. after asking one of my classmates what was so funny about that, i could see the situation from another perspective and could laugh too. now i am becoming more open minded and respectful while adapting to my subculture.” viviana used a combination of direct questioning and comparison with her own cultural reference to interpret the following problem: “study all the new reading’s vocabulary for the exam.” when my english teacher asked me to do that, i thought he was crazy. this is impossible to achieve, and it doesn’t make any sense. english 4 readings have 60% new words, and x’s favorite phrase is, “i will ask this on the final test.” so, in spite of my fear when i am in front of x, i decided to ask him what he means by “study all the new reading’s vocabulary.” his response was “i do not want you to memorize every single word, just use some of them in your writing. also, i want you to focus on the main ideas of the readings, not just in new words. don’t worry about it.” after our conversation, i asked myself why i was stressed about memorizing all the words. i concluded that it was because in my culture, students are supposed to learn many things by memory. after clarifying josephine ann taylor 80 this misunderstanding, i realized how different our “assumptive world” was. he asked me something according with his own intentions and worldview, and i understood another thing due to my personal interpretation about it.. once students achieved the understanding from another perspective, it aided them in breaking down preconceptions, stereotypes and generalizations since it added a dimension of understanding and empathy. as well, the use of informants to gain insights into the perspective of the other, and establishing dialogue directly with the individual in question or a member of the subculture were important strategies that once developed, students continued to rely on in future encounters. once established, the continued use of informants and dialogue enabled the students to open third spaces of emergent culture where they could openly explore the issues affecting their entry into the other culture as well as others’ perceptions of them. to the extent that these dialogic encounters were allowed to continue and develop throughout the project, students’ adaptation gained an important dimension absent from other students’ who did not manage to establish such spaces. viviana writes, “i had some prejudices about my english teacher. last semester a friend of mine told me, ’his speech is not easy to understand. he assigns a great amount of homework. exams are difficult and they are the only grade along the semester. also, he is not friendly at all.’ fortunately, now i am aware of how harmful it is to keep those prejudices, so facing the situation is a good chance to get rid of them. the high degree of interaction i developed during classes and out of them helped me a lot to know and adapt to my english teacher.” task 3: where am i on the adaptation scale? in this task, students were asked to place themselves on the bhawuk and triandis’ scale of intercultural expertise. this scale makes reference to the interplay between theoretical knowledge, culture-specific knowledge and experience, and their effect on the individual’s adaptability to a foreign culture. (bhawuk & triandis, 1996). most students placed themselves between novice and expert stages, with some feeling that they were more towards the novice and others more towards the expert. after placing themselves on the scale, they gave concrete evidence to support their decision. intercultural communication competence through experiential learning 81 most students discussed the role of theoretical knowledge and its usefulness for helping them adapt to the new subculture. key to reaching the “associative” stage of the scale and moving to be an “expert” is acquiring the ability to apply theoretical knowledge to practical experience. this relationship does not become automatic where the person naturally knows how to behave until the “advanced expert” stage, but at the associative stage, the person at least is able to make the link between what he or she experiences and what intercultural theory might lend to that experience. in our case, it helped students analyze their experiences, although often after the fact. when analyzing their ability to apply theory, students referred frequently to edward t. hall’s discussion of cultural patterns (hall, 1959, 1969, 1976) studied in the previous semester. it is interesting to note that students found his theoretical insights into cultural patterns useful even in the new class. in most assessments, students mentioned that they had successfully adapted to the subculture enough in order to carry out basic interaction as part of the group without feeling as much like an outsider with no idea what to do. most said that they felt fairly comfortable when being in the group, in social situations, knew when to laugh, could follow the social interaction and basically felt okay. jennifer writes, “i have applied in my research class what i have learned in intercultural communication class, so i can say that theory is helpful to face and understand differences. taking into account my experiences in research class, i consider that my level of theoretical training is high because when i face new situations i analyze differences, common symbols, expressions, and so on; theory and experience must go together.” milena explains, “despite of the fact that i felt uncomfortable and anxious with my boyfriend’s co-workers because of their age and knowledge, i am trying to adapt using the theory i have learned. during my process of adaptation there, once i talked with one of my boyfriend’s friends and i realized that she was not as i thought. so, i am sure that theory leads me to be open-minded, and helps me a lot to get rid of generalizations.” the only exception was angelica who did not feel that she had adequate knowledge about soccer or enough theoretical knowledge to apply to her experiences in el campín. she still felt like a novice. she writes, “i do not know what theory i can apply when i am interacting with unfamiliar people or subcultures. when i was in el campín josephine ann taylor 82 watching a game, i felt tired so i sat down. as soon as i did, people looked at me in a bad way. later my boyfriend explained that people there do not sit down until after the first 45 minutes of the game.” in spite of his explanation, angelica was upset because she considered that she had a right to sit down if she was tired. most students felt that in spite of their progress, they still had many things to learn and continued to experience misunderstandings or continued to struggle with difficulty accepting members of the other subculture. some students began wondering if there were limits to adaptation. milena writes, “i met a man (in the group) with a sexist attitude. this… made me feel so uncomfortable and also caused me to make strong generalizations about him because according to my own perspective, this way to behave was disgusting and disrespectful…so, i could not avoid my own perception about his personality.” again, students pointed to a variety of tools, skills and strategies they had developed to understand members of the subculture and to read encounters and experiences through the eyes of theory. most felt that the theory allowed them to be more aware of difference and aware in general. again, strategies were used successfully to deal with miscommunications and to avoid “bumps.” these strategies included participant observation and analysis afterwards, speaking to informants, reflection, discussion of incidents in intercultural communication class, and analysis. frequently time and more experience aided in the students’ ability to adapt and move on the scale. diana writes, “i am moving from the novice to the expert stage since i have developed some strategies like the identification of artifacts, symbols, cultural patterns, use of space, and power relationships. noticing these variables is possible through out observation, fieldnotes, participant observation, data analysis, reflection, having informants, asking the person directly and so on. based on my experience, i consider that theory and practice are really helpful to understand unfamiliar situations and reach adaptation.” task 4: final conclusions in the fourth and final task of the project, students were asked to write a report about the state of their adaptation to the subculture they had chosen. they were to give specific examples to discuss the extent of adaptation, gauge the level of success of the adaptation, and specific reasons why they had or had not successfully adapted. in this exercise, the degree of success depended to a great deal on how the student defined adaptation, and to his or her own personal goals in terms of the extent to which he or she needed definitely to intercultural communication competence through experiential learning 83 become a part of the subculture, or perhaps to simply understand it. also, this personal objective of adaptation also had to do with the personal investment each individual had of belonging to the group and to what extent. in milena’s case, there were very high expectations as well as high stakes involved in her belonging to her boyfriend’s social circle. therefore, she continued, in spite of her successes, to have a great deal of anxiety about her adaptation, and tended to become frustrated each time there were difficulties in her complete adaptation. on the other hand, she had managed to find a friend among the group, and this ally enabled her to link herself more into the social circle and achieve a sense of belonging. she also discovered that interaction with her boyfriend’s group of friends was easier outside the office in “neutral” spaces like in soccer games since the topics of conversation were not about knowledge or money. “during the soccer game, i had the opportunity to talk with some of them about my studies without feeling anxious or ashamed…once, while i was waiting for my boyfriend in his office i met y; it was nice because after our long conversation i could realize that my assumptions about her personality were wrong.” clearly for the students there were different goals in terms of the levels of adaptation they had hoped to achieve. for some, it was just a matter of facing a new group of people and understanding them better, being able to deal with the anxiety of entry into a new group. as soon as these people felt that they knew the group better and could interact on a basic level, they felt that their adaptation had been complete. in jennifer’s case, she felt that she had been successful adapting to the research class of the north american teacher. she stated that she had been able to learn the system and the rules and was able to follow the class. in other words, she knew what she had to do to get along in the course and could follow the class sessions better, knew when to laugh at the teacher’s jokes, and generally felt that she fit in fairly well in the class. she had also developed strategies to find out what she had to do. so, in relation to her goals and definition of what adaptation is, jennifer felt herself to have been successful. “adapting to my new class was kind of easy because sometimes my classmates helped me to understand and solve misinterpretations and misunderstandings. also, i checked the website that the teacher had designed for clearing up doubts and read his class summaries. i consider that i have adapted to the class since i know the flow of the josephine ann taylor 84 course, i understand more when my teacher speaks, and i feel much more comfortable because i am doing the right thing; i am not lost any more.” viviana chose the same teacher but her view of adaptation was slightly different from jennifer’s. for viviana, the preconceptions and generalizations she had about the teacher were the basis for her choosing that particular subculture because she instinctively knew that she should confront those preconceptions in order not to perpetuate the stereotyping of the teacher among her classmates. so, in her eyes, adaptation was not only to the structure and routines of the class, but to the teacher as a person who is new, different and unknown. in order to adapt to the subculture, to the course, she had to learn to adapt to the person and to confront her biases. viviana was also able to develop the strategy of dialogue as a mechanism to clarify class questions with the teacher and also as an important vehicle to open the door for further communication with the teacher. it is through this dialogue that she got to know the teacher as a person and modified her preconceptions based on first hand experience rather than gossip. “once i asked my teacher to clarify some rubrics and he told me, ‘don’t worry about my strong suggestions. you got it!’ then i realized that the communication problem between us was not language or the class itself, rather it was because of biases. so, i began to talk with him after classes about him as a person since i wanted to face preconceptions. currently, i consider that free of prejudices and assumptions, we are having a nice relationship.” it is important to note that all students who completed the project felt that they had been successful at their adaptation to the subculture although each clearly had a different notion as to what adaptation would entail and their own personal goals in the project. it is also important to note that the students were able to make this adaptation through a combination of theory, experience and the development of specific skills and strategies. students frequently mentioned the theories outlined above as a framework for understanding difference. they also resorted frequently to fieldworking skills they had learned in the previous semester as a way to observe and analyze culture. further, all students benefited from the space for analysis and distance that were possible over time due to the restriction of most experiences to discreet “entries” into the subculture rather than constant exposure. perhaps more importantly, it is possible to posit a relationship between the degree of complexity and penetration of students’ interactions intercultural communication competence through experiential learning 85 and the need for not only theory but also independent strategies for understanding, coping and analyzing what they experienced. particularly in the cases of milena and viviana, the desire to create dialogic third spaces with members of the subcultures they had chosen led to more complex interactions and ultimately more features of emergent third cultures characterized by sustained interaction and the construction of new discourses among the members. conclusion several factors proved to be significant in students’ experiences in the subculture adaptation project: theoretical awareness of culture and intercultural communication, the development and use of strategies, and the emergence of on-going dialogic encounters. students who employed all three in the analysis and reflection of their experiences in the project tended to achieve greater degrees of penetration, sustained contact and interaction, and eventually adaptation to the group or to individuals in the group. students who primarily considered difference and the contrast of one’s own beliefs and behaviors with others’ tended to achieve recognition of and sometimes understanding of difference, but failed to establish third spaces of dialogue or on-going interaction. it is interesting to note as well that where these third spaces were absent, the construction of new cultural knowledge and behaviors, new identities and interculturality in its hybrid and dynamic sense were not achieved. it is important to note that of the three significant factors affecting students’ adaptation in the project, the only aspect explicitly considered in the tasks assigned in the project was the need for theory when approaching experiential learning. the two other factors, development of independent strategies and third spaces of dialogue and construction of interculturality, were not specifically predicted as important or significant. as the strategies began to emerge in students’ practice, the professor did call the other students’ attention to what she considered significant developments. however, the concept of third spaces was never included explicitly in the project in the moment it was being carried out. this is relevant to the extent to which students might have actually gained higher or more significant levels of adaptation had these other elements been explicitly worked into project tasks and the respective reflection, analysis and discussion of them. had students known about the possibility or need for establishing dialogue and third spaces for new cultural construction, and had tasks been constructed that would have sought to invite precisely these types of considerations josephine ann taylor 86 in the subcultures, students might have been able to achieve more experience of that kind. as it stands, dialogue and strategies were developed in a completely independent and spontaneous fashion by the students. it would be important to devote more precise and structured attention to these aspects in future projects. still, a striking similarity has emerged between this experience and newer considerations of culture and intercultural communication outlined at the outset of this paper. however, as with many of the approaches to intercultural competence outlined above, there tend to be a surplus of available models but a lack of grounded research applying or exploring these frameworks. if, for example, the basis for strategy development and dialogue is to be explored further, it will be important to develop a more structured approach to research with these considerations in mind, as well as many more experiences from which to draw conclusions. references areizaga, e. 2001. cultural para la formación de la competencia comunicativa intercultural: el enfoque formativo. revista psicodidáctica, 012. universidad del país 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(eds.). (1999). striving for third place: intercultural competence through language education. deakin: australian national languages and literacy inst. pp. 65-72. retrieved september 26, 2006 from eric online database (no. ed 432 918) lustig, m. w. & koester, j. 1999. intercultural competence. new york: addison-wesley longman. palfreyman, d. 2005. othering in an english language program. tesol quarterly, 39 (2). 211-234. trujillo sáez, f. (2005). en torno a la interculturalidad: reflexiones sobre cultura y comunicación para la didáctica de la lengua. porta linguarum 4. retrived september 25, 2006 from http://fernandotrujillo.com/ publicaciones/reflexion_intercultura.pdf. josephine ann taylor 88 appendix tasks for the subculture adapatation project subculture project: task 1 choose the subculture you wish to use for the first course project. write a brief (1-page) explanation of why you have chosen the particular subculture, and describing the degree of interaction you will be able to have with that subculture. if you wish to use a subculture which you only have limited interaction with, please propose a way to work with the deadlines outlined by the course. subculture project: task 2 complete the following task based on fieldwork in your subculture. kelly (in barnlund, 1998) argues that individuals and cultures create and use different templates, patterns or grids to see the world, that things we assume are common are not, in fact, the same for everyone, even the child is not the same child according to the different interpretations by the husband or wife. barnlund goes on to argue that the worlds people create for themselves are distinct, not the same, and that they constitute the “assumptive world of the individual.” it is the only world they know, and these symbolic worlds, not the real world are what people talk about, etc. in the subculture you are studying, demonstrate these different worlds. choose several aspects to compare, for example, ideas, facts, artifacts, people. analyze to what extent the subculture’s perception or interpretation of that aspect is the same or different as your own. explain how the two perceptions differ. for example, explain the meaning in your subculture and then the meaning according to the perception of the subculture you are studying. submit a 1-2 page report about your findings. subculture project: task 3 for the following task, please refer to bhawuk and triandis’ chart of intercultural expertise. use the information in the article to place yourself on the chart in reference to the subculture you are working on. use concrete evidence from your experience in your subculture (and from your theoretical training in our courses) to explain why you placed yourself where you did on the chart. for example, what degree intercultural communication competence through experiential learning 89 of theoretical training do you think you have? how have you applied that theoretical knowledge in the subculture experience? what level of experience do you have in the new subculture? how has this growing experience helped you to be able to adapt into the culture? write up your ideas in 1-2 pages. subculture project: task 4 please write a report about the state of your adaptation to the subculture you have chosen. give specific examples to discuss the extent of your adaptation into this subculture. do you feel that you have, indeed, been successful in your adaptation? discuss the specific reasons why you have or have not successfully adapted. your report should be 2-3 pages long, and you should prepare a short 5-10 minute oral report for class. josephine ann taylor is the academic director of the centro colombo americano, bogotá and adjunct professor at the institución universitaria colombo americana. she holds a b.a. in english and french from emory university and an m.s. in teaching english as a second language from georgia state university, both in atlanta, georgia. she has taught and lived in germany, the u.s. and colombia. her interests include curricular development, speech communication, cultural studies and discourse analysis. e-mail: jtaylor@colombobogota.edu.co josephine ann taylor gist noviembre 2008final(segundas correcciones).p65 f; discovering new dimensions in an old task: higher-ed bilingual professors learn to use lesson planning for student’s educational success ���$��=�(������������������ !��<�� �� ������ ��b�� ������� 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�'�������� 9 �������� �� �������� �$������� p5�j+r �� ����� � � � � ��� %��� �����n c% �� �� � �� �6 � ��� -�a �� %� %�� ��� � ����� ��� � �� �-�� ��� �� �=����7 ���� h�#>b6�-������ ! ���#�� �����$ ,���-��� a���� ��0 �� ��0��a� �� �������������� �� ������� "� �' +-�1� �� � � ��-���' ������� ��� � � ��%� �� �� �� � �������% a-��-�� ��� ������ � ��%%���������6 �� �5�j+ ��� � �� -��� ��������� ����� ������� ���� �� ����� � �� ��� ��� � ��!� ���� �� gist1-2007.indd 49 the dialectic of a global language murray rinsdale “for a man to speak one language rather than another is a ritual act, it is a statement about one’s personal status, to speak the same language as one’s neighbours expresses solidarity with those neighbours, to speak a different language from one’s neighbours expresses social distance or even hostility” edmund leach, an anthropologist, discussing political and cultural units in highland burma (in cohn, 2000, 40) abstract this essay attempts to answer some of the basic assumptions made about english as a global language. it is argued that such assumptions, especially those concerning political and economic power, are not sufficient in themselves to explain why english has acquired such global importance. rather, what has greatly contributed to the possibility for any language to become global has been a change in the nature of language itself, a change which made language more standardized and uniform than it had ever been before. also this relates to how this process of standardization led to changes in how text was produced, and as a result changes in how reading would take place. such changes pre-empted and made possible the later invention of the printing press. how language from then on became organized and stored meant that it would be easier to teach and learn, and as a consequence reproduced in a more standardized and uniform way. this essay, in turn, concludes by pointing out that because of this process of standardization, any language in the world can be a global one, not just english. however the case does not 50 end there. in what is a post-script to this essay, it is argued how political and economic class based factors rather than encouraging the spread of english in countries not of its origin, actually restrict it. hence this undermines the efficacy of any pedagogical method which has been greatly enhanced by the growing standarization and uniformity of languages in the modern world. resumen en este ensayo se pretende dar respuesta a algunas creencias relacionadas con el inglés visto como una lengua global. se argumenta que tales creencias, en particular las relacionadas con el poder económico y político, no son suficientes para dar cuenta del porqué el inglés ha adquirido tal importancia a nivel global. al contrario de lo que se cree, lo que realmente ha contribuido al hecho de que una lengua se vuelva global es el cambio en su naturaleza. un cambio que hizo que la lengua se volviera más estandarizada y uniforme de lo que antes pudo ser, también como este proceso de estandarización trajo cambios en la forma como los textos se producen, y como consecuencia, cambios en la forma en que se leen. dichos cambios fueron supeditados y dieron pie a la posterior invención de la imprenta. esto permitió que la lengua se volviera organizada y susceptible de que se conservaran registros de ésta, lo que a su vez facilitó su aprendizaje, enseñanza y la difusión en una forma más uniforme y estandarizada. así, en este ensayo se concluye que a causa del proceso de estandarización, cualquier lengua del planeta puede constituirse en global, no solamente el inglés. sin embargo, el argumento no se limita a esto. en una adición posterior a este ensayo, se debate cómo los factores de tipo político y económico, antes que fomentar la difusión del inglés en países donde éste no es una lengua madre, en realidad la restringen, restando así eficacia a cualquier método pedagógico que haya sido impulsado por la creciente estandarización y uniformidad de las lenguas del mundo moderno. key words: standardization, uniformity, global language, power, linguisticimperialism, spaces between words, scriptura continua. palabras clave: estandarización, uniformidad, lengua global, poder, imperialismo lingüístico, espacios entre palabras, scriptura continua. rephrasing a question is often a good way to pursue a problem which no longer bears fruit. such would be the case concerning the question, “why is english the contemporary global language?” this question has arguably grown stale on account of the omnipresence of the united states and the familiar history of the past british empire. in other words, the answer to the question has become one which tends to state the obvious. according to crystal (2000,7-8), the reason english is today’s international language lies in the fact that, “a language becomes an international language for one chief reason; the political power of its people-especially their military power”. he argues that this has been the case throughout history. greek, latin, arabic, and of course eventually english, all acquired their global scale on account of their speakers´military successes and consequent domination. he the dialectic of a global language 51 adds though that military strength in itself is insufficient. there must also be economic power to maintain and drive it forward. this is more relevant in the 20th century due to the influential role of new communication technologies which have made language more accessible and widespread than before. such an answer though, besides appealing to those who may in turn feel justified “resisting” the domination of this “global language” does tend to sound a slight bit tautological, especially in a world dominated by one superpower which happens to speak english. the answer to the question then is simply reduced to that of “power.” power” is an explanation which threatens to ontologize the problem concerning the existence of a global language. ontologies tend to be persuasive because they make the past and the present appear to be the same. in other words, there is nothing historically specific or unique concerning the nature of a global language. it is assumed instead that as any “power” expands, so will the language spoken by that “power”. power attracts or repels subjects from itself; hence the more power a language acquires, the more it attracts; and the more it repels, the weaker the alternatives become. furthermore, there is also the presumption that there has been no change in the language itself, the qualities of its being. the latin of antiquity could well be the global language of today, if there had been sufficient power to make it so. the point here is that “power” fails to answer the question satisfactorily. it is related, but in itself is insufficient and does not problematize sufficiently its case. the second and related cause, economic power, and the consequences of new communication technologies, also seems to fail to provide a satisfactory answer. here the answer tends to gain force by resorting to the fetish of technological determinism. the printing press, radio, tv, computers, the internet and how they provide a vehicle for the expansion of english. this, of course, means having to take into account the greater productivity required to fill these media and spread them globally. it is otherwise referred to as mass production for mass consumption. here one may insert the marxist term, the “commodification” of language. this side of the answer is much more relevant because it allows one to consider the historical specificity of there being a global language, unlike any before in history. however it does tend to reduce the answer to that of “quantity”. in very much the same way as does the answer of political power. it is all a matter of how much power is necessary, and how much language can be produced, for a language to become “global.” murray rinsdale 52 more important though is how the combination of the idea of “political” and “economic” power as being the answer to why english is the global language has turned out to be a most robust and convincing one. one way in which it convinces is by how it fosters a strain of pedagogy which has grown sensitive to the variety of “learning cultures” in which english is being disseminated. this is a case of pedagogy responding to the needs of its learners in such a way that the political and economic power of the language will not burden, interfere or damage their education of it. rather it will help preserve their “culture”. for example it is seen in mckay (in lotherington) when discussing the “communicative approach to language teaching” tackles its assumed superiority. it is argued that clt carries with it “cultural assumptions that may not fit well in certain countries.” moreover in the book’s conclusion, the author “appeals for cultural sensitivity in the teaching of english as an international language,” stressing that pedagogical particularization is needed to effect culturally reflective teaching and learning.” similar to this is the strong criticism of the book, “world english: a study of its development (brutt-griffler). the review (young hee park, 2004, 87-9) rejects the author’s claim that world english cannot be attributed to linguistic imperialism, as it in turn fostered a consequent anti-colonial struggle against it. instead the reviewer claims, “we cannot deny that it was political imperialism which gave impetus to (english)” and the author goes on to assert that “the current native speaker dominance of world english would seem to be based more on political force than anything else”,(89). the point here is how a conscious kind of cultural sensitivity finds a great deal of its justification by drawing on the thesis that the spread of the english language has been contingent on the power behind it. hence there exists a certain feeling of ethical responsibility when teaching it so as to lessen the greater imposition of the language upon those studying it. in other words in trying to subvert that power, new pedagogies have been created to teach it showing, therefore, how the thesis of power convinces and asserts itself as a justification for the inquiry into and production of new teaching methodologies by creating an illusion of their ability to liberate the subject from that power. clearly the acceptance of the thesis of power has resulted in a more tolerant and appealing form of pedagogy which tries to reduce the force of the entrance of english into other cultures. this, of course, reflects the growing consciousness of what is referred to as “cultural imperialism” and attempts made to counter it. however as appealing as the power thesis may be for those on either side of its equation, this the dialectic of a global language 53 essay will argue that any such thesis is not sufficient in itself. another contingency exists, the absence of which would severely restrict, if not make impossible, the possibility for english to exist as a global language. moreover, and on account of this contingency, it may well be that the “culturally sensitive” pedagogues are not that sensitive at all. the question therefore is not why english is the global language, but more provocatively, why any language can be a global language? or more to the point: what characterizes a global language in such a way that it deprives the thesis of power of its ontological force and in instead poses the possibility of a global language as requiring a quality not shared amongst those that have been presumed to be global in the past. and precisely because this is a characteristic or is becoming a characteristic of languages, one may say that languages which acquire it are by definition “global”. to make this point one does not have to resort to giving examples of languages on a global scale. after all, what does global mean? it is merely a spatial metaphor. if any language can exist at a sub-continental level, or be spoken by more than a billion people, then obviously it also is “global.” the question is not so much one concerning either space or quantity, but rather the quality of the language itself. let a question illustrate this point. why has english in the united states not only become the language of its citizens, but more importantly, why has the language itself, amidst so much human and geographical diversity, and not to mention size, continued to be spoken more and more uniformly? why have true dialects of english not appeared? and more to the point, this has occurred amongst a population with a large and diverse immigrant base. the same may be said of english between the u.k, australia, india and south africa, but of course on a more complicated level. what they all share, is not so much an english root, say as romance languages share a latin root, but rather they have acquired greater uniformity over time. in other words time and distance have not produced diversity. instead uniformity has been the rule. but this is not a condition one can assume to be natural. in contrast to this one may take a note from the observation made by diakonoff (1999, 319) towards arabic. he points out that the vernacular languages of the arabs of the maghrib, egypt, sudan, syria etc are nearly as different from each other as rumanian, italian and spanish are from each other. only the educated arab is taught classical arabic at school. consequently the arabic language does not provide a true source of identity on which to forge a sense murray rinsdale 54 of arab nationalism. despite the fact that arabic does not lack sources of either political or economic power. another case to consider is the language of the boers, afrikaans, a variant of dutch or as what iliffe (1995, 180) refers to as,”a congeries of local dialects spoken by poor afrikaans (boers) and colored people”. the boers, just like the arabs, had political and economic power over their domain, but the dutch component of their language, varied sufficiently enough for afrikaans to be understood as its own language. this has not happened in the english speaking world. the tendency towards the uniformity of language is obviously not isolated to english. a more explicit example is that of indonesia. in 1950, just after independence, almost no indonesian spoke what is today the national language, bahasa indonesia, as his or her mother tongue. almost everyone had their own ethnic language. 30 years later there were perhaps millions of young indonesians from dozens of ethnolinguistic backgrounds who spoke bahasa as their mother tongue (anderson, 1991, 134). hence it is important to note the speed of how a new, almost invented language, came to be spoken uniformly amongst such diverse origins in such a short length of time. in this respect it is important to note an observation made by daniel boorstein (in deas,1993, 27-8) in respect to education in the early united states, “the first settlers of new england, belonging to an educated middle class, champions of the common school, had much to do with giving uniformity in the first place.” then quoting noah webster, the same point is reinforced, “nothing except the establishment of schools and some uniformity in the use of books can finish with differences in speech and preserve the purity of the language of the united states”. it is not surprising then that webster went about the work of preparing a dictionary for his nation. similar excursions in the pursuance of preserving the uniformity of one’s language were also underway in colombia in the late 19th century. it was formally recognized by the assembly of cundinamarca that the dictionary compiled by rufino cuervo was of “high scientific value” and that it was necessary to procure 50 copies of it (43).the objective of cuervo’s dictionary was described in his “apuntaciones criticas sobre el lenguage bogotano.” it stated that, “cuando varios pueblos gozan del beneficio de un idioma comun, propender a la uniformidad de este es avigorar sus simpatias y relaciones, hacerlos uno solo...que tienden a conservar la pureza de su idioma, destruyendo las barreras que las diferencias dialecticas crean” (38). miguel antonio caro believed that such a dictionary was absolutely necessary and the dialectic of a global language 55 would contrast radically with “the false principles which dominated in the 18th century, when it was believed that language was a capricious thing” and as such impossible to conceive of anything like the dictionary compiled by cuervo (44). for the above reasons no doubt, and for many others did c.a. bayly (2004, 17-8) in his “the birth of the modern world” draw the conclusion that by 1900, “…human languages were also coming to resemble each other.” according to bayly, western administrators, missionaries, educators, and even indigenous statesmen wanted the being of their languages reduced to easy transparent rules. some in fact preferred to conform to those of the english language, as would be the case for hindi and urdu in india. this meant that “political speech and sermon took on common forms from philadelphia and rome to kyoto and fiji”. it is hardly a coincidence then that the first translation of the quran from arabic into urdu took place in the 1840s (358). nor is it a coincidence that afrikaans was developed as a written language only after 1875 by nationalist intellectuals (iliffe, 1995,180). this tendency towards uniformity was also observed by michel foucault. he mentions (1973, 296) how from the 19th century onwards, language acquired the quality of being an ‘object,’ something which could be studied, seen to have laws of its own, an object which one could gain knowledge of. this is quite distinct to how it had been perceived in the 18th century, as caro also had the wit to note. what foucault’s observation tells us is that the perception of language as an object meant that it could now be manipulated, controlled, organized, standardized and made to measure in structure. without a doubt the conscious effort in modern history to make languages uniform and standardized is what sets them apart from languages in the past. and this is why a “global language” can only exist in modernity but could not in antiquity. here then is found the characteristic which prevents the thesis of power from ontologizing the concept of global language, and in turn problematizes it further. what can be noted here is how the intention to make language uniform did not stem from any concern related to either political or economic power. the possibility to conceive of language as being uniform was strictly an unintentional consequence stemming from a concern of medieval scholars to access and preserve the supposed intellectual heritage of the ancient western world. hence to describe this process will further offset the tendency to embrace the dominant thesis concerning the nature of global language. murray rinsdale 56 this process can be best illustrated by focusing on the nature of printed texts and reading in antiquity and how that contrasts with printed texts and reading at the end of the middle ages. today it is taken for granted that things like punctuation, capital letters, paragraphs, sentences, and if not these, then at least spaces between words, if not the word itself have always existed. as the work of paul saenger proves, this is precisely not the case. latin, which some may like to refer to as the first global language, existed in its written form in a way which bears no similarity to that of the present. above all reading was an oral experience, not a visual one. words were read out loud, not in silence. in fact according to saenger (1997, 11) “oralization of the text was savored aesthetically by the ancients.” as a consequence texts were written in ‘scriptura continua.’ that basically means that there were no spaces between words, no punctuation and or any other signs related to reading a text visually. moreover readers of antiquity “did not possess the desire to make reading easier and swifter.” there was no sense of cross-referencing or retrieving information quickly for reference or consultation. arguably such devices were unnecessary considering that “reading habits were focused on a limited and intensely scrutinized canon of literature” (11). unlike reading and writing in the modern age, which is done by individuals in silence, these actions were instead delegated to intellectually skilled slaves, of whom there was an abundance, to act as readers and scribes for the civilization of antiquity. as a result gaining access to the meaning of the unseparated word was a real chore. it was however offset by the ability of some to acquire the long term memory of texts frequently read out aloud, very much the same way as the quran is memorized word for word and chanted by young students of islam. finally, saenger points out how literacy was the domain of a restricted elite, to whom the notion of any form of mass literacy was entirely foreign (11). oddly enough it was the efforts of scholars of the early middle ages who wanted to save and access the lost wisdom of the ancients, which led to the process of creating a system of reference and order which in turn would provide the means to both imagine and construct uniformity of language. the desire to open up the lost knowledge of the past meant that it first had to be organized. ancient texts existed as just undifferentiated masses of paper: chapters, titles, folios, and the idea of quotes all had to be invented in an effort to make an inventory, so to speak, of the works of antiquity, including sacred texts such as the bible and the quran. in the case of the quran one may note that it is not organized according to any idea of narrative, subject, nor even the chronological order in which it may be supposed that the the dialectic of a global language 57 prophet muhammed received and copied the words of allah. instead the “suras” or “chapters” when organized into the form of a book, the quran, were done so in diminishing order of length (rodinson, 2002, 82). however it was not just works of antiquity that were compiled in such apparent disorder. consider for example the 13th century work, the travels of marco polo. it was a manuscript written in a french-italian dialect that was difficult to translate and did not exist in the form of a definitive text. instead there were over 100 different manuscripts in circulation (bergreen, 2004, 80). thus the task of putting such texts in order and distinguishing one from the other led the scholars of the age to invent things we today take for granted when reading. on the way they replaced the clumsy roman numerals with arabic numerals. finally, and after generations of work the scholars finally invented that first principle of rapid reference and consultation of printed texts; alphabetization. this allowed them to produce actual “guides” to the mass of literature they need to access. this of course led to the system of the “index.” indexes, alphabetization, chapters, arabic numerals were all things absent in antiquity, and thus were precisely the decisive, and necessary contributions which would revolutionize both writing and reading (crosby, 1998, 60-1). the most important of all contributions though, was the gradual yet final replacing of the scriptura continua with that of a text in which words were separated by space. this in turn was complemented by the need to further differentiate one word from another, leading to the creation of the ‘sentence,’ punctuation and capital letters; the visual paraphernalia which graces the page of any present day book. this was a breakthrough of most profound importance, as it meant texts could now be read in silence with the eyes alone. more importantly though, as saenger makes clear, unlike in the past, “even readers of modest intellectual capacity could read more swiftly, and they could understand an increasing number of inherently more difficult texts (13). simply stated, reading comprehension was revolutionized as more people could now, independently read. the combination of all this also led to the transformation of latin itself, which was basically simplified. a concept as basic as that of the ‘word’ came into being for the first time. this led to a further refining and standardizing of the language. the recognition of nouns, adjectives, regulating syntax transformed latin into an ‘analytical language’ in which the goal of writing and reading unambiguosly had become paramount (saenger, 1997, 253-54). this however was an unconcluded process until murray rinsdale 58 around 1300 a.d. one could ask then if the problem of stopping the breakdown of latin into diverse dialects and finally into the vernacular forms of the romance languages lay not in it being contingent upon the imposition of latin itself, but on the absence of the means with which to do it. thus, by the late medieval period, the concept of language had undergone a change which now allowed for the possibility of imagining a standard, uniform language. this of course became a reality when taken to its logical-mechanical conclusion in the invention of the printing press. thus the printing press did not represent any sudden irruption in thinking, or any kind of technological imposition. it was simply the culmination of a growing tendency, a culmination through which the book was transformed into a commodity as it became an object of mass production (anderson, 1991, 34). the acceptance of the norm which led to the growing standardization of written language existed prior to that of its being manufactured as a commodity. it would be precisely this growing tendency towards the standardization and uniformity of language, infinitely facilitated by the printing press, which would affect the nature of languages in countries like india once they became colonized by europe. for what had come into existence was the possibility to conceive not only of standardized languages, but also that of a global language. strangely enough one finds some evidence of this when discussed in the negative by descartes. upon having received a publication “boasting a system of six propositions for a universal language” descartes began to discredit it. he argues that the author would be unable to avoid the problem of how sounds of an alien language are “unpleasant and intolerable to the ear … for what is easy and pleasant in our language is coarse and intolerable to germans, and so on.” however he mentions this in the context of a criticism against “making (the author’s) grammar universal among nations.” although he believes that learning such a language would be “too burdensome,” it could prevail as a means of communication “through writing.” when he describes this possibility he imagines a “big dictionary printed of all the languages in which (one) wanted to be understood and put for each word a symbol corresponding to the meaning …. then those who had the dictionary and knew (the author’s) grammar could translate what was written in their own language by looking up each symbol in turn.” the problem he sees though is that “nobody who had anything better to do would take the trouble to look up all those words in a dictionary” (in derrida, 1976, 76-7). the point here the dialectic of a global language 59 though is how descartes conceives of this possible global language. it is conceived upon a combination of elements based upon the standardization and uniformity of a language, which in turn facilitates rapid reference to the unambiguous meaning of another language so it may be understood at least in its written form. the key factors he mentions being a “universal grammar,” a plural-lingual dictionary, and standardized symbols giving the meaning of each word in it. despite the fact that he believed people would not be motivated enough to employ such means to learn a “universal language” does not mean that such a concept would otherwise be worthless. for as surprising as it may seem, it was precisely the use of such means which would not lead as much to the globalization of any one language such as english, as it would for the possible globalization of all vernaculars. this would be the case for hindi in india. what it meant to introduce into india the concept and means with which to give a vernacular form by standardizing and making it uniform is well illustrated in the accounts of john gilchrist. gilchrist was responsible for recognizing the virtues of hindi as a vernacular. hence he went about compiling a hindustani dictionary and grammar. no such dictionary existed prior to his work, so he had to extract from his pundits ‘viva voce’ every known word in their langauge. working with the hindu scholars he was confronted with a most confusing and complicated corpus of language that he had to avoid using theirs and employ that of johnson’s english dictionary. words his ‘pundits’ offered tended also to be the most esoteric and far-fetched rather than “the most easy, familiar and common words”. furthermore he had to insist that there had to be a written grammar. in turn his pundits asked him what must have been a most surprising yet illuminating question in terms of distinguishing between how either one perceived language. the question was the curious one of “if it was ever yet known in any country that men had to consult vocabularies and rudiments of their own vernacular speech”. gilchrist interpreted this as being the failure of his associates to take seriously their own vernacular speech (in cohn, 1997, 35). this essay would argue that it was rather the absence of any concept related towards the organization and standardization of language as was apparent among the literate of antiquity. gilchrest and his pundits were thus separated by a conceptual abyss. instead the conclusion drawn by gilchrest was that they were trying to hide the truth from him. by 1800 though gilchrest was employing a staff of indian scholars in a host of literary and pedagogical activities directed toward making murray rinsdale 60 available to british students at the college of fort william a corpus of works form which they could read, write and speak hindustani (38). such scholarly effort is reminiscent of that made by those in the middle ages, except gilchrist had at hand the tools with which to make his task much easier and quicker, tools his medieval counterparts lacked, tools including how the british established their educational institutions. before the institutionalization of language learning, british officers would learn indian languages individually with their own pundits, just the same as education was conducted anywhere in india by indians. education was a more private, isolated and diverse experience sharing none of the standardizing norms which the british were to introduce. institutionalization then would include the partitioning off of rooms, the demarcation between students and teachers, classes and the entire teaching staff, and the need for exams, prizes, certificates that attested to the student’s command of a specifiable body of knowledge. bernand cohn in his essay “the command of language and the language of command” perceived this as a “british metalogic of regularity and uniformity…that could not help but participate in the erosion and transformation of…hindu and muslim learning” (48). this did not mean however that the indians themselves were unable to adapt to this new system and exploit it to their own ends. they did, and thus became active participants in the transformation of their own traditions and ways of thinking (56). evidence of this was the success of ‘a dictionary in hindee and english compiled from approved authorities” in 1846 by an englishman. it was sold and distributed all over india. most importantly it marked out hindi as a formal and independent language in its own right (bayly, 1999, 296). this conclusively proved descartes wrong, precisely because the process described above made hindi easier to learn, not more burdensome. at this stage the entire thesis concerning the role of both political and economic power in the dissemination of english as the global language is put into further doubt. by having rephrased the initial question to being, why can any language be the global one, the emphasis shifted away from plotting the rise of english towards plotting how other languages were able to expand on a comparable scale of both time and space. emphasis was put not on identifying the source of power, but rather on how a language could acquire the characteristics and means which would allow it to expand its frontiers. those are the concepts of standardization and uniformity of language and the acquiring and use of the means to put them into practice; recognition of grammars, organization of texts, the need to make texts ‘visual’ and pliable as sources of quick reference and consultation, dictionaries, text books and the ability to accumulate a corpus of any language. the dialectic of a global language 61 hence one must point to the unintended irony of bernard cohn’s essay. the argument of his essay is that the production of grammars, dictionaries, treatises, class books and translations about and from the languages of india created a discourse and had the effect of converting indian forms of knowing into european objects. he argues this is all an attempt to represent indian languages in european terms so that the british could acquire them and use them as tools to rule their colony (cohn,1997, 21). his is the classic thesis of power in the form of linguistic-imperialism. the irony is that, in the process, a national vernacular was constructed which was able to compete with english, and thus give india one of its own universal indigenous languages. in conclusion, what this essay contests to how the thesis of linguisticimperialism, as perceived by crystal, eludes the more subtle, yet profound manner in which “power” is able to affect, if not transform language. the point, as cohn really makes clear, is not the fact that one is speaking a language which is not one’s vernacular, but rather how the nature of one’s vernacular had to change so one could learn to speak and write it. furthermore in a world which is becoming ever less diverse in the variety of languages spoken, the only way to preserve them is by transforming their very nature. the preservation of pintupi amongst aboriginals in remote western australia, whose society and culture has forever been a non-literate one, has been achieved through precisely the same means as hindi was. pintupi has been turned into a standardised and printed text, its vocabulary organized into a dictionary which in turn allows for what were once pintupi oral folk-tales to be reproduced either mechanically or electronically and to be translated into english. in turn these means were employed to introduce pintupi students to written texts in what was assumed to be a “culturally sensitive” pedagogical method. once having learned to read and write in “their own language,” they could easily learn that of english. or conversely anyone can now learn their language with better facility. the point here is that there is no way to escape the fact that such an act is nothing short of linguistic-imperialism in terms of how it absolutely transforms the nature of not only their own but any vernacular under the direction and supervision of a greater, complicit power. it is ironic then that those who suppose they are the most “culturally sensitive” are in fact the most complicit in affecting cultural change on such a significant scale. the fact though, as foucault made clear more than two decades ago, is that power, far from being repressive and restrictive, can only be power in terms of how it liberates and produces. hence one’s attention should be drawn to the acute insight murray rinsdale 62 made by benedict anderson (1991, 134) when discussing whether or not “imperial languages,” such as english, should be considered the national languages of newly independent nations. he remarks that, “language is not an instrument of exclusion: in principle anyone can learn any language. on the contrary, it is fundamentally inclusive…” it is decisively important then to invest languages with the processes of standardization and uniformity so that they may be empowered by becoming easier to learn, and thus offer the possibility for any language to be a global one. it is such optimism and faith which stimulates interest into the research for, and application of, the most efficacious pedagogical method. however there is room for doubt when one begins to recognize how political and economic factors, rather than helping in the spreading of a “global” language, may very well work against it. if then any language can be a global one, and agreeing with anderson that languages are fundamentally inclusive according to the principle that anyone can learn any language, what is it really that sets english apart from other languages on an international scale? the answer to that question lies in the fact that the use of english, rather than fostering some kind of linguistic-imperialism as is too often assumed, in fact aims at achieving precisely the opposite. in many countries, including india, the value of english lies in how it has become an instrument of social exclusion. according to pavan k. varma (1998, 61), “the ability to speak english with the right accent and fluency and pronunciation was the touchstone for entry into the charmed circle of the ruling elite.” moreover as this “elite”, those belonging to india’s upper middle class find themselves engaging ever more frequently in a “globalized economy” in which english has become “the single most important yardstick of a person’s eligibility for negotiating the opportunity structure that can be availed of in a modern economy” (varma,1998, 63). this is not surprising when one understands that such limited access to english is precisely what contributes most to its importance, as those who can speak it find their opportunities being enhanced by their “scarcity value.” what is argued here is how upper class indians, which literally inherited this language, conspired against it from ever becoming more accessible to those who never inherited it. according to varma (62) the tragedy was that despite the flourishing of english-medium schools, “a real opportunity to give english its appropriate role as the most easily accessible foreign language in the overall structure of the educational curriculum was lost.” hence, despite the fact that india was a british colony for over 100 years, and its greatest statesmen spoke english as their mother the dialectic of a global language 63 tongue, and it has the recognition of being an extremely important language to know, only 3 percent of the population has even a basic understanding of it (tully, 1992, 8). at this stage the notion of english as a global language is put into doubt. precisely because the ruling class employs it for their own selfbenefit, they choose to preserve it as an “instrument of exclusion.” the same may be said of the use of greek and latin throughout the ancient world, as according to ste. croix (1981, 16) “those who did not speak greek or latin would certainly have little or no part in graeco-roman civilization.” thus despite the fact that in the past 150 years languages have acquired standardized and uniform norms, and thus have become both easy to teach and learn, there remains a political-economic barrier which works against those norms from achieving the goal which in principle they would otherwise be able to achieve. english is just one example of many, but it is a critical one as its position as “the” global language cultivates in the popular imagination the belief that it is a language accessible to all and sundry, which in fact it is not. until the political-economic barrier is overcome then, the efficacy of any pedagogical method will remain in perpetual doubt simply because for what may appear to be a “global language”, may just instead be a language for the “global elite.” references anderson,b. 1995 imagined communities reflections on the origin and spread of nationalism, verso, london. bayly, c.a. 2004. the birth of the modern world, 1780-1914: global connections and comparisons. malden: blackwell publishing. bayly, c. 1997. information and empire: political intelligence and social communication in north india, 1780-1880, cambridge university press. bergreen, l. 2003. over the edge of the world: magellan’s terrifying circumnavigation of the globe. new york: morrow. cohn, b. s. and chakrabarty, d. 2006 the bernard cohn omnibus: an anthropologist among the historians and other essays, colonialism and its forms of knowledge, india: the social anthropology of a civilization, oxford university press, usa. crosby a. 2000. la medida de la realidad barcelona: editorial critica. crystal, d. 1998. english as a global language. new york: cambridge university press. murray rinsdale 64 deas, m. 1993 . del poder y la gramática. tercer mundo editores. bogota, col. derrida, j. 1976. of grammatology. baltimore: johns hopkins university press. diakonoff, i. 1999. m.the paths of history, cup, cambridge, u.k. foucault, m. 1973. the order of things, randon house inc, new york. iliffe, j. a. 1995. the history of a continent, cup, cambridge, great britain. rodinson, m. m. 2002. the new press, new york. saenger, p. 1997. space between words. stanford. university press, usa. g.e.m. de ste croix. 1981. class struggle in the ancient greek world company limited, london. tully, m. 1991. no full stops in india, penguin books ltd, new delhi. varma, p.k. 1998. the great indian middle class. penguin books ltd, new delhi. murray rinsdale works as a professor of indian culture at única and as an english teacher at the centro colombo americano. correo electrónico: khmerexpress2001@yahoo.com the dialectic of a global language 111 the use of communication strategies in the beginner efl classroom1 carmen a. rodríguez cervantes and ruth roux rodriguez2* universidad autónoma de tamaulipas, méxico abstract when language learners do not know how to say a word in english, they can communicate effectively by using their hands, imitating sounds, inventing new words, or describing what they mean. these ways of communicating are communication strategies (css). efl teachers are not always aware of the importance of teaching communication strategies to their students or, if they are aware, they do not explicitly train their students to use them. they do not use these strategies themselves to serve as a model to their students. very often, what we have observed is that teachers abandon the message or switch to the first language to avoid communication problems in the classroom. this study investigated the communication strategies used by two efl teachers and their beginner level students; and the potential factors that influence the communication strategies they use in class. data came from three sources: (1) audio-recordings of naturally occurring classroom interactions; (2) interviews with the teachers; and (3) observation notes taken in six class sessions. data from the interaction transcripts were examined using faerch and kasper’s (1983) taxonomy of communication strategies. results indicated that the communication strategy most frequently used in both groups was language switch. however, while the teacher who seemed more involved with students used clarification request, comprehension check and asking for confirmation; the teacher who appeared more distant from students used comprehension check and repetition. class size, seating arrangements and learning activity types were also some of the factors that influenced the communication strategies used. key words: communication strategies, classroom interaction, teaching english as a foreign language resumen cuando quienes aprenden ingles no saben cómo decir una palabra, pueden usar sus manos, imitar sonidos, inventar palabras o describir lo que quieren decir para 1 received: august 4th,2012 / accepted: august 15th, 2012 2 email: rrouxr@uat.edu.mx gist education and learning research journal. issn 1692-5777. no. 6, november 2012. pp. 111-128 no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) 112 no interrumpir la comunicación. estas formas de comunicarse son estrategias de comunicación (ec). los docentes de inglés como lengua extranjera no siempre están consientes de la importancia de enseñarles estrategias de comunicación a sus alumnos, o bien no les dan preparación explicita para utilizarlas. a menudo lo que observamos es que los docentes abandonan el mensaje que querían comunicar o utilizan la primera lengua para evitar problemas de comunicación. este estudio examinó las estrategias de comunicación empeladas por dos docentes de inglés como lengua extranjera con sus estudiantes de nivel básico; y los factores que influyen en las estrategias de comunicación que se utilizan. la información se recolectó de tres fuentes: (1) grabaciones de interacciones naturales en el aula; (2) entrevistas con los docentes; y (3) observaciones registradas en seis sesiones de clase. las transcripciones de las interacciones se examinaron mediante la taxonomía de estrategias de comunicación de faerch y kasper (1983). los resultados indicaron que la estrategia utilizada con mayor frecuencia en ambos grupos fue cambio a la primera lengua. sin embargo, mientras que el docente que parecía estar más involucrado con los estudiantes utilizó también solicitud de aclaración, comprobación de comprensión y pedir confirmación; el docente que parecía estar más distante de los alumnos utilizó principalmente comprobación de comprensión y repetición. el tamaño del grupo, la disposición de los asientos y el tipo de actividades de aprendizaje son también algunos de los factores que influyeron en las estrategias de comunicación que se empelaron. palabras clave: estrategias de comunicación, interacción en el aula, enseñanza del inglés como lengua extranjera resumo quando os que aprendem inglês não sabem como dizer uma palavra, podem usar suas mãos, imitar sons, inventar palavras ou descrever o que querem dizer para não interromper a comunicação. estas formas de comunicar-se são estratégias de comunicação (ec). os docentes de inglês como língua estrangeira não sempre estão conscientes da importância de ensinar-lhes estratégias de comunicação aos seus alunos, ou bem não lhes dão preparação explicita para utilizá-las. com frequência o que observamos é que os docentes abandonam a mensagem que queriam comunicar ou utilizam a primeira língua para evitar problemas de comunicação. este estudo examinou as estratégias de comunicação empregadas por dois docentes de inglês como língua estrangeira com seus estudantes de nível básico; e os fatores que influem nas estratégias de comunicação que se utilizam. a informação se recolheu de três fontes: (1) gravações de interações naturais na aula; (2) entrevistas com os docentes; e (3) observações registradas em seis sessões de classe. as transcrições das interações se examinaram mediante a taxonomia de estratégias de comunicação de faerch e kasper (1983). os resultados indicaram que a estratégia utilizada com maior frequência em ambos grupos foi câmbio à primeira língua. entretanto, enquanto o docente que parecia estar mais envolvido com os estudantes utilizou também solicitação de esclarecimento, comprobação de compreensão e pedir confirmação; o docente que parecia estar mais distante dos alunos utilizou principalmente comprovação the use of communication strategies in the beginner efl classroom rodriguez & roux no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) 113 de compreensão e repetição. o tamanho do grupo, a disposição dos registros e o tipo de atividades de aprendizagem são também alguns dos fatores que influíram nas estratégias de comunicação que se empregaram. palavras chave: estratégias de comunicação, interação na aula, ensino do inglês como língua estrangeira. introduction the use of communication strategies in the foreign language classroom has been studied in the united states and great britain since the 1980’s and more recently in some arab countries (rababah, 2003; 2005). communication strategies are attempts to bridge the gap between the linguistic knowledge of the second-language learner and the linguistic knowledge of his or her interlocutor in real communication situations. studies have found that communication strategies, unconsciously used in the first language, do not automatically transfer to the second language. actually, communication strategies need to be explicitly taught for students to improve their accuracy and fluency (dörnyei, 1995). studies on classroom interaction and in the teaching and use of communication strategies by foreign language learners are scarce in mexico. moreover, teachers are not always aware of the importance of teaching communication strategies to their students or, if they are aware, they do not explicitly train their students to use them. they do not use these strategies themselves to serve as a model to their students. most often, what i have observed is that language teachers abandon the message or switch to the first language to avoid communication problems in the classroom. to contribute to the knowledge on the use of communication strategies in the foreign language classroom and provide recommendations for language teachers and language teacher educators, this study investigated the communication strategies used by two teachers in a beginner efl classroom. the study does not intend to bring about generalizable results, but to illustrate how communication the use of communication strategies in the beginner efl classroom rodriguez & roux no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) 114 strategies are used in a specific learning context and how a taxonomy of communication strategies can help interpret teacher-student interaction. literature review this section presents the literature consulted on communication strategies, as well as the studies considered as a basis for the current study. the notion of communication strategies the notion of communication strategies, thus, refers to a mutual attempt of two interlocutors to agree on a meaning in situations in which they do not share the requisite meaning structures. in other words, communication strategies are attempts to bridge the gap between the linguistic knowledge of the second-language learner and the linguistic knowledge of his or her interlocutor in real communication situations. approximation, mime, and circumlocution may be used to bridge this gap. message abandonment and avoidance may be used where the gap is perceived as unbridgeable. a broader definition of css was proposed by faerch and kasper (1984), who emphasized the planning and execution of speech production. these authors affirmed that to solve communication problems, a learner does not only cooperate with his or her interlocutor, but also finds a solution without the help of others. this view led to further research concentrating on learners’ internal mental activities, such as cs use for solving lexical problems (poulisse, 1987). faerch and kasper (1984) affirm that there are two types of css: achievement strategies and reduction strategies. achievement strategies allow learners to have an alternative plan to achieve reaching an original goal using the resources that are available. reduction strategies are used by learners to avoid solving a communication problem and allow them to give up on conveying an original message. achievement strategies consist of compensatory strategies and retrieval strategies. compensatory strategies include codeswitching, interlingual transfer, interlanguage–based strategies, cooperative strategies, and nonlinguistic strategies. retrieval strategies are used when learners have difficulties in retrieving specific interlanguage items. reduction strategies consist of formal reduction strategies (using a reduced system to avoid producing non-fluent or incorrect utterances) and function reduction strategies (giving up on sending a message or avoiding a specific topic). the use of communication strategies in the beginner efl classroom rodriguez & roux no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) 115 css allow learners to continue in the conversation, which provides them with opportunities to hear more input and produce new utterances. consequently, the use of css can have a significant learning effect for efl learners. for this reason, css should be considered as a subset of learning strategies, which contain both skills for learning a language and applications of them in real communication contexts. the teachability of communication strategies researchers agreed that the strategic competence that speakers develop in their first language could be freely transferable to their second language use (bongaerts & poulisse, 1989; kellerman, ammerlaan, bongaerts, & poulisse, 1990). this meant that most adult language learners already have a repertoire of communicative strategies that they use in l1, regardless of their level of l2 proficiency. kellerman (1991), for example, affirmed that if the cognitive processes are familiar from the l1, there was no point in teaching these strategies, and concluded “there is no justification for providing’ training in compensatory strategies in the classroom. teach the learners more language and let the strategies look after themselves” (p. 158). hungarian researcher dornyei (1995), at present professor of psycholinguistics at the university of nottingham, not only suggested that communication strategies needed to be taught, but he also provided procedures for strategy straining. the six strategy training procedures that he proposed were the following: 1. raising learner awareness about the nature and communicative potential of communication strategies by making learners conscious of strategies already in their repertoire, sensitizing them to the appropriate situations where these could be useful, and making them realize that these strategies could actually work. 2. encouraging students to be willing to take risks and use communicative strategies or, in other words, to manipulate available language without being afraid of making errors. 3. providing l2 models of the use of certain communication strategies through demonstrations, listening materials and videos, and getting learners to identify, categorize, and evaluate strategies used by native speakers or other l2 speakers. conversations between the students and native speakers can be recorded on video, and after viewing their own recordings, students can analyze their own strategy use. the use of communication strategies in the beginner efl classroom rodriguez & roux no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) 116 4. highlighting cross-cultural differences in communication strategy use because in some languages particular communication strategies may be seen as indications of bad style. 5. teaching communication strategies directly by presenting linguistic devices to verbalize them. 6. providing opportunities for practice in strategy use is necessary because communication strategies can only fulfill their function as immediate first aid devices if their use has reached an automatic stage. the problem is that many teacher education or teaching training programs do not include communication strategy knowledge to make teachers aware of the importance of communication strategies in language learning. other programs do include communication strategy training contents; however, teachers do not make use of this knowledge in their everyday practice. this study sets out to investigate if two language teachers possess this knowledge and the ways in which they actually communicate with their students in their courses. specifically, the study is guided by three research questions: 1. how do participants use communication strategies in the efl classroom? 2. what is the perception of the participants of the use of communication strategies in the efl classroom? 3. what factors influence communication strategies used by the participants? methods participants the participants of this study were students and teachers from two beginner-level english classes. the composition of the classes were mixed; some were high-school students, others were university students; still others were employed adults. one of the classes had 27 students while the other class had 23 students enrolled in the course. students’ attendance had great variation throughout the data collections process. the ages of students were in the range of 18 to 60, although the majority was between 18 and 20 years old. the two teachers participating in this research were males. the teacher of group 1 was 52 years old and had 28 years of teaching experience. he learned english in the united states and had certifications the use of communication strategies in the beginner efl classroom rodriguez & roux no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) 117 for english language and english teaching. for the purposes of this study, the pseudonym pablo is used hereafter. teacher of group 2 was 28 years old and had three years of teaching experience. he learned english in his hometown and studied an undergraduate degree in engineering. he had taken the teaching knowledge test (tkt) with a band 2 certification. at the time of the study, he was close to obtaining the in-service certification for english language teachers (icelt) by cambridge. in this paper the pseudonym leo is used to refer to him. context this study took place in the language center of a mexican public university in the northeast of the country. the aim of the center is providing foreign language courses and training courses for english teachers. it serves more than 5,000 students per year. the classes are given by 59 language teachers. the center offers beginner, intermediate and advanced english, french and german courses. the study was carried out in two beginning-level english classes. data sources data for this study came from: (1) transcriptions of audiorecordings of classroom interactions of two english language teachers and their beginner-level students; (2) interviews with 2 teachers; and observation notes taken during six class sessions. classroom interactions were recorded without previous preparation of students or teachers. the purpose was to identify and quantify the communication strategies they spontaneously used in the classroom. the interviews were held to obtain information from the two teachers about their backgrounds, their years of teaching experience, and their knowledge of communication strategies. observation notes were taken of the students’ and teachers’ behaviors while communicating in six distinct classes, three per teacher. data analysis once classroom interactions were audio-recorded and transcribed, the framework by faerch and kasper (1983) was adopted to code the communication strategies used. the framework was selected because the categories seemed clearly explained and appropriate for the characteristics of the language data collected (rababah, 2002).. a frequency form was designed to classify the communication strategies that occurred during the two hours of each class. the teacher-student the use of communication strategies in the beginner efl classroom rodriguez & roux no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) 118 and student-teacher interactions once coded were counted to calculate percentages. table 1. communication strategies taxonomy (færch & kasper. 1983) the interviews and the observation notes were examined using content analysis. a qualitative content analysis is a research method for the subjective interpretation of the content of text data through the systematic classification process of coding and identifying themes or patterns (hsieh & shannon, 2005). it is an approach of empirical analysis of texts considering their context of communication (mayring, 2000). this analysis goes beyond counting the words; it is rather focused on the examination of meaning occurring within a particular context. findings as table 1 shows, for session 1, pablo had a total of 15 students attending the class; while leo had 22 students. for session 2, 12 students attended pablo’s class while 23 students attended leo´s class. on the third data collection session, 13 students came to pablo’s class in group 1 and 19 students came to leo´s class in group 2. table 2. students attendance per session group 1 had a large classroom and student attendance was scarce; of a total of 23 students registered for the class, 15 (65%) was the the use of communication strategies in the beginner efl classroom rodriguez & roux no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) 119 highest number of students attending. group 2, on the other hand, had a smaller classroom with more student attendance; the total number of students registered in the class was 27 and 23 (85%) was the highest number of students attending. students in group 1 gathered in small teams spread around the classroom. students in group 2 were always crowded in a small room. according to the observation notes, pablo sat behind the desk the whole class, staying distant from the students. he rarely went from table to table to check students’ work. leo, on the other hand, had a crowded classroom. he rarely sat behind the desk. he was always walking around the classroom, checking on the student´s work and talking to them. types of communication strategies used as table 1 shows, of the total of communication strategies used by both groups, 25% were language switch; 17% clarification request; 12% comprehension check; 12% asking confirmation; 10% translation; 9% repetition; 5% paraphrase; 4% code-based confirmation check; 3% other reformulation; 2% meaning replacement; and 1% mime. restructuring, generalization, and approximation were communication strategies never used by the participants. table 3. strategies used in group 1 and group 1 the use of communication strategies in the beginner efl classroom rodriguez & roux no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) 120 considering the communication strategies used by each group, table 1 also shows that group 1, taught by pablo, used language switch (21%); comprehension check (16%); repetition (14%); asking confirmation (12%); paraphrase (10%); confirmation request (8%); meaning replacement (5%); other replacement (5%); translation (5%); code-based confirmation check (3%); and restructuring (1%). generalization, approximation and mime communication strategies were not used by group 1. group 2, taught by leo, on the other hand, used language switch (25%); clarification request (19%); asking confirmation (12%); translation (12%); comprehension check (11%); repetition (7%); codebased confirmation check (4%); other reformulation (3%); paraphrase (2%); meaning replacement (2%); mime (2%); and approximation (1%). group 2 did not use restructuring and generalization communication strategies. the following excerpt of one of the teacher-student interactions illustrates how the participants used language switch. in this case, pablo asked the student a punctuation related question: where does the comma go? the following statement was generated from the question asked: t: perfect, la coma donde va? antes o después? s: antes t: before, o sea aquí… s: del nice? t: t: antes del but… the above example shows how pablo switched from english to spanish, to ask a question, and to obtain the correct answer from the student. he first asked in spanish to obtain an answer from the student; then he replied providing the term in english. the student replied with another question in spanish and then the teacher provided the correct answer. the second communication strategy most frequently used by both groups was clarification request. the following segment of teacherstudent talk exemplifies how clarification request was used. the students had to do a workbook exercise and pablo was going over the answers with them. the use of communication strategies in the beginner efl classroom rodriguez & roux no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) 121 t: cecilia, read number one… s:this lap top is more versatile … t: more what? s: more versatile mine t:yes, complete s: versatile mine t: than mine, hay que agregar el that después del comparativo, this laptop is more versatile than mine…ok? now brenda number two… s: your furniture is more nice than you neighbor´s furniture t: nicer s:nice, nice than you neighbor’s furniture t: nicer than s:nicer t: you say nice you say nice, nicer…nice! s: shopping online is easier than going to the store… t: correct, how do you say it? s: easier t: easier! as the extract above shows, pablo asked the students the question: more what? a student replied with the correct answer and he made the student repeat the correct answer. the following example of the use of clarification request was recorded in pablo’s class. this use of clarification requests was very common in simple and easy questions. t: many, cuando es contable s: qué? contable? t: one, two three the segment demonstrates how the teacher states something, and to ensure she understood, the student asks again receiving a more specific answer. the use of communication strategies in the beginner efl classroom rodriguez & roux no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) 122 the following segment again exemplifies the use of the asking for confirmation strategy. this occurred in a context in which the teacher was asking the students something so that they would reply with the word they were going to be using in an exercise. t: bueno what word do you see in the three, qué palabra ven en las tres? what is the word that we are going to use in the three…. s: should… t:should…yes? we are going to use recommendations, recommendations... sorry with should, yes? here we are going to use should or shouldn’t… the teacher made the questions with the purpose of making the students understand the word should which they would be working with in the lesson. a student replied “should”, asking for leo’s confirmation. leo replied affirming that the answer provided was indeed correct. comprehension check was a strategy mostly used by teachers to verify that students had understood. the following fragment happened in a context in which students were doing a listening exercise. t: did you understand all the conversation? or only one part? did you understand all the conversation? yes? s: yes! t: it talks about clothing…yes s: teacher, how do you say dir dirty? t: dirty...d-i-r-t-y…dirty is that it is not clean, imagine is not eh…many black parts in a shirt…yes, that’s dirty yes it’s that is not clean yes? it’s the contrary word for clean… the extract above illustrates how leo asked the students questions to check their listening comprehension. according to the classroom interaction transcripts and the observation notes, the communication strategies were mostly employed by group 1 and group 2 when: they needed to know how to say a word they had doubts about the lesson the teacher asked them questions the use of communication strategies in the beginner efl classroom rodriguez & roux no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) 123 when students needed to know how to say a word, they would usually ask the teacher in spanish. very rarely did they use english for that purpose. when students had doubts about the lesson, again, they would mostly ask the teacher their questions in their l1. the teacher would usually repeat the same sentence in english and then translate it to spanish so that the student would understand. teachers generally encouraged students to repeat the sentences in english to give them opportunities for practice. on the other hand, when students asked the teacher the meaning of a word, the teachers would not give the exact meaning of the word to the students. teachers would rather give them an example of how the word was used to encourage them to figure out the meaning. students used communication strategies most frequently when the teacher asked questions, either personal or related to the lesson. students immediately replied; however, in some occasions they replied in spanish. they replied with doubts, mispronouncing the word and even with a sentence that was not structured correctly. the teacher answered with the correct pronunciation of the word and the correct structure of the sentence, to serve as a model for the student. perceptions of teachers of the use of communication strategies in the efl classroom to examine the perceptions of the two teachers on the use of communication strategies in the classroom, an interview was held with each one of them. the teachers were also asked about the different communication strategies that they thought they could use when communicating with students. pablo reported that the communication strategies that he used in the classroom included providing students with alternative ways of expressing in english. he said he used paraphrasing and also positive and reinforcing comments to make students confident in their use of english. pablo reported that other strategies that he used in the classroom were: encouraging students to restructure their questions; and replying with complete sentences to the questions asked by the students. leo, on the other hand, reported that he used paraphrasing to check the students’ understanding of the meaning of words, and that he gave explanations of the meanings of words. both pablo and leo seemed to have declarative knowledge of communication strategies, and they did not seem to use them in their language teaching. in other words, their procedural knowledge was needed. also, neither of them used group-work in their classrooms so that students could use communication strategies among themselves. interaction was mostly teacher-fronted. the use of communication strategies in the beginner efl classroom rodriguez & roux no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) 124 factors that influence the use of communication strategies there seemed to be many factors that influenced the use of communication strategies in the classroom. some factors appeared to have a negative influence and others, a positive influence. according to the observation notes, group 1 used the least number of strategies. students in group 1 did not have a seating arrangement; they were spread out in the classroom. as a consequence, students would only talk to the same small group of classmates close to them. they did not have opportunities to move around the classroom to interact with different classmates. another factor that did not encourage the use of communication strategies in group 1 was that the class did not seem to be interactive. observation notes indicate that students did not appear to be motivated to talk. when working in groups, students talked in spanish, using english only when pablo got close to them. students could have had more opportunities to practice or communicate in the classroom if pablo had provided them with challenging activities. students were always focused on their books in the three sessions observed. group 2 used more communication strategies. according to the observation notes students in this class sat closer. they had the opportunity to talk to each other and to leo, who was frequently walking around the classroom, asking questions related to the lesson and even personal questions, to encourage communication. in this group there was hardly a silent moment. leo was always interacting with the students. due to this, students were not afraid to ask any type of question or information. leo used a variety of activities that encouraged teacher-student interaction. however, student-student interaction rarely happened. conclusions the current research examined the use of communication strategies in the beginner efl classroom. to collect data, six class sessions with two different teachers were recorded and transcribed. transcriptions were coded using faerch and kasper’s (1983) taxonomy of communication strategies. results revealed that considering both groups, the communication strategies most frequently used were language switch, clarification request, comprehension check, and asking for confirmation. results by teacher, however, indicate that while in pablo’s class language switch, comprehension check and repetitions were the use of communication strategies in the beginner efl classroom rodriguez & roux no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) 125 more frequently used. in leo’s class, language switch, clarification request, comprehension check, and asking for confirmation were the communication strategies most frequently used. however, both of these classes were teacher-fronted. the lack of use of other strategies was perhaps because teachers never used significant activities such as collaborative tasks or group work. group work can encourage the use of communication strategies. not having students interact with each other influenced the way communication strategies were used in both of the classrooms examined. the lack of interaction among students led to having only teacher-student and student-teacher interaction. most importantly, during interactions students did not make an effort to using the foreign language as a source when facing communication problems. they switched to spanish, which is the easiest way to keep communication flowing, but the less convenient way for language learning. results of the study indicate that students used their native language most of the class time. considering that it is hardly possible that they use english in their everyday life, teachers should make all efforts to help them use english in the classroom. other than the classroom, students do not have other places and opportunities to use the foreign language they are learning. teachers therefore, should be knowledgeable and capable of eliciting english use from students. dörnyei (1995) suggests that communication strategies need to be taught and he also suggests procedures for strategy training. dörnyei argues that teachers should raise students’ awareness, encourage them to take risks, and provide them with models and opportunities to use communication strategies. data from both, students and teachers in this study, indicate that neither the students nor the teachers were aware that they could use communication strategies to facilitate their teaching and learning. not using these strategies in the classroom makes it even less likely that they use them in real life situations to solve communicative disruptions and enhance interaction in the foreign language (doryei & scott, 1997; faerch & kasper, 1983a; tarone, 1980). recommendations the academic departments of language centers should provide new teachers with teacher training programs that include communication strategy use in the classroom. this would prepare efl teachers to help students solve communication problems even from the beginner level class and improve their fluency. students would get used to finding ways to solve their communication problems without turning to their first the use of communication strategies in the beginner efl classroom rodriguez & roux no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) 126 language. academic departments should also give more attention to the composition of class groups. mixing students with different needs and interests (high-school, university and non-traditional students), makes it very difficult for teachers to plan lessons and materials. language center administration departments should plan language classes to hold a manageable number of students in order to give them more opportunities for interaction. language classes with 12 to 15 students give more chances for students to participate in pairs, small groups and whole-class interaction. also, classroom size should be considered by language center administrations. classrooms should be big enough for teachers and students to move around easily. language teachers should change seating arrangements frequently to get students to know each other better and to foster communication. by planning the seating arrangement in accordance with the activities and tasks to carry out for each language learning objective, teachers would facilitate communication among students. language teachers should also give variety to their classes by planning different kinds of activities for different purposes. activities should also focus on the development of different types of abilities and not only on textbook exercises. textbooks can be very useful for foreign language learning, but students also need other activities to be able to practice different real-life language competencies. teachers should also design and adapt more materials to the lesson that is being taught to attract their attention and facilitate their learning. teachers should also be encouraged to resort less to language switch and to use other communication strategies that are more favorable to language learning. this would help students find more ways to communicate with the teachers and other students instead of using language switch as the only way to overcome their communication difficulties. students, on the other hand, can improve their knowledge and their practice of communication strategies attending classes regularly. some of the classes in which data was collected for this study did not have most of the students present in the classroom. also, english should be required from them at all times in class. these issues should be considered in the class and school regulations. these recommendations are expected to improve language teaching and learning, and particularly to increase the use of communication strategies in the classroom, especially in the beginner levels. the active cooperation of language center departments, the use of communication strategies in the beginner efl classroom rodriguez & roux no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) 127 teachers and students should contribute to a better language education that prepares learners for real-life situations. it is also expected that this study encourages other applied linguistics students to continue researching the teaching, learning and use of communication strategies in different contexts. references bongaerts, t., & poulisse, n. (1989). communication strategies in l1 and l2: same or different? applied linguistics, 10, 253–268. dörnyei, z. (1995). on the teachability of communication strategies. tesol quarterly, 29, 55–85. færch, c., & kasper, g. (1983). on identifying communication strategies in interlanguage production. in c. færch & g. kasper (eds.), strategies in interlanguage communication (pp. 210–238). london: longman. kellerman, e. (1991). compensatory strategies in second language research: a critique, a revision, and some (non-) implications for the classroom. in r. phillipson, e. kellerman, l. selinker, m. sharwood smith, & m. swain (eds.), foreign/second language pedagogy research, (pp. 142-161). clevedon: multilingual matters. kellerman, e., ammerlaan, t., bongaerts, t., & poulisse, n. (1990). system and hierarchy in l2 compensatory strategies. in r. c. scarcella, e. s. andersen, & s. d. krashen (eds.), developing communicative competence in a second language, (pp. 163-178). new york: newbury house. poulisse, n. (1987). problems and solutions in the classification of compensatory strategies. second language research, 3, 141–153. rababah, g. (2002). taxonomies, data elicitation, methodology, and teachability issues. a review article. eric document 472 698. rababah, g. (2003). communication and linguistic problems facing arab learners of english. indian journal of applied linguistics, 29 (1), 127-42. rabab’ah, g. (2005). communication problems facing arab learners of english. journal of language and learning 3 (1), 194. the use of communication strategies in the beginner efl classroom rodriguez & roux no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) 128 authors * carmen a. rodríguez cervantes has a b.a in applied linguistics from universidad autónoma de tamaulipas, méxico. * ruth roux holds a ph.d in second language acquisition / instructional technology from the university of south florida. she teaches in the b.a in applied linguistics at universidad autónoma de tamaulipas. her research interests include language, education and culture. email: rrouxr@uat.edu.mx the use of communication strategies in the beginner efl classroom no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) 271 the effect of direct instruction on pronunciation: only evident when conditions for monitor use are met?1 stephen d. krashen2* university of southern california emeritus, usa direct or explicit instruction is hypothesized to result in conscious learning, not subconscious acquisition. if this hypothesis is correct, language acquisition theory predicts that the effect of explicit instruction will appear only when three conditions for the use of conscious learning (monitor use) are met: when the second language performer (1) consciously knows the rule, (2) has time to think about the rule, and (3) is thinking about correctness, or is focused on form. so far, research results are consistent with these predictions for grammar instruction (krashen, 1982, 2003). a helpful recent review allows us to begin to investigate whether these predictions hold for pronunciation instruction. saito (2012) reviewed 15 studies of the effect of instruction on accent, and reported that in only five of the 15 were subjects tested in spontaneous speech situations, that is, on a test in which they were supposedly unable to use consciously learned knowledge, where at least one or more of the three conditions for monitor use seemed not to be met. of these five studies, saito reports that instruction had a positive effect in just two. in one (derwing, munro and wiebe, 1998), instruction in “global” aspects of pronunciation (“speaking rate, intonation, rhythm, projection, word stress and sentence stress,” p. 399) improved “fluency” and “comprehensibility” but did not improve not accent. direct “segmental” instruction, focused on individual sounds, had no significant effects on any of the measures requiring spontaneous gist education and learning research journal. issn 1692-5777. no. 7, november 2013. pp. 271-275 1 received: may 14, 2013, / accepted: july 21, 2013 2 email: skrashen@yahoo.com lexical bundles in academic presentation no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) 272 speech. also, the investigators did not provide the actual scores, but only stated that the difference was statistically significant; it was not possible to calculate effect sizes (see derwing et. al., p. 405). in the second study, saito and lyster (2012) trained japanese speakers of english as a second language on one sound, the english “r” sound, combining direct instruction and corrective feedback when students mispronounced the target sound. the treatment lasted four hours (four one-hour sessions, twice a week for two weeks), and focused on teaching both english argumentative skills and pronunciation accuracy. (students were encouraged “to notice and practice the target feature in the context of meaning-oriented instruction,” p. 607). on the “spontaneous” test subjects described pictures with only five seconds to prepare; four pictures were designed to elicit words with the target sound (in initial position only) and four were distractors. subjects who had the training produced more accurate versions of the target sound, compared to controls who had no training (d = 1.14, a large effect). another group that had direct instruction on the “r” sound without correction was not significantly different from the controls. also, only the instruction plus correction group significantly improved their pronunciation of “r” from pretest levels (d = .81). at best, this study suggests that pronunciation training has a genuine effect (that is, instruction impacts acquired and not just learned competence) when it focuses on only one aspect, and provides not just instruction but also correction. but there are good reasons to suppose that all three necessary conditions for the use of the monitor were met on the “spontaneous” test. 1 all subjects had experienced a four-hour training session that included instruction and correction on the target sound. they were thus quite aware of how to produce it. 2. focus on form: several factors suggest that subjects might have been thinking about correct pronunciation of “r” during the picture description test. the pre-test, the instruction and other post-tests clearly sent the message that the purpose of the picture description task was to test their pronunciation of “r”. also, along with each picture, subjects were provided with written “word cues” to encourage them to use certain words containing “r”: “for example, a picture of a table left on a driveway in the rain was accompanied by three word cues (i.e. table, driveway, rain) and was used to elicit the target word rain …” (p. 611). finally, asked what they had learned from the 4-hour session, 63 out of 65 subjects responded that while the effect of direct instruction on pronunciation krashen no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) 273 their primary concern was learning argumentation skills, their secondary concern was “the importance of an english “r” and “l” contrast. as the investigators stated, this contrast is considered a “top priority” among japanese speakers acquiring english, and subjects were probably aware of this. 3. time: subjects had only five seconds to prepare their comments, but the time pressure associated with normal conversation was not present. subjects were apparently free to take their time while speaking and access their conscious knowledge of how “r” is pronounced. the saito and lyster study is the only one that provides possible evidence that instruction can influence the acquisition, and not just the learning, of accent. thus, the entire case supporting the hypothesis that instruction and correction can lead to the acquisition of improved pronunciation is based on a single study involving training on one sound, and there are plausible reasons to hypothesize that acquisition did not take place. follow-up testing, with an even longer period of time between the instruction and the post-test, under conditions where monitoring is highly improbable can resolve this issue (e.g. a real conversation with people not associated with the pronunciation instruction, with no suggested target words presented). references derwing, t., munro, m., & wiebe, g. (1998). evidence in favor of a broad framework for pronunciation instruction. language learning 48(3): 393-410. farzanfar, a. (2008) the use of scaffolding-based software in developing pronunciation. master’s thesis, universiti putra malaysia. krashen, s. (1982). principles and practice in second language. new york: peragmon press. available at www.sdkrashen.com. krashen, s. (2003). explorations in language acquisition and language use: the taipei lectures. portsmouth, nh: heinemann publishing company. saito, k. (2012). effects of instruction on l2 pronunciation development. a synthesis of 15 quasi-experimental intervention studies. tesol quarterly 46(4): 842-854. saito, k. & lyster, r. (2012). effects of form-focused instruction and corrective feedback on l2 pronunciation. language learning 62: 595-633. the effect of direct instruction on pronunciation krashen no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) 274 appendix commercial accent improvement software: any evidence it works? i examined six websites advertising accent improvement software. all six websites claim that their software will help those acquiring english as a second language develop a better accent in american or canadian english. five of the six companies simply claimed that their system worked, and that their customers were happy with their product. no research was mentioned supporting their software or any other accent improvement software. the companies are: 1. english without accent: http://englishwithoutaccent.com/, 2. pronunciation workshop: pronunicationworkshop.com, 3. executive language training: http://www.eltlearn.com/pronunciationsoftware.html 4. english talk shop: http://www.englishtalkshop.com/accentreduction-software/accent-improvement-for-academics 5. l2 accent reduction. http://www.l2accent.com accent master (http://www.accentmaster.com) is the only software company that claims that its approach is based on research. they cite, however, only one study, an unpublished ma thesis done in putra university, malaysia (farzanfar, a. 2008). i attempted to download the thesis from several sources but only the first seven pages were available. the abstract claims that subjects’ accents improved, but we do not know what the testing conditions were: as noted above, my prediction is that direct teaching of accent will only show an effect on tests in which subjects have time to monitor, are focused on correction, and are tested on what they have been trained on (the conditions for monitor use; krashen, 2003). apparently, the case for accent improvement using commercial software is based on one fugitive, unpublished ma thesis. this is a sad state of affairs. the effect of direct instruction on pronunciation krashen no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) 275 author *stephen d. krashen is emeritus professor of education at the university of southern california. he is best known for developing the first comprehensive theory of second language acquisition, introducing the concept of sheltered subject matter teaching, and as the co-inventor of the natural approach to foreign language teaching. he has also contributed to theory and application in the area of bilingual education and reading. he was the 1977 incline bench press champion of venice beach and holds a black belt in tae kwon do. he is the author of the power of reading (heinemann, 2004, second edition), explorations in language and use (heinemann, 2003) and coauthor, with jim crawford, of english learners in american classrooms (scholastic, 2007). his recent papers can be found at http://www.sdkrashen.com. the effect of direct instruction on pronunciation krashen no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) gist20145 primer semestrefinal4 (21072015).indd 149 the paradigm of critical realism and involving educators in policy debates1 el paradigma del realismo crítico y la inclusión de los educadores en los debates de política educativa juan david parra2* erasmus university rotterdam, the netherlands abstract education policy debates in colombia often exclude the voice of professional educators. the aim of this paper is to introduce critical realism as an alternative to dominant social research paradigms that enables the possibility of more inclusive education policies. the ontic and epistemic elements of cr make a call for an inter-paradigmatic dialogue to retrieve causal explanations by providing scientific value to first-hand living experiences of social actors. in the end, different researchers (i.e. statisticians and school teachers) have a crucial, but differentiated, role, in the quest for scientific discovery. key words: education policy, critical realism, professional educators, causal knowledge resumen los debates sobre política educativa en colombia tienden a excluir la voz de educadores. el objetivo de este artículo es presentar el realismo crítico como una alternativa a paradigmas dominantes en las ciencias sociales y que abre la posibilidad a una política educativa más inclusiva. los elementos ontológicos y epistemológicos del rc hacen un llamado al diálogo interdisciplinario en la producción de explicaciones causales, por medio de la atribución de valor científico a las experiencias directas de diferentes actores sociales. al final, re fle ct iv e ar tic le s 1 received: dec. 15, 2014 / accepted: april 16, 2015 2 jparrah@gmail.com gist education and learning research journal. issn 1692-5777. no. 10, (january june) 2015. pp. 149-170. the implications of orthographic intraference no. 10 (january june 2015) no. 10 (january june 2015) 150 diferentes investigadores (ej. estadísticos, docentes) tienen un papel crucial, pero diferente, en la búsqueda de conocimiento científico. palabras clave: política educativa, realismo crítico, educadores profesionales, conocimiento causal resumo os debates sobre política educativa na colômbia tendem a excluir a voz de educadores. o objetivo deste artigo é apresentar o realismo crítico como uma alternativa a paradigmas dominantes nas ciências sociais e que abre a possibilidade a uma política educativa mais inclusiva. os elementos ontológicos e epistemológicos do rc fazem uma chamada ao diálogo interdisciplinar na produção de explicações causais, por meio da atribuição de valor científico às experiências diretas de diferentes atores sociais. no final, diferentes pesquisadores (ex. estatísticos, docentes) têm um papel crucial, mas diferente, na procura de conhecimento científico. palavras chave: política educativa, realismo crítico, educadores profissionais, conhecimento causal “… as reform after reform is proposed, nobody ever seems to turn to actual teachers and ask, ‘so, what do you think?’ yes, we occasionally hear from teachers of the year and other carefully selected and screened teachers. but by and large, leaders have been trying to remake the entire education world without involving the people who have devoted their lives to working in it (…) i am far from the halls of power (…) as the great opera about american public education plays out, i am, like most classroom teachers, watching from the back rows of the balcony” greene (2014) the paradigm of critical realism parra no. 10 (january june 2015) no. 10 (january june 2015) 151 introduction education public policy debates in colombia often exclude the voice of professional educators. this statement finds support not only in a general revision of research projects sponsored by school performance education authorities (see appendix), but, particularly in the critical reading of mainstream policy-prescriptions. such is the case of the compartir report (jaramillo et al., 2014), which has become an institutional guideline to backup educational reforms, and the way it contributes to impoverish the general view of teaching and learning. the authors of this document follow a similar tradition of worldwide managerial educational trends shaped by the popular mckinsey reports, where it is possible to identify a technocratic tendency to regard the mind of learners “as containers to be filled with knowledge” (coffield, 2012, p. 140), and hence, the role of teachers as passive learning tools who need to be selected, trained, incentivized and evaluated. with the latter we are not seeking, however, to undermine the importance of good managerial decisions as a requirement to improve learning processes in schools. we even subscribe to the argument of the need of seeking higher standards in the professional qualities of teaching bodies. however, we find problematic the way in which mainstream policies systematically rule out the agency of teachers by implicitly neglecting their role in the building of useful knowledge to backup different policy initiatives. the issue is that this technocratic practice -as it will be argued through out the documentis backed up by a flawed foundation of what is causal knowledge (i.e. the identification of statistical correlations between atomized variables) that reproduces structural barriers to the transformation of schools. hence, we declare our rather pessimistic outlook about the expected results of ongoing national educational projects [for similar visions see coffield (2012), álvarez (2014) and montoya-vargas (2014)]. the scope of this article is situated within this methodological discussion. as the task of deconstructing the mckinsey reports also enthusiastically quoted in the context colombia’s decennial education plan3has been fairly covered in braun (2008) and coffield (2012), we will take the compartir report as a case study to discuss the scientific short-comings behind mainstream policy planning in the country. our 3 see http://www.mineducacion.gov.co/1621/article-195576.html the paradigm of critical realism parra no. 10 (january june 2015) no. 10 (january june 2015) 152 criticism will be framed within the paradigm critical realism (cr)4, an epistemic stand whose contributions in the elucidation of notions of scientific rigor in social research has fostered its potential in shaping contemporary education theory. for our particular case, critical realist commentators would argue that any process of scientific discovery implies delving into the unknown, a task that can benefit from the vast experience of those who embody, for instance, the day-to-day execution of education policies. in the first part of the article we will explore the assumptions behind the paradigm that informs mainstream educational policy in order to understand the methodological foundations behind the policy prescriptions of the compartir report. here we will also dedicate some lines to discuss why alternative agendas undertaken by other researchers (i.e. more postmodern oriented scholars) have also failed in the task of integrating the voice of teachers into education policy debates. then, the main tenets of cr will be introduced as a means to further understand the pitfalls and shortcomings of dominant research paradigms when informing education policy, and finally, cr applied literature will be used to seal the argument of the epistemic and scientific status of teachers’ agency in processes of education planning and assessment. dominant research paradigms and the exclusion of teachers from the debate from an epistemological perspective, education policy is dominated by positivism (scott 2010; willmott 2002), a paradigm “predicated on an observation-based model for determining the truth or validity of knowledge” (kanbur & shaffer, 2007, p. 185). following summer & tribe (2008), positivist thinkers –most of which are historically influenced by the ideas of xxth century philosophers of the vienna circle and, more recently, by popper’s falsification principlepraise principles of commensurability and experience as epistemic paths to access objective and uncontested knowledge. this helps us to understand why, and in spite of the relative success of 4 the paradigm of critical realism has grown in popularity in the recent decades and especially in northern europe. it is important to note its relative absence in the north american academy, and therefore, in latin-american universities, most of which have been importantly permeated by positivist research traditions from the united states [see porpora (2001) and parada (2004)]. hence, one of the innovations of this article is that it becomes the first effort to use cr as an analytical device to face a public policy debate in colombia (and one of the very few in the latin american context). the paradigm of critical realism parra no. 10 (january june 2015) no. 10 (january june 2015) 153 ongoing education policies (barrera et al. 2012; garcía-villegas et al. 2013; montoya-vargas, 2014), experts in statistical analysis keep monopolizing educational research. the compartir report (jaramillo, et al., 2014)5, whose influence on current education planning serves to equate it as a contemporary hallmark of mainstream education policy research6, is a good example of this last situation. the main finding of the document, coauthored by five highly qualified scholars in the arena of economics and quantitative social policy research, states that “teaching quality contributes more than any other school input in explaining differences in students’ performance” (jaramillo, et al., 2014, p. 13). such a conclusion follows from the results of an original empirical (econometric) exercise and a systematic analysis of international experiences of school success. as it is explicitly argued, despite other relevant factors affecting school performance -such as socio-economic contexts or the investment in technology and infrastructureteaching quality is identified as the single most important determinant of children’s learning. we argue that the epistemic stands behind the compartir report bare particular implications. one of them is the resulting topdown approach to answer the public policy conundrum: to provide better training, better selection mechanisms (including post-selection evaluations) and higher wages for teachers (see jaramillo, et al., 2014, pp. 268-322). at the same time, the arrival to such strategies demands not only the possession of particular researching skills – i.e. computational proficiency to handle big data sets and training in applied econometricsbut an adherence to assumptions that praise certain logics of simplification; for example, the possibility of discerning between levels of impact (at least in such a precise way) suggests that some complex concepts, as for instance the interaction of teachers and students in the classroom (i.e. didactics and pedagogics), the managerial relation between teachers and administrative staffs in schools and the appropriation of institutional projects among members of a community, have to be captured in (as simple as possible) indicators. epistemologically speaking, it is worth pointing out that this line of thought praises the use of representative statistics as a shield against ideological biases in policy assessments (or, following the introductory 5 this study was funded by fundación compartir, a private firm dedicated to the promotion of high-impact social programs in education. 6 see, for example, the article “hicimos de los docentes el eje de la transformación educativa” published in the web site of the national ministry of education at http:// www.mineducacion.gov.co/cvn/1665/w3-article-337974.html the paradigm of critical realism parra no. 10 (january june 2015) no. 10 (january june 2015) 154 remarks of the report, “to leave intuition aside (…) [as well as] the interests of determined groups” (jaramillo et al., 2014, p. 2)). these kinds of arguments are founded in notions of empiricist objectivity and the way it implicitly validates the possibility of accessing causal knowledge through means of perception. hence, good policy assessments are those “conducted by an external group to maintain objectivity and credibility” (gertler, et al., 2011, p. 155) and whose “scientific and normative standards are driven by empirical [and] objective data” (judd, et al., 2001, p. 367). at this point, it becomes clear why policy prescriptions that emerge from epistemic frameworks such as the one backing up the compartir report tend to leave aside teachers’ agency (i.e. their active participation) from policy making processes. on one hand, and given its implicit concept of scientific rigor, much more attention is placed on “methodological questions relating to data collection, software design [and] data analysis” (milani, 2009, p. 29), than for instance, in debating underlying assumptions regarding causation or human behavior (i.e. social relations and interactions). we argue that this tendency to hierarchize technique over the problem at stake results in a paradox in which the expertise of professional educators– i.e. in curriculum building, in pedagogicsis given (at best) a secondary role in the generation of policy inputs. furthermore, such pursuit of neutrality and credibility, which is (importantly) defined in terms of statistical representativeness, also shapes the actual role given to teachers’ knowledge as key informants about what happens in schools. in such sense, as teachers’ perceptions are molded from their experience in only a few classrooms, their personal views are given only anecdotal status (one reason why it is better to survey them in a big scale and with pre-structured questions)7. in the end, as it has been pointed out in milani’s (2009) critical reading of policy documents from several international agencies (i.e the world bank, united nations, the european union), “researchers and practitioners do not speak the same language (…) [and basically] operate in isolation from each other” (p. 36). now, we find it convenient to close this section by referring to some non-mainstream perspectives seeking to inform policy debates. 7 is worth pointing out that the compartir report does include a qualitative chapter in which the consultancy team retrieves information from some schools. this, however, and as will be discussed later on, is also done under the scope of a positivist tradition in which structured interviews are used only as a mean to validate quantitative findings. in such sense, teachers continue to play a passive role in the whole policy discussion. the paradigm of critical realism parra no. 10 (january june 2015) no. 10 (january june 2015) 155 we can classify these as more postmodern-oriented research traditions which, in spite of their explicit recognition of the transformative role of educators (herrera & acevedo, 2004), have also failed in raising the voice of professional educators. here we summon montoyavargas’s (2014) extensive literature review on the topic to argue the way in which an important portion of educators’ research agendas has been overshadowed by its emphasis on pedagogics and didactics, leaving aside deeper immersions into curriculum analysis8. conversely, those who do delve into education politics show more interest in deconstructing mainstream policy discourses (as we have partially done so far) than in giving a step forward into generating policy alternatives. as in the case of positivist-oriented positions (i.e. the comparir report), we can also refer to epistemic foundations to elucidate some nuances of postmodern research traditions. an important one is their particular stance in regard to notions of objectivity and truth and, in that sense, their adherence to the premise that “reality does not exist independently from our experiences” (summer & tribe, 2008, p. 61). hence, postmodern-oriented scholars would argue, and in complete opposition with positivism, “that truth and objectivity themselves must be abandoned” (porpora d. , 2001, p. 263), precisely because any notion of reality depends on a subjective interpretation. methodologically speaking we are not just referring, therefore, to an explicit preference for qualitative research, but to particular methods to identify “how understanding and experiences are derived from lager discourses” (zeeman, et al., 2002, p. 98)9. why are we saying that postmodernism also fails to boost teachers’ agency into the education policy debate? porpora’s (2001) statement illustrates quite well the argument we want to defend here; “[i]f there is no [concept of] truth or objectivity, if judgmental rationality is rejected, then there is no point in carrying on inter-paradigmatic dialogue” (p. 263). said differently, in a world where public policy is only part of a 8 if we understand curriculum studies as a constant dialogue about the kind of education that seeks a society (johansson, 2003), we must conclude that, according to montoyavarga’s (2014) outlook, professional educators are not actively talking about education politics. 9 montoya-vargas (2014) discusses, for instance, the case of the research agenda of the pedagogy and curriculum group from cauca university, a leading collective of academic educators: “these authors apply a historic and hermeneutic approach to the study of 150 documents about the curriculum produced between 1960 and 1975 (…) the group restates the origins of the curriculum as an utilitarian, market oriented control and power device imposed by international agencies, dominated by the usa through the [ministry of education] to control education ideologically (…) and to disempower teachers” (p. 139). the paradigm of critical realism parra no. 10 (january june 2015) no. 10 (january june 2015) 156 hegemonic discourse it makes little sense to reflect on how to improve the impact of social programs (for instance, through an open dialogue between economists and scholars from education faculties). hence, we talk about a possible self-exclusion sustained by an implicit refusal (legitimate or not) to talk about education policy. at the same time, such a stand also enforces the exclusion of professional scholars from mainstream policy circles, which –in their own understanding of scientific rigorare tempted to reject any kind of ideological argument that defaults their sense of objective research10. critical realism and the meaning of “good” science critical realism has grown in popularity in the last two decades -especially in the united kingdom and in northern european countries and particularly in the field of educational research (archer, 2013; priestley & miller, 2012; scott, 2010; willmott, 2002;). however, our argument to defend its pertinence transcends simple recognition. to further sustain its adequacy we adhere to sayer’s (2000) presentation of cr as “conceptually cautious and more reflexive about both its implicit philosophy and methodology and its social and political coordinates” (p. 9) than (most) current dominant research paradigms. here we are far from interested in doing an exhaustive presentation of cr, but one that is sufficiently illustrative to help us argue its scientific rigor and its openness towards inter-paradigmatic dialogue. in this regard, we want to be clear about the fact that we are talking about a research paradigm, and not a social theory, a specific methodology or a method. further on we will see the importance of this last precision vis-à-vis the idea of interdisciplinarity and the possibility of involving different methods and voices into policy debates. for the sake of clarity, our presentation will be further illustrated by briefly discussing elements from relevant empirical research. introducing critical realism what is social science? what is the purpose of social science? what do social scientists do? cr scholars give a great deal of importance to these kinds of reflections. the question about what is out there in the (social) world to be discovered, they would argue, necessarily precedes matters on how to discover or create knowledge about such 10 see, for example, pisados por fecode published in http://www.eltiempo.com/archivo/ documento/cms-13791659 the paradigm of critical realism parra no. 10 (january june 2015) no. 10 (january june 2015) 157 (social) world (bhaskar, 1998). and while the former claim can lead to the obvioushow can we think about the way we are going look for something if we have not tried to imagine what that something looks like – critical realists highlight the way in which dominant research paradigms tend to obviate the importance of both conceptualizing and distinguishing between ontology (the what question) and epistemology (the how question). the cr approach to social research stems from a critical reading of the process of scientific discovery in natural sciences and its quest for knowledge (bhaskar & hartwig, 2010). natural scientists use experiments to “discover, detect, reveal, search out, etc., something about reality that [is] not yet known, something that could not be observed without great effort” (danermark, et al., 2002, p.20). in collier’s (1994) terms, “we use experiments in order to find what goes on when we are not making experiments, and we do not find it out” (p. 35). one classic example is the case of water (h2o), whose unveiling of its constitutive elements – hydrogen and oxygen – and their relational process – i.e. two hydrogen atoms covalently bounded with one of oxygenrequires and experimental procedure (i.e. electrolysis) that goes beyond simple tasting (or drinking). this reading of experiments bares particular implications11. regarding the ontic question (what exists?), there are things that exist despite our perception (or ignorance) of them and that have causal effects on those things that we actually perceive. it is to say, it is possible to conceive the world as a layered structure in which it is important to differentiate between things that we can perceive (the empirical world) and those things making them possible (their real causes). the case of water – as compounded by elements operating in different layers 11 this reading differs from the most classical hypothesis-testing vision of scientific research, described by bunge (2011) as an arbitrary research project: “choice of background knowledge—statement of problem(s)— tentative solution (e.g., hypothesis or experimental technique)—run of empirical tests (observations, measurements, or experiments)—evaluation of test results—eventual correction of any of the preceding steps, and new problems posed by the finding” (p. 413). in this case, experimental procedures (which in social sciences are usually confronted through the use of statistics) are used as a device to test pre-given hypotheses, rather than to explain observed facts (i.e. the properties of water). in this regard, bunge (2011) adds that “[c]ontrary to widespread belief, the scientific method does not exclude speculation: it only disciplines imagination. for example, it is not enough to produce an ingenious mathematical model of some domain of facts, the way mathematical economists do. consistency, sophistication and formal beauty are never enough in scientific research, the end product of which is expected to match reality—i.e., to be true to some degree” (p. 413). the paradigm of critical realism parra no. 10 (january june 2015) no. 10 (january june 2015) 158 perfectly illustrates it in natural sciences. similar logic applies to the social world; for instance, and in the specific case of education, a school should be seen as a stratified entity “comprising individuals [and] social groupings (such as departments)” (priestley & miller, 2012, p. 102) stratification, however, should not be mistakenly read as a linear relation (or simple adding up) between things (or entities) that belong to different strata. in our last examples, despite the flammability of hydrogen, water does not bare this property (willmott, 1999). conversely, a school is not a simple amalgam of individuals and departments, but can only exist if certain conditions – or certain internal relations between those entities (archer, 1995) – meet (i.e. a cultural concept of education, a functioning permit issued by a local or national authority). this notion of relational emergence – which “describes a particular sort of relation between a whole and its parts at a given moment in time” (elder-vass, 2010, p. 67) – bares methodological implications that we will discuss later on. with such concepts at hand, we are also entitled to talk about mechanisms to refer to those relational processes that occur between levels of the world. now, going to epistemology, the answer to the how to discover question in natural sciences is experimentation, where it is possible to work under controlled situations. it is to say, natural scientists work with closed-systems where they can sustain that “every time a occurs, b, follows” (collier, 1994, p. 34). the notion of closure allows them to uncover mechanisms and identify entities operating in different layers of the world, particularity that can hardly (if not impossibly) be resembled in social research. as social scientists work in open systems, “[t]he events that [they] can ordinarily observe are not invariable preceded or followed by any other constantly conjoined event” (collier, 1994, p. 34)12. the implication here is that scholars in humanities have to pursue the challenge of uncovering mechanisms through different paths as from the ones of laboratory experiments, but without disregarding the layered condition of the world. logics of abstraction, guided by, for instance, counterfactual questions – what does the existence of this object/practice presuppose? (sayer, 2000, p. 16) – can serve to this epistemic purpose. 12 as collier (1994) further argues, “…[r]ed sky at night is not always followed by a fine day, or deflationary budgets by reductions of inflation, or buglers entering by dogs barking, or spots on the sun by war, or sexual intercourse by conception” (p. 34). the paradigm of critical realism parra no. 10 (january june 2015) no. 10 (january june 2015) 159 flaws and misconceptions in mainstream research we insist on the importance of highlighting the status of cr as a research paradigm, rather than an actual social theory. in such sense, “cr acts as a general orientation to research practice (…) [and] does not provide the concepts (or prescribe the methods) that are necessary for successful empirical research” (mahoney & vincent, 2014, p. 13)13. this precision is very important, as it reinforces one of the most important claims that we have sustained so far; arguments of being are different from arguments of knowing. in other words, as epistemology cannot be reduced to ontology, the existence of specific objects cannot be conditioned to particular paths of enquiry (i.e. observation, quantification, deliberation). furthermore, to sustain that there are real objects (i.e. real causes) does not entail that we are always successful in identifying them. the latter is not trivial. as a matter of fact, dominant research paradigms do conflate these matters (bhaskar, 1998; collier, 1994; sayer, 2000). on one hand, positivist researchers tend to equate reality to measurable facts and, hence, to theorize about causality only through the means of what is observed –which is another way of saying that their ontic notion of reality is reduced to their epistemic conception on how to unveil it-. this also drives them, for example, to disregard notions of relational emergence, as they praise an implicit notion of linear-causality. for instance, large-scale multivariate analyses press on towards some predictive goal “without reference to the interactional processes generating their variables” (archer, 1995, p. 58). more postmodern oriented researchers, on the other hand, are also prey to empiricism, as they tend to only work with observable discourses (wuisman, 2005). it is now time to go back to the examples we discussed previously, and the ontic and epistemic elements that were introduced to situate our critique of the methodological flaws of dominant education research informing education policy in colombia. we have decided 13 bunge’s (2011) reflections on the theory of knowledge are, once again, elucidating. for instance “[s]cientific research has philosophical underpinnings because it is, in a nutshell, the honest search for true knowledge about the real world (…) indeed, philosophy is the study of the most fundamental and crossdisciplinary concepts and principles. hence, philosophers are expected to be generalists rather than specialists” (p. 431). all these clarifications are important to answer some critiques of the critical realist paradigm, most of which address is lack of practical methodological claims. the latter no to justify the neediness for actual social theory, which cr does offer, but to clarify that the discussion on methods cannot be equated to levels of ontology and epistemology. the paradigm of critical realism parra no. 10 (january june 2015) no. 10 (january june 2015) 160 to focus on the compartir report, whose main analytical tool is the use of econometric models to identify characteristics of high and low performing schools in the country (according to both pisa results and saber 5 and 9 test scores from the year 200914). here it is important to recognize two particular aspects that have been raised by the authors in order to have a proper reading of their results. the first one states that: [our] evidence is not causal, in the way that it is based in statistical associations that have not been manipulated in an exogenous way, as it could happen in an experiment [a fact that, however, does not seem to enable them to conclude that]: [t]he accumulated body of empirical evidence coincides in that is justifiable to prioritize the quality of teachers within any policy that seeks to improve the quality of education. (jaramillo, et al., 2014, p. 66) on the other hand, the authors briefly describe a qualitative exercise that consisted in visiting four schools (that represent extreme cases of high and low performance) and the application of semistructured interviews (with school deans) and focus group (with teachers) to deepen aspects of interest for the research. in their own words, this last set of tools allowed them “to validate the results from the quantitative component, as the educational level of teachers in schools of high performance is higher than the one from the participants in the schools of low performance” (jaramillo, et al., 2014, p. 193). we can now consider how these research elements fail to comply with the principles of cr. on one hand, we can identify an excessive reliance on the use of inductive logics, or the practice of “inferring propositions about general regularities (…) from a limited set of sensory observations” (wuisman, 2005, p. 367). it is to say, the authors of the compartir report present econometric exercises with samples of students to conclude about the quality of education in colombia, and whose findings are presented in linear terms: every time a occurs (i.e. highly qualified teachers), b (high school performance), follows. clearly, following earlier discussions, this kind of induction is problematic as it implies making assertions that are only possible in closed systems (lawson, 1997), and that, hence, disregard notions of stratification and relational emergence. 14 saber exams are colombia’s equivalent for sats or standardized exams to monitor education performance in different moments of child’s learning and are administrated by the colombian institute for the promotion of higher education (icfes). the paradigm of critical realism parra no. 10 (january june 2015) no. 10 (january june 2015) 161 in the case of qualitative inquiry, the compartir report’s consultancy team has vigorosly agreed to defend the assumption that their visits to schools serve to verify their quantitative results. leaving asside their ambigous statement about causality (in the sense that their model is not causal, but both their model and their qualitative inquiry do serve to identify the major determinant of school performance), it is worth pointing out the way in which their qualitative questionnaries were built to retrieve findings only in the spectrum of teaching quality. the latter obeys a more deductive logic15 where they now try to go from a theoretical prescription (bulk on the econometric results) to an empirical validation. the problem, once again, is the implicit assumption of researching in a closed-system. how does this affect the inclusion of teachers’ voices in public policy debates? as we have anticipated, methodological preferences for statistical representativeness (as a means to identify, for example, empirical regularities) bare the consequence of disregarding the skills of scholars in education (not always equipped to talk in terms if statistics) and the experience of actual teachers (under the label of anecdotal evidence). conversely, the role given to induction and deduction in positivist research not only generates ontic and epistemic problems, but coheres with a logic of overweighting pre-structured research (i.e. pre-structured econometric specifications, pre-structured qualitative questionnaires to validate previous findings) in which the assumptions of the researcher (i.e. rational behavior) lead him/her to overshadow a more active role of the researched. involving teachers and professional educators so far, cr has helped us to identify problems in mainstream educational research. in this last section we are now interested in doing some progress towards alternative research agendas –and with particular focus in the problem at stake: the inclusion of the voices of educators in policy debates. the broad implication of our reading of the compartir report is the identification of lack of good science immersed in dominant education policy. hence, we seek to praise good scientific practices, under whose logic we can argue, “different methods [and 15 or a way “…to explain and predict particular empirical phenomena by deducing them from a set of propositions about general regularities or universal laws and precisely specified initial conditions” (wuisman, 2005, p. 367). the paradigm of critical realism parra no. 10 (january june 2015) no. 10 (january june 2015) 162 voices] can be seen to be necessary to reveal different aspects of the constituency of [social] phenomena” (downward & mearman, 2007, p. 91) . a question that follows is how can we establish a research design that conceives stratification but without falling into the assumption of a closed-system? put in simpler terms, how can we study social phenomena (i.e. school performance) without falling into either crude empiricism or problematic forms of quantitative modeling? we believe that scott and usher’s (2011) text on methods for researching education provides a (fairly) straightforward answer: structures and mechanisms are not immediately available to consciousness, and therefore, the first stage of the process is to construct a possible model of them, drawing on evidence from what is observable (…). the next stage is to test the model. if the testing is successful, this allows the researcher to believe or at least to have good grounds for believing in the existence of these structures and mechanisms. the whole process may be repeated so that the existence of these structures and mechanisms is confirmed. (p. 54) while this idea might require further elaboration17, it does provide important elements to sustain our main argument. on one hand, scientific discovery necessarily begins with what is observed, at which moment tools such as statistics can contribute to clarify the empirical strata of social reality (dow, 2003; downward & mearman, 2007). here we would open space for the work of expert statisticians and the application of large-scale quantitative analysis. however, the art of identifying underlying mechanisms does imply an exercise of testing, repetition and iteration. under such circumstances, cr researchers show preference for more ethnographic research (ackroyd, 2009) to allow an intensive interaction with social actors that have a primary involvement with the problem at hand. here, however, we need social theory that serves the purpose of giving empirical sense to these types of reasoning. in this regard, commentators have exalted archer’s (1995, 2003) approach (porpora 16 put in more formal terms, “the concept of cause in critical realism is tied to emergence from the interaction of human agency and institutions or structures. in this regard, the motivational (or otherwise) dimension of agency needs to be elaborated, as well as the mechanisms that facilitate action, or behaviour, coupled with the relational context of that behaviour. each of these components clearly requires different methods of analysis to reveal their nature and action” (downward & mearman, 2007, p. 91). 17 we encourage interest readers to consult wuisman’s (2005) work on cr methodology. the paradigm of critical realism parra no. 10 (january june 2015) no. 10 (january june 2015) 163 d. , 2013, p. 25), as it has devoted an important conceptual effort to elucidate the logic of relational emergence in social systems. one of archer’s (2003) crucial statements– and which gives sense to the stratified nature of the social word – is the idea that “the causal power of social forms is mediated through agency” (p. 2). it is to say, while social agents might be not aware of generative mechanisms acting on them, the existence of causal structures is expressed through the shaping of social behavior and interactions. this last argument positions the experience of directly involved social actors (i.e. teachers in the context of education policy) in the identification of causal knowledge18. one example of archer’s model at work is wallace & priestley’s (2011) and priestley & miller’s (2012) research in scotland. when dealing with the complex issue of why exogenous (i.e. national) education policies often fail to change life in schools, the authors “recognize the inevitability of teacher mediation of policy” (priestley & miller, 2012, p. 100) to study how cultural forms and social structures “constrain teacher agency, and how certain teachers are able to bring to bear particular experiences and values in acting within these constraints” (wallace & priestley, 2011, p. 363). the latter led them to establish a research design that included an active participation of teachers from different knowledge fields (i.e. language, math, natural sciences) to answer questions directed towards the understanding of possible changes in pedagogy and curriculum boosted by different initiatives of the scottish educational authority – the highland council-. what is important to emphasize here is the way cr ontology helped the authors to address non-observable causes boosting or restraining change in schools. this was the case of one teacher, vanessa, who self-reported that she believed that she “encouraged pupils to think for themselves” (wallace & priestley, 2011, p. 371). however, after recording her class, researchers were able to identify that she actually performed in the classroom as if “pupils were unable to think critically” (p. 371), a fact that reflected her belief that students were “irresponsible, and lazy” (p. 371). in such sense, observed (lack of) change in classroom dynamics was explained by interacting contradictions between different cultural influences that could only be 18 this, however, does not mean that it is enough to ask actors about their experience in order to identify a causal explanation. the latter would imply working only in the level of the empirical (or perception). in archer’s (2013) words, “the prior educational context is not assumed to be exactly as contemporary actors described it (...) because (…) social contexts cannot simply be reduced to what contemporary actors think, or thought about them, for this world would be endorse the autonomy to the present tense” the paradigm of critical realism parra no. 10 (january june 2015) no. 10 (january june 2015) 164 accessed through an empirical fact (i.e. an expressed perception) but fully understood by linking it with an indirectly unobserved one (i.e. preference for authority, reflected in vanessa’s way of teaching). another good example of cr grounded social theory is willmot’s (1999, 2001) five-month ethnographic research in a low-academicperforming school. here the author makes use of archer’s framework to exalt the role of actors’ deep knowledge about their context (active teachers) in helping to unveil underlying causal mechanisms explaining students’ low sat scores. one of his main conclusions, which states the existence of “a fundamental contradiction between the child-centered (humanist) concern for behaviour and self-esteem and the strategic manipulation of managerialism, which denies the very humanistic path that facilitates (potentially) success in [test scores]” (willmott, 2002, p. 166), was only possible to identify through extensive observations and frequent conversations with school teachers. the latter, because, in line with the core arguments of this paper, such particular dynamics were “erased out of existence by the ontological presuppositions of [the office for standards in education] positivist framework!” (willmott, 1999, p. 8)19. 19 this last idea matches with lawson (2012)’s comment on how policy prescriptions informed by assumptions of closure might trivialize particular aspects of human interactions for instance, cases of segregation, and discrimination, more commonly enclosed in day-to-day actors’ interactionsthat can impact desirable policy outcomes. positivist-based research in particular, he argues, is “ill-equipped even to allow such categories to be seriously considered” (p. 17). the paradigm of critical realism parra no. 10 (january june 2015) no. 10 (january june 2015) 165 conclusion throughout this document, we have engaged in a challenging, but arguably urgent, issue: the need to more actively involve teachers in education policy debates. the paper introduces cr as an alternative to dominant research paradigms in education that serves the inclusion of professional educators in education politics. the latter, in response to some methodological pitfalls that characterize mainstream educational research. we argue that because we live in an open world, we need research methodologies that transcend inductive and deductive inference logics to theorize about the unobserved –or those relational conditions (that have an ontic status) that presuppose the existence of social objects/ practices-. here we introduced some elements of archer’s (1995, 2003) social theory –and discussed some of its possible practical implications in empirical researchto argue the way in which the intensive knowledge possessed by professional educators (i.e. teachers) about their field becomes a key-factor to build causal knowledge about the role of education in society. in the end, we argue that traditional top-down approaches in education planning have proven to be quite ineffective -at least in the colombian contextnot only because they might be serving particular vested interests in society (for instance, instrumentalizing education in order to serve the purposes of industry), but due to their they lack of scientific rigor. in such a sense, if we seek to rectify education as a motor for social change, we need to modify the way in which we theorize about education policy. the idea is that many actors might and should contribute to the debate (because reality is stratified), but without disregarding the potentialities and limitations of different researchers in the field. the paradigm of critical realism parra no. 10 (january june 2015) no. 10 (january june 2015) 166 references ackroyd, s. 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(2002). an introduction to postmodern approach to educational research: discourse analysis. education, 123(1), 96-102. author juan david parra* is a phd candidate at the international institute of social studies, erasmus university rotterdam. he holds a master’s degree in economics. his on-going doctoral research delves into the paradigm of critical realism –and relevant social theoryto explore causes of poor school performance in regions of colombian. the paradigm of critical realism parra no. 10 (january june 2015) no. 10 (january june 2015) 170 appendix research in the quality of education funded and published by icfes in 2012 no. 10 (january june 2015) no. 10 (january june 2015) gist final1.indd 132 the interplay of teacher training, access to resources, years of experience and professional development in tertiary esl reading teachers’ perceived selfefficacy1 la relación entre formación docente, acceso recursos, experiencia docente y desarrollo profesional en la autoeficacia percibida por los docentes en la enseñanza de la lectura en inglés como segunda lengua rachel kraut, tara chandler and kathleen hertenstein2* rice university, the university of arizona, usa abstract through a mixed methods approach, this study collected data on the current state of iep teachers’ perceived self-efficacy in teaching esl reading, and the factors that may affect this. statistical analyses of surveys show a number of relationships among the factors explored: years of teaching, perceived selfefficacy, amount of pre-service training, amount of professional development and availability of resources. to detail the experiences of these instructors, responses from follow-up interviews are discussed. taken together, the results of this study underscore the need for esl teacher training programs and iep institutes to devote greater effort in preparing faculty to teach esl reading skills effectively. keywords: esl reading, teacher training, self-efficacy 1 received: december 15, 2015 / accepted: april 6, 2016 2 rachel.kraut@rice.edu / chandlet@email.arizona.edu / khertens@email.arizona.edu gist education and learning research journal. issn 1692-5777. no.12. (january june) 2016. pp. 132-151. kraut, chandler & hertenstein no. 12 (january june 2016) no. 12 (january june 2016) 133 resumen a través del enfoque de métodos mixtos, este estudio recolectó información actualizada de la percepción de los docentes de iep sobre la autoeficacia en la enseñanza de la lectura en inglés como segunda lengua y los factores que podrían afectar el proceso. el análisis estadístico de las encuestas muestra una serie de relaciones entre los factores explorados: años de experiencia docente, autoeficacia percibida, grado de formación inicial docente, grado de desarrollo profesional, y disponibilidad de recursos. para detallar las experiencias de los docentes se discutieron las entrevistas de seguimiento. los resultados de este estudio destacan la necesidad de los programas de formación de profesores de inglés como segunda lengua de dedicar un mayor esfuerzo en la preparación de profesores para enseñar de manera efectiva habilidades de lectura. palabras clave: lectura en inglés como segunda lengua, formación docente, autoeficacia resumo através do enfoque de métodos mistos, este estudo recolheu informação atualizada da percepção dos docentes de iep sobre a auto-eficácia no ensino da leitura em inglês como segunda língua e os fatores que poderiam afetar o processo. a análise estatística das enquetes mostra uma série de relações entre os fatores explorados: anos de experiência docente, auto-eficácia percebida, grau de formação inicial docente, grau de desenvolvimento profissional, e disponibilidade de recursos. para detalhar as experiências dos docentes se discutiram as entrevistas de seguimento. os resultados deste estudo destacam a necessidade dos programas de formação de professores de inglês como segunda língua de dedicar um maior esforço na preparação de professores para ensinar de maneira efetiva habilidades de leitura. palavras clave: leitura em inglês como segunda língua, formação docente, auto-eficácia kraut, chandler & hertenstein no. 12 (january june 2016) no. 12 (january june 2016) 134 introduction well-developed reading skills are an undeniably important part of a student’s course of study throughout schooling. it has been shown that children who read proficiently are more likely to succeed in school (nichd, 2000; teal, 1995) and less likely to dropout. additionally, “children with weak literacy skills are also more likely to enter the criminal justice system and to be underemployed” (guo & morrison, 2012, p. 3). several factors affect a student’s reading skills such as attentiveness in the classroom, home background, and attitude towards reading (rowe, 1995), but research suggests that teachers themselves play one of the most influential roles in students’ achievement (guarino, hamilton, lockwood, & rathbun, 2006). beyond teacher qualifications, a growing line of investigation takes an interest in teacher self-efficacy and its influence on student success in the classroom. self-efficacy is defined as “the individual’s perceived expectancy of obtaining valued outcomes through personal effort” (fuller, wood, rapoport, & dornbusch, 1982, p. 7) in terms of their abilities to think, plan, organize and perform activities needed in successful classrooms (bandura 1997, 2006). teacher self-efficacy is integral to teacher success and sustainability because it is directly related to knowledge and skills required for effective teaching (bandura, 1997; pajares, 1992; tschannen-moran et al., 1998). teachers who report levels of higher self-efficacy tend to experience greater perseverance, increased flexibility to cope with obstacles and an increased feeling of self-accomplishment (bandura, 1997). such teachers also have an increased awareness of how they are teaching, what their goals are, and are able to relate student outcomes to their teaching practices (eslami & fatahi, 2008). additionally, teachers reporting low self-efficacy have been shown have higher levels of emotional exhaustion from class disturbances due to lack of classroom management (dickle et al., 2014). consequently, research into perceptions of teacher self-efficacy can shed light on best teaching practices and assessment in the classroom (eslami & fatahi, 2008). many studies of teacher self-efficacy have been conducted in the k-12 content classroom in the areas of science education (e.g. cakiroglu, capa-aydin, & woofolk-hoy, 2012; corkett, hatt, & benevides, 2011), literacy education (e.g. tschannen-moran & johnson, 2011), and math education (e.g. clotfelter, ladd, & vigdor, 2007). an educational context in which comparatively little research has been done on teacher self-efficacy is the university esl classroom interplay of teacher training kraut, chandler & hertenstein no. 12 (january june 2016) no. 12 (january june 2016) 135 or tertiary intensive english programs (ieps). although intensive english programs have experienced rapid growth across the u.s. in recent years (institute of international education, 2012), this lack of research on teacher self-efficacy in adult esl reading may be because of the recent increase in the number of international students entering american tertiary education. the number of students requiring esl programs has subsequently increased, and research in this area is only now becoming necessary. intensive english programs are unique among institutions of language education for a number of reasons. first, as the majority of their students arrive on f-1 visas, ieps must build english language programs in accordance with the number of hours of instruction required by the u.s. f-1 immigration status regulation for language training (szasz, 2010). for international students in an american iep setting, a full-time course load is “at least 18 clock hours of attendance a week” (u.s. citizenship and immigration services, 2010). second, while students may arrive with an english proficiency as low as a1 on the cefr scale, the majority of students enter an iep with a degree of english proficiency ranging from a2-b1. this is likely because most iep students come to the u.s. with the goal matriculating into a university, and thus want to spend as little time possible on intensive english studies. many also have scholarship restrictions set forth by government sponsors which allow only a short time frame for intensive english studies (e.g. 3-6 months). finally, as the goal of the majority of international students studying in ieps in the u.s. is to gain admission into an american university, therefore, program curricula usually focus on the academic language skills to enable students to read, write, speak, and comprehend english at a level that is appropriate for universitylevel course work. in order to be successful readers of academic english, international students need to have large amounts of vocabulary knowledge (alderson, 2000; hellekjaer, 2009), be able to efficiently integrate background knowledge with text (grabe & stroller, 2002), use metacognitive monitoring to repair comprehension (alderson, 2000), and make use of a variety of learning strategies for reading and new vocabulary (hellekjaer, 2009). while many iep students may be able to successfully take on academic texts in their l1, it is not necessarily true that these skill sets and strategies will transfer over to the l2 (koda, 2005, 2007). thus, it is crucial that esl teachers at the tertiary level be adequately trained and effective in teaching reading to help students meet their goals. interplay of teacher training kraut, chandler & hertenstein no. 12 (january june 2016) no. 12 (january june 2016) 136 to explore the current state of teacher self-efficacy in the teaching of adult esl reading, we employed a mixed methods approach to explore the following questions: 1. how do teachers in a university-based intensive english program rate their levels of self-efficacy as esl reading teachers? 2. how are self-ratings of perceived self-efficacy influenced by a teacher’s amount of pre-service training, ongoing professional development, access to useful resources, and years of experience? the quantitative results of a questionnaire and the qualitative results from interviews with a handful of university-level esl teachers across the united states suggest that teacher self-efficacy in teaching adult esl reading is relatively low. moreover, this lack of confidence may stem from a lack of pre-service training, limited relevant professional development, and a dearth of useful resources to aid in the planning and teaching of esl reading. literature review teacher self-efficacy with such an important role to play in student success, it is of interest to know how teacher self-efficacy is influenced by other crucial variables, such as professional development and pre-service training. hoy and woolfolk (1993) examined two major independent variables: teacher efficacy and organizational support and found that all teachers at various years in the profession need a strong sense of self-efficacy and organizational support to make the best use of their professional development training. in a similar vein, a recent study by dixon et al. (2014) found that esl teachers who received increased hours of professional development training developed higher self-efficacy. in reviewing this data, one can conclude that teacher training and selfefficacy are interdependent. a study conducted in turkey by student teachers (cabaroglu, 2014) also yielded findings relevant to the interaction of teacher selfefficacy and pre-service training. these student teacher / researchers utilized a combination of self-evaluation, reading relevant literature, informal observations and interviews, and preparing action plans to improve their teaching abilities. afterwards, quantitative data from the tses (teacher self-efficacy scale) (tschannen-moran & woolfolkhoy, 2001) revealed that the student teachers’ self-reports of selfefficacy had increased, while qualitative data collected from reflective interplay of teacher training kraut, chandler & hertenstein no. 12 (january june 2016) no. 12 (january june 2016) 137 diaries showed that this action research promoted a positive learning experience for the pre-service teachers as well. another study linking pre-service training to teacher self-efficacy was done by clark (2016). for the study, clark determined the number of pedagogical reading courses required by various university teacher education programs. upon correlating this data with ratings of teacher self-efficacy, the findings show that the number of pre-service courses taken influenced teacher self-efficacy in the teaching of reading. more specifically, teachers who took two courses in reading methodology had a higher perception of self-efficacy when compared to reading teachers than teachers who only took one course. a common thread can be seen throughout each of these studies: teachers who have more training through methodology courses and/ or professional development report greater feelings of self-efficacy than those with less training and professional development. however, it could be argued that pre-service training alone cannot be the only factor affecting a teacher’s perceived self-efficacy. tschannen-moran & johnston (2011) explore factors beyond pre-service training in teachers’ perceived self-efficacy. the researchers surveyed 648 elementary and middle school teachers using the teacher sense of efficacy scale (tses). a series of statistical analyses including multiple regression and correlation revealed that among these literacy teachers, ratings of the quality of their teacher preparation program, highest degree obtained, access to resources, school level taught, participation in a book club, and self-efficacy in the areas of instructional strategies, classroom management, and student engagement were all significant predictors of self-efficacy for literacy instruction. to expand upon existing multi-factorial investigations of teacher self-efficacy, the present study explored the interplay between teacher self-efficacy, professional development, pre-service training, and access to useful resources. methodology research design this study took a mixed methods approach to shed light on our research questions, as both quantitative and qualitative data are central to this line of inquiry. we worked from johnson & onwuegbuzie’s (2004) definition of a mixed methods approach as “the class of research where the researcher mixes or combines quantitative and qualitative research techniques, methods, approaches, concepts or language into interplay of teacher training kraut, chandler & hertenstein no. 12 (january june 2016) no. 12 (january june 2016) 138 a single study” (p. 17). a questionnaire and a handful of face-to-face interviews, which are described in the subsequent sections, were utilized for data collection. this mixed methods approach allowed us to gather both quantitative data from a wide variety of participants (for the purpose of generalization), as well as in-depth information from individuals which could elucidate some of the quantitative data. participants a total of 70 in-service esl teachers (17 male, 53 female) employed at a university-level intensive english program in the united states participated in the questionnaire portion of the study. in addition to experience teaching at the university level, 29% had taught at the elementary school level, 34% had taught middle school, and 39% taught high school. in terms of years of teaching experience, the mean years of experience among the questionnaire participants was 12.16 years (range: 1-40 years). the figure below shows the distribution of the participants’ teaching experience in years. figure 1. participants’ years of teaching experience of these 70 participants, eight were chosen for participation in the interview portion of the study (2 males, 6 females). convenient sampling procedures were used to select these particular subjects. table 1 shows the years of esl teaching experience for each of the 8 interviewees. all subjects agreed to be interviewed without compensation and provided written consent for both the questionnaire and the interview. interplay of teacher training kraut, chandler & hertenstein no. 12 (january june 2016) no. 12 (january june 2016) 139 table 1. interviewees’ years of teaching experience data collection instruments questionnaire. the questionnaire was developed based on the researchers’ experience teaching esl and knowledge of the field (a total of approximately 40 years of experience combined) as well as informal interviews with four in-service university-level esl teachers. the theoretical framework for the instrument and many of the questions were modeled after eslami & fatahi (2008). the questionnaire consisted of the following 6 sections: 1. demographic information & years of experience 2. efficacy for student engagement 3. efficacy for instructional strategies 4. training and professional development 5. curriculum & access to resources this questionnaire was found to be reliable by calculating cronbach’s alpha for each of the four major subsections of the instrument. the alpha coefficients are as follows: .74 for efficacy for student engagement, .81 for efficacy for instructional strategies, .92 for training and professional development, and .66 for curriculum & access to resources. interview questions. the ten interview questions were designed by the three researchers with input from other esl program administrators and esl teachers at the university of arizona. the goal of the interviews was to collect more detailed information from a handful of teachers which might be able to provide further insight into some of the trends found within the quantitative data. interplay of teacher training kraut, chandler & hertenstein no. 12 (january june 2016) no. 12 (january june 2016) 140 data analysis and interpretation after obtaining irb approval to conduct the study, the questionnaire was hosted online via google docs and sent out to randomly-selected intensive english programs throughout the united states to solicit participation from teachers. all participants gave written consent by typing their name and the date after reading through the consent form. the online questionnaire was left open for four weeks, at which point it was closed and the results were downloaded for statistical analysis. for analysis of the quantitative questionnaire data, both descriptive statistics by item and correlational analyses (between perceived selfefficacy and the other variables) will be reported. participants selected an answer ranging from 1 (disagree) to 5 (agree) on a likert scale to indicate responses for subsections 2 (efficacy for student engagement), 3 (efficacy for instructional strategies), and 5 (curriculum and access to resources). the results of subsection 4 (pre-service training and professional development), are discussed in terms of counts since no likert scales were used. the eight subjects who participated in the online questionnaire were selected via convenience sampling to participate in the interview portion of the study. all subjects gave written consent prior to being interviewed. their answers were recorded with a smart phone audio recording app, transcribed and coded (to maintain anonymity of the data), and subsequently destroyed. in order to identify themes in the participants’ responses, each transcribed interview was coded by the three researchers (independently) as either self-identifying as an effective esl reading teacher or not an effective esl reading teacher. this was done by analyzing each interviewee’s response to question #3: “do you feel that you’re an effective reading teacher? why or why not?” subjects 1, 2 and 3 self-reported as being ineffective esl reading teachers while subjects 4, 5, 6, 7, and 8 self-reported as being effective esl reading teachers. after separating the transcribed interviews into these two groups, the researchers re-read each interview and coded the data question by question in order to identify themes in the discourse. the emerging response themes are discussed separately for each of the two aforementioned groups. because a theme of access to resources in motivating students surfaced across both groups, it is explored subsequently at the whole-group level. interplay of teacher training kraut, chandler & hertenstein no. 12 (january june 2016) no. 12 (january june 2016) 141 results quantitative questionnaire data efficacy for student engagement. four questions comprised this section inquiring about teachers’ perceived self-efficacy in engaging students during an esl reading class. on the whole, participants reported rather marginal or average feelings of self-efficacy in this category with a mean 3.6 out of 5 for all questions in the section. positive correlations were found between teacher’s perceived selfefficacy for student engagement and amount of teacher training (r =.339), access to useful resources (r =.302), and years of experience teaching esl (r = .391). however, no significant correlation was found between perceived self-efficacy for student engagement and amount of professional development. a closer look at the data suggests that no such relationship was present likely because the vast majority of teachers (78.5%) indicate that they received virtually no professional development in teaching esl reading at their current places of employment. support for this hypothesis is reflected in the mean response to “i could benefit from more professional development and/ or training in teaching reading skills to esl students.” as 4.35 out of 5. efficacy for instructional strategies. this section consisted of four questions about teachers’ perceived self-efficacy in their ability to use a variety of instructional strategies during an esl reading class. in general, participants’ self-reports were higher for instructional strategies than student engagement with a mean 4.11 out of 5 rating across all questions. positive correlations were found between teacher’s perceived self-efficacy for instructional strategies and amount of teacher training (r =.377), access to useful resources (r =.283), and years of experience teaching esl (r = .342). however, as with student engagement, no significant correlation was found between perceived self-efficacy for instructional strategies and amount of professional development. we posit that, similar to efficacy for student engagement, this is likely because the majority of teachers reported receiving little to no professional development in teaching esl reading at their current places of employment. curriculum and access to resources. the data from just two questions in this section, pertaining to resource access, are reported. each question is followed by the mean rating (out of 5) as self-reported by the participants: (1) at my current place of employment, i have access to useful resources to help teach reading skills. (mean: 3.97, sd: 3.94). (2) at my current place of employment, i have access to useful resources to help teach vocabulary. (mean: .96, sd: .97). interplay of teacher training kraut, chandler & hertenstein no. 12 (january june 2016) no. 12 (january june 2016) 142 pre-service training and professional development. the data set for section four of the questionnaire, which asked teachers about their amount of pre-service training and current professional development, paints a rather dismal picture of the state of training and organizational support for esl reading teachers. as many as 78.5% of teachers reported having little to no professional development in teaching reading skills at their current place of employment, as indicated by selecting the “0-2 times pear year” response. 77% of respondents reported taking 0-1 graduate level classes about teaching reading, and even fewer reported taking undergraduate classes on the subject (87% indicate 0 or 1 class). not surprisingly, an overwhelming majority of the respondents indicated that they could benefit from more professional development or training in teaching esl reading as evidenced by a mean response of 4.35 out of 5 on the likert scale question (1 disagree – 5 agree). qualitative interview data self-reported ineffective esl reading teachers. analysis of the interview data from interviewees 1, 2, and 3 revealed a handful of patterns in their responses. firstly, these interviewees reported only having taught esl for between 6-10 years (mean: 8 years). considering that the mean number of years teaching esl among questionnaire participants was 12.16 years, these three interviewees have less experience than the average participant. secondly, all three interviewees reported having no formal training in teaching esl reading prior to becoming an in-service teacher. instead, they indicated that they learned to teach esl reading “mostly intuitively” or “from peer coaching with current colleagues.” when asked the best way for teachers to improve their skills, all three stated that teachers should receive training which is “regular” and “ongoing” and is conducted by “expert teachers who specialize in esl reading.” two of the three interviewees in this group noted that they feel teaching vocabulary is easier than teaching reading strategies, referring to the latter as “stressful” due to lack of knowledge in how to do so and access to “limited and inadequate resources” to help them teach. interestingly, the interviewee who reported that teaching reading strategies was easiest came from a k-12 teaching background in which she was paired with a “reading coach” who provided “a huge guide… about what she was supposed to be teaching or what the next step was.” this interviewee stated that in turn, she felt that she taught reading strategies well because “it’s more structured” than teaching vocabulary. years of support from an expert coach in a former job likely influenced interplay of teacher training kraut, chandler & hertenstein no. 12 (january june 2016) no. 12 (january june 2016) 143 this interviewee’s response and level of confidence in teaching esl reading strategies. lastly, analysis of the responses to “what do you do well in your reading class?” revealed a pattern of “teaching vocabulary” and “modeling excitement about reading.” self-reported effective esl reading teachers. interviewees 4, 5, 6, 7 and 8 self-reported as being effective esl reading teachers. not surprisingly, the range of teaching experience across this group was much broader than the self-reported ineffective teachers (6-35 years) with a mean number of years of experience double that of the other group (16.4 years). this supports the findings from the quantitative data which show that years of experience strongly correlates with efficacy for student engagement and instructional strategies. unlike the self-reported ineffective group, this group of interviewees all reported some degree of formal training at the graduate level in teaching esl reading prior to becoming an in-service teacher. additionally, all noted that they continue to seek out training through conferences, attending workshops, and “staying in the literature.” four out of the five interviewees discussed the importance of reflecting on their own experiences as readers as well when considering how to teach reading. when asked about their opinion of the ease of teaching reading strategies as opposed to teaching vocabulary, three of the five interviewees stated that both are “equally easy to teach.” this is likely due to the training they’ve each received and continue to seek out. finally, in detailing what they do well in their esl reading classes, a theme of setting goals and designing strong assessments emerged from the responses. this is reflected in statements including the following: i also feel like my assignments in reading courses are strong…(they) work because it’s easy to assess whether or not (students) understand how to do it” and “(it) works because it gives students milestones that are tangible. they feel like they’re making progress. access to resources. according to our quantitative survey results, access to beneficial resources for teachers is a significant predictor of teachers’ perceived efficacy in teaching reading skills. it also significantly predicts teachers’ perceived abilities to motivate students who show a low interest in reading. this is further supported by several interviewees when they were asked the question, “what resources should be available?” one person stated, “they (students) should choose texts that they enjoy! that’s the only way students will be interested too (in addition to the teachers).” another person stated the following: interplay of teacher training kraut, chandler & hertenstein no. 12 (january june 2016) no. 12 (january june 2016) 144 the most important resource is a good library so students can choose individually what they want to read…. reading teachers need to take advantage of this (an independent reading program) so their students have choice. the tasks should be carefully chosen so as to not burden the student, but rather make them want to read the books. conclusions the results support the notion that esl reading teachers in a tertiary intensive english program need more training in and access to resources for teaching this skill in order to experience a higher sense of self-efficacy in the classroom. these findings both support and expand on previous literature by affirming the positive relationship between teacher training and self-efficacy as well as exploring the state of teacher self-efficacy and its relationship with other variables in an under-studied educational context: the intensive english program. because our study was carried out with teachers from this unique genre of educational institution, it should be noted that our results may not be generalizable to other language learning contexts. similarly, with a small sample size (n=70) representing programs across 17 states, further research should be conducted before firmly concluding that the trends in our data paint an accurate picture of teacher self-efficacy in the majority of ieps within the u.s. one of the goals of the present study was to shed light on the current lack of this training and its effect on teacher self-efficacy. however, in order to move forward and bolster teacher self-efficacy in the esl reading classroom, we call for further research into specific reading methodology course offerings of esl teacher training programs at universities across the united states as well as deeper exploration into the exact nature of any professional development offerings in esl reading at the university level for in-service teachers. in this way, the field may gain a better sense of exactly what kind of teacher training courses and organizational support to develop. a few suggestions for teacher professional development were gleaned from our qualitative interview data: observing expert teachers either online or in-person (putnam & borko, 2000), engaging in book groups where teachers read a book about teaching reading and discuss relevant ideas (grossman, wineburg, & woolworth, 2001), participating in peer coaching with a knowledgeable colleague (schifter & fosnot, 1993), attending ongoing trainings by an expert in the field of teaching reading (little, 1994), having an expert as an accessible resource (smith, 1969; brockbank & mcgill, 2006), and having access to helpful websites for suggestions (ingvarson, meiers, & beavis, 2005) interplay of teacher training kraut, chandler & hertenstein no. 12 (january june 2016) no. 12 (january june 2016) 145 the above listed forms of teacher professional development boost a teacher’s self-efficacy; some of which are well-documented by bandura (1994, 1997). observing expert teachers is a strong example of vicarious experience in which the observer relates to the expert teacher and gains the confidence to successfully accomplish a new skill. both engaging in book clubs and having an expert as a resource are examples of social or verbal persuasion in which strong words of encouragement from a trusted person provide a positive perception of ability. lastly, participating in peer coaching with a colleague is an example of master experience in which teachers are given the opportunity to build on past mastered skills by practicing similarly new ones. whatever the form, the predominant theme is that this type of support needs to be ongoing and not just offered once or twice a year. this gives teachers the support they need as problems arise and keeps the methodologies used in the classroom current and relevant to the needs of the students (national staff development council, 2001). the results of this study also serve as a call for tertiary intensive english programs to take stock of the quantity and quality of resources available to their faculty for teaching esl reading. some possible resources for esl teachers are as follows: internet tesl journal links page, esl gold (materials, lesson plans, and links for teachers and students), using english (language references, teacher resources, analysis tools, discussion forum and links), and the internet for esl teachers (claire braden’s collection of pedagogical articles). many researchers have found correlations between students having a choice in what they read with how they are intrinsically motivated to read. in fact, according to reynolds & symons (2001), background knowledge and topic interest are closely correlated and are a strong determining factor for a student’s motivation to read. with students who come from a variety of countries and backgrounds in ieps, this points to the need for teacher access to materials and resources that cover many content area topics. another factor which may affect student motivation is the incorporation a variety of engaging instructional strategies in teaching reading. according to lems, miller, and soro, (2010), some strategies useful at the tertiary level are as follows: reader’s response logs allowing students to engage with the reading and practice metacognitive skills while demonstrating comprehension, silent reading techniques such as ssr (sustained silent reading) or dear (drop everything and read) where students and the instructor silently read high-interest books, using visual and audio aids to supply a more dynamic interaction with the reading, and using semantic maps and other graphic organizers to bring meaning to non-fiction texts. interplay of teacher training kraut, chandler & hertenstein no. 12 (january june 2016) no. 12 (january june 2016) 146 in conclusion, teaching reading skills to tertiary esl students is an important academic endeavor in which some teachers in intensive english programs often feel underprepared to teach. with a lack of experience, pre-service training, and professional development, tertiary esl teachers may not feel confident in teaching. many desire adequate training and support in order to raise self-efficacy and effectiveness in the classroom. in addition, access to beneficial resources aids the teachers’ perceived ability to motivate and instruct students to read. with the help of ongoing in-service training, teachers can obtain the instruction they need to feel more effective, and with access to resources, they can be equipped to implement the strategies and training they have received. thus, both esl teachers and students alike have a chance to be more successful in reaching their goals. interplay of teacher training kraut, chandler & hertenstein no. 12 (january june 2016) no. 12 (january june 2016) 147 references alderson, j. 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(2010). title 8 of code of federal regulations (8 cfr): (8 cfr sec. 214.2(f)(6)(i)(d). retrieved march 29, 2016, from http://www.uscis.gov/portal/site/ uscis/menuitem.f6da51a2342135be7e9d7a10e0dc91a0/?vgnextoid= fa7e539dc4bed010vgnvcm1000000ecd190arcrd&vgnextchann el=fa7e539dc4bed010vgnvcm1000000ecd190arcrd&ch=8cfr. interplay of teacher training kraut, chandler & hertenstein no. 12 (january june 2016) no. 12 (january june 2016) 151 authors *rachel kraut is the associate director of language programs in the glasscock school of continuing studies at rice university. there, she helps oversee the intensive english program, esl communication program, and all foreign language programs in addition to building new language-related programs. she also serves as a site reviewer for the commission on english language program accreditation. beyond language program management, rachel has also worked as a consultant in language teacher professional development for public school districts, a content developer, and a teacher trainer. her research interests lie in two camps: language program administration and l2 applied psycholinguistics. more specifically, rachel has published and presented papers on esl teacher training and pedagogy, the development and effectiveness of l2 extensive reading programs, l2 lexical storage and access, and the processing of l2 morphology. *tara chandler is an instructor at the center for english as a second language at the university of arizona. in addition to teaching in the intensive english and teacher training programs, she has served as the faculty area advisor and course leader in reading, mentoring new teachers in the program, providing ongoing professional development for all faculty members, and offering feedback on reading assessments. other experience includes teaching secondary english and esl classes, facilitating online education and linguistic courses in higher education, and training content teachers abroad how to teach and assess in an l2. her research interests are in reading, esl reading, esl teacher training and pedagogy and online learning. *kathleen hertenstein is an instructor at the center for english as a second language at the university of arizona. at cesl, she works as instructor in the intensive english program as well as teacher trainer and mentor in the teaching english as a foreign language program. she is currently a phd candidate in language, reading, and culture with a major in second language acquisition and pedagogy and a minor in adult writing. she had presented on teacher training, esl education, collegiality, teaching and technology and esl professional development. her main areas of research are teaching reading in the esl classroom, teacher training, methodology, and professional development at the tertiary level. interplay of teacher training kraut, chandler & hertenstein no. 12 (january june 2016) no. 12 (january june 2016) gist ii semestre 2016-9.indd 11 effectiveness of systemic text analysis in efl writing instruction1 efectividad del análisis de texto sistémico en la enseñanza de escritura de efl ender velasco tovar2* british council, bogotá, colombia abstract this action research study investigates the effectiveness of a model based on the theory of systemic text analysis for the teaching of efl writing. employing students’ pieces of writing and a teachers’ survey as data collection instruments, the writing performance of a group of monolingual intermediate level adult students enrolled on a private efl school in bogota, colombia was gauged before and after the model implementation. the results suggest that the proposed model is somewhat effective for the teaching of factual efl writing and that it has a seemingly positive effect on the writing performance of efl students in terms of cohesion and coherence at the paragraph level. keywords: efl writing, cohesion, coherence, thematic patterns, text analysis. resumen este estudio de investigación acción explora la efectividad de un modelo basado en la teoría de análisis sistémico de texto para la enseñanza del inglés como lengua extranjera. se utilizaron escritos de estudiantes y se aplicó una encuesta a los profesores como instrumentos de recolección de datos para determinar el nivel de escritura de un grupo de estudiantes adultos de nivel intermedio, matriculados en una escuela privada de efl en bogotá, colombia. los resultados sugieren que el modelo propuesto es hasta cierto nivel efectivo para la enseñanza de la escritura objetiva de efl y parece tener un efecto 1 received: may 30, 2016 / accepted: october 6, 2016 2 velasco_ender@yahoo.co.uk re se ar ch a rti cle s gist education and learning research journal. issn 1692-5777. no.13. (july december) 2016. pp. 11-33. no. 13 (july december 2016) no. 13 (july december 2016) 12 aparentemente positivo en el rendimiento de la escritura de los estudiantes de inglés como lengua extranjera en términos de cohesión y coherencia a nivel de párrafos. palabras clave: escritura efl, cohesión, coherencia, esquemas temáticos, análisis de texto. resumo este estudo de pesquisa ação explora a efetividade de um modelo baseado na teoria de análise sistêmica de texto para o ensino do inglês como língua estrangeira. utilizaram-se escritos de estudantes e aplicou-se uma enquete aos professores como instrumentos de coleta de dados para determinar o nível de escritura de um grupo de estudantes adultos de nível intermédio, matriculados em uma escola particular de efl em bogotá, colômbia. os resultados sugerem que o modelo proposto é até certo nível efetivo para o ensino da escritura objetiva de efl e parece ter um efeito aparentemente positivo no rendimento da escritura dos estudantes de inglês como língua estrangeira em termos de coesão e coerência ao nível de parágrafos. palavras chave: escritura efl, coesão, coerência, esquemas temáticos, análise de texto. effectiveness of systemic text analysis velasco no. 13 (july december 2016) no. 13 (july december 2016) 13 introduction the inability of some efl students to acquire high levels of proficiency in l2 writing has been the subject of heated discussions amongst teachers across many efl contexts, resulting in harsh critiques made by various professionals in terms of disorganisation and lack of coherence found in efl writing (horner & min-zhan, 1999; keck, 2006; olivas & li, 2006; wall, nickson, jordan, allwright & houghton, 1988; woodrow, 2006; and yu, 2009). linking theoretical concepts from systemic functional linguistics to the efl classroom, this study aimed to investigate the effectiveness of a model based on the theory of systemic text analysis (bloor & bloor, 2013) for the teaching of efl writing. this model entailed the application of three thematic patterns through text analysis tasks to a class of intermediate adult students as part of their writing instruction over a period of four weeks. students were first introduced to the basics of systemic functional linguistics theory and were asked to carry out theme and rheme analyses of three different texts. these included a biography divided into two parts, and a text about different types of paint. each analysis was used as the platform to introduce three different thematic patterns, namely continuous, zigzag and split. students then carried out further analysis of a text about poverty, in which they had to identify themes-rhemes and a mixture of thematic patterns. finally, they were asked to write their own paragraph collaboratively. in order to investigate the effectiveness of such a model, the study was based on these two research questions: to what extent is the proposed model effective for the teaching of factual efl writing? and does the proposed model have any effect on the writing performance of efl students in regard to organisation of ideas at paragraph level? the results suggest that the proposed model is effective to some extent for the teaching of efl writing and that it seems to have a positive effect on the cohesion and coherence of students’ paragraphs in factual pieces of writing. literature review theme and rheme based on systemic functional linguistics, a text is said to have cohesion and coherence when the language in it is organised and connected through structural and cohesive components. within structural components, halliday and mathiessen (2004) define theme in a clause as “the starting-point for the message: it is what the clause is going to be about” (as cited in eggins, 2004, p. 299). on the other effectiveness of systemic text analysis velasco no. 13 (july december 2016) no. 13 (july december 2016) 14 hand, rheme is identified as “everything that is not the theme” (p. 300). in other words, it could be said that the former is the subject of a clause which tends to be known because it has been mentioned before or can be worked out from the immediate context, and the latter provides new or unknown information which helps develop the topic or idea. the table below exemplifies this. table 1. sample sentence broken down into unmarked theme and rheme the example above can be considered as unmarked theme. however, on many occasions, proficient writers make different choices when packing information in a clause. while an unmarked theme indicates a common choice made by writers and equality of meaning in a clause, a marked theme denotes an uncommon choice and unusual balance of meaning. readers are prompted to the fact that meaning may need to be made from the context of the clause in a different way. the table below exemplifies this. table 2. sample sentences broken down into marked theme and rheme thematic patterns this refers to the different ways writers tend to introduce, package and organise information at paragraph level in pieces of writing (e.g. factual) in order to give these cohesion and coherence. bloor and bloor (2013) identify three main thematic patterns. in a continuous thematic pattern, the clauses within the same paragraph begin with what was identified as theme in the first clause. this pattern may be repetitive, but it gives a clear focus to the writing. the figure below illustrates this. . effectiveness of systemic text analysis velasco no. 13 (july december 2016) no. 13 (july december 2016) 15 figure 1. continuous thematic pattern (bloor & bloor, 2013, p. 90) this pattern may look like this: marianne north was born in hastings in 1830. she revealed a talent for drawing and developed a fascination for travelling from her father at an early age. she devoted the reminder of her life to painting after her father’s death in 1869. (text adapted from royal botanic gardens kew). in a zigzag thematic pattern, the clauses within the same paragraph begin with an item that was identified as part of the rheme in the first clause. this pattern gives more cohesion to the writing when a change in subject ought to be introduced, as opposed to when new themes are brought externally i.e. from outside the text. the figure below illustrates this. figure 2. zigzag thematic pattern (bloor & bloor, 2013, p. 91) this pattern can be exemplified as follows: miss north travelled widely, frequently enduring considerable discomfort in order to paint flowers in their natural habitats. the habitats she portrayed were colourful and vivid, often including representations of flowers and wildlife. her paintings achieved a high level of artistic competence, despite her lack of formal training. her lack of training, however, did not hinder her natural talent and speed for drawing and painting, sometimes completing a picture in one day. (text adapted from royal botanic gardens kew). effectiveness of systemic text analysis velasco no. 13 (july december 2016) no. 13 (july december 2016) 16 lastly, in a split thematic pattern, an item that was identified as part of the rheme in the first clause is divided systematically. subsequent clauses within the same paragraph are developed around such item, providing a pattern that gives clear organisation to the writing. cohesive devices such as firstly, secondly, then, etc. can be added to prompt readers even further. the figure below illustrates this. figure 3. split rheme pattern (bloor & bloor, 2013, p. 92) the text below exemplifies this pattern. many amateur artists first learn about three types of paint and the media in which pigments are suspended. oil paint is the product of pigments that are bound with a medium of drying oil. this oil is a mixture of linseed boiled with pine resin. pastel paint is a medium in the form of a stick, consisting of a pure powdered pigment and a binder. this binder has neutral hue and low saturation. acrylic paint is fast drying paint containing a pigment embedded in an acrylic polymer emulsion. this emulsion can be diluted with water, but it becomes water-resistant when dry. (text adapted from doerner, 1949) text analysis in the efl writing classroom it has long been recognised that the integration of reading as the basis for subsequent analysis can develop students’ awareness of writing subskills or “top-down and bottom-up strategies” (davies, 1988, p. 134). there is also a wealth of evidence suggesting that efl students’ writing performance is likely to improve when performing classroom tasks that involve reading and writing (cheng, 2008; connor & farmer, 1990; cumming & riazi, 2000; flowerdew, 2000; kongpetch, 2006; sidaway, 2006; yuan-shan & shao-wen, 2011), particularly within the genre-based approach to teaching efl writing. these tasks usually entail guided practice using genre templates through which the teacher scaffolds lexico-grammar and discoursal features found in texts. also, some authors have found a positive relationship between l2 teachingeffectiveness of systemic text analysis velasco no. 13 (july december 2016) no. 13 (july december 2016) 17 learning and linguistics theory instruction (cuenca; pastor, cited in rojas, 2014, p. 160). however, there is little information about research on the application of thematic patterns analysis with efl classrooms and its effectiveness in relation to writing instruction. therefore, this allows room for more specific studies, perhaps of a qualitative nature, to determine if systemic text analysis instruction translates into either progress or regress in terms of students’ writing skills. this has major implications for efl writing teachers in regard to the way the teaching of writing is approached and the variety of activities that have to be brought into the classroom. methodology research design the assumption in this study is that the application of the proposed text analysis model could potentially contribute to an increase in the writing performance of efl students, specifically in relation to organisation of ideas at paragraph level. therefore, the study set out to answer the following research questions: to what extent is the proposed model effective for the teaching of factual efl writing? and does the proposed model have any effect on the writing performance of efl students in regard to organisation of ideas at paragraph level? in order to find the answers to these two questions, this study compared students’ pieces of writing before and after an intervention based on a model using bloor and bloor’s (2013) thematic patterns described earlier. the intervention took place across four different text analysis tasks, and a subsequent collaborative writing task. due to its purpose, short time scale, practical nature, researcher involvement and immediate application to classroom issues, this study can be framed within the first cycle of an action research approach (bell, 2010). this strategy was chosen based on factors such as suitability, feasibility and ethics, bearing in mind that other strategies such as experiments or case studies would not be viable (denscombe, 2010). context and participants this study took place in a private english language school in bogota, colombia. the participants were a monolingual (spanishspeaking) group of 12 adult students enrolled on an intensive intermediate level general english course (b2) over a period of four weeks. during the study, participants received about ten hours of instruction per week under the communicative language teaching effectiveness of systemic text analysis velasco no. 13 (july december 2016) no. 13 (july december 2016) 18 (clt) approach. the class was made up of seven females and five males between the ages of 20 and 39. they all were either working or studying at the time of the study, and their motivations for learning english included personal development, further studies, and better employability prospects. the writing instruction proposed in the model as part of this study was embedded within the main course instruction and was not delivered as separate sessions. consent forms were signed and dated by each participant before taking part in the study. twelve teachers working at the same language school also took part in the study. their l1 was english, and they had a minimum of two years post-celta teaching experience in various contexts. their sole role was to give an overall assessment of the participants’ writing performance. data collection instruments data collection instruments included two sources: students’ artefacts and a teachers’ survey. students’ artefacts. in order to gauge participants’ progression or regression in terms of writing performance, students’ pieces of writing were collected before and after the model implementation, in weeks 1 and 4, respectively. these included factual paragraphs around three topics, namely: computer types, the seasons, and kinds of holiday accommodation. students were given 30 minutes to carry out the tasks which had a word limit of 120-180 words. the twelve students were divided into three groups of four. each group was then randomly assigned one of the three topics for the first task. the students wrote about the same topic for the second writing task after the model implementation. once copies of handwritten work had been made, students were asked to type in their pieces of writing and submit the soft copies. soft copies were cross checked against hard copies to make sure that no changes were made to the former. sampling was carried out using a non-statistical approach. that is, each participant in each of the three groups was assigned a number from one to four. these numbers were then written on separate cards and one participant from each group was randomly drawn to be measured in terms of his/her writing performance. in total, three samples, i.e. students were selected. although this might have caused issues with data reliability, the decision to select only three samples for the analysis was made purely based on the nature of the action research study. in other words, the time was too short (4 weeks) and the financial and human resources were limited (involvement of third parties to carry out analyses of thematic patterns was not viable). effectiveness of systemic text analysis velasco no. 13 (july december 2016) no. 13 (july december 2016) 19 teachers’ survey. in order to offer more consistency to the study, the twelve teachers were asked to assess each piece of writing employing a five-point likert scale based on the following question: understanding cohesion and coherence as the organisation of ideas, clear focus in the development of ideas, and linking between ideas through cohesive devices, how would you assess the cohesion and coherence of the following pieces of writing? 1) very poor, 2) poor, 3) acceptable, 4) good, or 5) very good? please give a reason (or reasons) for your choices. this, by all means, was not a complex and exhaustive statistical procedure. on the contrary, it was purely an internal peer survey exercise. data analysis and interpretation students’ artefacts. a qualitative analysis was employed. writing samples from the three selected students were coded to guarantee anonymity and then analysed for theme, rheme and thematic patterns (bloor & bloor, 2013) on both instances, before and after the model implementation. the implementation of the proposed model for the teaching of factual efl writing was carried out in weeks 2-3. the teacher-researcher implemented a workshop in which participants worked collaboratively through three text analysis tasks. students analysed three texts for theme and rheme. these analyses were the basis to introduce the continuous, zig-zag, and split thematic patterns. to follow up this session, students were asked to bring one example of the three patterns found in authentic material written in english, for example, magazines, newspapers, books, and so on. one week later, the teacher-researcher incorporated a second workshop in which students had to carry out a theme-rheme and thematic pattern analysis of a different text about “types of poverty.” then, students were asked to write a short collaborative paragraph on a topic of their choice in which one thematic pattern or a mixture of these was included. students shared the paragraphs and the teacher provided feedback. artefacts before the model implementation were coded as 1a, 1b and 1c whereas those afterwards were coded as 2a, 2b and 2c, assigning one letter to each of the three writing topics, a) computer types, b) the seasons, and c) types of holiday accommodation. in order to measure students’ writing performance, analyses were carried out grouping samples before and after the model implementation according to the three topics given to the students, i.e. computer types (1a-2a), the seasons (1b-2b), and types of holiday accommodation (1c-2c). the paragraph analyses were carried out by the teacher-researcher. effectiveness of systemic text analysis velasco no. 13 (july december 2016) no. 13 (july december 2016) 20 as the main concern in this study was the organisation of ideas at the paragraph level, grammar, spelling and punctuation errors were not taken into consideration. however, these were highlighted in grey during the analyses. teachers’ survey. the 12 teachers were divided into three groups of four people, and each group was presented with a pair of samples e.g. 1a-2a, or 1b-2b, or 1c-2c so they could give an overall assessment of cohesion and coherence within the likert scale. an important aspect during the data collection for this part of the process was that teachers were not told that the pieces of writing had been written by the same student, so they would not have any preconceptions about which samples had been written before and after the teaching intervention. they were asked to disregard grammar, vocabulary, punctuation and spelling mistakes during the assessments, and specifically focus on aspects of cohesion and coherence. teachers were given the opportunity to give reasons for their assessment. their qualitative comments were grouped into four categories coded for analysis: 1) organisation of ideas, 2) clear focus on development of ideas, 3) linking between ideas through cohesive devices, 4) other reasons. teachers’ assessments of samples were collected, organised and tabulated. as suggested when working with ordinal data (denscombe, 2010), the quantitative data from the peer survey was analysed by working out the mode (i.e. the most common answer) as a measure of central tendency, and the range as a measure of dispersion of data. quantitative data was contrasted to gauge any kind of progression or regression in the students’ writing performance. results this study was founded on general issues related to disorganisation and lack of coherence found in efl writing, and on the assumption that the application of a model based on the application of three thematic patterns through text analysis tasks could potentially contribute to an increase in the writing performance of efl students. the research was designed around two questions: to what extent is the proposed model effective for the teaching of factual efl writing? and does the proposed model have any effect on the writing performance of efl students in regard to organisation of ideas at paragraph level? analyses of samples 1a and 2a the contrast of analyses 1a and 2a showed that the proposed model is to some degree effective for the teaching of factual efl writing, and that students’ writing performance is likely to improve when carrying out tasks involving text analysis followed by writing. effectiveness of systemic text analysis velasco no. 13 (july december 2016) no. 13 (july december 2016) 21 in general, analysis 1a showed a rather disjointed paragraph with the majority of themes brought externally i.e. not related to previous themes or themes mentioned earlier in the text. it had too many external themes (2, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 and 10), which prompted a lack of internal cohesion and coherence within the piece of writing. the word count in analysis 1a tallied 170 words. there were a few internal links between themes. for example, only themes 2-3 and 10-11 followed a continuous pattern, and rheme 8 theme 9 followed a zigzag pattern. rheme 2 showed a split thematic pattern including various computer types i.e. “[…]desk computers,notebooks, ultrabooks[…]”, but only one of these was subsequently developed later i.e. “a desk computer” (theme 5). this is shown in table 3 below. table 3. analysis of sample 1a no theme rheme pattern 1 the first computers used to be huge, as big as a whole room, and not very impresive in terms of power, but now 2 we have different types of computers, such as desk computers, external theme notebooks, ultrabooks and in a couple of year maybe 3 we will see quantum computers. continuous 4 every kind has its own advantages and disadvantages, for instance, of computer 5 a desk computer is more powerful and customisable than notebooks, but split from rheme 2 6 you can’t carry your desk pc in your bag which is very important if you are a university student or a bussiness man. external theme 7 nowadays, there are computers for everyone and every lifestyle and 8 the companies do great efforts to bring to life new funcionalities like external theme touchscreens, fingerprint recognition and 3d force touch on the pad track. 9 some of these could have sound like fiction on the past and now are a reality, so zig-zag funcionalis 10 we do not know what is going to be next but external theme 11 we can be sure that the next type of computers will be better continuous than ever. in contrast, although its word count was lower, analysis 2a seemed a more compact paragraph with plenty of themes linked internally resulting in better organisation within the paragraph. the word count in analysis 2a tallied 134 words. compared to analysis 1a, there were more internal links between themes and fewer themes brought externally. for effectiveness of systemic text analysis velasco no. 13 (july december 2016) no. 13 (july december 2016) 22 instance, themes 1-2 followed a continuous pattern, then an external theme i.e. “everyone” (theme 3) was brought in. rheme 4 was then split into “3 main types of computers”, subsequently developed in rheme 5 “desk pc”, theme 9 “laptops” and rheme 12 “ultrabooks”. each split was well developed later. for example, rheme 5 and themes 6-8 were linked through a zigzag-continuous pattern, themes 9-10 showed a continuous pattern, and rheme 12 and themes 13-14 followed a zigzagcontinuous pattern. this is shown in table 4 below. table 4. analysis of sample 2a no theme rheme pattern 1 computers have changed over the time. at the begining 2 they were big machines that only few people could use. continuous 3 nowadays everyone can use [them] based on their necesities. external theme 4 there are 3 main types of computers. 5 the most common is the desk pc, split 1 from rheme 4 6 this machine is not portable but zig-zag 7 it is the best choice to work with large programs and continuous 8 they are easier to modify in order to keep them updated. 9 in contrast, laptops are portable and easy to carry everywhere but split 2 from rheme 4 10 they have a lower capacity and are less adaptable. continuous 11 people use them to do task like sending emails, searching on [the] internet and other daily assignments. external theme 12 finally there are ultrabooks which have the same caracteristics of laptops, but split 3 from rheme 4 13 they are slimmer and lighter and unlike laptops zig-zag 14 they don’t have cd-room and internet port. continuous these results might be worthy in the sense that the proposed model could potentially be a valuable writing aid for teachers whose students find it hard to be precise and concise when writing within a word limit. also, these findings seem to contribute to other research in which a positive relationship between l2 teaching-learning and linguistics theory instruction has been found. analyses of samples 1b and 2b the contrast of analyses 1b and 2b corroborated the view of various professionals who have criticised the disorganisation and lack of coherence found in efl writing. on the whole, analysis 1b showed a fairly good use of internal links, but too many shifts in themes resulted effectiveness of systemic text analysis velasco no. 13 (july december 2016) no. 13 (july december 2016) 23 in a paragraph with a loose focus and a piece of writing that lacked coherence in relation to the task in hand i.e. “the seasons.” the word count in analysis 1b tallied 132 words. there were some internal links between themes, but the choice of themes assumed familiarity of the reader with the seasons, so these were not explained or developed appropriately. this can be exemplified by rheme 1 which mentioned the phrase “four seasons,” but only two seasons were mentioned later in rhemes 4 and 5. although themes 2-3 showed a continuous pattern, seasons would be expected to appear as themes as opposed to rhemes, but this was not the case. instead, the writer chose to use marked themes beginning sentences 4-5 and 8-9 with the impersonal pronoun “it” as the theme. then, “they” (theme 10) was linked back to “[…] these countries […]” (rheme 9). last, an external theme (“most people” line 11) was brought in and linked to themes 12-14 through a continuous pattern (“they-they-they”). this is shown in table 5 below. table 5. analysis of sample 1b no theme rheme pattern 1 there are four seasons. 2 each season cover 3 months in a year. 3 the seasons depends on the place you are in. continuous 4 it is common [that] while in one country it is winter, split 1 from rheme 1 5 at the same time [it] could be summer in another. split 2 from rheme 1 6 but seasons do not take place all over the world. 7 there are some countries where the weather changes every single day. 8 in some others, it rains most of the time. 9 it happens beacause these countries are near to the ecuador’s line or 10 they are close to the poles. zig-zag 11 most people prefer cities where they can have the 4 seasons, because external theme 12 they can buy different kinds of clothes, also, continuous 13 they are certain about what the weather is going to be like. continuous 14 and finaly, they can make especial plans for each season. continuous on the other hand, analysis 2b carried out after the model implementation seemed to have better cohesion and coherence due to a larger amount of internal links and more sustained themes throughout the piece of writing. effectiveness of systemic text analysis velasco no. 13 (july december 2016) no. 13 (july december 2016) 24 the word count in analysis 2b tallied 161 words. compared to analysis 1b, there was more consistency in terms of greater number of internal links between themes and themes. for example, rheme 1 showed a split thematic pattern in which the four seasons were included i.e. “[…] winter, summer, autumn and spring.”. each of these was developed later in themes 3, 7, 10 and 12. the “winter” (theme 3) was developed through a continuous pattern (“it” theme 4), and themes 5 and 6 were linked to their previous rhemes through zigzag patterns i.e. “[…] variable weather.” in rheme 4 and “[…] snow.” in rheme 5. the “summer” (theme 7) was developed through two consecutive continuous patterns (themes 8-9). the “autumn” (theme 10) was also expanded similarly in theme 11. the “spring” (theme 12), the last split from rheme 1, was developed through two consecutive continuous patterns (themes 13-14) and a zigzag one linking rheme 14 “[…] weather conditions.” and theme 15 “these conditions.” this can be seen in table 6 below. table 6. analysis of sample 2b no theme rheme pattern 1 one year has four seasons such as winter, summer, autumn and spring. 2 each season has a three month duration, although in the countries close to ecuator there are no seasons at all. 3 winter is the coldest season. split 1 from rheme 1 4 it has variable weather. continuous 5 the weather in winter can include low temperatures, wind and snow. zig-zag 6 snow during winter allows children to have fun making snow angels, zig-zag in some countries snowman and [having] snowbattles. 7 summer is the favorite season for most people because split 2 from rheme 1 8 it has sunny days with amazing weather. continuous 9 it let people to do more activities outside. continuous 10 autumn is when trees fall their leaves and the landscape start getting colorful with diferent tones like yellow, brown, orange and red. split 3 from rheme 1 11 it is usually windy and rainy. continuous 12 spring is the last one of the seasons. split 4 from rheme 1 13 this season is where flowers grow and all animals awake from their hibernation. continuous 14 it is a season with mild weather conditions. continuous 15 these conditions are perfect for outdoor picnics and laisure activities. zig-zag of course, the word limit in the paragraph after the model implementation was greater, which allowed the student more room to effectiveness of systemic text analysis velasco no. 13 (july december 2016) no. 13 (july december 2016) 25 extend ideas further. however, this could mean that the proposed model based on thematic patterns analyses carried out in the classroom is somewhat effective for the teaching of factual efl writing in the sense that teachers can point out alternatives students could use to develop and extend their ideas better without losing the focus in paragraphs. analyses of samples 1c and 2c the contrast of analyses 1c and 2c showed that the proposed model appears to have a rather positive effect on the organisation of ideas in factual paragraphs produced by efl students. the word count in analysis 1c tallied 127 words. generally, taking into account the task topic, it would have been expected to have more than one type of holiday accommodation included and developed in analysis 1c. there were some internal links between ideas, but, in general, this piece of writing was too short and not properly developed, and some themes chosen by the writer lacked coherence in relation to the task topic “types of holiday accommodation.” for instance, “[…] variety of holiday accommodation […]” in rheme 1 was developed through a zigzag pattern in theme 1 (“the most common places”). similarly “hotels” in rheme 2 was subsequently developed through a zig-zag pattern “those places places” in theme 3, and a continuous pattern “some of them” in theme 4. then, a new theme “you” (theme 6) was brought in from outside the text and developed using a continuous pattern. this is shown in table 7 below. table 7. analysis of sample 1c no theme rheme pattern 1 depending on the kind could find a huge variety of holiday accommodation of tourism like, you for all tastes and budgets. 2 the most common are hotels, where people can rest without having places in mind what to cook or what’s the time; 3 those places places offer services that can start from a place to sleep, to a luxury zig-zag suite with all the premium equipment you can imagine. 4 in adittion, some offer plans for their guests that can include breakfast, of them meals and snacks too. continuous 5 having that in, want to decide where to spend your holidays firstly external theme mind if you 6 you must have clear the kind of tourism you like or want; continuous defining if you want to rest, to meet new places or to experience new things. effectiveness of systemic text analysis velasco no. 13 (july december 2016) no. 13 (july december 2016) 26 conversely, analysis 2c appeared to have better cohesion and coherence because of the larger amount of embedded internal links in the text. the word count in analysis 2c tallied 166 words. compared to analysis 1c, analysis 2c was longer, had more internal links, and included more variety of content regarding themes. for example, an item in rheme 1 (“people”) was linked to themes 2-3 through a zigzagcontinuous pattern. four types of holiday accommodation options were introduced in rheme 3 and later split into themes 4 (“hotels”), 7 (“apartments for rent”), 10 (“camping”), and 13 (“hostals”). the first split was developed through two consecutive zigzag patterns in rhemes 4-5. the second split then followed a similar pattern linking rhemes 7-8. the third split, “camping” (theme 10) was developed through two continuous patterns (themes 11-12). the last split “hostals” in theme 13 was partly linked to theme 14 “the main disadvantage of this type of accommodation” which subsequently showed a zigzag pattern i.e. “bathroom” in rheme 14theme 15, as shown in table 8 below. table 8. analysis of sample 2c no theme rheme pattern 1 kinds of holiday are a difficult choice for people. accommodation 2 when people decides where to spend their holidays, zig-zag 3 they usually choose between the next four options: hotels, continuous apartments, camping and hostals. 4 hotels offer many services for their customers such as split 1 from rheme 3 restaurants, bars, swimming pools, etc. 5 however, the is directly related to its cost. zig-zag quantity of services 6 its cost depends on the number of stars. zig-zag 7 aparments for rent provides least services in comparisson with hotels while giving more privacy. 8 least services mean that sometimes people need to cook their own food. zig-zag 9 cooking is not ideal when you want to rest. zig-zag 10 the next option, is the cheapest kind of accommodation but split 3 from rheme 3 camping, 11 it is not a comfortable option. continuous 12 sometimes it involves sleeping outdoor in cold conditions. continuous 13 on the other hand, have reassonable prices while giving people the split 4 from rheme 3 hostals opportunity to meet more human beings. 14 the main is the lack of private bathroom. partially external disadvantage of this theme type of accommodation 15 a bathroom may have to be share between many people. zig-zag effectiveness of systemic text analysis velasco no. 13 (july december 2016) no. 13 (july december 2016) 27 once again, the word limit in the latter analysis was larger, so this gave the student more opportunity to develop ideas better and include more types of holiday accommodation. teachers’ survey results the table below shows the tabulation of the peer survey results according to the following coding. cohesion and coherence: 1) very poor, 2) poor, 3) acceptable, 4) good, or 5) very good. categories for open-ended reasons behind assessment: 1) organisation of ideas, 2) clear focus on development of ideas, 3) linking between ideas through cohesive devices, 4) other reasons. table 9. tabulation teachers’ survey results sample 1a reason sample 2a reason teacher 1 4 2 4 1 teacher 2 3 2 4 2 teacher 3 4 4 5 3 teacher 4 5 3 4 3 sample 1b reason sample 2b reason teacher 5 3 2 4 1 teacher 6 4 2 2 4 teacher 7 4 1 5 1 teacher 8 3 2 4 2 sample 1c reason sample 2c reason teacher 9 2 2 4 2 teacher 10 3 1 4 1 teacher 11 3 3 4 1 teacher 12 3 1 4 1 samples 1a-2a. a breakdown of the survey results for samples 1a2a showed that two out of four teachers (i.e. teachers 2 and 3) assessed the piece of writing after the teaching intervention slightly better in terms of clearer focus and usage of linking devices. one teacher saw no improvement, and another one (teacher 4) deemed the paragraph before the implementation better because of its usage of linking devices. the figure below shows a visual representation of these results. effectiveness of systemic text analysis velasco no. 13 (july december 2016) no. 13 (july december 2016) 28 figure 4. teachers’ overall assessment samples 1a-2a these results seem to partly contradict those from the qualitative thematic patterns analyses 1a-2a, and seem to indicate that the proposed model is not fully effective for the teaching of factual efl writing. it appears as though students’ writing performance is not always likely to improve solely as a result of the implementation of thematic patterns in paragraphs, and that cohesion and coherence can also be based on the linkage of ideas through cohesive devices. samples 1b-2b. the survey results for samples 1b-2b showed that three out of four teachers (teachers 5, 7 and 8) assessed the piece of writing after the teaching intervention slightly better in terms of organisation of ideas and clearer focus. one teacher (teacher 6) saw regress because of other reasons, in particular, the lack of coherence in relation to the wrong chronological order in which the seasons were introduced in the text, and the impression that some subtopics in the paragraph such as “snow” were not directly related to the main topic of the seasons. the figure below shows a visual representation of these results. figure 5. teachers’ overall assessment samples 1b-2b effectiveness of systemic text analysis velasco no. 13 (july december 2016) no. 13 (july december 2016) 29 these results seem to corroborate those from the qualitative thematic patterns analyses 1b-2b, in which the proposed model based on thematic patterns analyses and subsequent writing is somewhat effective for bringing organisation and clear focus to ideas within factual paragraphs. however, students may need to thread carefully around the logic behind the introduction of ideas, particularly, when chronological order is concerned. samples 1c-2c. the survey results for samples 1c-2c showed that four out of four teachers (i.e. teachers 9, 10, 11 and 12) assessed the piece of writing after the teaching intervention slightly better primarily in terms of organisation of ideas, and secondarily in relation to clarity of focus on ideas. the figure below shows a visual representation of these results. figure 6. teachers’ overall assessment samples 1c-2c these results seem to validate those from the qualitative thematic patterns analyses 1c-2c, where the proposed model appears to have a rather positive effect on the organisation of and focus given to ideas in factual paragraphs. mode before and after teaching intervention. a close look at the mode within reasons given by teachers for their overall assessment of pieces of writing in the survey reveals that the value that occurred most frequently among the set of answers in the paragraphs before the model implementation was 2 (i.e. clear focus on development of ideas), whereas the one afterwards was 1 (i.e. organisation of ideas), as shown in the table below. effectiveness of systemic text analysis velasco no. 13 (july december 2016) no. 13 (july december 2016) 30 table 10. mode before and after teaching intervention in general, it seems as though the majority of teachers, other than one group of teachers (i.e. teachers 1-4), assessed the paragraphs after the intervention slightly better than the paragraphs before the intervention. the mode within the reasons behind the assessments showed that those slight improvements were partly due to a change in the organisation of ideas. therefore, these results seem to validate those from the qualitative analyses which had shown that the proposed model appears to improve the organisation of ideas in factual paragraphs. conclusions overall, this study aimed to investigate the effectiveness of a model for the teaching of efl writing entailing the application of three thematic patterns (bloor & bloor, 2013) through text analysis tasks. the results of qualitative analyses showed that the samples after the model implementation seemed to be better developed and included more internal links within the paragraphs. they appeared to have more continuous, zigzag, and split thematic patterns bringing more variety and better organisation to the pieces of writing. moreover, a sample after the model implementation, which had a shorter word count than its counterpart before the implementation, was deemed more compact and better organised. this could potentially place the proposed model as a useful tool for teachers to help students become more precise and concise when writing within a word limit. the results of teachers’ quantitative assessments tended to confirm those from the qualitative analyses, which had shown that the proposed model appears to aid the organisation of ideas at the paragraph level. however, cohesion and coherence can also be brought into writing via other means such as cohesive devices. students may need to be careful with how ideas are presented, particularly when chronological order is a main concern e.g. the order in which the seasons occur. effectiveness of systemic text analysis velasco no. 13 (july december 2016) no. 13 (july december 2016) 31 therefore, it could be concluded that the implementation of a model based on thematic patterns analysis is somewhat effective for the teaching of factual efl writing. such a model has a seemingly positive effect on the writing performance of efl students in terms of their paragraph cohesion and coherence. the results of this study suggest that giving students practice in recognising different ways of packaging and organising information in texts through text analysis tasks appears to translate into moderately more cohesive and coherent pieces of writing. the results of these analyses appear to confirm bloor and bloor’s (2013) view that thematic patterns serve as a channel to introduce, package and organise information cohesively and coherently at paragraph level, and also davies’s (1988) idea that integrating reading as the basis for subsequent analysis can develop students’ awareness of writing subskills. indeed, the results of this research need to be taken with caution, as they are particular to the context in which this study was carried out. for instance, being an action research project, the results here are limited by factors such as data reliability in relation to the researcher’s involvement, which means that results could not be generalised to all teaching contexts. the fact that only three students were measured in terms of progress or regress in their writing performance poses major questions in the study. ideally, if the samples produced by the 12 students before and after the model implementation (i.e. 24 samples in total) had been analysed, this would have made the data more robust. future studies could perhaps enquire further into the application of the same model to groups of students in other contexts e.g. young learners. also, it would be worth gauging successive impact of the model on students’ writing performance in subsequent writing tasks at later stages within the action research cycle. researchers could potentially explore the role of l1 in relation to the model application and the distance between l1 and l2. for instance, would research on the application of the model with chinese and arabic efl students produce similar results? ultimately, the outcomes of this study can only be seen as a further alternative to the never-ending process of teaching-learning efl writing, and as a minor contribution to rojas’s (2014) idea of narrowing down the gap between the role of linguistics theory and its applicability to the efl classroom. effectiveness of systemic text analysis velasco no. 13 (july december 2016) no. 13 (july december 2016) 32 references bell, j. (2010). doing your research project (5th ed.). berkshire: open university press – mcgraw-hill education. bloor, t. & bloor, m. (2013). the functional analysis of english (3rd ed.). oxon: routledge. cheng, f. w. (2008). scaffolding language, scaffolding writing: a genre approach to teaching narrative writing. asian efl journal, 10(2), 167-191. connor, u., & farmer, m. (1990). the teaching of topical structure analysis as a revision strategy for esl writers. in b. kroll (ed.), second language writing: research insights for the classroom, (pp. 126-139). new york: cambridge university press. cumming, a. & riazi, a. (2000). building models of adult secondlanguage instruction. learning and instruction, 10(1), 55-71. davies, f. (1988). designing a writing syllabus in english for academic purposes: process and product. in p. robinson (ed.), academic writing: process and product, elt documents, 129 (pp. 130-142). denscombe, m. (2010). the good research guide for small-scale social research projects (4th ed.). berkshire: open university press – mcgraw-hill education. eggins, s. (2004). an introduction to systemic functional linguistics (2nd ed.). london: continuum. flowerdew, l. (2000). using a genre-based framework to teach organizational structure in academic writing. elt journal, 54(4), 369-378. halliday, m.a.k. & matthiessen, c. (2004). an introduction to functional grammar (3rd ed.). london: arnold. horner, b. & min-zhan, l. (1999). the birth of basic writing. urbana, il: national council of teachers of english. keck, c. (2006). the use of paraphrase in summary writing: a comparison of l1 and l2 writers. journal of second language writing, 15(4), 261-78. kongpetch, s. (2006). using a genre-based approach to teach writing to thai students: a case study. prospect, 21(2), 3-33. olivas, m. & li, c. (2006). understanding stressors of international students in higher education: what college counsellors and personnel need to know. journal of instructional psychology, 33, 217-222. effectiveness of systemic text analysis velasco no. 13 (july december 2016) no. 13 (july december 2016) 33 rojas, s. (2014). linguistics at university level: the challenge of its learning process in a program of bilingual education. gist education and learning research journal, 8 (january-june), 156-170. sidaway, r. (2006). the genre-based approach to teach writing. in english!, spring, 24-27. wall, d., nickson, a., jordan, r., allwright, j., & houghton, d. (1988). developing student writing – a subject tutor and writing tutors compare points of view. in p. robinson (ed.), academic writing: process and product, elt documents, 129, (pp. 117-129). woodrow, l. (2006). enlish in academic setting: a postgraduate course for students from non-english speaking backgrounds. in snow & kamhi-stein (eds.), developing a new course for adult learners (pp. 197-218). tesol publications. yuan-shan, c. and shao-wen, s. (2011). a genre-based approach to teaching efl summary writing. elt journal, 1-9. doi:10.1093/elt/ ccro61. yu, g. (2009). the shifting sands in the effects of source text summarizability on summary writing. assessing writing, 14(2), 116-37. texts adaptations in the literature review section examples of continuous and split thematic patterns. texts adapted from: royal botanic gardens kew – ‘marianne north and the north gallery, kew’. key information sheet k9. example of split thematic pattern. text adapted from doerner, m. (1949). the materials of the artist and their use in painting: with notes on the techniques of the old masters. new york: mariner books. author *ender velasco tovar holds a cambridge celta and dtells, and a ma in applied linguistics and tesol. he has over 10 years teaching experience in various contexts in the uk and colombia. he has written for specialized journals such as calj, and has recently published a book entitled a brief introduction to elt methodology. his research interests include: the application of text analysis to the efl classroom, efl writing and elt methodology. effectiveness of systemic text analysis velasco no. 13 (july december 2016) no. 13 (july december 2016) 124 linguistic symbol intraference in textese and e-mailese: implications for teaching and learning standard english1 intraferencia de símbolos lingüísticos en mensajes de texto y correos electrónicos: implicaciones para la enseñanza y el aprendizaje de inglés estándar omowumi steve bode ekundayo2* university of benin, nigeria abstract this paper examines how senders of text messages and informal e-mail redeploy linguistic symbols innovatively to communicate. even a cursory look at an sms text (textese) and informal e-mail (e-mailese) will show that its style is different from that of formal writing. two thousand twenty text messages and five hundred informal e-mail were studied from june 2004 to may 2013 to establish how linguistic symbols intrafere; that is, how they are taken from their known and established areas of application and redeployed in text messages and e-mails, where they are not formally used. the texts and e-mails were analysed against the backdrop of formal english writing rules and items. the study, which is historical and descriptive, shows that senders creatively redeploy the extant writing signs and rules of english in new ways and environments; hence, the habit is conceptualised as the intraference of linguistic symbols and rules. intraference is the redeployment of linguistic rules and features from where they have been established by usage to other areas in the same language where they did not used to apply. the paper asserts that the methods of sms and e-mail will not ruin effective communication in english. rather, the methods display a new interesting variety according to a “techno-linguistic” dimension. this variety refers to the creative redeployment of extant language rules and items as constrained by the dynamics of technological or mechanical devices, 1 received: july 21, 2014 / accepted: october 6, 2014 2 ekuns20@yahoo.com gist education and learning research journal. issn 1692-5777. no. 9, (julydecember) 2014. pp. 124-141. bode no. 9 (july december 2014) no. 9 (july december 2014) 125 which should be isolated and taught as such in standard english, or educated nigerian english in this case. keywords: intraference, linguistic symbols, textese, e-mailese, technomechanical, educated nigerian english. resumen el artículo expone cómo los remitentes de mensajes de texto y correo electrónico informal utilizan símbolos lingüísticos de una forma innovadora para comunicarse. incluso una mirada somera a un mensaje de texto o correo electrónico informal mostrará que su estilo es diferente al utilizado en un escrito formal. dos mil veinte mensajes de texto y quinientos correos electrónicos informales fueron analizados desde junio de 2004 a marzo de 2013 para establecer cómo es la intraferencia de símbolos lingüísticos; es decir, cómo son tomados de los ámbitos de aplicación comúnmente conocidos y reasignados en los mensajes de texto y correos electrónicos donde no son formalmente usados. los textos y mensajes de correo electrónico fueron analizados bajo el contexto de las reglas de escritura formal del idioma inglés. este estudio histórico y descriptivo muestra que los remitentes cambian creativamente la ubicación de los signos de escritura al crear nuevas formas de uso de las reglas del inglés y sus entornos de aplicación. por lo tanto, el hábito es concebido como la intraferencia de símbolos lingüísticos y reglas. intraferencia es la redistribución de las reglas lingüísticas y las características que han sido establecidos por su uso en otros ámbitos del mismo lenguaje donde no se solían aplicar. el artículo afirma que los métodos de mensajes de texto y correo electrónico no afectan la efectiva comunicación en inglés. por el contrario, los métodos de visualización son una nueva e interesante manera de comunicación de acuerdo con la dimensión tecnolingüística. esta variedad de símbolos hace referencia a la distribución creativa de las normas lingüísticas existentes por la dinámica limitada de los dispositivos mecánicos o tecnológicos, los cuales deben ser aislados y enseñados como tales en el inglés estándar o para este caso, en el inglés nigeriano formal. palabras clave: intraferencia, símbolos lingüísticos, mensajes de texto, correos electrónicos, tecnomecánico, inglés nigeriano formal. resumo o artigo expõe como os remetentes de mensagens de texto e correio eletrônico informal utilizam símbolos linguísticos de uma forma inovadora para comunicar-se. inclusive vendo por cima uma mensagem de texto ou correio eletrônico informal, mostrará que seu estilo é diferente ao utilizado em um escrito formal. duas mil e vinte mensagens de texto e quinhentos correios eletrônicos informais foram analisados desde junho de 2004 a março de 2013 para estabelecer como é a intraferência de símbolos linguísticos; melhor dito, como são tomados dos âmbitos de aplicação mais conhecidos e redesignados nas mensagens de texto e correios eletrônicos onde não são formalmente bode no. 9 (july december 2014) no. 9 (july december 2014) 126 usados. os textos e mensagens de correio eletrônico foram analisados sob o contexto das regras de escritura formal do idioma inglês. este estudo histórico e descritivo mostra que os remetentes mudam criativamente a localização dos signos de escritura, ao criar novas formas de uso das regras do inglês e seus entornos de aplicação. portanto, o hábito é concebido como a intraferência de símbolos linguísticos y regras. intraferência é a redistribuição das regras linguísticas e as características que foram estabelecidas pelo seu uso em outros âmbitos da mesmo linguagem onde não se tinha o hábito aplicar. o artigo afirma que os métodos de mensagens de texto e correio eletrônico não afetam a efetiva comunicação em inglês. ao contrário, os métodos de visualização são uma nova e interessante maneira de comunicação, de acordo com a dimensão técnicolinguística. esta variedade de símbolos faz referência à distribuição criativa das normas linguísticas existentes pela dinâmica limitada dos dispositivos mecânicos ou tecnológicos, os quais devem ser isolados e ensinados como tal em inglês padrão, ou para este caso, em inglês nigeriano formal. palavras chave: intraferência, símbolos linguísticos, mensagens de texto, correios eletrônicos, técnico-mecânico, inglês nigeriano formal introduction the computer, along with the internet and gsm (global system for mobile communication) with cell phones, facilitate the sharing of sms and e-mail. sms (short message service) is a menu that enables cell phone users to send and receive short “letters” of 160 words per message. the first sms was sent on 3rd december 1992 by neil papworth, who used a personal computer powered by vodafone to send a “merry christmas” text message to richard jarvis’ orbited 901 hand phone (//http//cellphone.about.com//originofsms). gsm became operational in nigeria in august 2001. the computer and internet had come about a decade earlier in the 1990s. textese and e-mailese, which invoke the memory of journalese, legalese, officialese, etc., denote sms and e-mail with their characteristic linguistic features, which are occasioned by the writer, techno-linguistic and mechanical factors. educated nigerian writers of sms and e-mail face the limitations of time and space, lack of computer know-how, the pressure of striving to express so much within so small a space and the high cost of sending e-mail and sms. in the beginning in 2001, thirty naira, also written as n30, naira being nigeria’s currency, were charged for an sms, which has now been reduced to four naira (n4). to send an e-mail, one had to visit a cyber café and buy a timeticket for thirty minutes or an hour, usually a hundred naira or more. consequently, writers adopted informal and creative writing methods to linguistic symbol intraference bode no. 9 (july december 2014) no. 9 (july december 2014) 127 overcome these constraints. users violate formal orthography, truncate and reorganise the features of the language in order to communicate as briefly as possibly. interestingly, in most cases, meaning is conveyed despite the strange redeployment of familiar orthographic features. how should we then view the strange reordering and coinages to which the language is subjected? this paper answers this question by conceptualising the habit as the intraference of linguistic symbols and rules. in intraference of linguistic symbols, linguistic codes, rules and items are transferred from areas in which they acceptably operate to areas where they do not usually apply, especially in textese and e-mailese. intraference at this level is cyclical: from formal writing, rules and signs are “hijacked,” that is, seized and used in the new “mechanical space” in innovative ways. the innovative style and formations in turn intrafere in, or are poured back to the formal system of writing, as shown in these diagrams: figure 1. orthographic symbols and writing rules figure 2. a letter with the intraference of sms style linguistic symbol intraference bode no. 9 (july december 2014) no. 9 (july december 2014) 128 these features of text messages and their transfer to formal writing in recent times have caused debates and necessitated many studies globally. this study adds to the corpus of studies in the area. it examines textese and e-mailese against the backdrop of the concept of linguistic symbol intraference. literature review ekundayo (2006, 2013) coined intraference as a more economical term for “systematic intralingual errors” or “intralingual interference” (richards & sampson, 1984, p.13) and “the overgeneralisation of linguistic materials and semantic features” (selinker, 1984, p.37). ekundayo (2006) presents intraference as the opposite of interference and says that it is the transfer of second language rules, items and system from sections where they acceptably operate in the language to sections of the language where they have hitherto not been operating. “in intraference, the (second) language performer consciously and/or unconsciously engages in self-correction and creativity by using the rules of the language and redeploying grammatical, lexico-semantic, segmental, supra-segmental features and orthographic rules” (ekundayo, 2013, pp. 33). ekundayo (2013) asserts that intraference constitutes the extenuating background in which second language learners produce some deviations, variations and creative fabrications, which distinguish esl. he categorises intraference into the phonological, graphological, morphemic, (morpho-)syntactic and semantic types and sub-types. the graphological type is divided into formal writing intraference and intraference of orthographic symbols and rules in textese and e-mailese. intraference of linguistic symbols denotes the redeployment of linguistic rules and tools in sms and e-mail. examples are elicited from educated nigerian english (ene). however, the propositions and discussion here may apply as well to the links and dissimilarities between textese and other standard (inter)national varieties of english. the concept of nigerian english (nige) nigerian english denotes the variety/varieties that literate and educated nigerians use; often juxtaposed with standard british english (sbe) and standard american english (sae). region, formal education and (psycho-)sociolinguistic parameters are often used to classify nige varieties (jowitt, 2008; surakat, 2010). in terms of regions, there are hausa, yoruba, ibo, izon, efik, edo, urhobo, etc nige varieties. linguistic symbol intraference bode no. 9 (july december 2014) no. 9 (july december 2014) 129 although all the regional varieties have many features in common, phonological peculiarities differentiate regional varieties mainly. several classifications have been made with formal education and linguistic features. prominent among them are brosnahan’s (1958), banjo’s (1970, 1996) and odumuh’s (1980) varieties i, ii, iii and iv. banjo’s model, which is the most popular, uses grammatical features and educational levels. accordingly, variety i, the lowest, reflects vulgar errors of grammar and broken structures, associated with primary school pupils and those with little formal education. variety ii, an improvement on variety i, is associated with secondary school students and school certificate holders. highly educated nigerians: graduates, teachers, lecturers, professors, writers, broadcasters, etc., use variety iii. banjo proposes this as the model for standard nigerian english (sne) or educated nigerian english (ene). lastly, banjo’s variety iv is like the native english standard associated with a few nigerians who were born and brought up in native english-speaking countries or have a parent of english origin and consequently acquired english as their first language. however, most nigerians regard this fourth variety as too foreign for their liking or use (banjo, 1996). using sociolinguistics, three levels or –lects: basilect, mesolect and acrolecthave been identified. the mesolect is the lowest variety analogous to banjo’s variety i. the basilect is the most popular and widely used in nigeria by junior civil servants, secondary school students and youths with some but not extensive education. the acrolect is used by a few very highly educated nigerians. it has the greatest prestige and international intelligibility. banjo’s variety iii, which is also the acrolect on the sociolinguistic pyramid, is often recommended or preferred as the nigerian standard. nevertheless, there are overlaps and no “firm dividing lines” (banjo, 1996, p.79). these typologies are reminiscent of bernstein’s (1971) concepts of restricted and elaborated codes. manifestations of restricted codes will be found in the lower varieties of banjo’s classification and the basilect, which has limited vocabulary and choices of linguistic features, while the elaborated codes will be found in the acrolect and banjo’s varieties three and four of nige, which has expanded speech patterns and more choices of language features. this paper concentrates on the cases of the intraference of linguistic symbols in text messages and informal e-mail by educated nigerians. linguistic symbols are signs used to represent sounds, rules and meanings in language. unlike icons and indexes, symbols are conventional and socio-cultural marks handed down from generation linguistic symbol intraference bode no. 9 (july december 2014) no. 9 (july december 2014) 130 to generation, which is why they differ from place to place and culture to culture. language is symbolic because language users and writers employ symbols to communicate and store information. writers of text messages and informal e-mail draw heavily from the plethora of rules and symbols in english and combine them creatively in hitherto “alien” contexts, thereby “cloning” strange language structures that have drawn the attention of linguists and communicators worldwide. however, the variety has polarised linguists and communicators into two camps: those who think textese and e-mailese are ruining formal communication and those who believe that they are welcome developments. cole (2009) believes that text messaging has become an obsession, ruining e-mail and formal communication. humphreys (2007) argues that the “sloppy,” “annoying,” and “clumsy” habit from textese will lead to “improper grammar and wrong use of punctuation marks”(p.3).contrarily, curtis (2009) says that text messaging, e-mail, myspace/facebook and blogs “can be seen as simply an evolution of communication... many people now keep in touch via computer and cell phone screen. but the fact is, people are still keeping in touch, the mode in which they do so has just changed a bit” (p.2). belani (2009, 2013) has put the debate at the court of public opinion in the internet. the question to which respondents are to vote “no” or “yes” is whether text message style is ruining communication. of the 2703 votes cast so far, 1475(55%) respondents have said “yes” while 1228 (45%) have said “no.” it is believed and recommended in this paper that examining how and why textese redeploy orthographic features from formal writing and how text message style in turn invades formal writing will be more rewarding than a debate on whether it is ruining communication or not. after all, the history of communication from its most primitive state/stage to the twenty-first century presents us with a panorama of innovations, displacements and replacements. in this light, crystal’s (2008) studies are the most outstanding in this area. he submits that texting may turn out to be of help to literacy and writing rather than hinder them. awonusi (2004) examined nigerian examples of sms in relation to informal english and diglossia in a second language situation. a similar study submits that “nigerian users of the english language are eclectic, vibrant users who possess a uniquely expressive technique” (uhunmwangho, 2007, pp.26-36). uhunmwangho’s and awonusi’s studies do not show how sms writers redeploy linguistic rules and items to communicate effectively and how the style is invading formal writing. eka (2007), however, shows that text messages have a spelling and syntactic system, which is a “departure from known patterns” (p.86). linguistic symbol intraference bode no. 9 (july december 2014) no. 9 (july december 2014) 131 eka concludes that sms styles are bizarre, ridiculous and damaging to the established canons of writing. although there are sometimes ridiculous features in sms, this paper shows that writers of sms draw from the dynamics of the language to create seemingly new formations. the paper further looks at how the styles of text messaging are being extended to formal writing. even though the trend is worldwide, some peculiar nigerian features characterise the examples studied. educated nigerian writers of sms and e-mail invent new spelling of words, clip and blend figures, symbols and sounds, acronymise and deploy peculiar vocabulary and grammatical structures to communicate with text messages and e-mail. these methods are spreading fast into very formal writing and so have the potential of changing and augmenting ene orthography in future, not necessarily ruining it. methodology research design the study adopted the qualitative research approach, which is non-statistical and most suitable for exploratory, historical and linguistic studies concerned with establishing causal processes and intentional behaviours by self-directing and knowledgeable participants. it is predicated on the assumption that writers of textese and informal e-mailese redeploy the dynamics of the language in unprecedented ways that will influence and augment communication in standard english, not necessarily destroy it. the paper sets out to use the concept of intraference to answer the following questions: 1) why do text message writers compose texts in the way they do? 2) how do they compose text messages? 3) how will e-mailese and textese affect formal writing? and 4) how should we view and treat them in relation to formal writing, teaching and learning standard english? context and participants the study was conducted in nigeria from april 2004 to may 2013. subjects studied were educated nigerians of different age brackets from all parts of the country. educated nigerians in this context are those in the continuum of a national diploma (nd) to ph.d/professor. two thousand twenty text messages sent and received by educated nigerians were studied from june 2004 to may 2013, and five hundred e-mail were read and analysed in the same period. however, few specimens are presented here because of space constraint and for the fact that the methods are essentially the same in all the specimens studied. linguistic symbol intraference bode no. 9 (july december 2014) no. 9 (july december 2014) 132 data collection instruments the primary data for the study were extracted from the computer (internet), cell phones and printed/published materials. the researcher depended largely on the text messages and e-mail sent to him or supplied, on request, by friends, students and relations during the research. data analysis the peculiar features of sms and e-mail were identified and compared with those of standard writing. the method of analysis is textual, which involves the identification, analysis and explication of linguistic and literary features of a text. specifically, a description and explanation of the linguistic features of sms and e-mail specimens were undertaken. the specimens were grouped into either e-mail or text message and numbered consecutively. the analysis is limited to only informal e-mail because the methods and features examined manifest more in informal e-mail. other features of textese and e-mailese like the use of icons, indexes, logograms, pictograms and word play are not examined because they fall within the purview of semiotics, which is not the focus of this paper. specimens used are compared with standard written variants and the linguistic methods deemed to be interfering in the texts are then underscored. results how nigerians invent new spelling of words in sms and e-mail specimen 1 below shows some of the rules and items writers deploy to compose sms: specimen 1. a text .message gud evnin my dia…. evryday i rember u & al u tld me b4 i left… if i’d any nolej dat dis was wat i wud xperiens,i swe i wudnt hav left….. cud u bliv dat they ar forcng me in2 prost? they tuk me 2 a hotel wher nig-girls ar dancing naked & askd me 2 join dem. i’v s-capd frm athens 2 tesloniki… (e-mail from obehi79@hotmail.com to ekuns20@yahoo. com, 22 june 2002). the text message in full standard form good evening, my dear… every day, i remember you and all that you told me before i left… if i had any knowledge that this was what i would experience, i swear that i would not have left … could you believe that they are forcing me into prostitution? they took me to a hotel where linguistic symbol intraference bode no. 9 (july december 2014) no. 9 (july december 2014) 133 nigeria girls are dancing naked and asked me to join them. i’ve escaped from athens to thessaloniki. the sender redeployed various forms of abbreviation and deletion of redundant features to abridge it. for example, remember is spelt as “rember;” the “em” in the middle is deleted. knowledge is written as “nolej,” experienceas “xperiens,” prostitution as “prost,” evening becomes “evnin,” etc. specimen 2. an e-mail c’plmnts of d seasn 2 u my luv. hw r u & evry1?@ hom? swthrt, plz, 4get dat ug. dev. wen r u comin 2 cal? donald duke our gov is turning c’river round 4 d beta. com 2 tinapa & c things 4 ursef. (e-mail from clara_net@yahoo.com to ekuns20@yahoo.com, 6 may, 2007). full standard written form compliments of the season to you my love. how are you and everyone at home? sweet heart, please, forget that ugly development. when are you coming to calabar? donald duke our governor is turning cross-river state round for the better. come to tinapa and see things for yourself. through the same strategies, the full text has been reduced to half or less. the next sub-section discusses how phonemes, letters and figures intrafere in sms and e-mail. intraference of symbols, phonemes, figures and letters below is specimen three, a blend of arithmetic figures and letters. specimen 3. arithmetic figures and letters wil u b in d ofis 2moro morn? rmain gr8 n luvly. 10x 4 ur 1-daful asst. d oda day! gu9t… (sms from 08038291465 to 08059246395, 16 october, 2006). “u,” a letter and the sound /u/ stand for the word you, “d” stands for “the,” “b” for “be,” “2” combines with “moro” (a clip from tomorrow) to make “2moro.” “gr8” stands for great, a clip of the “gr-“of great, to blend with the figure “8” and its sound /eit/, hence “gr8.” in “10x 4 ur 1-derful asst.,” figure 10 and its sound (/ten/) combines with letter “x” pronounced /eks/. so, 10/ten/ +x /ks/ = /tenks/. formally, “10x” would be pronounced as /ten eks/, as it is still pronounced in statistics and mathematics, but with assimilation and elision in textese, it is / tenks/, which is the phonological representation of thanks. the figure “4” stands for for and figure 1 (pronounced) /w^n/ replaces the first syllable in “won-der-ful;” hence we have “1-daful” /w^ndafl/. “assist.” is an abbreviation of assistance. the figure “9” represents the sound linguistic symbol intraference bode no. 9 (july december 2014) no. 9 (july december 2014) 134 and spelling /nai/ or “nigh.” then letter “t” is added to make it “9t” (night), hence we have “gu9t,” which is good night. the letter “d” is elided as in elision and assimilation. the deployment of acronymisation and coinages some examples are given below: “wil cul,” or “i’l cul” for i will see/call you later, “ilu” for i love you, “h r u?” for how are you? “msg” for message, “uc?” for you see/do you see? “ammu” for i’m miss you/am missing you, “takia” for you take care/take care of yourself. the letter “a” is often used for “er” and “ar,” as in “6ta” for sister, “4da” for further, “fada” for farther or father, “2geda” for together, “mata” for matter, “wateva” for whatever, “broad” for brother; “10q” for thank you, “9ice” for nice, “9ja” for nigeria, “remba/rember” for remember, “u’v” for you have, “ijn” for in jesus name, “hnm” for happy new month, “llnp” for long life and prosperity, “hml” for happy married life, “omg” for oh my god! “uwc” for you are welcome, “coz” for cousin, or because,“g.mom/g. ma” for grandmother/mom, “b-day” for birthday, “som1” for someone, “y” for why, “yl” for while, “y-d” for wide, “2l” for tool, “4l” for fall, “4m” for form, etc. the grammar and orthography of textese and informal e-mailese sms and informal e-mail parades a different grammar from other registers and fields. specimen 4 below is an example. hi wazup u gt my txt so does d ntwrk invstmnt interest u? … u ment 2 ask if its late 4 me 2 cm rite? wud’v com bt ‘m tired&its wet was in d bathrm wen u cald. ‘v bn washin since mrni. dn’t u c d txt i snt u? (text message from 08038293970 to 08037243494, 20 may 2010). full form: how are you? what’s up? did you get my text? so, does the network investment interest you? you meant to ask if it’s late for me to come, right? i would have come, but i’m tired and it is wet. i was in the bathroom when you called. i have been washing since morning. didn’t you see the text i sent you? here, “ntwrk” is for network, “its” for it’s or it is, “dn’t” for didn’t “bathrm” for bathroom, in addition to the non-use of relevant punctuation marks. the next specimen shows the fragmented nature of sms and informal e-mail. areas of fragmentation are underlined: linguistic symbol intraference bode no. 9 (july december 2014) no. 9 (july december 2014) 135 specimen 5.a text message sorry! cudnt pik ur cal.was in d bathrm u hom now? on my way. wt my frend edith mind? we talk dat mata wen i com. mind i bring u beans & dodo ur favrit? catch ya! (message from 08036661245 to o8037243494, 2nd may, 2008). there are all together eight sentences fragmented with periphery elements and punctuation marks deleted here. the first sentence in full is “i am sorry that i couldn’t pick your call.”the subject and the verb of the main clause, i am, the conjunction that, the i of the subordinate clause are all dropped to “…sorry, cudn’t pik ur call.” there is no full stop before the next sentence begins, and the next sentence begins with a small letter. sentence two in full is, i was in the bathroom, but the “i” is dropped by the rule of ellipses. it is to be inferred or supplied by the reader. sentence three is, i am on my way to your place. again, the subject, the verb and the adverbial of place are dropped in preference for the prepositional phrase that carries the essential message, “on my way.” the sender takes for granted that the receiver already knows who is sending the message. sentence four is are you at home now? “r” stands for are, “u” for you and “hom” for home. the fifth sentence is i am coming with my friend edith, and the sixth is do you mind me coming with my friend edith? all that has been reduced to a single word-question “mind?” sentence seven is we will talk about that matter when i come, and eight is do you mind if i bring you beans and dodo, your favourite food? “catch ya” is a colloquial phrase for i will see you or i will catch you later. the core elements of a sentence are the subject and the verb, which can be deleted sometimes (crystal, 2009; quirk & greenbaum, 1989). sms and e-mail writers apply this grammatical possibility to concentrate on the elements that convey the intended meaning more economically. the resultant text at times becomes poetic to the extent that it uses only necessary structures to convey maximum meanings. the text below illustrates this method: specimen 6 a luvly msg/2 a luvly frend/4rm a luvly persn/4 a luvly reason/at a luvly time/in a luvly mood/2 wish u a luvly 9t/&2 make u lie/in paradise/ on d pilo of heavn/under d protectn of angels ((text message from 07038131053 to 08037243494, 25th december, 2007). in this text, the writer lumped parallel structures of eleven prepositional phrases together in one long statement without punctuation marks, which makes the text poetic and musical. these methods of writing are being extended to formal writing. linguistic symbol intraference bode no. 9 (july december 2014) no. 9 (july december 2014) 136 intraference of sms and e-mail/internet chat styles in formal writing sms features are “trespassing” on the domain of formal writing in ene and other standard englishes. in august 2002 and on the 4th of march, 2003, the bbc reported that british examiners warned over exams culture, asking whether sms text was mightier than the word. similarly, in an on-going study by pew internet and american life project, “it was found that 64% of american teens have used chat and “textcuts” or emoticons in their school assignments” (dog, 2009, p.1). now, one often sees textcuts in students’ examination scripts and homework in ene (chiluwa, 2007; falake & ibrahim, 2011). emoticons or textcuts are intrafering and becoming established in journalese in ene. the print media journalists are faced with the same challenges of time, cost, space and deadline. so, they employ similar strategies to overcome these constraints. some bold-faced examples are given below: “c’tee …to replace foreign workers with nigerians” (vanguard 13 april, 2009, p.23). “c’tee”, a word formed through syncope stands for committee. “nollywood gals date producers” (erhariefe, 2007, p.17). here, girls is spelt as “gals.” “thru…with nigerian idols” (ifebi, 2012, p.28). through is backclipped to have thru. “i left banking bcos i wasn’t…” (aluko, 2012, p.28).because is spelt as “bcos.” ¬“the 6fter dark-skinned beauty…” (nwanchuku & dim, 2009, p.42). here, six footer is reduced to “6fter”through the yoking of a figure and the deletion of letters. nigerian journalists now write national assembly, abuja as nass, niger delta as n’delta, south east as s’east, etc., “don’t create new states, ikuforiji tells nass.” (okoeki, 2012, p.7). although news headlines and other newspaper write-ups always strive to save space and cost, sms style has further reinforced this habit. textcuts and informal e-mail style are not limited to journalese. they are invading written formal ene. even the banking sector, well known for its attention to details and accurate documentation, uses textcuts. “ngn” is often used to denote nigerian naira, “amd” for american dollars, “int’l” for international, “dl-ext.no” for direct line extension telephone number, “cwbyself” for check withdrawn by self’ (united bank of africa, 2009 and oceanic bank, 2010 text message and e-mail).the last example below is an advert on a computerlinguistic symbol intraference bode no. 9 (july december 2014) no. 9 (july december 2014) 137 print pasted on the notice boards for the university of benin students and staff: hav u wronged som1& u don’t know how 2 say u’re sorry? do u have secret feelings 4some1& u can’t xpress ur feelings 2 d person? do u want 2 get some1 a gift & u’re confused about what gift to buy? are u planning celebrating ur birthday & u don’t know what 2 celebrate with? why not solve ur problems with a cake? cakes can be used 2 xpress a lot. apologize with a cake. xpress ur feelings with a cake. celebrate life with a cake. visit us today @ block b rm 4, iyobosa hostel, ekosodin. tel: 08062535793, 08027720428. before the advent of gsm and e-mail, this advert would not have been written in this form with all the examples bold-faced. conclusions the paper has so far examined textese and informal e-mailese to show a) their peculiar linguistic features, b) how educated nigerian writers redeploy english rules and items to create intriguing new words and phrases, and c) the implications of the features studied for teaching and learning standard english. the linguistic phenomenon has been conceptualised as the intraference of linguistic symbols. senders redeployed clipping, syncope, apocope and the deletion of redundant letters and phonemes to abridge a text message, as in specimens 1 and 2. the nigerian writers studied often put the initial letters of words together to form new words which carry with them the concepts and meanings of all the words from which they have been formed; e.g. “ammu” for i’m missing you, “h r u?” for how are you? and other examples in specimen 4. educated nigerian writers of text messages redeploy letters, arabic numerals, alphanumeric, (icons, although not treated here) colloquial expressions and abbreviations; insert capital and small letters indiscriminately, avoid punctuation marks, fragment sentences, cover up necessary spaces between words, delete articles and peripheral sentence elements, as in specimen 3, 4, 5 and 6. sometimes, they yoke phonemes, letters, sounds and figures creatively to coin a new word, as in “gu9t” for good night, “10q” for thank you, “1-daful” for wonderful, etc. since these are internal dynamics of the language that are transferred from one section of the language to another, they are best presented as the intraference of linguistic symbols and rules. now, these methods of writing are invading formal writing and arrangement of orthographic features. it is affirmed here that the style linguistic symbol intraference bode no. 9 (july december 2014) no. 9 (july december 2014) 138 and features of textese and e-mailese are more advantageous than disadvantageous to written communication for several reasons. first, it helps to distinguish a new field of writing having its peculiar methods. second, the style and features of these modes show us how, when and where the language and its rules can be used more economically. for example, sms and e-mail style is very useful in minute writing, notetaking and shorter spelling forms under deadline, pressure and haste. hence textcuts are invading informal writing where some forms of abbreviations and contractions are allowed. third, the style proves that language and its symbols are amenable to unprecedented combination and reorganisation for the purpose of communication now and in the future. furthermore, textese and e-mailese underscore the fact that language is primarily spoken and secondarily written. there is no oneto-one correspondence between spoken and written word. to the extent of its arbitrariness and inconsistence, the written medium and its rules are vulnerable to mutations and manipulations. there is no difference, for example, in the pronunciation of these words and figures: “four,” “fore,” “for,” “4;” or “two,” “too,” “to” and “2;” “won,” “one” and “1.” textese and informal e-mailese simply use the figures 4, 2 and 1 to represent them respectively. so, the modes emphasise sounds and meanings, not the artificialities of writing. in addition, textese and e-mailese show the uselessness of some institutionalised questionable spellings. we can, for instance, spell tomorrow as “tomoro,” josephine as “josfin,”assessment as “asesment,” etc and still convey their meanings. so, does this phenomenon, as dog (2009) asks, “signal the end of the english language as we know it? probably not, imo. i mean in my opinion. after all, language changes… and why should language not change?” (p.2). indeed, language and communication vary from time to time to reflect advancement in science, education and technology. the gsm and the internet revolutions are quintessential examples now in vogue. in the future, the scenario will surely change because the womb of time and the industrious wakefulness of scientists are pregnant with more inventions and methods. the position taken in this paper, therefore, is that rather than ruin real communication, these linguistic strategies are expanding the frontiers of written communication. in nigeria, for instance, sms and e-mail are teaching educated nigerians how to be brief and even write poetically. yule (2003) advises that we should not feel that the language is being debased. instead, “we might prefer to view the constant evolution of new terms and new uses as a reassuring sign of vitality and creativeness in the way a language is shaped by the needs of its users” (p. 64). linguistic symbol intraference bode no. 9 (july december 2014) no. 9 (july december 2014) 139 so, textese and e-mailese should be accepted as a new variety according to techno-linguistic dimension and its useful features may be applied in other areas of the language. when linguists, particularly varietologists and language teachers, study language varieties like journalese, officialese, medicalese, legalese, etc, textese and e-mailese should also come to mind. it should be taught as a variety different from formal writing, a variety that displays an interesting panorama of linguistic signs: indexes, icons and symbols combined in intriguing ways. all considered, “communication is all about understanding. sometimes it requires language to be written in its fullest most comprehensive forms, at other times a few missing vowels, or figures standing in for words, will do just as well. it is still a real form of communication” (belani, 2009, p.1). references aluko, l. a. 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(2003). the study of language. cambridge: cambridge university press. author *omowumi steve bode ekundayo is on the academic staff of the department of english and literature, university of benin, benin city, nigeria, where he teaches grammar, writing, phonetics and phonology. he holds a ba, ed, ma and phd in english and literature. his areas of interest and research are sociolinguistics with sbe-esl/nige bias, applied linguistics, semiotics, stylistics, language varieties, phonology, poetry and creative writing. he has authored many books and scholarly articles in both local and international journals. linguistic symbol intraference bode no. 9 (july december 2014) no. 9 (july december 2014) gist noviembre 2008final(segundas correcciones).p65 e$ preparing bilingual teachers for the future: developing culture and linguistic global competence ���$����!�&��������/� !'�$�� $ ���� ����� ��� ����6 ��� ���������� ���%� c��6 �� ���������� �� ��������� �� ��-���� �-����-��� �a����� ��������� � 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� ������ � ��� � �� � �� ��������� �� ��������� ���� ���' ���� � % �����6v�����= �������� � ����� ��� �� $> �������� ������� � ��� ����� ���6 %������ �� �� � � ��� � � ���� �-�� c���� � ���� �� � ����n ����������' �����������2 � ������������������� ��� � �� � ��-��� %������ � a��������� �������6 ��� ��� ���������� � ���� �� ����%�� 5�� ���� ����������� 5��� ���� ����6 p�5�r �-���% ���� ��� ���� ��������� , ��� ��������� ���������� p�,��r� �����������6' ��� ���� ���� �� ��5� ��� ��������� , ��� +��� ������� 1 � ��%� �� +������ a� ���������� � ���� ��� ��� � ����������� ��� ���������� �����=�������� ��� *������ ���� ��� 1 � ��%� �� p��*�1r� �������� �� �� �� �������� ��� ��� ������ gist2014finalfinal.indd 11 effectiveness of computerassisted pronunciation teaching and verbal ability on the achievement of senior secondary school students in oral english1 la efectividad de la enseñanza de la pronunciación asistida por ordenador en el logro de la capacidad verbal en inglés de los estudiantes de la escuela secundaria superior amosa isiaka gambari, amina usman kutigi, and patricia o. fagbemi2* federal university of technology, justice fati-lami abubakar college of arabic & islamic legal studies, fct college of education, nigeria abstract this study investigated the effectiveness of a computer-assisted pronunciation teaching (capt) package on the achievement of senior secondary students in oral english in minna, nigeria. it also examined the influence of capt on verbal ability and gender. the sample consisted of sixty senior secondary school students drawn from two coeducational secondary schools within the minna metropolis. stratified random sampling was used to select 60 students from each school: 15 males and 15 females; 10 high, 10 medium and 10 low verbal ability students. the oral english achievement test (oat) consists of 50-items of multiple-choice items, validated by experts, and administered to students as a pre-test, post-test and delayed post-test. the data obtained were analysed using t-test statistics, one-way anova, and scheffe’s post-hoc test. the results re se ar ch a rti cle s 1 received: december 11, 2013 / accepted: march 20, 2014 2 gambari@futminna.edu.ng, aminaabubakarpanti01@yahoo.com, patsegun_2007@yahoo.com gist education and learning research journal. issn 1692-5777. no. 8, (january june) 2014. pp. 11-28. no. 8 (january june 2014) no. 8 (january june 2014) 12 revealed that students taught oral english with the capt package performed and retained the concepts of oral english better than those taught with the traditional teaching method. students with high verbal ability performed better than medium and low verbal ability students respectively. however, there was no significant difference in the post-test mean achievement scores of male and female students taught using the capt package. these findings indicate that oral english concepts could be taught and learned better through the resourceful integration of a computerassisted pronunciation teaching package. keywords: computer-assisted pronunciation, oral english, retention, verbal ability, gender resumen en este estudio se investigó la efectividad de la enseñanza de la pronunciación asistida por ordenador (epao) en el logro de la capacidad verbal en inglés de los estudiantes de la escuela secundaria superior en minna, nigeria. también examinó la influencia de la enseñanza de la pronunciación asistida por ordenador (epao) teniendo en cuenta el género y la capacidad verbal de los estudiantes. la muestra consistió en sesenta estudiantes de secundaria de dos escuelas secundarias mixtas dentro de la metrópoli de minna. se utilizó muestreo aleatorio estratificado para seleccionar a los 60 estudiantes de cada escuela; 15 hombres y 15 mujeres; 10 estudiantes con nivel alto de inglés, 10 estudiantes nivel intermedio y 10 estudiantes nivel bajo. la prueba de inglés consistió en 50 preguntas de selección múltiple, validadas por expertos y aplicadas a los estudiantes como pre-prueba, post-prueba y un cuestionario posterior a la prueba. los datos obtenidos fueron analizados mediante el análisis estadístico t test, análisis de varianza (anova) y la prueba post-hoc de scheffe. los resultados revelaron que a los estudiantes que recibieron clases de producción oral en inglés usando el paquete epao se desempeñan y retienen los conceptos orales de ingles mejor que aquellos a quienes se les enseñó con el método de enseñanza tradicional. estudiantes con alta capacidad verbal se desempeñaron mejor que los estudiantes de media y baja capacidad verbal respectivamente. sin embargo, no existía ninguna diferencia significativa entre los puntajes medios de rendimiento de las pruebas posteriores aplicadas a hombres y mujeres usando el paquete de enseñanza de pronunciación asistida por ordenador (epao). estos resultados indicaron que los conceptos orales de inglés pueden ser enseñados y aprendidos mejor mediante la integración de un conjunto de recursos de enseñanza de pronunciación asistida por ordenador. palabras clave: pronunciación asistida por computador, inglés oral, retención, habilidad verbal, género resumo este estudo pesquisou a efetividade do ensino da pronúncia assistida por computador (capt) no aproveitamento da capacidade verbal em inglês dos estudantes da escola secundária superior em minna, nigéria. também effectiveness of computer-assisted pronunciation gambari, kutigi, & fagbemi no. 8 (january june 2014) no. 8 (january june 2014) 13 examinou a influência do ensino da pronúncia assistida por computador (capt) considerando o gênero e a capacidade verbal dos estudantes. a amostra consistiu em sessenta estudantes de secundária de duas escolas secundárias mistas dentro da metrópole de minna. utilizou-se amostragem aleatória estratificada para selecionar os 60 estudantes de cada escola; 15 homens e 15 mulheres; 10 estudantes com nível alto de inglês, 10 estudantes nível intermédio e 10 estudantes de nível baixo. a prova de inglês consistiu em 50 perguntas de seleção múltipla, validadas por expertos e aplicadas aos estudantes como pré/pós-teste, e um teste posterior ao diagnóstico. os dados obtidos foram analisados mediante a análise estatística de teste, análise de variação (anova) e a prova post-hoc de scheffe. os resultados revelaram que os estudantes que receberam aulas de produção oral em inglês usando o pacote capt se desempenham e retêm os conceitos orais de inglês melhor que aqueles aos quais foram ensinados com o método de ensino tradicional. os estudantes com alta capacidade verbal se desempenharam melhor que os estudantes de média e baixa capacidade verbal respectivamente. entretanto, não existia nenhuma diferença significativa entre as pontuações médias de rendimento das provas posteriores aplicadas a homens e mulheres usando o pacote de ensino de pronúncia assistida por computador (capt). estes resultados indicaram que os conceitos orais de inglês podem ser ensinados e aprendidos melhor mediante a integração de um conjunto de recursos de ensino de pronunciação assistida por computador. palavras chave: pronúncia assistida por computador, inglês oral, retenção, capacidade verbal, gênero introduction the importance of the english language as a medium of communication cannot be over-emphasized. as far as english remains nigeria’s official language and the language of instruction in our schools, it will continue to be ranked as the most important subject in our educational system (gambari, gbodi & olumba, 2012). the significance of english to nation building has led the federal government of nigeria to make it a core subject offered to all students from primary to secondary education (frn, 2008). in spite of the importance of english language among nigerian students, performance at the senior secondary school level had been poor (neco, 2011; waec, 2012). effectiveness of computer-assisted pronunciation gambari, kutigi, & fagbemi no. 8 (january june 2014) no. 8 (january june 2014) 14 a close examination of the performance of nigerian students in english language in the west african senior secondary certificate examination (wassce) results of eight consecutive years revealed that the majority of students failed the subject. for instance, in 2005, 25.64% passed at credit level, 32.48% in 2006, 30.32% in 2007, 35.02% in 2008, 41.52% in 2009, 38.9% in 2010, 42.05% in 2011 and 40.82% in 2012 (waec, 2012). results of previous research on oral reading fluency by hoofman (2003) and kuhn and stahl (2000) showed that good fluency in oral reading had the potential of influencing students’ development in literacy. oral english has been identified as one of the concepts that students find difficult to pass at national examinations (enyeazu, 2001; neco, 2011; waec, 2012). the desire to know the causes of the poor performance in english language has been the focus of researchers for some time now. it has been observed that poor performance in english language is caused by the poor quality of english language teachers, poor teaching methods, overcrowded classrooms, and lack of suitable and adequate language laboratories, among others (gambari, gbodi & olumba, 2012; iyela, 2000; otegbayo, 2006). the potential benefits of computer assisted instruction (cai) cannot be underestimated in the contemporary world. computerassisted language learning (call) is the use of technology enhanced methods and techniques in language learning and teaching (gruba, 2006; kedrowicz & watanabe, 2006). one aspect of call is computer-assisted pronunciation teaching (capt), which is based on the use of technology for learning and teaching the segmental and suprasegmental features of the sound system, and is described by rostron and kinsell (1995) as the use of digitized speech for improving language pronunciation. computers are used in teaching pronunciation to achieve two purposes: a) diagnosing the student’s deviation in pronunciation; and b) assisting students in correcting such deviations (machovikov, stolyarov, chernov, sinclair, & machovikova, 2002). in learning and teaching different aspects of pronunciation, capt offers a variety of interactive software packages for providing english as foreign language (efl) learners with the opportunity to perceive and practice pronunciation. computer-assisted pronunciation teaching (capt) offers many advantages which are not usually available in conventional contexts. for example, neri, mich, gerosa and giuliani (2008) pointed out that digitized pronunciation software allows students to access unlimited and realistic language input through different channels individually and provide individualized feedback automatically and instantaneously. computers also offer learners a effectiveness of computer-assisted pronunciation gambari, kutigi, & fagbemi no. 8 (january june 2014) no. 8 (january june 2014) 15 chance to use many prerecorded materials. digitized pronunciation software packages afford high-quality sound and video clips of speakers, which give the learner the opportunity to look at articulatory movements that are used in producing sounds (larocca, 1994). a person may also compare his or her voice to a model made by a native speaker. shirer (2005) confirms that it has become possible to use computers, speech technology, and linguistics together to enable learners to hear a voice of a native speaker who has mastered standard english. students may then compare their performance to that model, sound by sound, and track their progress over time. literature review many researchers, such as stenson, downing, smith & smith (1992), rostron & kinsell (1995), dekaney (2003), hirata (2004), seferoglue (2005), abuseileek (2007), and neri, mich, gerosa & giuliani (2008) compared the effects of call on other forms of traditional instruction and found that students taught with capt performed significantly better than those taught with traditional teaching methods. in addition, those taught with capt were able to work at their own pace. however, andrew (2011) reported that analysis of the posttreatment data showed no significant difference between experimental and control groups. students’ performance in various courses may not be unrelated to their retention abilities. retention is the ability to reproduce the learnt concept when the need arises (achebe, 2008). students’ interests and retention could be aroused and retained through the use of appropriate instructional material like a computer-assisted pronunciation teaching package for oral english. however, studies that show how capt is retained are uncommon. verbal ability encompasses the skills needed for language comprehension and expression and is profoundly important in oral reading. in the nigeria school setting, it is a common feature in the conventional classroom to find students of mixed ability (high, medium and low) lumped together to be given the same treatment as if they have everything in common. aimumnondion (2008), fagbemi (2013), nwosuk (2002), and odiaka (2002) in their respective studies reported that high verbal ability students achieved better than low verbal ability students. however, studies on how verbal ability will influence students’ achievement in oral english with a computer-assisted pronunciation teaching package calls for investigation. thus, part of this study examined the influence of verbal ability on students’ performance in oral english. effectiveness of computer-assisted pronunciation gambari, kutigi, & fagbemi no. 8 (january june 2014) no. 8 (january june 2014) 16 gender has also been identified as one of the factors influencing students’ performance at all levels of education. gender disparity in the nigerian education system is attributed to socio-cultural and traditional reasons (wasagu & muhammad, 2007). adamu (2008), kutigi, gambari and gana (2010), and gambari, gbodi and olumba (2012) reported that there was no difference in the performance of male and female students taught oral english and phonetics using the digital audio instructional (dai) package, digital video disc (dvd) instructional package, digital audio and digital video instructional packages respectively. on the contrary, otegbayo (2006) examined the effect of an audiotape and film package on the teaching and learning of phonetics in junior secondary schools in minna. this study revealed that female students performed better than male students. research on gender disparity, however, has not been established. therefore, part of this study examined the influence of gender on a computer assisted pronunciation package in nigerian secondary schools. most of the research on the use of computer-assisted language learning instruction cut across different levels of education in nigeria. the present researchers have not realized the paucity of studies on the use of computer assisted pronunciation teaching in english language for retention (long term memory) and verbal ability. it is against this background that this study investigated the effectiveness of computerassisted pronunciation teaching and verbal ability on the performance of senior secondary students in oral english, in minna, nigeria. research hypotheses the following null hypotheses were formulated and tested at the 0.05 level of significance: 1) there is no significant difference between the mean achievement scores of students taught oral english with capt package and those taught with conventional method. 2) there is no significant difference between the mean retention scores of students taught oral english with capt and those taught with conventional method. 3) there is no significant difference in the mean achievement scores of high, medium and low verbal ability students taught oral english with capt package. 4) there is no significant difference in the achievement of male and female students exposed to capt package. effectiveness of computer-assisted pronunciation gambari, kutigi, & fagbemi no. 8 (january june 2014) no. 8 (january june 2014) 17 methodology research design the research design adopted for the study is pre-test, post-test and delayed post-test design. two levels of independent primary variable (one treatment and a control), two levels of gender (male and female) and three levels of verbal ability (high, medium & low) were investigated on students’ performance in oral english. the design layout is as shown in table 1. table 1. research design layout groups pre-test treatment post-test delayed post-test experimental group (eg) 01 capt 02 03 control group (cg) 04 ctm 50 06 participants based on the nature of this research, three stage sampling techniques were adopted. firstly, a purposive sampling technique was adopted to obtain two secondary schools in minna metropolis, niger state, nigeria. these schools were purposively sampled based on facilities and manpower, school type (public schools) and gender composition (coeducational schools). the two schools were randomly assigned to an experimental group (capt) and control group (ctm) respectively. finally, a stratified sampling technique was used to select the 60 ssii students. each of the group had 30 students comprised of 15 male and 15 female: 10 high achievers, 10 medium achievers and 10 low achiever students. data collection instruments treatment instrument. the computer assisted pronunciation teaching (capt) package was developed for this study. the package consists of four topics in oral english: vowel sounds, consonant sounds, rhyme and emphatic stress. the necessity for a researcher-made capt package was based on the fact that commercially produced instructional packages are not common. even if they were available, they may not be directly relevant to the topic or objectives to be achieved in this effectiveness of computer-assisted pronunciation gambari, kutigi, & fagbemi no. 8 (january june 2014) no. 8 (january june 2014) 18 study. as a result of this, developing a capt package for this study was inevitable. capt was written in “macromedia dreamweaver 8” as the overall platform. macromedia flash utilizes the script symbolic instructional code (language) and animation that accommodates the interactive instructional process. other computer programmes and applications that were also utilized during the development process were microsoft word and macromedia fireworks 8. macromedia flash 8 was used for texts and graphics, macromedia fireworks also used for specific texts, graphics, and for buttons while macromedia flash was used for the animation. the package consists of an introduction to the package, students’ registration, list of lessons, and next, previous and quit buttons. each lesson starts with objectives of the lesson. the interactivity features of capt allowed students to navigate from one link to another. there are home, next, back, click animation, and exit buttons in the contents and quiz pages. the scripts and voicing of capt was done by an oral english native teacher. capt with oral english concepts was produced on a cd-rom and installed in the system. students in the experimental group selected a topic from the main menu, read the objective of the selected topic and proceeded to the content of the topic. students clicked on the animation button, and watched and listened to the mode of pronunciation. they could only proceed to the next unit if they correctly answered the questions correctly. however, students in the control group were taught the same topics using conventional teaching method. capt was validated by english language experts, computer programmers and educational technology specialists. the package was field tested on some selected students within the population but outside the sampled schools. a reliability coefficient of 0.92 was obtained using kuder richardson (kr-20). verbal ability instrument. the conventional measure of mental ability via intelligent quotient (iq) and verbal quotient (vrq) are not available in nigerian secondary schools (yusuf, 1997 & fajola, 2000). on this basis, the australian council for education research higher test (a.c.e.r. higher test) was adopted to measure the verbal ability of the students. the acer higher test contains questions of different kinds for testing intelligent and verbal quotients of secondary school students who were of the same level with australian students. it was made up of 46 items; each item of the instrument is an objective multiple-choice question with five options (a e) as plausible answers to the question. in testing the iq and vrq, students were required to indicate their correct answers by ticking on the letter (a e) that effectiveness of computer-assisted pronunciation gambari, kutigi, & fagbemi no. 8 (january june 2014) no. 8 (january june 2014) 19 corresponds to the correct option in each item. only one of the five options was the correct answer. the acer higher test was validated by obemeata (1974) and utilized by abimbade (1987), ojogun (1990) and fajola (2000). the validity of the acer higher test was confirmed through a construct related test by fajola (2000), and it yielded a coefficient of 0.57 while a reliability coefficient of 0.68 was obtained using kr-20. the data obtain from the administration of this instrument were used to classify the students into high and low ability levels in this study. testing instrument. the instrument used in collecting data for the study was researchers’ adopted oral english achievement test (oat). the oat consists of 50 objective multiple choice items with five options (a–e) adapted from past examinations of the west african examination council (waec, may/june, 1988-2011) and the national examination council (neco, june/july, 2001-2011). the oat was validated by experts in english language as well as test and measurement experts, and its reliability coefficient determined as 0.89 using kuder richardson (kr-20). the treatment was administered for four weeks. the researchers administered the oral english achievement test (oat) on sample students as a pre-test to ascertain the equivalence of the students before the treatments. treatments were followed immediately. the control group was taught with conventional teaching method, and the experimental group with capt package. thereafter, the oat was administered to both groups as a post-test to measure their achievement. four weeks after the treatment, the oat was administered as a delayed post-test (retention test). the scores obtained were subjected to data analysis. the data were analyzed based on the stated hypotheses, using a t-test, one-way analysis of variance and scheffe’s post-hoc test. the significance of the various statistical analyses was ascertained at 0.05 alpha level. data analysis and interpretation hypothesis one. there is no significant difference between the mean achievement scores of students taught oral english with capt packages and those taught with the conventional method. pre-tests of both cg and eg, and post-tests of both cg and eg were compared separately to determine the effect of the methods used in this study affected students’ achievement levels. the results of the analysis are presented in table 2. effectiveness of computer-assisted pronunciation gambari, kutigi, & fagbemi no. 8 (january june 2014) no. 8 (january june 2014) 20 table 2. t-test comparisons of pre-test and post-test mean achievement scores of experimental and control groups types of test variable n df mean sd t-value p-value (x) calculated pre-test cg 30 20.60 2.36 58 0.741ns 0.461 eg 30 20.13 2.22 post-test cg 30 68.80 8.21 58 6.335ns 0.000 eg 30 81.60 7.41 ns = not significant p>.05. * = significant at p<.05 from table 2, the mean achievement score is 20.13 for the experimental group and 20.60 for the control group. the experimental group mean achievement scores was not significantly different from the control group achievement scores when both were examined using the oat at pre-test (tcal = 0.741, df = 58, p = 0.461). this implies that the control and experimental groups had a similar knowledge level before the study. from the same table, the mean achievement score is 81.60 for the experimental group and 68.80 for the control group. the experimental group achievement score is significantly higher than the control group (tcal = 6.335, df = 58, p = 0.000). on this basis, hypothesis 1 was rejected. therefore, there is significant difference between the mean achievement scores of students taught oral english with capt package and those taught with ctm. hypothesis two. there is no significant difference between the mean retention scores of students taught oral english with capt package and those taught with ctm. to test this hypothesis, t-test statistics were employed as shown in table 3. effectiveness of computer-assisted pronunciation gambari, kutigi, & fagbemi no. 8 (january june 2014) no. 8 (january june 2014) 21 table 3. analysis of the mean retention scores of experimental and control groups variable n df mean (x) sd t-value p-value experimental group (eg) 30 80.330 7.473 58 6.481* 0.000 control group (cg) 30 67.230 7.912 ns = not significant p<0.05 from table 3, the retention mean score is 80.330 for the experimental group and 67.230 for the control group. the experimental group score significantly differs from the control group retention scores (tcal = 6.481, df = 58, p = 0.000). the experimental group outperformed the control group. on this basis, hypothesis 2 was rejected. therefore, there is significant difference between the mean retention scores of students taught oral english with capt package and those taught with ctm favouring capt package group. hypothesis three. there is no significant difference between the mean achievement scores of high, medium and low verbal ability students taught oral english with capt package. to test this hypothesis, one way anova was employed as shown in table 4. this is to determine whether capt made a statistical difference between the high, medium and low verbal ability students. table 4. anova result of high, medium and low verbal ability students sources of sum of df mean f-value p-value variation square square calculated between groups 1189.226 2 594.613 within group 346.222 26 13.316 44.653* 0.000 total 153.448 28 * = significant at p<.05 effectiveness of computer-assisted pronunciation gambari, kutigi, & fagbemi no. 8 (january june 2014) no. 8 (january june 2014) 22 table 4 shows one-way anova results of the mean achievement scores of students in the experimental group and control group. from the table, the results revealed that there is a significant difference in the students’ verbal ability group in the three groups (fcal = 44.653; df = 28, p = 0.000). on this basis, hypothesis two is rejected. therefore, there is significant difference in the verbal ability achievement scores of senior secondary students taught oral english using capt package. in order to ascertain the location of the significant differences among the three groups, scheffe’s post-hoc test was conducted on the data. the result is shown in table 5. table 5. scheffe’s post-hoc analyses of the groups mean scores groups mean group i group ii group iii scores (hg) (mg) (lg) high group (hg) 89.40 *0.000 *0.000 medium group (mg) 81.80 *0.000 *0.000 low group (lg) 73.56 *0.000 *0.000 * the mean difference is significant at the 0.05 level. the data in table 5 indicates that there was significant difference in the post-test mean scores of students in high group (x = 89.40) and those in medium group (x = 81.80) in favour of high group. it also indicates that significant difference exists in the post-test scores of students in the medium group (x = 81.80) and those in the low group (73.56) in favour of the medium group. significant difference was also established in the post-test scores of students in the high group (x=89.40) and those in the medium group (x=73.56) in favour of the high group. hypothesis four. there is no significant difference in the mean achievement scores of male and female students taught oral english with capt package. to test this hypothesis, t-test statistics was employed as shown in table 6. effectiveness of computer-assisted pronunciation gambari, kutigi, & fagbemi no. 8 (january june 2014) no. 8 (january june 2014) 23 table 6. t-test results on gender using capt package variable n df mean (x) sd t-value p-value calculated male 15 82.27 7.285 28 0.486ns 0.631 female 15 80.93 7.741 ns = not significant p>.05 from table 6, the post-test mean achievement score is 82.27 for the male students and 80.93 for the female students. the male mean achievement score did not statistically significantly differ from the female mean achievement score when both were taught oral english using capt package (tcal = 0.486, df = 13, p = 0.631). on this basis, hypothesis 3 was not rejected. therefore, there is no significant difference between the mean achievement scores of male and female students taught oral english with capt package. results the results of this study with respect to hypothesis one agreed with the findings of stenson, downing, smith & smith (1992), rostron and kinsell (1995), dekaney (2003), hirata (2004), seferoglue (2005), abuseileek (2007), and neri, mich, gerosa and giuliani (2008), who found that students taught with computer-assisted pronunciation performed better than those taught with conventional teaching method. the results of hypothesis two revealed that there was significant difference in the students’ retention in favour of the group taught oral english with capt. this result agrees with the findings of achebe (2008), who revealed that students taught with technological tools attained higher retention than those taught using traditional method. the results of hypothesis three revealed that students of high verbal ability performed better than those of medium, and low verbal ability. similarly, students of medium verbal ability performed better than those of low verbal ability. this finding agrees with the earlier findings of nwosuk (2002), odiaka (2002), aimumnondion (2008), gambari (2010) and fagbemi (2013), who found that high ability students achieved better than low verbal ability students. effectiveness of computer-assisted pronunciation gambari, kutigi, & fagbemi no. 8 (january june 2014) no. 8 (january june 2014) 24 the results of hypothesis four supported the earlier findings of otegbayo (2006), adamu (2008), kutigi, gambari and gana (2010), and gambari, gbodi and olumba, (2012), who found that audio instructional packages enhanced performance of both male and female students in oral english and phonetics respectively. similarly, the finding supported the findings of gambari (2010), fagbemi (2013), and yusuf, gambari and olumorin (2012), who found that computerassisted instruction packages stimulate both male and female students equally. conclusions the paper identified poor knowledge of oral english as one of the factors responsible for poor performance in english language at national examination in nigeria. it was observed that students exposed to computer-assisted pronunciation teaching (capt) performed better than their counterparts taught with conventional teaching methods. the innovative technology using capt seems to be the answer. it was found to be effective in teaching oral english, retained long term memory, benefits high, medium and low verbal ability students, and is also gender friendly. from the findings of the study, the following recommendations were made for the improvement of learning oral english at senior secondary schools in nigeria: 1) the use of capt packages should be encouraged. in order to achieve this, curriculum designers should infuse the use of capt packages for teaching and learning of oral english into school curricula. 2) language laboratories should be provided and adequately equipped with variety of instructional media such as commercially produced capt packages. 3) methods and approaches that produce differential effects among boys and girls, especially effects that favour boys to the detriment of girls, should continue to be discouraged in the process of teaching and learning oral english. 4) instructional packages that will appeal and meet the learning needs of learners irrespective of their ability levels should be encouraged. effectiveness of computer-assisted pronunciation gambari, kutigi, & fagbemi no. 8 (january june 2014) no. 8 (january june 2014) 25 references abuseileek, a. 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(2008). feedback in computer-assisted pronunciation training: when technology meets pedagogy. proceedings of call conference “call professionals and the future of call research”, antwerp, belgium, 179-188. effectiveness of computer-assisted pronunciation gambari, kutigi, & fagbemi no. 8 (january june 2014) no. 8 (january june 2014) 27 nwosuk, a. c. (2002). collaborative learning through high level verbal interaction: from theory to practice. eric clearing house, 72(1), 58 – 62. odiaka, a. s. (2002). effects of cognitive style and verbal and visual presentation in cbi. paper presented at the annual meeting of the european educational association (eric document reproduction service no. ed 121 082) otegbayo, c. o. (2006). effect of audiotape and film package on the teaching and learning o fphonetics in junior secondary schools in niger state. unpublished m. tech. thesis, federal university of technology, minna. nigeria. rostron, a., & kinsell, p. (1995). learning pronunciation using call: some experimental evidence. recall newsletter, 5(1). retrieved august 30, 2006 from http://www.fredriley.org.uk/call/pubs/ newsletter/content95.htm. seferoglue, g. (2005). improving students’ pronunciation through accent reduction soft-ware. british journal of educational technology, 36(2), 303–316. shirer, n. (2005). my true voice: fundamental content, individual capability, social progress. arts education policy review, 106(4), 25-33. stenson, n., downing, b., smith, j., & smith, k. (1992). the effectiveness of computer-assist¬ed pronunciation training. calico journal, 9(4), 5-19. wasagu, m. a. & muhammad, r. (2007). female education in science, technology and mathematics and sustainable development in the new millennium. 50th annual conference proceeding of stan (86 88). west african examination council (2011). chief examiners’ report in english language. lagos: waec. yusuf, m. o. (1997). effects of videotape and slide-tape instructions on junior secondary students’ performance in social studies. unpublished ph.d thesis, curriculum studies and educational technology, university of ilorin, nigeria. yusuf, m. o., gambari, a. i. & olumorin, c. o. (2012). effectiveness of computersupported cooperative learning strategies in learning physics. international journal of social sciences and education, 2(2), 94-109. retrieved from: http://www.ijsse.com. effectiveness of computer-assisted pronunciation gambari, kutigi, & fagbemi no. 8 (january june 2014) no. 8 (january june 2014) 28 authors *amosa isiaka gambari is a senior lecturer in educational technology department, school of technology education, federal university of technology, minna, nigeria. he had nce (tech. edu), b.ed, m.tech. ph.d in educational technology. his research interest is in information and communication technologies (icts) application in education, instructional design, distance education and mobile learning. he is presently, the coordinator, centre for open and distance learning, university of ilorin. also a member of several professional associations and he has several publications to his credit. *amina usman kutigi is a chief lecturer in the department of education, fati lami abubakar, college of art for legal and general studies, minna, niger state, nigeria. she had nce (english language), b.ed, language arts education, master of technolgy (m.tech.) in educational technology. her research interest is in english language with educational technology, computer in education, and instructional design. she is presently the h.o.d. education department, and a member of several professional associations and she has several publications to her credit. *patricia o. fagbemi is a lecturer ii in curriculum and instruction department, school of education, fct college of education, zuba, abuja, nigeria. she had nce (social studies and christian religion studies), b.ed, social studies, m.tech. and ph.d in educational technology. her research interest is in educational technology, computer in education, and instructional design. she is a member of several professional associations and she has several publications to her credit. effectiveness of computer-assisted pronunciation no. 8 (january june 2014) no. 8 (january june 2014) gist ii semestre 2016-9.indd 111 evidence of intercultural communication competence in tenth grader’s narrative texts1 evidencia de la competencia comunicativa intercultural en textos narrativos de estudiantes de décimo grado maría eulalia guerrero moya, liliana muñoz ortiz and ana maría niño díaz2* colegio josé joaquín casas i.e.d., colegio el porvenir i.e.d, colegio técnico jaime pardo leal i.e.d., colombia abstract this action research study explored the effects of an intervention linking both culture and citizenship in a tenth-grade english language class, and aimed at finding evidence of intercultural communicative competence (icc) skills through the writing of narrative texts in english. participants were 75 tenth-grade students, between the ages of 14 and 17 years old who attended three different public schools in bogotá, colombia. through literature circles (discussion groups) and storytelling tools, learners played an active role, discovered similarities and differences among cultures, reflected upon their tolerance levels, and explored ways to face problems. findings suggest that students were able to identify differences in cultures and how those differences helped them to build identity. in addition, they analyzed how they reacted in situations where their tolerance skills were challenged. key words: intercultural communicative competence; culture; citizenship; narrative texts; literature circles; storytelling, solo taxonomy, language acquisition. 1 received: april 11, 2016 / accepted: september 23, 2016 2 megmoya@hotmail.com / lilianamuortiz@yahoo.com.ar / anamand@gmail.com gist education and learning research journal. issn 1692-5777. no.13. (july december) 2016. pp. 111-130. task-based learning and language proficiency no. 13 (july december 2016) no. 13 (july december 2016) 112 resumen este estudio de investigación acción exploró los efectos de una intervención pedagógica que combinara la cultura y ciudadanía en una clase de inglés de décimo grado, y tenía como objetivo encontrar evidencia de las habilidades en la competencia comunicativa intercultural (icc) a través de la escritura de textos narrativos en inglés. los participantes fueron 75 estudiantes de décimo grado, entre los 14 y 17 años, de tres colegios públicos de bogotá, colombia. por medio de herramientas como círculos literarios (grupos de discusión) y narración de historias, los estudiantes jugaron un rol activo, descubrieron similitudes y diferencias entre culturas, reflexionaron sobre sus niveles de tolerancia y formas de enfrentar problemas. los resultados sugieren que los estudiantes pudieron identificar las diferencias entre culturas y cómo éstas los ayudaron a construir su propia identidad. adicionalmente, los estudiantes analizaron cómo reaccionaban ante las situaciones en las que sus habilidades de tolerancia eran desafiadas. palabras claves: competencia comunicativa intercultural, cultura, ciudadanía, textos narrativos, círculos literarios, narración de historias, taxonomía de solo, adquisición del lenguaje. resumo este estudo de pesquisa ação explorou os efeitos de uma intervenção pedagógica que combinasse a cultura e cidadania em uma aula de inglês de segundo ano do ensino médio, e tinha como objetivo encontrar evidência das habilidades na competência comunicativa intercultural (icc) através da escritura de textos narrativos em inglês. os participantes foram 75 estudantes de segundo ano do ensino médio, entre os 14 e 17 anos, de três colégios públicos de bogotá, colômbia. por meio de ferramentas como círculos literários (grupos de discussão) e narração de histórias, os estudantes desempenharam um papel ativo, descobriram similitudes e diferenças entre culturas, refletiram sobre seus níveis de tolerância e formas de enfrentar problemas. os resultados sugerem que os estudantes puderam identificar as diferenças entre culturas e como as mesmas ajudaram-nos a construir a sua própria identidade. adicionalmente, os estudantes analisaram como reagiam diante das situações nas que suas habilidades de tolerância eram desafiadas. palavras chaves: competência comunicativa intercultural, cultura, cidadania, textos narrativos, círculos literários, narração de histórias, taxonomia de solo, aquisição da linguagem. evidence of intercultural competence guerrero, muñoz, & niño no. 13 (july december 2016) no. 13 (july december 2016) 113 introduction during the last two decades, the colombian government has been implementing policies regarding the learning and teaching english. these policies are primarily aimed at increasing and improving the teaching of english in the country, with the goal of making colombia more competitive, with citizens who can cope with the demands of globalization. according to these goals, it becomes relevant as well to train people on cultural aspects, as these have an impact on the way people can establish more effective communication and personal relationships with others around the world. as such, it is important for teachers to support learners in order to understand cultural aspects when learning a foreign language as cultural contact is inevitable in the current globalized world (graddol, 2006). even though there is research on the teaching of culture as part of intercultural communicative competence (icc), through different strategies (karnyshev, et al., 2014), few studies on this topic have been carried out in the context of colombian education (gómez, 2011). when dealing with culture in the language classroom, teachers can use icc to help students obtain knowledge and understanding of their own and others’ culture, as a way to also help students be able to down prejudices, become more tolerant, and develop the ability to see cultural differences as well as similarities (byram & risager, 1999). furthermore, the inclusion of cultural aspects in the language classroom can also expand learners’ world vision and help them to solve the different problems inherent in globalization (kramsch, 2001). this article presents the results of an action research study conducted with tenth grade students at three public schools in bogotá, colombia. the research question was: how is intercultural communication competence in tenth-grade english language students developed by storytelling and narrative text writing? researchers intended to help learners develop cultural skills such as tolerance, identity, and conflict resolution while enhancing their sense of the self and other. these aspects were explored in cultural contexts (real or fictional) by using literature circles and storytelling. to recognize and assess cultural skills and awareness, the researchers used the solo taxonomy (structure of observed learning outcomes). evidence of intercultural competence guerrero, muñoz, & niño no. 13 (july december 2016) no. 13 (july december 2016) 114 literature review intercultural communicative competence (icc) in general terms, icc deals with the recognition of the other. it has to do with the person’s ability to interact in a foreign culture respectfully with people who have different ways of life, to accept them the way they are, and to appreciate similarities and differences with the own culture (byram, 1997). for this study, researchers selected the co-orientational model to analyze the icc components (fantini, 1995), considering that it focuses on how communication takes place in intercultural interactions and how insights, meanings and intercultural comprehension are built while interacting. furthermore, this model takes into account relevant concepts to comprehend the resulting outcomes from interactional processes such as understanding and overlapping perspectives. communicative competence, in terms of icc, allows learners to establish and express relationships and understanding of cultural issues that allow them to know the self (identity) and other, solve problems, and reflect on the reasons for decisions or actions, as well as their consequences in a more empathic way. all these features are at the core of the citizenship skills, which foster peaceful coexistence, responsible participation and understanding of difference. consequently, icc equips students with tools for providing solutions, bearing in mind different perspectives. when making interpretations, individuals develop a process of reflection, understanding, and construction of the concept of the self and the other by comparing and contrasting different characteristics, attitudes and behaviors (holliday, hyde & kullman, 2004) that shape the individual’s identity. in addition, knowing the self and the other helps individuals develop more tolerant attitudes in terms of mutual understanding and respect for cultural diversity, concepts that are key for many educational systems today (pigozzi, 2006). therefore, to test the role of a person in a society and his/her responsible attitude in different situations, becoming familiar with conflict resolution strategies is a must. in this sense, it is necessary to create spaces for students to face real or simulated situations that help them train themselves in finding constructive, peaceful and creative ways to solve problems (ministerio de educación nacional, 2004). research in this field (gómez, 2011; karnyshev, et al., 2014) has demonstrated that learners improved their ability to reflect upon the importance of being tolerant, as well as the need to become open minded evidence of intercultural competence guerrero, muñoz, & niño no. 13 (july december 2016) no. 13 (july december 2016) 115 and respect other people. in addition, learners developed intercultural empathy toward harsh situations of other cultural groups. narrative texts narratives are stories in which individuals share experiences, which often reflect the way they perceive the world. these texts may also depict the individual’s feelings in relation to life issues and present viewpoints in a critical way (webster & mertova, 2007). the creation of narrative texts as extended writing projects (kearney, 2010) in a culturally immersed classroom can require students to call upon a number of cultural aspects. for this study, narrative texts were used in literature circles (garrison, forest & kimmel, 2014), providing the cultural input as the stories’ characters could provide the social context students needed. literature circles (daniels, 2002; furr, 2004) are mini-discussion groups, in which participants choose a book, tale, poem, or article and read it within a period of time. in the context of literature circles, peer interaction and clear roles among learners are vital to develop the different cycles. to carry out a literature circle in the classroom, students take specific roles, such as summarizer, literary luminary, connector, questioner, character wizard, or others that the teacher considers essential. these roles enable students to share ideas and opinions about the texts. by using this tool, students can demonstrate a higher level of respect for others’ thoughts, attitudes and behaviors (medina, 2013). likewise, narrative texts for storytelling can account for the cultural contexts students are involved in, which at the same time allow for a better understanding of learners’ backgrounds. storytelling allows students to share experiences, somehow as mirrors of their own reality (mcdrury & alteiro, 2004), which in turn makes learners recognize their own identity and raises their understanding and awareness in relation to icc (wu, 2015). they promote students’ critical thinking skills, selfacceptance and acceptance of diversity to understand different cultures and their own cultural context (doganay & maksut, 2013). although storytelling has been mostly used in oral production, and the studies described here were focused on the development of icc orally, few studies have evidenced icc skills in written way (wu, marek & chen, 2013). having this in mind, implementing storytelling in a written form provides more concrete evidence of students’ understanding and apprehension of the topics studied according to their conditions and level. evidence of intercultural competence guerrero, muñoz, & niño no. 13 (july december 2016) no. 13 (july december 2016) 116 structure of observed learning outcome (solo) taxonomy the solo taxonomy was originally created by biggs and collis (1982). it can be explained in terms of five levels of understanding that are useful to classify the quality of participants’ data regarding the assessed items, as described in more detail in the data analysis section. icc studies show that it is important to have materials and approaches in the language classroom that allow for the teaching of culture through language. this offers possibilities to enhance not only communicative competence, but also to improve experiences and outcomes in relation to this (mejía & agray-vargas, 2014). consequently, implementing the solo taxonomy to evaluate learning outcomes regarding cultural competence can be an effective tool to evidence students’ perceptions, understanding, and progress in a more objective and concise way. in the educational field, the solo taxonomy has been used for different purposes and subjects, such as geography, math, accounting, or sciences (braband & dahl, 2009; hussain, ajmal & rahman, 2010; jurdak & el mouhayar, 2014; lucas & mladenovic, 2009; munowenyu, 2007; smith & colby, 2010). this taxonomy has been used to analyze the students’ level of understanding of a topic, measure the progression in a competence, establish course objectives, analyze the quality of academic essays, and grade and improve critical thinking skills (smith & colby, 2010). despite the fact that many research studies have been done, there is no evidence of the use of the solo taxonomy for measuring learners’ outcomes in efl classrooms or the students’ outcomes in regards to their icc skills development. methodology research design this research study was conducted under the principles of collaborative action research and used students’ narrative production as a way to evidence their understanding on icc topics and the effectiveness of the implemented tools. in order to do so, different instruments such as artifacts, logs, a final questionnaire, and narrative stories were used to collect data in different stages of the implementation. participants and context participants for this research project were 75 tenth graders ranged from 15 to 17 years old with b1 english level (council of europe, evidence of intercultural competence guerrero, muñoz, & niño no. 13 (july december 2016) no. 13 (july december 2016) 117 2011). selection of participants of the same grade was done to have homogeneity in terms of age, grade, interests, skills, and cognitive development. furthermore, these learners were characterized by an interest for getting closer with new things, topics and experiences. bearing in mind the difficulties of public schools in terms of students’ attendance, teacher-researchers used the purposive sample method to choose the population to work with. in this case, the sample is chosen with specific purposes on the basis of the researchers’ judgement, as a response of their specific needs (cohen, manion & morrison, 2007). the criteria to select the subset of participants was based on completeness of the process and activities to guarantee that information collected was not biased. as a result, 15 participants were chosen, five per school. pedagogical intervention the intervention and lesson planning were applied in three cycles. each cycle comprised orientation sessions, literature circles, and storytelling tools. one of the reasons for the selection of these last two tools was the need to apply an icc model (co-orientational model), which worked with comprehension outcomes on intercultural interactional processes. orientation sessions were carried out to help participants in the comprehension of basic cultural concepts, tolerance features and conflict resolution strategies. after that, literature circles were the means of providing the comprehensible input which enabled learners to analyze, compare, contrast and take a stance regarding the topics studied in the orientation sessions, and which could appear in the tales they read. teachers-researchers modelled the first literature circle using the story “two monks and a woman.” then, students, chose their texts using a web tool named world stories which provides readings from around the world. some of them were “the fool and the donkey,” “the wind and the sun,” “hard times,” among others. once students had read the story, they carried out the literature circle roles and methodology. these stories helped raise awareness of the differences among cultures, the importance of being tolerant towards the others, and the recognition of their own identity. lastly, storytelling was the tool that allowed students to give written evidence of their understanding of concepts while having the opportunity to create fictional or real stories from their own experiences, reflecting upon topics such as culture, tolerance, and conflict resolution. evidence of intercultural competence guerrero, muñoz, & niño no. 13 (july december 2016) no. 13 (july december 2016) 118 the length of the written products was around 300 words, and some were created using the storybird artwork or power point presentations. storytelling gave evidence of learners’ critical thinking skills, intercultural competence, and the ability to get messages across. during the implementation, data was collected using the instruments described above. initially, all instruments were completed in paper and then organized in a spreadsheet in excel, and analyzed using the solo taxonomy to solve the research question. data collection instruments artifacts (instructional materials) allowed students to give an account of perceptions regarding different cultural aspects; thus, researchers could keep track of the participants’ interpretations of different topics discussed. in this study, artifacts were applied during the orientation sessions and provided evidence of the participants’ critical thinking skills like comparing and contrasting information, evaluating and judging situations, and proposing strategies to solve a problem. learning logs were used to record the participants’ reflections about the content being studied. these were applied at the end of each cycle of the pedagogical intervention and provided information about students’ feelings, knowledge, and thoughts regarding their learning experience and icc skills when being in contact with other cultures. stories were used by participants at the end of each cycle to express themselves about their cultural context and perceptions which at the same time allowed researchers to evaluate their intentions and interpretations of complex settings and their way of interacting in different situations (bruner, 1986; cohen, et al., 2007) through narrative stories. finally, a questionnaire was applied at the end of the process and aimed at collecting factual, behavioral, or attitudinal data through open questions to evaluate students’ background, experience, actions, attitudes, opinions, beliefs, interests, and values (burns, 2010). data analysis and interpretation for analyzing the information, stages proposed by grounded theory were applied. in the open coding stage, a color was assigned to each level of the solo taxonomy (biggs & collis, 1982) to find codes and patterns as follows: purple for pre-structural (the student evidence of intercultural competence guerrero, muñoz, & niño no. 13 (july december 2016) no. 13 (july december 2016) 119 does not understand the concept); orange for uni-structural (the student understands the concept but just repeats the information given by the teacher); red for multi-structural (the student understands the concept but finds difficult to make connections between the topics); light green for relational (the student makes connections with the topic and other topics); and light blue for extended abstract (the student proposes something regarding the concept or situation studied). all instruments were analyzed under these criteria. in addition to this, instruments were classified taking into consideration beliefs, attitudes, and knowledge since these are the most important factors when teaching and assessing culture. then, the axial coding was applied by analyzing the highest solo taxonomy levels in order to define the categories for the study. the previous process also allowed researchers to reduce data in a more accurate and objective form. results when applying the literature circles and storytelling (narrative texts production) tools, researchers found that participants gave evidence on icc awareness and skills development through the different data collection instruments. in this sense, it is possible to assert that somehow students’ icc level went from a misconceptions about culture and how it affects communication and interaction, to the recognition of its importance to get messages across, increase tolerance towards differences, and to have a wider world vision. thus, three main categories emerged: demonstration of cultural awareness by analyzing and understanding culture, evidence of the use of icc skills through writing, and demonstration of a sense of knowledge and identity. demonstration of cultural awareness by understanding and analyzing culture being culturally aware means that a person is capable of reflecting, being sensitive, and being able to explore language in a pragmatic way when acquiring knowledge of how the language is used in a target culture (dufva, 1994). according to muikku-werner (as cited in dufva, 1994, p. 21), this awareness makes the first attempts to communicate in a foreign language possible and successful, demonstrated through different attitudes and behaviors, as explained below. as dufva (1994), lonner and hayes (2004) assert, culture means everyday behavior and everyday thoughts that a person uses to face daily social interactions. in this sense, there are three components to bear evidence of intercultural competence guerrero, muñoz, & niño no. 13 (july december 2016) no. 13 (july december 2016) 120 in mind when approaching culture: a comprehension of what culture means, how cultures are different taking into account communities’ beliefs and behaviors, and how those differences have an impact on communication (murray & bollinger, 2001). taking this into consideration, the most representative attitudes recognized during the study were respect for other individuals, and action-oriented behavior in problem solving. in relation to respect for others, findings evidenced the concept of respect in terms of the adaptation to the conventions that can be established in specific contexts. the process of adaption is possible when the opportunity to value other people is granted and interaction leads to inclusion rather than to exclusion, as evidenced here by one participant: the lack of tolerance affects in a huge way because not all the people would tolerate that someone disrespect them regardless of the place they are in. because if you go to a country and you do not like anything, people can turn you down to the point you are excluded.3 likewise, respecting the others means accepting the difference, avoiding judgements of physical appearance, and valuing cultural diversity. in the stories written, the participants gave evidence of respect for different points of view as a way to show that everybody thinks differently. similarly, the abovementioned sample corroborated that icc skills are learnt, and as a result, learning is progressive as well (byram, 1997), which might be a fundamental attitude to be a better citizen in society. on the other hand, according to dufva (1994), when a person is able to take a stand and assume a critical attitude, he/she has reached some power to discover hidden meanings of a situation that makes her/him take action in order to solve a problem. for this study, participants evidenced the necessity to take action when analyzing real life situations. this allowed them to express and reflect positive changes when applying conflict resolution strategies in order to have harmonious relationships within their community. to sum up, it is important to demonstrate that knowledge put into practice can contribute to a positive transformation in society. participants identified that strategies to solve problems can be taught and used at the same time. this confirms the importance of teaching icc skills in the english classroom, as reported here: 3 original spanish: pues afecta de una manera dimensional, porque toda la gente no va a tolerar que les faltes al respeto independientemente en el lugar que estés. porque si tú llegas a otro país y no te gusta nada pues las personas te pueden rechazar hasta llegar a excluirte. evidence of intercultural competence guerrero, muñoz, & niño no. 13 (july december 2016) no. 13 (july december 2016) 121 i learnt to live together in the society, be more tolerant and accept things of others, since i am aware that each person is different. it is good to teach what i learnt. evidence of the use of icc skills through writing since the focus of the writing was to go beyond the form (hillocks, 2005), this research study used freewriting (elbow, 1998) to concentrate more on the content to evaluate participants’ icc skills. with this in mind, participants used language to build a world vision; it became a resource for demonstrating understanding, expressing meaning, and interacting with others. moreover, it helped participants make connections among social communities, reflecting upon different cultural aspects. finally, it allowed learners to build their own identity and their identity in a group. the results of using this approach are evidenced as follows. firstly, being aware of how negative actions can affect communication and interaction is one of the central aspects participants reflected in their stories. individuals who reflect upon the consequences of their actions are able to re-evaluate their behavior and restructure their response for future situations (byram, 1997). the opposite is implied when individuals are not sufficiently instructed in icc skills. finally, considering the recognition of cultural features, which is an essential part of effective communication and interaction, participants demonstrated awareness when reflecting about respect and tolerance as key aspects for this to happen as stated here: “... we have to breathe and tolerate different people to have a better communication.” second, the ability to recognize other individuals, bearing in mind their attitudes, behavior, and viewpoints is an essential element within icc skills (pusch, 2009). as part of participants’ cognitive flexibility, they demonstrated in their writing a capability of analyzing and evaluating situations such as discrimination due to racism, bullying, displacement, age, disability, neighborhood, appearance, gang affiliation, and personal capabilities. participants in this study were able to conclude that no matter the differences between cultures, there are things that are essential for every human being to live together in harmony. in the same line, researchers obtained evidence of the understanding of one of the icc aims in regards to finding the self in a societal context (byram, 1997), when a participant extrapolated this conception to the necessity of adopting a different behavior as a country if cultural and socioeconomic changes are expected, as reported here: evidence of intercultural competence guerrero, muñoz, & niño no. 13 (july december 2016) no. 13 (july december 2016) 122 for example, that the oriental culture is very organized, punctual and educated culture; for that reason they are global potencies because those are those little things that makes the difference. furthermore, when dealing with icc, a person needs to be openminded and able to adapt to different cultural values. these are survival strategies that allow us to recognize individualities and capabilities, as evidenced by the participant: juan martin was advising them that they all had to help other one and not to judge all. grandmother: but how is it possible, they are animals, they neither think nor feel. samuel, you are not travelling with me, close well the eyes and open your mind. finally, cognitive flexibility is a component of critical thinking, and it is also considered an icc skill (yue & ning, 2015). in this way, while some participants showed clear stances in relation to different topics and situations regarding conflict resolution and tolerance, others revealed avoidance as a way to face problems, demonstrating a lack of social relaxation and comfort when sharing points of view with others (rubin & martin, 2009). therefore, the lack of flexibility might prevent those individuals from having positive approaches when interacting with others. demonstration of a sense of knowledge and identity recognizing strengths and weaknesses and having a clear definition of the self and a strongly defined role within a group is important for icc, as stated by one participant: the identity can fall ill for people that is not accustomed to live in another culture. at the time there, starting changes of attitudes and loss of own identity. thus, having contact with another culture or social group should not disrupt what the individual thinks of himself/herself or what makes him/her unique (kim, 2009). participants recognized that if identity is not strongly formed, it can be overridden or distorted when interacting with other people or other cultures. however, researchers obtained evidence of the recognition of the influence that the environment may have over identity and how being different can exclude individuals from a social group, as stated thus: evidence of intercultural competence guerrero, muñoz, & niño no. 13 (july december 2016) no. 13 (july december 2016) 123 we must be able to accept another people and this is the problem of this culture; if you are different, you are out. we are obliged to respect the other. as a consequence, being culturally competent requires having a group identity and sharing viewpoints within a group to be accepted (byram, 1997). having analyzed the data and obtained the codes and categories, the core category of the research study was identified as narrative texts to evidence the recognition of cultural awareness, cultural skills and identity perceptions in icc. writing stories is an exercise that helps learners to develop cultural imagination (usó & martínez, 2008). in this sense, participants were able to comprehend, analyze, and reflect upon cultural differences that could somehow shape their world vision. similarly, once students managed to recognize the icc skills needed to relate with others, creating narrative stories with cultural focus demanded that they inquire about cultural aspects, put themselves in the shoes of other people, and see the world with new lenses (kearney, 2010). when writing narratives, individuals had to imagine the situations the characters were immersed in, and reflect upon the choices they had to make. by the same token, students not only became more critical regarding their contexts; they also could identify themselves within the stories (kearney, 2010). therefore, giving students the opportunity to express and tell their own stories is a way to recognize the value of what they have learnt in the classroom, taking advantage of their knowledge and understanding what they have experienced regarding culture and citizenship in their own lives. furthermore, when students put into practice what they have learnt or read, it facilitates the use of that knowledge in other situations making learning meaningful and long lasting. in this sense, life-long learning skills are being implemented and thus, learners may realize the importance of using what they learn in their real contexts. finally, one of the most significant advantages when using narrative texts is the possibility to allow learners to represent and build their own self-concept (bruner, 1994). participants played an active role in the process of building their identity when writing and reflecting upon different topics, in some occasions about themselves and about situations that were closely related to their reality, as depicted in earlier studies where individuals comprehended how their identities were shaped (coffey & street, 2008). evidence of intercultural competence guerrero, muñoz, & niño no. 13 (july december 2016) no. 13 (july december 2016) 124 conclusions this study focused on analyzing what happens to icc when using storytelling to implement the writing of narrative texts with b1 efl tenth-graders. in addition, effects of literature circles and storytelling tools in icc recognition when reflecting upon topics such as culture, tolerance, and conflict resolution were analyzed. the main discoveries in relation to the use of literature circles and storytelling tools were that these proved to be effective in order to evidence participants’ perceptions and insights when teaching icc. on one hand, literature circles helped learners express themselves in a natural way. on the other hand, reading stories from diverse parts of the world enhanced participants’ exploration of different countries and their cultures, instilling their curiosity to learn from and about other cultures, and boosting in students a sense of being more socially responsible (garrison, et al., 2014). likewise, by using storytelling in this study, participants could explore different aspects of icc skills. regarding writing narrative texts, findings indicated that these evidenced the growth of cultural awareness since participants recognized the importance of knowing the culture to be able to communicate effectively with the others and respect them. at the same time, participants showed growth in cultural skills as they demonstrated willingness to change and to be more tolerant and empathetic when interacting with others, and a change in perception about their own identity. in this regard, these changes and new knowledge enabled students to have a different way to interact with others since they were aware of the impact that cultural aspects can have in communication. considering these aspects, participants could reflect, evaluate, and analyze upon cultural similarities and differences, which allowed them to better comprehend different situations and prepared them to communicate more accurately. taking into account the context where this research was developed, the possibility to continue applying this methodology could, firstly, decrease the schools’ reports of bullying and discrimination as students could continue being trained on the different strategies to solve conflicts and on raising their tolerance levels by exploring icc within the english classroom. second, it is necessary to encourage and support students in the construction of their own identity to recognize and appreciate their traditions, cultural values and viewpoints, so that they can have healthy relationships with others (holliday, et al., 2004). lastly, using the solo taxonomy for analyzing data is highly recommended since learning outcomes can be objectively set and tracked during the learning process. evidence of intercultural competence guerrero, muñoz, & niño no. 13 (july december 2016) no. 13 (july december 2016) 125 although this research study evidenced icc skills growth to some extent through the use of narrative texts, further research should investigate the implications of the written narrative texts in the students near contexts and their impact on their families and relationships. important drawbacks were, on the first hand, participants’ distraction with the use of different websites different from the ones required for the study (storybird and world stories). this situation could be overcome by training students to learn how to use the internet, so they can be more aware of the advantages to use it for learning purposes. on the other hand, time allotted for the pedagogical intervention was longer than the expected due to the extra activities that each school had to comply with, unexpectedly. consequently, there were sessions where participants and researchers could not meet, which affected students’ capability to recall key information. teacher-researchers tackled this situation by reviewing the topics at the beginning of each session. additionally, regarding the writing of narrative texts, learners had problems organizing their written production. as a result, it was truly difficult to comprehend students’ ideas and perceptions at the analysis stage. to overcome this situation, teaching students the writing process of narrative texts could support their performance when expressing in a written way. finally, students’ speaking ability can be boosted if they are instructed in the use of cohesive devices and useful expressions for everyday situations. this may avoid the use of the mother tongue during the discussion sessions. to conclude, this study allowed researchers to ascertain that including icc in the classroom is vital. consequently, teachers need to provide educational environments where cultural aspects play an essential role in the process of building identity. thereby, learners are required to be able to act according to a globalized world which demands being aware enough to 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(2015). the cultivation of critical thinking skills in intercultural communication course. cross-cultural communication, 11(3), 47-51. doi:10.3968/6570 evidence of intercultural competence guerrero, muñoz, & niño no. 13 (july december 2016) no. 13 (july december 2016) 130 authors *maria eulalia guerrero moya holds a master’s degree in english language teaching – autonomous learning environments of the universidad de la sabana. she teaches at colegio josé joaquin casas i.e.d. in bogotá as an english teacher in grades 6-11. she holds a bachelor’s degree in modern languages from the universidad distrital francisco josé de caldas. her research interests include self-directed learning, clil, icc, and call. *liliana muñoz ortíz holds a master’s degree in english language teaching – autonomous learning environments of the universidad de la sabana. she teaches at colegio el porvenir i.e.d. as an english teacher in grades 6-9. she holds a bachelor’s degree in english and spanish from the universidad pedagógica nacional. her research interests include icc, innovative strategies to teach english, autonomy, and call. *ana maría niño díaz holds a master degree in english language teaching – autonomous learning environments of the universidad de la sabana. she teaches at colegio técnico jaime pardo leal i.e.d. as an english and technical english teacher in grades 10-11. she holds a bachelor’s degree in english and spanish from the universidad pedagógica nacional. her research interests include icc, clil, call, and materials design. evidence of intercultural competence no. 13 (july december 2016) no. 13 (july december 2016) 159 academic writing and grammatical accuracy: the role of corrective feedback1 sasan baleghizadeh2* & yahya gordani* shahid beheshti university, g.c. irán abstract investigations into the effect of providing corrective feedback on l2 writing have often produced contradictory results. this study, following a line of research concerned with the role of corrective feedback in writing, contributes to this line of research by analyzing different feedback types in an efl academic writing context. 45 graduate university students enrolled in an academic writing course were provided with different types of feedback (direct feedback; student-teacher conference; no corrective feedback) over a course of 12 weeks (24 sessions). the study found significant immediate and delayed effects for the student-teacher conference type of feedback on students’ overall accuracy improvement. it is suggested that improvements in writing accuracy could at least in one respect be attributed to the type of feedback provided. keywords: academic writing, writing accuracy, corrective feedback, efl learners. resumen las investigaciones sobre el efecto de proporcionar retroalimentación correctiva sobre escritura en l2 a menudo han producido resultados contradictorios. este estudio se desarrolla bajo una línea de investigación que busca indagar sobre el papel que juega la retroalimentación correctiva en el proceso de escritura. así mismo, se realiza un gran aporte a la línea de investigación al analizar los diferentes tipos de retroalimentación existentes en un contexto de escritura académica de inglés como lengua extranjera. la población objetivo del estudio fueron cuarenta y cinco estudiantes de posgrado matriculados en un curso de escritura académica el cual tenía una duración de doce semanas (24 sesiones). estos estudiantes durante el curso recibieron los siguientes tipos de retroalimentación: retroalimentación directa, reunión docente – estudiante y sin retroalimentación correctiva. el estudio reveló importantes hallazgos en 1 received: march 23rd, 2012 / accepted: may 15th, 2012 2 email: sasanbaleghizadeh@yahoo.com gist education and learning research journal. issn 1692-5777. no. 6, november 2012. pp. 159-176 no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) 160 cuanto a los efectos de recibir retroalimentación de forma inmediata o tardía permitiendo mejorar la precisión de los trabajos de los estudiantes. con esto se sugiere que las mejoras en la precisión de la escritura podrían atribuirse al tipo de retroalimentación proporcionada. palabras claves: escritura académica, retroalimentación correctiva, precisión en la escritura, estudiantes de inglés como segunda lengua. resumo as pesquisas sobre o efeito de proporcionar retroalimentação corretiva sobre escritura em l2 com frequência têm produzido resultados contraditórios. este estudo se desenvolve sob uma linha de pesquisa que busca indagar sobre o papel da retroalimentação corretiva no processo de escritura. da mesma, realiza-se um grande aporte à linha de pesquisar ao analisar os diferentes tipos de retroalimentação existentes em um contexto de escritura académica de inglês como língua estrangeira. a população objetivo do estudo foram quarenta e cinco estudantes de pós-graduação matriculados em um curso de escritura académica o qual tinha uma duração de doze semanas (24 sessões). estes estudantes durante o curso receberam os seguintes tipos de retroalimentação: retroalimentação direta, reunião docente – estudante e sem retroalimentação corretiva. o estudo revelou importantes descobertas em quanto aos efeitos de receber retroalimentação de forma imediata ou tardia permitindo melhorar a precisão dos trabalhos dos estudantes. com isto se sugere que as melhoras na precisão da escritura poderiam atribuir-se ao tipo de retroalimentação proporcionada. palavras chaves: escritura acadêmica, retroalimentação corretiva, precisão na escritura, estudantes de inglês como segunda língua. introduction the application of accurate grammar is an important aspect of any good piece of writing. in addition, students can advance their level of english by producing written work that employs the grammatical structures they have learned. although it is unrealistic for nonnative students to expect to reach 100% accuracy (and many native english speakers may have similar difficulty), they should aim to continuously improve their writing accuracy, in order to make their work as readable and efficient as possible. academic writing and grammatical accuracy baleghizadeh & gordani no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) 161 many studies have made it clear that after having studied english as well as academic writing for years, non-native students experience a great deal of difficulty in their writings. for example, johns (1997) found that many non-native speaking graduate and undergraduate students, after years of esl training, often fail to recognize and appropriately use the conventions and features of academic written prose. researchers have pinpointed many reasons that the academic writing of even highly advanced and trained non-native students continues to exhibit numerous problems and shortcomings (see hinkel, 2002; johns, 1997; jordan, 1997; leki & carson, 1997; prior, 1998). such shortcomings include, among others, the ineffectiveness of writing courses in preparing students for academic writing tasks and the disparity between the existing teaching and assessment practices in academic writing contexts. the effectiveness of writing courses in preparing nns students for actual academic writing in universities is discussed by leki and carson (1997). they found that, “what is valued in writing for writing classes is different from what is valued in writing for other academic courses” (p. 64). however, it should be noticed that academic writing is different from personal or creative writing in a few respects. thaiss and zawacki (2006) asked professors at george mason university what they thought academic writing was and what its standards were. they came up with three characteristics: 1. clear evidence in writing that the writer(s) have been persistent, open-minded, and disciplined in study. 2. the dominance of reason over emotions or sensual perception. 3. an imagined reader who is coolly rational, reading for information, and intending to formulate a reasoned response. what seems obvious to assert is that in academic writing one should always follow rules of grammatical accuracy since the end-user or consumer of the writing is likely to be an expert in particular fields. hence, it is vital that writing is clear through compliance with rules of punctuation and the conventions of grammar to maintain clarity and avoid ambiguity in expression. leki and carson (1997) emphasized that the teaching of writing in esl and eap programs needs to provide students with linguistic and writing skills that can enable the learners to be involved with and make sense of the new information. on the other hand, in teaching l2 writing to academically bound learners, rhetorical and discourse features of written english have often been overemphasized. what has become of lesser importance, as hinkel (2004) puts it, is the language tools (i.e., the grammar and vocabulary that l2 writers must have to construct academic text, which academic writing and grammatical accuracy baleghizadeh & gordani no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) 162 in turn can be organized into a coherent written academic discourse). in other words, no matter how well discourse is organized or how brilliant the writer’s ideas may be, it would be hard to understand them if the language is opaque. when it comes to assessment, though, raters seem to be more concerned with the linguistic errors made by the writers than the rhetorical and discourse features of texts. this incongruity between teaching and assessment practices might therefore be a potential reason behind student’s failure in academic writing. accuracy in academic writing many researchers have reasonably argued that for academically oriented and advanced l2 learners, grammar instruction is essential if they are to achieve their educational and professional goals (celcemurcia 1991; schmidt 1994; shaw & liu 1998). celce-murcia (1991), for instance, emphasized the importance of a reasonable degree of grammatical accuracy in academic writing. she mentioned that high frequency of grammatical errors in nonnative speaker’s academic writing (an average of 7.2 errors per 100 words) most probably makes their writings unacceptable to the university faculties. a large number of extensive and detailed studies have demonstrated that mere exposure to l2 vocabulary, grammar, discourse, and formal written text is not the most effective means of attaining academic l2 proficiency (e.g., ellis, 1990; hinkel, 2002; laufer & nation, 2001; norris & ortega, 2000; schmidt, 2000). in other words, exposure to the input is not a guarantee for language acquisition. schmidt (2000) proposes the noticing hypothesis to emphasize that only items in linguistic input that are attended to by language learners are likely to be acquired. chang and swales (1999) investigated specific discourse and sentence-level writing skills of highly advanced non-native speaker students. they indicate that even in the case of advanced and highly literate non-native speakers, exposure to substantial amounts of reading and experience with writing in academic contexts does not ensure their becoming aware of discourse and sentence-level linguistic features of academic writing and the attainment of the necessary writing skills. chang and swales concluded that explicit instruction in advanced academic writing and text is needed. similarly, ellis (1990) believed that formal classroom teaching with its emphasis on linguistic accuracy will engage the learner in planned discourse and develop the corresponding type of competence. academic writing and grammatical accuracy baleghizadeh & gordani no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) 163 however, as mentioned, the predominant method of instruction in the teaching of l2 writing has mainly remained focused on the writing process (johns, 1990; reid, 1993; zamel, 1983) and the product of writing is seen as secondary to the writing process. therefore, as hinkel (2004) mentions, issues of l2 grammar, lexis, and errors are addressed only as needed in the context of writing, and l2 writers with proficiency levels higher than beginning are exposed to text and discourse to learn from them and, thus, acquire l2 grammar and lexis naturally. she goes on to suggest that the assessment of l2 writing skills by esl professionals on standardized and institutional placement testing has largely remained focused on the writing product without regard to the writing process (vaughan, 1991) and concludes that “the disparity between the teaching methods adopted in l2 writing instruction and evaluation criteria of the quality of l2 writing has produced outcomes that are damaging and costly for most esl students, who are taught brainstorming techniques and invention, prewriting, drafting, and revising skills, whereas their essential linguistic skills, such as academic vocabulary and formal features of grammar and text, are only sparsely and inconsistently addressed” (p.6). corrective feedback and writing accuracy previous research has made it clear that in order to be able to write successfully in a second language and, in particular, to be able to learn the formal l2 academic prose crucial in nonnative speakers’ academic and professional careers, students need to develop a basic linguistic threshold, without which they simply do not have the range of lexical and grammar skills required in academic writing (berkenkotter & huckin, 1995; byrd & reid, 1998; chang & swales, 1999; hinkel, 2002; horowitz, 1991;johns,1997; kroll, 1980; paltridge, 2001; read, 2000). xudong, cheng, varaprasad, and leng (2010) investigated the impact of english for academic purposes course on the development of academic writing abilities of esl/efl graduate students. the study found that not much progress had been made by these students in terms of grammar accuracy. in addition students’ responses to the questionnaire indicated that they felt the course did not help them improve their grammar accuracy. as hinkel (2004) mentions, intensive and consistent instruction in l2 grammar is essential for academically bound nonnative speakers. consistent grammar instruction has been shown to be effective in improving the quality of l2 production (cumming, 1990; ellis 2001; fotos 2002; norris and ortegga 2001; schmidt 1994). academic writing and grammatical accuracy baleghizadeh & gordani no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) 164 in their meta-analysis, norris and ortegga (2000) conclude that focused instructional treatment of any sort is far better than nonintervention and is durable over time. what remains controversial, however, is the nature of this instructional treatment which includes the unresolved issue of the provision of corrective feedback to student writings. feedback as viewed by furnborough and truman (2009) entails the existence of a gap between what has been learned and the target competence of the learners, and the efforts undertaken to bridge these gaps. in a study treglia (2009) posits that students understood and were able to address corrections irrespective of the type of feedback provided, assuring writing teachers that student writer are able to benefit strongly from teacher feedback. in a series of studies, truscott (1996, 1999, and 2007) pointed to the fact that there was no sufficient research in favor of grammar correction. he referred to many studies which couldn’t actually support grammar correction for different reasons such as the absence of control groups and delayed posttests or the use of grammar exercises as their only writing tasks. this claim caused criticisms on the part of the proponents of grammar correction (ferris, 1999, 2004), and some researchers tried to generate research to counter the conclusions (ferris & roberts, 2001; chandler, 2003; bitchener 2008; bitchener et al., 2005, 2008, 2009, 2010; rahimi, 2009; sheen et al., 2009), and after each of their attempts truscott has responded with critiques claiming that their work fails to demonstrate that error correction has any benefit (truscott 2004; truscott and hsu, 2008). many researchers investigated the efficacy of different feedback types on students’ writing accuracy. for example, bitchener, young, and cameron (2005) found that direct oral feedback in combination with direct written feedback did not only have a greater effect than direct written feedback alone on improved accuracy over time, but it also found that the combined feedback option facilitated improvement in some error categories but not others. moreover, they believe that upper intermediate l2 writers can improve the accuracy of their use of rule-governed linguistic features if they are regularly exposed to oral and written corrective feedback. in addition, bitchener and knoch (2008) analyzed the extent to which different written corrective feedback options (direct corrective feedback, written and oral metalinguistic explanation; direct corrective feedback and written meta-linguistic explanation; direct corrective feedback only; no corrective feedback) improve students’ accuracy in the use of two functional uses of the english article system. their academic writing and grammatical accuracy baleghizadeh & gordani no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) 165 findings revealed that students who received all three written corrective feedback options outperformed those who did not receive written feedback and that students’ level of accuracy was retained over seven weeks, while there was no difference in the extent to which students improved the accuracy of their writing as a result of written corrective feedback. objective of the study improving students’ writing accuracy is an essential factor in effective writing. effectiveness of a piece of writing will be determined in part by its accuracy. this is the reason why grammar correction has received so much attention on the part of researchers, teachers, teacher educators, and students in the recent decades. in the writing classroom, teacher feedback on grammar may be a useful pedagogical device to enhance the accuracy of writing. the present study aims to analyze different feedback types (direct feedback; student-teacher conference; no corrective feedback) in an efl academic writing context. it is hypothesized that the provision of different feedback types or no feedback at all will have different effects on student writings’ overall grammatical accuracy. the study participants a total of 45 students took part in this study. they came from among 56 students enrolled in three intact classes of academic writing in tehran’s shahid rajaee teacher education university. the participants were homogeneous in terms of their age, gender, major and english learning backgrounds. they were at the age of 21 to 37, with an average of 28.4. the ratio of male to female students was also controlled to be 22 female and 23 male students so as to avoid issues of gender bias. the classes were academic writing classes consisting of graduate students majoring in teaching english as a foreign language (tefl). their learning backgrounds were similar due to the fact that they had studied english solely within the educational system of iran. besides, none of them had the experience of studying or living in english-speaking countries. the two classes were randomly assigned to one experimental (group a) and one control group (group b). academic writing and grammatical accuracy baleghizadeh & gordani no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) 166 instrument a writing test package consisting of four academic topics together with instructions on the number of words needed and the allotted time was used in this study. the first writing task was applied to ascertain the homogeneity of the participants in terms of their writings’ grammatical accuracy. the other three writing tasks (a pretest, an immediate posttest and a delayed posttest) were administered at different phases during and after the course. participants’ writings at each phase of the study were evaluated and scored by two raters for the matter of inter-rater reliability. to estimate the inter-rater reliability of the tests, the correlation coefficients between the two raters were calculated. all the four tests were shown to have very high inter-rater reliability with an average of 0.913 which were found statistically significant at p<0.1 level of significance. procedures out of the 56 students who took the first writing test, the eligible ones (those whose scores ranged from one standard deviation above and below the mean on the test; n=45) were selected to serve as the participants of the study. the participants were then randomly assigned into three homogeneous groups each with 15 participants. all the condition for the groups was exactly the same except for the method used for the provision of corrective feedback. the three groups were administered the pretest at the beginning of the first educational semester (fall 2011) and during the first session of their course. before the test was administered, participants were provided with an explanation of the purpose of the study and assured that the results would have no influence on the course outcomes. in the second phase, the groups were taught the course for 24 sessions (12 weeks). however, only the two experimental groups received the treatment. the treatment for the first experimental group involved direct corrective feedback. every week in the first experimental group the students were given a topic to write as an assignment for the next session. their writings were then collected and the instructor provided each student with corrective feedback on grammatical points of his/her writing product in the next session. grammatical errors were underlined and suggestions for alternatives were provided as much as possible. in the second experimental group this procedure was supplemented with a teacher-student conference on the grammatical errors in which the class discussed and gave their academic writing and grammatical accuracy baleghizadeh & gordani no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) 167 ideas about the problems with the errors made by themselves or their peers and they suggested alternatives for erroneous items. the control group, however, received no feedback on the grammatical accuracy of their writings. their writings were returned to them with the teacher’s comment on the content. in the final phase, the posttests were administered to both experimental groups. the immediate posttest was administered right at the end of the semester and during the last session of the course (the 12th week). six week later when the class met again, the delayed posttest was administered about which there was no prior notice to the students. the collected data --the scores obtained from the pretest and the two posttest administrations-were statistically analyzed using the spss program. results the present study investigated the effectiveness of different feedback types on grammatical accuracy of the students’ academic writing. in this section, the results of the study will be presented. table 1 presents the results of an academic writing test to 45 students assigned to three groups. this test was administered to ascertain the homogeneity of the three groups. table 1. descriptive statistics for the first academic writing task academic writing and grammatical accuracy baleghizadeh & gordani no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) 168 table 2. one way anova to assess the homogeneity of the three groups table 2 presents the results of a one way anova which was run between the mean scores of the three groups. with an alpha level decided at .05 level of significance, there was not any significant difference observed between the three groups (f=.270) which along with the randomization showed that the three groups were homogeneous. in other words, the results of this test showed that there was no significant difference in the grammar accuracy of the students’ writing prior to the experiment. in order to examine the performance of the three groups in the immediate posttest of writing accuracy a one way analysis of anova was conducted. the results are presented in the table 3 below. table 3. one-way anova for the immediate posttest of writing accuracy immediate posttest as the table shows, the differences between the groups are significant (sig=.000). therefore the participants in the three groups differ in their performance in the immediate posttest. to specify exactly which two groups are different from each other, post hoc analysis was conducted through the scheffe test. this is presented in the table 4 below. academic writing and grammatical accuracy baleghizadeh & gordani no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) 169 table 4. multiple comparisons dependent variable: immediate posttest as the table shows, experimental group b (student-teacher conference group) is significantly different from the other two groups with regard to their performance on the immediate posttest. mean differences makes it clear that group b has a significantly better performance than the other two groups. however there is no significant difference in the performance of the experimental group a and the control group. to compare the performance of the three groups in the delayed posttest, a second anova was applied. the results from the application of this procedure tell us whether or not there are differences among the three groups in their performance on the delayed posttest. these are presented below in table 5. table 5. anova delayed posttest academic writing and grammatical accuracy baleghizadeh & gordani no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) 170 as the table shows, the differences between the groups are significant (sig=.000). therefore the participants in the three groups differ in their performance in the delayed posttest. to specify exactly which two groups are different from each other, post hoc analysis was conducted through the scheffe test. this is presented in the table 6 below. table 6. multiple comparisons dependent variable: delayed posttest the results show a significant difference among two of the paired groups with regard to their performance in the delayed posttest. a look at the mean differences from the table makes it clear that just like the immediate posttest, group b has performed significantly better than groups a and c on the delayed posttest. discussion and conclusion the objective of this study was to compare and contrast two types of corrective feedback namely the direct correction versus the studentteacher conference feedback. as discussed before, the student-teacher conference feedback group was found to be significantly better than the direct feedback group and the control group on both immediate and delayed posttests suggesting the immediate and lasting effectiveness of this type of feedback over the direct feedback or the provision of no feedback at all. this finding confirms the findings of rahimi, 2009, hartshorn (2008), chandler (2003) and fazio (2001) who found corrective feedback as a way of improving the structural accuracy of academic writing and grammatical accuracy baleghizadeh & gordani no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) 171 l2 student writing. however the present findings run counter to that of truscott (1999, 2007) who claimed that correction has a small negative effect on learners’ ability to write accurately and that we can be 95% confident that if it has any actual benefits, they are very small. these results are also inconsistent with findings of bitchener, young, and cameron (2005) who found a combination of written corrective feedback and conference feedback to improve accuracy levels in some structures, but found no overall effect on accuracy improvement. from a theoretical perspective, perhaps there is place to claim a strong bond between providing students with error feedback and students’ writing accuracy. in line with schmidt’s (1990, 1994) noticing hypothesis, only items which are noticed by the learners will be likely to be acquired. thus, error feedback will push the students towards noticing the linguistic problems they are struggling with and that sometime they take for granted. in other words, providing corrective feedback will prompt the students to try and modify their developing interlanguage system in line with the feedbacks provided. the important issue, however, is the most effective type of feedback possible. the effectiveness of student-teacher conference feedback type and the failure of direct feedback in this study may be attributed to previous research evidence suggesting that when it comes to written corrective feedback students often do not understand the meaning of much of the feedback on their papers and also do not know what they are expected to do with them (see ferris 1995 and hyland 1998). the oral student-teacher conferences held every session helped clarify the student errors and the errors made by their peers to them. by the third or fourth session the students had got used to most of the common errors discussed in the classroom and they had come to terms with the teacher’s assumptions of the structural errors they made. with regard to the direct feedback, however, this was not the case. students were left with corrected papers and in some cases they might not be able to make sense of the feedback provided. another explanation for the effectiveness of the provision of feedback in the form of conferences might be the nature of the course. students preparing themselves for doing academic writings in the future are well aware of the importance of structural accuracy of their writings. in fact, feedback on the structure of their writings is usually what they expect the teacher to provide. content, on the other hand, is what they are already familiar with and they have usually read extensively on areas of their interest to be able to satisfy the needs of their readers. this supposed agreement between students and teachers on the feedback issue adds to the possibility that students try to learn academic writing and grammatical accuracy baleghizadeh & gordani no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) 172 and make use of the provided feedback in their future writings (see lee, 2005; jeon & kang, 2005; for more on this issue). deciding on the type of the corrective feedback is an important pedagogical issue since it requires different amounts of time and teaching skill. direct provision of error feedback in the form of underlining and labeling errors by type may be less time-consuming for teachers than holding student-teacher conferences of discussion groups. it is certainly much easier to just underline or circle errors. hence the direct method may seem to be a more handy option for teachers. on the other hand, holding student-teacher conferences on errors will necessarily call for sufficient metalinguistic knowledge possessed by students as well as teachers. therefore the usage of this type of feedback may be suggested for the adult language learners and/or higher levels of language learning. future research may benefit from examining the effects of corrective feedback: (1) on new pieces of academic writing (2) on a wide range of linguistic error categories which was not considered in this study, (3) with students of different proficiency levels (4) in ways that involve different other feedback strategies and combinations of strategies. references 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(1991). holistic assessment: what goes on in the rater’s mind. assessing second language writing in academic contexts, 111125. xudong, d., cheng, l. k., varaprasad, c., & leng, l. m. reflections on english language teaching, 9 (2), 119-138. zamel, v. (1983). the composing processes of advanced esl students: six case studies. tesol quarterly, 17(2), 165-187. authors *sasan beleghizadeh has a ph.d in tefl from the university of tehran and an m.a. in tefl from allameh tabataba’i university. he is currently working as an assistant professor of tefl at shahid beheshti university, g.c. in iran, where he teaches courses in applied linguistics, syllabus design, and materials development. his published articles have appeared in journals like tesl reporter, elt journal, and the teacher trainer. e-mail: sasanbaleghizadeh@yahoo.com *yahya gordani is current ph.d. candidate of tefl at shahid beheshti university, g.c. in iran. he has vast experience in teaching english as a foreign language and has published in asian efl journal. academic writing and grammatical accuracy no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) no. 6 (nov. 2012) 35 an investigation of tensions between efl teachers’ beliefs and practices about teaching culture1 una investigación sobre las relaciones tensas entre las creencias y prácticas de los profesores de inglés como lengua extranjera sobre la enseñanza de la cultura sasan baleghizadeh and maryam saneie moghadam2* shahid beheshti university, g.c., iran abstract this study explores tensions between three iranian efl teachers’ beliefs and practices with respect to teaching culture. the teachers were observed and interviewed over a period of eight weeks. the observations provided insight into how they taught culture in practice, while the interviews tried to elicit their beliefs. drawing on the distinction between what they perceived as ideal and what they did in practice illustrated some differences between the two. it is argued that these tensions between beliefs and practices lead teachers with different beliefs to act similarly in practice. claims are also made about the probable roots of the tensions which have been grouped into two main categories of macro-scale decisions by educational system and micro-scale preferences of learners and teachers. finally, a number of implications for curriculum developers and teacher education programs are also made. key words: culture, intercultural awareness, personal practical knowledge, cognition resumen este estudio explora la relación tensa que se genera entre las creencias y prácticas de tres maestros iraníes de inglés como lengua extranjera respecto a la 1 received: september 21, 2012 / accepted: may 22, 2013 2 email: sasanbaleghizadeh@yahoo.com, saneie.maryam27@gmail.com gist education and learning research journal. issn 1692-5777. no. 7, november 2013. pp. 35-53 bilingual and esl pre-service teachers no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) 36 enseñanza de la cultura. los maestros fueron observados y entrevistados durante un periodo de 8 semanas. las observaciones permitieron conocer la percepción de los profesores sobre como ellos enseñan cultura en la práctica mientras las entrevistas permitieron obtener información sobre sus creencias. con base en la distinción entre los que ellos percibieron como ideal y lo que ellos hicieron en la práctica ilustró algunas diferencias entre los dos. lo anterior explica que las relaciones tensas entre las creencias y las prácticas conducen a los maestros con diferentes creencias a actuar de manera similar en la práctica. asimismo, las declaraciones sobre las posibles causas del conflicto han sido agrupadas en dos principales categorías: decisiones a macro escala por el sistema educativo y a pequeña escala las preferencias de los estudiantes y docentes. finalmente, también se realizan una serie de implicaciones para los especialistas en diseño curricular, programas de formación de docentes. palabras claves: cultura, conocimiento intercultural, conocimiento práctico personal, cognición resumo este estudo explora a relação tensa que se gera entre as crenças e práticas de três mestres iranianos de inglês como língua estrangeira com relação ao ensino da cultura. os mestres foram observados e entrevistados durante um período de oito semanas. as observações permitiram conhecer a percepção dos professores sobre como eles ensinam cultura na prática, enquanto as entrevistas permitiram obter informação sobre as suas crenças. com base na distinção entre os que eles perceberam como ideal e o que eles fizeram na prática ilustrou algumas diferenças entre os dois. o anterior explica que as relações tensas entre as crenças e as práticas conduzem os mestres com diferentes crenças a atuar de maneira similar na prática. da mesma forma, as declarações sobre as possíveis causas do conflito foram agrupadas em duas principais categorias: decisões a macro escala pelo sistema educativo e a pequena escala, as preferências dos estudantes e docentes. finalmente, também se realizam uma série de implicações para os especialistas em desenho curricular, programas de formação de docentes. palavras chave: cultura, conhecimento intercultural, conhecimento prático pessoal, cognição investigation of tensions baleghizadeh & moghadam no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) 37 introduction it seems that reporting on the strong integrative nature of language and culture announces no further news, as the notion of culture has been well established both in the fields of linguistics (bakhtin, 1981; byram; 1989; kramsch, 1995, 2000) and applied linguistics (chastain, 1988; corbett, 2003) during the past decades. within the efl context, apparently, teaching the target culture has been both a demanding and a controversial issue for years. recognizing the subtle cultural differences, preparing a rich context, and selecting appropriate methods and materials for instruction seem to be beyond the competence of most non-native teachers, in addition to the fact that not all efl teachers are standing by the side of second culture instruction. however, the growing concern for teaching culture as an embedded body of language never leaves even those who are against teaching the second culture within the context of language classroom. as kramsch (2000) observes, culture exists not only in the thoughts and beliefs but also in every word, phrase, and even nonverbal signals. the present paper is an attempt to examine what teachers think about teaching culture and what they do in practice. moreover, this study tries to list some of the reasons for which efl teachers may have to deviate from their beliefs. hopefully, the analysis of these tensions may be regarded as a complement to previous studies and set the ground for further research in the context of foreign language education. literature review teachers’ knowledge teaching could be variously defined as a science, a technology, a craft, or an art (freeman & richards, 1993). however, even for those who follow a tested model, the justifications for the actions come from their cognition, a concept that has become the focus of interest since1985 in the fields of teacher education and evaluation. borg (2003) defines teacher cognition as “what teachers know, believe, and think” (p.96), and argues that cognition is shaped by schooling and contextual factors, in addition to its mutual reciprocation with professional coursework and classroom practices. likewise, shulman (1987) believes that teachers’ practice is based on their repertoire of knowledge, namely content knowledge, general pedagogical knowledge, curriculum knowledge, pedagogical-content knowledge, knowledge of learners and their characteristics, knowledge of educational contexts, and knowledge of educational ends, purposes and values as well as their philosophical and educational backgrounds. investigation of tensions baleghizadeh & moghadam no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) 38 in addition to the concept of cognition, terms such as the practical knowledge (meijer et al., 1999) theoretical belief (johnson, 1992), and personal practical knowledge (golombek, 1998) have been introduced. among these, personal practical knowledge received considerable attention. the term has been defined as moral and aesthetic way of knowing life’s educational situations (golombek, 1998), which can be traced in teachers’ practices (clandinin & connelly, 1987). to be more specific on the nature of personal practical knowledge, clandinin (1985) argues: this knowledge is neither theoretical, in the sense of theories of learning, teaching, and curriculum, nor merely practical, in the sense of knowing children. a teacher’s special knowledge is composed of both kinds of knowledge, blended by the personal background and characteristics of the teacher and expressed by her in particular situations. (p.362) borrowing the concept of cognition from borg, in this study, we try to approach teachers’ cognition over the following dimensions of culture teaching: • why to teach culture? • whose culture to teach? • how to teach culture? why to teach second culture? the first serious question in foreign language classroom is why culture should be taught. to answer this question, first we have to clarify what we mean by culture. as culture has been interpreted differently in varieties of definitions, meeting different attitudes and approaches in the language classroom is not far from expectation. one of the most famous definitions of culture belongs to chastain (1988). chastain makes a distinction between two general definitions of culture. in his view, large c culture “focuses on the major products and contributions of a society in general or of outstanding individuals in that society” (p. 303), while small c culture focuses on the “functional knowledge of the second-culture system” (p.303) to satisfy the goal of intercultural understanding. taking the small c culture into account, we will realize that many aspects of second language such as semantics (wierzbicka, 1992), pragmatics (jung, 2003), and discourse structure (moder, 2004) are basically culture bound. thus, teaching language within a cultural context is a must. as wendt (2003) rightly observes, it is the cultural context that imposes a thorough understanding of the cultural norms, and the belief in literal meaning can lead to a superficial and even investigation of tensions baleghizadeh & moghadam no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) 39 misleading understanding, where the cultural context of the country and individuals are ignored. however, it seems that during the history of language teaching, the status of cultural context in foreign language classroom remained unnoticed until the advent of communicative language teaching, which introduced communicative competence as the ultimate goal of language learning and instruction. as a component of communicative competence, intercultural competence is described by byram (1997) as: 1. “knowledge of social groups and their products and practices in one’s own and in one’s interlocutor’s country, and of the general processes of societal and individual interaction.” 2. savoir-comprendre (understanding): ‘‘the ability to interpret a document or event from another culture, to explain it and to relate it to documents or events.’’ 3. savoir-apprendre/faire: (learn/do) ‘‘the skill of discovery and interaction ability to acquire knowledge of a culture and cultural practices and the ability to operate knowledge, attitudes and skills under the constraints of real-life communication and interaction.’’ 4. savoir-engager (involvement): ‘‘critical cultural awareness/ political education. an ability to evaluate, critically and on the basis of explicit criteria, perspectives, practices and products in one’s own and other cultures and countries.’’ 5. savoir-être (being): involves “curiosity and openness, readiness to suspend disbelief about other cultures” (pp. 57–61). apart from intercultural competence, simpson (1997) attributes the value of culture teaching to learners’ cognitive development and growth in motivation, and ivers (2007) mostly emphasizes the impact of culture instruction on critical development as he argues: one would think that the cultural exposure received in foreign language courses might serve in some way to foment critical thinking and personal transformation. it could serve to assist students in recognizing their own flawed cultural bearings by grappling with interesting ideas, challenging assumptions, and critically evaluating new paradigms. (p. 153) whose culture to teach? if native and target societies are mono cultural, it is relatively easy to answer the question; however, the fact is that not all societies are mono cultural, so the dilemma is whether to include minority life and investigation of tensions baleghizadeh & moghadam no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) 40 beliefs, for instance, by talking in english about immigrants in canada. it is always difficult to make choices because choices inevitably show political preferences. mainly during the past two decades, by development of the role of english as a lingua franca, the necessity of teaching target culture was under question. many arguing voices asked for teaching english as an international language. among them, nault (2006) argues: first, english teaching professionals should discard the notion that the us and great britain represent the sole ‘target cultures’ of the english language. second, they should rethink the goals of culture and language education to better meet their students’ diverse needs. and third, elt professionals should do more to design and/or select teaching materials that are international and inclusive in scope. (p.314) however whatever is our belief about whose culture to teach, byram (1999) warns us against the often-ignored fact that learners have already developed their world views, so foreign concepts and values cannot be acquired as if the learners are a “tabula rasa.” thus, unplanned pursuing of the target culture in foreign education context may not sound acceptable as observed by alptekin (1993): a learner of english who has never resided in the target-language culture will most likely experience problems in processing english systemic data if these are presented through such unfamiliar contexts as, say, halloween or english pubs. even if these are explained………as one’s natural tendency is to assess a novel stimulus with respect to one’s own cultural system. (p. 137) how to teach culture? as mentioned previously, language and culture are intertwined, so when the instruction of second language starts, the incidental instruction of culture also begins. but the next question is whether this incidental instruction is sufficient. byram’s (1989) answer to this question is that if the aim is to develop learners’ intercultural competence; they should be exposed to at least four types of planned practices. figure 1 introduces these practices as equally valuable. investigation of tensions baleghizadeh & moghadam no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) 41 figure1. a model of foreign language education (byram, 1989) according to byram (1989), language learning can be provoked by the communicative approach, which provides students with immediate experience of the language both in those activities which emphasize rehearsal and practice of skills and in those which evoke dramatizing language use in role play and simulation. language awareness includes the analysis of sociological and structural aspects of language that can be practiced in l1 with a comparative focus on language formulae, for instance those needed to greet and take leave. the language awareness component would draw conscious attention to the similarities with and differences from the learners’ first language, perhaps focusing on different degrees of formality and the appropriate linguistic formulae. cultural awareness is concerned with nonlinguistic dimensions of culture and more focused on the question of change from mono-cultural to intercultural competence. this type of practice, which includes both source and target culture viewpoints, aims at making learners ethnographers and informants by allowing them to gain a perspective through linguistic comparisons. the practices of this kind should cause learners to reflect and explicate their own key cultural concepts. cultural experience is an integral part of culture teaching which is simultaneous with the other components. it includes verbal and investigation of tensions baleghizadeh & moghadam no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) 42 nonverbal practices which zoom in on both the skills of fluency and accuracy. research design the aim of this study is to explore the probable tensions between teachers’ beliefs and practices about teaching culture by specifically focusing on three important questions: why to teach culture, whose culture to teach, and how to teach culture in language classroom. the data for this research come from the close study of three teachers in the efl setting of iran. the data were collected during the spring semester of 2011 and consist of nine 60-minute voice-recorded classes (three classes for each teacher), in addition to preand postsemi structured interviews with the teachers. participants three nonnative experienced efl teachers volunteered to help the researchers. they were all observed while teaching english to adult learners. in this study, the learners in all three classes were at a preintermediate level of english language proficiency. table 1 displays some basic information about the participants. it should be noted that all the names are pseudonyms. table 1. basic information about the participants omid babak javid english learning experience lived in north america for 12 years lived in england for 5 years never lived in an english-speaking country teaching experience 12 years 23 years 7 years main textbooks american cutting edge, tactics for listening american cutting edge interchange investigation of tensions baleghizadeh & moghadam no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) 43 data collection instruments data were collected by the second researcher within the period of eight weeks through semi-structured interviews and classroom observations. the teachers were asked for permission to voice-record and analyze their instruction. the present paper was conceived within an “exploratory interpretive paradigm” (grotjahn, 1987). according to borg’s (1998) perception of the framework, the goal is to understand the inner perspectives on the meanings of the actions of those under study, which is definitely not linear but cyclical in design. therefore, in practice this cyclical sequential procedure consists of data collection and analysis throughout the period of fieldwork, with each successive stage of data gathering being influenced by the analysis of the data already collected. similar to what borg (1998) did for grammar instruction, the stages of analysis in this study included the following. first, there were pre-observation interviews with the teachers to (a) provide them with an overview of the study and (b) to keep a record of their general attitudes towards the concept of culture in the language classroom. the interviews lasted for about 15 to 25 minutes, and were subsequently recorded and transcribed. next, there were three hours of classroom observation (dedicating one hour to each teacher), accompanied by field notes, and audio recordings. these were used to develop the main questions of the study by keeping an eye on teachers’ contextualization of language instruction, their curriculum expectations, teaching objectives, and what they stated in the first interview (the second researcher acted as a nonparticipant observer during all the observations). finally, the questions extracted from the first observed sessions were asked by conducting a semi-structured interview. the following questions formulated the basis of the interview: 1. what is the meaning of culture? 2. is there a need to teach culture? 3. whose culture is better to teach in language classroom? 4. how culture can be taught? these three interviews were audio-recorded. the next stage was observation of six more hours for gaining a detailed account of classroom practices. data analysis and interpretation after the classroom observations and interviews were conducted and recorded, the collected data were transcribed and key instructional investigation of tensions baleghizadeh & moghadam no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) 44 episodes which were in contrast with the prior statements were marked. the contrastive highlighted memos provided the framework for the final interviews and the teachers were given the ground to justify their actions. results the analysis of teachers’ beliefs and practices in teaching culture indicated that generally there were a number of tensions between the teachers’ stated beliefs and their practices, mainly regarding why to teach culture, whose culture to teach, and how to teach culture. mostly, these tensions were consistent. in the following sections, we will consider the reasons for these tensions by drawing on data from all the three participants. why teach culture the first example of tension comes from omid’s belief, when he was talking about teaching culture in our first discussion. early in the study, he said ‘‘i do not teach culture. we should not advertise a foreign culture, [as] we have a better culture” (int1), but the observation of his classroom practice revealed a tension that he had not been previously aware of. in the observed sessions, he frequently asked the students to pay attention to sociocultural issues such as formality and informality of some expressions and structures. for example, when the students were supposed to read a text, he asked: t: what is the meaning of he is at rest? s2: he died? t: yes? yes. it’s the polite way of saying he died. … t: what is the meaning of hop in? hop in. s3: get in? t: yes, get in the car. it is an informal way of saying get in the car. (observation 1) ,,,t: when do we use shall we? s2: shall we? in question? t: shall is used in question indicating offer or suggestion. shall we go for a drink ? shall we go for a lunch after class? shall we is a polite expression for let’s go. (observation 2) investigation of tensions baleghizadeh & moghadam no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) 45 thus, it seemed that omid’s general belief about culture included only large c culture, but later in our discussion, the teacher realized that while he did not believe in the value for culture teaching in general, he did believe in its value in raising the learners’ awareness of semantic and pragmatic aspects of language which sometimes are undoubtedly at odds with the source culture. therefore, our discussion stimulated an awareness about why to teach culture; however, his felt need to teach the materials, closer to the needs of his students remained unsolved up to the end of the study. omid talked about his experience in the last interview. most of my students never want to leave the country; why should they know about american or british culture?.. i think the truth is not written in these books. for example, in american cutting edge, there is a reading section about touring in new york, the tour guide calls new york a safe place, and i tell my students it’s not true. new york is not a safe city at all. people do not have eye contact when they are walking in the streets. three or four taxi drivers are killed every week there. (in4) this was an explicit example that indicated how contextual factors such as pre-selected materials and teachers’ professional assumption shaped by their professional coursework can be at odds. whose culture to teach further evidence of tensions comes from javid’s use of the main textbook despite having doubts about its values for culture instruction. being already aware of this disparity in belief and practice, he said, “i believe learners should pick up a second identity; however, the textbook contains cultural topics with multicultural orientation.” (int 1) as javid mentioned in our discussion, the topics for classroom discussion in the observed sessions covered topics such as “the role of parents in children’s education” and “immigration”. moreover, the students were supposed to read about “samba in brazil”, “wedding parties in japan”, “color day festival in india”, and “women’s proposals to men in germany and india”. this was, he felt, “not appropriate to identify with native speakers,” but he believed “these are the topics that provide a good context for speaking.” (int 2) when asked about using supplementary materials to get closer to his professed belief. investigation of tensions baleghizadeh & moghadam no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) 46 sometimes i do bring the texts of my own. but, supplementary materials should be wisely selected. if not, teachers are accused of advertising a certain cultural norm, which is not true. i do not encourage anyone to follow an idea, but learners should be exposed to the views, maybe the ones they are ignorant about or in some cases hostile with….there is no tolerance on the side of the students; they do not want to be exposed to the realities of the target culture. (int2) therefore, our discussion indicated that the main reason behind the tension was another contextual factor. the learners’ low level of tolerance prevented javid from teaching american and british culture. how to teach culture the following examples highlight the role of both contextual and personal factors in creating tensions between teachers’ beliefs and the way they teach. early in the study, babak said, “i believe that learners should develop a critical perception about the second culture and ideally awareness about the world that they do not live in.” (int 1) with respect to how this awareness should be raised, he replied, “there should be discussions on the differences between cultures… culture-bound topics for discussions and exercises such as role play can stimulate cultural understanding.” (int 1) in the first lesson, one of the students gave a lecture about the origin of halloween and valentine’s day. while she was giving the lecture, the others except the teacher were noticeably distracted as it seems that the vocabulary used in the lecture was higher than the learners’ level of english language proficiency. after the lecture, babak corrected her grammatical errors. therefore, although the incidental choice of the learner brought about the chance for the learners to acquire new knowledge of a culture (skill of discovery and interaction), it was taken for granted. babak talked about this practice. lectures are the opportunities for speaking; they are not for cultural practice. the content of what is spoken about is not the matter of concern here…..the fact is that these students are really weak and do not spend much time on learning. how can i be concerned about their knowledge about the origin of halloween when they still do not know how to use subject-verb agreement correctly? (int 2) this was not a tension that could be resolved. further observation also revealed that babak’s concern about language learning incited him investigation of tensions baleghizadeh & moghadam no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) 47 to teach culture only incidentally. in another observation, when the class was working on a reading section about the “most famous figures in the world,” the focus was on the meaning of the expressions. for example, in the text about gorbachev and missionaries he asked: t: gorbachev resigned. what the meaning is of resigned? to resign means to leave your job. … t: that was the missionary. s3: what is the meaning of missionary? t: missionaries are sent by church to different parts of the world to help the poor. and when for the third time one of the learners could not pronounce apartheid, she said in l1 what is the meaning of the word, and babak started to explain it: s1: what’s the meaning of the word? i cannot pronounce it. t: a system in south africa that was against the equal rights of the people. (observation 3) in the post-lesson discussion, his explanation for not discussing the issues raised in the reading section such as the duty of missionaries was that “having this heavy syllabus, we always have to be worry about the deadlines….i prefer to use the available time to cover the predetermined objectives.” (int 3) by the pre-determined objectives, he mainly meant the enhancement of grammatical features of the language which were the main focus of both teaching and testing syllabi of the institute. although our discussions helped to raise his awareness of the tension between his beliefs and practices, it was not a tension that could be resolved. the findings of this study revealed that some tensions exist between teachers’ beliefs and practices. table 2 illustrates a summary of these tensions. investigation of tensions baleghizadeh & moghadam no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) 48 why to teach culture? how to teach culture? whose culture to teach? belief no reason discussions, and role plays target culture comment learners do not need to know about american and british culture to find a critical perspective unless a second identity is taken, proficiency will not be achieved practice direct learners’ attention to culture bound expressions no intentional cultural practice, incidental ones were taken for granted discussing culture familiar topics table 2. tensions in teachers’ cultural beliefs and practices comment second language forms and functions are inevitably culture bound lack of time to raise culturespecific issues learners’ low level of tolerance this study suggests that our participants have developed divergent views over whose culture to teach, and why and how to teach it. however, in practice, these teachers had convergent views toward teaching the same thing in the same way and most importantly for the same reason. buttjes (as cited in byram, 1989) identifies three basic positions toward culture instruction. the first, “pragmatic-communicative oriented” means teaching about the culture, which is intended to alleviate problems of communication in the language. the second approach is to give learners a critical understanding of the foreign people, of their own view of themselves and their values. this is called “ideological understanding oriented.” the third position encourages learners to go beyond mere acceptance of particular historical developments, and present social situations and analyze their own social environment with critical understanding. the label attached to this position is “political action oriented” (byram, 1989, p. 60). accordingly, in this study, our first discussion with teachers indicated that babak’s professed belief was closer to pragmaticcommunicative orientation. javid and babak had tendencies close to ideological understanding and political action orientations, respectively. however, in practice, all teachers were teaching culture just to raise awareness toward the socio-pragmatics aspect of the language. as byram (1987) claims, despite the fact that investigation of tensions baleghizadeh & moghadam no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) 49 “authentic material imported into the foreign language classroom, the experience is a restricted and limited version of using the language in the foreign culture and society, and the principal focus remains on the language and on learners’ fluency and accuracy in language use” (p.140). subsequently, when kramsch (1995) argues that “in practice, teachers teach language and culture or culture in language but not language as culture” (p. 83), she is fairly true. in addition, although omid and javid were quite unsatisfied with the cultural themes of the textbooks, both were acting within the predetermined framework. in practice, all the teachers were teaching the cultural content of the main textbooks included in the syllabus, irrespective of their beliefs about whose culture to teach. finally, as a result of their dissimulate answers to the first two questions, we would expect to see different strategies in their practices. in fact, all three teachers implemented the communicative approach, which included the use of authentic material and exercises such as role plays. this approach could have allowed all the three teachers, implicitly and incidentally, to provide a context to introduce language as social action. nevertheless, the main explicit cultural practices in byram’s (1989) model, namely cultural awareness with a comparative focus, and cultural experience with foreign culture focus were mostly absent from the observed classroom practices. the reasons for teachers’ divergence from their initial beliefs are summarized in figure 2. figure 2. the roots of tensions between the beliefs and practices in this study investigation of tensions baleghizadeh & moghadam no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) 50 as figure 2 shows, the sources of these tensions can be basically grouped into macro-scale decisions as well as individuals’ decisions and preferences. in the teachers’ syllabus, the objectives of each individual session were prescribed in advance, in addition to the fact that time was limited and teaching materials had already been selected. therefore, these contextual factors assigned classroom practices that were presumably at odds with the teachers’ stated beliefs. apart from these contextual factors, the teachers’ definition of culture, and learners’ low level of tolerance proved to be further sources of incongruity. the results of two european research projects (aleksandrowiczpedich et al., 2003; sercu et al., 2005) are close to the results of the present study. in the former, attitude surveys were conducted in ten european countries (cyprus, estonia, hungary, greece, holland, iceland, malta, poland, rumania), and in the latter, research both on attitudes and classroom practices was carried out in six european countries (belgium, bulgaria, greece, poland, spain and sweden), and also in mexico. the results showed a high level of uniformity among the answers. the teachers were generally positively inclined toward teaching culture though they did not usually have enough time. if they taught culture, they mostly took advantage of the existing target language teaching materials. conclusions the above insights must, of course, be interpreted with reference to the particular methodological and contextual features of this study. thus, they emerged from an analysis of the practices in teaching culture of three efl teachers, working with monolingual intermediate learners in a private language institute in iran. while these characteristics mean that the practices and beliefs highlighted here are particular to the context of study, we feel that the results may have implications for both the curriculum developers, and teacher education programs. curriculum developers may need to acknowledge the socio-cultural component of communicative competence and include the pragmatic facets of language as well as the grammatical features in the very initial phases of the planning. this study further suggests that teacher education programs may include culture as the fifth dimension of language. this inclusion may benefit future teaches by assisting them in finding a more explicit definition of culture, and training them to explore appropriate strategies aligned to the realities of the context. investigation of tensions baleghizadeh & moghadam no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) 51 references aleksandrowicz-pedich, l., draghicescu, j., issaiass, d., & sabec, n. 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(2005). foreign language teachers and intercultural competence: an international investigation. clevedon: the cromwell press. shulman, l. (1987). knowledge and teaching: foundation of the new reform. harvard educational review, 57(1), 1-23. simpson, c. (1997). culture and foreign language teaching. language learning journal, 15(1), 40-43. investigation of tensions baleghizadeh & moghadam no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) 53 wendt, m. (2003). context, culture and construction: research implications of theory formation in foreign language methodology. in m. byram & a. phipps (eds.), context and culture in second language teaching and learning. (pp. 82-92). clevedon: multilingual matters. wierzbicka, a. (1992). semantics, culture, and cognition: universal human concepts in culture-specific configuration. oxford: oxford university press. authors *sasan baleghizadeh is associate professor of tefl at shahid beheshti university (g.c.) in tehran, iran, where he teaches courses in applied linguistics, syllabus design, and materials development. he is interested in investigating the role of interaction in english language teaching and issues related to materials development. his published articles appear in many international journals including tesl reporter, tesl canada journal, elt journal, language learning journal, modern english teacher, and the teacher trainer. *maryam saneie moghadam holds an ma degree in tefl from shahid beheshti university (g.c.) in tehran, iran. she has vast experience in teaching english as a foreign language and is interested in investigating the role of culture in foreign language pedagogy. investigation of tensions baleghizadeh & moghadam no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) gistseptiembre2010final.indd 10 gist education and learning research journal. issn 1692-5777, pp. 10-29 vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) li with majhanovich marching on a long road: a review of the effectiveness of the mother-tongue education policy in post-colonial hong kong1 vickie w. k. li2* with suzanne e. majhanovich** the university of western ontario abstract this paper reports a study of the effectiveness of the mandatory mother-tongue education policy in post-colonial hong kong. special attention has been placed on students’ academic achievement before and after the policy implementation in 1998 in order to find out if students learn better through their mother tongue without sacrificing their knowledge of the english language. a content analysis has been conducted on the relevant policy documents, and students’ public examination results have been gathered to serve as a policy-effectiveness indicator. findings reveal that mother-tongue education is beneficial to students’ learning in some subjects, especially the language-intensive ones. however, students’ performance in english learning has been adversely affected by the policy. we end with suggestions in response to the recently announced finetuning arrangements of the mother-tongue education policy. keywords: colonization, english-medium education, medium of instruction (moi), mother-tongue education resumen este artículo analiza la obligatoriedad de la instrucción en lengua materna en el hong kong post colonial y evalúa su efectividad. el enfoque de este estudio se centra sobre todo en el éxito académico de los estudiantes antes y después de la implementación de la ley en 1998, por lo que analiza si los estudiantes aprenden mejor en sus lenguas maternas sin sacrificar su manejo del inglés. para llevar a cabo este estudio, se analizaron tanto el contenido de los documentos legales, así como los resultados de los exámenes públicos que sirvieron de indicadores para definir si la ley ha sido efectiva o no. los resultados muestran que la educación 1 received: january 30th, 2010 / accepted: july 30th, 2010. 2 correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to vickie wai kei li, faculty of education, the university of western ontario, john george althouse building, 1137 western road, london, ontario n6g 1g7, canada. e-mail: wli252@uwo.ca 11 vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) li with majhanovich en lengua nativa es benéfica en algunos temas, sobre todo los temas altamente relacionados con el idioma. sin embargo, los resultados muestran también que la ley afecta claramente el nivel de inglés de los estudiantes. para concluir, el artículo ofrece algunas recomendaciones en cuanto a las nuevas adecuaciones de la ley de instrucción en lengua materna. palabras claves: colonización, instrucción en lengua inglesa, medio de instrucción, educación en lengua nativa. the highly complex linguistic situation in hong kong has made it difficult for language policy makers and educators to decide on which medium of instruction (moi) to use in schools. according to the last bycensus3 conducted by the hong kong census and statistics department in 2006, 90.8% of the hong kong population speaks cantonese4 as their first language. however, the english language has occupied a prominent status in every aspect of hong kong people’s lives for 156 years, since the british government governed the territory. the english language penetrated the domains of hong kong’s “education, government administration, legislature and the judiciary” (poon, 2004, p. 54). english learning thus has a high market value in the territory. this may explain why the hong kong government received strong criticism when it implemented the mandatory mother-tongue education policy after the transfer of sovereignty over hong kong from the united kingdom to the people’s republic china in 1997. the public remains skeptical about the effectiveness of the policy and fears that students’ english proficiency will drop because of less exposure to the english language under mother-tongue education. does the policy have an adverse impact on students’ english learning? extensive research (e.g., cummins, 2000; cummins & swain, 1986) has been conducted on the relationship between one’s mothertongue (l1) and second language (l2) learning and research findings have shown the positive influence of the l1 on learning an l2. this paper reports a study on the impact of the mandatory mother-tongue education policy on hong kong students’ academic achievement, especially their english performance. the paper will first provide an overview of the moi policy in preand post-handover hong kong. 3 by-censuses are those taken between the decennial censuses. 4 cantonese is one chinese dialect spoken in guangzhou (china) and the nearby areas such as hong kong. the term chinese language in this paper will refer to cantonese in spoken form and standard modern chinese in written form. 12 vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) next, the methodology adopted in the study will be presented, followed by a discussion of the findings. the paper ends with recommendations regarding the future directions of hong kong’s moi arrangement. moi in hong kong choosing the moi for hong kong schools has never been an easy task for policy makers and educators. as poon (2004) stated, “medium of instruction has been the most thorny and tricky issue in hong kong education” (p. 55), and in tse, shum, ki, and chan’s (2007) words, “the most debated issue in hong kong education is the choice of language as medium of instruction” (p. 135). why this is so? hong kong’s colonial past may help give us some ideas. hong kong was ceded to the british empire in the 1842 treaty of nanjing soon after china’s defeat in the opium war. similar to other crown colonies, hong kong’s educational system is closely modeled on that of the united kingdom. boyle’s (1997) work provides a detailed description of hong kong’s education during the pre-handover period. during the early colonial period, the colonial government had minimal intervention in hong kong’s education system and adopted a laissezfaire approach to schools’ moi, allowing schools to choose their own language of instruction. though the colonial government did not intervene in schools’ moi decision directly, its intention to promote english learning was quite clear. for example, the introduction of english-medium instruction in primary schools (the majority of which were already cantonesemedium) and the english examination required for appointments to government clerical posts. as stated in evans (2006), the colonial government claimed that an english-medium education would both enrich chinese students’ intellectual and cultural lives, and form “a bond of union” (p. 296) between the locals and the english-speaking communities. the establishment of the university of hong kong, the first english-medium university, in 1911, had further instilled the supreme value of english in the public’s mind. the establishment of such a university naturally induced more parents to opt for englishmedium secondary education for their children. during the mid-1930s, the british government sent an inspector of schools, mr. edward burney, to hong kong to examine the territory’s education system. burney strongly criticized the colonial government and stressed the importance of re-orienting the policy emphasis “to secure for the pupils, first a command of their own language sufficient for all needs of thought and expression” and “a command of english limited to the satisfaction of vocational demands” (burney, 1935, p. 25). in view of this, the colonial government suggested cantonesemarching on a long road li with majhanovich 1� vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) marching on a long road li with majhanovich medium instruction up to students’ junior secondary levels (secondary 1 to 3). moreover, in accordance with this shift in thinking, a cantonesemedium university, the chinese university of hong kong, was established in 1963 to provide cantonese-medium school students with access to university education. unlike before, the colonial government formulated a clear moi policy during the 1990s, the last phase of colonial rule. the government announced its intention to issue “firm guidance on the moi to all secondary schools for adoption” (evans, 2000, p. 191). four months before the handover to the people’s republic of china in july 1997, the colonial government proposed that only 100 secondary schools would be granted permission to remain in the english stream and the remaining 360 schools should adopt cantonese as the moi. the colonial government took a firm stance that time, and two months immediately after the handover, the hong kong government introduced the first and the most controversial educational policy in the territory, the mandatory mother-tongue education policy. in september 1997, the hong kong government announced the mandatory mother-tongue education policy for secondary schools which stated that starting in the 1998/1999 academic year all secondary schools were compelled to adopt cantonese as the moi. in order to remain in the english stream, schools had to demonstrate to the government that they fulfilled the prescribed requirements concerning students’ ability, teacher capability, and schools’ support strategies under english education. in the end, only 114 schools could remain in the english stream. the remaining 346 schools had to switch to cantonese-medium instruction. according to the hong kong education bureau, “mothertongue teaching is generally the most effective learning tool for students” and through mother-tongue teaching, “students will be better able to understand what is taught, analyse problems, express views, develop an enquiring mind and cultivate critical thinking” (education bureau, 2007a). ever since the policy implementation, a number of studies had been carried out by official, academic, professional, and voluntary bodies respectively, and there is evidence that mother-tongue teaching has a positive impact on students’ overall academic achievement (cuhk, 2006; shum et al., 2005; tsui, 2004). although studies (cuhk, 2006; shum et al., 2005; tsui, 2004) had shown the educational benefits brought about by mother-tongue education, the public, especially parents, still reacted negatively to the policy, expressing concern about the low level of english proficiency that might have resulted from mother-tongue education. 1� vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) some studies (poon, 1999 & 2004; shum et al., 2005) look at the policy impact on students’ english learning and argue that mothertongue education would limit students’ exposure to the english language and thus affect their achievement in english. as stated in poon (2004), the mandatory mother-tongue education policy does not only “weaken students’ interests in english but also limits their exposure to the language” (p. 65). research questions twelve years have passed since the policy implementation. did the policy exert any positive impact on students’ academic achievement? to what extent is students’ english competence affected by the policy? these are the two questions which guided the present study. methodology relevant documents on the mother-tongue education policy were collected from the hong kong education bureau website. the policy objectives were identified and students’ results in the two public examinations, the hong kong certificate of education examination (hkcee) and the hong kong advanced level examination (hkale), were gathered from the hong kong examinations and assessment authority (2008a & 2008b) as a policy-effectiveness indicator. the hkcee is a public examination taken by students at the end of their 5-year secondary education (secondary 1 to 5). the admission to secondary 6 depends on students’ hkcee results. the hkale is taken by students at the end of their 2-year sixth-form (secondary 6 and 7) studies (see table 1). the hkale results determine whether students can get promoted to university. due to the time constraints of the present research, only 11 subjects were selected for analysis; these have been categorised by the researchers into three groups: a) language-intensive subjects (economics, geography, history, and biology); b) non-language-intensive subjects (additional mathematics in hkcee, applied mathematics in hkale, mathematics, chemistry, and physics); and c) language subjects (english and chinese). these 11 subjects were chosen by the researchers as they are the most common core subjects provided by secondary schools for their senior secondary levels (secondary 4 to 7). by taking these subjects (the choice depends on whether the student is in the arts or science stream), students are able to meet the minimum requirements of most university programmes. marching on a long road li with majhanovich 1� vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) marching on a long road li with majhanovich table 1 secondary education in hong kong we give particular attention to students’ results from 2003 to 2007 for the hkcee and to those from the years 2005 to 2007 for hkale. by doing so, a comparison can be carried out between hkcee and hkale results before and after the implementation of the mother-tongue education policy. while discussing the findings, we include opinions collected from other documents which include local newspapers and previous literature, hoping to present a comprehensive view of the policy to readers. findings and discussion students’ hkcee and hkale results are generally used by the public in hong kong to monitor the education standard in the territory. the results of these two examinations “provide an important reference for evaluating the effectiveness of mother-tongue teaching” (education commission, 2005, p. 10). figure 1. percentage of candidates obtaining different grades in all subjects in the hkcee. figure 1 shows that the percentage of students obtaining a passing grade (e or higher) in hkcee has been increasing steadily. though there is not a sharp increase in the percentage of students getting a grade c or higher, it is encouraging to see that the percentage is slowly rising. 1� vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) the proportion of students obtaining an a (also called “distinction,” the highest grade one can obtain on the two public examinations in hong kong) has been quite stable. it may be said that the sustained increase in the percentage of students obtaining a passing grade reflects the positive impact of the mother-tongue education policy. in order to judge whether the policy has really achieved its goal of enhancing students’ academic achievement, we shall now look closely at students’ performance in individual subjects. figure 2. percentage of candidates passing languageintensive subjects in the hkcee. figures 2 and 3 show that students do have better results in both language-intensive and non-language-intensive subjects when compared with the results 11 years previously. the positive impact of mother-tongue teaching seems to be more significant for languageintensive subjects. in figure 2, notable improvement is seen in the four language-intensive subjects. in general, students under englishmedium education would “encounter a language barrier in expressing what they have learnt in the more language-loaded subjects, the subject history in particular” (education bureau, 2000, p. i). as can be seen from figure 2, students’ performance in history has been improving over the years under mother-tongue education and the percentage has been maintained at around 78% of students passing the subject from 2003-2006. does the policy have the same impact on the non-languageintensive subjects? marching on a long road li with majhanovich 1� vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) marching on a long road li with majhanovich figure 3. percentage of candidates passing non-languageintensive subjects in the hkcee. figure 3 shows that the positive moi policy impact on these nonlanguage-intensive subjects appears to be less salient than that on the language-intensive ones. one possible reason may be that these subjects are less linguistically demanding and thus a change in the teaching medium may have a less significant impact on them. another possible reason may be the change of moi in students’ senior secondary forms. a considerable number of cmi (cantonese as the moi) students may switch to the emi (english as the moi) mode when they progress to secondary 4. as stated in the further evaluation on the implementation of the medium of instruction guidance for secondary schools final report 2002-2004 (hereafter referred to as the final report), such a switch to the english medium is “determined by two factors, namely, the nature of the subjects being studied and the academic ability of the students” and “it is evidenced by the findings that the percentages of cmi students switching to emi mode are in congruence with the degree of literate [linguistic] demand of the hkcee subject” (cuhk, 2006, p. ii). for the science-stream students, “the percentages of students switching to emi mode are in descending order from additional mathematics, mathematics, physics, chemistry, to biology” (cuhk, 2006, p. ii). as for students in the arts and commerce streams, “the respective percentages are in descending order from principles of accounts [accounting], mathematics, economics, geography to history” (cuhk, 2006, p. ii). the significant advantages brought by mother-tongue teaching in junior secondary forms (secondary 1 to 3) seem to have disappeared when students switch from cmi to emi mode in their secondary 4. this is especially evident in the science subjects: physics and chemistry. when compared to physics and chemistry, students’ performance in biology over the years seems to be better. as stated in the final report, 1� vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) the value-added advantages over emi students in science subjects in junior forms [secondary 1 to 3] remained up to form 5 for cmi students who had remained in cmi mode in senior forms, but was lost for cmi students who had switched to emi mode in senior forms as indicated by the hkcee results in biology. (p. iii-iv) the low percentage of cmi students switching to the emi mode in biology may help explain why the overall hkcee biology results appear to be better than those of physics and chemistry. judging from students’ hkcee results presented above, we can say that the mandatory moi policy seems to have achieved its intended goals for boosting students’ academic performance. however, it is too soon for us to draw such a conclusion as we still haven’t looked at the two language subjects. before looking at students’ hkcee language performance, there is a need to explain the reporting systems adopted by the hong kong examinations and assessment authority and the new chinese and english curriculum. from 2007 onwards, the hkcee chinese and english language results began to be reported under a new system: the standard-referenced reporting system. students’ language performance is indicated using different levels, from level 1 to level 5 (1 being the lowest and 5 the highest), instead of the previous grading system (a-f). in addition, the very top-performing level 5 students will be awarded a 5* (which is one level higher than a 5). moreover, from 2007 onwards, students have been required to sit five papers (whereas only two were required of them in the previous years) in the chinese language examination. in these exams, instead of answering questions on a set of prescribed texts, students have to “read widely from an extensive range of texts and answer questions that assess their competence in reading, comprehension, analysis and appreciation” (education bureau, 2007b). as for the english language, the two english language syllabi, a and b have been “brought together with a single set of common standards” (education bureau, 2007b) under the new english curriculum. marching on a long road li with majhanovich 1� vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) marching on a long road li with majhanovich table 2 assessments for the two hkcee language subjects: chinese and english based on the written descriptors of each level (1 to 5) and the distribution of students obtaining different levels5 in 2007 hkcee english and chinese performance, we can make an assumption that level 5* is equivalent to grade a (in the previous grading system) while level 1 is equal to an f (fail, see table 2). for ease of comparison, students’ results in the two language subjects in 2007 have been converted to their corresponding grade levels and included in figure 4. figure 4. percentage of candidates passing chinese and english language in the hkcee. figure 4 shows that the chinese language passing rate has been increasing steadily from 2002 to 2004. such improvement can be attributed to the increase in exposure to the chinese language under 5 i use the term “levels” here instead of “grades” as i am referring to the 2007 results (in which students’ performance is assessed under the new “level” system). 20 vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) mother-tongue education. the most significant improvement was achieved in the later years (2004-2007) as the positive policy impact on students’ chinese achievement may have needed a longer time to take effect. the impact of mother-tongue teaching on students’ chinese achievement is promising. how did the policy affect students’ hkcee english performance? before 2007, the hkcee english language had two syllabi: a and b. syllabus a was easier than the mainstream syllabus b. in general, emi students opt for syllabus b while for most cmi students, their choice of whether to take the harder syllabus b is determined by their academic ability. regarding the assessment of the two syllabi, results in syllabus a are recognized by the hong kong examinations and assessment authority as equivalent to results in syllabus b in accordance with the following table: table 3 equivalence between syllabus a and b grading systems in order to get a general overview of students’ overall english achievement, the passing rates of syllabi a and b are added together and shown in the dashed line (− −♦− −) in figure 4. the english passing rate of the first post-moi policy cohort of students increases just slightly, by 0.07% (from 55.75% in 2002, to 55.85% in 2003). it started to increase dramatically from 2003 to 2006, and hit its highest in 2006 at 68.8%, when the educational benefits of the moi policy began to take effect. the slight decline to 67.5% in 2007 can be explained by the abolishment of the two separate english syllabi, a and b, that year. before 2007, the english syllabi a and b coexisted. students taking syllabus a generally have lower english achievement. starting from 2007 onwards, there was only one hkcee english syllabus. while sitting the same english examination with their syllabus b counterparts, one might expect that the lower english-achievers may drag down the overall performance in the hkcee for the english language. some opponents of the mother-tongue policy criticized the positive policy impact on students’ english performance and stated that more students might have opted for the easier syllabus a, thus, resulting in the improvement over the years. in view of this, another line (marching on a long road li with majhanovich 21 vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) marching on a long road li with majhanovich ▲-) has been plotted on the same graph. for ease of discussion, the number of students who obtained a c or above in syllabus a has been included with those receiving an e or above in syllabus b (based on the conversion in table 3). by doing so, we can see whether the english passing rate has increased or decreased over the years. judging from the dotted line (-▲-), the impact of mother-tongue teaching seems to be very encouraging for students’ english learning. the passing rate has been rising since 2002. to give a more complete picture of students’ english achievement, we also include in figure 4 the 2007 hkcee english results. a level 2 in the 2007 hkcee english language is considered as if it were an e in the previous grading system (see table 2). if we just focus on the dotted line (-▲-), it can be seen that the english passing rate hit its highest level in 2007. such a tremendous increase may be explained by the fact that with the combination of the two syllabi in 2007, the performance of the higher achievers has pulled up the overall english passing rate. looking at students’ hkcee performance, it appears that students perform better under mother-tongue teaching without sacrificing their knowledge of the english language. however, is this positive policy impact a long-lasting or a transitory one? we shall now turn to students’ hkale results. figure 5. percentage of candidates passing language-intensive subjects in the hkale. the hkale passing rates in geography and history have been increasing over the years. the most significant increase can be found in history. the percentage of students obtaining an e or above in history has increased from 77.1% in 1996, to 86.2% in 2007. the passing rates in economics have also been slowly rising. different from students’ biology performance in the hkcee, the hkale biology passing rate 22 vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) has been declining and dropped to its lowest in 2006, at 69.2%. such a decline may be due to the fact that some cmi students may have chosen to further their senior secondary studies (secondary 6-7) in an emi school. students who obtain good grades in hkcee can choose to remain in the same secondary school or pursue their senior secondary studies at another school. usually, they choose to go to emi schools, which, at least in the public eye, are known to only accept the most academically outstanding students, and help to better prepare students for their university education, which is predominantly english-medium. the drop in hkale biology passing rates may be attributed to cmi students’ sudden change to the english stream. they have only 2 years to acquire a large volume of vocabulary and subject-specific language structures in english to be able to sit their hkale. another possible reason for students’ lower achievement in hkale biology may be its higher-level thinking and the mastery of the language of science which the hkale biology syllabus demands. learning science in english has posed difficulties for students in the english stream. yip, tsang, and cheung (2003) compared “the science achievement of chinese students learning science through a second language, english, with that of students receiving instruction in their mother tongue, chinese” (p. 295). the study found that “the englishmedium students, despite their higher initial ability, were found to perform much more poorly than their chinese-medium peers” (p. 295). figure 6. percentage of candidates passing non-languageintensive subjects in the hkale. figure 6 shows the passing rates in four non-language-intensive subjects in the hkale. these subjects are less linguistically demanding. students better performance in the two mathematics marching on a long road li with majhanovich 2� vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) marching on a long road li with majhanovich courses may be due to the fact that these two courses involve the use of symbolic terminology that may not be too dependent on the moi. the passing rates in chemistry have been decreasing since 2005 (the first post-moi policy cohort of students taking the hkale) and the passing rate in physics hit its lowest in 2007 at 73.1%. such a decline may be attributed to two possible reasons. first, as mentioned earlier, some cmi students may choose to pursue their senior secondary education in emi schools, which creates a language barrier in learning science subjects. second, some cmi schools may switch to the emi teaching mode at senior forms (secondary 4 to 7) and thus, their students will have to sit the physics and chemistry examinations in english, a change for which these students have not been adequately prepared. as can be seen in figure 3, the advantages brought by mothertongue education seem to have lingered throughout students’ secondary 4 and 5 studies, and thus the hkcee passing rates in physics and chemistry are slowly rising. however, when students got promoted to higher forms (secondary 6 and 7), the positive impact starts to diminish. in the hkale examinations, students are required to have a deeper understanding of the subject matter, and better communication skills. a change in the moi from one’s native language to a second language may become a hurdle in students’ understanding of the content subject. this group of students (who changed to the english mode) may master the general concept in the two subjects (physics and chemistry), but they may have difficulties in constructing and presenting the more abstract and complex ideas of science in english, as their performance will be frustrated by their limited english proficiency. how about students’ performance in the hkale language subjects? figure 7. percentage of candidates passing language subjects in the hkale. 2� vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) figure 7 shows students’ performance in the hkale chinese and english language. for the chinese language, students’ performance has been improving over the years. students commencing their secondary 1 in 1998 sat their hkale in 2005. the percentage of students obtaining an e or above has been increasing since then, and it had its highest outcome at 94.2%, in 2006. with the increase in exposure to the chinese language in other content-based subjects, students’ performance in chinese language has been progressing steadily. students’ english achievement has been completely different from their chinese language achievement. as stated in the standard and the south china morning post (scmp), two local newspapers, the hkale english passing rate has hit its lowest in 12 years. “the drop continues a decline that began in 2005, when students who entered secondary school in 1998–when mother-tongue education was introduced” and 2007’s passing rate “was 4.3 percentage points below that of 1996” (scmp, 2007). as mentioned before, there were two english syllabi, a and b, before 2007. for students taking hkale in 2005, 2006, and 2007, they either sat the syllabus a (the easier course) or the syllabus b (the harder one) paper in their hkcee english examination. for students who sat the syllabus a paper and who were able to further their studies at the senior secondary forms (secondary 6 and 7), they had to sit the same hkale english paper together with those taking the hkcee syllabus b paper. the syllabus a batch was under immense pressure as they had to catch up with their syllabus b counterparts over a short period of time (just 2 years). the performance of the syllabus a batch may have affected the overall hkale english results. as mentioned earlier, some cmi students may choose to pursue their secondary 6 and 7 in emi schools. the switch to emi schools may affect their english learning as when they go into those emi schools, they will have to learn other content-based subjects in english. in other words, they need to struggle with the english language in content subjects, and this may lessen their interests in learning the english language itself. this may explain the decline in students’ passing rates in the hkale english examination. the positive impact on students’ english proficiency under mother-tongue education seems to have disappeared after students were promoted to senior secondary levels. from the findings presented above, it can be observed that the advantages of mother-tongue teaching make a more significant impact on students’ hkcee results. when students got promoted to secondary 6 and 7, the educational benefits only remain in language-intensive subjects (except biology) and the chinese language. as for students’ english performance, the positive policy impact has diminished at higher secondary levels. marching on a long road li with majhanovich 2� vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) marching on a long road li with majhanovich future directions of the moi arrangement the hong kong government has been taking a strong stance on promoting mother-tongue education since the policy implementation; however, it appears to have shifted its policy direction. on march 16, 2008, the symposium on medium of instruction was jointly organized by the chartered institute of linguistics—hong kong society—and the savantas policy institute. at the symposium, the education bureau questioned publicly for the first time whether the english standard of hong kong students is satisfactory under the mother-tongue education policy. michael m. y. suen, the secretary for education, expressed that “it is undeniable that we are still quite some way” from the target of enabling students to become proficient in both chinese and english. he also said that “there is still plenty of room for improvement and we still need to think of more creative solutions” so as to enhance students’ language proficiency. it was made even more evident that the government had softened its stance when suen stated: we think we can allow schools, under certain conditions and according to the ability of their students, to have some flexibility in the medium of instruction to maximize students’ chances of exposure to english and to raise their motivation and interest in learning english, in order to fulfill our goal of enabling students to attain proficiency in chinese and english. (suen, 2008) it seems that the government has admitted the adverse policy impact on students’ english learning and that it is not willing to continue to sacrifice students’ english for better results in other subjects. three months after the symposium, the government announced the finetuning arrangements of the current moi policy. the fine-tuning allows secondary schools to choose to supplement mother-tongue teaching with the use of english as the teaching medium across subjects. the use of english is allowed to be up to 25% of the total lesson time, excluding the lesson time designated for the english language. such an arrangement has once again sparked a heated debate in the public sphere. after several consultations with stakeholders, on may 26, 2009, it was proposed in the hong kong legislative council, that the finetuned arrangements will come into effect in september 2010, starting from the s1 (secondary one) level, and progressing each year to a higher level of the junior secondary forms. apparently, the government has softened its stance over time and has accepted the fact that mother-tongue teaching would lessen students’ exposure to the english language. will the new arrangements achieve their intended objectives to enhance students’ english achievement? it is still too soon for us to judge. under the fine-tuned arrangements, 2� vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) schools’ moi decisions hinge upon students’ ability in learning through english. however, can we assess a student’s capability in learning through english solely by his or her english performance? does high english proficiency imply a greater capability in learning other subjects through english? conclusion though the hong kong government has stressed that the finetuning arrangements are different from the laissez-faire approach adopted by the colonial government, it is apparent that the government wants to make the schools shoulder the responsibility for streaming the students into different moi modes. michael tien, the previous chairman of the standing committee on language education and research, expressed in one local hong kong newspaper (ming pao daily) that the government actually made a “u-turn” on its moi policy and it has turned the clock back 12 years to when the colonial government adopted a laissezfaire approach towards schools’ moi. mode of instruction by class,6 according to tien, will not enhance students’ english proficiency. the fine-tuning will come into effect in september 2010, and yet the public remains skeptical about whether the fine-tuned arrangements will be able to enhance students’ english learning. we believe that students’ abilities and needs should be the primary concern when schools decide on the appropriate moi. as we can see from students’ hkcee and hkale results over the years, hong kong students seem to have started reaping the rewards of the mother-tongue education policy. in view of this, it is our position that the government should uphold mother-tongue teaching and provide schools with supporting strategies to enhance students’ english learning. the fine-tuned arrangements will completely take away the positive learning outcome under mother-tongue teaching. for junior secondary students, they should continue to learn through their mother-tongue. as for senior secondary levels, schools should be given the flexibility to switch to the english medium if they fulfill the government’s prescribed criteria regarding student ability, teacher capability, and support strategies under english education. shifting the responsibilities of moi decision to schools will just lead schools, teachers, parents, and students into more confusion. unless clear guidelines are given to schools or a monitoring mechanism is devised to ensure that schools make the right decision on their moi, the fine-tuning will just cause more problems than it solves. 6 that is, when a different language of instruction (either chinese or english) is being used across classes in the same grade level. marching on a long road li with majhanovich 2� vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) marching on a long road li with majhanovich references boyle, j. 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(2006). language policy in british colonial education: evidence from nineteenth century hong kong. journal of educational administration and history, 38(3), 293-312. hong kong examinations and assessment authority (2008a). hkale statistics of entries and results over the years. retrieved from http://www.hkeaa.edu. hk/doclibrary/hkale/release_of_results/exam_report/examination_ statistics/alexamstat07_7.pdf hong kong examinations and assessment authority (2008b). hkcee statistics of entries and results over the years. retrieved from http://www.hkeaa.edu. 2� vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) hk/doclibrary/hkale/release_of_results/exam_report/examination_ statistics/ceexamstat07_7.pdf ming pao daily. 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(2005). the current situation and prospect of medium of instruction: three thousand voices from teaching staff. research paper on survey. retrieved from http://www.cmi.hku.hk/ref/survey/cmi/ moirpt2005_eng.pdf suen, m. (2008). speech at the symposium on medium of instruction by the secretary for education. retrieved from http://www.edb.gov.hk/index.aspx ?nodeid=133&langno=1&uid=102909 tse, s. k., shum, m., ki, w. w., & chan, y. m. (2007). the medium dilemma for hong kong secondary schools. language policy, 6, 135-162. tsui, a. b. m. (2004). medium of instruction in hong kong: one country, two systems, whose languages? in j. w. tollefson & a. b. m. tsui (eds.), medium of instruction policies. which agenda? whose agenda? (pp. 97116). mahwah, nj: l. erlbaum. yip, d. y., tsang, w. k., & cheung, s. p. (2003). evaluation of the effects of medium of instruction on the science learning of hong kong secondary students: performance on the science achievement test. bilingual research journal, 27, 295-331. marching on a long road li with majhanovich 2� vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) the authors *vickie wai kei, li (m.phil., m.ed) had been a college lecturer in english in hong kong for four years. she is currently pursuing phd studies in education at the university of western ontario. her research interests include language education policy and practice in post-colonial contexts, mother-tongue education, as well as second language teaching and learning. **suzanne e. majhanovich, ph.d., is a professor of languages in the faculty of education, the university of western ontario. her research interests include comparative and international education, language acquisition, and second language teaching and learning. she is the co-editor of comparative and global pedagogies: equity, access and democracy in education (2008) and living together: education and intercultural dialogue (2009). she currently chairs the standing committee for publications of the world council of comparative education societies (wcces) and is the editor of the journal canadian and international education. marching on a long road li with majhanovich 6 using the abridged version of some novels as a way to encourage students’ written and oral production1 uso de versiones reducidas de algunas novelas como medio para fomentar la producción escrita y oral en estudiantes gladis leonor arias rodríguez and eliana edith roberto flórez2* universidad santo tomás seccional tunja, colombia abstract this article analyzes the effect of working with the abridged version of some novels in order to promote students’ communication in english. two fourth semester english courses, from a private university, were randomly chosen to develop the different activities during one semester. the data was collected through students’ written papers, the researchers’ journal and a questionnaire. the findings show that students’ constant work with this kind of literature, as well as the teachers’ feedback, were factors that motivated their language use improvement; thus, they learned new expressions, did written and oral training, and acquired knowledge thanks to the contact with other cultures through literature. key words: action research, abridged novels, listening exercise, written and oral practice resumen este artículo analiza los efectos de trabajar con la versión corta de algunas novelas con el fin de promover las habilidades escritas y orales de los estudiantes. dos cursos de inglés de cuarto semestre, de la universidad santo tomás 1 received: july 27th 2017/accepted: april 19th 2018 2 gladis.arias01@usantoto.edu.co; eliana.roberto@usantoto.edu.co arias & robertogist education and learning research journal. issn 1692-5777. no.16 (january june) 2018. pp. 6-32. no. 16 (january june, 2018) no. 16 (january june, 2018) 7 tunja (usta tunja), fueron escogidos al azar para desarrollar las diferentes actividades durante un semestre. los datos fueron recolectados a través de las composiciones escritas de los estudiantes, el diario de las investigadoras y una encuesta. los resultados muestran que el trabajo constante de los estudiantes con este tipo de literatura, así como la retroalimentación de las profesoras, motivó el mejoramiento del uso de la lengua; de esta manera, ellos aprendieron nuevas expresiones, hicieron ejercicios orales y escritos, y adquirieron conocimiento gracias al contacto con otras culturas a través de la literatura. palabras clave: investigación-acción, novelas abreviadas, ejercicio de escucha, producción escrita y oral. resumo este artigo analisa os efeitos de trabalhar com a versão curta de algumas novelas com o fim de promover as habilidades escritas e orais dos estudantes. dois cursos de inglês de quarto semestre, da universidade particular em tunja, foram escolhidos por acaso para desenvolver as diferentes atividades durante um semestre. os dados foram coletados através das composições escritas dos estudantes, o diário das pesquisadoras e uma enquete. os resultados mostram que o trabalho constante dos estudantes com este tipo de literatura, bem como a retroalimentação das professoras, motivou o aprimoramento do uso da língua; desta maneira, eles aprenderam novas expressões, fizeram exercícios orais e escritos, e adquiriram conhecimento graças ao contato com outras culturas através da literatura. palavras chave: pesquisa-ação, novelas abreviadas, exercício de escuta, produção escrita e oral. arias & roberto no. 16 (january june, 2018) no. 16 (january june, 2018) 8 introduction this article aims to share the results of some research procedures under the collaborative action research as a way to describe the effects of working with the abridged version of some novels with listening support to encourage students’ written and oral production in fourth semester at a private university in tunja, colombia. it was developed during the second semester 2016. there are many activities teachers develop in the classrooms, but they are not always enough to motivate students’ language acquisition. thus, during this study, it was necessary to change the traditional class material (the textbook) and the syllabus in order to develop a pedagogical intervention based on the abridged version of some novels. it permitted teachers to use different activities, materials and strategies which had a great impact on students because learning became an amazing task for them. this study was conducted based on a pedagogical intervention in which teachers and students interacted in order to generate some changes in the dynamics of the class; thus, students could be exposed to the language use through listening, writing and speaking, activities that permitted students to practice language and improve their capacity for communicating their ideas with fluency and accuracy. statement of the problem the interest behind developing this research was born when the researchers verified that despite their constant work guiding students in the acquisition of the english language with the use of textbooks, they presented deficiencies when communicating ideas in different contexts. for example, after reading short texts in the class, the teachers asked students to speak about their understanding of things like general ideas or specific details of the text, but only few students used to answer; before starting a new topic, the teachers usually do some brainstorming or ask a few questions about the pictures, titles or subtitles of the book; again, only few students used to participate. it made the researchers think that the students’ english lack of enough language tools to participate and express their ideas. in order to verify these perceptions, the researchers developed a diagnostic procedure based on the abridged version of the novel; accordingly, students listened to the first chapter of the abridged version of the novel: “the phantom of the opera”, after that, students had to abridged novels in written and oral production arias & roberto no. 16 (january june, 2018) no. 16 (january june, 2018) 9 write a paragraph with their own words about the main idea and share it with the class orally; this is one the samples: cristina the girl sing the opera. a monster in the dark. girl beautiful sing. raul is the friend. he is a friend child but cristina not recognize raul. a monster, a man strange in the corridor. the girls see the ghost. the girls afraid. (students’ written composition) analysis of the previous excerpt: the student wrote a very short composition, it evidences his poor understanding and lack of vocabulary to express his ideas, it contains some mistakes in coherence and syntax; additionally, in the speaking activity, which was done after the paper composition, only two students participated, their interventions were very short and not clear enough to understand their message, some of them said they did not know how to express their understanding of the novel and just stayed silent. considering this diagnostic exercise which evidenced students’ problems to communicate, the following main research question was proposed: what are the effects of working with the abridged version of some novels with listening support in order to encourage students’ written and oral production in fourth semester at a private university in tunja? theoretical framework teaching english through the abridged version of novels the implementation of novels for teaching have been regularly used for teaching english due to the benefits they present, hişmanoğlu (2005) said, “the use of a novel is a beneficial technique for mastering not only linguistic system but also life in relation to the target language”. (p. 63); nevertheless, due to their length, it is not easy to read this kind of material in class. the use of abridged versions of novels is an option teachers have to motivate the acquisition of the target language because they can be adjusted to the conditions of the class, for example the students’ likes or their english level. these kinds of novels are totally accessible in the teaching context due to the characteristics they have: there is a great variety of topics (adventure, love, comedy, fiction, among others); beach, appleman, hynds & wildhelm (2006) state that it is important to select topics students have some familiarity or interest with, or that may engage abridged novels in written and oral production arias & roberto no. 16 (january june, 2018) no. 16 (january june, 2018) 10 them. additionally, the abridged versions of novels with listening support are usually classified according to the students’ age and level of language, (common european framework of reference for languages (2001): elementary, intermediate and advanced levels), publishers offer a wide variety of them which teachers can choose from, based on the students’ interests or the purpose of the class. additionally, the listening support is a factor that contributes to make the act of reading more multi-faceted and serves as a language model with regards to pronunciation, intonation, fluency and comprehension. chen (2014) argues that listening provides a positive experience using the target language; it helps students develop vocabulary and understanding of literary issues. besides, the use of the abridged versions of some novels is an important literary resource to teach in class; some authors think that this material conserves the characteristics of the original versions, they have the same benefits of the original books full versions; moreover, yeo (1986) asserts: “people who abridge stories assume that the plot is the most important aspect of a classic. a classic, to them, is essentially a classic story and this they want to convey, albeit in its reduced form, to school students”. (p. 23). hişmanoğlu (2005) states: “using novels makes the students´ reading lesson motivating interesting and entertaining” (p. 64). in fact, this kind of material is both enjoyable and understandable for students; it enhances students’ habit for reading and increases their speaking skills. while listening to the abridged versions of novels students can develop their listening skills, which are necessary as an input in order to develop the other three skills (reading, writing and speaking). renukadevi (2014) argues: “… listening contributes primarily for language expertise. listening awakens awareness of the language, as it is a receptive skill that first develops in a human being. learning to listen to the target language improves language ability” (p. 59). the previous statements show how necessary it is to include materials that involve listening activities in language acquisition. one of the most important benefits of using literature for teaching english is the great amount of communicative and interactive activities that can be done in the classroom; thus, students gain in practice and surpass their difficulties in the process of acquiring the language; koutsompou (2015) argues: “the purpose of using literature in a language classroom is to make the class interactive and it can be stated that an interactive class can obviously improve communicative competence of the learners and keep a lasting impact on their mind” (p. 75). in addition to the contributions of literature for teaching, the abridged novels in written and oral production arias & roberto no. 16 (january june, 2018) no. 16 (january june, 2018) 11 listening support of the books calls students’ attention because they can listen to the characters and make a mental picture about the situation which is a factor that motivates students learning and understanding. as a cultural aspect, literature offers teachers and students the possibility to acquire knowledge about human customs and evolution including social advances and problems, about it, koutsompou (2015) states “through literature students get to know the background not only of the particular novel but also, they learn about history, society, and politics of the country described in the novel or story” (p. 75). knowledge acquisition and language learning are two purposes coherent with the education in teaching a foreign language; hence, this is complete material that cultivates students’ feelings and perception of the life in different contexts. literature, represented in abridged novels, makes a very significant contribution towards the exposure of students to language patterns in real life situations, more than an academic language; koutsompou (2015) argues “the linguistic criterion defends that literature should be used in language teaching, because it provides the learner with genuine, authentic samples of language, and with real samples of a wide range of styles, text types and registers” (p. 75). this is what some authors consider as authentic language because it is written not with the purposes of teaching but with the objective to tell a story, to evidence the situation of real life or fiction; berardo (2006) asserts: “one of the main ideas of using authentic materials in the classroom is to “expose” the learner to as much real language as possible. even if the classroom is not a “real-life” situation, authentic materials do have a very important place within it. (p. 64); consequently, language teachers are required by the education system to propose strategies that approach students to acquire the language in real contexts that really prepare students for real life situations. having in mind that listening is one of the first skills man develops to learn a language, the improvement of this ability helps students to comprehend different situations and it is also a base to interact with the context, renukadevi (2014) notes that when learning a language with a communicative purpose, listening plays a vital role, as it helps the language learner to acquire pronunciation, word stress, vocabulary, and syntax. thus, the abridged version of novels with listening support helps students to have the opportunity of learning how the comprehension of a message is carried with elements like the tone of voice or the pitch or accent. abridged novels in written and oral production arias & roberto no. 16 (january june, 2018) no. 16 (january june, 2018) 12 speaking and writing skills development and literature speaking and writing are the main skills students have to develop in order to communicate their ideas, feelings, explain their view points, argue, discuss among others; hence, this is very important to motivate them from the classroom. ritlyavá (2014) asserts: “the reason for learning the language is to be able to use it in practice, to make oneself understood. thus, the most frequent way of using it is speaking” (p. 99). likewise; writing is also a way to share ideas, it can be formal or informal, it depends of the purpose of the writer, and both can be developed in the classroom. literature is a very wide field that can be linked to speaking and writing as an input to develop these skills, after listening or reading a novel, students are able to communicate their understanding through them. tehan, yuksel and inan (2015) highlight the use of literature in the classroom due to its academic, linguistic and cultural importance and because it encourages students to talk about their opinions and stimulates language acquisition. in fact, it is necessary to give students opportunities to use the foreign language in the classroom or outside in order to practice and acquire it, accompanied by the teachers’ feedback as a support to improve the appropriate language use according to the situation. additionally, authors like sell, rogers, harmer, and others, in tamo (2009) think that literature is an authentic material to be used in the classroom due to the advantages it has in terms of language acquisition and language use. besides, literature is considered authentic material because it is not written for academic purposes as well as the newspapers, magazines, poems, among others, but it can be used as a teaching resource. bringing authentic materials into the classroom can be motivating for the students, as it adds a real-life element to the student’s learning experience. authentic materials are significant since it increases students’ motivation for learning, makes the learner be exposed to the “real” language” (tamo, 2009, p. 75) in the same way, some english teachers have developed research procedures around the implementation of literature in the english classes, about it, giuria (2015) reports “even though the four participants have different views on literature, they all recognize three main reasons for teaching it in the english classroom: to improve the language, to gain knowledge and understanding of other cultures and to grow as a person” (p. 28). thus, the previous arguments show the abridged novels in written and oral production arias & roberto no. 16 (january june, 2018) no. 16 (january june, 2018) 13 utility of literature in the english classes and the variety of approaches teachers can do with this material. likewise, literature can support the speaking and writing skills taking into account that they require much effort for students and teachers because they evidence the students’ learning and real use of the language; hence, literature as an authentic material and accessible source teachers must work in the classroom, stimulates students’ communication with activities like: describing places, retelling chapters, criticizing the topics, discussing about social problems, doing role plays, describing the characters’ roles, analyzing social problems, economic situation, among others. moreover, a way to guarantee students’ learning english is by promoting those activities that include students’ production due to the fact that they motivate their thinking and communication, elftorp, (2007) states, “the purpose of everything you do in english classes is to help students to develop their writing and speaking skills, regardless of whether it is grammar, drama or national tests” (p. 5); besides phat (2013) declares, “i hold a strong belief that literature would be a great potential resource in teaching language and communications skills, especially speaking skills for the language learners.” (p. 673); thus, the importance of these skills lies on the need people have to share their feelings, life perceptions, knowledge, events, among others; in this case, literature is favorable to promote students’ language learning. additionally, culture is an inherent aspect to literature and the english class; it approaches students to the real discourse, social conventions and reflexive issues; thus, literature can be seen as a bridge between students and the real life, full of meaning through the society and their history. riwes (2010) remarks: “in the end, the role of culture in elt is crucial, since it will mean the difference between casual speakers who remain outsiders and speakers who understand the meaning behind the words and the world that is constructed by them” (p. 8). in this way, teachers’ role is to guide students build their own reflection based on the experience, motivating their critical thinking, focusing students to contrast cultures and learn about the experience of foreign cultures. the aspects above are reasons and strengths for including the abridged versions of novels in english classes; they contribute to support how meaningful this material is. it only requires teachers to take the risk and change the traditional classes where students just sit down and listen to the teacher; this is a possibility not only to promote students’ learning about different topics but also to empower their communicative skills based in real material. abridged novels in written and oral production arias & roberto no. 16 (january june, 2018) no. 16 (january june, 2018) 14 the use of feedback in language learning feedback is a common strategy english teachers use to guide students to correct their performance, it can be done individually or in group according to the needs, it allows teachers to understand students’ difficulties and strengths in order to follow a process and look for strategies that facilitate learning, according to the individual capacities. here are some recommendations: break down the instructions by using simple sentences so that the students can easily understand, use demonstration whenever possible, not to over correct the errors, avoid giving negative feedback to increase student’s self-motivation, provide sufficient independent practice to overcome their errors and re-teach the material when necessary. (akhter, 2007, p. 10) the suggestions above evidence the teachers’ real role in teaching a foreign language; hence, it is imperative that teachers create an appropriate environment to guide students, for example face to face feedback in a tutoring session close to the class; according to the department of education and communities (2015): “feedback during learning allows students to take feedback on board immediately and to try to realize improvement during the learning process” (p.1); in fact, the feedback is not a formal activity but a very useful tool to support students in their learning process; during writing, students usually require the teacher’s feedback in order to use the appropriate word order, conjugation, connectors or the adequate tense according to the context; during speaking , students usually require feedback in pronunciation and also in the coherence of their ideas with the purpose to express what they really want to say. during learning another language, it is necessary to create an environment of self-confidence where the students can express their doubts in a spontaneous way, and the teacher can clarify them in the best way. hattie and timperley (2007) maintain that an ideal learning environment occurs when both, teacher and student work together to overcome learning difficulties. besides, carvajal and roberto (2014) point out that the constant dialogue and feedback facilitate the work atmosphere without being concerned about mistakes. thereby, feedback has a positive effect when it impacts the students’ behavior and when it helps students to identify their own strengths and weaknesses in terms of learning; thus, they are able to take their own decisions to surpass their difficulties. abridged novels in written and oral production arias & roberto no. 16 (january june, 2018) no. 16 (january june, 2018) 15 methodology this study used the qualitative approach through the collaborative action research as the method to improve some specific conditions of a group of students because it permits to do changes based on evidences, monitor, refine and adapt new conditions in order to get positive results. many researchers in education use this method due to its benefits in terms of learning and improvement. alba (2015) states about the collaborative action research: “car is used worldwide as an effective means of lifting the burden of improvement from the shoulders of unsupported individual teachers and enabling them to tap into the collective knowledge and experience of a broader group of practitioners” (p.3). in fact, one of the advantages of this method is the great opportunity for students and teachers to work together in the same learning purposes; besides, alba (2015) highlights that car contributes to: “improving students learning, improving individual professional practice, wider professional development and comparing professional isolation” (p. 3); thus, this is why this method permits to evidence the results in short time, and also joins theory and practice in order to improve results during academic procedures. setting and participants this study took place at a private university in tunja colombia, where there are different programs such as engineering, public accounting, business administration, law, and architecture; students take five mandatory basic english courses: additionally, they come from different municipalities of boyacá; the students who were involved in this research were about 18 and 19 years old; according to some exams applied by the university, students were between a1 and a2 according to the common european framework (2011) which are lower than the expected, which was b1. this study was conducted with a group of thirty-two fourth semester students, and data was collected from fifteen of them who were chosen at random. two teacher trainers were responsible for planning, implementing and assessing the different activities. abridged novels in written and oral production arias & roberto no. 16 (january june, 2018) no. 16 (january june, 2018) 16 data collection instruments and data analysis data was collected through a questionnaire, students’ artifacts and the researchers’ diaries: questionnaire, it was administered to students at the end of the workshops. according to abawi (2013), this technique allows the researchers to collect the most complete and accurate data in a logical way. thus, this instrument enabled researchers to evidence and examine students’ work, as well as their personal perceptions about the development of the project. the artifacts are represented in this study in the students’ written and oral production which were the output activities. mcgreal, broderick, and jones (1984) propose the use of artifacts for teaching in order to facilitate students’ learning; thus, these allowed the researchers to identify students’ difficulties, mistakes, language improvements, the learning process and they also facilitated the feedback work. diaries, these were carried out by researchers during the development of all the different activities; about it, iida, shout, laurenceau, and bolger (2012) assert: “diary methods involve intensive, repeated self-reports that aim to capture events, reflections, moods, pains, or interactions near the time they occur” (p. 227). hence, this instrument allowed the researchers to register the most important moments of the class and kept evidences of all their observations, thoughts and reflections about the english classes as well as the students’ performance, reactions and difficulties during the class development. data analysis was conducted throughout the grounded theory approach because it provided procedures for analyzing collected data through different instruments. charmaz (2006) states that grounded theory helps to direct manage and streamline data in order to construct the analysis. moreover, glaser and strauss (2006) argue that grounded theory allows the researchers to move from data and theory with the purpose to create new theories in a specific context. thus, after collecting data, a coding process was carried with the purpose to look for emerging patterns, issues and ideas; some preliminary categories were formulated; after that, questions, theory and categories were reread; based on the previous exercises, two main categories were established, they involved the most relevant and repetitive information taken from data. additionally, triangulation was done in order to validate findings; yeasmin and rahman (2012) state: “triangulation is a process of verification that increases validity by incorporating several viewpoints abridged novels in written and oral production arias & roberto no. 16 (january june, 2018) no. 16 (january june, 2018) 17 and methods” (p. 156). after collecting, grouping, comparing, coding, labeling data, and establishing categories, the triangulation procedures were implemented with the purpose to analyze, argue, confront and theorize data; thus, new theory emerged in favor to the teaching and learning procedures, by using the abridged version of some novels in the english classes. instructional design for the development of this study, the following procedures were carried out: first step: the researchers planned the project and collected the material: four abridged version of short novels (great expectations, frankenstein, the prisoner of zenda and oliver twist), with listening support. second step: the researchers elaborated four workshops, one for each novel, they contained different strategies: pre-listening activities, while listening, post-listening activities and oral exercise, as explained in table 1. third step: the researchers shared the current project with the students and started its implementation and data collection; it was done with the purpose to communicate them about the different activities that were going to be developed in those specific english courses. this study followed buck’s (2001) suggestions in relation to pre-listening, while-listening and post-listening activities which are common classroom exercises in language acquisition, each one depends on the teachers’ focus, the students’ interests and the objectives of the class; thus, these workshops were focused to listen to the abridged version of four novels in order to encourage students’ written and oral production. abridged novels in written and oral production arias & roberto no. 16 (january june, 2018) no. 16 (january june, 2018) 18 table 1. workshop development first workshop novel: “great expectations”3 pre-listening activities: students looked at and analyzed pictures of the novel to predict the content. while listening: students listened to the book; next, researchers and students did a brainstorming about the general understanding of the novel. post-listening activities: the students were divided up according to the number of chapters (13); each group checked a specific chapter and produced a written summary. language function: summarizing with the students’ own words, using appropriate verbal tenses and connectors as needed. oral exercise: students prepared an oral presentation about their understanding of each chapter, based on their own summary. second workshop novel: “frankenstein”4 pre-listening activities: the researchers asked students some questions about the novel to get them familiar with the content. while listening: students listened to the novel, after that, they exchanged ideas about it. post-listening activities: in small groups, students chose a specific character of the novel and produced a written description about them including features, values, weaknesses, strengths, physical and emotional description and his/her role in the novel. language function: describing characters by using the appropriate adjectives and verbal tenses according to the context of the novel. oral exercise: students talked about the different characters based on their own papers, with the aid of pictures. third workshop novel: “the prisoner of zenda”5 pre-reading activity: students analyzed the heading and the title of the different chapters to infer what the book was about. 3 dickens, ch., adapted by evans, v. & dooley, j. (2002). great expectations usa: express publishing. 4 shelley, m., adapted by h, q. mitchell (1994). usa: mm publications. 5 hope, a., adapted by evans, v. & dooley, j. (2002). the prisoner of zenda. usa: express publishing abridged novels in written and oral production arias & roberto no. 16 (january june, 2018) no. 16 (january june, 2018) 19 while listening: students listened to the novel, subsequently, some of them talked about their general perceptions of the novel. post-listening activities: in small groups, students chose a specific scene from the novel, then, they did an exhaustive written description about it. language function: describing specific events, use of appropriate time expressions, verbal tenses and adjectives. oral exercise: students explained the different scenes in oral way. fourth workshop novel: “oliver twist”6 pre-reading activity: students looked at the pictures to predict the content of the novel. while listening: students listened to the novel, except the last chapter. then, the researchers asked students about their general understanding of the novel. post-listening activities: in small groups, students wrote an alternative ending to the novel. language function: use of appropriate time expressions, verbal tenses, connectors, adverbs and adjectives as needed. oral exercise: students presented an oral presentation on their ending with the aid of pictures. 6 dickens. ch., adapted by evans, v. & dooley, j. (2002). oliver twist. usa: express publishing. abridged novels in written and oral production arias & roberto no. 16 (january june, 2018) no. 16 (january june, 2018) 20 figure 1. collaborative action research cycles additionally, the researchers did constant corrections throughout the different stages of the investigation in order to correct grammar mistakes, punctuation, coherence, and pronunciation. after the development of each workshop, the researchers met and analyzed students’ performance (difficulties, progress and needs), thus they planed additional guides (about the use of conjugation, punctuation, adjectives and connectors) in order to support and improve students’ written and oral production. during all the activities, students worked in groups of two or three. when carrying out oral presentations, students used pictures, posters and graphic organizers as aids. findings according to data collection analysis, and focused to answer the research questions, there are some findings that evidence advantages, improvements and difficulties while working with literature material; first, listening to the abridged version of some novels was a factor abridged novels in written and oral production arias & roberto no. 16 (january june, 2018) no. 16 (january june, 2018) 21 that motivated students’ written and oral production in the english classroom; second, there are inherent aspects that literature presents to students such as knowledge acquisition, cultural enrichment and personal interest for literature topics; these topics are represented in two main categories as follows: first category: students’ writing and oral development through listening to the abridged version of some novels this category evidences how the exposure students had to the abridged version of short novels, with listening support, enhanced their written and oral production. first, during the listening sessions, the voice and the intonation of characters, as well as the plot were aspects that motivated students to be involved in the activities. however, in the first novel, students had some difficulties understanding the complete development of events, especially because they did not use to work with this kind of material and they did not understand some new vocabulary, the pronunciation of some phrases as well as the speed at which the students had to listen. some students said: i had problems with the vocabulary in the listening work, because the characters did not speak slowly and it was difficult for me to understand. (questionnaire, question 3, student 7) considering that students had some difficulties to fully understand the content of the novel before the written and oral production, the researchers organized the students by couples in order to check the novel again, then, they proceeded to write their own summary and prepare their oral report. at this stage, the researchers’ support for making feedback in the corrections of the papers and in the oral preparation, especially in pronunciation corrections, was very important to accomplish with the first workshop. su & tian (2016) state “in second language learning and teaching, feedback refers to any commentary information to learners’ performance” (p. 440). thus, accompanied by the feedback, the support guides helped students to correct and improve their written or oral problems along the different activities. about it, one of the researchers argued: “there were some difficulties to start motivating students’ written and oral production, especially at the beginning; they required explanations about aspects like conjugation, use of appropriate connectors, and others, to produce paragraphs on only single sentences; and in the pronunciation of some phrases.” (researcher 2, diary) abridged novels in written and oral production arias & roberto no. 16 (january june, 2018) no. 16 (january june, 2018) 22 moreover, about the 4th question, “what difficulties did you have during your oral and written production?”, one of the students answered: “my principal problem is the use of connectors, i don´t know what is the appropriate according to the context, i have also some difficulties in speaking with fluency, and sometimes i forget the words i need to communicate my ideas.” (questionnaire, question 4, student 5) in fact, during the development of the different workshops, the students’ written production evidenced the existence of some difficulties in the use of the appropriate conjugation according to the context, word order, connectors, and others; in that moment, the researchers implemented strategies to help students improving their language mistakes, the most important was the constant feedback (individually and in group), and the application of the supported guides, as explained in the instructional design. in studies done by vasu, hui lin & nimehchisalem (2016), they report that most of the students prefer teachers’ written feedback because it helps them a lot to improve their performance in writing and through time students become autonomous according to their own capacities to interiorize the language. as a matter of fact, this research project evidences that an effective written feedback helps students build the necessary language tools to improve their communication not only in written way but also in the oral performance along time. the abridged version of some novels with listening support as well as the written activities developed along this research focused students to engage and improve their oral production. thus, the students’ written production was the previous step students did before their oral performance; they also used their papers as the base to present their oral reports. previously the final oral report, students carried out some oral training to get fluency, improve pronunciation, correct pronunciation and prepare the final oral presentation; this activity was supervised by the researchers in order to give students feedback when necessary. during the oral presentations, students passed by a process of constant progress; the work they developed in each workshop contributed with the students’ self-improvement. about it, one of the researchers argued: “some students show more difficulties that other during their oral presentations basically in pronunciation and fluency, but it is perceived that most of them try to do their best, there is certain competition among them because they have to expose their own abridged novels in written and oral production arias & roberto no. 16 (january june, 2018) no. 16 (january june, 2018) 23 production in front of the group, during their presentations they prepare pictures and power point presentations to have some visual aids during their oral performance.” (researcher 2, diary) likewise, about their english oral performance during the classwork, one of the students asserts: “for me, the most difficult is to speak with fluency, i feel i need more vocabulary and practice; i think that the work we have done this semester, studying with novels not with textbooks as usually, has been a good idea for helping me to practice my english, i have had the opportunity to write and speak a lot. it is not easy for me, but it is a good exercise to improve my english.” (questionnaire, student 4) the english oral practice in the classroom is very important for students because they learn how to use the langue in real situations; in this research, literature was a great source for guiding different activities in order to motivate students´ speaking. hişmanoğlu (2015) declares that literature develops oral and written skills, it helps students understand the english linguistic system, and the students also can acquire idiomatic expressions that help them speak clearly; thus, the use of the abridged version of novels motivate students oral practice due to their wide variety of topics and activities teachers can develop in the classroom. subsequently, the constant listening, oral and written training, accompanied by the researchers’ feedback as well as the support guides, contributed to improve students’ communication. it was demonstrated in the latest reports students presented, thus, one of the groups wrote their own version for the end of oliver twist: when oliver twist went to live with mr. brownlow, he started to study philosophy because he loved reading. he lived so happy with his new family and helped mr. brownlow with the library. when he finished the university, he married a beautiful girl he met at the university, they had three children and created an institution to help children in need, it as was his best satisfaction with the life and he lived happy for ever. (fourth workshop, group 2, students’ written artifact) the previous excerpt evidences the students’ improvement in comparison to the first papers; besides, while students improved their written compositions, their oral production was better too. to have these results, students and researchers had to work so hard in doing the corrections and practicing the oral presentations, as it was confirmed by abridged novels in written and oral production arias & roberto no. 16 (january june, 2018) no. 16 (january june, 2018) 24 the researchers’ observations in their diary: students written and oral corrections was a tiring work, but the enthusiasm they showed in the moment to present their oral reports and their concern to do their best, was really a good experience. (researcher 1, journal) i think that it was not easy for students because they worked very hard, they had to understand the novels, when they did not, they asked their partners or the researchers about it. in the compositions, they had to include new expressions and vocabulary, take care with conjugation, be coherent, use connectors, among others; additionally, when speaking, they had to express their oral report in the way that the researchers and their partners understood them in the best way. it was a challenge for them. (researcher 2, journal) likewise, some students stated they did not have much difficulty with the comprehension, they enjoyed the novels, took advantage of the different workshops and improved their written and oral production thanks to the emphasis the workshops had for developing these skills. about, a student argued: i believe that these types of activities should be implemented for teaching english because we learn vocabulary, pronunciation, grammar, and it takes away the fear of speaking. (questionnaire, question 7) finally, the students’ opinions, their written and oral performance as well as well as the researchers’ views about the development of the different workshops, evidence the advantages of using literature in the english classes to enhance students’ written and oral communication. additionally, the researchers’ support through the feedback helped students improve their language use and promoted students’ selfconfidence to overcome their difficulties in terms of language acquisition. second category: students’ involvement in knowledge acquisition and cultural enrichment the development of different workshops based on the abridged version of some novels, permitted students to be involved in particular aspects inherent to people’s life and development such as knowledge acquisition and cultural aspects. in fact, the classic books of literature (great expectations, frankenstein, the prisoner of zenda and oliver abridged novels in written and oral production arias & roberto no. 16 (january june, 2018) no. 16 (january june, 2018) 25 twist) selected for this research project give testimony of specific moments in the history of towns, about people customs, social problems, among others; additionally, they include the fantasy and fun of literature which make them enjoyable and interesting for students. likewise, one of the characteristics of literature is to evidence people’s customs and history; for example one of the novels students listened to was “the prisoner of zenda”, it took place in a central european country named ruritania, during the kingdom of queen victoria (1837-1901), it was a story of love and honor that implicated students in learning about relevant aspects of people from that age, such as the conflicts of a real family who had to live the desire of power and government and also the emergence of the industrial revolution which was a very important moment in the history of humanity; thus, as students declared about it: i learned more about the life of people in europe, the most interesting was the rise of the industrial revolution, when people began to build the great railroads, and the development it produced in the society of that age. (questionnaire, student 6) literature, seen as a cultural manifestation, is full of meaningful contexts, during working with this material, students experimented the contact with other cultures, and they could perceive people’s traditions, for example in the novel great expectations students were immersed in the english society of the nineteenth century, when reality and fiction was not clear enough, people believed in the changes of the weather as signs of good or bad luck, the perceptions of guilty and innocent were manipulated for people according to their personal interests or their social class convenience. about it, one of the teachers wrote in the journal: during the development of the first workshop, students could be immersed in a different culture and environment; they analyzed english people’s customs, their problems, needs and feeling. (researcher 1, journal) moreover, with the frankenstein novel, students felt passion for the class work, its component of fiction, the perspective of science and technology of the nineteenth century as well as the adventures of the leading role (víctor) made students feel passion for literature. cornillon (2016) argues about this novel: “the work raises questions on the limits of science and the dangers facing humans who want to unravel the mystery of nature” (p. 2), in fact, this book has been one of the classics of literature, it has been translated to different languages and taken to the cinema; in the same way, hişmanoğlu (2005) affirms, abridged novels in written and oral production arias & roberto no. 16 (january june, 2018) no. 16 (january june, 2018) 26 “in novel, characters reflect what people really perform in daily lives. novels not only portray but also enlighten human lives”. (p.63); thus, it is important that students reach this material as part of their academic life; as one of them argued: it was a great experience, different to the way we have been working in english. listening to these novels was pleasant and, at the same time, i learned a lot about people’s lives in other countries for example about the industrial revolution, people´s customs, their difficulties, problems, conflicts, and others. (questionnaire, student 11) furthermore, literature also has the property to sensitize people; novels like oliver twist, written in 1838, shows the vulnerability of children, it recreates the situation of an orphan from an unknown town in england, but it really reveals the situation of many children who live in many cities and countries around the world, thus, this research evidenced how students were also critical in front of children’s violation of their human rights; besides, when students developed the fourth workshop and wrote the end of this novel, they could express their own thinking and the way to solve real-life problems as follows: after overcoming a lot of problems in fagin’s house, oliver became a great leader with the help of mr. brownlow, the man who adopted him. as he had had a childhood full of necessities, he understood what children suffered living at streets on total poorness; so, he created a foundation for giving education and household to poor children; moreover, he worked very hard to create laws for the protection of children… (fourth workshop, group 3, students’ artifact.) the excerpt above shows how this activity stimulated students’ analysis of daily life problems which are part people’s culture; likewise, one of the purposes of novels is to show people’s lifestyle and culture from different perspectives. “novels help students master the skills that will enable them to acquire information, process this knowledge, identify problems, formulate alternatives, and arrive at meaningful, thoughtful, effective decisions and solutions”. helton, asamani and thomas (as cited in hişmanoğlu 2005, p. 64). in addition, tsai (2012) regarded that novels have been considered one of the most complete genders to be included in the curriculum for teaching a foreign language; thus, when students were asked to create their own ending to the novel (oliver twist), they were encouraged to analyze, criticize, evidence problems and propose possible solutions from their own view point. finally, according to the previous analysis and the evidences, abridged novels in written and oral production arias & roberto no. 16 (january june, 2018) no. 16 (january june, 2018) 27 the abridged version of novels as an academic support motivated students’ enrichment of knowledge and cultural aspects, it aroused students’ interest for foreign cultures like the british and the european, places where the novels took place; the historical events as well as the traditions of people increased students’ interest in working with this kind of material. conclusions the inclusion of the abridged version of some novels in the english classes permitted researchers to approach students about literature issues that are important to enhance them improve their language use; additionally, students worked with some classic works of literature which guaranteed a good plot and the characters’ performance; furthermore, students acquired new vocabulary, expressions, and pronunciation, all essential elements in language communication. the workshops based on the different novels demanded students total involvement in the activities because at the end of each one, they had to show two products: the students’ written paper and the oral reports; thus, students were led to use the language in order to share their summaries, descriptions of characters and events, as well as build their own texts; according to these processes, the results evidence that students gained a lot of practice and improvement basically in writing and speaking as part of their academic growth. moreover, the results of this research showed some other relevant benefits for students in terms of knowledge acquisition and cultural enrichment; hence, during the development of the different workshops, the novels allowed students to be immersed in people’s development, customs, history, traditions and other aspects that are the legacy of the man’s evolutions and progress along time. finally, through the development of this study, students experienced some difficulties, especially at the beginning of the activities; they showed problems in understanding the pronunciation of some words and expressions. while speaking, they also presented a lack of fluency and vocabulary. the progress of activities demonstrated that students got self-confidence to understand the material and also express their ideas about it. abridged novels in written and oral production arias & roberto no. 16 (january june, 2018) no. 16 (january june, 2018) 28 references abawi, k. 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(1986). using abridged literature texts in second 1-3 can it be justified? teaching and learning. institute of education. singapore. 7(1) 18-26. retrieved from: https://repository.nie.edu.sg/ bitstream/10497/1925/1/tl-7-1-18.pdf abridged novels in written and oral production arias & roberto no. 16 (january june, 2018) no. 16 (january june, 2018) 32 authors *gladis leonor arias rodríguez holds a m.a. in language teaching from universidad pedagógica y tecnológica de colombia (uptc) and m.a. in pedagogy at universidad santo tomas (usta). she has experience in teaching english from primary to higher education. her latest investigations have been in literacy, literature, curriculum, strategies for teaching general and esp english, and stereotypes. she is currently editor of the shimmering words e-magazine, full time teacher and researcher at usta in the “expedicionarios humanistas” group. eliana edith roberto flórez holds a ma in language teaching from universidad pedagógica y tecnológica de colombia. currently, she is a full time teacher at universidad santo tomás in tunja. she has supported the teaching process of english since 2005. besides, she is recognized as a junior researcher by colciencias, she has been working in different areas of study and belong to “expedicionarios humanistas” research group categorized in b by colciencias, and she is co-editor of the shimmering words e-magazine. her goal is to help students’ learning process of english according to their academic needs. abridged novels in written and oral production no. 16 (january june, 2018) no. 16 (january june, 2018) gistseptiembre2011final2.indd 158 spanish-english writing structure interferences in second language learners1 julio lorenzo lópez urdaneta2* institución universitaria colombo americana – única, colombia abstract previous studies have drawn some results concerning the way in which second language (l2) students use their first language (l1) when producing texts in their l2. therefore, this study examines the influence l1 written structure has on l2 written structure when students are asked to carry out assignments in the l2. to answer this question, twenty four students of the first semester at unica university were asked to write some papers in english during the semester. the results of this study indicated that the influence of l1 (spanish) can definitely hinder the writing processes in l2. in addition, four basic mistakes in student papers were found to be a direct influence from l1 to l2 writing: word order, missing the verb “be”, implicit subject, and the incorrect use of the article “the.” those mistakes emerged mostly due to the influence of their native language and also the lack of knowledge about the second language. keywords: second language acquisition, second language learning, bilingual education resumen estudios previos han arrojado algunos resultados con respecto a la forma en la cual los estudiantes de segunda lengua (l2) usan la primera (l1) en la producción de textos. a partir de esto, el presente estudio analiza la influencia que la expresión escrita, en lengua materna, ejerce sobre la estructura escrita en la lengua extranjera, cuando se les solicita a los estudiantes presentar trabajos escritos en ésta. para responder a este interrogante, se le solicitó a 24 estudiantes de primer semestre de única (universidad colombo americana) escribir algunos textos en inglés durante el semestre. los resultados de este estudio indicaron que la influencia de la primera lengua (l1) puede entorpecer en gran medida el proceso de escritura en la lengua extranjera (l2). adicionalmente, se identificaron cuatro errores básicos con una influencia directa de la escritura de la primera lengua sobre la segunda lengua; orden de palabras, omisión del verbo “to be”, sujeto implícito y el uso incorrecto del articulo “the”. los errores 1 received: january 12th,2011 / accepted: july 22nd, 2011 2 email: julio.lopez.urdaneta@gmail.com gist education and learning research journal. issn 1692-5777. no. 5, november 2011. pp. 158-179 no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) 159 identificados resultaron principalmente de la influencia de la primera lengua y de la falta de conocimiento de la segunda lengua. palabras claves: adquisición de una segunda lengua, aprendizaje de una segunda lengua, educación bilingüe resumo estudos prévios deram alguns resultados com relação à forma na qual os estudantes de segunda língua (l2) usam a primeira (l1) na produção de textos. a partir deste, o presente estudo analisa a influência que a expressão escrita, em língua materna, exerce sobre a estrutura escrita na língua estrangeira, quando se solicita aos estudantes apresentar trabalhos escritos nesta. para responder este interrogante, foi solicitado a 24 estudantes de primeiro semestre de única (universidade colombo americana) escrever alguns textos em inglês durante o semestre. os resultados deste estudo indicaram que a influência da primeira língua (l1) pode entorpecer em grande medida o processo de escritura na língua estrangeira (l2). adicionalmente, identificaram-se quatro erros básicos com uma influência direta da escritura da primeira língua sobre a segunda língua; ordem de palavras, omissão do verbo “to be”, sujeito implícito e o uso incorreto do artigo “the”. os erros identificados resultaram principalmente da influência da primeira língua e da falta de conhecimento da segunda língua. palavras chaves: aquisição de uma segunda língua, aprendizagem de uma segunda língua, educação bilíngue when learning a second language, most of the time students use their first language to try to communicate in the second one, which makes students follow the same grammatical patterns in both languages. the importance of the influence of the first language (mother tongue) in learning a second language (foreign language) has been a very important issue for a long time. it has led to several studies that attempt to explain this phenomenon. through what i have seen during the process of writing this paper, i have noticed that many research studies have been carried out in the field of l1 reading influence on l2 reading, but few have been done with regard to the influence l1 written structures have on l2 written structures. i decided to embark on this study when i was teaching english to some introductory level students at unica a few semesters ago. i found that these students had the tendency to write english texts with spanish structures. when they really tried to write in english, they usually resorted to using the direct translation technique. no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) 160 this paper attempts to contribute knowledge in the field of writing and the influence l1 has on l2 regarding this topic, focusing on the written structures of both languages. thus, students’ written work in english (l2) is analyzed with three purposes. first, to find examples that give an idea of what the influence in english writing is. second, to prove that grammar classes are essential when learning a second language. finally, to demonstrate that exposure to language does lead to its acquisition; to learn a second language, l1 support is not always necessary. as a method, teaching grammar classes with the purpose of avoiding literal translation from l1 to l2 has been applied in some parts of the world, but it has limited information. at unica, i applied this method in an introductory level course as an intervention to generate data that supported the research questions in this study. the results had significant, positive outcomes. students improved significantly, avoiding literal translations when writing in the second language. my interest in describing and analyzing this phenomenon may support future studies, which would contribute to the field of academic writing. i believe that applying this method with first semester students will lead to positive writing skills later on in more advanced levels, where students are required to write more complex texts. due to the drastic change students have to face from high school to college regarding thinking processes, this method is relevant in their beginning level courses. in high school, some students are only asked to reach the minimum level to pass. by the time they get to college, things change radically. this is one of the reasons why students in beginner levels have difficulties when writing complex texts, even more if those are required in another language. the aim of this paper is for teachers to help students to lessen basic mistakes when writing in the l2, in order for them to focus their attention on the content and thus give way to academic writing. area of focus statement the purpose of this study is to describe the influence l1 written structure has on l2 written structure in unica’s intro students. research questions this research project has a general research question: 1. what is the impact l1 written structure has on l2 written structure? besides, it has specific research questions: spanishenglish writing structure interferences lopez urdaneta no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) 161 beyond this, it has the following specific research questions: 1. what are the most frequent mistakes students make when writing in the second language? 2. what literal translations from l1 to l2 do students make when they write in the second language? 3. how do grammar lessons affect students’ writing in l2? 4. how do spanish-english and english-english dictionaries influence l2 students’ writing? theoretical framework l1 influence is an important aspect to keep in mind in its process for the development of all the four basic skills an l2 requires: reading, writing, speaking, and listening. second language acquisition is not an easy matter. it is known that when a person is learning a second language, he/she uses the first language as a tool to make this process easier and faster. what people may not know is that the l1 does not only have a positive influence when acquiring the l2; it can also have negative influences. in order to identify the role l1 has in the acquisition of l2, this work is based on some very pertinent theories by professors and researchers which are highlighted and summarized below. a relevant way to organize the theoretical framework of this paper is to refer to chomsky (1959) who posits that imitation of l1 develops routines in l2 practices. in a similar manner, krashen (1981) says that there are l1 positive and negative transfers, which take into account true and false cognates. furthermore, cummins (1982) talks about the transferability of linguistic characteristics and the influence of l1 in l2 phonology. finally, cummins (1981), with his famous “iceberg theory” states that the role of first language is essential for the acquisition of the second one, because through l1 learning, l2 becomes easier. in this section, some of the most influential current theories of language learning are going to be outlined. chomsky’s language acquisition theory talks about how learner’s imitation of what they hear in l1 develops habits in l2. this theory clearly relates to this research regarding how l1 supports l2 acquisition. chomsky’s work is helpful in understanding the implications of first language in the acquisition of a second language and how the use of the mother tongue affects learning the target language. however, one of the negative implications l1 can have on l2 is that students translate every single word into english. translating is a problem because sometimes the idea you want to give may not be clearly understood in the second language. another spanishenglish writing structure interferences lopez urdaneta no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) 162 negative implication could be that students make up words in order to express themselves in the other language. the “language transfer theory”, also known as l1 interference, is the effect the learners’ first language has on his/her production of the second one. it states that the effect can be in any aspect of language: grammar, vocabulary, pronunciation, speaking, and listening, among others. this theory is divided into two parts: positive and negative transfers. the first one, positive transference, is seen when the structure of both languages is the same and so the interference of linguistic patterns can result in correct language production, sometimes called “true cognates.” true cognates are used as a strategy to write in an l2 and it is part of the positive transfer theory. conversely, as krashen (1981) pointed out, “negative transference” is frequently discussed as a source of errors; this means that students transfer words or structures that are not the same in both languages, otherwise known as “false cognates.” many students may translate words from l1 to l2 thinking that they have the same meaning in the target language, or in the case of this research study, english. words in english such as “amazed” or “pan” are some of the false cognates an english as a foreign language (efl) student may incorrectly use when translating from english into spanish. for example, “amazed” could be translated in spanish as “amasar” which in english is “knead.” in his research article “second language acquisition and second language learning”, krashen talks about first language interference. he attempts to provide some empirical data for a position first held by newmark (1966), who points out that “interference is not the first language ‘getting in the way’ of second language skills. rather, it is the result of the performer falling back on old knowledge when he or she has not yet acquired enough of the second language” (p. 7). this theory is a useful tool for this action research project, given that it takes into account some of the aspects included in the study, such as the positive and negative effects l1 has on l2 acquisition. likewise, this theory posits that when a student is acquiring a second language (l2), he is both benefited and hindered by his native language (l1). in his native language, there are certain norms in pronunciation and syntax that may differ from those of the second language and interfere with his or her use of the new language. on the other hand, krashen (1981) said that native language literacy and cognitive development in the native language will help a student learn a new language by transferring concepts from one language and applying them to the new one. in this case, krashen`s work talks about the negative effects the first language can have on the second one. this author states that first language influences may spanishenglish writing structure interferences lopez urdaneta no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) 163 be, thus, an indicator of low level of acquisition or the result of the performer attempting to produce before having acquired enough of the target language to say what he wants to say. in a similar way, in his research about “the natural order hypothesis”, krashen (1982) posits that the acquisition of grammatical structures follows a natural order. in some contexts and depending on the language, some grammatical structures may be acquired earlier or later. according to this theory, some of the patterns in one language are naturally transferred to the second language which may be an indicator of error in some structures. not all the structures in the l1 are the same in the l2. as a result, students may make many mistakes. a further theory for this research study is proposed by cummins (1981). it has to do with how the transferability of skills from one language to another plays a critical role in second language acquisition. according to this theory, there exists a universal linguistic transference of characteristics and knowledge acquired from one language to another. in the same way, the influence of the first language is likely to be more evident in second language phonology, especially in pronunciation. l1 helps second language learners by providing a linguistic and cognitive framework, especially at the beginning stage. the relationship between this theory and my research study is explicit because of the fact that this paper tries to find out what knowledge is transmitted from one language to another and how this knowledge influences the acquisition of an l2. another theory on this important issue is the one proposed by jim cummins (1982), called the “iceberg theory”. in his theory, he mentioned that first language literacy and learning can be a benefit to l2 acquisition. language devices and concepts learned in a first language make learning the second language easier because students do not have to re-learn, in the new language, what they already know in their native language. understanding a concept in the first language requires only a re-labelling of terms in the second language and not a re-learning of the concept (cummins, 1982). according to this theory, concepts and skills are usually developed in the first language before they are transferred to the second. this is why it is important for students to continue to gain experience and input in their first language at home (cummins, 1981). the role of the first language in the acquisition of the second one is a very important factor to bear in mind, due to the fact that l1 can influence the acquisition of l2 positively or negatively. taking into account the theories previously mentioned, i will research the influence, either positive or negative, l1 written structure has on l2 written structure. based on reliable studies made by recognized people spanishenglish writing structure interferences lopez urdaneta no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) 164 in the field of education such as krashen (1981) with l1 interference and cummins (1981) and his iceberg theory, this research study will present a wide perspective of how first language knowledge influences second language attainment. these theories are an excellent source for this research study and contain a great variety of aspects that can be taken into account to achieve good results in the learning of a second language. literature review there are many controversial points of view regarding the acquisition of an l2. based on my experience observing classes, i have wondered if it would be possible to learn a second language in the same way we learned our first language, without basing our new data on previous knowledge. it would be interesting to know why it is so important to include our first language in order to learn the second one. currently, english as a foreign language (efl) teachers are implementing students’ mother tongue in the acquisition of their second language in order to convey meaning. research studies like the one done by schweers (1999) have demonstrated that deleting first language (l1) in second language (l2) situations is completely inappropriate. on the contrary, if l1 is used in a suitable way when learning an l2, it could be very beneficial. based on what schweers said, teachers should use students’ first language in lessons in order to create a sense of security in students, allowing them to express themselves as they really are. due to the fact that i had to face the problem of teaching english classes for beginners without using spanish in the lessons, i decided to research the influence of first language in the acquisition of a second language. thus, this paper will show that the native language is a very important factor when a person is acquiring a second language. also, this paper will show that exposure to language most of the times leads to its acquisition. in like manner, the results when learning only through exposure are higher than when using the l1 to learn a l2. this research study aims to show that grammar lessons are required in order for students to understand that there are structural differences between the two languages; thus, they will not make literal translations. this section reviews studies that focus on one or more of a set of six variables related to role of l1 role in l2 situations. the first study analyzes grammar transference from l1 to l2. other studies look at the transferability of cognates and word association models. moreover, other studies investigate interlingual awareness and positive and negative transference. finally, another study examines the role of spanishenglish writing structure interferences lopez urdaneta no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) 165 first language during the acquisition of the second one, along with its positive and negative points. in order to have a stronger idea of these studies, a summary of all of them is presented in the next section. grammar transference the following study looked at the importance l1 has on the acquisition of l2 and how grammar in the first language is somehow transferred to the second language. the study tried to define to what degree the first language determines the acquisition of grammar in adult learners of a second language. in a study of seven people done in italy, kim (2002) wanted to know which position best captures the role of the first language: no transference, partial transference or full transference. he found that the frequency of occurrence of the grammar transference in the first language into the second one varied among the students, regardless of the language in which the second language is taught. this means that no matter what language the first or the second is, the transferability of the first language into the second one will vary because of the student, not the language. other authors that talked about this issue were sanjo nitschke and evan kidd from the university of manchester, who studied a population of 20 adults (germans and italians) to do their research. sanjo nitschke and evan kidd (2009), through their investigation about how l1 transference affects l2 sentence processing. they discovered that l1 transference affects l2 processing and therefore l1 hinders the acquisition of l2. this means that although the acquisition of the l2 is affected by the first language, it does not prevent people from learning a second language. sanjo nitschke and evan kidd evidenced that priming can occur for what are essentially novel form-meaning pairings for l2 learners, suggesting that adult learners can rapidly associate existing forms with new meanings. these studies help teachers understand the importance of the first language when learning a second language. also, these studies show how teachers can improve or create new strategies which help students acquire the l2 easier and faster. furthermore, karen barto-sisamout, janet nicol, jeffrey witzel, and naoko witzel (2009) carried out their study “transfer effects in bilingual sentence processing” with a population of 48 native speakers of english in the university of arizona. the main purpose was to find out if transferability exists between l1 and l2, and also if there was a relationship between the processes of grammatical morphology between them. the results they got were that spanish-english bilinguals did not show processing difficulty. nevertheless, late spanish learners of english indicated a tendency showing intrusion effects in the first language, which means that students use their l1 to support their spanishenglish writing structure interferences lopez urdaneta no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) 166 l2. in a similar manner, adela solis (1986) looked for evidence of language transference (spanish to english, english to spanish) with the study “language transference in the acquisition of negation” which was done with a 4-year-old girl from el salvador. solis wanted to discover if the phenomenon of language transference existed. she found that the child had internalized the rules of spanish negation well enough to influence the use of spanish negative structures in her english constructions. on the contrary, in the second sample taken on sentence subject omissions, solis revealed no spanish intrusion, but rather that the student had acquired enough english rules on sentence subject inclusion to influence her use of this structure in both spanish and english, signifying a two-way transfer effect. taking into account what these authors said, it can be concluded that transferability of native language grammar and structure exists when acquiring a second language. furthermore, when a person is learning a second language, he/she uses his native language to support and make the process easier. the transferability of cognates williams (1992) studied “the cross-language transfer of lexical knowledge”. this study was carried out with a population of 74 upper elementary school students who were literate in both spanish and english. williams sought to discover how hispanic bilingual students’ knowledge of spanish vocabulary and awareness of spanishenglish cognates influence comprehension of english expository text. she found that the students were aware of cognates and made some use of that knowledge in their english reading. this means that students consciously use their native language in order to support their reading in the second language, and thus, make their reading understandable and easier for them. this author found that the contribution of spanish vocabulary knowledge to english reading is not automatic, but depends on the degree of awareness of the languages’ cognate relationship. what it says is that if you know about cognate relationships, you will be able to use cognates to help develop vocabulary in l2. when you have internalized more vocabulary, you do not have to guess the words you do not know or translate them into the nearest word in your mother tongue. finally, williams found that student knowledge of cognates could be even greater; suggesting that explicit instruction in cognates may be useful. in the study “first language transfer in the writing of hispanic esl learners” carried out with thirty-two esl learners from the educational services basic english program at the bayamon university technological college in puerto rico, schweers (1995) demonstrated the variety of communication/transfer strategies learners will employ spanishenglish writing structure interferences lopez urdaneta no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) 167 to solve problems of lexical deficit when communicating in a second language. for example, students employ strategies such as using an invented form of a word of his/her native language, combining it with the morphology or phonology of the principles of the second language. in a summary, it says that the student will take a word and modify it in such a way that it looks like a word in l2. one example of this is when a spanish speaker says “destination” to say “destiny” or “comparation” in order to say “comparison”. another study that talked about cognates as a support for learning a second language was done by hancin-bhatt and william nagy (1993). they stated that poor knowledge of vocabulary has a negative effect on reading. subsequently poor reading has been shown to have a negative impact upon academic success. many research studies done in spanish and french by hancin-bhatt and nagy discovered the relevance of finding out cognates when reading. these previous findings highlighted data that reported that 6th and 7th grade proficient latino readers in l2 used their cognate knowledge efficiently. word association recent studies have been used as support for the word association model, which has to do with cognates as a useful tool to learn a second language. one of the studies mentioned before by holmes and ramos (1993) with a group of english and french adult learners says that cognate vocabulary exists when vocabulary items in two languages can be recognized by most users as being the same word. they found, in their study of english cognate recognition, that cognates are a wellused strategy that language teachers can exploit, but that they have to be careful with, due to the fact that one of the results showed that grammatical transposition occurs where verbs are read as nouns, sometimes creating minor misreadings. the other result showed that irresponsible guessing is done with true and false cognates, resulting in an erroneous reading of the text. clearly, this shows that second language learners, when they finish reading a text, do not always understand it. learners do not look for the words in the dictionary. instead they try to guess what the word means. thus, l2 learners finish reading with an unclear meaning of the text and with a false meaning of the words they translated into their native language. in addition, a study conducted by dijkstra and van hell’s (2001) with twenty-one participants from the university of valencia, spain, revealed that second language learners produced associations to cognates faster than to noncognates. teachers should be aware of this issue in order to correct students and at the same time make them spanishenglish writing structure interferences lopez urdaneta no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) 168 conscious of the problem of interpreting each word in the l2 as one similar to the l1. positive and negative transference the study carried out by james (1980) with a chinese population, based on contrastive analysis, showed that the negative transference of l1 was more powerful than the positive one in l2 writing. also, l1 always interfered in l2 writing, and the way of thinking in l1 influenced the pattern of the text organization in l2 writing (james, 1980). many other researchers have had similar findings. according to schumann (1998), l2 writers make many mistakes and 51% of these come from l1 interference. researchers also believed that differences between languages caused difficulties, which led to errors in l2 learning and writing. the more differences there were between languages, the more the difficulties appeared, and at the same time more errors took place. according to schumann (1998), similarities and differences between the two languages may result in either positive or negative transference according to different learning stages and language environments. first language role jones and tetroe (1987) found that l2 proficiency constrained the amount of writers’ planning while composing in l2. their observations showed that the amount of l1 use was reduced when written tasks were facilitated by providing relevant vocabulary for the students with a low level of l2 proficiency. however, cummins (1990) found that there was not any relation between the use of l1 while composing in l2. nonetheless, these studies all suggest that using l1 can be an efficient and effective strategy while composing in l2. in duke-lay’s (1982) case study of four native chinese-speaking esl writers, the writers’ think-aloud data revealed that these writers use their l1 to get a strong impression and association of ideas for the essay. a study performed by wang and wen (2002) with sixteen chinese efl writers at nanjing university in china showed that l2 writers were most likely to rely on l1 when they were controlling their writing processes, generating and organizing ideas, but they were more likely to rely on l2 when undertaking task-examining and text-generating activities. their study indicated that the participants with low english proficiency levels tended to translate from l1 into l2 throughout their l2 composing processes. finally, schweers (1999), at the university of puerto rico, bayamon campus, conducted a study with high school efl students and their 19 teachers in a spanish context to investigate their attitudes toward using l1 in the l2 classroom. he found that 88.7% of spanish spanishenglish writing structure interferences lopez urdaneta no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) 169 students studying english want l1 used in the class because they believe it facilitates learning. students also wished that up to 39% of the class time be spent in l1 (schweers, 1999, p. 7). burden (2001) investigated the attitudes of 290 students and 73 teachers at five universities in the united states. the results showed that both students and teachers believed that l1 explanation of new vocabulary was important when acquiring the l2. another similar research conducted by tang (2002), done in a chinese context with 100 students and 20 teachers, showed similar results. the research showed that the use of the mother tongue in the english classroom does not negatively affect the exposure of students to english, but it can be a support for teaching and learning processes. as a conclusion, although schweers, burden, and tang previously stated that the role of the first language is an important issue to bear in mind when learning a second language, it is also important to mention that it should not be the most relevant part in acquiring a l2. as bilingual teachers, it is our responsibility to give our students the best environment for them to learn a second language and this includes making students feel comfortable about their learning process. the main goal of this research study was to know what influence l1 written structure had on l2 written structure and to find strategies to help teachers help their students avoid l1 during their writing processes in l2. most importantly, teachers need to take into account six important aspects about the role of first language when acquiring a second language. these six aspects are: grammar transference, transferability of cognates, word association, interlingual awareness, and positive and negative transference. method in order to collect data for this research study, qualitative data techniques were used. it is important to mention, first, that i was actively involved in the process of data collection. second, i participated as an observer of the students’ writing process throughout the english classes during the semester. third, teachers and students were interviewed and their responses were then compared with students’ english papers, in order to see if there existed any similarity between what they all answered and what students wrote. finally, i made three interventions with students in which grammar lessons were taught. in order to categorize and analyze data, the main sources used were quantitative surveys, informal interviews with students and teachers, and observation (with analysis) of intro students’ papers. through these spanishenglish writing structure interferences lopez urdaneta no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) 170 sources, i could identify the influence l1 written structure has on l2 written structure and how l1 affects students’ written papers positively or negatively. the interviews related to how students use spanish when writing in english, how much they use english-english and spanishenglish dictionaries, and how much knowledge students have about the different written structures in both languages, l1 and l2. the analysis is about students’ english texts during the semester. i analyzed how much students use spanish (l1) written structures and words in order to compose in english (l2). the amount of papers collected depended on the written tasks assigned by the teacher during the semester. these tasks (students’ english papers) were analyzed based on how students write in their mother tongue. the papers showed whether or not any influence from l1 to l2 existed in the area of writing. interventions three interventions took place during grammar classes. one of these interventions took place at the beginning of the semester, one in the middle of the semester and one at the end. the aim of these classes was to make students realize that spanish written structures are not the same as english written structures. they have different grammatical compositions that disallow literal translations. in this part of the process, i collected students’ papers every two weeks. i analyzed them, gave feedback and made note of examples of how students used their native language (spanish) during their second language (english) writing process. identifying themes students’ written work was analyzed. in this part of the process, i looked for patterns that emerged from students’ papers. these patterns were selected based on the influence the l1 has in the l2 writing, such as literal translations, spanish structure (word order), missing verbs, invented words, and cognates. interviews these interviews gave me a better idea of how influential l1 was in l2 writing. teachers were asked about students’ writing processes, their use of spanish structures in their papers, and the frequency of spanish-english and english-english dictionaries. teachers’ answers in the interview were analyzed and compared to the data collected from students’ papers. the teachers’ responses gave an overview of how spanish influences students’ written tasks. this overview was then triangulated with students’ written work in order to see whether or not teachers agreed on the idea that l1 influence in l2 is so large that it helps or hinders students’ learning process. spanishenglish writing structure interferences lopez urdaneta no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) 171 the following triangulation matrix states what kinds of sources were used to answer each of the research questions. three questions were designed in order to answer the main hypothesis. it is important to highlight that in order to answer each of the three questions, it was necessary to use at least four sources as the following chart displays below. results the following results are organized according to the analysis done for each of the three questions stated below, the surveys, the informal interviews with teachers and students, and the observation of students’ papers. in the surveys, all the students stated that spanish use was necessary to support english learning, but it also interfered by the time students wrote texts in the second language. on the contrary, teachers affi rmed that spanish was not necessary because this would delay students’ learning processes. all students responded that they had spanishenglish writing structure interferences lopez urdaneta no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) 172 realized the l1 was useful when gaining new concepts and expressions in the l2, but it was not helpful when they wrote texts in the l2. the next chart shows students’ and teachers’ agreement about the use of l1 in l2 contexts. 24 out of 24 students agreed that their use of spanish is close to 90 percent average, because they did not understand most of what their teachers told them. students also concurred in saying that they felt english learning was easier when they used spanish to support it. 24 out of 24 students had the same opinion about the use of spanishenglish and english-english dictionaries. they all agreed in saying that they preferred to use spanish-english dictionaries, due to the fact that their knowledge of the second language was limited, while teachers agreed with the idea of using only english-english dictionaries in order to strengthen english learning. furthermore, regarding the writing processes, 16 out of 24 surveyed students agreed that spanish usage, although a good tool when learning english, most of the time generated problems when writing in the l2. in a similar manner, all the teachers agreed that l1 really affected l2 writing. from the survey, teachers stated that most of students’ texts had l1 infl uence, which made texts not clear and full of mistakes. thus, according to the chart of agreement with regard to spanish use when learning english, all the teachers consented that l1 did not work well to write in the l2. in the interviews, students highlighted that they knew little about english and spanish structures, which made them write in the same way in both languages. students emphasized that their use of spanishenglish dictionaries was the source they used rather than looking for synonyms in an english-english dictionary. they also said that spanishenglish dictionaries gave them clear and direct concepts within the language they already know, which is spanish. students pointed out that their use of english-english dictionaries was lower, due to the fact that students were afraid of understanding new words incorrectly. this is one of the reasons why, according to some interviewed students, they spanishenglish writing structure interferences lopez urdaneta no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) 173 used spanish-english dictionaries with the clear idea of not giving way to misunderstandings about the meaning of the words. in addition, students realized that by the time they wrote english texts, they wrote them in spanish first and then they translated them into english. some of them said they used a translator and some others said they took their time translating unknown words with their spanishenglish dictionaries and tried to use those words in the correct way. they also realized that when they received their papers back, they were asked to write them again, changing some structures and also writing missing things such as subject pronouns. 24 students out of 24 highlighted that the use of their first language, spanish, hindered their writing in the l2 because when they used it, their texts had more mistakes. in a similar manner, students recognized that the grammar lessons given were completely useful. not only did the lesson help reduce grammar and structure mistakes during the next papers, but they also helped the students realize why their first papers had mistakes. on the other hand, interviewed teachers stated that the most frequent mistakes made by students had to do with the order of structures and words, and the lack of personal pronouns. the teachers said students made those kinds of mistakes at least ten times in a hundred-word paper. some other mistakes that teachers pointed out had to do with capitalization and punctuation, followed by a few spelling mistakes. moreover, teachers emphasized that students tend to translate literally from spanish to english during their first semesters. most of the corrections they made showed students’ reliance on their first language. this reliance showed that l1, in some way, hindered students’ l2 writing. furthermore, students` most common translations, according to one of the teachers, had to do with false cognates in which students took one english word with similar spelling in spanish but with different meaning in english and wrote it in the text with no sense. teachers indicated that this strategy of transferring words from their first language is the result of students’ lack of vocabulary. in addition, all the three interviewed teachers emphasized that english-english dictionaries should be students’ first source once they find an unknown word. teachers agreed to say it is important for students to know whether the word is a noun or a verb or perhaps an adverb. english-english dictionaries give examples of the correct use of each word, which is not likely to be found in a spanish-english dictionary. teachers believe that by using english-english dictionaries, students would strengthen their english learning. 3 out of 3 interviewed spanishenglish writing structure interferences lopez urdaneta no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) 174 teachers disagree with the idea of using spanish-english dictionaries during the first semesters. regarding the usage of both types of dictionaries, students believed they spent too much time looking for words in both dictionaries. they said they preferred to use only one dictionary (spanishenglish one) or use a translator instead. teachers, on the other hand, said that the use of both dictionaries at the same time made no sense because they disapproved of the use of spanish-english ones and because students wasted time searching for words in two different dictionaries. teachers considered the grammar lessons, or interventions, to be very important. one of the teachers pointed out that writing becomes more difficult for students when they are asked to write a text with no basis of how to do it. teachers declared that they spent at least fifteen minutes of the class explaining grammar before inviting students to write in the l2. these three teachers also figured out that after my interventions, students improved remarkably in their following papers, not only reducing the number of mistakes regarding order but also increasing the number of words within the text. the next chart shows the analysis done to five of the students’ papers. this chart illustrates the most common mistakes with regard to l1 influence students made when writing english texts and the number of total mistakes among the whole class in each paper. regarding the observation of five students’ papers, four kinds of mistakes related to l1 were viewed to have influence on the students’ written texts in the l2. it is important to mention that the following mistakes are presented in order, starting from the one the students made the most to the least. the first one, word order, refers to the syntactic arrangement of words in a sentence, clause, or phrase. according to the analysis made on three papers of each of the 24 observed students, it was possible to identify that 24 out of 24 students had at least four mistakes with regard to the order of the sentences in the written texts done with little instruction on grammar. that makes a total of at least 137 word-order mistakes in each of the three papers analyzed in the whole class. furthermore, 65 implicit-subject mistakes (the ones in which the main subject is dropped, leaving the sentence incomplete and unclear: for example, “is mine”) is the average in the first three papers analyzed. 19 out of 24 students dropped the subject in a sentence at least one time, which makes a total of a 65 mistake average in the whole class where the main subject was left out. moreover, concerning the third most common mistake, wrong use of the article “the”, (the one in which the article is used incorrectly in l2 because some students spanishenglish writing structure interferences lopez urdaneta no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) 175 think these can be used in the same way as in spanish: for example, “in the 2010”, referring to the year). 19 out of 24 students made this kind of mistake at least one time per paper, with a total of a 60 mistake average among the group. the fourth most common mistake was the omission of the verb “be” (in which some students forget to write the verb “be” in continuous actions: for example, “i playing soccer”), 15 out of 24 students made that mistake at least two times. on average, these 15 students had a total of 32 missing-be mistakes. additionally, the individual average of students’ mistakes in each of their papers was 13. some students made more mistakes than others, but none of them was higher than 20 or lower than 9 mistakes in a paper. that makes a total of 300 mistakes among the whole group, of the four kinds of mistakes related to l1 in l2 writing mentioned above. in a similar manner, after being given the three grammar lessons, students improved remarkably in all the four aspects in the next papers. two papers were analyzed after the interventions were made and the mistakes were reduced dramatically. word order mistake decreased in the whole class from 137 to 78 mistakes in the fourth paper and to 68 mistakes in the fi fth one. the second most frequent mistake, implicit subject, went from 65 mistakes on average in the fi rst three papers to 21 mistakes in the fourth and 17 in the fi fth paper. the third mistake related to the l1 infl uence on l2 writing, the wrong use of the article “the”, decreased from 60 mistakes average during the fi rst papers, to 19 and 14 mistakes in the fourth and fi fth papers respectively. the number of mistakes of the missing verb “be” decreased from 32 in the fi rst three papers to 10 in the fourth and 6 in the fi fth. in addition, the total number of mistakes in the fi rst papers reduced from 300 to 128 in the fourth and to 104 in the last one analyzed, which concurs with what was said by teachers. the grammar lessons really helped students improve l2 writing and avoid spanish usage in it. spanishenglish writing structure interferences lopez urdaneta no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) 176 conclusions as the results showed in this current study, students tend to use l1 written structure in the l2 texts and to translate word-by-word from l1 to l2. in a similar way, cummins (1989) said that lower l2 proficiency writers rely more heavily on their l1 during the writing process in order to maintain the process and prevent a complete breakdown in language. linking this current research study and this theory, it can be concluded that first semester students do use their l1 in order to produce texts in the l2. another conclusion is that the influence that l1 written structure has on l2 written structure is large. based on the findings, i conclude that l1 influence was negative when using it to write texts in the l2. many mistakes regarding l1 were found in all the texts students were asked to write in english. based on what was found in this research study, the data analysis, the interviews, surveys and students` papers, it is also concluded that l1 hinders l2 writing. on one hand, using spanish to learn english makes the process longer, due to the fact that students have to translate everything to their language and then, once they have realized what the meaning of the words is, students have to write the words in english again. on the other hand, by translating from english to spanish and vice versa, most of the time students forget essential things which in the end become mistakes. similarly, although students agreed about using spanish-english dictionaries, this study showed that they negatively affect students writing process in the l2 and that it is important to avoid their overuse in class. they can be used only when it is extremely necessary but not all the time. instead, english-english dictionaries can be used more frequently in order to avoid reliance on l1, and also to avoid students getting to a higher english level in more advanced courses while still depending on spanish-english dictionaries. in a similar way, in a study carried out by james (1980), it is shown that the negative transference of l1 was more powerful than the positive one in l2 writing. according to krashen (1988), it is maintained that l1 interference is one of the several sources of errors learners make. concerning this study, 100 % of the studied population made more mistakes when translating literally from l1 to l2. some students tend to write l2 texts with l1 structure, making word-order mistakes. as a conclusion, based on these authors and this study, it is concluded that l1 negatively affects l2 writing. furthermore, findings in this research study aim to show the importance of grammar lessons during the first semesters of english learning. students in this research had a large decrease in mistakes in l2 after having been given the grammar lesson, which shows the spanishenglish writing structure interferences lopez urdaneta no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) 177 effectiveness of studying grammar before asking students to write by themselves with no preparation. finally, although most of the studies presented in this work showed positive results when using the l1 to learn the l2, this work indicated negative results of transference at the beginning stages of l2 writing. references barto, k., nicol, j., witzel, j., & witzel, n. (2009). transfer effects in bilingual sentence processing. retrieved april 10, 2008 from http://w3.coh.arizona.edu/awp/awp16/awp%2016%5bbartosisamout%20et%20al.%5d.pdf chomsky, n. (1959). review of b.f. skinner verbal behavior. language, 35, 26-58 cummins, j. (1981). iceberg theory. retrieved september 20, 2007 from http://www.dmps .k12.ia.us/forms/secondlanguageacquisition. pdf cummins, j. (1982). second language acquisition theory. retrieved september 27, 2007 from http://books.google.com.co/books ?id=opi9tnmzyh0c&pg=pa60&lpg =pa60&dq=secondlanguage+learning+(collier)&source=bl&ots=k0nfmezz tb&sig= js3fjlnci9zer21zi6r8kr5irhk&hl=es&ei=uy2_ sqnsmtgj8abaskslaq&sa=x&oi=book_result&ct=result&resn um=2#v=onepage&q=second-language%20learning%20(collier) &f=false duke-lay, n. (1982). “composing processes of adult esl learners: a case study”, in tesol quarterly 16/2 june 82:406-418. retrieved from http://www.ugr.es/~portalin/articulos/pl_numero3/herrera.pdf hahn, a. (1983). sound shifts and cognate recognition. university of south florida. retrieved november 5, 2009 from http://webgerman. com/caplan/portfolio/caplan/cognates/index.html holmes, j., & ramos, r. (1993). false friends and reckless guessers: observing cognate recognition strategies. in huckin t., m. haynes, & j. coady. (eds.). second language reading and vocabulary learning 86 108. norwood, new jersey: ablex. spanishenglish writing structure interferences lopez urdaneta no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) 178 james, c. (1980). contrastive analysis. ny: longman. retrieved november 6th, 2009 from http://w3.coh.arizona.edu/awp/awp16/ awp%2016%5bbarto-sisamout%20et%20al.%5d.pdf james, c. (1980). literature review on the use and effect of l1 in l2 writing. retrieved november 5th, 2009 from http://www.linguist. org.cn/doc/uc200805/uc20080511.pdf krashen, s. d. (1981). second language acquisition and second language learning, pergamon retrieved september 20, 2007 from http://www.sdkrashen.com/sl_acquisition_and_learning/index. html krashen, s. (1982). principles and practice in second language learning and acquisition. oxford: pergamon. retrieved september 20, 2007 from http://fredshannon.blogspot.com/2005/11/inputhypothesis.html krashen stephen d. (1988). ”the role of first language in second language acquisition.” second language acquistion and second language learning (pp.64-69). englewood cliff: prentice hall. kim, s. (2002). transfer and access to universal grammar in adult second language acquisition. retrieved november 20th, 2009 from http://dissertations.ub.rug.nl/faculties/arts/2002/k.sauter/ newmark, l. (1966) “how not to interfere with language learning.” language learning: the individual and the process. international journal of american linguistics 40: 77-83 retrieved october 15th, 2009 from http://www.sdkrashen.com/sl_acquisition_and_ learning/sl_acquisition_and_learning.pdf schumann, j. (1998). the neurobiology of affect in language. language learning, 48, supplement 1, 527-549. schweers, w. jr. (1995). first language transfer in the writing of hispanic esl learners. retrieved november 5th, 2009 from http:// www.uprb.edu/milenio/milenio1999/19schweers99.pdf schweers, w. jr. (1999). using l1 in the l2 classroom. english teaching forum, 37(2), 6–9 retrieved november 6th, 2009 from http://www.novitasroyal.org/nazary.pdf solis, a. (1986). language transfer in the acquisition of negation: retrieved november 5th, 2009 from http://www.eric.ed.gov/ ericdocs/data/ericdocs2sql/content_storage_01/0000019b/80/15/ cb/e1.pdf spanishenglish writing structure interferences lopez urdaneta no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) 179 williams, n. e. (1992). cross-language transfer of lexical knowledge: bilingual students’ use of cognates. retrieved november 8th, 2009 from http://www.eric.ed.gov/ericwebportal/contentdelivery/ servlet/ericservlet?accno=ed350869 williams, n.e., & bhatt, h.b. (1993). spanish-english bilingual students. use of cognates in english reading. journal of reading behavior, 25, pp. 241-259. retrieved november 5th, 2009 from http:// www.eric.ed.gov/ericwebportal/custom/portlets/recorddetails/ detailmini.jsp?_nfpb=true&_&ericextsearch_searchvalue_0=ej 472498&ericextsearch_searchtype_0=no&accno=ej472498 the author *julio lorenzo lópez urdaneta holds a b.a in bilingual education from única. he currently works as a teacher for the centro colombo americano in bogotá. he also provides english language training to outstanding students from underprivileged backgrounds, through intensive school classes and modules in the access program run by the american embassy. in addition, he has implemented new activities that help children to be independent and have fun while learning a second language. email: julio.lopez.urdaneta@gmail.com spanishenglish writing structure interferences lopez urdaneta no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) 245 challenges of bilingualism in higher education: the experience of the languages department at the universidad central in bogotá, colombia1 desafíos del bilingüismo en educación superior: la experiencia del departamento de lenguas de la universidad central en bogotá, colombia carlo granados beltrán2* institución universitaria colombo americana, única, colombia abstract many of the actions of colombia’s national programme for the development of foreign languages (programa nacional de desarrollo de lenguas extranjeras – pndle) have been carried out in elementary and secondary education, but there is not much information about its impact in institutions of higher education. the aim of this article is to present the initiatives taken as well as the challenges faced by the languages department in order to foster bilingualism at universidad central in bogota, colombia. to explain the reasons behind these initiatives, quality indicators for successful bilingual programs were used and the situation at the university in comparison to the indicators is described. it is concluded that the endeavour of graduating bilingual students will not be easy to achieve unless institutions incorporate models of bilingual education as indicators for accreditation and support the labours of languages departments. key words: higher education, bilingualism, languages departments, successful bilingual programs, quality indicators 1 received: august 8, 2013, 2013 / accepted: october 7, 2013 2 email: carlogranados@gmail.com gist education and learning research journal. issn 1692-5777. no. 7, november 2013. pp. 245-258 reflections on the process of bilingual education no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) 246 resumen muchas de las acciones del programa nacional de desarrollo de lenguas extranjeras – pndle han sido desarrolladas para educación primaria y secundaria, pero parece no existir mucha información acerca del impacto de estas acciones en las instituciones de educación superior. el objetivo de este artículo es presentar las iniciativas implementadas, así como los retos enfrentados por el departamento de lenguas de la universidad central en bogotá, colombia en relación con el fomento del bilingüismo. para explicar las razones que apoyaron estas acciones, se utilizaron los indicadores para programas bilingües exitosos y se analizó la situación de la universidad en comparación con esos indicadores. se concluye que el esfuerzo para graduar estudiantes bilingües no será fácil a menos que las instituciones incorporen modelos de educación bilingüe con indicadores de acreditación y apoyen las labores realizadas por los departamentos de lenguas. palabras clave: educación superior, bilingüismo, departamentos de lenguas, programas bilingües exitosos, indicadores de calidad. resumo muitas das ações do programa nacional de desenvolvimento de línguas estrangeiras – pndle foram desenvolvidas para educação primária e secundária, mas parece não existir muita informação sobre o impacto destas ações nas instituições de educação superior. o objetivo deste artigo é apresentar as iniciativas implantadas, bem como os retos enfrentados pelo departamento de línguas da universidade central em bogotá, colômbia em relação com o fomento do bilinguismo. para explicar as razões que apoiaram estas ações, utilizaram-se os indicadores para programas bilíngues bem-sucedidos e analisou-se a situação da universidade em comparação com esses indicadores. conclui-se que o esforço para formar estudantes bilíngues não será fácil salvo que as instituições incorporem modelos de educação bilíngue com indicadores de credenciamento e apoiem os trabalhos realizados pelos departamentos de línguas. palavras chave: educação superior, bilinguismo, departamentos de línguas, programas bilíngues bem-sucedidos, indicadores de qualidade. challenges of bilingualism in higher education granados no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) 247 introduction colombia has not escaped the world trend of the growing demand for learning and speaking english. in order to respond to this need and to encourage the competitiveness of the citizens, the government designed a language policy named the national programme for the development of foreign languages (programa nacional de desarrollo de lenguas extranjeras – pndle), previously known as national bilingualism programme. this programme has four major points in which the educational actions are centred: a) the definition of basic competence standards in foreign language, in particular, english, b) the programme of professional development for english teachers, c) the accreditation of the programmes of non-formal education in foreign languages, and d) the assessment of competences in english in the different educational cycles.3 within the framework of the ii international seminar in professional development for the foreign language teachers, organised by the language school at universidad de antioquia, the discussion about the linguistic policies in the national and international spheres played an important role. the ministry of national education presented the linguistic policy of bilingual colombia as an integral measure that has the intention of promoting two things: 1) the teaching of english based on international standards which include the adoption of the common european framework of reference for languages: learning, teaching and assessment, and 2) support the particular initiatives in the country regions to train in-service teachers. despite the different initiatives taken by the ministry since the programme was formulated, results in proficiency levels have been discrete. a study carried out by sánchez-jabba in 2012 concluded that the proficiency of high school students in colombia was relatively low and that the number of students who could be considered bilingual was about 1%. similarly, in the report of english proficiency index carried out by education first, colombia was ranked at 50 indicating a very low level of proficiency, similar to most countries in the region, with the exception of argentina that ranked number 20 indicating a moderate level. in 2013, sánchez-jabba conducted a study, similar to the one he did in 2012, for which he expanded the population and concluded that among high school students we could observe a serious problem challenges of bilingualism in higher education granados 3 http://www.mineducacion.gov.co/1621/articles-132560_recurso_pdf_programmea_ nacional_bilinguismo.pdf no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) 248 since 90% cannot reach levels beyond basic user (a-, a1 or a2), which implies that the goals established by the ministry might be too ambitious given that the tendency shows few meaningful advances in students’ proficiency in english. likewise, the researcher mentions that for english teachers the results are also worrying since only 25% reach the level expected in the tests. when exploring the literature related to bilingualism in colombia, it can be noticed that many of the studies dealing with the impact of the pndle have been carried out in elementary and secondary education, as well as in the ba programmes in modern languages that prepare future english teachers; nonetheless, not much has been written in relation to the impact of the policies in the teaching and learning of english in other majors different from modern languages. this paper aims to share the experiences and challenges faced by the languages department at the universidad central in bogotá, colombia in order to respond to the needs set out by these linguistic policies. for the purposes of the paper, the quality indicators for successful bilingual programmes established by mcgroarty (2001) will be taken into consideration as well as some characteristics of effective bilingual programmes stated in the examples grouped in the case studies edited by christian & genesee (2001). these indicators will be intertwined with the different interventions the languages department at the universidad central carried out at different university levels with the purpose of fostering bilingualism and with the different challenges posed at the institutional level for the attainment of the goals established by the ministry. based on this analysis, it will be argued that no bilingual education in higher education will be successful unless universities take serious actions in relation to policies, cross-curricular work, teacher training, budget allocation and community outreach, and that even though languages department are accountable for success in the students’ learning of foreign languages, this responsibility is to be shared by the directing boards at universities since they are the ones to provide the support language departments need. moreover, in order for universities to truly engage in a committed effort, an item in relation to bilingual education will have to be included as an accreditation criterion. criteria for successful bilingual programmes mcgroarty (2001) presents the diversity of existing bilingual programmes and also acknowledges the fact that, depending on the contexts, there may be hybrid versions of these in which special challenges of bilingualism in higher education granados no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) 249 characteristics of each model may be mixed to respond to particular needs. most of research in bilingualism and bilingual education has been carried out in primary or secondary education in the united states and canada; however, the four criteria proposed by this author might as well work for tertiary education, which is why the situation of the languages department at universidad central in bogotá is going to be analysed using that model. the criteria are availability of teachers and other school staff, sound curriculum and instructional organisation, appropriate regular assessment, and multiple channels of parent and community outreach. availability of teachers and other school staff this first indicator means that it is advisable for the institutions to count not only on a number of teachers with experience teaching english as a foreign/second language, but also with professors who are experts in teaching content areas in english. additionally, other members of the community such as university administrators committed to bilingual education and classroom assistants that help in the implementation of the models are needed to guarantee consistency in the instruction. bostwick (2001), describing a successful programme in japan, mentions teacher certification and recruitment as one of the features for the quality of the programme. in the same way weber (2001), explaining a similar experience in indiana, usa, specifies the need to engage and retain high quality staff in order to maintain effectiveness. the situation at the universidad central is complex. it is very common that only the professors belonging to the languages department know another language, be that english, french, portuguese or german. when taking a look at the other academic units, for instance, engineering, advertising, or finance, it can be observed that most of the faculty is monolingual; that is to say, they only speak spanish, and the few professors who speak english have not been trained to teach their disciplines in a foreign language. needless to say, very few people in the administrative and support areas are bilingual. in order to respond to this need, the languages department included in its offer courses specially tailored for teachers taking into consideration their time availability and schedule restrictions. nonetheless, some other challenges emerged due to a combination of what could be reluctance on the part of the directing bodies and financial constraints which did not allow investment in teacher training either in english or in language pedagogy for non-english teachers. challenges of bilingualism in higher education granados no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) 250 this was translated in the fact that even though chancellors and deans encouraged the languages department to offer the service of language teaching to professors of other faculties as well as specific courses for english-speaking professors, the conditions for the professors to take those courses were not always the best since they had to pay for the courses themselves, or they were usually assigned such a heavy workload that they did not have the time to take them. it was also common that their schedules did not fit with the one for the course or that they simply were not willing to take them. despite these shortcomings, the languages department could offer an english course for a small group of professors of advertising and communication, a special course in academic writing for professors of engineering, and two subsequent conversation clubs in which professors and students from different majors participated; however, the attendance to these courses decreased as time progressed due to the commitments related to the academic workload that participants had. sound curriculum and instructional organisation mcgroarty (2001) mentions, in terms of primary and secondary education, that there needs to be a close articulation of grade and subject levels, flexible groupings, team teaching, appropriate teaching materials and collaborative staff planning, among other aspects. for university level, this would imply establishing a solid link between english and students’ disciplinary areas, finding content area teachers willing to make a joint effort with language teachers in order to strengthen instruction not only in the content area but also in the use of english for learning that content. baker (2011) also states for effective schools and classrooms for bilingual students, a curriculum which is challenging, coherent, meaningful and relevant. in the same line of thought, urow & sontag (2001) in a case study describing an experience in chicago, mention as one factor of success the integration of language, content and research skills development in the bilingual programme. moreover, the author explains that for bilingual approaches, a plan for the allocation of languages throughout the school day and across the length of the school programme is needed since “if both languages are to be developed appropriately, both must be accorded the status of medium of instruction for a variety of curricular activities and (...) both may also be school subjects” (p. 351). also, baker (2011) specifies that one way for students to become bilingual is establishing 50% of instruction in both languages. for the case of the university, this would mean that in the long run english would have to be used challenges of bilingualism in higher education granados no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) 251 for teaching content areas in the majors, but also students will have to be guaranteed an english class and also opportunities to practice that language out of class. one of the actions taken by the languages department in order to fulfill this indicator was the implementation of cross-curricular projects. one great challenge for the languages department is the fact of teaching english in a monolingual context; that is to say, students are not obliged to use english outside the classroom since in every context spanish is used. that is why many do not see the need to learn the language, not even in their jobs; however, they are aware of the advantages in terms of competitiveness english creates for them. for this reason, the department implemented, within the curriculum, crosscurricular projects in each one of the english levels offered. cross-curricular work consisted in establishing links between the foreign language and the professions of our students. in order to make this work more systematic, this job was organized in the following way: for the level basic i, as students do not have enough tools in english, the activity developed is the creation of a glossary with the terms of the core area. for basic ii, students develop a reading activity but with specialized web pages. the teacher explores the web pages that he or she considers appropriate for the level and core area of his or her students and elaborates a recognition guide of the web page, and later, the students will develop the activity in a multimedia session. for basic 3, as the students are already capable of identifying the vocabulary related to their majors due to the job done in the previous levels, students work on a reading workshop designed by the teacher. finally, in pre-intermediate 1, students develop a class project in which the topic is a problem assigned by the major or agreed with the students at the beginning of the semester. in this project, students should generate a product in which they involve the contents of their majors and the foreign language component, for example auditing companies, a handbook for the use of accounting software, web pages, advertising campaigns, among others. another action taken by the languages department was a joint effort between a few bilingual advertising and economics teachers as well as with some professors of the languages departments in order to offer lectures or workshops specifically addressed to students from these majors dealing with the contents of the disciplines. nonetheless, this activity could not be sustained because some bilingual professors from the core areas changed jobs. others experienced a change in challenges of bilingualism in higher education granados no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) 252 workload, and they did not have as much time available to continue in the project. however successful this implementation of cross-curricular work has been, there have been some conditions affecting the curricular integration and instructional consistency in relation to teaching english at the university. starting in 2001, higher education institutions started moving towards the system of academic credits in order to set up, as restrepo (2005) explains, a common basis to facilitate students’ mobility, the recognition and evaluation of achievements and curricular flexibility. due to the establishment of this system of credits (decree 2566 of 2003, p.44), the university decided to withdraw english from the academic programmes in the different majors; therefore, they affected the close articulation of disciplinary subjects and foreign language and started affecting the goal of bilingual students we are aiming to attain. in this respect, dr. carlos javier mosquera, representative of conaces (comisión nacional de aseguramiento de la calidad de la educación superior)5 also informed during the i interamerican conference in bilingual education that only one major is attaining the foreign language proficiency expected: tourism. also, having students learn english out of the curriculum ensures that they will not learn it since they are not using it for real purposes, but as an additional task. secondly, the number of hours allocated to the teaching of english at the university ranges between three and four per week; during a semester the number of hours cannot sufficiently cover the number established in the guidelines of the common european framework of reference for languages, as adopted by the colombian ministry of education. for example, for reaching a level b2, students will need to comply with a range of 500 to 600 hours of face-to-face instruction, but in practice students take an average of four hours per week, and an academic term lasts sixteen weeks (64 hours of english per semester). it is important to bear in mind that students usually take four levels of english at the languages department, and the level they are trying to attain is just a little beyond a2; nonetheless, we have to subtract the hours taken off the subject by extra activities. third, one of the decisions the university made in order to overcome this problem was requiring the professors of all the areas to include and use references in english in their syllabi, but considering 4 http://www.mineducacion.gov.co/1621/articles-104846_archivo_pdf.pdf 5 national committee of quality assurance in higher education challenges of bilingualism in higher education granados no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) 253 that most of the content area teachers do not speak a foreign language, as mentioned before, despite the good intention behind the decision, this has become a regulation that is not executed in real life. professors do include references in english but they do not use them, or they assign the reading to students and they will usually try to find someone to translate the texts for them. additionally, since most of the content area professors are not bilingual and those who are may not be able to work in a joint effort with language teachers (conflicting schedules, work overload, lack of will, etc.), the idea of implementation of team teaching is quite difficult to execute, as was experienced by the languages department. all the elements composing this phenomenon may imply that unless there is an item in the criteria for accreditation and registration (registro calificado) in which institutions are seriously evaluated in relation to the model of bilingual education or the actions they are taking about teaching a foreign language, there will be very few graduate bilingual students. this means that the evaluation carried out by the ministry and its evaluative entities will have to go beyond a review of curricular documents and university resolutions or decrees. rather, peers will also have to truly observe how bilingual or foreign language teaching models are implemented in practice. appropriate regular assessment mcgroarty (2001) states that there is a systematic approach to assess students’ progress not only in content areas but also in the foreign language in effective bilingual programmes; however, she also acknowledges that this assessment may vary based on national and local traditions and practices. urow & sontag (2001) mention the need to use classroom-based assessment since this will offer more accurate information about students’ attainment because it is based on performance. this does not mean tests could not be used, but they will have to be complemented by other ways of assessment. these authors also explain the need to integrate instruction and assessment, which they do by means of content area journals. some ways have to be explored at the university level so that students could be evaluated both in language proficiency and content areas. in relation to assessment it can be affirmed that the university, as many others in bogotá, takes a remedial approach to foreign language instruction; that is to say, students are required to demonstrate an english level at the end of their majors, but they are not obliged to take courses during specific moments in their programs. therefore, they challenges of bilingualism in higher education granados no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) 254 wait until the very moment they are going to graduate to fulfill with the requirement, in which case the university tests them to demonstrate they have the level required. however, because of the factors mentioned before, many of them fail the exam, holding their graduation back due to english. in order to change students’ mentality about testing their english level only upon graduation, the languages department implemented regular assessment by using mock versions of standardised tests (pet) during sixth and seventh semesters. nonetheless, one shortcoming of this decision was in relation to practicality due to the fact that it was very difficult to test about 1500 students’ english proficiency in faceto-face conditions; therefore, a virtual exam was created by using the moodle platform that had been acquired by the university. this brought up some other issues in terms of discrepancies in the results of the virtual tests and students’ real performance when using the language and the subsequent questioning of students’ honesty; i.e. impersonation, cheating, etc. although this may be a good decision, it needs to be taken with a grain of salt. as there is a lack of articulation of the teaching of foreign language with all the rest of the curriculum, we may risk english teaching becoming “english teaching for the tests.” multiple channels of parent and community outreach at a school, this means guaranteeing the support of the school efforts towards bilingualism by involving parents and the surrounding community. urow & sontag (2001), egger & lardscheiner mclean (2001), and baker (2011) mention how important it is to celebrate and serve the school community, if possible by involving different members who are bilingual to help support the school programme. additionally, as the experiences of these authors are at primary and secondary school, this outreach also implies involving parents in the processes. for universities, this would mean establishing agreements with international institutions which could offer support by means of language assistants or with other universities that are in capacity of offering content area courses in the foreign language. in order to engage in processes of community outreach, the languages department designed a campaign that, apart from involving the cross-curricular work previously mentioned, also included other kind of activities such as showing tv programmes in foreign languages in the cafeterias. also, together with university welfare and the graduate office, the languages department organised an international fair, to which embassies and agencies for international mobility were invited challenges of bilingualism in higher education granados no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) 255 as well as students who had the experience of studying or working abroad, with the purpose of informing the student community about those experiences. another action undertaken was the organization of immersion outings in which a few professors and students were invited to a place out of the city for a day to practise english through games and fun activities. despite these joint efforts, it is necessary to recognise that most of the initiatives have emerged from members of the languages department on their own, and that on most occasions, university directors imply that it is only the job of this academic unit to work towards the fostering of english language proficiency. for the colombian context, one of the most evident problems is the lack of opportunities to practice english outside the university language class; but additionally, the leadership needed to reach the quality indicators presented by mcgroarty (2001) has been carried out only by the languages department, occasionally with the help of the international affairs office and student welfare. academic units, even directing boards, not directly related to the languages department seem not to consider english as part of their job and usually wash their hands of it, discharging all the responsibility on this academic unit unaware that for a bilingual programme to be successful, all the stakeholders need to contribute. conclusion mcgroarty (2001) states the need for concerted efforts among teachers, institutions, students and families for successful bilingual programmes; baker (2011) talks about a shared vision, mission and goals among staff as well as the leadership of the institution as a critical factor of success; egger and lardscheiner mclean (2001) mention political compromise as a key aspect for success in their experience in italy. what these professors are saying is that serious leadership is needed in order to set clear goals in terms of bilingualism, guaranteeing and evaluating quality in instructional designs, and offering opportunities for the educational communities (teachers, students, administration and surrounding strategic partners) to contribute to the quality and success of the programme. this leadership also means that universities need to have a clear idea of what bilingualism means to them since most seem to take it as proficiency in the use of the (foreign) language (rey de castro & garcía, 1997), but it is not clear what that level of proficiency is. for challenges of bilingualism in higher education granados no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) 256 this particular case, even though the university has intended to create a language policy, this has not gone beyond establishing language degree requirements. therefore, the university does not seem to have a clear institutional policy yet in relation to the learning of foreign languages. what was established, in a similar way to other universities, is the demand for the student to attain a level b1 according to the common european framework, but they are not quite clear about the execution of the norm or about the mechanisms offered to students to attain the level. additionally, in most of the cases, the languages department has not always counted on a consistent institutional support in the implementation of policies for the fostering of bilingualism. at the universidad central, the languages department has made huge efforts in order to promote bilingualism, but in the institutional view, it seems that the job had to be undertaken only by this academic unit and nobody else. therefore, a serious institutional commitment is required in order to obtain the support for these initiatives. as mcgroarty (2001) explains, the quality conditions for bilingual programmes to be effective imply a sound curricular articulation, acquisition of resources in both languages, availability of qualified staff in both languages, a systematic assessment of the achievements attained, and the participation of the whole community: educational directors, administrative staff, teachers and students to create the conditions in which a person can become bilingual. in brief, and based on these specific experiences of the languages department at the universidad central, it is necessary to affirm that even though these academic units are made of hardworking language professionals and that the effort they make in educating people will be continued, institutions cannot rely on them solely to make students bilingual. taking a look at the current situation, we can affirm that “one swallow does not make a summer” and therefore, it is necessary for institutions to provide more sustained support if they want to attain the goals of internationalization and bilingualism stated in their institutional educational projects (pei). challenges of bilingualism in higher education granados no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) 257 references baker, c. (2011). foundations of bilingual education and bilingualism. bristol: multilingual matters. bostwick, m. (2001). english immersion in a japanese school. in d. christian & f. genesee (eds.), bilingual education (pp. 125-137). alexandria, va: tesol. christian, d. & genesee, f. (2001). bilingual education. alexandria, va: tesol. egger, k. & lardscheiner mclean, m. (2001). trilingual school in the ladin valleys of south tyrol, italy. in d. christian & f. genesee (eds.), bilingual education (pp. 57-67). alexandria, va: tesol. mcgroarty, m. (2001). bilingual approaches to language learning. in m. celce-murcia, d. m. brinton & m. a. snow (eds.). teaching english as a second or foreign language (3rd ed.) (pp. 345-353). boston, ma: heinle & heinle. ministerio de educación nacional. (2005). al tablero. no. 37. octubre – diciembre. retrieved from: http://www.mineducacion.gov. co/1621/article-97495.html restrepo, j. m. (2005). el sistema de créditos académicos en la perspectiva colombiana y mercosur: aproximaciones al modelo europeo. revista de la educación superior 34 (3), no. 135, julioseptiembre de 2005, 131-152. rey de castro, r. & garcía, d. (1997). landmark review of the use of teaching and learning of english in latin america: colombia. london: british council sánchez-jabba, a. (2012). el bilingüismo en los bachilleres colombianos. documentos de trabajo sobre economía regional, no. 159. cartagena: banco de la república. sánchez-jabba, a. (2013). bilingüismo en colombia. documentos de trabajo sobre economía regional. no. 191. cartagena: banco de la república. centro de estudios económicos regionales. urow, c. & sontag, j. (2001). creating community – un mundo entero: the interamerican experience. in d. christian & f. genesee (eds.), bilingual education (pp. 11-25). alexandria, va: tesol. weber, a. (2001). an international bilingual school in indiana, usa. in d. christian & f. genesee (eds.), bilingual education (pp. 151-165). alexandria, va: tesol. challenges of bilingualism in higher education granados no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) 258 author *carlo granados beltrán holds an m.a. in british cultural studies and english language teaching from the university of warwick in the united kingdom. he also holds and m.a. in applied linguistics to tefl from the universidad distrital francisco josé de caldas and a b.a in spanish and languages from the universidad pedagógica nacional. he was a fulltime professor in the languages department at the universidad central. he is also a guest lecturer in the research seminars at the m.a. in language teaching at the universidad pedagógica y tecnológica de colombia. he is currently pursuing his doctoral studies in education at the universidad santo tomás and is a full-time professor at the institución universitaria colombo americana, única. challenges of bilingualism in higher education no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) gist1-2007.indd 7 presentación después de tres años de fundada y de haberse consolidado como la primera institución universitaria de educación bilingüe en colombia, única presenta a la comunidad académica de colombia el primer número de gist. en éste, se presentan los frutos del trabajo de varios académicos interesados de alguna u otra forma en la educación bilingüe y en campos afines a ésta. gist presenta a sus lectores una serie de artículos que bien pueden ser ubicados en tres grandes grupos, a saber: bilingüismo y cultura, reflexiones pedagógicas y misceláneo. dentro del tema del bilingüismo y cultura, contamos con un interesante aporte de néstor alejandro pardo, diversidad lingüística y tolerancia en colombia, en el cual se explican algunas formas de discriminación que sufren algunas lenguas colombianas distintas al español. walter david alarcón en, bilingüismo indígena en colombia, describe la situación actual del bilingüismo y la bilingualidad indígena en nuestro país; para esto hace referencia a conceptos como competencia comunicativa, situación comunicativa, dominio, diglosia, comunidad de habla, competencias simple y dual. en bilingüismo: la lengua materna ante la globalización, juan alberto blanco sostiene que el bilingüismo se puede constituir en una herramienta para acceder a la globalización como nuevo orden mundial, herramienta que nos permitirá «entrar y salir de la gran aldea, en la que se está convirtiendo el mundo.» en the dialectic of global language, murray rinsdale, presenta una serie de argumentos que van en contra de las creencias tradicionales relacionadas con aquello que hace a una lengua global. finalmente, en intercultural communication through experiential learning, josephine ann taylor presenta una propuesta basada en su experiencia como docente en única en la que se sugiere que para tener un contacto intercultural, y de paso, mejorar la competencia 8 comunicativa intercultural, se puede crear contacto con subculturas, no necesariamente foráneas, para que aparezcan «terceros lugares» en donde se puedan construir un conocimiento y un comportamiento cultural completamente nuevos por medio del contacto y el proceso de interacción mismo. en la segunda parte de este número de gist, relacionada con la reflexión pedagógica, presentamos tres artículos en los que se profundiza en la relación entre teoría y práctica en la enseñanza de lenguas extranjeras. en action research and collaboration: a new perspective in social research and language education, yamith fandiño propone a la investigación-acción como una práctica que permite integrar la investigación social y la colaboración para desarrollar conocimiento y ayudar a la resolución de problemas en las aulas, contrario a lo que, en opinión del autor, ha sucedido con los paradigmas de investigación tradicionales. en una línea similar, en on the nature of applied linguistics: theory and practice relationships from a critical perspective, william sánchez explora las relaciones que se dan entre la lingüística aplicada y otras disciplinas relacionadas con el aprendizaje y enseñanza de una segunda lengua desde la perspectiva de la relación entre la teoría y la práctica. finalmente, nancy agray, en currículo emancipatorio y enseñanza de lenguas extranjeras, ¿ficción o realidad?, analiza la pertinencia, viabilidad y posibles implicaciones de crear una propuesta curricular basada en el enfoque emancipatorio para el contexto de enseñanza de lenguas extranjeras en la pontificia universidad javeriana de bogotá. la última sesión de gist presenta una amplia revisión bibliográfica en le tema de la metacognición y el aprendizaje en colaboración preparada por ana maría llano. maría del pilar bravo en literacy creation and the supernatural in english romanticism explica cómo en el romanticismo se usaban recursos como la exploración de lo sobrenatural y de la “sabia” inocencia de la infancia, y los sueños y las representaciones apocalípticas y góticas de la realidad, en la expresión de la emoción. para finalizar, debra mckinney en english teaching and private enterprise in colombia hace una reflexión acerca de la cada vez más creciente necesidad de que los trabajadores del sector privado en nuestro país aprendan y desarrollen altos niveles de proficiencia en una segunda lengua, que en la mayoría de los casos es el inglés. este primer número de gist tiene como propósito dar a conocer a la revista como un espacio en el que todos los interesados en la educación bilingüe y campos afines puedan difundir sus reflexiones. el objetivo 9 para nuestras próximas entregas será el dar a conocer avances de las investigaciones que se llevan a cabo en única y consolidarnos como el órgano de difusión de las instituciones interesadas en la educación bilingüe en nuestro país. queremos agradecer a los autores de los artículos de este primer número por su desinteresada, pronta y atenta colaboración en el proceso de corrección y edición de éstos. éste agradecimiento se extiende a thomas gardner, josephine taylor, luz libia rey, nidia cortés, alicia escallón y luisa maría chávez por su labor en el comité editorial en calidad de evaluadores de los artículos. por último, queremos resaltar la invaluable colaboración de césar vivas valderrama, diagramador y creador del concepto visual de la revista. ricardo a. nausa t. director gist 173 effectiveness of understanding relations between community, home, and school for future educators1 la importancia de comprender la relación entre la comunidad, hogar y escuela para la formación de futuros educadores claudia peralta and sonia galaviz2* boise state university and garfield elementary school, usa abstract as educators committed to preparing teachers to teach effectively across differences and in ways that actively resist perpetuating injustices, we have found that designing opportunities that take teachers into the children’s community is the best way to learn about the cultural wealth existing in homes and to understand the importance of including parents in the education of their children. college students from a graduate program at a public institution were asked to engage in community, neighborhood and home visits to reflect on their understanding of the relationship among community, home, and schools. as a result of these interactions, the students came to a new and deeper understanding of the importance of bringing together communities, schools, and homes to create an optimum environment for student success. key words: literacy development, parental involvement, cultural practices, families, teacher preparation programs, educators resumen como educadoras comprometidas con la formación de maestros que enseñen de manera eficaz a niños de diferentes culturas y lenguas, y a pesar de las diferencias, se opongan activamente a perpetuar cualquier clase de injusticia. 1 received: march 15, 2013, 2013 / accepted: october 1, 2013 2 emails: claudiaperalta@boisestate.edu, sonia.galaviz@boiseschools.org gist education and learning research journal. issn 1692-5777. no. 7, november 2013. pp. 173-189 effectiveness of the integration of ict tools no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) 174 para alcanzar este objetivo, se encontró que el diseñar oportunidades para que los maestros puedan acercarse a las comunidades de origen de los niños, es la mejor manera de conocer la riqueza cultural existente en los hogares y para entender la importancia de incluir a los padres en la educación de sus hijos. para esta investigación, los estudiantes de un programa de posgrado de una institución pública fueron invitados a participar en la comunidad, barrio y hogares de los estudiantes para reflexionar sobre su comprensión de la relación entre la comunidad, hogar y escuela. como resultado de estas interacciones, los estudiantes llegaron a un nuevo y más profundo entendimiento de la importancia de integrar la comunidad, escuela y hogar para crear un entorno óptimo para el éxito del estudiante. palabras clave: desarrollo de la lecto-escritura, participación de los padres, prácticas culturales, familias, programa de formación de docentes, educadores resumo como educadoras comprometidas com a formação de mestres que ensinam de maneira eficaz a crianças de diferentes culturas e línguas, e apesar das diferenças, se oponham ativamente a perpetuar qualquer classe de injustiça. para alcançar este objetivo, encontrou-se que o desenhar oportunidades para que os mestres possam aproximar-se às comunidades de origem das crianças, a melhor maneira de conhecer a riqueza cultural existente nos lares e para entender a importância de incluir os pais na educação de seus filhos. para esta pesquisa, os estudantes de um programa de pós-graduação de uma instituição pública foram convidados a participar na comunidade, bairro e lares dos estudantes para refletir sobre a sua compreensão da relação entre a comunidade, lar e escola. como resultado destas interações, os estudantes chagaram a um novo e mais profundo entendimento da importância de integrar a comunidade, escola e lar, para criar um entorno ótimo para o êxito do estudante. palavras chave: desenvolvimento da leito-escritura, participação dos pais, práticas culturais, famílias, programa de formação de docentes, educadores introduction the question that served as the impetus for this paper was, “how can we help educators realize the wealth and relevance that culturally and linguistically diverse families and students bring to school?” preparing teachers to effectively teach across socioeconomic, cultural, linguistic, and gender differences is complicated by a lack effectiveness of understanding relations peralta & galaviz no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) 175 of familiarity with or valuing of the cultures, learning styles, and communication patterns of diverse groups (bohn & sleeter, 2000). today, of the 74 million children in the united states (defined by the u.s. census bureau as those under 18 years of age), the ethnic groups are: white, 59%; hispanic, 19%; black, 15%; asian, 4%; and other, 3% (national center for children in poverty, 2006). however, 90% of the teachers serving these students are white. because our nation’s teaching force is predominantly white, female, and middle-class, decisions, values, and perceptions are likely to be derived from lived experiences very different from those of the increasingly diverse student population. the ways in which this negatively impacts the education of diverse populations has been well documented (katz, 1999; rodriguez, 1993). our attempt to answer the question of how to better prepare teachers to effectively teach across differences resulted in designing assignments that scaffolded teachers’ exploration and incorporation of family cultures and contexts into their teaching. in this article we share the benefits of a stream of assignments designed to help teachers understand the wealth of knowledge that exists in the homes of their students, and the importance of the relationship between community, home, and school. then, we address methods used by the instructors. next, we explore the challenges and benefits that arose from these experiences, highlighting how integrating family events into educational experiences helps make educators “insiders” in the community, adding another dimension to the relationship with students, families, and community. lastly, we reflect on our experiences. one could argue that the interaction between parents and children has not changed substantially, at least in relation to the expectations that parents have about their children’s education. as jobeth allen discusses in her book literacy in the welcoming classroom (2010), expectations of parents regarding the education of children has remained the same over the past 20 years although academic and institutional requirements have changed. the current stream of assignments explores the relationships between parents and children, the educational expectations, and the importance of building relationships among community, home and school. the objective of this paper is to share how various methods may help in discovering the customs, household practices, and cultural wealth and values of culturally and linguistically diverse children and families. the use of these methods can help educators learn better teaching practices, understand the wealth that diversity possesses, and provide equal learning opportunities for all children. reflecting on these issues continues to helps us understand the important role that families effectiveness of understanding relations peralta & galaviz no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) 176 play in the education of children and that, even though society changes, intercultural bridges help create a critical and active education. literature review traditionally in the united states, immigrant students, or those who do not speak english as their first language, have not received the same treatment as students from the dominant culture (valenzuela, 1999; bartolome, 1994). the cultural practices of their native countries or homes are often undervalued or simply ignored. evidence suggests that culturally and linguistically diverse students experience poorer educational outcomes than their peers, and this reality is associated with several factors (bennett et al., 2004; conchas noguera, 2004). these include low teacher expectations, lack of parent availability due to work schedules, and language differences between home and school. unfortunately, although many educators say they want to involve parents in the educational experiences of students, parents are generally excluded and treated contemptuously because they are low income, have a low level of formal education, or cannot communicate in english (noguera, 2003; grant & sleeter, 1996). additionally, in some cultures, parents’ great respect for the teacher as expert may result in their hesitancy to interfere in the educational process or to question educational decisions. however, this seeming lack of involvement may result in teachers missing out on the home resources they might discover if they took the time to understand their students and their culture more deeply. educators should reduce the gap between the way they teach and the ways students from diverse cultural and linguistic backgrounds learn. studies show that teachers can learn from students’ cultural experiences and understand that there is more than one way to teach reading and writing (heath, 1983; gonzález, andrade, civil & moll, 2001). the “funds of knowledge” or “wealth of knowledge” that exist in the homes of these children should be explored, understood, and incorporated into the curriculum. this has the effect of positioning students in harmony with, rather than in conflict against, the education received in school, as they recognize that their culture is important and valuable. all these factors are considered by many educators as inevitable, irreversible and impossible to change; therefore, there is little effort to raise the academic experience of the students. blaming the parents for the “disposition of the students” or a society that provides little to poor children, emerge as justifications for not taking appropriate responsibility as educators (noguera, 2003). effectiveness of understanding relations peralta & galaviz no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) 177 jim cummins, in empowering minority students (1989), states that collaboration between teachers and parents will not be fruitful unless power structures are challenged. parents should rise from a subordinate position to become full participants in an educational process which incorporates their cultural and linguistic perspectives. society often assumes that student failure can be attributed to the lack of english spoken by parents. researchers of language socialization theory investigate which of the traditions of migrant families are functional (or not) in schools and other institutions which decide whether children will succeed (zentella, 2005). unfortunately, educators rarely reflect on the impact that excluding the voices of parents in educational decisions has on their students, or how this may affect students’ access to enrichment programs, (e.g. academic programs in their native language, scholarships, etc.). methodology our collaboration began after sonia, an elementary school teacher, graduated from the master’s program. sonia’s interest in creating a classroom environment and a curriculum that integrated the funds of knowledge of the students brought us together. we often met for coffee to talk about how to best involve parents in the education of their children, and how to create opportunities to meet with them. these conversations further developed when we co-taught a graduate class. we took this opportunity to collaborate and design a stream of assignments that served as the focus of this study. participants the participants in this study were students in a graduate education course. the class met three weekends (friday and saturday) for a 3 credit-course. there were 12 students enrolled, all teachers at different school districts, within a radius of 50 miles. the cultural makeup was 40% latina/o and 60% anglo saxon. pedagogical intervention three assignments were designed, representing our commitment to encourage students in the graduate course to develop new ways of thinking about community, home and school relations, more in tune with local cultures and values. moreover, we wanted educators to experience the power of project-based learning that is contextualized within the local community. we wanted to affirm the experiences and lived histories effectiveness of understanding relations peralta & galaviz no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) 178 of the students, their families and the communities in which they live, and give voice to family personal histories—often dismissed or ignored in the schools because they do not match the stories of the dominant culture. the following three assignments reflect our attempt to create bridges between the local community, family and school. neighborhood walk. our purpose was to increase educators’ ability to familiarize themselves with the neighborhood and context of the students. basing our mapping and grading of the neighborhood on the city works (steinberg & stephen, 1999) curriculum, we designed the assignment (see appendix). community resources. this assignment required educators to identify and contact at least four community resources that support parent(s) and families. our intention was that the community resource would serve as a basis for understanding and developing the sort of questions that would be meaningful, and would contextualize the lives of the students in specific communities. after discussing resources available and researching the internet, students shared a list. afterwards, we brainstormed questions that would get to the heart of the assignment. home visit: the goals for this assignment were to learn about the ways of knowing that exist in a child’s home and how this knowledge is transmitted to the child. we also wanted to discover the expectations of the parents or guardians related to schools and teachers, as well as academic goals for their children. questions were brainstormed together but teachers were responsible for selecting the ones that would best help them develop the conversation. furthermore, we encouraged teachers to conduct a more open-ended visit, thus allowing parents to add their own questions and extend the conversation. below are sample questions suggested to educators prior to the interview: tell me about your family. what are your favorite things about your child? what are elements about your child that make you proud? from your perspective, what are your child’s academic strengths? what are your child’s academic challenges? tell me about the social/emotional aspects of your child? what are the most important things to you regarding your child’s education? what do you need from me, the teacher? what goals should we make together with your child for this school year? effectiveness of understanding relations peralta & galaviz no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) 179 teaching pedagogy our class began as culture circles (freire, 1970), conducted with chairs arranged in a circular configuration. this setting provided opportunities for all participants to be active contributors to the conversation. we empowered the teachers to ask their own questions and seek their own answers, and challenged them to understand the world’s complexities. we believe that for educators to gain critical understanding of the socio-economic and political structures impacting schooling and students’ lives, dialogue needs to be provided. the first step to encouraging thinking about this issue is demonstrated by an activity where students were tasked with examining the demographics of their school community and the community at large. these probing questions were given to guide their investigation. what are the current issues surrounding the populations present in your school? (possible interviews/questionsschool administration, school district, local advocacy organizations, local newspaper) how might these issues manifest themselves within the classroom families’ lives? (examplehigh unemployment rate, immigration issues, rural area with long commutes to/from school, language barriers, lack of community resources for diverse populations) what organizations exist to offer assistance to your school community? what service(s) do they provide? who are the local advocates that exist that may partner with your school? what other resources exist to benefit your students and classroom families, based on the needs you’ve identified? through this investigation, educators were able to broaden their scope of understanding for local community issues that impact their school families. examining the issues led us to reflect upon our role as advocates for our students and their families. we must understand the factors beyond our classroom walls that may affect the space we create for our students. knowing the community and the issues impacting our families can lead us to a greater understanding that enables us to advocate for our students. scaffolding educators through this “consciousness” not only means affording opportunities for dialogue, but it also means the creation of dialogical spaces within the classroom where their own experiences can be shared. building trust and relationships translates into “hearing” teachers’ concerns and questions. this is an important aspect of our effectiveness of understanding relations peralta & galaviz no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) 180 teaching, because developing a sense of closeness to others expressed through feelings of responsibility or of concern requires being able to look at the world from a less self-centered perspective (the dalai lama, 2001). a central part of our teaching is for educators to perceive us as humans (hooks, 2003), as people who have lived these experiences, and to share the lessons learned. before asking educators to conduct home visits, we recounted our first experiences visiting the homes of our students while working in public school and the opportunities these visits created. we shared how, before the school year started, we requested the class roster. one by one, we called each family and asked if there was a time we could come by for a visit and to meet their child, the new student. most families were surprised by the request, but welcomed the meeting. sonia shared how, after conducting home visits before the beginning of the school year, she brings all of the classroom families together for a large-scale family dinner. during the fall and spring times for parent-teacher conferences, she hosts the family dinner at the school. it is potluck style so everyone brings a dish to share. students give presentations on their work in all the content areas and showcase their team projects for their families. sonia pointed out that subsequently she was invited to shabbats, quinceañeras (a latina american ceremony for girls turning fifteen to mark the transition from childhood to young womanhood), soccer games and birthday parties. as she attended these family and community events, her relationship with her classroom families grew deeper and richer. to the families, being able to share experiences like a saturday morning soccer game with her meant an investment in their child. sonia pointed out how she saw the more meaningful connections the families had to their extended family, their places of worship, and to their community from participating in these events. the chance to “break bread” with each other allows for a deeper connection between the teacher, parents and students. to demonstrate this, we invited parents reflecting the diversity of the community to a round table dinner. everyone brought food to share, and as we began dialoguing, we realized that there was much to learn about their communities and expectations. parents from bosnia, afghanistan, somalia, sudan and mexico were represented. data collection data for this study were collected throughout the semester and included documentation from the three main assignments: community effectiveness of understanding relations peralta & galaviz no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) 181 resources, neighborhood map, and home visit. other data included relevant teachers’ participation and discussions in class activities. the analysis focuses on the “meaning” educators made as a result of their working through all of the assignments. specifically, the data were reviewed to identify evidence of teachers’ understanding of the importance of creating and developing community-home-school relations. as we read the data, two analytical categories were evident: listening to parents, and seeing the communities by walking and talking. results listening to parents students shared how, until now, they had tried to educate parents from non-dominant cultures by imposing on them “right” (translated as “dominant culture”) ways of being. students mentioned that they had forgotten the values and beliefs held by families. one student wrote i learned that i can’t educate people, because they are already educated. now i recognize that my work is to be a bridge that connects the two parts [home and school]” (josé, translated written reflection). another important connection made by the students was that relationships between teachers and their students’ communities are bi-directional. they wrote that learning about their students was based on “learning where they come from” (cassandra, final paper). moreover, instead of placing themselves at the center, they placed the “community” at the center because they understood that asking families to learn about school meant that they also, as teachers, had to learn about their community. jamie studied andre, a boy from mexico who was bi-literate but was demonstrating a lack of motivation; he was not turning in his homework. in her analysis, jamie confessed that she had selected andre because he was frequently missing school, and this affected his classwork. she acknowledged that when she first contacted the parents, she was a little scared because she truly believed they did not care. when visiting the home, she learned that andre was missing school because he felt he wasn’t doing well, his english test scores were low, and “he was now 18 years old.” the mom shared her concern, and mentioned that she made him go to school every day. after this initial home visit, jamie started to communicate on a regular basis with the family in order to help strengthen the mother’s expectations for her son. effectiveness of understanding relations peralta & galaviz no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) 182 i really thought this family did not care, but after getting to know the family, i realized how much they really care.” (home visit) joanna visited ivan’s mother in hopes of obtaining a fuller view of ivan’s personal life. the mother shared that she only received a fourth grade education before she joined the workforce in mexico; however, she emphatically said, “i am doing my best to provide for my family alongside my husband. i decided to stop working in order to dedicate my full attention to my children.” joanna was impressed to learn that ivan’s mother pushed him to read even when he doesn’t feel like it. the mother uses the home computer (which ivan loves) as an incentive to get him to read. as joanna reflected on her visit, she understood that, in spite of the family’s low economic status, they had a wealth of educational resources to offer ivan: he has a home computer, a relatively good quantity of reading material in the house, and a nurturing/stressfree home environment. she further reflected that engaging in home visits was an altogether enlightening process. joanna commented on the amount of time and effort it takes to get to know a student beyond the façade presented on a daily basis and in the confines of a classroom. however, she said that getting to know ivan at this deep level has given her a sincere desire to see him succeed. seeing the communities by walking and talking students commented about their hesitation about the neighborhood walk. they didn’t see the purpose of it. however, through the many class discussions, and after the actual walk, one student acknowledged: this was an extremely powerful walkthrough of what many students encounter on a daily basis to and from school. the label placed on them [students] may in fact represent the type of education they will receive. the article [mehan, 1996] and the fieldtrip have a positive correlation in respect of how students from a poor side of town are more likely to [have] labels and stereotypes placed on them … as a future educator it is imperative to inform myself of the many cultures and communities in my classroom. (emily, written reflection) students not only visited the community but went back to their schools and reflected on how to bring community resources to parents. many reviewed their strategic plans and began conversations with their colleagues and principals. yesenia talked about inviting different groups to an open house to host informal sessions in both english and spanish to inform parents about their services. effectiveness of understanding relations peralta & galaviz no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) 183 after visiting organizations that work with teens, students brainstormed on having a “‘teen pregnancy night” and inviting organizations to talk to families. students in the group shared this idea, eliciting response from other class members. they discussed how some parents may oppose such an event, but they felt strongly about finding a way to address this issue since it was a serious problem in the area. conclusions from collaboration comes change, the idea that teaching is not just the “traditional view of teaching” but it involves more than lesson planning and class management. our intention was to broaden teacher roles and responsibilities. we modeled what we asked them to do, working collaboratively to make change. we wanted them to learn that communities have people who are committed to change and that in order to learn about them, they needed to engage in dialoguing. as faculty members, we understood the importance of utilizing nontraditional pedagogical practices as an avenue to engage teachers to understand the importance of community-home-school relations. we also believed that by engaging teachers in nontraditional pedagogical practices, we were affording the non-dominant populations an opportunity to articulate themselves as members of the community. lisa succinctly expresses this in her assignment: my personal philosophy towards parental involvement has changed drastically since i took this class. these changes have come from within me and my beliefs and thoughts toward empowering families. to me parental involvement has come to mean i have a responsibility to empower my parents with the knowledge of how to help their children be successful in schools… i must form relationships with my families… i need to understand my families better so i can understand how they are contributing to their children’s education and how to work with them as a partner. lisa’s comments embody the heart of this research project—the understanding that educational success, especially for students from non-dominant cultures, may depend on the optimization of relationships among communities, schools, and families. when the strengths and resources of all of them are tapped into and welcomed, schools can become places of possibility, learning, and hope for a better future. when everyone feels their contributions are important, an atmosphere is created in which all students are more likely to thrive and succeed. teachers play a pivotal role in this process by initiating the processes that bring all these resources together. effectiveness of understanding relations peralta & galaviz no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) 184 references allen, j. 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(1989). empowering minority students. sacramento, ca: association for bilingual education. gonzález, n., andrade, r., civil, m., & moll, l. (2001). bridging funds of distributed knowledge: creating zones of practices in mathematics. journal of education for students placed at risk, 6(12), 115–132. grant, c. a. & sleeter, c. e. (1996). after the school bell rings (2nd ed.). washington, dc: falmer press. heath, s. (1983). ways with words. language, life and work in communities and classrooms. cambridge: cambridge university press. hooks, b. (2003). teaching community. a pedagogy of hope. ny: routledge. katz, s. r. 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(2005). building on strength. ny: teachers college. authors *claudia peralta is associate professor in the literacy department at boise state university. her research interests focus on bilingual education, literacy and biliteracy, multicultural education, and social justice. she has published extensively in both english and spanish, and her latest work focuses on the schooling experiences of latinos and refugee students both in the u.s. and in their country of origin. *sonia galaviz is a 5th grade elementary teacher in boise, idaho. she has taught in both the primary and intermediate grades and teaches as an adjunct faculty for university of phoenix and boise state university. in 2009 she received the honor of idaho woman of the year from the idaho business review. in 2011 sonia was one of five educators in the nation chosen to receive an award in excellence in culturally responsive pedagogy from teaching tolerance. sonia serves on the state board for the idaho education association. effectiveness of understanding relations peralta & galaviz no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) 186 appendix grading your neighborhood name: date: in order to get a clear picture of the a neighborhood and what it has to offer, it will be important to put together as much information as possible about the good points and the bad points of the neighborhood. in this exercise think about your own neighborhood or another neighborhood you know well and grade its features. using the report card below, add any other features you think are important for a neighborhood to have. afterwards discuss your report card with 3 other students. do you all have similar ideas about what constitutes a good or a bad neighborhood? what features on the report card do you think are most important and why? do you think that people’s ideas about what they value in their neighborhoods change as they get older? what other features did you add to your report card lists and why? what makes a neighborhood a good place to live? grade your neighborhood on the following features, then add other features you consider important and grade those. refer to the grading chart below. give reasons for your grade. housing: are houses and apartment buildings, clean, safe and in good repair? grade public transportation: how accessible is the neighborhood by bus? grade stores: are there food stores with good selection of foods at affordable prices? grade effectiveness of understanding relations peralta & galaviz no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) 187 are there clothing stores with a selection of clothes at affordable prices? grade is the school within walking distance? how is the school graded in the district? grade recreational facilities: are there playgrounds, fields, basketball/tennis courts, other sports facilities? grade is there an indoor gym that residents have access to? grade open space and parks: are there trees, yards, public spaces in which to walk and sit? grade parking: is there enough parking for people’s cars? is there off-street parking? grade effectiveness of understanding relations peralta & galaviz no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) 188 noise: is it peaceful and quiet, relatively undisturbed by traffic or street noise? grade safety: is the neighborhood safe to walk around in, even after dark? grade other: grade other: grade other: grade effectiveness of understanding relations peralta & galaviz no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) 189 tour the child’s neighborhood: if you were giving someone a tour of your neighborhood, how would you describe it to them? think about the kinds of people who live there as well as any other special characteristics you think are important. also think about the places and/or buildings that are an important part of your neighborhood. answer the questions below and then proceed to the mapping exercise. name and location of neighborhood: characteristics of neighborhood: five important places or buildings: other: use the space on this page to draft a rough map of the neighborhood. then use your own paper to produce a finished version. your map does not need to be drawn perfectly, but it should be as detailed and accurate as possible. show the streets, residences or dwellings, and any other buildings or places you listed on your neighborhood tour sheet. make symbols to represent buildings and objects on your neighborhood map, labeling its buildings, streets, and significant features. effectiveness of understanding relations peralta & galaviz no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) gistseptiembre2011final2.indd 104 listening to graduates of a k-12 bilingual program: language ideologies and literacy practices of former bilingual students1 joel dworin2* university of texas at el paso, usa abstract this study investigated the language and literacy practices of five graduates of a spanish-english k-12 dual language immersion program through semistructured interviews to understand the residual impact of thirteen years in a spanish-english bilingual school program. drawing from sociocultural theory, the interviews also sought to provide an understanding of the participants’ specific social networks and uses of spanish and cultural affinities. transcripts of the interviews, which were 1-2 hours in length, were analyzed primarily for content related to language use, social networks, and cultural affiliations. coding by general themes that emerged was done first, and then patterns within and across interview transcripts were identified and analyzed. the basic research question guiding this interview study was: what can be learned about the spanish-english bilingualism and biliteracy of former students who attended a 13-year bilingual school program? three main findings were: 1) all of the former students reported being bilingual and biliterate in english and spanish; 2) two prominent language ideologies in the everyday uses of spanish by the participants were identified. one language ideology may be described as a functional language ideology, where spanish was used primarily to accomplish only specific, limited kinds of communication with others. the other language ideology was one where linguistic and cultural affinities with native spanish speakers were a key part of the participants’ orientation and use of spanish; and 3) the issue of who may be reaping the most benefits from the k-12 dual language immersion program arose through an analysis of the interviews, especially at the secondary levels, because of the relatively small numbers of latina/o students that completed the program. the findings are significant because they indicate some of the strengths and limitations of k-12 bilingual programs in the u.s. given that there has been very little research in 1 received: april 28th, 2011 / accepted: july 22nd, 2011 2 email: jedworin@utep.edu gist education and learning research journal. issn 1692-5777. no. 5, november 2011. pp. 104-126 no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) 105 this area, the study provides educators and researchers with important concerns in bilingual education program implementation, as well as areas for further research. keywords: dual language immersion, language ideologies, biliteracy, latina/o students resumen este estudio investiga las prácticas de lenguaje y lectoescritura de cinco egresados de un programa de inmersión dual en español e inglés de pre-escolar a bachillerato. la información se obtuvo a través de encuestas semiestructuradas que permitieron comprender el impacto residual de estar inmerso 13 años en un programa escolar bilingüe (español – inglés). partiendo de la teoría sociocultural, las entrevistas también proporcionaron información que permitió comprender las redes sociales de los participantes, su uso del español y sus afinidades culturales. las transcripciones de las entrevistas, las cuales tenían una duración de una a dos horas, permitieron analizar, en primera instancia, los contenidos relacionados con el uso del lenguaje, las redes sociales y afinidades culturales. en primer lugar, se categorizó la información por temas generales y posteriormente se analizaron los patrones identificados en las entrevistas. la pregunta central de investigación, que orientó este estudio de entrevista focalizada, giró en torno a la siguiente pregunta: ¿qué se puede aprender sobre bilingüismo (español – inglés) y competencias lecto-escritas bilingües en alumnos que asistieron 13 años a un programa escolar bilingüe? los resultados permitieron concluir lo siguiente: 1) todos los alumnos manifestaron ser bilingües y poseer competencias lecto-escritas tanto en inglés como en español. 2) los participantes identificaron dos enfoques lingüísticos en el uso cotidiano del español. el primer enfoque lingüístico puede ser descrito como un enfoque funcional del lenguaje, en el cual el español es utilizado principalmente para llevar a cabo un tipo limitado de comunicación con otros. el segundo enfoque se refiere a las afinidades lingüísticas y culturales con hablantes nativos del idioma español, las cuales fueron parte clave de la orientación de los participantes en el uso del español. 3) la cuestión de quién puede obtener la mayor parte de los beneficios del programa de doble inmersión lingüística se obtuvo a través del análisis de las entrevistas especialmente en niveles secundarios debido al número reducido de estudiantes latinos que culminaron el programa. los resultados encontrados son significativos porque indican algunas fortalezas y limitaciones de los programas bilingües impartidos desde preescolar a bachillerato en los estados unidos. al existir pocas investigaciones en esta área, el estudio proporciona información a docentes e investigadores sobre la implementación de programas bilingües, así como temas para futuras investigaciones. palabras claves: inmersión lingüística dual, enfoque lingüístico, lectoescritura bilingüe, estudiantes hispanos resumo este estudo pesquisa as práticas de linguagem e leito-escritura de cinco egressos de um programa de imersão dual em espanhol e inglês de pré-primária no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) 106 a ensino médio. a informação se obteve através de enquetes semi-estruturadas que permitiram compreender o impacto residual de estar imerso 13 anos em um programa escolar bilíngue (espanhol – inglês). partindo da teoria sociocultural, as entrevistas também proporcionaram informação que permitiu compreender as redes sociais dos participantes, seu uso do espanhol e suas afinidades culturais. as transcrições das entrevistas, as quais tinham uma duração de uma a duas horas, permitiram analisar, em primeira instância, os conteúdos relacionados com o uso da linguagem, as redes sociais e afinidades culturais. em primeiro lugar, categorizou-se a informação por temas gerais e posteriormente analisaram-se os padrões identificados nas entrevistas. a pergunta central de pesquisa, que orientou este estudo de entrevista focalizada, girou em torno à seguinte pergunta: o que se pode aprender sobre bilingüismo (espanhol – inglês) e competências leito-escritas bilíngues em alunos que assistiram 13 anos a um programa escolar bilíngue? os resultados permitiram concluir o seguinte: 1) todos os alunos manifestaram ser bilíngues e possuir competências leitoescritas tanto em inglês como em espanhol. 2) os participantes identificaram dois enfoques linguísticos no uso cotidiano do espanhol. o primeiro enfoque linguístico pode ser descrito como um enfoque funcional da linguagem, no qual o espanhol é utilizado principalmente para levar a cabo um tipo limitado de comunicação com outros. o segundo enfoque se refere às afinidades linguísticas e culturais com falantes nativos do idioma espanhol, as quais foram parte chave da orientação dos participantes no uso do espanhol. 3) a questão de quem pode obter a maior parte dos benefícios do programa de dupla imersão linguística obteve-se através da análise das entrevistas especialmente em níveis secundários devido ao número reduzido de estudantes latinos que culminaram o programa. os resultados encontrados são significativos porque indicam algumas fortalezas e limitações dos programas bilíngues dados desde pré-primária a ensino médio nos estados unidos. ao existir poucas pesquisas nesta área, o estudo proporciona informação a docentes e pesquisadores sobre a implementação de programas bilíngues, assim como temas para futuras pesquisas. palavras chaves: imersão linguística dual, enfoque linguístico, leitoescritura bilíngue, estudantes hispânicos the present climate in the united states for bilingual education is not a very encouraging one, with growing resentment toward immigrants (bondy, 2011; chomsky, 2007; fetzer, 2000; galindo & vigil, 2011) the passage of anti-bilingual education laws in california, arizona and massachusetts, and an attempt to eradicate bilingual education in colorado in 2002. the language ideologies represented in the debates regarding bilingual education include english-only and xenophobic perspectives (crawford, 2008; garcía & bilingual program: language ideologies and literacy practices dworin no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) 107 kleifgen, 2010) that promote the dismantling of bilingual programs. most bilingual programs that do exist are transitional bilingual education programs, where the goal is to transition students into allenglish instruction as soon as possible, rather than developing students’ bilingualism (ovando, combs & collier, 2006). at the same time, however, dual language immersion programs (also known as two-way immersion) have been implemented in more than half of the states. unlike transitional bilingual programs, one of the main goals of these programs is the development of students’ bilingualism and biliteracy. although dual language immersion programs represent a small percentage of bilingual education programs in this country, they are growing rapidly in numbers, with 393 programs in 29 states and the district of columbia. of these, only 11 public school dual language immersion programs span grades k-12 in the u.s. (center for applied linguistics, 2011). in addition, many proponents of bilingual education view dual language immersion programs as the best type of program for developing latina/o students’ bilingualism and biliteracy (fitts, 2006; howard & sugarman, 2007; lindholm-leary 2001). this interview study focused on identifying language and literacy practices of graduates of a spanish-english k-12 dual language immersion program in a large, metropolitan area in southern california. in addition, issues related to the development of cultural identities of the participants were examined, especially the ways in which language ideologies may have influenced their specific social networks, uses of spanish and cultural affinities (gonzález, 2001; 2005; woolard, schiefflin & kroskrity, 1998). there has been almost no research that examines the residual impact of thirteen years of bilingual schooling for graduates of such programs; in fact, i have been unable to find a single study that does so. this work provides educators with some insights into how young adult graduates of a k-12 dual language immersion program use english and spanish in their daily lives as well as how they position themselves and others within spanish-speaking contexts. most importantly, this study raises significant issues for researchers in an area that has received little attention. additional research into k-12 bilingual programs is necessary to understand the consequences of such programs for students and to address some of the concerns regarding dual language immersion and language minority students. the article is organized as follows: first, i begin with the theoretical perspectives that have informed this study. second, i discuss dual language immersion programs and relevant research. next, i bilingual program: language ideologies and literacy practices dworin no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) 108 discuss the study, followed by brief portraits of the participants. then, i discuss the themes that emerged from analysis of the interviews. finally, i provide some concluding remarks including areas for further research. theoretical framework the theoretical perspectives that inform this work draw from a number of disciplines, including theory and research in language and literacy development, anthropology, bilingual education, psychology, and sociolinguistics. it is informed by sociocultural theory (gee, 2008; lewis, enciso & moje, 2007; moll, 1990) as well as work done in examining language ideologies (gonzález, 2001; valdez, 2009; woolard & schiefflin, 1998). this theoretical framework emphasizes a focus on the broader social, institutional, and cultural contexts of schooling, including issues of privilege and power in society. it is inspired by the work of vygotsky and others, in attempting to understand language, thinking and literacy as socially mediated and situated within the historical and cultural contexts in which they occur. central to this perspective is an understanding of the importance of social mediation, and its role in learning; that is, people learn through their participation in social practices, and that all human action is mediated by tools and signs, especially language (vygotsky, 1978; moll, 2001, 1990). language ideology is a concept used in different ways among linguistic anthropologists and others. however, despite these varied uses, “…what makes the term useful in spite of its problems, is a view of ideology rooted in or responsive to the experience of a particular social position…” (woolard & schiefflin, 1994, p. 58) and its association with power, its uses, and the reproduction of dominant/ subordinate relations. i use the term language ideologies to refer to “the body of an individual’s ideas, attitudes and beliefs about the learning and use of language” (valdez, 2009, p. 2), which affect their actual uses of language(s) in everyday life. there is a small but growing number of studies that examine language ideologies within dual language immersion programs. for example, fitts studied fifth grade students in a dual language elementary school to understand the relationship between beliefs and practices toward bilingualism and bilingual practices, as well as whether those beliefs and practices worked to either challenge or reproduce inequitable relations. she found that the school was doing well in developing students’ bilingualism and challenging inequitable relations, although there were areas that needed further attention by teachers and the administration (fitts, 2006). in another study, gonzález and her colleagues examined bilingual program: language ideologies and literacy practices dworin no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) 109 how language ideologies influenced the implementation of a whole school, dual language immersion program in an elementary school. they found that, as a result of the strong commitment of the teachers, administrators and parents, the school “provided an ideological space not only for the development of bilingualism and biliteracy but also for multidiscursive practices and readings of the world” (gonzález, 2005, p. 173). several other studies have also examined the influence of language ideologies in dual language immersion programs (mccollum, 1999; pacini-ketchabaw & almeida, 2006; rubinstein-avila, 2002; scanlan & palmer, 2009). a common perspective from these studies is that language ideologies influence the ways in which students identify with, and position themselves, as learners and users of the two languages. that is, if for example, a student had positive associations with the minority language, they may be more inclined to appropriate and use that language within both school and out-of-school contexts. students’ social identities (broadly conceived) at the outset of, and during, bilingual schooling certainly influence their attitudes regarding learning and using the minority language, but these social positions are also shaped and influenced by broader societal ideologies regarding the status of the minority language, and therefore, the desirability of learning to use that language (reyes, 2006). of course, the processes of schooling themselves may also affect students in both positive and negative ways, and these processes, too, are informed by language ideologies in society: the attitudes, beliefs and their resultant practices toward specific languages (and the groups of people that use them) (fitts, 2006; scanlan & palmer, 2009). the point here is that young people, like all of us, are influenced by the social worlds around them— and their attitudes, beliefs and practices regarding language(s) are no exception. as noted by moll, sáez & dworin, (see also gutiérrez, 2002; halcón, 2001; shannon, 1995) the dominant language ideologies in the u.s. towards spanish have often been a negative influence for many latina/o children: it is the unfortunately the case that some children internalize the negative societal attitudes toward spanish, toward bilingualism, and toward their ethnic groups, regardless of teachers’ efforts. there is, in fact, a long tradition in this country of degrading in schools anything that is not anglo-saxon, what spring (1994) calls the “deculturalization” process of schooling (2001, p. 439). this study was influenced by theoretical perspectives from work in both sociocultural views on languages and literacy development and language ideologies. sociocultural theories provided the key understanding that language learning and use are always social, as well bilingual program: language ideologies and literacy practices dworin no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) 110 as individual practices. in attempting to learn about the participants’ uses of spanish and english, sociocultural perspectives supported my thinking in the development of key areas to explore in the interviews, such as family background, friends and other social networks, recollections about experiences in the immersion program, etc. this emphasis on the social nature of language use assisted in analyzing statements made by kathy, marie, teresa, nina, and chelsea about their academic experiences, personal and social activities, both currently and in the past, and especially how they appeared to situate themselves vis-à-vis spanish-speakers. in other words, a sociocultural analysis of language and literacy use must view these practices as constituted within specific social contexts, such as homes, school, worksites, and communities and must focus on both individual’s language practices and perspectives, as well as the conditions in which they occur, including the broader social and ideological issues. using language ideologies as a conceptual lens helped me to connect and make sense of the reported language practices, social networks, and cultural affinities of the participants. that is, their perspectives on the use of languages became more transparent through an examination of their language practices, which are never done as isolated acts; rather they represent broader “ideologies-in-action” whether these views are consciously held by the individuals or not (gee, 2008; woolard, schiefflin, & kroskrity, 1998). making sure to learn about the different personal histories and social positions of each of the participants through specific interview questions and areas of inquiry was also influenced, in part, by some of the work that has been in language ideologies, and providing a means to glimpse the participants’ ideologies about language(s) and its value in their lives. dual language immersion programs dual language immersion programs are viewed by many researchers and educators as the best approach for developing students’ bilingualism and biliteracy, high academic achievement, and cross cultural competencies (fitts, 2006; howard & sugarman, 2007; lindholm-leary 2001). the support for dual language immersion programs is based upon a number of research studies. for example, lindholm-leary (2001) has done extensive research in a two-way immersion elementary school in california as well as numerous other school sites, documenting that both the latina/o and anglo students have become bilingual and biliterate, with high levels of academic achievement and had positive cross cultural experiences. other research has produced similar evidence regarding dual language immersion programs (see e.g., fitts, 2006; lindholm-leary 2001). bilingual program: language ideologies and literacy practices dworin no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) 111 at the same time, however, a number of researchers have raised important questions regarding two-way immersion programs, especially issues related with language, culture and power. for instance, valdés raised several concerns regarding dual language immersion programs, with the most salient one being issues regarding language and power, including questions about whether prejudice and discrimination by members of the dominant culture can be decreased by their children’s study of minority languages (valdés, 1997; see also scanlan & palmer, 2009). this concern relates to the fact that dual language immersion programs attempt to provide education for two different groups of students, those who have been identified as second language learners of english and english-speaking (predominantly white) students who are learning a minority language. others have raised similar issues regarding dual language immersion programs, especially those related to social and economic inequities and education (edelsky, 2006; mccollum, 1999; palmer, 2007; shannon, 1995; walsh, 1995). in other words, whether dual language immersion programs contribute to the reproduction of negative social class and racial dynamics for latina/os while simultaneously supporting the development of bilingualism and biliteracy for white, middle/upper class students. researchers have examined these concerns at the elementary school level (fitts, 2006; palmer, 2007; scanlan & palmer, 2009). this study is unique in that it explored some of these issues among students who had completed a k-12 dual language immersion program, where almost no research has been done. research questions although other related areas were also examined in this project, the basic research question that guided this interview study was: what can be learned about the english-spanish bilingualism and biliteracy of former students of a 13-year bilingual school program? there were several ancillary questions as well: 1. are the participants bilingual and biliterate? how much spanish do the participants use in their daily lives? for what purposes and with whom? 2. to what kinds of social networks do the participants belong and what might this reveal about their language ideologies? 3. how closely they align themselves with spanish speaking people and cultures? bilingual program: language ideologies and literacy practices dworin no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) 112 methods i conducted semi-structured interviews with five former students (2 mexican american, 1 african american, and 2 european american) to understand the residual impact of thirteen years in a spanish-english bilingual school program. the interviews were audio-recorded and then transcribed. all of the participants were students in the same twoway immersion program from kindergarten through twelfth grade and who had graduated from the program; four of the five attended the program together and graduated from high school in 2005 and one of the participants graduated from high school in 1999. the interviews were approximately one to two hours in length, and topics included areas such as participant’s family background, friends and social networks, experiences in the dual immersion program, uses of english and spanish in daily interactions, affiliations with spanish-speaking communities, reasons for being in a bilingual program from k-12, occupational goals, and other areas. the interview transcripts were analyzed primarily for content related to language use, social networks, and cultural affiliations. coding by general themes that emerged was done first, and then patterns within and across interview transcripts were identified and analyzed (merriam, 1998; seidman, 2006). all of the names used are pseudonyms and were chosen by the participants. i met separately with each of the participants to conduct the interviews at a café. however, i did not have the opportunity to conduct data collection at any of the three schools that make up the k-12 dual language program, and therefore had to rely almost exclusively on the interview data for my analysis. so the issue that emerged from the interviews regarding latina/o students and whether the program serves them well is one that requires additional research for other forms of evidence to support or refute the participants’ statements. the k-12 two-way immersion program the participants in this study attended an elementary, whole school dual language immersion program. the school included grades k-5 and employed a 90/10 model. the program in their middle school was a strand within the school. the criteria for selecting and accepting students from the elementary dual language program into the middle school immersion program included a recommendation by an interviewer of the student candidates and scores on a standardized test (center for applied linguistics, 2011). language learning takes place primarily through content instruction and immersion classes use the same district-approved standards-based textbooks used by other schools in the district. assessment is done in both english and spanish. in middle school, bilingual program: language ideologies and literacy practices dworin no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) 113 participants took the following classes in spanish: a) sixth grade: humanities; b) seventh grade: literature, social studies, spanish; and c) eighth grade: literature, social studies and spanish for spanishspeakers. in high school, they took two classes in spanish each semester, with choices in humanities, math, spanish and economics. more than 90% of students continue to high school from feeder middle schools (center for applied linguistics, 2011). the former students in the next section, i provide brief portraits of the participants to provide some background about each one, an understanding of their uses of english and spanish, and how language ideologies may have influenced their cultural affinities with spanish speaking people and communities. i first offer a portrait of kathy, followed by portraits of marie, teresa, nina and chelsea. kathy. kathy was a nineteen year old, mexican american female. she graduated from high school in 2005. at the time of the interview, she had just completed her first year of college at a research university in the area, where she was majoring in engineering. kathy was the first in her family to attend a four-year university. in high school, she took advanced placement classes in spanish, chemistry, calculus, spanish literature, and english. she began kindergarten in the dual language immersion program because her father liked the idea of spanish being taught to his daughter and the school was very close to her home. kathy reported that about 15 immersion students were in her high school graduating class. kathy’s mother works as a housekeeper and her father is employed as a gardener. her parents immigrated to the u.s. from mexico 30 years ago. she is the youngest in her family and has two older brothers and one older sister. several of her cousins attend the elementary school dual language immersion program. kathy’s first language was spanish. she speaks spanish with her parents and other family members, but english with her brothers and sister. kathy speaks english with many friends, but spanish with her best friend, her roommate, and other friends. she reported that she used english during much of her day because she was attending college. she speaks spanish on a daily basis with one of her roommates and with her mother in daily phone conversations. she writes and reads almost exclusively in english, except for internet use in spanish to keep up with current events in latin america. kathy also watches univision daily to stay current with news about latin america. bilingual program: language ideologies and literacy practices dworin no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) 114 marie. marie was a nineteen year old, european american (white) female. she graduated from high school in 2005. she had just completed her first year of college, where she was planning to major in business and spanish. in high school, marie took advanced placement classes in english, spanish, spanish literature, psychology, and statistics. her mother enrolled her in the dual language immersion program in kindergarten because she thought it would be important for her to learn spanish “because so many people here speak spanish.” marie reported that about 20 immersion students were in her high school graduating class. marie’s mother is an administrator for a preschool program. she is from canada, and she was bilingual in french and english as a child. her father is a former history teacher who now works as a manager of several stores. marie’s mother lost her french when she moved to an english-speaking area of canada at the age of twelve. her father is a monolingual english speaker. marie has one younger sister who was attending the high school dual language immersion program. marie’s first language was english. she speaks english with her parents and other family members. with her friends, she speaks in english. marie speaks spanish almost exclusively in spanish classes. marie writes in spanish for spanish classes. she does no reading in spanish except for assignments in her spanish classes. with spanishspeaking friends, marie reported that she might speak to them in spanish only if they first spoke to her in spanish. she reported that she doesn’t have any friends in college that are native spanish speakers. teresa. teresa was a nineteen year old, african american female. she graduated from high school in 2005. she had just completed her first year of college, where she was a pre-med major because she wants to become a medical examiner. in high school, she took advanced placement classes in english, chemistry, spanish and calculus. her father enrolled her in the two-way immersion program in kindergarten because he knew the benefits of knowing another language and culture. teresa’s father was from california and worked as an engineer. he learned japanese because there were a lot of japanese clientele where he worked. her father died when she was twelve, and from that point on, her stepmother raised her. her stepmother’s background is french-armenian and she speaks french, armenian, and english. she is a homemaker who attended college but does not have a degree. teresa has two younger sisters and both were attending the two-way immersion program. bilingual program: language ideologies and literacy practices dworin no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) 115 teresa speaks in english with her stepmother and her sisters. she uses spanish with friends who have taken spanish classes in college, a non-latina friend who lived in spain for two years, and when she volunteers as an esl tutor at the county penitentiary. teresa sometimes watches the news in spanish and she enjoys listening to music in spanish. she doesn’t read or write in spanish except for corresponding with a friend who was in costa rica for the summer and to help her sister with her homework. until she went to college, teresa reported that she never had any african american friends and had very few latina/o friends. describing her college experience she said, “that has changed. actually, i’d say like 99 percent of my friends are black, which is a completely new experience for me.” (transcript of interview with teresa, p. 28). nina. nina was a 25 year old, european american (white) female. she graduated from high school in 1999. nina reported that about 10 students graduated with her in the dual language immersion program. she has a bachelor’s degree in finance and worked for a stockbroker for several years. she was the first in her family to graduate from college. at the time of the interview, nina was working in a restaurant. she would like to eventually study for an mba in spain. in high school, nina took advanced placement classes in english, spanish, and spanish literature. her parents enrolled her in the dual language immersion program because they recognized the value and importance of knowing a second language, especially spanish in california. her mother is a preschool teacher and her father works as a mechanic. her mother is scottish and her father is english; both have lived in the u.s. for 30 years. nina has a brother who is one year younger than she is. english is the only language spoken at home. she regularly enjoys reading novels in english. in high school and college, she read a number of novels in spanish by latin american authors but no longer reads books in spanish. nina reported that she speaks spanish every day. she speaks spanish with her co-workers at the restaurant and with her friends. she occasionally reads a newspaper in spanish and websites on the internet. she always speaks spanish with two of her closest friends, and wrote to one of them in spanish for six months when he was out of the country. nina rarely writes in spanish in her daily life. she “loves movies in spanish” and sees them often. she listens to music in spanish on a regular basis and also enjoys dancing to music in spanish. bilingual program: language ideologies and literacy practices dworin no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) 116 chelsea. chelsea was a nineteen year old, mexican american female. she graduated from high school in 2005. at the time of the interview, she was working for her family’s plumbing company and planning to attend the local community college in the fall. in high school, she took advanced placement classes in spanish, spanish literature, and english literature, and two classes in economics. she began kindergarten in the dual language immersion program because her parents wanted her to know standard spanish well. chelsea reported that there were about 20 immersion students were in her high school graduating class. chelsea’s mother works in the office of the family-owned plumbing company and her father is one of several plumbers. her father immigrated to the u.s. from mexico 30 years ago and her mother (who she described as “white”) is from california. she has one older sister and a younger sister and brother. her older sister graduated from the immersion program and her younger sister was attending it. chelsea grew up as a spanish-english bilingual. her father is bilingual and her mother knows some spanish. she speaks spanish with her father and other family members on his side, but english with her mother and siblings. chelsea speaks english with most of her friends, but she speaks spanish with some of them. she writes and reads in english, but sometimes translates from spanish at work to write invoices. findings there were three major themes that were identified in this study: 1) all of the former students reported being bilingual and biliterate in english and spanish; 2) the participant’s attitudes and beliefs regarding the value of knowing spanish were implicated through the analysis and it seems that their specific social histories and cultural identities may account for the variation in their language ideologies. in other words, each of the participant’s social positions appeared to be connected to how they used spanish, with whom, and for what purposes. 3) the issue of who may be reaping the most benefits from the dual language immersion program (the latina/o students or the white, european american students) arose especially at the secondary levels and raised questions for further study. bilingualism and biliteracy from the analysis of the interviews, it appears that all of the participants were both bilingual and biliterate in english and spanish. to varying degrees, all of them reported using spanish in their daily lives. while there certainly seems to be a diverse range in terms of the bilingual program: language ideologies and literacy practices dworin no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) 117 purposes, types, frequency, and social networks in which spanish is used among the participants discussed here, all of them are bilingual. although most of them did not report a great deal of writing or reading in spanish on a daily basis, they all reported being capable of doing so. therefore, it appears that all of them are biliterate, in addition to being bilingual. the finding that the five former students of the immersion program are bilingual and biliterate is a significant one, given the antibilingual education law and the english-only ideological climate that exists in california. language ideologies, social networks and spanish language use the language ideologies that influenced the participants were evident in their descriptions of their social networks and uses of english and spanish. it is not surprising to note that there were some significant differences among the participants in the kinds of social networks that each was involved with as well as in their uses of spanish. some of these differences may be explained by the different ways that language ideologies helped to shape their social positions, social networks, and language use. through an analysis of the interviews, i identified two prominent language ideologies in the everyday uses of spanish by the participants. it is important to point out that these language ideologies are not simply about one’s social position vis-à-vis language; they are also intertwined with the dynamics of social class, as well as issues related to racial/ ethnic, social and cultural identities (gee, 2008; woolard, schiefflin & kroskrity, 1998). the first language ideology may be described as a functional language ideology, where spanish was used primarily to accomplish only specific kinds of communication with others. an example of this comes from marie, who reported that she used spanish almost exclusively with non-native spanish speakers in her college spanish classes: not here. like, when i’m in class and you’re doing a debate or something like that but not usually outside of class. just because everyone’s first language is english and it’s just easier to speak english, i guess. (transcript of interview with marie, page 12) the other language ideology was one where linguistic and cultural affinities with native spanish speakers were a key part of the participants’ orientation. one illustration of this language ideology comes from nina, whose social networks included diverse spanish speakers and where she reported speaking spanish daily in a variety of social contexts. bilingual program: language ideologies and literacy practices dworin no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) 118 the participants that appeared to be most influenced by a functional language ideology were teresa and marie. both of them used spanish in somewhat limited ways in their everyday social interactions. for the most part, their use of spanish was limited to speaking with others who were in college spanish classes with them and were non-native speakers of spanish. although teresa spoke spanish as a volunteer tutor in the esl program for four hours per week, it appeared to be one of the few times that she interacted with native spanish speakers on a regular basis. this functional language ideology is also reflected in their social networks. teresa and marie did not report involvement with native spanish speakers as part of their social networks (with the exception of the esl tutoring mentioned above). at the same time, teresa reported occasionally watching the news in spanish and listening to music in spanish. she also corresponded with a friend who was in costa rica for the summer and helped her sister with her homework in spanish. marie, on the other hand, did not report using spanish much in her daily life except with classmates in her spanish classes. so while both were influenced by a functional language ideology, there were certainly some important differences in their regular uses of spanish. the three other participants, kathy, nina, and chelsea, reported linguistic and cultural affinities with spanish speakers and spanishspeaking communities through their uses of spanish. kathy used spanish with her parents and other family members, her friends and her roommate. in doing so, she maintained spanish as an important aspect of her cultural identity. nina used spanish with her co-workers and friends and often participated in cultural activities that were in spanish. she apparently had developed affinities with spanish-speakers and these were part of her daily life. chelsea reported speaking spanish with her father, other family members, and with some of her friends, as well as using spanish at work. thus, all three of them interacted regularly with their spanish-speaking social networks. the ways that language ideologies have influenced the english and spanish use by graduates of k-12 dual language immersion programs is an important area that warrants serious consideration among bilingual educators and researchers. we need to become more knowledgeable about the consequences of such programs to grasp their impact on the young people who have spent thirteen years as bilingual students. this study provided some insights into the language uses and ideologies of the graduates of one k-12 program. perhaps, however, the more important contribution is that it highlighted a topic that has received very little attention, despite its significance. further research by bilingual researchers into language ideologies and the residue of thirteen years of bilingual program: language ideologies and literacy practices dworin no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) 119 bilingual schooling is needed for us to better understand the influence that dual language immersion programs have on former students. who is the program really serving? a key question that emerged from this interview study was: who is the program really serving? it is one that others have raised regarding dual language immersion programs at the elementary school level (see e. g., edelsky, 2006; mccollum, 1999; palmer, 2007; rubinstein-avila, 2002; valdés, 1997; walsh, 1995). although the k-12 dual language immersion program apparently was successful in meeting the goals of developing students’ bilingualism and biliteracy, the issue of who benefits most from the program and most importantly who does not, surfaced from the analysis of the interviews. at the center of this concern are the spanish speaking, latina/o students because it appears that they may benefit least from the program. in the interviews, several participants made comments regarding latina/o students and low academic achievement, not continuing with the program beyond elementary school, not being in the college track in high school, dropping out of school, and how few graduated from the high school immersion program. consider the following as just a few examples. when asked whether there were many students of color with her in advanced placement classes, kathy responded, “i think because it had been--i had been in those classes for so long--where i had gotten to it in middle school, where i was the only latina or there was another latino and that’s it.” kathy reported that she had two different groups of friends in high school: i had my latino friends and most of them weren’t doing very good in school, some of them were doing drugs, would skip school, just—not doing so good. and those were the people i’d hang out with during lunch. those were the people i’d go to the movies with. and then i had my friends in class, the kids who were at the same level as me, who—at least in high school, i was taking calculus with. and my other friends were taking algebra 2 or algebra 1. so it was very different, like it was two different worlds. (transcript of interview with kathy, p.14) in the following excerpt, nina offers her reasoning as to why there were very few latina/o students in the two-way immersion program in high school: and not a lot of the kids that i was in [elementary school] with continued in the program in high school. because once you get to high school, the program becomes ap—becomes advanced placement spanish. and not a lot of those kids were in it. i mean, i remember being in bilingual program: language ideologies and literacy practices dworin no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) 120 ap spanish with three kids that i had gone to elementary school with. because it puts you on a college-bound track. and the kids that i went to [elementary school] with did not go to college. (transcript of interview with nina, p. 7) chelsea reported that there were not many latina/os in the twoway immersion program beyond elementary school: “no, more of them were english speakers…and then as it went on, it was more of the english speakers that stayed in it than the spanish speakers.” (transcript of interview with chelsea, p.13). if these observations, and others like them, are accurate, then it suggests that few of the latina/o students continue with the immersion program beyond elementary school and that many may not be in the college track in high school. it also raises additional questions, such as whether there is a higher percentage of college-bound latina/os coming out of k-12 bilingual programs than non-bilingual programs, as well as other significant issues that require further research, but a full discussion of them is beyond the scope of this article. the question of who do the programs really serve is at the heart of concerns raised by educators and researchers who promote high quality education for latina/o students. valdés (1997), for example, has noted that, “for minority children, the acquisition of english is expected. for mainstream children, the acquisition of a non-english language is enthusiastically applauded. children are aware of these differences” (p. 417; see also edelsky, 2006; palmer, 2009). it seems that while dual language immersion programs have been successful in producing bilingual and biliterate graduates, most of them are white european americans. so addressing the issue of few latina/o students continuing with a program is one that needs to taken seriously if such programs are to be equally beneficial for latina/o students. this is not to suggest that educators involved with such programs are unaware of or unconcerned with this issue. however, unless these programs recruit and retain more latina/o students at the middle and high school levels, they are likely to continue to best serve students and parents of privilege and power in the community. limitations the study is limited in several ways. first, it is based on interviews with a small number of graduates of a dual language immersion program, and thus the data is based on self-reports of the participants. second, there were no observations done of classrooms or interviews with teachers, parents, and others involved with the program, which bilingual program: language ideologies and literacy practices dworin no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) 121 would enable triangulation of the data collected. third, although the interviews were 1-2 hours in length, they represent participant responses on one occasion, with no follow-up by the researcher on specific comments made by the participants. finally, i did not collect data from students who attended the elementary school dual language immersion program but did not continue with the program into middle school. this may have provided insights into the reasons why many of the latina/o students did not choose to stay in the program, and explained why there were relatively few latina/o high school graduates in the two-way immersion program. despite these limitations, the study is one of the very few to focus on graduates of a k-12 program and it raises issues for bilingual educators that need to be addressed if k-12 dual language immersion programs are to realize their full potential, especially for latina/o and other language minority students. conclusion this article discussed the reported language and literacy practices of five young adults who had spent 13 years attending a spanish-english dual language immersion program. it also examined some of the ways in which language ideologies may have influenced the participant’s specific social networks, uses of spanish, and cultural affinities. this research will serve as the basis for a longitudinal, qualitative research project that explores the areas for further research identified below. this was a small study with only five participants, and the data collection was limited to interviews. however, in addition to being what may be the first study to investigate language and literacy practices of young adults who experienced thirteen years of bilingual schooling, there are several contributions that it makes to our knowledge about the impact of k-12 bilingual schooling. first, as discussed above, the former students reported being bilingual and biliterate in spanish and english. although their use of texts in both languages has changed over time, it seems that this particular bilingual program may have been successful in achieving its goal of bilingualism and biliteracy, at least with these five young adults. while this may appear to be quite a modest finding, it does offer empirical support for the possibility of students engaging in a prolonged commitment with a spanish-english bilingual program through which they may appropriate academic spanish and english. this is no small achievement, given the strength and ubiquity of the hegemony of english in u.s. society (dworin, 2003; halcón 2001; shannon, 1995). it is an affirmative testimony to the efforts, knowledge, and determination of the teachers, staff, and administrators at the three schools that make up the immersion program. this is bilingual program: language ideologies and literacy practices dworin no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) 122 especially the case when we consider that california eliminated almost all bilingual education programs with the passage and implementation of proposition 223 in 1998, and that the state education code explicitly forbids the use of any language other than english in public elementary schools (california education code, section 305-306). therefore, the finding that all of the former students of the immersion program reported being bilingual and biliterate is a significant one, and demonstrates the potential of k-12 bilingual schooling. the findings regarding the language ideologies of the participants are also significant because they indicate that the influences of schooling such as the k-12 bilingual program may be only a small part of a larger set of social and cultural dynamics that inform language practices of former bilinguals students such as those in the study. in other words, we might expect that after 13 years of attending spanish-english bilingual schooling, graduates of programs of this type would likely be using their bilingualism (and especially their abilities in spanish) on a regular, everyday basis in multiple domains of their lives. however, this appears not to necessarily be the case, at least amongst the five participants. although certainly more research is needed to provide a more in-depth understanding of the impact of k-12 bilingual programs, this study demonstrates how complex, fluid, and situated language use can be for young adult bilinguals from the same three schools. the finding regarding the small number of latina/o students is important, too, and raises important questions regarding the dual language immersion programs that others have posited (see edelsky, 2006; mccollum, 1999; palmer, 2007; valdés, 1997). as mentioned above, this is more of an issue that emerged from the interviews and was not one of the initial research questions of the study, and one that requires inquiry within the three schools. yet, if we are to give any credence to the statements of the five participants, it is an important area that raises concerns about equity and bilingual schooling for latina/o students. areas for further research the study identified several important areas for further research. one is the issue of the small number of latina/o students that continued in the program beyond elementary school. it is likely that there are multiple reasons that few latina/os stayed in the program and more research can inform educators regarding this key concern. related to this is the question of who is best served by these programs, the latina/o students or the white, european american students? this issue is thoroughly impacted by the dynamics of race, class, culture and bilingual program: language ideologies and literacy practices dworin no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) 123 language in u.s. society and schools. further study of the exercise of power and privilege by middle/upper class white students and their families in two way immersion programs is necessary to address the critique raised by valdés and others (edelsky, 2006; mccollum, 1999; palmer, 2007; rubinstein-avila, 2002; valdés, 1997). finally, ethnographic research that focuses on the perspectives and experiences of the latina/o students in the k-12 immersion program is needed. such research would afford insights into many of the issues raised by critics of such programs and also provide the means to improve dual language immersion programs for all of their students. references bondy, j. m. (2011) normalizing english language learner students: a foucauldian analysis of opposition to bilingual education. race, ethnicity and education, 14(3), 387-398. center for applied linguistics. (2011). directory of two-way bilingual immersion programs. retrieved july 9, 2011 from http://www.cal. org/twi/directory/. chomsky, a. (2007). “they take our jobs!” and 20 other myths about immigration. boston: beacon press. crawford, j. (2008). advocating for english learners. clevedon, england: multilingual matters. dworin, j. e. (2003). examining children’s biliteracy in the classroom. in v. j. harris, g. e. garcia, a. i. willis & r. barrera, (eds.), issues in multicultural literacy research and practice (pp. 29-48). mahwah, nj: erlbaum. edelsky, c. (2006). with literacy and justice for all: rethinking the social in language and education. third edition. london: the falmer press. fetzer, j. s. (2000). public attitudes toward immigration in the united states, france, and germany. cambridge, uk: cambridge university press. fitts, s. (2006). reconstructing the status quo: linguistic interaction in a dual-language school. bilingual research journal, 29(2), 337-365. galindo, r. & vigil, j. (2011). “are anti-immigrant statements racist or nativist? what difference does it make?” in r. delgado & j. bilingual program: language ideologies and literacy practices dworin no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) 124 stefancic (eds.), the latino condition: a critical reader (pp. 161167). second edition. new york: new york university press. garcía, o. & kleifgen, j. a. (2010). educating emergent bilinguals: policies, programs and practices for english language learners. new york: teachers college press. gee, j. p. (2008). social linguistics and literacies: ideology in discourses. third edition. new york: routledge. gonzález, n. (2001). i am my language: discourses of women and children in the borderlands. tucson, az: the university of arizona press. gonzález, n. (2005). children in the eye of the storm: language socialization and language ideologies in a dual-language school. in a. c. zentella, (ed.), building on strength: language and literacy in latino families and communities (pp. 162-174). new york: teachers college press. gutiérrez, k. d., asato, j., santos, m. & gotanda, n. (2002). backlash pedagogy: language and culture and the politics of reform. the review of education, pedagogy, and cultural studies, 24(4), 335351. halcón, j. j. (2001). mainstream ideology and literacy instruction for spanish-speaking children. in m. de la luz reyes & j. j. halcón, (eds.), the best for our children: critical perspectives on literacy for latino students (pp. 65-77). new york: teachers college press. howard, e. r. and sugarman, j. (2007) realizing the vision of twoway immersion: fostering effective programs and classrooms. washington, dc: center for applied linguistics. lewis, c., enciso, p. & moje, e. b. (2007). reframing sociocultural research on literacy: identity, agency, and power. mahwah, nj: lawrence erlbaum associates. lindholm-leary, k. (2001). dual language education. clevedon, united kingdom: multilingual matters. merriam, s. b. (1998). qualitative research and case study applications in education. san francisco, ca: jossey-bass. moll, l. c. (1990). (ed.), vygotsky and education: instructional implications and applications of sociohistorical psychology. cambridge: cambridge university press. bilingual program: language ideologies and literacy practices dworin no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) 125 moll, l. c. (2001). through the mediation of others: vygotskian research on teaching. in v. richardson (ed.), handbook of research on teaching fourth edition. (pp. 111-129). washington, dc: american educational research association. moll, l. c., sáez, r. & dworin, j. e. (2001). exploring biliteracy: two student case examples of writing as a social practice. the elementary school journal, 101(4), 435-449. palmer, d. (2007). a dual language immersion strand programme in california: carrying out the promise of dual language education in an english-dominant context. the international journal of bilingual education and bilingualism, 10(6), 752-768. palmer, d. (2009). middle class english speakers in a two-way immersion bilingual classroom: “everybody should be listening to jonathan right now…” tesol quarterly, 43(2), 177-202. pacini-ketchabaw, v. & almeida, a. a. (2006). language discourses and ideologies at the heart of early childhood education. the international journal of bilingual education and bilingualism, 9(3), 310341. ovando, c. j., combs, m. c. & collier, v. p. (2006). bilingual & esl classrooms: teaching in multicultural contexts. new york: mcgraw-hill. reyes, i. (2006). exploring connections between emergent biliteracy and bilingualism. journal of early childhood literacy, 6(3), 267292. rubinstein-avila, e. (2002). problematizing the ‘dual’ in a dualimmersion program: a portrait. linguistics and education, 13(1), 65–87. scanlan, m. & palmer, d. (2009). race, power, and (in)equity within two dual immersion settings. the urban review, 41(5). seidman, i. (2006). interviewing as qualitative research. third edition. new york: teachers college press. shannon, s. m. (1995). the hegemony of english: a case study of one bilingual classroom as a site of resistance. linguistics and education, 7, 175-2000. valdés, g. (1997). dual language immersion programs: a cautionary note concerning the education of language-minority students. harvard educational review, 67(3), 391-429. bilingual program: language ideologies and literacy practices dworin no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) 126 valdez, v. e. (april, 2009). living with contradictions in the borderlands latina preschool teachers’ ideologies about bilingualism and biliteracy. paper presented at the american educational research association annual meeting, san diego, california. vygotsky, l. s. (1978). mind in society the development of higher psychological processes. m. cole, v. john-steiner, s. scribner, & e. souberman (eds.), cambridge: harvard university press. walsh, c. e. (1995). critical reflections for teachers: bilingual education and critical pedagogy. in j. frederickson, (ed.), reclaiming our voices: bilingual education, critical pedagogy and praxis (pp. 7988). ontario: california association for bilingual education. woolard, k. a. & schiefflin, b. (1994). language ideology. annual review of anthropology, 23, 55-82. woolard, k. a., schiefflin, b., and kroskrity, p. (1998). (eds.), language ideologies: practice and theory. oxford: oxford university press. the author joel e. dworin, ph.d. and m.ed. in language reading and culture from university of arizona. he is currently working as associate professor in the department of teacher education at university of texas, el paso. his areas of research and teaching interests include language and literacy development, sociocultural theory and bilingualism, critical perspectives and learning. e-mail: jedworin@utep.edu no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) gistseptiembre2011final2.indd 50 towards a proposal for a professional development programme in pedagogy for autonomy1 carlo granados beltrán2 universidad central, colombia abstract this article aims to share preliminary results of an ongoing research project named ‘towards a pedagogy for autonomy’ carried out at the languages department at universidad central in bogotá, colombia. the final goal of the project is to create a teacher development programme whose emphasis is on pedagogy for autonomy and whose theoretical and practical underpinnings are based on the findings of this specific study. the article discusses the origins of the project, the design and organisation of the initial teacher development workshops which will constitute the program, the limitations and some general results obtained from the experience up to the moment. keywords: professional development, teacher training, autonomy, workshops, research resumen este artículo tiene por objeto compartir los resultados preliminares de un proyecto de investigación que se está llevando a cabo en el departamento de lenguas de la universidad central en bogotá, colombia. el fin último del proyecto es el diseño de un programa de formación docente con énfasis en pedagogía para la autonomía cuya fundamentación esté fuertemente basada en los resultados obtenidos en el presente trabajo de investigación. el artículo presenta los orígenes del proyecto, el diseño y la organización preliminar de los talleres que harán parte del programa de formación, las limitaciones y algunos resultados generales de la experiencia hasta el momento. palabras clave: desarrollo profesional, formación docente, autonomía, talleres, investigación 1 received: august 17th ,2011 / accepted: september 5th, 2011 2 email: carlogranados@gmail.com gist education and learning research journal. issn 1692-5777. no. 5, november 2011. pp. 50-65 no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) 51 resumo este artigo tem por objeto compartilhar os resultados preliminares de um projeto de pesquisa que se está levando a cabo no departamento de línguas da universidade central em bogotá, colômbia. o fim último do projeto é o desenho de um programa de formação docente com ênfase em pedagogia para a autonomia cuja fundamentação esteja fortemente baseada nos resultados obtidos no presente trabalho de investigação. o artigo apresenta as origens do projeto, o desenho e a organização preliminar das oficinas; que farão parte do programa de formação, as limitações e alguns resultados gerais da experiência até o momento. palavras chave: desenvolvimento profissional, formação docente, autonomia, oficinas, pesquisa this article aims to share an unfinished experience in professional development carried out at the languages department at universidad central within the framework of a research study named ‘towards a pedagogy for autonomy’. the purpose of this project is designing a proposal for a teacher development course in autonomy which has as a basis the exploration of teachers’ autonomy by means of in-site workshops and practical applications for the classroom. the interest in pursuing this project came as a result of a previous project, named programa de inglés por módulos semipresenciales, which dealt with the creation of a distance-learning (semi-presencial) english programme in which students had to attend about 50% of the classes but the other 50% of the work had to be done on their own by carrying out exercises on some software specifically selected for that purpose. the results of this project evidenced that students were not able to pursue the part of the course which was carried out independently. the reasons stated by the students during the group interviews for this to happen were, first, lack of time because of the assignments from their jobs and/or other classes; also they mentioned that even though the programme intended the promotion of autonomous work, their commitment in this part was low since they were not used to work independently and felt they needed to have the teacher around to guide and control the activities. additionally, during the group interviews, the teachers expressed that they did not feel prepared to train students to work independently and they considered they needed some training in this respect. therefore, the team at the languages department decided to work on a proposal of a course in teaching for autonomy which was founded upon a research study. no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) 52 background universidad central is a non-profit higher education institution located in bogotá, colombia. the institution has three faculties: economic, accounting and business sciences; engineering; and social sciences, humanities and art and it offers different majors, such as accounting, advertising, computer engineering, drama and music, among many others. the target population of the university belongs to the working class which may not have many opportunities to access higher education. this is the reason why most of the students belong to the night shift since they work and study at the same time. one of the interests of the languages department has been the support it can offer students from the night shift who study and work and do not have enough time to devote to study english, so the department has always explored issues related to technology and e-learning which can better respond to the particular needs of these students. however, for the implementation of such programmes and tools, it is necessary that students possess a higher level of autonomy and are able to manage their own learning processes, but in order to develop autonomous learners, the teachers need to be able to accompany them in the process and guide them in strategies and techniques which could help them to attain their goals. thus, the languages department´s idea to offer a teacher development course in this area was born. review of literature in order to decide on the methodology and the means that were going to be used for the teacher development programme, the team at the languages department considered the principles for the development of inset (in-service educational training) courses on autonomy proposed by dam (2008) as well as some of the features in relation to workshop design established by richards and farrell (2005). for the development programme to be effective, we needed an activity which was limited in time so that it could be included in the regular meeting schedule of the department. also, we felt it had to involve both theory and practice in such a way that it kept teachers’ engagement. we decided to use workshops because in this sense, richards and farrell (2005) inform us that they are short-term learning activities designed with the purpose of providing opportunities to acquire specific knowledge and skills. however, in these kinds of activities, participants are expected to put that knowledge into practice afterwards, such as implementing procedures for class observation or carrying out action research projects. moreover, workshops allow teachers to examine and discuss beliefs about learning and teaching programme in pedagogy for autonomy granados beltrán no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) 53 processes, and contribute to the process of institutional improvement and individual betterment. workshops have been widely used in teacher training programmes for two main reasons. first of all, they are easy to organise because they are short and can be held in a time out of teachers’ schedules and secondly, because they offer the opportunity to connect theory and practice more easily. richards and farrell (2005), for example, inform us that some of the advantages we can attribute to workshops are, on one hand, the fact that they can be held in out-of-class schedules and therefore, they are relatively easy to implement since they are short-term; and on the other hand, the authors say workshops provide participants with practical classroom applications, help to increase teachers’ motivation, develop comraderie and collegiality, support and foster innovation and are flexible in terms of the activities to be carried out since they can be adapted to teachers’ interests and needs. another of the theorists considered was dam (2008) who stated some of the characteristics required for a development programme, whose purpose is the development of autonomy, to be successful. she stated that one of the first features is that both the organization and contents of the workshops should be planned as an ongoing process of negotiation, open to change depending on the particular needs of the teachers involved and the demands of the curriculum. it is also necessary to make explicit to the participants both the aims and the expected outcomes of the programme. for implementing the workshops proposed for the development programme, there was an initial meeting with the teachers in which they were informed about the nature of the project and what was expected both at group and institutional level after the development of the workshops. during the execution of the project, some of the ideas provided by the teachers were considered. however, there was not enough time to carry them all out during the workshops. nonetheless, they are going to be considered for the elaboration of the final proposal. additionally, some other features proposed by dam (2008) are to set up an atmosphere of trust and openness among the participants and with the facilitators, to emphasize both raising awareness and establishing links with each teacher’s situation so that the programme has a higher impact. the ideas for the workshops proposed for this development programme started with an initial group discussion in which teachers tapped into their experiences with their students at universidad central and at other institutions and the results of these conversations enhanced the understanding of the theory since teachers were able to make clear associations between what they had faced in programme in pedagogy for autonomy granados beltrán no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) 54 their classes with the theories proposed by the experts and methodology textbooks. most of the teachers participating in the programme have been working at the department five years or more and were familiar with the facilitators, which were the full-time teachers of the department, so the workshops had the feeling of taking advantage of equality relationships and reducing the idea of verticality or following the direction of an authority. finally, the other features proposed for inset courses were to have participants actively involved in their own learning and to have the emphasis of workshops lie on learning rather than teaching, that is to say, that participants have to ‘take off their teacher’s hat’ in order to become learners again and be free to experiment and test hypotheses in relation to teaching again as when they were starting in the field and did not have any pre-conceived ideas about it. based on this feature for inset courses, the research team decided to include in each one of the workshops a practical application which consisted of an inquiry project following an action research model so as to renew the participants’ interest in classroom phenomena and look at them in a different light. these reflections kept teachers engaged in the process and provided them with new insights in relation to their daily practice. participants the languages department has a total of 30 hourly-paid teachers. at first, the team had decided to work with all of them; however, due to the tasks teachers had to do during the development of the workshops and their time availability, we decided to count on 15 of these teachers who had signed a consent form. as mentioned before, these teachers have been working with our academic unit for about five years or more and are familiar both with the institutional and the department policies and procedures. a few of them had been engaged in the previous research project related to distance learning and knew the origins of the current research. one of the teachers’ characteristics which could have facilitated the development of the project is the fact that most of the participants had graduate studies in applied linguistics, translation and education, among others; therefore, they were somehow familiar with the dynamics the team implemented. research procedure the research design we considered appropriate was that of action research since its purpose is to improve daily practices and educational systems in a more critical way (burns, 1999; wallace, 1998; nunan, 1992, among others) in relation to the fostering of autonomous learning programme in pedagogy for autonomy granados beltrán no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) 55 processes as enacted, in a fi rst moment by teachers, and in the later future, by students. we decided to keep the study as a collaborative action research since some of the teachers who manifested in the previous project (programa de inglés por módulos semi-presenciales) that they needed training in this area in order to improve their practices were involved in this new study. we used the introspective cycle proposed by this model, as shown in figure 1. that is to say, we had the stages of planning, action, observation and refl ection in order to theorise about the experience obtained through the study. the end goal of the study was to construct a more effective educational practice and design a course in pedagogy for autonomy that could be offered to a wider number of teachers. the process for the development of this study was as follows, based on the results from the previous project. first, we identifi ed a starting idea in relation to the need of fostering autonomy. secondly, we started searching for evidence and ideas with the help of the teachers with the initial meeting. afterwards, we started designing the workshops taking into consideration what the teachers had said, and fi nally, we started applying the professional development workshops. at present, we are in the stage of evaluating the impact on both students and teachers through the data obtained by means of questionnaires and semistructured interviews. based on the results of this analysis, we are going to propose a fi nal version of the in-service training figure 1. acti on research cycle for the research study programme in pedagogy for autonomy granados beltrán no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) 56 initial pedagogical proposal as stated before, there was an initial meeting in which the teachers were informed in detail about the research project the department was carrying out as well as the expected impact of the study results on the three areas of action of the academic unit, that is to say, teaching, continuing education and research. also, in this meeting together with the participants we discussed our conceptions about autonomy, autonomous learning, teachers’ autonomy, as well as the possible key topics to tackle during the workshops. after this initial meeting, the topics selected to be developed during the workshops were refl ective teaching, classroom interaction and evaluation in connection with autonomy. taking into consideration the time constraints, two workshops were designed for each one of the themes, giving as a result 6 workshops as a whole. however, these were the key themes mentioned at the beginning, some other topics came up from the discussions and these are to be included in the fi nal proposal for the teacher development programme. steps in the workshops based on the features mentioned in the literature review (dam, 2008), the workshops followed this procedure: first, there was a discussion in order for the participants to conceptualize based on their experiences. second, there was a section related to the theory as presented by relevant authors and methodology textbooks but articulating it with what the teachers have said in terms of their daily practice. lastly, an inquiry task for the participants to develop in the classroom was proposed following the model of action research, that is to say, determining a problem, identifying a possible course of action, implementing it, collecting data, and refi ning the plan based on the results gathered, as shown in fi gure no. 2. figure 2. steps in the development of the workshops programme in pedagogy for autonomy granados beltrán no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) 57 three topics were included in the workshops: reflective teaching, classroom interaction and evaluation. both participants and facilitators considered the inclusion of reflective teaching very important since it provided a general framework for the proposal of a teacher development initiative. additionally, the participants expressed that if teachers wanted to be autonomous, they needed to be able to reflect on their contexts and make informed decisions about their practice in relation to how better to respond to students’ needs, institutional needs and their own needs. the inclusion of the key topic of classroom interaction was based on the understanding that for the students to become autonomous, teachers have to redefine the roles in the classroom. in other words, they have to ‘give up’ some of the power to students by giving them more responsibilities in regards to administering their learning, such as setting objectives, choosing activities, and evaluating outcomes, among other aspects. additionally, students need to be accustomed to using other resources apart from their teachers, such as their classmates, thus, the need to enhance pair and group work. moreover, evaluation was an important aspect to be considered since for students to be autonomous, they have to be objective enough to determine whether they have attained the learning objectives set by themselves and if they have not, to organise an appropriate plan of action with the help of the teacher, who in this case acts as an advisor and facilitator rather than as the only source of approval. in this sense, techniques such as selfand peer evaluation were also explored in the workshop as well as the use of rubrics for guaranteeing objectivity during assessment. other components which came out during the discussions held in the workshops were the development and adaptation of classroom material which fostered processes of autonomous learning and language learning strategies in order to give students enough tools which could help in the transition to an autonomous dynamic in the classroom. however, due to time limitations they were not included in the series of workshops, although they are going to be considered for the final teacher development course proposal. limitations even though one of the advantages of carrying out workshops as a mechanism for teacher development programmes is their duration, this constituted one of the limitations encountered during this project. due to the fact that the participants were hourly-paid teachers whose programme in pedagogy for autonomy granados beltrán no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) 58 academic load is shared with other institutions, it was difficult to count on all the members on all of the occasions. likewise, the development of the practical activities proposed in the workshops was limited by the pressures of complying with the english courses syllabi, designing tests for the courses allocated and other functions belonging to their daily practice. day (1999) explains that due to the fact that historically teachers’ labour has been considered as ‘contact time’ with students, there are very few opportunities for them to collect data, share practices with colleagues or reflect collectively and in-depth upon their teaching procedures and contexts, thus, the challenge for facilitators in developing teachers as inquirers. in our particular case, despite having planned the workshops in the most appropriate time frame for teachers so that we could work with all of them (30), we could not count on 100% of the teachers but only with the 15 who had time available and who had signed a consent form. in order to solve this inconvenience, the team at the languages department, with support of the virtual education team at the university, decided to use the moodle platform for teachers to analyse and discuss their insights based on the assignments set in each one of the workshops. therefore, the team created a course in the platform with the name of the project. within that course, the material used in the six on-site workshops was uploaded as well as the assignments and additional material in relation to the topic obtained from methodology textbooks and specialised web pages. at the end of each unit, a forum named “how are your projects going?” was incorporated with the purpose of having teachers post their ongoing concerns and conclusions in relation to the practical classroom applications. nonetheless, and because of the fact that this was a solution which came up while the project was already in progress, we consider that the use of these mechanisms for participation could have been more effective had there been a more rigorous accompaniment for teachers and also if the dialogue through the forums had been more continuous or for a longer period. despite the inconveniences we had with this integration of icts, we do consider it can help overcome problems in relation to attendance and participation; therefore, for the final course proposal we will consider its integration but in a better articulation with the rest of the components of the teacher development programme. programme in pedagogy for autonomy granados beltrán no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) 59 preliminary results in order for the team to analyse the experience, we used various instruments to collect data. we included a semi-structured interview (appendix 1) to participant teachers in order to discuss their inquiry projects, a series of observations to see innovations in situ (appendix 2), and a survey for the students belonging to the participant teachers’ classes in order to determine whether they had seen any impact and/or gained any understanding of their teachers’ new practices (appendix 3). additionally, we had some other sources of information, such as teachers’ artefacts obtained during the on-site workshops and their reflections and discussions as posted in the moodle platform forums (appendix 4). at present we are analysing the data gathered by these means, however, some of the preliminary results indicate that a process of transformation was triggered in the teachers by means of recognising problem situations in the classroom, sharing them and reflecting collectively, this reflection led to a rediscovery of both teaching strategies and interaction dynamics that had been concealed due to the ‘routinisation’ of classroom practices; thus, some of the common practices which were considered ineffective started to be questioned and alternatives were explored by sharing with colleagues. there was a revisit of collaborative work in classes understanding it beyond having students doing activities in pairs or groups but also as a mechanism of evaluating the attainment of objectives. another gain from the project has been the redefinition of observation as a tool. in fact, teachers admitted they observed students all the time but rather in the sense of determining behaviours (participative, shy, troublemaker students). after, the teacher development programme, teachers started considering observation more systematically and with much more specific purposes. additionally, the implementation of diverse strategies had an impact both on teachers’ autonomy and students’ attitudes towards the classes: both teachers and students rethought the teachers’ role, which started to be seen less as a transmitter of knowledge and more as a facilitator for students to develop each one of the assigned tasks independently, however, this is a gradual process and there is still a lot to be done in order to help students become more autonomous. at the end of this process, it has been evidenced that teachers, who initially described their daily practice and observation in a context of informality, started to make aware and informed decisions about the teaching-learning processes. richards and lockhart (1996, p. 3-4) programme in pedagogy for autonomy granados beltrán no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) 60 explain in relation to reflective teaching that “much can be learned about teaching through self-inquiry”, “experience is insufficient as a basis for development” and “critical reflection can trigger a deeper understanding of teaching.” after the preliminary results, the benefits we consider teachers will gain through this professional development programme have been providing a space for that self-inquiry, critical reflection and systematising of experiences to happen and therefore, creating changes in daily practices and impact on students’ learning. finally, the shift to defining teachers as inquirers contributes to a great extent to their own development as autonomous professionals and the development of the workshops created a space to construct an academic community with its corresponding sense of empowering of teachers as developers of knowledge and professionals in language teaching. mcgrath (2000) clearly explained teachers’ autonomy in two senses: self-directed professional development and freedom from control by others. with this professional development programme, we are aiming at both providing opportunities for self-improvement but also creating spaces for academic discussions in which there is negotiation and the exercise of independent judgement based on academic arguments. conclusion in conclusion, as mentioned in a previous document (granados, 2009, p.42), we english teachers can contribute to the construction of an academic community in different ways. first, we can contribute by keeping up our good quality as language professionals in both language competence and pedagogical skills. second, by reflecting on what we do in our day-to-day job and – as knowledge is not constructed by itself but is built by discussion and cooperation – by sharing with our colleagues the reflections we do about our job. third, we contribute to form an academic community by being autonomous people and critical thinkers who are able to evaluate what is better for the benefit of all. becoming someone who is capable of making informed professional decisions on their daily practice and of executing plans in relation to students` needs and interests with the freedom of control by other people is a first step to become an autonomous teacher. as stated before, this is a preliminary report of the research experience carried out. the team still has some work to do in relation to the analysis of each one of the inquiry projects carried out by the teachers and their impact on students’ autonomy. also, we need to analyse the data collected, including some of the artefacts teachers programme in pedagogy for autonomy granados beltrán no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) 61 produced during the workshops in the light of our research interest. once the project is concluded, the team will show the outcomes and pedagogical implications of this enriching experience in the exploration of professional development and autonomy by means of a final report. references dam, l. (2008). in-service teacher education for learner autonomy. independence, 43. iatefl learner autonomy sig, spring – summer. (20-26). retrieved july 11, 2009 from http://www. learnerautonomy.org/dam2008.pdf day, c. (1999). developing teachers. the challenges of lifelong learning. london: falmer press. granados, c. (2009). a framework for the construction of academic communities. folios, segunda época, no. 30. segundo semestre. (39-49) richards, j.c. and farrell, t.s.c. (2005). professional development for language teachers. strategies for teacher learning. cambridge: cambridge university press. richards, j.c. and lockhart, c. (1996). reflective teaching in second language classrooms. cambridge: cambridge university press. programme in pedagogy for autonomy granados beltrán no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) 62 appendices appendix a: interview for teachers programme in pedagogy for autonomy granados beltrán no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) 63 appendix b: class observati on format programme in pedagogy for autonomy granados beltrán no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) 64 appendix c: survey to students programme in pedagogy for autonomy granados beltrán no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) 65 the author carlo granados beltrán earned his degree in spanish and languages from universidad pedagógica nacional. he holds two ma degrees, one in applied linguistics from universidad distrital and another in british cultural studies and elt from university of warwick. currently, he is a full-time professor at universidad central, guest lecturer at the ma programme in language teaching at universidad pedagógica y tecnológica de colombia (uptc) and professor at única. he has also worked as a language teaching methodology professor at pontifi cia universidad javeriana and as an international consultant in methodology and evaluation for pearson educación de colombia. appendix d: moodle course screenshot programme in pedagogy for autonomy granados beltrán no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) gistseptiembre2010final.indd �� vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) the siop model: transforming the experiences of college professors part i. lesson planning, building background, and comprehensible input1 diana m. salcedo2* centro colombo americano, bogotá abstract this article, the first of two, presents the introduction, context, and analysis of professor experiences in an on-going research project for implementing a new educational model in a bilingual teacher’s college in bogotá, colombia. the model, the sheltered instruction observation protocol (siop) promotes eight components for a bilingual education program. these components will be analyzed to discern what educators found to be easy or challenging in their classroom teaching practice. keywords: sheltered instruction observation protocol (siop), english second language learners (eslls), colombian national education department, content subject, meaningful activities, supplementary materials (sms) resumen este artículo, el primero de dos, presenta la introducción, el contexto, y el análisis de las experiencias profesorales en un proyecto de investigación continuo para la implementación de un nuevo modelo educativo en una universidad de formación docente en educación bilingüe3 en bogotá, colombia. el modelo, el 1 received: january 9th, 2010 / accepted: july 16th, 2010 2 professor salcedo works in the republic of colombia. correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to diana m. salcedo. e-mail: diamil.salcedo@gmail.com 3 nota del editor: siendo que entre los países de américa latina la terminología de los niveles de estudio (como bachillerato, técnico, pre-grado, etc.) se varía bastante, se aclara que, en colombia, el término que se usa oficialmente para la universidad descrita en la investigación es institución universitaria. también, según términos educacionales colombianos, el programa que se ofrece es profesional, que quiere decir que dura 10 semestres. el título ofrecido por la universidad descrita en este artículo es la de licenciatura en educación bilingüe. (en otros países hispanos tal vez se usaría los términos escuela normal o estudio de magisterio, los cuales normalmente se traducen al inglés como teacher’s college o normal school). salcedo gist education and learning research journal. issn 1692-5777, pp. 78-93 �� vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) salcedo protocolo de observación de la instrucción protegida (siop), promueve ocho componentes para un programa de educación bilingüe. éstos serán analizados para discernir lo que los educadores encontraron fácil o desafiante en su práctica docente en el aula. palabras claves: protocolo de observación de la instrucción protegida (siop), aprendiz de inglés como segunda lengua (eslls), ministerio de educación nacional de colombia, materia de contenido, actividades significativas, materiales suplementarios the siop is an educational model and procedure which focuses on teaching language through a content-based approach. those who designed it propose that educators give eslls a protected environment in which these students may safely build second language (l2) skills without abandoning their first language in the process. the protocol is designed to encourage students to employ their native language to support the learning process, particularly when moving from concrete to abstract knowledge. this model was developed from 1996 to 2003 by researchers of the center for applied linguistics and california state university using data from exemplary us teachers. the protocol is composed of eight interrelated components: lesson preparation, building background, comprehensible input, strategies, interaction, practice/application, lesson delivery, and review/assessment. the center for applied linguistics (2010) defines siop as an instructional research-based and validated framework that trains and coaches teachers through concrete examples on key features of effective high-quality sheltered teaching techniques. one of the main goals of this model is to help english learners to be successful in content classes and l2 skills. additionally, it is used as an observation instrument to assess the implementation of effective strategies, their effects on students, and as a tool to be used by teachers in the planning and delivery of lessons. the model has been used and tested by elementary, secondary, twoway immersion, and bilingual teachers as well as school and district administrators (siop institute, 2008). the teacher’s college institución universitaria colombo americana4 has promoted the siop model as a framework for their professors’ class preparation since 2007. the model matches what the administration considers to be an effective teaching model. the school has used the content-based approach, which is the philosophical groundwork for siop, since 2004. the model is based on eight 4 the school, otherwise known as única, is a spanish-english teacher’s college located in bogotá, colombia, with a bilingual teacher certification program designed to prepare future educators, researchers, and educational administrators. �0 vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) components which are applicable during lesson preparation as well as delivery. it has been demonstrated by researchers that students can learn english and content concepts much more easily when professors are implementing the model (short & echevarria, 1999). context from its inception, the college’s administration and faculty have aimed at constructing a coherent program that included content in the fields of education, linguistics, research, history, and literature. in the first faculty meetings, one issue discussed was the importance of providing solid language-skill acquisition to the students while teaching through content. students have to graduate with a b2 common european framework of reference for languages (cefr)5 level, in accordance with the national bilingual program’s requirements for college students (ministerio de educación nacional, 2007). the cefr indicates that someone on the b2 level can understand the most important ideas of complex texts and technical conversations in his/ her particular area of expertise. in addition, this person will be able to express his/her ideas on a high-intermediate level of fluency, capable of interacting with native speakers, and of generating detailed writings on a variety of topics (council of europe, 2001). currently, the college’s professors are teaching english skills through content, that is, subject courses such as educational research, language and society, or north american literature, as well as through language courses (english, writing, etc.) it has always been a challenge for the faculty to develop a project in which all agree upon a single method for accomplishing specific language and content objectives in the classrooms, which is why early in 2008 a group of professors and students began a research project to understand how the siop model could help the student body to accomplish language and content objectives in class. it was believed that the siop model would provide some key strategies that can scaffold student academic processes so that they would be well prepared as students and future teachers (echevarria, vogt, & short, 2004). this research project was carried out with five senior professors who voluntarily offered to participate. at the time, they were teaching content classes in the fields of education, research, and history. the classes observed were of groups from the fourth to eighth semester of study. one of these professors was a native english speaker while the others were non-native english speakers. 5 the cefr is a guideline that provides standards of language ability and skills in order for language learners to communicate (council of europe, 2001). the siop model salcedo �1 vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) the siop model salcedo area of focus this research is an attempt to describe the experience of college professors as they apply the first three siop model components (lesson preparation, building background, and comprehensible input). the description will take into account the aspects of siop which professors were able to master. it will also define those factors which were both difficult and/or easy in the process of mastering those aspects. research questions 1. what did professors learn using the siop model in their classes? 2. what were the components of the siop model which professors found more challenging to apply? 3. what were the components of the siop model which professors found easier to apply? data collection and data sources the data was collected by using five different sources: a) professor’s reflections: the research group organized meetings twice a month to analyze each of the siop model components. in these meetings, professors were asked to write down reflections about their experience with the model. b) video-tape checklists: classroom visits were made by researchers in order to observe how professors were using the siop model. to gather data, researchers used the checklist provided in echevarria, vogt, and short (2004). this checklist is composed of 30 features organized around the 8 siop components. each item provides a score from 0 to 4, ranging from highly evident, and somewhat evident, to not evident. c) video and tape transcriptions (from both meetings and classes): all meetings were recorded and transcribed by the researchers. afterwards, the transcriptions were analyzed in order to collect data. all classes were videotaped (mills, 2003). d) surveys: during the process, the researchers collected some data through surveys which they sent to professors via e-mail. the professors answered the research questions based on their experience with using the siop components in their lessons. e) lesson plans: all professors participating in the research project handed in lesson plans (of videotaped classes) to the researchers. data analysis and interpretation to analyze the collected data, the researchers identified and compared the items of the siop components through professors’ reflections, video-tape checklists, tape transcriptions, surveys, and lesson plans (mills, 2003). for the first part of this study, the research took into �2 vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) account lesson preparation, building background, and comprehensible input: the first three components of the siop model. lesson preparation lesson preparation (lp) is the first of the eight main components that the siop model suggests that educators use. according to the theory, effective lessons are ones that lead students towards clear objectives. these objectives should be both stated orally by the teacher and presented in written form to the class. in addition, lesson planning should promote learning in which students link new concepts with past knowledge/experiences. this objective is often reached through the use of supplementary materials (sms), content adaptation, and meaningful activities. it is suggested that the implementation of this element in a teachers’ daily practice will improve not only the class quality, but also the depth of their students’ learning processes (echevarria, vogt, & short, 2004). what has been easy for professors when preparing classes with the siop model? after analyzing the siop checklists, the tape transcriptions of the focus groups, and the professors’ reflections, the researchers were able to draw the conclusion that most professors plan their classes taking sms into account. although the professors expressed some initial confusion about (for example) the difference between materials and supplementary materials, they obtained greater clarity on the issue after undergoing siop training activities. one professor pointed out that his use of sms helped students to become more engaged in class and that sms assisted him in class management. another professor revealed that he normally did not use sms. he expressed his belief that the successful use of such materials depends on teaching styles. he considered the most important issue concerning sms to be for teachers to focus their attention on what is necessary for accomplishing the class goals, and not focusing on the materials themselves. the majority of professors thought that sms must be those which will be useful in enhancing student’s learning. according to the checklist comments, some of the materials professors used the most included: videos, graphic organizers, posters, and power point presentations. another aspect of siop which professors applied and found easy to use in their classes was what we call meaningful activities. based on the siop checklists, professors planned lessons to tie in students’ previous-knowledge base with the new information being presented in class. these lessons gave them opportunities to enhance language development in reading, writing, listening, and speaking skills, as is made clear in the following example taken from a survey: the siop model salcedo �� vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) the siop model salcedo a meaningful activity for me after learning about the siop model is the one that includes the four skills. for microteaching class, students have to read and write a summary of the reading. after that, we talk about it (the summary), so they have to listen and to speak. most professors demonstrated that they have a clear understanding of how to adapt content concepts to meet student needs. evidence of such is seen in the following statements taken from both a survey as well as an observer’s comments on the checklists, respectively: i usually read the texts and see how difficult the vocabulary and concepts are to later be able to explain or clarify them to students. [one professor adapts content concepts] . . . by trying to look for examples related to the students’ own lives and colombia’s culture. what has been challenging for professors when preparing classes with the siop model? the main difficulties professors have faced when preparing classes with the siop model are related to writing out the content and language objectives. the following reflection shows that a professor found the writing of these objectives to be difficult: ha sido un poco difícil enunciar los objetivos. me toma mucho tiempo y sigo preguntándome si la manera de enunciarlos es la más apropiada (si un objetivo de contenido como “entender _____” o “ganar mayor comprensión en _____” son todavía muy poco concretos, por ejemplo). también me pregunto si realmente los estudiantes comprenden lo que se busca, si no estoy confundiendo los objetivos de lengua con los de contenido, si los objetivos son más bien actividades o tareas, si los objetivos son demasiado ambiciosos o muy pobres en exigencia para el nivel [de los estudiantes], si son coherentes con las actividades . . .6 what have professors learned about preparing classes with the siop model? upon analyzing data from the reflections, the focus groups, and the checklists, the researchers were able to draw a significant conclusion about what professors learned about the first component of siop, lesson preparation. the conclusion was that the new 6 [it has been a little difficult to state objectives. it takes a lot of time and i still wonder if the way i state them is the most appropriate (if a content objective such as “understand _____” or “get more understanding in _____” are still not concrete enough, for example). i also wonder whether students understand what is expected; whether i am not confusing language with content objectives; whether the objectives are, instead, activities or tasks; whether the objectives are too ambitious or not demanding enough for the (students’) level; whether they are coherent with the activities . . .] �� vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) knowledge acquired by the professors is, in fact, related to one of the sub-components of lp: establishing language/content objectives. this was a significant finding in that it showed that professors have gained a consciousness about having both content and language covered in their classes at the same level. the balance between these two factors is not frequently obtained in the pedagogical strategies of college professors. some professors said that they had never thought much about the importance of working on content and language objectives together. the new edition of the siop manual (echevarria, vogt, & short, 2004) is quite specific regarding the focus of the language objectives. these objectives can focus on explicit grammar points or higher-order thinking skills to enhance student’s vocabulary and reading comprehension skills. also, the manual gives key vocabulary for presenting language objectives. educators are encouraged to use verbs such as brainstorm, outline, revise, edit, conclude, summarize, and phrases such as make comparisons. building background building background (bb) is the second element of the siop model. it offers strategies for linking students’ personal and cultural context to the lesson being given. rightly understood, it is said to be able to help the teacher to be more conscientious of the existing knowledge gaps their second language learners (slls) may have. this siop component is the basis for several techniques which may be used by a professor to introduce vocabulary before, during, and after the lesson. it offers guidelines so that a teacher may connect students’ prior knowledge with the new information being taught. building background is a proposal for a variety of classroom methods to be used for tying a text’s background information to student’s realities (peregoy & boyle, 2005). if followed as a principle, it also aides in the difficult task of prompting students to build background for themselves. the lesson application of this component is crucial because it is the primary element to be used to engage students with lesson content, making the lesson attractive to students (echevarria, vogt, & short, 2004). what has been easy for professors when building background using the siop model? according to siop checklists, the focus groups, and the bb reflections, every one of the professors was found to be connecting class concepts to student background during the observation period. in the focus group meetings, all professors agreed that they as well as students should “construct” the classes together. what they meant by “construct” was that most of them thought that professors should give students the chance to feel like active participants and not just like the objects of a lesson. they agreed that students should not only receive classes, but that they should actively contribute. the siop model salcedo �� vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) the siop model salcedo using students as instruments to build background means that ideas shared in class should come principally from students. regarding this, one professor observed that bb has not only made her classes easier, but that it has become easier to apply bb from the very first time that she encouraged her students to actively participate. students tend to catch on to it quickly. the professor stated: “in microteaching class, i have students think about when they were teenagers, so, that way they can connect their previous experiences with the new information about adolescence.” professors seek to connect concepts to student’s background, and the way they do this is mainly through discussions. the next two quotes exemplify this fact: when we did the class on myths, students had to tell their own stories first, and then we were prepared to talk about indian myths. once i have explained a concept, i try to elicit information from students by asking them concrete questions like: do we experience this phenomenon (code-switching, for example) in our own country? students normally come up with great ideas. if they look mixed-up, i then give them some examples from my own life. e.g. ‘when i was studying english i code-switched when i said _____.’ what has been challenging for professors when building background? when talking about challenging aspects for bb in classes, the data showed us that two professors had difficulties related to time. one of them had trouble estimating the time to allot for each component in a class. the other considered that the time for planning and organizing was overwhelming. another aspect challenging for professors of bb was related to key vocabulary, a list of words used to help students understand class content. on the checklists and during the bb focus groups, professors demonstrated some confusion related to this topic. it was also observed that they placed little emphasis on the use of key vocabulary in their classes. therefore, the bb research group requested that some professors explain their understanding of the main characteristics of key vocabulary. from the discussion which ensued, one professor expressed that he thought that key vocabulary was essential in reaching content and language objectives: it’s about the words that are necessary to understand the topic students are studying. in my classes, most of the time, the key vocabulary is included in the language objectives. and [. . .] the language objectives are connected with the content objectives. that means students will �� vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) absolutely have to use the key vocabulary if they’re going to accomplish the content objectives. another professor said that she did not previously know that key vocabulary should be included in the bb component: now i know that in our lesson plans we should include key vocabulary when we develop vocabulary and that it’s part of the building background component. now, i’m conscious about it, i wasn’t conscious about it previously. i did it, but i didn’t know it was part of building background. this activity helped me to realize that. there was another professor who realized from the siop manual that, for teaching key vocabulary, educators can divide the words into groups according to the level of difficulty and the classification of the word: the new edition of the siop shows more specificity regarding the types of words to teach, both by word area and word level. the first has to do with content and/or topic-specific vocabulary. the second area is function words related to cognitive levels. the third deals with word analysis [. . .] to generate new learning; roots + bases, cognates, compound words. there are also three levels of words classified by tiers. tier one words are the high-frequency words commonly seen + heard. tier two are those words used more specifically for academic tasks, such as ‘estimate.’ the last tier has to do with less common words whose meaning changes based on the context, such as ‘power.’ in both math and social studies, this word has different meanings. what have professors learned when building background? there is evidence that shows that professors were more conscious about some aspects that should be taken into account, than others. some of the more popular aspects included: the student’s age, their knowledge of the world, and their proficiency in the target language. they gave examples about specific activities that can be carried out in order to build background and to create shared understanding in the classroom such as leading the students in a direct experience,7 forming questions which relate previous knowledge with new, using videos, giving homework, or using readings. the examples given in tables 1 to 5, all taken from the lesson plans which the professors who participated in the research designed for videotaped classes, demonstrate different aspects of what they 7 to clarify, a direct experience is an activity a teacher designs to help students understand different aspects of a task. the siop model salcedo �� vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) the siop model salcedo learned while building background. the first one, table 1, shows how a direct experience was described by a professor who was attempting to use bb in her class. table 1 bb exercise: the happiest moment of my life content objective: students will be able to (swbat) identify the characteristics needed to use collaborative learning in class. direct experience to build background: students will work in pairs. one of them will begin to speak about the happiest moment in his/her life and the other will allow herself to get distracted. after two minutes, the student who is not listening will start paying attention again. we will talk about the experience and how the student who was speaking felt. this exercise will help students understand what aspects should be taken into account when working with collaborative learning in class. forming questions to relate previous knowledge with new is another strategy professors used to build background, as can be seen in table 2. table 2 bb exercise on changes experienced by teenagers content objective: swbat write about five changes teenagers experience. swbat write five implications these changes have in the classroom. • do you remember how you felt when you were a teenager? • what was your relationship with adults like? • do you remember any particularly happy moment at school? • what about a sad moment? • what are the main differences between children’s learning process and teenagers’? • how do you learn english better (in a traditional classroom setting or in a cooperative learning setting)? • have you ever tried to win an argument with your parents and lost? what was the argument about? how did they win it? using videos, as seen in table 3, is another technique professors applied to connect the students’ previous information with the new content they will assimilate. �� vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) table 3 bb bilingual education video exercise content objective: swbat discuss key issues about bilingual education (be). language objective: swbat write and present an outline about the main characteristics of be. building background: students will watch a video about be and, in pairs, will discuss the following questions: • why are there some people in favor of be? • why are some parents opposed to it? • what does research say about it? • how do you relate the situation those schools had experienced with be to the be in our country’s schools? giving homework, as illustrated in table 4, was a tool professors were using to connect the information learned in a previous class with the new one. table 4 homework with bb writing assignment content objective: swbat connect their study to relevant learning theories. language objective: • swbat draft an essay off of an outline. • swbat apply apa-style formatting to parenthetical and reference citation. homework: bring in a first draft ready to work on editing it during the next class time. using readings is another strategy teachers used to build background in their classes, as seen in table 5. table 5 bb readings exercise content objective: swbat connect their study to relevant learning theories. language objective: • swbat draft an essay off of an outline. • swbat apply apa style formatting to parenthetical and reference citation. the siop model salcedo �� vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) the siop model salcedo links to learning: often, stating facts or using sources from other books or articles helps support your argument. we’ll look at how to use support and documentation it in a theoretical framework and literature review. in the focus group meetings, one professor said that using bb had opened the class to more opportunities for student interaction. another commented that bb has to be used in most classes. he said: once you’ve begun your class this way, it just rolls, and building background motivates students for the whole class. from my experiences with building background, i have learned that it has to be a method for most classes. if you don’t use the method, you can do your class, but perhaps a big part of your student’s attention may be lost. to learn how to build background as a teacher, one of the educators found that doing personal visits with colleagues has been helpful. she got ideas for her own lessons by conversing with professors who were also sampling the bb techniques. comprehensible input based on krashen’s hypothesis which states that language acquisition occurs when the input is meaningful, comprehensible, and interesting to the learners (curtain, 2004), comprehensible input (ci) is a rule which helps educators to bear in mind learners’ linguistic needs. in order to make information comprehensible to students, this siop recommendation states that teachers should adjust and modulate their speech, explain tasks in steps, and use a variety of simplification techniques. it is believed that, with clear directions and clear communication of what is expected from them, students will perform better academically (mckenzie, 2000). what has been easy for professors when using ci in their classes? in terms of making content comprehensible, speech adjustment was the most predominant strategy used by the professors involved in the research project. the data analysis shows that all of them adjusted the rate, enunciation, and complexity of their speech to their students’ levels of proficiency. the techniques that professors applied the most were: speaking slowly, repeating, paraphrasing, using intonation, and recycling (as these examples taken from the surveys and the checklists illustrate): i speak naturally but slowly, repeat as many times as i see necessary, paraphrase, put emphasis on certain words or expressions and exemplify. �0 vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) i rephrase and recycle new vocabulary. i use intonation to mark information that is especially important, like key points. i frame new concepts so that students may know what to expect when discussing a particular topic. i also rephrase students’ answers. another important observation drawn about speech adjustment is that, in general, the professors did not have problems applying the strategy. this was due to the fact that most of them were working with students on a high-intermediate or advanced level. the following comment, taken from a survey, demonstrates this: in my course, students are advanced. so i don’t have to work on the issue of comprehensible input . . . they don’t have problems in terms of comprehension. they make mistakes but they understand everything when they read. i mean it’s not difficult for them. with reference to giving class work and/or homework explanations, we found that most professors gave clear instructions for activities or tasks. they usually scaffolded activities, showing examples of their expectations: i try to model so that students have access to samples of what i expect from them and so that tasks can be grasped easily. con el propósito de que los estudiantes comprendan lo que los profesores esperamos de ellos, creo que una muy buena estrategia es la presentación de modelos, es decir, dar a conocer en clase algunos proyectos culminados para que se tenga información detallada de lo que se espera conseguir al finalizar un semestre, una unidad o un módulo temático . . . dichos proyectos culminados sean trabajos de estudiantes de única en cursos anteriores . . . al observar los productos de compañeros de semestres anteriores, los estudiantes comprenden con mayor facilidad las tareas, generan debates interesantes a partir de reflexiones de otros, y hasta trabajan en la identificación de dificultades en habilidades como la escritura.8 using a variety of techniques was another element of ci that professors usually applied to make content concepts understandable for 8 [with the intention getting students to understand what we as professors expect from them, i think that a very good strategy is showing models, i mean, letting them see some finished projects in class. this is so that they may have detailed information of what we expect them to have done at the end of the semester, a unit or a topic module. . . such finished projects can be projects from única students of previous semesters. . . upon observing their peer’s work from former semesters, students understand (class/home) work much more easily, it sparks interesting discussions originating in the thoughts of others, and they work on identifying difficulties in skills such as writing]. the siop model salcedo �1 vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) the siop model salcedo their students. according to the checklists and surveys, the strategies they used the most were: body language, graphic organizers, and handson activities: since i am really bad at drawing and i sometimes do not find visual aids appropriate for the topics being presented, i usually use gestures and/or body language to make myself understood. i give examples, use realia, and design rubrics with students, so they understand what they are supposed to do. with my intro class [the firstsemester english level], i use simple vocabulary and, when necessary, i use spanish. another kind of technique professors applied when using ci in their classes are the communicative ones such as roundtables, symposiums, and panels. what has been challenging for professors when using ci in their classes? the research did not found data to support that professors were challenged in the use of ci in their classes. what have professors learned when using ci in their classes? in one of our research meetings, professors were asked to go over one of their lesson plans and to see how they could improve the use of techniques (making content concepts comprehensible for students). one of the professors advised his peers to use strategies different from the ones they usually apply: we should try to use more demonstrations, or use more videos or maybe pictures . . . because students need it and they also want it . . . and that could make our classroom projects easier and more effective. conclusions in the research meetings and in some of the reflections, professors recognized that using the lesson planning component helped them to think about teaching techniques for guiding students to reach measurable language and content objectives. so, in these meetings they were advised to use bloom’s taxonomy to prepare and deliver their classes. this is particularly important because the teacher’s college offers a contentbased program in which students also learn english as an l2. the professors considered that students should be active participants in the construction of the class lesson. using the bb components and sharing their experiences in the research meetings gave them different ideas about how to implement it in their classes. using videos, leading students in a direct experience, giving homework, and forming questions which relate previous knowledge with the new were the teaching techniques educators use the most to build background in their classes. �2 vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) finally, regarding ci, some professors argued that their instruction should be focused mainly on content, not language, especially when teaching students who have a high-intermediate level of english. the research does not advocate the creation of a content-language dichotomy; in fact, it was found that professors did not have to make any major adjustments to their speech in order to communicate well with students. still, this fact should not lead professors to dismiss the importance of providing ci to students at all levels. the author considers that language is a path to content concepts, and that both content and language are best understood to be mutually-strengthening aspects of learning. references echevarria, j., vogt, m. e., & short, d. (2004). making content comprehensible for english language learners: the siop model (2nd ed.). boston: pearson/ allyn & bacon. center for applied linguistics. (2010). sheltered instruction observation protocol. retrieved from http://www.cal.org/siop/about/index.html council of europe. (2001). common european framework of reference for languages. retrieved from http://www.coe.int/t/dg4/linguistic/source/ framework_en.pdf curtain, h. (2004). language and children: making the match (3rd ed.). new york: pearson. mckenzie, j. (2000). scaffolding for success. from now on: the educational technology journal. retrieved from http://imet.csus.edu/imet7/ sugiyama/282-283/scaffolding_for_success.pdf mills, g. (2003). action research: a guide for the teacher researcher (2nd ed.). upper saddle river, new jersey: pearson. ministerio de educación nacional (men). (enero, 2007). se inicia la consolidación de la enseñanza de inglés. revolución educativa colombia aprende. 8(1), pp. 2-3. retrieved from http://www.mineducacion.gov.co/ cvn/1665/printer-115872.html peregoy, s. f., & boyle, o, f. (2005). reading, writing and learning in esl. a resource book for k-12 teachers. boston: pearson. short, d. & echevarria, j. (1999). the sheltered instruction observation protocol: a tool for teacher-researcher collaboration and professional development. eric clearinghouse on languages and linguistics, washington dc. retrieved from http://www.ericdigests.org/2000-3/protocol.htm the siop model salcedo �� vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) the siop model salcedo siop institute. (2008). abstracts of siop research studies presented at the 2008 american educational research association conference & upcoming research studies on siop. retrieved from http://www.siopinstitute.net/ research.html the author *diana m. salcedo earned her bachelor’s degree in bilingual education from única in 2009. she has worked as an esl teacher in different institutions during the last 5 years. she participated in the design of curriculum and classroom material and in research on the college level. she did her practicum in a spanish-language immersion program in a north carolina public school. currently, she is working as an english teacher at the centro colombo americano and, under agreement with the colombo, as an english professor at the universidad jorge tadeo lozano in bogotá. gistseptiembre2010final.indd 1�� vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) beyond bilingual education: multilingual language education in nepal1 shelley k. taylor2* the university of western ontario abstract the purpose of this paper is to describe the framework for implementing multilingual language education (mle) countrywide in nepal. i outline key tenets of mle, explain the rationale for implementing it in the nepali context, and describe the mle framework that formed the basis of trainer workshops. the framework is divided into 7 topics: 4 of which are specific to mle, and 3 of which are widely discussed in the literature on bilingual education and therefore not discussed in this paper. i argue that mle should be implemented in other countries for both educational and socio-political reasons relating to the educational well-being of linguistic minority children. keywords: multilingual language education (mle), indigenous minorities, nepal, mle framework, linguistic human rights resumen el propósito del presente manuscrito es describir el marco para la implementación de la educación multilingüe de idiomas (emi) por todo el país de nepal. esbozo los conceptos claves de la emi, explico la lógica para la implementación de la misma en el contexto nepalí, y describo el marco de emi que formó la base de los talleres para formadores. el marco se divide en 7 temas: 4 de los cuales son específicos a la emi, y 3 de los cuales son discutidos ampliamente en la literatura sobre la educación bilingüe, que entonces no se presentan en este artículo. argumento que la emi debe ser implementada en otros países para razones tantas educativas que socio-políticas, relacionando esto al bienestar educacional de los niños de las minorías lingüísticas. palabras claves: educación multilingüe de idiomas (emi), minorías indígenas, nepal, marco para emi, derechos humanos lingüísticos 1 received: april 6th, 2010 / accepted: july 11th, 2010 2 correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to shelley k. taylor, the university of western ontario, faculty of education, london, on, n6g 1g7, canada. e-mail: taylor@uwo.ca taylor gist education and learning research journal. issn 1692-5777, pp. 138-154 1�� vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) taylor if politicians and language policy makers in countries around the world, countries like colombia, japan, and canada, decided to teach every child through the medium of their mother tongue (l1), what sort of resistance would they encounter? what would be the benefits of all children receiving l1-based instruction as well as instruction in the official language of their homeland (bilingual education)? what if politicians and language policy makers agreed to offer l1-based instruction to all children even if that meant instruction in over 100 languages in one country? though the issues that such a venture would raise might sound impossible to resolve, the government of nepal plans to offer l1-based instruction to every child in the country. the right to l1-based instruction has been enshrined in the constitution since 2007 (government of nepal, 2007; nepal law book society, 2007). furthermore, all children in nepal also learn nepali and english from grade 1 onwards, which means that nepal is implementing multilingual language education (mle).3 were another country to attempt to replicate the nepali model, one might well imagine the counter-arguments such a move would meet. one reasonable argument would be: “we don’t even know what a countrywide mle program would look like.” this paper outlines the framework for implementing mle countrywide in nepal. in it, i briefly describe the nepali context, and the rationale behind introducing mle there. this is followed by an overview of the mle framework that was the basis for workshops i gave to introduce the concept of mle to the teachers and writers of the materials. i begin by outlining key tenets of mle. key tenets of mle for language education to be classified as mle, more than two languages must be used as languages of instruction. that is, at least three languages must be used for content-based instruction, not just taught as subjects [e.g., as second or foreign languages (l2/fl), garcía, skutnabb-kangas & torres-guzman, 2006]. in the nepali case, those languages include: children’s l1, which may be indigenous/minority languages; nepali, the official language of nepal, and english as a foreign language (efl). in the nepali mle program that i was involved in, all three languages were taught from grade 1 onwards, 3 due to space limitations, i do not present a historical overview of previous or concurrent mle projects in nepal, or focus on program shortcomings (for a discussion of program glitches and growing pains, see taylor, 2010). for information on teaching english as a foreign language in public and private schools in nepal, and discussion of where english is situated in the debate around multilingual education, see giri (2007 & 2009) as those topics are beyond the scope of the present paper. 1�0 vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) though only the indigenous/minority language was used as a medium of instruction in the primary grades, and nepali and english were taught as subjects. skutnabb-kangas (1995) set out key tenets of mle almost 2 decades ago. to achieve multilingualism through education for minority language children, there are six key criteria: 1. the language that is least likely to develop to a high formal level should be used as the main language of education for the first 8 years of education; 2. children with the same l1 should be grouped together initially, especially for cognitively demanding, decontextualized subjects; 3. all children’s l1s should be equally valorized and they should all have equal knowledge of the language of instruction. in dual language programs, the practice is to alternate between programs. for example, if half of the children in the nepali mle program spoke maithili and the other half spoke tharu, the teacher could use maithili all day on monday, then tharu all day on tuesday, and keep alternating like that, or the teacher could speak one language in the morning and the other one in the afternoon. in that way, both groups of children would understand the language of instruction for half of the time and not understand for the other half of the time: an equitable solution; 4. teachers should be bior multilingual, though it is more important for them to be fluent in the children’s l1, which is the language of instruction in the primary grades, than in their l2, the official language, until later on in the children’s schooling; 5. efl should be taught by teachers who know the children’s l1; and 6. children should study both their l1 (e.g., an indigenous/minority language) and their l2 (nepali) as compulsory subjects all the way through to school completion so as to become biliterate in those languages. (adapted from skutnabb-kangas, 1995) mle provides minority language children with sustained instruction through their l1, as is the case with bilingual education. indeed, research conducted in north america and africa supports the assertion that there is strong convergent evidence between minority language children receiving l1-based instruction in bi-/multilingual language education programs and meeting educational success (alidou, boly, brock-utne, diallo, heugh, & wolff, 2006; collier & thomas, 1989, 1999; cummins, 1981, 2009a; heugh, 2009). the empirical work and reviews of related long-term studies conducted by the researchers cited above show that students who receive l1-based instruction for the longest time (e.g., 8 years) experience the most positive educational outcomes. therefore, mle was selected to increase the likelihood of children in nepal staying in school for primary education; however, that was not the only reason for introducing mle into the nepali context. beyond bilingual education taylor 1�1 vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) beyond bilingual education taylor why mle in the nepali context? yadava (2007) claims that 104 ethnic languages are currently spoken in nepal and that they come from 4 different language families: indo-european (indo-aryan), tibeto-burman, austro-asiatic, and dravidian. some 80% of all nepalis speak an indo-aryan language such as tharu, which was included in the mle project. there are up to 57 tibeto-burman languages in nepal, which are spoken by 19% of the population. two tibeto-burman languages included in the program were limbu and newar. only 0.19% of all nepalis speak a language from the third language family, austro-asiatic. one such language, santhali, was included in the mle project. finally, only 0.13% of the nepali population are speakers of a dravidian language (such as jhangar [or uranw], which was included in the mle project). though some 48% of the population speak nepali as their l1 (giri, 2009), over 50% of the school-aged population speak a language other than nepali as their l1 (yadava, 2007). this discrepancy has implications for setting appropriate language-in-education policies, developing culturally and linguistically responsive programs, teaching practices, and grouping children. for instance, yadava (2007) cites school-level educational statistics compiled in nepal in 2005, and states that of the 4,502,697 students who were enrolled in primary level grades in nepal, 1,602,047 came from indigenous/minority groups, and that the majority of children who dropped out of school did not speak nepali as their l1. as yadava (2007) explains: nepal is a mosaic of linguistic diversity. however, previous centralized regimes established assimilationist policies which entrusted a single language, nepali, with all power and prestige while minority languages were looked upon as inferior and were suppressed. with the growing awareness of individual rights there has been focus of [sic] minority accommodation. it is with these perspectives that we have proposed . . . a policy for transitional bilingual education. (p. 17) children who do not stay in school have reduced educational and economic prospects (mohanty, 2008), and children who do not understand the language of instruction and who feel that their background knowledge (language, culture) is devalued, do not stay in school (cummins, 2009b & 2009c). indeed, the drop-out rate for indigenous/ minority children in grade 1 is 50%, which places them significantly more at risk of academic underachievement than is reflected in nepal’s overall national literacy rates (yadava, 2007). 1�2 vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) table 1 national average literacy rates in nepal in 2001 and 2005-2007 for groups other than tribal/minority populations. (adapted from yadava, 2007) the national rate for children remaining in school up to grade 5 increased from 58% to 79% between 1999 and 2004. therefore, a 50% drop-out rate from grade 1 for indigenous/minority children is striking. this discrepancy in figures between the national average and that of minority-language children also explains the rationale behind introducing the transitional bilingual educational model (the mle) described by yadava (2007). the model was, however, not only introduced for educational purposes; it was also introduced for socio-political purposes. that is, while bilingual education and mle are intended to increase the educational and economic prospects of minority language speakers, they are also introduced to ensure students’ linguistic human rights (lhrs). indeed, there is a cyclical relationship between the educational and socio-political purposes of bi-/multilingual language education and economic prospects of minority language speakers. that is, without lhrs and l1-based instruction, their educational and economic prospects are limited (mohanty, mishra, reddy, & ramesh, 2009; skutnabb-kangas & dunbar, 2010). skutnabb-kangas (1998) explains that recognition of an individual’s lhrs implies being able to: 1. fully learn, use in most official situations (including schools), and identify with her l1(s) and have that identification accepted and respected by others; 2. learn (one of) the official language(s) of the country of residence and thus become bilingual (or trilingual, as the case may be); 3. not have a change of l1 imposed, which encompasses supposedly “voluntary” language shift if the individual does not know about the possible long-term consequences of such a shift (i.e., an uninformed shift would be viewed as imposed rather than fully voluntary); 4. profit from the state education system, no matter what her l1 may be (p. 23). when the maoist government came into power in nepal in 2007, it introduced an interim constitution guaranteeing indigenous/ beyond bilingual education taylor 1�� vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) beyond bilingual education taylor minority children the right to l1-based instruction (nurmela, awasthi, & skutnabb-kangas, 2010; government of nepal, 2007). that is, the interim constitution guaranteed that children’s lhrs would be respected. prior to 1991, nepali-medium instruction was mandatory for all students. policy changes for language in education came slowly because as yadava (2007) explains, under the panchyat regime (during the time of the monarchy), there was a one nation/one language policy and a deliberate plan to eliminate all languages other than nepali. the status quo changed subtly in 1991 because a new constitution was passed which recognized an individual’s right to l1-based instruction in primary grades; however, the policy had no “teeth.” in contrast, yadava (2007) explains how a series of events led to growing awareness of individual rights and a focus on minority accommodation. these events included: • public demonstrations and a linguistic human rights conference organized by the nepali federation of nationalities (nefen) in 2000; • the involvement of the nepali government in the dakar forum (education for all/efa), the goal of which is to make quality primary education accessible to all children (including indigenous/ minority children), and a focus on l1-based instruction to meet that goal; and • the election of a maoist government in 2007, which instituted a new constitution and endorsed a policy of transitional multilingual education to achieve the efa/nepal (2004-9) goals (nurmela et al., 2010; unesco, 2000; unesco, n. d.; yadava, 2007). at present, nepali is the official language of the country, all children’s l1s are recognized as national languages, and they have the right to l1-based instruction. the population is highly politicized and demands their lhrs; however, many more schools need to offer l1-medium instruction, not just courses in children’s l1 as a subject. dhakal’s (2010) newspaper report gives an idea of the numbers involved and the challenges the nepali government faces: under the joint cooperation of the nepal government and finland, test mle classes were held at seven schools of six districts for a period of one and half year, starting from 2007. now, the government has started holding classes in eight different mother languages in 21 schools of six districts . . . [the] school sector reform programme . . . had planned to launch mother tongue classes in 7,500 schools by 2015 for basic level education. but according to a report, 17,000 schools have already started teaching students in their mother tongues. 1�� vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) while dhakal’s (2010) report does not say whether the 17,000 schools were teaching students’ l1 as subjects or their l1s were the medium of instruction, the report gives an idea of the magnitude of what nepal is undertaking. this observation begs the following question: what is the basis of such an educational program? the mle framework before describing the actual mle framework, it is useful to explain its place within the overall mle project in which i was involved. the mle project and project objectives the mle pilot program that i was involved in included seven school districts and nine indigenous/minority languages. the program was the result of a cooperative project between the finnish ministry of foreign affairs and the nepali ministry of education, and was broadly supported by grassroots nepali organizations such as the teachers’ federation, the nepal federation of nationalities (nefen), and the international work group on indigenous affairs. as nepal is the 12th poorest country in the world, it is dependent on donor agencies for 50% of its educational budget (collins, 2006; world bank, 2001). therefore, it was not unusual for a foreign government to be involved in an educational project in nepal. nurmela et al. (2010) describe how, under the education for all program (2004-09), jointly funded by the government of nepal and a development partner (the finnish ministry of foreign affairs), the nepali ministry of education introduced an mle program for modelbuilding purposes in 2006. the formal objectives of the project were to: 1. create a conducive policy environment for mle; 2. develop an institutional structure that would facilitate a bottom-up approach to the implementation of sustainable mle, and coordinate mle activities; 3. strengthen the educational sector’s capacity to implement mle by focusing on institutional structural development at central, district, and community levels; 4. create and establish models of learning environments that would facilitate non-nepali speaking students’ learning and prepare them to continue their education after the primary level, and 5. establish models of support networks for schools implementing mle. (adapted from nurmela, n. d.). at the ground level, the program goals were to develop indigenous/minority communities’ capacity to create l1-based primary beyond bilingual education taylor 1�� vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) beyond bilingual education taylor level programs in the primary years in local schools and to institute culturally relevant pedagogy (i.e., teaching familiar topics to local children; hough, magar & yonjan-tamang, 2009; nurmela et al., 2010). an additional goal of the project was to develop linguistically/ culturally responsive teaching materials. to be able to develop and teach these materials, material developers and teachers needed to understand the mle framework. nepal’s national center for educational development (nced), an offshoot of the ministry of education, prepared teacher training manuals in the original 9 languages included in the project, and then in 15 languages by the summer of 2009. i conducted two workshops for material writers and teacher trainers in the winter and summer of 2009 to introduce the theoretical and practical aspects of mle laid out in the mle framework. the participants needed to understand the framework well enough to lead trainer-of-trainer workshops to cascade the mle program out gradually to all other minority language groups throughout the country. the mle framework. the nced prepared the mle framework to meet the following objectives: 1. to provide support to teachers delivering l1-based education (e.g., pedagogical training, development, and provision of l1-based materials, etc.); 2. to offer guidelines to teachers and other stakeholders to help respond to minority students’ mle needs at early stages of basic education; 3. to develop positive attitudes among mle stakeholders towards employing mother tongues as a medium of instruction; 4. to utilize local and global knowledge on mle principles and practices for the use of mother tongues in schools to ensure both the cognitive and holistic development of children, and 5. to develop strategies for the use of language(s) based on the additive approach to languages (i.e., adding an l2/nepali and l3/english on to the l1 rather than replacing the l1) for intrinsic (empowerment) and instrumental (pedagogical) purposes. (adapted from nced, 2008) 1�� vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) the mle framework was divided into seven topics: figure 1. the mle framework (adapted from nced, 2008). for purposes of this paper, i only provide brief summaries of the content included in topics 1 to 4 as topics 5 to 7 are commonly discussed in the literature on bilingual education (e.g., how to scaffold activities to draw on learners’ linguistic and cultural capital or what they already know; how to organize teaching in multi-grade classrooms, and how to avoid discriminatory assessment—testing children in their l2 when it is only taught as a subject, not as a medium of instruction for literacy and numeracy in the primary grades). those aspects of topics 1 to 4 which i describe pertain more specifically to mle. why mle? four rationales were presented for why mle was being introduced across nepal. the first dealt with enrichment. the idea behind this notion was that by recognizing indigenous/minority children’s non-mainstream nepali home cultures and values, they would be valorized, allowing children’s self-esteem to grow and encouraging them to feel as though school was for them too. furthermore, the use of their l1 was doubly empowering: enabling them to express themselves better, and serving as a solid basis on which to build their l2 (nepali). the second rationale dealt with language promotion. by including minority languages in the constitution and using them as the medium of instruction, they would be further developed, in a sense, protected from dominant languages and, hopefully, their speakers would be less prey to language shift. included in this focus was an emphasis on language survival, revitalization and promotion, as well as official recognition of oral traditions. beyond bilingual education taylor 1�� vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) beyond bilingual education taylor the pedagogical rationale focused on the use of the l1 in the teaching/learning process. children who are instructed in a dominant group language that is not their l1 require time to catch up to their dominant group peers who are, however, a moving target as their l1 skills continue to develop in an age-appropriate manner. therefore, minority language children are at a disadvantage compared to dominant group peers schooled in their own home language. children who are educated in their mother tongue are at an advantage compared to their peers schooled in what is, for them, a second language. when children receive l1-based instruction, they do not experience linguistic/cultural blocks to their learning as they do not have gaps in their comprehension of lessons, do not require translation, etc. all children need l1-based curricula, textbook materials, source books, and support materials. otherwise, they have to use resources produced in the dominant group language, which defeats the purpose of l1-based instruction to develop literacy in the l1. another consideration is that assessment must be conducted in the language of instruction to attain valid measures of student learning. the final rationale involves learning (the cognitive development rationale), but it could also be viewed as a linguistic rationale as it is closely linked to cummins’ (1981) interdependence hypothesis. this hypothesis suggests that when children learn a concept in their l1, that knowledge will transfer to another language. for instance, if they learn about “what democracy entails” in limbu, that knowledge will transfer to nepali when they gain sufficient skills in nepali to express themselves in that language; hence, time spent learning an indigenous/ minority language is not wasted. if, on the other hand, they are taught about democracy in a language they do not understand, there will be no conceptual understanding to transfer to another language. in an mle program, when children have established a solid basis in the language of schooling (i.e., academic language) through their l1, they can gradually be introduced to learning other languages as subjects (e.g., nepali/l2, english/l3) and, later, when they are proficient enough in their l2 (and/or l3), they can be introduced to instruction through the medium of their l2 (and/or l3). the rationale is that knowledge learned in a language that children know well can be linked to key vocabulary in another language and the same concept will be understood. if, however, teachers try to teach children a new concept in a language they have not mastered, they will not have the cognitive foundation on which to attach the new knowledge. even if someone translated a few key words for them, that would be insufficient for concept formation to occur in the minds of the students. 1�� vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) teachers must use children’s local (indigenous) knowledge as the basis for learning; linking and widening it to regional, national, and global levels. teachers can make links between children’s indigenous knowledge and how those same concepts work in broader society (e.g., religious ceremonies learned in the home culture can be linked to ceremonies of state elsewhere as the notion of a celebration is shared in both cases, and understood by the child). they can use children’s existing schemata (mental organization of how the world works) and build on them by making analogies, generalizations, categorizations, etc. mle context. topics discussed in the mle context category include global and local realities (e.g., the growth of linguistic diversity due to international population shifts, internal migration, and national indigenous/minority groups such as those in nepal); language policies; binding international legislation to which nepal is a signatory; local level practices; cultural-, bio-, and linguistic diversity; language ecology; and where the mle program fits into all of these. for the section on international legislation, i discussed how international bodies such as the united nations developed language statements in the form of recommendations, position papers, declarations, treaties, etc. that states may choose (not) to endorse. one such instrument is the unesco (2003) position paper entitled “education in a multilingual world” and another is the united nations (2007) “declaration on the rights of indigenous peoples.” in this regard, i stressed skutnabb-kangas’ (2000) warning: that treaties and other international instruments intended to protect indigenous/minority languages are not binding legislation, and many signatories of treaties choose to ignore them. it was particularly important for the mle workshop participants to understand the unesco (2003) recommendations as they pertain to mle: • unesco supports mother tongue instruction as a means of improving educational quality by building upon the knowledge and experience of the learners and teachers; • unesco supports bilingual and/or multilingual education at all levels of education as a means of promoting both social and gender equality and as a key element of linguistically diverse societies; and • unesco supports language as an essential component of intercultural education in order to encourage understanding between different population groups and ensure respect for fundamental rights. (p. 27) other topics included in this category included: mle fundamentals, teacher development, and materials development. the fundamentals discussed included the need for continued support of a child’s mother tongue throughout her school years, or for 4 to 8 years (depending on her beyond bilingual education taylor 1�� vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) beyond bilingual education taylor circumstances) until she has developed cognitive/academic language proficiency in the language (alidou et al., 2006; baker, 2006; coehlo, 2007; collier & thomas, 1989 & 1999; cummins, 1981 & 2009a; garcía, 2009). it is noteworthy that this fundamental was overlooked in the nepali mle program design (it was designed as an early-exit program) compared to the ethiopian mle design (a late-exit design, see heugh, 2009). in the teacher development section, i stressed the need to introduce teachers to the basic principles of and rationale behind mle, and to instruct teachers about appropriate teaching programs and practices to meet mle goals. with regard to materials development, i stressed that state-developed materials are not generally written in minority languages. therefore, communities need to develop their own teaching materials and, indeed, how to develop suitable indigenous materials was the focus of my second workshop (taylor, 2010). conceptual considerations. lhrs are one of the key notions introduced in this category as are issues of language and power, and key tenets of l2 teaching and learning. with regard to issues of language and power, workshop participants/future trainers-of-trainers need to understand the connection between (a) the supports received by languages that are used as the medium of instruction (e.g., literate materials developed, vocabulary expanded, etc.) as compared to (b) what happens to languages that do not receive those sorts of supports (i.e., they become viewed as unsuitable to meet the needs of “modernity” and barriers to children’s academic future). these decisions are reflected in language policies, including those involving the language of instruction. they need to understand power relations in order to also grasp how children directly feel the impact of language policy decisions. for instance, minority language children who are schooled in languages they do not know or have not mastered are in powerless situations unless their communities are in a position to fight and change the status quo (e.g., by launching an mle program). design, development and delivery of materials. for this unit, i stressed that mle teachers and material developers must conduct a needs assessment to identify the sorts of materials that they should develop. i suggested that they adopt a funds of knowledge approach to community values and knowledge, and compare existing material to see whether it relates to local knowledge and values, or needs to be indigenized. by funds of knowledge, moll and gonzález (1997) refer to the knowledge base and strategies that children learn at home and in their local community. these authors also stress that minority language children and children from other marginalized backgrounds do not arrive in school with no language and no prior knowledge, contrary to the stereotypes and misconceptions that teachers hold of children from 1�0 vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) backgrounds different from their own (moll & gonzález, 1997). this concept holds explanatory value for why teachers who do not share children’s l1 or cultural/values (unwillingly) stigmatize them, leading to the 50% drop-out rate for grade 1 discussed earlier in this paper. discussion and concluding remarks this paper began with a question that would likely be asked of politicians and language policy makers around the world if they decided to teach every child through the medium of their mother tongue: what would a countrywide mle program look like? though each country would develop programs that meet their local needs, the mle framework developed in nepal would be a good starting point for countries considering implementing l1-based instruction and has been well conceptualized, as is noted above. a political platform that offers l1-based instruction in over 100 languages would be an ambitious undertaking for any country, not to mention one without great financial reserves; the venture not only has pedagogical and materials development implications, but requires an analysis of each local context. additionally, the role of english as a global lingua franca must be considered. as giri (2009) notes, english is at the heart of the l1-based mle issue as parents are aware of its value and students must pass an english exam to obtain their school leaving certificate (slc); however, for the 50% of indigenous/minority children who quit school in grade 1 and their parents who have a grade 5 education at best, passing a high school english exam is a moot point. to raise the national literacy level, these children must stay in school and all of the participants in the workshops i delivered reported that full cohorts were finishing the grade 1 mle program. people talk with their feet, and they are saying volumes by keeping their feet firmly planted in mle classrooms and demanding double the number of mle classrooms that the government projected would be necessary in 2010 (dhakal, 2010; hough, 2009). the educational basis of mle programs like their bilingual education predecessors is clear, but socio-political considerations are as likely to shape mle as they are to shape bilingual programs, either confining them, constraining them, or supporting them and allowing them to flourish. however, politicians and language policy makers interested in meeting efa goals and increasing national literacy rates are strongly advised to look at successful mle initiatives, learn from them, indigenize them, and “do the impossible” just as nepal is doing. a path that meets the needs of children in nepal has been laid out. other countries may now learn from this unique model in order to design a path to academic success that will best serve the future generations of their own citizens. beyond bilingual education taylor 1�1 vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) beyond bilingual education taylor references alidou, h., boly, a., brock-utne, b., diallo, y. s., heugh, k., & wolff, h. e. 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(n. d.). omakielinen opetus monikielisissä kouluissa nepalissa [mother tongue medium teaching in multilingual schools in nepal]. manuscript in progress. beyond bilingual education taylor 1�� vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) beyond bilingual education taylor nurmela, i., awasthi, l. d., & skutnabb-kangas, t. (2010). enhancing quality education for all in nepal through indigenised mle: the challenge to teach in over a hundred languages. in k. heugh, & t. skutnabb-kangas (eds.), multilingual education works: from the periphery to the centre (pp. 176203). new delhi: orient blackswan. skutnabb-kangas, t. (1995). introduction. in t. skutnabb-kangas (ed.), multilingualism for all (pp. 7-20). lisse, the netherlands: swets and zeitlinger. skutnabb-kangas, t. (1998). human rights and language wrongs: a future for diversity. in p. benson, p. grundy & t. skutnabb-kangas (eds.), language rights. special issue, language sciences, 20(1), 5-27. skutnabb-kangas, t. (2000). linguistic genocide in education—or worldwide diversity and human rights? mahwah, nj: lawrence erlbaum. skutnabb-kangas, t., & dunbar, r. (2010). indigenous children’s education as linguistic genocide and a crime against humanity? a global view. gáldu, norway: resource centre for the rights of indigenous peoples. taylor, s. k. (2010). mle policy and practice in nepal: identifying the glitches and making it work. in k. heugh & t. skutnabb-kangas (eds.), multilingual education works: from the periphery to the centre (pp. 204-223). new delhi: orient blackswan. unesco. (n. d.). education for all goals. retrieved from http://www.unesco. org/en/efa/efa-goals/ unesco. (2000). education for all. dakar framework for action. retrieved from http://www.unesco.org/education/efa/ed_for_all/dakfram_eng.shtml unesco. (2003). education in a multilingual world. unesco education position paper. paris: unesco. retrieved from http://unesdoc.unesco.org/ images/0012/001297/129728e.pdf united nations. (2007). united nations declaration on the rights of indigenous peoples. new york: un. retrieved from http://www.un.org/esa/socdev/ unpfii/en/drip.html world bank. (2001). world development report: building institutions for markets. new york: oxford university press. yadava, y. p. (2007). linguistic diversity in nepal: perspectives on language policy. paper presented at the seminar on constitutionalism and diversity (22-24 august). kathmandu, nepal. retrieved from http://www.seameo. org/_ld2008/doucments/presentation_document/yadava_linguistic_ diversity_nepal.pdf 1�� vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) the author *shelley k. taylor earned her ph.d. at the university of toronto. an english/french/danish trilingual herself, her research interests include how to adapt the european language portfolio to languages of schooling and multilingual student populations, and child bi-/ multilingual development in different models of bilingual education programs (including mle). she has guest edited special issues of the international journal of bilingual education & bilingualism and tesol quarterly, is currently guest editing a special issue of writing & pedagogy with jim cummins, and has published in the canadian modern language review, as well as race, ethnicity & education, and copenhagen studies in bilingualism. beyond bilingual education taylor gist ii semestre 2016-9.indd 166 using the cognitive apprenticeship model with a chat tool to enhance online collaborative learning1 la inclusión del modelo de aprendizaje cognitivo para el desarrollo del aprendizaje colaborativo en línea a través del chat mónica rodríguez-bonces and kris ortiz2* pearson, sena meta, colombia abstract in colombia, many institutions are in the firm quest of virtual learning environments to improve instruction, and making the most of online tools is clearly linked to offering quality learning. thus, the purpose of this action research was to identify how the cognitive apprenticeship model enhances online collaborative learning by using a chat tool. to describe the effectiveness of this model, five of its teaching methods were implemented in an eight-week period over one semester. twelve beginning online english students enrolled in colombia’s national vocational and technical training center participated in the study. data was collected from surveys, chat transcripts, interviews and checklists, and analyzed through content analysis. results reveal that modeling, coaching, scaffolding, exploration, and reflection may be implemented in a chatroom, developing a sense of collaboration. learners also moved from guided instruction (modeling) to more independent learning (articulation), assuming the roles of experts. in conclusion, the six teaching methods of the cognitive apprenticeship method enhance online collaborative learning not only because students work together to reach a common goal, but also because they can support each other’s learning through synchronous interactions when using a chatroom for this purpose. keywords: chat, cognitive apprenticeship model, modeling, articulation, online collaborative learning, scaffolding. 1 received: july 15, 2016 / accepted: october 20, 2016 2 mrodriguezbonces@gmail.com / keveor2@hotmail.com gist education and learning research journal. issn 1692-5777. no.13. (july december) 2016. pp. 166-185. rodriguez-bonces &ortiz no. 13 (july december 2016) no. 13 (july december 2016) 167 resumen en colombia, muchas instituciones están en la firme búsqueda de entornos virtuales para mejorar la instrucción; es así como aprovechar al máximo las herramientas en línea se relaciona con ofrecer aprendizaje de calidad. así, el propósito de esta investigación acción fue identificar cómo el modelo de aprendizaje cognitivo mejora el aprendizaje colaborativo en línea usando una herramienta de chat. para describir la efectividad de este modelo, cinco de sus métodos de enseñanza se implementaron en un período de ocho semanas a lo largo de un semestre. doce estudiantes de inglés en línea pertenecientes a un programa de formación técnica vocacional en colombia formaron parte de este estudio. los datos se recopilaron a través de encuestas, transcripciones de chat, entrevistas y listas de verificación. los resultados revelaron que modelado, coaching, escalonamiento, exploración y reflexión pueden aplicarse en un chat para desarrollar un sentido de colaboración. los estudiantes también pasaron de la instrucción guiada (modelado) al aprendizaje más independiente (articulación) asumiendo el papel de expertos. en conclusión, los seis métodos de enseñanza del método cognitivo de aprendizaje promueven el aprendizaje colaborativo en línea no solo porque los estudiantes trabajan conjuntamente para alcanzar una meta sino porque a través de la interacción sincrónica en línea se apoyan en el aprendizaje mientras usan el chat como herramienta educativa. palabras clave: chat, aprendizaje colaborativo en línea, articulación, modelo de aprendizaje cognitivo, aprendizaje auto-dirigido, escalonamiento. resumo na colômbia, muitas instituições estão na firme procura de entornos virtuais para melhorar a instrução; é dessa forma como o máximo aproveitamento das ferramentas em linha está claramente associado com o oferecimento de aprendizagem de qualidade. portanto, o propósito desta pesquisa ação foi identificar como o modelo de aprendizagem cognitiva melhora a aprendizagem colaborativa em linha mediante o uso uma ferramenta de chat. para descrever a efetividade deste modelo, cinco dos seus métodos de ensino foram implementados em um período de oito semanas no transcurso de um semestre. doze estudantes de inglês em linha pertencentes a um programa de formação técnica vocacional na colômbia fizeram parte deste estudo. os dados se recopilaram através de enquetes, transcrições de chat, entrevistas e listas de verificação. os resultados revelaram que modelado, coaching, escalonamento, exploração e reflexão podem aplicar-se em um chat para desenvolver um sentido de colaboração. os estudantes também passaram da instrução guiada (modelado) à aprendizagem mais independente (articulação) assumindo o papel de expertos. em conclusão, os seis métodos de ensino do método cognitivo de aprendizagem promovem a aprendizagem colaborativa em linha não somente porque os estudantes trabalham conjuntamente para alcançar uma meta, mas porque através da interação sincrônica em linha se apoiam na aprendizagem enquanto usam o chat como ferramenta educativa. palavras clave: chat, aprendizagem colaborativa em linha, articulação, modelo de aprendizagem cognitiva, aprendizagem autodirigida, escalonamento. rodriguez-bonces &ortiz no. 13 (july december 2016) no. 13 (july december 2016) 168 introduction technology is changing the way students are educated. there are more opportunities of interaction. currently, virtual worlds offer engaging and stimulating spaces where students can meet online for regular classes. institutions willing to incorporate technology in educational settings face the challenge of integrating tools that improve learning environments regardless of student type or location. in addition, technology allows users to overcome constraints such as cost, time, or location to carry out tasks that might otherwise be difficult in the “real world.” in colombia, many institutions are working towards offering suitable environments for online instruction. for instance, to respond to its main goals of strengthening human capital in the country, contributing to the development of professionals in different areas of knowledge, and offering more job opportunities, the national vocational and technical training center incorporated the blackboard collaborate platform to offer online courses, including foreign language courses. nevertheless, in the diagnostic survey conducted at the outset of this study revealed a gap between what students learn, and how they practice and receive feedback using the virtual tools in the platform. the diagnosis showed some problems in terms of the way in which online learning occurred. first, social interaction manifested in peer collaboration in most of the cases was reduced. students carried out asynchronous interaction with their peers by posting answers to tasks or asking questions via technical forums. second, students expressed feelings of isolation and demotivation due to the lack of immediate feedback, spontaneous language use, or timely support, and due to the lack of peer-to-peer learning. teachers essentially used the components of the platform to administer schedules, grades, and provide technical support. students mainly used online tools such as forums, wikis and/or blogs. third, the questions students asked were not always answered, which made feedback less effective. the result is that these english language students were aware of some grammatical rules and vocabulary in english, but lacked synchronous interaction to use what they had learned. students even mentioned these situations as reasons for dropping out of online courses. the researchers in this study examined how the cognitive apprenticeship model (collins, brown, & newman, 1989), which advocates for student learning through collaboration by observing, imitating, and modeling, enhances online collaborative learning with a chat tool in a group of young adult english students. enhancing collaboration with this tool offers opportunities for meaningful and using the cognitive apprenticeship model rodriguez-bonces &ortiz no. 13 (july december 2016) no. 13 (july december 2016) 169 synchronous interaction, which may result in students having more chances to deepen their learning experience, test out new ideas, and receive critical and constructive feedback (picciano, 2002). therefore, this research allowed the researchers to identifying how the cognitive apprenticeship model enhances online collaboration by using a chat tool, to describe the effectiveness of cognitive apprenticeship in creating a sense of collaboration using a chat tool, and to recognize students and instructors’ roles throughout cognitive apprenticeship performed online literature review learning in the digital age emphasizes interaction in virtual environments. brindley, walti, and blaschke (2009) affirm that individual knowledge occurs through interaction, meaning the way in which people express thoughts, discuss, and challenge the ideas of others. people collaborate to create knowledge and co-construct knowledge and meaning. in fact, as the worldwide web evolves, it continuously offers new opportunities for collaboration, online interaction, and therefore learning (richardson, 2006). enhancing online collaborative learning with a chat tool considers four main constructs, namely online collaborative learning, online interaction, chat, and the cognitive apprenticeship model. online collaborative learning collaboration in learning environments is viewed as “people sharing ideas and working together (occasionally sharing resources) in a loose environment” (siemens, et al., 2002, p. 23). online learning implies a sense of collaboration among users since they “share, transmit knowledge or work towards common goals” (brindley, et al., 2009, p. 4). online learning is also participatory, authentic, immediate, and engaging (antenos-conforti, 2009). these features are relevant because learning is a socially situated activity, and the building of social relationships is vital for cognitive development. some researchers have studied the perceptions of collaboration in online learning. so and brush (2008) studied the advantages of online learning in a blended course. the authors asked participants to take a blended course and record their perceptions about collaboration. results demonstrated that students who perceived high collaboration were more satisfied with the course and the social presence of the instructor and classmates. analysis of online learning environments has also led some researchers (chiong & jovanovic, 2012) to analyze why some students using the cognitive apprenticeship model rodriguez-bonces &ortiz no. 13 (july december 2016) no. 13 (july december 2016) 170 decide not to participate or to reduce their participation level when working in groups. the strategy consisted in analyzing students’ reactions towards group work through the development of collaborative tasks. results showed that there are several challenges to fostering online collaborative learning, mainly in terms of time constraints and/ or reluctance to work in groups. another example of students’ collaboration with peers in online environments is a study of social networks by kim, park and baek (2011). they explored how microblogging using twitter provided a venue for communicating in the target language with other people, even outside classrooms. researchers concluded that tweets promoted foreign language output and helped learners maintain social interaction with others. these cases highlight collaboration from different perspectives and its power to challenge, support, and/or motivate students. additionally, the examples illustrate the importance of social learning theories. it is evident that learners improve practices and are more enthusiastic about learning when they have the opportunity to learn from and with others. the challenge lies in providing the same environments in online settings. interaction in online collaborative learning interaction has long been identified as a key element to successful online learning programs (beldarrain, 2006). there is significant evidence to suggest that meaningful interaction with peers and the instructor is integral to the development of learning environments. espitia and cruz (2013) studied peer feedback and online interaction among university students. they promoted collaboration in the course through peer feedback, using a forum tool. after analyzing students’ engagement, researchers concluded that students established a social bond with others and achieved a sense of social and academic responsibility. further, they argue that cognition and apprehension are direct consequences of social interactions. such interactions involve different participants in the educational setting, namely teacher (or tutor), students, and media, in other words, anyone and anything supporting the learning experience. rourke, anderson, garrison and archer (2001) describe how learning happens around different interaction factors. first, the social presence is represented by interaction with peers. mayes et al. (2011) suggest using different types of grouping. second, the cognitive presence is represented by the interaction with the content. schweizer, whipp, & hayslett (2002) argue that one of the best methodologies to using the cognitive apprenticeship model rodriguez-bonces &ortiz no. 13 (july december 2016) no. 13 (july december 2016) 171 interact with content in online learning is via project-based learning since students engage in real-life situations. third, the teaching presence is represented by interacting with instructors. shackelford and maxwell (2012) affirm that providing clear expectations, participating in discussions, providing feedback, modelling, and using various modes of communication are types of learner-instructor interaction. chat tool dudeney (2007) defines chat as “synchronous communication between two or more people, using the keyboard as a means of communication.” (p. 130). one of the aspects that makes chat a natural space for communication and interaction is that it simulates normal conversations. research has been conducted on how to apply a chat tool in educational settings. skinner and austin, and koike (as cited in warschauer & meskill, 2000) argue that students want social learning experiences that connect them with their peers through the web. skinner and austin developed a study whose procedure included a prewriting activity using synchronous chat to communicate. koike’s study offered a blended learning course in which students had the chance to practice what they had learned in an international chat interchange with native speakers. findings indicated that chats helped students to interact as well as reduce negative feelings. both studies demonstrate how twenty-first century students are now demanding online instruction that supports participation and interaction instead of lectures or one-way communications (west & west, 2008). cognitive apprenticeship model the cognitive apprenticeship model (cam) was proposed by collins, brown, and newman (1989); however, it has been modified by other researchers. cam combines cognitive and metacognitive skills and processes (dennen & burner, 2008) for students to observe, enact, and practice with help from the teacher and other students. cam also offers a collaborative environment in which students learn in a group setting and support classmates’ learning. teachers act as guides providing meaningful opportunities for learning. the cam includes six teaching methods that promote collaboration among teacher and students: modeling, coaching, scaffolding, articulation, reflection, and exploration. dennen and burner (2008) describe the six methods in this way: modeling as describing the thinking process, coaching and scaffolding mean assisting and supporting student cognitive activities using the cognitive apprenticeship model rodriguez-bonces &ortiz no. 13 (july december 2016) no. 13 (july december 2016) 172 as needed, reflecting implies self-analysis and assessment, articulation consists of verbalizing the results of reflection, and exploration is the formation and testing of one’s own hypotheses. the present study considers all six methods as learners develop a more conscious view of what is learned, build background knowledge, link new and prior knowledge, and evaluate the learning process (brandes & boskic, 2008). students can implement self-reflection by analyzing their accomplishment of goals when chatting. at this point, self-reflection is the result of collaborative practices where students have had the chance to discuss, analyze, and exchange information with others. in recent years, there has been some research on the application of the cam to computer use. liu (2005) conducted a quantitative study which demonstrated that the cam improves pre-service teachers’ performance and attitudes to instructional planning more effectively than a traditional training course. liu (2005) applied three technologies in her study: multimedia, performance support systems, and web-based conferencing. kear and donelan (2016) carried out a study to assess online collaborative work. the research addressed the importance of online group work for developing teamwork skills and learning with others. the aims of the research were to investigate the challenge of implementing an online group project, to gain perspectives of students and tutors, and to design group projects which are engaging to students and fairly assessed. findings revealed that tutors agreed that the majority of students enjoyed the group work and tasks were authentic. tutors faced challenges when assessing collaboration. additionally more technical students wanted to incorporate other tools such as twitter feeds. this research demonstrates how different tools enhance collaboration and promote opportunities for authentic learning when controlled by tutors. to conclude, online collaboration, online interaction, and cognitive apprenticeship aim to provide students with an authentic experience in which they assume particular roles and responsibilities in the learning process while they teach and learn from each other via chat tool. methodology research design this research adopted an action research approach. the qualitative paradigm permits researchers to identify different viewpoints (russell using the cognitive apprenticeship model rodriguez-bonces &ortiz no. 13 (july december 2016) no. 13 (july december 2016) 173 & kelly, 2002). figure 1 summarizes the action research process developed in this study. figure 1. action research process in the implementation stage, the cam teaching methods were used in eight lessons (see appendix). the implementation followed the sequence of cam teaching methods, integrated into several instructional tasks. additionally, students and the instructor collaborated through different groupings, and support was provided during the synchronous communication using chat. the instructor grouped learners using the grouping tool in blackboard collaborate, bearing in mind that collaboration implies common goals and group work. the pedagogical implementation included five phases with a certain number of hours and specific roles for both teachers and students. in terms of the cam methods, modeling, coaching and scaffolding were carried out in two sessions each, and articulation and reflection in one session each. students’ roles moved from models, coaches, experts, and peers to independent learners. these models imply that students, from guided to independent practice, supported peers by demonstrating, giving feedback, exemplifying, looking back, and reflecting, as well as solving problems and making decisions about their learning. in addition, there were opportunities for both asynchronous (discussion topics and comments) and synchronous communication (chat rooms for discussion, immediate feedback, and language skills practice). the pedagogical implementation included four main components. first, activities related to coaching involved students guiding peers. second, learning outcomes related to the common goal and expressed what students were expected to do according to the institution’s defined using the cognitive apprenticeship model rodriguez-bonces &ortiz no. 13 (july december 2016) no. 13 (july december 2016) 174 levels of competence. outcomes were functional; i.e., students used language and structures to communicate in social situations, adhering to the cam requirement of contextualizing concepts. third, collaboration was understood as the type of interaction and support received, if any. lastly, materials refer to all the resources used to accomplish the task. materials depended on the students’ level of expertise and objective of the teaching method. context and participants this study took place at a regional center of colombia’s national vocational and technical training service. this service offers programs to over 250,000 graduates every year nationwide via 33 regional centers. the mission and vision include three principles. first, free access; instruction is free for students and they choose their learning via face-to-face or online vocational programs. the second principle is employability; there are agreements with numerous companies around the country where students can do their practicum. third, teaching for work; instructors focus on teaching for future jobs. the centers work with school-wide curricula that include materials, course objectives, and midterm and final assessment. the online course in which this research was conducted was also designed in-house by the institution. twelve beginning english students, 18 to 30 years old, participated in the study. all participants had six years of previous english instruction in secondary school. participants were placed in a1 level of proficiency according to the cefr. all of them reported having already taken at least one online course on blackboard. data collection instruments data was collected on three different occasions. first, before the pedagogical implementation, a survey was applied as a diagnosis to identify students’ perceptions about the methodology in online courses. the survey consisted of five questions about online experiences. results of this diagnosis were validated when referring to the reasons given by students who dropped english courses and whose main reason was lack of interaction and immediate feedback in online english courses. second, during the pedagogical intervention, chats were transcribed and a self-assessment checklist was given. these tools allowed for the description of synchronous interaction and collaboration in online settings and the identification of students’ reflections and perceptions on their own learning while collaborating with each other. third, after using the cognitive apprenticeship model rodriguez-bonces &ortiz no. 13 (july december 2016) no. 13 (july december 2016) 175 implementation, students were interviewed to analyze their perceptions about the effectiveness of the cam. in this way, it was possible to validate the way in which the cam enhanced online collaborative learning in chat rooms. data analysis and interpretation analysis involved the framework proposed by ritchie and spencer (1994) in which gathered data is shifted, charted, and sorted in accordance with key issues and themes. this process involved five steps; namely familiarization, identification of themes, indexing, charting, and mapping, and interpretation. in this specific study, the researchers analyzed and interpreted how the incorporation of cam enhances collaboration by understanding the types of synchronous communication and interaction using a chat tool. results results before implementation before the pedagogical intervention, a survey was applied to gather students´ perceptions about the online sessions and in that way diagnose the problem situation. analysis revealed four main findings. first, activities in these courses consisted mainly of forums and surveys. second, students focused on asynchronous rather than synchronous tools. some participants did not know that blackboard offered live sessions. third, interaction with classmates was reduced in online english courses. students felt isolated and spent more time doing individual written activities rather than collaborating with others. fourth, students’ expectations were not being fulfilled. they wanted to use more blackboard tools. they also wanted to receive feedback in a timely manner, and receive explanations directly. despite the fact that blackboard collaborate has many tools, students were only using forums and surveys. students wanted to perform real-time sessions in which they could work with their peers by receiving feedback and performing tasks. in this case, keeping in mind the nature of the program in which online sessions were scheduled, real-time sessions were expected to happen during the meetings with the tutor. due to the results of this diagnosis, researchers focused on the chat tool to promote online collaboration. using the cognitive apprenticeship model rodriguez-bonces &ortiz no. 13 (july december 2016) no. 13 (july december 2016) 176 results during implementation chat transcript results. the researchers transcribed the chats and identified the type of collaboration in the chatroom. the themes that emerged from each cam method used in chat included 1) modeling, included asking questions, clarifying, providing feedback, correcting errors, and exemplifying; 2) coaching and scaffolding, including solving problems, providing feedback, motivating, guiding, organizing ideas, and setting pace; 3) articulation and reflection, for example evaluating strategies, reflecting on learning, setting objectives, and providing feedback. students’ checklist results. palloff and pratt (2005) and popovici (2012) promote the integration of learner-centered assessment tools such as checklists and peer assessment. in this case, the checklist was divided into four sections. students’ perceptions about the use of chat were analyzed considering access to the chat, students and teachers’ performance, and feedback. table 1 reports the percentage of satisfaction. table 1. percentage of satisfaction checklist statement percentage access to the chat tool easy access to chat tool 83,3 chat for educational purposes 91,7 instructor’s performance sessions appropriate length 66,7 instructor’s guidance 75,0 instructor’s performance 75,0 group organization 83,3 instructor appropriate explanation of strategy 75,0 students’ performance student’s active role 75,0 students’ improvement in their performance 75,0 opportunities to ask questions to instructor 83,3 immediate feedback from instructor 75,0 feedback opportunities to guide a classmate during the session 83,3 opportunities to give hints and clues to classmates 75,0 appropriate feedback from classmates 66,7 using the cognitive apprenticeship model rodriguez-bonces &ortiz no. 13 (july december 2016) no. 13 (july december 2016) 177 the first section shows that students know how to enroll in the chat room, and that they used it for educational purposes. the second and third sections demonstrate the instructor’s ability to manage the time in the session and to offer guidance. in section four, students reported having an active role during the sessions by giving feedback. instructions, guidance, and feedback were also provided. participants had the opportunity to work with others towards a common goal. in section four, 83% of the students reported having an active role during the sessions by giving feedback. in spite of time issues with some activities, and appropriate feedback from other students, the participants demonstrated acceptance of the use of chat for learning. it is possible that some time adjustments are needed as well as training for students on offering more appropriate feedback to others. in this line, the role of the instructor in the modeling phase is important in order make sure learners are equipped with effective strategies to make feedback useful. results after implementation interview. participants thought that using chat in online english classes provides more opportunities of peer interaction in real time and via different group organization. students were able to questions and practice with others in pairs or groups. opportunities for individual work were also provided. students reported that they felt happy and motivated to interact with others using english. for me, this is the first time using chats in english classes. it is fun! having my instructor during the session makes me feel motivated to attend and make all the questions chat is easier to communicate with instructor and friends and to know that other people are behind the screen too. participants also mentioned some advantages and disadvantages of using the chat tool. for the former, students reported that chat allowed them communicate in real time, make connections with the instructor and peers, receive feedback, gain confidence to participate, and to reflect on learning. for the latter, participants mentioned that some students were not involved in all tasks due to time constraints. some of the comments included: i could test myself and realize how faster i am to answer a question or look for something i do not know using the cognitive apprenticeship model rodriguez-bonces &ortiz no. 13 (july december 2016) no. 13 (july december 2016) 178 in some tasks, the time we had to work with the classmate was not enough and had to stop in the middle. some friends do not have the same performance and we need more time to guide them. finally, all participants manifested their desire to continue using a chat tool in the english class. they mentioned time as the only aspect to improve for future sessions. some friends take too much time in just one question and we wasted time. working with classmates and receiving their suggestions was helpful and made me think in different ways to explain and i learned more after analyzing the instrument results, two main issues were addressed: online collaboration by incorporating cam using a chat tool, and the roles of tutors and students in virtual learning environments. online collaboration and interaction. based on the themes that emerged in chat transcripts and interviews, incorporating the cam with a chat tool provided different opportunities for collaboration and interaction. the cam teaching methods included games, reflections, interviews, information gap, and problem solving. the cam also delivered a systematic approach to learning in virtual environments. performing a variety of activities improves students’ sense of collaboration. the progress of chatting allows us to observe that students started by seeing a model which gave them confidence. later, they knew they could rely on their peers to practice and receive feedback. at the end, they possessed the criteria to reflect and act upon their learning process. the criteria were assessed when analyzing the themes that emerged in the data analysis and the self-assessment check list. for example, students started by clarifying and/or asking questions, but ended lessons by setting objectives and/or reflecting on their own learning process. actually, the self-assessment checklist let students state new learning goals. students and instructors’ roles in online settings. chat transcripts and students’ self-assessment checklist revealed that learners assumed different roles. students could be models, coaches, guides, or experts in online learning. they could even self-regulate their learning through reflection. self-reflection in online environments not only occurs at the reflection teaching method stage, but also when performing scaffolding and articulation, as evidenced in the chat transcripts and using the cognitive apprenticeship model rodriguez-bonces &ortiz no. 13 (july december 2016) no. 13 (july december 2016) 179 the interview. students can learn from others and think of their own learning strategies. for example, they can infer best practices and adjust to their own learning process. the interview and chats revealed that students perceived that a chat tool, besides offering a space for social activity, was a suitable place for sharing ideas, discussing, reflecting on learning, asking questions, and receiving feedback on english tasks. timely instructor support resulted in students’ engagement in activities and was reflected in their active participation and reflection on their own learning, as evidenced in the checklist and interview. the instructor working synchronously with the students helped them ask more questions and not only receive but provide feedback. student surveys report satisfaction with all the activities. the mediation of computer communication via a chat tool provides a bridge for selfreflective practices supported by synchronous interaction in which teachers act as facilitators. conclusions the six teaching methods of the cognitive apprenticeship model (modeling, coaching, scaffolding, articulation, reflection and exploration) enhance online collaborative learning, not only because students work together to reach a common goal (laal & ghodsi, 2012), but also because synchronous interactions can help students support each other’s learning. the cam included students teaching one another, students teaching the teacher, and the teacher teaching the students. chat was useful for interacting with others while learning as students provided feedback, self-reflected, and asked questions. warschauer and meskill (2000) and so and brush (2008) believe social interaction motivates learners. using the chat for educational purposes offers synchronous communication for learners to receive timely support. in consequence, learners improve participation through collaborative learning. by creating a sense of social presence online, feelings of isolation and demotivation turn into engagement in activities and motivation as expressed by researchers like espitia and cruz (2013) and richardson (2006). online settings involve different types of interaction. all aspects of the discourse serve as triggers for negotiations, and task types influence the kind and amount of negotiation, self-repair, corrective feedback, and negotiation within negotiations as seen in this research. working in live-sessions like chat demands preparation from instructors. as shown in the pedagogical implementation, learning outcomes must be set using the cognitive apprenticeship model rodriguez-bonces &ortiz no. 13 (july december 2016) no. 13 (july december 2016) 180 which give the session its purpose and order. further, activities should be chosen in advance. the chat, the use of collaborative learning, and the incorporation of cognitive apprenticeship allowed students to be the directors of their own learning process. they were also able to reflect about their learning objectives, self-assess them, set their own goals, and go for them. the teacher, on the other hand, became a visionary agent of the courses where she guided the learning process through the design of appropriate lesson to foster collaborative learning activities and the appropriate support the peers might need. this research provided many important outcomes that will contribute to the improvement of online teaching at this or other institutions that share similar contextual characteristics. first, the use of the cam offers collaborative learning opportunities. each teaching method may be implemented with various tasks. second, the chat helped students to receive synchronous feedback, guidance, and support. third, the use of cam with chat is an opportunity to reflect about the learning process. some self-assessment tools may be incorporated. fourth, this study aimed at describing the effectiveness of both collaborative learning and cognitive apprenticeship in terms of creating a sense of social presence online, defined as the ability to portray oneself as a “real” person in the online environment (palloff & pratt, 2007). in this sense, chat tool was the tool to create synchronous interaction in online environments. using the cognitive apprenticeship model rodriguez-bonces &ortiz no. 13 (july december 2016) no. 13 (july december 2016) 181 references antenos-conforti, e. 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(2008). using wikis for online collaboration: the power of the read-write web. san francisco: jossey-bass. authors *mónica rodríguez-bonces holds a phd in regional and economic integration and development; in the area of education with emphasis in curriculum development and bilingual education. she holds an ma in applied linguistics and a ba in spanish and languages. monica was a school teacher in the usa where she was named teacher of the year. she has been a department chair, academic dean, research director, graduate and undergraduate professor and also an international academic consultant. monica is currently a research tutor at the universidad de la sabana and academic coordinator at pearson. *kris evelin ortiz ordoñez holds an ba in english and french. she also holds a graduate diploma in tesol and an ma in english language teaching. kris is a professor at university de nariño and an english and french online tutor for the national training service sena. using the cognitive apprenticeship model rodriguez-bonces &ortiz no. 13 (july december 2016) no. 13 (july december 2016) 184 appendix: pedagogical implementation task content instructional activity: information gap. instructor models for students. students take turns to ask questions. learning outcomes: describe family relationships spell names talk about one´s family give street names and nearby landmarks collaboration: in pairs, give clues, clarify concepts, ask and give information, answer questions related to task, give the partner suggestions and directions, provide feedback materials: worksheet visuals instructional activity: guessing games students say advantages and disadvantages of various products. partners have to guess what the product is. they describe products they usually buy. learning outcomes: tell how much a product is get information about products compare items in a store collaboration: group work. give hints to solve puzzle, provide feedback, guess words, clarify concepts, and confirm information. materials: worksheets instructional activity: problem solving students do some bank transactions. they have to explain why they make banking decisions. learning outcomes: do bank transactions explain balance situation talk about how to save money collaboration: pairs – a low level student and an advanced one. scaffolds to approach given situations materials: worksheet cognitive apprenticeship model: teaching methods modeling observing the instructor’s demonstration of an explicit task, skill or specific strategy used. the instructor acts as the expert and students as the novice. coaching learning support aimed at bringing performance closer to expert one. coaches provide hints and feedback which is possible because of the constant monitoring. scaffolding peer assistance in reaching required skills. scaffolding offers reminders and clues. session 1 2 3 4 5 6 no. 13 (july december 2016) no. 13 (july december 2016) 185 instructional activity: interviewing learning outcomes: express likes and preferences taking into account the context collaboration: pairs – a low level student and an advanced one. students ask and answer questions about their likes. materials: n/a instructional activity: reflection answer questions about cam tasks and do check list. write a reflective paper complete a mind map learning outcomes: reflect about the effect of incorporating cam write a reflective paper expressing if collaboration was enhanced with chat tool. read strategies used by classmates to solve a set of given problems and learning tasks collaboration: groups. discussion, assessment, peer review, planning based on strengths and weaknesses during the sessions materials: self – assessment checklist, mind map articulation explaining misunderstandings and decisions made. students solve problems. they become more experts. reflection learners think about how they approached learning and achieved learning outcomes. they find new ways and points of view to enrich their own learning process. students also compare different problem solving strategies used. 7 8 no. 13 (july december 2016) no. 13 (july december 2016) 59 impact of social media on the english language writing abilities of undergraduates in ekpoma, nigeria1 el impacto de las redes sociales en las habilidades de redacción en inglés de estudiantes universitarios en ekpoma, nigeria osakue stevenson omoera, oluranti mary aiwuyo, john edemode and bibian anyanwu2 ambrose alli university, nigeria abstract this article examined the impact of social media on the writing abilities of nigerian youths in english, which is the language of mass communication in nigeria. deploying cultivation theory of the media, this study used quantitative and qualitative methods to unpack the nigerian youths’ opinions on the impact of the use of social media on their writing abilities, using undergraduates in ekpoma, nigeria as a study case. to do this, data was collected through the use of 110 copies of a survey questionnaire administered to selected students. additional information was garnered from focused group discussions (fgds) with students and in-depth interviews (idis) with some tertiary institutions’ lecturers as well as the researchers’ direct observation of the issue under investigation. the study discovered that a majority of the youths adopt a certain option/brand of english which cannot be located within the matrix of standard english (se) or even popular nigerian english variant which is called pidgin english (pe). consequently, expressions such as ‘u’ for ‘you’ ‘gr8t’ for ‘great’, ‘ur/urs’ for ‘your/yours’, among other deviational patterns, have crept into their writing consciousness in classes and examinations, which make a lot of ‘sense’ in informal settings among the youths, but smacks of sub-literacy in formal 1 received: april 16th 2018/ accepted: october 23rd 2018 2 osakueomoera@gmail.com; aiwuyo2014@gmail.com; jonedemode@gmail.com; bianyanwu@hotmail.com autonomy through student centered learning process gist education and learning research journal. issn 1692-5777. no.17 (july december 2018). pp. 59-80. no. 17 (july december, 2018) no. 17 (july december, 2018) 60 writing situations under which they are being trained. this development can have serious implications for effective and efficient writing among nigerian youths, especially in formal situations. the study recommends, amongst others, that further studies should be carried out on the deviational patterns of english words and phrases which are commonly used by youths in nigeria and elsewhere, with a view to possibly getting the ‘new words’ standardized by the relevant educational authorities to ensure uniformity in usage, and to keep pace with the dynamically trendy social media culture. keywords: social media, english language in nigeria, writing skills, nigerian undergraduates, cultivation theory, educational authorities resumen este artículo examina el impacto de las redes sociales en las habilidades escritas en jóvenes nigerianos en el uso de inglés en el que el idioma es usado como comunicación masiva en nigeria. desplegando la teoría del cultivo de los medios, este estudio usó métodos cuantitativos y cualitativos para descomprimir las opiniones de los jóvenes nigerianos sobre el impacto del uso de redes sociales en sus habilidades escritas, usando a estudiantes universitarios en ekpoma, nigeria como un estudio de caso. para realizar esto, los datos se recopilaron a través del uso de 110 copias de una encuesta administrada para seleccionar estudiantes. información adicional se obtuvo de discusiones grupales enfocadas (dge) con estudiantes y una entrevista exhaustiva a profesores de instituciones terciarias. también se tomó en cuenta la observación directa de los investigadores sobre el tema de interés. el estudio descubrió que la mayoría de los jóvenes adoptan una determinada opción de inglés el cual no se puede ubicar dentro de la matriz de inglés estándar ni la variación popular de inglés nigeriano llamado inglés pidgin (pe). por consiguiente, las expresiones tales como “u” para “you”, “gr8t” para “great”, “ur/urs” para “your/yours” entre otros patrones de desviación, se han colado en su conciencia de escritura en clases y exámenes, lo que da mucho “sentido” en contextos informales entre los jóvenes, pero da a entender una subalfabetización en contextos formales de escritura en el cual están siendo entrenados. este desarrollo puede tener serias implicaciones para la escritura eficiente y efectiva entre los jóvenes nigerianos, especialmente en contextos formales. el estudio recomienda que estudios adicionales sea realizados sobre los patrones de desviación de las palabras y frases en inglés que son usadas comúnmente por los jóvenes nigerianos y en otras partes con la opción de posiblemente obtener “nuevas palabras” estandarizadas por las autoridades relevantes educativas y así asegurar uniformidad en su uso y para seguir el ritmo de la cultura de las redes sociales dinámicamente de moda. palabras clave: redes sociales, inglés en nigeria, habilidades para la escritura impact of social media in writing omoera, aiwuyo, edemode & anyanwu no. 17 (july december, 2018) no. 17 (july december, 2018) 61 resumo este artigo examina o impacto das redes sociais nas habilidades escritas em jovens nigerianos no uso de inglês no qual o idioma é usado como comunicação massiva na nigéria. desdobrando a teoria do cultivo da mídia, este estudo usou métodos quantitativos e qualitativos para descomprimir as opiniões dos jovens nigerianos sobre o impacto do uso de redes sociais em suas habilidades escritas, usando a estudantes universitários em ekpoma, nigéria como um estudo de caso. para realizar isto, os dados se recopilaram através do uso de 110 cópias de uma enquete administrada para selecionar estudantes. informação adicional se obteve de discussões grupais enfocadas (dge) com estudantes e uma entrevista exaustiva a professores de instituições terciárias. também se teve em consideração a observação direta dos pesquisadores sobre o tema de interesse. o estudo descobriu que a maioria dos jovens adota uma determinada opção de inglês, o qual não se pode situar dentro da matriz de inglês padrão nem a variação popular de inglês nigeriano chamado inglês pidgin (pe). em consequência, as expressões tais como “u” para “you”, “gr8t” para “great”, “ur/urs” para “your/ yours” entre outros padrões de desvio, infiltraram-se consciência de escritura em aulas e exames, o que dá muito “sentido” em contextos informais entre os jovens, mas dá a entender uma sub-alfabetização em contextos formais de escritura na qual estão sendo treinados. este desenvolvimento pode ter sérias implicações para a escritura eficiente e efetiva entre os jovens nigerianos, especialmente em contextos formais. o estudo recomenda que estudos adicionais sejam realizados sobre os padrões de desvio das palavras e frases em inglês que são usadas com frequência pelos jovens nigerianos, e em outros lugares com a opção de possivelmente obter “novas palavras” padronizadas pelas autoridades relevantes educativas e dessa forma assegurar uniformidade no seu uso, e para seguir o ritmo da cultura das redes sociais dinamicamente de moda. palavras chave: redes sociais, inglês na nigéria, habilidades para a escritura, estudantes universitários, teoria de cultivo, autoridades educativas. impact of social media in writing omoera, aiwuyo, edemode & anyanwu no. 17 (july december, 2018) no. 17 (july december, 2018) 62 introduction millions of people around the globe, including nigerian youths, through social networking are building online local, regional, and global communities to communicate their shared interests and activities, disseminate information, learn and interact through a variety of web-based tools. there appears to be an adversative streak to this publicized social media among nigerian youths, with regard to their writing abilities in standard english, which is the language of mass communication in nigeria. while the mass media and the new media are powerful communication systems that are arguably meeting most of contemporary society’s communication and information needs (meribe, 2015), there appears to be some issues in terms of their impacts on human populations, especially the youth which deserve scholarly attention. this, perhaps, explains why eggermont and roe (2014) argue that “recent developments in digital communication have fundamentally affected the research agenda in the field as witnessed by the huge groundswell of studies addressing a broad spectrum of issues from the risks associated with the social media....” social media is quickly arising as a new, popular form of media. facebook, twitter, whatsapp, and linkedin are some examples of an inordinate number of social media services that are loved and used by people of all walks of life for various purposes such as sharing news, expressing opinions, documenting thoughts, launching political campaigns, maintaining and developing friendships or professional connection courtesy of web 2.0 technologies. okoro, diri, and odii (2013) affirm that “web 2.0 features enable consumers or ordinary people to publish their own websites or weblogs, or feed content into the mainstream media among many other features.” indeed, the web 2.0 on which the ‘citizen journalism,’ ‘i-report,’ ‘global instant message,’ ‘short message service’ (sms), among other phenomenal operations are based has some peculiar features. campbell, martin and fabos (2007) point out that “some of the characteristics often noted as descriptive of web 2.0 include blogging, rss-generated syndication, social networking sites like youtube, facebook, mashups, wikis like wikipedia and other collaborative applications and interactive encyclopedias and dictionaries….” without a doubt, the world would continue to experience globalisation and technological innovations, with social networking sites (social media) becoming the chief communication tools to everyone, including the learning youths. the social media, with the help of web 2.0 technologies, have enabled citizens to be active participants in the processes of news gathering and distribution (okoro, diri, & odii, 2013). some impact of social media in writing omoera, aiwuyo, edemode & anyanwu no. 17 (july december, 2018) no. 17 (july december, 2018) 63 key characteristics of social media include low entry barrier, instant updates, instant gratification, and a large numbers of friends, free entry, and anonymity. the last two properties make people comfortable to become users but also make social media vulnerable to activities of ill intentions where all kinds of persons can do whatever they like without fear of being caught, arrested or prosecuted for real and unreal offences committed. the multiplicity of these platforms and the accessibility that growing populations around the world, including nigeria seems to have implications on their writing abilities. apart from the varying types of social media platforms (smps) of the internet, namely, facebook, twitter, rss, my space, skype, 2go, whatsapp, yahoo, etc., that okhakhu and omoera (2010 ); oyedele (2015); and ehiemua and omoera (2015) earlier identified, we have several other kinds of smps or networks such as werkennt-wen, sonico, tumblr, telegram, instagram, badoo, friendster, mixi, studivz, orkut, hi5, tagged, google+, wordpress, blogspot, wechat, and sina weibo today, with huge following and use among youths. while some of these social media networks could be said to be really emerging (e.g., facebook, whatsapp, etc.), others appear to be receding (e.g., myspace, 2go, etc.) and it has been argued that “social media have done as much as harm as good to the peace and stability of the world” (personal communication with kingsley ehiemua, a literary technician and social media commentator on 22 december, 2017 in ekpoma). this is consistent with the earlier observation of freeborn odiboh who argued that “some posts seen on social media spaces do not do credit to the writing ability or expressional capacity of those who send them to the media space. the dent or damage that such errors do to the perception by others; and image of the writer of such posts with grammatically skewed structure is incalculable” (prof freeborn odiboh 9 july 2015 on his facebook page). the foregoing remark, to a large extent, captures the use of english (in school) in a non-native speaker (nns) context such as nigeria, which is fraught with many issues. interestingly, the native speaker (ns) situation also leaves much to be desired. humphreys (2007) while looking at the united kingdom experience on what he calls “…how texting is wrecking our language,” notes that: it began with some fairly obvious and relatively inoffensive abbreviations: ‘tks’ for ‘thanks’; ‘u’ for ‘you’; 4 for ‘for’. but as it has developed its users have sought out increasingly obscure ways of expressing themselves which, when you think about it, entirely defeats the purpose. if the recipient of the message has to spend ten minutes trying to translate it, those precious minutes impact of social media in writing omoera, aiwuyo, edemode & anyanwu no. 17 (july december, 2018) no. 17 (july december, 2018) 64 are being wasted. and isn’t the whole point to ‘save’ time? … then there’s the problem of ambiguity. with my vast knowledge of text language, i had assumed lol meant ‘lots of love’, but now i discover it means ‘laugh out loud’. or at least it did the last time i asked. in today’s nigeria, the youth population, especially undergraduates in universities are head over heels with these social media websites and platforms because by simply acquiring smart phones they are almost instantly catapulted into the virtual world where they can do whatever they like in whatever language they like too. this development appears to have had ripple effects on their educational activities if the reports from various examining bodies in the country are anything to go by. in the national mirror of 16 nov 2015, poor command of english, and spelling errors were linked to the mass failure of nigerian students in waec exams in recent times. abimbola adegboye, an english language lecturer at samuel adegboyega university, ogwa (personal communication in 2017) agreed that this situation may not be unconnected with the fact that a growing number of these students spend hours daily on social network sites where they use ‘special forms’ of english to communicate among themselves. her position is consistent with the outcome of the study carried out by ravhuhali, baloyi, mutshaeni & mashau (2015), which claims that learners are addicted to social networking and that social networking is disturbing them when studying since they spend most of their time chatting to friends. however, ekundayo (2014) argues that the methods of sms and e-mail will not ruin effective communication in english. rather, the methods display a new interesting variety according to a “technolinguistic” dimension. this variety refers to the creative redeployment of extant language rules and items as constrained by the dynamics of technological or mechanical devices, which should be isolated and taught as such in standard english, or educated nigerian english in this case. accordingly, he conceptualizes this habit as the intraference of linguistic symbols and rules (ekundayo, 2014). other scholars such as crystal (2009) and eco (2002) have previously noted this possibility. nonetheless, while examining the influence of social media on the sociology of youth behaviour, crystal (2009) argues that no other linguistic phenomenon has generated the amount of curiosity, fear, suspicion, confusion, fascination, excitement, and antagonism that texting on smps has aroused in a very short space of time, yet very little reliable information is available on it. it is this noticeable gap in scholarship that this article seeks to fill, with specific reference to the impact of social media in writing omoera, aiwuyo, edemode & anyanwu no. 17 (july december, 2018) no. 17 (july december, 2018) 65 impact of the use of social media on the writing abilities of nigerian undergraduates in english language. research questions do students use coinages and shortened forms of english words to communicate on social media networks? do undergraduates use social media coinages and shortened forms of english words in writing term papers, assignments and communicating with their colleagues or other students about their course work? does the use of social media coinages and shortened forms of english words by undergraduates have effects on their writing or spelling abilities? theoretical grounding we have elected to use a social theory called the cultivation theory (also known as cultivation analysis or cultivation hypothesis), which was originally put forward by gerbner (1973) to foreground the examination of the impact of social media on the writing abilities of nigerian youths in english language, using undergraduates in ekpoma, nigeria as a basis of analysis and discussion. although cultivation theory (ct) has been revised and updated severally by different communication and media scholars, its kernel still remains: a broad theory of the overall cumulative influence of the media on audiences (gerbner, gross, signorielli, & morgan, 1980; morgan & shanahan, 2010; morgan, shanahan, & signorielli, 2012; russell, russell, boland, & grube, 2014). it is on this intellectual nub that this work is anchored. it does appear that communicative ease facilitated by digitization and conveyed through the new media (social media) has somewhat further extended the ‘freedom’ of communication in different directions in contemporary world. habitual users of the social media, as represented in this study, have created and are advancing the use of new, shortened linguistic and other forms of writing for older and more conventional writing. for example, ‘u’ for you, ‘ur’ for your, ‘c’ for see, and ‘d’ for the, are gaining widespread usage and some extent of acceptability among younger populations, especially undergraduate students in nigerian universities. there is thus an emergent transfer of novel and unconventional writing style to the formal context by these students as a consequence of their use of social media. impact of social media in writing omoera, aiwuyo, edemode & anyanwu no. 17 (july december, 2018) no. 17 (july december, 2018) 66 within the broader concerns of media effects, the emphasis has always, for obvious reasons, been on mainstream print and broadcast media. comstock, chaffe, katzman, mccombs and roberts (1978); russell, russell, boland, & grube (2014) have hypothesised concerning consistent viewer exposure to violent television content with a corresponding behaviour in real life. a consistent finding is that heavy cumulative exposure to media messages shapes viewers’ concept of reality, attitudes, and behaviour. in the same vein, gerbner (1973); signorelli and morgan (1990); morgan & shanahan (2010); morgan, shanahan, & signorielli (2012) have put forward the media cultivation hypothesis whose kernel is that audience exposure over time to specific media perspective or point of view (pov) has the potential of making such audience appropriate the media perspective or pov or tendency in everyday living or activities. one of the main tenets of the ct is that television and media cultivate the status quo, they do not challenge it. oftentimes, the viewers or users are unaware of the extent to which they absorb media message(s), many times viewing themselves as moderate viewers or users when, in fact, they are heavy viewers or users who are likely to adopt whatever they are exposed to in the media (gerbner, gross, morgan, signorielli & jackson-beeck, 1979; miller, 2005; russell, russell, boland, & grube, 2014). it is in this connection that this study is anchored on the media cultivation theory, albeit with a slight departure from the position of comstock, chaffe, katzman, mccombs and roberts (1978); russell, russell, boland, & grube (2014). even though it is recognised that deviational patterns of writing in english by some nigerian youths on social media platforms (smps) could be disruptive in some way, we are essentially focused on a non-violent consequence of media exposure. social media and its impact on contemporary youth populations globally, studies have been carried out on the impact of social media. purcell, buchanan, and friedrich (2013) report that a survey of teachers who instruct american middle and high school students finds that digital technologies are impacting student writing in myriad ways and there are significant advantages from tech-based learning. some 78% of the 2,462 advanced placement (ap) and national writing project (nwp) teachers surveyed by the pew research center’s internet & american life project say digital tools such as the internet, social media, and cell phones “encourage student creativity and personal expression.” in addition, 96% agree that digital technologies “allow students to share impact of social media in writing omoera, aiwuyo, edemode & anyanwu no. 17 (july december, 2018) no. 17 (july december, 2018) 67 their work with a wider and more varied audience” while 79% agree that these tools “encourage greater collaboration among students.” according to the teachers, students’ exposure to a broader audience for their work and more feedback from peers encourages greater student investment in what they write and in the writing process as a whole (pew research center, 2015). robinson, callahan, boyle, rivera and cho (2017) affirm that social media as a fairly recent major technological revolution has altered the way humans communicate and share information and outlined four different social media platforms that are popular among people to include facebook, twitter, blogs and client hosted forums. they further noted that just as the case in most countries, young adults form the bulk of users on social media networks. perhaps, this explains why the pervasive use of multiple technological tools (i.e., tv sets, laptops, tablets, smartphones, etc.) to engage with media; and political content has deeply altered the way citizens around the world consume information and discuss public affair issues, even as findings reveal that young people tend to second screen more than older counterparts (gil de zúñiga & liu, 2017). this position, though in a slightly different context, shows that digital tools, particularly social media, play a central role in the lives and education of young people in most contemporary societies. imade, elogie and ikenwe (2016) examined the influence of social media utilisation and addiction on self-perception of undergraduate students at the university of ibadan in nigeria. the study, which adopted the survey method of ex-post-facto design, found that self-perception had a significant positive relation to social media utilisation just as social media addiction was found to relatively contribute significantly to self-perception of undergraduate students. ehiemua insisted that social media appears to be a mixed bag, a potpourri of ‘the good, the bad and the ugly’ in nigeria and elsewhere (personal communication, 2017). apart from being the fastest means of disseminating information and peddling unfounded and fake news (fastest rumour mills); they serve as predatory sites for paedophiles, sexual perverts and the like. curiously, the good sides are also legion. for instance, the national agency for food and drug administration (nafdac) recently acknowledged that the social media in nigeria helped the organization in tracking the imported garri – cassava flour illegally brought into nigeria from india without the approval of nafdac, one of nigeria’s food regulatory bodies (nta newsline, feb. 26 2017). impact of social media in writing omoera, aiwuyo, edemode & anyanwu no. 17 (july december, 2018) no. 17 (july december, 2018) 68 in spite of the above, the situation is becoming worrisome by the inventive social media stylized linguistic abbreviations; where, in its worst and very annoying forms, smileys or emoticon symbols are used in lieu of words by many persons, especially the youth. in a study carried out by cingeland sunder (2012), it was found that the perpetual use of mobile devices by adolescents has fuelled a culture of text messaging, with abbreviations and grammatical shortcuts, thus raising a number of questions in the minds of parents and teachers. but the chief question is: does increased use of text messaging engender greater reliance on such ‘textual adaptations’ to the point of altering one’s sense of written english grammar? observably, with the popularity of english language and the increasing consciousness to learn it in non-english speaking countries all over the world, english is likely to be the language of choice for international discourse and communication. this is particularly so because college students or undergraduates are taking social media to a new level, using websites such as facebook to communicate with other students about their coursework, and this is usually done in the english language (rice, 2011). hence, whatever disruption in the writing abilities of growing children in english could spell doom because research has demonstrated how writing effectively and efficiently can improve comprehension of content in any discipline. materials and methods the study adopted the descriptive survey design while the population of the study comprised all the undergraduate students from a public university in ekpoma, nigeria. our choice of the undergraduates as the focus population is because they constitute the prime or active users of social media in nigeria and other developing and developed societies. a 14-item likert format questionnaire was used for data collection. the simple random sampling technique was used to administer 135 copies of questionnaire of which 120 were retrieved. however, 10 out of the 120 were not properly filled. consequently, the properly filled 110 copies of questionnaire were used for analysis in this study. the questionnaire was validated by research experts in the departments of theatre and media arts, english language and educational foundations and management in a public university in ekpoma, nigeria. the cronbach alpha, a measure of scale consistency, was used to determine the reliability of the instrument and it yielded correlation coefficient of 0.97 which showed that the instrument was impact of social media in writing omoera, aiwuyo, edemode & anyanwu no. 17 (july december, 2018) no. 17 (july december, 2018) 69 highly reliable to elicit information for the study. the data was analysed using mean scores and standard deviations to answer the research questions such that if an item scored more than 2.50 cut-off point, the social media had impact on the writing abilities of undergraduate students under investigation. additional information was garnered from in-depth interviews (idis) with lecturers from within and outside ambrose alli university and focused group discussion (fgds) with some students of the institution as well as the researchers’ direct observation of the issue under investigation. in this regard, a total of one thousand three and fifty six examination scripts, aside three hundred forty four assignments and term papers of undergraduate students from the departments of theatre and media arts, english, educational foundation and administration at ambrose alli university, ekpoma, were randomly selected and closely examined by the researchers and the spelling errors or deviational writings patterns were noted over a period of ten years. result qualitative research procedure for the fgd session and in-depth interview the fgd guide consists of sentences, in the form of questions, that the researchers asked the participants. the guide helped the researchers in moderating the sessions of the fgd. the guide was used to obtain the required information and ideas from participants, which were used to arrive at each of the research questions. a total number of 8 students (four male and four female undergraduates) were randomly selected as participants in the fgd. after familiarisation, explanations of the essence of the research were handed down to the participants, the researchers sought for the consent of the participants before proceeding with the session. the researchers also told the participants that they are free to opt out during the proceedings if any of them felt uncomfortable with the discussions. thereafter, participants were given opportunity to respond to what the moderator posed in relation to writing abilities of undergraduates. information and opinions gathered from the fgds were synchronised into statements in accordance with the theme of the study. in-depth interviews (idis) were conducted with lecturers from within and outside the university. these idis served the purpose of complementing the information provided during the fgds. the same fgd guide was used during the interview sessions with slight modifications. for instance, “have you ever come across any of these impact of social media in writing omoera, aiwuyo, edemode & anyanwu no. 17 (july december, 2018) no. 17 (july december, 2018) 70 shortened forms of english words or abbreviations (‘u’ for ‘you’ ‘gr8t’ for ‘great’, ‘ur/urs’ for ‘your/yours’) when marking your students’ scripts?” “do you think they use such words unconsciously in their writings,” etc. the three research questions posed for the study were analyzed as follows: research question one do students use coinages and shortened forms of english words to communicate on social media networks? table 1: mean ratings and standard deviations of respondents on the use of coinages and shortened forms of english words on social media network. table 1 showed that items 1,2,3,4 and 5 have mean ratings of 3.25, 2.68, 3.47, 2.93 and 3.42 with standard deviation of 0.795, 0.938, 0.713, 0.983 and 0.759; all are greater than the cut-off point of 2.50 which implied that surfing the internet was the students’ pastime. students visit the internet for social network activities and to communicate among themselves. they also do not use correct spellings while chatting because they believe that using short forms of words or coinages or deliberate wrong spellings while chatting saves time. the cluster mean of 2.62 and standard deviation of 0.83 which is greater than the cutoff point of 2.50 implied that the population under investigation use coinages and shortened forms of words on social media networks. impact of social media in writing omoera, aiwuyo, edemode & anyanwu no. 17 (july december, 2018) no. 17 (july december, 2018) 71 research question two do undergraduates use social media coinages and shortened forms of english words in writing term papers, assignments and communicating with their colleagues other students about their course work? table 2. mean ratings and standard deviations on the use of social media coinages and shortened forms of english words in writing term papers, assignments and examinations. table 2 showed that items 6, 7 and 8 have mean ratings of 1.70, 1.77 and 1.98 with standard deviation of 0.924, 1.001 and 1.049. the mean for each item is less than 2.50 which implied that the use of social media language when writing assignments or examinations matters to the students. nonetheless, in items 7 and 8, the finding indicates that they do not deliberately misspell words or use short forms of words or sentences while writing their assignments and examinations. also, they do not believe that the deliberate use of short forms of words and sentences while writing term papers or assignments saves time. it is likely that the sampled population is grandstanding as in-depth interviews conducted with some tertiary institutions’ lecturers revealed that there are many instances of students using coinages, short forms of words and abbreviations in their term papers and assignments. impact of social media in writing omoera, aiwuyo, edemode & anyanwu no. 17 (july december, 2018) no. 17 (july december, 2018) 72 research question three does the use of social media coinages and shortened forms of english words by undergraduates have effects on their writing or spelling abilities? table 3. mean ratings and standard deviations of respondents on the effect of social media coinages and shortened forms of english words on their writing abilities. table 3 showed that items 9 and 10 have mean ratings of 2.48 and 1.71 with standard deviation of 1.056 and 0.871. here, the data shows that the sampled students’ opinion is not necessarily what is really happening. a majority of them opine that social media activities have not impinged on their writing or spelling abilities in english. they further say that their lecturers do not complain about their spellings. however, this position is inconsistent with the outcome of the idis with lecturers, and the researchers’ direct observation of the situation on the ground: undergraduate students tended to use shortened forms of english words or abbreviations in writing assignments, term papers and examinations. discussion the first finding of the study revealed that students use coinages and shortened forms of english words to communicate on social media. many a time, students tend to abbreviate or use acronymic words while chatting on social media platforms. the second finding showed that students are aware that it is inappropriate to use social media language when writing assignments and examinations but some traces of deviational patterns of writing which are inconsistent with standard english are a common feature in many of their writings both on social impact of social media in writing omoera, aiwuyo, edemode & anyanwu no. 17 (july december, 2018) no. 17 (july december, 2018) 73 media and in many of the terms papers, class assignments and essays which students submit to us as university lecturers in the last ten years. furthermore, in the fgds that we conducted with some students, we found that in spite of the fact that many undergraduates are aware that it is inappropriate to use social media coinages many of them still do in their writing unknowingly or unconsciously. the presupposition here is that a majority of the youths adopt a certain option/brand of english which cannot be located within the matrixes of standard english or even its popular nigerian english (pne) variant which is called pidgin english. consequently, expressions such as ‘u’ for ‘you’ ‘gr8’ for ‘great’, ‘ur/urs’ for ‘your/yours’, among other deviational patterns, have crept into their writing consciousness in classes and examinations, which make a lot of ‘sense’ in informal settings among the youths, but smacks of sub literacy in formal writing situations under which they are being trained. as well, these deviational patterns of writing or spelling in english among undergraduates that is occasioned by their use of social media are common sights in their term papers, assignments and examination scripts as our direct observations indicate. the third finding revealed that the students reported what they think but that is not necessarily a true position because the idis and the researchers’ direct observation show that many undergraduate students do use shortened forms of english words in writing assignments, term papers and examinations. from the foregoing, it is likely that over time the sampled students’ writing skills or spelling abilities could be impacted harmfully by their activities on social media. in fact, students’ frequent use of coinages and shortened forms of english words on social media does not improve their writing abilities as undergraduates in any considerable manner. as well, it is the opinion of the sampled population that the lecturers, who teach and examine their term papers and assignments, do not complain about their spelling. this result is inconsistent with the outcome of the in depth interviews (idis) conducted among some three lecturers in ambrose alli university, ekpoma, samuel adegboyega university, ogwa and auchi polytechnic, auchi, who roundly complained about students’ frequent use of short forms of words or coinages such as 4gt, wch, gr8, etc., in the term papers, examination scripts and other formal communications between them and their students. the possible explanation for the conflictual opinions between the lecturers and students may be located in the view that the sampled students’ population is grandstanding and wanting to be on the defensive. however, the result also speaks to the need for further research to be carried out on the matter among other students’/ impact of social media in writing omoera, aiwuyo, edemode & anyanwu no. 17 (july december, 2018) no. 17 (july december, 2018) 74 lecturers’ populations to either confirm or disconfirm the outcome of this investigation. conclusion this study has examined the impact of social media on the writing abilities of nigerian youths by mainly using the opinions of undergraduate students in ekpoma, nigeria as fulcra of analysis and discussion. the study discovered that a majority of the youths tend to adopt a certain brand of english which cannot be located within the matrix of standard english (se) or even popular nigerian english variant which is called pidgin english (pe). consequently, expressions such as ‘u’ for ‘you’ ‘gr8t’ for ‘great’, ‘ur/urs’ for ‘your/ yours’, among other deviational patterns, have crept into their writing consciousness in classes and examinations, which make a lot of ‘sense’ in informal settings among the youths, but smacks of sub-literacy in formal writing situations under which they are being trained. this development can have serious implications for effective and efficient writing among nigerian youths, especially in formal situations. the study recommends, amongst others, that further studies should be carried out on the deviational patterns of english words and phrases which are commonly used by youths in nigeria and elsewhere, with a view to possibly getting the ‘new words’ standardized by the relevant educational authorities to ensure uniformity in usage, and to keep pace with the dynamically trendy social media culture. impact of social media in writing omoera, aiwuyo, edemode & anyanwu no. 17 (july december, 2018) no. 17 (july december, 2018) 75 references adegboye, a. 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(1990). cultivation analysis. newbury park, ca: sage. impact of social media in writing omoera, aiwuyo, edemode & anyanwu no. 17 (july december, 2018) no. 17 (july december, 2018) 78 authors *osakue stevenson omoera, ph.d., is of the department of theatre and media arts, ambrose alli university, ekpoma, nigeria, where he teaches and specializes in sociology of the media and nollywood studies with a particular focus on the social impacts of the media, and african film and cultural studies. dr. omoera is widely travelled and has over a hundred publications in specialist books and leading journals. he is credited to have pioneered scholarly inquiry into the benin video-film rib of nollywood studies. also, he enunciated the “active volcano paradigm” for the study of english as a language of mass communication, with reference to broadcast media news in nigeria. he has served as a resource person to the national broadcasting commission (nbc), the national council for arts and culture (ncac), the european union technical assistance to nigeria’s evolving security challenges (eutans) countering violent extremism (cve) media roundtable, among others. oluranti mary aiwuyo is a ph.d. candidate at the department of educational foundations and management, faculty of education, ambrose alli university, ekpoma, nigeria, where she also teaches educational planning and management courses. she has an abiding research interest in the management of post-primary education for effective delivery, early childhood education, organizational communication, among other areas of educational sciences. she has attended many conferences and published articles in reputable local and international outlets. john o. oyarebu edemode holds a ph.d. in communication from the university of ibadan, ibadan, nigeria. he has over three decades of teaching experience in polytechnic and university mass communication departments. he is published in reputable national and international journals. his research interest and specialty is development communication wherein he has authored three books. dr edemode has, at various times, been head, department of mass communication, auchi polytechnic, auchi, edo state, nigeria, pioneer head of mass communication department, benson idahosa university, benin city, edo state, nigeria, and special adviser in communication, federal inland revenue service, abuja, federal capital territory, nigeria. impact of social media in writing omoera, aiwuyo, edemode & anyanwu no. 17 (july december, 2018) no. 17 (july december, 2018) 79 bibian onyebuchi anyanwu, ph.d., a nigerian, teaches linguistics in the department of english, faculty of arts, ambrose alli university, ekpoma, edo state, nigeria, where she is, at present, the head of department. dr anyanwu is an associate professor with special research interest in sociolinguistics. her research areas include: multilingualism, language variations, language endangerment, language planning, and ethnographics. she is the author of several books including, multilingualism in warri, nigeria: socio-psychological perspectives (2016), and an introduction to research methods in the humanities (co-authored with c.o. isiramen, e.c. emordi, o.s. omoera, e. imafidon, and m.o. idemudia, 2016). she is also the editor of azilo: journal of humanities and social sciences, which is published in nigeria. she has to her credit numerous publications in various peer reviewed national and international journals. impact of social media in writing omoera, aiwuyo, edemode & anyanwu no. 17 (july december, 2018) no. 17 (july december, 2018) 80 appendix focused group discussion (fgd) guide are you familiar with social media platforms such as facebook, linkedin, instagram, twitter, etc? how often do you use social media networks? do you use any of the social media platforms to communicate with your course mates and friends? do you misspell or use shortened forms of english words such as ‘u’ for ‘you’ ‘gr8t’ for ‘great’, ‘ur/urs’ for ‘your/yours’, etc., while using social media platforms? if yes, do you intentionally or unintentionally use such non standard english words while conversing with friends and course mates on the internet? would you say that your intentional or unintentional use of such deviational patterns of english words have positively affected your writing abilities as an undergraduate? would you say that your intentional or unintentional use of such deviational patterns of english words have negatively affected your writing abilities as an undergraduate? have your lecturers complained about your spelling or writing of english words in your assignments, terms papers, and examination scripts? impact of social media in writing no. 17 (july december, 2018) no. 17 (july december, 2018) gist2014finalfinal.indd 118 analyzing bilingual teaching and learning in madrid, spain: a fulbright scholar collaborative research project1 análisis del proceso de enseñanza y aprendizaje en educación bilingüe en madrid, españa: un proyecto de colaboración fulbright scholar linda gerena and m. dolores ramírez-verdugo2* york college, city university of new york, universidad autónoma de madrid usa / spain abstract this study was carried out as an international cooperative research project supported by a fulbright scholar award to investigate attitudes and perceptions towards bilingual education, and to extract key findings on effective pedagogy in bilingual schools in the region of madrid, where expansion of bilingual programs has been rapidly increasing. the study sought to identify the attitudes of teachers, language assistants and students towards bilingualism and bilingual program development. it was also interested in identifying effective classroom practices and strategies for effective teaching in bilingual contexts. the results obtained reveal key findings and possible implications that should be taken into consideration in order to facilitate the future development and consolidation of bilingual programs that promote educational excellence. keywords: altbe, conceptual framework, best practices, bilingual programs, clil, perceptions and attitudes, fulbright scholar collaboration, research surveys and protocols 1 received: january 30, 2014 / accepted: april 21, 2014 2 lgerena@york.cuny.edu; dolores.ramirez@uam.es gist education and learning research journal. issn 1692-5777. no. 8, (january june) 2014. pp. 118-136. gerena & ramírez no. 8 (january june 2014) no. 8 (january june 2014) 119 resumen el presente estudio se llevó a cabo dentro del marco de un proyecto de investigación colaborativo internacional, apoyado por una beca fulbright, con el objetivo de investigar las actitudes y percepciones hacia la educación bilingüe y extraer los principales resultados sobre una metodología de prácticas pedagógicas eficientes en colegios bilingües de la región de madrid, donde la implantación de los programas bilingües ha aumentado exponencialmente en las últimas décadas. el estudio pretendía identificar las actitudes de los profesores, asistentes de idiomas y estudiantes hacia el bilingüismo y el desarrollo del programa bilingüe. además se identificaron ejemplos de buenas prácticas docentes y estrategias eficientes de enseñanza-aprendizaje en contextos bilingües. los resultados obtenidos ponen de manifiesto hallazgos fundamentales y sus posibles implicaciones que, se deberían tener en consideración para facilitar el futuro desarrollo y consolidación de programas bilingües que promuevan la excelencia educativa. palabras claves: altbe, marco conceptual, buenas prácticas, programas bilingües, clil, actitudes y percepciones; colaboración beca fulbright, cuestionario y protocolos de investigación. resumo o presente estudo foi realizado dentro do marco de um projeto de pesquisa colaborativo internacional, apoiado por uma bolsa fulbright, com o objetivo de pesquisar as atitudes e percepções em direção à educação bilíngue e extrair os principais resultados sobre uma metodologia de práticas pedagógicas eficientes em colégios bilíngues da região de madrid, onde a implantação dos programas bilíngues tem aumentado exponencialmente nas últimas décadas. o estudo pretendia identificar as atitudes dos professores, assistentes de idiomas e estudantes em direção ao bilinguismo e ao desenvolvimento do programa bilíngue. além do mais, identificaram-se exemplos de boas práticas docentes e estratégias eficientes de ensino-aprendizagem em contextos bilíngues. os resultados obtidos põem de manifesto descobertas fundamentais e suas possíveis implicações que se deveriam levar em consideração para facilitar o futuro desenvolvimento e consolidação de programas bilíngues que promovam a excelência educativa. palavras chave: altbe, marco conceitual, boas práticas, programas bilíngues, clil, atitudes e percepções; colaboração bolsa fulbright, questionário e protocolos de pesquisa. gerena & ramírez no. 8 (january june 2014) no. 8 (january june 2014) 120 introduction bilingual education in spain over the past two decades, the educational community in spain, supported by the national spanish ministry of education, has made a powerful and passionate commitment to teach english in public schools using an additive bilingual education approach. throughout spain bilingual education is being promoted and developed in schools, with the objective of teaching a second language. based on a collaborative agreement between the spanish ministry of education and the british council in 1996, the public school sector in spain began its innovative and progressive foray into bilingual education through an immersion program. over time, another variety to bilingual education in spain known as content and language integrated learning (clil) was introduced, based on the council of europe framework (council of europe, 2005). it is in this context that bilingualism and bilingual programs have been developed and teachers have begun the challenging process of teaching content in a second language. also included in this perspective of promoting two languages was the focus on encouraging an awareness of cultural diversity. an important variable in these bilingual programs was the infusion and inclusion of native english speaking language assistants. these assistants were required to possess a college diploma, and would serve as linguistic models and cultural ambassadors in bilingual classrooms. most language assistants working in bilingual programs in spain were natives of the united states, but there were many from great britain and ireland as well. in one of the regions where this zeal for bilingualism was evident was in madrid and its environs, officially known as the comunidad de madrid (cam), whose official order for bilingual education began by stating that “the comunidad de madrid is convinced that bilingualism is imperative for their students to be effective and integrated participants in the european union and that the ministry of education is demanding renewed efforts to achieve this goal” (consejería de educación, juventud y deporte, 2009, para. 1). cam’s regional department of education made bilingual program development and expansion top priorities for pre-primary, primary, and secondary levels of education. as a result, the pace and scope of bilingual program development and implementation in the comunidad de madrid was rapid (ramírez-verdugo, 2010; ruiz de zarobe & lasagabaster, 2010). according to local educational experts (frijols 2010; gisbert, 2010), in 2007 there were approximately 250 primary bilingual public analyzing bilingual teaching and learning gerena & ramírez no. 8 (january june 2014) no. 8 (january june 2014) 121 schools, 2015 native english speaking teaching assistants and 880 officially trained and certified bilingual teachers in the comunidad de madrid. by the year 2015, the goal is to have over 3000 teachers and 100% of early childhood centers, 50% of primary and 30% of secondary and high schools fully developed as bilingual centers. the target is to prepare the students in the comunidad de madrid to become fully competent in english. literature review bilingual education and clil there has been an increasing interest in bilingual education throughout europe, offered mainly in a variety of clil forms with different languages as the l2 (ramírez-verdugo, 2010). most research that has been conducted on these programs lies within the context of applied linguistics rather than teacher pedagogy, effective practices or participant perceptions. studies have focused largely on classroom discourse in a clil context (dalton-puffer 2007; nikula, dalton-puffer & linares, 2013), effective theory-based practice, tools, techniques, resources, and l2 pedagogy in clil contexts (de graaff, koopman, anikina & westhoff, 2007; escobar, 2013; gerena, 2012a; gerena, 2012b; hillyard, 2011; ioannou-georgiou & ramírez-verdugo, 2010; ramírez-verdugo & sotomayor, 2012), and evaluation of bilingual secondary education and student gain and learning outcome, motivation and affective factors (admiraal, westhoff, & de bot, 2006; coyle 2011; lasagabaster, 2011; merisuo-storm 2006; seikkula-leino, 2007). attitudes and perceptions student perceptions and attitudes are important variables to effective teaching and learning (eiko, 2005). research on other program models have found positive relationships between students’ attitudes and willingness to study foreign languages (elyildirim & ashton, 2006), as well as improved language competences (daltonpuffer, 2007; genesee, 2002; lasagabaster, 2008; marsh, 2008; moore, 2006). in this respect, lindholm-leary and ferrante (2003 and 2005) document how student attitudes affect academic success and learning. lindholm & borsato (2001) reveal that factors that lead to academic success, achievement, and adjustment of successful hispanic students in the united states include motivation, a belief in academic competence, a school environment that is safe and supportive, family support, and a peer group that values education. additionally, listening to the voices of analyzing bilingual teaching and learning gerena & ramírez no. 8 (january june 2014) no. 8 (january june 2014) 122 learners has been found to be a critical aspect to successful educational programs (coyle, 2013). teacher preparation is a critical aspect to student learning. in 2002, in a report to the european commission directorate general for education and culture, the research team of kelly, grenfell, gallagherbrett, jones, richard and hilmarsson-dunn (2002) reported that language teachers should be trained in language skills and pedagogic strategies that meet the needs of all age and language level groups, from primary to adult vocational and beyond. research consistently points to better teacher preparation as a key component of successful and effective bilingual and clil programs (coyle & marsh, 2001; lasagabaster & ruiz de zarobe, 2010; lyster, 2007; maljers, 2007). effective practices in bilingual, clil, and second language education have been identified throughout the literature. effective practices include integration of content and language, active teaching, student engagement, scaffolding, developing cognitively challenging and higher order thinking skills, providing comprehensible input through the use of visuals, graphic organizers and other student centered materials, and monitoring and assessing student progress (‪de graaff, et al 2007; naves, 2009; walqui, 2006). methodology research design the methodology used in this study included mixed methods: quantitative surveys, descriptive and analytical field observations, and qualitative interviews and written reflections. the goal was to develop a conceptual framework based on current practices, yet linked to established best practices to provide support and encouragement for future bilingual program development. the research design and the data gathered were an attempt to answer the following research questions: 1. what are the perceptions and beliefs of teachers, students, and language assistants toward bilingualism and bilingual program implementation? 2. what effective practices can be observed in bilingual classrooms? are these practices aligned to student linguistic and content achievement? 3. how can the data gathered be used to promote bilingualism and future bilingual program development? analyzing bilingual teaching and learning gerena & ramírez no. 8 (january june 2014) no. 8 (january june 2014) 123 context and participants the project began by constructing an electronic survey that asked teachers, secondary students, and language assistants to respond to questions that were geared to investigating bilingual teaching practices and program perspectives. following this, schools were contacted and permission was requested to observe practicing bilingual teachers and language assistants in bilingual education programs in select schools in the northern area of madrid. bilingual classes at both primary and secondary levels were observed during field site visitations. twenty-two primary and secondary bilingual teachers, eighty secondary students, and fifty-three language assistants completed electronic surveys. twenty-seven classrooms were visited with each visit lasting approximately one hour, with sixteen primary classes and eleven secondary classes observed. thirteen teachers and administrators were interviewed individually, on a one to one basis. seventy-nine of the eighty secondary students completed the written reflection surveys that focused on the bilingual education that they had received in primary school and were continuing to receive in secondary school. data collection all research instruments and data collection materials were original and specifically prepared for this research project. they were field tested and revised over several iterations until the researchers believed they would support the goals of the project. throughout the project, both quantitative and qualitative data was gathered. quantitative data was gathered from electronic likert style surveys that were distributed to teachers, students and language assistants. classrooms were visited and descriptive field observations were recorded using an observational protocol. data from these field observations were then analyzed and organized using a follow up analytical protocol. open response questions and focused interviews with teachers and administrators, along with structured reflective written responses with secondary students, provided qualitative data. these interviews and reflective responses provided first person narratives concerning bilingualism and bilingual education. the objectives of all data collection tools were to identify effective classroom practices and strategies for effective teaching, to explore the attitudes, beliefs, and perceptions of teachers, students, and language assistants (yin, 2009). surveys. the likert style survey topics included items that measured participants’ beliefs, attitudes, and perceptions of analyzing bilingual teaching and learning gerena & ramírez no. 8 (january june 2014) no. 8 (january june 2014) 124 accomplishments and achievements, the role of english language assistants, ongoing challenges and obstacles, and future goals. the surveys included items that pertained to teaching and assessment practices, oral and written language use, development of language skills, perceived successes and gains in language and content, perceived challenges or difficulties, the role and effectiveness of language assistants, and the need for professional development. observations. over a series of five months, targeted schools were visited, and teachers were observed in their classroom settings. classroom observations were prearranged with the schools and teachers. primary classes ranged from 1st through 6th grade, and the secondary classes include 1st, 2nd, and 4th levels of e.s.o (educación secundaria obligatoria, or required secondary education). to accomplish a thorough examination of pedagogy, an original classroom observation protocol the “altbe observation protocol,” was created to serve as a consistent tool to observe classrooms across the grade levels. it was used to record and annotate both teacher pedagogy and student engagement found in bilingual classrooms at both the primary and secondary levels. all field observation notes were taken using the altbe observation protocol. interviews and written reflections. the third aspect of the study was to interview key stakeholders to capture first person, narrative voices in the context of additive bilingualism. teachers and administrators were interviewed to gain insights into their attitudes, beliefs and perceptions. an interview protocol was designed to assure consistency of questions. secondary students who had participated in a bilingual primary school program were asked to respond in writing to a set of six reflective questions that focused on their perceptions of the benefits or advantages of being bilingual in the future, successes and challenges of having participated in bilingual programs, what they liked and disliked about being in a bilingual program, the role and perceived usefulness and effectiveness of language assistants, and future benefits of their participation in a bilingual program . data analysis and interpretation a follow up analysis tool, the “altbe data analysis protocol l,” based on armas and lavadenz’ (2011) observation protocol for academic literacies (opal), was developed to examine, organize, and analyze the data obtained from each classroom observation, to ultimately construct a framework of effective practices from a broad analyzing bilingual teaching and learning gerena & ramírez no. 8 (january june 2014) no. 8 (january june 2014) 125 range of grade levels and content areas. this tool organized the raw data into five domains: (a) lesson introduction; (b) teaching strategies, methods and techniques; (c) critical thinking, higher order thinking and cognitive development; (d) effective use of language assistants; and (e) assessment. each domain contained 3-5 performance indicators. anchor definitions were established for scoring consistency. results once data was collected and analyzed from each set of instruments, findings were organized into the following categories. effective pedagogy using the “altbe data analysis protocol,” and based on the literature related to effective practices, lessons were found to include some effective practices in varying degrees. most lessons included some comprehensible input, such as demonstrations, modeling, videos, use of realia and visuals. vocabulary development was paramount in most lessons, and listening skills were developed more than speaking skills. clarification and scaffolding support were provided when needed, and technology, such as smart boards, was present in most classrooms and used to varying degrees. however, practices that were not as frequently encountered included previewing or activating prior knowledge before teaching the main lesson, use of higher order thinking questions and activities, student centered instruction, group or partner work, or handson interactive activities. most lessons focused on listening, reading, and writing rather than speaking. attitudes, beliefs, and perceptions of bilingualism and the bilingual program teachers and language assistants were mostly enthusiastic about their roles in the bilingual programs. teachers saw bilingualism as the future of professionalism in spain and a way to better prepare children for a global world. language assistants saw their role as promoters of english so that students would be enthusiastic and excited about becoming bilingual and learning more about american customs and culture. survey responses to open ended questions revealed that the areas that both teachers and language assistants felt were most successful were student motivation and interest in becoming bilingual in general. analyzing bilingual teaching and learning gerena & ramírez no. 8 (january june 2014) no. 8 (january june 2014) 126 students’ survey responses indicated that learning another language and being bilingual was important to students now and for their future. they were aware of the benefits of bilingualism and felt a sense of pride and comfort when speaking english, and they were not afraid to make mistakes. an overwhelming majority saw themselves as future bilingual adults, confident that their futures would be better because of their participation in the bilingual program. they perceived bilingualism as the key to acceptance to university, future careers, better jobs and opportunities, increased competiveness and preparedness, and greater advantages and future options. english was viewed as an important global language and the ability to communicate with others would result in improved personal language abilities in english, along with travel ease and inter cultural and communicative abilities. almost all students reported that they liked the fact that their levels of english were high, their overall language abilities were well developed, and that they learned much more english than students in the regular programs. learning vocabulary was considered easy, and as a result, their vocabulary was extensive and rich, especially in science, history and technology, and communicative abilities. they liked that the books were shorter and that there was less bookwork. when the students felt that the content was difficult, they thought the teachers were supportive and allowed them time to adjust. the social aspects were also positive. students preferred working in groups and making friends, and establishing relationships with native english speakers. on a personal level, they expressed higher levels of self-confidence, comfort level, feelings of accomplishment and a sense of pride in being able to communicate and learn in another language. they felt that they learned more and that the bilingual program was more challenging than regular programs. they generally liked their teachers, thought they were very competent, and found the classes more entertaining. additionally, students enjoyed learning english in history, art/ music, pe, science, and geography classes. they appreciated learning with videos, the internet, songs, and games, and they liked classes to be “fun” and not “boring.” students believed the language assistants were very important to their mastering english and credited them with being kind, sensitive, and extremely helpful. positive adjectives students used to describe their participation in the bilingual program ranged from “excited, satisfied, interested, to comfortable, and confident”. not only did students share what they liked about the bilingual program, they were forthcoming in reporting what they did not like as well. students did not like that learning content in english meant more analyzing bilingual teaching and learning gerena & ramírez no. 8 (january june 2014) no. 8 (january june 2014) 127 concentration and cognitive stamina during classes, and more studying and homework after school. while most students believed they could learn as much in english as in spanish, some students reported that they felt they were losing content knowledge and vocabulary in spanish due to learning in a non-native language. as in the survey, they reiterated the fact that grammar and writing were the most difficult areas of language to learn, and they did not like grammar exercises, bookwork, workbooks, or flash cards. they did not like that their schedules included an extra period a day, and they perceived the bilingual teachers as being stricter than the non-bilingual teachers. negative adjectives students used to describe their participation in the bilingual program included “tired, confused, and distracted.” effective use of language assistants language assistant responsibilities varied by schools, and some teachers stated that team teaching and their integration into the class dynamics and design took a significant amount of time and effort. many language assistants’ tended to be university graduates in diverse fields such as science or arts who were willing to spend a year abroad in a foreign country and hence, lacked prior teacher training and experience. this lack of preparation was perceived as a shortcoming by both primary and secondary school teachers. notwithstanding, language assistants were regarded as having an extremely important role to play in the bilingual program implementation. students overwhelmingly stated that the language assistants were irreplaceable and that they were absolutely responsible for their linguistic and cultural advancements. the areas they felt the language assistants were most helpful were in speaking, intonation and pronunciation, grammar, fluency, communicative skills, and preparing for exams. areas to be developed although interview responses from both primary and secondary school teachers yielded very positive perceptions and strong beliefs in the bilingual programs implemented in the region, a large majority of bilingual education teachers considered there was not sufficient teacher or language assistant training. both teachers and assistants consistently asked for more training and support on not only teaching methodology and pedagogy, but on how to integrate the assistants into the classroom structure. analyzing bilingual teaching and learning gerena & ramírez no. 8 (january june 2014) no. 8 (january june 2014) 128 higher order thinking, student centered, and hands-on, interactive teaching strategies were not as commonly reported as might have been expected. in addition, there was an apparent mismatching of perceptions. the language assistants responded that hands-on and interactive activities were not typically used in teaching, yet teachers responded that they were satisfied with the level of student centered and participatory activities provided in their teaching strategies. although vocabulary development in students was high, students had difficulty in expressing their thoughts and conceptual understandings fluently due very few opportunities to predict, infer, compare or contrast. questioning techniques needed to include more higher order thinking questions and pedagogy needed to shift from a teacher centered environment marked by an abundance of teacher talk and teaching by the book, with students focused on rote learning, to a more student centered pedagogy, where student engagement and participation were encouraged. oral language needed to be developed, since there was very little student speaking, and classwork consisted mostly of reading, writing and note taking. finally, language assistants should be more fully integrated as linguistic and cultural resources, as they were often seen assessing individual students, or doing menial chores, such as preparing materials or making copies. even though there has been an outstanding investment in the bilingual program over the last decade, teachers considered the recent cuts in education were seriously affecting the implementation of the program at schools. two of the most repeated responses gathered from the interviews with teachers were the increased teaching load and the lack of scheduled school times for planning with team teachers and language assistants. other challenges included a perceived loss of content rigor due to language limitations, and a wide range of linguistic and general academic ability in students. ten best practices based on the analysis of the data, a concept map outlining a variety of effective teaching practices in bilingual programs was developed by analyzing the data from each of the three data gathering tools (surveys, observations and interviews) for themes, key findings were extrapolated, and implications that would help facilitate future development of bilingual programs (yin, 2009). this resulted in a concept map entitled “ten best practices,” which included the following necessary criteria for effective teaching: (a) plan lessons to include both language and content objectives; (b) preview or activate analyzing bilingual teaching and learning gerena & ramírez no. 8 (january june 2014) no. 8 (january june 2014) 129 prior knowledge before teaching the main lesson; (c) use a variety of comprehensible input techniques in teaching such as visuals, realia, and hands-on interactive activities, and include demonstrations, modeling, and use of technology (smart boards, videos, power points, etc.); (d) pose higher order thinking questions and develop critical thinking skills, such as predicting, inferring, comparing and contrasting; (e) encourage student participation, both in small groups and with partners, and devise an abundance of active student engagement strategies; (f) develop students’ vocabulary levels, listening comprehension, and authentic speaking; (g) provide on going positive feedback and reinforcement with assessments used as a guide to student learning and future planning (h) make instruction student centered, with less teacher talk, and encourage teachers to facilitate learning by clarifying and scaffolding when needed; (i) include all four language modes, listening, speaking, reading and writing, evenly distributed in teaching; (j) establish ways to effectively use the linguistic and cultural knowledge of language assistants on a continual basis. conceptual framework taking this “ten best practices” concept map one step further, a “conceptual framework” was also formulated that outlined the necessary variables to develop and implement an effective bilingual program: (1) teacher and language assistant professional development, (2) implementation of the “ten best practices”, and (3) plan-do-check-act (pdca) cycle of constant reflection and change for improvement. professional development would provide support for teachers to enhance skills and strategies that would infuse and incorporate the “ten best practices” into future bilingual program development. this professional development could be delivered as in-person workshops or on-line modules, and would focus on methodology and strategies to encourage all of the “ten best practices”, and especially student interaction, higher order thinking skills and questioning, cooperative group work, hands-on and active learning, participatory and student centered instruction, and non-traditional materials and assessments. professional development could also be provided on how to effectively use language assistants in the classroom. language assistants would benefit from professional development that would delineate and demonstrate their roles and responsibilities. assistants could also receive basic training on effective teaching strategies and classroom management strategies. analyzing bilingual teaching and learning gerena & ramírez no. 8 (january june 2014) no. 8 (january june 2014) 130 the plan-do-check-act portion of the conceptual framework draws upon deming’s pdca cycle of continuous improvement (1986) and has been accepted in practice in the field of professional continual improvement and teacher professional development (kartikowati, 2013; knight, 2012). it encourages action, assessment, and infusion of new ideas and methodologies in order to improve a process or product. the four phases, as explained by brown and marshall (2008), can be described as “plan, do, check, act”. the pdca cycle can be of particular use in designing, developing and implementing future programs. conclusions this project was an attempt to investigate attitudes and perceptions towards bilingual education, and to extract key findings on effective pedagogy in bilingual schools in the comunidad de madrid (cam), where expansion of bilingual programs has been rapidly increasing. the research project focused on three populations involved in bilingual education: teachers, language assistants, and students. the research questions in this study explored the perceptions and beliefs of teachers, students, and language assistants toward bilingualism and bilingual program implementation, effective practices in bilingual classrooms, and how the gathered data could be used to promote bilingualism and future bilingual program development. data was collected throughout the study using various original tools. analysis of the data led to the creation of a concept map of effective practices and a conceptual framework to support effective bilingual program development and implementation. both the concept map and the conceptual framework can be used to inform future bilingual program planning, as well as assist teachers to provide students with a learning environment that will support student linguistic and content achievement. from this perspective, these results may be used to facilitate future development and consolidation of those bilingual programs that promote and support an educative model and approach based on efficiency and excellence for a future generation of learners and citizens. the positive findings expounded on in this study are fully in line with the long-life learning perspective and philosophy that the european commission has been encouraging across europe for the last few decades, which supports the concept of multilingualism, or the ability to communicate in at least two foreign languages plus their mother tongue. in this context, the spanish ministry of education, along with the regional departments of education, such as catalonia (with analyzing bilingual teaching and learning gerena & ramírez no. 8 (january june 2014) no. 8 (january june 2014) 131 catalan, castilian, english and french as the main spoken languages), galicia (with galician, castilian and english) valencia (with valencian, castilian, and english or french) or the basque country (with basque, castilian, and english or french) have provided strong support for bilingualism and bilingual education. nevertheless, in order to address issues of teacher education and professional development needs, as identified as a result of this study, and to operationalize the conceptual framework, a bilingual teacher and language assistant professional development program based on the ten effective practices, and incorporating the pdca model, will be submitted to the department of education at the comunidad de madrid (cam). it is hoped that it will be implemented as part of an on going professional development program in the comunidad de madrid, one that would positively impact teacher and program effectiveness. this fulbright senior scholar research agenda and results provide an opportunity to support bilingualism, to encourage international collaboration, and to engender powerful partnerships for future bilingual program development. it is hoped that the results of 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(2009). case study research: design and methods. fourth edition. thousand oaks, ca: sage. authors *linda gerena is an associate professor of teacher education at york college, cuny and a fulbright senior scholar. dr. gerena received her ph.d. in educational policy/bilingual education from san diego state university. her professional research interests include bilingualism, second language acquisition, effective practices in second language instruction, dual immersion program development, and clil teacher preparation. she is dedicated to preparing highly qualified teachers who will provide effective instruction for linguistically and culturally diverse populations. in 2011, dr. gerena was awarded the prestigious fulbright senior scholar researcher award, and she was invited to the autónoma university of madrid in 2012 as a guest professor and researcher. as a fulbright senior scholar and visiting professor at the autónoma, dr. gerena guest lectured on second language acquisition theory and practice. in addition, as a senior fulbright researcher, dr. gerena conducted research on bilingual program development in spain, and focused on bilingual program implementation in madrid’s public school. dr. gerena has also developed and implemented bilingual teacher professional development training seminars for bilingual teachers in spain, most recently in extremadura and castilla-la mancha. her background and research can be viewed at: https://www.york.cuny.edu/portal_college/lgerena analyzing bilingual teaching and learning gerena & ramírez no. 8 (january june 2014) no. 8 (january june 2014) 136 *m. dolores ramírez-verdugo is an associate professor of english teacher education, faculty of teacher training and education, uam. her research involves two main areas of interest. the first one includes technology-enhanced language learning; second and foreign language acquisition, bilingual education and clil. her second area of interest comprises english-spanish speech, intonation pragmatic and discourse analysis in corpus linguistics. her phd thesis was awarded with the first national prize in educational research by the ministry of education. dr. ramírez-verdugo has participated and coordinated local and international research projects and has been awarded with the european commission of education and culture funded project: european clil resource centre for web2.0 education: earlyto-long-life languages learning. she coordinates ®uamtell research group (technology enhanced language, content and culture learning in multilingual settings) and has been a visiting professor at cambridge university research centre for english and applied linguistics, cambridge university, uk; umea university department of language studies, sweden; and city university of new york, us. analyzing bilingual teaching and learning no. 8 (january june 2014) no. 8 (january june 2014) gist2014finalfinal.indd 7 editorial josephine taylor* with this issue, gist education and learning research journal moves to a bi-annual publication schedule, printing in both june and november. this is wonderful news for gist, as it carries the possibility of reaching more readers and involving more scholars and researchers worldwide. the new schedule offers more flexibility to potential authors, and allows our editorial committee to work more closely with researchers without the difficult challenge of accommodating articles to only one publication calendar per year. the first issue of this year represents important progress for our journal, as we share original research studies from america, asia and africa. though the articles come from around the globe, they echo common themes and concerns of teachers today. particularly prevalent is the need to investigate effective teaching practices, especially to enhance specific language skills. several articles describe structured and documented interventions in the teaching of listening, speaking, reading, writing and pronunciation. media is again featured as a strong supporting element in language teaching, with a number of studies combining the interest in language skills with technology-enhanced learning, the use of video, and the role of art in second language development. another theme that runs current in gist’s publication agenda are policies and practices in bilingual contexts. our first issue this year presents several discussions of issues related to teaching, policy and training in several contexts of bilingual education. these studies are highly relevant in colombia, where the bilingual education agenda continues to gain acceptance and hegemony, even in the absence of a strong research basis for policy or practice at the local level. gist continues its dedication to the dissemination of inquiry in this area, as a contribution to the need for pertinent studies to inform current practice. gist’s first publication from nigerian scholars treats the effectiveness of computer-assisted pronunciation teaching on senior secondary students’ speaking skills. amosa isiaka gambari, kutigi, amina usman and patricia o. fagbemi present an original computerbased pronunciation program as an aid to developing oral english skills, and document its use and effectiveness with senior secondary no. 8 (january june 2014) no. 8 (january june 2014) 8 students. this article is of interest to a wide range of readers, as it is often difficult to locate both engaging and effective ways of treating the issue of pronunciation. abdullah sarani, esmail zare-behtash and saieed moslemi nezhad’s study on the effect of video-based tasks on listening comprehension continues to provide support for media-enhanced teaching. the clear role of visual information is substantiated by the use of a control and experimental group in which one group received listening instruction with the aided tool of video while the control group received the same content in listening lessons that used only audio. this article is one of two from iran in this issue. while it is important to examine the usefulness and effectiveness of media-enhanced teaching methods, it is also quite valuable to explore learners’ perceptions of these tools. astrid wilches documents learners’ perceptions of the benefits of voice tool-based tasks on speaking in a language institute setting. not only do students point out benefits of the tools in terms of their language performance. it also appears that using asynchronic voice recording and messaging tools provides learners with comfortable spaces where both anxiety and the affective filter are lowered, enabling them to work in a more focused and relaxed manner on their speaking. throughout these pieces, we can observe the strong accompanying role of media and technology in the learning process, and how they may support language development specifically. our journal also features two studies on the teaching of reading to children. amanda carolina valbuena reports how a visual tool, the tucker signing program, aids children in the development of phonemic awareness, a key element in reading instruction. in a related study, catalina norato cerón explores how children’s participation in a voluntary “reading corner” can help learners’ overall foreign language development. the last in our series of research studies on specific language skills, and our second article from the iranian context, sasan baleghizadeh and tahareh hajizadeh examine the relationship between selfand teacherassessment of writing. it is noteworthy to observe in this study that students were actually able to achieve almost the same assessments of their own writing as the teacher. this speaks to the strong basis for learner autonomy and the effect of learner training in a particularly sensitive area: assessment. as mentioned previously, the move towards bilingual and immersion contexts is gaining an ever stronger foothold in many countries, as english continues to be seen as the definitive second language in these settings. the wide range of practices, as well as the no. 8 (january june 2014) no. 8 (january june 2014) 9 gap between official policy and educational realities attest to the need for an ever-growing body of research in these settings. gist is pleased to be able to continue in its mission of presenting original research on the issue of bilingual and immersion education in these settings. in this issue, linda gerena and dolores ramírez-verdugo present an analysis of bilingual teaching and learning practices in madrid, spain. this study is also the result of a fulbright scholar collaborative research project. the bilingual experience is further explored in mary a. petrón and barbara greybeck’s ethnographic study of the transnational experience of english-speaking transnationals in mexico. this study brings to light the complex reality of language use in border regions, particularly in the context of english as a foreign language classrooms. finally, related to the issue of training in bilingual education contexts, sandra liliana rojas molina offers a reflection on the place of the teaching of linguistics and applied linguistics in bilingual teacher training programs. this reflection is valuable for any university professor or teacher trainer working with pre-service language teachers. rounding out the section of the journal devoted to bilingualism in different settings, mayra c. daniel and mary huizenga-mccoy offer a literature review exploring the variety of ways in which art instruction can enhance second language learning as well as provide a strong support for the development of bilingualism and biculturalism. it is our hope that our new publication schedule, along with the original and pertinent studies published in this issue are of interest and value to our readers and network of supporters. editor *josephine taylor received her ba in english and french from emory university and her ms in the teaching of english as second language from georgia state university, both in atlanta, georgia. she has been a teacher of english language and linguistics for more than 25 years, as well as administrator, curriculum designer, and external reviewer of language education programs in the u.s. and colombia. she has also worked extensively in english language publishing, as author, course developer and editor. josephine is currently the new editor of gist education and learning research journal and adjunct professor in the undergraduate and graduate bilingual teaching programs at the institución universitaria colombo americana, única. no. 8 (january june 2014) no. 8 (january june 2014) gist1-2007.indd 98 on the nature of applied linguistics: theory and practice relationships from a critical perspective william sánchez abstract this article explores the relationships between applied linguistics and other related disciplines concerning language use and language teaching issues. it seeks to trace the changes in the view of the relationship between theory and practice in applied linguistics, to explain the reason for those changes, and to discuss the implications for language teaching. some general assumptions that serve as a context for this are presented. it also shows possible forms of interaction between basic and applied science (linguistics in this case) and practical activities, and presents some implications to teacher education and the way these visions have permeated language education and foreign language teaching practices. resumen en este artículo se exploran las relaciones que se dan entre la lingüística aplicada y otras disciplinas relacionadas en cuanto el uso y enseñanza de la lengua se refiere. en éste, se busca identificar los cambios de perspectiva de la relación entre la teoría y la práctica en la lingüística aplicada, explicar las razones de dichos cambios y discutir las implicaciones en la enseñanza de lenguas. para esto, se presentan unas premisas generales que sirven de punto de referencia y le dan un contexto a la discusión. el artículo también muestra algunas posibles formas de interacción entre las ciencias básicas y aplicadas (en este caso la lingüística) y las actividades prácticas. también presenta algunas implicaciones 99 en la formación de docentes y la forma cómo estos enfoques han permeado la formación en lenguas y las practicas docentes en lenguas extranjeras. key words: applied linguistics, language teaching and learning, theory, practice, critical perspective. palabras clave: lingüística aplicada, enseñanza y apredizaje de lenguas, teoría, práctica, perspectiva crítica. introduction no matter how theorists have differed regarding the scope and coverage of applied linguistics, it has been seen as a way of relating basic disciplines with practical language use concerns. foreign language teaching is considered one of its typical domains. mccarthy (2001), in the foreword of his book, defined applied linguistics as the “relationship between knowledge, theory and practice in the field of language”. but a question that arises is “what kind of relationships we are dealing with?”. for a long time, teachers, as well as others professionals, have turned to language science, psychology, sociology and education theories to seek insight for possible solutions to some language teaching and learning problems. among other tendencies in education, in general, and in language pedagogy in particular, critical approaches have been attempting to bridge the gap between theory and practice. one of the great new challenges for teachers, researchers and theorists in the language field is not only to discover other ways of creating interaction between knowledge and practice, but most important, how they can transform each other. in this essay, from a critical approach, i wish to trace the changes in the view of the relationship between theory and practice in applied linguistics, to explain the reason for those changes, and to discuss the implications for language teaching. my interest in this subject derives from my direct contact with these three areas in colombian higher education, as a teacher and also as a student, and my great affinity with critical approaches. to achieve this general aim, i will first present a set of general assumptions that will serve as a context and reference point for the dialogue for which i want to establish a critical approach. second, i will show four forms of interaction between basic, applied and practice. third, i will present some implications to teacher education and the way these visions have permeated language education and foreign language teaching practices. 1. toward a critical approach: some assumptions william sánchez 100 on the nature of applied linguistics this is not the place, for reasons of space, and especially for the criteria of pertinence, to explain what critical approaches are, where they come from, the way they have evolved, their tendencies and strands, and how exactly they differ from traditional approaches. it is important, however, to state a set of basic ontological and epistemological assumptions1 because this set constitutes at the same time an essential requirement and a framework for my own reflection. according to pennycook (2001:5) there are different ways of being critical. from his perspective, being critical implies a set of characteristics: praxis, as a way of continuous reflexive integration of thought and action; a problematic stance, drawing connections between macro and micro relations, seeing them as a problematic matter, understanding their historic evolution; looking for a possible change; self reflexivity (“raising a host of new and difficult questions about knowledge, politics and ethics” (2001: 8) offering a vision of “what is preferable (2001:8), and “heterosis” or new and different ways of doing politics. in my opinion, whatever the meaning of “critical” could be, it would not be reduced to academic traditions and schools of thought. “critical” does not mean a simple theoretical stance or, even less so, a simple intellectual posture. critical would mean true commitments and personal involvement with transformations. i would add that besides true commitments, personal involvements, wisdom, understanding, action and reflection are requisites sine qua non for a real transformation. as in the 19th century, karl marx stated that the aim of philosophers must be the transformation of the world and not a simple understanding of it2 . wisdom is a mix of human 1 there does not seem to be agreement about the meaning of the word critical as a set of general principles or guidelines to be followed. hence, the need arises to state, at least in general terms, the way i understand some terms and concepts, and especially a particular way of viewing some relationships. even though i honestly can say that they are my “own” visions, i.e. my ideals, in the sense of a set of principles that i have incorporated in my life, my action and my discourse for a long time. in each case, when appropriate, i will mention the source of some terms and concepts. 2 but what kind of transformation did marx refer to? today, almost a century and a half later, after very few erratic attempts, and no less false and over promoted disappointments, all of us, committed with one possibility of change, have failed to achieve that goal. this is true, especially if we compare the scientific and technological developments with the real transformation, not only of the social, economic and political realities, but over all with the real improvements of the material and spiritual condition of most humans. inequality and discrimination are not only the consequences of so-called development and modernization. they are the result of capitalist society. 101 instinct, intuition, common sense, inquisitive thought, knowledge and imagination. knowledge and reality (natural and social and human) do not map each other, in a one-to-one correspondence. social and human phenomena, as well as natural ones, are systems or complex structures3 . given their complex nature, social, natural and human realities can, and should, be seen from different and complementary perspectives. no one perspective, discipline, model, theory or approach is able to account for social reality as a whole4 . social and human realities cannot be reduced to either general or particular principles. this does not mean that the former (social and human systems) lack the latter (principles). the uniqueness of social systems and human beings would consist of a perfect combination, a synthesis, of general and particular characteristics. hence, we human beings could understand part of our difficulties, as social actors, to grasp them. descriptions, explanations, comprehension, and understanding of phenomena are attempts to approximate to reality. they all are partial and incomplete products of human knowledge seen from our experiences in our context and our position in the world. human knowledge is a dialectical process that involves a certain level of abstraction, much intuition, creativity and imagination, as well as logical inference (induction, deduction) and a permanent contrast with reality5 . it is neither a mechanical reflection of the natural, social and human world, nor is it a linear process. a holistic view6 of social and human reality is a process in permanent construction, a double way spiral. each process and its corresponding product are a means and not an end in itself. they complement each other in heuristically: analysis and synthesis processes; bottom-up, top-down, micro and macro, general and particular perspectives; simple and complex; inner and outer; patent and latent realities. therefore, a holistic view is a permanent task and william sánchez 3 “complex” is understood here in the sense given by the oxford advanced learners dictionary (2000: 247) “of made of different things or parts that are connected”. oxford university press (2000), sixth edition. cohen et al 4 zuleta (1990) points out that, even against our wishes, absolute theories to account for reality do not exist. see zuleta estanisalo (1990) sobre la idealizacion en la vida personal y colectiva. bogota, tercer mundo editores 5 the dialectic character of knowledge and a model for language production is presented in pardo and ramirez (1980) “lecciones de linguistica general y linguistica española” in revista colombiana de linguistica, vol. 1 num.1. 6 capra (1996) invites us to reflect on holistic approaches following the example given by what he calls the new physics. capra fritjot (1996) el punto crucial: ciencia sociedad y cultura naciente. buenos aires, estaciones. in selliger and shohamy’s book, second language research methods (1989) an opposition between holistic and analytic approaches to research is established. 102 a challenge for all involved in research, theory and practice. and a very definite characteristic of human knowledge is that it is socially constructed7 and that all people involved can contribute to it with their viewpoint from their own experience. it means that everybody has a role and a differentiated responsibility in the construction of a holistic view of the world. and all knowledge, even the most sophisticated, is subject to questioning and critics8 . it is in this frame that i believe a fruitful dialogue could be established between theorists, practitioners and applied linguists in language education. 2. applied linguistics and language teaching: kinds of relationships different terms have been used to refer to the idea of being “applied” as well as different perspectives regarding its relationship to theory and practice. stern (1992: 8 and 9) uses the terms “buffer,” “intermediary.” and “interlevel” to refer to the role of applied linguistics. mcdonough (2002: 17) uses the terms “middle ground” and “mediating position” and “mediator.” on one hand, i question whether it is just a semantic distinction, or whether it reflects any kind of ontological or epistemological assumption or stance. on the other hand, i wonder about the meaning of each of these words and their connotations. does the meaning of the terms have any incidence in the way of seeing theory and research interaction and the role given to each other in the interaction? mccarthy (2001:4) wonders about the kind of relationships between linguistics and applied linguistics. he establishes a dichotomy between hierarchy and partnership. mcdonough (2002:23) explores the relationship between theory and practice and points out that such relationships have “worried many workers in all areas of research, scholarship, teaching, and testing”. this author, (2002:103-105) sees four kinds of relationships between applied linguistics and the teaching profession: co-existence, complementariness, compatibility and collaboration. in order to trace the way in which the relationships between theory and practice have been considered in applied linguistics, i have composed 7 according to grundy (1987) habermas invites us to discuss based on the logic of the best argument and recognizing the validity of our interlocutor. 8 chouliaraki and fairclough (1999) claim for a differentiation between accepting the existence of different points of view (epistemic relativism), and their corresponding discourses does not entail recognising the same level of validity or value for all of them (judgmental relativism). (page 8). on the nature of applied linguistics 103 table 1. it is based on the general model that stern (1983:44) presents as a conceptual framework for second language teaching. there, it is possible to identify three aspects (theory, application and practice), social actors and their ‘roles’, i.e. theorists (theoreticians), applied linguists (mediators) and teachers (practitioners). also, i have separated the right column to show a set of possible relationships, represented by arrows. (b), (a), and (p) stand for basic, applied and practice, respectively. according to my guiding framework, the use of the ‘basic’ instead of ‘theory’ will allow us to think of the possibility that theory, as one way of knowledge, can be generated in each level and to question some assumptions, which would be an exclusive responsibility of theoreticians. reading stern (1992:8), various stages can be traced in the history of language teaching and the different factors that have influenced its development. a first stage in the relationship between theory and practice can be subdivided into three different periods. in the first period, language teaching was directly influenced by phonetics (from 1880 until world war i). a second period (1928 –1940) relates with the growth of educational psychology and research in education (stern, 1992:8). a third period, (1940-1965) according to stern, is “characterized by the increasing influence of linguistics on language teaching.” what do these three moments have in common from my perspective of analysis? they are characterized by a unidirectional and hierarchical relationship and a lack of mediation. we can represent this relationship as (b) à (p). the william sánchez aspects stern’s model campbell’s model 1 social actors/ roles relationships practice methodology pedagogy teachers objectives students practical content research teachers activities (p) procedures materials evaluation organization planning and administration…. practitioner level 3 interlevel context applied linguistics applied linguists language and applied teaching researchers sciences (a) learning educational linguistics theory and mediator research level 2 foundations history of language linguistics teaching and (???) basic linguistics sciences (b) sociology … level 1 theoretician table 1. aspects, models, actors/roles, relationships in applied linguistics to language teaching 104 problems arise on the practice level. but it is on the basic level where the questions are posed, and the solutions given in terms of techniques and methods to be followed by practitioners. i support the lack of an interlevel in the following quote by stern (1992): “just as there was a constant shift from one teaching method to another, the languagerelated sciences seemed to necessitate periodic changes from one underlying discipline to another or from one theory to a newer and better theory. it was in response to this concern that educational or applied linguistics evolved in the early 1960s as a buffer between linguistics and language teaching” (page 8) (my italics) a second phase is characterized by a monodisciplinary, unidirectional and hierarchical relationship, which has its starting point on the basic disciplinary or fundamental level; there, theorists developed theoretical knowledge. this knowledge constitutes the basis on the intermediate level where applied scientists mediate it in designing methods, techniques and materials. these materials, along with directions, are given for implementation on the practice level. it could be considered as a way of preventing problems when theoretical principles go straight from the basic level to the practitioners without any filter, and with disappointing results. practitioners are trained and they put models and approaches into practice. it seems to have been the mainstream vision in the case of applied linguistics for a long time. the first model proposed by the u.s. linguist campbell in 1980, by stern (1983:36) is a sample of that stage. the view of campbell (1980), according to stern (1983: 36), is that the mediator between the practitioner and the theorist is applied linguistics. summing up we can represent it as follows: (b) à (a)à (p). this unidirectional and hierarchical vision between applied linguists, linguists and language teachers could be traced in corder’s thought (1973). according to byram (2000:33), corder’s view is explicitly set out in his book, introducing applied linguistics, a classic text. in this school of thought, a division of work is made and even the applied linguist is considered a consumer or user, and not a producer of theory. corder believed that there was a clear hierarchy of responsibility between three groups of people. linguists produced descriptions of languages. the immediate consumer of these descriptions was the applied linguist, whose job was to mediate the work of the linguist, by producing pedagogical grammars. these pedagogical on the nature of applied linguistics 105 grammars were turned into textbooks and teaching materials, and eventually reached the teachers, whose job it was to actually teach the language. a third phase is represented by the model of stern (1983: 44). in this conception three important differences can be recognized. one, a multi disciplinary fundamental level, where other disciplines serve along linguistics as basic sciences: history of language teaching, sociology, sociolinguistics and anthropology, psychology and psycholinguistics, and educational theory. two, a two-way relationship exists between each of the levels, i.e. a basic level and an applied one, as well as between an applied level and a practical one. both, theoreticians and applied linguists can produce theory, although this work is differentiated according to the nature of the two levels. practitioners, on the most concrete level, continue to be users. this model is theory driven, and above all, the interlevel’s role is to mediate (act as a buffer) between theory and practice, but not prescriptively, as in the previous stages. summing up, we can represent it as follows: (b+c+d+e+f) (a) (p). the hierarchical relationship in this model is only partly broken. first, in stern’s view (1992), a kind of knowledge about language pedagogy derived from an objective, systematic, general and comprehensive vision of reality would be the fundamental element to define the parameters for teaching choices and practices, and to guide teachers to success. second, it involves the way teaching practitioners and their questions are represented. the book is addressed to second or foreign language teachers in general [languages and contexts and levels of education] (page 1) (a) teachers must be able to analyze and interpret the situation in which they teach and (b) they must be to able to plan, develop a policy, and make decisions in the interest of their students and their program, so that the new language is learned as effectively as possible. (page 1). …our purpose is to provide the necessary background knowledge to analyze particular language teaching situations, and to help readers develop the skills needed to ensure that their conceptualisation of language teaching is systematic, coherent and relevant. william sánchez 106 with these goals in mind, we will examine language pedagogy as objectively, comprehensively as systematically as possible. (page 2) this book analyzes current issues in language teaching practice; defines the parameters within the practitioners have to make choices. (my emphasis) one the most interesting aspects in stern’s discourse (1992) is the way in which the practitioner is represented. in the introduction of his book, in stern’s view teachers need ‘parameters’ to act. they ‘don’t fancy themselves as great theoreticians.’ they ‘tend to believe in intuitive and practical approaches.’ they ask for ‘recipes.’ they are ‘quite negative about anything described as theoretical’ and ‘often look askance at ivory tower research.’ also, they don’t seem to be aware that ‘being practical does not mean being thoughtless.’ i wonder if such an image of teachers would explain the need for training them, and if such interlocutors would be considered able to develop their own knowledge and to participate in a real dialogue with theorists and applied linguists. knowledge would be the instrument of power. would teachers be, in this image, empty recipients while those able to produce it in the more abstract levels deliver knowledge? i will return to this point in the analysis and the interpretation of the changes. a fourth stage, in my perspective, would be represented by a triangular relationship between theory, application and practice. it is borrowed from selliger and shohamy (1989). they define these three types of research to carry out in the second language area. diagram 1 is based on their proposal. on the nature of applied linguistics practice aplied basic diagram 1. triangle relationships 107 in my opinion, the hierarchical relationship could be completely broken, as well as the dependence relationships. each actor would have a high level of autonomy. here, differing radically from the previous stage, everyone involved, theorists, applied linguists and mainly teachers, research-teachers and teacherresearchers would have the opportunity to test theories and principles, to question them and to discover new factors and relationships, and to formulate their own hypotheses. the mediation process remains, but it is not the exclusive role of any of the participants. practitioners, applied linguists and theorists can pose their own questions, decide where to ask or answer them: in the basic sciences, in the applied linguistics or even the possibility of developing knowledge based on reflection and action processes. up to now, in the field of language studies the autonomy of basic disciplines has been guaranteed. mcdonough (2002:11) defines applied linguistics as an autonomous problem-solving discipline, with a similar status to linguistics and the other basic disciplines. but what can be said about the status of language teaching and the practitioners? everybody seems to agree that the problems applied linguistics is concerned with are real problems, of the real world, arising in practice. however, so far, it would seem to be that the questions posed and the answers given have been those ones of the theorists and the mediators and not those of the practitioners. this can be reflected in the claim of mcdonough (2002:12) that only until relatively recently, challenging questions (what to teach, how to introduce vocabulary, why students make such type of errors etc.) have had the chance to be posed and answered by teachers. in his view, bottom-up and grassroots questions posed by teachers have found expression in the activities of teachers doing research themselves.” besides, this author points out that despite the fact that these questions have been features of applied linguistics, they have been, to a certain degree, “underrated” ( 2002:12). this last stage could be characterized as a reaction against the theory– driven model. as well it would seem to be originating a reaction in two different strands in applied linguistics in terms of the relationship of theory and practice. one of these strands, represented by mccarthy (2001:4), maintains that applied linguistics is “essentially a problem-driven discipline rather than a theory-driven one.” mccarthy broadens his stance in the following terms: william sánchez 108 applied linguistics can (and should) not only test the applicability and replicability of linguistic theory and description, but also question and challenge them where they are found wanting. in other words, if the relationship between linguistics and its applications is to be a fruitful partnership and neither a top-down imposition by theorists on practitioners […] nor a bottom-up cynicism levelled by practitioners against theoreticians, then both sides of the linguistics/applied linguistics relationship ought to be accountable to and in regular dialogue with each other with regard to theories as well as practices [ …]. (page 4). (my emphasis) but, what does mccarthy refer to with the phase ‘bottom-up cynicism levelled by practitioners against theoreticians’? in my opinion it relates with an epistemological aspect of the discipline, the forms of constructing knowledge, the nature of inquiry, and the aims and the alternative methodological strategies. applied linguistics, as an autonomous discipline, is concerned with different research methodologies in order to solve the problems and the questions posed. according to mcdonough (2002), despite the existence of many traditions in applied linguists, two approaches can be distinguished, and these approaches complement, and balance each other. the first, and perhaps the older one, is the pursuit of the interpretation and explanation, bringing to bear the theory, methods and research results of other disciplines on the problems that present themselves; and the other is the collection of the results of direct research on the problems and the subsequent construction of theories around them. (p. 13) in section three of this paper i will return to the research matters. i think that by tracing them, it is possible to explain, in part, the changes given in the conception of the relationships in the four phases described herein. the other strand is reflected in the critical stance assumed by critical applied linguistics. pennycook (2001:3), in the introduction of his book, referring to the critical applied linguistic concerns, and specifically the need to address the distinction between theory and practice, points out that he prefers to see theory and practice “as more complexly interwoven” and “to avoid the theoryintopractice direction.” this vision could be represented with this spiral form or a permanent cyclical process. on the nature of applied linguistics 109 3. some possible reasons for explaining the changes and their implications for language teaching the term ‘explanation’ is very hard to use in social sciences. concerning human beings and social realities, the act itself of explaining becomes more difficult. even more complicated is the case of human changes. we human beings seem to perceive and interpret the external factors of the objective world as well as ourselves through a complex system in which our schemes of thought and subjective condition interact. so the diversity and complexity of ways we human beings perceive, act, think, feel, behave and express ourselves. oversimplifying the set of assumptions established in section one of this paper, i will attempt to offer some reasons for those changes viewing the relationships described in the previous section. one way to explore the changes in viewing the relationships between theory, application and practice in the field of applied linguistics could be by tracing the way forms of thinking have evolved within the discipline itself. this would be called an immanent change. another possibility is trying to relate it with external pressures that have modified certain traditions in the disciplines. a third possibility, related with the second one, is to see the changes that have occurred in a related field. i choose this last alternative. the reason to choose this alternative might sound simplistic. knowledge, as stated previously in this paper, is a product of human beings. so we are not alone. we are part of social structures, and we participate in social events and interact with others in diverse forms. mcdonough (2002:7) states that the expansion of applied linguistics is due to four main reasons: “the rise of the language teaching industry”; “the explosion of research in second language learning and acquisition motivated by some of the same factors and by theoretical interest”; “the incorporation of more and different areas of research with relevance to language over the years; and the ever-changing array of language problems in our societies.” i believe, in part, that in those reasons for the change is the way of seeing the relationships between theorists, practitioners and applied linguists. basically, i aim to explain these changes and the implications for language teaching based on the theory of three cognitive interests proposed by habermas for the human sciences. grundy (1987) mapped habermas’s theory in her study of curriculum, in the general context of education. education, linguistics and applied linguistics are framed within the social sciences area. i frame language teaching in the general context of education. micro and macro relationships can be seen here. william sánchez 110 grundy’s work (1987) about curriculum is based on habermas about knowledge and interest relationships in social sciences. schematically speaking, habermas (1972), in cohen et al (2002: 29), conceptualises that knowledge serves different interests, and those interests are socially constructed. habermas identifies three kinds of interest: technical, practical and emancipatory. depending on our cognitive interest, our aims and our forms of constructing knowledge vary. based on the terminology used in the table, it is difficult to understand why the first second and third moment of applied linguistics and education could be associated with technical interest. however, it is important to remember that the most influential discipline in applied linguistics has been linguistics. linguistic structuralism, both empiricism and cognitive strands, claims for scientific objective description of language realities. generative grammar tries to discover the rules and principles that determine the properties of languages. tollefson (1995:1) claims that until recently, the socio-political and economic contexts had not been included in the preparation of most language education and esl teacher programs. as a result teachers and applied linguists could not establish links between educational practices and socio-political factors. in the preface of his book (p. ix) the author attributes a great responsibility in widening the gap between teachers, who are interested in pedagogy of language teaching and learning, and the researchers, who are interested in theories of language and society, to the development of applied linguistics as a distinct academic discipline. on the nature of applied linguistics cognitive aims epistemology curriculum applied linguistics interest language teaching technical prediction and positivism and scientific style controlled and controllable first, second and control success laws uniform and pre-determined third phase rules purposes theory driven prediction predictable purpose control oriented experiences passive research objects ordered instrumental experiences effectively knowledge organized quantitative outcome evaluation approaches practical understanding hermeneutic styles opening process fourth phase and interpretive methodologies diverse problem-driven interpretation qualitative approaches multidimensional strand acting subjects fluid interacting and language less monolithic power meanings and intentions problematic relational emancipatory emancipation ideology critical style social emancipation four phase and freedom praxis (action informed equity critical by reflection) democracy applied linguistics freedom interwoven individual and collective empowerment table 2. cognitive interests, epistemology, lt curriculum and al 111 in teaching practices we can associate with curriculum planned, organized and structured in advance, in general in a bureaucratic way and imposed in an institutional hierarchy (some design and make decisions and others implement). curriculum planning is unidirectional: beginning on a foundation level (where the philosophical and theoretical concepts are developed: conceptions about language, society, learning and teaching are stated); followed by the policy level (where all decisions are made in advance: objectives, content, experiences, strategies, timing, levels, resources, as well as the criteria, ways, mechanisms and moments of evaluating): ending in the implementation level. just at this point the process of evaluation starts. quasi-experimental validation is used and quantitative methods applied to validate curriculum proposals.9 teachers in general participate only on the implementation level. their participation is reduced and the criteria of effectiveness and efficacy are imposed. the evaluation is standardized and is carried out in general by an external agent. training is on the basis of their education and the updating process. technical rationality is imposed. innovation is reduced to implementation of techniques and strategies and the introduction of new resources. theory precedes action. practical rationality opposes instrumental rationality. practical interest is reflected here. an emergent model arises with the development of alternative forms to knowledge and research. we could associate this with the fourth stage in the relationship between theory and practice in applied linguistics to language teaching. hermeneutical procedures and a subjective logic substitute the objectivist one. small-scale projects are developed with personal involvement of the research teachers along with the people involved in the specific situation. the purpose is the understanding of the actions. based on the definitions of the situation, teachers and students attempt to interpret the specific context and assign meanings to their learning and teaching actions.10 research processes in the classroom could promote reflection of all participants. teachers’ actions are re-dimensioned, giving origin to new processes of awareness. action research projects promote 9 following this model, i have participated in the design of two curriculum proposals for two foreign language teacher-training programs. 10 i have participated in two projects of this nature. one about evaluation in the primary schools and another in higher education, related to the pedagogy of research with undergraduate students. william sánchez 112 student participation. the climate and the relationships between the participants improve motivation. action research projects permit teachers to carry out contextualized processes of observation, reflection, action and evaluation in a different number of cycles. any phase of the cycle could be the starting point. theory is taken here just as point of reference and can succeed or precede the practice in any stages of the cycle. inductive processes could be taking place and new interpretations and meanings can arise. if possible, the participation of an external observer is important. the triangulation of information could contribute to a better interpretation of the experiences. the emancipatory interest is associated with freedom and critical styles and approaches. the concept of ideology as well as action and reflection are central here. teachers, students and those involved in the process concerning equality and democracy. understanding and interpreting are considered previous phases to transformation of the reality. individual and collective empowerment and emancipation are promoted. many conflicts can arise in these kinds of projects. the opening of the process, the lack of outcomes defined in advance, the diversity of interests as well as the multidimensionality of aims can have negative effects on the participants: many of them feel they are wasting time because the process has more value than the results. some teachers miss their capacities and possibilities of power and control over others. the general tendency is an attempt to go backward, retake control and power. tradition exerts great pressure on the participants, especially in those contexts that reject the possibility of change. it is not a linear process: one step forward could be accompanied with two steps back. 4. conclusion i traced four stages in the way of viewing the relationships between theory and practice in applied linguistics. the predominant vision can be associated with the technical interest. one new vision is emerging with two strands. this vision can be related with the practical and emancipatory interests. the most important consequence of this change of vision is that practice achieves its autonomy. this permits new relationships between the three levels. disciplines evolve. paradigmatic changes bring with them a shift in ontological and epistemological assumptions. changes in one discipline could be mapped on others. changes dealing with a specific aspect (conceptual, methodological, philosophical) go hand-in-hand on the nature of applied linguistics 113 with a set of implications and consequences with different aspects. changes are reflected in the discourse and can be traced through it. explanation on the conceptual or theoretical level demands a theory on a higher level, meta conceptual and meta theoretical. sciences, their products and practices are social in nature. so, they must be socially contextualized. given the influence on language teaching today, it would be interesting to analyze the ways of seeing the relationship between theory and practice in the case of sociolinguistics and psycholinguistics. references byram, m. 2000. ed. routledge encyclopaedia of language teaching and learning. routledge. capra f. 1996. el punto crucial: ciencia, sociedad y cultura naciente. buenos aires, estaciones. [there exist an english version: the turning point: science, society and the rising culture. 1983. london fontana] chouliaraki l. and fairclough n. 1999. discourse in late modernity: rethinking critical discourse analysis. edinburgh, edinburgh university press. cohen l. et al. 2000. research methods in education. 5th edition. london, routledge falmer grundy s. 1987. curriculum: product or praxis. london, falmer press mccarthy m. 2001. issues in applied linguistics. cambridge, cambridge university pres mcdonough, s. 2002. applied linguistics in education. london, arnold. pardo f. y ramirez a. 1980. lecciones de linguistica general y linguistica española. in revista colombiana de lingüística. vol. 1 num 1. bogota pennycook a. 2001. critical applied linguistics: a critical introduction. mahwah, nj, lawrence erlbaum associates, publishers. seliger h. and shohamy e. 1989. second language research methods. oxford, oxford university press stern h.h. 1983. fundamental concepts of language teaching. oxford, oxford university press. stern h.h. 1992. issues and options in language teaching. edited by allen p and harley b. oxford, oxford university press. tollefson , j. 1995. power and inequality in language education. cambridge. cambridge university press zuleta e. 1990. sobre la idealizacion en la vida personal y colectiva. bogota, tercer mundo editores. william sánchez 114 william sánchez has worked for more than five years as a sociolinguistics teacher and as a general coordinator and tutor of research in applied linguistics in a foreign language teacher education undergraduate program; as a teacher in three language programs: spanish as a second language, and english (foreign language) and spanish (native language) for academic purposes (reading and writing) at pontificia universidad javeriana and universidad nacional de colombia in bogotá in a metatheoretical project in sociolinguistics. he has done research in an ethnographic research project in evaluation; and two action research projects related with undergraduate curricula: a pedagogical model for research education and a general proposal for a foreign language teaching curricula. e-mail: williams@javeriana.edu.co on the nature of applied linguistics gist1-2007.indd 90 action research and collaboration: a new perspective in social research and language education yamith josé fandiño the clever man will tell you what he knows; he may even try to explain it to you. the wise man encourages you to discover it for yourself, even though he knows it inside out. revans (1980), quoted in action research, principles and practice, mcniff, 1988, 52 biography abstract the disconnection between what counts as social research (sr) and what serves society’s needs and interests results in a way of theorizing which, while useful, does not integrate theory and practice; a form of social theory that is not embodied in real lives and does not help non-academic people understand their contexts and practices. this disconnection in sr demands a new epistemology, a new way of knowing and doing research that can meet the everyday needs of people living real-life situations. a dialectical paradigm, researching and knowing from experience through intellectual study, can enable people to 91 rethink social theory as a practical discipline oriented towards social renewal. within this perspective, action research (ar) can align social research and teaching to social needs because it creates a space for collaborative reflection about the mutual contrast and integration of many kinds of knowledge systems and the shared design of both the goals and the actions aimed at achieving them. social researchers and language educators could use ar and collaboration to develop legitimate knowledge, promote social change and solve problems, while creating a space for joint reflection and dynamic interaction in language classrooms. resumen la desconexión entre lo que se reconoce como investigación social y lo que le sirve a las necesidades y los intereses de la sociedad produce una manera de hacer teoría que, aunque útil, no lograr integrar teoría y práctica. dicha teoría social no está cimentada en la vida real y no ayuda a los no-académicos a entender sus contextos y prácticas diarios. tal desconexión le reclama a la investigación social una nueva epistemología, una manera nueva de conocer y hacer investigación que le permita dar respuesta las necesidades diarias de la gente en las situaciones reales de sus vidas. un paradigma dialéctico que consistiría en investigar y conocer la experiencia a través de trabajo intelectual podría hacer que los investigadores reconceptualicen la teoría social como un disciplina práctica orientada a la renovación social. dentro de esta perspectiva, la investigación acción puede alinear la investigación social y la enseñanza con las necesidades sociales, porque crea un espacio para la reflexión colaborativa sobre el contraste y la integración de distintas clases de sistemas sociales y el diseño compartido tanto de las metas como de las acciones encaminadas a lograrlas. los investigadores sociales y los profesores de lengua podrían utilizar la investigación social y la colaboración para desarrollar conocimiento legítimo, promover cambio social y resolver problemas a la vez que crean un espacio para la reflexión conjunta y la interacción dinámica en los salones de clase. key words: theory, research, propositional knowledge, dialectical knowledge, social research, action research, collaboration, language education. palabras clave: teoría, investigación, conocimiento proposicional, conocimiento dialéctico, investigación social, investigación acción, colaboración, educación en otra lengua. introduction among other objectives, one of the key missions of universities and academics is the production of high-quality research and the transmission of legitimate knowledge. however, the conventional way universities and academics have for understanding, and producing studies disconnects what counts as social research and knowledge and what serves society’s real interests. this disconnection results in a way of theorizing which, while useful, does not integrate theory and practice; a form of theory that is not embodied in real lives and does not help non-academic people understand their contexts and yamith josé fandiño 92 practices. it is important, then, to rethink the type of research society demands and the type of knowledge people really need. in brief, it is necessary to reconsider the relationship between what social scholars do and what ordinary people want and need. rethinking social research and knowledge in higher education contexts what has until recently been seen as legitimate scholarship in higher education contexts has been generated mainly by academics with a clear orientation to propositional knowledge. according to mcniff (2000), legitimate scholarship has largely taken the form of propositional knowledge, that is, facts and information about phenomena and experience generated by rigorously controlled experimentation, statistical analysis of observed variables and disinterested speculation. propositional forms position people as objects of study, excluding them as knowers; knowledge is seen as an abstract, objective, value-free artifact and research as the application of scientific methods. this dominant rational epistemology encourages social researchers to produce abstract theory, which often has little relevance to ordinary people’s lives in non-academic contexts. it is advisable, then, to use a new scholarship in higher education contexts, which demonstrates a new epistemology, a new way of doing research that could better meet the everyday needs of people in real-life situations. as mcniff states, the focus of scientific enquiry needs to shift from propositional forms of theory that deal with facts and information to dialectical forms of theory that can show how people themselves explain what they do in terms of their own values and intentions. in this new epistemology, people are positioned as active knowers who are responsible for coming to their own insights about the nature of their lives and acting on that knowledge. this new research paradigm entails ideas to make self-reflection and to work out action theories to explain how knowledge is experienced and produced in and through practice in everyday contexts. this reflective emphasis is near the worlds of real-life practice which are messy and unpredictable and which are separated from the sanitized world of abstract thinking. this dialectical perspective can enable scholars to rethink social theory as a practical discipline oriented towards social renewal rather than regard it as a static, conceptual “thing” separated from everyday people’s lives. action research and collaboration 93 social research through action research social research (sr) is meant to understand, enhance and promote social renewal, but this type of knowledge production has great limitations at the university level. according to greenwood and levin (2005), this limitation is due to two main factors. first, sr has a problematic elaboration. a great deal of sr is written in elaborate language that is unintelligible to the subjects of research and to those who want to and can benefit from the findings. second, knowledge conception and production at the university level is still very restricted. the traditional conception of knowledge tends to be grounded in its explicit forms and, consequently, most universities attempt to gain or retain control over knowledge products that are understood to be self-financing and to be good investments: sciences, engineering, parts of economics, and the applied fields of management, and law. thus, obscurity in language and traditional profit-oriented knowledge production limit and restrict the potential of sr to promote social renewal. how, then, could sr promote social renewal and, ultimately, connect the academy and society? greenwood and levin state that action research (ar) can be one way to align university research and teaching to extra-university needs because it deals with real-life problems in context and allows participation by non-university problem owners. because of its real-life contextualization and non-academic participation, ar creates mutual teaching and learning opportunities for university researchers and public participants. if managed skillfully, ar can respond positively to the connection between the public and academic environments in which universities and sr must operate. ar can connect sr, society’s needs, and social renewal mainly because, as greenwood and levin say, it creates a space for collaborative reflection, the contrast and integration of many kinds of knowledge systems, the linking of the general and the particular through action and analysis, and the collaborative design of both the goals and the actions aimed at achieving them. thus, ar is a collaborative arena for knowledge development in which the professional researcher’s knowledge is combined with the local knowledge of the stakeholders in defining the problem to de addressed. together, they design and implement the research that needs to be conducted to understand the problem, and they evaluate the adequacy of what was done. ar can, then, connect social knowledge and society’s needs collaboratively while developing valid knowledge and theory and promoting social change. yamith josé fandiño 94 action research and collaborative reflection central to the ar view of knowledge production is the notion that any research is a collaborative joint understanding of what the problem in focus is, an understanding in which both professionals and problem owners have a say in studying the issue the group will deal with. greenwood and levin also stress the cooperative nature of ar when they refer to it as co-generative inquiry built on professional researcher-stakeholder collaboration aimed to solve real-life problems in context. this collaboration is based on an interaction between local knowledge and professional knowledge, which creates mutual learning and teaching opportunities for researchers and participants and meets the needs for mediated communication and action. but, what exactly does collaboration mean? according to panitz (1996), collaboration is a philosophy of interaction and personal lifestyle where individuals are responsible for their actions, including learning about and respecting the abilities and contributions of their peers. it suggests a way of dealing with people, which respects and highlights individual group members’ abilities and contributions. there is a sharing of authority and acceptance of responsibility among group members for the group’s actions. collaboration ties into the social movement, asserting that group members should base both knowledge and authority of knowledge upon consensus building through cooperation. nunan (1992) states that this perspective brings together a number of disparate philosophical viewpoints and research traditions. these include humanistic education, experiential learning, systemic-functional linguistics, and psychologically motivated classroom-oriented research. wood and gray (1991) state that collaboration occurs when a group of autonomous stakeholders of a problem domain engage in an interactive process, using shared rules, norms, and structures, to act or decide on issues related to that domain. the domain is the issue or set of issues that stakeholders are interested in, such as local traffic congestion or a nation’s economic health. stakeholders may have shared or differing interests in a problem domain and these interests may change over time. some degree of autonomy is required, or else stakeholders “merge” rather than “collaborate.” rules for governing interactions must be implicitly or explicitly agreed upon. acting or deciding is needed to reach a common objective. action research and collaboration 95 social research, action research and collaboration in language education stephen kemmis (1993) states that the educational researchers’ task should involve taking concrete, explicit steps towards changing the theory, policy and practice of educational research, as well as participating in the work of changing educational theory, educational policy and educational practice more broadly. he claims that sr is always (in one way or another) connected to social action and social movement. he distinguishes the connection between sr and social life as intrinsic to research as an activity, not extrinsic, or instrumental, or as a question of the enlightenment of individuals who will later set about changing the world though these things may give clues to important aspects of a deep critical understanding and practice of action research. ar is always related to social action because, as kemmis asserts, it always understands itself as a concrete, practical expression of the aspiration to change the social (or educational) world for the better through the improvement of shared social practices, shared understandings of these social practices, and the shared situations in which these practices are carried out. action research, thus, offers ways in which educators can improve social life through research on the here and now, but also in relation to wider social structures and processes. nunan (1992) claims that in language education, teachers, learners, researchers, and curriculum specialists can collaborate for a number of reasons. they may wish to experiment with alternative ways of organizing teaching and learning; they may wish to create an environment in which everybody teaches and learns from one other equitably; they may simply be concerned with promoting a philosophy of cooperation rather than competition. however, rarely do language teachers use appropriate research methods, tools and techniques to account for the complex interplay between the social/interpersonal and cognitive/intrapersonal dimensions of language teaching, learning, and use from a collaborative perspective. ar can help language teachers, learners, and researchers make a collaborative reflection that leads to an improvement of understanding and experience in language classrooms. language education could definitely use ar to develop legitimate knowledge while promoting positive social change when conducting research in english language teaching classrooms. the obvious starting point would be the use of concrete problem situations in english language teaching classrooms and the development of research questions from yamith josé fandiño 96 a negotiated joint understanding among the teacher, the students and the researcher. starting here, the researcher, the teacher, and the students would accommodate each other and help build a necessary knowledge platform to work through the problem while transforming their own perspectives. this joint effort would bring the diverse bases of their knowledge and their distinctive social locations to bear on a problem collaboratively and to solve a real english teaching problem in context. as a result, ar could help language education research create a space for collaborative reflection and dynamic interaction, which could ultimately bring about social renewal. conclusion conducting research and furthering knowledge are two of the most challenging missions of academics and universities. the most notable challenge has to do with the fact that most theoretical findings do not necessarily help the lay public understand and/or improve their everyday lives, in part because the propositional paradigm of research that has been inherited is abstract, objective, and value-free. to complicate matters, obscurity in language and profit-oriented knowledge production can restrict the role of research and the type of knowledge generated in higher education contexts. the benefits of less propositional and more dialectical forms of theory for sr can be many and varied. most notably, the dialectical paradigm gives researchers and educators the opportunity to integrate theory and practice. this new form of theory is embodied in real lives and helps the non-academic population understand their contexts and practices. in this new epistemology, people are positioned as active knowers who are responsible for making self-reflective inquiries to work out action theories that explain how knowledge is experienced and produced in and through practice in real-life contexts. in such an epistemology, ar can not only align sr and knowledge to extra-university needs, but also create collaborative learning-teaching opportunities for academic and non-academic participants. central to the ar view of knowledge production is the concept that any research is a collaborative joint understanding in which collaboration is taken as a philosophy of interaction and personal lifestyle that respects and highlights individual group members’ abilities and contributions. in language education, teachers, learners, researchers, and curriculum specialists could collaborate through ar methods, tools and techniques action research and collaboration 97 to account for the social/interpersonal and cognitive/intrapersonal dimensions of language teaching, learning, and use. ar could help language educators and researchers develop valid knowledge, promote social change and solve classroom problems while creating a space for collaborative reflection in action. thus, a dialectical perspective can enable researchers and educators to rethink social research as a practical discipline oriented towards the social renewal of people’s real-life contexts and practices. references greenwood, d., and levin, m. 2005. reform of the social sciences and of universities through action research. in the sage handbook of qualitative research. 3rd ed. kemmis, s. 1993. action research and social movement: a challenge for policy research. in education policy analysis archives, vol. 1, no. 1. mcniff, j. 2000. action research in organizations. london: routledge. nunan, d. 1992. collaborative language learning and teaching. london: cup. patniz, t. 1996. collaborative versus cooperative learning: a comparison of the two concepts which will help us understand the underlying nature of interactive learning at http://home.capecod.net/~tpanitz/tedsarticles/ coopdefinition.htm. richards, j., and rodgers, t. 2000. approaches and methods in language teaching. london: cup. wallace, m. 1998. action research for language teachers. london: cup. wood, d. j., and gray, b.1991.toward a comprehensive theory of collaboration. journal of applied behavioral science, 27, 139-162. 139-49. yamith fandiño holds a degree in english philology from the national university. he is currently working as an english teacher and a tutoring coordinator at the centro colombo americano. he also worked with the english programs of unica and the tadeo university. he has taught efl to young and adult learners. he is presently pursuing his master’s degree in teaching at la salle university. his efl research focuses on the development of learning strategies for english students. he has been a presenter at various efl conferences and symposia. e-mail: yamithjose@gmail.com yamith josé fandiño gistseptiembre2010final.indd 12� vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) la preparación del maestro: una examinación de las voces de los capacitadores que enseñan en las escuelas normales de guatemala1 mayra c. daniel2* northern illinois university abstract this article presents the results of an investigation that documents the challenges that select teacher trainers from normal schools in guatemala face in their daily work. data analysis of focus groups conducted with these teacher trainers indicate that action is urgently needed if the educational system of guatemala is to adequately address the needs of its multilingual multicultural populations. results strongly suggest that problems are not only situated within schools but, in fact, extend to all of guatemalan society. keywords: teacher preparation in guatemala, teacher trainer, multilingualism, bilingualism, indigenous education resumen este artículo presenta los resultados de una investigación que documenta los desafíos que enfrentan en sus labores cotidianas los formadores de maestros de las escuelas normales de guatemala seleccionadas para este estudio. el análisis de información sobre los grupos de enfoque con estos capacitadores de maestros revela que urge actuar para que el sistema educativo de guatemala adecuadamente considere las necesidades de un pueblo de estudiantes multilingües y multiculturales. los resultados sugieren fuertemente que los problemas se extienden a la sociedad guatemalteca y que no están apenas ubicados en el ámbito de las escuelas. palabras claves: preparación del docente en guatemala, formador de maestros, bilingüismo, multilingüismo, educación del indígena 1 the preparation of the teacher: an examination of the voices of the instructors who teach in guatemala’s teachers’ colleges. this research was funded with a grant from the latino center at northern illinois university. received: january 18th, 2010 / accepted: july 23rd, 2010 2 correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to mayra c. daniel, department of literacy education, office ga147, northern illinois university, dekalb, il, 60115, usa. e-mail: mcdaniel@niu.edu gist education and learning research journal. issn 1692-5777, pp. 127-137 12� vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) este trabajo en guatemala comenzó en el año 2004 con la presentación de talleres a maestros que trabajan al nivel de la escuela primaria en la capital y en áreas rurales (daniel, 2009). los maestros indagaron sobre sus vidas profesionales y compartieron sus experiencias. esto facilitó la unión de los intereses de la investigadora: la preparación del maestro que enseña en un ambiente multilingüe y multicultural, y la investigación de cómo se le enseña al niño a leer y escribir en guatemala. esta investigación de la pedagogía de los docentes de guatemala se enfocó en ellos mismos y en cómo perciben que fueron preparados para su trabajo en las escuelas normales. compartieron sus prácticas, preparación, conocimientos, y angustias relacionadas con los obstáculos que experimentaban. en la primera fase de esta investigación, se administró una encuesta a 515 maestros (daniel, 2007). esta incluía preguntas de escala likert y preguntas abiertas. la segunda fase consistió en entrevistas con directores de escuelas, maestros de escuelas públicas, y maestros de puestos oficiales en el ministerio de educación (me) de guatemala. en la tercera fase de este proyecto, se condujeron ocho grupos de enfoque con maestros que enseñan estudiantes del kindergarten al octavo grado; cinco en áreas urbanas y tres en regiones rurales. este artículo se basa en la investigación que fue más allá de estas tres primeras fases. aquí el enfoque es los capacitadores que enseñan a los futuros maestros en los tres útimos años de la secundaria o, como se le llama en guatemala al currículo de las escuelas normales: el magisterio.3 en guatemala, las clases en estos grados constituyen el período equivalente a la secundaria para los estudiantes que declaran que van a seguir el currículo requerido para prepararse como maestro (friedland & kossack, 2004). esto resulta en que la mayor parte de los maestros guatemaltecos no completan un programa de preparación al nivel universitario ya que se identifican como normalistas cuando escogen el currículo del magisterio. aunque los estudiantes completan estos tres años de estudio en el magisterio y esto significa que al graduarse pueden ejercer la carrera de maestro, cuando terminan este currículo, solamente han estudiado pedagogía por una parte del último o sexto año (l. de palomo, comunicación personal, 30 de julio de 2008). el 29 de julio de 2008, el sr. vernor muñoz villalobos, relator especial sobre el derecho a la educación de las naciones unidas, durante su visita a guatemala, comentó en referencia a las escuelas normales que “la formación docente sigue siendo débil, las escuelas 3 referencias al magisterio en este artículo se refieren a los cuarto, quinto, y sexto años de los estudios secundarios. la preparación del maestro daniel 12� vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) la preparación del maestro daniel normales están debilitadas, y el sistema universitario ha sido víctima de la escasa inversión” (cereser, 2008). también criticó el racismo en el tratamiento del estudiante indígena en la escuela y el bajo presupuesto que la me dedica a las escuelas. este artículo documenta las dificultades que los capacitadores tienen que vencer día tras día en su trabajo, identifica los conocimientos que ellos perciben que no están a su alcance para aprender, y también demuestra que no se sienten preparados para enseñarles a los normalistas. preguntas del estudio la cuarta fase de este proyecto se enfocó en aquellos que podrían cambiar el mundo escolar en guatemala: los formadores de maestros.4 en ese viaje, antes de que comenzaran los talleres para los capacitadores, ellos participaron en pequeños grupos de enfoque. los formadores expresaron su frustración cuando mencionaron que no tenían respaldo de la me para cubrir todos los gastos relacionados con su trabajo. se quejaron de que no pueden costear los materiales que les gustaría darle a los estudiantes, pero que aún así, a veces compran lo que necesitan. con las dificultades que enfrentan, los formadores hacen lo que pueden. por ello es necesario detallar sus ideas y sus esperanzas de cómo mejorar el sistema educativo de guatemala. las preguntas que guiaron estas conversaciones con los formadores de seis escuelas normales de la ciudad de guatemala, la capital del país, fueron las siguientes: 1. ¿qué identifican los formadores como conocimientos que ellos necesitan saber y desean aprender? y, ¿qué revelan las respuestas a esta pregunta sobre la base de conocimientos de los maestros? 2. ¿qué factores identifican los formadores como barreras a su trabajo y cuáles son sus desafíos? 3. ¿en cuáles conocimientos deben basarse los talleres profesionales para los instructores de las escuelas normales de guatemala? metodología de 8 a 10 instructores que enseñaban cuarto, quinto, y sexto año de magisterio formaron cada grupo de enfoque. contestaron una encuesta informal de know, want, learned (kwl; ogle, 1986) antes de participar en ocho grupos de enfoque. luego asistieron a talleres profesionales y, al terminar, compartieron ideas sobre los temas que les hubieran gustado continuar examinando. las dos primeras áreas de la gráfica invitaban a los participantes a investigar dos temas relacionados con los conocimientos académicos de los formadores. se titularon: 4 en este artículo, se usa el término formador (y, a veces, instructor) como sinónimas de capacitador. 1�0 vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) “lo que sé bien” y “lo que encuentro familiar pero deseo investigar más profundamente.” la información obtenida en las primeras fases de este proyecto ayudó para decidir sobre los temas de los grupos de enfoque. los grupos ofrecieron un foro para que los participantes se sintieran libres para expresar sus ideas y no temieran ser identificados. en los grupos, los formadores expresaron sus ideas sobre los siguientes temas: 1. las barreras que enfrentan en su trabajo, 2. el nivel de preparación de los estudiantes que comienzan el cuarto año de magisterio, 3. la percepción de lo que es ser bilingüe, 4. la pedagogía que enseñan los formadores, 5. la educación del estudiante indígena. para fomentar la conversación de los grupos, los formadores trabajaron en parejas leyendo y reaccionando a ejemplos de comentarios previamente recolectados en ocho grupos de enfoque donde se había documentado detalles de conversaciones con maestros guatemaltecos que enseñan desde niveles del kindergarten al bachillerato. primero compartieron sus reacciones y opiniones con una pareja, y luego, con todos los asistentes del taller. esto se hizo para eliminar las barreras de lo que hubiese podido o no considerarse como un tema apropiado. era importante que los formadores supieran que la investigadora era de origen cubano, y que aunque había vivido muchos años en los estados unidos, intentaba evaluar lo que vería en guatemala a través de su corazón y ojos latinoamericanos. las palabras que fueron compartidas con los formadores fueron las siguientes: 1. el pupilo discapacitado es un problema porque no sé ni cómo evaluarlo ni cómo enseñarle. 2. le pido a mis estudiantes que lean la biblia porque no tenemos otros libros en mi escuela. 3. en el salón de clase es importante enseñarle al indígena que el español es la lengua de guatemala. 4. en mi escuela no tenemos casi libros. 5. ¡sería un sueño si mi escuela pudiera establecer una biblioteca! 6. como no tengo libros en mi clase sino los que compro o los que me da la me, y éstos son pocos, uso el periódico para enseñar. 7. mis estudiantes leen y releen los mismos libros porque no hay nada más que leer en mi escuela. no tenemos biblioteca. 8. redactar es copiar de libros. 9. redactar es enfocarse en el vocabulario. 10. redactar es escribir para que otra persona pueda entender la letra de uno. la preparación del maestro daniel 1�1 vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) la preparación del maestro daniel 11. la redacción es saber poner las comas, los signos de interrogación, y de exclamación. 12. redactar es contestar las preguntas del maestro. 13. promuevo la redacción cuando les pido a mis estudiantes que describan. 14. el estudiante aprende a redactar cuando copia palabra por palabra de los libros que la me provee a las escuelas. 15. promuevo la educación bilingüe cuando cantamos en kacchiquel (un idioma indígena que se habla en guatemala). 16. los idiomas de los indígenas no se tienen en cuenta al planificar el currículo. enseñamos exclusivamente en español. 17. hablar un idioma indígena y hablar español no es ser bilingüe. hablar español e inglés sí lo es. 18. los estudiantes bilingües estudian inglés. 19. el bilingüismo no es un factor en mi trabajo. análisis de los grupos de enfoque las conversaciones se examinaron cuantitativamente y cualitativamente para identificar: temas ausentes o recurrentes (strauss & corbin, 1990); y temas que causaron la exploración y el desarrollo de nuevas ideas, la colaboración, la unanimidad, y las reacciones fuertes en los participantes. con el fin de evaluar la importancia de los temas que causaron más reacción emocional en los formadores, se usó una teoría del ámbito de la comunicación: la teoría de convergencia simbólica (daniel, 2002). esta teoría ha sido usada previamente en estudios con maestros en grupos de enfoque para documentar el desarrollo de nuevas ideas o de ideas difíciles de compartir. ella se basa en la idea de que los seres humanos son dramaturgos que crean temas y fantasías para justificar su visión del mundo. sin embargo, esta interpretación que cada persona da a las acciones de otros y a los eventos que ocurren a su alrededor no son sucesos imaginarios ya que constituyen la realidad para este individuo (bormann, 1983). una visión retorica es el mensaje que se comunica, que se crea, y que se amplía en conversaciones (daniel, 2002). los formadores que participaron en los grupos de enfoque fueron expandiendo sus puntos de vista durante las conversaciones a medida que se involucraban en los temas que salían a la superficie. en este estudio, estos temas que se resaltan por la emoción que causaron, sean éstas negativas o positivas, fueron los que constituyen la realidad de la vida de los participantes (bormann, 1983). en cuanto al enfoque de esta investigación, y para poder identificar cómo mejorar el sistema de educación en guatemala, lo primero y lo esencial es saber qué es lo que los formadores perciben como obstáculos a su futura labor y a la adecuada preparación de los normalistas. 1�2 vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) resultados los comentarios compartidos con los formadores de maestros resultaron ser un magnífico catalizador para las conversaciones. los temas que sobresalieron de las conversaciones se pueden dividir en cuatro categorías: (a) los estudiantes, (b) los padres y familias de los estudiantes, (c) la pedagogía de los formadores con el diseño del currículo en las escuelas normales, y (d) los indígenas. los estudiantes los formadores recalcan que los estudiantes llegan al cuarto año de magisterio con pocos conocimientos y con una autoestima muy baja. opinan que el joven de 16 a 18 años no está listo para empezar el estudio de una carrera porque le falta la madurez para decidir lo que quiere hacer el resto de su vida. el consenso es que los estudiantes no están preparados ya que ni saben lo básico en matemáticas ni pueden leer con adecuada comprensión. los formadores critican la enseñanza en la escuela primaria y se preocupan mucho por la baja autoestima de los normalistas. mencionan repetidamente que el problema de baja autoestima es un defecto de la sociedad guatemalteca y que está arraigado en el seno de la gran mayoría de las familias de este país. un capacitador que tenía la cara muy seria comentó: “el problema es que guatemala es una cultura de maltrato. los niños viven con la violencia en el hogar. no saben [sic] sino esta vida.” los padres de familia los docentes de los colegios enfatizan que los padres de familia no entienden el aprendizaje activo. opinan que hay que educar a toda la sociedad para que la gente sepa que aprender no es copiar y estar sentado mudo en el salón de clase. comentan que cuando hablan con las familias, escuchan quejas de que sus hijos no tienen suficiente tarea y que ellos no comprenden cómo se les está enseñando. según varios docentes: los padres piden planos, 10 iguales . . . los padres creen que si lo que los hijos hacen en la clase parece un juego, no aprenden . . . piden que los hijos hagan dictados como ellos hacían, y que definan palabras sin entenderlas, (¡y sin saber usarlas!) . . . hay que cambiar las ideas de antes. muchos siguen pensando que cuando viene el maestro, viene el verdugo. los formadores y las escuelas normales los formadores están familiarizados con la terminología educativa que está en auge, pero comentan que les falta mucho por aprender. quieren ideas sobre cómo enseñar sin libros y cómo preparar a los la preparación del maestro daniel 1�� vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) la preparación del maestro daniel normalistas a hacer lo mismo. quieren investigar sobre cómo promover la comprensión lectora en el aula y cómo enseñar la redacción. comentan que los normalistas tienen dificultades para escribir oraciones sencillas y que no entienden los libros que leen en las diferentes disciplinas. dicen que los estudiantes del kínder al bachillerato (un grupo que incluye a los normalistas) no leen. mencionan el constructivismo y la metacognición, y que necesitan información para diseñar clases basadas en estas teorías. también se preocupan porque sospechan que dan demasiada tarea a sus estudiantes normalistas. reportan que como los estudiantes no hacen la tarea muy bien, ellos continúan dándola diariamente. preguntaron cuánta tarea sería suficiente darle al estudiante y cuánta sería demasiada. comentaron que no están seguros del beneficio que los estudiantes derivan de la tarea si ellos no se esfuerzan para que quede bien hecha. además de estas preocupaciones e intereses, también admiten que el diseño de la planta física de la escuela normal es deficiente. por un lado, parece que los edificios no se prestan para un ámbito de concentración. en una ocasión durante una entrevista con una capacitadora, ella apuntó al edificio que estaba al lado de la escuela, a la otra escuela situada al otro lado, se tapó las orejas, levantó la voz, y dijo: “hay tanto ruido de la escuela y de ese edificio que no puedo oír a los estudiantes la mayor parte del tiempo.” aclaran que en 3 años es imposible completar el currículo del nivel secundario y prepararse para la carrera de maestro. según un formador: “los patojos5 no están motivados. como en el salón de clases nada más que hay [sic] dos o tres libros, se dan por vencidos. se frustran.” otra formadora comenta: “es difícil enseñar [sic] 54 estudiantes en una clase. no tienen dónde sentarse.” los indígenas el tema de los indígenas y de sus derechos a una educación se destaca por su ausencia. se nota sorpresa en las caras de los formadores cuando se introduce el tema de la calidad de la educación que reciben los indígenas. el sistema educativo no parece enfocarse en la promoción de la justicia social ni en la sociedad ni en la escuela. según una instructora, parte del problema es que: “ellos mismos [los indígenas] se maltratan.” un formador añadió: “se enseña en español. es el idioma de guatemala.” según los formadores, abordar el tema de los indígenas es difícil. en cierta forma, ellos justifican la situación cuando explican que al estudiante indígena se le permite asistir a la 5 muchachos 1�� vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) escuela vestido con su traje tradicional. tal vez este permiso sea una concesión que se origina en los acuerdos de paz: los acuerdos sobre la identidad y los derechos de los pueblos indígenas firmados en méxico frente a la organización naciones unidas en 1995 (united states institute of peace, 2007). representantes del gobierno de la república de guatemala, de la unidad revolucionaria nacional guatemalteca, de la comisión político diplomática, y de las naciones unidas acordaron que el sistema educativo de guatemala promovería el uso de los idiomas indígenas, y de la educación bilingüe e intercultural. los talleres los formadores participaron en talleres que cubrieron varios temas. al terminar los grupos de enfoque, identificaron los conocimientos que dominan y que forman parte de su pedagogía. también compartieron las estrategias y los conocimientos que les interesaba investigar. usaron una gráfica modelo venn (ogle, 1986) para organizar sus ideas. para establecer cómo los talleres los había beneficiado, contestaron las siguientes preguntas: ¿qué habían aprendido que les sería útil en su trabajo? y, ¿en cuáles otros temas les gustaría profundizar? además contestaron una tercera pregunta en que se les pidió que compartieran lo que debe ser el enfoque del desarrollo profesional de los maestros de guatemala. observaciones durante los talleres durante los talleres, los formadores mencionaron temas que no fueron identificados en los grupos de enfoque, como los organizadores gráficos. para algunos, la gráfica de kwl (ogle, 1986) había sido algo nuevo. se abordó el tema de la tarea y los exámenes. los capacitadores estaban preocupados por el tiempo que demoran en aprender los normalistas. preguntaron qué tipo de tarea debían requerirle a los estudiantes. la conversación recalcó las ideas de que: (a) el aprendizaje es un proceso, (b) hay que darle tiempo al estudiante para desarrollar nuevos conocimientos y, (c) se puede enseñar sin dar múltiples exámenes. manifestaron algunos que solían calificar la habilidad del estudiante de llegar a la meta con las palabras excelente, bueno, regular, necesita mejorar, y malo. este fue un buen momento para conversar acerca de que la evaluación siempre debe ofrecerle al estudiante comentarios positivos. consideraron cómo se sentirían ellos mismos si su trabajo fuera categorizado como malo. se les sugirió el uso de frases como se aproxima y va mejorando aún cuando el estudiante no pasa. los formadores aceptaban la propuesta de que todo se puede modificar en guatemala aún con los problemas económicos que la gente está batallando y que ellos tal vez poseen más conocimientos la preparación del maestro daniel 1�� vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) la preparación del maestro daniel de los que reconocen. hablaron del diseño de lecciones y como los objetivos dirigen lo que el formador cubre y pone en el examen. las conversaciones revelaron que en el 2008 la me reemplazó la palabra objetivos de su vocabulario pedagógico por la palabra competencias. no es nada sorprendente que esto haya resultado en que muchos maestros de los colegios guatemaltecos no comprendan dichas competencias. todavía no entienden cómo se planifica una lección sin objetivos. además, no se aproximan a los temas de la educación multicultural y la justicia social. aunque la me ha añadido al currículo un enfoque en los valores, los maestros de colegio no perciben que hay un enlace entre estos valores y la filosofía de la justicia social para el indígena. confiesan no sentirse preparados para abordar aquellos temas delicados. reflexiones finales esta investigación documenta los desafíos profesionales de los formadores de maestros de las escuelas normales de guatemala seleccionadas para este estudio. el análisis de los resultados revela la necesidad de planificar un currículo y un ambiente en las escuelas diferente y también revela que los problemas van más allá de las escuelas normales. valdría fijarse en las interacciones entre los diferentes niveles del sistema educativo con la me. aparentemente el desarrollo profesional de los formadores de las escuelas normales no los satisface. tampoco están satisfechos con el número excesivo de normalistas en los salones de clases. los normalistas necesitan ensayar las estrategias que se les enseñan. esto no ocurre para los estudiantes de las escuelas normales de guatemala porque no participan los normalistas en una práctica (ni en un período similar) en un verdadero salón de clase. la autoestima de los normalistas está en duda, y hay una gran necesidad de añadir cursos al currículo que se enfoquen en la educación multicultural y la justicia social. los temas documentados en las conversaciones de los formadores repiten el refrán previamente escuchado en las primeras fases de esta investigación: que las escuelas de guatemala no preparan a los estudiantes adecuadamente. estos temas también sugieren que el pueblo de guatemala no sabe cuántas deficiencias son parte integral del currículo de las escuelas del país. las voces de los formadores, y los temas que se repiten en sus conversaciones y que causan fuertes reacciones demuestran la necesidad de elevar la conciencia del pueblo de guatemala en referencia a las filosofías educativas de la me. en un país multilingüe y multicultural como guatemala, es una pena que los fondos de conocimientos de todos los estudiantes (gonzález, moll, & amanti, 2005), y las riquezas de las culturas de los indígenas, aquellos 1�� vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) fondos de cultura, no se integren en la instrucción. al contrario, el currículo requerido por la me parece ser el mismo en todas las escuelas de guatemala excepto en las pocas regiones del país donde se enseña parcialmente en kacchiquel durante los tres primeros años. rigoberta menchú (comunicación personal, 22 de septiembre de 2009) compartió su punto de vista acerca de las guerras que causaron la muerte de muchos indígenas y delimitaron el futuro de otros tantos. comentó, “una de las consecuencias de la guerra es la falta de autoestima. la gente piensa como minoría y no como mayoría.” menchú considera que el problema de la autoestima de los guatemaltecos se ve en las escuelas porque el me no fomenta la igualdad de todos los estudiantes, ni de los chiquititos ni de los normalistas, sino en decretos que no se implementan. un sistema educativo que considera las necesidades de los estudiantes, de sus maestros, y de sus familias es la primera arma para combatir la desigualdad que existe en guatemala. este estudio sirve para apoyar recomendaciones que podrían cambiar radicalmente la educación en guatemala, resultando en escuelas eficientes, dirigidas por mejores capacitadores. esto resultaría, al pasar el tiempo, en escuelas llenas de maestros que respaldan la educacion bilingüe e intercultural, y que se enfocan en promover la autoestima del estudiante. referencias bormann, e. g. (1983). symbolic convergence: organizational communication and culture. in l. putnam & m. e. pecanowsky (eds.). communication and organizations: an interpretive approach, 99-122. beverly hills, ca: sage. cereser, l. (2008, july). relator de onu critica la educación nacional. la prensa libre. no. 18, 872, pp. 1, 3. daniel, m. c. (2002). theory and practice of writing instruction in the secondary foreign language classroom: teachers’ views vs. theory. dissertation abstracts international, (umi no. 3064490). daniel, m. c. (2009). educational dilemmas in guatemala: is it really the land of eternal spring? bilingual basics: the newsletter of tesol’s bilingual interest section, 11(1). daniel, m. c. (2007). literacy in guatemala: revealing teachers’ pedagogy. international journal of learning, 13(3). friedland, e., & kossack, s. (2004). education for change: international grassroots literacy initiatives. journal of reading education, 29(3), 28-39. gonzález, n., moll, l., & amanti, c. (eds.) (2005). funds of knowledge for teaching in latino households. mahwah, nj: lawrence erlbaum associates. la preparación del maestro daniel 1�� vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) la preparación del maestro daniel ogle, d. (1986). k-w-l: a teaching model that develops active reading of expository text. the reading teacher, 39, 564-570. strauss, a., & corbin, j. (1990). basics of qualitative research: grounded theory, procedures, and techniques. newbury park, ca: sage publications. united states institute of peace. (2007). peace agreements digital collection: guatemala. retrieved from http://www.usip.org/library/pa/guatemala/guat_ 950331.html the author *mayra c. daniel is an associate professor in the department of literacy education at northern illinois university, de kalb, il. she earned her ed.d. in curriculum and instruction from illinois state university. her work with practicing teachers in the united states focuses on preparing educators to plan and modify curriculum so that it appropriately address the needs of multilingual, multicultural populations of students. her work and research in guatemala includes practicing teachers and teacher trainers. she teaches courses related to cultural pluralism and multilingualism, tesol/second language pedagogy, bilingualism and reading, and assessment of english language learners. she is the chair of the tesol organization’s bilingual interest section for the 2010-2011 academic year. gist1-2007.indd 24 bilingüismo indígena en colombia. david alarcón abstract native languages are many but minority in colombia because of the different policies developed during the conquest and colony and lately the republic. some sociolinguistic concepts as the communicative competence, communicative situation, domain, diglossia, speech community, simple or dual competence among others can be used to understand the present native bilingualism and bilinguality. the importance of these languages is found in the cultural knowledge that they transmit. however, not all ethnic groups promote in their schools the use of their languages because of the different difficulties they have. resumen las lenguas indígenas son muchas pero minoritarias en colombia debido a las políticas lingüísticas que desarrolló inicialmente la corona española durante la conquista y la colonia, y posteriormente la república. algunos conceptos sociolingüísticos como el de competencia comunicativa, situación comunicativa, dominio, diglosia, comunidad de habla, competencias simple y dual entre otros, ayudan a entender el bilingüismo y la bilingualidad indígena actual. la importancia de las lenguas indígenas se encuentra en el conocimiento cultural que éstas transmiten. si estas se pierden se pierde ese conocimiento. la educación escolar parece ser una solución. sin embargo, no todos los grupos étnicos promueven en sus escuelas el uso de sus lenguas por diferentes dificultades que se presentan. palabras claves: bilingüismo, bilingualidad, competencia comunicativa, competencia diferencial, diglosia. 25 introducción afirmar que colombia es un país plurilingüe y multicultural parece un hecho evidente desde que la constitución de 1991 oficializó las lenguas de sus habitantes indígenas. con seguridad muchos colombianos, especialmente de las ciudades, no sabíamos de la diversidad indígena, ya que en la historia que nos enseñaron nos presentaron a estos personajes como seres salvajes que fueron antaño dominados por los españoles. y es que aún hoy, a pesar del reconocimiento de dicha oficialidad, muchos colombianos no saben que existen sociedades indígenas bilingües que sobrevivieron a la época de la conquista y la colonia en las diferentes regiones. los hablantes de estás lenguas son colombianos que hacen parte del país por estar dentro del mismo territorio, pero la historia y división política de éste afectaron su cultura y establecieron relaciones comunicativas de poder en donde las lenguas indígenas ocupan un lugar marginal con relación al español usado en todo el país. la población indígena representa el 2% de la población total del país. en esa población se encuentran aproximadamente 80 grupos étnicos y 64 lenguas indígenas con diferente número de hablantes, ya que hay grupos étnicos que pueden tener pocos hablantes de su lengua como es el caso del grupo karijona que no pasa de 10 hablantes, o bien otros con mayor número de hablantes, como los wayuu que pueden tener aproximadamente 40.000 hablantes. es obvio el estado de lenguas minoritarias en que se encuentran con relación al número de hablantes de español en el país. sin embargo, es esta población, junto con la afrocolombiana, la que da al país la calidad plurilingüe y multicultural. como metodología, se presenta en este artículo el estado de bilingüismo en las sociedades indígenas a partir de cuatro puntos de vista: el histórico, en donde se hace una breve revisión de las políticas lingüísticas desarrolladas en diferentes momentos; el conceptual, con una revisión de términos que permiten aproximarnos al uso de las lenguas indígenas; el cultural, en donde se evidencia la relación cultura-lengua; y el educativo, con la implementación de contenidos en lenguas. políticas sobre las lenguas indígenas la política española con las lenguas indígenas durante la conquista y comienzos de la colonia fue inicialmente benéfica, en cierta manera, ya que por el deseo de integrar al indio en su economía extractiva se le permitió a la iglesia católica penetrar en el conocimiento y manejo de las lenguas indígenas por parte de los misioneros. se elaboraron trabajos descriptivos, que para su época se reconoce su calidad, como por ejemplo algunas gramáticas de la lengua muisca (ortega, 1978). david alarcón 26 por el contrario, carlos iii hacia 1770 prohíbe el uso de lenguas indígenas por medio de cédulas reales que llegan a un territorio que perdía poco a poco y cuyos habitantes se distanciaban de la corona. se prohibió hablar lenguas indígenas y mucho más escribir sus gramáticas por lo cual fueron en gran parte destruidas las que había. algunos grupos indígenas ya habían sido obligados a retirarse a zonas montañosas o zonas de selva. en realidad muchas lenguas indígenas seguían hablándose. debe reconocerse el trabajo que algunos misioneros habían hecho a finales del siglo xvii y posteriormente a comienzos del xix, con la misma visión evangelizadora, el cual consistía en estudios de lenguas indígenas con fines catequistas como son hervas y panduro, gilij, celedón, rueda y biffi (ortega, 1978). durante el siglo xix la república negó la existencia de las lenguas indígenas al querer unificar a sus ciudadanos y dar la responsabilidad a la iglesia de la educación en los territorios indígenas que se impartiría obligatoriamente en español y cuya finalidad sería la evangelización. esto se evidencia en la constitución de 1886 y la ley 153 de 1887 en donde se califica al indígena como incapacitado social, bárbaro, salvaje e incivilizado (pineda, 1997). es de suponer que esta posición no fomentó el estudio o uso de las lenguas indígenas. sin embargo, algunas instituciones como el instituto indigenista interamericano, el instituto caro y cuervo y la academia de historia, motivadas por iniciativas americanistas, promovieron el estudio de las culturas y lenguas indígenas en la primera mitad del siglo xx ya con una actitud científica y profesional acorde con los desarrollos tecnológicos, sin llegar a ser una respuesta o solución a la situación de marginalidad en que se encontraban dichas culturas (ortega, 1978). solamente hacia 1970, y como producto de circunstancias que forzaron a los indígenas del cauca a actuar, se creó la organización indígena que logró reivindicaciones socio-políticas y que permitirían posteriormente, en la nueva constitución de 1991, el reconocimiento de los derechos de los pueblos indígenas entre los cuales está la lengua como factor de desarrollo cultural. sin embargo, existe en la actualidad una posición de desventaja en las sociedades indígenas que tiene que ver con la falta de autonomía. las sociedades indígenas en colombia no cuentan con el apoyo, la fuerza necesaria, la preparación y la suficiente visión para reclamar y construir una política lingüística que no sea sólo un mecanismo de sostenimiento de las lenguas, sino un plan de fortalecimiento de bilingüismo indígena en colombia. 27 autonomía e integralidad socio-cultural y económica diferente de los planes de integración republicanos o incluso de los últimos gobiernos. así, la situación de las lenguas indígenas, desde esta perspectiva, no es alentadora. algunos conceptos sociolingüísticos relacionados con el bilingüismo indígena. hammers y blanc (1989) definen los conceptos de bilingualidad y bilingüismo de forma tal que permiten mostrar parte de la realidad comunicativa de los indígenas de colombia. para ellos la bilingualidad (bilingüismo individual) se refiere a la posibilidad del individuo de acceder a más de un código lingüístico como medio de comunicación social, dependiendo el grado de acceso a factores “sicológicos, cognitivos, sicolingüísticos, socio-sicológicos, sociales, sociolingüísticos, socioculturales y lingüísticos” (p.6). a su vez, el concepto de bilingüismo (bilingüismo social) “incluye al de bilingualidad pero hace referencia al estado de una comunidad lingüística en donde dos lenguas están en contacto siendo usadas en la interacción y por lo tanto existiendo un número de individuos bilingües” (p.6). el bilingüismo individual puede definirse como la capacidad de una persona para comunicarse en dos códigos en momentos comunicativos diferentes. sin embargo, debe haber acuerdo en establecer si es el dominio que se tiene de uno u otro código para la comunicación en circunstancias sociales determinadas, es decir, la competencia comunicativa, si es el valor prescriptivo, es decir, o si es la pasividad o actividad las que definen el carácter bilingüe de los individuos. una vez expuestos los conceptos de bilingüismo y bilingualidad bajo los cuales se pretende mostrar el estado de las lenguas indígenas de nuestro país, se hace necesario acudir a otros conceptos tomados de la antropología lingüística y de la sociolingüística como son: la competencia comunicativa, la situación comunicativa, el dominio, la diglosia, la comunidad de habla entre otros. así, el primer concepto para entender el bilingüismo en las sociedades indígenas es el de competencia comunicativa. la competencia para hymes (1972) es una habilidad y como tal sugiere hablantes reales que actúan en situaciones reales, por lo cual propone el estudio del lenguaje en uso, que permite establecer los factores sociales que intervienen en la comunicación. factores como el de la edad, la educación, el sexo, pueden definir la lengua que se emplea en situaciones comunicativas determinadas (hymes) un niño indígena puede ser monolingüe en david alarcón 28 sus primeros años de vida, suponiendo que su madre le habla en la lengua indígena del grupo étnico, sin embargo, el ingreso a la escuela contribuye al desarrollo de su competencia en español; un viejo puede ser monolingüe en lengua indígena y ser solamente interpretado por sus hijos mayores quienes son considerados buenos hablantes de español. agrega, además, dicho autor que en la realidad no existe una comunidad homogénea sino que existe una comunidad con hablantes cuyas competencias son diferentes. el concepto de competencia comunicativa supone el entorno y demás circunstancias que constituyen el acto comunicativo que reconoce los actos de habla como hechos lingüísticos enmarcados en contextos sociales. de ahí que la situación comunicativa se refiere a aquel contexto en que se produce una comunicación, es decir, el lugar y el momento en que interactúan dos o más individuos (moreno, 1998). el concepto de situación comunicativa se utiliza muchas veces como sinónimo de dominio o ámbito, pero el carácter institucional de este último los diferencia ámbito o dominio familiar, escolar etc. (moreno). el dominio permite agrupar prácticas verbales similares, sin embargo, algunas veces las variedades lingüísticas pueden presentarse en diferentes dominios (rotaextxe, 1990). así, cuando hacemos referencia a la comunicación en asentamientos indígenas, es de subrayar que dichas situaciones son diversas y que de acuerdo a cada una de ellas se puede evidenciar el bilingüismo. por ejemplo, en muchas fiestas tradicionales los indígenas acostumbran a emplear sus lenguas propias, al igual que en muchas conversaciones en los núcleos familiares, mientras que en los pueblos o ciudades los mismos indígenas podrían emplear el español. igualmente los dominios pueden motivar el uso de diferentes variedades lingüísticas (o si se quiere lenguas), como es el caso del uso del español en muchas escuelas o el uso de las lenguas indígenas en el ámbito familiar. éste último ejemplo, sirve para hacer referencia a un concepto acuñado por ferguson y que ha servido para dar razón de algunos fenómenos importantes: la diglosia. éste fue considerado inicialmente como el empleo de dos o más variedades de una misma lengua en diferentes circunstancias (garvin y lastra, 1984), que se realiza en distribución complementaria, es decir, que cuando se emplea una variedad en una circunstancia determinada, no se emplea la otra variedad. las variedades entonces cumplen funciones determinadas. posteriormente, este mismo uso fue aplicado con respecto al bilingüismo, es decir, que cuando se emplea un código en una circunstancia específica, no se emplea otro. bilingüismo indígena en colombia. 29 otro ejemplo de diglosia en las sociedades indígenas puede ser el uso de lengua ritual, que no es la misma lengua de uso diario de los grupos sino que tiene una estructura diferente (garzón. 2006) estos conceptos suponen una comunidad de habla, definida como un grupo de personas que comparten normas de uso del lenguaje, aunque no comparten la misma variedad o el mismo código (romaine, 1996). es el caso de muchos de los asentamientos indígenas en los departamentos del amazonas en donde pueden convivir personas cuyas lenguas, etnias y familias son completamente diferentes, como en el bajo caquetá (alarcón, 2000). allí, se puede dar lo que llama hymes competencia diferencial en una comunidad lingüística heterogénea (hymes, 1972). en el mismo lugar del ejemplo y teniendo en cuenta esta competencia diferencial, se pueden presentar comúnmente las que se denominan competencia dual y competencia simple, es decir, la posibilidad de comprender una lengua además de la propia pero producir solamente una es decir comprender dos lenguas (dual) pero producir una (simple) (romaine, 1996). también se puede escuchar a una persona hablando en yukuna mientras que su interlocutor habla tanimuka. igualmente se evidencian casos de lingüismo trial (o competencia trial), es decir, alguien puede comprender tres lenguas -una de ellas puede ser españolpero producir solamente una o dos (alarcón). el acontecimiento, evento comunicativo o conversación se refiere al conjunto de elementos comunicativos que tienen un fin específico, unos hablantes específicos y en donde se emplea una variedad lingüística con temas específicos. puede considerarse como una unidad de análisis sociolingüística. se sobrentiende que los eventos comunicativos se realizan en las actividades diarias de carácter social. dentro de los acontecimientos comunicativos se pueden realizar actos comunicativos o actos de hablar definidos por funciones específicas al hablar como afirmaciones, preguntas, negaciones, etc. (moreno, 1998). en las comunidades de habla indígenas que comparten más de tres códigos, se pueden escuchar conversaciones cuyos actos de habla cambian en cuanto al uso de un código, debido a las intenciones que tengan los hablantes: un chaman puede estar empleando una variedad sagrada, pero en el momento de dirigirse al paciente, puede emplear la variedad normal de comunicación de dicha comunidad, que bien puede ser español o una lengua indígena. de allí que se haga necesario mencionar otro concepto mucho más conocido que se evidencia en algunas sociedades indígenas: david alarcón 30 la alternancia, entendida como aquellos cambios de código en una misma conversación (appel y muisken, 1996). estos autores plantean tres clases de alternancias: la alternancia de muletillas, que incluye exclamaciones, coletillas o paréntesis; la alternancia intraoracional o mezcla de códigos, no considerada por algunos autores como alternancia (moreno, 1998); y la alternancia interoracional. estudios específicos de este tipo no se han realizado con las lenguas indígenas aunque en la mayoría de descripciones se hace mención a este tipo de relaciones entre lenguas. appel y muisken (1996) plantean un modelo de funciones para la alternancia basado en las funciones del lenguaje de jakobson y halliday que se evidencian en muchas comunidades de habla indígenas. así tenemos: 1) en la función referencial. implica falta de conocimiento de una lengua o dificultad en una lengua para tratar un tema; 2) en la función directiva. es la relación directa con el oyente. está relacionada con la exclusión o inclusión de alguna persona presente; 3) en la función expresiva. “los hablantes enfatizan una identidad mixta (...)” (p.179), es decir que el buen dominio de las dos lenguas permite a los hablantes crear una forma de habla con bastantes alternancias; 4) en la función fática. se emplea la alternancia para llamar la atención sobre una información determinada. 5) en la función metalingüística. la alternancia “se usa para comentar directa o indirectamente las lenguas implicadas (...)” (p. 179), como cuando alguien quiere demostrar que tiene conocimiento de otra lengua y 6) en la función poética. pueden incluirse aquí los juegos de palabras, chistes, poemas, etc. todos estos tipos de alternancia son realizados por hablantes indígenas y aunque la alternancia no signifique para estos autores necesariamente la pérdida de la lengua, son circunstancias como la educación, el comercio, las relaciones hegemónicas de la sociedad mayoritaria entre muchas otras causas las que afectan el uso de las lenguas indígenas. el último concepto que se propone para tener en cuenta en relación con las lenguas indígenas y el bilingüísmo es la actitud lingüística que de acuerdo con moreno (1998) hace referencia a la manifestación de tipo sicosocial que se refiere a la lengua o al uso de una lengua o variedades lingüísticas en la medida en que ellas transmiten significados sociales o afectivos al igual que normas y marcas culturales. de allí que las actitudes lingüísticas establecen una relación con la identidad de los hablantes, sin implicar que haya necesariamente una relación directa entre la lengua y la identidad como es el caso de las sociedades chibcha, pijao, zenú, cuyas lenguas no se hablan pero los descendientes de estos grupos étnicos se reconocen como propiamente indígenas. bilingüismo indígena en colombia. 31 el estudio de las actitudes lingüísticas permite un mejor conocimiento de aspectos como la elección de una lengua en determinados ámbitos y en sociedades multilingües, la inteligibilidad, la planificación lingüística o la enseñanza de lenguas (moreno, 1998). así, muchas sociedades indígenas en colombia, después de la constitución de 1991, cambiaron de actitud ante sus lenguas y comenzaron a plantear políticas que promovieran su uso, especialmente desde la escuela. por lo general las actitudes lingüísticas se relacionan con el estatus y el prestigio de los hablantes. tienen que ver con las creencias de carácter social e individual que el hablante tenga y con sus valoraciones sobre las lenguas o sus variedades. así, se puede hablar de actitudes positivas o negativas y favorables o desfavorables en relación con el uso y la aceptabilidad de una variedad o con la vitalidad de una lengua (moreno, 1998). la actitud lingüística de muchos indígenas es negativa en el sentido que no emplean sus lenguas por sentir pena ante los hablantes de español o en el caso de los niños que no hablan sus propias lenguas por temor de ser burlados. de hecho, por ser el español la lengua mayoritaria, cuenta con más prestigio en el ámbito escolar. igualmente, en muchos pueblos, cuando algunos indígenas están en oficinas en oficinas y entidades privadas o públicas, las lenguas indígenas no se hablan por considerarse que esos no son ámbitos adecuados para hacerlo. sin embargo, una actitud positiva es el hecho de que muchos hablantes promueven sus lenguas como un hecho de identidad y fortaleza cultural. importancia de las lenguas indígenas la relación entre lengua y cultura la plantearon muchos investigadores y desde diferentes disciplinas. es el caso de la dialectología, cuyos precedentes podrían encontrarse en la geografía lingüística (montes, 1995); la lingüística antropológica americana de comienzos del siglo xx con boas, sapir, whorf, interesada en la relación lengua-cultura (en lastra 1992); la sociología del lenguaje encabezada por fishman (1995) y cuyo énfasis parecería ser la organización social en su relación con el lenguaje; y los estudios ya más específicos de dicha relación planteados por labov y hymes (en lastra). ahora bien, vale la pena mencionar, a manera de ejemplo, algunos hechos en las mismas sociedades indígenas y plasmadas en estudios por algunos investigadores en el país, en donde se evidencia la relación de las lenguas indígenas con el conocimiento cultural y la importancia de su mantenimiento. david alarcón 32 pérez (1997) afirma sobre los wayuu que “la situación social de la lengua, el contacto con sus vecinas, su vitalidad, su geografía, son puntas de lanza tomadas todavía de manera espontánea. todo lo cual forma parte del paisaje de la realidad lingüística y de las operaciones mentales que desarrolla el grupo indígena más numeroso de colombia y venezuela” (p. 179). de hecho, los wayuu ocupan un territorio muy particular debido a las características geográficas de la guajira. la lengua, como uno de los principales elementos de unión cultural, ha ayudado a mantener dicha sociedad en tan difíciles condiciones principalmente geográficas y económicas -, a pesar de toda la historia de dominio lingüístico por parte del español, y es que más de la mitad de su población es monolingüe en lengua wayuu, es decir aproximadamente 89.000 y 74.000 bilingüe. también podemos mencionar que las lenguas de la sierra nevada son empleadas a diario y permiten las relaciones familiares siendo la identidad su más preciado valor, ya que permite la conservación y transmisión cultural. allí, el 90 % de la población emplea alguna de las tres lenguas indígenas que más se hablan: kogui, ika, damana, es decir, aproximadamente 18.000 hablantes (trillos, 1997). en ese sentido, la conservación del conocimiento ancestral es uno de los aspectos más importantes para todas las culturas indígenas de colombia lograda por medio de la oralidad y vigente en todas ellas y con el riesgo de convertirse en culturas puramente escritas1 . para los páez, el nasa yuwe “fue un regalo de dios (...), ya existía cuando llegaron los blancos y también antes de los pijaos (...), es tan antiguo que está presente en la tierra desde que el mundo fue creado” (pachón, 1997, 276). y es que podemos hacer un recorrido por la mitología de todas estas sociedades y encontraremos la misma relación lengua-cultural pero de manera narrativa. de este grupo étnico, conformado por 95.000 hablantes, se calcula que 60.000 hablan la lengua nasa yuwe (pachón). 1 la escritura ha sido un objetivo de las sociedades indígenas colombianas, ya que su empleo da acceso al conocimiento de la cultura nacional o mundial, además de ser una herramienta que puede ser empleada en procesos de recuperación cultural y lingüística. es un elemento para defenderse de la cultura dominante. sin embargo el autor de este artículo considera que la escritura da un cambio cultural grande que pone en peligro la oralidad en lengua indígena si no es planeada su implementación, y por lo tanto, los conocimientos y su forma de transmisión, que son rituales y culturales, se pueden ver afectados. bilingüismo indígena en colombia. 33 estos tres grupos son representativos en cuanto a que tienen una sola lengua y se hizo mención al número de hablantes para tener una idea numérica. sin embargo, al hablar de bilingüismo de los indígenas el número de hablantes es relativo como se ha tratado de mostrar con los conceptos arriba mencionados. por ejemplo, en el departamento del vaupés el 90% de su población es indígena (aproximadamente unos 15.000), pero entre su población se encuentran alrededor de 17 lenguas, siendo el número de hablantes por cada lengua mucho menor al de los ejemplos de arriba, pero con competencias multilingües (se pueden encontrar hablantes hasta de siete lenguas) por lo que se considera como una de las regiones con mayor número de lenguas a nivel mundial. y para no seguir una gran enumeración de ejemplos que se podrían presentar y que plantean la relación lengua-cultura, se menciona aquí otra razón que da cuenta de la importancia de las lenguas indígena: la conservación de la naturaleza. para muchos esta razón podría ser algo romántica, pero vale la pena analizarla. en uno de los consejos regionales que el actual presidente, alvaro uribe, realizó, un indígena u’wa afirmaba a este dignatario que ellos ocupaban la montaña para cuidar a los hermanitos menores (blancos), ya que era allí donde nacían las aguas que riegan los campos. y es un hecho que los indígenas, por medio de sus lenguas, transmiten el conocimiento ecológico necesario para el mantenimiento de los diferentes ambientes naturales en donde habitan, igualmente importante para la conservación de nuestro planeta. para los indígenas makuna, barasana, eduria, piratapuyo, bará, carapana, entre otras etnias habitantes del pirá-paraná en el departamento del vaupés, la importancia del conocimiento del medio ambiente relacionado con su cultura es una de sus principales metas en el trabajo colectivo que vienen desarrollando desde hace varios años para mejorar el uso de los espacios naturales y por ende, sus condiciones de vida (ortíz, gómez & ayarza, 2006) igualmente, los trabajos de las comunidades del bajo caquetá, cuyos habitantes matapí, yukuna, carijona, tanimuka, y miraña entre otros, consideran que a pesar de que la mayoría de sus habitantes hablan el español en diferentes situaciones, el manejo del territorio tiene que ver con el conocimiento que expresan los viejos (vease por ejemplo, fieri, 2006) david alarcón 34 y es que la conservación del medio ambiente tiene que ver definitivamente con el bilingüismo, comoquiera que muchas de las historias, leyendas o cuentos que se narran en las lenguas indígenas, contienen el conocimiento que permite la formación de aquellos individuos pertenecientes a sociedades que con sus diversas formas de actuar y vivir pueden llegar a mantener el equilibrio de los acontecimientos naturales y sociales. la conservación de la selva amazónica, de la sierra nevada de santa marta, de las selvas del chocó y antioquia, del putumayo, de los montañas santandereanas, al igual que muchos otros lugares afectados por la cultura del colono, es una necesidad. son los indígenas que han hecho un uso equilibrado de los espacios naturales con su conocimiento transmitido de generación en generación por medio de sus lenguas y son las circunstancias del país y los intereses económicos los que ponen en peligro su existencia. la escuela y las lenguas indígenas cuando hacia 1886 se entregó la educación de los llamados territorios a la iglesia, se fundaron en las primeras décadas internados que brindaron educación a los indios. en realidad el objetivo fue el mismo de los españoles: la evangelización y la reducción de los indios como se mencionó arriba. la mayoría de estos internados prohibieron el uso de las lenguas indígenas a sus estudiantes. algunos de los ancianos recuerdan cómo fueron castigados en los internados por hablar sus lenguas. este hecho hizo que muchos de los indígenas en muchas comunidades dejaran de usar sus lenguas y emplearan el español con mayor frecuencia. pero ni las cédulas reales, ni los internados, acabaron con las lenguas indígenas. con las nuevas leyes, las sociedades indígenas se han propuesto conformar escuelas que tengan en cuenta el conocimiento tradicional y las lenguas indígenas. en el momento los desarrollos de estas propuestas son diferentes de acuerdo con las problemáticas de las comunidades. algunas han logrado desarrollos muy importantes como se evidencia en los encuentros de educación indígena. incluyen en sus planes de estudio tanto contenidos en español, como contenidos en lenguas indígenas. otros tienen actividades como fiestas tradicionales, encuentros con mayores para narración de historias, elaboración de utensilios, u otras actividades en las que se habla en lengua indígena. bilingüismo indígena en colombia. 35 se han creado muchas escuelas comunitarias2 , con la intención de brindar una educación que tenga en cuenta las particularidades culturales y las lenguas indígenas. sin embargo, sus condiciones geográficas, políticas, económicas o culturales no se los permiten. por lo general no encuentran la manera de que sus lenguas hagan parte de la enseñanza. algunas no tienen personal capacitado para desempeñar la labor docente. algunos maestros no saben la lengua indígena de la comunidad o entre sus estudiantes se encuentran hablantes de diferentes lenguas. otras veces no se sabe cómo incluir a los viejos en procesos escolares bien sea porque no hablan bien español, o porque ellos no consideran esta actividad propiamente tradicional. otro problema que se encuentra es que al interior de las comunidades indígenas se considera que el español debe estudiarse y aprenderse para poder acceder al conocimiento de la cultura occidental, de la ciencia y la tecnología sin evaluar o analizar los efectos de estos procesos integracionistas que si bien ayudan al “desarrollo”, también generan otro tipo de problemas como es la dependencia que se tiene del español o el mayor interés de los estudiantes por la cultura nacional o internacional y el rechazo de la propia cultura. podemos afirmar que el único ámbito en el que hay un interés en incluir las lenguas indígenas en forma planificada y como factor determinante de la identidad indígena es en la educación. algunas escuelas y colegios en diferentes partes del país han realizado experiencias en las que incluyen las lenguas indígenas. sin embargo, hace falta evaluarlas y verificar si estas experiencias hacen parte del auge de la educación bilingüe o si realmente han sido producto de reflexiones profundas sobre la lengua, la cultura, la pedagogía, y si promueven realmente un estatus equitativo para las lenguas y culturas indígenas en relación con el poder del español y la cultural nacional. a manera de conclusión el bilingüismo es la evidencia de la movilidad de las sociedades y sus culturas. la mayoría de las lenguas del mundo son minoritarias y la expansión de unas lenguas como el inglés, el español, el ruso, 2 estas escuelas por lo general son financiadas con los recursos del sistema de participación del estado que reciben las comunidades indígenas y no propiamente con recursos del sector educativo. david alarcón 36 el árabe, es un hecho. sin embargo, a pesar de la predicción de algunos lingüistas sobre la muerte de la mayor parte de las lenguas aborígenes para el año 2.000 (romaine, 1996), la presencia de las lenguas indígenas en colombia pareciera desmentir dicha profecía y configurarse como una esperanza para las sociedades indígenas. pasaron cinco siglos y pareciera que las lenguas indígenas tuvieran la capacidad de perdurar a pesar de las inclemencias de los años, o mejor, de la inconsciencia del otro mundo. también es probable que las lenguas y sociedades indígenas sobrevivan a la crisis de conflicto del país, pero esto no está garantizado. el desarrollo de los países ha generado efectos negativos en las sociedades y lenguas minoritarias. sin embargo, las sociedades indígenas aspiran al desarrollo. en colombia, por ejemplo, los grandes proyectos económicos han afectado comunidades indígenas como son las empresas carboníferas del cerrejón en la guajira que movilizó comunidades enteras de indígenas wayuu; las hidroeléctricas de urrá i y urrá ii , las cuales afectaron el sustento de los indígenas embera en antioquia y córdoba; la extracción de petróleo que ha desposeído de grandes territorios a los indígenas u’wa en santander; y las empresas madereras que han afectado no solamente a los indígenas en el chocó y en la amazonía sino también el ecosistema patrimonio de la humanidad. entonces, el planteamiento que se debe cuestionar y analizar es el mismo concepto de “desarrollo”. ¿qué se entiende por desarrollo? ¿el poseer cosas, tecnología, las tierras de los indígenas? ¿qué entienden las comunidades indígenas por desarrollo si sus lenguas y culturas son las afectadas por éste? ¿qué entienden las comunidades religiosas por desarrollo? ¿qué entienden los gobiernos por desarrollo? ¿qué entienden los profesores bilingües por desarrollo? si algún día hay acuerdo sobre estas cuestiones, si hay un diálogo intercultural, tal vez en ese momento se pueda afirmar con toda propiedad que colombia es un país plurilingüe y multicultural. bilingüismo indígena en colombia. 37 referencias alarcón, d. 2000. diagnóstico sociolingüístico de la pedrera. forma y función, 13, 211-15 alarcón, d. 2000. ¿una torre de babel en el bajo caquetá?. ponencia presentada en el ix congreso de antropología de la universidad del cauca. facultad de ciencias humanas y sociales. departamento de antropología. popayán. appel, r. y muysken, p. 1996. bilingüismo y contacto de lenguas. barcelona: editorial ariel s.a. fishman, j. 1995. sociología del lenguaje. madrid: ediciones cátedra s.a. frieri, s. 2006. el desarrollo curricular fundamentado a través de las prácticas educativas del bajo caquetá en o. garzón (comp.), educación, escuela y territorio en la amazonia,133-57. bogotá:ediciones antropos ltda. garvin, p y lastra, y. 1984. antología de estudios etnolingüísticos y sociolingüística. (2ª ed.) mexico: u.n.a.m garzón, o. 2004. rezar, soplar, cantar. etnografía de una lengua ritual. quito: abya yala. hamers, j y blanc, m. 1989. bilinguality and bilingualism. cambridge: cambridge university press. hymes, d. 1972. acerca de la competencia comunicativa. forma y función 9, 18-27 (traducción de juan gómez, profesor universidad nacional) lastra, y. 1992. sociolingüística para hispanoamericanos. una introducción méxico: el colegio de méxico. montes, j.1995. dialectología general e hispanoamericana. bogotá: imprenta patriótica del instituto caro y cuervo. moreno, f. 1998. principios de sociolingüística y sociología del lenguaje. barcelona: editorial ariel s.a.. ortega, c. 1978. los estudios sobre lenguas indígenas de colombia. notas históricas y bibliográficas. bogotá: imprenta patriótica del instituto caro y cuervo. ortiz, n, gómez, s, ayarza, d. 2006. la formulación colectiva del plan de manejo ambiental del pirá-paraná como estrategia educativa en o. garzón (comp.), educación, escuela y territorio en la amazonia, 133-57. bogotá: ediciones antropos ltda. david alarcón 38 pachón, x. 1997. el nasa yuwe, o la lucha por la supervivencia de una lengua dominada. perez, f. 1997. wayuunaiki: lengua, sociedad y contacto. en x. pachón & f. correa (coordinadores científicos) lenguas amerindias. condiciones sociolingüísticas en colombia, 177-215. bogotá: imprenta patriótica del instituto caro y cuervo. pineda, r. 1997. la política lingüística en colombia. en x. pachón & f. correa (coordinadores científicos) lenguas amerindias. condiciones sociolingüísticas en colombia, 177-215. bogotá: imprenta patriótica del instituto caro y cuervo. romaine, s. 1996. el lenguaje en la sociedad. barcelona: editorial ariel s.a. rotaextxe, k. 1990. sociolingüística. madrid: editorial síntesis, s.a. trillos, m. 1997. la sierra: un mundo plurilingüe. en x. pachón & f. correa (coordinadores científicos) lenguas amerindias. condiciones socio lingüísticas en colombia, 219-67. bogotá: imprenta patriótica del instituto caro y cuervo. david alarcón es profesor de unica, institución universitaria colombo americana. magister en lingüística con énfasis en sociolingüística de lenguas indígenas y criollas. correo electrónico: wdalarcon@hotmail.com bilingüismo indígena en colombia. 154 effectiveness of the integration of ict tools and activities to foster awareness as the first stage to reach learning autonomy1 la efectividad de la integración de herramientas tics y actividades para promover conciencia metacognitiva, la primera etapa para lograr autonomía en el aprendizaje andrea ariza and mario suárez sánchez2* institución universitaria colombo americana única, colombia abstract this article presents an action research study which integrated activities within two core subjects during one academic semester with first semester english language students. the students were guided through decision making, independent practice, and the development of metacognitive processes to study english using ict tools. they were also expected to actively engage in developing their awareness, which is considered to be a key to self-regulated learning and the basis for autonomous attitudes and behaviors. data was gathered through students’ perceptions of the effectiveness of the activities, reflections, and students performances in their english class. the outcomes reveal that integrating the use of metacognitive control strategies and independent activities enhanced by the use of ict within the context of basic-level language learning has a positive impact on students’ performance. it not only contributes to the development of student’s language proficiency, but also provides them with insights about themselves as learners. this experience can also be transferred to other aspects of students’ academic lives and thus play a role in achieving lifelong learning. the approach undertaken during this experience is shown to enhance student understanding in a way which is consistent with sociocultural theories of learning. keywords: metacognition, awareness, ict tools, linguistic proficiency 1 received: august 6, 2013 / accepted: october 1, 2013 2 email: andixies@gmail.com, mariosuarezsanchez@gmail.com gist education and learning research journal. issn 1692-5777. no. 7, november 2013. pp. 154-172 ariza & suárez no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) 155 resumen este artículo presenta un estudio de investigación-acción que integró las actividades realizadas en dos asignaturas cursadas por los estudiantes de inglés de primer semestre durante un semestre académico. los estudiantes recibieron orientación de sus docentes en cuanto a la toma de decisiones, trabajo independiente, y el desarrollo de procesos metacognitivos para estudiar inglés usando herramientas tics. los investigadores consideran que el desarrollo de la conciencia metacognitiva es una condición clave para facilitar el aprendizaje autorregulado que a su vez es la base de comportamientos y actitudes que evidencian el inicio de los estudiantes en el proceso de desarrollo de la autonomía. los datos provienen de las percepciones de los estudiantes sobre la efectividad de las actividades realizadas, reflexiones y el desempeño de los estudiantes en la clase de inglés. los resultados sugieren que el integrar el uso de las estrategias metacognitivas, las actividades independientes, y el uso de las tics en el contexto del aprendizaje de idiomas a nivel básico genera un impacto positivo en el desempeño de los estudiantes. lo anterior, no sólo contribuye al desarrollo de la competencia lingüística de los estudiantes, sino también les proporciona conocimientos sobre sí mismos como aprendices. esta experiencia también puede ser transferida a otros aspectos de la vida académica de los estudiantes permitiéndoles lograr los objetivos de aprendizaje a lo largo de la vida. el enfoque en el que se enmarcó esta experiencia muestra que la comprensión de los estudiantes mejora en la medida en que esta sea consistente con las teorías socioculturales del aprendizaje. palabras clave: metacognición, conciencia, herramientas tics, competencia lingüística resumo este artigo apresenta um estudo de pesquisa-ação que integrou as atividades realizadas em duas disciplinas cursadas pelos estudantes de inglês de primeiro semestre durante um semestre acadêmico. os estudantes receberam orientação de seus docentes em quanto a toma de decisões, trabalho autônomo, e o desenvolvimento de processos meta-cognitivos para estudar inglês usando ferramentas tic. os pesquisadores consideram que o desenvolvimento da consciência meta-cognitiva, é uma condição chave para facilitar a aprendizagem autorregulada que ao mesmo tempo é à base de comportamentos e atitudes que evidenciam o início dos estudantes no processo de desenvolvimento da autonomia. os dados provêm das percepções dos estudantes sobre a efetividade das atividades realizadas, reflexões e o desempenho dos estudantes na aula de inglês. os resultados sugerem que o integrar o uso das estratégias meta-cognitivas, as atividades autônomas, e o uso das tic no contexto da aprendizagem de idiomas ao nível básico gera um impacto positivo no desempenho dos estudantes. o anterior, não só contribui ao desenvolvimento da competência linguística dos estudantes, senão que também lhes proporciona conhecimentos sobre si mesmos como aprendizes. esta experiência também pode ser transferida a outros aspectos da vida acadêmica dos estudantes ariza & suárez no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) 156 permitindo-lhes conseguir os objetivos de aprendizagem ao longo da vida. o enfoque no que se delimitou esta experiência mostra que a compreensão dos estudantes melhora na medida em que esta for consistente com as teorias socioculturais da aprendizagem. palavras chave: meta-cognição, consciência, ferramentas tic, competência linguística introduction the development of autonomy implies students being able to selfregulate. that is, students take responsibility to find the ways to enhance their learning process by paying attention specifically to critical aspects, such as setting goals, selecting appropriate methods, and monitoring procedures (holec, as cited in benson, 2001). framed within a vygotskian point of view, this process of self-regulation is understood in terms of inner speech, in which students can improve their ability to learn through the use of metacognitive strategies. metacognition implies the conscious control of how students deal with information, and how they take flexible control. this study is based on the belief that engaging students in self-monitoring and helping them keep track of what they are thinking and feeling while learning will help them increase their knowledge of themselves as learners. this knowledge is believed to also guide and affect the future of their language learning. research has shown that teaching students to recognize the effectiveness of using metacognitive strategies helps motivate them to use them (king, 2011). it also requires additional time, guidance and effort. further, it is acknowledged that the use of ict tools suits this development as it seems to demand more responsibility on behalf of the students (beetham & oliver 2010). these tools offer a wide range of alternatives, and thus students feel there is more compatibility with their learning styles and preferences. the following research question guided this study: • how effective is the integration of ict tools and activities to foster students’ autonomous attitudes and behavior in the first level of english for the development of awareness as the first stage towards reaching learning autonomy? effectiveness of the integration of ict tools ariza & suárez no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) 157 with this in mind, several data collection instruments were used. surveys, designed both by the institution and by the research team, as well as reflections written by the students, and informal field notes taken in one of the classes helped to guide the project and the pedagogical intervention. at the end, it was possible to see that participants exhibited attitudes and behaviors that, according to scharle and szabó (2000), correspond to the first stage of developing learner autonomy. literature review autonomy and autonomous learning for the purpose of this study little’s (1991) definition of learner autonomy, as the “capacity students have for detachment, critical reflection, decision making and independent action vis-a-vis their learning process” will be adopted (p. 94). it means that students who are allowed to set their own learning goals and analyze their own progress show signs of becoming autonomous. this occurs once they objectively see the nature of their performance, the challenges they need to face, and the means and steps to take to continue succeeding. another attempt to define learner autonomy is provided by dickinson (1987). here, four issues are addressed; namely, the independence provided to students in order to determine their own learning goals, the path to achieve the goal, the learning pace, and the measurement of success. the first depicts students taking control (benson, 2001) of the learning circumstances, in regards to both interests and needs. this control taking implies a student who acknowledges the how in the learning process and who involves not only the tools at hand but also the strategies underlying their effective implementation. to exemplify, king (2011) mentions the positive impact of using portfolios to collect the students’ outcomes and reflections. metacognition and self-awareness although the term metacognition has been given different assertions by different authors, most of them agree on approaching three core aspects, namely knowledge about knowledge, knowledge of how we are thinking at the moment, and control over our thinking (kilpatrick, 1985). metacognition is defined by flavell, miller and miller (1993) as “one’s knowledge concerning one’s own cognitive processes and products or anything related to them” (p. 232). in this sense, the metacognitive process takes place along with thinking processes. this means that the effectiveness of the integration of ict tools ariza & suárez no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) 158 mind becomes aware of itself. metacognition has to do with students’ awareness of their own cognitive processes and the regulation of these processes in order to reach a specific goal so that a reasonable assessment can be made about present and future performance. activities such as planning, setting goals, thinking about and describing procedures, monitoring and controlling performances, solving problems, monitoring and assessing one’s own thought processes and decisions are metacognitive in nature and considered useful to help students reach high-order thinking skills. bringle and hatcher (1999) explain that effective reflection activities that link experience to learning objectives should be guided, occur regularly, allow feedback and assessment, and include the clarification of values. these require direction and guidance from the instructor for students to get the most out of the experience. the authors also point out the importance of reflection about academic courses to stimulate contextualization and connections between academic learning and practical experience. teachers should engage students through demanding activities and promote self-evaluation and self-monitoring to help them get to know themselves as learners. this way, academic development is more likely to occur, specifically in the area of language learning. for instance, chuk (2003) reports on metacognition carried out through exploratory practice where students’ engagement was evaluated following sinclair’s framework. it is also believed that the teaching and implementing of metacognitive strategies oriented towards the learning process contribute to the improvement of students’ linguistic skills (nakatani, (2005). for instance, dafei (2007) indicated that after analyzing proficiency tests, questionnaires, and interviews, it was possible to acknowledge a linear correlation between students’ autonomy and proficiency when the latter did not demonstrate a significant difference. dafei found that the more autonomous a learner becomes, the more likely he or she is to achieve high language proficiency (p. 13). in addition, these findings were consistent with the teacher’s own perception of students with higher proficiency, who “had a strong awareness of self-planning, self-management, selfmonitoring and self-evaluation.” this is in contrast to students with lower proficiency, who were “less confident, passively involved in the classroom activities and lacked control over learning” (p. 15). golonka (2006) also links learners’ awareness to linguistic competence. this study indicates that students who developed metalinguistic skills by implementing self-monitoring strategies at the level of correction and repair were the ones who demonstrated a effectiveness of the integration of ict tools ariza & suárez no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) 159 “gain” in their performance. golonka also concludes that “the more self-corrections and repairs that were used by the learner, the greater the gain he or she achieved” (p. 503). these gains are attributed to the positive behavior of executive-thinking processes. technology for the purposes of this research, it is important to point out that computer assisted language learning, or call, seems to demand more responsibility on behalf of the students. beetham and oliver (2010) talk about a new paradigm where the management of digital forms of information requires everyone “to be independent, selfmotivated and self-evaluating … (and) learning for life is no longer a policy buzzword but a requirement” (p. 158). this phenomenon also co-exists with individuals’ social, cultural, and educational spheres. educational institutions are being confronted by the learners’ interest in the massive availability of resources provided by open content creators and online networks. at the same time, learners need to reflect on their practices as well as their management of technologies and sources. nevertheless, both institutions and learners may fail to account for the latter’s ability to cope with information. the role of the teacher is then critical in order to offer accompaniment, support and preparation. according to hubbard, this implies being aware of what is to be done, the reason behind it, and how to make it happen (as cited in levi & stockwell, 2006). jones (2001) highlights precisely the key role played by the teacher in fostering autonomous behavior. he depicts four major constraints on the use of call to promote autonomy: the lack of technical competence, the lack of interest, disinclination to be autonomous, and poor interaction on the part of the learner. jones also points out the importance of a ‘call pedagogy’ or training for the teacher to anticipate learners’ needs. this is consistent with the research carried out by ying (2002) which evaluated a syllabus oriented to improve students’ proficiency and foster autonomy through enhancing the use of technology. the author demonstrated that “infusing technology in the classroom may significantly contribute to the growth in learners’ motivation, autonomy and thinking skills” (p. 35). regarding the selection and use of materials, they may also help to enhance the student’s individual learning experience as well as the institution’s expectations of the language program and the course effectiveness of the integration of ict tools ariza & suárez no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) 160 (dudeney & hockly, 2007). this is consistent with what healey (2002) found after designing a course called individualized directed learning, which incorporated the use of computers and videos to the conventional offering of textbooks, assistants, and speaking groups. healey concluded that even though technology is not a solution on its own, it does provide a great deal of resources and potential in order to create an effective autonomous learning environment. to sum up, it is possible to claim that this research is consistent with rubin’s (1975) vision of a good learner as “one who sets his or her own direction and takes responsibility for his or her own learning” (p. 44). the research also argues for developing metacognitive skills, tracking and assessing learners, and identifying learning styles. in addition, call allows students to explore the plethora of resources available on the internet, and thus multiply the possibilities of identifying web tools that suit their learning styles and preferences. provided appropriate training and engagement, students may also be able to construct effective, solid, and consistent study habits. methodology research design action research regards problem solving and reflection as key factors. mills (2007) defines action research as a “systematic inquiry (…) to gather information about how schools operate, how they teach, and how well their students learn” (p. 5). cohen and manion (as cited in rodriguez 2007) highlight that “action research takes into account situational, collaborative, participatory, and self-evaluative aspects” (p. 236). the pedagogical intervention described below required the team to constantly observe students’ behaviors and attitudes in order to make decisions. a careful and structured reflection to air and discuss (wallace, 1998) the steps to take facilitated the smooth implementation of activities in the classes and enabled the researchers to gather more reliable and comprehensive data. in sum, as mills (2007) puts it, the data are collected “with the goals of gaining insight, developing reflective practice, effective positive changes in the school environment (and on educational practices in general), and improving student outcomes and the lives of those involved” (p. 5). effectiveness of the integration of ict tools ariza & suárez no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) 161 setting and participants the participants in this project were a group of thirteen students in first semester of an undergraduate bilingual education teaching program. the students were enrolled in two courses simultaneously, english i and practice of autonomous learning as part of the program for first semester. however, almost all the students had started previously in an introductory semester designed for students who lack enough linguistic proficiency in english to face the challenge of taking content classes in english. in terms of technology, it was decided to use internet tools as a means to support students’ experience and also to foster connections with yet another course students were taking, called educational technology, which was taught in spanish. this course is intended to enhance basic ict skills through tasks that are mostly oriented to affect the different learning processes undertaken throughout the program. data collection instruments surveys and field notes were used to obtain students’ insights about the experience. this was due to both their rigor and flexibility in allowing for a comprehensive treatment of the data. two surveys were administered at different stages. first, the institution had designed a questionnaire type survey format with open-ended questions in order to collect students’ perception of the classes offered halfway through the semester. the survey requires students to report what they find useful, what they like best, and any suggestions they might have for the instructor. at the end of the process, students were asked to take another survey. this survey followed a semi-structured format designed to specifically address the multidisciplinary experience. it included questions about the nature and impact of the activities carried out, students’ linguistic skills, and their perceptions about the use of technology and the experience as a whole. in addition, further evidence was provided via e-mail on a weekly basis. at the end, participants were also asked to write a reflection that summarized what the project meant for them. finally, informal field notes were collected during class discussions in the autonomous learning class. this allowed the authors to gather students’ comments and conclusions. pedagogical intervention this was a project implemented in two separate environments where students were able to reflect on their english learning process. effectiveness of the integration of ict tools ariza & suárez no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) 162 first, students were introduced to the reference website learning environment (suarez, 2011) with the objective of establishing a space for all the dynamics taking place. students identified the areas they wished to focus on based on their weaknesses or interests. the website was designed to include a blog and other complementary resources with the aim of supporting the tasks learners decided to undertake. the blog entries contained links to and a short description of websites to study english. to facilitate exploration and decision making, the entries were organized by tags that indicated the skill or area of focus. in addition, during the weekly two hour sessions of the practice of autonomous learning class, students took part in activities aimed at helping them develop their sense of responsibility towards their learning process, specifically following scharle and szabó’s (2000) ideas on raising awareness as the first stage. the activities were directed at helping students discover more about themselves as learners, recognizing their strengths and weaknesses, and exploring some of the skills likely to help them succeed as english students and future teachers. this was done by supporting the use of learning strategies, specifically setting objectives, planning, self-evaluating, cooperating, as well as understanding the hidden intentions of tasks teachers propose. there were also discussion and reflection sessions to familiarize students with sets of practice routines that provided a connection between the websites and the autonomous work. since it was the first time students went through an experience like this, it was necessary to take into account what scharle and szabó (2000) indicate about fostering responsibility as a first stage in raising awareness. this is because it is assumed that students may not be very responsible at the outset. as a parallel exercise, in the autonomous learning class students were given instruction on how to write a reflection. they were asked to account for their inner speech, explaining first the objectives they had in mind, the steps they undertook, and the reasons why they accomplished or omitted certain actions. they were expected to go beyond the intrapersonal discourse to integrate their personal and academic experiences in their language and make connections between the subjects they were studying, the academic language, learning strategies, and concepts studied in both classes. in relation to the suggested length of each day of practice, cognitive pedagogy theories (sousa, 2006) were taken into account to offer the brain “short and, of course, meaningful” opportunities to make sense of the new information and retain it by creating moments for mass and distributed practice, the latter being “key to retention.” consistently, effectiveness of the integration of ict tools ariza & suárez no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) 163 the aforementioned samples took no more than 20 minutes of practice in order to make sure the down-time, that is the time during learning “when it is more difficult for retention to occur” (p. 89), is close to 10 percent of the time devoted to practice. a major component of students’ independent work relied on the need to make sure there was something observable at the end of every moment of practice. as a parallel activity, it was also important for them to describe how comfortable the practice was every day, so they could acknowledge the extent to which they may have struggled dealing with new input. for eight weeks, the group sent files on a weekly basis where this evidence was articulated, but during the last two weeks of the project, they made their own decisions regarding a new series of objectives, websites, resources, sequences of work, evidence, and reflection. data analysis and interpretation the criteria used to assess activities was mainly based on students’ preferences, self-assessment, the sensation of progress derived from doing the activities for ten weeks, as well as students’ performance during the english class. the information obtained underwent a process of triangulation, described by hopkins as the action of “contrasting perceptions of one actor in a specific situation against other actors in the same situation” (as cited in koshy, 2005) to obtain insight in order to find emerging patterns. ideas considered to be associated in significant ways were clustered together, as stringer (2007) suggests. other factors considered included the times in which students made their understanding of the purpose of the activities explicit, as well as their willingness to continue using them or transferring them to other learning processes. results the information gathered throughout this project reveals that the activities designed to be completed independently had an overall positive impact on students. this impact can be seen in both operational and attitudinal aspects, operational in the sense of the practical actions they carried out and attitudinal as they guide their own actions. students acknowledged the importance of having routines and acquiring good habits. they also realized that a stricter observation of their free-time activities made it possible to achieve what they had in mind. one student claimed, effectiveness of the integration of ict tools ariza & suárez no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) 164 this work is based in your responsibility. the next time i want to be more commitment with my autonomous learning (..) i will be more demanding with myself. when asked about what had been learned in the course, one student stated that the “different methods to study” was just as important as “grammar to improve my writing” or “to relax.” in sum, they not only developed their linguistic abilities, but there was also a transfer of the experience to their daily life. being able to manage their time turned out to be a critical factor in their reflections at the end of the process and probably the most important for some of them. for instance, one student stated: i can improve every day if i practice; or if i effort myself, i’m going to continue have good results as now. this may also be related to practical purposes. in one of the reflections, another student commented about thinking about the time to study english. i had to leave some tv programs. it was hard but now i can see the reward, it is my knowledge and nobody can take it away from me. this means that as students were mainly interested in improving their language proficiency, they also thought that they had to be organized with their time so they could look for different opportunities to practice. as one student put it, in this experience “students use very well the time to study (so) i learn to take control of my time and take control of (my study).” figure 1 lists those activities from the practice of autonomous learning class that had the most positive impact amongst students. figure 1. activities that had a more positive impact amongst students effectiveness of the integration of ict tools ariza & suárez no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) 165 although students were offered a variety of possibilities to choose from to practice their language skills, they leaned towards activities to improve their pronunciation and listening abilities. in addition, students believed that if they could understand ideas and make themselves understood knowing when to use the vocabulary and expressions they had learned, there would be certain evidence of progress in their learning of a language. all in all, students saw their progress in terms of the completeness of their understanding and their effectiveness in expressing ideas. in other words, they were focused on accuracy. this is clear evidence of what zimmerman discusses when characterizing self-regulated learners (1990). these learners can be identified by their awareness of performance outcomes and by their adjustment of their performance to changing conditions before getting feedback from their teacher. regarding the reflective processes carried out by students, there is some variation in students’ perceptions. they recognized that reflecting was vital to help them focus, evaluate their learning process, and make decisions. surprisingly, less than half of the students considered instruction on how to write a reflection the most useful activity. this suggests that students were more interested in activities which may have had a concrete and immediate application. it also suggests that teachers should think of and implement other ways to address this issue. students considered some activities useful to promote linguistic awareness, such as vocabulary games, learning parts of the speech, prefixes, suffixes, and guessing meaning from context. students reported that these were very useful since they can “develop the ability to think faster,” look for different possibilities to convey meaning, play with the language, go beyond translation and fixed structures, and see the language from a more realistic perspective. learning the language is, according to one of the participants, “learning vocabulary and some grammar and being able to communicate with other classmates, making yourself understood.” students acknowledged that knowing some specialized linguistic terms also made them more independent, as they were able to look for information by themselves, know what to ask for, and even start approaching the language from a future teacher’s perspective. evidence of this was the gradual acquisition and use of metalanguage by students. they used terms similar to the ones teachers used to refer to their activities or the aspects they had to improve. for instance, one indicated that she can now “differentiate between if a sentence is fused or splice.” participants also acknowledged that metacognitive dynamics, namely being able to monitor their mistakes, self-assess, and have effectiveness of the integration of ict tools ariza & suárez no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) 166 control over their actions, helped them in their language proficiency and their learning process. what is more, they pondered how they could make use of these skills in other scenarios. for instance, one student said: i think that i’m going to continue work in those skills in my vacations because i want to prove if i can work autonomously without any teacher in the two months that we have. another claimed, when being asked about the possibility of continuing working in this way, he wondered if the use of these dynamics in other courses (including english) could bring the same “unimprovable results, well then welcome this method to the other courses.” it is worth mentioning that when asked about what they had learned from the experience, the participants in this study made explicit that they placed value on making an effort and being responsible and consistent if they were to achieve the desired results. at the end of the process one student stated the following: i have to say that there were cases where the exercises were difficult, but i also have to say that those were the exercise more useful and interesting for me. another student highlighted for instance, “my process have been very productive. i can speak more naturally.” although it might seem obvious to some adults and almost every teacher that effort pays off, the majority of the participants, being 16 to 20 years old, asserted that they were aware of the connection between effort, consistency, and achievement. after asking what was learned aside from english during the project, one student indicated that independent work was necessary to improve any skill, and commitment was necessary to see good results. another concluded the following: i realize how important is to be focused and motivated...and practice -but real practicebecause when you talk you say that to learn a language you need to practice. you really have to do it. furthermore, participants reported that during this experience they started to question their own performances and procedures since they noted their self-assessment was more informed and objective. this can be linked to having certain control of their learning process. at the end of the process, one student claimed that the experience helped to be one’s own monitor, finding mistakes and, “more relevant,” giving a solution to them. however, beyond that, what the evidence reveals is effectiveness of the integration of ict tools ariza & suárez no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) 167 that the feeling of reward and self-satisfaction may be a key aspect to the maintenance and continuity of their actions. the role of technological tools throughout the project, and the impact they caused amongst students were in general terms positive. consistent with the findings from kurec’s research (2002), the merging of technology in the routines contributed significantly to the growth of the group’s motivation. at the end of the process, there were no participants who indicated they had a negative perception of the implementation of technological tools. figure 2 indicates how neutral or positive this impact was. figure 2. impact of technological tools finally, another aspect that emerged was students’ appraisal of the teacher’s performance. first, they appreciated it in the sense that they received useful explanations about the topics and that the teacher tried many strategies to help them reach understanding. one student stated that he liked that “the teacher wants us to be independent (and) gives tips to monitor ourselves.” second, they recognized the teacher’s feedback and comments on what was accurate or inaccurate as being very effective. they also found that more than looking for information about students’ performance, the teacher was really concerned about their progress. finally, they used the advice provided to continue, complement, enhance, or change the activities they had chosen. “at the beginning i didn’t really know what to do but i asked the teacher for more help and i received more practice exercises to practice easier sounds... (and) then i understood the position of the lips. you need to effectiveness of the integration of ict tools ariza & suárez no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) 168 know that to pronounce well. you listen and you don’t pronounce well. i think that mario’s comments are very important; he gives good ideas on what i can do.” one more finding that was revealing has to do with the attitude towards the project. at the beginning of the process, students made their decisions mainly to meet the challenges posed by the teacher. however, the answers they provided in the middle of the process and at the end show that some students, besides keeping the idea of meeting these challenges, were concerned about their own improvement and started to adapt their actions based on what they considered to be useful and rewarding. as intended at the end of the intervention, some students proposed their own new activities; some of them kept the same objectives but came up with new ways to achieve them, while others tried new ways to make their processes more dynamic and enjoyable. students based their decisions on the effectiveness or variety of the activities and none of them discarded the procedures as being useless. these findings show clear consistency with the beginning of becoming independent, sharing responsibilities in their learning process, and transferring roles (scharle and szabó, 2000). this evidence leads to think that students are functioning at the first stage of developing autonomy. conclusions integrating the use of metacognitive control strategies, independent activities enhanced by ict tools within the context of language learning for beginners not only contributes to the development of student’s language proficiency, but also provides them with insights of themselves as learners. this experience can be transferred to other situations of learners’ academic lives and is key to long life learning. the processes undertaken during this project provide a basis for the internalization of a set of practices proposed to address learning challenges as a metacognitive approach that may contribute to making students become self-regulated learners. an important aspect observed throughout the intervention was that even though all the students showed improvement in their second language level, not all of them reached the stage of awareness to the same degree. it is possible to assert then that there are stages within this stage of awareness that are closely related to students’ sense of responsibility, commitment, consistency, and good performance. further study will be required to characterize what is actually needed effectiveness of the integration of ict tools ariza & suárez no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) 169 to maximize the benefits of the process. being aware of one’s learning process is, all in all, a sign of being a self-regulated learner who has started to naturally undertake autonomous attitudes and behaviors. due to the parallel activity in both classes during the project, the time participants spent in the english i class getting familiar with the dynamics and carrying out the suggested step-by-step work routines in the websites did not correspond to the time students spent developing their skills to be both attentive and descriptive when observing their own performance. there were exercises that were designed to approach and foster perception and awareness amongst students in a scaffolded way. nevertheless, the nature of some sequences invited students to notice changes in perception and behavior from the very beginning, and the few sentences they created to describe that perception were not very informative. as this was the first attempt to combine efforts, the experience also suggested an evaluation and restructuring of the dynamics proposed in both environments to distinguish a clearer path to a real changing of habits and behaviors (scharle & szabó 2000) in favor of a development of learning responsibility. another issue that may have interfered in the nature of the data collected and the entire experience of the participants during the project is the fact that learners were working towards grades in both classes. it is clear that students care about getting at least a passing grade, consistent with sekiguchi (2011). students were required to submit reports and take surveys as part of the requirements of the english course, and yet, demonstrated an ability to self-regulate their own learning. another issue is related to web service providers. the project was originally designed in an online social network that was free-of-charge in order to create a sense of closeness, comfort, and belonging amongst participants. however, the contents had to be migrated when the free service expired. this inconvenience required looking for other options. it is advised to look for an lms like moodle if a similar effort is to be undertaken since it offers the possibility to carry out all the stages and establish a smooth communication with the participants. it also allows for the integration all the components and resources the project entails. finally, it is not possible to state that students have already internalized processes; however, there is strong evidence that this project contributes to being on the right track as students are likely to evidence a natural exercise of autonomous behaviors and attitudes. this leads to pose the need for an extension of the project in the remaining english courses of the institution’s program. effectiveness of the integration of ict tools ariza & suárez no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) 170 references beetham, h., & oliver, m., (2010). the changing practices of knowledge and learning. in r. sharpe, h. beetham & s. de freitas (eds.), rethinking learning for a digital age: how learners are shaping their own experiences (pp 155-169). new york: routledge. 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(1993). cognitive development (3rd ed). englewood cliffs, nj: prentice hall. golonka, e. (2006). predictors revised. linguistic knowledge and metalinguistic awareness in second language gain in russian. the modern language journal, 90(4), 496-505. healey, d. (2002, april 07). deborah healey’s attic. retrieved from: http://www.deborahhealey.com/tesol2002/autonomy.html jones, j. (2001, june). call and the teacher’s role in promoting learner autonomy. retrieved from: call ej online: http://callej. org/journal/3-1/jones.html kilpatrick, j. (1985). reflection and recursion. in proceedings of the fifth international congress on mathematical education (pp. 7-29). boston: birkäuser. effectiveness of the integration of ict tools ariza & suárez no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) 171 king, c. 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(2007). self-assessment practices: an empowering tool in the teaching and learning efl processes. colombian applied linguistics journal, 2007(9). 229-246. rubin, j. (1975). what the “good language learner” can teach us. tesol quarterly, 9(1), 41-51. scharle, á., & szabó, a. (2000). learner autonomy. a guide to developing learner responsibility. cambridge: cambridge university press. sekiguchi, s. (2011). investigating effects of the ipad on japanese efl students’ selfregulated study. international conference “ict for language learning”, 4th edition. retrieved from http://www.pixelonline.net/ict4ll2011/common/download/paper_pdf/ibl33-246fp-sekiguchi-ict4ll.pdf sousa, d. (2006). how the brain learns (3rd ed.). thousand oaks, ca: corwin press. stringer, e. (2007). action research. thousand oaks: sage publications. suarez, m. (2011). learning environment. retrieved from http:// learningenvironment.weebly.com. effectiveness of the integration of ict tools ariza & suárez no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) 172 wallace, m. (1998). action research for language teachers. cambridge: cambridge university press. ying, f., (2002). the internet in esl college education: a proposal for the internet-enhanced college course. the journal of teaching english with technology, 2 (5), 3-38. zimmerman, b. (1990). self-regulated learning and academic achievement: an overview. educational psychologist, 25(1), 3-17. authors *andrea ariza earned her degree in modern languages from the universidad de los andes. she also holds an ma in education from the universidad javeriana. she has worked as language professor and language and practicum supervisor at the universidad de la sabana and universidad nacional de colombia respectively. at this moment she is a full time professor at unica and also leads the research line in pedagogy and ict at the same institution. *mario suárez sánchez is an educator dedicated to research. he holds a b.a. degree in philology and languages from the universidad nacional de colombia and is currently enrolled in the bilingual education specialization offered at única. he is an english and educational technology teacher and also contributes to the pedagogy and ict research team. effectiveness of the integration of ict tools no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) gistseptiembre2011final2.indd 180 a spectrum of situatedness for world language educators: a self-assessment tool1 david schwarzer2* and melanie bloom montclair state university, university of nebraska, usa abstract we believe that world language education at all levels of instruction in the united states is in crisis. in this article, we respond to this crisis by proposing a spectrum of situatedness and its relation to five distinct pedagogical approaches in world language education. we help to elucidate this spectrum with classroom vignettes, illustrating different scenarios in world language education and some of their curricular components. we then conclude the article with the presentation of a tool to aid the reader in self-guiding and selfdirecting their own pedagogical practices. this tool is not conceptualized as a prescriptive option but rather as an instrument to help guide us in our academic endeavors. our hope is that this notion of a spectrum helps us find a more precise terminology for characterizing our classrooms and our practices. we are arguing for a more balanced and reflective view of curriculum development in which teachers’ philosophies and pedagogic views are the major catalyst for programmatic development and change. keywords: pedagogy, situated language education, contextualized language instruction, service-learning, cooperative education resumen creemos que la educación en el mundo del lenguaje, en todos los niveles de la enseñanza, en los estados unidos está en crisis. en este artículo respondemos a esta crisis mediante la propuesta de un modelo situacional y su relación con cinco diferentes enfoques pedagógicos existentes en la enseñanza de idiomas a nivel mundial. esclareceremos este espectro con la ayuda de cuadros del salón de clases que ilustren diferentes escenarios en el mundo del lenguaje y algunos de sus componentes curriculares. concluimos el artículo con la presentación de una herramienta que ayude al lector a orientar y direccionar sus propias prácticas pedagógicas. esta herramienta no se debe concebir como una opción prescrita sino más bien como un instrumento para orientar y guiar nuestros esfuerzos académicos. se espera que esta noción del modelo propuesto sea útil 1 received: november 30th,2010 / accepted: july 19th, 2011 2 email: schwarzerd@mail.montclair.edu gist education and learning research journal. issn 1692-5777. no. 5, november 2011. pp. 180-201 no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) 181 para encontrar una terminología más exacta para caracterizar nuestras aulas de clase y nuestras prácticas pedagógicas. estamos abogando por una visión más equilibrada y reflexiva del desarrollo curricular, en el cual la filosofía de los docentes y sus puntos de vista pedagógicos sean los principales agentes para el desarrollo programático y el cambio. palabras claves: pedagogía, enseñanza situada, enseñanza contextualizada de las lenguas, aprendizaje-servicio, educación cooperativa resumo achamos que a educação no mundo da linguagem, em todos os níveis do ensino, nos estados unidos está em crise. neste artigo respondemos a esta crise mediante a proposta de um modelo situacional e a sua relação com cinco diferentes enfoques pedagógicos existentes no ensino de idiomas a nível mundial. esclareceremos este espectro com a ajuda de quadros da sala de aulas que ilustrem diferentes cenários no mundo da linguagem e alguns dos seus componentes curriculares. concluímos o artigo com a apresentação de uma ferramenta que ajude o leitor a orientar e direcionar suas próprias práticas pedagógicas. esta ferramenta não se deve conceber como uma opção prescrita senão mais bem como um instrumento para orientar e guiar os nossos esforços acadêmicos. espera-se que esta noção do modelo proposto seja útil para encontrar uma terminologia mais exata para caracterizar as nossas salas de aula a nossas práticas pedagógicas. estamos advogando por uma visão mais equilibrada e reflexiva do desenvolvimento curricular, no qual a filosofia dos docentes e seus pontos de vista pedagógicos sejam os principais agentes para o desenvolvimento programático e a mudança. palavras chaves: pedagogia, ensino situado, ensino contextualizado das línguas, aprendizagem-serviço, educação cooperativa in the united states, world language education programs in various languages and contexts have failed to produce advanced language students (see magnan, 1986; rifkin, 2005; robin, 2000; tschirner, 1996). this may be due to the limited number of contact hours that students have with the target language, or it may be due to the language curricula as well. one way the language education community is currently addressing this issue is through examining and reconsidering the connections between language curricula and language learning outcomes, which is largely done through creating and implementing standards-based curricula (for examples, see adair-hauck, glisan, koda, swender, & sandrock, 2006; cummins & davesne, 2009; glisan, uribe, & adair-hauck, 2007; little, 2005). we hope to participate in this process by presenting one possible solution. we have developed a no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) 182 tool to help guide language educators develop a more or less situated approach to teaching world languages. the proposed tool should not be understood as a prescriptive method of teaching or curriculum development (kumaravadivelu, 2003); rather, it should be understood as a means of self-assessment, used to assist teachers in analyzing their own practice in order to empower and guide them in their curriculum development practices. as with any spectrum, ours can be used as a guide for teachers and researchers to find their own stance in a wide variety of world language education practices and pedagogies. we also hope that the world language education community will find this evolving tool helpful in examining and redefining the pedagogical approaches we take in educating language students. as a field, we often resort to simple dichotomies to describe language learning and teaching contexts such as contextualized/ de-contextualized, authentic/inauthentic, communicative/noncommunicative, etc. our proposed spectrum attempts to portray a more complete and complex way to look at the many approaches we might take in our specific teaching and learning contexts. “situatedness” typically refers to learning by doing; however, here we borrow from lave and wenger’s (1991) definition, which recognizes that learning cannot be separated from the social practices in which it occurs. in the context of language teaching, these social practices include practices in the classroom, which is a social structure itself, or practices within the target language community. however, we argue that more situated social practices would occur within more authentic settings, such as in interactions with members of the target language community. in this article, we present a rationale for the development of our spectrum, introduce the spectrum itself, exemplify the spectrum through vignettes of five pedagogical approaches, and close with a tool allowing the reader to self-assess his or her own pedagogical practices. note here that the spectrum we are proposing is based on situatedness rather than communicativeness (or lack of it) or authenticity (or lack of it). these latter terms have become en vogue in language teaching profession as describing “ideal” types of language programs, classrooms, or materials. however, the definitions of these terms often vary widely depending on the person using them. we have observed many language classes labeled “communicative” and have noted that no two truly look alike. for example, we visited a “communicative” college-level spanish class in which the instructor spent the majority of the class period on a teacher-centered lesson on grammar. at the end of the class period, students worked on an a spectrum of situatedness for world language educators schwarzer and bloom no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) 183 information gap crossword puzzle, which most of them completed in english. this class is then contrasted with a “communicative” high school french class in which the instructor used a typical classroom discourse pattern of teacher-initiated questions, student responses, and teacher evaluations (mehan, 1985) to discuss a culture lesson. this classroom discussion was followed by a teacher-assigned grammar practice in the textbook. these two classes both had teacher-centered lessons and some “communicative” interactions with the students, but that seemed to be where the similarities ended. in addition, neither followed the original tenets of communicative language teaching (richards & rogers, 1986). it is for the above-mentioned reasons that “authenticity” and “communicativeness” seem to have lost their meaning. we prefer the use of “situatedness” because, although well defined in other fields, it has not yet been extensively used in world language education. moreover, it encapsulates and predicts certain conversations about language learning and teaching that could become crucial to help alleviate the current world language education crisis. why do we need a spectrum? before we present the spectrum in its entirety, we would like to address the following questions: why do we need a new way to discuss pedagogical approaches to world language teaching? and whom does this discussion serve? first, we believe that, as educators and researchers in the world language education field, we have become increasingly accustomed to using dichotomies to describe a variety of complex phenomena. for example, we typically discuss language classrooms as contextualized or decontextualized, as communicative or grammar translation, etc. characterizing classrooms in this dichotomous manner typically connotes one label as inherently good or desirable while the other is bad or undesirable. however, if we suggest that a language classroom may have a mixture of the elements from each of these pedagogical approaches, it is labeled as “eclectic.” the eclectic label may be just as undesirable as “decontextualized” as it is often considered unprincipled (richards & rogers, 1986). by labeling themselves eclectic, teachers may be hiding a lack of theoretical understanding. thus, the dichotomies that we have created in discussing what we do as world language educators can often lead to erroneous assumptions about the quality of education we provide our students. however, we still need some kind of language or tool to define our practice, to discuss our teaching within and outside of the profession, and to be accountable for what we do in the classroom. here we are suggesting a new way of discussing both pedagogical approaches and curricular components (including a spectrum of situatedness for world language educators schwarzer and bloom no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) 184 unit planning, students’ needs, material development, audience, and assessment) with a spectrum. this spectrum represents a continuum of possibilities, but does not qualify them as inherently good or bad as some continua do. we propose a spectrum as a better way to discuss phenomena in world language education for two reasons: first, it allows for more variation of language classrooms and programs without stigmatizing them as unfocused or theoretically based, and second, teachers will be able to identify their practice with an appropriate term that could provide access to an already established knowledge base. all instructors have preferences and particular ways of running their classrooms, but what they may not realize is that their teaching style fits within an already existing pedagogy. for the interested teacher, this realization may lead to the exploration of the already existing literature that will further theoretical and practical understanding of his or her teaching style. the spectrum then can be used as a tool to empower world language educators by guiding them to find research that can help them expand their practice and deepen their understanding of their profession. developing an appreciation for the reciprocity between practice and theory is of fundamental importance to educators, and the proposed spectrum can act as a go-between, allowing world language teachers to create a pedagogical approach that best suits their needs. we also need to define the audience for this tool. the spectrum was developed to serve a wide range of audiences concerned with language education. we mean to engage policy-makers, program developers, curriculum developers, language teachers, and language researchers in this discussion, as we believe that the tool we have created can facilitate the discussion of language teaching at many levels. at the programmatic level, we encourage policy-makers and program and curriculum developers to use the spectrum to place their program within it. using the spectrum as a tool may help focus and justify curricular choices. it also provides a more coherent and comprehensive way to discuss many aspects of world language education at this level and may facilitate dialogue between curriculum developers and language teachers. for language teachers, this spectrum may help them organize their classrooms on a more micro-level. it allows them to place assignments or activities on the spectrum to see if their classroom activities match their overall educational goals and philosophy. finally, for world language researchers, it may allow us a more appropriate way to classify our observations and research in the world language classroom. it provides us with a more specific manner in discussing many aspects of the classroom without using dichotomous labels to describe a more complex classroom environment. a spectrum of situatedness for world language educators schwarzer and bloom no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) 185 a spectrum of situatedness for world language educators in order to illustrate the spectrum, we created one illustrative vignette for each approach. it is important to note here that each of these approaches are well known in their own right. however, they have never been placed in this particular order to refl ect the situatedness of the approach. in this context, “situatedness” refers to “the idea that the development of individual intelligence requires a social (and cultural) embedding” (lindblom & ziemke, (2003), p. 79). the spectrum represents a range of pedagogical approaches. on the left side of the spectrum are approaches and curricular components that are less socially situated than the ones in the right side of the spectrum. table 1 again, we do not introduce this spectrum to suggest that it represents a range of ineffective to effective instructional practices; rather, we present it here to depict a range of pedagogical approaches and their situatedness in real-world contexts. most world language teachers, researchers, curriculum developers and policy-makers might see themselves “living” in more than one of these categories at different times of the day or through different class activities or assignments. one class assignment might be placed in the left side of the spectrum followed by an activity that fi ts more in the right side of the spectrum. we strongly believe that a more conscious effort to fi nd the goal of our programmatic instruction is needed to solve our world language education crisis. in this article, we will describe this spectrum in detail through vignettes representing a color in the spectrum, including grammar-based language instruction, contextualized language instruction, situated learning, service-learning, and cooperative education. world language curricula internationally have already adopted many of these approaches, but are just beginning to explore others. thus, some of the approaches we suggest do not yet have a strong history in the fi eld of world language education. defi nitions in order to explore these pedagogical approaches and their place in world language education, we need fi rst to defi ne them as related to the fi eld. each of the following defi nitions contains a description of the a spectrum of situatedness for world language educators schwarzer and bloom no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) 186 pedagogical approach to instruction and a vignette depicting what a typical lesson using that approach might include. grammar-based language instruction grammar-based language instruction may be the most widespread form of language instruction currently present in secondary schools in the u.s., as well as in some university environments. this type of grammar instruction is based on the premise that explicit grammar instruction can help learners attend to and/or create form-meaning connections, and it has received considerable support from researchers working in second language acquisition (see norris & ortega, 2001). it breaks language into discrete facts or pieces of knowledge to attain and tends not to situate grammar or culture lessons in the world or experiences of its students. in this light, it is the least situated of the pedagogical approaches we explore here. grammar-based language lessons typically are centered around grammatical concepts, vocabulary, or cultural facts rather than on thematic units. the five skills (reading, writing, listening, speaking, and culture) may also be taught in isolation of one another, rather than integrated into activities and assignments. lessons tend to be teacher-centered with limited opportunity for student involvement. an example of a grammar-based language lesson could be as follows: mrs. smith is starting a new unit on reflexive verbs and is helping her students learn a new phrase in spanish: “me siento bien” (i feel good—a problematic structure in spanish particularly for native englishspeakers). first, she recites several phrases containing reflexive verbs that are listed on the blackboard and asks her students to repeat after her: “me siento bien, te sientes bien, se siente bien,” etc. second, she reviews the conjugation rules for stem-changing and reflexive verbs like sentirse. third, she provides the students with the conjugations for the different personal pronouns in spanish, “yo: me siento, tú: te sientes, usted/él/ella: se siente,” etc. fourth, she assigns students to small groups and invites them to quiz each other using the exercises provided in the textbook. finally, she provides them with a worksheet for homework that contains many reflexive verbs in spanish. this worksheet will be assessed based on the students’ ability to conjugate and spell the verbs correctly. the portions for sentirse are as follows: fill in the blanks using the verb sentirse: (tú) mal (te sientes mal) (él) mejor (se siente mejor) etc. this vignette depicts a more updated version of a task within a grammar-based language classroom as there are different types of activities and classroom formats (a teacher-fronted lesson and a a spectrum of situatedness for world language educators schwarzer and bloom no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) 187 group activity). since it is a grammar-based lesson, its main purpose is a grammar point (sentirse), and correctness and error correction are highly stressed. this environment is mostly teacher-centered and does not afford students opportunities to fulfill many personal languagelearning objectives and/or life-long learning goals within the classroom environment. in terms of situatedness, the classroom is the only context for the language experience. contextualized language instruction contextualized language instruction has become an extremely popular pedagogical approach to teaching language in the united states. omaggio hadley (2001) defines contextualized language teaching as instruction that presents new vocabulary and expressions meaningfully and thematically, in which students practice language in meaningful discourse, and in which the cultural connotation of words and/or expressions are understood and related to the native speakers of the target language. in contrast to grammar-based instruction, contextualized instruction bases lessons around thematic units rather than grammatical concepts (omaggio hadley, 2001). these thematic units will often integrate one or more of the five skills with the content to be learned. although contextualized language instruction provides students with a theme for their learning, lessons may still be very teachercentered, may provide limited student choice, and may not be grounded in real purposes. what follows is an example of a contextualized lesson: mrs. smith is starting a new unit on health care and is helping her students learn a new phrase in spanish: “me siento bien” (i feel good—a problematic structure in spanish particularly for native englishspeakers). she asks her students to silently read a short excerpt from the textbook in spanish that uses this idiomatic phrase. she also presents an online video clip of a conversation between two native spanishspeakers using this phrase (the video clip was provided as ancillary material for the textbook used in the class). then, in small groups, she asks the students to create mini-conversations in which they use “me siento bien” in the context of an authentic exchange based on one of the situations depicted in their textbook. each group presents their written and oral dialogues to the whole class. mrs. smith gives the students some corrective feedback at the end of each mini-conversation. finally, she tests students’ performances by providing a fill in the blank test based on an authentic conversation used in their text. this is a contextualized classroom lesson since students are learning and practicing an authentic idiomatic phrase quite useful in the spanish language. students are also exposed to many concrete and culturally relevant examples in multimodal forms (writing, reading, a spectrum of situatedness for world language educators schwarzer and bloom no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) 188 listening, and speaking), in-person and online sources of materials, and a variety of authentic situations. students were also provided with both modeling of concrete examples and a few textbook-based choices in order to perform their dialogues. moreover, students received both feedback and a classroom audience for which to perform their dialogues. finally, the students’ work was assessed based on their comprehension of an authentic conversation (via the fill in the blank quiz). we also suggest that this lesson is situated mostly within the classroom walls, with some input from other potential contexts such as videos and digital texts. contextualized language instruction is by definition a pedagogical approach to language instruction that relates the language being learned to a specific authentic context or thematic unit. it focuses on the development of the five skills without isolating them from each other or a context. moreover, as depicted in the vignette, its goal is teaching a grammar point (sentirse), only now it is complemented by a “real life” or more authentic situation. correctness and error correction are still stressed, but within a more corrective feedback style. the environment is mostly teacher-centered and affords some textbook-based student choices that contribute to fulfill some personal goals and life-long learning opportunities within the classroom environment. in terms of situatedness, contextualized language instruction is still confined to the walls of the classroom, and the teacher largely determines the thematic unit, or the context itself. situated language learning situated language learning is a relatively new approach to world language education that has not yet become widespread. it is based on general theory of learning that states that the process of learning itself cannot be separated from the social practice in which it occurs (lave & wenger, 1991). thus, in situated language learning, learners must be involved in legitimate communication in the target language from the beginning of instruction (hall, 2001). in situated language learning, context is not enough. the learning in class must match students’ needs, interests, or purposes for language learning. not only that, but the learner must also be aware of the overall purpose of an activity or lesson in order to be situated in the learning experience (lave & wenger, 1991). the act of language learning must also extend beyond the classroom by preparing learners for real communication, by inviting “experts” in the target language and culture to the classroom, and/or by using language for real purposes. for example: mrs. smith is helping her students to define their own purposes for their spanish language study. she asks the students for five places in the local community where they might be able to practice their spanish. a spectrum of situatedness for world language educators schwarzer and bloom no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) 189 some students discover a local community-based clinic that provides health services to low income families in the area. they find out that one of the major problems for the clinic is interviewing their patients in spanish. thus, the class creates a long-term project, which will result in producing a five-question, bilingual form for the nurses at the clinic to use as well as a few student-produced videos of interviews for the nurses and doctors in the clinic to use as a reference. one of the phrases needed in spanish for this project is “¿cómo se siente? me siento bien” (how do you feel? i feel good—a problematic structure in spanish particularly for native english-speakers). mrs. smith asks her students to silently read a short excerpt from the textbook in spanish that uses this idiomatic phrase. she also provides the students with online video-clips of several conversations from a range of dialect variations of native spanish-speakers using this phrase. then, in small groups, she invites the students to create mini-conversations in which they use “me siento bien” in the context of the clinic some of them visited. each group presents their written and oral dialogues to the teacher. she gives them some corrective feedback. finally, each group performs the actual dialogues for the community-based clinic’s personnel. the students also provide the clinic with written copies of the interview guides, the video of sample interviews, and some practice worksheets. the teacher asks the students to videotape the exchange for documentation and alternative evaluation purposes. in a situated learning lesson, students have an authentic context for language use—the field of health care—but language learning is also extended beyond the classroom to become a socially situated practice. one of the goals of such a class is to help students in the world language class become more aware of the social purposes for their language use. they are able to practice interactions in the target language in the safety of their language classroom; however, their language production has a real purpose within the social context of the community-based clinic. the situated learning class not only impacts students’ language skills in a particular context, but also helps them develop a sociopolitical awareness and some of the social implications for their language learning in the context of their own communities. service-learning1 dewey (1938) defined educative experiences as those that not only generate knowledge but also encourage students to continue expanding on these experiences outside of the classroom. following this definition, many educators look to provide students with educative experiences outside of the classroom that they can incorporate into the classroom. thus, models of experiential learning flow from a spectrum of situatedness for world language educators schwarzer and bloom no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) 190 dewey’s definition of experience in education. kolb’s (1984) model of experiential learning includes a cyclical relationship between students’ concrete experiences, reflective observation, abstract conceptualization, and active experimentation. this model has been used as a basis for the development of service-learning approaches to instruction. a servicelearning approach to world language education is typically an offered or required component of an individual language course. the course assignments and discussions often reflect the students’ experiences in the service component. morris (2001) defines service-learning as requiring “learners to provide various forms of social services to individuals in their local communities. for example, learners might teach esl, serve as interpreters, and act as counsellors at women’s shelters, day cares, law firms, and employment agencies” (p. 245). service-learning of this type is currently explored primarily at the university level and within intermediate or advanced language courses (for examples, see hellebrandt & varona, 1999; long, 2003; morris, 2001; overfield, 1997a, 1997b; weldon & trautmann, 2003). an example of a servicelearning lesson might be as follows: before classes started, mrs. smith contacted the local communitybased clinic that provides health services to low-income families in the area. she spoke to the head nurse at the clinic and found that a major problem for the clinic is interviewing their patients in spanish. she also contacted the local bilingual school and she discovered that the school nurse needed help serving children that only speak spanish. mrs. smith proposed that the students in her class provide some basic spanish-language services to both of these organizations throughout the semester. once the semester starts, mrs. smith and the students negotiate their service-learning project outcomes including developing a five-question, bilingual interview form for use at both sites. students also agree to be on-site on a rotating basis to help the nurses with the interview process. mrs. smith provides the students with a few videotaped interviews for them to model and to practice in class. a vocabulary phrase needed in spanish is “¿cómo se siente? (for an adult) ¿cómo te sientes? (for a child) me siento bien” (how do you feel? i feel good—a problematic structure in spanish particularly for native english-speakers). mrs. smith asks her students to silently read a short excerpt from the textbook in spanish that uses this idiomatic phrase. she also provides them with online video clips of several conversations from a range of dialect variations of native spanishspeakers using this phrase. then, in two groups (one for the students going to the community clinic and one for the students going to the school), she invites them to create interview scenarios in which they use “me siento bien” in the context of the clinic or the school. each group presents their written and orally performed dialogues to the teacher. she gives them some corrective feedback. finally, each group member a spectrum of situatedness for world language educators schwarzer and bloom no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) 191 performs the actual interviews during the coming weeks. insights based on their performance are utilized during class time to fine-tune students’ performance at the different sites with different audiences. strategies that worked or did not work are reflected upon in student-composed reflections on their interviews and then exchanged during class time. the teacher asks them to videotape three exchanges for documentation and alternative evaluation purposes: one at the beginning of the semester, one at the middle, and one at the end. service-learning lessons tend to involve experiences outside of the classroom and the use of language in real life for authentic purposes. in addition, the students have very diverse and personal purposes. servicelearning classes may include a textbook as well as grammar and culture lessons. however, these lessons are situated within many different learning experiences as they either occur preemptively, preparing students for their service experiences, or reactionary, supporting students’ language learning concerns or needs that have arisen through service experiences. regardless, service-learning lessons are tied to a variety of students’ real-world language learning needs. some level of coordination between students’ goals and service-learning opportunities are crucial in this type of lesson. cooperative education cooperative education is a pedagogical approach to career preparation and education with a long history in various fields of study including nursing, technology, science, teacher education, etc. (world association for cooperative education, 2000). although research in the cooperative education literature has discussed issues of language and culture (see newell & tyon, 1989; sachtleben, 2002), cooperative education itself has rarely been used in the field of language education (see brown & ayres, 2006, for an exception). cooperative education pairs students with a business, community agency, hospital, etc., in the local community, and students complete an apprenticeship for a designated amount of time. thus, collaboration between schools and employers and/or organizations in the local community is vital. this approach has been used in high schools and post-secondary institutions internationally to prepare students for entering the working world (for examples, see brown & ayres, 2006; chin, steiner bell, munby, & hutchinson, 2004; eames & coll, 2006; nasr, pennington, & andres, 2004). these experiences are sometimes devalued as educative experiences as they have a vocational association and take time away from classroom learning (crow, 1997). when combined with classroom curricula, however, the cooperative experience could be a valuable a spectrum of situatedness for world language educators schwarzer and bloom no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) 192 language learning experience for world language students. in world language education, this pedagogical approach could be used to create a true immersion experience outside the language classroom. the students would use the target language for real purposes as well as practice their language to learn a trade. the advantage of this pedagogical approach over service-learning may be in students’ attitudes. overfield (1997a) notes, “for some individuals, the idea of providing ‘service’ may cause them to feel superior in some way, thus leading to patronizing attitudes or an exclusive sense of ‘us’ and ‘them’” (p. 13). creating an atmosphere of apprenticeship may eliminate the permeation of these social imbalances, especially with university-level students. in addition, in a service-learning situation, students are often working within english-speaking organizations aiding non-native english speakers. so although they are speaking the target language with those they are serving, they are typically speaking english with coworkers. in cooperative education experiences, the supervisors mentor the students through the target language. an example of a cooperative education lesson might be as follows: before classes started, mrs. smith, the spanish as a second language teacher and consultant for the nursing school, contacted a local community-based clinic that provides health services to low-income families in the area. she talked to the head nurse at the clinic and discovered that interviewing their spanish-speaking clients is a challenge. she also learned that there are four nurses in the clinic who are bilingual, and these nurses, if available, perform the majority of the interviews in spanish. mrs. smith proposes that her university-level nursing students help out at the clinic every monday from 9 a.m. to 10 a.m.(the busiest day in the clinic and one of the three required contact hours for the spanish class). the students in the class will be required to be in the clinic on monday mornings instead of coming to the university. students will create a five-question, bilingual questionnaire for use with patients at the local clinic; they may also develop other needed resources for the clinic. the bilingual nurses will help students develop not only their spanish language proficiency, but also their nursing knowledge. a vocabulary phrase needed in spanish is “¿cómo se siente? (for an adult) ¿cómo te sientes? (for a child) me siento bien” (how do you feel? i feel good—a problematic structure in spanish particularly for english speakers). in class, mrs. smith asks her students to silently read an excerpt from the textbook in spanish that uses this idiomatic phrase. she also provides them with an online video clip of several nurses interviewing patients in a range of dialect variations of spanish using this phrase. then, under the guidance of the bilingual nurses, she invites them to recreate interview scenarios in which they use “me siento bien” in the context of their weekly practice. each group presents their a spectrum of situatedness for world language educators schwarzer and bloom no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) 193 written and orally performed dialogues to the teacher, and she gives them some corrective feedback. finally, each group member performs the actual interview during the next weeks at the clinic. insights based on their performance are utilized during class time to fine-tune students’ performance with the different audiences. strategies that worked or did not work are exchanged during class time. the teacher asks the students to videotape three exchanges for documentation and alternative evaluation purposes: one at the beginning of the semester, one at the middle, and one at the end. the language class itself is situated within a school of nursing and/or the local hospital where the nursing students have their field experiences. thus, the class has a natural partnership with a specific employer in the community (i.e., the community clinic). like the service-learning example, the language class is also inextricably tied to the students’ real-world experiences at the clinic in which they serve. the difference here is that the students are increasing their language proficiency while engaging in an activity that they find beneficial to their future career. this lesson has increased its “situatedness” by incorporating students’ needs outside of the language classroom, which is why this lesson represents the most situated in the spectrum. classes labeled as “spanish for nurses,” “spanish for the health professions,” or “spanish for the professions” are all differently situated even under this same label of cooperative education. for example, students enrolled in the last class would most likely be placed in a variety of apprenticeships, thus the classroom would not reflect all of the students’ needs and the purposes of their apprenticeships. the five lessons described here depict five different stages along the spectrum of language approaches. the context of instruction, as well as the instruction itself, determines the place of each approach on the spectrum. we realize that these approaches and vignettes depict a very broad view of all of the curricular components that comprise a language program or classroom. in the next section, we intend to narrow this view slightly by providing a tool that language educators and researchers can use to situate the components of their own practice. self-assessment tool as we wish to devote part of this theoretical discussion to practice itself, here we provide a self-assessment tool developed to help principled practitioners situate their curricular practices. as teachers, many times we “know what we do,” but are not always very clear as a spectrum of situatedness for world language educators schwarzer and bloom no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) 194 to why we do it. we are asserting that principled practitioners should create color palettes to self-assess their practices and share their successes and challenges with others. in order to self-assess your own pedagogical practices, you must first create a situation in which this assessment is possible. that is, you may want to partner with a fellow colleague at your institution to discuss programmatic change, explore curriculum development, and/or observe each other teaching. you might also share a few of your curricular tools, such as syllabi, assessment tools, assignments, etc. this more collaborative approach may seem to undermine the very notion of self-assessment; however, we recognize that principled practitioners at every level of instruction operate within an institution and the policies and needs of that institution often guide any curricular change. the self-assessment tool we present here (see appendix 1) is a threetiered approach to analyzing one’s practice. first, we ask ourselves what our current classroom practices are; we then ask ourselves why we engage in them; and finally, we ask how we would label our current practices. the use of the self-assessment tool is illustrated in the following vignette based on mrs. smith’s analysis of her unit plan on health care: mrs. smith has been asked to share her unit plan on health care with new spanish instructors at the university as a model for them to follow. in order to best describe her unit plan, she refers to the self-assessment tool. she notes first what her unit plan includes. the unit plan includes an introduction to new vocabulary including health-care professionals, body parts, illnesses, and symptoms. the new grammar points include reflexive verbs and formal commands. there is also a cultural component with readings describing health-care practices common in the spanish-speaking world. her materials include the textbook, some teacher-created worksheets, teacher-created video clips, and some health-related websites from various spanish-speaking countries. finally, the students are assessed based on a written test of grammar and vocabulary and an oral exam in which two students are given a health-care-related scenario and they must spontaneous role-play the scenario for the teacher. next, mrs. smith thinks about why she includes the materials she does and how she came up with the unit plan she currently uses. mrs. smith first consults her textbook. she notes that she includes the vocabulary and grammar points in this unit that the textbook suggests. however, she does not present the grammar in the same way as the book. for example, the book presents a list of verbs common in health-care contexts, and then presents the rules for conjugating these verbs to the formal command form. then, it presents several written conjugation activities for the students to complete. mrs. smith, however, first introduces these a spectrum of situatedness for world language educators schwarzer and bloom no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) 195 commands through the use of short, teacher-created video clips that she recorded with the assistance of a spanish-speaking nurse. then she has the students analyze the verbs used and figure out how the forms are different. thus, the students are responsible for determining the rules of conjugation. she presents the grammar this way based on a unit on inductive practice she recalls from her teaching methods class. likewise, the written test she uses is based on the textbook, but the oral exam she developed based on a unit on the assessment of oral skills presented in her methods class. so, she decides that her approach to this unit is based on both the textbook and her knowledge of form-focused instruction. finally, looking at the different labels possible to describe her practice and reading the descriptions of each, she decides her unit best matches contextualized language instruction because she has provided the students with a thematic unit, all the vocabulary and grammar presented are related to that unit, and the assessment is contextualized as well. in addition, she realizes that the majority of her materials are teacher-created and that the lessons are a mix of teacherand student centered. she notes that error correction is stressed in the formal written assessment, but that the formal oral assessment stresses overall communicative competence. she now can present a description of her unit, along with her rationale for why she does what she does in class. for the purpose of this article, this vignette depicts the analysis of just one curricular component, unit planning. conducting a more detailed analysis of her unit, mrs. smith may realize that the overall unit best represents contextualized language instruction, but that smaller elements, such as materials, reflect a different approach to language education. hopefully, in reflecting on your curricular components, you will find them well balanced and carefully crafted in all aspects of their situatedness. these questions can easily be catered to an array of curricular components in order to help practitioners gauge the degree of situatedness of their current practices as well as guide them towards change. conclusions dichotomous vocabulary and classifications currently permeate the world language education field. in order to escape “black and white” analogies and move to a more complete and complex view of the field, we proposed here a spectrum to help guide our discussions within and about our field. we hope this spectrum provided practitioners within the field with more accurate vocabulary for describing the phenomena of the world language classroom. our hope is that this notion of a a spectrum of situatedness for world language educators schwarzer and bloom no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) 196 spectrum helps us find a more precise terminology for characterizing our classrooms and ourselves practices. we would like this tool to enable teachers, administrators, policy-makers, and researchers to completely redesign and redefine their own programs and practice. we are arguing for a more balanced and reflective view of curriculum development in which teachers’ philosophies and pedagogic views are the major catalyst for programmatic development and change. a spectrum of situatedness for world language educators schwarzer and bloom no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) 197 appendix 1. self assessment tool a spectrum of situatedness for world language educators schwarzer and bloom no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) 198 acknowledgements we would like to thank mary fuchs and chris hermosilla for all their help with this article as well as the input of the blind reviewers. references adair-hauck, b., glisan, e. w., koda, k., swender, e. b., sandrock, p. 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(1999). contruyendo puentes (building bridges): concepts and models for service-learning in spanish. washington, dc: american association for higher education. kolb, d. (1984). experiential learning: experience as the source of learning and development. upper saddle river, nj: prentice-hall. kumaravadivelu, b. (2003). beyond methods: macrostrategies for language teaching. new haven, ct: yale university press. lave, j., & wenger, e. (1991). situated learning: legitimate peripheral participation. cambridge, uk: cambridge university press. lindblom, j., & ziemke, t. (2003). social situatedness of natural and artificial intelligence: vygotsky and beyond. adaptive behavior, 11(2), 79-96. little, d. (2005). the common european framework and the european language portfolio: involving learners and their judgements in the assessment process. language testing, 22(3), 321-336. long, d. r. 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(1989). the silent minority: working with traditional american indian students in cooperative education programs. the journal of cooperative education and internships, 25(1), 79-87 norris, j., & ortega, l. (2001). effectiveness of l2 instruction: a research synthesis and quantitative meta-analysis. language learning, 50(3), 417-528. omaggio hadley, a. (2001). teaching language in context. boston, ma: heinle & heinle. overfield, d. (1997a). an approach to service in the foreign language classroom. mosaic, 4(2), 11-13. overfield, d. (1997b). from the margins to the mainstream: foreign language education and community-based learning. foreign language annals, 30(4), 485-491. richards, j. c., & rogers, t. s. (1986). approaches and methods in language teaching: a description and analysis. new york: cambridge university press. rifkin, b. (2005). a ceiling effect in traditional foreign language instruction: data from russian. the modern language journal, 89(1), 3-18. robin, r. (2000). foreign language across the curriculum and the proficiency paradox. in o. kagan & b. rifkin (eds.), the learning and teaching of slavic languages and cultures (pp. 29-43). bloomington, in: slavica publishers. sachtleben, a. (2002). cooperative work placement: educating monolingual gatekeepers. asia-pacific journal of cooperative education, 3(1), 18-21. tschirner, e. (1996). scope and sequences: rethinking beginning foreign language instruction. the modern language journal, 80(1), 1-14. weldon, a., & trautmann, g. (2003). spanish and service-learning: pedagogy and praxis. hispania, 86(3), 574-585. world association for cooperative education. (2000). membership directory. boston, ma: wace. a spectrum of situatedness for world language educators schwarzer and bloom no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) 201 notes we use the term service-learning here to discuss programs described as service-learning or community-based learning. we acknowledge that these terms are often used to describe similar programs in the united states, but use service-learning here to distinguish these programs from community-based language programs that focus on educating community members within community agencies. the authors david schwarzer has a ph.d. in language reading and culture from university of arizona and m.a. in counseling and literacy from tel-aviv university. he is currently working as associate professor at montclair state university. his research interests include curriculum and teaching. e-mail: schwarzerd@mail. montclair.edu melanie bloom, ph. d. in applied linguistics and m.a. in foreign language education from the university of texas at austin. she is currently working as associate professor in the department of foreign language at university of nebraska at omaha. her research interests include second language acquisition, foreign language writing, curriculum development and qualitative research. e-mail: melaniebloom@unomaha.edu a spectrum of situatedness for world language educators schwarzer and bloom no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) gist2014finalfinal.indd 156 la lingüística a nivel universitario: el desafío de su proceso de aprendizaje en un programa de educación bilingüe1 linguistics at university level: the challenge of its learning process in a program of bilingual education sandra liliana rojas molina2* institución universitaria colombo americana, única, colombia resumen este artículo pretende dar a conocer de manera sucinta una revisión teórica que hace parte de la primera fase de un proyecto de investigación en curso. dicho proyecto se ha originado de la preocupación por encontrar formas alternativas de presentar y desarrollar temas relacionados con las asignaturas de lingüística y lingüística aplicada con estudiantes de un programa de educación bilingüe en bogotá, colombia. esta primera fase ha consistido en la recopilación de información teórica relacionada con la justificación de estas asignaturas en un programa de pregrado que prepara docentes de lengua, la diferenciación entre la lingüística teórica o descriptiva y la lingüística aplicada y los contenidos relacionados con dichas asignaturas. también se propone en este documento acercar teorías ya existentes en la enseñanza de lengua y contenido con el propósito de alimentar una mirada a la didáctica de la lingüística a través del diseño de unidades temáticas con ayudas como las que ofrece el protocolo de observación de doble inmersión twiop por sus siglas en inglés, y el trabajo en el aula basado en problemas, tareas y proyectos. palabras clave: lingüística, lingüística aplicada, didáctica de la lingüística, enseñanza de la lingüística, enseñanza a nivel universitario 1 received: february 3, 2014 / accepted: april 29, 2014 2 slrojasmo@gmail.com re fle ct iv e ar tic le s gist education and learning research journal. issn 1692-5777. no. 8, (january june) 2014. pp. 156-170. rojas no. 8 (january june 2014) no. 8 (january june 2014) 157 abstract the purpose of this document is to share the first phase of an ongoing research project that was born due to the concern of finding alternative ways to present and develop topics related to linguistics and applied linguistics to students in a bilingual education teaching program in bogotá, colombia. this first phase has consisted in gathering theoretical information related to the reasons to include linguistics and applied linguistics as subjects in an undergraduate program that trains future language teachers, the differentiation between these two areas of knowledge, and the contents that are involved within them. this article also proposes to take already existing theories about language and content teaching and relate them to the teaching of linguistics and applied linguistics through the design of units using the tools offered by the twiop (two-way immersion observation protocol) and class work based on problems, tasks and projects. keywords: linguistics, applied linguistics, didactics of linguistics, teaching linguistics, university teaching resumo este artigo pretende dar a conhecer de maneira sucinta uma revisão teórica que faz parte da primeira fase de um projeto de pesquisa em curso. tal projeto surgiu da preocupação por encontrar formas alternativas de apresentar e desenvolver temas relacionados com as disciplinas de linguística e linguística aplicada com estudantes de um programa de educação bilíngue em bogotá, colômbia. esta primeira fase consistiu na recopilação de informação teórica relacionada com a justificação destas disciplinas em um programa de graduação que prepara docentes de língua, a diferença entre a linguística teórica ou descritiva e a linguística aplicada e os conteúdos relacionados com tais disciplinas. também se propõe neste documento aproximar teorias já existentes no ensino de língua e conteúdo com o propósito de alimentar uma mirada à didática da linguística através do desenho de unidades temáticas com ajudas como as quais oferece o protocolo de observação de dupla imersão twiop por suas siglas em inglês, e o trabalho na aula baseado em problemas, tarefas e projetos. palavras chave: linguística, linguística aplicada, didática da linguística, ensino da linguística, ensino ao nível universitário rojas no. 8 (january june 2014) no. 8 (january june 2014) 158 introducción saber una lengua no es lo mismo que saber acerca de ella, y los futuros docentes de lengua, además de fortalecer su competencia comunicativa en el código que desean enseñar, también requieren desarrollar su conciencia metalingüística, es decir, necesitan ser partícipes constantes de espacios de reflexión en torno al lenguaje en general y a la forma y funcionamiento de la lengua que impartirán. esta es ya una justificación para encontrar en los programas de pregrado que forman futuros docentes de lengua asignaturas como la lingüística o niveles de análisis de lengua como fonética y fonología, morfosintaxis, semántica, pragmática, etc. la carencia de información con respecto al qué y al cómo de la enseñanza de lingüística a nivel universitario y la convicción de que es necesario trabajar en beneficio de la formación de los futuros docentes, se convierten en el motor que ha motivado la puesta en marcha de un proyecto de investigación que tiene como objetivo general la exploración teórica, el diseño, puesta en marcha y evaluación del componente de lingüística de un programa de pregrado en educación bilingüe (inglésespañol) en bogotá, colombia. este artículo pretende revisar directrices con respecto a la importancia y pertinencia de la lingüística en un programa académico como el mencionado, así como información disciplinar y pedagógica que sustenta el futuro diseño de una propuesta de aprendizaje de lingüística en un programa de pregrado a través de unidades temáticas estructuradas. lingüística descriptiva o teórica y lingüística aplicada aunque la teoría está, o debería estar, estrechamente ligada a la práctica, la lingüística se asume tradicionalmente como una disciplina compuesta por definiciones y ejercicios cuya aplicabilidad y relevancia se desconocen, especialmente para el salón de clase. y es en este contexto que la lingüística debería considerarse desde una perspectiva tridimensional: la del objeto por conocer: la(s) lengua(s); el sujeto cognoscente: el hablante/estudiante; y los contextos sociales pertinentes a uno y otro. si tomamos la primera dimensión, estaríamos hablando de la lingüística descriptiva o teórica, la cual definen marlett y salamanca (2002) como la teoría científica que se ocupa del estudio de la facultad universal y privativa que es el lenguaje humano. en esta dimensión se toma entonces la lengua como objeto y se sistematiza su estudio distinguiendo diferentes niveles de análisis que, a pesar de la lingüística a nivel universitario rojas no. 8 (january june 2014) no. 8 (january june 2014) 159 algunos disensos por parte de varios autores, podrían centrarse en seis: la fonética, la fonología, la sintaxis, la morfología, la semántica y el análisis del discurso (marlett y salamanca, 2002). al considerar la segunda y tercera dimensión, estamos definiendo la lingüística desde su dimensión social, y esta nos obliga a pensar, como afirma woolard (citado por garrido, 2012), que toda definición de una lengua es, de manera implícita o explícita, una definición de los seres humanos en el mundo. la lingüística aplicada y, más exactamente, la lingüística aplicada a la enseñanza de lenguas se define como “una disciplina científica, mediadora entre el campo de la actividad teórica y práctica, interdisciplinar y educativa, orientada a la resolución de los problemas que plantea el uso del lenguaje en el seno de una comunidad lingüística (gargallo, 1999). gonzáles nieto (2001) presenta también una lingüística para profesores que se centra en la relación de los conocimientos de la teoría lingüística, en sus más diversas manifestaciones, con la enseñanza de la lengua y sus implicaciones. se aborda en esta reflexión, entonces, la lingüística aplicada a la enseñanza de las lenguas, ya que dicho enfoque permite tanto el reconocimiento de los aspectos académicos evidentes en el devenir de la profesión dentro del salón de clase (el uso de la(s) lengua(s), su adquisición, la pedagogía, etc.), como el reconocimiento de los componentes sociales del lenguaje desde una perspectiva crítica; es decir aspectos como las lenguas en contacto, la identidad lingüística y el análisis de las implicaciones de políticas lingüísticas, entre otros. en este sentido se pretende que un programa de lingüística a nivel de pregrado tenga como meta tanto el conocimiento de la lengua en su estructura – lingüística teórica / descriptiva, como la propuesta de soluciones que resuelvan problemas reales surgidos en torno al lenguaje y las lenguas en el salón de clase – lingüística aplicada a la enseñanza de lenguas. la lingüística, ¿por qué y para qué? la inclusión de la lingüística en un programa de pregrado que prepara futuros docentes de lengua está justificada desde dos lineamientos: el institucional y el académico-teórico. desde el punto de vista institucional la unesco favorece el reconocimiento y la conservación de las lenguas minoritarias como parte de un capital cultural inalienable que merece ser protegido. dicha protección necesariamente involucra la lingüística, ya que perspectivas como la de la lingüística a nivel universitario rojas no. 8 (january june 2014) no. 8 (january june 2014) 160 ‘ecología de los lenguajes’, (mufwene, 2004), los derechos humanos lingüísticos (skutnabb-kangas, 1994) o el imperialismo lingüístico (phillipson, 1992) y con él el estudio del inglés como lengua franca global y de poder, pueden convertirse en temas de estudio necesarios para un futuro docente. en colombia, la base que orienta la política nacional en lo referente a diseño de estándares, cursos de lengua extranjera, metodologías, formas de evaluación entre otros, es el marco común europeo, el cual contiene los elementos para alcanzar en los estudiantes competencias generales y comunicativas del lenguaje tales como las lingüísticas, las sociolingüistas y las pragmáticas (men, 2005). estas expectativas con respecto a los estudiantes suponen un proceso de formación de docentes en lenguas extranjeras que incluya conocimientos que podrían categorizarse como aquellos que se reciben: datos, hechos, teorías (la lingüística descriptiva o teórica), y aquellos que se aplican a experiencias propias de la práctica profesional (lingüística aplicada). a nivel universitario, el examen de estado de calidad de educación superior, saber pro, para los estudiantes de programas profesionales universitarios, evalúa genéricamente competencias en comunicación escrita (en español) e inglés, las cuales permiten que el estudiante demuestre, entre otros, sus conocimientos lexicales, sintácticos y textuales de las dos lenguas (icfes, 2014). pero no solo a través de las instituciones y sus directrices se puede constatar la importancia de un proceso de aprendizaje de lingüística en un programa que forma docentes de lengua, también algunos académicos como cuenca (1994) o pastor (2001), apuntan la relación entre la teoría lingüística y la enseñanza de lenguas, afirmando que un aprendiz de una segunda lengua o lengua extranjera debe conocer desde la descripción gramatical de las lenguas, de lo que se considera ejemplar o estandarizado, hasta los elementos que permiten que dicho aprendiz comprenda otra cultura y la interacción social en ella. de igual manera, cortés, cárdenas y nieto (2013) comentan la importancia de la competencia comunicativa en un profesor, la cual definen como “el conocimiento implícito y explícito que uno posee del idioma en situaciones determinadas y que se refiere tanto al dominio de la estructura formal de la lengua como al conocimiento acerca de cómo se construye el discurso y el uso funcional del lenguaje. ahora bien, debido a la inagotable cantidad de contenidos que pueden hacer parte de un proceso de aprendizaje de lingüística a nivel de pregrado, se hace indispensable limitarlos y escoger aquellos que por su relevancia se conviertan en herramientas para un primer pero la lingüística a nivel universitario rojas no. 8 (january june 2014) no. 8 (january june 2014) 161 sólido acercamiento a las lenguas en su estructura y función, así como la manera en que todo ello se relaciona con el acontecer del salón de clase. contenidos, niveles de formación y código lingüístico como vehículo de instrucción un diseño curricular ideal debería incluir un enfoque que dé cuenta de la lengua como sistema: fonología y fonética (pronunciación, ritmo, entonación, etc.), morfología (unidades morfológicas de significadomorfemas, procedimientos de formación de palabras), sintaxis (principios que regulan la combinación de palabras para formar frases y oraciones), semántica (relaciones de homonimia, sinonimia y polisemia, estudio sistemático del vocabulario, el uso de los diccionarios, el aprendizaje del significado de las palabras y de las oraciones en contextos determinados), entre otros (pastor, 2001). para pastor, el análisis contrastivo de lenguas juega un papel relevante en la formación, ya que permite “desentrañar la menor o mayor distancia lingüística entre las mismas lo que contribuye a reconocer los errores más comunes debido a la interferencia”. a pesar que este ha sido un debate de mucho tiempo, actualmente parece haber consenso con respecto a la idea de que tanto en primeras como en segundas lenguas la atención a la forma (focus on form), es decir, un cierto tipo de gramática explícita, es ineludible tanto en la didáctica de la lengua escrita desde los primeros niveles, como en los usos de la lengua oral (rodríguez, 2012). es importante desarrollar cierta conciencia metalingüística con diferentes grados de explicitud para poder utilizar bien las lenguas que aprendemos en diferentes situaciones. además de un enfoque sistémico, la orientación pragmática, sociolingüística y discursiva, debería ser tenida en cuenta también en un diseño curricular (rodríguez, 2012). este enfoque entiende la actuación lingüística y las prácticas comunicativas en general como un conjunto de normas y estrategias de interacción social orientadas a la negociación cultural de los significados en el seno de situaciones concretas de comunicación, modalidades de uso, análisis de variedades dialectales estándares y vernaculares, conceptualización de términos como norma, lengua, habla, variación lingüística, valoración de los registros, actos de habla, normas socioculturales que rigen los intercambios comunicativos, análisis de la lingüística textual y los diferentes tipos de texto (coherencia, cohesión, marcadores lingüísticos), observación de los procedimientos de creación de sentido, elementos la lingüística a nivel universitario rojas no. 8 (january june 2014) no. 8 (january june 2014) 162 paralingüísticos y no verbales en los intercambios comunicativos (problemas del significado lingüístico, procesos psicológicos que llevan a la comprensión y producción de texto, maneras de organizar y hacer funcionar una conversación, el papel de las presuposiciones e implicaciones, etc.). rodríguez (2012) menciona que esta orientación teórica debería estar acompañada constantemente del análisis de situaciones concretas en el salón de clase las cuales permitan a los estudiantes familiarizarse con el complejo mecanismo que subyace a la comprensión y producción lingüística contextualizada. pero… ¿qué código se debería usar como vehículo de instrucción y en qué fase de la formación se deberían incluir contenidos específicos? una de las indagaciones que se considera relevante en la reflexión en torno a la inclusión de la asignatura de lingüística a nivel de pregrado es la del código como vehículo de instrucción principal de los contenidos en los diferentes estadios de formación o semestres. como premisa inicial se debe recordar que además de las características particulares tanto estructurales como funcionales de cada una de las lenguas (español e inglés), se busca que los futuros docentes logren en su formación un conocimiento del lenguaje propiamente dicho. reconocer el lenguaje como sistema es precisamente una tarea académica rigurosa, que pese a beneficiarse del aprendizaje de una segunda lengua es una tarea distinta en sí misma. para tal fin, es importante recurrir a las lenguas no sólo como la concreción del lenguaje, sino además como instrumentos para explicar su estructura, su sistematicidad y su uso. considerando esta premisa, es necesario que la lengua usada para obtener conocimiento del lenguaje de manera general sea un instrumento sólido, ya que la construcción de un discurso metalingüístico debe ser en sí un instrumento, y no un obstáculo para entender la sistematicidad del lenguaje. de esta forma cobra sentido la propuesta de tener un contacto con la disciplina lingüística a partir de la lengua materna. ofrecer herramientas al estudiante para que entienda y desarrolle la competencia gramatical, discursiva, sociolingüística, y estratégica en su lengua materna, permitirá un mejor reconocimiento de la forma, el uso, y el contexto del lenguaje y de su materialización en las dos lenguas, en el caso que nos ocupa, español e inglés. con respecto al momento en el cual los estudiantes deberían trabajar ciertos contenidos, se propone en esta reflexión considerar la formación en tres fases teniendo en cuenta un programa académico de diez semestres. una fase básica o inicial (primer y segundo semestre) que permitiera al estudiante familiarizarse con el lenguaje como facultad humana y objeto de estudio, así como profundizar en sus conceptos y la lingüística a nivel universitario rojas no. 8 (january june 2014) no. 8 (january june 2014) 163 usos. el estudiante podría hacer un recorrido histórico de la lingüística, las perspectivas lingüísticas, las tipologías de lenguas, la estructura de las lenguas (español e inglés) desde su fonética, fonología, morfología, sintaxis, semántica, pragmática y discursividad. los estudiantes, así mismo, trabajarían sucintamente algunos principios de aplicabilidad de estas disciplinas en el aprendizaje de lenguas. como se propone en líneas anteriores, es necesario que la formación inicial se piense desde la lengua materna con el objetivo de permitir después la transferencia a la lengua inglesa. es importante señalar que esta perspectiva del español como vehículo principal de instrucción no riñe en absoluto con el uso del inglés en el salón de clase y la posibilidad de realizar análisis contrastivos español – inglés aprovechando el conocimiento que comienzan a adquirir los estudiantes en su asignatura de lengua propiamente dicha. una fase intermedia (desde tercer al quinto semestre) tendría como propósito la formación y consolidación de la competencia lingüística y comunicativa de los estudiantes especialmente en la lengua inglesa. así entonces, se incluirían asignaturas del componente de lingüística teórica o descriptiva como, por ejemplo, de fonética y fonología inglesa o de morfología, para que el futuro docente fortalezca su conciencia fonética o morfológica y con ellas mejore su producción oral y comprensión de lectura en inglés. en esta fase, el análisis contrastivo con el español no deja de cobrar importancia, aunque el propósito sería el uso mayoritario de la lengua inglesa como vehículo de instrucción. finalmente, se propone una fase avanzada o de aplicación (sexto a décimo semestre) que se centraría en la lingüística aplicada y requeriría el comienzo de un trabajo de observación y práctica docente que le permita al estudiante identificar problemas reales en contextos reales y utilizar los conocimientos de las asignaturas el análisis, discusión y resolución de dichos problemas. esta última fase compromete el uso de inglés y español como principales vehículos de instrucción, ya que se busca que los educadores bilingües aúnen conocimientos y experiencias que les permitan convertirse en formadores tanto de una lengua como de otra. una vez se han esbozado de manera muy general los contenidos en un eje programático en lingüística, es pertinente explorar algunos principios didácticos en torno a su instrucción, y por esto se hace necesario preguntarnos… ¿qué método utilizar para el proceso de aprendizaje de la lingüística (teórica y aplicada) en un programa de pregrado? la lingüística a nivel universitario rojas no. 8 (january june 2014) no. 8 (january june 2014) 164 didáctica de la lingüística teórica y aplicada la didáctica la define mallart (2001, p. 23) como una ciencia que tiene como objeto las decisiones normativas que llevan al aprendizaje gracias a la ayuda de los métodos de enseñanza. un método de enseñanza es una forma sistemática de lograr un aprendizaje en particular basándose en una concepción teórica, en este caso, de la lengua y de sus procesos. es siempre mejor hablar de métodos y no asumir una posición dogmática de una única verdad incontrovertible y hablar de un método de enseñanza. deberíamos estar dispuestos a tratar un tema o problema en lingüística o lingüística aplicada de una manera crítica y reflexiva, lo que incluye también usar muchos y diferentes caminos o formas. en este sentido, este proyecto coincide con gonzález nieto (2001, p. 39) en que “existen diferentes postulados con diferentes grados de desarrollo en el estudio de la ciencia del lenguaje y su enseñanza, y podemos elegir entre seguir un modelo explicando por qué se rechazan los demás o servirse de varios diferentes según el problema lingüístico o pedagógico que se proponga”. así pues, no se debería pensar en una metodología de enseñanza de la lingüística (sea esta descriptiva o aplicada), sino en una serie de principios o de diversas metodologías que enmarquen el proceso de aprendizaje. las siguientes líneas incluyen los principios que se proponen en esta reflexión y que se consideran pilares para el diseño posterior de propuestas de unidades temáticas y trabajo en el aula. las artes liberales una universidad que se funda en las artes liberales promueve un trabajo en grupos pequeños para posibilitar la construcción de comunidades de aprendizaje caracterizadas por el conocimiento del otro, el respeto, el apoyo y la propuesta constante de desafíos. una aproximación académica a través de las artes liberales supone aprendices con una comprensión amplia de las artes y las ciencias, las condiciones del mundo natural y social, las responsabilidades de la ciudadanía, y las bases para el razonamiento crítico y la elección moral. los estudiantes refinan actitudes para la vida tales como el pensar crítica e independientemente, el comunicarse con claridad, y el solucionar problemas para convertirse en ciudadanos activos y responsables (project opportunity, s.f). precisamente, la responsabilidad como ciudadano para un profesor de lengua involucra no solo un conocimiento amplio de la estructura de la lengua y los conceptos de su uso, sino también las competencias para poder aplicar dichos conocimientos a su realidad. el salón de clase y los problemas que a partir de la teoría la lingüística a nivel universitario rojas no. 8 (january june 2014) no. 8 (january june 2014) 165 lingüística puedan ser resueltos en ese contexto, se convierten entonces para el profesor en insumos valiosos para asumirse como ciudadano activo y responsable. el aprendizaje basado en problemas o abp barrows (1996) define al abp como “un método de aprendizaje basado en el principio de usar problemas como punto de partida para la adquisición e integración de los nuevos conocimientos”. para morales y landa (2004) el abp es “una propuesta educativa que se caracteriza porque el aprendizaje está centrado en el estudiante y en que este alcance niveles cognitivos y de reflexión cada vez más altos. el proceso se desarrolla con base en grupos pequeños de trabajo, que aprenden de manera colaborativa resolviendo problemas planteados por un docente que se convierte en un facilitador del aprendizaje o identificados por un aprendiz a través de su observación y experiencia”. el abp busca evitar las clases meramente expositivas que se focalizan normalmente en los contenidos priorizando los conceptos abstractos sobre los ejemplos concretos y las aplicaciones. se busca así mismo a través de este enfoque, permitir una forma de evaluación que no se limite a la comprobación de la memorización de información sino, de nuevo, a desafiar al estudiante a encontrar soluciones a problemas planteados. muchos y muy diversos son los campos problemáticos que pueden representar dificultades de aprendizaje o aun fracaso escolar, y cuya discusión y análisis pueden llevarse a cabo a través de las asignaturas en un eje temático de lingüística. aquí se mencionan algunas propuestas: la conciencia fonética y morfológica en la comprensión lectora, el aprendizaje de la gramática de manera explícita o implícita, el silencio social, la variación lingüística como problema para la didáctica (registros formales e informales), la discriminación lingüística, la compleja red de mecanismos psicosociales que involucra el aprendizaje de lenguas, los desafíos de los objetos de aprendizaje de lenguas (libros texto, por ejemplo). la resolución de problemas se logra a través de un trabajo basado en proyectos y tareas que como estrategia educativa también se aleja del modelo memorístico, mecánico y centrado en el profesor. mediante los proyectos, comenta rebollo (2010), se pretende potencializar el trabajo con estudiantes que presentan estilos de aprendizaje y habilidades diferentes motivándolos y haciéndolos participes en una tarea conjunta cuyos resultados son aplicables al mundo real. es una práctica que la lingüística a nivel universitario rojas no. 8 (january june 2014) no. 8 (january june 2014) 166 motiva a los estudiantes a explorar asuntos complejos de ese contexto al que se ven expuestos a diario a través de tareas intelectuales y abstractas retadoras. con esta aproximación, los estudiantes exploran, interpretan, asumen posiciones y sintetizan información en formas significativas. por supuesto, los problemas que surgen relacionados a la práctica en el salón de clase deberían estar articulados o ser parte de un plan de trabajo estructurado. dicho plan, comenta lorenzo (1997), debería constituir un factor decisivo para una actuación didáctica crítica, innovadora y eficaz. dicha actuación se hace evidente a través de la puesta en marcha de técnicas de trabajos de clase organizados y pensados de acuerdo con los contextos específicos de aprendizaje. en esta reflexión se propone considerar el twiop como guía para la planeación y discusión de contenidos. protocolo de observación de doble inmersión – twiop como forma de organizar contenidos el modelo twiop fue desarrollado por el centro de lingüística aplicada (cal, por sus siglas en inglés) por elizabeth howard, julie sugarman y cate coburn con el objetivo de adaptar el ya existente siop (sheltered instruction observation protocol) a los contextos de alfabetización y enseñanza de contenidos en dos lenguas o twi (two-way inmmersion). tanto el siop como el twiop pretenden hacer los contenidos académicos más comprensibles para quienes no tienen como lengua nativa el inglés, y potencializar el aprendizaje y adquisición de esta lengua. ambas aproximaciones procuran estructurar el plan de clase de tal manera que existan unos objetivos, conceptos, herramientas y estrategias claros; que se trabaje con el conocimiento previo del estudiante y se construya a partir de él, que haya un trabajo de presentación del profesor, de trabajo de los estudiantes y de evaluación y revisión conjunta. a diferencia del siop para cuya puesta en práctica se usa como lengua vehicular el inglés, el twiop pretende coordinar la instrucción en las dos lenguas, inglés y español, con el objetivo de facilitar la transferencia de competencias. este tipo de coordinación translinguística permite a los estudiantes maximizar su comprensión de contenidos, conceptos y procesos al construirlos y apropiarlos en su lengua materna y luego manejarlos en lengua extranjera (howard, sugarman & coburn, 2006). aunque el twiop es un modelo de instrucción que especialmente se usa en contextos estadounidenses, donde el código de comunicación fuera del salón de clase es el inglés, se propone aquí tomar sus principios la lingüística a nivel universitario rojas no. 8 (january june 2014) no. 8 (january june 2014) 167 básicos y estructura para asumir la instrucción en las dos lenguas como posible, promover conexiones lingüísticas entre códigos, ofrecer a los estudiantes diversas oportunidades para usar y reforzar estrategias que ya han aprendido en su lengua materna y hacerlos participes de un proceso de revisión y evaluación que puede incluir el uso de las dos lenguas de instrucción. esta forma de aproximarse y organizar el proceso de enseñanza puede redundar en mayor motivación y potencializar las capacidades de los aprendices. conclusión es importante comentar que cada uno de los apartes de la anterior revisión de literatura ha pretendido exponer de manera sucinta lo que para la autora se concibe como fundamental a la hora de proponer la reestructuración del componente de lingüística de un programa de pregrado en educación bilingüe en bogotá. por supuesto, cada uno de los ejes temáticos aquí expuestos necesitan una elaboración mucho mayor que no ha sido abordada en este documento debido a su naturaleza como artículo bajo parámetros de espacio determinados. sin embargo, después de esta indagación teórica y la reflexión en torno al aprendizaje de la lingüística, la propuesta de reestructuración de dicho componente para un programa de educación bilingüe tendría como principios generales la consideración de un área disciplinar: 1. que aunque se denomine lingüística de manera genérica, se contemple tanto como el estudio de las lenguas desde su punto de vista estructural (lingüística descriptiva) como el de su uso y problematización en contextos de aula (lingüística aplicada a la enseñanza de lenguas). 2. cuyas asignaturas se organicen en tres fases: básica para la familiarización de los estudiantes con el lenguaje como fenómeno humano, intermedia para la formación de los estudiantes en los contenidos más relevantes de la lingüística estructural y de uso enfocados a la lengua inglesa, y una fase avanzada para consolidar el conocimiento y la experiencia ganada en semestres anteriores y tomar estos como insumos para que, junto con la observación y la reflexión constantes, se problematicen y propongan soluciones a situaciones de aula específicas. 3. que involucre docentes que, entre otros, posean altos niveles de desempeño en lengua inglesa y española, y además se conviertan en guías en la búsqueda de soluciones a problemas de aula específicos. la lingüística a nivel universitario rojas no. 8 (january june 2014) no. 8 (january june 2014) 168 4. que conciba al estudiante (futuro docente) como participante activo, conocedor y experimentador de la lengua en contextos institucionales y no institucionales. 5. que garantice la transdisciplinariedad a través del contacto y trabajo conjunto con otros contenidos de asignaturas en el mismo nivel de formación. 6. que contemple un bilingüismo aditivo, es decir, en la cual se comience la formación en español como principal lengua de instrucción y progresivamente, pero no de manera exclusiva, se demande mayor uso de la lengua inglesa. 7. que permita exponer a los estudiantes a tantas experiencias de aula como sean posibles con el fin de permitirles construir criterios para afrontar experiencias de aula futuras. 8. en donde no existan camisas de fuerza en cuanto a la metodología a través de la cual se aborda el aprendizaje de contenidos, sino que se busquen las diferentes maneras de contemplarlo teniendo en cuenta el contexto específico. se propone, sin embargo, no olvidar los principios de artes liberales, así como las ventajas del aprendizaje a través de problemas, proyectos y tareas. 9. cuyas asignaturas consideren los principios del twiop para el diseño y puesta en marcha de unidades temáticas. en este escrito he compartido mi indagación sobre la justificación para la inclusión de un componente de lingüística en un programa académico que busca formar educadores bilingües, así como los contenidos y metodologías de dicho componente. muy seguramente la información teórica aquí referida no es la única, pero se convierte en insumo importante para comenzar un camino académico y riguroso de propuestas concretas en torno a la reestructuración curricular. esta indagación teórica necesita, sin duda, alimentarse de los conocimientos y saberes, perspectivas y expectativas de otros actores como estudiantes en formación, estudiantes en servicio y docentes tanto de inglés como de lingüística a nivel de pregrado, cuyos insumos enriquecerán esta reflexión de manera significativa. la lingüística a nivel universitario rojas no. 8 (january june 2014) no. 8 (january june 2014) 169 referencias barrows, h. (1996). problem-based learning in medicine and beyond: a brief overview. en wilkerson l & gijselaers w. (eds.), bringing problem-based learning to higher education: theory and practice (pp. 3-12). san francisco: jossey-bass publishers. cortés l, cardenas m, nieto m. (2013). competencias del profesor de lenguas extranjeras: creencias de la comunidad educativa. bogotá: universidad nacional de colombia. cuenca, m. j. (ed.). (1994). linguistca i enseyament de llengues. valencia: universitat de valencia. gargallo, i. (1999). lingüística aplicada a la enseñanza-aprendizaje del español como lengua extranjera. madrid: arco libros. garrido, m. r. (2012). un enfoque inclusivo y transnacional a las ideologías lingüísticas. universidad autónoma de barcelona. recuperado de http://revistas.ucm.es/index.php/raso/article/ viewfile/43774/41357. gonzález nieto, l. (2001). teoría lingüística y enseñanza de la lengua: lingüística para profesores. madrid: ediciones cátedra. howard, e., sugarman, j., coburn., c. (2006). adapting the sheltered instruction observation protocol (siop) for two-way immersion education: an introduction to the twiop. washington, dc: center for applied linguistics. instituto colombiano para el fomento de la educación superior (icfes). (2014). icfes saber pro. recuperado de http://www. icfes.gov.co/examenes/saber-pro/informacion-general/estructurageneral-del-examen. lorenzo, e (1997). lingüística y didáctica. montevideo: colihue sepé ediciones. mallart, j. (2001). didáctica. concepto, objeto y finalidades. en sepúlveda, f., rajadell, n. (coords). didáctica general para psicopedagogos (p. 1-25). madrid: uned. marlett, s. y salamanca, g. (2002). introducción a la lingüística descriptiva: una visión panorámica. sil international. recuperado de http://www-01.sil.org/training/capacitar/introduccion/ introdmirada.html. ministerio de educación nacional. (2005). al tablero no 37. bases para una nación bilingüe y competitiva. octubrenoviembre. recuperado de http://www.mineducacion.gov.co/1621/article-97498.html. la lingüística a nivel universitario rojas no. 8 (january june 2014) no. 8 (january june 2014) 170 morales, p. & landa v. (2004). aprendizaje basado en problemas. theoria 1, (13), 145-157. mufwene, s. (2004). language birth and death. annual review of anthropology, 1(33), 222. pastor c. (2001). la formación lingüística del profesorado de segundas lenguas. analele stiintifice ale univeristatii de stat de moldov., (anales científicos de la universidad de moldavia, ciencias filológicas), (1), 134-136. phillipson, r. (1992). linguistic imperialism. oxford: oxford university press. project opportunity. (s.f). ¿por qué artes liberales? independent colleges of washington. recuperado de http://projectopportunity. net/spanish/whylibarts.php. rebollo, s. (2010). aprendizaje basado en proyectos. en: innovación y experiencias educativas (26). recuperado de file:///c:/users/ equilibrio/documentos/downloads/aprendizaje%20 basado%20en%20proyectos%20sonia_rebollo_ aranda1%202010.pdf. rodríguez, c. (2012). la enseñanza de la gramática: las relaciones entre la reflexión y el uso lingüístico, revista iberoamericana de educación, 59, 87-118. skutnabb-kangas, t. (1994). mother tongue maintenance: the debate. tesol quarterly, 28(3), 625628. author *sandra liliana rojas molina holds a b.a. in philology and languages from universidad nacional de colombia and a m.a. in applied linguistics to the teaching of languages from barcelona university. she is currently working as a part-time professor at the institución universitaria colombo americana (única), where she has taught subjects including linguistics, language and society, pedagogy and second language, and communication theory. la lingüística a nivel universitario no. 8 (january june 2014) no. 8 (january june 2014) gist2014finalfinal.indd 83 the effect of story read-alouds on children’s foreign language development1 la eficacia de la lectura de cuentos en voz alta en el desarrollo del idioma extranjero en niños catalina norato cerón2* fundación universitaria monserrate, colombia abstract this action research project examines the impact of reading stories aloud on the development of children’s reading and critical thinking strategies as well as on the improvement of english as a foreign language. analysis of journal entries and transcriptions of recordings of the sessions were used to gather the information. data collected revealed that children improved their speaking skills by talking about the story, and that they also learned new words they used to express their opinion even if they had a low proficiency in english. findings also revealed that resources and methodologies helped students develop their critical thinking as well as their reading comprehension towards books. keywords: reading comprehension, critical thinking, reading aloud, foreign language acquisition resumen este proyecto de investigación acción examina el impacto de la lectura de cuentos en voz alta en el desarrollo de estrategias de comprensión lectora y de pensamiento crítico así como también analiza el impacto en el aprendizaje del inglés como lengua extranjera. con el propósito de recolectar información se analizaron las notas de los diarios y se hicieron transcripciones de las grabaciones de las sesiones de lectura. los datos recolectados revelaron que los niños mejoraron sus habilidades de comunicación discutiendo diferentes aspectos del cuento leído, al mismo tiempo aprendieron nuevas palabras que emplearon para expresar su opinión, a pesar de tener un bajo nivel de inglés. 1 received: january 6, 2014 / accepted: april 4, 2014 2 cnoratoceron@yahoo.com gist education and learning research journal. issn 1692-5777. no. 8, (january june) 2014. pp. 83-98. tucker signing as a phonics instruction tool no. 8 (january june 2014) no. 8 (january june 2014) 84 los resultados también revelaron que los materiales y metodologías utilizados en las clases, contribuyeron a que los niños desarrollaran su pensamiento crítico y su comprensión lectora. palabras clave: comprensión lectora, pensamiento crítico, lectura en voz alta, aprendizaje de una lengua extranjera resumo este projeto de pesquisa ação examina o impacto da leitura de contos em voz alta no desenvolvimento de estratégias de compreensão leitora e de pensamento crítico, assim como também analisa o impacto na aprendizagem de inglês como língua estrangeira. com o propósito de recolher informação se analisaram as anotações dos diários e se fizeram transcrições das gravações das sessões de leitura. os dados recolhidos revelaram que as crianças melhoraram suas habilidades de comunicação, discutindo diferentes aspectos do conto lido, ao mesmo tempo aprenderam novas palavras que empregaram para expressar sua opinião, apesar de ter um baixo nível de inglês. os resultados também revelaram que os materiais e metodologias utilizados nas aulas, contribuíram a que as crianças desenvolvessem seu pensamento crítico e sua compreensão leitora. palavras chave: compreensão leitora, pensamento crítico, leitura em voz alta, aprendizagem de uma língua estrangeira introduction reading aloud as a pedagogical activity has been one of the most widely used methodologies in the elementary classroom. it helps develop learners’ enjoyment of reading as well as literacy skills. participants in this action research study were students attending classes once a week to learn english as a foreign language. the reading corner is an additional voluntary space provided by the institute where the study took place; these sessions are offered for students between 7 and 12 years of age. as the reading corner was an optional activity after class, the number of participants changed each session. the data was collected throughout one entire academic semester. the main objective of the reading corner sessions is to help students become successful readers by “developing critical thinking skills which allow them to analyze facts, organize and generate ideas, defend opinions and solve problems” (centro colombo americano, n.d.). in terms of social interaction, the purpose is to provide students with a different space and environment that helps them be in close contact with the language while they share ideas with other students. the effect of story read-alouds norato no. 8 (january june 2014) no. 8 (january june 2014) 85 the reading corner is intended to be a non-threatening activity since students do not have the pressure of being tested. nevertheless, some of them feel reluctant to participate actively because they do not know how to express what they want to say or they lack the words needed to express their opinion. consequently, this fear of participating often prevents them from enjoying the story. reading aloud has been practiced in different settings with the goal of improving reading behaviors and reading pleasure in students. however, little research has been done on the impact of this methodology on students who are learning english as a foreign language. this action research study aimed to understand to what extent reading aloud can develop reading comprehension and critical thinking skills, as well as to what extent reading aloud can improve students’ english level. literature review reading is one of the most important components of achieving a balanced literacy in children. however, reading in a different language is a demanding cognitive process where new words and structures have to be understood in order to make sense of what is being read to enjoy and understand the story. in the reading aloud context, the relationship between the reader, the child and the book makes a huge difference. in this perspective, constructivist and cognitive theories play an important role in the development of the present study. within the constructivist theories, vygotsky (as cited in pentimonti & justice, 2009) is the pioneer of the instruction theory which emphasizes the importance of providing children with an accurate instruction guide in order for them to master the abilities they are still acquiring. this theory is strongly related to the scaffolding process needed to learn and internalize a new concept or idea. indeed, learners require the support of the teacher to make the new knowledge accessible and comprehensible for them. thus, scaffolding becomes a bridge for transforming reading from a possibly dull activity into a fruitful and interesting one. in the same way, scaffolding and constructivism have to do with how students use their previous knowledge to build new mental structures. it is also important to include cognitive theories about second language acquisition, which are relevant to this study. krashen’s theory of comprehensible input (as cited in curtain, & dahlberg, 2004) explains that input should be the amount of language that the student understands plus a little more. this theory is derived from the input hypothesis, which states that the message conveyed to the child must the effect of story read-alouds norato no. 8 (january june 2014) no. 8 (january june 2014) 86 be understandable even if all the words are not familiar. cognitive theory is important for this study because reading engagement can be achieved if the child feels comfortable with the book and if its language is comprehensible. krashen’s concept of input just beyond the learner’s language level (i + 1) has to be considered when choosing a book to read aloud. mcdavid (n.d.) developed a rule to know how to select the right book to read. books are too easy if children already know almost all the words; books are too hard that contain more than five words in one page that the child does not know, and finally books are just right in which almost all the words on the page are known and just a few are new. these new words can be easily understood with just a little bit of help. thus, taking into account the criteria to choose an appropriate book will then enhance the child’s interest since the input would be i + 1 and the new vocabulary would not be above their level. story schemata or story grammar is also important to consider. understanding how a story is structured helps readers of all ages to make real sense of the story and therefore, to personalize it. mandler & johnson (as cited in rand, 1984) define story grammar as a set of episodes that occur in the story and allow the story to flow. dealing with story grammar helps readers define outcomes, expectations and reactions towards what is being read. lehr (1997) also considers the importance of analyzing how the episode generates a certain reaction in a character. this character then sets a goal that needs to be achieved along the story, and when it is achieved, the story ends. this theory is relevant for this study because the use of materials and methodologies that foster story grammar may help children develop their literacy understanding. vocabulary acquisition has also been studied when using interactive reading aloud strategies since acquiring new words is a reading skill that has to be developed to achieve comprehension and fluency. however, teachers should define the most appropriate instruction to maximize word learning without distracting children from the story itself. considering the previous aspect, kindle (2009) developed a study in which three different levels of instruction (incidental, embedded, and focused) emerged when analyzing the data. first, incidental exposure “occurred during the course of discussions, before, during, and after reading and resulted from teachers’ efforts to infuse rich vocabulary into class discourse” (kindle, 2009, p. 3). secondly, embedded instruction emphasized the meaning of the words that were provided along with the reading. finally, focused instruction “occurred when target words were considered important to story comprehension or when difficulties arose communicating word meaning” (kindle, 2009, p. 3). kindle’s findings the effect of story read-alouds norato no. 8 (january june 2014) no. 8 (january june 2014) 87 show that students learned words from the three types of instruction, and that this instruction promoted understanding without distracting from the reading. reading engagement is also achieved by the degree of enjoyment and comprehension of the book. sipe (2002) studied how readers’ engagement can be expressed in different verbal or physical ways. the author mentions how readers seek to understand the narrative elements of the story, including plot, setting, and characters. however, this level of comprehension does not necessarily increase engagement. that is why, when readers make the story their own, they “compare and contrast the events of the story to their own lives, saying ‘that happened [or didn’t happen] to me’” (sipe, 2002, p. 1). sipe examined the construction of literacy understanding (how readers construct meaning by supplying what is not written) by means of children’s responses to read-alouds. five different categories of understanding resulted from the analysis of the data: analytical, intertextual, personal, transparent, performative. these five facets were also affected by the stances assumed, the actions performed and the functions of the texts. children can also demonstrate engagement by drawing. ducan’s (1998) integrated competition hypothesis posits that visual input can portray things that words cannot. images in general are a great tool to express feelings and thoughts in a more pictured and visual manner. in this regard, pflaum & bishop (2004) asked students to draw one experience in which they were not engaged and one activity in which they were. in general, students demonstrated preferences for collaborative reading experiences. engaged readers not only have acquired reading skills, but use them for their own purposes in many contexts. they possess beliefs, desires, and interests that energize the hard work of becoming literate. from this perspective, motivation and social interactions are equal to cognitions as foundations for reading (guthrie & anderson, as cited in pflaum & bishop, 2004). in this sense, reading in a collaborative environment helps children feel comfortable about what they know and about what they are learning. reading aloud is a space for sharing ideas and thoughts about a specific situation. having the opportunity to listen to different perspectives increases comprehension. the effect of story read-alouds norato no. 8 (january june 2014) no. 8 (january june 2014) 88 methodology research design this action research study emerged from the need to take advantage of the time students spend in the reading corner sessions in order to develop reading comprehension, critical thinking skills and to improve students’ english proficiency level. the purpose of the intervention was for children in the reading corner to have contact with the language in a different environment outside their scheduled class and to learn by getting close to books and stories. each week, a story was chosen that could be appropriate for all the children who attended the reading corner, which changed from week to week. the story was read along with pre-, whileand post-activities. the activities were designed based on students’ learning profiles and they are thought to engage learners even more in the foreign language. context and participants the children who participated in the study came from different school backgrounds and attended english classes once a week. the reading corner sessions were offered to students between 7 and 12 years of age. each group of students attended a fifty-minute session every saturday. considering that the read aloud sessions were a voluntary activity, the number of participants varied from eight to four. data collection instruments qualitative data collection techniques were used as the primary research methods for this action research study. field notes were taken after each session during the semester. different information was gathered for the younger learners (7-9) than for the older learners (1012) as the type of strategies used and the didactic material varied. a total of nine sessions of two hours each were audio recorded. not all of the sessions were recorded as parent’s consent was not obtained for all the students in each session. transcriptions of nine sessions of audio recordings were used to find patterns and to answer the research questions. two different surveys were carried out at the end of the semester in order to evaluate the vocabulary strategies used and the students’ behaviors and attitudes towards reading. the effect of story read-alouds norato no. 8 (january june 2014) no. 8 (january june 2014) 89 data analysis and interpretation in order to analyze the transcriptions of the nine hours of recordings, basic concepts of glaser and strauss’s grounded theory were used (as cited in van den heuvel-panhuiizen, & van den boogaard, 2008). the data analysis of the recordings generated a coding framework, which was used to analyze the recordings and the field notes. the transcriptions were divided into short dialogues that came up during the discussions of the read alouds. in general, such dialogues contained an answer to a given question or a spontaneous response in the middle of a conversation. the story read aloud by the children was neither transcribed nor taken into account for the present study. during the open coding phase, five different categories emerged: msto (made story their own), se (story engagement), rc (reading comprehension), fld (foreign language development) and ic (intertextual connections). considering that the research questions were focused on the students’ english improvement and the development of critical thinking skills and literacy understanding, it was necessary to concentrate on two of the categories in the first phase: rc (reading comprehension) and fld (foreign language development). therefore, during the selective coding phase, some other subcategories emerged. within the lu category, the following subcategories arose: ls (library-skills development), dt (focus on decontextualized text), pi (prediction based on illustrations), pbk (prediction based on background knowledge) and ss (story schemata). within the fld category, the following subcategories arose: sd (syntax development), we (target words explanation, 2lc (mother tongue and l2 combination), aw (asking for l2 words), sw (spelling words), l2bk (l2 background knowledge). these categories classify the different responses children produced and their analysis brought the findings described later. table 1 shows the final coding framework that emerged after the data coding of the recordings. the framework includes a definition of the category or the subcategory and an example taken from the transcriptions. the effect of story read-alouds norato no. 8 (january june 2014) no. 8 (january june 2014) 90 table 1. coding classification of children’s responses during the read aloud, open coding phase category r1: reading comprehension [rc] description child makes connections between the main narrative elements and their background knowledge in order to understand the flow of the story. example 13:37 teacher: something wrong is happening 13:47 children: the stairs 14:00 samanta: they go down from the stairs and continue skating 14:03 teacher: how do they go down? 14:04 samanta: they sit down and go down 14:05 lucia: they jump category r2: inter-textual connections [ic] description child makes connections between the story and other literacy products like movies or tv shows. example 22:23 teacher: what about the penguins? … 23:47 lucia: i think i watch a movie….. 24:03 santiago: yes! the mother goes to get food and the father look after the eggs 24:21 lucia: mmm now i remember. the mother emigrates…the male penguin keeps the eggs 24:39 teacher: do you remember the name of the movie? 24:41 santiago: “happy feet” category r3: personal engagement [se, msto] description child asks for the turn to read during the session or makes connections between the facts of the story and their personal lives. example (story engagement) 31:08 teacher: volunteers for reading this page? 31:10 children: meeee!!!! 31:11 samanta: i don’t read. example (made the story their own) 27:39 bryan: george is in a swimming pool with apples 28:00 samanta: no! it’s a game that you …. how do you say “poner la cabeza en el agua”? the effect of story read-alouds norato no. 8 (january june 2014) no. 8 (january june 2014) 91 28:09 lucia: put your head in the water … 28:13 samanta: and you pick up the apple with your mouth 28:14 lucia: i have played that game but with candy…you have to put your head and pick up one candy and you close your eyes. there is another game that you put in a bowl water with little balls. category r4: foreign language development [fld] description child asks for the meaning of new words or tries to give his opinion. example 05:28 fernanda: how do you say “toallas” in english? 05:29 children: towels 05:32 teacher: t-o-w-e-l bearing in mind that conversations were not recorded in the journal, none of the subcategories of the fld category were considered for the analysis. on the contrary, two new categories emerged throughout the analysis of the field notes: sm (scaffolding methodologies) and bv (building vocabulary). table 2 includes the definition of these two categories during the analysis of the journal. in the case of the sessions that were recorded, transcriptions were compared with the field notes and observations in order to identify patterns and in this way, to define the codes that characterize the session as a whole. table 2. coding classification of children’s responses during the read aloud, selective coding phase category r1: reading comprehension subcategory 1.1: library-skills development [ls] subcategory 1.1 library-skills development description child identifies the different parts of a book and predicts based on the information found in the cover. example 09:06 teacher: what is the function of the author in the book? 09:09 samanta: he writes the book 09:12 teacher: and the illustrator? 09:15 samanta: he puts the characters in the book, the image. the effect of story read-alouds norato no. 8 (january june 2014) no. 8 (january june 2014) 92 subcategory 1.2: focus on decontextualized text [dt] subcategory 1.2 focus on decontextualized text description child focused his attention on the language used in the book rather than on the images in order to comprehend the meaning of the text. example 10:20 santiago: yellow woman [talking about the image] 10:26 lucia: that is her sister 10:43 teacher: how do you know? 10:49 lucia: it’s in the text subcategory 1.3: prediction based on illustrations [pi] subcategory 1.3 prediction based on illustrations description child predicts what is going to happen in the story based on the images on the page of the book. example 12:58 teacher: so what does gracie’s sister think it’s inside of the basket? 13:00 sandra: fruit, a chicken….. 13:07 lucia: ahhh because it’s moving subcategory 1.4: prediction based on background knowledge [pbk] subcategory 1.4 prediction based on background knowledge description child predicts what is going to happen in the story based on their background knowledge. example 12:07 teacher: what are they talking about in this page? 12:09 samanta: the muscles 12:17 lucia: they protect the bones 12:18 teacher: they also help us move and stretch subcategory 1.5: story schemata [ss] subcategory 1.5 story schemata description child recognizes the main elements of a story such as characters, plot, settings, climax and episodes (story grammar). the effect of story read-alouds norato no. 8 (january june 2014) no. 8 (january june 2014) 93 example 26:13 teacher: now what was the problem in the story? 26:18 samanta: the streets 26:22 lucia: the problem was that they could not go down the stairs 26:35 samanta: and the grandfather borrowed the ramp 26:43 teacher: and that was… 26:45 children: the solution category r2:foreign language development subcategory 2.1: syntax development [sd] subcategory 2.1 syntax development description child tries to construct his opinion using the grammar he knows in order to give his opinion during the read aloud. example 25:35 teacher: what do you think it’s behind number 9? 25:37 julian: nine apples red 25:40 teacher: nine….[crossing fingers] 25:48 julian: nine red apples subcategory 2.2: target words explanation [we] subcategory 2.2 target words explanation description child explains the meaning of a word using the grammar structures they know in the second language. example 14:53 cata: do you know this word? (sheet) 14:55 lucia: it’s the thing you put in your bed. [b-05/p.5] subcategory 2.3: mother tongue and l2 combination [2lc] subcategory 2.3 mother tongue and l2 combination description child gives his opinion by constructing a sentence that combines their knowledge in the second language and some words in the first language. example 14:03 monica: that is the brain 14:17 santiago: the brain is made of “camarones” the effect of story read-alouds norato no. 8 (january june 2014) no. 8 (january june 2014) 94 subcategory 2.4: asking for l2 words [aw] subcategory 2.4 asking for l2 words description child asks for a word in english that he needs to express his opinion. example 25:18 ricardo: teacher how do you say “asustado”? 25:23 teacher: scared 23:25 ricardo: the cat is scared subcategory 2.5: spelling words [sw] subcategory 2.5 spelling words description child spells a word and writes it in the mini-board. child makes connections between how a word that is not in the text is pronounced and how it is written. example 02:24 teacher: do you know how to write that word? 02:35 lucia: o-w-n-e-r subcategory 2.6: l2 background knowledge [l2bk] subcategory 2.6 l2 background knowledge description child uses his knowledge in l2 in order to answer to a question or to give his opinion. example 28:19 teacher: do you know opposites? 28:31 javier: soft and hard 28:35 teacher: black 28:36 children: white results results gathered from the vocabulary survey show that more than 50% of the students who used this strategy felt that it helped them learn new words and believed it was a useful methodology to learn vocabulary. besides this, a mini-board was used for students to reinforce the new words. results from the vocabulary survey show that more than 50% of the interviewed students felt that the strategy the effect of story read-alouds norato no. 8 (january june 2014) no. 8 (january june 2014) 95 helped them learn new words and that it was a useful methodology to memorize new vocabulary. this indicates that didactic material facilitates learning in any kind of context. the teacher’s challenge is to find the most appropriate material which can meet the academic needs of the students. in terms of foreign language development, table 3 shows the subcategories and the number of times they were found in the transcriptions. table 3. foreign language development subcategory recording code total syntax development sd 9 target words explanation we 4 mother tongue and l2 combination 2lc 9 asking for l2 words aw 15 spelling words sw 3 l2 background knowledge l2bk 6 having the students motivated to attend the sessions and to participate actively was one of the main barriers during the study. however, results from the surveys revealed that 11 out of 15 students said that they liked being read to, and in the same way, 10 out of 15 said that they paid attention when the teacher read the story for them. it is also important to mention that allowing the combination of students’ mother tongue and english facilitated communication. talking about critical thinking, results from the general survey said that children (10 out of 15) made use of images in order to predict the meaning of the new words. development of critical thinking was not only observed during the post-reading activities children worked on, but also during the conversations in the read aloud. from the 118 short dialogues that were transcribed, 49 belong to this category. however, during the selective coding phase, six subcategories emerged. table 4 shows the number of times each subcategory appeared in the transcriptions. the effect of story read-alouds norato no. 8 (january june 2014) no. 8 (january june 2014) 96 table 4. reading comprehension subcategory recording code total library-skills development ls 7 focus on decontextualized text dt 8 prediction based on illustrations pi 18 prediction based on background knowledge pbk 2 story schemata ss pi and ss pi, ss 2 conclusions in conclusion, this study shows that reading aloud provides students with opportunities to interact with others while they are reinforcing their knowledge of english. children who attended the reading sessions learned new vocabulary in context and also developed their speaking skills using the language they had, regardless of their english level, when giving their opinion about the story. emphasis on communication rather than in error correction gave students confidence to express themselves in english and motivated them as well. this supports the communicative language teaching theory (richards, 2006) which states that language production happens when the teacher guides students but does not control their speaking. other studies support that reading a book aloud in two languages permits comprehension of the story instead of limiting the improvement of the other language (lyster, collins, & ballinger, 2009). reading comprehension of the story increases motivation and when students are engaged in the text, they will feel the need to communicate. read-alouds gave students a space where they could improve their listening skills as well as reading strategies. in a similar study, beck & mckeown (2001) reported that the words and expressions found in the books improve verbal functioning since those words are not commonly heard in conversations; therefore, story words improve students’ vocabulary. in the present study, the strategies and methodologies used helped students learn new words in order to express their thoughts aloud. building just the right environment for all the students to feel comfortable regardless their english level was a relevant factor to the effect of story read-alouds norato no. 8 (january june 2014) no. 8 (january june 2014) 97 increase their motivation towards the sessions and towards reading. modeling good reading behaviors and enjoyment for reading helped children be motivated. fox (2008) expresses the importance of building a relationship among the adult, the child and the book in order to facilitate interaction and to help children personalize what they are reading. students in this study learned to identify the parts of a story by analyzing the book from a critical point of view. they developed their critical thinking skills when talking about the events of the story or when relating them to their own lives. this finding is linked with the story schemata theory described by mandler & jonhson (as cited in rand, 1984), which is based on the idea of understanding the sequence of episodes in the story by analyzing the goals and reactions of the characters. the different categories that emerged during the analysis of the audio recordings demonstrated how children used several perspectives to interpret the information given by the book and in this way, analyzed it according to their background knowledge and the aids given in the sessions. finally, the different uses of resources and didactic material such as graphic organizers helped children comprehend the stories more easily and interpret the story grammar. in general, reading aloud develops children’s thinking and allows them to learn new expressions and to express themselves while they are immersed in the magical world of a book. references beck, i. l. & mckeown, m. g. (2001). text talk: capturing the benefits of read-aloud experiences for young children. the reading teacher, 55(1), 10-20. centro colombo americano. (n.d.). reading corner approach. unpublished document. curtain, h. & dahlberg c. a. (2004). languages and children: making the match: new languages for young learners. (3rd ed.). upper saddle river, nj: pearson education. ducan, j. (1998). converging levels of analysis in the cognitive neuroscience of visual attention. philosophical transactions: biological sciences, 353, 1307-1317 retrieved from: http://rstb. royalsocietypublishing.org/ fox, m. (2008) reading magic. why reading aloud to our children will change their lives forever. orlando, fl: harcourt books. the effect of story read-alouds norato no. 8 (january june 2014) no. 8 (january june 2014) 98 kindle, k. j. (2009). vocabulary development during read-alouds: primary practices. the reading teacher, 63(3), 202-211. lehr, f. (1987). story grammar. international reading association, 40(6), 550-552. lewis, k. (n.d.). the goldilocks rules for choosing a book. retrieved from http://www.ourclassweb.com lyster, r., collins l. & ballinger, s. (2009). linking languages through a bilingual read-aloud project. language awareness, 18(3-4), 366-383. pflaum s. w., & bishop p. a. (2004). students perceptions of reading engagement: learning from the learners. journal of adolescent & adult literacy, 48(3), 202-213 pentimonti, j., & justice, l. (2009) teachers’ use of scaffolding strategies during read alouds in the preschool classroom. journal of early childhood education, 37, 241–248. rand, m. (1984). story schema: theory, research and practice. the reading teacher, 37(4), 377-382 richards, j. (2006). communicative language teaching today. cambridge: cambridge university press. sipe, l. r., (2002). talking back and taking over: young’s children expressive engagement during storybook read-alouds. the reading teacher, 55(5), 476-483 van den heuvel-panhuiizen, m. & van den boogaard, s. (2008). picture books for kindergartens’ mathematical thinking. mathematical thinking and learning, 10, 341-373. doi: 10.1080/10986060802425539. author *catalina norato cerón received her bachelor of arts in bilingual education from the institución universitaria colombo americana, única, in bogotá colombia. she has participated in international exchange programs such as susi in 2009 and amity in 2011. she worked as spanish teaching assistant at park spanish immersion school in st. louis park, minnesota in 2011, as english teacher at the centro colombo americano in bogotá, is currently working at the fundación universitaria monserrate teaching english as a foreign language. she is also pursuing her master’s in education with a specialization in culturally responsive education at ashford university. the effect of story read-alouds no. 8 (january june 2014) no. 8 (january june 2014) gist2014finalfinal.indd 99 selfand teacher-assessment in an efl writing class1 autoevaluación y evaluación docente en una clase de escritura de inglés como lengua extranjera sasan baleghizadeh and tahereh hajizadeh2* shahid beheshti university, g.c., allameh tabataba’i university, iran abstract the present study investigated how fifteen iranian efl learners developed the ability to self-assess their writings through having access to the rater’s scores. the participants were supervised for four weeks as they went through their first experience in self-assessment. they were provided with a detailed evaluation sheet for assessing their work, and after each self-evaluation they were able to have access to the teacher-assigned scores. the results indicated a high correlation between self-assessment and teacher-assessment. it was revealed that students’ self-assessment throughout the study turned out to be highly correlated with the teacher-assessment. it was also shown that the learners assessed different components of their writing in a manner comparable to that of the teacher. the findings confirmed that self-assessment could not only be viewed as a useful tool for evaluating learners’ performance but also be regarded as an efficient instrument for developing their writing skill. keywords: self-assessment, teacher assessment, writing resumen este estudio investigó cómo 15 estudiantes iraníes de inglés como lengua extranjera desarrollaron la capacidad de evaluar sus escritos al tener acceso a las puntuaciones de los evaluadores. los participantes fueron supervisados durante cuatro semanas al ser su primera experiencia en el proceso de autoevaluación. se proporcionó una hoja de evaluación detallada a cada estudiante para que evaluara su trabajo y después de cada autoevaluación, los estudiantes pudieron tener acceso a las puntuaciones globales asignadas por el profesor. los resultados indicaron una alta correlación entre la autoevaluación y la evaluación del profesor. esto reveló que la autoevaluación de los estudiantes durante todo 1 received: october 4, 2013 / accepted: april 18, 2014 2 sasanbaleghizadeh@yahoo.com, t.hajizade@yahoo.com gist education and learning research journal. issn 1692-5777. no. 8, (january june) 2014. pp. 99-117. the effect of story read-alouds no. 8 (january june 2014) no. 8 (january june 2014) 100 el estudio resultó estar altamente correlacionado con la evaluación docente. también se demostró que los estudiantes evaluaron diferentes componentes de su escritura de una manera comparable a la realizada por el profesor. los resultados confirmaron que la autoevaluación podría no sólo ser vista como una herramienta útil para evaluar el rendimiento de los estudiantes sino también podría ser considerada como un instrumento eficaz para desarrollar sus destrezas de escritura. palabras clave: autoevaluación, evaluación de la actividad docente, escritura resumo este estudo pesquisou como 15 estudantes iranianos de inglês como língua estrangeira e desenvolveram a capacidade de avaliar seus escritos ao ter acesso às pontuações dos avaliadores. os participantes foram supervisados durante quatro semanas ao ser sua primeira experiência no processo de autoavaliação. foi proporcionada uma folha de avaliação detalhada a cada estudante para que avaliasse seu trabalho e depois de cada autoavaliação, os estudantes puderam ter acesso às pontuações globais designadas pelo professor. os resultados indicaram uma alta correlação entre a autoavaliação e a avaliação do professor. este revelou que a autoavaliação dos estudantes durante todo o estudo resultou estar altamente correlacionado com a avaliação docente. também se demonstrou que os estudantes avaliaram diferentes componentes da sua escritura de uma maneira comparável à realizada pelo professor. os resultados confirmaram que a autoavaliação poderia não só ser vista como uma ferramenta útil para avaliar o rendimento dos estudantes como também poderia ser considerada como um instrumento eficaz para desenvolver as suas destrezas de escritura. palavras chave: autoavaliação, avaliação da atividade docente, escritura introduction despite the numerous advantages of analytic scoring of productive language skills such as speaking and writing, there are still teachers who, due to time constraints and work pressure, prefer holistic scoring of their learners’ performance through summative assessment. when applied to evaluating students’ written compositions, this approach can result in potentially biased evaluation because more often than not teachers do not have clear criteria for marking the papers. even worse, most of them tend to correct all grammatical and spelling errors with red pens which, as peñaflorida (2002) aptly put it, “bleeds students’ papers to death” (p.345). in order to overcome the limitations of summative assessment, particularly when it is done holistically, alternative assessments or “alternatives in selfand teacher-assessment baleghizadeh & hajizadeh no. 8 (january june 2014) no. 8 (january june 2014) 101 assessment” (brown & hudson, 1998, p. 57) has become the common practice of many teachers around the world. one such alternative assessment is self-assessment, which is in line with current learnercentered education (brown, 2001) and can help students become independent learners (blanche & merino, 1989) and, in turn, lessens the burden on teachers (oscarson, 1989). literature review while self-assessment came hand in hand with learner-centered approaches such as the communicative approach, it was not until the late 90s when the focus of language teaching shifted to promoting learner autonomy, according to kumaravadivalu (1994), learner autonomy involves helping students to learn on their own, raising their awareness of their learning strategies, and encouraging them to self-direct their own assessment. this approach to assessment no longer places the teacher at the center of the evaluation process; rather, it prompts learners to take responsibility for assessing their own performance (oscarson, 1989), paving the way for their improvement through reflection and action. in this way, assessment would surely play a positive role in the learners’ learning process (roberts, 2006) and would help to increase their autonomy (cresswell, 2000). brown and hudson (1998) have argued that self-assessment is a type of “personal-response assessment” (p. 63) and define it as a kind of assessment that “require(s) students to rate their own language” (p. 65). upshur (as cited in heilenman, 1990) was one of the first to support the use of this kind of assessment in the measurement of second language abilities since he believed it is only the learner who knows how successfully he could use the language. many advantages of self-assessment such as speed, direct involvement of learners, encouragement of autonomous learning (brown & hudson, 1998), and the possibility of enlarging the domain of language behavior sampled without substantially increasing the time and cost involved (leblanc & painchaud, 1985) have been extensively dealt with in the literature. for example, bachman and palmer (1989) argued that “self-ratings can be reliable and valid measures of communicative language abilities” (p. 22). likewise, huerta-macias (as cited in brown & hudson, 1998) has claimed that “alternative assessment (not just self-assessment) consists of valid and reliable procedures that avoid problems inherent in traditional testing including norming, linguistic, and cultural biases” (p. 55). thus, students can even gain more insight into their strengths and weaknesses as writers if they monitor their own writing tasks (myers, 2001). selfand teacher-assessment baleghizadeh & hajizadeh no. 8 (january june 2014) no. 8 (january june 2014) 102 despite the foregoing advantages, not all research studies have confirmed the usefulness of this sort of evaluation. for example, blanche and merino (1989), who summarized major findings in selfassessment, argued that the accuracy of most students’ self-estimates often varied depending on the linguistic skills and materials involved in the evaluations. similarly, davidson and henning (1985) indicated that although classical reliability estimates of students’ self-ratings might be reasonably high, “little confidence should be placed in these particular student self-ratings” (p. 176). this is mostly because students might not be well-trained in doing the self-ratings. moreover, heilenman (1990), who investigated the role of response effects (tendencies to respond to factors other than item content) in the self-assessment of second language ability, found out that both a measure of “acquiescence effects” and “overestimation effects” were present (p. 188). thus, heilenman realized that those students who had been learning english for two years or more were more likely to overestimate their performance. on the other hand, matsuno (2009) found that japanese efl learners underestimated their performance when they were asked to self-assess their own writings, which was particularly true for high-achieving students. hence, matsuno (2009) concluded that “self-assessment was somehow idiosyncratic and therefore of limited utility as a part of formal assessment” (p. 75). even when the criteria for assessment were set, the participants could not judge their performance in a manner comparable to that of the teachers (patri, 2002). in addition to the studies conducted to show whether selfassessment is a useful evaluation tool or not, many studies have been carried out to find out how teachers can help students become better evaluators of their own performance. for example, roberts (2006) maintained that “in order to have higher correlation between selfassessment and teacher-assessment, we need to provide learners with guidance” (p. 3). moreover, the result of jafarpur and yamini’s (1995) study showed that training with self-assessment questionnaires could improve learners’ skill to estimate their own language ability. although without direct instruction, students’ self-assessments have shown great improvement over time (chen, 2008), a number of researchers like oscarson (1989) emphasize that students do need training for improving their self-assessment. the writing skill seems to be a good area for investigation when it comes to assessment either by teachers or students themselves. this is mainly because even if the raters assign the same score to a piece of writing, they might have arrived at it based on different criteria (connor-linton, 1995; hamp-lyons, 1995). furthermore, even native selfand teacher-assessment baleghizadeh & hajizadeh no. 8 (january june 2014) no. 8 (january june 2014) 103 english speakers may not have the same reaction as non-natives toward the same written paper. for example, the results of khalil’s (1985) study revealed that native speakers found semantically deviant utterances more problematic than grammatically deviant ones. native raters proved to be stricter than non-native raters (kobayashi, 1992), and they gave lower ratings to content than language (santos, 1988). even researchers like brown (1991), who found no statistically significant difference between the ratings given by english and efl raters, admitted that these two groups arrived at these scores from different perspectives, suggesting that native english speakers focused more on cohesion when assessing a piece of writing, whereas their non-native counterparts attended more to organization. in order to overcome the problem of subjectivity in holistic assessment of writing, analytic scoring has been proposed as an alternative (heaton, 1988). according to stiggins, richard, nancy, and bridgeford (as cited in perkins, 1983) “holistic scoring calls for the reader to rate overall writing proficiency on a single rating scale, (but) analytic scoring breaks performance down into component parts (e.g. organization, wording, idea)” (p. 652). bacha (2001) confirmed that adopting either of these techniques depended on the purpose of writing in efl programs. she maintained that to provide learners with more specific feedback, analytic scoring would be more appropriate since holistic scoring tends to be highly subjective and lacks internal consistency due to shifting standards (perkins, 1983). other scholars such as hamp-lyons (1995) have pointed out that “holistic scoring system is a closed system” (p. 760) and no one can have access to points for different parts since the raters do not have a certain criterion for scoring a piece of writing. cumming (1990), who discussed biases in holistic evaluations of esl writings, claimed that “analytic scales may have the advantage of drawing raters’ attention to specific aspects of students’ composition” (p. 42). studies have indicated that high interrater reliability has been obtained from analytic scoring (bachman, 1990; jacobs, zingraf, wormuth, hartfiel, & hughey, 1981; perkins, 1983). apart from having clear criteria for assessment, all raters need training in assessment. lumley and mcnamara (1995) argued that even teachers who wanted to act as raters needed some training courses to make them internally consistence or “self-consistent” (p. 57). jacobs et al. (1981) argued that the guidance helped to neutralize the differences in their judgment related to raters’ backgrounds. taking the above mentioned points into account, it is evident that training is essential, particularly for learners who want to practice self-assessment for the first time. selfand teacher-assessment baleghizadeh & hajizadeh no. 8 (january june 2014) no. 8 (january june 2014) 104 methodology research design as mentioned previously, the results obtained about the efficiency of self-assessment are inconclusive. given the fact that very little research has been done in this respect in the iranian context, this point needs further exploration since cultural backgrounds of the participants could affect self-assessment results (blanche & merino, 1989). in the present study, pearson-product moment correlation coefficient was used to investigate the relationship between self-assessment and teacher-assessment of students’ writing. it was hoped that students’ self-assessment would improve over time. in other words, it was predicted that during the first cycle of assessment, the correlation between the teacher-assessment and student self-assessment would be relatively low, but gradually students would learn how to assess themselves and this assessment of their own writings would progress to be a better approximation of the teacher’s assessment. hence, the correlation would be greater in the last cycle of assessment. to this end, the following research questions guided the study: 1. is there a statistically significant relationship between teacherassessment and learners’ self-assessment in each cycle of assessment? 2. does learners’ self-assessment improve over time (as they have access to teacher-assigned scores)? 3. in the last cycle of assessment, do learners assess different components of their writing in the same way as the teacher did? 4. does self-assessment lead to an improvement in learners’ writing? participants twenty iranian female efl learners at the upper-intermediate level of english language proficiency with an average toefl score of 550 participated in this study. the participants were all females with an average age of 20, and were all taking a toefl preparation course at a private english language school in tehran, iran. since the study lasted for several weeks, not all the participants were able to attend all the assessment sessions. therefore, the researchers decided to include the individuals who took part in all sessions, as a result of which the number of participants was reduced to fifteen. selfand teacher-assessment baleghizadeh & hajizadeh no. 8 (january june 2014) no. 8 (january june 2014) 105 in addition to the learners, a native iranian teacher (the second researcher of the present study) with five years of experience in teaching english as a foreign language was in charge of teaching paragraph writing to the students and rating their written assignments. inasmuch as analytic scoring offers high inter-rater and intra-rater reliability, the rater assessed each paper only once. data collection instruments in this study both the teacher and the students assessed the writings through a detailed evaluation sheet (see appendix a). this evaluation sheet with five subscales (see table 1) was taken from jacobs et al. (cited in bacha, 2001). however, the researchers thought that students would need to know how these five components (content, organization, vocabulary, language, and mechanics) would be broken down into smaller sub-scales while scoring their papers. to this end, following matsuno (2009), these five criteria were clearly defined. thus, for example, it became clear that content refers to sub-scales, such as the amount of writing, the development of the topic, and the relevance of the students’ writing to the assigned topic. similarly, it was known that organization refers to the opening, supporting sentences, closing and logical sequences of ideas in writing (see table 1 for further details). table 1. jacobs et al.’s composition profile by using this detailed evaluation sheet, interval scales could be obtained which paved the way for using pearson correlation coefficient formula. working with this checklist was quite easy for the participants because instead of a main category like content, they had access to the subcategories which helped them in their assessment. the second instrument was a questionnaire developed by the researchers (appendix b). the questions were written in simple selfand teacher-assessment baleghizadeh & hajizadeh no. 8 (january june 2014) no. 8 (january june 2014) 106 language to ensure they would be easily comprehended. the main goals behind utilizing this questionnaire were to elicit the learners’ attitude toward self-assessment, their beliefs about the usefulness of this kind of assessment, and their ideas on how they had self-assessed their performance. this instrument was primarily used to save time since obtaining the same amount of information through interviewing all the participants would be rather time-consuming. the last instrument used was a semi-structured interview that the researchers conducted with a few of the participants. although the research was mainly quantitative, it was felt that the use of an interview might shed more light on some dark points, such as the participants who would either overestimate or underestimate their performances. the study was conducted at a private language institute and lasted for one month. although the participants were upper-intermediate learners, some of them had problems in developing a paragraph. therefore, their teacher (the second researcher) devoted the first session to providing them with some instruction on appropriate length, format, content, and organization of a paragraph. then during the second session, the participants were introduced to the evaluation sheet (appendix a).the second researcher explained what each category as well as the related subcategories meant and made sure students understood what they were expected to do. after realizing how to assign scores to different components, they were given a topic to write about on the same day and were asked to evaluate their writings two or three days later, trying to be as objective as possible. this interval would help the participants to detach themselves from their writings and enable them to be more critical of them. it is worth mentioning that the topics were related to what they had studied during the week, and an attempt was made to take the participants’ interest into consideration in the process of topic selection. after each writing and self-assessment, the second researcher, who was both the teacher and the rater, collected the papers and returned them the next session along with her evaluation (she used the same evaluation sheet for assigning scores). she did not write any comments either in the margin of the papers or the evaluation sheets. the participants were supposed to figure out for themselves why they had received a particular score. furthermore, the second researcher asked them to read their writings one more time and reflect on the scores assigned by the rater. then, the participants were given back their writings, which were evaluated two times (once by the learners and the other time by the rater) to have a chance to compare their selfselfand teacher-assessment baleghizadeh & hajizadeh no. 8 (january june 2014) no. 8 (january june 2014) 107 assessments with the teacher-assessment and to find out whether they had overestimated or underestimated their performances. this cycle of writing, self-assessment, and rater’s assessment lasted for four weeks during which the participants wrote about four different topics. data analysis and interpretation the strength of relationship between each self-assessment and the teacher-assessment was calculated using pearson-product moment correlation coefficient. since the study consisted of four cycles of selfassessment and teacher-assessments, the results of four correlations are included in the paper. the correlations were used in order to find out whether there was a relationship between the two types of assessments, and if yes whether an acquaintance with the teachers’ assessment had positively affected their self-assessments or not. a matched t-test was used to compare the learners’ first writings with the last ones. the result of this t-test could be used as an indicator of whether self-assessment had helped improve learners’ writing ability or not. the means and standard deviations of different components of learners’ last writing were compared. the purpose of this comparison was to find out if there was a difference between the way the rater and the students assessed the papers. results the correlation table 2 shows the results of four correlations. the magnitude of these correlations is larger than the critical value (ρ< .01). this indicates that the obtained results are statistically significant. table 2. correlation between self-assessment and teacher-assessment in the four cycles of writing selfand teacher-assessment baleghizadeh & hajizadeh no. 8 (january june 2014) no. 8 (january june 2014) 108 before discussing the result of these correlations in length, it is worth showing the scatter plots of the four sets of scores (figure 1), since they make the interpretation of the results much easier. figure 1. the scatter plots of four sets of scores obtained from selfassessment (horizontal axes) and teacher-assessment (vertical axes) the scatter plots clearly show that there is a positive correlation between self-assessment and teacher-assessment. the amount of this correlation remained constant (r=.63) during the first and second cycles of assessment. this might have been due to the fact that the experience was new to the students. as the first and second scatter plots reveal, there were some outliers that affected the results of the correlations to a great extent. all of these outliers overestimated their writing performance. the third scatter plot indicates a significant change in the way the participants assessed their writings; here we had only one outlier who overestimated her performance though the majority of the participants reported scores which were quite close to those of the rater. there were also four participants who underestimated their performance. although the correlation was not a perfect positive one (r= .71), the improvement of the learners’ self-assessment cannot be overlooked. selfand teacher-assessment baleghizadeh & hajizadeh no. 8 (january june 2014) no. 8 (january june 2014) 109 the result of the fourth cycle of assessment was quite unexpected (r= .91); the participants seemed to have developed an excellent skill in assessing their writings. the researchers assume that this great improvement might have been due to the fact that the second researcher asked the students to have a second meticulous look at their third papers and compare the scores they had given to themselves and those that the rater had assigned them. the motivation for such a decision came from the second researcher’s observation. she realized that during the first two sessions, the participants took a quick look at the rater’s scores and returned the papers in a minute or two. the extra time allocation has obviously had a great effect on raising the learners’ awareness and consequently their self-assessment. this is rather surprising as the learners were not provided with any direct explanation or instruction. the mean and standard deviations of the scores assigned by learners and the rater to different components of writing are displayed in table 3. a comparison of these scores can provide us with the answer to the third research question. the scores that the participants gave to different parts of their last writing were quite similar to those assigned by the teacher. thus, we can conclude that in the last cycle of assessment, there was not only a high correlation between teacherassessment and students’ self-assessment, but also a great similarity in the way learners and the rater assessed different components of writing. table 3. the means and standards deviations of the scores assigned by learners and the rater to different components of writing selfand teacher-assessment baleghizadeh & hajizadeh no. 8 (january june 2014) no. 8 (january june 2014) 110 the questionnaire after evaluating the last writing, the participants were asked to complete the questionnaire (appendix b). the answers shed more light on the processes which students went through in order to evaluate their performance. it was revealed that the experience of self-assessment was quite new to all the participants. some of them claimed that they self-evaluated their performance in most of the tests, and their obtained scores had been close to what they had expected. this was particularly true about the participants who claimed to have been objective in their self-assessment. the learners’ attitudes toward the experiment varied. while all of them agreed that self-assessment was quite motivating, some of them found it a bit hard. most of them believed that they were quite objective in their self-assessment. many of them found the rater’s score fair and indicated that having access to these scores had helped them a lot in their evaluations. most of the participants claimed that they had learned a great deal about self-assessment during the experiment. nevertheless, some of them maintained that teacher-assessment is more beneficial for the following reasons: • when we learn a new grammar point and want to use it in our writing(s) we need someone to correct our mistake(s). • my teacher is more knowledgeable and can correct my paper better. • i’m still a student. i cannot judge my writing. others believed that when they evaluate their works objectively they could have a better image of their weaknesses and strengths: • i think it is better to check my writing myself, because i can realize my problems better. • self-assessment helps me to find out my problems myself. almost all the participants argued that self-assessment could be more useful when it comes hand in hand with teacher-assessment. the researchers suppose that this attitude stems from the way iranian students have been treated in schools. they have learned to regard the teachers as authority figures and they respect them as people who are capable of judging their performance. the interesting point was that most of the participants found having access to the rater’s scores more useful than having direct training in selfand teacher-assessment baleghizadeh & hajizadeh no. 8 (january june 2014) no. 8 (january june 2014) 111 self-assessment. they believed that participating in this experiment had not only improved their self-assessment abilities but also had helped them develop their writing skill. this claim is supported by the result of a matched t-test (see table 4). table 4. matched t-test on improvement of students’ writing after selfassessment the interview as mentioned earlier, a semi-structured interview was carried out with the participants who had influenced the result of the correlations in one way or the other, i.e. those who had either over-estimated or underestimated their performance. one of the participants, who had assigned high scores to her writings, claimed that she did not pay much attention to the accuracy of her self-assessment and all she wanted was improvement of her writing skill. her goal was to receive more or less the same scores she had given to her writing from the rater. she thought assigning higher scores to her writing meant that her writing was actually improving. another learner who had underestimated her performance believed that she had never been good at writing. she was quite modest and maintained that the rater had been quite generous; otherwise, her scores could not have been so high. the most interesting part of the interview was talking to the learner whose self-assessment scores were always quite close to those of the rater. she said that she had tried to be quite objective in her self-assessment. she also told the second researcher that whenever she wanted to assess her writing she imagined that it was someone else’s paper, not hers. selfand teacher-assessment baleghizadeh & hajizadeh no. 8 (january june 2014) no. 8 (january june 2014) 112 conclusions this paper sought to take a closer look at self-assessment in the iranian context. the study confirmed that there is a statistically significant positive correlation between teacher-assessment and selfassessment. this finding can be viewed as confirmation of the research carried out in different efl contexts. however, the main contribution of this study to the literature lies in the fact that this research indicated that training learners simply through introducing them to checklists is not the only possible way to improve their ability to self-assess their performance. unlike previous studies, this research took students through four cycles of writing, self-assessment, and teacher-assessment. after each self-assessment, the learners were provided with the scores that the teacher assigned to different components of their writings. the comparison that students made between their self-assessment and teacher-assessment had a positive effect on the way they self-evaluated their subsequent writings. the results of the correlational studies justified the improvement in learners’ self-assessment. the magnitude of correlation between selfassessment and teacher-assessment remained constant during the first two cycles of assessment when the experience of self-assessment was still quite novel to the participants. however, the obtained correlation rose significantly in the third cycle of assessment since the learners had a better image of what self-assessment was about, and how they could assess their writings in the same way that the rater did. assessing their last writing was much easier for the learners since having access to the teacher-assigned scores for their previous writings had taught them how to be objective and critical toward their own works, so the last selfassessment was the closest to teacher-assessment (r= .91). consequently, it can be claimed that there is a direct relationship between training of students in self-assessment, which is done by providing the learners with their teacher-assessed papers, and the accuracy of their self-assessment scores. that is to say, the more the students ponder the scores assigned by the rater, the better they tend to assess their subsequent writings. another finding inferred from students’ writings was the fact that their writing skill improved significantly toward the end of the experiment. this fact was not only noticed by the students themselves, but was also supported through statistical procedures. the result of the matched t-test indicated a statistically significant change in the learners’ writing ability. selfand teacher-assessment baleghizadeh & hajizadeh no. 8 (january june 2014) no. 8 (january june 2014) 113 the last, but obviously not the least finding was that the participants evaluated their paragraphs almost in the same way that the teacher (rater) did. the scores that students assigned to different components of their last writing were quite close to those assigned by the teacher. this study confirmed the effectiveness of self-assessment, as a kind of alternative assessment, in the context of iran. the learners’ assessment of their own writings not only proved to correlate with those of the rater, but also improved significantly over the course of the study. nevertheless, the findings should be treated with caution since the research was carried out with only fifteen participants, all from the same institute. this indicates that further research is still needed before we can be fully sure about the beneficial effects of training students in self-assessment. references bacha, n. (2001). writing evaluation: what can analytic versus holistic essay scoring tell us? system, 29(3), 371-383. bachman, l. f. (1990). fundamental considerations in language testing. oxford: oxford university press. bachman, l. f., & palmer a. s. (1989). the construct validation of self-ratings of communicative language ability. language testing, 16(1), 14-29. blanche, p., & merino, b. j. (1989). self-assessment of foreignlanguage skills: implications for teachers and researchers. language learning, 39(3), 313-340. brown, h. d. (2001). teaching by principles: an interactive approach to language pedagogy (2nd ed.). new york: pearson education. brown, j. d. (1991). do english and esl faculties rate writing samples differently? tesol quarterly, 25(4), 587-603. brown, j. d., & hudson, t. (1998). the alternatives in language assessment. tesol quarterly, 32(4), 653-675. chen, y. 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(1995). rater characteristics and rater bias: implications for training. language testing, 12(1), 54-71. matsuno, s. (2009). self-, peer-, and teacher-assessments in japanese university efl writing classrooms. language testing, 26(1), 75-100. myers, j. l. (2001). self-evaluations of the “stream of thought” in journal writing, system, 29(4), 481-488. oscarson, m. (1989). self-assessment of language proficiency: rationale and applications. language testing, 6(1), 1-13. selfand teacher-assessment baleghizadeh & hajizadeh no. 8 (january june 2014) no. 8 (january june 2014) 115 patri, m. (2002). the influence of peer feedback on selfand peerassessment of oral skills. language testing, 19(2), 109-131. peñaflorida, a. h. (2002). nontraditional forms of assessment and response to student writing: a step toward learner autonomy. in j. c. richards & w. a. renandya (eds.), methodology in language teaching: an anthology of current practice (pp. 344-353). cambridge: cambridge university press. perkins, k. (1983). on the use of composition scoring techniques, objective measures, and objective tests to evaluate esl writing ability. tesol quarterly, 17(4), 651-671. roberts, t. s. (2006). self, peer, and group assessment in e-learning: an introduction. in t. s. roberts (ed.), self, peer, and group assessment in e-learning (pp. 1-16). london: information science publishing. santos, t. (1988). professors’ reactions to the academic writing of nonnative speaking students. tesol quarterly, 22(1), 69-90. authors *sasan baleghizadeh is associate professor of tefl at shahid beheshti university (g.c.) in tehran, iran, where he teaches courses in applied linguistics, syllabus design, and materials development. he is interested in investigating the role of interaction in english language teaching and issues related to materials development. his published articles appear in many international journals including tesl reporter, tesl canada journal, elt journal, and language learning journal. *tahereh hajizadeh holds an m.a. degree in tefl from allameh tabataba’i university in tehran, iran. she is an experienced efl teacher and is interested in issues related to classroom assessment. selfand teacher-assessment baleghizadeh & hajizadeh no. 8 (january june 2014) no. 8 (january june 2014) 116 appendix a. evaluation sheet 1. content 1-10 amount development of the topic relevance to the topic 2. organization 1-5 opening supporting sentences closing logical sequencing 3. vocabulary 1-10 range word form/ word choice 4. language 1-10 grammar use of variety of structures 5. mechanics 1-5 spelling punctuation selfand teacher-assessment baleghizadeh & hajizadeh no. 8 (january june 2014) no. 8 (january june 2014) 117 appendix b. the questionnaire 1. how long have you been learning english? 2. have you ever tried to evaluate your performance in the writing part of an exam? if yes, was your estimation close to the mark you received? 3. was this experiment new to you? if not, when and how did you experience something like this? 4. how did you feel when you had to evaluate your own works? 5. did you try to be objective in your self-assessments? if yes, what did you do? 6. did you think that the scores that the rater assigned to your works were fair? why? 7. do you think that comparing your self-assessments with teacherassessments helped you evaluate your writings better? if yes, how? 8. after this experiment, do you like to be given the chance to assess your writings yourself? why? 9. do you think that self-assessment can help you learn better? why? 10. do you think that students need training for self-assessment? why? selfand teacher-assessment baleghizadeh & hajizadeh no. 8 (january june 2014) no. 8 (january june 2014) gist2014finalfinal.indd 48 learners’ perceptions of the benefits of voice toolbased tasks on their spoken performance1 las percepciones de los estudiantes sobre los beneficios de tareas basadas en herramientas de voz para su desempeño oral astrid wilches2* centro colombo americano bogotá, colombia abstract the purpose of this study is to investigate learners’ perceptions of the benefits of tasks using voice tools to reinforce their oral skills. additionally, this study seeks to determine what aspects of task design affected the students’ perceptions. beginner learners aged 18 to 36 with little or no experience in the use of technological tools for speaking practice were selected to participate in this study. the students’ reflections were analyzed by following a combination of qualitative and quantitative research approaches based on classroom observation and two surveys. the findings show that tasks using voice tools are beneficial for students’ oral performance as they can raise self-awareness and self-correction of speech patterns and provide extra practice of language features such as pronunciation, fluency, intonation and accuracy. the aspects of task design that affected the student’s perception of those benefits were the opportunity to work on self-awareness of their spoken performance, to interact for comprehension purposes, and to exchange information. students acknowledged that voice tool-based speaking tasks can be educational, personally meaningful, enjoyable, and beneficial for the reinforcement of their oral skills as long as they are carefully planned and integrated into the dynamics of the class. it can be concluded that the asynchronous anxiety-free nature of voice tool-based speaking tasks offers several benefits to practice speaking skills both collaboratively and individually. 1 received: january 30, 2014 / accepted: april 28, 2014 2 astridwilches@hotmail.com gist education and learning research journal. issn 1692-5777. no. 8, (january june) 2014. pp. 48-65. wilches no. 8 (january june 2014) no. 8 (january june 2014) 49 keywords: voice tools, asynchronous computer-mediated communication (acmc), communicative tasks, task design, speaking performance and competence resumen el propósito de este estudio es investigar las percepciones de los estudiantes sobre los beneficios de tareas basadas en herramientas de voz para reforzar su habilidad de habla. adicionalmente, este estudio pretende determinar qué aspectos del diseño de las tareas generaron mayor impacto en sus percepciones. estudiantes principiantes entre los 18 y los 36 años con poca o sin experiencia en el uso de herramientas tecnológicas para la práctica del habla fueron seleccionados para participar en este estudio. las reflexiones de los estudiantes fueron analizadas siguiendo los enfoques de investigación que combinan aspectos cuantitativos y cualitativos basados en la observación de la clase y dos encuestas. los resultados demuestran que las tareas basadas en herramientas de voz son beneficiosas para el desempeño oral de los estudiantes puesto que permiten elevar la auto-conciencia y la auto-corrección de los patrones del habla y proveen oportunidades adicionales para practicar aspectos del habla como la pronunciación, la fluidez, la entonación y la precisión. los aspectos del diseño de las tareas que más impactaron la percepción de los estudiantes sobre esos beneficios fueron la posibilidad de trabajar en la autoconciencia de su desempeño oral, de interactuar con fines de comprensión y de intercambiar información. los estudiantes reconocieron que las tareas basadas en herramientas de voz pueden ser educativas, personalmente significativas, agradables y benéficas para el refuerzo de sus habilidades orales siempre y cuando estén cuidadosamente planeadas e integradas en la dinámica de la clase. se puede concluir que la naturaleza asincrónica y libre de ansiedad de las herramientas de voz ofrece múltiples beneficios para practicar la habilidad de habla tanto cooperativa como individualmente. palabras clave: herramientas de voz, comunicación mediada por computadora, tareas comunicativas, diseño de tareas, competencia y desempeño comunicativo resumo o propósito deste estudo é pesquisar as percepções dos estudantes sobre os benefícios de tarefas baseadas em ferramentas de voz para reforçar a sua habilidade de fala. adicionalmente, este estudo pretende determinar quais aspectos do desenho das tarefas geraram maior impacto nas suas percepções. estudantes principiantes entre os 18 e 36 anos com pouca ou sem experiência no uso de ferramentas tecnológicas para a prática da fala foram selecionados para participar neste estudo. as reflexões dos estudantes foram analisadas seguindo os enfoques de pesquisa que combinam aspectos quantitativos e qualitativos baseados na observação da aula e das enquetes. os resultados demonstram que as tarefas baseadas em ferramentas de voz são benéficas para o desempenho oral dos estudantes posto que permitem elevar a autoconsciência wilches no. 8 (january june 2014) no. 8 (january june 2014) 50 e a autocorreção dos padrões da fala e proveem oportunidades adicionais para praticar aspectos da fala como a pronúncia, a fluidez, a entonação e a precisão. os aspectos do desenho das tarefas que mais impactaram a percepção dos estudantes sobre esses benefícios foram a possibilidade de trabalhar na autoconsciência do seu desempenho oral, de interatuar com fins de compreensão e de intercambiar informação. os estudantes reconheceram que as tarefas baseadas em ferramentas de voz podem ser educativas, pessoalmente significativas, agradáveis e benéficas para o reforço das suas habilidades orais sempre e quando estejam cuidadosamente planejadas e integradas na dinâmica da classe. pode-se concluir que a natureza assincrônica e libre de ansiedade das ferramentas de voz oferece múltiplos benefícios para praticar a habilidade de fala tanto cooperativa como individualmente. palavras chave: ferramentas de voz, comunicação mediada por computador, tarefas comunicativas, desenho de tarefas, competência e desempenho comunicativo introduction students of english as a foreign language (efl) often have limited opportunities to practice speaking in an authentic and meaningful way inside or outside of class (nakazawa, muir, & dudley, 2007). asynchronous computer-mediated communication (acmc) tools that can be accessed in delayed-time and from different places seem to be beneficial for such students. they provide that additional speaking practice in an environment that enables the students to speak, listen to themselves, and, after repetition and feedback, raise self-awareness of their own speech patterns (gleason & suvorov, 2011). voice tools are pieces of software that enable students to practice their speaking skills online, either cooperatively or individually from any place or time on a computer with an internet connection. there are several web-based tools that can be found online free of charge. others are integrated within learning management systems (lms) that facilitate a supportive atmosphere for collaborative learning at institutions (garrison & anderson, 2003). this is the case of a private language center in bogotá, colombia, which emphasizes students’ oral competence training through a communicative task-based approach. the center has been interested in the use of technology for english learning and teaching, and recently began implementing an lms that offers interactive tools for students to practice their language skills with a multimedia emphasis. one of these is the wimba suite of voice tools, which includes voice authoring, learners’ perceptions of the benefits of voice tools wilches no. 8 (january june 2014) no. 8 (january june 2014) 51 e-mail, presentation, podcasting and a message board. this study focused on the use of the voice board tool, which is a threaded voice discussion board where students can record, playback, listen, edit, and post audio messages within a communicative task at their convenience of time and space (nakazawa et al., 2007). a communicative task is the main component of the task-based language teaching approach (tblt), which has become widely implemented in language education for its relation between the work done in class and its possible application outside. nunan (2006), who has been one of the principal contributors to understanding and shaping tblt, defines a task in this way. [it] is a piece of classroom work that involves learners in comprehending, manipulating, producing or interacting in the target language while their attention is focused on mobilizing their grammatical knowledge in order to express meaning, and in which the intention is to convey meaning rather than to manipulate form. (p. 17) similarly, ellis (2003) defines a task as “a work plan that requires learners to process language pragmatically in order to achieve an outcome that can be evaluated in terms of whether the correct or appropriate content has been conveyed” (p. 16). while a variety of definitions of task have been suggested, this study takes ellis’ (2003) definition and considers communicative tasks as pieces of work that require students to convey meaning in order to carry out academic activities that resemble those in real-life. this language approach allows students to work toward a clear goal, share information, exchange opinions, negotiate meaning and get ready for real-world tasks. ellis (2003) recommends tasks should follow some methodological principles that facilitate a more meaningful and structured learning experience. tasks should be designed according to the learner’s skills in order to set an appropriate level of task difficulty. egbert and hansonsmith’s (2007) findings corroborate this principle by showing that the enjoyment and completion of a task using technological tools can be achieved if there is an optimal balance between the challenges offered by the task and the students’ available skills. tasks should also follow a process with clear goals, steps and outcomes where the teacher orientates students to take an active role during the performance of the task. taking an active role implies taking more risks in using the language more spontaneously, focusing on meaning rather than on form. at the end of this process, as a main component of the tblt approach, students are encouraged to reflect on and evaluate their own and classmates’ learners’ perceptions of the benefits of voice tools wilches no. 8 (january june 2014) no. 8 (january june 2014) 52 performance and progress. these principles of communicative tasks can be planned and enhanced by the use of acmc tools. therefore, this study sought to find out learners’ perceptions of the benefits of tasks using acmc voice tools to reinforce their oral skills. literature review the use of acmc tools to provide additional practice and reinforce language learning has proven to be beneficial due to the asynchronous environment that enables students to rehearse and evaluate their oral performance. however, for teachers, the very nature of this environment can bring some technical, social and design factors that require careful attention when planning a communicative task. it is widely accepted now that tasks using acmc tools can contribute to the development of speaking skills (blake 2009) by providing students with the facilities to practice and evaluate their oral performance within an online atmosphere that reduces the pressure of interacting in a face-to-face class. by being in this online environment, students lose their apprehension and are able to employ more time to elaborate and put ideas together in advance before actually interacting with others (abrams, 2003; altun, 2005; stonebrink, 2008). communicative tasks using acmc tools can positively influence learners’ attitudes and motivation towards discussions and forums, encouraging them to be more participative, receptive and interactive (abrams, 2003). thanks to its asynchronous nature, acmc tools can tackle common problems when learning a foreign language by providing additional speaking practice outside class and the possibility to focus on one particular aspect of language (pronunciation, fluency, accuracy, intonation) that may require more time and attention (johnson, 2006). this type of interaction can also help develop language complexity and collaborative learning (blake, 2009; garrison & anderson, 2003). language features such as syntactic complexity, lexical sophistication, and the amount of speech have been reported as aspects that can be enhanced through tasks using acmc tools (beauvois, as cited in abrams, 2003). the facilities offered by acmc tools, such as voice recording and feedback exchange, can contribute to raise students’ awareness of their own speech patterns which could lead to selfcorrection (gleason & suvorov, 2011; hunke, 2011; yaneske & oates, 2010). self-awareness, self-correction, self-evaluation and assessment can be enhanced by acmc tools. however, the very technological and asynchronous nature of these tools may also bring some technical, emotional and procedural difficulties learners’ perceptions of the benefits of voice tools wilches no. 8 (january june 2014) no. 8 (january june 2014) 53 for teachers and students. learners may have problems accessing a platform, or meeting the technical requirements to run a program, as well as recording, editing, interacting with the tool, or personalizing the interface. these aspects may inhibit students’ participation in discussions and tasks and bring emotional issues such as a drop in motivation, embarrassment or lack of interest (yaneske & oates, 2010). other challenges when using acmc tools for communicative tasks are the time constraints when providing individual feedback, especially in large groups. the a-synchronicity enables students to take their time to elaborate ideas and edit as many times as necessary before posting, but at the same time, this flexibility may delay conversations and feedback. this may cause students to lose the motivation to participate, and they may also be too expectant of individualized feedback, which seems to take a long time to arrive (abrams, 2003; wang & woo, 2007; yaneske & oates, 2010). in summary, studies suggest that, when carefully designed for meaningful tasks, acmc voice tool-based speaking tasks can be beneficial for students to practice and reinforce their speaking skills. this research has reported the teacher’s observations and analysis; however, it would be worthwhile to know the students’ perceptions of the benefits of voice tools for speaking tasks, as they all have different reactions and insights that can contribute to the understanding of this area. methodology research design this research project follows a combination of qualitative and quantitative approaches since investigating an educational environment requires understanding the significance of human behavior. this can be measured not only quantitatively, but also described and interpreted in the light of the research objective. the goal of this research project was to investigate the learners’ perception of the benefits of voice-tool based speaking tasks and to determine what aspects of the task design affected these perceptions most. in order to collect these perceptions, class observation and two surveys were used. surveys were chosen because of their confidentiality and practicality. this data source has the advantage of being a safe space where students can express themselves freely without feeling judged or afraid; an example of this is that the surveys collected opinions from those shy students who may not have spoken their minds freely learners’ perceptions of the benefits of voice tools wilches no. 8 (january june 2014) no. 8 (january june 2014) 54 if asked in class. another advantage surveys have is the possibility of setting pre-established categories that facilitate the process of coding and preparing data. the categories were designed based on dornyei’s (2010) proposal of three kinds of data: a) factual information, to determine if demographic characteristics such as occupation and time learning english influence students’ perception; b) behavioral data, to help identify the students’ use and skills of voice tools for speaking tasks; and c) attitudinal information, to find out students’ perceptions of the benefits of voice tool-based speaking tasks. participants and context the participants in this study were nine adult beginning-level efl students in bogotá, colombia. the students come from varied geographical (six students from the capital city and three from other major cities), social (aged 18-35, different professions and lifestyles) and educational backgrounds. although beginner students at the center acknowledge the fast progress in their language skills in the short time they have been studying (2-5 months), they usually report less confidence in their speaking skills and they often point out their concern about aspects as pronunciation or fluency, and sometimes for accuracy and intelligibility. since the center’s goal is to develop students’ communicative competence and has just started implementing an lms that supports wimba voice tools, it seemed appropriate to integrate those tools into the dynamics of the class in order to explore the impact that this practice might have on the students’ speaking performance. that integration based the main component of the learning process, the communicative tasks, on the voice tools, specifically on the voice board. the basic courses at the center feature one task per unit, which includes a written and an oral presentation. the students’ performance during these task presentations constitutes a determining factor in deciding if students pass or fail the course. for this study, three tasks were chosen to be done during one month. task design the three tasks were designed following the center’s principles which correlate to the common european framework of reference (council of europe, 2001) standards for level a1-a2, and the features of the wimba voice board. learners’ perceptions of the benefits of voice tools wilches no. 8 (january june 2014) no. 8 (january june 2014) 55 center’s principles (tblt): • communication (c) • language (la) • learning (le) cefr standards for level a1a2 wimba voice board features task 1 my anecdote at school (c) narrate an anecdote from school (la) use logical sequence of events in the past and intonation to show emotions (le) correct things you say (describing experience a2) listen to yourself and edit intonation to show emotions and make an anecdote more interesting and intelligible task 2 the walking tour (c) design and present a walking tour (la) give directions and instructions to get somewhere (le) confirm information you heard (information exchange a2) flexibility of time to search, elaborate and correct information to be shared in a clear, accurate spoken way task 3 let’s take my walking tour (c)recommend your walking tour (la) suggest tips for the walking tour (le)politely reply to invitations related to the walking tou (conversation a2) (informal discussion a2) interact with partners to hold an asynchronous, informal conversation about suggesting places to visit in a walking tour and replying to invitations figure 1. task design elements the three tasks were also designed according to the following task design principles: a) presentation, in which students are given enough planning time for framing ideas and self-correction; b) structured practice, where exposure to the language is maximized; c) reflection about language components; d) individual and cooperative work; and e) exchange of meaningful information within a relevant context (tschirner, 2001). when learning occurs in given contexts, it may be called situated learning. this type of learning can be done in a social, cultural, group and individual level. data collection instruments two surveys were used to collect students’ perceptions about the benefits of voice tools for speaking tasks. the first survey was completed on paper in class. it consisted of 24 open-ended questions designed to learners’ perceptions of the benefits of voice tools wilches no. 8 (january june 2014) no. 8 (january june 2014) 56 give the students the opportunity to express their feelings. the questions were also designed to guide participants to analyze and describe their perception of specific aspects of task design. therefore, questions were focused on finding out the students’ perceptions of the effectiveness of the voice tool to enable them to practice pronunciation, intonation, fluency and accuracy, to provide the opportunity to playback, listen and edit as many times as necessary before posting, and to evaluate one’s own and others’ performance and progress. the second survey was done online during class time through google docs. it included five open-ended questions about the students’ opinions, preferences and suggestions about the use of voice tools for speaking tasks. it also included 40 rating questions using ( 1 = strongly disagree – 5 = strongly agree) divided in the following categories: general information, attitude toward tech tools for speaking, evaluation of technical aspects of the voice tools, evaluations of task design, and evaluation of voice tool-based speaking tasks for features such as pronunciation, intonation, fluency and accuracy. data analysis and interpretation these categories pre-organized the results, which were coded in a process of selecting, segmenting and labeling the data (creswell, 2008). the labels describe the data in general groups, for example selfcorrection, pronunciation, technical issues. these can be subdivided into a few manageable, specific themes, such as voice tool as an aid for self-awareness, which help answer the research questions. afterwards, a thematic approach (creswell, 2008) was used to analyze repeated commonalities, key words and perceptions. not only the students’ quotes and rich details from observation, but also quantitative data from the rating questions helped answer the research questions. results the main purpose of this study was to find out learners’ perceptions of the benefits of voice tool-based speaking tasks for their spoken performance. two principal themes were identified: 1) as an aid to raise self-awareness and self-correction, and 2) as an aid to enhance specific features of speaking such as pronunciation, intonation, fluency and accuracy. learners’ perceptions of the benefits of voice tools wilches no. 8 (january june 2014) no. 8 (january june 2014) 57 voice-based tools as an aid to raise self-awareness and selfcorrection all the students perceived self-awareness and self-correction of their speaking performance as a main benefit of using voice tools for speaking tasks. students highlighted how the facility of listening and editing as many times as necessary helped them become more aware of their mistakes, as exemplified in the following statements: “it is very enriching to be able to practice and notice the mistakes, listen and correct,” and “listening to my classmates and to myself (…) helped me identify my mistakes.” once learners identified their errors, they were motivated to self-correct and strive to do a better job. this finding is consistent with that reported in gleason and suvorov (2011), which showed that students can benefit significantly not only from listening to themselves, but also to others. voice-based tools as an aid to enhance speaking features the second benefit students perceived with the use of voice tools for speaking tasks is the possibility and importance of self-awareness and self-correction for language features such as pronunciation, intonation, fluency and accuracy. pronunciation. among all the speaking features, pronunciation (the production of specific sounds) was perceived by students as a principal aspect to enhance and master, not only during tasks but also in order to be considered proficient english speakers. having a tool that enables students to become aware of their pronunciation patterns was perceived as beneficial and useful. this awareness was enhanced by the possibility of speaking without the fear or embarrassment of a face-to-face class. in an asynchronous environment, students can take more risks to speak more freely (nakazawa et al., 2007), and to selfcorrect their pronunciation. it seems that being at home also provides an extra level of comfort that enables students to pay more attention to their pronunciation, something that simply cannot be done in class, as explained in the following figure: learners’ perceptions of the benefits of voice tools wilches no. 8 (january june 2014) no. 8 (january june 2014) 58 figure 2. attention to pronunciation when working with voice tools when working with the voice-based tasks outside class, students have more time to check the phonetic transcription of difficult words, practice repeating a particular sound several times before posting, and especially, and listen to themselves. these aspects helped students evaluate their pronunciation, as illustrated in the following comments: “i sincerely feel that i have improved especially in pronunciation,” “i honestly think that voice tools have helped me practice english because i can record, listen and detect my mistakes in terms of pronunciation, something very important for english learning.” students perceived this experience as beneficial for their language learning process since they evolved from a lack of awareness to a recognition of their own speech patterns, thanks to the voice tools. as hunke (2011) reports, the constant repetition and possibility of editing offered by the voice tools helped students become aware of their mistakes and self-correct according to the goals of the task. it also helped them spot specific weak areas in their speaking skills that needed to be improved (abrams, 2003; blake, 2009). intonation. intonation (referring to the pitch contours necessary to express varied emotions as surprise, enthusiasm or interest) was an essential aspect to accomplish the tasks as it adds to the understanding of recorded voices where there are no visual cues: it adds emotion and emphasis to their voices to clarify meaning and it guides listeners towards comprehension. although students acknowledge intonation is not a fast or easy aspect to develop in such a short time, they perceive progress in terms of self-awareness of their intonation patterns, as illustrated in the following comments: “it was a little difficult because if i analyze what i’m saying, i lose the intonation to show emotions,” learners’ perceptions of the benefits of voice tools wilches no. 8 (january june 2014) no. 8 (january june 2014) 59 “it was difficult to show emotions, sometimes because i was nervous. it seemed like i was faking.” students also perceived that after tasks using voice tools, they became more aware of their intonation production. this might be due to the fact that students could contrast how they sound speaking through a voice tool to how they normally sound speaking to friends and could realize it is not as natural as it should be and that more practice is needed. fluency. another aspect of language that students reported could be enhanced through voice tool-based speaking tasks is fluency. students acknowledged the value of the voice tools to help them accomplish more fluency to speak. listening to themselves in a way they do not normally do in class is an alternative to become aware and evaluate how quickly or slowly they are speaking, as expressed in the following statement: “the voice tools helped me because i talk and then listen, in that moment i can notice how fast or slow [it is].” the finding that listening and editing can help students access a good deal of passive knowledge of language that is not usually accessed easily in a face-to-face situation corroborates the findings of blake (2009) who states that teachers can make use of acmc voice tools to help students reinforce their oral skills. accuracy. another aspect facilitated by the voice tools’ asynchronous anxiety-free atmosphere is the time students can take to elaborate and put their ideas together, trying to incorporate the grammar and vocabulary seen in class. this confirms the findings of johnson (2006), who suggests that this kind of environment enables the students to pay more attention to language features. one feature students usually consider difficult to apply is grammar; therefore, having a tool that helps them correct that specific aspect was appreciated, as expressed in the following comments: “i improved the naturalness with which i expressed myself, my intonation, but especially i think it enabled me to better structure my ideas putting into practice the topics seen in class,” and “[voice tool-based tasks] make me more demanding until i’m satisfied with the work presented and for, those who listen, they can understand it.” this finding is corroborated by those of blake (2009) and abrams (2003), who reported that increased attention to grammar structures, use of lexicon and students’ construction of ideas can be achieved through cmc tools. although only one student disagreed that voice tools could contribute to the elaboration of ideas, most students agreed or strongly agreed that through the voice tools they paid more attention to grammar and vocabulary than they normally would in class. learners’ perceptions of the benefits of voice tools wilches no. 8 (january june 2014) no. 8 (january june 2014) 60 in general, students perceived that the voice tool-based speaking tasks had benefits for becoming more self-aware of speaking features as pronunciation, intonation, fluency and accuracy, as well as selfcorrection. in order to better understand those benefits, it is necessary to understand what specific aspects of task design impacted the students’ perception of their spoken performance, which is the second purpose of this study. aspects of task design that impact students’ perceptions three main aspects of task design were identified as affecting students’ perceptions in regards to the potential benefits for their speaking performance: 1) voice tool-based tasks as an aid for individual work; 2) as an aid for interaction for comprehension purposes; and 3) as an aid for sharing and exchanging information. voice tool-based tasks as an aid for individual work on speaking. the possibility of becoming self-aware of their own speech patterns in order to self-correct their speaking was perceived by the students as an important aspect of task design. students reported that the facilities offered by the tool, the online environment, and the purpose of the tasks were beneficial to practice their speaking skills. they also highlighted the importance of using these voice tools to increase their self-correction (yaneske & oates, 2010). a sense of progress from the first to the third task was perceived and students acknowledged how much they felt they improved thanks to the integration of this voice tool to carry out the tasks: “i know i still have many things to improve, but i have made progress in my vocabulary and pronunciation,.” and “i notice there has been progress throughout the process from the first to the last task.” students reported a sense of accomplishment, progress and improvement in their speaking performance thanks to the integration of the voice tool for speaking tasks, as illustrated in the following figure: learners’ perceptions of the benefits of voice tools wilches no. 8 (january june 2014) no. 8 (january june 2014) 61 figure 3. comparison of the students’ satisfaction with their performance in the three tasks voice tool-based speaking tasks as an aid for interaction for comprehension purposes the second aspect of task design that most affected students’ perceptions was the possibility of using the voice tool to interact with partners and do the task asynchronously outside class. students stated their preference for this kind of task over a class presentation, as they felt more at ease to share their opinions and ideas about a relevant and personally meaningful topic. they were also able to elaborate their ideas more before presenting them to their classmates (abrams, 2003; altun, 2005). finally, and especially, students were able to go beyond just posting and started interacting with each other, replying in a personalized way to the invitations being made to complete the task, as explained in the following statement: “i thought it [interacting] was enriching because we went beyond recording our experience, and we interact with the classmates through questions, suggestions and advice (…). it was a necessary exercise to know if we make ourselves clear and if others can understand what we try to say.” this preference for interaction demonstrates that the students’ perception about the benefits of voice tool-based tasks evolved from the basic facility of recording their voice to a more meaningful, enjoyable and enriching interaction. students claimed that learning cooperatively through the voice tools was beneficial to develop their speaking skills because they could help each other in their performance, evaluate their progress, complete the task goals and share with their partners. learners’ perceptions of the benefits of voice tools wilches no. 8 (january june 2014) no. 8 (january june 2014) 62 voice tool-based tasks as an aid for sharing and exchanging information promoting meaningful interaction among classmates at their own convenience of time and space was perceived as the third aspect of task design that most affected students about their spoken performance. the tasks involving the exchange of information about real places and activities in a personally-designed walking tour of the city as well as remembering anecdotes from school were seen by students as a main benefit to enhance their speaking skills in a meaningful, enjoyable and contextualized way (tschirner, 2001). the findings of the benefits and preference for using a cmc tool to promote collaborative learning corroborates the findings of garrison and anderson (2003), who state that teamwork skills and cooperative learning can be fostered by tasks using voice tools. however, it was also noticed that the delay in the responses had a negative effect on the motivation to keep the conversation going (wang & woo, 2007). sharing personal experiences made the tasks more enjoyable and meaningful for students, as reported here: “i liked the topics, listening to my classmates and sharing our experiences,” “i liked the interaction with my classmates and teacher,” “i liked remembering things from my childhood and finding out details of some places in the city.” a task where students can exchange information for a meaningful purpose enables them to develop their communicative and social skills, which confirms stonebrink (2008) and altun’s (2005) findings which suggested cmc tools promote collaborative work. the possibility of self-awareness, self-correction, and interaction also affected students since they could perceive the benefits of these practices to reinforce their oral skills. they expressed that they wanted not only to continue using these tools, but also to integrate them as a part of the dynamics of the classes, which demonstrates the impact those voice tool-based tasks had on their learning process. conclusions the purpose of this study was to investigate the learners’ perceptions of the benefits of voice tool-based speaking tasks and determine the aspects of task design that most influenced those perceptions. it can be concluded that students had a positive perception towards the voice tool-based speaking tasks as they benefit their spoken performance, both individually and collaboratively. learners’ perceptions of the benefits of voice tools wilches no. 8 (january june 2014) no. 8 (january june 2014) 63 students were able to work on their self-awareness and selfcorrection of language features such as pronunciation or fluency since the task design chosen motivated them to pay attention to their speech patterns. self-correction was fostered by the voice tool-based speaking tasks since students had the chance to listen to themselves for the first time in a more critical and evaluative manner to make any necessary changes in their speech. as students were able to listen to themselves, they developed a higher level of reflection and evaluation skills of their oral production. students were also able to work collaboratively to interact and share their feelings and ideas with their classmates in a meaningful and enjoyable way at their own convenience of time and space. students reported that interacting and exchanging information with classmates about places of interest or activities in the city was fun, educational, and meaningful for them as it related to their personalities, enabled them to talk with classmates in a meaningful way outside class and helped them practice listening, speaking and comprehension skills within a real-life context. collaborative work was highlighted among the aspects of task design that positively affected the students’ perceptions of their spoken performance. being able to share and talk with their classmates about a meaningful topic was perceived by all students as an effective and significant way to practice and reinforce speaking skills. some technical factors affected students’ perceptions of the advantages of these kinds of tasks, such as issues with computer updates, appropriate equipment, and the procedure of interacting with the voice tool. emotional factors also influenced these perceptions, including individual preferences for technology and computers, selfconfidence, risk-taking, and self-motivation. nevertheless, the benefits outnumbered the drawbacks as voice tools proved to be an effective aid to increase students’ self-awareness, self-correction and collaborative work to enhance their speaking skills. due to the small number of participants (9), the data in this study should be interpreted with caution. larger samples during longer periods of time and within different educational contexts would be needed to test the findings. a much more systematic study would explore how emotional or social factors can influence the learners’ perceptions and performance during tasks using voice tools. thus, further research should be done to investigate the importance of these “human” factors when working with acmc voice tools. this kind of research would contribute to the understanding of the use and benefits of asynchronous voice tools for speaking skills enhancement. learners’ perceptions of the benefits of voice tools wilches no. 8 (january june 2014) no. 8 (january june 2014) 64 references abrams, z. s. 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(2007). call environments. research, practice and critical issues. alexandria, va: tesol. ellis, r. (2003). task-based language learning and teaching. oxford: oxford university press. garrison, d., & anderson, t. (2003). e-learning in the 21st century: a framework for research and practice. london: routledge/falmer. gleason, j., & suvorov, r. (2011). learner perceptions of asynchronous oral computer-mediated communication tasks using wimba voice for developing their l2 oral proficiency. in s. huffman & v. hegelheimer (eds), the roles of call in hybrid and online language courses. ames, ia: iowa state university. hunke, m. (2011). what’s that noise? audio applications for improving pronunciation and fluency. in r. reinelt, (ed.), foreign language learning and teaching places: schools and universities and others. proceedings from the 6th fl teaching and research miniconference. matsuyama, japan, 25-40. johnson, g. (2006). synchronous and asynchronous text-based cmc in educational contexts: a review of recent research. techtrends, 50(4), 46-53. learners’ perceptions of the benefits of voice tools wilches no. 8 (january june 2014) no. 8 (january june 2014) 65 nakazawa, k., muir, h., & dudley, c. (2007). is my speech improving? the use of voice boards in japanese language learning. the international journal of the humanities, 5(6), 179-184. nunan, d. (2006). task-based language teaching in the asian context: defining tasks. asian efl journal, 8(3), 12-18. stonebrink, d. (2008). web-based english language learning with wimba voice technologies. in b. dille, et al. (eds). transforming practice through reflective scholarship. tempe, az: maricopa center for learning and instruction. tschirner, e. (2001). language acquisition in the classroom: the role of digital video. computer assisted language learning, 14(3), 305319. wang, q. & woo, h. (2007). comparing asynchronous online discussions and face-to-face discussions in a classroom setting. british journal of educational technology, 38(2), 272-286. yaneske, e. & oates, b. (2010). using voice boards: pedagogical design, technological implementation, evaluation and reflections. alt-j researching in learning technology, 18(3), 233-250. author *astrid wilches received her bachelor of arts in english and spanish from the universidad pedagógica nacional in 2005. she has nine years of experience teaching english to children, teenagers and adults. she has worked as a teacher and as a tutor at the centro colombo americano for eight years only interrupted to travel to the united states in 2011 to work and study at gardner-webb university. interested in the use of technology for english teaching and learning, she pursued her m.a. in educational technology and tesol at the university of manchester. her main interests are the use of technology for english learning and teaching, design of virtual material, e-learning and m-learning. learners’ perceptions of the benefits of voice tools wilches no. 8 (january june 2014) no. 8 (january june 2014) gist2014finalfinal.indd 137 borderlands epistemologies and the transnational experience1 fronteras epistemológicas y la experiencia transnacional mary a. petrón and barbara greybeck2* sam houston state university, usa abstract this reflective article is based on an ethnographic case study of five transnational teachers of english in mexico. these teachers had acquired english as children of mexican immigrants to the u.s. at the time of the study, they were living and teaching in their parents’ place of origin in rural mexico. the intent of the article is to examine how borderlands ways of knowing were reflected in their personal and professional lives. the transnational experiences of living in and between nation states appeared at the forefront of their cultural and linguistic practices. they spoke the languages of transnationalism in that they engaged in translanguaging and considered english to be part of their heritage, too. they strongly identified with other transnationals who had similar backgrounds, and as teachers of english, they transformed their classroom into authentic lessons on language and culture. their borderlands ways of knowing informed their linguistic identity and teaching practices. keywords: transnational teachers, borderlands, heritage language, translanguaging resumen este artículo de reflexión se basa en un estudio etnográfico de cinco maestras transnacionales de inglés en méxico. estas maestras aprendieron el inglés como hijas de inmigrantes mexicanos en estados unidos. en el momento en que se realizó el estudio, ellas vivían y enseñaban en el lugar de origen de sus padres, el cual está localizado en zonas rurales de méxico. el propósito del artículo es examinar las maneras de conocer como las fronteras epistemológicas se reflejaban en su vida personal y profesional. las experiencias transnacionales de vivir en y entre dos naciones aparecieron en la vanguardia de sus prácticas culturales y lingüísticas. asimismo, estas maestras hablaban las lenguas 1 received: january 15, 2014 / accepted: april 21, 2014 2 map042@shsu.edu, bjg018@shsu.edu gist education and learning research journal. issn 1692-5777. no. 8, (january june) 2014. pp. 137-155. analyzing bilingual teaching and learning no. 8 (january june 2014) no. 8 (january june 2014) 138 del transnacionalismo empleando el translanguaging y consideraban el inglés como parte de su herencia cultural. se identificaron plenamente con otros transnacionales con antecedentes similares y como maestras de inglés transformaron su aula en autenticas lecciones de lenguaje y cultura. así, las maneras de conocer sus fronteras epistemológicas revelaron su identidad y práctica docente. palabras claves: maestros transnacionales, zonas fronterizas, lengua de herencia, translanguaging resumo este artigo de reflexão se baseia em um estudo etnográfico de cinco professoras transnacionais de inglês no méxico. estas professoras aprenderam o inglês como filhas de imigrantes mexicanos nos estados unidos. no momento em que se realizou o estudo, elas viviam e ensinavam no lugar de origem dos seus pais, o qual está localizado em zonas rurais de méxico. o propósito do artigo é examinar as maneiras de conhecer como as fronteiras epistemológicas se refletiam na sua vida pessoal e profissional. as experiências transnacionais de morar entre duas nações, apareceram na vanguarda de suas práticas culturais e linguísticas. da mesma forma, estas professoras falavam as línguas do transnacionalismo empregando o translanguaging e consideravam o inglês como parte da sua herança cultural. identificaram-se plenamente com outros transnacionais com antecedentes similares, e como professoras de inglês transformaram sua aula em autênticas lições de linguagem e cultura. assim, as maneiras de conhecer suas fronteiras epistemológicas revelaram sua identidade e prática docente. palavras chave: professores transnacionais, zonas fronteiriças, língua de herança, translanguaging introduction the migratory movement of people across the u.s.-mexico border is and has always been bi-directional (wyman, 1993). scholars have recently begun to present a more accurate portrayal of this ebb and flow, a picture that includes attention to “transmigrants” who live within a “transnational social space” (pries, 2001). using a framework of borderlands epistemologies, this paper examines the translanguaging practices (garcia, 2009; garcía & leiva, 2013; sayer, 2013) and transnational identities of english teachers in mexico who acquired english in the u.s. as the children of immigrants. garcia (2009) defines translanguaging as the “multiple discursive practices in which bilinguals engage in order to make sense of their bilingual worlds” (p. 45). these participants forged a path which straddled borders, as lidia, borderlands epistemologies petrón & greybeck no. 8 (january june 2014) no. 8 (january june 2014) 139 one of the participants of this study stated, “i guess i am not just from here or there, i’m both from here and there.” in this paper, we address the following question: how are borderlands ways of knowing reflected in the identities and language practices of transnational teachers of english in mexico? our intent is to describe their use of non-dominant language forms in the context of mexico, which resulted from their transnational heritage: translanguaging and english. literature review transnationalism frequent, regular contact between transnationals and their ancestral country is at the heart of what portes, guarnizo, and landolt (1999) have defined as “core transnationalism.” core transnationalism exists when interaction occurs on a regular, patterned basis, and thus forms an integral part of participants’ lives. the participants described here are part of family networks who engage in core transnationalism. their families essentially have a home base in the u.s. and in mexico, with members of the immediate family in both, and with regular visits back and forth. warriner (2007) recognizes that the extent to which transnationalism is possible depends upon several factors, including legal status. the type of core transnationalism these participants engaged in is possible because they and most of their immediate family members obtained u.s. residency or were born in the u.s. all had mexican citizenship as well. much of the literature on transnationalism has arisen within the context of the u.s., focusing on ways in which immigrants and their children maintain transnational ties and practices with their country of origin (levitt & waters 2002; ramírez & félix, 2010-2011; smith, 2002; waldinger, 2013, waldinger, popkin & magaña, 2007; warriner, 2007). bhatt and roberts (2012) asserted that it is critical to research transnationalism from the perspective of the sending countries because “we have yet to arrive at a complete understanding of the ramifications of return migration on areas of origin” (p. 178). accordingly, this study involved second-generation descendants of immigrants to the u.s. who returned to mexico and were employed as teachers of english. research on immigrants returning to their homeland is relatively scant (portes, 2009). with respect to the field of education, researchers have studied the language practices and educational experiences of these individuals. smith (2006), for example, highlighted linguistic borderlands epistemologies petrón & greybeck no. 8 (january june 2014) no. 8 (january june 2014) 140 issues in mexico related to the teaching of the bilingual children of immigrants returning from the u.s. researchers have also explored transnational educational issues and the perceptions of schooling of transnationals living in mexico who had attended schools in both countries (sánchez garcía, 2007; tuirán 2001; weller 1999; zúñiga 2001; zúñiga & hamann, 2006; zúñiga, hamann & sánchez garcía, 2008). our research examines the language practices of transnational teachers of english as a representation of their borderlands ways of knowing within the context of mexico. these ways of knowing have been researched by chicano scholars in the u.s. within a framework of borderlands epistemologies (del castillo & valenzuela arce, 2004; elenes, 1997; gonzález, 2001; murillo, 1999; smith & murillo, 2013). borderlands epistemologies borderlands represent more than the area surrounding the physical dividing line between two nation-states. according to ernst-slavit (2000), “borderlands are those unintentional, multicultural spaces where cultures meet, where those living on the edges discover similar shared beliefs and rituals and are able to construct new ones” (p. 251). borderlands, as a discourse and the ways of knowing of people who live between different worlds, has been embraced by some chicana/o researchers in fields ranging from literary criticism to critical ethnography (brochin ceballos, 2012; del castillo & valenzuela, 2004; foley & villenas, 2002; jackson, 2006; necochea & cline, 2005; smith & murillo, 2013). scholars working within the borderlands perspective reject the dichotomous division between nation-states. as murrillo (1999) asserted, “the modern concept of community, based on the nation-state, common language, and experience has long become incapable to gain an understanding of the fragmented and often paradoxical identities that are negotiated between worlds” (p. 16). transnationals often demonstrate their borderland ways of knowing through their language practices. sánchez (2007) wrote that transnationals, “are afforded an entirely different host of socio-cultural resources from which to draw, including but not limited to the ways they speak, construct identity and develop their worldviews” (p. 279). the participants of this study referred to their translanguaging (garcía, 2009) as spanglish. garcía (2011) stated that translanguaging “is a product of border thinking, of knowledge that is autochthonous and conceived from a bilingual, not monolingual position” (p. 389). spanish monolinguals and individuals who have learned english as a foreign language in mexico refer to this phenomenon as hablar borderlands epistemologies petrón & greybeck no. 8 (january june 2014) no. 8 (january june 2014) 141 mocho or hablar pocho (to speak americanized spanish). spanglish has negative connotations in both the u.s. and mexico (otheguy & stern, 2010; rodríguez-gonzález & parafitacouto, 2012). otheguy and stern (2010) assert that the term serves to disparage what is actually spanish in the u.s. the notion of translanguaging (garcía, 2009, 2011; garcía & leiva, 2013) is a more accurate characterization. however, the term spanglish is used in this article when it represents the actual words of the participants. methodology research design qualitative analysis was used to address the following question: how are borderlands ways of knowing reflected in the identities and translanguaging practices of transnational teachers of english in mexico? the data examined is part of a larger ethnographic case study of transnational teachers of english in mexico (petrón, 2009). as stated previously, our focus here is on the language forms that are not dominant in mexico: translanguaging and english. context/participants five women were selected through purposeful sampling to identify information-rich cases for in-depth study (patton, 2001). transnational teachers were not difficult to distinguish from those teachers who learned english as a foreign language. transnationals tended to speak english at training workshops and congregate together. the participants were chosen based on number of years in the u.s. schools, continuing immediate family connections in the u.s., and employment in the programa de inglés en primaria (english in primary school program) in their parents’ area of origin. all five women had siblings and/or parents living in the u.s. in essentially a second home base. their parents were from the marginalized working class in rural nuevo leon and consequently had little or no access to formal education. their parents were driven by economic circumstances to emigrate to the u.s., and all of the participants acquired their english as children in the u.s. pseudonyms are used for the participants and the towns, villages or ranchos where the study took place. nora was born in the u.s. and attended school there from kindergarten through the eighth grade. she returned to mexico when borderlands epistemologies petrón & greybeck no. 8 (january june 2014) no. 8 (january june 2014) 142 her parents retired. her siblings remained in the u.s. she was unable to get her u.s. transcripts validated by mexican education officials. as a result, she completed primaria, secundaria and preparatoria through public and private adult education and testing programs in mexico, and completed a three-year degree at a private secretarial school. nora had been living in mexico full-time for approximately seventeen years. she had not wanted to return to mexico, but she did so in order to care for her parents. carely attended school from first through fifth grade in the u.s. and sixth grade through prepa in mexico. she was studying for a degree in education at the time of this study. her intention was eventually to become a bilingual education teacher in the u.s. carely had been living in mexico for the previous ten years; she had returned to mexico at the request of her grandparents. her mother and sister lived in the u.s. at the time of the study. elvira had extensive visits to the u.s. beginning at age five when her parents received amnesty under the immigration reform and control act of 1987. her parents entire work history had been in the u.s.; she and each her siblings had been left in the care of their grandparents as infants. she completed first grade through junior high school in mexico and then attended three years of high school in texas. she returned to mexico after graduating from high school by her own choice. most of her siblings lived in the u.s. and her parents spent half of the year there. lidia attended preschool and kindergarten in the u.s. and first and second grade in mexico. third through sixth grade were completed in the u.s. before returning to mexico for two years of junior high. finally, she attended high school and one year of community college in the u.s. at the time of this study, lidia had been living in mexico for approximately two years by choice. laura attended kindergarten through fourth grade in the u.s., and fifth through prepa plus one year of secretarial school in mexico. she and her husband had lived and worked in the u.s. periodically for the previous ten years. they went to the u.s. to work whenever they wanted to save money. her parents and one of her siblings lived in the u.s. at the time of the study, laura had been living in mexico full-time for approximately one year because her husband preferred to live in mexico. borderlands epistemologies petrón & greybeck no. 8 (january june 2014) no. 8 (january june 2014) 143 data collection instruments phenomenological interviews were conducted in accordance with the three-step process outlined by seidman (2012), in order to obtain a first person description of a given experience (pollio, henley & thompson, 2006). participant observation took place in the homes and classrooms of the transnational teachers, and detailed field notes (emerson, fretz & shaw, 2011) were recorded during these observations. written artifacts such as school records were collected and analyzed. interactions with mexican education officials were also recorded. data analysis and interpretation the process of analyzing the data was on-going and recursive throughout the data collection phase in the field and beyond. a constant comparative method (bogdan & biklen, 2011) of thematic analysis was used by coding and bracketing interview transcripts and field notes based on an emic perspective rather than pre-existing codes. the words and actions of the participants themselves suggested the codes. our interest in transnational issues stems from our experiences with conducting research and teaching in mexico and on the u.s.-mexico border. consequently, our experiences contribute to the lens with which we viewed the data. results english as a heritage language none of the participants spoke a dialect of english that would be considered prestigious. carely, nora and laura spoke what is frequently called chicano english (fought, 2002). lidia spoke an extremely strong chicago or inland north dialect of english (labov, ash & boberg, 2006). elvira spoke a variety of southern american english (labov, ash & boberg, 2006). these individuals displayed a high degree of oral proficiency and had no difficulty understanding the english spoken in the television programs they watched on a regular basis. they frequently read english books and magazines acquired in the u.s. their writing in english in their role as teachers was competent at the sentence and paragraph level. most were observed correcting the academic writing of their supervisors and other education professionals who had learned english as a foreign language in mexico. as nora stated when referring to a passage from an english manual being compiled at borderlands epistemologies petrón & greybeck no. 8 (january june 2014) no. 8 (january june 2014) 144 one of her schools, “this doesn’t make any sense in english. you have to translate it into spanish to be able to understand it.” the term heritage language seems odd at first, especially when one thinks of english as a heritage language in mexico. however, the research on transnationalism is generally framed within the context of the u.s. and involves ties with the immigrant country of origin. in a similar fashion, heritage language research is conducted in the u.s. where english is the dominant societal language. other languages in this context like spanish are seen as heritage languages. considering the definition given by kelleher (2010) that “heritage language is used to identify a languages other than the dominant language (or languages) in a given societal context,” english would fit this definition in the context of mexico. for these participants, english was a language spoken by their cousins, their aunts and uncles, their nieces and nephews, and even their own siblings. in some cases, english was their first language (nora) or both languages were acquired simultaneously (laura and lidia). in all cases, they themselves defined english as part of their heritage. the participants’ knowledge of both u.s. english and culture was far superior to that of the professionals who spoke english as a foreign language in this area of mexico. in this study, english is the heritage language of these individuals in much the same way as spanish is the heritage language of a latino in the u.s. whose parents and grandparents speak spanish. english was the heritage language of these participants in mexico because it was acquired, learned and was continually used as a result of their transnational heritage. the social environment of mexico and the accompanying attitudes towards english in which these transnational participants were living was very different from that of spanish heritage language individuals, particularly those of mexican origin, in the united states. english has become of major importance even in these rural areas. the hegemony of english, particularly u.s. varieties, in mexico today cannot be disputed. at the time of this study, there was a general sense that english was no longer a luxury, but rather a necessity in today’s world. education officials in this study frequently talked about this necessity generically as globalización. however, the participants of this study were affected by the social, cultural and economic processes of globalization long before the word became fashionable. in mexico, there has been a proliferation of bilingual and immersion institutes. although once limited to major metropolitan areas, there are now private bilingual and immersion institutes in borderlands epistemologies petrón & greybeck no. 8 (january june 2014) no. 8 (january june 2014) 145 smaller cities in more rural areas. the push towards english within the realm of public education has also increased, albeit more slowly. access to english instruction within nuevo leon still tends to be strongly related to social class, with more affluent mexicans paying dearly in an attempt to ensure that their children acquire the language. for the affluent, english is a tool to maintain their status and economic advantage, representing links to international business and advanced degrees from u.s. universities. in contrast, for these participants english proficiency was a consequence, not of affluence, but rather of their parents’ being forced by economic conditions to leave mexico. these were the daughters of field laborers, mechanics, a carpenter, and a bartender, and they had acquired english through their transnational heritage. carely was clearly aware of this contradiction: “es curioso, pero es que los de arriba quieren el inglés que nosotros, los de abajo ya tenemos.” (it’s strange, but it’s that those from above want the english that we, those from below, already have.) these transnational teachers were recognized by their supervisors and education officials as native speakers of american english. their command of english was never called into question. in contrast to many spanish heritage language speakers in the u.s., these transnational individuals did not evaluate their english proficiency in a negative way. they all believed that they knew english well. they tended to see themselves as their superiors saw them, as native speakers. it was probably not difficult for them to maintain a positive outlook about their english proficiency since they were constantly told that their english was bonito (pretty). they were frequently called upon to translate instruction manuals for individuals who had purchased items in the u.s., and their supervisors often asked them to revise curriculum materials in english. clearly, conditions in the social environment at that time were favorable for the maintenance and continuing development of these individuals’ heritage language. these transnationals were well aware that they possessed something of great value. at the time of this study, none of these individuals had a college degree nor was a normalista (graduate of teacher training school). however, they had all been able to parlay their linguistic talents into relatively well-paying teaching positions in rural areas where steady jobs were difficult to come by. furthermore, they earned more money and received more respect than their education levels and the class origin of their parents would normally dictate in mexico. as an example, laura, who graduated from prepa (high school) and completed only one year of business secretarial school in mexico, borderlands epistemologies petrón & greybeck no. 8 (january june 2014) no. 8 (january june 2014) 146 never had difficulty finding work via her english in montemayor. she was employed as a translator for a u.s. based citrus company, as the owner and instructor of her own english school for young children, as a teacher in the private and public sector, and as coordinator of english instruction at a private school. carely, too, found work as a private english tutor while still a student at prepa. similarly, lidia was offered a job to simply speak in english to the preschool children of a wealthy landowner in turco while she was still in secundaria. translanguaging translanguaging was used predominately among the participants whenever relatives were visiting from the u.s. or they were with other transnationals. for example, nora would frequently say, “estás ready” to her daughter. among some of the participants, there tended to be good-natured joking about language in general. for example, nora took great delight in recounting her daughter’s development in translanguaging. exchanges such as the following were common in nora’s home. this one occurred as nora was scolding her three-yearold daughter. nora: eva, get over here or i’m going to smack you. eva: ay amá, no me esmaquees. (oh, mom, don’t smack me.) nora: did you hear that? she does that all the time, makes up words like that. i’m not talking about the ones she hears my brothers use like wátchale (watch out). lidia had strong ideas on the role of translanguaging in her own identity, “i know spanish and i know english, but i like speaking spanglish best of all… anyways, all three are part of me and i want my kids to have that too.” although the participants engaged in translanguaging, they often saw it as a bad habit. monoglot standards (silverstein, 1996) prevail on both sides of the border. such standards serve to limit the linguistic resources of bilinguals during language production because they must “perform two ‘codes’ in additive ways, according to ‘standards’ created by powerful agencies such as schools, or nations” (garcia & leiva, 2013, p. 208). the participants were very aware that translanguaging was stigmatized in mexico. several education officials or supervisors criticized transnationals, calling them maestros mexicano americanos (mexican american teachers) and claiming they used too much spanish borderlands epistemologies petrón & greybeck no. 8 (january june 2014) no. 8 (january june 2014) 147 in the classroom. however, when observational data in field notes was compared, non-transnational teachers spoke about the same amount of spanish in classrooms as transnationals. the difference seemed to be in the interchange of spanish and english. non-transnational teachers tended to translate from english to spanish in a sentence by sentence or paragraph by paragraph manner, whereas transnationals were more likely to engage in intrasentencial code-switching. it must be noted, however, that the researchers spent significantly more time in the classrooms of transnational teachers than in those of non-transnational teachers. despite this negative atmosphere and their own ambivalent feelings, the transnational teachers often defended their translanguaging. this was apparent in several interactions between transnationals and non-transnationals, such as the excerpt that follows. lulu, a nontransnational teacher, was telling a story about a recent shopping trip to texas. nora was a focal participant of this study; nely is another transnational teacher of english. lulu: ay no, nunca voy a entender a los tejanos. mejor que usen nomás inglés porque lo del español, ay no. vi un letrero en una maquina que decía: “no se puede refundir dinero. gracias, el manager.” ¿qué es eso? (oh no, i am never going to understand tejanos. better that they use only english because their spanish, oh no. i saw a sign on a machine that said: “money cannot be recast. thank you, the manager.” what is that?) nora: what you mean what is it? it is a sign on a vending machine talking about money. make the connection, lulu, make the leap. i hate it when people criticize stuff like that. nely: basta, lulu. we never get a break. damned if we do, damned it we don’t. nora: yeah, lulu. y yo oigo a mis estudiantes y aun tus hijos diciendo cosas como, “estoy chateando” o “haz clic” pero esos no son pochismos porque la gente que los dicen no son pochos. pero nosotros, everything we say gets criticized. déjanos en paz. (and i hear my students and even your kids saying things like, “i’m chatting” or “click on the icon”, but those aren’t americanized spanish because the people that say them are not americanized mexicans. but us, everything we say gets criticized. leave us in peace.) several key issues were present in this excerpt. lulu’s criticism was directed toward the translanguaging of tejanos. yet, californiaraised nely and nora quickly defended them. nora immediately borderlands epistemologies petrón & greybeck no. 8 (january june 2014) no. 8 (january june 2014) 148 switched to a rapid-fire english and integrated specialized terms such as vending machine and slang expressions like, make the leap. lulu, who learned english as a foreign language, did not have access to such english. in this way, nora asserted her linguistic superiority over lulu. nely continued with her use of idioms: “we never get a break. damned if we do, damned if we don’t,” had the effect of barring lulu from participating in the conversation because lulu did not understand what nely was saying. nora continued the isolation of lulu by verifying that she did understand what nely was saying and suggesting that lulu should have been able to understand, but did not. nora then switched back into spanish and offered a critique of the class issues surrounding translanguaging in mexico. chatear and haz clic are considered acceptable words because they are frequently uttered by middle-class, computer savvy, educated mexican youth, such as lulu’s own children. however, as nora indicated pochismos used by those who live and work in the u.s. are not acceptable because these individuals are typically members of the working class, who are viewed as less mexicans by virtue of their transnational experiences. this attitude was exemplified by the fact that education officials often referred to transnational teachers as “maestros mexicano americanos.” many conversations took place in which transnationals demonstrated transnational solidarity and positive support for translanguaging, usually in opposition to criticism from non-transnationals. in other words, transnationals defended their borderlands ways of knowing. transnationals in the english language classroom in all of their classrooms, these transnational teachers integrated their knowledge of u.s. cultural practices throughout their lessons. they told stories about their school days in the u.s. and explained the pictures in the textbooks so that their students would understand them. some of the textbooks were reprints of english as a second language texts published for use in the u.s. with little accompanying background information. for example, in one text, there was a picture of a child carrying a school lunch tray. lidia explained the picture to her group of sixth graders. lidia: mira el dibujito del boy. tiene una bandeja con su food porque allá te dan de comer en la escuela al mediodía. allá los kids están en la school desde las eight in the morning hasta las three in the afternoon y por eso, they eat at school en vez de la casa y ¿ves el cartoncito ahí? it’s milk. porque todos los children tienen que tomar milk in school. (look at the picture of the boy. borderlands epistemologies petrón & greybeck no. 8 (january june 2014) no. 8 (january june 2014) 149 he has a tray with his food because over there they feed you in school at noon. over there, kids are in school from eight in the morning until three in the afternoon and that’s why, they eat at school instead of at home. and see the little carton there? it’s milk. because all the children have to drink milk in school.) as the above example illustrates, both cultural lessons and pedagogical code-switching were common in their classrooms. pedagogical code-switching (petrón, 2009) was different than the translanguaging that occurred within their transnational families. the rate of speech was slow and the english words were well-enunciated. furthermore, these teachers used english to reinforce the vocabulary the children were learning or had learned, and spanish to make sure the children understood the cultural information. they modified the vocabulary in the textbooks in accordance with their own experiences and language usage, for example, backpack replaced book bag and a shop became a store. non-transnational teachers did not appear to deviate from the content and vocabulary of the textbooks, nor did they offer cultural explanations. as mentioned previously, non-transnational teachers never engaged in translanguaging; they translated. in addition, all of these transnational teachers devoted considerably more attention to pronunciation in their english classrooms than non-transnational teachers. education officials in nuevo leon saw this as one of the benefits of having transnational teachers in the classroom. the emphasis on pronunciation was directly related to the experiences of these transnational teachers. they frequently mentioned the difficulties experienced by their relatives in the u.s. who had strong mexican accents. they asserted that americans did not want to listen to anyone who had a mexican accent. in contrast to non-transnational teachers, these transnational teachers were well aware which of their students had lived in the u.s. all noted that it was easy to identify such students. real english, as opposed to book english, were the terms they used to describe the english of their own transnational students. all spoke of their attempts to provide moral support to these students. these participants highlighted the difficulties involved in making the transition from schooling in the u.s. to schooling in mexico and did what they could to help their transnational students make this transition. in addition to providing moral support to their transnational students, the participants validated the language skills these students brought to the classroom. although these transnational teachers spoke borderlands epistemologies petrón & greybeck no. 8 (january june 2014) no. 8 (january june 2014) 150 slowly and enunciated clearly for the benefit of their learners who spoke english as a foreign language, they addressed rapid-fire comments in english to their transnational students, as is evidenced in the following pedagogical side sequence: carely: (speaking very slowly and gesturing to the whole class) open your books to page ten, page ten, open your books. (speaking rapidly to a transnational student) freddie, run next door and see if i can borrow some chalk from maestra berta. freddie: she ain’t there. i’ll ask maestra nancy. carely: whatever, just get me some chalk. carely stated that did not correct his use of ain’t because it was important that “freddie feel proud of his real english.” these teachers frequently encouraged their transnational students to keep up their english. most also lent them magazines or books and gave them alternative assignments. although their efforts were not systematic, they empathized with these students and made some attempt to address their needs. lidia even went so far as to demand additional materials for her transnational students because as she stated, “look at this book. how can i teach them with this? if you have lived just six months over there, you would know more than what’s in this book.” conclusions this research is unique in that it deals with transnationals who have returned to their parents’ place of origin, in this case, rural nuevo leon, mexico. much of the widely read research on transnationalism or heritage languages or translanguaging emanates from scholars studying these issues within the context of the u.s. however, what happens in the mexican context is just as significant as what happens in the u.s. context. our purpose was to examine how borderlands ways of knowing are reflected in the language practices of transnational teachers of english in mexico. the transnational experiences of living in and between nation states appeared at the forefront of the cultural and linguistic practices of these participants. they identified with other transnationals who had similar borderlands ways of knowing. the participants in this study spoke the languages of transnationalism. their english, although representing non-prestigious borderlands epistemologies petrón & greybeck no. 8 (january june 2014) no. 8 (january june 2014) 151 dialects in the u.s. was viewed positively on the mexican side of the border. they were recognized as competent native speakers of english. they saw english as part of their heritage as transnationals. at the same time, they often felt most comfortable with translanguaging and would defend this language practice from the criticism of non-transnationals. these individuals also brought their transnational experiences into the classroom. they taught vocabulary and cultural lessons based on their own background, not that of a textbook. in this way, they transformed the learning environment into real world lessons on language and culture. they made a distinction in the classroom between students with a transnational heritage and those without. they tended to try to validate the experiences and language development of the transnational children in their classrooms because they could more readily empathize with them. in sum, for these transnational teachers, their borderlands ways of knowing informed their linguistic identity and teaching practices. references bhatt, w. & roberts, b. r. 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(2008). alumnos transnacionales: escuelas mexicanas frente a la globalización. méxico, df: secretaría de educación pública. borderlands epistemologies petrón & greybeck no. 8 (january june 2014) no. 8 (january june 2014) 155 authors *mary a. petrón is an associate professor of bilingual and english as a second language education in the department of language, literacy and special populations at sam houston state university in huntsville, texas. she has experience teaching both english and spanish as a second language in the u.s. and abroad. she has worked in the field of second language teacher preparation and training in texas and mexico. her research interests include u.s.–mexico transnationalism and second language teacher education. *barbara greybeck is an associate professor of literacy education in the department of language, literacy and special populations at sam houston state university in huntsville, texas. she has extensive experience working with spanishspeaking children in k-12 education in the southwestern united states, and she has taught coursework in education at universities in california, the texas borderlands and in mexico. her research interests include biliteracy and the development of reading in a second language. borderlands epistemologies petrón & greybeck no. 8 (january june 2014) no. 8 (january june 2014) 128 exploring social skills and character education of students through storytelling in l21 exploración de habilidades sociales y educación del carácter de alumnos a través de cuentos en l2 rosmery león-garzón and harold castañeda-peña2* universidad distrital francisco josé de caldas, colombia abstract little is known about character education and social skills within a transformative curriculum framework in the l2 classroom. this action research study stems from identifying peer rejection in 7th grade english language classrooms as a social issue hampering english language practices for some students. four l2 storytelling workshops were designed and implemented adapting social and linguistic contents. data comprising students’ reactions to the content of the adapted short stories were collected using classroom interaction transcriptions, students’ artifacts, field notes, semi-structured interviews with students, and the evaluation of the storytelling workshops made by the students. data analysis demonstrates that students could learn to live in a community creating healthy l2 learning environments when there is a sense of awareness about accepting differences whilst practicing the use of the english language. keywords: social relationships, social skills, l2 storytelling. resumen poco se sabe acerca de la educación del carácter y las habilidades sociales dentro de un marco curricular transformador en el aula de l2. esta investigación acción se deriva de identificar el rechazo de compañeros de clase de inglés del 7º grado, aspecto social que dificulta las prácticas del idioma inglés para algunos estudiantes. se diseñaron e implementaron cuatro talleres de cuentos cortos en inglés, adaptando contenidos sociales y lingüísticos. los datos recuperan reacciones de los estudiantes al contenido de los cuentos y fueron recolectadas 1 received: august 4th 2018/ accepted: november 19th 2018 2 rosmery.leon@gmail.com; harold.castaneda71@gmail.com gist education and learning research journal. issn 1692-5777. no.17 (july december 2018). pp. 128-157. no. 17 (july december, 2018) no. 17 (july december, 2018) 129 usando transcripciones de interacciones, artefactos, notas de campo, entrevistas semi-estructuradas y la evaluación de los talleres hechos por los estudiantes. el análisis de datos demuestra que los estudiantes aprenden a vivir en una comunidad creando ambientes de aprendizaje l2 saludables cuando hay un sentido de conciencia sobre aceptar diferencias mientras usan el idioma inglés. palabras clave: relaciones sociales, habilidades sociales, cuentos en l2 resumo pouco se sabe acerca da educação do caráter e as habilidades sociais dentro de um quadro curricular transformador na aula de l2. esta pesquisa de ação se deriva de identificar a rejeição de colegas de aula de inglês da 7ª série, aspecto social que dificulta as práticas do idioma inglês para alguns estudantes. foram desenhadas e implementadas quatro oficinas de contos curtos em inglês, adaptando conteúdos sociais e linguísticos. os dados recuperam reações dos estudantes ao conteúdo dos contos e foram coletadas usando transcrições de interações, artefatos, notas de campo, entrevistas semiestruturadas e a avaliação das oficinas realizadas pelos estudantes. a análise de dados demonstra que os estudantes aprendem a viver em uma comunidade criando ambientes de aprendizagem l2 saludáveis quando há um sentido de consciência sobre aceitar diferenças enquanto usam o idioma inglês. palavras chave: relações sociais, habilidades sociais, contos em l2 no. 17 (july december, 2018) no. 17 (july december, 2018) 130 introduction this article reports an action research process conducted by a 7th grade english language teacher (author 1) and by a research facilitator (author 2). it was sought to solve peer rejection in the english language classroom through the use of l2 storytelling workshops. the left side of table 1 illustrates the action-research stages adapted from well-known literature on action research (kemmis & mctaggart, 1988; mcniff, 2009; burns, 2015). the right hand side of table 1 provides a more concrete illustration of what was involved in the action research study we report in this article. table 1. action research in action: exploring peer rejection in an english language classroom based on the table above, this article is divided into five sections. the first section sheds light on the identifying stage. we used visual tasks and sociograms to identify “the classroom issue or dilemma” (burns, 2015, p. 5) we wanted to focus on. we backed up the existence of a problem of a social order (e.g. peer rejection) which was adversely affecting the l2 learning process of a number of 7th graders (e.g. lack of language use in the classroom). so, the main emphasis of this article is on the social issues we spotted as problematic which were incidentally affecting l2 learning processes. the second section, planning stage, turns in particular to the theoretical framework that supports the study and to the design of a pedagogical intervention where l2 storytelling workshops play a central role. this action research study holds the idea that through social skills and chracter education in storytelling castañeda & león no. 17 (july december, 2018) no. 17 (july december, 2018) 131 adapted short stories, the english language classroom could become a healthier learning environment for all students including peer rejected students. this could be assumed if it is understood along with althof and berkowitz (2006, p. 497) that character education “was mostly a traditional approach, focusing on the inculcation of desirable habits.” what is desirable for these 7th graders is to become aware that social differences (of any kind) could be celebrated as part of the development of citizenship skills whilst learning english. the third section briefly describes the implementation of the l2 storytelling workshops which were conceived as the plan of action. short stories with a heightened social content on social rejection and exclusion were adapted for use in the english language classroom. l2-storytelling-workshop activities were used with a twofold purpose. firstly, students were expected to understand the short stories’ contents in order to reflect upon their own social behaviors in the classroom with the hope that this could impact in the short term their language learning environment. secondly, students were expected to practice their english language skills using as an excuse such contents. the fourth section or observing stage describes our understanding of what happened after implementing the l2 storytelling workshops. we collected data using various instruments (e.g. class transcriptions, students’ artifacts, students’ interviews and students’ evaluation of the workshops). data was analyzed codifying repeated patterns or themes which ultimately constituted one analytical category (e.g. learning to live in a community) that shed light in our understanding of peer rejection in relation to healthy l2 learning environments through two sub-categories (e.g. awareness of acceptance and building a community). the last section, reflecting stage, reveals our conclusions geared towards innovative directions in the practice of teaching english where learning is understood from a social perspective. identifying stage this research was the result of a diagnosis and intervention in which one of the researchers (author 1) realized that her students had problems in their social relationships. a first step to examining this situation was to explore how her students felt as learners in the language classroom, and therefore, classroom observations were conducted in three seventh grade courses where author 1 assumed the role of a participant observer. social skills and chracter education in storytelling castañeda & león no. 17 (july december, 2018) no. 17 (july december, 2018) 132 based on author 1’s observations, it was concluded that some of her students did not share school activities with other classmates or games for the english class. this helped us to start understanding that some students could have been rejected by others in seventh grade. the rejected students explained that they preferred to work alone rather than doing group class work. it was clear that peer rejection was a social practice that was negatively affecting l2 learning, at least for some of the english language learners. so it was necessary to back up these initial intuitions firstly by understanding what peer rejection was about. bierman (2004) described peer rejection at school as the social and psychological distance experienced by members within a group in terms of being liked or disliked by other members of the same group. in that sense of peer rejection, we wanted to better understand what was at stake in the seventh-grade courses in relation to peer rejection and language practice where author 1 was teaching english and to propose a strategy pedagogically convenient to favor the social construction of a friendly academic environment for promoting better language learning practices. these middle-class 7th graders were aged between 12 through 14 years old studying at a mixed-sex state school located in bogotá (colombia). figure 1. juanita’s drawing and text about how she felt in the l2 class in order to explore the seventh grade situation more deeply, aiming at obtaining a well-informed understanding, we used a visual task. seventh graders were asked to draw and write about how they felt in the english language classroom with their peers. drawing gave the students the ability to express their feelings or ideas about their school’s environment. this was also complemented in written form. kazmiercza’s (2001, p. 181) explains “with pictures or visual images, students can make representations to communicate ideas about the social skills and chracter education in storytelling castañeda & león no. 17 (july december, 2018) no. 17 (july december, 2018) 133 context” in which they are immersed. this activity showed that some students felt that they were being rejected. figure 1 is just one of the examples in which the rejected students suggest that peer rejection was present in the l2 classroom and that learners were having problems with their peers. names and initial letters used to refer to research participants are fictional. when spanish texts were provided, they were transcribed (italics) and translated into english (square brackects). this is to clarify that due to students’ english language proficiency level it was at times important to obtain their perceptions using their mother tongue especially during the interviews. data coming from artifacts written in english by the research participants are used without modifying language or style. “me siento aislada de todo y todos siempre e sido persona de pocos muy pocos amigos en el colegio por eso me siento aislada sola y no me gusta pero con tantos años de soledad ya te acostumbra” [sic] juanita [i feel isolated from everything and everyone, i have always had few friends in the school for that reason i feel lonely and i do not like that feeling but after many years of solitude i have become used to this…] juanita it was very frustrating to find this kind of answers in juanita’s visual and written representation of her persona1. we would like to say that it was even more shocking reading her text. seventh-grader juanita appears to enunciate that she has serious problems with classmates and with her self-esteem. without making a semiotic analysis, the reader can see that juanita’s drawing has special characteristics such as her facial expression that shows sadness and feelings of anger. the drawing presents some characteristics such as the positions of her face, her hands and feet that might well signal she does not like being excluded in the l2 classroom. juanita appears not to have a socially constructed peer friendship network in her class. estevez, herrero, martinez and musitu (2006) have documented studies about aggressive and nonaggressive students where “peer friendship networks of rejected students are usually smaller in comparison with students with other social status” (p. 389). her drawing appears to show that she is experiencing many situations that affect and hurt her feelings; furthermore, she explained that she did not experience good social relationships with her partners and that she has faced this kind of situation for a long time. this could be taken as a mere perception of a student’s drawings and texts, however a sociogram was used to further confirm the presence of students who felt rejected in the classroom and that this affects their learning process. social skills and chracter education in storytelling castañeda & león no. 17 (july december, 2018) no. 17 (july december, 2018) 134 according to freeman (1998, p. 213), “sociograms are maps that show how participants in a class or activity see one another as measured by given criteria. sociograms collect second order data of participants’ perceptions”. after the students completed the visual task activity, students were given a sociometric questionnaire in spanish which focused on the following questions: • if you have free time at school who do you like to share it with? • if you have to work in a group activity who you do like to work with? • which of your partners would you like to apologize to for having mistreated them? • who would you like to have as your secret friend? • to whom of your partners would you like to offer apologies for having mistreated them? • which of your partners do you share time with when you are not in the school? student answers were used to map their social relationships and potential peer friendship networks. the sociogram showed that four of the students were facing challenging social relationships. they were not selected by their partners to participate in school activities. due to this rejection practice, some of the students experienced difficulties working in groups because their partners did not accept them. the rejected students also demonstrated difficulties in their learning process; they did not feel comfortable participating in their english class. as pointed out in estevez’s et al’s (2006, p. 388) study, “previous research has shown that rejected students are, in general, more at risk for academic difficulties and school failure than those students not rejected by their peers”. following this line of thought and bearing in mind that we need to guarantee healthy l2 learning environments for language use and/ or practice to take place, this study investigated at an exploratory level the social skills of a group of l2 learners, when they participated in l2 storytelling workshops. bearing in mind the identified issue, the purpose of the present research study is firstly to determine students’ reflections made from the use of storytelling in relation to social skills in their l2 lessons and, secondly, to examine the transformations (if any) in students’ behaviors while working in l2 storytelling. social skills and chracter education in storytelling castañeda & león no. 17 (july december, 2018) no. 17 (july december, 2018) 135 planning stage as the main l2 classroom issue that we identified was peer rejection, it was necessary to get informed about how storytelling is related to character education and social skills within a transformative curriculum framework. transformative curriculum language teachers need to consider students’ needs and their interests so as to engage them in efl-learning processes. according to banks (2003, p. 6) teachers need to “acquire new knowledge, skills, and attitudes”. teachers need to include content in their curriculum that refers to real situations and engages students in thinking about their reality and discovering solutions to their problems. shaaban (2005) adds that teachers need to be agents of positive change in their societies by reflecting upon different social issues in their classrooms. social issues are defined as problems that directly or indirectly affect the members of a community or society (shaaban, 2005); in the present study these social issues are related to social relationships among seventh graders. shaaban (2005) also adds that teachers need to include social issues in their curricula to allow students to participate and give their points of view about a specific situation. when students feel the need to express their ideas, they can use the foreign language and acknowledge the real use of the language. when students are engaged in a problematic situation about their context, they also have the opportunity to be involved in action, dialogue and reflection. consequently, when students are immersed in meaningful tasks (e.g. l2 storytelling workshops) they gradually develop their classroom participation in the target language and at the same time their social awareness. we thought that those meaningful tasks could be designed by adapting short stories keeping the aim of helping language learners reflect on the social issues present in the l2 classroom. storytelling the use of stories allows children to make connections with their reality, and in this process, students may reflect on their personal experiences and thus make possible links with the situations that the stories they read present to them. according to mello (2001), the use of storytelling in the classroom has an influence on the students’ interpersonal relationships. this could be promoted if students are encouraged to reflect on their reality, as it could be argued that social skills and chracter education in storytelling castañeda & león no. 17 (july december, 2018) no. 17 (july december, 2018) 136 some stories give them a model to follow potentially strengthening relationships with their partners. in that sense, storytelling can increase social competence as students’ attention is drawn to issues of rejection and inclusion. young children can strengthen their peer relationships, taking into account the emotions of friends. it is hold that l2 storytelling “can indeed be a good vehicle to increasing language performance in that it has the potential to provide motivation to students” (tecnam, 2013, p. 27). this argument is defended by a good number of scholars who have delat mainly with digital forms of storytelling (e.g. sadik, 2008; ohler, 2006; castañeda, 2013). however, for the purposes of this paper we focused more on the social side of the issue (e.g. peer rejection) and by extension we looked at language learning. we also argue that storytelling engages students in learning a foreign language because this technique provides students with an opportunity to feel more comfortable sharing ideas with their peers about stories presented in the english class. in this study, adapted short stories are presented to students so that they work on vocabulary and grammar structures according to 7th grade linguistic contents. additionally, students reflect on the content of the adapted short stories through a number of follow-up activities that include reading, writing and speaking. in relation to l2 learning, shelly (2010) claims that reading stories to young children helps them increase their new vocabulary and understand structures of the foreign language. belmonte and verdugo (2007) point out that presenting children with stories is an important mode of contextualizing and learning a new language. young children relate to stories with feelings and personal experiences, and the stories present to them new linguistic structures, grammar and vocabulary in a meaningful context that makes the meaning of the story easy to comprehend. another important element of stories is the themes, such as moral values. these can provide excellent ways for the students to reflect on their feelings and emotions, and at the same time, the moral values provide students with opportunities to think about their interactions with their peers and understand the situations faced in the school world. in this line of thought, the l2 storytelling workshops were designed to help 7th graders reflect specifically upon the social issues identified as problematic in the language classroom. storytelling evokes different feelings and emotions, making students feel more confident about participating in various real social situations. the benefits of storytelling in combination with character education might allow the students to be engaged in different stories while they are learning social skills. social skills and chracter education in storytelling castañeda & león no. 17 (july december, 2018) no. 17 (july december, 2018) 137 character education character education (ce) improves “core values or traits as the basis of good character” (lickona, 1991). ce is an educational movement, born in the usa that promotes intervention in the school system to guarantee good and safe environments for the students. ce is defined as “a planned and systematical approach in terms of self respect, responsibility and honesty, etc. for being a good citizen” (çubukcut, 2012). according to battistich (2005, p. 10) “character education is such an approach to primary prevention and positive youth development, with the added benefits of fostering academic achievement and character development for all students.” one of the main reasons to implement ce in the school is to develop pro-social behavior and introduce core values to elementary learners. kinnamon (2003) suggests that students who show a lack of social skills and demonstrate problems in their interactions can change positively. they can achieve good academic results and improve their social relationships. the efl classroom is an ideal setting to propose ce and strengthen social skills. the goals, methods and activities that teachers can propose in this framework might give students opportunities to use the foreign language in real world contexts. the students use the language according to their own interests and it is a way to creating social relationships. students need to resort to the language form or functions to express their experiences, feelings or points of views about the topics worked on. when students work on familiar topics, they can reflect on their reality and connect such reflections with their ability to use the language. the social skills that are the key points of this intervention in the 7th grade english language classrooms are presented here as a way of improving social relationships. it is important to highlight that ce “comes in a variety of forms, and that it does work if effectively designed and implemented” (berkowitz and bier, 2005, p. 23). it does cooperate in bettering relationships in schools and classrooms as documented by nucci’s and narvaez’ edited handbook (2008) but there is “little consensus about curriculum and methods to accomplish this task” (milson and mehlig, 2002, p. 48). we are claiming that language learning could be a site for ce as learning the language is not understood in this article as mastering the grammar but as making sense of the world and meaning in a different language regardless of linguistic inaccuracies. we, however, agree with benninga, berkowitz, kuehn and smith (2003, p. 31) on the fact that “schools addressing character education of their students in a well-planned manner tended also higher academic achievement scores”. social skills and chracter education in storytelling castañeda & león no. 17 (july december, 2018) no. 17 (july december, 2018) 138 social skills social competence is indispensable in people’s life. rutherford et al (1998) consider social competence as a set of social skills that could grant a person success in social relationships. an increase in social skills allows good relationships to be shaped with peers (dennison, 2008; chen & bullock, 2004). patrick (2008, p. 2) adds: “social skills can be defined as the set of skills people use to interact and communicate with one another. they are based on the social norms of our society and they tell us what attitudes and behaviors are considered to be normal, acceptable and expected in a particular social situation.” social skills entitle people to interact with others. at different stages of life, people need to interact and relate with different kinds of individuals, for example, friends, teachers, and neighbors. in the school setting, teachers claim that misbehavior and lack of social skills are the main problems students have (corso, 2007; richardson & shupe, 2003; wood, 2006). behavioral challenges do not permit people to learn how to relate socially with their peers and adults (chen & bullock, 2004). according to fox and lentini (2006), teachers need to look for strategies through which to teach social skills. teachers need to introduce social skills, and engage the students in learning them, giving students possible situations in which, they can use such social skills. when teachers use stories and different kinds of activities, they could increase student contributions to class. teachers could conceivably develop social skills and foster the motivation to transfer them to their personal lives (chen & bullock, 2004). there are many social skills at work in the classroom, but according to the needs identified, we decided to work with communication, peer relations, problem solving and decision making. communication is considered in order to privilege the good channels of communication among the students and to guarantee spaces that allow the use of the foreign language in real situations. peer relations are used to improve and restore the participants’ social relationships, especially with students who had problems with their peers. problem solving was carefully considered since this strategy allows students to resolve a specific situation, which empowers them to interact, lead and acknowledge their partners’ abilities to work in a team. finally, decision making was used as an opportunity to acknowledge that learner attitudes and behavior can affect their peer’s feelings either positively or negatively. as stated above, there is no curricular consensus on what to include to achieve ce (milson and mehlig, 2002). so we decided to develop the social skills and chracter education in storytelling castañeda & león no. 17 (july december, 2018) no. 17 (july december, 2018) 139 storytelling workshops around these skills because we suspected they contributed to both ce and language learning. there is still research to be conducted in the intersection between ce and language learning and it is hoped we are contributing to this endeavor. designing l2 storytelling workshops based on the previous framework, four l2 storytelling workshops were developed with stories related to social skills throughout different activities. they were designed to give students chances to read and comprehend, and to use the language structures, vocabulary and expressions according to the topics and standards that students should learn in 7th grade; this is equivalent to an a2 level internationally. at the end of each storytelling workshop, there were reflection activities about the social skills related to the story. these activities were developed to provide students with opportunities to express their ideas, and to share and write about their own experiences and perceptions of different situations and characters in the stories using the language structures learned in the english class. table 2 summarizes the four l2 storytelling workshops implemented. social skills and chracter education in storytelling castañeda & león no. 17 (july december, 2018) no. 17 (july december, 2018) 140 table 2. summary of l2 storytelling workshops as it could be inferred from table 2, social skills were used as content for the english class to provide language learners with tools that allowed them to reflect on their reality; and at the same time, the participants used the language to express their ideas, feelings and the emotions related to their work in the english class as will be illustrated below. finally, the stories were adapted to the students’ english language level. acting stage each one of the workshops was developed or taught over a period of two to three weeks. it was necessary to think about the possible questions that allow us to know the perceptions and insights of the students in agreement to the situations that the story presented and the possible connections that they make with their reality in the classroom. one important resource that we used was visual literacy; because, through drawings the students can express different ideas about the stories. the students evidenced understanding and comprehension about the meaning of the stories. in this way the students made pictures social skills and chracter education in storytelling castañeda & león no. 17 (july december, 2018) no. 17 (july december, 2018) 141 of the new vocabulary and it was interesting to see that students linked the new vocabulary to their activities during the intervention. it is important to highlight that the students were organized in groups; since this technique strengthens students’ interaction. this interaction empowers students to participate in school activities. this appears to guarantee good environments in the school setting. group work also stimulates students to take different roles that lead their partners to accomplish a common goal by resolving the different situations that the students face inside the group. description of the context this research was carried out at a public school located in bogota (colombia). the students who attend this public school belong to low socio-economic levels as specified by data from dane3. the school has an average of 1,260 students in each of its two shifts. as mentioned earlier, author 1’s students were between the ages 12 through 14. most of the students came from neighborhoods close to the school. observing stage in order to describe the social skills of students in their daily classroom relationships while studying efl storytelling with social values as the main content, we used the qualitative paradigm. qualitative research is essentially interpretative; it focuses on the explanation and examination of a phenomenon. flick (2014, p. 22) reported that ““qualitative” research is oriented towards analyzing concrete cases in their temporal and local particularity and starting from people’s expressions and activities in their local context.” within this approach, the researcher has to take notes about a specific situation and interpret and analyze them, in order to represent these facts, the researcher needs to write about his/her findings. some authors, such as rossman and rallis (2012) claim that “systematic inquiry produces new information. when this information is used to improve human conditions, it becomes knowledge” (p. 11). taking into account the need to describe and analyze a specific situation in an efl classroom, that of students being rejected and left out in efl classroom interaction, it was necessary to adopt action research (ar) as the research method to carry out this project as stated in the introduction of this article. 3 dane: national department of statistics. social skills and chracter education in storytelling castañeda & león no. 17 (july december, 2018) no. 17 (july december, 2018) 142 ar is grounded in the qualitative research approach which purpose is to understand a specific situation in any setting. mills (2003) defines ar as “any systematic inquiry conducted by teacherresearchers, principals, school counselors, or other stakeholders in the teaching/learning environment to gather information about how their particular school operates, how they teach and how well their students learn” (p.5). according to torres (s.f), ar “is a systematic approach to investigation that enables people to find effective solutions to problems they confront in their everyday lives” (p. 1). in action research, the researchers identify a problematic situation in their context and in relation to it, they plan an intervention in order to look for strategies that can be useful to change or improve the situation. in this study, it was expected that adopting and adapting storytelling with contents related to human and social values could help to improve social skills and relationships within the efl classroom. according to burns (2010), ar “can be a very valuable way to extent our teaching skills and gain more understanding of ourselves as teachers, our classrooms and our students” (p.1). this research method fits this study since one of the main objectives is to describe students’ social skills while using storytelling as a pedagogical strategy where content revolves around social values and incidentally will describe aspects of l2 development as the main interest is communication and making sense rather than giving an account of language accuracy. instruments the instruments used to gather the data were storytelling excerpts taken from classroom interaction (transcriptions) during the activities, students’ artifacts like drawings and texts, field notes, semi-structured interviews with students, and the evaluation of the workshops made by the students. students’ artifacts some examples of the students’ work were useful data because this gave students’ opportunities to show what they learned about a specific task. hubbard and miller (1999) state that a student’s artifact “is tangible evidence of what kids are able to do and the range of responses kids make to different learning tasks” (p. 102). at this point, it was very relevant to take into to account the reflection of the students related to social skills. social skills and chracter education in storytelling castañeda & león no. 17 (july december, 2018) no. 17 (july december, 2018) 143 field notes kawulich (2005) proposes that “field notes are the primary way of capturing the data that is collected from participant observations” (p.10). field notes provide descriptions regarding classroom happenings; this useful tool gives information about the participants’ behavior, insights, and perceptions. semi-structured interviews with respect to semi-structured interviews, burns (2010) proposes that these kinds of interviews help researchers organize questions to the participants but at the same time questions are more flexible to them. therefore, participants are more confident to express their points of view about certain topics. the semi structured interviews were meaningful in this project, as they allowed changing the course of the conversation whenever it was necessary as to explore more in-depth themes of interest that emerged from the interaction. an interview protocol was developed, and students were interviewed at the end of the intervention. transcriptions according to halcomb and davidson (2004). “transcription refers to the process of reproducing spoken words, such as those from an audiotaped interview, into written text” (p. 38). by using this instrument, we had the opportunity to understand the social relationships that seventh graders had inside the classroom. the transcriptions, made verbatim by author 1, provide real samples to analyze students’ interactions. evaluation forms at the end of the intervention, the students were given an evaluation form. the intention was to have students’ perceptions on the intervention with storytelling; to this end, students were requested to write about their favorite story, and the reasons they had to select this specific story. data analysis the data analysis process of this study was based on coding procedures taken from the grounded theory approach (charmaz, social skills and chracter education in storytelling castañeda & león no. 17 (july december, 2018) no. 17 (july december, 2018) 144 2000; glaser, 1978). this analytical framework proposes that the researcher reads the data several times to look for commonalities, themes or patterns (freeman,1998). coding, from the grounded theory perspective, is considered in this study as an appropriate way to analyze and explain human behavior in social contexts. a key aspect to analyze in our project was participants’ reflections upon social skills through the use of storytelling in the efl class. the storytelling strategy was used as the pedagogical intervention by which we wanted to deal with students’ social skills in the efl class. we used processes of the grounded theory approach, like reading and rereading a corpus to bring order, structure and meaning of the data to discover what is behind a specific situation. according to charmaz (2000), grounded theory is designed to “build middle range theoretical frameworks that explain the collected data” (p.509). in addition to this, glaser (1978) states that “the goal of grounded theory is to generate concepts and categories that account for a pattern of behavior which is relevant and problematic for those involved” (p. 78). at a general level, grounded theory permits to build descriptions and understandings for real life in specific contexts. through qualitative data analysis, the researcher works with data gathered as a corpus with different meanings. the data are classified into essences or themes, and they are enriched into “descriptions, models or theories” (walker & myrick, 2006, p. 549). analysis in grounded theory is composed by three mayor types of coding which are open coding, axial coding and selective coding. bearing in mind these considerations, we started the data analysis by firstly organizing the instruments used to gather data. these instruments were coded in atlas.ti® according to the four storytelling workshops, and the process of the intervention. table 3 illustrates the final corpus that was analyzed. table 3. corpus analyzed instrument total artifacts 68 interviews 19 evaluation forms 14 transcriptions 3 in regard to the validation process as a way to make qualitative data credible and robust, we used the triangulation technique, which social skills and chracter education in storytelling castañeda & león no. 17 (july december, 2018) no. 17 (july december, 2018) 145 was used in order to have different points of view about social skills in the seventh-grade courses where this project was applied. in this process, we had to review all the instruments that we had collected about the participants, in order to find similar patterns. according to burns (2001), “the aim of triangulation is to gather multiple perspectives on the same situation being studied” (p.163). in addition, merriam (2009) describes triangulation as “the most well-known strategy to shore up internal validity of a study” (p. 215). this process of triangulation guarantees the internal validity of the research project. after a long process of analysis and data triangulation, the emerging main category was “learning to live in a community”. this analytical category was divided into two subcategories “awareness of acceptance” and “building a community”. learning to live in a community this main category emerged from students’ reflections on social skills such as communication, peer relations, problem solving and making decisions. these social skills in combination with storytelling and character education give students opportunities to reflect on their reality, taking into account previous experiences and their social relationships in their l2 classroom. through different stories, the students demonstrated an awareness of the situations that characters face in the stories. they also connected the story situations to personal experiences with their partners. these connections brought opportunities to reflect on their commitment to social relations within the l2 classroom and to society at a larger level. the students demonstrated the need to change attitudes about their partners, and in this way to look for positive relationships with the people around them. these patterns found in the data allowed us to proposed two subcategories to support the idea that the l2 classroom is an environment to learn how to live as part of a community. these two subcategories are “awareness of acceptance” and “building a community” and will be discussed below. awareness of acceptance this subcategory reveals how the seventh graders became reflective learners when they discussed and explained their points of view according to situations expressed in the stories. they also said that to live in harmony with their community, it is necessary to have values such as tolerance, respect, acceptance, and communication. in the examples below, the data were transcribed with no language modifications or corrections [sic]. social skills and chracter education in storytelling castañeda & león no. 17 (july december, 2018) no. 17 (july december, 2018) 146 the following excerpts from the interviews at the end of the intervention show the opinions that the students made in relation to the stories. it is possible to appreciate at least small changes in their attitudes towards some partners. students were asked whether social relationships among partners improved with the storytelling activities and in lsc’s4 words it is expressed that: “se vale que si porque te acuerdas que a comienzo de año, todo el mundo me molestaba porque yo era extremadamente furiosa, me sacaba mucho la rabia especialmente el señor jpb aquí presente, entonces ya he tratado como de no molestarlo tanto y no pues decir que de pronto que él molesta a los demás por alguna razón, de pronto a él también lo molestaban o algo y entonces sería no tratar de juzgarlo a él. por ejemplo, si yo lo molesto tanto o lo molestan tanto, él empezaba a molestar a nb. la gracia no era esa por eso deje de molestarlo. no me gusta que empiecen a juzgar a los demás y trato de defenderlos en lugar de … atacarlos” [i think they have improved because if you remember at the beginning of the school year everybody was picking on me because i was extremely furious, i always got mad at mr. jpb, here he is, then i have tried not to bother him and maybe he bothers others for his own reasons, maybe he was also bothered or something and it would be an effort not to judge him. for example, if i bothered him a lot or if he is bothered a lot, he would start bothering nb. but that was not good, so i stopped bothering him. i don’t like people judging others and i try to defend them instead of… attacking them] interview–g01-lsc-13-11-2014 similarly, ad’s response was: “si con (mcv) porque yo antes la criticaba respecto a cómo ella era pero después del tiempo me di cuenta que ella tenía muchos problemas en la casa y los problemas que tenía en el colegio entonces yo quería ser una de las primeras personas que le abrieran las puertas para ella” [yes, my relationship with mcv improved because i used to criticize her in relation to her personality but after some time i realized that she had lots of difficulties at home and problems at school, so i wanted to be one of the first people to open the doors for her] interview-g01-ad -13-11-2014 5 these initial letters correspond to the way research participants were coded as part of preserving their identities. social skills and chracter education in storytelling castañeda & león no. 17 (july december, 2018) no. 17 (july december, 2018) 147 students were also asked how they felt about the l2 storytelling workshops and if they learnt anything from them. in sf’s perspective: “si me parece bueno porque a veces uno tiene situaciones malas o no sólo en el colegio, en la familia que uno no se imagina pero uno viendo estás historias uno e dice no esa historia yo la estoy viviendo yo no debo hacer lo mismo y toma una correcta decisión”. [i think this project was good because at times one has downs not just at school but with one’s own family… just imagine, but one sees these things and i say to myself i’m kinda like the same, so i should not do the same and make the right choice] interview –g03 sc-13-11-2014 during the intervention, ag presented the following letter in which she talks about her sister who suffers from downs syndrome. she invited her friends to know people before judging. this is an important sample of the overall findings in the study. as it could be read, ag displays writing skills in l2 where she is able to communicate her own sense of accepting difference. whether or not the story about ag’s sister is true, one could see that this 7th grader is able to express ideas that are shaping or have shaped her ce at least in relation to the third l2 storytelling workshop. this workshop had a central story called “think before you speak” and it is about a trip on a train a father has with his previously blind son who have recovered back from such condition. during the trip, there are scenes where the little boy is bullied by other children who make fun of his reactions in relation to everything he sees. ag appears to transfer a social sense in her writing which, in spite of certain grammatical inaccuracies, addresses a social issue (e.g. accepting differences: “i accept the condicion if other people don’t accept this”) and displays ability to fit into a genre (e.g. a response letter making a social invitation) with certain degree of grammar control (e.g. affirmative and negative sentences in simple present tense to describe actions and states). social skills and chracter education in storytelling castañeda & león no. 17 (july december, 2018) no. 17 (july december, 2018) 148 figure 2. letter related to one activity of the third l2 storytelling workshop. artifact 03-701-ag-16-09-2014 building a community the second subcategory emerged from participants’ reflections, when they were working in groups. the students worked on social skills through the storytelling and this situation benefitted cooperative work in the classroom, in which students got involved in common goals. kagan (1999) suggests that cooperative learning is a good way to work in the classroom because students improve their social relationships, increase their self-esteem and have better academic results. the students in author 1’s class had to work with different partners and it was interesting to see how they took different roles in the teams. the idea was to involve the students according to their abilities and set up the students that had problems in their social relationships in the same group. the seventh graders had to discuss different situations presented in the stories in order to find a possible solution. as a result of this process, the students were able to build a good environment to work; paying attention to the different points of view of their partners, respecting the differences and contributing to organizing ideas to achieve the assigned task. the students helped each other if one of them social skills and chracter education in storytelling castañeda & león no. 17 (july december, 2018) no. 17 (july december, 2018) 149 did not understand anything. some of them wanted to give the answer or correct their classmates. the students appeared to understand the implications that social skills have for their social relationships. this process provided students with opportunities to work with different partners which gave them the opportunity to establish apparent new friendship bonds as expressed in the reflections below. some students had the opportunity to change their perceptions of their partners and this situation helped them to create a good environment in the classroom. from the following excerpts the reader can appreciate some student perceptions during the intervention. cuando tú dices que había personas que tu creías que no ibas a poder con ellos ¿qué paso? me di cuenta de que no debía haber, pues como yo pensé que eso no, yo juzgué antes, de darme cuenta de que yo si podía trabajar y que trabajaban excelente. [when you said you thought you could not handle some of your classmates, what did happen? i realized i shouldn’t have issues with them, i judged them beforehand without realizing that i could actually work with them and that they do an excellent job] ¿tú crees que encontraste en ellos ciertas cualidades que antes no habías podido ver? si claro por ejemplo en george yo pensé que él no iba a poder o se iba a poner a burlarse de todo lo que contaban en la historia y no o sea lo tomó todo con mucha seriedad y así igual que andrew, igual que mary que todo el mundo sabe que mary es un cuento. [did you see new qualities in them you did not see before? of course, for example i thought that george was not that able or he was going to make fun of what was told in the story but he was actually very serious about what we were doing and the same goes for andrew, the same thing with mary because everybody knows that she is out of this world] interview -g01-nb-13-11-2014 students’ classroom work demonstrated as well that they were using the english language to express social meanings that they constructed based on the content of the class. data from the storytelling workshop 1 display some reflections upon the damage that rejection causes to “the ugly duckling” in the first story of the intervention. the social skills and chracter education in storytelling castañeda & león no. 17 (july december, 2018) no. 17 (july december, 2018) 150 students disapproved the situation that the character of the story lived. the students acknowledged that he was rejected for being different and claimed that all people have the right to be different and to be accepted. the participants emphasized the feelings that people have, as it is shown in the next samples taken from some students’ artifact and from the teacher’s field notes: “the ugly duckling was ugly for others, and for that he wasn’t accepted & happy” “don’t do bulling and discrimination for others because they stay sad” artifact 01-701-dm-03-06-2014 “don’t bother to people for their skin color” artifact 01-701-ad-nb-03-06-2014 “we must accept other as they are, no matter if it is different what matters is you heart” artifact 01-702-aq -03-06-2014 “your family not loved because is different, the poor ugly duckling became more and more unhappy because the other ducklings made fun of his appearance” (m’s and s’ discussion) (field notes -july 24th2014) in the case of these artifacts, there are two types of findings. firstly, data demonstrates that students were using simple past as planned in the fixed curriculum the school has for english language learning in terms of the written skill (e.g. use of simple past tense: “the ugly duckling was ugly for others” or “he wasn’t accepted”; advising: “don’t do bulling” [sic] or “don’t bother to people for their skin color” [sic]). there were also other achievements at the oral level, for example when the 7th graders were interacting (e.g. “your family not loved because is different, the poor ugly duckling became more and more unhappy because the other ducklings made fun of his appearance” (m’s and s’ discussion)). secondly, it could be stated that students acknowledged that some people are rejected for being different. students reflected upon this situation and gave advice to change this problematic situation that affect people’s self –esteem. as for the case of the field notes, it could be seen that (m and s) suggest that people are affected in their feelings when they are not accepted totally by their peers. social skills and chracter education in storytelling castañeda & león no. 17 (july december, 2018) no. 17 (july december, 2018) 151 the students reflected about different situations of the stories and asked for justice. they stated that nobody should suffer any discrimination. for example, in the second story “a lesson for my teacher”, one boy suffers discrimination by his teacher because of his religion. his friend´s father solved the situation in the story by using dialogue and at the same time he proposed forgiveness as a means to reconciliation. the students approved the solution due to the fact that they acknowledged reconciliation as a way to live in peace. the following picture exemplifies this concern: figure 5. artifact 01-701-lsc-ag-03-06-2014 picture of the second story “a lesson for my teacher” drawn by lsc. in regard to this picture, lsc stated that reconciliation is essential to maintain good relationships. in terms of l2 learning, it is evident in this artifact that the student is able to express ideas using simple present tense to describe scenes (e.g. “the teacher separated the children” or “the teacher apologize to…”). additionally, the student expressed “likes” (e.g. “kalam likes the music of the temple”). reflecting stage the main intention of this ar project was to identify the student social skills that are revealed when they participate in storytelling in l2 lessons. storytelling was considered a means to engage secondaryschool language learners (7th graders) in the development of different activities related to social skills, and thus the stories were used to help the students to reflect on their social skills and hopefully adjust their behavior towards classmates. the use of storytelling in the english social skills and chracter education in storytelling castañeda & león no. 17 (july december, 2018) no. 17 (july december, 2018) 152 class apparently provided students with elements to be aware of social relationships. the l2 storytelling workshops were implemented over a period of 12 weeks and even though it cannot be argued that results completely come from such implementation some changes in students’ ce were visible along with their ability to make sense orally and in written form based on the drawings that contextualized what they wanted to communicate. it was interesting to see how the students explained their own ideas and opinions when they were stimulated to reflect on different topics related to social skills using the foreign language naturally as illustrated by some of the examples above. they felt more comfortable when sharing their points of view. they reflected on their personal experiences by connecting new experiences, and through this process they were apparently empowered to reflect on and make decisions in future situations that they may face. at the end of the study, we also realized that the students had used the language in oral and written forms more comfortably as their performance in the activities demonstrated; the students gained more confidence to write about their reality, became familiar with the new vocabulary and used it to share experiences with their peers as in the letter we described earlier in this paper. there are of course more examples of students’ work, but we will not be able to display this here due to space limitations. they were motivated to build texts that explained their personal experiences. they wrote pieces of advice or suggestions to their partners. they were attentive to their partner’s ideas and in some cases, they encouraged their partners to solve a specific situation. in some cases, the students fostered their social relationships, and they felt more confident about participating and interacting with their peers in order to take part in academic activities. the students reflected on their negative perceptions of their partners as illustrated in the interviews above. this project allowed the students to be closer to their partners, and some of the participants explained that they had changed their assumptions, misunderstandings and so forth. in addition to the fact that they had accepted their peers as part of their group, some students (called rejected or isolated) were motivated by their peers to work in the activities through positive comments. the participants acknowledged the importance of social skills to live in a community. these findings support the idea that it is possible to improve language learning environments by incorporating contents for students to deal with in the english language classroom according to their social needs. social skills and chracter education in storytelling castañeda & león no. 17 (july december, 2018) no. 17 (july december, 2018) 153 further studies are needed in order to correlate language improvement linguistically speaking to the use of l2 storytelling workshops. additionally, longitudinal studies are also required in order to better substantiate such correlation. social skills and chracter education in storytelling castañeda & león no. 17 (july december, 2018) no. 17 (july december, 2018) 154 references althof, w. & berkowitz, m. 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(2006). teaching students in inclusive settings: adapting and accommodating instruction. upper saddle river, n. j.: prentice hall. social skills and chracter education in storytelling castañeda & león no. 17 (july december, 2018) no. 17 (july december, 2018) 161 autobiographies: a tool to depict english language learning experiences1 autobiografías: una herramienta para representar experiencias de aprendizaje del idioma inglés julia posada-ortíz and eliana garzón-duarte2* universidad distrital francisco josé de caldas, colombia abstract this article contains a description of a research project carried out with a group of english language pre-service teachers (elpts) of a state university in bogotá, colombia. the purpose of the study was to portray the experiences, feelings and insights the elpts went through as english language learners. autobiographies was the instrument to collect data. the results show that the english language learners’ process of learning has a strong influence of the language policies connected to the national program of bilingualism. they also show that it is necessary to create a cumulative program of english for each phase of schooling in order to avoid overlapping and to provide a more motivating learning process. the conclusions confirm that through the implementation of autobiographies in the efl classroom, teachers can feel connected to their students and understand their learning needs and interests from a more personal perspective. key words: autobiography; autobiographical research; english language learning; motivation in language learning; national program of bilingualism. resumen este artículo contiene la descripción de un proyecto de investigación que se llevó a cabo con 26 estudiantes de un programa de licenciatura en inglés de una universidad pública en bogotá, colombia. el propósito del estudio fue retratar las experiencias de los estudiantes como aprendices de lengua, sus sentimientos y puntos de vista al respecto. la autobiografía fue el instrumento que se utilizó para recoger datos. los 1 received: september 8th 2018/ may 15th 2019 2 jzposadao@gmail.com; eliaga@yahoo.com funds of knowledge with guatemalan teachers gist education and learning research journal. issn 1692-5777. no.18 (january june 2019). pp. 161-179. no. 18 (january june 2019) no. 18 (january june 2019) 162 resultados muestran que el proceso de aprendizaje de lengua tiene una fuerte influencia del programa nacional de bilingüismo. también evidencian la necesidad de crear un currículo de inglés más amplio e incluyente, que tenga en cuenta lo aprendido en las diferentes etapas de la escuela para evitar la repetición de contenidos y propiciar un aprendizaje más motivador. en las conclusiones se confirma que la implementación de autobiografías en el aula de inglés como lengua extranjera permite a los profesores entender las necesidades e intereses de sus estudiantes desde una perspectiva más personal. palabras clave: autobiografía; investigación autobiográfica; aprendizaje del inglés; motivación en el aprendizaje de lenguas; programa nacional de bilingüismo. resumo este artigo contém a descrição de um projeto de pesquisa que se realizou com 26 estudantes de um programa de licenciatura em inglês de uma universidade pública em bogotá, colômbia. o propósito do estudo foi retratar as experiências dos estudantes como aprendizes de língua, seus sentimentos e pontos de vista ao respeito. a autobiografia foi o instrumento que se utilizou para coletar dados. os resultados mostram que o processo de aprendizagem de língua tem uma forte influência do programa nacional de bilinguismo. também evidenciam a necessidade de criar um currículo de inglês mais amplo e incorporador, que leve em consideração o aprendido nas diferentes etapas da escola para evitar a repetição de conteúdos e propiciar uma aprendizagem mais motivadora. palavras chave: autobiografia; pesquisa autobiográfica; aprendizagem do inglês; motivação na aprendizagem de línguas; programa nacional de bilinguismo autobiographies in english language experiences posada-ortíz & garzón-duarte no. 18 (january june 2019) no. 18 (january june 2019) 163 introduction as one of the requirements for the subject language, society and culture in one b.ed. program of english teaching in a public university in bogotá, the teacher-researcher asked her students to write autobiographies, as a reflective methodology to know the connections student-teachers made with the process of learning and teaching english as a foreign language in the colombian context. by reading these autobiographies, she observed that the student-teachers struggled to be able to understand the classes they receive mainly in english during the first semesters of the program. she also realized they made use of some specific strategies in order to overcome their difficulties. therefore, she started to do research with the 26 students who were taking this subject during the first semester of 2015 to delve into their experiences as english learners and future teachers of english. this article presents the purposes, method, theoretical framework and results of this research. the insights derived from this work might help teacher educators to understand how the students make sense of their experience as language learners and what needs to be done in order to be more effective english teachers not only at the university, but also in basic levels, namely primary and secondary education. nevertheless, we would like to clarify that this article does not have a prescriptive intention whatsoever. theoretical framework in this section, we will define autobiography and autobiographical research in education. we will also illustrate how learning a language is influenced by socio-cultural factors and different forms of orientation in motivation. finally, we will provide a brief description of the national program of bilingualism in colombia. autobiography autobiography is one form of narrative among blogs, stories, journals, interviews essays and others. a narrative is a “recounting of things spatiotemporarilly distant” (toolan, 2001, p.1). distant refers to the tale and its topic, and also to the reader and teller. narratives always include stories about people, their memories and reflections, the connections they make between their past and present and the sense they make out of their lived experiences. autobiographies provide us with a great opportunity to see our actions and our journey through life under certain circumstances. in this particular case, the students had the chance to reflect on their experience as language learners in their basic education and at the bachelor program. they enjoyed the writing autobiographies in english language experiences posada-ortíz & garzón-duarte no. 18 (january june 2019) no. 18 (january june 2019) 164 of this experience as it will be shown in the data analysis and the researcher was delighted to learn from their experiences. an autobiography is “the story of the memory of oneself, one’s history and its critical moments” (hernández et al., 2011, p. 29). gusdorff (1991) highlights the etymological components of the word autobiography which make it a complex concept. autos refers to the identity, the consciousness of oneself and the principle of an autonomous existence, bios affirms the vital continuity of that entity and its historical development; finally, graphe introduces the technical means used to describe the development of that self. in the case of autobiography, the means is the written word. autobiography is one of the objects of study of autobiographical research. being autobiography one of the objects of study of autobiographical research, we can define this type of research as the one that “explores the interweaving between language, thought and social practice. it examines how individuals integrate, structure, interpret spaces and temporalities of their historical and cultural contexts to examine, in that way, the process of construction of the subject (or group) in the dialectical interaction between social space and personal space through (the) language(s)” (passeggi, 2011, p. 29). autobiographical research in education autobiographical research in education has been done through four waves. the first wave began in the early 70s in the usa and it was designated as autobiography and curriculum. this type of research focused on the analysis of the understandings and meanings of students in initial training. it included the reconstruction of autobiographical stories from the perspective of the curriculum as text and gender identity. the second wave embraced stories of experience and narrative (grummet, 1988, 1991; pagano, 1990). in this type of research, the researchers collected observations, diaries, conversations and documents that constitute narratives in order to reconstruct the experience that produces personal knowledge. in this wave there was an intense study of feminism. the third wave was related to collaborative autobiographies in which the researcher and the participants classified the autobiographies according to themes and patterns and made a report of their perspectives (butt & raymond, 1988) (schubert & ayers, 1992) (goodson, 1998; goodson & cole, 1993). this process allowed the creation of a shared professional culture and identity. finally, we have the recent tendency to use narratives and stories in order to comprehend the history of education. this way has two trends. the first one includes personal stories examined only by the researcher and the second one autobiographies in english language experiences posada-ortíz & garzón-duarte no. 18 (january june 2019) no. 18 (january june 2019) 165 is focused on the life of the teachers that are examined by the teachers and the researcher. the research described in this article can be framed in the one that includes personal stories (the ones written by the students) and examined by the teacher researcher. in colombia some scholars such as durán, lastra & morales (2013); and villarreal, muñoz & perdomo (2016) have used autobiographies and narratives as a means to understand how people see life and construct meaning out of their experiences. in the first case, with college students and, in the second one, with students from 6th and 11th grades and their beliefs about the english classes. other studies include the life stories of colombian teachers, as it is the case of clavijo’s (2000) research. the writing of an autobiography fosters a process of reflection that accounts for a better comprehension of the contexts and views of the world of the person who writes, which in turns reverts in a possible benefit as it gives voice to the voiceless and allows the implementation of changes and reforms based on the knowledge of the conditions narrated by the person who experiments the tensions and conflicts involved in living under certain circumstances. the particular autobiographies analyzed in this project shed light on the needs of the students in their language learning process as well of the learning strategies they use in order to improve their language skills. the autobiographies also showed the tensions the future teachers go through and the different representations of the academic life. in this sense, this project might contribute to introduce some innovations in the english program of the major in which this study took place. motivation in language learning according to williams and burden (1997), learning another language is different from learning any other subject. the learning of a foreign language implies more than just developing a set of skills, vocabulary and grammar; it entails “an alteration in self-image, the adoption of new social and cultural behaviors and ways of being, and therefore has a significant impact on the social nature of the learner” (p. 115). crookall and oxford (1988) state that learning another language is “ultimately learning to be another social person” (p. 136). gardner (1985) adds that “languages are unlike any other subjects in that they involve the acquisition of skills and behavior patterns which are characteristic of another community” (p. 146). consequently, learning a foreign language will be influenced by the attitudes towards the particular community of speakers of that language. autobiographies in english language experiences posada-ortíz & garzón-duarte no. 18 (january june 2019) no. 18 (january june 2019) 166 language learning is also affected by the context and the culture in which learning takes place. in colombia “speaking english has been deified as an asset in the sense that it only brings benefits to those who learn it, mainly as the access to a modern world characterized by technology, wider communication, economic power, scientific knowledge, and the like” (maurais, 2003 as cited in guerrero, 2010.). thus, a concern that emerges in the colombian context is to know what makes someone interested in learning english. so here, it is important to explain the difference between integrative and instrumental orientation in motivation (gardner, 1985). an integrative orientation “occurs when the learner is studying a language because of a wish to identify with the culture of speakers of that language” (williams & burden, 1997, p. 116). an instrumental orientation describes a “group of factors concerned with motivation arising from external goals such as passing exams, financial rewards, furthering a career and gaining promotion” (williams & burden, 1997, p. 116). according to the results of this study, it could be interpreted that the students’ orientation in their motivations seems to be instrumental as most of them reported to be interested in the english language as the means to obtain better job positions and be able to travel and achieve their goals. the instrumentalization and usefulness orientation in motivation to learn english in the imagining of the students and their relatives might evidence the strong influence of the national policies “in times in which languages are stratified according to their instrumental value in the job market, and languages such as english gain a higher status based on the assumption that they provide better possibilities for employment and traveling” (usma, 2009, p.132). therefore, this study is focused on a cognitive approach to motivation which “is concerned with such issues as why people decide to act in certain ways and what factors influence the choices they make” (williams & burden, 1997, p. 119). the national program of bilingualism in 2005, the ministry of education released the national program of bilingualism in colombia, a long-term policy that aimed “to make colombian citizens bilingual in spanish and english by 2019” (usma, 2009, p. 128). this program was implemented focusing on five main areas, (1) developing standards for english teaching and learning; (2) evaluating communicative competence in students as well as in-service and pre-service teachers within and outside the formal school system; (3) providing professional development programs for teachers in order to develop their pedagogical knowledge as well as communicative competence in english; (4) supporting the use of new information and communication technologies for the teaching of english; and (5) consolidating bilingual and trilingual models in the different ethnic communities around the country (cely, 2007). autobiographies in english language experiences posada-ortíz & garzón-duarte no. 18 (january june 2019) no. 18 (january june 2019) 167 the program designated the british council as the leading implementation agency around the country, and cambridge university press would be in charge of testing teachers and students, as well as publishing the materials that would serve as a reference for the plan. this program was criticized by scholars in colombia, who identified some flaws in its implementation such as the reduction of the term bilingualism to speaking english and spanish, the processes of inclusion of the british council and other international companies to support the program, and the exclusion of national universities and the instrumentalization of language learning among others. as a way to mediate in the academic discussion, the government changed the name of the national program of bilingualism into national english program 2015-2025. the program “seeks students to use english as a tool to communicate with the world and improve their career opportunities strategy” (presidencia de la república, 2014). this program is focused on three main areas: 1) strategies for teacher training and teaching materials for primary and secondary education; 2) quality, support and funding for higher education; and, 3) coordination with the productive sector. once again, the new program relies on the british council and cambridge as leading agencies to accompany the process. the implementation of the national program of bilingualism brought the implementation of testing the english level of students and teachers and rose the demand for english teachers especially in primary education where the teaching of this language should start. it also gave great relevance to the use of icts in education. the implementation of the program did not take into account neither local needs nor the differences between rural and urban areas and private and state schools. although there is a good intention from the part of the government to make people able to speak another language, they did not consider other language possibilities and they adopted english as the only language worth learning. the government, as stated previously, did not take into account local needs and contexts and, in this way, “the uncritical adoption of bilingual models brings to light, as a consequence, that the good intention of giving everybody access to a language of power ends in an even more unequal distribution of material and symbolic resources” (guerrero, 2010, p. 168). the students’ autobiographies evidenced some of the flaws in the implementation of this program, being the most remarkable ones the unequal distribution of resources and the shortage of english teachers in primary schools. they also declared the big social difference between the english teaching in private institutions and the one offered by state schools, where the conditions are not the same, even when the national english program has common objectives for all the levels of the educational system in colombia. autobiographies in english language experiences posada-ortíz & garzón-duarte no. 18 (january june 2019) no. 18 (january june 2019) 168 research design in this section, the context, participants, methodology, and data analysis of the research will be presented. the four categories derived from the data analysis are explained. these categories are entitled as (1) my experience as a young learner of english, (2) reasons for learning another language, (3) making sense of my academic life, and (4) visions of teaching. context and participants this study took place at a state university in bogotá, colombia. it was carried out with 26 sixth-semester students from a language teacher education program. the students took the subject called language, society and culture. this subject was taught in a four-hour period a week, during 16 weeks in the first semester 2015. the students’ age ranked between 20 and 25 years old. the participants volunteered to take part of the project and the type of work was piloted with a similar population in the two previous semesters. language, society and culture belongs to the disciplinary field of this bachelor’s program and it is oriented to raise student teachers’ awareness of the elements involved in language and their connections with society development and cultural views. reflection is a key factor in this subject. aims, methodology and data collection instruments the first aim of inquiry was to describe the language learning experiences of the student teachers and to characterize the main and most significant experiences they went through. in order to achieve these objectives, the narrative inquiry that entails “learning about the content of the experiences of the participants and their reflections” (barkhuizen, 2013, p. 8) was used. narrative inquiry is also defined by connelly and clandinin as “the study of experience as story” (2006, p. 477). according to barkhuizen (2013), these authors incite the researcher to go deeper in the context and the content of these stories in terms of temporality (the times in which experiences unfold), place (the places where the experiences are lived), and sociality (personal emotions, desires and interactions between people). incited by connelly & clandinin (2006), the content and the form of the students’ autobiographies were analyzed and this analysis led to identify that their temporality was framed within the times of the implementation of the national program of bilingualism with all its vices. it was also noticeable in the autobiographies that the student teachers went through experiences in state and private institutions and that the latter offer them better opportunities autobiographies in english language experiences posada-ortíz & garzón-duarte no. 18 (january june 2019) no. 18 (january june 2019) 169 to learn the foreign language. finally, it was read about their feelings when learning english, their dreams, and relationships between their classmates and language teachers, not only in their basic education, but also at the university. in order to analyze the autobiographies, the theoretical framework and ideas of riessman (2000), hernández & rifà (2011), and barkhuizen (2013) were used. the main source of data was the autobiographies written by the students following some items based on questions about their english learning experience. an analysis of the structure and content of the autobiographies was carried out, but the emphasis was done on the latter. regarding the structure, it was found that most of the narratives started with an introductory paragraph, they continued describing the experiences with the english language at school, family and college. most of them finished with a description of future plans and some of the narratives had an abrupt end. the following section will describe the four categories of analysis. category 1: my experience as a young learner of english as the student-teachers included their experience in primary and secondary school, this part of the narrative structure was called my experience as a young learner of english. “in primary school i had one teacher who was in charge of all of the subjects. that teacher had little knowledge about english…when i was in secondary school, i had a good teacher in my english class” (c.g. 2015:1). the experiences depicted by the students had in common that most of the times they had only one teacher in primary school and that teacher was in charge of teaching all the subjects including english. therefore, their experience in primary was reduced to learning lists of vocabulary and one or two songs. some of the students had a better experience in their secondary school and a few of them decided to study in a language institute in order to improve their language skills or to prepare themselves to be admitted in the university. being private schools and institutes the places where students found better opportunities to improve their english might evidence that the conditions in which english is being taught and used in colombia “puts the population which does not have the material, economic, or human resources to access the l2 at a disadvantage” (guerrero, 2010, p. 176). the fact that most of the students were taught english in primary school by the homeroom teacher who was the teacher in charge of all of the subjects brings about the problem the national policies related to learning english has in common with other countries. in 1994, the ministry of education, in autobiographies in english language experiences posada-ortíz & garzón-duarte no. 18 (january june 2019) no. 18 (january june 2019) 170 its general law of education, introduced in colombia “the need to learn at least one foreign language starting in elementary school” (usma, 2009, p. 127). nevertheless, this policy as it happened all around the world had some effects on the teaching and learning practices being the most remarkable “the shortage of primary school teachers with an english specialism. as a result, homeroom teachers, who may only speak limited english, are often required to take english lessons” (copland & garton, 2014, p. 225). this fact supports quintero and guerrero’s (2013) claim that educational policies ignore, silence, and make teachers in general invisible as their opinions are not taken into account and they have to “find ways to make them (the policies) meaningful for their students in their particular context. this implies that sometimes they (the teachers) have to skip some of them (the policies) and adapt others; all this in order to, as they say, do the best for our students” (p. 202). category 2: reasons for learning another language when reading the narratives, one of the most interesting things was to discover the students’ reasons for learning english. it could be noticed that their motivation was high and that it came from different sources, having some of them an instrumental orientation and external influences such as key people and events. the cognitive concept of motivation, construed as “a state of cognitive and emotional arousal, which leads to a conscious decision to act, and which gives rise to a period of sustained intellectual and/or physical effort in order to attain a previously set goal (or goals)” (william & burden, 1997, p. 120), is the concept that frames this research. there was an emotional arousal in all the autobiographies derived from an instrumental orientation and external influences. this emotional arousal made the students invest not only money, but also intellectual and physical effort to learn the language. the following lines explain the external influences that boosted students’ interest in english. a. perceived value of learning english as stated in the theoretical framework, from a cognitive perspective “motivation is concerned with such issues as why people decide to act in certain ways and what factors influence the choices they make” (william & burden, 1997, p. 119). when the reason for performing an activity lies within the activity itself, we are talking about intrinsic motivation: “when the only reason for performing and activity is to gain something outside the activity itself, such as passing an exam, or obtaining financial rewards, the motivation is likely to be extrinsic” (william & burden, 1997, p. 123). autobiographies in english language experiences posada-ortíz & garzón-duarte no. 18 (january june 2019) no. 18 (january june 2019) 171 the students involved in the project were sometimes intrinsically motivated and sometimes extrinsically. for instance, most of them showed preference for english and they invested time and effort. however, they were also interested because learning english represents social status and gain (better job opportunities, travelling and interacting with people from other cultures). the sustained effort students made in learning english came from the fact that they gave a great value to the language in terms of what it represented in their long-term goals and life projects: “i have always liked traveling (sic), learning new things, new cultures and learn from the world above (sic). english is considered as the universal language, for that reason, i thought that learning languages could be necessary to accomplish my expectations” (a.c. 2015:1). “one day i was talking with my father and he told me that i had to study something that opens doors everywhere…” (m.g. 2015:1). b. curiosity one of the major components of motivation is curiosity. curiosity is inherent to human beings. the student teachers´ curiosity started when they heard new songs, came across books written in english and learned about new cultures: “i found some books of meyer’s institute and looked at the images of london and some comics and i was interested because i did not understand anything so, i took a dictionary, some cassettes and tried to understand what those books were saying” (f.b. 2015:1). c. key people the interest in the english language was also created by the influence of some relatives and teachers who not only made the students like the language, but also made them think about becoming an english teacher. “my sister in law was the person who influenced me in become a teacher (sic)” (p.3). “teachers like him are persons who leave a mark in you and make you want to follow their lives and examples (sic)” (j.p.r. 2015:1). d. key events there were also key events such as school performances and going to the movies that engaged students in the liking of english: “an important tradition at school was to prepare a big role play to present at santo tomas university and only the best students could participate autobiographies in english language experiences posada-ortíz & garzón-duarte no. 18 (january june 2019) no. 18 (january june 2019) 172 in it. so, i think that i did my best to belong to that “privileged group” (e.s. 2015:1). “the only reason i had to learn english when i was a child was the fact that i wanted to understand movies language…” (f.r. 2015:1). category 3: making sense of my academic life according to passegi (2011), one of the three principles that guide research on autobiographies is the construction of reality. this is the moment in which the writer links past and present and how this link has made him or her what he or she is now. the autobiographies showed positive and negative experiences that influence the students’ decisions to continue improving their language learning. in the process of overcoming the difficulties when learning english, students become agents of their own language learning process. “i think that the best experience i have ever had in (the b.ed. program), was in first semester, the english teacher i had at that stage was simply amazing, and i learnt a lot from him. he made me feel sure about this career, and about being an english teacher. clearly, that experience, made me continue in the program” (s.b. 2015:1). students’ academic life was permeated by some tensions that had mainly to do with abrupt changes from one teaching style to another. some students were highly motivated by the english teachers they had in primary and then they found that their secondary english teachers were absolutely different. the same was true for the university experience. some of the students stated that the teachers at the university do not take into account students’ needs: “this experience has been very different at the university because… (teachers do not) do activities according to our needs” (l.r. 2015:1). there is a mismatch between what their teachers at the university preach and what they do in class: “talking about my experiences at the university on the […] program i have to say that most of the english teachers are focused on theories and sometimes they do not encourage students to learn english as a whole” (f.b. 2015:1). “sometimes teachers do not help enough…” (a.c. 2015:1). besides the aspects mentioned above, students see the university as a world of dichotomies; some classmates are selfish, some others cooperate: “when i started my degree, i was so confused because i really loved english…but the subjects (sic) did not make me feel good, the people autobiographies in english language experiences posada-ortíz & garzón-duarte no. 18 (january june 2019) no. 18 (january june 2019) 173 were arrogant and i never received help from anyone so i started failing and delayed (sic) one semester” (d.h. 2015:1). academic life is full of challenges. students have to perform some activities in english even at early stages of the b.ed. program, when they do not feel confident enough to do so, and sometimes they feel at a disadvantage towards their peers. these situations create tensions and force the students to search a way through to overcome limitations: “my english classes were awful, and sad sometimes, because i could not understand a lot of things…” (e.a. 2015:2). “many of my classmates had a good level …so i felt very shy and ashamed to speak” (j.r. 2015:1). students become agents of the b.ed. program as they undergo some aspects of the university within certain dichotomies such as good and bad teachers, good and bad experiences. however, they are also agents as they find ways to overcome the problems. “i had a terrible teacher, so i realized that it is too important the autonomous work. that’s why i started to improve by myself, watching movies, reading books, looking for free english courses online, talking to native english speakers in chat rooms, and so on” (c.s. 2015:2). they also read or look for alternative ways to practice english, such as english clubs or groups of people who join foreigners in places for this purpose. the interest of some students is also focused on culture: “i like to read newspaper articles […] there are also some places in bogotá where you have the opportunity to speak with native speakers, depending of your level (sic) and that’s a good tool because is the closest chance that you have to know about english people and their culture” (d.n. 2015:2). to sum up, students look for different ways to face all the challenges of their academic life and succeed. we could say that they do a lot with english outside the classroom and they are autonomous, definitely agents of their own learning process. category 4: visions of teaching as the participants are student-teachers of english, it was important to analyze their visions as future teachers. they still have a romantic view of teaching and they foresee themselves as humanistic teachers that will improve education and change the world. for them, it is paramount to teach another autobiographies in english language experiences posada-ortíz & garzón-duarte no. 18 (january june 2019) no. 18 (january june 2019) 174 language as a way to help people. one of the most important points to highlight is that they want to continue their preparation with further studies: “a teacher is someone who helps people, who teaches, who listens, who understands, and who loves the profession and obviously is a person who changes the world” (j.a. 2015:2). “i would like to discover all the stories behind every student and use that in a future to analyze the best way to teach them” (s.h. 2015:2). “in the future i see myself as teacher researcher” (f.b. 2015:2). it is important to highlight that students’ visions of the teacher have a lot to do with the pedagogical and humanistic aspects. students recognize teaching as a profession and some of them are clear about having a role as teacher researchers as well. teacher development is an ongoing process that makes part of their life project. conclusions and implications the main purposes that guided this project were to describe the language learning experiences of the studentteachers and to characterize the main and most significant experiences they went through. we described the english language learners’ experiences in terms of four categories entitled as follows: my experience as a young learner of english, reasons for learning another language, making sense of my academic life, and visions of teaching. the experiences depicted by the future teachers showed a strong influence of the national program of bilingualism with all its flaws, especially the fact that english was adopted as the main foreign language to be taught and learnt giving this language a status “even higher than the mother tongue in colombia” (guerrero, 2010). thus, the participants’ narratives portrayed interesting insights about the way global and local factors are affecting english learning and teaching in colombia. the global policies about learning english from an early stage derived from the market have reached our country and have had an impact on our primary and preschool programs. we could see from the autobiographies that they depict “a widely reported problem…the gap between the supply of qualified teyl (teaching english to young learners) teachers and the demand for them as programs expand…” (enever & moon, 2009, p. 10). the lack of qualified teachers means that countries frequently have to rely on teachers “who are not trained to teach teyl, including primary class teachers and others who might not have qualifications appropriate for teaching younger children” (enever & moon, 2009, p. 10). autobiographies in english language experiences posada-ortíz & garzón-duarte no. 18 (january june 2019) no. 18 (january june 2019) 175 most of the students claimed to have been taught english in primary school by teachers who were not prepared to do so, and therefore they were requested to learn long lists of vocabulary or do translations. they also stated that these classes were mainly taught by their homeroom teacher who was in charge of all of the subjects. this might show how the policies on learning english whose implementation started in our country in 2005 with the national program of bilingualism did not supply sufficient qualified language teachers in primary schools and how the teachers faced this problem trying to do what was best for their students. it also shows that these policies were top-down and did not take into account local needs and contexts. in the second category, namely reasons for learning another language, we can see the instrumentalization of language learning (usma, 2009) as the main reason to learn english. the students perceived the value of this language as the means to travel and get better job opportunities which turns english into “an instrumental tool to be “competitive” in the job market and the “knowledge based economy” (usma, 2009, p. 133). according to usma, the instrumentalization of language learning is one of the effects of the international policies adopted by colombia in the national program of bilingualism. at the university, the students found that they were not progressing in their learning of the english as a foreign language, as the information they receive does not seem to have continuity. this might evidence the need to establish “a cohesive curriculum outline in foreign languages, ensuring a cumulative program of provision for each phase of schooling” (enever & moon, 2009, p. 12). the student teachers feel their english teachers’ discourse is not coherent to what they do in class and that they should make their classes more interesting and focused on students’ interests. although students reported to do a lot of autonomous work mainly by using the icts (chats, television, network), they still acknowledge the need for a teacher who accompanies their process and helps them with some tutoring more than one who makes a lot of use of icts in class. teacher who helps, understands them and foremost loves his or her profession. the previous paragraphs probably describe the most interesting finding which has to do with what the student teachers expect from their language teachers. student teachers did not claim for a teacher using new technologies in class. they look for a teacher who is aware of what they already know, their needs and interests and someone who is a more like a councilor to their difficulties. we wanted to highlight the use of the icts and the students’ image of a good teacher because icts are also part of the global policies in education and the nowadays called plan nacional de inglés (national english plan). the autobiographies in english language experiences posada-ortíz & garzón-duarte no. 18 (january june 2019) no. 18 (january june 2019) 176 use of icts is mandatory as one of the resources that should be implemented in class. this aspect needs revision as focusing too much in the icts as the only means to engage students in tasks related to learning languages, so this might lead to a distorted view of teaching and learning. looking for fun activities and getting to know our students better can lead them to progress as well. by stating this, we do not mean we should exclude icts as part of our practice as language teachers, what we would like to emphasize is that there are other alternatives being the most important carrying out needs analysis in order to know what our students already bring, need to learn and how they learn. therefore, the use of the icts and the new environments for learning should be evaluated in terms of “an understanding of the extent to which they enhance the learning experience” (enever & moon, 2009, p. 11.) it was interesting to note that the visions of teaching pre-service teachers have, has to do with providing useful learning experiences and be able to match their students’ needs. only two students out of the 26 envision themselves as a teacher researcher and all of them established being a teacher as part of their life project. on a more personal note, we would like to add that by reading these narratives we got to know our students better. it was easier to understand the way they behave in the classroom and, of course, it made us feel more connected with them. finally, it is important to state that the findings of this project might shed a light on some of the effects of the national program of bilingualism. as for the b.ed. program, where this study took place, it would be interesting to consider an evaluation of the english syllabus offered, in terms of the continuity suggested by the results. this evaluation could be extended to primary 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(2012). analysis of personal narratives. in j. f. gubrium, j. a. holstein, a. b. marvasti, & k. d. mckinney (eds.), the sage handbook of interview research: the complexity of the craft (ch. 25). london, uk: sage publications. schubert, w. & ayers, w. (1992). teacher lore: learning from our own experience. new york: longman. toolan, m. (2001). small stories, positioning analysis, and the doing of professional identities in learning to teach. narrative inquiry, 17, 371-89. usma, j. (2009). education and language policy in colombia: exploring processes of inclusion, exclusion, and stratification in times of global reform. profile issues in teachers’ professional development, 11(2), 123141. villarreal, j., muñoz, j. v., & perdomo, j. m. (2016). students’ beliefs about their english class: exploring new voices in a national discussion. profile issues in teachers’ professional development, 18(2), 139-150. williams, m. & burdens, r. l. (1997). psychology for language teachers. a social constructivist approach. cambridge: cup. autobiographies in english language experiences posada-ortíz & garzón-duarte no. 18 (january june 2019) no. 18 (january june 2019) http://wsp.presidencia.gov.co/prensa/2014/julio/paginas/20140710_05-programa-nacional-de-ingles-2015-2025-colombia-very-well-pondra-a-hablar-ingles-a-los-colombianos.aspx http://wsp.presidencia.gov.co/prensa/2014/julio/paginas/20140710_05-programa-nacional-de-ingles-2015-2025-colombia-very-well-pondra-a-hablar-ingles-a-los-colombianos.aspx http://wsp.presidencia.gov.co/prensa/2014/julio/paginas/20140710_05-programa-nacional-de-ingles-2015-2025-colombia-very-well-pondra-a-hablar-ingles-a-los-colombianos.aspx 179 authors *julia posada-ortiz is a doctoral candidate in education with an emphasis in elt at universidad distrital francisco josé de caldas. she holds an m.a in applied linguistics to tefl from universidad distrital francisco josé de caldas, a specialization in literature teaching from universidad del quindío-coruniversitaria and a b.ed. in english and spanish teaching from universidad del tolima. she is an associate professor in the faculty of sciences and education at universidad distrital francisco josé de caldas and a member of the research group aprendizaje y sociedad de la información. orcid: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8919-5286 eliana garzón-duarte is a doctoral candidate of english applied linguistics at the university of szeged, in hungary, as a scholarship holder from the stipendium hungaricum program. she holds an m.a. in language teaching from universidad pedagógica y tecnológica de colombia. she is a full-time teacher of the faculty of education at universidad distrital francisco josé de caldas. her research interests are identity construction, language education, language rights, linguistic diversity and social justice. orcid: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5920-1550 autobiographies in english language experiences posada-ortíz & garzón-duarte how to reference this article: posada-ortiz, j., & garzón-duarte, e. (2019). autobiographies: a tool to depict english language learning experiences. gist education and learning research journal, 18, 161-179. https://doi.org/10.26817/16925777.447 no. 18 (january june 2019) no. 18 (january june 2019) https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8919-5286 https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5920-1550 https://doi.org/10.26817/16925777.447 _hlk9576345 48 tuning the chords of youth identity: a community-based project focused on music in english1 afinando los acordes de la identidad juvenil: un proyecto de comunidad enfocado en la música en inglés. edna mercedes bonilla-salazar2* universidad del tolima, colombia abstract this is an exploratory case study implemented in a public school of ibagué colombia, that reports findings of a qualitative research. in this study tenth graders efl students, explored into their local contexts, salient aspects of youth identity, that emerged from interaction with music in english. the study is framed on some basic principles of critical pedagogy (cp) and foundations of communitybased pedagogies (cbp). content data analysis was used to examine the information obtained from the different tools of data collection: community mapping, questionnaires, recorded semi-structured interviews and notes in the teacher’s journal. finally, member checking was implemented to validate data and to increase the credibility and validity of this qualitative study. conclusions and pedagogical implications reveal how local inquiries focused on music in english become a source for language learning and enlighten curriculum designers and teachers towards the construction of a flexible curriculum with relevant content, oriented to youth identity exploration and understanding. key words: identity; community based pedagogy (cbp); critical pedagogy (cp); music as a pedagogical tool. resumen este es un estudio exploratorio de caso implementado en un colegio público de ibagué colombia, que reporta los hallazgos de una investigación cualitativa. para esta investigación, estudiantes de décimo grado de inglés como lengua extranjera, exploran en sus contextos locales, aspectos sobresalientes en la identidad juvenil, que surgen a partir de la interacción permanente con la música en inglés. el estudio está enmarcado en algunos principios básicos la teoría de pedagogía crítica y fundamentos de la 1 received: february 22nd 2018/ accepted: may 3rd 2019 2 embonillas@ut.edu.co gist education and learning research journal. issn 1692-5777. no.18 (january june 2019). pp. 48-67. no. 18 (january june 2019) no. 18 (january june 2019) 49 pedagogía basada en la comunidad. el análisis de contenido de datos fue usado para examinar la información de las diferentes herramientas de recolección de datos: mapeo de la comunidad, cuestionarios, entrevistas semiestructuradas grabadas en video y diario de campo del docente. finalmente, la revisión de los hallazgos por parte de los participantes fue implementada para validar los datos e incrementar la validez de este estudio cualitativo. las conclusiones y las implicaciones pedagógicas revelan cómo las indagaciones locales enfocadas en la música en inglés, se convierten en un recurso para la enseñanza del idioma y a su vez ilustran a diseñadores del currículo y docentes, en cuanto a la construcción de un currículo flexible, con contenido relevante orientado a la exploración y comprensión de la identidad juvenil. palabras clave: identidad; pedagogía basada en la comunidad; pedagogía crítica; música como herramienta pedagógica. resumo este é um reconto de uma experiência pedagógica através de um estudo de caso, implementado em uma instituição pública de ibagué, colômbia, que reporta as descobertas de uma pesquisa qualitativa realizada com estudantes de 2º ano de ensino médio e alguns participantes das comunidades próximas ao colégio. o projeto visualiza alguns construtos de pedagogia crítica tendo em vista princípios de metodologia baseada na comunidade. os dados foram coletados e analisados sob a metodologia baseada na análise do conteúdo, em dois períodos do ano escolar, através de ferramentas tais como: mapeamento da comunidade, questionários, entrevistas semi-estruturadas e o diário do professor. a metodologia de validação da informação dos participantes foi implementada para ajudar a melhorar a precisão e validez durante a análise dos dados. as conclusões definem o alcanço da música em inglês sobre a construção de identidade dos jovens aprendizes, as implicações pedagógicas do estudo descrevem algumas formas nas quais os docentes podem construir um conteúdo curricular relevante através do entendimento e exploração da identidade individual os seus estudantes. palavras clave: identidade; pedagogia baseada na comunidade; pedagogia crítica; recursos de conhecimento; música como pedagógica. no. 18 (january june 2019) no. 18 (january june 2019) 50 introduction observing school students’ attitudes and manners, when they are lively sharing in teams during the break time, or attending a lesson in the classroom, has grabbed my attention and has led me to reflect on how life experiences inside and outside the school may affect or model their process of individual identity construction. i also wonder which is the origin of the most common patterns that my students follow to act the way they do, and how their linguistic behavior in the english class is shaped by some cultural trends and art expressions they daily are embedded into. as part of the reflection upon this relevant topic for my teaching practice, i registered on teachers logs my insights, these written registers guided me to realize that my students’ favorite music in english enhances the development of linguistic skills and at the same time models significantly some behavioral aspects. in 2017 the opportunity to implement a class project came and i invited the students of 10th to join it. “through problem posing education and questioning the problematic issues in learners’ lives, students learn to think critically and develop a critical consciousness which help them to improve their life conditions.” (aliakbari & faraji, 2011, p.77). bearing in mind the educative context where the present project unfolded, this qualitative study paves the way for english teachers to reflect on the possibilities to establishing curricular connections between classroom practices and students’ existing funds of knowledge in their local communities where english teaching takes place. literature review music as a pedagogical tool for english lessons tuning the chords of identity is the metaphor in the title of this paper that unveils salient aspects of youth identity when teachers inquire in the students upon their musical tastes and approach their worlds to give a place and voice at school. including songs in the classroom as an effective tool for english teaching with young learners, is hugely rewarding due to some songs that can be adapted to introduce new vocabulary and idiomatic expressions in a context. hence, music in english should be considered a worthy pedagogical tool to keep students engaged while experiencing an insight into a new culture, without losing motivation towards the learning on l2. among other different reasons to use songs in the efl classroom, schoepp (2001) exposed: community-based project on music bonilla-salazar no. 18 (january june 2019) no. 18 (january june 2019) 51 songs have become an integral part of our language experience, and if used in coordination with a language lesson they can be of great value. fortunately, with the expanding prevalence of the internet and specifically the world wide web into both the classrooms and lives of students, access to music and lyrics has been made easier (p.26). it is the age of youtube and learners can find practically any song on the website. “songs contain authentic language, they are easily obtainable, provide vocabulary, grammar and cultural aspects and they are fun for students. songs can provide valuable speaking, listening and language practice in and out of the classroom.” (lynch, 2012, p. 92). likewise, teaching english through songs with l2 learners is one of the most motivating sources due to the positive relationship between music and verbal learning; this fact should not be underestimated by teachers of new generations of learners. musical genres that students listen to as a social practice and the lyrics they easily enjoy singing, may become pedagogical sources to enhance oral fluency in the english class, while learners get familiar with idiomatic expressions; moreover, “music in english can support the development of a positive self-identity as well as provide confidence, motivation and a sense of group belonging at an early age.” (hallam, 2010, p.273). in summary, young people get to know themselves as individuals and as groups through cultural activities such as music interaction, nevertheless, choosing a musical genre is an individual experience and invoke emotions and associations which are highly personal. youth identity and music. music has a transformative power for cultures, societies and individuals, it is a universal language and has the ability to transcend culture, age and gender boundaries. it can help people to cope with feelings, emotions and beliefs, even individuals from different contexts, find in music the best way to express and raise their voices to the world. at present, the concept of identity is seen as a dynamic process rather than a static phenomenon. according to norton (2000), identity refers to “how a person understands his or her relationship to the world, how that relationship is constructed across time and space, and how the person understands possibilities for the future.” (p.5). in regards with the role of music upon the identity process in a social group, joseph (2004) maintains, “music plays an integral part in the influence of identity upon members of society, the transformation of an individual or collective identity is determined by the constructs put in place by a society community-based project on music bonilla-salazar no. 18 (january june 2019) no. 18 (january june 2019) 52 made up of social and political standpoints that have developed through time.” (p.8). otherwise, there is an assumption that our identities, whether group of individual, are not natural facts about us, but “they are things that we construct, fictions, in effect, identities play a significant role in our interaction with others and are part of how we think about ourselves and those around us.” (joseph, 2004, p.6). through music interaction, young learners start reflecting critically on lived experiences, at analyzing, exploring and discussing the lyrics of songs or approaching real life experiences of an artist. at school, the role for transformative teachers has to do with uncovering students’ worlds while reflecting on their personal experiences and contributing to start processes of personal and social transformation in the communities. critical pedagogy the idea of associating critical pedagogy with education has mainly been developed by some key scholars such as freire (1970), giroux (1992) and mclaren (2003). critical pedagogy aims at preparing learners who can solve both their own problems and the ones related to the society, as consequence, there is a need for its users and learners to be critical in their learning and use of the language. this study closely involves students in decisions about learning through inquiries focused on musical experiences in their neighborhoods, as a way to recognize their voices and made them part of the school curriculum. “a democratic curriculum invites young people to shed the passive role of knowledge consumers and assume the active role of meaning makers”(apple, & beane, 2007, p.63). according to mclaren (2003), critical pedagogy is “a way of thinking about, negotiating, and transforming the relationship among classroom teaching, the production of knowledge, the institutional structures of the school, and the social and material relations of the wider community, society, and nation-state” (p.35). under the scope of critical thinking, i was guided to unveil a truth i had not realized before and i managed to understand two realities. firstly, students’ worlds possess valuable elements that, if oriented reflectively, can enrich teaching and learning practices not only for languages, but for other subjects at school. kumaravadivelu (2003) posits how critical pedagogy takes “seriously the lived experiences that teachers and learners bring to the educational setting.” (p.89). his approach lights up curriculum designers of community-based project on music bonilla-salazar no. 18 (january june 2019) no. 18 (january june 2019) 53 educational programs and english teachers that contemplate learners as the subject of their learning. secondly, local communities where my students live and grow up, can offer significant information around music exploration concerning youth identity. since these environments perform and contribute with empirical process of culture transmission and identity construction, they need to be taken into consideration at school settings, within a flexible curriculum that embraces not only theory and policies but also students’ needs, skills and interests. community based pedagogies (cbp) in this research, by means of community-based pedagogies, it was feasible to connect school practices and community knowledge environments in one school project where students succeeded to bond their own musical experiences, acquired in real-world settings with the lesson content they were taught at school. integrating both settings brought about outstanding information that supports and reveals some aspects of youth identity building. community-based pedagogies are curriculum and practices that reflect knowledge and appreciation of the communities in which schools are located and students and their families inhabit. it is an asset-based approach that does not ignore the realities of curriculum standards that teachers must address, but emphasizes local knowledge and resources as starting points for teaching and learning (sharkey & clavijo, 2012). (cbp) helps teachers to recognize that all communities have intrinsic educational and cultural assets and resources that educators can use to enhance meaningful learning opportunities. interestingly the concept of cultural asset is defined by gibson (2015) as follows: in every community that manages to sustain or revive itself over time, there are cultural factors that contribute to the vitality and robustness of the people living there. these factors are shared and creative, which is to say they are cultural, and they are assets that make life valuable, that make life worth living. these cultural assets can be material, immaterial, emotional, or even spiritual (p.112). likewise, cbp is an active critical pedagogy to construct relevant content through local inquiries in the community. the concept of local goes beyond a physical o geographical space, which is just a criterion, it has a sociological understanding in the theory of structuration of giddens (1991) who states that “because we take human beings as our point of departure (instead of the world), the local is delineated by social integration, face-to-face interaction or interaction between individuals physically co-present.”(p.21). community-based project on music bonilla-salazar no. 18 (january june 2019) no. 18 (january june 2019) 54 methodology this case study allowed the exploration of a contemporary real-life phenomenon in the classrooms, related to music in english and youth identity construction. accordingly, yin (2003) defines the case study “as an empirical inquiry that investigates a contemporary phenomenon within its real-life context; when the boundaries between phenomenon and context are not clearly evident; and in which multiple sources of evidence are used.” (p.23). the existing case study was developed in the framework of communitybased pedagogy, which made possible to intertwine essential theoretical constructs on identity with rich funds of local knowledge and music in english as a pedagogical tool, to bridge the gap between theory and practice existing in my traditional lessons which had a language approach focused on the development of some skills in isolation. case studies are a strategy of inquiry in which the researcher explores in depth a program, event, activity, process or one or more individuals. if qualitative research were carried out, for instance, on documents, on specific textual corpus or pictures, it would be the people’s features and their actions, the productions and situations they develop or have developed, and their existence in those which would be examined to answer the research question in order to continue the analysis on the basis of those features. (vasilachis de gialdino,1992, p.43). next framework, as explained in the didactic unit, see appendix 1, guided this exploratory case, to achieve the proposed goals along the development of the project and answer the following research question: how is tenth grade efl students’ identity revealed through local inquiries focused on music in english? table 1. community-based pedagogy design adapted from sharkey and clavijo (2012). community-based project on music bonilla-salazar no. 18 (january june 2019) no. 18 (january june 2019) 55 since this is a qualitative study, “content data analysis” was selected as the methodology to conduct the examination of data collected from the instruments and processes. lochmiller and lester (2015) point out that “the data analysis process in qualitative research is often uniquely influenced by the qualitative methodology selected, as well as the theoretical and/or conceptual frameworks that frame the study” (p.40). instruments for data collection. mapping the community according to crane and skinner (2003) “community mapping is a process that requires strong partnerships; clear goals that everyone in the partnership supports; good communication; commitment to collecting relevant data and analyzing the data for gaps and overlaps.”(p.5). mapping was the initial instrument to start the process of observation, discussion, note-taking, and photographic register for a deep inventory of the students’ contexts. initially, students were told to talk to teenagers or young members in their communities, who exhibited visible similarities and traces of identity with singers or bands of music in english and agreed to take some pictures. after analyzing this inventory of photographic evidence, names of their favorite singers and bands, musical genres and external aspects of music effects on young members of the community were unveiled. experiencing mapping their own local surroundings gave my students a factual vision of some members in their local contexts, yet, students could recognize that both interviewers and interviewees had in common similar behavioral features and visible traces, which have been shaped by the impact of the music in english. also inquiring into some local contexts contributed to raise awareness in the researcher and the group of students, towards the connection that must exist to join community assets and cultural resources with schooling video-recorded interviews semi-structured interviews were videotaped as a convenient way to provide detailed information about the social context of each participant in a setting. scenarios for the video recordings were participants’ houses, bedrooms, living rooms and the school yard, all of them within the nearest communities to school. with regards to semi-structured interviews, fox (2009) maintains that “they are useful when collecting attitudinal information on a large scale, […] responses can either be tape-recorded or written down by the interviewer” (p.6). finally, data collected from video recordings were transcribed by the community-based project on music bonilla-salazar no. 18 (january june 2019) no. 18 (january june 2019) 56 researcher and codified in categories and subcategories by using excel charts in otranscribe online software. questionnaires in this study, two questionnaires for the students were conducted, the first one, with six questions that sought to find out students’ preferences and names of their favorite artists or bands, and their possible reactions when being in touch with these musical genres. the inquiries for the second questionnaire focused on students’ beliefs about the things that model their identity and their perception of music and its effects on them. this questionnaire was integrated to the study in an introductory workshop, after watching a video from youtube. ambriz, n peñuelas,n; beltrán, a. (2015). it is an inspiring video, related to youth and identity, which offered certain connections with the community project and at the same time encouraged the students to go forward researching into their communities. teacher´s journal the teacher’s journal was used to register entries that reported teaching experiences while carrying out the study, as well as class events round the research during regular english lessons. moreover, students’ insights that were commented in class in regards to the learnt experiences while participating in the different stages of this research, were taken into account in this journal. keeping notes that described in detail the process i followed with my students to conduct the study, became a useful tool that validated similar findings in data analysis. gebhard (1999) defines how a teacher journal “can create an opportunity to confront the affective aspects of being a teacher, including what annoys, disconcerts, frustrates, encourages, influences, motivates and inspires us” (p.79). although writing a diary was time-consuming, the result was a database which allowed me checking the insight that consolidated the categories. research context and participants this research project was implemented in one of the most traditional public schools of the city, its academic population is 2.897 divided in primary and secondary levels and there are two shifts, afternoon and morning; according to some regulations and policies of the ministry of education in two years the school will have only one shift. community-based project on music bonilla-salazar no. 18 (january june 2019) no. 18 (january june 2019) 57 this community based study was implemented with the support of twenty-five efl female tenth-graders, with a1 proficiency level according to the cefr, these girls are aged fourteen to seventeen, and most of them are interested in learning english. students belong to a middle-class stratum and some of them come from different cities because of their parents’ jobs, most of these pupils have been studying since primary level in the same institution. validation of the information with the purpose of validating the data provided by the participants, member checking was implemented. it is a technique used by researchers to help improve the validity, accuracy, credibility and transferability “the interpretation and report (or a portion of it) is given to participants in order to check the authenticity of the work, their comments serve as a check on the viability of the interpretation.” (creswell, 1994, p.158). informants may also be asked to read any transcripts of dialogues in which they have participated. here the emphasis should be on whether the informants consider that their words match what they intended. lincoln and guba (2009) highlighted that “through research interviews, for member checking, participants gain reflection, self-awareness, finding a voice, obtaining information, and venting repressed emotions.” (p.551). findings the following categories establish key connections with the main constructs exposed in the theoretical framework. theory was fundamental during the process of shaping the preliminary categories and subcategories that emerged during the analysis. consequently, they are presented in detail in table 1. table 2. research question and categories research question how is tenth grade efl students’ identity revealed through local inquiries focused on music in english? categories imitation, a form of social interaction. admiration, just an emotional impact. identification, and seeking self-image. music enhances english learning community-based project on music bonilla-salazar no. 18 (january june 2019) no. 18 (january june 2019) 58 imitation, a form of social interaction. (cbp) oriented this study upon the knowledge of the community through local inquiries in recorded interviews and questionnaires, excerpts from these tools revealed that all the participants in the study admitted having a deep appeal by at least two or three singers of music in english, and also showed their awareness on the effects that continuous music exposure have triggered on them. “he tratado de imitar a serj tankian ya que es un tipo que usa unos looks rockeros geniales, por lo general tiene algún accesorio que me gustaría tener siempre.” (stu, 9, questionnaire, march, 2017). “el primer cambio físico que realicé fue colorearme un mechón, luego lo pinté de rosa, luego seguí con un tatuaje de calavera que avril lavigne precisamente también lo tiene en su brazo izquierdo. sin duda alguna otro gran cambio que me gustaría hacer por el gusto que ha dejado lavigne es otro tatuaje de una estrella, en la muñeca.” (stu, 4, video recording transcription, may 2017). hopper (2010) claims that “trends that singers exhibit along their performances, impact on teens in different ways, those styles become fashions when teenagers in particular come under the strong influence of the media projection of their favorite singers and bands and start imitating.” (p.23). imitation as a form of social integration in a group, defines an important aspect of youth identity in teens; in fact, photographic registers in the community mapping, displayed patterns in external expressions like fashion styles, shoes, make up, accessories, haircuts, and tattoos that most of the adolescents copy or even imitate from the artists. admiration, just an emotional impact. in this category the empathy some participants have developed upon particular attitudes, fashion trends or physical features adopted from their musical idols, does not go beyond substantially over the construction of their individual identities; this sense of admiration, neither permeates nor models significant traits on them. however, outcomes in data analysis evidenced, participants’ critical thinking ability in front of topics related to some life philosophies and life styles which are transmitted in the lyrics and videos they have access to. this sense of admiration generates on them uplifting and inspiring feelings towards the character and personality of many musical idols. “admiro a ed sheeran porque sus canciones de verdad son muy hermosas, él es muy humilde a pesar de tener toda la fama, no pierde community-based project on music bonilla-salazar no. 18 (january june 2019) no. 18 (january june 2019) 59 su sencillez. uno se pone a mirar aquí en colombia el reggaeton y todo eso, las canciones degradan a la mujer, en cambio él es diferente, sus canciones son bastante diferentes, dice todo lo que una mujer quiere escuchar de un hombre y eso me llama la atención.” ( stu, 10, video recording transcription, may, 2017). “siento admiración por muchos cantantes porque a pesar que la vida de ellos en la niñez fue muy dura, salen adelante, y la letra de las canciones trae enseñanzas.” (stu,10, questionnaire, march 2017). having in mind that cbp calls for the understanding of learning as a social practice within a community, it was found that by means of social networks, fans are used to be well acquainted with some social causes addressed by artists in benefit of certain communities or even for the natural environment care. this knowledge allowed the research participants to recognize in their musical idols some human values such as the kindness, humanism, strength and perseverance, on this way admiration goes forward the physical appearance they can observe. identification, and seeking self-image. it has been shown that music is a source of social cognitive norms that impact the development of adolescents’ self-concept. in this vein, côté, (2009) points out that “adolescents evaluate their physical attractiveness and self-worth by comparing themselves with music media characters.” (p.266). excerpts that support this category were taken from the video transcriptions in the original language of the recordings. “me identifico con la música de adele, pienso que, en algunas ocasiones, sus gestos, su forma de maquillaje, ella es como muy colorida, más que todo en su música, el tipo de música que me gusta influye en mi como en las demás personas, su ritmo es suave.” (stu,1, video recording transcription, may 2017). “i feel identified with lana del rey. my favorite type of music is alternative pop. her vintage style. i like her because she is of other age and she is a little classic.”(stu,2, video recording transcription, may 2017). hargreaves, miell and macdonald (2002) maintain that, music can be used increasingly as a means by which we formulate and express our individual identities. we use it not only to regulate our own everyday moods and behaviors, but also to present ourselves to others in the way we prefer. (p.1). community-based project on music bonilla-salazar no. 18 (january june 2019) no. 18 (january june 2019) 60 music enhances english learning despite the practice and development of a special skill was not pursued as a research goal, this study can describe ways in which teachers can construct relevant content through identity exploration and local inquiries focused on music in english. class activities must involve real content, and teachers must be creative at developing their teaching process in order to carry out exciting and challenging tasks focused on real life situations. “soy como hanna montana (miley cyrus) porque la verdad canto como ella, bailo como ella, actúo y bailo como ella baila en los conciertos, en esa serie aprendí a pronunciar bien el inglés y aprender más muchas palabras y aprender a traducirlas.” (stu,03,video recording, may 2017). additionally, schoepp (2001) explains that “songs have become an integral part of our language experience, and if used in coordination with language lessons they can be of great value.” (p.148). pedagogical strategies outlined in the didactic unit i designed, allowed students whether to tackle a team work activity, by preparing a tv musical show performance, or to start designing and writing individually a magazine focused on their favorite singer or band. yet, content-based lessons tap into students interests, when english syllabus relates to the topics that are familiar for them. conclusions the central purpose for this research project was to unveil salient aspects of youth identity that emerged from students’ inquiries about music in english. to reach this objective critical pedagogy and community based pedagogy provided the theoretical support and framed this exploratory case study where outcomes obtained showed that: local inquiries used as a pedagogical tool, allowed the active participation of each one of the students and favored the integration of rich funds of knowledge in students’ families and social contexts with meaningful practices for english learning at school. thus, a clear acknowledgement of funds of knowledge in the local communities where students inhabit and are growing up, enabled the researcher to have access to outstanding information related to participants’ personal experiences in connection with music and selfidentity construction. thus, symbolic interaction that occurs between music celebrities and participants was revealed in three levels clearly defined. imitation is a higher community-based project on music bonilla-salazar no. 18 (january june 2019) no. 18 (january june 2019) 61 level for participants who exhibited solid and marked traces of identity with a musical idol. the second one, admiration, is the lowest level of incidence, now that teens are not touched in a significant way and they do not present external evidences of identity with an artist, admiration is manifested just in an emotional stage. the last one is identification; this intermediate level gathers young people who feel extremely identified with a musical idol but do not present visible features they own just conceptual or attitudinal reasons. in this research project, students’ community assignments conducted through (cbp) and framed on critical pedagogy foundations, raised researchers’ awareness on the relationship between schooling and families, across multiple dimensions and changing perspectives of neighborhoods and local communities. drawing on the interaction between school and community, the fourth category focuses on how the funds of knowledge must be understood as key elements to connect school, homes and communities with a curricular design that integrates cultural assets and learning areas in which music and society are intertwined through engaging lectures, insightful interviews, challenging assignments, interesting readings, and of course a lot of musical interaction. considering that music in english is one of the most remarkable cultural elements for new learners’ generations, it must be considered by curriculum designers and teachers as a powerful pedagogical resource. most of the stories behind the lyrics, appealing music content, catchy news and biographies of singers and musicians, become useful resources that motivate english learning and increase language practice due to music covers a number of touchy topics that raise students’ interests and emotions. regrettably, scarce english teaching practices, that privilege the use of grammar rules as the main purpose for english learning, undervalue this new generation of students who are able to develop communicative skills which can embody a convergence of culture and identity. classroom projects related to music and songs in english involve the use of real language, improve teaching and learning through a variety of resources to be included in lesson planning. in other words, class activities must involve real content, and teachers must be creative at developing their teaching process in order to carry out exciting and challenging tasks focused on real life situations. pedagogical implications this community-based study contributes to the educational setting, by integrating local inquiries as a pedagogical tool to look for relevant information in our students’ worlds, which most of the time are unknown or misunderstood community-based project on music bonilla-salazar no. 18 (january june 2019) no. 18 (january june 2019) 62 by teachers and curriculum planners. hence, integrating students’ needs and backgrounds with a flexible and negotiated curriculum where they may have a voice and a space in the school context, it may results in students more tolerant, aware and better leaders, who are able to promote deep and analytical thinking not only at school settings but also in their communities. from my experience in this project, i state that local communities as sources of knowledge, enlighten curriculum designers and teachers with a valid understanding of the cultural assets and funds of knowledge that constitute our students lives and permanently stand their process of identity construction. moreover, a clear appreciation of students’ past experiences, musical tastes, interests, skills and beliefs in regards with music in english, enhance opportunities to propose english lessons with a relevant content and engage learners with meaningful and enjoyable experiences that empower students to succeed at language learning. in regards with social identity construction, i could evidence in my group of students an improvement in their learning processes and their personal development at expressing freely themselves, sharing life experiences, and recognizing their peers as unique individuals. in sum, it was by means of inquiring in their communities that they recognize the self and the others. besides, this research study tackles adolescence as a treasured stage in the human development process for self-identity building, where school practices have a prominent role at addressing opportunities for growing and personal development, as well as cope with the frustrations and challenges that students face during this stage. yet, for english teachers it is paramount to acknowledge that music as a key component for self and collective identity, permeates students’ lives at diverse levels to the extent that the music students identify with, during their early teens often becomes the music that stays with them throughout their life. community-based project on music bonilla-salazar no. 18 (january june 2019) no. 18 (january june 2019) 63 references aliakbari, m. & faraji, e. 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(2003). case study research : design and methods (3rd ed.). thousand oaks, california: sage publications. community-based project on music bonilla-salazar no. 18 (january june 2019) no. 18 (january june 2019) https://www.researchgate.net/publication/252461217_what_are_musical_identities_and_why_are_they_important https://www.researchgate.net/publication/252461217_what_are_musical_identities_and_why_are_they_important http://www.eslbase.com/teaching/using-songs-to-teach-efl http://iteslj.org/articles/schoepp-songs.html http://iteslj.org/articles/schoepp-songs.html 65 author *edna mercedes bonilla-salazar holds a specialization in english language teaching and a b.a. in english from tolima university (colombia). she is candidate to an english didactics master’s degree from universidad del tolima. in the last two years, she worked on a community based research study named: revealing tenth graders identity through local inquiries focused on music in english, from which the information exposed in the article is part. she has been a teacher for twenty years and managed different types of audiences such as: children, intermediate school students and undergraduate learners. she is currently a part time teacher in the college of education at tolima university, as well as full time teacher at liceo nacional de ibagué (colombia) where she is in charge of the direction of the emphasis discourse management and english learning in the same institution. her research interests are the sociocultural and intercultural dimensions of english language learning and teaching. orcid: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7938-5710 community-based project on music bonilla-salazar how to reference this article: bonilla-salazar, e. m. (2019). tuning the chords of youth identity: a community-based project focused on music in english . gist education and learning research journal, 18, 48-67. https://doi.org/10.26817/16925777.485 no. 18 (january june 2019) no. 18 (january june 2019) https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7938-5710 https://doi.org/10.26817/16925777.485 66 apendix 1 community-based project on music bonilla-salazar no. 18 (january june 2019) no. 18 (january june 2019) 67 community-based project on music bonilla-salazar no. 18 (january june 2019) no. 18 (january june 2019) gist ii semestre 2016-9.indd 34 effects of tasks on spoken interaction and motivation in english language learners1 efectos de las tareas en la interacción oral y en la motivación de aprendices del idioma inglés nubia patricia carrero pérez2* secretaría de educaciónbogotácolombia abstract task based learning (tbl) or task based learning and teaching (tblt) is a communicative approach widely applied in settings where english has been taught as a foreign language (efl). it has been documented as greatly useful to improve learners’ communication skills. this research intended to find the effect of tasks on students’ spoken interaction in english and motivation towards speaking english in the classroom. thirty-five adolescent tenth grade students from a public school in bogota, colombia, participated in the study. they reported positive influence of tasks in their english oral interaction improvement as well as on their motivation towards speaking english in the classroom. keywords: task based learning, tbl, tblt, tasks, spoken interaction, speaking english, motivation, students’ perceptions. resumen el aprendizaje basado en tareas es un método comunicativo ampliamente aplicado en contextos donde el inglés se enseña como idioma extranjero. se ha documentado ampliamente como de gran utilidad para mejorar las habilidades comunicativas de los aprendices. esta investigación pretendió encontrar el efecto de las tareas en la interacción oral en inglés y en la motivación de los estudiantes hacia hablar inglés en el salón de clase. treinta y cinco adolescentes de grado décimo de un colegio público en bogotá, colombia, participaron en el estudio. ellos reportaron influencia positiva de las tareas en el mejoramiento 1 received: july 15, 2016 / accepted: october 13, 2016 2 nupattico@gmail.com gist education and learning research journal. issn 1692-5777. no.13. (july december) 2016. pp. 34-55. carrero no. 13 (july december 2016) no. 13 (july december 2016) 35 de su interacción oral en inglés y en su motivación hacia hablar inglés en el salón de clase. palabras clave: aprendizaje basado en tareas, tbl, tblt, tareas, interacción oral, hablar inglés, motivación, percepciones de los estudiantes. resumo a aprendizagem baseada em tarefas é um método comunicativo amplamente aplicado em contextos onde o inglês se ensina como idioma estrangeiro. tem-se documentado amplamente como de grande utilidade para melhorar as habilidades comunicativas dos aprendizes. esta pesquisa pretendeu encontrar o efeito das tarefas na interação oral em inglês e na motivação dos estudantes para falar inglês na sala de aula. trinta e cinco adolescentes de segundo ano do ensino médio de um colégio público em bogotá, colômbia, participaram no estudo. eles reportaram influência positiva das tarefas escolares no melhoramento da sua interação oral em inglês e na sua motivação para falar inglês na sala de aula. palavras chave: aprendizagem baseada em tarefas escolares, tbl, tblt, tarefas escolares, interação oral, falar inglês, motivação, percepções dos estudantes carrero no. 13 (july december 2016) no. 13 (july december 2016) 36 introduction in the last years there has been a growing interest for the learning of english language in developing countries due to the position it has taken all over the world in many areas of the society development. this fact has provoked recurrent inquiry of applying a method that benefits learners in their communicative skills improvement in the english learning process. specifically, there has been great concern about speaking skill since it is the least practiced in contexts where this language is taught as a foreign language (efl). according to guide 22 of the colombian ministry of national education (2006), “a foreign language is the one which is not used among the immediate or local environment and it can be principally learned inside a classroom where students are generally exposed to the language during controlled class periods” (p. 5). throughout the time, teachers at schools have applied traditional teaching systems focused on grammar learning and on reading / writing processes, leaving aside the progress in listening and speaking skills. jones and hodson (2012) reaffirm this when they point out that “the explicit teaching of speaking and listening has been neglected” (p. 2). however, when the interest is to give more opportunities for oral interaction in the classroom, tbl / tblt is one of the communicative approaches that has granted notorious results in environments where students have little contact with english language (lochana & deb, 2006; mangu, 2008; shintani, 2011; thanh & huan, 2012; yim, 2009). indeed, research acknowledges tbl advantages in issues related to motivation, communication, oral interaction when learning a foreign language (barnard & viet, 2010; naznean, n.d.; plews & zhao, 2010; tabatabaei & atefeh, 2011; xiongyong & moses, 2011). although research highlights the mentioned attributes, it lacks description of the tbl implementation process. the present research intended to find an effective strategy to improve students’ english spoken interaction at a public school where it is taught as a fl. there thus emerged the inquiry about the effect of communicative tasks on adolescent students’ oral interaction and the impact of tasks on their motivation to speak english in the classroom. the questions that guided this study were 1) what is the effect of communicative group tasks on students’ spoken interaction in english as a foreign language? and 2) what is the effect of communicative group tasks on students’ motivation towards speaking english in the classroom? the findings reveal that communicative tasks positively impacted students’ spoken interaction in the fl and were successful effects of tasks on spoken interaction carrero no. 13 (july december 2016) no. 13 (july december 2016) 37 in increasing their motivation towards speaking english when solving them in the classroom. literature review studies by plews & zhao (2010), barnard & viet (2010), xiongyong & moses (2011), jong (2006), chuang (2010), yim (2009), among others, report the application of task based learning approach in public schools, especially in the context of developing countries where english is taught as a fl. most studies refer to issues such as motivation and communication, students’ perceptions, and learning the foreign language. motivation and communication teachers have largely considered tbl / tblt beneficial for increasing students’ intrinsic motivation, participation, and collaborative and communicative skills interaction. in fact, in several studies they highlighted the relationship between motivation and communicative activities (plews & zhao, 2010; barnard & viet, 2010; xiongyong & moses, 2011; jong, 2006; chuang, 2010; tabatabaei & atefeh, 2011). in addition, yim (2009) asserts that teachers believe that having students work together to complete tasks maintain them interested and actively involved. thanh and huan (2012) found that learners were highly motivated when working towards personally meaningful goals and challenging but achievable tasks. students’ perceptions chuang’s 2010 study reports that what students loved most about task based lessons was that they could share and exchange information with their partners; doing exciting interactive group work and creative role-playing also interested them. they liked the feeling of selffulfillment when completing the task and they were keen on learning actively not passively. also, they enjoyed tasks because they were practical and similar to real life situations. some participants pointed out that the task based activities trained not only their oral skills but also their problem-solving and critical thinking skills. another important impression that students report is their preference for tbl instead of traditional methods (thanh & huan, 2012). in this study, students showed interest in learning english, effects of tasks on spoken interaction carrero no. 13 (july december 2016) no. 13 (july december 2016) 38 were highly motivated by tasks, and were encouraged to participate in doing tasks because “classes are full of activities and play” (lochana & deb, 2006, p. 156). students also had a more positive attitude towards learning english (yim, 2009). they stressed the role of small group work through learning language in context, and they liked the opportunities for contributing to the group (than & huan, 2012). learning the foreign language naznean’s (n.d.) study found that tbl provides a variety of learning opportunities for students of all levels and capabilities. plews and zhao (2010) also found that tbl integrates the development of language skills and learning strategies, and that it establishes relevance for students’ needs. xiongyong and moses (2011) discovered that tbl provides a relaxed atmosphere that promotes target language use, the activation of learners’ needs as well as skills interaction. besides, a correct execution of tbl seemed to comply with the acquisition of knowledge as regards the four language skills on the basis of social interaction. on the contrary, choo and too (2012) detected lowlevel students’ inability to cope with tasks, and only students with higher proficiency were able to reach the goal. to the contrary, in another study, tasks tended to hold bright students back (jong, 2006). lochana and deb (2006) observed that students started talking in english and using it for various purposes. also they assert that some students expressed improvement in their writing skills because of the feedback they received from the teacher and the challenging nature of tasks given to them. moreover, other studies report that teachers observed greater confidence in their students in speaking (yim, 2009) and increased vocabulary, likely due to the utilization of tblt (thanh & huan, 2012). some other teachers reported that tblt allowed learners to achieve greater accuracy of performance and to produce more complex language and fluency (mangu, 2008). in the study carried out by tabatabaei and atefeh (2011), teachers highlighted the variety of language teaching methodologies and the creative, lively and collaborative learning environment that made the betterment of learners’ interaction skills possible. shintani’s research (2011) showed that tbl lessons achieved interactional authenticity and provided opportunities for negotiation of meaning, which is presumably profitable for acquisition. some studies at public schools in colombia perceived tbl’s suitability for encouraging efl oral interaction. gonzález and arias (2009) found that “students negotiated meaning when interacting and effects of tasks on spoken interaction carrero no. 13 (july december 2016) no. 13 (july december 2016) 39 this permitted them to take advantage of communicative tbl activities to express what they wanted to say spontaneously” (p.7). forero (2005) states that when solving tasks “the students interacted among themselves or with the teacher in most of the cases” and that “students practiced the language and improved their oral skill, although many of them had several problems with grammar and sentence building” (p.76). despite the advantages found and the fact that tblt emphasizes students’ freedom to use the language they have when developing tasks, other teachers expressed concerns about students’ modest target language proficiency and use, and the uncertainty about the role of grammar (plews & zhao, 2010). barnard and viet (2010) also found that teachers stressed the need for their students to produce language correctly in terms of grammar, vocabulary and pronunciation. jong (2006) discovered that the majority of the teachers perceived that students generally had difficulty expressing their ideas in full sentences, or finding words and structures to express meaning. teachers stated that the reason was the lack of knowledge in grammar and vocabulary, and tblt’s ineffectiveness in terms of grammar instruction. additionally, more than a half of the teachers in this study showed some negative response regarding tbl’s integration of language skills in the classroom. methodology research design the proposed methodology for this project was based on the principles of qualitative research that pretends to describe and to interpret social realities, involves the researcher in the real setting, and lets the researcher observe evident situations to explore tendencies and recurrent behaviors over time (cohen, manion & morrison, 2007). the study sought to find the effect of communicative group tasks on the students’ spoken interaction in english and on the motivation towards speaking the foreign language in the classroom. to know this effect, an action research methodology was proposed as it emphasizes finding solutions to a problem through an intervention planning, implementation, reviewing, and evaluation (cohen et al., 2007). a triangulation of methods of data collection were suggested since campbell and fiske affirm that it corresponds to the use of more than one method in the search of solutions for given objectives (as cited in cohen et al., 2007). cohen, et al. (2007) also ratify that triangulation gives great confidence to the researcher by more contrasted methods. effects of tasks on spoken interaction carrero no. 13 (july december 2016) no. 13 (july december 2016) 40 when attempting to improve oral interaction in the fl, there are variables found in the literature: the relevance of creating opportunities, like tasks, for using the foreign language for speaking purposes and the motivation that learners experiment when participating actively in such opportunities. although the literature sets these variables among others, it does not detail specific procedures to be applied. consequently, the proposed data collection sought to find the effect of communicative group tasks on students’ spoken interaction in english and on the motivation towards speaking it in the classroom. setting and participants this research took place at a public school located in the country sur neighborhood of bogota, colombia. it serves students from lower income families. it is a large school covering about 4,900 students in morning and afternoon shifts. it offers school grades from pre-school through 11th grade. the school has inter-institutional agreements with three institutions for technical programs for 10th and 11th graders. students in the study were tenth graders and belonged to the afternoon shift 1003 class. there were 24 girls and 12 boys, ages 14 to 17. english is taught as a foreign language with two sessions weekly of two academic hours each. there are audio or visual resources available for teachers to use during lesson development but not all the english teachers can access to them. teachers at public schools are not allowed to ask students to purchase textbooks or other materials for classes and the school library lacks of resources for english teaching and learning. because of this and because of the large class sizes, listening and speaking are the least worked skills. data collection instruments to gather information that gave answers for the research questions, three qualitative techniques were applied: test, observation, and interview. test. for the present study, an oral domain referenced test was applied to ten students before and after the intervention. students were selected according to their performance and participation during previous english lessons: four outstanding students, three average students, and three students who show low performance. the test consisted of an oral interview in english, in which the questions ranged from easier to more challenging related to information about personal and education domains. students who could continue to respond to basic effects of tasks on spoken interaction carrero no. 13 (july december 2016) no. 13 (july december 2016) 41 questions received more challenging questions. students who were unable to respond to basic questions or more difficult questions did not receive more questions to answer. the purpose of the test was to assess whether students’ speaking interaction domain corresponded to a2 scale established by the common european framework of reference (council of europe, 2001) which states that at this level language users: can understand sentences and frequently used expressions related to areas of most immediate relevance (e.g. very basic personal and family information, shopping, local geography, employment). can communicate in simple and routine tasks requiring a simple and direct exchange of information on familiar and routine matters. can describe in simple terms aspects of his / her background, immediate environment and matters in areas of immediate need. (p. 24) observation. for this research, observation through field notes and video recordings registered information of the students’ oral interaction during ten sessions in which they were solving different communicative tasks according to the ones proposed by jane willis in her task-based learning framework (1996). this instrument purposefully observed whether students used the foreign language, how they interacted when solving the tasks, and how motivated they seemed towards using english. interview. a five question interview in spanish language was given to ten students at the end of the intervention; these ten students were the same ones selected for the test. questions included inquiring about their opinion on tasks, how they perceived their interaction and motivation towards speaking in english, how they felt when solving tasks, and what tasks they liked most and why. the purpose of this interview was to know how the intervention affected students’ motivation at solving tasks and towards speaking english in the classroom. data analysis and interpretation collected data were analyzed through the following methods: exploratory data analysis for preand post-test, and content analysis for classroom observations and interview. preand post-test analysis. ten students were asked to participate in a speaking interaction test which pretended to assess whether students speaking interaction domain corresponded to a2 scale established by the common european framework of reference (council of europe, 2001). effects of tasks on spoken interaction carrero no. 13 (july december 2016) no. 13 (july december 2016) 42 students were selected according to their performance and participation during previous english lessons: four outstanding students, three average students, and three students who showed low performance. each student was separately required to answer twenty questions related to information about personal and educational domains. if the student was able to respond to basic questions or more difficult ones, he / she was given more challenging questions; on the other hand if the student was not able to answer some questions, he / she was not given any more questions. for the test (pre and post) a rubric was created, based on the cefr a2 scale. in this rubric there are three levels of classification: proficient a2 user, adequate a2 user, and user is below a2, which correspond to the number of questions correctly answered and the way they were answered. in this study “correct” means that the student was able to give appropriate answers for the questions by a word, an utterance or a complete sentence. ten questions were asked about personal domain (family, friends, hobbies, sports, favorite music / singers / bands, daily activities) and ten more were asked about educational domain (school: actions, parts / places, friends, favorite subjects / teachers, feelings). the number of correct answers given by each student, in the preand post-test, were totalized into a grid and then tabulated through an excel data base. the data were entered and then analyzed using exploratory data analysis since it is a form of analysis in which data are descriptive, self-explanatory, and can be simply understood (cohen, et al., 2007). bar charts were created to see the total of each student’s correct answers, the average of correct answers given by all students, and the percentage of students classified in each one of the rubric levels. classroom observations and interview analysis. information collected from classroom observations and the interview was analyzed through content analysis. in accordance to cohen et al. (2007), “content analysis takes texts and analyses, reduces and interrogates them into summary form through the use of both pre-existing categories and emergent themes in order to generate or test a theory” (p. 476). in this research, content analysis was initiated after all classroom observations and interviews were carried out and transcribed. units of analysis were selected and condensed as categories, then a code was assigned for each one of them. category descriptions were displayed in a chart and relevant findings were summarized combining the results from both the classroom observations and interview. effects of tasks on spoken interaction carrero no. 13 (july december 2016) no. 13 (july december 2016) 43 classroom observations corresponded to each one of ten class sessions which included two or three communicative tasks or processes such as classifying, matching, ordering, comparing, draft mind map, jigsaw puzzle, and sharing personal experience. topics for tasks were related to personal domain (family, friends, hobbies, sports, favorite music / singers / bands, daily activities) and to educational domain (school: actions, parts / places, friends, favorite subjects / teachers, feelings). questions in the interview included the students’ opinion about the communicative tasks, their perception about the tasks usefulness to improve oral interaction and motivation to speak in the foreign language, what tasks were preferred by them and why, and how students felt at solving tasks. results the results obtained from data analysis provide support to this study’s hypotheses. in terms of oral interaction in the foreign language, the post-test results indicate an increase in the percentage of correct answers as well as in the percentage of students classified as adequate a2 user or proficient a2 user, according to the rubric created. observation results indicate that the use of english language was obvious when solving tasks, particularly at the “sharing personal experience” task. with regards to motivation towards speaking english in the classroom, observation results demonstrate an active and spontaneous participation of students, as well as the students’ effort to use the foreign language when sharing information. these results also reveal that students consider communicative tasks as important since they promote interaction and motivation towards speaking english in the classroom. gains in english proficiency based on preand post-test in general, data from the preand posttest indicate that students’ level of english improved in the period of ten weeks of carrying out task-based lessons in the classroom. test results show that students were able to answer twice as many questions correctly on the post-test than on the pre-test. figure 1 shows the results of pre and post-test in respect of the average percentage of correct answers given to the twenty questions. the pre-test bar graph effects of tasks on spoken interaction carrero no. 13 (july december 2016) no. 13 (july december 2016) 44 shows an average of 5,5 correct answers while post-test bar graph shows an average of 11,8 correct answers. figure 1. pre and post-test number of correct answers. figure 2 shows the percentage of students who were classified as below a2 user and the percentage of students who were classified as adequate a2 user or proficient a2 user, in respect of correct answers given in the pre and post-test, according to the rubric. it can be observed that in the pre-test, 90% of the ten students were classified as user is below a2 and 10% of the ten students were classified as adequate a2 user or proficient a2 user. in the post-test, 40% of the ten students were ranked as user is below a2 and 60% were classified as adequate a2 user or proficient a2 user. figure 2. pre and post-test spoken interaction level effects of tasks on spoken interaction carrero no. 13 (july december 2016) no. 13 (july december 2016) 45 figures 3 and 4 show the number of students classified in each one of the three levels of the rubric in respect of the results in the pre-test and the post-test. figure 3 shows that in the pre-test, 9 students were ranked as user is below a2, none student was classified as adequate a2 user, and only 1 student was classified as proficient a2 user. figure 4 shows that in the post-test the number of students ranked as user is below a2 decreased to 4, 2 students were classified as adequate a2 user, and 4 students were ranked as proficient a2 user. figure 3. pre-test spoken interaction figure 4. post-test spoken interaction. figure 5 shows the number of correct answers given by each student in the preand post-test. it can be seen that the number of correct answers increased in the post-test for all students when compared with the results in the pre-test. effects of tasks on spoken interaction carrero no. 13 (july december 2016) no. 13 (july december 2016) 46 figure 5. total of answers given by each student in both the pre-test and post-test tasks promoting free spoken interaction in general, it was possible to observe that when students were solving communicative tasks, they interacted freely and spontaneously in the foreign language, used the vocabulary, asked, or answered without worrying about making mistakes. students helped each other with pronunciation, vocabulary, or how to answer. particularly, outstanding students were frequently consulted: “let’s ask elkin, he knows. elkin, is husband ‘esposo’? yes, it is,.”3 “-karen, what is leather craftsman? –i think it is related to making things using leather,.”4 “hairdresser? ah my mom ‘es’ a hairdresser –you don’t say ‘es’, you must say ‘is’ –so, my mom is a hairdresser.” 5 students said english words while solving the tasks, for example “postman corresponds to jobs or professions,”6 “this is the image for watch tv,”7 “intelligent positive qualities.” when giving answers to questions, students did not worry about structuring sentences, just using the vocabulary “falcao, messi soccer players,” “free time swim, watch soap operas,” “tteacher economy arrogant.” outstanding students tried to respond saying some more structured sentences like “on holidays drink beer with friends, play billiards y go to concerts with they,” “at school, study for tests,” “i learning play trumpet.” 3 “preguntémosle a elkin, él sabe –elkin, husband es esposo? –sí.” 4 “karen, qué es leather craftsman? –creo que tiene que ver con hacer cosas en cuero.” 5 “hairdresser? ah entonces mi mom es hairdresser –no dices ‘es’, dices ‘is’ –entonces mi mom is hairdresser.” 6 “postman va en jobs o professions” 7 “esta es la imagen de watch tv” effects of tasks on spoken interaction carrero no. 13 (july december 2016) no. 13 (july december 2016) 47 tasks as motivation to use the foreign language it was also noticed that when working on most tasks, a great deal of students used both spanish and english language, but when participating in “sharing personal experience” task, students struggled using the foreign language. students used the native and the foreign language when sharing experiences or anecdotes as well as when describing images or confirming vocabulary. for example it was heard “that’s go swimming because the man is swimming,”8 “the three groups must be genre, instruments, and singers / bands,”9 “study for tests corresponds to actions as well as talk to friends,”10 “arrogant, oops! negative quality –yes, like economy teacher,”11 “lazy is ‘perezoso’, isn’t it? –haha like social studies teacher.”12 . when participating in “sharing personal experience” task, students used spanish but incorporated english words: “i live with my mother, i also live with my father and sister,”13 “in my free time, i play soccer and my parents sometimes take me to play bowling, bowling? at ‘salitre’ coliseum lanes, near ‘simon bolivar’ park.”14 students’ perceptions about tasks in general, students reported in the interviews (in spanish) that communicative tasks are excellent, interesting, and practical since they are different from traditional lessons. they motivate students to speak in english, promote participation, are a useful tool to learn the foreign language, help develop speaking and listening skills, as well as creating the need to talk without worrying about accuracy. when asked about their opinion it was affirmed that tasks “are cool because we changed things we were doing,”15 “they make us interact,”16 “they are different from current english lessons,”17 “they are more practical than theoretical things.”18 8 “eso es go swimming porque el señor está nadando.” 9 “los tres grupos deben ser genre, instruments y singers / bands” 10 “study for tests va en actions, también talk to friends” 11 “arrogant, uy negative quality –sí como el professor de economía” 12 “lazy es perezoso, cierto? –hahaha como la teacher de social studies” 13 “yo live con mi mother, también live father, sister” 14 “in mi free time, soccer player y algunas veces mis papás me llevan a jugar bolos, bowling? in lanes coliseum cerca del park simon bolivar”. 15 “son chéveres porque cambiamos lo que llevábamos haciendo” 16 “nos hacen interactuar” 17 “son diferentes de las clases de inglés que se hacen” 18 “son más prácticas que teóricas” effects of tasks on spoken interaction carrero no. 13 (july december 2016) no. 13 (july december 2016) 48 about the statement that tasks promote students’ interaction, some students said that “everybody participated,”19 “there were people that before were not interested but during these lessons there were many people that participated,”20 “as everybody saw each other talking in english, they were not worried about people’s comments,”21 “one did not any more feel ashamed for participating.”22 when talking about the usefulness of tasks, students stated that “i liked when we saw videos because we learn to listen,”23 “speaking is the best way to learn another language,”24 “they were useful to us learn how to talk more in english,”25 “they help us to improve our vocabulary a lot,”26 “i think before of this i hadn’t been able to talk and to answer in such a way.”27 students also affirmed that tasks create a need to talk freely “here, everybody talked without feeling ashamed, they needed to talk,”28 “there were people that dared to speak no matter if that was wrong,”28 “many students dared to talk despite pronunciation was not good.”29 students’ preferred tasks it was also affirmed that students preferred tasks related to motivating topics or those which represent a challenge to be solved. about motivating topics it was said that “i liked when we talked about our hobbies, about our favorite music,”31 “i liked so much the free time video,”32 “i liked all activities because they were about topics that called our attention,”33 “when we were organizing actions that you 19 “todas las personas participaban” 20 “hubo personas que antes no se interesaban pero en esas clases había mucha gente que participaba” 21 “como veían a todos hablando en inglés, no se preocupaban del qué dirán ni nada de eso” 22 “a uno ya no le daba pena participar” 23 “me gustó cuando vimos videos porque se aprende a oir” 24 “la forma oral es como la mejor forma de aprender otro idioma” 25 “sirvieron para que uno aprendiera a hablar más en inglés” 26 “nos ayudan a mejorar mucho nuestro vocabulario” 27 “creo que antes de esto no hubiera sido capaz de hablar y dar respuestas así” 28 “acá todos hablaban sin que les diera pena, se veían en la necesidad de hablar” 29 “había gente que se atrevía a hablar así estuviera mal” 30 “muchos se lanzaron a hablar así no estuviera bien la pronunciación” 31 “me gustó cuando hablamos de nuestros pasatiempos, sobre nuestra música favorita” 32 “me gustó mucho la del video del free time” 33 “me gustaron todas las actividades porque tenían temas que a uno le llamaban la atención” effects of tasks on spoken interaction carrero no. 13 (july december 2016) no. 13 (july december 2016) 49 displayed on the tv.”34 when referring to tasks like jigsaw puzzle or mind maps, students affirmed that “i liked the one about the words we knew, when the mind map,”35 “the jigsaw puzzle, the one about the school map because we had to set pieces,”36 “the jigsaw puzzle and the mind map because we had to think a lot, look carefully, not doing wrong,”37 “they help us to think through doing, organizing sentences, organizing images, joining parts.”38 conclusions this study attempted to establish the effect of communicative group tasks such as classifying, matching, ordering, comparing, draft mind map, jigsaw puzzles, and sharing personal experience, on students’ spoken interaction in english as a foreign language, and the effect of these tasks on students’ motivation towards using english language to communicate in the classroom. the findings provide support to the literature reviewed and allow to conclude that there was a positive impact of communicative group tasks on students’ speaking skills, and that these tasks promoted free and spontaneous oral interaction among students when solving them. the tests in this study made it possible to conclude that students improved their english spoken interaction and interviewed students appreciated tasks as a useful tool for getting that improvement. this conclusion is consistent with some assertions reviewed in the literature including plews and zhao (2010), who state that tasks integrate the development of language skills and are beneficial for increasing students’ communicative skills. yim (2009) also affirms that participants achieve confidence in speaking, and a study by tabatabaei and atefeh (2011) also asserts that tasks help learners’ interaction skills improve. chuang’s (2010) study demonstrates that participants feel that tbl activities train their oral skills as well as problem solving and critical thinking skills. this is re-affirmed in the present study when students reported that solving tasks strengthened these skills because 34 “cuando estábamos organizando las acciones que nos colocabas en el televisor” 35 “me gustó la de las palabras que sabíamos cuando el mind map” 36 “la del rompecabezas del plano del colegio porque tocaba organizar las fichas” 37 “la del rompecabezas y la del mind map porque teníamos que pensar muchísimo, mirar bien, no equivocarnos” 38 “lo ayudan a uno a pensar haciendo, armando oraciones, organizando imágenes, uniendo las partes” effects of tasks on spoken interaction carrero no. 13 (july december 2016) no. 13 (july december 2016) 50 they involved processes such as thinking through doing, matching words or sentences to images, grouping vocabulary, solving jigsaw puzzles or mind maps, organizing and joining parts, among others. naznean’s (n.d.) study concluded that tbl provides variety of learning opportunities for students no matter their level or capability. the current research permitted to observe that all students, outstanding and weaker, participated actively when solving the tasks and tried to do their best when using english, particularly in “sharing personal experience” tasks. these findings contradict choo and too (2012), who stated that teachers detected that low-level students were not able to cope with tasks and that only outstanding students were able to achieve the goals. studies such as the ones of ilin, inozu and yumru (2007) and xiongyong and moses (2011) state that tasks facilitate the communicative practice of language items and provide a relaxed environment that promotes the target language use, the activation of learners’ needs and skills interaction. this can be concluded from the present study as well since it could be observed that students struggled using the foreign language and helped each other with pronunciation, vocabulary or how to answer. many students, freely and spontaneously, dared to use the vocabulary, asked, or answered despite their mistakes. besides, interviewed students stated that tasks created a need to talk freely, helped to improve their vocabulary, and that these activities were useful to talk more in english language. the reviewed literature and the current study permit to conclude that tasks’ characteristics such as group interaction, nature of topics, and types, greatly influenced the students’ motivation and participation towards speaking english in the classroom. with respect to group interaction, yim (2009) stated that having students working together allows them to stay interested and actively involved. chuang (2010) affirms that the thing that students liked most about tasks was that they could share and exchange information with their partners. plews & zhao (2010), barnard & viet (2010), xiongyong & moses (2011), jong (2006), chuang (2010), and tabatabaei & atefeh (2011) highlighted the benefit of tasks for increasing students’ intrinsic motivation, participation, and collaborative learning. tabatabaei & atefeh (2011) also considered that tasks promote a creative, lively, and collaborative learning environment. in the present study, students expressed that they liked helping each other for language items or those related to tasks solving, and that tasks are better if they are solved with friends. effects of tasks on spoken interaction carrero no. 13 (july december 2016) no. 13 (july december 2016) 51 besides, it could be noticed that students liked sharing information and that there was cooperation of students for solving the different tasks. regarding the nature of topics and type of tasks, thanh and huan (2012) affirm that learners were highly motivated when working towards personally meaningful goals and challenging but achievable tasks. in the present study, students expressed that they liked tasks related to motivating topics such as hobbies, music, friends, and school among others. students also manifested that they preferred tasks which represented a challenge to be solved like jigsaw puzzles or mind maps. in terms of participation and motivation towards speaking english, chuang (2010) states that students are keen on learning actively not passively. yim (2009) affirms that students display more positive attitudes towards learning english. choo and too (2012) assert that teachers reported having improved classrooms dynamics and observed effective team work, social interaction and lively atmosphere in the classroom. this study allowed to observe that tasks promoted interaction, and every student wanted to participate without feeling ashamed. interviewed students expressed that the tasks motivated them to speak english and that they promoted active participation. these two studies dissent from yim (2009) and chuang (2010) among others, in which teachers expressed negative perceptions related to classroom management when solving tasks because of the noise that they were not able to control. finally, it can be concluded from the present study that tasks motivate students to speak in english since they are different from traditional lessons and because they are practical. this is in accordance with thanh and huan (2012)’s study, which asserted that students preferred tbl instead of traditional methods. the present study offers information about the effect of communicative tasks on students’ spoken interaction in english and on their motivation towards speaking english as a fl in the classroom. however, there are some undesirable conditions that should be considered. the development of oral tasks in the classroom implied a noisy environment, but this was also intensified by external noise from outside the classroom that sometimes affected the lesson development. there were some limitations related to the availability of audio visual devices since in some opportunities it was too difficult to access to them. consequently, the order of the planned tasks had to be modified or they had to be postponed. occasional unplanned school activities negatively interfered with the continuity of some lessons and again they had to be restarted or completed afterwards. it would have been profitable to effects of tasks on spoken interaction carrero no. 13 (july december 2016) no. 13 (july december 2016) 52 develop these communicative tasks with students belonging to other classes, but it was not possible because the large number of students in each class would have implied the creation of more resources in not enough time. in a subsequent research, some points could be considered as the ones related to the continuity of this project, the inclusion of tasks in wider lesson plan methodologies like ubd or ganag, the implementation of tasks for other communicative skills, as well as the creation of resources according to school grades, students’ ages, and their topics of interest. effects of tasks on spoken interaction carrero no. 13 (july december 2016) no. 13 (july december 2016) 53 references barnard, r., & viet, n.g. 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(2012). an investigation of efl teachers’ perception: task based language teaching. ijess international journal of education and social sciences, 2 (1). yim, s. s. (2009). south korean teachers’ perceptions of tblt. tesol journal, 2949. author *nubia patricia carrero pérez received her ba in english and spanish from the technological and pedagogical university of colombia and her specialist degree in bilingual education from the institución universitaria colombo americana, única, both in colombia. she has been a teacher of english as a foreign language for more than 20 years at public and private educational institutions where she has also directed curricular processes. nubia patricia is currently affiliated with the secretaría de educación de bogotá. effects of tasks on spoken interaction carrero no. 13 (july december 2016) no. 13 (july december 2016) 5 presentación maría lucía casas pardo, m.ed. rectora única nuevamente resulta un motivo de orgullo presentar este número de gist a la comunidad académica. no sólo por la calidad y variedad de los artículos, y por el prestigio y ascendiente de quienes enviaron sus contribuciones, sino porque esta séptima edición de la revista se convierte en una oportunidad para compartir con nuestros lectores logros importantes y nuevos retos que hemos decidido asumir. en la nota de presentación de la primera edición de nuestra revista, en abril de 2007, manifestamos que gist buscaba ser el órgano a través del cual la comunidad académica contara con un espacio para discutir aquello que es pertinente y que a la vez es imperativo tratar en temas tales como la formación de maestros, la innovación pedagógica y el bilingüismo, convirtiéndose en un medio de diseminación del conocimiento generado por los investigadores y en una oportunidad para que los futuros licenciados incursionaran en el terreno del debate académico y compartieran con la comunidad sus necesidades, hallazgos y contribuciones como sujetos de aprendizaje y como futuros líderes de procesos educativos. seis años más tarde, hemos cumplido con esa meta con creces. sin ir más lejos, en el presente año hemos conseguido logros que van más allá de nuestra expectativa original, entre los cuales quisiera citar el haber sido incluidos en el índice bibliográfico nacional de revistas científicas colombianas publindex de colciencias y el haber ampliado nuestro comité editorial y nuestro comité científico a través de la vinculación de notables académicos a quienes quiero manifestar mi más sinceros agradecimientos. son ellos: comité editorial: nikki ashcraft, ph.d. universidad de missouri, y patrick henry smith, ph.d. university of texas at el paso, de los estados unidos; will baker, ph.d. university of southampton, reino unido; janet enever, ed.d. umea university, suecia; alireza karbalaei, ph.d., farhangian university, iran; holli schauber, ed.d., universidad de génova, italia. no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) 6 comité científico: provenientes de universidades en los estados unidos: juan araujo, ph.d. university of north of texas at dallas; martha bigelow, ph.d. university of minnesota y natalie kuhlman, ph. d. san diego state university; norma patricia barletta manjarrés, ph.d. universidad del norte, colombia; claudio diaz larenas, ph.d. universidad concepción, chile; rebeca elena tapia carlín, ph.d. benemérita universidad autónoma de puebla, méxico; basmah issa tlelan al-saleem, ph.d. al-imam mohammad bin sau´d university, de arabia saudita. estamos seguros que sus contribuciones se sumarán a las ya valiosísimas hechas por quienes nos han apoyado en las ediciones pasadas. la otra razón para abrigar ese sentimiento de satisfacción y de “deber cumplido” está relacionada con la versatilidad y el alcance de los temas de investigación y discusión que se abordan en este número de la revista: revisamos la relación del docente con su práctica mirando creencias, roles y dilemas de la profesión, abordamos cuestiones relativas al desarrollo del juicio ético en el salón de clase y la complejidad de las relaciones entre la comunidad y la escuela en el marco de entornos multiculturales. también abordamos temas relacionados con la efectividad de distintas aproximaciones prácticas a la enseñanza y el aprendizaje de una segunda lengua, y presentamos importantes reflexiones relativas a la producción escrita y la generación de conocimiento usando el inglés para propósitos académicos. por último, pero no menos importante, se incluyen en esta número consideraciones relacionadas con política pública, segunda lengua y educación superior. supongo que para el lector será tan evidente como lo es para nosotros que una publicación de esta calidad, variedad y relevancia en el medio académico ha adquirido una responsabilidad para con la comunidad que le impone nuevos retos. es por ello que a partir de 2014, gist va a contar con dos números anuales, ofreciendo así mayores oportunidades para que los investigadores compartan el conocimiento que generan y los académicos robustezcan y consoliden esos nexos que hemos ido creando y expandiendo y que hoy se convierten en uno de los más significativos aportes que hace esta institución colombiana al mundo de la formación docente, la innovación pedagógica, la didáctica de las lenguas, el bilingüismo y la consolidación de un mundo abierto, diverso, multicultural, que parte del salón de clase y … no tiene límites. no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) gist2014finalfinal.indd presentación maría lucía casas pardo, m.ed. rectora única al celebrar diez años de labores como institución líder en la formación de maestros bilingües en colombia única tiene muchos motivos para sentir que ha dado cabal cumplimiento a su propuesta misional. a grandes rasgos, ésta consiste en apoyar el mejoramiento cualitativo de la educación y fortalecer el bilingüismo desde la formación de maestros y la creación y diseminación de nuevo conocimiento, pertinente e innovador. en el proceso de lograr ese segundo propósito ha sido vital el papel desempeñado por gist, dado que se ha convertido en una publicación emblemática, reconocida nacional e internacionalmente, que reúne los aportes de investigadores de todas las latitudes en campos disciplinares diversos, interrelacionados, concurrentes y relevantes. para quienes trabajan en áreas relacionadas con la pedagogía de las lenguas, la formación de docentes, la formulación de políticas públicas en educación y bilingüismo, la innovación pedagógica y el uso de tecnologías de la información y la comunicación, el desarrollo de nuevos conceptos en al área de la lingüística aplicada, la etno-educación o la interculturalidad en el aula, o se interesan por las discusiones frente a las creencias, la persona y la práctica del maestro, o los hallazgos de la neurociencia aplicada a la educación, gist es un mecanismo de diseminación o una oportunidad de aprendizaje de primer nivel. esta razón, el hecho de que la comunidad de investigadores busca con creciente avidez nuestras páginas para publicar sus trabajos, y el habernos convertido en un referente de consulta para quienes requieren conocer el estado del arte en los tópicos arriba mencionados y muchos otros más, nos llevaron a tomar la decisión de aumentar la periodicidad de publicación de gist que pasa de ser anual, a semestral. esto, naturalmente, manteniendo el mismo rigor en la selección de las contribuciones y la misma variedad y equilibrio tanto en los temas tratados, como en el tipo de artículos publicados, ya sean de investigación, de reflexión, o revisiones de literatura y de libros. 5 no. 8 (january june 2014) 6 a partir del primer semestre de este año, gist ha quedado incluido en ojs (the open journal system), lo cual tiene la doble ventaja de contribuir a la visibilidad de la publicación y de facilitar el proceso editorial de la misma. esta novedad se convierte en otra fortaleza de la revista, que beneficia tanto a los autores-investigadores, como a los lectores-investigadores y a la comunidad académica en general. comprendemos que en un mundo en el que el volumen de la información que se publica es abrumador, todos los esfuerzos que se realicen en aras a garantizar la accesibilidad al conocimiento de manera ágil, eficiente, organizada y pertinente redunda en beneficio de la generación de nuevo conocimiento o del mejoramiento de las prácticas investigativas y pedagógicas. con este octavo volumen de nuestra publicación, y en el marco del décimo aniversario de nuestra facultad de educación, queremos reiterar nuestro compromiso con la comunidad académica y con las generaciones presentes y futuras de investigadores, docentes y estudiantes, de seguir trabajando por acercar saberes, instituciones, intelectos, culturas y continentes, para construir conjuntamente puentes que desde la educación, la pluriculturalidad y el multilingüismo ayuden a solucionar problemas en el mundo de hoy, de cara al mundo del mañana. esperamos que disfruten de la lectura de esta edición de gist tanto como lo hicimos nosotros preparándola para ustedes, nuestros lectores. no. 8 (january june 2014) no. 8 (january june 2014) 209 1 received: april 18, 2013, 2012 / accepted: july 16, 2013 2 email: lehemos@hotmail.com gist education and learning research journal. issn 1692-5777. no. 7, november 2013. pp. 209-229 la monotonía lingüística y la iteración histórica de gazapos: un desafío lingüístico de académicos1 linguistic monotony and the historical repetition of errors: a challenge for academicians leonardo herrera mosquera2* universidad surcolombiana, colombia resumen el presente artículo resulta de una reflexión en torno a dos grandes amenazas al discurso: la monotonía lingüística (ml) y la repetición mecánica de gazapos gramaticales y lexicales. estas amenazas están a su vez compuestas de distintos fenómenos lingüísticos que se han venido arraigando en nuestro discurso cotidiano. se propone entonces la definición y caracterización de cada uno de dichos fenómenos, seguidos de su ejemplificación a través de discursos reales reproducidos por reconocidos medios de información nacionales e internacionales. este artículo intenta de manera ulterior no solo concienciar a los hispanohablantes sobre las iterativas incorrecciones lingüísticas en que caemos, sino también seducirlos en relación con los beneficios que el arte del bien hablar nos puede proporcionar. palabras clave: palabra, discurso, monotonía lingüística, habilidades discursivas y gazapos abstract this article is the product of a reflection on two major threats to discourse: the linguistic monotony (lm) and the mechanical repetition of grammatical and lexical mistakes. these threats are comprised of different linguistic phenomena that have taken root in our daily communication. the definition and characterization of such phenomena is provided, along with exemplification through authentic texts produced by established national and international mass media. this article seeks not only to make spanish speakers aware of their 21st century skills no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) 210 repetitive linguistic flaws, but also to convince them regarding the benefits of enhancing discursive skills. key words: word, discourse, linguistic monotony, discoursive skills, and linguistic flaws resumo o presente artigo resulta de uma reflexão em torno a duas grandes ameaças ao discurso: a monotonia linguística (ml) e a repetição mecânica de erros gramaticais e lexicais. estas ameaças estão ao mesmo tempo compostas de diferentes fenômenos linguísticos que se tem vindo enraizando em nosso discurso cotidiano. propõe-se então a definição e caracterização de cada um de ditos fenómenos, seguidos de sua exemplificação através de discursos reais reproduzidos por reconhecidos meios de informação nacionais e internacionais. este artigo tenta de maneira ulterior não só conscientizar os hispano-falantes sobre as iterativas incorreções linguísticas em que caímos, senão também seduzi-los em relação com os benefícios que a arte do bem falar nos pode proporcionar. palavras clave: palavra, discurso, monotonia linguística, habilidades discursivas e erros introducción los lingüistas modernos en su misión de describir las diferentes características y variaciones lingüísticas que existen en una lengua o entre diversas lenguas y confiados en la dinámica evolución de estas a través de las generaciones, se han distanciado del rol de orientadores del bien hablar, dejando dicha tarea a los lingüistas prescriptivistas, que en el caso del español, están plenamente representados por la real academia de la lengua española, con sede principal en españa y con subsedes en los diferentes países hispanohablantes en el mundo. el enfoque descriptivo sugiere entonces un relativismo lingüístico en el cual ningún discurso como tampoco ninguna lengua es ni mejor ni peor que otra, sino que representan realidades distintas, válidas y completamente respetables. cuestionándose si esta nueva perspectiva causará el deterioro de nuestra lengua, los lingüistas hualde, olarrea, escobar y travis (2010) afirman: la monotonía lingüística herrera no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) 211 los lingüistas descriptivos sostienen que, de hecho, el español está cambiando, tal como debe, pero que el cambio no es señal de debilitamiento. probablemente el español está cambiando de la misma manera que ha hecho de nuestro idioma una lengua tan rica, flexible y popular en su uso. las lenguas están vivas, crecen, se adaptan. el cambio no es ni bueno ni malo, sino simplemente inevitable. las únicas lenguas que no cambian son aquellas que ya no se usan, las lenguas muertas. el trabajo del lingüista moderno es describir la lengua tal como existe en sus usos reales, no como debería ser sino como es, lo que incluye el análisis de las valoraciones positivas o negativas asociadas a usos concretos de la misma. (p. 4) mi diario quehacer de lingüista y consciente de los beneficios de la retórica, en sus componentes ortológicos y ortográficos, me obligan tanto a describir como a sugerir vocablos, estructuras y variantes lingüísticas que contribuyan a la más precisa y refinada expresión de ideas: una imperativa misión de todo académico. como lo expresaba seco (1998), “la intervención que un individuo de empuje personal tiene en los destinos de su lengua es proporcionada a su potencia de proselitismo lingüístico” (p. x). no quiero quedarme a la orilla del vivir del idioma, mirándolo correr, claro o turbio, como si me fuese ajeno (seco citando a salinas, p. ix). producir un discurso de manera espontánea y fluida, alimentado a su vez de una variedad léxica y sintáctica, puede entenderse como un reto exclusivo de oradores o académicos en general. no obstante, el bien hablar constituye un tesoro público al cual puede acceder cualquier individuo, independientemente de su nivel de escolaridad, que quiera dejarse tentar por el poder y los beneficios de la palabra. como lo afirma smalley (2008), “la palabra se asemeja a un organismo vivo, capaz de crecer, mutar, propagarse y de influenciar el mundo en muchas formas, directas e indirectas” (para. 5) . en este mismo sentido, neruda (1995) expresó: “todo lo que usted quiera, sí señor, pero son las palabras las que cantan, las que suben y bajan...me prosterno ante ellas... las amo, las adhiero, las persigo, las muerdo, las derrito…” (p. 25). y agrega el poeta: “salimos ganando... se llevaron el oro y nos dejaron el oro... se lo llevaron todo y nos dejaron todo... nos dejaron las palabras” (p. 25). en el mismo sentido, agrega el poeta y ensayista paz (1997): la palabra es nuestra morada, en ella nacimos y en ella moriremos; ella nos reúne y nos da conciencia de lo que somos y de nuestra historia; acorta las distancias que nos separan y atenúa las diferencias que nos oponen. nos junta pero no nos aísla, sus muros son transparentes y a través de esas paredes diáfanas vemos al mundo y conocemos a los hombres que hablan en otras lenguas. a veces logramos entendernos con ellos y así nos enriquecemos espiritualmente. (para. 7) la monotonía lingüística herrera no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) 212 por otro lado, soca (2011) sugiere el hábil y fluido uso de la lengua como arma de imposición sobre el prójimo. el autor afirma que “el dominio de la lengua y el poder de la elocuencia ha [sic] sido una propiedad de las clases dominantes en todas las sociedades basadas en la explotación del hombre por el hombre” (para. 5). sin embargo, son la monotonía lingüística y la repetición mecánica de gazapos gramaticales dos grandes amenazas de la ortología, fenómenos estos sobre los cuales me concentraré en el presente artículo. conceptualización la monotonía lingüística (ml) la monotonía lingüística no constituye como tal un núcleo temático fundamental en los cursos o talleres de lengua, así como tampoco un centro de mayor interés para lingüistas e investigadores; quizá se ha incluido en temas gramaticales más globales como la sintaxis o la morfología, o en temas de estilo más amplios como la redacción o la producción de textos. no obstante, intentaré en este documento acercarme a la definición y las características de este fenómeno lingüístico. ramírez (2008) define la monotonía lingüística como “el empleo repetido, dentro de una oración, de los mismos vocablos, giros o construcciones. denota pobreza lingüística” (p. 14). la ml equivale sencillamente al encasillamiento de nuestro discurso en el poco exigente y muy cómodo discurso cotidiano, independiente de la demanda del contexto lingüístico. la ml nos lleva a utilizar de manera constante las mismas estructuras sintácticas así como las mismas unidades léxicas que emplea el hablante promedio, sin importar las exigencias del contexto. es decir, nuestro discurso no presenta mayor variación si estamos participando en una reunión familiar o si estamos respondiendo a una entrevista de trabajo. la ml surge de la carencia de algunos hábitos académicos fundamentales como son: la práctica de lectoescritura, la curiosidad léxica y la acertada implementación de lo aprendido. como es bien sabido, la lectura nos proporciona la posibilidad de enriquecer nuestra base de datos lexical, la cual una vez alimentada y revisada habitualmente, nos permitirá producir mensajes —ya sean orales o escritos— más variados, refinados tal vez, y hasta más efectivos, en algunas circunstancias. como lo expresa el reportaje de la fundación hacer familia (2012), “la lectura ayuda a ampliar el vocabulario y eso mejora la comunicación de los niños, pues les ayuda a expresar sus ideas y sentimientos con precisión y claridad. un sinfín de ventajas que se suman a la más importante para los pequeños de la casa: pasarlo bien” (para. 2). la monotonía lingüística herrera no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) 213 el cosismo es quizás la más común expresión de monotonía lingüística que a diario escuchamos no solo en el discurso cotidiano sino también en el discurso académico. según quirós (2003): “se llama cosismo al vicio por el cual el término cosa sustituye a la voz adecuada y precisa, ya que todo puede ser calificado como tal, aunque esté muy lejos de usarse para denotar un objeto” (p. 5). en otras palabras, cosismo se refiere al uso reiterativo del vocablo cosa para sustituir otros términos más acertados como característica, idea, aspecto, factor, variable, elemento, componente, categoría, razón, clase, etc. la ml no constituye per se un error o un vicio; corresponde simplemente a una decisión comunicativa personal, la decisión de seguir o imitar el discurso del hablante promedio. en otras palabras, tomar la decisión de salirnos de la ml podría proporcionarnos algunos de los siguientes réditos: responder fluida y coherentemente una entrevista de trabajo, o cualquier tipo de entrevista. dirigir clara y eficazmente un taller o una conferencia. diversificar el discurso (el registro) de acuerdo al contexto. transmitir y compartir conocimiento. cortejar a una chica o a un chico. participar en reuniones o discusiones formales. incluso, contar chistes de manera fluida en reuniones informales. …entre muchos más beneficios. iteración histórica de gazapos la iteración histórica de gazapos hace referencia a la repetición mecánica de yerros gramaticales, que por su constante y amplio uso, se han venido arraigando en nuestro discurso diario, independiente de la clase social o del nivel educativo de los hablantes. este fenómeno lingüístico es también tipificado por algunos lingüistas y gramáticos como vicios del lenguaje. el dequeísmo y el queísmo pueden considerarse dos comunes expresiones de los gazapos del español, los cuales se han venido arraigando en el discurso de deportistas, periodistas, artistas, políticos y profesionales de todas las áreas. la monotonía lingüística herrera no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) 214 el dequeísmo consiste en la adición innecesaria de la preposición de después de algunos sintagmas verbales. gómez (1997) lo define así: “consiste en la presencia de una preposición de parásita delante de la conjunción subordinante que. esto es, tal preposición no está exigida por ningún elemento del texto o enunciado” (p. 45). el queísmo o dequefobia, denominado así por el lingüista colombiano fernando ávila, resulta del temor de los académicos de caer en el temeroso dequeísmo, y por consiguiente suprimen la preposición de cuando esta es realmente necesaria. el profesor ávila (2012) dice al respecto: “tal fuerza tomó esta última posición [dequeísmo], que se situó, o se coló, rápidamente entre las normas que manejaban profesores, padres de familia, consejeros y policías en su máxima simplificación: nunca diga de que. es horrible.” (p. 369). metodología este artículo no nace de un proceso investigativo formal, pero sí de la constante reflexión pedagógica y lingüística en torno a actos comunicativos reales de los cuales he sido participe tanto en forma activa como pasiva. de forma activa como interlocutor en actos de habla sincrónicos y de forma pasiva como receptor (oyente o lector) de textos. como lo expone mccarthy (2011), citando a otros autores, el carácter de una escritura reflexiva articula la experiencia en palabras, cristaliza los pensamientos y sentimientos (walker, 1985), y promueve el aprendizaje de un evento a partir de su descripción y posterior análisis (strivens, 2009). en las distintas interacciones comunicativas en español he encontrado que la monotonía lingüística y algunos reiterativos gazapos gramaticales constituyen los mayores desafíos de académicos y profesionales de todas las áreas, razón de su especial énfasis en este artículo. la primera amenaza encierra al hablante en un corpus léxico y sintáctico limitado, del cual no querrá salirse por pereza o por comodidad, y la segunda lo conduce a la repetición de los barbarismos que históricamente han prevalecido en el discurso oral. de esta manera, he plasmado en este artículo variados ejemplos de los vicios lingüísticos antes mencionados, de los cuales he tomado nota durante varios años. por cuestiones de espacio solo una veintena de ejemplos se han incluido, dando prioridad a las locuciones que mejor ejemplifiquen la monotonía lingüística y la iteración histórica de gazapos del español. la monotonía lingüística herrera no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) 215 las oraciones modelos han sido extraídas de importante medios de comunicación nacionales como: revista semana, diario del norte, boletín de la academia colombiana de la lengua, el espectador, y el tiempo; y de medios internacionales como: el tiempo de yucatán (méxico), el diario (uruguay), el país (españa), diario la tercera (chile), radio serbia internacional, y la nación (paraguay). la noble intención de este artículo es suscitar miradas hacia el invaluable tesoro del bien decir o el bien hablar, el cual con frecuencia ignoramos y en ocasiones incluso despreciamos. ya el reconocido poeta español pedro salinas (1995) lo decía: “no es permisible a una comunidad civilizada dejar su lengua, desarbolada, flotar a la deriva, al garete, sin velas, sin capitanes, sin rumbo” (p. 33). ejemplificación a continuación se presentan ejemplos de monotonía lingüística y de gazapos que con frecuencia escuchamos y que quizás muchas veces repetimos. ejemplos de cosismo los testimonios de los exsubversivos tienen dos cosas en común: sus declaraciones llegaron al expediente […] (“caso sigifredo lópez: algo no cuadra”, 2012). el vocablo cosa parece ser el término favorito de políticos, periodistas y demás como solución fácil y rápida en la expresión de ideas. en la oración anterior, se observa que cosas podría ser fácilmente remplazado por los vocablos argumentos o elementos. gobierno admite que algunas cosas del tlc “se negociaron mal” (“gobierno admite que algunas cosas del tlc ‘se negociaron mal’”, 2012) ¿por qué no utilizar los términos puntos o aspectos? las ocho cosas que le faltan a bogotá para ser global (forero, 2012) aquí podríamos recurrir a las expresiones aspectos o condiciones. en algunos casos, se debe hacer una modificación adicional al sintagma o a la oración por razones de redacción y estilo. otros ejemplos comúnmente escuchados en nuestras diarias interacciones comunicativas son: la monotonía lingüística herrera no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) 216 “otra cosa que debemos tener en cuenta…” en este caso, recomiendo decir: “otro aspecto que debemos tener en cuenta…” “otro factor que debemos tener en cuenta…” “otra variable que debemos tener en cuenta…” de esta forma, el polifacético vocablo cosa ha tomado el lugar de otros sustantivos que bien podrían proporcionarnos más acertados rasgos semánticos y prosódicos. los vocablos algo, como, y algunos verbos como hacer y manejar padecen el mismo síndrome lingüístico, es decir caen en la monotonía discursiva obstruyendo el paso de más apropiadas voces. veamos algunos ejemplos, extraídos también de nuestros habituales diálogos: ¿cómo defines percepción? es como cuando… (una estructura sintáctica muy habitual en el discurso de los estudiantes) un siniestro es como lo que … en estas locuciones el adverbio como es innecesario y por consiguiente debe omitirse o recurrir al parafraseo. las oraciones podrían reestructurarse así: “es el proceso por el cual…” o “es un evento en el cual…” el profesor nos pidió que hiciéramos un ensayo vamos a hacer un pollo para la cena aquí podríamos utilizar los verbos escribir o redactar, para el primer ejemplo, y preparar o cocinar, para el segundo, en lugar del verbo hacer. coalición popular maneja la cifra “probable” de 140 diputados como un “resultado aceptable” en las próximas… (jauregui, 1985) yo no manejo tarjetas de crédito este autor maneja muchas teorías en lugar del verbo manejar podríamos utilizar los verbos presentar o calcular para el primer ejemplo; tener o utilizar, para el segundo, y exponer o formular, para el tercer ejemplo. la monotonía lingüística herrera no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) 217 para romper con la monotonía lingüística sugiero a continuación variantes lexicales para diez vocablos que escuchamos de manera iterativa en discursos cotidianos, periodísticos, comerciales y publicitarios, entre otros. tabla 1. ejemplos de expresiones monótonas y posibles alternativas término común alternativa lexical bueno excelente magnánimo, excelso, beneficioso, diáfano malo deficiente, insuficiente, defectuoso, nocivo diferentes diversos, variados, distintos, múltiples, variopinto aspecto faceta, variable, factor, elemento, característica importante relevante, significativo, considerable, notable característica atributo, cualidad, propiedad, rasgo usar implementar, aplicar, disponer, utilizar grupal sinérgico, colaborativo, cooperativo, integral interesante sugestivo, atrayente, atractivo, agradable poner colocar ubicar, situar, orientar, sujetar en el tema de ml no me he referido en ningún momento al registro lingüístico de los jóvenes, con todos sus rasgos (reducciones, extranjerismos, términos tecnológicos, vulgarismos de moda, etc.). la ml aquí descrita se ha concentrado en el discurso de académicos, ya sea de forma oral o a través de medios escritos, como se puede leer en los ejemplos. el breve análisis aquí desarrollado busca ofrecer al hispanohablante luces entorno a lo que la norma exige al igual que alternativas lexicales que permitan imprimirle mayor dinamismo al texto oral y escrito; por supuesto, teniendo siempre en cuenta la circunstancia comunicativa. la inmediatez y la informalidad pueden constituir condiciones fuertes para caer en ml, sin el mayor reproche de gramáticos prescriptivos. en otras palabras, se hace urgente, como habitualmente se lo expreso a mis estudiantes, desarrollar la habilidad camaleónica de pasar del discurso monótono al discurso elaborado a través del refinamiento sintáctico y lexical. muy diferente es establecer un cálido e inmediato diálogo familiar en el fervor de nuestro hogar a producir un discurso frente a una cámara, ante una audiencia, en tertulias académicas o a través de un medio escrito. y contrario a lo que dice la monotonía lingüística herrera no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) 218 lira (2012) en su artículo: más respeto: los clichés están en nuestros genes civilizados, no creo que los vocablos ni las expresiones cliché tengan que vivir arraigados en nuestros genes como parte de nuestro adn. esto solo nos llevaría a alimentar nuestro síndrome de producto terminado, como lo llamaba el dr. miguel ángel cornejo, y a justificar que continuemos caminando el sendero de la pobreza lingüística, sin el mayor reparo de otros caminos. ejemplos de la iteración histórica de gazapos empecemos con la reiterativa y defectuosa conjugación del verbo haber. 1. “habrán varias actividades para recordar el hundimiento del titanic.” (“habrán varias actividades”, 2012) en este caso, haber es un verbo impersonal y por consiguiente solo se conjuga en la tercera persona del singular. se debe decir: “habrá varias actividades…” veamos otro ejemplo: “la misma cadena ha manifestado que los disparos se han sucedido en diversos puntos de la capital libia, después de la intervención del mandatario libio, entre mercenarios y manifestantes, sin precisar si han habido nuevas víctimas.” (“libia: gadafi dice que no abandonará el poder”, 2011). cuando el verbo haber cumple su función de verbo auxiliar, como en la oración anterior, debe ir en la forma singular, ha, si al verbo al cual acompaña o auxilia es el mismo haber. con todos los demás verbos puede conjugarse en todas las personas, a saber: han comido, han salido, hemos traído, has jugado, he trabajado, etc. el mismo problema de conjugación se presenta en los diferentes tiempos y modos verbales de haber, así: ¿cuántas personas habrán en la marcha? (tiempo futuro) ¿cuántas personas hubieron en la marcha? (tiempo pasado) espero que hayan muchas personas en la marcha (modo subjuntivo) ante estos casos, se debe decir: ¿cuántas personas habrá en la marcha? ¿cuántas personas hubo en la marcha? la monotonía lingüística herrera no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) 219 espero que haya muchas personas en la marcha en la escritura, el verbo haber se presta para algunas confusiones. en la oración: sigamos este procedimiento haber qué sucede. el verbo haber toma el lugar de la preposición a y el verbo ver. por consiguiente, se debe escribir: sigamos este procedimiento a ver qué sucede. revisemos otros ejemplos de la confusión ortográfica del haber en la tercera persona singular en tiempo presente con la preposición a: hemos visto ha vuelo de pájaro… (castillo, 2010, p. 69) corrección: hemos visto a vuelo de pájaro. carlos aún no a venido corrección: carlos aún no ha venido 2. estaríamos hablando de créditos por el orden de 26 al 29 por ciento, que ya son accequibles [...] (nullvalue, 1998, para. 1) según el diccionario de la real academia española (drae), el vocablo accequible no existe. en su lugar, tenemos accesible que significa “de fácil acceso o trato”, y asequible “que puede conseguirse o alcanzarse”. concluimos entonces que el título se referirá mejor a: “… que ya son asequibles”, aun cuando podría también aceptar la acepción accesibles. veamos otro ejemplo: “y, lo más importante, nos recuerda que cuando se abren canales de participación que sean verdaderamente accequibles a la gente y consecuentes con sus necesidades más apremiantes, es posible crear círculos virtuosos entre participación y fortalecimiento de la sociedad civil.” (merchán, 2002, para. 6) en este caso, se debe decir: “…que sean verdaderamente accesibles a la gente…” los vocablos accesible, asequible y accequible (este último inventado por el vulgo) generan frecuente confusión entre los hispanohablantes. por eso recuerde que nuestro profesor es una persona accesible porque está siempre dispuesto a la comunicación, pero los zapatos que usa no son asequibles en el mercado colombiano porque siempre los compra en europa. la monotonía lingüística herrera no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) 220 3. el ala que gobierna bogotá ejerce el clientelismo, sin que exista la más mínima vergüenza. (acero, 2009, para. 1) la más mínima corresponde a un oxímoron, es decir, a la combinación de dos palabras con significados opuestos. en algunas ocasiones un oxímoron puede convertirse en un gran recurso poético como en el caso de “un silencio atronador” o en “la clara oscuridad”. sin embargo, la más mínima es una expresión cliché innecesaria que de insistir en su uso, podría darse vía libre para expresiones como la más máxima o la menos máxima. en el caso del titular, así como de muchos enunciados de nuestro discurso cotidiano basta con decir: “no tengo la mínima idea o no tengo la menor idea”. 4. “¿cómo afectarán los tlc al sector automotriz colombiano?” (machado, 2012) automotriz es la forma femenina del adjetivo automotor. para guardar la concordancia de género, el título debería rezar: “¿cómo afectarán los tlc al sector automotor colombiano?, pues sector es un vocablo masculino. ver ejemplos de usos correctos de este adjetivo: industria automotriz sector automotor área automotriz mercado automotor tienda automotriz centro automotor 5. socializan posible tarjeta para el transporte (sánchez, 2012) socializar es una de esas expresiones que se han ido arraigando sin ninguna consideración en el léxico de todos los profesionales, con mayor adoración por parte de nosotros los profesores, y por supuesto, de nuestros estudiantes. quizás la influencia en la acepción actual proviene del vocablo inglés socialize el cual sí corresponde a dar el tratamiento de actividad grupal. el término castellano socializar significa: 1. tr. transferir al estado, o a otro órgano colectivo, las propiedades, industrias, etc., particulares. 2. tr. promover las condiciones sociales que, independientemente de las relaciones con el estado, favorezcan en los seres humanos el desarrollo integral de su persona. (drae, 2001) de acuerdo a estas definiciones, socializar correspondería a la expresión opuesta de privatizar. en el sentido del título se podría recurrir a otros verbos quizás más adecuados al contexto. veamos: presentan posible tarjeta para el transporte dan a conocer la posible tarjeta para el transporte la monotonía lingüística herrera no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) 221 analicemos otros casos: los estudiantes socializaron sus respuestas. el director socializó los resultados del último periodo recomiendo: los estudiantes leyeron sus respuestas los estudiantes compartieron sus respuestas el director dio a conocer los resultados del último periodo el director presentó los resultados del último periodo sugiero a los lectores prestar atención al uso frecuente que se le da a este vocablo y encontraran que de acuerdo al contexto habrá siempre una plétora de palabras más adecuadas para emplear como: dar a conocer, compartir, divulgar, leer, presentar, difundir, diseminar, publicar, poner en común, entre otras. 6. “a la interperie” (hernández, 2012) interperie, limosina, telesférico, sinositis, apóstrofe, tortículis y renitis hacen parte del gran listado de palabras que comúnmente escribimos y pronunciamos de manera incorrecta. en su lugar, se debe decir: intemperie, limusina, teleférico, sinusitis, apóstrofo, tortícolis y rinitis. hay que recordar que, de acuerdo con el drae, apóstrofe significa: “dirigir la palabra con vehemencia en segunda persona a una o varias, presentes o ausentes, vivas o muertas, a seres abstractos o a cosas inanimadas, o en dirigírsela a sí mismo en iguales términos”. si nos referimos al signo ortográfico debemos entonces decir apóstrofo. a este apartado se puede agregar round-point, anglicismo de frecuente confusión en cuanto a su pronunciación y escritura. veamos un ejemplo: “en el ron-point del ferrocarril, visible a los cuatro vientos, hay una valla.” (aguirre, citado por cadavid, 2005, p. 95) todas las variantes: ron-point, round-point, rompoi o romboi resultan innecesarias porque nuestra bella lengua cuenta con el diáfano y prístino vocablo glorieta. 7. “la segunda parada permitió a button desplazar provisionalmente a vettel del segundo puesto, quien salió detrás suyo enseguida desde la línea recta de los boxes y… (“fernando alonso gana en alemania y consolida el liderato en la f-1”, 2012, para. 8) la monotonía lingüística herrera no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) 222 los adverbios de lugar como delante, detrás, enfrente, dentro, debajo o encima, entre otros, deben estar seguidos por la preposición de y el pronombre objeto: mí, ti, ella, él, nosotros, ustedes o ellos. así, el título debería parafrasearse, si no es posible remplazar el pronombre posesivo suyo por el pronombre objeto. así, pues, se podría decir: “la segunda parada permitió a button desplazar provisionalmente a vettel del segundo puesto, quien lo seguía desde la línea recta de los boxes…” a renglón seguido en el artículo aparece el mismo gazapo: “delante suyo, precisamente, salió otro campeón, el británico lewis hamilton (mclaren), el único piloto que abandonó en la jornada”. recomiendo: “delante de él (también se podría recurrir al nombre, el cual en este caso ya no es vettel sino raikkonen), precisamente, salió otro campeón, el británico lewis hamilton (mclaren), el único piloto que abandonó en la jornada.” otras frecuentes incorrecciones son: carol estaba enfrente mío yo estaba detrás tuyo recomiendo: carol estaba enfrente de mí yo estaba detrás de ti 8. la prueba medirá el nivel de proficiencia en inglés es quizás un error que muy comúnmente cometemos los profesores de inglés, al dejarnos tentar por el vocablo inglés proficiency y el cual equivale a los términos españoles suficiencia o competencia. en el caso de la oración ejemplo, podríamos recurrir a: la prueba medirá el nivel de competencia lingüística en inglés la prueba medirá el nivel de suficiencia en inglés 9. “indeciso, sin lograr nunca una ocupación que le satisfaciera, buscando siempre nuevos horizontes.” (real academia de la historia, 1973, p. 89) el verbo satisfacer puede presentar cierto desafío en cuanto a su conjugación en las formas del pretérito para la tercera persona del singular, así como para el subjuntivo pasado. ejemplifiquemos esta explicación para mayor claridad: la monotonía lingüística herrera no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) 223 su argumento me satisfació. yo esperaba que su argumento me satisfaciera. estas oraciones presentan una conjugación defectuosa del verbo satisfacer y por consiguiente se debe decir: su argumento me satisfizo yo esperaba que su argumento me satisficiera. así las cosas, el título debería rezar: “indeciso, sin lograr nunca una ocupación que le satisficiera, buscando siempre nuevos horizontes”. como pauta, puedo sugerir que la conjugación correcta de este verbo en el pasado y en el subjuntivo lleva la vocal i intermedia, así: tabla 2. conjugación del verbo “satisfacer” pretérito o pasado simple imperfecto del subjuntivo yo satisfice yo satisficiera tú satisficiste tú satisficieras él o ella satisfizo él o ella satisficiera nosotros satisficimos nosotros satisficiéramos ellos o ellas satisficieron ellos o ellas satisficieran 10. “de hecho, más del 40 por ciento de las madres ahorra para proporcionarle a sus hijos una carrera universitaria...” (“¿a qué se debe la inconformidad laboral de la mujer colombiana?”, 2012) el objeto del verbo proporcionar es hijos, en la forma plural, por consiguiente el pronombre le debe igualmente ir en plural, así: proporcionarles… analicemos otros ejemplos: “lo que falta decirle a los periodistas sobre el uso de redes sociales” (vargas, 2012) igual que en el anterior ejemplo, el objeto que recibe la acción del verbo decir es periodistas, en forma plural, por consiguiente el pronombre indirecto le debe pluralizarse en les. la monotonía lingüística herrera no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) 224 ejemplos de dequeísmo “creo de que de nada valdría hacer un esfuerzo titánico para decirles a los inversionistas que vengan al paraguay cuando desde aquí ellos no van a poder vender sus productos”. (repuesta del gobernador de amambay, paraguay. “solicitaron que el estado compre jeringas de producción nacional”, 2012). “los representantes de los serbios de kosovo y metohia rechazaron de manera categórica la responsabilidad de ese asesinato y exigieron de que eulex investigue sin dilación este caso.” (“los serbios exigen que se libere a jovica miljkovic”, 2012). como se puede observar, basta con decir “creo que de nada valdría” y “exigieron que eulex” sin necesidad de recurrir a la preposición de, la cual no adiciona significado a las oraciones. para constatar si hemos caído en dequeísmo, los lingüistas recomiendan convertir el enunciado en una interrogación. entonces para las oraciones anteriores, podríamos hacer las dos preguntas y decidir cuál es la acertada: ¿qué creo? ¿de qué creo? y responderla, si es necesario: creo que de nada valdría… para la segunda oración, preguntaríamos: ¿qué exigieron? ¿de qué exigieron? y responderíamos de igual manera: exigieron que eulex investigue… ejemplos de queísmo “la gente quiere reelegir a uribe por su pragmatismo eficaz, sin darse cuenta que encarna un modelo de desarrollo del siglo xix.” (ronderos, 2006, para. 1) a pesar que no hubo consenso sobre cuba, la cumbre no fue un fracaso: santos (“a pesar que no hubo consenso sobre cuba. la cumbre no fue un fracaso: santos”, 2012) en los casos anteriores, se suprimió incorrectamente la preposición de en las expresiones “sin darse cuenta de que…” y “a pesar de que no hubo…”. en estas oraciones ejemplos sí se hace necesario el uso de la preposición. como se mencionó anteriormente, el temor a caer en el dequeísmo produjo un barbarismo mellizo: el queísmo. la monotonía lingüística herrera no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) 225 conclusiones a través de diferentes ejemplos elocutivos, extraídos de actos comunicativos veraces, he intentado explicar dos tipos de amenazas a la retórica de los hispanohablantes: la repetición de yerros gramaticales y la monotonía lingüística. una veintena o treintena de ejemplos puede constituir la ruta de concienciación para aquellos que hasta el momento se han mantenido distantes del interés por el bien hablar: un patrimonio cultural de todos. con genuina humildad he pretendido lo que seco (1998) tipificaba como “educar lingüísticamente al hombre” (p. xii). solo a través de la sensibilidad para su idioma y mediante el estudio ejemplar, proponía el lingüista, se puede persuadir al hombre de que será más hombre y mejor hombre si usa con mayor exactitud y finura ese prodigioso instrumento de expresar sus ser y convivir con sus prójimos. no obstante, los lingüistas descriptivistas se inclinarían más por la dinámica de las lenguas, especialmente si hablamos de lenguas vivas, y en lugar de señalar el yerro es aceptarlo como una irreprochable realidad lingüística. es irreprochable quizás que los hispanohablantes que no han tenido la oportunidad de tener una instrucción educativa formal o aquellos que por cuestiones de gusto o iniciativa propia no han tenido acceso a información científica o académica infrinjan el lenguaje con el uso reiterado de los yerros aquí descritos. sin embargo, considero reprochable que los académicos, especialmente aquellos que en el uso de sus funciones profesionales cuentan constantemente con un público receptor, persistan en la iteración mecánica de los gazapos así como en las diferentes expresiones de monotonía lingüística previamente ejemplificados. constituye entonces un imperativo académico que los profesionales de todas las áreas del saber aparte de gozar del conocimiento específicoostentemos también el poder de la palabra, lo cual nos permita precisamente compartir los saberes específicos en una manera más eficaz y efectiva. como lo afirmaba el gran defensor del lenguaje, pedro salinas (1995), todo individuo tiene deberes mandatorios e inexcusables con su idioma; y por consiguiente resulta ilícito asumir una posición de indiferencia e inhibición ante su habla. (p. 33) no se pueden desconocer, como ya se expuso a lo largo de este artículo, los invaluables réditos que la elocuencia le aporta al hablante. en este sentido, el equipo de expertos 2100 (1992), en su libro cómo evitar los errores más frecuentes del castellano, sugiere los siguientes beneficios: la monotonía lingüística herrera no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) 226 hablar o escribir sin vacilaciones supone un reconocido prestigio social, nos confiere mayor seguridad personal en el momento de expresarnos en público o hacer un escrito, facilita la comunicación y por tanto el logro de nuestros deseos e incluso, favorece el acceso a cualquier tipo de trabajo. (p. 9) ¿debemos entonces luchar por mantener la pureza del lenguaje, como lo plantean los lingüistas prescriptivistas o sencillamente aceptar lo que podría denominarse incorrecciones lingüísticas como realidades diversas y concretas, según los gramáticos descriptivos o lingüistas modernos? queda a voluntad del lector decidir si asume una postura normativa del castellano y conserva la eufonía y la sutileza que lo ha caracterizado o sencillamente continúa con un discurso dinámico y flexible que no repara en la precisión gramatical. si el lector se inclina por la primera opción y toma la información aquí presentada como fundamento discursivo, reconozco ante él o ella la cortedad del cual aún carece y espero en un próximo intento producir un texto que contribuya de manera más profunda y amplia a la ortología española. referencias ¿a qué se debe la inconformidad laboral de la mujer colombiana? 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(2008). manual de redacción. cuaderno docente no. 7. universidad uniacc, la universidad de las comunicaciones. real academia de la historia. (1973). boletín de la real academia de la historia, 170 (1), 83-197. real academia de la lengua. (2001). diccionario de la real academia española drae. madrid, españa: rae. ronderos, m. (2006, febrero). volver al futuro ii. revista semana. recuperado de http://www.semana.com/opinion/volver-futuroii/91865-3.aspx salinas, p. (1995). aprecio y defensa del lenguaje. san josé, puerto rico: editorial de la universidad de puerto rico. sánchez, o. (2012, 12 de abril). socializan posible tarjeta para el transporte. el tiempo. recuperado de http://www.eltiempo.com/ archivo/documento/mam-5345654 seco, m. (1998). diccionario de dudas de manuel seco de la real academia española. madrid, españa: editorial espasa. smalley, s. (2008, enero 17) the power of words. the huffington post. recuperado de http://www.huffingtonpost.com/susan-smalley/thepower-of-words_b_81918.html soca, r. (2011). la lengua: arma de los imperios. recuperado de http:// www.elcastellano.org/ns/edicion/2011/agosto/imperios.html solicitaron que el estado compre jeringas de producción nacional. (2012, 23 de marzo). la nación. recuperado de http://www.lanacion.com. py/articulo.php?edicion=1&sec=21&art=64188 vargas, e. (2012). lo que falta decirle a los periodistas sobre el uso de las redes sociales. recuperado de http://www.clasesdeperiodismo. com/2012/04/14/que-falta-decirle-a-los-periodistas-sobre-el-usode-redes-sociales/ author *leonardo herrera has a b.a. in modern languages from universidad surcolombiana and m.a. in tesol from greensboro college. he is currently working as full-time professor in the department of teacher education at universidad surcolombiana. la monotonía lingüística herrera no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) 4 editorial carlo granados-beltrán* editor-in-chief english & marr (2019) claim that language teachers “should claim and own the discipline of language study, and position themselves as critical language experts within their institutions” (p. 19). this means that revisiting the knowledge base that sustains our daily work helps to promote an understanding of language teachers as professionals rather than instructors. despite language teaching is enriched by many disciplines and influenced by contextual factors, it is important to acknowledge the two main disciplines which converge to provide the basis for our profession: linguistics and pedagogy. this idea coincides with what many authors describe as the components of teacher knowledge: content knowledge, pedagogical knowledge, and contextual knowledge. content knowledge relates to our specific subject matter, e.g. english as a language; pedagogical knowledge is linked to the skills of how to teach, and contextual knowledge is connected to an interest in students and their communities (shulman, 1987; grossman, 1990; and putnam & borko, 2000). many of the articles in this edition document innovative practices in the teaching of skills, which contributes to the construction of content knowledge. for example, in relation to writing, we can find julio-cárdenas & lópez-pinzón which implemented a model named reciprocal teaching model for helping a group of tenth graders to develop this skill. likewise, pérez & vargas-daza explored the creation of picture books to foster narrative writing skills in fifth graders. montero-arévalo also addressed writing by analyzing how genrebased approach affected ninth graders’ reading comprehension and writing. for content knowledge, also camacho-vásquez & ovalle analyzed the influence of video games on vocabulary acquisition in a group of students from the ba in english teaching. uribe-enciso, fuentes-hernández, vargas-pita & rey-pabón identified problematic phonemes for spanish speakers learning english by reviewing theoretical and research reports. additionally, two of the articles in this edition addressed pedagogical knowledge by analyzing the implementation of pedagogical approaches. agudelo & morales-vasco inquired about the ways in which project-based learning could work as a catalyst for developing autonomy in both teachers and students. similarly, arboledaarboleda & castro-garcés narrate an experience on the use of literature to foster language learning in a university efl classroom. johnson and golombek (2011) state that learning to teach is a social activity, which means that teacher educators need to socialize novice teachers into the no. 19 (july december 2019) no. 19 (july december 2019) 5 theories, activities, methodologies, and language related to the profession. two of the contributions address the complex issue of assessment: sevilla-morales & chaves-fernández inquired about authentic assessment in listening comprehension at an english teaching major in the university of costa rica. similarly, in colombia, herrera-mosquera & zambrano-castillo explored how english learning was assessed in an english language teacher education program. finally, han & takkaç-tulgar explored an aspect we all have experienced as novice teachers, which is teaching anxiety and coping strategies at a turkish elementary school context. the editorial team of gist journal hopes you find this new issue professionally enriching as well as inspiring for all those in the profession who want to make their reflections, pedagogical and research experiences known to the wider audience. references grossman pl (1990) the making of a teacher: teacher knowledge and teacher education. new york: teachers college press. johnson, k. & golombek, p. (2011). a sociocultural theoretical perspective on teacher professional development. in k. johnson & p. golombek (eds.). research on second language teacher education. a sociocultural perspective on professional development. oxon: routledge. marr, t. & english, f. (2019). rethinking tesol in diverse global settings. the language and the teacher in a time of change. london: bloomsbury. putnam, r. t., & borko, h. (2000). what do new views of knowledge and thinking have to say about research on teacher learning?. educational researcher, 29(1), 4-15. shulman, l. (1987). knowledge and teaching: foundations of the new reform. harvard educational review, 57(1), 1-23. *carlo granados-beltrán editor in chief holds a phd in education from universidad santo tomás, an ma in british cultural studies and elt from the university of warwick and an ma in applied linguistics to tefl from universidad distrital. he is the academic director at the ba in bilingual education at única. he has been teacher of the language department at universidad central, the ba programmes in spanish and languages and spanish and english at universidad pedagógica nacional and the ba in modern languages at universidad javeriana. also, he is guest lecturer for the ma in language teaching at uptc no. 19 (july december 2019) no. 19 (july december 2019) 54 assisting your child’s learning in l2 is like teaching them to ride a bike: a study on parental involvement1 apoyar a su hijos en el aprendizaje de una segunda lengua, es como enseñarles a montar en bicicleta: un estudio sobre la participación de los padres rigoberto castillo and linda catherine camelo gámez2* universidad distrital francisco josé de caldas, colombia abstract this article deals with parental involvement as a strategy to assist young learners in their efforts to learn an l2. it discusses an 18-month experience involving ten young learners, their parents, and teachers, in the development of another language (l2). the parents had expressed that they were unable to support their children’s development in l2 because they “did not know english.” classroom observations, analysis of class work, and interviews motivated the authors to pursue this inquiry. the pedagogical innovation consisted of educating parents in what it means to learn an l2, and in training them and their children to tackle assignments. a website was also developed to support this endeavor. the results suggest a positive change in the home environment as a place to learn with parental engagement. the data from this study suggest that training the parents not only facilitated children’s l2 study but contributed to their literacy development as well. the evidence also indicates that the quality of communication between children and parents, the organization of assignments, as well as the quality of written expression improved. when assisting one’s child to learn an l2, fun is as important as it is in learning to ride a bike. key words: l2 literacy development, homework, parental involvement, second language, training 1 received: may 23, 2013 / accepted: september 13, 2013 2 emails: rcastlephd@yahoo.com, lindacameloud@gmail.com gist education and learning research journal. issn 1692-5777. no. 7, november 2013. pp. 54-73 castillo & camelo no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) 55 resumen este artículo aborda la participación de los padres como una estrategia para apoyar a niños y jóvenes en sus esfuerzos por aprender una segunda lengua. los padres manifestaron que no podían apoyar el aprendizaje del inglés porque no sabían inglés. las observaciones en el aula, el análisis de trabajo en clase y las entrevistas con los padres motivaron el tema de esta investigación. la innovación pedagógica consistió en orientar a los padres en lo que significa aprender una segunda lengua en su formación y la de sus hijos para abordar las tareas. también, se creó un sitio web para apoyar este esfuerzo. los resultados sugieren un cambio positivo en la participación de los padres y en el ambiente familiar para el trabajo escolar que no sólo facilito el estudio de la segunda lengua, sino que también contribuyó al desarrollo de la lecto-escritura. la evidencia también indica que hubo ganancias en: la calidad de la comunicación entre los niños y sus padres, en la organización de las tareas, así como en la calidad de la expresión escrita. cuando apoya a un niño a aprender una segunda lengua, la diversión es tan importante como lo es cuando se aprende a montar en bicicleta. palabras clave: apoyo en tareas, aprendizaje del inglés en los niños, desarrollo de la lecto-escritura, formación de padres en la escuela, segundo idioma, participación de padres. resumo este artigo aborda a participação dos pais como uma estratégia para apoiar a crianças e jovens em seus esforços por aprender uma segunda língua. os pais manifestaram que não podiam apoiar a aprendizagem do inglês porque não sabiam inglês. as observações na aula, o análise de trabalho em classe e as entrevistas com os pais motivaram o tema desta pesquisa. a inovação pedagógica consistiu em orientar os pais no que significa aprender uma segunda língua na sua formação e a dos seus filhos para abordar as tarefas. também, criou-se um site web para apoiar este esforço. os resultados sugerem uma mudança positivo na participação dos pais e no ambiente familiar para o trabalho escolar que não só facilitou o estudo da segunda língua, senão que também, contribui ao desenvolvimento da leito-escritura. a evidência também indica que houve ganâncias em: a qualidade da comunicação entre as crianças e seus pais, na organização das tarefas, assim como na qualidade da expressão escrita. quando apoia uma criança a aprender uma segunda língua, a diversão é tão importante como o é quando se aprende a andar de bicicleta. palavras chave: apoio em tarefas, aprendizagem do inglês nas crianças, desenvolvimento da leito-escritura, formação de pais na escola, segundo idioma, participação de padres castillo & camelo no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) 56 introduction a group of ten children, their parents, and the homeroom teacher participated in a study to address low school achievement in l2. parents claimed they were unable to support their children’s efl learning process. observations, interviews, and conversations with the school teachers provided the basis for the decision to design workshops to train parents on how to tutor their children. making connections between the learners’ family environment and the school seemed to be necessary to add meaning to l2 study. as castillo (2012) contends, “the instruction received in classrooms may lag behind the education received in the environment. meeting the present and the future needs of learners requires a revision of syllabi and of classroom practices” (p. v). intervention with the parents became an attempt at giving the young learners a sense of success. the analogy that guided this action research study was that a parent can teach a kid to ride a bike even if he/she does not know how to ride. the workshops were the training wheels, the strategies were how to balance and how to use the tools provided. pedaling was the constant effort and contact with the goal of and the resources for learning. in this analogy, the confidence built plus the skills developed allowed the kids to ride more pleasantly through their l2 journey. colombian educational policies define and establish the importance of parental involvement in children’s development (men, 1994). likewise, the national education policy (men, 2007) connects educational quality with family as a vital entity in children’s development. the ministry of education affirms that parents as educators of their children need to be guided because they face dilemmas between what they have to know, what they can and have to do as parents, issues that should be jointly addressed with the school. weiner (2006) argues: we know from research on urban schools that an impersonal, bureaucratic school culture undercuts many of the teaching attitudes and behaviors that draw on student strengths. this bureaucratic culture fosters the pervasive assumption that when students misbehave or achieve poorly, they must be “fixed” because the problem inheres in the students or their families, not in the social ecology of the school, grade, or classroom. (p. 42) this social ecology of the l2 class is part of this study’s inquiry. school practices and assumptions seemed to have been taken for granted and hindered the parents’ participation in academic matters. at public elementary schools in colombia, english is often introduced as a subject, but trained english teachers are not placed in the system. assisting your child’s learning in l2 castillo & camelo no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) 57 therefore, the self-contained teacher cannot always guide children or parents in approaching l2 learning. this article will review the relevant literature on parental involvement, literacy, and l2 learning. it will describe the context for the research and the inquiry that drove the study, as well as the innovation implemented to address the issue of low parental involvement. data collection and analysis reveal that training parents resulted not only in increased involvement on their part, but that this involvement appears to have facilitated children’s l2 study and contributed to their literacy development as well. the evidence also indicates that the quality of communication between children and parents, the organization of assignments, as well as the quality of written expression improved. literature review the constructs of the literature review for this study were parental involvement, literacy, and l2 learning. in line with the problem identified, the literature concurs that there is a correlation between parental involvement and school achievement. parental involvement marzano (2003) has identified five key factors that influence school achievement, including (a) guaranteed and viable curriculum; (b) challenging goals and effective feedback; (c) parent and community involvement; (d) safe and orderly environment; and (e) collegiality and professionalism (p. iv). he also stresses: the importance of parent involvement on student achievement is explicit in the research, whereas the importance of community involvement is more implicit. three aspects of parent and community involvement are important to student achievement: mechanisms for communication, involvement in the day-to-day running of the school, and the use of governance structures. (2012, p.1) our study explores the mechanism of communication in the school between the homeroom teacher, the parents, and the learners in regards to l2 study. this study has also gained insights from the theory of overlapping sphere of influence posed by epstein (2009, p. 150), who explains the interrelation between family, school, and community in students’ learning. these entities are the major contexts in which students are influenced, learn, and grow. epstein created a framework assisting your child’s learning in l2 castillo & camelo no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) 58 that may help schools and institutions with practices that engage parents in achieving students’ goals and creating a climate of partnership. table 1. epstein’s typology of parental involvement (epstein, 2009, p. 16) parenting communications volunteering learning at home decision making collaborating with the community help families to establish home environments to support learners. school-to-home and home-to-school communications through the design & use of effective forms the enrollment and organization of a school’s volunteer program. help families assist their children with homework and recognize other opportunities at home. include parents, students, and community members in the school in decision making process. the recognition and integration of resources, services from the community literacy as social meaning literacy comprises reading, writing, and social meaning in which the children’s family exercises a great influence. caspe (2003) says that “literacy involves more than encoding and decoding symbols and entails the ability to use these skills in a socially appropriate context” (p. 1). similarly, hell (1991) asserts that literacy encompasses the relations between a student and his/her culture as instanced by the material to read or write. bloome (as cited in hell, 1991) coincides and states that “reading includes establishing social groups and ways of interacting with others that comprise social relationships among people, among teachers and students, among students, among parent and children and among author and readers” (p.134). equally, bruner (1977), following the vygotskyan zone of proximal development (zpd), tells us that the nature of adult-child participation and how adults assist children’s literacy activities are assisting your child’s learning in l2 castillo & camelo no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) 59 critical toward understanding how children effectively move through the zpd (the child’s potential development or what the child can do with the assistance of an expert). the notion of literacy and social meaning related with the zpd was used in the present study to help adults understand what language means, and what language learning entails. parental involvement and literacy outcomes for epstein (2009), even though schools and teachers influence children’s learning, parents remain influential in literacy development. by the same token, greenberg (2002) asserts that “your home is the primary environment in which your child’s potential and personality will take shape. it’s important to make sure that you create a positive, open atmosphere that will not only support what goes on in the classroom, but will also instill the desire to learn” (p. 1). anderson (2000) also recognizes that parents have great potential in fostering students’ literacy because they may stimulate their child’s adult intelligence and lay the foundation for formal reading instruction. chavkin (1993) agrees that parents transmit their skills, knowledge, attitudes and values to children by modeling acceptable behavior, guiding their activities, and giving direct instruction. regarding primary school, sheldon (2002) affirms that learners’ literacy outcomes are influenced by their parents’ reading-related activities. similarly, the harvard family research project (2007) states that supporting literacy is one of parents’ responsibilities for academic development because they influence children’s performance by modeling, providing an emotional attachment to learning, and enhancing them. anderson (2000) states that direct involvement in children’s learning and the availability of learning resources at home seem to influence academic success and cognitive growth. likewise midraj and midraj (2011) argue that the significant predictors in comprehension and accuracy achievement include parents providing learning resources and tutoring, as well as taking part in literacy activities at home. with reference to related literature in colombia, barón and corredor (2007) affirm that effective communication and combining mechanisms between families and schools may guarantee good and permanent ties towards the enrichment and fulfillment of students’ educational goals. to conclude, lopera (2009) describes the alliance between family and school, and remarks that establishing a relationship between family and schools requires defining a two-way understanding and alliance between faculty and family that considers assisting your child’s learning in l2 castillo & camelo no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) 60 the responsibilities, personal goals, and the appropriate mechanisms of participation. parental involvement and l2 study. for rosenbusch, (1987) “parents’ attitudes toward language and people play a major role in shaping their children’s attitude toward another language and success as a student” (p. 3). forero and quevedo (2006) also discuss how parents and children used written productions in l1 and l2 to make sense of the world by expressing perceptions, feelings, suggestions and expectations. similarly, gao (2006) proposes that the family may influence children’s l2 study directly and indirectly; directly when family members work as language learning advisors, coercers, and nurturers, training their children to be good language learners, and indirectly when family members act as language learning facilitators and teachers’ collaborators, creating learning discourses and motivating students to learn english. the concepts above had a bearing on designing the inquiry and proposing an intervention in which teachers, parents and learners collaborated. methodology context and participants this action research project was carried out with ten children and their parents at a primary school in bogotá, colombia. these questions guided the inquiry: • what may the training of parents reveal about the support of young learners’ literacy development? • how may parental involvement support the young learners’ english language proficiency development? research design at the school in which the study took place, the homeroom teacher, parents and learners demonstrated dissatisfaction with the assignments and the scores of the english class. they identified the parents’ inability to provide support as a serious drawback. in search for explanations for that situation, the homeroom teacher and the school teacher of english were interviewed and they explained that parents did a good job in assisting their kids with other subjects, but parents maintained that they could not do the same with english. aware of this fact, the school called assisting your child’s learning in l2 castillo & camelo no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) 61 a parent-teacher meeting to explore solutions to the problem. parents admitted that they were aware of the importance of the l2. they also affirmed that their support could enhance their children’s performance, and that they could offer them support and motivation. they said: parent a: “we should be aware of our kids in all subjects and their environment.” parent b: “because if there is dialogue at home, it will be mirrored at school with confidence.” parent c: “because they will feel more comfortable and they will learn more.” parent d: “because we as parents, we are part of the solution.” 3 despite this disposition, parents also stated that they had difficulties supporting their children’s english learning: parent a: “well, at home maybe kids don’t do english homework, let’s say, regarding my child, ehhh, it is because i don’t know it… but the true is that i don´t understand it”. parent b: “the truth… the truth is that we don’t have enough time, we have to work all day then; we don’t have time for…. working with them. english takes time. we lack of motivation on this subject”.4 in addition to the testimonies, the classroom teacher reported that in most of the in-class tests the students scored below 50% of the expected outcome for the grade. the testimonies from parents made us aware of the need to study the related literature to inform our line of inquiry. 3 parent a: “debemos estar al tanto de nuestros hijos en todas las áreas y su entorno.” parent b: “porque trabajando en conjunto todos estos aspectos podremos colaborar más con el desarrollo académico y personal del niño.” parent c: “porque si hay diálogo en casa, se refleja en la escuela con seguridad.” parent d: “porque se van sentir más seguros más confiados y aprenden más.” parent e: “porque como padres, somos parte de la solución.” 4 parent a: pues… en la casa de pronto no hacen las tareas de inglés, digamos en cuanto a mi hijo.. ehh es porque realmente yo no sé…; pero es porque la verdad no entiendo… parent b: la verdad… la verdad es que a nosotros no nos queda tiempo, nos toca trabajar todo el día entonces; la verdad no nos queda tiempo para… para trabajar con ellos. lo del inglés toma tiempo. falta motivarlos más en esa clase. assisting your child’s learning in l2 castillo & camelo no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) 62 data collection instruments the investigation into these questions involves the cycles of “planning, action, observation, and reflection” (burns, 2010, p. 8). for the project these were: cycle 1. preliminary observations, a meeting at school, an informal interview and a questionnaire about parental involvement at home laid the foundation for the workshops with three parents and their children on how to approach the study of an l2. in addition, classwork provided insights into what learners could and could not do in the l2. also, linda held conferences with the homeroom teacher and the english teacher about the connection between parental involvement and academic achievements. this cycle corroborated the teachers’ and learners’ claims of lack of parental involvement. cycle 2. the second cycle was created with homework as the bridge to connect parents to their children’s learning. parents took two surveys. the first survey focused on asking parents how they supported their children at home, what difficulties they might have with the homework, and also how teachers might guide them with the english homework. the other survey asked parents about their preferences and the resources they used in assisting with homework. in this cycle, rubrics, procedures, and resources were posted in an accompanying website. cycle 3. the third cycle included the implementation of languagelearning strategies and tasks for parents and their children, written reflections, and an evaluation of the pedagogical innovation. teachers at the school also took part in an interview about their expectations of this inquiry. the work with parents was informed by the task-based learning approach (tbl). for willis (1996), tasks go beyond getting learners to do one task by sequence. tasks are structured to promote constant learning and improvement with components in a larger framework. three phases are proposed: pre-task, task cycle and language focus. in this study, homework was structured as a task that emphasizes meaning in interaction rather than analysis of the structure of the l2. the purpose of the tasks was twofold: l2 development and promotion of the parents and children’s communication, in which cognitive and affective aspects go together. following the analogy mentioned in the introduction, parents and kids rode tandem bikes with the potential to be more efficient; these riders followed the following tbl procedures: assisting your child’s learning in l2 castillo & camelo no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) 63 • pre task: the pre-tasks dealt with topics familiar to the learners’ life: themselves, their family and school. these served as the input (nunan, 2004). • task cycle: in class, learners listen, speak, read and write, and work on the topics. • language focus: at home, parents and kids focus on meaning for task completion. in willis’ terms (1996): “students’ understanding and expressing meanings in order to achieve task outcomes and report their findings” (p. 101). three strategies were proposed to help families assisting their children with homework: a written parent’s guide, a supporting web page, and conferences at school. the written guide was submitted to parents after each lesson, and it informed them about the steps, the materials, and tips to work with their children at home. the web page presented the topics and the homework strategies for parents to tutor their kids. parents and children indicated in surveys and interviews that they regularly resorted to the internet for school work, so they were encouraged to use the web page: (http://lindaytoti.wix.com/paginaweb-para). saturday workshops and conferences were conducted for five parents, sometimes accompanied by their children. this was possible thanks to the support of the schoolteachers and administrators. participants worked on seven tasks around the following syllabus topics: me, my family, and my school. tasks were posted on the web page weekly, which incorporated what was learned in the english lesson, and brought strategies that encouraged and enabled parents to assist with homework. the content appeared in both l1 and l2; the l1 being the training wheels to give confidence to the kids and the parents. the appendix contains samples of the written guide and of the web page developed.5 data analysis and interpretation the data was composed by the students’ productions consisting of tasks made with their parents, tests applied after the intervention and their written reflections after homework. the data also contained the 5 some of the strategies promoted can be found on the web site. *http://www.deguate.com.gt/artman/publish/educa_consejos/12_consejos_para_ hacer_de_tus_tareas_escolares_alg_2152.shtml#.udi9opkrje4 and at *http://www2.ed.gov/parents/academic/involve/homework/homeworktips.pdf. assisting your child’s learning in l2 castillo & camelo no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) 64 parents’ written reflections after homework, and their evaluation of the pedagogical intervention. the teachers’ reflections about the pedagogical intervention were part of the data as well. data triangulation sought to give validity to the study and to evaluate the findings (mathison, 1988 as cited in golafshani, 2003), and it involved the use of different sources of data/information for the credibility in qualitative evaluations (guion, 2012). the data analysis process followed freeman’s grounded approach (1998), taking the categories inside and outside data. inside data included the participants’ opinions and productions. outside data involved answering the research questions that guided this study: what may the training of parents reveal about the support of young learners’ literacy development? how may parental involvement support young learners english language proficiency development? results from both inside and outside data, two categories that responded to the research questions materialized: first, parental engagement and home environment facilitate students’ literacy development, and second, parental involvement enhanced communication among parents, children and teachers. 1. parental engagement and home environment facilitate students’ literacy development. the artifacts, collected after the intervention, indicate improvements in the organization of the children’s work. for instance, the task in sample 1 was carried out without the parents’ intervention, showing little logical organization. in sample 2, the completion of the task was supported by a parent. it indicates that the rubrics were followed, that the information was organized, and that, in an attempt to communicate, more effort was put into it. student 1, sample 1: student 1, sample 2: prior to intervention. after intervention. assisting your child’s learning in l2 castillo & camelo no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) 65 the training of parents provided support to the young learners’ literacy development. the schoolteachers’ opinion corroborates this finding. in interviews, teachers reported that parents modeled the tasks, and that it was clear that the task and the language were understood. the literature also supports this finding. roberts, jurgens & burchinal’s study (as cited in oest, 2011) established that parents who provide structure, organization, and a positive general emotional climate at home, along with stimulating toys and interactions, facilitate children’s language and early literacy development. similarly, duursma et al. (2007) assert that not only parents’ literacy activities such as reading with children affect their literacy outcomes, but they also help the child with learning or english homework. 2. parental involvement enhanced communication among parents, children and teachers. the second category reinforces the response to the first research question. literacy was strengthened since data indicates that training parents enhanced communication among parents, their children, and the school. children and parents’ written reflections after each task show that the intervention improved the quality in communication and interaction. aspects such as team learning, family integration, participation and fun were highlighted. some parents’ testimonies include the following: parent 1:“the most interesting thing was everything because i learn and communicate in a good way with the children”. parent 2: “family integration”; parent 3 “it was fun and different, we spoke more in that moment it may sound odd, but it was like that”; parent 4 “i liked what we did and also we had fun studying together”. this investigation suggests that studying english became a bridge to connect parents and children. the literature has reported similar findings. green & meyer (as cited in oldfather & dahl, 1994) affirm that “literacy is accomplished through the interactions that take place in classroom discourse as well as in family and the larger culture” (p. 141). bermúdez & márquez (1996) assert that parental involvement implies family interaction. in their article, henderson (1989) says that when parents become involved in school activities, consequential assisting your child’s learning in l2 castillo & camelo no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) 66 benefits include improved parent-child relationships. similarly brown (as cited in lópez, scribner & mahitivanichcha, 2001) states, “parent participation often enhances student self-esteem, improves parentchild relationships, and helps parents develop positive attitudes toward schools” (p. 255). as for the second research question: how may parental involvement support young learners english language proficiency development, there was evidence that the involvement of parents had a bearing on the progress in language development. the language used in the assignments gradually improved from the word level to the sentence level. parents followed the rubrics in the student’s portfolios and even included expressions not covered in classes. as the following sample, we can see the student’s effort to include relevant information and vocabulary about his/her family. student 2: sample 2 english written production *my uncle is german alberto león. *he is a historian of valle del cauca of the university. *his work as a historian is to investigate, describe and explain the past a society. *proponer problemas suggest responses and relationships. *find sources of written information, verbal or graphic materials objects. *calendario = calendar reloj = watch cronometro = chronometer evolution = evolution in addition, students’ in-class tests and assignments, taken after the intervention, indicated progress in building ideas in the target language. the following samples show the task and test dealing with family occupations: assisting your child’s learning in l2 castillo & camelo no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) 67 student 2 classroom task student 2 in test-class my mom is olga she is mommy she sell many things a cafateria works cafateria she works in a commercial place in santa isabel student 3classroom task student 3 in test-class police merchant he is and police man gun shirt he is a comerchant sergeant saleswoman jail bottons handcuffs necks the sample above suggests that the student replicated in the test what was made as homework with parents. this seems to indicate a strong connection between the students’ tasks and their overall performance in class. parents explained that they were not centered on the structure of language but on how to communicate. hatch (1978) also establishes that the acquisition of an l2 is a product of an attempt to communicate. the reflections collected after homework also provided support to the finding that the intervention yielded l2 proficiency gains. parents and children informed that they needed to learn vocabulary to be able to express their ideas. the literature concurs that vocabulary knowledge is a core component in language proficiency as it relates to literacy development (ncca, 2012). the data gathered informed us about the benefits of making home-school connections. assisting your child’s learning in l2 castillo & camelo no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) 68 conclusions this article reports a study that attempted to address the problem at an elementary school in which the community felt that children were not performing well in the l2 because parents could not provide support since they had no knowledge of the l2 and of how to tackle l2 study. in response to the first research question posed, evidence indicates that the children gained in literacy development. the tests after the intervention provided evidence that learners managed to organize their work. observations and interviews pointed in the direction that the participants had a better disposition to learn. the training supported by workshops, a website, and a guide for home and schoolwork contributed to an understanding of reading, writing, and in general, communicating. this inquiry concludes that by training parents in tutoring their kids’ in the l2, literacy and language proficiency are strengthened. in addition, trained parental involvement enriches the communication among parents, their children, and the school having a positive effect on literacy development. in terms of possible limitations of the study, the sample group was rather small. five parents and their children volunteered from the start to the end. it would be interesting to conduct a similar study including more participants. the participants agreed that communication and interaction, around the study of the l2, at home were enhanced. a warmer atmosphere of cooperation and sharing of schoolwork was attributed to the intervention. this may signify that the intervention went beyond the study of the l2 structures or skill development. this finding reinforces the idea that school and parents can work together. in regards to the second research question, language proficiency showed improvement. tasks that required collaboration among parents, teachers and kids encouraged efforts to communicate. at first, modeling was used, and later sparks of language creativity were found since the need to communicate a message about the participants themselves was created. the support provided by the training, the materials, and the website seemed to translate into an understanding of the game of learning and into language proficiency achievements. in sum, the study suggests that schools ought to offer parents training on how to support their children’s education. this training should explore the nature of learning in general, learning strategies, and the nature of learning each school subject without removing the fun of learning. part of the training should be devoted to familiarization with assisting your child’s learning in l2 castillo & camelo no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) 69 information technologies and authorized resources that support school learning. home and school connections can be enriched provided the school staff offers parents their expert knowledge on how to tackle the study of a subject. it can be safely concluded that parents do not necessarily need a high l2 proficiency to support their children’s l2 learning, but they do need to understand what learning, in general, entails and what l2 learning demands. parents did not need to assume the role of l2 teachers, but of aids to help children find the path to study and the ways to tackle language study. parents who could not ride an l2 bike can support their child to learn to ride it. references anderson, s. a. 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(1996). a framework for task-based learning. harlow: longman addison-wesley. authors *rigoberto castillo holds a ph. d. in foreign language education from the university of texas at austin. has an m.a in applied linguistics from u.t as a fulbright scholar. he teaches in the doctorado interinstitucional en educación at universidad distrital francisco josé de caldas in bogotá (colombia). his book on strategic learning (in press) was nominated for the british english language teaching award (eltons). he is a recipient of the national award of the colombian association of teachers of english. he is the present director of the language institute of the universidad distrital in bogotá, colombia. *linda c. camelo graduated in the licensure in tefl at the universidad distrital francisco josé de caldas in bogotá (colombia). she holds a minor in folk dancing. she has taught english to children and adolescents. in 2013 linda was appointed through aiesec as an international language teacher in bangalore, india. assisting your child’s learning in l2 castillo & camelo no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) 73 appendix samples of the written guide and web page for parents and children. assisting your child’s learning in l2 castillo & camelo no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) gist ii semestre 2016 21122016.indd 131 cultural collision: the interference of first language cultural identity on pragmatic competence of the target language1 colisión cultural: la interferencia de la identidad cultural lingüística de la lengua materna en la competencia pragmática en la lengua meta yi-fen cecilia liu2* la universidad de ciencias aplicadas y ambientales (u.d.c.a), colombia abstract this reflective study explores a different perspective of intercultural communicative competency (icc) by focusing on the speech acts that nonnative speakers of spanish from diverse linguistic and cultural backgrounds find difficult to perform competently in various contexts in colombia. this article covers a qualitative case study using interpretative phenomenological analysis to describe these foreign learners’ experiences. it aims to understand the role of their first language, culture, and identity in their use of spanish and intercultural communication. the data was collected through interviews and reflection notes. the findings demonstrate the interaction and negotiation between the pragmatic knowledge embedded in participants’ mother tongue and the target language as they encountered contradictions of their native cultural identity and that of the target culture. keywords: language, culture, cultural identity, pragmatic competence, intercultural communication. 1 received: june 14, 2016 / accepted: october 6, 2016 2 yliu@udca.edu.co gist education and learning research journal. issn 1692-5777. no.13. (july december) 2016. pp. 131-147. evidence of intercultural competence no. 13 (july december 2016) no. 13 (july december 2016) 132 resumen este artículo de tipo reflexivo explora una perspectiva diferente de la competencia comunicativa intercultural (cci) al enfocarse en cómo algunos actos del habla del español hablado en colombia se les dificulta a hablantes no nativos provenientes de diversas procedencias lingüísticas y culturales en varios contextos en colombia. este articulo describe un estudio de caso cualitativo el cual utiliza el análisis fenomenológico interpretativo para describir las experiencias de estos aprendices extranjeros. además, tiene como propósito entender el rol de su lengua nativa, cultural e identidad al utilizar el español y la comunicación intercultural. los datos fueron recolectados a través de entrevistas y notas de reflexión. los resultados demuestran que la interacción y negociación entre el conocimiento pragmático innato a la lengua nativa de los participantes y la del español son contradictorias de su propia identidad cultural y la del uso de la cultura objetivo. palabras clave: lengua y cultura, la identidad cultural, competencia pragmática, comunicación intercultural resumo este artigo de tipo reflexivo explora uma perspectiva diferente da competência comunicativa intercultural (cci) ao enfocar-se em como alguns atos da fala do espanhol falado na colômbia se causa dificuldade aos falantes não nativos provenientes de diversas procedências linguísticas e culturais em vários contextos na colômbia. este artigo descreve um estudo de caso qualitativo, o qual utiliza a análise fenomenológica interpretativa para descrever as experiências destes aprendizes estrangeiros. além do mais, tem como propósito entender o papel da sua língua nativa, cultural e identidade ao utilizar o espanhol e a comunicação intercultural. os dados foram coletados através de entrevistas e notas de reflexão. os resultados demonstram que a interação e negociação entre o conhecimento pragmático inato à língua nativa dos participantes e a do espanhol são contraditórias da sua própria identidade cultural e a do uso da cultura objetivo. palavras chave: língua e cultura, a identidade cultural, competência pragmática, comunicação intercultural the interference of first language liu no. 13 (july december 2016) no. 13 (july december 2016) 133 introduction colombia is developing rapidly and is on the path to globalization and cosmopolitanism. the increasing economic and commercial demands as well as political ties with other nations have created new communicative opportunities. as a result, more foreigners are living and working in colombia and more colombians than ever before have direct or indirect contact with people from diverse language and cultural backgrounds in and outside of the country. this phenomenon has produced new challenges for language educators in colombia to optimize the development of intercultural competence and foster linguistically and culturally double-directional learners, who have a sound understanding of both their native and the target cultures and are able to communicate across language-culture differences. the study was conducted in colombia with three non-native spanish speakers (nnss) from different linguistic and cultural backgrounds. the research questions that guided this study were: 1. what speech acts in spanish do the participants find difficult to use competently in their daily intercultural interaction in colombia? 2. how does the home culture identity of these nnss participants influence their pragmatic competence development in the use of spanish in colombia? literature review the reviewed literature for this study focuses on the awareness of cultural differences to explore how first language culture identity interacts with the pragmatic development of the target language, and aspects of pragmatic failure in cross-cultural communication. fundamental relationship between native and target language cultures language and culture are two sides of the same coin which allow us to gain membership in a particular society or community. however, we rarely contemplate the function of our native language system, or the role and impact of the phrases and expressions that we use on a daily basis until we encounter and communicate with people from different linguistic and cultural backgrounds that have different belief systems and social norms. these shared interactions are what make cultures dynamic and never permanently fixed as they are created, recreated and interconnected (gudykunst, 1983). culture is defined as the nonthe interference of first language liu no. 13 (july december 2016) no. 13 (july december 2016) 134 biological part of life; it may be fundamental but not innate because culture is a socially constructed human creation (berger & luckman, 1967; freire, 1970; jandt, 2001). hence, cultures have their own internal coherence, logic and validity within a social system (paige, 1993). agar (1994) proposes the theory that learning a target language culture is driven by rich point. this occurs when we realize that a culture is different from ours, and we are faced with certain behaviors which we do not understand. the largest rich point is total incomprehension due to huge differences between the source language culture and the target language-culture; it is also the point in which culture shock occurs. differing societal aspects such as values, behavior, and attitudes are embedded in languages; therefore, one’s mother tongue influences the speaker’s worldview and is an important source in understanding thoughts, behavioral, and cognitive learning processes (house, 2007). the role of first language culture identity in l2 pragmatic development norton (2013) suggests that language learning is an investment in a learner’s own identity. in the process of acquiring an additional language, learners’ past and current sense of self encounter and transform each other (bhabha, 1994; hall, 1996; papastergiadis, 2000). block (2007) explains further the link between sla and one’s sense of identity “when individuals immerse themselves in new sociocultural environments, they find that their sense of identity is destabilized and that they enter a period of struggle to reach a balance” (p. 864). since identity is constituted by the social environment, it is constantly changing across time and space. hence, individuals have the possibility of taking up a range of social identities available to them in the ‘cultural supermarket’ (mathews, 2000). in order to establish the link between l1 and the target language culture, one needs to put their own native culture in relation to the foreign language culture (kramsch, 1993). schumann (1978) points out that social distance can either promote or hinder second language acquisition depending on the degree of proximity between the l2 learners and the tl communities. his view is further supported by fantini’s (2009) statement that one’s native tongue facilitates thoughts and communication within one’s native culture. on the other hand, it can also become the biggest hindrance in understanding another global perspective because it prevents one from, “grasping possibilities inherent and encoded in other systems” (p. 265). hence, the greater the linguistic, social and cultural distance between learners’ l1 and the the interference of first language liu no. 13 (july december 2016) no. 13 (july december 2016) 135 target language, the more difficult it may be for learners to overcome the contradictory nature to bridge the cultural disparities. bransford, brown, and cocking (2000) states “all new learning involves transfer based on previous learning.” (p. 53). this could also explain why the initial learning of l1 will impact the learning of l2. previous crosscultural pragmatic research also mentioned that l2 or l3 learners tend to transfer their native pragmatic knowledge when they use the target language. when learners apply their knowledge of one language to another language, the l1 interference can result in a positive or negative transfer. when the relevant unit or structure of both languages are the same, linguistic interference can result in correct language production. on the contrary, when the linguistic and cultural distance between the home and the target language is large, the interference is often a negative one. chiswick & miller (2005) developed a quantitative measure of the distance between english and other languages based on the difficulty americans have learning other languages. the lower the scores on a standardized proficiency test, the greater the distance is between these languages and english. the score for mandarin is 1.5, which is lower than that of spanish at 2.25. the results demonstrate that when other determinants of language proficiency are the same, the greater the measure of linguistic distance, the poorer is the respondent’s language proficiency. apparently, mandarin is more difficult to learn than spanish for english speakers due to the greater linguistic distance. hence, spanish would be more difficult to learn for mandarin speakers than english speakers. pragmatic failure in cross-cultural communication schumann (1987) discusses in his sla acculturation model that the degree of which learners orient themselves to the target language culture would determine the extent to which leaners acquire the second language. a speaker’s linguistic competence is composed of grammatical competence and pragmatic competence. thomas (1983) terms pragmatic failure as an area of ‘cross-cultural communication breakdown.’ she further states that pragmatic failure results from the hearer’s inability to infer the force of the speaker’s utterance due to the fact that the speaker and the listener do not share the same values, behavior norms, or world views. as a result, the hearer might perceive the force of the speaker’s utterances to be stronger or weaker than the speaker intended. a message may be interpreted to carry a different meaning than was intended when it is encoded by a person in one culture and decoded by a person from another cultural background (samovar & porter, cited in jandt, 2001) the interference of first language liu no. 13 (july december 2016) no. 13 (july december 2016) 136 in addition, fantini (2009) pointed out learners were most surprised and disappointed when they found out that there is no equivalence in the target language for some frequently used phrases in their l1. he argues that speech acts consist of language, behaviors, and interactional strategies, three essential components for intercultural communication. therefore, inappropriate transference of speech act strategies from l1 to l2 can cause pragma-linguistic failure. moreover, when the target language has a wider range of connotations of certain speech acts than the mother language, pragmatic overgeneralization is likely to occur. after all, various elements that are taken for granted in a certain culture do not match the elements of another culture. being an intercultural speaker is not just merely a code-switching task; it involves learning new ways of thinking, new behaviors and interactional styles, as well as integration of one’s home cultural identity and the target language identity. methodology research design this study used a qualitative phenomenology research model as the most appropriate methodology to investigate the phenomena experienced by the participants. according to welman and kruger (1999), phenomenology provides a deep understanding of “social and psychological phenomena from the perspectives of people involved” (p.189). the following illustration demonstrates the phenomenology research procedures described by moustakas (1994). figure 1. procedures for conducting phenomenological research the interference of first language liu no. 13 (july december 2016) no. 13 (july december 2016) 137 participants prior to the commencement of the study, the participant information statement and participant consent forms were distributed to a university language centre, where there were seven foreign language teachers and assistants. this study was then conducted among those three nonnative spanish speakers who expressed interest and signed the consent forms, which indicated their clear understanding of the study. as this study required participants to describe their personal experiences and perceptions, participants were assured that any identifiable personal details would be kept in the strictest confidence. they were identified by pseudonyms, caroline, lilian and zi-ge: caroline is a 23-year-old female from america. she studied spanish as a subject for two years at university where she majored in journalism. at the time of the interview, she was working as an english language assistant at a private university in bogotá. during her one-year stay in colombia, she took spanish classes with a language exchange partner, who was studying to teach spanish as a foreign language. her spanish proficiency level was about b1 at the time of the interview. lilian is a 25-year-old female from the uk. she started learning spanish at university, where she majored in french & spanish. prior to coming to colombia, she worked as a language assistant in guadalajara, mexico for two years. at the time of interview, she just finished her oneyear contract as an english language assistant at a private university in bogotá. her spanish proficiency level was about c1 at the time of the interview. zi-ge is a 38-year-old female from china. she is married to a colombian man and is in an intercultural marriage. she works as a chinese teacher in a language centre of a private university. at the time of the interview, she had lived in colombia for four years and had taken spanish classes for two semesters in the beginning of her stay in colombia. her spanish proficiency level was about b1 at the time of the interview. data collection instruments in collecting the data, semi-structured in-depth phenomenological interviews were conducted, and supplemented by reflection notes written by the participants, which aim to gather the complexity by probing, detailing and clarifying issues. kvale (1996) describes the use of an interview as “a professional conversation which has a structure to gain access to the perception of the interviewee and has a purpose to the interference of first language liu no. 13 (july december 2016) no. 13 (july december 2016) 138 interpret the meaning of the described phenomena” (pp. 5-6). one month before the interview, each participant was informed about the purpose of the research to obtain their informed consent. in addition, they were asked to write reflective notes (memos) to help them contemplate the issues and difficulties they encountered in their daily use of spanish in colombian context. the reflection journals of the participants were written in english and chinese. in their mother tongue, they were able to express their deepest thoughts freely without any restrictions. the interviews were conducted in english with the american and british participants and in chinese with the chinese participant. data analysis and interpretation the participants’ responses to the open-ended interview questions were transcribed, translated (chinese => english) and analysed. the duration of each interview was about one hour, and contained the participants’ extensive responses. data reduction and transformation were required so that the data could be entered and displayed as a mixture of direct quotes and summary phrases. thematic analysis (riessman, 2008) was employed to provide an analysis according to the pre-established research questions to guide the study. themes emerged through a constant comparative method. the interpretation of the data incorporates both the findings and discussion. the following analysis addresses the first research question: what speech acts in spanish do the participants find difficult to use competently in their daily intercultural interaction in colombia? table 1. speech acts nnss have difficulty acquiring addressing / calling people greeting terms of endearment thanking responding to compliments apology parting ( leave-taking) three content categories emerged from the data analysis, which depict the three phases of pragmatic development that the participants the interference of first language liu no. 13 (july december 2016) no. 13 (july december 2016) 139 experienced in the process of acquiring pragmatic competence in the use of target language. the table below depicts findings relevant to the second research question: how does the home culture identity of these nnss participants influence their pragmatic competence development in the use of spanish in colombia? table 2. target language pragmatic development phases influenced by home cultural identity bewilderment with the target culture norms collision between native and target language cultures finding the third places results this study provided participants a valid opportunity to revisit their own selves in their process of self-re-definition and express their own voice in a non-threatening space. data analysis provided examples of reflections and narratives to elaborate on the participants’ lived experiences of first language, culture, and identity in relation to target language pragmatic competence. with the two research questions as the established objectives, the results are divided in the following three themes generated through the data analysis. bewilderment with the target culture norms in colombia, these participants are faced with certain behaviors which they do not understand. as outsiders, they realized that they are confronted by surprises and departures from their expectations that signal a difference between their natal-culture and colombian culture. they are the moments of incomprehension, when they suddenly did not know how to react in the situation. extract 1: here people use skin color as nicknames like negrito/negrita. i’m often called morenita here. that would never happen in the states, as it is considered politically incorrect to call a black person ‘nigger.’ it’s very offensive to call someone by their skin color, it’s like making a racist comment. but later on i figured out those names don’t express racial discrimination. on the contrary, it’s a friendly way to address people you know well. (caroline, interview, oct 7, 2013)3 extract 2: one day i was driving to work. it was rush hour and the car in front of me was going very slow, so i over took the car. the driver in that 3 negrito o negrita (lit. blackie, used for both males and females) the interference of first language liu no. 13 (july december 2016) no. 13 (july december 2016) 140 car got really upset, so he speeded up and cut in front of me. he got off the car and walked towards me. as i rolled down the window, he said: “amor, no haga eso en horas pico”. i nearly burst into laughter and i didn’t know how to react. it seems that the driver came over for a quarrel, but it sounded as if he was flirting with me by calling me amor. (zi-ge, reflection, may5, 2013) 4 extract 3: my husband often calls other females corazon, mija or preciosa. i feel uncomfortable about it because it sounds too intimate. but later he explained to me the purpose of using terms of endearment is to show friendliness and to make people feel good. it also serves as an ice breaker and it helps shorten the distance when you talk to strangers. (zi-ge, reflection, may 5, 2013)5 the above extracts demonstrated that these participants from other linguistic and cultural backgrounds perceived the force of terms of endearment and certain speech acts in spanish of addressing people to be stronger than the speaker intended as they do not share the same system of knowledge or beliefs. it coincided with the explanation of pragmatic failure (thomas, 1983; samovar & porte, 1997; jandt, 2001) caused by inappropriate transference of speech act strategies from l1 to l2. collision between native and target language cultures the following examples showed that these participants felt uncomfortable or awkward using certain culturally-loaded words and idioms for which they can hardly find their equivalents in their mother tongue due to the fact that some notions and connotations embedded in the expressions clash with their first language identity and culture. extract 1: i kind of like it, but for me it’s over the top calling people mi reina, mi princesa! i also like my neighbors calling me vecina, but i don’t really use it because it’s not part of my culture. people in the states do say darling or sweetie pie, but generally they are kind of more country or older, not my generation. a shop owner nearby my place always greets me by saying “buenos dias! mi reina!,” “good morning! my queen! “no one in the states would ever say that!! and i also found female friends 4 mi amor, no haga eso en horas pico (lit: my love, don’t do that during rush hour), my love is closer in meaning here to dear or darling. amor: (lit. love), but closer in meaning to dear or darling 5 corazón, mija o preciosa. (lit. heart, my daughter, and precious) mija is an abbreviation of the words mi hija (lit. my daughter. also used for mi hijo: my son) the interference of first language liu no. 13 (july december 2016) no. 13 (july december 2016) 141 here tend to say to me “me encanta verte” a lot! those expressions are over the top for me! (caroline, interview, sept 30, 2013). 6 extract 2: o in the states, we say “i’m sorry” when offering apologies, but here it’s like people don’t want to admit it’s their fault, so they say “qué pena!” a lot more often than “lo siento”. in my culture, if you sincerely offer your apologies for your wrong doing you’d say “i’m really sorry” not “what a pity”. “what a shame this happened to you!” i always say “disculpe” or “perdon” in public transportation when trying to get off /on the bus/transmillenio; and that makes me a ‘foreigner” cause no one else says anything. they just push you out of the way. i say sorry a lot; i feel that our culture says sorry a lot, but i don’t think they do here. (lilian, interview, may 12, 2013)7 extract 3: once i complimented a friend’s jacket. i said it looks really stylish and made with top-notch material. she replied “a la orden”. maybe i misinterpreted the expression, then i asked her whether i can borrow it on christmas day, she said “no”! i still don’t quite understand why people say “a la orden” when they don’t really mean it! for me it’s hypocritical for people to say things when they don’t mean it. in chinese, we have a saying that goes “when words are once out your mouth, even four quick horses cannot chase them back”, which literally means that one has to keep his/her words. at first, i thought colombian people are hypocritical, they don’t always mean what they say, but then i realized that they say “a la orden” out of courtesy, and it can’t be taken seriously! (zi-ge, reflection, may 6, 2013).8 the above examples revealed that the collisions are caused by the fact that these participants cannot relate to or identify with the pragmatics encoded in those speech acts, which are in equivalent or even contradictory to their first language. the finding demonstrates that the learners’ home cultural identity does not facilitate, but impedes the learners from achieving pragmatic competence in the target language. the result supports the argument (kramsch, 1993; fantini, 2009; schumann, 1978) that the learners’ native cultural based values, attitudes, and behaviors can be an obstacle to effective communication in the target context depending on the degree of social distance between the l2 learners and the tl communities. the linguistic and cultural distance between chinese and spanish is far greater than english and spanish, thus; the chinese participant zi-ge seemed to encounter more 6 mi reina, mi princesa (lit. my queen, my princess), vecina (lit. neighbor),!buenos dias! mi reina: (lit. good morning, my queen!) me encanta verte. (lit. i love seeing you, but closer in meaning to im so glad to see you. 7 que pena (´lit. what a shame) disculpe: excuse me perdón: (lit. forgiveness), but closer in meaning to i’m sorry transmilenio: bogotá’s mass transit system 8 a la orden: (lit. at your command, or at your service) the interference of first language liu no. 13 (july december 2016) no. 13 (july december 2016) 142 conflicts and experience greater difficulty than the other two english speaking participants in overcoming the discrepancy between the native linguaculture and the target one, which was reflected in her interview statements and her reflective memos. finding the third place the notion of the third place refers to the point of intercultural encounter, where interlocutors from different linguistic and cultural backgrounds communicate and interact successfully (liddicoat & lo bianco, 1999). they further point out, “the ability to find this third place is at the core of intercultural competence” (p.15). the following excerpts demonstrate that these participants were in the process of negotiating comfortable third places between the self and the other, finding the middle ground between the home and the target culture. extract 1: i think it’s very rude to call people according to their physical appearance such as gordita or flaca. i’m aware that gordita is normally for children. but i´m skinny, so my colombian friends nickname me flaca. i didn’t like it at first, then i realized that it’s a jokey and friendly way to call your close friends, so i started to take it light heartedly. (lilian, interview, may 12, 2013).9 extract 2: when people say nice things like “que estés bien”, it makes you feel liked. it’s nice to hear even though they say it to everybody. or “que le vaya muy bien”. phrases like those are really nice to hear, but in the united states, we don’t really do it in english. but here, every time i say goodbye to somebody here, they always say ¨ que estés bien¨. you do kind of think oh ….. that’s so sweet, thanks! (lilian, interview, may 12, 2013)10 extract 3: it took me more than a year to start saying “eres muy amable” every time after saying “gracias”. i didn’t understand why i had to praise people “it’s very kind of you” for doing their jobs. from chinese culture’s perspective, we expect people to perform well at work, to do a good job. it’s very strange for me having to pay compliment to people for getting their jobs done. i mean they’re paid to do it, aren’t they? however, here in colombia it seems you have to say “eres muy amable” after saying “thank you”, otherwise, people might think that you’re not polite. later, my husband explained to me that you can get your job done with a friendly attitude or an unpleasantly attitude, so we colombians praise people for doing their jobs with a positive and service-oriented 9 gordita: (lit. fattie), but closer in meaning to chubby, flaca: (lit. bony, skinny) 10 que estés bien (lit. be ok), but closer in meaning to i wish that you are well, que le vaya muy bien (lit. may everything go well), but closer in meaning to i wish that you do well. the interference of first language liu no. 13 (july december 2016) no. 13 (july december 2016) 143 attitude. i started to think it makes sense, after accepting their point of view, i feel more comfortable using this phrase. (zi-ge, reflection, may 5, 2013)11 the above excerpts illustrated that when using the target language or living in a new cultural community, the l2 learner’s world views and perceptions towards the others might change after gaining new pragmatic knowledge. the finding supports the notion that culture is dynamic and subject to change (block, 2007; zu & kong, 2009). the awareness of the differences between cultures provide the learners opportunities to adjust themselves to the “new” situations and to empathize with the target language community. these participants were able to appreciate and relate to the social world of the target language even though it took them some time to understand and accept the values and beliefs embedded in the target language system, which is very different from their natal social world. conclusions as indicated, the aim of this study was to explore the speech acts in spanish that non-native participants found difficult to use properly in their daily interaction in colombia, the impact of their first language culture identity on this and their subsequent adjustments to achieve pragmatic competence in the target language. the findings of the study reveal that these participants are constantly trying to build and rebuild their target language identity whenever they use the target language. they felt a strong conflict between the attitudes, beliefs and social norms of the home langua-culture and the target one. the results also showed that these participants found themselves struggling to perform some speech acts competently in various contexts because the notions and connotations embedded in the expressions clash with their first language identity and culture. as their spanish progresses, they constantly attempted to establish a connection with the target social community by trying to make sense of the meaning and purpose behind certain speech acts and to reestablish their cultural identity in the communication with their spanish speaking interlocutor in social contexts in colombia. the process of becoming a more effective speaker of the target language, involves mediating one’s own home culture-based values and worldview with the target culture 11 eres muy amable (lit. you are very kind) gracias: thank you the interference of first language liu no. 13 (july december 2016) no. 13 (july december 2016) 144 ones. as a consequence, the respondents had a sense of insecurity, discomfort, and lack of confidence when speaking the target language. the findings revealed that it is not always necessary for language competency to maintain links between l1 and l2 in order to properly use and understand specific terms. these participants of different spanish levels all encountered difficulty in understanding and using specific terms in spanish at some point due to the interference of their first cultural identity. not all of them managed to find third places for all the contradictions between their native languaculture and the target one. they rejected certain notions imbedded in the target language and accepted others. even though they came to an understanding and acceptance of certain spanish speech acts after a longer period of staying in colombia, they still would not use them in their daily interaction because they do not have the habit of doing so in their home contexts. the findings of this study offer some implications for teaching practices and future research in colombian context. due to the nature of a qualitative case study, the present study recruited a small number of participants to gain deeper insight. further useful research could expand the sample size and investigate further on the issues that learners of spanish as a foreign language encountered both linguistically and pragmatically in relation to linguistic and cultural distance between their native tongue and the target one. hence, more constructive suggestions can be provided towards helping foreign leaners achieve intercultural communication competence in colombian contexts. galvis (2011) pointed out that the pre-service teachers surveyed in his study found intercultural communication interesting, but yet not applicable in their teaching context in the public school sector due to the lack of meaningful encounters with foreign language speakers from different linguistic and cultural backgrounds, even though the ideology of intercultural communicative competence was promoted at the theoretical level in teacher’s training at university. however, since 2015 the colombian national ministry of education and el servicio nacional de aprendizaje (sena) have partnered with heart of change, atlas corps and volunteers colombia to develop and implement the english teaching fellowship programs (etf), which have brought hundreds of foreign professionals to colombia to help provide quality english education to thousands of public school students and english teachers throughout the country. with the increase of exposure to authentic intercultural interaction opportunities, the impact and effects of these bilingual programs have on the development of intercultural communication competence can be examined and explored in the near future. the interference of first language liu no. 13 (july december 2016) no. 13 (july december 2016) 145 learning is a reciprocal process in foreign language classrooms where both teachers and students learn from each other to expand linguistic and cultural knowledge. no text book or materials can provide the sufficient cultural knowledge required for second or foreign language users to conduct their linguistic behavior competently and appropriately in cross-cultural situations. hence, foreign language teachers play an important role in orienting the target language learners to their home culture and vice versa. if foreign language teachers have better awareness and understanding of their students’ natal culture, they will be able to better help students overcome the cultural disparities that prevent them from using the target language competently in varied contexts. in addition, it is essential to incorporate pragmatics knowledge in the foreign language curriculum and instruction to make the foreign culture less threatening and more accessible to the language learner. by fostering foreign language user’s target language pragmatics competence, they will be better able to establish the proper linkage between their first languaculture and the target one. this will in turn reduce learning conflicts and allow them to use the target language properly with confidence in various contexts. the interference of first language liu no. 13 (july december 2016) no. 13 (july december 2016) 146 references agar, m. (1994). the intercultural frame. international journal of intercultural relations, 18(2), 221-237. bhabha, h. (1994). the location of culture. london: routledge. berger, p. l., & luckmann, t. (1967). the social construction of reality: a treatise in the sociology of knowledge. new york: anchor. block, d. (2007). the rise of identity in sla research, post firth and wagner (1997). the modern language journal, 91(s1), 863-876. bransford, j. d., brown, a. l. & cocking, r. r. (eds). 2000. how people learn: brain, mind, experience and school. washington d.c.: national academy press. chiswick, b. r., & miller, p. w. (2005). linguistic distance: a quantitative measure of the distance between english and other languages. journal of multilingual and multicultural development, 26(1), 1-11. fantini, a. e. (2009). assessing intercultural competence: issues and tools. in deardorff, d. k. (ed.), the sage handbook of intercultural competence (pp. 456-476). thousand oaks (ca): sage, galvis, h. a. (2011). the common european framework, task-based learning, and colombia: crossroads for an intercultural collision? or a path under construction for improvement? how, 18, 298-208. freire, p. (1970). cultural action for freedom. cambridge, ma: harvard educational review and center for the study of development and social change. gudykunst, w. b. (1983). intercultural communication theory: current perspectives. beverley hills: sage hall, s. (1996). introduction: who needs ‘identity’? in s. hall and p. du gay (eds.), questions of cultural identity, (pp. 1-17). london: sage. house, j. (2007) what is an ‘intercultural speaker’? in e. alcón soler and m. p. safont jordá (eds.), intercultural language use and language learning, (pp. 7-21). dordrecht, the netherlands: springer jandt, f. e. (2001). intercultural communication: an introduction (3rd ed.). thousand oaks, ca: sage. kramsch, c. (1993). context and culture in language teaching. oxford: oxford university press. kvale, s. (1996). interviews: an introduction to qualitative research interviewing. thousand oaks, ca: sage. the interference of first language liu no. 13 (july december 2016) no. 13 (july december 2016) 147 liddicoat, a. j., & lo bianco, j. (1999). striving for third place: consequences and implications. melbourne: language australia. mathews, g. (2000). global culture/individual identity: searching for a home in the cultural supermarket. london: routledge. moustakas, c. (1994). phenomenological research methods. thousand oaks, ca: sage. norton, b. (2013) identity and language learning: extending the conversation (2nd ed.), bristol, uk: multilingual matters. paige, r. m. (ed.). (1993). education for the intercultural experience. yarmouth, me: intercultural press. papastergiadis, n. (2000). the turbulence of migration. cambridge, uk: polity. riessman, c. k. (2008). narrative methods for the human sciences. los angeles: sage publications. samovar, l. a., & porter, r. e. (eds.). (1997). intercultural communication: a reader (8th ed.). belmont, ca: wadsworth publishing company. schumann, j. h. (1978). the pidginization process: a model for second language acquisition. rowley, ma: newbury house publishers. thomas, j. (1983). cross-cultural pragmatic failure. applied linguistics, 4, 91-112. welman, j.c., & kruger, s. j. (1999). research methodology for the business and administrative science. johannesburg, south africa: international thompson. zu, l., & kong, z. (2009). a study on the approaches to culture introduction in english textbooks. english language teaching, 2(1), 112. author *cecilia liu received her masters of education (tesol) from the university of sydney. she has taught english and chinese in taiwan, england, australia and colombia for 15 years. currently she teaches undergraduate virtual english courses at the university of applied and environmental sciences (udca). her research interests include intercultural communication, cross-cultural pragmatics, identity in foreign language learning and teaching, and world englishes. the interference of first language liu no. 13 (july december 2016) no. 13 (july december 2016) gistseptiembre2011final2.indd 127 writing to persuade: a systemic functional view1 joshua schulze2* university of massachusetts, usa abstract this study explores how a genre-based approach to writing instruction influenced by both genre theory and systemic functional linguistics supported the academic writing development of english language learners (ells) transitioning to middle school. drawing on systemic functional linguistics (sfl) as a tool for pedagogy and linguistic analysis, the teacher-researcher analyzed three instantiations of texts composed by ells to determine changes in the register of their texts during the course of genre-based writing pedagogy. methods were qualitative in nature, involving both analysis of the text and the surrounding context of composition. data came from multiple sources. they included videotaped observations of classroom interactions, transcriptions of semi-structured interviews with the student, collection of lesson plans, and materials used in lesson implementation, and field notes made by the participant observer. findings suggest that a genre-based approach to writing instruction supported ells in producing texts that more closely approximated the register of the target genre. keywords: english language learning, genre based pedagogy, academic literacy, systemic functional linguistics, persuasive writing resumen este estudio explora como el enfoque de la enseñanza de la escritura basada en el concepto de género, influido tanto por la teoría de género, como por la lingüística sistémico-funcional apoyó el desarrollo de la escritura académica de los estudiantes de inglés como segunda lengua en proceso de transición a la escuela secundaria. a partir de la lingüística sistémica funcional como una herramienta para la pedagogía y análisis lingüístico, el profesor-investigador analizó tres clases de textos elaborados por estudiantes de inglés como segunda lengua para determinar los cambios en cuanto a redacción de sus textos realizados durante el curso de enseñanza de la escritura basada en el género. los métodos utilizados fueron de naturaleza cualitativa, los cuales incluyeron tanto el análisis del texto y su respectivo contexto. los datos fueron tomados de múltiples fuentes; en las que se incluyen: los videos de las observaciones 1 received: january 5th,2011 / accepted: july 19th, 2011 2 email:joshua.schulze@umb.edu gist education and learning research journal. issn 1692-5777. no. 5, november 2011. pp. 127-157 no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) 128 de clase, las transcripciones de las entrevistas semiestructuradas realizadas a los estudiantes, planes de clase, el material utilizado en la aplicación de las lecciones y las notas de campo realizadas por el observador participante. los resultados sugieren que un enfoque de la enseñanza de la escritura basada en el concepto de género provee herramientas a los estudiantes ell para la producción de textos que se acercan más al registro de la lengua de estudio. palabras claves: aprendizaje del inglés como segundo idioma, pedagogía basada en el género, lectoescritura académica, lingüística sistémica funcional, redacción de textos persuasivos resumo este estudo explora como o enfoque do ensino da escritura baseada no conceito de gênero, influído tanto pela teoria de gênero, como pela linguística sistêmicofuncional apoiou o desenvolvimento da escritura acadêmica dos estudantes de inglês como segunda língua em processo de transição à escola secundária. a partir da linguística sistêmica funcional como uma ferramenta para a pedagogia e análise linguística, o professor-pesquisador analisou três classes de textos elaborados por estudantes de inglês como segunda língua; para determinar as mudanças em quanto à redação de seus textos realizados durante o curso de ensino da escritura baseada no gênero. os métodos utilizados foram de natureza qualitativa, os quais incluíram tanto a análise do texto e seu respectivo contexto. os dados foram tomados de múltiplas fontes; nas que se incluem: os vídeos das observações de classe, as transcrições das entrevistas semi-estruturadas realizadas aos estudantes, planos de classe, o material utilizado na aplicação das lições e as notas de campo realizadas pelo observador participante. os resultados sugerem que um enfoque do ensino da escritura baseada no conceito de gênero provê ferramentas aos estudantes ell para a produção de textos que se aproximam mais ao registro da língua de estudo. palavras chaves: aprendizagem do inglês como segundo idioma, pedagogia baseada no gênero, leito-escritura acadêmica, linguística sistêmica funcional, redação de textos persuasivos across the content areas of upper elementary and middle school, students are expected to use academic language to persuade, argue and justify their points of view in well organized persuasive texts. learning to use academic language to persuade can be especially challenging for ells who are simultaneously learning new concepts through a new language (halliday, 1985; gibbons, 2009). one of the primary challenges for ells lies in the differences between academic and social language. academic language or what researchers have termed “the language of schooling” (schleppegrell, 2004) or “school discourse” (christie & derewianka, 2008) differs significantly writing to persuade schulze no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) 129 from the everyday social language students typically learn naturally through meaningful interactions at home (bruce, 2009; cummins, 2001; halliday, 1985; heath, 1983; schleppegrell, 2004). relying less on the immediate context for interpretation, academic language employs discipline specific terminology and lexically dense sentence structures to make meaning (halliday, 1985; schleppegrell, 2004). the differences between academic and social language are not typically brought to the attention of ells through traditional process methods of writing instruction found in us educational contexts. while process methods emphasize self-expression and creativity, they typically postpone clause level analysis of language use until the editing and revision stages (hyland, 2004). critics of process methods voice concern that postponing attention to language does not sufficiently support ells who may not yet have gained sufficient control of grammar and genre structures to compose academic texts (cope and kalantzis, 1993; hasan, 1996: hyland, 2007). in response, literacy researchers concerned with the academic literacy development of ells have begun to reexamine the role of genre-based pedagogy and sfl in us k-12 contexts with the ultimate goal of making the differences between academic and social language visible to ells (fang & schleppegrell, 2008; 2010; gebhard, harman, & seeger, 2007; gebhard, et. al. 2011; schleppegrell & go, 2007; schulze and ramirez, 2007; schulze, 2009). while genre-based pedagogy has been at the forefront of research collaborations between k-12 teachers and functional linguists in australia for the better part of two decades (christie, 1991, 1999; cope & kalantzis, 1993; feez, 1998; 2002; macken-horarick, 2002; martin, 1993, 1998; 2001), it has only been more recently explored in north american educational contexts (gebhard, harman, & seeger, 2007; schleppegrell, 2004; schleppegrell & go, 2007). schleppegrell & go (2007) employed sfl as a tool for facilitating the linguistic analysis of student texts as way of helping teachers in “starting where learners are grammatically” (p. 538). gebhard, harman & seger (2007) further explore the intersection of genre, sfl, and critical pedagogy as they chronicle a teacher’s apprenticeship of her ells into the use of academic language within persuasive genres to challenge existing school policies. in spite of these context-rich descriptive studies of the teaching and learning of academic language more research is needed. martin (2009) attests to this fact in his call for research when he notes that the “practical power of a model of this kind has been yet to be fully explored in l2 contexts” (p. 19). therefore, with the attention of corroborating and expanding upon these recent studies exploring the role of sfl and genre in supporting the academic writing development of ells in k-12 us contexts, i designed a teacher action research writing to persuade schulze no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) 130 project exploring the teaching of persuasive genres through an sfl model of genre-based pedagogy. during the fall of 2008, as voters in the united states prepared to cast their ballots for president, i implemented a curricular unit designed to instruct my 5th grade ells in writing a persuasive essay to convince readers to vote for the candidate they were supporting. ultimately, i found that after the implementation of genre-based pedagogy my students composed texts that more closely approximated the generic structure and academic register expected of arguments created in school contexts. the following research questions guided the study: research questions: 1. how does genre-based pedagogy support ells in using academic language to write persuasive arguments? 2. what does systemic functional analysis of student writing reveal about their academic writing development during genre-based pedagogy? systemic functional approaches to genre-based pedagogy the concept of genre and its accompanying instructional branch of genre-based pedagogy is taken up in significantly different ways by researchers working in english for specific purposes (bhatia, 1990; swales, 1990), rhetoric and composition (miller, 1984) and new literacy studies (new london group, 1996)3. for those working from an sfl perspective, genre-based pedagogy draws on the theories of british linguist michael halliday. informed by the studies of cultural anthropologists malinowski (1935) and firth (1957), halliday (1978) theorizes that the context of language use serves as the essential influence on the construction of meaning. language users comprehend linguistic interactions in relation to both the context of culture with regards to the history, ideology and value systems of a culture and the more immediate context of situation or “environment of the text” (halliday & hasan, 1989, p.6). guided by these contextual factors, language users draw on a range of possible choices to make meaning, rather than simply adhere to grammatical rules (halliday & matthiessen, 2004; eggins, 1994; gebhard & martin, 2011). halliday further contends that language has three essential metafunctions that work together to bring meaning to text: the ideational, interpersonal, and the textual. the ideational metafunction concerns itself with textual content, namely the linguistic representation of the world and construal of the “theory 3 several comprehensive reviews have detailed the ways genre and genre-based pedagogy have been taken up by language researchers. see hyland, 2004; hyon, 1996; gebhard & harman, 2011; and martin, 2009 for reviews. writing to persuade schulze no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) 131 of human experience” (halliday & matthiessen, 2004, p. 29). kress and van leeuwen (2001) distinguished the ideational metafunction as “what is going on in the world” and “who does what, with or to whom, and where” (pg.13). the interpersonal meta-function refers to the interactive nature of language and the conveyance of judgment and attitudes within utterances. the textual meta-function facilitates the ideational and interpersonal metafunctions by organizing messages in unified and coherent ways. working together, these three metafunctions bring meaning to texts. register. within specific social situations and contexts, language’s three metafunctions are realized as register. composed of field, tenor, and mode, register corresponds broadly to what is being presented, who is involved, and how it is being presented (eggins, 2004; halliday, 1989; martin, 1992; ghaddessy, 1993). specifically, the field of situation has to do with what happens in a text (the processes), who or what is involved in these happenings (the participants) and the linguistic markers that indicate where, how or when events take place (the circumstances)4. processes form the principle foundation of a clause since the clause is primarily concerned with the action or the state in which the participants are involved. in sfl, various categories of processes represent aspects of experience. for instance, relational processes represent ways of being and having and use the verbal group “to be” and “to have” to connect the participant and the experience. examples include, “i was really happy” or “john has a good heart” (christie and derewianka, 2008). tenor is defined as the way language reflects the roles of text participants with consideration of peer dynamics and social distance. such issues as the level of familiarity or formality among participants and their relative status and attitudes towards each other and/or the topic determine this aspect. analysis of the tenor of a written text includes examining aspects of mood, modality, and appraisal. in sfl terms, mood is concerned with the symbolic exchange occurring between writer and potential reader. examination of the mood of a clause in written text focuses on the mood block composed of subject and finite. analysis includes determining whether clauses are rendered in the indicative (declarative or interrogative) or imperative form. closely related to mood is modality. modality signals the degree of probability or obligation put forth in a clause. it is comprised of subcategories: modalization and modulation (halliday and mathiessen, 2004; martin 1 these terms from sfl correspond broadly to the terms verb, noun and adverb found in traditional grammar. writing to persuade schulze no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) 132 and rose, 2003, 2008; thompson, 2004). modalization refers to the scale of probability set forth in the clause as is indicated by the use of modals ranked on a degree scale from most likely to least likely as: will, shall, may, might and won’t. modulation is defined as “the scales of obligation and inclination” (halliday and matthiessen, 2004, pg. 147) and is indicated by the modals ranked on a degree scale as: could, should, may, or must. appraisal is defined as “the kinds of attitudes that are negotiated in a text, the strength of the feelings involved and the ways values are sourced and reader’s aligned” (martin & rose, 2008, p.25). three main components comprise the framework of appraisal: affect, judgment, and appreciation (martin, 2000). effective persuasive writers call on these resources to make their opinions known using authoritative style and an expert voice. mode concerns the textual conveyance of a logical, coherent and cohesive message. when analyzing the mode of written text, linguists consider such elements as theme and rheme, repetition and conjunction. in sfl terms, theme refers to the “first constituent of the clause” (thompson, 2004, p. 143) or “the point of departure of the message” (halliday and matthiessen, 2004, p.64). rheme is what remains and typically presents the new information in the clause. though frequently found in the subject position, theme does not necessarily perform the subject function as it is not always the intended emphasis of the clause. repetition and conjunction, another important element used to create cohesion and cohesiveness in a text maintain their traditional grammatical definitions. genre. within cultures, varying but limited combinations of registers combine to enact socially recognizable meanings and to accomplish tasks. such “global patterns” (martin and rose, 2008) of register configurations are referred to in sfl as genres5. martin, christie and rothery (1987) describe genre as a “staged, goal-oriented social process” with “structural forms that cultures use in certain contexts to achieve various purposes” (pg. 59). genres are considered to have stages because they typically take a number of steps to achieve their goal. stages are signaled by the inclusion of distinct clause level elements such as processes, participants, and circumstances (derewianka, 1990; eggins, 2004). as a text moves through its stages or “schematic structures” (martin and rose, 2008), the linguistic, syntactical and textual features typical of the genre work together to realize a text’s intended purpose; 5 see hyon (1996) for a comprehensive review and analysis of the term’s use in three different paradigms of language and literacy research. writing to persuade schulze no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) 133 thus, making genres “goal oriented.” genres are considered to be a social process because participants generally interact in accomplishing the goals. this study examines the social process of persuasion which in the context of the school setting is accomplished by the genre of argument. in this case the argument is a political one in which the writer is attempting to persuade the reader to vote for a particular candidate. to accomplish this purpose, the writer takes a position and justifi es it by following an organized textual structure composed of a series of stages or steps each of which are typically signaled by the inclusion of particular language features. language researchers have described the stages and accompanying linguistic features typically encountered in academic arguments (derewianka, 1990; schelppegrell, 2003; christie and derewianka, 2008). the fi rst stage generally consists of the presentation of the issue in which the author orients the reader to the context of the argument and provides relevant background information. second, the author takes a position and justifi es it using detailed evidence such as quotes and statistics to support claims. the quotes and statistics are explicated using the timeless present tense. this stage is also typically distinguished by the author’s inclusion of logical connectives such as transitions and conjunctions that bring structure and cohesiveness to the author’s presentation of his position (derewianka, 1990). third, the author may include some form of resolution. last, the author sums up the position and recommends action. throughout the genre, the following language features help writers accomplish the genre’s purpose: generalized participants, timeless present tense of processes, variety of processes, connectives structuring the argument, high use of emotive words, nominalizations, and connectives associated with reasoning (derewianka, 1990). overview of the genre based teaching and learning cycle: study design and procedures adapted from feez (1998) and gibbons (2009) writing to persuade schulze no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) 134 to support my students in learning to write effective persuasive texts, i implemented a genre teaching and learning cycle created by feez (1998) and outlined in the work of english language educator pauline gibbons (2009). gibbons’ work expands the earlier designs of j.r. martin and his colleagues who created a three-level model of genre pedagogy that followed a sequence of deconstruction, joint construction and independent construction (see macken, et al. 1989). while sharing many similarities with martin’s three level cycle, gibbons’s version emphasizes the integration of content and language by providing a focus on building a shared understanding of the topic through discussion prior to, rather than during, reading and writing. throughout the cycle, the teacher provides instructional scaffolding designed to bring emphasis to the structure and use of language within academic texts. first, the teacher designs activities to build up students’ knowledge of the field or topic of discussion. the inclusion of this component of the cycle is essential for ells who may possess limited background knowledge of the subject about which they will be writing. since my students were not born in the united states and had limited knowledge of the us electoral process, building this background knowledge was essential. to build their knowledge of the political and historical issues they would encounter in reading and writing activities, we read a series of articles from time magazine, time magazine for kids, the internet site www.timeforkids.com and other supporting texts about government and citizenship. to further put the election in historical context for my students, i conducted a read-aloud of two texts about the legislative branch of us government. we followed the reading with a whole-group discussion about the electoral process. i then designed an activity in which students worked in pairs to choose an issue and research their chosen candidates’ opinions on the issue as presented on the website timeforkids.com, a website designed to make complex topical issues accessible to children. issues chosen by students included us involvement in the wars in iraq and afghanistan and current us economic policy. after their research, we gathered as a group to discuss their findings. we also created a reference chart with lists of participants and processes that students encountered in their reading to draw on during their composition process. the cycle continued with the reading and analysis of exemplar texts that fulfill the social purpose and function of the genre. to facilitate this part of the cycle, i collected exemplar texts from various sources including letters to the editor from a variety of newspapers, persuasive essays written by students in a third-grade regular education class, and teachercreated model texts addressing the topic. my instruction at this stage included activities designed to make the linguistic features of the text writing to persuade schulze no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) 135 visible. for instance, as a group we read several letters to the editor. as we read, i instructed students to underline and highlight portions of the text. i then facilitated a discussion regarding what they thought the writer was trying to accomplish at that stage of the text and evaluate the extent to which they were being persuaded by the writer. students also used highlighters to identify vocabulary, lexical terms, and persuasive phrases and recorded those terms in their notebooks. next students were given a series of excerpts from the letters to the editor. students were asked to determine the extent to which they fulfilled the purpose of an issue statement, argument statement and recommendation according to the guidelines and definitions of those stages we had discussed prior to this activity. students maintained their materials and drafts in a resource folder for further reference. during the next stage of the cycle, texts are jointly constructed by the teacher and students. i did this on two occasions, employing strategies such as “think aloud” to make my thought process visible to students as i was writing. the cycle concludes, as it did with my students, with the independent creation of their own texts. during the unit students composed three written drafts. given that the cycle of genre-based pedagogy is by definition recursive, after composing each draft, we returned to our study of the generic structure, linguistic features and lexical items used within each stage. students were asked to read and identify the purpose of each stage of a teachercreated exemplar text. we also focused on the language at the clause level as we reviewed ways to approximate a more academic register. for instance, we focused on the tenor by listing what we thought were “strong words” found in the letters to the editor and model texts and then discussing how these words helped connect authors with their readers and establish their authority. next, we focused on the mode by creating a list of transitional words, defined their meaning and practiced their use by completing a cloze exercise in which they had to insert an appropriate transitional word or phrase. after this additional scaffolding, students completed a third and final draft independently. methodology: setting, participants, study design and procedures, data collection the setting for this study was a large urban k-8 school in the northeastern united states. the school has a majority latino population of which 40% are native spanish speakers. of these spanish speakers, 80% were born outside of the united states in spanish speaking countries in the caribbean and central america. the participants in the study were six early emergent bilingual students enrolled in the 5th grade. based upon the results of evaluations of their oral and written writing to persuade schulze no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) 136 english, the english language level of the students was determined to be “early intermediate” which meant that they could hold routine social interactions in english, but needed additional support in the use of academic english. the course was designed as a “pull-out” class intended to support emergent bilingual students in learning to read, write, speak and listen to academic english so that they may fully participate in their sheltered english immersion class (sei). data collection the following question guided my data collection: how does genre-based pedagogy support ells in writing persuasive arguments? to explore this question, i relied on three primary methods of data collection: participant observation, video/audio recording and semistructured interviews. during the fall of 2008, my 5th grade ell class met approximately threetimes weekly for two hours each session. immediately following each class, i collected all materials used in the class such as worksheets and sample persuasive texts as well as materials i had gathered for student reference such as letters to the editor or news articles. i collected graphic organizers, notebooks, and short responses. i also collected the chart paper on which i wrote the lesson’s agenda and language objectives. frequently, i also photographed the white board to note what i had written. unfortunately, since i was sharing the room with a colleague, i was often not fast enough in my photography to preserve the data from the board before it was erased. following each lesson, i took field notes of my observations. as part of my field notes, i recorded the materials used, students’ comments and questions. i evaluated what i thought was working and what i thought needed further clarification and instruction. in addition to my participant observation, i video and audio recorded each of our classes. i used a digital video camera to record whole group instruction, teacher and student interactions and student and student interaction. i also videotaped students as they worked alone revising or taking notes. within two days of the lesson, i watched the videos to make additional notes regarding my instruction and record difficulties students were experiencing. i transcribed short portions of student and teacher interactions so that i could look closely at what i was saying and how students were responding. i collected three instantiations of student texts during the course of the instructional unit. the three drafts served as essential informative components of my teaching. as i transcribed and divided the texts at the clause level, i closely focused on how my students were changing writing to persuade schulze no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) 137 the structure and register of their texts. after transcription and analysis, i designed language based lessons to scaffold students’ language development. for example, after collecting students’ second drafts, i noticed that students were not incorporating many transitions in their texts. to support their development of textual cohesion, i designed a lesson focusing on the use of transitions. i followed this cycle after each collection and transcription of student drafts. data collection during the unit concluded with my videotaping students’ “genre performances” as they read their persuasive texts to an audience of 4th grade esl students conducting a mock presidential election. upon completion of the unit, i interviewed four students to broaden my perspective on student learning. to present an in-depth analysis of how sfl analysis can demonstrate aspects of academic writing development, i present an analysis of the work of my focal student. kira (a pseudonym) is representative of many of the students in my class as she has limited schooling in her country of birth, the dominican republic. she entered 4th grade unable to write academically in her l1, but demonstrated great progress during the course of the genre-based writing unit. her three drafts are presented below. focal student first draft focal student second draft focal student third draft on november 4 there is going to be a new president because it had past 4 years ago and every 4 years the us citizens choose a new president. the fi rst reason why i will like the us citizens to vote for barack obama is because barack obama is going to stop the war in 6 month because more than 5,000 soldiers have been died. writing to persuade schulze no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) 138 the next reason why i want the us citizens to vote for obama is because hi is going to lower the prices of the food, close and every thing that has a price. the last reason that i want the us citizens to vote obama is because he is going to help people that don’t have a lot of money pay there house bills. these are the three reasons why i want the us citizens to vote for barak obama. data analysis upon collecting three drafts of student writing, i conducted an sfl linguistic analysis of students’ texts to evaluate my students’ academic literacy development following genre-based pedagogy. the unit of analysis for my study was the register of student texts as represented by the register variables of field, tenor, and mode. register analysis facilitated the evaluation of changes in student language use during the course of the unit. to facilitate the analysis of the register variables of field tenor and mode, i made a typed transcription of each student text and divided the texts into clauses (ghadessy, 1993; halliday and matthiesen, 2004; thompson, 2004). first, aspects of the field were analyzed. to analyze the field, processes, participants and circumstances were labeled as they occurred in each clause. the processes were then further divided into the subcategories of mental, material, and relational. second, the tenor of the student texts were analyzed through the identification of the mood and speech role of each clause. to do, clauses were labeled as indicative (declarative or interrogative) or imperative. then, all occurring modal elements were labeled. next, to develop a better understanding of the appraisal value of students’ lexical choices, a chart was created that listed all words and phrases with the exclusion of articles and prepositions that occurred more than twice in student texts. the words and phrases were placed on a chart which intended to represent a continuum from least powerful or “strong” to most powerful or “strong.” last, the mode of student text was analyzed by indentifying and labeling cohesive elements such as repetition and conjunctions as well as identifying the theme and rheme of each clause. changes in register: field sfl analysis of the field of student texts helps to demonstrate what students can do enter the unit and their academic writing development during the course of the unit. sfl analysis of the field of kira’s first text shows multiple strengths. first, it is notable that kira introduced campaign issues and described the opposing candidate to her readers using two particular forms of processes: relational and writing to persuade schulze no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) 139 material. at the beginning of her text, she uses the attributive relational process “is” in the clause “mccain is a republican” to identify the opposing candidate. she then expands the clause by adding a material transformative process “might put everything expensive” to emphasize the effect of the opposing candidate’s election. using the relational process to connect the participant and the phenomenon, kira firmly associates the opposing candidate with the ruling political party which at a time of economic distress in the usa was suffering the reputation of being a poor steward of the economy. her particular combination of these relational and transformative material processes functions to establish a link between the opposing candidate’s political affiliation and potential negative economic results of his election. as her first text continues, kira expands the field of her argument to define the election as a breaking of racial barriers. this definition is established through her use of the identifying relational process “is” to connect the participant “another reason” with the assertion or value in sfl terms “there has never been a black guy as president.” in doing so, her use of the relational process facilitates her introduction of the topic of race and frames the electoral choice as an opportunity to break racial barriers, an argument that kira perhaps believes will resonate with a racially diverse audience of classmates and community members. defining candidates and establishing negative or positive associations as well as predicting the impact of their election remains an important technique of effective persuasive political writing. potential voters want to know who the candidates are and what the impact of their election will be on their lives so they can make informed choices. kira uses relational processes to accomplish both such functions within her first draft. however, sfl analysis of kira’s second text does not show significant broadening of the field of her argument. rather, she narrows her argument to the field of economic policy. this more focused field was evident by her use of processes emphasizing the economy in the clauses “put the prices down low” and “help people pay their house bills.” though more limited in the field, kira’s second draft shows noticeable improvement at the clause level. particularly, kira’s incorporation of mental processes, such as “want”, help specify the actions she wishes her readers to perform. she attaches the mental process to the clause specifying her intentions, termed the phenomenon in sfl, “the second graders to vote for obama.” in doing so, she creates a language pattern [participant +mental process of desideration + phenomenon specifying desideration]. the repetition of this clause constitutes a pattern as she uses the same syntactical structure in the initial clause of two more ensuing paragraphs in the same draft. writing to persuade schulze no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) 140 table 1. use of mental processes for a language learner, this linguistic pattern provides her with the scaffolding necessary to make her desires and intentions clear to readers. while overreliance on the pattern occurs, and instruction addressing sentence variety would be benefi cial, it is important to note that her use of this chosen pattern helps kira to accomplish a linguistic move she was not able to accomplish previously, that is, she presents a variety of reasons to support her candidate and clarifi es the reasons her peers should do so as well. kira demonstrates additional academic writing development in the fi eld of her text through her increased usage of circumstances of time. while kira did not use any circumstances of time in her fi rst two texts, kira incorporates the circumstances “on november 4” and “it had past 4 years ago” and “every four years” in the fi rst and second clauses (which make up the fi rst sentence) of her third instantiation. the inclusion of these linguistic markers at this point in the issue stage, functions to help orient her readers to the timetable of the election cycle. furthermore, providing these circumstances strengthens her issue statement by clarifying the timeliness and the relevancy of the topic for her readers. it also demonstrates her audience awareness given that she knows the majority of her audience will be other ells who may not be familiar with the us election cycle and would benefi t from the additional background information being provided. changes in register: tenor (mood, modality, appraisal) sfl analysis of kira’s writing refl ects an increasing ability to negotiate aspects of tenor in her text, especially the elements of mood, modality and appraisal. analysis of the mood of a text is designed to make visible the exchanges that are taking place between text writer and text reader. to analyze the mood, i looked at the number of declarative versus interrogative sentences to see what kind of exchanges were taking place. throughout all three texts, the exchange between writer and reader involves kira giving information about the candidate and providing reasons why readers should vote for him. to give information writing to persuade schulze no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) 141 exclusively employs declarative statements without hedges or any signs of wavering. her exclusive use of declarative statements contributes to an authoritative tenor in her text. however, she could have more effectively made her point by including imperatives that commanded her audience to vote for her candidate followed by a explanatory clause supporting her reasoning. in further instruction, this would be an area target for further development. also contributing to the authoritative tenor is her use of modal elements. in sfl terms, modality signals the degree of probability or obligation put forth in a clause. it is comprised of subcategories: modalization and modulation (halliday and mathiessen, 2005; martin and rose, 2003, 2008; thompson, 2004). modalization refers to the scale of probability set forth in the clause as is indicated by the use of modals ranked on a degree scale from most likely to least likely as: will, shall, may, might and won’t. modulation is defined as “the scales of obligation and inclination” (halliday and matthiessen, 2004, pg. 147) and is indicated by the modals ranked on a degree scale as: must, should, could. kira’s first text shows that as the unit began she was already able to negotiate some aspects of modalization. for instance, she employs a lower degree of modalization in the clause interpreting mccain’s economic policy, “he might put everything expensive.” this instance remains the exception. in the rest of her text she returns to presenting information using clauses with a high degree of probability resulting in a strong interpersonal tone to her argument. kira’s second text reflects a higher degree of modalization. for example, she couples the future tense marker “is going” with the infinitive form of the process “to help people” to construct a clause which predicts the effects of her candidate’s election for her readers. the construction [{high modalization} + infinitive}] is presented with a high level of certainty and without hedges. she offers predictions using firm statements of fact suggesting a sense of authority and certainty which are effective elements for persuasive writing. kira’s third text again exemplifies increased control and effective use of modalization. the following clause exemplifies modalization development: “the next reason why i want the us citizens to vote for obama is because he is going to lower the prices of the food, clothes, and everything.” kira’s argument is strengthened in notable ways. through the use of a high degree of modal commitment in the above clause, kira adds a great deal of validity to her statement. by stating her reasons positively without hesitation, kira states the effect of her candidate’s election in certain terms and adds what her candidate would do as fact, rather than speculation. in stating that “this is” what obama will do rather than adding modals of speculation such as “might” or “may” to her writing to persuade schulze no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) 142 statements she makes a more convincing stance to her readers that leaves less room for disagreement. in contrast to her use of modalization, kira’s use of modulation is much less intense in her first text. within her recommendation statement, she employs a low obligation level, “i want you to vote for obama because mccain is republican.” increasing the level of modulation would clarify the intensity of her commitment to her candidate for her readers. for instance, had kira written “voters must vote for obama, so america will be better!” her commitment and enthusiasm for her candidate would be more clearly conveyed. while i did not teach this aspect of modulation directly, after i modeled two texts kira was able to incorporate additional aspects of modulation. kira’s second text shows a marked increase in modulation. despite the increase, the degree of obligation remains low. nevertheless, through a combined use of modulation and modalization several of her clauses convey a strong message about the economic effects of her candidate’s election. for example, in the clause “i want the second graders to vote for obama because barack obama is going to put the house prices down low” she chooses to express her wishes through the use of the mildly modalized clause [“i want”] and couples it with a second modalized clause explaining why they should do so, “ [obama] is going to help people to pay their house bills.” had kira chosen to employ modulation to a higher degree, using modals of a higher degree of intensity such as “must” or “should”, the level of obligation would have increased and perhaps more effectively convinced readers to agree with her claims. in contrast to her first two texts, kira does not employ modulation in that she does not present any terms of obligation to the reader. in other words, she does not make a recommendation or use the modal “should” to emphasize her desire for students to support obama. she states her reasoning and expands and clarifies the reasoning with a clause beginning with “because” that clearly states the way in which her candidate will accomplish plans for an economic recovery. kira’s use of elements of modalization and modulation remained fairly consistent throughout her three instantiations of her texts. while she is able to express probability with high degrees of modalization, she does not effectively use modulation to convey a sense of obligation or urgency to her reader. kira, like many other ells, struggled with incorporating such aspects of modality into their writing and will need continued support when persuasive writing instruction reoccurs (holmes, 1982). writing to persuade schulze no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) 143 sfl analysis of kira’s texts reveals subtle but noteworthy development in her use of aspects of appraisal. throughout her texts, kira does not use language that directly evaluates the behavior or actions of the candidates. rather, she uses language that expresses her values less directly. for instance, as previously noted, she defines the opposing candidate by his political affiliation using a relational process to connect the participant with an attribute in the clause, mccain is a republican. providing identification of a candidate’s political affiliation is not unusual within the context of a political argument. however, in this case, kira draws on the political context in which many voters were blaming the us’s economic instability on the ruling republican party. therefore, one could argue that she uses the opposing candidate’s party affiliation as an attribute expressing affect rather than an identifier and connects the two through the relational processes “is.” such a linguistic construction allows kira to equate membership in the republican party with continued economic hardship. to further express her disapproval of the opposing party’s economic policies and her judgment of their ability to alter unstable economic conditions, kira repeats the negatively connoted word “expensive” three times. specifically, she expresses judgment by making declarative statements using processes that underscore the opposing candidates role in the economy, namely that mccain will “put everything expensive” and making the projection that if he were to be elected “food is going to be expensive.” as her argument continues, kira’s “attitudinal position” (martin & white, 2005) is further revealed. notably, in the second paragraph of her first text, she injects an element of race into her argument. she contends that the election of a “black guy” to the presidency constitutes a reason to vote for obama. including this aspect in her supporting argument indicates the importance she places on the breaking of racial barriers represented by obama’s election. her particular linguistic choices, however, highlight that she needs additional support in learning to convey appreciation using academic language when discussing issues such as race. sfl analysis of kira’s second text reveals that she continues to use aspects of appraisal to evaluate her candidate positively. namely she relies on language that expresses judgment of participant actions to focus her message on what she views as the positive effects of obama’s election on the economy. she conveys this message by including judgmental clauses in declarative form that specify that obama will “put the house prices down” and “put the prices down” and “help people.” such lexical and grammatical choices, utilizing processes with positive appraisal values, convey her message regarding the positive effect of obama’s election. she contrasts this impact with the writing to persuade schulze no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) 144 election of mccain negating the process to express her judgment of the effects of the opposing candidate’s election in the clause “john, will not help with their house bills.” within her second text, kira abandons all references to race found within her initial argument. absent are the references to “the first black guy” being president, an effect she had previously evaluated positively. in place of an emphasis on the breaking of racial barriers comes a more focused economic argument concerned with “prices,” “house bills” and “help.” such choices reflect kira’s academic writing development in that the informality and conversational tone more appropriate to the context of a classroom conversation has shown some development towards a more academic register. furthermore, the shift reveals the extent to which she is attuned to the political arguments that are making up the context for her composition. as she was composing the second text and as the days of the election were drawing near, the emphasis of the political battle focused sharply on the faltering us economy. in an apparent response to the shift, kira alters the focus of her argument. she casts her candidate’s election as a call for economic stability and the election of the opposing candidate as clear continuation of the economic suffering experienced by the majority of her intended audience. kira’s use of aspects of appraisal, reflected in her lexical choices, demonstrate how in tune she is with the context of her composition and the extent to which she is able to draw on contextual resources surrounding her composition, specifically those referring to the negative economic climate to make her argument. by her third text, kira expands her argument beyond the economy and more effectively uses aspects of appraisal to convince her readers to vote for obama. in this instantiation, she couples her economic argument with one addressing the war on terrorism. she assures her readers that obama will “stop the war because 5,000 soldiers have been died (killed).” while including statistics reveals academic register development, the inclusion of this particular statistic reveals that she is aware of the human cost of war. had she been arguing for a continuation of the war on terrorism, she may have chosen to emphasize a need for security or a proactive stance on matters of defeating terrorism. her use of the process “stop” also makes clear that she believes her candidate will end, rather than diminish the scale of the conflict. kira does not abandon her economic argument entirely. she continues to use declaratively stated clauses containing processes that reflect her positive judgment of obama’s future actions regarding the economy such as “barack obama is going to help” and “barack obama is going to put the house prices down.” through her declarations, writing to persuade schulze no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) 145 she casts obama as an economic hero who will “lower the price of food, clothes, and everything that has a price.” she is clear presenting his election as the key to an economic turnaround, an argument that demonstrates both her own immediate concern for the economic situation and her audience awareness of just how fundamentally important a change in the current economic climate would be for them. conclusion of interpersonal analysis although she indicates her belief that obama’s election will end the war, kira avoids appraising the moral character and/or the personalities of the candidates, a typical characteristic of appraisal (martin & white, 2005). kira’s argument remains issue-centered rather than personalitycentered, resulting in a more authoritative tenor within her text. however, while certain aspects of perceived neutrality can lead readers to view the author as level-headed and rational, a persuasive text devoid of emotion may leave readers questioning a writer’s convictions. the model texts we deconstructed in class aimed to demonstrate a balance of enthusiasm for our candidate and factual reporting. however, the focus of further writing instruction could include analyzing more texts to demonstrate ways expert authors introduce vocabulary reflecting appraisal of topics to appeal to the emotions of readers. register analysis: changes in the mode (theme/rheme, conjunction and repetition) sfl analysis of changes in the mode of kira’s text reflects academic writing development. three aspects of mode were highlighted for analysis: theme/rheme, repetition and conjunction. kira’s texts demonstrate development in her ability to convey a cohesive message through her choice of theme, most notably in her third text. within her third text she places clauses emphasizing time and sequence in the theme position. for instance, her first clause contains the circumstance, “on november 4” in the theme position. in contrast to her first two drafts, she does not initiate the argument immediately, but instead includes a circumstantial clause element in the theme position to orient her readers to the time when voting will take place and emphasizes the relevancy and the timeliness of her topic. kira follows this circumstantial clause with a series of tightly constructed clauses each of which formulates a pattern, as i noted earlier, and contains a sequence marker (first, next, last). these clauses move her argument forward sequentially, and organize her arguments by order of importance. repetition sophisticated writers rely on repetition as a resource to hold their texts together, especially texts that deal with complex or technical writing to persuade schulze no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) 146 topics. through clause repetition writers build an argument that keeps “lexical strings relatively simple, while complex lexical relations are constructed around them” (martin and rose, 2003, p. 81). in her second and third texts, kira uses phrasal repetition as a linguistic marker indicating sequential and logical textual movement. specifically, she uses the phrases: “a reason”, “another reason,” and “the last reason” to create a repetitive language pattern. within her third text, she expands this language pattern to the following: “a reason why i would like the us citizens to vote for obama is because.” these elements signal to readers that she is presenting her reasons and that she will follow her initial statement immediately by clarification of the exact reason she supports her candidate. repetition also allows kira to build a cohesive argument. in fact, she holds all three instantiations of her text together using specific lexical repetitions, precisely, the words “reason” and “because.” the word “reason” appears a total of 8 times in the three versions of her text: twice in the first and three times in the second and third. the word “because” is used 10 times: four times in the first text, twice in the second, and four times in the last. in the final version of her text, she repeats the variations of the entire clause “the reason i want the us citizens to vote for obama is” three separate times. while the repetitions are predictable and arguably uninteresting, they provide a valuable form of scaffolding for ells negotiating new linguistic terrain. as a new user of the language, she relies on the structure as a linguistic formula in which she can signal to her readers that she is both stating and explaining her reasoning. in other words, her repetitions serve as linguistic guideposts alerting readers to the location of the statement of her beliefs and the subsequent explanations of her beliefs. clauses such as “i want you to vote for obama because mccain is a republican and he might put everything expensive” and “the last reason why i want the second graders to vote for barack obama is because if they vote for john, john will not help them with their house bills” exemplify this point. these specific examples demonstrate how she uses the repetitions as textual markers both at the clause and paragraph level to signal that she will immediately provide an explanation explaining her support. the conjunction, “because” signals the explanation and is followed by a clause that both clarifies her reasons for supporting obama and predicts the outcome of his election or failure to be elected will be. conjunction conjunctions establish logical connections between processes in a text (martin and rose, 2003). as i modeled the compositional arguments in class, i brought specific attention to the way i used writing to persuade schulze no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) 147 conjunctions to link my claims about my candidate with supporting details supporting the claims. postinstructional analysis reveals that kira increased her use of the conjunction “because” to link her ideas. while the conjunction word “because” appears only twice in both her first and second texts, it appears no fewer than eight times in her third text. kira relies primarily on the conjunction “because” to connect the initial part of her phrase expressing her wish that readers support her candidate with explanations supporting her claim. she writes: “the last reason that i want the us citizens to vote obama is because he is going to help people who don’t have a lot of money pay their house bills.” as in her use of specific repetitions, kira uses conjunctions to move her argument forward, but in a way that risks boring or distracting the reader. as with her use of repetitions, activities designed to promote variety in language and sentence structure would prove potentially beneficial. discussion the results of this study contribute to the body of knowledge being generated by sfl literacy researchers whose work has investigated the potential of genre-based pedagogy to facilitate the academic writing development of ells both in australian (christie, 1999; christie and derewianka, 2008; gibbons, 2009) and north american k-12 contexts (fang, 2005; fang & schleppegrell, 2008; 2010; gebhard, harman, and seeger, 2007; schleppegrell, achugar, & oteiza, 2004; schleppegrell, 2004; schulze, 2009). as in most studies employing qualitative research methods, the study is hard to replicate on a larger scale, and may indeed be limited to the participants and context of this particular study. however, i believe that through the rich description of the teaching context and detailed sfl analysis of student work, much can be learned about the ways ells learn to write in academic ways during the course of genre-based pedagogy. sfl analysis of students texts revealed that students were better able to more closely approximate the register of academic texts following genre-based pedagogy. close sfl analysis of the changes in the register variables of field, tenor, and mode reflect academic writing development. first, and perhaps most notably, sfl analysis of my focal student’s text demonstrates her expansion and development of the field of her text. she was able to expand her argument beyond issues such as race by including topics such as the wars in iraq and afghanistan and us economic policy and its potential effects on us citizens. genre based pedagogy and the dual focus on language and content helped build students understanding of the issues through discussion. while it may be argued that repeated writings occurring during the process approach may also have increased the writing to persuade schulze no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) 148 amount of text kira would write, the space for discussion and research provided by genrebased pedagogy contributed to kira’s understanding of the political issues important to her readers. student-led research and subsequent group discussion of issues, scaffolded her development of a deeper understanding of issues evident in presentation of the field of her argument. her in-class research and investigations as well as our class discussions about the election supported kira’s ability to incorporate the topics of these discussions into her argument as demonstrated by the inclusion of statistics (5,000 soldiers have been killed) and additional issues in the field of her third text. second, genrebased pedagogy strengthened the tenor of her text by focusing on how effective writers of argument create a social distance and authority when presenting arguments. by focusing on developing an academic tenor in persuasive writing through discussion of the way authors of exemplar texts such as letters to the editor present arguments, she was able to recast her social or informal language choices to reflect a more distant and authoritative tenor expected of an academic persuasive text. the final drafts of her text omitted informal references such as “black guy” and the overly friendly letter-like introduction “dear my family.” the process approach would have conceivably supported her in creating longer and perhaps equally well-structured texts, but would not have opened up pedagogical space to discuss how and why authors of persuasive texts make certain linguistic choices to create a sense of authority. through genre-based pedagogy we were able to explore and evaluate the choices made by “expert” writers in real texts, thereby not only providing my students exemplar models but also a meta-language to talk about why the authors of these models were making the choices they made. finally, as we focused on developing the mode of her text, she transformed a seemingly jumbled and directionless argument, developing modal elements such as theme and rheme, conjunction and repetition in sophisticated ways to construct a more cohesive and coherent argument. recognizably, kira, like many ells at this stage of language learning needs continued support to develop her academic writing abilities. however, genre-based pedagogy brought her closer to the intended goal by providing scaffolding not only in how to structure an argument by emphasizing its form and purpose, but also by supporting her ability to use academic language at the clause level. with the support of educators knowledgeable about academic language development, kira’s development will continue as she receives support in learning how to connect her ideas textually by building on the ideas that she presents at the sentence level and developing those ideas in a cohesive and coherent manner throughout her entire text. at the clause level, writing to persuade schulze no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) 149 she will also build her vocabulary and develop more grammatically sound structures, such as her use of the past participle, so that her ideas can be conveyed with fewer distractions or markers of non-native english language writing. continued mini-lessons focusing on how to incorporate grammatical metaphor in the form of nominalizations would be beneficial. however, as good writers know, there always is room for revising, developing, and improving one’s argument and this study shows just a small sample of how ells like kira can use language based pedagogy to move towards a mastery of an academic register. implications for language education in us educational contexts, a growing number of ells have less access to bilingual education and less time before they are required to read and write in academic ways (august & shanahan, 2006; willet, et. al, 2008). without access to pedagogical practices that focus on academic language, there is a danger that the achievement gap between ells and native english speakers will grow (gaston report, 2009). genre-based pedagogy, as implemented and examined in this study, showed how that danger could be potentially avoided through an approach that supports students as they simultaneously learn through and about their new language. specifically, the study demonstrated an approach to writing instruction that emphasized both genre structure and clause level language use that ultimately supported ells in learning to negotiate academic language, particularly the academic language necessary for effective persuasive writing in classes such as civics, humanities and social studies. one of the advantages of genrebased pedagogy was that it provided ells with a tool kit they could use to analyze how language works to get things done at certain times, in certain places, with certain people. not only was such a tool kit valuable for ells trying to make sense of the specialized language used in the persuasive academic writing, but it was also a highly effective way of helping students “see how content experts use language in discipline specific ways” (fang & schleppegrell, 2010, p. 596). the linguistic tool kit demystified academic language in ways that process approaches typically fail to do and helped my ells make language work for them rather than making them feel they were conforming to arbitrarily set standards. our discussions about language use centered not on what the rules were but rather what the rules of the game were, in other words, how writers effectively used language to persuade their readers to act. with knowledge of language use according to context, they recognized that register of their political texts had to be appropriate for the audience of native english speaking peers in the context of school. the idea of varying language according to context is not new to most students. writing to persuade schulze no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) 150 most students have an awareness of the different registers they employ when writing to their friends and peers versus when writing to their teachers or a family doctor. however, the traditional grammar they encounter during the revision and editing stages of process approaches does not adequately name these linguistic differences so they can talk and learn more about them. nor do process approaches provide ways to negotiate relatively new linguistic terrain as ells begin to formulate ideas in an academic register while performing school genres. genrebased pedagogy, in contrast, supports ells in developing an awareness of the contextual and situational differences that affect their linguistic choices, so when they write they can draw on the resources the teacher has provided in model texts in class as well as their own existing understandings of how language is used in certain contexts. from a pedagogical perspective, the genre-based approach and the sfl analysis of student texts i demonstrated in this study prove potentially valuable for ell teachers. within process writing instructional contexts, well intentioned writing teachers provide students templates such as the ubiquitous “hamburger” or rubrics to serve as templates or check-off lists to ascertain that students are conforming to set standards of achievement. while such templates may serve as a starting point and an informative “self check” for ells faced with the challenge of structuring culturally unfamiliar texts, they remain insufficient for helping ells understand how language works at the clause level to accomplish tasks in certain contexts. language educators can implement genre-based pedagogy that facilitates ell’s viewing academic register as the culmination of a series of linguistic choices gathered from a reservoir of linguistic resources determined by the purpose and function of texts, rather than by arbitrary rules to be memorized. from the perspective of a teacher researcher, genre-based pedagogy and the subsequent sfl linguistic analysis of student texts presented in this study proves beneficial for several reasons. as unsworth (1999) notes, “functional descriptions of language provide a meta-language capable of describing the characteristic features of the language common to all content areas, but different areas deploy the linguistic resources of english in distinctive ways” (514). given that even expert users of a genre may not be able to pinpoint the exact linguistic features that contribute to the appropriateness of the genres used in their field, functional analysis gives teacher researchers a tool to analyze how language is used in the content specific genres they are teaching. in other words, sfl analysis gave me insight into how academic language works to accomplish tasks in persuasive genres and also left me better able to meet my students where they were writing to persuade schulze no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) 151 coming from grammatically so i would have additional insight into what pedagogical support i could provide to advance their academic writing development. as a teacher supporting students in the content areas and teaching students to write academically in a variety of genres to prepare them for entrance into mainstream academic classrooms, having sfl as a tool for linguistic analysis proved particularly helpful. as fang and schleppegrell (2008) note, “while every teacher can use functional analysis to explore a text, it is the content area teacher who is uniquely positioned to help students interpret the meanings that are revealed through the analysis and relate them to the larger goals and the conceptual frameworks of the discipline” (110). i benefited greatly from the linguistic analysis and gained a deeper understanding of the how language works within the genres my students will have to use in content classes. such linguistic knowledge influenced my instruction so that i could incorporate lessons designed to make language use less abstract and more accessible to my students. from this study i also see that there is much room to continue and add to the recent research regarding the use of sfl and genre-based pedagogies that was informing my teaching (aguirre-munoz, park, amabisca & boscardin, 2008; brisk & zisselberger, 2011; gebhard, et. al. 2011; gebhard, harman, & seeger, 2007, fang & schleppegrell, 2010; schleppegrell, achugar, & oteiza, 2004; schleppegrell & go, 2007; schleppegrell & oliveira, 2006). sfl analysis provided me ways of supporting my ells in learning to use language in academic ways within the genre structures i was teaching them. knowing how language worked and what language choices approximated that of the expert users in the field helped me as an educator to articulate this genre specific language use in the context of genre-based pedagogy to support students in using language within those structures to accomplish their purpose of persuading readers to espouse certain viewpoints. a deeper understanding of linguistic elements gives teachers, and in turn their students, the key to 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(2001) multimodal discourse: the modes and media of contemporary communication. london: oxford university press. lucas, t. (2011) teacher preparation for linguistically diverse classrooms. new york: routledge. macken, m., kalantzis, m., kress, g., martin, j.r., cope, b., & rothery, j. (1989) a genre-based approach to teaching writing, years 3-6, book 1: introduction, directorate of studies, nsw department of education, in association with the literacy and education research network, sydney. malinowski, b. (1935) coral gardens and their magic: a study of methods of tilling the soil and agricultural rites in the trobriand islands. martin, j.r. (1992a) english text: system and structure. philadelphia: john benjamins. writing to persuade schulze no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) 155 martin, j.r. (1992b) genre and literacy: modeling context in educational linguistics. annual review of applied linguistics, 13, 141-172. martin, j.r. (1993) a contextual theory of language. in b. cope and m. kalantzis (eds) the powers of literacy: a genre approach to teaching writing, 116-136. pittsburg: university of pittsburg press. martin, j.r. (1997) analyzing genre: functional parameters. in christie, f. & j.r. martin (eds) genre and institutions: social processes in the workplace and school. london: pinter. 339. martin, j.r. (2000) beyond exchange: appraisal systems in english. in s. hunston & g. thompson (eds) evaluation in text: authorial stance and the construction of discourse (142-175). oxford: oxford university press. martin, j.r. (2009) genre and language learning: a social semiotic perspective. linguistics and education (2) 10-21. martin, j.r., christie, f. & rothery, j. (1987) social processes in education: a reply to sawyer and watson. in i. reid (ed.) the place of genre in learning: current debates, 46-57. australia: center for studies in literacy education, deakin university. martin, j.r. and rose, d. (2003) working with discourse: meaning beyond the clause. london: continuum. martin, j.r and rose, d. (2008) genre relations: mapping culture. london: equinox martin, j.r. & white, p.r.r (2005) the language of evaluation: appraisal in english. london: palgrave macmillan. miller, c. (1984) genre as social action. quarterly journal of speech, 70, 151-167. new london group (1996) a pedagogy of multilitercies: designing social futures. harvard education review, 66. rothery, j. (1986) teaching genre in the primary school: a genre-based approach to the development of writing abilities. writing project report-1986. working papers in linguistics 4, 3-62. department of linguistics: university of sydney. schleppegrell, m. (2001) the linguistic features of the language of schooling. linguistics and education, 12, 431-459. scheleppegrell, m. (2003) grammar for writing: academic language and the eld standards. unpublished report. retrieved from www. academics.smcvt.edu/create/lecture april 3, 2008. writing to persuade schulze no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) 156 scheleppegrell, m. (2004) the language of schooling: a functional linguistics perspective mahwah: lawrence erlbaum associates. schleppegrell, m. (2006) the challenges of academic language in school subjects. in i. lindberg & k. sandwall (eds.), spraket och kunskapen: att lara pa sittandrasprak i skola och hogskola (pp. 4769). goteborg: sweden: gotesborg universitet institutet for swenska som andrasprak. schleppegrell, m. (2007) the linguistic challenges of mathematics teaching and learning: a research review. reading and writing quarterly, 23, 139-159. schleppegrell, m., achugar, m., & oteiza, t. (2004) the grammar of history: enhancing content-based instruction through functional focus on language. tesol quarterly, 38, 67-93. schleppegrell, m. & oliveira, l. (2006) an intergrated language and content approach for history teachers. journal of english for academic purposes, 5, 254-269. schleppegrell, m., & go, a. (2007) analyzing the writing of english learners: a functional approach. language arts, 84 (6), 529-538. schulze, j. and ramirez, a. (2007) intertexuality as a resource for building ell’s generic competence: a systemic functional view. colombian applied linguistics journal, 9, 69-98. schulze, j. (2009) testing, testing: the ideational meta-function in high stakes testing materials colombian applied linguistics journal, 11, 80-92. swales, j. (1990) genre analysis: english in academic and research settings. cambridge: cambridge university press. thompson, g. (2004) introducing functional grammar. london: arnold. unsworth, l. (1999) developing critical understanding of the specialized language of school science and history texts: a functional grammatical perspective. journal of adolescent and adult literacy, 42 (7), 508-521. willet, j., harman, r. lozano, m.e., hogan, a. & rubeck, j. (2008) transforming standard practices to serve the social and academic learning of english language learners. in l. verplaetse & n. migliacci (eds.) inclusive pedagogy for english language learners: a handbook of research informed practices. mahwah, nj: lawrence earlbaum. writing to persuade schulze no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) 157 the author * joshua schulze, doctoral student in teacher education and curriculum studies, language, literacy and culture concentration at university of massachusetts, m.a in teaching languages – esl concentration from university of southern mississippi. his research interests include applied linguistics, systemic functional linguistics and genre theory e-mail: joshua. schulze@umb.edu writing to persuade schulze no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) 74 pre-service teachers’ beliefs about the roles of thesis supervisors: a case study1 creencias de los docentes de inglés en formación sobre los roles de los directores de tesis: un estudio de caso rebeca elena tapia carlín2* benemérita universidad autónoma de puebla, mexico abstract trainee beliefs about the roles of thesis supervisors can exert an important influence on timely and successful completion of theses. this research article explores pre-service teacher beliefs about the roles of thesis supervisors through the analysis of their learning diaries. the aim of this study is to identify ways to improve supervisory practices in order to facilitate timely theses completion. findings reveal that participants believe that the supervisor should motivate trainees to write their thesis, help them to select a promising topic, and provide advice on the research design, data collection and data analysis. in sum, candidates expect guidance in the writing of the entire thesis. the data also suggest that shaping students’ beliefs can improve the timely and successful completion of their theses and as a result improve graduation rate. key words: pre-service teacher beliefs, thesis supervision, thesis supervisors’ roles, research competences, teacher education, graduation rate resumen las creencias de los docentes en formación acerca del rol del director de tesis pueden influir de manera significativa en la culminación oportuna y exitosa de la tesis. este artículo analiza las creencias de dichos docentes acerca de los roles de los directores o supervisores de tesis mediante el análisis de sus diarios de aprendizaje. el objetivo de este estudio es identificar mecanismos que permitan mejorar las prácticas de supervisión para que los estudiantes puedan concluir de 1 received: august 6, 2013 / accepted: october 1, 2013 2 email: rebetapc@yahoo.com.mx gist education and learning research journal. issn 1692-5777. no. 7, november 2013. pp. 74-92 tapia no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) 75 forma oportuna la tesis. los hallazgos de este estudio muestran que los futuros docentes creen que el rol del director de tesis incluye motivar a los alumnos a escribir su tesis; ayudarles a elegir un tema adecuado; orientarlos para que definan el diseño de investigación, la metodología para recoger y analizar los datos; en conclusión, guiar a los alumnos en la redacción de toda la tesis. los datos también sugieren que modelar las creencias de los estudiantes puede contribuir a la culminación oportuna y exitosa de sus tesis y en consecuencia aumentar la tasa de titulados. palabras clave: creencias de los docentes de inglés, dirección de tesis, rol del director de tesis, competencias investigativas, formación docente, tasa de titulados resumo as crenças dos docentes em formação sobre o papel do diretor de tese podem influir de maneira significativa na culminação oportuna e bem-sucedida da tese. este artigo analisa as crenças de ditos docentes acerca dos papéis dos diretores ou supervisores de teses mediante a análise dos seus diários de aprendizagem. o objetivo deste estudo é identificar mecanismos que permitam melhorar as práticas de supervisão para que os estudantes possam concluir de forma oportuna a tese. as descobertas deste estudo mostram que os futuros docentes acham que o papel do diretor de tese inclui motivar os alunos a escrever sua tese; ajudálos a escolher um tema adequado; orientá-los para que definam o desenho de pesquisa, a metodologia para coletar e analisar os dados; em conclusão, guiar os alunos na redação de toda a tese. os dados também sugerem que modelar as crenças dos estudantes pode contribuir à culminação oportuna e bem-sucedida da sua tese e, em consequência, aumentar a taxa de titulados. palavras chave: crenças dos docentes de inglês, direção de tese, papel do diretor de tese, competências investigativas, formação docente, taxa de titulados introduction language teacher education aims to train students as future language teachers and professionals. in order to reach this goal, ba programs in latin american countries seek to develop communicative, pedagogical and research competencies and shape trainees’ beliefs and identity (cortés, cárdenas & nieto, 2013; lengeling, 2010; pérez, 2010; tapia, 2009). due to graduation rate problems identified in various mexican bas in elt (tapia, hidalgo, ortega & paredes, 2009), various mexican researchers linked through tapia no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) 76 the net of mexican language research groups network (recale) began to conduct collaborative research to better understand the issues associated with graduation programs, and have reported the initial stage of this project in tapia, hidalgo & méndez (2013a). one of the causes that affects graduation rate in bas in elt in mexico is pre-service teacher beliefs about self, teaching, learning and research (aguirre & vélez, 2013; funderburk, hidalgo, paredes & dzul, 2013; romero, márquez & chrova, 2013; tapia, hidalgo & méndez, 2013b; tapia, rivera, piantzi, 2013). this study explores pre-service teacher beliefs about the roles of thesis supervisors. ismail, abiddin and hassan (2011) note that students often experience problems when writing their thesis which are related to the research and supervisory process. a change in student teachers’ beliefs about thesis supervision and supervisors can enhance timely and successful completion of their theses. so, this research aims to contribute to better understand how thesis supervisory practices can be improved to facilitate graduation rate in bas in elt in mexico. the research questions that guided this study were two: 1. what beliefs do pre-service teachers hold about the roles of thesis supervisors? and 2. how can supervisory practices be improved to facilitate thesis completion? there is little research conducted about thesis writing and supervision in elt, especially in mexico (tapia, rivera & piantzi, 2013). regarding teacher education programs in latin america, it can be seen that colombian bas in english language teaching (elt) seek to develop communicative, pedagogic and research competencies as part of the objectives of their curriculum (cortés et al, 2013). mexican elt bas also share these goals. although most of these programs in mexico are mainly focused on developing communicative and pedagogic competences (funderburk et al, 2013; pérez, 2010; tapia & blanco, 2011; tapia, gutiérrez, pérez, castillo, 2010; tapia, pérez, lima, otero, rivera, 2010), these programs also include research and thesis writing as part of their curriculum. it is in one of these programs that this research took place. as an experienced teacher educator and thesis supervisor, my experience as thesis supervisor and teacher of thesis writing courses lead me to search for adequate teaching methodology and supervisory practices to make thesis writers more autonomous and successful. this work is linked to a larger and broader study conducted as part of my pre-service teachres’ beliefs tapia no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) 77 doctoral thesis. however, the analysis done and the way that data was analyzed differ from the methodology of the original work (tapia, 2009). this article contains four sections. the first presents the review of literature regarding two topics: pre-service teacher beliefs and thesis supervision. the second describes the study including two points: subjects and educational context, and methods for data collection and data analysis. the third presents the findings and discussion of the study, and the last displays the conclusions. literature review pre-service teacher beliefs teacher education programs aim to educate professionals. this education requires learners to become reflective professionals. according to wallace (1991), teacher education courses should then be broadly educative in terms of the trainee personal and intellectual, and fully professional to prepare trainees for the profession by making them competent to assume their responsibilities. they should also foster continuing development of graduates as autonomous professionals and reflective practitioners. pre-service teachers are those engaged in initial teacher education programs at undergraduate or postgraduate level. pre-service teacher beliefs are the beliefs that these subjects hold. borg (2006, p. 46) notes that the specific concerns that have been explored in this area are four: “trainees’ prior learning experiences and cognitions, trainees’ beliefs about language teaching, trainees’ decision-making, beliefs and knowledge during the practicum, and change in trainees’ cognitions during teacher education.” beliefs are defined by borg (2001, p. 186) as a “proposition which may be consciously or unconsciously held, that is evaluative because it is accepted as true by the individual, it has emotive commitment, it guides thought and behavior.” beliefs are also defined as tools used by the human mind to deal with the problems and questions the world possesses (barcelos, 2003). barcelos and kajala (2003) describe the nature of beliefs. first, they state that beliefs can be seen as mental constructs, and that they are emergent and dynamic. second, they claim that beliefs change as we experience the world. third, they state that beliefs are socially constructed and contextually situated. finally, barcelos and kajala note that beliefs are produced in discursive situations and are linked to identities. pre-service teachres’ beliefs tapia no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) 78 basturkmen, loewen and lewis (2004) provide another definition of beliefs as statements teachers make about their ideas, thought and knowledge that are expressed as evaluations of what should be done and is preferable. for this study, the definition of basturkmen et al. (2004) will be used. thesis supervision this section discusses the terms thesis supervision and thesis supervisor as well as the main steps and roles of supervision in the thesis writing process. a thesis supervisor is a professor that guides a student to write their theses (tapia, 2009). a thesis is “a piece of research that is required by a university in order to award an academic degree” (criollo, 2003, p. 15). ibañez (1990) signals the need to have adequate support and thesis supervision to write a thesis. there are various views about thesis supervision. connel (as cited in murphy, bain & conrad, 2007, p. 210) defines thesis supervision as “the most advanced level of teaching in our educational system.” opposite to this view, zorrilla and torres (1992) point out that the thesis supervisor should only be a guide, not a teacher. they argue that the supervisor should not teach students how to conduct research; supervisors just need to guide students to integrate the theoretical and practical knowledge received during the major to write their thesis. zorrilla and torres also state that thesis students need to be closely supervised and receive the approval of their supervisor for each of the following steps involved in thesis writing: topic selection, problem and hypothesis statement, timetable, thesis progress and final draft. however, they also mention that it is the supervisor’s responsibility to suggest the appropriate research methodology and specialized literature to the learner. regarding the definition of thesis supervisor, wisker (2005) defines a supervisor as a professional who acts as a tutor, friend or colleague that helps the learner to become an independent researcher through guidance, modeling and managing. oliver (2004) also provides a definition of supervisor as “the person who will advise you on the development of your research plan or proposal, the conduct of the research and the writing of the thesis” (p. 49). in his view, the supervisor roles include helping students to develop a research proposal, providing advice on the research design, data collection and data analysis, and guiding students in the writing process. this scholar goes on to say that if students need research training, it is the supervisor’s responsibility to suggest an appropriate research training program. regarding the pre-service teachres’ beliefs tapia no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) 79 thesis defense or viva and the preparation for it, the supervisor should nominate potential examiners and give advice to students to prepare for the defense as well as advice on how to do administrative procedures to obtain the degree. grant (2005) views the supervisor as a caring, expert professional who guides the novice student towards becoming an independent researcher. there are various views about thesis supervision. in contrast with oliver’s (2004) as well as zorrilla & torres’ (1992) view of thesis supervision, burns, lamm & lewis (1999) found three ways in which supervisors and students typically think about supervision: thesis, professional and person orientations. the focus of each orientation differs in terms of the task itself when referring to the thesis, the thesis as part of an induction to academic or professional life, and finally focusing on students as whole persons with academic and nonacademic needs in their lives. they also state that regarding roles and expectations, the thesis supervision relationship needs to be reassessed or renegotiated at various times during candidature. murphy et al. (2007) make a distinction between supervisory roles being controlling or guiding, and between making supervision a task or a person focused endeavor. paltridge and starfield (2007) suggest that supervisors and students discuss their understandings of the supervisory relationship regarding topic or area of study, contact or involvement, and the thesis or dissertation. they propose the role perception scale (p. 38) as an instrument to achieve this goal. this scale makes supervisors and thesis writing students reflect about the issue of whose responsibility it is regarding decision making for each step of the thesis writing process. in sum, it can be said that thesis supervision is a complex process that can be conceived and understood from different perspectives by supervisors and supervisees depending on their background knowledge and experience. grant (2005), applying a critical view, claims that in the contemporary scene of supervision there is a proliferation of discourses or systems of meaning that define the roles of thesis supervisors and supervisees. the four discourses identified present four perspectives for thesis supervision, which are the psychological, the traditional academic, the techno-scientific, and the neo-liberal. the psychological perspective views the supervisor as an expert or professional researcher who is the most important source of motivation and support for the supervisee. the traditional academic perspective sees the supervisor as a proven scholar and master of the discipline. supervision is marked by formality and distance, and he is seen as a teacher and the supervisee is the disciple who wants to learn what the teacher knows. the technopre-service teachres’ beliefs tapia no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) 80 scientific perspective suggests that the supervisor is a trained and expert scientist who teaches the inexperienced trainee (bitchener, basturkmen & east, 2010). supervision then is a research skill training process. finally, the neo-liberal perspective is associated with the economic reforms of the 1980s; education is seen as a commodity and educational institutions as commercial enterprises. supervisees then are seen as customers and the supervisors are providers of educational services. the supervisor role is the production of scholars by transferring skills that will allow supervisees to obtain the credential (commodity). taylor and beasley (2005) and deuchar (2008) suggest four thesis supervision styles, and each supervision style defines the roles of the supervisor and supervisee regarding the organization and management of the research project, the support given to the candidate, and resourcing the research project. the first style is called laisserfaire, and assumes that the candidates are capable of managing both the research project and themselves. the second is called pastoral style, which assumes that supervisees are able to manage the project but may need personal support. the third style called directorial assumes that trainees need support in managing the project but not for themselves. finally, the contractual style assumes that supervisors and students need to negotiate the extent of support in both project and personal terms. deuchar (2008) notes that it is crucial to become aware of the supervisee needs in order to meet them, but this depends on the supervisor and supervisee beliefs about the thesis supervision process and their actual roles in it. methodology context and participants i conducted this research in a ba program in modern languages in a public university located in central mexico. participants were taking two consecutive courses where they had to write a full draft of their ba thesis. each course lasted 16 weeks. the teaching methodology used was constructivist and learner centered having as a goal educating learners; it was a methodology designed to shape their beliefs (tapia, 2009). i had noticed in my previous thesis writing courses that preservice teachers and future translators did not value thesis writing. most of them believed that writing a thesis was just a very difficult, useless and tedious writing task that was required in two consecutive courses at the end of their degree program. so, i designed and tried different methodologies to change their beliefs. i aimed to make them believe that writing a thesis was a project that could lead to professional development (tapia, 2013). as such, the methodology used in this pre-service teachres’ beliefs tapia no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) 81 course was the result of a series of action research longitudinal studies where i had tried different methodologies. in this case, i was teaching a group of 23 students, 16 were preservice teachers and seven future translators. as i was their teacher and the supervisor of most of them, i invited those 16 pre-service teachers at the end of the two thesis writing courses, after giving them their final scores, to volunteer and participate in this research that was part of my doctoral thesis. from this 16, eight students volunteered and filled a consent form to confirm their participation; through that consent form, they allowed me to analyze their electronic dialog diaries sent to me as their teacher. the participants were two male and six female. thus, the subjects of this study were eight pre-service teachers majoring in modern languages in a public university in central mexico. their age ranged between 21 and 25 years old. in order to protect the identity of the participants, i gave them pseudonyms. data collection and analysis this paper reports a case study where learner beliefs about thesis supervision were identified and analyzed. these beliefs were found in the participants’ electronic learning diaries that were sent via e-mail to me as the teacher of the thesis writing courses on a weekly basis. this task was a small part (10%) of the score of the students. diaries are data collection instruments that can be used to identify beliefs (borg, 2006). students were asked to write diaries because they are beneficial for learners and teachers as researchers. diaries provide effective means of identifying variables that are important to individual teachers and learners, and they are excellent tools for reflection; they provide immediate feedback (jarvis, 1992; meath-lang, 1990). they serve as means of generating questions and hypotheses about teaching and learning (brock et al., as cited in wallace, 1998). they also enhance awareness about the way a teacher teaches and students learn (gray, 1998). electronic dialogue diaries are easy to conduct (shin, 2003). thus, they are a very useful tool to help the teachers to respond more effectively to learners (gray, 1998; tapia, 2012). diaries allow students to reflect in action, on action, as suggested by schön (1983), and for action as noted by murphy (2014). they are the most natural form of classroom research. they enable the researcher to relate classroom events and examine trends emerging from the diaries (bailey, 1990). diaries were the only instrument used to collect data for this study due to the fact that they provide rich data. as they were kept by the participants for nine months, they allowed me as their teacher and pre-service teachres’ beliefs tapia no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) 82 researcher to identify their beliefs and follow in a detailed way their thesis writing process. it was during these months that i was able to see that i created a friendly environment and even though the relation was asymmetrical, participants felt confident enough to narrate positive and negative experiences as well as provide positive and negative feedback for me as their theses supervisor. the narratives from the participants were read various times and then were analyzed. common categories were identified and classified as follows: effects of adequate supervision, and supervision functions. the beliefs identified do not include all the beliefs found, only the ones related to the role of the thesis supervisor and supervision practices. the discussion includes some quotes from the students’ diaries that were written in two consecutive courses. they were reported with two numbers: the first number indicates whether the diary entry was written on the first or second course, and the second number(s) refers to the number of week(s) of the course when the entry was written and sent to the teacher via e-mail. results the beliefs identified about the roles of the thesis supervisor were grouped and analyzed. common beliefs were grouped and classified under the following categories: effects of adequate supervision and supervision functions. these beliefs are presented and discussed in the figures below. these beliefs overlap due to the fact that they are referring to the same category: adequate thesis supervision and supervisor roles. it is worth noting that the words illustrating the beliefs are exact quotes taken from students’ diaries; some of them contained grammatical or spelling errors and they were not corrected. beliefs about the effects of adequate supervision figure 1 shows participants beliefs about the effects of adequate supervisory practices on thesis writers. these practices are related to the beliefs displayed in figure 2. adequate supervision helped me to: 1. make decisions and answer questions. 2. find specific information. 3. write and improve specific parts of the thesis. 4. become autonomous learners. figure 1. beliefs about the effects of adequate supervision on thesis writers pre-service teachres’ beliefs tapia no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) 83 participants believe that adequate supervision helped them to: 1. make decisions and answer questions. thesis writing required students to make decisions throughout the process. as they were novice researchers they had many questions and wanted the supervisor to guide them, to answer their questions that allowed them to make adequate decisions. the following entry from paula illustrates this belief. now related to the introduction i have a question. can i start my introduction by describing an experience??? and then relate that with the formal aspects? (paula 1, 2). this type of question presented in the diaries was sent to the teacher via e-mail. it is important to allow thesis writers to express all their doubts to the supervisor, so they can answer their questions and make adequate decisions. donato (1994) notes that the expert needs to guide the novice. 2. find specific information. an important element of successful research and thesis writing is having adequate references to support the writing process. ba thesis students as novice researchers have difficulties finding relevant sources to write their thesis. the supervisor can provide some of them but can also train learners to find them and promote collaborative work to help students share and learn from each other. as zorrilla and torres (1992) point out, 95% of the responsibility of writing a thesis relies on the student. well, the last class that we had last week, it was pretty cool. i found a classmate who i talked to had checked some books that talk about some aspects of my thesis. i also shared with her some books that could help her. i hope we can do it again so i help others and others help me (paula 1, 9). 3. write and improve specific parts of the thesis. novice researchers find it difficult to write their first thesis. they need guidance and support to write each of the chapters. wisker (2005) argues that they need adequate scaffolding. specific directions and clear explanations are needed to produce and edit the first drafts of the thesis. however, as i followed a constructivist methodology, i promoted peer interaction and feedback to improve their thesis. in the words of paula, julian and nancy: pre-service teachres’ beliefs tapia no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) 84 later you explained what the thesis was about…i loved the ‘food’ and thesis comparison. it made me have in clear what you expect from me and what i want to get from my thesis (paula, 1, 1). ... the examples the teacher uses are motivating (julian 1, 2). our work was reviewed by my classmates in class. it is always good to receive comments from other people. especially if we consider those comments as good criticism in order to improve what we did (nancy 1, 7). 4. become autonomous. thesis writing is a learning experience that may lead to autonomy (tapia, 2010). this includes setting goals and learning to manage time to achieve them. the words of julian show his experience related to this point. i think that an important element in writing our theses and in learning how to become an independent learner is the fact of knowing how to manage our time (julian 2, 5). beliefs about supervisors’ roles figure 2 shows participants beliefs about the effects of the roles of thesis supervisors. these roles are related to the beliefs displayed on table 1. adequate supervision gave me: 1. guidance and advice 2. feedback 3. motivation and recognition figure 2. beliefs about supervisors’ roles adequate supervision gave me: 1. guidance and advice novice thesis writers need guidance and advice throughout the process. participants reflected on the process but they needed a guide to help them succeed. in the words of marisol: ... we should take advantage of our abilities and skills and consider them as a gift. but that gift isuseless unless we use it. sometimes we need someone who guide us (marisol 1, 5). pre-service teachres’ beliefs tapia no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) 85 regarding the role of the supervisor to help the learner in the thesis writing process, donato (1994, p. 37) argues that “the experienced individual is often observed to guide, support and shape actions of the novice who in turn, internalizes the expert’s strategic process.” 2. feedback participants expected feedback from their supervisor. as they were novice researchers, their supervisor’s feedback was crucial when making decisions in the research process. carmen’s comments illustrate this. however, when you checked our instruments i could see that what we had was good (carmen 2, 5). feedback can also be obtained from peers, but the supervisor’s feedback is highly valued by thesis writers. marisol’s entry is an example of this practice. we did peer evaluation, focusing on strengths, weaknesses, questions and comments (marisol 1, 12). gonzález and roux (2007) suggest writing teachers to train learners to give balanced feedback starting with positive comments. 3. motivation and recognition the starting point to begin writing is being motivated to write (hedge, 1988). however, thesis writers also need to be motivated throughout the process and recognized for the effort they write a part of their thesis. the diary entries of nancy, julian and carmen show the importance of these actions as part of the roles of thesis supervisors. something funny is that you always say the phrase just in the right moment to bring me up (nancy 1, 3). carrying out that activity was meaningful for me because just a day before i had learned what i wanted and that activity made me feel capable of doing that (julian 1,5) . well, i just want to thank you, your motivation toward us, i mean, you have always told us that what we are doing is a very good piece of research...it is hyper good that an expert like you recognizes our job and effort (carmen 2, 6). pre-service teachres’ beliefs tapia no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) 86 thesis writing is a stressful process for novice researchers. according to christison (2002) the brain downshifts under threat. so, thesis writing, as other learning processes, needs to take place in an environment that facilitates the achievement of the full potential of the students (moskowitz, 1978). in order to summarize the findings of the study they are going to be presented linked to the research questions that guided this study. 1. what beliefs do pre-service teachers hold about the roles of thesis supervisors? participants believe that adequate supervision occurred when the supervisor guided, gave feedback and advice to learners. they also believe that adequate supervision means motivating and recognizing learners. these findings relate to the work of ismail et al. (2011). these scholars mention that supervisors should give support to students, keep their morale high, be sensitive to students’ time and competence limitations, give advice and feedback. 2. how can supervisory practices be improved to facilitate thesis completion? participants believe that adequate supervision helped them to make decisions, find specific information, write and improve specific parts of the thesis and become autonomous learners. these findings are linked to the supervisory roles described by haksever and manisali (2000). these scholars state that the supervisor should provide personal help as well as indirect and direct research related help. ismail et al. (2011) state that there are various factors that influence the thesis writing process. however, adequate supervision can lead to successful thesis writing. i think that thesis supervisors need to reflect and conduct research about their thesis supervision practices in order to analyze their own style and roles. besides, in order to address supervisee’s needs and expectations, i believe that the thesis supervision relationship needs to be developed, reassessed or renegotiated at various times during the thesis writing process, as pointed out by burns et al. (1999). besides, experienced supervisors can train novice teachers to develop teaching competences linked to thesis supervision. team teaching and peer observation could be two ways to achieve this goal. these are innovative practices that may face resistance by gate keepers; however, they may lead to improvements in supervisory practices in language teacher education as reported in the cases by witten, brenes, castineira, preciado, sánchez & tapia (2007). pre-service teachres’ beliefs tapia no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) 87 conclusion in this study i identified and analyzed participants’ beliefs about thesis supervision. although learners were novice researchers, the constructivist methodology i used in the thesis writing courses led them to autonomy confirming the first study of my doctoral thesis (tapia, 2010). as suggested by murphy et al. (2007), my supervisory roles aimed at having more features of guiding than of controlling, facilitating learners’ development and growth. participants’ beliefs about thesis supervision also note that students perceived in my supervisory practices the three orientations for thesis writing suggested by burns et al (1999): thesis, personal and professional orientations. although ba’s in elt in mexico have included other options for awarding of the degree since 2001, as noted by sayer (2007), the thesis remains one option. this is one of the reasons why it is worth analyzing supervisory practices, as suggested by tapia et al. (2009; 2013), to improve graduation rate in elt education in mexico. the findings of this study are limited to the participants and the context where the research took place. however, i hope that this study contributes to better understand supervisory practices and inspires other thesis supervisors to explore thesis supervision and supervision roles in other contexts and levels. further research exploring beliefs about thesis supervision is needed in order to generate a wider and stronger group of studies that can allow thesis supervisors to reflect about their roles and practices and find ways to make them more professional and learner centered. references aguirre, c., & vélez, m. r. 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(2nd ed.). méxico: mc graw hill. author *rebeca elena tapia carlin holds a doctorate in applied linguistics from macquarie university, australia. she is an experienced teacher educator and researcher from the autonomous university of puebla, mexico (buap). her research interests are teacher education, language learning and professional development. pre-service teachres’ beliefs no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) 28 students’ perceptions regarding their b.a. in english language graduate1 percepción de estudiantes acerca de su perfil en el programa de licenciatura en inglés enrique vez lópez and briseida jiménez velázquez2* universidad veracruzana, méxico abstract this paper examines the perception undergraduate students have, regarding the attributes they have developed in terms of transferable and communicative skills. the goal was to shed light on how undergraduate students, in the context of this research, perceive their graduate profile. this study was carried out at a university school of foreign languages in southeast mexico over the course of a year, from august 2016 to july 2017. thirty male and female students participated in the study. their ages ranged from 21 to 30 years old. they all were about to complete the last term of the ba program at the time the data were collected. the data collection tools used for this inquiry were interviews and surveys. the interviews were used to get an insight, in general terms, into the participants’ perceptions whereas the surveys provided richer information about the students’ perceived competences and skills. content analysis was used to process the data, which were coded classified, summarized. the data suggest that students perceived gains in critical thinking skills, research skills, language skills, autonomy, and motivation as part of the attributes they developed within the program. however, attributes regarding teaching skills, learning strategies, technology skills, teamwork and ability to develop new projects and ideas are perceived as poorly developed or not acquired at all. key words: students’ perception; english, communicative skills; undergraduate; graduate profile; foreign language; learning strategies resumen este artículo examina la percepción de estudiantes de licenciatura, previamente a su graduación, con respecto a los atributos que han desarrollado en términos de habilidades transferibles y comunicativas. el objetivo de este estudio fue arrojar luz sobre cómo 1 received: september 15th 2018/ accepted: april 29th 2019 2 vision_ves@yahoo.com.mx; bri.jimenez107@gmail.com vez-lópez & jiménezvelásquezgist education and learning research journal. issn 1692-5777. no.18 (january june 2019). pp. 28-47. no. 18 (january june 2019) no. 18 (january june 2019) 29 los estudiantes de licenciatura, en el contexto de esta investigación, perciben su perfil de egreso. el estudio se llevó a cabo en una universidad en el sureste de méxico en el trascurso de un año, de agosto 2016 a julio 2017. treinta alumnos, entre hombres y mujeres, participaron en él. sus edades van de los 21 a los 30 años. todos estaban a punto de concluir el último semestre del programa cuando se recogieron los datos. las herramientas de colecta de datos fueron encuestas y entrevistas. las primeras se usaron para conocer, de manera general, las percepciones de los participantes, mientras que las segundas proporcionaron información más precisa sobre cómo los participantes percibían sus habilidades y competencias. los datos sugieren que los participantes perciben avances en sus habilidades de pensamiento crítico, habilidades de investigación, habilidades lingüísticas, autonomía, y motivación, como parte de los atributos que han logrado desarrollar dentro del programa. sin embargo, los atributos concernientes a sus habilidades de enseñanza y de aprendizaje, habilidades tecnológicas, de trabajo en equipo, y habilidades para desarrollar nuevos proyectos e ideas, son percibidos como poco desarrollados o no desarrollados en lo absoluto. palabras clave: percepción de estudiantes; inglés, habilidades comunicativas; perfil del graduado; idioma extranjero; estrategias de aprendizaje resumo este artigo examina a percepção de estudantes de licenciatura, previamente a sua graduação, com relação aos atributos que desenvolveram em termos de habilidades transferíveis e comunicativas. o objetivo deste estudo foi dar uma ideia sobre como os estudantes de licenciatura, no contexto desta pesquisa, percebem o seu perfil de formado. o estudo foi realizado em uma universidade no sudeste do méxico no período de um ano, de agosto de 2016 a julho de 2017. trinta alunos, entre homens e mulheres, participaram nele. suas idades vão dos 21 aos 30 anos. todos estavam a ponto de concluir o último semestre do programa quando se coletaram os dados. as ferramentas de coleta de dados foram enquetes e entrevistas. as primeiras se usaram para conhecer, de maneira geral, as percepções dos participantes, enquanto que as segundas proporcionaram informação mais precisa sobre como os participantes percebiam as suas habilidades e competências. os dados sugerem que os participantes percebem avanços em suas habilidades de pensamento crítico, habilidades de pesquisa, habilidades linguísticas, autonomia, e motivação, como parte dos atributos que conseguiram desenvolver dentro do programa. entretanto, os atributos referentes às suas habilidades de ensino e de aprendizagem, habilidades tecnológicas, de trabalho em equipe, e habilidades para desenvolver novos projetos e ideias, são percebidos como pouco desenvolvidos ou não desenvolvidos no absoluto. palavras chave: percepção de estudantes; inglês, habilidades comunicativas; perfil do formado; idioma estrangeiro; estratégias de aprendizagem vez-lópez & jiménezvelásquez no. 18 (january june 2019) no. 18 (january june 2019) 30 introduction generally speaking, university students have a variety of expectations regarding their graduate profile and the attributes they expect to develop to get the desired job right after graduation. graduate attributes refer to a large number of qualities that an individual develops at a certain point of their life and that include attitudes, values, competences, and skills (barrie, 2006). this is precisely what this study focuses on: the achievement of graduate attributes, how these attributes were achieved, and the students’ perceptions of their graduate profile, insofar as in the context of this study, having an outstanding profile appears to be important for educational institutions and employers. these graduate attributes can be classified into two different categories: technical and transferable skills (coromillas, 2001). unlike technical skills, which relate to a specific discipline area of study, transferable skills focus on attitudes and communicative skills (hager & holand, 2006). the latter are expected to be integrated within a set of graduate attributes. crosthwaite, cameron, lant, and litser (2006) argue that the development of graduate attributes is more likely to happen when students interact in a realistic context that demand the integration and practice of these skills. graduate attributes are complex outcomes composed by various elements and there may be challenges in building and assessing graduate attributes. moalosi, oladiran, and uziak (2012) suggest that some of them are lack of time on the part of teaching staff, motivation, resources or skills needed to improve teaching, assessment approaches, and an appropriate balance between technical and transferable skills development. moalosi et al., (2012) explored some of the strategies that have been put into practice to develop these competencies. it has been suggested that these skills can be developed through projects and tasks. some learnercenter approaches seem to guide students through the process of acquiring knowledge and developing these skills. the introduction of projects and tasks in the curriculum may motivate students by demanding higher-level thinking, problem-solving, teamwork, effective communication, and autonomy (prince & felder, 2006). objectives the goal of this research study was to analyze students’ perceptions of their graduate profile and the academic and professional attributes they had developed prior to graduation, and whether awareness of these attributes had had any significant impact in their academic development. in this paper, we present the analysis of learners’ perspectives in regards to the skills expected students’ perceptions in their b.a vez-lópez & jiménezvelásquez no. 18 (january june 2019) no. 18 (january june 2019) 31 in their graduate profile in the context of a b.a. program in english language; how important these skills are for them, and how these skills were developed. the approach taken for this study intended to provide answers to the following questions: how do undergraduate students in an english ba program perceive their graduate profile? are students aware of the graduate attributes the university expects them to achieve? to what extent have students developed these attributes? what has been the role of the teachers in helping the participants develop graduate attributes? how has awareness of graduate attributes helped the participants be more competitive in their academic development? literature review we live in a world where there is always constant change. thus, for new businesses or institutions, prospective employees need to meet changing job market expectations (hadiyanto, 2010). the qualities that may help them succeed should be well-developed competences and attitudes. in the unesco report in 1996a, these competences, skills and abilities are categorized as the four pillars of education (unesco 1996a; unesco 1996b). the unesco commission (scatolini, maele, & bartholomé, 2010) describes the four pillars as follows: • learning to know: the basic knowledge a person needs to understand how to live with dignity. • learning to do: it involves being creative by developing practical skills, teamwork attitude and willingness to take risks. • learning to live together: it means learning to be understanding. people should be able to participate in all human activities with empathy and respect. • learning to be: this pillar encloses the three previous ones. it refers to decisions people take, the actions they perform and the way they do these actions. students’ perceptions in their b.a vez-lópez & jiménezvelásquez no. 18 (january june 2019) no. 18 (january june 2019) 32 students’ learning outcomes the four pillars of education are guiding principles that intend to promote skills for lifelong learning. they focus on the development of skills, competences and attitudes, and learning outcomes. these can be defined as the expected results from students enrolled in a higher education program or employees of a company. according to nygaard, courtney, and bartholomew (2013), each institution describes these outcomes mainly for the following reasons: a) to show students the skills and competencies they are expected to develop during university years; b) to allow employers to review what these students are capable of doing; c) to decide whether or not students fit the profile; d) to help teachers become familiar with the objectives students need to achieve in order to take them into consideration while developing the curriculum; e) to advise faculties on which dimensions students’ achievements can be measured; f) to facilitate school accreditation when authorities review a bachelor’s program. students’ learning outcomes refer to cognitive outcomes such as knowledge, competencies, skills, abilities, values, goals, attitudes, identity, personal goals, worldviews, and personal or graduate attributes (nygaard et al., 2013) that can be seen as the measurement of what a student has actually learnt during their studies. in general, when people refer to graduate attributes, they refer to a large number of qualities that an individual develops at a certain point of their life that include attitudes, values, competences, and skills (barrie, 2006). graduate attributes can be defined as “the qualities, skills and understanding a university agrees its students would desirably develop during their time at the institution and, consequently, shape the contribution they are able to make to their profession and as a citizen.” (bowden, hart, king, trigwell & watts, 2000, as cited in leibowitz, 2012: 88). as part of their graduate attributes, students are expected to develop both technical and transferable skills if they are to succeed as proficiency users of their mother tongue and of the target language. although some educational and work settings may have their own transferable requirements (pace, 2011), transferable skills provide individuals with the flexibility to adapt to different work settings. some transferable skills have to do with communication, critical thinking, multitasking, teamwork, creativity, and leadership (yates, 2006). hargis (2011) suggests that lack of these skills may cause employers or institutions to not find graduate students joining the job market competent enough. although graduate students most probably have technical skills, they may lack transferable skills, which may prevent them from keeping their jobs. in the case of teachers of english, they may have the attributes they need as professionals to provide a good service and the technical skills required for students’ perceptions in their b.a vez-lópez & jiménezvelásquez no. 18 (january june 2019) no. 18 (january june 2019) 33 a specific task, but they may lack transferable skills, which are easily shifted from job to another (barrie & prosser, 2004). teachers may play different roles; each requiring its own set of competences and skills. therefore, future teachers need to learn to know, to do and to live together. one element to consider for this profession is the pedagogical knowledge they need to have; they need to be aware of different aspects of curriculum planning, assessment, reflective teaching, classroom management, language acquisition, and teaching strategies (borg, 2006, 2009). another attribute is effective communication skills. they are necessary for the accomplishment of certain objectives such as learning to listen, speak, write, and communicate in nonverbal forms (klein, 2009). they also need language skills; by the time they graduate, language students must have learnt to communicate accurately in both their mother tongue and the target language. a skill that future teachers also need is critical thinking to help them identify issues, provide solutions, make decisions and deal with different situations (heimler, 2010, as cited in williams, 2015). garner and duckworth (2000) state that critical thinking is one of the skills that employers consider during the recruitment process, along with well-developed transferable skills to succeed in their job performance. future language teachers might also be expected to know how to work with people from other cultures or with different ideas; that is, they might need interpersonal skills that allow individuals to deal with others, (heimler, 2010, as cited in williams, 2015). developing graduate attributes there is no specific methodology focusing on developing graduate attributes. sierra (2011) claims that certain techniques such as presentations, case studies, task-based projects, problem-based projects, learning contracts, and cooperative learning help to develop some attributes. the implementation of graduate attributes may require some changes in the curriculum and that some elements be taken into consideration, such as the strategies used to facilitate their development. the strategies may vary depending on how teachers use them (prosser & trigwell, 1999). boyle (2010) mentions that many universities have decided to review their curriculums to incorporate graduate attributes in their teaching programs so that they foster integration and flexibility. tan, koppi, and field (2006) consider project-based learning and the design project approach as helpful approaches to develop and acquire generic skills and competences. transferable skills may be attained by exposure to realistic experiences. lowe and marshal (2004, as cited in moalosi, et al. 2012) point out that students may gain a broader spectrum of graduate attributes by engaging in relevant experiences that demand the integration and practice of students’ perceptions in their b.a vez-lópez & jiménezvelásquez no. 18 (january june 2019) no. 18 (january june 2019) 34 these skills. however, the emphasis of curriculum design is often placed on the skills that focus on the disciplinary area but, quite often, transferable skills are not given enough attention (moalosi et al., 2012). students who develop technical and transferable skills are able to function efficiently in a changing work environment. they are also able to use critical thinking skills, solve problems, communicate effectively, work in groups, and use ict-related skills (nettleton, litchfield, & taylor, 2008). thus, students might have a lot of specific discipline knowledge, but if they do not know how to communicate, how to approach people, and work in teams, they may be seen as incompetent (hargis, 2011). cooperative learning (cl) can also help students to develop some attributes as it allows them to work together in order to accomplish shared goals (cohen, 1994, as cited in vermette & kline, 2017). this approach promotes cooperation, if well guided, as it focuses on effort, cooperation, and active participation to solve issues or achieve goals as the most important basis of motivation (snowman & mccown, 2014). johnson and johnson (2009, as cited in lovat, toomey, & clement, 2010) claim that the best way to succeed and obtain positive interaction is by helping each other and exchanging ideas and information, and by engaging in mutual communication, influence, and trust. problem-based learning (major & palmer, 2001; edwards, 2005), often called task-based or project-based learning, can also support the development of a wide range of graduate attributes. according to yusuf, gambari, and olumorin (2012), students tend to develop significant skills and competences if collaborative learning and projects in education are implemented. moalosi et al. (2012) and boyle (2010) carried out research based on project based learning and discovered that it enabled students to develop most of the graduate attributes desired. estrada, narváez, and núñez, (2016), highlight that students—in the context of the bachelor’s degree in english where this study was carried out— hope to embark on a career as english teachers in the future. the students believe that the b.a program will enhance their teaching career and hope to earn a good income as a result of getting their bachelor’s degree. in other words, they expect to be better off after completing their degree; once they have done so, they expect that opportunities of a better life will arise. nevertheless, it is not clear whether or not they will be able to develop the outcomes the university expects them to achieve. students’ perceptions in their b.a vez-lópez & jiménezvelásquez no. 18 (january june 2019) no. 18 (january june 2019) 35 methodology previous studies (barrie, 2006; barrie & prosser, 2004; corominas, 2001; hager & holland, 2007). have analyzed and evaluated the attributes developed by students at the end of the university years giving priority to the quantitative part only. however, in the case of the present study, knowing what students feel or think about the subject was also relevant. therefore, it seemed adequate to analyze data obtained of a quantitative and qualitative nature (creswell & plano clark, 2011). the qualitative design of this exploratory study aimed to understand how the participants perceive their actual graduate profile, explore their experiences and perceptions whereas the quantitative design aimed at understanding what outcomes seem to be more important for the participants and to what extent these outcomes were fostered by the university throughout the years of study. the idea was to analyze combined data obtained from both perspectives, a quantitative and a qualitative methodology in the research field, in order to answer the research questions (kumar, 2014). the sequence of this study consists in describing the quantitative data first, followed by the description and analysis of the qualitative data in order to connect the results. this particular study relies on a follow-up explanation model where the researcher needs qualitative data to explain or expand on quantitative results (creswell, plano clark, gutmann, & hatson, 2003). data collection instruments the main instruments used for data collection for this research study were interviews and surveys. interviews offered several advantages: they can be flexible, they can be opened-ended, and they can help the researcher to understand the participants’ point of view, situation, experiences, hopes and dreams (kvale, 1996: 1). the survey, on the other hand, was devised with the purpose of analyzing the students’ competences and skills. for the interview, open-ended questions were used in order to gain access to in-depth information about the participants’ perceptions regarding the skills and competences they have acquired and the graduate attributes teachers have helped the participants develop. because of the flexibility of this type of qualitative semi-structured interview, it was possible to focus on the participant’s actual experiences more than their general beliefs and opinions (king & horrocks, 2010). the interview guide was designed keeping in mind some important concepts such as value, trust, objectivity, accuracy, honesty, and meaning. the survey was designed using a likert scale technique; a scale often used in research making use of questionnaires. when using this tool, the participants have to indicate their level of agreement or disagreement on an agree/disagree students’ perceptions in their b.a vez-lópez & jiménezvelásquez no. 18 (january june 2019) no. 18 (january june 2019) 36 scale dealing with several statements. in this case, it presented participants with a series of 27 statements, for each of which the participants were asked to indicate to what extent they agreed or disagreed with the statements by using one of a number of positions on a four-point scale designed by the researcher. using this scale, students were to indicate to what extent they considered important the skills and abilities the university expects them to acquire, and whether or not they had developed them throughout their degree. the four point scale survey combined two elements: the written narrative and the likert approach. behavioral anchored numerical scales measure behavioral performance of others and they can provide qualitative and quantitative data. data analysis the data were analyzed using content analysis procedures. after collecting the data, it was categorized and coded in order to classify it for further presentation. in order to do this, the information was scanned carefully to identify the repetition of ideas, similar opinions and emotions, and shared expressions repetitions used by the participants. as a first step, the data was organized into different sets having to do with the interview questions. as a second step, the different sets of data were linked to connect patterns; this was done by establishing comparisons of the findings focusing on similarities and differences. then, through the connection of the different categories, a sensible flow of information to support the objectives and research questions of the study emerged. as a final step, the data were prepared for presentation. all the coding and processing of the data were done manually; that is, no soft wear such as atlas ti, was used. research context this research was carried out in a public university in mexico that offers a bachelor´s degree in english language. this institution relies on a flexible education curriculum (beltrán casanova, 2005) which aims at fostering autonomous learning. there is also a research centre and a self-access centre where students can use different materials to practice their language skills by themselves. ten years ago, a new educational model was adopted at the school of languages where this study took place to prepare students following holistic approach (universidad veracruzana, 1999). students are now expected to achieve knowledge related to their work fields; they are also expected to be competent in the communicative abilities in both their mother tongue and the english language and acquire some competencies and skills required for students’ perceptions in their b.a vez-lópez & jiménezvelásquez no. 18 (january june 2019) no. 18 (january june 2019) 37 lifelong learning. in order to be competitive in the job market, the program aims to develop autonomy, adaptability, responsibility, and a sense of professional growth in the students (facultad de idiomas de la universidad veracruzana, 2009). the curriculum was designed to train individuals so that they achieve a sound command of english; develop skills in order to perform effectively in different work areas where english is required; and to develop language skills that will enhance their teaching skills (facultad de idiomas de la universidad veracruzana, 2009). research participants the sample presented here is part of the 2012 cohort. the study focused on those students who were about to complete the last term of the ba program. all participants were attending classes at the time of the study. thirty students participated in the survey. from these 30, ten students were subsequently interviewed. there were four males and six females with ages ranging from 21 to 30. the study was carried out with students who had already been studying for almost 4 years and were more likely to enrich the findings of the study. all the participants were fully informed that the data provided would be used for research purposes and written consent was obtained from all of them. results the presentation of results is divided into two main sections: skills and competencies developed by students, and students’ skills that need improvement. skills and competencies developed by students this section analyses the outcomes students have achieved; it also reports whether this university school enhanced these outcomes or not, from the point of view of the students. critical thinking skills. critical thinking can be seen as an important outcome that helps the student to analyze and evaluate the contents of a specific subject. all the participants considered critical thinking relevant to their professional development: 77% of them marked this skill as very important while 23 % of them marked it as important, but not very. some of the participants expressed that they feel more confident and able to defend their points of view and make their own assumptions as well. students’ perceptions in their b.a vez-lópez & jiménezvelásquez no. 18 (january june 2019) no. 18 (january june 2019) 38 this echoes with crossier´s (2011) claim that students can easily develop critical thinking skills if they engage in self-reflection on the responses and actions to different situations. one of the participants expressed that one of her professors had taught her to always question authors’ ideas, what they say in books, and decide whether she agreed with, or thought differently about, the subject being discussed it can be inferred from the participant’s words that the school fosters this attribute. in addition, the graduate profile specifications of this bachelor´s degree program state that critical thinking is a skill that students need to develop in order to complete this program successfully. research skills. research skills are thought to prepare students for the labor market; prospective graduates are expected to develop these skills by the end of the bachelor’s program. early in the program, when students are in second semester, they take classes to learn how to investigate educational issues. likewise, at the end of the program and they have to write a final paper if they are to graduate. due to this, 70 % of students believe that developing research skills is very important. they know that they need to put into practice what they have learned by writing a research paper. the program requires that students develop their research skills in different areas of study. 63% of the participants pointed out that research skills picked up at university would be of help when looking for resources for future assignments and projects. one participant stated that the school helped him develop research skills, to go deeper in his search for information, to find himself answers to burning questions, and not to be contented with the first thing he found. however, 37% of the participants perceived that they did not practice research skills very often. for instance, one of the participants pointed out that professors tended to concentrate heavily on having students finish their research paper rather than on the process of doing research, which reflects eilks and byers´s (2009) point that a research-led curriculum often focuses on the product. autonomy. all those who graduate from this program must develop some degree of autonomy by the time they finish university. 67% of the participants reported that they became more autonomous in university. they considered being autonomous as a very important outcome that they must reach. it appears that the professors have contributed to the development of this skill. as one of the participants shared: “i would say that 80% of the work has to be done by ourselves”. this resonates with benson (2013), who asserts that students must be encouraged to become independent and be given the freedom to act and work as they chose. then again, some of the participants considered that they had become autonomous because the professors did not explain things well enough and they had to look for information on their own. students’ perceptions in their b.a vez-lópez & jiménezvelásquez no. 18 (january june 2019) no. 18 (january june 2019) 39 english language skills. some of the participants referred to english language skills for communication as a very important outcome as it will provide them with more job opportunities. the participants seem to believe that their language skills developed considerably in the program. during the interviews, they claimed they feel happy with the knowledge acquired and mentioned that they were satisfied with the language skills they had now. they even mentioned their interest in the english culture had increased as they learnt about it. the surveys also revealed that the participants felt confident with what they had learnt. this is something positive because language proficiency can be seen as the main attribute in their graduate profile. students with a sound command of english are more likely to feel confident when applying for a job position. it might even mean a higher income if they get certified. motivation for professional development. students often feel motivated to keep on studying, attend courses, or do something else in order to grow professionally once they finish their bachelor´s degree; some others just want to get a job. the truth is that some job positions require that prospective staff have specific qualifications such as an ma or a phd, which can motivate students to further their academic development. some of the participants shared their desire to take up a master’s. they see it as a stepping stone leading to a deeper knowledge of the field and a better command of english. it would also allow them to further engage in research and the possibility of publishing, or even travel abroad as part of a student exchange program richards and burns (2012) suggest that this kind of motivation is dynamic as it grows while we develop different mental processes. 64% of the participants agreed on the importance of developing professional motivation. during the interviews, they mentioned that they would like to continue to grow professionally by taking up a master´s or signing up for training courses for certification purposes. students’ skills requiring improvement this second section reports on the different outcomes students did not successfully achieve during their time at university. teamwork. students’ abilities to work in teams are an outcome that was not achieved successfully. in this study, some participants pointed out that they did not have enough opportunities to do teamwork and when they did, they preferred to work alone. the participants mentioned that it was difficult to agree when making decisions or that responsibilities were not shared equitably. although, people often fail to collaborate due to lack of tolerance, commitment, students’ perceptions in their b.a vez-lópez & jiménezvelásquez no. 18 (january june 2019) no. 18 (january june 2019) 40 time, or because of their personality, zoogah and beugré (2012) suggest that working on group goals increases commitment and willingness to cooperate. in spite of the advantages, interpersonal and communication problems often arise. one of the participants complained that when there was group work to do, some of his classmates did not even bother to show up, and it was usually one or two students who ended up doing all the work. another one shared that she wanted to do her research project with a classmate but that it did not work because they could not agree on anything. because of these issues, the participants expressed that they preferred to do their work alone as they thought they were more likely to do a better job that way than working with others. they also shared that their professors rarely encouraged teamwork and that they just did not seem to care about it. however, not being able to work in teams may be a challenge once students graduate, as teamwork skills are often highly valued by some employers. ability to develop new projects and ideas. the b.a. program in english establishes that students must develop the skills to create new projects or ideas. some of the skills involved might be innovation and creativity to be successful. such skills are highly valued by the students. however, the participants perceive a lack of creativity and innovation in their professional development to the point that 75% of them believe neither of them is very important. the data show that students do not feel confident in regard to creativity and innovation and they noted that some teachers at this language department are not creative when teaching a class. perhaps, this is one of the reasons why students do not work enough to achieve this outcome. several participants said that their teachers were a little old-fashioned in terms of teaching strategies. creativity and innovation play an important role in lesson planning; developing these skills must be a life-long commitment, not only during university years. this can be done if the teacher is willing to be a role model for creativity (tan et al., 2006) technology skills in pedagogy. this b.a program seems to have a commitment to the usage of technology as a means of learning. however, students shared that only few teachers make use of technology. their perception is that their teachers, on the whole, seem to have very little experience regarding the use of technology in class. for instance, one of the participants said that there was an interactive whiteboard in his classroom but it was never used. learning strategies. the use of learning strategies may vary according to students’ learning styles or the purpose each learner has: some students learn through the use of visuals, others learn by listening to songs, people, or the radio; some strategies work through a specific cognitive process, others focus on the affective or psychological areas. one of the objectives the ba in students’ perceptions in their b.a vez-lópez & jiménezvelásquez no. 18 (january june 2019) no. 18 (january june 2019) 41 english is that students to develop learning strategies to enhance their learning outcomes. the data point out that the participants do not believe the school has helped them develop learning strategies. the participants shared they remember answering questionnaires that would help them and their teachers determine their learning styles and the appropriate learning strategies. however, they also remember not taking these surveys very seriously and answering them carelessly. they hardly recall any strategies suggested by teachers in class, and those they do remember, such as speaking english with their classmates and teachers even outside the classroom, were ignored. the data suggest that the participants tend to rely more on their own preferences to learn english. teaching skills. the b.a. program in english gives students the opportunity to enroll in different educational experiences that contribute to developing soft and hard skills. those participants who enrolled in subjects related to language and language acquisition consider that developing teaching skills definitely enhances their teaching practice. however, some of the participants reported feeling overwhelmed while doing their social service as english teachers. one of the participants admitted lacking teaching skills; another one shared that that he recalled often feeling nervous, afraid of making mistakes, and not very well-prepared to guide his students. the majority of the students who choose this ba often pursue a teaching career. their perception is that the program should put greater emphasis in guiding and providing advice regarding extracurricular activities that may help them succeed in the process of becoming a teacher. teaching is quite a challenge and teachers need a repertoire of techniques and routines, including routines and procedures for such things as opening the lesson, introducing and explaining tasks, setting up learning arrangements, checking students’ understanding, guiding student practice, making transitions from one task to another, and ending the lesson (richards & burns, 2012). conclusion the data suggest that the participants perceive critical thinking, research skills, autonomy english language skills, and motivation for professional development as the attributes they developed within the program. for this group of students, it was very rewarding to develop critical thinking skills that help them analyze a situation, act and behave according to the circumstances, and develop their potential. in addition, the participants also seemed to feel satisfied with having developed research skills that allow them to work on small research problems, which in turn helps them get their foot in the door of the research community students’ perceptions in their b.a vez-lópez & jiménezvelásquez no. 18 (january june 2019) no. 18 (january june 2019) 42 and thus become more competent. autonomy and language skills are also perceived as valuable gains made in the course of the ba program; in contrast, the participants pointed out that they believed they had not made significant achievements in terms of teaching skills development, learning strategies, technology skills, teamwork and ability to develop new projects and ideas. these outcomes are not to be overlooked. awareness needs to be raised among all the stakeholders of the importance of enhancing these students’ attributes since the labor market requires that they have these skills which enrich their graduate profile. we hope that the results of this inquiry may provide valuable information that could help teaching professionals implement strategies to help students develop the graduate attributes the current job market finds desirable. limitations several limitations may have impacted the results and conclusions of this research study. the first is that, given that this is a case study and that all the participants belong to a single cohort, the findings cannot be generalized. another limitation is that not all the targeted students from the ba program participated in the interviews. however, the participant sample was sufficient as it represents a significant part of the ba student population close to finishing their studies. one more limitation was that the results represent only the students’ perceptions; the fact that the data are self-reported means that they could not be independently verified; we had to take what the participants said at face value. their views could not be corroborated by other sources of data, such as the teaching staff or administration. nevertheless, analyzing the opinions of teachers or administrators was never the objective of the study. implications for future research in this study, only students belonging to the 2012 cohort participated. when carrying out further research, students from subsequent generations may be surveyed and interviewed to corroborate the findings and assess the possibility of a definite trend in students’ perceptions of their graduate attribute, or dismiss them due to lack of consistency in the results. it would be meaningful for future studies to examine the views of professors and gain access to school documents, such as exams and students’ products, to crossexamine data obtained from the interviews and surveys. finally, focus groups that foster the discussion of student’s views would be likely to enrich the findings by providing additional data. students’ perceptions in their b.a vez-lópez & jiménezvelásquez no. 18 (january june 2019) no. 18 (january june 2019) 43 references barrie, s. 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(2012). managing organizational behavior in the african context. new york, usa: routledge. students’ perceptions in their b.a vez-lópez & jiménezvelásquez no. 18 (january june 2019) no. 18 (january june 2019) https://openjournals.library.sydney.edu.au/index.php/cal/article/view/8481/10562 https://openjournals.library.sydney.edu.au/index.php/cal/article/view/8481/10562 https://www.uv.mx/afbg/files/2014/05/nuevo_modelo_educativo_lin.pdf https://www.uv.mx/afbg/files/2014/05/nuevo_modelo_educativo_lin.pdf https://scholarworks.waldenu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?referer=https://scholar.google.com.mx/&httpsredir=1&article=2426&context=dissertations https://scholarworks.waldenu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?referer=https://scholar.google.com.mx/&httpsredir=1&article=2426&context=dissertations https://scholarworks.waldenu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?referer=https://scholar.google.com.mx/&httpsredir=1&article=2426&context=dissertations https://openjournals.library.sydney.edu.au/index.php/iisme/article/view/6420/7061 https://openjournals.library.sydney.edu.au/index.php/iisme/article/view/6420/7061 47 authors *enrique vez-lópez is a full-time professor at the school of languages of the university of veracruz. he holds a cii level certificate of proficiency in english, a b.a. degree in english language, a specialization degree in english language teaching, both awarded by the university of veracruz, a m.a. degree in education awarded by eastern mennonite university, harrisonburg, virginia, usa, and a ph.d. in language studies awarded by the university of veracruz. among his published work feature papers related to english teaching and learning processes, language and culture, and language death. orcid: http://orcid.org/0000-0003-1117-5386 briseida jiménez-velázquez has worked as a professor at the language center of the university of veracruz. she graduated from the university of veracruz with a b.a. degree in english language and a m.a. degree in teaching english as a foreign language awarded by the same university. she has participated as a spanish language assistant in a programme sponsored by the british council and the mexican ministry of public education. orcid: http://orcid.org/0000-0002-9884-6631 students’ perceptions in their b.a vez-lópez & jiménezvelásquez how to reference this article: vez-lópez, e., & jiménez-velásquez, b. (2019). students’ perceptions regarding their b.a. in english language graduate profile. gist education and learning research journal, 18, 28-47. https://doi.org/10.26817/16925777.449 no. 18 (january june 2019) no. 18 (january june 2019) http://orcid.org/0000-0003-1117-5386 http://orcid.org/0000-0002-9884-6631 https://doi.org/10.26817/16925777.449 _hlk7516758 _hlk8801090 learning vocabulary through instructional subtitled videos1 aprendizaje de vocabulario a través de videos instructivos subtitulados jorge luis romero-villamil and claudia patricia guzman-martinez2* universidad del tolima, colombia 1 received: april 1st 2020/ accepted: july 18th 2020 2 jromerovillamil@yahoo.com; claudiap0308@hotmail.com gist education and learning research journal. issn 1692-5777. no. 21 (july-december, 2020). pp. 7-25. 8 no. 21 abstract the purpose of this research is to learn how the implementation of instructional subtitled videos contributed to improving students’ range of vocabulary in real life contexts. this mixed method research paper was developed by using action research approach and the applied data collection technique was stratified into five steps: a pre–test, three classroom observations, a teacher/investigation diary, a semi-structured interview, and a post-test.the analysis of the data demostrated that the employement of instructional subtitled videos helped students learn vocabulary. the students performed better in post-test compared to the pre-test, due to the three cycles of intervention. the target words were contextualized and presented through the simultaneous combination of sounds, images, and text. the data also showed that the participants considered the videos to be useful so as to remember new words and to be able to use them in communicative contexts. after discussing the findings of the study in light of the theory, the implications and limitations are presented, as well as some considerations for further research are suggested. keywords: instructional subtitled videos; vocabulary learning; efl (english as a foreign language); esa (engage, study, and activate) model; and action research. resumen el propósito de esta investigación es determinar cómo la implementación de videos subtitulados contribuye a mejorar el rango de vocabulario de los estudiantes en contextos de la vida real. para el desarrollo de esta investigación se utilizó el método mixto, bajo el enfoque de la investigación acción participativa. la técnica de recolección de la información se llevó a cabo en cinco pasos: una prueba preliminar, tres observaciones de aula, un diario de investigación del maestro, una entrevista semi-estructurada y una prueba posterior. el análisis de los datos mostró que la utilización de videos subtitulados hizo posible que los estudiantes obtuvieran mejores resultados en la prueba posterior aplicada que en la preliminar. las palabras meta fueron contextualizadas y presentadas a través de la combinación simultánea de sonidos, imágenes y texto. un factor determinante en el aprendizaje del vocabulario fue el trabajo de retro alimentación del investigador en cada uno de los cilcos de intervención. además, se estableció que los videos son útiles para recordar las palabras nuevas y que los participantes las utilizaron en contextos significativos. después de discutir los resultados del estudio a la luz de la teoría, se presentan las implicaciones y limitaciones, así como algunas consideraciones para futuras investigaciones. palabras claves: videos instructivos subtitulados; aprendizaje de vocabulario; efl (inglés como lengua extranjera); modelo esa (participar, estudiar y activar); investigación acción. vocabulary through instructional videos romero-villamil & guzman martinez 9 no. 21 resumo o propósito desta pesquisa é determinar como a implementação de vídeos legendados contribui para melhorar a categoria de vocabulário dos estudantes em contextos da vida real. para o desenvolvimento desta pesquisa foi utilizado o método mista, sob o enfoque da pesquisa ação participativa. a técnica de coleta da informação foi realizada em cinco passos: uma prova preliminar, três observações de aula, um diário de pesquisa do professor, uma entrevista semiestruturada e uma prova posterior. a análise dos dados mostrou que a utilização de vídeos legendados fez possível que os estudantes obtivessem melhores resultados na prova posterior aplicada que na preliminar. as palavras meta foram contextualizadas e apresentadas através da combinação simultânea de sons, imagens e texto. um fator determinante na aprendizagem do vocabulário foi o trabalho de retroalimentação do pesquisador em cada um dos ciclos de intervenção. além disso, estabeleceu-se que os vídeos são úteis para lembrar as palavras novas e que os participantes utilizaram-nas em contextos significativos. depois de discutir os resultados do estudo considerando a teoria, apresentam-se as implicações e limitações, bem como algumas considerações para futuras pesquisas. palavras chaves: vídeos instrutivos legendados; aprendizagem de vocabulário; efl (inglês como língua estrangeira); modelo esa (participar, estudar e ativar); pesquisa ação vocabulary through instructional videos romero-villamil & guzman martinez 10 no. 21 introduction an obvious fundamental component when learning a foreign language is vocabulary. vocabulary is to communication as grammar is to transmission. (wilkins, as cited in heidari andaraghi, 2015). learning vocabulary is a critical issue because a limited vocabulary in a foreign language interferes with fluid communication. proper language language use relies on effective interaction so long as the speaker has a sufficient set of words to construct messages in diverse contexts. the process of expanding vocabulary depends on using appropriate strategies to learn new words. learning new words implies that students have an idea about how to use them, (ellis and farmer, as cited in susanto, 2017). students should link previous word  knowledge to the  new one  in order to process  new  information. a basic knowledge of grammar structures and word functions aid students in communicating ideas, opinions, and facts to people, when participating in common conversation. subtitled videos are a multisensory resource. they have sound, image and text related to diverse topics: the arts, science, literature, social life, culture, and technology. furtheremore, anybody can find current issues about life in the future life, mobile phone use, girls’ makeup, free personality development, early pregnancy, and drug consumption, sports figures/results. these alternatives permit students to explore what they would like to work on and could enhance learning vocabulary in contextualized situations. likewise, teachers could decide the type of video which best fits the students’ expectations and needs. as such, the purpose of this study is to answer the following question: to what extent does the implementation of instructional subtitled videos influence the students’ learning of new vocabulary. moreover, there are two subordinates areas: to determine how students use the target words when they developed the tasks for each video; and the advantages and dis advantages of using subtitles. thus, it is expected the teacherresearcher can improve their classroom practice. by exploring useful alternatives in order to boost students’ vocabulary learning. likewise, teachers and researchers might take advantage of this investigation in order for them to approach vocabulary learning from a very different perspective, going beyond the traditional way of doing so. literature review learning vocabulary is crucial to communicate ideas in a new language, in this case, english. some researchers have done studies and written academic papers about learners’ difficulties when they are in contact with vocabulary activities. additionally, vocabulary through instructional videos romero-villamil & guzman martinez 11 no. 21 investigators have explored the type of methods and strategies teachers use to overcome unsettled issues related to vocabulary learning, word formation, type of words, and english languageenglish subtitled videos. however, the instructional subtitled videos information was limited. it means, that researchers have focused on authentic material such as video clips, sitcoms, tv news, and documentaries. while there are plenty of non-instructional materials available to for people to watch, listen to and read the subtitles in the english language, for this study instructional or classroom designed material was used. the difference between these two resources are that classroom designed material, has the slowdown by small percentage. the following papers support the use of subtitles in the field of l2 teaching/ learning. their findings suggest beneficial effects of vocabulary learning and content comprehension. the study conducted by wang (2012), “learning l2 vocabulary with american tv drama from the learner’s perspective, sought to explore the process of implementing american tv drama in l2 vocabulary learning from the learners’ perspective. authentic video clips from three different american dramas were chosen“how i met your mother”, “the king of queens”, and “reba” . three sessions of class activities: clip watching, class discussion, and word listing were implemented. all the participants were adult taiwanese learners between twenty to forty-five years old. fifteen of them were females and thirteen were males. before being assigned to classes, all twenty-eight students took a placement test (based on a reading). the results revealed low-intermediate to intermediate level learners. the researchers conducted the study during normal class sessions. the results of the investigation showed that students not only supported the positive effects of using american tv drama to promote l2 vocabulary learning, but they also illustrated the process of learning. for example, they found that the video contained “images” that facilitated new words to be more easily memorized and remembered. according to students, the plots, the events, and the characters’ emotions all helped them to learn the target words. moreover, repetitions provided a chance for memory enhancement. for example, some of the words appeared more than once in the clip and subsequently drew the learners’ attention. another study was “smart subtitles for vocabulary learning”, by kovacs and miller. (2014). their main objective was to compare smart subtitles against dual subtitles in their effectiveness in teaching vocabulary. after viewing a 5-minute video with one of the tools, participants took a vocabulary quiz, wrote a summary of the video clip, and filled out a questionnaire. they then repeated this procedure on another clip, with the other tool. vocabulary through instructional videos romero-villamil & guzman martinez 12 no. 21 the smart subtitles system currently supports videos in chinese, japanese, french, german, and spanish. this system can be extended to other languages in which bilingual dictionaries are available. the findings of this project included but were not limited to the following observations: users correctly defined over twice as many new words on the vocabulary quiz when using smart subtitles than with dual subtitles; viewing times did not differ significantly between the tools; viewers’ self-assessed enjoyability did not differ significantly between the tools, and viewers’ self-assessed comprehension did not differ significantly between the tools. naghizadeh and darabi (2015), reported findings in study called: “the impact of bimodal, persian and no-subtitle movies on iranian efl learners’ l2 vocabulary learning”. the participants included 27 male and female teenage (15-17 years old) intermediate learners who were studying english in parvaz language institution in izeh, khuzestan, iran. for the sake of homogeneity, the oxford placement test (2007) was given to all learners. within the iranian context, the role of video materials in developing vocabulary had not been considered seriously. the findings can be beneficial to all people, engaged in language programs including curriculum and course designers, teachers and students. course designers can benefit from the findings by incorporating subtitled movies of various types as a part of vocabulary development materials. it can also help teachers in choosing the right type of subtitles for the purpose of teaching new vocabulary to their student. the researchers found that the employment of subtitles is an effective factor influencing vocabulary learning. additionally, bimodal subtitling is more influential in teaching and learning vocabularies than other subtitles. on the other hand, persian subtitling e.g., l1 produces the same results as if no subtitles had been used. visual literacy several types of “literacy” have been identified over the years. the use of adjectives is alive and well so as to identified things such as “cultural literacy”.”computer literacy” and even so gender pronoun literacy. for our purposes, the idea of visual literacy is salient. “visual literacy refers to the ability to make meaning from information in the form of the image. the “reader” of this image has the competence or ability to interpret, evaluate, and represent the meaning in visual form. we live in a visual culture. students’ everyday lives reflect the dominance of images on screen that are colorful, that have animation, texture, and dimensionality. the combined influences of the image have vocabulary through instructional videos romero-villamil & guzman martinez 13 no. 21 shifted the way students make meaning”. (rowsell, mclean and hamilton. 2012, p.4 45) today, constructing a true meaning of anything is more complex since there are more mediums, materials and modalities. nowadays, learners can activate more than one of five senses through the use of the multimedia material on the internet. for example, when they interact with video games, animations, risky virtual adventures, racing car competitions, they have to be skillful in reading and following instructions, finding solutions for puzzling situations or decision making process to select the best alternative. the concept of visual literacy is important to learn how to use dynamic materials that can be downloaded freely from the internet. the students in this digital area need to develop skills that interwine sounds, images, movements, and actions to communicate social and familiar information in more than one mode. for instance, a subtitled video that has been posted on a closed facebook group can be played as many times as needed. by considering literacy within educational boundaries, rowsell and walsh (2011), identify new beliefs and views about the meaning of literacy which can be characterized as follow: • there is more emphasis on cultural practices than cognitive development. • home and community is more involved in educational work. • wider emphasis on screen textual structure than book textual structure. • individuals who are achieving skills to become literate in terms of multimedia are observed carefully. in the field of new literacy studies, the literacy perspective has to do not only with the idea of mastering reading and writing abilities but multimedia technological texts, as well. consequently, learners should be seen as multi-literate learners that are able to manage a paper-based text, and also computer-based or digital text (street, 2009) different types of subtitles subtitles are defined as the permanently affixed onscreen text that represents the narration, dialogue, music, or sound effects in a program. subtitled videos let learners not only listen but also simultaneously read the narrative of a speaker. some applications permit students to deactivate subtitles to try to understand the content of the dialogues without any written reference. in the classroom, teachers can stop the video to emphisize in a specific part that requires an explanation or to pause when new words have to to be taught and learnt. vocabulary through instructional videos romero-villamil & guzman martinez 14 no. 21 there are different types of subtitles in english, and other languages. standard subtitles (l2 audio with l1 captions), bimodal subtitles (l2 audio with l2 subtitles), and reversed subtitles (l1audio with l2 captions). l2 audio with l2 subtitles are used for this study because the main purpose is to encourage students to see and hear as much english as possible. l2l1 can be an interference that creates a negative students’ habit: understanding only has place if they can translate from english to spanish. (vaezi, sarkeshikian and shah-ahmadi, 2013). in the case of colombia a huge gap can be observed between the use of subtitled videos and learning vocabulary films and in academic settings. in order to bridge this gap, the researcher tackled this issue and conducted a study to determine the role of instructional subtitled videos in learning vocabulary in a secondary school context. in fact, the study aimed to determine to what extend the use of subtitles videos influence the process of learning vocabulary. methodology action research is the most convenient method to follow since teacher-researcher can get immediate feedback from students’ about their performance. subsequently and it is possible to make positive with respect to the resources.). kemmis and mctaggart (1988) developed a concept for action research. they proposed a spiral model comprising four steps: planning, acting, observing and reflecting: figure 1 research model vocabulary through instructional videos romero-villamil & guzman martinez 15 no. 21 carr and kemmis (1986) claim that ar is “simply a form of self-reflective enquiry undertaken by participants in social situations to improve the rationality and justice of their own practices, their understanding of these practices, and the situations in which the practices are carried out” (p. 162). hence, ar provides the necessary elements to think of teaching as a way to increase and foster the learning opportunities of their students, which at the same time, allows teachers to develop as professional because ar “seeks to facilitate growth of teachers´ understanding of teaching and of themselves as teachers” (richard and farrell, 2005, p. 4). taking into account the specific objectives that were set in this research, some steps were implemented to make the development of the research possible under a constant reflective process on the use of the strategy to learn vocabulary: step 1. in this stage, a pre-test was applied to identify and measure the learners’ difficulties when they were working on the target words that were selected from the videos (ten words for each one) step 2. after applying the pre-test, three sessions were developed by using 3 instructional subtitled videos downloaded from youtube. the session was planned according to the stages proposed by harmer (2009): engage, study and activate. the teacher facilitated and provided a clear idea about the purpose of each video task. step 3. the classroom observations phase took a fundamental role in this inquiry since they helped teacher-researcher to highlight a set of relevant aspects that contributed to getting enough information about students’ performance during the whole process. step 4 to know how the process of learning vocabulary using instructional subtitled videos progressed, the teacher-researcher used a diary with the aim of documenting conclusions drawn after each session. step 5. after the task, a semi-structured interview was applied to receive students’ comments about the instructional subtitled videos as a visual strategy to learn vocabulary. moreover, a post-test was applied with the purpose of determining how useful the use of the instructional subtitled videos was to learn vocabulary. finally, the pre-test and post test results were compared and contrasted. by knowing how well subtitled instructional videos help students to learn vocabulary and the way they react in front them, four instruments were applied: teacher’s diary, students’ semi-structured interview, classroom observation, a test, and posttest. the three subtitled videos were : the pianist by by brij kothari (6’05’’), zyppy the zebra by umilla ellappan (4’50’’), and the salt march by esther david (5’01’’). the analysis of information was be done under two paradigms: quantitative and qualitative. the second one is related to the categories that emerge from students’ vocabulary through instructional videos romero-villamil & guzman martinez 16 no. 21 performance and the way they see the strategy. the first one has to do with the number of words students learn from the content of the videos. in order to explore the utility of instructional subtitled videos, this research addresses three questions: rq1 to what extent instructional subtitled videos influence on students’ learning vocabulary? rq2 what are students’ reactions using instructional subtitled videos in learning vocabulary? rq3 what are the advantages and disadvantages of using instructional subtitled videos to learn vocabulary? participants the instructional subtitled videos were shown to the 8-1 student cohort, composed of 15 learners: 10 boys and 5 girls, 13-16 years old. most of them belong to the lower middle classes. they hace a basic a1 (cefr), english level being familiar with vocabulary related to the house, family, days of the week, months of the year, weather, festivities, time, animals, routines, nationalities, ordinal and cardinal numbers, jobs, sports, likes and dislikes, things they can/can’t do. the institution where this research was developed (tolima-ibagué), provides an educational service to 1700 students, in primary and secondary school. there are two (2) english and (2) spanish teachers who are members of the humanities faculty. the students attend thirty (30) class hours a week, three (3) of which are english, 10% of instruction time. data collection procedure for gathering the information, several instruments were selected to achieve the necessary information to provide answers to the research questions asked. in this study a pre-test, students’ artifacts, class observation, a researcher’s diary, and a post-test was used. the teacher-researcher collected the data over three sessions (three videos). a worksheet was elaborated for each video consisting of five exercises: (1) matching pictures to words, (2) synonyms and antonyms, (3) definitions, (4) fillings in the gaps, and (5) sentence writing activities. students and teacher performance was recorded on video for each session. to know students’ reactions during the process of intervention class observation was used. a semi-structured interview was conducted to see the advantages and disadvantages of instructional subtitled videos as a visual strategy. vocabulary through instructional videos romero-villamil & guzman martinez 17 no. 21 sagor (2000) states that triangulation “involves the use of multiple independent sources of data to establish the truth and accuracy of a claim.” (p. 113) for that reason, it is fundamental to address the research questions from different angles using diverse instruments of data collection. the following triangulation matrix adapted from sagor (2000) shows three interdependent relationships: (1) the instruments (2) the research questions they attempt to answer and (3) their level of importance to the questions. (p.115) table 1. triangulation matrix (after sagor’s, 2006) source: the author (2017) data analysis interpreting the data was based on four aspects: first, the subtitled video where the data was collected; second, the type of instrument used to collect the data; and third, the participant from whom the data was collected. a code was assigned to each aspect, and the data was labeled with different codes. table 2. coding process source: the author (2018) vocabulary through instructional videos romero-villamil & guzman martinez 18 no. 21 this coding process was useful to identify the data that illustrated the categories and sub-categories emerging from the data analysis. for instance, information that is related to a participant 1, subtitled video zz, from teacher’s diary, it would be identified as s1.zz.td. the exactitude of the coding process permitted a thorough and exact reading of the data. by searching evidence in the data that legitimized or questioned it, the categories and subcategories that emerged from analysis were identified. the data analysis process in this study was realized under the grounded approach (strauss and corbin, 1990). consequently, the categories are the result of inductive analysis of the data gathered to develop a deep understanding of the phenomena under study. the data analysis procedures consisted of reading all the data collected through the classroom observation, teacher’s diary, students’ semi-structured interview, students’ artifacts that provided validity and reliability to the findings of this study. careful reading began right after the data gathering process started; in a simultaneous process of data collection and analysis (johnson and christensen, 2004).source: the author (2018) table 3. categories resulting from the analysis category 1: learning words. explains students’ performance to learn new words and there is sub category related to the unknown words. category 2. subtitled videos. refers to subtitled videos as visual strategies and it has subcategory: positive attitudes towards the use of videos category 3. participant’s previous experience. identifies students’ vocabulary activation. it has two subcategories: students’ engagement and participation. category 4. participants’ performance in learning vocabulary. concentrates on the way students performed during the implementation of the video tasks. it has a subcategory: the target words. category 5. images and words. suggests the importance of supporting vocabulary learning with images. it has one sub-category: the use of images, and texts. vocabulary through instructional videos romero-villamil & guzman martinez 19 no. 21 the categories are reference points in the analysis of class observation, the teacher’s diary, and the semi structured interview in each video used as part of the action research process. findings by using instructional subtitled videos the participants obtained better results in learning the target vocabulary, implying that the information was received through multisensory channels: audio, images and text. the students’ senses were interacting with movement, color, sound effects and the picture sequences that support the plot of each story, according to the semistructured interview, the students thought that the use of instructional subtitled videos assisted them, to learn vocabulary more easily, practiced pronunciation and intonation, and had a more positive view of their english class, going beyond the traditional activities that can be boring and non-motivational in l2 acquisition. to facilitate students’ interaction with the videos and tasks, esa (engage, study, activate), (harmer,2009, p.52) was used so as to have a didactic sequence, and activate students’ background. each video topic conveyed a particular context where the students’ reactions were diverse. for instance, some liked zyppy the zebra more than salt march, because the zebra was trying to get rid of the fleas in an annoying but humorous situation,. it made some students laugh, especially when the animal was scratching on the ground with his legs upside down, literally going belly up. the students were able to predict, interpret and understand the video plot by following the sequence of events that take place while the video was playing. the learners concentrated on visual clues such as facial expression, dress, gesture, posture and on details of the environment. to construct meaning it is worth noting that there were some disadvantages related to students’ performance during the intervention process . on the one hand, students risked only reading the subtitles and not focusing on the video images. on the other hand, subtitles might interfere with the students who simply wanted to enjoy the video images. the students who were able to follow images and subtitles concurrently had more chances to understand the plot of the stories. likewise, students may get a little bored if there is too much information being illustrated in the same picture. the instructional subtitled videos did not have characters’ speech audio but a narrator that described the story, using pictures related vocabulary through instructional videos romero-villamil & guzman martinez 20 no. 21 to the facts that occurred during the development of the plot of the video. for instance, in “the pianist”, there is a scene where the child pianist is sitting at the piano, and the narrator explains how the little pianist practiced not only at school but also at home. it is illustrated with two pianos: a big one that was located at the school and a small one whose owner was the child. to give the idea that the pianist practices at both places, both images of the of the piano are shown separately . pre-test and posttest results undoubtedly, the use of instructional subtitled videos was a powerful strategy that helped students learn vocabulary in an easier way since they had the possibility to have information in oral and written visual form simultaneously. hence, some could remember the new words when they see them inserted in full complete sentences, when the words were narrated or when the images of the video images illustrated what was taking place by contrasting the pre-test and the post-test, we observed from figures below that the students performed much better in the post test.none of them failed the posttest and all of them got a higher score with respect to the pretest. in the pre-test only five (5) students had a score above fifteen (15) right answers, and one student obtained (18) however , in the post-test, the minimum score of all of the students succeded in reaching more than twenty two (22) out of thirty (30) answers. it indicated that the intervention during the three cycles was useful and permitted the students to learn the target words thanks to the use of instructional subtitled videos as visual strategy. figure 2. post –test vocabulary through instructional videos romero-villamil & guzman martinez 21 no. 21 figure 3. posttest according to research by naghizadeh and darabi (2015) , the participants performed better results when they were exposed to bimodal subtitles (subtitles and audio in english). in the same vein, the learners of the present research showed better as the three cycles experiment unfolded. concerning to the use of multimedia resources that can be downloaded for free from the internet, harji, woods, & alavi, (2010), point out that learners who received the language through multisensory channels had a wider spectrum to put into practice their skills so as to work out the target vocabulary. in a similar context, the students who came into contact with subtitled videos could experiment how beneficial aural, text and images were to making sense out of the new words to be learnt. vocabulary through instructional videos romero-villamil & guzman martinez 22 no. 21 conclusions the goal of this research was to know to what extent instructional subtitled videos could influence students’ learning vocabulary. these videos were zyppy the zebra, the pianist and the salt march. the findings are not in doubt, the implementation of subtitled videos contributed to learning vocabulary. the main factors associated with the outcome of this research included (1) the participants’ interest in the implementation process (2) the methodological procedure which took into account the following steps: engage, activate, and study, which are suggested by harmer (2009). eas highly contributed to appropriately using the video material. the use of words in their visual context supports vocabulary learning. regarding to the writing production process, students were able to organize their ideas by using the target words and the pictures as learning aids . the majority of them went from simple words to complete sentences during the three cycles . this achievement showed how the activation of learners’ background play a crucial role in creating a suitable atmosphere to be prepared to watch the videos. the design of video task material played an important role in this investigation making learning easy because the exercises could gradually motive students to learn the l2 vocabulary.also, the students established a connection between the subtitled images, sound, and text, which made learning meaningful, and interactive. by using new words and pictures in a real context, the students were engaged in their learning process. regarding the strategies to learn vocabulary: word association, synonyms/ antonyms sentence construction, all of them pave the way to communicate ideas, enabling the students to go beyond the words so as to express what they wanted to say in written form. the analysis showed that the systemic reflection process in each cycle of this study made it possible to incorporate changes in favor of instructional subtitled videos as a visual strategy since new details appeared during the intervention process. for instance, it was necessary for the students to develop skills and perform extra activities to gain experience in reading, watching, and listening. this research also showed that subtitled videos motivated students to learn english because of their acceptance and positive attitude toward them. it means that the vocabulary was related to artistic real social life situations. on the other hand, by writing down sentences the design of the video tasks let students go from simple exercises to more complex ones,. limitations this study, like any other study, had its limitations. one of them was that students’ knowledge of the language varied greatly, some of them were not competent enough, vocabulary through instructional videos romero-villamil & guzman martinez 23 no. 21 which was noticeable during the implementation of the three videos. while some only wrote words associated with the images, others could write complete sentences. more importantly each student advanced according to his or her own skill possibilities. in the future, they should face authentic subtitled videos, as they progress in their learning. in the same direction, it is important to embody subtitled videos with characters and issues, that students identify with. i that way, they should be more committed to learning it. in other words, videos in which speech is clear enough for them to understand the topic addressed, and the message behind it, should engage students enough so that they will continue learning english. future research this study allowed the comprehension of the use of instructional subtitled videos in learning vocabulary in 8-2 grade, ibagué, colombia. however, it would be interesting to conduct further studies in this field in other efl skills like reading, listening or writing. for example, pronunciation. viewing without sound only reading, then read out loud. students could then compare their pronunciation to that of the video. vocabulary through instructional videos romero-villamil & guzman martinez 24 no. 21 references harji, m. b., woods, p. c., & alavi, z. k. (2010). the effect of viewing subtitled videos on vocabulary learning. journal of college teaching & learning (tlc), 7(9). kovacs, g., & miller, r. c. (2014, april). smart subtitles for vocabulary learning. in  proceedings of the sigchi conference on human factors in computing systems (pp. 853-862). acm. naghizadeh, m., & darabi, t. (2015). the impact of bimodal, persian and no-subtitle movies on iranian efl learners’ l2 vocabulary learning.  journal of applied linguistics and language research, 2(2), 66-79. rowsell, j., & walsh, m. (2011). rethinking literacy education in new times: multimodality, multiliteracies, and new literacies. brock education journal, [online]. 21, 53-62.avalable from: http://brock.scholarsportal.info/journals/ brocked/home/article/viewfile/236/174 rowsell, j., mclean, c., & hamilton, m. (2012). visual literacy as a classroom approach. journal of adolescent & adult literacy, 55(5), 444-447. sagor, r. (2000). guiding school improvement with action research. virginia: ascd. shamshirian, m. (2015). assessing the effect of utilizing monolingual and bilingual dictionaries on efl learners’ vocabulary. language in india, 15(7), 175-188. squyres, s. w., grotzinger, j. p., arvidson, r. e., bell, j. f., calvin, w., christensen, p. r., ... & johnson, j. r. (2004). in situ evidence for an ancient aqueous environment at meridiani planum, mars. science, 306(5702), 1709-1714. strauss, a. l., & corbin, j. (1990). basics of qualitative research: grounded theory procedures street, b. v. (2009). multiple literacies and.  the sage handbook of writing development, 137. susanto, v. (2017). the effect of in-class listening activities on the vocabulary mastery of the english department students  (doctoral dissertation, widya mandala catholic university surabaya). vaezi, m. n., sarkeshikian, s. a. h., & shah-ahmadi, m. r. (2013). the impact of premodified input on iranian efl learners’ listening. the iranian efl journal, 222. wang, y. c. (2012). learning l2 vocabulary with american tv drama” from the learner’s perspective”. english language teaching, 5(8), 217-225. vocabulary through instructional videos romero-villamil & guzman martinez 25 no. 21 authors * jorge luis romero-villamil is a teacher and researcher at josé celestino mutis school. he     holds a master degree in english didactics and a ba in modern languages from universidad del tolima. he has been teaching english for over 20 years. his research interests include foreign language didactics and english learning vocabulary. orcid: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1446-9593 claudia patricia guzman-martinez holds a master degree in english didactics from universidad del tolima. he holds a ba in plastic art from universidad del tolima. she is an english teacher at la aguadita school in state of tolima, colombia.  she studied bilingual and computer secretary at instituto meyer in bogota. her research interests encompass didactics of pedagogy, and innovation in education. orcid: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9796-9365 how to reference this article: romero-villamil, j. l., & guzman-martinez, c. p. (2020). learning vocabulary through instructional subtitled videos. gist – education and learning research journal, 21, 7-25. https://doi.org/10.26817/16925777.841 vocabulary through instructional videos romero-villamil & guzman martinez �� do and understand: the effectiveness of experiential education claudia gama, mba cristina fernández, b.s. abstract /resumen this paper shares the results of a study on the benefits which an experiential education program has on students in the k-12 range. the study was carried out at a bilingual north american-style college preparatory school located in colombia, south america. research was based on experiences obtained through the coordination and implementation of an experiential education program during the 2008-09 school year. the findings deal with experiential education as a pedagogical philosophy. este manuscrito comparte los resultados de un estudio sobre los beneficios que un programa de educación experiencial les otorga a estudiantes de grados pre-escolar a bachillerato. el estudio fue realizado en un colegio bilingüe, de estilo norteamericano, localizado en colombia, sur américa. la investigación fue basada en las experiencias obtenidas a través de la coordinación e implementación de un programa de educación experiencial durante el período escolar 2008–2009. los resultados se refieren a educación experiencial como una filosofía educativa. keywords/palabras claves: experiential education, emotional wellbeing, social interaction, service learning, outdoor education companies, physical abilities; educación experiencial, bienestar emocional, interacción social, servicio social, compañías de educación al aire libre, habilidades físicas gama & fernández �� introduction “i hear and i forget. i see and i remember. i do and i understand.” this saying of confucius (551-479 bc) sums up much of the effectiveness inherent in experiential education methodologies. however, experiential education as a systematic pedagogical philosophy was only first introduced in the early 20th century. today it has come to have a respected position among educational philosophies. for nearly a century it has been implemented and utilized as a learning tool in many schools and organizations throughout europe and the americas. the main idea behind it is the integration of student experiences into the academic curriculum. the experiential education program at the school which is the object of our research is called classroom without walls (cww). the program is offered to all students, from kindergarten to twelfth grade. each grade level offers its students a cww trip once a year. as seen in the following diagram (figure 1), from kindergarten up to fourth grade, these are 1-day trips. fifth-graders have their first overnight experience with a 3-night, 4-day trip. starting at the middle-school level, the trips become week-long programs. figure 1. duration of cww trips with corresponding grade levels. the main objective of the program in terms of destinations is to offer the students the possibility of getting to know the different regions of the country they live in. therefore, all of the trips are national. eleventh and twelfth grade students are offered the possibility of participating in one international trip within the americas region. the coordination of the cww program is handled by the school’s academic support services office. this office coordinates and organizes the trips together with the trip leaders from the teaching staff. as part of the cww policies, all trips must be led by an outdoor education company (oec). such a company provides the general logistics of the trip and ensures that all of the outdoor education activities fulfill safety requirements. gama & fernández �� apart from the outdoor education activities, all trips within the cww program must include an explicit academic and social component. the purpose of each component is to ensure that the activities offered during the trip are educational and have objectives which are directly aligned with the school’s curriculum. in terms of the social component, one of the program’s goals is to show students the social reality of colombia. by exposing the youngsters to various regions, communities and ethnic groups, the program organizers elicit feelings of empathy, compassion and generosity for fellow countrymen. it is believed that the education of tomorrow’s leaders should guarantee responsibility within the social reality of the society that surrounds students. area of focus the purpose of this action research project is to determine what if any are the benefits that an experiential education program has on the learning, emotional well-being, social interaction and physical skills of the students. research questions 1. do the trips have an important academic component that is directly aligned to the school curriculum in different subject areas such as science, social studies, english, math and sociales (social studies class taught in spanish)? 2. do students benefit from these trips in an emotional way, that is, by demonstrating that they have acquired different relational skills such as self-esteem, responsibility and friendship, as well as the values of independence and empathy? 3. do the trips offer students the opportunity to interact with the social reality of their nation? 4. do the activities offered during the trip provide students the possibility of strengthening their bodies through the development of various physical skills and abilities? theoretical framework and review of related literature there is more in us than we know. if we can be made to see it, we will be unwilling to settle for less. (hahn in obi, ¶1) experiential education has existed as an educational philosophy since the early 1920s. the difference between experiential education and experiential learning (these two terms are sometimes used interchangeably) is their contexts. experiential learning refers to primary experiential education gama & fernández �� learning, in other words, the experience which an individual receives without the intervention of a third party. on the other hand, experiential education refers to an academic experience in which the individual is aided though a facilitator, teacher or guide (builes, 2003). there are two main theorists who described experiential education as a philosophy of education: kurt hahn and john dewey (builes, 2003). even though research shows that many more educators have studied the topic, these two are undoubtedly the original sources of experiential education theory. kurt hahn the first person to formally organize experiential education into a system was kurt hahn. he was inspired by the idea of the creation of a society based on commitment, responsibility, honesty, justice, service to others and compassion found in the writings of philosophers such as plato (builes, 2003). hahn was born in 1886 into a cultured jewish family in berlin, germany. during his early educational years, he became fascinated with the field of education. hahn believed that every child is born with the ability to make correct decisions while facing moral issues. however, as one grows and enters adolescence, one loses this ability due to the pressures of society. in order to be able to manage these pressures, a child’s physical aptitudes must be strengthened (neill, 2008). at the age of 34, after much study and analysis, hahn founded a new type of school. this school would have the purpose of helping others; it would be a school where intellectual and physical activities would be harmonized. he taught his students a variety of abilities such as how to prepare backpacks and camp, through which he saw them develop self-esteem, learn conflict resolution techniques and learn how to build community (builes, 2003). i regard it as the foremost task of education to ensure the survival of these qualities: an enterprising curiosity, an undefeatable spirit, tenacity in pursuit, readiness for sensible self denial, and above all, compassion. (kurt hahn cited in neill, 2008, ¶3) hahn combined his years of applying experiential education principles to establish the first outward bound school in aberdovey, england in 1941. this school built an extension in marble, colorado (us) in 1962. as a result, outward bound schools soon became the main experiential education centers in the world, with 28 schools throughout europe, africa, asia, north america, australia and puerto rico (builes, 2003). experiential education gama & fernández �8 john dewey the second theorist, john dewey, has been called the father of experiential education. in the 1920s and 1930s, john dewey became famous for introducing the premise that the “authoritarian, strict, preordained knowledge approach of modern traditional education was too concerned with delivering knowledge, and not enough with understanding students’ actual experiences” (neill, 2005a, ¶2). at the same time, dewey also found problems in progressive education. he found it to be characterized by a too liberal and student-driven style. by arguing that both forms of education have their strengths and weaknesses, dewey proposed a theory to guide educational experience and conduct. this theory is based on two main principles: continuity and interaction. the continuity principle acknowledges that past experiences influence present experiences. as human beings, from the time one is born, people learn from every experience, whether they be positive or negative. the interaction principle states that present experiences arise from an interaction among all situations. in other words, any situation can be experienced in a profoundly different way by each individual, and the only way of linking this situation to an educational experience is by living it (neill, 2005b). thus, dewey proposes, that every educator must take into account each student’s past experiences and the unique differences between each of the students. being that each person is different both genetically and in experiences; dewey argued that teaching styles and curriculum design must be structured in ways that allow for such differences (neill, 2005b). according to the association for experiential education (aee), “experiential education is a philosophy and methodology in which educators purposefully engage with learners in direct experience and focused reflection in order to increase knowledge, develop skills and clarify values” (2009, ¶3). as per this definition, an experiential education program must have a defined purpose and goal. the program must be part of the school’s curriculum in order to make sure its objectives are academic in nature. in addition, the program must have a social component which allows for the student to interact with his/her social surroundings. these two components must be complemented by the skills and values which have to be included in every experiential education program. experiential education gama & fernández �9 the four variables of the cww program figure 2. experiential education components. as illustrated in figure 2, four components were chosen as study variables: academics, emotional well-being, social interaction and physical abilities. correspondingly, the cww program must explicitly address each of these in order to be consistent with the school’s experiential education commitment. academics drummond (2003) discusses the distinction between two types of learning: cognitive and experiential, and how such a distinction may be applied to geosciences. the first type of learning (cognitive) refers to traditional academic knowledge such as vocabulary or multiplication tables. the second type of learning refers to applied knowledge. the importance of this distinction is that experience addresses the needs and wants of the learner. according to carl rogers (in drummond, 2003), experiential learning can occur when several conditions are met: there is student participation, students control and direct the learning process; activities are based upon direct interaction with nature; and self-evaluation is used to assess student learning. one of the biggest challenges faced by an experiential education program is to clearly define the roles of teachers and students. within this type of program, educators must move away from the notion that the teacher is the sole purveyor of knowledge and the student the passive recipient of it. experiential education requires interaction between teachers and students; they must both become active learners. the adaptation of roles takes time, and administrator’s support becomes critical if the process is to take place. in order to better understand the philosophy, david kolb’s experiential learning cycles shed light on the experiential education gama & fernández 80 subject. these cycles are commonly used to help structure experiencebased programs. smith (1996) presents the experiential learning cycles model and examines its applications. according to david kolb (as cited in smith, 1996) the learning process must be broken down into 4 distinct stages: figure 3. david kolb’s learning cycles. emotional well-being emotional health has many aspects. it is based on self-esteem and behavior that is appropriate and healthy. while we most often think about experiential learning and outdoor education as a way to develop physical skill, leadership abilities, environmental knowledge, and other useful knowledge and skills, it must also be used to develop emotional strength and well-being. in order to understand the importance of addressing the psychological factors of the program and ensuring that they are present, it helps to understand howard gardner’s work on multiple intelligences: i want my children to understand the world, but not just because the world is fascinating and the human mind is curious. i want them to understand it so that they will be positioned to make it a better place. knowledge is not the same as morality, but we need to understand if we are to avoid past mistakes and move in productive directions. an important part of that understanding is knowing who we are and what we can do... ultimately, we must synthesize our understandings for ourselves. (gardner in smith, 2008, ¶1) experiential education gama & fernández 81 howard gardner’s theory of seven multiple intelligences has been well received among educators internationally. consequently, many schools around the world have tried to address these intelligences through their curricula. the seven learning styles gardner presents are: table 1. howard gardner’s multiple intelligences (chapman, 2008,¶7). subsequent research and reflection by gardner and his colleagues has looked at three additional intelligences: table 2. three additional areas of gardner’s multiple intelligences (chapman, 2008, ¶10). in order for an experiential program to be successful, it must acknowledge most if not all of the 10 areas of intelligence. howard gardner’s notion of multiple intelligences forced educators to look beyond the traditional scheme, which is the much the same objective of experiential education, and to offer young people the opportunity to excel according to their natural inclinations. kinesthetic, visual and naturalistic learners are examples of students who would thrive in environments that take them beyond conventional teaching methods. such opportunities to break tradition are available in outdoor education experiences. social interaction by providing a social interaction aspect on the trips, teachers offer their students the possibility of actively engaging in an experience that will have real consequences. the work that students do during the experiential education gama & fernández 82 service-learning component is designed to have a long-term effect on local communities. service learning is a pedagogical method through which students apply their academic skills and knowledge to address the real-life needs of communities. service learning teaches and develops the ethical values of service and civic responsibility. by solving real-life problems and addressing real needs, students learn to apply classroom learning to a real-world context. it should be noted that service learning is different from community service. while the latter may be defined as volunteerism, service learning always integrates knowledge acquisition into the service (mcpherson, 1996). els schools see service as an important connection between academic content and the problems students face in their everyday life. andrew furco (1996) proposes a deeper understanding of service learning. furco quotes robert sigmon who defined it as an experiential education approach premised on “reciprocal” learning. furco suggests that both those who provide the service and those who receive it benefit from the experience (furco, 1996). it is imperative that service-learning programs have an academic component and be designed in such a way that ensures service will enhance learning and vice versa (furco, 1996). physical skills the fourth variable of an experiential education program is the development of physical skills. in a recent research review, rickinson (lotc, 2009) and other researchers conducted a study on outdoor education programs available throughout the uk. some of the conclusions drawn by the study mention that those outdoor adventure activities which involve physical fitness show positive effects not only for short, but also for long-term development. outdoor education activities have integrated learning opportunities which include risk awareness, personal and social development, citizenship, and connectivity with the environment. physical activities are also learning opportunities in which students are constantly obtaining different skills and values. it is the objective of an experiential education program to use adventure activities to aid in the understanding of subjects such as science, math and history. research report context as we look carefully at the results of the 2008-2009 cww program, we first notice that the program took place throughout the entire school year. the first trips take place in october and the last trips in march of the following year. the majority of the trips (middle and high school experiential education gama & fernández 83 level) take place during the first 2 weeks of february. during these weeks, approximately 600 students participate in the cww program. being that the elementary level trips took place during the first semester of the 2009 school year, their outings were not included in the study. area of focus the responsibility of the administrators and leaders of the program was to analyze the results of the program and to conclude whether or not the results justify the continuation of the program offer to students. the purpose of the action research project was to determine the benefits that an experiential education program has on the learning, emotional well-being, social interaction and the physical skills of the students. the following were the research questions: 1. do the trips have an important academic component that is directly aligned to the school’s curriculum in different subject areas such as science, social studies, english, math and sociales (social studies class taught in spanish)? 2. do students benefit from these trips in an emotional way by learning different skills and values such as self-esteem, responsibility, friendship, independence and empathy? 3. do the trips offer students the opportunity to interact with colombia’s social reality? 4. do the activities offered during the trip provide students the possibility of strengthening their bodies by developing various physical skills and abilities? data collection quantitative data collection techniques were used as the primary research method for this study. three different types of surveys were designed which were distributed among students, parents and staff members. the research questions were placed in a triangulation matrix as follows (note: ds = data source). by practicing triangulation, a variety of sources and methods are compared with one another to cross-check data (mills, 2007). in the case of this research project, it was necessary to have feedback from the school community as a whole, including students, parents and staff. experiential education gama & fernández 8� table 3. triangulation matrix. data sources surveys. once the design of the parent surveys were finished, these were also placed on the school’s intranet service. after a couple of weeks, the number of parents who had filled out the survey was minimal, therefore, a decision was made to distribute the parent and student surveys in homerooms. the staff surveys were distributed directly to teachers. with the student and parent surveys, data was collected to measure the following areas: the academic component of the trips, the social component of trips, the role of the outdoor education company, safety standards, communication during trips, the logistics, the area of student personal growth during the trips, participation in the local program and destination options for future trips. testimonials. during the course of the trips, the school received testimonials from students reporting aspects of their experience. these reports were sent to parents. additionally, as trip closure, the different sections of the school organize the cww exhibit which has the purpose of showing parents and the school community what students learned during the trip. this year, the middle school focused the exhibit on the social aspect of the trips. students spoke about their experiences during the trip and diplayed to parents some of the projects they worked on. informal feedback. even though this study does not consider informal feedback to be an official data source, the authors took feedback into account when analyzing the results and the action plan. data analysis and interpretation after analyzing the data collected from the student and parent surveys and testimonials, the following themes emerged: the academic value of the trips. during the planning stages, the administrators encouraged teachers to include the academic component within the trip. it was requested that this component both be addressed during the trip and assessed afterwards. it had to refer to one or more of the subject matters studied. the researchers observed that the majority of the students believed that the trip had an academic component and that experiential education gama & fernández 8� they were able to make connections between what they learned at school and what they learned during the trip. it must be mentioned however, that this percentages decreases as the students get older. the student’s area of emotional well-being. it is evident from both the student and parent surveys that students acquire various skills and abilities that contribute to personal growth and emotional well-being. the question that addressed this area in both the student and parent surveys was open-ended, thus allowing for various comments answers. social interaction. the findings regarding the social interaction students have during the trips shows us that this is one of the most important aspects of the program. the surveys illustrate that the social activities carried out during the trip led students to have a better understanding of the communities visited. the service learning-approach of experiential education, based on reciprocal learning, has the objective of not only students giving their time, but giving their hearts to other local communities. although both benefit and learn, for organizers, students should always be the main beneficiaries. apart from the survey findings, this variable was also measured by the students’ presentations at the cww exhibit (organized by the middle school sociales teachers). the students not only manifested to the school community how much they learned, but also what they felt about their contribution to the well-being of their country. development of physical skills and abilities. during all of the trips, students are faced with different physical challenges that the outdoor education companies organize depending on the region to be visited. these activities include rappel, caving, canoeing, rafting and hiking (among others). these activities develop a variety of skills which, in all likelihood, the students did not previously have. as part of the answers to the personal growth question, many of the students and parents gave important recognition to the physical aspect. conclusions regarding the academic aspect, most of the students felt satisfied; however, the researchers believe that the objectives of each trip must be more explicitly aligned to the curriculum. in order to do this, a closer involvement of the teaching staff will be necessary. it is recommended that there be an explicit preparation stage in which teachers make sure the trip has clear and measurable objectives aligned to the school’s curriculum. with reference to the emotional well-being of the students, all of the trips offered students the possibility of maturing and growing emotionally. such emotive skills and values are difficult to measure; nonetheless, the open-ended answers to the surveys showed that students experiential education gama & fernández 8� and parents recognize that participants in the outings a) acquire greater independence, b) learn how to make friends in different setting, c) get to know themselves in other areas of life, as well as c) develop teamwork, empathy, compassion and responsibility. finally, we also saw that both students and parents are more motivated with the program during the early school years. as students enter higher grade levels, this motivation significantly decreases. action plan based on the themes that have emerged from this study, and according to what has been learned, the researchers propose the following action plan: ● continue implementing cww in grades k-12 as an experiential education program. ● work closely with the teaching staff in the preparation stage of the program to ensure that each trip have a measureable academic component that directly addresses the standards and benchmarks of the subject areas. each teacher must be delegated an explicit role, responsibility and involvement in both the academic and social aspects of the program. these roles and responsibilities must be clearly defined in advance. ● ensure that all of the trips are carefully planned by both the school and the outdoor education company so that all aspects are analyzed prior to the trip. there must be a design and implementation of a risk management plan which includes a protocol for emergency situations. ● improve the planning and the implementation of the local program. organizers will have to make sure that 100% of the students benefit from the learning, emotional, social and physical aspects of the trip, whether they go or simply opt for participation in the local program. the teachers who do not go on the trip will be given greater responsibility within the local program. ● it will be very important to ensure, with the assistance of the sociales team, that all grade levels have a strong service-learning component on their respective outings. ● organizers will seek long-term partnerships with outdoor education companies in order to ensure that these design programs which fully address school objectives and mission. ● organizers will make certain that all trips are planned well in advance which will help teachers to work with a suitable timeframe allotted to the organization of the exhibit. experiential education gama & fernández 8� ● the high school principal and teachers should be more involved in to the design of a high school trip which is motivational and relevant to this age level. ● the administrators will continue to strive to offer an experiential education opportunity to all students. in this effort, risk management, cost and destinations of the program will be carefully analyzed. references association for experiential education. (2009). a community of progressive educators and practitioners. retrieved march 28, 2009, from http://www.aee.org/about/whatisee builes jaramillo, j. f. (2003). el abordaje de la educación experiencial. bogotá, colombia: quick press. chapman, a. (2008). howard gardner’s multiple intelligences. retrieved march 28, 2009, from http://www.businessballs.com/ howardgardnermultipleintelligences.htm davis, c. & lowey, t. (2009). the kolb learning cycle. retrieved march 28, 2009, from http://www.ldu.leeds.ac.uk/ldu/sddu_ multimedia/kolb/kolb_flash.htm drummond, c. n. (2003). carl rogers and the origins of experiential learning. journal of geosciences education. retrieved march 28, 2009, from http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa4089/is_200311/ ai_n9324277/ eisner, w. (2005). retrieved march 28, 2009 from, http://wilderdom. com/quotes/quoteseducation.html expeditionary learning schools outward bound. 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(2005b). john dewey, the modern father of experiential education. retrieved march 28, 2009 from http://wilderdom.com/ experiential/experientialdewey.html neill, j. (2008). wilderdom: a project in natural living and transformation. retrieved march 28, 2009, from http://wilderdom. com/kurthahn.html outward bound. (2009). retrieved march 28, 2009, from http://www. outwardbound.org.html outward bound-history. (2009). retrieved march 28, 2009, from http://www.outwardbound.org/index.cfm/do/ind.about_history outward bound international (obi). (2004). history. retrieved april 2, 2009, from http://www.outwardbound.net/about/history.html rickinson, m. (2008). national foundation for educational research. retrieved march 28, 2009, from http://www.nfer.ac.uk/researchareas/pims-data/summaries/fsr-a-research-review-of-outdoorlearning.cfm smith, k. m. (1996). david a. kolb on experiential learning. retrieved march 28, 2009, from http://www.infed.org/biblio/bexplrn.htm smith k. m. (2008). the encyclopedia of informal education: howard gardner, multiple intelligences and education. retrieved march 28, 2009, from http://www.infed.org/thinkers/gardner.htm experiential education gama & fernández 89 claudia gama rojas earned her bba in 1990 from the university of miami. one year later, she got an mba with a specialization in international finance. she has worked as assistant vice-president at sanwa bank (nyc) and account executive at ing bank, bogotá. originally from bogotá, she has lived overseas in switzerland, peru and florida. she started working at colegio nueva granada in 2005 as the elementary school administrative assistant. since 2008, claudia has been the director of the academic support services office. in 2009, claudia earned a post-graduate specialization in bilingual education from única. cristina fernandez uribe ha sido profesora de cocina y decana del primer programa de cocina y gastronomia profesional aprobado por el ministerio de educación nacional, colombia, en la corporación colegiatura colombiana. actualmente es asesora académica para el montaje del programa de artes culinarias y gastronomía. es administradora hotelera de michigan state university con estudios de cocina avanzada del cordon bleu de paris. así mismo ha cursado estudios en educación como especialista en educación bilingüe de la única y en el curso internacional para directores y administradores de colegios legionarios. también completó el diplomado del international center of educational sciences en roma, italia. experiential education gama & fernández 134 identifying training needs of novice online english language tutors1 identificación de las necesidades de capacitación de tutores novatos de inglés en línea carolina rodriguez buitrago2* universidad de la sabana, colombia abstract online and blended learning are of growing interest in the english language learning community. in colombia, national initiatives and policies promote online educational programs and online english courses specifically. as a result, new online tutors are constantly needed for new programs and courses offered by institutions as well as by private companies and public agencies. this article focuses on training as a way to prepare teachers to become online tutors who can support online and blended language learning processes. the study presents a needs analysis strategy, using a questionnaire to collect data on teachers’ perceived needs regarding training to become online english tutors. the results of the study suggest that novice e-tutor trainees need to become familiar with the specifics of online language learning platforms, and also require training on the necessary tutor competencies and skills. the findings argue for continued training on e-moderating. key words: online learning, e-moderating, teacher training, e-tutors, needs analysis, english language teaching resumen el aprendizaje en línea y mixto son de creciente interés en la comunidad de aprendizaje del idioma inglés. en colombia, se han lanzado iniciativas y políticas nacionales que promueven programas educativos y cursos de inglés en línea. como resultado, la demanda de tutores virtuales para este tipo de programas se hace mayor cada día. este artículo se centra en la capacitación 1 received: august 6, 2013 / accepted: october 1, 2013 2 email: crbuitrago@gmail.com gist education and learning research journal. issn 1692-5777. no. 7, november 2013. pp. 134-153 rodríguez no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) 135 como una manera de preparar a los profesores de aula de clase para que se conviertan en tutores en línea capaces de apoyar los procesos de aprendizaje de idiomas virtuales y mezclados (virtuales y presenciales). el estudio fue realizado utilizando el método de análisis de necesidades para la recolección de la información. durante el estudio, se usó un cuestionario para recoger datos sobre las necesidades que los docentes percibían en materia de formación para convertirse en tutores de inglés en línea. los resultados del estudio sugieren que los tutores virtuales novatos tienen que familiarizarse con las características específicas de las plataformas de aprendizaje de idiomas en línea y, además, requieren capacitación en las competencias y habilidades necesarias para convertirse en tutores. los hallazgos sugieren la capacitación continua en e-moderación para los tutores del mañana. palabras claves: aprendizaje en línea, e-moderación, capacitación docente, análisis de necesidades, enseñanza del inglés resumo a aprendizagem em linha e mista é de crescente interesse na comunidade de aprendizagem do idioma inglês. na colômbia, se tem lançado iniciativas e políticas nacionais que promovem programas educativos e cursos de inglês em linha. como resultado, a demanda de tutores virtuais para este tipo de programas se faz maior cada dia. este artigo centra-se na capacitação como uma maneira de preparar os professores de sala de aula para que se convertam em tutores em linha, capazes de apoiar os processos de aprendizagem de idiomas virtuais e misturados (virtuais e presenciais). o estudo foi realizado utilizando o método de análise de necessidades para a coleta da informação. durante o estudo, usouse um questionário para coletar dados sobre as necessidades que os docentes percebiam em matéria de formação para converter-se em tutores de inglês em linha. os resultados do estudo sugerem que os tutores virtuais novatos têm que se familiarizar com as características específicas das plataformas de aprendizagem de idiomas em linha e, além do mais, requer capacitação nas competências e habilidades necessárias para converter-se em tutores. as descobertas sugerem a capacitação contínua em e-moderação para os tutores do amanhã. palavras chaves: aprendizagem em linha, aprendizagem mista, tutores de inglês em linha, capacitação, plataformas de aprendizagem de idiomas em linha rodríguez no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) 136 introduction recent educational and economic policies in colombia point squarely to the need for citizens to “develop the communicative abilities to read, understand, write, listen, talk and express themselves correctly in a foreign language”3 (presidencia de la república, 2013, p. 1.) this need has led to the growth of available online courses for english language learning, and specific initiatives are underway to support mass online instruction in english. the national bilingualism project of the national ministry of education aims at “promoting the development and operation of massive foreign language teaching projects which incorporate different educational approaches to develop students’ capabilities to learn and consider the usage of new technologies”4 (departamento nacional de planeación, 2011, p. 94). in addition, national policy calls for the promotion of “distance education along with e-moderation for students in secondary to widen the educational coverage in a foreign language”5 (dnp, 2011, p. 94). in terms of tutor competencies, salmon affirms that “successful online learning depends on teachers and trainers acquiring new competencies, on their becoming aware of its potential, and on their inspiring the learners, rather than on mastering the technology” (salmon, 2002, p.viii). as the traditional role of the teacher is changing, some also argue that online training courses need to change in order to cater to this new generation of teachers (klimova & poulova, 2011). the purpose of this study was to conduct a needs analysis of potential online tutors to determine which contents they felt were needed in training for online english language learning. the research questions were the following: • what do teachers think about different competencies and skills regarding online teaching and learning? • how do teachers see themselves as online tutors? 3 translated from the original spanish: “desarrollar las habilidades comunicativas para leer, comprender, escribir, escuchar, hablar y expresarse correctamente en una lengua extranjera.” 4 “impulsar el desarrollo y la operación de proyectos masivos de enseñanza de un segundo idioma, que tenga por objeto incorporar enfoques educativos que desarrollen la capacidad de los estudiantes de aprender a lo largo de sus estudios y consideren la utilización de nuevas tecnologías.” 5 “promover la utilización de enseñanza a distancia tutoriada, para alumnos de bachillerato que permita ampliar la apertura educativa de un segundo idioma.” identifying training needs of online tutors rodríguez no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) 137 • how can a needs analysis questionnaire inform the creation of additional content for training for online english tutors? findings from the study demonstrate that trainees’ needs are varied yet specific. novice e-tutors need support and training in technical matters of managing online learning platforms. they also need general e-moderating skills and strategies in order to be effective facilitators and guides in their role as online tutors. literature review online teaching is a relatively new practice that has emerged in response to the appearance of new information and communication technologies (icts) and their applications in education. more and more students around the world are looking for training and learning opportunities which do not necessarily involve physical attendance. therefore, a system of online teaching has grown to provide support and meaningful learning experiences to learners all around the world and with all learning needs (bonk & cummings, 1998; goodyear, salmon, spector, steeples, & tickner, 2001; guichon, 2009; hubbard, 1998). as new opportunities for learning emerge, the competencies of teachers have had to evolve in response to learners’ needs and expectations. klimova & poulova (2011) suggest that e-learning courses, however attractive and inexpensive they may seem, require a new approach to teaching. in these new learning and teaching environments, the role of the teacher changes dramatically and new competencies are required. the effective instructor evolves from being a teacher in the traditional sense to being a facilitator (bailey & card, 2009). roles of online tutors teachers in online environments have been called online teachers (bailey & card, 2009; bangert, 2004), instructors (bangert, 2004; beffa-negrini, cohen & miller, 2002; ke, 2010; li & pitts, 2009; and uça-günes & gümüs, 2010), teacher/tutors (matteucci et al, 2010), e-tutors (berge, as cited in klimova & poulova, 2011), online tutors (sulcic & sulcic, 2007), as well as e-moderators (salmon, 2002). however, for the purposes of this study, the term online tutors will be adopted to refer to teachers teaching in online and blended contexts. berge (1995) identified four major roles that online tutors face in computer mediated communication (cmc): pedagogical, social, identifying training needs of online tutors rodríguez no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) 138 managerial and technical (p. 3). these roles have prevailed through time and have been widely recognized as a useful taxonomy given the complexity of successful online learning. pedagogical role. berge’s pedagogical role refers to the online tutors’ duties as “educational facilitators.” for carr-chellman and ducaltel (as cited in bailey & card, 2009), “effective online teachers make learning resources available to students instead of just providing instruction” (p. 153). in addition, there appear to be effective online teaching practices and actions that make pedagogical practice more meaningful. bailey and card (2009) point out seven successful practices of online tutors: 1. encourage contacts between students and faculty in and out of classes. 2. learning is enhanced when it is more like a team effort than a solo race. 3. active learning is encouraged in classes that use structured exercises, challenging discussions, team projects, and peer critiques. 4. students need appropriate and timely feedback on their performance to benefit from courses. 5. learning to use one’s time well is critical for students and professionals alike. 6. communicate higher expectations. 7. provide a diverse delivery system (pp. 152-53). teachers and online tutors who take the time to provide these conditions may be perceived as more successful. another important part of the pedagogical role is the timely and accurate provision of feedback to students. learners expect tutors to intervene in their interactions to provide them with feedback on their language production, their learning and also on their participation in the online environment. teaching with feedback is more effective than teaching without feedback (matteucci et al., 2010). feedback is especially important to students in online environments since it is the only indicator they have of their performance. besides, it aids in achieving learner inclusion and motivation in the course. according to ke (2010), students in his study expected online support and also quick feedback to make sure they were working well, which gave them a clear sense of achievement. identifying training needs of online tutors rodríguez no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) 139 social role. berge’s social role refers to creating a friendly environment that facilitates learning and which is also safe, supportive and motivating. others have pointed out the importance of tutors’ scaffolding actions in the online environment (garrison, anderson & archer, 1999; salmon, 2002), as well as accompanying learning experiences by achieving a teaching presence online (ge & land, 2003). hubbard (1998) argues that online tutors “establish rapport and build trust with students; create a ‘safe’ environment, one free of public humiliation; inspire students to learn; facilitate free owing ideas among students; and provide continual and timely feedback” (p. 714). reinforcing the concept of tutor support, mullen and runnels (2006) argue that affective and academic support are associated with students’ motivation and learning. therefore, in online environments the tutor’s role goes beyond knowledge sharing and extends to relationship creation and nurturing. online tutors have a lot to do with students’ motivation and willingness to work and stay online. another expectation of students is the emotional support they will find from their tutors during the learning path. ke (2010) describes how adult learners especially expect quick feedback from online tutors in addition to emotional rapport. students expect to find a human being on the other side of the computer, especially older students who are used to face to face learning experiences. managerial role. the managerial role refers to tutors’ ability to set up conferences, announce events, and suggest the course of action in the work (berge, 1995). this is where the online tutor’s creativity and understanding of students’ learning needs is revealed. tutors also need to use the tools that are available to them (websites, platforms, e-mail messages, chat rooms, etc.) to guarantee students have timely and accurate information to proceed with their work. they also need to help learners set objectives, schedule and organize their own learning (paulsen, 1995.) technical role. the technical role refers to “making the technology transparent” (berg, 1995, p. 3). even though novice online tutors may expect this role to be performed by others, such as information technology support staff within their institution, students expect their tutor to be able to give them timely responses on technical as well as pedagogical issues. this particular role poses a challenge to novice online tutors and to institutions. research suggests that institutions need to put training programs in place to guarantee tutors’ acquisition of the necessary skills and competencies to provide basic technical support. uça-günes & gümüs (2010) argue, “distance education field and identifying training needs of online tutors rodríguez no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) 140 online learning environments should be introduced to faculty members. training and orientation should be more comprehensive” (p. 844). e-moderating salmon (2002) argues that “successful online learning depends on teachers and trainers acquiring new competencies, on their becoming aware of its potential and on their inspiring the learners, rather than on mastering the technology” (p. vii). salmon’s five-stage model for e-moderation describes how the online tutor is involved in different activities that shape the learning experience. the model suggests that people “learn about the use of the computer networking along with learning about the topic, and with and through other people” (p. 28). figure 1. salmon’s five-stage e-moderating model (2002, p. 29) according to the five-stage model, the role of the e-moderator or online tutor is crucial in creating successful learning environments and ensuring success. the goal of e-moderators is to provide significant scaffolding for online learners, especially at the beginning. online tutors gradually remove that scaffolding as students assume ever increasing responsibility in the online environment, including social learning and independent construction of knowledge. e-moderators or online tutors also need to develop certain roles and competencies, detailed by salmon (2002), including understanding of online process, technical skills, online communication skills, content expertise and personal characteristics (p. 54-55). identifying training needs of online tutors rodríguez no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) 141 needs analysis in curriculum development needs analysis (na) refers to the collecting of information about students’ learning needs, wants and desires. it may also include expectations and requirements from other involved parties in the process such as administrators, teachers and students (west, 2001.) the term needs analysis was first used in 1920 in india when a teacher asked what kind of english indian children needed to learn and why. after this, na was largely neglected. many institutions stopped inquiring formally about their students’ needs for curriculum creation and decisions were made on the basis of what the institution considered important (west, 2001). according to fay (2006), na is a distinct and necessary phase in planning educational programs. this idea emerged in the 1960s as part of the systems approach to curriculum development and was part of the prevalent philosophy of educational accountability. if providers of training programs wanted public or other sources of funding in order to provide different kinds of training programs, they were required to demonstrate that a proposed program was a response to a genuine need (pratt, as cited in richards, 2001). brindley (1984) suggests that by the 1980s in many parts of the world, a needs-based philosophy emerged in language teaching, particularly in relation to esp and vocationally oriented program design. needs analysis can be approached in different ways depending on the kind of result expected. for example, there can be an analysis of students’ attitudes or feelings towards the subject matter or methods. it may also include demographic analysis, language level at the beginning of the course, or materials and curriculum. each of these analysis types would yield different results useful to the teacher or instructional designer in the creation of course materials (west, 2001). needs analysis in training programs is an ongoing process of gathering data to determine what training needs exist in order to inform program development (brown, 2002). the purpose of training is to support the achievement of organizational goals by increasing the necessary skills of employees. however, not all training programs are structured taking into consideration the needs of employees (brown, 2002). brown describes four main reasons for needs analysis before training programs are developed: (a) to identify specific problem areas in the organization; (b) to obtain management support; (c) to develop data for evaluation; and (d) to determine the costs and benefits of training (p. 569-570). identifying training needs of online tutors rodríguez no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) 142 methodology research design jordan (1997) describes fourteen possible methods for collecting data for needs analyses, including advanced documentation, selfassessment, observation and monitoring, surveys, structured interviews, learner diaries and case studies (p. 23). it is important to mention that “although [jordan’s] concern was with needs analysis in eap (english for academic purposes) all of his methods may be applied in other types of tesol course design” (fay, 2006, p. 3). in this study, a questionnaire was chosen because of its practicality as well as the possibility of building a complete learner profile based on the information collected. the questionnaire was available to teachers for a three-month period. the questionnaire was anonymous. respondents were also asked about their availability to participate in additional interviews. coordinators in the various institutions received an authorization form for their teachers to participate in the study and signed it institutionally. later, coordinators sent teachers an e-mail message with the link to the survey. even though the needs analysis questionnaire was given to 50 teachers, only 21 responses were collected. the questionnaire was available in english only, under the assumption that participants possessed a high-intermediate to advanced level of english and would be able to respond adequately. the questionnaire was available via the survey monkey (www. surveymonkey.com) online survey tool because teachers surveyed were located in different cities in the country and this tool would allow for the information to be collected remotely. responses were collected and analyzed using the tabulation function offered by survey monkey for premium accounts. context and participants the participants of this study were coordinators and teachers at language institutes and in university language programs in several cities in colombia who were responsible for coordinating training for online english tutors in their respective institutions. all of the institutions had recently adopted an on-line english language program for their institution. the standard product training course consisted of 10 modules designed to familiarize tutors with the features of the platform. all of the participants can be classified as novice on-line tutors. this is because although they had some prior experience with online learning, they had not yet been tutors in online environments. identifying training needs of online tutors rodríguez no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) 143 data collection instruments the needs analysis questionnaire contained six parts: 1. general background information 2. online learning and teaching background 3. pedagogical activities 4. attitudes and behaviors towards online teaching 5. the teacher training course 6. additional information the general background section had the purpose of profiling the participants, including age and educational background. the section on online learning and teaching background asked participants about their online or blended learning training. this section also asked about the possible roles of online e-tutors and how participants saw themselves. the purpose was to find out about teachers’ training conditions and their beliefs regarding their roles as online instructors. the pedagogical activities section aimed at finding out what activities teachers thought were most important for online tutors. this section can be considered the core of the questionnaire because of the importance of the activities described in salmon’s (2002) provisions for a successful online learning experience. the two questions in this section were both likert scales for teachers to rate the level of importance of certain online activities. the section on attitudes and behaviors explored teachers’ beliefs about the necessary attitudes, behaviors, competencies and skills required by online tutors. teachers were also asked about the importance of aspects such as curiosity, open-mindedness, and enthusiasm. these questions were also likert scales for teachers to rate the level of importance of behaviors and attitudes. the teacher training course section asked respondents what they thought they needed to learn in an on-line training course designed to prepare them to teach english online using a learning platform. this section also included a space for additional comments. at the end of the questionnaire, participants were asked whether they would be willing to share additional information (e.g. in a follow-up interview). a space was added for names, telephone numbers and e-mail addresses. other than this, the questionnaire was anonymous at first, and only if teachers were willing to expand on the information given would they need to identifying training needs of online tutors rodríguez no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) 144 provide their names. unfortunately, none of the respondents provided their information for follow up. data analysis and interpretation the results from the questionnaire were downloaded from the survey monkey online survey tool. results are presented using pie and bar charts to show the similarities and differences between teachers’ responses in regards to competencies required to become e-tutors. results were then tabulated in microsoft excel and percentages of responses per category were calculated. when examining the data, some concerns arose since the questions were too general and made the analysis of the most important competences more difficult. results results of the questionnaire indicate that although respondents were for the most part novice online tutors, they did appear to have definite and specific ideas about what kind of training they think is useful. online learning and teaching background in response to question, 2.1., have you had any sort of online or blended learning specific training?, 94% of the respondents answered affirmatively. when examining the kinds of training they reported, it is possible to categorize the responses into four kinds of training which emerged from the researcher’s experience with teacher training: informal, formal, tangential and product specific training. when referring to informal training, respondents mentioned self-study or autonomous learning practices such as downloading or watching video tutorials from the internet, and self-guided reading of manuals. by formal training, teachers referred to courses offered by universities or other institutions. in general, about 20% of the respondents reported having taken a formal online training course to become a virtual tutor. by tangential training, teachers referred to learning from and through online experiences. a few of them (18%) mentioned that they had learned how to teach online by being students in online master’s degree programs. finally, respondents mentioned various product trainings they had received from publishers for online or blended products. fifty-three percent mentioned training courses for learning platforms, such as moodle, blackboard, d2l and e-college as well. identifying training needs of online tutors rodríguez no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) 145 this information can lead us to conclude that although teachers’ institutions did not provide them with training, most of the participants had an informed approach to teaching and learning online. only 6% of the respondents reported that they had not had any kind of online learning or teaching training. however, another conclusion that can be drawn from this question is that teachers’ learning in this area has been mostly empirical. question 2.2 asked participants to choose the words to describe their roles as blended tutors: choose the option (s) that best describe (s) your role as a blended e-teacher, or a teacher providing both instruction in the classroom face-to-face and in the platform online. choose all options that apply. the options to choose from were the following: facilitator, guide, provider, manager, support, enabler, instructor, tutor, teacher, friend, authority, motivator, controller, and other. these categories were constructed for the purpose of the questionnaire, and informed by the many terms found in the literature. responses were varied. the roles selected most included facilitator, support, tutor and motivator. respondents also mentioned in additional comments that they believed that motivation was crucial in online learning environments through feedback, the design of additional activities, and constant contact with students to ask about their needs. some of them also mentioned that they felt the urge to scaffold interaction with and through the platform, provide technical support and in general “facilitate” the learning process for students. fewer respondents selected the roles of provider, friend, authority or controller although one teacher did comment: tutor and teacher just because you are the one students need when the content and explanations in the platform are not enough for them to understand any specific language presented. another teacher referred to his role using the offered word controller and adding one more: for example, with those no so responsible students i had to become some sort of controller and dictator. pedagogical activities this section asked teachers to rate the importance of specific tutor activities in blended and online learning environments to guarantee success: how important are these activities to you in your online tutor identifying training needs of online tutors rodríguez no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) 146 role? please tick the appropriate response. also, participants were asked about the amount of time spent on these activities. the activities included the following: (a) checking and responding to e-mail messages; (b) correcting language errors in writing or speaking exercises; (c) giving feedback to students on content issues; (d) providing additional explanations on grammar and vocabulary; (e) creating announcements and broadcast messages to all students; (f) checking students’ progress; (g) verifying students’ access to the platform; (h) creating video or text tutorials to explain technicalities to students; (i) contacting students directly to give them assistance on technical issues, and other. these activities reflect frequent tasks of online tutors presented in the literature (berge, 1995; salmon, 2002). figure 2 illustrates those activities teachers deemed “quite important.” figure 2. quite important activities for online tutors most teachers rated one activity as quite important: checking students’ progress (60%). in second and third order of importance, respondents ranked managerial activities such as giving feedback to students on content issues, checking e-mail messages and responding them within 24 hours and creating announcements and broadcast messages to all students. language-focused activities such as correcting errors or providing additional explanations (35% and 30% respectively) were considered quite important but to a lesser extent. in terms of time spent carrying out these activities, most teachers reported that they spent between four to six hours a week providing identifying training needs of online tutors rodríguez no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) 147 online assistance to students. according to the responses, the most time consuming activity is checking e-mail messages and responding to them. forty-four percent of the respondents mentioned that giving feedback also took them between four to six hours a week. for 32% of the respondents, the least time consuming activity (less than an hour a week) is to contact students directly to provide them with assistance on technical issues. a comment in regards to this question helps us confirm salmon’s idea of “access and motivation” being the first stage of the e-moderating process (2002). the teacher says: once students are familiar with the platform, technical issues practically disappear and we can concentrate on the learning. attitudes and behaviors towards online teaching this section of the questionnaire asked teachers about their beliefs regarding the necessary attitudes and behaviors towards online learning: please tick the appropriate response. how important are the following to you in your role as an online tutor? the items were drawn from the researcher’s previous experience as an online trainer and from salmon’s list of e-moderator competencies (2002, p. 55-56), and included a range of behaviors and attitudes. for most teachers (70%), learning about online learning and teaching and (65%) learning about technicalities in the platform were the most important facets to online learning. respondents acknowledged that these competencies need to be learned and that they were willing to devote time to them. regarding other important competencies and skills, participants considered the following as “very important:” finding out about students’ learning processes (60%), analyzing students’ needs (45%), and solving students’ learning problems (53%). in terms of attitudes, 63% thought that open-mindedness was the most important attitude to have. in turn, enthusiasm and time in the platform were also considered important. curiosity was voted important by 55% of the respondents, being also considered an important competence or skill to have when being an online tutor. identifying training needs of online tutors rodríguez no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) 148 the teacher training course this section of the questionnaire referred to the competencies and skills teachers thought they needed to learn to be able to provide students with a more enjoyable and meaningful learning experience in an online environment: if you were to take an online course to improve your competencies and skills as a virtual tutor, which of the following would be useful to you? rate the importance of each (please tick the option). the specific competencies, skills to be ranked included the following: learning about technical aspects of platform, the content, pedagogical rationale of online teaching and the content of the platform, and learner motivation and support. respondents were invited to choose all that applied. most teachers (90%) considered learning about how to teach online a useful skill. eighty percent of the respondents reported that learning how to teach the material was a very important competence to acquire. teachers also reported that it was important to learn how to facilitate students learning process, with 75% of respondents choosing the “very important” option. seventy percent thought learning to facilitate tasks, the pedagogical rationale of the content and the tools offered were also very important. in the comments area, a teacher said: sometimes i feel i don’t use the platform to its fullest, there are so many tools but i don’t know what to do with all of them. participants rated most of the skills and competencies presented either as important or very important. teachers also acknowledged the importance of all aspects (not only content or methodology) and recognized learning about technical and managerial skills as also important in online and blended modes. sixty-five percent of the respondents reported that helping students gain access to the platform and welcoming and encouraging students (55%) were important. identifying training needs of online tutors rodríguez no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) 149 figure 3. “very important” competencies to learn in an online training course the questionnaire and results presented yielded interesting information to inform the needs analysis. respondents considered a variety of tutor roles as important including tutor, facilitator, support, motivator. consequently, teacher-training courses should include some awareness on the variety of roles and way they shift in the online learning environment. based on the results, pedagogical activities not related to language learning, such as giving feedback, creating video tutorials and checking progress, can also be included as support materials for novice online tutors. finally, managerial activities, such as learning about creating support material (e.g. screen casts) for students, creating announcements and learning to motivate students to work online will also need to be included in teacher training courses. other important competencies to include are learning to facilitate students’ learning processes and learning to facilitate tasks and the use of learning materials. finally, the responses confirmed the need for accompanying teachers not only in the pedagogical roles online tutors exert, but also on the managerial, technical and social ones suggested by berge (1995.) identifying training needs of online tutors rodríguez no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) 150 conclusion this study helped the researcher confirm her hypothesis of the need to include additional materials in online teacher training courses. the content of the online platform or course software is important to be mastered by teachers. however, there are other competencies that also need to be approached and taught to novice online tutors in order to facilitate their work in blended and online learning environments. some weaknesses of the study may include the way questions were designed, as there was some ambiguity in the answers which led to difficulties in the analysis of the results. these ambiguities could have been addressed in follow up interviews with respondents; however, none of the participants volunteered for such follow up. the field of needs analysis in teacher training programs is understudied. therefore, more research is needed in order to aid teacher training program creators in the design of relevant course materials for novice online instructors. online and blended learning are very attractive nowadays because of their flexibility and ease. institutions are increasingly interested in implementing these modes of learning in their curriculums. however, these new modes of learning bring challenges along with them for students and teachers. teachers need to transform into online tutors and this is not an easy task. even though there is still a lot to be done in terms of analyzing the needs of novice online tutors, this study yielded interesting conclusions as to the competencies, skills and attitudes needed to become a successful online tutor and to make a smooth transition between classroom teaching and e-moderation. it also helped confirm the need to work on more than pedagogical aspects with online tutors since other competencies are also needed. classroom teachers might be experienced, but they also need support in transitioning to new modes of learning. references bailey, c. j., & card, k. a. 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(2010). supporting online collaboration: drawing guidelines from an empirical study on e-tutors. procedia social and behavioral sciences, 2(2), 3270-3273. mullen, g. e., & tallent-runnels, m. k. (2006). student outcomes and perceptions of instructors’ demands and support in online and traditional classrooms. the internet and higher education, 9(4), 257-266. paulsen, m. f. (1995). moderating educational computer conferences. in z. l. berge & m. p. collins (eds.), computer mediated communication and the on-line classroom in distance education (pp.81-90). cresskill, nj: hampton press. presidencia de la republica. (2013). ley 1651, ley de bilingüísmo. retrieved from: http://wsp.presidencia.gov.co/normativa/leyes/ documents/2013/ley%201651%20del%2012%20de%20 julio%20de%202013.pdf salmon, g. (2002). e-moderating: the key to teaching and learning online. (2nd ed.). oxon: routledge falmer. sulcic, v., & sulcic, a. (2007). can online tutors improve the quality of e-learning? information and beyond: issues in informing science and information technology, 4(2007), 201-210. uça-günes, e. p., & gümüs, s. (2010). instructors’ transformation identifying training needs of online tutors no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) 153 during early online teaching experiences. procedia social and behavioral sciences, 9(2010), 839-844. west, r. (2001). needs-based approaches in esp. unit 2 of the distance learning materials for md350 teaching english for specific purposes. manchester: the university of manchester. author *carolina rodriguez buitrago holds a bachelor of arts in language teaching from the universidad pedagógica nacionalbogotá, an english certificate from mount holyoke college in massachussets and an ma in educational technology and tesol from the university of manchester. currently, she works as a professor at universidad de la sabana and universidad el bosque. she is also a certified e-tutor for e-college. she was the academic manager and digital specialist for cambridge university press colombia for over two years. she also serves as a “par amiga” of the national ministry of education in the “proyecto de fortalecimiento del componente de inglés en instituciones técnicas y tecnológicas”. she has more than 10 years of experience teaching english at all levels and presenting at national and international conferences. she has also been part of curricular and supervision teams. she has been working as a teacher trainer since 2009. identifying training needs of online tutors no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) 68 constructing sense of community through community inquiry and the implementation of a negotiated syllabus1 construyendo sentido de comunidad a través de la investigación comunitaria y la implementación de un programa de estudios negociado paola andrea gómez and julio andrés cortés-jaramillo2* universidad del tolima, colombia abstract the following paper describes the outcomes and insights of the first stage of an action research study aimed to explore ways in which cbp and nc strengthen sense of community and provoke actions to benefit that community is a public school located in a rural area. this work emerged from a needs analysis study in which students gave their opinions about the importance of english as a foreign language. implementing cbp and negotiated syllabus as means to involve and foster students to be aware of their responsibility for the preservation of the school facilities, as well as educating the surrounding community, demonstrated the development of sense of community in the students. throughout the use of questionnaires, surveys and journals, the outcomes revealed that students felt more motivated when they are taken into account in making curricular decisions. in addition, this study showed that a commitment from the entire academic community is possible when some academic and personal goals are established collaboratively and efforts are made to generate important changes. keywords: sense of community; community based project; negotiated syllabus; needs analysis; critical pedagogy. 1 received: august 9th 2018/ accepted: may 8th 2019 2 atelopus85@hotmail.com; juandrescor@gmail.com gómez & cortés-jaramillogist education and learning research journal. issn 1692-5777. no.18 (january june 2019). pp. 68-85. no. 18 (january june 2019) no. 18 (january june 2019) 69 constructing sense of community through community inquiry and the implementation of a negotiated syllabus1 construyendo sentido de comunidad a través de la investigación comunitaria y la implementación de un programa de estudios negociado paola andrea gómez and julio andrés cortés-jaramillo2* universidad del tolima, colombia abstract the following paper describes the outcomes and insights of the first stage of an action research study aimed to explore ways in which cbp and nc strengthen sense of community and provoke actions to benefit that community is a public school located in a rural area. this work emerged from a needs analysis study in which students gave their opinions about the importance of english as a foreign language. implementing cbp and negotiated syllabus as means to involve and foster students to be aware of their responsibility for the preservation of the school facilities, as well as educating the surrounding community, demonstrated the development of sense of community in the students. throughout the use of questionnaires, surveys and journals, the outcomes revealed that students felt more motivated when they are taken into account in making curricular decisions. in addition, this study showed that a commitment from the entire academic community is possible when some academic and personal goals are established collaboratively and efforts are made to generate important changes. keywords: sense of community; community based project; negotiated syllabus; needs analysis; critical pedagogy. resumen este artículo describe los resultados y hallazgos de un estudio de investigación cuyo objetivo fue explorar cómo a través de la implementación de tres pilares: pedagogía basada en la comunidad (cbp), plan de estudios negociado y sentido de comunidad se fortalece el sentido de comunidad, así como generar actitudes y acciones que beneficien a la comunidad. este trabajo surgió de un estudio de análisis de necesidades en el que los estudiantes dieron su opinión sobre la importancia del inglés como segundo idioma. implementar proyectos basados en la comunidad y la negociación de un plan de estudios como medios para involucrar y alentar a los estudiantes a tomar conciencia de su responsabilidad en la preservación de las instalaciones escolares, así como educar a la comunidad circundante, lo que evidencia desarrollo de sentido de comunidad de parte de los estudiantes. mediante el uso de cuestionarios, encuestas y diarios, los resultados revelaron que los estudiantes se sintieron más motivados cuando fueron tenidos en cuenta en la toma de decisiones curriculares. además, este estudio mostró que es posible un compromiso de parte de toda la comunidad académica cuando se establecen colaborativamente algunos objetivos académicos y personales, y se aúnan esfuerzos para generar cambios importantes. palabras claves: sentido de la comunidad; proyectos basados en la comunidad; plan de estudios negociado; análisis de las necesidades; pedagogía crítica. resumo este artigo descreve os resultados e descobertas de um estudo de pesquisa cujo objetivo foi explorar como através da implementação de três pilares: pedagogia baseada na comunidade (cbp), plano de estudos negociado e sentido de comunidade fortalece o sentido de comunidade, bem como gerar atitudes e ações que beneficiem a comunidade. este trabalho surgiu de um estudo de análise de necessidades no qual os estudantes deram a sua opinião sobre a importância do inglês como segundo idioma. implementar projetos baseados na comunidade e a negociação de um plano de estudos como meios para envolver e animar os estudantes para tomar consciência da sua responsabilidade na preservação das instalações escolares, bem como educar a comunidade circundante, o que evidencia desenvolvimento de sentido de comunidade por parte dos estudantes. mediante o uso de questionários, enquetes e diários, os resultados revelaram que os estudantes se sentiram mais motivados quando foram levados em consideração na tomada de decisões curriculares. além disso, este estudo mostrou que é possível um compromisso de parte de toda a comunidade acadêmica quando se estabelecem de forma colaborativa alguns objetivos acadêmicos e pessoais, e se reúnam esforços para gerar mudanças importantes. palavras chaves: sentido da comunidade; projetos baseados na comunidade; plano de estudos negociado; análise das necessidades; pedagogia crítica gómez & cortés-jaramillo no. 18 (january june 2019) no. 18 (january june 2019) 70 introduction over time, schools have been seen as the places where learners receive knowledge and get instructed in specific areas which will help students to acquire certain skills, attitudes and aptitudes that allow them to become participants in a competitive world (kumaravadivelu, 2001). as a result, students have been considered as objects, containers that need to be filled with content knowledge, and teachers are those who own the knowledge and have the responsibility of transmitting it to their students (larson, 2014). currently, the students´ passive role has been transformed into a more active role and the goals of schooling are more concerned with the dispositions that students present and the identities they form as well as the “content” of the curriculum that they are required to achieve; thus, it is clear that the activities in which they engage cannot be focused simply on the acquisition of basic skills and knowledge. thereby, schools should be the places in which students are apprenticed into a way of living, thinking, feeling and acting as well as the dispositions and knowledge they will need to play a part in transforming societies (wells, 2002). besides, students’ opinions and interests have become a very important part of their learning process and they have been considered in the designing of school’s syllabuses. therefore, community based pedagogy is an educational practice that has become a framework in which teachers and students can explore and work for their communities. sharkey (2012, p.11) asserts “community based pedagogy is an asset-based approach that not only recognizes the importance of the curriculum standards that teachers need to address in their lessons, but also emphasizes local knowledge and resources as starting points for teaching and learning”. under this theory, students and teachers work together to identify issues that affect their communities and look for alternatives that allow them to deal with them and find possible solutions to those issues. being aware of the importance of changing our perspectives and points of view regarding the new roles of teachers and students, and the relevance of including students’ needs, expectations, and desires in the construction of a negotiated syllabus, we conducted a needs analysis in a public school to be included in the design of a curricular unit that allows to encourage students to have a voice in the decision-making process regarding their learning process. through the application of the instruments for gathering the information (a questionnaire and interviews), we could notice that students felt their opinions were considered as they were asked how they would like to be taught. the results obtained after the application of the instruments showed that students gave special relevance to the learning of a foreign language, as they consider it is important for their future professional lives and it will give them the opportunity to interact with people from other countries. in addition, despite they do not dedicate too much time to their learning process, most of them sense of community in negotiated syllabus gómez & cortés-jaramillo no. 18 (january june 2019) no. 18 (january june 2019) 71 consider they have good and regular performance on the subject. besides, the majority of the interviewees assert that the classes should be more dynamic, for instance they should include games and projects to be developed in group work, and that the classes should be focused on the development of the language skills (listening, reading, writing and speaking), but linked to topics related to their daily lives. the main outcomes of such analysis lead us to design a curricular proposal based on the communicative approach, through which students could express meanings that were important to them and their lives (brown, 1995). in other words, the communicative approach permits students to use the language for a real purpose, that is, to communicate relevant ideas in regard with their context. in addition, the negotiated syllabus needs to be oriented toward the design of a layered or mixed syllabus that combines the topical with the skills-based syllabus. in this vein, the topics chosen by students were used as a starting point to define the activities students needed to follow in order to develop the different language skills. finally, the use of the communicative approach and the set of this layered syllabus, which included students’ preferences and expectations, allowed students to be more confident within the classroom, to take a more participative role, and to enhance their performance in their learning process, and finally, turned into better results regarding their knowledge acquisition. literature review through the years, the philosophy of education has been taken a social touch in order to revolutionize education in the traditional way, advocating a view of teaching as a democratic act, rejecting the imposition of knowledge, and bringing to the classroom principles of social justice in the teaching and learning process (giroux, 2007). the aim of this research is to transform our classrooms to awake the critical consciousness of the students in order to encourage them to become agents of change in their world through social critique and political action. critical pedagogy and negotiated syllabus paulo freire’s philosophy of critical pedagogy is a learner-centered approach that is focused on problem posing in which the students engage in critical dialogue. in critical pedagogy problems are posed by the learners, who determine the main content of the lesson; this is what freire called “problem posing”. freire’s problem-posing educational method includes three stages: listening, dialogue, and action. these three stages require critical thinking in the sense that involves participants´ reflections in order to stablish some sense of community in negotiated syllabus gómez & cortés-jaramillo no. 18 (january june 2019) no. 18 (january june 2019) 72 changes in the curriculum design: in the first step, the teacher has to listen to the learners and identify their needs; then the teacher must provide some options based on the students´ needs to dialogue; the last of these steps involves praxis, which consists of an ongoing cycle of reflection and action (larson, 2014). in this way, we can design a negotiated syllabus regarding these critical thinking steps, which are close, related to the process of designing a curriculum. designing a negotiated syllabus is time-consuming due to it implies not only contributions based on our experiences as teachers but also, and most important, it implies student’s needs analysis. taking into account students voices is what makes negotiated syllabuses successful due to the fact that it develops learner´s autonomy. according to nation and macalister (2009) “a negotiated syllabus involves the teacher and the learners working together to make decisions at many of the parts of the curriculum design process” (p.149). in this way, we give recognition to students´ voice by providing the opportunities to decide some activities and topics of their interest. it also means contents are organized and developed according to students’ needs and interests (ortiz, 2006, p.11). figure 1. negotiated syllabus involves three steps: negotiating the goals, content, forms and assessment of the course; implementing these negotiated decisions; evaluating the effect of the implementation in terms of outcomes and the way the implementation was done and this would lead to a return step (nation & macalister, 2009, p.152-153). on the other hand, action research involves four phases in a cycle that may become an ongoing spiral of cycles which repeat until the action researcher has achieved a satisfactory outcome and feels it is time to stop. one cycle in action research has four phases that include: planning, action, observation and reflection (burns, 2009). sense of community in negotiated syllabus gómez & cortés-jaramillo no. 18 (january june 2019) no. 18 (january june 2019) 73 changes in the curriculum design: in the first step, the teacher has to listen to the learners and identify their needs; then the teacher must provide some options based on the students´ needs to dialogue; the last of these steps involves praxis, which consists of an ongoing cycle of reflection and action (larson, 2014). in this way, we can design a negotiated syllabus regarding these critical thinking steps, which are close, related to the process of designing a curriculum. designing a negotiated syllabus is time-consuming due to it implies not only contributions based on our experiences as teachers but also, and most important, it implies student’s needs analysis. taking into account students voices is what makes negotiated syllabuses successful due to the fact that it develops learner´s autonomy. according to nation and macalister (2009) “a negotiated syllabus involves the teacher and the learners working together to make decisions at many of the parts of the curriculum design process” (p.149). in this way, we give recognition to students´ voice by providing the opportunities to decide some activities and topics of their interest. it also means contents are organized and developed according to students’ needs and interests (ortiz, 2006, p.11). figure 1. negotiated syllabus involves three steps: negotiating the goals, content, forms and assessment of the course; implementing these negotiated decisions; evaluating the effect of the implementation in terms of outcomes and the way the implementation was done and this would lead to a return step (nation & macalister, 2009, p.152-153). on the other hand, action research involves four phases in a cycle that may become an ongoing spiral of cycles which repeat until the action researcher has achieved a satisfactory outcome and feels it is time to stop. one cycle in action research has four phases that include: planning, action, observation and reflection (burns, 2009). in this sense, implementing a negotiated syllabus seems to agree with action research, because both are cyclical processes that seek for continuous improvement according to the way it is implemented and evaluated. setting a parallel between negotiated syllabus and action research, the phases that compound each cycle are related as shown in table 1. table 1. parallel between negotiated syllabus and action research. negotiated syllabus action research negotiation planning implementation action evaluation observation and reflection community based learning and community based pedagogy community based learning refers to a variety of methods, programs and strategies that educators conduct to link the curricular aspects to the surrounding communities, including local institutions, scholar subjects, cultural aspects and natural environments (abbott, 2014). this type of learning is motivated by the belief that every community has intrinsic educational assets that can be used for educators to improve students’ learning experiences. according to cooper, he, and levin (2011) community based learning is an action-oriented method to help teachers to educators learn more about other cultures, especially the home communities of their students. this pedagogical strategy not only links theory to practice, but also allows educators to immerse themselves in cultures different from theirs. in this sense, this strategy implies educators and students working together in pursuing a common goal that has a positive impact in their communities. in addition, community-based pedagogies are practices that give important relevance to the role of the educational community members with regard to the identification of different issues that affect them, the planning of certain strategies and actions to deal with such issues, and the execution of a resulting plan in order to intervene the identified issues. besides, it is an asset-based approach that not only recognizes the importance of the curriculum standards that teachers need to address in their lessons, but also it emphasizes local knowledge and resources as starting points for teaching and learning (sharkey & clavijo, 2016). in other words, community-based pedagogies allow teachers and students to be more aware of their social responsibility regarding the different issues that affect in a certain way their communities, and make them active participants in the problem-solving process of those issues. with the implementation of community based learning and community based pedagogies we seek to engage and empower students in issues that affect phases that compound each cycle sense of community in negotiated syllabus gómez & cortés-jaramillo no. 18 (january june 2019) no. 18 (january june 2019) 74 their community and use those issues to contribute in their learning process. finally, it is also necessary the involvement of the surrounding community as an integral part of the educational institution in order to make them guarantors of the preservation of the school facilities. sense of community and sense of belonging according to rovai (2002, p.322) defines sense of community as the feeling of belonging that members have, a sensation that they are important to one another and to the group, that they have duties and obligations to each other and specially to the school, and the expectations that members have in common and turns out that educational needs will be met through their commitment to shared learning goals. this definition has four elements: membership, influence, integration and fulfillment of needs, and shared emotional connections. according to mcmillan (1996) these four elements and attributes are triggered once there is a threat in the community; for example, the school community is threatened by the damage that people from the town are doing to the school facilities. in the sense that we can empower our students to have sense of community towards their school, they will feel the necessity to take actions to protect it and seek for possible solutions to the problems they are having at school. moreover, fandiño-parra, y. j., bermúdez-jiménez, j. r., & lugo-vásquez, v. e. (2012) assert that teachers, students and also parents need to propose alternatives to promote the construction and consolidation of new identities, relationships and collective practices in and outside the classrooms and the institution itself, which leads to the construction of the sense of community. additionally, hall (2014) refers to sense of belonging as a “human need”, just like the need for food and shelter. a sense of belonging to a greater community such as the school improves people’s motivation and engagement. methodology this study was conducted at a public school in planadas tolima, during the second half of the academic year 2017. the municipality is located in the south of the department of tolima, in the foothills of cordillera central, branch of the colombian andes. it is located eight hours by car from ibagué. the municipality has 36,000 inhabitants, of which 11,000 live in the urban area. 33% are children and 21% are adolescents; regarding the educational level, coverage in primary education was 100%, while in secondary education it reached 76% according to 2014 statistics (caracol radio, 2016). sense of community in negotiated syllabus gómez & cortés-jaramillo no. 18 (january june 2019) no. 18 (january june 2019) 75 this institution hosts a great number of students which included our participants who were fifteen students from 10th and 11th grade who attended english class three hours per week. the students’ ages ranged between 14 to 18 years old. their english proficiency is limited due to the lessons they had attended over previous years had been taught by teachers that did not manage the language. in addition, it has been known that the majority of students from public schools have a low english level in relation to private schools due to the superiority of private over public schools regarding quality of education (sanchez jabba, 2013). for that reason, action research came up with the desire to improve students learning of a foreign language through community based projects. we also believe that action research combined with community based projects contributes to the engagement of students in collaborative relationships, opening new ‘communicative spaces’ in which dialogue and development can flourish, and target language can be used in a meaningful way, seeking to address issues of significance concerning the flourishing of the students, their communities, and the wider ecology in which we participate. in addition, action research cannot be predetermined but changes and develops as those engaged (teachers, students and local community) deepen their understanding of the issues that concern them and develop their capacity as coinquirers both individually and collectively (reason & bradbury, 2001, p. 4). furthermore, the implementation of a negotiated syllabus allows students to take an active and participative role within the planning process as they act as contributors by giving their ideas and suggesting the way they would like to be taught. davies (2006) suggests the use of questionnaires to gather students´ opinions on what kind of activities and topics should be taken into account for the design of a negotiated syllabus; they are relatively easy to implement and students feel that their opinions have been considered and put into action. as a result, their level of commitment has improved and they have become more aware of their learning process in order to achieve the stated objectives. pedagogical design the pedagogical design involves the different stages and activities that were considered important to achieve the goals of this study. a first stage consisted in the application of a questionnaire, in which students chose responses to questions related to their interest about the language, its level of importance for them, aspects to be included in english class. in the second stage, we designed a proposal which included different topics to be worked on class, the students’ participation was a key factor in the selection of the topics they wanted to learn; the teacher presented a table which contained suggested topics, skills to be developed, and activities as shown in table 2. sense of community in negotiated syllabus gómez & cortés-jaramillo no. 18 (january june 2019) no. 18 (january june 2019) 76 table 2. suggested topics, skills to be developed and activities for the negotiated curriculum. afterwards, the students made some suggestions about how those topics should be carried out and they gave several ideas for the activities that each topic had to include in order to have a more dynamic class. a third stage was focused on the design of a curricular proposal in which the opinions and suggestions of the students were considered and included, also the proposal had to be aligned to the national standards and the basic learning rights. at this point, the evaluation was done as a formative process, implementing proactive classroom management strategies in which the teacher facilitated learning and focused on students´ achievements and development of academic skills (shecter, 2010). in addition, the class included teacher´s observation in order to make the necessary adjustments to guarantee the accomplishment of the final goal of the proposal. consequently, at the end of the subunits it was established the procedure in which the intervention of students was reflected and it served as a description of how the unit had to be addressed. this procedure was used as a way to evidence the high role of participation that students had to develop within the proposal, as well as it allowed us to identify the key factors that had to be evaluated. sense of community in negotiated syllabus gómez & cortés-jaramillo no. 18 (january june 2019) no. 18 (january june 2019) 77 finally, a fourth stage corresponded to the implementation of the proposal in which the teacher and the students worked together to set-up the different activities and the development of the skills contained in the proposal through the selected topics by students as vehicles to achieve the learning goals. as mentioned in the previous stage, the evaluation was done through observation to identify the strengths and the weaknesses of the curricular unit, thereby adjusting those issues that required any modification. according to macalister & nation (2013, p.127) “the evaluation looks for strengths and weaknesses but it is naturally the weaknesses that cause concern” which means that we had to pay more attention to treat those weaknesses that students presented from the evaluation. thus, the evaluation for this curricular unit was focused on identifying the quality of learning and teaching, the quality of the curricular unit, and the students-teacher’s satisfaction (nation & macalister, 2009). the quality of learning was done through class-observation and interviews to students. regarding the class-observation we used a rubric to measure the students´ weaknesses and strengths in order to give more assertive feedback to them and also to register the advances they achieved during the implementation of the project. on the other hand, interviews to students were done in order to listen to their opinions about their feelings and perceptions about the curricular unit implementation. findings in this section, we present the findings and discussion of the information collected during the application of community based pedagogy and negotiated curriculum in our english class. those findings can be pooled in three main aspects: students’ raising awareness, taking action by students and the community, and students’ language improvement. a first aspect to be analyzed has to do with the students’ awareness. since they were involved in community-based pedagogies and their opinions and thoughts were included in the course design, their perception and feelings about the purpose of education changed significantly. they began to see their neighborhoods as the place in where they could embed the knowledge they received in their classes with different aspects and issues of their communities. for instance, during the mapping of the community, most of the students found interesting the fact that they could use english as a tool to express their feelings about the different issues that affected their community. besides, they started to be conscious of how the level of effects of those issues swayed their communities and they posed possible alternatives in pursuit of solutions for those issues. an aspect to analyze during this stage has to do with a growing willingness of most of the students on changing their minds about the way the class was directed as shown in figure 2 and figure 3. they understood that the course contents can sense of community in negotiated syllabus gómez & cortés-jaramillo no. 18 (january june 2019) no. 18 (january june 2019) 78 be acquired using a non-traditional method and the issues in their community can be used as an alternative manner to address those contents. figure 2. statistics from the needs analysis, where the majority of the students expressed their learning preferences. figure 3. statistics from the needs analysis survey, where students expressed that they wanted their english class to be more focused on developing language skills. the main outcomes of such statistical analysis lead us to design a curricular proposal based on the communicative approach, through which students can express meanings that are important to them and their lives (brown, 1995). in other words, the communicative approach allows students to use the language for a real purpose, that is, to communicate relevant ideas in regard with their context. in addition, the negotiated syllabus was oriented toward the design of a layered or mixed syllabus that combined the topics with the skills-based syllabus as shown in table 2. sense of community in negotiated syllabus gómez & cortés-jaramillo no. 18 (january june 2019) no. 18 (january june 2019) 79 table 3. curricular unit in this vein, the topics chosen by students were used as a starting point to define the activities students´ need to follow in order to develop the different language skills. finally, the use of the communicative approach and the set of this layered syllabus, which included students’ preferences and expectations, allowed students to be more confident within the classroom, to take a more participatory role in different aspects of their daily educational process, and to enhance their performance in their learning process, which might turn into better results regarding their acquisition of a foreign language. a second aspect is related to students’ taking actions. after having focused on one of the issues that were strongly affecting their community, in this case the waste disposal, students began to take actions inside the school by themselves. as a result, one of the first activities proposed by students was to carry out some cleanup days. before, some students were chosen to be the leaders of that activity and those leaders assigned specific roles to each member of the class. for instance, some groups of students were in charge of organizing groups of people to do the cleaning in a specific area of the school. other activities included garbage collection, the washing of reservoir tanks, the embellishment of green zones, and the washing and cleaning of walls and floors. in addition, another group of students sent letters to the mayor in which they demanded him to allocate the resources required to enclose the school facilities due to the school’s fences were broken and there were security and health problems that affected the normal activities of the institution as it is shown in figure 4. sense of community in negotiated syllabus gómez & cortés-jaramillo no. 18 (january june 2019) no. 18 (january june 2019) 80 unfortunately, they did not get any written response to their request, despite they asked for it many times. a final group of students went around the school and they were in charge of going door-by-door to explain to the surrounding community how their inadequate waste disposal was affecting their school facilities and their health. for us, it was exciting to see the level of engagement that most of the students showed during the development of the different tasks and how they were internalizing some of the premises of community-based pedagogies to build a certain grade of sense of community as shown in figure 5. figure 4. proposal sent to planadas mayor sense of community in negotiated syllabus gómez & cortés-jaramillo no. 18 (january june 2019) no. 18 (january june 2019) 81 figure 5. students’ mapping their community a final aspect to be analyzed is related to students’ language improvement. accordingly, through the development of different artifacts and the use of the language in different scenarios, such as presentations, speeches, and controlled practices, we could notice that the level of effectiveness of implementing negotiated syllabus through community based projects was beyond the expected results due to the fact that most of the students showed a notorious improvement in the use of english to communicate ideas and also to relate that language in a meaningful way in the sense that it was connected to their realities and their community. community based pedagogy and negotiated curriculum also served us as mediators for taking actions to solve a community problem and at the same time to strengthen the use of english to communicate with others instead of seeing it as an isolated subject as shown in figure 6. figure 6. students presentations about environmental concerns to the whole school. sense of community in negotiated syllabus gómez & cortés-jaramillo no. 18 (january june 2019) no. 18 (january june 2019) 82 conclusions firstly, we have noticed the importance to consider the students´ voice at any moment of their learning process, starting from the syllabus and the planning of activities as well. as they become direct participants of their educational process, they need to be directly involved in the decision making, due to the fact that their opinions and beliefs are crucial in the construction of meaningful learning of english as a foreign language and consequently contribute to the improvement in classroom environment and their achievements in the class. in this specific case, we could notice in our students that involving them in the decision-making regarding their learning process, to the point they became more participative and engaged towards the english class. secondly, the proposal designing is a cumbersome and a time-consuming process that requires to consider many of the aspects of the curriculum development and to predict its possible outcomes. nevertheless, it has to be done because it surely helps not only to teachers, but also to students to be more aware of the importance of considering their conceptions, thoughts, beliefs, expectations and experiences, in order to enhance the classroom interactions, classroom environment, and finally the students’ performance in class. thirdly, we believe there is a quite important relationship between the theory and the practice in terms of students’ needs, students’ inclusion, negotiated syllabus, evaluation, student-centered classroom, new conception of learners and teacher, among others. as a result, this theory was used as the base of the proposal and a point of departure for the design of new tools, which includes students’ expectations and desires, in other words, a syllabus for inclusiveness. finally, the implementation of a curricular unit based on the communicative approach that included students’ preferences and expectations, allowed students to improve their confidence in using english to communicate ideas due to the fact that they used the language for real purposes, also their participation in their learning process increased in the way that they were more engaged with every activity proposed in the curricular unit, and finally, they obtained better results regarding their language use, fluency and mistakes awareness. sense of community in negotiated syllabus gómez & cortés-jaramillo no. 18 (january june 2019) no. 18 (january june 2019) 83 references abbott, s. (2014). hidden curriculum. the glossary of education reform. brown, j. d. (1995). the elements of language curriculum: a systematic approach to program design. boston: heinle and heinle publishers. burns, a. (2009). doing action research in english language teaching: a guide for practitioners. routledge. caracol radio. (8 de julio de 2016). taken from http://caracol.com.co/ radio/2016/07/08/nacional/1467998700_545716.html cooper, j. e., he, y., & levin, b. b. (2011). developing critical cultural competence: a guide for 21st-century educators. corwin press. davies, a. (2006). what do learners really want from their efl course? elt journal, 60(1), 3-12. fandiño-parra, y. j., bermúdez-jiménez, j. r., & lugo-vásquez, v. e. (2012). retos del programa nacional de bilingüismo. colombia bilingüe. giroux, h. (2007). utopian thinking in dangerous times: critical pedagogy and the project of educated hope. utopian pedagogy: radical experiments against neoliberal globalization, 25-42. hall, k. (2014). create a sense of belonging. taken from psychology today: https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/pieces-mind/201403/create-sensebelonging kumaravadivelu, b. (2001). toward a postmethod pedagogy. tesol quarterly, 35(4), 537-560.lamborn, s., newmann, f., & wehlage, g. (1992). the significance and sources of student engagement. en f. newmann, student engagement and achievement in american secondary schools (págs. 11-39). washington, dc.: office of educational research and improvement. larson, k. (2014). critical pedagogy(ies) for elt in indonesia. teflin journal, 25(1), 122-138. macalister, j., & nation, i. (2013). language curriculum design. abingdon: oxon: routledge. mcmillan, d. (1996). sense of community. journal of community psychology, 24(4), 315-325. nation, i. s., & macalister, j. (2009). negotiated syllabuses. en i. s. nation, & j. macalister, language curriculum design (págs. 149-158). routledge. ortiz, a. e. (2006). revising a foreign language curriculum: a challenging sense of community in negotiated syllabus gómez & cortés-jaramillo no. 18 (january june 2019) no. 18 (january june 2019) http://caracol.com.co/radio/2016/07/08/nacional/1467998700_545716.html http://caracol.com.co/radio/2016/07/08/nacional/1467998700_545716.html https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/pieces-mind/201403/create-sense-belonging https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/pieces-mind/201403/create-sense-belonging 84 and enhancing experience at a public school in bogota. profile, 7, 9-29. rovai, a. p. (2002). sense of community, perceived cognitive learning, and persistence in asynchronous learning networks. the internet and higher education, 5(4), 319-332. sanchez jabba, a. m. (2013). bilingüismo en colombia. documentos de trabajo sobre economia regional, 191, 1-36 sharkey, j. (2012). community-based pedagogies and literacies in language teacher education: promising beginnings, intriguing challenges. íkala, revista de lenguaje y cultura, 17(1), 9-13. sharkey, j., & clavijo, a. (2016). community-based pedagogies: projects and possibilities in colombia and the united states. en a. honigsfeld, & a. cohan, breaking the mold of education for culturally and linguistically diverse students: innovative and successful practices for the twenty-first century (vol. 67, págs. 129-137). r&l education. shecter, c. (2010). keystone classroom management: a practical approach to producing widespread change in student behaviour (doctoral dissertation). wells, g. (2002). inquiry as an orientation for learning, teaching and teacher education, in learning for life in the 21st century: sociocultural perspectives on the future of education. (g. a. wells, ed.) blackwell publishing ltd. sense of community in negotiated syllabus gómez & cortés-jaramillo no. 18 (january june 2019) no. 18 (january june 2019) 85 authors *paola andrea gomez is a bilingual biologist, with 10 years of experience in teaching at bilingual schools in colombia. paola is a master student in english didactics at the university of tolima. her academic interests include community based pedagogy, negotiated syllabus and sense of belonging. currently, paola is carrying out projects based on community inquiry and negotiated syllabus with the aim to embrace sense of belonging in students from a rural school. orcid: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8368-4123 julio andrés cortés-jaramillo has a b.a. in foreign languages and international business from universidad del tolima. julio andrés, a student from master´s in english didactics, has been a teacher in the public sector for five years. currently, he is a teacher at the educational institution santo domingo savio in planadas, tolima. his academic interests include community inquiry, language policies and teaching young children. orcid: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4413-0398 sense of community in negotiated syllabus gómez & cortés-jaramillo how to reference this article: gómez, p. a., & cortés-jaramillo, j. a. (2019). constructing sense of community through community inquiry and the implementation of a negotiated syllabus. gist education and learning research journal, 18, 68-85. https://doi.org/10.26817/16925777.432 no. 18 (january june 2019) no. 18 (january june 2019) https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8368-4123 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4413-0398 https://doi.org/10.26817/16925777.432 _gjdgxs _30j0zll gist2013final.indd 115 earnest practices in writing processes1 prácticas sensatas en el proceso de escritura margarita arango herrera2* centro colombo americano, bogotá, colombia abstract this article describes a study exploring the effects of instruction in learning strategies on students’ writing. the study specifically examines the use of brainstorming and categorizing using graphic organizers, as well as reviewing strategies. this study took place in an english program for children and teens in a bi-national center in south america. as the implementation was carried out, students completed three surveys and two questionnaires before and after implementing the writing strategies. data collected also included students’ written pieces of work, as well as results of preand post-tests designed for the project. results show that students improved text organization, and that their texts were clearer when using the learning strategies of brainstorming, categorizing and reviewing. the data also indicate that students on the whole perceived the strategies to be useful in their writing processes. these findings suggest that final written products can be improved if teachers train students with tools to enhance writing skills. keywords: writing skills, learning strategies, task-based learning, writing process, cognitive academic language learning approach. resumen este artículo describe un estudio exploratorio de los efectos de la instrucción de las estrategias de aprendizaje en el proceso de escritura de los estudiantes. el estudio examina específicamente el uso de las estrategias lluvia de ideas y organizadores gráficos, así como la revisión de las estrategias. este estudio tuvo lugar con un programa de inglés para niños y adolescentes en un centro binacional en américa del sur. en la implementación del proyecto, los participantes diligenciaron tres encuestas y dos cuestionarios antes y después de implementar las estrategias de escritura. los datos recogidos también 1 received: may 5, 2013 / accepted: august 28, 2013 2 email: margaritarangoherrera@gmail.com gist education and learning research journal. issn 1692-5777. no. 7, november 2013. pp. 115-133 ethics matters no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) 116 incluyeron trabajos escritos de los estudiantes como lo resultados de las pruebas preliminares y posteriores diseñadas para el proyecto. los resultados muestran que los estudiantes mejoraron la organización sus textos y la claridad en la expresión de ideas usando las estrategias de aprendizaje: lluvia de ideas, clasificación y análisis. los datos también indican que los estudiantes en general consideran útiles estas estrategias en su proceso de escritura. los hallazgos sugieren que la versión final de los escritos puede ser mejorada si los profesores entrenan a sus alumnos en el uso de estrategias de aprendizaje para desarrollar sus habilidades de escritura. palabras clave: habilidades de escritura, estrategias de aprendizaje, aprendizaje basado en tarea, proceso de escritura, adquisición cognitivo del lenguaje académico resumo este artigo descreve um estudo exploratório dos efeitos da instrução das estratégias de aprendizagem no processo de escritura dos estudantes. o estudo examina especificamente o uso das estratégias chuva de ideias e organizadores gráficos, bem como a revisão das estratégias. este estudo teve lugar com um programa de inglês para crianças e adolescentes em um centro binacional na américa do sul. na implantação do projeto, os participantes preencheram três pesquisas de opinião e dois questionários antes e despois de implantar as estratégias de escritura. os dados coletados também incluíram trabalhos escritos dos estudantes, como os resultados das provas preliminares e posteriores desenhadas para o projeto. os resultados mostram que os estudantes melhoraram a organização de seus textos e a clareza na expressão de ideias, usando as estratégias de aprendizagem: chuva de ideias, classificação e análise. os dados também indicam que os estudantes, em geral, consideram úteis estas estratégias em seu processo de escritura. as descobertas sugerem que a versão final dos escritos pode ser melhorada se os professores treinam seus alunos no uso de estratégias de aprendizagem para desenvolver suas habilidades de escritura. palavras chave: habilidades de escritura, estratégias de aprendizagem, aprendizagem baseada em tarefa, processo de escritura, aquisição cognitiva da linguagem académica earnest practices in writing processes arango no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) 117 introduction writing is one of the most advanced actions that a human being can carry out as it conveys more than one mental process. still, many people have trouble when expressing their ideas using pencil and paper. students often assume that writing is a very difficult task. in fact, as a practice it does require complex preparation and progression. according to el tiempo newspaper, the instituto nacional para la evaluación de la educación (icfes)3, reports the following test results for written communication of university graduates: only 2% of the students obtained satisfactory results, with 4% acceptable, and 67.4% with scores of deficient (redacción vida de hoy, 2012). the main concern of this action research project was to tackle the problem of writing difficulties with effective practices. the project describes the how learning strategies were used to aid the writing process of nineteen 11-14 year-old students using flower and hayes’s cognitive model of writing and the task-based learning framework (as cited in willis, 1996). this project was carried out in a saturday english program for children and teenagers in a large, bi-national center in colombia. the innovation attempted to supply writers with appropriate strategies to make the writing process simple. it also provided continuous selfmonitoring as well as specific language targets to achieve. the study focused on the following research questions: 1. how does the implementation of learning strategies help students in their writing process? 2. which learning strategies can be implemented in the writing process? literature review writing when writing, we join both sides of our brains, bringing logic and originality onto paper. conveying empirical and theoretical knowledge, we assume a posture towards the written piece we are working on (hancock, 2009). as defined by tichy (1998), writing is the procedure by which people are capable of expressing their ideas in an appropriate manner making use of symbols or a written system. thus, one can just say that writing is a bipartite activity which embraces the systematic 3 national institute for educational evaluation, colombia earnest practices in writing processes arango no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) 118 convention of symbols, grammar, and organization; the construction of concepts throughout experiences and prior knowledge. the free expression of ideas can help learners find their own voice and discover themselves as communicators. through writing, students can achieve cognitive clearness needed to articulate thoughts, as well as the ability to relate different topics into one single assertion. as such, writing is an action which requires a developmental method with steps to be completed. (hancock, 2009). according to rohman (as cited in hyland, 2009), good writing is the combination of words, which allows a writer the integrity to dominate the subject. the writing process. writers put into practice many different processes to achieve their goals. thus, they need an expandable range of performance to help in planning, drafting, and reviewing their work (langer & applebee, 1983). first, we generate ideas of the topic we are going to write about. for the organization of these primary ideas we generate, we usually convey prior comprehension of the topic itself, experiences surrounding it, and relevant information about it (langer & applebee, 1983). according to flower and hayes (as cited in hyland, 2009), writing is a cognitive process, and we must bear key aspects in mind when training writers. the first aspect to consider is the fact that the act of writing must be carried out within an established context, which is directly influenced by the writer’s memory, specifically long-term memory. writers use their previous knowledge and adapt it to the rhetorical problem in order to plan what they want to say. from here, the writer continues discovering its components and finds solutions to finally start writing (hyland, 2009). identifying the parts of the topic and framing the theme within an environment to carefully explore its parts is just the first step of writing. this is referred to as the planning stage. planning may be the longest step during the process of writing before translating ideas into written words. yet, it can be said that writing, reviewing, revising, and evaluating take place all together. learning strategies learning is a process that conveys many different matters: dynamism, motivation, and the generation of connections between neurons to relate, retain, organize, and select information (chamot & o’malley, 1994). strategies help to achieve tasks in a structured and consequential way. by using strategies, every learner is able to earnest practices in writing processes arango no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) 119 create mental pathways that require their brains to fetch information connecting new ideas to pre-existing notions or concepts (anderson & barnhardt, as cited in echavarria, 2008). learners are able to operate different learning strategies resolving different problems once they have been trained (chamot & o’malley, 1994). in addition, learners must know what the strategy is for, how to use it, when to use it, and the reason why they are employing that strategy; covering all declarative, procedural, and conditional knowledge for students (lipson & wilson, as cited in echavarria, 2008). researchers explain that for the acquisition of these strategies, students must be conscious and aware to systematize the use of the strategy. further, they stress that it takes more than one task or lesson to internalize the strategy (chamot & o’malley, 1994). learning strategies for writing can be divided into the following stages: planning, translating, and reviewing. planning. in the planning stage, students activate prior ideas and express new thoughts through listing, ordering, and sorting (hyland, 2009). this is done using one’s long-term memory. planning involves identifying a topic to be treated, contextualizing it, and finally using of all its parts. wati (2011) explored how to improve students’ writing abilities through the use of a pre-writing strategy. one of the objectives was to address the lack of ideas to start writing. the author describes how planning activities are connected to idea generation and structuring. by using this strategy, students’ success was improved by a rise in scores of 23% according an established set of rubrics (wati, 2011). this study confirms the importance of planning in the process of writing and its success when using strategies. langer and applebee (1983) state that ideas are more important than mechanics when writing. they suggest different strategies to address the problem of generating and organizing thoughts by developing young writers’ abilities, and supplying specific tasks and an ample collection of practices. their study found that writers improved their organization of ideas by using strategies. results confirm that writers also need constant advice to succeed. this helps demonstrate that using strategies to generate and organize ideas is fundamental in the writing process (langer & applebee, 1983). this research reveals that writers not only need to be familiar with the topic they will deal with, but they also need to constantly be provided with learning strategies to approach the first step in the writing process without difficulties. earnest practices in writing processes arango no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) 120 translating. during this stage writers must put all the ideas they previously generated in a paper to communicate. translating proposes the notion of transforming ideas into words; it involves writers in coping with all language requirements such as structure, grammar, and spelling. in one study, thirty-four teachers of twenty different universities in japan reported that almost all rhetorical difficulties were caused because writers did not know how to develop sentences or paragraphs (izzo, 1999). this caused misunderstanding of the central message. results of the study showed that mistakes were significant when communicating in a written way. students did not write in english continuously, nor were they connected to the activity. this study provides evidence about what kinds of problems students can have when they do not have chances to translate or correct their work. in asser & poom-valickis (2002), writing is a mean of learning. the purpose of this study was to motivate students to be writers by supplying the right tools to complete the stages of the writing process. the problem was that students did not know when they were making mistakes. in this case, drafting, analyzing, categorizing and providing constant feedback helped students in this second stage of the process. as a result, students were able to improve their writing skills through instruction, reflection, and making them constant observers of their own work. these two studies demonstrate that during the translation stage students need to be conscious about what they are doing. in addition, they need time and constant feedback to develop their writing skills. reviewing. in this stage, writers evaluate and revise their work. this practice takes place simultaneously along with translating. it is suggested that writers be completely conscious about their progress and if necessary go back and revise ideas. kowaleski, murphy, and starns (2002) describe how to improve elementary school students’ writing skills through instruction on pre-writing, writing, and writing revision in a ten week program. students were asked to follow a rubric with six features to evaluate, including idea generation, organization, word choice, sentence fluency, voice, and grammar. after using the rubric and being instructed, 95% of the students were above the expected level, showing more self-awareness and using more learning strategies to address the process. researchers conclude that through strategies writers were aware of their strenghts, weaknesses, and needs. during a preparatory english course delivered for students who did not pass the entrance exam for universities in florida, greenberg (1997) identified that one of the problems why those students could not achieve acceptable results was because they did not have effective writing skills. the main purpose of the project was to develop earnest practices in writing processes arango no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) 121 vocabulary, topic selection, drafting, and revision by utilizing visual stimulus. in addition, the author implemented strategies such as peer correction, proofreading, workshops, and cooperative grouping to constantly revise students’ work. research design context and participants the setting for this project was a saturday english program for children and teens in a large, bi-national center in south america. children attend two-hour english classes every saturday for 16 weeks per semester course. the program’s methology includes two instructional approaches: task-based learning and the cognitive academic language learning approach. in terms of the approach to writing in the program, it coincides with the cognitive writing model of flower and hayes (as cited in willis, 1994) as it includes steps such as giving feedback and stating objectives. students in the english program are evaluated according to their oral and written abilities covering four aspects: 1) content, 2) vocabulary and spelling, 3) text organization, and 4) grammar. teachers are asked to evaluate these elements according to language knowledge and also the intellectual development of each student. participants were nineteen children between the ages of 11-14 in an intermediate level in the program. according to their age and cognitive development, they were able to write descriptive, narrative and argumentative texts. pedagogical intervention several strategies were chosen to implement with students in order to facilitate the different stages of the writing process. planning. in the planning stage, the first strategy introduced was grouping. students needed to organize some information according to their common knowledge. two other planning strategies, brainstorming and outlining were also implemented. outlining was introduced with the intention of helping learners categorize and organize their ideas. the use of visual organizers, specifically graphic organizers, was an important part of the instruction to the planning strategies. translating. the what-why-how writing strategy (peha, 2003) was considered useful to help students write their sentences in a more earnest practices in writing processes arango no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) 122 complete and organized way. the use of connectors to organize written work was also presented. in this case, students identified connectors as organizers for their paragraphs. categorizing sentences was also a strategy to facilitate students’ discovery of the importance of organizing their sentences within the paragraph. reviewing. reading aloud was a reviewing strategy implemented with students in order for them to appraise their work at any time before reproducing a final version. using checklists during last stage of the writing process was another strategy implemented in order to focus students’ attention on problems to address in their writing. data collection instruments data collection instruments provided evidence of the usefulness of the strategies for students during the different stages of the writing process. three instruments were chosen to complete the data collection: (1) artifacts, (2) likert scale questionnaires and (3) surveys. artifacts for each strategy implemented, artifacts of students’ work were collected. to keep track on how strategies improve students organization, preand post-tests designed for the project were also kept in order to demonstrate how learning strategies made a difference or not in the students’ overall writing abilities. earnest practices in writing processes arango no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) 123 table 1. artifacts collected lesson strategy artifact kept focus implemented 1 grouping graphic organizer recycle ls 2 brainstorming list introduce ls 3 brainstorming graphic organizer practice ls 4 brainstorming graphic organizer practice ls in groups 5 outlining graphic organizer+ pre post-test on ls written piece 6 brainstorming+ graphic organizer+ introduce ls outlining written report 7 monitoring written report pre post-test on ls production + self + checklist and peer correction 8 monitoring graphic organizer pre post-test on ls production + written piece 9 outlining graphic organizer pre posttest on + monitoring + written piece topic + practice ls production 10 monitoring graphic organizer practice ls production + written piece 11 brainstorming graphic organizer practice lss +outlining+ + written piece monitoring production 12 self and peer correction written report practice ls + checklist likert scale surveys the first likert suvey (see appendix a) was undertaken to estimate writers’ motivation and beliefs about writing. the questionnarie contained five statements: 1) writing is something you like to do, 2) writing is something easy to do, 3) you are a good writer, 4) it is important to plan before writing, and 5) starting to write is easy. these phrases aimed at clarifying what students’ perceptions were as writers and how they saw the process. this was important so that motivational issues could be identified. another purpose of the survey was to identify how familiar students were with the generation and organization of ideas. earnest practices in writing processes arango no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) 124 the second likert scale survey was taken from brown (2002). this survey had the purpose of finding out whether students were individual learners, and contains questions about common activities to consolidate knowledge. the third likert scale survey (see appendix b) was carried out at the close of the study and asked students if they considered the different strategies applied during the semester helpful or not. the seven strategies used in order to improve students writing process were listed in the survey and students responded to each. questionnaires the questionnaires provided more subjective and detailed information from participants. the questionnaires undertaken sought to uncover writers’ developmental perceptions and their opinions about the implementation of the process. the first questionnairie was designed to identify whether students commonly used graphic organizers. the questionnaire included only two items in order to find out about students’ knowledge of these tools. questions included: 1) do you know what a graphic organizer is? if so, how do you use graphic organizers? 2) do you think graphic organizers are helpful? why? the second questionnarie was undertaken after the implementation of all strategies. its purpose was to find out what students’ perceptions were regarding learning strategies. questions included: 1) what do you think about learning strategies? 2) do you think learning strategies helped you in your writing process? 3) do you think you writing skills improved this semester? 4) mark the most useful strategy used during the whole semester? why? data analysis and interpretation instruction in learning strategies was carried out alongside writing tasks. data analysis took into account how students worked and performed, paying attention to any improvement in the three stages of the writing process: planning, translating, and reviewing. earnest practices in writing processes arango no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) 125 artifacts planning. planning strategies taught included listing and using the graphic organizer in order to brainstorm ideas. in one activity, students were asked to follow three steps in order to brainstorm. first, students addressed a problem or issue. sencond, they were asked to write down five different ideas about that problem or topic. finally, they defined their criteria about the issue. using graphic organizers demonstrated that students were able to coordinate their ideas better. they were asked to complete the three steps listing first without and then with the graphic. the graphic organizer compelled students to fill in all the spaces and complete the three steps for branstorming. they wrote their criteria inside the middle bubble and their ideas inside the surrounding bubbles. figure 1. graphic organizers for planning in order to implement the outlining strategy, students were asked to complete task in which they wrote a letter to their school principal about necessary repairs to the school. the teacher showed pictures of a school badly in need of repair, and students wrote a letter describing the activities they proposed to raise money and the improvements necessary. they wrote the first letter just having in mind the recent pictures shown and no other support. then, they completed the task with the graphic organizer. learners were asked to address two problems and propose what to do to raise money, how they were going to do it and the reason why. earnest practices in writing processes arango no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) 126 figure 2. letter to the school principal the “before” sample shows that children wrote the first letter including the main idea, a list of activities to get the money, and they mention almost all the needed repairs in the school. the “after” samples demonstrate that students used the outlining strategy grouping the problem, the activity, the means, and the reason. the second letter demonstrates that the paragraph can be clearer in terms of communication and intention. translating. one example of the what-why-how strategy was an activity in which students were asked to talk about scary situations using simple past and past continuous. they were introduced to different scenarios and a model of how to use a four box graphic organizer. then, they had to complete the four boxes decribing their situations answering information questions. figure 3. four-box organizer earnest practices in writing processes arango no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) 127 students constructed their sentences keeping in mind the questions. this strategy was completed several times with students with similar positive results in their written products and writing process. reviewing. the reading aloud strategy was implemented to help students correct mistakes regarding agreement, word order and spelling. students were asked to first read their written reports silently to examine mistakes. some questions regarding spelling and vocabulary arose while doing the activity. then, they worked in pairs and exchanged papers to read their partners’ papers aloud. after listening to each other’s work, the teacher delivered to each student a blue marker to start correcting mistakes to help their partners. students also employed a checklist (see appendix c) to peer correct their written pieces during the first workshop. instruction on how to use the checklist was delivered providing examples, and students peer corrected in two different stages with two separate groups of classmates. students exchanged reports and went over all the bullets in the checklist. they were given a blue marker to act as proofreaders and correct any mistakes according to the checklist. likert surveys results of the surveys indicate that students do not think they have problems when writing, but that they believe that planning is an important step. results also show that roughly half of the students often used learning strategies even if they did not acknowledge that activity as a strategy. twenty-one percent of the students reported that they always practiced these different activities, and twenty-six percent reported employing them sometimes. these results indicate that students know what strategies are, and that they use them when writing. questionnaires results of the questionnaires indicate that students knew what graphic organizers were at the outset of the study, and some of the students knew their purpose and / or reported using them for prewriting. nevertheless, most of the students did not use them when writing. further, roughly half of the students considered graphic organizers a helpful aid to organize their ideas before writing. after the intervention, students generally agreed that learning strategies are useful. some students affirmed that they could organize their ideas better earnest practices in writing processes arango no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) 128 and correct their mistakes using learning strategies. many students also reported that they considered learning strategies very important for writing, specifically to help them in the generation, organization, and categorization of their ideas. students also reported the usefulness of the strategies in their school english classes, and remarked on the difference they perceived with the previous semester, admitting that they had had organizational problems with their ideas, sentences and paragraphs. in terms of students’ perceptions as to the usefulness of specific strategies, the most popular learning strategy was brainstorming. they mentioned that this strategy helped them organize their ideas and categorize them for a better writing outcome. the second most popular strategy was the what-why-how sentence organizer. students felt that their sentences were more complete and that organization was easier. learners also chose outlining and as one of the most helpful strategies saying that the categorization of ideas was easier. finally, participants acknowledged that reading aloud was helpful when revising their work alone. table 2. student perceptions about usefulness of learning strategies results results of the data analysis may allow us to draw several important conclusions, especially in reference to students’ use and perception of learning strategies. in general, most students felt that the strategies were helpful for the writing process, particulary in the data collected after working with the strategies in class. learners were able to name particular strategies and describe their usefulness. in some cases, it appears that students used learning strategies for other skills and in other settings, for example in their english classes at school. earnest practices in writing processes arango no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) 129 further, it is possible to see changes in students’ work using the strategies in the artifacts collected. there is evidence of organization and planning, as well as revision work using the strategies covered in class. students’ texts appear to be more structured, and it is clear that students were also able to learn how to implement the strategies on their own. there is also evidence of transfer of the strategies to independent work or other learning contexts, such as english classes at school. in terms of possible subsequent actions based on the results of this study, the following can be proposed: (a) continue to implement and explore learning strategies more to improve writing skills; (b) provide more specific written feedback for students in their written reports to help them with the generation, organization and categorization of ideas; and (c) provide specific feedback on grammar, sentence and paragraph structure, spelling mistakes, punctuation and use of connectors. conclusion the instruction on learning strategies in this project demonstrated that students can successfully complete their written tasks following the principals stated by flower & hayes’s theory (in hyland, 2009). this fact, linked to the literature reviewed, clearly supports the utilization of strategies to first tackle the lack of ideas through systematically generating and structuring thoughts (wati, 2011). flower and hayes (in hyland, 2009) insist that writers must be aware of the techniques to fulfill writing tasks throughout the three stages: planning, translating and reviewing. writers should also be helped to recognize mistakes and correct errors. making writers constant observers of their work can help them to enhance their writing and face problems such as structure of sentences, spelling, or paragraph ordering (asser & poom-valickis, 2002). this study helps us understand how writing challenges can be solved by delivering students the appropiate tools: brainstorming, outlining, categorizing, rubrics, peer correction, proofreading, and training. these tools supply learners with options to help them accomplish the stipulated goals, benefitting students in their writing process. earnest practices in writing processes arango no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) 130 references asser, h., & poom-valickis, k. (2002). “learning to write: from choosing the topic to final draft.” paper presented at the european reading conferncem dublin, ireland (july, 2001). eric document number: ed462701. retrieved from: http://www.eric.ed.gov/pdfs/ ed462701.pdf brown, h. d. (2002). strategies for success. new york, ny: addison wesley longman. chamot, a. u., & o’malley, j. m. (1994). the calla handbook: implementing the cognitive academic language learning approach. reading, ma: addison wesley. echavarria, j. j., vogt, m. e., & short, d. j. (2008). making content comprehensible for english learners: the siop model. boston, ma: pearson. greenberg, e. (1997). utilizing visual literacy techniques in a modified writing workshop. eric document number: ed406695. retrieved from: http://www.eric.ed.gov/pdfs/ed406695.pdf hancock, l. (2009, august 14.) whole brain writing. video retrieved from www.youtube.com: http://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=uebn8suvgsc hyland, k. (2009). teaching and researching writing. london: longman. izzo, j. (1999). english writing errors of japanese students as reported by university professors. eric document number: ed428585. retrieved from: http://www.eric.ed.gov/pdfs/ed428585.pdf kowaleski, e., murphy, j., starns, m. (2002). improving student writing in the elementary classroom. (master’s thesis). eric document number: ed467516. retrieved from: http://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ ed467516.pdf. langer, j. a. & applebee, a. n. (1983). learning to manage the writing process: task and strategies. eric document number: ed234420. retrieved from. http://www.eric.ed.gov/pdfs/ed234420.pdf peha, s. (2003). writing across the curriculum. retrieved from: http://www.ttms.org/pdfs/06%20writing%20across%20the%20 curriculum%20v001%20(full).pdf earnest practices in writing processes arango no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) 131 redacción vida de hoy. (feb. 23, 2012). calidad de educación superior en el país también tiene estrato. el tiempo. retrieved from http:// www.eltiempo.com/vida-de-hoy/educacion/articulo-webnew_nota_interior-11203162.html tichy, h. j. (1998). effective writing for engineers, managers and scientists. (2nd ed. ). usa: john wiley & sons. wati, p. r. (2011, april 16 ). improving the students’ efl writing ability through “put yourself in the picture” strategy. retrieved from someedu center: http://syamedu.blogspot.com/2011/04/improvingstudents-efl-writing-ability.html willis, j. r. (1996). a framework for task-based learning. london: longman. author *margarita arango herrera was conferred a degree of bachelor of arts in bilingual education by the institución universitaria colombo americana (unica) and has worked for the centro colombo americano for three years in the saturday program for kids and teens and the university program. she has also served evaluator for the written part of the national tests undertaken by the national institute for educational evaluation (icfes) for two years. earnest practices in writing processes arango no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) 132 appendix a. likert survey 1 appendix b. likert survey 3 earnest practices in writing processes arango no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) 133 appendix c. reviewing checklist adapted from the website daily writing tips. http://www. dailywritingtips.com/the-writing-process/ earnest practices in writing processes arango no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) 13� education reform in latin america: equal educational opportunity? barbara noel, ph.d. abstract/resumen this article discusses the general developments and challenges of latin american public education systems from the 1970s to the late 90s. a framework using 5 stages of equal educational opportunity is used to organize the findings. connections are made between the student population’s levels of access to quality with their future earning potential. este artículo presenta los desarrollos generales y los desafíos de los sistemas de educación pública latinoamericanos desde los años 1970 hasta finales de los años 90. se utiliza un marco de 5 etapas de oportunidades equitativas de la educación para organizar los hallazgos. se hacen conexiones entre los niveles de acceso a la calidad con el potencial económico de ingresos de poblaciones de estudiantes. keywords/palabras claves: education reform, inequality, economic, latin america, equal opportunity; reforma educativa, desigualdad, económico, américa latina, oportunidad equitativa noel 13� introduction since the turn of the 20th century, north, central and south america have made great strides in the way education has been conceived, organized and delivered. however, the pace of change in contemporary societies continues to accelerate, creating ever-evolving needs that should be addressed through public education systems. what constituted basic literacy in the past is now insufficient for competent participation in the postmodern world. the bar for achieving certain basic levels of education in today’s democratic states keeps being raised in order for governments to have a competent citizenry, able to negotiate and have control over its domestic and international political and economic systems. the role of education then is more critical now than ever for unleashing latin america’s rich human potential. fernando reimers, from the harvard institute for international development makes a strong case that in our modern knowledge-based economy, globalization is deepening the divide of social stratification and is producing a kind of social exclusion for millions of latin americans (2000b). this phenomenon will become compounded both within and across countries as national economies come to depend more heavily on each other in the context of globalization. since 1974, most latin american countries have implemented reforms in their educational systems. one of the greatest achievements of these past 3 decades has been that most citizens now have access to public schooling. yet, even as basic education is now available on an unprecedented scale for the majority of americans, the quality of the services being delivered has become more varied. likewise, the results of educational achievement for millions of schoolchildren are inconsistent. it has been argued that until students from all socio-economic levels achieve on par, equality of educational opportunity will not be reached (howe, 2000). this means that unless students who are graduating from school systems can compete on even ground, their chances for gaining desirable employment will be limited, as well as their chances for an adequate income, economic and political power. have educational reforms helped to change this situation? as john keynes’s famous quote states: “the difficulty lies not so much in the developing of new ideas as in escaping from old ones” (schugurensky as cited in howe, 2000, p. 51). this article discusses the general commitments and achievements of the education sector of various latin american countries from the 1970s to the late 1990s. reimer’s (2000a) framework of educational opportunity is used to organize the data in order to answer the question of whether educational initiatives over the recent 3 decades in latin america have had an effect on equality of opportunity for the majority of citizens. noel 13� historical development of public education prior to the 1950s ever since horace mann presided over the opening of the first united states (us) public school in 1839, the idea that all citizens should be educated has been debated but largely accepted throughout the americas (cremin, 1957). in 1847, domingo sarmiento, a well respected argentinean writer and educator, met horace mann and spent 2 days in intense dialogue with him (moure, 2001). this 2-day meeting sowed the seeds for the establishment of public education in argentina after sarmiento became president in 1868. this educational vanguard began building teacher colleges and schools (among other institutions) in argentina, but also spent time in chile and paraguay influencing policy for the establishing of public education in those countries. just as mann had influenced sarmiento, the uruguayan sociologist and politician josé pedro varela met sarmiento and the torch was passed. even though public education had already begun in uruguay by 1820, varela promoted the principles of free public education and helped to firmly establish the system before his death in 1879 (spinak, 1977). forty years later, josé vasconcelos significantly expanded public education in mexico. other countries such as costa rica and venezuela soon followed suit. furthermore, as part of the socialist movement, cuba established public education, and in the early 70s, juan alvarado velasco reformed education in peru (reimers, 2000b). since the turn of the 20th century, the idea that all citizens should have equal opportunity to free public education became a priority in the americas. the aftermath of world war ii contained the seeds for the establishment of various worldwide conferences and commissions designed to recreate systems of education throughout united nations member countries. their aim was to promote peace on a global scale. in 1945, the united nations education, science and cultural organization (unesco) was founded; and in 1948 it recommended that its then 37 member countries make “free primary education compulsory and universal” (unesco, 2004a). in latin america, the organization of american states (oas) pronounced a similar statement that year (unesco, 2004d). concurrently, the united nations issued its universal declaration of human rights the same year, announcing in article 26: 1. everyone has the right to education. education shall be free, at least in the elementary and fundamental stages. elementary education shall be compulsory. technical and professional education shall be made generally available and higher education shall be equally accessible to all on the basis of merit. education reform in latin america noel 13� 2. education shall be directed to the full development of the human personality and to the strengthening of respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms. it shall promote understanding, tolerance and friendship among all nations, racial or religious groups, and shall further the activities of the united nations for the maintenance of peace. (united nations, 1948) by the close of the mid 1900s, most of the countries in latin america had committed themselves to increasing coverage to the majority of their nation’s youth and establishing public education systems. public education in the americas after the 1950s in response to their growing recognition that the models used since the 50s were not working, latin american governments made an effort to expand their educational systems to provide universal access at the elementary level. most systems were still characterized by low expenditure per student and low efficiency in the system of delivery which led to high drop-out rates (brunner, 2001). secondary and higher education systems were simultaneously developed, but to a much lesser extent because there was less access (reimers, 2000a). there tended to be a much higher expenditure per student in tertiary education, but with low entrance rates and low levels of participation (brunner, 2001). at the same time that educational systems were working to expand access to as many students as possible, debates emerged around the idea that equality of education was something quite different from equitable education. could all children truly be dealt with through the same program and similar results be achieved? if not, why was it that some children responded better than others to the same educational programs? metaphorically, once all were invited to the same banquet, why was it that some were more nourished? what factors contribute to or block true equality of opportunity in education? in the early 1950s, researchers, practitioners and policymakers explored this issue both in the us and latin america. they created new initiatives (in the form of compensatory programs) for combating discriminatory practices. discrimination was noticeable in that few students were enjoying what education had to offer while the masses were left with inadequate human and physical resources. such actions and new programs allowed educators to form a new body of research that would later be used in policy decisions both within the us and throughout latin america. reimers (2000a) identifies three strands of research which probed into the following: education reform in latin america noel 138 1. the relationship between social inequality and resultant educational inequality. 2. educational change for improving schools. 3. the criteria for identifying effective schools. the outcome of such research has led to many new policies and programs in latin america. to address fundamental social inequity leading to educational inequity, educators have developed new practices in subfields such as critical or liberatory pedagogy. some also use the term transformative pedagogy because emphasis is placed on changing the basic educational structure in order to most fully develop growth for the least advantaged students in a society. policymakers have responded to this reality by creating compensatory programs aimed specifically at students most at risk of failing due to historical, current, geographical, racial, linguistic or economic discrimination (torres, 2000). spurred by new technologies, social movements and economic realities, changes in conceptions of schooling began to emerge throughout the americas in the 60s and 70s. researchers began to study the idea of change. in education, some researchers began to apply the systems theory as it related to change in institutions. other educational researchers began exploring what made some schools operate more successfully than others (slavin, 1994). apparently, these researchers were not interested in the social issues surrounding schooling as such, but in the quality of the learning experience for those already in school. intense debate centered on the ways in which effectiveness could be identified and measured. student achievement was the best litmus test for the interaction of various factors and processes, thereby demonstrating whether a school was effective or not. being able to measure student achievement and compare it across schools, school systems and countries enabled educators and policy makers to make better decisions about where to place resources. this led to what is now known as the standards movement (ravitch, 1996). by the end of the 1970s most of the nations within latin america subscribed to unesco’s policy objectives which had been planned for the 3 decades that would usher mankind into the new millennium (reimers, 2000a): 1. universal access to the first 8 years of basic education; 2. reduction in illiteracy; 3. improvements in quality and efficiency in education systems. these policy priorities and programs, however, became seriously undermined by the economic crisis experienced by most latin american countries beginning in the mid-70s. united states trade deficits and education reform in latin america noel 139 continuing debt from the vietnam war created a situation that forced then us president richard nixon to take the economy off the gold standard. this action threw the worldwide financial community into confusion. for the remainder of the 70s and 80s, floating exchange rates affected the terms of existing loans. interest rates on those loans skyrocketed creating a type of debt crisis which had never before been experienced in world history. developing countries in latin america were particularly vulnerable because they had borrowed extensively in order to finance large infrastructure development projects and government programs. as debtor countries were increasingly unable to pay their loans, government and development projects slowed or ceased. unemployment grew as workers were laid off from such projects. with lower wages and income, many latin american countries were forced to devalue their currencies. foreign investments dropped as latin american countries showed signs of less political stability which caused economic depression to sink even further (quilligan, 2004). due to this crisis, latin american governments were forced to slash their education budgets by searching for cost-effective ways to maintain their priority programs. several education systems began exploring decentralization strategies both at national and local levels. their idea was to both reduce budgetary constraints and to increase efficiency (brunner, 2001). in the us, school-based management became popular. other systems began implementing pilot voucher systems. dialogue centered on administrative and financial efficiency (reimers, 2000a). throughout the americas, policymakers and educators began asking themselves what the best investment might be for their limited economic resources to yield the best results. the time period from 1980 to 1990 became known in latin america as the lost decade because education systems were forced to veer away from the policy priorities identified in the 70s (reimers, 2000a). policy priorities in north, central and south america then shifted from equality and equity to quality. in 1990, unesco held a world education conference in jomtien, thailand named education for all (unesco, 2004a). the purpose of the conference was to recommit member countries to the policies identified in the 70s. once more, expanding each countries’ citizens’ access to universal education became a central focus. two new priorities were also added, which were: developing economic opportunity and promoting equity in education systems. during the 1990’s, net enrolment in primary schools rose to over 90 percent for most countries in the hemisphere. in 1996 net enrolment in primary schools was 86 percent in the andean region, 91 percent in mercosur, 81 percent in central america, education reform in latin america noel 1�0 and well over 90 percent in the caribbean and north america. nevertheless, today the most vulnerable groups, such as street and migrant children, children with special needs, and indigenous children, still have difficulties enrolling in school. (oas, 2003, p. 5) in 1998, the presidents of the americas met in santiago, chile to discuss policy priorities. all agreed that education was the most important priority for the hemisphere. a specific focus of policy was identified to be alleviating poverty through the use of compensatory policies (reimers, 2000a). rosa maría torres, then programme director for latin america and the caribbean at unesco was commissioned by the kellogg foundation to perform a review of achievements in education reform over the decade of the 90s. her general findings included the following: 1. the reform movement was revitalized after the economic challenges had interrupted such initiatives in the 80s. 2. new sources of funding were identified. 3. new commitments were made to engender innovation and experimentation in new projects. 4. a greater focus was made on disadvantaged groups and issues related to them, including gender equity. 5. a new emphasis was placed on systematic data gathering and analysis regarding assessment and demographic statistics. however, the results were limited to the basic education level and fell short of the desired vision of reform at all levels (torres, 2000). in april of 2000, unesco held another world education forum in dakar, senegal (unesco, 2004c). the purpose was twofold: to report a 10-year evaluation of education for all; and to recommit to the program and further commit themselves to the following objectives as laid out in the dakar framework: (i) expanding and improving comprehensive early childhood care and education, especially for the most vulnerable and disadvantaged children; (ii) ensuring that by 2015 all children, particularly girls, children in difficult circumstances and those belonging to ethnic minorities, would have access to a completely free and compulsory primary education of good quality; (iii) ensuring that the learning needs of all young people and adults are met through equitable access to appropriate learning and life skills programs; education reform in latin america noel 1�1 (iv) achieving a 50% improvement in levels of adult literacy by 2015, especially for women, and equitable access to basic and continuing education for all adults; (v) eliminating gender disparities in primary and secondary education by 2005, and achieving gender equality in education by 2015, with a focus on ensuring girls’ full and equal access to and achievement in basic education of good quality; (vi) improving all aspects of the quality of education and ensuring excellence of all so that recognized and measurable learning outcomes are achieved by all, especially in literacy, numeracy and essential life skills. (unesco, 2004c) in general, the goals outlined above reflect the priorities of the last 50 years of public education in the americas. equality of access continues to be a salient topic for continuous monitoring especially at the level of adult literacy. equity of opportunity is now identified as an even more salient issue as gaps in the achievement of certain sectors of society continue to widen, especially concerning gender disparities. the standards movement is fully positioned to monitor progress toward those goals throughout all of the americas (ravitch, 1996). in november of 2001, unesco went a step further by pronouncing a universal declaration on cultural diversity, adopted by the general conference of unesco at its 31st session. this declaration was made to recognize the importance of mother-tongue instruction and culturally compatible practices in education. through this declaration, unesco and its member countries have committed themselves to the promotion of linguistic diversity and multiple cultural perspectives as a way of improving the quality of education. they believe that today’s education must respond to an increasingly interdependent global economy (unesco, 2004b). clearly, progress has been made in the americas in the development of public education systems. most countries throughout north, central and south america have achieved high levels of enrollment beginning in first grade (puryear, 1997). one might therefore, consider that the first goal for achieving educational opportunity has been reached. however, it is important to consider a broader definition of educational opportunity in order to understand what is really happening. what happens prior to reaching first grade and what happens after entering first grade is where a great deal of information regarding inequality in education begins to emerge. some say that equal access is sufficient, yet others argue that using equal results across a student body is a better measure of equal educational opportunity. since james coleman’s 1968 work the concept of equality of educational education reform in latin america noel 1�2 opportunity, educators have been debating widely the many ways to define and measure opportunity (howe, 2000). noted philosopher kenneth howe (2000, p. 36) states: the principle of equal educational opportunity can only be realized for cultural minorities by rendering educational opportunities worth wanting, and rendering educational opportunities worth wanting requires that minorities not be required to give up their identities in order to enjoy them. like howe, reimers (2000a) views educational opportunity as a continuum. access to one level of opportunity, such as accessibility to enrollment, opens the door to another level of opportunity that gives way to yet further successive opportunities. reimers’ framework of educational opportunity provides a means to describe the current educational situation in the latin american region as a whole. according to reimers, the central role of formal education is to structure experiences for learners in very deliberate ways which foster growth and development. such experiences are intertwined and dependent on each other in order to bring about the obtaining of a desired level of skill. as each skill level is reached, a new “stage of opportunity” opens (2000a). opportunities are built upon each other. reimers warns against being deterministic when he insists that the model should be viewed as a set of pathways which are probable. there should be room for exceptions in individual cases. as an aggregate, students present a certain appearance. individually, however, each one has both economic and family-related circumstances that may, over time, significantly alter the sequence and quality of opportunities for educational growth —either in a positive or a negative way. reimers’ model for educational opportunity delineates 5 stages. in the following section, each stage is described as i will offer a discussion of the general ways in which latin american countries fall within each stage. a model for educational opportunity stage description #1: enrollment the first level of opportunity begins the entire sequence. it involves the mechanisms needed to enroll children in school. some researchers term this as coverage or access to education. for a country to show that it has achieved this basic level of opportunity for its citizens, it needs to provide the following three conditions: a sufficient number of schools and classrooms with appropriate space to house students within an acceptable traveling distance between home and school; the parents must be willing to send their sons and daughters to a school that will keep the children education reform in latin america noel 1�3 safe; and students must be healthy enough to both attend school and to be able to concentrate on academic material. current status #1. in general, most latin american countries have achieved this 1st stage (preal, 2001). it has taken initiative and policy prioritizing to reach this level (oas, 2003). most researchers agree that enrollment has gone up steadily in the last few decades (brunner, 2001; duryea & székely, 1998; reimers, 2000a; saavedra-chanduví, 2002). the greatest increase in enrollment has been at the pre-school level, up from 2.4 percent in 1960 to 23 percent in the mid-1990s. this increase, however, reflects mostly trends of urban children from mid to higher income levels (schiefelbein, 1998). the enrollment in first grade for 7-year olds was identified in 1998 at a 95% level; however, children with special educational needs and those in very isolated areas are still underserved (schiefelbein, 1998). stage description #2: quality the second stage of opportunity requires that several factors be in place. children need to persevere in the educational process each semester in order to build upon their skills. they need to complete a minimum number of school days within an academic year to engage in a sufficient amount of learning experiences that will help support further achievement. children also need to come to school with sufficient pre-existing skills to be able to take advantage of formal schooling experiences. they need to stay sufficiently healthy to attend school regularly and engage fully in schooling. children need teachers who are well-prepared to teach them in appropriate and meaningful ways at levels children can understand. all this implies the need for quality in teacher-student interaction as well as the proper management of resources such as time, materials and infrastructure. this is the stage in which the great disparities in educational opportunity in latin america begin to emerge. political unrest, teacher absenteeism and low instructional quality are but a few examples that impede regular attendance and continuous enrollment. most children from poor families come to school without pre-school experience. they must learn new norms of behavior and the processes required by formal schooling at a later age. the first experiences in formal schooling vary widely in quality across various population sectors. current status #2: grade repetition. there exists a great variability in the quality of services (saavedra-chanduví, 2002) which often leads to great inequality in repetition and completion rates. in general, linguistic minority children and communities living in poverty experience substantially higher grade repetition rates in first grade as compared to their wealthier counterparts. at least 40% of students enrolled in the firsteducation reform in latin america noel 1�� grade repeat. this is a conservative estimate given that many students transfer to a new school to repeat and are not included in such counts (schiefelbein, 1998). most elementary students take 7 years to reach the fourth-grade because three grades are repeated (schiefelbein, 1998). literacy rates. illiteracy rates went from 34% in 1960 to 13% in 1995 (reimers, 2000a). clearly, this success in literacy has enabled the majority of latin americans to read, but only at a very basic level. practically anyone can sound out and otherwise decode the written word; however, many citizens still don’t understand what they read. a unesco test given to third and fourth graders throughout the region (including 13 countries) showed that 3 out of 4 children at the bottom half of the socio-economic strata did not understand what they read. public schools are producing a work force unable to comprehend written instructions, which limits its ability to adapt to technological change. this means that the performance levels attained by the future labor force will not enable it to contribute to national development. (schiefelbein, 1998) test results. brunner (2001) compared the results from the third international mathematics and science study (timms, 2001) across countries. the data suggested to him that the latin american region ranked below all the developed countries including the nations of southeast asia, central europe and the east. he concluded that at the turn of the new millennium, average schooling levels in latin america were comparable to that of: 1. hong kong, taiwan, korea and singapore in the 1970s 2. malaysia, philippines and thailand in the 1960s the task force on education, equity and economic competitiveness sponsored by the partnership for educational revitalization in the americas expressed similar concern (preal, 2001). most latin american countries don’t participate in international testing, making cross-country and cross-regional comparisons difficult. this nonparticipation affects funding and resource allocation. however the few countries that do participate tend to be the ones that are more advanced in their educational reforms compared to their counterparts. the task force found that scores on national and international exams from the late 1990s were alarmingly low. reviewing the results of the 1996 trends in international mathematics and science study (timss), colombia ranked 40 of 41. in 1999, chile finished 35 of 38. in region-wide tests administered by unesco (with less academic rigor than timss), cuba did much better with a smaller percentage of total government expenditures going to the education sector (schiefelbein, 1998). chile education reform in latin america noel 1�� and colombia, which scored poorly on worldwide tests, only performed at average levels on the timss test, suggesting that other countries (i.e. bolivia) would do poorly as well. these low results can be blamed on characteristics which are both internal and external to school systems (brunner, 2001). external factors would include: extreme poverty; weak implementation of reforms; government ministries still operating under old paradigms; and a low acceptance of innovation, research and development. internal factors include: the quality of teacher training, school governance, and expenditure on education systems. although it is improving, the teaching workforce is generally characterized by: low levels of training, low levels of professionalism, low pay, and poor incentives for innovation (preal, 2001; unesco, 1996). too much emphasis is placed on lecture and too little on differentiated and individualized instruction (oas, 2003; preal, 2001; schiefelbein, 1998). furthermore, there are low expectations for students in terms of content and skill levels. generally there is a low level of school autonomy and accountability. there are also limited resources compared to private schools which tend to spend 5 to 10 times the amount per student (brunner, 2001). spending has increased but public investment per pupil is low and is concentrated in the higher education sector. although the percentage of the gross national product (gnp) allotted to education by latin american countries is higher than some developing countries (4.6 vs. 3.9). a significantly larger percentage of the population in the region is school-aged, so more spending needs to be made to reach adequate levels. the region’s average percentages of the gnp are too low to narrow this gap. governments tend to under-invest in primary and secondary schools and put much more into funding the university level because of the greater political clout of universities, which receive students who are more highly represented in the elite sector of society (preal, 2001; schiefelbein, 1998). stage description #3staying in school the third stage of opportunity concerns the ability to complete grade cycles. in order for a student to progress from one grade to the next, the factors from the 2 prior levels of opportunity need to already be present. families and their children also need to see the value of continuing formal education as opposed to beginning to work for immediate economic needs. as students are made to repeat grade levels, they become more likely to drop out of formal schooling. families begin to lose faith in their children’s abilities to succeed in the educational system while, at the same time, the compounded pressure of economic needs are felt. education reform in latin america noel 1�� therefore, the following factors need to be present in order to increase the likelihood that students will move onward in the educational system: sufficient successful experiences to promote students to higher grade levels; a perceived justification for keeping children in school; and delaying employment in the light of greater future benefits. current status #3: average years of schooling. due to the fact that the latin american region is highly diverse with regard to the cultural, political and economic systems within each country, i will now give regional and national descriptions to provide an overall understanding of the context in which educational systems operate. the average level of education in a country or region is an important indicator of its human capital. currently, less than a third of the latin american workforce has completed the 12 years of schooling needed earn a decent standard of livable wage generally defined as the minimum amount needed to afford basic housing, nourishment and services (oas, 2003; preal, 2001). this average, however, is is not an accurate indicator of the specific situations occurring in particular countries because of varying levels of economic development. for example, in the 1990s, guatemala manifested that approximately half of its population of workers 25 years of age or older had no formal education at all; whereas countries such as barbados and argentina, when compared across equivalent measures, indicated an average educational level exceeding 7 years (lora, 1998). on the whole, the average levels of education for latin america still remain low compared to world patterns. in 1995, only four latin american countries had enrollments at secondary levels at or above 50% of the population: chile (55%), peru (53%), panama (51%) and colombia (50%) (bate, 2002; preal, 2001). the table below shows a breakdown of average years of schooling by several countries in the region. it is important to point out as well that the effects of new educational initiatives to increase the average number of years in school only appear on long-term perspectives, as cohorts of students are tracked throughout their schooling, allowing them to complete the system. a 1995 comparison of regional cohorts born between 1938-40 and those born in 1968-70 “shows that, on average only about three years of progress has been made in years of education– approximately one year per decade” (lora, 1998, p. 30). the report card on latin america (preal, 2001) succinctly compares the less than 1% annual growth in average schooling during the 1990s to that of 3% in the same time period for certain asian countries (korea, taiwan, singapore and hong kong). lodoño and székely (preal, 2001) tracked the average years of schooling for the latin american and asian regions and compared them to world averages between 1970 and 1995. by 1995, average years of schooling for asia, the world and latin america were approximately: 9.5, 7.3, and 5.4, respectively. education reform in latin america noel 1�� figure 2. approximate averages for years of schooling in latin american countries (only those with urban data, from 1995). source: lora, 1998. workers in latin america have fewer average years of education compared to counterparts in asia and many other parts of the world, and the gap is widening. average schooling for rural areas is much lower than the national which appear on the graph (lora, 1998). drop-out rates. during the 1990s, using data supplied by some latin american countries in the region, only 50% of those who began first grade finished elementary school (schiefelbein, 1998). others (bate, 2002; preal, 2001) have found that even though nearly all children begin first grade, by the fourth grade only 60% are still in school. in many countries, between a quarter to half of all students never make it to fifth grade (preal, 2001). in the dominican republic, el salvador and colombia a quarter or more of the children who enroll in first grade fail to make it to second grade. by the ninth grade, only 15% of the poorest students remain as compared to private schools showing that by the ninth year 58% remain (lora, 1998). this low retention rate is especially true of indigenous students from low-income backgrounds (brunner, 2001). graduation rates. graduation from high school, as one would suppose, remains a great challenge in latin america. in 1998, of those students that moved on to secondary schools, only half of the chilean students and only a third of the mexican students graduated (preal, 2001). alternatively, privately schooled children spend twice as many years in school as those in public schools. by the time publicly and privately-schooled citizens graduate and then reach retirement age, university graduates may earn 10 times more than their unschooled counterparts (lora, 1998). this means that the earning gap exacerbates education reform in latin america noel 1�8 between high school drop-outs and graduates across the span of years when workers earn income. equity and compensatory education. even as enrollment has increased significantly, the quality of services remains poor across the board, those who feel the compounded effects of the weaknesses in the system are: low income families; those living in rural areas; girls; indigenous communities; and certain racial and ethnic groups. generally, low-income students attend low-quality public schools that hold only 3 to 4 hours of class daily. alternatively, students from mid to upper income levels tend to go to private schools that offer 5 to 6 hours of instruction daily and therefore show significantly higher achievement (preal, 2001). furthermore, the percentage of people living below the average poverty line has increased in the 1990s to 36% (information from 1997). this reflects the lives of 204 million people and does not account for the millions more that hover just above the poverty line (reimers, 2000a). a large percentage of the poor are made up of indigenous people. table 1, below, shows the poverty rates for indigenous poor in three countries. table 1. poverty rates for indigenous poor in three latin american countries. source: psacharopoulos & patrinos, as cited in reimers, 2000a. in countries that are predominantly indigenous, such as bolivia and guatemala, equity of education is particularly problematic. the gap in average years of schooling between indigenous and non-indigenous adults (between 1997-1999) in the following four countries is: brazil2.5 years, guatemala3 years, peru3.5 years, and bolivia5 years (preal, 2001). in fact, “…native speakers of indigenous languages are far more likely to repeat, drop out, and (sic) work as children and have much lower achievement than native spanish speakers” (winkler in reimers, 2000a, p. 40). in bolivia, the average number of years of schooling for indigenous monolingual children is 0.4 compared to spanish-speaking indigenous students at 6.5 and non-indigenous students at 9.7 (reimers, 2000b). indigenous girls tend to get notably fewer years of education compared to the boys in their communities (schiefelbein, 1998). however, nonindigenous girls are just as likely to attend and complete their school careers as the boys in their communities (preal, 2001). rural communities versus urban communities also show lower attendance and achievement rates. “in almost every country for which education reform in latin america noel 1�9 data are available, living in rural areas compounds education inequalities” (preal, 2001, p. 9). for example, in nicaragua, data from 1999 shows secondary enrollment rates between urban and rural students to be 77.5 and 36.7%, respectively. jamaica showed the most even distribution at 75.1% urban and 69.7% for rural enrollment (preal, 2001). in latin america, therefore, living in a rural area may be equated with undereducation and a higher chance of having insufficient means to cover basic needs. stage description #4benefits of being schooled the fourth stage depends on the prior 3 stages and is therefore successively more difficult to attain. at this stage, families and the broader society can evaluate whether the investment in formal schooling has truly added value to student human capital. do they indeed possess the necessary skills on a level which is sufficient for functioning well in society as well as for earning a wage which will supply their needs? once completing the full curriculum, graduates also need to know that their collection of skills and knowledge is, in fact, comparable to that of graduates across similar communities. they need to be able to compete on a level field. this level of opportunity requires the following factors: 1. added value for the investment of time and effort. 2. skills and knowledge that allow graduates to compete equally with others. current status #4. do the educational systems in latin america serve their citizens in a way that allows them to improve their economic circumstances? it is generally agreed that present systems not only help maintain historic inequalities but are now further intensifying them (lora, 1998, p. 31; preal, 2001; reimers, 2000b). the “wealthiest 10% of 25-year-olds have 5 to 8 more years of schooling than the poorest 30%” (preal, 2001, p. 8). of all regions in the world, the region with the greatest income gap is found in latin america. although many variables affect income inequality, it is apparent that having more years of education generally translates to higher levels of income. in fact, education as a predictive variable is more significant than “globalization and the introduction of labor-saving technologies” which have affected developing countries throughout the globe. such disparities are more evident in latin america and the gap is widening more swiftly than in the rest of the world (lora, 1998). education reform in latin america noel 1�0 stage description #5 the fifth stage of opportunity focuses on the expansion of future life opportunities. once a graduate has an education that is equivalent to that of the majority of other graduates, will he or she receive an equal share of societal benefits? this level of educational opportunity helps answer the question: were the years invested in education worthwhile? how does this return on investment vary across traits such as gender, race, ethnicity, location, age, years of experience and occupation? if responses are to be affirmative at the present stage in history, the following elements need to be in place: 1. education systems need to foster in their graduates nondiscriminatory attitudes that value diversity. 2. education systems need to help students develop competencies and skills that facilitate collective organization and political effectiveness in order to transform existing structures that currently limit social and economic opportunities in life. current status #5. regional characterizations need to be qualified once again with the observation that the countries within latin america are highly diverse both within each country in particular and across the region. there are, however, some patterns across the region that can be observed. developmental resources have fallen far short of improving social equity. such equity is critical for sustained development (birdsall & jaspersen, 1997). social inequalities largely arise from limited and low-quality education leading to substantial differences in the ability to earn income. therefore, it is important to examine how well educational systems are facilitating the ability for students to work their way out of poverty. generally, in latin america, finishing primary school means one will earn 50% more than someone who has never gone to school. someone who graduates from high school will earn 120% more. the few that are able to obtain an undergraduate degree will earn 200% more than an unschooled counterpart (lora, 1998). is such a dramatic earning potential made possible through schooling? those who obtain greater levels of formal schooling have more choices in terms of employment because they have more social and technical skills to offer in the marketplace, all other variables being held constant. they also tend to take better care of their health (through eating habits and exercise). this may allow them to seek better support for their families and even limit the number of children they have in order to distribute resources in efficient ways. in effect, a higher level of education can produce a chain reaction of wellbeing at all levels of an individual’s life. as such, effects are experienced education reform in latin america noel 1�1 on community levels and greater numbers of citizens should be able to organize themselves and to participate in the positive change that is taking place on a political and economic level. resource distribution. a tool used to study income inequality is the gini coefficient which is a measure of how evenly resources are distributed across a country’s population. the more evenly income levels are distributed within a country, the closer this coefficient is to zero. conversely, the more inequitably such a resource is distributed, the closer this coefficient is to 1 (reimers, 2000b). countries such as namibia and brazil tend to be more inequitable in their distribution of wealth. this means that a small percentage of the population owns much of the wealth in the country and a large percentage of the population has much lower income. other countries, such as denmark, have wealth more evenly distributed throughout their population. interestingly, the latin american countries that have more evenly distributed education also tend to have more evenly distributed incomes. the graphs below demonstrate this fact. figure 3. gini coefficients by country in latin america, including the coefficients for distribution in education and income. note: inequality is greater as the value approximates the value of 1. source: reimers, 2000b. education reform in latin america noel 1�2 figure 4. distribution rankings by country. countries with the most equitable distribution for education are ranked first. countries with the highest inequality in education are ranked last. source:(reimers, 2000b). although it is beyond the scope of this discussion to analyze in fine detail the influences of income and educational distribution in each country, these general observations allow the reader to get a basic picture of both the patterns and the variability of the region. there are patterns of educational and resulting income inequality in latin america, and these patterns become more intensified or alleviated due to certain variables that seem to be moving in the same direction across the region’s countries. some of these variables are: gender, localization (urban/rural), occupation and years of experience. women still earn less than men. workers in rural localities earn less than those living in urban areas. occupations requiring less formal training pay less than those requiring more formal training. a concrete example is that those working in the agricultural sector will have significantly lower income than those working in the financial sector. once workers gain a certain educational level, it can be predicted that they will earn more money over time with years of work experience. the more highly educated a worker is, the higher the compensation levels become over time and at an accelerating rate. in effect, the education level of an individual has a multiplicative effect so that, if all other variables are held constant, income growth becomes exponential. for example, lora (1998, p. 33) found that in brazil, at 40 years of age, the income difference will be six to one, and at 55 years of age it will exceed 10 to one. brazil has the largest income differences attributable to educational level and age. however, latin america’s average age profiles show that, at 25 education reform in latin america noel 1�3 years of age, income differences attributable to education are in the range of five to one, while at 55 years of age they are eight to one (for workers with 17 years of education compared with uneducated workers). the rate at which one’s education level grows or slows down as a multiplier is tempered by the level of education in society at large. societies where most of the citizens are well educated will experience a lower multiplicative rate. societies where most of the citizens maintain a lower average level of education will experience a larger multiplicative rate. in this sense, the role of education is to compound inequality in income distribution (as this relates to the level of a society’s economic development). conclusions reimers’ framework using the 5 levels of equal educational opportunity was used to summarize information regarding the status of education in the latin american region until the late 1990s. this was done to give a broad overview to those new to the topic of education in the region. the reader has been made aware of the many both external and internal issues affecting millions of schoolchildren and their families today. as practitioners, policymakers and researchers work in this area to implement or further expand educational reform programs, it will be important to understand the historical setting in which these efforts take place in order to more accurately and effectively place resources where they will yield the best results. reimers’ model of equal educational opportunity provides a useful way to make sense of the many issues inherent in educational reform initiatives. it shows the ways that historical societal inequities continue to exert a powerful influence despite the best efforts and good intentions of national policymakers, international initiatives and funding agencies. yet it also helps illuminate the issue of where more resources can be placed to yield a greater effect throughout the educational systems. the general understanding one can come away with regarding equal educational opportunity in latin america is that although substantial effort and resources have been invested, historic inequalities persist throughout all levels of reimers’ chain of equal educational opportunity: 1. stage 1enrollment has greatly increased at primary levels with higher representation in both urban areas and mid to upper-income families. education reform in latin america noel 1�� 2. stage 2there is great variability in the quality of services provided to students. in general, children living within any combination of the factors of poverty, linguistic or ethnic minority status, or location in a rural area, tend to have significantly higher grade repetition rates and lower functional literacy. 3. stage 3as a region, less than a third of all students graduate from school. moreover, the average latin american has significantly less years of schooling compared to asians and citizens in many other countries. 4. stage 4the total years of education one earns in latin america has a much greater effect on total earning power over the long run compared to more highly developed countries where the effect of education is less powerful. in latin america, workers with higher total years of education mostly come from higher income communities and have done their schooling privately. 5. stage 5the benefits of staying in school expand beyond the personal level while they intensify their effect at the societal level. lower levels of schooling within each country continue to stratify citizens socio-economically. the gaps are widening. much remains to be done to close the divide between rich and poor, mainstream and indigenous, rural and urban citizens. if action is not taken swiftly, not only will immense human capital be under-served and under-utilized but the effects of a highly technological global economy will exacerbate inequality both within particular countries and across the latin american region. the quality of the teaching force needs to be raised and well compensated to provide incentives for a high-quality instruction which will be relevant and accessible to students of widely varying backgrounds. valid instruments of measuring the quality of services need to be expanded in order to provide more systematic information upon which administrators may make decisions. by raising the quality of instruction, we trust that more students will stay in school to close the gap between enrollments in primary versus secondary school. equitable and compensatory programs need to be expanded to reach the most disenfranchised sectors of latin american communities not only to promote quality of life but to raise the level of economic prosperity for entire communities. as educational levels become more evenly dispersed so will income— which, in turn, provides opportunities for all. education reform in latin america noel 1�� references bate, p. (2002). the gordian knot. retrieved april 25, 2004 from www.iadb.orf/odbamerica/archive/stories/1998/eng/e1198e4.htm birdsall, n. & jasperson, f., eds. (1997). pathways to growth: comparing east asia and latin america. washington, d.c: interamerican development bank. brunner, j. (2001). educación en america latina, avances y rezagos [education in latin america, steps forward and steps still to come]. el mostrador, p. 5. cremin, l. a. (1957). the republic and the school: horace mann on the education of free men. new york: teachers college. duryea, s., & székely, m. (1998). labor markets in latin america: a supply-side story. retrieved may 28, 2004 from http://www.iadb. org/res/index.cfm?fuseaction=publications.view&pub_id=wp-374 howe, k. (2000). philosophical perspectives on multicultural education. in j. noel (ed.), notable selections in multicultural education (pp. 31-37). guilford, connecticut: dushkin/mcgrawhill. lora, e. (1998). labor income inequality and education, in facing up to inequality in latin america (pp. 20). washington, dc: johns hopkins university press. moure, o. (2001). musical and poetical character of our people. retrieved april 30, 2004 from http://www.ompersonal.com.ar/ shortstories/facundo.htm noel, j. (2000). notable selections in multicultural education. guilford, connecticut: dushkin/mcgraw-hill. organization of american states (2003). educational panorama 2005: progressing toward the goals conclusions of the report. scarborough, republic of trinidad and tobago: oas. partnership for educational revitalization of the americas (2001). lagging behind: a report card on education in latin america. washington, dc: preal. puryear, j. (1997). education in latin america: problems and challenges (no. 7). washington, dc: the inter-american dialogue. quilligan, j. b. (2004). the bandt equation: 21st century blueprint for the new global economy. retrieved may 3, 2004 from http://www. brandt21forum.info/2afirstcrisis.htm education reform in latin america noel 1�� ravitch, d. (1996). national standards in education (paper no. 4): interamerican dialogue. reimers, f. (2000a). educational opportunity and policy in latin america. in f. reimers (ed.), unequal schools, unequal chances: the challenges to equal opportunity in the americas. cambridge, massachusetts: harvard university, 54-111. reimers, f. (2000b). what can we learn about studying educational opportunity in the americas and why should we care? in f. reimers (ed.), unequal schools, unequal chances: the challenges to equal opportunity in the americas, 2-23. cambridge, massachusetts: harvard university. saavedra-chanduví, j. (2002). some research questions: poverty and labor markets in latin america. retrieved may 28, 2004 from http://www.iadb.org/res/index.cfm?fuseaction=publications. view&pub_id=p-125 schiefelbein, e. (1998). education in the americas: quality and equity in the globalization process. washington dc: organization of american states. slavin, r. (1994). effective classrooms, effective schools: a research base for reform in latin american education, in j. puryear (ed.), education, equity and economic competitiveness in the americas: an inter-american dialogue project (vol. 1). washington, dc: oas. spinak, s. (1977). maestros de america. [teachers in america] revista punto 21, 3(2), 1. timms (2000). trends in international math and science study. retrieved april 30, 2004 from http://nces.ed.gov/timss/results. asp torres, r.m. (2000). one decade of “education for all”: the challenge ahead. retrieved april 13, 2004 from http://www.iipebuenosaires.org.ar/pdfs/educacion.pdf united nations. (1948). universal declaration of human rights. retrieved may 21, 2004 from http://www.un.org/overview/rights. html united nations educational scientific and cultural organization. (1996). strengthening the role of teaches in a changing world: issues, prospects and priorities. geneva: unesco. education reform in latin america noel 1�� united nations educational scientific and cultural organization. (2004a). retrieved may 21, 2004 from http://portal.unesco. org/en/ev.php-url_id=14606&url_do=do_topic&url_ section=201.html united nations educational scientific and cultural organization. (2004b). cultural and linguistic diversity in education. retrieved may 21, 2004 from http://portal.unesco.org/education/en/ ev.phpurl_id=12871&url_do=do_topic&url_ section=201.html united nations educational scientific and cultural organization (2004c). dakar framework for action. retrieved may 21, 2004 from http://www.unesco.org/education/efa/ed_for_all/framework. shtml united nations educational scientific and cultural organization (2004d). right to education. retrieved may 21, 2004 from http:// portal.unesco.org/education/en/ev.phpurl_id=12222&url_ do=do_topic&url_section=201.html barbara noel is a ph.d. graduate in education from george mason university, virginia. she graduated with a special focus in literacy and second language acquisition in multicultural settings. she is currently the dean of academic affairs at única (institución universitaria colombo americana) where she also teaches courses in research and bilingual pedagogy. she also serves as adjunct professor for the university of alabama and george mason university. she has conducted international consultancies in central american countries. previously she had been a federal grant project manager for an esol teacher preparation grant and was an esl and spanish immersion teacher for fairfax county public schools in virginia. contact information: bnoel@unica.edu.co education reform in latin america noel gist ii semestre 2016-9.indd 56 lexical competence and reading comprehension: a pilot study with heritage language learners of spanish1 competencia léxica y comprensión de lectura: un estudio piloto con estudiantes de español como lengua de herencia edna velásquez2* university of houston, usa abstract the basic questions that guide this study are: (a) what percentage of vocabulary from a passage would a spanish learner need to know to demonstrate ‘adequate’ (a score of 70 out of 100) comprehension of it? and, (b) what type of curve would best describe the relationship between vocabulary knowledge and reading comprehension? fifty-three students enrolled in two courses of spanish as a heritage language (shl) at a metropolitan university read a newspaper article, underlined the unknown vocabulary and then answered a reading comprehension test. our findings suggest, as in previous studies for english as a second language (esl), that a 98% of vocabulary coverage is needed to show adequate comprehension of an authentic passage. the curve that best describes this relationship was not linear as they concluded but was similar to a logarithmic function, which appears to suggest a relationship that obeys to a law of diminishing returns for spanish as a second language (ssl) reading. keywords: lexical competence, reading comprehension, spanish as a heritage language 1 received: may 26, 2016 / accepted: september 15, 2016 2 evvelasquez@uh.edu gist education and learning research journal. issn 1692-5777. no.13. (july december) 2016. pp. 56-74. velásquez no. 13 (july december 2016) no. 13 (july december 2016) 57 resumen los dos interrogantes básicos que se abordan en este estudio son a) ¿qué porcentaje de vocabulario de un pasaje debe conocer un estudiante de español para demostrar una comprensión ‘adecuada’ (un puntaje de 70 sobre 100)? y b) ¿qué tipo de curva es la que mejor describe la relación entre vocabulario conocido y comprensión de lectura? cincuenta y tres estudiantes matriculados en dos cursos de español como lengua de herencia en una universidad metropolitana leyeron un artículo periodístico, subrayaron el vocabulario desconocido y luego respondieron un cuestionario de comprensión de lectura. nuestros resultados coinciden con los de algunos estudios previos para el inglés como segunda lengua, en donde se concluye que se necesita un 98% de cobertura de vocabulario para demostrar una comprensión adecuada de un pasaje auténtico. la curva que mejor describe esta relación resultó no ser lineal como en estudios previos, sino similar a una función logarítmica, lo que sugiere una relación que obedece a una ley de rendimientos decrecientes para la lectura en español como segunda lengua. palabras claves: competencia léxica, comprensión de lectura, español como lengua de herencia resumo os dois interrogantes básicos que se abordam neste estudo são: a) que porcentagem de vocabulário de uma passagem um estudante de espanhol deve conhecer para demonstrar uma compreensão ‘adequada’ (uma pontuação de 70 sobre 100)? e b) que tipo de curva é a que melhor descreve a relação entre vocabulário conhecido e compreensão de leitura? cinquenta e três estudantes matriculados em dois cursos de espanhol como língua de herança em uma universidade metropolitana leram um artigo jornalístico, sublinharam o vocabulário desconhecido e depois responderam um questionário de compreensão de leitura. nossos resultados coincidem com os de alguns estudos prévios para o inglês como segunda língua, onde se conclui que se necessita um 98% de cobertura de vocabulário para demonstrar uma compreensão adequada de uma passagem autêntica. a curva que melhor descreve esta relação resultou não ser lineal como em estudos prévios, senão similar a uma função logarítmica, o que sugere uma relação que obedece a uma lei de rendimentos decrescentes para a leitura em espanhol como segunda língua. palavras chaves: competência léxica, compreensão de leitura, espanhol como língua de herança velásquez no. 13 (july december 2016) no. 13 (july december 2016) 58 introduction after several years of playing a secondary role in language teaching, vocabulary has recently gained prominence. this is in part due to the development of new language teaching approaches that grant it an important role in the process of second language acquisition and teaching. applied linguists are now paying more attention to the study of vocabulary acquisition, the way learners store and retrieve words, and the pedagogical implications arising from these findings. several research studies (lafford, collentine & karp, 2003; mochida & harrington, 2006; and read, 2000, among others) have found high correlations between vocabulary knowledge and other linguistic skills. while kelly (1991) and mecartty (2000) established a positive relationship between lexical competence and the development of listening skills, hawas (1990), koda (1989), laufer (1992) and meccartty (2000) found similar results for reading comprehension. in particular, these studies about the relationship between lexical knowledge and reading comprehension have been done primarily for english as a first and second language. in addition, similar studies have been conducted for the case of english as a foreign language (efl) in several countries. some of these studies have been replicated for other languages, but there are still very few studies focusing on spanish. scholars in the field of heritage languages (hl) have begun to explore the lexical competence of their speakers and its impact on the process of language (re)acquisition and teaching. for example, polinsky and kagan (2007) found high correlations between lexical proficiency and grammar knowledge for different heritage languages (russian, polish, armenian, korean, lithuanian and spanish). fairclough (2013) designed a lexical recognition test containing words from a frequency dictionary of spanish: core vocabulary for learners (davies, 2006). her aim was to measure the vocabulary size of heritage language learners of spanish in the usa. she concluded that receptive learners (those who understand spanish but have limited oral skills or are unable to speak it) recognize around 60% (approximately 3000 items) of the 5000 most frequent words in spanish, and that intermediate students recognize around 90% (about 4500 words from the 5000 most frequent). she then indicates that to be able to succeed in intermediate level classes designed for these learners, where an extensive reading of authentic material as well as writing is required, receptive learners would need to increase their lexical repertoire. since no empirical studies were found regarding the relationship between reading comprehension and lexical competence for heritage lexical competence and reading comprehension velásquez no. 13 (july december 2016) no. 13 (july december 2016) 59 language learners (hll) of spanish, this work aims to contribute by beginning a discussion on this matter. moreover, it will address the question of the existence of a lexical threshold, namely, the possible existence of an approximate percentage of words that students should know in order to understand an authentic reading passage. literature review bravo (2011) notes that one of the first appearances of the concept of lexical competence can be found in richards (1976). this researcher does not use the expression lexical competence but instead refers to knowing a word. the basic premises of his proposal are listed below: 1. vocabulary knowledge of native speakers continues to expand in adult life, in contrast to the relative stability of their grammatical competence. 2. knowing a word means knowing the degree of probability of encountering that word in speech or print. for many words, we also know the sort of words most likely to be found to be associated with the word. 3. knowing a word implies knowing the limitations on the use of the word according to variations of function and situation. 4. knowing a word means knowing the syntactic behavior associated with the word. 5. knowing a word entails knowledge of the underlying form of a word and the derivations that can be made from it. 6. knowing a word entails knowledge of the network of associations between that word and other words in the language. 7. knowing a word means knowing the semantic value of the word. 8. knowing a word means knowing many of the different meanings associated with a word. (richards, 1976, p. 83) as noted by lópez-mezquita (2007), richards’ proposal is the starting point of a significant number of studies with different research approaches and has served as a framework for further studies on lexical competence. the most recognized and used taxonomy that compiles and further elaborates on richard’s components is nation’s (2001). for lexical competence and reading comprehension velásquez no. 13 (july december 2016) no. 13 (july december 2016) 60 nation, knowing a word means being able to account for components shown in table 1 below. table 1. nation’s taxonomy of the components involved in knowing a word form spoken what does the word sound like? how is the word pronounced? written what does the word look like? how is the word written and spelled? word parts what parts are recognizable in this word? what word parts are needed to express the meaning? meaning form and meaning what meaning does this word form signal? what word form can be used to express the meaning? concept and what is included in the concept? referents what items can the concept refer to? associations what other words does this make us think of? what other words could we use instead of this one? use grammatical functions in what patterns does the word occur? in what patterns must we use this word? collocations what words or types of words occur with this one? what words or types of words must we use with this one? constraints on use where, when, and how often would we expect to meet this word? (register, where, when, and how often can we use frequency …) this word? (nation, 2001, p. 27) lexical competence and reading comprehension velásquez no. 13 (july december 2016) no. 13 (july december 2016) 61 the inclusion of the spoken form (pronunciation) and collocations stands out in this new model. in addition, nation distinguishes between receptive and productive vocabulary, recognizing that productive skills require higher levels of knowledge than receptive skills. two other dimensions that have been traditionally studied as part of lexical competence are vocabulary size and depth. to refer to vocabulary size (the amount of known vocabulary) some authors use the term breadth, while for referring to the quality of vocabulary knowledge (the depth of knowledge of words), the term used is depth. qian (1999) points out the lack of empirical studies that document the relationship between breadth and depth of vocabulary in reading comprehension. in a study with college students, he explored the role of breadth and depth of vocabulary in reading comprehension. he concludes that for esl students knowing a minimum of 3000 word families, there is a high correlation between the scores in a reading comprehension test and those in two vocabulary tests (one testing breadth and the other testing depth). bravo (2011) confirms the results obtained by qian for efl students. the author measured the vocabulary size of thirty-three university students at a chilean university by using the vocabulary levels tests. she also determined the depth of knowledge of this same vocabulary by using the word associates test. in addition, she assessed the students’ level of reading comprehension using the reading comprehension section of the test of english as a foreign language (toefl). this researcher concluded that the two dimensions – breadth and depth of knowledge of vocabulary– are strongly related to reading comprehension. however, the author observed that the two factors do not predict reading comprehension with the same certainty. the strongest and most significant relationship that she found was between breadth and reading comprehension at the 3000 word level and academic vocabulary. both bravo and qian, among other linguists, also recognize that effective reading comprehension is not only the product of a high lexical competence (vocabulary size and depth). for them, reading is a complex process that requires many more skills besides lexical competence. in other words, for effective reading comprehension to take place, several factors play an important role. among these factors, we can mention the following: a) grammar knowledge, b) previous cultural as well as topic knowledge, c) the effective use of reading strategies such as inference of meanings, d) personal skills to process information, e) personal motivation, and also f) the reader’s ability to engage with the text, among others. however, while these factors are all very important lexical competence and reading comprehension velásquez no. 13 (july december 2016) no. 13 (july december 2016) 62 in determining comprehension, it is the understanding of vocabulary that has shown to have the greatest impact, as discussed below. as cited in cartaya (2011), the relationship between reading comprehension and lexical competence had already been demonstrated for l1 reading by the eighties (anderson & freebody 1981; stanovich 1986; sternberg 1987). for l2 spanish, mecartty (2000) examined the relationship between grammatical and lexical knowledge in reading and auditory tasks with college students. he found that both grammatical and lexical knowledge correlated significantly with reading, but only lexical knowledge accounted for both the variation in reading comprehension and listening comprehension. koda (2005) presents evidence to support the idea of a bidirectional nature of this relationship according to which vocabulary knowledge and reading comprehension are “functionally interdependent.” the author states that both vocabulary comprehension and reading comprehension feed each other. that is to say, a reasonable amount of vocabulary contributes to being a good reader, and being a good reader is a key factor to acquiring more vocabulary. readers learn vocabulary through reading and consequently increase their vocabulary by improving their reading skills. laufer (1997) concludes that the greatest obstacle that the reader faces to comprehend a text is the lack of vocabulary. she then suggests that the starting point for increasing comprehension would be to guarantee that students acquire a lexical competence that prevents interpretation errors and leads to successful inferences from the context. the reader should recognize enough sight words in order to gain a lexical competence that helps to overcome the obstacles that impede reading comprehension. the question then arises: how much vocabulary does a second language reader need to know in order to evade the obstacles that arise in reading comprehension? in other words, what is the minimum amount of words l2 learners must have to be able to infer meaning and have a better understanding of a reading passage? laufer (1989, 1992, and 1997), as well as nation (1990, 2001 and, 2006), have agreed on postulating the existence of such a threshold in what is known as the lexical threshold hypothesis. according to this hypothesis, there is a minimum amount of vocabulary that l2 learners need to possess in order to reach acceptable reading comprehension. the first attempt to answer the question about the lexical threshold was laufer (1989). the author investigated how much vocabulary l2 lexical competence and reading comprehension velásquez no. 13 (july december 2016) no. 13 (july december 2016) 63 english students from the university of haifa needed to know to obtain a minimum score of 55% in a reading comprehension task. the score of 55% was the passing score required at the university of haifa. this researcher asked the participants to underline the unknown words from a reading passage and then she adjusted the results with a translation test. from the experiment, she concluded that the amount of vocabulary necessary to understand a text was 95% after this initial attempt, there were and still are many others that seek to confirm this finding. nevertheless, this still remains the most cited study and the frame of reference in the search for the lexical threshold in reading comprehension. however, the methodology used in this study was highly criticized, and even more controversial was the criterion of 55 % used for proper reading comprehension. years later, hu and nation (2000) compared the effect of 80%, 90%, 95% and 100% text coverage on reading comprehension of fictional texts among college esl learners. they concluded that none of the participants reached comprehension at 80% coverage and only a few students at 90% coverage reached an acceptable comprehension. some of the participants comprehended at 95% coverage, but most did not. according to these findings, the minimum lexical coverage that is necessary for an adequate comprehension of a fictional text is above 80%. furthermore, since coverage of 95% guarantees between 35% and 41% of comprehension for only some students, they conclude that a lexical coverage between 98% and 99% is necessary to achieve an adequate comprehension of a text. more recently, schmitt, jiang, and grabe (2011), in their study with esl students at different universities around the world, seeks to determine the nature of the relationship between the percentage of known words in an academic text and comprehension of said text. a total of 661 intermediate esl students from eight different countries were given a lexical recognition test with words from two reading passages, and they were later asked to answer a reading comprehension test about the passages. the results of this study confirm hu and nation’s (2000) assertion that 98% of lexical coverage is needed to achieve a satisfactory comprehension of reading texts. the authors of this study also show that the nature of the relationship between the percentage of lexical coverage and the percentage of reading comprehension is linear. it means that the more words the student knows, the more comprehension is achieved at proportional increments. to these empirical studies on the relationship between vocabulary and reading comprehension we can add the contribution of davies (2005) lexical competence and reading comprehension velásquez no. 13 (july december 2016) no. 13 (july december 2016) 64 for spanish as a second language. the objective of his investigation was to determine the relationship between vocabulary range and text coverage for spanish as a second language. the author concludes that with a limited vocabulary of 1000 frequent words, a learner of spanish as a second language is capable of recognizing between 75% and 80% of all words in a written text in fiction, or non-fiction and around 88% of all the words in oral discourse. he also finds that after the 1000 word threshold, increasing vocabulary does not augment comprehension significantly. with double the amount of words (2000), the lexical coverage only increases between 5% and 8%. accordingly, with a vocabulary of 3000 words, lexical coverage increases only between 2% and 4%. this is explained in table 2. the author concludes that a “law of diminishing returns” is visible here – learning additional vocabulary after the first 1000 words does not necessarily imply a proportional increase in lexical coverage. table 2. percent coverage by groups of words according to davies (2005) fiction non fiction oral 1st thousand words 76.0 79.6 87.8 2nd thousand words 8.0 6.5 4.9 3rd thousand words 4.2 3.5 2.3 first 3000 words 88.2 89.6 94.0 it can be seen from table 2 that, with a vocabulary of 3000 words, a student of spanish as a second language would be able to understand between 80 and 90 percent of any written text and 94% of a typical native speakers’ conversation. these percentages are lower than the ones found for esl by laufer (1989) and hu and nation (2000). davies does not explicitly state it, nor is it the aim of his work, to describe the nature of the curve that best accounts for the relationship between known vocabulary and reading comprehension. however, from his findings, it can easily be inferred that if a law of diminishing returns is in effect, the type of curve that best describe this relationship would be a function of the type seen in figure 1 and not a straight line like that of figure 2, as schmitt et al. (2011) concluded. lexical competence and reading comprehension velásquez no. 13 (july december 2016) no. 13 (july december 2016) 65 figure 1. relation between lexical competence and reading comprehension (davies, 2005). figure 2. relation between lexical competence and reading comprehension (schmitt et al., 2011) indeed, for the latter, there is a proportional relationship between the amount of words known and reading comprehension, which means that comprehension increases proportionally with the amount of known vocabulary. davies, on the other hand, asserts that knowing a larger number of words does not necessarily increase reading comprehension proportionally, given that the increments are progressively smaller with each gain in word knowledge. the best graph to illustrate this assertion is that of figure 1. the studies discussed so far are some of the most representative exploring the relationship between lexical competence and reading comprehension and some of the most cited studies for english and spanish l2. research on the same topic in spanish as a heritage language (shl) was found to be quite scarce, in part because this is a relatively recent field of study. as kondo-brown (2010) notes, there are no studies related to vocabulary and reading comprehension for shl, except rodrigo, mcquillan and krashen (1996), a quasi-experimental study that examined the effect of free reading in the academic vocabulary learning of these students. the authors concluded that free reading is beneficial for heritage speakers as it contributes to the acquisition of vocabulary and improves the students’ academic repertoire. methodology research design in order to acquire information on the relationship between lexical competence and comprehension of authentic texts for heritage language learners of spanish (hlls), a pilot study was conducted with two intermediate groups at a major urban university in the southwest of usa. the basic questions that guided this study were: (a) what percentage of words from an authentic passage would an lexical competence and reading comprehension velásquez no. 13 (july december 2016) no. 13 (july december 2016) 66 hlls need to know to demonstrate ‘adequate’ (a score of 70 out of 100) comprehension of it? and, (b) what type of curve (logarithmic --davies, 2005-or linear --schmitt, jiang & grabe 2011) would best describe the relationship between vocabulary knowledge and reading comprehension? it is worth noting that 70% was chosen to be the cut point for ‘adequate’ comprehension to reflect what most usa higher education institutions consider to be a passing grade. participants the participants in this study were 53 (34 female and 19 male) students enrolled in two intermediate level shl courses at the abovementioned university. they were placed at this level after taking the institutional placement test for heritage spanish learners. data collection instruments the two instruments utilized for this study were a reading passage and a reading comprehension questionnaire designed and piloted by the author. the passage, el clima enloquecido, was an authentic newspaper article about climate change, containing 441 words. the questionnaire contained 10 multiple-choice comprehension questions, each with four choices. the format chosen was that of a multiple-choice test which is widely used to test not only general knowledge but also reading comprehension. schmitt et al (2011) refer to this format as “a standard in the field of reading research” (p. 32). multiple choice tests have the advantage of being very practical to grade and they are very objective. furthermore if, as suggested by nation (2009), “4 choices are given, the learners have only a 25 percent chance of guessing correctly.” (p. 32) all of the questions asked students to draw inferences from the text which according to nation: …involves taking messages from the text that are not explicitly stated but which could be justified by reference to the text. this can involve working out the main idea of the text, looking at the organization of the text, determining the writer’s attitude to the topic, interpreting characters, and working out cause and effect and other conjunction relationships which might not be explicitly stated. (nation, 2009, p. 34) lexical competence and reading comprehension velásquez no. 13 (july december 2016) no. 13 (july december 2016) 67 procedure and data analysis after distributing the newspaper article, students were instructed to read it entirely, to identify the unknown words and underline them. then, the reading comprehension questionnaire was handed out, and they were asked to read the article at least once more, and as many more times as needed, to answer the ten comprehension questions. students had a total of 45 minutes to finish the test that was graded on a 0-100 scale assigning 10 points for each right answer and 0 to every wrong answer. table 3 shows the reading comprehension scores with their corresponding frequencies and figure 3 is the graph of their distribution. table 3. reading comprehension scores and frequencies score frequency % 40 2 4% 50 2 4% 60 6 11% 70 12 23% 80 15 28% 90 11 21% 100 5 9% average = 70 53 100% figure 3. distribution of score frequencies for the reading comprehension test subsequently, the underlined words in each one of the tests were counted to get the percentage of known words per student, and different ranges of lexical coverage were established for the whole sample. lexical competence and reading comprehension velásquez no. 13 (july december 2016) no. 13 (july december 2016) 68 finally, the average of the test scores on reading comprehension for each of the different ranges of lexical competence was found and all the data were tabulated. results figure 4 shows the average of the test scores on reading comprehension for each of the different ranges of lexical competence found. the graph demonstrates that a comprehension score of 70% is achieved somewhere between the 97.5 and 98.3 ranges of lexical competence, which seems to confirm schmitt’s findings for esl. our first question would then be answered by saying that this group of hll demonstrates ‘adequate’ (a score of 70 out of 100) comprehension of an authentic reading passage when they recognize around 98% of the vocabulary from the reading passage. figure 4. average reading comprehension per range of lexical competence figure 4 reveals a nonlinear relationship, i.e. it does not reflect a proportional relationship between lexical competence and reading comprehension. instead, it corresponds to a logarithmic function that would better reflect the law of diminishing returns suggested by davies. in other words, in this particular experiment, greater lexical knowledge did not necessarily lead to a proportional increase in reading comprehension. as mentioned before other factors besides lexical competence may affect reading comprehension. factors such as the reader’s grammatical lexical competence and reading comprehension velásquez no. 13 (july december 2016) no. 13 (july december 2016) 69 knowledge as well as his or her familiarity with the discourse structure of the text must contribute in some way to the understanding of a written text. also, textual factors, such as length, difficulty, or theme and individual factors, such as prior knowledge on the topic, interest, motivation, and ability to make inferences, must also influence a reader’s ability to comprehend a text. perhaps further studies of all of the above factors that affect reading comprehension would help us explain the type of graph found here. conclusions it can be concluded then that at least for this group, the relationship between vocabulary knowledge and reading comprehension did not increase proportionally. the answer to our second question would be that the nature of the relationship between the percentage of known words and the score obtained in a test of reading comprehension of an academic text, obeys the law of diminishing returns, best represented by a logarithmic function, as suggested by davies (2005). one of the limitations of this study was the limited number of participants (only 53 students) and the fact that beginner and advanced students were not included in this study, only intermediate. for this reason, it is impossible to generalize these results to all shl. another limitation was the reliability of the lexical competence instrument, that is, the underlying procedure used to measure the students’ lexical recognition that was criticized in laufer’s (1989) study with esl students. due to time restrictions, no additional tool was used to adjust the results obtained or to ensure that the students did not overestimate or underestimate their vocabulary knowledge. for future studies, it would be advisable to find a more reliable measure of lexical competence, such as a lexical recognition test and to use additional measures of reading comprehension such as reading recall protocol instruments, translation tasks, summaries, cloze tests, etc. future empirical studies could also address the same research questions but with different types of texts such as fiction and non-fiction. as of july 1, 2012, 53 million was the estimated hispanic population of the united states (17% of the total) and it is projected that by the year 2060, it will reach 128.8 million residents (31% of the total). not surprisingly, spanish is the second most-spoken language in usa with over 800,000 students (more than half of the total fl enrollment) taking spanish classes in institutions of higher education (mla survey, fall 2006). the high demand for spanish classes not only for second language learners but also for heritage language learners is lexical competence and reading comprehension velásquez no. 13 (july december 2016) no. 13 (july december 2016) 70 evident. in spite of this, research in the area is still scarce and language professionals continue to base their pedagogical practice, curriculum design as well as instructional and testing materials on research findings for esl. given the growing demand for spanish as a foreign and as a heritage language, it is imperative that scholars in the field start conducting their own research to identify effective teaching practices and curricular design. the importance of this study is that it helps corroborate the findings of previous research in esl for shl. according to these studies, vocabulary knowledge plays a much more important role in reading comprehension than it was previously recognized. if as shown here a large vocabulary is indeed the key to understanding and dissecting a text, it is clear that students need to devote more time and energy to the acquisition of certain high-frequency words. instructional as well as testing material and curriculum design should also reflect this reality in order to achieve better results in the process of (re)acquisition of spanish. as for lexical competence, it should be promoted from the basic levels and it should be reinforced throughout all courses. the implementation of all the traditional techniques of learning vocabulary, such as using high-frequency words lists, vocabulary flashcards, semantic maps, or word families as well as instruction on the use of the dictionary, are highly recommended. extensive reading activities are also very effective, especially at intermediate and advanced levels, to promote the development of a greater lexical repertoire. although it has been widely recognized the important role that extensive reading plays in vocabulary acquisition and in the development of strategies and reading skills, this activity is often neglected by students and instructors. for this reason, it is recommended that instructors provide sufficient opportunities for reading in spanish, both inside and outside the classroom. the nature of the relationship between lexical competence and reading comprehension found here makes evident that although vocabulary is an important factor in reading comprehension, it is not the only one. in fact, a large number of variables (such as grammatical knowledge, background knowledge, awareness of discourse structure, etc.) make independent contributions to reading comprehension. a thorough examination of all the variables that influence reading comprehension is impossible to accomplish in a single study. therefore, it is recommended to continue conducting both qualitative and quantitative research to advance, confirm and validate previous results lexical competence and reading comprehension velásquez no. 13 (july december 2016) no. 13 (july december 2016) 71 for esl. hopefully, in the future, these findings will be reflected in effective teaching practices and curriculum design as well as appropriate instructional materials for shl. researchers, instructors, students and all those committed to the development and maintenance of heritage languages and advanced biliteracy for their speakers, need a deeper understanding of the complexity of the reading process. shl students, in particular, pose new challenges to instructors. with this population, the principal language instruction objective pursued is to maximize the use of resources that these students already possess. however, once heritage learners have achieved this lexical access threshold, it is important not to disregard the other factors that might affect reading comprehension as well. lexical competence and reading comprehension velásquez no. 13 (july december 2016) no. 13 (july december 2016) 72 references anderson, r., & freebody, p. 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(2013). el “(re)conocimiento” del léxico español del estudiante hispano bilingüe en los estados unidos. in dumitrescu, d. & piña-rosales, g (eds.), el español en los estados unidos: e pluribus unum? enfoques multidisciplinarios. new york: academia norteamericana de la lengua española. hawas, h. m. (1990). vocabulary and reading comprehension: an experimental study. international review of applied linguistics, 87-88, 43-65. hu, m., & nation, i. p. (2000). vocabulary density and reading comprehension. reading in a foreign language, 13(1), 403-430. kelly, p. (1991). lexical ignorance: the main obstacle to listening comprehension with advanced foreign language learners. international review of applied linguistics in language teaching, 29(2), 135-149. doi:10.1515/iral.1991.29.2.135 koda, k. (1989). the effects of transferred vocabulary knowledge on the development of l2 reading proficiency. foreign language annals, 22, 529-540. koda, k. (2005). insights into second language reading: a crosslinguistic approach. cambridge, uk: cambridge university press. lexical competence and reading comprehension velásquez no. 13 (july december 2016) no. 13 (july december 2016) 73 kondo-brown, k. (2010). curriculum development for advancing heritage language competence: recent research, current practices, and a future agenda. annual review of applied linguistics, 30, 2441. doi:10.1017/s0267190510000012 lafford, b. a., collentine, j. g., & karp, a. s. (2003). the acquisition of lexical meaning by second language learners: an analysis of general research trends with evidence from spanish. in b. lafford, r. salaberry (eds.), spanish second language acquisition: state of the science (pp. 130-159). washington, dc: georgetown up. laufer, b. (1989). what percentage of text-lexis is essential for comprehension? in c. laurén, m. nordman (eds.), special language: from humans thinking to thinking machines (pp. 316323). clevedon: multiling. matters. laufer, b. (1991). how much lexis is necessary for reading comprehension? in arnaud, p. & béjoint, h. (eds.), vocabulary and applied linguistics (pp. 126-132). macmillan academic and professional. laufer, b. (1992). reading in a foreign language: how does l2 lexical knowledge interact with the reader’s general academic ability? journal of research in reading 15(2): 95-103. laufer, b. (1996). the lexical threshold of l2 reading: where it is and how it relates to l1 reading ability. in k sajavaara and c. fairweather, (eds.), approaches to second language acquisition (pp. 55-62). jyvaskyla: cross language studies. laufer, b. (1997). the lexical plight in second language reading: words you don’t know, words you think you know, and words you can’t guess. in j. coady, t. huckin (eds.), second language vocabulary (pp. 20-34). cambridge: cambridge up. lópez-mezquita, m. (2007). la evaluación de la competencia léxica: tests de vocabulario, su fiabilidad y validez (doctoral dissertation). granada, españa: editorial universidad de granada. mecartty, f. h. (2000). lexical and grammatical knowledge in reading and listening comprehension by foreign language learners of spanish. applied language learning, 11(2), 323-348. mochida, a., & harrington, m. (2006). the yes/no test as a measure of receptive vocabulary knowledge. language testing, 23(1), 73-98. doi:10.1191/0265532206lt321oa nation, i. p. (1990). teaching and learning vocabulary. new york: newbury house. lexical competence and reading comprehension velásquez no. 13 (july december 2016) no. 13 (july december 2016) 74 nation, i. p. (2001). learning vocabulary in another language. cambridge, england: cambridge up. nation, i. p. (2006). how large a vocabulary is needed for reading and listening? canadian modern language review/la revue canadienne des langues vivantes, 63(1), 59-82. doi:10.1353/ cml.2006.0049 nation, i. p. (2009). teaching esl/efl reading and writing. new york: routledge. polinsky, m, & kagan, o. (2007). heritage languages: in the ‘wild’ and in the classroom. language and linguistics compass, 1(5), 368-395. qian, d. (1999). assessing the roles of depth and breadth of vocabulary knowledge in reading comprehension. canadian modern language review, 56(2), 282-308. read, j. a. s. (2000). assessing vocabulary. cambridge: cambridge university press. richards, j. c. (1976). the role of vocabulary teaching. tesol quarterly, 10, 77–89. rodrigo, v., mcquillan, j., & krashen, s. (1996). free voluntary reading and vocabulary knowledge in native speakers of spanish. perceptual and motor skills, 83(2), 648-650. schmitt, n., jiang, x., & grabe, w. (2011). the percentage of words known in text and reading comprehension. modern language journal, 95(1), 26-43. doi:10.1111/j.1540 4781.2011.01146.x author *edna velásquez teaches spanish as a heritage and as a second language at the university of houston. she holds a ma, and phd in spanish linguistics from the same institution. her areas of interest and research are spanish as a heritage language; bilingual and heritage language education; spanish/english as a second language; sociolinguistics and u.s.a spanish. lexical competence and reading comprehension no. 13 (july december 2016) no. 13 (july december 2016) gistseptiembre2010final.indd �� vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) identifying language learning strategies: an exploratory study1 jorge e. pineda2* universidad de antioquia abstract this is a small scale, inductive, ethnographic study whose objective is to explore the language learning strategies used by the students of different languages at a language program at the university level. students of english, french, portuguese, mandarin chinese, japanese, italian, and german participate in the study. three instruments are used to gather data: an open-ended questionnaire, a series of lesson observations, and a semi-structured interview. the students report the use of several strategies for the learning of grammar, reading, speaking, writing, and listening. keywords: communicative competence, ethnography, language learning strategies (llss), language teaching and learning resumen este es un estudio etnográfico de pequeña escala e inductivo cuyo objetivo es explorar las estrategias de aprendizaje usadas por los estudiantes de diferentes lenguas en un programa de idiomas a nivel universitario. estudiantes de inglés, francés, portugués, chino mandarín, japonés, italiano, y alemán participan en el estudio. tres instrumentos son usados para recolectar información: una encuesta abierta, una serie de observaciones de clase, y una entrevista semi-estructurada. los estudiantes reportan el uso de varias estrategias para el aprendizaje de gramática, lectura, habla, y escucha. palabras claves: competencia comunicativa, etnografía, estrategias de aprendizaje de un idioma, enseñanza y aprendizaje de las lenguas 1 received: january 26th, 2010 / accepted: july 11th, 2010 2 este estudio se deriva de una investigación para optar al título de magíster en didáctica del inglés en la universidad de caldas y tuvo lugar durante el segundo semestre del año 2007. [this study is part of research carried out to obtain the degree of master in the teaching of english from the universidad de caldas and it took place during the second semester of the 2007 school year.] correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to jorge e. pineda, universidad de antioquia, escuela de idiomas, medellín, antioquia, colombia. e-mail: jorgeeduardopineda@gmail.com pineda gist education and learning research journal. issn 1692-5777, pp. 94-106 �� vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) pineda the purpose of this study is to explore the language learning strategies (llss) which university students of different languages use to develop their communicative competence. the situation of this particular program, called multilingua, can be described from an institutional point of view since the university invests around $900 million pesos (approximately us$500,000.00) every year to offer students instruction in seven different languages. the program is offered as a scholarship to undergraduate students with outstanding academic performance. according to reune (red universitaria de extensión), an official university database, during the second semester of 2006 there were 1,764 students enrolled in the program, while 365 students either dropped out or failed. forty four percent of these claimed academic overload, 36% work overload, and 16% other reasons such as illness, as the reason for their withdrawal from the program. i hypothesize that, when students have to choose whether to carry on with their language study or to carry on with their undergraduate studies, they choose to drop out of language study because they lack the appropriate skills to cope with both activities. therefore, exploring the llss students use may be a starting point for designing a llss training program for both students and teachers which will encourage persistence in the language program. context the multilingua program is offered to undergraduate students beginning from the second semester of undergraduate study. the program has been in place since 1997 and it is not part of any curriculum. the program offers seven languages: french, english, portuguese, mandarin chinese, japanese, italian, and german. every program has 5 levels, and every level is 80 hours long, during a semester. the program promotes the development of communicative competences, student understanding of the culture where the language is spoken, and autonomy in language study. research objective to explore the llss which students of the multilingua program use to develop their communicative competence. theoretical framework in this section of this paper, i will discuss and answer the following questions: what are llss? what are the characteristics of llss? how can llss be divided? why are llss important for second language (l2)/fl learning and teaching? finally, i will refer to some studies �� vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) which pinpoint the importance of researching llss to improve learning and teaching processes. what are llss? the answer to the first question can be traced back to 1987. at that time, wenden (1991) and rubin (1994) suggested that llss are plans, routines, and operations used by the learner to facilitate the obtaining, storage, retrieval, and use of information. they suggest that the objective for using llss is memorizing language information, recalling that information, and using it in a different situation. in other words, they suggest that llss refer to what students do to learn and also to regulate their learning. later, richards and platt (1992) defined llss as an intentional behavior that helps learners understand, learn, and remember new information. they suggested that there are different reasons for using llss. the difference between the wenden and rubin definition and richards and platt’s lies in the fact that, according to richards and platt, llss are used consciously, that is, learners are aware of what works best for them, according to the learning objective or situation (1992). oxford (1990) broadens the scope of the definition by stating that the objective of using llss is to make learning easier, faster, more enjoyable, self directed, effective, and even transferrable to new situations. finally, cohen (1998), like richards and platt, establishes that llss are consciously selected by the learner. language learning strategies can therefore be defined as conscious, selected behaviors used for overcoming certain educational challenges which depend on the matter to be solved. they are used to memorize information, to synthesize it, or to use that information in speaking or writing. what are the characteristics of llss? the answer to our second question is established by rebecca oxford (1990). she states that llss allow learners to be more selfdirected. they are problem-oriented and can be taught. they are transferable to new situations and also are influenced by factors such as gender, age, social status, etc. language learning strategies are complex behaviors which may change according to the learning task, and they vary from one person to another. how may llss be divided? rubin (1994), o’malley and chamot (1990), oxford (1990), and cohen (1998) give an answer to our third question. rubin (1994) divides llss into three groups: learning strategies which contribute directly to the learning process; communication strategies which are used by language learning strategies pineda �� vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) language learning strategies pineda learners while they are performing in the language (the danger is that when learners use them, these strategies may produce the sensation that a student’s linguistic level is higher than it really is); and social strategies which are used by learners as they engage in situations with others in order to practice the language. o’malley and chamot (1990) suggest that llss can be divided into three groups: metacognitive strategies, cognitive strategies, and socioaffective strategies. his first group (metacognitive strategies) refers to the activities learners use to plan, to pace, and to monitor their own learning. the second group (cognitive strategies) refers to the activities learners use to obtain, store, retrieve, and use language information. the third group (socio-affective strategies) refers to activities that are related to social-mediating activities and interacting with others. oxford (1990) establishes two general groups into which llss may be divided: direct strategies and indirect strategies. the first group refers to the activities that have a direct influence on the learning process such as memory, cognitive, and compensation strategies which help learners to overcome knowledge gaps in order to continue the communication. the second group refers to the activities that have an indirect influence on the learning process. oxford states that metacognitive strategies, affective strategies, and social strategies are part of the second group. cohen (1998) also suggests two groupings for llss: those which refer to the activities learners use to help them obtain and store language information, and language-use strategies which help learners to retrieve language information and to perform in the language. why are llss important for l2/fl learning and teaching? language learning strategies are important for l2/fl learning and teaching because they develop learning autonomy, they develop language competence, and they are tools for active and self-directed involvement. effective llss can also help “unsuccessful” students realize why they are “unsuccessful,” and assist learners in planning their learning (brown, 1994; chamot, 1999; cohen, 1990; faerch & kasper, 1984; gregersent, 2001). likewise, they help teachers plan their teaching (rubin, 1994; o’malley & chamot, 1990; oxford, 1990; cohen, 1998; kumaravadivelu, 2003; griffiths & parr, 2001; lessardclouston, 1997; murat, 2000). studies show the importance of advancing llss research. murat (2000) states that the ultimate aim of the empirical work conducted in this area is to develop knowledge that can be useful for improving language learning and teaching in l2 and fl classrooms. however, attempts at making strategy instruction a central component of instructed language learning remain at the level of isolated initiatives rather than �� vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) being part of mainstream pedagogical recommendations and practices. manchon’s conclusion is that although some progress has been made in the conceptualization of strategies and their benefits, more grounding and theoretical work is needed in the field. type of study this was an ethnographic, small scale, inductive study (larsenfreeman, 1991; freeman, 1998). it was small in that only 120 students answered the questionnaire, 7 students were interviewed, and 120 hours of lesson observation (lo) were carried out. it was inductive because the categories used to analyze the data were taken from oxford’s (1990) classification and categorization of llss, in her strategy inventory for language learning (sill). also, it could be considered to be an ethnographic study since there was observation of a phenomenon in the location where it was taking place, in a natural setting, involving interaction with the participants, and, in the end, the research describes the behavior of a group (freeman, 1998). participants the participants in this study were students of french, english, portuguese, mandarin chinese, japanese, italian, and german at a public university non-credit language institute-style program. the students were chosen at random and they were from different levels of instruction [from the beginner level (1) to the advanced level (5)]. participants were young adults, between 19 and 25 years old, of a low to middle-low economic strata, and their native language was spanish. instruments the three instruments used in this study were: a questionnaire, an interview, and a series of los. the questionnaire contained 24 questions. the questions were adapted from the questions used by oxford (1990) in her sill. the objective of the questionnaire was to identify the strategies the students use. each question represented an activity which, in turn, represented a particular learning strategy. the questions were also chosen on the basis of how observable they were. the interview was semi-structured, open-ended, and it contained six questions: there was a friendly question whose objective was to put the informant at ease, and there were five hypothetical/descriptive questions whose objective was to have the informants report what they do in specific situations. such situations were hypothetical language tasks: a grammar quiz, an oral presentation, a listening task, a reading task, and a written composition. language learning strategies pineda �� vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) language learning strategies pineda the lo form contained the research question as well as the date, language being studied, and the level. the objective of this instrument was to detect what sort of llss the students used while in the classroom. for the researcher, using the lo forms was an extraordinary opportunity to witness compensation, affective, and social strategies in action. it was also a tremendous chance to record the effectiveness of the strategies students used when preparing a language task. the information from the los was kept in protocols according to the date and language observed to facilitate its retrieval and analysis. findings the findings will be reported task by task, beginning with an overview of different grammar–learning activities. then, we will look at oral presentations, written compositions, listening tasks, and finally, reading tasks. grammar for grammar learning, the students who participated in this study use cognitive3 and memory strategies. the students recognize and use formulas in new contexts and they associate the new information with the information they already have internalized. the los showed evidence of the use of memorization, cognitive, and compensation strategies. this means that when having students prepare a grammar task, a quiz, exam, or any other activity that involves the mastering of a grammatical structure, the students in the program rely mainly on memorization strategies. it seems that the learning of grammar is still viewed by students as purely memory-based as opposed to being an organic and progressive discovery. for example, pablo, a student of english, reported the following: trato de leer muchas veces las estructuras para que se grabe el patrón de frases en la cabeza.4 students under the research consider that grammar is more easily learned if the structures are memorized in isolation. on a positive note, later, the students tried to use the new formulas in new contexts and also tried to deduce rules from the exercises given in class. an example of deducing grammar rules and practicing specific language examples for the learning of grammar was stated by luis (a 3 it may be important to remind the reader that cognitive strategies, as previously defined by o’malley and chamot (1990) in this article, are “the activities learners use to obtain, store, retrieve, and use language information.” 4 [i try to read the structures many times so that the sentence model gets stuck in my head]. 100 vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) student of french) in the following terms: intento de varias formas, por ejemplo, si es con varios verbos, intento cambiar las palabritas primero y después reformar la oración completamente, después me imagino más ejemplos y los escribo.5 it should be added here that textbooks play a very important role in the development of llss since they are based on the use of particular strategies such as cognitive and memory strategies. for example, some textbook tasks are designed to have the students link images and words, and other tasks are designed to have the students analyze grammatical structures. such textbook strategies help students master the explored topics. oral presentations for the preparation of an oral presentation, the students reported the use of compensation strategies; these are used when knowledge is lacking on a specific matter and the student effectively fills these “gaps” with supplementary knowledge or a mother tongue translation. compensation strategies enable the learner to use the l2 for comprehension or production, as explained by oxford (1990). the use of compensation strategies was evident in an lo from an english class when a teacher asked one of the students a question. the student tried to answer the question in english, but he lacked the vocabulary to get his intended meaning across, so he decided to switch into spanish and asked ¿cómo se dice —?6 another example of this strategy appeared in another lo which recorded the situation with these words: “before saying something in english, one of the students first said the same thing in spanish with a question intonation to make sure the idea was correct.” in still another lo, students said something in english, and immediately translated their words into spanish to make sure that everybody understood what was meant. compensation strategies demonstrate the linguistic level of the students. the students reported the use of cognitive and compensation strategies that help them retrieve information and fill-in empty spaces in their speech when there is a lack of linguistic knowledge. an example of the use of cognitive strategies to prepare an oral presentation is evident in the following lo taken from an italian lesson: the students have to prepare a conversation; they play the roles of the characters of the situation in a restaurant. after practicing the conversation 5 [i try in various ways. for example, if it’s with various verbs, i try to change the little words first, and then to completely redo the sentence. after that, i imagine more examples and write them down]. 6 [how do you say—?] language learning strategies pineda 101 vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) language learning strategies pineda several times, they should have memorized the pronunciation and the grammar, so that finally the students can repeat the conversation fluently. written compositions for the writing of a composition, the students write directly in the target language; but when there is an aspect they do not comprehend, they write it first in spanish and look it up later in a dictionary, or they look for help from different sources: asking a classmate, a teacher, or by doing a search on the internet. for example, juan, a student of german, reported this: me imagino la frase en español pero con palabras alemanas. hago la frase en español, ya los sustantivos que uso en esa frase los pongo en alemán en la mente y luego los transcribo.7 the native language is viewed as a tool. since in a colombian classroom everybody shares the same language, spanish, it is commonly used to clarify concepts, rules, certain target language structures that need to be explained, etc. the students also mentioned their cognitive strategies such as the use of resources like the dictionary, textbooks, and notes taken in class. pedro, a student of italian, stated the following: miro qué tema de gramática hemos visto para saber qué herramientas tengo para escribir.8 in this case, pedro goes to his notes on grammar to have more tools at his disposition for writing in italian. the students also reported the use of several other strategies for preparing compositions, including: note-taking, summarizing, wordgrouping, associating, and translating. they reported that they use notetaking before writing begins. in these notes, they designed outlines and kept in mind the expressions, words, or structures studied in class which they considered to help them in the writing process. the students also summarized before writing, sometimes writing a summary of the topic, or a series of ideas that would help them to write more fluently later. students also described that before writing they would group words, that is, they would take the words that were taught previously and try to use the new ones together with them. in addition, before writing a composition, students reported that they often relate what they know with the information they want to learn, which we could call the strategy of association. language learners informed the researcher 7 [i imagine what the sentence would be like in spanish, but with german words. i create the sentence in spanish, putting the nouns to be used in the sentence in german in my mind, and then i transcribe them]. 8 [i look at which grammatical topic we’ve (already) seen to know which tools i (already) have in order to do the writing]. 102 vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) of having compared linguistic aspects that they are challenged to learn with similar linguistic aspects of their native tongue, spanish. finally, the student participants also informed the researcher that they translate what they have to write into spanish. the custom is for many of them first to write in spanish, and then, afterwards, to translate the composition word-by-word into the target language. for me, the writing of compositions was the most difficult task to observe and investigate, since it seems that, in general, teachers, students, and textbooks are neglectful of it. according to my observations, there is an average of one written activity per every five pages of multilingua textbook. even so, half of these were mixed with grammar practice and were not pure (content-based, imaginative) written assignments. teachers, likewise, tend to ignore writing tasks, likely because these assignments imply more afterhours work for them. in general, students consider writing exercises to be the simple writing of essays. they do not seem to consider the mundane task of taking a phone message to be “writing.” there is, therefore, a great need to reconceptualize the meaning of writing. the students only mentioned the use of cognitive strategies for the preparation of written compositions although, according to the researcher’s los, compensation strategies are also being used. the strategies used in writing tasks are actually very difficult to observe, since writing is often considered to be more of a private skill that should not be developed in the classroom. as a consequence of this educational outlook, the promotion of writing tasks has been neglected in the multilingua program, which proposes communicative courses to students. listening tasks for the preparation of a listening task, the students often repeat several times what they hear. for example, when asked how he deals with listening assignments, pablo, a student of english, said: escuchando y repitiendo. si no entiendo, vuelvo y lo pongo. o repitiendo partecitas específicas donde no haya entendido una palabra.9 in my classroom observation, it was evident that there was a real promotion of this strategy on behalf of the teachers. the repetition of linguistic aspects such as affixes that determine the differences between masculine or feminine adjectives, plural and singular nouns, with certain structures such as those of questions or negative sentences, are among the aspects both teachers and students repeat when performing a listening task. for 9 [listening and repeating. if i don’t understand, i go back and write it down. or repeating little specific parts where i may not have understood a word]. language learning strategies pineda 10� vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) language learning strategies pineda example, this lo from an italian class states (t = teacher, s = student): “the t has ss listen to some conversations where ss have to spot the difference between masculine and feminine adjectives.” another observation made in the research is that when teachers bring a listening exercise to the classroom—they end up practicing it more than the students, in many cases. in part, this occurs because the text is often far beyond the linguistic abilities of the students. it also may be due to distracting background noise, or simply because the students do not feel like listening. reading tasks when reading, multilingua students use two general sources for grasping the message of the text: linguistic and nonlinguistic ones. among the linguistic sources, the students use the context to determine the meaning of unknown words or expressions. for instance, isabel, a student of portuguese, reported: empiezo a leerlo como si fuera en español. si encuentro una palabra o una estructura que desconozco, trato de sacarla por contexto. si no la encuentro por contexto, busco en el diccionario.10 the students also break the expressions into smaller parts and structures to get to their meaning. among the nonlinguistic clues (oxford, 1990), students use their dictionaries and the images accompanying the texts to comprehend the meaning. for example, clara, a student of mandarin chinese, shared details about some specific characteristics of this language. when learning mandarin on the beginner’s level, the characters in the textbooks have the phonetic spelling above them, but as the learning process advances, this pronunciation aid is utilized less and less. the student commented that she uses this clue but that, ideally, students should not be dependent on it. she said: en los primeros niveles de chino, encima del carácter está la pronunciación. lo ideal es irse alejando de esa pronunciación. ya después, en el tercer libro, los diálogos no tienen esa pronunciación.11 conclusions and recommendations this study has aimed at exploring the llss used by students of several languages. the results showed that the students use 10 [i begin to read it as if it were spanish. if i find a word or a structure that i’m not familiar with, i try to understand it from the context. if i can’t understand it from the context, i look for it in the dictionary]. 11 [in the first levels of chinese, on top of the character is the pronunciation. the ideal thing to do is to get away from using that pronunciation. later, in the third book, the dialogues do not have that pronunciation]. 10� vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) strategies based on their mother tongue (spanish), such as translating. interestingly, the study also showed that there is a tendency to deduce word meanings from the context and even to write and speak words in new contexts which denotes high-level thinking processes and means that the students are being creative. reading and listening are ideal sources of language input for students. paradoxically, teachers and textbooks often use such input for another purpose: to obtain linguistic output (such as the production of a written text) from students. when approaching a text to read, students tend to resort to their native language to understand it. they use spanish cognates (true or false ones) to guess the meaning of unknown words; even to translate titles and subtitles while determining a topic. when all is said and done, the students use a mixture of strategies (such as skimming and scanning), and the ubiquitous custom of translating words into spanish also persists. they don’t seem to have been taught that using their native language as a basis for the learning of a foreign language may be problematic at further levels of the language-learning process. finally, the observation should be made that there is a strong link, with great potential to be exploited, between the strategies students use, the strategies teachers promote, and the strategies proposed by the textbooks. many textbooks base their exercises and tasks on the use of certain llss, while students and teachers choose their strategies based on their favorite learning styles and educational beliefs. yet very often, teachers do not promote certain textbook strategies because these do not seem to them to match the students’ learning styles or the teachers’ pedagogy. the outcome is that teachers are not applying the most effective llss. teachers and students need to be trained on the identification and use of the strategies that best suit their learning styles and preferences through strategy instruction. this study, with its evidence of the faulty and inefficient strategies being used by students, shows that training on the identification and use of llss may produce positive language learning results, helping students to reach their study objectives and become more independent and effective language students. it is worth mentioning that before training students on the use of llss, it is paramount to train teachers in strategy instruction and assessment. teachers should be trained on how to implement strategy instruction in their everyday pedagogical practices. by taking training courses, teachers will be made aware of the strategies their students need, and they will be able to expose their students to the strategies which will help them to experience a more effective learning process. language learning strategies pineda 10� vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) language learning strategies pineda in conclusion, there is a need for more research on the use of llss and the factors that affect the student’s choice of strategies such as student gender, age, cultural background, beliefs, etc. the identification and exploration of llss is critical for helping students have a more effective learning process. in view of this, research which will broaden the theories of llss will also make current language education practices more effective. references brown, h. d. (1994). principles of language learning and teaching. (3rd ed.). englewood cliffs, nj: prentice hall regents. chamot, a. u. (1999). children’s learning strategies in language immersion classrooms. the modern language journal, vol, 83, no. 3, pp. 319-339. cohen, a. d. (1990). language learning. boston: heinle and heinle. cohen, a. d. (1998). strategies in learning and using a second language. london: longman. faerch, c. & kasper, g. (1984). strategies in interlanguage communication. london: longman. freeman, d. (1998). doing teacher research: from inquiry to understanding. boston: heinle and heinle. gregersent, t. (2001). can foreign language learning strategies turn into crutches? a pilot study on the use of strategies by successful and unsuccessful language learners. revista signos. vol. 34, no. 49-50, pp. 101-111. griffiths, c. & parr, j. (2001). language learning strategies: theory and perception. elt journal, 55(3). kumaravadivelu, b. (2003). beyond methods: macrostrategies for language teaching. new haven: yale university press. larsen-freeman, d. (1991). an introduction to second language acquisition research. new york: longman. lessard-clouston, m. (1997). language learning strategies: an overview for l2 teachers. the internet tesl journal, vol. 3, no. 12. murat, h. (2000). language learning strategies in foreign language learning and teaching. the internet tesl journal, vol. 6, no. 8. o’malley, j. & chamot, a. (1990). learning strategies in second language acquisition. england. cambridge university press. oxford, r. (1990). language learning strategies: what every teacher should know. boston: heinle and heinle publishers. richards, j. & platt, j. (1992). longman dictionary of language teaching and applied linguisitics. essex: longman. 10� vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) vol. iv, no. 1 (nov. 2010) rubin, j. (1994). how to be a more successful language learner. (2nd ed.). boston: heinle and heinle. wenden, a. (1991). learner strategies for learner autonomy. new york: prentice hall. el autor *jorge e. pineda es licenciado en enseñanza de lenguas extranjeras de la universidad de antioquia, con un magíster en didáctica del inglés, universidad de caldas. es miembro del grupo de investigación en enseñanza y aprendizaje de las lenguas extranjeras (eale). se desempeña actualmente como profesor de la sección servicios de la escuela de idiomas de la universidad de antioquia. language learning strategies 259 lexical bundles in academic presentations given by phd level eap students: a literature review1 paquetes léxicos en las exposiciones académicas de estudiantes de doctorado en un curso de inglés para propósitos académicos: una revisión bibliográfica ricardo a. nausa t.2* universidad de los andes, colombia abstract lexical bundles are multiword units that perform a variety of discourse functions and are a characteristic of academic discourse genres. their use is considered a marker of linguistic proficiency and necessary for successful adaptation to academic communities. this literature review, which is part of a proposal for the analysis of lexical bundles use by colombian phd-level eap students in their academic presentations, (a) explores the concept of lexical bundles in academic discourses and (b) presents potential areas for their study in the academic presentation genre. the review makes particular emphasis on the lack of studies on lexical bundles use in the academic presentation as a genre as well as the lack of studies on spoken genres in situations in which english is used as a foreign language by phd-level eap students, particularly, in the colombian context. key words: lexical bundles, academic presentations, academic discourse, english for academic purposes (eap), english as a foreign language (efl), corpus linguistics resumen los paquetes léxicos – expresiones compuestas de varias palabras que desempeñan diversos tipos de funciones discursivas– son una de las características propias de los distintos géneros del discurso académico. su 1 received: august 4, 2013, 2013 / accepted: september 15, 2013 2 email: ricardo.nausa@gmail.com gist education and learning research journal. issn 1692-5777. no. 7, november 2013. pp. 259-270 challenges of bilingualism in higher education li et ra tu re r ev ie w no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) 260 uso se considera como un indicador de suficiencia lingüística y necesario para la adaptación exitosa a una comunidad discursiva particular. esta revisión bibliográfica, que es parte de una propuesta de investigación para el análisis del uso de paquetes léxicos en las presentaciones orales de estudiantes de doctorado de una clase de inglés para propósitos académicos, (a) explora el concepto de paquetes léxicos en discursos académicos y (b) presenta unas áreas en las que potencialmente se podría dar el estudio de paquetes léxicos en el género de las exposiciones orales. la revisión hace un énfasis especial en (a) la falta de estudios sobre el uso de paquetes léxicos en la exposición oral como género particular y (b) la falta de estudios en géneros académicos orales en situaciones en las que el inglés se usa como lengua extranjera por parte de estudiantes de doctorado que la aprenden para propósitos académicos, particularmente en el contexto colombiano. palabras clave: paquetes léxicos, exposiciones académicas, discurso académico, inglés para propósitos académicos (eap), inglés como lengua extranjera (efl), lingüística de corpus resumo os pacotes léxicos–expressões compostas de várias palavras que desempenham diversos tipos de funções discursivas – são uma das características próprias dos diferentes gêneros do discurso acadêmico. seu uso se considera como um indicador de suficiência linguística e necessário para a adaptação bem sucedida a uma comunidade discursiva particular. esta revisão bibliográfica, que é parte de uma proposta de pesquisa para a análise do uso de pacotes léxicos nas apresentações orais de estudantes de doutorado de uma aula de inglês para propósitos académicos, (a) explora o conceito de pacotes léxicos em discursos acadêmicos e (b) apresenta umas áreas nas que potencialmente se poderia dar o estudo de pacotes léxicos no gênero das exposições orais. a revisão faz uma ênfase especial em (a) a falta de estudos sobre o uso de pacotes léxicos na exposição oral como gênero particular e (b) a falta de estudos em gêneros acadêmicos orais em situações nas que o inglês se usa como língua estrangeira por parte de estudantes de doutorado que a aprendem para propósitos acadêmicos, particularmente no contexto colombiano. palavras chave: pacotes léxicos, exposições acadêmicas, discurso acadêmico, inglês para propósitos acadêmicos (eap), inglês como língua estrangeira (efl), linguística de corpus lexical bundles in academic presentation nausa no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) 261 the study of academic discourse academic discourse has received a great deal of attention from applied linguists over the last 30 years, with special emphasis on academic english. biber (2006) points out that the description of academic genres within universities should be carried out before developing materials and methods to meet university students’ language needs. in this description, the linguistic features of such genres are of special interest for language researchers. pioneering studies such as halliday’s (1988) on the language of physical science, swales’ (1990) on genre analysis of english in academic settings, or hyland’s (1994) on hedging mechanisms in academic writing and eap books have pioneered the study of linguistic traits of discourse in academia. these three decades of special emphasis on academic genres has seen more studies on written varieties than on spoken ones. nonetheless, the availability of large corpora like cancode (cambridge and nottingham corpus of discourse in english), micase (michigan corpus of academic spoken english), base (british academic spoken english) and others has allowed researchers to explore the linguistic features of academic spoken genres. recent studies on spoken academic english include genres such as conversations between tutors and students (evison, 2013), informal interviews with english majors (larsson aas, 2011), and academic lectures (deroey & taverniers, 2012; lin, 2012). lexical bundles in academic discourse among the breadth of possibilities to approach academic genres, given the availability of corpora and corpus exploration tools, the study of lexical bundles (biber, johansson, leech, conrad, & finegan, 1999) seems to be a preferred one. lexical bundles are defined as “… the multi-word sequences that occur most commonly within a given register” (biber & barbieri, 2007, p.264). moon (2000) states that multi-word sequences or multi-word items (mwis) are strings of two or more words that are semantically and/or syntactically whole and inseparable. other multi-word sequences apart from lexical bundles, also referred to as lexical chunks (khuwaileh, 1999) or lexical phrases (decarrico & nattinger, 1988), include idioms and collocations. for biber and conrad (1999), idioms are the most invariable type of multiword items, and are usually syntactically and semantically complete while collocations are the result of highly statistical, nonidiomatic associations between two words. lexical bundles, according to these authors, “… can be regarded as extended collocations of three or more words that show a statistical tendency to co-occur (e.g., in the case of lexical bundles in academic presentation nausa no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) 262 the…, do you want me to…, i said to him…)” (biber & conrad, 1999, p. 183). unlike idioms or collocations, a great deal of lexical bundles cannot be ascribed to traditional syntactic or semantic categories, but their high frequency and specialization in registers make them be considered as “basic building blocks for constructing spoken and written discourse” (p. 188). biber, conrad, and cortés (2004), in their paper describing lexical bundles in university teaching and textbooks, propose a lexical bundle taxonomy according to three rhetorical functions. first, stance expressions (e.g. i don’t know if...) refers to bundles that express attitudes or assessments of certainty towards a specific idea; second, discourse organizers (e.g. in this chapter we…) are expressions that help to organize and monitor parts of discourse, and third, referential bundles (e.g. that’s one of the…) identify entities or parts of the text where they are used. each category of bundles includes further subcategories. in their study comparing lexical bundles in university classroom teaching and textbooks, biber and colleagues found that more bundles are used in classroom teaching than in conversation, academic writing, or textbooks. in fact, they observed that classroom teaching goes beyond the expected norms and uses more stance bundles than conversations, and more referential bundles than academic writing. according to hyland (2008) lexical bundles, and in general mwis, are “… important for fluent linguistic production and a key factor in successful language learning” (p. 5). hyland also asserts that these expressions help learners in the creation of meaning of texts and in the identification of registers, e.g. academic vs. legal. also, lexical bundles “…are familiar to writers and readers who regularly participate in a particular discourse … community,” and their absence or lack of knowledge might be an indicator of lack of fluency or being new to such a community. research trends on lexical bundles hyland’s previous remark explains research efforts to understand academic discourse from a lexical bundle approach. successful adaptation to discourse communities might depend on factors such as variation from expected academic discursive standards, among those, standards in the use of lexical bundles. the lexical bundle method is one of the three methods to approach multiword units in second language acquisition; the other two being the phraseological method and the comprehensive method (erman, lewis, & fant, 2013). a typical tendency of studies on lexical bundles is to seek to understand lexical bundles in academic presentation nausa no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) 263 variation across different variables of academic discourse. studies in the different types of variation that have been studied from the lexical bundles include the following: • recurring combinations in academic writing by native speakers and nonnative speakers (annelie & erman, 2012), or in academic speaking (de cock, 2004; larsson aas, 2011); • variation across disciplines in written texts at the master and phd level (hyland, 2008); • variation between written and spoken, and academic and nonacademic registers at the university level (biber & barbieri, 2007); • variation in disciplinary writing between expert published writing in comparison to students’ writing (cortés, 2004), • variation between published l1 writing versus l1 and l2 students’ writing (chen & baker, 2010), • variation across proficiency levels of esl students’ writing (staples, egbert, biber, & mcclair, 2013), • variation between textbooks and classroom teaching (biber, conrad, & cortés, 2004), • variation across published writing in history journals between languages, argentinian spanish and american english (cortés, 2008), among others. the pedagogical importance of these studies lies on the fact that successful adaptation to an academic community depends on understanding how the members of such community, field experts, or successful users of english, sues (prodromou, 2003), create and articulate discourse. lexical bundles in their three types seem to be definite aspects in this adaptation process, something that concerns eap/esp students and teachers. lexical bundles in spoken discourse: potential areas of study the above-mentioned studies on lexical bundles cover several important aspects of discourse in academia; however, as pointed by biber et al. (2004) and biber and barbieri (2007) spoken academic discourse has received considerably less attention than written academic discourse; this assertion also applies to studies on lexical bundles in lexical bundles in academic presentation nausa no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) 264 academic genres. there seem to be other areas of academic discourse that could potentially be explored from a lexical bundle method. one potential area of studies in the spoken genres is the study of lexical bundles in the academic presentation. studies on lexical bundles in academic spoken genres have mainly focused on interviews (larsson, 2011; de cock, 2004), academic lectures (nesi & basturkmen, 2006; deroey & taverniers , 2012), classroom instruction (biber, conrad, & cortés, 2004); conversation (conrad & biber, 2004), and labs, office hours, study groups, service encounters (biber et al., 2004). however, the academic presentation appears to be one of less analyzed areas with the lexical bundle method, and is usually addressed from other linguistic and academic approaches. hyland (2009) classifies the conference presentation as a spoken genre within the research genres. other genres which could fall into the category of academic presentation are the oral presentation (undergraduate genre) and the viva voce defense (postgraduate genre), but the author classifies them into the category of student discourses, as opposed to research and instructional discourses. in either case, hyland also admits that there is little research in this area given the difficulties that emerge by having to videorecord and transcribe data, and also, by the inclusion of nonverbal data. academic presentations have also been analyzed as monologues from conversation analysis based on (a) their turn – taking aspects (e.g., talk vs. non-talk), (b) nonverbal aspects such as engagement with the audience through visual contact or body posture, and (c) interaction with objects (rendle-short, 2006). rendle-short also admits that in the area of conversation analysis, regarding the structure of monologic talk and nonverbal aspects of this type of institutional talk “… no research ha[d] been carried out with respect to academic presentation…” (p. 2). in 2002, a textbook based on micase corpus information, giving academic presentations (reinhart), published by the university of michigan press, made a very interesting contribution to the study of the academic presentation but from a pedagogical perspective. this book presents different types of academic presentations classified into types of speeches: presentation of a speaker, object, procedure, concept, chronology, and problem solution. each type of speech is exemplified with models taken and adapted from micase; additionally, the book illustrates the different parts of the speeches and explains specific strategies that are used to convey information. in this book, the three types of bundles that biber, conrad, and cortés (2004) propose are identifiable and are overtly taught; however, they are not referred to as lexical bundles in academic presentation nausa no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) 265 bundles. an example of this is in the problem-solution speech chapter, in which some strategies like providing an overview to organize talk are presented in the form of discourse organizing bundles (e.g. i’m going to…) (p. 134). what is interesting about the textbook is that there is no specific claim about it being based on a particular series of studies although the use of micase is mentioned in several parts of the book. another area in which lexical bundles have not been deeply explored is the study of these multiword units in efl l1 spanish contexts. a search for studies in the use of lexical bundles in academic speaking by l1 spanish students of efl yielded only two results: the first (sánchez, 2013) focuses on the variation in interviews with l1 and l2 undergraduate students and a comparison to previous studies (chen & baker, 2010), and the second (torres, 2013) discusses the importance of including lexical bundles in clil instruction in colombian universities. a third area in which there can be an interesting exploration of the use of lexical bundles in academic presentations is in the comparison of different languages. the studies of language varieties, “… can show the difference in frequency of particular features, [and] are often used to demonstrate the lack of direct equivalence between apparently similar aspects of related languages” (hunston, 2006). again, as in the other underexplored areas, there appear to be few studies related to the topic of lexical bundles in the academic presentation. one study that is close to this topic is bellés (2006). in this study, the author contrasts the use of discourse markers between spanish and north american lectures. this study, which takes a contrastive rhetoric form, focuses on the differences in the use of micro-markers, macro-markers, and operators between these two types of lectures. although the constructs used in this study come from other frameworks, we can find equivalences that could be translated into the lexical bundle approach proposed; for example, macro-markers (chaudron & richards, 1986, as cited in bellés, 2006) can be correlated to discourse markers bundles (e.g. another interesting development was…). however, as stated above, this research analyses the lecture, a genre typical of professors, not of students. the research proposed in this study intends to focus on these areas of potential study to contribute further knowledge to the topic of lexical bundles as used in academic presentations in eap/efl contexts. to achieve this, it will focus on academic presentations in english given by colombian phd-level efl students as compared to their own presentations in spanish and to presentations given by englishspeaking counterparts. lexical bundles in academic presentation nausa no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) 266 conclusion based on the literature reviewed, it possible to conclude as to the benefit of studying lexical bundles in the academic presentations of colombian phd-level eap students. on the one hand, the review demonstrates that this particular genre has been underexplored not only from a lexical bundle type of methodology but also from other kinds of traditional discursive analysis. on the other, the review also highlights the fact that this lack of exploration can also be said of contexts where english is used as a foreign language. other particular aspects of potential study of lexical bundles in the academic presentation that are presented here and that justify the project include: (a) academic presentations given by phd level students, (b) academic spoken english in the colombian efl context. the proposed research, which this literature review is part of, has the potential to make several theoretical and pedagogical contributions in the fields of corpus linguistics, and foreign language learning and teaching. in the area of corpus linguistics, this research will contribute a description of lexical bundles use in an academic discourse that has not been explored in depth: the academic presentation. this will contribute new information or help to confirm previous studies on similar academic spoken genres such as lectures or seminars. second, it will make an original contribution to the study of academic spoken english in the context of colombian universities; as explained above, there are no accounts of descriptions made of this genre in the colombian context. it will then pave the way for corpus linguistics studies in second language learning in colombia; corpus linguistics studies have been mainly carried out in the study of institutional discourses or regional varieties of colombian spanish. from a practical standpoint, the results of this research will be directly relevant to the colombian education tertiary system in regards to the learning of foreign languages. today, university level institutions are more concerned with providing their students with foreign language learning that accounts for their students’ language needs regarding the divulgation of their work and the adaptation to international academic communities. these institutions can benefit from this research in several ways. first, the results of insights into the use of lexical bundles by colombian learners can inform pedagogical decisions related to what language (vocabulary) should be learned. for example, in the case of high occurrences of negative transfer from l1 to l2 (e.g. in this order of ideas, which the author has identified as a commonly used discourse bundle), more standard discourse bundles to perform the same communicative function would be selected (e.g. based on the above…. lexical bundles in academic presentation nausa no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) 267 following this train of thought…). second, information about transfer from l1 to l2 can be used to facilitate the learning of lexical bundles; for example, teachers might foster cases of similarity and warn or take variability cases as pedagogical aids for teaching. third, information on lexical bundle variation correlated to language proficiency can be used to create cut-scores in program level description; for example, and following hyland (2009), it is expected that more proficient learners use a higher amount and more complex (more than two words) lexical bundles than less proficient learners, which could serve as an aspect to describe different levels of proficiency related to vocabulary knowledge and use. finally, although not necessarily the objective of this research, corpus linguistics analysis of bundles might foster the use of corpora and corpus tools as pedagogical aids for class instruction. references annelie, ä., & erman, b. (2012). recurrent word combinations in academic writing by native and non-native speakers of english: a lexical bundles approach. english for specific purposes 31(2), 81-92. bellés, b. (2006). discourse markers within the university lecture genre: a contrastive study between spanish and north-american lectures. barcelona: universitat jaume.humanities and social sciences faculty. english studies department. biber, d. (2006). stance in spoken and written university registers. journal of english for academic purposes 5(2), 97-116. biber, d., & barbieri, f. (2007). lexical bundles in university spoken and written registers. english for specific purposes 26(3), 263-286. biber, d., & conrad s. (1999). lexical bundles in conversation in conversation and academic prose. in h. hasselard, & s. oksefjell, out of corpora: studies in honor of stig johansson (181-189). amsterdam: rodopi. biber, d., conrad s., & cortés, v. 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(2013). multiword structures in different materials, and with different goals and methodologies. in j. romero-trillo, yearbook of corpus linguistics and pragmatics 2013: new domains and methodologies (77-104). newcastle, uk: springer. evison, j. (2013). a corpus linguistic analysis of turn-openings in spoken academic discourse: understanding discursive specialisation. english profile journal, 3(1), 1-24. halliday, m. (1988). on the language of physical science. in m. ghadessy, registers of written english: situational factors and linguistic features (162-178). london: ols. hunston, s. (2006). corpus linguistics. in k. brown, encyclopedia of language and linguistics (234-248). amsterdam: elsevier. lexical bundles in academic presentation nausa no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) 269 hyland, k. (1994). hedging in academic writing and eap textbooks. english for specific purposes, 13(3), 239-256. hyland, k. 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(2013). formulaic sequences and eap writing development: lexical bundles in the toefl ibt writing section. journal of english for academic purposes, 12(3), 214-225. swales, j. (1990). genre analysis: english in academic and research settings. cambridge: cambridge university press. lexical bundles in academic presentation nausa no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) 270 torres, s. (2013). a role for lexical bundles in the implementation of content and language integrated learing programs in colombian universities. english today, 29(2), 40-45. author * ricardo a. nausa t. holds a b.a. in philology and languages from the universidad nacional de colombia and a m.a. in applied linguistics to tefl from the universidad distrital francisco josé de caldas, colombia. he is currently teaching english for academic purposes at universidad de los andes where he is also the coordinator of the english for doctoral students program. his interests include corpus linguistics, conversation and discourse analysis, teaching of academic writing and oral presentation skills, call, and learning strategies. lexical bundles in academic presentation no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) gistseptiembre2011final2.indd 12 translation priming effect in spanish-english bilinguals1 albeiro miguel ángel ramírez sarmiento2 * institución universitaria colombo americana-única, colombia abstract this article aims to establish the effects of masked priming by translation equivalents in spanish-english bilinguals with a high-intermediate level of proficiency in their second language. its findings serve as evidence to support the hypothesis that semantic representations mediate the mental association among non-cognates from a speaker’s first and second languages as proposed by grainger and frenck-mestre (1998) in their article entitled “masked priming by translation equivalents in proficient bilinguals.” the present article reports the results obtained from a graduation thesis3 written as a requirement for the m.a. degree in linguistics at universidad nacional de colombia. this project was finished in 2009 and was funded by the unit of research administration from the school of human sciences at universidad nacional de colombia, sede bogotá, through the contest “convocatoria de apoyo a trabajos de posgrado 2008-ii”. keywords: psycholinguistics, priming, effect, tachistoscopic tasks resumen el presente artículo pretende establecer los efectos de la preparación oculta a través de equivalentes de traducción en personas bilingües en español-inglés con un nivel intermedio-alto de competencia en segunda lengua. se realizó mediante un diseño pre-experimental de dos tareas taquistoscópicas bajo el paradigma de preparación oculta. los resultados aquí registrados sirven como evidencia para apoyar la hipótesis que afirma que las representaciones semánticas median la asociación mental entre cognados falsos de la primera y segunda lenguas de un hablante. el presente artículo reporta los resultados obtenidos para una tesis de grado4 escrita para obtener el título de magíster en 1 received: january 12th,2011 / accepted: july 22nd, 2011 2 email: angelram84@yahoo.com 3 the graduation thesis was directed by silvia baquero castellanos, professor at universidad nacional de colombia. 4 la tesis de grado fue dirigida por silvia baquero castellanos, profesora de la universidad nacional de colombia. gist education and learning research journal. issn 1692-5777. no. 5, november 2011. pp. 12-24 no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) 13 lingüística en la universidad nacional de colombia. este proyecto finalizó en 2009 y recibió apoyo económico de la unidad de gestión de investigación (ugi) de la facultad de ciencias humanas de la universidad nacional de colombia, sede bogotá, mediante la “convocatoria de apoyo a trabajos de grado 2008-ii”. palabras claves: psicolingüística, priming, efecto, tarea taquistoscópica resumo o presente artigo pretende estabelecer os efeitos da preparação oculta através de equivalentes de tradução em pessoas bilíngues em espanhol-inglês com um nível intermédio-alto de competência em segunda língua. realizou-se mediante um desenho pré-experimental de duas tarefas taquistoscópicas sob o paradigma de preparação oculta. os resultados aqui registrados servem como evidência para apoiar a hipótese que afirma que as representações semânticas mediam a associação mental entre cognados falsos da primeira e segunda língua de um falante. o presente artigo reporta os resultados obtidos para uma tese de graduação escrita para obter o título de mestre em linguística na universidade nacional da colômbia. este projeto finalizou em 2009 e recebeu apoio econômico da unidade de gestão de pesquisa (ugi) da faculdade de ciências humanas da universidade nacional da colômbia, sede bogotá, mediante a “convocatória de apoio a trabalhos de graduação 2008-ii”. palavras chave: psicolinguística, preparação oculta, efeito, tarefa taquistoscópica attempting to directly observe visual word recognition in an individual seems difficult since this is by definition a mental (i.e. internal) process. therefore, researchers interested in exploring this phenomenon have developed indirect methods to obtain data with respect to visual word recognition in a reliable and quantifiable manner. such methods include tachistoscopic tasks, processes of controlled observation during which an individual must give a physical response to a visual stimulus (belinchón, rivière & igoa, 1992). examples of these tasks are lexical decision and semantic categorization, which will be explained below. a lexical decision task (ldt) is a procedure during which an individual must analyze strings of letters that appear in the center of a screen. after reading the letter string, the participant must decide whether it constitutes a word in a previously chosen language or not. for instance, “fresh” is a word in english while “ktmo” is not. the participant’s choice is communicated via a physical response, such as no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) 14 pressing a key. this task provides two types of results: the amount of time in milliseconds required for each subject to report his/her answer, and the number of errors made by each individual during the task (belinchón, rivière & igoa, 1992). a semantic categorization task (sct), also called category verification, is a procedure during which a person must analyze words displayed in the center of a screen. after reading a word, the individual must decide whether it belongs to a specific semantic category (i.e. animals, fruits, etc.) or not. for instance, “orange” is a fruit while “chair” is not. the participant’s choice is reported via a physical response, such as pressing a key. in order to make an accurate decision, the participant must evoke the semantic meaning of the word analyzed found in his/her mental lexicon (balota & chumbley, 1984). this task provides the same two types of results given by a lexical decision task. tachistoscopic tasks can comprise sole letter strings appearing on a screen for the subject to analyze, but they can also provide other types of stimuli that supply additional information about word recognition processes. for example, tasks involving the masked priming paradigm comprise three stimuli: 1) a mask, a string of number signs (####) that usually remains on the screen for 500msec; 2) a prime, a string of letters in lowercase that appears on the screen very briefly (0 to 100msec); and 3) a target, a letter string in uppercase which the participant must analyze in order to make his/her decision. the relevance of the masking priming paradigm lies on the fact that a prime vanishes so rapidly that it is virtually impossible for the participant to consciously see it; instead, it is perceived unconsciously and might, therefore, affect the participant’s recognition of the target (forster, k., 2008). literature review numerous studies about bilingual visual word recognition involving tachistoscopic tasks have been conducted. however, only a handful of them have included non-cognates as their stimuli (de groot & nas, 1991; sanchez-casas, davis & garcía-albea, 1992; gollan, forster & frost, 1997). these studies agree that cognate primes trigger stronger facilitatory effects than non-cognate translation equivalents (gollan, forster & frost, 1997). furthermore, strong facilitatory effects caused by non-cognate translation primes have been found in crossscript priming (i.e. when the two languages do not share the same script, such as french and greek) (voga & grainger, 2007). grainger and frenck-mestre (1998) conducted and experiment that comprises the most important precedent for this project. their translation priming effect ramírez sarmiento no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) 15 research consisted of evaluating the effects of using french words to prime its non-cognate translation equivalents in english during a lexical decision and a semantic categorization task. the participants were native speakers of english who were highly proficient in french and had lived in france for several years. their findings establish that at a duration of 43msec, french primes facilitate the category verification of their non-cognate translation equivalents in english during the semantic categorization task (sct), but no facilitatory effect is observed during the lexical decision task (ldt). this provides evidence that the relationships between non-cognates in a bilingual individual’s mental lexicon are semantically mediated (grainger &frenck-mestre, 1998). method participants twenty students from the b.a. degree in english philology from universidad nacional de colombia participated in this project voluntarily. ten of them were women and ten were men. they were enrolled in the last semester of their b.a. program (i.e. they had studied english as a foreign language for at least 3 and a half years) and had obtained a passing grade on the fce (first certificate in english), a test administered by the british council, which certifies a high-intermediate level of proficiency in english. the average age of the participants was 23.85 (±2.70) years old. before the experiment, they were asked to answer the edinburg handedness inventory (oldfield, 1971) in order to confirm their right-handedness. additionally, they completed a small survey in which they attested that they had never lived in an english-speaking country and did not have a physical or psychological pathology that could interfere with the experiments. design this project comprises two different experiments: one lexical decision task (ldt) and one semantic categorization task (sct). within each task, two different conditions were presented: 1) translation prime (i.e. prime:manzana / target:apple), and 2) unrelated prime (i.e. prime:pereza / target:apple). masked priming was used for the present experiments. hence, each trial included a series of different stimuli, which appeared in black in the middle of a white screen. first, a mask made out of 14 number signs (#) was displayed during 500 msec. second, after the mask disappeared, the prime in spanish in lowercase took its place during 3 refresh cycles (49msec). finally, the target in english appeared in uppercase and only vanished when the participant pressed a key. if the translation priming effect ramírez sarmiento no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) 16 subject did not answer, the software automatically administered the next trial after 7500msec. the font used for the stimuli was arial 14pt. materials due to the methodological differences, the two experiments, lexical decision task (ldt) and semantic categorization task (sct), will be discussed separately hereafter. lexical decision task (ldt). 100 non-cognate translation equivalents in spanish and english were chosen for this task. primes were always given in spanish and targets in english. both primes and targets were selected from lexical databases that held information about word frequency (i.e. the number of times a word appears per million words): n-watch was used for english (davis, 2005) and b-pal for spanish (davis & perea, 2005). the stimuli were chosen from the medium range of lexical frequency (10 to 100 times per million words). the words finally selected had an average frequency of 61.05 times per million (±30.31). all words had from 3 to 12 letters, on average 6.35 letters (±1.14). for negative trials, the author of this project created 100 pseudowords in english. each one of them was formed by changing one or two letters of a real word. these pseudowords were primed by 100 words in spanish taken from the middle frequency range (10 to 100 times per million words) according to b-pal (davis & perea, 2005). in total, 200 targets with their corresponding primes were used for this task. two lists of primes and targets were created: list a, in which the first 50 words in english were primed by their non-cognate translation equivalents, and the last 50 held unrelated primes; and list b, in which the first 50 words were primed by unrelated words in spanish, and the last 50 held their non-cognate translation equivalents as their primes. each participant was only exposed to one list of stimuli (either list a or list b) in order to counterbalance the experiment. each list of stimuli was randomized when presented to the participant by using the dmdx software (forster, j., 2002). semantic categorization task (sct). 60 non-cognate translation equivalents in english and spanish were selected for this task. primes were always given in spanish and targets in english. both primes and targets were taken from lexical lists that compile the most popular items of several semantic categories, also known as category norms. the lists considered for this task were created in english by van overschelde, rawson and dunlosky (2004) and in spanish by pascual and musitu (1980). 6 semantic categories translation priming effect ramírez sarmiento no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) 17 were tested separately: fruits, animals, clothing, insects, furniture and vegetables. the 20 most popular items of each category in english and spanish were considered, and only 10 non-cognates were selected. since this task requires the participant to judge whether a particular word belongs to a semantic category or not, pseudowords were not necessary. instead, 60 different words from other semantic categories (i.e. guns, flowers, etc.) were chosen for the negative trials. these 60 negative trial targets were primed by unrelated words in spanish from other categories (i.e. precious stones, reading materials). as a result, each participant was exposed to 120 targets with their corresponding primes. in order to counterbalance the experiment, each participant was exposed to only one of two different lists of stimuli: list a, in which the first 30 positive trial words in english were primed by its non-cognate translation equivalents, and the last 30 held an unrelated prime; and list b, in which, the first 30 positive trials were primed by an unrelated word in spanish, and the last 30 held their non-cognate translation equivalents as their prime. the dmdx software was implemented to randomize each list of stimuli (forster, j., 2002). equipment one dell desktop computer controlled the administration of the stimuli. it included a crt screen with a vertical refresh rate of 60hz and a screen refresh cycle of 16.66 msec. the software selected to administer the stimuli was dmdx (forster, j., 2002). procedure lexical decision task (ldt). each participant was instructed to sit before a screen, which showed a white background. in the center of the screen, black words in uppercase appeared. each time the participant saw a letter string, he/she had to decide whether it was a real word in english or not. if the word existed, the subject had to press “yes”; otherwise, he/she had to press “no”. after pressing one key, the process started again and repeated itself until 200 trials were completed. semantic categorization task (sct). in this task, the appearance of the screen and the position of the participants were similar to those in the ldt. however, during this task, each time the participant saw a word, he/she had to decide whether it belonged to a specific semantic category or not (i.e. animals). if the word pertained to the category, the subject had to press “yes”; translation priming effect ramírez sarmiento no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) 18 otherwise, he/she had to press “no”. after pressing one key, a new word was administered, with its corresponding mask and prime, until 20 trials were completed. then, a new category was presented with 20 new trials. 6 categories were tested, for a total of 120 trials. results lexical decision task (ldt) mean reaction times (rt) in milliseconds (msec) per experimental condition per participant were calculated after excluding outliners (rts> 1500 msec, 0.7% of the data). these data are given in table 1. table 2 presents the percentage of errors per subject per condition. an anova was performed on the data in order to establish whether significant statistical differences could be found between the two conditions: translation prime (i.e. manzana/ apple), and unrelated prime (i.e. pereza/ apple). table 1 mean reaction times (msec) per experimental condition and participant during the lexical decision task participant translation unrelated 01 678 793 02 631 672 03 833 834 04 701 755 05 670 649 06 602 633 07 678 664 08 649 698 09 777 758 10 852 659 11 1071 918 12 927 860 13 662 677 14 574 548 15 554 558 16 571 589 17 612 604 18 836 849 19 812 925 20 565 608 mean 713 713 standard deviation ±138 ±117 translation priming effect ramírez sarmiento no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) 19 table 2 percentage of errors per experimental condition and participant during the lexical decision task participant translation unrelated 01 0.00% 4.08% 02 0.00% 2.04% 03 10.20% 6.12% 04 4.08% 6.12% 05 2.04% 2.04% 06 2.04% 0.00% 07 0.00% 2.04% 08 4.08% 4.08% 09 2.04% 0.00% 0 0.00% 4.08% 1 14.29% 18.37% 12 4.08% 4.08% 13 0.00% 0.00% 14 2.04% 0.00% 15 2.04% 2.04% 16 2.04% 2.04% 17 0.00% 4.08% 18 2.04% 0.00% 19 6.12% 2.04% 20 6.12% 0.00% mean 3.16% 3.16% standard deviation ±3.71% ±4.11% reaction times during the lexical decision task show no significant differences between translation and unrelated prime conditions [f(1.19) < 0.001, p<0.991]. percentages of errors do not differ significantly either within the two conditions [f(1.19) < 0.001, p<0.999]. semantic categorization task (sct) mean reaction times (rt) in milliseconds (msec) per experimental condition per participant were calculated after excluding outliers (rts> 1500 msec, 0.6% of the data). these data are presented in table 3. table 4 holds the percentage of errors per subject per condition. the data were submitted to an analysis of variance (anova) in order to determine whether significant statistical differences could be found between the two conditions: translation prime (i.e. manzana/ apple), and unrelated prime (i.e. pereza/ apple). translation priming effect ramírez sarmiento no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) 20 table 3 mean reaction times (msec) per experimental condition and participant during the semantic categorization task participant translation unrelated 01 679 772 02 639 690 03 864 930 04 786 857 05 750 727 06 644 621 07 800 817 08 571 629 09 764 902 10 732 827 11 857 1074 12 700 1033 13 717 763 14 821 889 15 581 734 16 606 662 17 653 678 18 912 1092 19 787 1080 20 591 658 mean 723 822 standard deviation ±101 ±156 table 4 percentage of errors per experimental condition and participant during the semantic categorization task participant translation unrelated 01 3.45% 6.90% 02 0.00% 0.00% 03 3.45% 10.34% 04 0.00% 6.90% 05 0.00% 13.79% 06 0.00% 0.00% 07 0.00% 0.00% 08 10.34% 6.90% translation priming effect ramírez sarmiento no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) 21 09 6.90% 6.90% 10 3.45% 17.24% 11 3.45% 17.24% 12 0.00% 6.90% 13 10.34% 6.90% 14 3.45% 0.00% 15 0.00% 3.45% 16 0.00% 3.45% 17 0.00% 6.90% 18 10.34% 3.45% 19 3.45% 0.00% 20 0.00% 3.45% mean 2.93% 6.03% standard deviation ±3.76% ±5.35% reaction times during the semantic categorization task (sct) show priming effects in the experimental condition, which means that the presence of non-cognate translation equivalents in spanish as primes facilitate the categorization of its english counterparts. this facilitatory effect accelerates categorization processes about 99 msec on average. this effect is statistically significant [f(1.19) = 21.703, p<0.001]. likewise, fewer errors were observed under the translation prime condition. this effect is also statistically significant [f(1.19) = 5.147, p<0.035]. comparison of the two experiments a summary of the mean reaction times (rt) in milliseconds (msec) obtained in both tasks is presented in table 5. the same information appears graphically in figure 1. table 5 numeric comparison of the mean reaction times (msec) observed during the lexical decision and the semantic categorization tasks prime/ rts (msec) lexical decision task semantic categ. task translation 713 723 unrelated 713 822 priming effect observed 0 99 translation priming effect ramírez sarmiento no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) 22 figure 1. graphic comparison of the mean reacti on times (msec) observed during the lexical decision and the semanti c categorizati on tasks the previous data evidence the differences in reaction times obtained during the lexical decision task (ldt) and the semantic categorization task (sct), as well as the priming effect absent in the ldt and observed in the sct. reaction time differences between tasks are statistically signifi cant [f(1.19) = 27.99, p<0.001]. discussion the two experiments carried out in this project provide strong evidence that non-cognate translation equivalents in spanish facilitate the visual word recognition of words in english during a semantic categorization task (sct) carried out by spanish-english bilinguals with a high-intermediate level of profi ciency in their second language. however, the same type of priming stimuli used during a lexical decision task (ldt) elicit no signifi cant priming effects. these fi ndings converge with those presented by grainger and frenck-mestre (1998), who discovered that masked priming by noncognate translation equivalents in french caused facilitation during semantic categorization tasks (sct) in english performed by highly skilled english-french bilinguals. on the one hand, this implies that the priming effects obtained during their sct can be extrapolated to other pairs of languages as the one studied in this project (spanish-english). on the other hand, these fi ndings demonstrate that cross-linguistic masked priming effects do not occur exclusively in highly profi cient bilinguals since this project’s participants were only high-intermediate level learners. translation priming effect ramírez sarmiento no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) 23 however, it should be noted that this experiment used primes in the participants’ first language and targets in their second language, which is the opposite directionality to the experiment conducted by grainger and frenck-mestre (1998). the l1-l2 directionality tested in this project might be accounted for the strong effect of facilitation during the sct, which surpassed the one found by previous researchers. this project’s findings serve to corroborate the hypothesis that semantic representations mediate the associations between the words of the first and the second language in a bilingual mind (grainger & frenck-mestre, 1998). this implies that the independent mental lexicons of each language are connected through meanings and not through form; in other words, bilinguals associate equivalent noncognate words in their second language with the meanings of the words of their first language and not with their forms. for that reason, when participants are asked to make lexical decisions in a second language, their first language knowledge seems not to collaborate. in contrast, when subjects need to categorize items in semantic groups, they must refer to meaning; hence, their first language knowledge facilitates their choices. references balota, d.a. & chumbley, j.i. (1984). are lexical decisions a good measure of lexicalaccess? the role of word frequency in the neglected decision stage. journal of experimental psychology: human perception and performance, 10, 340–357. belinchón, m., rivière, a. & igoa, j.m.(1992). psicología del lenguaje, investigación y teoría. madrid: trotta. davis, c.j. (2005). n-watch: a program for deriving neighborhood size and other psycholinguistic statistics. behavior research methods, 37 (1),65 70. davis, c.j.& perea, m. (2005). buscapalabras: a program for deriving orthographic and phonological neighborhood statistics and other psycholinguistic indices in spanish. behavior research methods, 37 (4), 665 – 671. de groot, a.m.b.&nas, g.l. (1991). lexical representation of cognates and non-cognates in compound bilinguals. journal of memory & language, 30, 90–123. translation priming effect ramírez sarmiento no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) 24 forster, j. (2002). dmdx display software. retrieved september 24, 2008, from:http://www.u.arizona.edu/~kforster/dmdx/dmdx.htm forster, k.i. (2008). masked priming. retrieved september 24, 2008, from:http://www.u.arizona.edu/~kforster/priming/index.htm gollan, t.h., forster, k.i.& frost, r. (1997). translation priming with different scripts: masked priming with cognates and non-cognates in hebrew-english bilinguals. journal of experimental psychology: learning, memory, and cognition, 23, 1122–1139. grainger, j. &frenck-mestre, c. (1998).masked priming translation equivalents in proficient bilinguals. language and cognitive processes, 13, 601 – 623. oldfield, r.c. (1971). the assessment and analysis of handedness: the edinburgh inventory. neuropsychologia, 9, 97-113. pascual, j. &musitu, g. (1980). normascategoriales. psicológica, 1 (2), 157 – 174. sanchez-casas, r.m., davis, c.d.& garcia-albea, j.e. (1992). bilingual lexical processing: exploring the cognate/non-cognate distinction. european journal of cognitive psychology, 4, 293–310. van overschelde, j.p., rawson, k.a. &dunlosky, j. (2004). category norms: an updated and expanded version of the battig and montague (1969) norms. journal of memory and language, 50, 289 – 335. voga, m., & grainger, j. (2007). cognate status and cross-script translation priming. memory & cognition, 35, 938–952 the author * albeiro miguel ángel ramírez sarmiento is a linguist dedicated to research. he holds an m.a. degree in linguistics from universidad nacional de colombia, and a b.a. degree in modern languages from pontificia universidad javeriana. he worked at unica as a linguistics teacher. his research interests involve psycholinguistics, second language acquisition, and lexical processing. e-mail: angelram84@yahoo.com translation priming effect no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) 220 revisiting the issue of knowledge in english language teaching, a revision of literature reconsiderando el tema del conocimiento en la enseñanza del inglés, una revisión de la literatura. adriana castañeda-londoño2* universidad distrital francisco josé de caldas, colombia abstract in the following literature review, i set out to show an analysis of the main developments regarding the study of in-service english teachers’ (ielts) knowledge. in the first part, i trace scholarly work regarding the topic at the national and international levels. i bring up both poststructuralist and decolonial perspectives to problematize the concept of teacher knowledge base (shulman 1987, 2005). by means of research profiling and data base search, articles and trends related to the issue of teachers’ knowledge were found. the analysis suggests that there are two core trends in the study of english teachers’ knowledge in colombian publications. the first shows that there are studies which revolve around backing up the concept of knowledge base. the second one shows that few studies take up a different perspective towards the study of english teachers’ knowledge. key words: teacher knowledge; decolonial perspective in elt; knowledge base; resumen en el siguiente texto de revisión bibliográfica, me propongo mostrar un análisis de los principales desarrollos concernientes al conocimiento de los docentes de inglés en ejercicio. en la primera parte, realizo un rastreo de trabajos teóricos y de investigación relacionados con el tema a nivel nacional e internacional. traigo a colación perspectivas posestructuralistas y decoloniales para problematizar el concepto de conocimiento de base desarrollado por shulman (1987, 2005) por medio de perfiles y búsqueda en bases de datos, se 1 received: october 18th 2018/ accepted: april 30th 2019 2 adricalo29@gmail.com gist education and learning research journal. issn 1692-5777. no.18 (january june 2019). pp. 220-245 castañeda-londoño no. 18 (january june 2019) no. 18 (january june 2019) 221 encontraron artículos y tendencias relacionados con el tema del conocimiento profesoral. el análisis sugiere que hay dos tendencias principales en el estudio del conocimiento de los docentes de inglés. la primera muestra que hay estudios que giran en torno a reforzar el concepto de conocimiento de base. la segunda muestra que muy pocos estudios involucran una perspectiva diferente acerca del estudio del conocimiento profesoral de los profesores de inglés. palabras clave: conocimiento docente; perspectiva decolonial en enseñanza de inglés; conocimiento de base. resumo no seguinte texto de revisão bibliográfica, proponho-me a mostrar uma análise dos principais desenvolvimentos referentes ao conhecimento dos docentes de inglês em exercício. na primeira parte, realizo um rastreamento de trabalhos teóricos e de pesquisa relacionados com o tema a nível nacional e internacional. menciono perspectivas pósestruturalistas e decoloniais para problematizar o conceito de conhecimento de base desenvolvido por shulman (1987, 2005) por meio de perfis e pesquisa em bases de dados, encontraram-se artigos e tendências relacionados com o tema do conhecimento professoral. a análise sugere que existem duas tendências principais no estudo do conhecimento dos docentes de inglês. a primeira mostra que existem estudos que giram em torno a reforçar o conceito de conhecimento de base. a segunda mostra que muito poucos estudos envolvem uma perspectiva diferente sobre o estudo do conhecimento professoral dos professores de inglês. palavras chave: conhecimento docente; perspectiva decolonial em ensino de inglês; conhecimento de base. el conocimiento es sólo una de las representaciones de la existencia.3 josé vasconcelos 3 knowledge is just one representation of existence (author’s translation) castañeda-londoño no. 18 (january june 2019) no. 18 (january june 2019) 222 introduction in this text i intend to develop the main theoretical tenets that support the study of in-service english language teachers’ knowledges as well as provide an overview of the principal research developments concerning this topic first at the local level and then in the mainstream arena locating myself in a decolonial conceptual position. in the first part of the article readers will find first an exploration of when, where and who has published research or theory in relation to the concept of teachers’ knowledges. in the second part, i posit a decolonial standpoint in order to ground a critique of the universalizing aim of the concept of teachers’ knowledge base, acknowledging my bias that no knowledge can further advance if arguments are given from the same epistemological ground that one scrutinizes. i will then move on reviewing some of the main academic works in the topic of english language teachers’ knowledges and a few contributions from colombian researchers in other areas. afterwards, i will argue for a decolonial disciplinary elt knowledge by bringing up traditional and critical complex standpoints towards in-service english language teachers’ knowledges. at the end, i will draw some concluding remarks. profiling scholarly work about teachers’ knowledge. in this article the term “profiling” is being used as suggested by porter, kongthon & lu (2002). one of the aims of profiling research is to facilitate finding research trends by means of text-mining (examining numerous abstracts in databases). some questions that are answered by means of research profiling are: how many articles have been produced in certain area? who builds up the research community interested in the topic? profiling is not meant to substitute a literature review. rather it is intended to further it at the macro level by finding out tendencies and relationships beyond the few articles that can be found manually when surfing databases. to trace research concerning teachers’ knowledge, i used the bibliometric analysis provided by the database scopus in april 2017. to do this, a time spam between 1963 and 2017 was selected. based on statistics provided by the database and information it displayed by country, number of publications and source, some conclusions were drawn. for example, in the 60s, the intellectual work concerning teachers’ knowledge appears to be emergent with a scarce dissemination of 1or 2 articles in this decade up to the mid-70s. by the end of the 70s and the 80s between 3 and 12 articles were available. the 90s showed that the articles production in the area doubled. from around 14 to 27 articles were published. in the period 2001-2010 articles publication about teachers’ issue of knowledge in english language teaching castañeda-londoño no. 18 (january june 2019) no. 18 (january june 2019) 223 knowledge increased fivefold. finally, between 2011 and 2014 there was a steady rise in articles publication from 203 to 259. figure 1. source: scopus, retrieved march 31st 2017 figure 2. source: scopus, retrieved march 31st 2017 as for the geographical location and journals, it can be said that academic production regarding teachers’ knowledge has been particularly distributed as follows: the us with more than 1000 articles, australia and the uk with almost 200 articles, canada with more than 100 articles, and turkey, israel, netherlands, spain, germany, and brazil with less than 100 publications. issue of knowledge in english language teaching castañeda-londoño no. 18 (january june 2019) no. 18 (january june 2019) 224 if journals are ranked considering the biggest amount of documents on the subject of teachers’ knowledge we have: journal of mathematics teacher education (65), journal of teacher education (45), teachers and teaching theory and practice (40), international journal of science education (39), journal for research in mathematics education (34), international journal of science and mathematics education (33), educational studies in mathematics (30), journal of research in science teaching (30), journal of science teacher education (28), and research in science education (28). particularly in the english language teaching field, the following journals were found to have some articles regarding the topic in this way: tesol quarterly (11), language awareness (6) elt journal (3). from this research profile, i infer that the interest towards teachers’ knowledge started in the mid-80s and has increased five times after 2001. most research has been concentrated in math, science, teacher education, and to a lesser extent in the english language teaching field. moreover, the production has been mostly carried out in anglo or european countries. this inference will come to support what i will further argue in the next parts of the text. a decolonial perspective towards english language teachers’ knowledges despite the word knowledge is singular in the english language, i use the more flexible and embracing word knowledges (sousa santos, 2007, 2009) along the document. by knowledges, i not only refer to teachers’ experiences, theories, beliefs, actions, and skills (díaz maggioli, 2012) that teachers are supposed to hold but i am also considering the realm of the knowledge that has been made invisible or silenced by the western canon of thought. in the same way, two ideas should be clarified here –decoloniality and decolonial turnin order to better understand the perspective, i am going to introduce. according to quijano (2007) ‘decoloniality’ exposes how european/north american ideas and peoples imposed themselves as cognitive models to be followed. particularly, the scheme of knowledge production followed a pattern of “knowledge as a product of a subject/object relation” (p. 172) in which the subject is the european/north american while other people are the object of study –or the consumers of their knowledge as i have elsewhere pinpointed out (see castañeda-londoño, 2018). quijano (2007) overtly unmasks that “only european culture is rational, it can contain ‘subjects’ –the rest are not rational, they cannot be or harbor ‘subjects’. as a consequence, the other cultures are different in the sense that they are unequal, in fact, inferior by nature. they can only be ‘objects’ of knowledge or/and of domination practices” (p. 174). this author calls for a liberation of knowledge production from “the pitfalls of european rationality/modernity” (p. 177) and the recognition of the “heterogeneity of reality” (p. 177). issue of knowledge in english language teaching castañeda-londoño no. 18 (january june 2019) no. 18 (january june 2019) https://www-scopus-com.hemeroteca.lasalle.edu.co/sourceid/145202?origin=resultsanalyzer&zone=sourcetitle https://www-scopus-com.hemeroteca.lasalle.edu.co/sourceid/145202?origin=resultsanalyzer&zone=sourcetitle https://www-scopus-com.hemeroteca.lasalle.edu.co/sourceid/13354?origin=resultsanalyzer&zone=sourcetitle https://www-scopus-com.hemeroteca.lasalle.edu.co/sourceid/5700156763?origin=resultsanalyzer&zone=sourcetitle https://www-scopus-com.hemeroteca.lasalle.edu.co/sourceid/5700156763?origin=resultsanalyzer&zone=sourcetitle https://www-scopus-com.hemeroteca.lasalle.edu.co/sourceid/12694?origin=resultsanalyzer&zone=sourcetitle https://www-scopus-com.hemeroteca.lasalle.edu.co/sourceid/21424?origin=resultsanalyzer&zone=sourcetitle https://www-scopus-com.hemeroteca.lasalle.edu.co/sourceid/144837?origin=resultsanalyzer&zone=sourcetitle https://www-scopus-com.hemeroteca.lasalle.edu.co/sourceid/144837?origin=resultsanalyzer&zone=sourcetitle https://www-scopus-com.hemeroteca.lasalle.edu.co/sourceid/25961?origin=resultsanalyzer&zone=sourcetitle https://www-scopus-com.hemeroteca.lasalle.edu.co/sourceid/23621?origin=resultsanalyzer&zone=sourcetitle https://www-scopus-com.hemeroteca.lasalle.edu.co/sourceid/144732?origin=resultsanalyzer&zone=sourcetitle https://www-scopus-com.hemeroteca.lasalle.edu.co/sourceid/144732?origin=resultsanalyzer&zone=sourcetitle https://www-scopus-com.hemeroteca.lasalle.edu.co/sourceid/97030?origin=resultsanalyzer&zone=sourcetitle https://www-scopus-com.hemeroteca.lasalle.edu.co/sourceid/4000150501?origin=resultsanalyzer&zone=sourcetitle https://www-scopus-com.hemeroteca.lasalle.edu.co/sourceid/5700177114?origin=resultsanalyzer&zone=sourcetitle https://www-scopus-com.hemeroteca.lasalle.edu.co/sourceid/5700177114?origin=resultsanalyzer&zone=sourcetitle https://www-scopus-com.hemeroteca.lasalle.edu.co/sourceid/145597?origin=resultsanalyzer&zone=sourcetitle 225 the decolonial thought, for asher (2013) is related to a communal project of critique towards the european modernity born in latin america that exposes the colonial effects on the latin american cultures. within this movement the actual birth of the modernity world system is historically located in the conquest of the americas. the decolonial choice aims at digging into the knowledge and experiences “of those who have been on the borders of colonial modernity” (asher, 2013, p. 833) bhambra (2014) differentiates decolonial thought (from 1492 on) from postcolonialism (19th-20th centuries) in that the former was begun by latin american intellectuals in diaspora while the latter was begun by middle east and south asian intellectuals while in the same diasporic condition and using concepts from poststructuralists such as foucault. drawing on alvarado (2015), i locate myself in an epistemological decolonial ground. thus, i bring up the fact that the academia disseminates knowledge/power relations that are rooted in the couple coloniality-modernity4. one result of this convergence is the rejection of knowledges produced in the periphery. i hope the reader does not see the next lines as patronizing but as a way to reflect on the nature of our ideas in elt and the ways in which our voices can be heard in the broader elt landscape with identity(ies), feelings and experiences of our own. ruiz solórzano (2016) suggests having a more critical and less foreign epistemic standpoint in the development of the latin american social sciences as current analytical frameworks fall short in accounting for the various social and cultural happenings that have historically occurred and that are currently occurring that consistently intend to globalize and homogenize the world. for ruiz solórzano (2016) the fragmentation of knowledge as a consequence of its institutionalization is a fact in the social sciences. this criticism can also fit in the elt arena. aligned with that view, i would like to make the case that in our elt field there has also been what some scholars (e.g. dussel, 1998; quijano, 2008) call coloniality of knowledge. thus, within this view, local teachers’ knowledges have been made to be fragmented, stratified, or tested (gonzález, 2009) to control their production and teachers’ self-regulation. specifically in colombia, noguera ramirez (2005) backed up in foucault (1976) suggests of pedagogy and pedagogical research as “subdued knowledges” (p. 43) because academia has failed to recognize them as such by subtle mechanisms like their dilution in other disciplines (e.g. psychology or sociology), by concealing their history within socioeconomic frames or by constructing the teachers as intellectuals controlled by knowledges produced in other disciplines. issue of knowledge in english language teaching castañeda-londoño 4 the concept of coloniality is used to describe the intellectual, linguistic, and economic effects that colonialism left in the planet earth. geographical colonialism already finished but intellectual coloniality still remains. no. 18 (january june 2019) no. 18 (january june 2019) 226 the elt field as an academic discipline itself has regulated the legitimation of the “teachers’ knowledge base” concept (shulman 1987) as a scientific discourse in our field that comes from the cognitive sciences. one difficulty with this perspective is that there is a tendency to unify the concept of knowledge. this problem stems from the european modernity and that is why, the so-called universal character of the anglo european experiences does not leave room for other forms of knowledge, therefore, these world views turn out to be the only valid ones. this northern conceptualization is prone to be problematized in the latin american, more specifically, colombian periphery. for ruiz solórzano (2016) the current intellectual framework does not reflect the historical reality, and the “accumulated knowledge” (p. 30) does not make further sense because in the periphery, we are establishing knowledge within frames that are not ours. consequently, other ways of knowing are not explored, understood, or allowed. in asher’s (2013) words “coloniality normalizes” (p.834) therefore its current hegemonic stance takes away our capability of figuring out other possible ways of seeing the world, constructing or tracing knowledge. one effect is that in-service efl teachers may not dare to explore or conceptualize what knowledge entails for them. that is why, zemelman (2012) cited in ruiz solórzano (2016) states that if we are interested in constructing knowledge we cannot just focus on recounting what has already been produced or framed within dominant discourses with universality biases. instead, we should frame our thoughts in our various latin american mindsets as we see reality differently. however, these claims, in real life practices scholars tend to fail to achieve such deeds. in the next section, i will outline some of such cases in the local elt field. by now, i would like to bring up colombian scholar fandiño (2013), who says that teacher education programs (teps) “must not see teaching as a static and prescriptive activity. instead, they should regard it as a dynamic process characterized by reflection and change” (p. 90) nonetheless, most scholarly work in the elt local field appeals to shulman (1987), calderhead (1988), freeman and johnson (1998), wallace (1991) -to name just a few scholars for positioning their own knowledge production. as the epistemologies of the south (sousa santos, 2009) put forward, there is need to spot the different colonial practices (either portuguese, french, iberian, british or north american). therefore, it is my intention here to unpack some of such practices of coloniality especially those carried out in the local elt academia. what i mean is, much academic work in elt follows canonic patterns of thought which oftentimes validate current knowledge production from other places that may not reflect local realities. consequently, the continuous backup of our local intellectual work in anglo-american or european authors, in my view, entails a lack of detachment issue of knowledge in english language teaching castañeda-londoño no. 18 (january june 2019) no. 18 (january june 2019) 227 from the north-colonial-modern mindset. what this puts forward is that we are in deep need of exploring the other knowledge (el saber otro, alvarado, 2015), the one constructed in this part of the world which involves a completely different episteme from those of europe or north america. for escobar (2007) the “saber otro” relates to what walter mignolo calls “un paradigma otro” which should not be understood as just another paradigm in latin america. escobar (2007) defines it as “another way of thinking that runs counter to the great modernist narratives (christianity, liberalism, marxism)” (p. 180). this paradigm situates its research agenda in “the borders of a system of thought and reaches towards the possibility of non-eurocentric models of thinking” (p. 180). within this decolonial stance, there is need to acknowledge what freire (1997) calls the awareness that we, as human beings, are unfinished and if that is so we do not benefit from a universalizing, fragmented, instrumental, static view of knowledge but from unveiling the other knowledge, the one that has been subdued or made invisible. if, as freire (1997) suggests, we cultivate the power to critically observe the way we exist in the world, reality and therefore knowledge, are ongoing processes of becoming; we are thus unfinished and so is reality. i want to finish this section with a story. once i heard that eagles were able to renew themselves when they turned 40 so they could live up to 70. such a renewal was painful as they had to pluck their own feathers, knock their beak off and get rid of their talons. i marveled at the story of the eagle in its capacity to be reborn. while writing this text my memory resorted to this story to relate it to the decolonial epistemology; i actually thought of it as a metaphor that exemplified a decolonial perspective in our elt education considering that we teachers, were “eagles” that wanted to renovate by getting rid of our deeply rooted modern and colonial ways. when i intended to document myself “scientifically” to make a good argument, my grounds to believe in the story and use it as a metaphor just vanished. to my surprise the story of the eagles was just another self-help story of strength as eagles would eventually die if they dared to remove their beaks, feathers or talons. i was astonished at my naivety. still, this discovery made me reflect that what counts as knowledge always needs to be revisited and this is the primary intention of the next lines. contemporary efl colombian thought regarding english language teachers’ knowledges. to give an account of the colombian scholarly activity concerning a conceptualization of in-service english language teachers’ (ielts) knowledges in the colombian context, i looked for articles in which the topic of teacher knowledge was taken as the main area of interest. i analyzed issue of knowledge in english language teaching castañeda-londoño no. 18 (january june 2019) no. 18 (january june 2019) 228 the titles and abstracts of 11 journals, namely: lenguaje (2004-2017), from universidad del valle; matices (2008-2015) and profile (2000-2017) from universidad nacional; revista colombiana de educación (2008-2017) and folios (1990-2017) from universidad pedagógica nacional; how (19972017) from the colombian association of english teachers; ikala (1996-2017) from universidad de antioquia, gist (2007-2016) from unica; colombian applied linguistics journal (2003-2017) and enunciación (2006-2016) from universidad distrital francisco josé de caldas, and paideia (1992-2016) from universidad surcolombiana. the following review of articles is about but not bound to the in-service elt field, this is basically because scholars in other branches of education (e.g. initial teacher education, pre-service teachers, teacher education) have mainly, dealt with the issue of teachers’ knowledge. in fact, the topic has been more explored in initial teacher education than in in-service teaching. from normative to avant-garde views of in-service english language teachers’ (ielts) knowledges. in this part of the paper, i document two trends in the elt academia related to in-service english teachers’ knowledges. the first trend consists of comprehensive literature reviews and research papers by authors whose view regarding teachers’ knowledge consider shulman’s (1987) conceptualization of teachers’ knowledge base consisting of core areas such as disciplinary knowledge, pedagogical knowledge, knowledge of learners or knowledge of educational ends. the second trend is that there are also emergent research studies whose aim is to position knowledge from a different standpoint, for example from a narrative perspective. for pineda baez (2002) in her theory-based article, a definition of the english teacher knowledge base is paramount, especially when it comes to evaluating “if teacher preparation programs are meeting the standards for excellence in education” (p. 9). thus, it can be inferred that one of the reasons why teacher knowledge is important relates to a frame of external evaluation. similarly, understanding what knowledge base entails is of interest for bettering the quality of teaching practices, the author says. in the past, she says -presumably before shulman’s modelteacher’s knowledge was thought of mere learning of pedagogical and subject matter skills. although pineda baez (2002) acknowledges that a single response to the quest for teacher knowledge is problematic, she resorts to shulman’s (1987) model of knowledge base to equate different categories of english teachers’ knowledge to shulman’s model. for example, content knowledge would relate to semantics, phonology, syntax, etc. interestingly, she warns that teachers issue of knowledge in english language teaching castañeda-londoño no. 18 (january june 2019) no. 18 (january june 2019) 229 must be ready to challenge this knowledge and suggests that initial teacher education is just a small part of the continuous preparation teachers should have. regarding the concept of general pedagogical knowledge, the author relates it to teaching strategies, decision-making, and classroom management. pedagogical content knowledge is connected to the examples, demonstrations, and means through which the subject matter (english) is made manageable which is exemplified by the author in terms of the grammar examples, the designed materials and the reading and writing skills and tesl/tefl methods. curricular knowledge would involve knowing the programs of the school scheme. knowledge of learners would relate to being able to adapt teaching methods to different efl/esl populations and the knowledge of cognitive process students develop to learn (content reception, storage, retrieval etc.). and finally, the concept of knowledge of educational goals and philosophical bases does not go far beyond shulman’s own view of knowing the society expectations of the type of human being that is expected to be educated. still, pineda baez (2002) does highlight that another component must be added to the teacher knowledge base and is precisely the recognition of teachers and teachers-tobe as knowledge producers through research. even though the author positions in a normative epistemology of ielts’ knowledge, this final remark is of interest to a decolonial standpoint for elt education in the sense that research allows finding situated meanings and practices that could not be found otherwise. cardenas and suárez (2009) inquired about the origins and components of five pre-service teachers’ knowledge base and the process they had followed to build it. the authors ground their work in four constructs. they are a) teacher education which refers to the whole educational process people follow to become competent teachers through academic and field work, b) pre-service teaching which the authors define as the period in which teachers-to-be will receive the knowledge they require to teach, c) teaching practice which is a period during course work in which “theory and practice come together” (p. 116) and d) knowledge base which is defined –quoting shulman (2005) “as the amalgam of knowledge, skills, and dispositions that underline the capacity to teach effectively” that is comprised of subject knowledge, tenets of inquiry, ability to turn content into understandable ideas for students, knowledge of learners etc. (shulman, 2005 in cardenas and suárez, 2009 p. 116). through a phenomenological interview, journals and a survey, they found that the teachers’ knowledge base resulted from first, all the involvement participants had along their lives with academic contexts (from kindergarten to university), second, reading theoretical constructs in their coursework, third, pre-service teachers’ experience with real life classrooms, fourth, classmates and lectures, and fifth, partaking with their own learners. for the participants, the knowledge base is composed of language knowledge, knowledge of issue of knowledge in english language teaching castañeda-londoño no. 18 (january june 2019) no. 18 (january june 2019) 230 students, and pedagogic knowledge. the authors concede that the concept of knowledge base by shulman (1987, 2005) has been the founding element of other studies concerning teachers’ knowledge and their own. the authors extend our understanding of how some local teachers come to build the repertoire of ideas that shulman calls the knowledge base. however, these categorizations might have shortcomings when accounting for an analysis of how the lived experience of diverse knowledges come to interact in the social practices. in a similar vein, the experience of partaking with learners is not given a stronger value as a source of knowledge for teachers. an exploration of five teacher educators and five novice teachers ‘awareness of the sources for pedagogical knowledge was carried out by macias (2013). this author was interested in finding the ways teachers learned about the act of teaching in times in which teachers’ knowledges are tested by means of students’ standardized examinations. data were collected using semi-structured interviews and analysis of syllabi and curriculum documents of classes such as didactics, teaching practicum i, ii, iii, and pedagogy. the author takes the construct pedagogical knowledge from shulman (1986b and 1987) who conceptualizes it as “teachers’ accumulated knowledge about the act of teaching that serves as the foundation for their classroom behavior and activities” (shulman 1986b and 1987 in macias 2013 p. 100). in the literature introduced by the author, four sources of efl teachers’ knowledge are apparent. they are a) knowledge about teaching developed from the time students were at elementary or high school, b) knowledge gotten from learning to teach at coursework in the bachelor’s degree, c) knowledge coming from experience, and d) knowledge taken from a research process. the author found that for the novice participants the principal source of knowledge was their b.a degree course work. for the teacher educators, the b.a degree as well as the m.a studies were just a couple among many other sources. novice teachers also asserted to have increased their pedagogical knowledge by observing other teachers despite the scarce opportunities the curriculum provided for those observations. the third source of knowledge considered by both novice and teacher educators is the classroom experience. the fourth source of knowledge found was the teachers’ personal epistemologies. the final source of knowledge was research. through this study, two types of knowledge are validated from previous work by shulman (1987), namely, knowledge from experience and knowledge from research. macias (2013) advances in the discussion of knowledge through the recognition of personal epistemologies and previous learning experiences as other sources of teachers’ knowledge. if a comparison is drawn between macias (2013), cardenas and suarez (2009), and shulman (1987, 2005) one can get to see that the concept of knowledge base would not be a static category. these studies intended to find what the sources for a knowledge base were. the findings showed issue of knowledge in english language teaching castañeda-londoño no. 18 (january june 2019) no. 18 (january june 2019) 231 different results from which i infer that the concept of base may be actually a misconception because what might entail a core or a base for some people is different from what it entails for others. a revision of literature about knowledge and efl teachers by fandiño (2013) shows his main concern is to define what knowledge base is when it comes to effective teaching in the context of efl teacher education programs (teps). the first author cited is shulman (1987) with his -already mentioned herefive dimensions of knowledge (content, pedagogy, curriculum, context, educational ends). then, fandiño (2013) focuses specifically on language teaching and refers to lafayette (1993) to mention competence and knowledge about language, culture, second language acquisition and applied linguistics as the domains of english teachers’ knowledge base. day (1993)’s model is also cited. it concerns teachers’ knowledge based on knowledge of teaching practices (preparing the lesson, managing the class), support knowledge (linguistics, sociolinguistics, and other disciplines that inform language teaching and learning), content knowledge (structural aspects of the english language). freeman and johnson (1998)’s conceptualization of english teachers’ knowledge is also mentioned with six elements: “theories of teaching, teaching skills, communication skills, language proficiency, subject matter knowledge (specialized disciplinary knowledge), pedagogical reasoning and decision making, and contextual knowledge (educational, linguistic, policies)” (fandiño, 2013, p. 86). other scholars mentioned in fandiño’s review are tarone & allright (2005) who extended freeman and johnson’s (1998) model with knowledge of “second and foreign language learner” (fandiño, 2013, p.87) as we have seen, day (1993), lafayette (1993), freeman & johnson (1998) among others are cited in fandiño (2013) to carry out his analysis of teachers’ knowledge base. these scholars in turn draw inevitably on shulman’s (1987) conceptualization of knowledge base. it could be said that ideas such as general pedagogical knowledge, subject matter knowledge, curricular knowledge, knowledge of educational contexts and learners, or knowledge of educational ends, first proposed by shulman (1987) are tailored for the english teaching profession. if freeman and johnson (1998) are traced back, one can notice that although the concept of knowledge base was questioned, it did not advance much further. hence, although fandiño (2013) states that teachers-to-be need to develop their own voice so that their knowledge base improves (my emphasis), the core conceptualizations of what teacher knowledge base is have remained almost the same since the mid-1980s. still, fandiño (2013) reflects that the intricate nature of efl teps and the multiple factors that impact teacher knowledge make it difficult to develop a single way to prepare colombian efl teachers’ knowledge for the various socio-cultural aspects faced in classrooms. issue of knowledge in english language teaching castañeda-londoño no. 18 (january june 2019) no. 18 (january june 2019) 232 the author proposes to use systematic inquiry to move from mere reflective practices to help pre-service teachers “generate a voice of their own” (p. 93) mendieta aguilar (2011) researched teachers’ narrative knowledge. the study aim was to find the ways in which teachers’ narrative knowledge about foreign language teaching molded and characterized the curriculum stories that existed in the classroom. narrative interviews, concept maps, and biodata surveys were used to collect data. three english teachers, from a private university language department, were the research participants. the author states that the interplay between life experiences, beliefs, teachers’ knowledge and the curriculum somehow affect language learning. her findings construct the participants as being learners, teachers, and curriculum makers. three ways were found in which narratively speaking teachers experienced knowledge. they are directly related to each research participant. the first category unveiled three standpoints towards knowledge. the first teacher “adopted a student-centered approach to language teaching” (p.97), through which he detached from the fixed curriculum and developed his own understanding of it. this theme shows a teacher concerned with fostering communication and avoiding some textbooks meaningless activities. the second teacher “adopted a goal-oriented approach to language teaching” (p. 98) in which she intended to allow learners have interaction with thoughtprovoking activities that ultimately helped them reach the objectives preestablished by the curriculum. even when having a product-oriented view, the teacher also pinpointed the tensions between a standards and testingbased curriculum given by the institution and her view that such a curriculum demands a lot in terms of content for a short time spam which could hinder results. the third teacher “adopted a language-oriented approach to language teaching” (p. 99) in which the main emphasis was to develop an appropriate command of the language so learners could be successful at communicating. these three approaches to knowledge drove the researcher to characterize the first participant as an experiential and interaction-driven language teacher, the second participant as a strategic and goal-oriented language teacher and the third participant as a fun-driven and language-centered teacher. mendieta aguilar (2011) concludes that the three teachers’ narrative knowledge emerged as something unique to each one, despite their membership to a particular teacher community. their distinctive teaching, learning, and experiences had molded their knowledge and beliefs systems. drawing on clandinin (1985), the author suggests that personal practical knowledge is the sort of knowledge that is permeated with the experiences that build a person’s being. to this inference, she adds: “the type of curriculum these three teachers lived and co-constructed with their students, and which they transformed with varying frequency, was issue of knowledge in english language teaching castañeda-londoño no. 18 (january june 2019) no. 18 (january june 2019) 233 all mediated, filtered and informed by their personal practical knowledge and the external factors previously described” (p. 104) the final salient idea coming from this study is that there is an urgent need to value, comprehend and spread teachers’ narrative knowledge because it is a fertile ground of exploration of the teaching practices. from a decolonial perspective applied to ielts’ knowledge, mendieta aguilar’s finding that narrative knowledge emerged as something unique to each teacher helps problematize a normalized view of teachers’ knowledge, namely, that there is such a thing as a knowledge base that is the same for all teachers in the world. according to this research, knowledge base would not comprise a set of general theories but much more contextualized knowledge experiences that have been made invisible because of the universalist character that the concept of knowledge base has come to have. more recently other local authors have studied issues related to teachers’ knowledge from a different vantage point and probably advancing the understanding of teachers’ knowledge. interested in what it is like to experience elt in rural colombia, cruz arcila (2018) used seven teachers’ narratives, field observations and interviews to see enactments of “wisdom of practice5” and “personal theories” (p. 67) of rural efl teachers in different regions of colombia. through his interest in digging into teaching practices that were socially pertinent for the teaching and learning in contexts of rural colombia, the author found at least four instances of personal theories that inform teacher knowledge in elt, namely, teaching english through prayer, translanguaging, locally suited materials design, and multimodal literacy practices with students cell-phones and teachers’ own resources, voices, and ideas. the author wisely suggests that there may be a great number of other teaching practices that possibly constitute what can be considered the enactments of local practices of knowledge. in a similar vein, quintero polo (2019) reports on his study of the transformations of general pedagogical knowledge considering tenets of critical pedagogy, research and context sensitive practices by student-teachers of an elt major in bogotá. with a view that pedagogy is informed by critical theory and opposed to traditional ways of approaching teaching and learning, quintero polo (2019) analyzes how student-teachers demonstrate they are not “transmitters of ready-made knowledge” (p. 29) by means of diaries, interviews and analysis of their research projects. the author counters the idea issue of knowledge in english language teaching castañeda-londoño 5 the concept of “wisdom of practice” was mentioned in shulman (1987) as one of the sources of teacher’s knowledge. at that time, he asserted that “the final source of the knowledge-base is the least codified of all. it is the wisdom of practice itself, the maxims that guide (or provide reflective rationalization for) the practices of able teachers. (p. 11) no. 18 (january june 2019) no. 18 (january june 2019) 234 that knowledge should be “an external body of information for people” as this view is prone to conceptualize “the knower as separated from the known” (p, 29). in that train of thought, he brings up the general categorization of shulman’s teachers’ knowledge base to go beyond it and trace a view of knowledge as composed of “theories and practices activated by contextualization and the sharing of individual and collective dimensions” (p.30) upon analysis of student-teachers research experiences and innovative practices, his findings suggest that student-teachers underwent a process of negotiation of their professional and academic selves with their own students, theory and what they experienced in real life. pedagogy proved to be something socially constructed. student-teachers’ qualitative pieces of research went beyond instructional practices of elt to focusing on knowing and understanding learners a lot better and most importantly having a view of language as a vehicle for getting something else. decolonially speaking, the concept of knowledge base has had a universalizing aim. what i mean is that much research, as reviewed here, is intended to accommodate local teachers’ experience to the concept of a core or a base, something to anchor to. such an intention clearly clashes with the fluctuating nature of people’s identities, evolution, and standpoints. an evidence of this argument is found in four out of seven authors reviewed in this part of the document. what is apparent here is that in some colombian contexts, teachers’ knowledge has been investigated to validate what shulman (1987, 2005) established. this realization invites to denaturalize this view which has started to change in recent years as reported in studies by cruz arcila (2018) and quintero polo (2019). other areas of colombian academia researching teachers’ knowledges. quintero corzo, torres hernández and cardona toro (2011) from the department of educational studies at universidad de caldas in manizales colombia, developed a teaching program and a subsequent contest framed within the premise that teachers’ pedagogical knowledge is made observable through writing as it allows to explain scattered teaching experiences. by means of writing, the teaching practices become an intellectual endeavor. fourteen teachers of rural, urban, marginal, secondary, and university education from different parts of caldas colombia participated for two years in workshops, group and individual tutoring sessions to write about their pedagogical knowledge in a narrative style. the authors pinpoint that each educational setting has its own actors and teachers who commit to write their stories manage to turn their life experiences into practical wisdom. the teacher life story contest, the authors conclude, helps pave the path to fill a gap in issue of knowledge in english language teaching castañeda-londoño no. 18 (january june 2019) no. 18 (january june 2019) 235 the colombian academic field: “the written memory of teachers’ knowledges” (p.297). this contribution by quintero corzo et al (2011) invites to develop a colombian school of thought that systematizes the knowledge production of those who work in educational settings, who might not be mainstream actors in the academic field and whose hidden knowledge could be documented. up to here, it was my intention to provide evidence regarding the way knowledge has been studied locally. i found most studies draw on shulman’s model of knowledge base and very few come with another paradigm. in the following section i will make a deeper analysis of the concept of knowledge base to account for its origin, evolution and a likely deconstruction. historizing elt disciplinary knowledge, a critique of the concept of knowledge base english teachers’ knowledge has been highly regulated epistemologically speaking. indeed, it is a discipline that does not escape phenomena happening in general education. postmodern critical thinker kincheloe (2001) says that the modern view of the world infused all aspects of life and particularly education as knowledge is defined a priori. to a great extent the concept of teacher knowledge base follows this line of thought; it is an a priori category that intends to prescribe what teachers ought to know. it may entail that the act of teaching or what is required for it is generic. one wonders how the concept of teacher knowledge base has come to be what it is now. i will now attempt to historize this matter. donmoyer (1996) gives us some hints at the historical roots of this concept. he says that back in 1910, educational psychologist edward thorndike promoted psychology as a science that could possibly unveil every human behavior and describe each educational force. in the same spirit, he explains, educational administrator elwood cubberly (1909) compared schools to factories and children to products. these two scholars give an account of the strong modern scientific/managerial approach given to educational problem solving and the legitimation given to the scientific method as a source of knowledge about education. (thorndike, 1910; cubberly, 1909 cited in donmoyer (1996)). at that time, there was already an emerging interest in finding teachers’ knowledge base. for donmoyer (1996) the thorndike’s effect lasted until the mid-70s. thus, through this time spam, there was a heavy dependence on the so-called process-product paradigm whose main interest was to find teachers’ behaviors that resulted in pupils’ learning results. donmoyer asserts that the thorndike tradition was pervasive in influencing how research was theorized in education as its role was to find and corroborate recipes for practice and practice consisted of “systems, techniques, routines, issue of knowledge in english language teaching castañeda-londoño no. 18 (january june 2019) no. 18 (january june 2019) 236 and standard operating procedures” (p. 96)3. this concept started to change as an emerging interest in teachers’ thoughts started. however, the search for a knowledge base did not finish there (as we will later see in this article). similar descriptions are found in beyer (1987) in his chapter “what knowledge is of most worth in teacher education?” he exposes that in the north american tradition there was, at the time of his writing, “a reliance on psychometric analyses, isolated technical competence, linear thinking and instrumental reason” (p. 19). he describes that teacher education there, was seen “in hierarchical, patriarchal, technocratic, and psychologized terms” (p.19). the hegemonic culture in the preparation of teachers fostered “positivism and technical rationality” (p.19). what beyer (1987) calls “technocratic rationality” (p.20) is a system that is based on: “competency-based teacher education, the testing of teachers, apprenticeship-based clinical teacher education, systems management approaches to curriculum development and program evaluation, behaviorist psychologies, and the nature of national accreditation and state licensing requirements” (p. 20) to me, it is necessary to denaturalize this normativity because that tradition of technocratic rationality has had an immense influence in this part of the world where this vision of teachers’ knowledge has also been adopted. therefore, in what follows i would like to extend this analysis to the sociopolitical context of educational psychologist lee shulman’s (1987) times in which he advanced the concept of knowledge base. it is my intention to make a clearer case on how the concept of teacher knowledge base is a product of standardization and an attempt to raise regulations of the profession more than an epistemological positioning towards what it means to teach and to know. first, let us consider that the mid 1980s was a time of educational reform that intended to professionalize teaching in the usa. shulman (1987) persuasively said that the professionalization of teaching was a way to “elevate teaching to a respected, rewarding, better rewarded occupation” (p.3) he brought up a discourse circulating at that time. it was that teaching merited professional recognition based on the idea that “standards by which the education and performance of teachers must be judged and can be raised and [be] more clearly articulated” (p.4) people who wanted the reform – shulman says maintained that there was such a thing as a teacher knowledge base defined as “codified, codifiable, aggregation of knowledge, skill, 6 in my view, this sort of behaviorist influence has continued to exert power in subtle ways in elt. the methods, for example, are in some way techniques, routines and operating procedures that delineate teachers’ actions that are supposed to end up in learning results. issue of knowledge in english language teaching castañeda-londoño no. 18 (january june 2019) no. 18 (january june 2019) 237 understanding, technology, ethics and dispositions of collective responsibility as well as a means for representing and communicating it” (p.4). shulman (1987) criticized them for not clarifying what that meant saying: “the rhetoric regarding the knowledge base, however, rarely specifies the character of such knowledge. it does not say what teachers should know, do, understand or profess that will render teaching more than a form of individual labor, let alone be considered among the learned professions” (p.4) hence, it is in this context in which shulman crafts an argument regarding content, character, and sources for a knowledge base of teaching that suggests, according to him “an answer to the question of the intellectual, practical and normative basis for the professionalization of teaching” (p.4) framed in his locus of enunciation as a cognitive psychologist the work he did was tied to two projects, one of implementing a national board of teacher assessment and one of systematic observation of how novice teachers learned to teach. within these parameters, shulman (1987) asserts that: “cognitive psychology research contributes to the development of understanding how the mind works to store, process, and retrieve information. such general understanding can certainly be a source of knowledge for teachers just as the work of piaget, maslow, erickson or bloom has been and continues to be” (p. 11). in this sense, i align with critical pedagogue kincheloe (2001) when he reflects upon the fact that psychology has been summoned to say what teaching should entail and basically the act of teaching is not in the hands of the teachers. instead the scientific management of teaching is left in the hands of outside experts, like shulman who observed how experienced and novice teachers learned to teach in order to formulate standards. this results in the teacher saying nothing about his/her teaching and how to judge its results but being the object of study. contemporary scholar of shulman, tom (1987) highlighted an underlying assumption of their epoch by reformers like the holmes group4: “if only more research-derived knowledge were given to teachers, their performance would be dramatically improved” (holmes group executive board, 1986 cited in tom 1987, p. 9). however, tom (1987) argued that “a more useful source of such knowledge than discipline-based study is a teacher’s own inquiry into his or her classroom activities and experiences” (p.9). still, this other approach did not resonate at that time. issue of knowledge in english language teaching castañeda-londoño 7 schneider and hood (1994) describe the holmes group as an american network of university deans which intended to carry out reforms in teacher education through research in the eighties. one of their intentions was to make teaching a profession and one of its reports asks for strict standards to enter and leave teacher preparation programs. at that time, the group was criticized for being elitist and lacking substantial impact in their research. no. 18 (january june 2019) no. 18 (january june 2019) 238 kincheloe (2001) explains that during the reagan and bush periods of presidency (1980-1993) “teachers’ hands are tied and exercise no control over the curriculum. they leave the system [that is the undergrad school] without having been educated. school was intellectually irrelevant. standardization turns out to be cognitive anesthesia” (p. 22) still, even though shulman (1987) acknowledges that “the great danger occurs… when a general principle is distorted into prescription, when maxim becomes mandate” (p. 11) it turned out that his model did become prescription, at least, in what concerns the elt field. freeman and johnson (1998) attempted to re-conceptualize the construct of knowledge base by transcending the historical and theoretical tenets of the 70s and 80s. they recognize the conditions under which the concept of teacher knowledge base was to be reformed. the authors recall that in the 80s, there was concern regarding the absence of an academic base for language teaching. the same that had been happening in general education. they explain that classroom inquiry was intended to establish efficient teaching actions, appropriate students’ results and classroom exchanges that derived in effective language learning backed up “in teaching skills, or modeling effective teaching behaviors” (p. 398). i think there was a regime of truth which established that teachers lacked a knowledge base so that the implementation of standardization had a legitimization in english teaching as well, despite attempts made in the 80s to see teaching and learning as social, interpretive constructions prone to change as those of clandinin (1986) cited in freeman and johnson (1998). even though the authors propose a shift from a behavioral to a constructivist view, the concept of knowledge base prevails. in fact, freeman and johnson (1998) appointed language teacher education to be responsible of defining what the knowledge base should be in elt education. in that sense, they say that the judgments teacher educators make regarding knowledge management (e.g. content, pedagogies) reveal teacher educators’ conceptualization on how people learn their profession and they can define “what is worth knowing and how it is best learned by those individuals who seek to become part of the profession” (p. 403) still again under the assumption that decisions made by teachers should consider effective outcomes: “teacher educators must examine and assess these choices and decisions against the effectiveness of the outcomes they engender” (p. 403) consequently, the concept of efficacy remains with the label “teaching effectiveness”. these ideas entail that it is the academy the one that defines what knowledge base is; it the one holding the power to determine it. in short, the knowledge base continues to mask an intention to police english teaching moving from one discipline to another but keeping the objective of effectiveness and the static concept of base. in my view, indeed, it is relevant to develop a new relation to knowledge. in that sense, i agree with freeman and johnson (1998) when stating that the issue of knowledge in english language teaching castañeda-londoño no. 18 (january june 2019) no. 18 (january june 2019) 239 tesol area has not keenly intended to outline its ways of knowledge. i would add that most of them are borrowed from cognitive psychology5. cochransmith & lytle (1993) suggest that good teachers do not need to turn into experts of a knowledge base but stand in a position of analysis of their own knowledge and seeing students as knowers as well. this premise is based on the assumption that: “teachers can only come to know how to teach and how to learn from teaching by being attentive to the classroom interactions… knowledge generation is both the purpose of teaching and the subject of her own research” (p. 47). in this view, it is teachers and students who, within the classroom, outline what knowledge is. kincheloe (2001) states that “psychological models of cognition overlook the matter of critical power, of the capacity people have to detach from tacit presuppositions, discursive practices, and power relations” (p. 38). therefore, he proposes different ways of knowing from a critical pedagogy perspective. kincheloe (2004) wonders what types of knowledges professional educators should possess in times when teaching is a profession constantly at risk of being deskilled. teachers may be waving between fads, which without solid foundations, to understand past and present socio-cultural theories and advances, they could not develop an identity of their own. his locus of enunciation is that of a critical complex vision of teachers viewed as knowledge producers targeting the development of more coherent answers to what it implies to know and the moral duty behind that act. his “metaepistemological” (p. 51) perspective aims to rethink the challenged concept of a “knowledge base for education”(p.51) within this view, there is the recognition of different types of knowledges of education “including but not limited to empirical, experiential, normative, critical, ontological, and reflectivesynthetic domains” (p. 51). the author points out that teaching is preeminently an epistemological act. munby and russell (1996) cited in kincheloe (2004) argue that teaching “depends on, is grounded in, and constitutes knowledge”. thus, teachers should develop empirical knowledge that underscores observation as a source of knowledge but more importantly they should have the awareness that research is situated, and researchers do have ideologies, disciplinary knowledge, and experiences that restrict their studies. similarly, the knowledge produced is constructed and fragmented and does not seek universal validity. for him, “in a critical complex perspective there is not certain issue of knowledge in english language teaching castañeda-londoño 8 this is so from mainstream northern elt epistemology and in the south, we are still aligned with that view. thus, the work in the south is even harder to accomplish when it comes to develop an elt knowledge of our own as we would need to dialogue with both cognitive psychology/mainstream/colonial views on in-service language teachers’ knowledge and southern perspectives towards elt. no. 18 (january june 2019) no. 18 (january june 2019) 240 knowledge about: what subject matter to teach; the proper way to develop a curriculum; the correct understanding of students or the right way to teach” (p. 52). such knowledge is always elusive. similarly, teachers’ experiential knowledge is believed to be paramount. a second kind is called by kincheloe (2004) normative knowledge about education. it relates to “what should be” (p. 55) concerning the moral and ethical conduct of teacher educators and teachers. normative knowledge aims to have demanding colleges/schools/departments of education and schools of various kinds. this knowledge is not randomly formed but coherent with power relations, social objectives and cultural/historical settings. of course, the concern for moral and ethics, kincheloe explains is grounded, for instance, in his experience with social justice research in which colleagues asked him to offer empirical proof of the validity of those worries. thus, moral and ethical assumptions are to be examined and deliberated and actually exposed in the academic arena. the third kind of knowledge proposed by kincheloe (2004) is critical knowledge about education. it revolves around “the political/power-related aspects of teacher education and teaching” (p. 56). this sort of knowledge problematizes how the curriculum –knowledge selection, means to deliver information, ways to construct understanding, evaluationare not apolitical. it is in straight antagonism to positivism that conceives of curriculum as preestablished knowledge to be given to learners. this sort of knowledge unmasks the role of education colleges in power relations derived from governmental intervention in the college life and the concealed intent to make education respond to ideologies such as neoliberalism and human capital. in a similar vein, there is an interest in unveiling how the categories of gender, class, or ethnic origin develop along the educational processes. another type of knowledge proposed by this author is an ontological one. it entails the ways teachers see themselves as teachers and as learners, especially what they feel they require to learn, where they must study it, the way in which this happens, and how these actions characterize their teacher persona. here there is the underlying assumption that: “if teachers hold power to produce their own knowledges, then they are empowered to reconstruct their own consciousness” (kincheloe, 2004, p. 58). the final type of knowledge is named experiential knowledge about education. the importance of these sort of knowledges cannot be downplayed. their epistemology is knowingly different from empirical or academic knowledges but develop relations with other knowledges already mentioned here earlier on. they come out of the unexpected experiences that occur while teaching. such disruptions in the established order force the practitioner to restructure his/her understanding of the situation. “critical complex issue of knowledge in english language teaching castañeda-londoño no. 18 (january june 2019) no. 18 (january june 2019) 241 practitioners learn to improvise and develop new ways of dealing with the new circumstances, new modes of action” (kincheloe, 2004, p. 59). through this perspective, it can be seen here that a conceptualization of knowledge cannot solely rely on cognitive perspectives such as the ‘knowledge base’. other realms of the human condition should also be considered, and other definitions and ways of perceiving knowledge should come into play. a concluding remark i constantly experience having stepped in arenas that do not represent a comfort zone in the sense that since my undergraduate school, i have been infused by colonial thought in elt and paths to detach from such a world system are uncertain, unknown and underexplored. while reviewing literature, i realized that my own knowledge of the latin american academia, particularly the colombian one was scarce and thus i had to commit to investigate my own roots to fully embrace a decolonial spirit. in this review, it was my intention to show different local academic developments and how elt mainstream colonial authors have become the tenets of what knowledge means in the local elt profession. i would like to finish quoting steinberg (2015) as she best summarizes the spirit of this manuscript: “tefl educators must understand the conditions and effects of knowledge production, while engaging in knowledge production themselves” (p. 17) this is specially the case here considering that in order to produce knowledge that represents the local realities, there is need to reflect how knowledge production has historically happened. there is need to inquire how english language teachers experience knowledge with a perspective that gives them voice as intellectuals who have been silenced (apple, 2006). that way, we could possibly overcome abyssal thinking (sousa santos, 2007) that has policed the boundaries of what is considered teachers’ knowledge and has decided what the true procedures, practices, contents, models, and discourses should be like in english language teaching grounding the elt epistemology in a static framework. it seems to me that teachers’ knowledges have historically been conceptualized from a modern vision of a fixed canon of one single knowledge-base and there is a myriad of reasons for the need to de-naturalize such a view. issue of knowledge in english language teaching castañeda-londoño no. 18 (january june 2019) no. 18 (january june 2019) 242 references alvarado, j. 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(eds). changing american education: recapturing the past or inventing the future? albany: state university of new york press. sousa santos, b. (2007). beyond abyssal thinking. revista crítica de ciências sociais, 1-33. sousa santos, b. (2009). una epistemología del sur. la reinvención del conocimiento y la emancipación social. mexico, ed. siglo xxi clacso. steinberg, s.r., (2015) employing bricolage as critical research in tefl in vicars, m., steinberg, s. r., mckenna, t., & cacciattolo, m. (eds.) the praxis of english language teaching and learning (pelt): beyond the binaries: researching critically in efl classrooms. new york, ny: springer. tom, a. (1987). replacing pedagogical knowledge with pedagogical questions in w john smyth (ed.) educating teachers: changing the nature of pedagogical knowledge (9-17). london, falmer press. wallace, m. (1991). training foreign language teachers: a reflective approach. cambridge: cambridge university press. issue of knowledge in english language teaching castañeda-londoño no. 18 (january june 2019) no. 18 (january june 2019) https://www.journalusco.edu.co/index.php/paideia/article/view/1149/2241 https://www.journalusco.edu.co/index.php/paideia/article/view/1149/2241 245 author *adriana castañeda-londoño is an english teacher educator. she holds a m.a degree in applied linguistics to the teaching of english and is currently pursuing her phd degree in education at universidad distrital francisco josé de caldas in bogotá colombia. her research interests are related to teacher education, particularly, poststructuralist, postcolonial and decolonial debates about elt education. orcid: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8360-4528 **this text is part of the chapter of literature review for the doctoral dissertation english teachers’ experiences of knowledge in the doctorado interinstitucional en educación at universidad distrital francisco josé de caldas emphasis in english language teaching. issue of knowledge in english language teaching castañeda-londoño how to reference this article: castañeda-londoño, a. (2019). revisiting the issue of knowledge in english language teaching, a revision of literature. gist education and learning research journal, 18, 220-245. https://doi.org/10.26817/16925777.452 no. 18 (january june 2019) no. 18 (january june 2019) https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8360-4528 https://doi.org/10.26817/16925777.452 _hlk9575766 _hlk526623052 _hlk526623433 _hlk6142970 _goback 6 becoming language teachers: exploring student-teachers’ identities construction through narratives1 volviéndose profesores de idiomas: exploración de la construcción de identidades de docentes en formación a través de narrativas nancy maría torres-cepeda and bertha ramos-holguín2* universidad pedagógica y tecnológica de colombia, colombia abstract this paper reports on the findings of a qualitative narrative study. its aim was to analyze what student-teachers’ narratives unveiled about the construction of their identity as language learners, and the connections made with being future in-service teachers. this study, which was carried out with undergraduate students from a public university in tunja, was the product of permanent interaction and dialogue with student-teachers in their initial teaching experiences. narratives, in-depth interviews, and journals were used as data collection instruments. data were analyzed using the grounded theory approach. the results suggest that student-teachers construct and re-construct their identities as language learners and future teachers across classroom interactions and their empowerment through teaching and reflection. key words: identity; language learners’ identities; teacher identity; classroom interaction; second language acquisition. resumen este artículo presenta un informe de un estudio cualitativo-narrativo que tuvo como objetivo analizar qué develaban las narrativas de docentes en formación en relación con la construcción de su identidad como estudiantes de idiomas y su conexión como futuros profesores de inglés. este estudio, que se llevó a cabo con estudiantes de pregrado de una universidad pública en tunja, fue el producto de un proceso de interacción y diálogo permanente con docentes en formación sobre sus experiencias 1 received: february 23rd 2018/ accepted: march 12th 2019 2 nancy.torres9302@gmail.com; bertha.ramos@gmail.com torres-cepeda & ramos holguingist education and learning research journal. issn 1692-5777. no.18 (january june 2019). pp. 6-27. no. 18 (january june 2019) no. 18 (january june 2019) mailto:nancy.torres9302@gmail.com mailto:bertha.ramos@gmail.com 7 iniciales de enseñanza. se utilizaron narrativas, entrevistas en profundidad y diarios de campo como instrumentos de recolección de datos. los datos se analizaron utilizando el enfoque de la teoría fundamentada. los resultados sugieren que los maestros en formación construyen y reconstruyen sus identidades como estudiantes de idiomas y futuros docentes con base en las interacciones en el aula y su empoderamiento a través de la enseñanza y reflexión. palabras clave: identidad; identidades de los estudiantes de idiomas; identidad del maestro; interacción en el aula; adquisición de un segundo idioma. resumo este artigo apresenta um relatório de um estudo qualitativo-narrativo que teve como objetivo analisar o que revelavam as narrativas de docentes em formação, em relação com a construção da sua identidade como estudantes de idiomas e a sua conexão como futuros professores de inglês. este estudo, que se realizou com estudantes de graduação de uma universidade pública em tunja, foi o produto de um processo de interação e diálogo permanente com docentes em formação sobre suas experiências iniciais de ensino. foram utilizadas narrativas, entrevistas em profundidade e diários de campo como instrumentos de coleta de dados. os dados se analisaram utilizando o enfoque da teoria fundamentada. os resultados sugerem que os mestres em formação constroem e reconstroem as suas identidades como estudantes de idiomas e futuros docentes com base nas interações na sala de aula e a sua apropriação através do ensino e reflexão. palavras chave: identidade; identidades dos estudantes de idiomas; identidade do mestre; interação na sala de aula; aquisição de um segundo idioma torres-cepeda & ramos holguin no. 18 (january june 2019) no. 18 (january june 2019) 8 introduction in the field of education and research, there has been an increase in interest related to teacher identity. being involved in educative practices requires that the academic community understands a myriad of factors underpinning teaching and learning practices. when stakeholders, administrative staff, teachers and students are aware of who they are, what they need, and the factors influencing their teaching and learning processes on a daily basis, they are capable of making more informed decisions and implementing changes in the curriculum. teacher identity has been of great concern to teacher education (bullough, 1997) because it discovers the principles needed to better understand the nature of teaching and learning. identity has taken on various definitions in literature, but there is a common perspective that is shared by some authors. identity implies an ongoing, dynamic, complex, subjective, multifaceted, and contradictory process (beijaard, paulien, meijer, & verloop, 2004; flores & day, 2006; pavlenko & blackledge, 2004) in the construction and (re)construction of one’s core selves based on experiences, values, beliefs, and imagined representations in society. according to the subject’s position in distinct contexts, a sense of self or selves emerges to attribute meaning to a person’s lived experiences and emotions. most research studies on teacher identity have been conducted with inservice teachers, while few others have been carried out with student-teachers in second language acquisition (sla henceforth) environments. in the latter context, language student-teachers are enrolled not only in a process of acquiring the language per se, but also learning how to teach it. studentteachers also experience a large number of fluctuating issues as learners and as beginner-teachers. some of these fluctuating aspects are related to the transitional change between being a student and becoming a teacher. this transitional change is worth exploring and understanding in order to inform and encourage teacher education programs to foster contextualized teaching practices. this is because the transition from student to teacher is a dynamic, day-to-day process that implies changes, adaptations, and sometimes, dramatic experiences. these experiences make part of the construction and reconstruction of their selves as learners and future language teachers as well. since “learning to become an effective teacher is a long and complex process” (flores & day, 2006, p.219), student-teachers’ experiences can provide a descriptive understanding on these processes, which can help in making informed decisions in teacher education programs. therefore, teacher educators are emphatically required to open spaces for student-teachers to reflect and express about the essence of their education student-teachers´ identities construction torres-cepeda & ramos holguin no. 18 (january june 2019) no. 18 (january june 2019) 9 and future. several factors are involved in the construction of positions, perceptions, and understandings of what it means to become a language teacher in today’s society. this narrative study reports the insights of thirteen student-teachers in a process of identity construction as language learners and their connections with becoming future english as a foreign language (efl henceforth) teachers. the student-teachers are english language learners from a public university in colombia and who are on the path of becoming future english language teachers. in their daily academic endeavors, student-teachers face a myriad of challenges. they have difficulties with the linguistic and research components presented in their first semesters. once they advance in the teacher education program, student-teachers might struggle with the pedagogical component as well. when student-teachers are in their eighth semester, they start their english teaching experiences at schools. this means that student-teachers go through the transition of being students to being teachers. a change like this can invoke a combination of emotions in student-teachers, as it entails extra responsibilities and workload. thus, they experience physical and psychological adaptations. during this transitional process, we were able to converse with the student-teachers. we identified that student-teachers do not make their own decisions while planning their english classes, but rather they request support from the teacher educator and homeroom teacher at school. in this vein, teacher educators partake in the decision-making process of student-teachers. this implies a significant responsibility not only with the teacher education program, but also with the community. in such a way, teacher educators and student-teachers are invited to embark together on the path of learning to teach collaboratively as a common goal to be met. thus, reflection and dialogue play a crucial role in hearing student-teachers’ voices in order to analyze and make changes in the design of teacher preparation programs. by doing so, student-teachers’ needs are met as language learners and future efl teachers. having spaces for reflection, career guidance, and counselling are factors involved in the construction of identity learning (geijel & meijers, 2005). we believe that if student-teachers receive support in their vocational decision, they might assure their professional conviction and commitment as language learners and future teachers. given that in sla environments, discourse, interaction, and dialogue play a meaningful role, teacher educators might influence the ways student-teachers construct their identity as learners. such an influence in identity construction is mediated by discourses constructed amid the interactions carried out in the sla educational environment. discourses are written or oral texts that can be interpreted from student-teachers´ identities construction torres-cepeda & ramos holguin no. 18 (january june 2019) no. 18 (january june 2019) 10 different perspectives. participants make meaning from these interpretations which are constantly changing to contribute in identity construction. as discourses are sources to meaning-making and rich in subject knowledge, speakers might have the power to position the audience within different domains: learner, writer, participant, among others. this position influences the construction of identity of individuals. in the classroom, the speaker is the teacher who might position learners within discourse practices. language, identity and power are interconnected terms that have influences in shaping one’s identity. thus, discourse is a powerful tool to help student-teachers construct their identity as language learners. a discourse can change ways of thinking, elicit new perspectives of perceiving oneself as an individual, learner, member of a society, among others. in this vein, as language learners are immersed in an interactional environment mediated by discourses, these have influence not only over student-teachers’ meaningmaking process, but also over positions they assume as language learners and future teachers. then, discourses permeate the dayto-day academic endeavor of teacher educators and language learners in the learning and teaching processes. as identity is constructed and re-constructed by daily lived experiences, we believe that in a language learning environment, discourses are sources of thinking and re-thinking one’s identity. thereby, identity is constructed within diverse discourses or interactions (norton, 2011). from this, discourses need to emerge from suitable experiences from learners and teacher educators to better understand phenomena in the educational context. this understanding might lead student-teachers to reflect upon who they are as learners and future in-service teachers, what they expect from their teaching practices and their future professional goals to be met. suitable experiences are necessary in teacher education programs to approach a situated pedagogy, as sometimes the theoretical foundations offered to student-teachers are seldom related to real contexts, preventing student-teachers from tailoring these theories to practical teaching realizations (korthagen, 2010). in such a way, student-teachers’ experiences as language learners set spaces for reflection upon the necessity of contextualized teaching practices mediated by discourses. reflective practices provide insights on possible ways how student-teachers eventually ascribe themselves as future in-service teachers: reflective professionals. given that identity is constructed amid the dynamics of interweaving different domains such as discourses, interactions, reflection, identification, sense of belonging, and beliefs about knowledge constructed in sla contexts; identity construction relates to two main terms: personal epistemology and communities of practice. on the one hand, personal epistemology refers to the clustered beliefs and ways of thinking of student-teachers towards knowledge and knowing (hofer, 2001). personal epistemology encompasses student-teachers´ identities construction torres-cepeda & ramos holguin no. 18 (january june 2019) no. 18 (january june 2019) 11 elements such as “beliefs about the definition of knowledge, how knowledge is constructed, how knowledge is evaluated, where knowledge resides, and how knowing occurs” (hofer, 2001, p. 355). the previous elements constitute some dimensions in identity construction of student-teachers as they retake their past lived experiences as learners, they share their beliefs about knowledge and knowing in sla contexts, they evaluate their learning process in order to set prospects about themselves as future in-service teachers on the other hand, communities of practice emerge as a result of members’ interaction. a community of practice can be defined as the group of individuals who not only belong a community, but who share common interests, concerns and desires aiming to interact and learn from each other (wenger, 1998). the members of a community of practice construct altogether a social identity, which is framed by the common dimensions developed in such a community. in this study, student-teachers construct their language identity as they engage in a learning environment. they share the conviction and interest of becoming future in-service teachers, so they learn from each other in every interaction carried out in the sla environments. in such a community, student teachers have a sense of belonging, they feel identified with, and their voices are heard. thereby, discourses mediate the mutual learning occurring in the community of practice, which could unveil insights on “how collective discourses shape personal worlds and how individual voices combine into the voice of a community” (sfard & prusak, 2005, p.15). literature review identity in second language acquisition identity is defined as one’s core self (or senses of self). it is usually referred to as one’s identification with a particular social group, the emotional ties connected with that group, and the meaning one gives to that connection. a widely accepted view of identity is the one posited by pavlenko and blackledge (2004) that defines identity as “a dynamic and shifting nexus of multiple subject positions, or identity options, such as mother, accountant, heterosexual, or latina” (p. 35). on the other hand, norton (2000), well-known for her theories on identity and language learning, conceives identity as: …how a person understands his or her relationship to the world, how that relationship is constructed across time and space, and how the person understands possibilities for the future. i argue that sla theory needs to develop a conception of identity that is understood with reference to larger, and more frequently inequitable, social structures which are reproduced in day-to-day social interaction. (p. 5) student-teachers´ identities construction torres-cepeda & ramos holguin no. 18 (january june 2019) no. 18 (january june 2019) 12 in her more recent work, norton (2011) posits that identity, or subjectivity, as it is called under the poststructuralist framework, “is defined as multiple, contradictory, and dynamic, changing across historical time and social space” (p. 172). in other words, there is no “real me”. thus, the subject position is “constructed within diverse discourses or sites of practice” (p. 172). the methodology used to investigate identity and agency has been based on four methods: case study methods, narrative inquiry, ethnographic research and conversation analysis or discourse analysis; and, of course, any combination of these methods. actually, it would be fair to say that a combination of narratives from the participants (conversation, discourse, narratives, etc.), mixed with direct observation, would constitute an encompassing enough method to ascertain results that reflect both self-image and understanding of the participants’ own learning processes. in the first studies done on identity in the field of sla, the items related to identity were considered static, clear-cut variables to which individuals ascribed or were ascribed to in a non-problematic manner. these variables were age, gender, social class, ethnicity, language variety and place of birth. there were a number of studies that analyzed both how different identity groups were constructed by others and how their linguistic varieties were actually different (duff, 2012). “identity was operationalized as the degree or strength of ethnic or linguistics identification with one’s own (l1) group in relation to other groups” (duff, 2012, p.3). the main objectives of these studies (gumperz, 1982) were to identify how identity, especially linguistic identity, affected the way people learned and performed in l2 and how to optimize their performance in very specific interactions, like job interviews. when people are bilingual or immersed in contexts where more than two languages are spoken, they tend to affiliate themselves with one language. this affiliation was not static, rather it was dynamic. this also the true for identity, and in this case, linguistic identity. zentella (1997) argued that linguistic identity “is not a given, an automatic membership granted by birthplace, parentage or an accumulation of linguistic features, cultural artifacts or group customs with meanings that can be definitely interpreted” (p.3). therefore, individuals are constantly constructing their linguistic identity similar to the construction of social identities. in more recent studies (norton, 2010; duff, 2012), a more dynamic perspective on identity and identity related variables is being used. a concept that has been proposed is that of “possible selves”, instead of one static notion of “self”. genung’s (2002) account of her own experience as a chinese language learner proves that students start a course with expectations and different levels of expertise in the language they are trying to learn. however, the specific student-teachers´ identities construction torres-cepeda & ramos holguin no. 18 (january june 2019) no. 18 (january june 2019) 13 interactions that take place in the classroom restructure these expectations, redirect objectives, and provide informed results of the courses. defining someone by means of one identity feature, such as ethnic or social background, does not allow the possibility to see someone’s abilities, roles and acts of agency that might be personal and that would construct a more dynamic image of a “self”. learners can actually choose to play a role that identifies them and gives them a place in the classroom. those roles might be class clown, nerd, party animal, and many others. additionally, their academic results will most likely reflect those expected for players of these roles. theory of identity and classroom activities’ development literature suggests that a text does not have a single meaning as it is a product of a given time and context (locke, 2004). therefore, several meanings may arise from reading the text, which can change the interpretation of the identities of the participants. it is inevitable and necessary to state that one of the most important consequences of the current theory of identity for classroom development is that, provided the right context to discuss the meanings of a given text, a situation can be created in which the identities of the participants are changed. thus, the interpreter of the text, usually the teacher, possess the power to position the writer as a learner, rather than a knower, and vice versa. this fact can have huge implications for students, since they might feel empowered when their diverse voices are heard as valid accounts of reality represented in their narratives. needless to say, this process of empowerment will only enrich the discussion on the topic, as well as improve students’ participation and motivation toward the class and learning in general. furthermore, the theory of identity or subjectivity follows the poststructuralist term “investment” in identity construction. norton (2011) suggests that investment is different from motivation, since a student can be highly motivated to learn a language, but at the same time, not invested in the practices of the classroom. this can occur when she or he perceives the way in which the discourse is distributed or administered plays against her or his possibilities to develop further her or his linguistic skills. for example, if time for speaking is only allotted to people with above average linguistic skills, the student might think that this practice is highly discriminatory and will withdraw from participating in classroom activities, or even from the class altogether. since interactions are constructed every day in each class, it is important for teachers to be aware of the processes of identity constructed through interaction. for example, teachers can administer equal speaking time so as to not discriminate students because of their linguistic level, gender, age, student-teachers´ identities construction torres-cepeda & ramos holguin no. 18 (january june 2019) no. 18 (january june 2019) 14 ethnicity, etc. by taking these processes of identity construction into account, motivation, as well as investment, will be enhanced once learners feel their discourses and identities are respected and can be developed equally among everyone else’s (norton, 2011). in fact, teachers may not only ask themselves if students are motivated, but if the classroom language practices address students’ hopes and desires about the future. the concept of identity is not only important for classroom linguistic practices, but it is relevant for administrators and policy makers. they too must consider the fact that the essentially changing nature of teachers’ and students’ identities impact the effectiveness of the teaching-learning process. likewise, if teachers are actively aware of the complex, multi-layered nature of identity, they may improve not only motivation but also investment in their classrooms. methodology the research methodology is deliberately framed within a qualitative paradigm because emphasis was made on gaining deep and humanized understanding of the dynamic and complex process of student-teachers’ identity construction in classroom activities (norton & mckinney, 2010). this study followed some principles of narrative inquiry research, in which storytelling becomes a powerful tool to make sense of the world, to attribute meaning to experiences participants have lived. in other words, “humans are storytelling organisms who, individually and socially, lead storied lives. the study of narrative, therefore, is the study of the ways humans experience the world” (connelly & clandinin, 1990, p. 2). in such a way, trying to comprehend the other, the world, and one’s reality is the core of this research study to make sense of student-teachers’ stories. as gadamer (2002) states “it is not the word what we can see: it is the universe what we try to comprehend”3 (p. 68). context and participants this study was carried out with 13 student-teachers from a public university in tunja (colombia). they are enrolled in the eighth semester of the modern language program. this program focuses on educating future english language teachers. these studentteachers have just finished developing their linguistic skills, and they recently embarked on their first teaching experiences as part of the requirements for the english didactics i course. in the didactics i course, student-teachers are immersed in three areas: theoretical, pedagogical, and research. the pedagogical component was the 3 translated by the authors student-teachers´ identities construction torres-cepeda & ramos holguin no. 18 (january june 2019) no. 18 (january june 2019) 15 main component to be developed in this course. this aspect was displayed through the teaching experiences student-teachers had at the schools. during the process, they planned their classes adopting a given format, and they received feedback from the teacher educator who guided the course and the homeroom teacher at school. after that, they made decisions upon their lessons and continued teaching english at the schools. accounting for trustworthiness in this research study, a letter of permission to conduct the research study was submitted to the curricular committee of the modern language program. a consent letter was also given to student-teachers at the very beginning of the process. as confidentiality is a vital aspect in this research study, the researchers explained that the results of the research study had academic purposes only. also, student-teachers could request or ask for information about the status of the project when required. once they accepted to partake in the research study, we invited the studentteachers to assign themselves a pseudonym. data collection procedures narratives, in-depth interviews and journals were used as the data collection procedures in this research study. student-teachers wrote narratives, in the english language, during an academic semester. these narratives give an account of past and present experiences they had lived as language learners and initial practitioners at the schools. the writing process of the narratives was mediated by a practice of reflection and positioning of student-teachers towards their experiences as learners and future teachers. narratives can be defined as a set of consciously told stories which emerge from deeper stories people are not aware of. hence, every single story, true or fictional, portrays pieces of real experiences and beliefs (bell, 2002). these narratives also help the researchers understand and unveil hidden information that had not been brought up to the surface yet. in addition, narratives in language teaching and learning focus on unveiling lived and imagined experiences or stories (barkhuizen, 2014). although the literature does not specify the types of stories that encompass the idea of narratives, student-teachers were free to write life stories in relation to their past lived experiences as learners. in-depth interviews helped us gain a deeper, descriptive understanding of the narratives student-teachers had written. in-depth or face-to-face interviews can be defined as a staple means that facilitates negotiating exchanges between two interlocutors, and which are mediated by various contextual elements (oltmann, 2016). as in-depth interviews elicit an interactional reciprocity, data emerge as the result of individuals’ co-constructions carried out in diverse contexts (hayes, 2005). this data collection procedure allowed us comprehend student-teachers´ identities construction torres-cepeda & ramos holguin no. 18 (january june 2019) no. 18 (january june 2019) 16 the continually construction and re-construction of stories by the participants in their identity construction process. the in-depth interviews were approximately 30-40 min in length and were audiotaped and transcribed verbatim. data gathered from the in-depth interviews showed the student-teachers ability to make sense of their realities, beliefs, and day-to-day experiences in relation to their identity construction process as language learners and its connection as future teachers. the protocol for the in-depth interviews was delivered in spanish, the student-teachers l1. by doing so, a harmonic and natural environment was set which favored the student-teachers’ storytelling. in the same way, journals were means of promoting reflection and deepening understanding of reality (bain, ballantyne, packer, & mills, 1999). journals are not only mechanisms or tools that keep records of past events but are also sources for in-depth reflection. thus, journal writing “offers the opportunity for analytical thinking and self-analysis about what one’s personal stories conveys” (devault, 1997 as cited in barry & o’callaghan, p. 56). similarly, it is a way to empower student-teachers as language learners and future efl teachers (insuasty & zambrano, 2010) as a way to unveil their future imagined professional identity. student-teachers wrote journals on critical lived experiences that were found in their narratives with the aim to reflectively expand on the life stories presented. after gathering the information, it was organized, analyzed, and theorized as a way to give account for trustworthiness in data management. therefore, the following lines present the data analysis and findings of this research study, which emerged from the analysis across the three data collection procedures. data analysis and findings we followed a narrative analysis as the research method to profoundly comprehend the human dimension depicted through stories. this research method helps to understand a narrative by means of splitting it into critical fractions which play a meaning-making role in the whole narrative. in language learning and teaching, analyzing narrative data comprises four essential levels: content, form, context and thematic analysis (pavlenko, 2007). while analyzing the narratives we delved into significant and critical words the narrators used to tell their stories. we pursued the content of the narratives through a three-step dynamic analysis: structural, thematic, and interactional. firstly, in the frame of structural analysis, we paid close attention to the emphasis made on those words and the possible meanings emerging from them. this stage relates to the relevance of having spaces for human understanding through words and its connection to the world (gadamer, 2002). student-teachers´ identities construction torres-cepeda & ramos holguin no. 18 (january june 2019) no. 18 (january june 2019) 17 secondly, we focused on the content of the story per se. a “narrative can illuminate purposes, plans, and goals which are the forms by which our lives have some direction, motivation, and significance for us” (johnson, 1993, pp. 170-171). at this stage, this thematic analysis portrays what the story is about and its purposes and attributions behind it. thirdly, interactional analysis encompasses the dialogical perspective between the teller and listener. in this case, the narratives, the interviews and journals were significant means that gave place to interaction, interpretation, sense and meaning-making between researchers and narrators in order to unveil those invisible voices student-teachers had to tell. thus, “a life is not how it was but how it is interpreted and reinterpreted, told and retold (bruner, 1994, p.36). this procedure provided us with the opportunity to go in-depth through each narrator’s stories; aiming to interpret, re-interpret, construct and reconstruct meaning from narratives. two main thematic elements/themes emerged in order to respond to the research question, which was the following: what do student-teachers’ narratives unveil about their identity construction as language learners? constructing student-teacher’ identities through classroom interactions this first theme emphasizes the role student-teachers assumed as language learners and the connection they made with their future professional lives. student-teachers position themselves in between being a learner and becoming a language teacher. as sla classrooms are interactional and productive environments by nature, student-teachers highlighted the important role interaction played in their classroom as learners and in their contexts as beginner teachers. in other words, each situation the student-teachers had lived as learners was taken into consideration in order to establish connections with their teaching experiences at the schools. this assertion can be better described in the following excerpt: “i do not think just as a learner because i am becoming a teacher and it means to convey knowledge to other people in any context. becoming a teacher implies many factors such as treating people in the same way, helping others when they ask for help because i am not going to be just a teacher, i am going to be a friend, an advisor, a guide, but especially a model for my students”. (narrative, alisson) [sic] in this excerpt, alisson makes an explicit statement regarding her role as a student-teacher. she assumes a position of being a different teacher, a person who is on the path of changing the commonplace perspective of what being a teacher might imply. however, when she mentions the fact of conveying knowledge to others, she accounts for a notion of power in knowledge teachers student-teachers´ identities construction torres-cepeda & ramos holguin no. 18 (january june 2019) no. 18 (january june 2019) 18 have. at the same time, she expresses her desires for the future. she makes a special emphasis on becoming a role model for her students. when she highlights wanting to treat students in the same way, it highly relates to the dynamics of interaction in the sla classroom as a way to avoid discrimination. this can also reshape the expectations, beliefs, and perspectives studentteachers may have (genung, 2002). in this vein, student-teachers went through a dynamic process that took place on a day-to-day basis. little by little, they picked up elements from their teaching experiences as language learners and teachers. the student-teachers’ previous experiences as learners served as a source of reflection towards their future as language teachers. this reflection lead student-teachers to think of possibilities on how to deal with troublesome situations. therefore, having a first-hand contact with the educational environment provided the studentteachers with a meaningful panorama of the circumstances they will face as future in-service teachers. thus, student-teachers reflected upon the near future, projecting themselves as language teachers. “one of my hobbies is reading. i love going through the world books present us. in my free time, i sit down on my couch to read, i have a cup of coffee and get relaxed. i have realized that in books theories and activities about teaching appear to be very positive, everything is very beautiful and there are methodologies with super effective strategies. however, when these theories are addressed in real contexts, you have to take into account not only the methodologies, but also everything happening around every single student”. (interview, antonela) reading between the lines, antonela acknowledges that there is a dissonance among theories, activities, methodologies and the real-world context. this becomes her greatest concern and worry as a future efl teacher. she states that it is expected that teachers take into consideration a myriad of factors affecting each individual student and the way it can impact his/her classmates. in relation to this, anspal, eisenschmidt, and löfström (2012) point out that, “worries and fears are related to ability to cope with real classroom situations. the student-teachers have acquired some pedagogical knowledge and skills, and begin to wonder how these are to be applied in real teaching situations” (p. 206). this explains why antonela questions the existing gap between the information (theories and activities) provided in books and the way it should be extrapolated in real teaching contexts. the gap between theory and practice appears to be a common component in studies conducted with pre-service teachers. “when i was a child, i wanted to study many things, but i did not have any clear idea on what i wanted to study. today, i have the marvelous opportunity to walk on the path of education to become an english student-teachers´ identities construction torres-cepeda & ramos holguin no. 18 (january june 2019) no. 18 (january june 2019) 19 teacher. life has taught me a lot on this long way. in my teaching lesson, i interact with students and they say: why do i want to learn english if in my house i do not have what to eat, i do not have basic supplies. then, i get shocked with those situations and stop worrying and seeing language learning as the unique goal to meet”. (journal, paquita) in her teaching experiences and through her interactions with her students, paquita finds that her students have a lack of interest in learning english. her students do not identify with the subject, nor do they see any benefit from having to learn it. they are more concerned with their daily living situations as they relate to the basic human necessities of life (maintenance, housing, among others). this circumstance changes her prior conception of students’ reality and motivation towards learning english. this interpretation matches a justification in cattley’s (2007) words, when she affirms that “their own teaching experiences challenge students’ existing thinking – an important element in developing professional identity” (p.254). it is through teaching experiences and interactions in the classroom that student-teachers can analyze and try to understand the context and circumstances their students live in. thus, meeting students’ needs, and personal priorities become more relevant for teachers rather than having their students learn english. in accordance with the aspects described above, another participant narrates some important insights and situations lived as a student-teacher working at the schools. “i have heard this profession is not well-paid, people say this profession is not quite important in having a social-status. ok, they can have reason in what they think and say, but to me, it is one of the most privileged professions. i learn every day from my students and i live gratifying moments. it is cool to see when the students come by and tell you ‘i really liked the class, i loved the material that you brought, it was a very nice class’. these things create an atmosphere of trustworthiness and that is very gratifying, it motivates me to continue on this path”. (narrative, milu) by the same token, milu expresses her gratification and happiness when she receives approval for her lessons from her students. this increases her confidence and motivation to continue striving to do her best in her profession as a future efl teacher. thus, it can be suggested that real life teaching experiences contribute to studentteachers’ awareness of the conditions of their future working environments, students’ needs, challenges, and gratifications when teaching. in this sense, student-teachers experience ambivalence framed under two main dimensions: previous experiences as learners and real teaching experiences. student-teachers´ identities construction torres-cepeda & ramos holguin no. 18 (january june 2019) no. 18 (january june 2019) 20 given that “language teacher identities are constantly evolving and are developed through pedagogical practice” (barkhuizen, 2017, p.9), studentteachers’ identities as learners and future teachers are constructed daily through the interaction and negotiations that take place in the classroom. at the same time, these identities become part of their self-images as teachers. student-teachers’ empowerment through teaching and reflection the second theme encompasses some attributions and meanings to their initial teaching immersions. student-teachers asserted that their identity as learners underwent a process of change when they started teaching and reflecting upon their own teaching experiences. previously, they had some beliefs about education and perceptions regarding their teacher educators. while teaching at the schools, they started to re-shape their beliefs, perceptions, desires, and realities. in other words, their identities as learners were being reconstructed, and this created a closer connection to their role as future teachers, as illustrated in the lines below. “i have been able to understand that teaching gives you power and with power we change society”. (journal, socrates) “returning to nelson mandela, education is the strongest weapon we can use to change the world. thus, you end up seeing your students as granites to encourage all these things like critical thinking by taking advantage of all those controversial issues in our society to promote critical thinking in our classrooms. it is with these critical teachers that little by little we change our students’ way of thinking: that is the essence of education”. (interview, alisson) explicit emphasis was made on changing minds, ways of thinking, and the idea of what being a teacher entails. this is an appropriate momentum to start thinking about education as a tool to change society, which i applaud because a current change in education is urgent. this concept on education emerged along with a conscious, rigorous, and reflective process. accordingly, schön (1983) pointed out the importance of understanding and improving how we teach by reflecting on our own experiences. accordingly, giroux (1988) noted that teachers are “transformative intellectuals when they combine reflections from their pedagogical labor with their role of teachers by fostering those reflections in their students and also when they show them how to be critical in what they do” (p.122). alisson expresses her optimistic vision towards education and highlights the role teachers have to transform the way of their students’ think. she further asserts that the “real” essence in language teaching has to do with problematizing student-teachers´ identities construction torres-cepeda & ramos holguin no. 18 (january june 2019) no. 18 (january june 2019) 21 issues in education by accounting for “controversial aspects in society”. in the same way, she metaphorically suggests that teachers need to be active agents in society in charge of generating multiple, meaningful initiatives of change, which could be developed along with their students. another emerging and vital aspect, in teaching and education in general, is connected with the contributions of research in these fields. “the most important in teaching english as a foreign language is innovation and the only way for innovating is through doing research, researching theories and how english teaching methods have worked in other contexts. also, i like to bear in mind meaningful learning, to set students in a real context, if they are not in a real context learning won’t be meaningful and they will forget what they have learned”. (lusiana, narrative) [sic] “in research, i have found a way to discover and reflect on new realities, to explore new contexts and gain a better understanding of them”. (interview, mary) by doing a careful analysis of these excerpts, research appears to be a crucial component in teaching english as a foreign language. by means of doing research, these two student teachers find alternative ways to explore, understand, reflect, and act upon distinct phenomena occurring in their new, immediate teaching contexts. that is to say, they have an optimistic vision towards using research as part of their endeavors. therefore, research is understood as a strategy to take action after reflecting about a current situation. this concept of research is strongly opposed to the one described in an investigative study done by xu (2014). this author reports that teachers have a misconception about research, and they assure that time constraints prevent them from reading and conducting research. in this regard, the author does not agree with the reasons proposed by the teachers. rather, she affirms that these teachers were not sufficiently aware of the nature of teaching. in the end, the author suggests that teachers should not separate themselves from research, but rather, see it as part of their teaching practices (xu, 2014). in this case, studentteachers highlighted the relevance research has as a means of promoting spaces for reflection, action, change, and innovation in teaching. with this notion, student-teachers start positioning and empowering themselves as language learners and future teachers. student-teachers´ identities construction torres-cepeda & ramos holguin no. 18 (january june 2019) no. 18 (january june 2019) 22 conclusions there were several critical factors influencing the ever-changing dynamics in the construction of student-teachers’ identity as language learners and future teachers. accounting for students’ inner insights in their first teaching experiences is a common constituent of great concern for teacher educators. thus, student-teachers constructed or re-constructed their visions, perspectives, and beliefs on what it means to become a teacher. they suggested that becoming a language teacher goes beyond the subject matter. it entails recognizing the human being as a “persona” in all aspects of the sla environment: activities, interactions, role play switching, and meaningmaking processes. in this respect, student-teachers imagined themselves as language teachers who care about their pupils’ learning process and human dimensions. in addition, taking actions based on reflection was an integral part of the student-teachers’ path to defining, constructing, and accepting their attached meanings as learners and future efl teachers. student-teachers’ prior experiences as language learners with different teachers comprised a dynamic and shifting process in which harmonic and complex momentums were lived. teachers were significant agents who contributed, in a complete sense of the word, to student-teachers’ decision and meaning-making process with regards to the type of teacher they would like to become. in doing so, they went through a dynamic process that took place day-to-day in which they were picking up little by little some components from their teachers. the dimensions or aspects taken from teachers were confirmed, rejected, and/or extrapolated to their own teaching experiences, some others remain as imagined aspects to revive in the future. equally important, prior experiences as language learners helped student-teachers either increase or decrease their motivation to become teachers. however, student-teachers understood every teaching-learning session as an opportunity to grow personally and professionally. besides that, they became more aware of the inequalities, disparities, and challenges in the various educational contexts as a way to envision themselves towards their future working environment. the fact of raising awareness changed future efl teachers’ vision of education and encouraged them to re-think their roles as future teachers. ideologies and perspectives integrate the definition of “self” when answering the question “who am i?”, which articulate to the multiple “identities”. a post-method perspective of teaching was recognized and acknowledged as crucial in the teaching of english. this explicitly has to deal with the bases of critical pedagogy, through which student-teachers expressed their affiliation within a transformative and emancipatory practice through the teaching of english. thereby, teaching was drawn beyond structural boundaries of student-teachers´ identities construction torres-cepeda & ramos holguin no. 18 (january june 2019) no. 18 (january june 2019) 23 language where students “come to see the world not as a static reality, but as reality in process, in transformation” (freire, 1970, p. 71). studentteachers construct their identities as future teachers taking into consideration their previous experiences as learners. they affiliate their future professional teacher profile with a previous teacher they admire or identify as a role model teacher. student-teachers construct, de-construct, and re-construct their projected identities according to the experiences they live day-to day. they make emphasis on becoming teachers who are characterized by their commitment in education to grow personally as well as professionally. pedagogical implications and further research writing life stories is a time-consuming task for student-teachers, but it is worth doing because they come up with happenings that lead them towards a reflective process on what teaching really entails. this process should take place in earlier semesters to have a more consolidated perspective of teaching and learning at the moment of going to schools for first time. also, it is important to avoid student-teachers experience a dramatic change from being a learner to being a teacher from one day to another, and without having a clear understanding of the factors involved in real teaching contexts. student-teachers, pre-service, and in-service teachers are invited to go through an introspection process, by means of storytelling, to gain a deeper understanding on their roles they have as transformative agents in society. it is necessary to embark on the path making a transformative progress in each individual’s life to stop perpetuating ways of colonizing people in education. looking into the future, there is a need to delve into research with regards to student-teachers’ identity construction since the very first moment they enroll in the initial teacher education program in order to unveil how they feel as language learners, and how the program per se permeates their identities as learners and future teachers. student-teachers´ identities construction torres-cepeda & ramos holguin no. 18 (january june 2019) no. 18 (january june 2019) 24 references anspal , t., eisenschmidt, e., & löfström, e. 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(2007). autobiographic narratives as data in applied linguistics. applied linguistics, 28 (2), 163-188. schön, d. (1983). the reflective practitioner: how professionals think in action. new york: basic books. sfard, a., & prusak, a. (2005). telling identities: in search of an analytic tool for investigating learning as a culturally shaped activity. educational researcher, 34 (4), 14-22. wenger, e. (1998). communities of practice, learning, meaning, and identity. new york: cambridge university press. xu, y. (2014). becoming researchers: a narrative study of chinese university efl teachers’ research practice and their professional identity construction. language teaching research, 18(2), 242-259. zentella, a. c. (1997). growing up bilingual: puerto rican children in new york. malden, ma: blackwell publishers. student-teachers´ identities construction torres-cepeda & ramos holguin no. 18 (january june 2019) no. 18 (january june 2019) 27 authors *nancy maría torres-cepeda holds an m.a in language teaching and a b.a in modern languages spanish-english from universidad pedagógica y tecnológica de colombia. she is a full-time english language teacher at el divino niño school in the state of boyacá, colombia. she is also a member of the research group tongue at universidad pedagógica y tecnológica de colombia. as part of the research group tongue, she has authored and coauthored research academic papers as a result of her research interest in efl learning and teaching. her research interests encompass teacher identity construction, critical pedagogy, and material development. orcid: http://orcid.org/0000-0003-2512-8599 bertha ramos-holguín holds a ph.d in education sciences from universidad pedagógica y tecnológica de colombia (uptc), an m.a in applied linguistics to the teaching of english as a foreign language and a b.a in modern languages from universidad distrital francisco josé de caldas. she is currently a researcher and an english professor in the school of languages at uptc. as part of the research group tongue, she has authored and coauthored research academic papers and english textbooks as a result of her research interest in efl learning and teaching. she has also been part of diverse academic and scientific committees in tertiary institutions in colombia. orcid: http://orcid.org/0000-0003-4468-1402 student-teachers´ identities construction torres-cepeda & ramos holguin how to reference this article: torres-cepeda, n. m., & ramos-holguín, b. (2019). becoming language teachers: exploring student-teachers’ identities construction through narratives. gist education and learning research journal, 18, 6-27. https://doi.org/10.26817/16925777.441 no. 18 (january june 2019) no. 18 (january june 2019) http://orcid.org/0000-0003-2512-8599 http://orcid.org/0000-0003-4468-1402 https://doi.org/10.26817/16925777.441 _hlk517687097 exploratory study of ecuadorian teachers’ understanding of social emotional learning: an examination of primary school teachers1 estudio exploratorio de la comprensión de los docentes ecuatorianos sobre el aprendizaje socioemocional: un análisis de los docentes de la escuela primaria ximena burgin, sheila coli and mayra c daniel2* northen illinois university, usa 1 received: september 20th 2020/ accepted: may 18th 2021 2 xrecald1@niu.edu; scoli1@niu.edu, mayra.daniel@gmail.com gist education and learning research journal. issn 1692-5777. no. 22 (january june, 2021). pp. 125-146. 126 no. 22 abstract direct instruction of social emotional learning (sel) has been suggested for improving academic performance and reducing behavioral issues in classrooms (casel, 2020). this exploratory study provides insight into how a group of ecuadorian elementary school teachers define and understand sel. it examined changes in teachers’ perspectives and beliefs about their role in sel integration in elementary school classrooms, after a full-day workshop focused on sel integration. quantitative and qualitative data collected before, during and after the sel workshop indicated a positive change in the teachers’ foundational knowledge of sel after participation in the workshop; however, there was no observed change in the teachers’ perceptions of their role in the actual implementation of sel. challenges and future implications for an effective integration of sel are discussed in this research article. key words: social emotional learning; sel workshop; professional development (pd); techers’ sel perspectives; elementary school teachers resumen se ha sugerido que la instrucción directa del aprendizaje socioemocional (sel) puede mejorar el rendimiento académico y puede reducir los problemas de conducta en las aulas (casel, 2020). este estudio exploratorio proporciona información sobre cómo un grupo de maestros ecuatorianos de una escuela primaria definen y comprenden sel. este estudio examinó los cambios en las perspectivas y creencias de los maestros sobre su papel en la integración de sel en las aulas de la escuela primaria, después de un taller de un día completo centrado en la integración de sel. los datos cuantitativos y cualitativos recopilados antes, durante y después del taller de sel indicaron un cambio positivo en el conocimiento esencial de los maestros sobre el sel después de la participación en el taller; sin embargo, no se observaron cambios en las percepciones de los maestros sobre su rol en la implementación de sel. en este artículo de investigación se discuten los desafíos y las implicaciones futuras para una integración efectiva de sel. palabras clave: aprendizaje socioemocional; taller de aprendizaje socioemocional; desarrollo emocional; desarrollo profesional (dp); perspectivas sel de los maestros; docentes de primaria socioemotional learning in primary school burgin, coli, & daniel 127 no. 22 socioemotional learning in primary school burgin, coli, & daniel resumo tem-se sugerido que a instrução direta da aprendizagem sócio emocional (sel) pode melhorar o rendimento acadêmico e pode reduzir os problemas de conduta nas salas de aulas (casel, 2020). este estudo exploratório proporciona informação sobre como um grupo de professores equatorianos de uma escola primária define e compreendem sel. este estudo examinou as mudanças nas perspectivas e crenças dos professores sobre seu papel na integração de sel nas salas de aulas da escola primária, depois de uma oficina de um dia completo centrado na integração de sel. os dados quantitativos e qualitativos recopilados antes, durante e depois da oficina de sel indicaram uma mudança positiva no conhecimento essencial dos professores sobre o sel depois da participação na oficina; porém, não se observaram mudanças nas percepções dos professores sobre seu papel na implementação de sel. neste artigo de pesquisa se discutem os desafios e as implicações futuras para uma integração efetiva de sel. palavras chave: aprendizagem sócio-emocional; oficina de aprendizagem sócio emocional; desenvolvimento emocional; desenvolvimento profissional (dp); perspectivas sel dos professores; docentes de primária 128 no. 22 introduction decades’ of research suggest that the better developed students’ social and emotional competencies (sec) are, the greater success they experience in school and life (bisquerra, 2003; mckown, 2017). individuals with well-developed emotional skills are more likely to be effective, content, and productive (casel, 2020; the aspen institute national commission on social, emotional, and academic development, 2018). growing attention from economists and international organizations such as the world bank (huerta, 2019) have generated discussions around the importance of promoting the development of such skills in the recent years. the current covid-19 pandemic has intensified the educational inequity among students from different socioeconomic backgrounds, especially those from lower income households, as the transition to online learning has cut school supports and resources (national academies of sciences, engineering, and medicine, 2020). the current situation sharpened disparities related to race, gender, class, and other dimensions of individual and group identity (jagers, rivas-drake, & williams, 2019). as such, the need to look at current social and emotional practices that promote optimal developmental outcomes for all learners regardless of their cultural and economic background, has been intensified for educators intent on ensuring equitable instruction for students from different socio-cultural contexts (yoder et al., 2020), ecuador’s cultural and linguistic diversity is evident in the country’s many living languages and current social issues. stakeholders in the ecuadorian educational system are challenged to understand and address cultural diversity (summa, 2020). sel may offer a foundation for developing diverse students’ sec (jagers, rivas-drake, & borowski, 2018). effective sel implementation can foster constructive classroom environments where educators can address issues such as privilege, discrimination, social justice, empowerment, and self-determination to bridge the inequalities that underserved communities face (jagers, rivas-drake, & williams, 2019). however, aappropriate sel instruction requires and begins with informed teachers’ who know how to overcome obstacles to their students’ social, emotional, and cognitive development (schonert-reichl et. al., 2017; taylor & larson, 1999). given this gap, this study explored ecuadorian elementary teachers’ sensitivity and acceptance of sel as a component for successful schooling. it examined how the participants’ definitions of sel changed after a full-day workshop aimed at providing educators with foundational understanding about integrating sel in regular classrooms.   socioemotional learning in primary school burgin, coli, & daniel 129 no. 22 theoretical framework sel in latin america and in the context of ecuador according to the collaborative for academic, social, and emotional learning (casel, 2020), sel involves processes through which individuals develop social and emotional competencies in five areas: self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, relationship skills, and responsible decision-making. growing attention from economists and international organizations such as the andean development corporation (caf), the world bank, the inter-american development bank (idb) and the organization for economic co-operation and development (oecd) (revista educación, 2017; huerta, 2019) have boosted political discussions around the importance of promoting the development of social and emotional skills. most evidence regarding sel is based on empirical and longitudinal studies in developed countries, while evidence is scarce in latin america. some studies (bassi et al., 2012; cunningham et al., 2016; berniell et al., 2017) confirm the importance of these competences in educational and labor outcomes. in latin america, the publication of the idb’s “disconnected” report (bassi, 2012) as well as the publication of the report “more skills for work and life” by the caf report (berniel et al., 2017) had a significant impact in the region.. the authors of disconnected highlighted that schools in latin america are not developing the skills children and young people need to be successful in the workplace and face the demands society requires (bassi et al., 2012). bassi et al. (2012) made an urgent call to focus efforts on improving both the quality and relevance of education systems and stressed that only in this way can the existing disconnection between the school and the labor market be mitigated. similarly, the caf report stated that latin america needs to increase its efforts in the development of a set of skills that allows young people to navigate and adapt to the changing environments of the years to come (berniel et al., 2017). the international evidence shows the importance these skills have on learning and on the present and future achievements of students. a few latin american countries such as peru, colombia, ecuador, argentina, and uruguay explicitly mention sel in their curriculum (revista educación, 2017; ineed, 2020). most consider transversal skills such as communication and collaborative work. they have been working to develop frameworks for the integration of sel in the classroom (ineed, 2020). however, teachers in latin america are concerned about the necessary training to deliver effectively sel instruction (revista educación, 2017). socioemotional learning in primary school burgin, coli, & daniel 130 no. 22 diversity in ecuador and the need for sel direct sel instruction has been positively associated with subjective well-being, engaged citizenship, academic performance and success, salary level, etc. (bisquerra, 2003; bridgeland et al., 2013; busso et al., 2017; casel, 2020; durlak et al., 2011; elias et al., 1997; goodman et al., 2015; roffey, 2017; schonert-reichl et al., 2017; zins, 2004). due to ecuador’s diversity, the country’s educators’ work requires consideration of the sociocultural context of schools and communities, as well as of the support available to stakeholders whose goal is to validate all learners’ rights (van damme et al., 2013). ecuador’s cultural and linguistic diversity is evident in the country’s many living languages. according to ethnologue (2020), there are 21 indigenous languages (e.g., cofán, and quechua) (constitución política del ecuador, 1998). ecuador’s national institute of the census (instituto nacional de estadísticas y censos, 2015) documented 93% of ecuador’s population speaks castilian and 4.1% speak quechua. census information shows the country’s population was composed of 71.9% mestizos (mixed amerindian and white), 7.4% montubio, 7% amerindian, 6.1% white, 4.3% afroecuadorian, 1.9% mulato, 1% black, and 0.4% other (inec, 2015). thus, stakeholders in the ecuadorian educational system are challenged to understand and address cultural diversity (summa, 2020). because sel promotes awareness about disparities in schooling, opportunity gaps, and the history of unequal schooling (gregory & fergus, 2017), the researchers posited that it would contribute to equitable schooling in ecuador. sel promotes awareness about disparities in schooling, opportunity gaps, and the history of unequal schooling (gregory & fergus, 2017). thus, these researchers posited that sel will contribute to provision of equitable schooling in ecuador. teacher training for the integration of sel research has recognized the key role teachers play in modeling and providing students with tools to develop sel and in creating nurturing learning environments (bisquerra, 2011; elias et al., 1997; taylor & larson, 1999; waajid et al., 2013). the philosophy underpinning an intervention, the beliefs as well as the skills of teachers, are some of the implementation factors that promote or hinder the efficacy of sel. in its support of the rights of all students, sel ensures educators create environments that acknowledge diversity as a strength. hence training is key to improving teachers’ knowledge of sel and their ability to apply it (castillo et al., 2013; roffey & mccarthy, 2013; talvio et al., 2013; shulman & sherin, 2004;). educational reforms require teachers to change their practice, and for that to effectively occur, teachers need to understand and internalize the theory underlying socioemotional learning in primary school burgin, coli, & daniel 131 no. 22 the proposed change (shulman & sherin, 2004). providing ecuadorian teachers with foundational knowledge of sel could increase the likelihood of successful reforms. effective professional development (pd) programs integrate professional learning focused on sel as well as other areas that embed sel practices and concepts into the classroom (casel resource district center, 2020). therefore, elementary ecuadorian teachers need opportunities to acquire foundational knowledge about sel, understand why it is necessary, and master ways to start infusing it in their schools and classrooms. multiculturalism in education teachers’ ability to promote affirming classroom environments for diverse contexts is affected by their perceptions of their culture and their awareness of how their cultural norms influence their professional endeavours (groulx & silva, 2010). culturally responsive educators do not privilege some groups of students and disadvantaging others. (hawkins & norton, 2009; kincheloe, 2008). this work considers that preparing educators to deliver culturally responsive curricula is key for a nation with ecuador’s students (banks, 1981, 2014; buckelew & fishman, 2011; nieto, 2018). methodology this exploratory study used a mixed-method approach of data collection. quantitative data were gathered through a six-point likert scale survey, and qualitative data were gathered in two focus group discussions and open-ended questions. data was collected before, during and after the sel workshop. the following research questions guided the study: rq1 what are ecuadorian elementary school teachers’ definitions and understanding of sel in the classroom? rq2 how do the teachers’ definitions of sel change due to participation in a workshop focused on sel? rq3 how do teachers perceive the importance of the components of sel as impacted by a workshop? participants a sample of 20 credentialed elementary ecuadorian teachers participated in a full-day workshop on sel that provided foundational knowledge about sel: what it socioemotional learning in primary school burgin, coli, & daniel 132 no. 22 is, why it is necessary, and how to start effectively integrating it into the classroom. this workshop was part of a series of teacher (pd) workshops. two focus groups were conducted before the sel workshop to investigate the participants’ understanding of sel concepts by discussing three questions: (1) how teachers define sel, (2) how they apply it in the classroom, and (3) what kind of pd or training they have received to integrate sel in the classroom. these data were used to answer rq1. two open-ended questions were included in the post-test, one of which asked teachers to define sel. these data were collected and analyzed. two hands-on activities were included to promote active participation and reflection among the participants. during both activities, teachers were asked to write down their thoughts while discussing in small groups and then share them with the whole group. audio recordings of these presentations as well as the notes taken during the activities were analyzed. these data together with the open-ended questions were used to answer rq2. a researcher-developed survey consisting of 20 6-point likert-scale items was administered before (pretest) and after (posttest) the workshop. items 1 to 20 refer to different components of sel and its integration. data collected from the pre and posttests were used to answer rq3. the items of the survey were developed to explore the predisposition of the participants toward sel. items utilized constructs including an sel overview, the main contribution of sel integration, a mindfulness overview, sel integration, and attitudes toward sel integration. descriptive statistics (mean, median, and standard deviation) provided basic features to summarize the obtained data. wilcoxon’s test was run to calculate and compare the difference between the data obtained from the pre and post-tests of the quantitative data. regarding qualitative data, a constant comparison analysis technique was utilized to determine the themes and to cross-reference them with domains from the literature. the constant comparison process was chosen because it allows for coding of the data based on meaningful parts of the text and comparison of the codes to form themes (glaser & strauss, 1967; leech & onwuegbuzie, 2007; miles et al., 2014). results rq1: what are ecuadorian elementary school teachers’ definitions and understanding of sel in the classroom? participants were asked to define sel and share what they know about it in the pre workshop focus group discussions. two patterns can be identified. the first pattern refers to strategies to keep students busy to alleviate family problems. most socioemotional learning in primary school burgin, coli, & daniel 133 no. 22 of the teachers agreed that sel is some kind of “game” or “expression of affection” so students keep their minds off their family problems and are able to focus in class. all the participants agreed that students’ family problems could affect their attention and work in class. the second pattern refers to the teachers’ awareness and understanding of students’ backgrounds. most of the teachers related sel to the ability to recognize and understand the reasons for students’ behavioral changes. one of the focus groups related sel with the concept of self-esteem. when asked about sel, this group of teachers said “sel has to do with the lack of self-esteem that comes from home. home is where they [students] build that [self-esteem], and that self-esteem reflects the situation at home.” also, they highlighted the importance of the quality of the relationship of students with their parents and teachers and the effect it has on students’ learning. when asked whether they apply any knowledge or concepts of sel in their lesson plans, participants in the focus group did not provide information to indicate how sel is incorporated into their lesson plans. most of them expressed that based on their observations, they adapt their lessons to promote students’ interest as well as to create a safe learning environment. one teacher indicated, “when a student was a good student the previous year and this year the student is not performing academically, i inquired with the parents about the home situation, with other teachers, and counselors to determine the cause. i used this information to support the student emotionally through my lesson plans.” another teacher expressed: “teachers should make the student feel good and motivated, interested. [so they can say] ‘i like this’.” finally, participants were asked about their previous training on sel. all of them agreed they received some type of pd courses or training to learn about neuroeducation, educational psychology and/or emotions. one of the teachers suggested that these trainings were “rather superficial,” while another teacher added that she would like to receive training directly related to her job as a preschool teacher. in addition, some participants agreed they did not receive any formal education related to sel, while others referred to their psychology courses in their undergraduate programs. one teacher added that the school psychologists are the agents responsible for assessing students’ emotional development. another teacher mentioned the lack of support from school administrators and from the students’ families. other teachers agreed that measures taken to improve student behavior were not effective because “results are not seen” or “there is no follow-up.” rq2 how do these teachers’ definitions of sel change due to participation in a workshop focused on sel? during the focus group, teachers mainly related sel to teachers’ responsibility in their work to boost students’ self-esteem, motivation and interest to learn, all of which can be affected by family problems. notes and recordings from the first activity socioemotional learning in primary school burgin, coli, & daniel 134 no. 22 of the workshop, which included five groups, document that teachers refer to sel using some of the concepts discussed during the workshop. each group had to identify three concepts to define sel. nine out of the 15 terms selected referred to three of the core competencies presented: self-awareness, responsible decision-making, and relational skills. five of these terms referred to the self-regulation skill; that is, four out of the five groups agreed that “self-regulation,” “learning how to behave,” or “thinking before acting” are the key terms that define sel. the other selected terms referred to terms used throughout the first part of the workshop such as emotions, knowledge, participative method, planning, and guidance, indicating a change in these teachers’ use of language or terminology to define sel after the workshop. before the workshop, the teachers used vague language to provide a definition of sel, while after the workshop they included and defined specific concepts associated with the core competencies presented. when each of the groups shared the terms, they read their notes aloud; some of them explained briefly the definition of self-regulation. two of the groups agreed that the terms they chose were based on the sel definition discussed during the workshop. when asked to select three feelings/emotions that promote student learning, four out of the five groups mentioned happiness and/or academic content. some teachers explained that this could be achieved through good student-teacher rapport or by allowing students to participate in the class content selection. three of the groups selected empathy as a key emotion to promote student learning, while two mentioned a safe learning environment. some other groups selected negative feelings such as frustration, fear, sadness, anger, and confusion; they explained these feelings can help teachers and students identify areas to work on. during the second hands-on activity, teachers were divided into five groups and asked to select one of the seven practical class activities presented in the workshop (identifying similarities and differences; sharing thorns and roses; reading to identify and/or roleplay writer’s emotions; writing to oneself; practicing mindfulness through breathing, silence and concentration; creating the corner of emotions; and teaching through positive examples) and explain possible positive results they would expect as well as possible challenges of implementation. two groups selected “sharing thorns and roses,” two selected “creating the corner of the emotions,” and one decided to discuss “teaching through positive examples.” regarding the “thorns and roses” activity – an activity in which students are encouraged to share a negative and a positive aspect of their day and something to which they are looking forward, the groups claimed as positive that students would share their emotions. one of the groups said this would help the teachers to recognize the personal struggles the student is facing: “we will know what’s happening to them.” as challenges, both groups expressed positive consequences such as “improve their self-regulation,” “solve conflicts,” and “identify their own emotions.” however, when the researcher inquired about the implementation challenges, they agreed there would not be an implementation challenge, although the challenge to achieve the positive results would be that students express their emotions naturally and allow the teacher to be a participant and try to help them when possible. the groups socioemotional learning in primary school burgin, coli, & daniel 135 no. 22 that selected the use of a corner of the emotions (a quiet area of the classroom for students to do activities that will help them regulate their emotions and return to the classroom activities productively) to enhance the social and emotional competencies (sec) agreed students would develop aspects related to their self-awareness and selfregulation such as recognizing, expressing and managing emotions. regarding challenges, teachers also outlined actions that could be considered positive outcomes such as academic improvement and sec development. however, when asked for clarification, some teachers explained that teachers need to teach in different ways to cater to different students. other teachers agreed that students have difficulties focusing on an activity and calming down and reflecting on their actions. finally, the other group discussed the “teaching through positive examples” activity, that is, using positive language and always pointing out good behavior. this group of teachers believed this activity would improve students’ motivation and academic development. however, they agreed there could be some technical problems or lack of resources. overall, results for activity 2 showed teachers’ general understanding of the activity and its relationship with sel; however, teachers did not clearly express what challenges and/or more concrete outcomes these activities would have on their students and classroom as a whole. four main types of definitions can be identified in the teachers’ responses to the open-ended questions on the survey. nine out of the 17 respondents defined sel, referring to one or more of the core competencies discussed during the workshop. most of them referred to the development of the responsible decision-making competency; others referred to self-awareness and/or social awareness competencies. four teachers defined sel as a tool or a method that teachers use to help students. two teachers defined sel as a “set of emotions” that has a positive impact on the students and on the classroom ambiance. finally, two teachers referred to sel as “humanistic, consistent, and for all”; these three words were used in the workshop to describe approaches to integrate sel in classrooms. rq3 how do teachers perceive the importance of the components of sel as impacted by a workshop? data collected from the preand post-tests suggest this group of ecuadorian teachers agreed on the importance of sel and its integration in classrooms. table 1 shows a slight increase in the teachers’ agreement with q1, q2, and q3 when referring to the overview of sel. the median (md) scores show an increase in the values from agree to strongly agree, which demonstrates a slight change in teachers’ understanding of the theoretical foundation of sel. this change in q1, q2, and q3 may indicate teachers’ increased understanding of the impact of sel in relationship building and academic performance. socioemotional learning in primary school burgin, coli, & daniel 136 no. 22 table 1. social emotional learning (sel) overview   pretest posttest question m md sd m md sd q1.teaching social emotional skills helps improve the relationships among students. 5.40 5.00 0.50 5.72 6.00 0.46 q2.teaching social emotional skills helps improve the relationships between teachers and students. 5.45 5.00 0.51 5.72 6.00 0.46 q3.teaching social emotional skills helps improve students’ academic performance. 5.50 5.50 0.51 5.67 6.00 0.49 scale: strongly disagree=1; disagree=2; somewhat disagree=3; somewhat agree=4; agree=5; strongly agree=6 table 2 shows a slight increase in the values of the mean scores for q4 (mpretest = 5.35; mposttest = 5.50) and q5 (mpretest = 5.35; mposttest = 5.50). this indicates a little change in the teachers’ agreement with the contribution of sel to the classroom environment and the development of students’ sec. however, q6 shows a slight decrease (mpretest = 5.40; mposttest = 5.22) in the teachers’ agreement about the contribution of sel for promoting collaboration between parents and teachers. this decrease in agreement could be explained through the qualitative data, which provides evidence of the lack of support from families and the difficulties teachers face to engage students in the learning process. table 2. main contribution of sel integration   pretest posttest question m md sd m md sd q4.the main contribution of sel is that it provides the student with a space in which to express their feelings freely. 5.35 5.00 0.49 5.50 6.00 0.71 q5.the main contribution of sel is that it enhances the student’s academic and personal success through the development of social and emotional competencies. 5.40 5.00 0.50 5.61 6.00 0.50 q6.the main contribution of sel is that it encourages teachers and families to work together in a systematic way. 5.40 5.00 0.60 5.22 5.00 0.81 scale: strongly disagree=1; disagree=2; somewhat disagree=3; somewhat agree=4; agree=5; strongly agree=6 socioemotional learning in primary school burgin, coli, & daniel 137 no. 22 table 3 shows q7, q8, and q9 regarding the main objectives of mindfulness. both q7 and q8 show a slight increase in the mean scores and the median, indicating change in teachers’ understanding of the outcomes of integrating mindfulness in their classrooms, while q9 show a very small decrease in the values of the mean scores and no change in the median values (mpretest = 5.60; mposttest = 5.56; mdpretest = 6.00; mdposttest = 6.00). this could indicate that teachers’ view of the effect of mindfulness in students’ interpersonal skills did not change due to the workshop. table 3. mindfulness overview   pretest posttest question m md sd m md sd q7.the main objective of integrating mindfulness in the classroom is to make the student feel comfortable in class through relaxation activities. 5.30 5.00 0.57 5.50 6.00 0.71 q8.the main objective of integrating mindfulness in the classroom is to improve students’ attention and concentration capacity. 5.40 5.00 0.50 5.67 6.00 0.49 q9.the main objective of integrating mindfulness in the classroom is to foster the development of interpersonal skills. 5.60 6.00 0.50 5.56 6.00 0.51 scale: strongly disagree=1; disagree=2; somewhat disagree=3; somewhat agree=4; agree=5; strongly agree=6 table 4 shows six survey items (q10, q11, q12, q13, q14, q15) referring to the effective integration of sel in the classroom and the role of the teacher. q11, q14, and q15 had a change in the mean scores, indicating teachers’ change in their agreement about considering emotions in student assessment as well as considering appropriate student behavior and the engagement of other institutional actors for effective sel implementation. there was little or no change in q10, q12, and q13, indicating that teachers’ views about making goals explicit and pointing out “correct” and “incorrect” student behavior did not vary due to the workshop. socioemotional learning in primary school burgin, coli, & daniel 138 no. 22 table 4. sel integration   pretest posttest question m md sd m md sd q10.for an effective integration of social emotional learning, the teacher should make socioemotional learning objectives explicit. 5.11 5.00 0.94 5.11 5.00 0.76 q11.for an effective integration of social emotional learning, the teacher should consider students’ emotions in their evaluation. 4.90 5.00 0.97 5.39 6.00 0.78 q12.for an effective integration of social emotional learning, the teacher should point out “correct” behavior of students. 5.20 5.00 0.83 5.17 5.00 0.79 q13.for an effective integration of social emotional learning, the teacher should point out “incorrect” behavior of students. 3.30 3.00 1.84 3.33 2.50 2.13 q14.for an effective integration of social emotional learning, the teacher should not ignore inappropriate classroom behavior. 3.75 4.50 2.12 4.28 4.50 2.03 q15.for an effective integration of social emotional learning, the teacher should involve all institutional actors. 5.05 5.00 1.32 5.35 5.00 0.61 scale: strongly disagree=1; disagree=2; somewhat disagree=3; somewhat agree=4; agree=5; strongly agree=6 table 5 shows a slight increase in the values of each of the mean scores, indicating teachers’ stronger agreement about their role in the integration of sel after their participation in the workshop. socioemotional learning in primary school burgin, coli, & daniel 139 no. 22 table 5. attitude towards sel integration   pretest posttest question m md sd m md sd q16.i feel comfortable teaching social emotional skills to students. 4.90 6.00 1.77 5.41 6.00 0.71 q17. i feel comfortable sharing my emotions with my students. 4.75 5.00 1.21 5.39 6.00 0.78 q18.it is my job to help students understand and manage their emotions. 5.30 5.00 0.73 5.72 6.00 0.46 q19. it is my job to help students develop their social-emotional competencies. 4.95 5.00 1.05 5.59 6.00 0.62 q20.it is my job to assess my students’ personal development. 4.15 5.00 1.66 5.11 5.50 1.41 scale: strongly disagree=1; disagree=2; somewhat disagree=3; somewhat agree=4; agree=5; strongly agree=6 a wilcoxon signed ranks test was run; however, the results showed no significant difference (z= 1.93, p=.073) between the scores obtained from the preand post-tests. this result may be explained due to the length of the workshop and the need for more in-depth pd on the sel concepts and its impact on students’ emotional and academic development. findings results suggest that teachers benefited from the sel workshop. although the quantitative data did not produce any statistical significance from pre to post-test to show a difference in the responses; the qualitative data generated evidence of the changes in the knowledge among participants regarding the sel concepts and their integration in the classroom. during the focus group discussions, the participants indicated their perception that a relationship exists between sel, self-esteem and love. however, by the end of the workshop, participants were able to discuss selfmanagement, self-awareness, and responsible decision-making while expressing proper sel terminology to help with students’ development of sec. the participants’ sel definitions were not clearly presented before the workshop; however, after the workshop, the participants discussed self-regulation terms and the management of emotions and knowledge to obtain positive results in the classroom. the participants’ socioemotional learning in primary school burgin, coli, & daniel 140 no. 22 definitions before the workshop related to the students’ emotions as opposed to the development of skills and knowledge to manage one’s emotions as it is defined in the field. this lack of alignment indicates the limited understanding of the definition of sel and the sel components for effective implementation in the classroom. the teachers indicated the importance of incorporating these concepts to identify and provide needed supports. this indicates that the workshop provided these teachers with a relevant and necessary theoretical background for a more effective discussion of sel. regarding the integration of sel in the classroom, the quantitative data showed a slight change in the mean (m) and median (md) scores for some of the survey items (see table 4 and table 5) related to the participants’ knowledge of integrating sel. however, the qualitative data indicated gaps in the comprehension of sel concepts and its implementation as part of the lesson plan(s). for example, a group of teachers expressed that being able to understand students’ problems/mood at the beginning of the day would help them select the proper strategy to address the students’ needs. while the survey data show a slight increase in teachers’ understanding of their role in effective sel implementation, qualitative data indicate that these teachers do not embed any sel-related concepts, strategies or activities in their lesson plans. in addition, when discussing positive outcomes and expected challenges, this group of teachers was not able to differentiate between challenges and outcomes, thereby showing insufficient knowledge about the implementation of sel. hence, while the quantitative data indicated positive changes regarding these teachers’ understanding of sel and the need for its integration in the classroom, the qualitative data seemed to show no change in the teachers’ ability to envision the implementation of sel in real classrooms. this indicates the need for in-depth pd. overall, this study provided insight into how a pd workshop may change teachers’ understanding and perceptions of sel, its components, and their own role in its implementation. it also provided evidence of the lack of preparation and knowledge for the effective integration of sel in the classroom. although this is a first attempt to explore ecuadorian teachers’ understanding and perspectives of sel, it serves as a springboard for further discussion to provide ecuadorian teachers with strategies to integrate sel into their classrooms. socioemotional learning in primary school burgin, coli, & daniel 141 no. 22 conclusions the results of this study suggest the need for further pd to guide teachers in the integration of sel in classroom instruction. it is key that ecuadorian teachers have a clear understanding of what sel is, how to implement it in their own practices, and what their role is in the development of sec in their students. teachers’ understanding the different concepts involved in sel will allow them to respond to their student’s needs. in addition, sel knowledge will allow the implementation of teaching strategies as means to improve academic achievement. for effective implementation, further training is needed to provide teachers with the tools to embed sel in their lesson plans. then the development of their students’ sec will be intentional and the teachers will be able to identify and tackle challenges in spite of the emotional issues children may be facing at different stages of life. the successful implementation of sel concepts in the classroom will be driven by the development of goals and objectives per grade level so the students will develop according to their emotional level and needs, providing students with the necessary tools to succeed in the future. limitations the research tools used for this study may pose a number of limitations that might serve as counter arguments for the contributions of this study; 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(2017). to reach the students, teach the teachers: a national scan of teacher preparation and social and emotional learning. a report prepared for the collaborative for academic, social, and emotional learning (casel). vancouver, bc: university of british columbia. shulman, l. s., & sherin, m.g. (2004). fostering communities of teachers as learners: disciplinary perspectives. journal of curriculum studies 36 (2): 135-140. summa laboratorio de investigación e innovación en educación para américa latina y el caribe. 2020. https://www.summaedu.org/ talvio, m., lonka, k., komulainen, e., kuusela, m.,& lintunen, t. (2013). revisiting gordon’s teacher effectiveness training: an intervention study on teachers’ social and emotional learning. electronic journal of research in educational psychology, 11(3): 693-716. socioemotional learning in primary school burgin, coli, & daniel 145 no. 22 taylor, h. e., & larson, s. (1999). social and emotional learning in middle school. the clearing house, 72 (6): 331-336. the aspen institute national commission on social, emotional, and academic learning. (2018). https://www.aspeninstitute.org/programs/national-commissionon-social-emotional-and-academic-development/ van damme, w., aguerrondo, i., crespo burgos, c., & robalino campos, m.. (2013). a story of change: how ecuador seeks to sustain its development agenda through large scale educational reform. paper presented at ukfiet international conference on education and development – education and development post 2015: reflecting. waajid, b., garner, p.w., owen, j.e. (2013). infusing social emotional learning into the teacher education curriculum. international journal of emotional education, 5 (2): 31-48. yoder, n., posamentier, j., godek, d., seibel, k., & dusenbury, l. (2020). state efforts to elevate social and emotional learning during the pandemic. https://casel.org/ wp-content/uploads/2020/08/casel-cfc-final.pdf zins, j. e. (ed.). (2004). building academic success on social and emotional learning: what does the research say? teachers college press: new york and london. socioemotional learning in primary school burgin, coli, & daniel author *ximena burgin is an assistant professor at northern illinois university. her research interests relate to culturally responsive classroom by implementing researchbased methodologies to improve students’ academic outcomes. she has developed and evaluated a variety of state and federal programs in k-12 education and adult education, leading her to understand the impact of diverse interventions on academic achievement through the employment of different methodological techniques. she has also taught graduate research classes and she has mentored doctoral students throughout the dissertation process to completion.  orcid: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3494-569x sheila coli is an experienced english as a foreign language (efl) secondary school teacher from uruguay and a current edd candidate in the curriculum and instruction program at northern illinois university. her research focuses on social emotional learning and teacher development related to teacher’s knowledge to implement sel in the classroom. orcid: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5893-5285 mayra c daniel is a professor at northern illinois university, de kalb, il, usa. a native of cuba who emigrated to the united states at age 10, she personally experienced the merit of teachers who support the academic and sel development of linguistically diverse students. her work and research are based on the belief that social justice is alive and well in the hearts of all caring educators. orcid: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2702-0071 146 no. 21 socioemotional learning in primary school how to reference this article: burgin, x., coli, s., & daniel, m. c. (2021). exploratory study of ecuadorian teachers’ understanding of social emotional learning: an examination of primary school teachers. gist – education and learning research journal, 22(1), 125-146. https://doi. org/10.26817/16925777.964 30 podcasting: a preliminary classroom study alexander aristizabal, b.sc., m.ed. abstract/resumen podcasting is a term introduced through the use of apple computer, inc.’s ipod, a term which denotes how a portable audio player can be used to download audio files, mostly mp3s, and be heard at the user’s convenience. initially such an operation was intended for entertainment; however, it has proven itself to be an important tool in the field of education as well. the research at hand constitutes a preliminary study for exploring the educational potential of podcasting and for presenting the basic technical and pedagogical skills needed for its implementation. this qualitative research uses as its instruments direct observation and informal interviews of students. the project was carried out with 25 students who were looking at a chemistry unit on aromatic compounds and it included the use of four podcasts. even though the current study is taken from a science class, the applications of this technology can be useful in other subjects, particularly languages and social sciences. podcasting es un término presentado por el ipod de la compañía computadores apple, para describir cómo un sistema de sonido portátil puede ser utilizado para descargar archivos de audio, usualmente los mp3, y ser escuchado por un usuario a su diposición. inicialmente esta tecnología fue diseñada para el entretenimiento, sin embargo, también aristizábal 31 se ha mostrado como una herramienta importante en el campo de la educación. la investigación presentada constituye un estudio preliminar para explorar el potencial educativo del podcasting y para presentar las habilidades y técnicas básicas que se requieren para su implementación. esta investigación cualitativa maneja la observación directa y las entrevistas informales como sus instrumentos de recolección de datos. el proyecto se desarrolló con 25 estudiantes quienes estaban indagando sobre una unidad de química sobre compuestos aromáticos e hizo uso de cuatro podcasts. aunque el estudio presente fue tomado de una clase de ciencias, las aplicaciones de ésta tecnología pueden ser útiles en otras materias, particularmente en idiomas y las ciencias sociales. keywords/palabras claves: podcasting, mp3 player, technology, learning, auditory learners; podcasting, reproductor de mp3, tecnología, aprendizaje, aprendizaje auditivo introduction a high school science class will be taking an important test in 2 weeks. they have been working in class using exercises, worksheets and reviews of the most important concepts. however, will these means be enough in order to prepare them to recall the vast amounts of information that will be seen on the test? is there any other way their instructor can help them to prepare? presently, most educators undoubtedly have noticed that many young people are daily connected to their ipods or mp3/mp4 players. a teacher will also notice that apparently, listening to these devices does not have much negative impact on a student’s concentration. if their level of productivity is affected, it’s not a significant amount. from these observations, the thought arises: why not take advantage of the wide use of these devices to also review for tests (and not only for listening to music)? most adults who work closely with teenagers have already heard about podcasting. the majority has heard of how to use music players as educational tools, but doesn’t pay much attention to the issue. many schools, depending on the socio-economic situation of student families, demonstrate an abundant use of student ipods or mp3/mp4 players, and educators are just now understanding how they can use these devices for educational purposes. when one begins to research the issue of podcasting (understanding the technology required, knowing the processes to follow, becoming skilled at how to explain it to students and perusing the other implications of its use), one discovers a completely new language. included in the podcasting vocabulary are words such as rss, feed, episode and xml aristizábal 32 file. new concepts, although challenging at first, become clearer after working through a complete teaching process, as the author of this research himself discovered. methodology after the creation and upload of four podcasts, students were asked to download them and were allowed to use them both before and during a test. the use of podcasts was voluntary. test grades were compared among students who took it with and without audio accesibility to a podcast. subsequently, the researcher informally interviewed students in order to determine their appreciations of the experiment as well as the implications of their podcast use. finally, the results of the tests were compared in order to determine any impact possibly related to the use of podcasting. theoretical background and process podcasting, although originally introduced as a music entertainment concept by apple computers, eventually found itself a way into the field of education. the office of information technology of the university of minnesota (2006) defines educational podcasting as a method of publishing audio files (usually mp3s) to the web, which are then made available through subscription and automatically downloaded to a personal computer or portable mp3 player. podcasts are not meant to be listened to live, but whenever and wherever it is most convenient for the listener to hear them. in general, a podcast is used to share ideas, concepts or any other sort of information that can be transmitted via audio or video files. middleton (2008) indicated that an educational podcast allows for the development of shared knowledge through distributed digital media which is accessible to a community through flexible interfaces. a podcast can be a way of sharing knowledge and developing virtual learning communities connected through a web feed. web-savvy writers commonly describe three stages in the development of a podcast: file production, publication and delivery/ playback (deal, 2007). however, the author has concluded that a prior step is as important as the other three in the production of a podcast: planning and organization. stage 1: planning and organization first of all, one must begin with an end in mind: what will the podcast be used for? in the particular case of the author, students needed tools that would help them activate certain information learned which would, in turn, allow them to do well on an exam. the information provided on the podcast was data which they were asked to analyze and synthesize. podcasting aristizábal 33 in order to prompt the activity of data synthesis, the teacher prepared a word document with the information he wanted to include (a script), then divided up this information in four different sections (episodes). once they were separated, the teacher decided which music would be suitable in each episode. such audio needed to be motivational and not distractive. music heard in the background of the voice track not only supplies the atmosphere, but it gives the voice a different ring. in the planning, the teacher also included some attractor elements such as: “the following question will be on the test,” “the formula for answering this problem is…,” etc. these attractors were designed to get the student’s attention. the strategy was that students who experienced the advantage by getting these clues and helps would tell others about the benefits of listening to the podcast. stage 2: file production the script produced in the previous stage is recorded on different audio files as needed. one can make the recording by reading the script directly from the screen with a prompter; similar to what is done on television news shows. a free online prompter can be found at http://www.cueprompter.com. with this software the teacher can set the pace of the recording, which will greatly aide in including all the information needed. without a script, it is likely that the producer will leave information out. the following step is to select the software and hardware needed for the recordings. the instructor will need to have access to a quality microphone and to assure that the microphone works properly with the computer. one can use any audio editing software for the recordings, but the free software audacity© is a very good choice. audacity allows one to modify the audio and add effects to it.1 it is recommended that one do some trials before the final recording as it will be necessary to make sure that the intonation and pronunciation are suitable. based on the author’s experience while recording, the following aspects should be taken into account: pacing. if the designer of the podcast speaks too fast, hearers won’t understand or it may be difficult for them to follow. on the other hand, speaking too slow causes others to consider the podcast to be unattractive and boring. therefore, the prompter is recommended for assisting the speaker with pacing. 1 one disadvantage of audacity is that this software produces audio files in wav format. in most cases, podcasting requires audio in mp3 format. what can be done is that once the wav file is finished, the podcaster can convert it into an mp3 with some other free software such as itunes© or switch©. podcasting aristizábal 3� tone. the podcaster needs to use a consistently interesting tone of voice so that the students will feel engaged. in many cases, people don’t even like the way their own voice sounds when it’s recorded. try not to let that hinder you from recording. each person has a specific tone and pitch, which one should not attempt to change. what is suggested is that each person sound alive with vibrant speech emanating from the enthusiasm one feels about the subject being taught. with that, all issues of sound become secondary. background music. try to make a good choice of any background music so that students may feel more motivated to listen to the podcast. however, do not let music or sound effects dominate the information. on this matter, one should also take into account copyright issues. if the producer is not sure about the legal considerations, it’s better to assume that one is under copyright limitations. for free music and tracks, see http://www.freeplaymusic.com. length. do not create extensive or long podcasts. keep audio files short (about a 5 minute maximum). if the topic is too long, it becomes difficult to locate a specific section. very few students will be able to spend more than 30 minutes of their time listening to a teacher from school, as beloved as the teacher may be. in podcasting exercises, the file is the basic means of communication the students will have with their instructor, unless the work the teacher is developing involves more technology such as a wiki, a blog or a webpage. however, the development of an audio file for educational purposes is not as simple as just recording information. it is a complex task that requires a clear purpose, motivational elements and detailed time-management. with regard to the tempo of an audio recording, campbell (2005) says that when students listen to a podcasts they are: … at the mercy of the speaker’s tempo. for this author, sometimes it is a good thing for the learner not to control the tempo, particularly if one wants to lead the learner away from habitual patterns of perception and cognition. perhaps listening attentively to the pace of another mind, revealed in voice, can help train the learner to be more attentive generally. nevertheless, the above statement should be weighed carefully in the area of language learning, given that pace significantly affects the ability of students to comprehend the lesson being taught. stage 3: web subscription and publication a teacher who will be using podcasting will need to have a website with rss (really simple syndication), which is the “feed” for podcasts. podcasting aristizábal 3� in other words, one must find a host site where one may upload the mp3 and eventually retrieve the same files. an rss document, also called a feed or web feed can include text such as descriptions, questions or guidelines, as well as metadata such as publishing dates and authorship. there are some excellent free commercial web feeds such as podbean. com and mypodcast.com. the creation of a feed is as simple as any normal e-mail account creation. just follow the steps, make a recording, and one is ready to publish a podcast. it’s important to know that not every podcast is free because some teachers have committed the mistake of creating commercial podcasts on feeds where students have to pay for the information posted. once the web feed is established, the instructor will be ready to upload the different tracks/episodes of the podcast and make them public. some college professors post their class lectures on podcasts for review or for cases of absenteeism. the hosting sites give clear directions about how to upload. normally, there are visible step-by-step instructions for a user to follow. the biggest limitations of a free website are the amount of space available and the possibility of losing the hosting at their convenience. this is why it is very important to keep backups of all audio files in case one needs to move to another host. another advantage of using a web feed is that, in most cases, subscribers have the option of getting constant updates. this means that whenever one uploads anything new to their feed, the subscriber can be notified. deal (2007) states that the feed and subscription model of file delivery is what differentiates podcasting from a simple posting of audio files on the web. accordingly, the office of information technology at the university of minnesota (2006) describes podcasting like a magazine subscription. the “push” feature will suggest potential uses for the listener, such as departmental updates or course updates from a professor. stage 4: delivery and playback delivery and playback may be different depending on the type of audio player that one has available. the process for ipods is different from the process for mp3/mp4 players. if a teacher wants students to be able to download podcasts to an ipod, the teacher will need to subscribe to a web-feed through itunes. once subscribed, every time itunes is opened, the podcast subscription may be updated and the podcast can be downloaded to the device through synchronization. in the case of students who are using an mp3/mp4 player, the file will have to be downloaded from the web feed to the computer through the download option that appears on the website. after that, the audio file must be copied onto the player as any other normal audio file. podcasting aristizábal 3� educational uses podcasting is a growing art in the field of education. it is being used both by teachers and students alike, which gives it a multidimensional aspect. podcasting is not limited to instructor content, but learners are also creating their own podcasts as (1.) a record of activities, (2.) a means for note collection (3.) or a reflection on a lesson learned (www.educause. edu/eli). more and more research is being carried out to determine the impact podcasting could have on education and innovative uses have been proposed by teachers as well as it educational researchers. for example, dan schmit (2005) proposes about 20 uses of podcasts in the classroom in different subject areas.2 in addition to those mentioned by mr. schmit, podcasts can also be used for: ● weekly newsletters. in these, teachers can post information about weekly class activities for parents and students to listen to. ● digital story telling. a story can be recorded. ● audio e-portfolios. students can keep track of the development of their speaking skills as they progress over time. podcasting is becoming a more useful tool in education as teachers and students find more applications for it. its functions are not limited to specific subject areas, but it is being more widely used and appreciated in certain particular areas such as languages and social sciences. godwin-jones (2005) in his article: emerging technologies: skype and podcasting: disruptive technologies for language learning, says the following: podcasting has just begun to be used in language learning. the popularity of mp3 players among students means that students could easily download podcasts in the target language (e.g., from a newspaper site, blog, radio program) for listening on the go. several schools have made podcasts available for language students. the piecasts from scotland are intended for a variety of uses including vocabulary revision, listening exercises, and interviewing with native speakers. j. van rose’s “really learn spanish” blog includes podcasts. the bob and rob show offers “weekly english lessons from a yankee and a brit.” middlebury college has announced support for podcasts in the upcoming version of its studydb software, called crescendo. the university 2 these applications can be seen on the following site: http://learninginhand.com/blog/2006/12/podcastingnotes.html. podcasting aristizábal 3� of missouri’s white paper on podcasting highlights language learning as well as many other potential education uses for podcasting. in a recent discussion on slashdot, prompted by a question about best ways to learn another language, using podcasts was one of the very first suggestions made. as support for podcasts grows and new tools streamline production, their use in language learning will surely increase. it is evident that this kind of tool favors auditory learners, given the nature of its production. however, the use of video in podcasting is currently increasing. this resource is called video podcasting and is aimed at both visual and auditory learners. the principles are the same, but this technique uses video production software such as windows movie maker or i-movie, built-in software in pc and mac computers, respectively. there is also commercial software with more advanced tools for video production, but they require investments of considerable time and money. the production of video is more resource consuming, but it is more rewarding as students will be able to easily identify more ideas and make more mental connections as they see and listen to the podcast. for the student devices now being used, a limitation is the type of player needed; the ipod must be ipod video and the mp4 player must also have video capabilities. even though podcasting is opening new paths in education, adding audio to a course is not a panacea according to manning (2005). there are several sobering issues that should be considered before deciding to broadcast. it is suggested that the podcast producer consider the following: (a) target: what type of audience will it have? (b) goals: are my goals audience-oriented? (c) resources: do i have the software and hardware needed? does my audience have the software and hardware needed for retrieval? (d) assessment: how will i determine the impact of my podcast? certainly, podcasting is a useful addition to the teacher’s toolbox and a strategy which may be employed efficiently. however, there is still much room for the exploration and consideration of how it may be implemented. it is hoped that this very brief preliminary paper may provide some ideas for further research and applications. results an explanation was given to students for them to be able to retrieve and subscribe to the podcast. as stated earlier, the subscription and use of the podcast was optional for the students. during the test, students were allowed to use the podcast, a resource which provided them with general concepts, formulas and a description of a procedure to solve some podcasting aristizábal 38 scientific problems. the explanation about the solving of the problems was perhaps the facet of the podcast which was most appreciated by students. in most cases they struggled with problem solving, but the guidance provided on the podcast helped them to organize their ideas. it also provided them with the tools they needed to solve the problem on the test. when students finished the test, they were given two additional questions: 1.) what did you think of the podcast? and, 2.) did it help you? in general, students expressed an appreciation for the podcasts. for some of them, it was a very useful instrument for studying for the test. being that they did not feel the need to memorize specific data; it seems that they focused more on applying information and problem solving. the outcomes of the test showed that students who did not use the podcast (who normally were on the same level of performance as others) got a lower grade than the students that used the podcast. compared to other tests with similar characteristics, students who took advantage of the podcast scored 40% above their usual grade. the study didn’t include advanced-placement (ap) students, as they usually have exceptionally high grades and with great consistency. some students expressed an interest in producing their own podcasts to review and study for other classes. this experience was highly motivational and they expressed a desire to utilize podcasts more in the future. they are expecting more podcasts for coming units and tests. conclusion in this particular study, students found some benefits when using a podcast as a means of studying and reviewing for a test. assigning the use of podcasting has proven to be a good way to take instruction beyond the classroom and to provide multiple mechanisms for student learning. podcasting is initially a time-consuming process which requires some preparation and resources, but eventually, with practice, it may become another routine strategy that teachers apply to class intellectual development and production skills. depending on one’s technical skills, it can take up to 30 minutes of time for every 5 minutes of produced podcasting audio. however, this preparation time gradually lowers as more experience is developed. using podcasts is a worthwhile experience that educators can use to enhance student learning as well as to develop the skills needed for the 21st century. its application is increasing worldwide. schools and students are already, in general, up-to-date with its functionality, which will often make a teacher’s implementation of podcasting easier than one may expect. podcasting aristizábal 39 suggestions the current research is quite superficial and should be carried a few steps further. it is recommended that further research be done on the various applications of podcasting using data-collection instruments with a larger group and over a more extended period of time. a more systematic methodology is needed in order to validate data and conclusions more quantitatively. a control group with similar academic characteristics would also be very helpful for comparing the results of the pedagogical strategy. to review the already-published podcast used in the classroom project, readers of this article are invited to view the web feed: http:// aaristizabal.podbean.com. references deal, ashely. (2007). podcasting. retrieved may 2, 2009 from http://www.cmu.edu/teaching/resources/publicationsarchives/ studieswhitepapers/podcasting_jun07.pdf gardner, campbell. (2005). there is something in the air: podcasting in education. retrieved may 2, 2009 from: http://net.educause. edu/ir/library/pdf/erm0561.pdf godwin-jones, robert. (2005). emerging technologies. skype and podcasting: disruptive technologies for language learning. language, learning and technology, 9(3), pp. 9-12. retrieved june 31, 2009 from http://llt.msu.edu/vol9num3/emerging/default. html huann, t. y., & thong, m. k. (2006). audioblogging and podcasting in education. edublog.net retrieved may 2, 2008, from: http:// edublog.net/astinus/mt/file/docs/literature%20review%20on%20 audioblogging%20and%20podcasting.pdf manning, susan. (2005). the promise of podcasting, 6(2). retrieved may 2, 2009, from http://www.ion.uillinois.edu/resources/ pointersclickers/2005_03/podcasting2005.pdf middleton, andrew. (2008). 100 great ideas for educational podcasting. retrieved may 2, 2009, from http://teaching.shu.ac.uk/ podcast/pdf/edpodworkbook.pdf office of information technology, university of minnesota. (2006). podcasting in education. retrieved may 2, 2009 from http://dmc. umn.edu/technologies/podcasting.pdf podcasting aristizábal �0 national centre for technology in education. (2008). podcasting. retrieved april 30, 2009 from http://www.ncte.ie/documents/ advicesheets/34podcastingnov08.pdf schmit, dan. (2006). podcasting notes. retrieved may 2, 2009 from http://learninginhand.com/blog/2006/12/podcasting-notes.html alexander aristizabal earned his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in chemistry education at the universidad pedagógica nacional as well as a second master’s in school management and assessment at the universidad externado de colombia. he is a certified arizona state high school chemistry teacher and has taken advanced courses in chemistry at the university of northern colorado, in environmental science at the university of san diego and instructional technology at thomas jefferson high school for science and technology (farifax, va). professor aristizabal is a certified online ap chemistry teacher with the virtual school organization. in colombia he has been a consultant for both the ministry of education and some educational technology companies. he has also participated for 3 years as a panelist in el premio compartir al maestro. he is currently a chemistry teacher and ap coordinator at colegio nueva granada and professor of educational technology at the institución universitaria colombo americana, on the undergraduate and graduate levels. e-mails: aaristizabal@cng.edu or alexanderaristizabal@hotmail.com podcasting gistseptiembre2011final2.indd 5 presentación maría lucía casas pardo, m.ed. rectora única la presente edición de gist que el lector sostiene en sus manos tiene para nosotros un significado especial. se trata de la quinta, y dado que esta es una publicación anual, representa un lustro de esfuerzo en la promoción de la investigación y la diseminación de los resultados de trabajo de académicos importantes tanto en colombia como en otros lugares del mundo. cada año, al escribir estas palabras, hemos hecho un recuento de avances y hemos presentado un inventario de propósitos para que nuestros lectores conozcan y comprendan los principios que animan a la publicación de la revista y los parámetros cualitativos y técnicos bajos los cuales se enmarca este esfuerzo. desde la publicación del primer número el mandato fue servir de medio para difundir trabajos de académicos en las áreas de enseñanza de inglés como segunda lengua o como lengua extranjera, bilingüismo, formación docente, innovación educativa, política pública, y temas más técnicos en el área de la lingüística aplicada y sus diferentes ramas. y en la medida en que el número de contribuciones es mayor y el nivel científico de los artículos es cada vez más exigente, el número de académicos que sirven como pares evaluadores se ha hecho creciente, y sigue expandiéndose a otros países. sin embargo los logros más significativos, además de la cada vez más fascinante calidad y pluralidad de las investigaciones que publicamos, tienen que ver con la indexación de nuestra revista, la conformación del comité científico, el establecimiento de canjes con publicaciones afines en colombia, estados unidos, españa y el reino unido, y la creación de los canales virtuales de difusión de la publicación y de otros artículos de interés en las líneas de trabajo mencionadas en el párrafo anterior. en el presente año obtuvimos la indexación por parte de agencias internacionales de la talla de era educational research abstracts, linguistics abstracts on line y clase citas latinoamericanas en ciencias sociales y humanas, reconocida base de datos creada en 1975 en la universidad nacional autónoma de méxico (unam). estamos seguros que con las distintas acciones emprendidas en el fortalecimiento de la estructura científica de la revista y el creciente reconocimiento que la comunidad académica le ha ido deparando en estos cinco años, pronto obtendremos la indexación por parte de otras agencias de enorme importancia en el terreno de la difusión del conocimiento. no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) 6 en cuanto al comité científico, para gist es un honor haber podido reunir académicos de la talla y trayectoria de quienes hoy lo conforman. nuestros agradecimientos a sus integrantes: john w. knagg director de investigación y consultoría para consejo británico en el reino unido, natalie kuhlman de la universidad de san diego, barbara noel de la universidad george mason, luz libia rey del centro colombo americano de bogotá, mónica rodríguez-bonces de la universidad única, josephine taylor autora y consultora independiente, y annemarie truscott de mejía, de la universidad de los andes. para ustedes será refrescante encontrar que, además de la tradicional publicación impresa, podrán encontrar el sitio oficial de gist y el blog en el que se divulgan contribuciones de alto nivel que contribuyen significativamente en la construcción de conocimiento pertinente en nuestro campo de trabajo. el sitio oficial de la revista tiene la siguiente dirección electrónica: http://gisteducation,weebly.com/ y la dirección del blog es http://gistjournal.blogspot.com/ . reciban nuestra invitación no sólo a visitarlos sitios, sino a enviar sus contribuciones para ser publicadas. finalmente quiero compartir con nuestros lectores una reflexión de larry summers, ex secretario del tesoro de los estados unidos y ex presidente de la universidad de harvard, quien en un foro que tuvo lugar recientemente en nuestro país decía. “hay algo que no está bien en los estados unidos de américa, y que no está bien tampoco en colombia: las oportunidades en la vida de un niño no pueden seguir dependiendo de quiénes fueron sus padres… hay sólo un medio para generar equidad social verdadera en nuestros países, y ese medio es la educación de calidad….” si ese llamado a la equidad social toca nuestras vidas, y en nuestra condición de investigadores, de docentes, de generadores de políticas públicas o simplemente de ciudadanos comprometidos con propender por mejorar nuestro planeta de cara a las generaciones por venir decidimos hacer algo, el generar conocimiento que permita dar educación de calidad, estrechar lazos entre los pueblos, ofrecer a los niños y las niñas del mundo herramientas para labrarse un futuro mejor, será una gran contribución. y esta revista, los aportes de sus colaboradores pasados, presentes y futuros se constituirán en privilegiada plataforma para ello. agradezco profundamente al equipo editorial conformado por claudia caicedo, directora de investigaciones de única y devin strieff, editor de la revista por hacer posible que el quinto número de gist llegue a sus manos. si esta es la mejor versión de nuestra publicación hasta ahora, eso se lo debemos a los autores de los artículos y a ellos. muchas gracias. no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) 7 editorial devin strieff* expanding horizons the articles in this edition of gist, as they have been in past editions, are excellent examples of exhaustively researched, well-thought-out research papers that cover a broad range of issues related to teaching practices and bilingual education. this year, however, we have included some new changes to the publication as part of a strategy to widen exposure for gist. we are raising the bar to meet the more demanding standards of both national and international indexing agencies. we feel that the quality and format of the articles contained herein reflect our commitment to publishing a better journal. moreover, by complying with these more rigorous standards, our aim is for gist to be included in an everexpanding list of libraries in centers of learning, thereby increasing the journal’s accessibility. bilingual education is, of course, not limited to spanish and english. this year, in an effort to appeal to interested readers in brazil and portugal, we have included portuguese versions of the article abstracts. our vision is to disseminate the valuable knowledge detailed in gist articles to educators around the world in many languages and many countries, and this edition is the first step towards achieving that goal. the articles themselves also reflect the new changes we have implemented. readers will find them more engaging, as well as more thoughtand discussion-provoking. one of our goals is to establish links with an increasing number of interested educational communities, and if a gist article sparks a dialogue among educators, it is our hope that even a highlighted, underlined and dog-eared copy of the journal makes its way into new hands and new minds. summary of articles this issue includes nine papers concerning pedagogical strategies, second language acquisition, applied linguistics, bilingual education and assessment. the articles are derived from action research projects, reflective practices and innovations. in the first article, albeiro ramirez establishes the effects of masked priming by translation equivalents in spanish-english bilinguals. the findings in the article support the hypothesis that semantic representations mediate the mental association among non-cognates no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) 8 from a speaker’s first and second languages as proposed by grainger and frenck-mestre (1998) in their article entitled “masked priming by translation equivalents in proficient bilinguals.” the author reports the results obtained from a graduation thesis written as a requirement for the m.a. degree in linguistics at universidad nacional de colombia. this project was finished in 2009 and was funded by the unit of research administration from the school of human sciences at universidad nacional de colombia, sede bogotá, through the contest “convocatoria de apoyo a trabajos de posgrado 2008-ii”. the second article is based on an action research led by angélica martinez. the study took place during the academic year of 2009-2010, in three first grade classrooms in bogotá, colombia. in this study, we can see how phonics instruction for efl students was differentiated: the instructional time, instructional sequence and phonics vocabulary were adapted to meet efl students’ needs. the findings show that, not only does explicit and differentiated phonics instruction have a positive effect for efl learners in reading comprehension, but also that the differentiation of it has a considerable impact on efl students literacy skills in general. next, carlo granados shares the preliminary results of an ongoing research project named “towards a pedagogy for autonomy” carried out at the languages department at universidad central in bogotá, colombia. the final goal of the project is to create a teacher development program whose emphasis is on pedagogy for autonomy and whose theoretical and practical underpinnings are based on the findings of this specific study. the article discusses the origins of the project, the design and organisation of the initial teacher development workshops which will constitute the program, the limitations and some general results obtained from the experience so far. claudia peralta nash and celia den hartog king are the authors of the next article, which contains information about pedagogical strategies of six teachers in schools in the united states. informal interviews were conducted throughout the time of the study, and semi-structured interviews were conducted at the end of a semester of observation and recording of field notes. the data shows evidence that spaces were made for student voices to be heard, not only as they shared events of their lives, but also as they faced new learning opportunities, thus mirroring the opportunities that the teachers had to embed their beliefs. the results of the study demonstrated that the beliefs teachers held do not operate in isolation, but influence thoughts, actions and motivation. hector manuel serna shares with us an action research study which explores explicit vocabulary instruction in a second language no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) 9 (english) content-area course with a group of university student teachers. the study reviews several positions on the treatment of vocabulary in second language contexts. the data collection procedures included the teacher´s lesson plans, the students´ word study entries, and their opinions on both their vocabulary learning and their notebook completion through a final interview. research findings reveal that the word study notebook did contribute to students’ learning since they had a grasp of the vocabulary used in the class in terms of participating in the instructional conversations led by the professor and doing the class activities. our sixth article, written by joel dworin, is a result of a research project carried out in a spanish-english bilingual school program in the united states. this study investigated the language and literacy practices of five graduates of a spanish-english k-12 dual language immersion program through semi-structured interviews to understand the residual impact of thirteen years in a spanish-english bilingual school program. drawing from sociocultural theory, the interviews also sought to provide an understanding of the participants’ specific social networks and uses of spanish and cultural affinities. the basic research question guiding this interview study was: what can be learned about the spanish-english bilingualism and biliteracy of former students who attended a 13-year bilingual school program? the findings are significant because they indicate some of the strengths and limitations of k-12 bilingual programs in the u.s. the seventh article, by joshua schulze explores how a genrebased approach to writing instruction influenced by both genre theory and systemic functional linguistics supported the academic writing development of english language learners (ells) transitioning to middle school. drawing on systemic functional linguistics (sfl) as a tool for pedagogy and linguistic analysis, the teacher-researcher analyzed three instantiations of texts composed by ells to determine changes in the register of their texts during the course of genre-based writing pedagogy. methods were qualitative in nature, involving both analysis of the text and the surrounding context of composition. data came from multiple sources. they included videotaped observations of classroom interactions, transcriptions of semi-structured interviews with the student, collection of lesson plans and materials used in lesson implementation, and field notes made by the participant observer. findings suggest that a genrebased approach to writing instruction supported ells in producing texts that more closely approximated the register of the target genre. next, julio lopez reports on the results of an action research that focused on the influence that first language (l1) written structure has on second language (l2) written structure when students are asked to carry no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) 10 out assignments in the l2. to answer this question, twenty four students of the first semester at unica university were asked to write some papers in english during the semester. the results of this study indicated that the influence of l1 (spanish) can definitely hinder the writing processes in l2. in addition, four basic mistakes in student papers were found to be a direct influence from l1 to l2 writing: word order, missing the verb “be”, implicit subject, and the incorrect use of the article “the.” those mistakes emerged mostly due to the influence of their native language and also the lack of knowledge about the second language. we close this issue with an article by david schwarzer and melanie bloom. in this article, the authors respond to what they see as a crisis in world language education by proposing a spectrum of situatedness and its relation to five distinct pedagogical approaches. they describe this spectrum in part by using classroom vignettes that illustrate different scenarios in world language education and some of their curricular components. they conclude the article with the presentation of a tool to aid the reader in self-guiding and self-directing their own pedagogical practices. the authors hope this spectrum provides practitioners within the field with more accurate vocabulary for describing the phenomena of the world language classroom. they also draw our attention towards the main advantages of the use of this tool as well as alternatives so that teachers, administrators, policy-makers, and researchers can redesign and redefine their own programs and practice. reference grainger, j. & frenck-mestre, c. (1998). masked priming translation equivalents in proficient bilinguals. language and cognitive processes, 13, 601 – 623. the editor *devin strieff is a new editor of gist – education and learning research journal. he has worked in the corporate environment drafting and editing client correspondence at international law firms in san francisco, california and caracas, venezuela. his education background is in history and political science from university of oregon in eugene, oregon and visual journalism from brooks institute in santa barbara, california. he currently teaches academic writing both at undergraduate and graduate students in única. the curriculum includes the preparation, research, writing, revising and proper citation process of composing formal academic research papers. no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) awakening sociocultural realities in pre-service teachers through a pedagogy of multiliteracies1 despertar las realidades socioculturales en los profesores en formación a través de una pedagogía de las multiliteracidades angela yicely castro garcés2* universidad del cauca, colombia 1 received: april 14th 2020 /accepted: may 14th 2021 2 aycastro@unicauca.edu.co gist education and learning research journal. issn 1692-5777. no. 22 (january june, 2021). pp. 173-197. demotivation in efl students’ pariticipation 174 no. 22 abstract language learning that is grounded on learners’ sociocultural realities promises to be a meaningful experience they are likely to treasure when it comes to grappling with practical day-to-day matters. this article reports on a research study aimed at fostering socioculturally constructed language learning in a group of pre-service english teachers. this is a qualitative case study, grounded in a social constructivist paradigm, which draws on a pedagogy of multiliteracies through the knowledge process and the concept of design (cope & kalantzis, 2009) to embrace diverse modes of communication and to expand learners’ possibilities of engagement with text and the social and cultural world around them. the findings indicate that while learners are provided with opportunities to explore, reflect and co-construct socioculturally driven knowledge, they are involved in a meaning-making experience that allows them to make sense of the language they are learning. in this way, participants embraced diversity and gained sociocultural understandings by engaging in a pedagogy of multiliteracies. keywords: sociocultural realities, pedagogy of multiliteracies, pre-service teachers, language learning, design resumen el aprendizaje de una lengua basado en las realidades socioculturales de los educandos promete ser una experiencia significativa que han de atesorar cuando traten de resolver asuntos prácticos de la vida diaria. este artículo reporta una investigación cuyo objetivo fue fomentar el aprendizaje de una lengua construido socioculturalmente en un grupo de profesores de inglés en formación. este es un estudio de caso cualitativo apoyado en el paradigma constructivista social, el cual toma como base la pedagogía de las multiliteracidades a través de los procesos de conocimiento y el concepto de diseño (cope y kalantzis, 2009) para incluir diversos modos de comunicación y ampliar las posibilidades de compromiso de los estudiantes con el texto y el mundo social y cultural que los rodea. los resultados indican que mientras los estudiantes tienen la oportunidad de explorar, reflexionar y co-construir conocimiento promovido socioculturalmente, ellos a la vez se involucran en una experiencia de construcción de significado que les permite dar sentido a la lengua que están aprendiendo. de este modo, los participantes dieron la bienvenida a la diversidad y adquirieron conocimientos socioculturales al involucrarse con una pedagogía de las multiliteracidades. palabras clave: realidades socioculturales, pedagogía de las multiliteracidades, docentes en formación, aprendizaje de lenguas, diseño sociocultural realities in pre-service teachers castro-garcés 175 no. 22 sociocultural realities in pre-service teachers castro-garcés resumo aprender uma língua com base nas realidades socioculturais dos aprendentes promete ser uma experiência significativa a ser valorizada quando se lida com questões práticas da vida quotidiana. este artigo relata uma investigação que visava fomentar a aprendizagem sociocultural de línguas num grupo de professores estagiários de língua inglesa. este é um estudo de caso qualitativo apoiado pelo paradigma construtivista social, que se baseia na pedagogia multiliteracional através de processos de conhecimento e do conceito de design (cope & kalantzis, 2009) para incluir diversos modos de comunicação e expandir as possibilidades de envolvimento dos estudantes com o texto e o mundo social e cultural que os rodeia. os resultados indicam que enquanto os estudantes têm a oportunidade de explorar, refletir e co-construir conhecimentos promovidos socioculturalmente, eles ao mesmo tempo dedicam-se a uma experiência de criação de sentido que lhes permite dar sentido à língua que estão a aprender. desta forma, os participantes acolheram a diversidade e ganharam conhecimentos socioculturais ao envolverem-se com uma pedagogia de multiliteracias. palavras chave: realidades socioculturais, pedagogia do multiliteracia, formação de professores, aprendizagem de línguas, design 176 no. 22 introduction sociocultural views of literacy ingrained in meaning constructed in social practice (street, 2013) have expanded the monolingual, monocultural (cope & kalantzis, 2000) view of reading and writing, favoring a multiplicity of discourses and welcoming diverse modes of communication. the foreign language classroom has also been viewed as a space beyond verbocentricity (alvarez valencia, 2016; kress, 2000), in which multiliteracy (ml) practices (cope & kalantzis, 2009; the new london group (nlg), 1996) are to be welcomed. language is thus approached not as the ultimate goal, but as a means for building relationships and making meaning out of experiences lived inside and outside the classroom. technology and the new communication landscape have opened avenues for new literacies (gee, 1996; knobel & lankshear, 2007; perry, 2012). these new ways of acting in the world and with the world have reconceptualized what literacy practices are, how they interact and intersect in social events, requiring a different type of engagement with text or, as nlg (1996) posits it, a ml practice. a ml perspective implies a pedagogical approach to literacy (nlg, 1996) that brings possibilities for more inclusive, cultural, linguistic, communicative, and technological diversity in the classroom. the main contribution of this study is to take on a pedagogy of ml that helps awaken sociocultural realities in pre-service english teachers (pts). this is done through the knowledge process, by means of which they will experience, conceptualize, analyze and apply knowledge gained, at the same time that they are able to use available designs and redesign (cope & kalantzis, 2009) based on their meaning making experiences. the studies reviewed in the area of ml (cope & kalantzis, 2000, 2009; kalantzis & cope, 2004, 2008; nlg, 1996) help in the conceptualization to favor language learning that is context-sensitive (kumaravadivelu, 2001), makes meaning through various modes of communication (kress, 2010), goes beyond print literacy, and considers diverse semiotic systems (cope & kalantzis, 2009; o’rourke, 2015; perry, 2012). this qualitative case study (merriam, 2009), grounded in a social constructivist paradigm (hua, 2016), aims at fostering socioculturally constructed language learning through a pedagogy of ml. this research is developed with a group of fourteen pts to help them build a much more meaningful language learning experience. it attempted to answer the following research question: to what extent does a pedagogy of ml contribute to fostering socioculturally constructed language learning? following, i present studies on literacies and ml, the research design, findings, conclusion and pedagogical implications. sociocultural realities in pre-service teachers castro-garcés 177 no. 22 literacies and multiliteracies so-called literate western societies have for too long insisted on the priority of a particular form of engagement, through a combination of hearing and sight: with the sense of hearing specialized to the sounds of speech, and the sense of sight specialized to the graphic representation of sounds by “letters”, on flat surfaces (kress, 2000). the quote above illustrates a critique to the mere focus on print literacy practices, this is why i consider it a good start for building on the background of literacy. this section attempts to survey the evolution from traditional literacies to multiliteracies, in order to understand and reflect upon the changes undergone by this discipline, and to elucidate its implications for this classroom-driven research. literacy literacy, defined by street (2013) as social practices of reading and writing, has undergone shifts with the advance of technology, the different sociocultural changes of a globalized and globalizing world, and the recognition of the role of different modes of communication in the construction of meaning. nevertheless, its early development was situated between the cognitive (text-level reading comprehension and its linguistic components) and social practices (what readers can do with the texts they approach). street, as an advocate for reading and writing that has a purpose on people’s lives, contrasted autonomous and ideological models of literacy. the autonomous model assumed literacy to be a set of neutral, decontextualized skills that can be applied in any situation. literacy is something that one has or does not have; people are either literate or illiterate, and those who are illiterate are deficient. he also advices on the need to avoid such an autonomous model. the ideological model, on the other side, conceptualizes literacy as a set of practices ground in specific contexts. perry (2012) suggests that “literacy as a situated social practice underpins other theories within the larger umbrella of sociocultural theories on literacy” (p.53). in point of fact, giving context a starring role, recognizing students’ realities and background, as well as listening to their voices is essential for meaningful teaching and learning to take place (ausubel, 1963; kumaravadivelu, 2001, mora, 2011). additionally, barton and hamilton (2000) differentiate between literacy events and literacy practices. they describe events as “observable episodes which arise from practices and are shaped by them” (p. 8); that is, the evidence of people approaching literacy. practices, in contrast, can be rather unobservable, intangible. barton and hamilton (2000) define practices as “the general cultural ways of utilizing written language which people draw upon in their lives. what people do with literacy” (p. 8). thus, how people approach literacy has to do with the practices established, sociocultural realities in pre-service teachers castro-garcés 178 no. 22 including power relationships, access to literacy, and the kind of literacy that is related to a specific system of values. although there may be good in each of the concepts, literacy events and practices are presented as dichotomies in literacy, or extreme forces mediating literacy, which in the pedagogical arena places teachers in a decisionmaking situation because one is usually presented as bad, traditional, non-social and unrecommendable. our pedagogical practice and research in the classroom will need to ponder situated practices in order to mediate between the two edges, which can be rather complementary. as mora (2011) argues, “in order to really understand how literacy beliefs and practices continue evolving, it is not just to conceptualize it from theory or from pedagogy” (p. 3). subsequently, mora (2011) points at the difficulty of using the word literacy and establishing its clear meaning, but argues that one meaning that is commonplace among scholars is: “the transition from traditional canonical views of reading and writing to one where multiple forms of expression, technology, alternative and multicultural text have come into play” (p. 3). this is a view that expands our notion of literacy to an inclusive practice derived from the learners’ needs, which can only be possible through the consideration of their own realities, contexts and life experiences. furthermore, cope and kalantzis (2000) question the fact that “literacy pedagogy has traditionally meant teaching and learning to read and write in page-bound, official, standard forms of the national language” (p. 9); therefore, they “attempt to broaden this understanding of literacy and literacy teaching and learning to include negotiating a multiplicity of discourses” (p. 9). their approach to literacy provides a broader perspective that includes multiple modes of communication for a multisensory experience at the same time that it considers globalism and diversity. they argue that “we are agents of meaning-making, thus it is essential to use a didactic literacy pedagogy that proposes a deeper approach to reading and interpreting meaning; a much more dynamic view of literacy that considers the design of a variety of texts and ways of communicating” (p. 12). accordingly, as the study of literacy has embraced multimodality (mm), it has brought the school and home contexts together, permeating social aspects that traditional literacy did not consider. rowsell and collier (2017) assert that mm “explains communication as a combination of modes of representation and expression within text designs, including visual, print, gestural, dramatic and oral” (p. 313). there have been studies about literacies developed in the national colombian context which urge to develop literacy practices that include local knowledge (sharkey, 2012) and raise awareness on social and educational issues (clavijo, 2000, 2003, 2007; correa, 2010; mora, 2011, 2012, 2014, 2015, 2016; rincon & clavijo, 2016). clavijo (2000) as well as mora (2011) have led the study of literacies, generating in-depth reflection on literacy practices in colombia. in fact, clavijo (2000; 2007) has inquired into the role of literacy at different levels of education, reflecting upon primary school sociocultural realities in pre-service teachers castro-garcés 179 no. 22 students, pre-service, and in-service teachers’ understandings of literacy practices and the need to integrate school subjects to nurture more meaningful literacy practices. her studies extoll school teachers’ work on literacies and how these permeate the school and social contexts, advocating for students’ learning needs and sociocultural realities. likewise, mora (2011) analyzes the evolution of literacy beliefs and practices of teachers and the need to rethink educational practices; reflect upon understanding the concept of literacy, its historical and pedagogical evolution in teachers and students. there is also a call for literacy with a purpose, to reflect upon critical consciousness, ideology in textbooks and to foster agency, including city literacies that transform individuals through reflection and advocacy (mora, 2014, 2015, 2016). rincon and clavijo (2016) implemented community based pedagogies as a way to bring literacies closer to students’ local realities. they affirm that “the inquiry that students did in their communities unfolded a wide variety of multimodal ways to represent their findings” (p.77), which allowed for meaningful and more context-based language learning. similarly, sharkey (2012) discusses teachers’ reflection about local realities as a must, in times of educational reforms. she views “language and literacy as situated, cultural practices” (p. 11), thus aligned to students’ sociocultural realities, voiced through literacy practices (rincon & clavijo, 2016). literacy can be viewed as the door through which knowledge, critical thinking, and interpretation of reality is possible if we wish our students to become more intercultural, propositive and reflective citizens. in my view, literacy has to serve a social and reflective purpose inside and outside the classroom. it is not merely about decoding words to ‘understand’ a text meaning, but it is about using that text to solve real-life situations. multiliteracies ml is a pedagogical approach to literacy developed by the nlg in 1996, which aims to make classroom teaching more inclusive of cultural, linguistic, communicative, and technological diversity. the nlg used the word ml under two important premises: “the multiplicity of communication channels and media, and the increasing salience of cultural and linguistic diversity” (cope & kalantzis, 2000, p. 5). the goal was to find alternative ways in which literacy pedagogy could fit the changing contexts and realities of today’s learners through empowerment and critical decision-making. cope and kalantzis (2000) argue that “mere literacy’ remains centered on language only... while a pedagogy of ml, by contrast, focuses on modes of representation much broader than language alone, which differ according to culture, and context, and have specific cognitive, cultural, and social effects” (p. 5). sociocultural realities in pre-service teachers castro-garcés 180 no. 22 nlg suggests four components of pedagogy as follows: “situated practice, overt instruction, critical framing, and transformed practice” (1996, p. 7). these dimensions bring ml closer to the language classroom as they embrace linguistic and non-linguistic aspects, contextual teaching and learning through meaning-making that is considered essential to be able to design our learning experience. in addressing the question of the ‘what’ of literacy pedagogy, nlg (1996) proposes a metalanguage of ml based on the concept of ‘design’. teachers are seen as designers of learning processes and environments. they need creative intelligence to redesign their activities in the very act of practice. learning and productivity are the result of the designs (structures) of complex systems of people’s environments, technology, beliefs, and texts (p. 19). a pedagogy of ml, and the concept of design are essential elements for the development of this study because they build the conceptual and instructional framework to help pts make meaning out of ml practices and potentially develop sociocultural awareness. according to the researchers of nlg (1996), ml “overcome the limitations of traditional approaches by emphasizing how negotiating the multiple linguistic and cultural differences in our society is central to the pragmatics of the working, civic, and private lives of students” (p. 60). michelson and dupuy (2014) back up this idea through the development of a project based on a pedagogy of ml in a language class. they suggest that “ml pedagogies have been taken up both as curricular reform projects as well as instructional techniques” (p.25). adding to this, social semiotics is important to the world of ml as an approach to communication that seeks to understand how people communicate by a variety of means in particular social settings. michelson and alvarez valencia (2016) affirm that “social semiotics delves into how meanings are made and structured in processes of communication and semiotic acts and products are constituted and shaped through historical, cultural, and social uses of signs” (p.2). one essential aspect of social semiotic theory is the principle that modes of communication offer historically specific, socially and culturally shared options or semiotic resources for communicating (kress, 2010; kress & van leeuwen, 2001). research done in the area of ml has permeated first and second language acquisition, as well as a variety of contexts. works developed in students’ first language (hepple et al., 2014; kim & omerbašić, 2017; luke, 2000; meng, 2016) have implemented pedagogical practices that consider technology, literature, and social realities to provide meaningful pedagogical experiences. moreover, the foreign language teaching field has benefited from the advances in ml for students’ critical engagement and cultural awareness (boche, 2014; nlg, 1996; dooley, 2009; freedman & carver, 2007; fukunaga, 2006; jacobs, 2013; michelson, 2018; michelson & dupuy, 2014; olthouse, 2013). other works that have considered a pedagogy of ml have integrated digital practices (amicucci, 2014; carita, mäkinen & coiro, 2013) and sociocultural realities (cridland-hughes, 2012; curwood & cowell, 2011; de la piedra, 2010), including the sociocultural realities in pre-service teachers castro-garcés 181 no. 22 project carried out by nieto (2018) who suggests the integration of students’ realities based on a theory of community–based pedagogies. in the local colombian context, some studies have drawn on a ml perspective (alvarez valencia, 2016; areiza et al., 2014; losada & suaza, 2018; medina et al., 2015). in this way, colombian authors have explored a ml approach from a community perspective to make sense out of reading practices that include technology and diverse social semiotic resources toward the construction of meaning (alvarez valencia, 2016; areiza, et al., 2014; lozada & suaza, 2018). as an example, medina et al. (2015) turn to ml to help their students read their communities critically so as to transform their lives. the previous studies are meaningful illustrations of how the foreign language classroom has become a vehicle to explore students’ realities through meaningful context-driven ml practices. research design this study is grounded in a social constructivist paradigm, for meaning is constructed subjectively and “intercultural differences and cultural memberships are socially constructed” (hua, 2016, p. 12). this view aligns with the idea of learning for life and the construction of knowledge through experience (honebein, 1996). social constructivism, as an epistemological perspective, informs this study because it nurtures participants’ knowledge construction, based on their sociocultural realities, by engaging them in ml practices. this study is carried out based on a pedagogy of ml (cope & kalantzis, 2009; nlg, 1996), in which the enormous shifts in the ways in which people make meaning in the contemporary communications environment are accentuated. as such, a ml perspective is underpinned by a social constructivist epistemology, given it understands learning as a negotiation and construction of meanings. this work is approached from a qualitative interpretive case study perspective to gain a deep understanding and provide a “detailed description and analysis” (creswell, 2012, p. 481) of the understanding participants have, while experiencing a pedagogy of ml, fostered in their sociocultural realities. in this line of thought, guba and lincoln (1994) argue that “qualitative data can provide insight into human behavior” (p. 106). moreover, merriam (2009) presents case study as “one type of qualitative research that searches for meaning and understanding; the researcher being the primary instrument of data collection and analysis. a case study is an in-depth description and analysis of a bounded system” (p. 39-40). the bounded system in this research is the specific group of pts who make part of this study. sociocultural realities in pre-service teachers castro-garcés 182 no. 22 context and participants this study was carried out during an academic term at a state university in colombia with a group of fourteen pts who were part of a reading class. some of the activities developed during the academic term were part of the data collection instruments, therefore, everyone enrolled in the course participated in the study. nonetheless, participants signed an informed consent form in which they were explained about the data that would be collected out of the activities developed and how their anonymity would be ensured. the group was made up of nine women and five men, and their ages ranged between 18 and 24 years old. my positionality as a teacher-researcher was that of a participant observer, helping pts in their meaning-construction experience; i was also involved in proposing, designing and developing ml activities with them and in collecting evidence that helped answer the research question of the study. data collection instruments i collected data during an academic term, in which i built on pts’ concept of ml and the rationale behind it. then, i drew on a pedagogy of ml through the knowledge process3; reframed by cope and kalantzis (2009) into acts for learning, as follows: experiencing (becoming immersed in new situations); conceptualizing (connecting concepts); analyzing (evaluating one’s perspectives); and applying (putting knowledge into practice) (see figure 1), while encouraging participants to explore, reflect, and enact new knowledge. additionally, the concept of design gave participants tools to put ml into practice, while using available designs or redesigning, based on their own interests and needs. the following activities allowed for data collection that was later on interpreted through content analysis (patton, 2002), in order to organize, document and analyze participants’ meaning construction processes. (1) scaffolding on ml: this was made up of two articles and a video to know the critical and contextual tenets of literacy (perry, 2012), as well as the “why”, “what” and “how” of ml (cope & kalatzis, 2009), and the resources and possibilities that a pedagogy of ml brings to a language class. (2) imagery: a series of images to notice, describe, and voice sociocultural realities (corbett, 2010). (3) reading our campus: noticing literacies written through graffiti, poetry, drawings, and other artifacts. (4) survey: to unveil perceptions from the reading our campus project. 3 nlg original terminology: “situated practice, overt instruction, critical framing, and transformed practice” (1996, p. 7). sociocultural realities in pre-service teachers castro-garcés 183 no. 22 findings learning is to be related to context and reality, thus grounded on specific needs for it to be a meaningful experience; this is why, language teachers are encouraged to see the particular, practical, and possible (kumaravadivelu, 2006), or the sociocultural realities taking place in our classrooms. that is, our philosophy of language teaching and learning is to inform our dos in the classroom, always including students as agents who can contribute to their own learning processes. following, i present a descriptive, then analytic discussion of each of the moments of the study: scaffolding on ml – we read the article what is literacy (perry, 2012). this was the first approximation to the topic and allowed participants to understand how literacy practices are to be mediated by our sociocultural endeavors, presented in a variety of modes and thought of in a critical manner to deconstruct paradigms and re-construct realities, based on the readers’ schemata. as teachers to be, one important element we drew upon was literacy instruction, which started raising awareness on how we access and process information and how we could help others do the same. following, we read ml, new literacies, new learning pedagogies (cope & kalatzis, 2009), which is concerned with new approaches to literacies teaching and learning. within an educational perspective, the authors establish the “why”, “what” and “how” of ml and present a broad landscape which allowed pts to reflect upon the benefits of adopting a pedagogy of ml; that is, not only for their current language learning process, but also for their future as teachers. this last article was accompanied by the video representation, communication and design, which is one of a series of videos that cope & kalantzis present to illustrate on ml and the concept of design. this one was chosen in particular because it does a good liaison between ml and the concept of design, and provides an overview of how we approach texts, and understand them, using all our senses and schemata. imagery – following corbett’s (2010) intercultural language activities, pts were exposed to a series of images to make them reflect about sociocultural realities. they discussed how each image could potentially describe reality, and in which specific contexts. this generated class discussion and participants were able to voice their perceptions about the images they observed. i named each image as a probing question, then i proposed to reflect upon the topic through a think, pair, share activity. this allowed participants to first think to themselves, then get in pairs to compare their initial ideas and build arguments to support their views; and then, as a group, share their positions in front of the class. sociocultural realities in pre-service teachers castro-garcés 184 no. 22 figure 1. have you ever experienced this? https://blogs.iadb.org/igualdad/wp-content/uploads/sites/33/2020/01/caricatura-meritocracia. jpg female participants, eager to indicate women’s role in today’s society, mostly led the discussion. i selected some of their comments, which they provided to illustrate the slight changes we have experienced in gender roles from previous generations to today, nonetheless remarking the commonly heavier load women still have today. they stated: women find more obstacles than men because the later commonly find the road clearer. regarding job search, women sometimes are not hired because they have kids, thus they might get late to work or because the maternity leave is longer now. even if we do not have kids, we have to wash our own clothes, cook, clean our rooms, and so on; men, however, usually rely on a woman to do that. there is usually their mom, an aunt, grandma, or someone there to help them. another view point was mentioned: i have a different experience. i have my mom, dad, and one brother. when i was growing up, my mom requested everyone to do part of the chores; for this reason, my brother did chores the same as i did. one of the male participants said: some people have more possibilities and find it easier to reach their goals; this is not only gender-based. there are other issues behind equality. i think that the times when men had higher positions and earned better salaries than women have been left behind. nowadays, many women have surpassed men. this view made everyone reflect about other social issues that mediate male and female relationships; they were also able to think about other kind of inequalities lived beyond gender differences. other participants said: i haven’t had such an experience of being discriminated against during job search because i am still a student, but there are parents and grandparents who still hold marked gender discrimination. for example, my grandfather is of the idea that if he works he cannot wash his dish or his clothes. these ideas depend on age and the way they were raised. women are commonly guilty of this chauvinist behavior and ideas when they do not allow men to do chores. this variety of experiences exposed participants to different viewpoints, and to expand their perceptions, thus, sociocultural realities in pre-service teachers castro-garcés 185 no. 22 we could conclude that no matter the circumstances in which gender inequality takes place, this gap is to be bridged every day with more actions than discourse. figure 2. what would your parents say? https://cdn4.vectorstock.com/i/1000x1000/25/03/playingagainst-gender-stereotypes-vector-22012503.jpg this image burst participants’ desire to speak. they had very elaborate stories, which they were happy to share. both female and male agreed on a marked difference between them and their parents or grandparents. the arguments given were embedded in narratives of how they had been raised, what the adults in their families had told them, and the informed decisions they were able to make today because of their social and cultural experiences outside their homes. these stories could be classified as follows: gender roles beyond toys: i have told my daughter that she does not have to play with dolls just because she is a girl; not necessarily. thinking that a boy will become girly because he plays with dolls is very close-minded and this makes women and men chauvinist. once i saw a boy who wanted to play with a doll and his father told him to stop playing with that because he was not a gay person; the little kid was puzzled, he did not even understand what gay meant. gender roles encouraged by career choice: there are some gender roles in society which do not allow men to do what women do and vice versa. if a woman does something that is socially established to men, it is said that she is not feminine. the arts, for example, are mostly restricted to women. if a man does theater or dance, he might be stigmatized. women studying engineering here at the university are said to be to be manlike. what media sells: kids also watch tv announcements that promote certain behaviors. although these announcements do not completely reflect today’s gender views, commerce stigmatizes women. women are commonly offered to buy or given as presents sociocultural realities in pre-service teachers castro-garcés 186 no. 22 things like irons, pots or washing machines, while men are invited to buy cars. a text message was sent to clients of the same supermarket; the husband received a message inviting him to buy beer at half price, while the wife received a message inviting her to buy detergent. for example, giving girls these dolls that are to be fed creates in them the awareness of women role just as the ones who nurse and raise children. discourse shaping behavior: many people say that men don’t cry; they have to be strong and women are weak. i think that this makes us generalize the behavior of men and women. the difference that is made in genders comes from childhood and is reflected when we are adults. we should raise our kids as equal. as grown-ups we are not treated equal either because if a man has more than one woman, he is a macho, but if a woman has more than one man she is a ***; thus i think that society stigmatizes. the choice of toys given to kids in the image gave participants the opportunity to bring up realities they have experienced at home or with people they know. they are extremely aware of the influence that our family beliefs, discourse and media has on us; nonetheless, being at university has contributed to changing their mindset. figure 3. where wouldn’t you like to go? https://image.slidesharecdn.com/icclesson-150610071542-lva1-app6892/95/icc-lesson-stereotypes-1-638. jpg?cb=1433920592 it was not easy for participants to answer this question because, as they mentioned, they were used to thinking of their favorite place to visit, not the opposite. when found on the spot, most of them stated that they would love to go anywhere, nevertheless, a few mentioned specific places they would not like to visit and provided reasons based on what they had heard other people say or mostly watched and read on the news. after listening to their arguments, we discussed about how media is or not likely to inform us in an objective and reliable manner, and how listening to only one part of the story, from an outsider’s perspective, might not grant us with all the necessary elements to build an argument. some of the examples provided were: sociocultural realities in pre-service teachers castro-garcés 187 no. 22 i wouldn’t like to go to afghanistan because of what one perceives about war; nonetheless, it is the referent we have, what has been sold to us. media has generalized that colombians are traffic dealers or that colombian women are easy. what happens in other countries could be the same, generalized because of the news we hear. i wouldn’t go to the middle east because of the way women are perceived there; they might not allow me to show my face or i will have to wear a dress; women are too subjugated there. i wouldn’t like to go to usa because although this is a country with beautiful landscapes, it is ruled by bad people who want development at the expense of wars, poverty and pollution. even though some of them would prefer not to visit certain places, they were also aware that much of this information had been subjectively provided to them, and it might not be completely true. other participants, on the opposite, affirmed: not wanting to go to a place is not having the chance to know about their culture and what they have to show. when foreigners come to colombia they fall in love with it because they find out that it is not just what media tells. we concluded that we know very little about other places; thus we should not draw conclusions based on a few facts or limited information we have received. figure 4. who would you give the job to? https://crestresearch.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/using-stereotypes-to-prepare-for-interviews1170x821.jpg this image did not generate much discussion because it was hard for pts to think as employers, however they were very open to difference and provided the following answers. i wouldn’t judge people because of their physical appearance or culture, but will probably give them a test to know each person’s skills for the job. i would also give the job to the most skillful person, no matter their beliefs. on the opposite, one of the pts expressed: if image six is a catholic teacher, i would prefer to hire her, although they all deserve to be listened to and given the job opportunity. all in all, their perceptions about the situations illustrated in the images somehow relates to their initial education and family ties, but there are conscious decisions they have made in how they see others, sociocultural realities in pre-service teachers castro-garcés 188 no. 22 which are the result of their university education and the new social roles established as part of the social groups they now belong to. reading our campus to develop the project around campus, i gave pts examples of ml practices and asked them to think about moments in which they had approached them. they were then encouraged to work collaboratively to find literacy expressions around campus. they designed and presented posters explaining the process lived, the reasons to choose the pictures taken, and the analysis of their findings. they chose to collect information on graffiti, clothing, messages in the girls’ and boys’ restrooms, food, ideology in street art, and expressions of knowledge and power. in this way, they could see our campus with new eyes, explore linguistic and sociocultural practices through ml, and make sense of the language they are learning. participants lived the knowledge process because they experienced the language through the expressions they found and because of the appropriation they made of those expressions in english. they applied when using the language to express their feelings along the project. they conceptualized by becoming aware of the environment around them, and by learning to read their campus with other eyes. they also analyzed by preparing a report and by reporting in front of the class, by answering questions from their partners and me, and by reflecting about their findings, stating a position of what they had experienced, as well as by acknowledging the learning derived from the project. following, i present a series of pictures with the title, conceptualization and analysis done by participants: figure 5. what we have become [picture taken by pts] at the beginning of everything, we were just atoms, energy, we were part of something, we were one; through the years, we were advancing in everything, species, communities, civilizations, countries, but we have lost our culture and forgot our gods, sociocultural realities in pre-service teachers castro-garcés 189 no. 22 mother nature. the industry to make money, has made us kill lots of species. is this what we want for our future generations? the change we need is education. figure 6. politician’s plague [picture taken by pts] this piece of art expresses how the government works and the raw truth of the way the plague of important men does what they want with the law and resources. figure 7. this is what we are [picture taken by pts] this picture makes us think about nature, and how we act against this one, nature does not belong to us, we belong to nature. sociocultural realities in pre-service teachers castro-garcés 190 no. 22 figure 8. our restrooms talk [picture taken by pts] we think that people who write in the restrooms do it because they cannot express themselves outside. they have a lot to share or to complain about, but cannot do it because they are shy or they are afraid to talk in public. women usually write about freedom, unity, and self-love. for example: mujer no estás sola; no más feminicidios; feminista resisite; me amo como la tierra al sol. men, on the other hand, talk about political issues or send messages to girls they like. for example: congreso de los pueblos; vamos al poder; nico te necesita. image 9. we are what we eat [picture taken by pts] there’s stigma towards public university students; people usually think we are only interested in doing drugs and marching against everything, but most of us are just addicted to learning. we also have the graffiti in the entrance of the university which shows how there are many people outside, but only a few have the opportunity to enter. the picture of the fruits shows how our university is changing. now students can have a proper diet and get income here. the posters presentation, as seen in the pictures below, was an opportunity to know how each participant analyzed the campus and to also get to know places around us. sociocultural realities in pre-service teachers castro-garcés 191 no. 22 each group concentrated on diverse images and only a few coincided on taking pictures of the same. on top of that, pts’ analysis of the literacy expressions found on campus portrayed their sociocultural understanding of issues that they related to the reality lived by public universities and by the country as well. they reflected about inequality, starving children, war, insecurity, cultural values and roots lost, disconnection from mother nature, freedom, politics, unity, the need for acceptance or the desire to be oneself, inclusion of diversity, university students beyond stigma and the need for education. there was reflection about the aspects mentioned through pts’ critical views. this exercise prompted discovery and empowerment in all participants who acknowledged having a new view of their campus now, thanks to the detailed reading they had done around it. many issues were raised, which awoke several realities they were not aware of and that brought up the desire for changing what they did not find right. survey once participants presented the reading our campus projects, they completed a questionnaire whose purpose was to reflect about the experiences lived. i classified their answers and drew categories of analysis (cohen et al., 2007) to establish commonalities and differences among their perceptions and gains. in the first question, pts talked about the type of literacy expressions and art pieces selected and the reason for choosing them. among the most remarkable reasons to choose their projects, they mentioned the desire to learn about: variety, personality traits, people’s likes and interests, meaning construction about reality, rebellion against the political and educational systems, empowerment and identity construction. pts’ topics of interest were aligned to the critical positions they commonly have in class, thus knowing and analyzing those topics gave them more elements to voice their perceptions. the next question invited participants to analyze the literacy expressions or art pieces chosen. they expressed how any space can be owned through arts and how graffiti make walls talk. they also called for acceptance of our roots, open-mindedness, female empowerment, promote critical thinking and the study of literature. these topics encouraged reflection about the sociocultural reality we live in our campus and motivated thoughts about different ways of thinking and acting, which make part of one community. question three revealed the experience and challenges lived by pts while developing their projects. they mentioned that it was pleasant and easy to find art expressions, mostly because they could choose the topics to talk about, but it was hard to talk to people or to take pictures of them; they felt uneasy at the beginning, but gained self-assurance as they learned how to do it. among the positive experiences, sociocultural realities in pre-service teachers castro-garcés 192 no. 22 they highlighted how people go against trends or have different viewpoints, which contributes to diversity. they also acknowledged how this project expanded their language skills in the process of developing, analyzing and reporting their findings. finally, participants reported the new perceptions of their campus developed as a result of having carried out this project. the main gains were in terms of making meaning out of what is written on our campus walls, in the expressions of people, in the need to voice their likes and interests through clothing; and in the ability to relate arts and literacy expressions to current live experiences, to reality. conclusion and pedagogical implications a ml approach (cope & kalantzis, 2009) is a bridge towards a socially-constructed intercultural experience in the language classroom because of the possibilities it brings to language learners to use diverse modes of communication, which unveil the cultural and social realities that surround them. through a pedagogy of ml, pts were able to develop a learning process that made them explore, reflect and use knowledge in the real world, thus having the opportunity to embrace diversity, reflect upon languecultural experiences and gain sociocultural understandings. bringing reality closer to pts helped localize (canagarajah, 2005) knowledge and build meaningful learning. this project supported on a theory of language that is socioculturally constructed and socioculturally experienced helped participants reflect upon their own sociocultural practices and uncover those of people around them. this is a way to reassure the notion that it is always possible to construct meaning and to make the language classroom a space for the recognition of our own cultural practices, the acknowledgement of the other, and the raising of tolerance. the knowledge process helped me organize the steps that i wanted pts to walk through; 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(2012). community-based pedagogies and literacies in language teacher education: promising beginnings, intriguing challenges. ikala, 17(1), 9-13. street, b. (2013, september 27). multimodality and new literacy studies: what does it mean to talk about ‘texts’ today? king’s college london. online talk for universidad pontificia bolivariana: medellin-colombia. the new london group. (1996). a pedagogy of multiliteracies: designing social futures. harvard educational review, 66 (1), 60-92. author *angela castro has a b.a in modern languages, a specialization in pedagogy of reading and writing, and an m.a in tesol. she is a fourth-year phd student at universidad del valle, and a professor at universidad del cauca. her research interests include literacy studies and intercultural communication. orcid: http://orcid.org/0000-0001-6675-0937 sociocultural realities in pre-service teachers castro-garcés how to reference this article: castro-garcés, a. y. (2021). awakening sociocultural realities in pre-service teachers through a pedagogy of multiliteracies . gist – education and learning research journal, 22(1), 173-197. https://doi.org/10.26817/16925777.844 6 graphic organizers support young l2 writers’ argumentative skills1 los organizadores gráficos apoyan las habilidades argumentativas de los jóvenes escritores en segunda lengua. carlos andrés mora-gonzález, carl edlund anderson and liliana cuesta-medina2 secretaría de educación municipal de chía and universidad de la sabana, colombia abstract this qualitative study had the objective of analyzing the influence of graphic organizers on the development of written argumentative tasks in a group of sixth-grade colombian l2 english learners. learners are increasingly required to analyze information presented in languages other than their first critically to form reasoned opinions and solve problems. it is thus urgent to develop their argumentation skills, needed not only for academic success but also later professional life—and, indeed, by participant citizens in democratic societies. although there has been some increased interest in teaching argumentation at primary and secondary levels, this remains relatively unexplored colombia, certainly when considering writing in a second language. for the present study, data were collected through a questionnaire, a survey, a focus group, a teachers’ journal, and students’ written artifacts and analyzed through the grounded theory approach. findings revealed that using graphic organizers influenced learners’ argumentative writing skills positively, specifically through supporting strategic information planning and argumentative linearization during the preand while-writing stages. these understandings, which show that younger learners can develop complex argumentative writing skills in a second language, offer significant lessons for teachers of language—and content—in both the first and additional languages. gist education and learning research journal. issn 1692-5777. no.17 (july december 2018). pp. 6-33. 1 received: january 31st 2018/ accepted: october 18th 2018 2 carlosmogo@unisabana.edu.co; carl.anderson@unisabana.edu.co; liliana.cuesta@unisabana.edu.co mora, anderson & cuesta no. 17 (july december, 2018) no. 17 (july december, 2018) 7 keywords: writing, argumentation, graphic organizers, additional language, problem-based tasks resumen este estudio cualitativo tuvo como objetivo analizar la influencia de los organizadores gráficos en el desarrollo de tareas argumentativas escritas por un grupo de estudiantes de inglés colombianos de sexto grado. para los autores, se requiere cada vez más que los estudiantes analicen la información presentada en idiomas distintos de su lengua materna para consolidar opiniones razonadas y resolver problemas. por lo tanto, es urgente desarrollar sus habilidades de argumentación, necesarias no solo para el éxito académico sino también para la vida profesional y, de hecho, para lograr ser ciudadanos participantes en las sociedades democráticas. aunque ha habido un cierto interés en la enseñanza de la argumentación en los niveles de educación primaria y secundaria, éste sigue siendo en colombia un campo relativamente inexplorado, ciertamente cuando se considera escribir en un segundo idioma. para el presente estudio, los datos se recopilaron a través de encuestas, cuestionarios, grupos focales, un diario del maestro y varios artefactos escritos por los estudiantes, los cuales se analizaron a través del enfoque de la teoría fundamentada. los hallazgos revelaron que el uso de organizadores gráficos influyó positivamente en las habilidades de escritura argumentativa de los estudiantes, específicamente a través del apoyo a la planificación de la información estratégica y la linealización argumentativa durante las etapas previas a la escritura y durante el proceso mismo. estos hallazgos, que muestran que los aprendices más jóvenes pueden desarrollar complejas habilidades de escritura argumentativa en un segundo idioma, ofrecen lecciones significativas para los profesores de lengua (y contenido) tanto en el primer idioma como en los idiomas adicionales. palabras claves: escritura, argumentación, organizadores gráficos, idioma adicional, tareas basadas en problemas resumo este estudo qualitativo teve como objetivo analisar a influência dos organizadores gráficos no desenvolvimento de tarefas argumentativas, escritas por um grupo de estudantes de inglês colombianos de sexta série. para os autores, cada vez mais se requer que os estudantes analisem a informação apresentada em idiomas diferentes da sua língua materna para consolidar opiniões razoadas e resolver problemas. portanto, é urgente o desenvolvimento de suas habilidades de argumentação, necessárias não só para o sucesso acadêmico, como também para a vida profissional e, de fato, para conseguir serem cidadãos participantes nas sociedades democráticas. mesmo que tenha existido certo interesse no ensino da argumentação nos níveis de educação primária e secundária, o mesmo continua sendo na colômbia um campo relativamente inexplorado, sem dúvida quando se considera escrever em um segundo idioma. para o presente estudo, os dados foram recopilados através de enquetes, questionários, grupos focais, um diário do professor e vários artefatos escritos pelos estudantes, os quais foram mora, anderson & cuesta no. 17 (july december, 2018) no. 17 (july december, 2018) 8 analisados através do enfoque da teoria fundamentada. as descobertas revelaram que o uso de organizadores gráficos influiu positivamente nas habilidades de escritura argumentativa dos estudantes, especificamente através do apoio ao planejamento da informação estratégica e a linearização argumentativa durante as etapas prévias à escritura e durante o processo em si. estas descobertas, que mostram que os aprendizes mais jovens podem desenvolver habilidades complexas de escritura argumentativa em um segundo idioma, oferecem lições significativas para os professores de língua (e conteúdo) tanto no primeiro idioma quanto nos idiomas adicionais. palavras chaves: escritura, argumentação, organizadores gráficos, idioma adicional, tarefas baseadas em problemas graphic organizers support writing skills mora, anderson & cuesta no. 17 (july december, 2018) no. 17 (july december, 2018) 9 introduction the need to teach content and cognitive skills in the secondlanguage classroom has increased considerably in recent years. learners are increasingly required to examine current societal, political, behavioral, and cultural issues critically to form reasoned opinions and find solutions to local and global problems. thus, there is an urgent need for educational systems to develop the argumentation skills students need not only for academic and professional success (graff, 2004; hillocks, 2010, 2011) but as citizens in democratic societies (hillocks, 2011, pp. xv–xvi; neff-van aertselaer, 2013). argumentative writing is recognized as more cognitively demanding than other types of writing (freedman & pringle, 1984), but complaints about poor argumentative writing skills are common (applebee, langer, mullis, latham, & gentile, 1994; kuhn, 1991). yet though writing skills are developed principally between childhood and adolescence (kuhn, 1991), younger learners seldom engage with argumentative writing practices even in their first language; opportunities to develop argumentative writing skills in an l2 (second language) are even less common (neff-van aertselaer, 2013). this can be simply because many teachers are required to teach a set, traditionally oriented curriculum that does not contemplate the development of lifelong “soft” or “21st-century” skills (binkley et al., 2012; collins, doyon, mcauley, & quijada, 2011; scott, 2015) such as argumentation. yet argumentation is a critical lifelong skill—required for academic success and integral to forming learners’ beliefs and judgments (jonassen & kim, 2010). effective instruction in the early years can help learners modify their existing cognitive and metacognitive learning strategies, preparing them for later academic challenges. learning to approach argumentative texts by middle school can help students better organize their ideas and support their own opinions (antolini & de bernardi, 2006). moreover, although writing argumentatively in the l2 may well be “one of the greatest challenges many english language learners (ells) are likely to face” (hirvela & du, 2013, p. 67), failing to address this challenge may leave such learners unprepared to produce or even analyze arguments presented through the l2—potentially a serious barrier in higher educational contexts or professional and civic life. the present study examined the fostering of argumentative writing skills in a group of colombian sixth-graders with a1 cefr level (council of europe, 2001) l2 english using webbing graphic organizers (brovero, 2004) in the planning and writing stages of problem-based writing tasks, with a focus on helping learners express graphic organizers support writing skills mora, anderson & cuesta no. 17 (july december, 2018) no. 17 (july december, 2018) 10 and support their points of view to help develop maturity in their thinking and writing processes (dent-young, 1993). theoretical considerations graphic organizers. graphic organizers (gos, hereafter) are visual devices that can be used to depict information in various ways (ellis & howard, 2007), thereby providing visual representations of knowledge and ways of structuring information or arranging essential aspects of an idea or topic into a pattern using labels (bromley, irwin-devitis, & modlo, 1995). they have become familiar tools for engaging with, developing, and scaffolding reading and writing skills, including argumentative writing skills (ellis & howard, 2007; see also papers in kirschner, buckingham shum, & carr, 2003). using gos can help direct writers’ attentions to their tasks, particularly regarding the details and specific ordering of ideas needed to write proficiently (miller, 2011). gos can also provide a preliminary organizational plan of the ideas students select as most meaningful, connections between these ideas, and supporting details (ruddell, 2001). gos can reduce cognitive load (adcock, 2000), helping learners concentrate on comparing, diagnosing, and operating on aspects of rhetorical problem they are addressing (flower & hayes, 1981). gos can help writers focus on a topic, keeping their ideas in front of them as they are writing and information in the desired sequence (meyer, 1995). in the present study, webbing gos (brovero, 2004) were used because their simple and user-friendly structures were easily managed by the target population and helped them develop both global and specific structures in planning and writing (linearizing) a basic argumentative composition in which they proposed a solution to a problem and presented arguments in support of their chosen solution (see the argumentative writing section). webbing graphic organisers are structured with a large circle in the center of a page, with smaller circles branching off, connected to the central circle by lines or arrows (thus giving the appearance of a web). the larger, central circle in the web holds the main idea or the topic; the smaller, outer circles hold details related to the main idea or topic. this design helps writers with the two main elements of a basic argumentative text: the claim (the solution for a problem-based task) in the larger central circle, and the supporting evidence (arguments support a solution) in the surrounding smaller, connected circles. graphic organizers support writing skills mora, anderson & cuesta no. 17 (july december, 2018) no. 17 (july december, 2018) 11 argumentative writing. the ability to write argumentative texts requires writers to follow an underlying model of two basic processes: conceptual or referential planning and translating (coirier, andriessen, & chanquoy, 1999). conceptual/referential planning has three sub-processes: idea generation and retrieval, idea selection and evaluation, and idea organization. translating (as understood here) has two sub-processes: linearizing and linguistic coding (hayes & flower, 1980). conceptual/referential planning (coirier et al., 1999) is concerned with outcomes from the planning process and the specific characteristics of the knowledge to be retrieved. in the present study, this process was supported by webbing gos (brovero, 2004; see also the graphic organizer section) during the pre-writing stage to generate, select, and organize information strategically and during the while-writing stage to recover specific information. idea selection and evaluation essentially involve using appropriate criteria to select and evaluate arguments relevant to the task’s goals, and (in the present study; see the pedagogical intervention section) participants used gos when selecting and evaluating arguments. idea organization involves relating concepts in a hierarchical structure as the basis for a coherent text structure, and in the present study participants used gos to generate visual schema that were intended to help them develop both the microand macrolevels of compositional structure for their texts. the translating process (coirier et al., 1999) involves transposing the conceptual/referential plan through linearization into a grammatically correct and pragmatically appropriate linear text. linearization refers to the expression of a cognitive representation (i.e. the visual representation of information developed in the gos) into a linearly sequenced flow of information (i.e. the argumentative written text). in the present study, participants linearized their selected arguments (as planned in the gos) by placing them in the order that they would appear in the actual text (see the pedagogical intervention section). they then linguistically coded the resulting sequences by identifying relationships between arguments to form a coherent structure of sentences. linguistic coding is a complex process of relating successive sentences through textualizing operations (apothéloz, 1990) and organization devices (boscolo, 1995) involving syntax, punctuation, and connectives. this process is crucial for the linguistic structure and realization of the text plan. graphic organizers support writing skills mora, anderson & cuesta no. 17 (july december, 2018) no. 17 (july december, 2018) 12 previous research on graphic organizers supporting argumentative writing. numerous studies (for example, capretz, ricker, & sasak, 2003; delrose, 2011; lancaster, 2013; meyer, 1995; miller, 2011; myrick & siders, 2007) have examined the use of gos to help learning writers (especially younger learners) organize their ideas. other studies (for example, dowell, tscholl, gladisch, & asgari-targhi, 2009; nussbaum & schraw, 2007) have specifically examined how gos can aid the construction of argumentative texts, particularly amongst l1 writers, though such studies with l2 writers have mostly considered older learners (for example, hirose, 2003). while studies on the use of gos with l2 learners in colombia have focused principally on reading (for example, roa pinzón, 2012) or more general writing (for example, reyes, 2011), few, if any studies—certainly in colombia or latin america more generally—have focused specifically on the use of gos to support argumentative l2 writing amongst younger learners. moreover, despite studies on the use of other strategies to foster argumentative writing in either l1 or l2 contexts (antolini & de bernardi, 2006; belland, 2010; harland, 2003; morgan & beaumont, 2003), little specific attention has been given to the significance of structuring basic argumentative texts as a basis for more complex written productions. research objective and question the present study had the objective of examining how webbing gos affect the development of basic aspects of argumentative writing amongst sixth-grade colombian l2 english learners, specifically putting forward opinions and supporting these with arguments (newell et al., 2011; toulmin, 2003), as a foundation for development of more complex written argumentative skills. this approach aligns with pedagogical trends for preparing self-regulated learners (familiar with various strategies and tools that assist their own learning) in critical 21st-century competences (such as argumentation) through an l2. the research question that guided the study was: how does use of gos in problem-based tasks influence the argumentative writing skills of sixth graders with a1 (cefr) l2 english? graphic organizers support writing skills mora, anderson & cuesta no. 17 (july december, 2018) no. 17 (july december, 2018) 13 method participants the present study was conducted with a group of 20 sixth-grade students (12 females and eight males) with a1 cefr l2 english, aged 10-11, from backgrounds of upper-middle socioeconomic status, in the same classroom group at a private school in chía, colombia. therefore, in terms of age and stage in the learning process, sixth graders represent a good target population for the development of argumentative writing skills. informed consent was obtained from both participants and their legal guardians, and the study followed all standard ethical procedures for qualitative studies (cohen, manion, & morrison, 2007; creswell, 2012, 2014; dooly, moore, & vallejo, 2017). needs analysis needs analyses have been recognized as an important first step in developing language teaching programs (long, 2005). a needs analysis in the preliminary phase of the present study used a survey to assess participants’ perceptions about their argumentative writing skills and samples of their written artifacts. for these sample texts, participants were asked to propose and support in writing (without using graphic organizers or any other aids) a solution to a given problem at their school (in this case, bullying). analysis of the survey responses and sample texts from the needs analysis revealed various linguistic and cognitive needs: the participants had difficulties with expressing their opinions; clarifying, organizing, and connecting ideas; providing arguments, and they often lacked sufficient vocabulary to express themselves adequately in writing. pedagogical intervention consistency, coherence, and creativity are critical for successful use of gos (baxendell, 2003), as are training and modeling if learners are to learn to use them independently and effectively (lee, 2007; sakta, 1992). training familiarizes learners with gos’ form and function (lee, 2007), while modeling provides examples of realistic usage. however, before expecting learners to use gos, instructors must first help them understand the main idea and supporting details of a topic (sakta, 1992). for this, the present study followed a three-step process for problembased learning approaches (jonassen & kim, 2010): 1) introduction to the problem, 2) exploring what is/is not known about the problem, and 3) generating viable solutions to the problem. graphic organizers support writing skills mora, anderson & cuesta no. 17 (july december, 2018) no. 17 (july december, 2018) 14 in the first step, the participants listed the most common problems they identified at their school. through discussion, they formed a consensus and selected 4 problems on which to focus (bullying, littering, food waste, and bad language). at the same time, the participants were provided with examples of the type of go used in the present study. although they could customize details of the gos, too much choice in go design or structured can lead to frustration and confusion (capretz et al., 2003) and, indeed, students can benefit from routine and structure (baxendell, 2003); thus, an essentially unified go design was retained throughout the present study’s pedagogical intervention (see the graphic organizers section in theoretical considerations). the instructor modeled use of the go to help write a paragraph about solutions to problems and the arguments needed to support a proposed solution. thereafter, participants started to work more independently as they became acquainted with working on problem-based tasks. in the second step, learners familiarized themselves with a chosen problem and used a checklist to selected information and ideas for inclusion in their gos. the checklists were read aloud, and questions were discussed with the whole class. once the participants understood what was expected, they moved on to the third step: completing their own gos, generating solutions for the problems, and selecting supporting arguments. participants then used another checklist to identify elements for inclusion in their written texts; these checklists were likewise read aloud and discussed in class. finally, using the information from their gos, participants wrote their solutions as linear texts. data collection and analysis after the participants’ gos had been produced, these and the accompanying written artifacts, as well as instructor journal entries made throughout the participants’ training and artifact creation processes, were collected. additionally, a questionnaire, a survey, and a focus group were used to reassess participants’ perceptions on how using the gos had affected their argumentative writing. artifacts serve as physical, concrete evidence of what the participants do, produce, or carry out in their contexts (lankshear & knobel, 2004). questionnaires gather data about participants’ opinions through their responses to a set of questions, and surveys typically collect factual or demographic, behavioral, and attitudinal (burns, 2010). focus groups are a structured group process fro exploring participants’ thoughts and feelings so as to obtain detailed information about a particular topic or issue (cameron, 2005). instruments and procedures were validated and piloted in graphic organizers support writing skills mora, anderson & cuesta no. 17 (july december, 2018) no. 17 (july december, 2018) 15 advance to ensure reliability of data (cohen, manion, & morrison, 2007; creswell, 2012, 2014; lecompte & goetz, 1982). through this multi-instrumental approach, different perceptions and examples of the influence of gos on argumentative writing skill could be compared and contrasted for a richer analysis (creswell, 2012, 2014). the collected qualitative data were organized in digital charts for each instrument to facilitate management and analysis. the artifacts were stored together and an analysis of each participant’s artifacts was organized in a digital chart as well. all participants’ responses and artifacts were anonymized to maintain confidentiality. qualitative data were analyzed through the grounded theory approach, which seeks uses an inductive process of data collection and analysis to construct theory about issues of importance in participant’s lives (corbin & strauss, 2015). results the coding processes (corbin & strauss, 2015) resulted in the establishment of preliminary categories, from which emerged two subsequent categories that produced the core category (see table 1). table 1. development of core category from categories and preliminary categories. as shown in table 1, the core category (development of strategic information planning and argumentative linearization) emerged from two mid-level categories: planning argumentative texts (derived from preliminary categories representing the information processing skills of focusing, analyzing, and organizing), and producing argumentative texts (derived from the preliminary categories of positioning and supporting a claim, and supporting coherence and cohesion. graphic organizers support writing skills mora, anderson & cuesta no. 17 (july december, 2018) no. 17 (july december, 2018) 16 influence of graphic organizers on planning argumentative texts data analysis showed that the process of planning an argumentative written text using webbing gos was influenced by three types of information processing skills (marzano et al., 1988): focusing, analyzing, and organizing skills. focusing skills. using gos helped the participants select the most important information by focusing on one possible solution and a maximum of four supporting arguments, as exemplified in excerpt 1. excerpt 1. focus group. for me, they [gos] helped to be focus on what you had to write on the organizer. (participant e) the example in excerpt 1 suggests that gos reduced cognitive demand by helping participants concentrate on writing precise and concrete information. similarly, ellis (2004) argued gos help learners separate important information from interesting but not essential information, keeping their ideas in front of them and helping them stay on topic (meyer, 1995). furthermore, focusing skills directed participants’ attention to choosing the most appropriate words to express their ideas, as demonstrated in excerpt 2. excerpt 2. final survey. it was easy to write the arguments because we already had more vocabulary for the solutions, and we already had the right vocabulary. (participant e) thus, gos helped participants select key words (related to their main idea) that served as semantic cues, activating participants’ lexical backgrounds to help recall word meanings. similarly, miller (2011) argues that key words used in gos assist learners with focusing on meanings, thereby facilitating acquisition of knowledge as well as vocabulary. graphic organizers support writing skills mora, anderson & cuesta no. 17 (july december, 2018) no. 17 (july december, 2018) 17 analyzing skills. gos supported participants’ abilities to define, clarify, and concretize their ideas when planning solutions, arguments to support their solutions, and ways of organizing those arguments. thus, gos helped participants analyze their existing information and decide how to use it in their argumentative texts, as shown in excerpt 3. excerpt 3. final survey. it was easy to write the solution because i had the concept clear on the organizer. (participant c) the example in excerpt 3 shows how participants understood gos as effective pre-writing tools that helped them focus their ideas. similarly, marzano et al. (1988) observe that analyzing skills are used to clarify existing information by examining parts and relationships, although only a minority of participants in the present study performed such examinations. most arguments proposed in support of solutions were mere extensions or descriptions of those same solutions or, in other cases, entirely different solutions. this may have occurred because the participants lacked experience with distinguishing the arguments supporting solutions from the solutions themselves. organizing skills. gos supports participants’ creations of structures for their solutions and arguments in sequenced and consistent ways. similarly, marzano et al. (1988) note that “through organizing skills, we impose structure on information and experience by matching similarities, noting differences, or indicating sequences” (p. 93). participants became familiar with the gos’ easily parsed structure, which also helped them sequence their arguments based on relevance or relationships. likewise, jiang and grabe (2007) observe that gos’ organizational patterns provide beneficial scaffolding devices for, especially beginning, writers. influence of graphic organizers on producing argumentative texts gos influenced the structure of participants’ written argumentative texts by providing an organized and consistent sequence of information graphic organizers support writing skills mora, anderson & cuesta no. 17 (july december, 2018) no. 17 (july december, 2018) 18 comprising a claim (here, a solution for a problem) and supporting evidence (arguments that justified that solution; toulmin, 2003). these findings support the notion that awareness of argumentative written discourse is characterized by a capacity to distinguish an opinion about a topic and the justification of such an opinion through reasoned argument (dent-young, 1993). positioning and supporting a claim. gos helped participants concretize specific positions on a topic for which there were no fixed answers but also encouraged participants to focus on identifying a solution for a given problem as a first step toward contextualizing and defining their main ideas in writing. in alignment with the findings of nippold, ward-lonergan, and fanning (2005), participants in the present study found argumentative writing requires one to embrace, present, and defend a particular point of view. likewise, harland (2003) has argued that presenting a clear thesis or position provides writers with a context. gos also helped participants develop more appropriate arguments to justify their chosen solutions, perhaps because gos supported the identification of concrete and precise main ideas. this, in turn, seems to have helped participants decide what further information was needed, as well as how to organize their arguments visually in a logical sequence, as illustrated by excerpt 4. excerpt 4. final survey. the organizers did help me write the solution because they already had the arguments organized, their main idea. (participant n) similarly, ellis and howard (2007) have argued that gos contribute to the structuring of written discourse. structure helps learners improve their texts by supporting the visualization of their arguments (see further in papers in kirschner et al., 2003). in this sense, gos encouraged recognition of the need for supporting explanations, as exemplified in excerpt 5. graphic organizers support writing skills mora, anderson & cuesta no. 17 (july december, 2018) no. 17 (july december, 2018) 19 excerpt 5. focus group. now, we have something more concrete to write a paragraph and you can ask me why i chose that solution and i can tell you because it is like that and i can explain. (participant e) results showed that gos supported participants in identifying and selecting the most appropriate words for their intended purpose, helping make their opinions and arguments more understandable. in this sense, gos facilitated participants’ abilities to retrieve words when reconstructing linear texts by activating their attentional processes, helping them recall word meanings by strategically selecting specific key and cue vocabulary that supported this recovery process. these results recall coirier, andriessen, and chanquoy’s (1999) suggestion that “at the level of retrieval, getting one precise idea thus will often supposed to get the precise words which allows specifying this idea” (p. 16). supporting coherence and cohesion the findings show that gos helped participants organize their ideas in relation to a supportive solution for each problem and write logical sequences of ideas with clear meanings based on their sequential structural characteristics. this finding aligns with santangelo and olinghouse’s (2009) suggestion that gos encourage the generation of ideas and improve the organizational structure of students’ writing, as well as bamberg’s (1984) definition of coherence as the ability to organize the overall structure, plan, or schema of the writer’s propositions and ideas into an integrated whole. results also showed that using gos seem to have encouraged the use of lexical cohesive ties, such as enunciative markers and linkers, and the use of transitional expressions and other devices (cohesive cues), helping participants compose more understandable messages about how the parts of their compositions—in these cases, their claims (the solutions) and their supporting evidence (arguments)—were connected and related to one another. this result aligns with van eemeren, grootendorst, and snoeck henkemans’s observation (2002) that the use of discourse markers as linkers provides guiding information on the relationship between an argumentative structure and its constituent elements. in addition, this finding relates to halliday and hasan’s (1976) understanding of cohesion in writing as the ability to use lexical ties to graphic organizers support writing skills mora, anderson & cuesta no. 17 (july december, 2018) no. 17 (july december, 2018) 20 create connections between sentences and ideas. these two elements— coherence and cohesion—are important properties of argumentative written texts (coirier et al., 1999; connor and lauer, 1988). they help participants structure planned and arranged pieces of writing with sequenced, logical, and connected ideas that help express and support their opinions, as well as translate visual information (from the gos) into comprehensible linear texts by using appropriate expressions to connect ideas. discussion this study examined how the use of webbing gos affect the development of basic aspects of argumentative writing amongst colombian sixth-graders with a1-level (cefr) l2 english in terms of their abilities to plan and execute problem-based argumentative writing tasks. the structure of these tasks required participants to execute two main abilities effectively: planning and translating (coirier et al., 1999). the main results (see the results section) show that webbing gos supported participants in becoming more strategic argumentative writers by helping them first plan their ideas and then translate those plans into the production of linear argumentative texts. webbing gos supported participants in both the pre-writing and while-writing stages. in the pre-writing stage (planning), participants used organizers to help them generate ideas, find a focus, decide what to write about, develop and organize their ideas, and try out language (including vocabulary) through which to express (and further organize) those ideas. these findings align with previous research in which gos were found to be effective pre-writing tools that encourage more effective planning and preparation before writing a final piece (emerson & maxwell, 2011; lancaster, 2013; reyes, 2011); they may also mitigate against ong and zhang’s (2010) findings, which suggest that too much planning can have negative effects on fluency in written task performance. during the pre-writing stage, gos supported participants’ information processing skills, such as focusing, analyzing, and organizing. these skills helped participants strategically search for, find, and select appropriate words needed to specify their ideas, focus on a concrete idea, analyze what information might be relevant, and arrange that information in a sequenced way. this conclusion aligns with findings from a number of different studies in which gos were found to help learners increase word usage (myrick & siders, 2007) and keep ideas in the correct sequential order while improving organizational graphic organizers support writing skills mora, anderson & cuesta no. 17 (july december, 2018) no. 17 (july december, 2018) 21 writing skills (capretz et al., 2003; meyer, 1995; miller, 2011), but, again, seems to contrast with ong and zhang’s (2010) findings that wider word retrieval can be inhibited in free-writing conditions (without preor while-task conditions). in the while-writing stage (linearization), gos assisted participants by helping them develop visual representations of their thoughts, illustrating how information was organized and connected. these visual aids facilitated the process of writing argumentative texts strategically by retrieving, selecting, and relating different pieces of information (and vocabulary) when transforming that information into linear texts (linearization) and following or rearranging the sequential ordering of information constructed in the gos. indeed, considering that the organization of information forms the basis for a coherent text structure (coirier et al., 1999), gos seem to have provided a particularly appropriate means for participants to produce suitable organizational structures. moreover, gos assisted in generating a repeating writing strategy (victori, 1995) through which participants were able to repeat chunks of language (key words and phrases) while composing, when either transcribing ideas or reviewing their texts. throughout the whilewriting stage, gos helped participants develop their argumentative written discourse and make its structure more accessible to them when writing (hawkins, 2011) by prompting them to make a claim (in the case of the particular tasks used in the present study, to think of possible solutions for certain problems in their context) and identify evidence to support their claims (in this case, to provide arguments to support their preferred solutions). thus, with simple gos, participants were better able to develop logical, sequential, organized pieces of writing that converged towards their main communicative goals: to put forward a coherent, cohesive, and well-supported arguments in support of a claim. one of the key elements that favored strategic informationplanning and argumentative linearization was the use of gos that, although user-customizable in comestic senses, were uniformly based around a simple, user-friendly, and consistent structure. this structure, focused on core idea in the center of the gos with supporting arguments ranged around that core idea, seemed to help participants explore and transform conceptual information through personalization, enhancing autonomy, motivation, confidence, and self-efficacy. this conclusion aligns with some similar findings (emerson & maxwell, 2011; reyes, 2011), and contrasts with studies in which participants lacked knowledge about gos and how to use them (lee & tan, 2010), which can inhibit a cohesive flow of ideas to the resultant texts being produced. graphic organizers support writing skills mora, anderson & cuesta no. 17 (july december, 2018) no. 17 (july december, 2018) 22 limitations in the training phase of the present study, time constraints may have limited the effectiveness with which participants were eventually able to use the gos. as in most learning situations, learners need sufficient time to explore, familiarize themselves with, and incorporate a strategy or tool into their learning routines. similarly, training in and familiarity with the use of gos need to be developed over time (alvermann & boothby, 1986; mannes & kintsch, 1987; robinson & kiewra, 1995). nevertheless, effective and consistent modelling of the gos’ usage can help make the best use of available training time. to ensure learners understand what a graphic organizer is, how it works, and what is expected from learners when using them, modelling should be provided to learners before they move on to actually developing and using the gos. moreover, the need to write information on the gos itself can place considerable vocabulary demands on learners. in the present study, some participants seem to have felt that they had a clear idea of what they wanted to communicate but that they lacked the necessary vocabulary to express it through writing in the target language. accordingly, learners should be provided with cognitively based (for example, through the use of dictionaries, in which learners may also need training) and/or memory-based (for example, through making lists of unknown words) vocabulary-learning strategies, as appropriate. likewise, during training phases, participants may need explicit support in the understanding of what a solution is and what arguments are until they are better able to differentiate one from the other and, accordingly, better able to plan concrete solutions with clear supporting arguments. this issue can be addressed through training exercises such as matching, unscrambling, inserting, separating, connecting, completing, comparing, contrasting, correcting, classifying, evaluating, identifying, and organizing. such exercises can also be used to help learners better understand and differentiate between claims and arguments—for example, by using a color-coding strategy (in which learners use one color to underline a claim but a different color to underline each argument supporting the claim) in the gos (and/or in their written texts). during both the training and implementation stages, learners should be provided with both immediate instructor feedback and opporuntities for peer-assessment to help them identify their own strengths and weaknesses in relation to the structure of the gos and the structure of basic argumentative written texts. instructor feedback should graphic organizers support writing skills mora, anderson & cuesta no. 17 (july december, 2018) no. 17 (july december, 2018) 23 focus on two main aspects of the larger tasks: presenting a solution, and supporting that solution. learners should have the opportunity to make drafts and improve them by taking feedback into account. if feedback is given after the initial drafting process, learners may be more willing to accept comments and to make changes improving the content and organization of their gos (and, thus ultimately, the texts they produce). such formative assessment processes can help learners develop a broader scope to compare and contrast what they think they can do and what they actually do, as well as to design action plans for improving their gos’ contents and the written structure of their argumentative texts. moreover, selfand peer-assessment and effective formative feedback can encourage learners to set their own goals, supporting the development of self-regulated learning (see, for example, papers in schunk & zimmerman, 2008). additionally, there are many opportunities to explore the additional benefits of using digitally based drawing and graphic design tools (particularly in terms of motivation and engagement; see, for example, papers in oblinger & oblinger, 2005) to develop gos. similarly, computer-based tools (such as word-processing software) could be used to facilitate the composition and revision of argumentative written texts, while other online tools could be used to support collaborative writing and learning strategies. conclusions the present study helps fill a gap in the research, where relatively little attention has been given to the need to develop effective argumentation skills, especially in additional language learning contexts, and even more especially with younger learners in such contexts. it also offers one approach to implementing a scaffolded process in which modelling of, training in, and implementation of gos can support the development of younger learners’ argumentative writing and cognitive skills in l2 contexts. despite the clear linguistic difficulties participants revealed when planning their ideas using the organizers and writing the argumentative texts, these difficulties in fact concealed the most significant cognitive issues related to participants’ abilities to write basic argumentative texts that included a claim and corresponding supporting arguments. indeed, it would seem that, in many contexts, students are often expected to develop linguistic and communicative competences that require little more than lower-order thinking skills (anderson et al., 2001; bloom, engelhart, furst, hill, & krathwohl, 1956), such as remembering or describing. considering that graphic organizers support writing skills mora, anderson & cuesta no. 17 (july december, 2018) no. 17 (july december, 2018) 24 “argumentation strategies will not only help students attain academic achievement but will also prepare them to take up more critical roles as active citizens in democratic societies” (neff-van aertselaer, 2013, p. 199), the present study highlights additionally highlights the need to ensure contemporary educational approaches adequately provide for the development of learner’s higher-order thinking skills. the language-teaching, and indeed wider educational, community should consider integrating strategies, tools, and topics that encourage the development of argumentative and rhetorical skills and competences within syllabuses and at the lesson-planning stage. moreover, further research should investigate the transfer of knowledge about using gos between l1 and additional-language argumentative writing contexts, as well as how cognitive skills developed through one language might be transferred to situations in which the other language is used. indeed, the development of argumentative writing skills through both the l1 and l2 concurrently, fostering not only improved communicative skills but lifelong cognitive skills, should be examined through crosslinguistic studies. in many current contexts, lack of experience with argumentative writing through the l1 may compound the challenge of doing so through an l2 (hirose, 2003; neff-van aertselaer, 2013). renewed focus on the development of communicative and cognitive competences in and through multiple languages would benefit both languageand content-learning practices, especially in contexts (such as colombia’s), where current l1 and l2 language-teaching and educational policies have historically neglected such issues. graphic organizers support writing skills mora, anderson & cuesta no. 17 (july december, 2018) no. 17 (july december, 2018) 25 references adcock, a. b. 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(education research and foresight working papers no. 15). paris, france: unesco. retrieved from http:// unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0024/002431/243126e.pdf graphic organizers support writing skills mora, anderson & cuesta no. 17 (july december, 2018) no. 17 (july december, 2018) 32 toulmin, s. e. (2003). the uses of argument: updated edition (2nd ed.). cambridge, uk: cambridge university press. van eemeren, f. h., grootendorst, r., & snoeck henkemans, f. (2002). argumentation: analysis, evaluation, presentation. mahwah, nj: erlbaum. victori, m. (1995). efl writing knowledge and strategies: an interactive study (unpublished doctoral dissertation). universitat autònoma de barcelona, barcelona, spain. graphic organizers support writing skills mora, anderson & cuesta no. 17 (july december, 2018) no. 17 (july december, 2018) 33 authors *carlos andrés mora-gonzález is the bilingual coordinator for the secretary of education in chía, cundinamarca, colombia. he holds a master’s degree in english language teaching and has expertise in providing assistance to set english language academic programs, to legalize schools for national or international bilingual designation, to adjust english language curriculum, to coordinate english language projects, to train teachers, and to teach english language under on-site, online, and blended modalities with varied populations. carl edlund anderson phd is a professor at the department of languages and cultures, universidad de la sabana (bogotá, colombia). currently on scientific committee for scandia: journal of medieval norse studies and formerly the editor-inchief of the latin american journal of content & language integrated learning (laclil), his research interests include germanic philology, colombian minority languages, rhetorical communication, and clil. liliana cuesta-medina is a professor at the master’s programs in english language teaching at the department of languages and cultures, universidad de la sabana. she holds a phd in english philology from the faculty of humanities at uned, madrid, spain. her research areas include call, clil, academic writing, and learners’ self-regulation in blended/ virtual learning environments, on which topics she has led research projects and published in books, international journals and conference proceedings. graphic organizers support writing skills mora, anderson & cuesta no. 17 (july december, 2018) no. 17 (july december, 2018) 106 task-supported-teaching to promote efl oral fluency1 enseñanza asistida por tareas para promover la conversación en inglés rigoberto castillo ph.d, heidy erika silva-gonzález and leidy sanabria-chavarro2* universidad distrital francisco josé de caldas, colombia abstract this paper presents a study that looked into the structuring of tasks that may foster oral fluency in an intensive eight-week course with 25 young adult and adult learners of english as a foreign language in a format of tutoring sessions for conversation. the action research involved two teachers and a research advisor, coauthors of this paper. researchers identified two drawbacks: learners claimed that instruction was not helpful for them to use english outside the classroom, and that they had difficulty in retaining information in long-term memory. with surveys, interviews, observations and videos, the research team gathered data on students’ progress, goals, performance and beliefs. the pedagogical intervention with task-supported teaching (tst) produced these results: a) tst promoted cooperation b) the degree of participation correlated with the students’ purpose for learning english, and c) tst raised awareness on the acquisition of speaking. keywords: conversation club, foreign language, oral production, tasksupported teaching, tutoring. resumen este artículo presenta una investigación que analizó la organización de las actividades y su impacto en la producción oral en inglés en un curso intensivo de 25 jóvenes y adultos en un club de conversación tipo tutoría que se desarrolló en ocho semanas. esta investigación-acción fue desarrollada por los coautores de este artículo: dos docentes y un tutor de investigación. las dos problemáticas identificadas fueron: primero, los estudiantes aseguraron que lo aprendido no era 1 received: february 18th 2018/ accepted: november 1st 2018 2 rcastillo@udistrital.edu.co; erika_291@hotmail.com; leidysana@gmail.com gist education and learning research journal. issn 1692-5777. no.17 (july december 2018). pp. 106-127. castillo, silva & sanabria no. 17 (july december, 2018) no. 17 (july december, 2018) 107 útil fuera del aula de inglés, y además tenían dificultad para retener lo aprendido en la memoria a largo plazo. mediante encuestas, entrevistas, observaciones y videos se recogieron datos del desempeño de los estudiantes, sus metas y sus creencias. la intervención pedagógica consistió en la metodología de la enseñanza asistida por tareas y se evidenció un incremento de la participación de los estudiantes cuando las tareas les permitieron el uso de diversas habilidades, la utilización del conocimiento previo, y cuando la gramática y el léxico se relacionaron con su entorno. los resultados de la intervención pedagógica con la enseñanza asistida por tareas indicaron que: a) se promovió la cooperación b) el grado de participación se incrementó cuando lo aprendido se relacionaba con su contexto inmediato, sus metas de aprendizaje, y c) se creó conciencia en relación al proceso de producción oral en inglés. palabras claves: aprendizaje de idiomas, club de conversación, enseñanza asistida por tareas, producción oral, tutorías. resumo este artigo apresenta uma pesquisa que analisou a organização das atividades e o seu impacto na produção oral em inglês, em um curso intensivo de 25 jovens e adultos, em um clube de conversação tipo tutoria que foi desenvolvido em oito semanas. esta pesquisa-ação foi desenvolvida pelos coautores deste artigo: dois docentes e um tutor de pesquisa. as duas problemáticas identificadas foram: primeiro, os estudantes asseguraram que o aprendido não era útil fora da aula de inglês e, além disso, eles tinham dificuldade para reter o aprendido na memória ao longo prazo. mediante enquetes, entrevistas, observações e vídeos se coletaram dados do desempenho dos estudantes, as suas metas e suas crenças. a intervenção pedagógica consistiu na metodologia do ensino assistido por tarefas e evidenciou-se um incremento da participação dos estudantes quando as tarefas lhes permitiu o uso de diversas habilidades, a utilização do conhecimento prévio, e quando a gramática e o léxico se relacionaram com o seu entorno. os resultados da intervenção pedagógica com o ensino assistido por tarefas indicaram que: a) promoveu-se a cooperação b) o grau de participação incrementou-se quando o aprendido tinha relação com o seu contexto imediato, as suas metas de aprendizagem, e c) criou-se consciência em relação com o processo de produção oral em inglês. palavras chaves: aprendizagem de idiomas, clube de conversação, ensino assistido por tarefas, produção oral, tutorias. castillo, silva & sanabria no. 17 (july december, 2018) no. 17 (july december, 2018) 108 introduction teaching english as a foreign language (efl) can have particular goals and approaches, which teachers and students should discuss in advance. this study encountered two drawbacks in the conversational club of 25 young adult and adult efl learners. club participants claimed that instruction did not help them to use english outside the classroom, and that they had difficulty in retaining information in long-term memory. the circumstances and the students’ difficulties became the motivation to test if task-supported teaching promoted speaking. the academy opened in 2002, and it specializes on the teaching of english and french serving over 1.000 students in three cities of colombia. the situation of the conversation club was similar to the one fergusson (2018) describes: “there is no right way to teach such classes, there is no textbook to guide lessons and no structure to follow. the students are an incredibly mixed bunch, different ages, and attending the conversation course for a variety of reasons”. (p.1). on the other hand, gaining awareness of language acquisition, and consulting the learners’ needs and interests is in line with meaningful learning (ausubel’s, 1978). students can retain the new knowledge in the long-term memory, retrieve it and apply it to solve a new problem when it is memorable. the diagnosis, the teachers’ experience, and the literature review on task supported teaching and oral production were the variables to explore and analyze the problem. the research team assumed that the cognitive tasks proposed would help store the new knowledge in long-term memory and use the new knowledge to speak in other contexts. the inquiry revolved around the question: how may task-supported teaching promote oral fluency? task supported teaching (tst) swan (2005) considers that tst constitutes an approach, which links communicative language teaching (clt), and task-based instruction (tbi) in a way that learners can be conscious of their process, and practice the knowledge gained adding an aspect of metacognition. tst contributes to systematic efl instruction, especially when time is limited and out-of-class exposure unavailable. for swan (2005), in tst the teacher is a proactive resource that negotiates the syllabus with learners for bringing motivation. tst offers learners a more meaningful task-supported teaching in efl castillo, silva & sanabria no. 17 (july december, 2018) no. 17 (july december, 2018) 109 engagement and a more negotiated syllabus than clt and tbi when conducted in three phases: planning, acting and reflection. shafipoor and latif (2015) conducted a study on the efficiency of tst; the results signaled that tst was superior to tbi for efl reading. furthermore, prabhu, (1987) defines a task as “a piece of classroom work which involves learners in comprehending, manipulating, producing or interacting in the target language while their attention is principally focused on meaning rather than form” (p.10). thus, the tasks in the pedagogical intervention focused on meaning rather than on linguistic structure. oral production oral production is the process in which learners express, with fluency and accuracy, their thoughts and ideas. folse (2006) expounds that oral production presents issues and myths, which teachers and students have to resolve. bueno, madrid and mclaren (2006) also assure that oral production is the most difficult due to the fear of mispronouncing, or of being unable to express their ideas. the research team realized that the 25 participants held issues and myths on speaking such as that it had to be free of pause or hesitations, and that speaking resulted from repeating. at the language academy, the syllabus for grammar, listening, reading and writing had a clear scope and sequence while the one for speaking did not. this may be attributed to teachers’ beliefs and practices that convince them that oral tests and exercises in a class are the most challenging to create, administer and score, as chuang (2009) claims. participants claimed that they wanted to use the fl not only for studying, but also for their everyday life. then we specified the features of spoken language as put forward by long and robinson (1998): focus on meanings requires the speakers of all the ages use the language not as an object of studying, but as a tool that allow them to communicate. (cited by saeidy, zaferanieh & shatery, 2012, p. 2). the research team revised the literature on tutoring since this was not a teacher-centered class, but rather a guide of the students’ learning. hayes (2012) points out tutoring as an appropriate way to follow up on classes because it allows students to feel comfortable asking and resolving doubts, reducing students’ insecurities and making mistakes. accordingly, the tutoring sessions were designed for supporting meaningful learning, collaboration and self-confidence to stimulate speaking. task-supported teaching in efl castillo, silva & sanabria no. 17 (july december, 2018) no. 17 (july december, 2018) 110 method research design the research designed had three stages of inquiry. in the diagnostic stage, tutees responded a survey on their perceptions regarding their efl process. this instrument was essential to identify students’ lacks and necessities to be addressed with a tst curriculum. as hutchinson & waters (1987) state, the purpose of needs analysis is to find out the language competence these learners need developing, and help determine if the existing curricula meet their needs. figure 1 represents the stages followed. figure 1. research stages the diagnosis indicated that classes were not realistic enough, and were not helpful for solving real-life problems. the interviews of the diagnostic stage (appendix 1) revealed that learners estimated that regular classes did not help them much outside classroom. they felt they needed to go over the structures and vocabulary acquired before they could actually use it. this study followed kvale’s (1996) suggestion for interviewing in which both open and close questions appear. in the implementation stage, the curriculum was meant to meet needs and preferences informed by the data collected. efl became an instrument of communication and a vehicle to expand not only their task-supported teaching in efl castillo, silva & sanabria no. 17 (july december, 2018) no. 17 (july december, 2018) 111 professional and academic lives but also their knowledge of the world. in the reflection stage, 25 participants took and interview in video (appendix 2). they assessed the conversational club learning goals and methodology positively especially the fact that the tutors were in contact with them for over 100 hours. besides, the research team examined the outcomes in several ways. observation formats captured the learners’ progress supported by video recordings and tallies. a tally sheet, which for fraenkel, wallen, & hyun (1993) is a “device used by researchers to report the frequency of student behaviors, activities, or remarks” (p. 17) helped recognize pronunciation, fluency and vocabulary as well as shyness or lack of confidence. folse (2006) says fluency refers to the ability to produce an amount of language in a task including vocabulary taking into account students’ efl proficiency level. table 1 compares the tallies of three sessions in which participation increases for every group and sub group. table 1. tallies of the first three sessions group tally marks frequency group tally marks frequency a i 1 d iiii ii 7 b ii 2 e iiii i 6 c ii 2 13/17 1st session 5/8 group tally marks frequency group tally marks frequency a ii 2 d iiii iii 8 b ii 2 e iiii iii 8 c iii 3 16/17 2nd session 7/8 group tally marks frequency group tally marks frequency a ii 2 d iiii ii 7 b iii 3 e iiii iiii 9 c iii 3 16/17 3rd session 8/10 frequency of participation in table 1 derived from the analysis of tallies; each line represents the number of participations and at the end the total in relation to the number of individuals. for example, in the first session, five members of groups a, b and c participated. to analyze tallies, for example, we divided the tally marks in groups of five depending on the number of participants and their involvement. task-supported teaching in efl castillo, silva & sanabria no. 17 (july december, 2018) no. 17 (july december, 2018) 112 table 2 presents a snapshot of the participation of group e. the letters p, d, o* characterized the participation of nine students. p means that students took part and tried to do their best. d means participation with difficulties to make themselves understood, and o* means absence of participation. table 2. participation format, second intervention. group e in the reflection stage, data from classroom observation formats, participation tallies and video were compared to assess the progress learners made. pedagogical intervention the academy students attend a university or have full time jobs: their ages range between 15and 40 years old and they take english as a requirement to graduate, for travelling or for job promotion. the 100-minute classes for groups of six students balance listening, speaking, reading and writing. after 12 hours of instruction, learners attend a conversation club weekly, which enrolls students from a1 to b2 levels (council of europe, 2018). the goal of the conversation club took the form of tutoring for the promotion of speaking. the study selected the five groups the authors were in charge of. group a had two students 2, group b: three, group c: three, group d: eight and group e: nine. the first three groups (a, b, c) had members between 15 25 years, and the last two (d, e) between 25 and 40. task-supported teaching in efl castillo, silva & sanabria no. 17 (july december, 2018) no. 17 (july december, 2018) 113 under tst, students suggested topics, listed in table 3, and the research team designed the tasks. for instance, the first topic “my life is a roller coaster” encouraged participation. it allowed sketching a picture of their current competence, and outlining an action plan for ensuing meetings. students wrote a composition about what they considered difficult about efl. they shared this information and lessons addressed their difficulties. table 3. list of conversation club topics 1 my life is a roller coaster 2 getting acquainted 3 my job interview 4 how to be successful in life 5 movie forum 6 sharing personal experiences 7 talking about my life 8 i am a dreamer tasks implemented for motivation and comprehension served as a basis to design a goal-oriented syllabus (richards, 2013). additionally, topics were germane to the needs and goals identified and they were retaken. for instance, topic no. 6 sharing personal experiences connected with topic no. 1 my life is a roller coaster. the level of difficulty of tasks increased. the assessment after each topic determined progress in task completion and in communication. the activation of prior knowledge aimed at promoting participation. findings tst offered opportunities of creating meaningful learning and of promoting oral production so that students would recall, retrieve and apply information stored in long-term memory (ausubel, 1978, castillo, 2014). the data indicates that tst was instrumental in the students’ progress and in their development of positive beliefs and awareness of what speaking entails. the pedagogical intervention revealed that: a) tst promoted cooperation, b) the degree of participation related to the students’ purpose for learning, and c) tst raised their awareness on the acquisition of speaking. table 1 presents groups a,b and c on the left, which had relatively lower participation than groups d and e, and that task-supported teaching in efl castillo, silva & sanabria no. 17 (july december, 2018) no. 17 (july december, 2018) 114 has to do with the purpose for learning english that was clear for the adults that conformed groups d and e. finding no 1. tst promoted cooperation observations, interviews, video recordings, observation tallies as well as the survey, aided the identification of traits of cooperation. data revealed high cooperation among learners independent of their efl proficiency levels. the commitment to achieve the goals proposed was evident; the peer support and feedback contributed to acquisition. as moeller and catalano (2015) claim learning another language allows people to communicate and increase their participation in real-life situations. as discussed above and displayed in figure 2, group membership varied from one intervention to the next. groups a, b, c had members between 15 25 years and d, and e 25– 40 years old participants. figure 2. group arrangement beginners participated little in individual work, but their participation increased in pairs or teamwork. in the first two classes, groups a and b’s participation was low since the tutees were beginners. in contrast, cooperation increased in the third session in group c because there were mixed-ability students in which the most proficient assisted the less proficient. participants claimed that with their classmates’ help, goals were easier to accomplish. they agreed that cooperation played a central role since they felt more confident. one more piece of data reinforces cooperation. table 4 shows that learnes ranked higher two cooperative activities, games and task-supported teaching in efl castillo, silva & sanabria no. 17 (july december, 2018) no. 17 (july december, 2018) 115 conversations, over others. according to the initial interview, which appears in appendix 1, cooperation prevailed in the application of tst and participants evaluated it positively. table 4. learner’s assessment of task usefulness finding no 2. degree of participation correlated with their learning purpose in order to establish which others factors contributed to oral fluency development, we scrutinized the data and found that individuals’ goals played a part. age, clarity of goals, and prior experience with english enhanced or hindered spoken interaction. data in tables 5 and 6 suggest that, in general, younger learners participated less. groups a, b and c that had members between 15 and 25 years old, scored lower in participation than the two other groups that had older members (2540 years old). task-supported teaching in efl castillo, silva & sanabria no. 17 (july december, 2018) no. 17 (july december, 2018) 116 table 5. participation in the last four sessions group tally marks frequency group tally marks frequency a i 1 d iiii ii 7 b ii 2 e iiii i 6 c ii 2 13/17 1st session 5/8 group tally marks frequency group tally marks frequency a ii 2 d iiii iii 8 b ii 2 e iiii iii 8 c iii 3 16/17 2nd session 7/8 group tally marks frequency group tally marks frequency a ii 2 d iiii ii 7 b iii 3 e iiii iiii 9 c iii 3 16/17 3rd session 8/10 group tally marks frequency group tally marks frequency a i 1 d iiii iii 8 b ii 2 e iiii iiii 9 c i 1 17/17 4th session 4/8 class observations and interviews indicated that lack of confidence and fear of the classmates’ comments affected participation negatively. after implementing tst, participation grew given that tutees could use the expressions taught to conduct discussions. for example, in an interview after the second session, one of the beginners, said about tst: “when the teacher asks me something that i don’t understand, i feel nervous and all the information that i have, goes out. for that reason, i don’t like to talk.” after four other meetings, the same participant claimed that on pre-task, the vocabulary presented helped her feel more comfortable than before since the knowledge was recent. on the other hand, the age factor seemed related to the presence or absence of a sense of purpose. for teenagers and university students, english was only a requirement. for instance, some tutees responded: “teacher, i really … don’t know … i think my parents… want i learn english.” others said: -“i only study english because … the university … tell me to … do it, but i … don’t like.” task-supported teaching in efl castillo, silva & sanabria no. 17 (july december, 2018) no. 17 (july december, 2018) 117 -“for me … i want to … learn another language but … not english because it is so difficult.” those who held a job expressed a purpose of professional promotion and advancement with english. one declared, “i don’t like … english but it is … important for work in the future.” furthermore, learners who had difficulties at the beginning, tried to overcome them and they progressed. in most cases, participants improved and achieved lesson goals. table 6 shows a significant improvement in the groups in terms of participation; they found tst interesting and they claimed mistakes were not an obstacle to express them. table 6. participation in the last four sessions group tally marks frequency group tally marks frequency a ii 2 d iiii iii 8 b ii 2 e iiii iiii 9 c iii 3 17/17 5th session 7/8 group tally marks frequency group tally marks frequency a i 1 d iiii iii 8 b iii 3 e iiii iiii 9 c ii 2 17/17 6th session 6/8 group tally marks frequency group tally marks frequency a ii 2 d iiii iii 8 b ii 2 e iiii iiii 9 c ii 2 17/17 7th session 6/6 group tally marks frequency group tally marks frequency a ii 2 d iiii iii 8 b iii 3 e iiii iiii 9 c ii 2 17/17 8th session 7/8 in the analysis of the survey and of the interview applied at the beginning of the study, we identified that they were anxious about efl due to their unsatisfactory previous experiences (see table 7). task-supported teaching in efl castillo, silva & sanabria no. 17 (july december, 2018) no. 17 (july december, 2018) 118 table 7. participants’ perception of previous instruction in english most claimed that the lack of context for practicing accounted for the lack of purpose. they wanted to be able to understand the englishspeaking environment of pop music, television, cinema and the internet that surrounds them. then, they argued that the lack of time reduced their study time and the opportunities to practice outside the academy. they looked forward to studying a variety of english and of topics that add significance to their acquisition. they also appreciated the suggestions, given in the sessions, to develop spoken interaction. finding no. 3. tst raised awareness on the acquisition of speaking the last finding dealt with awareness of language acquisition and the growing interest in speaking. observations and videos of the last meeting, in which the level of accuracy was compared to the diagnosis, learners showed enthusiasm in attending speaking sessions since the topics in the syllabus encouraged free expression following a guided process with a scaffolding that contributed to the achievement of the goal. on the other hand, table 8 shows how the 25 participants assessed their skills. oral and written fluency increased significantly. on the other hand, students considered vocabulary as a key point for listening and reading because it eases comprehension. students said -“is easier to identify if you have read or listened [to] it”. -“when i listen something i have read before … [it] is easier for me to understand” -“if you know the words … you will understand better and also you will speak with more confidence.” task-supported teaching in efl castillo, silva & sanabria no. 17 (july december, 2018) no. 17 (july december, 2018) 119 table 8. self-assessment of skills even though reading and listening gave them confidence, students attributed progress to grammar, good memory, vocabulary and independent work. accordingly, the goal of the intervention became the promotion of oral fluency in meaningful and contextualized tasks that showed vocabulary and structures in use as natural as possible. observations demonstrated that tst promoted autonomy and they did their best to accomplish tasks and goals when these related to their personal or professional development. students had little fluency and inadequate pronunciation, but they overcame them with tst. in the speaking club, they tried to do their best, case in point, when they did not have the vocabulary they used other words to make themselves understood or resorted to gestures or miming. the testimonies that were videotaped supported the idea that tutoring sessions helped them enhance their oral fluency: -i think it is good because different of [from] the other class and also practice with the partners. -you are so right. it is important for me because now i like listening, speaking. i think that this class is very important because we need to speak more to the other people maybe in class you can learn different words or different i don’t know and… but in tutoring [it) is different because you need to speak all the time. you try learning different words but you feel good because you need to speak all the time. -comparing tutoring session, i think i speak more than in the other class. [it] is good, i like i like. task-supported teaching in efl castillo, silva & sanabria no. 17 (july december, 2018) no. 17 (july december, 2018) 120 in sum, participants agreed that the intervention was successful because they were able to make themselves understood regardless of the cognitive and affective variables. they compared regular classes with the conversation club and said that the club enabled more participation and more speaking. discussion this study aimed at solving a problem of oral proficiency development, at a language academy, of 25 young and adult learners who had little contact with english in their day to day. the study informs the educational community that task-supported teaching allowed participants to feel that learning to speak was manageable with a syllabus that connects them to their goals and that applies to everyday life. the study revealed that students’ interests, motivation, and attitudes depended on their goals; therefore, lesson plans were adapted accordingly. tst encouraged talk among students, independent of their level of english language proficiency. conversational partners were assigned for the term, to get to know each other. in addition, to discuss topics conversation strategies were considered, for instance, the conversational partners used diverse strategies for introducing the topic, for asking for opinions, for advancing their own opinions, for activating the vocabulary needed, and to provide examples. the academy came to the realization that tutoring sessions required as much planning as a regular class and it supported our endeavours. the coordinator of the academy commissioned the research team to organize future conversational clubs stressing that conversation session requires preparation, clear goals and a supportive climate, among other things. the inquiry enriched our roles as teachers. in addition, teaching activated the participants’ prior knowledge and supported their efl acquisition by proposing a flexible and situated syllabus, and by focusing on communication. teaching demanded thoroughness, dedication and patience sustained for the planning, development and reflection stages. tst served to overcome the difficulty of meeting diverse interests, motivation, and goals. the limitations of the study relate to the nature of the intervention, which was devoted to speaking. studies that integrate o listening, reading and writing under the umbrella of tst would be welcome. on the other hand, although students’ responses dealt with vocabulary development, our observations did not tally this factor. however, this study hopes to inform practitioners on the suitability of tst for promoting speaking in an environment of a tutor type of conversation club. task-supported teaching in efl castillo, silva & sanabria no. 17 (july december, 2018) no. 17 (july december, 2018) 121 references ausubel, d. 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(1998). focus on form: theory, research and practice. in c. doughty, & j. williams (eds.), focus on form in classroom second language acquisition (pp. 15–41). cambridge, england: cambridge university press. task-supported teaching in efl castillo, silva & sanabria no. 17 (july december, 2018) no. 17 (july december, 2018) 122 moeller, a. and t. catalano. (2015). foreign language teaching and learning. faculty publications: department of teaching, learning and teacher education. 196. http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/ teachlearnfacpub/196 prabhu, n.s. 1987. second language pedagogy. oxford: oxford university press. richards, j. (2013). curriculum approaches in language teaching: forward, central and backward design. retrieved august 17, 2017 from: http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/0033688212473293 shafipoor, m., & f. latif. (2015). a comparative study of task-based vs. task-supported teaching approaches in an efl context. international journal of applied linguistics and english literature, 4(5), 92-96. retrieved on october 12, 2017 from: http://www.journals.aiac.org. au/index.php/ijalel/article/view/1569/1509 swan, m. (2005). legislating by hypothesis: the case of task-based instruction. applied linguistics, 26, 376-401. task-supported teaching in efl castillo, silva & sanabria no. 17 (july december, 2018) no. 17 (july december, 2018) 123 authors *rigoberto castillo holds a ph.d in education from the university of texas at austin. fulbright alumnus and recipient of the national award of asocopi-tesol. professor at universidad distrital and member of the research group formación de educadores. his duties include research courses, advising and mentoring undergraduate and doctoral students. he has written several books and articles. his 2014 book was nominated to the eltons award in the u.k. and just completed a book on academic writing supported by ict. he serves on the advisory committee for the colombian fulbright commission and referee for the journals mextesol, gist. how, and laclil. leidy sanabria-chavarro is an english teacher who loves being a lesson plan developer and improving her students’ language proficiency. nowadays, she is working in a private school with teenagers and is involved in a new project that aims to make students increase their critical thinking and reading skills. she has studied an english bachelor at distrital university. heidy erika silva-gonzález has completed her b.a in tefl at universidad distrital francisco josé de caldas. she has been a teacher assistant and participated in academic events. she works as an efl teacher in a school located in bogota, colombia. task-supported teaching in efl castillo, silva & sanabria no. 17 (july december, 2018) no. 17 (july december, 2018) 124 appendixes appendix 1. student survey to decide on the content of tasks objective: identify students’ experiences through their english learning process as a foreign language. institution… age: . occupation: english language proficiency level: where do you study english how long have you studied english? 1. have you traveled to any place in which you need english? yes no where did you travel? was it a difficult experience? 2. from 1 to 5 (1: badly, 5: excellent) how do you grade the english teaching in your school? why? 3. why are you studying english? 4. choose the statements that better describe your feelings in an english class: task-supported teaching in efl castillo, silva & sanabria no. 17 (july december, 2018) no. 17 (july december, 2018) 125 5. how many hours do you practice english outside the institute? 6. in which skill do you consider yourself stronger? listening speaking reading writing 7. what is most important to learn in an english class for you? number from 1 to 6 in which 1 is most important and 6 less important. listening speaking readin writing gramma vocabulary 8. describe an english class that you consider accurate and appropriate to your learning. 9. why do you believe you have not learned english well? task-supported teaching in efl castillo, silva & sanabria no. 17 (july december, 2018) no. 17 (july december, 2018) 126 10. choose the activities that help you speak: number from 1 to 6, in which 1 is most important and 6 less important. english dialogu watch english movies grammar explanation worksheets game short tales’ translation writing tests vocabulary exercise expositions thanks so much! task-supported teaching in efl castillo, silva & sanabria no. 17 (july december, 2018) no. 17 (july december, 2018) 127 appendix 2. video interview questions for learners. 1. what were the language-spoken skills you could increase during the tutoring sessions? why? 2. what difficulties did you have to speak in english? why? 3. do you consider these tutoring sessions were helpful for solving real-life problems? why? 4. were your classmates relevant to the tutoring sessions? why? 5. being with students with different levels of english, did it help you? how? 6. have these sessions been important as a complement of the other classes that you have had in this academy? why? task-supported teaching in efl castillo, silva & sanabria no. 17 (july december, 2018) no. 17 (july december, 2018) 123 contextualizing multilingualism in morocco mayra c. daniel, ph.d. alexis ball, m.s.ed., mfa abstract/resumen this article discusses the educational system of morocco and the ways the country’s multilingual history has influenced and continues to direct the choice of the languages used in schools. en este artículo se presentará información acerca del sistema de educación en marruecos y las influencias que la historia de este país multilingüe ha tenido en la escolarización. keywords/palabras claves: multilingualism, moroccan education; multiligüalismo, la escolarización en marruecos introduction this article discusses the educational system of morocco and the ways the country’s multilingual history has influenced and continues to direct the choice of the languages used in schools. we offer suggestions that will eliminate cultural mismatch and thus facilitate interactions with moroccan students and their families. the research begins by focusing on the linguistic complexity within morocco. the numerous languages spoken by moroccans and the situational needs for interacting in a education & public policy in bogotá 12� specific language create educational needs and everyday challenges that are prevalent in third-world countries in general. morocco’s case serves to inform bilingual educators of issues faced by multilingual populations all over the world. decisions about the language or languages chosen for instruction, as well as teaching methodology for multilingual students, are a matter of socioeconomic status, political influence and the status-quo power structures that dominate schooling (collins & blot, 2003). in morocco, languages have been in conflict with regard to their appropriateness for use in education and government. marley’s study (2005) reveals that young moroccans are “very conscious of the different languages present in their society” (marley, 2004, p. 1493). for example, speakers of the berber dialects have been well aware that their voices are not heard if they utilize their primary language in educational spheres (marley, 2004). as has happened in many other parts of the world with the language of colonizers, in morocco, french has held a prestigious classification, while the dialects of the native people have been assigned less desirable positions. berber dialects spoken in geographically remote areas and the speakers of these languages have been reported to receive little respect (diyen, 2004). in these regions one finds few primary schools, and since secondary school is a rarity, literacy in berber has not been possible. nevertheless, morocco’s landscape of languages is shifting in a positive direction. while in the past, indigenous tongues have not been considered to merit inclusion in elementary, secondary or higher education institutions, today the use of moroccan arabic is increasing and elementary instruction has begun to be offered in the berber dialects. in addition, issues related to financing education and moroccan women’s perception of their need to be educated have affected schooling around the nation. monetary needs limit access to education for the many moroccans unable to finance schooling within a system that is under-funded. it is important to note that 50% of moroccans live on less than $2 dollars per day. females constitute a group that has not been encouraged to attend school as women’s typical role has been to stay at home. education has not been within the reach of all moroccans but, instead, accessible to those at higher socioeconomic levels. as abadzi’s (2004) work suggests, children in poor schools have higher ratios of linguistic diversity. this is true for the many moroccans whose language receives little validation. languages of morocco morocco is situated in the northern part of the continent of africa. it is considered to be part of the maghreb union along with tunisia, mauritania, libya and algeria. it is a country that has been influenced by multilingualism in morocco daniel & ball 12� both its african origins as well as its proximity to europe (particularly to spain and france). the languages spoken in morocco today are standard arabic, berber, moroccan arabic, french and spanish. there are also remnants of the moroccan judeo-arabic spoken in sephardic and arab jewish communities. french has been the most influential language due to occupation by france from 1912 to 1956. however, the implicit culture of moroccans hinges less upon language than religion. adherence to the qur’an and acceptance of the tenets of islam provide moroccans a greater sense of their national identity and pride than any language. in the next section the research will focus on the languages utilized within morocco: modern standard arabic, berber, moroccan arabic, french and spanish; where exactly these languages are spoken in the country; and the reasons why. table 1. first languages in morocco. moroccan arabic although moroccan arabic (ma) is the most widely spoken first language of moroccans, and is the mother tongue for over two thirds of the moroccan population (el amraoui, 2007), it is not the country’s official language nor has it been the medium of instruction at k-12 levels. this has posed great challenges for moroccan children in that they have been educated in a second language. ma is mostly used in social and familial communication and is part of informal conversations in academic and professional settings. in the latter it is evolving into a more formal version and is seen as contributing to the moroccan identity of this millennium (marley, 2004). although it uses the same alphabet as standard arabic, it has lexical, morphological, phonetic and syntactic differences from those of standard arabic. ma is not used at all in remote areas where, rather, berber is found to be the exclusive language. multilingualism in morocco daniel & ball 12� berber morocco’s original and oldest language is berber. a generic name used to refer to all berber dialects is tamazight. berber is mostly an oral language that is used among people who identify themselves as ethnically berber. communities that speak solely berber have high illiteracy rates. in the past, learners from areas where berber is spoken who have had access to education have not received instruction in their primary language. schools have only recently incorporated berber into the curriculum. there are three main dialects of berber: tarifit, which is spoken in the rif mountains; tamazight in the atlas region; and tashelhit in the souss region. berber has a script form called tifinah that bears no resemblance to arabic script and is used very infrequently. berber is currently experiencing a cultural renaissance in films and literature; when used in social interactions it demonstrates ethnic pride. this is a welcome change because in the past berber was considered a language of low prestige that carried with it the stigma of belonging to the uneducated lower classes. ethnic prejudice against the berber population has attempted and succeeded in limiting their access to formal schooling (diyen, 2004). figure 1. map of morocco and moroccan berber dialects. standard arabic standard arabic (sa) is the official language of morocco yet few moroccans speak it as a first language. sa is the first language of instruction in the country’s public schools. some children are exposed to it for the first time when they attend qur’anic pre-schools at ages 4-6. sa is similar to classical arabic, the language of the qu’ran, and is used widely in the practice of the islamic religion. in total, there are 22 nations in the middle east, north africa and some countries in west and east africa where arabic is the official language. in contrast, modern standard arabic refers only to the dialect spoken in egypt and the middle east. map of arabic-speaking countries multilingualism in morocco daniel & ball 12� figure 2. map of arabic speaking countries. french france colonized morocco between the years 1912 and 1956. during that time, moroccans were expected to learn french and to be educated in the ways of the french even though france did not give citizenship rights to moroccans (ennaji, 2005). the french attempted to modernize the nation and to inculcate the belief that all europeans and the french language were superior. the country’s leaders became those lucky enough to have been educated in french and to meet this desired criterion. many moroccans went to university in france. clearly, this education was reserved for the upper socioeconomic levels of society and not for the ethnic berber. few moroccans were exposed to the language at home yet this was the language of instruction beginning at the elementary school level during the colonization period. in reality, at this time, children were receiving instruction in the content areas in a foreign language and schools were not offering dual instruction. the goal was to learn in french only. french became the official language of government, education, business and the sciences. during this 44-year period, the upper classes would send their children to study in france. even today, some consider french the door that opens opportunities in science, technology and business. french and english are taught as foreign languages with french continuing to be the language of the sciences and technology. educated middle/upper class families continue to arrange for their children to learn french because they acknowledge its usefulness in academic professional life within today’s global economy (berdouzzi, 2000). others view the continued use of french as a reminder of past colonialism and a denial of morocco’s identity as a non-european muslim nation. multilingualism in morocco daniel & ball 128 spanish spain and morocco have a long history partly due to the geographical proximity of the countries. however, it can be proposed that the moorish presence in spain influenced spanish civilizations more than the spaniards affected the moroccans. for example, the spanish language adopted as the phrase ojalá (from “may allah be with you,”) and designated that the verb to follow this expression would require the subjunctive tense. spain’s presence was visible in ceuta and melilla in the northern part of morocco and still is visible in tangier and spanish-speaking western sahara, an area currently in dispute between the nations of morocco and algeria. the presence of spanish loan words in moroccan arabic is well documented; for example, the use of words like pelota and cocina in place of their standard arabic counterparts cura and matbah indicate that the spanish language has influenced the moroccan lexicon. however, the spanish language has not played a significant role in the educational realm in the greater part of morocco due to the fact that it is not normally a first language even for the relatively few who speak it fluently. language use in the schools: past the arrival of arab muslims to morocco in 640 ad solidified the country’s link to the arab world. after one of the oldest universities in morocco, el khairouin, was founded, it became a haven for arabspeaking intellectuals that made morocco an important arabic center for learning. beginning in 1912, french occupation changed the national landscape completely. thus, french, a language derived from latin, that uses roman script, became the language of education. although currently instruction is delivered in french or sa, many instructors prefer to teach in french because they are better prepared to give lessons in the language that was used to instruct them. french therefore is the more prestigious language in morocco. arabization’s effects on language use in education arabization refers to an arabic-only policy that was adopted in morocco after french colonization ended in 1956. its purpose was to restore both the role and place of arabic in moroccan society and the sense of identification with the arab world that french colonization had put in jeopardy. this policy mandated that arabic become the official language of morocco and that islam become the state religion. in the 1970’s change was visible when elementary and secondary schools added instruction in ma to existing curricula in french. unfortunately, arabization had many unforeseen negative consequences on some of morocco’s population. first, it ignored the multilingual and multicultural nature of the moroccan identity. secondly, it made it impossible for multilingualism in morocco daniel & ball 129 educators to adequately serve their multilingual student populations because these teachers had to adhere to the strict arabization policy and were not free to address students’ primary language needs. thirdly, students whose parents had the financial means continued to send them to bilingual private schools so that their children would learn french and other languages. fourthly, students who could not afford private schools were either relegated to sub-standard public schools or simply dropped out. lastly, and most importantly, 95% of the moroccan school population consisted of second language learners who were being taught by teachers who were equipped with no appropriate methodology to help students negotiate learning in a second language. arabization continued until the year 2000 when the national charter of education offered reforms. because arabization was not completely successful in the areas of science and technology, the charter served to promote bilingual education in these disciplines and contributed to the birth of an educational system that values the multiple languages of instruction and recognizes local needs. after arabization mohamed vi instituted the charte nationale d’educación et formación (national education and training charter). the charter acknowledged morocco’s linguistic issues in act 9, article 110 (cosef, 2000, p. 41) where the stated goal was “to perfect the teaching and use of arabic language, strengthen foreign languages and be open to the teaching of tamazight.” it declared the tamazight languages as important to being a citizen of morocco as any other languages. it is of utmost importance that in the charter, berber culture and dialects were emphasized to be “part of the country’s cultural inheritance” (cosef, 2000, p. 43). this pronouncement freed teachers to promote and validate the identity and cultural heritage of the berber. the charter opened the door to instruction in the berber dialects of tarifit, tamazight and tashelhit because it gave regional autonomy to schools. the document also called for educators to perfect the teaching and use of sa. lastly, the fact that the charter promoted the diversification of languages for teaching science and technology means that these subjects do not have to be within the reach of students who speak french (cosef, 2000). one of the charter’s goals was for students to learn modern standard arabic, the national language of morocco, and to acquire high levels of mastery in two additional languages, preferably english and french. it seems logical to conclude that the charter’s intent was to promote equity in education by making it possible for more students to have access to study in the content areas in a language they could understand. multilingualism in morocco daniel & ball 130 student achievement per the pirls study the 2006 progress in international literacy study (pirls) compared achievement for students in the fourth-grade across many participating countries. data revealed significant decreases in average reading achievement in morocco since 2003. the pirls report documents that in all the countries that submitted data there was “a positive relationship between an absence of school resource shortages and average school achievement” (pirls, 2006, p. 11), and that the average difference between students from homes with more than 100 books as compared to those with less than 10 books was “91 score points or almost one standard deviation lower” (p. 5). not surprisingly, average reading achievement was higher for children whose parents were frequent readers in all countries that reported statistics. evidence from pirls presents encouraging results for educational trends in morocco. net enrollment in school increased from 39.1% in 1970 to 92% in 2003, repetition rates decreased from 29.8% to 13.8%, and students reaching fifth-grade increased from 65.8% to 75.6%. in the same 33 year period, the total number of students enrolled in secondary schools jumped from 12.6% to 47.6% (pirls, 2006). the figure that most suggests that the country of morocco is on the right track is the one which reflects the number of students who attend university. in this same 33 year period there was over a 700% increase in the number of students who went on to study past secondary school. illiteracy rates for males and females also merit emphasis. in morocco, women’s role is more limited to the home and therefore, in the past, fewer women than men have received an education. a comparison of illiteracy rates for women in 1980 vs. 2003 shows a drop of 20.1%. for men the decrease totaled 23.6%. still, this reflects an educational need in that 60.4% of the women of morocco and 34.3% of the men are functionally illiterate. although 95% of the schools in morocco are free and public, there are an insufficient number of schools to meet existing needs. all school-age children are not enrolled in school (ameziane & lietz, 2001). the future it is crucial for moroccans to consider the ways the past has influenced the present and the ways it will affect the future of their multilingual populations (for nationally educated learners as well as for those who decide to immigrate to other countries). moroccans have made great efforts to improve the country’s educational system through arabization and later by implementing the national charter’s mandates. in this process, morocco has faced numerous obstacles that stem from multilingualism in morocco daniel & ball 131 the unacknowledged and often devalued multilingualism of its people. issues related to the language in which teachers have been taught have set the standard for the language to be utilized for school instruction. an explanation is that during the time of the french protectorate there was an insufficient number of teachers available who were able to instruct in french, so teachers were brought in from france to do the job. those in school during that time who went on to become educators subsequently felt more comfortable teaching in french. this contributed to keeping the french language as the medium to teach the content areas and most specifically, technology and science (ennaji, 2005). still today, an unmet challenge is that the official language of morocco, modern standard arabic, is not spoken by the majority of the country’s citizens. furthermore, schooling delivered in modern standard arabic implies that children are being taught in a second language. yet another challenge is that a recommended educational goal for all moroccans, because they live in such a multilingual country, would be to study and master two foreign languages. we can make the observation that although levels of student achievement are rising in morocco (pirls, 2006), demands on learners have increased and it may not be pedagogically appropriate nor financially sound policy to expect all moroccans to achieve literacy in the home language, in modern standard arabic, in french and in english. it is indeed remarkable that in a climate of rapid linguistic movements morocco “has been able to halve its illiteracy rate during the last 3 decades” (lavy & spratt, 1997, p. 139). in conclusion, educators in morocco and other countries may be facing similar challenges. these problems might be delaying educational progress in other countries, but they appear to be positively encouraging moroccans toward the lofty goal of assuring that all children receive the education needed to strengthen a country and educate its people. references abadzi, h. (2004). education for all or just the smartest poor? prospects, 34(3), 271-289. ameziane, a., & lietz, j. (2001). educational accountability: the structure of education in morocco. education, 103(4), 378-382. ball, a., & daniel, m. (2009, january). the bilingual context of education in morocco. presentation at the illinois association of multilingual multicultural educators, oakbrook, il. berdouzi. (2000). renover l’enseignnement de la charte aux actes. rabats: renoveau. multilingualism in morocco daniel & ball 132 charte nationale d’educación et formación, royaume du maroc, commision spéciale d’education formation (cosef). retreived july 28, 2000 from http://81.192.52.38/nr/rdonlyres/caf0fec12e4d-4a54-9c6a-9cb26780c33f/0/chartenationale.htm collins, j., & blot, r. (2003). literacy and literacies: texts, power, and identity. united kingdom: cambridge university press. diyen, hayat. (2004). reform of secondary education in morocco: challenges and prospects. prospects, 3(2), 211-222. el amraoui, a. (2007). berber language gets an airing. aljazeera.net. retrieved december 12, 2007 from http://english.aljazeera.net/ news/aspx/print.htm ennaji, m. (2005). multilingualism, cultural identity, and education in morocco. new york, ny: springer. marley, dawn. (2004). language attitudes in morocco following recent changes in language policy. language policy, 3, 25-46. project in international reading literacy study (pirls). (2001). national center for educational statistics. retrieved july 18, 2008 from http://timss.bc.edu/pirls2001i/pirls2001_pubs_ir.html mayra c. daniel is an associate professor in the department of literacy education at northern illinois university, de kalb, il. she earned her ed. d. in curriculum and instruction from illinois state university. her work with practicing teachers in the united states focuses on preparing educators to plan and modify curriculum so that it appropriately address the needs of multilingual, multicultural populations of students. her work and research in guatemala includes practicing teachers and the methodology they use to teach reading and writing, teacher trainers and the ways they prepare future teachers, and students enrolled in guatemala’s normal schools. dr. daniel’s research interests are critical literacy, multicultural education, and reading and writing in a second language. she teaches courses related to cultural pluralism and multilingualism, tesol/second language pedagogy, bilingualism and reading, and assessment of english language learners. she is active in the teachers to speakers of other languages organization and is the chair-elect of tesol’s bilingual interest section for the 2009-2010 academic year. multilingualism in morocco daniel & ball 133 alexis ball is a doctoral candidate at northern illinois university in curriculum and instruction with an emphasis in literacy education and second language acquisition. she has also received an m.s.ed. in literacy education from northern illinois university as well as an mfa in visual arts from the universidad nacional autónoma de méxico. she has taught in and developed esl and bilingual programs for elementary, middle, high school, adult and university-level groups since 1993 in both mexico and the united states. she taught in the chicago public schools as an esl reading teacher for 3 years. she currently is a research assistant in the research, evaluation and policy studies office at northern illinois university as a project coordinator for educational research activities and has taught multicultural education there as well. her research interests include multilingualism/multiculturalism, multicultural education, tesol methods, literacy acquisition for second language learners, reading and writing development for learners whose first written language is in a non-roman writing system, cultural and linguistic contexts of arabic speakers. multilingualism in morocco daniel & ball gist education and learning research journal. issn 1692-5777. no. 20 (january june, 2020). pp. 171-188. digital games (gamification) in learning and training: an approach to adaptation and integration in the classroom1 juegos digitales (gamificación) en el aprendizaje y la formación: un acercamiento a la adaptación e integración en el aula zulma liliana vargas-macías, ariel adolfo rodríguez-hernandez and claudia liliana sánchez-sáenz2* universidad pedagógica y tecnológica de colombia, colombia 1 received: february 26 th 2019/accepted: may 18 th 2020 2 zulmaliliana.vargas1@uptc.edu.co; ariel.rodriguez@uptc.edu.co; claudialiliana.sanchez1@uptc.edu.co 172 no. 20 digital games in learning and training rodriguez-hernandez, vargas-macías and sanchez-saenz abstract this article is the result of the sgi 2174 project. its objective is to identify how elements, techniques and mechanics game (gamification) have been implemented, as an ict-mediated learning strategy for learning and training in the education. a systemic literary review of works on the subject is carried out to contextualize and identify methods, techniques, tools and platforms of gamification. the results make an analysis of the articles reviewed, and describe and describe the technologies and methodologies of gamification and the most relevant results with which gamification has been implemented in educational and business environments. this project is developed in the research groups telematics and tica, and funded by din-uptc. keywords: learning and technology; education and ict; e-learning, gamification; adaptation; integration; classroom, business environments resumen este artículo es el resultado del proyecto sgi 2174. su objetivo es identificar cómo se han implementado los elementos, las técnicas y el juego de mecánica (gamificación), como una estrategia de aprendizaje mediada por las tic para el aprendizaje en la educación y la formación. se realizo una revisión literaria sistémica de trabajos sobre el tema para contextualizar e identificar métodos, técnicas, herramientas y plataformas de gamificación. los resultados hacen un análisis de los artículos revisados y describen las tecnologías y metodogias de gamificación y los resultados de mayor relevancia con la que se ha implementado la gamificación en entornos educativos y empresariales. este proyecto se desarrolla en los grupos de investigación telematics y tica, y está financiado por din-uptc. palabras clave: aprendizaje y tecnología, educación y tic; aprendizaje virtual; gamificación; adaptación; integración; aula; ambientes de negocios resumo este trabalho surge do seguinte problema: como implementar elementos, técnicas e mecânicas de jogo (gamificação) a maneira de estratégias de aprendizagem mediadas pelas tic para a aprendizagem e a formação na educação do século xxi? neste artigo, ao mesmo tempo, descrevese o crescimento desta tecnologia, usada em entornos educativos e empresariais. também se faz uma revisão sistemática dos trabalhos sobre o tema para contextualizar e identificar métodos, técnicas, ferramentas e plataformas de gamificação. o projeto atualmente é desenvolvido nos grupos de pesquisa telematics e tica, e está financiado pelo código de projeto din sgi 2174. palavras chave: aprendizagem e tecnologia; educação e tic; aprendizagem virtual; gamificação; adaptação, integração; sala de aula; ambientes de negócios. 173 no. 20 digital games in learning and training rodriguez-hernandez, vargas-macías and sanchez-saenz introduction during the last decade, games have become a fundamental task within the learning process by students (hamari & keronen, 2017), the use and implementation of technological tools day by day converge more to an education mediated by information technologies and communication (ict), the educational methodologies usually used each time require a high degree of innovation (galbis-córdova, martí-parreño, & curras-perez, 2017) in order to implement improvements in educational originality and not replace them completely and thus generate an environment of innovation within of the academic scenario (hamari, koivisto, & sarsa, 2014). the technological advances of the hand of the learning give rise to the calls “digital challenges” (roosta, taghiyareh, & mosharraf, 2016), as well as a hybrid between learning-games based on learning-gamification. the games every day become a different way of attracting the attention of the students. in the research of hanus and fox (2015) they are defined as the largest information system of leisure in the last decade, resulting in enjoyment and utility that the user gives to the game, considering determining factors for its success. however, when implementing game elements especially in e-learning platforms, it is required as recommended for bonillaware (2012) to have experts in technology, pedagogy and design, in order to optimize the development processes of the analysis and design phases of the elements of the game. in colombia, it was not possible to identify duly documented experiences of the use of gamification in educational settings. resources and methods within the literature review to carry out this exploratory research, initially we proceeded to investigate the databases repository that had similarity to the study area that was intended to be evaluated, in this case gamification. resulting in the following list of repositories and databases: scopus, acm, ieee, google scholar, science direct and digitalia, as a second instance, a search by keyword (gamification, gamification in education) was carried out, resulting in a number of searches of approximately 23,712 articles. as the volume of works identified was high, a time range was defined that consisted of searching for articles published between 2010 and 2018, reaching 8,400 papers. the result of this exploration is presented in table 1. 174 no. 20 digital games in learning and training rodriguez-hernandez, vargas-macías and sanchez-saenz table 1. related articles according to search criteria. item database key word result global result applying time range 1 scopus gamification in education 846 191 2 acm gamification 487 489 3 ieee gamification 518 36 4 google scholar gamification in education 21.000 7.400 5 science direct gamification 831 262 6 digitalia gamification 30 22 to get a more explicit analysis of the papers found, we proceeded to filter by explicit areas of gamification implementation. taking as a variable the study population, and the study area; and thus make a review through rae cards that characterize each study in a more relevant way. 38 articles were reached, which were identified in the different application areas in which gamification is implemented, see table 2. table 2. classification of areas in which gamification was implemented in the selected studies. item área total articles reviewed 1 gamification applied to education 17 2 gamification applied to the internet of things 3 3 gamification applied to the tourism sector 3 4 gamification applied in cultural programs 2 5 gamification applied as a research area 7 6 gamification applied to social networks 4 7 gamification applying in augmented reality 1 8 gamification applied to the business sector 1 literature analysis and results the was systematic documentary review process. seano (2016) recommends “knowing the main documentary sources, as well as mastering the mechanisms of access, search, collection, and organization of such documentation”. 175 no. 20 for this work, a characterization of the literature was made, which consisted of organizing and categorizing the articles that were found, for which a search equation was created. which allowed to structure the searches and segregate the articles by focus and within the time window. a large amount of data was collected; which made it necessary to identify each work with a rae (analytical summary of writing) tab. through this rae, through this, the description of each work was carried out, identifying relevant factors such as tools and development platforms. below are the results obtained in this literary review. the results obtained in the study of benito (2014) express that it is fundamental to emphasize the learning style of each user, since not all individuals possess the same personality traits when receiving new knowledge; the research proposes a model for the realization of the learning style, starting as the first instance of the identification of perception, then the commitment that the individual acquires with respect to the new knowledge, and finally determining the performance of the new learning, it is concluded that the users that they have active learning styles (it is a method that engages students in the material they are learning through problem solving activities, writing assignments, group discussion, reflection, games, and other activities that promote critical thinking) have a result of implementation of positive gamification, while people with extrovert personality traits adapt more easily to traditional learning methods (is a method that focuses on the teacher and his ability to share education, leaving the student as a passive actor, making the student to listen as a primary action but they are interaction between him, his classmates or the resources). for the research developed by roosta, taghiyareh, and mosharraf (2016), it is important to categorize the elements of gamification according to the type of motivation derived from each user, as a result of the study that was implemented in an english course of the university of tehran in iran, concluded that the participation measures demonstrate the effectiveness of the personalization approach in the motivation of the students. based on the findings, it is suggested to make an integrated categorization of the gamification elements without forgetting the motivation through personalization. at university midwest hanus and fox (2015) developed a course with a gamified resume for one group, in this they created a leaderboard and insignia, and another the group received the same curriculum but no gamification elements. as a result, the students enrolled in the gamified course showed more motivation, satisfaction and training than the students in the group that did not integrate games in class. students in the cm show less motivation and lower scores on the final exam than those in the non-gamified class (hanus & fox, 2015). this suggests that special care must be taken when applying certain gamification mechanisms for educational environments, concluding that there is a knowledge gap in the understanding of digital games in learning and training rodriguez-hernandez, vargas-macías and sanchez-saenz 176 no. 20 digital games in learning and training rodriguez-hernandez, vargas-macías and sanchez-saenz the advantages and disadvantages of gamification, between the complexity of the implementation of a game feature and the impact that it has. for the development of educational projects which require the integration of gamification models, as a learning strategy, it is advisable to include game dynamics in an educational environment. bonillaware (2012) indicates that the use of game dynamics, mechanics and components allow for better interaction between students and teachers, gamification incorporates the use of design elements for games, but applied to contexts totally different from games. in the integration of gamification to education (seaone, 2016) indicates that it is essential to identify which is the appropriate platform for the implementation of this type of project. and you must define the activities and processes that will be taken into account within the dynamics of the game to develop for it to be successful. the variety of digital applications found on the network allows the use of already developed components to adapt the mechanics and resources of gamification to any educational setting. each project must be clear about the objective of using gamification, the platform to use and the activities so that gamification is integrated into education, marketing or research. the most used platforms and the recommended tools to start gamification projects, see table 3. 177 no. 20 table 3. description of platforms used in the studies consulted plataform characteristics badgeville this solution allows you to create games that have clear objectives and are based on custom rewards. badgeville is made up of: a widget generator, api, a mobile sdk, connectors with omniture, yammer, among many more solutions. bunchball this web portal brings users a lot of gamification resources that can be used in different business and corporate contexts. bigdoor platform with 2 versions (a free one and a paid one) in which you can export services to your website. it is integrated to social networks such as facebook or twitter. gigya it allows creating resources that can be integrated into corporate applications through social networks. the platform has a large number of integrated functions (e.g., rest apis, as well as the use of servers with .net, java, php, sdks for ios, android, and flash). stopped.at the platform is linked to corporate websites and offers gamification services to attract users of these websites. in addition, content can be shared on social networks. kiip it is a mobile advertising platform that uses gamification to create, in video games, a system of rewards and apply it to the real world. gamify this platform allows you to create games that have personalized rewards. it has a kit consisting of: a widget generator, an api, a mobile sdk, connectors with omniture, yammer and many more applications. note. adapted from “7 plataformas de gamificación [7 gamification platforms],” by bonillaware, 2012 (http://www.bonillaware.com/7-plataformas-de-gamificacion). from the tools identified in the research referred to in this article, it was evidenced that among those most used for education, those described in table 4 stand out. digital games in learning and training rodriguez-hernandez, vargas-macías and sanchez-saenz 178 no. 20 digital games in learning and training rodriguez-hernandez, vargas-macías and sanchez-saenz table 4. description of tools and characteristics used in the studies consulted tools characteristics arcademics web application to create interactive multiplayer games for learning purposes. with multiplayer features. openbadges web application to create game-based activities, with a reward system and achievement-oriented. classdojo it is a platform based on a reward system, and the evaluation of attitudes, behaviors through roles defined by the creator of the activity designed in the form of a game. playbuzz a publishing platform to create questionnaires, games, surveys, lists, etc. this content can be shared online. educaplay in this platform you can create and share learning activities online. zondle this website allows you to create educational video games. kubbu provides a variety of interactive and didactic exercises. proprofs system to create online learning activities, using surveys, evaluations and contests in the form of games. quimitris web application that creates a game based on classic tetris to learn the chemical elements and their properties on the periodic table. nowadays, there is a diversity of countries around the world that use gamification as an alternative for solving problems at the business level, among which you can have: training of personnel at work or educational level, development of evaluations and workshops, needs studies, launch of new products or services, and customer loyalty (benito, 2014). the gamification can help companies and educational institutions to experiment and seek solutions to training, teaching-learning problems, among others (contreras, 2016, p. 27). gamification cases in educational environments among the most representative characteristics are: the flexibility of the rules of the game; ludic learning with levels of difficulty; the game based on challenges as a factor that motivates the player; the flows and levels of the game; the customization of the game, the scenarios, and characters of the game; the function of co-creation of the game to generate personalized modifications on the part of the player; the scenarios of management of errors and failures, and the instructional design applied to the gamification, among others. 179 no. 20 on the other hand, garcía (2016) affirms that there is a series of pedagogical principles valid for face-to-face and distance education, which must be taken into account when working with digital content: “individualization, socialization, activity, autonomy, intuition, creativity, and game” (2016, p. 9). the research carried out by galbis-córdova, martí-parreño, and curras-pérez (2017) determined to explore what were the key factors in terms of the emotional attitude of students when faced with new knowledge in a gamified form, 128 students participated in this research and the arcs instructional motivation model (instructional design approach that focuses on motivational aspects of the learning environment. model was created by john keller in 1980). it is model that was implemented by fazamin, haji ali, saman, yusoff, and yacob (2015) to evaluate the influence of gamification on student motivation. the most significant contributions of these researchs were to analyze and demonstrate how gamification motivates learning in people, this being a valuable reason to integrate play as a learning strategy in education today. these researchs provide positive evidences that demonstrated: that the use of gamification contributes to improve the behavior of students when they work with electronic learning platforms, which generates confidence in the use of educational games. based on the previous model the realization of an analysis of adequate techniques for education and e-learning is the key point of the implementation of gamification. in this study unlike (galbis-córdova, martí-parreño, & curras-pérez, 2017; fazamin et al., 2015), it is implemented the ged design model (design strategy management methodological framework), whose name comes from the combination of gamification and e-learning, demonstrating that through this model you can contribute to the participation and motivation of the students, improving the learning process. given that some of the online courses offered today are developed under the e-learning platform, if the student does not show the intention to do it, they can generate a state of loneliness and boredom in the virtual classroom. to control this state by which the student can pass, the investigations of olsson, mozelius, and collin (2015); auvinen, hakulinen, and malmi (2015) propose within their research to use achievement badges as a reward for the development of certain activity, in addition to this implemented progress bars or heat maps, in which it is possible to visualize the level of participation of the student, and thus motivate him to improve his participation in the activity, in the desire to be highly competitive and always want to be the winner. the research concluded that by means of this gamification technique, the motivating effect produced by watching the frequent positive behaviour of the students can be appreciated. digital games in learning and training rodriguez-hernandez, vargas-macías and sanchez-saenz 180 no. 20 digital games in learning and training rodriguez-hernandez, vargas-macías and sanchez-saenz the works of rodríguez (2015), moreira and gonzález (2015) and rughiniş (2013) have contributed to the improvement of learning processes, especially in the dynamization and interaction with learning of some functions of the human body and helping to better understand the complexity of the vocabulary handled in the area of health according to the authors (rojas, cowan, kapralos, & dubrowski, 2014). in contrast to the above, the research of moreira and gonzález (2015) demonstrated the importance of human-machine interaction in the learning process, and the need for productivity of books and educational materials in digital formats to be accessible to all types of people as proposed (mageswaran, zaleha and hasnah, 2016). within the academic scenario, it is worth highlighting the case of the secondary school of the south malaysian state of johor in malaysia, where gamification was applied as a metric for the teaching of sciences; the study was applied to 29 secondary students, through a mixed research design, and making use of the zondle gamification platform, this platform was used given its dynamic characteristics to be used in children under 13 years of age. on the other hand, at the university of john moores, in liverpool, they implemented gamification not just as an educational learning strategy, but as an application so that people who want to know the institution can do it through virtual reality interacting with each other with the application and the real world, that is, as if the player were immersed in the game, in this way, the main objective of this study is for the population to know the facilities available to the university, and simulate a day within it, this has generated great acceptance in the players, to the point that they make the decision to study at this campus (curtis, stephen, & david, 2015). the state university of londrina in brazil, developed a project called sigma, this study emerged seeing the need to implement a strategy that contributes to the learning of secondary school students in complex subjects such as mathematics, arithmetic, and logic algorithms. within the research carried out by toda, do carmo, and silva (2014), the authors concluded that the main objective of the research was achieved, which aimed to unify the system, teacher-student-gamification, and although this project is still in the preparation phase, it is expected that students improve their ability in understanding and mastering the topics. as suggested by garcía (2016), a group of researchers in barcelona, spain, developed a digital game, with the aim of orienting the educational competencies to elementary school students, implementing in their development the process of cocreation, calling it a game ferran alsina, focusing mainly on basic skills and specific methodologies, advising that the game is especially designed for children between 4 and 10 years old (contreras-espinosa, eguia-gómez, & albajes, 2016). 181 no. 20 the work of evaristo, vega, navarro, and nakano (2016), in lima, peru, which involved 561 students, divided into three groups, whose main objective was the identification of the influence of video games in real time, for the development of this project three groups were formed in which the first group worked on the theme only using video games, the second group only theoretical classes, and the third group a hybrid strategy between groups one and two, the results were quite strong, demonstrating that the students of group one, who worked only with video games, had a greater effect on the grades than the other groups. demonstrating that video games can be used as a pedagogical tool in teaching. at the national university of colombia, cadavid and gómez (2015), establish the majority of educational institutions in colombia present a low level of knowledge especially for the area of mathematics, proposed to design a gamification didactic strategy in order that by through this technique, the students reached the comprehension and mastery of the subject in a more friendly way, this research was done to 2,263 students of the institution in a precalculus course, giving result to an increase in the academic performance with a percentage of acceptable approval and evidencing a lower level of desertion. likewise, butler and ahmed (2016) also exposes the level of student desertion, especially in the area of computer science, describing that this problem occurs due to lack of motivation or interest in this field. for this research, a game was implemented in which the computer systems were conceptualized in a didactic and fun way: volunteers responded to a survey and compared his acceptance of learning by playing with traditional learning in the classroom. the results showed that gamification is key in changing the learning experience for students in the area of computer sciences and helped them achieve their learning objectives. gamification cases in business environments business sectors such as tourism have adopted gamification practices and methods in order to show themselves as an innovative concept in tourism marketing (xu, buhalis, & weber, 2017) in hong kong, a cultural exchange website similar to airbnb was developed, a gamification strategy so that users can obtain a special card called superhost, considered a host card, in which through the gamified platform they can have knowledge of the comments registered by the superhost, resulting in a trend of most relevant comments and evaluations. (liang, schuckertb, lawb, & chen, 2017). within the studies of malegiannaki and daradoumis (2017); petrucco and agostini (2016), the integration of gamification techniques in the educational trend applied to the formation of cultural heritage, relying on technologies such as augmented reality giving way to a method that provides great potential. this research allowed the study digital games in learning and training rodriguez-hernandez, vargas-macías and sanchez-saenz 182 no. 20 digital games in learning and training rodriguez-hernandez, vargas-macías and sanchez-saenz of 34 cities, especially developed for the walled city of veneto to population between children of 7 and 15 years the cultural and historical importance of the city, integrating gamification with augmented reality for mobile devices, in this way, using visually attractive tools, it is possible to improve pedagogical skills, allowing interaction with the system. in colombia there are companies that implement gamification as an alternative to call customers and/or train their employees, among them playvoz, alliance between the colombian association of contact centers and bpo, is a platform that works as a social network but internal to each company, in which through gamification, seeks to be more efficient in the processes of selection, induction and training of personnel in the area of human talent in this company, the arcaris company, was founded by oscar giraldo to identify the achievements that each worker has both at a group and individual level and rewards depending on what has been achieved (corporación colombia digital [ccd], 2013). therefore the research developed by gómez, calvo-manzano, gasca-hurtado, and san feliu (2014) proposes a teaching instrument in which it uses the basic principles of gamification, in order to get software developers to work in a different environment, and in turn obtain more successful projects and processes. molina (2013), in a way that also advises in his research ferrández (2013), considers that gamification and marketing strategies contribute to the decision-making process in the company, this being one of the main characteristics to take into account. the research developed by sousa‐vieira, lópez‐ardao, fernández‐veiga, rodríguez‐pérez, & herrería‐alonso (2016) affirms that these digital natives possess learning skills developed within an online social context, given that online social networks (osn) are considered an important factor to enter a new dimension of social systems learning management, there are still traditional learning practices avoiding the user experience in a socially active environment. the work of de-marcos, garcíalópez, and garcía-cabot (2016) exalt the value that social networks and gamification has had in contributing to education by applying it throughout the educational semester, implementing methods of correlation, component analysis, and multiple regression. the use of social networks has not only been adopted for roles as students. the study of de-marcos et al. (2016) describes that this tendency is increasingly coined by teachers and educational institutions giving way to a new trend called social gamification, in which the main objective is to take advantage of the educational game and social networks as a methodology for the purpose to improve the relationship institution-teacher-student. in general terms, it is possible to affirm that social networks have contributed to education by demonstrating the effectiveness of e-learning, the research developed 183 no. 20 by de-marcos, domínguez, saenz-de-navarrete, and pagés (2014) presents results product test obtained between social networks and gamification for a specific course, in order to compare academic performance, participation, and attitude of students towards this new technology. resulting in the optimization of both approaches in terms of improving a traditional teaching process, encouraged by electronic learning, affirming that this is a way in which students called digital natives, resemble technologies developed in new approaches, giving positive result to any practice. conclusion and discussion the documentary review made it possible to identify the level of research in which the object of study of this work is found; in this case, the concept of gamification was deepened and, at the same time, the potential implementation scenarios were analyzed and discussed. the gamification is considered a fundamental part of the learning process, it allows you to adapt platforms and use tools in any area of knowledge. thus managing to incorporate elements of the game in a learning context, and making it improve the motivation to learn as well as the results of the training process. the implementation of gamification strategies allows generating an innovative educational environment, which contributes to the development of active learning and promotes greater interaction among the participants. the integration of gaming platforms in education or training streamlines training processes and motivates learning. once the current state of gamification theory has been explored and analyzed, and after the scientific synthesis supported in this article, it is proposed to evaluate the most technically adequate platforms and tools for the development of a gamified module oriented to secondary education. as a representative sample the module will be applied to students of grade 11 in the subject of chemistry. it is then proposed as a next step to the investigation to determine the appropriate model to be applied in real scenarios. digital games in learning and training rodriguez-hernandez, vargas-macías and sanchez-saenz 184 no. 20 digital games in learning and training rodriguez-hernandez, vargas-macías and sanchez-saenz references auvinen, t., hakulinen, l., & malmi, l. 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(2017). serious games and the gamification of tourism. tourism management, 60, 244-256. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tourman.2016.11.020 authors * zulma liliana vargas-macías. professor and researcher at universidad pedagógica y tecnológica de colombia. she holds a master’s in computer technology and systems and computing engineering tunja, colombia. reasearch group telematics and tica. orcid: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7766-3556  ariel adolfo rodríguez-hernandez. professor and researcher at universidad pedagógica y tecnológica de colombia. he holds a master’s in free software. also, he is an expert in training and virtual tutoring, is a systems engineer with an emphasis in software. reasearch group telematics and tica. orcid: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1906-7734 claudia liliana sánchez-sáenz. professor and researcher at universidad pedagógica y tecnológica de colombia. she holds a phd in education, a master’s in educational technology and a ba in educational technology. reasearch group telematics and tica orcid: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2952-0857 how to reference this article: vargas-macías, z. l., rodriguez-hernandez, a. a., & sanchezsaenz, c. l. (2020). digital games (gamification) in learning and training: an approach to adaptation and integration in the classroom. gist – education and learning research journal, 20, 171-188. https://doi.org/10.26817/16925777.765 198 an english for research publication purposes course: gains, challenges, and perceptions1 un curso de inglés para propósitos de publicación de investigación: avances, desafíos y percepciones frank giraldo2* universidad de caldas, colombia abstract academic writing for scholars wanting to publish in english has gained considerable research attention in writing circles. this article reports the findings of a case study on the gains, challenges, and perceptions about writing in english that a group of scholars had while taking an academic writing course. two questionnaires, an indepth interview, and a teacher-researcher’s journal were used for data collection. the findings emphasize gains emerging from genre-based pedagogy as a holistic approach to academic writing and usefulness of teaching strategies for writing. the study reports time, discipline, and language proficiency as challenges to overcome. finally, the participants report differing views towards peer feedback and a predominantly positive perception of english as the language for scientific writing. keywords: academic writing; english for research publication purposes; genrebased teaching; strategies for writing; peer feedback resumen existe un claro interés relacionado con la escritura académica en inglés para propósitos investigativos. este estudio de caso caracteriza los logros, retos, y percepciones sobre escritura en inglés que un grupo de profesores investigadores tuvieron durante el desarrollo de un curso de escritura académica. dos cuestionarios, una entrevista y un diario de campo del investigador se usaron para recoger datos. los hallazgos sugieren 1 received: november 7th 2018/ accepted: may 5th 2019 2 frank.giraldo@ucaldas.edu.co giraldogist education and learning research journal. issn 1692-5777. no.18 (january june 2019). pp. 198-220. no. 18 (january june 2019) no. 18 (january june 2019) 199 que la pedagogía basada en el género escrito es un enfoque holístico para aprender sobre escritura académica. además, generan evidencia sobre lo útil que pueden ser las estrategias de escritura. el estudio también indica que el tiempo, la disciplina y la suficiencia lingüística representan retos para los participantes. finalmente, los participantes expresan contrastes sobre la evaluación de pares y una percepción predominantemente positiva del inglés como el idioma para la escritura científica. palabras clave: escritura académica; enseñanza basada en el género textual; estrategias para la escritura; inglés para propósitos de publicación investigativa; evaluación de pares. resumo existe um claro interesse relacionado com a escritura acadêmica em inglês para propósitos investigativos. este estudo de caso caracteriza os aproveitamentos, desafios, e percepções sobre escritura em inglês que um grupo de professores pesquisadores teve durante o desenvolvimento de um curso de escritura académica. dois questionários, uma entrevista e um diário de campo do pesquisador foram usados para coletar dados. as descobertas sugerem que a pedagogia baseada no gênero escrito é um enfoque holístico para aprender sobre escritura acadêmica. além disso, geram evidência sobre o útil que podem ser as estratégias de escritura. o estudo também indica que o tempo, a disciplina e a suficiência linguística representam desafios para os participantes. finalmente, os participantes expressam contrastes sobre a avaliação de pares e uma percepção predominantemente positiva do inglês como o idioma para a escritura científica. palavras chave: escritura académica; ensino baseado no gênero textual; estratégias para a escritura; inglês para propósitos de publicação investigativa; avaliação de pares. giraldo no. 18 (january june 2019) no. 18 (january june 2019) 200 introduction the english language is employed for purposes ranging from everyday communication to academic contexts. in fact, it has been documented that this language exercises great power when it comes to dissemination of knowledge through research writing, an academic endeavor on its own. scholars have highlighted the prestige and challenges that come along with writing for publication in english (bocanegra-valle, 2013; li & flowerdew, 2007; lillis & curry, 2010), with knowledge of the language being a central challenge (hyland, 2016b). since english is a common language for science, scholars who lack writing skills in this language may not have the opportunity to share their expertise, an issue which has gained criticism (hyland, 2016b; lillis & curry, 2010). as the power of english for publication is self-perpetuating (ferguson, 2007; flowerdew, 2013), figures show that around 90% of journals publish research in this language (lillis & curry, 2010). consequently, there is a need to improve scholars’ academic writing in english, as researchers have suggested (bocanegra-valle, 2013; gea-valor, rey-rocha, & moreno, 2014). research in english academic writing has generally focused on the experiences of students in esl contexts; i.e. international students in american, australian, and english universities (green, 2013; leki & carson, 1997; morton, storch, & thompson, 2015). in general, these studies indicate that such courses do help students improve linguistic and social aspects of academic writing and make them aware of the structure academic papers, e.g. research articles (henceforth ras). another research focus in academic writing has been the perceptions and attitudes that students have regarding the english language for academic writing (bocanegra-valle, 2013; flowerdew, 2005; morton et al., 2015). this research has indicated that researchers whose first language is not english need to develop english writing skills to disseminate their knowledge. the research also emphasizes that scholars feel disadvantaged when they do not master english for publication, but accept this language as a challenge and route to sharing their expertise (hyland, 2016b; pérez-llantada, ferguson, & plo, 2011). there is scarce research, however, on perceptions and learning of scholars from different disciplines while engaged in english for research publication purposes (henceforth erpp) courses and on recommendations emerging from such contexts. this paper contributes to filling that gap by showing the gains, challenges, and perceptions in english academic writing that a group of professors/researchers at a colombian state university had while engaged in a ten-week course called academic writing for publication (henceforth awp). english for research publication purposes course giraldo no. 18 (january june 2019) no. 18 (january june 2019) 201 literature review this literature review explores four connected areas. it discusses the relationship between english for academic purposes (eap) and english for research publication purposes (erpp) and then explains how ras are structured. further, the paper overviews issues in teaching erpp courses, along with relevant research studies. lastly, the review synthesizes studies into writers’ perceptions of academic writing, specifically erpp. english for academic purposes and english for research publication purposes english for academic purposes (eap) teaches students the language needed to deal with tasks for academia. thus, academic writing is a sub-type of eap course that has received attention in research (hyland, 2016). there is a call for these courses to be specific (e. g. planned for a particular group of people) as they respond to students’ needs (hyland, 2016; manchon, 2013; tribble, 2017). thus, an erpp course supports researchers and graduate students in their goal to publish their research and is considered a type of eap course (cargill, & burgess, 2008; charles, 2013). such course teaches students about ras with a high level of specificity, a feature which is welcome in academic writing pedagogy (atkinson, 2013; hyland, 2016; samraj, 2013). these courses, basically, teach students how to write research articles (li, flowerdew, & cargill, 2018). research articles in academic english as scholars have explored, ras are the most studied genre in academic writing. for example, the structure of introductions in ras has led to a trend in research writing: introductions tend to have a predictable pattern of research context, research problem, and research solution, described in depth by swales and feak (2004) in what they call the c.a.r.s. (creating a research space) model. empirical ras, in general, are divided into at least four sections (atkinson, 2013; tribble, 2017): introductions, methods, results, and discussion or conclusion (also known as imrd) and they have been the focus of few erpp courses (for example, flowerdew & wang, 2016). as authors agree, these features of academic writing in english are generalities and do not reflect ras across fields, languages and even cultures (flowerdew, 2013). in an erpp course, participants should be knowledgeable of how ras are written in their particular fields and for particular journals (kwan, 2010). in this regard, a pedagogy is needed that embraces how to take learners from an idea to a full-fledged ra. the next section, therefore, focuses on approaches to teaching academic writing. english for research publication purposes course giraldo no. 18 (january june 2019) no. 18 (january june 2019) 202 teaching erpp courses erpp courses should be fit for specific students, under specific circumstances as hyland (2016) argues, and be geared towards helping students to write ras (flowerdew & wang, 2016; li et al, 2018). these authors have also suggested ideas for teaching erpp courses. one such recommendation is the use of genre-based pedagogy, through which students become aware of the linguistic and disciplinary (content) aspects of academic writing (manchon, 2013; li et al, 2018) in their specific fields. additionally, as bhatia, anthony, and noguchi (2011) explain, researchers should also become aware of why authors in their fields write in a particular way. while not many studies report experiences in erpp courses, flowerdew and wang (2016) suggest that for teaching ras, one possible idea is to focus on how they are structured in their different sections, i.e. imrd; and how language is used in them. this focus can be approached through genre-based teaching. research studies continuously show the usefulness of a genre-based pedagogy for academic writing, specifically when it comes to structure and grammar of papers (cheng, 2008; hyland, 2013), learning about how ras are written (flowerdew & wang, 2016), the opportunity to have access to exemplars, i.e. ras written by experts (cheng, 2008; tribble, 2017), and the potential for writing papers in disciplinary fields (wingate, 2012). while it has been criticized (see jenkins, 2014, for example), genre-based pedagogy for academic writing is effective in moving learners towards texts with appropriate formats (hyland, 2013). manchon (2016) argues that students in writing courses learn to write, as well as write to learn about language. consequently, erpp courses should help participants foster their linguistic skills. manchon also argues that the act of writing ignites writers’ metacognition given, for instance, the thinking time required for writing text. this metacognition, in turn, can help improve linguistic accuracy. writers’ insights on academic writing this section reviews studies in which student writers express their views towards gains, challenges, and perceptions of learning to write academically in a foreign language and publishing in english. one of the major trends in the research indicates the positive influence of genre-based pedagogies on the learning of academic writing. the studies by cheng (2008), crawford, mora, and lengeling (2016), green (2013), kaufhold (2015), leki and carson (1997), and pearson (2003) provide evidence to suggest that analysis of disciplinary texts leads to overall awareness of academic writing conventions, including use of tenses, author stance, moves english for research publication purposes course giraldo no. 18 (january june 2019) no. 18 (january june 2019) 203 in sections of papers, text structure, among others. in sum, the participants in these studies learned about linguistic and rhetorical aspects of their own disciplines. another research focus explores the power of english for publication. in the study by luo and hyland (2016), the participating professors wrote in english because of the prestige and visibility this would give them. likewise, in bocanegra-valle’s (2013) study, the participants expressed that writing in english led to international recognition and credibility, especially in highranked journals written in this language. in a somewhat different tone, one of the participants in crawford et al.’s (2016) case study expressed that english was imposed upon him, but he developed positive feelings towards writing in this language for his personal discipline-based publications. gea-valor et al. (2014) found that the scholars thought their research writing skills in english were rather low, and found that writing the discussion section of ras was the most challenging part of articles. finally, the participants reported that they were most interested in writing ras in english. feedback from teachers and even peers appears to be a highly valued component of academic writing courses, as student writers explain. in the studies by morton et al. (2015) and carvajal and roberto (2014), students of academic writing valued feedback to improve their products, whether it came from tutors (morton et al., 2015) or peers (carvajal & roberto, 2014). indeed, positive feedback can have such a major impact on students that it may lead to improving their confidence in academic writing, as the findings in perpignan, rubin, and katznelson (2007) show. beyond the classroom context, feedback coming from peers can help papers in their path towards publication, as lillis and curry (2010) show. an interesting trend about insights from academic english writers themselves is what perpignan et al. (2007) call byproducts in academic writing. in their study, the researchers found that whereas academic writing courses help students with their writing skills such as taking an idea to a full paper, these courses come along other benefits. according to the authors, students also become critical and thorough readers, boost their self-confidence to deal with writing tasks, and employ social skills given the interactive nature that may occur in these scenarios. similar findings can also be found in carvajal and roberto (2014). methodology the purpose of this study was to describe the gains, challenges, and perceptions of a group of professors-researchers in an erpp course. this level of specificity, the expectation of emergent findings, and the use of methods english for research publication purposes course giraldo no. 18 (january june 2019) no. 18 (january june 2019) 204 such as questionnaires and an in-depth interview, made the research study qualitative (silverman, 2005). besides, the study asked participants about perceptions and attitudes towards learning how to write an ra and their engagement in an erpp course, foci which are common in qualitative studies on academic writing (flowerdew, 2005). research on academic writing has used case studies. the present study characterized the participants’ gains, challenges, and perceptions as they learned to write an ra that would be potentially publishable. while case studies are limited in their scope, and therefore findings cannot be extrapolated to other contexts, this study was based on theoretical sampling (silverman, 2005). the author explains theoretical sampling explores a particular theoretical issue (in the present case erpp) and derives findings that may be useful to others. in fact, flowerdew (2013) calls for case studies in academic writing, so pedagogical experiences are shared with and known to others. context and participants the awp course was offered by the languages institute of a state university in colombia. the institute contacted the office for academic affairs to ask whether an erpp course would be welcomed at this university. the office accepted the offer and then commissioned the institute to administer an academic writing course in english for professors and researchers wanting to publish in this language. table 1 includes details about the awp course. table 1. features of the awp. english for research publication purposes course giraldo no. 18 (january june 2019) no. 18 (january june 2019) 205 eight scholars participated in the awp course. seven of the participants were professors and researchers at such university; one of them worked as the director of an important outreach department at the same university. table 2 shows details about the participants in this study, including publication history and field and research focus for their papers. all names in the table are pseudonyms. table 2. relevant information on participants in the awp course english for research publication purposes course giraldo no. 18 (january june 2019) no. 18 (january june 2019) 206 before the start of the course, the participants were asked to show proof of general proficiency in english, b2 in the common european framework (council of europe, 2001). for writing, they took a diagnostic test in which they wrote an argumentative essay to be in favor of or against lecturing in university lessons. for this test, they had to read two articles, synthesize information, and defend their position. in general, the eight participants could comfortably communicate in english but their academic writing skills needed improvement. thus, they were welcome in the course. finally, the other participant in this research study was the course instructor, as a participant observer who provided insights through a researcher’s journal. data collection instruments questionnaires and interviews were used in this study to collect data on the development of academic writing (flowerdew, 2005; lillis & curry, 2010). the first questionnaire, administered during week five of the course, asked whether participants were learning particular aspects of academic writing, research writing in their fields, and writing strategies. a second questionnaire was used to confirm gains, challenges, and/or perceptions in the course; this questionnaire had the same items as questionnaire one but with a slight change in wording: questionnaire one asked about what participants were learning and two about what they learned. also, this second questionnaire included a selfassessment exercise and an extra question: what do you think was the biggest lesson you had in the awp course? the syllabus, written in spanish, was sent to all professors at the university where the study took place, before the course started. then, in the self-assessment, the items were copied verbatim so that participants could resort to spanish (their l1) and not worry about reading comprehension issues in english. the questionnaire was piloted with two academic writing instructors at the language institute of the university where the study took place. they commented on the wording of the items in spanish so overly technical language was not present. additionally, they suggested that participants should have the chance to ask questions, in case they did not understand what to do. see the appendix for the complete second questionnaire. no statistical calculations were conducted, given that this was a case study with few participants: statistical significance to suggest interpretations about populations was not the purpose of the study. an in-depth interview was conducted individually with all participants one week after the course ended. interview questions included reasons for the participants to enroll in the course; and gains, challenges, and perceptions while english for research publication purposes course giraldo no. 18 (january june 2019) no. 18 (january june 2019) 207 engaged in it. for the interview, participants could resort to either english or spanish, whichever they would feel more comfortable using. this is why some extracts in the findings are written in spanish and translated into english. to substantiate findings, a third instrument was used: a teacherresearcher’s journal. there were ten journal entries, with addenda for particular reflections (e.g. how genre-based teaching led to awareness of how authors synthesize in research papers). the journal entries explored the gains and challenges that the participants had in the awp, as seen from the perceptions of the teacher-researcher. the journal elicited reflection through simple prompts: what went well and why? what did not go so well and why? what lessons (conclusions) can i derive from this particular lesson? data analysis grounded theory was used for this study. this approach has three stages (glaser & strauss, 1967) for data analysis. open codings refer to trends in the data that can be classified as they emerge. a second level is axial codings, whereby researchers look for patterns and group open codings. finally, selective codings group axials and derive final categories that lead to the findings. to illustrate, two open codings were positive view of english and english for publication; these codings were grouped in an axial coding called perceptions towards english. finally, this axial and others were subsumed under english as the language for publication, a selective coding for the last level of data analysis. data analysis was continuous to reiterate the meanings behind participants’ answers (johnson, 1992). results and discussion the results from this study include the gains, challenges, and perceptions the participants had while in the awp. gains related to academic writing structure, careful reading, language awareness, and strategies for writing. the participants perceived language proficiency, time, and discipline as challenges for academic writing. lastly, this report includes perceptions about the english language for publication and the role of feedback in academic writing courses. structures in english for publication a prominent gain the participants highlighted was the realization that academic writing for research publication involves discernable structures. the data samples show that participants learned the general structure for paragraphs in english, and more specifically and emphatically, the c.a.r.s. model for english for research publication purposes course giraldo no. 18 (january june 2019) no. 18 (january june 2019) 208 writing introductions. the data highlights that the course raised awareness of what it means, structurally, to write academically in the english language. regarding structure, sirius (interview) explains: “i learnt the c.a.r.s. model as i told you, eh, i think was the most revealing thing for me during the course because it gave me a very structural way of, of developing an introduction.” likewise, in questionnaire two, darcy states that, in terms of the structure of academic articles, he learnt “the overview to go from general to specific in the paragraph, and the c.a.r.s. model”. finally, the following entry from the researcher’s journal reiterates learning related to structures for writing: teaching the structure of paragraphs in english seems to be eye-opening for these participants, and it should be (…) a crucial element in courses for writing ras; similarly, the c.a.r.s. model seemed to be a first-timer for these students, and it helped them to find a way to write the introduction. the sample data above seem to signal that, before the course, the participants did not have these structures in english, which may have led them to such a gain in writing. other studies (cheng, 2008; hyland, 2013) report that academic writing courses do help students become aware of the moves needed to write ras. the data above also shed light on the pertinence and usefulness of including the c.a.r.s model (swales & feak, 2004) for erpp courses (flowerdew & wang, 2016). allusion to this model was frequent in the data, and further signals that the participants did not know it. the role of reading in erpp courses another reported gain was the effective use of reading for approaching the research articles participants explored in the course. the following data show that the participants noticed that reading made them aware of not only the aforementioned rhetorical structures in english, but also linguistic aspects and journal requirements. for example, in questionnaire one, bill stated that “reading matrices are very useful. i have improved the ability to analyze other articles (it’s easier to find how authors signal gaps and authors’ contributions) and identify the possibility to provide new contributions.” thus, the data samples appear to recognize the wholesome experience that a genre-based pedagogy to academic writing implies. in the interview extract below, rumi commented on the impact of reading articles carefully: if i look at the journals in my area, i start to see and understand article structures, how they focus their introduction, how they present their experiments, how they present the discussion, and how they, let’s say, finish and conclude; that has been very important. this journal entry explored how genre analysis appeared to be an enriching activity in the course. english for research publication purposes course giraldo no. 18 (january june 2019) no. 18 (january june 2019) 209 genre analysis has consolidated as a fruitful approach to the analysis of ras; participants benefited from looking at sample papers and find trends in synthesis, which they also used for papers in their own fields. for example, type of synthesis, number of authors in synthesis, and citation style. this information aligns with literature related to a genre-based pedagogy for academic writing. similar to this study, participants in cheng (2008) and hyland (2013) became aware of structure and language of academic papers. besides, the study by pearson (2003) showed participants learned details about citation styles, a result that also emerged in the present study. also, reading led participants to notice language patterns emerging from research articles. the sample data below indicate that participants identified linguistic items such as tenses and their uses; besides, through reading, the participants realized how important it is to hedge when writing discussions in research papers. in this interview sample, george comments on learning about grammar tenses: “one starts to write the article and can start talking in present, then goes to past, then future and goes back to past within the same area in the structure, without having changed.” similarly, in questionnaire two, darcy stated that he learned “the importance of tenses to write each part of the document, and to make the discussion through hedging.” hyland (2016) has discussed the need to address hedging in academic writing courses. the findings in this study support hyland’s argument and suggest that such a topic may make research writers aware of their role when reporting their scholarly work. overall, the language-related results support manchon’s (2016) contention that academic writing courses not only target learning about writing but also learning about language. strategies for academic writing a last gain for the participants involved strategies for academic writing. specifically, the participants argued that outlining and a reading matrix helped them approach the task of writing their ras. the data show the variety of uses that the participants gave to these two strategies. in questionnaire two, global mind stated that she “learnt that the outline is a powerful tool if we use it and do a very reflective work to refine it.” in questionnaire one, she mentioned that she learnt that “matrix is a tool that helps me to read articles with more precision and focus.” in his interview, darcy explained his approach to outlining. i start to know make an outline to write anything no matter if is to write academic paper or an e-mail… it’s is so important these kind of tools i start to feel comfortable because i have really really effective tools…to achieve my goals. english for research publication purposes course giraldo no. 18 (january june 2019) no. 18 (january june 2019) 210 strategies for academic writing are reported in the literature. for example, kwan (2010) implies that strategies should be part of efforts to support research writing; the present study capitalizes on that idea by means of outlining and reading matrices as writing strategies. in green (2013), outlining was a key component for one of the participants to advance her academic writing endeavors. as for reading as a strategy to improve writing, cheng (2008) highlights the usefulness of reading to raise awareness of academic writing. byproducts in academic writing perpignan et al. (2007) state that byproducts (e.g. self-confidence) in academic writing courses are gains that do not necessarily include skills directly related to writing. in the present study, confidence emerged as a byproduct of the awp course. the participants reported in the interview that their confidence increased thanks to being engaged in the course. kalman explored the issue of confidence for writing: there is more confidence because there are more tools to achieve at least a well written publication; more confidence generates at the time to send more papers… it is confidence for what one is writing… i already know that i am writing better, that i have better structure, and that i am defining the gap well. similar to the present study, the studies by perpignan et al. (2007) and carvajal and roberto (2014) also report an increase in confidence for academic writing among course participants. therefore, that writers increase their selfconfidence seems to be a trend in the literature on learning about academic writing and may imply that, at the very least, academic writing courses can empower students for the task of writing. challenges in an erpp course the participants stated that overall language proficiency and the lack of time and discipline may be problematic for academic writing. the first challenge, particularly, involves language proficiency, which is needed to be engaged in an academic writing course, as patty explains in her interview: “it is a challenge to receive class in english. expressing myself in english is still complicated for me, and despite being able to write, i find it difficult to understand and speak.” when asked about challenges not related to writing, global mind stated in questionnaire one that a challenge was “the little time i can devote to read and write with real disposition and availability (lack of discipline????).” english for research publication purposes course giraldo no. 18 (january june 2019) no. 18 (january june 2019) 211 similarly, the literature has reported challenges that students have for academic writing. luo and hyland (2016), for instance, state that writing in english is a challenge on its own. in morton et al. (2015), one of the participants found it challenging to build her own writing identity. in the present study, it must be noted that these participants felt the need to develop their overall english skills; this perception is consonant with overall literature in academic writing, with scholars (flowerdew, 2013; lillis & curry, 2010) arguing that non-english researchers need strong skills in this language to interact in the scientific arena of their fields. as for time and discipline, the participants in the present study were researchers and professors or administrative staff at the university where they work, which may exercise a burden on their writing agendas. perceptions about english and feedback in this erpp course a last set of results in this study are perceptions the participants had towards being in the awp course. all participants emphasized the role of english as a language for communicating science. additionally, they had mixed perceptions about the role of peer-feedback in the awp course. the interview data show that all the participants view english as the go-to language for publication, regarding it as useful for communication with peers from around the world. for example, in his interview, sirius stated the following. i think it’s the way to go. it doesn’t, for me it doesn’t make sense to write scientifically in spanish. eh, why? because, well, science is written in english. i think that english eh puts eh a standard to the way scienti... science is written. they say everybody are going to write in english so you have to write in english now. eh you can communicate your research, your interests with a guy in russia or with a guy in china. in her interview, patty shared similar feelings to sirius’: “english is the perfect language to write science.” in conclusion, it seems that, for the participants, english is the de facto lingua franca for scientific writing, given its usefulness for communicating research in their fields. particularly, readers may remember that patty has written five articles in english, which could suggest that she is used to writing in this language –or perhaps her discipline encourages this fact. it has been remarked that english is powerful for communication, and it is a goal for scholars wanting to publish in this language (bocanegra-valle, 2013; pérezllantada et al, 2011). the same trend seems to underlie the present study. participants had it as a goal to write academically in english to have potentially publishable work. it is worth noticing that seven of the participants published in english, which may ignite positive attitudes towards the language. english for research publication purposes course giraldo no. 18 (january june 2019) no. 18 (january june 2019) 212 regarding the role of peer feedback in the course, participants had differing views. for example, george argued that peer feedback was useful to analyze his own writing. in the interview, he shared the following insight. when i read what a classmate had done, i gave it an interpretation… and then he’d tell me: ‘no, what i mean was this.’ so i found that there was no clarity… so that’d make us see that we had to think about the reader. conversely, sirius mentioned: “i honestly think that you are not in the position to give feedback. i gave feedback only on the positive… and he didn’t give me feedback. maybe he felt the same.” in the teacher’s journal, reflections on feedback were positive: “peer feedback in these courses may lead to an awareness towards being clear when writing, even if people from other fields read one’s paper.” the participants viewed peer feedback mainly positively in the course. in the study by carvajal and roberto (2014), participants benefitted from receiving feedback from partners. however, the data in the present study also suggest a caution for the place of feedback in academic writing courses, specifically when writers come from different fields. it is this fact perhaps what makes peer feedback a challenge: in an erpp course with researchers from different fields, they may feel they do not have the authority to comment on others’ work. this is interesting, as students were asked to focus on the moves for their articles, not on their content, as this journal entry explains: “even with students coming from different fields, peer feedback may be useful as long as it is guided by frameworks such as the cars model”. conclusions and recommendations few case studies of erpp courses are reported in the literature, which is a gap this present case study seeks to start to fill. the present study reports that, among the main gains from being engaged in the awp course, the participants highlighted learning about rhetorical structures for writing in english. other gains included the power of reading articles and learning about language structures by this means. finally, a prominent gain in the study was the use of the two strategies taught for writing: a reading matrix and outlining. this may mean there is a space for explicit attention to writing strategies in erpp courses. furthermore, the participants reported time, discipline, and language proficiency as challenges to surpass in erpp. finally, the participants viewed english as an appropriate language for the publication process and shared differing views on peer feedback. while a limitation of the present research is that it is a case study in a context with unique researchers, three recommendations may prove useful for other places where these context-sensitive erpp courses may be designed. english for research publication purposes course giraldo no. 18 (january june 2019) no. 18 (january june 2019) 213 first and foremost, a genre-based pedagogy is fully supported in this study. teachers may want to explore such approach for teaching (academic) writing; for instance, they may engage students in close reading of texts through which they can identify rhetorical and language patterns (as shown in flowerdew & wang, 2016); in the present case, empirical ras were useful to identify patterns such as how sentences are structured in their discussion section, or linguistic choices such as the accurate use of tenses. second, students should be taught strategies for writing. in this study, outlining and a reading matrix were new to the participants, who fully embraced the strategies and made them their own. along with skills in genre analysis, specific strategies help writers become more confident–as the findings here suggest–to approach the research writing task. finally, peer feedback does have a place in academic writing courses but teachers must be aware that in contexts where students are writing widely different papers, there may be some resistance due to professional factors (e.g. face-keeping). in such case, teachers may want to direct feedback to, for example, how students are transitioning in paragraphs or hedging: peer feedback could focus more on structure and language, rather than content. thus, the role of peer feedback in an erpp course is a recommended research path, especially when it is used with students coming from different disciplines. english for research publication purposes course giraldo no. 18 (january june 2019) no. 18 (january june 2019) 214 references atkinson, d. (2013). research articles in english for specific purposes. in c. chapelle (ed.), the encyclopedia of applied linguistics, 1-6. chichester (uk): john wiley and sons. bhatia, v., anthony, l., & noguchi, j. (2011). esp in the 21st century: esp theory and application today. proceedings of the jacet 50th commemorative international convention, 143-150. bocanegra-valle, a. (2013). the perceived value of english for academic publishing among esp multilingual scholars in europe. journal of english for specific purposes at tertiary level, 1(1), 5-25. cargill, m., & burgess, s. (2008). introduction to the special issue: english for research publication purposes. journal of english for academic purposes, 7(2), 75-76. carvajal, n. & roberto, e. (2014). collaborative work as an alternative for writing research articles. profile: issues in teachers’ professional development, (16)1, 119-136 cheng, a. (2008). analyzing genre exemplars in preparation for writing: the case of an l2 graduate student in the esp genre-based instructional framework of academic literacy. applied linguistics, 29(1), 50-71. council of europe (2001). common european framework of reference for languages: learning, teaching, and assessment. cambridge, uk: cambridge university press. crawford, t., mora, i., & lengeling, m. (2016). struggling authorial identity of second language university academic writers in mexico. profile: issues in teachers’ professional development, (18)1, 115-127. ferguson, g. (2007). the global spread of english, scientific communication and esp:questions of equity, access and domain loss. ibérica, 13, 7-38. flowerdew, j. (2005). a multimethod approach to research into processes of scholarly writing for publication. in p. k. matsuda and t. silva (eds.), second language writing research: perspectives on the process of knowledge construction, 65-77. mahwah, nj: lawrence erlbaum. flowerdew, j. (2013). english for research publication purposes. in b. paltridge & s. starfield (eds.), the handbook of english for specific purposes: first edition, 301-321. boston, usa: wiley-blackwell. english for research publication purposes course giraldo no. 18 (january june 2019) no. 18 (january june 2019) 215 flowerdew, j. & wang, s. (2016). teaching english for research publication purposes with a focus on genre, register, textual mentors and language reuse: a case study. in j. flowerdew & t. costley (eds.), discipline-specific writing: theory into practice, 144-161. london, uk: routledge. gea-valor, m., rey-rocha, j., & moreno, a. (2014). publishing research in the international context: an analysis of spanish scholars’ academic writing needs in the social sciences. english for specific purposes, 36, 47–59. glaser, b. j. & strauss, a. l. (1967). the discovery of grounded theory: strategies forqualitative research. new jersey: aldine transaction. green, s. (2013). novice esl writers: a longitudinal case-study of the situated academic writing processes of three undergraduates in a tesol context. journal of english for academic purposes, (12)3, 180-191. hyland, k. (2009). english for professional academic purposes: writing for scholarly publication. in belcher, d. (ed.), english for specific purposes in theory and practice, 83-105. ann arbor, mi: university of michigan press. hyland, k. (2013). teaching language for academic purposes. in c. chapelle (ed.), the encyclopedia of applied linguistics, 1-4. chicester (uk): john wiley and sons. hyland, k. 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(1997). “completely different worlds”: eap and the writing experiences of esl students in university courses. tesol quarterly, 31(1), 39-69. li, y. & flowerdew, j. (2007). shaping chinese novice scientists’ manuscripts for publication. journal of second language writing, 16, 100–117. english for research publication purposes course giraldo no. 18 (january june 2019) no. 18 (january june 2019) 216 li, y., flowerdew, j., & cargill, m. (2018). teaching english for research publication purposes to science students in china: a case study of an experienced teacher in the classroom. journal of english for academic purposes, 35, 116-129. lillis, t. & curry, m. (2010). academic writing in a global context: the politics and practices of publishing in english. new york: routledge. luo, n. & hyland, k. (2016). chinese academics writing for publication: english teachers as text mediators. journal of second language writing, 33, 43-55. manchon, r. (2013). teaching writing. in c. chapelle (ed.), the encyclopedia of applied linguistics, 1-4. manchon, r. (2016). language and l2 writing: learning to write and writing to learn in academic contexts. in k. hyland & p. shaw (eds.), the routledge handbook of english for academic purposes, 139-151. new york: routledge. morton, j., storch, n., & thompson, c. (2015). what our students tell us: perceptions of three multilingual students on their academic writing in first year. journal of second language writing, 30, 1-13. myskow, g. & gordon, k. (2009). a focus on purpose: using a genre approach in an efl writing class. elt journal, 64(3), 283-292. pearson, c. (2003). multiple uses of applied linguistics literature in a multidisciplinary graduate eap class. elt journal, 57(1), 43-50. pérez-llantada, c. ferguson, g., & plo, r. (2011). “you don’t say what you know, only what you can”: the perceptions and practices of senior spanish academics regarding research dissemination in english. english for specific purposes, 30, 18-30. perpignan, h., rubin, b., & katznelson, h. (2007). ‘by-products’: the added value of academic writing instruction for higher education. journal of english for academic purposes, 6(2), 163-181. samraj, b. (2013). research articles. in k. hyland & p. shaw (eds.), the routledge handbook of english for academic purposes, 403-415. new york: routledge. silverman, d. (2005). doing qualitative research. london, uk: sage publications. swales, j. & feak, c. (2004). academic writing for graduate students: essential tasks and skills. ann arbor: university of michigan press. english for research publication purposes course giraldo no. 18 (january june 2019) no. 18 (january june 2019) 217 tribble, c. (2017). elfa vs. genre: a new paradigm war in eap writing instruction? journal of english for academic purposes, 25, 30-44. wingate, u. (2012). using academic literacies and genre-based models for academic writing instruction: a ‘literacy’ journey. journal of english for academic purposes, (11)1, 26-37. author *frank giraldo is a professor in the foreign languages department at universidad de caldas, colombia. his interests include language testing and assessment, language assessment literacy, language curriculum development, and language teacher professional development. orcid: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5221-8245 english for research publication purposes course giraldo how to reference this article: giraldo, f. (2019). an english for research publication purposes course: gains, challenges, and perceptions. gist education and learning research journal, 18, 198-219. https://doi.org/10.26817/16925777.454 no. 18 (january june 2019) no. 18 (january june 2019) https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5221-8245 218 appendix second questionnaire dear professor, please answer the questions below based on your experience in the academic writing for publication course. you can answer the questions in english or spanish. 1. in the academic writing for publication course, did you learn anything about... a. academic writing in general? if yes, what? if not, why? b. analysis of research articles? if yes, what? if not, why? c. research writing in your own field? if yes, what? if not, why? d. writing strategies? if yes, what? if not, why? e. structure of academic and research articles? if yes, what? if not, why? 2. anything else you learned about academic writing? 3. in the academic writing for publication course, have you had any challenges or difficulties related to writing? if so, please describe them. 4. have you had other types of challenges? if so, please describe them. 5. is there anything you need to improve in terms of academic writing? if so, please describe. 6. look at the specific objectives/skills that were part of the course. evaluate you whether you achieved the objective or not. use this scale: 1: i did not achieve this objective. 2: i am still struggling with this objective. 3: i achieved this objective. english for research publication purposes course giraldo no. 18 (january june 2019) no. 18 (january june 2019) 219 specific objectives for the awp course (taken from the syllabus written in spanish and sent to all professors and researchers where study took place.) 1 2 3 evaluar fuentes de información para la escritura de textos académicos y científicos; estas fuentes incluyen revistas, convocatorias para eventos, libros editados, entre otras. 1 2 3 crear matrices para organizar literatura relacionada con el tema de investigación o del artículo. 1 2 3 escribir un esquema exhaustivo del escrito en desarrollo. 1 2 3 sintetizar fuentes de información para crear argumentos sólidos en la escritura del texto. 1 2 3 entender y usar los “movimientos estructurales” en las diferentes secciones de textos 1 2 3 tener prácticas éticas relacionadas con la escritura académica en inglés, por ejemplo citas efectivas, confiabilidad de fuentes de información, entre otras. 7. what do you think was the biggest lesson you had in the awp course? 8. what recommendations do you have for the course? thank you! english for research publication purposes course giraldo no. 18 (january june 2019) no. 18 (january june 2019) _hlk517687097 _hlk7516758 _hlk8801090 _gjdgxs _30j0zll _hlk8802317 _hlk8626559 _hlk8802656 _hlk519969894 _hlk9576345 _hlk9575766 _hlk526623052 _hlk526623433 _hlk6142970 _goback _goback _goback 10� education & public policy in bogotá: guarding the public interest juan david parra, b.s. abstract high school education appears to be a key variable for the economic prosperity of bogotá. however, the lack of consideration of quality as a necessary standard for education in the city threatens its potential to positively affect social welfare. one of the main problems emerges from an imprecise conception of education as a public good, condensed in its public policy planning. therefore, the appliance of more progressive proposals can be suggested to help combine the virtues of market forces and the state’s regulatory power. keywords/palabras claves: high school education, public good, educational quality, rate of return of education; educación secundaria, bien público, calidad de la educación, tasa de retorno de la educación introduction discussions about educational quality can be traced back in history to as far as the ancient times. for instance, angrist and lavy (1999, p. 2), examined the 6th century judaic collection of interpretations of the bible called the (babylonian) talmud. its more common interpretation recalls the lectures of the 12th century jewish-spanish scholar maimonides, baptizing the rule under his name: ¡preparados, listos, ya! 108 twenty-five children may be put in (sic. under the) charge of one teacher. if the number in the class exceeds twenty-five but is not more than forty, he should have an assistant to help with the instruction. if there are more than forty, two teachers must be appointed. (hyamson, 1937, p. 58) angrist and lavy (1999) have tested the rule empirically in israel. even though the results of their experiments appear to be statistically ambiguous, and the debate among scholars still fails to reveal solid evidence which could support the application of maimonides’ statement globally (gary-bobo & badrane, 2007), it does reveal a social concern that deserves deeper research. the progress of any nation depends on the quality of its educational policies. however, the issues surrounding educational quality, often a priority on the political agenda, do not seem to ever fulfil the expectations of those who desire their improvement. this article aims to discuss several aspects. firstly, a brief theoretical debate about the economic conception of public goods will be addressed. secondly, bogotá’s educational panorama, emphasizing high-school education, will be discussed. finally, the outline of a proposal towards a more efficient policy planning for the educational system in the city of bogotá will be presented. a brief economic framework before proceeding, some useful economic concepts need to be introduced. this will help to understand the implementation of an economic approach for the analysis of the situation of high school education in bogotá. frequently, education is related, in essence, to the concept of public good. economists differentiate public goods from private goods. by definition, public goods are those that are not either exclusive or rival (nicholson, 2005, p. 597). in other words, neither does a public good or service require that its users make a direct payment to have access to it (i.e. non exclusiveness), nor does its use by a specific group of individuals prevents other groups from using it (non-rivality). a typical example of such is street lighting; users do not pay for it and everyone in the neighbourhood can use it simultaneously. public goods are often awarded with another important feature: they provide social profitability. in economic terms, public goods provide positive externalities1 and have a positive impact on society’s welfare. 1 an economic “externality” occurs whenever the activities of one economic agent affect the activity of another agent in ways that are not reflected in market transactions (nicholson, p. 587). education & public policy in bogotá parra 109 for example, if we typify education as a public good, we could argue that it provides competencies to citizens (it makes them better and more informed voters, allowing for solid democratic states), safety on the streets (violence normally decreases as unemployment decreases), and higher productivity standards in industry, etc. now, such facts do not imply that private goods are unable to supply social profitability. private goods are the opposite of public goods: both exclusive and rival. think of a car or a hamburger. these kinds of goods also contribute to welfare as their consumption may be positively related to satisfaction of individuals. good satisfaction levels are also desirable in a society. happy citizens (according to their preferences in consumption) may also be responsible, non-violent and productive. evidently, the main difference between public and private goods is not the fact that only one type of them contributes to social harmony. basically, the divergence relies on the private profitability potential related to each kind of good. for instance, not everyone is willing to pay directly for street lighting. for a businessman, it would be hard to control who benefits or who does not from the lamps in the road. therefore, no “benefit seeker” entrepreneur will provide the service2 even if it is very necessary for society. the answer to this conundrum is state’s provision using indirect payment from the city’s users (taxes).3 let’s now refer to education, as it is of major interest in this paper. education has an essential task concerning social welfare. through the years “… researchers have found repeatedly that education plays a major role in economic growth”4 (helpmand, 2004, p. 41). again, education can motivate the production of positive externalities in a society. then, the following question arises: should education be treated as a pure public good in a city like bogotá? it is important to bear in mind that the impact of education will only manage to satisfy expectations if it is imparted 2 theoretically speaking, in competitive markets, prices correspond to marginal costs (the cost of providing an extra unit of product). low marginal costs, therefore, imply low prices. this is the case of public goods. providing street lighting to an extra user produces almost zero marginal costs. when prices are very small, profit will be minimum (as income = prices times quantity). simply, private entrepreneurs will not have motivations to produce those kinds of goods. 3 this does not mean that public institutions can only supply public goods. private agents could also supply public goods. even though, public goods are hard to administrate in order to produce private return. 4 the difference between economic growth and economic development has been widely discussed. a debate in which many scholars have argued that the former should only be seeing as a means towards obtaining the latter (sen, 1999). however, few arguments have been made against economic growth as a desirable goal of societies around the world. the consensus is that it supplies the resources necessary for social welfare. education & public policy in bogotá parra 110 with minimum quality standards. in the end, “growth increases with the effectiveness (…) of investment in human capital”5 (lucas, 1988, p. 23), and not only its accumulation. high school education: an overview on bogotá defenders of public education constantly convey a convenient confusion: a direct association between public and social benefit. london’s (2006, p.19) argument, for example, results to be fairly illustrative to this point: “as institutions of higher learning become more closely linked to for-profit activities and market forces (…) colleges and universities are in danger of losing their privileged status as guardians of the public interest.” one critique can emerge from such reasoning: only public education with good quality standards can optimally defend the public interests. a simple revision of bogotá’s educational public policy, the city mayor’s office strategies concerning educational issues (plan sectorial de educación 2008-2012), is enough to establish the existence of a political bias surrounding the main projects. bogotá’s educational agenda gives priority to the amount of students enrolled in the system, over the quality of the education supplied. in a certain way, this is politically logical since quantity provides more votes than quality. the proof of it relies on the nature and the order in which strategies are outlined. quality goes always first, and goals are more explicit. quantity directed programs are mentioned afterwards and with much more ambiguous outlines. this point of view coincides with other scholars’: it is not the same thing for us to state that the main objective of our analysis is the quantity of children that are being taken care of, as it is for us to defend the principle that a lack of quality education has not had support either in long or in medium-term planning. (torres, 2007)6 5 education can be directly linked to human capital formation (skills, abilities). according to lucas’s statement, only high quality education will encourage economic success, and therefore, the accomplishment of welfare goals. 6 translation from spanish made by professional translator. education & public policy in bogotá parra 111 graph 1. education average per-student costs against exam results (bogotá). source: suarez, 2005. graph 1 should be studied only as historical evidence rather than like an actual picture of bogotá education’s panorama. 2001 numbers cannot evaluate recent progress. though there is quite robust evidence to sustain the persistence of a situation in which expense in education in bogotá (both public and private) does not find a positive relation with quality standards (measured by results in school examinations). notice that suarez’s (2005) estimation suggests that average per-student expense does not appear to have very good results in terms of human capital formation. by this, we mean strong skills among students. such recent evidence comes out from farné and vergara (2008, p. 11). the researchers from the labour marker observatory from universidad externado de colombia pointed out that from a survey using 4,000 businesses as its base group, only 11.4% of those were able to say that the academic background of their personnel was good enough to satisfy their standards of production. in other words, it is implied that professionals find themselves with lack of formation qualities when they arrive on the labour market. it is important to mention that the authors argue, in an explicit way, that such outcome comes from serious weaknesses in early education phases (especially high school). therefore, the issue does not appear to be the lack of local government’s capability to provide education to the citizens. as a matter of fact, during the last decade, there has been an undisputable improvement in the accessibility young people have had to primary, middle school and high school education in the city. graph 2 reveals that in 2006 school enrolment reached 98.7%. according to official statistics, bogotá today has an illiteracy rate of 1.8%, a considerably low education & public policy in bogotá parra 112 figure compared to the national average, which is at 9.6% (secretaría de educación del distrito capital, 2008) and counts with important access levels for lower socio-economic segments of the city’s population (98% of social classes 1-3).7 graph 2. school enrolment in bogotá (% of children who study). source: alcaldía mayor de bogotá (bogotá city hall), 2007. even though quality concerns prevail and with such skepticism about education’s public potential. predicatively, the problem might be more than bureaucratic.8 budget constrains simply enforce decisions between quality and quantity. in fact, numbers appear to reveal that in some states of the united states, for example, expense per pupil widely overpasses bogotá’s fiscal effort.9 following fish’s (2007), results from such situation, concerning bogotá’s economic potential, are quite pessimistic. 7 international readers should be made aware of socioeconomical stratification. colombians hold a scale system to determine the fees for public services to be paid in a given place (i.e. neighborhood): number 1 on the scale represents the lowest level of income, and number 6 the highest. commonly those who live in neighbourhoods in “estratos” 1 & 2 are people with a low-income level, while those in 3 & 4 have a middle class income. those who live in levels 5 & 6 are normally people that belong to the wealthier groups of the population. 8 there is quite robust evidence to sustain, for example, that corruption is far from being a governmental phenomenon. it is documented that illegal behaviour is also common in private institutions. 9 bogotá’s expense per pupil, using 2005’s exchange rate, rounds 481 dollars per student (suarez, 2005). press articles and official statistics suggest, for example, that in california expense in 2006 rounded $11,000, or that in new jersey the number raised, in average, to around $12,000 in 2008. such differences might be expectable. still, they result interesting for analytical purposes. http://www.napavalleyregister.com/articles/2006/03/26/ news/state/iq_3361910.txt http://www.state.nj.us/cgi-bin/education/csg/08/csg1.pl education & public policy in bogotá parra 113 there’s that word “good” again. a (relatively) inexpensive education may not be such a bargain if along with the lower price comes a lower quality. the challenge is to combine first-class schooling with affordability and access. the temptation is to do things on the cheap. why study? why should i go to school? what motivations to study do students have? perhaps the mainstream of the situation surrounds this type of questions. more in a city where social mobility is quite static10 and the majority of students (around 90% of them) simply do not see the virtues of trying to become what, referring to popular thinking, they are simply not. economists often refer to the rate of return of education; which are the benefits and which are the costs of going to school. technical statistic estimations (using econometrics) could result useful for this purpose. in fact, some studies have already made their own predictions. forero and gamboa (2007), for example, suggest that between 1997 and 2003, the rate of return of education in bogotá reduced from 15.9% in the first period, to 13.8% in the latter one. institutions like the world bank or the united nations often provide such data. however, regardless of the fact that technical analysis results very useful for policy makers, it might find limitations to answer the question, why to study, from the perspective of common students. not everyone is aware of econometric methodologies. furthermore, middle and low class families are not likely to read these facts before they take studying decisions. daily perceptions can then also result useful. studying implies time, effort and dedication. the cost of opportunity of going to school for some segments of the population is high. this means, the relative cost of school assistance. bearing in mind bogotá’s low rate of social mobility, when low-income students go to school, they might feel to be simply wasting their time. despite constitutional laws prohibiting child labour in the country, some realities demand children helping in expenses of their household. therefore, unemployment rates result to be a useful approximation to such kind of perception. 10 roughly, social mobility might be defined as the possibility for an individual to increase his economic welfare during his lifetime; being born poor and being able to die rich. in bogotá it has being well documented that there great social and economic barriers for social mobility. (see, for example, uribe-mallarino, 2008). education & public policy in bogotá parra 11� table 1. unemployment rate according to educational level in colombia. source: farné & vergara, 2008. graph 3. unemployment rates in the mayor cities of colombia (2008). some analysts present robust reasoning to presume that bogotá is, at least from an economic perspective, in a privileged situation in comparison with the rest of the country. however, it finds itself trapped in considerable employment restrictions. as shown by bogotá’s chamber of commerce (camara de comercio de bogotá),11 not only does the city have one of the greatest national unemployment rates, but it is also found to be higher than the latin american city average. evidence for that is also presented in graph 3. simply, bogotá’s unemployment rate does not escape largely from the national’s average. therefore, the results shown in table 1 are quite revealing. we may see horizontally (in the rows) that there are temporal fluctuations in unemployment rates in colombia, which could be explained by different socioeconomic factors that will not be addressed here. the columns, on the other hand, have much more interesting things to say. it is quite clear that education in colombia (and in bogotá) is not as profitable as we may have supposed. it results hard to find a positive relation between studying levels and employment rates.12 11 at http://camara.ccb.org.co/contenido/contenido.aspx?catid=125&conid=511. last checked in december 2008. 12 in this phase we have excluded post-graduate studies, which could match with higher wage expectations. though, we part from assuming that in a city surrounded by poverty, access to such programs is unthinkable for large segments of the population. education & public policy in bogotá parra 11� still, some other pertinent observations should be made about table 1. presumably, wages will always differ among educational levels, improving with higher levels of education. this supposition produces higher pay expectations in the minds of college graduates. the requirements of employment in the different degrees of academic achievement are different enough so that practically everybody knows that it’s not the same to be employed as a college graduate than it is to be employed as a high school graduate. certainly, those who are studying more are not doing it because of any masochistic preference for worse working conditions. people only study more when there is a realistic expectation that they will do better in life if they dedicate time to schooling. so, what is the issue? we insist to be aware of the fact that bogotá’s social mobility is quite static, and so middle and lower class students (the vast majority of the students in the city) find few motives to go to school. their rate of return of education is low. education, by many, is not considered to be as profitable as it should. figures support this fact: according to el ministerio de protección social (the social welfare ministry), the main cause of school drop-out (leaving school before graduation) is the lack of money to pay for school (35% from those polled), followed by the lack of interest in attending school (25%).13 these numbers coincide with the reasons given by dane (national statistics department), which places the two at 40.4% and at 20.8% respectively.14 often, only the first part of the equation is evaluated (lack of money), as it appears to have greater weight in the problem. this justifies public intervention and even direct public supply. nevertheless, demand for education might be not as high as expected, so it could drive to inofficious expending. as a matter of fact, it could be possible that the lack of interest to study causes a major negative impact on enrolment than the lack of resources.15 furthermore, when quality in education is the priority, quantity deficits will be more easily solved out. 13 though lack of access appears to enlist public perception, lack of interest in going to school also shows to be a mayor concern. 14 these figures are used in farné & vergara (2008). 15 in fact, the united nations development programme (undp) points out that during the last decade in colombia (numbers of 1997), only around 27% of the pupils who left school belonged to the lowest income segments of the population. in other words, 63% of the students left the system for different reasons than lack of money (pardo & sorzano, 2004, p. 68). education & public policy in bogotá parra 11� making education attractive according to bogotá’s mayor’s office, school dropout rate has shown a decreasing tendency during the last decade. official statistics point out that it dropped from about 3.8% in 1998 to 2.5% in 2006 (alcaldía mayor de bogotá, 2007). following previous analysis, this fact does not appear to say much. graph 4 becomes a good prediction of an actual version of graph 1; quality in education (both public and private) is mediocre.16 people attend school but learn little. low perceived rates of return in education indicate that the decrease in the dropout rate is not a sign of success. pupils have few motivations to study hard. graph 4. average score in each subject in the state examinations (icfes-2007) for students of the private and public institutions of bogotá. source: alcaldía mayor de bogotá (bogotá city hall), 2007. in this point, some basic economic principles could result useful for the analysis. classic as well as modern economic theories agree on basic supply and demand principles. when demand increases, enterprises income potential shifts up, and so, they will want to upgrade production levels. growth will always require more investment. for instance, more human resources must be hired in a growing business. when quality standards are met in education, two outcomes should be expected. first of all, better students will go to college to become trained professionals in the workforce. more trained professionals in the labour market imply higher productivity rates. high productivity 16 graph 2 allows us to make diverse hypothesis. the most evident assumption is that there is better academic performance in private schools. another is that the differences in results are not as drastic so as give anyone the licence to make radical conclusions concerning the two different types of schooling under scrutiny. some might conclude that private education is not necessarily better, but less bad than public school education. education & public policy in bogotá parra 11� is linked to both high wages and business growth (more employment). secondly, as quality will change education’s impact on society (it will prove itself to have, what was called a higher rate of return), more people will demand admission to the system. drop-out rates would shuffle down more efficiently, and furthermore, there would be little urgency in pushing enrolment. the benefits of schooling would be sufficiently attractive. quality should then be the priority. the following question arises: how to motivate high quality standards in the supply of education? colombian public policy makers have outlined the quality reinforcement problem (plan sectorial de educación 2008-2012), showing their consciousness of the issue but failing in the practice of planning to achieve a more appropriate level of quality for students in the system. according to the facts discussed above, it is advisable for the government not to supply education. its duty should be to concentrate in regulatory tasks. budget constrains and lack of information to provide opportune services should be the main reasons to defend such idea. the necessity to administrate multiple public institutions is a major limitation to efficient service provision. theoretical implications of a private service are quite robust: the reason behind the successes of private, fee-based systems should be elementary to any student of economics: private businesses are consumer oriented. the feedback of profit and loss tells an entrepreneur when they satisfy, or fail to satisfy, the needs of consumers. (…) conversely, profit is a reward to entrepreneurs who correctly anticipate consumer wants (dean, 2004) returning to the main issue of the paper —education for welfare— satisfaction of needs is fundamental. private schools have important advantages: better formed teaching staffs, more bilingual education opportunities than actual public schools, more resources for quality in alimentation, technological access and even better non strictly academic activities (sports, arts). the government’s job should focus more on correcting failures in the market: for example, making sure that both the syllabi and contents are within acceptable frameworks, controlling cleanliness in school environments as well as questionable abuses in pricing17 (something which would, in fact, also be corrected by the freemarket competition among schools). 17 a very good example of this is the 2008 colombian law 1269 concerning useless school supply demands from schools. the law was the means by which the government intervened to solve an excessive demand of school administrators in the purchases required of their students. education & public policy in bogotá parra 118 a payment–based strategy scholars have discussed both the benefits and the costs of free services, including education. sociologically it can be argued that when individuals are responsible for costs, they value the products they are acquiring (wolf & de maura, 2004, p.73). this conception results hopeful: if students take school more seriously they will surely increase their skill formation rate.18 still, observers of bogotá’s reality may argue that one of the main problems is exactly the lack of resources among potential users. this vision can be re-evaluated. a final economic concept has to be introduced. economists study what they call the price-elasticity of demand: basically the responsiveness of buyers to the fluctuations in product prices. in consequence, when the need for a product is low (such as a luxury good), the demand is considered to be elastic (small changes in prices modify demand in higher proportions). when the opposite is true and an item is necessary (such as insulin in the case of diabetics), the demand is called inelastic (small changes in prices modify demand in lower proportions). the implication of such notion is very important. subsidies (aids for consumption) should not focus on elastic goods. people will automatically re-focus aiding resources to solve more crucial needs. education, for instance, in a pro education conscientious society is, in fact, an inelastic demanded service. but when a society is not aware of its importance, education may be considered to have an elastic demand. being that the rate of return for education in bogotá is low (i.e. the personal payback of education is not clearly established), education is not a priority among citizens. the educational demand is highly elastic and people prefer to invest their money in more “vital” products. it is important to highlight that one of the primary strategies of the current administration is aimed towards school assistance conditioned subsidies (aids). financial support is predicted to be a positive attendance incentive for both parents and children, in despite of academic expositions. it’s clear that the urgent need to work and make money is no longer the main reason to leave school and that a household’s lack of money does not necessarily imply less school attendance, as if with finances attendance would be instantly assured. other factors 18 in fact, contrary to such reasoning, actual city planning aims towards free education services. according to the mayor’s office educational program for 2008-2012, one of the basic strategies is to grant free access to education up until 11th grade (the whole of elementary and secondary schooling). education & public policy in bogotá parra 119 such simply liking school, the parents’ desire for their child to attend (…) also account for the statistics, and in a relatively high percentage (torres, 2007)19 therefore, subsidies will not encourage school attendance if families continue to dislike school or to underestimate the virtues of education. if the aids are conditioned, circumstances will not guarantee hard and responsible studying. pupils will attend classes but will not make much of an effort. this way subsidies can be lost. the proposition is quite simple: subsidies should be conditioned toward inelastic products (such as shelter, dressing or alimentation). this will free resources, which will allow pupils to pay for their own education (motivating commitment and responsibility), and of course, private profitability (promoting private commitment towards costumer satisfaction). if it is needed, school payments might be complemented with partial subsides but not with total ones. the logic followed is the same. conclusion this article has questioned public education’s real potential to achieve welfare goals among bogota’s population. education produces positive externalities, such as responsible voting, decrease in violence and positive increases in industrial productivity. although the low quality standards that characterise in the actual service supply restricts the achievement of desirable goals. constantly, biases towards quantity of enrolment dominate policy design. but, as discussed, a misunderstanding of primary issues leads to non-optimal planning. both scholars and official statistics reveal that the lack of willingness to go to school shifts down the demand for education in the city. the main reason is, apparently, the low rate of return of education. presumably, if such benefits of education rise, more people will demand access to the educational system. as previously discussed, only quality standards would be able to achieve such improvement since more prepared professionals will have a positive impact on economic productivity. a better wage payment and an increase in labour hires will induce a higher profitability to school attendance. this proposal can be a more efficient strategy than to correct access deficits. finally, the virtues of a market based private service under state regulation are evident. considering several socio-economical realities, bogota’s education should be managed by private entities, whose benefit-seeking mode of thinking will lead to more efficient service. 19 english quote translated from spanish by a professional translator. education & public policy in bogotá parra 120 government aids should focus vital consumption (such as food or shelter) to free resources allowing students to pay for their studies, generating commitment and responsibility. in the end, the discussion is meant to take distance from a simplistic debate between public and private education. the system should combine both efforts, bearing in mind the strengths and weaknesses of both private and public intervention. acknowledgements i would like to thank francis gabor and albeiro ramirez for their valuable comments concerning the edition process of this article. also, i would like to thank maría lucía casas for all her encouragement and support for its development. references angrist & lavy. (1999). using maimonides’ rule to estimate the effect of class size on scholastic achievement. the quarterly journal of economics. mit press journals: harvard university. cajiao. (2005). enseñanza, aprendizaje y deserción escolar. revista economía colombiana, 311. bogotá: contraloría general de la república. dean. (2004). “free” education and literacy. auburn, alabama: ludwig von mises institute. educación de calidad para una bogotá positiva: plan sectorial de educación 2008-2012. (2008). bogotá: secretaría de educación del distrito capital. farné &vergara. (2008). los profesionales colombianos en el siglo xxi: ¿más estudian, más ganan? observatorio del mercado de trabajo y la seguridad social, 9. bogotá: universidad externado de colombia. fish. (2007, august 1). access vs. quality. the new york times. forero & gamboa. (2007). cambios en los retornos de la educación en bogotá entre 1997 y 2003. lecturas de economía, 66 (enerojulio), universidad de antioquia. gary-bobo & badrane. (2007). estimation of class-size effects using maimonides’ rule: the case of french junior high schools. cepr discussion papers (5754). london: centre for economic policy research. education & public policy in bogotá parra 121 helpman. (2004). the mystery of economic growth. boston, massachusetts: harvard university press. hyamson, m. (1937). annotated english translation of maimonides’ mishneh torah, i. new york: jewish theological seminary. impacto social y desarrollo urbano. (2007). bogotá dc: finanzas sanas y sostenibles para la equidad y el desarrollo. alcaldía mayor de bogotá. informe coyuntural sobre el comportamiento del mercado laboral de bogotá y la nación. (2008). dirección de estudios socio económicos y regulatorios, subdirección de estudios estratégicos, alcaldía mayor de bogotá. la cultura para el trabajo en la educación media de bogotá. (2006). bogotá: universidad nacional de colombia y secretaría de educación del distrital capital. london. (2006). higher education for the public good: a report from the national leadership dialogues. usa: national forum on higher education for the public good. lucas. (1988). on the mechanics of economic development. journal of monetary economics, 22. north holland: elsevier science publishers. nicholson. (2005). microeconomic theory, basic principles and extensions, 9th ed. thomson south western. pardo & sorzano. (2004). determinantes de la asistencia y la deserción escolar en primaria y secundaria. investigaciones sobre desarrollo social en colombia. bogotá: cuadernos pnud, mps. sen. (1999). development as freedom. uk: oxford university press. suarez. (2005). análisis del costo promedio por alumno en bogotá: herramientas de gestión. bogotá: banco de la república. torres. (2007). desarrollo en bogotá dc, instituciones, actores y política pública, relatoría del debate sobre educación en bogotá dc: subsidio condicionado a la asistencia escolar en el distrito. centro interdisciplinario de estudios regionales– cider. bogotá: universidad de los andes. uribe-mallarino. (2008). estratificación social en bogotá: de la política pública a la dinámica de la segregación social. bogotá: pontificia universidad javeriana. education & public policy in bogotá parra 122 wolf & de maura. (2004). ¿educación pública o privada? una falsa disyuntiva. revista perspectiva, 5. bogotá: instituto de ciencia política. juan david parra is currently working towards his ma in economics at the universidad los andes. he did his undergraduate work in public administration and foreign affairs at the universidad externado de colombia. he has been an assistant researcher at the colombian branch of transparency international and has worked in única as an economics professor since 2007. education & public policy in bogotá gist education and learning research journal. issn 1692-5777. no. 20 (january june, 2020). pp. 109-133. examining the effect of gender and educational level on iranian efl graduate students’ perceived reasons for committing plagiarism1 examinando el efecto del género y el nivel educativo en las razones percibidas por los estudiantes graduados de inglés como lengua extranjera iraníes para cometer plagio zahra alimorad2* shiraz university, iran 1 received: august 6th 2019/ accepted: may 11th 2020 2 zahra.alimorad@shirazu.ac.ir 110 no. 20 effect of gender and educational level on plagiarism alimorad abstract the present study aimed at examining the role of gender and educational level of iranian efl graduate students in determining the main reasons for committing plagiarism from their point of view. to this end, a convenient sample of 159 m.a. and ph.d. students partook in the study. to gather the necessary data, a 32-item likert-type questionnaire was administered and the results were subjected to a two-way manova. results of the study indicated that neither the students’ gender nor their educational level had any significant effect on the perceived reasons for engaging in plagiarism. moreover, the interaction effect of these two variables did not show any significant effect either. descriptive statistics, however, showed that students’ personal and attitudinal characteristics took on paramount importance compared to other factors. this can signal the intentionality of plagiarism among iranian efl graduate students, thereby suggesting the need for making more informed decisions on how to deal with this problem. keywords: educational level; gender; iranian efl graduate students; plagiarism. resumen el presente studio tiene como propósito examinar el papel del género y nivel educativo de los estudiantes iraníes graduados de inglés como lengua extranjera para determinar las principales razones para cometer plagio desde su punto de vista. para tal fin, se toma una muestra conveniente de 159 estudiantes de maestría y doctorado que participaron en el estudio. para reunir los datos necesarios, un questionario tipo likert con 32 preguntas fue administrado y los resultados fueron sujetos a un análisis multivariante de la varianza en dos vías. los resultados indicaron que ni el género o el nivel educativo de los estudiantes ni el efecto de la interacción de estas dos variables tuvieron un efecto significativo sobre las razones para involucrarse en el plagio. la estadísitca descriptiva, sin embargo, mostró que las características personales y actitudinales de los estudiantes adquirieron una importancia primoridial comparado con otros factores. esto puede ser señal de la intencionalidad del plagio entre los estudiantes iraníes de inglés como lengua extranjera, de este modo se sugiere la necesidad de tomar decisiones más informadas sobre como abordar este problema. palabras clave: nivel educativo; género; estudiantes iraníes de inglés como lengua extanjera; plagio 111 no. 20 role of gender and educational level in plagiarism alimorad resumo o presente estudo tem como propósito examinar o papel do gênero e nível educativo dos estudantes iranianos formados de inglês como língua estrangeira para determinar as principais razões para cometer plágio desde seu ponto de vista. para tal fim, toma-se uma amostra conveniente de 159 estudantes de mestrado e doutorado que participaram no estudo. para reunir os dados necessários, um questionário tipo likert com 32 perguntas foi administrado e os resultados foram submetidos a uma análise multivariante da variância em duas vias. os resultados indicaram que nem o gênero ou o nível educativo dos estudantes nem o efeito da interação destas duas variáveis tiveram um efeito significativo sobre as razões para envolver-se no plágio. a estatística descritiva, porém, mostrou que as características pessoais e atitudinais dos estudantes adquiriram uma importância primordial comparado com outros fatores. isto pode ser sinal da intencionalidade do plágio entre os estudantes iranianos de inglês como língua estrangeira, deste modo, sugere-se a necessidade de tomar decisões mais informadas sobre como tratar este problema. palavras chave: nível educativo; género; estudantes iranianos de inglês como língua estrangeira; plágio 112 no. 20 introduction plagiarism, “the act of using another’s work without appropriate acknowledgement,” (devlin & gray, 2007, p. 182) is widely known as an unethical behavior (deckert, 1993; mallon, 1989). because of the negative views held towards plagiarism, most academic institutions attempt to take special measures to deter their students from committing it (jaszi, 1994). in peru, as an example, the “zero-tolerance” strategy implemented against plagiarism and cheating proved effective in that students in fault no longer engaged in plagiarism (carnero et al., 2017). however, contrary to this view, some scholars argue that plagiarism can be differentiated from cheating in that cheating is an intentional act while plagiarism can be either intentional or unintentional (james, mcinnis, & delvin, 2002). given this specific characteristic of plagiarism as opposed to cheating, it may convincingly be argued that all plagiarists may not be dishonest and deceitful people; rather, some other causes may bring about such unethical behavior and labelling all plagiarists as deceitful people and punishing them based on untested assumptions and guesses can be unfair and unjustified (devlin & gray, 2007). given that such stereotyping may be as unethical as plagiarism itself, it seems that an urgent need is felt to examine students’ ideas of why they plagiarize and identify the most important factors which contribute to this unethical behavior. if the results of such a scrutiny reveal that students have engaged in plagiarism deliberately, say, to deceive the instructors, they may deserve to be punished severely. if, on the other hand, lack of knowledge or awareness of this unethical behavior is the main reason, punishment does not serve as an appropriate procedure and some training courses or awarenessraising tasks are more reasonable. in australia, for example, “most universities adopt penalties seen as appropriate to the level of intention.” (stuhmcke, booth & wangmann, 2016, p. 3) that is, they “formally separate ‘plagiarism’ or inadvertent plagiarism from ‘misconduct’ or intentional plagiarism.” (stuhmcke et al., p. 3) even though plagiarism has recently been a matter of considerable concern for iranian scholars and researchers (e.g., alimorad, 2018; babaii & nejadghanbar, 2016; khamesan & amiri, 2011; rashidi, rahimi, & dehghan, 2016; rezanejad & rezaei, 2013; tahriri & eslam-navaz, 2014; to name a few), there are still several unexplored territories which need to be attended to in this context. one of the important areas in need of closer examination is the main perceived reasons for committing plagiarism. uncovering the primary causes of plagiarism may help us in determining the most suitable ways to deal with this phenomenon. numerous researchers have attempted to find the most prominent reasons for iranian students’ engagement in plagiarism; nevertheless, to the best of the present researcher’s knowledge, no study has endeavored to systematically examine the role of these students’ gender and educational level in perceived reasons for plagiarizing. to fill this gap, the present study attempted to alimoradeffect of gender and educational level on plagiarism 113 no. 20 unearth the effect of these two important factors on iranian efl graduate students’ main perceived reasons for engaging in this unethical behavior. literature review about a decade ago, iranian scholars and researchers were condemned for not being honest in their academic duties. butler (2009), for instance, published a paper in nature journal and reported some iranian authorities as plagiarists. given that such a daunting situation may lead to the negative publicity of iranian academic staff all over the world, a plethora of iranian researchers attempted to examine this misconduct from diverse perspectives. while a few researchers were mainly concerned with university teachers’ ideas (ojaghi, keyvanara, cheshmeh sohrabi, & papi, 2011; rashidi et al., 2016), the majority of them examined students’ point of view. from among the studies done on students, some of them examined students’ perceptions of plagiarism (amiri & razmjoo, 2016; babaii & nejadghanbar, 2016; mahdavi zafarghandi, khoshroo & barkat, 2012; rezanejad & rezaei, 2013) whereas students’ familiarity with the concept was the main goal of some other studies (tahriri & eslam-navaz, 2014). a third group of research projects, on the other hand, delved into the most prominent reasons contributing to plagiarism on the part of university students or the ways through which this unethical behavior could be prevented. in 2010, amirkhani, vahdat, and khezrian, for example, pointed out that extroversion, academic talent, and emotional stability could deter iranian students from engaging in plagiarism. investigating the issue from another angle, khamesan and amiri (2011) found that one of the determining factors which led to plagiarism could be the gender of the students with male students being more likely to plagiarize than the female ones. they, however, did not attempt to examine the role of gender more deeply. attempting to uncover the main reasons for plagiarism, riasati and rahimi (2013) concluded that lack of understanding of the concept, insufficient linguistic abilities, inadequate research and writing skills, lack of familiarity with and interest in the topics and the pressures from their family members and the society could be principal reasons for plagiarizing in the context of iran. moreover, in another study, rezanejad and rezaei (2013), as one part of their study, came to the conclusion that the most important reason for committing plagiarism was the easiness of doing it. tahriri and eslam-navaz (2014) reported lack of enough instruction and familiarity with the concept as well as students’ laziness as the reasons for this misconduct. more recently, babaii and nejadghanbar (2016) conducted a mixed-method study to examine plagiarism from diverse perspectives. as one of the phases of their study, they strived to discover the main reasons leading to plagiarism in the context of iran. it was found that some causes such as unfamiliarity with plagiarism, academic role of gender and educational level in plagiarism alimorad 114 no. 20 writing skills deficiency, lack of enough time, laziness and deceitfulness, low language proficiency, and unfamiliarity with the subject of writing could be attributed to students themselves. in addition to these, teachers were also considered to be responsible for this unethical behavior because of their careless and lenient behavior and because of having high expectations from students. policies of the educational system were also mentioned as another reason in this study. conducting a qualitative study, amiri and razmjoo (2016) investigated iranian students’ perceptions of plagiarism as well as the main reasons for doing it. results of semi-structured interviews showed that teachers’ ignorance, students’ insufficient research and writing skills, the pressure to prepare high quality assignments, peer pressure and the easiness of engaging in plagiarism were mentioned as the main reasons. it is worthy of notice, however, that the participants of their study were undergraduate students who are unlikely to be familiar with academic research skills. recently, as one part of her study, alimorad (2018) attempted to uncover iranian graduate students’ perceptions of their reasons for plagiarizing. the participating students in her study thought that the most important reason for this misconduct was their being unable to write scientifically. hence, they believed that open discussion and negotiation could help solve this problem in the university context. the role of students’ gender and educational level has by no means been neglected in the studies on plagiarism. several researchers worldwide pointed to the important effects these two factors can have on students’ committing plagiarism. in some situations, it is reported that even training courses may not necessarily produce desired results. for example, in brazil, krokoscz and ferreira (2019) pointed to a gap between theoretical and practical knowledge regarding plagiarism for graduate students. they emphasized that although the technical training related to the correct use of research sources is necessary in the capacity-building process, it is not sufficient to prevent plagiarism practices. becker and ulstad (2007) studied the undergraduate students of three aacsb-accredited universities, two schools from the midwest, one public and one jesuit and one east coast jesuit school. they found that female students consistently rated the items of the questionnaire as less acceptable than male students, which was indicative of their differing perceptions. in the context of spain, suredanegre, comas-forgas, and oliver-trobat (2015) came to the conclusion that men had significantly higher levels of perpetration than women, which highlights the impact of gender on plagiarizing by students. considering both students’ gender and their educational level, bavaharji, chetty, ismail, and letchumanan’s findings (2016, p. 106) made it clear that “the act of intellectual theft was more evident among the males than female, junior than seniors.” as for the context of iran, ahmadi (2014) investigated, among other factors, the role of these two variables. he found that while students’ gender did not have any effect alimoradeffect of gender and educational level on plagiarism 115 no. 20 on the type and amount of plagiarism used by iranian efl majors, their academic level did have a significant effect on it with b.a. students more plagiarizing than their m.a. counterparts. as can conspicuously be observed, previous research has yielded conflicting results with regard to the role of gender and educational level in academic dishonesty. although results of some studies indicate that there exists a relationship between students’ gender and their ethical behavior (ameen, guffey & mcmillan, 1996) with most of the studies finding greater prevalence of plagiarism among male university students as compared to their female counterparts (athanasou & olasehinde, 2002; bavaharji et al., 2016; becker & ulstad, 2007; brunell, staats, barden & hupp, 2011; egan, 2008; lin & wen, 2007; straw, 2002), in the context of iran, ahmadi (2014) found no noticeable role of gender in engaging in plagiarism by university students. nevertheless, regarding the educational level, he found that b.a. students engaged in plagiarism more than m.a. students, which indicates the educational level of the students may exert an influence on their academic dishonesty. more recently, the findings of bavaharji et al. (2016) supported the idea that educational level can be a determining factor in committing plagiarism. also, yang’s (2014) study revealed that students of different genders and educational levels displayed different understandings of plagiarism. however, although the role of gender and educational level of the students has been vastly investigated from diverse perspectives, to the best of the present researcher’s knowledge, no study has attempted to examine the effect of these two factors on the students’ main perceived reasons for plagiarizing; that is, whether and to what extent students’ gender and their educational level affect the perceived causes of plagiarism. it seems that further research in this area is needed to shed more light on the most prominent reasons why iranian efl graduate students tend to plagiarize rather than write their academic papers themselves. moreover, although numerous iranian researchers and scholars have tried to study plagiarism, no study has systematically examined the role of gender and educational level, as two important contributing factors, in tempting students to resort to plagiarism. to fill this lacuna, the present study is an attempt to delve into the potential role these two factors may play in doing this unethical and unaccepted behavior as perceived by graduate students. objectives of the study and research questions the objectives of this study were three-fold. firstly, since some researchers have considered the students’ gender as a determining factor in committing plagiarism (e.g., khamesan & amiri, 2011), as the first goal of the study, it aimed at examining male and female students’ ideas to find out whether there was any difference between these two groups in terms of the importance attached to the main contributing role of gender and educational level in plagiarism alimorad 116 no. 20 reasons. secondly, previous research has yielded conflicting results with regard to the effect of students’ educational level on their committing plagiarism. while some studies found no relationship between educational level and their understanding of plagiarism claiming that recognizing plagiarism continues to be a challenging task for students even up to the end of their academic lives (e.g., mahdavi zafarghandi et al., 2012), other studies indicated that their educational level affects the type and amount of plagiarism committed (e.g., ahmadi, 2014; sikes, 2009). this argument prompted the present researcher to further investigate the role of years of study in iranian efl students’ committing plagiarism to see whether students of different educational levels have similar or divergent perceptions of the reasons for plagiarizing. thirdly, the interaction effect of these two factors was studied to discover the way female and male students at different educational levels justified this behavior. to attain these objectives, the study sought answers to the following research questions: 1. is there any significant difference between male and female iranian efl graduate students’ perceptions of the reasons for plagiarizing? 2. is there any significant difference between m.a. and ph.d. students’ perceptions of the reasons for plagiarizing? 3. is there any interaction effect of these two variables (gender and educational level) on these students’ perceived reasons for plagiarizing? significance of the study nowadays, plagiarism is mostly condemned as an unethical behavior which leads to deceiving people by not acknowledging or misappropriating other people’s possession of an academic piece of writing (mallon, 1989; sutherland-smith, 2003). such a negative attitude towards plagiarism will surely bring about negative views towards those who commit plagiarism as well. however, it has rightly been argued that at least in some cases, students plagiarize not to deceive others including their teachers but because they do not have enough knowledge or understanding of the concept or because of their unfamiliarity with appropriate referencing styles (amiri & razmjoo, 2016; babaii & nejadghanbar, 2016; delvin & gray, 2007; riasati & rahimi, 2013; tahriri & eslam-navaz, 2014). in such circumstances, although the primary cause of plagiarism is unintentional, the students may be unfairly stigmatized as dishonest and deceitful people whose ideas cannot be relied on. moreover, these “criminals” are likely to be punished severely even though they may not deserve to be treated so harshly. to partly alleviate such problems, we need to first identify the main reasons for plagiarizing on the part of the students and then, on the basis of this evidence, we can determine the most appropriate procedures for dealing with this behavior. role of gender and educational level in plagiarism alimorad 117 no. 20 methodology context of the study this study was conducted in the context of iranian universities where undergraduate students are never or seldom taught what plagiarism is. instruction on such unethical behavior commonly starts from graduate or post graduate levels. moreover, university teachers are mainly responsible for deciding on how to deal with those students who commit plagiarism and the punishment varies from lowering their scores to failing them or sending them to responsible authorities. to deal with this problem, the authorities refer to a behavioral guiding manual which forbids the misappropriation of others’ ideas and warns against such unethical deeds severely (babaii & nejadghanbar, 2016). plagiarists’ punishment method will be determined based on this manual and “will depend on the type and severity of the unethical behavior and range from payment of fines, to suspension from studies, and in the most serious cases, criminal court charges.” (iranian students’ behavioral guiding manual, n.d. as cited in babaii & nejadghanbar, 2016, p. 3) however, it seems that the majority of iranian university students are aware of neither the existence of such a manual nor the punishments recommended for such misconduct and they are punished for what they have unintentionally and unknowingly done while they belatedly understand the seriousness of the situation when severe punishments are meted out to them. therefore, it seems that before castigating these students, we need to listen to their voices to know what their reasons are and then, on the basis of their real intents, it can more fairly be decided how to deal with them. participants overall, the participants of this study (n=159) were recruited from five universities; three public (n=71) and two private (n=88) universities through the convenience sampling procedure. depending on the city in which the universities were located, the researcher either attended their classes in person and administered the questionnaire (i.e., one public university) or sent them the questionnaire through email (i.e., two public and two private universities). it is worth mentioning that given that the researcher was an instructor in the former university, the participating students knew her; however, in the latter four universities, the participants did not know her. accordingly, necessary instructions on how to complete the questionnaire were given to the participants either orally (i.e., in the university where she could attend in person) or in written form (i.e., in the four universities where students were contacted through email). from this sample, 77 students were male while 82 were female. their age ranged from 23 to 37 averaging 27.64. they were chosen from two educational levels, m.a. (n=128) and ph.d. (n=31). the rationale behind choosing these two educational levels was because in the iranian context, as in all over the world, m.a. graduates are expected role of gender and educational level in plagiarism alimorad 118 no. 20 to publish papers in order to be accepted to doctoral programs. for ph.d. students, on the other hand, publishing papers may be more vital because almost all academic job opportunities or promotions necessitate having quality published papers. all of them were studying tefl (teaching english as a foreign language) at the time of this study. moreover, all were from the same cultural and native language background (persian). it is worthy of notice that the participants were free to choose to either fill in the questionnaire or withdraw from the study whenever they desired. instrument this quantitative study employed a questionnaire to gather the needed data. two major parts constituted this questionnaire. in the first part, the participants were asked to provide their demographic information including their gender, age, and university level (m.a. or ph.d.). the second part of the questionnaire was composed of 32 fivepoint likert items on students’ reasons for plagiarizing which were adopted from previous studies on plagiarism (amiri & razmjoo, 2016; babaii & nejadghanbar, 2016; comas-forgas & sureda-negre, 2010; delvin & gray, 2007; rezanejad & rezaei, 2013; riasati & rahimi, 2013; tahriri & eslam-navaz, 2014). the responses to these items ranged from 5 representing strongly agree to 1 indicating strongly disagree. although the items of the questionnaire were arranged randomly in the administered version, with a view to getting a clearer picture, the researcher classified them into four major contributing reasons based on available literature as well as her own understanding of the subject. that is, reasons for engaging in plagiarism were categorized into students’ personal and attitudinal characteristics (items 2, 3, 4, 10, 18, 19, 21, and 27), students’ lack of enough skills and abilities (items 1, 6, 7, 8, 11, 12, 24, 25, 26, and 29), teachers’ characteristics (items 14, 15, 17, 20, and 32), and characteristics of the context (items 5, 9, 13, 16, 22, 23, 28, 30, and 31). content and face validity of the questionnaire were confirmed by two expert judges and its reliability was estimated using kr-21 formula whose index turned out to be 0.74 which seemed acceptable for the purposes of the current study. data collection and analysis procedures as mentioned above, to collect the necessary data, the researcher administered the questionnaire to efl graduate students of one public university. since in each university, there is a limited number of graduate students, an attempt was made to access more students by using an online version of the questionnaire which was sent to students of four other universities (i.e., two public and two private). given the number of items of the questionnaire (32), to be on the safe side, as recommended by pallant (2011), the number of the sample size was decided to be at least 150 graduate students. alimoradeffect of gender and educational level on plagiarism 119 no. 20 after the data collection phase, students’ responses to the items of the questionnaire were subjected to a two-way multivariate analysis of variance (manova) using spss version 23 to examine the effects of students’ gender and educational level, as two independent variables, on their perceived reasons for plagiarizing. each composite reason, namely, students’ personal and attitudinal characteristics, their lack of enough skills and abilities, teachers’ characteristics, and the characteristics of the context was considered as one dependent variable in this phase. prior to performing manova, the data were tested to see whether they conformed to manova assumptions. after ensuring that the assumptions were not violated, the researcher proceeded with the main manova analysis. all these results are reported in the following sections. results and discussion before running manova, descriptive statistics across students’ gender and educational level was calculated. results of these analyses are reported in tables 1 and 2 below. table 1. descriptive statistics for students’ gender male female mean sd mean sd students’ personal and attitudinal characteristics 26.80 2.53 27.51 2.21 students’ lack of skills and abilities 21.97 2.52 22 2.66 teachers’ characteristics 13.57 2.48 14.32 2.58 characteristics of the context 21.74 2.67 21.79 2.95 table 2. descriptive statistics for students’ educational level male female mean sd mean sd students’ personal and attitudinal characteristics 27.37 2.36 26.32 2.35 students’ lack of skills and abilities 21.96 2.66 22.09 2.30 teachers’ characteristics 13.96 2.52 13.93 2.74 characteristics of the context 21.85 2.83 21.38 2.76 role of gender and educational level in plagiarism alimorad 120 no. 20 as noted above, prior to running manova, a preliminary testing of its assumptions was performed. to this aim, first, univariate/multivariate normality was checked using mahalanobis distances whose maximum value was 12.68 which, given the number of dependent variables in this study (i.e., 4), was less than the critical value (18.47). therefore, it could safely be assumed that there were no substantial multivariate outliers and we could proceed to check other assumptions. then, the assumption of linearity was checked by generating a matrix of scatterplots between each pair of the variables, separately for different groups (i.e., male/female, m.a./ph.d.). as is evident in figures 1 and 2, given that the plots did not show any obvious evidence of nonlinearity, the assumption of linearity was met. figs. 1 and 2. scatterplots for students’ gender and educational level next, the assumption of the homogeneity of variance-covariance matrices was checked. as table 3 shows, the significance value was .43 which was larger than .001 indicating that this assumption was not violated. table 3. box’s test of equality of covariance matricesa box’s m 33.314 f 1.020 df1 30 df2 8178.192 sig. .436 alimoradeffect of gender and educational level on plagiarism 121 no. 20 a. design: intercept + gender + ul + gender * ul finally, levene’s test of equality of error variances was checked. as observed in table 4, none of the variables recorded significant values; therefore, we could assume equal variances, which indicates that this assumption was also satisfied. table 4. levene’s test of equality of error variancesa f df1 df2 sig. students’ personal and attitudinal characteristics 1.380 3 155 .251 students’ lack of skills and abilities .844 3 155 .472 teachers’ characteristics .303 3 155 .823 characteristics of the context .779 3 155 .507 a. design: intercept + gender + ul + gender * ul then, to find out whether there were statistically significant differences across the participants’ gender and their educational levels, multivariate tests were checked. table 5 displays the results of these tests. a close inspection of the test of wilks’ lambda shows that none of the values are statistically significant. hence, in terms of their gender, there was no statistically significant difference between males and females, f (4, 152) = 2.24; p = .06; wilks’ lambda value = .94; partial eta squared = .05. this effect size (5 percent) is a medium one (cohen as cited in pallant, 2011) indicating that 5% of the variance in the students’ overall perception scores was explained by their gender. regarding their educational level too, as revealed in the table, no statistically significant difference was found between m.a. and ph.d. students’ ideas, f (4, 152) = 1.41; p = .23; wilks’ lambda = .96; partial eta squared = .03. the effect size (3%), which is a medium one (cohen as cited in pallant, 2011), shows that these students’ educational level explained 3% of the variance in their perception scores. furthermore, the interaction effect of these two variables showed no significant difference, f (4, 152) = 1.03; p = .39; wilks’ lambda = .97; partial eta squared = .02. considering the small effect size (2%, cohen as cited in pallant, 2011), one can conclude that only 2% of the variance in the students’ perception scores was explained by the interaction between their gender and educational level. role of gender and educational level in plagiarism alimorad 122 no. 20 table 5. multivariate testsa effect value f hypothesis df error df sig. partial eta squared gender wilks’ lambda .944 2.242b 4.000 152.000 .067 .056 university level wilks’ lambda .964 1.411b 4.000 152.000 .233 .036 gender * university level wilks’ lambda .974 1.032b 4.000 152.000 .392 .026 a. design: intercept + gender + ul + gender * ul b. exact statistic considering the above-mentioned results, the answer to the first research question is that male and female iranian efl graduate students’ perceived reasons for committing plagiarism did not differ significantly. hence, in terms of all four major categories of the perceived reasons, namely, personal and attitudinal characteristics of the students, students’ lack of skills and abilities, teachers’ characteristics, and characteristics of the context, both male and female groups attached almost equal importance to all these factors. nevertheless, considering the means and standard deviations (table 1), it can be argued that among these four major factors, in both male and female groups, students’ personal and attitudinal characteristics received the highest mean (male: m=26.80, sd=2.53; female: m=27.51, sd=2.21). a closer inspection of the items which constituted this factor may imply that iranian graduate students intentionally and knowingly engaged in plagiarism because they hold negative attitudes towards teachers and/or assessment tasks (item 4) and wanted to deliberately show their objection to such assessment tasks (item 3) to deceive their teachers (item 19). a disappointing and warning point is that from these students’ point of view, it is ok to plagiarize (item 2) and plagiarism was neither a kind of cheating (item 10) nor an unethical behavior (item 27). students’ lack of skills and abilities occupied the second rank (table 1) indicating that for both genders, this factor assumed less importance compared to the first one (male: m=21.97, sd=2.52; female: m=22, sd=2.66). this finding points out that although reasons such as a genuine lack of understanding of scholarship and referencing requirements (item 1), students’ limited skill base in academic and learning skills (items 7 & 8), their poor research skills (item 11), their poor knowledge of subject matter (item 12), their lack of motivation and lack of interest in the topics assigned (items 24 & 25), their being lazy and disorganized (item 26), and their misunderstanding and ignorance about why and how they should avoid plagiarism (item 29), which can be attributed to their lack of knowledge and understanding and hence, be considered alimoradeffect of gender and educational level on plagiarism 123 no. 20 unintentional, were also important from these students’ perspective, the intentional reasons were ranked higher by these participants. characteristics of the context stood as the third most important factor from both male (m=21.74, sd=2.67) and female (m=21.79, sd=2.95) graduate students’ point of view. this means that they do not think there would be a low chance of being caught/effectively penalized (item 5). furthermore, plagiarism is not the result of academic workload pressure or lack of enough time (item 9) or even the ease of access offered by the internet to find, process, and edit information (item 13). imitating peers (items 16 & 31) or not being offered training and instructional courses in academic assignments (items 22 & 23), access to the digital world (item 28), and lack of balance between the tasks being assigned and the credit received for them (item 30) were not the main causes of committing plagiarism as perceived by these students. however, what seems to be promising in this situation is the importance attached to the role of teachers by these students. as revealed by the results, male (m=13.57, sd=2.48) and female (m=14.32, sd=2.58) students unanimously believed that it is not difficult for teachers to detect plagiarism instances (item 14), teachers are computer literate (item 15), they read the assignments carefully and evaluate them fairly (items 17 & 32), and they do not assign very complicated and difficult assignments (item 20). these results highlight the order of importance of the underlying motives leading to committing plagiarism. although no previous study investigated the role of gender in determining the major perceived causes of plagiarism, this finding reveals that there was no difference between male and female graduate students in terms of the main reasons for plagiarizing, which is contrary to what khamesan and amiri (2011) found in their study. the same finding contrasts with the results of studies conducted by riasati and rahimi (2013), rezanejad and rezaei (2013) and tahriri and eslam-navaz (2014) who reported lack of understanding of the concept and enough instruction, and inadequate research and writing skills the most prominent factors leading to plagiarism. riasati and rahimi (2013) also pointed to the role of micro (family members) as well as macro (society) contexts as the principal reason for plagiarizing in the context of iran, which is not supported by the findings of this study because context was ranked as the third most important factor in this study rather than the first factor. furthermore, despite finding students’ laziness and deceitfulness as one of the major causes, babaii and nejadghanbar (2016) referred to other less intentional factors as the main contributing reasons, which is opposed to what was found in the present study. contrary to our findings, the student sample in their study considered teachers’ careless and lenient behavior as well as their high expectations from students as determining factors leading to plagiarism. moreover, policies of the educational system, as one aspect of the context, was also referred to as one of the main factors, which was not supported by the findings of the current study in that the participants in role of gender and educational level in plagiarism alimorad 124 no. 20 this study placed it in the third order of importance. the same finding, however, lends support to what ahmadi (2014) found in the context of iran. his findings indicated that gender played no role in the type and amount of plagiarism used by iranian students. in response to the second research question, given that there was no statistically significant difference between m.a. and ph.d. students’ perceptions, it can be argued as the students’ progress in their educational credentials, their reasons for engaging in plagiarism do not noticeably fluctuate. that is, higher level students may commit plagiarism because of the same underlying causes as those of their lower level counterparts. this shows that the educational level of the students plays no major role in determining the main reasons for plagiarizing. this finding may be contrary to expectations in that graduate students are envisaged to abandon plagiarizing as they develop their academic, research and writing skills and become more independent and autonomous researchers. although this finding cannot be indicative of the amount of plagiarism committed by students, it points to the almost permanent nature of the underlying reasons for plagiarizing among graduate students. surprisingly, the four composite factors were arranged in the same order as the one observed in the previous section. that is, students’ personal and attitudinal characteristics (male: m=27.37, sd=2.36; female: m=26.32, sd=2.35), their lack of skills and abilities (male: m=21.96, sd=2.66; female: m=22.09, sd=2.30), characteristics of the context (male: m=21.85, sd=2.83; female: m=21.38, sd=2.76) and teachers’ characteristics (male: m=13.96, sd=2.52; female: m=13.93, sd=2.74) were respectively considered the most to the least important factors by both m.a. and ph.d. students. this situation can raise the alarm for university teachers and responsible authorities because it can draw their attention to the fact that ethics and ethical principles may be gradually disappearing from our academic discourse community. as suggested by this finding, no difference was observed between the perceptions held by m.a. and ph.d. students regarding the main reasons for engaging in plagiarism. this finding may partially contradict results of previous research which pointed out that factors such as insufficient linguistic abilities, inadequate research and writing skills, lack of enough instruction and unfamiliarity with the concept are the main contributing reasons leading to plagiarism (alimorad, 2018; babaii & nejadghanbar, 2016; rezanejad & rezaei, 2013; riasati & rahimi, 2013; tahriri & eslam-navaz, 2014). it may also be indirectly in contrast to bavaharji et al.’s (2016) conclusion that referred to the prevalence of plagiarism among juniors (year 1) as compared to seniors (years 2 & 3). viewing the same issue from another perspective by comparing undergraduate and graduate students, ahmadi (2014) found that the students’ educational level affected plagiarism with b.a. students more plagiarizing than their m.a. counterparts, which is not in line with the findings of the present study. alimoradeffect of gender and educational level on plagiarism 125 no. 20 given that no statistically significant difference was observed for the interaction effect of gender and educational level, the answer to the third research question can also be given. the combined effect of these graduate students’ gender and their educational level had no significant effect on their perceived reasons for plagiarism. as this finding showed, neither gender or the educational level nor the interaction effect of these two factors affected the reasons for committing plagiarism. this means that m.a. and ph.d. male students hold similar perceptions to those of their female counterparts. given that this area of inquiry has almost been overlooked, it is highly recommended that more in-depth investigations be conducted to explore the reasons why graduate male and female students intentionally attempt to deceive their instructors by committing plagiarism. conclusions this study sought to uncover any potential differences between the perceived reasons for plagiarizing held by male and female m.a. and ph.d. students. results of the study suggested that male and female students held similar perceptions in that for both groups, students’ personal and attitudinal characteristics occupied the first rank while their lack of skills and abilities, characteristics of the context, and teachers’ characteristics were the second, third, and fourth contributing factors, respectively. in a similar vein, the same order of importance was observed for these four factors as perceived by m.a. and ph.d. students. given that these students reported their intentional deceitfulness as the most important factor, it may not be unjustified to take special measures to explore the reasons for this academic dishonesty which seems to be surging among iranian graduate students. therefore, based on the definition put forward by stuhmcke et al. (2016), this kind of plagiarism can be referred to as misconduct or intentional plagiarism which deserves to be punished severely. the positive point is that as perceived by these students, teachers’ characteristics received the least importance indicating that despite engaging in plagiarism, these students do not underestimate their teachers’ ability and skills in detecting it. they also think that their teachers devote enough time and energy to evaluating and examining their assignments while paying careful attention to whether they have been copied or not, which can be encouraging because it can indicate that graduate students have not lost trust in their teachers yet. role of gender and educational level in plagiarism alimorad 126 no. 20 implications results of this study can have some implications for university authorities, curriculum and syllabus designers, teachers, graduate students and researchers. as the main responsible agents, university authorities need to examine and identify the main reasons for plagiarism and take special measures to deter graduate students from committing it. if students intend to deceive their instructors, more severe punishment methods may by themselves not be sufficient and a broader investigation may be needed to get to the root of such unethical behavior. in a similar vein, curriculum and syllabus designers’ important role cannot be overlooked. by designing suitable training courses and relevant workshops for both teachers and students and incorporating them into the curriculum, they can play a substantial role in improving the situation. university teachers, too, can play an effective role in this regard by trying to raise the students’ awareness of the adverse consequences of plagiarism in the broader discourse community and by negotiating with them and soliciting their ideas and perceptions. graduate students should also be warned that academic dishonesty is condemned throughout the world and they may lose many important job opportunities in the future if their dishonesty is detected and proved. however, researchers are the most important group who need to shoulder the responsibility to examine this issue more thoroughly to identify and extract not only the micro factors but also the macro ones which exert a powerful influence on the graduate students’ behavior leading them to such misconduct. limitations of the study and suggestions for further research like most other studies, this study is not void of limitations, which makes us approach its findings more cautiously. although an acceptable number of graduate students (i.e., 159) participated in this study, they were chosen based on a convenience sampling procedure, which may introduce a systematic bias into the study and make its results less generalizable. another problem is the use of a single instrument which may not give us a true picture of iranian efl graduate students’ perceptions. it is highly recommended that more robust data collection tools be employed simultaneously because data and instrument triangulation can allow us to view the students’ perceptions from diverse perspectives. finally, in addition to quantitative studies, qualitative and mixed-method research can also be conducted to portray a clearer picture of how the reasons for plagiarizing are perceived by graduate students. alimoradeffect of gender and educational level on plagiarism 127 no. 20 references ahmadi, a. 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(2014). a quantitative study of esl/efl students’ understanding of plagiarism. unpublished master’s thesis, indiana university of pennsylvania. author *zahra alimorad is an assistant professor of teaching english as a foreign language (tefl) in the department of foreign languages and linguistics at shiraz university, iran. she is currently teaching undergraduate and graduate courses and has supervised graduate theses. she has published several papers in quality national and international journals and presented in national and international conferences. her areas of interest include (critical) discourse analysis, (de)motivation, perceptions and practice, and identity. orcid: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9061-0811 alimoradeffect of gender and educational level on plagiarism 131 no. 20 appendix in the name of god i would like to thank you for taking time to complete the following survey on plagiarism. the data collected from the survey will be used in the writing of a research paper. i would like to emphasize the fact that the data collected will be kept confidential and anonymous. thank you for your cooperation. gender: male female age: university level: m.a. ph. d. university type public private i think graduate university students strongly disagree undecided agree strongly plagiarize because desagree agree 1. of a genuine lack of understanding of scholarship and referencing requirements that leads to unintentional plagiarism. 2. of their personal values that may be influenced by social pressure – it’s ok to plagiarize. 3. they want to deliberately show their objection to assessment tasks. 4. they hold negative attitudes toward teachers and/or assessment tasks. 5. they think that there is low chance of being caught/effectively punished. 6. they do not understand the concept and do not know what it exactly means in practice. 7. of their limited skill base in academic skills such as academic writing, critical analysis, constructing an argument and paraphrasing. 8. of their limited skill base in learning skills such as time, group, workload and stress management. role of gender and educational level in plagiarism alimorad 132 no. 20 i think graduate university students strongly disagree undecided agree strongly plagiarize because desagree agree 9. of pressure due to academic workload requirements and to running out of time. 10. they do not consider plagiarism as a kind of cheating. 11. of poor research skills. 12. of poor knowledge of subject matter. 13. of the ease of access offered by the internet and ict (information and communication technology) to find, process and edit information. 14. they believe that the teacher will find it hard to find out the work has been copied. 15. they think or know that the teacher is not very skilled at using the internet. 16. they want to imitate their friends because the other students copy. 17. they think or know that the teacher does not read the assignments carefully. 18. they believe that copying and downloading things from the internet is right. 19. they want to deceive their teachers and make a fool of them. 20. teachers assign very complicated and difficult assignments which they cannot handle. 21. they believe that they will get a better grade by copying than by doing it themselves (lack of confidence in their own abilities). 22. of lack of training in academic assignments. 23. of lack of clear instructions as to how to carry out the assignments. 24. of lack of motivation. alimoradeffect of gender and educational level on plagiarism 133 no. 20 i think graduate university students strongly disagree undecided agree strongly plagiarize because desagree agree 25. of lack of interest in the topics assigned. 26. they are lazy and disorganized. 27. they think plagiarism is not unethical. 28. they are tempted to take the opportunity and use the digitization of information. 29. of their misunderstanding and ignorance about why and how they should avoid plagiarism. 30. they think there is no balance between the work set and the value conceded by teachers in the overall course grade. 31. of pear pressure; they have learned it from other senior students. 32. teachers do not pay attention to whether the students have copied something or have written it themselves. they will not evaluate the assignments carefully and fairly. role of gender and educational level in plagiarism alimorad how to reference this article: alimorad, z. (2020). examining the effect of gender and educational level on iranian efl graduate students’ perceived reasons for committing plagiarism . gist – education and learning research journal, 20, 109-133. https://doi.org/10.26817/16925777.769 193 using learning analytics to improve students’ reading skills: a case study in an american international school with english as an additional language (eal) students1 uso de analíticas de aprendizaje para mejorar las habilidades lectoras de estudiantes: un estudio de caso en un colegio americano internacional con inglés como idioma adicional (iia) jorge alexander aristizábal2* international school ho chi minh city american academy, vietnam abstract this paper shows how an american international school in vietnam has been using data and learning analytics to find out about students’ learning from their assessments and how they use these findings to improve, among other areas, the reading skills of their mostly english as an additional language (eal) student population. the source of data comes primarily from a computer adaptive testing platform, commonly known as the map growth test, which provides information about math and reading skills for each particular student. the data provided is transformed and presented to educational stakeholders through visualizations created in specialized software in order to dig into the data and answer the pedagogical questions emerged from teachers and administrators. this process involves a new field known as learning analytics and visual data mining in order to find new information not usually evident in school datasets. the results indicate that teachers get immersed in a reflective 1 received: july 19th 2018/ accepted: october 19th 2018 2 alexanderaristizabal@gmail.com pragmatic development in foreign and target context gist education and learning research journal. issn 1692-5777. no.17 (july december 2018). pp. 193-214. no. 17 (july december, 2018) no. 17 (july december, 2018) 194 process that improves student learning through action plans informed by learning analytics (la); which could be seen as the scientific data behind the observations educators have traditionally done. key words: data, reading, student learning, learning analytics. resumen: este artículo muestra como un colegio internacional americano en vietnam emplea datos y analítica del aprendizaje para conocer acerca del aprendizaje de sus estudiantes a partir de sus evaluaciones y los datos proporcionados por éstas para mejorar, entre otras áreas, las habilidades de lectura en una población predominantemente con estudiantes de inglés como lengua adicional (eal). la fuente es principalmente una plataforma de evaluación adaptativa por computador, comúnmente conocida como el map growth test, el cual proporciona información acerca de las habilidades en matemáticas y lectura para cada estudiante en particular. los datos proporcionados se transforman y presentan a los interesados a través de visualizaciones creadas en un software especializado a fin de indagar en los datos y dar respuesta a preguntas pedagógicas que emergen tanto de los profesores como de los administrativos. este proceso involucra nuevos campos conocidos como analítica del aprendizaje y minería visual de datos a fin de encontrar información que no es usualmente evidente en los conjuntos de datos disponibles en la institución escolar. los resultados indican que lo profesores se ven inmersos en un procesos de reflexión para mejorar el aprendizaje de los estudiantes a través de planes de acción informados con analítica del aprendizaje (la); la cual puede verse como los datos científicos detrás de las observaciones que los profesores han realizado tradicionalmente. palabras clave: datos, lectura, aprendizaje estudiantil, analítica de aprendizaje. resumo este artigo mostra como um colégio internacional americano no vietnam emprega dados da analítica da aprendizagem para conhecer acerca da aprendizagem dos seus estudantes, a partir de suas avaliações e os dados proporcionados pelas mesmas para melhorar, entre outras áreas, as habilidades de leitura em uma população predominantemente com estudantes de inglês como língua adicional (eal). a fonte é principalmente uma plataforma de avaliação adaptativa por computador, com frequência conhecida como o map growth test, o qual proporciona informação acerca das habilidades em matemáticas e leitura para cada estudante em particular. os dados proporcionados são transformados e apresentados aos interessados através de visualizações criadas em um software especializado com o fim de indagar nos dados e dar resposta a perguntas pedagógicas que emergem tanto dos professores quanto dos administrativos. este processo envolve novos campos conhecidos como analítica da aprendizagem learning analytics to improve reading skills aristizábal no. 17 (july december, 2018) no. 17 (july december, 2018) 195 e mineração visual de dados com o fim de encontrar informação que não seja usualmente evidente nos conjuntos de dados disponíveis na instituição escolar. os resultados indicam que os professores se veem submergidos em um processo de reflexão para melhorar a aprendizagem dos estudantes através de planos de ação informados com analítica da aprendizagem (la); a qual pode ver-se como os dados científicos por trás das observações que os professores têm realizado tradicionalmente. palavras chave: dados, leitura, aprendizagem estudantil, analítica de aprendizagem. learning analytics to improve reading skills aristizábal no. 17 (july december, 2018) no. 17 (july december, 2018) 196 introduction assessment of student learning is a critical issue in education. there are different approaches, but so far personal professional experience seems to indicate that no matter how good the assessment is, it always falls short in determining what students actually learn, how they learn or what they are able to do with that knowledge. however, thanks to developments in technology, it looks like the assessment of learning is transcending the limits of linear and fixed datasets of questions on tests, to a stage where a computer software is able to determine the level of performance of students and adapt the test questions thanks to, among multiple tasks, the use of predictive algorithms and item response analysis. even though in today’s classroom computer adaptive testing (cat) is not a regular practice in daily assessment scenarios, they are gaining more space and preponderance in the internal structure of primary and secondary schools and eventually, as a result of the massification of technology, daily on-the-spot student adaptive assessment could take place on a regular and consistent way. current cat platforms are usually equipped with basic dashboards and reports for different stakeholders, but sometimes the data analysis derived from these reports is limited by the possibilities of the platforms and a reduced interaction with the original datasets. if an institution is interested in digging into the data trying to find new patterns, associations between variables or merging data with additional datasets, likely it will not happen with currently available cat platforms. as a result, organizations are being forced to find, implement and use new systems in order to enhance the internal analytics capability and to provide more customized and targeted reports that will illustrate, in a larger scale, associated variables to the test results. this case study deals precisely with the above issue and its general objective is to illustrate how the analysis of data and insights from a computer-adaptive test can be enhanced by the use of a learning analytics system leading to the creation of action plans to improve student learning. it took place in an american international school in ho chi minh, vietnam, where most students are classified as eal’s and all subject teachers are considered eal supporters. the study uses the measures of academic progress or map® growth™ as the cat platform and tableau®3 as the tool for learning analytics. as a technique to derive information and gain insights in datasets, this research used visualization analytics, sometimes called learning analytics to improve reading skills aristizábal no. 17 (july december, 2018) no. 17 (july december, 2018) 197 visual data mining, along with pedagogically-sound generative questions. this paper is also an invitation for regular k-12 classroom teachers to explore the field of learning analytics and recognize that it is possible to improve student learning by digging into the data to derive information that can be used to inform, adjust and adapt the curriculum and instruction to the needs of the students. case presentation computer-adaptive testing platforms usually come with a robust set of analytics and metrics that provide comprehensive information to students, teachers, parents and school administrators. these analytics are used to make informed decisions about student learning, curriculum, learning plans, teaching or assessment among other educational variables. however, there are schools interested in digging deeper into the data to find additional information or relationships between other academic or organizational variables that often go beyond the pre-set reports provided by the cat platforms, such as the identification of specific variables that affect learning or curricular areas for improvement. when this is the intention, cat’s analytics and reporting tools fall short, which means that other measures need to take place in order to better understand the whole student learning profile. this was precisely the case in an american international school in ho chi minh, vietnam, where it was found out that there are new questions that cannot be solely answered with the information provided by the cat’s toolkit, limiting the possibility of merging or integrating with other school datasets. even though the cat platform known as map® growth™ has improved the online reporting tools and produces more usable and comprehensive reports to inform students, teachers and parents; at the school level, there is a need for more information and insights that may surge or be constructed by combining additional school datasets. the educational community is demanding more data insights and the currently available resources fall short. for instance, in the case of english reading, for one of the assessed areas it is not enough to know that the performance of the students is below the grade level expectation, or that the grade level rit average is 220. teachers, administrators, parents and students would like to know in more details which areas they need to work on in order to improve their learning learning analytics to improve reading skills aristizábal no. 17 (july december, 2018) no. 17 (july december, 2018) 198 and performances, which eventually will be used to create action plans accordingly. the research for this study indicates that a viable solution for an enhanced data integration and mining is the use of a methodological model aligned with the fundamental principles of learning analytics (aristizabal, 2017). this model will allow teachers and school administrators gain deeper and finer insights as what to do with the data from the map® growth™ and the implications that this new knowledge has on students’ learning. this case study took place in a school with 340 students and 32 faculty members over the course of a full academic year (2017-2018) with emphasis given to math and reading skills using the data provided by the map growth tests suite and the school’s information data system. conceptual references in order to provide a theoretical framework to understand the reasons behind processes and techniques, this paper presents some of the most important concepts and connections between computer-adaptive testing, learning analytics and visual data mining as foundational principles and techniques to contextualize the methodology and conclusions for the case study. computer-adaptive testing even though the technology for more effective and efficient computer-adaptive testing is relatively new, the adaptive concept dates back to the very early days of psychological measurement. a brief description of the evolution of adaptive-testing is presented by weiss (2004) who shows how from the binet’s iq test, which comprised sets of test items normed by chronological age level to the current cat, passed through research and development in the u.s. military, in order to become what it is today: a “redesign of psychological and educational tests for effective and efficient administration by interactive computers (p. 72)”. when students take a computerized adaptive test, assessment takes place in a different dimension where what students are expected to know is not the fundamental principle, but rather what they are able to do with their knowledge. each student enters their own reality where the difficulty of the questions is adapted and changed as a result of learning analytics to improve reading skills aristizábal no. 17 (july december, 2018) no. 17 (july december, 2018) 199 the student individual performance level. for veldkamp & matteucci (2013), the adaptability and computer-based nature of the test are factors that students tend to like more over a paper and pencil test, since they do not get bored by answering items that are too easy or too hard for them. it is usually expected that final users of computer-adaptive tests trust the research and development behind the products and assume that the reports and information derived from these assessments correspond to an accurate picture of students’ knowledge and skills. in the case of the map tests, the studies evaluate scores from the same students after a lapse of several months as opposed to several days, which produces reliability indices consistently above what is considered statistically significant (nwea, 2016). teachers and administrators usually use this information to make decisions involving actions to improve student learning like curriculum reviews, creation of individualized learning plans or many others striving for continuous school improvement. learning analytics language and concepts evolve over time and learning analytics seems to be the evolution of something that humans have been doing for ages, which is making sense of surrounding data and information to construct usable knowledge. school teachers and administrators have always analyzed student data up to the level of the available technology and resources. in current times of the information age and knowledge society, the amount of data escapes the human processing capabilities and limited senses. the big data era is only growing bigger and bigger and it is spreading into every area of our lives. k-12 schools are already sinking in vast amounts of data which many times end-up in shelves or a couple of graphs in annual reports. however, such a wealth of information should be leading schools to ask themselves questions like: • what kind of data do we have? • how do we gather data? • do we collect all the data that we need? • what are we doing with that data? • does the analysis of data have an impact on the greater picture? does it improve teaching and learning? • can data help us be a better school? • how do we know if what we do is actually working? learning analytics to improve reading skills aristizábal no. 17 (july december, 2018) no. 17 (july december, 2018) 200 the reality is that today’s schools are using more data than what they used to do some time ago, but likely it is still underutilized. probably it is not the lack of resources, but mostly the lack of curiosity and interest to dig deeper into the different variables and connections of the pedagogical act. an educational field where this curiosity seems to be blooming is the on-line learning environments and the computer mediated platforms (papamitsiou & economides, 2014, romero, ventura, pechenizkiy & baker, 2011), where experts in diverse areas like coding, statistics or psychometrics are using academic data to improve student learning and the conditions where learning happens. these experts generally use educational data mining (edm), which according to the international educational data mining society (2009) it is an emerging discipline, concerned with developing methods for exploring the unique and increasingly large-scale data that come from educational settings and using those methods to better understand students, and the settings which they learn in. in general terms, as stated by prabhu and venatesan (2007), a data mining process, whether it is general or educational, involves any form of data analysis with the intention of finding patterns and regularities in sets of data. it is interesting to notice that edm is not a widely incorporated practice in face-to-face classrooms in k-12 schools, though it is in higher education settings and on-line or computer-mediated learning environments. this phenomenon is likely the result of factors like lack of awareness and technical knowledge across k-12 faculty, difficulties for data gathering and processing of big data in face-to-face classrooms, accessibility to user-friendly data mining software and poor practical and useful connections between mined knowledge and teaching practice (aristizabal, 2017). however, it seems like learning analytics (la) offers a more familiar approach to educators, even though it can also incorporate educational data mining as one its tools to construct usable knowledge from raw academic data. as a developing field, la incorporates the use of sophisticated analytic tools to improve learning and education by integrating fields like web, academic or action analytics, educational data mining and in general the application of the principles and tools of business intelligence to academia (elias, 2011, goldstein & katz, 2005). learning analytics is a combination of processes where organizations, educators and learners gain insights in a timely manner to improve educational outcomes. it involves procedures like measurement, data collection, preparation, processing, reporting, interpretation of results learning analytics to improve reading skills aristizábal no. 17 (july december, 2018) no. 17 (july december, 2018) 201 and knowledge construction in learning ecosystems that facilitate decision making processes that affect learning itself, the pedagogical practice and the organizational dynamics (knight & shum, 2017, papamitsiou & economides, 2014, aristizábal, 2017, tempelaar et al., 2013). regardless of the learning ecosystem where it happens, learning analytics is the conduit to a reflective process aimed at improving curriculum, learning, teaching and assessment when multiple measures of academic data are effectively transformed into usable and actionable knowledge. as a mechanism for decision-making, educational stakeholders should be able to incorporate la in short, mid and longterm strategic planning thanks to the possibility of analyzing learning progress from past, current and potential scenarios. learning analytics, as a system, operates at several levels from students who learn about their own learning progress, passing through teachers who learn about their own students learning and their pedagogical decisions to policy makers and researchers (shum & crick, 2016). visualization analytics (va) since this paper is also invitation for k-12 educators to dive into the world of edm and la, the complexity and sophistication of coding and algorithms is phased out to give place to processes where epistemology and pedagogy, as drivers of professional practice, become the center of the knowledge discovery/construction in databases. in the end, teachers are the most interested parties in the monumental enterprise of improving teaching practice and student learning. educators, generally, do not have access to user friendly tools to carry out edm in the classroom. a challenge is precisely to provide the mechanisms and specific tools and techniques for regular face-to-face education if the research field is meant to grow. as a challenge, edm has to develop easy-to-use mining tools for educators or not solely for expert users in data mining (romero & ventura, 2007). therefore, as a contribution to the popularization and democratization of edm, la and its methods, this research uses the concept of visualization analytics as technique to discover/construct knowledge from databases (aristizabal, 2017). not surprisingly, the 2011 conference on learning analytics and knowledge considered information visualization as a technique with the potential to offer interesting perspectives in learning analytics (verbert et al., 2012). learning analytics to improve reading skills aristizábal no. 17 (july december, 2018) no. 17 (july december, 2018) 202 as an integrated concept, visualization analytics aims at using humans’ sight and intuition capacities to perceptually and cognitively gain insights over the exploration of visually exhibited data (goebel & gruenwald, 1999; cook & thomas, 2005; chen, 2009; parenteau et al., 2016) by integrating people and their combined abilities such as reasoning, critical thinking, pedagogical background, experience and personal epistemologies (aristizabal, 2017, keim, 2002, romero et al., 2011), helped by the use of graphic and dynamic computer interfaces that maximize human capacity to perceive, understand and reason about complex and dynamic data and situations (cook & thomas, 2005). visualization analytics, visual analytics or visual data mining in a classroom involves a cognitive process where humans elaborate mental representations from graphically presented datasets. thanks to the fact that “the human eye-brain system itself still remains the best patternrecognition device known” (goebel & gruenwald, 1999, p. 22), it is possible for an educator to learn and understand the context, conditions, outcomes and, in general, the variables that affect teaching, learning, assessment or curriculum using visualization techniques. since the goals of edm are to develop methods for exploring data that come from educational settings and to use those methods to better understand students and the settings where they learn; it is not speculative to say that visualization analytics itself is an edm technique. therefore, educators can use va in order to learn about their practice, their students learning and how this learning happens by making use of their already built-in capacities, experience and situational knowledge. there is no need to be experts in databases, coding or programming, but someone must create these visualizations, interact with them and produce new ones based on individual or institutional needs. however, the knowledge discovery/construction is still within the educators’ hands and key stakeholders. methodology in order to carry out this case study, the following methodology was implemented: data gathering: the students in this study take the map reading and math growth test during the fall and spring sessions. the test session for the whole school takes place during one week, including make ups. once they finish, a cvs master file is downloaded with all the basic demographic and performance results. the school keeps and display the last 4 years of testing data. learning analytics to improve reading skills aristizábal no. 17 (july december, 2018) no. 17 (july december, 2018) 203 data processing: this process is key for a functional database and includes a series of sub-processes such as: a) cleaning, b) transformation and c) data integration. this stage of the methodology allows for the customization of the raw data and its integration with other available academic data such as ids, year of enrollment, classes, teachers, periods, etc. the database integration is done in tableau. data analysis and visualizations. this stage involves the creation of a series of visualizations in order to enhance the reports from the computer-adaptive test. for example, the original platform provides visualizations about student performance by grade level, but does not provide this visualization over a period of time with filters to select different testing seasons. during this step the original datasets are enhanced as part of the la system which allows gaining deeper insights through interactive visualizations that answer pedagogical questions. deriving actionable knowledge: visualizations have no meaning without an intention provided by an epistemic individual, the process known as visualization analytics is used to perceptually and cognitively gain insights over the exploration of visually exhibited data. in order to facilitate this process, a series of guiding questions are generated to trigger inquiry and reflective behaviors. an enhanced visualization is one that uses the integration of variables not originally presented in the nwea’s reports, the use of analytical filters in dashboards and locally generated-data. these questions range from general ones such as... what is the current performance of students compared to previous years? to some more specific such as… what specific test goal my students struggle the most at? action plans: since data is only useful as long as it has meaning and a positive impact on student learning; teachers by grade level teams are invited to participate in the creation of action plans in order to help students further develop the areas of high performance and reinforce those that require more attention. since the map test results present student-centered data about their skills, students themselves are invited to create their own action plans to improve their performance, which is a strategy to help develop both teacher and student agency. the enhanced reports and visualizations are presented to faculty right after each testing session, twice per year; and a report and an interactive dashboard are shared with all staff for easy access on demand. dashboards allow teachers and administrators see and interact with updated-graphically-presented-information that facilitates access and interpretation of data for the decision-making process (aristizabal, 2016). after each sharing session, there are two follow up meetings learning analytics to improve reading skills aristizábal no. 17 (july december, 2018) no. 17 (july december, 2018) 204 within a 4 month period to determine the actual use of the visualization, updates on action plans and possibly new visualizations based on particular needs or the emergence of new pedagogical questions. results and enhanced data analysis as mentioned before, an enhanced visualization uses the integration of variables not presented in the original reports, integrate locally generated-data and use analytical filters in dashboards for easy access and interpretation. however, a visualization is an inert graph without an educator behind it to make sense, assign attributes, derive information and gain insights to better understand how teaching and learning happen. the following examples correspond only to a sample of enhancements through visualization analytics that are not originally available in the test platform. the goal behind is to help understand the learning process through a series of results, immerse in reflective pedagogical thinking and engage in a continuous improvement process. they were generated using the pedagogical questions proposed both by faculty and school administration. are our students experiencing reading learning growth in each testing session? figure 1. average projected vs observed growth by grade levels. learning analytics to improve reading skills aristizábal no. 17 (july december, 2018) no. 17 (july december, 2018) 205 this visualization shows that for this testing window, in average, the students performed above the projected growth. however, thanks to the dynamic filters, it is possible to identify specific students who are not exhibiting growth (figure 2), which is used to plan some interventions and represents a level deeper into the data. figure 2. observed growth by grade level b) who does need specific interventions and follow-up? figure 3. students below 20th percentile even though this information is readily available in test platform, versatility and ease of access with dynamics filters in dashboards, make it possible to identify students below or within a certain percentile learning analytics to improve reading skills aristizábal no. 17 (july december, 2018) no. 17 (july december, 2018) 206 range for a particular test, session and grade level. with this information teachers and counselors have individual conversations and plan personalized learning strategies for students. since the performance of students can be affected by external factors, prior to any intervention, there are conversations with students to determine some possible causes and plan for a re-test, if needed, for more valid information. this particular strategy allows an early identification of students for individual interventions and follow-up, so no students fall through the cracks. each bar corresponds to a particular student and each color is a specific grade level. c) is there any particular area we should review in our curriculum? figure 4. average score (rit) by goal. this visualization shows that the goal labeled as “vocabulary acquisition and use” has historically been the lowest over the last 3 years in every grade level; information that has been used by all teachers, not just eal or english language arts, to engage in conversations about strategies and adaptations in order to fill-in the curricular gaps and help students develop their corresponding competencies. d) does time on test have any impact on student performance? learning analytics to improve reading skills aristizábal no. 17 (july december, 2018) no. 17 (july december, 2018) 207 figure 5. time on test versus average score (rit). the original test platform provides data time for students in each test, however, it does not show the relationship between the score (rit) and the time spent. this enhanced visualization provides a linear trend model including a p-value to understand the significance of the model. for this particular test, it was clear that students that spend more time engaged on the test, tend to have higher scores. with this information teachers are more attentive to the time and engagement of students during the test to motivate them to try their best. the original test platform now includes a new option related to student engagement which teachers use to monitor students in real time. e) given that we are an international school with a high percentage of eal students, is there any relationship between the year of enrollment and the student performance on the test? figure 6. median percentile ranking versus year of enrollment. learning analytics to improve reading skills aristizábal no. 17 (july december, 2018) no. 17 (july december, 2018) 208 thanks to the integration of data, it is possible to link students with their corresponding year of enrollment. in this case, this visualization indicates that it is more likely for a student in the same grade level to exhibit higher performances the longer they have been enrolled in school, which is probably due to factors like familiarity with the test, confidence and academic experiences. this visualization has been used by the school administration to show the added-value of being enrolled in a school with a strong eal support. discussion learning analytics (la) is a combined technical and cognitive process where academic stakeholders engage in analytical reasoning to gain insights about teaching and learning in order to improve students’ learning and how it happens. it involves the gathering, processing and visualization of data and, of course, the intervention of an individual(s) to ask questions, derive information and construct meaningful knowledge to better understand and improve the pedagogical act. enhancing data analysis with la implies going beyond standard reporting to a stadium where there is integration with other sources of academic data, the development of pedagogical questions and the possibility of transforming data into information and constructed actionable knowledge, in this case, through visualization analytics facilitated by a convenient technological platform. from the technical perspective, la requires some data management skills to collect, store, process and report data in ways easily understood by stakeholders, mostly teachers, and the flexibility and ease of use of a software to interact and transform data into insightful information. the component that links the technical and cognitive aspects in la is visualization analytics, understood as a methodology to learn about the learning process thanks to the possibility of answering pedagogical questions through an exploratory process of educational variables. a visualization gains meaning when an epistemic subject derives information from it through an analytical and reflective process that makes use of their professional knowledge, skills and competencies. this way the individuals connect what they already know and are able to do with the new information which in turn develops new understandings and alternative operating scenarios. visualizations in learning analytics tend to be dynamic, allowing the user to interact with the interface to make modifications or adaptations to explore datasets, play with different variables and find alternative learning analytics to improve reading skills aristizábal no. 17 (july december, 2018) no. 17 (july december, 2018) 209 associations between educational variables. this possibility, enabled by technology, is perhaps one of the most important characteristics of la since it allows the user to interact with the visualization, dig into the data, visualize multiple variables at the same time, apply filters and many times find patterns never thought of before. when the discovery of new information takes place, the exploration of data with visual analytics falls into a category known as educational data mining, where visual data mining is considered a technique. in this case study, faculty and school administrators where able to answer particular pedagogical questions, generated new ones and developed action plans to improve students’ learning. the enhanced reports, facilitated by a technological platform and a learning analytics process, derives in meaningful insights that help inform teachers’ actions and school’s strategic learning plans. teachers become more aware of the general and individual learning needs and administrators engage in actions to support teachers in their particular classroom endeavors. learning analytics allows teachers to learn about the students from the big picture to individual or particular cases. in this study, as a school-wide finding, teachers became aware that reading is an area that requires support from all subjects and that the development of vocabulary is a shared mission. action plans were created by grade level teams, showing that every single subject area is responsible for the development of activities, learning scenarios and opportunities that allow the students develop the skills needed to improve their reading skills. this is a shared responsibility where all subject teachers are eal teachers too. some particular shared reading/language development strategies emerged from the grade level action plans include: • word of the week: every week there is a new and interesting english word that is displayed on posters around the schools with examples about its use and possible meanings depending on the context. the space between steps in stairs is also used to display words of the week in such a way that students going up the stairs can constantly read the word and see their meaning. teachers are also encouraged to include these words in their regular classes. • eal-subject teacher collaboration: eal teachers engage in conversations with subject area teachers about particular readings for students depending on their reading level and assign same topic readings with different levels of difficulty using newsela as a learning tool. this collaboration, in some cases, involves the learning analytics to improve reading skills aristizábal no. 17 (july december, 2018) no. 17 (july december, 2018) 210 eal teacher carrying-out a series of activities in regular classes to help students develop their english proficiency. for example, note taking and reading strategies, games for vocabulary acquisition, websites with exercises for pronunciation, etc. • eal extra-support for students with low percentile ranking. as part of the grade-level action plan, students identified below the 20th percentile ranking (see figure 3) receive extra-eal support targeted to their particular needs. individual educational plans are being created to follow-up on these students. for these cases, more pieces of information are usually used like their wida test score, classroom grades and teacher comments. • co-teaching. eal teachers work with subject teachers in the classroom to provide students with language development strategies through subject areas and specific language learning. • co-planning. eal teachers support subject teachers in the development of units of study linking the development of language skills and the subject content. • parallel assessments: students can be assessed independently both by the subject teacher and the eal teachers from their respective fields. feedback is provided from both perspectives. conclusions this case study was an opportunity to reflect on some institutional practices about the use of data to improve student learning, particularly reading skills after gaining insights through a new field called learning analytics. this study leads to the following conclusions: learning analytics has been in schools since the time they started collecting and using data to make decisions; the difference now is the possibility of integrating different databases, transforming data and reporting in interactive ways that facilitate the decision-making process, reflection and knowledge construction processes. learning analytics is only meaningful and impactful when teachers use their pedagogical and epistemological backgrounds to reflect on their professional practice and make decisions as to what is best for students’ learning. data is only meaningful when it is used to respond to pedagogical questions emerging from teachers’ experience and professional observations. it is a way to learn about the student as an individual who has particular strengths and areas for improvement. learning analytics to improve reading skills aristizábal no. 17 (july december, 2018) no. 17 (july december, 2018) 211 visualization analytics is an exploration method that helps answering pedagogical questions and fuels professional discussions around students’ learning. a learning analytics system in a school is a mechanism to efficiently use data for informed decision-making, which involves decisions at the classroom level, like particular differentiation strategies for students; or at the grade level, like shared or common strategies, for example for vocabulary development; or at school level, like benchmarking or curriculum monitoring. in a learning analytics process the use of a user-friendly platform is essential since many teachers usually get discouraged by the use complex and hard-to-understand software. a facilitator is highly recommended in order to prepare and interact with the visualizations and so allow more time and space for teachers to be engaged in the information derivation and the knowledge construction processes. the continuous monitoring through interactive dashboards and la indicates that there has been a steady improvement on students’ language skills after the implementation of action plans and the combined teaching strategies. learning analytics to improve reading skills aristizábal no. 17 (july december, 2018) no. 17 (july december, 2018) 212 references aristizabal, j. a. 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(2012). datasetdriven research to support learning and knowledge analytics. journal of educational technology & society, 15(3), 133. weiss, d. j. (2004). computerized adaptive testing for effective and efficient measurement in counseling and education. measurement and evaluation in counseling and development, 37(2), 70. learning analytics to improve reading skills aristizábal no. 17 (july december, 2018) no. 17 (july december, 2018) 214 author *jorge alexander aristizábal is currently the associate director of teaching and learning at the international school ho chi minh city american academy in vietnam. prior to this post, he was the assessment coordinator at colegio nueva granada and professor of education and technology at unica, both in bogotá, colombia. he holds a doctorate in education from universidad santo tomás; an mba from universidad de alcalá, spain; m.ed from universidad externado de colombia; and a mdq and b.a. in chemistry from universidad pedagógica nacional in colombia. he is an educator with 20+ years of experience in international schools, has consulted for the national ministry of education and private corporations. he is certified in datawise from the harvard graduate school of education and holds certificates in curriculum and assessment from the principals´ training center in miami, usa. learning analytics to improve reading skills no. 17 (july december, 2018) no. 17 (july december, 2018) gist education and learning research journal. issn 1692-5777. no. 20 (january june, 2020). pp. 231-250. adjective-noun order: an error analysis of colombian learners of english1 orden adjetivo-sustantivo: un análisis de error de los estudiantes colombianos de inglés andrew john connolly2* universidad ean, colombia 1 received: april 3rd 2019/accepted: april 23rd 2020 2 aconnolly1@gmail.com 232 no. 20 error analysis of colombian learners of english conolly abstract adjectivenoun order errors are a common occurrence throughout all levels of english language students. based on professional experiences, existing literature and revisiting what some may consider archaic methodologies, this reflective article aims to analyse adjective-noun order errors among colombian learners of english, understand why it presents such a challenge in the colombian context and provide one possible teaching method to help reduce the number of adjective-noun order errors produced. to achieve such aims this article compares the rules for adjective-noun order in english and spanish, describes the implications of the differences in adjective-noun order between the two languages for the colombian learner and proposes translation as a teaching method to help colombian learners of english reduce the frequency of these errors. further investigation is needed to provide teachers with more insight into this problem; perhaps, focussing specifically on one of the two skills in which the error is produced, either writing or speaking. key words: adjective-noun order; colombian learners of english; translation method; error analysis resumen este artículo explora el desafío del orden adjetivo-sustantivo entre los estudiantes de inglés colombianos. los errores en el orden de los sustantivos y los adjetivos son un hecho común que se puede apreciar en todos los niveles entre los estudiantes de inglés en colombia. basado en las experiencias profesionales, la literatura existente y revisando lo que algunos pueden llamar metodologías arcaicas, este artículo reflexivo tiene como objetivo analizar los errores de orden de los adjetivos y sustantivos entre los colombianos que estudian inglés, comprender por qué genera un desafío en el contexto colombiano y así mismo, brindar un método de enseñanza posible para ayudar a reducir el número de errores de orden de adjetivo-sustantivo producidos. para lograr tales objetivos, este artículo compara las reglas del orden adjetivo-sustantivo en inglés y español, describe las implicaciones de las diferencias en el orden adjetivo-sustantivo entre los dos idiomas y propone la traducción como un método de enseñanza para reducir la frecuencia de estos errores y así ayudar a los aprendices de inglés colombianos. se necesita más investigación para proporcionar a los maestros más información sobre este problema; tal vez, centrándose específicamente en una de las dos habilidades en las que se produce el error, ya sea escribiendo o hablando. palabras claves: orden adjetivo-sustantivo; estudiantes colombianos de inglés; método de traducción; análisis de errores. resumo 233 no. 20 error analysis of colombian learners of english connolly os erros de ordem adjetivos-substantivos são uma ocorrência comum nos estudantes de todos os níveis de aprendizagem de inglês. baseado em experiência profissional, a existente literatura e revisão do que alguns podem considerar metodologias arcaicas, este artigo reflexivo tem como objetivo analisar os erros de ordem adjetivos-substantivos entre estudantes colombianos de inglês, compreender por que se apresenta tal desafio no contexto colombiano e proporcionar um possível método para ajudar a reduzir o número de erros produzidos. para alcançar tais objetivos, este artigo compara as regras para estabelecer a ordem adjetivo-substantivo em inglês e espanhol, descreve as implicações das diferenças na ordem adjetivo-substantivo entre os dois idiomas para o aprendiz colombiano e propõe a tradução como um método para ajudar os estudantes de inglês a reduzir a frequência destes erros. palavras chave: ordem adjetivo-substantivos; estudantes colombianos de inglês; método de tradução; erro de análise 234 no. 20 error analysis of colombian learners of english conolly introduction imagine a scenario where a basic rule was explained to you which you must follow; however, no matter how well you understood that rule you still failed to obey it. for example, you are completely aware that in order to start a parked car you must take off the hand brake before you attempt to move it but more often than not when you attempt to perform such a manoeuvre you try to move the car with the hand brake on and the car cuts out, leaving you frustrated. i witness a similar level of frustration when one of my language students realises that they have produced a basic error. an error which is well below their current level and one which they are quite aware of the rules required to avoid. one such error is adjective-noun order. to an english language teacher, the knowledge needed to understand how adjectives and nouns are ordered would appear to be minimal, nonetheless, the prevalence of adjective-noun order errors produced in both spoken and written output in the colombian classroom is surprising. the apparent simplicity of adjective-noun order in english is what makes this error an intriguing one to investigate. as interesting as the error itself, is the lack of studies relating to this error in a colombian context. according to sanchez-ruiz and lopez (2014) adjective-noun order errors are some of the most common among spanish speaking learners of english so it would appear necessary to look further into this problem to discover possible reasons why colombian learners of english struggle with this grammar point and to provide some methods for teachers to use to attempt to reduce these errors. that is what this article aims to achieve. the paper begins with a description of the specific challenges facing colombian leaners in relation to adjective-noun order, then an analysis of adjective-noun order in english, followed by a similar analysis of adjective-noun order in spanish. finally, the paper provides a discussion and one possible method to help colombian learners and their teachers with these challenges. challenges faced by colombian learners with adjective-noun order the process of error analysis corder (1975) states that when undertaking an error analysis, it is important to be able to distinguish between mistakes and errors. corder’s (1975) observation appears a valid one since if we are undertaking an error analysis then mistakes must not be included. for that reason, a clear line needs to be drawn between the two (corder 1967, cited in ellis. 1994). however, such a clear line does not exist as the differences between errors and mistakes can be blurry and subjective (ellis, 1994; hinkel, 2018). 235 no. 20 corder (1967, cited in ellis,1994) was the first to attempt to define the differences between an error and a mistake. using chomsky’s distinction (cited in ellis, 1994) corder (1967) associated errors with failures in competence and mistakes with failures in performance. later, corder (1971) developed what he coined the auto-correction method. corder (1971) claims that auto-correction is the key to deciding whether a mistake or error has occurred. he states that a mistake occurs if a learner is made aware of a faulty sentence or utterance and is then able to correct it by themselves since it is related to performance rather than competence. if; however, the learner is unable to correct the faulty sentence or utterance, it is then defined as an error. while this method of differentiation may seem straightforward, james (1998) identifies one possible issue with corder’s (1971) auto-correction method. james (1998) uses the example of a student submitting an essay in an exam. before submitting the essay, the student would have re-read the essay numerous times to check and correct errors. then, when the student is convinced that the essay is error free; the essay is submitted. however, after the teacher revises the essay and finds some ungrammatical forms and then informs the student of the location of the ungrammatical forms, a problem arises with defining the ungrammatical forms as errors or mistakes. the problem with the auto-correction method lies in the fact that the student can correct his or her work but only after being made aware of the need to make corrections. in other words, is it still just a mistake if a learner does not identify the problem by themselves but can auto correct after they are made aware of the deviant form by a second party? another possible hurdle in using the auto-correction method is the need for the student to be present while the correction process takes place. ellis (1985, cited in tim, 2000) claims that in cases where the student is not available, if a deviant form keeps on recurring then it is probably an error. the frequency of the same deviant can help identify that an error has occurred since if an identical deviant is reoccurring it demonstrates a gap in competence rather than a performance slip. james (1998) also suggests that frequency is a valid index of the gravity of error with a higher frequency equating to a higher gravity of error. in the case of adjective-noun order, the distinction is difficult, as learners may be aware of the rule; however, fail to consistently produce correctly ordered utterances. the frequency with which the inaccuracies of adjective-noun order occur (sanchezruiz & lopez, 2014) provides a strong case for the failure to be classified as an error and not a mistake. with that in mind, adjective-noun order inaccuracies are defined as errors in this article. to summarise, a mistake is something that occurs in performance and it can be selfcorrected by the learner. an error is something that occurs due to a lack of knowledge or competence and is usually not able to be self-corrected by a learner without further learning. in the absence of a learner to self-correct, the frequency of an incorrect form error analysis of colombian learners of english connolly 236 no. 20 error analysis of colombian learners of english conolly can confirm if a genuine error has occurred. the analysis in the following sections shows that in spanish, adjective order has greater flexibility than in english. hence, when a colombian learner is faced with the decision of ordering multiple adjectives or deciding to put the adjective before or after the noun, it presents a serious challenge. for example, a learner says, “big car red”, instead of, “big red car”. when a language learner uses their l1 to produce the target language it can either help the learner produce something correct, this is known as positive transfer or facilitation, or it can hinder the learner and cause them to produce something incorrect, this is known as negative transfer or interference (gass & selinker, 2008). since this article is focussed on errors, it mainly considers negative transfer; although, positive transfer is briefly mentioned in the discussion section of this article. negative transfer happens when learners transfer items and structures which are not the same in l1 and l2 (hussein & mohammad, 2010). it could be said that negative transfer is the cause of adjective-noun order errors among colombian learners of english. proof of such claim can be seen when the incorrect utterance is translated back into spanish. for example, “big car red” translated directly, with the same word order into spanish gives “gran carro rojo”, which is grammatically correct in spanish. we have defined adjective-noun order inaccuracies as errors; however, it may seem to some as a less serious error. this may be true since some errors are more severe than others. to scale the severity of an error, burt (1975) classified errors as either being local or global. local errors refer to errors which make the sentence sound strange but do not affect intelligibility in a major way while global errors are errors which affect intelligibility, leading to the message either being misinterpreted or not understood at all.  errors relating to adjective-noun order could be categorised as more local errors, as the meaning of “big car red” may be understood through context, especially for those familiar with spanish. however, global errors could also occur if the learner was speaking with someone unfamiliar with the spanish language. teachers with some understanding of the learner’s l1 may become desensitised to these errors and have a system of comprehension already in place to make understanding of such errors easier (hanzeli, cited in hendrickson, 1978). camps, villalobos and shea (2012) also found that teachers who live and teach in a non-english speaking become accustomed to the errors which are made most frequently. so, in some cases it can affect intelligibility and in cases where it does not seriously impact intelligibility, the error can cause difficulty to the listener or embarrassment to the speaker (camps et al., 2012). in either case it is not satisfactory to let the error persist. gass and selinker (2008) define two error types different from bert’s (1975) global and local errors. gass and selinker (2008) explain that an error can be classified as either interlingual if the error can be attributed to the learner’s l1 or intralingual if the error can be attributed to the target language and is independent of the learner’s l1. these error types differ from bert’s (1975) since they deal with error source rather 237 no. 20 than the severity of the error. so, adjective noun order can also be classified as an interlingual error since it would appear to come from inference from the learner’s l1. however, according to (ellis & barkhuizen, 2005) l1 interference is not the only source of difficulty in l2 acquisition. apart from the differences in rules between spanish and english, the learning environment of colombian learners of english also provides challenges to the learner regarding adjective-noun order. the paper now discusses these challenges. other factors the english as a foreign language (efl) learning environment, within colombia, limits both the amount of exposure to the english language and the number of opportunities for a student to practice english. along with the fact that learners live in a non-english speaking environment, colombian language institutes are also following the global trend of implementing communicative language teaching (clt) to second language learning. while this approach has seen great success in english as a second language (esl) environments, it has had mixed results in efl environments (li, 1998). there are many issues with clt in the efl environment (cardenas, 2006), but the one which directly affects adjective-noun order is the focus on fluency over accuracy. clt allows for greater tolerance of errors in return for creating an atmosphere which promotes spontaneous use of the target language (lightbown & spada, 1990). as mentioned earlier, english teachers in a non-english speaking country frequently become desensitised to commonly repeated errors (camps et al., 2012). as a result of this desensitisation, teachers only focus on problems which are subjectively believed to be more serious. this can lead to students carrying basic grammar problems from level to level without being corrected. one such problem, in the author’s opinion, is adjective-noun order errors. reaching communicative competence involves a balance between fluency and accuracy (phettongkam, 2013) and it is important that teachers in efl environments begin to pay more attention to this fact. a second factor is the learners’ experiences of learning a foreign language. learner experience is very important in the colombian university context because some of the students at university have had very different primary and secondary school experiences with english. there is a widening gap between private and public education in colombia and this difference has a huge influence on the proficiency levels that students achieve and bring to the tertiary level of education (velez-rendon, 2003). in colombia, many private schools are bilingual, and the teachers there consider themselves to have an adequate level of english, in contrast, public-school english teachers admit to having a very low proficiency and in some cases none (velez-rendon 2003). the factor of low-level english teachers affects many aspects of a learner’s experience and not just adjective-noun order. however, it is an important factor to consider in the colombian context since it is a reality for many university level students. so, in the cases where students had english teachers who were incapable of speaking english let alone error analysis of colombian learners of english connolly 238 no. 20 error analysis of colombian learners of english conolly teaching it, the understanding of why some basic aspects of english are erroneously produced becomes easier to comprehend. after detailing the challenges faced by colombian learners, the paper now provides an analysis of adjective order in english. adjective order in english adjectives can have three positions in the english language: prenominal position, predicative position, and postpositive position. the paper now discusses these three positions in greater detail and describes those factors which affect adjective-noun order. prenominal adjectives the following section comprises an insight into both single and multiple prenominal adjectives. single prenominal adjectives. single prenominal adjectives are the most straightforward to order, usually taking the second to last position within the noun phrase (parrott, 2010), for example, ‘a very old car’. when dealing with one prenominal adjective the ordering is clear, however, the task of ordering multiple prenominal adjectives is more complex. the following section provides a description of this task. multiple prenominal adjectives. when faced with more than one prenominal adjective there is a decision to be made as to which adjective should be closer to the head noun. wulff (2003) proposes that there are four factors which can affect the order of multiple prenominal adjectives including phonological, syntactic, semantic, and pragmatic. however, syntax and semantics are the two areas which influence adjective order the most (mcmahon, 2008) and for that reason, those are the factors which the paper focuses on. syntactic and semantic factors. the relationship between adjective order and semantics is one which raises many challenging questions (mcnally & kennedy, 2008). the reason is that, in english, adjectives have a greater range of flexibility in relation to order when compared to 239 no. 20 other syntactic categories (mcnally & kennedy, 2008), for example, sentence structure. for this reason, adjective ordering is characterised by semantic properties (svenonius, 2007). the examples in (1) and (2) demonstrate that while both sentences have the adjectives before the noun, a native english speaker’s intuition would say that (2) is incorrect. (1) a big red car (2) * a red big car dixon (1977) makes the argument that the adjective with a colour property should be placed closer to the head noun than the adjective with a size property. examples (1) and (2) show that there is a preferred adjective order in english. classification of adjectives is something which dixon (1977) tried to explain with the creation of semantic classes. there are seven classes, the first class ‘colour’ is ordered closest to the head noun with the subsequent classes following in the order (1-7) shown below. the class ordered the furthest away from the noun is ‘value’. below is a list of dixon’s (1977) semantic classes 7. value (good, bad6. dimension (big, long 5. physical property (hard, sweet) 4. speed (quick, slow) 3. human propensity (happy, kind) 2. age (new, young) 1. colour (red, white) using dixon’s (1977) semantic classes in real examples, it is clear to see that the classification of adjectives has a meaningful application. both examples (3) and (4) adhere to dixon’s classification and are syntactically and semantically correct. (3) a big new promotio (4) a kind young man while in many cases dixon’s (1977) semantic classes are clear and functional, the issue of classification shines a light on some of the inadequacies of dixon’s seven classes. wulff (2003) highlights these inadequacies with the question of where to classify adjectives describing date and time (pre-war, annual), position (left/right), and adjectives which mean ‘pertaining to’ or ‘relating to’ (mathematical, financial etc.). quirk, greenbaum, leech and startvik (1985) propose that the adjective which is error analysis of colombian learners of english connolly 240 no. 20 error analysis of colombian learners of english conolly most (relatively) inherent to the head noun is placed closest to the head and is followed by adjectives relating to opinion. examining (1) in more detail it is evident how this works, as the car is inherently red, however, the modifier ‘large’ is a matter of opinion, as the car needs to be compared to another smaller car in order to be perceived as large. based on this subject objectivity theory, hetzron (1978) developed a thirteen semantic class scale, however, like dixon’s (1977), there were still adjectives that couldn’t be clearly classified. the syntactic freedom of prenominal adjective order has led to a more semantic approach to preferred adjective order. matter of opinion and subjectivity make it hard to pin down a definitive all-inclusive order which can be followed. nonetheless, the semantic classifications that are described above (dixon, 1977 & hetzron, 1978) have been adapted and are being introduced into the classroom. the british council (n.d.) describe a class system which states that prenominal adjectives are ‘usually’ ordered as follows: general opinion > specific opinion > size > shape > age > colour > nationality > material. this system accounts for the subjective and inherent properties of prenominal adjectives and orders them appropriately. having described pre-nominal adjective order in english, the paper now comprises a discussion of post-nominal adjective order in english. post-nominal adjectives there are two types of post-nominal adjective positions. the first is known as the predicative position. the predicative position is when the adjective is placed after a noun with a linking verb. a predicate adjective modifies the subject of a noun phrase and is connected to the subject by a linking verb. an example of an adjective in a predicative position can be seen in (5). (5) the man is old swan (2005) provides the following list as the most common linking verbs: be, seem, appear, look, sound, smell, taste, feel, become, get. the second post-nominal position is postpositive. a postpositive adjective modifies the item which it follows. a postpositive position doesn’t require a linking verb. some adjectives must appear in a postpositive position and in doing so have a different sense (quirk et al. 1985) to an attributive or predicative position. quirk et al. (1985) give the example of the adjective ‘elect’, meaning soon to office. (6) the president elect a postpositive position can also describe a more temporary situation. quirk et al. (1985) provide the following examples: 241 no. 20 (7) the stars visible (7a) the visible star in this case, (7) insinuates that the stars are visible at a specific time, while (7a) refers to a group of stars that can always be seen. having provided an analysis of adjective order in english, a similar analysis of adjective order in spanish now follows. adjective order in spanish as a learner of spanish, one often hears the phrase “in case of doubt the learner will be safe in placing the adjective last” (ramsey, 1956). however, this all-inclusive rule is misleading advice as adjectives in spanish can occur both before and after the noun being modified, with only 63 per cent of adjectives being found in a postposition (bull, 1950). in fact, adjective position in spanish is relatively free, since the position of the adjective can be manipulated for stylistic effect (kattan-ibarra & pountain, 2003). a description of adjective position in spanish is now presented, followed by an explanation of how adjective position in spanish can affect meaning. prenominal position in spanish, adjectives which express inherent characteristics or features which are obvious and known to all, are placed before the noun (8) (gordon & stillman, 1999). (8) la blanca nieve the white snow when expressing a subjective judgement of a speaker the adjective also takes a prenominal position (9) (gordon & stillman, 1999). common subjective adjectives include nter (good), malo (bad), mejor (better) and peor (worse). adjectives that express quantity are also normally placed before the noun (10) (kattan-ibarra & pountain, 2003). common adjectives of quantity include: mucho (much), poco (little), bastante (a lot) and alguno (some). (9) vivimos en una pequeña ciudad we live in a small city. (10) muchísimas preguntas very many questions. the prenominal position can also be used for non-literal or ironic effect (11) (kattan-ibarra & pountain, 2003) and exclamations with ¡qué! (12) (gordon & stillman, 1999). (11) ni un triste céntimo not (even) a miserable cent (12) ¡qué mala suerte! what bad luck! error analysis of colombian learners of english connolly 242 no. 20 error analysis of colombian learners of english conolly post-nominal adjectives adjectives which express a distinctive or contrastive attribute of a noun are placed post-nominally (kattan-ibarra & pountain, 2003). such adjectives can denote nationality (13), place of origin, shape, substance, purpose or colour (14) (kattanibarra & pountain, 2003). (13) el gobierno irlandés the irish government (14) una casa azul a blue house a post-nominal position is also used to describe a subset of a particular type of noun (kattan-ibarra & pountain, 2003). (15) los libros técnicos the technical books in (15) the adjective ‘técnicos’ is describing some books, from a larger set of books, as technical. difference in meaning in spanish, adjectives can occur in both a pre and post-nominal position, often creating a difference in meaning (whitley, 1986). bull (1965) used mathematical organisation to define the difference between the pre and post-nominal position. bull (1965) states that prenominal position expresses totality (the whole set) while postnominal position expresses partitiveness (subset). in order to explain this, bull (1965) gives the following examples: (16) los blancos caballos de don hugo the white horses of don hugo (17) los caballos blancos de don hugo *the horses white of don hugo in the first example, the speaker presumes that all of don hugo’s horse are white, but in the second the speaker implies that he is talking about those horses of hugo’s which are white (not all of them are white). emphasis ramsey (1956) proposed that a postpositive position of an adjective can be used to highlight emphasis. place and torres-rioseco (1943) also support this idea by stating that an adjective which is inherent to the noun is placed in the unstressed position (before the noun), while if the adjective is being used to distinguish itself from others of the same class it is placed in the stressed position (after the noun). ramsey (1956) provides examples (18) and (19) below. 243 no. 20 (18) vivos colores bright colors (19) colores vivos colors bright in (18) the importance is given to the noun ‘colours’ and in (19) the importance is given to the adjective ‘bright’. bolinger (1972) developed this idea further drawing parallels between the english verb phrase (vp) and the spanish noun phrase (np). bolinger’s (1972) theory was that the last element in the phrase carries the most semantic weight. this theory gave way to what bolinger (1972) described as “linear modification”. linear modification aims to explain the order in a spanish np where there is more than one adjective. whitley (1986) provides an example (20) of how liner modification functions. (20) las grandes repúblicas democráticas europeas *the great democratic republics europeans first the determiner ´las´, then the speaker wishes to highlight the greatness associated with the republics which are being spoken of. the speaker then sub-classifies the great republics by limiting them to only democratic ones, and finally, the speaker adds the most informative information which is that these great democratic republics belong to europe. a different organisation of the adjectives would result in a different referential specification of republics (whitley, 1986). specific adjectives apart from highlighting emphasis from the speaker, ramsey (1956) identified several adjectives which give different meanings in prenominal and post-nominal position respectively. adjectives mentioned by ramsey (1956) include; antiguo (old), cierto (true), grande (big), nuevo (new), and pobre (old) amongst others. to demonstrate the differences, ramsey (1956) provides the following example: (21) el antiguo nterlang the former president (21a) el nterlang antiguo the ancient (very old) president the above example demonstrates that along with emphasis, adjective-noun order in spanish can also affect the meaning of an np. as is regularly the case in linguistics, there are a number of theories which try to find a definitive answer to a long-standing problem. in the case of this paper, i have summarised the most important theories relating to adjective-noun order in both spanish and english. now, the paper provides a discussion and one possible approach to solve the challenges faced by colombian learners. error analysis of colombian learners of english connolly 244 no. 20 error analysis of colombian learners of english conolly discussion and solutions the paper thus far has focussed on the challenges faced by colombian learners and factors which affect adjective-noun order in both english and spanish. now, the paper discusses one possible approach which can be used to help colombian learners understand the differences between english and spanish adjective-noun order. the approach proposed is use of the learners’ l1, in this case spanish, through translation activities. hunter and smith (2012) describe how older teaching methods tend to be “packed up” and put in the “dustbin of history” as soon as a new approach is revealed. hunter and smith (2012) add that the shelving of old methods leads to them being perceived as unnecessary or useless when, in fact, they are connected to or in part led to the discovery of the new approaches. as a teacher who was trained in line with the communicative approach, i have also been guilty of disregarding what appeared to me as outdated methods with no current value. however, my mind has been changed. translation or use of the students’ l1 is one of the methods i overlooked. as mentioned early, many colombian language institutes use communicative language teaching in their classrooms. this approach allows for little to no use of the students’ first language. according to kerr (2014) setting first language restrictions are futile since the teacher may be able to control what language is used in the classroom but cannot control how the student thinks. kerr (2014) explains that even though teachers may explicitly prohibit the use of the students’ l1 and translation, students are still constantly translating in their heads. kerr (2014) then proposes that if these students are already translating on some subconscious level why not take advantage of this by putting it to work for language acquisition. i now believe that the neglect of translation as a useful tool for language acquisition is a huge oversight as many of the reasons why translation was initially introduced as an approach, for example, the grammar translation method, still stand true to this day. the following section details the reasons why translation is still and always has been a legitimate tool in the language classroom. the reasons below have been selected from kerr’s (2014) work on translation. not all the reasons kerr (2014) lists in his work are listed below, only the ones which are relevant to the context of this article. own language as a reference point prominent psychologist vygotsky (1934, cited in kerr,2014) describes the importance of having some sort of reference point between the world of objects and the new language being learned. the importance of the learners’ l1 is also advocated 245 no. 20 by cognitive linguists and neuroscientists. many opponents of translation point to the fact that using a learner’s l1 in language learning is a bad idea since it can lead to negative transfer or the misunderstanding of false friends (cognates). while it is true that negative transfer and false friends exist, it also true to say that there may be just as many or even more examples of positive transfer and true friends. it is also worth noting that problems such as negative transfer can be solved through direct comparison of the two languages in question. word order is one example of negative transfer. an efficient way to create awareness of word order differences is comparing the two languages side by side. intercultural competence identity and language go hand and hand. learners associate their identity with the language that they grew up speaking. to prohibit the use of a learner’s first language in substitute for a foreign language may cause tension. instead of creating tension, the use of the student’s l1 in the classroom can create intercultural competence since the students are driven to understand similarities and differences between the two languages. mediation is a skill listed in the common european framework of reference for language(north & piccardo,2016), it appears contradictory to foster mediation in a classroom while suppressing one language and promoting another. practicality along with the cognitive and cultural benefits, use of a learners first language saves time. in some cases, it is the simplest and most time-efficient way to explain certain aspects of language. this is not to say that translation is better in all instances. there are moments where guided discovery, demonstration or explanations take precedence; although, when time is limited translation would appear to be the most efficient option. variety is key to keeping the class motivated and engaged so adding one more teaching method, in the form of translation, can add to this variety. to summarise, the use of a learner’s l1 in efl environments receives criticism from supporters of the target language only position as it is believed that use of l1 interferes with the acquisition of the target language (pan, 2010). however, the benefits of appropriately using a learner’s l1 in order to promote the transition from l1 to the target language are beginning to be recognized once more (shamash, cited in pan, 2010) (kerr, 2014). in fact, avoiding the use of the learner’s l1 can lead to various problems, one of which is word order error (macaro, 2005). using a contrastive analysis of the two languages, a method can be developed to reduce error analysis of colombian learners of english conolly 246 no. 20 error analysis of colombian learners of english conolly errors relating to adjective-noun order. i believe that “reverse translation” activities which permit the use of the learner’s l1 can be used to solve this problem. one such activity is described below as a possible example to tackle the noun order error. divide the class into pairs and give each pair a text in english. this text should have various examples of the grammar point, in this case, adjective-noun order. each pair translates the text into their l1. then, the texts are collected and redistributed throughout the class. the pairs then translate the new text they have received back into english. when all the students have finished, they compare the text they have translated with the original text. this comparison allows the students to discover the contrast in the rules between their l1 and the target language. activities such as this one can be altered to focus on speaking. for example, a role play which involves one student acting as a tourist and the other as a translator. these types of activities can also help efl teachers highlight areas of errors which perhaps have slipped under the radar. this sample exercise is limited to monolingual classes such as the ones in colombia where the majority of students’ mother tongue is spanish. it is also important that the teacher has a solid understanding of the students’ l1. conclusion adjective noun order is a seemingly small and simple part of english grammar; however, colombian students at all levels continue to make errors regarding this topic. a clear difference of grammatical rules regarding adjectivenoun order between english and spanish could explain the presence of this error in leaner output. while, the overemphasis on fluency at the expense of accuracy in the communicative teaching method is one possible reason why this type of error has persisted. to solve this problem, a combination of teaching methods is required since the over reliance on one method can lead to some areas of language being developed more than others. in the case of adjective-noun order errors, an awareness from both the students and teacher of the problem is needed along with the development of activities which deal with the problem. such activities should take advantage of the student’s l1, through translation, to demonstrate the contrast between english and spanish adjective order and allow them to understand the difference in a more complete way. along with translation methods other solutions may be possible and need to be further investigated. 247 no. 20 references bolinger, d. 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(2007). ‘the position of adjectives and other phrasal modifiers in the decomposition of the dp’. in: mcnally, l., & kennedy, c. ed(s). adverbs and adjectives: syntax, semantics, and discourse, 16-42. oxford: oxford university press. swan, m. (2005). practical english usage (3rd ed.), oxford: oxford university press. the british council. (n.d). retrieved from http://learnenglish.britishcouncil.org/ en/english-grammar/adjectives/order-adjectives tim, k.k. (2000). an investigation of subject-verb agreement errors in the interlanguage of esl learners. unpublished maters thesis, university of malaya. velez-rendon, g. (2003). english in colombia: a sociolinguistic profile. world englishes, 22(2), 185-198. whitley, s. (1986). spanish/english contrasts: a course in spanish linguistics, washington, dc: georgetown university press. wulff, s. (2003). a multifactorial corpus analysis of adjective order in english. international journal of corpus linguistics, 8 (2), 245-282. error analysis of colombian learners of english connolly 250 no. 20 error analysis of colombian learners of english author * andrew connolly is an english teacher with over 8 years teaching experience. currently, he is a teacher at universidad ean in bogota, colombia. alongside this he is a certified ielts (international english language testing system) examiner and holds a master’s degree in applied linguistics from the university of leicester. his main interests within the field of english language teaching are clil (content and language integrated learning), error analysis, exam design, and teaching english for academic purposes all with a focus, where possible, on the colombian context. orcid: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9916-3392 how to reference this article: connolly, a. j. (2020). adjective-noun order: an error analysis of colombian learners of english. gist – education and learning research journal, 20, 231250. https://doi.org/10.26817/16925777.708 11 culturally relevant books: connecting hispanic students to the curriculum alma dolores rodríguez, ed.d. abstract/resumen minority students in the united states (us) need to connect with the curriculum in order to have a meaningful schooling experience. this paper promotes the integration of culturally relevant books into the bilingual and english as a second language (esl) curriculum for hispanic english language learners (ells). a study was conducted with bilingual and esl pre-service teachers who learned about the benefits of using culturally relevant books in their teacher preparation program. preservice teachers realized that culturally relevant books connect hispanic ells to the curriculum and engage them in reading. through the study, participants gained confidence working with ells and expressed a desire to use culturally relevant books in their teaching. las minorías en los estados unidos necesitan establecer una conexión con el currículo para que su experiencia educativa sea significativa. este artículo propone la integración de libros culturalmente relevantes en el currículo bilingüe y de inglés como segunda lengua para los aprendices de inglés hispanos. se realizó un estudio con futuros maestros bilingües 12 y de inglés como segunda lengua quienes recibieron instrucción en la universidad sobre los beneficios de usar libros culturalmente relevantes. los futuros maestros corroboraron que los libros culturalmente relevantes establecen una conexión entre los alumnos hispanos y el currículo, y que promueven una participación activa en la lectura. por medio del estudio, los participantes adquirieron confianza al trabajar con aprendices de inglés y expresaron el deseo de usar libros culturalmente relevantes en su enseñanza. keywords/palabras claves: culturally relevant books, hispanic english language learners, bilingual teacher preparation; libros culturalmente relevantes, aprendices de inglés hispanos, formación de maestros bilingües introduction the us has a growing number of english language learners (ells). the 2000 census reported that the number of speakers of languages other than english increased 47% during the 1990s, and that about 6 in 10 speakers of languages other than english speak spanish (crawford, 2002). the us census bureau projected that the latino population would account for 24.4% of the total us population by the year 2050 (nieto & bode, 2008). although all regions of the us are experiencing demographical changes, some areas experience a greater increase in cultural and language diversity. for example, hodgkinson (2007) projected that states such as california, florida and texas would receive about 65% of the increase in diverse populations. in the state of texas alone, about 47% of the more than 4.5 million students is hispanic. the number of hispanic students in texas surpassed the number of white nonhispanic students in the 2001-2002 school year (tea, 2009). in south texas, close to the us-mexico border, about 97% of the total student population is latino and about 39% are ells (region one esc, 2008). therefore, bilingual and esl pre-service teachers must be prepared to address the needs of ells in us schools. in addition to acquiring effective teaching practices, bilingual and esl pre-service teachers must learn how to select and develop appropriate materials for ells. this paper proposes the incorporation of culturally relevant texts into the curriculum for hispanic ells. first, an overview of bilingual and esl curriculum is given, followed by a definition of culturally relevant books, their characteristics and their benefits as outlined by current literature. second, the results of a study which analyzed the perceptions of a group of bilingual and esl pre-service teachers regarding the use of culturally relevant books with hispanic ells is described. the method section of the paper begins with the purpose of the study, followed by culturally relevant books rodríguez 13 a description of the participants and the context in which the study was conducted. subsequently, the procedure is explained, followed by a description of the results of the study organized by research questions. finally, a discussion of the results is provided organizing the results into five major findings. bilingual and esl curricula krashen (2000) explains that there are three components of effective bilingual programs: (1) content area instruction in the native language, which serves as background knowledge to facilitate english comprehension; (2) literacy instruction in the native language, which transfers to english; and (3) a strong esl component to provide comprehensible input in english, which is supplemented with sheltered instruction in the content areas as students become more proficient in english. it is important to note that the amount and duration of native language instruction varies among different bilingual program models. long-term enrichment bilingual programs provide more native language instruction than short-term early-exit programs. research has favored enrichment bilingual programs such as lateexit and dual-language programs as being the most effective (collier, 1992; ramirez, yuen & ramey, 1991; rolstad, mahoney, & glass, 2005; thomas & collier, 2002, 2003). cummins (2000) provides the principles that underlie enrichment bilingual programs: (1) the development of two languages for extended periods benefits students cognitively and academically; (2) the knowledge and skills acquired in one language transfer to the other language; and (3) academic language takes more than 5 years to develop in contrast with social language, which develops in 1 to 3 years. although there is no doubt that effective bilingual programs work well (krashen & mcfield, 2005), educational workers should always strive to improve educational programs. krashen (2000) proposes that in order to improve bilingual programs, educators must increase the number of books in bilingual classrooms. it is important to provide students with books both in english and in their native language since enrichment bilingual education has two goals: development of academic english and heritage language development. the development of academic english is accomplished through effective esl instruction. esl, either as a stand-alone program or as a component of a bilingual program, is intended to provide ells with instruction to develop academic english language proficiency in listening, speaking, reading and writing (freeman & freeman, 2007). reading literature in english helps ells develop english language proficiency when such literature provides comprehensible input (krashen, 2004). on the other hand, culturally relevant books rodríguez 1� literature in the students’ native language is needed to meet the second goal of enrichment bilingual programs, heritage language development. exposing students to literature in both languages fosters the development of biliteracy resulting in academic and cognitive benefits for ells (cummins, 2000). in addition, ell curricula should be learner-centered and should value and respect students’ languages and cultures (freeman & freeman, 2007). nevertheless, cummins (2000) states that traditionally, language minority students have experienced “coercive relations of power” in american schools (p. 9). that is, they have a lower status than members of the dominant group. he calls for a shift in the curricula that would empower ells to have a voice and to take ownership of their learning. gay (2007) states that diverse students benefit from a curriculum that is meaningful and familiar. she adds that curricula should be relevant to students to promote engagement and interest. minority students find the curriculum relevant when they can connect with the topics addressed and with materials such as the literature used in the classroom (hunsberger, 2007). however, ada (2000) states that the books most commonly found in bilingual classrooms do not reflect the identities of ells, their families or their communities. therefore, it is important that educators provide ells not only with an increased number of books in their native language and in english, but with books that are culturally relevant to the students. culturally relevant books freeman and freeman (2004) explain that culturally relevant books go beyond being written in the students’ native language. as a matter of fact, they may even be written in english. culturally relevant books do not only display the cultural heritage of students, and they are not the same as multicultural books. culturally relevant books are directly related to ells’ lives. books are culturally relevant when there are similarities between the characters and students with their families, and when there are relationships between the students’ experiences and those told in the stories. books are also culturally relevant when students are familiar with the places mentioned in the stories and when they deal with contemporary themes. characters also contribute to making a book relevant when the student’s gender matches that of the main character and when there is an approximation between the main character’s and the student’s age. finally, books are culturally relevant for ells when the language used by the characters resembles the language used by students. that is, culturally relevant books contain familiar phrases or figures of speech. there are many reasons why bilingual and esl teachers should incorporate culturally relevant books into the curriculum. freeman and culturally relevant books rodríguez 1� freeman (2004) state that culturally relevant books allow students to comprehend the text better and help students decode more accurately because they are familiar with the material presented by the author. alanís (2007) emphasizes the importance of background knowledge in reading comprehension and states that culturally relevant books help activate it. feger (2006) states that culturally relevant books increase students’ desire to read. she adds that students have better opportunities to explore their own identities when reading culturally relevant texts. another good reason to use culturally relevant books is that they improve and promote a healthy relationship between home and school (packard, 2001). in addition, ada (1987) and cummins (2000, 2009) encourage teachers to engage ells in critical literacy to empower them. culturally relevant books facilitate critical literacy since students have background knowledge that allows them to interpret the material, to question the validity of the ideas and to positively impact their lives. in other words, culturally relevant books empower language minority students (rodríguez, 2008). given the benefits that culturally relevant books have for ells, it is of great importance to expose bilingual and esl pre-service teachers to this type of book and to encourage them to integrate culturally relevant books into the bilingual and esl curriculum once they start teaching. therefore, a two-part study was conducted to identify the perceptions of bilingual and esl pre-service teachers and hispanic ells towards culturally relevant books. method purpose the first part of the study described in this article focuses on the following research question: what are the perceptions of bilingual and esl pre-service teachers regarding culturally relevant books? the study consisted of (1) determining the ability of pre-service bilingual and esl teachers to identify culturally relevant books for hispanic ells, (2) to identify their perceptions about the usefulness of culturally relevant books to provide instruction to hispanic ells, and (3) to determine their willingness to incorporate culturally relevant books into the bilingual and esl curriculum once they would start teaching. another part of the study, not detailed in this article, examined the perceptions of young hispanic ells towards culturally relevant books read by pre-service teachers. participants this study was conducted at a university located in southern texas, very close to the us-mexico border. due to its geographical location, the institution serves students from both sides of the border. the community surrounding the university is predominantly hispanic as culturally relevant books rodríguez 1� is the university student population. bilingualism is very common in the area. many students who attend this university do not fit the typical american college student profile. many students are married and have children (sutterby, ayala & murillo, 2005). therefore, a great number of students work full-time jobs to support their families while they pursue their college education. this study was conducted with a group of 22 juniors and seniors (n = 22) who all are pursuing a degree in either bilingual or esl education. participants were working towards certification by the state of texas to teach in elementary bilingual or esl settings. all but one of the participants was hispanic, and all were female. procedure participants were enrolled in a course that introduced the foundations of bilingual and esl education. the objectives of the course included familiarization with bilingual and esl programs, understanding language acquisition, and comprehending the concepts of bilingualism and biculturalism. students enlisted in the course were taught second language teaching methods and were expected to identify and develop second language teaching materials. as part of the course, the students received instruction on culturally relevant books. participants were exposed to the characteristics of this literature and received instruction on the benefits of exposing ells to it. they listened to lectures, viewed examples and participated in class discussions about the topic. after completing training on the protection of human subjects, participants were asked to identify an ell to work with. the child could be an acquaintance or family member. subsequently, participants were asked to identify one book that would be culturally relevant for their chosen students. participants were asked to use the following criteria to select their book: (1) similarities between the characters and the children with their families; (2) relationships between the children’s experiences and those told in the stories; (3) children’s familiarity with the places mentioned in the stories; (4) contemporary themes; (5) similarities between the age of the characters and the age of the children; and (6) similarities between the language used by the characters and the language used by the children. participants were asked to read the books to the ells, and have the children complete a cultural relevance rubric developed by a. freeman (paulson & freeman, 2003) to determine if the books were indeed culturally relevant to them. the rubric was an 8-item questionnaire (appendix). the questions pertained to how familiar the children were with the setting, events, language and experiences found in the book; as well as how similar the children were to the characters in the story. culturally relevant books rodríguez 1� the results of the cultural relevance rubric were computed by adding the scores of 7 of the 8 questions. the question that was left out did not indicate how relevant the story was; it asked children how often they read this type of story. each question could be scored with a 4 (being the most relevant), 3, 2 or 1 (being not relevant at all). the highest possible combined score for the 7 questions was 28. the book was considered to be culturally relevant for the child if the score on the cultural relevance rubric was 20 or higher. pre-service teachers were also asked to write a reflective essay on their experience using the following focusing questions: (1) what is your overall impression of this activity? (2) in your opinion, how did the child respond/react to the book? (3) what is your opinion regarding culturally relevant books? and, (4) do you plan to incorporate culturally relevant books in your teaching? why? the use of standardized open-ended questions focused the participants’ attention on certain topics of interest without limiting the possible responses (patton, 1990). a systematic textual analysis of participants’ reflective essays was completed. the reflective essays were read to identify the sections that addressed each focusing question. some participants chose to use the focusing questions as subtitles in their essays, but others did not. once responses to the focusing questions were identified, the reflective essays were read a second time to segment the data. the data was segmented by focusing question. that is, the sections of all reflective essays pertaining to the first focusing question were segmented first. the same process was repeated for each of the focusing questions. subsequently, a thematic analysis was conducted by focusing on repeated words, phrases and ideas. conceptual mapping was used to organize the resulting themes (grbich, 2007). the reflective essays were read a third time to identify disconfirming evidence or confirming evidence supporting the themes. results identification of culturally relevant books as was mentioned earlier, one of the purposes of the study was to determine the ability of bilingual and esl pre-service teachers to identify culturally relevant books for hispanic ells. all participants worked with hispanic children whose ages ranged from 4 to 11. most of the children (69%) were in bilingual or esl programs, while 9% were in all-english classrooms. the type of instruction the remaining 22% of the students received was not reported. books in spanish were selected by 55% of participants, while 45% selected books in english. the culturally-relevant rubric completed by the ells revealed that 77% of pre-service teachers selected books that were culturally relevant. when participants were asked to state their perceptions of ells’ responses to culturally relevant books rodríguez 18 the books, 96% of them indicated in their reflective essays that ells responded positively. only 1 of the 22 participants did not feel the child responded positively to the selected book. she mentioned the child was impatient because the book was long. the participant realized the book was not appropriate for the child’s age. pre-service teacher perceptions the second purpose of this study was to identify bilingual and esl pre-service teachers’ perceptions about the benefits of culturally relevant books to provide instruction to hispanic ells. participants were asked to reflect on their opinions about culturally relevant books and on their experience reading a culturally relevant book to an ell. even though all participants indicated that culturally relevant books are useful and found the experience to be a positive one, they had different perceptions. the thematic analysis initially yielded 7 themes, which were later reduced to 5, as can be noted in figure 1. figure 1. benefits of culturally relevant texts as perceived by bilingual and esl pre-service teachers. the most salient theme was connections. pre-service teachers perceived culturally relevant books to be beneficial because ells can connect with the reading material. more than 60% of participants used words such as relate, identify, match, and similarities repeatedly in their reflective essays. the word connect was used numerous times by participants as they explained that culturally relevant books “connect with the reader” and “connect with their experiences.” participants noted that students were “comparing themselves to the characters and events of the story.” they also mentioned that culturally relevant books facilitated “learner-centered” instruction for hispanic ells by “connecting text and life.” in addition, they emphasized that reading culturally relevant books helped hispanic ells “learn about themselves.” the theme of connections included ideas that expressed how culturally relevant books “relate to students’ culture” as well as help them “keep and transmit their culturally relevant books rodríguez 19 traditions.” participants also noted that because ells have “background knowledge” about the topics, settings and/or events in the books, they connect with the reading and comprehend the text better. this theme included all ideas that focused on how culturally relevant books are directly related to some aspect of students’ lives or cultures. the second theme identified as a benefit of using culturally relevant books with hispanic ells was engagement. participants expressed in their reflective essays that students “had much to say,” that they were “involved” in the reading, were “asking questions” and “sharing experiences,” as well as “making predictions” as they were reading the books. all these ideas were grouped under engagement since they denote involvement in the reading activity. as was mentioned earlier, there had been two additional themes identified through the thematic analysis. one of those themes was interest. ideas that composed this theme were that children were “paying attention,” “focused,” and “interested” in the books. further examination of such ideas in the context in which they occurred led to the conclusion that when students are paying attention and/or are interested in a book they are engaged in the reading activity. therefore, interest and engagement were merged into one theme: engagement. the third benefit of culturally relevant books as perceived by preservice teachers of ells was fostering communication. this theme was identified by grouping all ideas pertaining to how students “opened up” and how participants were able to “learn about students’ family life.” this theme included ideas that had originally been grouped as a separate theme: caring. participants explained that ells feel that their “teachers care” about them when they read culturally relevant books. they also mentioned culturally relevant books help develop a “sense of warmth” that leads to students “feeling comfortable talking to the teacher about their problems.” because these ideas were included in the reflective essays within the context of ells talking more about their lives with their teachers, the theme of caring was incorporated into the theme of fostering communication. the last 2 benefits of culturally relevant books revealed by the thematic analysis were that culturally relevant books are useful to motivate and empower ells. in regards to the theme of motivation, participants mentioned that through culturally relevant books, ells would want to “read more” and to “produce good work.” ideas such as “enhancing reading desire” and “attracting children to read” were found repeatedly in pre-service teachers’ reflective essays. in regards to the theme of empowerment, participants stated that culturally relevant books promote “equality.” this theme included ideas aligned with “elimination of discrimination,” and promoting “feelings of worth.” culturally relevant books rodríguez 20 teacher willingness the third purpose of this study was to determine bilingual and esl pre-service teachers’ willingness to incorporate culturally relevant books into the curriculum. even though all participants stated that they planned to use culturally relevant books when they would start teaching, they gave different reasons for their decision. the themes that came out of the thematic analysis of participants’ reflective essays coincided with some of the previous themes: connections, engagement, motivation and communication. the most salient theme again was connections. phrases such as “relate to daily lives,” “relating to books,” “their experiences” and “their own cultures” were repeated in more than half of the reflective essays within the context of why participants wanted to include culturally relevant books in the curriculum. the second theme, engagement, was identified when pre-service teachers expressed they would use culturally relevant books to “promote social interaction” and “promote discussion.” participants felt that by using culturally relevant books, ells would be more “engaged,” “interested,” and “involved” in class. motivation and communication were 2 other reasons given by participants to use culturally relevant books. it is important to note that when participants were asked about their perceptions regarding culturally relevant books and their willingness to use them in their teaching, diversity emerged as a theme as well. participants mentioned they would use culturally relevant books because ells can appreciate “different cultures” or the “cultures of others.” the thematic analysis identified phrases such as “every culture,” “different cultures,” and “other cultures” as components of this theme. participants explained in their reflective essays that culturally relevant books help students “embrace every culture and learn from it (sic) to find similarities and differences with their own.” this type of statement would apply more accurately to multicultural books as opposed to culturally relevant books. although the purpose of the study was to identify the benefits culturally relevant books had for ells as perceived by pre-service teachers, the thematic analysis revealed that participants felt the children were not the only ones who benefited. almost half of the participants felt they benefited by gaining experience in working with an ell. words such as “witness” and “see” as well as phrases such as “interact one-on-one” and “personally experience the reaction of a child” were repeated often. second, participants appreciated the exposure they got from culturally relevant books because they had not read similar texts in their childhood, even though they were hispanic. one participant wrote, culturally relevant books rodríguez 21 this experience brought me a lot of knowledge about culturally relevant books. i was not aware of how interesting they were and how students can relate to them. i have read a few more books… and i enjoyed them, and i can even relate to those books. i am sure that if i, an adult, enjoy these books, children will enjoy them as well. discussion this study was conducted in an attempt to discover bilingual and esl pre-service teachers’ perceptions on the use of culturally relevant books with hispanic ells. the participants learned about culturally relevant books in one of their teacher preparation courses. lecture and discussion were enhanced with an activity in which pre-service teachers had to select one culturally relevant book, read it to an ell and record the students’ responses to the book. the results of the study, discussed in the previous section, can be organized into 5 main findings: selecting culturally relevant books for hispanic ells various comments were made on this first finding, such as: we learned the importance of choosing the right type of texts that children of different cultures can associate with to have a meaningful learning experience. to my surprise, determining which book to read was probably the toughest part of completing this project. everything else just fell into place. the results of this study showed that although 96% of participants considered they were able to identify appropriate culturally relevant books for the students they worked with, only 77% of ells rated the books as culturally relevant. identifying culturally relevant books for a particular ethnic group is only the starting point for teachers. in order to meet the needs of ells, teachers must match the books they select to the specific characteristics of their individual students, as opposed to just considering the general characteristics of the ethnic group. therefore, teachers of ells have to know their students well in order to select the most appropriate books for them. connecting to hispanic ells through culturally relevant books this second finding is supported by the following comment, made by a participant: [the child] would constantly compare the characters and events in the story to her family to the point that she asked, “did you choose this book especially for me or what? because there are culturally relevant books rodríguez 22 a lot of things in this book that look like if (sic) you are talking about my family.” another pre-service teacher said, “i am really interested in collecting books throughout the years to build a library that will benefit my students by presenting them with books they can relate to culturally.” when participants were asked about their perceptions regarding culturally relevant books and their willingness to use these books as teachers of ells, the most salient theme was that these books establish connections between the readings and students’ cultures. these perceptions were based on the participants’ first-hand observations of the students’ reactions as they were reading the selected books. one participant mentioned that the student “at several points during the reading… interrupted to share her brother’s and her own experiences when faced with similar situations as the story’s characters.” the connections children made between the books and their lives evidenced that their identities and cultures were being validated. engaging hispanic ells in school through culturally relevant books the author was enlightened with reference to the third finding when she read the following comment made by a participant of the study: “it was obvious that [the student] truly enjoyed the book. not only did he remain focused throughout the reading but became involved with the story before, during, and after by asking questions…” as they read culturally relevant books to ells, pre-service teachers had the opportunity to witness attentiveness and active participation on the part of the children. participants observed that students were indeed engaged in the activity. a participant mentioned that the student “would predict what was going to happen next and was usually correct.” another participant concluded that “culturally relevant books are good to keep students involved and interested in school.” gaining confidence as teachers of ells fourthly, statements were made by the participants as to their personal development as pedagogues: i was a little bit nervous because you never know what to expect with children. i was under the impression that i was not going to do a good job; after this activity, however, i’m confident that i have the ability to work with kids. culturally relevant books rodríguez 23 as can be noted from the results of the study, bilingual and esl preservice teachers responded very positively to the activity. as pre-service teachers, they lacked experience working with students, which made them nervous at first. one participant stated, “i was stressing a little over this activity because i did not know what to expect.” another one wrote, “i was nervous since i wanted to make sure it [the book] would be one that would interest him [the student].” despite their insecurities, this group of pre-service teachers met their professor’s expectations. participants enjoyed working first-hand with ells. reading a book to a child allowed pre-service teachers to personally observe the reactions of students to culturally relevant books, which positively influenced their willingness to use these books when they would start teaching. one participant explained, “i had been exposed to these types of books because we used several ones in another of my classes, but now that i have put them into practice, i really enjoyed them and will use them in the future.” providing learning experiences they did not have lastly, statements such as the following were made: “knowing that i did not have these books when i went to elementary (school), i want to give my future students the opportunity to read them in class…” two other participants stated: i do not remember ever reading a book about hispanics as a child… had i read [such] books… my self-esteem and self-image may have been so much higher… i am glad my child is able to read about others like her… being mexican-american myself, i do not recall reading books that related to different customs and traditions from the mexican culture. i would have liked to have read more books that made me remember my life… i’m sure that would have motivated me to read many books. now, as a prospective educator, i want to provide the opportunity to my students… it is important to emphasize that 96% of pre-service teachers participating in this study were hispanic like the ells they worked with, which allowed them to appreciate how individuals can connect to culturally relevant books. a recurring theme commented on by participants was that they were not exposed to culturally relevant books as children. as hispanic pre-service teachers they seemed to understand and relate to the needs of minority students. the project motivated bilingual and esl pre-service teachers to enrich their students’ learning experiences through culturally relevant books. culturally relevant books rodríguez 2� conclusion the use of culturally relevant books is an effective strategy to provide instruction to ells (feger, 2006; freeman & freeman, 2004; freeman, freeman & freeman, 2003; packard, 2001). culturally relevant books allow teachers to connect to ells, as well as to promote their engagement in school. the results of this study show that bilingual and esl pre-service teachers were able to appreciate the benefits of using culturally relevant books when selecting a book and reading it to a language minority student. the participants were able to apply the learning acquired in their college coursework and corroborate its effectiveness. they put theory into practice. moreover, the results of the study show that participants were willing to implement the knowledge acquired in college into their teaching when given opportunities to work with students. pre-service teachers of ells need to become familiar with culturally relevant books and other quality literature appropriate for their students. by doing so, they will be able to connect ells to the curriculum and engage students in learning. positively impacting the education of ells can be very rewarding, as it was for the participant who wrote, “i enjoyed reading to him as much as he enjoyed having a story read to him. now every time i see him, he wants me to read him a book! i think this is wonderful…” culturally relevant books rodríguez 2� appendix paulson, e. & freeman, a. 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(2000). the two goals of bilingual education: development of academic english and heritage language development. in j. v. tinajero & r. a. devillar (eds.), the power of two languages 2000: effective dual language use across the curriculum (pp. 20-29). new york: mcgraw hill. krashen, s. (2004, november). applying the comprehension hypothesis: some suggestions. paper presented at 13th international symposium and book fair on language teaching. (english teachers association of the republic of china), taipei, taiwan. retrieved september 5, 2007 from http://www.skdrashen.com/ articles/eta_paper/01.html krashen, s. & mcfield, g. (2005). what works? reviewing the latest evidence on bilingual education. language learner. retrieved april 25, 2008 from http://www.elladvocates.org/documents/rcn/ krashen-mcfield.pdf nieto, s. & bode, p. (2008). affirming diversity: the sociopolitical context of multicultural education (5th ed.) boston: pearson allyn and bacon. packard, b. w. (2001). when your mother asks for another book: fostering intergenerational exchange of culturally relevant books. journal of adolescent & adult literacy, 44(7), 626-633. patton, m. (1990). qualitative evaluation and research methods (2nd ed.) newbury park, ca: sage publications, inc. paulson, e. & freeman, a. (2003). insight from the eyes: the science of effective reading instruction. portsmouth, nh: heinemann. culturally relevant books rodríguez 28 ramirez, j. d., yuen, s. d., & ramey, d. r. (1991). executive summary of final report: longitudinal study of structured immersion strategy, early-exit and late-exit transitional bilingual education programs for language-minority children. san mateo, ca: aguirre international. region one education service center (region one esc) (2008). disaggregation of peims data– student as of october 26, 2007. retrieved from http://www.esc1.net/12931098115359450/lib/ 12931098115359450/1007reg1r.pdf rodríguez, a. d. (2008). literacidad crítica y literatura culturalmente relevante: una combinación que empodera a los aprendices de inglés. revista educación y pedagogía, 20(51), 155-164. rolstad, k., mahoney, k., & glass, g. v. (2005). the big picture: a meta-analysis of program effectiveness research on english language learners. educational policy, 19(4), 572-594. sutterby, j. a., ayala, j., & murillo, s. (2005). el sendero torcido al español: the development of bilingual teachers’ spanish language proficiency. bilingual research journal, 29(2), 435-452. texas education agency (tea). (2009). enrollment in texas public schools 2007-2008. retrieved march 25, 2009 from http://ritter. tea.state.tx.us/research/pdfs/enrollment_2007-08.pdf thomas, w. p. & collier, v. p. (2002). executive summary of final report: a national study of school effectiveness for language minority students’ long-term academic achievement. center for research on education, diversity and excellence. retrieved june 13, 2002 from http://www.crede.ucsc.edu/research/llaa/1.1es.html thomas, w. p. & collier, v. p. (2003). the multiple benefits of dual language. educational leadership, 61(2), 61-64. alma dolores rodríguez is an assistant professor at the university of texas at brownsville. she holds a doctorate degree in curriculum and instruction, a master’s degree in esl, and a bachelor’s degree in spanish and bilingual education. she has 15 years of experience working with hispanic english language learners in the us at all levels: elementary, secondary and higher education. she has held teaching as well as administrative positions at the elementary and secondary levels in schools with high numbers of ells. currently, as a college professor, dr. rodríguez collaborates in the preparation of bilingual and culturally relevant books rodríguez 29 esl teachers. the majority of her students are hispanic, and a good number are ells and first generation college students. she teaches both at the graduate and undergraduate levels. dr. rodríguez strives towards sensitizing in-service and pre-service teachers towards the needs of hispanic ells in her classes and professional development sessions. her research interests include the use of literature in the teaching of esl and the preservation of spanish as a heritage language in the us. culturally relevant books rodríguez gist ii semestre 2016-9.indd 5 editorial josephine taylor* publishing an academic journal dedicated to bilingual education and language learning is certainly hard work, but it is not difficult. gist is fortunate to receive an ample number of potential manuscripts each semester when we publish our call for papers, and these articles typically come from around the globe. it appears there are scores of dedicated teacher-researchers within colombia and beyond interested in sharing their work with others. in addition to our growing recognition among established researchers and academics, many of gist’s authors are publishing in such a journal for the first time. as part of its editorial policy, gist has dedicated itself to guiding and mentoring new authors through the steps of preparing and publishing research. our international peer reviewers are indispensable in this process, often going far beyond the required actions, offering suggestions on content, literature reviewed, editing, and proofreading, all in the interest of improving the articles and contributing to the quality of the journal. some of these first-time authors are classroom teachers, not university professors, but we also receive a growing number of submissions from local and international university professors. indeed, as most journals, gist undoubtedly benefits from university policies requiring its professors to conduct and publish research continuously. some would even say that such policies are simply fueling the existence of journals such as ours, and that the research conducted under these policies may not even reflect pertinent inquiry, rather the narrow interests of the professors and departments to comply with set standards of how much and how often research must be conducted and published. in the case of colombia, the national agency for the advancement of science, colciencias, promotes research and scientific advancement in the country. it also establishes and controls the norms for how research should be conducted and published, and also requires researchers to register and maintain a national cv online in which they update their profiles with absolutely every professional and academic activity, from conferences attended and papers published, to courses taught and no. 13 (july december 2016) no. 13 (july december 2016) 6 degrees obtained. the registry also requires scholars to file personal data such as identification number, date of birth, and other information that makes it possible to track these individuals and their work. periodically, academic journals in colombia are invited to review by colciencias, and categorized according to its system. this system and these categories are subject to change each time the call is opened. in the case of gist, our journal is currently in category b, but to maintain that category, the journal must now comply with additional requirements. these requirements include the registry of all persons involved in the publication of the journal in the last five years. this includes not only authors, but also peer reviewers, and members of the editorial and scientific committees, as well as the editors, of course. recently, these individuals were asked to submit their personal data to be uploaded into the colciencias central system. most of the people who have been supporting gist accepted this request and provided the information, although others justly declined, citing concerns about privacy and identify protection. in fact, standards around the globe are significantly tighter than in colombia in regards to sharing of personal data. one could argue that it is unrealistic and inappropriate to expect that international participants in our journal share information with us that they would never be asked to disclose in their own countries. in addition to the disclosure of personal data, in order to maintain the current category, colciencias is requiring authors published in journals to have at least a level 5 in the h indexing system, or an “h5,” indicating the number of articles published and the number of citations of each article, using google scholar as the source of this information. ironically, perhaps, the same system that is intended to better the quality of research may actually stifle teacher-researchers’ attempts to publish as it continuously passes even more restrictive policies. younger journals like gist actually thrive due to our work with first-time authors. our mentoring of these authors is a key component of our work with scholars who have no h index to speak of, have never conducted research or published before, and who mostly likely do not work in the university system. these authors most likely come from public and private sector schools and institutions around colombia, especially, or in other countries in latin america, and also from governmental and private organizations dedicated to the improvement of education. by adhering to colciencias policies and striving to maintain the b category of the journal, in the strictest sense, gist would need to begin rejecting submissions from these individuals, favoring those with established publication records, recognized research, and no. 13 (july december 2016) no. 13 (july december 2016) 7 advanced degrees. perhaps gist would then enjoy more recognition internationally due to its increased visibility in the established indexes, but in the opinion of this editor, we would be remiss in our mission and that of the institution to improving education in colombia. indeed, a key aspect of improving education in our country is empowering, mentoring, and publishing the voices from the field, classroom teachers in the public and private sector, and encouraging scholarship and reflection precisely among this group of individuals. in keeping with unica’s mission, we feel that classroom teachers rather than university professors are in the unique position of framing direct, precise, and relevant inquiry in response to the daily challenges of education in our context. indeed, it may be argued that the classroom teacher is the focal change agent in education in any context, and certainly in a country like colombia in which inequality is the defining characteristic of the educational system, in which vast differences exist in the quality of education, where a miniscule portion of the country’s students receive very high quality education, and the vast majority of students are subject to sub-standard, ill-equipped, and ineffective schools. reforms, innovation, and well-documented experiences in this area are direly needed. it is gist’s intention to continue promoting, mentoring, and publishing work by these teacher-researchers as one of our key contributions to scientific inquiry, but also to the improvement of education not only in colombia, but around the world. at the same time, we will strive to comply with the new standards set forth by colciencias, to the extent that these standards do not represent an impediment to the fulfillment of our mission. while gist generally publishes both research and reflective articles, most from asia, africa and latin america, it may be fitting that this issue features solely research articles, mainly from colombia. most studies stem directly from the classroom and deal with innovation in the teaching of language skills, as well as insightful treatments of intercultural components of language teaching and learning. ender velasco tovar shares research into the effect of systematic text analysis on the writing of efl students. the results report the effectiveness of the proposed model of theme-rheme analysis for the teaching of factual efl writing and on the writing performance of efl students in terms of cohesion and coherence at the paragraph level. in terms of speaking skills, first-time author nubia patricia carrero pérez reports on the effect of task-based learning and speaking tasks specifically on the oral performance of high school efl learners no. 13 (july december 2016) no. 13 (july december 2016) 8 at a public school in bogotá. task-based learning and speaking tasks in particular are an effective strategy in school-based programs in which english classes may be as infrequent as once per week. in this case, the speaking tasks led not only to gains in oral proficiency, but in students’ attitudes and motivation towards tasks particularly and english class more generally. rounding out the articles on language skills, edna velásquez’ study focuses on the role of lexical competence in reading comprehension in students of spanish as a heritage language. surprisingly, the study indicates that a steady increase in lexical competence does not lead to an equally steady improvement in reading comprehension. these findings suggest first that vocabulary knowledge may be overestimated in its direct and unique relationship to reading comprehension. the findings also point to the likely role of other, including non-linguistic factors in the reading process. several studies in this issue of gist focus on issues of culture and intercultural competence and communication. eliana edith roberto flórez and gladis leonor arias rodríguez look at the role of stereotyping in a university english program in colombia. it is possible to observe how individuals and groups’ perceptions and prejudices towards others affect the process of teaching and learning. roberto flórez and arias rodríguez found that both groups, teachers and students, developed and perpetuated stereotypes towards the other group. it can be argued that this process of “othering” deprives our interlocutors of a fair chance. in this university, students’ attitudes towards learning english may have hampered the efforts of teachers to motivate learners towards the target language. by the same token, teachers’ stereotyping of students according to their field of study possibly affected instructors’ ability to address students as individuals and respond to their particular needs. amelia chloe caroline newsom-ray and sarah jane rutter offer another study of task-based learning, this time in the context of a business university in colombia. they explore a task-based case study approach in the business english program. the authors argue that by utilizing and combining existing knowledge and skills with vocabulary and structures presented in class to solve case study problems, students were able to increase confidence and, as a result, greater language proficiency. one of the challenges in any classroom today, especially in high school settings, is the need to develop not only cognitive abilities and content knowledge, but also so-called “soft skills.” among those most critical for preparing learners for adult life include cultural and no. 13 (july december 2016) no. 13 (july december 2016) 9 intercultural competence, citizenship and ethics. maría eulalia guerrero moya, liliana muñoz ortiz and ana maría niño díaz report on the effect of literature circles and storytelling as tools to help colombian high school students identify differences in cultures. it was also possible to observe how exploration of differences helped students build identity and analyze their reactions in situations that challenged their own levels of tolerance. yi-fen cecilia liu continues the focus on intercultural competence in this issue in her study of interference of spanish as a foreign language speakers’ first language on their cultural identity and pragmatic competence. she finds that l2 speakers find it difficult to accept particularly the address forms of the target language culture, much less incorporate these into their own speech. as in previous issues of our journal, gist is pleased to be able to offer research on the use of technology in language learning, particularly research that delves more deeply into students and teachers’ attitudes towards the inclusion of particular tools. turgay han and semih okatan share their study of turkish high school students’ attitudes and experiences in efl classrooms equipped with interactive whiteboards. they find that the use of iwbs has the potential to increase learners’ exposure to and motivation towards the target language. as is common with technology, challenges can be found in the degree of instructors’ level of comfort with the tools, and with the school infrastructure’s ability to successfully incorporate them into the school setting. mónica rodriguez-bonces and kris ortiz explore the use of the cognitive apprenticeship model with a chat tool to enhance online collaborative learning. their setting is the national vocational training center in colombia, where the online model is widely available, but underexploited. their findings suggest that by incorporating the steps of cognitive apprenticeship into the chat, both learner motivation and language development are positively affected. this issue’s articles focus strongly on the classroom setting, in high schools, technical and vocational, and university programs. as argued at the outset of this editorial, it is our interest to promote not exclusively, but consistently the point of view of the learner and the classroom teacher as important change agents in learning systems. we would like to take this opportunity to thank the members of our committees, as well as our supporters and collaborators for responding to gist’s requests for articles and peer reviews. through the collaboration of these dedicated professionals, we can truly say that we have come to enjoy a strong sense of network and community around our journal. this support makes it possible to persevere in our mission of improving education in colombia and around the globe. no. 13 (july december 2016) no. 13 (july december 2016) 10 editor *josephine taylor earned her ba in english and french from emory university and an ms in teaching english as a second language from georgia state university, both in atlanta, georgia. she has been a teacher and teacher trainer for 30 years in the us, germany and colombia. she has also worked extensively in publishing, consulting, curricular innovation, and educational improvement projects. she is currently editor of gist education and learning research journal as well as professor/consultant at the institución universitaria colombo americana, única. no. 13 (july december 2016) no. 13 (july december 2016) 128 julio & lópez the reciprocal teaching model in the development of writing in tenth graders1 el modelo de enseñanza recíproco en el desarrollo de la habilidad de la escritura en estudiantes de décimo grado. karen julio cárdenas and margarita maría lópez pinzón2* universidad de caldas, colombia abstract this article presents an action research study. its purpose was to determine the extent to which the reciprocal teaching model (rt), proposed by palincscar and brown (1984), impacts tenth grader’s english writing skills. the research work included: (1) a diagnostic stage to determine the participant’s initial difficulties in regards to their writing skills; (2) an action stage that consisted of the implementation of some workshops based on the rt model and focused on reading strategies, namely predicting, clarifying, questioning, and summarizing. (3) an evaluation stage where key findings indicated the usefulness of rt for building confidence in the students and for developing their writing skills as they were able to expand their vocabulary spectrum, reduce syntax errors, and improve the content, organization and punctuation of their writing. findings also suggested that assessing writing performance through portfolios was useful to enhance the school curriculum because students engaged in their own learning and participated actively in the process. keywords: curriculum; reciprocal teaching model; reading strategies; portfolios; writing resumen este artículo presenta un estudio de investigación-acción cuyo propósito fue determinar en qué medida el modelo de enseñanza recíproca (er), propuesto por palincscar y brown (1984), afecta las habilidades de escritura en inglés del décimo grado. este trabajo de investigación incluyó: (1) una etapa de diagnóstico para 1 received: may 11th 2018/ accepted: september 18th 2019 2 karenjulio_2108@hotmail.com; margarita.lopez@ucaldas.edu.co gist education and learning research journal. issn 1692-5777. no.19 (july december, 2019). pp. 128-147. no. 19 (july december 2019) no. 19 (july december 2019) 129 julio & lópez determinar las dificultades iniciales del participante con respecto a sus habilidades de escritura; (2) una etapa de acción que consistió en la implementación de algunos talleres basados en el modelo er y se enfocó en cuatro estrategias de lectura como la predicción, clarificación, cuestionamiento y resumen. (3) una etapa de evaluación donde los principales hallazgos indicaron la utilidad de er para generar confianza en los participantes y desarrollar sus habilidades de escritura, ya que pudieron ampliar su espectro de vocabulario, reducir los errores de sintaxis y mejorar el contenido, la organización y la puntuación de sus escritos. los hallazgos también sugieren que la evaluación del desempeño de la escritura a través de portafolios es útil para mejorar el currículo escolar porque los estudiantes se involucraron en su propio aprendizaje y participaron activamente en este proceso. palabras claves: currículo; enseñanza recíproca; estrategias de lectura; portafolio; escritura resumo este artigo apresenta um estudo de pesquisa-ação cujo propósito foi determinar em que medida o modelo de ensino recíproco (er), proposto por palincscar e brown (1984), afeta as habilidades de escritura em inglês do segundo ano do ensino médio. este trabalho de pesquisa incluiu: (1) uma etapa de diagnóstico para determinar as dificuldades iniciais do participante com relação a suas habilidades de escritura; (2) uma etapa de ação que consistiu na implementação de algumas oficinas baseadas no modelo er e enfocou-se em quatro estratégias de leitura como a predição, clareza, questionamento e resumo. (3) uma etapa de avaliação onde as principais descobertas indicaram a utilidade de er para gerar confiança nos participantes e desenvolver suas habilidades de escritura, posto que puderam ampliar seu espectro de vocabulário, reduzir os erros de sintaxe e melhorar o conteúdo, a organização e a pontuação de seus escritos. as descobertas também sugerem que a avaliação do desempenho da escritura através de portfólios é útil para melhorar o currículo escolar porque os estudantes se involucraram em sua própria aprendizagem e participaram ativamente neste processo. palavras chaves: currículo; ensino recíproco; estratégias de leitura; portfólio; escritura no. 19 (july december 2019) no. 19 (july december 2019) 130 reciprocal teaching model in the development of writing julio & lópez introduction this study deals with the implementation of the reciprocal teaching model (rt) and its relation to the development of writing skills in the tenth graders of a public school in cartagena, colombia. the participants were selected according to cozby’s (2008) convenience sampling, which considers availability, schedule, members, and characteristics.the action research approach related to the quelitaive research allowed to identify the problem, gather data, interpret , to act on evidence and to evaluate results. consequently, a diagnostic stage was carried out which indicated difficulties in generating thoughts, translating ideas into readable texts, using accurate grammar, vocabulary, and punctuation, and establishing cohesion and coherence. therefore, it was clear the need for the implementation of strategies to improve the writing skills in this school. this introspection led the researchers to consider the use of the rt model because it encourages students to take into consideration their own thinking processes during reading and it helps them to be actively involved in their comprehension process, which is reflected in their written production. the outcomes of the study reported that through the implementation of the workshops under the rt model, the students developed and improved their writing skills in english. the findings established the usefulness of this model since it raised the confidence of the students towards writing which contributed to the improvement of the skill. additionally, the practicality of portfolios and the collaborative and cooperative strategies allowed students to learn from their peers and teacher by recognizing writing as a more meaningful and pleasant. literature review the writing process according to richards and renandya, writing is the most difficult skill for l2 learnerssince they must pay attention to different skills such as planning, organization, spelling, punctuation, word choice, syntax and mechanics richards and renandya (2002). cohesion and coherence are two more fundamental characteristics of a well-written passage. the former refers to surface level signals that reflect the discourse organization of the text and the intended purposes of the writer; the latter refers to whatever links the meanings of utterances in a sentence or a discourse. according to harmer (2007) teachers need to involve the students in the process of writing, by encouraging them to plan, draft and edit since this process will help them to improve the skill. moreover, the author emphasizes that teachers should take into account the age, level, learning styles and interest of the students when deciding what kind of writing they want them to do. no. 19 (july december 2019) no. 19 (july december 2019) 131 reciprocal teaching model in the development of writing julio & lópez the following image illustrates the writing process suggested by harmer (2004): figure 1. procedures involved in producing writing (harmer,2004) pre-writing: it helps to identify and organize ideas because it involves the planning of the writing process. drafting: it involves the organization of ideas into a coherent structure. the goal of drafting is to transform thoughts into written organization without being constrained by word choice or sentence structure. revising: it focuses on improving students’ writing. students rethink, rework and refine their piece by applying their knowledge of the language structure to become better writers. editing and proofreading: it involves the accuracy of the piece and should be undertaken when the revision of the content is complete. publishing: it entails sharing the writing with an audience and may involve preparing a neatly handwriting or word-processed copy of the final draft and the addition of illustration or other graphic elements if necessary. reading and writing connection although oral language is the natural channel of transmitting information, human beings have developed writing systems for communication, too. for some decades reading and writing have been taught separately (langer & applebee, 1986). some research studies have shown that they are very interdependent (krashen s. , 1984). taking into account such studies, it can no. 19 (july december 2019) no. 19 (july december 2019) 132 reciprocal teaching model in the development of writing julio & lópez be inferred that the interconnection of these two skills is so strong that one without the other cannot exist. according to durukan (2017), reading and writing skills are important from the first phase of education. krashen (1984) believes that a great deal of self-motivated reading leads to writing competence. according to gregg and steinberg (1980) and anderson, spiro, and montague (1977), both in constructivist theory and in research, reading and writing are meaning generating activities. it is usually assumed that a good reader makes a good piece of writing. therefore, writing can be enhanced by improving reading considering that this input must be related to the learners’ needs and interests in order for them to be encouraged to make their own compositions. reciprocal teaching throughout the history of language teaching different methods have been used to help students learn a language; those methods have directly addressed the four skills. the importance of reading in developing writing ability has been acknowledged recently and the teaching of writing has been suggested to incorporate reading instruction for language learners (murcia, 2001). according to krashen (2004), no matter how much time pupils spend on writing, this skill cannot be improved without an input. the alternative that this author proposes is to read more because it leads to more vocabulary building and to a better writing style. since understanding the printed text is the result of the interaction between the writer and reader (harris, 2000), the rt is supposed to enhance reading and writing skills respectively and, although it has been used for the past two decades, most educators and students are not familiar with it (williams, 2010). palincsar and brown (1984) mentioned that the rt is an instructional model in which teacher and students take turns to have a dialogue regarding the different parts of the passage to construct meaning. it provides students with four specific reading strategies which are questioning, clarifying, summarizing, and predicting. through guided practice and modeling the process, the teacher introduces the four key components of this model which are part of a reading comprehension program. as the authors affirm, the order in which the rt model is used is not established because it depends on the text, the reader and the goal to achieve. they add that sometimes it is good when a pause is naturally made between paragraphs; making predictions for what will happen next before summarizing, asking questions, and clarifying the clues that readers have so far. other times, however, it may be more natural to summarize and clarify before making predictions and asking further questions. no. 19 (july december 2019) no. 19 (july december 2019) 133 reciprocal teaching model in the development of writing julio & lópez different authors agree that the rt model is useful and helpful when developing prompts to encourage pupils to use the language. the prompts provide students with the necessary support to become independent in the use of the strategies, and to explore into their reading comprehension and ability to apply the rt model. the characteristic of each strategy is explained below. reciprocal teaching strategies: palincsar (1986), oczuks (2003) among others authors established some strategies for the students to use when reading to enhance comprehension and to better their writing skills. they are: predicting: it involves previewing the passage to anticipate what may happen next. readers can use information from the text and their prior knowledge to make logical predictions before reading. predicting allows learners to interact more with the written piece, which makes them more likely to become interested in the reading material while improving their understanding (pearson & fielding, 1991; hansen, 1981). questioning: good readers ask questions throughout the reading process (palincsar, 1986), but formulating questions is a difficult and complex task, which was evident in this study since the participants showed difficulties in the syntax of the questions. when students know, prior to reading, that they need to think of a question about the text, they read with awareness. they automatically increase their reading comprehension, process the meaning, make inferences and connections to prior knowledge and, finally, make a question (lubliner, 2004). clarifying: it helps students monitor their own comprehension as they identify problems or figure out difficult words. during this step of the rt model, teachers and students can share “fix-up” strategies to construct meaning. this strategy is important to increase the vocabulary, which was one of the main difficulties that pupils mentioned in the diagnostic stage. summarizing: to summarize effectively, students must recall and arrange only the main events in a passage. additionally, this strategy helps students to identify, paraphrase, integrate, and organize the most important information in the passage into a clear and concise statement. students can use this strategy as theycreate a new piece of writing. reciprocal teaching foundations reciprocal teaching, although very effective, does not stand alone. its four strategies are part of a broader comprehension that according to oczuks (2003) must be combined with some building blocks to be successful. these are: no. 19 (july december 2019) no. 19 (july december 2019) 134 reciprocal teaching model in the development of writing julio & lópez scaffolding: during rt, instruction is scaffolded or supported. the students can see models of the four strategies, and, finally, work independently as they read while using the rt model to help them comprehend. metacognition: metacognition is an integral component in rt because students learn to consciously think about and reflect on their strategy use (hacker, 1998). moreover, the learners’ metacognition will be enhanced by using the rt and portfolios to monitor their own growth in this process. cooperative learning: the author states thatbecause rt is a discussion technique, cooperative learning is integral to it. rt builds on the cooperative nature of learning that contributes with students´ reading comprehension to be deepened through social interactions. therefore, students may work together in their workshops and construct collaborative efforts for a prediction, question, clarification, and summary. moreover, brown (1994) mentions that cooperative learning refers to language learning that is authentic and real, it is an interactive approach which purpose is to create a meaningful learning experience. portfolios for assessing the writing process in an educational context, a portfolio is defined as “a purposeful collection of students’ works that demonstrates their efforts, progress, and achievements in given areas” (bae, 2011). accordingly, bae believes thatportfolios can be a great tool for teaching writing, and they can promote the authentic writing pieces assessment of students. in addition, portfolio assessment can be helpful for efl students to increase confidence in writing by allowing them to see their progress over time. it is interesting to notice that moya and o’malley (1994) state that the information derived from a standardized test cannot give the information needed to understand students’ progress and achievement; therefore, educators have found an alternative form of assessment, i.e., portfolios. consequently, this work of research established portfolios as one of the ways to collect data about the students’ progress during the intervention stage. through analyzing students’ portfolios, the researcher can have a better understanding of the learners’ writing process and the students have more chances of having better writing products. moreover, saddler and andrade (2004) affirm that there are two elements that could enhance the feedback provided to students’ portfolios: error codes and rubrics. the former can save teachers’ time and allow students to interpret much more easily the teacher’s feedback. the latter articulates the expectations that both teacher and students can have by listing the criteria and describing the level of achievements. no. 19 (july december 2019) no. 19 (july december 2019) 135 reciprocal teaching model in the development of writing julio & lópez methodology research design action research (ar) was the methodology used in this study because it intended to improve an educational aspect of efl teaching. ferrance (2000, p.1) maintains that ar “specifically refers to a disciplined inquiry done by a teacher (researcher) with the intention that the research will inform and change his or her practices in the future”. this approach is useful to identify the problem, to gather data, to interpret information, to act on evidence, to evaluate results and to start the cycle again. these five steps or phases promote among teacher-researchers “four basic themes: empowerment of participants, collaboration through participation, acquisition of knowledge, and social change. furthermore, in conducting action research, we structure routines for continuous confrontation with data on the health of a school community” (ferrance, 2000, p. 9). according to lewin (2006) ar is a spiraling, cyclical process that includes planning, execution, and reconnaissance and this is what teachers do when they do research on ways to teach. the following reseach question and objectives were stablished by the researchers: research question to what extent does the implementation of the reciprocal teaching model impact the writing skill in tenth graders at a public school in cartagena? research objectives 1. to examine the effect of the rt model on the improvement of the students’ writing skill. 2. to evaluate students’ vocabulary range when they are exposed to rt model. 3. to explore ways to identify students´ syntax errors in the writing process. 4. to analyze students’ level of confidence when the rt model is used for writing. pedagogical objectives 1. to increase the students’ writing proficiency using the rt model. 2. to expand the students´ vocabulary range through the exposure to the rt model. 3. to reduce syntax errors in the students’ writing process after using the rt model. 4. to increase the students´ confidence towards the writing process. no. 19 (july december 2019) no. 19 (july december 2019) 136 reciprocal teaching model in the development of writing julio & lópez context and participants the project was conducted at a public school located in the south of cartagena where students belong to low-income families who face different difficulties such as gangs’ violence, drug addiction, drug dealing, thievery, displacement, poverty, and alcoholism, among others. most of the students come from displaced families of the blended, extended or single-parent type that scarcely have the necessary economic resources. there are about 1900 students and 80 teachers. the school´s facilities include well-ventilated, spacious classrooms. teachers who work in the institution are well-qualified, most of them have postgraduate degrees or are pursuing one. in the english area there are three teachers who graduated from a foreign language program and have more than 10 years of experience in the field. the english syllabus is alignedto the ministry of education policies,and it is based on thecommunicative approach. in addition, it was designed according to the learners’ age, grade, and learning needs. collaborative and cooperative work and the motivation principle are some foundations that are considered in the english teaching and learning process. the participants of this work of research were chosen according to cozby’s (1997) convenience sampling, which considers availability, schedule, members, and characteristics. this study was conducted with a group of 27 tenth graders (8 boys and 19 girls). their ages ranged between 14 and 18. these students were not afraid to speak in english and were motivated towards the learning of the language. however, a placement test-aptisshowed that they werebasic users of english (a1). data collection instruments to collect information,instruments such as a students’ questionnaire, two pre-tests, a coordinator’ and teacher’ interview, aa researcher’ journal and portfolios, were administered. furthermore, some techniques were used in order to gather facts regarding notions about the learners’ proficiency level, opinions, attitudes, preferences, improvements and the overall performance in class. below is the description of data collection that was administered during the diagnostic, action and evaluation stage. no. 19 (july december 2019) no. 19 (july december 2019) 137 reciprocal teaching model in the development of writing julio & lópez table 1. techniques and instruments for data collection in the diagnostic stage diagnostic stage data collection technique data collection instrument survey (non-observational) students’ questionnaire testing (non-observational) students pre-test 1 testing (non-observational) students pre-test 2 interviews and audio recording (non-observational) coordinator’s transcription interviews and audio recording (non-observational) teacher’s transcription observation teacher’s journal external observation (observational) bilingualism adviser’s observation external observation (observational) regional native program coordinator’s observation external observation (observational) video recording table 2:techniques and instruments for data collection in the action and evaluation stage action and evaluation stage data collection technique data collection instrument survey (non-observational) likert questionnaire testing (non-observational) rubric observation journal testing (non-observational) students’ post-test testing (non-observational) portfolio data analysis and interpretation the analysis done throughout the project was based on the grounded theoryin which the information was triangulatedto obtained an overall view of the results.according toburns (1999): “triangulation is one of the most commonly used and best known ways of checking for validity. the aim of triangulation is to gather multiple perspectives on the situation being studied”. the data was codified and categorized in order to come up with the most significant occurrences during the diagnostic stage which is presented in the graph below. no. 19 (july december 2019) no. 19 (july december 2019) 138 reciprocal teaching model in the development of writing julio & lópez figure 2. percentages of the categories found in the diagnostic stage. theresults showed that the students had difficulties concerning writing, which was the code with most occurrences. writing was the most challenging skill for efl learners; they had difficulties in developing ideas and in using them in comprehensible texts. according to richards and renandya, writers must pay attention to planning, organizing, spelling, punctuation, word choice, cohesion and coherence, aspects that showed the highest deficiencies in the instruments (richards & renandya, 2002). during the action stage of the research process some workshops were implemented and the students’ writing process was based on four reading strategies: predicting, clarifying, questioning and summarizing (brown & palincsar, 1984). the phases of pre-writing, drafting, revising, proofreading, and publishing were considered in the design of the workshops. the main purpose of the implementation stage was to familiarize the students with the writing process and with some strategies for the students to write coherent texts of different genres. in the pre-writing phase, the learners gathered ideas through building up vocabulary with varied activities and by implementing the first strategy of the rt model, predicting.in the drafting phase, the students organized their ideas through the strategies clarifying, questioning and summarizing. during thisphase,the students also generated questions to interact meaningfully with the text and to clarify ideas. in the revising phase, thestudents refined their text. lastly,in the proofreading phase, they edited their products throughcollaborative work with their classmates to correct errors in grammar, mechanics and usage. in the publishing phase, the students shared the writing pieces in their portfolios by producing a neatly handwritten or word-processed copy of the final draft. the portfolios allowed the researchers to analyze the students’ process and growth from one workshop to the other. students were exposed to some strategies like brainstorming, listing, modeling, following outlines, adding details, developing ideas through pictures, comparing, and contrasting, clustering and using diagrams to facilitate much more the writing process. such strategies were modeled by the teacher and inferred by the students whose written outcomes were: narrative and descriptive texts, picture-story boards, contrasting charts, advertisements and brochures. during the evaluation stage the results from the instruments were analyzed and categorized and the outcomes were arranged through a holistic triangulation. the following graph shows a summary of the categories that emerged. figure 3. percentages of the categories found in the evaluation stage. the data triangulation showed five main categories: four positive and only one aspect to be improved. firstly, the category with the highest percentage in the analyses was positive attitude towards writing. all the instruments reported that there was a continuous positive feeling towards the writing process. students’ awareness rose from workshop to workshop and they gradually had more confidence to write.the following excepts confirm this issue: i could notice the students had different topics to write (festival and celebrations) and they were really concentrated looking for information for their brochure (teacher’s journal). week 2 no. 19 (july december 2019) no. 19 (july december 2019) 139 reciprocal teaching model in the development of writing julio & lópez word-processed copy of the final draft. the portfolios allowed the researchers to analyze the students’ process and growth from one workshop to the other. students were exposed to some strategies like brainstorming, listing, modeling, following outlines, adding details, developing ideas through pictures, comparing, and contrasting, clustering and using diagrams to facilitate much more the writing process. such strategies were modeled by the teacher and inferred by the students whose written outcomes were: narrative and descriptive texts, picture-story boards, contrasting charts, advertisements and brochures. during the evaluation stage the results from the instruments were analyzed and categorized and the outcomes were arranged through a holistic triangulation. the following graph shows a summary of the categories that emerged. figure 3. percentages of the categories found in the evaluation stage. the data triangulation showed five main categories: four positive and only one aspect to be improved. firstly, the category with the highest percentage in the analyses was positive attitude towards writing. all the instruments reported that there was a continuous positive feeling towards the writing process. students’ awareness rose from workshop to workshop and they gradually had more confidence to write.the following excepts confirm this issue: i could notice the students had different topics to write (festival and celebrations) and they were really concentrated looking for information for their brochure (teacher’s journal). week 2 no. 19 (july december 2019) no. 19 (july december 2019) 140 reciprocal teaching model in the development of writing julio & lópez he aprendido mucho de los borradores…/ i have learned a lot with the drafting phase (students’ questionnaire). the results from analysis exhibited consistency with the category students’ high motivation and participation. the results from the instruments revealed that the learners began to enjoy the classes and were also capable of taking a more active participation in the classroom. besides, the layout, organization and content of the workshops were appealing for the students, which made them feel committedduring the intervention. the learning process was meaningful to the learners since they had opportunities in each of the workshops to work cooperatively. these are some excerpts that confirm this: students were participative and enthusiastic in these activities because they really liked visual aids and the topic was interesting for them as well (teacher’s journal). ….amo las clases de la miss porque gracias a ella me he motivado…/ i love the english classes because i have been motivated…(students’ questionnaire). the third category displayed high frequency as well, rt benefits, which means that this method was useful to enhance the writing ability. although at the very beginning students were not familiar with these strategies, they gradually comprehended this instructional technique and the results evidenced that their writing skills progressed, which is an evidence of the fifth category students writing progress. the instruments also showed the development of each one of the writing stages. studentsbecame more aware of planning their writing and considered the teacher’s feedback to have a positive effect on their final drafts. these are some excerpts that evidence the high occurrences of these codes: students really did well in these activities because the results were good. they were assertive (teacher’sjournal). me fue muy bien con las estrategias y me siento satisfecha…/ i have done well with the strategies and i feel satisfied…(students’ questionnaire). …..ya tilize tili y me atrevo a tener conversaciones con mis primos y amigos en ingles/ i already wrote well and i dare to have conversation with my cousins and friends (students’ questionnaire). he aprendido a tilizer puntuación, mayúsculas y demás/ i have learnt to use the punctuation, capitalization and so on (students’ questionnaire). however, at the initial phase of the intervention, the category lack of writing skills indicated that there were aspects to improve in the students’ writing process like content, organization, lexis, syntax, punctuation and mechanics; the results of the instruments showed that such aspects improved no. 19 (july december 2019) no. 19 (july december 2019) 141 reciprocal teaching model in the development of writing julio & lópez progressively. as a result, the last category emerged with the lowest frequency. students were familiar with the rubrics’ conventions which allowed them to be aware of the aspects to be assessed and consider them to refinetheir final products. the following are evidences from the instruments. some students still had syntax problems. it is necessary to remind them the structure in an interesting way and practice it much more (teacher’s journal). ...al principio me sentífrustrada e insatisfecha con mi resultado, peroen el segundoobtuveunamejorpercepciónporquemejoré mi escritura…/ ate the i i felt frustrated and unsatisfied with my results but in the second workshop i achieved a better perception because i improved my writing…(students’ questionnaire). he aprendido de varioserrores y he aprendido a tenerunamejorescritura…. / i have learnt from some mistake and learnt to have a better writing… (students’ questionnaire). results after collecting the result of the instruments and analyzing the data, the findings showed that the students advanced in the developmentof the writing competence, which proved the effectiveness of rt model in an efl classroom to increase the students’ confidence in their writing processes. they were able to expand their vocabulary spectrum, reduce syntax errors, and improve their writing contents, organization and punctuation. additionally, portfolios facilitated the assessment of writing performance under the rt model. the effectiveness of rt model throughout the implementation of the workshops, students showed that they learned about the writing process under this model. gradually, students became familiar with the strategies and took advantage of the input given in the workshops to create their own pieces of writing by following the writing cycle. the students were able to improve their writing skills because the model engaged them in a formative writing process and the portfolios allowed a follow-up of their progress. the students’ confidence towards the writing process the students felt confident in the development of the given tasks. their motivation and commitment increased throughout the process. the no. 19 (july december 2019) no. 19 (july december 2019) 142 reciprocal teaching model in the development of writing julio & lópez consideration of the students’ needs and interests had them deeply involved in the process. despite some students’ frustration at the beginning, they continued the process and achieved good levels of writing performance, as shown in the data collection instruments. expansion of vocabulary spectrum, reduction syntax errors, improvement of writing content, organization and punctuation through the feedback and the use of correction codes, students were able to improve the main components of their writing skills: lexis, syntax, content, organization, punctuation and mechanics. students made corrections to their drafts through the symbols marked by the teacher which made them aware of their performance and improved their final texts as well. this was evident in the progress they had during the development of the project. the strategies of the rt model directed the students to the enhancement of the aforementioned aspects considering that in the prediction stage students learned new words that they used in their own manuscripts. besides, by questioning, the students could bolster the syntax of questions considered as the most difficult aspect, according to the results of the researcher’s journal. through the clarification strategy, they had the possibility to understand a written piece, to expand their vocabulary range and to enhance the syntax provided in the input. lastly, through the summarizing strategy, the learners practiced what they had learnt by creating their own piece of writing. usefulness of the portfolios to assess writing another finding to consider was the appropriateness of using portfolios because they engaged students in their own learning and made them participate actively in their process. both the teacher and the students recognized this tool as effective in their growth. in addition, portfolios allowed for reflection, which led students to develop metacognition and to become aware of their own learning. also, the assessment rubrics, which made part of the portfolios, were used by students to identify their strengths and weaknesses and by the researchers to get deeper insights of the students’ needs. impact on the curriculum the results showed that cooperative learning, as a basis of rt, created a better scenario where students could learn more by negotiating meaning through social interaction, making decisions and reaching conclusions in most of the stages of the lesson, mainly in the summarizing section. consequently, no. 19 (july december 2019) no. 19 (july december 2019) 143 reciprocal teaching model in the development of writing julio & lópez working with peers created a positive effect since it strengthened the students’ support to each other and developed commitment to complete the assignments. this also had an evident impact on the curriculum of the setting. finally, the rt model in the efl scenario had students achieve more goals in their writing processes because they improved their vocabulary, attitudes and confidence. such improvement was also noticeable in the language setting. rt was expected to increase students’ writing skills, but it was not expected to have students respond so well in the implementation of the workshops. the findings discussed above lead to the following section in which conclusions and pedagogical implications are presented. conclusions after the implementation of this proposal under the rt model and the analyses of the data collected, the pertinent conclusions and pedagogical implications for future research are drawn so that english teachers, administrators, policy makers, and the academic community in general take them into account if they intend to enhance writing skills using this model. effectiveness of rt model on a public school rt model has been adapted and modified to suit the esl students’ needs and the present classroom setting. the general outcomes derived from all the data collection instruments and the analyses demonstrate that this method has a positive impact on students’ writing since it improves this ability. however, the degree of the effectiveness of rt,depends on several factors such as teacher instruction and guidance, the degree of students’ involvement in group discussion and individual student characteristics. considering these features, the learners can be introduced to different types of tasks such as predicting, clarifying, questioning, summarizing, listing, brainstorming, clustering, comparing, sharing personal experiences, among others. this methodology significantly increases the learners’ confidence and enjoyment towards the learning of english; they can participate and share ideas and opinions in small groups which leads to cooperative learning. therefore, the students have a better learning scenario in which interaction is fostered. value of the portfolios an additional tool that facilitates the enhancement of writing skills under the rt model is students’ portfolios. this is an adaptation to the model which works effectively along with rt because of its organized structure to confirm no. 19 (july december 2019) no. 19 (july december 2019) 144 reciprocal teaching model in the development of writing julio & lópez the students’ growth. portfolios can be extremely valuable for encouraging students to evaluate their own work and enhance their writing confidence because they provide a means for both teachers and students to monitor progress based on the concept of writing as a process. rubrics play an important role in the assessment of written production thanks to the provision of clear criteria. implications for the use of rt in the efl classroom this study’s pedagogical implications are directed to students, teachers, institutions, and educational policies in our country. the results show that the strategies implemented in this work of research facilitated the process of writing, their use can be suggested to reinforce efl learners’ writing and reading skills. the use of rt can be a great experience for students to explore an instructional activity in which teacher and students take turns having a dialogue regarding the different parts of the text to construct meaning (palincsar& brown, 1984) and as an interactive teaching approach and a cooperative learning to foster writing (vygotsky, 1978). besides, during the implementation of the study it was noticed that when using this model, there was an effective learning atmosphere. the rt model can be used to emphasize the writing process, revising and giving feedback on students’ writing which leads to a meaningful interaction between teachers and students. another advantage of the rt model is its learner-centeredness nature that puts students in the center of the construction of the meaning they want to convey. considering that students are the main characters of the learning process, the institutional policies should implement this kind of innovation and adaptations to teaching methods that impact the english teaching and the learning process as well. due to these reasons, the researchers recommend adopting the rt model to positively impact the students’ writing skills. challenges for future research as a final point, if the language teaching community replicates this study in contexts with comparable features, it could be positive because it offers more pedagogical and research knowledge by identifying the impact of rt model on english learning. therefore, it would be very interesting to see the effect of rt model on the improvement of other skills (listening and speaking) for further research studies. in addition, other studies can be done to examine which specific strategies are more effective in the writing process. no. 19 (july december 2019) no. 19 (july december 2019) 145 reciprocal teaching model in the development of writing julio & lópez references anderson, r., spiro, r., 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(1986). reciprocal teaching. in teaching reading as thinking. in o. brook, north central regional educational laboratory. palincsar, a., & brown, a. (1984). reciprocal teaching of comprehension fostering and comprehension monitoring activities. cognition and instruction, 117–175. pearson, p., & fielding, l. (1991). comprehension instruction (pp. 815-860). white plains, ny: . in m. k. r. barr, handbook of reading research: volume ii (pp. 815-860). longman publishing. richards, j., & renandya, w. (2002). methodology in language teaching. an anthology of current practice. cambridge : cambridge university press. saddler, b., & andrade, h. (2004). the writing rubric. in b. saddler, & h. andrade, educational leadership (pp. 48-52). alenxandria, united states: association for supervision and curriculum devepment. schools, t. b. (2017, 06 1). the wriitng process. retrieved from the writing process: https://www.bcps.org/offices/lis/writing/secondary/process.html vygotsky, l. 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(2010). taking on the role of questioner: revisiting reciprocal teaching. the reading teacher, 278–281. no. 19 (july december 2019) no. 19 (july december 2019) 147 reciprocal teaching model in the development of writing julio & lópez authors *karen julio cárdenas holds an m.a. in english didactics from universidad de caldas and a bachelor’s degree in foreign languages, english/french from universidad de pamplona. she is currently a fulltime english teacher at fulgencio lequerica velez public school in cartagena, colombia. also, she is a thesis advisor for the master program in english didactics at universidad de caldas. she has been involved in both, national and international teacher development programs. she was awarded the indian technical & economic cooperation (itec) scholarship, a fully-funded program run by the government of india and supported by the colombian ministry of education. she worked as an itec scholar at the english and foreign language university (eflu) in hyderabad, india. her research interest is in the area of teaching methodologies with a focus on teaching english language to adolescents. orcid: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1744-1040 margarita lópez holds an ma in english didactics from caldas university and is currently the director of this graduate program; she has extensive experience in teaching graduate and undergraduate courses and has been conducting educational research for several years, her areas of interest include efl methodogy, research and bilingualism. orcid: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6755-3764 how to reference this article: julio-cárdenas, k., & lópez-pinzón, m. m. (2019). the reciprocal teaching model in the development of writing in tenth graders. gist – education and learning research journal, 19, 128-147. https://doi.org/10.26817/16925777.801 no. 19 (july december 2019) no. 19 (july december 2019) gist2014finalfinal.indd 29 the effect of video-based tasks in listening comprehension of iranian pre-intermediate efl learners1 los efectos de las actividades basadas en videos en la comprensión auditiva de los estudiantes iraníes de inglés intermedio abdullah sarani, esmail zare behtash and saieed moslemi nezhad arani2* university of sistan and baluchestan, chabahar maritime university, university of sistan and baluchestan, iran abstract this study aims at finding the effect of video-based tasks in improving the listening comprehension ability of iranian pre-intermediate efl (english foreign language) learners. after determining the level of learners, an experimental and control group, each of 20 participants, were nominated to contribute to the study. from the time the pre-test was administered to each group, the experimental group was taught by a course of instruction based on video tasks for teaching listening comprehension. the control group was directed by a course of instruction only based on audio materials. paired samples t-test computation was utilized by spss software to calculate the level of significant difference in preand post-tests. results show that teaching listening on the basis of video-based tasks has a significant effect on learners’ listening comprehension in realizing and understanding the authentic language more effectively. keywords: task, task-based language learning (tbll), listening comprehension, motivation, video-based tasks 1 received: january 6, 2014 / accepted: april 20, 2014 2 saieed91@yahoo.com gist education and learning research journal. issn 1692-5777. no. 8, (january june) 2014. pp. 29-47. effectiveness of computer-assisted pronunciation no. 8 (january june 2014) no. 8 (january june 2014) 30 resumen el estudio tiene como objetivo conocer el efecto de usar actividades basadas en videos para mejorar la habilidad/destreza de comprensión auditiva de los estudiantes iraníes de inglés nivel intermedio. después de determinar el nivel de inglés de los estudiantes, se crearon dos grupos, un grupo experimental y un grupo de control, cada uno conformado por 20 estudiantes, los cuales fueron seleccionados para contribuir al estudio. desde el momento en que fue administrado el test diagnóstico a cada uno de los grupos; el grupo experimental recibió actividades basadas en videos para la enseñanza de la comprensión auditiva. el grupo de control recibió instrucción basada únicamente en materiales de audio. para el cálculo de las muestras apareadas del test t se utilizó el programa de análisis estadístico (spss) versión 20, el cual permitió conocer el nivel de diferencias significativas en el test diagnóstico inicial y los posteriores. los resultados revelan que la enseñanza de la destreza auditiva basada en actividades utilizando videos tiene un efecto significativo en la comprensión auditiva de los estudiantes para desarrollar y entender el idioma de una forma más auténtica y eficaz. palabras clave: tareas, aprendizaje basado en tareas (tbll), comprensión auditiva, motivación, actividades basadas en videos resumo o estudo tem como objetivo conhecer o efeito de usar atividades baseadas em vídeos para melhorar a habilidade/destreza de compreensão auditiva dos estudantes iranianos de inglês nível intermédio. depois de determinar o nível de inglês dos estudantes, criaram-se dois grupos, um grupo experimental e um grupo de controle, cada um conformado por 20 estudantes, os quais foram selecionados para contribuir ao estudo. desde o momento em que foi administrado o teste diagnóstico a cada um dos grupos; o grupo experimental recebeu atividades baseadas em vídeos para o ensino da compreensão auditiva. o grupo de controle recebeu instrução baseada unicamente em materiais de áudio. para o cálculo das amostras em pares do teste t se utilizou o programa de análise estatístico (spss) versão 20, o qual permitiu conhecer o nível de diferencias significativas no teste diagnóstico inicial e os posteriores. os resultados revelam que o ensino da destreza auditiva baseada em atividades utilizando vídeos tem um efeito significativo a compreensão auditiva dos estudantes para desenvolver e entender o idioma de uma forma mais autêntica e eficaz. palavras chave: tarefas, aprendizagem baseada em tarefas (tbll), compreensão auditiva, motivação, atividades baseadas em vídeos the effects of video-based tasks sarani, behtash, nezhad no. 8 (january june 2014) no. 8 (january june 2014) 31 introduction a number of studies indicate that tasks can have a great effect on learning as well as pedagogy; that is, using tasks is practical both for teaching and learning effectively. it is clearly stated by nunan (2004) that “the concept of ‘task’ has become an important element in syllabus design, classroom teaching and learner assessment. it underpins several significant research agendas, and it has influenced educational policymaking in both esl and efl settings” (p. 1). accordingly, task-based language teaching has strengthened many other principles and practices. yousefi, mohammadi, and koosha (2012) propose a number of approaches of task-based exploration: psychological, interactional, socio-cultural, structure-focused, and cognitive, information-theoretical approach. it seems that the first and the third approaches are most closely related to the goal of this study, which is psychological. it seems that the presence of audio, in addition to visual information, may convey some sort of feeling for listeners in which they feel they are experiencing a real context with all its details. it is also important to consider the fact that standardized tasks are designed for specific purposes, so they are based on a structure-focused approach, resulting in expected outputs. the pedagogic considerations of task-based listening are mentioned by ellis (2003) as well: “the research based on listening-and-do tasks has shown that such tasks are effective both as listening comprehension devices and as a means of presenting new linguistic material to students” (p. 66). this idea of teaching and keeping learners exposed to problemsolving tasks for language teaching easily and effectively can be applied in listening comprehension ability. as spearritt (1962) states, “formal training in listening has been virtually nonexistent; any listening skills that pupils have acquired have come incidentally in the course of studying other subjects” (p. 22). accordingly, tasks can create variety and enjoyment for teaching and learning listening comprehension. ruso (2009) considers that increasing learners’ motivation and performance can be achieved by using task-based instruction during the course of instruction. it is worth mentioning that nearly all students with different proficiency levels are not satisfied by the gained level of listening comprehension ability. after passing a long course of instruction, still they have problems in listening comprehension, and may say “i could not understand the spoken texts or any other types of audio materials.” the problems this study treats are those of finding the effect of taskbased instruction on listening comprehension, and proposing the use of video-based tasks as suitable for instruction in teaching listening comprehension. ellis’s idea about the helpful role of employing tasks the effects of video-based tasks sarani, behtash, nezhad no. 8 (january june 2014) no. 8 (january june 2014) 32 in listening comprehension ability proves that task-based instruction can have a positive effect in increasing listening comprehension ability. according to ellis (2003) “like researchers, teachers can use listening tasks to present the student with input enriched with specific features they (students) wish to target” (p. 37). the importance of learning and teaching english as a foreign language has created a daily demand towards applying effective strategies for teaching and learning the four main skills (listening, speaking, reading, writing), as they are the ultimate goal of learning a language. many difficulties and obstacles on this road oblige us to everyday revisions and apply new methods of teaching for better adaptation and superior output. the importance of listening comprehension is also emphasized by spearritt (1962) “yet listening undoubtedly plays an important part in the process of communication. various studies have indicated that, in terms of the amount of time the four communication skills are employed, listening is the most important skill” (p. 2). regarding this, the listening skill has created problems in both teaching and learning listening comprehension. students often complain that even with intensive practices, they cannot comprehend any type of spoken texts fully. the idea of intensive practices is different from tasks, where an effective task can have supportive results after just involving learners with the task once or twice, than providing them some prepared practices and asking them to do them hundreds of times. highlighting the importance of task-based listening, we can refer to the idea of ellis (2003) where he believes “… the task-based listening research has contributed to our understanding of how specific input properties affect comprehension and language acquisition” (p. 65). through different studies published in different contexts, such as india by mohanraj (1994), turkey by tavil (2010), and french by graham (2005), it is implied that task-based instruction can improve listening comprehension ability meaningfully. still, task-based instruction, by all of its proponents, has not satisfied some others on its methodology. regarding this, the real gap is what ellis comments, (2003) “however, task-based curriculum still involves making decisions about content (i.e., what tasks to include in the syllabus) and methodology (i.e., how the tasks will be used in the classroom), thus, it is important to maintain the distinction in discussions of task-based teaching” (p. 79). continuing this view of modification, this study considers videobased tasks for teaching listening comprehension. warschauer (2002) also comments, “communicative language teaching and learning has proven that the use of video can accelerate the understanding of learners to the real use of language” (p. 4). the effects of video-based tasks sarani, behtash, nezhad no. 8 (january june 2014) no. 8 (january june 2014) 33 the goal behind this study is to investigate the effectiveness of video-based tasks instruction on iranian pre-intermediate efl learners’ listening comprehension ability. this intends to see if there is any noteworthy effect of video-based tasks instruction on improving listening comprehension ability of efl learners. the regarded level of learners is limited to pre-intermediate efl learners within the iranian educational milieu. the question which this study wants to answer can be stated as follows: does task based instruction on the basis of video-based tasks have a significant effect on improving listening comprehension of iranian preintermediate efl learners? researchers of this study, after testing the idea of video-based tasks instruction in some small contexts (such as classrooms, learners groups) and getting possitive effect, planned to conduct the same idea in larger context. this is why the hypothesis is defined as a null hypothesis. h01 task-based instruction on the basis of video-based tasks does not have any significant effect on improving listening comprehension ability of iranian pre-intermediate efl learners. literature review the perception of a “task” has become a significant building block in syllabus design, classroom teaching and learner assessment. it adds force to several important research programs, and has influenced educational policymaking in both esl and efl settings (nunan, 2004). many studies have been done regarding this concept and the idea of task-based instruction. for example, willis (1996) and nunan (2004) focus on the importance of tasks through language learning. ellis (2003) is also one of the pioneers in taking task-based instruction into the teaching of listening comprehension. this idea and practical manifestation of ellis may be accompanied by the “factorial analysis” idea of listening by spearritt (1962). different parts of the world are experiencing task-based language teaching (tblt) through different practical studies such as carless (2002), ruso (2009), yousefi, mohammadi & koosha (2012), and others. it is believed by many scholars that listening comprehension has been neglected in the contemporary era in language teaching. this idea is considered by vandergrift and goh (as cited in long & doughty, 2009). “for year the role of listening in language acquisition and communication was undervalued and neglected. second and foreign language (sl/fl) listening was often developed incidentally through the effects of video-based tasks sarani, behtash, nezhad no. 8 (january june 2014) no. 8 (january june 2014) 34 language exercises where oral language was used” (p. 395). they argue that listening comprehension in second and foreign language teaching found its substance during the communicative language period, in which language is used for face-to-face communication by having listening comprehension as part of its foundation. accordingly, it seems that listening is a kind of base for comprehensible input and the foremost aspect in inter-language communications. in terms of language expertise, they describe different aspects involved in listening comprehension as well as how to teach effectively. long and doughty (2009) describe a variety of theories based on special disciplines. “the review of teaching listening is organized around three main topics: (1) cognitive and social dimension of listening, (2) approaches to teaching listening, and (3) assessment of listening” (p. 395). the present study tries to continue the above mentioned framework in order to define and clear the listening comprehension concept. by examining the literature on the teaching of listening in different settings such as sl (second language) and fl (foreign language), it is underestood that listening comprehenstion merely used to seize the meaning from the written or spoken situations disregards teaching learners how to listen. for a time, teaching listening was mainly focused on listening itself rather than teaching different strategies to apply in successful comprehension of spoken language. later on, the pre-listening stage was added to teach listening in order to activate prior knowledge. it was argued that teaching listening comprehension should offer a kind of framework and ladder-like situation which help learners in addition to using their own previous knowledge to be able to realize and try out processes in listening comprehension. in fact, learners should learn how to listen. further, research in sl/fl shows how teaching listening comprehenstion has been conducted in two main frameworks of bottom-up and top-down approaches. bottom-up processing in listening demands an awareness of sounds and words in the stream of speech. it means that when there is an enough understanding of lexical items, listeners will be able to use their contextual knowledge to comprehend the input. according to long and doughty (2009) “the bottom-up approach to listening acknowledges the primacy of the acoustic signal and focuses on helping learners develop critical perception skills” (p. 399). it should be reminded that bottom-up processing is not exactly a method of teaching. field (2004) supports this idea and believes, “strictly speaking, however, the terms refer not to particular levels of processing but to directions of processing. in a ‘bottom-up’ process, small (‘lower level’) units are progressively reshaped into larger the effects of video-based tasks sarani, behtash, nezhad no. 8 (january june 2014) no. 8 (january june 2014) 35 ones…” (p. 344). for example, when learners are listening to the spoken language in order to have a clear comprehension, based on their prior knowledge about phonemes, they will interpret that the word exists and is understandable. speech segmentation, as its name implies, is defined as underestanding or realizing different factors, boundaries, and features in words through speech. different studies have been conducted to show the importance of speech segmentation, especially for listeners in sl/fl contexts. culter (2001) believes that when individuals are listening to a new language that is rhythmically different from their own, they can constrain their own language segmentation procedures. it is obvious that prosodic features such as stress and intonation are important cues for defining boundaries of a word. regarding so, harly (2000) concludes that apprehending speech units rather than syntactic clues could be very helpful in underestanding of english. field (2005) also states “inserting word boundaries before stressed syllables can help to identify words in a stream of speech” (p. 6). however, it is also argued that if learners are aware of the difference between their own lagnguage segmentation and the second language, this consciousness will help them beneficially. the top-down aspect of listening comprehension can be defined as helping learners understand the nature of listening comprehension in order to become more independent in applying strategies (goh, 2008). in the top-down approach, promoting learners’ metacognitive awareness is the key aim. for example, at the end of the course of instruction, learners should be able to use different types of strategies outside the class as successful listeners. metacognitive knowledge in top-down processing refers to the learners’ understanding of the ways in which different features act and cooperate. based on long and doughty (2009) “this knowledge can be devided into into person knowledge, task knowledge, and strategy knowledge” (p. 401). person knowledge refers to personal factors that support or hinder learners’ listening such as anxiety or motivation. task knowledge states that the purpose of a listening task, its demands, text organization and structure, features that could obstruct the task, and type of listening skills are essential to achieve the listening purpose. these useful strategies which enhance listening comprehension are called strategy knowledge, such as strategies applied to deal with listening problems and to check listeners’ interpretations. after communicative language teaching (clt) it is said that task-based language teaching (tblt) is a new and up-todate generation of clt point of view toward language teaching the effects of video-based tasks sarani, behtash, nezhad no. 8 (january june 2014) no. 8 (january june 2014) 36 methodology. according to ellis (2003), “tasks are an important feature of communicative language teaching (clt)” (p. 27). it seems that if we are capable of making language in the classroom meaningful, students can process language more naturally. prabhu (as cited in ruso, 2009) defines a task as “an activity which required learners to arrive at an outcome from given information through some process of thought, and which allowed teachers to control and regulate that process” (p. 24). ruso also emphasizes the following: using tasks in teaching is a popular method and the implication of using these tasks in a classroom context is observable after conducting research, many people have studied the implementation of tbl and tasks within their classrooms and have advised using tasks in language classrooms suggesting that the motivation of students’ rises through assigned tasks, on looking at the positive results that the use of tasks may bring about in the efl classroom, it can be said that using a variety of tasks in class gives positive results. (p. 4) a fundamental pedagogic concern in task-based language teaching (tblt) showed that a task can be fit into a sequence of instruction. willis (as cited in ellis, 2003) willis envisages a “task cycle” consisting of three broad phases: (1) pre-task, (2) task, and (3) language focus” (p. 33). the term task cycle, in fact, refers to the steps or phases that one task should involve in order to be as effective as it can be. through these three stages, the basic concentration can be upon the form. ellis explains, “in the pre-task phase one option is for the teacher to highlight useful words and phrases. the task phase ends with a “report” where the learners comment on their performance of the task. in the final phase, learners perform consciousness-raising and practice activities directed at specific linguistic features that occurred in the input of the task and/or in the transcripts of fluent speakers doing the task” (p. 33). in the context of the present study, the idea underpinning the use of task-based instruction with video-based tasks is based on the viewpoint that “with video, the student can not only hear the speakers; he can see the speakers, the background situational cues, the paralinguistic features, and the non-verbal communication of the exchange” (wilkinson, 1984, p. 1). in audio-based materials, which are very commonly used, there is no visual element and the script be required to contain more verbally explicit language than is usual in real life to make-up for the absence of the visual cues. according to candlin (1982) “the danger is, of course, that students get used to more than usually explicit language and find real life interaction very difficult to cope with, being less explicit” (p. 14). video, clearly, does not comprise this shortcoming. the language the effects of video-based tasks sarani, behtash, nezhad no. 8 (january june 2014) no. 8 (january june 2014) 37 situation presented on video can be both authentic and meaningful because an important part of the overall message is conveyed by the visual image. as well, the technical features of video (freeze frame, review, and preview) provide the teacher with the control required to facilitate student analysis and comprehension of the language presented (candlin, 1982). it seems that no matter how authentic or meaningful the language presented on video is, it is not true in real life. in real life situations, a student must not only listen and understand, he or she must also initiate language. however, candlin (1982) argues that “because video is such a dynamic medium, well designed video-based activities can provide an effective stimulus to take students from a passive listening comprehension to an active oral interaction” (p. 1). wilkinson (1984) started to use videos with the purpose of applying activities that define the “pedagogical and technical features of video and involve students in interactive viewing situations that develop both receptive and productive skills” (p. 83). through this study he used those learning activities which are increasingly more communicative as the video progresses, that students contribute energetically during the total watching, not simply at the end. these activities were regarded as “information retrieval” activity (introducing characters), “discussion/ consensus” activity (powers of observation), “view and speculate” activity (possible motives), “jigsaw viewing” activity (who’s guilty?), and “report/debate” activity (the accusation). another theoretical study, done by aulia (2005) evaluates utilizing video in the testing of listening. he argues: it is inevitable since it was introduced in language testing assessment the use of video in listening comprehension still leaves some pros and cons, some pros are the use of video in pedagogy and the ability of video to bring salient pragmatic competence and paralinguistic features of the video, whereas the cons are the distractions that happen due to video and the inability of video to avoid the ambiguity of interpretation. (p. 6) wagner (2004) administered a video listening test and reports that “the results seem to provide some evidence for the validation of a twofactor model of listening based on the ability to comprehend explicitly stated information, and the ability to comprehend implicit information in aural texts” (p. 1) however, this pilot study mainly focused on testing of listening comprehension using videos. on the other hand, it seems that no studies have been done on the basis of teaching listening comprehension through the video-based tasks. this gap is exactly what this study wants to explore and to discover. the effects of video-based tasks sarani, behtash, nezhad no. 8 (january june 2014) no. 8 (january june 2014) 38 methodology research design the conducted plan for this investigation is experimental. two groups of subjects (participants) with the same level of proficiency were nominated to embark on the study, an experimental group and a control group. each group involved twenty subjects. preand post-tests were administrated at the beginning and end of the course of instruction, and then the data was statistically analyzed. materials the related instruments and materials for this research proposed as following. standard english video clips (top notch tv programs), video-based tasks (such as true-false, multiple-choice, fill-in-the blank, etc.), pre-and post-tests of listening comprehension directed to both groups of students from the same intermediate proficiency level. the required video-based listening comprehension tasks were developed based on the task-based instruction criteria and also were extracted from top notch tv program worksheets. for the experimental group the content was designed for 10 sessions of instruction in different learning objectives. data collection instruments this division of subjects into control and experimental groups was made based on the placement test, which was implemented among nearly 60 students from different universities in zahedan, iran. two classes were created: “class a,” or the experimental group and “class b,” the control group. subjects were assigned to either group randomly. both groups were given 10 sessions of instruction of 60 minutes for each session. then, before the first session, the pre-test of listening comprehension was administrated to both groups: to “class a” as a video-based listening test and “class b” as an audio-based listening test. class “a,” the experimental group, was given the pre-test of listening based on the planned video materials. five video clips were selected randomly accompanied by their tasks and activities from the textbook. for class “b,” the same pre-test with identical learning objectives was given, based on the audio only. after gathering the primary data from the pre-test, the tasks and activities were implemented using ten sessions of video material for the experimental group “class a.” meanwhile, the control group, “class b,” used the audio-based material the effects of video-based tasks sarani, behtash, nezhad no. 8 (january june 2014) no. 8 (january june 2014) 39 as the course of instruction for teaching listening comprehension. the process of teaching or instructing this class (experimental group) for all ten sessions followed the overall lesson planning framework as succeeding in which comes from task-cycle notion. step 1 – preview (pre-task phase). to help prepare students’ expectations about what they are going to watch and to aid in their comprehension, teachers used warm-up questions, brainstormed relevant vocabulary, and conducted other preview activities. step 2 – view (task phase). after a preview activity, instructors played the video clip first for general comprehension – to allow students to get the main idea or the general story. then, replayed it several times for students to grasp more details. the pause button was used as needed to focus on sections students had difficulty understanding. next, students were asked to complete an exercise on the corresponding activity while they were watching. step 3 – review (post-task phase). in this step, we asked comprehension questions and testified that students had understood the gist of the video clips. questions included a variety of question types – yes / no questions, simple whquestions, and inferential questions. in addition, or alternatively, students were asked to complete exercises after they had watched a segment. data analysis and interpretation the next stage, the last step through the procedure of this study was the post-test (final exam) that measured both groups of “class a” and “class b” based on their own learning objectives and course materials. these post-tests, the same as pre-tests, were not the same. by this time, the data (scores) was collected. the test scores were compared statistically using a paired sample t-test by spss software version 20 (statistical package for the social sciences) in order to see if there was any significant difference between the preand post-tests in each of the two groups of learners to determine their level of progression after their own course of instruction. results the present study tried to answer one basic question established by one null hypothesis. this hypothesis arose from the idea that task-based instruction including video could help the listening comprehension ability of pre-intermediate efl (english foreign language) learners. the effects of video-based tasks sarani, behtash, nezhad no. 8 (january june 2014) no. 8 (january june 2014) 40 through the rest of this section we will define research null hypotheses and their related questions one by one. the basic question that this study considered was whether taskbased instruction using video-based tasks have a significant effect on improving listening comprehension of iranian pre-intermediate efl learners. to answer this question, we conducted paired-sample t-test computation in order to compare the scores obtained from pre-test and post-test. table 2. paired samples statistics for pre-posttests in experimental group as is shown by table 2, the paired samples statistics, the mean obtained for the pre-test is 37.4500, and the computed mean for posttest shows 51.0000. at first sight, it is clearly understood that this large difference in preand post-tests’ mean scores promises a progress. however, for an exact description, paired sample t-test is providing a clear notion on the degree of significance. table 3. paired sample t-test computation for pre-posttest for experimental group the effects of video-based tasks sarani, behtash, nezhad no. 8 (january june 2014) no. 8 (january june 2014) 41 what is implied from table 3 is that the level of significant difference between these two preand post-tests is defined as .000. that is, the value of sig. (2-tailed) equals to .000. this value is the indication of signified difference and the valid progression of students in the experimental group. so, it seems that learners in the video-based listening class showed a positive growth in their listening comprehension ability. table 4, below, introduces the correlation between the preand post-tests of the above mentioned group. table 4. paired samples correlations for pre-test and post-test, experimental group we also analyzed the attained statistics from the pre-test and posttest in control group. this control group was only instructed based on audio-based materials. table 5. paired samples statistics for pre-test and post-test in control group paying attention to the above table, it is clear that the mean score for pre-test of listening comprehension is known as 16.5000, and the same score for post-test shows 15.2500. apparently, mean scores do not give evidence on any kind of advancement for learners in the control group because the pre-test mean score is, surprisingly, higher than the post-test mean score. the effects of video-based tasks sarani, behtash, nezhad no. 8 (january june 2014) no. 8 (january june 2014) 42 table 6. paired samples t-test for control group based on table 6, it is found that there is no significant difference between the pre-test and the post-test of listening comprehension in control group of this study. this idea is powered by considering the sig. (2-tailed) score. through the above mentioned table, the sig. (2-tailed) score is determined as .279. this score is higher than .05, and regarding so, the spss computation did not detect any significant difference. table 7. paired samples correlations pre-test and post-test of listening comprehension in control group according to table 7, the sig. level computed as .417. this score in level of significant difference is quite higher than .05. totally, it means that teaching listening comprehension on the basis of audiobased material only had no any positive advancement on the level of learners listening ability. based on what was discovered by the preand post-tests of listening comprehension in control group, the question arises as to what happened to this group in which the pre-test mean score is somehow higher than the post-test. as already mentioned regarding the real intention of this study, it seems the reason is lying on the base of instruction. a focus on the right answer is only, “when the listener is incapable of keeping up with the speech rate, often creates a high level of anxiety, which, in turn, affects attention capacity” (arnold, cited in vandergrift, 2004, p. 8). vandergrift (2004) also specifies that while a focus on product allows the teacher to verify comprehension, the answer (correct or incorrect) reveals nothing about the process; i.e., the effects of video-based tasks sarani, behtash, nezhad no. 8 (january june 2014) no. 8 (january june 2014) 43 how students arrived at comprehension. this is what usually happens when the basic concerns of our english teachers are devoted towards the listening and repeating the lessons. accordingly, based on what we detected from our control group, relying just on audio-based instruction never guarantees teaching listening comprehension improvement. besides, buck, upholding that listening capability can only be attained by listening to many realistic texts for communicative purposes, also advocates that listening instruction “can be greatly facilitated if teachers understand the nature of listening comprehension and can sensitize student to important issues and provide the optimum listening practice” (1995, p. 128). this optimization in teaching listening comprehension is something which can be implied directly from task-based language teaching accompanied by video. through the present study, in which the main concern was placed on teaching listening comprehension by task-based criteria methodology and using video, the above mentioned idea has been the matter of attention. this is the reason when we compare pre-test and post-test mean scores in our experimental group, obviously, the progression uncovers itself distinctively. furthermore, the paired samples t-test detects the level of .000, which proves the significance difference and the usefulness of video-based task instruction applied to the experimental group. however, as it is cited by vandergrift, (2004), “the recent literature on the l2 listening instruction suggests that students can benefit from an approach where strategies are taught in an integrated fashion” (p. 10). the on-hand study by its results in testing the first null hypothesis substantiate with evidence that this integrated approach can be achieved through instructing listening comprehension through video-based tasks. hence, the hypothesis that task-based instruction on the basis of video-based tasks does not have any significant effect on improving listening comprehension ability of iranian pre-intermediate efl learners is strongly rejected. it means that our instruction based on video-based tasks provided students a good development in listening comprehension ability. conclusions based on the data analysis and related discussion, it is clearly revealed that video is a very suitable and appropriate tool accompanied by different types of tasks for teaching and improving listening comprehension skill. for ells (english language learners), watching a person during communicative acts helps scaffold comprehension because an ell will also look at a person’s body language and facial the effects of video-based tasks sarani, behtash, nezhad no. 8 (january june 2014) no. 8 (january june 2014) 44 expressions to help encode the meaning of a message (erben, 2009). besides, video has a vast variety of features in which nearly all types of tasks within tblt (task-based language teaching) are applicable. wishfully, the present study will open a new road toward serious use of videos in teaching as course materials. for language teachers, a visual element increases the possibilities for using any text in the classroom. in other words, there are more things that you can do with words and pictures than with words alone. this is when video comes and helps us in teaching and learning. in our today’s world of technology, we could access to the mass of online video with all that is new and at the most advanced stage of creativity. and, of course, the growth of video sharing has allowed for availability of various videos. the world wide web is commonly not defined by restrictions. language teachers can make use of video material from their learners’ particular experiences for listening, speaking, reading, and writing activities and to evaluate their progress. finally, video as a worthy listening instrument can improve the listening knowledge for efl students. rarely does it happen that we provide our students this opportunity that they learn the course objectives through the video activities. we constantly ask our students to work with recorded conversations of people they never see. however, we can add a full innovative dimension to hearing practice in our english classrooms by using video. the setting, action, emotions, gestures, etc., that our students can perceive in a video clip, afford a central visual motivation for language production and practice. obviously it is proved that video-based tasks are totally effective in improving the listening ability of efl learners. not only looking from a teaching methodology point of view, but considering from psycholinguistics point of view, based on the present study, it gives the impression that one of the best ways of teaching and learning listening skill which is a real, actual, active, and operational approach can be considered as video-based tasks. unfortunately, on the level of academic research, there is a serious lack of studies on using videos for offering video-based courses of instruction. as it was discussed and as it comes from the title of the study, even less attention has been paid to listening comprehension ability. still, there are some suggestions in which this investigation and its results encouraged the researcher to propose more studies in this field. based on the present study, it seems that teaching and improving other skills of english language based on video can be put under the effects of video-based tasks sarani, behtash, nezhad no. 8 (january june 2014) no. 8 (january june 2014) 45 the matter of investigation, for example, courses of instruction for improving speaking, reading, and writing on the basis of video-based tasks. also, the notion of task design for listening comprehension or other language skills is recommended for future studies. the matter of gender and their level of satisfaction can be applied to the same study. also the concept of age could be put under the investigation. references aulia, m. 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(1994). developing listening comprehension using easily available resources. english teaching forum, oct. 1994, 40. nunan, d. (1989). designing tasks for the communicative classroom. cambridge: cambridge university press. nunan, d. (2004). task-based language teaching. new york: cambridge university press. ruso, n. (2009). the influence of task based learning on efl classrooms. asian efl journal. spearritt, d. (1962). listening comprehension: a factorial analysis. melbourne: g. w. green & sons. tavil, z. m. (2010). integrating listening and speaking skills to facilitate english. procedia – social and behavioral sciences, 9, 765-770. vandergrift, l. (2004). learning to listen or listening to learn. annual review of applied linguistics, 24, 3-25. wagner, e. (2004). video listening tests: a pilot study. retrieved from: file:///c:/users/josephine/downloads/7-41-1-pb%20(1).pdf warschauer, m. (2002). a developmental perspective on technology in language education. tesol quarterly, 36(3), 453-475. wilkinson, r. (1984). video-based learning activities. tesol canada journal, 1(2), 83-86. willis, j. (1996). a framework for task-based learning. new york: longman. yousefi, m. h., mohammadi, e. g., & koosha, m. (2012). task complexity and its implication for pedagogy. theory and practice in language studies, 2(7), 77-92. the effects of video-based tasks sarani, behtash, nezhad no. 8 (january june 2014) no. 8 (january june 2014) 47 authors *abdullah sarani is associate professor in the department of english language and literature, university of sistan and baluchestan. he completed his ph.d. in applied linguistics at the university of delhi, india in 2005. his primary research areas¬ are second language acquisition, language teaching, discourse analysis, psycholinguistics and stylistics. his research articles have appeared mainly in international journals. *esmail zare behtash is a faculty member and the convener of m.a. students in chabahar maritime university, iran. at the moment he is a visiting scholar at oxford university in oriental institute. his publications cover two main areas: victorian literature and lexicography, writing bilingual dictionaries. professor behtash has presented a paper on the “literature review of fitzgerald’s rubáiyát” at the university of sydney (1992) and another paper on fitzgerald’s “rubáiyát: a victorian invention” in the nishabour international seminar on omar khayyam (1999). he has also published articles in persian on “faith and doubt in victorian poetry” (shahid beheshti university, tehran) and “fitzgerald and persian literature” (orientalia suecana, uppsala, sweden). in july 2009 he presented a paper on the “reception of the rubáiyát by the victorians” at cambridge university. professor behtash has published many books, and since 2001, he has been working on a large-scale project of a comprehensive collegiate persian-toenglish dictionary, expected to be published in 2012. *saieed moslemi nezhad arani is an m.a. student of tefol at university of sistan and baluchestan. he did his undergraduate work at payam-e-noor university of aran, iran, and received his bachelor of arts in english translation studies in 2010. then he moved to the university of sistan and baluchestan, chabahar international campus and started tefol studies in 2011. meanwhile he started to publish some articles in discourse and call studies he has been an english teacher and translator at various institutions and schools. he graduated on master of arts in tefol studies in 2013 with the purpose of combining tasks with videos for teaching english listening comprehension skill. the effects of video-based tasks sarani, behtash, nezhad no. 8 (january june 2014) no. 8 (january june 2014) 193 influence of video games on vocabulary acquisition assessment of english learning in a language teacher education program1 evaluación del aprendizaje del inglés en un programa de licenciatura en lengua extranjera leonardo herrera mosquera and lilian cecilia zambrano castillo2* universidad surcolombiana, colombia abstract this paper reports the findings of a study aimed at characterizing the assessment process in an english language teacher education program (eltep, henceforth) at a colombian public university. perceptions of teachers and students, revision of some official documents such as course syllabi and test samples, and class observation were used to respond to the inquiries of this study. interviews, questionnaires, field diaries, and documentary records were employed to gather information for this qualitativedescriptive study. data analysis suggests that despite the general guidelines proposed by the institution in terms of assessment of learning, and some good evaluative practices implemented by the professors of the eltep, the consolidation of an approach is required; an approach understood as criteria and pedagogical procedures that guide both teachers and students, and one that promotes more formative, fair and democratic assessment. keywords: assessment; english learning; evaluative practices; formative; democratic; fair assessment. resumen el presente estudio tiene como propósito caracterizar el proceso de evaluación del aprendizaje de inglés en un programa de licenciatura en lengua extranjera de una universidad pública colombiana. desde un enfoque cualitativo-descriptivo, se indagó sobre las percepciones de los docentes y estudiantes frente a este proceso, se revisaron algunos documentos oficiales como microdiseños y muestras de exámenes, y se observaron algunas clases para responder a las preguntas del presente estudio. como instrumentos de recolección de datos se utilizaron entrevistas, cuestionarios, diarios de campo, y registros documentales, los cuales permitieron realizar la correspondiente 1 received: march 3rd 2019/ accepted: october 28th 2019 2 leonardo.herrera@usco.edu.co; licezam@usco.edu.co gist education and learning research journal. issn 1692-5777. no.19 (july december, 2019). pp. 193-214. no. 19 (july december 2019) no. 19 (july december 2019) 194 assessment of english learning herrera & zambrano triangulación de la información. una vez recolectada la información, se procedió a su respectivo análisis a través de una metodología de estadística descriptiva y análisis cualitativo con el soporte de un programa informático para la codificación y categorización de la información. los resultados que arrojó este estudio permiten concluir que a pesar de los lineamientos generales que propone la institución en materia de evaluación de los aprendizajes, y algunas buenas prácticas evaluativas implementadas por los docentes del programa de licenciatura en inglés investigado, se requiere la consolidación de un enfoque, entendido como criterios y procedimientos pedagógicos, que oriente tanto a docentes y estudiantes, y que promueva una evaluación más formativa, justa y democrática. palabras clave: evaluación; aprendizaje de inglés; prácticas evaluativas; formativo; democrático; evaluación equitativa resumo o presente estudo tem como propósito caracterizar o processo de avaliação da aprendizagem de inglês em um programa de licenciatura em língua estrangeira de uma universidade pública colombiana. desde um enfoque qualitativo-descritivo, indagouse sobre as percepções dos docentes e estudantes diante deste processo, revisaram-se alguns documentos oficiais como micro desenhos e amostras de provas, e observaramse algumas aulas para responder as preguntas do presente estudo. como instrumentos de coleta de dados, utilizaram-se entrevistas, questionários, diários de campo e registros documentais, os quais permitiram realizar a correspondente triangulação da informação. quando coletada a informação, procedeu-se a sua respectiva análise através de uma metodologia de estatística descritiva e análise qualitativa com o suporte de um programa informático para a codificação e categorização da informação. os resultados que evidenciou este estudo permitem concluir que apesar dos alinhamentos gerais que propõe a instituição em matéria de avaliação dos aprendizes, e algumas boas práticas avaliativas implementadas pelos docentes do programa de licenciatura em inglês pesquisado, requer-se a consolidação de um enfoque, entendido como critérios e procedimentos pedagógicos, que oriente tanto a docentes e estudantes, e que promova uma avaliação mais formativa, justa e democrática. palavras chave: avaliação; aprendizagem de inglês; práticas avaliativas; formativo; democrático; avaliação equitativa no. 19 (july december 2019) no. 19 (july december 2019) 195 assessment of english learning herrera & zambrano introduction in order for the teaching and learning process of a foreign language to be meaningful, and students become proficient users of the l2, many variables have to be taken into consideration. methodology, materials, time exposure, setting conditions, and evaluation, assessment and testing procedures, among others, are some important aspects that may influence student learning, for better or worse. regarding assessment, estevez (1997) states that despite rich theoretical principles on this field, poor assessment practices have been promoted in the educational arena for decades. the results of different studies support the gaps between the theoretical tenets and the real assessment practices carried out in the learning process. rojas and artunduaga (2018) found out that, according to english teachers and students’ perceptions, learners didn´t achieve the expected level in advanced courses, because neither the classwork nor the tests were challenging enough during the basic english classes. in addition, arias and maturana (2005) concluded that, even though in some school settings english teachers are trying to follow the educational policies and theoretical guidelines on evaluation, assessment and testing issues, much research should be done in our context. in this regard, jurado (2015) points out that “one of the causes of the high rates of “school desertion” is related to the pedagogic problems linked to assessment practice” (p.5); he also adds, “the university curricula are rigid and the pedagogy and assessment processes are characterized by a vertical approach” (p5). therefore, the author believes that open reflection within the framework in research and innovation projects might allow us to analyze the assessment issue in dept. likewise, lópez and bernal, (2009) affirm that “more research is needed on how tests are developed and how all the stakeholders are involved in this process, especially when this research takes into consideration the uniqueness of the colombian context.”(p.12) similarly, the assessment process of the l2 in the targeted academic program is not any different from the aforementioned general situation; it has not had a rigorous analysis framed into research experiences. despite the fact that the higher education institution analyzed, favors formative assessment guidelines from its institutional policies, there are still concerns about how teachers implement those parameters. from our own perspective, we perceive a greater emphasis on the summative assessment rather than on formative assessment procedures. considering the previous situation, the following objectives were formulated. • to identify the perceptions that both teachers and students have about the assessment of the english learning process in an eltep. • to describe the assessment criteria and mechanisms commonly used by the teachers of the eltep. no. 19 (july december 2019) no. 19 (july december 2019) 196 assessment of english learning herrera & zambrano • to determine suggestions provided by both students and teachers in regards to the assessment approach and procedures implemented in the eltep. literature review what does evaluation mean? in english speaking countries, there is a distinction between the terms testing, assessment, and evaluation to refer to the act of evaluating students’ learning. brown (2004) points out that testing is about a deliberated application of an assessment instrument formed by a group of structured items that measure the learner’s performance in a certain field of knowledge. this process might be influenced by external factors when executing it. bachman (2004) defines assessment as the process of collecting information about something that we want to know, following systematic and substantially founded procedures. the results of this process, which objective is usually to interpret the foreign language skills of the student, could be a grade or a verbal description with some feedback. on the other hand, baehr (2005) suggests that evaluation involves the two concepts mentioned before (assessment and testing) since it takes them as sources of information to draw up valuable judgments and make decisions when facing educational processes. in this case, we could say that the three concepts contribute in different ways to improve the teaching-learning process. teachers, in many cases, are confined to measure students’ performance quantitatively and tend to underestimate all the information that the assessment process offers; which at the same time, would allow to mold the groups in charge objectively, modify teaching methodologies, maximize the learning and produce changes and action plans. thomas, allman and beech (2004), cited in herrera and macías (2015), recognize the relevance of evaluation when they highlight its benefits for teachers and students in different aspects: 1) it provides useful information to improve the pedagogical practice of the teacher; 2) it allows the teacher to monitor the student’s learning process and contributes to the improvement of it before the course is finished; 3) it gives the teacher important information about accurate teaching methods for each group of students; 4) it allows students to use the evaluation and the feedback to understand better their learning process; 5) it offers students the opportunity to develop and improve their ability to self-assess and consider evaluation as part of the learning process; 6) it helps students to make decisions on how to acquire knowledge and develop abilities; 7) it helps students to prepare for international examinations, especially if the assessment format is the same one they use in them. the aforementioned benefits that assessment provides to teachers and learners let us establish the potential impact it has on the teaching and learning no. 19 (july december 2019) no. 19 (july december 2019) 197 assessment of english learning herrera & zambrano process. in this sense, white (2009) argues “while becoming more assessment literate is of prime importance for a teacher´s professional development, the impact for our students in our classes must also remain a consideration.” (p.21). principles of assessment designing and implementing an evaluation is not an easy task, due to the multiple considerations that must be taken into account and the principles that guide it. several authors have proposed various evaluative principles, in order to facilitate and optimize this process. first, brown (2004) proposes practicality as a process where tests can be developed within the allotted time; it is easy to administer and has a simple grading system. similarly, brown points out that an evaluation ceases to be practical if it takes a long time for the administrator to grade it. on the other hand, bachman and palmer (1996), argue, “practicality pertains to the ways in which the test will be implemented, and, to a large degree, whether it will be developed and used at all. that is, for any given situation, if the resources required for implementing the test exceed the resources available, the test will be impractical.”(p.35) second, the principle of reliability, according to brown (2004), is presented as the consistency that should be in the results obtained in a test, given in two different moments to the same student or group in similar circumstances. according to the author, different factors should be taken into consideration to determine whether an examination is reliable or not. reliability can also be affected by variations in the physical or psychological state of the student taking the test, by the errors that an evaluator might make when grading the test, and by factors related to the administration of the test. a third principle is that of validity. generically, it refers to evaluating what really should be evaluated. for bachman and palmer (1996), the validity of the construct corresponds to the relevance and significance of the interpretations made from the results of the test. according to these authors, it is necessary to validate these interpretations by presenting evidence that the test score reflects the linguistic area we want to measure. another principle of great relevance in the teaching-learning process of a foreign language is authenticity. teachers must ensure that the language, in lexical and semantic terms and to which the student is exposed, in some way resembles the language used in real second language contexts. to this degree of correspondence that exists between the characteristics of the use of the target language and the tasks that we require the student to do in a test, is what bachman and palmer (1996) define as authenticity. no. 19 (july december 2019) no. 19 (july december 2019) 198 assessment of english learning herrera & zambrano regarding the principle of justice (shohamy, 2001), it is sought that the procedures used during the evaluation process are appropriate for everyone. this guarantees equity (equal conditions for conducting the test) and transparency of the same. justice is based on the foundations of impartiality and consistency. that is, the exam administrator must be objective when evaluating and establishing clear evaluation criteria according to the level that we expect students to reach. the principle of democracy can be understood, in the words of shohamy (2001), and transferred to the field of evaluation in the classroom, in need to develop evaluative practices in “collaboration and cooperation with the evaluated”; in the need to limit the use of evaluations as “instruments of power”; in the need to “take responsibility for the evaluations and their uses” and the need to “protect the rights of those evaluated” (p.376). regarding the feedback (washback or impact), pérez (2007) suggests that it should be opportune and systematic, which implies that from the evaluation, the student should be provided with brief descriptions or critical and stimulating comments on their performance, rather than with ratings. the research results reflected in the literature coincide in pointing out that feedback is the most important part of the entire process due to its enhancing effect on future learning and student performance (black & william, 1998). according to pérez (2007), although the feedback is of great importance for the selfregulation of learning, this, in several occasions, is not understood because it is provided long after the work done and the student may no longer be interested. pérez (2007) also suggests that a socio-constructivist approach to the feedback process requires students to be actively involved. sadler (1989), quoted in rust (2005), identifies three conditions for effective feedback: knowledge of the evaluation criteria, comparison of these with its own work and the action taken to fill the gap between the two. uncovering these manifestos, pérez concludes that students should be trained in how to interpret feedback, how to relate it to the characteristics of the work they do and how to improve their work in the future. evaluative competences popham (2009) states that assessing the student performance is one of the fundamental tasks for the modern teacher. being competent in educational evaluation allows the teacher to make accurate and well-founded decisions that contribute to the improvement of the teaching-learning process. likewise, gronlund and linn (cited in wang, wang and fan, 2011) point out that teachers, who evaluate their pedagogical practices, can initially realize the needs of their students, monitor the learning and teaching processes, no. 19 (july december 2019) no. 19 (july december 2019) 199 assessment of english learning herrera & zambrano diagnose the difficulties of learning and confirm learning achievements. however, knowledge about evaluation is considered a theoretical construction and a professional capacity that every teacher should have. different authors have highlighted that unfortunately, not all the teachers are sufficiently qualified in this area to be able to promote appropriate assessment practices within the classroom; in other words, much more training is required to empower teachers to becomemoreassessment literate. stiggins (1995) states that the teacher must know what is being evaluated; why it is being evaluated; what the best way to evaluate the skill or knowledge in question is; how to generate good examples of student performance; what could fail in the assessment process; and how to avoid these difficulties when evaluating. paterno (2001) and mertler (2004) also explain that the teacher must know the basic principles that underlie evaluative practices, including terminology, development, and use of methodologies and assessment techniques in one specific area, as well as being familiar with the alternatives of traditional measurement of learning. in this sense, white (2009) claims that teachers must be assessment literate to be aware of the effects their decisions may have on the learning outcomes, so that they can design an assessment plan accordingly, to guide the students to develop a deep approach to their learning. methodology given the nature of this study, a qualitative research approach was followed. according to fraenkel, wallen, and hyun (2011), qualitative research seeks to inquire into the quality of a particular activity; it offers a greater emphasis on the holistic description, that is to say, in the detailed description of what happens in a specific activity or situation; or as merriam (2009) suggests, through qualitative research we are “interested in understanding how people interpret their experiences, how they construct their worlds, and what meaning they attribute to their experiences”(p. 23) setting and participants the context for this study was a public university in colombia. a total of 340 students of the english language teacher education program were part of the population. the study was conducted with a sample of about 160 students who were taking from basic to advanced english courses. their ages ranged from 18 to 21 years old. another group of participants were five fulltime professors; they taught english in the aforementioned courses. four of them held a master degree and the other one a phd degree. no. 19 (july december 2019) no. 19 (july december 2019) 200 assessment of english learning herrera & zambrano the target population of the present research, to which we would like to generalize the findings, is constituted by the english degree programs of the country. the accessible population is constituted by the approximately 340 students of the bachelor program in english in question. the sample was selected from pre-established groups, corresponding to the 16 english groups. the sample of students constitutes 50% of the accessible population and for teachers, it corresponds to all of the teachers of this academic assignment. with the groups already established, ten students were chosen randomly in each of these groups. in other words, we used a simple random sampling from groups already assigned (simple random sampling/cluster sampling). data collection instruments data were collected through an interview, a questionnaire, field notes, and a review of curriculum documents. interview to teachers: the purpose was to identify the conceptions, criteria and assessment practices based on the experience of english teachers. questionnaire to students: students answered a structured questionnaire in the digital version, aimed at determining their experiences and perceptions of the english learning assessment process. field notes: they were carried out by researchers, who did not get involved in-class activities but remained passive observers. they were kept during classes where assessment processes were being developed. these observations were recorded following semi-structured observation formats, as shown in the following table. table 1. class observation date of class observation: english course level: teacher: number of lesson: number of students: topic: objectives: language functions: no. 19 (july december 2019) no. 19 (july december 2019) 201 assessment of english learning herrera & zambrano instructional activities student(s) in-class classroom resources attitude and performance conditions/environment additional comments: review of curriculum documents: this is perhaps the only secondary source of data collection, but it retains great relevance for the research. we reviewed the syllabi of each of the english courses to verify that the assessment criteria for learning were stipulated there, and that they coincided with what was stated by the teachers in the interviews. table 2 shows the form used to analyze these course syllabi. likewise, we revised the students’ handbook, the educational project of the program, the educational project of the faculty and the institutional educational project with the purpose of identifying guidelines regarding the evaluation of learning in general and english in particular. table 2. form to evaluate course syllabi analysis of data we followed a content analysis methodology through which we collected the information; it was then selected, leading to the main topics or categories of data classification to be put in each of the research instruments. these data were coded and processed through the atlas ti software for this purpose. the topics and their incidents were presented by literal statements of the participants, as well as graphical representations of the data. no. 19 (july december 2019) no. 19 (july december 2019) 202 assessment of english learning herrera & zambrano results perceptions of students and teachers in relation to the evaluation of english learning the students participating in this study are no exception of what brown (2004) warned us regarding the feeling generated by the evaluation in the apprentices. for the majority of participants (62.97%), the word evaluation alone generates feelings of nervousness or concern. however, despite this emotional burden, most of them express that the evaluation plays a critical role in the english learning process. some of its main purposes include diagnosing the strengths and abilities of students, monitoring their progress and assigning the respective grade, determining the effectiveness of the teacher’s instruction, and providing the society with information about the achievements and levels of student development. regarding teachers, it is important to note that most of them have a positive attitude towards assessment, considering that it has a positive impact on students and themselves. they assure that the evaluation process allows both the teacher and students to make a diagnosis about how the teaching and learning process evolves, identify weaknesses and strengths, generate opportunities for self-evaluation, and propose actions for improvement. in regards to the functions of assessment, a significant number of students (65.3%) conceive it as a summative process where the connotation of diagnosis of strengths and weaknesses, and the measurement of knowledge and learning stand out. the following comments support these findings: “it is a diagnosis of the abilities and strengths of each student.” (ee p2c1) “it is a process in which the student is shown and challenged to demonstrate what they have learned in class.” (ee p2c52) the majority of the teachers agreed that the evaluation, as it is a permanent process, has a formative character. three of the teachers affirm that they implement assessments constantly, fostering evaluative moments other than those established institutionally. the following comment thus supports it: “i try to evaluate almost all the classes, anyway, do quizzes, simply pass them to talk, put them to do their role play, make them all kinds of possible evaluation to give them all the opportunities of the case, so they can improve and feel good in an evaluation.” regarding assessment principles, for a significant percentage (82.41%) of the students, english evaluations usually inquire about the contents taught, that is, they usually ask for topics studied or skills practiced in class, meeting no. 19 (july december 2019) no. 19 (july december 2019) 203 assessment of english learning herrera & zambrano in this way the principle of validity. this assertion is ratified by teachers who agreed on the preponderance of validity, by stating that the contents evaluated should correspond to the objectives set for the course. likewise, students state that english teachers clearly explain all aspects related to the exam or other tasks that will be evaluated. in terms of environmental conditions, they express that these are appropriate to complete an exam or develop other evaluative activities. these factors contribute to the reliability of the evaluation. in terms of practicality, a majority of students (80.55%) indicate that the instructions for each of the activities in the evaluations are clear and illustrative. however, regarding the extension of the exams, the percentages are divided between those who believe that the time to answer them is sufficient and those who state that they do not have time to complete the exams. this perception differs from what was expressed by the teachers, who point out that the time allotted for the evaluations is adequate. concerning authenticity, for a good number of participants (64.82% of the students and 80% of the teachers) the exercises, dialogues and questions contained in the english assessments are similar to the speeches and interactions that they could face in a real second language context. likewise, they agree on the fact that the exercises contained in the evaluations are contextualized and relevant. most students expressed that the results of the evaluation are very useful for the teacher, for themselves and other members of the academic community (impact / feedback). however, there is great neutrality when asking if teachers provide constant and effective feedback. on the other hand, teachers argue that they provide proper feedback in their classes. regarding the principles of justice and democracy, 66.67% of students say that teachers are fair at the time of grading exams, but a 51.81% of them state that they do not participate in planning mechanisms for the evaluation. in this regard, the majority of teachers stressed the importance of promoting an evaluation framed in this principle. criteria and mechanisms in this section, we characterized the means, instruments, approaches and evaluation parameters implemented in the program. for the collection of the information, we reviewed class observation notes, questionnaires, written exams, and course syllabi. we followed the concepts proposed by hamodi, lópez and lópez (2015) about means and instruments of evaluation. thus, we have conceived as no. 19 (july december 2019) no. 19 (july december 2019) 204 assessment of english learning herrera & zambrano means written exams, essays, quizzes, reading and writing controls, portfolios, exhibitions, debates, and role-plays, among others. likewise, we regard rubrics as assessment instruments. means all of the 40 course syllabi that we reviewed exhibits common criteria such as: thematic units, evaluation strategies, and their corresponding percentages. the unit with the highest weight (80%) is assigned to written exams, three in total during the semester. the remaining (20%) is assigned to a variety of evaluative activities such as presentations, essays, debates, reading of short stories or novels, role plays, among others. through the survey, both students and teachers did corroborate that teachers implement the means established in the course syllabi as part of the evaluation process. instruments about the use of rubrics, a little more than half (21) of the course syllabi include them; some of them are not clearly defined because they do not describe in detail the activity to be evaluated or the linguistic ability to be assessed. other syllabi contain rubrics that focus on a single skill, usually writing. very few specify in their rubrics the skill and activity to be evaluated. this is corroborated in the analysis of some written exams, which do not include anything in this regard either. however, the observations showed the use of the rubric to evaluate the oral ability where each one of the linguistic criteria to be assessed was defined. in the survey conducted by the students, the majority (82%) corroborated that teachers do use rubrics to assess both writing and speaking skills and many others (70%) expressed that these rubrics are made clear and timely. approaches and parameters regarding assessment approaches and parameters followed in the program, the findings indicate that teachers generally comply with the requirements established in the course syllabi, particularly when it comes to evaluating the four linguistic skills and language components through formal evaluations. most exams show that all l2 skills are assessed and integrated. the speaking test usually take place in a separate section and is conducted mainly through interviews, and in pairs to encourage an oral interaction. in summary, the large percentage assigned to the three written exams would seem to indicate a formal summative assessment approach, whose no. 19 (july december 2019) no. 19 (july december 2019) 205 assessment of english learning herrera & zambrano constant elements to be assessed are the four linguistic skills (listening, reading, speaking and writing), and the grammar and vocabulary subdomains. within this approach, some traits of formative evaluation are evident, such as feedback, self-evaluation and co-evaluation, the use of rubrics, without becoming these common characteristics in all courses. improvement alternatives to strengthen the assessment of the english language these actions are presented within the framework of an improvement proposal that can contribute to strengthening the evaluation process of the l2 in the undergraduate program investigated. a synthesis of the main suggestions made by students and teachers around the following subcategories are presented in the following section. concerning the principles of assessment. students´ suggestions focus on two principles of assessment: authenticity and practicality. with authenticity, one of the most highlighted aspects is the need to contextualize the tasks proposed in the evaluation process or the items that are included in the exams; noting that it is necessary to include activities that encourage the natural use of english, as it is sustained below: “that these are also taken to real life, for example, doing role plays, rehearsals or things like that because the student will interact much more with the language: taking it to a real-life aspect, not only in a sitting desk filling some questions and that is it. “(eep41c71) “maybe it would be much more productive to practice or teach all the new knowledge in a real scenario, making it a lot more meaningful.” (eep41c60) as for practicality, regarding the allocation of time for the development of exams, some of the students point out that appropriate time should be provided, especially to perform the exercises corresponding to reading and writing skills. they express it this way: “my suggestion would be that in the evaluation processes we are given more time depending on the type of evaluation as well as the topics seen in class.” (eep41c59) “that the time to present the exam should be extended. especially in the writing session.” (eep41c84) no. 19 (july december 2019) no. 19 (july december 2019) 206 assessment of english learning herrera & zambrano in relation to evaluation functions. the formative function of the evaluation allows the student to have clarity about the objectives to be achieved, analyze how the process is evolving, and establish the steps that must be followed to reach the final goal. as for the teacher, this type of evaluation requires them to formulate clear learning objectives, design lessons, and tasks that help students achieve those purposes, and help the teacher formulate their own goals and action plans in order to obtain the expected performance (brookhart, 2005). within the framework of this definition, students and teachers made the following suggestions: first, they highlighted the importance of not focusing on the evaluation only on the three exams; they sustain their position by expressing that if they are evaluated with a variety of activities during the process, this experience will be more significant and at the same time, it will reduce the anxiety caused by taking a final exam that includes all the content studied during the course. the following is one of the various comments that support the aforementioned suggestion: “i believe that in the evaluation process in our program, the result is more important than the process. the final exam is taken into account more, as the only proof of the learning process than the ones carried out in the process, such as workshops, classwork, essays, journals, etc. i think it is discouraging for the student because there are several factors that affect the evaluation and make the student go wrong.” (eep4c36) finally, some of the participants insist on relating the evaluation to factors that emerge from this process such as frustration, anxiety, demotivation, fear, sorrow, among others. to minimize these factors, apart from the previous suggestions, they believe that different assessment alternatives should be included to allow them to identify their strengths and weaknesses, as suggested below. “i think the evaluation process is important because it is like a metronome that is setting our pace of learning. however, i believe that you should not give much importance to a grade because it does not always demonstrate the knowledge acquired and it usually frustrates students in their performance. you should try to assess in another way. “(eep41c79) about the focus and parameters of the program. the assessment process should be conceived by educational institutions and therefore by teachers, as a carefully thought out plan which allows identifying the learning achievements and difficulties presented by the students. in turn, teachers could determine which aspects of teaching merit a rethinking no. 19 (july december 2019) no. 19 (july december 2019) 207 assessment of english learning herrera & zambrano (bailey, 1998). thus, assessment must serve as information source for both the learning and the teaching processes so that teachers and students can make suitable adjustments. it is then expected that the training programs define the established plan through their course syllabi, where the evaluation criteria and strategies will be specified, focusing not only on summative assessment but also highlighting how to guide the process from the parameters of the formative assessment. throughout the analysis of the syllabi and the english exams, students show disagreement with the percentages assigned to the three exams officially established by the program, as it is implied in the following comments: “personally, and in a general way, i have noticed certain inconsistencies in terms of the distribution of percentages for each official exam. the percentages on some occasions do not justify the whole process of preparation that the student has had for that exam.” (eep41c37) “i believe that the evaluations should not have too much percentage of the grade. many of the other exercises that they give us require more effort and dedication yet, they are not graded as they should be. many of them do not have a suitable percentage for each. i believe that teachers should see how much we much effort we are putting into improving and how excited we are to improve every day.” (eep41c73) in this sense, some of the participants also state that the final exam, which is usually done within the last week, has the highest weight (30%). learners also point out that they never receive feedback on the results obtained in this test specifically. this does not allow them to identify the weaknesses on which they must work before starting the next course. according to some of the students, certain aspects of the evaluation are very rigid and do not consider other variables such as tasks they carry out during the learning process, which are sometimes not considered for grading, and the level of anxiety or stress students may be going through. they consider it necessary to take into account that they are learning a language and that many elements that are involved in its learning process are flexible. “in the program, they have a good evaluation system. however, there is always evidence where memorization prevails, which means that many students do not obtain good grades due to their level of anxiety and stress.” (eep4c2) “the learning process should have more importance than the marks obtained during the exams, since learning through the assessment is much more significant. sometimes we as students have our anxiety level very high on an exam and this betrays us. “(eep4c2) no. 19 (july december 2019) no. 19 (july december 2019) 208 assessment of english learning herrera & zambrano in this regard, butler and mcmunn (2006) state that a teaching approach should focus on the student, which means that the learners must be actively involved in all stages of the learning process, from planning to evaluation. besides, it is important to point out that this type of approach is based on the parameters established by constructivist pedagogies. these state that the appraisal of learning must be based on the construction and application of information, rather than memorization of what the teacher or the text establishes. teachers through the survey and the interview suggest that an assessment committee should be formed to develop assessment policies and guidelines so that all of the teachers are on the same page. they also express the need to define common criteria to apply in all english courses and thus determine if students are achieving the proposed objectives. however, english teachers claim that their autonomy should be respected. (p1, p2, p3, p5) based on the teachers’ opinion, it is also necessary to promote more training in the area of evaluation and assessment of learning and make students more active participant in assessment-related decisions. this perspective is limited to the presentation of exams and is evident in the opinions of two of the participants: “more training for teachers and talking to students more often about what evaluation is because they do not know. for them, evaluation is a test, not a process.” (p4) “that the teachers can have foundations regarding the assessment process, that we have very clear how the processes should be carried out” (p5) one final factor considered by teachers is the number of students per course. they suggest reducing those large groups because it affects the quality of the feedback that is provided to students. besides, it is more time consuming, especially when evaluating the skills of writing and speaking. (p1, p3, p4) conclusions the focus of assessment in the academic program investigated is slightly demarcated by some principles established in legal documents such as the students’ conduct book and the university educational project. in these two documents, it is established that the evaluation must be permanent, comprehensive, multifaceted and above all these aspects, formative. however, the guidelines, methodologies, procedures or good evaluation practices are not specified in these or any other document. no. 19 (july december 2019) no. 19 (july december 2019) 209 assessment of english learning herrera & zambrano likewise, there is no evidence of an approach that determines a conception, principles, purposes, functions, means, and ways of evaluating the learning of english as a foreign language. however, there is unanimity in the evaluation of all domains (reading, listening, speaking and writing) and subdomains (grammar and vocabulary) of english in each of the examinations. there is agreement on the determination to formally assess students through three exams (two midterms and the final) with a weight of 80% of the final grade of the course. the remaining percentage consists of essays, the review of stories or literary novels, presentations or other tasks proposed autonomously by each teacher. this determination makes the written examination, the most familiar assessment instrument for teachers and students. however, despite having no clear definition of the assessment approach and methodologies within the program, this study made it possible to identify, on the one hand, some common patterns that enrich the evaluation processes and that can subsequently constitute a basis to define the approach; and on the other hand, some aspects that must be reformulated to improve the evaluation process and, of course, the teaching and learning. in the first place, although the evaluation generates feelings of nervousness and anxiety in the students, both teachers and students conceive it as a process that must be formative, permanent and far from the paradigm of the grade as the only element of judgment. both teachers and students hold a favorable view of assessment, considering it essential in the teaching-learning process and beneficial to all participants. regarding the principles of evaluation, as stated by brown (2004) and bachman and palmer (1996), it is evident that both formal and informal assessment respond to the objectives proposed for each course, in terms of content and skills to develop, thus favoring the validity of the process. the tendency for justice is evident in the evaluations, in both the grading and the degree of difficulty that the exams entail, according to the level of language proficiency of students in each course. practicality is reflected in the proper amount of exercises and tasks in the exams, the allocation of time, but still persists some concern regarding the assigned time for writing tasks. feedback is focused on grammatical and phonetic notions of the language, but not so emphatically on communication or learning strategies. hence, metacognitive strategies can add a fundamental value to cognitive processes. likewise, the lack of effective feedback towards the end of the courses is evident in such a way that learners have clarity about possible actions and strategies to be followed in preparation for the courses in the following academic terms. the use of rubrics, even though evident in some of the evaluations, constitutes a pivotal element of meaningful feedback, and therefore needs to be promoted thoroughly within the academic program. no. 19 (july december 2019) no. 19 (july december 2019) 210 assessment of english learning herrera & zambrano in general, there is evidence of an effort on the part of teachers to follow evaluative principles that result in greater objectivity and justice, including a variety of exercises within formal examinations such as selection, construction, and personal responses (brown and hudson, 1998); but there are no self-evaluative and co-evaluative procedures, which also reinforce the principle of democracy. gan et al (2018) suggested in their study the need for efl teachers to be better aware of the value of using self‐assessment to support students to become self‐regulating learners and take the ownership of their learning (p. 527). self-evaluation and co-evaluation, as well as the use of alternative means such as portfolios, journals and those based on the use of technologies, oxygenate the hetero-evaluative processes, prevalent in the educational tradition. in order to consolidate the assessment of english language learning in the program, professional development initiatives should be developed where evaluation criteria can be discussed for teachers and students to decide the methodologies and procedures that promote a comprehensive, formative and multifaceted assessment model. as proposed in troudi, coombe, and alhamliy’s study (2012), more professional development opportunities allow teachers to capitalize the knowledge and experience they have gained over the course of the years (p. 553). in summary, the strengths and weaknesses evidenced in each of the constitutive elements of the evaluation process analyzed here should be consolidated in principles, purposes, functions, forms, means, techniques and evaluation instruments, on which teachers and students, as the main actors of the evaluation process, must coincide, thus avoiding surprises, disagreements and injustices. no. 19 (july december 2019) no. 19 (july december 2019) 211 assessment of english learning herrera & zambrano references álvarez, i., m. 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(2012). efl teachers’ views of english language assessment in higher education in the united arab emirates and kuwait. tesol quarterly, 43 (3), 546-555. wang, h.t., wang, h.k. & fan y.c. (2011). a web-based model for developing assessment literacy of secondary in-service teachers. computers & education, 57 (1), 1727-1740. white, e. (2009). are you assessment literate? some fundamental questions regarding effective classroombased assessment. oncue journal, 30(1), 3-25. no. 19 (july december 2019) no. 19 (july december 2019) 214 assessment of english learning authors *leonardo herrera earned his bachelor´s degree in english language teaching as well as in business administration from universidad surcolombiana. he holds a master´s degree in tesol from greensboro college, north carolina. he has taught english and spanish as foreign languages both in his native country colombia and in the usa. his research areas of interest are classroom assessment, testing, and discourse analysis. he is member of the research group aprenap and holds the title of junior researcher according to colciencias. herrera is currently the dean of the school of education at his alma mater, universidad surcolombiana. orcid: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4054-7209 lilian cecilia zambrano castillo holds a master´s degree in english didactics from universidad de caldas, colombia. currently, she is an associate full time profesor at universidad surcolombiana in neiva, and belongs to “comuniquémonos” research group. her main fields of interest are: evaluation and assessment processes, reflective teaching in the practicum arena and teaching english to children. she has advised and evaluated undergraduate and post-graduate research projects. she has participated in international and national conferences as a presenter. orcid: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4413-7610 how to reference this article: herrera-mosquera, l., & zambrano-castillo, l. c. (2019). assessment of english learning in a language teacher education program. gist – education and learning research journal, 19, 193-214. https://doi.org/10.26817/16925777.709 no. 19 (july december 2019) no. 19 (july december 2019) situating local literacies at the core of elt curriculum in higher education1 las literacidades locales situadas al centro del currículo de inglés en la educación superior yuly andrea nieto-gómez and amparo clavijo-olarte*2 universidad distrital francisco josé de caldas, colombia 1 received: february 21st 2020/ accepted: september 10th 2020 2 yulyandreanieto@gmail.com; aclavijo@udistrital.edu.co gist education and learning research journal. issn 1692-5777. no. 21 (july-december, 2020). pp. 27-46. abstract this qualitative interpretive study carried out with four efl teachers in an english for academic purposes (eap) course at a private university in bogotá, colombia addresses the disconnect that exists between curricular content and the life of students in education. from our understanding of literacy as a sociocultural practice, we proposed a pedagogical approach that immersed teachers and students in community explorations to study local issues informed by different disciplines. therefore, this study describes the ways teachers designed and implemented curriculum using community assets (kretzmann & mcknight, 2003) to develop student agency. the issues addressed by students in their inquiries included improving civic practices in the cycling route; fostering river preservation; environmental issues with garbage in bogotá; and possibilities to access higher education for young populations in colombia.  using a grounded theory approach, we collected and analyzed data from class discussions, curricular units, semi-structured interviews and class observation. findings reveal that community explorations  fostered students’ agency towards studying social issues and promoted the construction of context-embedded opportunities for learning using students’ realities and topics of local relevance (canagarajah, 2005). the target language was used to reflect, pose problems, produce texts and participate in social reflections within an academic environment.  key words: foreign languages; literacy education; communities; teachers’ role; higher education. resumen este estudio cualitativo interpretativo realizado con cuatro maestros de efl en un curso de inglés para propósitos académicos en una universidad privada en bogotá, colombia, aborda la desconexión que existe entre el contenido curricular y la vida de los estudiantes. desde nuestra comprensión de la literacidad como una práctica sociocultural, propusimos una pedagogía que involucró a maestros y estudiantes en exploraciones comunitarias para estudiar temas locales informados por diferentes disciplinas. por lo tanto, este estudio describe las formas en que los maestros diseñaron e implementaron el plan de estudios utilizando los activos de la comunidad (kretzmann &mcknight, 2003) para desarrollar la participación estudiantil. los problemas abordados por los estudiantes en sus indagaciones incluyeron la mejora de las prácticas cívicas en la ciclo ruta; preservación del río tunjuelito; problemas ambientales con basura en bogotá; y posibilidades de acceder a la educación superior para poblaciones jóvenes en colombia. utilizando un enfoque de teoría fundamentada, recolectamos y analizamos datos de discusiones en clase, unidades curriculares, entrevistas semiestructuradas y observación en clase. los resultados revelan que las exploraciones de la comunidad fomentaron la participación de los estudiantes para estudiar los problemas sociales y promovieron la integración de las realidades del contexto para el aprendizaje utilizando temas de relevancia local para los estudiantes (canagarajah 2005). el inglés se utilizó para reflexionar, plantear problemas, producir textos y participar en reflexiones sociales dentro de un entorno académico. palabras clave: lenguas extranjeras; formación para la literacidad; comunidades; el rol de los docentes; educación superior. 28 no. 20 local literacies in elt curriculum nieto-gómez & clavijo-olarte 29 no. 21 resumo este estudo qualitativo interpretativo realizado com quatro professores de efl em um curso de inglês para propósitos acadêmicos em uma universidade particular em bogotá, colômbia, trata sobre a desconexão que existe entre o conteúdo curricular e a vida dos estudantes. desde a nossa compreensão da alfabetização como uma prática sociocultural, propomos uma pedagogia que envolveu a professores e estudantes em explorações comunitárias para estudar temas locais informados por diferentes disciplinas. portanto, este estudo descreve as formas em que os professores desenharam e implementaram o plano de estudos utilizando os ativos da comunidade (kretzmann &mcknight, 2003) para desenvolver a participação estudantil. os problemas tratados pelos estudantes nas suas indagações incluíram a melhora das práticas cívicas na ciclovia; preservação do rio tunjuelito; problemas ambientais com lixo em bogotá; e possibilidades de acessar a educação superior para populações jovens na colômbia. utilizando um enfoque de teoria fundamentada, coletamos e analisamos dados de discussões em aula, unidades curriculares, entrevistas semiestruturadas e observação em aula. os resultados revelam que as explorações da comunidade fomentaram a participação dos estudantes para estudar os problemas sociais e promoveram a integração das realidades do contexto para a aprendizagem utilizando temas de relevância local para os estudantes (canagarajah 2005). o inglês foi utilizado para refletir, propor problemas, produzir textos e participar em reflexões sociais dentro de um entorno acadêmico. palavras chave: línguas estrangeiras; formação para a alfabetização; comunidades; o papel dos docentes; educação superior. local literacies in elt curriculum nieto-gómez & clavijo-olarte 30 no. 21 introduction this qualitative interpretive study addresses the disconnect that exists between curricular content and the life and professional interests of students in english classes in higher education. it serves as a reflection on the exploration of local literacies in the teaching of english as a foreign language (efl). while we widen our understanding of socially embedded pedagogies with teachers, we propose pedagogical and curricular connections with local resources to foster language and literacy development (clavijo & ramírez, 2019). this project emerged as a response to university efl teachers’ interest to participate in an innovative project that implied designing curricula, and creating local inquiries collaboratively with their students. they were accountable for teaching english as a requirement in the disciplines, but they were also interested in expanding the content to make students’ community realities closer to their learning experience. using community as curriculum was the starting point to engage students in innovative and contextualized practices in the classroom. the teachers were eager to learn about ways to establish links between teaching language and inquiring about social and environmental issues of the local context. thus, we regarded community pedagogy as a possibility for teachers and students to recognize and critically address community problems using students’ academic background to develop sensitivity towards their context. through field explorations and professional development workshops we invite teachers to recognize the sources available in the community to engage learners in knowledge embedded in social, cultural and material contexts (gee, 2004). we believe that professional reflections and curriculum design that use local assets as resources to promote awareness of local literacies as content for learning were key aspects of the pedagogy we implemented with teachers in the language classroom.  the focus of this project is on community pedagogies (cp) that explore the local resources that influence the life of both teachers and students. thus, students´ funds of knowledge and experiences (gonzales, moll, & amanti, 2005) are critical resources to promote local inquiries among them.  we considered community assets (kretzmann and mcknight, 1993) as powerful and valuable resources that involved learners and teachers in a critical reading of the community. one of the main goals of cp is to build learning environments that foster students´ inquiries and engage them in text production using information from their professional fields and disciplines. thus, the english language promoted reflection, problem posing, and student agency around social issues that they found locally relevant to inquire about. the question that guides our study explores how do efl university teachers use local resources for curriculum and teaching? local literacies in elt curriculum nieto-gómez & clavijo-olarte 31 no. 21 theoretical framework we found the work of scholars and researchers whose effort has been recognized locally and globally key to understanding the relevance of local literacies in language and literacy education.  we restate the contributions on critical issues on literacy (freire and macedo (1987); luke and woods (2009); and comber (2013,2016); situated literacies (gee, 2004); local literacies and community pedagogies, proposed by sh & author 2 (2013) 2013; sharkey, et al, (2016) and (author2 & r, 2019) critical views of  local pedagogies by canagarajah (2005); and place-based pedagogies by greenwood (2013); and demarest (2014).the former concepts allow to propose a communityoriented vision of language pedagogy and curriculum in elt. through this theoretical support our stance is based on a sociocultural perspective to teacher education. it fosters teacher agency and a critical perspective to language and literacy, through involving the social and cultural contexts where individuals live. thus, this literature review places agency as the engagement of actors with temporalrelational context in order to take action (hempel-jorgesen, 2015). it implies a central dimension in teachers’ professionalism, since it involves developing the capacity to own social change and achieve educational social justice. one way to promote a contextualized practice is to focus teachers’ pedagogy on students’ social realities as the starting point of the development of literacy.  literacy as a socially constructed practice when literacy is approached from a socially-situated perspective, the context becomes the starting point for teaching and learning as a process of interacting and negotiating with local texts. it shapes an individual’s perception of their own reality. this occurs by teachers fostering a sense of agency in students, as they reorganize and transform their environment with the production of new texts. all uses of language are directly related to reality; therefore, literacy, as proposed by freire & macedo (1987) refers to “how to write and rewrite reality, transforming it through a conscious work” (p. 23). thus, literacy constitutes a framework to contextualize and raise awareness from the efl classroom. in this sense, literacy as a socially constructed practice, accounts for an exercise that evolves from the analysis and interrogation of the historical and cultural context of places (comber, 2016). it problematizes social and classroom textual practices, through granting teachers and students the possibility to move from awareness to action (pandya & ávila, 2013). teachers and students can become researchers that use language to question and produce texts informed by their own reality.  local literacies in elt curriculum nieto-gómez & clavijo-olarte 32 no. 21 in this project, efl teachers explore and learn with students about river preservation; city practices in the cycling route; environmental issues with garbage; access to public and private education to develop inquiry projects. this, according to comber, thomson, and wells (2001) is a way to negotiate critical literacies, since these practices represent a teachers’ commitment with ethical and pedagogical values that respect students’ ways of knowing, as well as cultural and political histories. thus, the local context in which teachers are immersed has a direct impact in curriculum, pedagogy, and theory. now, situated literacies can be encouraged from pedagogies whose curriculum evolves from the negotiation with the place and the community. this leads us to base our research in cp, to use local literacies in the efl curriculum. local literacies and community pedagogies (cp) we believe that the practice of teaching and learning is concerned with collective and community actions that allow their members to make their own choices to deal with social processes, to exercise their citizenship. accordingly, the local, as political, cultural, economic and identity reality, provides the individual with the basic instruments to construct a relationship with the global. for this reason, local knowledge becomes the essence of educational action by fostering cultural negotiation and dialogue (mejía, 2011).  for canagarajah (2005) “local knowledge has to be veritably reconstructed— through an ongoing process of critical reinterpretation, counter discursive negotiation and imaginative application” (p. 12). this notion suggests that teachers are involved in the exploration of the relevance and complexity of local knowledge as to create a curriculum that integrates values, perceptions, and diversity within the community by fostering a continuous reflection that leads to a search for an alternate reality.  from this perspective, situated literacies present a way to evolve into critical literacy practices, which fosters a sense of possibility, agency, and transformation by recognizing the assets in the place and space of study (comber, 2017). this idea is mirrored by rincón and clavijo (2016) whose community project with students from a low-socio economic public school in bogotá fostered a community mapping experience, students crafting multimodal texts and creatively participating with others in a group blog while they critically reflected on their role within the community. such local inquiry justifies that when teachers expose their students to challenging settings, based on a pedagogy of place, they envision the emancipatory role of language practices in their lives. this opposes the assumption that teacher, student, and school achievement can be measured by isolated, individualistic, and quantifiable classroom routines (greenwood, 2013; gruenewald, 2003a). local literacies in elt curriculum nieto-gómez & clavijo-olarte 33 no. 21 furthermore, when place along with cultural issues acts as the core of the curriculum, teachers and students can immerse themselves in the investigation of their society with a broader view by including different disciplines. sharkey, clavijo & ramírez (2016) conducted a study with teachers from different content areas in a public school that has sustained a partnership with the university for the last twenty years. the authors aimed at learning with teachers about how they developed and implemented cp, after designing curricular projects that connected students´ lives and learning. projects such as understanding the semiotics of graffiti, the analysis of the socioeconomic reality of the students’ neighborhood, interviewing workers and families, and finding out about colombian history from their own and their families’ voices, display, as described by the participants, that appreciating local knowledge as a curriculum resource increases teachers’ autonomy and ownership, as well as students’ motivation, engagement, and family involvement. community-oriented vision in a continual process of selfdevelopment collaborating and learning with teachers in schools is a central goal for us as teacher educators in teacher education programs. by doing so, teachers and teacher educators can be immersed in a continual process of self-development through accepting and being aware of the sociocultural reality that influences classroom practices, while including both the linguistic and social needs of the learners (kumaravadivelu, 2001). accordingly, the language teacher becomes attentive to their practice as an opening not only to maximize learning opportunities in the classroom, but, at the same time to understand and transform them outside the classroom. when developing sensitivity towards a situated curriculum, we acknowledge the recognition of learners’ experiences that are negotiated in different places and times. the language teacher can get involved in an exploration of their roles as a community teacher (murrell, 2011) who contextualizes the knowledge of the community, culture, and identity of the students and families they work with, in order to build a successful teaching practice in diverse settings. this standpoint questions the separation of the academic environment from the everyday world of students, since the interaction of situated learning and practice allows individuals to engage in a purposeful activity. within this perspective, teachers build knowledge and analytical capacities by undertaking an analysis of the population they work with, learning about students, their families, incomes, and educational histories; exploring students’ funds of knowledge; developing linguistic knowledge; revising what they know about pedagogy; and rethinking about literacies in this time and the new literacies teachers and students need to learn (comber, 2001).  local literacies in elt curriculum nieto-gómez & clavijo-olarte 34 no. 21 teachers’ readiness to face socially-embedded pedagogies is based on dispositional as well as experiential factors that enable them to teach being aware and sensitive of their population. mills and ballantyne (2009) claim that two dispositional factors lead to commitment to social justice from the classroom: selfawareness/ self reflectiveness, which encompass thinking critically about one’s own beliefs and attitudes towards the teaching practice. the authors posit that their pre-service teachers, first semester students as participants in their study, showed that such dispositions evolved developmentally by promoting intercultural experiences, support group experiences and educational experiences. in terms of the experiential factors, teachers value field investigations that allow understanding the dynamics in a community, through the consideration of its physical spaces, individuals, local economy, institutions and associations (kretzman & mcknight, 1993). such local recognition permits the teachers to critique official standardized models or imposed curricula which perpetuate overgeneralizing realities that do not fit in locally produced knowledge. on the contrary, standardized models may lead to the reinforcement of social inequalities (gonzalez, 2007) restraining the teacher from being considered a valuable member of decision-making, teaching effectively, as well as becoming autonomous of their development. methodology this qualitative interpretive study analyzes efl teachers’ praxis using cp in the context of higher education. the voices of the teachers are the most prominent as they become critical researchers of their own community, by using local resources as the foundations for their teaching practice. context and participants this study took place at the language center in a private university in bogota. the participants in the study are four efl teachers who accepted the invitation to join the professional development workshops. they are from 28-35 years old. the participants were 3 female and one male teacher. they all hold a b.a. in foreign language teaching and have an overall experience with university students of more than 7 years. in this project they worked with students from social communication, industrial engineering, environmental engineering, marketing and trade, systems engineering, psychology, law, economy, and digital marketing.  local literacies in elt curriculum nieto-gómez & clavijo-olarte 35 no. 21 data collection instruments  we collected data through field notes of group discussions in the professional development sessions and class observations, curricular units of community projects, an initial and final semi-structured interview. through discussions we could observe their perspective on literacy teaching, teachers’ awareness of their students’ world, and teachers being willing to transform their practice. the field notes intended to depict teachers’ reflections about the ways they went about to identify and get out of deficit perspectives. the curricular units that teachers designed were a source of information and analysis of their decision making individually and in groups. semi-structured interviews were also carried out to gain teachers’ insights about constructing the curricular unit, identifying the links the teachers set with the local resources, the way in which they bring them to the curriculum and students’ texts that reflect the local realities in their community. finally, the field notes from class observations for three weeks provided insights about students’ project development.  grounded theory guided the framework of analysis, provided the systematic and yet flexible procedure to collect and analyze data that constructs understanding of the sources of information (charmaz, 2006).  the examination of data in this framework encompasses the process of sorting and synthesizing information through qualitative coding. this process consists of classifying segments that start to represent emerging themes and categories. it entails open coding, axial coding, selective coding and finally, using theories that support all the coding process, and permit theorizing as the final step in grounded theory. we utilized an analytical lens by examining the data sources (field notes, observations, curricular units and interviews) to identify teachers´pedagogical decisions and actions that integrated students´ inquiries about different community issues in their teaching of english and their development of inquiry skills. through the analysis of outcomes teachers rethinking pedagogy came out as a challenge in the process of teacher praxis. the pedagogical proposal the structure of the pedagogical project entailed participating in four professional development workshops that engaged teachers in readings about professional experiences of teacher researchers using community resources for language teaching; guided discussion about key concepts related to cbp; field experiences; curriculum design; implementation of community field projects with students; and reflections on the pedagogical outcomes. the purpose of the workshops was to provide a space where teachers could reflect on their role, language literacy teaching, as well as the ways in which they can promote awareness on the local reality, by identifying the resources they can bring into the efl curriculum, as to foster sensitivity on social issues from the academic culture. local literacies in elt curriculum nieto-gómez & clavijo-olarte 36 no. 21 an example of teachers and students exploring local resources was the community mapping they conducted together by walking around the university to take pictures of the urban culture that called their attention. this exercise allowed them to pose problems about the local reality. figure 1 describes the classification of resources that the teachers discovered. thus, the workshops were planned in a way that evolved from group discussion of professional readings, as well as conducting asset-mapping through the consideration of the physical spaces, individuals, local economy, institutions and associations (kretzman & mcknight, 1993) around the university. each workshop lasted four hours, and the topics addressed were 1) how do we get out of deficit pedagogies; 2) what is the culture around the university; 3)how do we build a curricular unit) and; 4) what are the standards that guide our curricular unit and how to polish up curricular units. figure 2. steps to understand a context-embedded pedagogy findings and discussion of findings the findings reveal two major themes in the praxis of efl teachers using cp in higher education.  teachers rethinking the sources of curriculum to promote situated literacies and situating local literacies within students’ professional fields in elt.  local literacies in elt curriculum nieto-gómez & clavijo-olarte 37 no. 21 teachers re-thinking the sources of curriculum to promote situated literacies for this study, rethinking the sources for curriculum implies taking professional risks towards understanding and acting together new pedagogies that require social exploration. the construction of context-embedded opportunities for learning using students’ realities helped teachers question a static skill-based curriculum. during teacher development (tpd) workshops all participants were adamant about considering their disposition, open-mindedness and creativity, as the starting point to renovate the curriculum with a community-oriented vision. re-thinking the sources of curriculum inspired the exploration of community resources and members; with the aim of encouraging students to question, propose, and imagine the path to contribute to transformations from their disciplines of study. teachers’ disposition to rethink their pedagogical practice and curriculum using cp, led them to pose questions as to overcome recurrent challenges and tensions along the process. these included raising students’ curiosity to learn english using community assets and developing students-led inquiries; designing a contextualized curricular plan that addresses inquiry topics from students´ professional disciplines and the language goals for the english levels. finally, teachers were interested in making inquiry projects the source to find a common ground through their fields of knowledge. below, we provide an explanation on how teachers addressed cp in their practice. figure 2 categorizes the process teachers underwent to understand a context-embedded pedagogy. figure 2. steps to understand a context-embedded pedagogy the steps portrayed in figure 2 emerged from the professional reading discussions, and the construction of the curricular units. in the discussions during the initial workshops, teachers’ first concern was regarding organizing content in the english local literacies in elt curriculum nieto-gómez & clavijo-olarte 38 no. 21 curriculum. teachers realized the need to interact with students’ realities themselves to identify local assets and find the way to connect them to teaching and learning english. the statement below describes teacher 4’s reflection about what it takes to develop a project from being aware of students’ world, by rethinking their pedagogical decisions. the success of these kinds of pedagogical projects depends a lot on the teachers’ knowledge of such context, students’ interests, the situations and experiences lived every day. we need to leave the classroom as well, and be really curious about the reality that surrounds our students.  (teacher 4. semi-structured interview. december 6, 2018) the social awareness about students’ context leads teachers to become involved in the exploration of situated literacy development practices in the efl class. teachers read students’ world and involved students in a multimodal text production that depicts their realities by providing out-of-class spaces to develop problem-posing skills. in-class teaching was oriented to gain new perspectives on the issues they identified. teachers constantly mediated, scaffolded text production, and provided positive feedback. in the following excerpt, teacher 3 refers to text production as a process that fosters social consciousness, sensitivity, and action taking. they reconsidered teaching writing beyond a skill development process to acquire the target language, and promoted text production as a form of cultural appropriation (barton, hamilton & ivanic, 2000).  i found [the experience] it very powerful and engaging for them and for me. i have always been concerned with the development of writing production, this curricular unit allowed the students to produce texts based on a social awareness, not only as a task, but following a process that permitted them to raise their own questions from their observations and concerns discovered in the mapping…the process taught students valuable lessons, such as that of working collaboratively with their classmates, community members, and academic experts, in order to gain sensitivity of what happens in the real world where they interact, and construct their writing skill from that consciousness. (teacher 3interview. december 6, 2018) the examples illustrate freire and macedo (1987; 1998) concept of literacy regarded as a medium that values the historical and existential experiences inside a cultural production, considered as an integral way for people to produce, reproduce, and transform meaning. thus, teachers rethink sources of curriculum to promote situated literacies when they engage their students in an inquiry process that empowers them to become researchers of their own reality, promoting a curious spirit, and guiding local literacies in elt curriculum nieto-gómez & clavijo-olarte 39 no. 21 them through the constructions of socially situated text. hence, as comber (2013) posits texts evolve from inquiring, analyzing and interrogating the context of places of study.  teachers re-thinking the sources of curriculum to promote situated literacies is further explained through the second theme: situating local literacies within students’ professional fields in elt. it describes the ways teachers fostered the interaction of communities inside and outside the efl classroom.  situating local literacies within students’ professional fields in elt in the study, the participating teachers situated local literacies through the observation of five key aspects suggested by kretzmann and mcknight, (1993). they refer to associations, physical spaces, institutions, local economy, and individuals in the neighborhood. the starting point was to identify the assets that surround the context of the university and the community. in the projects developed by the teachers and students, the assets comprised institutions, neighborhoods, river preservation, cycling path, community members at/around university (academic community, family members, students, and street vendors). additionally, teachers reflected on students’ professional programs as a local asset through which they geared curricular content, in order to develop awareness on social issues. the following response describes the teacher’s perception on local resources. for me a local resource is their own careers, when constructing the unit, i thought it was important to promote solutions from their different careers, in order for them to see possibilities to tackle the problem by using their academic knowledge. finally, and what i consider innovative in my unit is that student’s families, citizens, people in general, are not usually included as a source of information. (teacher 1 interview. november 1, 2018) when students’ professional disciplines became visible as a local resource, the teachers started to pose questions that brought about the synergies in the classroom. in the curricular units that addressed social problems, teachers situated local inquiries at the core and invited students to take actions collaboratively. working in groups students provided peer feedback to gain perspectives from their field of expertise. the teachers promoted text production among students, to analyze the social issues from different perspectives; to consider peer feedback, and the fulfillment of language standards. local literacies in elt curriculum nieto-gómez & clavijo-olarte 40 no. 21 for example, in the curricular unit from participant 3, the teacher proposed a project to create a pedagogical campaign about environmental issues with garbage in bogotá. the students from the law school proposed possible solutions and supported their arguments in a written report using colombian environmental regulations. additionally, students designed together an interview to an expert professor on regulation to environmental issues. the teacher comments follow.  […] i have always considered that students’ programs need to be reflected on addressing solutions to the social issues they encounter. then, the english class has to deal with content within students’ fields. my strategy was to have students write driving questions for the analysis of environmental issues, because i think that is how they can give direction to the topics based on what they really want to enquire. (teacher 3. interview december, 6, 2018).  from the teacher’s quote we inferred that situated literacy is developed through granting students the possibility to move from awareness to action (pandya & ávila, 2013) while becoming researchers that use language to question and produce texts informed and motivated by their own reality. in this case, students’ practice is evolving from the analysis of issues which students find personally significant: their cultural context, academic interests, community problems, and aspirations to rename and reconstruct their own version of the world (luke & woods, 2009). another relevant aspect for teachers to think about when guiding the community project, among the different disciplines, was the incorporation of class goals according to the cefr. sharkey and clavijo (2012) assert that when working with a community asset-based perspective, teachers are invited to include the realities of the curriculum standards they must meet, and to place the local knowledge and resources as the starting point for their teaching. in addition to following english levels requirements (cefr), the teachers planned their units in a way that permitted them to use valid forms of assessment for the efl class. through cp meeting the standards becomes a collaborative task of both teachers and students who involve the community as partners in the curriculum design (demarest, 2014). teachers integrated alternative forms of assessment from the process experienced by students in the inquiry project. teacher 4 worked on a project that explored possibilities to access private and public higher education for the young population in colombia. she created the assessment criteria with the students using the standards for the language level and including the experiences students had with their context exploration. the criteria to construct the text follows.  1. the social issue presented is clearly located and supported with evidences  2. the analysis from the different programs needs to be visible  local literacies in elt curriculum nieto-gómez & clavijo-olarte 41 no. 21 3. the text presents the bibliography  4. the text has gone through a revision process from other classmates (groups)  5. it is well structured, cohesive, and coherent.  6. the texts show task completion. (class observation – nov.12, 2018)   we can conclude that by exploring local literacies with students, the teachers widened their understanding of cp and curriculum design. cochran-smith (2005); zeichner & conklin (2008) state that effective educators understand the surroundings of the population they work with, and therefore acknowledge their motivations. teachers’ effective praxis evidenced the relevance of studying social issues through inquiry projects led in the efl classes.  finally, the convergence of communities is evident in the curricular unit from students in teacher´s 1 class. she proposed to make a historical record of what has happened to the tunjuelito river. thus, students collaboratively designed an interview to have more information about the river, asking elder people in their families who have always lived in ciudad bolivar, their neighbors, and the young population. afterwards, the group visited the place. with this information in mind, the group conducted research about strategies for river preservation, how organizations can be distributed to clean these areas. in the interview, the teacher explained: finally, and what i consider innovative in my unit is that student’s families, citizens, people in general, are not usually included as a source of information, i found that local resource as a key if we want students to be able to provide solutions that include all the members included in the problem or issue. (teacher 1. interview. november. 1, 2018)   in this fashion, the efl class evolves into a cross disciplinary dialogue (smith & sobel, 2010) which inspires teachers and students to explore problems and projects beyond their area of knowledge. to conclude, communities inside and outside the classroom intertwined when teachers guided their students to interact with people in communities as a learning opportunity to research social issues. through this process, the teachers developed sensitivity towards a situated curriculum, and got involved in an exploration of their roles as community teachers (murrell, 2011). local literacies in elt curriculum nieto-gómez & clavijo-olarte 42 no. 21 conclusions from this research experience we inform the fields of literacy development and language teacher education. our response to the question how do efl university teachers use local assets as sources for curriculum and teaching? acknowledges teachers’ use of local literacies for curriculum and teaching to promote language learning and community engagement. from this perspective, teachers re-thinking the sources for curriculum allowed them to enquire and interact with students’ realities themselves to identify local assets and to find the way to connect their professional fields as local assets. it enabled them to be responsive to their students’ interests and everyday sociocultural practices. hence, teaching evolved from the problems that inquiry awoke in students, which emerged from the reality they feel committed and related to. this study aimed at identifying the links that language teachers from a private university establish with local resources to make decisions about efl literacy teaching. to accomplish this goal, the teachers were participants of teacher professional development (tpd) workshops based on the studies by sharkey, et al (2016). through this experience, they became involved in asset mapping in the university surroundings; they held group discussions about socially embedded pedagogies, and designed curricular units using students’ realities as the core for their learning experience. through the intervention it was possible to observe how tpd invited teachers to reflect upon their pedagogical practice and curriculum. it was oriented to propose using local literacies for curriculum design and context-embedded pedagogies. it provoked tensions and challenges among the teachers; provided that they were constantly rethinking their pedagogical frameworks, in order to renovate their conceptions about the language class, literacy, the local reality, and decisions about curriculum design. additionally, the teachers managed to potentiate individual capacity by fostering the analysis of social issues from students’ fields of knowledge. this way, students explored, interpreted, reflected upon their local reality though working collaboratively with a common goal, and contributing from what they know. furthermore, the teachers were able to intertwine communities from the efl class by providing spaces for students to interact with the outside communities, and act informed by their reality. their actions consolidated a community inside the english class to analyze and propose actions of betterment (mcinerney, smyth, and down, 2011) from the academic environment. finally, this study is an invitation for language departments at universities, as well as for elt university programs to consider teachers professional development beyond subject matter, linguistic content, and skill development. the language class needs to acknowledge and appreciate students’ realities and local resources, so that they become local literacies in elt curriculum nieto-gómez & clavijo-olarte 43 no. 21 the core of a contextualized curriculum that promotes students’ inquiries and leads them to take actions informed by their own everyday practices. teacher professional programs can challenge teachers to rethink their role and practices, by inviting them to enquire about their students’ world, which allows to build a context-sensitive view of the act of teaching. local literacies in elt curriculum nieto-gómez & clavijo-olarte 44 no. 21 references barton, d., hamilton, m., & ivanic, r. 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(2004). situated language and learning: a critique of traditional schooling. new york: routledge. gonzalez, a. (2007). professional development of efl teachers in colombia: between colonial and local practices. íkala: revista de lenguaje y cultura, 12(18), 309-332. local literacies in elt curriculum nieto-gómez & clavijo-olarte 45 no. 21 greenwood, d. (2013). a critical theory of place-conscious education. in j. dillon & m. brody (eds.), international handbook of research on environmental education (pp. 93-100). new york. routledge. https://doi. org/10.4324/9780203813331.ch9  gruenewald, d. a. (2003). foundations of place: a multidisciplinary framework for place conscious education. american educational research journal, 40(3), 619-654. https://doi. org/10.3102/00028312040003619 kretzmann, j., & mcknight, j. (1993). building communities from the inside out: a path toward finding and mobilizing a community’s assets. evanston, il: institute for policy research. kumaravadivelu, b. 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(2012). community-based pedagogies and literacies in language teacher education: promising beginnings, intriguing challenges. íkala, 17(1), 9-13. sharkey, j., & clavijo-olarte, a. (2012). promoting the value of local knowledge in esl efl teacher education through community-based field assignments. in b. medrado & c. reichmann (eds.), projetos e praticas na formação de professores de língua inglesa (pp. 39-58). paraiba, brasil: editora universitaria.  sharkey, j., clavijo, a., & ramírez, m. (2016). developing a deeper understanding of community-based pedagogies with teachers: learning with and from teachers in colombia. journal of teacher education, 67(3), 1-14. https://doi. org/10.1177/0022487116654005 local literacies in elt curriculum nieto-gómez & clavijo-olarte smith, g., & sobel, d. (2010). place-and community-based education in schools. routledge. london: routledge. zeichner, k. m., & conklin, h. g. (2008). teacher education programs as sites for teacher preparation. in m. cochran-smith, s. feiman-nemser, d. j. mcintyre, & k.e. demers (eds.), handbook of research on teacher education: enduring questions in changing contexts (pp. 269–289). new york: routledge. authors *yuly andrea nieto-gómez holds an ma in applied linguistics to tefl from universidad distrital, bogotá, colombia. she is currently a professor of academic english at universidad nacional de colombia. she is currently a member of the research group lectoescrinautas. she has presented locally and internationally at conferences in language teaching education. her latest publication is promoting the use of local literacies in efl pre-service teachers to inspire their teaching practice” . in: colombia colombian applied linguistics journal. universidad distrital francisco josé de caldas orcid: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3758-9213 amparo clavijo-olarte holds a phd in education from the university of arizona. she is currently a professor of literacy and qualitative research methods at universidad distrital francisco josé de caldas in bogota, colombia. she is the director of the research group lectoescrinautas lcpb (2000-2020). has done international research collaborations with scholars from usa and u.k. and with public school teachers from five districts in bogotá. her research interest is related to community based pedagogies and literacies in language teacher education. her most recent publications pedagogias de la comunidad a través de indagaciones locales en el contexto urbano de bogotá (2019) and developing a deeper understanding of community-based pedagogies with teachers: learning with and from teachers in colombia (2016) orcid: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3752-7020 46 no. 20 how to reference this article: nieto-gómez, y. a., & clavijo-olarte, a. (2020). situating local literacies at the core of elt curriculum in higher education. gist – education and learning research journal, 21, 27-46. https://doi.org/10.26817/16925777.830 local literacies in elt curriculum 90 ¡preparados, listos, ya!: an interpretative case study centered on teaching hispanic parents to support early bilingual literacy development prior to kindergarten diane e. lang, ph.d. diane w. gómez, ph.d. suzanne m. lasser, m.s. abstract/resumen a parent training program pilot designed and implemented to develop early literacy skills of bilingual hispanic pre-kindergarten students is described and analyzed through a case study approach. the program incorporated parent collaboration, bilingual literacy training and accessible literary themes to improve literacy prior to kindergarten. developmental indicators for the assessment of learningthird edition (dial-3) screening scores and qualitative evidence document the program’s significant impact. se trata de un programa piloto de entrenamiento para padres, diseñado y llevado a cabo para desarrollar la temprana capacidad de leer y escribir de niños hispánicos preescolares, y que ha sido descrito y analizado a través de un estudio monográfico. el programa incluyó la colaboración de los padres, el entrenamiento para una alfabetización bilingüe y temas literarios accesibles para mejorar dicha alfabetización antes de entrar al jardín de infancia. las puntuaciones mostradas por el developmental indicators for the assessment of learningthird edition lang, gómez & lasser 91 (dial-3) y la evidencia cualitativa documentan el significante impacto del programa. keywords/palabras claves: bilingual parent involvement, kindergarten readiness, community-based literacy, achievement; colaboración de los padres bilingües, preparación de jardín de infancia, alfabetismo basado en la comunidad, rendimiento introduction many school districts in the united states (us) struggle to address the needs of english language learners (ells) upon their arrival at school. however, waiting until they enter school may be too late, especially for ells that have other socio-economic and/or psychological factors that conspire against achievement in school and the acquisition of english. for example, some socio-economic factors that would affect school readiness include: economic resources, immigration status, parents’ educational level, geographic location (urban, suburban or rural), stability of family unit and mobility. in order to try to address the needs of this population, the director of ell programs and several english to speakers of other languages (esol) teachers in the city of bronx river falls, a small urban school district in new york state, designed a program to teach parents about the literacy skills needed for success in kindergarten. the program is called the kindergartenproviding academic skills and strategies (k-pass) program and it has three steps. first, at kindergarten registration which takes place in the spring prior to entrance to kindergarten the following fall, incoming ell kindergarteners in need of literacy support and who speak spanish are identified. second, the parents of the identified ell kindergarteners participate in three literacy strategy workshops, given in spanish. parents are encouraged to use the literacy strategies taught in the workshops with their children during the summer months. third, in the fall, upon entrance to kindergarten, the children are reassessed for the pre-requisite literacy skills known to be necessary for literacy development in kindergarten. the project’s results demonstrate a successful approach to remediating the achievement gap of ells by involving parents in the learning process prior to formal schooling in the us. theoretical perspective schieffelin and ochs (1986) write extensively about language socialization. schieffelin (1990) theorizes that through “the give and take of everyday life” children experience language socialization. essentially, the k-pass program attempts to train parents to actively socialize children towards early literacy skills, concepts and understandings. theoretical lang, gómez & lasser 92 frameworks developed by schieffelin and ochs (1986) were used to interpret the impact of this school-orientated language socialization. drawing on foundations in anthropology, sociology, psychology and linguistics, their theory is developed in two dimensions, “socialization through the use of language” and “socialization to the use of language” (schieffelin & ochs, 1986). schieffelin and ochs (1986) contend that the task of researchers engaged in the study of language socialization is to look for worldview— language connections as expressed through forms and functions of language use. through using this theoretical framework, cultural information about schooling (within the content of discourse and in the manner that it is organized) can be elucidated (schieffelin & ochs, 1986). through reviewing the evidence and data, it was possible to theorize about some of the language socialization and academic literacy skill development practices that contributed to a sense of knowledge about schooling in the us and what parents could do to support their kindergartener to improve readiness scores on standardized measures experienced by the participants. literature review much has been written about hispanic students in the us. in order to illuminate the findings of this case study, three topics are synthesized. they are: 1) hispanic and bilingual students in the us, 2) achievement gaps and early literacy, and 3) parents as literacy educators. hispanic and bilingual students in the us the us has a long history of integrating immigrants and languages into the greater society. currently, the rate of immigration is at a historical highpoint. further, the number of hispanic immigrants has increased and the total percentage of hispanic people in the us has dramatically increased over the last decades. illustrating this, garcia and cuéllar (2006) reported, “the number of hispanics increased from almost 3 million in 1976 to more than 4.5 million in 2000, an increase of 52%” (p. 2220). the percentage of hispanic people in the us is expected to continue to grow. hispanic students in the us tend to be at greater risk than other groups for school-based problems and dropping-out of school. hispanic students in the us tend to lag in academic achievement relative to other groups. many of these children suffer the consequences of poverty, lack of a print-rich environment prior to formal schooling and low levels of parental literacy (garcia & miller, 2007; krashen, 1999). schools in the us must consider and develop new practices and pedagogies that address the needs of bilingual students, especially hispanic students in need. this is a particularly daunting task as state and national educational standards have been raised in the us (meyer, 2007). ¡preparados, listos, ya! lang, gómez & lasser 93 children of immigrant parents face unique challenges when in school. they must negotiate and transition to a school culture that may be different than their home culture, norms and expectations. bilingual children are assimilating and learning in two (or more) linguistic and cultural milieus. parents’ notions of kindergarten readiness are developed through experience and conversations with other community members. okagaki and sternberg (1993) as well as diamond, reagan and bandyk (2000) documented that immigrant parents’ conceptualizations and expectations about kindergarten readiness seemed different than that of parents born and educated in the us. as parents’ views of schooling reflect their culture, experience and education, this view may be in sharp contrast to the views and expectations of school staff in the us (valdés, 1996). in general, hispanic culture cedes control of formal schooling to schools and teachers. teachers are revered. interfering with schooling or teaching would be seen as audacious. many hispanic parents feel that they are responsible for teaching manners while school teachers should teach academic content and skills. bien educado is a term that can be easily misinterpreted by a native english speaker who imagines that the translation of the term must be “well educated.” this term has little to do with academic skills but, instead, with behavior and manners. in addition to the obvious potential challenges of a language barrier, “many parents of ells lack some information and understanding necessary to support parent-school collaboration” (waterman & harry, 2008, p. 6). there is often a misunderstanding of the expected roles of parent involvement and parental support of their child’s education. therefore, inviting parents to join in the process of preparing their children for school involves making the program welcoming and supportive in their first language while at the same time providing strong models of home-based teaching strategies, academic content and materials that schools in the us typically expect that in-coming kindergarteners would have experienced. further, manyak (2007) reported that bringing ells’ community experience into school activities can promote engaging literary activities. achievement gaps and early literacy readiness the national early literacy panel (nelp) reported “... there is strong evidence for the importance of ak [alphabet knowledge], pa [phonemic awareness], rapid naming tasks, ‘writing or writing name,’ and phonological stm [short term memory] as predictors of later reading and writing skills” (2009, p. 79). additionally, the nelp’s (2009) report concluded, “meta-analysis of the impacts of home and parent programs on the literacy skills of young children indicate that these interventions yield a moderate to large effect on oral language outcomes and general ¡preparados, listos, ya! lang, gómez & lasser 9� cognitive abilities” (p. 179). likewise, mercier smith, baker and santoro (2009) reported that phonological awareness instruction in the child’s native language should be provided at different times during the school day and that this can be accomplished through the use of parent volunteers (p. 12). early literacy is developed at home and taught through ordinary daily experiences by parents, grandparents and other caregivers. genessee (2008) emphasized that the oral language developed at home is crucial for critical thinking. cummins (1981) observed that if children are from homes where family members and caregivers are not literate in their native language (l1) the children have difficulty becoming literate in the l1 and subsequently experience challenges becoming literate in the second language (l2). krashen (1999) wrote that children typically acquire their native language in a natural environment and school is the place where children learn the formalities of language. he further argued that without a well-developed l1, children cannot transfer language skills to their l2. first language literacy is a critical foundation for literacy in english (cummins, 2009; krashen, 1999). cummins (1999, 2009) describes language proficiency as two skill sets. they are basic interpersonal communication skills (bics) and cognitive academic language proficiency (calp). children who have well developed bics can use this foundation to learn and hone calp, which is required for successful engagement and achievement in school. immigrant children may or may not have well developed bics upon entering kindergarten. if a child has poorly developed bics in their l1, the challenge of learning calp in l2 can be an overwhelming challenge. parents as literacy educators parents are crucial as literacy educators. studies in california (us) have documented improved early literacy when spanish-speaking parents become aware of home and community based routines and activities that promote literacy and school success (dail & mcgee, 2008; gilliam, gerla, & wright, 2004; roberts, 2008). research suggests that “young children develop literacy in the context of their homes and communities” (gilliam et al., 2004, p. 226). the development of emergent literacy skills and knowledge is essential for success in school. parents as children’s first teachers can foster emergent literacy skills, knowledge and orientations. there are six means for parents to engage in and to influence schooling; these are: parenting, communicating, volunteering, learning at home, decision making and collaborating (hill & flynn, 2006). when schools develop programs and curricula that address all types of ¡preparados, listos, ya! lang, gómez & lasser 9� involvement, everyone benefits. efforts to actively engage immigrant parents in the processes, routines, expectations and joys of schooling in the us break down cultural barriers and create opportunity for all. methods an interpretative approach was used to conduct and analyze this case study. mixed methods were used, though qualitative research methods were drawn upon heavily. a range of artifacts were collected and coded including k-pass instructional materials, photographs, program grant applications and presentation materials. interviews with key informants were conducted. program data including family demographics, program participation and student achievement were analyzed statistically. additionally, the program was observed in action and field notes were written and analyzed. interpretative case studies are designed to “to develop conceptual categories or illustrate, support, or to challenge theoretical assumptions held prior to the data gathering” (merriam, 1988, p. 28). according to willis (2007) interpretative case studies require a diverse array of data/evidence and are centered on understanding social settings and experience. as such, this was a highly appropriate choice for a study that aimed to look at family language practices, parental engagement in schooling and school-based literacy achievement in the context of an innovative school program for ells. data were collected over a 2-year period and included demographic and achievement data from the year before the data collection processes began. research questions 1. did teaching parents to be coaches of early literacy skills and concepts in spanish (l1) improve children’s literacy development as measured on the language subtest on the dial-3 and district benchmarks on the dra? 2. did parent participation in program components (meetings and home activities) improve the child’s literacy development as measured on the language subtest on the dial-3? 3. what other impacts on literacy and school readiness can be observed within the program components? participants children were identified as being in need based on pre-kindergarten enrollment evaluations and a home language survey. the dial-3 is a developmental screening. it was given to all of the children in the district as part of the school enrollment process in order to identify children in need of more specific diagnostic assessment and possible academic intervention. the dial-3 was administered in english, except when the ¡preparados, listos, ya! lang, gómez & lasser 9� child’s english proficiency was limited and the child’s l1 was spanish. children scoring below the 30th percentile on the language subtest (in english or spanish) who also had no formal school experiences (nursery school, pre-kindergarten, etc.) prior to kindergarten enrollment were invited to participate in the k-pass program. these children demonstrated a lag in their l1 development and it was theorized, drawing on cummins (1991, 2008) and krashen (1999),that this underdevelopment would make learning l2 challenging for them. it was further theorized that if parents could be coached to include literacy practices into the “give and take of everyday life” that their children would perform better in kindergarten and beyond (schieffelin, 1990). twelve families enrolled in the program. all were bilingual spanishspeaking immigrants to the us with various levels of english proficiency. the teachers that conducted the training all were fully certified teachers with master’s degrees in teaching english to speakers of other languages and proficient in spanish and english. program design and implementation the program had several components. these included: a parental commitment to participate, a series of three parent workshops taught in spanish, three workshops for children, pre and post-participation testing protocols, and bilingual academic materials that were given to the families. the parents of these students signed a contract agreeing to attend all the workshops and to allow their children to retake the dial-3 in the fall to measure their progress. the parents were required to register for the workshops. their children were invited and strongly encouraged to attend the workshops with their parents. lastly, the parents agreed to participate in a post-workshop survey. k-pass interpretative case study k-pass program with a small budget but strong theoretical and practical foundations, a team of educators developed a program that shows promise for the many ell students that arrive in us kindergartens each year. the interpretative case study that follows documents the program, its impact, and the study’s relevance to other educators interested in supporting early literacy development for ell students. early literacy skills are a necessary foundation for students’ success in kindergarten and beyond. the director of esol programs and three esol teachers in bronx river falls, a small urban school district in new york state, created a series of hands-on parent training workshops focusing on early literacy skills and strategies. these workshops were designed to help students acquire the basic literacy skills and ¡preparados, listos, ya! lang, gómez & lasser 9� background knowledge necessary to succeed in kindergarten and first grade by teaching their parents to use home-based learning strategies and materials. in the spring preceding entrance to kindergarten, parents must register their students for kindergarten in the city of bronx river falls. as part of the enrollment process, all children in the district are given the dial-3 to identify children in need of literacy intervention. the district found that many children for whom english is a second language were lagging behind in literacy skills before entering kindergarten. the demands of kindergarten in the us have increased in recent years. instead of kindergarten being an educational environment designed to teach preliteracy skills, kindergarten programs today are typically based in the assumption that students have mastered pre-literacy skills and are ready for literacy instruction. prior to the k-pass program, ell students who score below the 30 percentile on the dial-3 do not receive any extra intervention other than the regular kindergarten program until they reached first grade. therefore, these children were facing an uphill battle to become proficient readers and successful in school. their achievement gap tended to persist and deepen. educators in bronx river falls were aware that many ell students arrived to kindergarten without the prerequisite skills of their englishproficient counterparts. drawing on their knowledge about readiness skills being a predictor of success in literacy proficiency, facility of native language literacy transferring to second language literacy, and the importance of including hispanic parents as partners in the american educational process, the bronx river falls educators set out to ameliorate the academic achievement gap prior to student entrance to kindergarten. together, they wrote a grant to develop a program, the k-pass program, to address the readiness needs of the incoming spanish-speaking ells and presented it to the district’s staff development center. this program included workshops for parents during the spring and summer before their children were to enter kindergarten. the grant was accepted and the program was given $1,500.00 usd for implementation. the school year in new york state starts in september and runs until june. in may and june all children entering kindergarten in the following september register for school and are screened to assess development and health. for this particular program, families were invited to participate based on kindergarten enrollment screenings and evaluations. children who appeared to lack bics and basic calp in their native language and their parents participated in a series of june workshops focusing on strategies for the development of specific literacy skills. during the workshops, school district teachers provided parents with teacher-created materials and modeled how to use these materials with their children. ¡preparados, listos, ya! lang, gómez & lasser 98 parents were also expected to practice these literacy activities at home during june, july and august and were provided with opportunities to share their experiences with each other. children whose families participated in the sessions were reassessed in september to measure the program’s impact. the program involved three 90 minute workshop sessions conducted in spanish during the month of june prior to the children’s september entrance to kindergarten. the curriculum included three thematic units of study with an overarching focus on family literacy activities that could be done every day. the themes were entitled: what’s in a name, all around town, and shapes and colors. drawing from the state and local kindergarten curriculum standards and research on early literacy development, academic content and skills were selected and embedded in the thematic curricula. teachers worked with parents to assure that the children could identify their first and last name, names of family members, letter names, colors and shapes. additionally, certain readiness skills were taught such as book handling, holding a pencil and cutting paper. finally, beginning reading foundations such as being able to listen to a picture book and recall details, using the pictures to understand the story, and knowing the direction of the text, were targeted. specific outcomes were discussed with parents and then strategies for mastering these outcomes with children were modeled. parents were given books, materials and ideas for using the strategies at home and in the community. bronx river falls, new york is a small, culturally diverse city with 60,000 residents. the district’s demographics are: 34 % european american, 42 % hispanic, 20% african american, 3% asian american and 1% other groups. there were 6671 students enrolled in the district during the 2007-08 academic year, of which 1117 were students identified as ells. the number of bilingual students is actually much higher than this number as this statistic includes only students not yet proficient in english who are still receiving english as a second language (esl) instruction. ninety percent of the ells speak spanish. the pilot program statistical analysis (2007-08 school year) the program pilot began with parent literacy workshops conducted june of 2007. there were 12 families enrolled. the parents of all 12 students in the pilot signed a contract agreeing to attend all the workshops and to allow their children to retake the dial-3 in the fall to measure their progress. when comparing the may and june kindergarten enrollment screening administration of dial-3 scores (prior to the program) and the september dial-3 scores after the program of the 12 participating children, 67% had improved scores. of those, 50% of the children improved their scores significantly, while 17% made minimal gains ¡preparados, listos, ya! lang, gómez & lasser 99 (see figure 1). two children (17%) had no change and two children (17%) scored lower on the second test administration. student number 8 was referred for special education services and subsequently received special services. figure 1. cohort 1 pre scores spring 2007 and post scores fall 2007 of the dial-3 measured in percentiles (n = 12). the esol teacher commented, “most children seemed much more ready to participate in kindergarten after the k-pass program. based on classroom observation, even the children that did not show improvement in their age-normed scores on the dial-3 in actuality seemed more ready for the curriculum after the program than when we first met them.” in sum, more than half had very significant gains in their scores by fall. training parents in spanish to be coaches of early literacy skills and concepts appeared to improve the children’s literacy development as measured on the language subtest of the dial-3. at the end of kindergarten, the school district’s required benchmark for all kindergarteners is a score of at least 2 on the developmental reading assessment (dra) and a score of 3 for the fall of first grade. cohort 1 was tested in the spring of kindergarten and again in the fall of first grade, a year after the k-pass intervention. as figure 2 shows, 6 of the 12 students (50%) reached or exceeded the district wide benchmark of 2 on the dra in the spring of kindergarten. at the beginning of first grade, all 12 reached the benchmark of 2, and 50% reached the required benchmark of 3. since it has been documented that students typically regress in their academic reading abilities over the summer months, these results are significant (arlington, 2006). ¡preparados, listos, ya! lang, gómez & lasser 100 figure 2. cohort 1 spring 2008 and fall 2008 dra scores (n = 12, mortality: student 8 attended special education classes, score unavailable). to investigate whether parents’ participation in their child’s literacy development improved the child’s development, two forms of data are presented, the participation of the parents in the training workshops and the parent survey given after the children began kindergarten. three parent workshop sessions were offered. the parent participation in the required workshops represented willingness and “comfortableness” with the school and the workshops. all 12 families participated in at least 1 of the 3 workshops: 100% attended 1 workshop, 75% attended 2 workshops and 25% attended all 3. though it is recognized that the small sample size (n = 12) makes generalizations difficult and findings must be viewed with caution, the preliminary academic achievement results are encouraging. a number of analyses were performed on the data from the pilot (cohort 1) sample data. these analyses included kendall’s tau-b, stuart’s tau-c and spearman’s correlation. the dependant variable was the dial-3 scores and the independent variable was parental involvement, as measured by participation in the workshops. while short of the preferred .05 level of significance, analyses revealed statistical significance at the .074, .062, and .081 levels for each of these tests respectively. this suggests that the differences in the student’s language subtest scores on the dial-3 may in fact be positively influenced by the participation rates of parents. the parent survey was conducted via telephone with 5 of cohort 1 k-pass parents in the fall. the bilingual parent survey contained 10 questions that fell into 3 categories: the activities, the literacy skill level their child had reached, and their participation in their child’s education. the last category, participation in the education of their child, was most ¡preparados, listos, ya! lang, gómez & lasser 101 revealing. all of the parents surveyed responded affirmatively to the question, are you interested in learning more about how to help your child at home? one parent responded, “me gustaría participar en más talleres” (i would like to participate in more workshops). four of the 5 parents interviewed had visited their child’s school in the fall or attended the fall semester back-to-school night (school orientation meeting). the 5 parents also expressed their intention to attend the upcoming parentteacher conferences. the open-ended comments of the parent survey expressed satisfaction with the program and an awareness of literacy education. one parent commented, “muy satisfecha. aprendí cómo la comunidad es importante para la enseñanza” (i’m very satisfied. i learned how community is important for teaching). another parent stated, “interesante. nos ayudó a enseñarles a nuestros hijos” (interesting. it helped us to teach our children). yet others replied, “vi el progreso de mi hijo” (i saw my child’s progress), “muy infomativos” (very informative) and “un programa valoroso” (a very valuable program). it appears that the k-pass program was a stimulus for the crucial positive relationship between home and school. the second cohort (2008-09 school year) statistical analysis the successes of the pilot k-pass program were shared with the school district administration and the program was expanded. in the fall of the 2008-09 school year the program served 25 children as a regular part of the school district’s offerings. there are plans to research how the children and families negotiate schooling and achievement as they participate in the elementary schools in the district. the preliminary data for the second cohort are compelling: 92% of the students improved their raw scores on the post administration of the dial-3, while 2 of the 25 participants (8%) scored lower on the post screening than on the preintervention screening. additionally, the frequency of parent participation increased: 100% of the parents participated in 1 of the 3 training sessions, 96% attended two sessions and 4% (one parent) attended one session. k-pass program case summary two cohorts have experienced the k-pass program in the summer prior to entering kindergarten. data and observations of the program paint a vivid portrait of a program dedicated to improving the ways literacy practices can be embeded into the fabric of daily family life and yield school-based results. ¡preparados, listos, ya! lang, gómez & lasser 102 discussion and implications for educators this interpretative case study of a pilot program targeted to help immigrant bilingual parents understand what is expected of an incoming kindergartener in schools in the us by actively teaching parents how to be teachers of early literacy skills in the home provides a glimpse of the tremendous potential of the k-pass program and other such programs designed to incorporate parents in literacy readiness processes. with a very small investment of money and time, the program was able to document significant gains in school-readiness in the area of literacy. training parents to be teachers of early literacy skills and concepts in spanish (l1) seemed to improve children’s literacy and kindergarten readiness as measured on the language subtest of the dial-3. although the pilot program and study were small, with 12 families participating, the improved literacy readiness as measured by the dial-3 was impressive. furthermore, the second k-pass cohort yielded improved literacy readiness with 25 families participating. this success does seem to echo the results of studies done in california where this type of support yielded very positive results (gilliam, gerla, & wright, 2004). additionally, it may help avoid having children misdiagnosed as having learning disabilities rather than identified as having gaps in foundational knowledge (bernard, cummins, campoy, ada, winsler, & bleiker, 2006). following participation in the k-pass parent workshops, some worldviews and language connections changed for parents. during and after the workshops parents were visibly different in their approaches to literacy and language development. during the workshops parents shared the ways that they played literacy games with their children and used the literacy materials distributed. parents appeared willing to discuss questions and ideas about their children’s learning and participation in the upcoming schooling with the esol teacher and instructional specialist. as well, they began to dialogue with each other as a community of literacy supporters. the parents started to see literacy as something they could teach their children. weaving literacy practice into each day was achievable. also, they connected with school staff in a meaningful way that would facilitate future learning. parents experienced an evolution in their view of schooling and their potential role as educational supporters or coaches to their children. this represents a significant shift in their worldview and language connections. the program directly seeks to expand parents’ enactment of language socialization processes at home and in community. the teachers’ active modeling of strategies for looking at and reading picture books was notable. the practice of teaching a literacy activity, structuring a homebased practice, and then following up in the subsequent workshop to ¡preparados, listos, ya! lang, gómez & lasser 103 debrief and discuss the activity seemed effective and contributed to parental knowledge. esol teachers and instructional specialist wove discussions of the importance of using spanish with children, notions of bilingualism, and information about how schools in the us work into every activity. this allowed parents to hear similar information in different forums. this cyclical discussion provided parents with multiple opportunities to synthesize information and ask questions. the teachers’ supportive and positive tone helped to transform the parents’ cultural vision of maestra to the more familiar american style of a teacher, and addressing the teacher by her first name. such familiarity with the school staff who will be teaching their children created a social space for addressing the challenges ahead as the children enter kindergarten and further develop their bics and calp in spanish and english. in terms of inspiring children of immigrants to participate in schooling in the us, it is critical to support parents in their growing knowledge of the expectations of the school systems. additionally, by providing native language support to parents and helping them to understand the prevailing public vision for the education of their bilingual youngsters, greater academic success for all bilingual children is assured. acknowledgements the authors would like to acknowledge the contributions of the k-pass teachers for their dedication to the k-pass program. as well, the authors would like to acknowledge the assistance that julia gómez provided to the research team. references arlington, r. l. (2006). what really matters for struggling readers: designing research-based programs (2nd ed.). boston, ma: allyn & bacon. bernard, j. k., cummins, j., campoy, f. i., ada, a. f., winsler, a., & bleiker, c. (2006). identity texts and literacy development among preschool english language learners: enhancing learning opportunities for children at risk for learning disabilities. teachers college record, 108, 2380-2405. cummins, j. (2009, january 23). the challenge of learning academic english: research-based instruction for language and literacy development. powerpoint presented at the teacher institute, sponsored by the nysed office of bilingual education and foreign languages studies and the nyc network of nys betacs (new york state bilingual educational technical assistance centers), fordham university, ny. ¡preparados, listos, ya! lang, gómez & lasser 10� cummins, j. (1981). empirical and theoretical underpinnings of bilingual education, journal of education, 163(1) 16-29. dail, a. r. & mcgee, l. m. (2008). transition to kindergarten: reaching back to preschoolers and parents through shared summer school. childhood education, 84(5), 305-310. retrieved february 21, 2009, from the proquest database. diamond, k. e., reagan, a. j. & bandyk, j. e. (2000). parents’ conceptions of kindergarten readiness: relationships with race, ethnicity, and development. the journal of educational research, 94, 93-100. garcia, e. e. & cuéllar, d. (2006). who are these linguistically and culturally diverse students? teachers college record, 108(11), 2220-2246. garcia, e. e. & miller, l. s. (eds.) (2007). an introduction to this special thematic issue. journal of latinos and education, 6(3), 205-208. genesee, f. (2008, december 3). learning to read a second language: what does the research say and what do we do about it? powerpoint and podcast delivered via tesol virtual seminar. gilliam, b., gerla, j. b. & gary wright, g. (2004). providing minority parents with relevant literacy activities for their children. reading improvement, 41, 226-234. hill, j. d. & flynn, k. m. (2006). classroom instruction that works with english language learners. alexandria, va: association for supervision and curriculum development. krashen, s. (1999). condemned without a trial: bogus arguments against bilingual education. portsmouth, nh: heinemann. manyak, p. c. (2007). a framework for robust literacy instruction of english learners. the reading teacher, 61, 197-9. mercier smith, j. l., baker, d., & santoro, l. (2009). early intervention in bilingual education: teaching phonological awareness in spanish (la enseñanza de la concienca fonémica en español). nabe news, 31(2), 5-6, 9-14, & 27-28. merriam, s. (1988). case study research in education: a qualitative approach. san francisco, ca: jossey-bass publishers. meyer, l. m. (2007). methods, meanings, and educational policy in the united states. in j. cummins & c. davison (eds.), ¡preparados, listos, ya! lang, gómez & lasser 10� international handbook of english language teaching (pp. 211230). new york: springer. national institute for literacy. (2009). developing early literacy: a scientific synthesis of early literacy development and implications for intervention. national early literacy panel. retrieved february 19, 2009 from www.nifl.gov okagaki, l., & sternberg, r. j. (1993). parental beliefs and children’s early school performances. child development, 64(1), 36-56. roberts, t. a. (2008). home storybook reading in primary or second language with preschool children: evidence of equal effectiveness for second-language vocabulary acquisition. reading research quarterly, 43(2), 103–130. schieffelin, b. b. (1990). the give and take of everyday life: language socialization of kaluli. new york: cambridge university press. schieffelin, b. b., & ochs, e. (1986). language socialization. annual review of anthropology, 15, 163-191. valdés, g. (1996). con respecto: bridging the distance between culturally diverse families and schools: an ethnographic portrait. new york: teachers college press. waterman, r., & harry, b. (2008). building collaboration between schools and parents of english language learners: transcending barriers, creating opportunities. nccrest. retrieved march 1, 2009 from http://www.ncrest.org/briefs/practionerbrief buildingcollaboration.pdf willis, j. w. (2007). foundations of qualitative research: interpretative and critical approaches. thousand oaks, ca: sage publications. diane e. lang, ph.d. is assistant professor of early childhood and childhood education at manhanttanville college in purchase, new york. her research interests include field-based teacher education, play and learning, educational anthropology, and bilingual language socialization. she is passionate about society addressing the needs of bilingual children. her own children are among the 20% of american children who are bilingual. email: langd@mville.edu ¡preparados, listos, ya! lang, gómez & lasser 10� diane w. gómez, ph.d. is assistant professor of teaching english to speakers of other languages (tesol) and special education at manhanttanville college in purchase, new york. she earned her doctorate from fordham university in curriculum and teaching in the areas of language, literacy and learning. with over 30 years experience at all school levels in the metropolitan new york area teaching spanish, special education and tesol, she offers teacher candidates pragmatic skills with theoretical foundations. a proponent of bilingual education, her research interests include heritage speakers of spanish, differentiated instruction, teacher training and multicultural education. email: gomezd@mville. edu suzanne m. lasser, m.s. is the director of english language learners (ells) programs k-12 for the white plains city school district in white plains, new york. she has worked as both an esl teacher and school administrator. in 2003, she received national board certification in early and middle childhood english as a new language. her interests include newcomer centers, dual language programs, and innovative program models designed to support the diverse needs of ells. email: suzannelasser@ wpcsd.k12.ny.us ¡preparados, listos, ya! 93 enhancing moral and ethical judgment through the use of case histories: an ethics course for pre-service teachers1 fomentar el criterio moral y ético mediante el uso de estudio de casos: un curso de ética para maestros en formación mary anne mc danel de garcía2* institución universitaria colombo americana, única, colombia abstract this article refers to an action research project involving pre-service teachers. the purpose of this study was to determine if specific learning outcomes could be successfully employed as objectives for an ethics course for preservice teacher preparation. real life case histories were used by students to identify and reflect upon moral and ethical issues. data was collected through questionnaires, interviews, written reflection, and teacher´s observations. findings revealed that the set objectives were attainable and apparently achieved by all of the participants. the use of case histories and a color rubric facilitated the development of the students’ moral awareness, reflection and motivation. key words: moral/ethical awareness, reasoning/reflection skills, motivation, conviction, implementation, case histories resumen este artículo hace referencia a un proyecto de investigación acción que contó con la participación de docentes en formación. la finalidad de este estudio fue determinar sí los resultados específicos de aprendizaje podrían ser implementados exitosamente como objetivos para un curso de ética para la formación de maestros de inglés. el estudio de casos de la vida real fue utilizado por los estudiantes para identificar y reflexionar sobre problemas morales 1 received: august 6, 2013 / accepted: october 1, 2013 2 email: dir.academica@unica.edu.co gist education and learning research journal. issn 1692-5777. no. 7, november 2013. pp. 93-114 pre-service teachres’ beliefs no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) 94 y éticos. los datos fueron recogidos mediante cuestionarios, entrevistas, reflexiones escritas, y observaciones del profesor. los resultados revelaron que los objetivos propuestos fueron alcanzados y aparentemente logrados por todos los participantes. el uso de estudio de casos y una rúbrica con convenciones de colores facilitó el desarrollo de la conciencia moral de los estudiantes, la reflexión y la motivación. palabras clave: conciencia ética/ moral, razonamiento, capacidad de reflexión, motivación, convicción, implementación, estudio de casos. resumo este artigo faz referência a um projeto de pesquisa ação que contou com a participação de docentes em formação. a finalidade deste estudo foi determinar se os resultados específicos de aprendizagem poderiam ser implantados com êxito como objetivos para um curso de ética para a formação de maestros de inglês. o estudo de casos da vida real foi utilizado pelos estudantes para identificar e refletir sobre problemas morais e éticos. os dados foram coletados mediante questionários, entrevistas, reflexões escritas e observações do professor. os resultados revelaram que os objetivos propostos foram alcançados e aparentemente conseguidos por todos os participantes. o uso de estudo de casos e uma rubrica com convenções de cores facilitou o desenvolvimento da consciência moral dos estudantes, a reflexão e a motivação. palavras chave: consciência ética/ moral, razoamento, capacidade de reflexão, motivação, convicção, implantação, estudo de casos introduction the purpose of this action research project was to verify if moral or ethical judgment could be enhanced through the study of case histories, in pursuit of ozar’s four desired outcomes for an ethics course (2001). these outcomes include the following: awareness, reasoning and reflecting skills, motivation/conviction, and implementation. the use of case histories is advocated as a major tool for the teaching of ethics, along with a variety of classroom techniques. students involved in this research studied a set of real life situations to help them reach higher levels of awareness of the impact that a particular moral or ethical issue might have on students, their well-being, learning, the reputation of a person, the profession, and the institution, as well as the resulting disciplinary consequences. students used role play, comic strips, posters, along with open discussion to analyze the cases, and made use of a color rubric to identify the seriousness of the moral and ethics matters mcdanel de garcía no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) 95 ethical implications. the teacher served as guide and facilitator rather than lecturer. data collection was carried out through questionnaires, interviews, written responses, and the teacher’s field notes. an analysis was made of how students broadened their capacity for moral and ethical judgment beyond a conventional basic standard by means of studying case histories. the findings determined a course of action to be used in future ethics courses, and led to the development of a teacher’s manual for an ethics course for pre-service teachers. the site of this investigation was an institution dedicated to the formation of bilingual teachers, who will face the task set for them by john dewey (1897), “that he (or she) is a social servant set apart for the maintenance of proper social order and the securing of the right social growth” (p.11). as campbell (2003) points out, “much of the current literature in the field reinforces the importance of regarding teaching as an inherently moral endeavor. by extension, it supports a belief that teachers primarily carry out their professional work without being fully aware of the moral and ethical implications of their actions” (p. 1). tibbitts and torney-purta (1999) refer to the need for adequate teacher preparation at the pre-service level. “to this end, well designed training experiences are essential, and those organized at the pre-service level are especially important” (p. 2). in order to meet these demands, the teacher must have preparation at the pre-service level that will provide him or her with the knowledge and judgmental skills needed to address moral and ethical situations with students, parents, and others (goodlad et al., as cited in yost, 1997). campbell (2003) identifies three concerns: (a) that a teacher must accept and understand that he/she is a moral agent; (b) that moral dilemmas and complexities are challenges that teachers must face daily; and (c) that teacher professionalism, school cultures and teacher education need renewal in order to confront these concerns. it is the belief of this author that these three concerns are not only valid but urgent. anyone who has dealt first hand with a myriad of difficult situations involving teachers in school settings and found these incidents exploding into near catastrophic proportions understands that if a conscientious adult can be accustomed to consider the extended consequences of their actions, many of these unsavory situations could be avoided or at least diminished. the genuine consciousness of the moral agency required of teachers is not as easily achieved in today’s world as it once may have been, because of the lack of clear guidelines. it is important that those in charge of the task of providing orientation in teacher ethics strive to direct student discussion not only of extreme ethics matters mcdanel de garcía no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) 96 cases of ethical failure but more importantly of everyday situations that contain ethical dilemmas, as these are not only more frequently encountered but also can be very complex. all teacher educators should strive to project and implement a modernized focus concerning moral and ethical decisions and judgments. literature review ethics in ethics, just what it is that we hope to “teach,” or better prompt the development of, is abstract and difficult to define. many documents exist concerning ethical practice in almost every profession; however, the ethics involved in the teaching profession is understandably more delicate. surprisingly enough, there are not as many precisely teacher related documents to facilitate orientation for pre-service teachers, or practicing teachers for that matter, as one might expect. it is not easy to define just what the term “moral” or “ethical” refers to, but in the broadest sense it has to do with doing what is correct according to our sense of what is right and what is wrong. however, it is no easy matter to define what is right or wrong in terms of moral or ethical correctness, as this will depend on a variety of factors which must be considered and which are often in conflict. carter (2010) lists six such factors that may make a difference when analyzing a situation. the factor of justice evaluates the equal distribution of benefits that may result from an action or actions to the persons involved. decision making often takes into account the fundamental rights of a person regarding respect and the manner in which he or she is treated. another factor to be considered involves the basic virtues such as integrity, honesty, and trust. the utilitarian aspect involves evaluating which conduct will produce more benefit than harm. what will produce the common good for the most people must be considered. finally, social relativism refers to the variation in the values of different cultures which create discrepancies in the basis for judgment. it is logical to presume that the discussion of specific situations in teaching will at least create awareness of the extension that the ethical decisions of teachers might have, based upon the principal that practice helps to develop a pattern of behavior. aristotle pointed out that everything at which we strive to be excellent requires practice, and that this includes behaving in an ethical manner. we become just by the practice of just actions, self-controlled by exercising self-control, and courageous by performing acts of courage. ethics matters mcdanel de garcía no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) 97 hence, it is no small matter whether one habit or another is inculcated in us from early childhood; on the contrary, it makes…all the difference. (as cited in benninga, 2003, p. 3) benninga also mentions that the ethics program developed by the university of minnesota is based upon the four-component model of moral maturity: (a) moral sensitivity, or the awareness of how our actions affect other people; (b) moral judgment, based on the theories of piaget and kohlberg; (c) moral motivation in which having moral values is seen as a priority over personal values; and (d) moral character where individuals act on moral conviction (benninga, 2003, pp. 2-3). moral and ethical development laurence kohlberg (1971) refines and restructures the theory of piaget outlining six stages for moral and ethical development. crain (1985) outlines these stages very comprehensively. level one is called pre-conventional morality and consists of stage one, obedience and punishment orientation in which young children base moral judgment on rules and punishment resulting from bad behavior. at stage two, individualism and exchange, different individuals have different points of view and punishment should be avoided. level two, referred to as conventional morality, includes stage three, good interpersonal relationships. at this stage, it is assumed that people should meet the expectations of their immediate community. stage four, maintaining the social order, concerns society, and one should act in accordance with social order. level three, called post-conventional morality, consists of stage five, social contract and individual rights, in which the rights and values that a society should exemplify, society being a social contract where all work for the common good, based upon rights and democratic procedures. stage six, universal principles, involves treating the interests of all parties in an impartial manner and with equal respect, the universal principle of justice. teaching ethics the most influential document in this study is david ozar’s article (2001), in which he builds upon developmental psychologist james rest’s four aspects of moral life. it sets forth the objectives that an ethics course for pre-service teachers might find worthwhile to strive for: 1. awareness or sensitivity to what is morally or ethically at stake in a situation; ethics matters mcdanel de garcía no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) 98 2. reasoning and reflection skills, leading to judgments about what ought to be done in a situation by considering what is morally or ethically at stake; 3. motivation/conviction, the person’s conscious affirmation of values, principles and ideals, and patterns of living habitually according to his or her moral and ethical judgments; and 4. implementation, the practical and emotional ability to carry out the course of action that a person has judged correct and is motivated to do. (ozar, 2001, p. 4) ozar uses the terms “ethical” and “moral” interchangeably, and defines them as “a question in which we are concerned with what someone ought to do because someone’s well-being or virtue or rights or duties are at issue or at stake” (ozar, 2001, p. 6). ozar uses rest’s four aspects as the baseline for the average student (young adult) entering a course and projects in general terms what he considers to be the ideal outcomes for an ethics course. he states that the average student brings to the course awareness of personally relevant values, principles and ideals, such as honesty and integrity among others, and some socialrelational ones. throughout the course, students should develop an articulate awareness of these values, and recognize additional values needed to engage in moral and ethical reflection in both private and social and public situations in relationship to what is transcendent and or sympathetic to others’ needs. this can be stimulated by having students share hypothetical cases or events from their own lives, thus allowing them to demonstrate their awareness through discussion (ozar, 2001, pp. 5-6). ozar points out that the average college student “reasons logically on simple moral/ethical issues,” but is generally unable to grasp “the elements and patterned contents of the different modes of moral/ethical reflection” or “to speak in detail of their effort” to do so. therefore, students should develop the ability to give articulate judgment, based upon “logical…clear… careful’ moral reflection. ‘the most direct means of assessing students’ reasoning/reflective skills is by means of case-based discussions and written assignments, whether the cases are hypothetical or drawn from current events or the student’s own lives.” he also emphasizes that students should learn several conceptual tools developed by scholars of moral/ethical reflection (ozar, 2001, pp. 5-6). as for motivation/conviction, ozar feels that the average student does not frequently think about reasons for having the values, principles or ideals that they hold, and that these are very often habitual rather than ethics matters mcdanel de garcía no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) 99 “decision and choice-based.” they must become more appreciative of these in others, and demonstrate them by “embodying them concretely in their lives and work” so that others see and are motivated to follow the example set, or “are repelled by the lack of values/principles/ideals that they admire” (ozar, 2001, p. 7). finally, regarding implementation, students generally have limited experience with “situation specific challenges other than family, school and limited social or work environments” (ozar, 2001, p. 8). they must be made aware of their abilities and prompted to be more conscious and articulate in order to give solutions to practical and emotional situations they will eventually encounter. they should know the limits of their own skills and be able to refer to available resources for resolving a problematic situation. ozar suggests some teaching strategies for an undergraduate ethics course. he advocates guided discussion rather than lecture and suggests that “the use of cases to make the issues concrete is almost always helpful and often essential…assessment in this area is carried out most efficiently through class discussions and written assignments about typical cases” (2001, p. 8). such an interactive environment enhances awareness and reasoning and reflection. students should analyze cases in writing and give judgment and reasons for their conclusions. it is also useful to employ a particular set of conceptual tools and give students the opportunity to practice with them during class discussions (ozar, 2001). chubbuck, burant, and whipp (2001) point out that pre-service teachers have moral orientation and sensibilities which provide a basis for profound participation in an ethics course. davis and davey (2007) stress the importance of treating students with respect during discussion because people cannot be forced to have the same values. they do not come to the course without values, and they may also have values they have not yet examined. further, people may still need to develop reasoning skills and the confidence needed to act according to their values. chubbuck et al. (2001) argue the following: vivid stories about practicing teachers provided the grist for grappling with moral concerns. and throughout discussions among peers in teacher education classes or with other college students on campus brought the moral dimension into focus, helping pre-service teachers extend their ideas and consider wider perspectives. our participants’ fusion of thought and emotion in these interpersonal sites seemed to spark stronger engagement with the moral dimension, and along with that the program content. (p. 127) ethics matters mcdanel de garcía no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) 100 in agreement with socrates and aristotle that ethics is knowing what should be done, and that this can be taught, tripathy, chavan and jain (2007) in their study concerning the development of a code of ethics in the field of education involving college teachers effectively used ten case histories. they mention that dramatic change can occur in terms of the basic problem-solving strategies used to deal with ethical issues by young adults in their 20s and 30s. the questions students answered were based upon recognizing the issue, getting the facts, evaluating the alternative actions from various moral perspectives, making a decision, and learning from the case. (brooke (2008) is also a great advocate of the use of case histories both in the classroom and on line. she considers that socratic dialogue resulting from the analysis of concrete situations promotes higher order thinking skills and stimulates students to think about how to respond to a particular situation. fleischmann, robbins and wallace (2009) are concerned with information professionals; nonetheless, the findings are very relevant. they discuss the use of pedagogically structured case histories, in which students make multiple interdependent decisions while doing role play, and answering open-ended questions. after discussion, the teacher provided students with the results of the cases, taking into account the students’ conclusions. the findings support the use of developing and evaluating case histories as beneficial. students were reported to have considered the values of others, particularly on an intercultural basis, which indicates that they had increased their level of “motivation/ conviction” as formulated by ozar (2001). carter (2010) deals with both the challenges and limitations in the implementation of training and program development for teaching ethics. he argues that using case studies helps to contextualize discussion and provide a space to contrast different values and positions. carter identifies three main components in ethical decision making: relationships amongst individuals, laws, rules, regulations, and codes of conduct, and values and cultural influence. he indicates that case studies promote professional dialogue and that “these cases must contain uncertainties because teaching is full of uncertainties” (p. 5-7). he also concludes that the use of a code of conduct provides guidance. davis and davey (2007) discuss curriculum and instructional methods for teaching ethics. they conclude that the consistent use of case histories, role play and other methodologies used to teach ethics and ethical reasoning facilitated thinking, discussing, supporting beliefs and considering the consequences of actions. ethics matters mcdanel de garcía no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) 101 methodology research design the aim of this action research project was to determine whether tenth semester pre-service teachers were able to reach a higher level of clear, logical and careful judgment (rest, 1984) of ethical and moral issues as proposed by ozar (2001) through the study of case histories. the project also hoped to evaluate if the methodology used in the course was effective. instruments for collecting data were developed and implemented during the duration of the semester. at the end of the course, data was compared, contrasted, and interpreted, and findings were established as reliable. the findings indicated a course of action to be pursued in future ethics courses, and in other applications as well. the research questions guiding the project were the following: • to what extent do tenth semester pre-service teachers reach a higher level of moral/ethical judgment as outlined by ozar by using case histories? • to what extent do students learn to identify the extended consequences of a particular occurrence? • what kinds of case histories help bring students up to the level of demonstrating moral/ethical judgment in educational situations? • how does the use of a rubric help students to analyze situations presented in case histories? context and participants this study was carried out in a 36-hour ethics course during the second semester of 2011 in the bilingual education program of a teaching college in bogotá, colombia. the participants consisted of eight tenth semester students, three men and five women, between the ages of 21 and 33. students were enrolled in the course while simultaneously engaged in student teaching in both public and private schools in the city. they arrived to class after a full day’s work and a long commute. two of the participants also had experience in private tutoring and two had experience teaching in language institutes. data collection instruments qualitative data collection techniques were used throughout the course. information was obtained through questionnaires, essays ethics matters mcdanel de garcía no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) 102 involving written analysis of case histories, interviews with the students, and teacher observation. the first survey identified students’ expectations of the ethics course according to the established research questions for the study. the second survey determined if students’ expectations had been fulfilled. individual written reflections containing students’ responses measured the increase in each student’s awareness of the moral and ethical issues presented in particular cases. student interviews were carried out and recorded on an interview format, thus providing candid direct quotes which served as evaluation of the effectiveness of the methodology used. the teacher consigned observations for each class in a field note format and recorded information about students’ participation and interaction. students responded to the preliminary questionnaire during the second session of the course. there were seven questions related to the objectives ozar (2001) outlines as the levels of moral and ethical judgment for the average college student and the proposed outcomes for the course. students were not required to give their names. interviews were used to record students’ responses to the course during the final marking period. they evaluated the methodology and usefulness of the course. these responses were recorded by the teacher, after which they were read and approved by the students. during classes the professor took field notes regarding student responses and involvement in different activities. the teacher was an observer and facilitator rather than the leader. these observations allowed the professor to evaluate the growth of the students’ level of awareness as well as reasoning and reflection. pedagogical intervention during this project students studied 23 true-life situations drawn from the experience of the researcher. information which might permit identification of individuals, institutions or communities was carefully avoided. the situations were the kind that teachers might find themselves in during their careers. the cases fell into three categories: daily procedure, severe misconduct and personal problems. students were given the cases to read and analyze before discussion. they worked individually, in pairs or in groups, and took part in role play, or illustrated the cases in comic strips or posters. some cases were given for homework, and discussed in the next class. students determined the repercussions on the extended community, suggested alternative courses of action, and possible disciplinary consequence. periodically, students were asked to write their reactions to a case. these were evaluated by the teacher and later discussed in the group. ethics matters mcdanel de garcía no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) 103 case histories were used in the following ways: (a) read and discussed in class; (b) read in class in groups, presented, and discussed; (c) read for homework and discussed in the next class; (d) prepared and presented in role play by groups who then led the others in discussion; (e) prepared in pairs and presented and discussed; and (f) illustrated in comic strips or posters by groups and presented to the class. according to teacher observations, the students responded well when the teacher was an observer rather than a lecturer. students often volunteered their own experiences, and when this occurred, the teacher would allow time for adequate interaction. students were enthusiastic when asked to take the parts of the characters. they would assign characters and rehearse their presentation, present it, then lead a discussion with the rest of the class. the use of a comic strip presentation was also effective. groups would be given different cases, paper and markers. they would illustrate the case in drawings, then present the sequence of drawings to the class, explain, and lead reflective discussion. students applied a rubric after discussing the cases. the rubric was established considering aspects outlined by the national education association’s (nea) code of ethics of the education profession (1975, revised 2010) and the connecticut code of professional responsibility for teachers (2009), the nea code being more general and the connecticut code being very specific. both recognize two main categories of responsibility: responsibility and commitment to the student and responsibility and commitment to the profession. the connecticut code also includes responsibility to the community and responsibility to the student’s family. the points included in these two codes coincide with many of the principles of the ethical framework, including responsibilities and unacceptable conduct, consigned in local codes of the secretary of education of bogotá (2002). the rubric used in the course was composed of five categories: blue, green, orange, yellow, and red; blue being the least serious and red being the most serious. the following criteria are used for each color: (a) school rules or code of conduct; (b) student involvement; (c) students at risk; (d) impact on learning; (e) danger to the reputation of colleagues, the profession or the institution; and (f) required disciplinary action (see appendix 1). results results indicate that the use of case histories was highly effective in helping students reach higher levels of moral and ethical judgment over the course of the semester. these areas of judgment are outlined by ozar’s criteria of awareness and sensitivity, reasoning and reflection ethics matters mcdanel de garcía no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) 104 skills, motivation / conviction, and implementation (ozar, 2001, p. 4). the data indicates that students are also able to learn to identify the extended consequences of a particular occurrence although students responded differently to different types of situations. the use of a rubric was helpful for participants when analyzing different situations. the rubric was also quite effective in measuring students’ understanding of and responses to cases over time. in terms of the ability to reach a higher level of moral and ethical judgment using case histories, students affirm that they were able to increase their skills and felt better prepared to deal with future situations. this ability was developed over time. for example, students’ responses to the first questionnaire revealed that all but one of them felt that they were not logical, clear or careful in discussing ethical issues with others: i have some knowledge, but i do not feel i have enough to be able to discuss these topics with another party. none of the participants felt secure about voicing their opinion. two expressed fear, and three said that they preferred not to get involved: sometimes i feel scared of saying something that may become a problem. when asked if they were able to explain their reasons for adhering to their moral or ethical values, six felt that they could if necessary and one felt that it would be difficult. when asked if they considered themselves able to discern their limitations and direct others to seek support or advice, five responded no and two yes. after working with the case histories throughout the semester, in the final questionnaire, participants were asked whether they had achieved a higher awareness of ethical and moral issues as a result of the course, and also if they had enhanced their ability to respond to such issues. one hundred percent of the students felt that the class had fulfilled their expectations. in terms of being able to be logical, clear and careful in discussing moral or ethical issues, responses were unanimously affirmative. responses include the following: the cases that we talked about in class let me know many things that i should pay attention to and put into practice in my conduct and discourse. with each case we had the opportunity to analyze it, discuss it and give a possible solution. although at the beginning it was difficult to analyze, since we did not have any experience, but later it was easy. ethics matters mcdanel de garcía no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) 105 table 1. students’ perception of their skills – preliminary and final questionnaires skill able to judge and express clearly, logically and carefully reason, reflect and voice opinion on moral / ethical issues with security affirm and consistently demonstrate convictions carry out a course of action and recognize limitations in terms of work with the case histories, at the beginning it was obvious that some of the students were reluctant to take a stand when discussing the cases. others were quick to give a judgment, but giving reasons for their opinions was not as easy. the teacher noted that each of the three grading periods marked an increase in logic and spontaneity in the class discussion of the cases. even the more timid students were open and eager to give their opinions and reasons for their positions as the course progressed. it is important to note that students began to seek a consensus concerning the seriousness of the case and the resulting consequences. important team work and problem solving skill seemed to evolve and were evidenced by the written responses done in each marking period. in students’ first written response to the case histories, completed at the end of the second week, a wide range of results and a high degree of subjectivity were evident. the papers revealed contradictory statements indicating the students’ lack of security in trusting their own judgment. the first case analyzed involved two teachers with personal problems. using the color rubric, the students’ responses varied greatly in terms of the seriousness of the situation and the response required. this indicates, as did davis and davy (2007), that the students bring with them an adult standard of personal judgment, which is in accordance ethics matters mcdanel de garcía q ue st io nn ai re 1 q ue st io nn ai re 2 no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) 106 with what ozar (2001) determined to be the average level for the typical college student. another written response, taken at the end of the second marking period, concerned a group of teachers involved in severe misconduct. the case was difficult, and designed to put the students’ judgment to test. the papers indicated a marked improvement in concrete judgment and unification of criteria. this time, all felt that the case was serious. all in all, the answers exemplified maturity and thorough analysis even though students were still not confident offering their judgments. the last written response was done in the final class. the case in question concerned daily procedure. students showed less confusion, more confidence, objectivity, and less dependency on the color rubric. they considered the points of view of all of the people involved in the case, and offered solutions. the ability to offer analysis and judgment had improved. a breakdown of the results of the written responses can be seen in table 2. table 2. students’ responses to case histories at weeks 2, and 13 and 18 ethics matters mcdanel de garcía no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) 107 in terms of the degree to which students can learn to identify the extended consequences of a particular occurrence, at the onset of the course, six of the pre-service teachers felt that they could distinguish when values were in conflict in a concrete situation. all but one person felt that they were aware of the perspectives of the multiple parties involved in a situation. all felt that they took into account the consequences of moral and ethical issues on learning, on students and the extended community, and on the institution. nonetheless as the course progressed the students recognized that they were becoming even more alert as to what might result from a situation. the final questionnaire revealed that the students coincided in that they had increased awareness of the perspectives of multiple parties. one student said the following: when we discuss a situation in the class, we get the point that other parties, such as students, teachers, parents and directives are affected either positively or negatively with the decisions we take. all of the students considered that they had learned to consider the consequences of acts, the points of view of others, and the reputation of people, the profession, and the educational institutions: sometimes we think of ourselves but not in others or the students’ safety and learning. this was really useful. sometimes we don’t think about a reputation being damaged. i also had an experience in my student teaching where someone told me about a problem. i knew that i probably wasn’t qualified to give the advice the person needed and i recommended professional counseling, rather than try to give advice myself. in terms of the kinds of case histories which were most effective, the use of case histories as an instrument to improve moral and ethical judgment was effective, and was accepted unanimously as an excellent resource to develop higher thinking skills. in an interview with the teacher, some of the students expressed their opinions on the use of case histories: i liked all the cases. i thought that some of the things that occurred in the cases could never happen, but now i realize that they can. i liked the tricky cases because they aren’t what they seem at first, and you have to think before you decide how serious they are. ethics matters mcdanel de garcía no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) 108 the questionnaire filled out on the last day of class is the prime indicator in evaluating the types of case histories used in the course. teacher observation also provided criteria for evaluation, as did the individual written responses of the students. the cases used in the course were based upon daily procedure in teaching, extreme misconduct, and personal problems. all of the students found all types of cases useful and interesting; however, three people felt that the cases about daily procedure were the most useful because, as one person put it, “these are the cases that we are going to face every day.” three students preferred those cases in which extreme disciplinary measurements were in order. all agreed that these cases were easier to judge than the cases in which the moral or ethical matters were not so obvious. two people felt that the cases concerning teachers with personal problems were most useful. as one student said, “these cases in which personal problems are involved demand higher thinking and reflection.” teacher observations indicate that cases concerning daily procedure in teaching were often harder for the students to identify the problem, as campbell (2008) quoting hansen points out “…. not everything that teachers do necessarily has moral significance, but any action a teacher takes can have moral import” (p. 22). cases of daily procedure (e.g. borrowing equipment from students, responding to parental pressure, classroom management, combining personal business with school time, not doing duties etc.), spurred prolonged discussion about the level of the teacher’s guilt and what the consequence should be. the cases involving extreme misconduct (e.g. teacher involvement with a student, spreading damaging rumors, etc.) were easily identified as totally unacceptable and requiring immediate drastic consequences. typically, the discussion time needed for these cases was less than that needed for the other cases, and the consequences suggested were always extreme. it was sometimes difficult for students to understand why the teacher was not fired immediately or, on the other hand, why he/she had been so severely punished. this helped students to understand the delicate matter of protecting the reputation of the institution. cases where personal problems were discussed, (e.g. addictions, personal hygiene, etc.) often led to prolonged discussion, usually with the students wanting the teacher in the case fired immediately. the written responses provide an interesting indicator of the difficulty students encountered in analyzing the cases. the amount of writing consigned in discussing the first case, which concerned a personal problem, averaged two complete pages. the answers were sometimes contradictory or uncertain. the wide range of colors assigned to the ethics matters mcdanel de garcía no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) 109 case (see table 2) testifies to this. the second case, which concerned severe conduct, required only one and a half pages, and the answers were direct and conclusive, indicating that individually students did not find it difficult to identify the problem. the third case, which was about daily procedure, also required only an average of one and a half pages. the answers indicated that, although they demonstrated a high degree of critical thinking, the students were not hesitant or insecure. all of the cases were valuable, as is indicated by the unanimous positive response on the final questionnaire. it was suggested that the percentage of cases concerning daily procedure should probably be higher in the collection. in terms of the rubric as a tool to facilitate the classification of the cases, findings in the final questionnaire, field notes, and student interviews were unanimous in the appreciation of the rubric as an effective tool, not only to rate the cases, but also to appreciate the extended consequences of a particular moral or ethical issue. the teacher-researcher noted that the students not only consulted the color rubric, but also referred to it in their conversations concerning cases when working in groups. conclusion it must be acknowledged that the study would have been optimized if there had been more students to work with. none the less, the results were clear indicators that the specific objectives for an ethics course for teachers as proposed by ozar (2001) are adequate and largely attainable when case histories are used as the major instrument in the methodology. their continued use is advisable for the ethics course at the institution where the stludy took place. case histories, as indicated by benninga (2003), ozar (2001), chubbuck, burant, and whipp (2001), tripathy (2007), fleischmann, robbins and wallace (2009), and davis and davey (2007), and as demonstrated in this action research project, are an excellent tool for the development of higher moral and ethical judgment. the follow up to the study will be to revise and edit the case histories that were used for the course. these cases will be compiled into a formal document or manual for use in future ethics classes. they will be accompanied by discussion questions and suggested activities that might be employed in the class, as well as a diagnostic commentary. this study shows that the type of cases used during the course (daily procedure, personal problems, and severe misconduct) are all useful for pre-service teachers. students indicated that those cases concerning daily procedure would probably be the most frequently encountered in their careers. ethics matters mcdanel de garcía no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) 110 the methodology applied in the course was adequate. we can conclude that interactive strategies, with the teacher as facilitator and observer, should be implemented. these include role play, individual presentations, sharing personal experiences, drawing comic strip and poster interpretations, among others. this does not exclude the exploration of theory and the use of lecture. the color rubric is useful in helping pre-service teachers relate to the impact of a moral/ethical issue regarding the rules of an institution, impact on learning, student involvement, students at risk, the reputations of all involved, and adequate consequences. this original document merits its continued use and inclusion in the proposed manual. acknowledgements carlo erwin granados beltran ma and mónica rodriguez bonce phd(c) were fundamental to the realization of the action research carried out and of this article. i am grateful for their comments, suggestions and the learning experience they facilitated. a special thanks to alejandro rativa murillo, my student research assistant, for his dedication and technological expertise, and josephine taylor for her commentaries and editorial skills. references benninga, j. s. (2003). moral and ethical issues in teacher education. eric digest. ed482699 2003-10-00 eric clearinghouse on teaching and teacher education. 1-7. retrieved from: http:// www.ericdigests.org/2004-4/moral.htm brooke, s. l. (2008). the case method and collaborative learning. in k. l. orvis & a. l. r. lassiter (eds.), computer-supported collaborative learning: best practices and principles for instructors (pp. 66-88). henby, pa: information science publishing. campbell, e. (2003). the ethical teacher. maidenhead: open university press. campbell. e. (2008). teaching ethically as a moral condition of professionalism. in d. narváez & l. nucci (eds). the international handbook of moral and character education. (pp. 601-617). new york: routledge. ethics matters mcdanel de garcía no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) 111 carter, m. (2010). professional ethics in teaching: the training and development challenge. retrieved from: http://es.scribd.com/ doc/38492247/professional-ethics-in-teaching chubbuck, s. m., burant, t., & whipp, j. (2001). the presence and possibility of moral sensibility in beginning pre-service teachers. ethics and education, 2(2), 109-130. connecticut state department of education (2003). connecticut code of professional responsibility for teachers. retrieved from: http:// www.sde.ct.gov/sde/lib/sde/pdf/cert/ethics/code_teachers.pdf crain, w. c. (1985). theories of development. englewood cliffs, nj: prentice-hall. davis, h. b. & davey, b. t. (2007). teaching teachers ethics: an analysis of instructional methods, key concepts and effects on teachers. a workshop for teachers. 1-4. retrieved from: http:// www.docstoc.com/docs/2413045/teaching-teachers-ethics-ananalysis-of-instructional-methods dewey, j. (1897). my pedagogic creed. school journal 54. 77-80. retrieved from: http://dewey.pragmatism.org/creed.htm fleischmann, k. r., robbins, r. w., & wallace, w. a. (2009). designing educational cases for intercultural information ethics: the importance of diversity, perspectives, values, and pluralism. (1). retrieved from: http://jelis.org/?p=784 hansen, d. t. (1993). from role to person: the moral layeredness of classroom teaching. american educational research journal 30(4), 651-674. kohlberg, l. & turiel, e. (1971). moral development and moral education. in g. lesser, (ed.), psychology and educational practice. scott foresman. mills, g.e. (2003). action research: a guide for the teacher researcher (2nd ed.). upper saddle river, nj: merrill prentice hall. national education association (1975, amended 2010). code of ethics of the education profession. retrieved from: http://www.nea.org/ home/30442.htm ozar, d. (2001) learning outcomes for ethics across the curriculum programs. ethics journal 2(1), 1-27. retrieved from: http://www. uvu.edu/ethics/seac/learning%20outcomes%20for%20ethics%20 across%20the%20curriculum%20programs.pdf ethics matters mcdanel de garcía no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) 112 school teaching ethics (nd). education encyclopedia. 1-5. retrieved january 6, 2009 from http://www.answers.com/topic/schoolteaching-ethics secretaria de educación de bogotá, d.c. (2002) resolución numero 2343 de 14 agosto de 2002 por lo cual se adopta el codigo de etica de la secretaria de educación de bogotá, d.c. retrieved from: http://www.sedbogota.edu.co/archivos/sector_educativo/ resoluciones_sed/ 008/resoluciones%25202343% secretaria de educación de bogotá, d.c. (2002) decreto 1278, artículos 40, 41, 42, 43 del 20 de junio de 2002 por la cual se expide el estatuto de profesionalización docente. retrieved from: http:// www.mineducación.gov.co/1621/articles-86102_archivo_pdf.pdf. tibbitts, f., & torney-purta, j. (1999) citizenship education in latin america: preparing for the future. human rights education associates. retrieved from: http://www.hrea.org/ erc/library/display_doc.php?url=http%3a%2f%2fwww.hrea. org%2fpubs%2fidb-monograph%2fcivics.pdf&external=n tripathy, k., chavan, s., & jain, r. (2007) developing and documenting a code of ethics for the professionals in the field of education. retrieved from: http://www.indianmba.com/faculty_column/ fc389/fc389.html yost, d. s. (1997). the moral dimensions of teaching and preservice teachers: can moral dispositions be influenced? journal of teacher education 48(4). retrieved from: http://www.questia.com/ googlescholar.qst?docid=5000551431 author *mary anne mc danel de garcia is presently academic dean at the institución universitaria colombo americano, única, where she teaches professional ethics, education administration i and ii and british literature. she holds a ba in english from the saint francis university and has special training in principal leadership, strategic planning and ecis accreditation for which she has served as a visiting team member. she has 26 years of experience as an ib teacher and has served as guidance counselor, high school and middle school principal and school director. ethics matters mcdanel de garcía no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) 113 appendix color rubric for analyzing case histories concerning teaching ethics six criteria are considered in this rubric: • violation of code of ethics or school rules (community handbook); • student involvement; • well-being of students at risk; • negative impact on learning; • risk of damage to the good name of the profession or the institution; • the management of the situation. these criteria are listed according to the seriousness of the incidents and described under each classification represented by a color. the colors are • blue (being the least serious); • green; • yellow; • orange; • and red (being the most serious). when these criteria are considered, the result may be a combination of the colors. after considering all of the criteria, as a whole, one color can be determined to be representative of the case. blue: • there is a violation of the code of ethics and/or school rules. • there is no student involvement. • there is no risk to the well being of students. • there is no negative impact on learning. • there is minimal risk of damage to the good name of the profession and/or the good name of the institution. • the situation can be easily managed but the offender should be made aware of his/her infraction. green: • there is a violation of the code of ethics and/or school rules. • there may be some student involvement. • there is possible risk to the well being of students. • there may be some negative impact on learning. • there is considerable risk of damage to the good name of the profession and/or the good name of the institution. • the situation can be managed without major difficulty but may require a formal consequence. ethics matters mcdanel de garcía no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) 114 yellow: • there is a considerable violation of the code of ethics and/or school rules. • there is student involvement. • there is some risk to the well being of students. • there is a negative impact on learning. • there is a high risk of damage to the good name of the profession and/or the good name of the institution. • the situation requires prompt careful management and formal consequences. orange: • there is a serious violation of the code of ethics and/or school rules. • students are directly involved. • the well being of the students is at considerable risk. • there is considerable negative impact on learning. • the good name of the profession and/or the institution is in jeopardy. • the situation requires prompt, cautious discreet management and significant formal consequences. red: • there is severe violation of the code of ethics and/or school rules. • students are directly involved. • the well-being of the students is at high risk. • there is an important negative impact on learning. • the good name of the profession and/or the institution is in great jeopardy. • the situation requires prompt, cautious, discreet management and extreme formal consequences. ethics matters no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 23 visual mnemonic technique: an effective learning strategy1 técnica mnemotécnica visual: una estrategia efectiva de aprendizaje. parisa farrokh, hengameh vaezi and hamed ghadimi2* islamic azad university, iran 1 received: january 13th 2021/ accepted: july 2nd 2021 2 farrokh_p@yahoo.com; veazi@iaurasht.ac.ir; hamed.ghadimi2015@gmail.com no. 21 gist education and learning research journal. issn 1692-5777. no. 23 (july december, 2021). pp. 7-32. 8 no. 23 abstract this study was designed to investigate the impact of visual mnemonic technique on young and adult iranian english learners’ vocabulary learning. the current study followed a quasi experimental design. 48 female students were selected based on their performance on the quick placement test. the participants were divided into four groups, two experimental and two control groups. prior to the treatment, the participants of both groups were given a pre-test to determine the knowledge of vocabulary. then, the experimental groups received the visual mnemonic technique for 8 sessions. the control groups went through a traditional method of teaching vocabulary. after 8 sessions, a post-test was administered to all groups. two-way anova between groups was run to the results of the vocabulary tests. the results exhibited that the experimental groups who received instruction on mnemonic technique outperformed their counterparts in post-test of vocabulary. however, the differences between the effects of mnemonic technique for young and adult learners who received the specific treatment were not statistically significant (p≥ .05). keywords: adult language learners; english learning; images; learning strategy; mnemonic techniques; visual mnemonic technique; vocabulary learning resumen este estudio se diseñó para investigar el impacto de la técnica mnemotécnica visual en el aprendizaje de vocabulario de los estudiantes de inglés iraníes jóvenes y adultos. el presente estudio siguió un diseño cuasi experimental. 48 estudiantes femeninas se seleccionaron basado en su desempeño en la prueba rápida de nivel. las participantes se dividieron en cuatro grupos, dos experimentales y dos de control. previo al tratamiento, a las participantes de ambos grupos se les dio una prueba previa para determinar su conocimiento de vocabulario. luego, los grupos experimentales recibieron la técnica mnemotécnica visual por 8 sesiones. los grupos de control pasaron por un método tradicional de enseñanza de vocabulario. después de 8 sesiones, se administró una posprueba. se realizó un anova bidireccional entre grupos con los resultados de las pruebas de vocabulario. los resultados mostraron que los grupos experimentales que recibieron instrucción sobre la técnica mnemotécnica superaron a sus contrapartes en la prueba posterior de vocabulario. no obstante, las diferencias entre los efectos de la técnica mnemotécnica para aprendices jóvenes y adultos que recibieron el tratamiento específico no fueron estadísticamente significativas (p≥.05) palabras clave: aprendices adultos de lengua; aprendizaje de inglés; imágenes; estrategia de aprendizaje; técnica mnemotécnica; técnica mnemotécnica visual; aprendizaje de vocabulario. visual mnemonic technique as learning strategy farrohk, vaezi & ghadimi 9 no. 23 resumo este estudo foi desenhado para investigar o impacto da técnica mnemotécnica visual no aprendizado de vocabulário dos estudantes de inglês iranianos jovens e adultos. o presente estudo seguiu um desenho quase experimental. 48 estudantes femininas selecionaram-se baseado em seu desempenho na prova rápida de nível. as participantes foram divididas em quatro grupos, dois experimentais e dois de controle. prévio ao tratamento, às participantes de ambos grupos lhes foi dada uma prova prévia para determinar seu conhecimento de vocabulário. depois, os grupos experimentais receberam a técnica mnemotécnica visual por 8 sessões. os grupos de controle passaram por um método tradicional de ensino de vocabulário. depois de 8 sessões, administrou-se uma post-prova. realizou-se um anova bidirecional entre grupos com os resultados das provas de vocabulário. os resultados mostraram que os grupos experimentais que receberam instrução sobre a técnica mnemotécnica superaram a suas contrapartes na prova posterior de vocabulário. porém, as diferenças entre os efeitos da técnica mnemotécnica para aprendizes jovens e adultos que receberam o tratamento específico não foram estatisticamente significativas (p≥.05) palavras chave: aprendizes adultos de língua; aprendizado de inglês; imagens; estratégia de aprendizado; técnica mnemotécnica; técnica mnemotécnica visual; aprendizado de vocabulário visual mnemonic technique as learning strategy farrohk, vaezi & ghadimi 10 no. 23 introduction vocabulary is regarded as the most important element to language and is of great significance to language learners. theorists and researchers in the field contend that lexical competence plays a principal role in second or foreign language learning. virtually, without vocabulary, it is very difficult, if not impossible, to engage in meaningful interaction with others. lewis (2005) stated that “vocabulary and lexical units are at the heart of learning and communication. no amount of grammatical or other type of linguistic knowledge can be employed in communication or discourse without the mediation of vocabulary” (p. xi). sinclair (1988) believes that a lexical mistake often causes misunderstanding, while a grammar mistake rarely does. according to nation (2001), vocabulary forms the biggest part of the meaning of any language, and vocabulary is the biggest problem for most learners. in addition, students are exposed to a lot of new vocabulary during lessons: by the teacher, by texts or other materials they work with. on the other hand, in order to be a successful language learner, it is important to have a good memory to learn and keep the vocabularies in the memory. there are a number of ways which can improve the function of our memory. the mnemonic techniques are suggested in the field of language learning as a tool to remember vocabulary (raugh & atkinson, 2001). mnemonic is a device, procedure, or operation that is used to improve memory and anyone can use to cue the brain to remember important facts. mnemonic devices are not used for comprehension, rather for facts and making lists of events that are relevant to an individual’s life (butler, 2007). the mnemonic techniques can have significant uses for both teaching and learning. the aim of using the mnemonic techniques is to make learners both learn and remember effectively and to keep the information in their long-term memory. also, these techniques can lead to having active and eager learners in classes (thompson, 2014). there are different classifications of mnemonic devices. thompson (1987), for example, arranges mnemonic strategies into five classes; linguistic, spatial, visual, physical response, and verbal methods. oxford (1990), on the other hand, identifies four major strategies namely, creating mental linkages, applying images and sounds, reviewing well, and employing action. while baddeley (1999) believes that mnemonic devices are classified into visual imagery strategies and verbal strategies. considering language learning conditions in iran, in which learners usually define, memorize word lists with their relevant synonyms / antonyms or use translation techniques, there appears a need for students to be presented with some non-verbal techniques of vocabulary teaching to be better able to learn, retain and recall vocabulary. therefore, this study aims to investigate the effect of visual mnemonic technique on recalling the english language vocabularies among young and adult iranian learners based on thompson’s classification. visual mnemonic technique as learning strategy farrohk, vaezi & ghadimi 11 no. 23 the following research questions were formulated for the present study: rq1. do mnemonic techniques have any statistically significant effect on young and adult iranian efl learners’ vocabulary learning? rq2. is there any significant difference between the final achievement of young and adult learners who learned the target language vocabulary through the mnemonic techniques? the following null hypotheses were suggested: h01: mnemonic techniques do not have any statistically significant effect on young and adult iranian efl learners’ vocabulary learning. h02: there is not any significant difference between the final achievement of young and adult learners who learned the target language vocabularies through the mnemonic techniques. literature review psychologists, linguists, and language teachers have been interested in vocabulary learning strategies for a long time (levenston, 1979). scientists advocated that memory techniques are considered as ‘powerful mental tools’ for language learners to cope with vocabulary mastering difficulties, due to the fact they make getting to know easier, faster, more enjoyable, more self–directed, more effective, and more transferable to new situations (bakken,2017; gu & johnson, 1996). in fact, memory has a key effect on eventual vocabulary and grammar achievement. there are two basic types of memory: short-term memory and long-term memory. short-term memory keeps the information which is being processed (a new word which is encountered for the first time). it is fast but it can hold information for a very short time due to its small storage capacity. long-term memory, on the other hand, has an unlimited storage capacity but is relatively slow. the aim of vocabulary learning and teaching is to transfer the lexical information from the short-term memory to the long-term memory. therefore, mnemonics is a memory enhancing instructional strategy that involves teaching students to link new information taught to information they already know (schmitt, 2000). because, if material is presented in a way which fits in or relates meaningfully to what is already known, then it will be retained for relatively long periods and thus retrieval through verbal or visual clues becomes quite easy. visual mnemonic technique as learning strategy farrohk, vaezi & ghadimi 12 no. 23 for vocabulary learning, mnemonic techniques are used to relate the word to some previously learnt information, using some form of imagery or grouping. since mnemonics are techniques or devices, either verbal or visual in nature, that serve to improve the storage of new information, and the recall of information contained in memory, have been proven to be extremely effective in helping people remember things (amiryousefi & ketabi, 2011; mastropieri & scruggs, 1989; solso, 1995). according to levin (1993), “mnemonic devices are proved to be effective in all ages. they are, however, more useful for low level students because they are involved mostly in activities requiring them to remember and recall information” (levin, 1993, p. 235). according to pressley, samuel, & hershey (2002), the mnemonic technique refers to a strategy that relates the pronunciation of a word to the one that the learners already know in their mother tongue or the target language. they then make an image to help language learners to remember the association. actually, mnemonic instruction is one way that teachers can help students learn to cue their brains to recall facts and other information. this instruction includes multiple strategies such as rhyming, visual representations and placement, songs, poems, and anything that personally relates to a student and his or her personal life. these strategies could be effective for students struggling to remember information taught. wright (1999) mentioned that language learners consider these techniques helpful specially for learning the vocabularies which are difficult to remember since the mnemonic techniques obviously connect the new information with something else that you already are familiar with or know and can be easily remembered. meanwhile, non-verbal memory storage is more stable than verbal over intervals of hours to days. similarly, gians and redman (2001) asserted that objects and pictures can facilitate recall. they further stated that images provide direct retrieval paths back to the language. therefore, non-verbal mnemonic devices like images can be effective for vocabulary development. wu and chang (2005) revealed that the mnemonic techniques were the essential medium for learning and gaining knowledge of vocabulary and also supported that teaching students’ memory strategies would promote elementary school students’ english vocabulary learning. atay and ozbulgan (2007) investigated the effects of memory strategy instruction along with learning through context on the esp vocabulary recall of turkish efl learners. the study showed that verbal mnemonic strategies were more effective than non-verbal. in this respect, hatch and brown (1995) argued that non-verbal mnemonic devices like images are helpful for children rather than adult learners. ashouri and moghadam (2015) attempted to find out the effectiveness of visual mnemonic devices. they applied both imagery and pictures to aid the learners memorize and recall the vocabularies with delayed time intervals. the result demonstrated that learners’ delayed recognition of second language vocabulary was not influenced by visual mnemonic technique as learning strategy farrohk, vaezi & ghadimi 13 no. 23 the passage of time, therefore, words learned via visual mnemonics instruction were retrieved well both in the process of immediate and delayed retention. raugh and atkinson (2001) conducted a study to check the effect of the key word mnemonic technique on learning spanish vocabularies. the results indicated that the key word mnemonic device was totally effective for the language learners. following this line of research, pressly et al. (2002) studied on children 3 to 6 years of age learning simple spanish vocabulary items through keyword method. the results showed that children who used the keyword method remembered more vocabulary than children who were not instructed in keyword method usage. carlson, kincaid, lance, and hodgson (1976), however, found significantly better recall when a group trained on the method of loci. in another research, which was done by roedigeron (2003), the effectiveness of four mnemonic techniques; “imagery, the link method, a peg system and the method of loci” on learners’ vocabularies was reported (p.66). azmi, najmi, and rouyan (2016) examined the effectiveness of using mnemonic techniques in learning english vocabularies. they investigated the students’ perspectives and point of view of the linguistics mnemonic technique in teaching and learning english vocabularies. the results received from the questionnaire demonstrated the effectiveness of using linguistics mnemonic techniques in learning english vocabularies as well as the students’ response towards the technique. they concluded that linguistics mnemonic technique is one of a number of procedures that has proved useful for the task of acquiring definitions of new foreign language words particularly for immediate recall. fasih, izadpanah, and shahnavaz (2017) provided support for key word mnemonic technique to improve reading comprehension. results showed that the use of keyword mnemonic vocabulary instruction improved the reading comprehension of third grade senior high school students and they were very satisfied to use this technique for learning new materials in order to enhance their reading comprehension in the future. also, students showed greater gains on assessments during the mnemonic condition. more importantly, mnemonic vocabulary instruction increased student engagement and motivation toward new vocabularies and they showed greater gains on the assessments. visual mnemonic technique as learning strategy farrohk, vaezi & ghadimi 14 no. 23 method the design of the study the current study follows quasiexperimental design in which subjects of the study were non-randomly selected, were made homogeneous, and then their intact classes were randomly assigned into two experimental groups and two control groups in order to investigate the research question of the study. participants the study was conducted with 48 young and adult pre-intermediate iranian efl learners who were studying english at kish language institute in rasht. the participants were selected from 60 female learners who took part in conversation classes; 24 participants were randomly chosen as the young and adult experimental groups. young and adult learners’ age varied from 18-24 and 26-35 respectively. in order to make sure of homogeneity, the participants were selected out of 60 pre-intermediate learners based on their results in the quick placement test. having calculated the mean and standard deviation (sd) , participants with the score of 1sd above and below the mean ( 1sd from the mean) were selected to conduct the study. they were divided into four groups: (two experimental and two control groups). the experimental groups received 8-session treatments in which they encountered the mnemonic technique, however, the control groups received no treatment. instruments to answer the research questions and to test the hypotheses of this study, the following instruments and materials were used. the quick placement test, which is a flexible test of english language proficiency developed by oxford university press to give teachers a reliable and time-saving method of finding out a student’s level of english. the next instrument was a pre-test. the purpose of this test which was administered before the treatment was to find the possible initial differences between the knowledge of vocabulary in the experimental and control groups. in so doing, a vocabulary test was used to test the participants’ knowledge of vocabulary. this test was taken from english vocabulary in use pre-intermediate ( redman, 2017) and the world of words (richek, 2010). it included 20 multiple questions. the test was utilized to measure the vocabulary knowledge of the learners in all groups before the treatment. no changes or modifications were made to the test. visual mnemonic technique as learning strategy farrohk, vaezi & ghadimi 15 no. 23 the other instrument was a post-test. a test similar to the pre-test was used as post-test after 8 sessions of instruction at the end of the treatment. this test which was administered after the treatment sessions was equal in all respects to the pretest. in the current study, the focus of attention was on pre-intermediate level students. the researcher introduced the english vocabulary in use pre-intermediate ( redman, 2017) and the world of words ( richek, 2010) to be worked on in all groups. procedure this study was conducted in july and august 2019 in four classes including 12 female students at kish language institute in rasht. they were divided into two young and adult experimental groups and two control ones. the homogeneity of the subjects at the beginning of the study was examined through administering of quick placement test to make sure the subjects were homogeneous in terms of their proficiency level. in order to compare the effect of treatment on students’ vocabulary knowledge, before the treatment, the pre-test was given. the control groups followed the traditional method. the teacher taught vocabulary by using dictionary definition, i.e., synonyms or antonyms, and examples. the researcher applied the visual mnemonic technique in the experimental groups. new words were paired with their definitions, equivalents, examples and images. in contrast to the experimental groups, images were not used in control groups while instructing vocabulary. here are some examples: abridge: shorten (a book, film, speech, etc.) without losing the sense. example: the book was abridged for children. mnemonic technique:  a+bridge. well bridges are meant to reduce the gap between something. so, abridging. something means reducing or shortening something. visual mnemonic technique as learning strategy farrohk, vaezi & ghadimi 16 no. 23 figure 1. abridged versions of dictionaries contagious: (of a disease) spread from one person or organism to another, typically by direct contact. example: it is a relatively new disease and very contagious. mnemonic technique:  contag+ious contag (contact) +ious something that spreads when comes in contact with body or something; so, something that spreads. visual mnemonic technique as learning strategy farrohk, vaezi & ghadimi 17 no. 23 figure 2. example of the word contagious yoke: a wooden crosspiece that is fastened over the necks of two animals and attached to the plough or cart that they are to pull. example: the only noise was the snorting of oxen as they pulled against the yoke. mnemonic technique: sounds like “yolk” which is egg-yolk and which joins the parts of egg (egg white, yellow yolk, white yolk) together. visual mnemonic technique as learning strategy farrohk, vaezi & ghadimi 18 no. 23 figure 3. example of yoke during the semester, the students in all groups learned 80 pre-intermediate words of the books english vocabulary in use pre-intermediate ( redman, 2017) and the world of words ( richek, 2010). after the treatment, the post-test was taken to measure students’ progress. the results of this research were analyzed quantitatively. it was mentioned that learners took the vocabulary test as both the pre-test and the post-test. results first, the reliability of the vocabulary tests was estimated through running cronbach’s alpha to the results of the vocabulary tests in a pilot study with (n= 8) participants. the results of the reliability analyses are presented in table 1: visual mnemonic technique as learning strategy farrohk, vaezi & ghadimi 19 no. 23 table 1. reliability statistics for the vocabulary tests cronbach’s alpha n of items n of sample vocabulary test (pre-test) .74 20 8 vocabulary test (post-test) .76 20 8 moreover, the values of reliability were interpreted based on the reliability standards suggested by barker, pistrang, and elliott (1994). table 2. standards for the reliability index (adapted from barker, pistrang, and elliott, 1994) interpretation reliability indices good .80 acceptable .70 marginal .60 poor .50 the estimated indices of cronbach’s alpha for the vocabulary tests came to (α pretest = .74; α post-test= .76) which were considered acceptable values according to the reliability standards suggested by barker, pistrang, and elliott (1994). table 3 presented descriptive information for the participants regarding their performance on qpt. the qpt was given to 60 efl learners. the objective was to select a homogeneous sample. the participants took three parts that included items related to structure, vocabulary, and reading comprehension with a maximum possible score of (60) points. a cutpoint of one standard deviation above and below the mean was set and 48 efl learners (four groups each consisting of 12 students) whose proficiency scores were within this range (+ 1 sd from the mean) were selected as the main participants of the present study. descriptive statistics for the qpt test is available in table 3. visual mnemonic technique as learning strategy farrohk, vaezi & ghadimi 20 no. 23 table 3. statistics for qpt scores n valid 60 missing 0 mean 32 median 31 mode 29 std. deviation 4 variance 17 skewness 1 std. error of skewness .30 kurtosis 1.18 std. error of kurtosis .60 range 17 minimum 27 maximum 44 sum 1932.00 table 3 delineated the findings of group statistics for the qpt test scores that was given to pick out homogeneous subjects with regard to their general foreign language proficiency. measures of central tendency including mean, median, and the mode together with measures of dispersion such as range, variance, and standard deviation as well as measures of distribution, i.e., skewness & kurtosis were computed for the qpt test. thus, the cut-point of (32+ 4) was set and (n=48) efl learners whose proficiency scores were within this range (28 to 36) were selected as the main participants of the present study. before running the two-way anova, tests of the underlying assumptions were done. tests of normality were produced to test whether the levels of the vocabulary scores were statistically normal. the following table highlighted the relationship between these distributions and showed the normal distribution of these variables, too. visual mnemonic technique as learning strategy farrohk, vaezi & ghadimi 21 no. 23 table 4. statistics for the vocabulary tests mean 95% upper 5% skewness kurtosis confidence bound trimmed interval mean for mean lower bound pre-test adult control group 8.50 7.99 9.00 8.50 .00 .23 scores young control group 7.83 6.86 8.80 7.81 .15 -1.57 adult experimental group 8.50 7.58 9.41 8.50 .00 -.47 young experimental group 8.16 7.23 9.09 8.18 -.13 -1.22 post-test adult control group 8.75 7.76 9.73 8.77 -.74 .06 scores young control group 8.08 7.39 8.77 8.03 .32 -1.38 adult experimental group 12.58 11.58 13.57 12.59 .15 -.61 young experimental group 12.91 12.17 13.65 12.90 .18 -.66 to examine the normality assumption, first, 5 percent of the highest and lowest cases were removed and a new mean score was calculated. then, the first mean values and the new trimmed means were compared to inspect the possible differences between the two means for the vocabulary test. since the trimmed means were similar to the original means, the scores for the levels of the vocabulary tests were considered to be normally distributed. moreover, the values of the skewness and kurtosis were within the range of (+2) indicating the uniformity of the distributions (see also the following plot for examining the homogeneity of the variances assumption). visual mnemonic technique as learning strategy farrohk, vaezi & ghadimi 22 no. 23 figure 4. error bars for examining the homogeneity of variances assumption (pre and posttests) as it was displayed in the above figure, the average performance was nearly the same for the four groups at the beginning of the study. moreover, the degree of variation in the participants’ performance was similar at the same time both for preand posttest scores. after verifying the uniformity of variance across the groups, descriptive statistics of the four groups for the pre-test scores were computed. levene’s test of equality of error variances was used. this test presented a test of the second assumption underlying analysis of variance. the sig. level was greater than (.05) and therefore not significant suggesting that the variance of the dependent variable (vocabulary scores) across the four groups was equal. visual mnemonic technique as learning strategy farrohk, vaezi & ghadimi 23 no. 23 table 5. test of homogeneity of variances for the pre and posttests levene’s test of equality of error variances a dependent variable: pretest scores f df1 df2 sig. 2.338 3 44 .087 .565 3 44 .641 tests the null hypothesis that the error variance of the dependent variable is equal across groups a. design: intercept + groups + age level + groups * age level as it was displayed in table 5, the levene’s statistics confirmed the hypotheses that the group variances were the same for the vocabulary scores both in pre-test and post-test. the results of the analyses for the pre-test scores of vocabulary the descriptive table provided descriptive statistics including group size, mean, and standard deviation for the four groups on the dependent variable that was vocabulary scores before introducing the specific treatment for the experimental groups. the results are available in table 6. table 6. descriptive statistics for the pretest scores dependent variable: pre-test scores groups age level mean std. deviation n control adult 8.5000 .79772 12 young 7.8333 1.52753 12 total 8.1667 1.23945 24 experimental adult 8.5000 1.44600 12 young 8.1667 1.46680 12 total 8.3333 1.43456 24 total adult 8.5000 1.14208 24 young 8.0000 1.47442 24 total 8.2500 1.32889 48 visual mnemonic technique as learning strategy farrohk, vaezi & ghadimi 24 no. 23 for the vocabulary scores in the pre-test, the means for the adult control group, young control group, adult experimental group and young experimental groups were (x adult control group = 8.50), (xyoung control group = 7.83), (xadult experimental group = 8.50), and (xyoung experimental group =8.33), respectively. they differed some points around their average on pre-test of vocabulary. for the vocabulary test, the total mean score of the ‘control group’ was (.09) points lower than that of the ‘experimental.’ two–way analysis of variance was run to see if the differences among the four groups were statistically significant at the beginning of the study. table7. two – way analysis of variance for the pretests scores source df f sig. partial eta squared groups (control & experimental) 1 .18 .66 .004 age level (young & adults) 1 1.66 .20 .036 groups *age level 1 .18 .66 .004 total 48 a. r squared = .044 (adjusted r squared = -.021) a two-way between-groups analysis of variance was conducted to explore the possible differences among the four groups in terms of their vocabulary achievement at the beginning of the study. there were no significant differences between the control and experimental groups f (1, 48) = .18, p = .66. moreover, there were no significant differences among the age groups f (1, 48) = 1.66, p = .20. in addition, the interaction effect between types of instruction and age group was not statistically significant, too f (1, 48) = .18, p = .66. the effect size was small (partial eta squared four groups= .004; partial eta squared age level= .036; partial eta squared groups * age level = .004). visual mnemonic technique as learning strategy farrohk, vaezi & ghadimi 25 no. 23 figure 5. the comparison among the means of the four groups on pretest of vocabulary the results of the analyses for the posttest scores of vocabulary table 8 shows descriptive statistics including group size, mean, and standard deviation for the four groups on the dependent variable that was vocabulary scores after providing the specific treatment for the experimental groups at the end of the study. table 8. descriptive statistics for the posttest scores dependent variable: posttest scores groups age level mean std. deviation n control adult 8.75 1.544 12 young 8.08 1.083 12 total 8.41 1.348 24 experimental adult 12.58 1.564 12 young 12.91 1.164 12 total 12.75 1.359 24 total adult 10.66 2.478 24 young 10.50 2.702 24 total 10.58 2.566 48 visual mnemonic technique as learning strategy farrohk, vaezi & ghadimi 26 no. 23 for the vocabulary scores in the post-test, the means for the adult control group, young control group, adult experimental group and young experimental groups were (xadult control group = 8.75), (xyoung control group = 8.08), (xadult experimental group = 12.58), and (xyoung experimental group =12.91), respectively. their average differed from each other on post-test of vocabulary. the total mean score of the ‘control group’ was (2.17) points lower than that of the ‘experimental group.’ two–way analysis of variance was run to see if the differences among the four groups were statistically significant at the end of the study. table 9. two – way analysis of variance for the posttests scores source df f sig. partial eta squared groups (control & experimental) 1 122.40 .000 .736 age level (young & adults) 1 .181 .673 .004 groups * age level 1 1.63 .208 .036 total 48 corrected total 47 *. r squared = .738 (adjusted r squared = .721) the impact of types of instruction (visual mnemonic versus traditional teaching) on iranian efl learners’ vocabulary learning was statistically significant f (1,48) = 122.40, p = .000 with relatively high partial eta squared (r= .736) indicating significant differences among the control (young & adults) and experimental (young & adults) groups. the participants in the experimental groups (both adults and young learners) performed higher compared to the participants in the control group in post-test of vocabulary. however, the interaction effect between types of instruction (visual mnemonic technique versus traditional teaching) and age level was not statistically significant, f (1, 48) = 1.63, p = .208. in addition, there was not any statistically significant main effect for age, f (1,48) = .181, p = .673; in addition, the effect size was small for the effects of age level and the interaction effect of age level and types of instruction (partial eta squared age level=.004; partial eta squared groups * age level =.036). in other words, the main effect for age and interaction effect of age level and types of instruction did not reach statistical significance. tukey honestly significant difference (hsd) test was used to do the multiple comparisons as a common test suggested by pallant (2008). the results of the post-hoc tests are provided in the following table in which multiple comparisons were made for the four independent groups. visual mnemonic technique as learning strategy farrohk, vaezi & ghadimi 27 no. 23 table 10. multiple comparisons among the four groups (post-test scores) dependent variable: post-test scores tukey hsd (i) groups (j) groups mean sig. 95% upper interval bound difference confidence (i-j) lower bound adult control group young control group .666 .628 -.81 2.14 adult experimental -3.833* .000 -5.31 -2.35 young experimental -4.166* .000 -5.64 -2.68 young control group adult control group -.666 .628 -2.14 .81 adult experimental -4.500* .000 -5.97 -3.02 young experimental -4.833* .000 -6.31 -3.35 adult experimental group adult control group 3.833* .000 2.35 5.31 young control group 4.500* .000 3.02 5.97 young experimental -.333 .931 -1.81 1.14 young experimental group adult control group 4.166* .000 2.68 5.64 young control 4.833* .000 3.35 6.31 adult experimental .333 .931 -1.14 1.81 post-hoc comparisons using the tukey hsd test indicated that the mean score for the adult control group (m = 8.75, sd = 1.54) was significantly different (α = .00) from the adult experimental group (m = 12.58, sd = 1.56). moreover, the mean score for the adult control group (m = 8.75, sd = 1.54) was significantly different (α = .00) from the young experimental group (m = 12.91, sd = 1.16). besides, the mean score for the young control group (m = 8.08, sd = 1.08) was significantly different (α = .00) from the adult experimental group (m = 12.58, sd = 1.56). moreover, the mean score for the young control group (m = 8.08, sd = 1.08) was significantly different (α = .00) from the young experimental group (m = 12.91, sd = 1.16). the results of the multiple comparisons rejected the first null hypothesis suggesting that visual mnemonic technique significantly affects learning the target language vocabularies by young and adult efl learners. however, there was not statistically significant differences (α = .28) between adult control group (m = 8.75, sd = 1.54) and young control group (m = 8.08, sd = 1.08). additionally, the adult experimental group (m = 12.58, sd = 1.56) did not differ significantly (α = .931) from the young experimental group (m = 12.91, sd = 1.16). therefore, the second null hypothesis was supported implying that there visual mnemonic technique as learning strategy farrohk, vaezi & ghadimi 28 no. 23 was not statistically significant difference between the final achievement of the young and adult learners who learned the target language vocabularies through the visual mnemonic technique. figure 6. the comparison among the means of the four groups on posttest of vocabulary discussion the main purpose of the present study was to investigate empirically the possible effects of visual mnemonic techniques on young and adult iranian efl learners’ vocabulary learning. the results affirmed that images significantly affected iranian preintermediate efl learners’ vocabulary leaning. the study exhibited that the experimental groups who received instruction on visual mnemonic technique outperformed their counterparts in the post-test of vocabulary. however, the differences between the effects of visual mnemonic techniques for young and adult learners who received the specific treatment were not statistically significant (p≥ .05). therefore, learners can enhance their retention of new words if they employ visual mnemonic device. the results of this study are in line with ashouri and moghadam (2015). in their research, they found that words learned via image and imagery instruction were retrieved well both in the process of immediate and delayed retention. but the current research was bound to utilize image while instructing vocabulary. the experimental groups outperformed the control groups on the post-test because they linked the new words with images in their minds in a meaningful way. visual mnemonic technique as learning strategy farrohk, vaezi & ghadimi 29 no. 23 the findings obtained regarding the effect of visual mnemonic device on retention emphasize the discussion by wright’s (1999) that non-verbal memory storage is more stable than verbal over intervals of hours to days and meaning can also be derived from non-verbal language. the outcomes of the current study confirm gians and redman’s (2001) assertion that pictures and objects can facilitate recall and images provide direct retrieval paths back to the language. the advancement which was seen from the pre-test to the post-test in experimental groups who received visual mnemonic treatment, uncovered that non-verbal mnemonic devices such as images are effective aids for the acquisition and retention of vocabulary in foreign language learning, that is opposite to atay and ozbulganʹs (2007) research. since they reported verbal mnemonic strategies are more effective than non-verbal. furthermore, a second key finding of this scrutiny, which can make it different from similar ones, is that results of analysis made clear that the differences between the effects of visual mnemonic techniques on young and adult learnersʹ vocabulary development who received the specific treatment were not statistically significant (p≥ .05), therefore, it can be concluded that images can be used for learners of any age. this is against hatch and brown’s (1995) argument that images are helpful for children rather than adult learners. conclusion the results of this study showed that the subjects who were instructed through the visual mnemonic technique proved to be more successful in retaining the meaning of the items in their long-term memory. additionally, it can be concluded that images should be given prime attention by both material developers and instructors as a potentially efficient aid for vocabulary instruction and long-term retention in foreign language learning. the findings may encourage teachers who still use the traditional verbal method in their teaching to change their viewpoint in favor of a non-verbal method of teaching vocabulary. acknowledgments hereby, i would like to express my heartfelt and gratitude to dr. hengameh vaezi and mr. hamed ghadimi, for cooperating in this study. besides, i wish to express my appreciation to the students for their contribution in this study. visual mnemonic technique as learning strategy farrohk, vaezi & ghadimi 30 no. 23 references amiryousefi, m.,& ketabi,s.(2011). mnemonic instruction: a way to boost vocabulary learning and recall. journal of language teaching and research, 2 (1), 178-182. https://doi.org/10.4304/jltr.2.1.178-182 ashouri, p., & moghadam, m. 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(1995). cognitive psychology (4th ed.). boston: allyn and bacon. redman,s.(2017). english vocabulary in use “pre-intermediate”. cambridge university press: cambridge visual mnemonic technique as learning strategy farrohk, vaezi & ghadimi 32 no. 23 thompson. i. (1987). memory in language learning. in a. wenden 8j. rubin (eds). learner strategies in language learning. (pp.15-30). newjersy: prentic-hall. thompson, i. (2014). memory in language learning. newjercy: prentic hall. wright, a. (1999). pictures for language learning. cambridge university press: cambridge. https://doi.org/10.1080/09571739985200071 wu, h.,& chang, c. (2005).teaching english through mnemonics programme. cambridge: cambridge university press. authors *parisa farrokh assistant professor, department of english language, lahijan branch, islamic azad university, lahijan, iran. she has published and presented some articles in different national and international journals and conferences. her areas of interest include learning strategy, applied linguistics and psycholinguistics. orcid: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6454-9305 hengameh vaezi assistant professor, department of english language, rasht branch, islamic azad university, rasht, iran. holds a phd in linguistics; interested in theoretical and applied linguistics as well; has taught different courses in english teaching and linguistics at post graduate levels & is an assistant professor in faculty english language and linguistics department, islamic azad university, rasht branch, guilan, iran. the author of over 17 scientific publications in different majors like linguistics; linguistic in teaching and translation; teaching & learning; cross linguistic studies. orcid: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8078-5084 hamed ghadimi department of english language, rasht branch, islamic azad university, rasht, iran. has received his m.a. in tefl. he has graduated from islamic azad university, rasht branch, iran. he has received his b.a. in english translation , from islamic azad university, lahijan branch. he teaches english in different institutes. he is interested in learning strategies and psycholinguistics orcid: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3911-8669 how to reference this article:farrokh, p., vaezi, h. ., & ghadimi, h. (2021) visual mnemonic technique : an effective learning strategy. gist – education and learning research journal, 23, 7–32. https://doi.org/10.26817/16925777.1042 visual mnemonic technique as learning strategy gist2014finalfinal.indd 66 tucker signing as a phonics instruction tool to develop phonemic awareness in children1 tucker signing como herramienta fónica para el desarrollo de la conciencia fonética en niños amanda carolina valbuena2* institución universitaria colombo americana, única, colombia abstract to develop reading acquisition in an effective way, it is necessary to take into account three goals during the process: automatic word recognition, or development of phonemic awareness, reading comprehension, and a desire for reading. this article focuses on promoting phonemic awareness in english as a second language through a program called tucker signing. twenty-five first grade students in a public school participated in the study using the program as phonics instruction. in the process, students would see a word, do a movement with the left hand as a representation of the grapheme, and make the sound. to analyze if the program was useful, students took a preand post-test, and results were compared. findings show that the program helped children to develop phonemic awareness through the identification and the relationship between each of the twenty-seven english graphemes (letters) and most of their corresponding phonemes (sounds). at the end, students developed phonemic awareness through the identification of english phonemes without the mix to translate from their l1 (spanish) to the l2 (english); although some phonemes like “th” /θ/ /ð/, “j” /dʒ/, and vowels would need more reinforcement. keywords: reading, phonemic awareness, phonics instruction, the tucker signing program, grapheme, phoneme 1 received: november 18, 2013 / accepted: april 11, 2014 2 caro_20_20_20@hotmail.com gist education and learning research journal. issn 1692-5777. no. 8, (january june) 2014. pp. 66-82. valbuena no. 8 (january june 2014) no. 8 (january june 2014) 67 resumen para desarrollar la lectura de manera efectiva, es necesario tener en cuenta tres objetivos durante el proceso: reconocimiento automático de las palabras (desarrollo de conciencia fonémica), comprensión lectora y deseo por leer. este artículo se enfoca en promover la conciencia fonémica en inglés como segunda lengua, a través del programa tucker signing. veinticinco estudiantes de primer grado de un colegio público participaron en el estudio usando el programa tucker signing como instrucción fónica. los estudiantes que participaron en el proceso tenían que observar una palabra, hacer el movimiento con la mano izquierda como representación de cada grafema de la palabra, y finalmente reproducir el sonido de cada grafema. para analizar si el programa era útil, los estudiantes tomaron un test diagnóstico y un test posterior a la implementación del programa con el propósito de comparar los resultados. los hallazgos muestran que el programa ayudo a los niños a desarrollar conciencia fonémica a través de la identificación y de la relación de cada uno de los veintisiete grafemas (letras) en inglés y la mayoría de sus fonemas correspondientes (sonidos). al final los estudiantes desarrollaron conciencia fonémica a través de la identificación de los fonemas en inglés, sin mezclar o traducir de su l1 (español) a su l2 (ingles); sin embargo algunas vocales y fonemas como “th” /θ/ /ð/, “j” /dʒ/ necesitarían más refuerzo. palabras clave: lectura, conciencia fonémica, instrucción fónica, the tucker signing program, grafema, fonema, resumo para desenvolver a leitura de maneira efetiva, é necessário considerar três objetivos durante o processo: reconhecimento automático das palavras (desenvolvimento de consciência fonêmica), compreensão leitora e vontade de ler. este artigo se enfoca em promover a consciência fonêmica em inglês como segunda língua, através do programa tucker signing. vinte e cinco estudantes de primeiro ano de um colégio público participaram no estudo usando o programa tucker signing como instrução fônica. os estudantes que participaram no processo tinham que observar uma palavra, fazer o movimento com a mão esquerda como representação de cada grafema da palavra, e finalmente reproduzir o som de cada grafema. para analisar se o programa era útil, os estudantes tomaram um teste diagnóstico e um teste posterior à implantação do programa com o propósito de comparar os resultados. as descobertas mostram que o programa ajudou as crianças a desenvolver consciência fonêmica através da identificação e da relação de cada um dos vinte e sete grafemas (letras) em inglês e a maioria de seus fonemas correspondentes (sons). no final os estudantes desenvolveram consciência fonêmica através da identificação dos fonemas em inglês, sem misturar ou traduzir da sua l1 (espanhol) à sua l2 (inglês); entretanto algumas vocais e fonemas como “th” /θ/ /ð/, “j” /dʒ/ necessitariam mais reforço. palavras chave: leitura, consciência fonêmica, instrução fônica, the tucker signing program, grafema, fonema valbuena no. 8 (january june 2014) no. 8 (january june 2014) 68 introduction in order to learn a foreign language it is basic to develop the four skills: speaking, reading, writing, and listening, with the purpose of communicating different kinds of information. reading can be one of the most complex skills to acquire in a second language, especially when the native and the second language have key linguistic differences that make the process more difficult. a native spanish speaker who is learning english as a second language needs to make distinctions in order to produce the second language efficiently. one major difference is the phonological system used in spanish, which is different from that of english. spanish has fewer phonemes than english. spanish has five pure vowels and five diphthongs; in contrast, english has twelve pure vowels and eight diphthongs (shoebottom, 1996). the consonants in english are also different and vary in pronunciation from spanish. for example, the “h” /h/ in spanish does not make any sound in words like “hoy,” while in english the “h” /h/ makes a sound, and it has the pronunciation of the “j” in spanish in words like “horse.” other differences can be found in the way of writing and the sound of each of the graphemes. for example, the “f” /f/ sound in spanish and “ph” /f/ sound in english in words like “foca” in spanish and “phase” in english (perea, 2010). because of these differences, it is necessary to accomplish three goals during the process of learning to read in order to develop this specific skill in a successful way: automatic word recognition (development of phonemic awareness), reading comprehension, and a desire for reading. this study focused on first grade students from a public school in bogotá, colombia who have to deal with the aforementioned differences between the two languages while reading, and many of them do not recognize these differences. for these students understanding in english classes can become demanding because they do not see a relationship between the phonological system and the writing system. in other words, they lack phonemic awareness (hoover, 2002). to deal with this difficulty, this study proposes a program called tucker signing strategies for reading. this program helps learners identify in first instance the associations between letters (graphemes) and sounds (phonemes) (tucker, 2001). it is a strategy that can be incorporated into reading lesson plans. [it] provides a mental model that students need in order to decode words easily, accurately—and fast. it uses a system of 44 hand signs that prompt associations between letters or word chucks and their sounds. tucker tucker signing as a phonics instruction tool valbuena no. 8 (january june 2014) no. 8 (january june 2014) 69 signs require readers to see the letter(s), make a sign, and say the sound at the same time. (p. 3) the objective of the program is to develop phonemic awareness in children while they have fun. this program is used during class instruction as phonics, which is the methodology that teachers use for developing phonemic awareness (tankersley, 2003). it is important to highlight that this program has been used exclusively for children who are learning english as the native language. in this article, we explore how the implementation of the tucker signing program with first grade esl students helps them to acquire the first step of reading in the second language, which means the acquisition of phonemic awareness. in brief, the development of phonemic awareness is necessary in order for students who struggle reading in english as a second language to be able to manipulate the relationship between graphemes and phonemes presented in any given text. tucker signing claims to be a phonics instruction program that helps children to obtain such a manipulation in a short period of time, while also allowing students to have fun. literature review there are several studies that support the importance of developing phonemic awareness to acquire reading skills, and why phonics instruction is used in this process. furthermore, research also shows how tucker signing addresses the latter two concepts. ault (2011) analyzed whether phonics instruction increased the students’ reading fluency. ault believed that phonics instruction can “help students in their future reading pursuits, and knowing phonemes, syllable types, prefixes, and suffixes are only some of the important skills that help students read multisyllabic words when they are in the higher grades and in everyday life” (p. 4). ault administered a pre-test, implemented the phonics instruction for five weeks, and then administered a posttest. the results of the analysis were not favorable; students read an average of 5.8 words per minute less in the post-test than in pretest. nevertheless, they did affirm the author’s thoughts about an increase of accuracy of reading in the whole target population (ault, 2011). this means that students developed a relationship between graphemes and each one of the phonemes. a study by martínez (2011) used explicit phonics instruction to improve literacy skills in esl students from bogotá colombia. the main objective of this study was the development of reading abilities in the second language, including reading comprehension, spelling, tucker signing as a phonics instruction tool valbuena no. 8 (january june 2014) no. 8 (january june 2014) 70 and proper use of verbs in written statements. the students showed proficiency in literacy in spanish (l1), and during the kindergarten courses they developed the basic diagraph in english (l2) (the combination of two sounds as /θ/ /ð/ /ʃ/ /tʃ/) and short and long vowels. the author found that explicit phonics instruction does improve efl children’s reading comprehension. “phonics helps students to better decode and pronounce an english word, which translates into better understanding of what is being read, and hence improve the reading comprehension of efl students” (martínez, 2011, p. 45). the author recognizes that adequate phonics instruction helps children to develop phonemic awareness, which later will help to develop skills including reading comprehension and writing. further studies also demonstrate that english language learners (ells) have shown improvement in their reading abilities when phonemic awareness skills are encouraged. walter (2010) conducted a study with kindergarten students whose native language was spanish. most of them presented a deficiency in the second language because of little exposure of english at home or school. after the instruction given to develop phonemic awareness through meaningful activities, a test was given to observe and analyze if students enhanced reading abilities in the second language. the study showed that for students whose language is related to english, as in the case of spanish, the emphasis of english phonemes that do not exist in their native language was a key factor in the optimization of reading acquisition. additionally, students presented an improvement not only in reading but also in writing skills, including a positive outcome in the acquisition of new vocabulary in the second language (walter, 2010). studies related to the tucker signing strategies for reading program show the effectiveness of the program in reading development. the first study conducted by cole 2001), known as the indiana tucker pilot study, demonstrated that students improved their reading skills. a follow up study was carried out (cole, 2005) which investigated the effects of the program on the decoding skills of elementary school students. the number of sessions using the program varied between 4 and 50. as in the previous study, the results suggest that students who received the tucker reading strategy instruction exhibited greater progress in the decoding of sight words than their peers in the control group, who did not receive such instruction. students with disabilities also benefited as much as the target population, in as much as they did not present any difficulty, and showed improvement in their reading process. there are no recent studies in which the program has been used with english as a foreign language (efl) students. tucker signing as a phonics instruction tool valbuena no. 8 (january june 2014) no. 8 (january june 2014) 71 methodology research design in this study, the tucker signing program was applied with a population of 25 first graders aged 6-7 in a public school in bogotá, colombia. the population demonstrated proficiency in reading skills in spanish, including the ability to identify letters, syllables, words, and sentences. most of students also demonstrated phonemic awareness in their native language and were able to read aloud with fluency, and an understanding of most words. the source of the information was the observation of one-hour classes delivered three times a week for six months. the observation of the program’s activities allowed for interaction as well as the emergence of other phenomena, such as emotions of excitement and happiness, experiences, and thoughts, which might affect the results of the study. observations were conducted after the implementation of each of the tests, with individual detailed analysis about how students related each of the graphemes with a phoneme (not necessary with the corresponding one). observations also occurred during the process students were learning how the tucker singing program works. this part of the observation shows the cognitive and emotional experience between the students and the program. other sources of data in this study were a diagnostic test, the implementation of the tucker signing strategies for reading program, and a post-test given after carrying out the program to measure the levels of proficiency in the acquisition of phonemic awareness. data collection instruments the project used a diagnostic test before the implementation of the tucker signing program, and a post-test after its execution to show how effectively students developed phonemic awareness. the diagnostic test was designed taking into account three reading tests: the national right to read foundation (2011), the burt reading test (hepplewhite, 2005), and the quick assessment of reading ability (luke, 2011). the three tests were combined into one instrument, and all the words that were chosen have between one and two syllables (see appendix). the test had three parts. the first part consisted of a list of fourteen letters, which students had to read. the second part was a list of fourteen simple words of one or two syllables; as the student read the words, they became more difficult to pronounce. the last part of the test consisted of five sentences that were simple in structure and easy tucker signing as a phonics instruction tool valbuena no. 8 (january june 2014) no. 8 (january june 2014) 72 to pronounce. this test allowed the researcher to determine if students were able to relate graphemes to phonemes. a voice recorder was used in order to keep students from feeling intimidated while marking which words were well and incorrectly read. the post-test was the same as the pre-test. the post-test determined whether students have developed phonemic awareness as the first step in reading skill. data analysis and interpretation after the implementation of the pre-test, the researcher used the recordings to listen to each student’s pronunciation of the letters, words, and sentences given in the test. all the students were classified in different levels of reading described above. after the analysis of the pre-test, the tucker signing strategies for reading program, containing one book and a cd explaining how to pronounce and make each one of the forty-four phonemes with the left hand, was taught to the population. the idea is that students blend a word written on the board and pronounce the correct phoneme of each of the graphemes while they make the form of the grapheme in the air with their left hand. afterward, students pronounce each of the phonemes together, thus arriving at the pronunciation of the complete word. at the end of the semester, after the implementation of the tucker signing program, the post-test was analyzed in the same way as the pre-test. results lack of phonemic awareness the pre-test evaluated and analyzed the reading abilities of the participants. the test was analyzed taking into account how the three tests assess students in order to see who is able to read proficiently. in the first part of the test, in which students must identify letters of the alphabet, if the student misses one or two letters, he or she is still on the right track. if the student misses three to five letters, he or she needs more instruction. if the student misses more than five letters, he or she requires considerable reinforcement in the identification of letters. results show that one student made four miscues, and the rest of the population made more than five miscues. tucker signing as a phonics instruction tool valbuena no. 8 (january june 2014) no. 8 (january june 2014) 73 figure 1. identification of the english alphabet (pre-test) the second part of the pre-test presents a sequence of words. according to the scoring information, if the student misses one or two words, the student may still be able to read independently at this level. if the student misses three words, he or she needs reinforcement in the reading process. if the student misses four or more words, this level could be frustrating for a student. all students missed more than four words indicating a high degree of frustration. figure 2. pronunciation of words (pre-test) in the last part of the pre-test, students are asked to read simple phrases. scoring takes into account 1) skipping words, in the case that students do not pronounce the words; 2) insertion of a non-related tucker signing as a phonics instruction tool valbuena no. 8 (january june 2014) no. 8 (january june 2014) 74 word, in which students may pronounce a word that is not included in the sentences; 3) fluency, or how fast students read the sentences with or without hesitation; and 4) mispronunciation of a word. if the student makes one miscue, he or she is still able to read independently. if the student makes two or three miscues, he or she needs more instruction in reading. a student who makes four or more miscues is not performing at the reading level for the grade. results of the pre-test show that most of the students performed well in the fluency task and in the incorporation of all the words in each of the sentences. however, they made miscues in the pronunciation of words, and in the insertion of non-related words. figure 3. reading sentences (pre-test) students’ results from the pre-test indicate difficulties with the pronunciation of consonants and vowels. most students continued to produce the patterns of spanish while speaking english. for instance, all of them pronounced the “h” /h/ as silent in words like “he” or “hen.” another case related to this letter is the pronunciation of the “th” /θ/ /ð/ sound; students were prone to avoid the “h” /h/ just pronouncing the “t” /t/ in words like “the” and “things.” the “j” /dʒ/ was pronounced voiceless as in spanish instead of being pronounced as voiced in english with words like “just.” the “w” /g/ was pronounced as a “g;” /g/. the letters “d” /d/ and “t” /t/ presented a special difficulty in words which finished with these two letters, as in the sentence “ben can fix his bad bat.” students also confused short and long vowels while reading the words and sentences. the “silent e” included in many words was pronounced by most of the students as if they were reading in spanish. we can see this mistake in words offered by the test like “some” or “love.” tucker signing as a phonics instruction tool valbuena no. 8 (january june 2014) no. 8 (january june 2014) 75 figure 4. analysis of the phonemes pronunciation (pre-test) development of decoding skills the post-test test was carried out in a similar fashion, taking into account the same parameters as the pre-test, with the purpose of comparing students’ performance before and after the implementation of the tucker signing program. this time in the first part of the test, where students have to identify the letters of the alphabet, just four of the 25 students had one or two miscues forgetting the name of letters and recognizing the vowels. one student made three miscues. however, they were able to self-correct miscues in the recognition of vowels. for example, if a student saw the letter “i” and he said that the letter was an “a” he realized instantly that he had made a miscue and stated the correct name of the letter. 20 of the 25 did not make miscues. tucker signing as a phonics instruction tool valbuena no. 8 (january june 2014) no. 8 (january june 2014) 76 figure 5. identification of the english alphabet (post-test) in the second part of the test, most of the students (14) just missed one or two words from the list using tucker signing; however, in nine cases students missed three words. none of the students missed more than three words. figure 6. pronunciation of words (post-test) in the last part of the test, 24 students performed well in terms of fluency and the incorporation of all the words in each of the sentences, as in the pre-test. four students made mistakes in the pronunciation of words. none of the students inserted non-related words. tucker signing as a phonics instruction tool valbuena no. 8 (january june 2014) no. 8 (january june 2014) 77 figure 7. reading sentences (post-test) this time personal analysis and observations about the post-test give more detail as with the pre-test. this analysis shows a significant difference between the results obtained in the preand post-test. in general, students did not translate complete words from spanish to the english. nevertheless, a few students still struggled with the pronunciation of some vowels and consonants because they translated from spanish to english. for instance, two students pronounced the “g” /g/ sound in english as a “j” /dʒ/ sound in spanish. one student made “j” /dʒ/ sound in english as a “j” /x/ sound in spanish; and one student pronounced the “h” /h/ sound as voiceless as in spanish instead of pronouncing this sound as voiced as in english. additionally, eight students out of the 25 presented confusion in the “th”/θ/ /ð/ sound, making the movements for the “t” and the “h” sounds separately. this likely occurred because there was insufficient time to reinforce this sound with students, and thus they did not remember how the movement was made. with the help of the instructor, they were able to remember the sound. short and long vowels were confused by nine students while they were reading the words and the sentences. the silent “e” at the end of a word was recognized by 24 of the students, which means that just one student pronounced the silent “e” at the end of the word as a long vowel. tucker signing as a phonics instruction tool valbuena no. 8 (january june 2014) no. 8 (january june 2014) 78 figure 8. analysis of the phonemes pronunciation (post-test) intervention with the program and observations during the process at the beginning, most of the students had problems with the identification of the left hand movement, either forming the letter with the right hand or using both hands. the researcher explained to the students that the use of the left hand is very important in order for the graphemes have the right position; on the contrary, if the form of the letter is made with the right hand, graphemes are going to be upside down and students can get confused. at the end of the process just a few students six students were still sometimes using their right hand instead of the left hand or mixing both hands. through the use of different contests to engage the class, students were able to learn not only how to pronounce each phoneme, but also several phonetic rules: “when we have two vowels in the same syllable, the first vowel is pronounced as a long vowel and the second vowel is silent,” or “when we have a vowel the consonant s and another vowel the s /z/sounds like a “z,” then we have to do the “z” /ʒ/ sound instead of the s /s/ sounds in words like “nose” or “rose.” the identification of vowels was hard for children at the beginning, but through the phonics rules they managed to identify the differences between long and short vowels, and how these are used. through different activities students recognized the pronunciation of vowels in several words, which means most of the time they identified when they had to use short versus long vowels, taking into account two main phonetic rules: a) when there is one vowel following another in tucker signing as a phonics instruction tool valbuena no. 8 (january june 2014) no. 8 (january june 2014) 79 the same syllable, the first vowel is pronounced as a long vowel, and the other one is not pronounced; and b) when a word is made of one consonant, one vowel, and other consonant, the vowel is taken as a short one. the program motivated students to read words as well as both short and long easy sentences. they had fun while they were pronouncing different words using the program and taking into account the phonetic rules mentioned previously, and often laughed, shouted, or raised their hands to participate. after students pronounced a word or a sentence, they asked or looked for the meaning of them. conclusion this study demonstrated how the implementation of the tucker signing program influenced the development of phonemic awareness in first grade students in a public school. students developed phonemic awareness while reading english words or sentences. students of first grade learned to manipulate most of the english phonemes in different words and sentences, even when one grapheme had two or three phonemes. students finished their school year developing phonemic awareness of most of the forty-four phonemes in english. they were also able to make relationships between phonemes with their corresponding grapheme. the study also shows that the tucker signing program is a useful tool not only for native speakers of english who are learning to read, but also for spanish speakers who are learning to read in english as a second language. after the implementation of the program, students did not translate phonemes of their native language (spanish) to the second language (english). during the process, students also learned some of the phonetic rules used to identify vowels and some consonants. the analysis of both tests allows readers to compare the results. before the implementation of the tucker signing program students could not identify short and long vowels in words and they pronounced some of the consonants like “j,” “h,” and the “w” as spanish sounds. this lack of phonemic awareness made the mispronunciation of most of the words and sentences students had to read in the test. after the implementation of the program, students continued to have some pronunciation miscues, but they were able to read most of the words and sentences presented in the test correctly. the lack of time was a key factor in the process of developing phonemic awareness as there were not enough classes to implement the tucker signing as a phonics instruction tool valbuena no. 8 (january june 2014) no. 8 (january june 2014) 80 program. it is necessary to spend more time than the six months allotted for the study because learner would benefit from reinforcement of each of the forty-four phonemes. phonemes like “th”/θ/ /ð/ were taught in a rush without reinforcement, and most of the students forgot how to make this sound with the corresponding movement. because of lack of time, some phonemes could not be taught. those phonemes were the diphthongs and the use of “ar”, “er”, and “ir” /ɚ/ sounds. still, the tucker signing program proved to be engaging and motivating for students during their process of developing phonemic awareness. all 25 students wanted to learn a new sound every class, and they liked to participate trying to pronounce new words and simple sentences looking for the meaning by themselves after they got the right pronunciation. taking into account this previous information, future english teachers could consider implementing the tucker signing program in their classes to teach reading. this program has not been widely used in colombia, and further research on this program could be useful particularly with children who have reading difficulties or even adult second language learners. references ault, l. (2011). the effect of phonics instruction on oral reading fluency in a fourth grade intervention classroom. the faculty of the college of education and human services, ohio university. retrieved from: http://www.cehs.ohio.edu/gfx/media/pdf/ault.pdf. cole, c. (2001). indiana pilot study tucker signing strategies for reading. bloomington, in: indiana university. retrieved from: http://www.iidc.indiana.edu/styles/iidc/defiles/cell/tucker_pilot.pdf cole, c. (2005). the effect of tucker signing strategies for reading on the decoding skills of students in four elementary schools. bloomington, in: indiana university. retrieved from: http://www. iidc.indiana.edu/styles/iidc/defiles/cell/tucker_study_june2005.pdf hepplewhite, d. (2005). burt reading test (1974). syntheticphonics. retrieved from http://www.syntheticphonics.com/burtreadingtestpage.htm hoover, w. (2002). the importance of phonemic awareness in learning to read. sedl letter: xiv(3). retrieved from: http://www.sedl.org/ pubs/sedl-letter/v14n03/3.html tucker signing as a phonics instruction tool valbuena no. 8 (january june 2014) no. 8 (january june 2014) 81 luke. (2011). quick reading assessment-first grade. sonlight curriculum. retrieved from http://www.sonlight.com/quickreading-assessment.html martínez, a. (2011). explicit and differentiated phonics instruction as a tool to improve literacy skills for children learning english as a foreign language. gist education and learning research journal. (5). retrieved from http://gisteducation.weebly.com/ uploads/7/9/2/8/7928165/explicit_and_differentiated_phonics_ instruction_as_a_tool_to_improve_literacy_skills_for_children_ learning_english_as_a_foreign_language.pdf perea, d. (2010). lo que yace en un sonido: a contrastive analysis of english and spanish sounds. retrieved from http://www.uacj. mx/cie/documents/saberes%20invierno%202012/phonology%20 manual.pdf shoebottom, p. (1996). the differences between english and spanish. retrieved from: http://esl.fis.edu/grammar/langdiff/spanish.htm tankersley, k. (2003). the threads of reading: strategies for literacy development. alexandria, va: assosication for supervision and curriculum development. the national right to read foundation. (2012). reading competency test. retrieved from http://www.nrrf.org/readtest.html tucker, b. (2001). tucker signing strategies for reading. aha! process, inc. retrieved from: http://www.tuckersigns.com/index.html walter, n. (2010). the effects of intervention in phonemic awareness on the reading achievement of english language learners in kindergarten. retrieved from: proquest dissertations and theses; 2010. http://search.proquest.com.ez.urosario.edu.co/docview/89201 783/13aa79bf32632c6b075/2?accountid=50434 author *amanda carolina valbuena is a student at the institución universitaria colombo americana, única. she has worked as a personal tutor teaching english as a second language to children and pilots. she recently joined the amity program is currently working as a teaching assistant in a spanish immersion program in sioux falls, south dakota, where she teaches kindergarten. tucker signing as a phonics instruction tool valbuena no. 8 (january june 2014) no. 8 (january june 2014) 82 appendix reading pre-test and post-test part 1 j n v k e b h w f f l g p part 2 up, he, at, my, sun, the, eggs, duck, some, went, boys, love, now, sad. part 3 the big red hen is mad. did bob get on the bus? ben can fix his bad bat. hit the fat bug on the bed. don let the cat sit on his lap. tucker signing as a phonics instruction tool no. 8 (january june 2014) no. 8 (january june 2014) gist education and learning research journal. issn 1692-5777. no. 20 (january june, 2020). pp. 189-214. exploring the grounds for the study of the identity of indigenous english language teachers in colombia1 explorando las bases para el estudio de la identidad de los profesores indígenas de inglés en colombia carlos augusto arias cepeda2* universidad distrital francisco josé de caldas, colombia 1 received: june 27th 2019/ accepted: october 25th 2019 2 c.arias@unica.edu.co 190 no. 20 study of identity of indigenous english language teachers arias-cepeda abstract this article addresses the invisibilization of the existence of indigenous teachers in the colombian elt (english language teaching) field. their existence, which is admittedly a phenomenon that lacks quantitative saliency, offers opportunities to reflect on the epistemological asymmetries that traditionally have linked the colombian elt field to an instrumental mainstream bilingualism, often ignoring the conditions of linguistic and cultural diversity in the country. besides, there is an exploration of how the study of indigenous teachers’ identities might contribute to the re-signification of pedagogy; this paper elaborates on the idea that scholars in the colombian elt have already built some horizons of understanding between the elt and the diversities and epistemic privileges of colombian indigeneity. the article is part of an ongoing research on the identities of indigenous teachers in the colombian elt being carried out within the interinstitutional ph.d. in education at universidad distrital francisco josé de caldas, bogotá. keywords: indigenous english language teachers, teacher identities, decolonial thought, cultural diversity, linguistic diversity resumen este artículo aborda la invisibilizacion de la existencia de los profesores indígenas en el campo de la enseñanza de inglés. su existencia, el cual es un fenómeno que carece de prominencia cuantitativa, ofrece oportunidades de reflexionar sobre las asimetrías epistemológicas que tradicionalmente han conectado el campo de la enseñanza de inglés con un bilingüismo instrumental dominante, en el que usualmente se ignorarn las condiciones de diversidad lingüística y cultural en el pais. además, hay una exploración de cómo el estudio de las identidades de los profesores indigenas pueden contribuir a la resignificación de la pedagogía. este documento elabora la idea de que los académicos en la enseñanza de inglés en colombia han construido algunos horizontes de comprensión entre la enseñanza de inglés y las diversidades y los privilegios epistemólogicos de la idigeneidad colombiana. el artículo es parte de la investigación continua de las indigeneidades de los profesores indigenas que se desarrolla en el doctorado interinstitucional en la universidad distrital francisco josé de caldas en bogotá. palabras clave: profesores indígenas de inglés, identidades de profesores, pensamiento decolonial, diversidad cultural, diversidad lingüística 191 no. 20 study of identity of indigenous english language teachers arias-cepeda resumo este artigo trata sobre a invisibilização da existência dos professores indígenas na área do ensino de inglês. sua existência, o qual é um fenômeno que carece de prominência quantitativa, oferece oportunidades de refletir sobre as assimetrias epistemológicas que tradicionalmente têm conectado a área do ensino de inglês com um bilinguismo instrumental dominante, no que usualmente se ignoram as condições de diversidade linguística e cultural no país. além disso, há uma exploração de como o estudo das identidades dos professores indígenas podem contribuir com a ressignificação da pedagogia. este documento elabora a ideia de que os acadêmicos no ensino de inglês na colômbia têm construído alguns horizontes de compreensão são entre o ensino de inglês e as diversidades e os privilégios epistemológicos da indigeneidade colombiana. o artigo é parte da pesquisa contínua das indigeneidades dos professores indígenas que se desenvolve no doutorado interinstitucional na universidade distrital francisco josé de caldas em bogotá. palavras chave: professores indígenas de inglês, identidades de professores, pensamento descolonial, diversidade cultural, diversidade linguística 192 no. 20 study of identity of indigenous english language teachers arias-cepeda introduction the study of teachers’ identities in the elt (english language teaching) field has subtly shifted from a major focus on the multiple dimensions that constitute identity to an understanding of the performative elements that such constitutive elements have as causes and consequences of the acts of educating. this means that the conflux of factors such as teachers’ culture (clarke, 2008), their language(s) (joseph, 2004), their spiritual beliefs (joseph, 2004), their ethnicity (alexander, 2003), their profession (swain, 2005), and their gender (escudero, 2008) has become relevant not only because they constitute subjectivities for teachers, but also because increasingly these factors become sources for pedagogy and social agency (morgan, 2017). this means that the multiple and diverse dimensions of identity do not constitute just the dimension of the being of teachers, but also have an effect in their doing, acknowledging that teachers’ intentionality and positioning becomes pivotal in the praxis at the classroom (varghese, morgan, johnston, & johnson, 2005). this shift into the inquiry of teachers’ identity, in turn, has brought into play the use of alternative methodological approaches such as auto-ethnographies, narratives, autobiographies, and story-telling. these alternative approaches do not just work for research purposes but also become the vehicle by which teachers understand, author, and re-author their experiences and envision them towards the future (barkhuizen, 2016). thus, a recognition of agency in teachers’ construction of their identity, also results in a certain agency in the forms in which scholars are resorting to more emic perspectives towards research. the colombian elt has also opened spaces for the academic dialogue around the study of teacher identity, and its agentive dimension. this emerging object of inquiry has disputed spaces of recognition against the more traditional research topics such as the disciplinary studies and the canonical pedagogy that were almost exclusively entrenched into the local scholar production in the field. the inclusion of diverse research interests allows the problematization of aspects that, by being constitutive of the colombian elt teacher identities, are also connected to extended societal aspects such as equality, gender and power issues. examples of how the inquiry into teachers’ identities has started to gain terrain in the colombian elt field, defying scholar traditions, include the disclosure of queer identities by means of narrative explorations (lander, 2018), or the documentation of bottom-up instances of teachers’ agency in more vulnerable conditions. this latter is the case of rural colombian elt teachers’ enactment of wisdom practices and personal theories (cruz, 2018), or the colombian efl primary teachers’ construction of their identities as oscillating within the colonial shadow and their autonomy as decision makers regarding top-down policies (quintero, & guerrero, 2013). colombian elt teachers’ agency as social and cultural beings (quintero & guerrero, 2013) implies 193 no. 20 the use of politics of location to rearticulate identities in front of existing discursive practices, and bring up fights that are social in nature, and that formerly seemed to be rather absent from the scholar dialogue in the field. the visibilization of such topics makes it apparent that the colombian elt has participated of an epistemic reflection which attempts to promote the intercultural reconstruction of the human dimension in the field, and, by means of a sociology of absences (de sousa, 2010), end with the discrepancy between the theory and the social practices. the scholars in the field seem to be addressing a transgressing and insurgent positioning in research to demonstrate that what does not exist in the academic dialogue has been actually constructed as non-existent, as a spendable alternative, invisible to a hegemonic world reality. in this reconstruction of colombian elt teachers’ identities, the divergence is an asset that has gained terrain over the being/notbeing binary distinctions (mignolo, 2000). heterogeneity and phenomena like gender, power, inequality, and identity are being chosen as objects of study in the colombian elt not just because there is an epistemic interest, but also because their existence has to do with the ontology, and ultimately the ethics of human beings. it is in this politics of location that it makes sense to draw the attention of the field to a phenomenon that, due to the coloniality of knowing and epistemic violence (castrogómez, 2005), has often been overlooked, and has been invisibilized: the existence of indigenous teachers in the colombian elt field. there are english language teachers or english language teachers in formation who identify themselves as having an ethnic origin rooted in a particular indigenous group. links between the indigenous identities and the elt field do not seem to be easily located in the educational field. this can be explained mainly because it involves multiple situations of co-existence of languages and cultures that are not ‘the norm’ (but rather the exception), either because of their lack of quantitative saliency or because of practices of invisibilization towards minority groups (de sousa, 2010). the emerging criteria to locate an ontology of indigenous english language teachers in colombia, besides the fact of participating of formation processes typical in the field (such studying language teaching majors), show three dimensions of indigenous identification. first, there is an ingroup identification which could be determined by their lineages (as in the case of wayuu peoples), this is an approach to heritage and territoriality that links them metaphysically and relationally with their motherland and their ancestry (suárez-krabbe, 2011), and, sometimes, an agentive role in the processes of reindignization of their in-group identity (jackson& warren, 2005). the second dimension is an identity configuration against essentialisms. the fact that they have chosen or have been driven to become english language teachers might seem a challenge to the essentialist identification of their indigeneity given by the study of identity of indigenous english language teachers arias-cepeda 194 no. 20 study of identity of indigenous english language teachers arias-cepeda corte constitucional (1998), which basically established a continuum for autonomy and territoriality which labels grades them as traditional, semi-traditional, or uprooted –based on their mestizaje and contact with the ‘white’ society. the existence of indigenous english language teachers in colombia embodies encounters and disencounters between the nation’s grand narratives of modernity/ coloniality (which includes the instrumentality of mainstream bilingualism for the purpose of insertion into the global village), and the overlooked existing ethnic and cultural diversity of the country. finally, there is an oscillation between determinism and agency: the conflux of indigeneity in the colombian elt field is the living manifestation of a series of epistemic obediences and disobediences (mignolo, 2013) in response to the coloniality and its white supremacy project of marginalization and invisibilization of the border beings (sium, desai, & ritskes, 2012). the challenge is to understand to what extent their becoming english language teachers becomes an act of obedience of the tenets of coloniality and modernity, and to what extent it is an act of rebelliousness. these emerging criteria of identification become referents against the conditions of their invisibilization, which threatens to seclude the colombian indigenous english language teachers to the zone of nonbeing (ndlovu, 2014), and can be explained by colonial mechanisms such as: i) epistemological asymmetries in the colombian elt field that make the conflux and embodiment of the ethnic bilingualism and he mainstream bilingualism in indigenous english language teachers [mignolo’s (2013) anthropos and humanitas] as virtually non-existent; ii) the oblivion of the valuable contributions that studying the interfaces between colombian elt and the colombian indigeneity could bring to pedagogy, and society at large, and iii) the vacuum of documentation of existing action-oriented counter hegemonic strategies (escobar, 2003) that acknowledge the multiple versalitities and horizons of understanding between the colombian elt field and the indigeneity. colombian indigenous english language teachers: from epistemic asymmetries in the elt field to epistemic disobediences and epistemic rights framed within a modern/colonial world system (quijano, 2000; castro-gómez & grossfoguel, 2007; maldonado-torres, 2017), in which power, agency, and inequality are often overlooked by educational researchers, the colombian elt field is subjected to what clausen & osborne (2013) and bourdieu (2000) call institutionalized cultural arbitraries, which implies the entrenching, standardization, and subtle imposition of elements of the cultural capital backed up by the hegemonic social sciences emerging from geopolitical territories that differ from ours (de sousa, 2006). the national education policies, and bilingualism programs construct discourses and practices of 195 no. 20 disdain toward colombian efl teacher agency (guerrero, 2010), at the same time, premises of citizenship and competitiveness (dussel, 2005) have become the driving forces in shaping social groups’ knowledge and identities. these practices, participate in a preemptive testimonial injustice (fricker, 2007) by which the voices and practices of colombian efl teachers are not only lessened in terms of their credibility, but are often even silenced. progressively scholars like bonilla (2017) have explored the ethnic dimension in connection with educational practices in colombia, and how whitening and othering discourses continue to generate asymmetries and epistemic violence. yet, among the researchable inquiries in the colombian elt field, almost nothing has been said about colombian indigenous efl teachers and their identities. regardless of the adoption of the post-structural, the critical, and the cultural turns, colombian indigenous efl teachers are being epistemologically and ontologically secluded to the zone of nonbeing (ndlovu, 2014); they are constructed outside the elt field. the multiple ethnic heritages, the enactment of race, the cultural positionality and the performance of identity, share the fate of not being genuinely welcome within the institutionalizing confines of the classroom (warren, 2001), let alone within the institutionalizing discourses of the colombian elt. racism and whiteness have been constructed subtly, often eluding scrutiny and detection, and, unless there is an understanding of the principles of the colonial/modern world system, the realities that are written in the margins of the ‘grand narratives’ (baxter, 2003) of the elt might remain invisibilized. the colombian elt field, particularly after he economic openness to the global village in the 1990s (cárdenas, 2018), has developed an intrinsic indissoluble relation with the concept of mainstream bilingualism. colombian elt scholars have questioned the assumption of english language learning as a guarantee of competitiveness in globalization (bermúdez, & fandiño, 2012). however, as de mejía (2006) claims, equating colombian bilingualism to the learning of english (and later french) as a foreign language, is a reductionist perspective of what the historical ethos of bilingualism in the country really has been like. colombian condition as a plurilingual nation, with 68 living languages (64 of which are indigenous peoples’), implies that such rich linguistic diversity cannot be taken out of the equation of what constitutes the discourse of bilingualism of the nation. however, such autochthonous linguistic diversity has been almost surgically detached from the nationhood project by means of an ‘abyssal thinking’ construction (de sousa, 2010) of the concept of bilingualism. the binary distinction between ‘mainstream bilingualism’ (spanishenglish) and ‘ethnic bilingualism (uribe-jongbloed, & anderson, 2014) has resulted in an almost total mutual blindness between the elt field and the sociohistoric ethos of colombian multilingualism (ethnic bilingualism, was thought as the teaching of spanish to speakers of indigenous languages, but often indigenous peoples were already bilingual in a second indigenous language). study of identity of indigenous english language teachers arias-cepeda 196 no. 20 study of identity of indigenous english language teachers arias-cepeda the invisibilization of the indigenous identity in the elt field does not only have to do with its lack of quantitative saliency but also, framed within the idea of mainstream bilingualism and ethnic bilingualism as mutually exclusive, emerges out of a logic, a culture, and a structure of the modern world-system which constructs hegemonic traits (maldonado-torres, 2017), and re-enacts a coloniality of power, a coloniality of knowledge, and a coloniality of being (castro-gómez & grosfoguel, 2007). the logics of knowledge production and transmission framed within the coloniality invisibilize the divergence (de sousa, 2010). epistemologically speaking, there is a distinction between the knowledge that is important for the teleological advance of a country in its paths towards modernity -the knowledge of the ‘humanitas’ (mignolo, 2013), which is equated to a desired ‘mainstream bilingualism’, for which the colombian elt field plays a pivotal role, and the knowledge that is expendable since it is rather useful to safeguard alterities and diverse cultures the knowledges of the ‘anthropos’ (mignolo, 2013), which in this case is embodied by the ethnic bilingualism. the institutional approach towards bilingualism also embodies an epistemic injustice by constructing an abyssal thinking (de sousa, 2007) between the bilingualism of the humanitas and the one of the anthropos. on the one hand, there is a strong institutional support for mainstream bilingualism spanishenglish (the humanitas’ english additive pursuing the modernity of the country); on the other hand, ethnic bilingualism has institutionally been constructed through a discourse that promotes that the speakers of any indigenous language as their mother tongue add up spanish to their linguistic capital (the anthropos is being expended for the sake of the humanitas). despite the fact that indigenous peoples have historically had an ethos of bilingualism, their experiences are expended in favor of foreign epistemologies of what being bilingual in colombia should be like from the colonial mindset. this epistemic injustice (gonzález-arnal, 2015) permits dialogues between ‘the two bilingualisms’ if grounded on a distorted image based on prejudices that dehumanize individuals, objectify ‘the other’, and question the other’s capability as giver of knowledge. coloniality explains the construction of the “other” or anthropos, who does not exist ontologically, but it is rather a discursive invention in opposition to ‘the humanitas’. the humanitas has been given the agentive role to construct the anthropos as ontologically inferior (mignolo, 2013). this implies the risk of an epistemic extractivism (grossfoguel, 2016) by which the agents of the intended mainstream bilingualism resort to the indigenous peoples and their historic de facto bilingualism to colonize and subject their knowledge of bilingualism and subject their ideas and practices in favor of the parameters and interests of a western hegemonic epistemology and culture. yet, the existence of colombian english language teachers who identify themselves as indigenous poses a challenge to the existing abyssal thinking (de sousa, 2007), and might as well be the result of epistemic (dis)obediences (mignolo, 2013). an 197 no. 20 elt field in which there is space for the border-beings causes dissonance to the cultural horizon that produces marketregulated identities, values, and practices (giroux, 2005). the border-beings (dussel, 2013) rebel to their having been classified as underdeveloped economically and mentally. this ‘colonial wound’ (mignolo, 2009), resulting from the epistemic injustices associated to languages is better understood in the following quote: what could a person that was not born speaking one of the privileged languages and that was not educated in privileged institutions do? either he or she accepts his or her inferiority or makes an effort to demonstrate that he or she was a human being equal to those who placed him or her as second class. that is, two of the choices are to accept the humiliation of being inferior to those who decided that you are inferior or to assimilate. and to assimilate means that you accepted your inferiority and resigned to playing the game that is not yours, but that has been imposed upon you – or the third option is border thinking and border epistemology (mignolo, 2013, p. 134). given that the coloniality in the colombian elt field has constructed an essentialist grand narrative of colombian efl teachers’ identity that condemns colombian indigenous efl teachers to ‘the zone of non-being’ (ndlovu, 2014), there is the need to go deeper than multicultural education in acknowledging that colombian indigenous efl teachers are not only likely to contribute to the epistemology from the periphery, but also by being part of the peripheric social formations, they are the ones that give nest to the authentic philosophy of liberation (restrepo, & rojas, 2010). the recognition of their epistemic rights (mignolo, 2009) and their epistemic privileges as border beings (dussel, 2013) is fruitful in making evident the alternatives to the grand narratives (grossfoguel, 2011) of what the colombian elt has traditionally been like, and can add potency to the critical decolonial responses that nest multiversalities in the colombian elt field. ultimately, there is a need to admit that peoples, languages, and cultures “have the right to be different precisely because ‘we’ are all equals” (mignolo, 2000, p. 311). approaching the ontology and epistemology of the colombian elt field by acknowledging the epistemic and ontological rights and privileges of indigenous efl teachers is, as mignolo (2009) would say of the decolonizing knowledges, one of the “…necessary steps for imagining and building democratic, just, and non-imperial/ colonial societies” (p.2). in the pursuit of such a society, it is important to establish an ‘ecology of knowledges’ (de sousa, 2007) and thus, as loomba (2000) warns us by criticizing the anticolonial edge in the understanding of identity, avoid transforming resistance into new forms of oppression. if there is not a genuine attempt towards horizontal dialogue, the risk is that “in the process of exposing the ideological and historical functioning of such binaries, we are in danger of reproducing them” (loomba, 2000, p. 104). study of identity of indigenous english language teachers arias-cepeda 198 no. 20 study of identity of indigenous english language teachers arias-cepeda the implies that in the elt field, teachers can, as iedema (2003) puts it, resemiotize their current identities, and recognize themselves as descendants of decolonial practices, establish dialogues between their own indigenous historicities and those of their students and acknowledge how there is still a colonial context in which descendants of indigenous peoples might at times play complicity with the rules and explanations of the dominant culture (gallegos, 2005 ), sometimes moving from the “public transcript”, (which they play because of fear of the reactions that their defiance might cause in the surveillance sphere enacted by society at large) to the engagement with transgressive performances, and “hidden transcripts” that diverge from the performance disclosed by and to the ones in power (scott, 1990). there are interfaces resulting from ‘crossing the borders’ (giroux, 2005) of what has been established as the norm in education, and finding junctures between mainstream bilingual education and indigenous peoples, elt field and diverse identities, english (and other mainstream languages; namely, spanish) and indigenous languages the recognition of indigeneity in the elt strengthens a pedagogical vindication of the right to be different understanding that the elt field (and particularly its naturalized binary core periphery discourses) has been constructed by means of regulatory discourses of what is considered knowledge, science, and research implies that it becomes an academic space of struggle where the local social realities might be likely studied from the point of view of theoretical and analytic structures that have been built by hegemonic social sciences in geopolitical territories that differ from ours (de sousa, 2006). despite this, in the elt there has been an emerging and growing trend toward relativism not only in regards to teaching and learning methodologies, but also in establishing emerging practices, emerging knowledges, and favoring the dissemination of the scientific knowledge of the field. this has made teachers play a more agentive role in the continuum (that looks rather as a path) often as the passive technicians, more recently as the reflective practitioners, and every time closer to becoming transformative intellectuals (kumaravadivelu, 2003). the attempt to fit in the positivistic paradigms of imported scientificity, still cause a yearning for objectivity, often resulting in the absence of the voice and the lack of selfrepresentation in the production of knowledgeand of social realities. this is another colonized space that needs to be decolonized, and a progressive path towards the recognition of the self is recently emerging in the elt field. a space for the acknowledgement that we constitute language and language constitutes us, as an emblem of belonging (craith, 2012), that there is an identity that poses the being on equal terms with the knowing and the doing. such space in the elt field is gaining ground thanks to the conciliation with identity and with difference, and the principles 199 no. 20 of the critical, the intercultural and the decolonial approaches to pedagogy (granadosbeltrán, 2016). the poststructuralism and the emergence of the critical theories in education have triggered the shift of the focus of attention from the methodology to the questioning of the knowledge and the very epistemologies behind the knowledge choicebe them cultural arbitraries (bourdieu, 1986), epistemological injustice (gonzález, 2015), and/ or epistemic violence (de sousa, 2010). individuals in education (both teachers and learners) wrestle within the logic of conventions of the societal deterministic forces to reproduce ourselves abiding by such arbitraries. in doing so, we re-signify the future, but we also re-signify the past –also, as iedema (2003) puts it, we resemiotize our current identities, based on the retroactivity of performativity (zizek, 2002). language minority students’ cultural, cognitive, and linguistic diversity should not be considered just as strengths that are instrumental to the foundation of their learning of english and through english (carrasquillo & rodríguez, 2002), but rather such instrumentality, which is present in the scholar discourse, might need to be countered with a more activist role within the decolonial thought. after all, “it is … an enormous human impoverishment when a language, with all its collective wisdom, beauty, and richness, falls ussilent” (mccarty, skutnabb-kangas, & magga, 2008, p. 298). the study of the identity of teachers (particularly the study of indigenous teachers’ identities) needs an understanding of pedagogy as a social act par excellence, and as such pedagogy cannot be detached from an epistemological positioning in favor of the ecology of knowledges, of teachings, and of languages. the necessary approach towards pedagogy, then, is a highly political one. pedagogy actors need to bear in mind that in heterogeneous communities the study of language education becomes a study of political struggle (phillipson 1992). when we deal with languages, there is more than a construct of grammatical structures; there are linguistic hierarchies that need to be mitigated (phillipson & skutnabbkangas, 1996). there is, also, a mother tongue, whose use as a medium for education is a human right in itselfa ‘linguistic human right’ (lhr), and it has a paramount role in the generation of a distinct identity and in the right to reproduce that identity (skutnabbkangas, 2001). some of the colombian institutionalized attempts to create bridges between languages and rights by means of education, at times end up giving room to a paradox. while a militant intellectual like skutnabbkangas (2001) coined the lhr (linguistic human rights) term to propel the protection of minority languages and linguistic diversity worldwide, the colombian schooling system came up with the concept of ‘derechos básicos de aprendizaje de inglés’ (english language basic learning rights) (ministerio de educación nacional, 2016), which, although does not intend to coincide with the nature lhr, does equate the learning of english into the category of rights, instead of acknowledging the fact that english bilingualism is rather an imposed cultural arbitrary that has permeated the schooling system generating distinctive study of identity of indigenous english language teachers arias-cepeda 200 no. 20 study of identity of indigenous english language teachers arias-cepeda asymmetries regarding the idea of being bilingual because of using minority languages or because of mainstream languages. a depth scrutiny shows that those ‘basic learning rights’ are barely more than a set of descriptors of standards for learners’ linguistic competence. the case mentioned above, which could easily be considered a quintessential example of cognitive extractivism (grossfoguel, 2016), urges the understanding that the possibility of a linguistic human right approach needs to be embraced as a discourse, but also as a sociocultural practice which should genuinely be given room in the mainstream education institutions in the pursuit of protecting cultural diversity, instead of secluding it under labels that, although politically correct, classify and discriminate. to that respect, the fact of making binary distinctions (like the case of ethnic bilingualism and mainstream bilingualism) through grand narratives can be counterproductive, and fails to recognize a latent reality in which populations that were once considered in opposite sides of the equation are currently de facto coinciding in relational spaces of contact. therefore, labeling the realities of ethnically and culturally divergent populations as suitable under an umbrella term like ‘minority education’ would be a mistake, since, as skutnabbkangas (2001) asserts, minority education can become complicit of linguistic genocide by promoting the adoption of the dominant language and forcibly transferring children of the minority group to another group. this subtractive approach to the individuals’ mother tongue, causes mental harm to members of the minority group. the standardization of languages and their constructed prestige can be understood as the result of traditional institutionalized education (schooling), which also is creating expected convention on how people should think and what people should think about, mainly based on economic premises aligned with the ‘civilized’ globalization (de sousa, 2010). consequently, the binary ingroupoutgroup ideologies, that also apply to academic contexts, create ‘barbarian thinking’ or ‘border thinking’ which is the thinking that is distant from models that were once unselfconsciously and uncritically considered to be universal (mignolo, 2000). education should nurture subjects that ‘theorize form the border’, who despite being from a different epistemological and geographical location are willing to create bridges with ‘civilized theorizing’ (menezes, 2005). education understood in that way embraces a bakhtinian (1981) perspective of giving voice to those who “have been precisely subalternized and placed in the margins by the very concept and expansion of european civilization” (mignolo, 2000, p. 309) and provides spaces for their agency (bourdieu, 1986). the individuals’ constant conflictive role between the deterministic reiteration of the habitus (the social, cultural, and political structures that determine them) can be wielded, formed, or transformed by their agency (huddy, 2001). out of the agonistic trends of power, the agentive drive is a trait that comes already in the essence of the individual, and that it is also through life experiences that one can 201 no. 20 fluctuate between the public and the hidden transcripts. however, during the process, the subject can face up experiences of “othering” which might make individuals feel like “impostors” (bourdieu, 1991). for example, an english language teacher from the periphery (let alone a teacher coming from an indigenous group) might think of himself or herself as an illegitimate speaker of english because of the centerperiphery discourses. however, the contradictions that the subject has to face, are welcome in a critical approach towards the construction of identity. block (2005), for example documented how personal and professional identity can become a space for convergence and resistance. this hybridity (papastergiadis, 2000) is thought as the result of constructing identity through negotiation of difference, with space for fissures, gaps and contradictions. identity is not accumulation of traits but an energy field of different forces. hybridity is not confined to a cataloguing of difference. “hybridity is both the assemblage that occurs whenever two or more elements meet, and the initiation of a process of change.” (papastegiadis, 2000, p. 170). this hybridity also challenges the single-naming in the choice of a microcosm, which should not result in the homogenization of multiple ancient peoples within a reductionist category ‘indigenous peoples’ (niezen, 2003). niezen (2003) claims that globalization has resulted in contestation against the forces of cultural uniformity and against the appropriation of indigenous peoples’ sovereignty by states. states are a threat to indigenous/ancient peoples’ ownership of their lands, ad by educating their children in state schools end up suppressing their rights to their languages, and usurping their own systems of justice and conflict resolution. states, even if it is through covert de facto enactment of policies, are imposing a gray uniformity on indigenous’ humanities, cultures, and natural environments. the indigenous locus of enunciation is at times indissoluble of their knowledge of the land (mccarthy & zepeda, 1999), and their role as ‘custodians of the land’. “for indigenous peoples, territories and lands are the basis not only of economic livelihood but also are the source of spiritual, cultural and social identity” (gilbert, 2010, p. 31). historically and all throughout the world indigenous cultures are facing land dispossession due to globally economic imperatives (which threatens their politics of location where the land is the space for a sense of socioeconomic, cultural and spiritual anchorage). this situation urges for the emergence of both narrative and indigenous approaches to living and learning (cardinal, & fenichel, 2017) that intend to co-create curriculum in ways that would make justice to a dialogical pedagogy built upon deep relationality and decolonization. indigenous approaches to education differ to westernized epistemologies in that their relationality transcends the human sphere, and views the whole creation as interwoven and interdependent; thus curriculum should also consider the inclusion of animals, plants, the air, the mountains, the directions, etc. the indigenous pedagogies study of identity of indigenous english language teachers arias-cepeda 202 no. 20 study of identity of indigenous english language teachers arias-cepeda claim for the appropriation of a locus of enunciation. there is a link to territoriality, a link to the collective spiritual self, a recognition of the collective history and stories. “we carve out and nurture space for students to come into awareness of how their history, living, and relationships informs them as teachers, and we work to weave these ways-of-being with the subject matter of the course in as organic a way as we can (cardinal & fenichel, 2017, p. 245). the historical positioning concede a pivotal role to the intergenerational manifestations of the indigenous cultures, since, as dixon & senior (2011) claim, indigenous and narrative foundations embody self-reflective pedagogy that “privileges the co-construction of knowledge and meaning in collaborative environments of mutual respect, attentiveness, reciprocity, and humility. it is also awake to intergenerational connections as well as connections with -and responsibilities tothe broader living world” (p. 247). this intergenerational understanding of the indigenous heritage is vital to fight the vernacularization and self-consciousness resulting of the colonial discourses of the nationhood progress. insofar as the meaning ascribed to indigeneity is concerned, menezes (2005) claims that traditionally indigenous peoples have been considered ahistoric, primitive, and in need of protection. from the “border thinking,” or “border theorizing”, however, the search for totalities is to be rejected. acknowledging the hybridity, the agency, the difference is a step forward towards the de-articulation of the colonial binaries. a step that is necessary towards the understanding of indigenous efl teachers’ identities as being the materialization of multifaceted concepts of languages, cultures, and learning. the case of brazil multilingualism, which is a space for the clashing between local knowledge and expert knowledge (rajagopalan, 2005), has also witnessed how the indigenous identities can contribute to new epistemologies (menezes, 2005). the yube-anaconda myth, claims menezes (2005), embodies the ethic of “openness to the other” of the kashinawá peoples of brazil. the kashinawá peoples consider the contact with the one who is different as both dangerous and desirable, since it is always transformational. when being in contact with someone totally different the kashinawá allows himself to transform into that ‘other’, reducing the alterity. then the kashinawá returns home and becomes himself again, only that not the same self that departed, since there is with him new power, strength, and knowledge and becomes again himself, just like what happens when an anaconda changes her skin. the agency of the indigenous english language teacher is also what will dictate hybridity and the dialogue between both ethnic bilingualism and institutionalized mainstream bilingualism, how these bilingualisms converge into multilingualism, and how owning such diversity dialogues with the voice of the unfair historical impositions of ‘one stateone language’, and ‘mainstream bilingualism as a resource’, and the very ‘linguistic human rights’. this agentive role of the subject constitution is what is allowing transformation of social realities. as giroux (1994) claims: “dominant 203 no. 20 cultural traditions once self-confidently secure in their modernist discourse of progress, universalism and objectivism are now interrogated as ideological beachheads used to police and contain subordinate groups, oppositional discourses, and dissenting social movements” (p. 29). horizons of understanding between the contemporary colombian elt and indigeneity the identity of colombian indigenous teachers in the elt is still utterly unexplored, however, there are horizons of understanding that have started to emerge in the academia in regards to the dialogue between the colombian elt field and the colombian indigeneity. the researchers authoring these studies, even if not always consciously committed to a decolonial thought, have built counter hegemonic discourses by which there is a visiblization and a dialogue between the humanitas and the antropos (mignolo, 2013), an understanding that the situate conditions of the knowledges produced by the historically constructed as subaltern gives them an epistemic privilege that counters the colonial hegemonies (piazzini, 2014). the caution needs to be made to avoid the exoticism or the epistemic extractivism (grossfoguel, 2016), that could just end up in the construction of politically –correct ways for the epistemic universality. ultimately, the communal efforts put in these studies claim more for multiversalities in the colombian elt, the colombian academia, and the colombian society at large. the visibilization of indigeneity in the colombian elt is nested in a certain political positioning, and reclaims the attention to divergence even when cases in which the conflux of an indigenous background and the elt formation are by far rather the exception than the norm. despite efforts of scholars to find bridges between the tangible linguistic diversity of a country with 68 living languages and the expected and imagined spanishenglish bilingualism, the field has been permeated by a logic of discriminatory and segregation attitudes (robayo & cárdenas, 2017). examples of efforts to find a horizon in which linguistic diversity is protected simultaneously to the pursuit of mainstream bilingualism often gather together with the introduction of the term ‘inclusive education’, where the conditions of indigeneity are paired with other particularizing conditions such as deafness (robayo & cárdenas, 2017). this term has been used to refer to an existing need in the field of foreign languages in colombia to implement foreign language policies that do not exclude but intend to allow the inclusion of the languages and cultures constituting the colombian pluri-linguistic and pluri-cultural reality (de mejía, 2006). these efforts confront the binary bilingualism since, as de mejía claims, “restricting the notion of bilingualism to spanish/english bilingualism leads to a distorted view of the complex interrelationships between languages, cultures, and identities in the colombian context” (2006, p. 165). study of identity of indigenous english language teachers arias-cepeda 204 no. 20 study of identity of indigenous english language teachers arias-cepeda the fact is that the indigenous identities have been reduced to a supra-ethnic community (involving different ethnically diverse ancestral communities) constituted in opposition with the europeanderived identity constructed during colonization and perpetuated by the modern/colonial world system (maldonado-torres, 2017). both identities have been merged within the equally supra-ethnic imagined and homogenizing nationstate community, resulting from the republican government (anderson & uribe-jongbloed, 2015). this was supposed to be countered by the new constitution of 1991 that “effectively reversed previous homogenist policies by recognizing both the nation’s inherent multiculturality and the state’s responsibility to protect this” (anderson & uribejongbloed, 2015, p.133). nonetheless, indigenous languages are severely endangered by the factual language policies of the statenationhood, and even by their very internal community policies. for example, the loss of indigenous in group identity due to migration, like the embera family that moving away from their ancestors’ territories, will not be considered to be “indigenous” any longer by their own relatives (piñeros, rosselli, & calderon, 1998); or the wiva that will no longer be considered as such once they have lost their damana language (anderson & uribejongbloed, 2015). anderson & uribe-jongbloed (2015) claim that in colombia the fate of endangered languages is determined by the value ascribed to them. their understanding that “the whole of humanity is enriched (or impoverished) by the survival (or loss) of its languages and culture” (anderson & uribe-jongbloed, 2014, p. 137) takes them to advocate for a closer collaboration between all the actors. it is worth highlighting their call for a collaborative responsibility from mainstream communities towards strengthening endangered languages through policies and practices that make minority individuals more visible in education. also robayo & cárdenas (2017) look forward to generating more interest in scholars towards examining language policies and working further to eradicate inequalities in education. a study that showed the potential of negotiating meaning between two approaches to language policies and bilingualism, which is what colombian scholars seem to be requesting for, was the one conducted by escobar & gómez (2010). this study showed how identity is constructed through a common history, their sociocultural traits and their language (nasayuwe). this latter is prioritized sometimes even over ethnicity (there are descendants of european and nasa people who, because of their language are nasa, despite their ethnic diversity). the nasa participants also voiced their perception of how power structures hierarchized languages; spanish being the one with the written code and the prestige, nasayuwe being the one marginalized from institutional practices, such as schooling. escobar & gómez’s (2010) study also sheds light on how principles of the nasayuwe – spanish bilingualism of their community has been linked to a historical, religious, or emotional background and a sense of supra ethnic nationhood belonging. these 205 no. 20 elements, which seem to be constitutive of a natural ethos, appear to be rather absent in the implementation of an institutionalized mainstream (spanishenglish) bilingualism, as it is pursued by the educational policies. teaching english in indigenous communities cuasialpud canchala (2010), who holds a b. ed. degree as efl teacher and comes from an indigenous community in nariño, conducted a study about indigenous students’ attitudes towards the learning of english by means of a virtual program. she identified three main problematic social conditions for english language indigenous students. first, the colombian education system does not offer coverage for the whole indigenous peoples. second, indigenous peoples’ school background is precarious. they have gone through a primary and secondary education of low quality, with few human and material resources. third, indigenous students have to face multilingualism rather than bilingualism, which is rather disregarded as a crucial learning factor by educational institutions. jaraba & carrascal (2012) conducted an ethnographic study at an indigenous school in which the identity of indigenous students was at the core. the ethnographic study showed the importance of arrow cane weaving as the cohesive element of the indigenous community, and central to the teaching and learning traditions of the in group members of the community. with such initial findings, they carried out a pedagogical implementationethnoenglishwhich acknowledges and strengthens the students’ linguistic, cognitive and cultural identitarian traits. their study managed to integrate the learning of english (and even some standard spanish) by resorting to the cultural knowledges of the zenus. consequently, there were some meaningful pedagogical and communicative processes that were built upon the discourse and interaction patterns related to the weaving craftsmanship process and on the belief that by weaving their handgrafts (like vueltiao hat) they are actually weaving their ingroup social bonds and weaving the survival of the zenu peoples. more recently, usma, ortiz, & gutierrez (2018) have documented how indigenous students of different majors at universidad de antioquia face the challenges of a language policy of the university that requires them to take and approve a number of courses in english as a graduation requirement. the study, which includes very complete demographic descriptions, participants’ narratives on their challenges, their appreciation of the policy, and their suggestions and feedback towards improving the practices of the policy, also shows some staggering circumstances. among them, there is a significant trend towards indigenous language loss (only 10.7 % of the 241 indigenous students had an indigenous language as their mother tongue, and 67.9% had spanish as their mother tongue); besides, there is a positive view towards the learning study of identity of indigenous english language teachers arias-cepeda 206 no. 20 study of identity of indigenous english language teachers arias-cepeda of english, despite their insistence that other languages (including both ancestral and foreign) should be considered as valid alternatives to certify their graduation language requirement. pluriculttural approaches from the academia arismendi (2016), a colombian scholar with a background in efl and teacher education, has advocated for a vision of interculturality that acknowledges first the own cultural diversity. in gathering a theoretical ground for his approach, he has identified the need for the development of competences within a ‘meta-competence’ (borrowing montagnemacaire’s term) that aims at the understanding of plurilingualism, and pluriculturalism. such approach considers attitudes, knowledges, and aptitudes towards linguistic diversity as pivotal for the preservation of cultural diversity. arismendi (2016) is aware that his theoretical borrowings result from what has been documented in regards to the diversity of mainstream europeizing languages, but he finds it valuable to advocate for an intercultural metacompetence that raises student teachers’ awareness on the colombian intrinsic plurilingualism. his research has resulted in the creation of a course called ‘introduction to plurilingualism’ in the undergraduate foreign language teacher program at universidad de antioquia, medellín, colombia. his course has resulted in a shift of student teachers’ discourse from bilingualism to plurilingualism, an attitude of awareness of colombian plurilingualism (positive acceptance) and knowledges about the importance of autochthonous languages as a human heritage that needs to be protected and treasured. still, from time to time in the context of an education programs linguistic diversity is treated as having different levels of proficiency, as it is the case with vanegas, fernández, gonzález, jaramillo, muñoz, & ríos (2015) who have identified how the idea of idealized speaker/ language user generates inclusion and exclusion in the learning practices of prospective efl teachers, invisibilizing the speakers whose language production distance from the idealized one. a concluding remark the study of identity in education builds its epistemological foundations on critical theories, but also there needs to be a space for considering giving voice to studies on the identities of indigenous english language teachers by resorting to a sociology of absences and an ecology of knowledges. such perspectives will bridge the ‘border theorizing’ with the existing ‘civilizing theories’, thus creating spaces for dialogic construction of knowledge. the generation of a voice coming from indigenous teachers in the colombian elt regarding their identity will not just be novel in 207 no. 20 terms of knowledge production, but might eventually reveal an agentive role in these teachers that is so far invisibilized. the dialogue is not just representation, but is also constitution; which is why new realities might emerge out of agency. the production of local knowledge about aspects that are tangentially related can be synthesized together by generating efforts of dialogue between the scholars whose expertise has taken them to specializations and soloist paths. it is through reading local scholars’ work that new networks need to be created, 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(2002). for they know not what they do: enjoyment as a political factor. new york: verso. author * carlos augusto arias-cepeda, m.a. on applied linguistics to the teaching of english from universidad distrital francisco josé de caldas, is a teacher and teachereducator, working for institución universitaria colomboamericana –única. he is currently studying the interinstitutional phd in education at universidad distrital francisco josé de caldas. his research interests include identity, ecologies of knowledges, and decolonial studies in elt. orcid: http://orcid.org/0000-0001-7554-043x how to reference this article: arias-cepeda, c. (2020). exploring the grounds for the study of the identity of indigenous english language teachers in colombia. gist – education and learning research journal, 20, 189-214. https://doi.org/10.26817/16925777.713 180 break the negative feedback chains: future teachers speak up!1 romper las cadenas de retroalimentación negativa: ¡los futuros docentes hablan! henry sevilla-morales and roy gamboa-mena2* universidad nacional de costa rica, costa rica universidad de costa rica, costa rica abstract: this study examines future teachers’ theoretical reflections on critical incidents and how these link to costa rica’s english teaching system. participants included 30 senior college students from an english teaching program. using narrative research techniques, the authors have concluded that: (1) spaces for reflection must be created in efl so that students’ voices are heard; (2) both instruction and assessment need to be tackled not from the native speaker angle but from the learner language perspective; and (3) because mistakes are both inherent to foreign language learning and an indicator of language development, more tolerance to learner errors needs to be exercised. the study proves relevant for language pedagogy and applied linguistics (al) since it paves the way for further research, opens room for reflection and dialogue, and enhances our understanding of the issue at stake from a future-teacher standpoint. keywords: critical incidents; reflective writing; future english teachers; professional identity; negative feedback resumen: se evalúan las reflexiones teóricas de futuros profesores sobre incidentes críticos y su relación con la actualidad del sistema educativo costarricense. los participantes fueron 30 estudiantes avanzados de una carrera en la enseñanza del inglés en costa rica. con base en técnicas de investigación narrativa, se desvelan tres hallazgos principales: (1) es necesario crear espacios de reflexión en el aula de inglés como lengua extranjera a fin de considerar las voces de los estudiantes; (2) más allá de la perspectiva nativo-hablante, es preciso abordar la docencia y la evaluación desde la perspectiva del estudiante y (3) 1 received: july 18th 2018/ accepted: may 14th 2019 2 henrysevilla@gmail.com; gamboa.roy@gmail.com gist education and learning research journal. issn 1692-5777. no.18 (january june 2019). pp. 180-197. no. 18 (january june 2019) no. 18 (january june 2019) 181 dado que los errores son inherentes al aprendizaje de una lengua extranjera y además indicadores de desarrollo lingüístico, es vital que los docentes ejerzan mayor tolerancia en torno a este caso. la investigación es relevante para el campo de la enseñanza de lenguas y la lingüística aplicada dado su potencial de generar futuras investigaciones, abrir espacios de reflexión y dialogo y facilitar una mejor comprensión del tema en cuestión desde la perspectiva de futuros docentes. palabras clave: incidentes críticos; escritura reflexiva; futuros docentes de inglés; identidad profesional; retroalimentación negativa resumo avaliam-se as reflexões teóricas de futuros professores sobre incidentes críticos e a sua relação com a atualidade do sistema educativo costarriquense. os participantes foram 30 estudantes avançados de uma carreira no ensino do inglês na costa rica. com base em técnicas de pesquisa narrativa, revelam três descobertas principais: (1) é necessário criar espaços de reflexão na aula de inglês como língua estrangeira com o fim de considerar as vozes dos estudantes; (2) mais além da perspectiva nativofalante, é preciso abordar a docência e a avaliação desde a perspectiva do estudante e (3) dado que os erros são inerentes à aprendizagem de uma língua estrangeira, e além de indicadores de desenvolvimento linguístico, é vital que os docentes exerçam maior tolerância em torno a este caso. a investigação é relevante para o campo do ensino de línguas e a linguística aplicada, dado o seu potencial de gerar futuras pesquisas, abrir espaços de reflexão e diálogo e facilitar uma melhor compreensão do tema em questão desde a perspectiva de futuros docentes. palavras clave: incidentes críticos; escritura reflexiva; futuros docentes de inglês; identidade profissional; retroalimentação negativa no. 18 (january june 2019) no. 18 (january june 2019) 182 introduction the current paper follows up on sevilla and gamboa’s 2017 study of critical incidents (cis) and the configuration of future teacher’s professional identities. in such paper, the authors aimed to “unveil the role that critical incidents and reflective writing play in the configuration of future efl teachers’ professional identities” (p. 233). the informants included 30 college students majoring in english teaching at the university of costa rica, who wrote and reflected on critical incidents that molded their english learning and teaching experiences. the researchers followed freeman’s (1998) four-stage process for data analysis and interpretation in the analysis of the results and arrived at three conclusions: “(1) spaces for reflection should be opened so that positive practices are kept and the negative can be dismantled, (2) reflective writing through critical incidents is an effective way to realize professional and other social identities, and (3) reflective writing through critical incidents is a bridge through which dialogue can be initiated amongst all educational actors (p. 233). thus, while the first investigation suggested examining the participants’ own theoretical analysis of their cis in order to understand the complexities underlying these configurations, the present study attends to such recommendation by examining these future teachers’ theoretical reflections on their cis and how they link to costa rica’s current educational system. the study adopted a narrative research approach and used several validation measures to ensure credibility of findings (see methodology section). like the first study of 2017, this research was contextualized in a comparative linguistics (cl) course from an english teaching major (etm) at the university of costa rica. the course examined the differences and similarities between the students’ l1 (spanish) and l2 (english) and how these could be used to prevent and deal with errors in english language teaching. using reflective writing as a pedagogical tool, the course created a space for introspection into both, the participants’ english learning experiences and their teaching practices since the majority were taking a teaching practicum by the time the study was run. in this context, reflective writing as a means to prompt learning became paramount to the completion of the study. sevilla and gamboa (2017), echoing ramsay, barker, and jones, 1999; cisero, 2006; mlynarczyk, 2006; farrell, 2008; khandelwal, 2009; gorlewsk and greene, 2011; ryan 2011; farrell, 2013; purcell, 2013; chang and lin, 2014; rutherford, flin and irwin, 2015; walker, 2015; schulz, krautheim, hackemann, kreuzer, kochs and wagner, 2016; kalman, aulls, rohar, and godley, 2008 claimed that cis and reflective writing have awakened an unprecedented interest as a way to aid language break the negative feedback sevilla-morales & gamboa-mena no. 18 (january june 2019) no. 18 (january june 2019) 183 education. hence, studies like the present one offer an opportunity to understand the students’ own contemplations of their language learning journey. overall, this second paper makes several noteworthy contributions to the field of study and policy and decision-making in related instructional settings. in the forthcoming sections we present a review of relevant studies on critical incident analysis (henceforth, cia) and reflective writing, the methodological framework, the data analysis and interpretation, and the conclusions and recommendations for further research. literature review to contextualize the study theoretically, this section outlines major studies on cia and reflective writing and their applications to learning. the review is presented chronologically and includes research from various geographical locations and study areas. currently, cia is conceived as a valuable qualitative research technique not only in language learning and teaching-related studies but also in other fields such as teacher education (morey, nakazawa & colving, 1997; graham, 1997), sign language learning (lang, foster, gustina, mowl & liu, 1996), and medicine (schulz, krautheim, hackemann, kreuzer, kochs & wagner, 2016; rutherford, flin & irwin, 2015). first prioneered in industrial psychology by john c. flanagan (corbally, 1956, p. 57), cia today is at the core of educational research and practice, as we will briefly show in the lines ahead. in 1999, ramsay, barker and jones used critical incidents elicited through interviews to examine the academic adjustment and learning processes of international and local first-year students. twenty local and international students reported positive and negative critical incidents which helped or hindered their learning during the first year. the researchers were able to consider the impact of particular teaching processes and discuss implications of teaching and learning in the first year. more recently in 2008, farrell conducted a study in singapore where he had eighteen trainee teachers in an english language teacher education course reflect on critical incidents that took place while teaching. the author concluded that cia proved useful for trainee teachers. however, he warns that language educators should be aware that classification of such incidents into neat categories can be problematic and that critical incident tasks should be assigned carefully. all in all, farrell concluded that if trainee teachers reflect on critical incidents that occur during class it is possible for them to unveil new understandings of the teaching and learning process. along the same lines, khandelwal conducted a study in 2009 to identify teaching behaviors that differentiate excellent and very poor performance of break the negative feedback sevilla-morales & gamboa-mena no. 18 (january june 2019) no. 18 (january june 2019) 184 undergraduate college teachers in india using the critical incident technique (cit) from the students’ perspective. two hundred thirty-seven critical incidents from sixty female students from three different undergraduate humanities courses at lady shri ram college for women, university of delhi, were collected and analyzed qualitatively. through the study it was possible to identify specific behaviors that faculty members can follow to yield improvement in teaching evaluations by students. it was also concluded that a list of critical behaviors may have implications in selection, training and performance evaluation of teachers. finally, the researcher argues that the study underlines the robustness of the cit in educational research. farrell (2013) carried out a study on “critical incident analysis that an esl teacher in canada revealed to her critical friend and how both used mccabe’s (2002) narrative framework for analyzing an important critical incident that occurred in the teacher’s class” (p. 79). the researcher concluded that teachers can impose order in their practices by analyzing critical incidents which can help develop the habit of engaging in reflective practice. following this study, walker (2015) used the cit to assess esl student satisfaction. he had 23 esl students from a university english language center in canada write about critical incidents that made them very satisfied and very dissatisfied with the service they were receiving from the center. he was able to draw conclusions regarding procedural, analytical, and student response issues with the cit. the outcomes of his study “supported the view that information obtained through the cit could assist esl managers and teachers in developing and enhancing quality factors that more accurately reflect student expectations of the service” (walker, 2015, p. 95). he goes on to claim that the cit is a valuable tool to build understanding of this kind of issues since it is an explanatory methodology with potential to increase knowledge about previously unknown phenomena. as for reflective writing, research has vindicated its value to prompt learning in a wide range of professional fields including –besides language instruction— the political sciences (josefson, 2005), sociology teaching (purcell, 2013), the teaching of science (eiriksson, 1997), and biology (balgopal and montplaisir, 2011), to mention a few. over and above this, reflective writing has been understood as a means to fostering permanent learning (ryan, 2011, p. 99). along these lines, cisero (2006) has studied “whether a reflective journal writing assignment would improve students’ course performance” (p. 231). this research involved 166 students who completed the task (experimental group) and 317 students who did not (comparison group). the inquiry reveled that reflective journal writing may benefit the average student but not the good nor the struggling students. the author argues that “journal writing can only be effective in improving course performance if students make an effort to engage in reflective thinking, thereby making learning more meaningful” (p. 233). break the negative feedback sevilla-morales & gamboa-mena no. 18 (january june 2019) no. 18 (january june 2019) 185 in the same year, mlynarczyk (2006) ran a qualitative investigation that involved reflective journal writing in a four-year college in the u.s. drawing from conclusions in her study, she argued that “all studentsand especially basic writersneed to reflect on their reading using personal, expressive language in order to acquire genuine academic discourse” (p. 4). two years later, kalman, aulls, rohar and godley explored how reflective writing was perceived and accomplished by a group of students in a physics course in canada. broadly, they concluded that “students understood that engaging in reflective writing enabled them to determine when they did not understand a concept as it was being read and that reflective writing promoted self-dialogue between the learner’s prior knowledge and new concepts in the textbook” (2008, p. 74). in 2011, gorlewsk and greene implemented a mixed-method action research using reflective writing as a vehicle to help students improve their writing skills in georgia school. the authors argue that “structured opportunities for reflective writing allow students to polish their writings and to reflect actively on their written creations, while encouraging clearer and more honest writing products. they claim that reflective writing can transform students as they begin to incorporate metacognition, or thinking about their thinking, into their writing processes, as they simultaneously learn the curriculum” (p. 90). at a more general level, chang and lin (2014) studied the effects of reflective learning e-journals and how students used them to aid learning in an efl college course using an experimental study design. ninetyeight undergraduate students participated. the results suggest that students who used reflective learning e-journals outperformed students who did not in reading comprehension. it was also reported that students who used reflective learning e-journals improved their performance in an online course as well as their writing abilities. so far, these are a few of the many studies that have used cia and reflective writing to prompt and investigate learning in several areas of expertise. although our review is by no means exhaustive, it helps frame our inquiry theoretically, and it invites the reader to delve into the full volume of literature on the subject. methodology this section describes the methodological framework for data collection and the data analysis and interpretation that resulted from it. following this, we present the data analysis and interpretation. this investigation is based on narrative research, a methodology first adopted by disciplines such as literature, history and film, and then developed more strongly in education from the need to study “teacher reflection, teacher break the negative feedback sevilla-morales & gamboa-mena no. 18 (january june 2019) no. 18 (january june 2019) 186 research, action research, and self-study […]”, as well as from a growing focus on “empowering teachers by giving them voices in the educational research process […]” (gay, mills, & airasian, 2009, p. 384). in brief, narrative research uses a number of techniques such as “autobiographies, biographies, life writing, personal accounts, personal narratives, narrative interviews, […] ethnobiographies, autoethnographies”, and many others (ibid, p. 387). the current research is based mainly on autobiographical and biographical data produced by theoretical analyses of the cis reported in sevilla and gamboa’s 2017 study (cf. introduction of this paper). fieldwork was conducted from march through july 2015 and included 30 senior students enrolled in the etm described previously in the introduction section. participants came from mixed socio-economic backgrounds and had gpa scores ranging from 6 to 9.52 on a 1-10 scoring scale. the researchers used a chart of citing codes to safeguard student identity (see data analysis and interpretation section ahead). data were gathered from theoretical analyses of cis previously narrated by the participants, and the articulation of such analysis in the light of costa rica’s current public education system. informants were thus able to tackle their own autobiographical accounts from a critical perspective using theoretical backup and the larger educational setting as a guide. once data were collected, the researchers used the following data analysis and interpretation strategies suggested by gay, mills, and airasian: (1) identifying possible themes from the data sets, (2) coding qualitative data, (3) finding interrelations amongst the codes, and (4) displaying findings (2009, p. 449). research validity was accomplished via three procedures. the researchers first conducted calibration sessions to agree on the major themes from the raw data. they then followed criteria established by dey (1993) to counterbalance threats to validity. such criteria included questions such as how reliable are those providing the data? what motivations may have influenced the participants’ report? what biases may have influenced how observation was made and reported? (as cited by gay, mills, & airasian, 2009, p. 457). lastly, participants were asked to read the reconstructions of their analyses to validate the investigators’ accuracy in their analysis. data analysis and interpretation this section looks into the data coming from the three major categories that emerged from the participants’ theoretical analysis. due to length limitations, the analysis will focus on the most recurrent themes only, leaving further details for future investigations. with the purpose of aiding clarity, we used citation codes throughout the section, as depicted in table 1 below. break the negative feedback sevilla-morales & gamboa-mena no. 18 (january june 2019) no. 18 (january june 2019) 187 table 1. raw data citation codes instrument type data source citing code theoretical analyses etm students tap01-030 source: researchers’ own design the monolingual perspective of instruction and assessment for many decades, the language classroom has worked under the maxim that students’ second language (l2) proficiency should be assessed against the standards of a target first language (l1). in recent academic discussions, this view has been referred to as the monolingual perspective—or bias— and has sparked considerable theoretical attention and criticism (see may, 2014; fallas and dillard, 2015; and fallas, 2016). these theoretical developments, fortified by the ever-growing consolidation of critical applied linguistics (cal), are challenging the long-held monolingual view of language instruction and assessment and allowing for alternative ways to conceive theory and practice. in the data sources we examined, a great area of the students’ analysis revolved around this very subject. after a review on ferris’ description of global and local errors (2013, p. 88), p11 and p12 make the following claim: the problem we find with this is that at all times we were being measured from the angle of the native-like scale. even today, we understand errors are being assessed in such a way that students are expected to produce the target language as if they were native speakers of the new language. in other words, l2 learning must duplicate the target language to its fullest rather than to be a means for communication. in our narratives, the locus of attention was never communication given that the relevance of errors laid in a local level. as students of english and soon-to-be teachers, we do not think students should be measured in relation to how much they approximate to a native speaker because we are not dealing with simultaneous bilinguals, but emerging bilinguals at best (ta-p11 and ta-p12, sic). strikingly, much of what these participants are saying coincides with what fallas would argue in his 2016 paper—about one year following the students’ theoretical analyses. certainly, this goes without saying that the students had the upper hand in the discussion, but it is an exceptional fact that both participants and the scholar were synchronized over a subject that even today may seem so alien to many efl researchers. later on in their analysis, these same participants bring this statement forward: break the negative feedback sevilla-morales & gamboa-mena no. 18 (january june 2019) no. 18 (january june 2019) 188 english teachers should avoid measuring students with a native-like scale. corder (1971) describes the notion of language transfer when features of the l1 are present in the l2. it is only natural to find language transfer in the costa rican efl context. thus, the focus of feedback should be on getting the message across rather than torturing students with native-like pronunciation or intonation at early stages. (ta-p11 and ta-p12, sic). the students conclude their discussion by highlighting that “student’s voices need to be heard. they need the experience the satisfaction of being listened to as people with opinions, feelings, and experience”, and that the reflection space offered through this research was a rewarding enterprise: “we appreciate the space created for us to reflect upon these matters for we have no only fund the way to overcome the achilles hill in writing but also we have enjoyed the ride in the english roller coaster” (ta-p11 and ta-p12, sic). the need to tolerate errors as early as 1990, authors such as lightbown and spada argued that the change from a focus on form to an emphasis on the communication and understanding of meaning through language has resulted in a greater tolerance for error in learner’s speech. this has led many language teachers to an understanding that language accuracy might very well be sacrificed as a tradeoff for communicability. such an assertion matches participant 06’s reflection, which reads: […] mistakes are an essential part of the processes behind learning a second language, and therefore mistaking really makes us realize that our knowledge is being fostered and improved. […], we, as future teachers of a foreign language, should encourage motivate learners to use the language and to get acquainted with it. also, we ought to avoid temptation of correcting everything we might find wrong in a student’s utterance; rather try to enhance his/her fluency while speaking by improving their desire to say what s/he would like to say” (ta-p06, sic). this implies that not only is p06 quite aware that mistakes are an indicator that learning is taking place, but also that it is a teacher’s responsibility to account for that in their teaching practice. from this same informant, we later on get the perspective that mistakes are not only part of the language learning process, but more broadly part of our human nature: “carl james in his book ‘errors in language learning and use: exploring error analysis’, states that errors are unique to humans, as we are not only sapiens but also homo errans” (ta-p06, sic). he adds that committing errors, in carl james’ view, is “the very pinnacle of human uniqueness (james, 1998, p.1)”, and that it is even more so in the specific context of language learning (ta-p06). his own implicit break the negative feedback sevilla-morales & gamboa-mena no. 18 (january june 2019) no. 18 (january june 2019) 189 remark on the need to tolerate errors surfaces when he explains: “because i never did well in english in high-school, i was forced to start from scratch at the university, and this set off challenged me to try and fail a zillion times” (ibid, sic). nonetheless these claims, this participant clarifies that as normal as mistakes can be, teachers must not get to the extreme of ignoring them altogether. he cites tebbit’s 1985 argument on the dangers of extreme tolerance towards mistakes: we’ve allowed so many standards to slip... teachers weren’t bothering to teach kids to spell and to punctuate properly... if you allow standards to slip to the stage where good english is no better than bad english, where people turn up filthy... at school... all those things tend to cause people to have no standards at all, and once you lose standards then there’s no imperative to stay out of crime (tebbitt, 1985). (ta-p06, sic) he winds up his theoretical analysis by highlighting the importance of appropriate feedback methods for effective language learning: “the professors’ role is to guide, encourage, help and engage the learners’ attempts to using a target language, not to discourage them by insulting or pushing their performance into a hurry, consequently, making mistakes” (ta-p6, sic). the need for better corrective feedback methods the notion of corrective feedback has been the subject of study for many years now. abaya (2014) argues that this tendency was significantly propelled by “hendrickson’s study of 1978 in which he questioned if errors should be corrected and if so which ones, when and how errors should be corrected.” (p. 5). she goes on to argue that “corrective feedback remains one of the contentious issues in second language teaching and that there is no consensus in its application” (p. 5). arguably, corrective feedback is an inherent part of second and foreign language pedagogy that is highly influenced by teachers’ beliefs, which often conflict with learners’ perspectives (ibid). this issue was eloquently illustrated by p24 and p25 assertions: however, as ramírez (2007) explains that, “sometimes [...] teachers are not familiar with the most appropriate way in which they should correct students in order not to affect their motivation to participate” (p. 106). the teacher’s lack of expertise in creating the right environment in terms of error correction is a crucial matter that might impact the learning of a second language. in costa rica, for example, teachers have been wrongly taught that the best way to correct students is by pointing errors immediately, with no reflection on the way the feedback is given and taken by students (ramírez, 2007) (ta-p24 and ta-p25, sic). break the negative feedback sevilla-morales & gamboa-mena no. 18 (january june 2019) no. 18 (january june 2019) 190 along the same lines, p05 states: in my opinion there should be a general knowledge from educators about key aspects in error corrections, in order for them to take them into consideration when teaching. one of my recommendations is to respect all your students as you want them to respect you; equality is one of the best values that should always prevail (ta-p05, sic). from this perspective, the need for better corrective feedback leans toward both, technical expertise on the subject and affective considerations as well. instinctively perhaps, he is aware that practical knowledge in isolation does not suffice in gearing corrective feedback in the right direction and acknowledges the place of the psycho-affective domain in the issue at stake. this is again reinforced by p24 and p25 when they argue: “the process of correct errors can affect students emotionally, hence their ability to speak a foreign language […] the harsh way professors gave us feedback, made us not wanting to have an active role in classes anymore (ta-p24 and ci-p25, sic). in an analysis of the role of competence (what a student knows) and performance (the way competence is demonstrated) in teachers’ choice of corrective feedback, p20 and p21 make the following point: one of the most commonly held assumptions by students and teachers alike is that competence and performance are the same. thus, when a student is performing, teachers usually pay more attention than necessary to grammar mistakes, intonation, and self-confidence (tap20 and tap21). these participants further explain that when teachers do not differentiate between these constructs, the result is a tendency to overemphasize isolated errors and ignore the full wealth of knowledge (competence) a student has: “some professors and students think that just because of an isolated mistake, the learner is not capable of learning the language” (ibid). they warn that the outcome of this lack of knowledge is twofold: it undermines the significance of the psycho-emotional domain of the learner on the one hand, and it leads to academic frustration on the other (compare sevilla and gamboa, 2017, for expansion on this). upon concluding their analysis, these two participants highlight the need to deter academic frustration and tensions caused by faulty corrective feedback: “as future english teachers, it is essential to break the pattern of academic frustration caused by inadequate teaching techniques and tense class atmosphere. an educator has to encourage students not only to learn but also to respect others” (ibid). break the negative feedback sevilla-morales & gamboa-mena no. 18 (january june 2019) no. 18 (january june 2019) 191 conclusions as stated earlier in this paper, our study purported to examine future teachers’ theoretical reflections on their cis and how they link to our current educational system. upon its completion, we have arrived at the following major conclusions: first, spaces for reflection need to be created within the efl classroom so that students’ voices are heard. second, both instruction and assessment need to be tackled not so much from the native speaker angle but rather from the learner language perspective. third, because mistakes are both, inherent to foreign language learning and an indicator of language development, more tolerance to learner errors need to be exercised on the part of language teachers. therefore, language instructors should inform their teaching and assessment practices by such principles. last, teachers need to be well trained in the field of corrective feedback so that they foster language learning rather than disappointment and demotivation. even though findings yield solid conclusions, there are limitations which need to be acknowledged and dealt with in further research. our study was limited to a small sample population and thus findings can only account for what was done within the constraints of it, which implies that results cannot be transferred to other settings. additionally, the realms of corrective feedback are a double-face coin, with the learners’ views on one side and those of the teachers on the other. further research needs to be done in the same context considering the teachers’ voices to capture the perspectives of current instructors on the issue. the scope and depth of the study stands as our last limitation, which restricts generalizability. only further research will prove whether and to what degree our findings are true for all contexts. in terms of implications, findings help bridge knowledge gaps from gamboa and sevilla’s 2017 paper on critical incidents, reflective writing, and future teachers’ professional identities. despite their exploratory nature, the methods from our two papers could be adopted in other language programs and used as a basis for best practices and policy making. we coincide with merriam and tisdell’s (2016) claim that qualitative inquiries can often assist moderate generalizations and suggest courses of action to benefit the individuals involved. after all, it is the voices of future teachers that speak up from the current inquiry. failing to listen to these claims is, we presume, a luxury no responsible elt program would want to afford. break the negative feedback sevilla-morales & gamboa-mena no. 18 (january june 2019) no. 18 (january june 2019) 192 references abaya, r. 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(2016). situation awareness errors in anesthesia and critical care in 200 cases of a critical incident reporting system. bmc anesthesiology, 161-10. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12871-016-0172-7 sevilla, henry, & gamboa, roy. (2017). critical incidents, reflective writing, and future teachers’ professional identities. revista de lenguas modernas, 26, 233-255. https://revistas.ucr.ac.cr/index.php/rlm/article/view/29971 ramsay, s., barker, m., & jones, e.. (1999). academic adjustment and learning processes: a comparison of international and local students in first-year university. higher education research and development. https:// doi.org/10.1080/0729436990180110 tripp, d. (1993). critical incidents in teaching: developing professional judgement. london: routledge. walker, j. (2015). perspectives: using critical incidents to understand esl student satisfaction. tesl canada journal, 32 (2), 95-111. break the negative feedback sevilla-morales & gamboa-mena no. 18 (january june 2019) no. 18 (january june 2019) https://doi.org/10.1080/13562517.2010.507311 https://doi.org/10.1080/13562517.2010.507311 https://doi.org/10.1186/s12871-016-0172-7 https://revistas.ucr.ac.cr/index.php/rlm/article/view/29971 https://doi.org/10.1080/0729436990180110 https://doi.org/10.1080/0729436990180110 195 authors *henry sevilla-morales m.a. has been an efl instructor for 13 years at the elementary, secondary, and higher education levels. he is an associate professor at the national university of costa rica and holds over 20 publications including research papers, short stories, poems, and news articles. his investigations have been presented in more than 30 national and international conferences, and his papers appear in various scientific journals and conference proceedings in costa rica, colombia, and the united states. his current research agenda includes topics such as learner autonomy, authentic assessment, testing washback, reflective writing, and translation studies. for a preliminary list of academic publications, visit https://www.researchgate.net/ profile/henry_sevilla_morales. orcid: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4040-8062 roy gamboa-mena has been an efl professor for 25 years at the higher education level. he is a tenured professor of english at the universidad de costa rica. his current research areas include reflective writing, learner autonomy, and elt materials development and evaluation. his research has been presented in several national and international conferences and published in several journals and conference proceedings. orcid: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5356-7738 break the negative feedback sevilla-morales & gamboa-mena how to reference this article: sevilla-morales, h., & gamboa-mena, r. (2019). break the negative feedback chains: future teachers speak up. gist education and learning research journal, 18, 180-197. https://doi.org/10.26817/16925777.420 no. 18 (january june 2019) no. 18 (january june 2019) https://www.researchgate.net/profile/henry_sevilla_morales https://www.researchgate.net/profile/henry_sevilla_morales https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4040-8062 https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4040-8062 https://doi.org/10.26817/16925777.420 196 appendix appendix 1: instructions for the critical incident analysis objective: to write a solid analysis of the relationships between your critical incidents and: (1) the professional literature on the field of contrastive linguistics and (b) the interpretation of the incidents in the context of english teaching in costa rica. instructions: now that you’re done with the narration of your critical incident, time has come for you to do the academic work. consider (some of) the following elements: • a theoretical discussion of your incident using at least five academic sources (very important, not optional) • the significance of the incidents for you as english learners, • some assumptions about language that have been challenged or reinforced upon experiencing the incident, • what you will do if you are faced with a similar situation in the future, • how the two incidents interrelate with each other (very important, not optional), and • an interpretation of the incidents in light of the teaching of english in costa rica (very important, not optional). notes: • if you are working in pairs, remember to find relationships between the two incidents. • follow the article by sevilla in order to help you articulate the theoretical discussion of your incidents. • start thinking about your conclusions, which basically are a proposal in order to deal with these incidents in the teaching-learning setting. designed for io-5320, contrastive linguistics (april 2015) break the negative feedback sevilla-morales & gamboa-mena no. 18 (january june 2019) no. 18 (january june 2019) 197 appendix 2: informed consent letter university of costa rica western branch department of philosophy and arts dear student/participant: this is a request for consent to participate in a research study. in so doing, the researchers seek to systematize your analysis of the critical incidents you wrote for the course io-5320 contrastive linguistics. the general goal of the study is to study your theoretical analyses and how they connect to our current public education system. in order to ensure anonymity, the researchers will preserve your confidentiality by means of the following: • assigning code names or numbers for participants so that their real identities are kept anonymous. • keeping data sources in a locked file cabinet in the personal possession of the researchers. • sharing a copy of the final manuscript before it is sent for publication upon request. your participation in this study is voluntary. if you decide to participate, you will be asked to sign this letter of consent. after you sign the letter, you are still free to withdraw, and this will not affect the relationship you have with the professors-researchers. it is our hope to use the results of this research to publish at least one article on the subject. feel free to contact us in person or via e-mail at henrysevilla@gmail.com; gamboa.roy@gmail.com if you have any more questions regarding this research. yours, truly, m.a. henry sevilla morales researcher mag. roy gamboa mena researcher participant’s name (please also sign above): break the negative feedback sevilla-morales & gamboa-mena no. 18 (january june 2019) no. 18 (january june 2019) mailto:henrysevilla@gmail.com mailto:gamboa.roy@gmail.com gist ii semestre 2016-9.indd 75 teachers and students’ stereotypes about the teaching and learning of english1 estereotipos de los profesores y estudiantes sobre la enseñanza y aprendizaje del inglés eliana edith roberto flórez and gladis leonor arias rodríguez2* universidad santo tomás, colombia abstract this article is the result of a research study that examined teachers and undergraduate students’ stereotypes about english teaching and learning processes at a private university in tunja, colombia. the research was carried out with six english teachers and twenty undergraduate students from first and second semesters. the instruments used to collect data were semi-structured interviews and questionnaires from both teachers and students. a grounded theory method was used to analyze the gathered information. findings demonstrate that language teachers created stereotypes about students’ academic work, behavior, and attitudes due to their experiences with them as their teachers, and particularly according to students’ academic majors. students also evidence stereotypes about the teaching and learning of english, according to their experiences in english class. keywords: english language, language teachers, teaching and learning process, stereotypes, undergraduate students. resumen este artículo es el resultado de un estudio investigativo el cual tiene como finalidad compartir los resultados después de examinar los estereotipos de los profesores y estudiantes de pregrado sobre los procesos de enseñanza y aprendizaje del inglés en una universidad privada en tunja, colombia. la 1 recieved: january 15, 2016 / accepted: september 23, 2016 2 eliana.roberto@usantoto.edu.co / gladis.arias01@usantoto.edu.co gist education and learning research journal. issn 1692-5777. no.13. (july december) 2016. pp. 75-92. lexical competence and reading comprehension no. 13 (july december 2016) no. 13 (july december 2016) 76 investigación se llevó a cabo con seis profesores de inglés y veinte estudiantes de pregrado pertenecientes a primer y segundo semestre. los instrumentos usados para la recopilación de datos fueron: entrevistas semi-estructuradas y cuestionarios aplicados a profesores y estudiantes. los resultados demostraron que los profesores de idiomas crearon estereotipos sobre el trabajo académico de los estudiantes, comportamiento y actitudes debido a sus experiencias al relacionarse con ellos como sus profesores, en especial de acuerdo con el programa académico de los estudiantes. los estudiantes también evidencian los estereotipos sobre la enseñanza y el aprendizaje del inglés de acuerdo con sus experiencias en el salón de clase de inglés. palabras clave: idioma inglés, profesores de idiomas, procesos de enseñanza y aprendizaje, estereotipos, estudiantes de pregrado. resumo este artigo é o resultado de um estudo investigativo o qual tem como finalidade compartilhar os resultados depois de examinar os estereótipos dos professores e estudantes de graduação sobre os processos de ensino e aprendizagem do inglês em uma universidade particular em tunja, colômbia. a pesquisa foi realizada com seis professores de inglês e vinte estudantes de graduação pertencentes a primeiro e segundo semestre. os instrumentos usados para a recopilação de dados foram: entrevistas semiestruturadas e questionários aplicados a professores e estudantes. os resultados demonstraram que os professores de idiomas criassem estereótipos sobre o trabalho acadêmico dos estudantes, comportamento e atitudes devido a suas experiências ao relacionar-se com eles como seus professores, em especial de acordo com o programa académico dos estudantes. os estudantes também evidenciam os estereótipos sobre o ensino e a aprendizagem do inglês de acordo com suas experiências na sala de aula de inglês. palavras chave: idioma inglês, professores de idiomas, processos de ensino e aprendizagem, estereótipos, estudantes de graduação. teachers and students’ stereotypes roberto & arias no. 13 (july december 2016) no. 13 (july december 2016) 77 introduction this article shares the results of a research project into teachers and students’ stereotypes about the teaching and learning of english at a private university in tunja – boyacá, colombia. stereotypes present themselves in different contexts, and in this case, english classes are not the exception. there are many factors that affect english teaching and learning processes. thus, the study allows us to reflect on teachers and students’ stereotypes that emerge from different perspectives. in addition, the project provided a space to detect aspects that language teachers take into account when they create stereotypes about their students. it also allowed for the discovery of how undergraduate students perceive their own english learning process. two categories emerged from the data analysis: teachers’ stereotypes about students’ academic performance in english classes, and students’ stereotypes of their own english learning process and academic conditions. these allow us to delve more deeply into the subject and explain teachers and students’ positions, to identify strengths and weaknesses about the use of english, to contribute with ways to guide the methodologies for english classes, and to encourage students to recognize the importance of learning english as a foreign language. this study permitted the researchers to carry out informal talks with language teachers and undergraduate students in order to verify how students were the subject of stereotyping from teachers and from themselves. a variety of stereotypes emerged from students’ performance and the academic process of learning english, and particularly in regards to their academic programs. according to students and teachers’ answers, the results showed that students can be classified with both positive and negative stereotypes towards their english learning process. literature review the theories that underpin this study are based on stereotyping in general, as well as teachers’ and students’ stereotypes about the process of teaching and learning english. these issues contribute to understanding the presence and importance of stereotypes in education. stereotypes a stereotype is a thought adopted about a specific group of individuals, or assumptions people make about a variety of different topics and issues. these can also relate to ideologies developed according to people’s own experience, customs and beliefs. further, teachers and students’ stereotypes roberto & arias no. 13 (july december 2016) no. 13 (july december 2016) 78 stereotypes relate to accepted views and norms of social groups that are developed in people’s minds. allport, one of the pioneers of analyzing stereotypes (1954), studied the complexity of people’s relationships, the perceptions of the social environment, and the way people process information. further, that stereotypes are examples of the bias people develop according to the characteristics of situations, and the shortcuts they adopt which lead to erroneous perceptions of the world (allport, 1954). stereotypes produce misinterpretations in people’s daily lives because they do not allow us to see situations or behavior from an objective point of view. mcgarty, yzerbyt and spears (2002, p. 4) state, “over time, this negative view of stereotypes has become the received wisdom.” most stereotypes have both positive and negative features, and these may vary in terms of how tenaciously they are held and how likely they are to be developed for a given target. different parts of the stereotypes are likely to be salient in different contexts. (schneider, 2005, p. 556) hall (as cited by holliday, kullman & hyde, 2010, p. 126), argued the following: stereotypes get hold of the few simple, vivid, memorable, easily grasped and widely recognized characteristics about a person, reduce everything about that person to those traits, exaggerate and simplify them, and fix them without change or development to eternity. on the other hand, o’sullivan, hartley, saunders, montgomery and fiske (as cited by holliday, kullman & hyde, 2010) defined stereotypes as a “social classification of particular groups and people as often highly simplified and generalized signs, which implicitly or explicitly represent a set of values, judgements and assumptions concerning their behavior, characteristics or history” (p. 126). based on the previous definitions, some authors agree that stereotypes are inherently “bad” or “wrong” because they are illogical in origin, resistant to contradiction or morally mistaken. according to fishman (1956), stereotypes are not taken seriously in different context because these may be essentially incorrect, inaccurate, contrary-tofact, and therefore, undesirable taking into account people’s beliefs in general. however, stereotypes may refer to positive characteristics of a particular person or group of people. allport (1954) did acknowledge that stereotypes were not always negative, but this fact has often been overlooked. taylor and simard (1975) argue that “out-group stereotypes may lead to the positive outcome of mutual social differentiation: each teachers and students’ stereotypes roberto & arias no. 13 (july december 2016) no. 13 (july december 2016) 79 group is seen as it wishes to be seen and any desired differences are highlighted” (p. 240). at the same time, stereotypes have been seen as ways to appreciate and simplify the understanding of the world. they also help to understand people’s conduct with respect to certain social problems. in fact, stereotypes have serious consequences in society. however, schneider (2005) mentions that negative stereotypes are more difficult to change than positive ones. stereotypes in education in terms of stereotypes in education, wright (2004) states that students may be classified as good or bad students. the author explains that good students are characterized as hard-working, reliable and responsible. sometimes, language teachers believe that intelligent students are good students, but according to wright (2004), innate intelligence is not the only key or the most important aspect for a student to be successful in their academic performance. being a good student implies a positive attitude towards each academic duty. in contrast, bad students are characterized by being lazy, irresponsible, rarely showing interest in the subject. they complain about everything, and it is difficult for them to follow instructions (wright, 2004). bearing in mind students’ behavior, teachers tend to classify them according to these positive or negative attitudes towards the teaching and learning of english. students show these attitudes based on their own strengths and weaknesses in the subject. according to gardner (1985), attitudes present cognitive and affective aspects in terms of behaviors and emotional states. students’ behavior shows their values and motivation towards academic activities. gardner (1985) links the individuals’ rationale for any activity, such as language learning, with the range of behaviors and the degree of effort employed in achieving goals. victor and lockhart (1995) explain how students create their own stereotypes based on previous academic practices in regards to learning english. even if teachers or students avoid stereotypes, they are present in many cases in the academic contexts. according to horwitz (1988), conflicting attitudes have a powerful impact on how objectives, methodologies and assessment procedures are perceived, accepted or refused. besides, these attitudes allow learners the opportunity to unravel this complex network of stereotypes, to reflect on how these factors affect their day-to-day decisions and behaviors, and possibly to start a process of negotiation. in horwitz’s study, students and teachers improved their communication, and as a teachers and students’ stereotypes roberto & arias no. 13 (july december 2016) no. 13 (july december 2016) 80 result, the quality of education increased. it was recognized as a way to include students and teachers in the effort of joint learning. another aspect that influences the way students and language teachers create their own stereotypes is students’ purposes. for instance, when students recognize the importance of learning english within their professional life, it has several advantages such as getting a job easily, understanding academic information on websites or recognizing that nowadays the human being is living in a globalized world. these aspects are supported by mckay (2002), who argues that learning english has international recognition, increases cultural knowledge. finally, it is necessary to highlight that the classroom atmosphere influences the teaching and learning process of english. supporting this, o’reilly (1975) and kelly (1980) establish that the teacher is a part of the learning environment as perceived by the learners. as such, his or her teaching behavior affects the learners’ perception of the classroom climate. thus, stereotypes that emerge in english classes are powerful when these build a positive or negative relationship between teachers and students. methodology research design this research was developed based on a descriptive case study as it focused on the analysis of small groups of participants. researchers collected data through teachers’ interviews, and student and teacher questionnaires. this allowed for the identification of language teachers and students’ stereotypes about teaching and learning english as a foreign language. it also provided a systematic way of looking at events, collecting data, analyzing information and reporting the results. researchers do not focus on the discovery of a universal, generalizable truth, nor do they typically look for cause-effect relationships; instead, emphasis is placed on exploration and description. furthermore, the descriptive case study is a relatively formal analysis done in order to analyze classroom life. hakin (1987) states, “the case study is the social research equivalent of the spotlight or the microscope in which emphasizes is placed on the value of understanding a phenomenon as it exists within a natural context” (p. 61). context and participants the participants involved in this study were six english teachers from a private university in tunja, colombia. the teachers were selected bearing in mind that one of them has been working in this institution for teachers and students’ stereotypes roberto & arias no. 13 (july december 2016) no. 13 (july december 2016) 81 12 years, two more teachers had labor experiences in another country such as england and ireland, three language teacher were selected because they have had the opportunity to work with all the faculties and the last teacher was chosen because he had been working at the university just one semester. in addition, undergraduate students were selected from first and second semesters at the same private university. the process of teaching and learning english as a foreign language is based on the development of communicative skills, and is part of the required subjects of the curriculum. data collection instruments according to the characteristics of this study, the following instruments were implemented: the semi-structured interview. this was used with six language teachers who were part of the language department staff. this technique was used to collect data because its flexibility allows us to know in detail specific and relevant aspects of the research such as the stereotypes teachers created about their students. corbetta (2010) recommends the semi-structured interview because it provides an appropriate environment for a fluid dialogue between interviewer and interviewee. teacher questionnaire. this was implemented to collect data as a way to obtain specific information related to teachers’ opinions about students who attended to english classes and the different stereotypes that emerged according to each academic program. mcclure (2002) recommends to apply this instrument with open or closed questions as a mean to measure facts, attitudes or values. student questionnaire. it was used in this research as a way to obtain information based on students’ stereotypes about their own process of learning english and the way they perceived this process at school and at university. bearing in mind the previous information, the main objective proposed in this research study was to identify teachers and students’ stereotypes about english teaching and learning processes as a foreign language at a private university. data analysis and interpretation this study was done following the grounded theory approach since it permitted to describe the process to be carried out in order to analyze data which was gathered through the use of several instruments. strauss and corbin (1990) state that this approach consists of a set of teachers and students’ stereotypes roberto & arias no. 13 (july december 2016) no. 13 (july december 2016) 82 steps to formulate hypotheses based on conceptual ideas that guarantee a good theory by creating categories based on the data gathered. in order to validate the findings of this study, methodological triangulation was used. according to rothbauer (2008), triangulation is seen as a research strategy that can reduce deficiencies caused by using only one method of inquiry. besides, it involves the use of different ways to gather data. data analysis permitted to face the different points of view between students and teachers in order to make conclusions that contribute to improve the field of teaching and learning english. results two main categories arose from the current research in order to achieve the main objective of this study. besides, the grounded theory approach was implemented to analyze the data gathered and a methodological triangulation was used to validate the findings of this project. teachers’ stereotypes about students’ academic performance in english classes this category emphasized how each academic program was stereotyped according to the undergraduate students’ academic performance in activities that were achieved in english classes. the private university where the research took place offers a variety of academic programs such as electronic, system and mechanical engineering, law, business and accounting. once language teachers had the opportunity to work with undergraduate students in different faculties, similarities and differences were found when teachers created stereotypes about students. according to this, bandura’s theory (1986) explains the way that our internal mental process works, it means that stereotypes influence the way people interpret and perceive the world. as a result of this, individuals can and often do perceive the exact same event or situation very differently. thus, the participants agreed that most of the students from this university have obstacles in order to develop activities assigned in english classes, they lacked the context to really practice and immerse themselves in the language, and for these reasons, a lot of students found difficulties in their english learning process. as it was mentioned in the semi – structured interview a lot of different levels in each of the classes that i teach most of the students find difficult to learn english and this can affect their attitudes to learn in english. some people don’t prepare minimum effort in to learn english… teachers and students’ stereotypes roberto & arias no. 13 (july december 2016) no. 13 (july december 2016) 83 in the previous sample, it was evidenced how language teachers had had the experience to teach english in different faculties with different levels. the way they perceived the process of learning and teaching english as a foreign language was with stereotypes, for instance, they noted that most of the students do not make enough effort to learn the language, they had problems in terms of confidence and most of them did not have a clear idea of team work. besides, language teachers were aware that the students had different learning styles, which were reflected in their performances along the academic activities such as individual work, small group work, individual tutoring with teachers, among others. these aspects contributed to create students’ stereotypes. according to allport (1954), stereotypes are studied as the complexity of people’s relationships, the perceptions of the social environment and the way people process information. first of all we have to take into account that students are different in terms of learning, every single human being has his/her own learning style and students come from different backgrounds. in spite of finding the process of learning english difficult for the students, language teachers also created stereotypes according to the faculty students belong to, understanding stereotypes like assumptions people have about different topics or people’s ideologies. these stereotypes can emerge in different contexts as well as in education. ambady, shih, kim, and pittinsky (2001) stated that stereotypes have different effects in people; hence, negative stereotypes produce negative reactions in people’s behavior, and on the contrary, the positive ones can facilitate people’s cognitive performance. the researchers realized that most of the language teachers created stereotypes of their students bearing in mind the academic programs offered by the university. i consider that students change in terms of their attitude, behavior and personality according to their programs, for example civil engineering students are active and responsible, they participate actively rather than architecture students. after analyzing the data gathered, these are the most common stereotypes language teachers had about students according to their major. some are positive and others are negative. likewise, schneider (2005) mentions, “most stereotypes have both positive and negative features, and these may vary in terms of how tenaciously they are held and how likely they are to be developed for a given target.” (p. 329) teachers and students’ stereotypes roberto & arias no. 13 (july december 2016) no. 13 (july december 2016) 84 for instances most of the languages teachers mentioned in the gathered data through the research instruments applied the following excerpts: law students like speaking in public, even if they like to complain about many things. they are more dedicated to learn english because they take 10 levels during their major; besides, they are punctual and good readers. international business are very weak for learning english, their attitude is negative because they are not aware about the importance of learning a foreign languages, which is essential for their major. in addition, electronic, system and mechanical engineering students are kind of analytical and practical; they are very creative and organized, they like doing different kinds of activities because they get bored easily. architecture students are creative, but the problem is that they are somehow lazy in english classes. accounting and business administration students, in general, are kind of good at planning and organizing things. law students are much more generous to speak…architecture and civil engineering students are more concerned about projects and other areas, thus, english is seen as an obstacle they have to get over because it is a mandatory subject, electronic students are organize and they hate wasting time the previous samples demonstrated that stereotypes were created bearing in mind many factors such as age, values, attitude, and academic goals, among others. these stereotypes are linked or affect education contexts in positive or negative ways. according to holliday, kullman and hyde (2010), stated the experience of confronting students who overtly refuse, or are more or less unwilling to accept, classroom procedures belongs to every teacher – and the more pervasive and subtle is this refusal, the more difficult is for teachers to build a positive relationship with their students. (p. 126) moreover, stereotypes affect people’s thoughts, emotions, and behavior. however, schneider (2005) mentions that negative stereotypes are more difficult to change that the positive ones. another relevant aspect that language teachers took into account when they formed stereotypes about students was based on their own professional experience. according to wright (2000), students may be classified as good or bad students. in general, i consider that students in this university are dynamic, they have good behavior and attitude, but few students not so many have personal problems, like in the family or maybe they don´t have the best academic development. however, law students like to discuss a lot, teachers and students’ stereotypes roberto & arias no. 13 (july december 2016) no. 13 (july december 2016) 85 students of civil engineering, they have good performance, architecture students like doing things. the previous sample expressed that there are different kinds of students, students who take seriously their academic performance, students who only care about getting good grades, students who are not excellent students, but have a positive attitude to the process of learning another language, among others. according to wright (2000), innate intelligence is not the only key or the most important aspect for a student to be successful in their academic performance. being a good student implies a positive attitude in front of each academic duty. in daily academic practices, students show different social problems (families, friends) that affect their emotions, beliefs and ways to face the academic challenges, but in despite of their problems, they demonstrate positive attitude in their academic process and it is a very important aspect to keep in mind in order to achieve their professional goals. on the other side, language teachers mentioned that according to the students’ profile based on their major, it is necessary to adapt useful methodologies in the process of teaching and learning english as a foreign language. it is understandable that every single human being is different because s/he is unique, but also it is relevant to perceive that some groups have certain similarities maybe because they belong to an academic program with specific skills. for instance, law students have the ability to read and understand extensive texts, architecture students are good at drawing, and engineering students need to understand mathematics and calculus well, among others. it means that multiple intelligences play an important role in this context because it does not mean that everybody has to be good at math, at drawing, at speaking another language. languages teachers generated students’ stereotypes bearing in mind their professional profile. according to the previous statements, teachers feel the necessity to bring appropriate activities to the students in their english classes, trying to find the way students like learning english in simple workshops that call students’ attention. hence, some of the interviewees revealed: law students like sharing about politics and history which is a big part of their profession. in this way they prefer reading about topics of their own field of study. architecture and engineering students are very active people; they like to do drawing and creative activities. the last sample showed how language teachers at the university have to accommodate to what methodology suits their students’ necessities. bearing in mind that students have weaknesses and teachers and students’ stereotypes roberto & arias no. 13 (july december 2016) no. 13 (july december 2016) 86 strengths in their process of learning english, some of them have the necessity to improve reading skills, others in pronunciation, writing or speaking. one aspect to highlight in this study is that some teachers help students to recognize the importance of learning english. in conclusion, this category shows that stereotypes from language teachers is indeed a very important issue at the university students’ stereotypes in their english learning process and academic conditions this category shows the students’ stereotypes emerged in english classes. learning english is not an easy task in our context because there are many prejudices in terms of learning and teaching; some years ago, english was not important or necessary for our lives as professionals, so we did not have the need to learn this language, but with the demand established by the free trade agreements and the expansion of the communications the role of english in our country has changed. thus, english is seen as an important subject in people’s academic and professional life. the government is interested in improving the skills in this subject; hence, it implemented the bilingualism project which unfortunately has shown low results, sánchez (2013) argues that in colombia, despite the bilingualism project, students’ english level is still low; for this reason, it is necessary that, from the classroom, english teachers propose ways that contribute to motivate and improve the proficiency in this language, and investigation is one of the ways to guarantee changes in this field of education. students from this private university in colombia expressed their stereotypes about learning english in different ways. first, about english methodologies, there have been many complaints from students which became stereotypes about learning english because adult people have had bad experiences with their english learning process as product of the educational system; however, the culture for learning this language is changing, as it can be seen in studies done about this field: the english culture in colombia is growing, with english-language media reaching an increasing number of students and, in some cases, aiding their learning. however, the challenges faced by english teachers a lack of resources, motivation, access, time, language skills and contextual training continue to present barriers to positive and equitable english acquisition in formal education. (british council, 2015, p. 58) besides, undergraduate students stated: teachers and students’ stereotypes roberto & arias no. 13 (july december 2016) no. 13 (july december 2016) 87 my experience of english was bad at school because we only learnt separate words and we could not communicate using english. in fact, students’ english learning depends largely on schools, some private schools have implemented bilingual curricula as a way to improve their quality, this is also a mechanism to compete with other schools and get more students because some parents are conscious that their children need to know english as a way to take advantage of their professional life. thus, a student argues about it: it was good because my english teacher demanded me a lot and it helped me to learn, the problem was that we did not have enough hours a week. in addition, in the colombian environment, it is growing the stereotype that learning english is positive for the development of people and the country because there are more possibilities to travel, work, study, export and import products; it is also perceived by a teacher and by students: the stereotype that people who speak good english have more job prospects and better salaries motivates students to learn, use and improve their english. in general, the researchers found that students also created stereotypes about english classes in a positive and negative way bearing in mind their academic experiences they faced in school and nowadays in the university context. students realize that learning english is essential for their professional majors. according to students’ stereotypes of their english learning process at the university, it can be seen that some of them have a positive attitude, as follows: my attitude is very good because it is important to learn another language. the methodology of the teacher is adequate and facilitates my learning process. moreover, it is still viewed how some students show a total lack of interest in learning english; therefore, it is very difficult to have positive results in teaching this language: my english learning is not the best because i have not been so interested in it, i am only worried about the subjects of my field of study. additionally, when students enter university, they perceive the importance of learning english because in the different subjects they have to work with bibliography in english and they must investigate on the internet; thus, it makes them feel the need to improve their teachers and students’ stereotypes roberto & arias no. 13 (july december 2016) no. 13 (july december 2016) 88 english skills; however, teachers observe that students have different stereotypes about their english learning process, depending of their environment; thus one of the teachers said: there is a small minority of students who recognize the importance of english in their lives; therefore, approach the subject with interest. the majority of them seem blissfully unaware of the potential benefits of learning the world’s most widely spoken language and the relative disadvantages of not doing so, even in their own region. students’ academic development is affected by different factors such as stereotypes, behaviors, contexts, and also personal perspectives; however, students’ academic performance is also product of the motivation they find in the context. unfortunately, in our atmosphere, teachers perceive that the conditions do not contribute enough, and it is an aspect they have to assume and look for ways to motivate the acquisition of this language, taking into account that english has become indispensable in all fields of knowledge. one of the teachers argued: i feel that students have common difficulty in working with english because there are lacks in the context to really practice and immerse themselves in the language.” as it was mentioned before, english teachers have to face many difficulties for teaching because the conditions are not the best; thus, this is one of the reasons why the bilingualism has not attained the expected results in colombia after 12 years of implementation. according to studies done by colombia aprende (2014), only 8% of students leave school with a b2 level; english is taking position in people’s minds due to the exigencies of current times. one of the ways to improve english use is through research because it permits to identify problems, create solutions, propose new methodologies and strategies, create new materials, and also motivate teachers to progress in their academic practices. conclusions this study aimed at identifying the teachers and students’ stereotypes presented in english classes at a private university in colombia. some stereotypes found were positive and others negative. this research tried to help language teacher reflect about negative thoughts they have from students who belong to different academic programs in positive teachers and students’ stereotypes roberto & arias no. 13 (july december 2016) no. 13 (july december 2016) 89 characteristics. besides, it is necessary to avoid sharing negative stereotypes with new language teachers because they might perceive a bad impression about their students before meeting them. the main findings can summarize that stereotypes are always going to exist in the academic context. even if people do not believe in them, they exist as the culture and tradition of people. acceptance depends on the environment; thus, people can reject or accept them. teaching english is engaged in stereotypes as products of teachers and students’ thoughts and background; however, students are different. they react according to their own experience and sometimes they are affected by the major they are studying as a normal process of learning. bearing in mind the different studies carried out based on stereotypes, the finding of this current study concluded that in the process of learning english, there have been some stereotypes due to the manners we have lived as a developing country. they have origin in the internationalization of knowledge through the internet, the free trade agreements, and also the positions of our governments in front of world power countries. some years ago, english was seen as a secondary subject; thus, it was not important. nowadays, the evidences of this investigation show english is necessary for people’s progress and also for the development of the country. people feel the necessity to be involved in technology, science, education, business, among others, thus, english become in a useful tool to understand the field mentioned previously. as it was mentioned in the literature review, in other studies as well as in this study, students are engaged in academic programs; in terms of learning english, some of them are not very involved. moreover, about students’ personality, they are very respectful. in some cases, language teachers create stereotypes about them taking into account their attitude in the english classes; however, this is an attitude teachers have to avoid because students have the same rights and learning opportunities. when language teachers created negative stereotypes about certain students, it affects many aspects such as the atmosphere in the classroom, students and teachers’ attitude in front of english classes or the friendship between learners and teachers. one of the goals of english teachers is to guide students’ performance in this language. thus, this investigation highlights students and teachers’ stereotypes and problems about the english processes of teaching and learning. the limitations presented in this research was the lack of time of the languages teachers who were the participants of this study. it was so difficult try to set up the time for teachers and students’ stereotypes roberto & arias no. 13 (july december 2016) no. 13 (july december 2016) 90 applying the instruments. besides, this study is useful for other areas, not only in english classes because stereotypes might be presented in different fields of study. also, teachers who belong to the variety of academic programs offer in the private university where the research took place have the duty to encourage students to learn english according to their majors. teachers and students’ stereotypes roberto & arias no. 13 (july december 2016) no. 13 (july december 2016) 91 references allport, g. 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(2002). common date collections strategies effective in qualitative studies using action research in technical/operational training programs. retrieved from http://evokedevelopment.com/ uploads/blog/commondata.pdf mckay, s. (2002). teaching english as an international language. oxford: oxford university press. teachers and students’ stereotypes roberto & arias no. 13 (july december 2016) no. 13 (july december 2016) 92 o’reilly, r. (1975). classroom climate and achievement in secondary school mathematics classes. alberta journal of educational research, 21(4), 241-248. rothbauer, p. (2008) triangulation. in l. m. given (ed.). the sage encyclopedia of quality research methods, (pp. 892 –894). thousand oaks, ca: sage. sánchez, a. (2013). investigación e información de bilingüismo en colombia. bogotá, d. c.: banco de la república. retrieved from: http://www.banrep.gov.co/sites/default/files/publicaciones/archivos/ re_172_0.pdf schneider, d. (2005). the psychology of stereotyping. new york, ny: the guilford press. strauss, a. & corbin, j. (1990). basics of qualitative research: grounded theory studies using action research in technical/operational training programs. retrieved from http://evokedevelopment.com/uploads/blog/ commondata.pdf taylor, d., & simard, l. (1975). social interaction in the bilingual setting. canadian psycological review/psychologie canadienne, 16(4), 240254. victori, m. & lockhart, w. (1995). enhancing metacognition in selfdirected language learning. system, 23(2), 223-234. wright, s. a. (2004). perception and stereotypes of esl students. internet tesl journal, 10(2). retrieved from: http://iteslj.org/articles/wrightstereotyping.html authors *eliana edith roberto flórez holds an ma in language teaching from the universidad pedagógica y tecnológica de colombia. she is a full-time teacher and researcher at universidad santo tomás (usta) in tunja. her research interests are in academic writing and literature. she belongs to the “expedicionarios humanistas” research group at usta. *gladis leonor arias rodríguez holds an ma in language teaching from the universidad pedagógica y tecnológica de colombia and an ma in pedagogy from the universidad santo tomas. she has investigated in english reading, literature and curriculum. she is a full time teacher, researcher and e-magazine editor at usta tunja. teachers and students’ stereotypes no. 13 (july december 2016) no. 13 (july december 2016) exploring the barriers to online learning during the covid-19 pandemic. a case of pakistani students from heis [higher education institutions]1 explorando las barreras al aprendizaje en línea durante la pandemia de covid-19. un caso de estudiantes pakistaníes de ies [instituciones de educación superior] muhammad arsalan nazir and mohsin raza khan2 * bahria university business school islamabad campus, pakistan 1 recieved: july 9th 2021/ accepted: november 9th 2021 2 marsalan.buic@bahria.edu.pk; mohsin.raza.khan@gmail.com gist education and learning research journal. issn 1692-5777. no. 23 (july december, 2021). pp. 81-106. 82 no. 23 abstract the main objective of this study is to explore various barriers preventing students in pakistani universities from learning online during the covid-19 pandemic. applying a qualitative research design, twelve (12) in-depth interviews were conducted with business school students, selected at undergraduate and graduate levels from six (06) universities in islamabad and rawalpindi, pakistan. with thematic analysis, various themes emerged from the interview data. based on the findings, students who live in rural areas are more affected by on line le arning during the covid-19 pandemic than students in urban areas due to identified barriers and, most importantly, lack of technology infrastructure. the findings of this study will be helpful for policy makers including government and educational community to conduct and deliver smooth online education in the country during the pandemic. keywords: online barriers; distance learning; university students; online experience; covid-19; learning development; students performance; developing countries; pakistan. resumen el principal objetivo de este estudio es de explorar varias barreras que previenen a los estudiantes de educación superior (universidades) de paquistán de aprender en línea en esta pandemia de covid-19. al aplicar un diseño de investigación cualitativa, doce (12) entrevistas en profundidad se llevaron a cabo con participantes de la escuela de negocios, seleccionados en niveles de pregrado y posgrado. los datos se recolectaron de seis universidades en islamabad, paquistán. luego de recolectar los datos usando un cuestionario de desarrollo propio, se aplicó un método de análisis temático dentro de la investigación cualitativa para descubrir varias barreras relacionadas con el objetivo de este estudio. ocho temas emergieron de los datos de las entrevistas, tales como: acceso a internet, el contenido de diapositivas digitales, la percepción de los estudiantes hacia el aprendizaje en línea, cortes de energía durante la pandemia, miedo de los estudiantes a perder notas y su impacto en el empleo, habilidades del profesorado en el uso de la tecnología para enseñar en línea, el estrés de los estudiantes y la salud, y las habilidades para usar herramientas de aprendizaje a distancia. basado en los hallazgos, los estudiantes que viven en zonas rurales son los más afectados debido a las barreras identificadas y lo más importante a la falta de infraestructura tecnológica. se han proporcionado oportunidades y recomendación a las autoridades pertinentes para desarrollar y entregar educación en línea fluida en el p aís durante la pandemia. palabras clave: barreras de aprendizaje en línea; estudiantes universitarios; experiencias en virtualidad; covid-19; países en desarrollo; paquistán barriers to online learning during covid-19 nazir & khan 83 no. 23 resumo o principal objetivo deste estudo é de explorar diversas barreiras que preveem aos estudantes de educação superior (universidades) do paquistão de aprender online nesta pandemia de covid-19. ao aplicar um desenho de investigação qualitativo, doze (12) entrevistas em profundidade foram realizadas com participantes da escola de negócios, selecionados em níveis de graduação e pós-graduação. os dados foram coletados de seis universidades em islamabad, paquistão. depois de coletar os dados utilizando um questionário de desenvolvimento próprio, aplicou-se um método de análise temático dentro da investigação qualitativa para descobrir diversas barreiras relacionadas com o objetivo deste estudo. oito assuntos emergiram dos dados das entrevistas, tais como: acesso a internet, o conteúdo de slides digitais, a percepção dos estudantes ao aprendizado online, cortes de eletricidade durante a pandemia, medo dos estudantes a perder notas e seu impacto no emprego, habilidades do professorado no uso da tecnologia para ensinar online, o estresse dos estudantes e a saúde, e as habilidades para utilizar ferramentas de aprendizado à distância. baseado nas descobertas, os estudantes que moram em áreas rurais são os mais afetados devido às barreiras identificadas e o mais importante à falta de infraestrutura tecnológica. foram proporcionadas oportunidades e recomendação às autoridades pertinentes para desenvolver e entregar educação online fluida no país durante a pandemia. palavras chave: barreiras de aprendizado online; estudantes universitários; experiências em virtualidade; covid-19; países em desenvolvimento; paquistão barriers to online learning during covid-19 nazir & khan 84 no. 23 introduction the global epidemic of the covid-19 has spread worldwide, affecting almost every country and territory (alsoud, 2021). since its inception in december 2020, at wuhan, china, it has affected almost 216 countries, with 9,129,146 confirmed cases and 473,797 deaths by the end of june 2020 (who, 2020). countries around the world have warned the public to be responsive. therefore, public care strategies have included handwashing, wearing face masks, physical distancing, and avoiding mass gatherings (wang et al., 2021). lockdowns, including ‘smart lock down’ and maintenance strategies, have been put in place as a necessary action to flatten the curve and control disease transmission (bahian et al., 2020). based on the situation, the world health organization declared covid-19 as a global pandemic, shocked the whole world. the manufacturing and tourism industries in many countries has experienced sharply falling revenues and is an education sector among those most severaly affected by the pandemic (dhawan, 2020) in short, this pandemic has changed the entire landscape of the education sector (baticulon et al., 2021). the impact is enormous, which has affected university learning nowadays, and possibly more in the future. several schools, colleges, and universities have abandoned face-to-face teaching, resulting in a paradigm shift, and most institutions were being forced to shift from campus-based learning to day-today online teaching overnight (abbasi et al., 2020). creating educational disruption everywhere, the covid-19 pandemic has hampered students’ lives and, unfortunately, is likely to have a lasting impact on their future academic lives (abuhammad, 2020). in this crisis, most university authorities see online education as the panacea for solving problems (dhawan, 2020). many institutions are using a blended learning model to cope with the current situation. top-ranked universities like harvard, mit, stanford, oxford, and cambridge, among others, are moving their programs online instead of the campus delivery mode (zeshan, 2021). switching to online learning has had many advantages such as flexibility, affordability, ac cessibility, an d pe rsonalized le arning experience. however there are strings attached – it has created a lot more difficulties in universities around the world and has faced several barriers such as infrastructure deficit, extracurricular activities, technical issues, and the most essential provision of adequate resources to ensure effective and efficient dis semination of kno wledge (patricia aguilera-hermida, 2020). by handling the covid-19 crisis better than many countries around the world, pakistan, as a developing country, has avoided the need for a complete lockdown and set an example for the world to impose a ‘smart lockdown.’ the policies of the pakistani government have even made the economy work. despite its proximity to its neighbours, china (12 times the size of pakistan), where the first covid-19 infection was found, and india (the second most affected country), pakistan response to covid-19 was barriers to online learning during covid-19 nazir & khan 85 no. 23 wholistic. various pharmaceutical and non-pharmaceutical measures have helped pakistan to curtail the exponential spread of the disease. as a consequence mortality rate due to covid-19 in pakistan was very low i.e., 2.1% compared to europe, 7.8%, asia 2.4%, and global 4.7% (zeshan, 2021). as covid-19 began to spread across pakistan, heis (university) campuses were the first to close. therefore, just like other countries, pakistani institutions, mainly heis, adopted the hybrid model of learning that combines online educational materials and opportunities for interaction online with traditional place-based classroom methods to minimize the risk of a low quality teaching and learning process (abbasi et al., 2020). nevertheless, being a developing country, the issues outweigh the benefits on both ends – the heis and their students. the successful transition to online education requires a careful and in-depth understanding of the hidden issues from an administrative and student perspective (abuhammad, 2020). therefore, this study explored the barriers to online learning faced by students during the covid-19 pandemic. this will help to understand their issues and experiences during online learning. the finding of the study will help the policy makers including government, academia and others, to draft strategies conducive for online learning during pandemics in pakistan. review of literature challenges and opportunities of online education as a result of the pandemic, educational technology has advanced rapidly in many countries: smartphones, tablets, augmented and virtual reality, and affordable broadband internet connectivity, 4g and 5g have made it possible to have an online learning process more productive, adaptive, and accessible (alsoud, 2021). the online learning industry currently has over usd$ 200 billion and is expected to exceed usd$ 375 billion by 2026 (pokhrel and chhetri, 2021). higher education institutions worldwide are capitalizing on this technological breakthrough and moving from traditional classroom activities to an online delivery method (mahyoob, 2020). (wang et al., 2021) found two types of e-learning, namely asynchronous and synchronous, are mainly compared, but for e-learning to be effective and efficient, instructors (faculty members) and universities (heis) must have a comprehensive understanding of the advantages and limitations. asynchronous learning means that the instructor and course students all interact with the course content at different times and locations. the instructor provides students with a sequence of units that students take according to their schedule. each unit can use assigned readings or uploaded materials, online quizzes, discussions. the instructor guides the students provide them with feedback and evaluates them as needed (id, chen and chen, 2021). barriers to online learning during covid-19 nazir & khan 86 no. 23 on the other hand, synchronous learning means that the instructor and the course students interact with the course content and with each other simultaneously but from different places. the instructor interacts with students in real-time using electronic tools such as zoom to stream audio, video, and live presentations, and microsoft team to host lessons or live meetings, the chat feature of the team tool to participate in live conversations, and google docs to edit documents (aguilera-hermida, 2020) simultaneously. several studies (baticulon et al., 2021; fawaz, 2021; id, chen and chen, 2021) have reported the benefits of these delivery methods, such as 1) recorded sessions allowing students to digest session content and/or conduct additional research before asking questions in a focus group, 2) students can access course content and initiate or respond to interactions with the instructor and their peers, when it best fits their schedule, 3) students can review recorded sessions to continue learning, 4) in a live session, only a small number of students will be able to ask questions; in an online discussion group, all students can ask questions or make comments, and 5) allow students to work around unforeseen challenges such as falling ill for a week or facing a family emergency. however, several challenges are to be expected with this online delivery method. education in pakistan during the pandemic as the online methods offer various opportunities to several stakeholders, mainly heis and education authorities, the method presents many structural, personal and behavioral challenges for faculty and students to successfully adopt and implement online form of learning (zeshan, 2021). in many countries, due to the covid-19 pandemic, education technology has advanced and adopted rapidly. in pakistan however the structure of the education system was a major barrier during covid-19. to date, almost 22.8 million school-aged children aged 5 to 16 are unable to attend the schools. this is the second-largest number of out-of-school children globally (abbasi et al., 2020). add to the misery, the pandemic coincided with pakistan’s struggle to implement a consistent program across all provinces and territories. as coronavirus control measures spread across south asia, education departments, including federal and interim ministries of education, higher education commission (hec) of pakistan, and top-level universities found themselves in dire straits or, in most cases entirely unprepared for online and distance education (zeshan, 2021). in the past, pakistan had closed educational institutions due to terrorist attacks and political threats, but there was still no official policy regarding online education (shahid and mughal, 2020). apart from this, developing countries like pakistan have no robust it infrastructure to meet the needs of urban and rural populations. in addition, the attitude of the educational community (university administration, faculty, students, and parents) towards this online learning mode is not very positive (gul and khilji, 2021). lack of specific learning space in homes, especially for rural students, parents, barriers to online learning during covid-19 nazir & khan 87 no. 23 and heis financial technology adoption constraints, lack of personal motivation and professional time management skills, and less academic interaction between students and faculty members are some of the issues to pay attention to make the e-learning experience effective (shahid and mughal, 2020). with all the issues discussed in the literature, there is still an opportunity for heis to embrace online education, as covid-19 has opened many doors of opportunity, and many institutions have adopted e-learning to deal with the pandemic crisis. therefore, now is the time for stakeholders to design online learning strategies to capitalize on these opportunities. research methodology this study used a qualitative research method that involved analyzing qualitative narrative data collected through in-depth interviews with participants. this method was adopted because it involves a detailed and in-depth exploration of the respondent’s information and experiences (rashid et al., 2019). therefore, in-depth interviews are the most suitable for this type of qualitative study to achieve the stated objective. sampling frame in qualitative research, researchers do not have a predetermined sample size but during the data collection phase they must wait to reach a saturation point (kumar, 2018). therefore, sampling is the process of selecting a part (a sample) of the largest group (the sampled population) as the basis for estimating or predicting the prevalence of unknown information, situations, or outcomes for the larger group. therefore, in this study, in total, data was collected from six universities in two cities of pakistan, islamabad and rawalpindi. three were representing the public sector and three the private sector. the data was randomly collected from these universities. initially 46 students were selected for the interviews however keeping in mind the time constrains 34 students were screen out. the final sample consist of 12 students who agreed to provide in-depth interviews. the students selected for the final interview fulfilled the sampling criteria i.e. student must have studied at least an entire semester through an online mode. this document is based on student interpretations of various barriers to online learning encountered during the covid-19 pandemic. the data collection exercise was carried out between october 2020 and march 2021. barriers to online learning during covid-19 nazir & khan 88 no. 23 data collection tool due to the pandemic, data was collected using a semi-structured interview method with an open-ended questionnaire as an interview guide through online interviews. the interview questions were developed based on the objective of this study and the existing literature. the interview included questions about participants’ backgrounds and current activities during the online semester in covid-19 and specific questions about issues and obstacles encountered by the interviewee. in order to elaborate on the abstract concepts, we have divided our questions into parts (based on eight 8 themes) using clearer language. we also encouraged respondents to provide concrete examples based on their experiences. as a result, twelve (12) semi-structured online interviews were directed to collect in-depth information from participants (students). the semi-structured online interviews were recorded manually by handwritten notes and a few audio recordings to be transcribed for further analysis. interview transcripts were transferred to text format. it begins by labeling and categorizing the codes to determine the latent barriers corresponding to the constructs. before the interviews, the consent forms were signed by the students and decided to give them enough time to share their experiences regarding the subject’s phenomenon freely, so the total interview time was 30-45 minutes, and the authors ensured that all information was received from the students and carefully noted to generate the report. data analysis in the semi-structured interviews, handwritten notes and audio transcripts were carefully manually examined for similarities and differences in participants’ responses to understand the field data better. qualitative data from this study was analyzed using thematic techniques. this study used an inductive approach to identify appropriate themes for study from students’ explicit responses, as it is considered the most appropriate qualitative approach (saunders, lewis and thornhill, 2009). after reading the data from the online interview, handwritten notes and audio transcripts were transcribed, codes were then generated after carefully understanding the data. the themes were again compared with all datasets in the form of codes and transcripts to ensure that the developed themes are complete and that all codes have been covered in the analysis process. several codes such as internet access, electronic slides etc., were then combined to identify the subthemes (categories) i.e. the availability of uninterrupted broadband internet access. after careful and in-depth reading and review of the data, themes (e.g. internet technology access) were explored and selected to draw findings from this study. barriers to online learning during covid-19 nazir & khan 89 no. 23 findings the purpose of this study is to explore various barriers preventing pakistani heis (universities) students from learning online in this covid-19 pandemic. after data collection, thematic techniques analysed the data and several sub-themes were identified. these sub-themes were then classified into eight (8) primary themes based on the codes found within a data set and named as 1) internet technology access, 2) content of digital slides, 3) students’ perception towards online learning, 4) power outages during covid-19 pandemic, 5) students’ fear of losing marks and impact on future employment, 6) faculty skills in using technology to teach online, 7) student’s stress and health in the covid-19 pandemic, and 8) student skills to use distance learning tools. in total eight (8) themes were identified based on the codes. theme 1 – internet technology access participants discussed this theme under the sub-theme, namely the availability of uninterrupted broadband internet access. during the interviews, mixed responses were recorded. participants in urban areas experienced fewer interruptions in their available internet connections, but participants in rural areas experienced more problems with their low-speed internet connections when attending online lectures during the covid-19 pandemic. below are the narratives: ‘my place of residence is islamabad, which is the federal capital, so internet access is available in this area (f-11) of islamabad. yes, i have faced interruptions, but these were rare when maintenance was taking place’ ‘i lost the connection during the online classes, and it affected my performance and results. once i attended a lecture, my teacher was discussing a very important topic, it was a math topic, and i couldn’t learn it on my own. there was a connection problem, and i was unable to attend half of the lecture’ ‘the quality of the internet around my premises is quite good. however, i faced some interruptions while learning online in the form of virtual classes’ ‘the most common results of poor internet quality were connectivity issues where i particularly couldn’t keep catching up with the course as i wanted’ ‘during covid, i had to attend my online classes from gilgit [rural area]. unfortunately, gilgit does not have 4g or the appropriate internet availability for everyone, and this has affected my online learning. once, during the defence of my mid-term exam, my internet stopped working, i lost the internet connection and i failed to get grades’ barriers to online learning during covid-19 nazir & khan 90 no. 23 ‘i spent most of my time with my family in abbottabad [rural area] during the covid-19 pandemic. therefore, faced with major internet problems during online lectures. sometimes i would join a class to hear nothing because of the poor internet. sometimes my assignment is not uploaded to lms. sometimes the teacher would ask me a question, but my voice could not reach the other end due to the poor quality of the internet connection’ lack of access to quality internet connection has emerged as a dominant issue in learning online during covid-19. students with high speed internet access were slightly comfortable to learn online as compared to the students who faced poor connectivity issues. the situation was apparent in the remote areas where state of art infrastructure to provide internet access are yet to develop in contrast to metropolitan areas. theme 2 – content of digital slides participants discussed this theme under the sub-theme: understanding the content of electronic slides. participants believed that teachers who develop technical subjects like math, finance and accounting find it difficult to teach online. problems faced by the students were content of digital slides, understanding the content in a short time and maintaining the focus. student complaint that teachers shared the slides only for a few minutes, and it was not possible for the students to easily read and understand the content of the slides in a short time. moreover, the students lived in the rural areas were unable to focus on slides because of connectivity issues. the slides changes rapidly and they did not remember the content when learning online during the covid-19 pandemic. narratives are as below: ‘i usually had a hard time understanding some of the content as the teacher had to change the slides when explaining something by drawing it’ ‘sometimes it was difficult to understand the technical subjects such as statistics and accounting. it is not at all easy to just go through the slides and when the teacher tries to annotate the technical work and the mathematical solutions on the screen it becomes even more difficult to grasp’ ‘it happened that even though the content of the slides was in front of us, the medium to deliver the content was not sufficient to understand the topic. once the teacher explained the topic presented in the slides, but due to the lack of physical presence, some of the content was difficult for us to understand on our own’ ‘in this context, courses like fundamentals of accounting and financial management include a set of concepts that revolve around calculations. barriers to online learning during covid-19 nazir & khan 91 no. 23 sometimes the instructor needs to explain these numbers step by step in detail, but many times the slides only mention 1-2 steps or maybe the final answer itself ’ ‘quantitative subjects involving the digital approach were not very easy to grasp. theoretical subjects were still easy to understand but the environment was not very conducive to learning. this non conduciveness has made it difficult for us to study analytical subjects in this way’ ‘not all courses can be taught online, for example, we studied proposal development in which we had to learn spss software and it was very difficult for us to understand through slides, we also studied finance in line but there was no learning at all’ this theme explores the efficacy of dig ital medium and how it var ies across the qualitative and quantitative aspects. it was found that students were comfortable learning qualitative subjects online as it requires less efforts and the slide shared by the instructor were self-explanatory. students learning quantitative subjects though found it difficult to co mprehend th e su bject. the sli des sha red at tim es lac k the rigour required to practice the mathematical subjects. students found that practicing numerical subjects just by looking online slides was a challenge and it was difficult to grasp. theme 3 – student’s perception towards online learning participants discussed this topic under the sub-topic: personal interest in online learning during the covid-19 pandemic. during the interviews, participants over several semesters were not motivated to learn online and attend online lectures in a pandemic situation due to numerous administrative and technical issues on the part of students and faculty. participants’ experiences are built from these quotes: ‘in the online learning some instructors were not lenient. they gave less breaks and it was difficult to stay focused for extended period of time. moreover, at times the teaching methodology seems static as there was very less interaction between the teacher and student’ ‘the first online semester went pretty well, but at the start of the second semester i started losing interest as it was more about audio lectures than actual visuals and interactions’ ‘due to the online lectures, there is a lack of interest in studying as everything seems boring and sometimes, i am unable to understand what the teacher is saying’ barriers to online learning during covid-19 nazir & khan 92 no. 23 ‘family disturbance even after avoiding it so much, the convenience of being in the comfort zone and the time and snacking flexibility made it very difficult to maintain the interest’ ‘the online learning was static and it was difficult to stay motivated. initially i tried to keep my motivation high but during the fifth [online] semester i lost the interest completely. i barely took any classes throughout the fifth semester that was conducted during covid-19’ ‘more than one factor has contributed losing my interest in online learning. i couldn’t hear the teacher properly and often marked absent. i couldn’t concentrate because of various distractions’ ‘in the 2nd [online] semester, teachers began to focus on online assignments rather than lectures and appropriate subject learning. most of the assignments did not look like a learning activity but a futile exercise as we were only searching and paraphrasing most of the material. due to the lack of focus on learning and more on assignments, i started to lose interest’ ‘living in a joint family always mean that your microphone can deliver many unwanted voices across the call leading to most embarrassing moments unfortunately, due to which i remained muted most of the time limiting my class participation’ ‘disconnecting at intervals would always cause me to miss the most important part of the lecture, making the rest completely incomprehensible. the difficulty in understanding the course is always more than sufficient to demotivate a student and possibly decrease his/her interest’ lack of one to one connection between teacher and student during online learning and it impact on student attention, interest and motivation was an area on concern. most of the students lost interest in online learning as there was very little or no interaction between teacher and student. it looks one sided to listen to audio tapes and to understand the lectures. the situation gets worse when the focus was on completing online assignments rather than online learning. theme 4 – power outages during covid-19 pandemic participants discussed this theme under the sub-theme: frequent power cuts during online learning in covid-19 pandemic. mixed responses were gathered from participants due to power outages, participants living primarily in rural areas were most affected and unable to attend online classes daily without any interruptions than those living in urban areas and unable to download online lecture recordings, submit barriers to online learning during covid-19 nazir & khan 93 no. 23 online assignments and quizzes, and upload exam paper solutions using cms/lms on time. here are the following quotes: ‘fortunately, i have never encountered this problem while attending online lectures. however, i have heard and seen many of my friends facing this problem because they are residing in rural areas where it is a 24/7 problem or facing the sudden power outage in islamabad/rawalpindi which has become a new standard’ ‘i had to go the extra mile to make sure my mobile data was not lost even in the event of a power failure’ ‘it [a power outage] happened in quizzes and exams that due to a limited time combined with a power outage, i was unable to answer the questions correctly’ ‘sudden power cuts would always disconnect us from online classes, just adding to the difficulties of online learning’ ‘there were times during exams when the lms/cms went down too. luckily, at home i have a ups back-up system that provided me with the luxury of powering my wi-fi and my laptop computer during online lectures’ ‘yes, power outages were not so common in my area, but i have faced it 3-4 times during online classes’ ‘not once, not twice, but countless times. there was this time when i was in swat [rural area] and the light went out due to which i lost the wi-fi connection and missed the whole class’ power outage is one of the burning issues of the country that has adversely impacted the growth of the economy let alone the education sector. unexpected interruptions due to power outage was critical factor in learning online. some of the students were very serious about online learning but interruptions beyond their control were not only frustrating but were costing them grades. theme 5 – students’ fear of losing marks and impact on future employment the participants discussed this theme under the sub-theme: f ears o f e valuation among students and its impact on employment. in online learning during covid-19, students believed that they might not be able to secure good grades and this will have an impact on their future employment. many teachers did not give them good grades which put them in deep stress and employment anxiety. with little practical exposure, barriers to online learning during covid-19 nazir & khan 94 no. 23 participants believed that bad grades will further reduce their chances to get desirable job in the future. below are the narratives: ‘sometimes giving less marks to the students make sense but teachers don’t have a visibility teaching online to assess who is working hard’ ‘it worried me to see how this online learning is affecting our grades. this e-learning is taking us nowhere. we got compromised grades and less future opportunities’ ‘due to online assignments, quizzes, and exams, teachers were unable to judge who was making an effort. many average students copied or asked for help from hardworking students. this made hardworking students looks less efficient and caused them to lose marks and this situation will negatively impact the employment after graduation’ ‘the main area of interest were grades and gpa for me and my peers, as well as ignoring hands-on learning that deserved more attention’ ‘our instructors are quite rigid when it comes to grades and additional favours even though online learning was very stressful and difficult to manage. with zero exposure to the practical learning, i certainly foresee how difficult it would be to find a desirable job in the future’ ‘i had lower marks on the online exams because of my typing speed. i did all the typing work by myself and didn’t take any help from others. at the end it was not enough and i lose marks. i also took new subject i.e. supply chain, which i have very little knowledge. i am afraid what would happen in future when i go for an interview. i have not studied supply chain properly because of online learning and have got very basic knowledge about the subject. i fear of facing the technical question in the interview about the subject on which i have no grip’ ‘i have been working in the prestige international hr firm since the start of my mba. but being the staff member, when interviewing university applicants these days, it is very evident that the students who have gone through the online learning mode are a year behind’ the fear of failure and its consequences on prospective job was palpable from the interviews. there is an aura among students that getting higher grades are linked to securing good jobs. during covid-19 teachers were reluctant to give good grades to the students because they believed that most of the assignments were plagiarised. as a consequence, they were graded strictly. students believe they could have obtained good grades if they were taking on campus classes. some of the students were found extremely dejected and concerned about their prospective jobs as a result of poor grades. barriers to online learning during covid-19 nazir & khan 95 no. 23 theme 6 – faculty skills in using technology to teach online participants discussed this theme under the sub-theme: faculty members trained to teach students online through electronic tools. students observed that many teachers lacked formal training to teach online classes during covid-19. when covid spread and campus learning took place online, many faculty members were unsure of how to use online teaching tools, including ms team and zoom. however, later, after using it several times, they knew them. here are the following quotes: ‘initially, teachers and students weren’t sure how to use online mediums [tools], but over time they got better at using it’ ‘yes. i felt that. last year when covid-19 started and an online change was observed, some of our instructors were unable to use ms team to take online courses and switched to zoom. unfortunately, some of them didn’t even know how to use it effectively and even said that they were not very tech savvy and struggled to use these online platforms’ ‘initially, instructors had problems using ms team or zoom effectively, but in the last online semester they were very proficient in using these tools as everyone learn things with the passage of time’ ‘one of our teachers didn’t know anything about the ms team or the online sessions. he was sometimes unable to start the lesson or stop some misbehaving students who were using the medium incorrectly to interrupt the learning of others because the teacher did not know how to take control or change the settings of an online session. he used to ask his son to start the class and finish it’ teaching online was not only challenging for the students but the teachers faced the same issue. one of the challenge faced by the teachers was lack of familiarity in using the online teaching tools like ms team, zoom etc. there was no capacity building sessions for the teachers so they equipped themselves for the online tasks. in absence of any formal training on online teaching they were forced to learn it in the hard way – try and error. theme 7 – student’s stress and health in the covid -19 pandemic this theme is addressed under the sub-theme: heavy academic workload faced by students. based on the students perception it was found that due to online learning during the covid-19 pandemic, most students felt stress at the end of the online barriers to online learning during covid-19 nazir & khan 96 no. 23 semester. indeed, due to the semester’s heavy workload, including quizzes, deadlines for assignments, projects, presentations, and exams, which resulted in poor health conditions and, as a result, many students did not do well in final exams. here are the following narratives: ‘there were so many deadlines clashing for different courses which was overwhelming and too much pressure to cope up with’ ‘with six courses to cover, i felt like every teacher was trying to get things done by assigning daily homework assignments to complete before the next class, so it was a lot of juggling work’ ‘the whole second online semester turned into a pile of assignments and quizzes that felt like an endless struggle with no real results. the learning was minimal, and it mostly increased stress rather than making us more productive’ ‘it happened a few times that the students (including me) just joined the online classes and were doing their assignments rather than listening to the lectures’ ‘online learning was full of stress and frustration. being at home and belonging to a pakistani family, like many other girls, i also must do daily household chores, apart from that many chores which also with inflexible deadlines were far too difficult to handle’ ‘for some subjects, it was a yes because few teachers did not take the whole scenario seriously at the beginning, which became outrageous for the students at the end of the semester. there were a few teachers who gave us online assignments/presentations/quizzes at the end of the semester like we had nothing else to do’ ‘yes, all the time [stress] especially towards the end of the semester when we were still busy with final presentations and project submissions. usually, we have a week to prepare before exams, but this time we had barely two days to prepare, and i used to study the first paper only’ ‘i was unable to complete my quizzes and other tasks on time and felt overwhelmed. i was crying because i couldn’t keep up with other students and couldn’t do my university work on time’ ‘stress, because this [e-learning] was a new experience and probably it didn’t suit me. i didn’t like it and couldn’t really focus on the lecture. there were distractions both from our side and from the teacher’s side which sometimes seriously annoyed me’ surprisingly online learning was very stressful for many students. not meeting barriers to online learning during covid-19 nazir & khan 97 no. 23 deadlines, over work, devoid of work life balance and less time for preparation were some of the dominant causes of stress. one of the main drawback emerged of online teaching was student teacher discussion time was replaced by the extra assignments and quizzes. students were frustrated as they felt they were not learning rather than the focus was on solving quizzes and submitting assignments. theme 8 – student skills to use distance learning tools this theme is addressed under the sub-theme: adequate knowledge of students to use distance learning tools. when the covid-19 pandemic started and convention class learning switched to online learning many students living in rural areas faced difficulties. they were not conversant with online learning, and knows very little about ms team and the zoom. these students encountered several issues while using these tools. it took a while to get familiar with the online teaching tools during covid-19. here are the following narratives: ‘at first it was a bit overwhelming as we weren’t exposed to this online learning methodology and didn’t know how it worked, but over time we learned and now it’s easier to use and access these distance learning tools’ ‘it happened to me several times that i could not join the ms team because it was showing an error joining the class or an error while logging in. i think i didn’t know how to use it’ ‘during the first online weeks it was difficult for me to use the tools, but i learned and was able to use them without any difficulty’ ‘i haven’t fully learned how to use these online tools yet; they are very complicated. and i don’t even know most of the tools yet’ ‘at first, i had problems with this [ms team/zoom] software, but gradually i started to learn how to use them and gained a strong grip on these distance learning applications’ students were unaware to use online tools as they have not faced this challenge before. many students were not even aware of the modern tools like zoom, ms team etc. learning online tools besides the heavy workload was unbearable for many students. barriers to online learning during covid-19 nazir & khan 98 no. 23 discussion the main objective of this study was to explore various barriers that prevented pakistani (universities) students from learning online in this covid-19 pandemic. based on the interviews, university students shared mixed responses, especially those who lived in rural and remote areas. it was found that at first when the covid-19 pandemic started and face-to-face teaching switched to online learning, due to administrative and technical issues, they had to face many challenges to learn online. there are other barriers that hinder students’ practical knowledge and have a negative impact on their future employment. theme one (1) was internet technology access and explored the barriers in online learning due to the unavailability of internet access. literature shows that e-learning to work, access to internet technology is imperative. this was apparent when during covid-19 students learning online require internet access (alsoud, 2021). with better internet technology resources available, students can learn online without interruptions (baticulon et al., 2021). concerning previous studies, due to the country’s poor digital readiness, many educational institutions, including individual customers, are still not equipped with the latest internet technologies (gul and khilji, 2021). this is because high-speed internet access is not affordable for many students, especially those residing in rural areas. even for those with internet access, the quality is not good enough to attend lectures online through ms team and zoom software and download/upload online assessments using cms/lms. this study found that the unavailability of uninterrupted broadband internet access is considered a significant barrier to online learning among students of higher education institutions in pakistan. lack of internet access and interruptions affected students’ online learning as they could not submit assignments on time and, at times, they were unable to attend the classes (alruwais, wills and wald, 2016). this study further found that uninterrupted high-speed internet access is necessary to perform several online assessment tasks that must be taken into account by the competent authorities of internet service providers to adapt the country’s e-learning mode to the covid-19 pandemic. theme two (2) was the content of digital slide i.e. what is shared with the online students through power point presentation and other sources. theme 2 also entails the impact of digital slides on learning online. during covid-19 the problematic content of digital slides was observed an obstacle for students to learn online easily. students shared their issues and problems about their lack of understanding on the content of digital slides. literature shows that the education system in pakistan has always been the subject of news and criticism, especially the school and university curriculum. students who graduated from college and entered their first year of the university have always struggled to settle in with the system and teaching methodology (abbasi et al., 2020). consistent with the literature current study found barriers to online learning during covid-19 nazir & khan 99 no. 23 that during the covid-19 pandemic, university students could not understand the content of digital slides. although slides (online presentations) were the only option in pakistan for distance learning, students believed that this methodology was valid only for theoretical subjects. most of the students believed that the slides were used for technical courses like statistics, accounting, and especially math, which caused significant problems to learn online. to facilitate e-learning heis and faculty members need to adopt an alternative mode, especially for technical subjects. one way could be to solve the question on whiteboard record them and upload on the lms so that the student can download them at their ease. according to the literature, this problem arises when teachers accidentally have to switch to online teaching mode and they are not technically and mentally ready for it (pokhrel and chhetri, 2021; zeshan, 2021). theme three (3) was students perception towards online learning. the theme explain that the perception of students towards online learning was very confusing in pakistan. the primary cause of this confusion was the absence of one-to-one interaction between teacher and students. in literature about the pakistani education system, requiring extra grades from teachers to pass or improve students’ final grades is expected, however, during the covid-19 pandemic, there was little or no interaction between teacher and students, and the students were not able to request additional marks considered an important finding of this study. this significantly impacted students’ grades as they did not receive additional grades according to their expectations. the situation was complicated when many students lost interest in learning online because they thought some of the courses were boring to learn online, and faculty members were not lenient when grading based on online assignment submissions, quizzes, and exam papers (abuhammad, 2020). furthermore, due to the rigor of student assessments, many students lost interest, leading to a negative perception of online learning. other technical issues such as internet disruptions and course comprehension further lead to students’ lower perception of online learning in the covid-19 pandemic, in line with other literature studies (fawaz, 2021; wang et al., 2020). power outage remerged as the fourth (4th) theme that hampers the online learning during covid-19. this problem was also highlighted in literature that the lack of the latest technologies and infrastructure is hampering the growth of many sectors, including education (nazir & roomi, 2021). according to the literature, the availability of stable electricity has played a vital role in e-learning at higher education institutions in developed and western countries (mahyoob, 2020). however, this study found severe power outages and blackouts in significant parts of pakistan, including rural and remote areas, and some in urban areas were seen as a major obstacle hindering the e-learning in heis of pakistan during covid-19. many students complained that they could have done much better if there was no issue of power outage. they believed that this was one area where they have no control on the situation. sometimes the students were perfectly prepared for the quizzes, but at the eleventh hour they were barriers to online learning during covid-19 nazir & khan 100 no. 23 faced with the problem of the power failure. ironically there was no schedule for the power outage and it ranges between 5-10 hours in rural areas and 2-4 hour in urban areas. in this scenario, when the power was cut, students could not attend classes, and it could even worsen during online exams. pakistan’s higher education institutions are aware of this challenge, however, due to inflexible exam policies, students suffer as they must rely on expensive alternative electrical backup devices such as ups and generators to attend classes without interruption and complete the final exams online. in literature (alruwais, wills and wald, 2016) also found that flexible exams policy must be implemented in the covid-19 pandemic by higher education authorities and universities, making it easier for distant students and allowing them to learn smoothly during blackouts. theme five (5) was student fear of losing marks and impact on future employment. this theme covers the student sentiments towards future employment as a consequence of online learning. students’ fear of losing marks while learning online was found a major barrier in previous studies (patricia aguilera-hermida, 2020; zeshan, 2021). students fear that getting lower grades would adversely impact their gpa and could seriously jeopardize their employment opportunities in the future. in pakistan, business sector usually prefer applicants with good grades, and failing to acquire a high cgpa student could lose the opportunity to get shortlisted (nazir & zhu, 2018). during covid-19 many instructors used multiple online methods for assessments such as assignments, case study analysis, class participation, quizzes, projects, and exams that students believed teachers were unable to judge who was making an effort and who was not. further, the lack of interaction between the teacher and student has aggravated the situation. learning online also means that students are well equipped with the modern teaching techniques, including the use of software, using lms, and online assessment methods (gul and khilji, 2021). however, due to several technical and infrastructure deficit issues, many students failed to get good grades. the primary concerns of students were to get good grades. getting bad grades in exam is linked with deep stress and employment anxiety (wang et al., 2020). it is a fact that many faculty members were not able to properly assess the students during the covid-19. as a result, many students got bad grades. literature has also supported this fact that online teaching has a negative impact on the students’ grade (pokhrel and chhetri, 2021). in order to overcome this obstacle, interactive learning and discussion sessions should be introduced in heis for the faculty members. this would be convenient for students and will help them to learn online and achieve good grades. this finding is consistent with previous research which indicate that online assessment has benefits, but errors and ethical issues must be taken into account to make it successful (bahian et al., 2020; dhawan, 2020). it was observed in theme six (6) that faculty skills in using technology to teach online was not exemplary. although students struggled in learning online, many barriers to online learning during covid-19 nazir & khan 101 no. 23 teachers were also behind the curve in delivering online lectures. one obvious reason for this inefficiency lies in the fact that the teachers were not given formal training. previous studies found that the faculty members of heis (universities) should have sufficient knowledge and expertise to conduct and execute online teaching mode with adequate know-how of online teaching software, including the ms team and zoom (alruwais, wills and wald, 2016). however, this study found that the sudden switch to online education during the covid-19 pandemic created many problems for students as well as faculty members as they were not trained for online teaching and most of them had very basic knowledge of online teaching software. at time, teachers were asking for help to perform the basic function of ms team and zoom, like how to start and end the session, give access to students, record the lecture, etc. this study further found that, without any formal training, many faculty members learned the online teaching tools on their own and got used to them multiple times or with the help of students. it could have saved students and teachers a lot of time and energy if hei had been provided proper training to faculty members (id, chen and chen, 2021). similarly, in this unpredictable situation, advanced technology-related training should have been provided to all faculty members of heis in pakistan. the training should have been done before the start of new semester so the faculty is well versed with the basic features of ms team and zoom. theme seven (7) was about student stress and health during covid-19. the theme explored that student suffers not only in grades but the health was another hard hit area. a continuous mental stress was not bearable for students and some students were not be able to cope with the situation. the heavy academic workload has been seen as the most common problem for hei students across the globe during covid-19 (shahid and mughal, 2020). this study found that during the online teaching mode, students were given many assessment tasks with a tight deadline and without any flexibility from the instructors. many teachers did not take the whole covid-19 pandemic situation seriously initially, and as the semester progressed, the workload was piled up for the students. at the end of the semester, students had to complete the assignments, assessment, and submit the final project along with presentations, which was frustrating for them. due to all these sudden assessments, students were annoyed and very concerned about the grade they were likely to receive during the online semester. as a consequence, and due to the heavy academic workload, students got sick, which is seriously associated with academic stress with adverse outcomes such as poor health, anxiety, depression, and poor academic performance. to create a relaxing teaching environment for students, short and practical lesson plans should have been adopted during covid-19. in addition, the teacher should have short and innovative evaluation criteria to allow the students to work hard and not be stressed. this finding is consistent with a previous study by id et al., (2021) that the fear of losing marks and the impact on future employment opportunities can lead to stress and health problems for university students. barriers to online learning during covid-19 nazir & khan 102 no. 23 theme eight (8) was students skills to use distance learning tools. the theme documents students weaknesses in using online teaching tools. the inability was mainly attributed to lack of access to professional training. to successfully conduct online sessions during the covid-19 pandemic, it is not the sole duty of faculty members to learn and execute online teaching tools, but students must have technical skills to use distance learning tools while staying at home (gul and khilji, 2021). according to this study, students could not use distance learning tools, including ms team and zoom. the covid-19 has brought a paradigm shift in academia as traditional class room learning was replaced by the online learning. students were not ready for this change which caused them to quickly learn distance learning tools, which is a serious concern for higher education institutions in pakistan. due to a poor understanding of online tools, students suffered a lot in the first semesters and failed to adjust to this new e-learning methodology. however, with time and difficulty with the tools, students gradually learn to use them. the sudden shift to e-learning puts both faculty and students in difficulty. however, relevant distance training on online tools needs to be put in place to overcome user challenges. many of these suggestions are consistent with the results reported in previous studies (dhawan, 2020; baticulon et al., 2021). conclusions the spread of the covid-19 pandemic is becoming unstoppable and has already influenced people and countries worldwide. (id, chen and chen, 2021) called for multidisciplinary scientific research to be at the heart of the international response to the covid-19 pandemic. (id, chen and chen, 2021) provide further evidencebased guidance to respond to promoting the health and well-being of people during the pandemic. to respond to this call, the main objective of this study was to explore various barriers that prevent pakistani heis (universities) business school students from learning online during covid-19. the study further explores the stress of students and health issues during covid-19. this study extends previous studies (abbasi et al., 2020; shahid and mughal, 2020; zeshan, 2021) and adds to the current literature by highlighting the issues faced by students and faculty members. many new themes have emerged through qualitative inquiry, such as internet technology access, content of digital slides, student perceptions towards online learning and power outages during covid-19 pandemic. higher education institutions must consider such issues to conduct online learning smoothly in the pandemic. this present study further explored barriers relating to behavioral, personal interest of the students and students’ academic stress and health, and most importantly technical and administration. therefore, the result of present study are important for barriers to online learning during covid-19 nazir & khan 103 no. 23 policy making not in pakistan but worldwide because heis will keep using e-learning mode of teaching during the covid-19 pandemic. online education is helpful for students in higher studies, who have completed at least 14-16 years of education from higher education institutions in pakistan. however, students were concerned about the barriers faced by their peers due to poor administration of heis and other technological infrastructure deficits such as power outages, unstable internet connections, especially in remote and rural areas, and cms/lms connection issues when uploading/downloading assessments. therefore, students believe that the authorities of higher education institutions should resolve the problems related to administration, and government and national telecommunications regulatory authorities should resolve technical issues before embarking on distance learning teaching mode. other faculty members should explore an interactive learning methodology while teaching online so students will not be bored and start taking an interest in online learning during the covid-19 pandemic. heis should define an evaluation criterion that is beneficial for students and teachers regarding feedback on online education received from students. this could be done if heis have secure and reliable software’s for the online teaching mode and quick feedback on student assessments. in addition, students and faculty members need to be trained in technology to take advantage of and reap the benefits of this online learning mode opportunity. barriers to online learning during covid-19 nazir & khan 104 no. 23 references abbasi, s. et al. (2020) ‘perceptions of students regarding e-learning during covid-19 at a private medical college’, pakistan journal of medical sciences, 36(covid19-s4), pp. s57–s61. doi: 10.12669/pjms.36.covid19-s4.2766. abuhammad, s. (2020) ‘barriers to distance learning during the covid-19 outbreak: a qualitative review from parents’ perspective’, heliyon, 6(11), p. e05482. doi: 10.1016/j.heliyon.2020.e05482. alruwais, n., wills, g. and wald, m. (2016) ‘identifying factors that affect the acceptance and use of e-assessment by academics in saudi universities’, ijaedu international e-journal of advances in education, 2(4), p. 132. doi: 10.18768/ ijaedu.20012. alsoud, a. r. (2021) ‘the impact of covid-19 pandemic on student ’ s e-learning experience in jordan’, pp. 1404–1414. bahian, m. e. v. et al. (2020) ‘barriers to online learning amidst covid-19 pandemic’, psychology and education journal, 57(9), pp. 2252–2259. baticulon, r. e. et al. (2021) ‘barriers to online learning in the time of covid-19: a national survey of medical students in the philippines’, medical science educator, 31(2), pp. 615–626. doi: 10.1007/s40670-021-01231-z. dhawan, s. (2020) ‘online learning: a panacea in the time of covid-19 crisis’, journal of educational technology systems, 49(1), pp. 5–22. doi: 10.1177/0047239520934018. fawaz, m. (2021) ‘research article e ʹ learning : depression , anxiety , and stress symptomatology among lebanese university students during covid ʹ 19 quarantine’, (may 2020), pp. 52–57. doi: 10.1111/nuf.12521. gul, r. and khilji, g. (2021) ‘exploring the need for a responsive school curriculum to cope with the covid-19 pandemic in pakistan’, prospects, (0123456789). doi: 10.1007/s11125-020-09540-8. id, c. y., chen, a. and chen, y. 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(2018) ‘e-commerce adoption factors affecting the smes: a case study investigation of a developing economy-pakistan’, in british academy of management conference september 2018. patricia aguilera-hermida, a. (2020) ‘college students’ use and acceptance of emergency online learning due to covid-19’, international journal of educational research open, 1(september), p. 100011. doi: 10.1016/j.ijedro.2020.100011. pokhrel, s. and chhetri, r. (2021) ‘a literature review on impact of covid-19 pandemic on teaching and learning’, higher education for the future, 8(1), pp. 133–141. doi: 10.1177/2347631120983481. rashid, y. et al. (2019) ‘case study method: a step-by-step guide for business researchers’, international journal of qualitative methods, 18, pp. 1–13. doi: 10.1177/1609406919862424. saunders, m., lewis, p. and thornhill, a. (2009) research methods for business students. 5th edn. edited by p. hall. pearson education. shahid, r. and mughal, a. m. (2020) ‘e-learning: a way out in covid-19 crisis’, journal of rawalpindi medical college, 24(3), p. 180. doi: 10.37939/jrmc.v24i3.1486. wang, x. y. et al. (2021) ‘impact of covid-19 on achieving the goal of sustainable development: e-learning and educational productivity’, economic researchekonomska istrazivanja , 0(0), pp. 1–18. doi: 10.1080/1331677x.2021.1927789. wang, yixuan et al. (2020) ‘unique epidemiological and clinical features of the emerging 2019 novel coronavirus pneumonia (covid-19) implicate special control measures’, journal of medical virology, 92(6), pp. 568–576. doi: 10.1002/ jmv.25748. zeshan, a. (2021) ‘business students experiences about online learning during covid 19’, romanian statistical review, (2), pp. 48–61. available at: https://web-b-ebscohostcom.datubazes.lanet.lv/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?vid=27&sid=e2baa3b6-3f464d21-aa50-6d3fdd012bd6%40pdc-v-sessmgr02. 106 no. 23 authors * muhammad arsalan nazir is an assistant professor of entrepreneurship and innovation in the faculty of marketing and entrepreneurship at bahria university of business school, islamabad, pakistan. he holds a phd in entrepreneurship and innovation in small business management from the university of teesside business school, uk. he also obtained an mba in general management from cardiff metropolitan university and msc in marketing and business management from the university of bedfordshire school of business, uk. currently he is a candidate for certified management accountant (cma), usa. while working in a private sector based in london, he further has extensive experience in smes and entrepreneurship growth in the context of developed and emerging economies in different regions of the world, and in particular in south asia. he has presented papers at international conferences and his research and publications have specifically focused on the development of digital information and communication technology applications related to e-commerce and innovation in smes. the objective is to determine the growth of technological entrepreneurship capacities, then to compare the results with those of other regional actors in the asian and western context. he is also a fellow of the british academy of management (bam), uk and a reviewer of several peerreviewed journals. orcid: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5416-9010 mohsin raza khan is a public finance management specialist with a decade of professional experience in financial management, accounting, and taxation. he has earned his doctorate in 2018 from bahria university islamabad with a major in finance. he has worked on a project to assessed baluchistan’s revenue potential and has devised a revenue mobilization strategy for the province. he has also worked with the world bank as the national health financing consultant. currently is serving as an assistant professor at the bahria business school, bahria university islamabad. his research areas are pfm, and health financing. orcid: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9658-317x how to reference this article:nazir, m. a., & khan, m. r. (2021) exploring the barriers to online learning during the covid-19 pandemic. a case of pakistani students from heis [higher education institutions]. gist – education and learning research journal, 23, 81–106. https://doi.org/10.26817/16925777.1195 barriers to online learning during covid-19 nazir & khan 230 reflections on the process of bilingual education in latin america: a perspective from globalization1 reflexiones en el proceso de educación bilingüe en américa latina: una perspectiva desde la globalización magdalena joya and alejandra cerón2* institución universitaria colombo americana, única abstract this paper intends to explain how education can be understood as a process that involves the transmission of culture, knowledge, manners and values; meanwhile, globalization implies an evolving process of constructing a global system of languages. in this way, the relationship between the educational and economic systems can become stronger through processes of bilingual education. in latin america, bilingualism has its origins in european colonization and has acquired power because of the wide range of opportunities that communication in the contemporary world can offer. therefore, it has prioritized the necessity of raising the levels of undergraduate and post graduate education. the spread of english within the bilingual model as a possibility for the development of latin american countries does not constitute a very clear perspective in the sense of guaranteeing the inclusion of the entire population. indeed, a bilingual model with an ethnocentric tendency has prevailed, which favors the english speaking culture as the model to follow. this perspective opens the possibility to reflect on the use of english as a common framework of reference. it means the construction of multicultural and plurilingual spaces which are able to favor the inclusion and innovation of sectors related to transnational markets. key words: bilingualism, competitiveness, public policy, globalization, latin america 1 received: june 6, 2013, 2013 / accepted: september 26, 2013 2 emails: malenajoya88@gmail.com, dir.investigaciones@unica.edu.co gist education and learning research journal. issn 1692-5777. no. 7, november 2013. pp. 230-244 joya & cerón no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) 231 resumen este artículo pretende explicar como la educación puede ser entendida como el proceso que involucra la transmisión de cultura, conocimiento, costumbres y valores; por su parte, la globalización implica un proceso de construcción de un sistema global de lenguas en evolución. en esta dirección, las relaciones entre el sistema educativo y el sistema económico pueden fortalecerse a través de los procesos de educación bilingüe. en américa latina, el bilingüismo tuvo sus orígenes es la colonización europea y ha venido adquiriendo poder a través de un amplio margen de oportunidades que la comunicación en el mundo contemporáneo puede ofrecer. por lo tanto, se ha priorizado la necesidad de aumentar los niveles de educación formal en pregrado y postgrado. la difusión del inglés dentro del modelo bilingüe como una posibilidad de desarrollo para los países latinoamericanos no es una perspectiva clara del todo, en el sentido de garantizar la inclusión de toda la población; dado que ha prevalecido un modelo bilingüe con tendencia a una visión etnocentrica que privilegia la cultura de habla inglesa como el modelo a seguir. esta perspectiva abre la posibilidad a reflexionar sobre el uso del inglés como un marco común de referencia hacia la construcción de espacios multiculturales y plurilingües capaces de favorecer la inclusión e innovación en sectores relacionados con mercados transnacionales. palabras clave: bilingüismo, competitividad, política pública, globalización, américa latina resumo este artigo pretende explicar como a educação pode ser entendida como o processo que involucra a transmissão de cultura, conhecimento, costumes e valores; por outro lado, a globalização implica um processo de construção de um sistema global de línguas em evolução. nesta direção, as relações entre o sistema educativo e o sistema econômico podem fortalecer-se através dos processos de educação bilíngue. na américa latina, o bilinguismo teve suas origens é a colonização europeia e tem vindo adquirindo poder através de uma ampla margem de oportunidades que a comunicação no mundo contemporâneo pode oferecer. portanto, se priorizou a necessidade de aumentar os níveis de educação formal em graduação e pós-graduação. a difusão do inglês dentro do modelo bilíngue como uma possibilidade de desenvolvimento para os países latino-americanos não é uma perspectiva totalmente clara, no sentido de garantir a inclusão de toda a população; dado que prevaleceu um modelo bilíngue com tendência a uma visão etnocêntrica que privilegia a cultura de fala inglesa como o modelo a seguir. esta perspectiva abre a possibilidade a reflexionar sobre o uso do inglês como um marco comum de referência à construção de espaços multiculturais e plurilíngues capazes de favorecer a inclusão e inovação em setores relacionados com mercados transnacionais. palavras chave: bilinguismo, competitividade, política pública, globalização, américa latina joya & cerón no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) 232 introduction languages have become a device to consolidate the process of globalization in the economy, as a result of making a second language a prestigious matter in latin-american society. the role of language nowadays is joined to the fact that languages create interconnectivity and webs of communication between communities. hence, language becomes an important tool for promoting globalization. however, language can be used in different connotations and can become an implement to promote different economic and social perspectives. “discourse can be used rhetorically to project a particular view of globalization which can justify or legitimize the actions, policies or strategies of particular (usually powerful) social agencies and agents” (fairclough, 2006, p.144). the process of globalization implies a global system of languages in evolution in the sense that held et al. (2002) give it as the consequence of centuries of migration and linguistic transformations that change the use of native languages or other languages related with the expansion of political systems and their markets. in this sense language and culture are decisive within the historical development as well as the contemporary global processes. in latin america, this transformation has its origin since the european colonization (spain and portugal) which continued throughout the 19th century after the independence processes and the conformation of the new republics under north american influence. this makes the political, economic and social systems establish bilingual relations between english -spanish, spanish -portuguese and portuguese – english. language allows people in this modern and globalized world to become competitive and also able to perform in different fields. for the developing countries, the process of bilingualism had been gaining power because of the wide range of opportunities that communication can offer. in latin america, young professionals have oriented their training in a second language exclusively to english as a strategy to improve their labor opportunities by enhancing their cvs and professional development. in this process there have been other important transformations in society highlighted by the homogenization of ways of life. it has happened not only in latin america but also in other developing countries of the world. this factor raises the question about the influence of the bilingual education models over the original ways of cultural forms. as chen states, the bilingual models have to be oriented to the common use of the language without implying the cultural imposition over the social structures that adopt it: reflections on the process of bilingual education joya & cerón no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) 233 the concepts of “global citizenship” and “global language” are closely linked. the discussion of them will involve the concern of language education. while questioning if the use of english as a common language, but not as lingua franca, can provide us with opportunities for acting as responsible cosmopolitan citizens, without implying the loss of their linguistic and cultural roots or “the transformation of the english language into a neutral, disengaged or unaffiliated medium.(2011, p.1) to sum up, reflection on the process of bilingual education in latin-america3 implies taking into account the historical process of bilingualism, the possible issues derived from the relation among cultures, and the need of becoming competitive in the productive system. globalization and competitiveness in politics competitiveness is viewed as the mechanism to participate in the modern globalized world. by becoming competitive people are able to participate and compete in different aspects with different actors around the world. this position not only enhances individual capacity, but also enables the country and its society to be aware of its location in the global market and the possibility of extending its economic perspectives. colombia and the ministry of education take this perspective about education nowadays: in a world in which the knowledge economy is an increasingly important source of competitive advantages, education and training in job skills are essential for a successful country. there is a direct relationship between education and productivity improvement , thus improving the human capital is essential to advancing collective prosperity. successful experiences of transformative production have joined training efforts and accumulation of specific knowledge, and the potential of the productive sectors. (men, 2008, retrieved from: http://www.mineducacion.gov. co/1621/article-183961.html)4 reflections on the process of bilingual education joya & cerón 3 related to the studies in this field , there are highlighted the studies developed by the professor anne marie truscott de mejía in terms of bilingual education in colombia (1996,2004), power, prestige and bilingualism (2002), the identification the relation between language, culture and identity(2006a), the state of the bilingual education in colombia (2006b), and the related policies (2006c) 4 translated from: “en un mundo en el cual la economía del conocimiento es cada vez más importante como fuente de ventajas competitivas, la educación y la formación de capacidades laborales son esenciales para un país exitoso. existe una relación directa entre mejoras en educación y mejoras en productividad, por lo cual el mejoramiento del capital humano es fundamental para avanzar hacia la prosperidad colectiva. las experiencias exitosas de transformación productiva han logrado una articulación entre sus esfuerzos de capacitación y acumulación de conocimiento específico, y las potencialidades de los sectores productivos”. (men, 2008) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) 234 with the need of increasing productivity, the tendency has been to give priority to the undergraduate and post graduate levels of education. regarding colombia, the ministry of education has modified its policies to promote competitiveness in colombian education mainly in higher education, with human capital development becoming the most important aspect of this policy. the social, economic, cultural and technological changes propose each day new requirements to the productive world and demand more skilled workers able to perform successfully in the labor market and generate improvements in productivity and innovation. this creates great challenges for the colombian education system, responsible for the training of human capital. (men, 2008, retrieved from: http://www. mineducacion.gov.co/1621/article-183961.html)5 it is important to understand that in this context the new economic agreements that developing countries are being part of, the community has to prepare adaptable citizens for the new globalized world. becoming competitive involves the exchange and interchange of information, and the use of a second language as a mandatory fact. the bilingual policy has defined bilingualism as a priority in education for the generation of people who are going to be able to gain access to the labor market. with globalization and the urgent changes (such as migration, social mobility, transnationalism, and knowledge economies) are being present in all the stages in society, it is important that public education policy respond to the demands and needs of students, society and the productive sector. bilingualism opens the possibility for people to establish relationships and keep in contact with others around the globe. according to held et al. (2002), cultural imperialism needs the creation of educational institutions and training for teachers as well as the use of language, bilingualism, and multilingualism with technologies that are necessary to create these cultural infrastructures. evidently, because of the relationship between the united states and the spanish speakers of latin america, the bilingual policies of these countries are mainly aimed at the learning of english as a second language. 5 translated from: “los cambios sociales, económicos, culturales y tecnológicos plantean cada día nuevas exigencias al mundo productivo y una demanda por trabajadores más capacitados y con habilidades que les permitan desempeñarse exitosamente en el mercado laboral y generar mejoras en productividad e innovación. lo anterior genera a su vez grandes retos para el sistema educativo colombiano, encargado de la formación del capital humano.” (men, 2008) reflections on the process of bilingual education joya & cerón no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) 235 what is not totally clear is whether the cultural globalization that is generated by the spread of english bilingualism has an inclusive perspective in which the countries where english is the native language are trying to attract all the people in order to offer possibilities of development, or if bilingualism is exclusive and just a portion of the population can have access to the second language in order to create a competitive elite. author like garrett and lange (1991), banuri and schor (1992), gill (1995), amin (1996), and gray (1996) argue that the expansion of globalization implies cultural models based on hierarchy, which consequently generates inequity. according to held et al. (2002), all these modes of the cultural globalization, the expansion and deepening of the relationships, the movement of signs, objects and people; the diffusion, the cultural emulation and the establishment of infrastructures and institutions can imply different stratification patterns, which means, hierarchy and inequality. reflecting on the historical process of bilingualism in latin america contributes to a critical recognition regarding the form in which the bilingual education model has been imposed. the evolution of the bilingual educational model of latin america for the process of globalization globalization from a historical perspective has origins in the 15th century when the europeans began to colonize the world; although, some consider the process of globalization as a contemporary process immersed in the 20th century context understood as both progress and progressive. …others see it as the steamroller of late modernity taking away all that is authentic and meaningful in our lives… the hyperglobalist response is that we are living in a new and unprecedented world, where global capitalism, governance, and culture have replaced more local institutions, such as local financial institutions and business, national governments and local cultures, and in general terms have upset old hierarchies and ways of life. the skeptic (primarily neo-marxist) response is that we are simply living in an age of capitalism by updated and more efficient means (above all recent developments in information technology). finally, the transformationalist response is that we are living in an age of greater upheaval and change, with unprecedented levels of interconnectedness among nation states and local economies and cultures, which are thanks in part—though not exclusively—to technological developments.(block, 2004, p.75) reflections on the process of bilingual education joya & cerón no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) 236 for language teachers around the world, there has been a concern about the role that bilingualism takes in terms of globalization, moreover if language teaching is involved with the transformation of people, culture and identities. since the spanish colonization, bilingualism in latin america was oriented to the spanish language, initially from the aboriginal languages to spanish, and later during the industrialization process from spanish to english. consequently, traditionally in the latin american context, the policy of bilingualism has been considered as the relation between english and spanish exclusively. this is, because spanish is the fourth most widely used language in the world and the official language of all american countries except canada, the united states and brazil (unesco, 2003). similarly, english is the official language of 21 countries in the world, and is also the language of the most recognized international organizations such as onu and the european union. however, in the last decade of the 20th century in the context of globalization, with the creation of mercosur, portuguese has also acquired significance in the bilingual campaigns in latin america. source: unesco (2003). education today. the newsletter of unesco’s education sector.n°6, july-september. p.6 reflections on the process of bilingual education joya & cerón no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) 237 using the example of argentina, according to hamel (2003), the construction of a national identity was built around spanish monolingualism supported by an education policy based on academic and scientific developments. the policy included a component of foreign language teaching oriented towards establishing relations with europe. initially, during the 19th and 20th centuries, the first language was french, later english, and finally italian and german. this thus consolidated a model offering, plurilingualism which was displaced in the 1920’s by an excessive demand of english over the other languages. according to hamel (2003) as in argentina, uruguay established spanish as the official language of its education model with the common law of education of 1877 the government´s linguistic policy was oriented throughout history to the homogenization of the country through the emerging variety of uruguayan spanish, using public education as the main vehicle as is done argentina. however, private bilingual schools used a model oriented towards spanish as a native language, and english, french and german as second languages, which played an important role in teaching the elites in the society. according to unicef (http://www.unicef.org/lac/pueblos_ indigenas.pdf), in the case of bolivia, ecuador and peru, which are countries with more indigenous population, education policy has also been oriented towards the imposition of spanish as an official language over the indigenous languages in the urban centers with more demographic density. this aspect generated important contradictions about the use of languages. first, because it placed importance on the use of indigenous languages, then in the process of globalization, when the use of english was considered necessary, the population did not have the necessary instruction to respond to this demand. moreover, despite of the high use of spanish in america, the model of a monolingual education succeeded as result of the english colonization in the united states , where english prevailed in a short period of time in the majority of the population. from there emerged a generalized attitude that considered english as the prestigious language of the world: the mainstream imposes an ethnocentric perspective in which the lack of the ability of speaking english is compared with the condition of being an animal. this idea reminiscent of the 16th century ideologies has prevailed and flourished in the 19th century and still persists in the 21st century, not only in the united states but also in latin america to a greater or lesser degree. the shift to a more open, democratic, multicultural and multilingual path, not only started to take shape in the last decade with the emergence of institutions like the inali in mexico, which as stated above, are still very incipient initiatives for the vindication of the linguistic rights reflections on the process of bilingual education joya & cerón no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) 238 of indigenous people, certainly is not exempt of great contradictions, limitations and even roots of origin.(flores, 2012, pp.81-82)6 the previous examples show that the education models for bilingualism in latin america have been dominated by an ethnocentric vision that favors the culture of the english language as a model to follow. this makes it more difficult to generate a perspective in which the acquisition and use of a second language (english) can contribute to the social development and equity. bilingualism in colombia globalization can be transmitted to the population by education. this aspect is seen by the current cultures as the way of progress and development. nevertheless, education is not aimed at the entire population. for instance in colombia, which is a developing country, the influence and access to education do not guarantee coverage of the lowest sectors of the population. however the idea of globalization and its impact on education has been present in colombian history. frank safford (1989, p. 8) says that it is very distinctive how the elites of colombia have been conscious of the importance of education in relation to economic development; their efforts were focused only on higher education which were and are available exclusively to the elite. knowing this we can suggest that although the globalization process plays an important role in the development of a society, we have to analyze and interpret which are the goals of this process. we have to take into account if this process is really inclusive or exclusive for colombian society. nonetheless, this analysis has to take place during the entire history of education in colombia and we cannot be radical assuming that the educational policies in colombia have only been exclusive. “the general education law of march 18th 1826 offered two reasons to support public instruction: first, the country in which instruction is more provided and education is more generalized of the numerous class which is destined to cultivate the arts, agriculture, and 6 “el mainstream impone una perspectiva etnocéntrica en la que no hablar inglés se compara con la condición de ser animal, reminiscente de ideologías del siglo xvi que han prevalecido y florecido en épocas decimonónicas y aún persisten en el siglo xxi, no sólo en los estados unidos sino desde luego también en mayor o menor medida en latinoamérica. el cambio hacia un camino más abierto, democrático, multicultural y multilingüe, sólo se ha empezado a perfilar en la última década con la aparición de instituciones como el inali en méxico que, como queda dicho, resultan todavía iniciativas muy incipientes para la reivindicación de los derechos lingüísticos de los pueblos indígenas; desde luego no exenta de grandes contradicciones, limitaciones e incluso vicios de origen.”(flores, 2010, pp. 81-82) reflections on the process of bilingual education joya & cerón no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) 239 commerce, is the one which flowers the most by the industry, while the general illustration in the use of science and arts are a perennial source and an inexhaustible wellspring of richness and power to the nation who grows them. second, the education will promote the public moral and the useful knowledge that make flourish people” (safford, 1989 p.21). taking into account these two aspects we can see that even though education was aimed to generate progress, the government took the general public as a source of achieving productivity. with this coverage and the idea of generating a more prosperous country, the term competitiveness was attached to both productivity and education. chen (2011) states that the process of learning english is the result of an official demand in various parts of the globe to reach professional success, and social, and economic advancement. in this sense, english is seen as an individual’s fundamental skill which can provide opportunities to communicate with the international community. this attitude has been consolidated in the state policies in colombia: the recognition of the importance of a foreign language, in this case english, led the ministry of education to implement the “plan nacional de bilingüismo(pnb)” as a strategy for improving the quality of english teaching in colombia and promoting competitiveness for our citizens. (men,http://colombiaaprende.edu.co/html/productos/1685/w3article-312132.html)7 proficiency in english as a second language can give opportunities to colombians to achieve different skills and to be able to compete with people of other regions outside latin-america: “strengthening the domain of a foreign language (english) is essential to improve personal, social, technological and productive levels, at the same time, to promote more and better opportunities for competitiveness” (men, 2008).8 although the policy recognizes the importance of bilingualism and generates plans and reflections about it for the entire colombian population, the gap between the non-speakers (the majority of the colombians) and the bilingual ones is huge, especially if we take into reflections on the process of bilingual education joya & cerón 7 “el reconocimiento de la importancia de una lengua extranjera, en este caso particular el inglés, llevó al ministerio de educación nacional a implementar el programa nacional de bilingüismo como estrategia para el mejoramiento de la calidad de la enseñanza del inglés en colombia y para la promoción de la competitividad de nuestros ciudadanos”. (men, http://www.colombiaaprende.edu.co/html/productos/1685/w3-article-312132. html) 8 “fortalecer el dominio de un idioma extranjero (inglés) es esencial para mejorar los niveles de desarrollo personal, social, tecnológico y productivo y, a la vez, para propiciar más y mejores oportunidades de competitividad.” (men, 2008) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) 240 account that many people consider that the exchange of cultures with english countries increases the proficiency, as is explained by mejía (2006a): for many years in colombia, there has been little real concern about the implications of contact with other cultures. teachers and parents whose children go to bilingual schools have tended to assume that a vision of cultural enrichment will result effortlessly from the contact with other languages and cultures.(p. 6) moreover, the obvious consequences for these practices and ideas are that labor development and the access to labor opportunities are related to opportunities of cultural contact with people who speak a second language. in this sense , proficiency is measured not by certification of one’s knowledge of the second language but by closer contact and interaction with other cultures. education and production modes education has been established as a process that involves transmitting cultures, knowledge, manners and values. however, this is sometimes seen as a process with no productive or reproductive goals which is not related with the economic objectives of the society. on the one hand, it is not uncommon to think of the relationship between education, economy, production, labor, and employment, or on the other hand, as if there were not other types of production or economy than capitalism, or other jobs besides salaried employment. this happens for various reasons ranging from simple negligence to the consideration that anything that is not under the sunshine of capital gain deserves consideration, through the idea that other productive activities have little or nothing to do with education. so, if we think of the most outstanding works about the much hyped connection we cannot even remember an allusion to non-capitalist sectors of the economy and the job. (enguita, 1987, p.45)9 9 translated from: “es ya habitual pensar la relación entre la educación, de un lado, y la economía, la producción, el trabajo o el empleo, de otro, como si no existieran otra producción ni otra economía que la capitalista ni otros trabajos y empleos que los asalariados. esto ocurre por razones diversas que van desde la mera negligencia hasta la consideración de que nada que no esté bajo el sol del capital merece ser examinado, pasando por la idea de que las otras actividades productivas tienen poco o nada que ver con la educación. así, si pensamos en los trabajos más destacados sobre la tan traída y llevada conexión difícilmente lograremos recordar siquiera una alusión a los sectores no capitalistas de la economía y el trabajo.” (enguita, 1987, p. 45) reflections on the process of bilingual education joya & cerón no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) 241 from enguita’s (1987) point of view, the relation among education and economy is bidirectional because the role of the school can be liberating or creator in relation to economy. however can be reproductive of its necessities by contributing to perpetuate its structure. therefore it is necessary to ask for a dynamic and equitable relation among both social spheres (economy and education): companies and universities must relate to each other for their own development, and at the same time retain their autonomy. it is of strategic interest of both actors to make connections. the question that arises is: how to establish relationships that respond to mutual expectations?(misas, 2004, p.31)10 the tendency of the education system in latin america throughout history has been aimed to be a reproductive system of capitalist production. seeing it in this way enguita (1987) notes that the potential workforce learns organizational routines in the educational system that discourages creativity and favors the search for salaried jobs, to the detriment of entrepreneurship. the acquisition of a second language is a complementary qualification that may improve the salaried assignment and the labor conditions of the future employee and not the creative or alternative proposal for new opportunities of economic development. conclusion as we mentioned and according to enguita (1987), bilingualism in latin america in the 20th century was limited to english and spanish exclusively, leaving behind other languages that help to the development of the hemisphere such as portuguese and others which are related with the origins and roots of the population .as a result the bilingual processes are being consider exclusive but not inclusive. therefore, the bilingual model restricts the creativity and innovation of some social projects. in the sense, people who have achieved the improvement of their levels of qualification with the usage of a second language (english) have limitations in the participation and integration of different aspects and elements of the culture. 10 translted from:“las empresas y las universidades requieren, para su propio desarrollo, relacionarse entre sí, al mismo tiempo que conservan su autonomía. es de interés estratégico de ambos actores establecer nexos. la pregunta que surge es: ¿cómo establecer relaciones que den respuesta a las expectativas mutuas?”(misas, 2004, p.31) reflections on the process of bilingual education joya & cerón no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) 242 if the process of globalization has generated new possibilities for economic transformation based on knowledge in the consolidation of the knowledge society in which capitals and business are oriented to innovation and development, then the relationship between economic and education systems can become stronger through bilingual education. however, this education has to be understood within a process of recognition of the identities and the cultural diversity as a characteristic of the postmodern era, making the use of english a common and neutral language but not a lingua franca. this perspective opens the possibility to see english as a common point of reference to begin building multicultural and plurilingual contexts that relate to the needs of the continent, such as the use of portuguese or, french, and the claim of the aboriginal languages of latin america from an inclusive and innovative point of view, capable of integrating economic sectors related with transnational markets. references amin, s., capitalism, in the age of globalization, zed press, london, 1997. banuri, t. ans j. schor (eds.), financial openness and national autonomy, oxford university press, oxford, 1992. block, d. (2004). glabalization and language teaching. elt journal volume 8. chen, y. (2011). becoming global citizens through bilingualism: english learning in the lives of university students in china. education research international, p.9. enguita, m. f. (1987).educación y modos de producción. retrieved from: http://es.scribd.com/doc/30349553/educacio%cc%81n-ymodos-de-produccio%cc%81n fairclough, n. (2006). language and power. new york: routledge. flores, j.(2010). entorno a la política y planeación lingüísticas en el contexto latinoamericano. materials, 6. mexico d.f garrett, g. and p. lange, “internationalization, institutions , and political change”, in keohane and milner 1996, 1996. gill, s., “globalization, market civilization, and disciplinary neoliberalism”, millennium,1995. gray, j., after social democracy, routledge, london, 1996. reflections on the process of bilingual education joya & cerón no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) 243 hamel, r., ( 2003). “las politicas linguisticas en el mercosur: ¿una barrera frente a la globalización del inglés?” en language in a globalizing world. maurai, jacques & morris, michael a.(eds.). cambridge: cambridge university press, 111-142. held, d., mcgrew, a., goldblatt, d., & perraton, j. (2002). transformaciones globales. politica, economia y cultura. en d. held. mexico df: oxford university press. mejía, a.m.de (1996) educación bilingüe en colombia: consideraciones para programas bilingües en colombia. in el bilinguismo de los sordos 1 (2),1-25. mejía, a. m. (2002). en power, prestige and bilingualism: international perspectives on elite bilingual education. clevedon, uk: multilingual matters ltd. mejía, a. m. (2004). bilingual education in colombia: towards an integrated perspective. bilingual education and bilingualism. 381 397. mejía, a.-m. d. (2006a). “bilingual education in colombia:towards a recognition of languages, cultures and identities”. colombian applied linguistics journal. mejía, a.m. de, ordóñez, c. l. y fonseca, l. (2006b) estudio investigativo sobre el estado actual de la educación bilingüe (inglésespañol) en colombia.. men/universidad de los andes. mejía, a.-m. t., & fonseca, l. (noviembre de 2006c). lineamientos para políticas bilingües y multilungües nacionales en contextos educativos linguisticos mayoritarios en colombia. bogota, centro de investigación y formación en educación universidad de los andes. men. (diciembre de 2008). ministerio de educacion nacional de la republica de colombia. retrieved from: http://www.mineducacion. gov.co/1621/propertyvalue-39241.html men. (2008).desarrollar destrezas para la competitividad en colombia. retrieved from: http://www.mineducacion.gov.co/1621/ article-183961.html men. (n.d.). colombia aprende. inglés como lengua extranjera: estrategia para la competitividad. retrieved from: http://www. colombiaaprende.edu.co/html/productos/1685/w3-article-312132. html reflections on the process of bilingual education joya & cerón no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) 244 men. (s.f.). ministerio de educacion nacional de la republica de colombia. retrieved on 17 de octubre de 2012, from: http://www. mineducacion.gov.co/1621/article-97495.html misas. g. a. (2004). la educación superior en colombia, análisis y estrategias para su desarrollo. bogotá: universidad nacional de colombia. safford, f. (1989). el ideal de lo practico. bogotá: el áncora editores. unesco (2003). education today. the newsletter of unesco’s education sector.n°6, july-september. unicef. los pueblos indigenas en ámerica latina. tomado de: http:// www.unicef.org/lac/pueblos_indigenas.pdf authors *magdalena joya téllez is a research assistant of the innobed group and 10th semester student of bilingual education at única – institución universitaria colombo americana. *alejandra cerón rincón is the research director of única – institución universitaria colombo americana. sociologist of universidad nacional de colombia, master in organizational management of uqac – canadá, (c)ph.d policy studies and international relations of iepri-universidad nacional de colombia. reflections on the process of bilingual education no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) no. 7 (nov. 2013) gist2014finalfinal.indd 171 art as a medium for bilingualism and biculturalism: suggestions from the research literature1 el arte como medio para facilitar el bilingüismo y biculturalismo: sugerencias desde una revisión de la literatura mayra c. daniel and mary huizenga-mccoy2* northern illinois university, aurora school district 31, usa abstract this review of the literature critically explores the avenues to learning that visual art offers teachers and especially those with second language learners in their classrooms. the article is divided into seven sections in which the authors present research findings supporting the premise that learners’ cognitive processes are facilitated by images. research cited strongly suggests visual art in instructional design helps students learn about world cultures, is an effective pre-writing activity, facilitates second language acquisition, and promotes biliteracy. key words: cultures, second language acquisition, bilingual learners, multi-modal instruction. resumen esta revisión de la literatura explora críticamente los caminos al aprendizaje que el arte visual provee a los maestros, especialmente a los que tienen estudiantes que están aprendiendo un segundo idioma en sus aulas. el artículo está dividido en siete secciones, en las cuales el autor presenta resultados de investigaciones previas que apoyan la premisa de que las imágenes visuales facilitan los procesos cognitivos de los estudiantes. las investigaciones citadas li et ra tu re r ev ie w received: november 30, 2013 / accepted: april 1, 2013 e-mail: mayra.daniel@gmail.com; huizenga.mary@gmail.com gist education and learning research journal. issn 1692-5777. no. 8, (january june) 2014. pp. 171-188. la lingüística a nivel universitario no. 8 (january june 2014) no. 8 (january june 2014) 172 indican claramente que a los estudiantes les beneficia dibujar e involucrarse en actividades visuales antes de redactar, lo cual facilita la adquisición de un segundo idioma y promueve la alfabetización en la primera y segunda lengua. palabras clave: culturas, adquisición de un segundo idioma, estudiantes bilingües, instrucción multi-modal. resumo esta revisão da literatura explora criticamente os caminhos à aprendizagem que a arte visual provê aos professores, especialmente aos que têm estudantes que estão aprendendo um segundo idioma nas suas aulas. o artigo está dividido em sete seções, nas quais o autor apresenta resultados de pesquisas prévias que apoiam a premissa de que as imagens visuais facilitam os processos cognitivos dos estudantes. as pesquisas citadas indicam claramente que aos estudantes lhes beneficia desenhar e envolver-se em atividades visuais antes de redigir, o qual facilita a aquisição de um segundo idioma e promove a alfabetização na primeira e segunda língua. palavras chave: culturas, aquisição de um segundo idioma, estudantes bilíngues, instrução multi-modal. introduction learners today are growing up in worlds replete with visual culture. the images presented in advertising are no longer the gist of the visuals that surround us. in the current technological age, interactive visual experiences with i-pad applications and the electronic exchange of photos are commonplace activities even for young children. digital literacies and the visual art within them contribute exciting modes of communication in and out of schools. students create and share meanings through images, colors, videos, sounds and words. art education in elementary schools in the united states focuses on the study of artists, art media techniques, visual culture, and conceptual exchange through visual media. exposure to art from cultures around the world can help a student remember something tangible about a country as well as navigate through today’s highly visual culture. it can provide a cognitive introduction to complex content and reinforce ideas that are difficult to express in words. second language learners benefit from the increased avenues that art provides to understanding. through art, learners have access to the description of a place or a person or even an idea with little or no words being necessary. infusing art as medium for bilingualism daniel & huizenga no. 8 (january june 2014) no. 8 (january june 2014) 173 the visual arts into elementary school curricula offers a safe place for second language learners to express, formulate ideas, and become interested in a topic without depending as heavily on their language level (goldberg, 2012). moreover, studying and creating art can be a gateway to observe history, traditions, and schema in world cultures, as well as promote authentic learning of a second language. raising the bar for language learning using visual stimuli students need instruction in school that will prepare them for the multilingual and multicultural society in which they reside. visual images offer learners an effective path to making meaning (national art education association, 2009; unsworth, 2006; zeigler & johns, 2005). a multi-modal multiliteracies approach that joins teachers of different disciplines to design instruction collaboratively supports the challenge of improving 21st century literacy instruction (castek, leu, coiro, gort, henry & lima, 2007; cazden, cope, fairclough & gee, 1996; herrera, perez & escamilla, 2010; kalantzis, cope & harvey, 2003). learners in the process of acquiring a second language benefit from processing language using all modalities as well as their unique intelligences (gardner, 2010). the reinforcement and exposure that occurs when students have numerous opportunities to use new language increases when their world provides them links between what they hear, read, see, and write. this literature review considers how exposure to the visual arts in the elementary grades can enrich students’ learning about the world and help them acquire academic language in bilingual classrooms (the new york state education association, 2010; carger, 2004). language learners encounter world cultures through art education research suggests that visual examples enhance the understanding of content, culture, and ideas (jarvis, 2011; siegel & panofsky, 2009). visual representations also help students connect to a topic through all modalities as they use their second language in a meaning-making manner. one way to encounter another culture is to observe and discuss the artwork from that culture and a student’s own culture. this opportunity can create a personal connection to another part of the world for a student while helping the learner explore his or her own culture (turkcan & yasar, 2011). since learning is an individual human condition, it is most important to tap into a student’s funds of knowledge (gonzález, moll & amanti, 2005) to examine who they are as a person as a basis for learning. art as medium for bilingualism daniel & huizenga no. 8 (january june 2014) no. 8 (january june 2014) 174 culture and language acquisition are complementary parts for learning and should be considered simultaneously by teachers when preparing lessons (tesol, 2010). in order to accomplish this, knowledge about the students’ culture and language background needs to be considered, as well as second language teaching and learning strategies in regards to culture and language (heath & wolf, 2005). the teacher’s ability to respect individuality and provide a safe place for cultural differences is necessary for students to open up to the idea of learning in the classroom (de jong & harper, 2005). for example, a student may not know his or her own cultural history or traditions. a student may also not recognize artwork from his or her own geographical area or country of origin. teachers can tap into students’ visual culture to help the students discover their identity (cummins, 2011). one of the goals of learning through visual art is to help students explore and validate their culture by observing and making artwork (jarvis, 2011). students’ responses to visual art learners’ cognitive processes are facilitated by images (johnsteiner, 1995; rufo, 2011). visuals capture students because they add another dimension to the inputs they are receiving (dunn & finley, 2011). a student who has not mastered a second language often struggles to find the words to express ideas in the target language (de jong & harper, 2005). visual art fills a need for this student because expression does not have to be linked to printed words to effectively convey the learner’s thinking. rose (2012) describes a project where students ask family members for an heirloom that has historical significance in the family. the students then make visual expressions of artwork based on the heirloom from their own family’s story. this type of research and expression based on one’s own family can create a real connection to the idea of history and tradition through visual context (olshansky, 2009). in a similar way, castro’s research (2009) shows that artists who use digital social media to display their artwork can easily interact with other artists, learning about their culture through critique and criticism discussions. teaching students about sharing their identity and culture through art can help them to value themselves as individuals. castro suggests that the type of self-reflection that happens during a creative project may help students comprehend the idea of identity as a reflection of a person’s own culture, and therefore helps them relate to other cultures. art as medium for bilingualism daniel & huizenga no. 8 (january june 2014) no. 8 (january june 2014) 175 an art experience in elementary school can trigger an emotional connection as students realize that the people who lived in the past had ideas, experiences and skills, which they expressed through art. the carver community center in evansville, indiana leads student projects in the elementary grades as a means to teach african-american students about african culture through traditions and folk art (stiler & allen, 2006). through the center’s art projects, students became more connected with their history, which strengthened their sense of identity and culture. in another study by leong (2005), students explored the traditions of the nanyin people of china, including musical instruments, clothing, food, and other ways of living associated with this group. the class looked at examples of percussion instruments and traditional clothing while listening to the music and looking at art from the nanyin culture. the artifacts opened the door for discussions among students about the origin of the instruments, what they were called, and how to play them. unknowingly, the students were practicing vocabulary skills for questioning while discussing art content and using the academic vocabulary in the lesson. opportunities to learn about another culture while making comparisons and contrasts with one’s own can spark student interest in the learning. visual art serves as a vehicle that helps students make personal connections and create lasting impressions of a new culture and worldview. christopoulou (2010) used telenovelas, soap operas in spanish to introduce a place and culture. watching a clip from a television show instantly engages today’s generation of students because they are used to responding to visual stimuli. after a visual introduction of a new country and an experience creating art from that culture, there is a greater chance for memory retention about the culture (christopoulou, 2010). movies or videos can also be used to help students explore their perceptions and ideas about a culture. a study by turkan and yasar (2011) investigated third grade students’ responses to visual cultural studies. the researchers concluded that inclusion of video in the visual arts course increased students’ focus on the learning, and also helped them make connections and formulate questions. the work demonstrated that visual stimuli enriches a student’s way of thinking and can provide another perspective on the world. visual references can be a powerful starting point for discussions with students of key terms like setting, clothing, mannerisms, and cultural nuances compared to their own daily life. a conversation after watching a video about another cultural group can encourage critical thinking and questioning about other ways of being. art as medium for bilingualism daniel & huizenga no. 8 (january june 2014) no. 8 (january june 2014) 176 teachers can provide opportunities for introspection that allows students to discover truths about history and tradition from their participation in a cultural project. rufo (2011) describes a hands-on project with his elementary students where he allowed them to build a fort shelter in groups with little instruction or direction. the amount of interest and engagement during that experience was enough to set the stage for teaching about any type of habitat or artistic architecture that he had planned because the students were tuned in and interested. likewise, an open-ended experience inviting students to bring in food from their own or another culture will persuade self-directed discovery of artistic culinary culture through the contribution of researching and making food to share (smolen, & oswald, 2011). when a teacher encourages creativity in learning through visual examples and memorable experiences, students become active participants who guide their own learning about cultures. visual art promotes language acquisition when it comes to learning a second language, even the most motivated student experiences frustration (de jong & harper, 2005; stiller & allen, 2006). malloy, marinak & gambrell (2010) suggest that students make a choice about whether to participate during a class activity depending on whether they feel the activity merits the effort. a student experiencing frustration may be quick to give up if the task is confusing or if they do not understand the goals. it may be a challenge to motivate a frustrated student to participate in reading and writing projects without tapping into the human desire to be interested and engaged (cowan & albers, 2006). visually creative tasks can provide activities that adjust themselves naturally to students’ language level so that a classroom of students with varied levels can all access the curriculum and express knowledge or ideas without dependence on language. teachers can use such activities to either scaffold language instruction or to facilitate content learning, especially if enhanced understanding results in greater intrinsic motivation. if learning the language is a collaborative endeavor rather than an arduous task, the students will be more motivated, interested, and ultimately engaged (bakhtin, 1986; vygotsky, 1978). gardner (2010) suggests that motivation is responsible for achievement in a second language and a positive attitude toward the learning situation helps the student. it seems reasonable to believe that the best way to motivate a student is to make the assigned task a challenging and enjoyable experience. visual art can provide the extra bit of comprehension that lowers the affective filter (krashen, 1981) art as medium for bilingualism daniel & huizenga no. 8 (january june 2014) no. 8 (january june 2014) 177 and keeps the student from being overly conscious about his or her struggles with the second language. the act of creating visual artwork can open the mind and assist students to use their intelligences creatively in mundane classroom tasks (gardner, 2010). students offered opportunities to use their imagination through art find the process serves as a gateway that encourages them to focus on their writing skills (daniel, 2007; olshansky, 1994). in a study of an elementary classroom, students were given the option to read books, draw ideas, or shape characters from clay, before writing their own story (dunn & finley, 2010). the act of drawing or sculpting ideas for the story can be described as “compact and efficient storage units in the pre-writing phase and they can be linked to text later in the process” (dunn & finley, 2010, p. 34). the concept of starting the writing process with an art project helps the students to invent characters that they can see and touch and use to develop a story. it is a way of organizing that can be less frustrating for the students than writing and erasing and starting again. furthermore, allowing students to draw out a whole story page by page with only captions for the characters to speak can be a way to organize chronological events and identify cause and effect before adding the complexity of writing. ultimately, the opportunity to create artwork during class can aid in the writing process and help students practice their writing using a broader range of words (cowan & albers, 2006; efland, 2002; gnezda, 2009). during their study, dunn & finley (2010) asked students to illustrate a scene from a story they had written. the illustrations helped learners bring more depth and detail into his story and express their ideas. adding artwork to a writing sample has proven to enhance a student’s creative capabilities and provide opportunities to practice concepts such as adjectives and action verbs (gnezda, 2009). daniel (2007) linked the reading and writing processes to art as a way of increasing students’ understanding of text and improving the quality of the writing the students were given colorful visual prompts in the form of a bookmark to guide them during the steps of the reading and writing processes and they were asked to draw before writing as an idea generation measure. results documented an increase in the mean sentence length of students’ writing. cowan and albers (2006) found the visual arts promoted student thinking across sign systems. they discussed that culturally appropriate semiotic systems facilitate student writing. for a second language learner who is not yet verbal in the second language, the multimodal addition of a drawing can be a fair way to assess prior knowledge about a topic. for example, a teacher could write a simple test with few words and organized spaces for the art as medium for bilingualism daniel & huizenga no. 8 (january june 2014) no. 8 (january june 2014) 178 student to draw a topic such as the water cycle. the student might be asked to draw the steps with as much detail as they have previously learned so that the teacher can assess content knowledge apart from language. the student will appreciate the accommodation to show his or her knowledge (de jong & harper, 2005). offering colored pencils or crayons to use while drawing can provide students a tool to show their individuality. the students’ demonstration of knowledge through visual representation offers them the opportunity to advance to new topics instead of being stagnant with topics they have already mastered (carger, 2004). occasionally, a teacher finds that students are reluctant to use visual art to support their language acquisition because lack of experience drawing may intimidate them as much as writing. in this instance, it is important to set students up for success as much as possible by modeling and providing choices for mediums of creativity. modeling is an important strategy to use with second language learners to help them feel comfortable with art projects and show them realistic expectations. a teacher could show examples of his or her own illustrated story as well as student examples from successful projects. teachers could also read a book to introduce a lesson or project as a visually interesting way to engage students. giving students a choice and modeling a visual example will encourage the strategy of linking art and writing to produce higher level processing (howatt & widdowson, 2004). in a study on motivation to read and write in the elementary grades by malloy, marinak and gambrell (2010), the idea of giving students a choice in techniques and expression was found to be an effective incentive for student participation. when students are allowed to choose a book, topic, or medium for creating illustrations, they become more excited about the overall project. brisk and harrington (2007) suggest letting students take photos and use them for digital storytelling if students are reluctant to draw. multi-modal instruction that uses available modes beyond written words is critical to support language and literacy development (snow & brinton, 1988; nunan, 1999) and to also address students’ multiple intelligences (gardner, 2010). another option might be to have the students read a children’s book and use ideas from the pictures to add adjectives and actions to their story. visual art and multi-modal instruction guzetti (2012) discusses three points that highlight the interdisciplinary nature of the visual arts. first, they contribute to “… research in perception, cognition, learning, spatial intelligence, and art as medium for bilingualism daniel & huizenga no. 8 (january june 2014) no. 8 (january june 2014) 179 human development” (p. 666). secondly, they facilitate the examination of representations that give concreteness to “…cultural norms and power relations” (p. 666). lastly, through the visual arts educators can design valuable “…educational applications and practical classroom applications” (p. 666). research in neuroscience and cognitive science has shown that arts integration has an effect on long-term retention of content (rinne, gregory, yarmolinskaya, & hardiman, 2011). providing art examples and creating artwork during content area instruction such as social studies or science can boost student motivation and trigger the longterm memory so that students retain the text information better that they are studying. a study by gellejiv, van der meij, de jong and pieters (2010) regarding multi-modal versus uni-modal instruction describes an instance of the effects on pictures and memory retention during a teaching situation. during this study, forty-four students were given either a manual with text and visual examples (multi-modal instruction) or a manual with text only (uni-modal instruction) to learn a complex computer software program. the purpose of the study was to determine the effect visual examples have on successful learning of new content. results suggest greater retention of content by the students who learned the manual with the multi-modal approach than the students learning with the uni-modal approach. the data indicate a powerful link between visual examples accompanying text and memory retention in a learning situation. likewise, a study by kress, charalampos, jewitt and ogborn (2001) suggests that during science lessons, teachers should purposefully pair together different learning modalities to better address the diverse needs of students’ learning styles. this is particularly important for learners who arrive at school with linguistically and culturally influenced learning styles. for example, in a science textbook, it is imperative to have pictures accompany text to show ideas such as species of animals or the water cycle. a picture of a historical person described in the text can offer a powerful tool to enhance memory retention as students connect new ideas with a real person. the study also shows that textual language should be paired with visual gestures and actions in order to fully represent a new term in a learning environment. the teacher can offer a visual display by demonstrating with students observing or students could become active participants. the act of students planting, dissecting, and building is a way to offer a real life visual when new information is being presented. students are likely to retain content when participating in a visual display instead of only reading about the topic. the gellejiv et al. (2010) study and the kress et al. (2001) art as medium for bilingualism daniel & huizenga no. 8 (january june 2014) no. 8 (january june 2014) 180 study demonstrate the many ways that visual aids can support textual comprehension. visual examples of organized text can help a student to feel comfortable with the goal of learning new vocabulary. for example, the sheltered instruction observation protocol (siop) model encourages teachers to post content and language objectives on the board for students to reference what they are intended to learn during the lesson (echevarria, vogt & short, 2008). furthermore, teachers are encouraged to have the students say the objectives aloud and repeat the new vocabulary words as an introduction to the lesson. the act of saying a new vocabulary aloud can help the learner process the way the word sounds in context and link it to a tangible reference. students also benefit from pictures that accompany language objectives as many of the new words they encounter are often unfamiliar. the use of visual art in the classroom builds on learners’ emergent literacy. goldberg (2012) recommends the use of picto-spelling in elementary school to teach vocabulary. this approach asks learners to create a drawing that illustrates the picture or the meaning of a word. in picto-spelling the students can also use the letters that make up the word as part of the picture. this approach builds on students’ natural use of language. visual strategies, such as lists, charts, and graphic organizers can direct students to proper sentence structure as they develop their writing skills. as students are acquiring two languages simultaneously in elementary school, they are also learning how to put sentences together in ways that make sense. though their sentences naturally fill out and become more complex as they learn and practice new terms, certain ideas such as cause and effect can be a complex sentence structure to navigate for students still acquiring vital words. a chart can help with organizing words into cause and effect to help the students use them correctly in a sentence. one type of visual cue that often aids in memory retention while learning english is a repetitive routine list created by the teacher for the students to use throughout the day, and/or a graphic organizer. teachers can use predictable daily routines and consistent classroom management strategies in the form of schedules, diagrams, and charts to help students infer a procedure (goldenberg, 2008). the visual cues, when frequently referred to by the teacher, will help students to observe the plan for the day and organize their thoughts before starting the lesson. teachers can adopt the routine of writing the schedule of events for the day in a bullet point list. these lists give a visual reference of the plan for the day organized into a predictable and consistent list. the art as medium for bilingualism daniel & huizenga no. 8 (january june 2014) no. 8 (january june 2014) 181 students will recognize the lists each day and see familiar words. this will help them to try to decipher the words on their own and make sense of new words. the consistent visual display in the classroom encourages self-guided study and provides opportunities to read independently in a non-threatening way. likewise, graphic organizers can bring a familiar visual cue for students to infer about words and put them in a category before learning their meaning (daniel, 2008). however, a busy and overcrowded graphic organizer can delay the learning process. some graphic organizers are confusing and the directions need to be read to the student or explained to be certain the student understands what to do. a graphic organizer should be simple and clear so that all students can understand the relationship among concepts (goldenberg, 2008). an example of a successful organizer might be one that contains a map or photograph above a chart, which connect the students with the new vocabulary as well as set up sentence structure (gottlieb, 2006). a learner will connect new words to his or her funds of knowledge when visual examples are available that help make the connection. visual representations such as hand gestures may even be necessary to help language learners retain the content knowledge of a new academic term. repetition and consistency of visual aids increase the chance for retention of new vocabulary. collaborative frameworks at school linguistically and culturally diverse students are more engaged at school when classroom instruction focuses on meaningful issues that affect their communities and their particular circumstances (gay, 2010; howard, 2010; moll, amanti, neff, & gonzalez, 1992). thomas and collier (2002) concluded that second language learners’ academic achievement increases when teachers “provide a socio-culturally supportive school environment … that allows natural language, academic, and cognitive development to flourish” (p. 324). teachers can use multimedia resources to provide students multiple means for representation and expression of ideas. learners in the process of developing a second language have ideas to share long before they are able to expand these into words and sentences using the highly contextualized academic language of mathematics, science, or social studies. for these learners having avenues to express thoughts through visual literacy is the opportunity to gain full access to the academic program and demonstrate mastery. teachers can join forces with colleagues to provide students interdisciplinary avenues that promote 21st century skills (partnership for 21st century skills, 2011). art as medium for bilingualism daniel & huizenga no. 8 (january june 2014) no. 8 (january june 2014) 182 baker and prys jones (1998) highlight that english language learners in the u.s. who continue to develop proficiency in the home language can outscore native english speakers on tests of academic achievement. interdisciplinary approaches to art and literacy instruction can incorporate technology in projects that showcase the multilingual and multicultural identities of students for parents, other school personnel, and communities. in these non-coercive educational settings, students see themselves reflected in the languages they hear at school and in curricular materials (cummins, 2001). to support multilingual learners’ academic, linguistic, and cognitive development, teachers replace coercive power structures with learning environments that affirm students’ identities and design instruction that incorporates students’ cultural capital (lareau & horvat, 1999). when teachers believe that all students bring knowledge to school, regardless of their parents’ socioecomic level or education, they make certain second language learners are able to demonstrate what they know in nontraditional ways. it is important to remember that cultural and social capital encompasses far more than economic position (collins & blot, 2003). providing avenues to students to show what they know through visual art applauds students’ funds of knowledge. multi-modal pedagogy is an avenue to assure that literacy frameworks foster multilingualism from an additive and not a deficit stance (skuttnab-kangas & dunbar, 2010). with this methodology, students are helped to become proficient writers and artists who appreciate and share their knowledge, talent and skills as they co-create multilingual, multi-media projects (jin & erben, 2007). as well, visual art helps students see and feel the links across cultural boundaries and identities that are neither confined by nor delimited by ethnic origin, language, religion, or socioecomic status. educators of the future want to create opportunities that convey to learners that there are cognitive advantages to being bilingual (bialystok, 2001). in multilingual classrooms the arts offer learners a common language for communication (goldberg, 2012). visual art gives students the key to make choices. when students guide their own learning they have opportunities for oral discussions that provide scaffolds for cross-linguistic transfer (beeman & urow, 2012). a multiliteracies perspective transforms the schoolhouse into an environment that embraces questioning and learning through critical pedagogy. one application of the multiliteracies framework focuses on developing multilingual identity texts (cummins & early, 2011). identity texts can vary in their format. preschool teachers can solicit the participation of their students’ families to develop dual language concept art as medium for bilingualism daniel & huizenga no. 8 (january june 2014) no. 8 (january june 2014) 183 books about shapes, colors, animals, numbers, and many other topics. young learners who share a home language can collaborate to write a story in both of their languages about a cultural practice that reflects their home culture or community. they can record podcasts of their books and post these on the school website. all students, regardless of their age, can read their books to their siblings and guardians. identity texts are an option for learners of all ages. conclusion this review of the literature supports the premise that educators who design culturally responsive instruction will use art as a medium to promote not only bilingualism, but plurilingualism and pluriculturalism. most definitely, there is little doubt that second language learners often speak more than one language at home and certainly navigate various cultural environments in their daily life. we conclude that visual art helps second language learners through the process of language acquisition. indeed, visual art provides an effective multi-modal vehicle for students and their teachers to observe and investigate the histories and traditions of all the culture groups represented by the students in a school. visual art can be a motivating tool to get students interested in a topic or to lead them to brainstorm before undertaking a writing assignment. art can certainly “…drive rather than simply adorn the writing process” (olshansky, 2008, p. xiii). when increasing the academic success of students is the goal, infusing multi-modal education into every subject area and lesson plans certainly appears to be a pragmatic way to make learning enrolling, manageable, accessible, and appropriate for today’s learners. references baker, c & prys jones, s. 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(2005). visualization: using mental images to strengthen comprehension. dubuque, iowa: kendall-hunt. authors *mayra c. daniel is an associate professor in the department of literacy education and the bilingual/esl coordinator at northern illinois university in de kalb, il, united states. her work focuses on preparing future and practicing teachers to plan culturally responsive instruction for linguistically and culturally diverse students. she is active in the tesol organization and serves as the current chair of the tesol inter section leadership council. *mary huizenga-mccoy is an elementary art teacher at aurora school district 131 in aurora, illinois. eighty five per cent of her district’s students are of hispanic descent. she holds a m.s. in literacy education with a focus on bilingual/english as a second language from northern illinois university. art as medium for bilingualism no. 8 (january june 2014) no. 8 (january june 2014) gist education and learning research journal. issn 1692-5777. no. 20 (january june, 2020). pp. 135-153. bringing interactional identities into the study of classroom interaction in elt education1 trayendo identidades interactivas al estudio de la interacción en el aula en la educación de elt edgar lucero-babativa2* 1 received: july 17th 2019/ accepted: november 18th 2019 2 eylucerob@correo.udistrital.edu.co universidad distrital francisco josé de caldas, colombia 136 no. 20 interactional identities into classroom interaction lucero-babativa abstract this paper of a literature review presents the construct of interactional identities as part of the study of classroom interaction in english language teaching education. the paper defines interactional identities in the field of english language teaching. by listing studies on the matter, the relationship of this construct with classroom interaction is presented from global and local perspectives. three reasons for studying interactional identities in the elt field are discussed in the final part of the paper whose conclusions invite to incorporate this construct into the study of what teachers are and do for language learning and use in classroom interaction in english language teaching education. key words: interactional identities; classroom interaction; english language teaching; language teaching education; language research. resumen este artículo de revisión teórica presenta el concepto de las identidades interaccionales como parte del estudio sobre la interacción del salón de clase en la educación de la enseñanza del inglés. el escrito define las identidades interaccionales en el campo de la enseñanza del inglés. con una lista de estudios en la materia, la relación de este concepto con la interacción del salón de clase se presenta desde las perspectivas global y local. tres razones para estudiar las identidades interaccionales en el campo de la enseñanza del inglés se discuten al final del escrito, cuyas conclusiones invitan a incorporar este concepto en el estudio de lo que los profesores son y hacen para el aprendizaje y uso del inglés en la interacción del salón de clase. palabras clave: identidades interaccionales; interacción del salón de clase; enseñanza del inglés; educación de la enseñanza del lenguaje; investigación del lenguaje. resumo este artigo de revisão teórica apresenta o conceito das identidades interacionais como parte do estudo sobre a interação da sala de aula na educação do ensino de inglês. o escrito define as identidades interacionais na área do ensino de inglês. com uma lista de estudos na matéria, a relação deste conceito com a interação da sala de aula se apresenta desde as perspectivas global e local. três razões para estudar as identidades interacionais na área do ensino de inglês se discutem no final do escrito, cujas conclusões convidam a incorporar este conceito no estudo do que os professores são e fazem para a aprendizagem e uso do inglês na interação da sala de aula. palavras chave: identidades interacionais; interação da sala de aula; ensino do inglês; educação do ensino da linguagem; pesquisa da linguagem. 137 no. 20 interactional identities into classroom interaction lucero-babativa introduction this paper introduces the construct of interactional identities as part of the study of classroom interaction in the context of english language teaching (elt) education3. in broader terms, interactional identities in elt refer to those multiple interactional roles that teachers and students may take on and enact in distinctive manners in close relation to the way interaction occurs in classroom. studying this issue becomes relevant in the inquiries about how classroom interaction happens in elt education, the scenario where its participants are expected to apply and learn how to be interactants4 in this language, both for the classroom (teaching, learning, or assessing it) and for everyday talk (using it communicatively and socially). this theoretical review is composed of three parts. the first presents the construct of interactional identities in close relationship with elt education. the second part addresses a literature review on the study of interactional identities within classroom interaction in elt education: a global and local review is presented. the third part explains the reasons to incorporate interactional identities into the study of classroom interaction in this context. in line with heritage (2005), seedhouse (2004), and walsh (2011, 2013), the study of classroom interaction should have origin in the particularities of the context of interaction, of which the conversational situation, its participants, content, setting, and organization are part. this article then presents its participants’ interactional identities in elt education from the interactional organization of talk in this context. based on this, the purpose of this article is not to present a review of the construction of teachers’ identities in interaction (for the elaboration of other levels of teacher identities see for example bucholtz & hall, 2005; clarke, 2008; tracy & robles, 2013; varghese et al., 2005; barkhuizen, 2017) but to present a review of the way teachers’ multiple interactional roles have been studied in the context of elt education. although the construction of other levels of teacher identity (as gender, ethnic, professional, national, or self) can also take place in classroom interaction, the focus of this paper is predominantly on presenting a review of interactional identities as part of the study of classroom interaction in elt education. 3 in colombia, elt education refer to the undergraduate and professional development programs that prepare people to be teachers of english as a foreign language (gonzálezmoncada, 2007; 2010). 4 this concept of interactant refers to an individual who interacts in conversational exchanges (antaki & widdicombe, 1998, p. 2; bucholtz & hall, 2005, p. 587; cashman, 2005, p. 303; hua, seedhouse, wei, & cook, 2007, p. 11; tracy & robles, 2013, p. 42). being an interactant implies being competent to interact with the others in a determined context. 138 no. 20 by presenting this theoretical review of interactional identities in the mentioned field, the intention is not either to show a categorization of these type of interactional roles (as possibly shown by brown, 2007; johnson, 1995; richards & rodgers, 2014; ur, 1996, watkins, 2005; wright, 1991), but to bring the construct of interactional identities to understand what teachers are and do as interactants into the study of classroom interaction in the elt field. the construct of interactional identities in classroom interaction in social approaches of interaction, interactional identities refer to those specific interactional roles that people assume in a communicative context in regard to other specific people and the manner in which the interaction occurs (holt-reynolds, 2000; sharplin, 2011; tracy & robles, 2013; zimmerman, 1998). this type of identities are seen either from the individual’s sense of self as an interactant (antaki & widdicombe, 1998; bucholtz & hall, 2005; hall, johnson, juzwik, wortham, & mosley, 2010; johnstone, 1996; morgan, 2004; tracy & robles, 2013) or from the roles that individuals are supposed to take in different types of interactions such as telephone conversations, doctor’s appointments, family conversations, and trial courts (antaki & widdicombe, 1998; holt-reynolds, 2000; zimmerman, 1998). in the elt field, interactional identities are related to the interactional roles that teachers and students assume in classroom interaction according to pedagogical or instructional purposes, or mediated through socio-cultural traditions and dominant discourses about what language teachers and students should do within classroom interaction (see further elaboration on this below). this discourse of interactional roles with pedagogical purposes and from socio-cultural traditions has helped configure elt education to a great extent. according to benwell and stokoe (2002), clarke (2008), rymes (2009), and walsh (2011), english language teachers may have subconsciously adopted those established (interactional) roles in the social context of classroom interaction. classroom interaction is the set of communicative events that teachers and students co-construct to promote the learning and use of languages and contents, conversation engagement, and knowledge (ellis, 1994; johnson, 1995; kurhila, 2006; lucero & rouse, 2017; rymes 2009; walsh, 2011). in the exchanges for this promotion, classroom interaction is composed of varied interaction patterns, types of turns, social events, and membership categorizations (cazden, 2001; sacks, 1992; schegloff, 1988; 2007; searle, kiefer, & bierwish, 1980; sinclair & coulthard, 1975). pursuant to walsh (2011, p. 2), everything that occurs in the classroom requires the use of language. interactional identities into classroom interaction lucero-babativa 139 no. 20 it is through the use of language in interaction that people gain access to all related knowledge and alternatively construct processes of identification of themselves and the others (long 1996; walsh, 2011). the relationship between interactional identities and elt education english language classrooms are social contexts; all its participants jointly bring and construct discourse, communication, culture, social and academic relationships, and individual characteristics as members of this setting (benwell & stokoe, 2002; breen, 2001; clarke, 2008; kumpulainen & wray, 2002, rymes, 2009; walsh, 2011). in elt education, english is the means of instruction and practicum; the occurring interaction in this context opens spaces for learning and practicing how to teach and assess english (lucero & rouse, 2017). preservice teachers are to observe and learn not only how to teach and assess english but also how to interact with other learners or speakers in this language, all of this from the activities developed in each course. it is in those practices and activities, as chappell (2014) and walsh (2013) indicate, that english language teachers and students (the future teachers) then learn to assume their roles as interactants in the language classroom. consequently, language teachers are direct participants in co-constructing this context in frequent interaction with students. while doing so, teachers constantly take on or are assigned roles in accordance with the manner in which the interaction of the classroom flows. those roles in interaction are the constituents of their interactional identities, enacted and oriented to the accomplishments of classroom interaction (benwell & stokoe, 2002; tracy & robles, 2013; zimmerman, 1998). in agreement with kumpulainen and wray (2002), since the beginning, english language teachers should manage teaching, learning, and classroom interaction by following established principles, procedures, and roles. these all usually come from language teaching methods, approaches, and curricula (chappell, 2014; graves, 2009; richards, 2001; ur, 1996). therefore, elt curriculum principles, components, and procedures largely mediate teachers’ interactional practices and roles in the classroom. the realization of all these interactional practices and roles, in unison, help construct the interactional organization of the elt classroom (seedhouse, 2004; walsh, 2013). in this organization, teachers may assume, be assigned, and enact varied multi-faceted interactional roles (clarke, 2008; heritage, 2005; rymes, 2009). hence, the merging of elt curricula, teaching practices, and the organization of classroom interaction help construct teachers’ interactional identities, too. rymes (2009) sees english teaching classroom composed of three dimensions. 1) the social context contains all the social factors, and their origins, outside the current interaction and their effects in what its interactional identities into classroom interaction lucero-babativa 140 no. 20 participants say. 2) the interactional context is organized by the patterns of talk and the appropriacy of language-use choices. 3) the individual agency refers to the influence of patterns and language use in the construction of teachers and students’ identities. apart from pedagogical and instructional purposes, teaching practices have foundation on teachers’ teaching experiences (clarke & pittaway, 2014; goodyear, 1991; richards, 2011). these experiences encompass different types of knowledge such as teaching knowledge, disciplinary and pedagogical content knowledge, classroom knowledge, and others as experiential, context, empirical and critical knowledge (see castañeda-londoño, 2019, for a complete elaboration of these knowledges in the colombian elt field). each type of knowledge operates through explicit representations in teaching practices, such as communicating the subject matter, facilitating learning, and doing teaching in context. these representations require the use of language in interaction. thus, it is within the use of language in interaction that teachers share these knowledges, and by doing so, they also enact different interactional roles. all these forms of the realizations of teachers’ interactional identities occur in the happenstance of context-situated elt classroom interaction. gee (1996), bucholtz and hall (2005), raymond and heritage (2006), and barkhuizen (2017), suggest that (language) teacher identities should be seen constituted and negotiated through language and discourse in (social) contexts. consequently, being the classroom a social context in nature (benwell & stokoe, 2002; clarke, 2008; rymes, 2009), english language teachers’ interactional identities need to be studied in the occurring interaction of context-situated elt classrooms (hall et al., 2010; morgan, 2004). the study of the continuous realizations of teachers’ interactional roles in the ongoing coconstruction of situated classroom interaction can contribute to the understanding of the manner in which elt education actually happens in context. the study of interactional identities within classroom interaction in elt education in classroom interaction, its participants jointly bring and construct discourse, communication, social and academic relationships, knowledges, culture, and individual characteristics in different manners (benwell & stokoe, 2002; breen, 2001; clarke, 2008; kumpulainen & wray, 2002; rymes, 2009; walsh, 2011). while doing so, they take on, enact, and challenge a great variety of oscillated roles in accordance with the manners in which the interaction flows. those roles in interaction are the constituents of interactional identities (tracy & robles, 2013; zimmerman, 1998). those roles are unlikely to be static or single, they are consequently multiple, movable, over-lapping, multifaceted, context-sensitive, and never completed (see zimmerman, interactional identities into classroom interaction lucero-babativa 141 no. 20 1998; wenger, 1998; thornborrow, 1999; bucholtz & hall, 2005; appiah, 2007, tracy & robles, 2013). global perspectives. studies on interactional identities in the english language classroom around the world examine how interactional identities happen in the sequential organization of talk; this means, what roles teachers and students assume during classroom interactions (see for example duff, 2002; martinez, durán, & hikida, 2017; rampton & charalambous, 2016; rymes & anderson, 2004; thomas, 2013; vetter & schieble, 2015). these authors generally present teacher roles in interaction as learning assistants, classroom participants, counselors, fellow-conversationalist, and classroom speakers. teacher roles in interaction are also specified in english language teaching methods, approaches, or curricula (see for example brown, 2007; kumpulainen & wray, 2002; oxford et al., 1998; richards & rodgers, 2014). english language teachers can for instance have the interactional roles of facilitators (interaction encouragement), orchestrators (organization of interaction), evaluators (of conversation and use of language), conversationalist models, topic givers, and participation promoters, among others (for more roles, see benson, 2013; brown, 2007; celce-murcia & olshtain, 2000; hertz-lazarowitz, 2008; oxford et al., 1998; richards & rodgers, 2014; ur, 1996; watkins, 2005; wright, 1991). apart from english language teaching methods, approaches, or curricula, interactional identities in the elt field are also mediated through socio-cultural traditions and dominant discourses about what language teachers and students should do within classroom interaction (see an elaboration of these traditions and discourses in barkhuizen, 2017; and varghese et al., 2005). for instance, other teachers’ roles in classroom interaction under these perspectives may be as presenters, knowledge sharers, and models in developing, enriching, or even coaching students’ target language use, thinking, cultural sensitiveness, professional learning, and systems of ideas and beliefs (for more of these roles, see du, yu, & li, 2014; holt-reynolds, 2000; izadinia, 2012; o’dwyer & atli, 2015; sharplin, 2011). cohen (1985) and olshtain and kupfergerg (1998) explain that english language teachers are the main actors in the classroom. they have to find pedagogical and interactional manners of accounting for students’ language and communication needs. carbone (2012), johnson and johnson (2008), pritchard (2009), smiley and antón (2012), and yoon and kyeung-kim (2012) state that language teachers should align interaction according to the roles that teaching approaches indicate for them. interactional identities in elt education are finally presented by following interaction models and patterns. for instance, sinclair and coulthard (1975), searle, kiefer and bierwish (1980), cazden (2001), sacks (1992), and schegloff (1988; 2006; 2007) give evidence that interaction in language classrooms is organized in particular interactional identities into classroom interaction lucero-babativa 142 no. 20 patterns, types of turns, social events, and membership categorizations. in the construction of interaction in the language classroom, each participant puts together their utterances turn-by-turn, exchanges turns at speaking, signals the beginning and end of exchanges, and goes through different periods of time in their exchanges. hence, language teachers’ actions as interactants are identified into the sequence and patterns of classroom interaction. as outlined thus far, teachers’ interactional roles are generally established from ideal manners of how they should interact for the purpose of language teaching and learning. this situation has possibly exerted pressure on english language teachers to interact usually in the manner in which each role indicates. in my point of view, this perspective seems to normalize the (interactional) roles that teachers should adopt in classroom interaction. therefore, the idea that there are pre-established manners to interact in the language classroom may entail that interactional identities are likely more operative than context-situated and that language teaching and learning interactional actions are more procedural than environmental. little has been explored about how those interactional roles actually happen, operate, or are enacted in varied contexts, throughout time, and from teachers’ own understanding and practices of their interactions with students in the classroom. local perspectives. research on interactional identities in elt education from a classroom-interaction perspective has had slight interest in colombia. local studies with an interactional approach mainly concentrate on teachers’ interactional actions at different educational levels. at school level, for example, research indicates that english language teachers do and control most of classroom talk in which they explain information, give directions, and ask questions by following patterned combinations (balcárcel-zambrano, 2003; bohórquez-suárez, gómez-sará, & medina-mosquera, 2011; fajardo, 2008; gonzález-humanez & arias, 2009; herazo-rivera, 2010; herazorivera & sagre-barboza, 2016; muñoz & mora, 2006; rosado-mendinueta, 2012). at the university level, the study of the interactional practices normally point to the way students increase oral language participation and involvement in language-building activities, all by means of more language elaborations and variations in interaction (montenegro, 2012; serna-dimas & ruíz-castellanos, 2014). in this context, english language teachers then seem to practice a more managerial approach in classroom interaction although patterned interactional sequences also dominate language teaching practices (lucero, 2011, 2012, 2015; viáfara, 2011). few studies have observed english language teachers’ interaction in colombian elt undergraduate programs specifically. these studies show that teachers tend to develop classroom interaction by following instructional sequences (álvarez, 2008), drills to develop language skills (castrillón-ramírez, 2010), a variety of communication strategies (castro-garcés & lópez-olivera, 2013), and interactional arrangements interactional identities into classroom interaction lucero-babativa 143 no. 20 (lucero & rouse, 2017). lucero and scalante (2018) also found that the interactions produced in this context are probably the result of teachers’ interactional styles. findings in the cited studies reveal that colombian elt education seems to be composed of interactional sequences that teachers mainly organize while students little by little learn how to deal with them. it is under these conditions that teachers constantly enact their interactional identities as they develop classroom interaction to promote english language learning and use. in my point of view, this perspective cultivates the belief that classroom interaction may be susceptible of being scripted or pre-planned. if this is the case, scripting how to interact in the classroom may restrict and regulate the emergence of interactional dynamics or roles in it. certainly, the findings in the cited studies have contributed to start understanding teachers’ interactional roles in colombian elt classroom interaction. however, more contextual factors and knowledge should be accounted for when using them as research foundations if colombian classroom interaction analysts want to develop novel understandings about the happenstance of local elt classroom interaction and its interactants. without saying that these should not be considered, more critical stances are necessary since colombian elt academic community may end up perpetuating discourses that becloud own contextual situations, creations, knowledge, and discoveries.5 reasons for studying interactional identities in the elt field the study of english language teachers’ interactional identities in classroom interaction becomes of relevance in elt education because of three reasons. firstly, it is in this context where teachers teach, share, and experience english language knowledge and use, and where preservice teachers learn how to interact for the language classroom and the outside world (johnson, 1995; cazden, 2001; rymes, 2009; walsh, 2011, lucero, 2015). to know more about how all this happens in context, studies should also focus on both teachers and students’ realization of multiple selves as interactants in the wide variety of interactional practices and experiences in the classroom. 5 see for example the discussion that gonzález-moncada (2007, 2010), usma-wilches (2009), or castañeda-londoño (2018, 2019) raise on varied aspects of colombian policy and research about elt education. in unison, they explain how mainstream discourses in these areas may have dimmed our own knowledge and academic needs on elt. interactional identities into classroom interaction lucero-babativa 144 no. 20 as interactional identities are not only roles with pre-established characteristics and responsibilities that teachers need to carry out, as a second reason, studies should also concentrate on teachers’ interactional identities in which analyses involve what they are, do, and become as english language interactants in elt education. listening to their own understandings and reasons of seeing themselves being, doing, and becoming interactants in classroom interaction can help extend knowledge about their own perspectives of what it is to be a language teacher in context. these insights may then contribute, as a third reason, to reveal that the conceptualization of interactional roles is rather a matter of identity work (starting as being interactants) than a matter of doing pre-established actions indicated in language curricula. studying this may help understand english language teachers’ interactional identities from the contextualized interactional happenings of classrooms. in turn, it may help create awareness in english language teachers of the manners in which and the reasons why they interact in specific ways in their classes, meaning, the organization they (co-) construct of classroom interaction regarding the type of teacher-interactants they assume to be. conclusions the construct of interactional identities becomes a novel alternative for the study of what teachers are and do for language learning and use in classroom interaction in elt education. as these type of identities are related to the roles that teachers assume in classroom interaction, these should be studied in their realization within this context. keeping observing teachers’ interactional identities (or roles) under a perspective of pre-established actions and a configured organization of classroom interaction may nullify, disapprove, or annihilate situated and divergent classroom interactional practices and identities. this is also a claim to contest the manner in which elt methods, approaches, curricula, and socio-cultural traditions have been constructing english language teachers’ interactional actions; undoubtedly, a practice that perpetuates hegemonic language teaching and learning discourses. ample context-situated research on this matter is necessary. it can help elucidate how english language teachers -and studentsare, do, and become interactants in classroom interaction. as everything that these participants do in the classroom happens through language in interaction, and interaction is a socio-cultural practice, studies on the matter may also help determine how elt education happens in context, and how teachers teach the target language and students progressively learn it in the classroom. according to literature on this matter, it is through the fluidity of classroom interaction that elt occurs and its participants construct and enact multiple interactional identities. equally, it is through the construction or enactment interactional identities into classroom interaction lucero-babativa 145 no. 20 of multiple interactional identities that numerous realizations of elt education and classroom interaction can happen too. this paper of a literature review may open the door to an understanding of english language teachers, and students from the angle of classroom interaction. teachers and students are regularly constructed also from all the meaningful experiences that they live inside the english language classroom. despite the insights presented in the listed studies, doing research on their interactional roles should not only concentrate on the analysis of how teaching methodologies are put into practice or how teaching and learning outcomes are reached. in order to understand more largely what english language teachers and students are in colombia, studies should also perceive other different dimensions of classroom interaction, such as interactional roles and practices. interactional identities into classroom interaction lucero-babativa 146 no. 20 references álvarez, j. a. 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(2013). dilemmatic conversations: some challenges of culturally responsive discourse in a high school english classroom. linguistics and education, 24(3), 328-347. interactional identities into classroom interaction lucero-babativa 152 no. 20 thornborrow, j. (1999). language and identity. in l. thomas & s. wareing (eds.), language, society and power (pp. 87-103). london: routledge. tracy, k., & robles, j. s. (2013). everyday talk: building and reflecting identities. new york, us: the guilford press. ur, p. (1996). a course in language teaching: practice and theory. cambridge: cambridge university press. usma-wilches, j. (2009). education and language policy in colombia: exploring processes of inclusion, exclusion and stratification in times of global reform. profile: issues in teachers’ professional development, 11, 123-41. varghese, m., morgan, b., johnston, b., & johnson, k. a. (2005). theorizing language teacher identity: three perspectives and beyond. journal of language, identity, and education, 4(1), 21-44. vetter, a., & schieble, m. (2015). observing teacher identities through video analysis: practice and implications. new york: routledge. viáfara, j. j. (2011). how do efl student teachers face the challenge of using l2 in public school classrooms? profile: issues in teachers’ professional development, 13(1), 55-74. walsh, s. (2011). exploring classroom discourse: language in action. ny: routledge. walsh, s. (2013). classroom discourse and teacher development. edinburgh: edinburgh university press. watkins, p. (2005). learning to teach english. england: delta publishing. wenger, e. (1998). communities of practice. learning, meaning and identity. cambridge: cambridge university press. wright, t. (1991). roles of teachers and learners. oxford, uk: oxford university press. yoon, b., & kyeung-kim, h. (2012). introduction: sociocultural theory as a theoretical framework for understanding teachers’ roles in second language learning. in b. yoon, & h. kyeung-kim (eds.), teachers’ roles in second language learning: classroom applications of sociocultural theory (pp. xiii-xxix). charlotte, nc, us: information age publishing, inc. zimmerman, d. h. (1998). identity, context and interaction. in c. antaki, & s. widdicombe (eds.), identities in talk (pp. 87-106). london: sage publications ltd. interactional identities into classroom interaction lucero-babativa 153 no. 20 author *edgar lucero-babativa is currently a phd candidate in the doctoral program in education, elt emphasis, at universidad distrital francisco josé de caldas, bogota. he is a full-time teacher educator in the education sciences faculty at universidad de la salle, bogota, colombia. he holds an ma degree in applied linguistics for tefl, a postgraduate specialization degree in didactics of languages, and a ba in spanish, english, and french. his research interests are in discourse analysis, namely, classroom interaction, and language teaching didactics. orcid: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2208-5124 interactional identities into classroom interaction lucero-babativa how to reference this article: lucero-babativa, e. (2020). bringing interactional identities into the study of classroom interaction in elt education. gist – education and learning research journal, 20, 135-153. https://doi.org/10.26817/16925777.714 gistseptiembre2011final2.indd 25 explicit and differentiated phonics instruction as a tool to improve literacy skills for children learning english as a foreign language1 angélica maría martínez martínez2* gimnasio campestre, colombia abstract explicit systematic phonics instruction is more effective for native englishspeaking children learning to read and write than non explicit phonics instruction (national institute of child health and human development, 2000). this study goes beyond native speakers, and explores the effects that systematic and explicit phonics instruction has on young students learning english as a foreign language (efl). moreover, phonics instruction for efl students was differentiated: the instructional time, instructional sequence and phonics vocabulary were adapted to meet efl students’ needs. the findings show that, not only does explicit and differentiated phonics instruction have a positive effect for efl learners in reading comprehension, but also that the differentiation of it has a considerable impact on efl students literacy skills in general. keywords: explicit phonics instruction, english as a foreign language (efl), bilingualism, differentiation, verb instruction resumen la instrucción, explicita y sistemática de la fonética a niños de habla inglesa, que están aprendiendo a leer y escribir, es más efectiva que la no enseñanza explicita de la misma (instituto nacional de salud infantil y desarrollo humano de estados unidos 2000). este estudio va más allá del estudio de hablantes nativos y explora los efectos que la instrucción, explicita y sistemática de la fonética inglesa tiene en niños 1 received: may 10th, 2011 / accepted: august 29th, 2011 2 email: angelicamartinez@gmail.com translation priming effect gist education and learning research journal. issn 1692-5777. no. 5, november 2011. pp. 25-49 no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) 26 aprendiendo inglés como lengua extranjera (efl). además, la instrucción explicita de la fonética de la lengua inglesa se hizo de manera diferenciada, es decir: el tiempo de instrucción, la secuencia de los temas y el vocabulario fueron adaptados según las necesidades de los estudiantes de lengua extranjera. los resultados muestran que la instrucción, explicita y sistemática de la fonética no sólo causa un efecto positivo en la comprensión lectora de los estudiantes, sino que su diferenciación tiene un impacto considerable en sus habilidades lecto-escritas. palabras claves: bilingüismo, inglés como segunda lengua (esl), inglés como lengua extranjera (efl), fonética inglésa, diferenciación resumo a instrução, explícita e sistemática da fonética a crianças de fala inglesa, que estão aprendendo a ler e escrever, á mais efetiva que o não ensino explícito da mesma (instituto nacional de saúde infantil e desenvolvimento humano dos estados unidos 2000). este estudo vai mais além do estudo de falantes nativos e explora os efeitos que a instrução, explícita e sistemática da fonética inglesa tem em crianças aprendendo inglês como língua estrangeira (efl). além do mais, a instrução explicita da fonética da língua inglesa se fez de maneira diferenciada, melhor dito: o tempo de instrução, a sequência dos temas e o vocabulário foram adaptados segundo as necessidades dos estudantes de língua estrangeira. os resultados mostram que a instrução, explícita e sistemática da fonética não só causa um efeito positivo na compreensão leitora dos estudantes, senão que sua diferenciação tem um impacto considerável nas suas habilidades leito-escritas. palavras chaves: bilinguismo, inglês como segunda língua (esl), inglês como língua estrangeira (efl), fonética inglesa, diferenciação for children who already have reading and writing skills in their mother tongue, transferring these skills when learning to read and write in a new language would be the natural thing to do (cisero, 1995); however non native english-speakers learning to read and write in english can find that their reading and writing skills acquired in their mother tongue may not be entirely suitable to learn to read and write this new language due to the differences of orthography among languages (caravolas, 2004; fashola, drum, mayer & kang, 1996). this is the case of native spanish-speakers who already have literacy skills, wanting to learn english as a foreign language (efl) (koda, 2007). spanish has a shallow orthography which means it has strong grapheme-phoneme correspondence (the relationship between the letters explicit and differentiated phonetics instruction martínez martínez no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) 27 and the sound they produce) and therefore it is a language easy to read and write (koda, 2007). by contrast english has a deep orthography which means that the relationship between graphemes and phonemes is not a one-to correspondence. therefore in english it is not evident how the written words correspond to the spoken language or vice versa (jones, 1996) and this makes it more challenging to learn to read and write in english (sun-alperin, 2008). this is where phonics instruction can help efl students learn how to read and write in english. the benefits of explicit phonics instruction have been studied and analyzed in native english speaking children (l1), and there is enough evidence to say that this instruction helps l1 students improve their reading comprehension, spelling, and overall literacy skills (national institute of child health and human development, 2000). the aim of this study is to go beyond native english-speaking children, and know if explicit phonics instruction has positive effects on some literacy skills of efl children. the following skills were the ones that were analyzed: reading comprehension, spelling, and proper use of verbs in written statements. the objective was to determine the effectiveness that explicit phonics instruction had on these skills in efl first grade students, in a bilingual school in bogota, colombia. the purpose of tracking each of these skills is to note if explicit phonics instruction had any effect on each one of them, based on students’ results throughout a school year. this study aimed to address the following questions: does phonics instruction improve efl students’ reading comprehension?, does phonics instruction improve efl students’ spelling skills? and does adapting phonics vocabulary from nouns based to emphasize it mainly on verbs improve students’ written statements? theoretical framework the deep orthography of english makes it more challenging to learn to read and write in english than it is to learn to read and write in spanish (sun-alperin, 2008). this is why efl learners, who already have literacy skills in their native language and are accustomed to read words in a specific, determined way, make mistakes in pronunciation and/or spelling when learning to read and write in english (sun-alperin, 2008). therefore, it is important to make the learning of english as a foreign language simple and systematic; specially in the early stages of its learning; which is where phonics can play a key role (armbruster, lehr, & osborn, 2000). explicit and differentiated phonetics instruction martínez martínez no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) 28 phonics why is phonics instruction important? phonics instruction teaches students to understand and learn the relationship between the letters (graphemes) of written language and the individual sounds (phonemes) of spoken language. it also teaches children how to use these relationships to read and write words accurately (armbruster, lehr, & osborn, 2000). the main goal of phonics instruction is for students to learn and use the alphabetic principle –the understanding that there are systematic and predictable relationships between written letters and spoken sounds (armbruster, lehr, & osborn, 2000). this principle helps greatly on children’s ability to read words, both in isolation and in reading passages. the national reading panel (nrp) issued a report, in the year 2000, where it states the benefits of phonics instruction and why it should be explicit and systematic (national institute of child health and human development, 2000). explicit phonics instruction happens when students receive a direct and explicit teaching of the relationship between graphemes and phonemes. systematic means that the instruction should follow a clear and defined sequence; and such sequence should move from simple to more complex (armbruster, lehr, & osborn, 2000). the following are the scientific research conclusions related to phonics instruction found by the nrp, which were summarized in the guide put reading first (armbruster, lehr, & osborn, 2000). note that these findings regard native english-speaking students: • systematic and explicit phonics instruction is more effective than non-systematic or no phonics instruction. • systematic and explicit phonics instruction significantly improves children’s reading comprehension. • systematic and explicit phonics instruction significantly improves kindergarten and first-grade children’s word recognition and spelling. • systematic and explicit phonics instruction is effective for children from various social and economic levels. • systematic and explicit phonics instruction is most effective when introduced early. (national institute of child health and human development, 2000, p.19, 20, 21). explicit and differentiated phonetics instruction martínez martínez no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) 29 phonics for esl what does research tells us about teaching phonics to esl or efl students? now that the major findings of the nrp regarding explicit systematic phonics instruction for english-native speakers are stated, one wonders if the nrp findings are also applicable to students learning english as a second language (esl) or efl students. even though the research conducted concerning phonics and the effects for efl/esl students is very scarce, and there is a big need of future research concerning this topic; timothy shanahan and isabel beck (2006) found five studies that explored the effect explicit phonics had on esl students. it is important to mention that these studies had their limitations, but in general the findings are consistent with the nrp findings for l1 learners. here is an excerpt from the chapter: “clearly, five small studies of phonological awareness and phonics are far from sufficient to allow a determination of the most useful instructional methods for meeting the early literacy needs of englishlanguage learners. however, the findings of all five studies are consistent with the solid findings of first-language research. the national reading panel examined 52 studies of phonological awareness instruction and another 38 studies of phonics instruction. both conferred clear benefits on children’s reading development, as determined by a wide range of measures, including beginning reading comprehension. the five studies of phonological awareness and phonics with english-language learners had similar results, although only one of these studies measured reading comprehension outcomes.” (shanahan and isabel beck, 2006, p.427). even though the resources are scarce, and the research found has some limitations, the nrp findings regarding the benefits phonics instruction has for native speaking children, can also be translated to efl children (shanahan & beck, 2006). review of related literature as mentioned above, research papers about efl students and explicit phonics instruction are scarce and hard to find. nevertheless, the few studies found, are in accordance with what the nrp has to say in regard with explicit phonics instruction for l1 learners. even thought the correlation between explicit phonics instruction and the enhancement of reading comprehension for l1 students has been found (national institute of child health and human development, 2000), few empirical studies regarding reading comprehension abilities in foreign language learners have been conducted. taguchi (1997), working with japanese efl students, considered word recognition explicit and differentiated phonetics instruction martínez martínez no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) 30 ability of primary importance in reading comprehension. such ability derived mainly from efl students’ phonemic awareness. in another study with taiwanese students, shen (2003) states that efl learners should have explicit phonics instruction to develop their phonemic awareness efficiently; which will lead to successful automaticity in word recognition, and thus enhance their reading comprehension. this is also supported by kern (1989), who found that through explicit instruction important comprehension gains were obtained in an efl study group. all of the studies, mentioned above, correlate with timothy shanahan and isabel beck (2006) findings, that indeed explicit phonics instruction helps efl students robust their reading comprehension skills. regarding spelling skills in esl students, the studies found that phonological representations in the mother tongue of esl students can cause interference errors when spelling words in the english language (jared & szucs, 2002). jared and szucs (2002) stated that “if a bilingual’s two languages share the same alphabet but have different pronunciations for the letters,…, then there will be two conflicting pronunciations at the same time” (p. 225). this conflict in efl students will then result in misspelled english words. these findings are supported by ferroli and shanahan (1992), who found that “spanish speakers perceive english sounds as if they are spanish and spell those sounds in spanish-like ways.” (p. 3). sun-alperin and wang (2008) also found that “spanish-speaking children learning to spell in english encounter difficulties in spelling vowels that are represented by different graphemes in spanish.” (p.946). when searching for differentiated phonics instruction for efl vocabulary, there has been no qualitative research done about the issue yet, to the authors’ knowledge. the actual literature regarding the effects explicit phonics instruction has on efl learners is very limited. this scarcity is a precise indicator of the urgent need of conducting more research to conclude whether explicit phonics instruction is an important area to develop to strengthen efl students’ literacy skills. data collection the major source of information for this action research comes from the grades of 85 efl first grade students. these grades were recorded throughout the whole academic year of 2009-2010. participants the children of this research were students attending a catholic, private, bilingual school only for girls in bogota, colombia. at the time explicit and differentiated phonetics instruction martínez martínez no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) 31 of this study the students were in first grade, which is comparable to second grade in the u.s.a. this action research took place during the academic year of 2009-2010, within three first grade classrooms, for a total of 85 girls. most of the children at the commencement of this study were seven years old. the majority of these children started studying at this school since they were four years old, thus had been studying in this institution for three full academic years prior to this action research. during these three previous years, these girls learned to read in spanish as well as write short personal passages, also in that language. since this school is considered a bilingual school in colombia, these girls started learning english as a foreign language from the very beginning of their school years as well. during the first three years of preschool (pre-kinder, kinder, and transition) they had three subjects taught to them in english every academic year. when entering first grade they knew the alphabet in english, the proper pronunciation of the main diagraphs (sh /x/, wh /hw/, ch /tx/ , th /θ/ , etc.), and could use basic vocabulary words such as: classroom objects, school related vocabulary, colors, numbers, farm animals, household objects, etc. the girls of this research project all belong to a medium-high socioeconomic status and all of them speak spanish as their mother tongue. context for two consecutive years i was the english specialist teacher for all of these first graders, and taught each classroom on a daily basis for 50 minutes per day. it is important to clarify that i was not a main stream teacher; instead i was the english teacher, who went into the classroom for one 50 minute lesson, and came out of the classroom afterwards. besides my english lessons, these students also received math, science and social studies lessons in english, for a total of sixteen lessons per week instructed in english. each of these lessons lasted 50 minutes approximately. during my first year as an english teacher for first grade students, i followed the syllabus given to me by the school. in phonics, i specifically taught first short vowels and then long vowels. the spelling and pronunciation of short vowels and long vowels were taught in an explicit and systematic way. it was explicit since each grapheme and corresponding phonemes were shown directly to students, and various practice opportunities (exercises, readings, pictures, etc.) were given to students to assess each of the short and long vowels. it was systematic because the instruction went from easier to more difficult and student´s explicit and differentiated phonetics instruction martínez martínez no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) 32 new knowledge was needed to build upon it to scaffold for further learning. during that first year i observed three things: 1. the time given to short vowels instruction was too long while the time given to long vowels instruction was not enough. 2. the order in which long vowels were introduced and taught was confusing for students. 3. the phonics materials and vocabulary were mostly taken from english text books originally designed for l1 learners. concerning time instruction, during my first year, i noticed that the short vowels were easily understood by my students. since my first graders already had phonological and phonetic awareness in their native language (spanish), this allowed for them to easily correlate spanish vowel sounds with short vowels in english, as well as some consonant sounds that had the same phonetic sounds in both spanish and english (e.g. t, p, b, m, n, etc.). by contrast, understanding long vowels sounds was harder for students and many got confused. long vowel sounds demanded more instructional time and more practice for students to fully understand and properly use them. in many opportunities time was the major constraint for giving students more instruction and more opportunities to practice. therefore, during my second year, i decided to give short vowels less instructional time, and this extra time was then passed to long vowels instruction. this change significantly helped students’ comprehension and proper use of long vowels sounds. the order in which short vowels were introduced to students presented no problem and, since the vowel order was the same of the alphabetical order in spanish (a-e-i-o-u), students found it easy to follow through all of them. the fact that the only short sound that is different in spanish is the ‘u’ sound, and that this was coincidentally also the last short vowel, made it easy for students to understand this exception. a very different situation arose when introducing long vowels. during the first year i taught the long vowels in the same order as short vowels. after viewing the long ‘a’, i continued with the long ‘e’, then the long ¨i¨ and so on. this sequence was extremely confusing for my students, since they had a hard time catching the concept of a vowel having more than one sound when being read or pronounced. this due to the fact that in spanish a vowel only has one unique sound, generally, explicit and differentiated phonetics instruction martínez martínez no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) 33 and in english a single vowel has various ways of pronunciation (sunalperin, 2008). it also became obvious that the long vowel ‘e’ sound presented the major challenge for my efl students. this happened since the pronunciation of the vowel ‘e’ from english to spanish actually interchanges: the long ‘e’ sound in english is like the ‘i’ sound in spanish. something similar happens with the long ‘i’: the long ‘i’ sound in english is, in spanish, composed of two vowels: “ai”. on the other hand, the long ‘a’, ‘o’ and ‘u’ were the easiest long vowel sounds for students to understand and recall in different situations. that is why, for my second year, i purposefully adapted the sequence in which long vowels were introduced to my efl students. i started with the long ‘a’, ‘o’ and ‘u’ and left the long ‘i’ and long ‘e’ for the very end of the school year. this proved to be a good change. after viewing the first three long vowels, students were familiarized with the long vowel patterns and differences in sounds when pronouncing or reading a long vowel. they were also accustomed to the methodology used when instructing long vowels, hence when they reached the long ‘i’ and ended with the long ‘e’, they expected differences in sounds and were less confused. during my second year my students grasped the long ‘i’ and long ‘e’ examples faster, applied the pronunciation more accurately, and the class had a faster pace during these lessons. regarding materials and vocabulary, most of the efl students learn english with texts originally designed for l1 students. such texts assume that the students learning how to read in english have a background and knowledge of an english speaking environment and culture; expected from daily interaction within a community who speaks english dominantly. the l1 texts for teaching english expect some background knowledge from students, which will help them infer the meaning of a picture, sentence or text. a simple but clarifying example is the seasons: when someone reads: “the chilly, windy morning and the white scenery”, this is a clear reference of a winter scene; however for efl learners this is a big puzzle and they do not have the knowledge to solve it and be able to relate it with a winter scene. since, in many cases, efl students do not have snowy winters in their homeland. (this would be the case of my efl students in colombia.) the vocabulary that comes in those texts is also designed and thought for l1 students. many of the phonics vocabulary used in my first year was taken from these l1 sources and some words were so rare and foreign to my students that it took a lot of time for me to explain explicit and differentiated phonetics instruction martínez martínez no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) 34 them and for my students to understand them. i clearly remember how difficult it was for my students to understand the word sled. how can you explain to children, that have never lived a winter, and have never played with a sled, what this word means. at the end i simply skipped the word due to the difficulty it presented. this situation also occurred with other vocabulary words during my first year. during the first year, i also noticed that all the phonics vocabulary was mostly nouns and in a few cases adjectives; however there were no verbs, not even one. this had a big impact in sentence production: my students were excellent at writing sentences with one noun and many adjectives that described it (e.g. the cat is big, fat, black, and beautiful.), however they did not have the vocabulary to transcend those sentences into more richer and complex ones. whenever my students needed to know a verb, they would approach me and ask for it, over and over again. shortly after i realized that the focus on vocabulary should be shifted to a verb focused vocabulary, instead of a noun focused vocabulary. this simple but effective change had a huge impact in my students writing. i tailored the phonics vocabulary lists for them to have mostly verbs and adjectives and few nouns. after introducing some short vowels verbs (eg. ask, has, clap, hang, nap, get, send, help, smell, drink, sing, sit, swim, wish, hit, hop, drop, stop, shop, cross, cut, hug, run, jump, hum, punch, etc.), my students went from writing mainly descriptive sentences to writing more complex sentences that expressed actions and i observed they felt more confident when writing and did it more independently. grading in colombia, the majority of the bilingual schools have four marking periods called bimesters, each one covering approximately two months. in this private school they also have four marking periods. all children were tested twice each marking period, for each of the english delivered subjects mentioned above. students presented a midterm exam and a final exam at the end of each bimester. each of these exams (midterm and final), was designed to evaluate several of the following skills in my english class: parts of the book, reading comprehension, spelling, vocabulary, phonics skills, verb use in written sentences, sentence structure, use of capital letters, recognition between fiction and nonfiction, etc. the midterm exam was not as long, and did not cover as many topics or skills as the final exam for each period. hence the final exams were more difficult, assessed more skills and required more time from the students to answer them. explicit and differentiated phonetics instruction martínez martínez no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) 35 in total, eight grades, form these types of exams, were recorded through the whole academic year: four midterms and four final exams. the eighth grade was the most important since it was the annual final exam, and assessed all the skills and knowledge a student should have acquired throughout the school year. assessing all the eight exams were administered to whole classes. students had one class (50 minutes) to answer each test. the only test students could have two lessons for answering was the annual final exam. all the exams followed a known sequence for students and had the same type of exercises or questions previously done during class exercises or quizzes. this was to reduce the possibility of students getting confused or unable to answer because of how questions were set or because a new type of exercise was being asked. since students were familiarized with the type of exercises and the type of questions, their answering techniques were not being assessed. on the contrary, making sure students knew how to answer a specific type of question ensured that what was being assessed was the skill or knowledge the teacher wanted to assess. reading comprehension was assessed in every single one of the eight exams, and was always the first point students had to answer. to assess reading comprehension the teacher read aloud a piece of ageappropriate text or a short story. students also had the text and were asked to follow the teacher while she was reading. then the teacher would answer any vocabulary questions the students had about the passage. each of the questions on the test were also read to make sure students understood what was being asked. finally students had to answer four multiple choice questions and one open ended question regarding the story. all the vocabulary assessed was part of the phonics vocabulary seen in class, which students had copied in their notebooks and they had used in different opportunities during class activities. to assess vocabulary, students were presented with several pictures and they were asked to write the word corresponding to each picture. in some cases it was the other way around: students were given the word and were asked to make the picture of it. another way to assess vocabulary was to ask students to draw colored pictures of given sentences. these sentences had several vocabulary words seen during class. to assess the correct use of verbs and their meaning, students were asked to fill out with verbs, sentences with blanks. a word bank explicit and differentiated phonetics instruction martínez martínez no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) 36 with all the verbs was given to students and they had to choose the correct one to complete each sentence. during the second half of the year, students continued filling sentences with blanks, but were also asked to write a complete sentence with a given verb. spelling was always assessed as a whole class. the teacher would say aloud words from the spelling lists from the vocabulary seen in class, and students were asked to classify each of these words in their correct phonetical column and write it. spelling was not assessed in all of the eight exams. in the last semester only the third final exam and the fourth final exams assessed spelling, that is why there were only six spelling grades recorded throughout the academic year. note that almost every single point of the exams involved phonics. vocabulary, spelling, and verbs all directly related to using phonics skills. only the reading passage, to assess reading comprehension, was not related directly to phonics. nevertheless, when choosing the reading passages, the phonetical awareness and phonics knowledge of the students were taken into consideration. for other type of assessments, besides these exams, such as reading fluency and accuracy, phonics also played a key role. having phonics as the common factor for my english instruction was done on purpose since phonics was not to be taught per se, but as a skill that would benefit student in multiple areas. phonics was the horizontal vector of all my teaching during my second year as an english teacher and it was embedded in most of the different classroom exercises and activities. grading range in this private bilingual school the grading system is numeric and it ranges from zero to 100%. being zero the lowest score and 100% a perfect score. the lowest grade a student can still pass with is 60%; therefore anything below or at 59% is considered a failing grade. for this research children were classified in three different ranges based on their performance on the grades they obtained in the first period midterm exam. students were classified as performing above average if their grade was at 90% or more. students which scored between 60% and 89% were considered average performing students, and if their grade was at or below 59% students were classified as performing below average. the purpose of choosing the first period grades was to see the initial state of students’ performance without explicit phonics instruction. afterwards, the objective was to observe if explicit phonics explicit and differentiated phonetics instruction martínez martínez no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) 37 instruction had any effect on the performance of the same group of students. having classified students, the grades of the same girls for the following exams were then observed throughout the year for their improvement on each of the different skills being studied. this was done to compare students’ performance after having received explicit phonics instruction. each student had several grades for each of the exams, since each exam consisted of different points. each point targeted to assess a specific skill, ability or knowledge. for example, the first final exam had a total of six points: the first point assessed students’ knowledge about the parts of the book and the ability for recognizing them in a front cover. the second point assessed reading comprehension, by giving students a reading passage with five related questions to answer. the third point assessed spelling, and it was a short dictation. the fourth point assessed students’ knowledge of vocabulary. the fifth point assessed the proper use of capital letters and punctuation within a sentence. finally, the last point asked students to draw a picture for a given sentence assessing vocabulary, reading comprehension and verb understanding. out of these six points, only the results regarding reading comprehension, spelling and verbs usage were taken into consideration for this study. the rest were not analyzed for the purpose of this research project. data sources the main data sources for this action research project are the following; • students’ grades • colleagues’ interviews • surveys • class notes and observations students’ grades at the end of the 2009-2010 school year each of the 85 students had presented two exams per bimester: one midterm and one final exam. this gave a total of eight different exams during the whole year. additionally, each exam also had different points assessing a specific skill. therefore each exam gave various grading points per student. for reading comprehension every single one of the eight exams had a point assessing it. this means that there were 680 grades recorded explicit and differentiated phonetics instruction martínez martínez no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) 38 for reading comprehension throughout the school year. for spelling, six out of the eight exams had a short spelling dictation aimed to assess this skill, resulting in 510 grades for spelling. finally, for verbs only the first two exams did not include a point assessing the proper use of these words within a sentence, meaning that 510 grades in total were recorded when assessing students’ proper use of verbs during the academic year. the sum of all these grades gives us a grand total of 1700 grades as data collected for this study. colleagues’ interviews the bilingual teachers who also instructed these first graders were interviewed after the 2009-2010 school year was finished. the interviews sought to know, on firsthand, the perceptions of the other bilingual teachers that also instructed these students in english. there were, in total, six bilingual teachers: three science teachers (one teacher per classroom), two math teachers and a social studies teacher. i wanted to corroborate if what i had observed, as the english teacher, was also being observed by my colleagues that also had to assess and interact with these children in english. these interviews were done after the 2009-2010 school year was over and were done personally or by phone. survey after the 2009-2010 school year, i decided to conduct a survey for the other bilingual teachers who also taught my efl students. therefore, an online survey was designed for these teachers to answer. the survey had in total six questions and was send to each of the teachers by email (appendix a). the survey showed six statements, which each teacher had to agree or disagree with, in several levels. teachers could choose from six possible ranges; these were the categories: strongly disagree, moderately disagree, slightly disagree, slightly agree, moderately agree and strongly agree. the survey sought to estimate, in an accountable way, the perceptions about students’ performance that the other bilingual teachers had. specifically, the survey aimed to look at the following skills: reading comprehension, reading accuracy, spelling skills, students’ level of self confidence while reading, students’ ability to write more complex sentences and students’ oral use of english. class notes and observations during my first year as an english teacher, i purposely made notes about specific difficulties or challenges that i observed as a common explicit and differentiated phonetics instruction martínez martínez no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) 39 pattern among my students. thanks to those notes, i was able to determine what changes had to be done in the following academic year to improve my instruction. i also decided which activities i was going to repeat and which were left out. taking notes after class activities proved to be very useful and i continued to do it during my second year as an english teacher. however, i also decided to take notes on students’ performance, both as a group and in some cases individually. i made brief comments after checking all the exams and after assessing students orally. this turned out to be very helpful when since i had specific information regarding the strengths and difficulties of my class as a group, and i could also tell, on an individual basis, which skills a specific student needed to reinforce. note taking after my instruction helped me reflect on it and allowed me to notice the impact that some changes, i had introduced during my classes, had on students’ responses. these notes were also thoroughly reviewed and considered to back-up the findings presented in this research. data analysis and interpretation for this study, first the results of the students’ grades gathered through the year will be analyzed. then, these results will be compared to the survey results, the interviews and my personal class and field notes for final interpretation. the purpose of following this sequence is to be able to answer each different question stated previously. the first of these questions is: does phonics instruction improve student’s reading comprehension? reading comprehension in the first period midterm exam the reading comprehension results are the following: 20 girls performed above average with an average grade of 93%, only nine girls performed below average with an average grade of 34%, and the remaining 56 students had an average grade of 75%. once the performance based groups were established, the reading comprehension grades of each of these groups were also averaged for the following seven exams. the purpose was to track the effects explicit phonics instruction had on the reading comprehension skills each group had throughout the academic year. the grades of the same 20 girls that belong to the above average group were averaged for the other reading comprehension points in the explicit and differentiated phonetics instruction martínez martínez no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) 40 seven following exams. the same was performed for the nine girls who scored below average and also for the average group. the group of students that performed above average continued to perform above 80% on most of the exams and in the fi nal annual exam they had an average grade of 89%. this shows that there was not a signifi cant effect for the high performing students and that these students stayed in the high range. the same situation happened for the group of average performing students. they began with an average grade of 75% and ended the year with a 74%. throughout the whole year the group’s average grade stayed between 73% and 75%. this means that the effect for this group was not negative but neither was it positive, and they also stayed within their range. by contrast, the effects shown in the low performing group were considerable and were interesting to review in detail (figure 1). these students began with an average grade of 34% then rose to a 59%, and continued rising exam by exam, until they reached an incredible 82% in the seventh exam, even surpassing their high performing fellow students. for the fi nal annual exam they declined again, but still had a signifi cant difference from the fi rst grade at the beginning of the school year. figure 1. reading comprehension average grades throughout the academic year. explicit and differentiated phonetics instruction martínez martínez no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) 41 these findings are the confirmation of what i, as a teacher, had sensed and observed among my low performing students. when reviewing my class notes, i had several positive notes about my struggling students and how i had seen that their understanding while reading had improved due to their enhanced ability to read words more accurately. this, in turn, led to a better understanding of what these students were reading, which increased their reading comprehension. similar observations were recalled from the other bilingual teachers during the interviews. all of them manifested that the students read aloud much better than at the beginning of the year and this contributed to a better understanding of what was being read. i specifically remember the comment of one of the science teachers, when she listened to one of the students who struggled the most. the girl was reading a nonfiction story about snakes, and while doing so, the science teacher was amazed at how well this little girl was properly pronouncing words such as snake, scales, nest, skin, etc. during the previous school year (2008-2009), this teacher had had other students read aloud the same nonfiction story, and she could recall the difficulties those students had while reading long vowel words. she told me that her reading students instead of reading snakes properly, said “snackes”, as if reading the word in spanish. finally, if you compare the grades results to those of the survey, in which teachers were asked to agree or disagree with the following statement: after receiving phonics instruction students’ reading comprehension increased; the teachers’ answers also confirm the results. all of the teachers who answered the survey agreed with this statement. three of them strongly agreed, two agreed moderately, and only one slightly agreed. this supports the evidence that, indeed, explicit phonics instruction had an overall positive effect in students reading comprehension, however this effect was more significant for the low performing group of students. spelling once the average grades concerning spelling skills are analyzed, a particularity about these results can be observed. the students’ general performance improves in the first four exams, however after the fourth exam the grades for all students drop considerably (figure 2). (the grades for the third and fourth midterm exams do not show since spelling was not assessed in these two exams). by observing the spelling average grades for each of the groups, it can be noted that the above average group starts with an average grade of 95%, followed by average grades of 91%, 94% and 94%. these four explicit and differentiated phonetics instruction martínez martínez no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) 42 grades belong to the fi rst four exams; afterwards this group drops to 85% and continues descending until reaching 78% in the fi nal annual exam. figure 2. spelling average grades throughout the academic year. something similar happened to the average group. the average performing students began with a 78% average grade, rising through 87% and reaching a good 90%. this improvement also happened in the fi rst four exams; however after the fourth exam, they dramatically drop to 68%, descending even further to a 64% in the fi nal annual exam. the case is even more dramatic with the below average group, which began with a low 42%, rising dramatically to an 83%, followed by a 78% and then a 83% for the fi rst four exams. after the fourth exam this group drastically dropped to 55% fi nishing with a 47% for the fi nal annual exam. by looking at these results one wonders what was done during the fi rst four exams that signifi cantly improved students’ performance in spelling dictations, and also wonders what happened after the fourth exam that changed the results obtained in the fi rst four exams. when i fi rst observed these results, i was quite intrigued and could not decipher why my students had such a good improvement in the fi rst semester (the fi rst four exams were conducted in the fi rst school semester) and then a poor performance in the last semester of the year. i realized then, that the short vowels had been studied during the fi rst semester and that during the last semester the study of long vowels was covered. could this have a correlation with the results found in the grades? my fi eld notes and class observations led me to notice that explicit and differentiated phonetics instruction martínez martínez no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) 43 when spelling dictations (in quizzes and exams) had to do with short vowel words, my students were very accurate. this could be due to the fact that spanish vowel sounds correlate with short vowel sounds in english. on the other hand, when students were asked to write long vowel words, the results of these dictations were not as good. in many cases i found words spelled as if written in spanish (e.g. foun instead of phone), or written with a different blend that also represented the long vowel sound heard by students (e.g. gaim instead of game). spelling mistakes for long vowel words were encountered in all of my students, regardless of the group they belonged to. the fact that spanish vowels only have one unique sound, and are always pronounced and spelled in the same way, could explain why such type of mistakes happened. when students were not sure of how a word was spelled, they recalled their knowledge in spanish to write it. since in the english language a long vowel sound does not have a unique letter combination, but instead various blends of vowels or letter combinations can produce the same long vowel sound (eg. cake, play, rain), could also explain the misuse of these letter combinations in the dictations. since short vowels were assessed in the first four exams, and then long vowels were assessed in the last exams, the results found in the grades do correspond and validate what i observed as a teacher: students had a correct spelling of short vowel words but had difficulties when spelling long vowel words. nevertheless, when interviewed, the other bilingual teachers manifested that after the second half of the school year students were more aware that the long vowel sounds could be spelled differently, and teachers recalled students approaching them to ask the proper spelling of a long vowel word. this correlates to the survey results where two teachers strongly agreed and the other four moderately agreed when answering to the following statement: after receiving phonics instruction students’ spelling improved. regarding the effect explicit phonics instruction has on efl students’ spelling abilities; it cannot be suggested that such instruction has a positive effect on efl students’ spelling performance. verb usage for proper verb usage in written statements, 21 girls scored 90% or more and thus were classified as performing above average. the average performing students that scored between 60% and 89% were explicit and differentiated phonetics instruction martínez martínez no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) 44 32. finally another 32 girls scored 59% or less and thus were classifi ed as performing below average. the average grades for all of the three groups of students, on the proper use of verbs, increased signifi cantly from the very beginning of the school year (figure 3). even though the positive effect was generalized among all students, the students who were performing below average at the begging of the year had the major difference of performance, from the commencement of the school year up to the end of it. the below average group began with average grade of 29%, had a huge leap towards 61%, continued rising to 74%, then descended a bit to 68%, and fi nished with an amazing 78%. the improvement also took place with the average performing group, however it was not as outstanding. the average performing students began with a 67% and rose up to an 84%, and fi nally fi nished the year with an 83%. finally the top performing students began with an impressive 99%, afterwards their grade decline to 94%, then to 89%, reached the lowest score of 88% for the seventh exam, and rose back again to a 99% for the fi nal annual exam. figure 3. proper use of verbs in writt en sentences average grades throughout the academic year. after analyzing the grades regarding verb usage for all the students, it can be said that, indeed, the shifting of vocabulary to be focused on verbs had one of the greatest positive impacts in students’ sentence production. at the beginning of the school year students were very good at writing descriptive statements that included one noun and explicit and differentiated phonetics instruction martínez martínez no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) 45 various adjectives. (e.g. the cat is big, fat and black.). nevertheless, it was a common situation for student to have an important lack of verbs knowledge, and hence had a hard time trying to communicate beyond descriptive aspect of objects. as a whole class the effect is notorious, but the major impact on the differentiation on vocabulary emphasis was, without a doubt for the low performing students. the change is simply dramatic. regarding the survey teachers were asked to agree or disagree with the following statement: after receiving verb focused vocabulary instruction, students’ ability to write more complex sentences increased. the results show that all of the teachers agreed at some point with this statement. three of the teachers strongly agreed, two agreed moderately and only one slightly agreed. this supports the evidence that, indeed, the modifications on the phonics vocabulary, where verbs played a key role, had a positive effect in students’ written statements. my observations during the school year, as a teacher, also confirmed what the students’ grades and the survey’s results show. i personally found that the major advances observed in my english classes, regarded the introduction of verbs as part of the phonics vocabulary. almost daily, it was evident how students took those verbs and started using them in different sentences, both orally and written. the students then felt empowered by knowing new verbs, and by being able to communicate new ideas, feelings and events of their daily life. findings according to the nrp explicit phonics instruction is beneficial for l1 learners; however this statement could be broaden to include efl learners as well. by analyzing the grades of these 85 students, together with the surveys and interviews conducted to the other bilingual teachers, and my class observations, some of the nrp findings can also apply for efl students. explicit phonics instruction does improve efl children’s reading comprehension. phonics help students to better decode and pronounce an english word, which translates into better understanding of what is being read, and hence improve the reading comprehension of efl students. unfortunately the same cannot be said regarding spelling. although, explicit phonics instruction does help l1 children improve their spelling skills, for efl children this is not the case. the efl students of this study had a good performance when asked to spell short explicit and differentiated phonetics instruction martínez martínez no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) 46 vowel words, but the difficulties arose when asked to spell long vowel words. this difficulty could be explained when acknowledging the different spelling ways that a long vowel sound has in english and the tendency students have to spell these long vowel sounds in spanish like ways. this correlates to the findings of sun-alperin and wang (2008) were native-spanish speakers learning esl made spelling mistakes by writing english long vowel words as if written in spanish. without a doubt, the major finding concerns the effect differentiated vocabulary used to instruct phonics had on students writing. by adapting and tailoring the vocabulary of efl students, and shifting it from a noun based to a verbs based vocabulary, students’ sentence complexity improved. students went beyond expectations and made a leap from very basic, descriptive sentences, to more robust sentences which described actions and enabled students to communicate effectively. there are some educational implications that emerge from these findings. efl teachers should be aware that native spanish-speaking children´s l1 knowledge can be transferred to their l2 learning and therefore use this knowledge to make the learning of efl easier for students. making subtle changes, such as changing the sequence for introducing long vowels to native spanish-speaking efl students, can allow students to understand the difference between the spanish and english orthography and that the english language has different graphemes corresponding to a single phoneme. finally the shift from a noun based vocabulary to a verbs based vocabulary can suppose a great benefit for efl students in terms of writing production. empowering efl students with relevant and useful vocabulary, like verbs, can open a lot of possibilities to improve student´s written communication. conclusions although there is no much research conducted regarding explicit phonics instruction for efl students, my students’ experiences and results clearly demonstrated the benefits of this instruction for efl learners. a significant benefit of explicit phonics instruction for efl students was the improvement on students’ reading comprehension. explicit phonics instruction helped efl students to improve their pronunciation when reading in english, which directly impacted the understanding of what was being read; thus enhancing their reading comprehension. explicit and differentiated phonetics instruction martínez martínez no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) 47 even though explicit phonics instruction enhances the spelling abilities of l1 students (national institute of child health and human development, 2000) the same cannot be confirmed for efl students. the efl were native spanish-speakers, and since spanish has the characteristic that each vowel has a unique sound; efl students had a hard time understanding the long vowel sounds and learning the different ways in which a long vowel could be written. therefore misspelling english long vowel words and spelling these words in spanish like ways. finally the most significant benefit that explicit phonics instruction had for efl students was the improvement of their written statements by revising and adapting efl phonics vocabulary, and focusing it mainly on verbs. this differentiation allowed efl students to write much more complex sentences and to communicate in a more effective way. references armbruster, b. b., lehr, f., osborn, j., national inst. for literacy, w. c., national inst. of child health and human development (nih), b. d. (nih), bethesda, md., office of educational research and improvement (ed), w. c. (ed), washington, dc., & center for the improvement of early reading achievement, a. i. (2001). put reading first: the research building blocks for teaching children to read. kindergarten through grade 3. caravolas, m. (2004). spelling development in alphabetic writing systems: a crosslinguistic perspective. european psychologist, 9(1), 3-14. cisero, c. a., & royer, j. m. (1995). the development and cross-language transfer of phonological awareness. contemporary educational psychology, 20(3), 275-303. doi:10.1006/ceps.1995.1018 fashola, o., drum, p., mayer, r., & kang, s. (1996). a cognitive theory of orthographic transitioning: predictable errors in how spanishspeaking children spell english words. american educational research journal, 33(4), 825-843. ferroli, l., & shanahan, t. (1992, december). voicing in spanish to english spelling knowledge transfer. paper presented at the annual meeting of the national reading conference, san antonio, tx. eric document. explicit and differentiated phonetics instruction martínez martínez no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) 48 jared, d., & szucs, c. (2002). phonological activation in bilinguals: evidence from interlingual homograph naming. bilingualism: language and cognition, 5(3), 225–239. jones, m. l. (1996, march). phonics in esl literacy instruction: functional or not?. paper presented at the world conference in literacy, philadelphia, pa hyte, h. what’s the difference: esl, efl, esol, ell, and esp? esl trail. retrieved march 2, 2011, from: http://www.esltrail. com/2008/02/whats-difference-esl-efl-esol-ell-and.html kern, r. g. (1989). second language reading strategy instruction: its effects on comprehension and word inference ability. the modem language journal, 73, 135-149. koda, k. (2007) reading and language learning: cross-linguistic constraints on second-language reading development. language learning, 57: 1-44 doi: 10.1111/0023-8333.101997010-i1 lonigan, c. j., shanahan, t., & national institute for, l. (2009). developing early literacy: report of the national early literacy panel. executive summary. a scientific synthesis of early literacy development and implications for intervention. national institute for literacy. national institute of child health and human development (2000). report of the national reading panel. teaching children to read: an evidence-based assessment of the scientific research literature on reading and its implication for reading instruction: reports of the sub-groups (nih publication no. 00-4754). washington, dc: u.s. government printing office. shanahan, t & beck, i. (2006). effective literacy teaching for englishlanguage learners. in d. august & t. shanahan (eds.), developing literacy in second-language learners: report of the national literacy panel on language-minority children and youth. new jersey: lawrence erlbaum associates. shen, h. (2003). the role of explicit instruction in esl/efl reading. foreign language annals, 36(3), 424-33. doi: 10.1111/j.19449720.2003.tb02124.x sun-alperin m.k., wang m. (2008) spanish-speaking children’s spelling errors with english vowel sounds that are represented by different graphemes in english and spanish words. contemporary educational psychology, 33 (4), pp. 932-948. explicit and differentiated phonetics instruction martínez martínez no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) 49 taguchi, e. (1997). the effects of repeated readings on the development of lower identification skills of fl readers. reading in a foreign language, i1 (l), 97-1 19. the author *angélica maría martínez martínez holds a bachelor´s degree in business administration from universidad de los andes, and she has a specialization in bilingual education from única. she worked as an english teacher at primary level at colegio santa francisca romana. she is specifically interested in issues related to bilingual education and second language acquisition. email: angelicamartinez@gmail.com explicit and differentiated phonetics instruction martínez martínez no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) no. 5 (nov. 2011) a comparative linguistic analysis of english and spanish phonological system1 un análisis lingüístico comparativo del sistema fonológico del inglés y el español juan carlos silva valencia2 technical university of ambato, ecuador 1 received: january 22nd, 2022 / accepted: november 30th, 2022 2 silvajuancarlos3@gmail.com gist education and learning research journal. issn 1692-5777. no. 25 (july december, 2025). pp. 139-155. effects of transactional distance perceptions on efl students’ motivation 140 no. 25 abstract this paper analyzes a few significant differences between spanish and english in relation to phonological patterns. first, a short introduction is given about these two languages, and it is briefly explained in what linguistic aspects they are similar or different. then, each of these linguistic features is analyzed in detail, clearly establishing the differences existing between spanish and english. the specific phonological features that are addressed on this academic paper are vowel and consonant phonemes, diphthongs and triphthongs, as well as word and sentence stress. furthermore, several pronunciation difficulties for spanish speakers are discussed. finally, some didactic implications are considered so that teachers can help their students of either language learn the second one considering important linguistic features. keywords: spanish, english, vowel and consonant phonemes, word and sentence stress, pronunciation difficulties, didactic implications. resumen este artículo analiza algunas diferencias significativas entre el español y el inglés en relación con los patrones fonológicos. en primer lugar, se hace una breve introducción sobre estos dos idiomas y se explica brevemente en qué aspectos lingüísticos son similares o diferentes. a continuación, se analiza en detalle cada uno de estos rasgos lingüísticos, estableciendo claramente las diferencias existentes entre el español y el inglés. las características fonológicas específicas que se abordan en este artículo académico son los fonemas vocales y consonantes, diptongos y triptongos, así como el acento de sílabas y oraciones. además, se discuten varias dificultades de pronunciación para hispanohablantes. finalmente, se consideran algunas implicaciones didácticas para que los profesores puedan ayudar a sus alumnos de cualquiera de los dos idiomas a aprender el segundo considerando características lingüísticas importantes. palabras claves: español, inglés, fonemas vocales y consonantes, acentuación de palabras y oraciones, dificultades de pronunciación, implicaciones didácticas. a comparative linguistic analysis of english and spanish phonological system silva 141 no. 25 resumo: este artigo analisa algumas diferenças significativas entre o espanhol e o inglês em relação com os padrões fonológicos. em primeiro lugar, faz-se uma breve introdução sobre estes dois idiomas e explica-se brevemente em que aspectos linguísticos são similares ou diferentes. a continuação, analisa-se em detalhe cada uma destas características linguísticas, estabelecendo claramente as diferenças existentes entre o espanhol e o inglês. as características fonológicas específicas que se tratam neste artigo académico são os fonemas vocais e consoantes, ditongos e tritongos, bem como o acento de sílabas e orações. além disso, discutem-se várias dificuldades de pronunciação para hispano-falantes. finalmente, consideram-se algumas implicações didáticas para que os professores possam ajudar seus alunos de qualquer um dos dois idiomas a aprender o segundo, considerando características linguísticas importantes. palavras chaves: espanhol, inglês, fonemas vocais e consoantes, acentuação de palavras e orações, dificuldades de pronunciação, implicações didáticas. a brief review describing my professional opinion about the paper the current paper i have written has a significant impact on the teaching and learning of both target languages, which are spanish and english. teachers and students ought to be aware of the main phonological differences existing between these languages so that the teaching-learning process regarding pronunciation can take place smoothly. being conscious of features such as vowel and consonant phonemes, diphthongs and triphthongs, word and sentence stress and identifying common pronunciation difficulties will definitely facilitate learning. teachers can easily and smartly address those problems by using some meaningful and practical techniques so that students can hone their pronunciation. therefore, the content of this paper will positively contribute to those who are teaching or learning spanish and english as a foreign or second language. a comparative linguistic analysis of english and spanish phonological system silva 142 no. 25 introduction learning english as a foreign or second language (efl/esl) involves, just like spanish or any other language, the development of the four fundamental skills, which are reading, listening, writing and speaking as well as grammar, discourse, lexis and phonology. uribe, fuentes, vargas, and rey (2019) state that in communication, that is, when learners apply their speaking skill, the phonological system plays an important role. pronunciation defines how comprehensible ideas are so that their interlocutors can understand them smoothly. therefore, to convey a clear message, it is fundamental to have good pronunciation. however, mastering appropriate english pronunciation can represent a big problem for efl or esl learners since there are several factors that generate obstacles when learning pronunciation. but naturally, that does not only happen with english, but with other languages as well. if we take, as an example, english and spanish native speakers, trying to learn these languages as a second or foreign language, it will definitely cause a problem in several areas, but especially in pronunciation because the phonological system of each language works differently. now, english and spanish languages, at first sight, may seem to have quite similar phonological features; but this is not necessarily true. even though the alphabet is nearly the same in both languages, there are extreme differences in pronunciation. shoebottom (2017) states that the phonological system of english differs a lot from that of spanish, especially in several significant aspects such as vowel and consonant sounds as well as syllable and sentence stress. as a result, for english speakers, trying to learn to speak spanish, at times may not be such an easy task to do because there are certain sounds that they do not have in their mother tongue. similarly, for spanish speakers, it becomes quite complicated to acquire english as a second or foreign language due to the complexity of pronunciation of words in l2. but differentiated phonemes are not the only factor that students must be aware of at the moment of learning proper pronunciation in the target language, syllable and sentence stress also play a significant role when dealing with phonological patterns. comparing and contrasting the phonological systems of both languages will allow them to have a better panorama of which these differences are that seem to make learning more difficult or easy for some language learners. this paper will, therefore, present some of these differentiated phonological aspects that are extremely influential when learning either language: spanish or english. a comparative linguistic analysis of english and spanish phonological system silva 143 no. 25 literature review vowel phonemes first, let us compare the number of vowels found in each language. on the one hand, according to shoebottom (2017), there are only 5 pure vowels in spanish, where the length of the vowel is not meaningful when differentiating between words. these vowel sounds are: a (paso), e (peso), i (piso), o (poso), u (puso). on the other hand, there are 12 pure or basic vowel sounds in standard english, being the following: iː (sheep), ɪ (ship), e (pet), æ (cat), ʌ (sun), ɑː (father), ɒ (dog), ɔ (all), ʊ (put), uː (soon), ɜː (bird), and ə (the). as just seen above, the number of pure vowel sounds in english is significantly higher than the ones in spanish, and that is one of the salient reasons why spanish speakers frequently find it grueling to produce all english vowel sounds properly. now, let us notice that the number of english vowel sounds shown above is only referring to the basic ones; if we consider the variations coming from those pure sounds, we can get more. if we start from saying that english vowel sounds can be divided into several categories: monophthongs (short and long vowels) diphthongs, triphthongs, vowels before historical r, and weak vowels. according to wood (2019), the number of vowel sounds in english depends upon the variety of english we are talking about. although, in the written alphabet of both target languages (english and spanish) there exist 5 vowel letters (a, e, i, o, u), in spoken english the case is different. generally speaking, there are approximately 20 distinct vowel phonemes in english. but, as mentioned above, the exact number of this type of sound will vary according to the english accent we are talking about. ballester (2015) also suggests that the exact number of these sounds usually depends on the manner the system is analyzed. equally, their sound qualities may vary significantly from accent to accent. to give an example, the american english vowel sounds are evidently different from those of british or australian. however, this is not the case of spanish vowel sounds as they are clearly differentiated in pronunciation. so, if we consider the standard southern british english, the number of vowel phonemes is 19, being these: /ɪ/ (sit), /e/ (dress), /æ/ (trap), /ʌ/ (strut), /ɒ/ (lot), /ʊ/ (foot), /iː/ (sea), /ɔː/ (north), /uː/ (goose), /ɑː/ (palm), /aɪ/ ( price), /eɪ/ (face), /ɔɪ/ (choice), /aʊ/ (brown), /əʊ/ (boat), /ɪə/ (near), /ɛː/ (square), /ɜː/ (nurse), and /ə/ (about). however, the total number of vowels in general american english is 21 and those are the following: /ɪ/ (myth), /ɛ/ (bread), /æ/ (cat),/ʌ/ (son), /ʊ/ (took), /iː/ (people), / ɑː/ (watch), /uː/ tuna), /aɪ/ (try), /eɪ/ (say), /ɔɪ/ (noise), /aʊ/ (noun), /oʊ/ (slow), /ɪr/ (clear), /ɛr/ (fair), /ɔr/ (four), /ɑr/ (car), /ʊr/ (ensure), /ɝ/ (mercy), /ɚ/ (feather), and /ə/ (common). as it is clearly seen, one important detail to mention is that some of the phonetic symbols also change from british english to american english. now, considering the numerous vowel sounds found in english, it is now understandable why it is extremely difficult for spanish speakers to learn to differentiate a comparative linguistic analysis of english and spanish phonological system silva 144 no. 25 among all those phonemes. shoebottom (2017) states that some typical problems entail the failure to differentiate between sounds in words such as sit/seat, cat/cut, fast/first, etc. in the first illustration, for example, students may not be able to easily differ the short /ɪ/ from the long / iː/. normally, english learners, whose mother tongue is spanish, struggle a lot with such differentiated sounds since in their mother tongue there is only the phoneme /ɪ/ not the long / iː/. consequently, dealing with minimal pairs, especially beginner or basic levels, is quite challenging for them. in spanish, though, learning minimal pairs is not as hard as in english because the vowel sounds are quite different from each other. diphthongs and triphthongs with regards to diphthongs, which is the combination of two vowel sounds, according to vizental (2008), there are 8 diphthongs in english, and these are divided into 2 types of sounds (considering the position of the speech organs): closing and opening diphthongs. in closing diphthongs (ei, ai, ɔi, au, əu), the nucleus is more open than the glide, whereas in opening diphthongs (iə, εə, uə), the vowel is closer than the glide. in spanish, however, diphthongs, which can be rising or falling. rising diphthongs entail a semivowel + a full vowel (ia, ie, io, ua, ue, uo, iu, ui). in contrast, falling diphthongs consist of the opposite sequence (ai, au, ei, eu, oi, ou), giving a total number of 14 diphthongs in this language (garita & maría gonzález, 2019). in relation to the number of triphthongs, which refers to a combination of three vowel sounds in one syllable, ballester (2015) states that there are 5 in english, being these: /eɪǝ/ (player), /aɪǝ/ (fire), /ɔɪǝ/ (soya), /ǝuǝ/ (lower) and /aʊǝ/ (hour). basically, as seen above, all triphthongs combine a diphthong and the schwa sound /ǝ/. nonetheless, triphthongs are uncommon in spanish. salcedo (2010) states that they may emerge in strange noun forms such as buey and huey. likewise, they might appear in the second person plural form of the verbs, which is in the vosotros endings such as limpiéis. consonant phonemes interestingly, there are numerous differences between the consonants in english and spanish. vizental (2008) contends that, according to phoneticians, there are 24 consonant phonemes in english, and they are grouped as plosive, affricate, fricative, nasal, and lateral consonants. in spanish, however, salcedo (2010) says that most american spanish dialects have 19 consonant phonemes, and they are classified as stops, slit fricatives, groove fricatives, affricates, nasals, laterals, and tap consonants based upon the manners of articulation. a comparative linguistic analysis of english and spanish phonological system silva 145 no. 25 frederi (2005) points out that there are 15 phonemes that happen in both languages, but 5 from these only occur in spanish, and 9 only in english. some of the phonemes that occur in both languages can be “ch” and “sh”. even though these are different phonemes in english, in spanish, these sounds may be pronounced interchangeably in the same word whose meaning will not be changed. this can be done in the word chimenea, where students might say “chimenea” or “shimenea”. evidently, something like this cannot happen in english because the meaning would be totally different. for example, in the words cheap and sheep, it is not possible to pronounce these sounds interchangeably because they are referring to two different things. the same happens with the letters “v” and “b”. although in english these are different phonemes, in spanish, depending on the dialect, both consonants appear in written words, but people usually pronounce these two phonemes as “b”. for instance, the word vaca (cow) sounds like baca. as mentioned above, there are certain consonant sounds that only occur in spanish, but not in english (frederi, 2005). for example, the trilled “rr”, a phoneme which can be heard in words such as carro meaning car and pero which is the conjunction but. evlampieff (2017) posits that this is one of the typical phonemes english speakers find quite challenging to correctly pronounce in order to have a proper spanish accent. if the phoneme is not correctly pronounced, the meaning of the word will be totally different from the one intended. another phoneme that exists only in spanish, but not in english is “ñ” as in baño to say bathroom. english speakers at first might be unclear about how to pronounce this consonant, however, paying attention to the phoneme “jə” as in the word canyon, they can become successful in producing this phoneme accurately. the consonant sound “ll” as in lluvia meaning rain may also be complicated to pronounce for english speakers. what they can do to properly pronounce this sound is focus on their sound “ʒ” as in the word genre. this phoneme resembles the one in spanish “ll” and can facilitate learning its proper pronunciation. similarly, there are consonant phonemes that only occur in english but not in spanish. whitley (2002) states that there are unshared consonants in these two languages. for example, “ð” is in father, appears in english, but not in spanish. nonetheless, learning to produce this phoneme does not really seem extremely difficult for spanish speakers because they can merely connect “ð” to the sound “d” as in día meaning day or use “t” instead of /θ/in the word thank. another phoneme existing in english, but not in spanish is “dʒ” as in jungle. yet, the closest spanish sound that resembles “dʒ” is “ll” as in llorar meaning cry. to some extent, these two consonant phonemes may sound pretty much the same and students might not be able to clearly identify the difference in pronunciation unless they are carefully explained about the manner of articulation of each sound. whitley (2002) also mentions that the english phoneme “ŋ” as in king does not exist in spanish. still, spanish speakers might focus on the phoneme “g” as in gato meaning cat to try to produce the phoneme “ŋ” at the end of an english word. a comparative linguistic analysis of english and spanish phonological system silva 146 no. 25 word and sentence stress frederi (2005) states that spanish is a syllabic language. he explains that each syllable in this language has the same duration regardless of where the stress falls in the word. usually, this is one of the main reasons for several english speakers to assume that spanish speakers are “rapid” talkers. this responds to the fluent manner syllables are pronounced in spanish. english, on the other hand, is characterized by having an accentual rhythm of speech. in other words, the accented syllables in a word tend to have a longer duration in comparison to the unaccented ones. for instance, in the word banana in english, the first and last syllables are pronounced very quickly because they have the unstressed schwa phoneme /ə/ while the second syllable is stressed as it has the phoneme /æ/. taking the same word in spanish, all the three syllables have the same duration and stress, and of course, the schwa phoneme /ə/ does not exist in this language. with regards to this phoneme, shemesh (2012) indicates that there are 3 types of stress in english being these primary, secondary, and weak, which is the schwa sound. she goes on to explain that the primary stress is always longer, louder, and higher on pitch. for instance, in the word tomorrow, the first syllable sound “tə” has a weak stress, /mɒr/ has a primary stress, and /əʊ/ has a secondary stress. in spanish though, there are only 2 two types of stress: primary and secondary, no matter how many syllables there are in a word. taking the same example, mañana, which is “tomorrow”, the syllable “ña” has a primary stress, while the other two syllables “ma” and “na” have a secondary stress. another noticeable difference between these two languages is the use of a dash representing an orthographic sign that goes on the vowel of the stressed syllable, which is found in various cases of spanish words (lavandeira, 2015). this dash clearly suggests what syllable must be stressed in the word, and depending on the utterance, the meaning will change. for example, tomate without this accentual dash means “tomato” in english; with the orthographic sign though, tómate, the meaning of the word changes to the imperative form of verb take conjugated in the second singular person. this orthographic sign does not appear in english words; hence, it becomes more complicated for spanish speakers to know what syllable is the one which has to be stressed in an english word. this is one of the reasons why english learners sometimes have trouble accentuating the right syllable in certain words. for example, beginner english students might accentuate the syllable “ti” in the word “article” because the word in spanish is artículo, being “tí” the accented syllable with the orthographic sign. another example would be the word helicóptero, where “có” is stressed; as a result, students might think that in english, the right syllable to accentuate is not “co” in helicopter, but first one “he”. hence, this linguistic detail might cause confusion to spanish speakers with regards to learning to accentuate syllables in english. for people who are learning to speak spanish though, the orthographic sign can facilitate their learning as this dash explicitly tells them what syllable they are supposed to stress in a word. a comparative linguistic analysis of english and spanish phonological system silva 147 no. 25 with regards to sentence stress, ballester (2015) points out that the relative stress of words in a sentence relies on their relative importance. in other words, the more significant a word is in a sentence, the stronger it will be stressed. these content words include nouns, adjectives, main verbs, and adverbs. this linguistic detail is found in both languages: spanish and english; nonetheless, having a longer duration in content words of a sentence does not occur in spanish. let us take the example of a complete sentence: “we stayed there for a while”, there are two accented areas of stress and as opposed to the other sounds in this statement, they have a slightly longer duration. this phonological phenomenon would not take place in spanish even if the same sentence were translated into this language (frederi, 2005). “permanecimos ahí por un tiempo” does not have any special longer accented area of stress that stands out from the other sounds in the sentence. indeed, the primary stress occurs in the syllables “ci”, “hí” and “tiem”, but this does not mean that the syllable sound is going to be longer as it happens in english. therefore, accentual rhythm of speech would never take place in spanish unless this were deliberately done to emphasize something like the message to be delivered or proper articulation of the syllable being accentuated. pronunciation difficulties for spanish speakers undoubtedly, one of the biggest challenges for spanish speakers when learning english as a foreign language is pronunciation. afonso (2021) explains that they usually struggle to make certain sounds in english which are not found in their mother tongue. for example, they generally have trouble with these sounds /ɪ/ /iː/ /æ/ /ʌ/ /ɜː/ /ɛː/ /ə/ /ʊ/ /w/. for example, spanish speakers find it hard to say feel and fill accurately as in their mother tongue they only have the short /ɪ/, not the long vowel sound. the same happens with /æ/, /ʌ/ and /ɑː/ which correspond to spanish /a/ so spanish native speakers struggle with these 3 different sounds. as a result, they will say these 3 words, for example, bad, but and bar in the same way with the sound / ɑː/. besides vowel sounds, spanish speakers also have issues with several consonant sounds. uribe, fuentes, vargas, and rey (2019) state that typically, it is hard for them to produce certain sounds like /ŋ/ /dʒ/ /ʒ/ /ð/ /θ/ /z/. it is common to hear learners using the /t/sound instead of /θ/ in words like thanks or through, /s/ sound instead of /z/ in words such as is or zoo and the /g/ sound as in good in words like wood or would. these authors also point out that regarding phonological differences between english and spanish, some phonemes in these languages are done in a different manner and place of articulation. for instance, the phoneme /r/ is vibrant alveolar in spanish, whereas in english, it is approximant post-alveolar. as a result, the speech organs of the spanish speakers who are learning english have to be adjusted to the exact english articulation movements so that the phonemes are produced appropriately. another a comparative linguistic analysis of english and spanish phonological system silva 148 no. 25 case is the phonemes /d/ and /t/. in english, these sounds are produced by touching the tip of the tongue against the upper gumline. in spanish, however, these sounds are made by touching the blade of your tongue (just behind the tip) to this same position. another difficulty spanish speakers have in pronunciation is word stress. darren (2020) posits that in english, vowels are eaten. he explains that both of these languages have cognates, which are words that have the same origin. when these cognates are pronounced, however, the sound of certain phonemes change. for instance, in spanish, vowels are normally produced more completely; meanwhile in english, they are usually reduced to the “schwa” sound /ə/. this occurs in syllables that are not stressed. a few examples of these cognates are: color, which in english it sounds like “colr”, but in spanish it sounds exactly as the way it is written. another example can be the word normal, which in english the sound goes like “norml”, but in spanish it also sounds the way it is written. cognates can also lead to mispronunciation of certain phonemes of some particular words in english. likewise, spanish spelling has a big influence on english pronunciation. (afonso, 2021) explains that spelling and pronunciation are very strongly associated in spanish, so beginning students commonly pronounce english words in the same way they are written, letter by letter. here we are also talking about l1 interference since their mother tongue negatively influences the way they read english. there are some common words spanish speakers mispronounce. for example, mother /moder/, money /moneɪ/, chocolate /tʃokoleɪt/, friend /frɪend/. but they also have problems identifying letters or sounds which are silent in english, so it is hard for them to identify and memorize which phonemes do not sound in english. some typical examples are answer, island, honest, palm, climb, knife among other words. moreover, some spanish speakers tend to drop consonant sounds at the end of words. moore (2020) points out that this usually happens in words like “breakfast”, and learners just say “brekfas”. another example is when they say mine trying to say mind, or tex instead of text. but this also occurs when they have to say the plural form of certain words. for example, in sentences they only say sentence, or task instead of tasks. another mistake they make in pronunciation is when they have to use the past of some regular verbs and they don’t add the phoneme /d/ in verbs like loved, decided, created, changed, etc. they say these verbs as if they were in the present tense. now, spanish speakers not only tend to drop consonant sounds at the end of terms, but they also tend to add the sound /e/ at the beginning of some words starting with ‘s’ and a consonant. some typical examples happen in these words: street as ‘estreet’, school as ‘eschool’, strict as ‘strict’, and some others. according to moore (2020), this occurs because words in spanish do not normally start with a consonant cluster. therefore, sounds like /sp/, /st/, /sk/, /sl/, /sm/ do not exist in spanish and they will always have a vowel sound before. for example, esperar, estado, esmero, etc. a good way to correct a comparative linguistic analysis of english and spanish phonological system silva 149 no. 25 this pronunciation mistake in learners is to practice saying ‘ssssss’ several times before actually saying the word which starts with /s/. didactic implications unquestionably, learning to properly articulate and produce the target phoneme in either language (english or spanish), at times, might not be very straightforward to carry out. however, it is the teacher’s responsibility to give students the necessary linguistic tools so that they become successful in pronouncing well the vowel, consonant, or syllabic sounds in the language they are learning. but in order to be able to accomplish this, students need to know the correct position of their mouth, tongue, lips and other speech organs when learning to articulate new phonemes. frederi (2005) points out that when language teachers are working with bilingual students, it is essential to know about common articulation rules as well as patterns of speech of the learners’ language. being aware of these linguistic factors helps the language instructor better appreciate the phonological differences of these two languages, but more importantly, how to take advantage of these variances to smoothly teach the students the second or foreign language, which in this case would be spanish or english. similarly, it is important and beneficial for students to work with minimal pairs since working with words, whose meaning and pronunciation differ from one sound, allows them to practice using correct pronunciation for each pair of words. tursunkulova & juraboyeva (2021) point out that minimal pairs offer great benefits when teaching and learning pronunciation of another language. they help students overcome their difficulties in pronunciation. working with two words at the same time, where only one phoneme is different in each word, helps students’ identity and learn proper articulation of sounds of each phoneme as they can contrast two nearly alike sounds. likewise, nordquist (2017) agrees that minimal pairs serve as linguistic tools which permit to indicate that two sounds are contrastive. he also claims that a minimal pair is the easiest and clearest manner to recognize phonemes in a language. yule (2010) also suggests that minimal pairs allow students to develop their capacity to comprehend the distinction in meaning based upon the minimal sound contrast. hence, these pairs of words help students practice and differentiate common bewildering sounds like /s/ and /z/, /tʃ/ and /ʃ/, /iː/ and /ɪ/ among other phonemes in english. when learning spanish, minimal pairs also help distinguish consonant and vowel sounds such as in words like poca and foca, diga and digo, fuerte and suerte, etc. having several repetition exercises is another key factor that greatly contributes to model and obtain proper pronunciation of such complicated sounds in either language, a comparative linguistic analysis of english and spanish phonological system silva 150 no. 25 spanish or english (ballester, 2015). students should have as many opportunities as possible to practice listening to words, and then repeating them right after the word heard because the more they repeat, the faster they will learn to accurately pronounce the new utterances. but it is essential that language teachers wisely correct students’ mispronunciation on time by using appropriate techniques to avoid making students feel frustrated or demotivated because of having too much correction. according to thornbury (2005), repetition and drilling is generally seen as an advantage when learning correct pronunciation of new items because it develops articulatory control over language. in other words, drilling allows proper articulation of sounds because the organs of speech production take the right position in order to properly say the utterances intended. but drilling is also seen as a fluency-enhancing technique because it does not only improve correct pronunciation of chunks but also speaking in a more natural manner without hesitation. so, the teacher should model correct pronunciation of the target words by having choral drilling, that is, asking all the students to repeat the words at the same time, and individual drilling, which means asking individual students at random to repeat the words to check and correct pronunciation. but error correction ought to be used wisely and appropriately. gumbaridze (2012) argues that one type of error correction cannot always be seen as the only primary method for all types of learners because for some students it can be motivating while for others it might be discouraging. indeed, it is necessary to have many drilling exercises to enhance and perfect pronunciation of words, but it is also crucial to correct students’ mistakes in a proper way utilizing different appropriate strategies that do not hinder learners from speaking the language. thus, constant repetition exercises help optimize pronunciation and avoid having fossilization mistakes, but the teacher should be cautious and sensible in the way they correct learners’ inappropriate articulation of sounds. there are many other activities that can be applied in the classroom to model proper pronunciation of words, phrases and complete sentences. for example, to practice pronunciation of words, the technique “odd one out” is useful. tursunkulova & juraboyeva (2021) points out that this activity can make any pronunciation rules more memorable for learners. the idea is to choose some similar words in terms of pronunciation or their meaning. for instance, leap, tea, sea, great, etc. and students are supposed to choose the word, which is different from the group, which in this case is great. this activity can be done either as a reading exercise, where learners can read the words to themselves aloud and then identify the target sounds in the written words or as a listening exercise, where the teacher reads the words and the student just chooses the odd one out. the activity “reading out-loud” is another great tool to rehearse pronunciation. uribe, fuentes, vargas, & rey (2019) postulate that this technique has been a comparative linguistic analysis of english and spanish phonological system silva 151 no. 25 implemented in l2 teaching so that student’s oral production can be enhanced. this activity offers several advantages. it not only improves pronunciation of individual words, but it also fosters fluency so that students can speak faster in a natural way. moreover, it helps learners to improve word and sentence stress as well as intonation patterns. naturally, this helps the teacher identify pronunciation mistakes and correct those errors afterwards. the teachers’ role is extremely important in this exercise since if they do not model proper pronunciation of words, phrases, or even sentences, the students will continue making the same mistakes and those will become fossilized. thornbury (2005) also suggests using this technique as it has the advantage of providing a safe framework within which students can concentrate on lower-level features of speaking, such as pronunciation, stress and intonation. so, it is helpful if learners first mark onto their script the main stressed words and then divide each word or expression into meaningful chunks. this will allow them to sound more natural, accurate and fluent when speaking the target language. this author also recommends using chants in the classroom because they represent a more playful way of practicing repetition and drilling of chunks. thornbury (2005) states, “because they are contextualized, the chunks in chants may in fact be more memorable than in standard drills” (p. 66). in order to work best, the chants ought to include repeated examples of short, multi-word series, and should also have a constant rhythm. once learners have heard the chant a couple of times, learners can try to reconstruct it in a written version, before they chant it in unison. teachers can also ask students to mark the main stressed words to practice sentence stress. if tough utterances are included or found in the chant, they can be modeled in an isolated way and have learners repeat them a few times until correct pronunciation is heard. there are many other activities that can be done when teaching both languages to improve the learner’s pronunciation. afonso (2021) suggests several famous techniques that teachers can apply in the classroom. for example, the phoneme race where the class is first divided into two teams and the teacher jots down some phonetic symbols on the board. these will be pronounced for students to listen to. then he will write words on cards and the learners from each group have to run towards the teacher to obtain a card. later, each team needs to identify the phoneme of the word pronounced, write it down on the back of the card and then run back to the teacher. if the word written is correct, that group is given another card. in the end, the group that has accumulated the most cards is the winner. afonso (2021) also recommends playing the game chinese whispers where learners sit in a circle. the instructor displays one of the students a symbol and he has to whisper it to the next student. the next student whispers the symbol he heard to the next student and so on until the last learner gets that symbol. they should say the sound of that symbol to compare with the original one given to the first student. now, this technique can be used not only symbols, but words, phrases or even sentences. it a comparative linguistic analysis of english and spanish phonological system silva 152 no. 25 all depends on what the teacher wants students to practice such as pronunciation of individual utterances, intonation, word or sentence stress. another useful technique to improve students’ pronunciation in either language, spanish or english, is using dictionaries. this activity works well if students are teenagers and adults whose level of english is at least (pre) intermediate and who have a good understanding of the phonetic alphabet. the teacher selects five words and at the same time they are phonetically transcribed. individually or in pairs, they are required to write the corresponding word. then learners exchange papers with another pupil or pair and are asked to check whether they have done it correctly. the winner is that learner or pair of students who got it right. for students whose level of english is more basic or have no good domain of the phonetic alphabet, audio dictionaries can be used. the idea is that the teacher plays the audio of the word/s that need to be practiced and then students are asked to listen and repeat. listening to the correct pronunciation provided by the dictionary can significantly help improve students’ pronunciation. the teacher can even foster autonomous learning by encouraging learners to visit an online audio dictionary or download a complete one such as cambridge, oxford, longman, etc. so that they can check the correct pronunciation of any word that they want to practice. dictionaries with audio are such great tools to learn and improve pronunciation. but eventually, learning to read the phonemic charts is extremely important and beneficial because students will know exactly how to pronounce each symbol and consequently how to pronounce words correctly. so, language teachers should gradually incorporate pronunciation lessons along with the phonemic chart to help their students to improve this speaking sub-skill. conclusions to sum up, there are a few similarities between spanish and english regarding their phonological system, but there are more differences encountered between these two languages. in this paper, it was seen that even though several phonemes and a few other phonological patterns such as vowel and consonant sounds, diphthongs, triphthongs, word and sentence stress occur in both languages, the number of distinctive features between them is not the same. for example, considering the numbers of sounds mentioned above, it is concluded that english has a total of 44 phonemes, whereas spanish has only 24 phonemes. another difference is that english has an accentual rhythm of speech, where some syllables are longer than others, while in spanish certain syllables are stressed, but they do not have longer duration. finally, teachers need to take into consideration several factors when teaching about pronunciation to their students so that words are properly pronounced in either target language they are a comparative linguistic analysis of english and spanish phonological system silva 153 no. 25 learning. there are a variety of strategies and techniques such as the ones mentioned above that teachers can employ to help their learners improve their speaking skills, particularly pronunciation, intonation, proper word and sentence stress. a comparative linguistic 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(2002). spanish/english contrasts a course in spanish linguistics. washington dc: georgetown university press. wood, s. (2019). how many vowel sounds does english have? retrieved from babble magazine: https://www.babbel.com/en/magazine/english-vowel-sounds/ yule, g. (2010). the study of language. new york: cambridge university press. author: juan carlos silva valencia has a bachelor’s degree of science in english education and a master’s degree in tefl. in addition, he has completed multiple courses to obtain several international certificates such as tkt, tefl, celta and tesol. likewise, he has received numerous national qualifications in language teaching methodology. moreover, he has more than 10 years of teaching experience and has worked at several institutions of both secondary and higher education. currently, he works as an english teacher at the technical university of ambato. he is deeply interested in several academic fields like linguistics, specifically phonology, language teaching methodology, and digital learning orcid: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7127-3709 a comparative linguistic analysis of english and spanish phonological system silva how to reference this article: silva valencia, j. c. a comparative linguistic analysis of english and spanish phonological system . gist – education and learning research journal, 25. https://doi.org/10.26817/16925777.1152 158 a qualitative investigation of pragmatic development in foreign and target context1 una investigación cualitativa de desarrollo pragmático en el contexto extranjero y objetivo ayşegül takkaç tulgar2* atatürk university, turkey abstract the effects of learning environment on language development in general and pragmatic competence have received increasing attention in the last few decades. the existing studies examined the effects of esl and efl settings on pragmatic development from a variety of standpoints. taking these studies as the basis, this comparative case study aimed to investigate the effects of target context and foreign context on the pragmatic development of two groups of learners, one learning a foreign language (english) and the other learning a second language (turkish). what differentiates this study from the previous ones is that it compares the cases of learning foreign and second languages (by two different student groups) in the same country (turkey) the participants, selected on purposeful sampling, were one group of turkish learners of english in an efl department in turkey and the other group was learners from different nationalities learning turkish in turkey. the data were collected through participants’ self-reports, interviews and in-class observations by the researcher. the content analysis mainly revealed that the foreign context did not offer learners adequate chances for exposure to and practice in the target language, which negatively influenced their pragmatic development. however, the target context provided ample chances of natural and authentic communication in which learners of turkish could develop their pragmatic knowledge and production. based on these results, some pedagogical and practical suggestions are provided. key words: pragmatic competence; foreign language context; second language context 1 received: february 23rd 2018/ accepted: july 13th 2018 2 aysegultakkac@hotmail.com gist education and learning research journal. issn 1692-5777. no.17 (july december 2018). pp. 158-192. takkaç no. 17 (july december, 2018) no. 17 (july december, 2018) 159 resumen los efectos del ambiente de aprendizaje sobre el desarrollo del idioma en general y la competencia pragmática en particular han recibido una atención creciente en las últimas décadas. los existentes estudios examinan los efectos de los escenarios de inglés como segunda lengua y de inglés como lengua extranjera sobre el desarrollo pragmático desde una variedad de posturas. al tomar estos estudios como la base principal, este estudio de caso tiene como propósito investigar los efectos del contexto objetivo y contexto extranjero sobre el desarrollo pragmático de dos grupos de aprendices, uno que aprende una lengua extranjera (inglés) y el otro que aprende una segunda lengua (turco). los participantes, seleccionados en muestreo intencional, fueron un grupo de aprendices turcos de inglés en un departamento de inglés como lengua extranjera y el otro fue un grupo de aprendices de diferentes nacionalidades que aprendían turco en turquía. los datos se recolectaron a través de autoinformes de los participantes, entrevistas y observaciones de clase realizadas por el investigador. el análisis de contenido principalmente reveló que el contexto extranjero no ofrecía a los aprendices las oportunidades adecuadas para la exposición y la práctica en la lengua meta, el cual influenció negativamente su desarrollo pragmático. no obstante, el contexto objetivo proporcionó amplias posibilidades para una comunicación natural y auténtica en el que los aprendices de turco pudieron desarrollar su conocimiento pragmático y su producción. basado en estos resultados, se proporcionan algunas sugerencias pedagógicas y prácticas. palabras clave: competencia pragmática, contexto de lengua extranjera, contexto de segunda lengua. resumo os efeitos do ambiente de aprendizagem sobre o desenvolvimento do idioma em geral e a competência pragmática em particular, têm recebido uma atenção crescente nas últimas décadas. os estudos existentes examinam os efeitos dos cenários de inglês como segunda língua, e de inglês como língua estrangeira, sobre o desenvolvimento pragmático desde uma variedade de posturas. ao tomar estes estudos como a base principal, este estudo de caso tem como propósito pesquisar os efeitos do contexto objetivo e contexto estrangeiro sobre o desenvolvimento pragmático de dois grupos de aprendizes, um que aprende uma língua estrangeira (inglês) e o outro que aprende uma segunda língua (turco). os participantes, selecionados em amostragem intencional, foi um grupo de aprendizes turcos de inglês em um departamento de inglês como língua estrangeira, e o outro foi um grupo de aprendizes de diferentes nacionalidades que aprendiam turco na turquia. os dados se coletaram através de auto-relatórios dos participantes, entrevistas e observações de aula realizadas pelo pesquisador. a análise de conteúdo principalmente revelou que o contexto estrangeiro não oferecia aos aprendizes as oportunidades adequadas para a exposição e a prática na língua meta, o qual influiu negativamente no seu desenvolvimento pragmático. porém, o contexto objetivo proporcionou takkaç no. 17 (july december, 2018) no. 17 (july december, 2018) 160 amplas possibilidades para uma comunicação natural e autêntica no que os aprendizes de turco puderam desenvolver o seu conhecimento pragmático e a sua produção. baseado nestes resultados proporcionam-se algumas sugestões pedagógicas e práticas. palavras chave: competência pragmática, contexto de língua estrangeira, contexto de segunda língua. pragmatic development in foreign and target context takkaç no. 17 (july december, 2018) no. 17 (july december, 2018) 161 introduction as the lingua-franca of the modern world, english holds a great place in people’s educational agendas as a language to be learned with increasing attention. there are a great number of people at different ages who try to learn english in diverse contexts over the world. while some people can learn the language in its immediate context, some try to conduct their language education outside the authentic setting in which english is used as the native language. these learning environments have necessitated the introduction of two main terms which refer to the context of language learning: esl and efl. esl, english as a second language, can be briefly defined as learning the language in its natural and authentic context; in other words, it refers to learning english in places where it is the native language. on the other hand, efl, english as a foreign language, denotes the case in which the language is learned in a country where it is not the native language. as in almost all the countries in the world, the demand to learn english is very high in turkey, which is a foreign language setting for this language. on the other hand, with the increase in the number of international students who want to receive higher education in turkey, the country has become a second language learning setting for a large number of learners. the interest of international students to study in turkey necessitated the establishment of state organizations to offer quality language education. with the help and efforts of such institutions as yunus emre institute and tömer (turkish teaching center), many people who are interested in learning turkish try to learn the language in different parts of the world (at yunus emre institute) and in turkey (at tömer). setting out from the assumptions of foreign context (learning english in turkey) and target context (learning turkish in turkey) outlined above, the present research aimed to investigate the effects of learning context on learners’ pragmatic development. the main purpose in this study is to compare not the two languages (english and turkish) but two different learning contexts in terms of their effects on learners’ pragmatic competence and pragmatic development, the natures of which will be briefly presented below. pragmatic competence the globalization of the world has required its inhabitants to communicate with others living in different parts of the world for such pragmatic development in foreign and target context takkaç no. 17 (july december, 2018) no. 17 (july december, 2018) 162 various purposes as trade, education and tourism and so on. in this evergrowing global interconnectedness, it has become almost a necessity to be able to use a second or sometimes a third or fourth language in order to establish and maintain healthy and effective interaction for mutual relations. the foundation and preservation of sound relations with different people over the world should be, therefore, grounded on the ability to follow some crucial aspects in language use which can be defined as communicative competence. noting that the ability to use a language cannot only be only restricted to the knowledge of its linguistic aspects, hymes (1972) proposed the notion of communicative competence which refers to the ability to use the language beyond sentence level. this assumption takes the personal, social and cultural dynamics into account in communication. sharing the concept of communicative competence, saville-troike (1989, 1996) underlined that language competence involves linguistic, interactional and cultural knowledge for the establishment of sound communication. canale and swain (1980), based on hymes’ (1972) introduction of communicative competence, proposed four types of communicative competence; grammatical, sociolinguistic, discourse and strategic competence. regarding the multi-dimensional nature of communicative competence, bachman (1990) stressed pragmatic competence as a separate component of communicative competence. pragmatic competence can be broadly described as the ability to use the language appropriately paying attention to individual, social and contextual dynamics. in their definitions of pragmatics, crystal (1985) and yule (1996) point at the individual and social aspects which affect the interactions between people and refer on the one hand, to the successful combination of linguistic forms and on the other hand, language users as the core elements for robust interaction. sharing a similar perspective, bardovi-harlig and mahan-taylor (2003) define pragmatic competence as the ability of “language users to match utterances with contexts in which they are appropriate” (p. 37). calling attention to the dynamic nature of languages, kasper and röver (2005) view pragmatic competence as being able to practice the language as a source of action and interaction. in the definition of pragmatic competence, murray (2010) highlights the interdependent relationship between form, language users and context in every-day communication among people. valuing the indispensable components of interaction, i.e. the interlocutors, their relations to each other, the context and purpose of interaction, pragmatic competence can be defined as the capability to use the language knowing not only what to say, but how to, when to pragmatic development in foreign and target context takkaç no. 17 (july december, 2018) no. 17 (july december, 2018) 163 and to whom to say it. taking the above definitions into consideration, one can conclude that pragmatic competence, which is the ability to use the language appropriately and to interpret messages successfully in the light of contextual clues, is of critical significance for human interaction which should be based on the strong relationships between linguistic, social and interpersonal aspects. in other words, it requires language users to follow abstract social, cultural and contextual norms if the aim is to have an effective and appropriate interaction. since pragmatic competence holds such a significant place in human interaction, it has attracted great attention, especially in the last few decades, as an area of investigation in linguistic studies. as this study focused on the effects of learning environment on learners’ pragmatic development, the following part presents the studies conducted on the impacts of learning environment on this issue. two groups of studies are presented: one displays the direct focus on the relationship between the learning setting and pragmatic development and the other investigates the effect of length of residence in the target community on learners’ pragmatic development. the effects of context on pragmatic development the effects of contextual differences between foreign and target language learning environments have aroused interest of researchers as regards the possible effects of learning environment on language learning process and pragmatic development in particular. researchers explained that there are distinctive characteristics between both contexts. they maintained that these differences are influential not only on learning but also on the way teaching practices are designed and conducted in line with available materials and opportunities (huebner, 1995; longcope, 2009). taking the interrelatedness of context and pragmatic competence, cummings (2005) maintains that “no definition of pragmatics would be complete in the absence of some mention of context” (p.4). the effects of learning context on pragmatic competence have been a focus of investigation in the field of language teaching especially for the last few decades (bardovi-harlig & dörnyei, 1998; matsumura, 2001; olshtain & blum-kulka, 1985; schauer, 2006; takahashi & beebe, 1987). one of the early studies on this issue was conducted by takahashi and beebe (1987) with a perspective to examine the effects of l1 pragmatic transfer on l2 refusal forms. the researchers found that there were differences in esl and efl participants in terms of their negative transfers. the efl participants were observed to go pragmatic development in foreign and target context takkaç no. 17 (july december, 2018) no. 17 (july december, 2018) 164 through a process of negative transferring in refusals compared to their counterparts in the esl context. a seminal study which was enlightening for future studies on the effects of learning context on pragmatic development belongs to bardovi-harlig and dörnyei (1998). focusing on grammatical and pragmatic awareness of esl and efl learners, the researchers worked with a group of 173 esl learners in the usa and a group of 370 efl learners in hungary. the data were collected through twenty video-typed scenarios. the participants were asked to evaluate the appropriateness of these scenarios in terms of grammar and pragmatics. the results showed that there were differences in the evaluations of two groups. the esl participants regarded pragmatic errors as more serious compared to their efl friends. for the efl group, on the other hand, the grammatical infelicities in the scenarios seemed to be more significant than the pragmatic errors. matsumura (2001) focused on the comparison of the advice giving produced by japanese learners of english studying in canada and japan and observed that those in the study abroad group chose more appropriate forms of advice compared to the other home-staying group. in a replication study of bardovi-harlig and dörnyei (1998), schauer (2006) added interviews to the original instrument. the researcher worked with german learners of english in england and germany on their identification of grammatical and pragmatic infelicities. the results of this study supported those of the original one. the esl learners were better at identifying pragmatic infelicities while efl participants focused more on the linguistic problems in the given scenarios. not all the studies centering on a comparison of study-abroad and stay-home learners share similar results. literature also holds some studies the results of which did not point at the superiority of study abroad experience (niezgoda & röver, 2001; taguchi, 2008). in a replication of bardovi-harlig and dörnyei (1998), niezgoda and röver (2001) concluded that the stay-home group in the efl context were better at identifying both grammatical and pragmatic errors than their esl counterparts. besides, the efl participants considered both error types as more serious compared to the considerations of the esl group. a few years later, taguchi (2008) aimed to examine the differences between japanese efl and esl learners in terms of their comprehension of indirect refusals and indirect opinions. the results revealed that both groups reached good levels of comprehension speed, which was still better in the esl group. regarding comprehension accuracy in indirect refusals, however, the efl group performed better than the esl participants. the different results in these two studies not supporting the superiority of esl over efl context may be attributed to the observation that there can be different dynamics behind the pragmatic development in foreign and target context takkaç no. 17 (july december, 2018) no. 17 (july december, 2018) 165 pragmatic success of language learners such as the content of education they receive. the studies focusing on the effects of target environment on language development are not only limited to those making direct comparisons of esl and efl contexts. another group of studies which indirectly examine the impact of learning environment on pragmatic competence are those focusing on the connection between the length of residence and pragmatic development (blum-kulka & olshtain, 1986; iwasaki, 2008; ren, 2013; schauer, 2006; taguchi, 2014). conducting a study on the effect of the length of residence in the target community and the development of directness and politeness productions, blumkulka and olshtain (1986) emphasized the contributions of the target environment on the native-like productions by the participants. a recently-conducted longitudinal study also pointed at the positive effects of staying in the target environment on pragmatic development. ren (2013) inspected the cognitive developments of 20 chinese learners of english studying abroad for an academic year in terms of their productions of status-equal and status-unequal refusals. the results revealed that the participants had increasing attention towards the sociopragmatic aspects in their productions with the help of their interactional experiences in the target environment. holding a somewhat different perspective, reynolds-case (2013) focused on pragmatic development in staying abroad experiences with less than a six-week period. the results showed that even short stays in the target environment made contributions to learners’ understanding and production of appropriate forms in their interactions. relevant literature also holds studies posing counter-arguments against the above-mentioned studies. this group of studies, though not many in number, show that staying in the target environment is not of contributory nature in learners’ pragmatic development (dufon & churchill, 2006; han, 2005; matsumura, 2003). the argument in these studies is that spending time in the target culture cannot be the only factor affecting pragmatic improvement. there are other influential factors in the development of learners. the results of a dissertation conducted by han (2005) is one of the studies providing counter evidence to the direct relation between staying abroad and pragmatic development as the participants, the korean learners of english in america, could not produce a native-like language. while pointing at the benefits of study abroad experience on pragmatic abilities, hassall (2013) stressed some possible drawbacks with study-abroad learners and noted that their personal or social characteristics may negatively affect them in interacting with native speakers in the target environment. pragmatic development in foreign and target context takkaç no. 17 (july december, 2018) no. 17 (july december, 2018) 166 existing literature also reflects the increasing interest towards turkish as a foreign language. there are studies, though not adequate in number (yılmaz, 2016), examining different aspects of teaching turkish. some studies underlined the need for developing separate and comprehensive programs and curricula and well-designed materials for teaching turkish as a foreign language (chmielowska & dikici, 2013; tosun, 2005; yıldız, 2013; yılmaz, 2016) while some others focused on the competencies that teachers of turkish should have (karababa & çalışkan, 2013). views of prospective language teachers on teaching and learning turkish also received attention (yaylı, 2015). however, literature does not hold adequate number of studies on the issue of pragmatics or pragmatic competence in teaching turkish as a foreign language. just few studies mentioned the need to integrate the transmission of cultural and pragmatic features of turkish (chmielowska & dikici, 2013; kaya & oran, 2015) through texts (bölükbaş & keskin, 2014). in conclusion, the existing studies on the effects of learning context on pragmatic development have focused on the pragmatic development of learners of english conducting their language studies in foreign and target contexts. these studies have been grounded on the esl and efl distinction and followed quantitative designs to measure the change in the level of pragmatic development of the participants in these two contexts which are geographically different places. the present research, holding a different perspective in investigating the effects of learning context on pragmatic development, is purposed to examine the effects of a context which is geographically the same but contextually different in terms of language education. in this study, the same place exhibits the characteristics of foreign and second language learning environments for the two different participant groups. aiming to give voice to language learners’ experiences in this setting with regard to pragmatic development in the target language, the study centers not on a comparison of the two languages but on the effects of the geographically-the-same but contextually-different language environment on learners’ pragmatic development. methodology this study was based on comparative case study methodology with an aim to gain in-depth understanding the issue under investigation from the perspectives of the participants who directly experienced the cases. as suggested by yin (1984) and creswell (1998), this design enables the researcher to examine the issue within its real-life context. pragmatic development in foreign and target context takkaç no. 17 (july december, 2018) no. 17 (july december, 2018) 167 with comparative case study design, the researcher could investigate “what resides beneath” (haverkamp, morrow & ponterotto, 2005, p.124) setting in this comparative case study, the same context (a state university in turkey) served the characteristics of a target language learning context for foreign learners of turkish while a foreign language learning context for turkish learners of english. regarding the foreign learners of turkish, the context can be said to have offered many opportunities to be exposed to the language in its authentic setting besides ample chances of practicing the language with its native speakers. in such a context, the process of language learning becomes easier for learners in that they can hear the language and practice it in many different contexts, which is a great chance for their pragmatic development. the other group, turkish learners of english, on the other hand, were learning the target language in a foreign language learning context in which they could be exposed to the appropriate forms of the target language and practice it mostly in the classroom environment. when they were out of the learning environment, it was not as easy for these learners to be exposed to appropriate language usages as their targetcontext counterparts could in the target language learning context. therefore, the foreign context can be said to lack available chances of exposure to and practice in the target language, which was a potential drawback for their pragmatic development. the participants purposeful sampling was followed for participant selection (patton, 1987). there were two groups of participants in this study. one group was composed of 10 turkish students learning english in the efl context. they were preparatory class students in english language teaching department. their ages were between 18 and 22 and they had experiences of learning english up to 10 years. they were learning english in turkey and none of them had stay-abroad experience. this group was thought to be representative of the learners learning the target language in a context where they did not have much chance of exposure to the language outside the classroom. pragmatic development in foreign and target context takkaç no. 17 (july december, 2018) no. 17 (july december, 2018) 168 the other group consisted of 10 students from different countries (one from russia, one from georgia, one from mongolia, one from iran, three from kazakhstan, one from afghanistan, one from kyrgyzstan and one from tajikistan). with scholarship provided by the turkish government under the organization called ytb (presidency for turks abroad and related communities), they came to turkey in order to conduct their undergraduate or graduate studies at different departments. some of those participants had tried to learn turkish in their countries through television but could not develop their language proficiency beyond a2 level. they had to reach c1 level in turkish in order to continue their academic studies in turkey with the scholarship. therefore, they were receiving 960-hour turkish language education for a thirty-two-week period. this group was thought to reflect the characteristics of learners who conduct their language studies in a natural and authentic setting. this study was conducted with both groups after they had received target language education for a whole year; 28 weeks for the turkish learners of english and 32 weeks for the foreign learners of turkish based on their curriculum. in this period, they had the chance to observe the learning environment with its advantages and disadvantages. data collection instruments and procedure in order to reach stronger conclusions, data triangulation was followed through three instruments. the first data set was obtained from the written self-reports of the two groups (one foreign-languagelearner group and one second-language-learner group) reflecting their experiences in language learning in general and their pragmatic development in particular. the participants were provided guiding questions according to which they were expected to reflect their experiences of pragmatic development in the learning environment. the questions were formed by the researcher in light of the relevant literature and two field experts (one on teaching english as a foreign language and the other on teaching turkish as a foreign language) were consulted for the understandability and clearness of the guide. the questions for both groups were the same but the questions were in english for the foreign-context group and in turkish for the targetcontext group. below are the questions guiding the participants in their self-reports: • what are the effects of learning context in your pragmatic development in the target language? pragmatic development in foreign and target context takkaç no. 17 (july december, 2018) no. 17 (july december, 2018) 169 • what are the effects of the language education in your pragmatic development? • how would it be different if you had learned the target language in a different context? (target context for the foreigncontext participants and foreign context for the target-context participants) each participant was asked to write three self-reports (one in a month); thirty for one group and thirty for the other, sixty in total. they were asked to submit their reports at the end of the educational year. the second way of collecting data was through observations. the observation notes were taken according to such pre-determined points as the amount of exposure to pragmatic aspects of the target language in the educational setting and students’ chances for practicing pragmatic side of the target language through in-class interactional patterns and activities. the researcher attended eight classes (four english classes and four turkish classes, eight in total) once in a month in order to have a general idea of the pragmatic development of learners over a process. the third instrument was semi-structured interviews. the researcher prepared a guide for the interviews which included similar questions as those in the guide for the participants’ self-reports. each interview, lasting 15-20 minutes, was conducted with all the participants in both groups so that the researcher could have the chance to reach detailed understandings of the participants regarding the effects of learning context on their pragmatic development. besides the preset questions, the researcher also had the advantage to ask different questions according to the flow of the interview since semi-structured interview was followed. the participants were provided with the flexibility to answer the questions either in english or in turkish. the turkish learners of english generally tried to speak in english but when they could not exactly convey the idea they wanted, they switched to their native language. as to the foreign learners of turkish, they tried to speak turkish during the interviews. when their language ability was not sufficient to express their purpose in turkish, those who could speak english switched to english; those who could not tried to rephrase what they wanted to say by using their body language to a large extent. data analysis before conducting the analysis procedure, the researcher followed participant approval in order to ensure trustworthiness of the findings. each participant was asked to revise the transcripts and an early analysis was conducted by the researcher regarding their reflections. pragmatic development in foreign and target context takkaç no. 17 (july december, 2018) no. 17 (july december, 2018) 170 the data were analyzed through content analysis in a three-step process. first, an individual analysis was followed in which individual answers of each participant was analyzed. in the second step, an ingroup analysis was conducted in which the answers of each participant in the same group were compared to each other with an aim to make an in-group comparison of participants. as a result of this process, recurring codes were obtained, which are reflected in the results section with participant quotations to increase the trustworthiness of the findings. in the third step, a cross-group analysis was carried out in order to compare the data obtained from the two participant groups following their language studies in different learning contexts. the data obtained through the semi-structured interviews and observation notes were also analyzed in the same system (individual analysis, in-group analysis and cross-group analysis). the same system was followed in the analysis of these three data sources, revealing similar points of discussion. following the same analysis system and reaching similar conclusions is thought to ensure trustworthiness of the data analysis process. in order to obtain interrater reliability, a field expert was also asked to analyze the same data sets through the system followed by the researcher. the internal rate of return was 83.5% for exact, 12.5 for similar and 4% for different codings and this again strengthened the trustworthiness of the analysis process. results the data obtained from turkish learners of english and learners of turkish from different nationalities revealed different perspectives on the effects of learning environment on language development especially on pragmatic development. the content analysis of the data can be presented in two main themes: foreign context and target context. in order to provide a clearer picture of the effects of learning environment on pragmatic development, the results are presented in compact tables designed to reflect the ideas from participant quotations from their self-reports and interviews as well as researcher’s notes taken during class observations. as there are three sources of data, to eliminate confusion for readers, the quotations from each source can be presented with some symbols. regarding self-reports, for example, p1-sr2 means participant 1/self-report 2. for observations, o3 stands for the third observation. for interviews, i-p4 refers to the interview conducted with the fourth participant. pragmatic development in foreign and target context takkaç no. 17 (july december, 2018) no. 17 (july december, 2018) 171 for an orderly presentation, this section first displays the results obtained from the students in the foreign context and then those from the students in the target context. table 1 shows the views of turkish learners of english in their self-reports and in the interviews and the views of the researcher through observation notes on the issue under discussion in addition to introducing the foreign context theme and underlying categories and codes. table 1. foreign context as can be seen from table 1, the data reflected different dimensions regarding the effects of learning environment on general language development and particular pragmatic development of turkish learners of english. since the available data included many similar statements, only those exemplifying the common views of the participants are provided. the commonly shared point among participant statements was the focus on the linguistic aspects of the target language in foreign language education while mostly neglecting instruction and practice on its communicative side. this was the core problem for learners in the process of understanding and developing their pragmatic knowledge and skills. during the interview, a participant pointed at the rule-governed education system and the lack of interactive opportunities as the major reasons beyond their inadequate levels of pragmatic development: “the education i have received is a rule-governed one. though i am an english language student and, well ... a prospective english teacher, i cannot say that i have enough knowledge of pragmatics in the target language… in addition, i cannot use the language pragmatic development in foreign and target context takkaç no. 17 (july december, 2018) no. 17 (july december, 2018) 172 outside the classroom. so, the education system and lack of chances to practice… this creates a big problem for my pragmatic development.” (i-p3) another participant held a similar perspective and highlighted the existing language education styles and the reality of not having enough chances of being exposed to and practicing the target language among the reasons for their low levels of pragmatic proficiency in general. in addition to these points, the participant also referred to the indirect psychological effects of learning the target language in a foreign context explaining that low levels of language proficiency, especially lack of pragmatic knowledge and competence negatively impacts their mood. this low achievement, in turn, decreases their motivation and self-confidence. the below quotation from the participant’s self-report, which can be considered an example combining the educational, social and psychological effects of foreign context, can be enlightening in order to understand the perceptions and experiences of a majority of foreign language learners: “i have been learning english for almost six years. i know almost all the grammatical rules, at least, i think so, but where can i use them, only in grammar exams? when i think whether i know the language or not, i realize that i know its grammar but what about its speaking dimension? when i think of this, i really become demotivated. i comprehend that i know rules which don’t help me to talk. i thought i would be able to speak in english with people when i started foreign language education at university. but, i can’t because there are just a few instructors to teach in english and when i go out of the class, there is no one to talk with in english. this is terrible for a language learner. and even worse for a prospective language teacher... i don’t feel confident in my language abilities. but, actually i should because i have spent six years on this.” (p5-sr2) the same participant expressed her wish to receive language education in its natural setting instead of a foreign context. she stated that if she had spent six years in a second language setting, she could have developed her speaking skills including the pragmatics of the target language as well as its grammar: “i wish i could have studied english in america or england. then, i could have really learned how to use the language properly. as i noted in my reflections, i know many grammar rules but i don’t know how to use the language appropriately in spoken form. the context affects everything.” (i-p5) pragmatic development in foreign and target context takkaç no. 17 (july december, 2018) no. 17 (july december, 2018) 173 in order to improve her knowledge of how to use the target language appropriately, another participant also stated her desire to study abroad and expressed that her current learning environment is mostly suitable for linguistic but not pragmatic development. the main reason she provided for this was the lack of chances of communicating in the target language, which is actually necessary for practical language use. the wish to have a study-abroad experience was common for more than half of the participants who thought that if they had studied abroad, they could have been more exposed to the pragmatic usage of the target language in its authentic setting and; therefore, could have been much more competent in using the language effectively. since the classroom is mostly the only context for them to be exposed to and to practice the target language, they feel themselves limited in learning and exercising the language in terms of pragmatics. during the interview, a participant who, like most of his friends, aimed to apply to a student exchange program said that it would be much more different and efficient if he could learn the target language abroad. making an abstract comparison of the foreign context and target context in mind, the participant reflected his opinions with the following words: “well… of course, it would be very different. learners in turkey… they… well, actually, we don’t have much chance to…practice the language with native speakers. actually, they can’t mostly speak in english outside the class. but, in the target context… this is not the case. they have to speak english wherever they go. to me, ımm, a language can be learned best in an environment where it is spoken. think of turkish immigrants to germany, i also have relatives there, they didn’t know a single word but now they are better than, ımm, the students who are taking education in german in turkey. the immigrants don’t have perfect grammar knowledge but they are good at speaking. that is the difference.” (i-p8) the below excerpt from one of the self-reports of a participant can be considered as a summary of all the three categories as to the general views of the participants regarding pragmatic development in foreign context. touching upon the educational, social and psychological effects of learning the target language in foreign context on pragmatic development, the participant reflected the below perception: “the way english is taught in turkey has been usually criticized because of its heavy focus on linguistic aspects of the target language while neglecting its pragmatic and communicative side. in addition, most of our professors are non-native speakers of pragmatic development in foreign and target context takkaç no. 17 (july december, 2018) no. 17 (july december, 2018) 174 english; this means the main way to be exposed to target usage is through movies or soap operas. the lack of exposure to pragmatic forms combined with lack of practice is the greatest challenge in pragmatic development. since we cannot learn and practice the target language appropriately, we end up with pragmatic mistakes. this decreases our motivation and confidence in speaking the target language. the education system, lack of exposure and practice and low levels of confidence and motivation all become a vicious cycle negatively impacting our pragmatic development.” (p3-sr3) the notes i took during my observations also pointed at similar matters. i noted that most of the participants were competent in forming grammatically correct sentences in writing and speaking activities when they were asked to produce the language. however, they were having hesitations when they were expected to produce the language. for example, in an activity in which participant 2 and participant 7 were required to form a professor-student dialogue, i observed that participant 7 was experiencing difficulty in the manner he needed to talk with a professor. he had the things to say in mind but he hesitated to say them with pragmatic appropriateness. when i asked him the reason for his hesitation, the participant explained that he had not been much exposed to a context of professor-student talk in the target language; whenever he had a question to ask, he preferred to ask it during breaks and used his native language, turkish. another attention-grabbing point during my observations was that most of the participants, as a majority of their classmates did, refrained from communicating in the target language and if they had to, they preferred to use short expressions. for example, participants 1, 3, 6 and 9 did not look at the teacher directly in the eye in order not to have voluntary contact with her/him. when i asked the reason behind this behavior, the participants responded that they were afraid of talking in the class because they did not have enough confidence to speak in the target language. they stated that even if they know grammar very well, they could not produce pragmatically appropriate sentences because they did not know much about target language pragmatics. the result was that they could understand what the teacher was saying and they were even forming answers in their minds but they were shy to talk since they did not have much chance of practice. this situation has again become almost a vicious cycle for them: not talking-feeling shynot talking-having low self-confidence and not talking again. pragmatic development in foreign and target context takkaç no. 17 (july december, 2018) no. 17 (july december, 2018) 175 the observation notes also pointed at another topic which is worth presenting. since learners in the foreign context were not exposed to appropriate target usages, they obviously had some doubts about which words or phrases would be proper to use in particular situations. for example, in an activity, the students were expected to produce direct and indirect apology forms. i observed that while all the students were able to form direct apologies; most of them did not come up with appropriate forms of indirect apologies. participant four in o2 (second observation), for instance, experienced some problems while making a comparison of two apology productions. while producing the direct apology form, he could immediately produce the direct apology form in the target language saying i am sorry… (to disturb you, for breaking the glass, etc.); but experienced difficulty in producing indirect apology form. i noted that he still used direct apology forms expressing his apology indirectly. when the instructor helped him suggesting he could say something like how careless of me, he seemed to realize that this form could also be an indirect way of apologizing. when the class was over, i asked the participant four why he experienced difficulty in the activity; he explained that he had not seen this form before so he did not have adequate background knowledge on indirect apology as a speech act in mind. another example in the observation notes was as follows. in a dialogue activity, participant 5 produced an utterance which reflected his almost turkish way of thinking. instead of saying “god speed”, the participant said “may god make your road open” (which can be considered as a direct way of translating this statement from turkish to english). almost all the students in the class besides the teacher seemed to understand what he meant, but the teacher had to interrupt and provide the correct version. then, i observed that most of the students were taking notes of this phrase even if it is a simple daily expression. when we were talking with the participants, they expressed that as they were not learning the target language in its authentic setting, they could not be exposed to such easy expressions, which can be considered as a source to block their pragmatic awareness and knowledge. pragmatic analysis of the data from the foreign-context participants in learning a target language, it is important to develop an awareness of the pragmatic aspects of the language besides its linguistic, phonological or syntactic characteristics. it can be inferred from the data obtained through their comments that the participants in the foreign pragmatic development in foreign and target context takkaç no. 17 (july december, 2018) no. 17 (july december, 2018) 176 context were not provided with much chance of being exposed to the target language forms in terms of the communicative and pragmatic aspects of the language. instead, they were provided with the type of language education favoring the linguistic side of the target language. in such a language education style, because of the rule-based content, design and presentation of language input, learners could not develop an awareness of the pragmatic rules or the usages of the target language. as they could not hear or see examples of appropriate language uses in their surroundings, the participants reported to experience difficulties in expressing their ideas in appropriate forms. when the findings from the participants are analyzed, the almost negative effects of the lack of exposure and practice on the pragmatic knowledge and development of the participants can become more obvious. for example, taking the case of participant 5 reported in the observation notes into account, one can observe that the participant centered his output in the target language on the way he thought in his native language. as he has not been exposed to the pragmatically appropriate usage of this particular expression, he relied on the direct translation of the expression, which would not possibly be understood by a native speaker. the lack of exposure to and practice in the target language resulted in pragmatically ill-productions by the foreigncontext participants. as the data collected also from the students from different nationalities learning turkish in turkey revealed, the representation of the experiences in pragmatic development of the group in second language learning in the target context displays a very different dimension as regards the general language development, especially pragmatic development in the target context. as in the presentation of the data obtained from the foreign context group, the comments of the target group are also represented with some abbreviations. for example, a statement included in the third self-report of the seventh participant is referred to as p7-sr3. or, the interview conducted with the fifth participant is i-p5. the categories of the target context data are the same as those in the foreign context data with different codes. table 2 shows the results obtained from the target context group. pragmatic development in foreign and target context takkaç no. 17 (july december, 2018) no. 17 (july december, 2018) 177 table 2. target context unlike those learners in the foreign context, the ones learning turkish in the target context, i.e. turkey shared their positive and motivating experiences related to their language development. the common point in the remarks of this group was that learning the target language in the target context contributed a lot to their pragmatic knowledge and enabled them to develop their pragmatic competence. since they could have many chances of exposure to the target usages in different contexts, they could improve their pragmatic knowledge. a participant commented that wherever they go, they need to use turkish, either willingly or unwillingly. they are exposed to the target culture besides its language and this is the actual source of pragmatics development for them. the below statement from one of the self-reports from the participant from iran can be illustrating about the contributions of the target context on the pragmatic development of learners: “i think we are lucky because we are learning turkish in turkey. wherever we go, whatever we do, whomever we speak with, we need to use turkish. of course, this is sometimes challenging. but without this chance, i think we would not be able to develop our language competence to this extent.” (p4-sr2) the same participant expressed her appreciation of the chances for exposure to pragmatic norms of the target language also during the interview. being aware of the contributions of exposure to authentic pragmatic development in foreign and target context takkaç no. 17 (july december, 2018) no. 17 (july december, 2018) 178 language in terms of pragmatic development, she was happy to hear the target language in different natural settings from different native speakers. through these exposures, she could learn different pragmatic dimensions of the target language, which naturally positively affected the way she produced the language and increased her level of pragmatic development: “here, we are surrounded by native speakers and i believe this is a great opportunity for us to develop our language skills. this chance is especially important to realize how language is used in different places and with different people. by listening to native speakers in different contexts, i have started to use the language much more appropriately compared to my previous language level.” (i-p4) as displayed in table 2, the opportunity to be exposed to the target language and to be able to use it with different people from diverse social, cultural and educational backgrounds was the main advantage for most of the participants to develop their pragmatic competence in the target context. a participant stated that she can communicate with people from different parts of the society and this not only develops her language skills, especially speaking, but also expands her world knowledge and view. she can observe the target culture in its natural context and interact with its speakers in authentic situations. she maintained that the cultural elements in her country (mongolia) and those in turkey resemble; however, there are still differences to be observed in the natural setting to be able to make comparisons even between two close cultures. the participant also declared that this case has positive implications in the way she perceives herself as a language learner who can also develop her understanding of the world through interaction with diverse cultures and life styles. as she increased her world knowledge and cultural knowledge of the target language, she could follow the pragmatic dynamics of the target language. with the available chances of exposure and interaction, she stated that she feels herself more confident while establishing interaction with the native speakers of the language because she knew better how to interact with them appropriately following cultural and pragmatic norms. she expressed her opinions and experiences as the following: “..ımm.. i.. i really like learning turkish here, in turkey because, you know… when i go to the market i hear and speak turkish, when i go to the cinema, it is again the same. this is ımm.. great. besides the language, i can also.. observe people. i can see what they are traditionally (this word was stated in english because the pragmatic development in foreign and target context takkaç no. 17 (july december, 2018) no. 17 (july december, 2018) 179 interviewee did not remember the turkish word) doing, what they are saying in certain cases. well.. i believe language and culture are integrated. in this context, we can develop full language knowledge and abilities as confident learners… with linguistic and pragmatic capabilities. so, we are lucky” (i-p7) experiencing the target language and culture in its natural environment was viewed as a great advantage by the participants in the process of pragmatic development. a participant expressed that she had some concerns related to how she could learn the target language in a different country before coming to turkey. however, her positive experiences helped her overcome, even erase, her concerns. in her selfreport, she stated that the more time she spent in the target culture (in turkey), the more she learned how to use the language properly and enjoyed learning turkish and added that it would not be the same if she learned turkish in her country, russia, because she could not have been exposed to the way native speakers use the target language: “before i came here, i had some doubts. i was afraid of not learning turkish. but all disappeared in time. now, i am really happy to be here in turkey to learn turkish because i can see how the natives use turkish in different places like in the canteen, in the shopping mall or in the dormitory. if i had been in russia, i could not have learned this much turkish in such a short time. i am happy and i feel confident.” (p8-sr3) the affective impact of the learning context in pragmatic development was the point of appreciation of a participant. while expressing his gratitude of the chances of exposure to and practice in the target language in its authentic setting, a participant pointed at the gradual increase in his confidence in using the language appropriately with its pragmatic aspects. he maintained that directly observing how the natives were using the language in different places at different times and with different people enhanced his pragmatic awareness and knowledge of the target language. this, in turn, increased his confidence and efficacy since he was able to use the language like a native speaker. referring pragmatic rules as abstract rules to follow for appropriate language use, the participant noted in a self-report: “at first, i observed that when natives talk with different people, they use the language differently or they change their words, manners or intonation in different communicative contexts. then, i realized that, as we do in our native language, we need to follow some abstract rules of using the language appropriately when interacting with different people in different places. this pragmatic development in foreign and target context takkaç no. 17 (july december, 2018) no. 17 (july december, 2018) 180 awareness and knowledge i gained in time increased my selfconfidence and my belief in my capabilities to use the target language appropriately.” (p10-sr3) the classroom observations of this group also showed parallel results with the statements of the participants. during the observations, i noted that, unlike the english learning group, the students in the target group were much more willing to talk with their professors and the students were following chances for further interaction. most of them displayed observably increasing confidence in themselves as language users. for example, during my first observation, the shyness of participant 3 in interacting with classmates and instructor grabbed my attention. she seemed to avoid having eye contact especially with the instructor and talked with him only when she was asked to. when i asked her the reason for this, she explained that she had things in mind but had concerns about saying something wrong to the instructor or conveying some meaning she did not actually mean. however, during my following observations, especially in the final observation, i noticed notable positive changes in her willingness to communicate with classmates and instructors. she uttered that being frequently exposed to the target language produced by its native speakers in and out of the educational setting provided her with the indisputable opportunity to understand the pragmatic dynamics of the target language. therefore, her pragmatic awareness and knowledge developed her confidence in using the target language appropriately with its native speakers in a dramatic way. i also observed that the attention of the participants was attracted in the lessons as native-speaker-instructors informed them of both linguistic and pragmatic features of the target language. i noted that the target-context participants were more willing to participate in classes compared to their foreign-context counterparts because they were learning the multidimensional aspects of the language and having linguistic and pragmatic practice during classes. for example, participant 5 was really eager and motivated to participate in different activities and she explained that learning different things about the target language motivated her and increased her enthusiasm to participate in classes. one outstanding case can be provided as an example of the supporting nature of the target context on learners’ pragmatic development. during the first observation, in a context of funeral, participant 8 said a phrase in her native language to mean “i am sorry for your loss” and nobody except the students sharing similar pragmatic pragmatic development in foreign and target context takkaç no. 17 (july december, 2018) no. 17 (july december, 2018) 181 backgrounds with her understood what she meant. the problem was that her statement meant something different in turkish and was not appropriate to be used in a context of funeral. when the teacher raised her eye-brow, she tried to explain what she actually meant and added this is the way they are using it. the, the teacher offered the pragmatically proper way of expressing it. in the third observation, i reported a case showing the positive effects of the target context on the pragmatic development. the same student raised her hand and asked for the floor. she stated that when she was coming to the school, she heard two women talking about the death of a man and one of them used the appropriate version the teacher taught them. pragmatic analysis of the data from the target-context participants the comments of the participants and the observation notes revealed that the target context provided this group with a good amount of pragmatic input which helped them develop their pragmatic knowledge and awareness. for example, considering the case of participant 8, it can be concluded that as she was exposed to the way the target language should be used appropriately through the input offered by the native speakers (her language teacher and the women talking on the bus), she developed the sense of realization that the way she was using her native language was not the same the target language should be used. based on this cross-language comparison, she was observed to benefit from the input, which was available not only in the classroom but also out of the classroom, in the sense to develop her pragmatic awareness and competence, which naturally increased her pragmatic knowledge and positively affected her self-confidence as a language learner who wanted to share her language-related experience on a daily occasion. discussion the data obtained from a group of participants learning the target language in the target community pointed at the positive effects of the target context on developing language knowledge especially pragmatic competence besides expanding their cultural knowledge of the target society. those participants in this language learning environment were observed, as they themselves also expressed, to be much more knowledgeable, confident and willing to initiate interactions in the target language. on the other hand, the data obtained from the foreign pragmatic development in foreign and target context takkaç no. 17 (july december, 2018) no. 17 (july december, 2018) 182 context group revealed that the lack of necessary exposure to the use of the target language in different contexts by different people and limited chances of interaction with different native speakers in various settings created challenges for language learners in the process of developing their pragmatic skills. these challenges, inevitably and unfortunately, had negative impacts on the pragmatic development and practices of learners since they were educationally, socially and psychologically influenced in a negative manner by the disillusioning lack of opportunities in a foreign context. the results of the present study were generally in line with those of the previous ones as they generally pointed at the limited chances of interaction and exposure in the foreign contexts (bardovi-harlig & dörnyei, 1998; lee, 2016). besides lacking chances of exposure and interaction, the major problematic aspect of the foreign context is that it cannot equip learners with the cultural and pragmatic norms of the target language which are indispensable for healthy communication. classroom is generally the only context in which learners can learn things about the pragmatic aspects of the target language; however, this context offers limited pragmatic information to learners since the only way to be exposed to the target pragmatic norms would be through language teaching materials, that is, textbooks utilized in foreign contexts. the available textbooks do not and cannot always meet the demand for pragmatic information as they do not fully represent the cultural and pragmatic aspects of the target language. in their examination of efl textbooks in terms of their pragmatic content, meihami and khanlarzadeh (2015) and limberg (2016) maintain that though available textbooks offer some presentation of basic speech acts, they are not sufficient to display all pragmatic forms which are essential in different communicative situations. therefore, instructors who utilize these materials in their courses and who do not have comprehensive knowledge of the target culture would offer merely a partial presentation of the target norms. another key point of criticism towards the foreign language learning contexts in the present study was reported to be the focus on linguistic education. the foreign language contexts, as also maintained by the majority of the participants, center on instructing the linguistic aspects of the target language while ignoring its pragmatic side leaving learners without the capability to improve their pragmatic knowledge and awareness as also underlined in charkova and halliday’ (2011) study. it is, of course, necessary to have some basic level of linguistic competence on which learners can build their pragmatic capabilities. however, while grammar teaching and practice takes much of pragmatic development in foreign and target context takkaç no. 17 (july december, 2018) no. 17 (july december, 2018) 183 instruction time in foreign language learning contexts (lee, 2016), pragmatic skills remain as a somewhat dark area. in addition, foreign language instruction does not generally involve pragmatic feedback for learners (taguchi, 2015). in other words, as learners mostly receive linguistic instruction, they naturally receive linguistic feedback but limited pragmatic feedback; therefore, they do not know the weak areas needing extra attention. this situation, therefore, becomes the source of the problem because learners in these settings do not have much chance of learning and practicing the language outside the classroom (lee, 2016; neddar, 2012) and they are not provided much pragmatic knowledge and feedback. if learners are not equipped with the knowledge and helped to develop their interactive skills, they cannot be expected to produce the language efficiently, which would raise their affective filters and become a source of potential stress for learners. regarding this point, economidou-kogetsidis (2008), derwing and munro (2013) and samaranayake (2016) suggest that speaking skills through communicative activities should receive more attention since some learners do not have access to interactive chances outside the classroom. if classroom is the main setting in which interaction in the target language can take place, then language teachers should offer a communicative environment for their learners to have access to interaction in order to compensate for the lack of adequate exposure to the pragmatic norms of the target language. the participant comments and classroom observations in this study revealed that the group learning the target language in its natural context seemed to be at the advantaged side. the results from the target context, unlike those from the foreign context, generally gathered around the contributions of the target setting in providing learners with ample chances of exposure and practice in the target language, which echoed the result from some previous research (bardovi-harlig & dörnyei, 1998; charkova & halliday, 2011; schauer, 2006). these chances of exposure enabled learners to observe the language in its authentic and natural context and then to practice it with its native speakers. reaching a similar conclusion as a result of the comparison of foreign and target settings in learning english, roever (2012) expresses that target settings offer learners free routines. sharing a related perspective, ortega (2009) suggests that these available chances can push learners beyond their present proficiency. taguchi (2015) also appreciates the contributions of learning the target language in the target environment explaining that the more learners can observe the target culture and language in its natural setting, the more appropriate pragmatic behaviors they can develop. to elaborate on this point, it can be stated that target settings pragmatic development in foreign and target context takkaç no. 17 (july december, 2018) no. 17 (july december, 2018) 184 are full of accessible input in various contexts for learners which can be naturally internalized without much effort compared to the foreign context in which learners need to spend conscious effort in order to obtain this knowledge. learners in target contexts need to establish and maintain communication with the native speakers in order to understand them and to be understood by them. therefore, though it may sometimes become a source of stress for learners, a learning environment of this type can act as a force to push the learners beyond their limits and help them develop their socialization in the target culture. at this point in the discussion, it would be beneficial to refer to swain’s (1985, 1995) output hypothesis. she proposes that language production is as important as language input in the development of language. taking this notion into consideration, it can be stated the target context group could experience the advantage of a combination of input and output in and out of the classroom setting. there are some limitations to this study. data triangulation was followed to strengthen the validity and trustworthiness of the qualitative data. however, the comparison of foreign context and target context in terms of pragmatic development was only based on qualitative data. future studies can adopt mixed methods research design to investigate the pragmatic knowledge and performances so that, besides qualitative comparison, they can also statistically compare the effects of learning context on pragmatic knowledge. another limitation was related with the number of participants. future studies can be carried out with more participants. longitudinal studies can also be conducted to evaluate the amount of the effects of exposure to and practice in the target language on learners’ pragmatic development. conclusion making a comparison between learning foreign and second languages in the same environment, this qualitative study revealed the contributions of the target context on pragmatic development of learners while pointing at the insufficient opportunities for exposure to the cultural and pragmatic norms, and limited chances for practicing the language in diverse situations with the native speakers of the target language in the foreign context. this lack of exposure and practice was reported by the participants in the foreign context as the major obstacle to their pragmatic development. given the essential nature of integrating pragmatic competence into language education, it can be beneficial to present some suggestions that can be followed especially in foreign language learning contexts: pragmatic development in foreign and target context takkaç no. 17 (july december, 2018) no. 17 (july december, 2018) 185 • if the aim in language education is to train learners as competent language users with developed pragmatic abilities, it is essential to offer them the knowledge and circumstances to practice the language. as classrooms are mostly the only environments in which language can be practiced in foreign contexts, then instructors as well as curriculum and material designers should take their share out of the process. • teachers should, first of all, search for “optimal instructional practice and resources for pragmatic development” (taguchi, 2011, p. 289). they should expand their linguistic and pragmatic knowledge of the target language (bardovi-harlig, 1992; ishiara, 2010) especially through the available web-sources (zhu, 2012) as they offer ample information, materials and activities. • curriculum and material designers should further integrate pragmatic knowledge and its practice in their designs. taking the speaking content of language materials into account, boxer and pickering (1995) suggest that “only through materials that reflect how we really speak, rather than how we think we speak, will language learners receive an accurate account of the rules of speaking in a second or foreign language” (p. 56). via appropriate materials and in and out-class activities, learners can be familiarized with the unfamiliar. • the materials should not just include item-format presentations of target pragmatic features. instead, there should be an allinclusive design in which learners can have access to various social, cultural and pragmatic norms of world countries in addition to the ones belonging to the target language. this can contribute not only to learners’ pragmatic development in the target language but to their world citizenship identity as well. • language instructors or authorities can organize formal/informal meetings in which language learners can socialize themselves with the target culture by observing its socio-cultural norms and having chances of practicing the language with its native speakers. • if possible and affordable, the possibilities of studying in the target context should be expanded beyond the current exchange programs in order to offer learners the chance to ‘live the language with its people in its natural context’. • since it would not be possible for all foreign language learners to have study abroad experiences, tele-conferencing sessions pragmatic development in foreign and target context takkaç no. 17 (july december, 2018) no. 17 (july december, 2018) 186 can be organized for suitable courses in order to provide an international educational interaction. through this practice, learners of the foreign language can be exposed to the target language produced by it native speakers, can have chances of interaction with native-speaker instructors and students. in this way, foreign language learners can develop their knowledge and use of the target language appropriately in different contexts and with different people. this may be very great step for learners to develop their pragmatic competence. • the faculty training prospective language teachers should also do their best to equip their students with the strategies update their knowledge and teaching skills in a professional manner. • though there can be some suggestions for different parties, it should also be kept in mind that the whole responsibility is not on the shoulders of language teachers and material or curriculum designers. as agents to hold almost half the responsibility of learning, language learners should also be willing to find and conscious of following extra chances for developing their language knowledge and skills beyond the walls of the classroom. if learners do not display enthusiasm for improving their language abilities, then the learning environment can be neither beneficial nor futile. only spending time in the target environment is not the guarantee of language success. learners should make use of the advantage to different levels (bardoviharlig & dörnyei, 1998; kinginger & blatter, 2008). each learning context has its own peculiarities which cannot be easily changed. if certain situations cannot be changed, then the existing conditions can be ameliorated. in order to offer learners a better and more productive context for language learning, teachers, material designers and curriculum developers can shoulder the responsibility. they need to adjust the available resources, technology and tools to meet the principle criteria of a fruitful learning atmosphere. it should also be kept in mind that it is not solely the environment which provides benefits and contributions; instead, it is actually the learner who finds the ways to utilize available chances. therefore, learners need to be informed about the ways to seek opportunities for developing their pragmatic competence and they should be motivated in the sense that they can manage the process of finding solutions to their problems. pragmatic development in foreign and target context takkaç no. 17 (july december, 2018) no. 17 (july december, 2018) 187 references bachman, l. 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(2016). turkish language and teaching turkish as a foreign language. international journal of humanities and social science invention, 5(12), 77-81. yin, r. k. (1984). case study research: design and methods. beverly hills, ca: sage. yule, g. (1996). pragmatics. oxford: oxford university press. zhu, w. (2012). polite requestive strategies in emails: an investigation of pragmatic competence of chinese efl learners. relc journal, 43(2), 217-238. doi: 10.1177/0033688212449936. pragmatic development in foreign and target context takkaç no. 17 (july december, 2018) no. 17 (july december, 2018) 192 author *ayşegül takkaç tulgar holds a phd. in english language teaching from atatürk university. she is currently an assistant professor in english language teaching department, atatürk university, turkey. her research interests are cross-cultural pragmatic competence, peace education, glocalization and language education. pragmatic development in foreign and target context no. 17 (july december, 2018) no. 17 (july december, 2018) 142 exploring the funds of knowledge with 108 guatemalan teachers1 una exploración con 108 docentes guatemaltecos de los fondos de conocimientos mayra c daniel and ximena d burgin2* northern illinois university, usa abstract using a reflective exercise designed for this study, guatemalan educators explored their students’ and their own cultural capital. the cultural capsule exercise served as a vehicle to bring delicate issues that are difficult to discuss, but that are essential to effective schooling, to reflective conversations. a total of 108 teachers went beyond identifying problems and detailing frustrations, to exploring possibilities for action. participants converged in sharing perspectives that guatemala is a culture of silence, and used examples to illustrate how this perpetuates the limitations of the country’s schoolhouse. findings reveal the teachers were challenged to focus on what can be accomplished. qualitative data analyzes, conducted using symbolic convergence theory to establish recurrent and idea generation, suggest a need for further examination of how the sociocultural educational mandates delimit teachers’ ability to adjust the curriculum in consideration of learners’ funds of knowledge. keywords: teachers’ voices; cultural capital; funds of knowledge; reflective educators; diverse indigenous cultures of guatemala resumen docentes de una comunidad de guatemala examinaron el capital cultural de sus estudiantes y de si mismos, usando un ejercicio desarrollado para este estudio. el ejercicio de la cápsula cultural sirvió de vehículo para aportar a la conversación temas que, aunque delicados y difíciles de aproximar, son esenciales para establecer sistemas escolares efectivos. un total de 108 maestros compartieron y detallaron sus frustraciones, y comenzaron a explorar cambios que ellos mismos podrían llevar a cabo. los participantes convergieron en sus ideas para verificar sus puntos de vista que guatemala es una cultura de silencio. ellos ofrecieron ejemplos que detallaron el por 1 recieved: september 4th 2018/ accepted may 15th 2019 2 mayra.daniel@gmail.com; xrecald1@niu.edu daniel & burgingist education and learning research journal. issn 1692-5777. no.18 (january june 2019). pp. 142-160. no. 18 (january june 2019) no. 18 (january june 2019) 143 qué, este silencio perpetúa y limita la escolarización. datos cualitativos, documentados usando la teoría de la convergencia simbólica, se usaron para establecer temas que se repitieron y generaron ideas. investigaciones futuras han de examinar el contexto educacional y sociocultural que evidentemente delimita cómo en guatemala los maestros y sus estudiantes se desenvuelven en las escuelas, y consideran sus fondos de conocimientos. palabras claves: voces de los maestros; el capital cultural; educación liberatoria; culturas indígenas de guatemala resumo docentes de uma comunidade da guatemala examinaram o capital cultural dos seus estudantes e de si mesmos, usando um exercício desenvolvido para este estudo. o exercício da cápsula cultural serviu de veículo para aportar à conversação temas que, mesmo que delicados e difíceis de aproximar, são essenciais para estabelecer sistemas escolares efetivos. um total de 108 mestres compartilharam e detalharam suas frustrações, e começaram a explorar mudanças que eles mesmos poderiam realizar. os participantes convergiram em suas ideias para verificar seus pontos de vista que a guatemala é uma cultura de silêncio. eles ofereceram exemplos que detalharam o porquê, este silêncio perpetua e limita a escolarização. dados qualitativos, documentados usando a teoria da convergência simbólica, usaram-se para estabelecer temas que se repetiram e geraram ideias. pesquisas futuras haverão de examinar o contexto educacional e sociocultural que evidentemente delimita como na guatemala os mestres e seus estudantes se desenvolvem nas escolas, e consideram seus fundos de conhecimentos. palavras chaves: vozes dos mestres; o capital cultural; educação liberatória; culturas indígenas da guatemala daniel & burgin no. 18 (january june 2019) no. 18 (january june 2019) 144 introduction in effective schooling systems, teachers’ expertise is valued, and social justice paradigms are supported (daniel, riley, & kruger, 2017; daniel, 2016: faust, 2016; kincheloe, 2008; wertsch, 1990). this research considers teachers’ perspectives and insights related to the value that is placed on social justice in guatemala’s school system. diverse schooling environments such as guatemala need to recognize the funds of knowledge of all learners’ and their teachers’ in the school curriculum (gonzález, moll, & amanti, 2005; ruiz, 1984). guatemala’s cultural and linguistic diversity is vast as evidenced in the 23 recognized indigenous languages spoken in the nation (world fact book, 2017). although today many of these languages exist only in oral form, they continue to be used by families in their homes and neighborhoods, and for conducting business in many of the country’s communities. a substantial number of the maya who reside in rural areas, earn their living selling handicrafts and food in the outdoor markets that dot the guatemalan landscape. many guatemalans struggle to meet basic needs. of those who reside in rural communities, only 49.3% have access to sanitation facilities (behrman, murphy, quisumbing, & yount, 2009). while 51% of the country’s overall consumption can be attributed to those at the top 20% socioeconomic level, 23% of the population struggles with extreme poverty (world fact book, 2017). for educators, confronting perceptions that may couch the existence of problems, is beneficial. using wide angle lenses to examine both sides of problems with a view to honest disclosures will promote identification of unsolved issues and may overturn status quo assumptions of intolerance and social injustice. the cultural capital exercise, hereafter known as cce, developed for this study, was based on the idea that teachers and students need to examine their backgrounds, and the influences that led them to become who they are, in order to grasp what they bring to the classroom context. the word capsule was selected instead of the word baggage, because it positively highlights the contributions of families’ cultural norms and the strengths of communities. participants were to envision an expanding capsule that, once opened, would allow the individual to engage in an ongoing reflection of the items selected for inclusion, and to share these key pieces of themselves in a thoughtful manner. instructions were to create a visual representation using only drawings of people, places, and objects, and the use of letters or words was forbidden in the idea sharing. the cce asked teachers not to worry about the size of the capsule that they were creating, because it would hold everything they identified as the heart and essence of their being. the goal of the cce was to identify memories, events, and interactions with significant people that, from our formative years on, make each of us unique, using art to imprint the memory system (daniel, 2017, daniel & huizenga mc coy, 2014). after funds of knowledge with guatemalan teachers daniel & burgin no. 18 (january june 2019) no. 18 (january june 2019) 145 participants prepared the drawings for their capsule, they shared what they discovered during the process in small groups prior to giving their drawings to the researchers. the steps of the cce served as a scaffold to examine the funds of knowledge in the school community. this study explored 108 guatemalan teachers’ understandings of their students’ cultural capital, and their perceptions of how this impacts schooling practices. in this work, the researchers examined educators’ attitudes and how their perceptions support or oppose frameworks that reflect a sociocultural theory of learning (freire, 2002). participants began an exploration of the concept of the funds of knowledge within their communities of practice (gonzález, moll, & amanti, 2005). participants participated in workshops in which they first explored their cultural norms and their students’, and then considered what they might wish to place in a cultural capsule to share the wonder and uniqueness of their communities. the qualitative exercise ensured anonymity of the participants so that they would feel free to express their positive and negative opinions. literature review liberating education in his work freire (2002) was concerned with education that is dehumanizing. the cce used in this study was intended to tug at the humanity of the teachers who participated. freire used conversational circles with peasants in brazil to facilitate conversations. he wanted them to grasp that maintaining silence would perpetuate existing conditions and frustrations. his efforts centered on creating citizens who could contribute to their communities in peaceful and skillful communication (faundez, 2001). this required that he teach the peasants ways to question the status quo, and learn ways to stand up for their rights. this involved breaking long standing cultural habits, with the most important one being acquiescent behaviors ingrained in children’s upbringing. freire (2002) proposed situational contexts need to be examined in collaboration, research, and advocacy efforts that consider all individuals’ acts and attitudes central to the validation of humanity and democratic citizenship (daniel & riley, 2018; jakar & milofsky, 2016). guatemala’s history of domination of the indigenous and a lack of appreciation of their languages continues (guadarrama, 2013). in this study we looked at life and schooling in guatemala in consultation with educators currently employed in guatemala’s public school system. these educators followed our lead to reveal truths that they struggle with daily, such as childhood hunger and abuse, and to validate their struggles and recognize non-schooled knowledge and community funds of knowledge with guatemalan teachers daniel & burgin no. 18 (january june 2019) no. 18 (january june 2019) 146 networks (gonzález, moll, & amanti, 2005). the cce was used in an effort to unearth evidence in the participants’ minds of the ways that their communities of origin, and their students’, evidence jeweled stores of funds of knowledge (gonzález, moll, & amanti, 2005). challenges to schooling in guatemala guatemalan educators want to create environments that give students a framework to discover new ideas and create visions of satisfying lives. they struggle to do so given that in guatemala many schools are buildings without potable water, with sanitation facilities that are not hygienic, and do not have libraries. these circumstances apply to schools in remote rural areas and to many in the capital city. data documented by the world fact book (2017) reveals information useful in understanding contextual factors that affect students’ academic success such as the 40% poverty levels of the maya. data documents that over 80% of guatemalans are literate in spanish, but there are no rates available to indicate biliteracy levels for the indigenous. expenditures for education in guatemala equal only three percent of the gross national product. school attendance from primary to tertiary levels is higher for males but more and more females are gaining access to education (world fact book, 2017). half of the country’s population resides in rural areas and is under 19 years of age. in their summative evaluations of learners across the country of guatemala, the office of evaluation and educational research, known by the acronym digeduca, documents that learners’ educational problems begin to surface at primary school when children drop out of school to help support their families (2014). this agency reports academic achievement for learners at grade six in reading and mathematics at 40 and 44% respectively, with students from rural areas achieving lower levels of success in meeting national standards. in the long run, the problem affects the earning power and economic stability of both those who never complete a high school education, and of those whose education does not lead to a college degree (digeduca, 2014). teacher preparation in guatemala as of 2013, the normal school teacher training model was no longer in place. this model involved future teachers in preparatory programs during their last two years of high school. this was cost efficient and produced many teachers with initial licensure without families incurring the cost of a college education (guadarrama, 2013). when completion of a university degree became a requirement of all future teachers, intensive teacher training programs funds of knowledge with guatemalan teachers daniel & burgin no. 18 (january june 2019) no. 18 (january june 2019) 147 began to be delivered on saturdays. programs at universities delivered in all day sessions on saturdays allowed those interested in the profession to work in regular jobs during the week and finance their living expenses while studying. the changes in requirements were instituted when the ministry of education, identified as mineduc hereafter, declared that students’ academic achievement would be interpreted as a reflection of teachers’ expertise. orozco & valdivia (2017) documented that changes were not piloted before implementation. methodology of research the questions that guided this study were focused on an exploration of guatemalan educators’ understanding of their students’ and their own funds of knowledge, and the teachers’ ability to educate while striving to overcome challenges to schooling in their communities of learning. q.1: what challenges to schooling are foremost in the teachers’ minds? q.2: how do teachers explain the make-up of their students’ cultural capital and funds of knowledge? q.3: how do teachers explain the make-up of their own cultural capital and funds of knowledge? q.4: how do teachers perceive their ability to overcome challenges to education in their schools? context and participants participants represent educators from an urban municipality located northwest of guatemala city, guatemala. participants were employed public school teachers at levels k-secondary, some from schools of only 12 teachers, and others represented schools with larger teaching staffs. the teachers ranged in age from 25 to 45 years of age, with four to twenty-five years of teaching experience. all participants completed their initial preparation to teach as part of their secondary curriculum in guatemala’s normal schools when this road to licensure was in place. a small number of the teachers were completing the work required for a post-graduate degree after initial certification. nine focus groups of 8-12 participants each were held with teachers who volunteered to be part of this study, to establish their challenges prior to participation in the three-hour workshops during completion of the cce. teachers were recruited to participate in this research with the assistance of the guatemalan literacy council. participants were ot compensated for their funds of knowledge with guatemalan teachers daniel & burgin no. 18 (january june 2019) no. 18 (january june 2019) 148 participation. data gathered served to compare and contrast the teachers’ initial perceptions prior to the workshops, with those they shared after participation in the cce. two reiterations of the exercise were completed with each group of teachers, each followed by a debriefing. one workshop addressed identification of students’ funds of knowledge, the other was centered on teachers’ awareness and ability to examine and discuss the components of their own funds of knowledge. each workshop involved participants in a conversation about what the funds of knowledge consists of, and why it is necessary that teachers consider their students’ cultural capital as well as their own, in lesson planning. data analysis across all phases of this qualitative study, emergent and recurrent themes were identified (corbin & strauss, 2015). in addition, convergence of themes was documented using symbolic convergence theory, hereafter identified as sct (daniel, 2010; bohrmann, 1983). recurrent themes for the purpose of this qualitative research, and its examination of teachers’ perspectives and what they perceive to be road blocks to students’ academic achievement, refer to themes which arise during small group conversations not once but multiple times. themes which repeat themselves across groups and within a single focus group merit consideration because their reoccurrence reveals that they are uppermost in participants’ minds. recurrent themes were identified as they emerged and then quantified during analysis to answer this study’s questions. sct is a theory from the communications discipline that has proved useful in examining the development of ideas in exploration of delicate issues in education within small focus groups (daniel, 2010). sct has been used to examine consensus across focus group participants prior to initiating business ventures. it was the methodology selected to explore the possible financial success of the riverboat casino trade later established and currently flourishing in the state of iowa in the united states (bohrmann, 1983). daniel used sct some 18 years ago to investigate foreign language teachers’ views of writing instruction in the foreign language classroom in her doctoral dissertation. the power inherent in sct is its assumption that human beings struggle to accept what they are not able to manage, and thus create dramatic visions or fantasies that will justify their inability to act. sct facilitates travel beyond the drama that may prevent paths for action. using sct, a researcher is able to note themes that recur and that also create excitement in the environment across participants. sct analysis allows researchers to delve deeper into the reasons human beings act as they do. in focus groups, contrasting comments allowed both the researchers and the participants to view possibilities for funds of knowledge with guatemalan teachers daniel & burgin no. 18 (january june 2019) no. 18 (january june 2019) 149 action through clearer lenses. the teachers’ evidenced excitement as well as revealed deflated visions of empowerment, when educators in focus group conversations voice opinions, they may begin to develop confidence that they themselves might generate purposeful and effective actions. the end result may be the creation of implementable new visions for improving the schoolhouse. convergence thus arises when themes generate new ideas and possibilities for action that participants buy into, support, and subsequently use to create new paths for action. in this sequence of convergence and advocacy facilitated during the focus group conversations, one individual offers a thought to the group, another person might add to or disagree with the thought expressed, and as conversations evolve, pragmatic visions emerge. pragmatic visions are plans for action that educators come to see as implementable and transforming. findings the discussion that follows presents recurrent themes that resulted in convergence, during conversations with practicing teachers that were focused on the contribution of the funds of knowledge to instructional planning and delivery. data is divided into three categories of information gathered from participants. teachers’ challenges at the start of the cce are presented in table 1: teachers’ identified challenges at the start of the exercise. teachers’ exploration of their students’ funds of knowledge is detailed in table 2: students’ funds of knowledge. lastly, table 3: teachers’ reinterpreted paths for action, offers a summary of teachers’ statements and their re-envisioned perspectives with possibilities for action identified after participation in the exercise. teachers’ identified challenges at the start of the cce four groups of teachers identified problems they encounter in their work as educators in guatemala. the problems they described related to themselves and the conditions in their schools. the teachers’ comments demonstrated great concern for the welfare of their students. table 1 includes statements from the teachers that resulted in convergence within the focus groups with issues divided into categories. all statements were translated to english from spanish. funds of knowledge with guatemalan teachers daniel & burgin no. 18 (january june 2019) no. 18 (january june 2019) 150 table 1. teachers’ challenges at the start of the exercise the mandated curriculum is a problem because we have to use the books from mineduc. what i am supplied for my first grade class is too hard for my students. they want me to teach english but i speak no english. see this mobile. i used the dictionary to look up the colors in english. on one side of each part of the mobile, i have, say yellow on one side and amarillo on the other. i don’t know what the students can do with just isolated nouns. i know that tourism from the united states contributes to guatemala’s economy, but shouldn’t we teach literacy in spanish and our native languages before english? one good thing is that the children are no longer beaten at school. well, at least in my class. meetings with parents that focus on the values identified by the ministry are short and infrequent. we do not share our goals with parents well. the books given to us to use are not appropriate for the grade level we teach. children age five cannot read stories without pictures. curriculum infrastucture didactic language other changes materials now inplace or needed x x x x x x x x x x x x x funds of knowledge with guatemalan teachers daniel & burgin no. 18 (january june 2019) no. 18 (january june 2019) 151 i need more light in my classroom. the students can’t see the board. our schools do not have libraries. i share my secondary classroom in the afternoon with the fifth grade teacher who is assigned to the same room in the morning session. so we have two schools in one building. we cannot put anything on the walls or it will be gone the next day. we have a small locker to keep our supplies. we have to buy our markers, erasers, and paper. i am supposed to teach in kacchiquel (one of guatemala’s indigenous languages) but i really don’t know the language. sometimes i have students who have moved to this area who do not speak spanish. they learn but it is a struggle. i worry about the children who come to school without having eaten breakfast. many of them have not had supper the night before. we feed them in the middle of the morning and we can see how they do not pay attention because they are hungry. the one bathroom in our school does not flush. we fill and pour a bucket of water in the toilet because we can’t flush. there is only one stall for the teachers and the students! we have to bring our toilet paper. of course, there is no seat on the toilet. there is no light in the tin cubby hole that is our bathroom. x x x x x x x x x x funds of knowledge with guatemalan teachers daniel & burgin no. 18 (january june 2019) no. 18 (january june 2019) 152 learners’ cultures and funds of knowledge as part of workshops centered on culture and its impact in teaching and learning, participants were asked to focus on the students in a class they were currently teaching, and to think about the culture of the entire group, and the differences across individual learners. at the beginning of the first workshop, an explanation of the meaning of cultural capital was shared with the teachers in a conversational question and answer format. cultural capital was explained as consisting of the knowledge present in the world views and cultural norms of students’ families and communities, and in the danger inherent in societal frameworks that reproduce inequalities (webb, schirato, & danager, 2008). participation in this research composed the first time that the teachers had been exposed to the concepts of the funds of knowledge (gonzález, moll, & amanti, 2005). the teachers went beyond generalizations that might have their roots in the perception that all members of a community might have similar or somewhat identical world views. explanations shared by the teachers included examples of components that influence the daily lives, traditions, customs, languages, and their habits as people from guatemala. an exact definition of culture was not shared in this research. the teachers understood the idea of having a culture, and were eager to share examples of the diverse cultures of guatemala. their examples related to indigenous languages, the music of guatemala, and the traditional hand-woven clothing that through its design and color, identifies members of different areas and regions of their country. they also brought up el conflicto armado, guatemala’s civil war, and its part in the people’s history. the civil war was a time of repression for guatemalans, when atrocities occurred on the part of the guatemalan army, when families were displaced and large numbers of women were widowed. the effects of the war can still be felt today, long after the peace accords were signed (united states institute of peace, 2007). exploring what may make up the guatemalan culture served as a link leading to a discussion of schooled and non-schooled funds of knowledge (gonzález, moll, & amanti, 2005). it was appropriate to highlight for the teachers that learners arrive at school with knowledge that can serve as a scaffold for the curriculum. the schoolhouse has to provide learners a path back to real life and economic underpinnings. the lecture conversation format also lent itself to address family networks as a key support system for learners. the family and the community in which an individual resides consist of persons who offer support and share their expertise with students, be it how to prepare a tortilla to leading a conversation in the town’s colonial park. participants appeared to understand, yet there was hesitation in their faces and voices. their uncertainty was couched, but revealed in the questions they asked, and how these demonstrated they were beginning to walk in unknown territory. this part of the workshop fulfilled the intent to provide a baseline of knowledge to funds of knowledge with guatemalan teachers daniel & burgin no. 18 (january june 2019) no. 18 (january june 2019) 153 lead the teachers to collaborate in small groups of no more than three, to explore and identify the uniqueness of the cultures of each of their students. recurrent themes that resonated in teachers’ small group work and whole group debriefing are listed below in table 2: students’ cultural capsule. information in this table reveals the teachers’ struggles to identify the positives in students’ lives. table 2 includes both the positives and the negatives identified by the teachers. their words, during this part of the workshop, document the teachers’ grave concern for their students’ safety and future. table 2. students’ cultural capsule walls in students’ lives there is great poverty in the homes. parents work at night and leave the young children with older siblings. malnutrition the indigenous feel ashamed of their roots. unhygienic living conditions students are often aggressive and sad as a result of the abuse they witness in their homes. they come to school with bruises. children are not encouraged to share their ideas. they are to keep quiet. children are afraid. they live witnessing injustices in their positive aspects of students’ funds of knowledge traditions of the maya; dress, music, foods, religious observances, languages. if children attend school, teachers can support their critical thinking. the maya continue to fight for their rights. parents are hard working parents pass down ways to make a living, these may be limited to selling handicrafts on the street but we recognize that it is an art to weave and embroider. children are colorful slates that must be recognized through a culturally responsive curriculum. they love unconditionally. for many, the love they receive at school is all there is. guatemalan society is highly indigenous and there is an awareness that the maya need greater educational support. bilingual educational models in guatemalan validate students’ roots. funds of knowledge with guatemalan teachers daniel & burgin no. 18 (january june 2019) no. 18 (january june 2019) 154 teachers’ funds of knowledge rather than identifying their funds of knowledge, the teachers focused on their work responsibilities. their concern was the learners’ affective and academic needs. they demonstrated feelings of frustration sharing perceptions that what they were doing was insufficient. their instincts were to interpret their exploration of their funds of knowledge in terms of what they felt the children needed, as they evaluated their ability to support the learners in ways parents do not. they began the cce examining their strengths as teachers to deliver mineduc’s curriculum, and their words suggested that they were not crediting their efforts to adjust the curriculum. table 3: teachers cultural capsule, provides information compiled during the first debriefing of the cce with the teachers. it includes recurring comments grouped by theme that the teachers identified to be substantive elements to include. after this, the teachers continued the cce in small groups, after participating in a whole group conversation. the larger group debriefing used their ideas as a starting point, to clarify the ways the teachers’ funds of knowledge could be influencing their goals and objectives for the curriculum. as the teachers envisioned that there were possibilities for action, they dared to propose small ways to overcome challenges. it took them a bit of time but they began to present the problems and possible approaches to supporting the learners. see table 4: teachers’ reinterpreted paths for action. table 3. teachers’ cultural capsule recurrent themes teachers’ comments the mandated curriculum we follow mineduc’s curriculum. we teach the students values. our curriculum is heavily focused on the values of respect, love, honesty, tolerance, and loyalty. teachers recognize their efforts we teach more than the curriculum. we teach solidarity, to love nature, to take on responsibility, that it is possible to live in harmony. we encourage the students to compete in good ways. we teach them table manners. work with parents at our school we have meetings for the parents. mineduc asks us to teach them about values but what we do is not enough. home environments we need to teach the children respect because they are not learning this at home. they see their fathers disrespecting their mothers. the mothers tell the children to be quiet. we are teachers but we must be psychologists! learners’ affect we are aware of the conflicting emotions that children bring to school. we teach them, or we try to teach them, that you do not have to live fighting. diversity for many years now, the indigenous students and teachers have felt some respect. it used to be that they could not wear their woven clothes to schools. funds of knowledge with guatemalan teachers daniel & burgin no. 18 (january june 2019) no. 18 (january june 2019) 155 table 4. teachers’ reinterpreted paths for action discussion the teachers’ initial struggles to identify students’ funds of knowledge beyond language, music, dance and foods might at first suggest a token understanding of culture, which is an inaccurate assumption. an examination of the themes evident in comments, suggests a deep level of caring and reveals the teachers’ ongoing efforts. comments evidenced that the teachers focused on the learners, rather on looking for their strengths as educators. they did not easily recognize the many ways their life experiences and nontraditional schooling were providing them access to the difficult realities that they strive to help their students overcome. the teachers needed prodding to expose their fears and to reinterpret their challenges. two stories shared in the difficult hurdles living conditions in the homes interfere with learning at school. the children are short of sleep. they go out to sell handicrafts with their parents at night and the next day they are tired. we only see the students a few hours a day! there is too much to do. we find the workshops from mineduc are not helpful. many of our students are saddled with responsibilities that they should not have to handle. the lack of respect that children receive at home is the knowledge that they bring to school. we have had students bring guns to school. we feed students a snack midmorning but it is not substantial enough. it’s often atol, a drink made from corn. what we give them at school is not nutritious! they wait for what we give them but they are still hungry after what they get here with us. reinterpreted challenges we can create comforting spaces in our classrooms. even when the learners are older, we can implement a 15 minute period put your head down on the desk naptime. what we do may make a difference that we cannot see immediately. could we ask for time to share lessons with each other? we can recognize students’ babysitting efforts so that they will feel appreciated. if the parents do not do this at home, we can at school. we must not accept disrespectful behavior from students towards us or their classmates. time talking about important issues is not a waste. our schools are in a dangerous neighborhood. we need to talk with students about being safe. we know the students cannot learn if they are hungry. we see this every day. they hang out waiting for the snack which we know is breakfast for many of them. could we ask the town’s mayor for help? funds of knowledge with guatemalan teachers daniel & burgin no. 18 (january june 2019) no. 18 (january june 2019) 156 small groups, while the researcher listened to participants engage in the cce, elicited symbolic convergence across the participants, first in each group, and later when presented in the whole group debriefing. the following anecdotes exemplify teachers’ funds of knowledge and encapsulate their level of caring. we might conclude that the teachers do not hesitate to act when they see their students’ affective needs. a teacher listened cautiously as the researcher sat and talked to his group during the continuation of the cce. he opened his heart to share his funds of knowledge. his words revealed that he was coming to understand that he accomplished more in his work than he realized. he admitted with a shake of the head, and wide-open eyes that demonstrated surprise, that he had not considered that when he noted his childhood experiences replicated in the lives of his students, he would step in and become the person he wished he had had as a teacher in middle school. martín (a pseudonym) and his two siblings grew up in the outskirts of guatemala city. he was a lucky child because he attended school on a regular basis, but after his school day ended, he was in charge of his younger sisters. his mother made handicrafts during the day and had no choice but to sell these at night to cover basic expenses at home. she would leave him in charge of children almost half his age. his father was not part of the picture and it was his job to feed and put his sisters to bed. this next story is javier’s (a pseudonym), a 26 year-old secondary school teacher. he shared his story in the whole group debriefing, after having done so in the small group work. when he spoke one could hear gasps from participants, nods of agreement, voices recognizing the speaker, and at the end, thunderous clapping for the storyteller. javier fondly remembered a student who always spoke of a father he had not met. the young man harbored the hope that his father might come home one day, and remained optimistic in spite of evidence that there would not be a meeting. throughout the high school years, the teacher encouraged the student and their friendship blossomed over small triumphs and moments of support. the student worked hard and remained enrolled in school with the goal of becoming a teacher. finally, as the day of graduation approached, the student voiced his last desperate hope that his father might surface. he shared with his mentor that if the father did not come for graduation, he would lose all hope of ever meeting him. his last hope was dashed but then a clearing became visible. the student spoke to his teacher after the graduation ceremony, and thanked him for his role in his success. he admitted that he had never had a father related to him by blood present in his life, but that he now realized that javier had fulfilled his need to have a father. funds of knowledge with guatemalan teachers daniel & burgin no. 18 (january june 2019) no. 18 (january june 2019) 157 limitations of study this work contributes to the body of literature about education in guatemala, and to understandings of the inter and intrapersonal experiences that frame educational frameworks in the country. however, its generalizability is limited for several reasons. first, all 108 participants taught in the same community of schools, and might hold perspectives that best mirror the needs of that specific area of the country. secondly, the teachers were initially trained in the normal schools so none would evidence experiences or training that reflect recent changes in teacher preparation. lastly, the teachers represented educators teaching at all grade levels, from pre-k to secondary school. given the number of participants, it is impossible to state that sufficient generalizable data was gathered to make assumptions about the challenges faced by teachers and students at any one grade level of the community where the study was conducted. final reflections this investigation documents some of the challenges and frustrations that teachers and students in guatemala’s schools confront and how these worry the educators who were part of this study. recurrent themes that demonstrated convergence, revealed in the data analyzes, suggests that teachers’ self-esteem continues to be jeopardized by curricular mandates that are implemented without consultation with the country’s educators. this work offered a venue for guatemalan educators to voice the reasons they and their students merit recognition for their efforts (orozco & valdivia, 2017), and validation of their communities’ funds of knowledge (gonzález, moll, & amanti, 2005). findings document that guatemalan teachers care deeply about their students. in envisioning a better future for schooling in guatemala, the country’s educational community might recognize that it will not be until each stakeholder is free to identify that which supports or extinguishes individuality, independent thinking, and visions of change, that it will be possible to redesign a vision for how the environment addresses or denies paradigms that support democratic citizenship (daniel & riley, 2018; jakar & milofsky, 2016). a process of evaluating schooling practices and societal attitudes from a funds of knowledge philosophy is needed, to allow democratic ideologies of literacy to emerge and become sustainable. teachers in the trenches need avenues to meet to discuss their work, and then design a plan to change an educational system that to them appears to present a series of closed doors. funds of knowledge with guatemalan teachers daniel & burgin no. 18 (january june 2019) no. 18 (january june 2019) 158 references behrman, j., murphy, a., quisumbing, a., & yount, k. 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(1990). the voice of rationality in a sociocultural approach to mind. in l. c. moll (ed.), vygotsky and education: instructional implications and applications of sociohistorical psychology (pp. 111-126). cambridge, uk: cambridge university press. funds of knowledge with guatemalan teachers daniel & burgin no. 18 (january june 2019) no. 18 (january june 2019) https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/gt.html http://upsidedownworld.org/news-briefs/news-briefs-news-briefs/the-teaching-profession-in-guatemala-at-the-crossroads-students-fight-against-neoliberal-policies http://upsidedownworld.org/news-briefs/news-briefs-news-briefs/the-teaching-profession-in-guatemala-at-the-crossroads-students-fight-against-neoliberal-policies http://upsidedownworld.org/news-briefs/news-briefs-news-briefs/the-teaching-profession-in-guatemala-at-the-crossroads-students-fight-against-neoliberal-policies https://www.thedialogue.org/analysis/educational-challenges-in-guatemala-and-consequences-for-human-capital-and-development/ https://www.thedialogue.org/analysis/educational-challenges-in-guatemala-and-consequences-for-human-capital-and-development/ https://www.thedialogue.org/analysis/educational-challenges-in-guatemala-and-consequences-for-human-capital-and-development/ https://www.usip.org/publications/1998/11/peace-agreements-guatemala https://www.usip.org/publications/1998/11/peace-agreements-guatemala http://dx.doi.org/10.4135/9781446221488 160 this work was funded with support from the latino center and the department of curriculum & instruction at northern illinois university, de kalb, il, united states. acknowledgements: in appreciation of the morgridge chair and the create center at northern illinois university, de kalb, il, usa for supporting this research. authors *mayra c daniel is a professor at northern illinois university, de kalb, il, usa. her work centers on preparation of teachers to work with immigrant populations to the united states. her research interests relate to the preparation of culturally sensitive educators in the united states and latin america orcid: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2702-0071 ximena d. burgin holds an ed.d in instructional technology and an ms in educational research and evaluation from northern illinois university. her research interests relate to the implementation of research-based methodologies in the classroom to improve students’ academic outcomes. orcid: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3494-569x funds of knowledge with guatemalan teachers how to reference this article: daniel, m. c., & burgin, x. d. (2019). exploring the funds of knowledge with 108 guatemalan teachers. gist education and learning research journal, 18, 142-160. https://doi.org/10.26817/16925777.446 no. 18 (january june 2019) no. 18 (january june 2019) https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2702-0071 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3494-569x https://doi.org/10.26817/16925777.446 6 sevilla & chaves authentic assessment in the listening comprehension classroom: benefits and implications1 evaluación auténtica en el aula de comprensión auditiva: beneficios e implicaciones henry sevilla morales and lindsay chaves fernández2* universidad nacional de costa rica, costa rica abstract this research paper discusses the benefits and implications of bringing authentic assessment into listening comprehension classes. the study was run in 2016 based on a mixed-methods model to research and included 38 college students enrolled in a listening comprehension class at an english teaching major (etm) from the university of costa rica (ucr). data collection instruments included plans of improvement, portfolios, self-assessment forms, teacher-student conferences, verbal calls, and impromptu reflections. data were validated through several procedures (e.g., triangulation and reflexivity) and analyzed in the form of emerging themes from the information collected. findings are that authentic assessment can and should be used more in listening comprehension classes to bring assessment and instruction together, as well as to provide opportunities for skills integration. the study yields implications for theory and practice, and it constitutes a proposal to move from traditional to process evaluation, and from norm-referenced testing towards more criterion-referenced assessment. nonetheless, the aim should not necessarily be a radical ‘no’ to paperand-pencil tests, but a more balanced use in combination with other strategies so that assessment becomes more reliable, valid, fair, and authentic for all efl actors involved. keywords: authentic assessment, testing, listening comprehension, portfolio, weekly plans 1 received: october 1st 2018/ accepted: july 21st 2019 2 henry.sevilla.morales@una.ac.cr; lindsay.chaves.fernandez@una.ac.cr gist education and learning research journal. issn 1692-5777. no.19 (july december, 2019). pp. 6-30. no. 19 (july december 2019) no. 19 (july december 2019) 7 sevilla & chaves resumen la presente investigación discute algunas bondades e implicaciones de implementar la evaluación auténtica en clases de comprensión auditiva. el estudio se desarrolló en el año 2016 mediante un modelo de investigación mixta y contó con la participación de 28 estudiantes universitarios matriculados en un curso de comprensión auditiva de una carrera de enseñanza del inglés (cee) de la universidad de costa rica (ucr). los instrumentos de recolección de datos incluyeron planes semanales de mejora, portafolios, reuniones entre el profesor y los estudiantes, intervenciones orales y reflexiones improvisadas in situ. los datos se validaron mediante distintos procedimientos (por ejemplo, triangulación y reflexividad) y se analizaron por medio de categorías emergentes de la información recabada. los hallazgos sugieren que la evaluación auténtica puede y debe ser utilizada con mayor frecuencia en las clases de comprensión auditiva. esto, a fin de unificar la evaluación y la enseñanza, además de generar espacios para la integración de varias destrezas del idioma. el estudio genera implicaciones a nivel de teoría y práctica; asimismo, sugiere un cambio de paradigma evaluativo, reemplazando la evaluación tradicional por la de proceso, y las pruebas estandarizadas por las referenciales. no obstante, no se plantea un reemplazo radical de los exámenes escritos, sino un balance adecuado, en conjunción con otras estrategias en procura de una evaluación más fiable, más válida, más justa y más auténtica para todos los actores de enseñanza de lenguas extranjeras involucrados. palabras clave: evaluación auténtica, medición, comprensión auditiva, portafolio, planes semanales resumo a presente pesquisa discute algumas bondades e implicações de implementar a avaliação autêntica em aulas de compreensão auditiva. o estudo se desenvolveu no ano 2016 por meio de um modelo de pesquisa mista e contou com a participação de 28 estudantes universitários matriculados em um curso de compreensão auditiva de uma carreira de ensino do inglês (cee) da universidade da costa rica (ucr). os instrumentos de coleta de dados incluíram planos semanais de melhoria, portfólios, reuniões entre o professor e os estudantes, intervenções orais e reflexões improvisadas in situ. os dados se validaram mediante diferentes procedimentos (por exemplo, triangulação e reflexividade) e se analisaram por meio de categorias emergentes da informação recebida. as descobertas sugerem que a avaliação autêntica pode e deve ser utilizada com maior frequência nas aulas de compreensão auditiva. isto, com o fim de unificar a avaliação e o ensino, além de gerar espaços para a integração de várias destrezas do idioma. o estudo gera implicações ao nível de teoria e prática; da mesma forma, sugere uma mudança de paradigma avaliativo, substituindo a avaliação tradicional pela de processo, e as provas padronizadas pelas referenciais. no entanto, não se propõe uma substituição radical das provas escritas, senão um balanço adequado, em conjunção com outras estratégias em procura de uma avaliação mais fiável, mais válida, mais justa e mais autêntica para todos os atores de ensino de línguas estrangeiras envolvidos. palavras chave: avaliação autêntica, medição, compreensão auditiva, portfólio, planos semanais no. 19 (july december 2019) no. 19 (july december 2019) 8 authentic assessment in listening comprehension sevilla & chaves introduction in the changing worldwide scenario of modern language education, authentic assessment has gained unprecedented attention from various researchers, scholars, and practitioners (ali & ajmi, 2013; brown & abeywickrama, 2010; charvade, jahandar, & khodabandehlou, 2012; frey, schmitt, & allen, 2012; li, 2013; and moya & o’malley, 1994). nonetheless, in actual classroom practice, authentic assessment remains, at best, a dilemmatic subject (moya & o’malley, 1994). some of the factors contributing to this include perceived impracticality and unreliability (brown, 2010), teachers and students’ lack of familiarity with this type of evaluation, and the large amounts of time invested and cost of resources (murphy et al., 2017). in addition to these, scholars have identified related issues including resistance from institutional authorities and stakeholders, lack of willpower and funding, and reported degrees of subjectivity in the way these evaluations are conducted. and as researchers make their way into this relatively-new field of inquiry, challenges continue to emerge, and questions continue to arise for theoreticians, institutional authorities, and teaching practitioners the world over. at a theoretical level, perhaps the most evident limitation is the lack of empirical studies on authentic listening assessment in english language teaching (elt). compared to the general popularity of language assessment, research on this remains rather sporadic and unsystematic (see dewi, 2018; li, 2013; miller, 2003; yurdabakan & erdogan, 2009). in order to help bridge this knowledge gap, the current study set out to answer the following research question: what are the benefits and implications of bringing authentic assessment into listening comprehension classes in an efl program at a public university in costa rica? data were collected from 38 junior students from an english teaching program in costa rica. using a mixed-methods design and different data collection instruments, qualitative data were triangulated to cross-check information and satisfy methodological trustworthiness. since changes in teaching paradigms should necessarily imply changes in assessment trends (o’malley & valdez, 1996), this paper serves a baseline to move from traditional to process evaluation: from standardization to localness, and from norm-referenced testing towards more criterion-referenced assessment. findings assist our understanding of the benefits and implications of implementing authentic assessment in listening comprehension classes, and they help bridge gaps between theory and practice as they bring theoretical precept and classroom reality together while implementing authentic assessment. lastly, they bring us closer to the qualitative assessments which many seem to endorse but which few are examining through empirical research. no. 19 (july december 2019) no. 19 (july december 2019) 9 authentic assessment in listening comprehension sevilla & chaves theoretical background some initial considerations while the list of publications in the subject area is vast (e.g., airasian, 2001; ali & ajmi, 2013; brown & abeywickrama, 2010; cohen, 1994; curtis & nunan, 2001; douglas, 2000; gamboa & sevilla, 2016a; genesee & upshur, 1996; herman, aschbacher, & winters, 1992; mckay, 2006; o’malley & valdez, 1996; and rojas, 2004) and we have therefore left some works unexamined, we hope that for the goal of this paper our brief discussion addressees the core issues put forward during the past few decades. as some authors have made it clear, the notion of authentic assessment is not new and has been subject to changes throughout the years. as early as the mid’ 1980s, increased attention was paid to the benefits of self-assessment strategies such as portfolios (charvade, jahandar, & khodabandehlou, 2012), probably inspired by the ways in which many painters, writers, and other artists displayed their professional skills through portfolios (bailey, curtis, & nunan, 2001; o’malley & valdez, 1996; zollman & jones, 1994, as cited in charvade, jahandar, & khodabandehlou, 2012). from then on, important advancements have been made both in the alternatives available to teachers and, more crucially, in the way assessment is viewed. brown & hudson (1998) challenged the popularly held idea of authentic assessment as a form of alternative assessment (see herman, aschbacher, & winters, 1992) and advocated instead for the term alternatives in assessment because, as they argued, “why […] should we even refer to the notion of “alternative” when assessment already encompasses such a range of possibilities?” (brown & abeywickrama, 2010, p. 123). tests then came to be viewed as a subset within the wider scope of assessment, so that, to date, a number of key characteristics have been proposed for all types of assessment: usefulness, purpose, reliability, validity, practicality, washback, authenticity, transparency, and security (see brown and abeywickrama, 2010; combee et al., 2007; gamboa & sevilla, 2013; gamboa & sevilla, 2016a; and rogier, 2014). these characteristics are roughly summarized below. usefulness means the extent to which a test is congruent with the needs of a specific audience; it has been considered by some as the most important testing principle, and it is closely linked to the concept of purpose (or test goal) (bachman and palmer, 1996, as cited in rogier, 2014). in order for a test to be useful, its purpose must match the test taker’s reasons for learning the language. reliability deals with the consistency of student scores over time; that is, the assessment’s ability to render similar scores if administered in a different moment and place to students with similar characteristics (brown, 2010; combee et al., 2007; rogier, 2014). validity is, in essence, an assessment’s capacity to assess what it is supposed to assess (brown, 2010; no. 19 (july december 2019) no. 19 (july december 2019) 10 combee et al., 2007;). practicality deals with the assessment’s being easy to create, easy to administer, and easy to evaluate (brown & abeywickrama, 2010; combee et al., 2007; rogier, 2014). washback makes reference to the effect of assessment on the curriculum; in other words, it is the extent to which an evaluation can impact the teacher’s methodology, assessment strategies, institutional policies, etc. authenticity has to do with how much an evaluation resembles something that the student would do with the language outside of the classroom context (brown & abeywickrama, 2010; combee et al., 2007; rogier, 2014). lastly, transparency means the degree to which students are informed about the expected goals and skills to be accomplished and the means through which these will be assessed (rogier, 2014). but in addition to these principles, brown & abeywickrama believe that alternatives in assessment, such as the ones listed below, call on teachers to perform new instructional and assessment roles (2010, p. 123). in the authors words,3 these forms of evaluation: 1. require students to perform, create, produce, or do something; 2. use real-world contexts or simulations; 3. are nonintrusive in that they extend the day-to-day classroom activities; 4. allow students to be assessed on what they normally do in class every day; 5. use tasks that represent meaningful instructional activities; 6. focus on processes as well as products; 7. tap into higher-level thinking and problem-solving skills; 8. provide information about both the strengths and weaknesses of students; 9. are multiculturally sensitive when properly administered; 10. ensure that people, not machines, do the scoring, using human judgment; 11. encourage open disclosure of standards and rating criteria; [and] 12. call on teachers to perform new instructional and assessment roles. the status quo of authentic assessment for the purpose of clarity, we will use the term authentic assessment throughout the whole paper, although we know that other terms such as on3 semicolons and period added to account for grammatical accuracy; original citation did not include any of these. authentic assessment in listening comprehension sevilla & chaves no. 19 (july december 2019) no. 19 (july december 2019) 11 going assessment, alternative assessment, classroom assessment, qualitative assessment, or process assessment are also common in the professional literature. according to o’malley & valdez, alternative assessment means evaluation that is criterion-referenced rather than dictated or imposed by standardized measures. this type of assessment is authentic in that it resembles the types of activities used in the classroom and in real-life contexts; and it is also “consistent with classroom goals, curricula, and instruction” (o’malley & valdez, 1996, p. 2). simply put, authentic assessment refers to “the multiple forms of assessment that reflect student learning, achievement, motivation, and attitudes on instructionally-relevant classroom activities” (o’malley & valdez, 1996, p. 4). this new perspective emerges from a need to more consistently assess the full range of skills in students, as well as to parallel the advancements gained in recent decades in the field of language education. it also arises from the realization that the insights of traditional assessment contribute little to curriculum development (o’malley & valdez; rogier, 2014). in modern days, such concerns have also been backed up by policy makers and administrators who have become aware that traditional assessment (particularly multiplechoice-based tests) does not help develop the higher order skills that students will need in order to meet the challenges that await in the decades to come (brown, 2010; o’malley & valdez, 1996). authentic assessment includes a wide array of alternatives such as portfolios, student self-assessments, performance assessment, writing samples, projects and exhibitions, experiments or demonstrations (o’malley & valdez, 1996), rubric-referenced assessment, conferences and interviews, observations, peer-assessments, and journals such as language-learning logs, response to readings, dialogue journals, acculturation logs, etc. (brown & abeywickrama, 2010). in order to design this type of evaluation, o’malley & valdez (1996, pp. 17-19) have proposed some crucial steps such as the following: 1. build a team; 2. determine the purposes of the authentic assessments; 3. specify objectives; 4. conduct professional development on authentic assessment; 5. collect examples of authentic assessments; 6. adapt existing assessments or develop new ones; 7. try out the assessments; [and] 8. review the assessments. authentic assessment in listening comprehension sevilla & chaves no. 19 (july december 2019) no. 19 (july december 2019) 12 when used appropriately, authentic assessment can yield invaluable benefits, particularly in providing raw material for reflection and decision making. it also has great potential for transparency since authentic assessment demands that evaluation criteria be informed in advance to students. but above these gains, the noblest of all is perhaps that it helps bring effective teaching and assessment together. in our opinion, when educators manage to accomplish this, we have to agree with tudor (2001) that the language teaching field has reasons to be proud of the advancements made in the last four or five decades. naturally, challenges exist which need to be acknowledged and dealt with. one of them is certainly the issue of maximizing practicality and washback (brown, 2010). while authentic assessment guarantees high levels of washback, authenticity and appeal to intrinsic motivation, it tends to be largely impractical (time consuming and difficult to handle in some contexts) and unreliable (brown, 2010). added to that is the fact that students may not be ready for a shift in evaluation trends and may therefore experience distress in adjusting to them, not to mention the likely resistance from the administration—especially since authentic assessment demands a lot of willpower and resources. additionally, these alternatives in evaluation tend to be highly subjective, especially if training is not made available to teachers and assessors. however, a question we need to ask here is, are traditional assessments free from this type of subjectivity? grant (1990, p. 5) has provided the following insights on the matter: though the scoring of standardized tests is not subject to significant error, the procedure by which items are chosen, and the manner in which norms or cut-scores are established is often quite subjective--and typically immune from public scrutiny and oversight. in spite of the theoretical momentum gained so far by the field of authentic assessment, advancements are much less solid as we move on to the specifics of authentic listening assessment. in fact, things are not even clear-cut for the teaching of listening due to historical disagreements on what the construct itself should involve, a condition which has earned listening the nickname of “the cinderella of communication strategies” (vandergrift, 1997). while empirical studies have been and continue to be reported on authentic listening assessment (e.g., ghaderpanahi, 2012; pan, 2017; porter & roberts, 1981), findings as to its real benefits are scarce within the macro picture of language assessment and elt. after examining the complex —and often polarizing— status quo of authentic assessment, to a large degree we agree with brown’s (2010) assertion that we must “scrutinize the practicality, reliability, and validity of assessment alternatives while simultaneously celebrating their washback potential, authentic assessment in listening comprehension sevilla & chaves no. 19 (july december 2019) no. 19 (july december 2019) 13 authenticity, and appeal to students’ intrinsic motivation” (p. 126). this must be done, ideally, in the understanding that: (1) in time, authentic assessment needs not be so time-consuming and unreliable and (2) the long-run benefits of authentic assessment outweigh its potential drawbacks. in the current research project, we have made all possible efforts to integrate the cornerstones of assessment —usefulness, purpose, reliability, validity, practicality, washback, authenticity, transparency, and security (brown, 2010; combee et al., 2007; rogier, 2014)— with brown & abeywickrama’s (2010) principles for authentic assessment, as well as with o’malley & valdez’s (1996) steps to develop this kind of assessment. methodology this study can be characterized differently based on its paradigm, epistemology, and design. following cohen, manion, & morrison’s view, our investigation adheres to a naturalistic paradigm since it conceives truth as personal, subjective and unique and thus deems research as depending on several perspectives, including the subjects’, the researchers’ and society’s (2007). the inquiry is therefore based on an emic epistemology, where knowledge is co-constructed from within the culture, as opposed to outsiderexpert research which seeks to create universal laws about the phenomenon under study (ecksenberger, 2014). as naturalistic and emic, our study uses a qual-quan research design, with a strong prevalence of qualitative data. also known as the “exploratory mixed methods design,” this model begins with a qualitative phase to get a first glimpse of the research problem and then weights results against quantitative data (gay, mills, & airasian, 2009, p. 463), which, incidentally, accounts for methodological trustworthiness. participants and context participants comprised thirty-eight purposively-sampled junior students enrolled in an english teaching major at ucr, west branch. the program was first opened in the 1970s as a response to the growing demand for english teachers and has undergone adjustments in both curricular content and administrative matters ever since. in 2015, the major was accredited by costa rica’s official accrediting entity (sinaes)4 and is currently being evaluated to pursue reaccreditation in 2019. in the light of these processes, certain teaching changes were suggested, including authentic assessment as part of the evaluation criteria in all courses. this led the researchers to use authentic 4 spanish for sistema nacional de acreditación de la educación superior. authentic assessment in listening comprehension sevilla & chaves no. 19 (july december 2019) no. 19 (july december 2019) 14 assessment as a platform for the course io-5005 laboratorio de comunicación oral v (henceforth, lab v), whose goal is to develop listening and vocabulary skills for academic purposes as a complement to the io-5440 comunicación oral v course. lab v covers a range of top-down and bottom-up skills such as listening for main ideas, making inferences and drawing conclusions, listening for details, discriminating between phonemes, and many others. in addition to this, it includes preparation exercises for the test of english as a foreign language test (toefl) to train students in the test-taking skills they will need if they are required to take this examination later in their professional lives. historically, the toefl component, in particular, has represented a significant challenge for english teaching learners, with verbal reports of anxiety, stress, and even academic frustration. research procedures in order to conform to the new accreditation requirements and account for a more democratic approach to language instruction, several techniques were combined in an on-going assessment project. these did not seek to replace summative evaluations, but simply to bring in a wider spectrum of assessment possibilities into the classroom. the data were collected at different points in the semester and later cross-checked for content validity. participants were asked for written consent and guaranteed full confidentiality to ensure response accuracy and comply with research ethics. ethics procedures included, amongst others: (1) assigning code names to participants so that their real identities were protected, (2) keeping data sources such as portfolios, student self-assessments and checklists in a locked file cabinet in the personal possession of the researchers, and (3) offering to share a copy of the final manuscript before it was sent for publication. data collection instruments • plans of improvement (pois): on a weekly basis, informants were asked to (1) set their own learning goal, (2) design an activity to reach that goal, (3) set a schedule to carry out the proposed activities, (4) assess the effectiveness of the activities, and (5) write annotations for the following week in order to achieve a sense of content continuity and write down notes that they wished to keep in mind for the following week. voluntarily, students sent their pois to get professor’s feedback that helped build interactive-diaries dynamics (see genesee & upshur, 1996), which in turn fostered closer communication between the students and the instructor and allowed for classroom adaptations based on the poi reports. authentic assessment in listening comprehension sevilla & chaves no. 19 (july december 2019) no. 19 (july december 2019) 15 • student self-assessments: three times during the semester, students filled out a self-assessment form to reflect upon their progress and weaknesses and devised strategies to overcome such deficiencies. they were advised to link this technique to the pois and peer-assessments they did at other points during the term. • verbal calls: each time summative assessments were returned, students were encouraged to give impromptu reflections on test scores and ways to improve their listening skills. they were also asked to provide feedback on the quality of the assessments. • final portfolio report: as a final project, informants compiled all their pois in a learning portfolio. they made corrections suggested along the course of the semester and wrote an introduction and a conclusion where they reflected critically about the experience in the project. • strategy-assessment checklist: at the end of the semester, participants rated the effectiveness of the project in terms of listening comprehension via a checklist that included statements on whether and to what extent the project had helped achieve a series of cognitive and metacognitive skills. • teacher-student conferences: these were five-minute meetings for students to verbalize their experiences with the authentic assessment strategy. these conferences served as an opportunity for students to discuss the benefits and challenges of the above techniques, and as a means for the professor to provide one-on-one advice on the strategies students were putting into practice. trustworthiness methods three procedures were used to achieve instrument and methodological trustworthiness: (1) employing multiple data collection techniques (see previous section), (2) using various levels of triangulation (methodological, theoretical, and researcher triangulation), and (3) self-disclosure or reflexivity. the latter included being critical about how the researchers’ own biases may influence the study; thus, hidden beliefs about authentic assessment were discussed and calibration sessions were conducted to agree upon the naming, grouping, and displaying of the categories. data analysis and interpretation as stated earlier, this study sparked off as to assess the benefits and implications of bringing authentic assessment into listening comprehension courses at an efl program in costa rica. as data were named, grouped, and authentic assessment in listening comprehension sevilla & chaves no. 19 (july december 2019) no. 19 (july december 2019) 16 displayed for analysis, three major categories emerged in terms of benefits for students: self-awareness and goal setting, sense of achievement, critical thinking, and general knowledge. in the analysis ahead, qualitative data will be interpreted concurrently with quantitative information gathered via the participants’ appraisal of the project. the following citing codes will be used to specify the instrument and sources where data come from. table 1. qualitative data citation codes instrument type data source citing code plans of improvement (pois) oral lab v students poi 01-036 student self-assessment oral lab v students ssa 01-036 student portfolios oral lab v students sp 001-036 strategy-assessment checklist oral lab v students sac 01-036 source: researchers’ own design for each category, qualitative excerpts of raw data will be accompanied with verbal descriptions and explanations. these will be further triangulated with the participants’ quantitative appraisal of the project in general. different data sources suggest the project had a positive impact on at least four major areas: self-awareness and goal-setting, sense of achievement, critical thinking, and general knowledge. self-awareness and goal-setting the first recurrent theme was self-awareness and goal-setting. participants reported that keeping a weekly plan of improvement helped them become aware of both their limitations and accomplishments, which in turn led them to set goals to tackle learning problems or to stick to the tasks they found beneficial. in his accounts of the events for week three, participant 26 acknowledges some limitations he faced but immediately goes on to state that he will take advantage of the experience in order to maximize his learning on the following week: in short, i must manage to control the environment and myself to perform the subsequent activities in an accurate way. besides, i will use all the techniques i have learned, but did not applied, to do better on the next test practice (poi 26 [week 3], sic). authentic assessment in listening comprehension sevilla & chaves no. 19 (july december 2019) no. 19 (july december 2019) 17 participant 38 offers valuable evidence in this same regard throughout different pois she created. on week two, she states that she chose to work on identifying main ideas and details in the topic of brain and language because she had previously identified limitations on these two skills: “in the second video i missed some details, and i could not understood very well some aspects that he was talking about so i played it twice” (poi 38 [week 2], sic). on the following week, she issues the following reflection: “this week i decided to practice toefl listening exercises because i noticed that i could identify general ideas when i practice with videos at home, but it was difficult during the practice at the lab” (poi 38 [week 3], sic). shortly after, she explains that the difficulties experienced in class were due to concentration problems resulting from lack of vocabulary: it continues being difficult for me to be concentrate while listening to long audios. moreover, i notice that my lack of vocabulary sometimes affect me while listening an audio. because when i do not understand a word, i miss my concentration by monitoring what the word means or thinking if i know the word (poi 38 [week 3], sic). just like participant 26, informant 38 also engages in goal-setting upon becoming conscious of existing limitations: “this week i listened to lectures and conversations from toefl exercises in order to improve concentration, fast answering and details” (poi 38 [week 4]). if we notice, on week two this participant becomes aware of her need to work on listening for details, on week three she identifies weaknesses in her concentration, and on week four she tackles the two issues together and goes beyond by working on toefl exercises. the reliability of this data is further corroborated via the participant’s thoughts in the final portfolio: …as toefl is a type of exercise which is really fast, and i had problems with the speed of the audios, i discovered that writing down what i was hearing was a technique to improve my concentration and my speed to answer that help me a lot (sp038, sic). evidence of self-awareness also comes from participant 22, who reports to have realized the wealth of free access listening tools available online: thanks to the plan of improvement, i was able to find helpful activities, applications and websites that are really helpful to develop better skills […] i now realized that there are excellent tools on the internet […] and are free to use, so there is no excuse not to go further in my learning process (sp022, sic). authentic assessment in listening comprehension sevilla & chaves no. 19 (july december 2019) no. 19 (july december 2019) 18 a common denominator within the current category is the participants’ awareness in relation to the toefl component. this came up most evidently in the self-assessment instruments they completed, with comments such as “the major challenge i’m facing right now is the toefl exercises […]” (ssa 33, sic); “in those exercises the time is reduced so i don’t have enough time to read the answers before completing” (ssa 24, sic); or, “the major challenge is toefl exercises […] there are too fast and also idioms and phrases are challenging” (ssa 34, sic). in all cases, however, the constant among respondents was also that they had goals underway in order to meet these drawbacks. comments on this included, for example, “i’m looking for audios similar to toefl test” (ssa 31, sic); “to overcome these challenges i need to practice toefl at home” (ssa 33, sic); “i became a better listener […] i just need to devote more time on the challenges” (ssa 34, sic); and “[i will] spare some time for practicing toefl and work on the portfolio” (ssa 37, sic). in addition to the above, a variety of claims were made that sometimes the activities did not work as expected. participant 33 describes limitations in terms of the content and length of a video that she meant to watch in order to reinforce toefl test taking skills. as she puts it: this activity was too bored to me because the passage was too long about 6 minutes and i get lost in the middle. also, i do not like that the video present the questions but not the answer of each question so i do not know if i am answering correctly (poi 33 [week 7], sic). something that merits our attention is the honesty element. acknowledging these facts is relevant to the validity of our results as they evidence participants’ confidence to write about both, the cases where activities did not work, and about their thoughts on what teachers should consider for further project implementation. at any rate, the mere act of verbalizing these issues is but proof that self-awareness has indeed taken place. turning now to the quantitative data on this category, results are generally congruent with the ones drawn from the qualitative information. on assessing the correlation between the project and the development of self-awareness and goal-setting to tackle various learning limitations, 76.3% ranked it as “very much” (beneficial), 21.1% rated it as “about right”, and 2.6% evaluated that link as being “too little”; none of the informants ranked it as totally useless. a chart with these numerical values will be presented at the end of this data analysis. authentic assessment in listening comprehension sevilla & chaves no. 19 (july december 2019) no. 19 (july december 2019) 19 sense of achievement the second category has to do with student’s reported sense of achievement. from improved tactics for the toefl test to the mastery of regular course content, data suggests clear progress in terms of this category: […] i got into a higher difficulty of audios, and i learned to have a discipline to practice it without problem… at the beginning of the course i got a really low grade in my diagnostic test, and since that moment i felt afraid and nervous about toefl exercises. that is why, i think i took around too weeks to start to practice deeper with toefl audios, but now i can say that i faced my fears about that, and at this moment i feel comfortable practicing with that kind of audios (sp038, sic). on the same lines, participant 21 states that despite some difficulties he faced, he made substantial progress because of the project: in spite of some difficulties; through these ten weeks i could see significant progress in my listening skills due to this plan. i believe that the portfolio strategy really works; it is a useful tool because it allows a detailed sight of weaknesses, and main points to work on. i am going to apply this strategy from now on in order to get a better understanding of english in all areas of my life (sp021, sic). participant 06 takes it one step beyond and analyzes the possibility of replicating the poi strategy in other classes in order to test its effectiveness in further educational contexts. in her final portfolio report, she notes: i think that this type of assessment is very enriching for the teacher and for the student, it is a way to document achievements, where the student describes his way of learning, expresses doubts and make comments on each activity, all this makes the portfolio an interesting and enriching tool. i have the intention to apply this methodology in other subjects and verify their effectiveness and efficiency in any educational program (sp-006, sic). further evidence on sense of achievement —especially in terms of vocabulary acquisition and listening strategies— was recorded through the student self-assessment strategy, with the inclusion of comments such as “i learned more vocabulary, phrasal verbs. i also learned to listen for main ideas and details […]” (ssa 15, sic); “i learned vocabulary and a strategy that is helping me with toefl exercises” (ssa 18); and “i could comprehend easily authentic assessment in listening comprehension sevilla & chaves no. 19 (july december 2019) no. 19 (july december 2019) 20 details in audios, and i could use new vocabulary” (ssa 01, sic). from the final portfolio, similar general comments were documented: without more to say, i really thank god and the professor for having this wonderful idea of the weekly plan. it helped me a lot because even when i like english, i know that i wouldn’t have been as constant practicing it as i was with this work (sp034, sic). in addition to these two sub-components, sense of accomplishment was emphasized also in terms of skills integration, for the different assessment strategies required students to combine a number of linguistic skills. in participant 19’s words, “i have learned more vocabulary and finally, i have practiced my writing skills every time i had to write the evaluation of the activities” (sp019). to sum up, we end this sub-section with a comment from subject 20, who outlines the main advantages of the project: sincerely, i am motivated to do those exercises because i really have seen progress during my last two evaluations. i feel like “super powerful” and a feeling of support have come to me. it really says “go luis, you can do it”. and, indeed, i am doing it. […] finally, i would like state that during my three years being tested in my laboratory courses, this listening assessment plan is one on the most brilliant ideas to put into practice. all the changes that i have experimented during this plan have been successful (sp-020, sic). on the quantitative side of the data, numbers from the strategy-assessment checklist (sac) reinforce the qualitative analysis above. thirty-six-point eight percent of the informants evaluated the project as “very much” helpful in building sense of achievement, 60.5% as “about right”, 2.6% as “too little”, and 0% as not useful at all (see full chart at the end of data analysis section). although not conclusive, results from this category match previous findings by sevilla and gamboa (2016a) that this type of pedagogical innovations fosters student sense of achievement and bring them closer to the life-long learning expected at various levels of their professional profile. critical thinking the third category was critical thinking; and while we are fully aware that critical thinking is a rather elusive construct, for the purpose of this analysis we understand it simply as the ability to use higher order skills including assessing, valuing, appraising, criticizing, weighing, and recommending, as suggested in various critical-thinking-relevant phases of bloom’s taxonomy authentic assessment in listening comprehension sevilla & chaves no. 19 (july december 2019) no. 19 (july december 2019) 21 (see bers, 2005). thus, our analysis of critical thinking begins with evidence from participant 29, who praises the strategy as a whole but criticizes the course syllabus, the students, and herself: i did not have many complaints about the course nor the professors but i complain on the program and the students including myself. i consider it is necessary to change the material for lab courses because unless we learn with prerecorded conversations natural ones will it give us the real sense of communication […] in my own opinion, students should be doing this extra effort not as a part of the evaluation but for personal improvement (sp-029, sic). strictly speaking, besides critical thinking this excerpt also shows proof of self-awareness. however, evidence on critical thinking predominates as the student is critical of the course material, the syllabus, herself and her classmates. she also weighs and recommends changes on etm’s listening courses in order to make learning more authentic. in a similar context, participant 33 is critical of her own choice of materials for toefl practice when she reports: “the activity of watching this video supposed to help me practicing toefl exercises […] but this activity do not really work to me because that video was too long and does not have the answer of each question […]” (poi 33 [week 7], sic). another participant (36) acknowledges that the reason she was successful in completing the project was that it had a summative value. this is so —she admits— due to the academic workload it places on students: “[…] if the portfolio had not had a score i think i would not have done it because it is too difficult to spend time doing these activities because i had many things all the weeks” (sp-036, sic). and still another participant takes the lead and provides recommendations for future implementation: i recommend both professors and students that if they could share information about websites or educational applications in order to do the plan that would be great, because sometimes students have a really hard time finding acceptable activities and they might not know how to search for that on the internet (sp-022, sic). a last comment comes as a word of motivation for students interested in a project of this kind in the future: i would suggest not giving up when the exercises become tougher or when the person is not so motivated; quite the contrary, people must be aware that there are good and bad days when they may either do better than they have done before or mess all up (sp-25, sic). authentic assessment in listening comprehension sevilla & chaves no. 19 (july december 2019) no. 19 (july december 2019) 22 at a numerical level, data displays high degrees of consistency with the qualitative analysis. students’ rating of critical thinking skills development was 60.5% for “very much”, 31.6% for “about right”, 5.3% for “too little”, and 2.6% for “nothing”. of the three categories analyzed so far, critical thinking exhibits one of the highest “very much” rankings; however, it is also the first to exhibit any values for “nothing”. the instruments used did not seek to delve into the reasons for these ratings, but data from the strategy assessment checklist indicates that critical thinking was particularly promoted in the toefl exercises because many exercises dealt with implied meaning and inferences, and that whenever it was not promoted, it was because some of the activities did not exhibit this component explicitly. general knowledge this is the last category of analysis identified in terms of benefits of authentic listening assessment, with qualitative data suggesting promising outcomes at various levels. topics such as brain functioning, u.s. politics, cultural stereotypes and physical disabilities, interiors decoration, and insights about law and teaching make up some of the achievements reported through different data collection instruments. on week two, participant 38 offers a claim along these lines as she states: “moreover, the content of the video helped me to understand better how my brain works, and how it relates to my language learning process.” (poi-038, sic). along the same lines, informant 31 provides similar evidence when, after outlining her main challenges with the plan of improvement, she asserts: however, not all was lost because i have had noticeable improvement in listening, for example i was able to understand some controversial topics around donald trump and his argumentations about latinos. also, when i watched the my name is khan i felt overwhelmed for all the muslim polemic, and situations that people with special necessities must face (in the case of khan). additionally, i learned the reasons why emotions are produced and the psychology of dreams by watching inside out (poi031, sic). a fact that stands out from the data above is the variety of topics this student reports to have explored on a single week. although we see a common thread between the first two topics (i.e., politics and ethnic groups), a different subject is reported on at the end of the paragraph (the origins of emotions), which once again points to the project’s potential to help students devise their own learning agendas and examine the issues of their own preference. an additional example of this can be found in participant 37, who points out: “i authentic assessment in listening comprehension sevilla & chaves no. 19 (july december 2019) no. 19 (july december 2019) 23 watched videos related to things which i like because when i was tired of academic life i spent time looking for something interesting and i found videos about how to decorate rooms and clothes,” as well as from informant 20, who highlights: to be honest, this week has been the most effective because i have been looking for information that is not presented in our feel of teaching. so, i have learned different laws and statistics that different countries apply in their working context. i am interested in this topic because becoming a lawyer is one of my future goals. also, i discovered that i learn more when something calls my attention. even if i am not able to understand every single word i am able to understand what the laws establish (poi020, sic). this passage presents a blend of at least two elements: general knowledge and goal-setting. although goal-setting was analyzed previously in this section, we point it out here as an appendage of general knowledge since, as we have interpreted it, the student’s immediate motivation to explore these topics is part of a learning need experienced in the course. the convergence of other goals and topics is, at any rate, an added bonus in the context of any educational endeavor, and one which in our opinion should attract more attention from instructors and stakeholders alike. as a last point, analysis of this category concurs with the results for the sense of achievement category above, in that they continue to parallel sevilla and gamboa’s 2016a claim that teaching strategies of this kind serve as a platform to prompt not only the target contents but also learning autonomy. numerically speaking, results appear to be encouraging as well. on table 2 below, we sketch a summary of the percentages coming from the participants’ quantitative appraisal of the project, and which we have used throughout the previous paragraphs to triangulate the information gathered. the numbers on the top indicate the extent to which informants felt the project had been beneficial in each of the categories discussed previously (1= nothing; 2= too little; 3= about right; 4= very much; na: no answer). authentic assessment in listening comprehension sevilla & chaves no. 19 (july december 2019) no. 19 (july december 2019) 24 table 2. summary of students’ assessment of the project criteria 1 2 3 4 na the project has helped me to… 1. become aware of my limitations and set goals to meet these limitations 0% 2.6% 21.1% 76.3% 2. build a sense of achievement on contents proposed for the week 0% 2.6% 60.5% 36.8% 3. reflect on areas where i have made progress 0% 2.6% 31.6% 65.8% 4. develop a general sense of critical thinking 2.6% 5.3% 31.6% 60.5% 5. acquire general knowledge on the topics studied 0% 5.3% 28.9% 65.8% 6. organize my time and deal with homework assignments 2.6% 18.4% 42.1% 36.8% 7. process the contents of the week 2.6% 13.2% 39.5% 44.7% 8. improve my (listening) learning strategies 0% 0% 21.1% 78.9% in general, this experience… 1. motivated me to undertake independent, life-long learning 0% 2.6% 15.8% 78.9% 2.6% 2. helped me to nurture permanent (listening) learning habits 0% 2.6% 21.1% 73.7% 2.6% source: participants’ responses despite these positive results, we are certain that they do not escape criticism. skeptics could argue that such benefits are the natural product of students’ immersion in the course; that the opposite would be rather counterintuitive given the amount of effort invested from beginning to end. following this logic, one would need to admit that there is little or no credit in the outcomes reported herein. nonetheless, while such arguments may be true in principle, the current study does not pursue credits of any sort but instead seeks to systematize the benefits from this intervention strategy in order to draw implications for theory and future classroom application. together, the results of this section indicate that authentic assessment bears a number of advantages to the teaching of listening comprehension in efl programs. the next section, therefore, moves on to discuss the findings in light of the research goal and presents the conclusions and implications for theory and practice. authentic assessment in listening comprehension sevilla & chaves no. 19 (july december 2019) no. 19 (july december 2019) 25 conclusions as stated previously, the present paper systematizes the benefits and implications of bringing authentic assessment into the listening comprehension classroom. in terms of the benefits, findings suggest positive links between authentic assessment and these classes in terms of the following themes: self-awareness and goal-setting, sense of achievement, critical thinking, and general knowledge. they also indicate that projects like this not only bring assessment and instruction together, but they also provide opportunities for skills integration through teacher conferences, peer-assessments, verbal calls, and the many other techniques employed. along with this, students are given opportunities to build learner autonomy as they take charge of their own responsibilities in their own time and at their own will. in the long run, this will lead to what tudor (2001) has termed the political (or social) scope of autonomy: a kind of learning that transcends the classroom boundaries and ensures successful learning for life. taken together, the evidence from this research provides insights for both classroom application and the field of knowledge at large. for classroom use, these data invite a move from traditional testing to ongoing assessment, and from norm-referenced towards more criterion-referenced evaluation. while generalizations are not possible given the small sample used, at any rate the aim should never be a radical “no” to objectively-scored examinations (if changes are to be enforced), but instead a more balanced application, and in combination with other techniques, in order to match the many realities that converge in an elt context. for the advancement of second language assessment (sla), our study sheds light on three key issues. first, it expands the body of available empirical literature on authentic assessment in listening comprehension—a skill already acknowledged as neglected even at the teaching level (see gamboa & sevilla, 2013 and vandergrift, 1997). second, it examines the benefits and implications of incorporating authentic assessment in the listening comprehension classroom considering combee et al. (2007) and rogier’s (2014) cornerstones of language assessment, brown & abeywickrama’s (2010) principles for authentic assessment, and o’malley & valdez’s (1996) steps for developing this kind of evaluation. lastly, it sets the grounds for future inquiries and proposes research methods that may help reach a more comprehensive examination of sla. in so doing, such inquiries should not discard challenges such as the hawthorne effect, a phenomenon where participants modify their behaviors as a result of being part of research (porte, 2010, p. 103), and increasing the sample size to attain generalizability of results. all in all, while the project has proven successful in the scope of this research, we must not ignore a series of drawbacks that need to be considered if successful implementation is to be attained. for instance, we know from authentic assessment in listening comprehension sevilla & chaves no. 19 (july december 2019) no. 19 (july december 2019) 26 instructional experience and educational research that this type of evaluation is time consuming. it, therefore, requires a lot of willpower, support from authorities, and a constant adjusting and readjusting of our professional praxes. it also bears high degrees of subjectivity, which demands that teachers combine assessment strategies to cross-check student progress and counterbalance such shortcomings. lastly, an eventual change of this sort brings about receptivity issues (i.e., the degree to which a teaching change is welcome or not) which require effective coordination between curriculum planners and stakeholders on the one hand, and between instructors and department heads on the other. these and other drawbacks should be considered in future investigations to offer a more comprehensive picture of the benefits and implications, as well as challenges of authentic assessment in listening comprehension courses. in terms of research application, two major limitations were identified. the first one is the small sample used, which limits transferability of findings; the second one is the scope of the study: since the inquiry was limited to benefits and implications of authentic assessment in a listening comprehension class, it was not possible to assess the project’s downsides for students, professors, policy makers, and curricular authorities. future studies must definitely address these weaknesses and provide sound evidence on their outcomes. within this context, agnostics may wonder why we should adopt assessment models that cannot deal with these limitations successfully. without meaning to oversimplify matters, perhaps the questions that need to be asked here are: why continue to endorse traditional models that have not only proven insufficient but also ignored the wealth of other alternatives and failed to deal with these same issues effectively? what if instead of arguing over the traditional-versus-authentic-assessment dichotomy we joined efforts to make language assessment a more democratic, more participatory, and more honest endeavor? for now, these are questions that will only be answered through systematic, empirical research on the links between authentic assessment and listening comprehension in efl programs. authentic assessment in listening comprehension sevilla & chaves no. 19 (july december 2019) no. 19 (july december 2019) 27 references airasian, p. w. 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(january 01, 1981). authentic listening activities. elt journal (united states), 36(1), 37-47. rogier, d. (2014). assessment literacy: building a base for better teaching and learning. english teaching forum, 52(3), 2-13. rojas, o. (2004). el portafolio y la evaluación del proceso en traducción. revista letras, 36, 27-64. sevilla, h., & gamboa, r. (2016b). student self-evaluation and autonomy development in efl learning. revista de lenguas modernas, 25, 199-222. tudor, i. (2001). the dynamics of the language classroom. cambridge: cambridge university press. vandergrift, l. (1997). the cinderella of communication strategies: reception strategies in interactive listening. the modern language journal, 81(4), 494. yurdabakan, i., & erdogan, t. (2009). the effects of portfolio assessment on reading, listening and writing skills of secondary school prep class students. journal of international social research, 2(9), 526-538. authentic assessment in listening comprehension sevilla & chaves no. 19 (july december 2019) no. 19 (july december 2019) 30 authentic assessment in listening comprehension authors *henry sevilla morales holds an m.a. in second languages and cultures. he has been an efl instructor for 13 years and currently works at universidad nacional, costa rica. his research has been presented in numerous national and international conferences and published in various journals and conference proceedings in costa rica and the united states. his current research areas include reflective writing, learner autonomy, authentic assessment, critical applied linguistics, and translation studies. orcid: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4040-8062 lindsay chaves fernández holds an m.a. in second languages and cultures from universidad nacional, costa rica. she has been an efl instructor for over fifteen years and currently works at escuela de literatura y ciencias del lenguaje, universidad nacional. her papers appear in different scientific journals and her research has been presented in national and international conferences in costa rica, cuba, canada, spain and switzerland. among her research interests are composition and rhetoric, information and communication technologies (ict) in teaching, learners’ diversity and motivation, translation studies, approaches to efl teaching, and accreditation practices in higher education. orcid: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7936-8112 how to reference this article: sevilla morales, h., & chaves-fernandez, l. (2019). authentic assessment in the listening comprehension classroom: benefits and implications. gist – education and learning research journal, 19, 6-30. https://doi.org/10.26817/16925777.704 no. 19 (july december 2019) no. 19 (july december 2019) gist education and learning research journal. issn 1692-5777. no. 20 (january june, 2020). pp. 7-31. the pre-service efl teachers’ development of phonological processing and evaluation of their attitudes toward pronunciation1 el desarrollo del procesamiento fonológico y de la evaluación de la actitud de profesores en formación de inglés como lengua extranjera en formación hacia la pronunciación canan aksakallı and oktay yağız2* atatürk university, turkey 1 received: april 27th 2019/ accepted: march 27th 2020 2 cananaksakalli@gmail.com; yoktay@atauni.edu.tr 8 no. 20 pre-service efl teachers in phonological processing and evaluation aksakalli & yağiz abstract this study aimed at investigating efl pre-service teachers’ attitudes towards pronunciation and pronunciation teaching. another purpose was to explore the outcomes of pronunciation instruction of efl pre-service teachers’ phonological development and, based on the findings, to provide suggestions taking learners’ pedagogical needs into consideration. the study was conducted using a quantitative research design. 107 efl pre-service teachers participated in the phase of questionnaire responding of the study, while 86 of whom participated in the interventional phase of the study. for fourteen weeks, one of the researchers provided efl preservice teachers with pronunciation instruction focusing on segmental and suprasegmental features in english pronunciation. the results revealed that the participants had generally positive attitudes toward proper pronunciation in target language, which means that participants agreed upon the importance of pronunciation in target language and perceive pronunciation as a vital component of language learning and teaching. as to the interventional findings, it was found that the participants displayed significant improvement in articulation of vowels and consonants. in addition, the present study also found out that the participants’ post-test scores at the suprasegmental level (word-stress, intonation comprehensibility) were significantly higher than their pre-test scores. key words: second language; english pronunciation; l2 pronunciation; pronunciation education; teaching segmentals; teaching suprasegmentals; phonological improvement; attitudes; efl pre-service teachers. resumen este studio tiene como propósito investigar las actitudes hacia la pronunciación y la enseñanza de pronunciación de los profesores de inglés como lengua extranjera en formación. otro propósito era explorar los resultados de la instrucción de pronunciación sobre el desarrollo fonológico de los profesores y, basado en los resultados, proporcionar sugerencias al tener en cuenta las necesidades pedagógicas de los aprendices en consideración dentro de la investigación. el estudio fue desarrollado usando un diseño de investigación cuantitativa. 107 profesores de inglés como lengua extranjera en formación participaron en la fase de respuesta al cuestionario, mientras que 86 de los cuales participaron en la fase de intervención del estudio. por catorce semanas, uno de los investigadores proporcionó a los profesores en formación una instrucción sobre características segmentales y suprasegmentales en la pronunciación de inglés. los resultados revelaron que la participación tuvo actitudes positivas hacia la apropiada pronunciación en la lengua objetivo, lo que significa que los participantes acordaron sobre su importancia y lo percibieron como un componente vital del aprendizaje y enseñanza del idioma. finalmente, los resultados demostraron que los participantes tuvieron una mejoría significativa en la articulación de vocales y consonantes. además, el presente estudio también encontró que los puntajes de pruebas posteriores sobre el nivel suprasegmental (estrés de la palabra, comprensibilidad de la entonación) fueron significativemente más altos que en la prueba inicial. 9 no. 20 pre-service efl teachers in phonological processing and evaluation aksakalli & yağiz palabras clave: segunda lengua; pronunciación en inglés; pronunciación de segunda lengua; enseñanza de segmentales; enseñanza de suprasegmentales, mejoría fonológica, actitutes, profesores de inglés como lengua extranjera en formación. resumo este estudo tem como propósito pesquisar as atitudes em relação à pronúncia e ao ensino da pronúncia dos professores de inglês como língua estrangeira em formação. outro propósito era explorar os resultados da instrução de pronúncia sobre o desenvolvimento fonológico dos professores e, baseado nos resultados, proporcionar sugestões ao levar em consideração as necessidades pedagógicas dos aprendizes em questão dentro da pesquisa. o estudo foi desenvolvido usando um desenho de pesquisa quantitativa. 107 professores de inglês como língua estrangeira em formação participaram na fase de resposta ao questionário, enquanto que 86 dos quais participaram na fase de intervenção do estudo. por catorze semanas, um dos pesquisadores proporcionou aos professores em formação uma instrução sobre características segmentais e suprassegmentais na pronúncia de inglês. os resultados revelaram que a participação teve atitudes positivas em relação à apropriada pronúncia na língua objetivo, o que significa que os participantes acordaram sobre sua importância e o perceberam como um componente vital da aprendizagem e ensino do idioma. finalmente, os resultados demonstraram que os participantes tiveram uma melhoria significativa na articulação de vocais e consonantes. além disso, o presente estudo também encontrou que as pontuações de provas posteriores sobre o nível suprassegmental (estresse da palavra, compreensibilidade da entonação) foram significativamente mais alto que na prova inicial. palavras chave: segunda língua; pronúncia em inglês; pronúncia de segunda língua; ensino de segmentais; ensino de suprassegmentais; melhoria fonológica; atitudes; professores de inglês como língua estrangeira em formação. 10 no. 20 introduction with the advent of communicative language teaching (clt), intelligible communication has been attracting renewed attention within the field of second and foreign language teaching, and pronunciation has begun to be recognized as one of the most crucial aspects of intelligible communication (alastuey, 2013; elias, 2000; levis, 2005; munro & derwing, 1999; sifakis, 2014). a basic level of pronunciation is required for effective communication and for preventing comprehension problems, misunderstandings and communication breakdowns (roccamo, 2015). in case of inadequate phonological skills, learners might be judged by listeners negatively in terms of their overall language ability as well (gilakjani & sabouri, 2016). similarly, pronunciation is highly related to prestige and plays an important part in social interactions. from a sociolinguistic standpoint, good pronunciation prevents learners from being recognized as foreigners (lord, 2008) and promotes learners’ group identity (gatbonton, torfimovich & magid, 2005). every human being wants to belong to a particular group to be able to have similar worldviews and behavioral norms. in such a situation, l2 accent can be considered as an indicator of a learners’ degree of ethnic affiliation. due to insufficient empirical research into pronunciation within the field of applied linguistics, many teachers remain skeptical about the integration of pronunciation into language classrooms and pay little attention to pronunciation teaching (derwing & munro, 2005). having identified teachers’ tendency toward the integration of pronunciation into language classrooms, derwing and munro (2005) made an appeal for more extensive research into pronunciation to improve pronunciation researchers’, language learners’ and teachers’ knowledge of the nature of pronunciation and its impacts on communication as well as social identity and linguistic competence. by investigating efl pre-service teachers’ attitudes toward pronunciation and pronunciation teaching as well as the impacts of pronunciation instruction on their pronunciation skills and phonological awareness, this study may shed more light on the issues of english pronunciation in turkish efl context. the rationale of the study is mainly based on the notion that little attention has been paid to pronunciation in language teaching process. to fully understand the nature of issues regarding pronunciation in turkish efl context, further investigation into pronunciation teaching is required. therefore, this study may provide a further understanding of pronunciation teaching in language teaching programs in terms of different population and setting. pre-service efl teachers in phonological processing and evaluation aksakalli & yağiz 11 no. 20 literature review in many efl/esl settings, compared to the language skills such as grammar, reading or vocabulary which are taught individually, language teachers may neglect pronunciation and consider that it should be taught in higher levels. much of the research dedicated to pronunciation teaching has indicated that pronunciation is regarded as the “cinderella” of language teaching (kelly, 1969, p. 87) since linguists and philologists have paid attention to other aspects of language more than to pronunciation. despite this fact, its crucial role in intelligible communication has led researchers to investigate pronunciation instruction from different perspectives such as goals, priorities, challenges and needs in the field of pronunciation teaching. pronunciation in the second language gives a clear idea of language ability to encompass the differentiation from the production of sounds. this framework includes the segmental and suprasegmental levels. while the segmental frame is more effective in the area of accent, the suprasegmental frame forms an important element of oral communication such as stress, rhythm and intonation as well as intelligibility, fluency and naturalness in pronunciation. these two important elements in pronunciation are a must for healthy communication. (hinofotis & bailey, 1980) while inaccurate pronunciation at the individual sounds are often compensated provided that intelligibility is ensured, it may result in significant problems in some cases due to lexical confusion or lack of differentiation (wilner, 2007; labov & hanau, 2011). the potential of miscommunication due to segmental errors meanwhile may cause discomfort (fayer & krasinski, 1987) and tendency to stop the communication (singleton, 1995). suprasegmental (i.e. stress, rhythm, intonation) features are other speech components, which affect intelligibility, which munro et al. (2006, p.112) defines as “the extent to which a speaker’s utterance is actually understood”. however, derwing and munro (2015) highlight that recent years, practice and research have considerably focused on intelligibility rather than accent related issue. they attribute this intelligibility priority over accent-based approach to the fact that few l2 speakers can achieve native-like pronunciation in another language. isaac and trofimovich (2012) likewise state that l2 speakers’ intelligibility achievement is more important than sounding nativelike without accent. however, though intelligibility and accentedness are partially independent (derwing & munro, 1997; munro & derwing, 1995) both phenomena are closely related. therefore, these segmental and suprasegmental features of a language may be an effective instructional instrument through a cognitive function. educational support is one of the variables which affect l2 learners’ cognitive attainment in pronunciation (saito, 2015a) given the influence of age (saito, 2015b), amount of l2 exposure (flege, 2009, moyer, 2004), individual differences (dörnyei, 2006), learning style (baran-lucarz, 2012) on l2 phonological processing, explicit learning acts a role through processing pre-service efl teachers in phonological processing and evaluation aksakalli & yağiz 12 no. 20 capabilities and long-term memory (baddeley, 2012) it becomes a necessity particularly for the late language learners (long, 2015). research evidence has supported the effectiveness and functionality of pronunciation instruction with a form-focused on l2 learners’ pronunciation improvement (e.g. dekeyser, 2003; derwing & munro, 2005; derwing, munro, foote, waugh, & fleming, 2014). learning and achievement are affected by psychological variables in many areas of language. pronunciation is one of the domains in which attitudes and beliefs determine learning choices, priorities and perceptions. affective variables such as motivation and attitude can affect l2 pronunciation attainment (tsunemoto & mcdonough, 2020). individuals with positive attitudes towards the importance of accurate pronunciation displayed better profiles of l2 users (huensch & thompson, 2017). besides, confident l2 speakers can show positive attitudes towards pronunciation learning (uchida & sugimoto, 2019). gained positive attitudes meanwhile can lead to less anxiety to pronounce better and improve current proficiency (sardegna, lee, & kusey, 2018). the efficacy of pronunciation instruction, either explicit or implicit, is one of the most salient issues examined within the field of pronunciation teaching. although there were very few studies related to the effectiveness of pronunciation instruction until the 1960s; with the appearance of new language teaching approaches and a wide range of researchers emphasizing the importance of pronunciation instruction, the tendency has changed and pronunciation has become a research topic (yağız, 2018). at the turn of 21st century, much more emphasis was placed on the effectiveness of pronunciation instruction. various studies provide evidence supporting that there is a positive correlation between pronunciation proficiency and pronunciation instruction. (arrieta, 2017; camus-oyarzun, 2016; chiba, 2012; couper, 2003; derwing & munro, 2005; elliott, 1995; huthaily, 2008; kissling, 2015; roccamo, 2015; thomson & derwing, 2014; tlazalo tejeda & basurta santos, 2014; zamora, 2015). there appears to be a clear consensus among pronunciation researchers that pronunciation is worth mentioning within the field of language teaching. to give an example, couper (2003) examined the efficacy of explicit pronunciation teaching by conducting an experimental study and the findings of the preand post-tests revealed a clear improvement in learners’ pronunciation accuracy on the reading and speaking tasks undertaken in the study. saito (2012) also emphasized the value of pronunciation instruction on pronunciation skills of language learners. investigating impacts of instruction on l2 pronunciation development through a research synthesis of 15 quasi-experimental studies, saito (2012) provided results referring to the positive effects of instruction on both improving segmental and suprasegmental aspects of pronunciation and enhancing perceived comprehensibility. bringing the biological and pedagogical variables to the forefront in the acquisition of phonology, elliott (1995) carried out a study on the effects of formal instruction in pronunciation. the pre-service efl teachers in phonological processing and evaluation aksakalli & yağiz 13 no. 20 analysis of the data showed that pronunciation instruction had positive effects on learners’ accuracy of pronunciation. based on the findings of the studies mentioned above, it seems clear that even devoting only a relatively little time to pronunciation teaching in language classrooms can lead to beneficial results in learners’ perception and production skills. thus, teachers can diagnose students’ pronunciation difficulties, raise their awareness of pronunciation and enable them to practice pronunciation patterns and observe their own learning process. some studies, on the other hand, provide counterevidence that there is not a close relationship between pronunciation instruction and phonological competence (ducate & lomicka, 2009; harris, 2002; kennedy, 2008; kissling, 2013). the explanations for this may be learner differences, instructional focus, aims, type and duration of instruction given and assessment procedures (thomson & derwing, 2014). to give an example, harris (2002) supports that pronunciation improvement occurs resulting from exposure to target language rather than explicit formal instruction on pronunciation. similarly, kennedy (2008) suggests that pronunciation training based on prosodic features may not always lead to positive changes in intelligibility and pronunciation. given the controversial ideas regarding the effectiveness of pronunciation training in the relevant literature, it can be deduced that there is still a need for exploring the issues of pronunciation in language teaching. since pronunciation teaching has regained its status in improving general language competence, this notion should be investigated in terms of different perspectives to increase language learners’ phonological awareness and improvement as well as general language skills. research questions 1. what are the attitudes of pre-service teachers of english language toward pronunciation and pronunciation instruction? 2. to what degree is the pronunciation instruction effective on pre-service english teachers’ segmental and suprasegmental domains of l2 oral proficiency? pre-service efl teachers in phonological processing and evaluation aksakalli & yağiz 14 no. 20 methodology research design in this study, a quantitative research design was used. quantitative research designs can be classified into two major categories: experimental and non-experimental research designs. an experimental study was conducted because in experimental studies “researchers seek to test whether an educational practice or idea makes a difference for individuals” (creswell, 2014). this study tried to determine the effect of pronunciation instruction (independent variable) on production skills (dependent variables) implementing an intervention. in other words, an experimental design was the most appropriate way to identify a cause-effect relation. experimental research designs are divided into two main groups: strong experimental research designs and weak experimental designs which are also identified as quasi-experimental design. among types of quasi-experimental designs, one-group pretest-posttest design was used in this study. although a lack of some type of comparison is considered as a negative factor, this design is widely used in educational research (campbell & stanley, 2015). a pretest (o1) is administered to a single group of participants before giving an experimental treatment condition (x). the posttest (o2) is then implemented. the difference between pretest and posttest is interpreted as an indicator of the effectiveness of treatment condition. the weakness of one-group pretest-posttest research design is that extraneous variables including history, maturation, instrumentation and regression artifacts may influence posttest results. as such, the difference between pretest and posttest may not be completely attributed to an independent variable, which makes it a weak design. to minimize this weakness and potential threats, the researchers employed “the pronunciation attitude inventory” (elliott,1993) as a quantitatively descriptive tool at the end of the intervention. participants 107 undergraduate students participated in this study. the participants’ ages ranged in from 18 to 20 and were in the first year of their four-year degree program in the english language teaching department at a state university. this department was selected since the students were prospective teachers of english who have considerable enthusiasm to learn more and develop their linguistic competency in english. given the entry requirements for efl departments, it can be considered that their proficiency levels in english were of upper-intermediate and pre-advanced level. it should be noted that in questionnaires related to the participants’ attitudes toward pronunciation, it was decided to use pseudonyms to comply with ethics in quantitative research. pre-service efl teachers in phonological processing and evaluation aksakalli & yağiz 15 no. 20 pronunciation attitude inventory with the aim of collecting quantitative data of the study about pre-service efl teachers’ attitudes toward pronunciation, “the pronunciation attitude inventory” was implemented. the inventory originally developed by elliott (1993) and adapted by roccamo (2015) was the most commonly used data collection instrument in the studies investigating language learners’ attitudes toward pronunciation of target language. the last two items of the inventory used by roccamo were dropped out of the inventory used in the present study for the reason that they were open-ended questions, and, thus, the removal of these items would not influence the validity and reliability of the instrument. the present inventory includes 13 statements about pronunciation and it was designed in the form of five-point likert scale ranging from “always and almost always true of me” to “never and almost never true of me”. the rubric a pronunciation rubric was used to assess learners’ performances in reading aloud recordings obtained through the pre-test and post-test. to adapt a rubric suitable for the purposes of the current study, the relevant literature was examined and all the similar rubrics were found and evaluated in terms of the content, aim and categories they had. taking the aims and research questions of the present study into consideration, a rubric was adapted using the rubric developed by ma (2015) and including 6 categories. however, two categories -rhythm and sentence stresswere dropped out of the present rubric because only intonation and word-stress were taught in pronunciation classes. also, comprehensible speech was among the issues taken into account and discussed in the present study, and, thus, it was aimed at exploring how the pronunciation instruction would affect the participants’ comprehensibility. therefore, the category of comprehensibility was added into the rubric as the fifth category. for the purpose of ensuring whether or not the rubric adapted as a first draft was appropriate to use in the study, a rubric assessment tool was developed. to ask for their comments on the rubric adapted, this tool was sent to 5 language instructors who were experts in their profession and had adequate knowledge of english pronunciation. the language instructors gave feedback on the rubric. among the instructors, there was a consensus about the rubric, which it was appropriate to be used in the study. the rubric adapted involved 5 categories including vowels, consonants, intonation, wordstress and comprehensibility. data collection procedure before proceeding with data collection, permission was sought from the english language teaching department of atatürk university. the administration of the pre-service efl teachers in phonological processing and evaluation aksakalli & yağiz 16 no. 20 department accepted this request and allowed the researcher to work with the firstyear classes of the department for both giving pronunciation instruction and collecting data by means of inventory, and pre-/post-tests. subsequent to the required permission from the department, a pretest was administered at the outset of the study to explore what the participants’ levels of the use of english pronunciation at the segmental and suprasegmental levels was. the pretest included items measuring the learners’ level of pronunciation competence and comprehensibility. during the first two weeks of the semester devoted to pronunciation teaching, the participants were presented with two paragraphs extracted from a text and they were asked to read the same text in the classroom one by one. all the recordings in the study were saved using a voice recorder. after completing the pre-test process, pronunciation instruction started and lasted for 12 weeks in the fall term. the students received a total of 36 hours of pronunciation instruction each of which included fifty-minute pronunciation lessons. the teaching syllabus included the teaching of segmental and suprasegmental features of english including the articulation of vowels and consonants as well as intonation and wordstress forms. the lessons focused on the correct articulation of english sounds by first listening and then trying to imitate on their own. after practicing the articulation of the sounds, the students reinforced these sounds using within the words. the consonants and vowels that do not exist in turkish language were especially emphasized in lessons and practiced more with extra materials and videos to enable students to articulate them correctly. the students were encouraged to practice english sounds correctly in and out of the classroom with additional exercises. after completing the teaching of segmental features, intonation and word-stress forms and rules were provided by instructor using the examples and exercises in the book chosen for the pronunciation teaching period. a post-test was administered at the end of the study to all the participants. this post-test included the same procedures as in the pre-test. after that, the students were informed that they would participate in a pronunciation attitude inventory. the administration of the inventory took place at the end of the semester for enabling students to develop certain types of attitudes toward pronunciation during educational term. the participants were asked to read and respond the whole inventory in 15 minutes. pre-service efl teachers in phonological processing and evaluation aksakalli & yağiz 17 no. 20 rating procedure the recorded samples gathered from the participants were rated by two raters who were native speakers of english. during the rating process, a 5-point likert type scale was employed. all the recordings were transferred from the voice recorder to the computer. pretests and post-tests were sent to a different file created for each student. after that, the computer files and rating sheets were submitted to the raters to enable them to rate each recording. some of the recordings were excluded since they had some technical problems. for example, some students did not participate in either pretest or posttest. likewise, there occurred some uncontrollable situations such as sudden noises in the outer environment like a motorbike or shouting people. the rest of the recordings of 86 participants were rated by the native speaker of english. analysis cronbach’ alpha reliability analysis was conducted to identify the reliability of the research instruments. the results revealed that cronbach’s alpha reliability coefficient of the measurements obtained from the questionnaire was 0,78. a desired critical alpha value should be at least 0,70 to consider a reliability coefficient to be acceptable. in the analysis of pre-/post-tests, percent agreement of two raters was calculated for inter-rater reliability. by this way, it was found that percent agreement was 88%. this means that the ratings of the raters were reliable. spss 23 was used to analyze the data. a kolmogorov-smirnov test of normality was conducted to see whether each dependent variable was normally distributed and the results are presented in table 1. table 1. results of kolmogorov-smirnov test kolmogorov-smirnova statistic df p inventory ,389 107 ,372 pre-test .293 86 .277 post-test .275 86 .298 a. liliefors significance correction pre-service efl teachers in phonological processing and evaluation aksakalli & yağiz 18 no. 20 according to the table above, it was found that the data were normally distributed. in this respect, it can be concluded that the normality assumptions were met for all of the variables. therefore, parametric tests were conducted to analyze the data. after identifying the normal distribution of the data related to pre-service english language teachers’ attitudes toward english pronunciation, mean and standard deviation values were presented. reversed scoring was employed for the items 3, 9, and 13 in the questionnaire since they were negatively worded questions. in the process of interpreting mean, a scoring system was used in which the interval width of 1.001.80 showed “very low-strongly disagree”, the 1.81-2.60 interval showed “low–disagree”, the 2.61-3.40 interval showed “medium level-not sure”, the 3.41-4.20 interval showed “highagree”, and the 4.21-5.00 interval showed “very high-strongly agree”. for the purpose of identifying the potential differences between or among the mean scores in the data set, paired samples t-test was adopted. as for the analysis of variance and the homogeneity of the data set, levene’s test was used as a precondition for parametric tests such as t-test. according to the results obtained by levene’s test, it was found that the variance of each independent variable was homogeneous. paired samples t-test, which is a parametric test, was adopted to examine if there was any change in the students’ pronunciation. paired samples t-test should be performed on the ratings of pre-tests and post-tests of each participant because this type of statistical test compares the means of two repeated measures for statistical significance. pronunciation instruction provided was the independent variable while improved comprehensibility, vowels, consonants, intonation and word stress were the dependent variables. results results of pronunciation attitude inventory the mean and standard deviation values related to pre-service english teachers’ attitudes toward pronunciation are shown in table 2. pre-service efl teachers in phonological processing and evaluation aksakalli & yağiz 19 no. 20 table 2. mean scores and standard deviation values related to attitudes toward pronunciation n= 107  ss items 1. i’d like to sound as native as possible when speaking english. 3.98 .99 2. acquiring proper pronunciation in english is important to me. 4.31 .85 3. i will never be able to speak english with a good accent. 4.12 1.12 4. i believe i can improve my pronunciation skills in english. 4.57 .75 5. i believe more emphasis should be given to proper pronunciation in class. 3.99 .90 6. one of my personal goals is to acquire proper pronunciation skills and preferably be able to pass as a near-native speaker of the language. 4.20 .97 7. i try to imitate english speakers as much as possible. 3.95 1.03 8. communicating is much more important than sounding like a native speaker of english. 3.70 1.05 9. good pronunciation skills in english are not as important as learning vocabulary and grammar. 3.79 1.43 10. i want to improve my accent when speaking english. 4.58 .81 11. i’m concerned with my progress in my pronunciation of english. 3.73 1.28 12. sounding like a native speaker is very important to me. 4.26 .97 13. i do not practice a native-like accent in class because of how other students in class would perceive it. 3.32 1.21 total 4.04 .55 * reversed scoring was employed for the items 3, 9, and 13 in the questionnaire since they are negatively worded questions. table 2 shows efl pre-service teachers’ attitudes toward the development of proper pronunciation skills in the target language. the results indicated that preservice english teachers had positive attitudes toward pronunciation. it seems that participants agreed upon the importance of pronunciation and perceive pronunciation as a vital component of language learning and teaching. a careful look at the items individually portrays significant findings regarding phonological issues in language teaching. participants believed that attaining a native-like accent is highly important and item 12 indicates that they expressed a desire to sound like a native speaker when speaking in the target language. this result shows the connection between their attitudes toward their own accent and classroom practices such that they believed pre-service efl teachers in phonological processing and evaluation aksakalli & yağiz 20 no. 20 teachers should pay more attention to proper pronunciation in classroom practices for promoting the attainment of a native-like accent. item 6 supports this conclusion since participants strongly agreed that one of their personal goals is to acquire proper pronunciation to pass as a near-native speaker of the target language. on the other hand, one question in this area referred to participants’ attitudes toward communication. item 8 asked pre-service efl teachers to rank whether communication is more important than native-like accent. the results of this item displayed that majority of the participants found communication more important than sounding like a native speaker, which prioritizes pronunciation for efficient communication. nevertheless, more respondents care much about native-like accent. a paradox can be seen when examining the results of items 3 and 4 in the table above. on the one hand, item 3 addresses students’ feelings of helplessness, showing that most of the participants believed their pronunciation will never be good. besides, item 4 on the inventory revealed that the respondents strongly agreed that they can improve their pronunciation skills. what is striking in the table above is that although participants found good pronunciation important, they did not consider it as a vital aspect of language instruction as other skills such as grammar and vocabulary. results of item 13 displayed how other students’ perceptions of participants’ l2 accent influence the desire to practice l2 accent in the classroom. participants believed that they avoid practicing phonological aspects because of the fear of negative evaluation by their peers in the classroom. in general, participants recognized that native-like accent and proper pronunciation are crucial and essential. they also emphasized language teaching practices including teaching of proper pronunciation. results of pre-/post-tests paired samples t-test was performed to find out if there was a significant difference between the pre-tests and post-tests scores of the efl students. the results were shown in table 3. pre-service efl teachers in phonological processing and evaluation aksakalli & yağiz 21 no. 20 table 3. paired samples t-test results for pronunciation scores of the pre-test and post-test of pre-service teachers dimensions test n mean sd df t p vowels pre-test 86 2.25 .71 85 -12.397 .000 post-test 86 2.83 .65 consonants pre-test 86 2.29 .72 85 -11.684 .000 post-test 86 2.91 6.3 intonation pre-test 86 1.85 .70 85 -11.963 .000 post-test 86 2.42 .61 word stress pre-test 86 2.09 .62 85 -12.142 .000 post-test 86 2.67 .59 comprehensibility pre-test 86 2.31 .74 85 -13.555 .000 post-test 86 3.01 .76 total pre-test 86 2.16 .61 85 -17.654 .000 post-test 86 2.77 .57 according to the results shown in table 3, the ratings of pre-service teachers’ reading aloud performances in pre-tests and post-tests displayed a significant difference in overall mean of all the participants’ pronunciation competency (t(total)=-17,654; p<0,05). this means that after the pre-service language teachers received pronunciation instruction, they showed highly significant improvement in overall pronunciation skills. given the results of the categories of the rubric individually, it can be seen that there is a statistically significant difference between the ratings of each category in pre-test and post-test, which means that pre-service language teachers improved significantly in articulation of vowels, consonants, word-stress, intonation. likewise, the results revealed a significant difference for comprehensibility between pre-tests and post-test ratings (t (comprehensibility)=-13,555; p<0,05), which means that the pre-service english language teachers also displayed highly significant improvement in their comprehensibility. pre-service efl teachers in phonological processing and evaluation aksakalli & yağiz 22 no. 20 discussion and conclusion the study grants significant insights into how pre-service efl learners perceive pronunciation and pronunciation instruction contributes to pronunciation skills. first, it revealed that efl pre-service teachers had generally positive attitudes toward pronunciation and its teaching. this viewpoint suggests that pre-service efl teachers seem to be open to the belief that proper pronunciation should be emphasized in language classrooms. this finding appears to comply with that of counselman (2010) who referred that the participants of his study are concerned about their pronunciation and they believed they can develop their pronunciation through instruction and practice, which shows similarity to the participants’ beliefs in this study. in this study, the highest mean scores indicate that sounding like a native speaker is valuable for pre-service efl teachers. this finding seems to run counter to that of kang (2010). the findings in her study showed that only a small number of participants sought to be native-like speakers of the target language. this means that participants mostly preferred being intelligible when speaking in the target language. however, the findings of the study conducted by coşkun (2011) were very consistent with those of the present study. coşkun (2011) asserted that the participants in his study agreed on the belief that english language teaching in classroom environment, especially for the purpose of attaining native-like pronunciation, is considered very significant. similarly, concerning the relationship between the desire to learn pronunciation and pronunciation development, elliot (1993) suggested an important finding which reveals that students’ attitudes are remarkably effective factors in the acquisition of pronunciation of target language. students are inclined to have better pronunciation of target language if they are more concerned about their pronunciation. to provide a summary of the discussion about pre-service english language teachers’ attitudes toward pronunciation and pronunciation teaching, it can be commented that poor pronunciation skills lead to misunderstanding and distraction in communication as well as being marked or divergent. the participants generally displayed positive attitudes toward pronunciation component in language teaching. such positive attitudes can be explained by the fact that when language learners can practice the target language with correct pronunciation, they enhance their willingness to communicate. therefore, pronunciation should be integrated into general language instruction, pronunciation knowledge is necessary to make language users process and comprehend other speakers’ speech easily. the analysis of pre-test and post-test revealed that pre-service efl teachers improved significantly their phonological skills following the pronunciation training. a number of studies can be provided from the relevant literature supporting that pronunciation skills and comprehensibility can raise through explicit pronunciation instruction as stated in this study. (derwing and munro, 2005; gordon & darcy, 2016; pre-service efl teachers in phonological processing and evaluation aksakalli & yağiz 23 no. 20 jeske, 2012; kennedy & trofimovic, 2010; lepore, 2014; venkatagiri & levis, 2007; yoshida, 2010; zamora, 2015). for example, jeske (2012) conducted a study to provide evidence for this issue by teaching the relevant vowels to a group of students from two different schools sharing the same l1 and age of first exposure to l2 english but differing in amounts of l2 exposure each week. results of the study indicated that the students who received larger amounts of l2 pronunciation instruction improved their pronunciation of vowels more than those who were provided less amounts of pronunciation instruction. gonzález bueno (1994) provided the language learners with a segmental-based pronunciation instruction, and pre-/ post-tests before and after the instruction were performed with the participants. the comparison of the results of the pre-test and post-test showed that there was a significant difference between preand post-test in the experimental group while the control group showed no improvement in target sounds, which supports the results of the present study. the positive impacts of explicit phonological instruction on the students’ comprehensibility were also worth mentioning in the discussion of the overall effects of pronunciation training on language learners’ speaking skills. the present study indicates that after receiving pronunciation instruction, the students have had more comprehensible speech. saito (2011) provided similar results maintaining that explicit pronunciation instruction has significant positive effects on comprehensibility. venkatagiri and levis (2007) provided support to the same notion based on the findings of their study which summarized that speech comprehensibility was significantly improved due to the greater amount of explicit pronunciation instruction. the results of the present study are notable, this is because they demand a stronger part of pronunciation training including segmental and suprasegmental features in language classrooms to provide the overall pronunciation skills and comprehensibility. this study raises certain implications for pronunciation teaching. first, more classroom-relevant research should be carried out on pronunciation to establish the most efficient ways of teaching it and to identify the factors that contribute to it. it is likely that proper pronunciation is the paramount concern for language learners and many teachers are not aware of the significance of pronunciation for intelligible communication and social identity. for this reason, it can be suggested that language teachers should resort to the empirical evidence in the creation of pronunciation syllabi rather than relying on their own intuitions. of more significance are the learners’ considerable exposure to certain pronunciation aspects, their motivation for learning a particular pronunciation norm, and creating opportunities for them to notice the importance of pronunciation. ideally, teacher training programs need to provide language teachers with adequate background to help them diagnose their students’ pronunciation needs and problems and interpret research findings to establish their applicability for pronunciation teaching. pre-service efl teachers in phonological processing and evaluation aksakalli & yağiz 24 no. 20 limitations the current study had some limitations of which important reason was perhaps the inventory of the instruction. though it has been often argued that pronunciation instruction should not be confined to segmental level, suprasegmental features are more important in terms of intelligibility. however, since l2 teachers may be less effective in teaching of l2 pronunciation, the researchers can be a constraint for ideal pronunciation instruction. another limitation is related to the longtitudinal observation of the instruction effectiveness. despite 14-week instruction this study did not measure the pronunciation improvement in the long term. this can be a research question for further research. the third limitation is related to research design selection, that is, to observe a cause and relationship, experimental design is needed to reach more reliable results. however, due to formal educational requirements, using more rigorous experimental groups (i.e. control vs. treatment groups) would be unethical and unfeasible in an l2 classroom. for this reason, the current study had to adopt a quasi-experimental design. a further study can be conducted with a sample of different groups who are not in officially educational positions such as academics, private course takers and businesspersons. pre-service efl teachers in phonological processing and evaluation aksakalli & yağiz 25 no. 20 references alastuey, m. c. b. 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(2007). communication skills training programs for doctors. academic internal medicine insight, 5(3), 14-15. http://www.im.org/p/cm/ld/fid=209 yagiz, o. (2018). efl language teachers’ cognitions and observed classroom practices about l2 pronunciation: the context of turkey. novitas-royal (research on youth and language), 12(2), 187-204. retrieved from https://files. eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ej1195280.pdf pre-service efl teachers in phonological processing and evaluation aksakalli & yağiz 31 no. 20 yoshida, k. (2010). effects of oral practice on pronunciation: focusing on word accentuation (doctoral dissertation) retrieved from proquest dissertations & theses global. (umi no: 3702794) zamora, j. e. g. (2015). teaching and learning l2 pronunciation: a closer look at classroom and extra-classroom factors in the development of comprehensibility in esl learners (doctoral dissertation). retrieved from proquest dissertations & theses global. (umi no: 3702794) this study was adopted from the first author’s ph.d. dissertation in 2018. tubitak (the scientific and technological research council of turkey) supported this ph.d. dissertation financially through its scholarship 2211-national graduate scholarship programme. authors *canan aksakallı is an assistant professor at atatürk university, department of translation and interpretation in turkey. her research interests are second language acquisition and all aspects of l2 speech, especially accent and intelligible speech. she also teaches at the undergraduate level in the field of translation. orcid: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0685-0789 oktay yağız asst. prof. works at atatürk university, school of education, department of english teaching in turkey. his research interests are english academic writing, educational research and pronunciation based studies. he also teaches at undergraduate and graduate levels in the fields mentioned above. orcid: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7076-7774 pre-service efl teachers in phonological processing and evaluation aksakalli & yağiz how to reference this article: aksakallı, c., & yağız, o. (2020). the pre-service efl teachers’ development of phonological processing and evaluation of their attitudes toward pronunciation. gist – education and learning research journal, 20, 7-31. https://doi. org/10.26817/16925777.712 148 pérez & vargas shaping narrative writing skills through creating picture books1 dando forma a las habilidades de escritura narrativa a través de la creación de libros ilustrados francisco antonio pérez-gómez and carolina vargas daza2* universidad pedagógica nacional, colombia abstract this research sets out to unveil the potential enrichment of initial narrative writing processes in a group of efl 5th graders through the implementation of picture books as useful tools which can be used to shape the natural ability of telling an event or a sequence of events systematically of efl students at this level. in this qualitative approach study, writing was regarded as a formal description of structured data which is outlined in the mind, and which has different cognitive stages and works with preestablished categories, as proposed by flower and hayes (2008); furthermore, the learning was contemplated from a genre-based approach in which recognizing the needs and proficiencies of the students was the major concern, and this was fueled and supported by the use of familiar routines and cyclical activities in social contexts during the writing process. after following up and analyzing the whole process 5 graders went through in terms of creating a narrative story embodied in the form and principles of a picture book, it was determined that thanks to the use of illustrations, and words students were able to tell simple but meaningful and creative stories about characters (mostly creatures) they used as the protagonists in their picture books. equally, it was found that the habitual written practices they were exposed to, contributed to a significant extent, to the enhancement of basic narrative writing skills as they were able to express their view of reality in a concrete and simple form, place their basic grammar and lexicon to the service of the narrations they were trying to render and most importantly, they displayed a better capacity of telling an event or a sequence of events systematically. key words: writing process; picture book; narrative writing; genre-based approach. 1 received: may 1st 2018/ accepted: october 7th 2019 2 fperez@pedagogica.edu.co; carolina.vd87@gmail.com gist education and learning research journal. issn 1692-5777. no.19 (july december, 2019). pp. 148-171. no. 19 (july december 2019) no. 19 (july december 2019) 149 pérez & vargas resumen esta investigación se propone asistir al enriquecimiento del proceso de escritura narrativa de estudiantes de inglés de 5° grado, a través de la implementación de libros álbumes como herramientas útiles que pueden emplearse para modelar la habilidad natural que tienen los estudiantes de inglés como lengua extranjera medio para contar un evento o secuencia de eventos sistemáticamente en este nivel. para alcanzar éste objetivo, fue necesario entender la escritura como una descripción formal de datos estructurados la cual es esbozada en la mente y que tiene diferentes etapas cognitivas y trabaja con categorías preestablecidas, como lo propuso flower y hayes (2008); de igual manera, el aprendizaje fue contemplado bajo un enfoque basado en el género literario donde el reconocimiento de las necesidades y habilidades de los estudiantes fue la principal preocupación, lo que fue soportado por medio de rutinas familiares y actividades cíclicas en un contexto social. después de analizar el proceso total que experimentaron los estudiantes de grado quinto en términos de la creación de una historia narrativa plasmada en la forma y los principios de un libro álbum, se puedo determinar que gracias a las ilustraciones y palabras, los estudiantes pudieron narrar historias simples pero significativas y creativas acerca de personajes (criaturas en su mayoría) que usaron como los personajes principales de sus libro álbum. de igual manera, se encontró que las prácticas habituales de escritura ellos a las que estaban expuestos, contribuyeron de manera importante a moldear sus habilidades narrativas básicas al escribir , en tanto que fueron capaces de expresar su visión de realidad en una forma concreta y simple, colocando su gramática y vocabulario básico al servicio de las narraciones que ellos querían crear y sobre todo, mostraron una mejor capacidad para narrar u evento o secuencia de eventos de manera sistemática por medio de una contextualización , un clímax y un final. palabras clave: proceso de escritura; libro álbum; escritura narrativa; enfoque basado en el género literario. resumo esta pesquisa se propõe assistir ao enriquecimento do processo de escritura narrativa de estudantes de inglês de 4ª série, através da implementação de livros álbuns como ferramentas úteis que possam empregar-se para modelar a habilidade natural que os estudantes de inglês têm como língua estrangeira média para contar um evento ou sequência de eventos sistematicamente neste nível. para alcançar este objetivo, foi necessário entender a escritura como uma descrição formal de dados estruturados a qual é esboçada na mente e que tem diferentes etapas cognitivas e trabalha com categorias préestabelecidas, como o propôs flower e hayes (2008); de igual maneira, a aprendizagem foi contemplada sob um enfoque baseado no gênero literário onde o reconhecimento das necessidades e habilidades dos estudantes foram a principal preocupação, o que foi suportado por meio de rotinas familiares e atividades cíclicas em um contexto social. depois de analisar o processo total que experimentaram os estudantes de quarta série em termos da criação de uma história narrativa plasmada na forma e os princípios de um libro álbum, pôde-se determinar que graças às ilustrações e palavras, os estudantes puderam narrar histórias simples, mas significativas e criativas sobre as personagens (criaturas na sua maioria) que usaram como as personagens principais do seu libro no. 19 (july december 2019) no. 19 (july december 2019) 150 shaping writing skills through picture books pérez & vargas álbum. da mesma forma, encontrou-se que as práticas habituais de escritura às quais eles estavam expostos, contribuíram de maneira importante a moldar suas habilidades narrativas básicas ao escrever, pelo que foram capazes de expressar sua visão de realidade em uma forma concreta e simples, colocando sua gramática e vocabulário básico ao serviço das narrações que eles queriam criar e principalmente, mostraram uma melhor capacidade para narrar o evento ou sequência de eventos de maneira sistemática por meio de uma contextualização, um clímax e um final. palavras chave: processo de escritura; libro álbum; escritura narrativa; enfoque baseado no gênero literário. no. 19 (july december 2019) no. 19 (july december 2019) 151 shaping writing skills through picture books pérez & vargas introduction nowadays, many children from colombia deal with problems of writing, not only in their native language but also in a foreign language as english. according to the ministry of education in colombia, all students who are in 4th and 5th grade should be able to write in their efl class about topics of their interest, make simple descriptions and narrations based on a sequence of images, describe general characteristics about people they are acquainted with, link phrases and sentences using connectors, create short stories expressing their own feelings and preferences, use accurate structures and grammatical patterns of language, double-check the spelling of common words, and make up stories (men, 2006), yet students of these grades do not fulfill these writing standards; this has been a constant problem because they do not develop this ability in a proper way at school, and as a consequence they carry on low writing performances and difficulties to other grades. thanks to the information collected through the different types of data collection techniques (six-month-observational phase field notes, surveys, and diagnostic test), it was possible to highlight that the preferences of fifth graders under study were focused on reading, listening and speaking in english as a foreign language, which is worth remarking. nevertheless, this trend showed to us as researchers, that they did not display concern or interest in relation to the development of writing skill which is as important as the other three skills because it is essential in order for them to step into the literary world. this above-mentioned lack of interest was reflected upon the results students obtained on the written diagnostic section they were administered, in which they were expected to look at a simple picture and write what they understood of it. almost half of the students did not write a single word, over 25% of them wrote some simple sentences with many spelling mistakes or syntax errors, 16% described the picture very well but in spanish and consequently, did not follow the instruction about using english to perform the task and just nearly 9% of them wrote some sentences that revealed their having fulfilled the task. as researchers, we were always aware of the fact that this writing issue was not only evident in their efl class but also in their spanish class because for them it was particularly daunting to write a good piece of writing or paragraph in their mother tongue. melgarejo (2010) stresses out this idea explaining that primary school students in our country do not write good texts in spanish because they do not have solid grammar structures or understanding of its syntax; however, we are also of the opinion that primary school students may feel frustrated when they to face a written task as they are not familiar with the formats or the assignment that have to do, they do not have the experience to set goals or to think about the potential audience and most importantly, they are not used to writing something as derived from a process. no. 19 (july december 2019) no. 19 (july december 2019) 152 shaping writing skills through picture books pérez & vargas we were aware as well that asking students to write in a short description or narrative in english about a picture might be hard for them because syntactically the two languages in question (spanish and english) are very different, and also because they do not have a referent in their mother tongue to start writing in another language. marble (2012) provides us with pertinent insight on this situation when he says: seeing as how reading and writing are skills which are difficult for emergent students to learn, just imagine if a child is not fluent with the english language. students whose second language is english have a harder time comprehending texts and composing their own written texts” (p. 29). despite all the drawbacks and apparently unsatisfactory scenario, we wanted to embrace a change in methodology to engage students into writing simple narratives where they could tell us and their peers about events, sequence of events, familiar routines and cyclical situations without feeling frustrated and held back by their grammar, vocabulary or syntactical errors. in this respect, we agreed with the postulate of carter et al. (1998) who think that “although some students are not motivated to write, it is apparent that teachers need to change instructional methodologies to increase their students’ written language skills” (p. 10). since both of us as researchers had previous research and academic experience revolving around the implementation of storytelling techniques and particularly of the use of picture book to develop communicative skills, we decided to conduct this qualitative study to make use of this tool to shape fifth graders narrative skills and to see whether their interest in this important language skill could be improved by means of picture books (yoga, 2013). we acknowledge that the use of pictures books for writing has been widely documented in the field of spanish as mother tongue by some authors in colombia such as triana (2017), who used them to improve guided writing in second grade; camacho (2016), who attempted to improve fourth graders ‘writing skills through the creation of a picture book; parra and salazar (2015),who looked to find out whether constructing a picture book would contribute to strengthening written production of third graders and melo (2013), who used picture books as spatially integrated multimodal texts to improve written production in third graders. after reading the outcomes of these important works, we think that the study we are reporting here might be revealing in that it may shed some initial light onto the way primary school students under study could relate through the progressive use of picture books to the written tasks they were assigned (narratives stories), enriching not only their lexical repertoire and grammar structures in english as a foreign language but more importantly using their imagination to describe and tell a narrative about their most immediate reality. no. 19 (july december 2019) no. 19 (july december 2019) 153 shaping writing skills through picture books pérez & vargas theoretical framework writing as an english skill in this study, in line with nunan´s definition (1991), we regard writing as a very complex language skill which is highly cognitive, and one which entails not only controlling multiple aspects such as contents, format, sentence structure, vocabulary, spelling and letter formation but also structuring and integrating information into cohesive and coherent paragraph and text. to us, writing should not be overlooked as a skill which is merely productconducive but process-oriented. upon the recognition of writing as a skill, it is important to concentrate on the writing process before aiming to obtain a particular product because writing is a mental process that has different cognitive stages as stated by flower and hayes (2008), which means that these cognitive processes could be beneficial for tracing strategies used by writers. therefore, while trying to understand the writing process, it is relevant to define the main elements or sub-stages that constitute such process that is to say planning, retrieving information, re-viewing, among others. accordingly, flower and hayes (2008) claim that the first step in the cognitive writing process refers to the context as being the topic for developing the text in later attempts; the second property is about the previous knowledge that the person makes use of and the drafting of the text in order to meet the expectations of a hypothetical audience; and the third consists of the conscious process of self-regulation in the act of writing starting with the planning, reviewing, correcting, etc. thus, for this study we considered consider writing not only as the sequence of stages to create a product, but also the cognitive process involved in the creation of the piece of work (narratives). we would like to pinpoint the fact that for the target population, writing in english represented a great challenge, as in principle many of them were not well prepared to undertake because of the unfamiliar and complex discourse patterns that english posed. thus, teacher guidance was necessary to help students to set strategies, plan the structure of the text, and find information to develop the ideas and topics as well as modify and reorganize them when checking the structure and grammar of the text, fulfill the task of telling an event and tell a simple but coherent and meaningful narratives to their peers in written. narrative writing according to the alabama department of archives & history (2009) narrative writing consists in recounting as neatly as possible a series of actions that transpire in a given period of time, to a reader who is expected to grasp no. 19 (july december 2019) no. 19 (july december 2019) 154 shaping writing skills through picture books pérez & vargas the happenings and to follow the sequence of events communicated in the storytelling. therefore, one with the intention of narrating a story must develop the proper skills to present tales and stories, and become aware of the structured description of information that involves procuring a correct writing schema. moreover, self-expression and creativity are paramount of the narrative process in writing; yet, schaefer (2001) agrees with the fact of placing the expressiveness of the writer in the forefront, but she also states that teachers must lead students into developing critical skills for them to use the language to convey their ideas and viewpoints. which is why, she suggests steps for guiding students into communicating their thoughts by using conventions of language to communicate meaning and employing strategies to write coherent stories with strong characters. in this fashion, there is more to narrative writing than just self-expressions because this process demands practice in a conscious way, where the writer must keep in mind the techniques of “prewriting, drafting, and revising” (brown, 2009, p. 348), for the technique of prewriting promotes the generation of ideas, and the technique of drafting and revising encourage the writing into free writing and monitoring their own writing process, respectively. thus, narrative writing is a process that involves the participation of teachers and students, where the students make use of the motivation of expressing themselves through writing as their primary tool, and the teacher provides the necessary knowledge to accomplish the writing endeavor. as for the underlying pattern that we should take into account when writing narrative stories, southall (2001, p.p.3-4) claims that we commonly find two types: the one that revolves around a problem or struggle the main character is going through and tries to find its most likely solution (characterproblem-solution narrative) and the other one where the character tells the story in first person and speaks of an appealing and attention-grabbing experience , providing descriptions and details (personal experience narrative). in this study, fifth graders had the chance to choose the pattern they felt more comfortable with. descriptions in narrations description is a fundamental element in a text even when it includes images as in the case of picture books since this is not only limited to describing the features or physical attributes of a person, animal or object, a description can go beyond. thanks to this, attitudes, behaviors and internal characteristics of the characters in a story could be found. there is not possible story in which description is not a part of. agreeing with murray and hughes (2008), describing processes have place in all forms of academic documents: in scientific and technical writing, in research reports, in expository papers, no. 19 (july december 2019) no. 19 (july december 2019) 155 shaping writing skills through picture books pérez & vargas and formal essays. certainly, a well-written paper must include descriptions because they allow readers to make rich images of what is intended to be exposed. besides, readers are able to make inferences of what is being read based on their life experiences that allow them to create a concrete image and enrich the description in the text. in this sense, zwaan (1986) concurs with the idea of the “conceptual breakfast” proposed by grass, given that when a reader pictures in their mind an image of a breakfast scene, but certain reader will picture the image of a table with butter and jam on it because the reader is inferring what was not mentioned in the text). thus, descriptions in the text give the reader the possibility to ground the narration and shape it into an image that fits the frame of their previous knowledge or even contextualize it in order to make it closer to their reality. one tool where descriptions are enriched and are abundant is precisely picture books. it is important to clarify that descriptions do not have to be made in a complex way, sometimes a couple of adjectives to refer to sizes or colors will do, whereas in other cases by mentioning a set of nouns, we can get an idea what a place looks like, as it happens when we describe a what we find in a room. we will refer in the following entry to picture books and how they were conceived of in this study. pictures books as a pedagogical tool nikolajeva and scott (2001) affirm that picture books lean on being plot-oriented instead of being character-oriented; but this does not mean that characters in a story are irrelevant or that they do not display a distinctive personality, on the contrary, picture books permit a different type of characterization where the pictures and the words complement each other or even contradict themselves. the authors also say that the visual description in picture books is somewhat problematic given that some human qualities are difficult to display through illustrations such as bravery or intelligence; the opposite happens when it is necessary to reveal the characters’ emotions and attitudes toward certain situations, which means that physical description depends to a large degree, on the illustrator’s ability, who can, with great precision, convey information about appearance that would take many words to communicate in much reading time. conversely, physiological descriptions that can be indicated in pictures need the accuracy of words to depict complex emotion and motivation. additionally, these authors point out that in picture books the narration has no space to any interpretation or point of view of the reader, which means that the dialog and illustrations convey straightforward ideas as the central no. 19 (july december 2019) no. 19 (july december 2019) 156 shaping writing skills through picture books pérez & vargas feature of this genre. there are two types of illustration: line drawing and full color presentations being both symmetrical. images also bring the opportunity to communicate two aspects in the story through visual signs: causality and temporality. in terms of time, this has to be inferred as this is shown through the use of some elements that indicate the course of time, for example, clocks on the walls or calendars, sunsets and sunrises. nevertheless, the dialogs help to complete the information relating to over time creating a connection between the images and relevant moments in the text. and causality is shown through images and text when it is well intertwined. these insight became valid and useful in our study as students were encouraged to always keep a narrative sequence or plot while talking about characters and they were reminded to include images that contributed to making time, cause, space, attitude, etic more understandable. methodology type of research the present study is based on the principles of action research stated by burns (2010), which suggest a self-reflective, critical and systematic approach to exploring the teaching context, so the researcher can identify a teaching problem and work on an efficient and effective solution. as written by her, there are four steps to take when conducting a research work to pinpoint teaching problems in a classroom: planning, to “identify a problem or issue and develop a plan of action in order to bring about improvements in a specific area of the research context” (p. 8);to achieve this, we administered a diagnostic test and a survey to the previous head teacher, action, which “involves some deliberate interventions into your teaching situation that you put into action over an agreed period of time” (p. 8); we decided to implement the first sections using picture books to see students´ reactions and writing sensitization process, observation, when “observing systematically the effects of the action and documenting the context, action and opinions of those involved” (p. 8); we carried out a rigorous observation process that lasted half a year and then we understood that observation had to to be done throughout all phases of the project, and reflection, to “reflect on, evaluate and describe the effects of the action in order to make sense of what has happened and to understand the issue (…) explored more clearly” (p. 8). we reflected constantly and non-stoppedly on the effects that the use of picture books might have on student´s narrative skills and on their contribution to describing meaningful situations. no. 19 (july december 2019) no. 19 (july december 2019) 157 shaping writing skills through picture books pérez & vargas data collection instruments and procedures the present research started with the observation of 5th grade students at a primary public school in bogotá in order to identify the struggles they had when using english as a foreign language in terms of communication and simple expression of events or situations that happened in their most immediate surroundings. through the use of several instruments (survey to head teacher, comprehensive diagnostic test and field notes), it was possible to pinpoint the most common and persistent difficulties that these students exhibited, being those difficulties particularly related to writing: fifth graders did not possess the necessary basic written skills to tell or narrate a simple story represented in a picture. they could write ideas about the picture but in their mother tongue, that is to say spanish. with this concern in mind , we set the following goal as the one to reach in our study: to make fifth graders write simple narrative stories related to their context by using picture books as tools and despite their not so proficient grammar, lexicon and writing skills. to carry out data analysis, it was necessary to work on the microanalysis suggested by (strauss & corbin, 1990; patton, 2002) that implies to read line by line all the raw data that were collected during the implementation of the research, to make an ininterpretation; after reading this, the researchers established a way to join the information of the data into categories. it was important to pay attention to the words the students tended to say. the next step was to find recurrent regularities through the data (patton, 2002) in order to clarify the categories taken from them by the researcher. then, the researchers were able to choose pertinent categories and sub-categories according to the information given by the data (freeman, 1998). in regards to the surveys, they were analyzed with a similar system. the first step was to count the answers of the yes or no questions to set the patterns and the variations. following, the open-end questions were checked one by one paying specific attention to the similar answers and the details of the reasons given. to make the information valid, the researchers took into account the triangulation process, which implied having at least three data instruments such as survey, document collection, and field notes. on the one hand, a comparison between instruments was made to get onto the categories and subcategories that were chosen, and on the other hand,the information was made real by taking samples of the instruments, giving validity to those categories and subcategories (freeman, 1998, p. 102). finally, the learning issue was singled out; it was necessary to review the theoretical background to establish a suitable course of action to help students overcome these writing needs. therefore, according to the learning style of students the approach that successfully worked for them was the genre-based and so, the lesson planning followed the next structure: building the context, modeling the text, joint construction of the text and independent construction of the text. no. 19 (july december 2019) no. 19 (july december 2019) 158 shaping writing skills through picture books pérez & vargas participants regarding participants, the target population of this study was made up of 21 males and 11 females with an average age ranging from 9 to 10 years old. concerning the cognitive aspect of students, the students seemed to have some difficulties in output skills because what they knew in terms of language was based on the process of repetition. based on the diagnostic test authored by the teacher-researchers , and adapted from myelt which is a platform created by the national geographic, fifth graders were ranked in a1 level in most of the skills as established by the common european framework (2015).). in relation to speaking, the diagnostic test was divided into two groups, spoken interaction and spoken production; for the first group, the students could interact in a simple way provided the other person was prepared to repeat or rephrase things at a slower rate of speech and help to formulate what [tried] to say, they could ask and answer simple questions in areas of immediate need or on very familiar topics .however, for the second, the students were not able to use simple phrases and sentences where they live and people they know, nor they were able to “write a short, simple postcard and fill in forms with personal details” for whatever reason it was. when the students had to work on the writing part which consisted in looking at a picture and writing what they understood of it, 46,8% of the students did not write a single word, 28,1% wrote some sentences with many spelling mistakes or syntax errors, 16,2% of the students wrote sentences in spanish that described the picture but did not follow the instruction and just 8,9% of the students wrote some sentences that followed the task. regarding the grammar and vocabulary sections that are considered a part of writing production, the results were very much alike to those of the writing part. in the listening section, the students had to listen to a recording about contractions of pronouns and verb to be vs possessive pronouns and select the correct words to complete five sentences, 25% of the students did not mark any answer, and 37,5% of them made up to 2 mistakes, and 37,5% got all of the answer right. in the reading section, all of the students showed a good understanding of the article which is why they selected the correct answers of the questions relating to the text, the questions were multiple choice-oneanswers. all in all, it was possible to ascertain that the skill that needed to be addressed the most was the writing skill because the students’ performance was below the average, portraying a 74,9% of deficiency, and the lack of vocabulary and grammar structures could make relevant the choice of enhancing or expediting their writing production in very basic forms, such as writing postcards, filling in registrations or filling out forms. no. 19 (july december 2019) no. 19 (july december 2019) 159 shaping writing skills through picture books pérez & vargas findings the collected data in this research was analyzed following the principles of the grounded theory proposed by freeman (1998), the idea of using this analysis approach was to find out the correlation between all the data we collected and the usage of picture books as a strategy to approximate students to writing in a foreign language. hence, we assert that our research might be useful to gain insights in aspects such as language relationships, goal-based learning strategies, comprehensible meaning targeting and personal expression in language learning because by creating personal pieces of work in the form of picture books, students account for the learning of english as a foreign language and at the same time, they can integrate the content knowledge provided in the classroom with the communicative endeavor of getting messages across in a real context, based on meaningful personal experiences . like so, the categories that account for each one of the aforementioned aspects were clustered around the question “how might 5th grade efl students in ied domingo faustino sarmiento narrative writing skills be shaped through creating picture books?”. the categories that emerged were labeled as performing skills to accomplish goals, input effectiveness and self-expression. now, we proceed to elaborate in depth the findings of our research. performing skills to accomplish goals this category is related to the teaching and learning structure named goal-based scenarios (gbss) developed by schank, berman and macpherson (2009),which advocates for a learning-by-doing strategy through which students engage in practices that focus on a specific skill, where the content knowledge is the means for them to accomplish what they have set out. in this gbs simulation, the teacher only assists students in making the content knowledge relevant for them to achieve their goals and also, s/he provides feedback so that the students remember and internalize what they were taught or assisted on. in relation to this, the goal that students were supposed to achieve was to create simple but meaningful written narratives embodied in a picture book; thus, this category is elucidated in the production of a piece of work and in turn, the creating process and the final product show the disposition of students to complete tasks for reasons such as sense of fulfillment or teacher encouragement. the following are the exhibits for supporting the current category through triangulating the data obtained: no. 19 (july december 2019) no. 19 (july december 2019) 160 shaping writing skills through picture books pérez & vargas figure 5. sample two. field note, march 2017. figure 6. survey number two, october 2017. figure 7. artifact number two, may 2017. in the three samples shown above, the goal that students were supposed to achieve was the creation and authoring of a personal picture book by performing a task focusing on writing skills; thus, this category of performing skills to accomplish goals is elucidated in the production of a piece of work and in turn, the survey throws light on using the picture book as a tool for improving the writing skills of students as in the title of the cover page of the picture no. 19 (july december 2019) no. 19 (july december 2019) 161 shaping writing skills through picture books pérez & vargas book entitled “the story of bob”, where the author exhibits understanding of the basic use of the definite article which implies articulation with the entity later mentioned in the same sentence (in this case, bob), or even in the use of the preposition that expresses belonging to the entity as something he has or possesses, rather than using the possessive noun (bob’s story), making the title sound elaborate and appropriate for the english level students are placed; at the same time, the field note shows the disposition of students to complete tasks for reasons such as sense of fulfillment or teacher encouragement, for the students realization of process as a means of progress. there was a sub-category that emerged from the previous category and we named it spoken and written modes of meaning. such subcategory tended to unveil and display different kinds of complexity; both spoken and written modes were progressively more complex in their own way. on the one hand, written language tended to be lexically dense, but grammatically simple; spoken language tends to be grammatically intricate, but lexically sparse” (p. 61) which was mentioned by halliday (2002); in this regard, the degree of complexity of these types of operations of communicating (spoken) or storing (written) information became higher when students tried to mix the two modes of meaning when facing a specific task that implied selecting one communicative skill or the other; consequently, for this research the students were guided mostly to identify lexical mistakes rather than correcting grammar inadequacies through a process of putting into practice the content knowledge provided by the teacher in a self-led way that was undertaken in the independent construction of the text stage of the lesson planning because “the lexical density [in the written mode of meaning] is the proportion of lexical items (content words) to the total discourse” (halliday, 2002, p. 56), reason why one of the most recurrent issues while creating the picture books in our attempt to shape narrative writing skills was that students struggled to broaden their lexicon. bearing the aforementioned issue in mind, we decided every lesson planning should include a modeling and independent stage, where the teacher and the students had specific duties to be carried out, but they could partake in each stage as subjects of exemplification or active subjects of the learning process (students) and subject of explanation and source of knowledge (teacher) instead of passive subject who merely offered guidance and advice. now, with the intention of supporting what was stated above, here are the corresponding samples for the triangulation of the information: no. 19 (july december 2019) no. 19 (july december 2019) 162 shaping writing skills through picture books pérez & vargas figure 8. sample three. field note, april 2017. figure 9. artifact number three, june 2017. no. 19 (july december 2019) no. 19 (july december 2019) 163 shaping writing skills through picture books pérez & vargas figure 10. survey number two, october 2017. the field note referenced above revealed that students had some struggles relating the spoken english with written english. as it was exposed in this sub-category, this happened because of the difficulty that each skill entailed. nevertheless, students were gradually integrating the vocabulary taught in the classroom by the teacher-researcher depending on what they needed to express in their productions as it is evidenced in the sentence “super fox goes out of his casket” where the student chooses the word “casket” instead of “coffin” because the first was more appealing to him, even though the two would have served the same purpose. like so, the lesson planning fragments illustrate the classrooms routines that helped students develop a writing habit perceived as the artistic conduit for students to express their ideas in a simple way, given that language learning process was centered on the making of a written piece of work. additionally, 75% of students considered that their english level improved with every lesson and activity carried out in the classroom which was asked in 10th question of the survey. the result of the surveys is highly subjective indeed, the number of well-designed picture books created along the implementation of this research project are a proof that students had become more competent in the written aspect of the language considering that, they had had to face many learning obstacles due to the limited exposition to the language. self-expression according to tudor (2000) self-expression is part of the central purposes in language. likewise, personal expression is a vital element of language use and “the ‘opening up’ of a course to at least some degree of self-expression can help learners find a sense of personal meaningfulness in their language study” (p. 61). in this sense, the lack of any extent of self-expression can lead students to perceive the classroom as something alien to their realities and lives. therefore, students will not have the possibility to engage in significant learning processes. that is why: [self-expression] is one of the main functions of language, and it would therefore be rather strange if it had not found a place to in mainstream no. 19 (july december 2019) no. 19 (july december 2019) 164 shaping writing skills through picture books pérez & vargas language teaching. indeed, the way in which this aspect of language is dealt with a course can play a significant role in the classroom dynamics. (p. 68) in this fashion, the next set of artifacts and excerpts evidence the category of self-expression in students’ written pieces: figure 14. artifact number five, september 2017. figure 15. artifact number six, september 2017. no. 19 (july december 2019) no. 19 (july december 2019) 165 shaping writing skills through picture books pérez & vargas figure 16. survey number two, october 2017. figure 17. survey number two, october 2017 as such, the texts written by the student are proof of the impact that the divine comedy by dante alighieri had on his life because it is not by chance that the student decided to shape his picture book according to this literary master piece and use its contents as the source of his inspiration and above all, to regard himself as a “good reader”. therefore, in the process of creating a narrative document each student felt the need to materialize their inner thoughts and realize the urges that drove them, so the proposal of this research was a suitable conduit for them to express what at first, they only thought could be done in spanish or by people with literary expertise. thus, not only “the book of dante” is proof of the significance of this research project to students, but every single piece of work has become a concrete personal creation that includes information related to their experiences, artistic desires and hopes for the future. in this way, students have had the opportunity to narrate a fictional story that places them as the main character of their stories for each one of no. 19 (july december 2019) no. 19 (july december 2019) 166 shaping writing skills through picture books pérez & vargas them want to be the superhero that saves the day and all the people admire, thanks to their prowess and morally-correct ways, that is why, it is possible to know that the writer of the story “the story of bob” is a girl because of the use of the personal pronoun “she” that was used to refer to bob. conclusions in the first place, it is worth remarking that throughout this research there was a lingering hope that narrative writing skills could be shaped by creating picture books, particularly of the fictional type, in the creation of such books illustrations and words were equally important given that both helped students to narrate their stories. in general terms, students used illustrations as well as words to situate narratively speaking, the creatures they chose as the protagonists of their picture books. the execution of this literary genre aimed to enhance writing skills through habitual practices guided by the teacherresearcher. in line with what was stated above, it is possible to ascertain that having implemented this type of literary devices helped students relate to the writing task and enrich their repertoire and grammar structures in english as a foreign language, as it happened in the use of words such as “casket” or “chamber”; as can be evidenced in terms of subject-verb agreement in the utterance “super wolf and super fox look at each other” or in “she wakes up at 5 in the morning”. as for our attempt to mold students’ capacity of telling an event or a sequence of events systematically, it can be said that there was an important progress in this respect as it can be seen in the story “the super wolf and fox”, where the author opted to begin by contextualizing the wealthy origin of super wolf and the poor provenance of super fox, decided to climax with the clash of the hero with his antagonist and chose to conclude with the coming to terms between the two characters. broadly talking, the final written outcomes were satisfactory as students evidenced a gradual upgrade in their writing performance, which came to be little by little as the they got used to the classroom tasks that focused on building vocabulary, and the logical and chronological sequence of narrating a story, and finally, the internalization of abstract notions such as first, second and third persons in singular and plural forms. according to the main objective of this research which was to analyze the students’ efl writing skills when narrating simple stories through the use of picture books, the writing process was the central axis of this research, so the expected impact of implementing picture books was accomplished as this had a positive and meaningful effect on students’ writing process in a foreign language. this contributed to the understanding of written language in order no. 19 (july december 2019) no. 19 (july december 2019) 167 shaping writing skills through picture books pérez & vargas to give students the opportunity to express their view of reality in a concrete form. as such, in order to characterize students’ understanding of the stories told in picture books this research worked on the development of specific stages laid out in the lesson planning that aimed to allow students to employ the vocabulary and grammar structures exposed in the reading aloud of the pictures books, and at the end of every session they had to include the content knowledge into their own pieces of work, so the learning of the topics was made clear in a written form. in this way, the outcome of this specific objective was successfully achieved for the input provided in the lessons was evidenced in written materials that each student created to make the output tangible. similarly, to determine the influence of this (picture books) new genre of literature in fostering meaningful writing processes the researchers measured the suitability of the tool selected for this research, according to the degree of motivation and participation in class displayed by the students during the lessons which was positively accepted, as it became the means for the children to materialize their ideas and to express their individuality through graphics and words meant to communicate. finally, the researchers made use of different strategies to examine writing processes based on the creation of picture books, such as creating a correction-code based on the emoji system used to express ideas or emotions because students were more likely to understand the mistake and correct it through their own means; another strategy was the use of drafts for the students to polish up the final version of their own picture books, so they had the possibility to modify the stories narrated as many times as they needed, or until they felt satisfied with the development of the pieces of writing. pedagogical implications the pedagogical intervention of this research aimed to helping students confront writing as a means to communicate thoughts and ideas, besides assisting in the fostering of writing skills in a foreign language. in this manner, this research was expected to have a positive and meaningful impact on teaching and learning of english as a foreign language. this implies understanding and assimilating writing processes in order to communicate and to transmit ideas in a concrete form, so the most important aspect of written language is the capacity to surmount the passing of time and to turn the abstract of fancies into the concrete of realia. therefore, teachers should focus on what the students want to say, so the process becomes the central axis of teaching. thus, teachers should support and understand students’ needs and interests through engaging in and accompanying their own learning process. no. 19 (july december 2019) no. 19 (july december 2019) 168 shaping writing skills through picture books pérez & vargas references aguirre, a. j. 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(2009). learning by doing. in c.m. reigeluth (ed. 2), instructional-design theories and models: a new paradigm of international theory (pp. 161-186). new york, ny: routledge. no. 19 (july december 2019) no. 19 (july december 2019) 170 shaping writing skills through picture books pérez & vargas strauss, a., & corbin, j. (1998). basics of qualitative research: techniques and procedures for developing grounded theory (2nd ed.). thousand oaks, ca: sage. southall,m. (2011). narrative writing. toronto: the curriculum services canada foundation. triana, p. (2017). children picture books to implement a first approach to writing (undergraduate thesis). universidad pedagógica nacional,bogotá,colombia. tudor, i. (2000). the dynamics of the language classroom. cambridge university press. yoga, a. s. (2013). improving the eighth grade students’ writing skills through picture-cued activities at smp n 1 wonosari in the academic year of 2012/2013. retrieved from: http://eprints.uny.ac.id/22543/1/adwidya%20 susila%20yoga%2008202244041.pdf zwaan, r. a. (1993). aspects of literary comprehension: a cognitive approach. amsterdam, an: john benjamins publishing co. no. 19 (july december 2019) no. 19 (july december 2019) 171 shaping writing skills through picture books pérez & vargas authors *francisco antonio pérez-gómez is a full-time professor and researcher at universidad pedagógica nacional. holds a master´s degree in tefl and another one in teaching spanish as a foreign language from unini university, puerto rico. his research interests include teaching english as a foreign language, teaching practicum, interculturality and teachers professional development, amongst others. orcid: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0514-1609 carolina vargas daza has worked for 5 years teaching english in bogota. during her 4th year of university, she worked for one year in an elementary school setting teaching english as part of the research project in question. she is currently studying an m.a tesol in northern ireland for which she is already preparing her next research project. orcid: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5368-8799 how to reference this article: pérez, f. a., & vargas-daza, c. (2019). shaping narrative writing skills through creating picture books. gist – education and learning research journal, 19, 148-171. https://doi.org/10.26817/16925777.700 no. 19 (july december 2019) no. 19 (july december 2019) 109 situated practice in clil: voices from colombian teachers1 práctica situada en aicle: voces de profesores colombianos juan carlos torres-rincón and liliana marcela cuesta-medina2* universidad de la sabana, colombia abstract the purpose of this exploratory qualitative study was to determine the factors and conditions that intervene in the implementation of clil (content and language integrated learning) in diverse colombian educational contexts. this study was conducted at five private schools from different cities and towns in the country (bogotá, chía, tenjo, facatativá, and girardot). data was collected from three sources (interviews, questionnaires, and field journals). data analysis procedures included the use of triangulation and validation procedures through the grounded theory approach. findings revealed that teachers still have complications understanding clil as an approach that goes beyond the mere usage of the target language in content. instead, the study advocates for the inclusion of essential lifelong skills (i.e. creativity, critical thinking, collaboration, and communication) when implementing clil in the classroom. results also indicated that staged lesson planning is scarce, and that teachers’ practices still emphasize the scope and sequence plan provided by the textbook used in the institutions. hence, the study supports the design and implementation of clil professional development programs that through scaffolding can assist teachers in viewing and situating clil as a dialogic pedagogical approach. not only does the approach help teachers make use of their existing knowledge of clil, but also helps them materialize ways through which language and content can be integrated. key words: clil; professional development; clil planning,;lifelong learning; 21st century skills, teacher’s practice; pedagogy; language and content integration resumen el propósito de este estudio exploratorio y cualitativo es el de determinar los factores y condiciones que intervienen en la implementación de aicle (aprendizaje integrado de 1 received: november 16th 2018/ accepted: may 14th 2019 2 juctorresr@gmail.com; liliana.cuesta@unisabana.edu.co children’s cultural identity formation gist education and learning research journal. issn 1692-5777. no.18 (january june 2019). pp. 109-141. no. 18 (january june 2019) no. 18 (january june 2019) 110 contenidos y lenguas extranjeras) en diversos contextos educativos colombianos. este estudio se condujo en cinco colegios privados de diferentes ciudades del país (bogotá, chía, tenjo, facativá y girardot). los datos se recolectaron de tres diferentes fuentes (entrevistas, cuestionarios y diarios de campo). el procedimiento de análisis de datos incluyó el uso de procesos de triangulación y validación a través del enfoque de teoría fundamentada. los resultados revelaron que los profesores aun tienen problemas al entender aicle como un enfoque que va ás allá de el solo uso del idioma objeto dentro del contenido. en cambio, el estudio propone una inclusión de las habilidades para la vida (por ejemplo: creatividad, pensamiento crítico, colaboración y comunicación) cuando se implemente aicle en el salón de clase. los resultados también indican que la planeación de clase gradual es escaza y que las prácticas de los profesores aun se enfocan en el plan de alcance y secuencia dado por el libro de texto usado en las instituciones. por lo tanto, el estudio apoya el diseño e implementación de programas de desarrollo profesional en aicle que, a través de escalonamiento, pueda auxiliar a los profesores en ver y ubicar aicle como un enfoque dialógico pedagógico. el enfoque no solo ayuda a los maestros a hacer uso de su conocimiento existente de aicle, sino que también les ayuda a materializar formas a través de las cuales se pueden integrar el lenguaje y el contenido palabras clave: aicle; desarrollo profesional; planeación en aicle; aprendizaje para la vida; habilidades del siglo 21; practica docente; pedagogía; integración de lengua y contenido resumo o propósito deste estudo exploratório e qualitativo é o de determinar os fatores e condições que intervém na implementação de aicle (aprendizagem integrada de conteúdos e línguas estrangeiras) em diversos contextos educativos colombianos. este estudo foi conduzido em cinco colégios particulares de diferentes cidades do país (bogotá, chía, tenjo, facativá e girardot). os dados se coletaram de três diferentes fontes (entrevistas, questionários e diários de campo). o procedimento de análise de dados incluiu o uso de processos de triangulação e validação através do enfoque de teoria fundamentada. os resultados revelaram que os professores ainda têm problemas ao entender aicle como um enfoque que vai mais além do simples uso do idioma objeto dentro do conteúdo. em troca, o estudo propõe uma inclusão das habilidades para a vida (por exemplo: criatividade, pensamento crítico, colaboração e comunicação) quando se implemente aicle na sala de aula. os resultados também indicam que o planejamento de aula gradativo é escasso e que as práticas dos professores ainda se enfocam no plano de alcance e sequencia dado pelo livro de texto usado nas instituições. portanto, o estudo apoia o desenho e implementação de programas de desenvolvimento profissional em aicle que, através de escalonamento, possa auxiliar os professores em ver e situar aicle como um enfoque dialógico pedagógico. o enfoque não somente ajuda os mestres a fazer uso do seu conhecimento existente de aicle, senão que também ajuda a materializar formas através das quais se podem integrar a linguagem e o conteúdo palavras chave: aicle; desenvolvimento profissional; planejamento em aicle; aprendizagem para a vida; habilidades do século 21; prática docente; pedagogia; integração de língua e conteúdo. situated practice in clil torres-rincón & cuesta-medina no. 18 (january june 2019) no. 18 (january june 2019) 111 introduction there is no teaching approach that can be faultlessly used in every educational context. before launching any intervention, it is necessary to understand that pedagogical approaches are meant to be adapted according to the educational context in which one teaches and should be shaped according to target students’ needs in order to gauge their learning effectively. as new educational trends emerge, every teaching and learning action needs to be well planned out to achieve success. this includes keeping the target goals in mind and the learning standards traced. for example, in colombia by law it is mandatory that all students in schools learn english as a foreign language. according to the colombian ministry of education policy (2016), the improvement of the communicative competences in english as a foreign language in all the educational fields is one of the main objectives along with the use of new means and technologies and labor competences. hence, it is imperative to design and implement pedagogical strategies for the effective development of plans oriented to meet such goals. although numerous representatives converge in the educational panorama (i.e. stakeholders, teachers, directives, administratives), these parties are not necessarily informed, well prepared in the field of language teaching and learning, and/or might lack knowledge concerning the context with its pertaining needs and diversities. in colombia, there is no specific approach stated or suggested from governmental entities to reach this objective. what is more, not all of the institutions act in a unified and uniform way to address approaches and methodologies. most of the time the decision-making concerning the design and implementation of the language curriculum relies on teachers themselves. some might claim that the process and responsibility of developing the target linguistic competences depends on each educational institution. others might claim that it is entirely the say of the educational stakeholders such as the secretaries of education, and the ministry itself to rule, guide, and support the process. to this point, the debate around the ones in charge of leading english language development in colombia still remains open. it is well known that such stakeholders should strive for the provision of quality by favoring specialized instructional support and fostering infrastructure improvement. principally, these cases emerge when the scarcity of resources (both human and physical) demands huge and timely attention. switching to new teaching and learning methodologies can create anxiety, lack of confidence and/or unskillfulness on the teacher’s side. that teachers lack the necessary knowledge can affect pedagogical interventions as they might be reticent to understand or try out new approaches to teach. change is always intimidating and high-risk since planning for a vibrant and diversified teaching and language scene always means investing additional time and effort. situated practice in clil torres-rincón & cuesta-medina no. 18 (january june 2019) no. 18 (january june 2019) 112 the colombian language teaching context has witnessed for decades the implementation of various conventional approaches. one of them is grammar-based, which according to canale and swain (1980), focuses purely on linguistics and the usage of grammatical forms. the majority of colombian schools create their own curricula and choose the competences and foci that they are required to develop during the academic year. sometimes they align with the colombian language standards (ministerio de educación nacional, 2006) and the common european framework of reference for languages (cefr, hereafter) (cambridge, 2011). in addition, most grammar-based educational institutions are provided with textbooks that suggest the topics and content to learn the language and is distributed according to the book’s scope and sequence. all content topics and objectives are included there, and an initial guide is already created. however, educational resources (books, in most cases) do not always fill in the gaps of school curricula as they might lack the alignment to linguistic prospects and specific contextual elements needed to develop language practice efficiently. books might offer generic content for all learners, and teachers are called to pick and choose the elements that best suit their planning and practice keeping in mind that in terms of resources one size does not fit all. most books that are used in colombian schools do not generally fit the guidelines suggested by the ministry of education, as they were not designed for the colombian context. consequently, broken connections between what is and should be taught and what is and should be assessed appear. last of all, in those cases in which schools do not use books, educational resources such as learning guides and lessons need to be designed or adapted. most of the time they are generally created from scratch, posing additional burdens in terms of time and workload for the teacher. besides, rodríguez-bonces (2012) remarks how language learning approaches have influenced the way students learn by doing, and the clil approach is not the exception. keeping in mind that the nature of efl is not based on teaching language intrinsically but on drawing students for possible interactions with people from unalike contexts (snow, 2015), clil offers a window to raise understanding of the world through culture, language acquisition, exchange, and situated content. challenges arise along the path, though. one of them concerns the need to find specialized teachers that deal with clil efficiently in schools either for offer or demand issues. the english teacher is generally the one in charge of dealing with specific content areas such as math, science, geography, history, etc., resulting in defective alignment of content and language goals and impeding the natural growth and development of the language curricula. situated practice in clil torres-rincón & cuesta-medina no. 18 (january june 2019) no. 18 (january june 2019) 113 however, several reasons support the endorsement of clil. mariño (2014) claims that among the main reasons for implementing clil is the impact of globalization and the technological advances in education. there is the need to create a means for communication to supply this gap and favor learning in context. nevertheless, the usage of clil does also pose challenges. in mariño’s study, findings reveal that the teacher was neither clear about the criteria for assessing her students, nor about the reasons to evaluate their language level. this echoes the former difficulty exposed above, highlighting that not all teachers teaching content areas have appropriate preparation for such a mission, and content teachers do not necesarily focus on language skill development. this presupposes the existence of new breaches at the planning, feedback, and assessment generation instances. among the ways to surpass these difficulties, the author mentions generating interdisciplinary connections between content and language teachers to better map curricula. other challenges reported by rodríguez bonces (2012) relate to difficult situations that teachers encounter when their students do not have good training in efl because of limited exposure to the language. the author suggests that a possible solution is to begin a gradual implementation of clil only when students have had caught up with the required knowledge to understand several aspects and ideas needed for the proper growth of the learning process. as rodríguez-bonces (2011) states, clil requires a certain degree of knowledge of the language, meeting global and local standards such as cefr and men respectively. this draws attention to key issues implemented in any teaching approach that makes use of new methodologies: 1. adequate target-language competence. 2. adequate subject knowledge. 3. adequate materials in the target language. 4. explicit institutional and national policies and 5. teacher cooperation. numerous challenges await all the abovementioned agents involved in language development specifically for those involving clil. there is an urgent need to find a synchrony between educational contexts and ways to tackle their demands. thus, the present study attempts to illustrate accounts from five colombian teachers from five schools that have had both opportunities and limitations for the effective usage of clil. the study derives from a preliminary phase in which observations in-situ and interviews with teachers were held. these revealed deficiencies in the ways in which they approach language teaching, their students’ learning, and their practice itself. therefore, the study was launched to inquire about the factors and conditions that might intervene in the implementation of clil in schools. this study may add to the existing body of research in the analysis of clil implementation as it may broaden understanding concerning situated practice in clil torres-rincón & cuesta-medina no. 18 (january june 2019) no. 18 (january june 2019) 114 deficiencies and gains in its applicability and make agents aware of the factors to be examined to achieve the expected goals in their educational contexts. the study advocates for a conscious and suitable use of clil, viewed as an approach that fuses theoretical and practical keystones to foster efficient and lifelong language learning development. it might be applicable to the elt and content-language communities in colombia and around the globe. theoretical considerations clil gains and horizons clil has been acknowledged as an innovative approach during the past 10 years mainly because of the novelty and diversity it brought in the classroom. in clil, content knowledge and language knowledge are expected to be learned simultaneously (coyle, marsh, & hood, 2010). it also needs content teachers who are able to cope with target language demands. however, two aspects suggest a two-fold problematic scenario involving cognition and pedagogy. this often occurs because teachers do not always know their role in language teaching and some lack strategies to teach a subject in l2 (lo, 2014). according to tedick and fortune (2008), content subject teachers are not aware of language demands, and they need to know how language constructs content, and it can can be a barrier when learning subjects and theories in l2. the result of which is making students lose engagement in classes and activities which teachers created for assembling language and content. motivation is an important part of learning an l2 (gardner & lambert, 1959), and clil studies have also drawn on this issue. coyle (2006) has also claimed that clil improves learning quality and at the same time, provides students with more opportunities to put language into practice while boosting learning motivation in students and teachers. likewise, doiz, lasagabaster, and sierra (2014) conducted a research study with 393 secondary students focusing on motivational issues. the authors claim that those learners that are not exposed to l2 all the time need classroom motivation, which is generally affected by the class environment, the program, the curriculum, and the teacher. babocká (2015) indicated how clil integrates content areas in language teaching. she used ioannou-georgiou and pavlou’s (2003) premises to highlight the connections between assessment and classroom teaching, drawing attention to learner’s attitude(s) before, during, and after assessment. furthermore, viewing assessment and evaluation were presented as a part of a more comprehensive process in which testing is only one part. the researcher found out how it helps students to keep attention in class, appropriate learning activities, and internalize content and language. the main concern though, was finding ways to assess students in clil classes in a practical way. researchers situated practice in clil torres-rincón & cuesta-medina no. 18 (january june 2019) no. 18 (january june 2019) 115 suggested a variety of resources to keep track of the process such as pictures, charts, web links, video links, etc., it was also found that the context, the school possibilities, the resources, and students’ individualities affect the way the progress is made. the latest trends in clil indicate an arising interest towards the use of resources, both print and digital. authors such as lópez medina (2016) and czura (2017) report how textbooks are valuable due to the level of exposure that students have to them, and highlight their guiding role as a logical sequence of contents and skills to develop in students. among the benefits that textbooks bring to the educational community, it is discussed that these resources have been designed by experts who (more likely) know the current regulations and standards presented by academic organizations. thus, resources constitute an additional tool to assist teachers in keeping track of the target teaching and learning processes. however, several challenges are faced when using these materials. as reported by czura (2017), there is a shortage of textbooks that assist content and language and in some contexts, publishers distribute translated versions of regular textbooks written in learners’ first language (l1) without making any adjustment to further comply with the requirements of clil instructional mode. thus, very often these translated clil textbooks fail to support learners’ development in the subject matter in a foreign language. on the one hand, clil resources are also accessed and used from the educational resources that publishing houses bring to educational institutions. on the other hand, the changes in educational policies and guidelines might affect the effectiveness in their usage given the different contexts in which these might be utilized. clil resources do provide general academic language (metalanguage) that is not quite easy to understand by novice teachers and learners. in addition to this, clil resources can also be scarce, and can be mostly addressed to a native speaker population. the aforementioned challenges with printed resources (textbooks) might be tackled via the implementation of other additional sources such as audiovisual tools (zhyrun, 2016). since the textbook does not provide all the necessary elements for proficiency development, teachers are also called to gather additional resources that allow them to customize their lessons based on students’ preferences and needs, while using authentic and reliable resources. however, teachers need to be cognizant that not all resources found online are suitable to their learners, so they have to prepare themselves for a proper and gradual material adaptation process. situated practice in clil torres-rincón & cuesta-medina no. 18 (january june 2019) no. 18 (january june 2019) 116 the use of resources in the english classroom resources in the current era include digital and print-based means. many educational institutions around the globe have diversified the usage of resources to support language learning. the vast offer of resources on the web and through publishing houses has demanded the acquisition of new competences both on the side of teachers and learners. nevertheless, there still are debatable issues concerning such a panorama. on the one hand, many institutions still pririotize the use of the textbook over the use of digital support sources, and on the other, many textbooks do not fill the context, expectations, and needs of the learners. in his study, muhsen al harbi (2017), revealed some feelings towards the use of textbooks. teachers mentioned that the clarity of the textbook objectives was not treated effectively. in addition to this, the content was not helpful to apply teaching theories and practices, and the content of the textbook had no helpful tests or procedures to evaluate students’ achievement effectively. teachers can also display drawbacks when using digital tools for the class. as çelik and aytin (2014) describe in their study, teachers are often seen as weak in computing technologies skills, indicating deficiencies in digital literacies. in their study, the authors applied a series of interviews with six elementary and high school teachers. results suggested that participants felt confident with their level of skill in applying the digital resources. however, this also showed that the lack of connectivity limited teachers in taking advantage of the available resources. teachers can feel anxious when using digital resources, and do not want to fail when using them. therefore, it can be argued that incorporating digital resources does not mean generating success in the class. instead, on a modest basis, it can be stated that novelty and change might be gauged using digital sources only when users have understood the rationale of use by going through sequential guidance and training stages for optimal usage. onofrei (2016) highlights in her study that access to new technologies for academic study and the identification of the level of training and use of new ict resources by secondary school teachers are essential skills. her study was conducted in secondary schools located in rural and urban areas in romania. to identify the level of access, training and use of new ict resources by secondary school teachers, she used a questionnaire about access and use of new ict in education. in this questionnaire, access to technology was measured through a scale that examined both access to new ict in school and in classroom, and the study identified activities where teachers used new ict resources and revealed the kind of applications that they used. results indicated that teachers used technological resources to prepare their lesson and activity but did not do it efficiently. although there had been investments in technology into schools, teachers use new ict at a basic level. the author claims that such situations happen because the implemented training programs place high emphasis on situated practice in clil torres-rincón & cuesta-medina no. 18 (january june 2019) no. 18 (january june 2019) 117 the “technological aspects and offer little use of technology for teaching” (onofrei, 2016, p. 31), focusing merely on technical usage matters, rather than on pedagogies. similarly, this also happens in colombian schools, where there are classrooms that have wide access to ict resources (i.e. learning platforms, devices, internet, etc.), but teachers do not (or cannot) take advantage of them because they lack the skills to implement them effectively. mcdougald (2013) mentions how teachers are currently using methods that are not part of traditional approaches and that fulfill teachers’ expectations regarding language learning usefulness, not as part of imposed beliefs from an academic institution but as level of comfort that allows them to increase their competence about ict along with their beliefs about it. besides, teachers report having knowledge about platforms and digital sources that help extending students’ knowledge outside the classroom. they claim to have been exposed to professional development opportunities throught ict, resulting in the improvement of their language skills because of using such technologies. the author also highlighted that teachers are encouraged to use technology but more importantly receive training in order to be prepared for efficient technology implementation. creating opportunities for students to practice is necessary to see if technology is an ally in the process of learning a foreign language. ariza and suarez (2013) pinpoint the support generated by digital tasks in which students gain linguistic awareness and understanding that language learning is a process for understanding rather than translating. however, such process is only effective when the teacher understands the pedagogical rules of technology (cuesta medina, 2018), which constitutes technology as a means to assist learners to achieve their goals and not the end itself. such a development needs time to both raise understanding and awareness on the ways to attain progress and scaffolded support from those involved in the educational arena. professional development: a must for teachers? efficient professional development (pd) takes place when teachers focus on learning to be able to foster improvement in students and themselves. this mission should not only be the teachers’ responsibility but also the institution in which they are affiliated. through pd, teachers have the opportunity to reflect on their difficulties, set plans to improve them, and build on their strengths to trace pathways towards success. whether short or long-term plans, pd needs to be effectively delivered. in the case of the clil classroom, teachers do not only have to work towards gaining knowledge and expertise to conduct doable implementations, but they situated practice in clil torres-rincón & cuesta-medina no. 18 (january june 2019) no. 18 (january june 2019) 118 also have to cope with the need for “official training programs or school policy to develop content teachers’ language skills” (kewara & prabjandee, 2018). several studies have introduced the importance of pd in academic environments. for example, nicolaidis and mattheoudakis (2008) pinpoint the long-term effectiveness of training courses for efl teachers. their study addresses attention to individual needs and how teachers used the resources and knowledge taught during the training course as well as the usefulness of the subjects offered. in the study, the effects that short-term courses offer to long term teaching are questioned as well as the degree of importance assigned by teachers to put into practice something new, changing the routine they experience, and broadening their perspectives by becoming students again. this type of training might produce initial steps for reflection with colleagues but hardly ever end in change in classroom practice. correspondingly, zein (2016) states that the lack of knowledge and skills impact pd. he raises the concern that pd programs are not focused on teachers’ needs and, in many cases, teachers were the ones reluctant to pursue their own professional growth. conversely, pd programs that have objectives to address teachers’ needs, enhance instructional practice, pedagogical knowledge, and expansion in self-efficacy. effective pd programs have a great relationship between training contents and teachers’ needs, generating optimal results, and increasing participation and active learning through inquiry-based learning modes that can positively affect practices and policies. these courses promote cooperative learning as discussion in which planning, and practice opportunities are offered. they also provide opportunities to generate feedback from different perspectives, which mulitiplies the possibilities for reflection and action. the aforementioned insights lead us to initiate discussion on the contents to be included in professional development plans for elt. in their study, lafond and dogancay-aktuna (2009) point out that the emphasis should be on the social context and the pedagogical progress rather than the linguistic theory itself. their focus prioritizes the pedagogical purpose mission over language teaching including sociocultural diversification and the ability to prepare teachers for different contexts. for the teacher educator, the principal role should be focused on the enablement of teacher learning; it does not matter if linguistic knowledge is not included and therefore, this kind of knowledge (syntax, pragmatics, phonology, etc.) does not guarantee that they are able to transfer these elements to their students. one of the issues raised concerns whether teachers’ beliefs and the theory they work on as part of their teaching preparation affect the courses they teach. johnson (2002), highlights the value of finding synergy among these elements so curricular changes can be fostered. the author claims that this should be a situated practice in clil torres-rincón & cuesta-medina no. 18 (january june 2019) no. 18 (january june 2019) 119 collaborative and iterative process in which educators can develop reflective teaching actions and theorizing opportunities for their own benefit and the benefit of their institutions. johnson’s participants (2002) (n=86) report on the positive impact that raising awareness of the internal components of language had in boosting foundational knowledge underlying their professional development. in a similar vein, gonzález and quinchía (2011) emphasize the importance of knowing the reality and the problems that educators have previously faced in their contexts for the training to be meaningful and objective. the authors also demonstrate that teacher trainers must be equipped with the necessary skills (i.e. language) to deliver efficient training and also with the knowledge on the target audience participating in the program. gonzález and quinchía (2003) state that teachers consider the exchange of knowledge with a trainer as a benefit especially regarding research experience, culture, and improvement in language proficiency. the benefits of endorsing new pd in the present times are also recalled by granados (2009), who highlights the fact that students possess needs that are no longer focused on content, materials, or topics. instead, they need to develop lifelong learning skills that help them to be better able to face the outside world. a call for strategies to gauge pd is also made by the author including but not restricted to sharing with other teachers and their teaching context and the inclusion of critical thinking skills development to make informed decisions in the classroom. not only do ferrer-ariza & poole (2018) support the aforementioned tenets, but they also emphasize the high value that the creation of teacher development programs brings to teachers and institutions. pd should focus on issues such as consolidating up-to-date teaching practices, increasing collegial work among teaching peers, and using reflection as a core component in the teaching process. pd opportunities range from short-, mid-, and long-term plans. considering long-term opportunities, viáfara and largo (2018) discuss the positive impact of studying in a master’s degree program in colombia and how this endeavor helps teachers to better understand the educational policies for adjusting and modifying their curricula. this aspect involves reflecting upon their own process and realizing the importance of research and reflection to reformulate professional practices while they develop empowerment to foster policy and curricular change in their institutions. in addition to this, collaboration adds significantly to pd as it allows teachers to work together and serve as conduits to generate enhanced teaching plans. therefore, in living in exponential change times, one cannot ignore the endorsement of methodologies that gauge student-centered learning practices, situated practice in clil torres-rincón & cuesta-medina no. 18 (january june 2019) no. 18 (january june 2019) 120 requiring high doses of scaffolded work from teachers. it is necessary to mention that in terms of professional development, teachers should be constantly building their knowledge also in a process of learning, as clarke and hollingsworth (2002) mention. when teachers become researchers and the theory that they know starts taking shape and coming to life with all the experiences that happen in and outside the classroom. hence, the more expedite decisions are made to favour such process, the better results are gauged to aid the cycle and its agents: the teacher as a teacher, the teacher as a learner, and the learners themselves. methodology this exploratory qualitative study took place at five schools from five different cities in colombia: bogotá, chía, tenjo, facatativá, and girardot. all ethical procedures corresponding to a study of this kind, such as the signing of consent forms, validation, piloting, and management of data were followed. the role of the researcher was of a participant one and adopted different levels of involvement in the research situation (burns, 1999) context and participants participant schools were chosen taking into consideration that they all shared the same features: type of schools (private), approach to language learning using task-based methodology, and clil and communicative approach. besides, they all had the same course resources thumbs up3 (fash, harris, hobbs, & keddle, 2012), and had accessed the same digital resources including but not restricted to apps and online platforms. the participants were six english as a foreign language (efl) teachers, who worked in primary levels in colombian schools from bogotá, chía, tenjo, facatativá, and girardot (table 1. summarizes general data of each institution). these teachers have worked with the school for more than a year and had at least one year of experience in the use of the target book. their ages ranged from 21 to 50 years old (m=33.8). 3 thumbs up! is a series of textbooks used in the participant schools (levels 1-5). situated practice in clil torres-rincón & cuesta-medina no. 18 (january june 2019) no. 18 (january june 2019) 121 table 1. general data of each institution institution number of number of does it have an english teachers students english coordinator? school 1 11 1611 yes school 2 29 1002 yes school 3 3 145 no school 4 10 625 no school 5 1 87 no instruments interviews interviews are a systematic way of talking and listening to individuals and a way to collect data through conversations (kajornboon, 2005). moreover, interviewees can discuss their perceptions and interpretations regarding a given situation (cohen, manion, & morrison, 2007). the researcher conducted one interview with all participants at the beginning of the study (appendix a). the rationale behind the use of interviews in this study focused on having a broad understanding of teachers’ views regarding their teaching practice and their actions in implementing new methodologies in their classes. five of the six teachers were interviewed in person at each of the schools. one teacher was interviewed via cell phone, making use of whatsapp™ functionalities, given that the teacher was not available during the time the visit at school was programmed. all data from the interviews was transcribed, and the analysis included a careful reading of the transcripts and a manual extraction from raw data. data was then summarized onto a ms excel matrix. verbatim transcription procedures were also exercised, capturing each interaction with the individuals including pauses, non-verbal utterances, and even silence from audio recordings into a text format. this was done to enrich the breadth and depth of data by presenting quotations as evidence and presenting spoken words for explanation of how situations might have happened (corden & sainsbury, 2006). web-based questionnaires a web-based questionnaire is a survey instrument that collects data via the internet, and that can generally collect extensive amounts of data in a rapid form (creswell, john & poth, 2018). in this study, a web-based questionnaire designed by the researcher and his/her advisor was used to gather information situated practice in clil torres-rincón & cuesta-medina no. 18 (january june 2019) no. 18 (january june 2019) http://www.legaltranscriptionservice.com/verbatim-transcription.php http://www.legaltranscriptionservice.com/verbatim-transcription.php 122 from teachers regarding their professional backgrounds and their understanding and experiences in the use of clil, in order to compare data with the responses obtained in the interviews (appendix b). field journals the purpose of this instrument was to track and account for teachers’ experiences inside the classroom and find out about how they planned, designed, and integrated different aspects in their lessons. according to friedemann, mayorga, and jimenez (2011), journals enhance the interpretation of data collected through other sources through introspection. field journals were used every time the researcher visited the institution and observed the lessons. a total of five observations of the teachers were made. the field journals were stored digitally easing retrieval and analysis of data (appendix c). data collection and analysis procedures two instruments were designed and applied in-situ (interviews and field journals), and one instrument, a questionnaire, was applied online via google forms™. the researcher designed both a draft and a final version of these instruments and validated them with a peer and his/her expert advisor. a total of five observations were conducted of each of the participants of the study, from april to august 2018. all data gathered was anonymized and participants’ responses were issued a code (t1, t2, t3, etc.). grounded theory and its core process coding were used to analyze data, transcending through the three main coding stages (open, axial, and selective), making use of several strategies such as comparison and contrast, questioning, and color-coding, and triangulation and validation procedures (corbin & strauss, 2015). a ms excel™ matrix was used to handle data throughout the coding process. results and discussion three main categories emerged from the analysis of the collected data: limitations to conceptualize clil, planning and implementing with a contextual focus on mindplanning and implementation, and resources offered by the school that support clil implementation. these categories appeared to support clil implementation; all of them integrated the core category named: advocating for a situated practice in clil (figure 1). resultant categories revealed the existence of factors and conditions that intervened and affected the success of clil implementation in schools. a detailed explanation of each of these data sets is described as follows. situated practice in clil torres-rincón & cuesta-medina no. 18 (january june 2019) no. 18 (january june 2019) 123 figure 1. description of the categories and associated factors in the study limitations to conceptualize clil results indicated that teachers showed some basic knowledge about the clil approach. this came up after asking “what is clil for you?” when teachers were interviewed. several answers indicated basic recognition of what the approach entails: “it is an approach that includes content, topics and english language learning (t1)”, “it is a method in which you teach english and other content” (t2), and “it is a pedagogical and methodological tool to learn another language.” (t6). however, further analyses of data allowed the researcher to see that teachers have difficulties recognizing elements and intervening factors to gauge effective usage of clil (evidenced during class observations). this aspect echoes the claims by lo (2014), which indicated that the content teacher just focuses on the subject, and the foreign language is not an issue in the class as long as the student is able to respond and develop the activities for achieving the objectives for the class. it can be said that the study participants recognize the relationship between content and language (theory), but they do not seem to know how to apply it (application). in the examined population, the teacher was the one in charge of planning the class based on some basic guidelines provided by the school. the researcher found that the involved institutions also shared a factor in common: the model and the methodology to teach english and content were not defined. each institution relies on the decisions that teachers make and find appropriate. in two of the five schools, there are english coordinators to guide the planning situated practice in clil torres-rincón & cuesta-medina no. 18 (january june 2019) no. 18 (january june 2019) 124 and implementation phases. the remaining three do not count on this support source, as evidenced in the observations in-situ and in the interviews with teachers. another particular element found in the study has to do with the training of teachers, due to the fact that none of the participants were content teachers. hence, it was found both in the data collected in field journals and in the interviews with teachers, that the research participants focused more on the mere teaching of language structures rather than the idea of teaching or including different content subjects.consequently, the notion of implementing clil is highly restrictive, as they do not only possess limited skills in the field, their actions are limited to the usage of pre-designed vocabulary lists included in the course resources (chosen by the school), and the use of resources and digital aids that are provided to the teacher. t6 insights reflect such panorama: interviewer: how have you implemented clil in your institution? t6: “through the books used by the school, i bring to the class vocabulary and information from different subjects”. planning and implementating with a contextual focus in mind for this category questions that aimed at recognizing the impact of clil in the research participants’ classes were prompted. in the interview, an initial question guided the discussion: how can the integration of different content areas influence the process of learning a foreign language in your students? the teachers’ answers mentioned elements like brodadening the scope of strategies to learn and finding ways to enhance the processing and understanding of information. hence, teachers recognize the importance of integrating content areas in their language class advocating for the use of target strategies and skills, as korosidou and griva (2016) also found in their study. as it has been previously mentioned, the use of new vocabulary reflects what teachers think in regard to planning and implementation. t4 exemplifies such ideas stating: “in my class i teach weather and the solar system,” referring to the areas, contexts, and lexicon they focus on in class. in the examined data, all teachers referred to plan, taking into consideration contextual issues that help students analyze daily situations especially in regard to the environment. according to trujillo becerra, alvarez ayure, zamudio ordoñez, and morales bohórquez (2015), and mendieta aguilar (2009) this denotes an increasing interest for teachers to plan their classes with a premise of more real contexts activities. these also lead to enriched comprehension for students in that lifelong learning connections are built, and knowledge is expanded based on inquiry processes. situated practice in clil torres-rincón & cuesta-medina no. 18 (january june 2019) no. 18 (january june 2019) 125 t4 asserts that “by integrating different content areas, the process of learning a foreign language results in the discovery of new ways of learning in students” indicating that it is possible to avow that there is a hidden approach that arises when teachers recognize that the diversification of strategies help students acquire knowledge related to different subjects. thus, it is possible to assert, based on the findings, that teachers apply clil principles without knowing it. in agreement with otwinowska and foryś (2017), the present study also found that barriers in terms of language occurred. since it differs from the regular lexicon known by students in the language lesson, the interaction and learning process proposed in the language class gets modified for an academic proficiency from both agents: teachers and students. in pappa, moate, ruohotielyhty, and eteläpelto (2017), this could be associated to the cognitive weight/ load that students may feel, since their classes are restrained to a complex language that is needed as a part of the input component incorporated in class. that is why, as these authors have indicated, the time devoted to explanation, elaborated language, and material required is a necessary part of an optimal planning process. as a result, the selection of knowledge is not limited to conventional practices, and new forms of assessment also take place. in the present study, it was found that in four out of the six cases, teachers reported difficulties when delivering their lessons because their students needed additional training in the understanding of the target lexicon and communication functions beneath the lessons. the situation gets worse, when teachers themselves have barriers in their linguistic proficiency, which severely hinders the accurate delivery of linguistic targets. in three of the six cases examined, it was evident that teachers possessed limitations in this regard. resources offered by the school that support clil implementation starting from the notion that all institutions in this study have the same chances to use the resources provided by the schools, it is possible to assert that teachers value the use of computer assisted language learning (call) as an engine to make classes more dynamic, leaving aside the conventional textbook usage, and including a digital aid to increase levels of interaction (moore, 1989). findings reveal that teachers display high engagement in the learning and usage of ict inside and outside the class, a concomitant finding of liu, lin and zhang (2017). the variety of resources used by the research participants included printed books, apps, and devices (i.e. ipads). through these resources, teachers could find activities and projects that were mainly based on the cefr to develop linguistic competences and lifelong learning skills. the question: “how could situated practice in clil torres-rincón & cuesta-medina no. 18 (january june 2019) no. 18 (january june 2019) 126 you integrate the resources that your school uses and the clil approach in your classes?” had several responses. on the one hand, t1 said: “to include areas and knowledge,” while t6 said: “to integrate learning, acquisition, skills and understanding,” and t2 stated: “the book has clil.” therefore, in the present study teachers are cognizant that the resources provided support clil usage; however, they adhere to such simplistic use and remain generating content and resource-based practices rather than advocating for skill or process-based ones which entail effective planning, follow-up, and assessment. all of them report making use of traditional drill-based and fill-in-the-gap tasks to assess language performance. in agreement with gonzález moncada (2007), despite the variety offered in resources and approaches, ultimately the teacher is solely the one in charge of making the decisions in the class and examining ways to select and use available resources. core category: advocating for a situated practice in clil the assembly of the previously mentioned categories suggests the situated practice approach as a main factor or condition that intervene in the implementation of clil in the context under investigation. it would allow teachers to make use of their existing knowledge of clil by operationalizing the ways in which language and content can be integrated while using students’ life experiences to create meaningful classroom activities within a community of learners (the new london group, 1996). in doing so, such situated practice will not only bridge students’ and teachers’ views and acts within a dialogic approach to teaching, but also integrates students’ primary knowledge by allowing teachers to carefully observe students to discover what they know and what they are already able to do (henderson, 2012). with such knowledge their language learning can be better mapped and sequenced. there remain several challenges to be addressed such as the effective planning and implementation of the approach per se. although teachers recognize the importance of using resources and establishing lifelong connections in the english class, they hardly ever know how to make them evident in their planning, resorting to highly traditional ways of teaching language and content. the claims from t1, clearly illustrate such intake, and the needs and horizons, clil practitioners should lead: “although the clil proposal has been integrated into the classes from the books worked by the institution, an approach like clil demands new challenges that are beyond books or a new curriculum. somewhat, it requires the construction of learning environments that stimulate the development of new skills, different from those already practiced in the acquisition of a second language” (t1). situated practice in clil torres-rincón & cuesta-medina no. 18 (january june 2019) no. 18 (january june 2019) 127 pedagogical implications the study has put in evidence the knowledge, actions and needs of a group of teachers. not only have the findings unveiled the need for teacher preparation to follow-up on clil instructional process, but also, they have pinpointed possible areas to focus on to find synergy between teaching and learning with the goal of using clil smoothly in the language class. based on the findings collected in the present study, it is argued that teachers find a breach to transfer theory into practice. therefore, it is highly beneficial to scaffold them with target guidelines derived both from the analysis of the context, their educational institution goals, and the overall learning standards, congruent with the expected performances of worldwide english language users. at a novice level, teachers should be provided with lesson scaffolds, so they are better able to plan their classes, targeting at efficient lesson and course design, implementation, and assessment. appendix a is a simple example of initial guides that can assist teachers in doing so. the lesson plan draws on the tenets proposed by coyle (2006) and, based on this study findings, offers a sequential and practical approach to plan lessons. it does so by being framed on situated practice principles and diversified ways to assess language and learning themselves. understanding that a situated practice in clil requires agents to guide such scaffolding process, the role of the teacher/instructor is compatible with the one of a mentor and facilitator. thus, switching to new power relationships in which knowledge is co-constructed. in this line of thought, the mentor should make a thorough analysis of the needs of the students such as affective, linguistic, cognitive, and sociocultural as accurate assessments can guide learners developmentally towards success and growth (the new london group, 1996). besides, we once again advocate for the importance of training teachers and teacher trainers themselves, so they develop awareness-raising processes, and trace effective actions on the development of a situated practice in clil. in agreement with granados (2009), teachers should constantly engage a culture of reflection and analysis based on their class experiences, examining how implementations should (or not) work in a given context in this case specifically in colombia, while fostering critical assessment and feeding their professional engagement for the benefit of their educational communities. these actions can also be at the core of study groups, communities of practice and further spaces, specifically designed for dissemination of findings such as of colloquia, symposia, and conferences. resources support the teaching practices and appear as part of the english teaching process to assist the teacher. this study relates to knight situated practice in clil torres-rincón & cuesta-medina no. 18 (january june 2019) no. 18 (january june 2019) 128 (2015), in how the textbook offers limited possibilities in an era where students can have a vast variety of information online, nevertheless, it is still observed how nowadays it is important to have a point of reference to help teachers in planning their classes. knight (2015) also remarks how the textbook can aid teachers in comprehending the scope, sequence, and learning activities of the course, while it offers additional resources available via a learning management system. however, ball (2018) draws on one of the initial premises discussed in this manuscript, highlighting the needs for adaptation to suit the target teaching and learning context. the author suggests having in mind three elements: concepts, procedures, and language. the current research goes together with biçaku (2011), as she also found out that teachers are implementing an approach without knowing it or having basic ideas about what is sought along the continuum. in other words, teachers might teach and use the approach guided by their intuition. nevertheless, content teachers have an active role in the implementation of the approach in their role as experts in concepts who can certainly contribute to develop language skills in context. in addition to this, results from the present study coincide with vázquez and alcalá (2010), which defies to adapt the clil curriculum, its didactic units, and the resources themselves to generate success in the implementation of the approach. likewise, both, this study and vásquez and alcalá’s (2010) indicate that teachers still place high value on the use of the textbook. these are considered as vital for them in planning and guiding the conceptual and theoretical principles beneath the language and content lesson. concluding remarks the present study portrays the challenges and opportunities reported by six teachers in regard to the implementation of clil. the findings elucidate how despite the existence of standards and plans to generate efficiency in the teaching of foreign languages as proposed by the men as part of the colombian bilingualism plan, there are barriers to understanding, development, and growth of clil as an approach that contributes to such goals. the studied populations do still struggle with the identification of factors to situate clil as an approach that does not limit to enhance linguistic target lifelong skills, such as creativity, critical thinking, collaboration, and communication. most participants of this study are traditionally-led teachers and agents that act in accordance with the guidelines that their schools demand and have not yet approached alternative pedagogies. leaving aside their contexts and student needs and prioritizing the decision-making exerted by their institution, the textbook is the leading element in their planning. this has unveiled the diffuse connections between effective language and content planning and perse development and it has also evidenced in their tendency situated practice in clil torres-rincón & cuesta-medina no. 18 (january june 2019) no. 18 (january june 2019) 129 to foster vocabulary learning over an integrated skill development, which not only resorts merely to linguistic but also lifelong learning dimensions. the study also evinced teachers’ lack of use of target clil scaffolds such as lesson plans that could assist the language and content development progress. the examined lesson plans (assessed in the preliminary phase of the study) reveal that teachers reported an incongruence amongst language and content elements. instead, they demonstrated that teachers continue to focus more on developing lexicon over content. none of the surveyed teachers use a specific clil lesson planning format, thus these types of connections remain scarce or even inexistent. as previously reported, their lesson routes were traced by the target textbook’s scope and sequence. thus, it is argued that if planning is the basis for efficient interventions, formats viewed as scaffolds need to be highly structured, managed, and familiar to the target users (teachers), so they can be used flexibly, in a variety of moments across the clil lessons. hence, teachers need to be cognizant of the target integrations between language, content, and learning. as an attempt to bridge such a gap, this study suggests the use of a customizable clil lesson plan, which can be used in initial scaffolding stages for any clil practitioner (appendix d). hence, we advocate for the rational use of resources in the clil classroom, and the instructional and pedagogical savvy that teachers, practitioners, and educational stakeholders need to build in order to better assess their contexts, plan efficiently based on their goals and expected outcomes, and on their available infrastructure including educational resources. in contexts like colombia, the call for customization will be always made as every learner population might be different, although they all attempt to develop the same target language objectives. this study might have contributed to portray both assets and challenges when teachers use clil, with the aim to assist textbook designers, teachers, stakeholders, and curriculum developers. however, it is noted that although the accounts presented in this manuscript can hold limitations regarding the generalizability of results, the analysis made discusses essential considerations in the clil field, both concerning instructional and pedagogical matters, while keeping in mind how the design of situated practices can bridge existing gaps in language teaching, learning and in the integration of clil in the language classroom itself. according to sylvén (2013), there are factors that determine the success of learning english as a foreign language that correlate with the present study in terms of the design of a policy/framework that is needed to aid the understanding and exercising of clil in given contexts. in colombia, there is not yet a target policy that establishes how clil should be implemented, and while one is created, teachers will remain in charge of creating their own programs. they will need sufficient support and training by stakeholders and situated practice in clil torres-rincón & cuesta-medina no. 18 (january june 2019) no. 18 (january june 2019) 130 expert instructors to be able to move from the mere prioritization of the textbook as the main course material to engaging in the development of target essential lifelong learning skills in the clil classroom supported by myriad educational sources now available in the current information era. in addition to this, much is needed still to suit a gradual incorporation of cultural aspects (banegas, 2014) in the clil curriculum, to bridge communication, content, and culture gaps more successfully. this could be set as a future area to research on. thus, we believe that constant clil professional development opportunities need to be accessible to a wider variety of teachers, as we argue that such opportunities hardly ever impact public, rural, or small city communities such as those of the present study in colombia and are restricted to intensive or bilingual private contexts. engaging in further outreach efforts concerning teachers’ difficulties, achievements, and opportunities towards the integration of language and content will not only assure a broader understanding of clil practices, but also will serve to foster a development plan with specific target actions to address along the process. moreover, it generates connections between theory and practice by viewing teaching and learning as a contextualized mission that makes use of an integrated approach to gauge progress on student and teacher cognition and action. further research should examine the ways in which clil is implemented and operationalized through specific assessment 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(2016). culture through comparison: creating audio-visual listening materials for a clil course. latin american journal of content & language integrated learning, 9(2), 345–373. http://dx.doi.org/10.5294/ laclil.2016.9.2.5 situated practice in clil torres-rincón & cuesta-medina no. 18 (january june 2019) no. 18 (january june 2019) https://aprendeenlinea.udea.edu.co/revistas/index.php/ikala/article/view/9912 https://aprendeenlinea.udea.edu.co/revistas/index.php/ikala/article/view/9912 http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/14708477.2014.980746 http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/14708477.2014.980746 http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13670050.2013.777387 http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13670050.2013.777387 http://dx.doi.org/10.17763/haer.66.1.17370n67v22j160u http://dx.doi.org/10.17763/haer.66.1.17370n67v22j160u http://dx.doi.org/10.14483/udistrital.jour.calj.2015.2.a05 http://dx.doi.org/10.14483/udistrital.jour.calj.2015.2.a05 http://rabida.uhu.es/dspace/handle/10272/6790 http://dx.doi.org/10.15446/profile.v20n1.63323 http://dx.doi.org/10.15446/profile.v20n1.63323 http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/19415257.2016.1156013 http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/19415257.2016.1156013 http://dx.doi.org/10.5294/laclil.2016.9.2.5 http://dx.doi.org/10.5294/laclil.2016.9.2.5 136 authors *juan carlos torres-rincon holds an m.a in english language teaching for self-directed learning from universidad la sabana and modern languages teacher from upn.teacher trainer for the local english immersion and trainer of the native speaker training programs for the ministry of education. he is currently working with santillana, an international publishing house, as an academic coach and teacher trainer in pedagogical approaches and resources. orcid: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4109-6657 liliana cuesta-medina is an associate professor at the department of foreign languages & cultures, universidad de la sabana (chía, colombia) in the master in language teaching programs. she holds a phd in english philology from the universidad nacional de educación a distancia (uned-madrid, spain), a b.a. in english and spanish from the universidad pedagógica nacional (bogotá, colombia), and a specialization in applied linguistics to the teaching of english from the universidad la gran colombia (bogotá, colombia). she has been involved in national and international teacher development programs, mainly in efl, e-learning, and e-tutoring. her research areas include call, clil, academic writing, cyberbullying, and learners’ selfregulation in blended/virtual learning environments, on which topics she has published in a number of indexed journals and conference proceedings. orcid: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8296-6225 situated practice in clil torres-rincón & cuesta-medina how to reference this article: torres-rincon, j. c., & cuesta-medina, l. m. (2019). situated practice in clil: voices from colombian teachers. gist education and learning research journal, 18, 109-141. https://doi.org/10.26817/16925777.456 no. 18 (january june 2019) no. 18 (january june 2019) https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4109-6657 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8296-6225 https://doi.org/10.26817/16925777.456 137 appendix a interview to teachers 1. what is clil for you? 2. how have you implemented clil, can you name an example? 3. how can you improve your planning skills based on the training given on clil? 4. how can the integration of different content areas influence the process of learning a foreign language in your students? 5. how could you integrate the resources that your school uses and the clil approach in your classes? *this interview was designed by cuesta medina, l. and torres, j. c. (2018). situated practice in clil torres-rincón & cuesta-medina no. 18 (january june 2019) no. 18 (january june 2019) 138 appendix b questionnaire demographics gender age range teaching experience (in years) first language type of institution name of institution level of students you teach your english level (cefr) your current post my beliefs and experiences about clil 1. have you implemented clil in your institution? 2. yes/no. why? (if you answer yes, continue to the next item, if you answered no, skip and go to question 5) 3. if you answered yes to the former item, describe the challenges that you currently face when /while implementing clil at your institution? 4. what resources might be needed in order to succesfully implement clil at your institution? 5. what would you need to initiate a clil project at your institution? 6. how confident do you feel about integrating thinking skills with language teaching? 7. how confident do you feel about integrating content with language teaching? 8. how confident do you feel about integrating culture with language teaching? 9. how confident do you feel about identifying language teaching opportunities within the content of other curricular areas? 10. when planning, how do you do it? explain. 11. do you have to use an existing syllabus or curriculum? 12. how do you select new knowledge, skills and understanding of the theme you teach? 13. when planning, do you prioritize the content to be included? 14. why? 15. in your opinion, does clil require a lot of administrative support? 16. why? 17. does your principal, director, coordinator, favor the implementation of clil? 18. is your school staff knowledgeable about the clil approach? 19. do the language teachers at your school take a collaborative approach in terms of planning for instruction? 20. include any additional comments *this questionnaire was designed by cuesta medina, l. and torres, j. c. (2018). adapted from cuesta medina l. and mcdougald, j. s. (2017). situated practice in clil torres-rincón & cuesta-medina no. 18 (january june 2019) no. 18 (january june 2019) 139 appendix c field journal. observation registry form. name of school grade date subject teacher criteria yes no comments presentation of class objective. evidence of students’ opportunities to show what they are learning. evidence of lesson sequencing. variety of learning activities provided. evidence of resources used. comments: feedback and recommendations (to be used in the post-lesson conversation with the teacher) *this field journal was designed by cuesta medina, l. and torres, j. c. (2018). situated practice in clil torres-rincón & cuesta-medina no. 18 (january june 2019) no. 18 (january june 2019) 140 appendix d clil lesson plan topic of the day: previous knowledge: (recap from last class) class objectives: (include performance-based indicators) a. content outcome (include lifelong learning contexts for students) b. cognition outcome c. communication outcome language of learning (vocab & grammar) language for learning (expressions for discussion) situated practice in clil torres-rincón & cuesta-medina no. 18 (january june 2019) no. 18 (january june 2019) 141 language through learning (combination of vocabulary and specific subject content knowledge) d. culture/ citizenship (relate topics to your local context) material and resources activities plan 1. 2. 3. general assessment comments/homework *this format was designed by cuesta medina, l. and torres, j. c. (2018). situated practice in clil torres-rincón & cuesta-medina no. 18 (january june 2019) no. 18 (january june 2019) _hlk8626559 _hlk8802656 _hlk519969894 86 children’s cultural identity formation: experiences in a dual language program1 formación de la identidad cultural de los niños: experiencias en un programa de lenguaje dual ilba yaneth rodríguez-tamayo and lina maria tenjo-macias2* universidad pedagógica y tecnológica de colombia, colombia abstract the role of cultural identity in bilingual programs has barely been discussed in regard to second language acquisition (sla). this research study focuses on providing relevant information that would help in providing more information about the experiences that an elementary student has during the second language learning process in a bilingual program within a multicultural context. this qualitative study took place in a dual language program in a public elementary school in northern virginia, usa. a total of 17 students were immersed in a 50:50 program, that is, 50% of the classes were in english and the other 50% in spanish. the information was collected using in person interviews, focus group sessions, participants’ artifacts, and field observations. the experiences that emerged as contributors to children’s cultural identity formation include receiving others’ influence, living situations as determiners of languages switch, and using two languages as a key aspect in self-esteem improvement. keywords: identity; acculturation; bilingual education; dual language program; second language; elemental education; childhood resumen el papel de la identidad cultural en programas bilingües ha sido escasamente discutido, en relación con la adquisición de una segunda lengua. esta investigación se enfoca en dar información relevante que ayuda a tener un mejor conocimiento sobre las experiencias que un estudiante de educación elemental tiene durante el proceso de aprendizaje de una segunda lengua en un programa bilingüe, dentro de un contexto multicultural. este 1 received: april 30th 2018/ accepted: may 8th 2019 2 ilba.rodríguez@uptc.edu.co; insulinna@gmail.com rodríguez-tamayo & tenjo-maciasgist education and learning research journal. issn 1692-5777. no.18 (january june 2019). pp. 86-108. no. 18 (january june 2019) no. 18 (january june 2019) 87 estudio cualitativo tuvo lugar en colegio elemental público en virginia del norte, usa., en el que 17 estudiantes estaban inmersos en un programa 50:50, es decir, 50% de las clases eran en inglés y el otro 50%, en español. la información fue recolectada a través de entrevistas personales, sesiones de grupo focal y observaciones de participantes y de campo. el recibo de la influencia de otros, la vivencia de situaciones como determinantes del cambio de lengua y el uso de dos lenguas, como factor importante en el mejoramiento de la autoestima, fueron las experiencias que surgieron como contribuciones a la formación de la identidad cultural de los niños. palabras clave: identidad; aculturación; educación bilingüe; programa de lenguaje dual; segunda lengua; educación elemental; infancia resumo o papel da identidade cultural em programas bilíngues tem sido escassamente discutido, em relação com a aquisição de uma segunda língua. esta pesquisa se enfoca em dar informação relevante que ajuda a ter um melhor conhecimento sobre as experiências que um estudante de educação elementar tem durante o processo de aprendizagem de uma segunda língua em um programa bilíngue, dentro de um contexto multicultural. este estudo qualitativo teve lugar em colégio fundamental público em virgínia do norte, usa., no qual 17 estudantes estavam imersos em um programa 50:50, melhor dito, 50% das aulas eram em inglês e o outro 50%, em espanhol. a informação foi coletada através de entrevistas pessoais, sessões de grupo focal e observações de participantes e de campo. o recebimento da influência de outros, a vivência de situações como determinantes da mudança de língua e o uso de duas línguas, como fator importante no melhoramento da autoestima, foram as experiências que surgiram como contribuições à formação da identidade cultural das crianças. palavras chave: identidade; aculturação; educação bilíngue; programa de linguagem dual; segunda língua; educação elementar; infância rodríguez-tamayo & tenjo-macias no. 18 (january june 2019) no. 18 (january june 2019) 88 introduction learning one or more languages, other than one’s native language, is an important issue in the globalized world we live in today. the u.s.a., though a global power, is not the exception, especially if we take into account that this country is composed of a variety of people who belong to a diversity of cultures (silbernagel, 2015). in this country, it is a well established fact that people are likely to have more cultural, social, and economic opportunities when they acquire a second language. according to welsh language board (1999), the acquisition of a second language enhances children’s communication, as well as promotes bilingualism and bi-literacy. in addition, it helps learners recognize the diversity of other cultures, and it is economically beneficial for learners. milambiling (2011) referred to the fact that, nowadays, there is greater opportunity to be in contact with different languages, groups, and cultures. nonetheless, speaking two or more languages can make the difference on where a person lives, as well as define their educational and career choices. additionally, rhodes and pufahl (2009) reinforced milambiling’s position in saying that “providing second language experiences and knowledge about other cultures is key to any country’s ability to remain competitive and increasingly recognized as critical to economic success, national security, and international relations” (as cited by soderman, 2010, p. 55). consequently, different school districts around the country have developed two-way immersion (twi) programs in response to an increase in diversity among their population. the idea behind these programs is to develop bilingual proficiency for both language minority and majority students in the same setting. furthermore, these programs promote a positive attitude toward languages and diverse cultures. this particular form of twi is a dual language program (dlp), in which both native english speakers and native speakers of a partner language are integrated to develop bilingualism and bi-literacy in english and another language. both the l1 and l2 are taught together in an effort to develop full bilingualism and bi-literacy for both groups. according to potowski (2007), dual immersion programs look to promote not just the development of two languages, but also positive cross-cultural attitudes. in addition to the previous aspects, potowski (2004) added that another goal of these kinds of programs is to develop students’ self-esteem. for the following study, the focus is less on the cognitive process of second language acquisition in children who attend a dlp, but more about the connection between culture and identity formation among younger learners. moreover, i seek to reflect on young learners’ cultural experiences and their attitudes toward the complex world in which they live in. the objective of this study will be to describe these experiences, which contribute to the children’s cultural identity formation, while participating in a dual language program. children’s cultural identity formation rodríguez-tamayo & tenjo-macias no. 18 (january june 2019) no. 18 (january june 2019) 89 krashen (2004, as cited in mercuri, 2008) indicated that studies about dlp were limited, but because of their design and methodology they can be considered useful. the current study may be added to this field since its goal is to help support the benefits that bilingual, cross-cultural programs can provide. mercuri, who talks about “capital social”, explained how cultural heritage can be transformed into social resources, and it can be included in the educative system (mercuri, 2008, p. 92). theoretical framework bilingual education according to cohen (1975), bilingual education is the use and instruction of two languages in part or all of the school curriculum. it is also acknowledged that bilingual education includes the concept of bicultural education because language cannot be separated from culture. as hammers and blanc (1995) stated, language interacts with culture in defined ways, such as being the transmitter and tool used for internalization of culture by the individual. according to the national association for bilingual education, nabe, an american advocacy group, bilingual education has different goals, such as english instruction, promoting academic achievement, acculturation of immigrants, support for heritage language and culture, and the opportunity for english speakers to acquire a second language. in conformity with this, the u.s. congress defined the term “bilingual education program” as an instructional program in p.l. 95-561, which is also known as the bilingual act. these types of programs are designed for children who have limited english proficiency, in which the instruction, study of, and extent of that language depend on the number of years the program is applicable. the objective is for the child to progressively acquire the desired competence in english through the educational system (malarz, 2015). according to mercuri (2008) english immersion, english as a second language, transitional bilingual, late exit programs, and dual language programs or two-way bilingual programs are models of programs that can be considered as bilingual education programs. she explained that each one of the programs establishes a different approach to the concept of bilingualism. in addition, these models share common goals like to achieve challenging academic skills and adequate knowledge depending on the child’s age, as well to understand and value cross cultural differences (mercuri, 2008, p. 89). children’s cultural identity formation rodríguez-tamayo & tenjo-macias no. 18 (january june 2019) no. 18 (january june 2019) 90 dual language programs, dlp dlp, also known as twi programs, instruct native english speakers and native speakers of another language to develop academic proficiency in both languages beginning in kindergarten for a minimum of six years. according to genesee (1999), twi programs aim at bilingual proficiency, high academic achievement, and cross-cultural understanding among participating students. two-way implies that each native speaker can be a model for the native speaker of the other language. in other words, learners become peer teachers and language models for one another. based on howard and sugarman (2007), enrichment 90-10 and 50-50 are the two basic models in dual language education. the variation between these programs is the time of instruction for each language, as well as the literacy instruction used for the 90-10 model. the 50-50 model has a balance between l1 and second language (hereinafter l2) in academic content areas, which means that 50% of instruction is taught in the target (partner language) or minority language and the other 50% in the majority language. in the 90-10 model, students are immersed 90% of their school day in the l2. moreover, these dual language experiences have helped students became comfortable with speaking the second language and interacting with members from other ethnographic groups. in relation to this, ruiz (1984) declared that these kinds of programs have helped create cross-cultural school communities and have eased the pressure between diverse language groups. in view of this, twi programs have also built cultural fellowship amongst all participants, such as children, parents, teachers, and administrators. similarly, bilingual programs have recognized that acquiring a language involves learning the culture that is expressed through the language. generally speaking, a dlp also values children’s cultural and diverse characteristics and encourages them to maintain their native language, which reinforces their cultural identity. identity and cultural identity to link the terms of identity and cultural identity, it may be relevant to consider monzo and rueda (2009) and nieto (2010), presented by mercuri (2014), because they explain that culture goes beyond external aspects of a person’s life, rather it moves toward those intangible aspects, such as religious beliefs, the nature of language, and the values that shape the way a person thinks, behaves, and views the world. nieto presented seven key characteristics for culture. one of them is that culture is learned through families and communities. nieto highlighted the fact that bilingual/bicultural education is an example of the intent of communities and individuals to maintain their language and traditions alive. this is done children’s cultural identity formation rodríguez-tamayo & tenjo-macias no. 18 (january june 2019) no. 18 (january june 2019) 91 by means of a curriculum that permeates students’ culture and language and fosters intercultural tolerance (as cited in mercuri, 2014). there is a relationship between individual identity and language use. certainly, the daily use of the language represents a particular identity. the role that language plays in the formation and expression of identity is without a doubt an influential one. language allows for flexibility between race and ethnicity in every society, where individuals are able to consciously or unconsciously express different identities by the linguistic choices they make. moreover, when individuals become aware of their own culture, learning about other people’s cultures may seem less difficult. recognizing that everyone has unique traditions, values, and beliefs that are important to them (ethnic identity, language, religion and formal/informal community, neighborhood, and family connections) helps us see how we are connected, build trust, and foster stronger relationships. certainly, ethnic heritage instruction is something that teachers should promote. by doing so, educators support their students during the acquisition of a second language; it provides learners with a transcendental support for their learning process, their academic development, and their social skills. acculturation based on redfield, lenton, and herskovits (1936), acculturation is viewed as a process that happens when two autonomous groups are in direct contact with one another, which results in changes within the original culture of either or both cultures. miranda and umhoefer (1998, p. 159) conceptualized biculturalism as being in the “intermediate level of acculturation”. being at the intermediate level may be considered as processing a balance between one’s cultural values and those of the host culture. generally, acculturation is a cultural learning process where individuals are exposed to new cultures. usually this occurs when one culture comes into contact with another culture, and these groups interact or “acculturate” to each other mainly in the context of immigration. however, the true meaning of acculturation is more complex than just the adoption of norms from the majority group. with this in mind, this research study considers acculturation as a process of adaptation, which is dynamic and multidimensional, that occurs when different cultures converge in contact. that process involves different degrees and instances of culture learning and maintenance that depend on factors like the individual, group, or environment (balls, marín and chun, 2010). so, essentially this is a continuous and dynamic process. it is affected by the personal and social experiences of the individual. however, when someone children’s cultural identity formation rodríguez-tamayo & tenjo-macias no. 18 (january june 2019) no. 18 (january june 2019) 92 has been exposed to two or more cultures, changes take place. generally, there are changes in behavior, which include changes in speech, food preferences, clothing styles, and identity. furthermore, according to berry (2003), there are also emotional reactions, such as anxiety, depression, or happiness. in addition, there are individual attitudes and orientations toward the culture of origin and the other group pertaining to the new culture. as a result, individuals create either a positive or negative response to their home culture, or their heritage culture. additionally, the individual could also have a positive or negative response to the new culture. bearing in mind the focus of this study, it is important to highlight that mercuri (2008) said that students in a dlp may learn languages, as well as cultures, according to each one of the linguistic groups they have the chance to share with. this is because apart from sharing the language, students are also sharing life experiences. therefore, the goal is that each student takes advantage of the cultural capital that each person brings to the classroom. methodology this study took place in a spanish/english dual language elementary school in northern virginia. the dlp was 50-50, which means that 50% of classes were in english and the other 50% in spanish. the participants, who were the focus of this study, were randomly selected under the following criteria. first, the sample size needed to be small enough to carry out the study with the available resources and time. second, the linguistically and culturally diverse population should be representative of the sample. finally, the prospective participants could be approachable during the research. after identifying the characteristics of the target population, a random sample process was organized, which resulted in a sample of 17 students. their ages ranged from 5 to 11 years old. the participants’ names were changed bearing in mind ethical considerations. this study was developed during a year starting in march 2013, when permission from the school’s principal was given. teaching in the target languages took place for 7.5 hours per day. students learned crucial subjects entirely in spanish like language and math. later in the day, they switched and learned only in english. in some cases, they had never even heard spanish spoken before. however, the students received support from other instructional professionals, volunteers, or even parents, who came a few times a week and helped students during the development of the activities. this last aspect is supported by lang et al. (2009), who argued that efforts to join immigrant parents in all of the processes carried out in u.s. schools would break down cultural barriers and create opportunities for all. children’s cultural identity formation rodríguez-tamayo & tenjo-macias no. 18 (january june 2019) no. 18 (january june 2019) 93 for this case study, the qualitative paradigm was the key design used to link the research questions to the methodological approaches. according to denzin and lincoln (1994), qualitative research involves an interpretative, naturalistic approach to its matter. that means that qualitative researchers study things as they are and try to make sense of, or interpret, phenomena in terms of the meanings people bring to them. it is an unfolding of different interpretations that evolves throughout the whole process and helps the researcher to obtain knowledge from the point of view of those who participate. indeed, utilizing a qualitative method helps researchers become familiar with the way participants interpret their reality. in the same way, for bogdan and biklen (2007), a case study is “a detailed examination of one setting, or a single subject, a single depository of documents, or one particular event” (p. 196). this research method helps to conduct a meaningful analysis of a particular place, group, or phenomenon. therefore, it provides an opportunity to understand why individuals do certain things, what motivates them, and how they explain what they were doing. the main information for this research was collected using inperson interviews, focus group sessions, participant observations, and field observations. additionally, surveys, questionnaires, school documents, and students’ work samples were used to gather relevant information. the purpose of collecting data was to obtain different sources in order to understand the participant’s perspectives according to the main focus of the study. the data collection instruments mentioned above were methodologically applied during different moments of the research implementation. the reason for obtaining data through these instruments was so that the researcher could ask open-ended questions. in doing so, the researcher was able to look at all of the possible ways that the participants used the targeted languages to relate to their own cultural identity. instructional design the study began with short visits to the classroom where the participants were located in order to develop a sense of familiarity between them and the researcher. this helped the children become more relaxed when having another adult in the classroom different from their main teacher. the 17 students answered questionnaires and surveys related to general information, language use, and language attitudes. these were followed up by individual meetings and group conversations. in addition, the participants’ parents also collaborated by completing two surveys (see appendix 1) and a questionnaire. participant observations were completed in the spanish and english classrooms. students were also observed during some classes like science, children’s cultural identity formation rodríguez-tamayo & tenjo-macias no. 18 (january june 2019) no. 18 (january june 2019) 94 art, music, physical education. also, the participants were observed in places other than their classroom, such as the library, cafeteria, and playground. in total, there were two face-to-face interviews with each case participant. one was conducted at the beginning of the study, while the other was conducted at the end of the study. the interview questions were related to family background, language use, likes and dislikes, and other cultural aspects. it was also important to have open-ended questions, which allowed the participants to provide more information. digital audio files for each of the students’ interview were recorded. data analysis for this study, grounded theory was the most accurate approach in analyzing the data. according to strauss and corbin (2008), this theory is inductively derived from the study of the phenomena it represents. in fact, grounded theory aims at being inductive, which means that the only idea is to generate, or discover theory. three stages of data analysis are involved in grounded theory: open-coding, axial, and selective. open coding is a procedure used to develop categories of information. axial coding refers to the interconnections of the categories, and selective coding relates to identifying particular categories or codes that form some kind of core, or essential concept, which can elucidate many aspects of the situation that the researcher is looking at. close attention was paid to each transcript in order to develop a better understanding about each participant. then, the researcher began the stage of open coding, which is the procedure of developing categories of information. it implies studying the data collected with a more analytical point of view, so the researcher highlighted any statement that had a relationship to the broad categories and differences within each code (strauss & corbin, 2008). later on, the researcher started to create other sub-categories using interconnections among the categories that the researcher had already named. this process allowed the researcher to discover relevant information, although there were certain issues that required further consideration. there was a consistent comparison between the data, categories, and theory, in which relevant information related to each other within the same data. it was a process of seeking the instances that represented the categories established by the researcher. additionally, the researcher continued to look for new information until no further insight was provide for a specific category. finally, the researcher selected the codes, which were necessary in constructing the explanations. children’s cultural identity formation rodríguez-tamayo & tenjo-macias no. 18 (january june 2019) no. 18 (january june 2019) 95 findings and discussion since the main concern of this study was to discover which of the participants’ experiences contributed to cultural identity formation while participating in a dlp, and after having developed the process of analysis explained formerly, the researcher concluded that those experiences can be clarified in the following categories: receiving others’ influence each participant shared very similar points of view about his/her dual language experience, as well as similar childhood patterns. however, each participant’s contribution has a unique print that reveals their particular personalities. the information that they shared portrayed fundamental aspects of their lives, such as family structure, preferences, and culture like ethnicity, language (s), beliefs, values, and family traditions. focus group sessions provided contexts for observing the participants’ active engagement with their experiences as dual language learners, and the interviews were very helpful in constructing the descriptions of their cultural lives within and beyond the school. this was complemented by the questionnaires (see appendix 2). each one of the participants performed both cultural and social roles throughout their participation in a dlp. as they engaged with all of the different activities throughout the day, each child showed their individual preferences and life through their own cultural world. within this first category, a subcategory emerged that showed how the participants were aware of who they are as people, as well as how others have influenced them. me, my family, and my community. bearing in mind the main concern of this study, it is important to review the way cultural identity is defined within the literature review. through this definition and after the collection of data for this study, the researcher determined that the cultural identity formation of children is connected to the different choices children make in regard to their behaviors, preferences, and social and cultural roles. cultural identity, according to deng (2005), “answer the questions of ‘who am i?’, ‘where are we going?’ and ‘what do we have?’” (pp 39-41). likewise, norton and toohey (2002) suggested that cultural identity answers questions that are linked to who the person is, how the person relates to the social world, and under what conditions the person speaks. on the contrary, meca, sabet, farrelly, benitez, schwartz, gonzales-backen, lorenzo-blanco, unger, zamboanga, baezconde-garbanati, picariello, des rosiers, soto, pattarroyo, villamar, and lizzi, (2017), based on different authors, such as syed and juang (2014) and children’s cultural identity formation rodríguez-tamayo & tenjo-macias no. 18 (january june 2019) no. 18 (january june 2019) 96 waterman (1999), clearly differentiated between personal identity and cultural identity. they explained that personal identity was related to the person by himself or herself, while cultural identity referred to the way individuals defined themselves in relation to the cultural groups they belonged to (p. 349). the focus group sessions offered an opportunity to learn about the children’s perceptions regarding their experience with dual language participation (see appendix 3). it also allowed the researcher to see some of the different roles and behaviors that participants adopted when they worked on concepts related to culture. the participants expressed their cultural preferences through interviews and the creation of artifacts. they described themselves in terms of their general attributes, family structure, and experiences as dual language learners. the learners’ daily context influenced their perceptions about language and culture. children care about those who are very important to them, primarily their parents, close relatives, and even friends. they see the people who are part of their world as family and community members. based on the concept of “capital social”, provided by mercuri (2008), there are different positive relationships that students share with other people at school, but at the same time, there are support relationships at home. that is why both contexts, school and home, may influence the perception of language and culture. every participant within the dlp is an active contributor to the system itself. from that perspective, the term “social role” was considered as a type of influence that other people may have on a participant’s behavior. indeed, human beings live each experience in a particular way and behave differently depending on the social role s/he plays at that moment. social roles involve being a daughter, son, student, friend, relative, or teacher. in fact, each role has an important connection with the different settings where the participants live. each person takes on different roles during the day, and s/he shift between them daily. according to chen (2015), as bilinguals acquire a language in different contexts, the use of a specific language evokes its associated attitudes and behaviors (2015, p. 7). the child cannot be influenced just by the role s/ he plays in a specific moment, but also by the language s/he uses at a specific time. thanks to the time the researcher spent with the students during the collection of data, she was able to become more aware of the influence family background has on the way children experience their participation in the dlp. this notion is represented in the following situation, where lauren, who speaks spanish fluently, emphasized the following: lauren: i am very comfortable speaking in spanish. my dad always says to me “honey, you are doing great with your spanish”. children’s cultural identity formation rodríguez-tamayo & tenjo-macias no. 18 (january june 2019) no. 18 (january june 2019) 97 in the previous example, it was very interesting to see the parents’ interest in their children learning and reinforcing another language other than english. this aspect was opposite to the one found by mercuri (2014), in which she explained how parents understood the value of english in the american society. because of this, they pushed their children to learn that language and forget the native one. this was based on the notion that doing so would provide their children with better possibilities and less discrimination. based on adelman and lynn (2007), there is ample evidence that parents’ satisfaction does not only come from their children’s academic environment, it also comes from the way their children are challenged by this kind of education. however, an important issue to bear in mind is how those challenges expand into children’s identity formation. as this first category refers to others’ influence, the next sample shows a different type of influence. based on one of the observations, the researcher noticed that joseph always used formal spanish and english. he also had a well-developed ability to switch from english to spanish, or vice versa. in one interview, he said: joseph: sometimes my dad says that he is gonna give me 10 bucks if i help him with spanish. so, one day my dad forgot what “table” was in spanish and he is like “table for two please.” the waitress did not hear, so then he said, “joseph, i give you a ten-dollar bill and you just tell me how do i say ‘table’ please?” and i am like “money first please.” teacher: did he give you the money? did he? joseph: oh, yeah. bearing in mind the construct of investment provided by norton (2000), who is referenced by potowski (2004), learners invest in a language when they feel they will receive symbolic and material resources. joseph received double profits. first, he gained the feeling of high self-esteem because of his ability to speak an additional language, and the second was the monetary gain. the following category emerged after having analyzed how children switch the language they speak depending on the situation s/he was facing. living situations as determiners of language switch during the one-on-one interviews, different topics were addressed. some of the conversations were related to the use of spanish or english, the things children found good about speaking two languages, and mixing or switching languages. based on barón ávila (2010), code switching happens when a children’s cultural identity formation rodríguez-tamayo & tenjo-macias no. 18 (january june 2019) no. 18 (january june 2019) 98 person alternates between two languages during a discourse. according to potowski (2004), language selection in the classroom is part of the students’ identity performances. nevertheless, these performances cannot be limited to the school environment. in addition, trechter and bucholtz (as cited in mercuri, 2014) argued that the use of a specific language in a determined context influences the development of cultural identity. a sample for this case is the following: teacher: has it ever happened to you that you mix the languages? sean: ahh. one time i was playing piano because i am learning piano lessons, and i asked something to my grandpa, and then i talked to him in english “this is my favorite piano piece...”or something like that i said, and he gave me this look like “what are you saying???” because he doesn’t know english, and i said “oh, i am sorry. i am sorry. i meant to say ‘este es mi favorito’”, and i immediately played the piano. later on, i asked my dad how to say “piano piece” in spanish and he told me “ pieza de piano”. then, i learned a new word. (big smile) based on the previous episode between sean and his father, it is noticeable that the child had the opportunity to learn new words, in this case pieza de piano. according to soderman (2010), vocabulary building in each one of the languages that the child is learning is extremely important. nevertheless, this author referred to how teachers receive additional training in effective strategies to teach vocabulary. in this case of sean, the teaching came from sean’s father, who also played an important role in the language learning process. in addition, the last sample is also supported by barón ávila (2010), who indicated that language switching occurs because of the social and cultural contexts where students are immersed in. in some cases, the context does not allow children to practice or interact frequently in english. sean’s context of immersion at that moment did not involve english as the way of communication. therefore, language switching was not an option, it was a process that sean needed to undergo if he wanted his grandfather to understand him. after stating the previous examples, it is important to highlight that mixing languages, for some children, is related to the child’s ability to infer if the person speaks two languages or not. also, once the child has been able to recognize which language to speak and with whom, s/he will do two things: challenge him/her to speak more of that language or avoid communication with people who speak that language. therefore, it is very important to recognize that students may have family members who speak other languages and who may motivate the child to speak their native language more. it is very important that children can communicate in their parents’ native language children’s cultural identity formation rodríguez-tamayo & tenjo-macias no. 18 (january june 2019) no. 18 (january june 2019) 99 because if they don’t, they may not value their parent’s heritage. consequently, they may not grow up identifying themselves with their parents’ heritage. if the language is not part of their lives, the children will forget a piece of who they are. the former idea is based on the definition on language provided by hillard (1983), “…since language is always used within a cultural context, it cannot be separated from cultural identity” (as cited in silbernagel, 2015). dual language learners also create a comfort zone through their choice of language. they use their creativity in terms of communication. as soon as they build better language skills, they start to use the language in certain situations. for example, they might use a particular language if they think the receptor would like to hear them using that language. when children have the confidence to switch languages, they are simultaneously learning from themselves. dual language learners also switch languages with different intentions. the following example was recognized during this study due to their relation to cultural identity formation among dual language learners. amy: my little brother estaba en la guatita de mami (guata: chilean word for ‘belly’) (my little brother was in my mom’s belly). what is represented in the previous example is clearly supported by chen (2015), who explained that the integration of one language into another presupposes the use of “loanwords”. in this concrete case, amy not only switched from english to spanish, but she also used a specific chilean word in the conversation. this example showed how bilinguals alternate emotions, behaviors, and cognition, which are components of personality traits (chen, 2015). based on grosjean (2008), as cited by bakić and škifić (2017), people who are bilingual can use one language and switch the other language off in special situations. in their article, they discussed the connection between bilingualism and biculturalism and how a person may deactivate one language, but they cannot do the same with culture. potowski (2004) argued that the language students select in the classroom must be seen as part of their identity performances. however, those performances cannot be limited to the class because students are people who want to show who they are in different places. this is especially true when they want to share their identities with those who are closer to them, such as their family members at home. mercuri (2014) also referred to gee’s position (2008) about the two kinds of discourses that a person may acquire, the primary and the secondary one. the secondary discourse is the one acquired by the person at school. the first discourse, which is part of this study, is the primary discourse. it is the cultural base of the language that the person speaks every day and provides him/her a sense of self. according to gee, the first discourse needs to be valued at school in order to avoid affecting identity development. children’s cultural identity formation rodríguez-tamayo & tenjo-macias no. 18 (january june 2019) no. 18 (january june 2019) 100 finally, knowing more than one language may influence the way a child is or behaves, such as his or her personal traits. for this study, self-esteem was considered and analyzed as follows. using two languages as a key aspect in self-esteem improvement one of the advantages that learning a second language offers is an improvement in the person’s self-esteem and sense of self. in fact, knowing more than one language supports children by making them more at ease in different environments. in the following excerpts, the participants demonstrated how they felt speaking two languages. the first excerpt was provided by amy, who felt very proud of herself for speaking two languages. she expressed that her parents only speak one language, “español”. amy: en la escuela yo hablo inglés y español. en el parque hablo español a la sra. “x” (spanish speaker) y a mis amigos yo hablo inglés, también español. hay niños que no saben español, así como “x” (classmate) tú sabes. yo se que tú sabes. [in school i speak english and spanish. at the park, i speak spanish with mrs. “x” (spanish speaker) and with my friends i speak english, also spanish. there are kids that don’t know spanish, like “x” (classmate) you know. i know that you know]. however, there are times when some learners do not feel very confident at all when talking in other language. this was the case in following excerpt where nina was not confident talking in spanish. nina: my parents are from mongolia and all of my grandparents live in mongolia…and i …i…was born in america, and i’ve been in new york and mongolia. i mostly speak english, i know a little bit of spanish and some mongolian…i know how to say “hola” in mongolian. ahhh... nina had difficulty expressing her thoughts in spanish. when the researcher asked her which language she was used to speaking most of the time in the school cafeteria or playground, she replied “english”. as a matter of fact, the researcher was able to recognize that nina does not participate at all in spanish class. she received extra help to support her spanish speaking skills. there are circumstances that make this situation more difficult, such as communication with family members. to be bilingual does not mean that the competence in both languages must be the same. chen (2015) indicated that some bilinguals who are not fluent in the other language may feel “inhibited” because of the restricted ability to express themselves. as a consequence, this affects the way they express their personalities. this point suggests that the expression of personality traits is highly influenced by the language that is dominated by the bilingual person. children’s cultural identity formation rodríguez-tamayo & tenjo-macias no. 18 (january june 2019) no. 18 (january june 2019) 101 after working with the participants and having the chance to see them construct their own ideas of culture, i noticed how they, little by little, became engaged in the constant process of seeking and refining their first ideas of culture. by the last focus group session, the participants condensed all of the information, which was explored during the study in order to make the first recognition of the aspects they considered relevant to their cultural identity. during this period of the study, the attention was focused on observing them more as individuals, as well as part of a particular group within a multicultural society. conclusions this research study explored children’s lived experiences in a multicultural context while participating in a dlp. through this study, the researcher was able to confirm that the participation in a dlp, as well as living in a multicultural context, may be an experience that contributes to children’s cultural identity formation. their context and personal expressions as members of a society and as individuals aids in the formation of cultural identity. the participants shared different experiences in regard to their individuality and as members of a group. the children shaped their cultural identity by finding ways to get to know who they are and identify what makes them different from others in their immense cultural context. culture is something relevant and important for every child, and it has an important place in their lives. culture helps them bond with their families, and it also helps them value their uniqueness and individuality through a sense of pride. this enriching experience brings something special to their lives. the participants of this study switched their cultural language as a means of understanding their world and expressed their feelings and experiences as dual language learners while sharing who they are. cultural identity of children is in constant transformation. it is smooth, flexible, and solidified through their own reflections about their past experiences. it represents opportunities, as well as complex situations and cultural and social roles that relate to different behaviors, which combine with their unique identity. it is a fact that the cultural identity of children is still in progress. furthermore, children are incredibly active when they feel valued and their ideas are heard. they are constantly exploring and shaping their cultural identity in school settings and beyond. the acquisition of a second language, no matter the type of bilingual program chosen, is beneficial for individuals. in this case, it is particularly beneficial for children because they not only have the chance to become literate in a different language, but they can also recognize and value the diversity of cultures, especially the native one. children’s cultural identity formation rodríguez-tamayo & tenjo-macias no. 18 (january june 2019) no. 18 (january june 2019) 102 a dual language program gives learners the opportunity to be native language models to others in the same classroom. in addition, dlps allow native cultures to be shared, which results in the chance of encouraging the native language and culture. this is done while learning a second language and valuing a different culture. when teaching a second language, it is not valid to think that it just implies the transmission of linguistic knowledge about that second language. the language, as part of the culture and a key aspect in a person’s identity, plays an important role in keeping and reinforcing native languages. that is why it is important to have curriculums which embrace the cultural heritage of its students. with this study, it was evident that the students integrated new languages (english/spanish) with a positive attitude. they learned and interacted with new cultures, but they also maintained the native culture. participation in a dlp is a great opportunity for learners to acquire a second language and interact with different cultures. in addition, experiences like receiving others’ influence, living situations as determiners of language switch, and using two languages as a key aspect in self-esteem can be labeled as those which contribute to children’s cultural identity formation. this research study illustrated a way to engage students in exploring and recognizing important features of their and their family’s culture. this could serve as an action plan for a general curriculum or classroom setting. again, this is just a possibility of many to recognize the importance of providing opportunities to explore culture within the classroom and to engage children in their own cultural identity formation. this includes encouraging parents and teachers to support children in this process. sometimes, in a rush to prepare lesson plans or to accomplish the curriculum for classes, teachers forget that other aspects are valuable for their students. to conclude, this might be a fun and solid foundation where children can build their values, beliefs, and knowledge. children’s cultural identity formation rodríguez-tamayo & tenjo-macias no. 18 (january june 2019) no. 18 (january june 2019) 103 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(2008). basics of qualitative research. grounded theory: techniques and procedures for developing grounded theory. thousand oaks, ca: sage publications, inc. welsh language board. (1999). the welsh language: a vision and mission for 2000-2005. cardiff: welsh language board. children’s cultural identity formation rodríguez-tamayo & tenjo-macias no. 18 (january june 2019) no. 18 (january june 2019) http://scholarworks.uni.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1158&context=hpt http://scholarworks.uni.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1158&context=hpt https://doi.org/10.1177%2f003172171009100811 https://doi.org/10.1177%2f003172171009100811 106 authors *ilba yaneth rodríguez-tamayo holds an m.a in applied linguistics to the teaching of english, from uptcuniversidad distrital francisco josé de caldas. she is a professor for the modern languages program uptc, and the secretary of the academic board in the same institution. she is a member of ambientes virtuales educativos research group. orcid: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5220-5951 lina maria tenjo-macias holds a bachelor’s degree in foreign language spanish-english education, from universidad pedagógica y tecnológica de colombiauptc, colombia. she has an associate’s degree in liberal arts and sciences, general studies and humanities from the northern virginia community college in the us. since 2011, ms. tenjo has been working in the field of language acquisition, particularly focusing on dual language/immersion education. lina tenjo holds a teacher’s license in spanish as foreign language (spanish k-12) in virginia, usa. she was nominated by her colleagues as the support employee of the year in 2015 as an instructional assistant in an immersion program. in 2018, she was nominated again as the teacher of the year. she’s currently working toward an m.a degree in bilingual education and curriculum. lina tenjo has long been an advocate for community service, and currently works with the red cross to provide bilingual education and hands-on instruction for smoke alarms and general safety. orcid: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0793-5709 children’s cultural identity formation rodríguez-tamayo & tenjo-macias no. 18 (january june 2019) no. 18 (january june 2019) https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5220-5951 https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0793-5709 107 appendix appendix 1: parent survey (some questions were selected to be part of this article) 1. is a language other than english spoken in your home? yes no what is that language? 2. is your child’s native tongue a language other than english? yes no what is that language? 3. what language do you speak most of the time? 4. what language does your child speak most of the time? 5. why did you choose to enroll your child in the dual language program? 6. has the dual language program met your expectations for your child’s learning? yes no 7. in what ways are you involved in your child’s education at school (volunteering in class, joining him/her for lunch, etc.)? 8. has your knowledge of different cultures increased through your child’s participation in this language program? 9. do you feel like other unique cultures are appreciated and valued at your child’s school? yes no if so, in what ways? how is it demonstrated? children’s cultural identity formation rodríguez-tamayo & tenjo-macias no. 18 (january june 2019) no. 18 (january june 2019) 108 appendix 2: students’ questionnaire (some questions were selected to be part of this article) what language do you mainly speak at home? what language do you mainly speak at school? in what language do you speak most often during recess? in what language do you speak more fluently? what language do you speak when spending time with friends outside of school? when spending time with your spanish/english bilingual friends outside of school, which language do you typically use? with whom do you use spanish? (bubble in all that apply) at home, with your parents, brothers, or sisters, how often do you speak in spanish and english? how comfortable do you feel speaking spanish in public? how comfortable do you feel speaking english in public? appendix 3: focus group session (fgs) the purpose of developing these activities within the focus group sessions is to give the participants a space where they can explore different aspects of “culture” (language, traditions, values, and beliefs). finally, i conclude the sessions with the topic “cultural identity”. through these workshops, students reflect upon culture, both individually and as a group. the children think and talk about what the word culture means to each of them. my assistance is very little. for example, i introduce the topics, such as “traditions”, give some examples, use visual cards, and work as a facilitator. i ask questions related to the topic and give them the chance to provide their perceptions. these activities were designed to motivate the children to create their own ideas of culture, to recognize it, and relate with it. students returned their worksheets during the same session or the next day of the session. the topics selected to work on the focus group sessions were: all about me, how are we alike? my family tree, my winter holiday scrapbook, designing my own flag, my cultural identity. children’s cultural identity formation no. 18 (january june 2019) no. 18 (january june 2019) _hlk517687097 _hlk7516758 _hlk8801090 _gjdgxs _30j0zll _hlk8802317 _hlk8626559 _hlk8802656 _hlk519969894 _hlk9576345 _hlk9575766 _hlk526623052 _hlk526623433 _hlk6142970 _goback _goback _goback an exploratory study of recent trends in elt master’s programs: insights from stakeholders1 un estudio exploratorio de las recientes tendencias en el programa de maestría de enseñanza de inglés margarita lópez, odilia ramírez-contreras, and luisa fernanda vargas-orozco2* universidad de caldas, escuela normal superior sagrado corazón, colombia 1 received: january 26th 2020/ accepte: february 20th 2021 2 margarita.lopez@ucaldas.edu.co; odiliaramirez@hotmail.com; luisafer3298@hotmail.com gist education and learning research journal. issn 1692-5777. no. 22 (january june, 2021). pp. 21-50. 22 no. 22 abstract this article reports on a mixed-methods research study in five english language teaching master’s programs in colombia. the purpose was to identify trends in research techniques, curricular and pedagogical interventions that ma candidates and alumni dealt with in their theses. this study identified prevalent research methods, techniques, and instruments. the data collection methods included documentary analysis, four focus groups with students, four informal talks with the faculty, four interviews with the coordinators of the programs, and surveys with graduate students, professors, thesis advisors and administrators of these programs. results suggest preference for action research on issues of language skills, curriculum design, cognitive and affective factors. pedagogical innovations dealt with ict, elt methods, and language learning strategies. another result indicates that program participants considered the master’s programs as the most enriching professional development opportunity they have had. this study makes a call to local and national governments to continue funding continued graduate education and to make it a policy independent of partisan agendas. keywords: english language teaching, research, masters, teacher qualification, professional training. resumen este artículo reporta un estudio de métodos mixtos en cinco programas de maestría en enseñanza del inglés en colombia. el propósito del proyecto fue identificar tendencias en los métodos de investigación y en las estrategias de intervención que los candidatos y exalumnos de programas de maestría abordaron en sus proyectos de investigación. este estudio identificó los métodos, técnicas e instrumentos de investigación prevalentes. los métodos de recolección de datos incluyeron análisis documental, grupos focales, charlas informales, entrevistas y encuestas a estudiantes, profesores, asesores de tesis y administradores de estos programas. los resultados indican que en la mayoría de los programas el objeto de estudio elegido por el cuerpo estudiantil de ma tiene que ver con las habilidades de lenguaje, la motivación y el diseño curricular. los resultados sugieren que los programas aplican la investigación cualitativa, especialmente la investigación-acción. el estudio también encontró que estos se concentraban en preguntas sobre factores afectivos, habilidades lingüísticas y desarrollo profesional. otro resultado indicó que los estudiantes y exalumnos describieron su participación en el programa de ma como la oportunidad de desarrollo profesional más enriquecedora en su experiencia académica. este estudio hace un llamado al gobierno local y nacional para continuar invirtiendo en educación superior continuada al nivel de postgrado para convertirla en una iniciativa educativa con independencia de presiones políticas. palabras clave: la enseñanza del inglés, investigación, maestrías, cualificación docente, desarrollo profesional trends in elt masters’ programs lópez, ramírez & vargas 23 no. 22 english language teaching (elt) master’s in colombia arose from the needs of the educational sector to respond to the demands of social and economic development. this explains why from 2000 to 2016 the number of elt masters increased from two to 14 (viáfara & largo, 2018). for these authors, “ma graduates and candidates asserted that increasing of conceptual frameworks supported different features of their practices as they gained clarity about the teaching and learning processes and re-shaped their pedagogical actions” (p. 110). our study is an exploration of the research work done at this level to contribute to the understanding of the developments in elt in colombia and advocates for backing graduate programs. the colombian government has recognized that the country requires “to develop the capacity of its citizens to be fluent in at least one foreign language” (men, 2005, para. 1); moreover, the results have shown that high school and undergraduate students still present deficiencies in english language proficiency after several years of exposure to it in classrooms. accordingly, this mixed-methods study was intended to determine what candidates and graduates have been researching about to change this situation, considering that no valid or systematic information is available about the findings and the impact of such projects in their corresponding settings. this paper reports on the research topics and designs and the most impacted areas informed by candidates and alumni from five elt master’s programs in colombia. literature review in this section, we made three assumptions: a) ma programs represent one of the most important sources of professional development (villegas-reimers, 2003; truscott de mejía, 2016; viáfara & largo, 2018; buendía & macías, 2019), b) reflection is a sine qua non condition in continued teacher education (hernández, 2015; viáfara & largo, 2018; nuñez & tellez, 2015), and c) curriculum design and implementation is the materialization of teaching initiatives and skills that translate in enhanced teaching practices (graves, 2000; nunan,1999). master’s programs and professional development (pd) when pursuing teaching education programs, different authors have suggested different types and models. de lella (as cited in fandiño-parra, 2017) mentions that the different models articulate viewpoints on education, teaching, learning and teacher training while describing the strategies and interactions that affect them. he believes that these models coincide and complement each other. they include the tasks and obligations assigned to the teacher. the author refers to four models in teacher training: trends in elt masters’ programs lópez, ramírez & vargas 24 no. 22 (1) the practical-artisan model which sees the teaching process as the transmission of professional knowledge throughout a process of adaptation; this model takes into consideration concepts, habits, values and practices; (2) the academic model which includes the competencies needed to teach the subject matter focusing on the discipline itself; (3) the technical-efficientist model that addresses teaching through speeches and practices, following an established curriculum to accomplish some objectives and to assess the students’ performance; and finally, (4) the hermeneutic-reflective model that assumes teaching in a socio-political context in which the teacher takes into account specific circumstances related to real life situations in order to reflect, analyze and transform or improve the reality. on the other hand, acosta et al. (as cited in fandiño-parra, 2017) sustains that teacher professional development programs can be placed in three basic models considering an epistemological and methodological basis; first, the positivist, behaviorist and orthodox model according to which the teacher acts as an instructor, he implements different techniques and strategies, refers to a variety of methodologies and pedagogical issues. second, the humanist, constructivist and existentialist model that conceives the teacher a counselor that refers to different procedures, activities and tools to guide the students in their learning, taking into account their feelings and thoughts from a psychological point of view. third, the integral and dialogic model that approaches the teaching from a psycho-pedagogical perspective to a cognitive, socio-affective, and communicative orientation in the teaching-learning process in which both teachers and students work cooperatively towards the achievement of goals. teacher education at the graduate level is considered one of the most important achievements in the professional development (pd) of efl teachers around the world. according to villegas-reimers (2003); “pd, in a broad sense, refers to the development of a person in his or her professional role” (p. 11). this has become a concern for efl teachers who have seen the necessity to improve and reflect on their knowledge and practices. as pettis (1997) points out, “development of teaching competence is our professional responsibility, and we can undertake a wide range of activities in fulfillment of this obligation” (p. 70). these activities integrate principles, knowledge, and skills. not only teachers but also the different educational entities are aware of the value of seeing english teachers as professionals. for ur (2002), “thriving english teachers’ organizations now exist in most countries, as do journals and regular seminars and conferences; professional bodies have set up courses and tests to accredit teachers” (p. 392), in other words, graduate studies have become part of the efl culture because teachers are now more aware of their importance of preparation to respond to the needs of their schools. nowadays, educational communities offer resources to boost english language teaching, for example, “there are courses to take, journals to read, colleagues to talk with and observe, classroom research to conduct, textbooks to review, and workshops to attend” (crandall as cited in pettis, 2002, p. 70). trends in elt masters’ programs lópez, ramírez & vargas 25 no. 22 in addition, masters in elt have been recognized as an important pd resource (stapleton & shao, 2018; hasrati & tavakoli, 2014; folse & brummett, 2006). this is also highlighted by truscott de mejía (2016), who examined teacher education for efl teachers in bilingual contexts in colombia and discussed how pd is a way to empower teachers to face their classroom challenges. her article cites a case study by guzmán et al. (as cited in de mejía, 2016), with four teachers in two cities in colombia and found that master’s programs develop empowering attitudes among teachers who become more aware of the contributions they can make in their settings through their initiative of sharing teaching experiences, materials or activities for their lessons, along with their interest in curriculum issues that they can intervene or change to meet the needs and expectations of their students and fellow teachers. on this subject, truscott de mejía describes these attitudes as “commitment, enthusiasm, reflection and respect for students and colleagues” (p. 27). pd in colombia is also discussed by buendía and macías (2019) who conducted a literature review on 25 empirical studies with in-service teachers. pd was characterized keeping in mind that their definition of the term comprised “all types of professional learning undertaken by in-service english language teachers beyond the point of initial formal teacher preparation” (p. 90). the study revealed that pd focused on “language proficiency, research skills and reflective practice, teachers’ beliefs and identities, an integrated approach to teacher professional development, pedagogical skills, teaching approaches, and emerging technologies” (p. 91). this means that various areas in efl teaching have been addressed; the authors concluded that pd has evolved to more critical models “in which basic aspects such as the design criteria for pd programs, teachers’ roles, and teachers’ ways of learning, have been redefined” (p. 99). they tend to recommend a bottom-up approach in planning and implementing a pd program to integrate teachers’ needs, styles, and expectations. this perspective is consistent with giraldo (2014) who identified three main areas impacted by pd: teachers’ performance, teachers’ awareness of their own teaching and classroom performance, and positive view of pd as a reason for improvement. along these lines, cuesta et al. (2019) conducted a study with 23 efl teachers enrolled in an elt master’s program to explore the teaching practices. these authors point how pd has “evolved from being merely involved in courses or programs provided by experts with no further or systematic follow-up, reflection, and intervention phases, to being provided within the teachers’ own educational contexts” (p. 43), that is, pd started to take into account teachers’ reality in its design and implementation and recognized a more active role in the attempt to change practices with more informed strategies. the role of reflection in teachers’ practice reflection, as part of the skills teachers need to develop in their practice, has arisen as an important aspect in teacher education research (cuesta et al., 2019; hernández, trends in elt masters’ programs lópez, ramírez & vargas 26 no. 22 2015). a recent survey by viáfara and largo (2018) with 80 ma candidates and graduates from five universities collected their perceptions on the impact of such experience on their teaching. findings suggested that the master’s significantly contributed to the improvement of teaching, attributable to reflection processes while in action, which led to a better understanding of their settings, innovation in the lesson design, and acquisition of research skills. they identified limitations due to the lack of time, space, resources, and support from administrators or co-workers. these authors suggest that programs “need to create and strengthen alliances with the participants’ working institutions” because “these associations can become avenues to bridge gaps between traditional and innovative plans and practices in both scenarios” (p. 116). the researchers also concluded that there is a need for the expansion of the programs’ curricula “to go beyond teaching strategies and related research to include more issues regarding language education policy and program administration” (p. 117). by the same token, macias (2018) discusses the importance of reflection in elt highlighting the fact that most teacher-education initiatives in several countries, focus either on disciplinary knowledge, or its pedagogical and methodological principles or on reflective research skills without “integrating all these aspects in their schemes for teachers’ training and professional development” (p. 163). therefore, there should be a balance “in order to provide teachers with opportunities for the training of discrete teaching classroom skills together with chances to develop high inference, reflective and reasoning skills derived from theoretical foundations and teachers’ experiences” (p. 167). the balance helps teachers play a more active role with informed professional performance in teaching, supervision, mentoring, administration, and policy-making. regarding reflection in teacher education programs, korthagen, loughran, and russell (as cited in rideout & koot, 2009) describe some principles that can be taken into account in order to promote reflection in the pre and in-service teachers; they are meaningful collaboration, supporting learning and teaching communities, the presence of cohort groups to support the teaching practice, and writing tasks and research. these principles help improve the teaching and learning practices by forming teaching communities which facilitate professional growth because by doing writing tasks and by conducting research, teachers develop self-reflection and therefore enhance their teaching practices. calderhead and gates (as cited in fandiño-parra, 2011) highlight the importance of reflection in teacher education indicating that it involves teachers’ values, attitudes, beliefs, and cognitive skills that are concretized in the building of knowledge represented in vocabulary to report and record the teaching practice, on the basis of theoretical foundations that are connected to experience and context. the same authors recommend varied actions to foster reflection in teaching education programs, for example, promoting analytical approaches towards teaching and learning, encouraging teachers to take responsibility and be autonomous in their own practice, enhancing educational theories, and developing principled basis for classwork. trends in elt masters’ programs lópez, ramírez & vargas 27 no. 22 the role of curriculum design as part of curriculum design and implementation, language teaching comprises different approaches that define the teaching practice; barahona (2014) theorizes three main models: first, the craft model that sees teaching as doing and learning by imitating the teacher, that is, knowledge is acquired as a result of observation, instruction and practice; second, the applied science model in which teaching is carried out by thinking and doing and the learning to teach is the application of the theory learnt; finally, the reflective model that conceives teaching as knowing what do, so teachers learn to teach by reflecting on their own practice. moreover, barahona states that “efl contexts seem to use more integrative models in which different types of knowledge is integrated through the curriculum” (p. 48); the author specifically refers to models intended to integrate theory and practice and transform teachers intellectually because these models promote reflection, social change, strategic thinking, and exploratory research. schools have implemented curriculum innovations which master’s program graduates need to be aware of. curriculum design has progressed and since needs vary, “when you design a course, you design it for a specific group of people, in a specific setting, for a specific amount of time; in short, for a specific context” (graves, 2000, p.15). the same author claims that since there are several models of curriculum, designing courses must assume objectives based on the following aspects: defining content, people’s needs, physical environment, nature of course and institution, time, and teaching tools. likewise, contexts have a variety of features that allow teachers to start at any point and to reflect on the fact that there is no sequence in their accomplishment. this claim aligns with nunan (1994) who states that curriculum development is cyclical and interactive for it begins with any element and changes through its development, depending on the needs and expectations of the stakeholders, their contexts, their proficiency level, their teaching-learning conditions, and most importantly, the communication purposes to be promoted. an example of curriculum design and implementation in colombia is the one proposed by the ministry of education (men, 2005, 2016b and 2016c) whose purpose is to set guidelines and standards to make citizens more competitive in the globalized world (bonilla & tejada, 2016). to operationalize the theory behind this curricular project, men (2006) define the term bilingualism as “the different degrees of fluency with which an individual is able to communicate in more than one language and culture. these degrees depend on the context with which each person copes” (p.5). however, this definition has been challenged because english is not necessarily “the only language that might open the doorway to success and economic empowerment” (fandiño-parra et al. as cited in bonilla & tejada, 2016, p. 189). moreover, valdés and figueroa (1994) define bilingualism as “the condition of ‘knowing’ two languages rather than one. […] a strict interpretation of the expression would require that one trends in elt masters’ programs lópez, ramírez & vargas 28 no. 22 view of bilingualism as a condition in which there are two ‘native’ language systems in one individual” (p. 7); this implies that being bilingual makes a person function as a native speaker in both languages. the authors clarify that the knowing condition implies the presence of two languages no matter the degree of knowledge and also define bilingualism as “a common human condition in which an individual possesses more than one language competence” (p. 8). gass and selinker (2008) ratify this perspective and define as bilingual a person “whose language is in a steady state and who has learned and now knows two languages” (p. 25). the notions of bilingualism and curriculum design are and should continue being, problematized in teacher education as well as in the schools themselves. methodology the purpose of our study was to identify and describe trends in the research processes of five master’s programs in colombia. to accomplish this goal, a mixedmethods design (creswell, 2009) helped us collect quantitative and qualitative data concurrently and then compare the data to determine if there is convergence, differences, or some combination. we engaged in data collection and analysis that intertwined qualitative and quantitative data to understand the issues addressed “to obtain different but complementary data on the same topic” (morse as cited in creswell & plano, 2018, p. 68). the participants were 28 professors, 79 students, 31 graduates, 12 advisors, and 5 administrators from five master’s in colombia located in barranquilla, bogotá, and manizales. they belonged to four universities, two private (barranquilla and bogotá) and two public (bogotá and manizales). they were chosen on a convenience sampling basis (cozby, 2008) considering the following criteria: 1) be available and have the consent of the program administration; 2) be older than five years with the expectation of having already graduated more than one cohort and have on-going research projects; 3) the program was delivered fully in english; 4) emphasize elt in the curriculum, and 5) include a research component in the curricula. the participating programs are summarized in table 1 below: trends in elt masters’ programs lópez, ramírez & vargas 29 no. 22 table 1. master’s programs participating in the research study master’s program universities cities master’s in english language teachingautonomous learning environments university 1 bogota master’s in english language teaching for selfdirected learning (online) university 1 bogota master’s in applied linguistics to english language teaching university 2 bogota master’s of english language teaching university 3 barranquilla master’s in english didactics university 4 manizales the participating universities focused on efl teaching with a research orientation. the first university in bogotá offers an ma in elt emphasizing autonomous learning environments and an m.a. in elt emphasizing self-directed learning. the first program promotes reflection in practice and autonomous learning environments and is given on an on-site basis; it also offers an icelt certificate issued by the university of cambridge. the other is online in agreement with a u.s. university and shares the same principles concerning autonomy and reflective teaching with an additional graduate diploma in teaching english to speakers of other languages (tesol). the second university in bogotá offers an ma in applied linguistics to the teaching of english that proposes theories and methodologies to design curricula and materials to respond to the efl teaching and learning needs in schools and universities. it also involves in-service language teachers in professional development and assists the ministry of education in policy-making decisions and adjustments. the third university in barranquilla offers an ma in elt whose objective is to instruct teachers in the research field to solve teaching-learning problems of their contexts. it follows a blended learning approach. the fourth university, in manizales offers an ma in english didactics emphasizing critical and reflective pedagogy. the data collection included documentary analysis with demographic (location, population, age, gender) and curriculum information of each program which was collected via the internet in the websites of the programs and complemented with interviews with administrators; the researchers carried out focus groups and informal talks with professors, research tutors, students and graduates to capture their views on their research experience; these focus groups were conducted in situ through face to face meetings arranged by the administrators according to the profile of the participants. all the participant master students and alumni took a survey (appendix 1) about their research problems, data collection techniques, strategies of intervention, trends in elt masters’ programs lópez, ramírez & vargas 30 no. 22 research method, and their perceptions about the impact of their research projects on their settings and personal or professional life. in interviews (appendix 2), five administrators gave their perceptions of the research component of their programs and its impact on their contexts. the information was analyzed on a grounded approach (freeman, 2001) basis with inter-rater reliability procedures and data triangulation (creswell, 2009). since surveys were completed both online (quia©) and pencil and paper, the researchers decided to upload all the survey answers to the quia platform; for the other data collection techniques, audio-recordings were transcribed and protocols were completed while interacting with the participants. once all the information was systematized, the three researchers coded independently the data from the surveys, the focus groups, the informal talks, and the interviews; then, as part of the triangulation process, raters agreed on the final codes that were identified in the three different views explored in the data collection (students and alumni, professors and research advisors, and administrators). results and discussion this section discusses the general findings obtained from the analysis that answered the following research questions: what type of research techniques, curricular and pedagogical interventions have been implemented in five master’s programs (mp) in colombia? what are the main areas of reflection and intervention identified in the efl teaching and learning processes researched by candidates in such settings? and which are the main areas impacted by mp as professional development? action research prevailed consistent with the principles stated by the master’s, the most common research methods corresponded to qualitative designs, being action research (kemmis & mctaggart, 1984) the most used (figure 1). the majority of the participants, especially administrators, highlighted the benefits of action research in terms of flexibility to adapt instrumentation and processes to settings and the reflective component that encourages teachers to self-evaluate their practice. in the second place, case studies (creswell, 2009) appeared as common designs that helped participants focus on a very specific unit of research to draw conclusions about class phenomena. trends in elt masters’ programs lópez, ramírez & vargas 31 no. 22 figure 1. preferred research methods in five colombian elt master’s programs respondents highlighted their interest in following up very specific learning situations considering that in most places, large classes make research challenging. mixed methods arose as a current trend in which teachers had the opportunity to combine qualitative and quantitative techniques and instruments to foster validity and reliability in their studies; this method seems to be a trend since respondents referred to it as a practical way to combine varied techniques and instruments to enrich data collection and analysis. less common methods were ethnography, descriptive research, survey research, and demographic research that were referred to as large studies that require longer periods of time and larger populations. research work focused on the four skills and motivation as figure 2 shows, the data analysis reported that participants’ research work focused on the language skills and the learners’ motivation towards the efl learning process. trends in elt masters’ programs lópez, ramírez & vargas 32 no. 22 figure 2. foci of research work in five colombian elt ma programs figure 2 shows that the learning of the speaking skill among the students that participated in the research projects carried out by the master’s candidates or graduates reported to be one the most problematic areas identified in the diagnostic stage of the research projects. furthermore, as confirmed by romaña (2015) and hymes (1972) who discuss the challenges that most teachers face when dealing with the speaking skill, the respondents said that this weakness was represented by the students’ reluctance to interact orally in spite of the authentic and meaningful input provided by teachers. the data showed that pronunciation, stress, and fluency were the weakest aspects identified in the learners’ speaking performance that prevented them from smoothly expressing themselves orally. the lack of motivation of the sample populations of the research projects conducted by the participants in this study appeared as the second most common problem in the institutional contexts intervened by candidates and graduates in these masters. this difficulty was referred to as lack of awareness of the importance of english for academic and social development since learners’ expectations do not include english as an opportunity, and they did not find it meaningful in their lives. in accordance with dornyei (1994), this factor was also related to low self-esteem, lack of enthusiasm, and reluctance to participate in the learning process, most of the time arguing that english is difficult or boring. problems with motivation were also linked to other academic or administrative issues; for example, respondents argued that the poor language proficiency background negatively affected the learners’ performance and consequently diminished their disposition to actively participate in pedagogical tasks. additionally, the lack of resources, the limited time devoted to foreign language learning, and traditional teaching practices also reduced the learners’ level of motivation since language learning turned monotonous and unattractive. trends in elt masters’ programs lópez, ramírez & vargas 33 no. 22 reading and writing arose as the third most relevant trend in the research process; it was evident that in most schools these skills are not given much emphasis. the teacherresearchers said that most students referred to reading and writing as important skills; some of their testimonies stated that: reading is an important skill that helps to develop the other language skills. thus, students have improved their english and they will get better results in the saber 11 test. (ma alumnus) learning how to use the [reading] strategies allowed them to succeed in other subjects such as social studies, science and spanish, where reading is important. (ma student) writing is important because learners increased their confidence on writing; secondly, learners improved on the use of writing strategies, and third, the writing process approach also positively impacted learners’ writing aspects of form. (ma alumnus) this finding confirmed theories by grabe (1995) and richards and renandya (2002) about the need to develop reading skills among learners with strategies to help them interact with the written text. according to some of the high school teachers’ comments, weaknesses in this skill were due to the lack of reading preparation and practice in elementary school levels and to the curriculum gaps that did not consider reading relevant in the educational system. they also highlighted that these weaknesses in reading were also reflected in l1 performance which, in some way, explained the learners’ reluctance towards reading and their lack of reading habits. reading problems were also related to the lack of vocabulary and the absence of strategies or techniques to interpret the text which led to poor results in standardized tests, that is, learners were not able to go beyond literal reading failing to infer or argument the content of a written text. as of writing, respondents reported weaknesses stemming from the absence of a defined writing process approach (polio, 2003; harmer, 2011); reasons mentioned dealt with weaknesses related to the inability to follow instructions or to the absence of strategies or techniques to connect ideas in a written discourse with correct punctuation, cohesion, and coherence. l1 transfer was also one of the factors that affected this skill since learners tended to write in english with spanish grammar and syntax; it was also noticed that learners only copied from a source without incorporating their own production or their opinions about their surrounding reality; the internet was also mentioned as a negative factor that limited the learners’ creativity; additionally, writing was described as time-consuming turning it difficult for teachers to make it fit the curriculum demands in terms of time allotted for the english classes. trends in elt masters’ programs lópez, ramírez & vargas 34 no. 22 in the fourth place of the statistical analysis of the data shown in figure 2 appeared vocabulary, curriculum design, materials development, and traditional methodology as areas of concern. most participants explained that the lack of vocabulary determined to a significant extent the weaknesses in reading, writing, speaking, and listening, as discussed by richards and renandya (2002) and hunt and beglar (2002). additionally, they suggested that vocabulary weaknesses stem from the lack of resources like visual aids, technological devices or didactic materials to enhance the learning and acquisition of new lexicon; the lack of vocabulary was also mentioned to explain the limitations learners displayed when trying to express themselves for which they always used basic sentences with only a few words or expressions. in the same token, problems with curriculum design were also mentioned because respondents perceived that the lack of organized curricula in their working places made teaching and learning difficult, due to the fact that the absence of clear goals, content, and evaluation criteria along with the lack of enforcement of educational policies about bilingualism represented a problematic factor in their teaching practice as suggested by graves (2010). consistent with richards and schmidt (2010), the data also reported problems with materials development linked to traditional methodology; according to most of the respondents, the lack of resources forced teachers to work under the grammar-translation method as the easiest way to have the students rehearse language forms. this weakness represented a factor affecting negatively the learning environment making it turn boring, monotonous, and unpleasant; respondents also stated that this lack of resources made teachers spend valuable time in designing their own materials preventing them from working on more relevant aspects of the teaching practice like curriculum, evaluation or planning. although at a lower level in the fifth place of the data analysis, listening and affective factors were also identified as trendy issues in the researched settings; the data showed that listening was probably the least practiced skill because of the high levels of anxiety and frustration that it generated among learners. it was found that teachers preferred traditional classes with written exercises not to make learners feel frustrated or complain about their failure to comprehend spoken language, ratifying what was theorized by nunan (2002). additionally, respondents mentioned that there was a need to take advantage of modern media (music, the internet, television, movies) to involve learners in listening tasks to help them improve their language competence. as of negative affective factors, teachers, students and alumni mentioned lack of confidence, anxiety, fear to speak, low self-esteem, and failure to risk-taking as the most common indicators of negative feelings and emotional distress that learners experienced when not able to perform appropriately in l2. findings confirm what brown (2004) mentions about the importance of providing learners with a smooth learning atmosphere when learning a language. participants stated that much needed to be done about the affective domain in language learning, especially to provide learners with enough confidence to trust their own learning and interact with teachers and peers to overcome their language difficulties. trends in elt masters’ programs lópez, ramírez & vargas 35 no. 22 project implementation concentrated on ict, language learning strategies and methods the findings of this study show that every program comprised a variety of strategies of intervention to respond to the trends described above. figure 3 shows that one of the most common ones was the implementation of information and communication technologies (ict) corresponding to 18% of the whole data analysis. this finding aligns with davies’ (2006) statement that maintained that with the use of ict researchers intended to impact language skills and even the affective domain, due to the attractive features for new generations. this type of interventions included the use of computers, pedagogical software, online tools, and even cell phones, as proposed by hollenbeck and hollenbeck (2004). figure 3. pedagogical interventions in five elt ma programs in colombia equally important, figure 3 shows that the use of teaching approaches was common to all programs in the search for variety in the implementation of tasks and for autonomy, collaboration, teamwork or cooperation; the most used approaches mentioned by the respondents were task-based instruction (nunan, 1999), metacognitive strategies, reading strategies, content-based instruction, the writing process model, cooperative learning (nunan, 1999), and project-based learning (coombee et al., 2013). concerning content in class, it was also common to find approaches intended to adapt the lessons to the contextual needs of the learners, so content-based and theme-based approaches (richards & rodgers, 2014; richards & renandya, 2002) were frequently mentioned as the strategies of intervention to improve language skills, especially reading. genre-based was one of the most used approaches in one of the trends in elt masters’ programs lópez, ramírez & vargas 36 no. 22 programs where the focus was on language use and content, probably because genre was a line of research. pedagogical interventions addressed affective and cognitive factors. the findings of this study coming from the statistical analysis showed that as a result of the interventions, affective factors prevailed, especially the development of affective factors with 14% of the data analysis as shown in figure 4 which was related to the reduction of reluctance to learn, and the increase of learning awareness. most respondents claimed that their findings referred to the affective domain and they displayed high levels of satisfaction having changed the learners’ attitudes towards the l2 learning process. candidates and graduates reported that students became motivated to learn and advance in their language proficiency. on the other hand, improvement in language skills was also reported, namely speaking with 11%, reading with 9%, writing with 7%, and listening 4% of the whole data analysis concerning the most impacted areas in project implementation. this improvement was described as better performance in language tasks such as oral presentations, role-plays, paragraph composition, reading and listening comprehension activities, and standard tests. figure 4. most impacted areas in project implementation trends in elt masters’ programs lópez, ramírez & vargas 37 no. 22 master’s candidates and alumni reported that their students obtained better results in their learning goals attributable to the pedagogical innovations they proposed. these areas also showed positive changes in autonomy development, inclusion of special needs students, social skills development, and language contextualization. additionally, the researchers found that school curricula are influenced by the suggested curricula of the ministry of education (2016b and 2016c). the ma contributed to professional growth finally, the respondents emphasized on their own professional development which was characterized as one of the most important contributions of the master’s; in fact, they perceived it as their most enriching professional development opportunity. moreover, the participants agreed that being part of such experience represented professional growth that translated in critical and reflective teaching skills, confirming what is discussed by fandiño-parra (2011), macías (2018), cuesta et al. (2019), hernández (2015), viáfara and largo (2018), and rideout and koot (2009) who highlight the importance of reflection in such professional growth process; they also explained that this process involves the theory and practice they obtained in the implementation of their research projects with which they became more critical of their own practice and got to reflect on their own teaching to make informed decisions in the teachinglearning process. figure 5 summarizes the features of this characterization. trends in elt masters’ programs lópez, ramírez & vargas 38 no. 22 figure 5. contributions of elt master’s programs as professional development according to the analysis of the responses displayed in figure 5, the research process and the whole master’s made them grow professionally, become more reflective and more aware of their own teaching practice. their preparation at the graduate level helped them implement better strategies according to the students’ needs and also represented progress in their academic background, because they reported having studied multiple theories in efl to be able to design their lessons and provide their learners with improved learning experiences. respondents explained that their participation in the master’s also made them grow as researchers since they incorporated research procedures according to the method of their choice. they claimed they became more aware of the importance of data collection and analysis in their reflective practice. concerning their professional and personal profiles, we found that the participants reported that their research experience in the programs helped them get better jobs or promotions, apply to scholarships, gain academic recognition, become leaders in their settings, and most importantly, become better human beings, sensitive to their classroom expectations and social needs. this finding is relevant since there is a need for teachers to gain awareness of the necessity of educating our children to be good citizens, as directed by national policies in this matter (men, 2005, 2016b and 2016c). accordingly, regional and local authorities should allocate appropriate funds to support the continued preparation of teacher-researchers. trends in elt masters’ programs lópez, ramírez & vargas 39 no. 22 conclusions the five ma programs were found to be research-oriented in which the “focus is on developing students’ knowledge of and ability to carry out the research methodologies and methods appropriate to their discipline(s) or profession” (walkington, 2015, p. 9). the research component of the masters equips graduate students with the capabilities needed to identify, understand and explain problematic areas in their settings and to come up with practical solutions to meet their learners’ expectations, that is why we believe a research component should be part of teaching preparation programs at all levels (graduate and undergraduate). the data suggest that speaking, reading, writing, and vocabulary recognition are the most challenging aspects for language teachers and learners in colombia because they imply not only language knowledge but also control of affective factors such as self-confidence and motivation. these challenges can be overcome with research designs aiming at specific needs; it is important that educational systems promote research projects to help teachers and learners achieve higher competences and standards; moreover, teachers need to be encouraged to develop soft skills among the students, such as problem-solving, creative thinking, teamwork, decision-making and communication skills, among others, to facilitate language learning. graduate program administrators should continue strengthening research to promote reflection and achieve changes in teaching practices around the country. their agenda should imply the promotion of policies at the local, regional and national levels to improve conditions to conduct research. this involves constraints related to teaching, duty overload, size of classes, and even salary to motivate teachers to work at their full potential. as for methodological issues, the data suggest that in-service teachers rely on multiple pedagogical and curricular possibilities for the planning and adaptation of their classes (task-based, ict, project-based, and so on). on the other hand, national policies like the men (2016b and 2016c) suggested curricula influence the decisions of in-service teachers. administrators and policymakers should continue to promote language policies all over the country and to incorporate to them contextual factors to make them more realistic and closer to the interests and expectations of the learners. limitations in the availability of didactic materials and technology in some cases translate in traditional teaching practices. master’s graduates and students have shown with their projects that creativity and resourcefulness can overcome these traditional practices to involve learners in meaningful tasks. trends in elt masters’ programs lópez, ramírez & vargas 40 no. 22 curriculum design and development, including assessment and evaluation and professional development, correspond to one of the most important tools that teachers can use to innovate and update their contexts, so, masters’ programs are expected to prepare teachers as curriculum developers and teacher educators to make them be part of educational changes at the local, regional and national level in order to make them match kumaravadivelu’s (2012) proposal about the need to educate teachers for a globalized world in which not only knowledge but also culture, identity, context and self-reflection make up a teaching professional. research at the master’s level promotes changes and innovation concerning not only language skills but also culture in the classroom, cross-curriculum, classroom management, online teaching and learning, teaching special needs students, bilingualism, overall language learning, and social issues; the teacher-researchers in the five programs that participated in this study are good examples of contributors to social progress that policymakers need to continue to include in their action plans. although most research methods provide teachers with important tools to intervene and change their classrooms, action research represents the most valuable method for participants; in fact, it enabled them to reflect on their own practices and act to enhance them day after day. to conclude, it can be stated that the master’s programs represent one of the most enriching professional development opportunities for teachers; preparation at this level equips them with language tools, methodological and research resources and skills that translate into transformed practices and ways of thinking, that is why colombian teacher education programs should strengthen the research component of their curricula in order to provide master’s candidates with opportunities to investigate their settings and promote changes to respond realistically to learners’ needs and expectations, for example, areas such as the language skills, motivation, the use of ict and affective factors in language learning could continue to be explored. trends in elt masters’ programs lópez, ramírez & vargas 41 no. 22 references barahona, m. 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(2015). students as researchers: supporting undergraduate research in the disciplines in higher education. the higher education academy. trends in elt masters’ programs lópez, ramírez & vargas 45 no. 22 authors *margarita lópez-pinzón is currently the director in the master’s program in english didactics from universidad de caldas. she has extensive experience in teaching graduate and undergraduate courses and has been doing educational research for several years. she has shared her research findings in different events around the country and abroad. co-author of articles, books and academic papers related to qualitative research, professional development and classroom research in elt. orcid: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6755-3764 odilia ramirez contreras has been a research professor in the master’s in english didactics program in universidad de caldas and a public school principal in manizales for the last 10 years; she has extensive experience and interest in teacher education, mainly in the areas of efl teaching, language research and curriculum design and implementation. orcid: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8075-3381 luisa fernanda vargas orozco has been an english teacher in different public schools for nine years. she holds a ba in modern languages and a ma in english didactics from caldas university. she has been working in elt for more than ten years and has extensive experience in teaching english to children and teenagers orcid: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5853-8685 trends in elt masters’ programs lópez, ramírez & vargas 46 no. 22 appendix 1. survey to students and alumni title of study, instructions and the first section about demographic information intentionally omitted 9. ii. about your research project design. please answer or mark the options that best apply to you. indicate the topic of your research project: affective factors in the efl class autonomy bilingualism content-based instruction cross-curriculum culture curriculum design english learning process grammar information and communication technologies (ict) in the efl class listening literacy materials development methodology motivation online teaching / learning productive skills reading speaking teacher education / professional development teaching special needs students testing / evaluation / assessment vocabulary writing other 10. if other research topics in the previous question, please elaborate here: trends in elt masters’ programs lópez, ramírez & vargas 47 no. 22 11. check the context where you developed your research project: public school private school public university private university english institute other 12. if another context in the previous question, please elaborate here: 13. check the method of your research design: survey research experimental research quasi-experimental research case study ethnography action research mixed methods other 14. if another research method in the previous question, please elaborate here: 15. indicate the sample population you worked with in the research project: pre-school elementary school high school college students non-formal education students 16. check the size range your sample population corresponds to: 1 to 5 participants 10 to 20 participants 20 to 30 participants 30 to 40 participants more than 40 participants trends in elt masters’ programs lópez, ramírez & vargas 48 no. 22 17. choose the level of proficiency of your sample population before project implementation: a a1 a2 b1 b2 c1 18. indicate the data collection techniques and instruments used in the research project implementation: (more than one option allowed) anecdotal records checklists class reports diaries / journals documentary analysis focus groups interviews language elicitation measures life/career histories or narratives maps and displays observation forms oral communication schemes portfolios self-assessment forms stimulated recalls surveys transcriptions video/audio recordings other/s 19. if other instruments in the previous question, please list them here: trends in elt masters’ programs lópez, ramírez & vargas 49 no. 22 20. iii. about your research project implementation and results please answer the following questions taking into consideration your research implementation and results. check the areas of improvement (problems) that you identified in the diagnostic stage of your study: (more than one option available) affective factors cultural awareness curriculum design discipline efl methodology evaluation grammar l2 literacy language skills (listening) language skills (reading) language skills (speaking) language skills (writing) motivation resources and materials teaching special needs students vocabulary other 21. if other areas of improvement or problems in the previous question, please elaborate here. 22. please, describe in brief the technique, strategy or approach that you chose to intervene in the identified area of improvement 23. please, describe in brief the most outstanding findings of your research project 24. please, explain how your research project impacted your setting and contributed to the national goals established by the “colombia bilingüe” program. 25. add any additional comments about your project implementation and results. trends in elt masters’ programs lópez, ramírez & vargas appendix 2. interview to administrators administrators/directors interview rationale intentionally omitted guiding questions: 1. which curriculum policies guide the research component in your elt program? 2. what kind of methodology/method do you promote in the master’s’? why? 3. as an administrator, what are your main concerns, about the master students and graduates’ research experience in the program? 4. which are the main areas of improvement (research problems) commonly identified by your students and alumni in the diagnostic stage of the research projects? 5. what type of research procedure (methods, techniques, and instruments) are being used or were used by the students and alumni to intervene in the areas of improvement? 6. how did your alumni’s research projects’ findings have an impact on the teaching context or the national bilingual program? 50 no. 21 trends in elt masters’ programs how to reference this article: lopez-pinzon, m. m., ramirez-contreras, o., & vargas-orozco, l. f. (2021). an exploratory study of recent trends in elt master’s programs: insights from the stakeholders. gist – education and learning research journal, 22(1), 21-50. https://doi. org/10.26817/16925777.826 31 authentic assessment in listening comprehension project-based learning as a catalyst for students and teacher autonomy development: the experience in a state school in nilo, cundinamarca.1 el aprendizaje basados en proyectos como catalizador del desarrollo de la autonomía en los estudiantes y el profesor: la experiencia vivida en un colegio oficial en nilo, cundinamarca. jose fabián agudelo and adriana maría morales-vasco2* ied oreste sindici and universidad del tolima, colombia abstract this paper reports the findings of a graduation thesis which intended to identify the effects that project-based learning implementation had on the development of autonomy of a group of tenth grade english language learners and their teacher. in this action research study, several instruments were used. an initial questionnaire to confirm perceptions; a student’s attitude scale to assess how students worked, both individually and in small groups; small group conferencing, which enabled students to speak about their projects; a teacher-research journal with teacher’s reflections on the implementation and effectiveness of the action strategies; and students’ journals containing reflections on the different stages of the process. the data gathered showed that pbl work led to both learners and their teacher having more positive attitudes and behaviors towards their own academic activities and teaching practice, respectively. this methodology encouraged learners to become decision makers, to gain responsibility and confidence, and to raise awareness of their role in the classroom, while also promoting the development of several features of the teacher’s teaching style. thus, knowledge in the classroom was built cooperatively. key words: autonomous learning; teacher’s autonomy; awareness; decision makers; missions; project based learning; students’ attitude; responsibility; confidence; collaborative work. 1 received: april 18th 2018/ accepted: july 21st 2019 2 teachfab@gmail.com; ariadna38@gmail.com gist education and learning research journal. issn 1692-5777. no.19 (july december, 2019). pp. 31-48. no. 19 (july december 2019) no. 19 (july december 2019) 32 project-based learning for autonomy development agudelo & morales vasco resumen el presente trabajo da cuenta de los hallazgos surgidos de una investigación acción como proyecto de grado, cuyo objetivo era identificar los efectos de la implementación del modelo de trabajo por proyectos sobre el desarrollo de la autonomía de un grupo de estudiantes de inglés de grado décimo y su profesor. para tal efecto se utilizaron instrumentos como: un cuestionario de inicio, para confirmar percepciones previas; una escala actitudinal para medir el trabajo individual y grupal de los estudiantes; conferencias en pequeños grupos, para analizar el trabajo de los estudiantes en los diferentes proyectos; el diario del profesor, que contenía las reflexiones después de la observación del trabajo de los estudiantes y; el diario de los estudiantes, donde éstos consignaron sus impresiones después de cada proyecto desarrollado. el análisis de la información colectada arrojó evidencias claras sobre el desarrollo de actitudes y comportamientos positivos de los estudiantes participantes y el profesor-investigador frente a sus actividades académicas y su práctica pedagógica, respectivamente. los proyectos implementados alentaron a los aprendices en la toma autónoma de decisiones y en el acrecentamiento de su responsabilidad y su confianza. asimismo, los estudiantes, a través de su trabajo, exhortaron al profesor a mejorar su práctica pedagógica. en consecuencia, la construcción del conocimiento se convirtió en una labor hombro a hombro. palabras clave: aprendizaje autónomo; profesor autónomo; actitud de los estudiantes; conciencia; toma de decisiones; misiones; trabajo por proyectos; responsabilidad; confianza; trabajo colaborativo. resumo o presente trabalho da conta das descobertas surgidos de uma pesquisa ação como projeto de formatura, cujo objetivo era identificar os efeitos da implementação do modelo de trabalho por projetos sobre o desenvolvimento da autonomia de um grupo de estudantes de inglês de segundo ano do ensino médio e seu professor. para tal efeito se utilizaram instrumentos como: um questionário de inicio, para confirmar percepções prévias; uma escala atitudinal para medir o trabalho individual e grupal dos estudantes; conferências em pequenos grupos, para analisar o trabalho dos estudantes nos diferentes projetos; o diário do professor, que continha as reflexões depois da observação do trabalho dos estudantes e o diário dos estudantes, onde eles consignaram suas impressões depois de cada projeto desenvolvido. a análise da informação coletada evidenciou evidências claras sobre o desenvolvimento de atitudes e comportamentos positivos dos estudantes participantes e o professor-pesquisador diante de suas atividades acadêmicas e a sua prática pedagógica, respectivamente. os projetos implementados animaram os aprendizes na tomada autônoma de decisões e no acrescentamento da sua responsabilidade e sua confiança. da mesma forma, os estudantes, através do seu trabalho, exortaram o professor a melhorar a sua prática pedagógica. em consequência, a construção do conhecimento converteu-se em um trabalho ombro a ombro. palavras chave: aprendizagem autônoma; professor autônomo; atitude dos estudantes; consciência; tomada de decisões; missões; trabalho por projetos; responsabilidade; confiança; trabalho colaborativo. no. 19 (july december 2019) no. 19 (july december 2019) 33 project-based learning for autonomy development agudelo & morales vasco introduction the increasing importance of english in colombia has promoted not only new policies on english teaching but challenged the educational system and its participants to devise strategies to educate learners to achieve a certain level of proficiency in this language. however, teachers struggle with a diverse array of difficulties, including learners’ inabilities to develop interest in and motivation towards the study of a foreign language, coupled with a lack of self-confidence to understand and use such languages. the battle to fully engage students, who are often inattentive or easily distracted, in the learning activities, and the apparent lack of commitment to complete work outside the classroom are on top of the those that teacher’s face in every subject. as a result, this research study was designed to investigate possible teaching strategies that may overcome these barriers mentioned above that are hindering english proficiency across schools in colombia. following an analysis of the concept of autonomous learning, a more conscious perspective emerged: the two actors in the classroom, teacher and student, inevitably depend upon each other. through the project, students were given the opportunity to have a more active involvement and be more aware of their role in their own learning process. concurrently, the purpose was to encourage teacher(s) to identify strategies to improve their own teaching practice. the procedures explained below demonstrate attitudinal and practical changes in both the learners and the teacher. literature review the concept of project-based learning (pbl) is related to the constructivism principles that emerge from the pragmatic, cognitive, and social constructivism view evidenced in dewey’s philosophy (railsback, 2002). considering this, pbl recognizes aspects not only in regards to the nature of learning but its application to real life, and the possibility of improving learning by making it into an active process, with interacting and involvement of the surrounding environment. hence, through pbl students should be able to apply what they learn to everyday life scenarios and understand the possibility to improve by working with others. furthermore, it encourages students to be more engaged, due to the more challenging and complex nature of the work, and the interdisciplinary rather than a departmentalized focus (anderman & midgley, 1998; lumsden, 1994 in railsback, 2002). for this reason, the interaction between teacher, learner, and environment must be boosted. pbl enhances students’ motivation and increases responsibility in the learning process. as fried-booth (2002) states: “project work offers learners an opportunity to take a certain responsibility for their own learning, no. 19 (july december 2019) no. 19 (july december 2019) 34 project-based learning for autonomy development agudelo & morales vasco encouraging them to set their own objectives in terms of what they wanted and needed to learn.” (pg. 6) building on from this, stoller (2002), in a more detailed description, highlighted the importance of student focused approach: negotiation of students’ interests; attention to topics and content that students are interested in; student-centered instruction; integration of the four skills in lesson activities; preparation and presentation of a final product; and promotion of students’ autonomy in the learning process. therefore, it is important that the different stages of pbl can be developed and adapted according to the needs and requirements of the individual teachers and their students in diverse teaching and learning contexts. learner autonomy is seen as a key feature to promote learners’ awareness of the skills, learning styles, strategies and attitudes that influence their learning. for this reason, the concept of learner autonomy and its literature requires exploration. despite its importance, the concept of learner autonomy is difficult to define precisely (little, 2000). in fact, the discussion is still open as to whether it is considered a capacity or a behavior, with little (1991) defining autonomy as “a capacity for detachment, critical reflection, decision-making, and independence” (p.4), while holec (1981) states that learner autonomy is the ability to take charge of one’s own learning. furthermore, the interpretation of learner autonomy can differ from culture to culture and person to person due to differences in belief systems and perspectives. on their part, benson & voller’s (1997) idea is that autonomy is subject to the abilities and attitudes that people possess and, as a result, it can be developed in different ways to varying degrees. the literature on learning autonomy includes a wide range of contexts such as holistic, social, political, and even philosophical. benson (2007) suggests that the concept of autonomy can be applied to three distinct contexts, with a different definition in each; technical, political, and psychological. at the technical level, autonomy is concerned with the management, strategies, and techniques of learning, whereas at the political level, it is the ability to control the situational contexts of learning. and lastly, at the psychological level, the author defines autonomy as the inner capacity for self-direction or self-regulation of learning. in the same vein, nunan (1997) claims that encouraging learners to move towards autonomy is best done inside the classroom, by incorporating student focused content goals and learning processes. in order to achieve this, it is necessary to involve them in making choices and creating situations in which they are able to develop their own goals and learning strategies, from the literature on autonomy, the main features of the term that are repeatedly used, highlight the responsibility of a person to analyze the various possibilities in a no. 19 (july december 2019) no. 19 (july december 2019) 35 project-based learning for autonomy development agudelo & morales vasco situation, make informed and considered choices, and effect changes in one’s life and activities. teacher’s role teachers play a key role in promoting students’ autonomy; however, they must develop their own autonomy before being able to help learners with theirs. for some authors, teacher autonomy refers to “the teacher’s ability and willingness to help learners take responsibility for their own learning” (thavenius, in cotterall & crabbe,1999). according to this definition, teachers must reflect on their role and develop ways to adapt to the students’ new roles, in order to help them on their way to becoming autonomous and independent. there is a clear link between learner and teacher autonomy, although greater emphasis is placed on the former because it requires the latter to achieve it. to widen the concept of teacher autonomy, little (1995) explains that for teachers to be autonomous, they must develop a strong sense of personal responsibility for their teaching, through continuous reflection and analysis of their teaching, and affective and cognitive control of the teaching process. supporting this idea, tort-moloney (1997) refers to an autonomous teacher as “one who is aware of why, when, where, and how pedagogical skills can be acquired in the self-conscious awareness of teaching practice itself.”(p. 51) in addition, little (as cited in smith, 2001) established the connection between teacher and student autonomy when he remarked that “it is unreasonable to expect teachers to foster the growth of autonomy in their learners if they themselves do not know what it is to be an autonomous learner.” as a result, teachers may also need to address their own beliefs about teaching and the perspectives of learner autonomy. if not, as lamb and reinders (2008) claim, the teacher could, intentionally or unintentionally, constrain learner autonomy in the classroom leading to a lack of authenticity in learning. methodology this study followed a qualitative approach and was based on the principles of descriptive action research methodology. burns (2010), jhonson (2008), and allen and calhoun (1998) claim that action research provides educators an opportunity to reflect on their own practice and seek to identify and investigate problems in their own classrooms. problem statement the initial concern for the teacher in the english language classroom was that the participants in this study were habitually inattentive, got easily no. 19 (july december 2019) no. 19 (july december 2019) 36 project-based learning for autonomy development agudelo & morales vasco distracted, and frequently complained about the activities proposed by the teacher(s). students often expressed that they did not know enough english to be able to cope with the activities, and they were not confident enough to use the foreign language in class. through teachers’ meetings, the teacher-researcher realized that those attitudes and behaviors expressed by the students, were quite similar across subjects; with teachers from other disciplines referring to those particular students as “reckless, lazy, undisciplined, unpunctual, uncommitted, and unconscious of their life projects.” teachers believed the characteristics listed above showed a profound lack of autonomy in learners, and hence learning autonomy became the focus of this study. research questions consequently, the question to be answered in this study was: what happens to students’ autonomy and the teacher’s self-development in our tenth-grade classroom when we implement project work for the first time? sub questions • the question above was supported by the ones below: • what are the perceptions of students and teacher in regards to the implementation of project-based learning in the classroom? • what changes are revealed in the students’ autonomy after they get involved in project based learning? • what changes are evident in the teacher’s development following the implementation of projectbased learning? context and participants this action research project was carried out in a 10th grade efl cl ass, at a state primary and secondary school in nilo (cundinamarca, colombia), during four 55-minute classes. english instruction was focused on the development of the four language skills. the participants in this study were the teacher-researcher and 21 tenth grade students, 11 boys and 10 girls, whose native language is spanish. their ages ranged between 14 and 18 years old. almost 50 % of them lived in a rural community, and thus many lacked the resources for extra practice, such as libraries or computers, with very few having access to the internet. as they were all beginners, they had particular difficulty expressing their ideas by speaking or writing; however, they could read basic texts and understand elementary instructions given by the teacher. no. 19 (july december 2019) no. 19 (july december 2019) 37 project-based learning for autonomy development agudelo & morales vasco each of the projects or “missions”, as called by the teacher-researcher, comprised four aspects: planning, implementation, presentation of product, and evaluation. for the planning step, students shared their ideas about project topics, preferred methodology, resources, and evaluation procedures. the teacher collected all those ideas and opinions with no exception. regarding topics, 10th graders preferences focused on music, sports and fashion; they also showed predilection for culture, interviews, and gastronomy. after this preliminary exploration of interests and preferences, the teacher asked pupils to gather in groups (which were assigned according to students’ choices). thus, the teacher summarized information and encouraged learners to discuss and decide on plausible projects to be implemented in the english class. after small group discussions, the teacher asked the class to gather in groups, and they were assigned these projects: “a fashion show”, “around the world (knowing different cultures and countries)”, “interviewing a guest on t.v news”, “school news”, and “teaching others.” teacher’s recommendation for his tenth graders was to develop their first project by describing school to make it visible to the community. to accomplish this mission, students practiced the vocabulary, expressions, and grammar structures learnt during previous classes. teacher wanted his learners to be able to use language, so he encouraged them to tell the world about the place where they study through a video. mission: “to post a video presenting the place where i study and receive comments in english.” considering students’ previous decision, the teacher suggested a new project through which learners could develop topics they were interested in. “school news” seemed to collect not only topics of their preferences but helped to develop languages abilities proposed by the syllabus at the time it allowed pupils to learn by doing cooperatively. thus, learners could practice english by telling news considering different topics such as: national, international, sports, fashion, local, school, and environmental news. to develop this project, tenth graders were encouraged to search information by reading newspapers, watching news, or expanding ideas form classes different from english. students’ first mission consisted on becoming updated in global facts, knowing about the community and the school. likewise, spanish, social sciences and english teachers helped students to expand and support that information. in order to develop this project and collect information, students learnt to ask questions, do interviews, report, read articles, do chronicles, and create into the classroom an environment for the news format together with the teacher. among their tasks, they interviewed, no. 19 (july december 2019) no. 19 (july december 2019) 38 project-based learning for autonomy development agudelo & morales vasco and video recorded teachers at school, students, local people and candidates for nilo’s town hall. data gathering instruments and techniques for data collection, various methods were considered. firstly, a questionnaire was used to confirm the teacher-researcher’s perception of the lack of interest in learners for their learning, then, a student’s attitude scale which gave the researcher a clear idea of the students’ perceptions of how they themselves worked, both individually and in small groups. furthermore, small group conferencing (johnson, 2008) was implemented with students in class, which enabled them to speak informally and spontaneously about their projects. finally, a teacher-researcher journal with teacher’s reflections on the implementation and effectiveness of the action strategies; and the students’ journals containing reflections on the different stages of the process (burns, 2010). data analysis and outcomes the data was scrutinized following the principles of content analysis, since it is a method that may be used with either qualitative or quantitative data, in an inductive or deductive way. the categories were derived from the data, and thus it took the form of an inductive content analysis (kynga¨s & vanhanen, 1999). the results show what happens when pbl is implemented in the classroom for the first time, and how it can be related to the development of autonomy. after analyzing the information gathered through the different instruments, students and teacher expressed their thoughts and feelings about the activities done in class. students’ voices responsibility. this is the aspect that most students recognized as a positive outcome after implementing pbl. thus, it was evidenced that this methodology contributed to the development of both individual and collective responsibility, helping the initial features of increased self-management, power and control, leading to the development of autonomy, punctuality, and commitment. besides the features above, learners were concerned about the concept of quality. they became aware of the importance of making things better and realized that pbl stages positively influenced some aspects of their attitudes no. 19 (july december 2019) no. 19 (july december 2019) 39 project-based learning for autonomy development agudelo & morales vasco including their decisions, performance, motivation, and consequently, their learning. in order to illustrate the five aspects referred to above, we will quote some excerpts taken from the students’ journals. “con estos proyectos somos más puntuales, responsables porque se convierte en una obligación entregar las actividades, no porque sea impuesto por el profesor sino porque fue algo a lo que yo me comprometí y mis compañeros también.” (n.f.) [“with these projects we are more punctual and responsible because it becomes an obligation to present the activities. it is not an imposition from the teacher, but my partners’ and my personal commitment.”] increasing motivation. during the implementation of pbl, learners described how motivation positively influenced their accomplishment of the objectives and their performance in the english class. thus, intrinsic and extrinsic motivations were evident. some students felt the inner desire to complete their goals because they wanted to perform well and to improve in each presentation they did. likewise, extrinsic motivation came from the implicit commitment to accomplish the activities not only for themselves but also for the other members of the group, including the teacher. at the beginning of the implementation, students showed interest because it was the first time they faced challenging activities. the work increased the learner’s motivation to assume a new methodology, a new way to work in class, and a disposition towards learning. after some of the missions were achieved (expression used by the teacher to increase motivation and describe the activities), learners were expected to improve on subsequent missions. the idea to accomplish missions promoted interest in the learners and motivated them to achieve the collective goals. nevertheless, one of the most reliable aspects that caught the students’ attention and interest was demonstrated at the first stage of the implementation when the teacher made the learners part of the process, giving them a main role: recognizing how important they were when their voices were heard for the first time in the activity. learners assumed the role of the decision makers, and together with this power to make decisions, greater motivation and a sense of commitment came. letting the students be active participants in the projects and their learning is a great strategy to promote cooperation and strong commitment among learners, since they feel unconsciously or implicitly forced to achieve the project goals. another aspect that boosted student interest was the innovative proposal that consisted in practicing the language while searching and collecting information outside the classroom using different data collection instruments. breaking the boundaries of the physical and metaphorical classroom walls allowed students to learn by practicing. therefore, by encouraging students to no. 19 (july december 2019) no. 19 (july december 2019) 40 project-based learning for autonomy development agudelo & morales vasco do activities outside the classroom, a new perception of learning is promoted where they take a more active role in the process. “ahora que viene un nuevo proyecto estoy muy entusiasmada y estoy segura que mi nuevo proyecto va a sobresalir, fuera pereza… fuerza pereza.” [“now, that a new project is coming, i am very excited; i am sure that my new project will stand…laziness, get out!”] “me siento muy bien que el profe nos haya tenido en cuenta para la elaboración de los proyectos, quiero dar mi mejor esfuerzo.” (j.m.). [“i really liked that teacher considered us for this project; i want to do my best.”] working with others. pbl promoted collaborative work, which is perceived as the act of two or more people working together to achieve a particular goal, either by the sharing of ideas at each stage of the process or the dividing up of the workload. most of the 10th graders agreed on the importance of working together. the use of collaborative work was an attempt to encourage learners to share knowledge, complement strength, overcome weaknesses, gain confidence, make decisions on different ideas, distribute hard work, and most of all, gain awareness of how one’s good or bad work affects others. students demonstrated positive skills while working together, particularly the responsibility to do their best as a team in order to accomplish the objectives proposed in every single mission. thus, working together is a positive aspect when students discover that, in order to accomplish objectives easily, it is necessary to support and be supported by others. throughout this project, the positive perception of collaborative work in the 10th graders continued to increase, with collaborative work enhancing the responsibility and interaction of each group member to ensure the whole group succeeded. “aunque todos no trabajamos al mismo ritmo, me gusta trabajar en grupo porque entre todos aportamos ideas, cumplimos con las misiones y sacamos los proyectos adelante” (d.g.) [“although, we do not work at the same pace, i like working in groups because we all supply ideas, carry out missions and forge projects ahead.”] getting confidence. pbl raised good feelings towards learning. students truly perceived improvement in their learning, which was shown by better performances, more accurate use of language, and a higher quality of work. additionally, this research demonstrated that pbl encouraged learners not only to learn english but also to improve aspects of their personal life; including the no. 19 (july december 2019) no. 19 (july december 2019) 41 project-based learning for autonomy development agudelo & morales vasco ability to overcome fears, gain confidence, and develop independence. this idea is supported by s.f., when he says: “con esta nueva metodología que estamos trabajando ahora se aprende mucho más que en una clase común y corriente” [“with this new methodology, we have learnt much more than we used to do in traditional classes.”]. this idea of gaining self-confidence and self-esteem is confirmed by the students’ reports of feeling more engaged towards learning english and more enthusiastic, as they are now able to do certain things that they previously could not. for instance, “lo mejor que tiene este tipo de proyectos es que nos atrevemos y dejamos el miedo atrás, nos atrevemos a hacer cosas diferentes como ponernos frente a una cámara y perder la pena”. hb. [“the best aspect of this type of project, we dare to do different things, and leave fear behind us, like being in front of the camera and leave shame away.”] raising awareness. using student self-evaluation as an instrument to promote reflection was an important way to encourage learners to achieve the objectives at each stage of the projects. it helped learners to recognize, in themselves and in their work, areas of weakness and strength, areas that required more work, or areas that they were less confident in, their likes and dislikes, and even their beliefs. with the support of their classmates and the guidance from their teacher, the students were able to improve upon any areas that were hindering their performance and also take advantage of their strengths. the process of evaluation was implemented using two strategies; the use of journals to enable the students to express their opinions and feelings and, an attitude scale, where the actions of reflection emerged at the end of each mission when the teacher-researcher asked students to evaluate the performance of each member of the group. the latter activity meant students could see how others perceived their work in class and could compare how distant their self-perception and others’ opinions were. this was useful, as for some students it confirmed and reinforced their good performance, and for others it encouraged them to have a greater commitment to the subsequent activities. the last activity of the project was the final evaluation, in which the students had to complete a self-assessment and present their report to their teacher, taking into account the achieved objective and their effort to complete it. the purpose of this activity was to augment the development of the student’s sense of responsibility and independence and encourage honesty. this enabled students to be active participants and made them aware of their learning process. this self, peer, and co-evaluation generated a sense of reflection upon learners that made them conscious of their work and invited them to reflect on how far or close the achievement of the objectives was. no. 19 (july december 2019) no. 19 (july december 2019) 42 project-based learning for autonomy development agudelo & morales vasco regarding this aspect, d.g. said: “no me gustó que algunos compañeros me hayan puesto mala nota, aunque me esforzaré en el próximo trabajo para demostrarles que si puedo hacer las cosas.” [“i did not like getting a bad mark from my classmates, although i will struggle next time to demonstrate to them that i can do it well”]. on her part, another student said: “siendo honesta me dio pena que mis compañeros me calificaran porque en este primer trabajo no cumplí con lo que debía hacer. me esforzaré más” (a.c.) [ “to be honest i felt ashamed when my classmates evaluated me, because in this first activity i did not accomplish what i had to. i will do my best next time.”] teacher’s voice eager teacher. implementing pbl in 10th grade was a new challenge not only for students, for the students but for the teacher breaking the traditional teaching styles. it was the first time we had worked in such a different manner, breaking the more traditional teaching styles. implementing methodologies that you never tried before makes you feel unconfident; it creates anxiety due to the expectation to promote acceptance in learners, also the possible changes not only in students but in teacher practice. the teacher adapted the syllabus not only considering the topics to be covered, and each of their time frames, but the pedagogical methods to be used; for this reason, the teacher designed some strategies and possible activities that matched with the features of pbl. there were two main challenges that had to be considered at the start of the process. on the one hand, the anxiety of using unfamiliar pedagogical methods that would challenge the teacher’s previous teaching experience, alongside his limited research experience. on the other hand, was the dilemma of how best to implement in the classroom the different theories and concepts on learner autonomy, while managing the reaction of the students towards the new way of working, and the best way to encourage their engagement. time to listen. motivation of the students was evident during the different stages of the implementation. this motivation was generated by enabling the students for the first time, to be part of the decision making, alongside the teacher, with the methodological principle focusing on the students as the main actors in the learning process. the students were very involved when their teacher asked them about their opinions to build a new class, their interests, likes, and preferences in terms of topics, strategies, and even in their evaluation method. this first stage of the project was much more democratic than more traditional teaching styles, allowing students to express their opinions and ideas and collectively make the final decision. they felt empowered by having the responsibility of suggesting the different projects to be undertaken by the class. students moved from being just receivers to being proposers. ““in this no. 19 (july december 2019) no. 19 (july december 2019) 43 project-based learning for autonomy development agudelo & morales vasco early step of the process, i have evidenced that my students like to be consulted about their preferences towards the class, although they recognize they agree with some of the activities we do daily, they express they would like to try others, for instance; to work with videos or outside the classroom.” however, it was quite important that students realized that although they had much more independence, they were not alone, with continuous guidance available. school community. delegating to the students the responsibility of gathering information for the project allowed the teacher to identify their willingness to adopt an active role. “what a nice surprise… students are so motivated; some of them are even trying to interview candidates for nilo’s mayoralty”. “they took good pictures (they must spend time outside the classroom).” “wow… i feel good watching my students going around school with their cameras, paper, and pens asking other teachers for information.” importantly, the implementation of pbl allowed the participation of all the community, pupils, and teachers. reflecting as a new opportunity. this stage promoted a dialogical discourse among students themselves and with the teacher. the students’ voices were again taken into account and, as the performances of both students and teacher were evaluated, meaningful changes emerged as a result; the reflection time helped the teacher to access the suitability of the pace of the projects to determine the attainment of objectives by the learners, to confirm the suitability of the methodology and the activities, and to establish a set of actions that contributed to enhance collaborative work and to reduce constraints in the process. building together. the teacher enjoyed taking the role of guide, facilitator, listener, motivator, and advisor when implementing projects; the teacher’s voice was as relevant as the students. although at the beginning of the project students misunderstood the role of the teacher and questioned his contributions, during the implementation of the projects, a more balanced participation of student and teacher was reached. evidence of this is shown in the following excerpts: “i heard some of my learners complaining and saying that i need to help them more; they feel i am extremely demanding but the hard work is for them… i realize, that we need time to reflect and explain them the purpose of implementing projects in class and the challenges we need to tackle in both directions. no. 19 (july december 2019) no. 19 (july december 2019) 44 project-based learning for autonomy development agudelo & morales vasco conclusions at the beginning of this process, the tenth graders were perceived as inattentive, easily distracted, and students who would complain about any activity proposed. furthermore, they were perceived as reckless, lazy, undisciplined, unpunctual, not committed, and unconscious of their life projects. nevertheless, after implementing pbl, students showed some meaningful changes to their behavior and their view of learning. they became more responsible, punctual, committed, and honest. these features of autonomy that the students demonstrated indicate the starting point of a journey towards a better attitude in regards to their academic commitments. students became more conscious and aware of their role in the classroom, recognizing that good results depend on good performance, and the former is attainable for them, if they work well. they realized that the role of the learner goes beyond the passive receiver, that they should take an active role in the learning process and recognize what is important for their further decisions. these particular students are now able to confront doubts, fears, misunderstandings, insecurity, and some features of low self-esteem. they were able to see that independence emerges when students are aware that they are in charge and take control of aspects of their personal life. however, while the students did demonstrate all the aforementioned positive attitudes during the implementation of pbl, it is not possible to determine whether these aspects of learner autonomy were continued outside of the english classroom setting, for instance during their other classes or applied to decisions outside of the school setting. hopefully, they were. finally, the teacher’s self-development was influenced during this study as well. therefore, he advanced his abilities in solving doubts, dispelling misunderstandings, becoming a motivator, and in guiding his students. it also encouraged him to accommodate new ideas of a creative and innovative nature, which boosted his pedagogical skills. the teacher is now conscious of the need to move from a teacher-centered towards a student-centered model, avoiding the idea that the learners must only follow their teacher’s instructions. he realized that, in order to develop autonomy in his students, it was necessary to make a mirror process for analyzing his own autonomy first, so that learning emerged in a co-creation process. this paper may encourage teachers to get involved in self-reflection processes upon their teaching practices and their teaching styles; in the same vein, it may compel teachers to undertake methodologies that allow learners to have a more participatory role in class where students’ opinions and decisions could be taken into account. likewise, it demonstrates how studentcentered methodologies like pbl develop in learners some autonomous practices, whereby real-world connections are made. along with them, the use of critical thinking skills, of technology, and the enhancement of creativity no. 19 (july december 2019) no. 19 (july december 2019) 45 project-based learning for autonomy development agudelo & morales vasco and innovation facilitate independence, responsibility, decision making and democratic participation of learners. all in all, this research could become the starting point for new studies that attempt to explore the long-lasting effect that the implementation of pbl could have on students’ attitudes toward academic work and personal life projects. no. 19 (july december 2019) no. 19 (july december 2019) 46 project-based learning for autonomy development agudelo & morales vasco references allen, l. & calhoun, e. 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(2008). a short guide to action research, 3rd ed. boston, ma: pearson. kyngas h. & vanhanen l. (1999). content analysis. hoitotiede journal, 1(1), 3–12. lamb, t.e. & reinders, h. (eds.) (2008). learner and teacher autonomy: concepts, realities, and responses. amsterdam: john benjamin. little, d. (1991). autonomy: definitions, issues and problems. dublin, ireland: authentik. little, d. (1995). learning as dialogue: the dependence of learner autonomy on teacher autonomy. system, 23(2), 175-182. little, d. (2000). learner autonomy: why foreign languages should occupy a central role in the curriculum. in r.c. smith, teacher education for teacherlearner autonomy. symposium for language teacher educators: papers from three ials symposia (cd-rom). edinburgh: ials, university of edinburgh. nunan, d. (1997). designing and adapting materials to encourage learner autonomy. frankfurt: peter lang. no. 19 (july december 2019) no. 19 (july december 2019) 47 project-based learning for autonomy development agudelo & morales vasco railsback, j. (2002). project-based instruction: creating excitement for learning. portland, or: northwest regional educational laboratory. smith, r. c. (2001). teacher education for teacher-learner autonomy. retrieved on november 28, 2017, from http://homepages.warwick. ac.uk/~elsdr/teacher_autonomy.pdf stoller, f. (2002). project work: a means to promote language and content. in j. richards & w. renandya (eds.), methodology in language teaching. an anthology of current practice. cambridge, england: cambridge university press. tort-moloney, d. (1997). teacher autonomy: a vygotskian theoretical framework. dublin, ireland: centre for language and communication studies. no. 19 (july december 2019) no. 19 (july december 2019) 48 project-based learning for autonomy development authors *josé fabián agudelo-rodríguez m.a. in english didactics from universidad del tolima (ibagué). specialist in english language teacher from universidad de ibague. b.a. in modern languages from universidad de cundinamarca (girardot). english teacher with 14 years of experience working with children, teenagers and adults mainly in state schools. currently a full-time teacher and coordinator at state school oreste sindici in nilo ccundinamarca since 2010 to the present orcid: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8489-5830 adriana maría morales vasco magister in english didactics from universidad de caldas (manizales), 1998. b.a. in modern languages from universidad del quindío (armenia), 1994. english lecturer in the modern languages program at universidad del quindío, 20052009. english teacher at different state and private schools working with children and teenagers, 1994-2004. researcher in the fields of efl methodology, elt, pedagogy and teacher development. speaker at numerous national and international academic events. author and coauthor of several articles published in indexed national journals. fulltime professor in the b.a. in english and the master program in english didactics at universidad del tolima since 2009 to the present. orcid: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4905-0186 how to reference this article: agudelo, j. f., & morales vasco, a. m. (2019). project-based learning as a catalyst for students and teacher autonomy development: the experience in a state school in nilo, cundinamarca. gist – education and learning research journal, 19, 31-48. https://doi.org/10.26817/16925777.699 no. 19 (july december 2019) no. 19 (july december 2019) editorial carlo granados-beltrán, phd* these are difficult times for all of us. it is our wish that all our contributors, readers, reviewers, and members of our editorial and scientific committees are all right and protected. fortunately, in this process of reinvention this health emergency has triggered, we have been able to continue with many of our academic pursuits. this new edition of gist journal gathers a wide variety of articles ranging from topics such as vocabulary and pronunciation to identity and gender. the first contribution comes from turkey by aksakalli and yağiz who shared their experience exploring pre-service teachers’ attitudes towards pronunciation and the outcomes of teaching pronunciation to this population. the second article, by ramosholguín and peñaloza-rallón, aims to show a phenomenological approach to study the experience of female colombian authors in the process of writing academically. çetin köroğlu, also from turkey, explored how digital short stories could influence to improve listening skills. in the same line of research on skills, lópez-páez contributes to the study of the impact of oral pushed output hypothesis on the promotion of intermediate students’ oral production. the article by alimorad from iran explores the relation between gender and educational level and plagiarism. after, lucero-babativa, from colombia, shares his research on interactional identities and their link with classroom interaction in english language teacher education. cabaleiro-cerviño and vera, from spain and chile contribute a literature review which analyzes issues about the impact of educational technologies on higher education. following this line of educational technologies, rodríguez, vargas-macías and sánchez sáenz also contribute a literature review in relation to the ways digital games could be adapted and integrated in educational contexts. arias-cepeda studies the identity of indigenous english teachers and how its has been invisibilized in colombian elt in connection to a lack of understanding of what bilingualism means in the colombian context. then, also from colombia, cote-parra 6 no. 20 shares his reflection upon the teaching of research to undergraduate foreign language students. to close this issue, connolly contributes an exercise on error analysis of a common mistake of spanish-speakers: adjective-noun order. we want to thank the continuous support provided by the members of our editorial and scientific committees, authors, and readers. we hope that you find these articles enjoyable and useful. *carlo granados-beltran phd editor in chief holds a phd in education from universidad santo tomás, an ma in british cultural studies and elt from the university of warwick and an ma in applied linguistics to tefl from universidad distrital. he is the academic director at the ba in bilingual education at única. he has been teacher of the language department at universidad central, the ba programmes in spanish and languages and spanish and english at universidad pedagógica nacional and the ba in modern languages at universidad javeriana. also, he is guest lecturer for the ma in language teaching at uptc implementing lesson plans for collaborative learning with children in an efl context1 implementación de planes de clase para el aprendizaje colaborativo con niños y niñas en un contexto de inglés como lengua extranjera daisy catalina carvajal-ayala and ricardo alonso avendaño-franco2* universidad eafit, colombia 1 received: july 13th 2021/ accepted: may 21st 2021 2 dcarvaj4@eafit.edu.co; ravenda1@eafit.edu.co gist education and learning research journal. issn 1692-5777. no. 22 (january june, 2021). pp. 199-226. 200 no. 22 abstract in this article, we describe a case study research conducted to validate a set of lesson plans specifically designed for collaborative work with children. a group of nine teachers implemented the lessons in their classes. data were gathered by means of ethnographical notes to determine children’s reactions to collaborative work. class observations and surveys to teachers on their perception of the lesson plans and collaborative learning were used to collect the data. results show that children can indeed work in collaboration when given the adequate conditions. this kind of work among children helps them to negotiate meanings and find solutions for learning spaces. implications point in the direction of teacher education programs that can help teachers understand the principles and practices of collaborative learning with children. key words: collaborative work; collaborative room; interaction; technology-supported input; negotiation in children; collaborative learning spaces; children’s reaction to collaboration resumen diferentes autores han argumentado que el trabajo colaborativo entre los niños les ayuda a negociar significados y a encontrar soluciones para el aprendizaje. en este artículo, describimos un estudio realizado para validar un conjunto de planes de lecciones diseñados específicamente para el trabajo colaborativo con niños en espacios de aprendizaje colaborativo. un grupo de nueve maestros implementó las lecciones en sus clases. los datos se recopilaron mediante notas etnográficas para determinar las reacciones de los niños al trabajo colaborativo. además, los maestros respondieron un cuestionario sobre su percepción de los planes de lecciones y el aprendizaje colaborativo. los resultados muestran que los niños pueden trabajar en colaboración cuando se les dan las condiciones adecuadas. las implicaciones apuntan en la dirección de los programas de educación docente que pueden ayudarlos a comprender los principios y prácticas del aprendizaje colaborativo con los niños. palabras clave: trabajo colaborativo; sala colaborativa; interacción; input respaldado por tecnología; negociación en niños; espacios de aprendizaje colaborativos; reacción de los niños a la colaboración lesson plans for collaborative learning carvajal-ayala & avendaño-franco 201 no. 22 lesson plans for collaborative learning carvajal-ayala & avendaño-franco resumo diferentes autores têm argumentado que o trabalho colaborativo entre as crianças ajuda-os a negociar significados e a encontrar soluções para a aprendizagem. neste artigo, descrevemos um estudo realizado para validar um conjunto de planos de lições desenhados especificamente para o trabalho colaborativo com crianças em espaços de aprendizagem colaborativo. um grupo de nove professores implementaram as lições em suas aulas. os dados se recopilaram mediante notas etnográficas para determinar as reações das crianças ao trabalho colaborativo. além disso, os professores responderam um questionário sobre a sua percepção de dos planos de lições e a aprendizagem colaborativa. os resultados mostram que as crianças podem trabalhar em colaboração quando se lhes dão as condições adequadas. as implicações apontam na direção dos programas de educação docente que podem ajudá-los a compreender os princípios e práticas da aprendizagem colaborativa com as crianças. palavras chave: trabalho colaborativo; sala colaborativa; interação; input apoiado por tecnologia; trabalho colaborativo em crianças; aprendizagem colaborativa; negociação nas crianças; espaços de aprendizagem colaborativa; reação das crianças à colaboração 202 no. 22 introduction in recent years, interest in researching methodologies or techniques to improve learning in the classrooms has increased, giving way to collaborative work, which is one of the latest learning techniques that emerges from the communicative approach to language teaching (gjergo & samarxhiu, 2011). collaborative learning is a situation where one or more students learn or try to learn something together. in this sense, the traditional teacher-student relationship is redefined to allow groups of students to work together to seek understanding, meaning, or solutions for learning. jacobs, power and loh (2002) define collaborative learning as the principles and techniques for helping students work together more effectively. working in collaboration with others brings different advantages for children. first, the ideas and opinions of peers stimulate children’s response since they are exposed to the individual perceptions that others may have of a problem or a situation. these perceptions reflect: the different personalities and particular abilities of other members of the group make for an interactive exchange that will help to broaden and deepen individual children’s understanding. moreover, the experience of collaborative learning facilitates the child’s social and personal development, and the practice of working with others brings children to an early appreciation of the benefits to be gained from co-operative effort. (the stationery office of dublin, 1999, p. 17). connected to the beforementioned idea about the possible benefits of collaborative children´s learning, barkley, major, and cross (2014) also pointed out three qualities that characterize collaborative learning. they initially considered that collaborative learning tasks should be organized systematically; that is, rather than having learners get together to work, collaborative activities need to have a useful purpose. an additional element they referred to is that each participant is required to take part and contribute to the activities planned. finally, barkley et. al. put forward the fact that collaborative learning needs to be meaningful to facilitate and support the achievement of the learning objectives. given the advantages of collaborative learning, we set out to investigate the usefulness and benefits of different lesson plans specifically designed for the small group collaborative learning rooms at idiomas eafit. the institution counts with five collaborative spaces that have been somewhat neglected due to teachers’ lack of knowledge and experience in using such spaces and in techniques to foster collaboration among students. three spaces function as small group collaboration rooms, another as the crafts room, and the other as the pedagogical kitchen. lesson plans for collaborative learning carvajal-ayala & avendaño-franco 203 no. 22 the layout of the small group collaboration rooms highlights group learning. the rooms count with three large group tables fixed to the floor with moveable seating (rolling chairs) designed to aid and encourage collaborative work. each table is accompanied by a laptop with access to the internet and a flat screen monitor to display content and student work. monitors also offer surrounded sound. there is also a whiteboard wall that covers most of the room and that allows teachers to write 360° information. the acoustics of the space offers a free-noise environment (see figure 1). the crafts room presents opportunities to students for developing varied artistic interests. it is equipped with a screen monitor and a laptop with access to the internet. as in the collaborative room, there is a whiteboard wall wrapping most of the area. the room also contains a variety of chairs and trapezoid tables on casters aimed at facilitating movement and fostering different grouping techniques. to keep material, the room offers an art supply storage closet (see figure 2). figure 1. small group collaboration room (own photo) figure 2. crafts room (own photo) lesson plans for collaborative learning carvajal-ayala & avendaño-franco 204 no. 22 the pedagogical kitchen is an area intended to offer authentic material for the teaching and learning different foreign languages. it aims at developing the learners´ cultural and communicative competences by engaging them in an experiential context that involves a real-world situation as the act of cooking. the kitchen is furnished with storage cabinets, open shelves, a counter, a sink, and an island located in the middle of the space with high stools around it. it is equipped with a refrigerator, a microwave, an oven, a digital stove fitted in the island, varied appliances and a wide selection of kitchen tools. the space also counts with a screen monitor, internet connection, and a whiteboard wall (figure 3). figure 3. pedagogical kitchen (own photo) the difference between a traditional classroom and a collaborative room can be established as follows: in a traditional classroom, all desks are either facing the board and the teacher’s desk or arranged in a semi-circle. both layouts promote teachercentered classes since they encourage focus on the instructor, the content, and they can be implemented with large groups without any difficulties. for instance, a seating arrangement in rows may be chosen to improve information dissemination, whereas an arrangement in small groups, as in a collaborative room, may be chosen to promote student interactions (mccorskey & mcvetta, 1978 cited in gremmen et al., 2016). the disadvantage of a row arrangement is that the teacher is distant from the students sitting in the last rows. this population is more likely to be distracted and lose attention. as a result, disengagement is expected to happen. in a language lesson where conversation and interaction enable learners to put into practice communicative needs, a traditional classroom design makes it hard for the instructor to move around the audience, participation seems to decrease and group involvement fosters oneway interaction (brown & long, 2006). in contrast, the seating arrangement in a collaborative room fosters the flow of oral interactions since students are most likely to interact with each other in a more fluent way, and they are also most likely to improve lesson plans for collaborative learning carvajal-ayala & avendaño-franco 205 no. 22 their language skills, specially speaking (harmer, 2007). therefore, the dynamics of a language class, the learning objectives and the characteristics of the population match the design of collaborative rooms. the evolution of the classroom from a fixed physical space into a dynamic learning environment has been possible thanks to changes in teaching methods and new understandings of learning strategies and styles. this fact draws attention to the concept of the collaborative classroom. nilsson (2016) states “the design of the collaborative classroom emphasizes group learning” (p.3). typically, tables enable small groups to sit and work together, unlike the rows of desks associated with factory model schools of last century. each group has ready access to the internet, multimedia displays and collaboration software. the group tables, shared table-top displays, and wall displays with unrestricted lines of view, are the most common characteristics of the collaborative classroom. han, leong and nair (2014) also elaborate on the advantages of the collaborative learning environment stating that interactive classroom technologies provide an ideal learning environment for students and provide support for alternative learning paradigms. facilitators are able to use technology as a tool or vehicle to engage students and to improve the quality of learning. thus, there is a clear educational rationale to justify the development of interactivity tools and technology-rich learning spaces. (p. 274). based on the characteristics of collaborative rooms, the main objective of the work presented in this article is to validate a set of lesson plans designed to foster collaboration among children aged 5 and 8 who were enrolled in courses 1a, 2a, 1b and 2b of the english program for children at idiomas eafit. this program falls within the definition of teaching english as a foreign language and is framed under the communicative approach. the methodology privileges the active and creative participation in meaningful, playful, and authentic communicative activities among the actors of the process: participants, parents, teachers, people of the community, etc. the tools to implement this methodology are audiovisual materials (posters, audio, video, games, texts, etc.) and educational technology such as the computer laboratory and educational online platforms. the programs are designed taking into consideration the age, cognitive development, and proficiency level of each participant in the target language. literature review learning is a social activity that involves language, real world situations, interaction and collaboration among learners (bawa & suleiman, 2015). these authors claimed that collaborative learning is a process of peer interaction that is mediated lesson plans for collaborative learning carvajal-ayala & avendaño-franco 206 no. 22 and structured by the teacher. collaboration thus implies that both the learner and the teacher contribute and take insights out of the class encounter. the more they communicate, the more they create knowledge using language in a social context. collaborative learning has been defined in different ways. for instance, swain (2000, cited in dos santos lima, 2011) defined the notion of collaborative dialogue as the act where the participants are involved in knowledge construction and problem solution through means of creating relations and exchanging ideas. the author argued that while collectively working towards a common goal, individuals are able to establish meaningful connections which draw them to understand each other and find ways to solve problems. dillenbourg (1999) described collaborative learning as a “situation in which two or more people learn or attempt to learn something together” (p. 1), in his definition, two or more people can range from a pair or a small group with three to five learners until a community of thousands or millions of people. to learn is understood as the act of attending a course, studying the teaching materials, participating in the learning activities, or the gradual gathering of lifelong experiences. together connotes various types of interaction, such as face-to-face interaction, interaction mediated by computer, whether or not it is a shared accomplishment, and if the work is organized in a systematic way. another definition of collaborative learning is provided by gokhale (1995) who defined it as a method of instruction where two or more students of different performance levels come together to work on a shared objective. they are in charge of both their learning and their peers’ progress. therefore, collaborative learning activities help the success of each other. according to song (2011) collaborative learning is a kind of learning style carried out in a group where participants are able to solve problems and gain understanding through “consultation, discussion, and competition.” a typical collaborative learning process, states song, values interaction as a major source of learning activities since efforts between learners and instructors encourage reciprocal progress. additionally, learners create a group structure that leads them to the achievement of a common goal. another circumstance adding to the collaborative process draws attention to the learner’s own responsibility in front of the working tasks. finally, a group target must be reached so that the collaborative learning can be ended; that is, all group members have attained the goal. collaborative learning as concerned with younger students had its roots in ideas of socio-cognitive conflict (doise & mugny, 1984; piaget, 1932, 1985). this view posits that disagreement with one or several peers over a task that involves learning could encourage intellectual activity and ensue progress (azmitia, 2000; clark et al. 2003; howe & tolmie, 1998). that is, children are able to acquire knowledge throughout their social interactions with a person of the same age. lesson plans for collaborative learning carvajal-ayala & avendaño-franco 207 no. 22 according to tunnard and sharp (2009), collaborative learning occurs when children work together to achieve a common goal or to solve a problem. the authors reported that many quantitative studies of learning behaviors and outcomes have indicated that collaboration between peers can help children to develop their knowledge, language, and social skills. the authors also conducted a study of children’s views of collaborative learning in a sample of 16 children (eight boys and eight girls), year 5/6, where the use of collaborative learning across the curriculum with the daily use of team-orientated tasks was actively promoted. the findings revealed that several children held that collaboration facilitated their comprehension of new ideas even though they did not give their best to work in groups. besides, children favored selfselection as a process for determining group composition. some of the children also valued the importance of individual skills for collaboration and they believed that social skills were linked to personality. as a final point, children stressed the view of working together as an important way to establish and maintain friendships. to summarize thus far, collaborative learning is one of the teaching methods where learners work together to understand a concept, develop a product, or solve a problem. group members take part to ask for information, assess ideas, and keep track of their work in collaboration. even though performing a joint effort, each member is responsible for and accountable to each other. collaborative learning can either follow the form of face-to-face communication or make use of computer-assisted platforms. it fosters a context where members collaborate by sharing experiences and taking on different roles. thus, collaborative learning holds social, academic, and psychological advantages. collaborative learning requires teachers and students to play characteristic roles. as far as teachers are concerned, larrañaga (2012) and gokhale (1995) asserted that instructors need to stay away from the traditional knowledge transmission model who passes on information. instead, teachers need to function as mediators for learning or managers of tasks (smith & macgregor, 1992; gerlach, 1994) by fostering significant learning experiences that might connect learners to the real world (mukkonen, lakkala, & hakkarainen, 2005 cited in larrañaga, 2012). collazos, guerrero, and vergara (2001) affirmed that teachers should take three different roles: instruction designer, cognitive mediator, and instructor. according to these authors, the teacher as an instructor designer is in charge of creating interesting learning contexts and tasks that help learners associate new with stored information. the cognitive mediator is responsible for asking questions that seek to verify learners´ understanding. the instructor is in control of monitoring, intervening, coaching, evaluating, giving instructions and explaining the structure of the collaborative work and the social abilities related to it. regarding the students’ role, larrañaga (2012) contended that a collaborative approach engages learners in a situation of responsibility for their own learning.  lesson plans for collaborative learning carvajal-ayala & avendaño-franco 208 no. 22 in other words, learners need to recognize the value of their capacities to guide their thoughts and behaviors to  reach  goals and solve problems  within the team.  they  establish the learning objectives  and decide on the importance of particular problems.  in this new role, students also benefit from a strong  network of group support and direction where they learn from peers more than they do from teachers (santamaria, 2005).  additionally, mcinnerney and roberts (2003), asserted that each student is viewed individually even though working in collaboration.  if they hand in an assignment, for instance, “they present themselves, not the small group they work in” (holm, 2018, p. 19). with reference to the role of technology, domalewska (2014) suggests that collaborative learning is founded in a structure of group dynamics where learners make part of a social learning environment. in this context, technology is a strategic factor in creating both effective lessons and collaborative work settings. the author argued that web 2.0 tools and devices such as laptops and screens allow the learners and the teachers to connect with each other and to facilitate the flow of information, interaction, and negotiation of meaning. she adds that technology-supported input channels learners to improve both their social and academic skills and obtain new knowledge. potential problems of collaborative work a variety of external factors or elements impact collaborative learning and these could affect the success or failure in the learning process. saez (2010) described eight categories that can cause the failure of the process: lack of teaching the principles of collaboration, lack of experience and previous knowledge, lack of training teachers and students in collaborative learning, no organized planning or presentation of tasks, lack of commitment and dedication, technological problems, problems of understanding role change, and lack of experiencing social presence in collaborative learning. the size of the group can also affect the success of collaboration. for this reason, smaller group size is beneficial to achieve collaboration (dishon & o’leary, 1998). the authors claim that students’ age and experience of working in groups, the nature of the learning activity, the time available, and the materials will all influence the size of the group. they also argue that students should work in pairs until they are good at working together. as they gain in experience, the children should experience working in threes (triads) and later in fours and perhaps fives. lesson plans for collaborative learning carvajal-ayala & avendaño-franco 209 no. 22 research design to address the central objective of this study (validate lesson plans based on activities for collaborative learning environments), we collected and analyzed data following a case study methodology. this type of research design was appropriate because it has as main objectives to present the outcomes of a particular context by conducting an in-depth exploration of the case in a specific context and to build awareness of the technical and methodological experiences (meyers, 2004). nine teachers (two males and seven females) from the english program for children participated in the study. knowing the characteristics of the case study methodology and aiming to design lesson plans for collaborative classrooms and explore teachers and students’ reactions towards collaborative learning activities, we followed the following process to get the data and analyze it (see figure 4): figure 4. process designing, collecting, and analyzing data procedures step 1. designing the lessons the lesson plans were designed based on the contents students had previously worked on in their textbooks. the lessons were designed following the institutional lesson plan form which contains seven stages of class development: warm-up, engage, explore, construct, practice, extend, and wrap-up. these phases are based on the philosophical principles of the cognitivist psychology and social constructivism and they follow the communicative approach to language teaching. all the activities included in each phase of the lesson plan were meant as a review. thus, the plan was to be carried out the class following a unit of work. the activities included songs, videos, puzzles, powerpoint displays and games, worksheets, easy-to-make crafts, online games, and use of realia. the strategies of collaborative work contained in the lessons were: turn-taking; sharing work; presenting work to classmates; and completing a task together (e.g. building puzzles together). lesson plans for collaborative learning carvajal-ayala & avendaño-franco 210 no. 22 it is important to note that the lessons seldom consisted solely of group activities since collaborative learning combines well with other modes of learning, such as lecture by the teacher and individual work. step 2. revising and adjusting the lessons once the teacher researcher designed the lessons, revisions and adjustments were suggested by one of the academic coordinators and by the participant teachers. step 3. recruiting the teachers nine teachers (two males and seven females) from the english program for children participated in the study. before the class, teachers were sent the lesson plan and were asked to read it. they were also asked to stop by the academic coordinator’s office to discuss any doubts or questions they may have had and to collect the required materials for the lesson. all teachers were selected having into account their teaching experience (at least 5 years teaching children), years of being part of the institution (3 or more years) and their background (all of them had a bachelors ‘degree in teaching). teachers were asked to sign a consent form as part of the ethical considerations of the research. step 4. meeting with the teachers the program coordinator met with individual teachers to discuss any doubts or questions about the lesson. the teachers were instructed to follow the lesson, as closely as possible. step 5. planning observations the researchers discussed the most suitable method to collect information via observations. decisions were made about carrying out ethnographic field notes because this method could provide meaningful information about the complexity of group behaviors, show interrelationships among group interactions, and provide context for the observed behaviors. lesson plans for collaborative learning carvajal-ayala & avendaño-franco 211 no. 22 step 6. observing classes one of the researchers, skilled in note taking, conducted nine observations. the notes contained a narrative of all the events in the lesson, including specific facts, details of what happened during the class, impressions, specific words or phrases, and summaries of teachers and children’s conversations. step 7. surveying teachers teachers were asked to complete a five-open-ended-question survey in which we inquired about the effectiveness and difficulties of implementing the lesson plan for the collaborative learning spaces. (see results section) step 8. analyzing the data data from observations were analyzed qualitatively by identifying, grouping, and categorizing the observations that pointed in similar directions (marshall & rossman, 2016; rubin & rubin, 1995). the resulting categories were: 1) children’s reactions to the collaborative room & to the activities; 2) children’s reactions to collaborative work; 3) teacher encouragement of collaborative work; 4) teacher’s implementation of the lesson plan; and 5) equipment functioning. all the answers given by teachers to the survey were grouped and summarized by number of question and are presented in the results section below. results we carried out a qualitative analysis of the notes from the observation and the surveys, created categories by grouping the information that pointed at similar directions. then we now present the results divided in five categories. children’s reactions to the collaborative rooms & activities from the observer’s notes, it can be seen that moving to a non-traditional space generated expressions of curiosity, agitation, and, sometimes, misbehavior. along the nine observations, children had physical responses such as: touching the equipment on the tables; playing on and with the rolling chairs; following instructions lively and lesson plans for collaborative learning carvajal-ayala & avendaño-franco 212 no. 22 noisily; not listening or following instructions; manipulating the software, closing the window of the link, making it bigger, smaller; watching the videos attentively; playing with the worksheets; threatening each other; or helping the teacher arrange the furniture. there were also verbal expressions about the rooms: • no me gusta el salón [i don’t like this classroom]3 • ¿por qué tantos televisores? [why are there so many tv sets?] • estas sillas son más cómodas que las del salón [these chairs are more comfortable than the ones in our classroom] regarding reactions to the activities, there were overall acceptance, engagement, and enjoyment as demonstrated by children’s active listening and participation, eagerly dancing or jumping around when prompted by the teacher, or taking notes about the instructions the teacher gave, or showing enchantment and surprise (some children said “wow” and covered their mouths as an indication of wonder when the teacher played a video they really liked), or asking the teacher to repeat the activity, or checking for understanding of the instructions, or looking at the teacher’s demonstrations attentively and following instructions. • some of the positive comments provided by children about the activities were: ¡estamos más pilosos con este juego que que! [we’re doing so well with this game!] • yo quiero hacerlo otra vez [i want to do this activity again] • ¡qué lindo! [how beautiful!] there were also some negative comments about the activities such as: • esto si es difícil [this is so hard] • ¿cuándo vamos a ver tareas en los libros? [when are we going to work with the textbook?] 3 comments translated to english by the authors. lesson plans for collaborative learning carvajal-ayala & avendaño-franco 213 no. 22 children’s reactions to collaborative work within this category, we included the strategies: turn taking, sharing work and opinions, presenting work to classmates, and completing a task together. turn-taking children seemed to understand the concept of turn taking as evidenced by children standing and letting other classmates use the computer or by effectively taking turns when completing exercises, answering questions, or helping each other sharing work and opinions some of the behaviors for this strategy as described in the field notes were: • sharing pictures distributed by the teacher • sharing finished work with their teachers or classmates • sharing material and helping each other • giving recommendations to each other (“esas muñequitas son para aprender” / “those dolls are for learning.”)4 • exchanging materials • giving opinions about each other’s work • sharing opinions on decoration or foods they like: ¿a usted le gustan los frijoles, las zanahorias? [do you like beans? carrots? a mí me gusta la leche en polvo. [i like milk powder] a mí me gustan los dulces. [i like candy] 4 a child’s response to another child who criticized the dolls. lesson plans for collaborative learning carvajal-ayala & avendaño-franco 214 no. 22 presenting work to classmates one of the activities suggested that children presented their work to a host class. the reactions coded by the observer when the children returned to their own classroom and the teacher asked them how they felt were: ¡bien! [good!] ¡bien, gracias a dios! [good, thanks god!] very good! [very good] yo creí que eran grandes [i thought those students were older, y son chiquitos. but they are younger] me sentía más feliz. [i was so happy] me sentí happy. [i was happy] nerviosa. [nervous] happy! [happy] casi que me pongo a llorar. [i was about to cry.] completing a task together the notes show that even though, at the beginning of the classes, children had difficulties working together because, they ended up helping each other, participating enthusiastically, and enjoying the tasks. common behaviors observed from children were: offering help to another student, putting pieces together to complete a puzzle, celebrating when they found a match, and checking boxes in a worksheet together. teacher encouragement of collaborative work the following are specific actions done by the teachers to prepare children for collaborative work: • announce to the class they will have some special activities • use l1 to emphasize the need to share material • number children so that they can take turns coming to the board • encourage children to reach consensus on a decision to be made lesson plans for collaborative learning carvajal-ayala & avendaño-franco 215 no. 22 • encourage children to play the game in their laptops, taking turns • model how to do a presentation • invite students to deliver presentations and encourage others to listen • directly assign small group work • visit individual tables to repeat instructions • praise student work • use rewards to persuade children to do a presentation teacher’s implementation of the lesson plan the observations for this category distinguished two different working styles. in some classes, several teachers did not completely follow the lesson plans as designed. for instance, one of the lessons was to be developed in the crafts room and the teacher used the collaborative room. in another class, an activity was to be conducted using a powerpoint presentation and the teacher did not use it and neither did the materials. in another session, instructions, as indicated in the plan were not followed and the activities proposed for different stages in the lesson plan were omitted. it was as well noticed that the quality of instructions given was rather poor when teachers made use of translation in order to convey meaning. an indication of this was children looking confused, asking in l1 for confirmation or starting to work on a task different from the one given by the teacher. on the other hand, some teachers did follow the lesson plan as designed. one teacher had the printed lesson plan and constantly looked at it to see what was next. another teacher followed the exercises as described in the lesson plan. further, another teacher, referred to her smart phone to check the order and description of tasks. equipment functioning the observations revealed a host of difficulties when using the equipment in the rooms. for instance: • the cd unit did not work properly • the computer did not have a cd unit • the powerpoint was not ready in the laptops or did not have sound lesson plans for collaborative learning carvajal-ayala & avendaño-franco 216 no. 22 • online mirror link did not work properly • having equipment ready took longer than expected • some children had trouble using the touchpad • computer equipment and sound were not working • television does not have surround sound. • laptops without mice (hard for children). • t also says that chairs do not fit children’s conditions. (furniture) teachers opinions about the lesson plans for collaborative classrooms in this section, we present the answers given by teachers to the open-ended survey. q1 what did you like about this lesson plan? some teachers considered that the lesson plans (lp) included songs that fostered student participation, interest, and enjoyment. in addition, the majority of teachers valued the use of videos, mostly because they were short, entertaining, and directly related to the topics. “the connection between topics, activities and the content of videos, helps students memorize and learn more easily,” as expressed by one of the teachers. moreover, the teachers commented that the videos allow children to be more exposed to and interact with the language. q2 what difficulties did you encounter teaching this lesson? the majority of difficulties encountered by some of the teachers when implementing the lessons was the use of computers. more specifically, they mentioned having technical problems with the internet connection which failed in many occasions. another difficulty, as expressed by one teacher, was that the time suggested in the lp format was not enough because it took him longer to complete the activities. in relation to time, other teachers commented that they needed more time to run all the logistics involved in the preparation of the lesson (video, slides, materials, etc.). for other teachers, difficulties arose due to the lack of material (yarn, plates). two teachers reported having some trouble with the classrooms themselves. children were distracted because of “the special classroom.” one of the teachers said that since the routine changed students kept asking when they were going to use the textbooks. lesson plans for collaborative learning carvajal-ayala & avendaño-franco 217 no. 22 q3 what would you change in this lp? teachers responded: • the amount of participants. the collaborative room should only be for small groups maximum 12 students. • use less childish material • include more content, sometimes the lesson is repetitive; it’s review. • omit the presentation or visit children do to another classroom (it’s intimidating) • assign more time per activity. • add a computer for each student. q4 do you think the activities proposed foster collaborative work among children? teachers in general think the lessons fostered collaboration. first, the activities were suitable for students working well together. second, the activities promoted student discussion and decision-making. third, students had the opportunity to share their knowledge and compare ideas. however, one teacher believes that the students are not mature enough to work collaboratively and another teacher said that the lesson did not encourage collaboration, because in order to foster collaboration children needed to “work on something to present as a group” some of the specific responses provided by teachers were: • yes, definitely. for instance, when  they were  marking the boxes according to the information given in the video, they discussed with each other what would the right answers be; and in the «parade» as the animals were repeated children would instinctively pair up with those that had the same animals that they did.  • yes, specially the one related with arts and crafts because they get to share and compare their knowledge and material with their classmates.  • talking about a subject in common helped them to do the activity in an efficient way with each other.  • no, because they are not mature enough to understand how to work in groups. q5 what do you think about the materials? are they appropriate to the population age and the lesson needs? some of the responses were: lesson plans for collaborative learning carvajal-ayala & avendaño-franco 218 no. 22 • yes, but they need to be available • yes, the material works and promotes enthusiasm. the material is fun. • children were excited to choose the animal they liked • yes, the material was perfect • some material is childish. discussion in general, children showed the ability to work in collaboration with each other and interact among themselves. being exposed to a non-conventional room generated, mostly, positive expressions and behaviors in children. students displayed curiosity, enthusiasm, and engagement. even though some of the children exhibited unfavorable attitudes towards the operation of the equipment and some furniture, they were, by no means, resistant to the materials and to the new technological spaces. these technology-rich learning spaces helped teachers in the development and improvement of quality learning (han, leong, & nair, 2014). undoubtedly, teachers must confront challenges while working on collaborative activities such as monitoring students’ behavior. in our study, we observed some instances of misbehavior, such as intensively touching the equipment on the tables; playing on and with the rolling chairs; not listening or following instructions; manipulating the software out of time; playing with the materials; threatening each other. those behaviors may be due to the excitement of being in a new space and the curiosity it generates. it becomes a key point, then, to look for strategies that introduce children to the collaborative room itself. as an example, teachers could walk children to the collaborative classroom on a short, guided tour while explaining what it is, the benefits it could convey for their learning process, and the guidelines for working in this space. determining the group norms needs to be part of the organization of collaborative activities (janssen & wubbels, 2018). teachers could also explore the possibility of using multimedia tools as video and images which may well become a means of understanding the aim of moving into a different physical space. there was a positive reply to complete the activities proposed in the lp when children had a sense of assimilation of the steps they had to follow through. activities were relevant once the teacher encouraged the class, monitored group work, and repeated instructions when children showed little understanding.  teachers’ modeling, for instance, supported by body gestures and contact with the materials needed for each activity, offered children a sequence of connected visuals. in other words, the teacher, lesson plans for collaborative learning carvajal-ayala & avendaño-franco 219 no. 22 as described by collazos, guerrero, and vergara (2001), was mirrored along most of the class encounters. consequently, children were able to take turns effectively, share materials and opinions, present work before classmates, and complete tasks together. in fact, children enjoyed working together toward a same goal, such as completing a puzzle together or helping each other. on the other hand, activities were unsatisfactory when the instructions were not understood by the children and they followed a different course of action; group work was not fostered having children worked individually, and materials were not completely prepared to be used in each exercise. herein, the teacher as a cognitive mediator (collazos, guerrero, & vergara, 2001) fell short in his/her responsibility for asking questions that sought to verify learners’ understanding. some specific actions were brought by teachers in relation to the encouragement of collaborative work so that children could better internalize the value of working well with others. some teachers, for instance, built in opportunities for discussion and consensus. they encouraged children to reach agreement on a decision to be made while collaborating. other teachers praised student work. that little push to collaborate with others was an incentive that helped children become comfortable working with others or in front of others. some other teachers promoted collaboration by encouraging kids to take turns so they could attain a common goal in their team. teachers ensured that children were able to share an intellectual space by learning, doing, and experiencing more together than they would alone. with the aim of encouraging collaborative work, another group of teachers demonstrated how to complete a collaborative task before the class, and they attempted to make children involved in collaborative work by reexamining comprehension of activity instructions in each group work. in relation to the implementation of the lesson plans, some teachers disregarded the instructions given. it is possible that those teachers decided to rely on their own pedagogical and instructional choices to make up for a particular circumstance that arose unexpectedly. it could also be necessary to direct further examination on the process of writing the lp in order to discover underlying obstacles. however, the majority of teachers applied the lessons as they were designed using reminders such as cards or the cellphone. based on these findings, it is important to consider better teacher guidance through in-service programs where teachers can clearly understand the concept of collaboration among children and the strategies that they can use. simply following a lesson plan, even if as closely as possible is not sufficient. as hafner & miller (2011) and domalewska (2014) suggested, technology has proved to be a strategic factor in creating both effective lessons and collaborative work contexts. these improvements involve the use of videos, platforms, and the internet, not only to stimulate and persuade students, but also to provide learners with up-todate and authentic material. in this study, teachers found convenient the use of web lesson plans for collaborative learning carvajal-ayala & avendaño-franco 220 no. 22 2.0 tools and devices such as laptops and t.v. screens. indeed, teachers suggested that technology-supported input like videos and songs helped children to participate, be interested, and enjoy themselves. in addition, teachers considered that the videos and songs presented in most of the lessons were precise, concise, and targeted the subject matter. also, some teachers assured that videos allowed participants to be in contact and, therefore, exposed to real language. however, teachers reported and observations showed several needs that are to be contended in relation to the aforementioned tools and devices. it becomes necessary to verify the correct functioning of equipment like laptops, screens, internet access, and speed since many of these failed when teaching the lessons. equipment failures may have negatively impacted the proper implementation of the lessons. it is required to examine and reduce these unfavorable circumstances in order to foster the progress of technology-oriented learning spaces. teachers’ replies to the open-ended survey report a clear-cut benefit in relation to the use of songs and videos in the lp. teachers valued the fact that these multimedia resources were concise and entertaining, related to the topics, and let children interact with the language. they also furthered children’s involvement, attention, and enjoyment. as han, leong, and nair (2014) affirmed, interactive classroom technologies serve as a vehicle to involve students and to upgrade the quality of learning. on the other hand, teachers experienced several complications when teaching the lessons. firstly, the estimated times were not sufficient to complete several tasks in the lp and to prepare the logistics behind the lesson. furthermore, some teachers found no available material in the resource center of the institution. in addition, several teachers commented that children had certain degree of anxiety when visiting the collaborative classroom and when not using the textbook along the class session. herein, the class routine had been modified without announcing such fact in advanced. saez (2010) suggested that external factors like no organized planning or presentation of tasks can have an impact on collaborative learning and may possibly influence the learning process. it is, then, crucial to explain children that not following the textbook becomes an opportunity to connect themselves to the everyday use of language, and teaching a lesson in a space different from the traditional room facilitates interaction with each other. with respect to modifying stages in the lp, teachers said that the collaborative rooms should only be for small groups, having a maximum of twelve (12) students. the amount of participants can influence the accomplishment of collaboration, which is why a smaller group size can be beneficial to achieve cooperation among children (dishon & o’leary, 1998). another factor that teachers considered for adjustment is the amount of time projected for each activity. it is thus necessary to provide more time for the development of different tasks. teachers also pointed out the fact of including more content in the lessons and omitting children’s visiting neighbor classrooms to display work. it was shown, however, that children had a pleasing time taking part in lesson plans for collaborative learning carvajal-ayala & avendaño-franco 221 no. 22 the activities offered in the lp and they were able to soften the impact of sharing with people different from the ones they always meet in their rooms. in addition to the use of web 2.0 tools, videos, songs, and devices as laptops and t.v. screens, traditional resources like worksheets, photocopies, flashcards, magazine pictures, little boxes, colored sheets of paper, and a variety of classroom supplies were included in the lp. this kind of resources allowed children to engage in kinesthetic activities, to experience with trial and error, and, most importantly, to interact and discuss with their classmates while working in order to solve doubts and come to an agreement. most teachers in the present study believed that the materials promoted enthusiasm, enhanced collaboration, and were appropriate to the population age and the lesson needs. nonetheless, they complaint about the availability of some of the material in the resource center of the institution. thus, the stock of supplies needs to be verified so that the lessons can be carried out as indicated. lesson plans for collaborative learning carvajal-ayala & avendaño-franco 222 no. 22 conclusions based on the results of this study, we can conclude that children can effectively work in collaboration and that they enjoyed working towards a similar goal. it is obviously necessary to teach children how to collaborate with each other to avoid misbehaviors; they need to understand the rules and patterns of collaboration in order to effectively work together. therefore, as part of lesson planning, it would be important to include a session where children are explained, in simple words, the principles of collaboration and how this non-traditional way of learning is beneficial to them. teachers, as well, need to participate in educational courses where they learn about the theory and practices of collaborative learning in second language teaching. in general, teachers think that the lessons fostered collaboration given the fact that the activities were suitable for students working well together and promoted student discussion and decision-making. as pointed out by different authors, collaborative learning oriented to younger students can encourage intellectual progress (azmitia, 2000; clark et al., 2003; howe & tolmie, 1998). it also helps children to develop their knowledge, language, social skills, comprehension of new ideas, and planning to achieve a common goal or to solve a problem (tunnard & sharp, 2009). considering some difficulties encountered by teachers when applying the lesson plans, it is necessary to adjust the timing proposed for certain activities and to some materials. in addition, computers and desks need to be in optimal conditions to guarantee the well-functioning of the lessons. the capacity of the rooms, as well, is a decisive element to the success of collaborative work. the small collaborative spaces in which this study was conducted are appropriate for no more than 9 children (three children at each table). this number of students allows for more interaction in small groups and collaborating effectively. finally, the small collaborative room should be available only for children ages 10 an up. the rolling chairs may present a risk for smaller children. all of these aspects are fundamental as they lead to a more engaging learning environment for children. the present study provided useful information for the use and design of collaborative lesson plans. it is important, however, to consider the lack of generalizability of our results. the sample size was rather small; therefore, caution must be exerted when interpreting the findings. nonetheless, we provide important information that can be used in a larger scale study. pedagogical implications and further research on the importance of planning for collaborative learning are needed. future researchers should focus on the impact this planning may have on the different students` age range, how it could be implemented in different socio-economic contexts and include other stakeholders of the institutions. new studies should include the students` voices and even be the basis for the creation of teachers` training programs. lesson plans for collaborative learning carvajal-ayala & avendaño-franco 223 no. 22 references azmitia, m. 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(2009). children’s views of collaborative learning. education, 37(2),159–164. authors *daisy catalina carvajal-ayala finished her ma in teaching english as a foreign language from universidad internacional iberoamericana (unini) in arecibo, puerto rico. she holds a ba in modern languages teaching from the university of quindío. she is an english teacher at eafit university orcid: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2114-329x ricardo alonso avendaño-franco finished his ma in teaching and learning foreign languages from university of antioquia. he holds a specialist degree in education and a ba in modern languages teaching. he is the academic coordinator of the english programs for children and teenagers at eafit university and is a member of the research group of language teaching and learning from the same university. orcid: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5884-0991 lesson plans for collaborative learning how to reference this article: carvajal-ayala, d. c., & avendaño-franco, r. a. (2021). implementing lesson plans for collaborative learning with children in an efl context. gist – education and learning research journal, 22(1), 199-226. https://doi.org/10.26817/16925777.872 no. 23 on the effectiveness of scaffolding strategies and task orientation on receptive and productive knowledge of lexical collocations1 la eficacia de las estrategias de andamiaje y la orientación de tareas sobre el conocimiento receptivo y productivo de las colocaciones léxicas azam naserpour and abbas ali zarei2* imam khomeini international university, iran. barriers to online learning during covid-19 nazir & khan 1 received: may 27th 2021/ accepted november 12th 2021 2 aznaserpour@yahoo.com; a.zarei@hum.ikiu.ac.ir gist education and learning research journal. issn 1692-5777. no. 23 (july december, 2021). pp. 107-134. 108 no. 23 abstract the present study aimed at investigating the effects of scaffolding strategies using input and output-oriented tasks on iranian efl learners’ receptive and productive knowledge of lexical collocations. for this purpose, 540 adult intermediate-level efl learnersboth male and female were selected and divided into six experimental groups; three input-oriented and three outputoriented tasks. each experimental group received treatment under one of the three scaffolding strategies of direct corrective feedback, cooperative group technique, and visual cues. after the treatment period, a 40-item multiple-choice test and a 40-item fill-in-the-blanks test were administered to assess the participants’ receptive and productive collocations knowledge. to analyze the data, two separate two-way anova procedures were used. the results indicated that visual cues were the most effective scaffolding strategy in teaching lexical collocations. moreover, the cooperative group technique had a significant positive impact on learning collocations compared to direct corrective feedback. the results also showed that the participants in the output-oriented tasks group significantly outperformed those in the input-oriented tasks group. these findings can have practical implications for language learners, teachers, and materials developers, and theoretical implications for researchers. keywords: collocations; cooperative group; scaffolding strategies; task orientation; visual cues. resumen el presente estudio tuvo como objetivo investigar los efectos de las estrategias de andamiaje que utilizan tareas orientadas a insumos y resultados en el conocimiento receptivo y productivo de las colocaciones léxicas de los estudiantes iraníes de inglés como lengua extranjera. para este propósito, 540 aprendices adultos en nivel intermedio, tanto hombres como mujeres fueron seleccionados y divididos en seis grupos experimentales; tres en la categoría de insumos y tres en la categoría de resultados. cada grupo experimental recibió un tratamiento bajo una de tres estrategias de andamiaje, tales como: retroalimentación directa correctiva, técnica grupal cooperativa y señales visuales. después del periodo de tratamiento, se administró una prueba de 40 preguntas de múltiple respuesta y una prueba de 40 preguntas de llenar espacios para evaluar el conocimiento de las colocaciones receptivas y productivas de los participantes. para analizar los datos, se utilizaron dos procedimientos anova bidireccionales separados. los resultados indicaron que las señales visuales fueron la estrategia más efectiva en la enseñanza de colocaciones léxicas. además, la técnica de cooperación grupal tuvo un impacto significativo en el aprendizaje de colocaciones comparado con la retroalimentación directa correctiva. los resultados también mostraron que los participantes en el grupo de tareas orientadas a resultados superaron significativamente a los del grupo de tareas orientadas a insumos. estos hallazgos pueden tener implicaciones prácticas para los aprendices de lengua, docentes, desarrolladores de materiales e implicaciones teoréticas para los investigadores. palabras clave: colocaciones; grupo cooperativos; estrategias de andamiaje; orientación a tareas; ayudas visuales; aprendizaje de inglés scaffolding strategies on receptive and productive knowledge naserpour & zarei 109 no. 23 resumo o presente estudo teve como objetivo investigar os efeitos das estratégias de estrutura que utilizam tarefas orientadas a insumos e resultados no conhecimento receptivo e produtivo das colocações léxicas dos estudantes iranianos de inglês como língua estrangeira. para este propósito, 540 aprendizes adultos em nível intermédio, tanto homens como mulheres foram selecionados e divididos em seis grupos experimentais; três na categoria de insumos e três na categoria de resultados. cada grupo experimental recebeu um tratamento sob uma das três estratégias de estrutura, tais como: retroalimentação direta corretiva, técnica grupal cooperativa e sinais visuais. depois do período de tratamento, administrou-se uma prova de 40 perguntas de múltipla resposta e uma prova de 40 perguntas de preencher espaços para avaliar o conhecimento das colocações receptivas e produtivas dos participantes. para analisar os dados, foram utilizados dois procedimentos anova bidirecionais separados. os resultados indicaram que os sinais visuais foram a estratégia mais efetiva no ensino de colocações léxicas. além disso, a técnica de cooperação grupal teve um impacto significativo no aprendizado de colocações comparado com a retroalimentação direta corretiva. os resultados também mostraram que os participantes no grupo de tarefas orientadas a resultados superaram significativamente aos do grupo de tarefas orientadas a insumos. estas descobertas podem ter implicações práticas da língua, professores, desenvolvedores de materiais e implicações teoréticas para os investigadores. palavras chave: colocações; grupo cooperativos; estratégias de estrutura; orientação a tarefas; ajudas visuais; aprendizado de inglês scaffolding strategies on receptive and productive knowledge naserpour & zarei 110 no. 23 introduction learning a second language relies, to a large extent, on vocabulary knowledge (schmitt, 2000). lexical knowledge plays a vital role in communicative competence and the acquisition of a second language (nation, 2011; hoshino, 2010). vocabulary consists of individual words like nouns and verbs and word combinations like collocations and idioms. collocations are of paramount significance in language competence. learning words in chunks is a central part of acquiring a creative language system, which is the key to fluency. moreover, an equally important discussion that provides support to the instruction of collocations, as nattinger (1988) notes, is that students do not need to reconstruct language each time they want to use it; instead, they can use these collocations as prepackaged elements to convey their message. concerning lexical collocations as one main category of collocations, hill (2000) argues that multi-word structures are components of fluent linguistic production and critical language learning factors. therefore, it seems necessary to learn lexical collocations since learners frequently come across them not only in writing but also in spoken language. despite the indubitable significance of collocations, researchers have argued that collocations are among the problematic aspects of vocabulary learning for foreign language learners (hüttner, 2005). for optimal knowledge of l2 collocations, some scholars (krashen, 1985; swain, 2000) highlight the role of task orientation (e.g., input or output-oriented tasks). in input-oriented tasks, learners use clues from the text or the situational context to guess the meaning of a word or a lexical combination. it is, therefore, this combination of contextual clues and linguistic processing that makes learners able to assign meaning to specific words and grammatical features and so acquire them (krashen, 1985). in output-oriented tasks, however, as swain (2000) points out, l2 production aids learners to notice a gap in their language knowledge, correct their errors concerning the feedback they receive, and reflect upon their output to internalize linguistic competence. on the other hand, vacca (2008) opines that learners can perform any task, simple or complex, well only if they receive relevant, necessary assistance. as far as vocabulary learning is at stake, effective scaffolding techniques can reduce learners’ confusion and frustration via providing clear direction and step-by-step instruction for learners (poorahmadi, 2009). the selection of practical tasks, on the one hand, and the use of efficient strategies to optimize l2 collocations learning, on the other hand, have long been the concern of the stakeholders. therefore, it is crucial to explore what types of tasks and strategies provide better opportunities for language learners to achieve more durable l2 lexical collocation learning. to address this issue, the present study is an early attempt to disclose the effectiveness of scaffolding strategiesnamely direct corrective feedback, cooperative group technique, and visual aids – using inputand scaffolding strategies on receptive and productive knowledge naserpour & zarei 111 no. 23 output-oriented tasks on iranian efl learners’ receptive and productive knowledge of lexical collocations. collocations collocations pave the way for learners to understand better and produce language (ellis, 2003; nesselhauf, 2005). ünver (2018) opines that collocations knowledge reduces the processing load of both speakers and listeners of the language. collocations, as milton (2009) notes, are mainly classified into two main categories: grammatical and lexical. grammatical collocations usually involve content words (i.e., nouns, adjectives, verbs, and adverbs) plus a preposition or a grammatical structure such as ‘to+ verb (infinitive)’ or ‘that-clause,’ e.g., by chance, to be afraid that. in contrast, lexical collocations do not include grammatical elements, but are content words falling into the following combinations: noun + noun (e.g., washing machine), adjective + noun (e.g., strong/weak tea), verb + noun (e.g., shrunk shoulder), noun + verb (e.g., bees buzz), and verb + adverb (e.g., whispered softly) and adverb + adjective (e.g., deeply absorbed). besides, an equally important issue is that collocations are generally believed to be one of the problematic areas of language to learn. scholars (e.g., taiwo, 2004), for instance, argue that translating collocations word by word from one language to another may lead to inappropriate combination (e.g., tall people not high people). laufer (2011) asserts that oral communication and the written tasks of l2 learners, even at advanced levels of proficiency, show a lack of collocational knowledge. furthermore, thanks to more flexibility of lexical collocations compared to grammatical collocations, there has been the greater possibility of freedom in combining words and, as a result, committing collocational errors. this has spurred researchers to seek ways of teaching and integrating lexical collocations into the language materials in an effective and principled manner. one such way may be the application of task-based instruction. the role of tasks although there is little debate on the usefulness of tasks in language teaching, the issue of what type of task to use has been controversial. krashen’s input hypothesis (1985) accentuates the notable role of comprehensible input in language acquisition, meaning that input is both necessary and sufficient for language acquisition. according to renandya (2012), however, while learners’ underlying linguistic system can be developed by input tasks, fluent use of language may only be achieved through output tasks. the underlying premise, as swain and lapkin (1998) argue, is that output tasks can pave the way for learners to modify their output through noticing their linguistic scaffolding strategies on receptive and productive knowledge naserpour & zarei 112 no. 23 shortcomings. to put it simply, l2 production could provide learners with a great opportunity to make them aware of the gaps in their knowledge and direct their attention to form, function, and meaning through which learners can take control over their learning and produce the target language (swain, 2000). the importance of input or output tasks has been brought into light in a set of empirical studies (alavinia & rahimi, 2019; hashemi shahraki & kassaian, 2011; roohani, forootanfar & hashemian, 2017; salimi & shams, 2016; vosoughi & mehdipour, 2013; webb, 2005). for example, webb (2005) probed the effects of glossed sentences (as input tasks) and sentence creation (as an output task) on japanese learners’ word knowledge. the results indicated that in the first experiment with the same amount of time to task completion, the reading task was successful, while in the second experiment, which allocated a different amount of time to task completion depending on the task type, writing task was superior to reading task. this study concluded that when it comes to authentic learning, productive tasks should be preferred to receptive ones. nevertheless, regardless of the type of task used, efl learners have substantial difficulty with lexical combinations; often, they lack the necessary knowledge and strategies for handling such elements (chung & nation, 2004). the use of appropriate learning strategies is one crucial factor that can enhance engagement and result in better collocations learning. one of the effective learning strategies is scaffolding. learning scaffolding strategies sawyer (2006) used the term scaffolding to refer to the support provided during the teaching process to meet students’ needs when they are introduced to novel concepts and skills. this can lead to deeper and higher levels of learning. scaffolding is closely related to the zone of proximal development (zpd), which is a key term in socio-cultural theory (sct) (proposed by vygotsky). vygotsky (1978) defines zpd as the difference between the actual developmental level and the potential level of development measured as problem solving under guidance from adults or more capable peers (verenikina, 2008). based on vygotsky’s theory of social constructionism, scaffolding is the temporary assistance provided by an expert for novices so as to enhance their independency. this aid is gradually removed as they can develop their own ability and skills, and become more competent to demonstrate mastery and perform task independently (diaz-rico & weed, 2002). scholars have proposed various categories of scaffolding strategies to meet students’ needs in english language classes. according to echevarria, vogt and short (2004), the most common and practical scaffolding strategies that can be applied in language scaffolding strategies on receptive and productive knowledge naserpour & zarei 113 no. 23 classes to teach single and multi-words are classified into three main types: verbal, procedural and instructional, each consisting of a variety of techniques. the present study utilizes three scaffolding techniques of direct corrective feedback as a verbal scaffolding technique, cooperative group technique as a procedural scaffolding technique, and visual cues as an instructional scaffolding technique, and compares their effectiveness on learning lexical collocations. direct corrective feedback in sla contexts, as baleghizadeh and gordani (2012) note, feedback could bridge the gap between what has been learned and the target competence of the learners. in general, there are two kinds of feedback; positive and negative. in negative feedback, or corrective feedback (ammar & spada, 2006), information follows an error produced by the language learner to inform him of the fact of error (el tatawy, 2002). schmidt (1994) believes that corrective feedback causes learners to notice the gaps between the target norms and their interlanguage, resulting in the restructuring of grammatical forms. therefore, corrective feedback can provide needed attention for acquisition and push students’ production towards greater accuracy, clarity and comprehensibility (garcia-ponce & mora-pablo, 2017). in the area of l2 collocations teaching, alipanahi and naghiloo (2016) cast light on the role of direct, indirect, and self-correction feedback in l2 lexical and grammatical collocations learning. the results revealed that indirect feedback had a positive impact on learners’ collocational knowledge compared with direct and self-correction feedbacks. zarei and mousavi (2016) also tried to examine the effects of three kinds of feedback – direct, indirect, and peer feedbackas a scaffolding strategy on iranian efl learners’ recognition of lexical collocations. the results revealed that the group that received indirect corrective feedback had the best performance, whereas the group that was scaffolded by direct corrective feedback showed the least performance. the findings also indicated that the participants in the peer feedback and indirect feedback groups did nearly the same on the post-test. cooperative group technique in cooperative learning context, group members endeavor to make individual contributions to promote learning and to achieve a common goal for the group (johnson, johnson, & smith, 2014). this technique helps learners jointly build up knowledge. as a matter of fact, there is a positive interdependence among group members while any individual takes his own accountability in learning (bolukbas, keskin & polat, 2011; van lier, 2004). wajnryb (1990) asserts that when learners make scaffolding strategies on receptive and productive knowledge naserpour & zarei 114 no. 23 a joint attempt to produce the language, they notice more gaps in their knowledge of language and reflect on form-meaning relationships as they get feedback from their peers. in actual fact, in cooperative learning projects each member of a group displays his own learning styles or strengths as all members may be exposed with multiple learning benefits, methods and strategies. hence, in cooperative activities, learners’ language proficiency and personal skills like teamwork or problem-solving can be developed (olaya & gonzález-gonzález, 2020). some empirical studies (e.g., ahmadpour & yousefi, 2016; hayati & ziyaeimehr, 2011; safadi & rababah, 2012) put emphasis on the noticeable impact of cooperatively scaffolded learning environment on learners’ development of reading, writing, speaking, etc. visual aids images and visual cues can represent relationships among ideas and concepts. they provide students with concrete, visual connections between words and their meanings (zarei & gilanian, 2013). memorizing words via their corresponding images can help learners create their own ‘inner blackboard’, as termed by armstrong (2000). ghader and bahlooli niri (2016) argue that pictorial presentation of novel lexical combinations activates many parts of the brain and reinforces vocabulary learning in a foreign language. this scaffolding tool assists learners to get the information via an extrasensory perception (sadeghi & farzizadeh, 2013). as milton (2009) states, imagery provides learners with dually rather than singly coded information. thus, it promotes learners’ memory ability. empirical research in the area of vocabulary learning using images and visual representations shows that pictures and visual aids are efficient tools for retention and retrieval of words and lexical combinations (beaman, 2002; bird & williams, 2002; hamzah, 2018; mashhadi & jamalifar, 2015; zarei & khazaie, 2011). for instance, mashhadi and jamalifar (2015) compared visual cues and textual input-enhancement with regard to their effectiveness on learners’ lexical knowledge. in the visual presentation group, tools such as pictures, flashcards, semantic maps, and videos were used to teach the target words. for textual-input enhancement group, the target words were contextualized in texts and presented in bold face; translation, synonyms, and antonyms were also provided when needed. the results revealed that visual cues were more beneficial on vocabulary knowledge than textual-input enhancement. as can be inferred from the above-alluded, it is difficult to generalize the specific types of scaffolding processes to all teaching settings and all l2 learners. on the other hand, casting a glance into the literature, to the best of knowledge of the researchers, it is revealed that the studies on collocations have mainly been an endeavor to explore the scaffolding strategies on receptive and productive knowledge naserpour & zarei 115 no. 23 effectiveness of one or two tasks on teaching or learning collocations. consequently, the findings of such studies are rather limited. more research is needed to uncover the impact of tasks in different orientations. moreover, it seems necessary to investigate the impact of different scaffolding techniques to support learners’ learning. therefore, this gap was the staple impetus for the researchers to explore the effects of input and output-oriented tasks and also different scaffolding techniques on learners’ comprehension and production of lexical collocations. in more specific terms, the following research questions were put forward: 1. is there any significant difference between the effects of scaffolding strategies using input-oriented and output-oriented tasks on iranian efl learners’ receptive knowledge of lexical collocations? 2. is there any significant difference between the effects of scaffolding strategies using input-oriented and output-oriented tasks on iranian efl learners’ productive knowledge of lexical collocations? method the participants of the study consisted of an initial sample of 580 iranian efl learners (male and female) at lower intermediate level of proficiency who were studying english in private language institutes. after the administration of a sub-test of the key english test (ket), 40 participants who differed in terms of their proficiency level were excluded from the study; those who scored more than one standard deviation away from (above or below) the mean were excluded from the study. there remained 540 participants to take part in the study. they consisted of 346 females and 194 males; their age ranged from 18 to 35. they were randomly assigned to eighteen experimental groups, each with 30 participants. there was no control group in this study. the reason was twofold; first, owing to practicality reasons it was not possible to recruit another group; second, and more importantly, this study primarily aimed to compare the effects of variables (i.e., tasks and strategies) with each other on learning collocations. instruments and materials to fulfill the purpose of this study, several materials and instruments were utilized as follows: scaffolding strategies on receptive and productive knowledge naserpour & zarei 116 no. 23 key english test to ensure the participants’ homogeneity in terms of their language proficiency, a test of general english, including parts one to seven of ket, was administered to all the participants. parts one to seven of the test contained 50 items. the first three parts measured lexical and grammatical knowledge at word or sentence level. part four measured reading comprehension through a passage followed by multiple-choice items. part five contained a cloze passage in which each blank had to be completed by choosing the best word from among three given alternatives; parts six and seven included productive items. in part six, the participants had to read the descriptions of some jobs and write that job in the blanks provided. the initial letter of the target word was also given; part seven (the last part) contained 10 gap-filling items. the participants were required to read a postcard and use their own knowledge to fill in the blanks. each blank had to be filled with only one word. the oral section of the test was not included for practicality reasons. since just a sub-test of ket was used in this study, the kr-21 formula was applied to check its reliability. the reliability index of the sub-test turned out to be .77. pre-test before the commence of treatment, all the participants’ background knowledge of the target lexical collocations was assessed via a pretest. the pretest contained 100 english sentences, each of which included one lexical collocation. in each sentence, one part of each target lexical collocation was given and the other part was omitted. the persian equivalent of the collocations was provided at the end of each sentence as a clue. this was done to make sure that the participants understood the purpose of the test and did not fill the blanks using words other than the target collocations. the participants were asked to supply the missing words in the sentences. the target lexical collocations were selected from english collocations in use (mccarthy & o’dell, 2006), and student’s book 3 of touchstone for learners at the lower-intermediate level. the lexical collocations included the following structures: noun + noun, adjective + noun, noun + verb, verb + noun, verb + adverb, and adverb + adjective. tasks input-oriented tasks: true-false tasks: these tasks consisted of marginally glossed texts accompanied by true-false sentences. each sentence contained one collocation. the participants had to read each sentence to decide whether it is true or false. matching tasks: in matching tasks, the participants had to read texts that were marginally glossed. afterwards, they were given a matching activity in which scaffolding strategies on receptive and productive knowledge naserpour & zarei 117 no. 23 the first part of a lexical collocation in one column (column a) was matched with its second part in the other column (column b). there was one extra item in column b. multiple-choice tasks: these tasks included texts that were not marginally glossed. the participants had to look up the collocations in a dictionary. each text contained blanks, for each of which four alternatives were given after the text. to fill the gaps, the learners had to choose the right collocations from among the alternatives presented in multiple-choice form. output-oriented tasks: short-response tasks: participants in the short-response task condition received the same marginally glossed text to read, and then to complete the short-response tasks focused on the target lexical collocations. fill in the blanks tasks: here, the participants were given texts that were marginally glossed. afterwards, the learners were required to complete the fill in the blanks task focused on the target collocations. in each task, gaps were made by omitting collocations. one part of the target collocation was given as cues in each blank. the blanks had to be filled with the collocations provided by the learners. sentence formation tasks: learners had to read the same marginally glossed texts. afterwards, they were asked to use each of the target lexical collocations to generate new english sentences. post-test the post-test package consisted of two types of test: a multiple-choice test and a fillin the-blanks test were administered after the treatment to measure the comprehension and production of collocations, respectively. it is worth noting that the post-tests were developed by researchers, thus before the commence of the main study, a pilot study was done to examine item characteristics and test characteristics. the results of item facility and item discrimination left 40 items for each posttest. in addition, to ensure the content validity of the posttests, both the content of the tasks and that of the posttests were carefully examined by several experts. finally, a 40-item multiple-choice test (to measure comprehension) and a 40-item fill-in-the-blanks test (to measure production) were administered immediately after the treatment. moreover, the kr-21 formula was applied to estimate the reliability of the post-tests. the reliability indices of comprehension and production tests were .78 and .81, respectively. procedure initially, the participants of the study were selected through purposive sampling. to homogenize the groups, a sample of ket with the above-mentioned characteristics was administered. the participants whose score fell one standard deviation away from (above or below) the mean were excluded from the study. each group of participants scaffolding strategies on receptive and productive knowledge naserpour & zarei 118 no. 23 was randomly divided into one of the experimental conditions. before the treatments, to decrease the impact of the participants’ prior knowledge of collocations, the pre-test was administered. those items with which more than ten percent of the participants were familiar were not included in the posttests. it should be mentioned that besides the unfamiliar collocations that were identified in the pre-test (73 collocations), a number of lexical collocations (25 collocations) were also selected from the aforementioned sources to be taught in the treatment. in the treatment stage, three kinds of tasks were designed for different treatment conditions. each of the experimental groups received an average of seven new collocations each session; then they practiced using one of these tasks: true-false task (task a), matching task (task b), multiple-choice task (task c), short-response (task d), fill-in-the-blanks (task e), and sentence formation (task f). at the same time, the present study used three scaffolding techniques of direct corrective feedback as a verbal scaffolding technique, cooperative group technique as a procedural scaffolding technique, and visual cues as an instructional scaffolding technique to support teaching lexical collocations. these techniques were used to back up teaching lexical collocations to the experimental groups. six groups received instruction using tasks a, b, c, d, e, and f (one task for each group) and the scaffolding technique of direct corrective feedback. for six other groups, the tasks a, b, c, d, e, and f were scaffolded through the cooperative group technique. each of the remaining six groups received one of the tasks a, b, c, d, e, and f, and the scaffolding technique of visual aids. in direct corrective feedback, after the teacher collected learners’ handouts, she underlined their collocational errors and wrote the correct form of the target collocations above or near the erroneous form. she then gave the handouts back to the learners. the teacher also wrote the correct form of all lexical collocations on the board. in the cooperative group technique, at the outset of each session, the teacher divided learners into groups of five and guided them how to perform a task cooperatively. during performing the task, the teacher monitored groups carefully. in the scaffolding technique of visual cues, for all of the six experimental groups, at the beginning of each session, new collocations were shown on screen one by one, and the learners were given a handout with the same collocations or images. the images were digital and real pictures downloaded from the internet. then, the learners were asked to start working on the tasks. the treatment lasted 17 sessions (2 sessions a week), of which the first two sessions were allocated to the ket test and the pretest, 14 sessions to treatment, and one session to the posttests. it is worth noting that about an hour was allocated to the experiment scaffolding strategies on receptive and productive knowledge naserpour & zarei 119 no. 23 each session because the learners had the books and materials related to their course as well. after the treatment, two posttests were administered to all the participants. after the data were gathered, two separate two-way analysis of variance (anova) procedures were utilized to answer the research questions. results the first research question this question intended to explore the effects of scaffolding strategies using input and output-oriented tasks on efl learners’ comprehension of lexical collocations. to this end, a two-way anova procedure was used. first of all, the data were assessed for the assumption of the equality of variances. levene’s test result (f(5, 534) = 2.818, p ʹ .05) showed that this assumption was not violated. to check the assumption of normality of scores, the results of the kolmogorov-smirnov statistic were checked. the result (ks(540) = .05, p ́ .05) showed that this assumption was also met. in addition, to check for extreme scores, the id values of the most extreme cases were checked in the extreme values table. next, to see whether or not the extreme scores highly affected the mean, the value of 5% trimmed mean was checked in descriptive statistics. it was observed that the values of the original mean and the new trimmed mean were not very different. therefore, it could be assumed that the mean was not highly influenced by the extreme scores. after checking all the assumptions, descriptive statistics, including mean, standard deviation, etc., on the collocations’ comprehension test, were summarized (table 1). scaffolding strategies on receptive and productive knowledge naserpour & zarei 120 no. 23 table 1. descriptive statistics of the collocation comprehension posttest task type scaffolding strategies n mean std. deviation input-oriented tasks direct feedback cooperative technique visual cues total 90 90 90 270 18.32 20.54 22.72 20.44 3.067 3.257 3.678 3.739 output-oriented tasks direct feedback cooperative technique visual cues total 90 90 90 270 19.41 22.46 25.32 22.48 2.272 2.918 3.668 3.853 table 1 shows that in both task categories, the highest mean belongs to the scaffolding strategy of visual cues, followed by the cooperative group technique and direct corrective feedback, respectively. the implication is that the strategies of visual cues and cooperative group technique were more effective than direct corrective feedback on learners’ receptive knowledge of lexical collocations. furthermore, the highest mean score in all three strategies belonged to output-oriented tasks. this means that the scaffolding strategies utilized in performing tasks were much more useful for output-oriented tasks than input-oriented tasks. figure 1 graphically shows the differences among the groups. figure 1. means plot of collocations comprehension posttest scaffolding strategies on receptive and productive knowledge naserpour & zarei 121 no. 23 the interaction effects and main effects of the scaffolding strategy and task orientation variables were checked to see if they are statistically significant. the results are given in table 2. table 2. tests of between-subjects effects for collocations comprehension posttest type iii sum of squares df mean square f sig. partial eta squared corrected model 2916.454a 5 583.291 57.661 .000 .351 intercept 248798.669 1 248798.669 .000 .979 task orientation 562.224 1 562.224 55.578 .000 .199 scaffolding strategy 2282.737 2 1141.369 112.829 .000 .297 task orientation* scaffolding strategy 71.493 2 35.746 3.534 .084 .009 error 5401.878 534 10.116 total 257117.000 540 corrected total 8318.331 539 table 2 shows no statistically significant interaction between the effects of task orientation and scaffolding strategies on the comprehension of lexical collocations, (f (2, 534) = 3.53, p < .05). this implies that there is no statistically significant difference in the impact of scaffolding strategies on collocations comprehension for inputoriented and output-oriented tasks. furthermore, the values of partial eta squared for task orientation and scaffolding strategies were .19 and .29, respectively, both of which show very large effect size, based on cohen (1988). however, input-oriented and output-oriented tasks differ significantly from one another in terms of their effect on collocations comprehension (f (1,538) = 55.57, p < .0005) in favor of output-oriented tasks. there are also statistically significant differences among the scaffolding strategies of direct feedback, cooperative technique, and visual cues (f (2,537) = 112.82, p < .0005). to locate the significant differences, the scheffe test was run. scaffolding strategies on receptive and productive knowledge naserpour & zarei 122 no. 23 table 3. the results of scheffe test task (i) group (j) group mean difference (i-j) sig. input-oriented tasks direct feedback cooperative technique visual cues -2.222* -4.440* .060 .000 cooperative technique visual cues -2.183* .000 output-oriented tasks direct feedback cooperative technique visual cues -3.050* -5.911* .000 cooperative technique visual cues -2.866* .000 *the mean difference is significant at the 0.05 level these results reveal that the difference between the effects of scaffolding strategies on learners’ receptive knowledge of lexical collocations is significant. the students in the cooperative technique group showed better performance than those in the direct corrective feedback group on the post-test. in addition, the results indicate that the participants who received visual cues outperformed the participants of the direct corrective feedback group. at the same time, the results show a meaningful difference between the effects of cooperative group technique and visual cues on students’ collocational receptive knowledge in favor of visual cues. the second research question this question aimed at investigating whether or not there is any significant difference between the effects of scaffolding strategies using inputand output-oriented tasks on efl learners’ production of lexical collocations. for this purpose, a two-way anova procedure was used. before doing so, its assumptions were checked. the results of levene’s test (f(5, 534) = 1.075, p ʹ .05) and kolmogorov-smirnov statistic (ks (540) = .09, p ʹ .05) showed that the assumptions of homogeneity of variances and normality of scores were both met. in addition, the value of 5% trimmed mean was compared against the original mean, and no significant difference was observed between them, implying that the mean score was not heavily influenced by extreme scores. after checking the assumptions, descriptive statistics on the production test of lexical collocations were summarized in table 4. scaffolding strategies on receptive and productive knowledge naserpour & zarei 123 no. 23 table 4. descriptive statistics of the collocation production posttest task type scaffolding strategies n mean std. deviation input-oriented tasks direct feedback cooperative technique visual cues total 90 90 90 270 19.73 21.83 23.30 21.62 2.722 3.200 3.440 3.454 output-oriented tasks direct feedback cooperative technique visual cues total 90 90 90 270 20.90 23.84 26.85 23.86 2.055 2.587 2.912 3.514 table 4 indicates that the highest mean belongs to the scaffolding strategy of visual cues and cooperative group technique, respectively, and direct corrective feedback has the lowest mean score. this means that the strategies of visual cues and cooperative group technique are more effective than direct corrective feedback on learners’ productive knowledge of lexical collocations. on the other hand, in all three strategies, output-oriented tasks groups have obtained the highest means. figure 2 illustrates the differences among the means obviously. figure 2. means plot of collocations production posttest scaffolding strategies on receptive and productive knowledge naserpour & zarei 124 no. 23 the results of tests of between-subjects effects were checked to examine the possibility of an interaction effect and the main effects of the two independent variables. table 5 contains the results. table 5. tests of between-subjects effects for collocations production posttest type iii sum of squares df mean square f sig. partial eta squared corrected model 2860.644a 5 572.129 70.200 .000 .397 intercept 279347.267 1 279347.267 .000 .985 task orientation 680.067 1 680.067 83.444 .000 .135 scaffolding strategy 2051.544 2 1025.772 125.862 .000 .320 task orientation* scaffolding strategy 129.033 2 64.517 7.916 .090 .029 error 4352.089 534 8.150 total 286560.000 540 corrected total 7212.733 539 table 5 shows that task orientation has a significant effect on lexical collocations production, (f(1,538) = 83.44, p < .0005), and that output-oriented tasks are significantly more effective than input-oriented tasks on collocational productive knowledge. meanwhile, scaffolding is also a significant factor (f (2,537) = 125.86, p < .0005). however, the interaction between the effects of task orientation and scaffolding strategies on the production of lexical collocations is not significant (f (2, 534) = 7.91, p > .05). meanwhile, the partial eta squared values for task orientation and scaffolding strategies are .13 and .32, respectively, showing very large effect size, according to cohen (1988). since there were statistically significant differences among the scaffolding strategies on collocational production, the scheffe post hoc test was used to locate the differences. scaffolding strategies on receptive and productive knowledge naserpour & zarei 125 no. 23 table 6. the results of scheffe test task (i) group (j) group mean difference sig. input-oriented tasks direct feedback cooperative technique visual cues -2.080* -3.571* .000 .000 cooperative technique visual cues -1.495* .000 output-oriented tasks direct feedback cooperative technique visual cues -2.942* -5.953* .000 cooperative technique visual cues -3.013* .000 *the mean difference is significant at the 0.05 level table 6 reveals that in both inputand output-oriented tasks, the visual cues technique and the cooperative group technique were significantly more effective than the direct corrective feedback on the production of collocations. in addition, visual cues turned out to be more effective than the cooperative group technique on the production of collocations. discussion the findings of this study showed that visual cues were the most effective scaffolding technique in the development of receptive and productive knowledge of lexical collocations in comparison with the two other scaffolding strategies, cooperative group technique and direct corrective feedback. there are a number of studies which lend support to this finding (hamzah, 2018; mashhadi & jamalifar, 2015; sadeghi & farzizadeh, 2013). for instance, mashhadi and jamalifar (2015) reported that efl students’ vocabulary learning could be significantly reinforced using visual cues rather than textual enhancement. this finding of the present study is also in line with that of sadeghi and farzizadeh (2013), who compared the impact of pictorial tools and the conventional technique of definition on vocabulary instruction, and concluded that visual tools strongly affected word learning. in line with the findings of this study, hamzah (2018) also reported that the picture word inductive model (pwim) was significantly more effective on vocabulary learning than the control condition. this finding also substantiates milton’s (2009) claim that if words are associated with images, learners remember them better. scaffolding strategies on receptive and productive knowledge naserpour & zarei 126 no. 23 the reason may be because visually-mediated information is dually rather than singly coded. this means that the findings of this study approve the basic tenets of the dual-coding theory. pictures activate the different parts of the brain and reinforce cognitive power, hence facilitating learning. further support for this finding of the study comes from zarei and khazaie (2011), who observed that laptop-based delivery of multimodal items is a useful pedagogical tool to teach new vocabulary. the findings of this study also showed that the cooperative group technique was the second effective scaffolding technique. this finding may be congruent with swain (2010), who states that facilitative co-creation of language can help solve learning problems. as a matter of fact, interactive learning provides a context in which the use of language and language learning can dialogically co-occur. similar to the findings of the present study, hayati and ziyaeimehr (2011) showed that the writing accuracy of the students who received joined construction tasks significantly improved. likewise, ahmadpour and yousefi (2016) also came up with a finding in agreement with that of the present study. they concluded that group work significantly fosters learners’ language acquisition. however, unlike the present study, the focus of their study was on grammatical points. this finding of the present study may also confirm johnson, johnson, and smith’s (2014) contention that cognitive restructuring or elaboration can occur throughout active participation and collaboration, consolidating new information into the current cognitive structures. furthermore, the results of the present study implied that although direct corrective feedback was effective on learners’ comprehension and production of lexical collocations, it had the least effect compared to visual cues and the cooperative group technique. this finding is in agreement with the finding of zarei and mousavi (2016), who found that direct feedback, in comparison to indirect and peer feedback, was less effective on efl learners’ lexical collocations recognition. in agreement with the findings of the present study, alipanahi and naghiloo (2016) also reported that direct corrective feedback had the lowest effect on lexical and grammatical collocations learning, whereas indirect feedback and self-correction were more beneficial. these results may be due to the fact that direct corrective feedback is almost similar to the traditional methods of learning in which the teacher is responsible for students’ learning. on the other hand, in contrast with this study, westmacott (2017) and almasi and nemat tabrizi (2016) concluded that direct feedback was more effective than indirect feedback on language learning. the reason for this difference may be that their study compared the effect of direct and indirect feedback on students’ grammatical and writing proficiency, whereas the focus of this study was on lexical learning. another reason may be the number of the participants, in that westmacott’s study was constrained to only six learners. scaffolding strategies on receptive and productive knowledge naserpour & zarei 127 no. 23 furthermore, the findings of this study stress the role of task orientation in lexical collocations achievement. the results revealed that the output-oriented tasks led to significantly better comprehension and production of lexical collocations than inputoriented tasks. this finding corroborates swain’s (2000) output hypothesis, based on which output tasks, due to their challenging nature, evoke efl learners to process information more deeply. a number of previous studies lend support to this finding (alavinia & rahimi, 2019; salimi & shams, 2016; vosoughi & mehdipour, 2013; webb, 2005). for instance, alavinia and rahimi (2019) and vosoughi and mehdipour (2013) concluded that students using productive tasks learn substantially more vocabulary compared to those using receptive tasks. further support for this finding comes from salimi and shams (2016), who concluded that output-based tasks were more beneficial than input-based tasks in enhancing learners’ writing ability. webb’s (2005) study was also in line with this finding. he reported that productive tasks like sentence writing are more successful than receptive tasks in improving word knowledge. in addition, the results of roohani et al. (2017) revealed that output tasks were more successful than input ones in enhancing the learners’ wtc, although both input and output tasks were significantly effective in improving grammatical accuracy. conclusion and implications the findings of this study suggest that visual cues have positive effects on the comprehension and production of lexical collocations. pictures can assist learners in making associations between words and images, and learning may be facilitated to a great extent (milton, 2009). from this, it may be concluded that the dual-coding theory is applicable to collocations learning. it is also concluded that the application of colorful pictures in teaching new lexical items can bring images of reality into classes (hill, 1990) and create a cheerful, enjoyable atmosphere, which makes learners enjoy their learning. this finding can encourage textbook developers to include suitable pictures in their books to capture learners’ attention to unfamiliar collocations and to make them notice the different aspects of input. the results of this study also indicated that the learners also benefited from the cooperative group technique in lexical collocations learning. it may be concluded that, if appealing visuals are supplemented with a variety of group or whole-class activities, students may experience far more viable learning. specifically speaking, integration of visual cues and cooperative activities can provide opportunities for students to work more on abstract words, the meaning of which may not be accurately conveyed using pictorial tools (thornbury, 2004). based on the findings of this study, it is advisable for language educators to do their instruction via visual aids like blackboard drawings, digital images, wall pictures, charts, flashcards, etc., along with appropriate collaborative activities. furthermore, from the finding that direct feedback was the scaffolding strategies on receptive and productive knowledge naserpour & zarei 128 no. 23 least effective factor in collocations learning, it may be concluded that teachers should resist the temptation to respond to every student error directly and move away from an interventionist approach towards more interactionist ways of teaching. moreover, the finding that output tasks were more efficient than input-oriented tasks, results one in the conclusion that adhering to the comprehensible input hypothesis and hoping that production will emerge once learners are ready might be leaving too much to chance, and that applying a bit of gentle pressure to learners to produce collocations may, in the long run, do them more service. thus, this finding may be useful for language educators and material developers in the sense that they can design productive tasks that include a combination of pictures and group activities. output tasks that are scaffolded by the integration of pictorial cues and cooperative activities may optimize the learning of collocations. this can occur only if language teachers become aware of the value of productive tasks and the importance of using scaffolding techniques like picture presentation and group activities in teaching collocations. scaffolding strategies on receptive and productive knowledge naserpour & zarei 129 no. 23 references ahmadpour, l., & yousefi. m. h. 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(2016). the effects of feedback types on learners’ recognition of lexical collocations. international journal of applied linguistics & english literature, 5(2), 150-158. scaffolding strategies on receptive and productive knowledge naserpour & zarei 134 no. 23 authors * azam naserpour holds a ph.d.  in tefl.  she has been teaching as a lecturer at lorestan and ayatollah borujerdi universities, iran. she has written some books and published several academic articles in national and international journals. her primary research interests concern second language acquisition, psycholinguistics, language assessment, and teacher education.   orcid: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2398-7616 abbas ali zarei associate professor in tefl, is currently a member of academic staff at imam khomeini international university (ikiu) in qazvin. he has had 57 books and 125 papers published. he has also attended and presented at 75 conferences across the world. orcid: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6062-6633 how to reference this article:naserpour, a., & zarei, a. a. (2021) on the effectiveness of scaffolding strategies and task orientation on receptive and productive knowledge of lexical collocations. gist – education and learning research journal, 23, 107–134. https://doi. org/10.26817/16925777.1130 teaching phonological awareness to students khasawneh scaffolding strategies on receptive and productive knowledge gist education and learning research journal. issn 1692-5777. no. 22 (january june, 2021). pp. 7-19. the role of mobile phones in developing motivation through reading activities in english language learners1 el papel de los teléfonos móviles en el desarrollo de la motivación a través de actividades de lectura en aprendices de inglés. roger segura arias2* universidad nacional de costa rica 1 received: january 20th 2020/ accepted: february 25th /2021 2 roger.segura.arias@una.ac.cr 8 no. 22 mobile phones in developing motivation segura-arias abstract this case study attempts to elucidate the effects of mobile phones as tools for teaching reading in fostering motivation in efl students. through qualitative research techniques, the researcher analyses the impact that the implementation of a set of activities in a reading techniques course has on second-year english language learners’ motivation. focus groups and questionnaires help gather the students’ perceptions of their involvement, enjoyment, and investment; the atmosphere created during the implementation of the activities, and their overall experience. in conclusion, the ubiquity of cell phones provides advantages in the development of motivation towards learning english and in fostering independence. keywords: technology, mobile phones, motivation, reading activities, efl resumen este estudio de caso intenta dilucidar los efectos de los teléfonos móviles como herramientas para la enseñanza de la lectura en fomentar la motivación en los estudiantes de inglés como lengua extranjera. mediante el uso de técnicas de investigación cualitativa, el investigador analiza los efectos que tiene la implementación de un conjunto de actividades en un curso de técnicas de lectura sobre la motivación de los estudiantes de segundo año de inglés. grupos focales y cuestionarios ayudan a reunir las percepciones de los estudiantes sobre su participación, disfrute e interés; el ambiente creado durante la implementación de las actividades y su experiencia en general. en conclusión, la ubicuidad de los teléfonos celulares proporciona ventajas en el desarrollo de la motivación para aprender inglés y para fomentar la independencia. palabras clave: tecnología, teléfonos móviles, motivación, actividades de lectura, efl resumo este estudo de caso tenta dilucidar os efeitos que tem o uso dos telefones celulares como ferramentas para ensinar leitura para fomentar a motivação nos estudantes de efl. através do uso de técnicas qualitativas de pesquisa, o professor implementa um conjunto de atividades em um curso de técnicas de leitura para estudantes de inglês de segundo ano; grupos focais e questionários ajudam a reunir as percepções dos estudantes sobre a sua participação, disfrute e interesse; o ambiente criado durante a implementação das atividades e a sua experiência em geral. em conclusão, a onipresença dos telefones celulares proporciona vantagens no desenvolvimento da motivação para aprender inglês e para fomentar a independência. palavras chave: tecnologia, telefones celulares, motivação, atividades de leitura, efl 9 no. 22 mobile phones in developing motivation segura-arias introduction language teaching and learning is undergoing rapid changes, especially with the introduction of modern technology in pedagogy. although the changes have occurred gradually, teachers have encountered challenges concerning accessibility and availability of resources and materials. one resource that has gained popularity are cell phones; it has eased common issues pertaining to the handiness of electronic devices. they are personal resources that can be used as part of the pedagogical mediation while promoting motivation. hereof, students face various challenges when learning a foreign language; motivation has been noted to be essential when developing language proficiency. ortega (2013) expressed that motivation is “the desire to initiate l2 learning and the effort employed to sustain it, and in lay terms we all understand it to be a matter of quantity (p.168). motivation is an abstract construct that involves four aspects: “a goal, effortful behaviour, a desire to attain the goal and favourable attitudes toward the activity in question” (gardner, 1985, as cited in gass and selinker, 2009, p. 426). although students mainly develop motivation by themselves, teachers can promote tools, activities, and resources to motivate students in their classes. in this sense, technology may encourage learning by enhancing participation and engagement in classroom activities. by using technology, educators can help students feel more comfortable while learning. by integrating cell phones, which has now become a part of daily life, it can also be essential in carrying out everyday tasks to develop a sense of pertinence. this study may make a significant contribution to the body of existing research by contextualizing the study to the costa rican higher education system, motivating other professors to leave behind concerns about the use of cell phones in the classroom, and by innovating to promote the students’ learning and boost their linguistic competence. 10 no. 22 purpose this research aims to analyze the effects of cell phone-based reading activities on fostering motivation in second-year english teaching students at the universidad nacional, brunca extension. the study involves designing and implementing reading activities that include using cell phones as a critical element to facilitate learning. also, the researcher gathers students’ perceptions of the effectiveness of the given activities in enhancing motivation. finally, a crucial purpose is to reflect on the impact that cell phone-based activities have in promoting motivation. research questions this research project aims to answer the following questions about the use of mobile technology in developing motivation in efl students by implementing reading activities: what is the role of technology in an english language student’s learning process? how can cell phone use as a learning tool help students feel motivated during reading activities? why should language teachers include cell phone use in their reading activities? literature review esl teaching and technology classroom technology integration brings many advantages when used purposefully by instructors. the modern student needs to prepare for an interconnected world, where technology is vital to achieving everyday tasks. “social, political and economic changes are coming together with pedagogic changes at a breathtaking pace (kress & pachler, 2007, p.7). in english language teaching and learning, technology has aided these processes by enabling access to materials and facilitating their use in education. the following summary presents a set of reasons for how technology can become the backbone of the integration of technology in the classroom, as presented by hamilton (2015). first, classroom technology has two models: its instructional function, where teachers use it during whole-class or small-group interactions. a second model denotes the demonstration mode of technology; in this case, students control its use while teachers lead them. another principal pivots around how learners acquire knowledge when they partake in learning, by discovering ideas, activating their schemata, and, most importantly, forming ways to share knowledge with peers (pp. 4-5). the type of technology integration used in the language classroom will be determined by the instructor, and the purpose that technology will be given in it. another aspect that can mobile phones in developing motivation segura-arias 11 no. 22 shape how technology is employed is related to the types of technology available to the students. mobile technology and teaching reading reading is a crucial skill to develop in students in efl instruction; it allows for exposure to authentic language while learners interact with new vocabulary, grammar structures, and mechanics. reading requires active interaction between the reader and the text; its acquisition is imperative in developing language literacy; it is a dynamic and interactive process that allows the use of various skills, strategies, and background knowledge (constantinescu, 2007, para. 3). teaching reading strategies in english language classrooms is challenging; it is time-consuming and promotes engagement and motivation may be difficult. innovative measures need to be applied in the classroom to productive learning engagement to improve the range and depth of processing, which can be unavailable to students in classrooms without technology use (nettelbeck, 2005, p.31). in this sense, active interaction between the reader and the text may be achieved through innovation. adding technology to the reading process can aid readers’ engagement and promote learning. in contrast, there are challenges to overcome when integrating cell phones in reading teaching and learning. “one such challenge, for example, surrounds the physicality of the devices: due to their small size, the amount of data that can be displayed at any one time and the ease with which it can be manipulated is limited” (kress & pachler, 2007, p.12). because cell phones are usually smaller devices, display capabilities and storage can be compromised, compared to tablets and laptop computers; such limitations need to be borne in mind when using mobiles as reading devices. promoting motivation with technology in language teaching besides the multiple benefits that technology provides in language teaching, technology’s role in enhancing motivation is also worth examining. ortega (2013) presented a comparison of three main dimensions of motivation; first, intensity refers to the effort with which people try to learn the language; enjoyment indicates the learner´s feeling of pleasure while learning, and finally, investment denotes the desire in succeeding in learning the language (pp. 170-171). how students and teachers exercise these dimensions can bring profound differences in the results of language learning. when it comes to motivation in reading, improving students’ engagement is considered a factor concerning developing reading performance and thus of language proficiency. in this sense, anderson (2014) stressed that engaged readers are motivated; mobile phones in developing motivation segura-arias 12 no. 22 and for them to be motivated, there needs to be a teacher responsible for generating such engagements (pp.173-174). teachers should go beyond the curriculum and think about the students’ development and language attainment to develop motivation. for instance, allowing learners to make their own reading selections can make a difference in terms of engagement and enjoyment. thus, the teacher should adapt the curriculum to the students’ choices and find other ways to foster motivation. technology can promote motivation in the process of learning a language; it is a tool that increases students’ learning by “providing them with realistic and motivating opportunities to practice their english” (dudeney & hockly, 2008, p. 12). concerning the use of the students´ mobile devices in language teaching, they “can provide immediate feedback and thus provide continued motivation for those who are not motivated by traditional educational settings” (geddes, 2004, as cited in valk et al., 2010, p. 121). these advantages should be exploited in all linguistic skills. hence, “technology growth is likely to make greater, rather than lesser, demands on people’s reading abilities” (grabe & stoller, 2013, p. xiv): and such demands may imply the development of engaged readers. from this perspective, english instructors ought to promote reading through technology; cell phones stimulate motivation by allowing learners to participate in less traditional reading activities. moreover, teachers can motivate students in reading classes by integrating common mobile platforms such as social media and mobile applications. there could be drawbacks related to using mobile devices in reading activities; the size of the phone and software limitations may reduce the applicability of the technology in the language classroom setting. besides such technical difficulties, “excessive cell phone use during class often leads students to engage in academic disengagement” (lee et al., 2017, p. 360). learners start multitasking by checking social media accounts and text messaging. despite these potential distractions, “mobile computing devices and the use of social media allow student interaction with content” (gikas & grant, 2013, p. 25). when reading activities are the primary concern, cell phones can be a resource for students and an ally for professors, who should use mobile devices purposefully while providing precise directions to students and sufficient supervision. design and method this case study includes and systematizes teaching and learning experiences in an efl context in costa rica and is grounded in a qualitative research methodology that employs an “open inquiry” view. it aims to provide detailed descriptions and interpretations of a phenomenon. it also allows for a cyclical analysis and provides an emic and etic perspective to present various viewpoints (friedman, 2012, pp. 181-182). the participants were 15 second-year english language students from the universidad mobile phones in developing motivation segura-arias 13 no. 22 nacional, brunca extension, pérez zeledón campus. the researcher also served as a practitioner-scholar, which is defined as “an individual who aspires to study problems of practice more comprehensively and systematically, allowing them to better understand the schools, districts, and other educational organizations within which they work” (lochmiller & lester, 2017). moreover, the data collection instruments and tools were an open-ended questionnaire and two focus group discussions administered to the students after a set of seven cell phone-based reading activities were implemented once a week for two months. additionally, a reflective observation questionnaire gathered the professor’s perceptions after each implementation activity. first, cell phone-based activities were grounded on the idea that mobile technology can help english language students learn (dudeney & hockly, 2008) by providing enjoyment (ortega, 2013). these activities were heavily reliant on technology and positioned cell phones as the main instrument to access different platforms and applications. moreover, the open-ended questionnaire focused on discovering the duration in which students use their mobile devices in the classroom, in which could lead to the understanding of the role that mobile devices actually play in their learning. additionally, this instrument aimed to collect the students’ perceptions at the end of the application of cell phone-based reading activities. in general, this questionnaire intended to gather data to assess cell phones’ effectiveness as a learning tool and as motivators during reading activities. furthermore, this study utilized two focus groups to gather in-depth insights from students regarding the role of cell phone-based reading activities in developing motivation. these focus groups served as a follow-up instrument to the questionnaire; they allowed the researcher to access the students’ perceptions in a less restricted environment. it also encouraged learners to inquire about aspects that were not clearly stated in their previous answers, or encouraging learners how to develop questions, make observations and judgements about important aspects of the questionnaire. finally, the practitioner-scholar completed a reflective observation questionnaire designed to gather the instructor´s perceptions of the role of cell phone-based activities in developing motivation during and after the implementation of the activities. findings this section of the paper summarizes the results of the application of three instruments to gather information about the effectiveness of mobile technology in developing motivation in english language students. in the questionnaire and focus groups, most of the students considered that technology, especially mobile technology, can help them learn english; they expressed that they use different applications and websites. when asked if they felt motivated to mobile phones in developing motivation segura-arias 14 no. 22 participate in cell phone-based classroom activities, the learners stated that they feel very motivated because they can use their mobile devices, which was and continue to be prohibited in most classes. also, the attractiveness and newness of the activities motivated them to participate and complete the exercises. some students stressed the importance of using a tool for learning that is personal and that they can have available all the time. besides, the fact that some of the activities added a competitive element seemed to be a significant factor in promoting motivation. the activities considered to be the most interesting were kahoot games, qr code treasure hunts, and online quizzes; the reasons were varied; some talked about the competitiveness and colorfulness of kahoot while others expressed the importance of reviewing material and receiving instant feedback. cell phones for academic purposes in class seem to be a useful tool for these students. the ubiquity of cell phones and the excitement that competitive and attractive activities brought to the learning environment helped learners interact with content, practice reading, and use their mobile devices. in terms of the students ‘perceptions of possible drawbacks brought by using cell phones in the classroom, they mention that social networks are distracting, but when using their mobile devices for learning, they forget about some distractions because they are using their devices for other purposes. also, a vast majority of students agreed that a critical disadvantage does not lie in the mobile device itself, but the access to the internet. according to the subjects, the campus has erratic and unreliable internet service, which can be an obstacle when using the cell phone in class. some students also remarked that it is difficult for professors to monitor students’ actual academic use of their device during activities. the practitioner-scholar assessed the students’ reaction toward the implementation of cell phone-based reading activities; the investigator reported significant acceptance of mobile technology in the activities. the students reacted positively to the instructions and seemed willing to utilize their devices in class. during the activities, students did make effort to participate in them, and they fully cooperated when they had to complete the tasks. moreover, there was a feeling of enjoyment, and the students asked many times if they could continue with a similar task. concerning investment to succeed, there was a high level of desire to complete the activity and to improve their overall results. discussion this section seeks to validate the research findings by comparing the data obtained to the existing theory. first, during the development of the reading activities, the professor and students engaged in what hamilton (2015) called the “second model” of classroom technology. the teacher becomes a model and helps students to use and be mobile phones in developing motivation segura-arias 15 no. 22 in control of technology for learning. hamilton (2015) also remarked that technology is essential due to the partaking properties it has. in this sense, students expressed that the mere fact that they were allowed to use their cell phones in class was an element that promoted learning. in many cases, technology in the classroom has been teacher controlled and handing students some of that control may help the learners to discover ideas and activate their schemata, as stated by hamilton (2015). constantinescu (2007) expressed that reading is an active and interactive process that allows the use of several skills, strategies, and background knowledge. in this respect, cell phone-based reading activities promoted learning and allowed learners to engage with other linguistic skills. additionally, students were able to complete and partake in problem-solving, and an element that helped students was the possibility to receive instant feedback in many activities, as supported by valk et al. (2010). such property of technology helped students to clarify knowledge and verify previously learned material. thus, besides promoting motivation, technology provided a sense of novelty of how students accessed and interacted with reading materials. this finding connects with nettelbeck (2005) who claimed that innovative measures need to be applied in the classroom to produce learning engagement to improve the range and depth of processing, which is unavailable to students in classrooms without technology use. kress & pachler (2007) exposed some challenges that technology may present when brought into the classroom. they highlighted some physical aspects of the devices, such as size and the amount of data that can be displayed and manipulated. nonetheless, the students did not find such elements as challenges and focused mostly on the problems they have connecting to the internet and agreed on the fact that social media can be tenting and keep them off task. some physical characteristics of cell phones may have been surpassed today, allowing students to use their mobile devices just like a computer. however, new challenges may have arisen in terms of social media’s obliquity and their notification in real-time. ortega (2013) related motivation to the intensity with which people want to learn, enjoyment or pleasure while learning, and their investment or desire to succeed. in this regard, the reading activities seem to have helped the learners mostly with the second aspect: enjoyment. the professor could verify that the students’ engagement in the activities and their affinity with most of them. technology seems to have had a central role in bringing enjoyment to the classroom; the reading activities prepared by the professor were designed around the use of different technologies. this fact supports anderson’s (2014) view of teachers’ responsibility to promote engagement and motivation in the classroom. dudeney and hockly (2008) asserted that technology affects language learning and motivation, and grabe and stoller (2013) contended that technology would require students to fulfill modern reading demands. in this sense, the set of reading activities mobile phones in developing motivation segura-arias 16 no. 22 seem to have helped learners to be exposed to the current reading requirements. the students could use their mobile devices to read and complete tasks; such activity is performed by english language readers every day as many favor electronic reading material and to complete everyday tasks on their cell phones. thus, the reading activities allowed the learners to feel more engaged and motivated during the tasks. they could use their cell phones and other different technologies individually or with peers to learn, instead of using printed materials, which has been the norm in most reading courses. conclusions the data obtained in this study has yielded information about the role of technology in the english language learning process in this particular group of learners. the students who participated in the focus groups and interviews established technology as a critical tool for learning. the diverse use of apps and websites and the easiness with which they access data and authentic materials place technology in the center of their exposure to the language. all the students acknowledged its importance and its many advantages. the use of mobile devices has gained popularity among teachers and students; in this specific study, most students considered its use to be advantageous in terms of portability, accessibility, and engagement. nonetheless, teachers must be cautious not to overuse this technology and plan carefully and accordingly, by developing clear objectives and maximizing its use. besides, the use of cell phones enhances motivation in classes, increases student investment in the activities and learners showed a high level of effort, which boosted their reading skills. all the students also expressed that they enjoyed cell phone-based activities; there were positive feelings involved, which promoted learning and helped lower anxiety levels. according to the data collected, reading activities that integrate cell phones are engaging and add variety. some informants remarked how the use of their mobile devices promoted diversity, which was refreshing and broke the monotony of using paper materials in their class. the integration of mobile technologies into english teaching is an on-going process, yet there are many challenges to overcome. on a reflective note, the use of cell phones in the language classrooms may have many limitations, as experienced during the application of the reading activities. first, even when all the students who participated in the study had a smartphone, some of these devices showed limitations when accessing certain websites. for example, having reliable, high-speed internet service in different educational institutions in the country is very important. as per the changes required, there must be a shift in the way students and teachers view cell phones in classrooms. some students claimed that they are still hesitant when using mobile phones in developing motivation segura-arias 17 no. 22 their devices since they have been accustomed not to use them in class. professors need to be aware of the advantages that mobile technology can provide, especially in language classes in foreign contexts. access to authentic materials, the variety of activities, and engaging dynamics are just some of the positive effects of mobile phones’ inclusion in the teaching and learning environment. as new technologies emerge, new ways for improving reading may emerge; however, cell phones may be an essential device to exploit in english reading classrooms for many years to come. nonetheless, english teachers need to be updated to explore new ways to reach the demands of learners who may need technology to develop their reading skills fully. mobile phones in developing motivation segura-arias 18 no. 22 references anderson, n.j. (2014). developing engaged second language readers. in celcemurcia, m., brinton, d., & snow, m. a. (eds.), teaching english as a second or foreign language (pp. 168-188). boston: national geographic learning. constantinescu, a. (2007). using technology to assist in vocabulary acquisition and reading comprehension. the internet tesl journal, xiii(2). retrieved from http:// iteslj.org/articles/constantinescu-vocabulary.html dudeney, g., & hockly, n. (2008). how to teach english with technology. harlow: pearson/longman. gass, s. m., & selinker, l. (2009). second language acquisition: an introductory course. new york: routledge. gikas, j., & grant, m. m. (2013). mobile computing devices in higher education: student perspectives on learning with cellphones, smartphones & social media. the internet and higher education, 19, 18 – 26. https://doi.org/10.1016/j. iheduc.2013.06.002. grabe, w., & stoller, f. l. (2013). teaching and researching reading. london: routledge. hamilton, b. (2015). integrating technology in the classroom: tools to meet the needs of every student. the usa: international society for technology in education. kress, g. & pachler, n. (2007). thinking about the ‘m’ in m-learning. in pachler, n. (ed.), mobile learning: towards a research agenda (pp. 7-32). london: wle centre, institute of education. retrieved from https://www.researchgate.net/ publication/233981184_thinking_about_the_’m’_in_m-learning lee, s., kim, m. w., mcdonough, i. m., mendoza, j. s., & kim, m. s. (2017). the effects of cell phone use and emotion-regulation style on college students’ learning. applied cognitive psychology, 31(3), 360-366. doi: 10.1002/acp.332 lochmiller, c. r., & lester, j. n. (2017). an introduction to educational research: connecting methods to practice. los angeles: sage. friedman, d.a. (2012). how to collect and analyze qualitative data. in a. mackey, & s. m. gass (eds), research methods in second language acquisition: a practical guide (180-200). malden, ma: wiley-blackwell. nettelbeck, d. c. (2005). computers, thinking and learning: inspiring students with technology. camberwell, vic.: acer press. mobile phones in developing motivation segura-arias 19 no. 22 ortega, l. (2013). understanding second language acquisition. new york, ny: routledge. valk, j., rashid, a. t., & elder, l. (2010). using mobile phones to improve educational outcomes: an analysis of evidence from asia. the international review of research in open and distributed learning, 11(1), 117-140. doi:10.19173/irrodl.v11i1.794 author *roger segura arias is an academic in foreign languages and tourism at the universidad nacional de costa rica, brunca regional headquarters, pérez zeledón campus. he holds a bachelor’s degree in teaching english from the national university, a licentiate’s degree in teaching english from the universidad latina, a licentiate’s degree in applied linguistics in english teaching from the national university, a master’s degree in educational sciences with an emphasis on teaching at the san isidro labrador international university and a master’s degree in applied linguistics with an emphasis on english for specific purposes from the school of literature and language sciences, national university. his research areas are the use of technology in the english classroom, reflexive teaching and learning, and curricular design in foreign languages orcid: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1553-3953 mobile phones in developing motivation segura-arias how to reference this article: segura-arias, r. (2021). the role of mobile phones in developing motivation through reading activities in english language learners. gist – education and learning research journal, 22(1), 7-19. https://doi.org/10.26817/16925777.823 4 editorial carlo granados-beltrán* editor-in-chief it is a pleasure for our editorial committee to share with you this new edition of gist journal. in this opportunity, our contributions are framed within the sociocultural turn in human sciences (johnson, 2006, 2009), in which it is understood that language learning and teaching does not happen in a vacuum as it is constructed dialogically by different actors with their shifting identities and within particular contextual features. understanding that learning to teach is a sociocultural practice is a premise that leads three of the contributions to this issue; first, torres-cepeda and ramos-holguín describe the process of identity construction as language teachers and learners for a group of preservice teachers in tunja by means of a narrative design; second, and in the same line of interest, vez-lópez and jiménez-velásquez explored undergraduate students’ perceptions about the skills they have developed when in their last semester of their university studies; turning to the practical applications of the sociocultural approach, we find the notion of community supporting pedagogical practices. in this sense, bonilla-salazar shares with us a case study about elements of youth identity emerging from the participants’ interaction with music in english during interventions guided by critical and community-based pedagogies. also, gómez and cortés-jaramillo describe the results of an action research aiming at the construction of negotiated curriculum by using communitybased pedagogies to benefit a rural school. different models focusing on the development of bilingualism also take into consideration the contextual factors which could influence on their success and effectiveness; in this regard, rodríguez-tamayo and tenjo-díaz explored the construction of children’s identities during their experience in a dual language program in the united states. likewise, torres-rincón and cuesta-medina analyzed how content and language integrated learning could foster the development of 21st century skills such as critical thinking, collaboration, creativity, and communication and how professional development in this methodology could help teachers to see it as a dialogic approach. subjectivities also constitute a key component of a sociocultural approach to language teaching and learning, then, posadaortíz and garzón-duarte by means of autobiographies recovered pre-service teachers’ experiences, feelings, and insights as english language learners and sevilla-morales and gamboa-mena examine how pre-service teachers’ theoretical reflections on critical incidents connect to the english teaching system in costa rica. no. 18 (january june 2019) no. 18 (january june 2019) 5 in the sociocultural turn, it is understood that knowledge is socially construct and for that construction to happen, we need to communicate with one another; in the field of research, this is done through writing, that is why we have a case study by giraldo-aristizábal about the challenges and gains scholars face when engaged in the activity of writing academically. additionally, and regarding, knowledge construction, cárdenas, gonzález and álvarez in 2010 stated that teachers’ knowledge base is an aspect of teacher education that has not been frequently explored. daniel and burgin decided to work in this direction by exploring guatemalan teachers and learners’ funds of knowledge about their cultural capital and a similar interest is displayed by castañeda-londoño, who reviews the concept of teachers’ knowledge base from a poststructuralist and decolonial perspective. we hope you enjoy this issue and we invite you to continue sending your contributions to build a learning and research community for the field of language pedagogy to encourage others to publish valuable work for fellow teachers and researchers. references cárdenas, m. l., gonzález, a., & álvarez, j. a. (2010). el desarrollo profesional de los docentes de inglés en ejercicio: algunas consideraciones conceptuales para colombia. folios, (31), 49 – 67. doi: https://doi.org/10. 17227/01234870.31folios49.67 johnson, k. (2006). the sociocultural turn and its challenges for second language teacher education. tesol quarterly, 40(1), 235 – 257 johnson, k. (2009). second language teacher education: a sociocultural perspective. new york, ny.: routledge *carlo granados-beltrán holds a phd in education from universidad santo tomás, an ma in british cultural studies and elt from the university of warwick and an ma in applied linguistics to tefl from universidad distrital. he is the academic director at the ba in bilingual education at única. he has been teacher of the language department at universidad central, the ba programmes in spanish and languages and spanish and english at universidad pedagógica nacional and the ba in modern languages at universidad javeriana. also, he is guest lecturer for the ma in language teaching at uptc no. 18 (january june 2019) no. 18 (january june 2019) https://doi.org/10.17227/01234870.31folios49.67 https://doi.org/10.17227/01234870.31folios49.67 _hlk517687097 _hlk7516758 _hlk8801090 _gjdgxs _30j0zll _hlk8802317 _hlk8626559 _hlk8802656 _hlk519969894 _hlk9576345 _hlk9575766 _hlk526623052 _hlk526623433 _hlk6142970 _goback _goback _goback 84 montero-arévalo effects of genre based approach (gba) in efl reading comprehension and writing1 efectos del enfoque basado en los géneros textuales (gba) en la comprensión lectora y escritura del inglés como lengua extranjera sindy johana montero-arévalo2* universidad popular del cesar, colombia abstract the present paper puts under examination the effects of genre based approach (gba) on 9th grade students from a city in the caribbean coast of colombia. the purpose of the study is to analyze how gba affects reading comprehension and writing by comparing the students’ results before and after the execution of the approach. gba was implemented in six sessions using instruments for data collection that included tests, questionnaires and interviews. the genres selected for the study were anecdotes and recounts, which are the type of texts used in the english section of national exams in colombia. the overall findings show that students’ reading comprehension, writing, motivation and autonomy improved after the implementation of gba; as a result, the students were able to understand, explain and recreate the genres that were part of the study. keywords: gba; genre awareness; reading comprehension; writing; autonomy resumen este documento examina los efectos del enfoque basado en los géneros textuales (gba) en estudiantes de noveno grado provenientes de una ciudad en la costa caribe colombiana. el estudio tiene como propósito analizar cómo afecta el gba la compresión lectora y la escritura de los estudiantes, para esto fueron contrastados los resultados de los estudiantes antes y después de la aplicación del enfoque. el gba se implementó durante seis sesiones utilizando exámenes, cuestionarios y entrevistas con el propósito 1 received: july 31st 2018/ september 4th 2019 2 louper_10@hotmail.com gist education and learning research journal. issn 1692-5777. no.19 (july december, 2019). pp. 84-100. no. 19 (july december 2019) no. 19 (july december 2019) 85 montero-arévalo de reunir la información necesaria. los géneros textuales utilizados en estudio fueron anécdotas y recuentos, debido a que son los tipos de textos que hacen presencia en la sección de inglés de los exámenes nacionales en colombia. los resultados generales muestran que la compresión lectora, escritura, motivación y autonomía de los estudiantes aumentaron al completar las sesiones donde fue implementado el gba; como consecuencia, los estudiantes comprendieron, explicaron y recrearon los géneros textuales utilizados en el estudio. palabras clave: enfoque; géneros textuales; comprensión lectora; motivación; autonomía resumo este documento examina os efeitos do enfoque baseado nos gêneros textuais (gba) em estudantes de primeiro ano do ensino médio provenientes de uma cidade no litoral caribe colombiana. o estudo tem como propósito analisar como afeta o gba a compreensão leitora e a escritura dos estudantes, para isto foram contrastados os resultados dos estudantes antes e depois da aplicação do enfoque. o gba se implementou durante seis sessões utilizando provas, questionários e entrevistas com o propósito de reunir a informação necessária. os gêneros textuais utilizados em estudo foram anedotas e recontos, devido a que são os tipos de textos que fazem presença na seção de inglês dos exames nacionais na colômbia. os resultados gerais mostram que a compreensão leitora, escritura, motivação e autonomia dos estudantes aumentaram ao completar as sessões onde foi implementado o gba; como consequência, os estudantes compreenderam, explicaram e recriaram os gêneros textuais utilizados no estudo. palavras chave: enfoque; gêneros textuais; compreensão leitora; motivação; autonomia no. 19 (july december 2019) no. 19 (july december 2019) 86 gbl in efl reading comprehension montero-arévalo introduction the difficulty in reading texts has been an object of study, and for several decades, researchers have claimed diverse causes for lack of reading comprehension. chambliss (1995) states that one of the reasons for low levels of understanding is the absence of exposure of students to readings with different structure than narrative. scholars around the world have implemented an approach that exposes the students explicitly to the text structure, yielding positive results. this approach has been used in colombia in order to improve reading comprehension in students. it is the case of genre based approach (henceforth gba), which have had positive results in students, increasing their understanding of texts. however, the gba is still unknown in colombia, due to few studies that have been dedicated to implement it. overall results in gba studies revealed improvement in students’ comprehension and motivation for reading. it is feasible to believe that the implementation of gba in colombia may facilitate the development of literacy skills in order that the students have a deeper understanding of written texts. it also will have an impact in national tests, but beyond that, reading comprehension is not focusing on an exam or an ability to answer correctly. reading comprehension is a life skill that creates thinking citizens and potential writers that can push forward a country. the interest behind developing this research was born when the teacher realized that her group of students presented problems during reading comprehension activities. a significant percentage of students were not able to understand the texts and struggle when they had to answer questions from different levels of comprehension, including questions directly mentioned in the text. previous literature reading encompasses more than decoding characters in a text; it implies the interpretation of what an author intends to say to an audience. in this order of ideas, reading is not possible without comprehension. according to wallace (2001) “comprehension is the form of the presentation of text followed by post-reading questions on the text” (p. 26). it is important to clarify that every reader has a personal interpretation of a text. nevertheless, comprehension questions are present in many published materials in an effort to develop reading skills (williams & moran, 1989). reading comprehension-based approaches have been created taking a stance in controversy whether a text has one meaning or multiple meanings determined by the reader (masuahara, 2013). some authors suggest that the real no. 19 (july december 2019) no. 19 (july december 2019) 87 gbl in efl reading comprehension montero-arévalo meaning is the one intended by the author and the efficiency of comprehension is determined by the interpretation of this meaning (williams, 1983). on the other hand, widdowson (1979) states that the meaning will diverge from reader to reader depending on several factors. we can conclude that every text written has an intention and an audience, and readers possess different points of view, backgrounds and reactions. however, it is essential for a reader to be able to understand the intention of the writer, the context of the text, the type of text, the audience that will read it and interpret the information provided by the author with the aim of creating a personal opinion of the text. the understanding of a type of text requires establishing the patterns that master the text and the features that differentiate that specific structure from others. these patterns are named genres. genre is a term used for categorizing different types of text (hyland, 2004). according to cope and kalantzis (1993), “genre is a term used in literacy pedagogy to connect the different forms texts take with variations in social purpose.” (p. 7). so, genre not only refers to the grammatical structures of texts, but the social contexts where they are performed. cope and kalantziz (1993) also point out that “genres are textual interventions in society; and society itself would be nothing without language in all its patterned predictability” (p. 7). each society has established patterns where genres are used according to specific circumstances and culture. according to martin and rose (2008), genres are considered as staged, goal oriented social processes. they are considered staged due to the fact that there are several phases to accomplish an objective, genres are also goal oriented because there is a desire for obtaining a result and finally social, since every writer directs their text to a specific audience. in this regard, genres show us more than how a text is conformed; it presents us the purpose of the writer, their society customs and patterns. martin and rose (2008) state that “genres are defined as a recurrent configuration of meanings and that these recurrent configurations of meaning enact the social practices of a given culture” (p. 5). this means that genres have specific uses for particular contexts, and there exist several categories that are grouped according to the genre’s purpose. when a purpose needs to be established, the writer has to take some decisions, they have to set their intention, this decision will place the writer in one category that is followed for several choices, which will end in one specific genre inside a general one. the recognition of the stages allows the reader to identify the intention of the writer and permits that the reader relates texts with similar structure. in writer’s case, they can set the intentions of their text and follow the stages that are established. one approach that uses the recognition of types of text as a strategy for reading comprehension is the gba. no. 19 (july december 2019) no. 19 (july december 2019) 88 gbl in efl reading comprehension montero-arévalo the structure of texts changes depending on the culture. nevertheless, there are patterns that main types of text use. according to farrell (2009), types of text can be classified into fiction (novels, short stories, plays and poetry) and nonfiction (essays, reports and articles), as the technology becomes part of the culture new genres appeared as memos, text messages and emails with their own characteristics and structures that can be easily identified. the awareness of the structure of different types of texts, its features and its rules can help the learners to comprehend better and recall the contents of a text while the learners develop their writing skills (farrell, 2009). rose (2008) defines six steps for the reading learning cycle. first, prepare before reading, “orients students to the genre and field of the text” (rose, 2008 p. 16). the purpose of this step is the students understand the text in general terms. in other words, what the text is about, the context and the unfamiliar words. the second stage, detailed reading, is when the “teacher supports all students to read each sentence in a short passage” (rose, 2008 p. 16). it implies reading aloud the text and the conversion of sentences into simpler ideas for the students. in the third step, preparing for writing, the students “plan exactly what they are going to write, based closely on the passage they have studied in detailed reading” (rose, 2008 p. 16). in this point, the teacher encourages brainstorming for new ideas based on the features that the students identified on the last stage with as a means to collect ideas for a new text. the step following the collection of ideas is joint rewriting, where “the teacher supports the class to write a new text that is patterned on the reading text” (rose, 2008 p. 16). the teacher in collaboration with the students create a new text created based on the ideas that the students provided and later this text will be similar to the students’ writing. in the individual rewriting or fifth stage “the students practice writing a new text using the same patterns as the reading and joint rewriting texts” (rose, 2008 p. 16). during this particular time, the students have the opportunity to work on their own and allows the teacher to support the students’ texts as preparation for the final stage. finally, independent writing is when “students use what they have learnt from the preceding stages to write an independent text” (rose, 2008 p. 16). in this final level, the students write a text that may have a different topic but using the same genre worked previously. while students write their texts, they are conscious of the intention of the text type and will be able to identify the different stages inside the text, its features that may facilitate the comprehension of texts with the same genre. the six stages mentioned above, summarize the gba which has been considered as “main institutionalized alternative to process pedagogy currently on offer” (cheng, 2006). scholars are always in the pursuit of solutions of students’ needs, in consequence, pedagogies will appear to fit new necessities of students and genre approach is now one that is currently in use. according no. 19 (july december 2019) no. 19 (july december 2019) 89 gbl in efl reading comprehension montero-arévalo to lee (2012), genre approach assumes that students learn best when they are exposed explicitly to the structure of texts, its language and its structural features of different types of texts that they need to learn to read and write. in 2008, rose classified the principal genres, its subgenres, purposes and stages. the focus of this study is the stories genre, specifically anecdotes and recounts. according to rose (2008) “the purpose of a recount is to recount series of events, so its stages include an orientation and a record of events” (p.15). this genre attempts to describe situations according to their sequence of their execution. this is one example of a recount: 1936 it was. i would have been five. we went visiting ernabella the day the police came. our greatuncle sid was leasing ernabella from the government at that time so we went there.we had been playing all together, just a happy community and the air was filled with screams because the police came and mothers tried to hide their children and blacken their children’s faces and tried to hide them in caves. we three, essie, brenda and me together with our three cousins ... the six of us were put on an old truck and taken to oodnadatta which was hundreds of miles away and then we got there in the darkness. my mother had to come with us. she had already lost her eldest daughter down to the children’s hospital because she had infantile paralysis, polio, and now there was the prospect of losing her three other children, all the children she had. i remember that she came in the truck with us curled up in the fetal position. who can understand that, the trauma of knowing that you’re going to lose all your children? we talk about it from the point of view of our trauma but our mother to understand what she went through, i don’t think anyone can really understand that. it was 1936 and we went to the united aborigines mission in oodnadatta. we got there in the dark and then we didn’t see our mother again. she just kind of disappeared into the darkness. i’ve since found out in the intervening years that there was a place they called the natives’ camp and obviously my mother would have been whisked to the natives’ camp. there was no time given to us to say goodbye to our mothers. (australian human rights commission, 2010, p. 111) the second emphasized genre in this research is anecdotes. martin and rose (2008) state that “the point of an anecdote is to share an emotional reaction. to this end, anecdotes present a sequence of events that is out of the ordinary and conclude with the protagonist’s reaction to the events” (p. 52). one identifier of this type of text is the complication followed by a reaction during the narration. following an example of an anecdote: no. 19 (july december 2019) no. 19 (july december 2019) 90 gbl in efl reading comprehension montero-arévalo my name is millicent d. i was born at wonthella wa in 1945. my parents were cd and mp, both ‘halfcaste’ aborigines. i was one of seven children, our family lived in the sandhills at the back of the geraldton hospital. there was a lot of families living there happy and harmonious. it was like we were all part of one big happy family. in 1949 the protector of aborigines with the native welfare department visited the sandhill camps. all the families living there were to be moved to other campsites or to the moore river aboriginal settlement. because my parents were fair in complexion, the authorities decided us kids could pass as whitefellas. i was four years old and that was the last time i was to see my parents again. because my sisters were older than me they were taken to the government receiving home at mount lawley. my brother kevin was taken to the boys home in kenwick. colin and i were taken to the sister kate’s home. we were put in separate accommodation and hardly ever saw each other. i was so afraid and unhappy and didn’t understand what was happening. (australian human rights commission, 2010, p. 100) the clear exposure to text structures is the methodology that many researchers around the world are applying to students from different cultures and backgrounds. lubawski and sheehan applied in 2010 gba to tenth grade students in a public school in massachusetts. the problem that teachers identified was that the students were not able to understand the written material received in class so they carried out a research with the objective to answer what strategies can be used in order to improve students reading comprehension across different genres. the researchers collected data through observations in the classroom, tests and students’ feedback. the results showed that students become more successful and confident in their reading abilities, supporting the statements of some researchers: gba to teaching and learning writing seems to be relevant for the students with low competencies and low motivation. it really guides the students to write from the very simple or dependent steps to independent steps. it also promotes and facilitates the student finally to learn in autonomous learning way (dirgeyasa, 2016, p. 50) gba has had positive results in students’ reading comprehension and writing, its stages allow the teacher to work in collaboration with their students and lead them to their autonomy, diminishing their participation in the students’ work as gradually as the students embrace their independency. the improvement of reading and writing skills suits two important needs of our students that may lead to important achievements in the future of colombian professionals. no. 19 (july december 2019) no. 19 (july december 2019) 91 gbl in efl reading comprehension montero-arévalo methodology classrooms are not homogeneous scenarios where strategies will yield the same result, without giving importance to students’ background or context. considering that each group of students has different lacks and needs, the type of study selected was qualitative research. sandoval (1996) states that “due to that there is not possibility to predict the reaction of the group to the gba, qualitative research allows that the instruments for collecting data be in accordance with the characteristics of each situation. (p. 125).” the main purpose of the study is to analyze the way gba affects reading comprehension and writing in efl students from 9th grade. we chose action research to identify the reactions of the students during and after the execution of the gba. cohen and manion (1994) define action research as ‘a smallscale intervention in the functioning of the real world and a close examination of the effects of such an intervention’ (p. 186). in this study the researcher interfered in a real-world situation, which may yield favorable or negative results, either case with the application of genre-based the students might improve their reading comprehension skills and in this way other aspects of life might be facilitated for them. setting and participants this study took place in a private bilingual school in valledupar, colombia. the class selected had 36 students; all of them were in 9th grade between 13 and 15 years old. the school was recently recognized as bilingual consequently, the group selected did not have many hours of english until a few years ago. therefore, the english level of most students is a1 or less, which is lower than presumed for ninth graders. all the students participated in the written texts, questionnaires but only eight students took part in the interviews. one teacher was responsible for planning, conducting and assessing the students during the implementation of the gba. instruments the first instrument used was a pre-test. it had two short readings (one anecdote and one recount), one open question about the main idea of the text and multiple-choice questions related to literal information, inference and interpretation. after the pre-test, the teacher implemented a structured interview in which she asked the students to explain their answers. the structured interview is one in which the content and procedures are organized in advance. this no. 19 (july december 2019) no. 19 (july december 2019) 92 gbl in efl reading comprehension montero-arévalo means that the sequence and wording of the questions are determined by means of a schedule and the interviewer is left little freedom to make modifications. where some leeway is granted to her, and it is also notified in advance. it is therefore characterized by being a closed situation (cohen, manion and morrison, 2003). the structured interviews avoid distractions of the teacher in terms of doubts about the next question. it also allows the teacher to pay more attention to the students’ answers. besides the interviews, the handouts that the teacher gave to the students were adapted from reading to learn (rose, 2008). the structure of the copies provides guidance to the students during the process of writing and after the independent writing phase, the teacher used a rubric to revise the stages of gba in students’ writing. stevens and levi (2013) state that “rubric saves time, provide timely, meaningful feedback for students, and have potential to become and effective part of the teaching process” (p.17). the rubric used in the study was based on the ‘three-level rubric’ (stevens and levi, 2013) which format enables the teacher to verify the mastering of students learning about texts patterns. table 1. instruments and its relation to the research objective. technique/ instrument instrument’s objective research objective pre-test (written and oral) final test (written) oral test analyze the answers of the students, in order to know if there is comprehension of the reading or not. analyze the way genre based approach (gba) affects reading comprehension in efl students of 9th grade. rubric check if the students follow the steps of genre in their writing. characterize the writing of students of 9th grade after the implementation of gba. interviews/ questionnaire virtual questionnaire check level of acceptation in the students. determine students’ perception about the methodology implemented. at the end of the process, the teacher implemented a final test which format was very similar to the pre-test; both included oral evaluations with random students. this test was used in order to compare students’ comprehension before and after the study. no. 19 (july december 2019) no. 19 (july december 2019) 93 gbl in efl reading comprehension montero-arévalo besides the written test, the teacher selected and recorded four random students for an oral test that included open questions about inference, vocabulary and literal information of two texts (one recount and one anecdote). finally, in order to evaluate students’ attitude towards the study, the teacher applied two questionnaires. first, a structured questionnaire where the students had to evaluate the course from one to five, being one the lowest score and five the highest. this questionnaire allowed seeing patterns in students’ answers. the second questionnaire was an “open invitation to write what one wants” (cohen, manion and morrison, 2003 p. 248) the open questionnaire enables the students to respond in their own terms and in an anonymous way. procedure in some sessions, the activities took more time than expected, due to the class was interrupted by coordinators who had to spread information about a parent meeting, teachers who wanted to clarify an assignment or students that were in charge of providing some information related to school events. these situations were common in the school and caused that teacher had to reorganize the activities. however, it was possible the achievement of the activities planned as it follows: session zero: before the application of the project, the teacher applied a pre-test with the purpose of contrasting the level of comprehension before and after the study. session one: the teacher explicitly explains the students the structures of the texts, its uses and the features that characterizes, in order that the students identified the different text-types. session two: the students had to reorganize texts according to the structure and features. session three: the teacher writes in collaboration with the students a recount and an anecdote following their structure and features. session four: the students write independently a recount and an anecdote. session five: the teacher implemented a final written test, questionnaires and interviews. no. 19 (july december 2019) no. 19 (july december 2019) 94 gbl in efl reading comprehension montero-arévalo table 2. description of gba sessions. results this research attempts to investigate the effects of gba on 9th grade students’ reading comprehension and writing. the results of this study support previous studies carried out in efl students and presented positive effects of gba in reading comprehension of non-native english speakers. some researchers carried out these studies in similar contexts that included large groups and homogeneous backgrounds (barletta, moreno & toloza, 2013; sadeghi, taghi, & hemmati, 2013). no. 19 (july december 2019) no. 19 (july december 2019) 95 gbl in efl reading comprehension montero-arévalo in the study, the students were able to identify the stages of a text and to identify the purpose of each story. we noticed that in the results, the rising of students’ confidence when they answered the oral test at the end of the study, they were sure of their answers that were accompanied with arguments that supported their ideas. we also acknowledged the development of their selfreliance during the independent writing. the students during the re-writing were very teacher-depended; they were not sure about what they were writing and asked for approval from the teacher in every part of the process. according to feez, (1998) in the re-writing stage the teacher should gradually diminish the participation in the text construction so that the students are able to deal with the structure of the texts independently. during the independent writing, there were almost no questions for the teacher and the students completed the writing by themselves. in this stage, it was possible to perceive the increase of students’ confidence since the re-writing stage. previous studies by haria (2011) and lubawski and sheehan (2010) described the increasing confidence in students and teachers as one positive effect of the implementation of gba and the enlargement of critical thinking in students. additionally, one effect that was evident in this study is students’ motivation. during the interviews, some students expressed that at the beginning of the course they were not interested, because the activities were not graded. however, during the lessons, the students that were not motivated to do the activities became active participants and some of them were volunteers for the questionnaire’s interview, where they talked about their change and their improvement since the beginning of the sessions. in the phase where the students’ demonstrated to be more motivated was when they were able to express ideas to construct a text. rose (2008) suggests the brainstorming when attempting to improve the understanding of stories, he also stated that the ideas provided by the students are closer to what the students will write by themselves. the appropriation of the text allows the students to create a link between the text and them, and it facilitates their understanding and their confidence in writing texts with the same structure. during this stage, the students that were not very interested in the course, started to provide ideas for the text’s construction and developing the next stages of the course. the study focused on three main aspects: analyze the way gba affects reading comprehension in efl students of 9th grade, characterize the writing of students of 9th grade after the implementation of gba, and determine students’ perception about the methodology implemented. through the implementation of interviews and test, it was possible to determine how gba affected students’ reading comprehension. the results demonstrated that the students were able to answer literal questions easily. however, the questions related to inferring words from the context were no. 19 (july december 2019) no. 19 (july december 2019) 96 gbl in efl reading comprehension montero-arévalo complicated for them. in the pre-interviews the students mentioned strategies that might help them in this type of questions. nevertheless, when they explained the reasons for selecting the words, the students guessed or expressed that they were confused. after the gba, in the final oral test, the questions were open and in the inferring questions, most of the students were able to relate an unknown word to a synonym that they had to infer from the text. on the other hand, the writing skills improved in students from the rewriting to the independent writing. first, in the re-writing the students followed a model and included stories related to the school and people they know. in the independent writing stage, the familiar places diminished, and the students created fictional stories with invented characters and personal desires. they also included more features of anecdotes and recounts that provided a more complex text than the example given by the teacher and the re-writing. finally, the students expressed positive answers related to the course, the methodology and the instructor. the students coincided that the course helped their reading comprehension, that what they learned was useful for their development as persons and students. additionally, they considered that doing the activities step by step facilitated the work for them. on the other hand, one student mentioned the noise as the main problem during the course, due to the heavy traffic close to the institution. nevertheless, these conditions do not belong to this group only, the setting around school is usually not appropriate for concentration and production. despite this environment is not adequate for any of the participants in the classroom, it is the condition of many classrooms in colombia and is completely out of our control. conclusions in global terms, the results of this study indicate that gba has a positive effect on reading comprehension and writing on efl students from ninth grade. the overall results also show that students have a better understanding of texts and were able to infer meanings from the readings. furthermore, students’ writing was aligned to the text types implemented in the study. in this part of the process, the students worked independently, and the findings described that most of the students used the structure of anecdotes and recounts. in addition, some students created more detailed situations in the stories than the ones that the teacher showed as examples. finally, the results of the questionnaire indicate that students’ perception of the methodology implemented was positive, including students that changed their idea of the study from a negative to a positive reaction. these reactions prove that gba has an important impact on students’ abilities and its use may cause a difference in colombian students from a non-literary country to an ascent in readers and no. 19 (july december 2019) no. 19 (july december 2019) 97 gbl in efl reading comprehension montero-arévalo potential writers. additionally, gba allows the teacher to guide the students to a point where they can work independently and develop autonomy and selfconfidence in the actions that they perform. it was also notable in some students that they had the knowledge or a similar word that could lead them to answer correctly the questions of the test, but they were not able to use that knowledge in their favor. not all the results in the study were positive, even though the students obtained better scores in the written texts, in the oral interviews the students still struggle with the usage of pronouns as well as they did not know at the end of the course, the purposes of the texts that were explained. these negatives outcomes demonstrate the immense necessity of our intervention in favor of students’ improvement. although further work is required on how we can use gba in more complex genres related to different areas as science, social studies, literature etc. it is also needed research related to how genre affects other abilities besides reading and writing and how the gba affects students’ and teachers’ performance. additionally, during this study we paid very little attention to students’ habits of reading. therefore, further research can be implemented on how genre-based approach can cultivate reading habits in the students. in this way, we might encourage that the students develop autonomy for selecting texts and in consequence, the expansion of their exposure to different genres and their abilities to understand them. no. 19 (july december 2019) no. 19 (july december 2019) 98 gbl in efl reading comprehension montero-arévalo references australian human rights commission,. (2010). bringing them home: the “stolen children” report (1997). barletta, n., moreno, f., toloza, h. (2013). a coaching experience to assist the teaching and learning process of reading and writing in the school context, zona próxima [electrónica], 19, 39-55. chambliss, m. j. (1995). text cues and strategies successful readers use to construct the gist of lengthy written arguments. reading research quarterly,30(4), 778-807. cheng, a. (2006). understanding learners and learning in esp genre-based writing instruction. english for specific purposes, 25(1), 76-89. cohen, l. & manion, l. (1994) research methods in education (4th ed.). london: routledge. cohen, l., manion, l., & morrison, k. (2003). research methods in education (5th ed.). london: routledgefalmer. cope, b., & kalantzis, m. (1993). the powers of literacy: a genre approach to teaching writing. pittsburgh: university of pittsburgh press. dirgeyasa, i. w. (2016). genre-based approach: what and how to teach and to learn writing. english language teaching, 9, 9, 45. farrell, t. s. c. (2009). teaching reading to english language learners: a reflective guide. thousand oaks, calif: corwin press. feez, s., (1998). text-based syllabus design. sydney: national centre for english language teaching and research. haria, p. d. (2011). the effects of teaching a genre-specific reading comprehension strategy on struggling fifth grade students’ ability to summarize and analyze argumentative texts. university of delaware. hyland, k. (2004). genre and second language writing. ann arbor, mi: the university of michigan press. lee, m. (2012). teaching genre-based writing to korean high school students at a basic level. lubawski, m., & sheehan, c. (2010). reading comprehension across different genres: an action research study. martin, j. r., & rose, d. (2008). genre relations: mapping culture. london: equinox pub. no. 19 (july december 2019) no. 19 (july december 2019) 99 gbl in efl reading comprehension montero-arévalo rose, d. (2008). reading to learn. 2008 edition. david rose 2008. sandoval, c. c. a. (1996). investigación cualitativa. santafé de bogotá: icfes. stevens, d. d., & levi, a. (2013). introduction to rubrics: an assessment tool to save grading time, convey effective feedback, and promote student learning. sterling, virginia: stylus. wallace, c. (2001). “reading”. in r. carter & d. nunan (eds.) the cambridge guide to teaching english to speakers of other languages (pp. 21-27). cambridge: cambridge university press. widdowson, h. g. (1979). teaching language as communication. oxford: oxford univ. press. williams, e. (1983). communicative reading. in johnson & porter (1983). williams, e. & moran, c. (1989). reading in a foreign language at intermediate and advanced levels with particular reference to english. language teaching, 22, 217-28. no. 19 (july december 2019) no. 19 (july december 2019) 100 gbl in efl reading comprehension author sindy johana montero-arévalo m.a in english language teaching from universidad del norte and modern languages teacher from universidad popular del cesar. teacher and tutor for local english programs for public and private universities. she has worked at pearson, an international publishing house, as a teacher and she also has developed diverse projects related to technological resources. orcid: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0450-3268 how to reference this article: montero-arévalo, s. j. (2019). effects of genre based approach (gba) in efl reading comprehension and writing. gist – education and learning research journal, 19, 84-100. https://doi.org/10.26817/16925777.762 no. 19 (july december 2019) no. 19 (july december 2019) no. 23 problems of teaching phonological awareness to learning disabilities students1 problemas de la enseñanza de la conciencia fonológica con estudiantes con dificultades de aprendizaje mohamad ahmad saleem khasawneh2* king khalid university, saudi arabia teaching phonological awareness to students khasawneh 1 received. september 15th 2021/ accepted: november 19th 2021 2 mkhasawneh@kku.edu.sa gist education and learning research journal. issn 1692-5777. no. 23 (july december, 2021). pp. 135-150. scaffolding strategies on receptive and productive knowledge 136 no. 23 abstract this study seeks to identify problems related to teaching phonological awareness in english to students with learning disabilities from the point of view of their teachers in irbid city. jordan. the study also explored if gender and years of experience of the teacher affect their opinions toward the problems of teaching phonological awareness in english for students with learning disabilities. the study used online questionnaires to gather data from 140 teachers. the results showed that the problems of teaching phonological awareness in the english language for students with learning disabilities were of medium significance. as the problems related to the english language curriculum for students are very important. the problems related to the educational environment for students with learning disabilities were also of great importance. finally, the problems related to the english language teacher in special education schools in irbid city were of medium importance. the results also showed that there were no differences in the problems of teaching english for students with learning difficulties from the point of view of their teachers according to the variables of gender and years of experience. keywords phonological awareness; problems of teaching learning disabilities; teaching english; teachers’ attitudes. resumen este estudio busca identificar los problemas relacionados con la enseñanza de conciencia fonológica en inglés a estudiantes de con dificultades de aprendizaje desde el punto de vista de sus profesores en la ciudad de irbid, jordania. el estudio también exploró si el género y años de experiencia de los docentes afectan sus opiniones hacia los problemas de enseñar la conciencia fonológica en inglés para estudiantes con dificultades de aprendizaje. el estudio utilizó cuestionarios en línea para recopilar datos de 140 profesores. los resultados mostraron que los problemas de la enseñanza de la conciencia fonológica en el idioma inglés para estudiantes con discapacidades de aprendizaje fueron de importancia media. dado que los problemas relacionados con el plan de estudios del idioma inglés para los estudiantes son muy importantes. los problemas relacionados con el ambiente educativo para los estudiantes con dificultades de aprendizaje también fueron de gran importancia. por último, los problemas relacionados con el profesor de inglés en las escuelas de educación especial de la ciudad de irbid fueron de mediana importancia. los resultados también mostraron que no existían diferencias en los problemas de la enseñanza del inglés para estudiantes con dificultades de aprendizaje desde el punto de vista de sus profesores según las variables de género y años de experiencia. palabras clave: conciencia fonológica; dificultades de aprendizaje; enseñanza de inglés; estudiantes de colegio; problemas de la enseñanza de conciencia fonológica; experiencia de enseñanza teaching phonological awareness to students khasawneh 137 no. 23 resumo este estudo busca identificar os problemas relacionados com o ensino de consciência fonológica em inglês a estudantes com dificuldades de aprendizado desde o ponto de vista de seus professores na cidade de irbid, jordânia. o estudo também explorou se o gênero e anos de experiência dos professores afetam suas opiniões aos problemas de ensinar a consciência fonológica em inglês para estudantes com dificuldades de aprendizado. o estudo utilizou questionários online para recopilar dados de 140 professores. os resultados mostraram que os problemas do ensino da consciência fonológica no idioma inglês para estudantes com deficiências de aprendizado foram de importância média. devido a que os problemas relacionados com o plano de estudos do idioma inglês para os estudantes são muito importantes. os problemas relacionados com o ambiente educativo para os estudantes com dificuldades de aprendizado também foram de grande importância. por último, os problemas relacionados com o professor de inglês nas escolas de educação especial da cidade de irbid de importância média. os resultados também mostraram que não existiam diferenças nos problemas de ensino do inglês para estudantes com dificuldades de aprendizado desde o ponto de vista de seus professores segundo as variáveis de gênero e anos de experiência. palavra chave: consciência fonológica; dificuldades de aprendizado; ensino de inglês; estudantes de colégio; problemas do ensino de consciência fonológica; experiência de ensino teaching phonological awareness to students khasawneh 138 no. 23 introduction the literature confirmed the existence of discriminatory problems between children with learning disabilities more than ordinary students. some students with lds may suffer from difficulties in visual discrimination, which includes difficulties in organizing and interpreting visual stimuli, and some of them suffer from difficulties in motor discrimination or general coordination and the synergy of body parts in particular. during movement and writing, some of them suffer from phonological awareness difficulties. the phonological difficulties have been theoretically linked to learning disabilities, as many researchers believe that the developmental deficiency of phonemic discrimination greatly affects the success of the reading process. the reading process entails the presence of analysis, sequencing, and remembering stimuli auditory. the more efficient the child is in analyzing words into single sounds, the better his reading level will be. children with reading difficulties usually fail to distinguish the phonemic structure of the spoken language, whether at the word level or at the sentence level (landerl et al., 2019). special programs for training in phonological awareness skills for students with lds are of vital importance to face these challenges, as such category perceives things in a different way. therefore, the existence of programs to develop phonological awareness skills for children with lds has become an important element for developing their learning process. these programs call for the use of methods appropriate to the capabilities of the child, as the development of these abilities may positively affect the development of aspects of the personality, whether psychological or social, in addition to the fact that it is expected to raise their ability to academic achievement (lederberg et al., 2019). this current study seeks to identify the problems of teaching phonological awareness in english to students with lds from the point of view of their teachers. the problem of the study several problems arise when teaching students with learning disabilities phonological awareness, which affect their performance negatively (khasawneh & alkhawaldeh, 2020). identifying those problems helps in the reduction of influences on the learning process of students with lds. one of the main problems is the english language curriculums, which is a necessary element in the educational process. students are supposed to understand the content of the curriculum by the help of teachers. however, some of these curricula lack relevance to the level of learning disabilities students. sometimes students are not involved in the feedback on the content of these textbooks (kwakkel et al., 2021). some other problems are directly related to students with lds. the level of disabilities among these students affect their levels of understanding and knowledge. the huge number of students in the classroom is also teaching phonological awareness to students khasawneh 139 no. 23 another major problem that hinder the progress in the educational process (powell, & atkinson, 2021). the english language teacher is also a very important element in these problems. many teachers lack the required training and they have large number of classes, which prevent them from self-development and progress (zarić et al., 2021). questions of the study 1. what are the problems of teaching phonological awareness in english language to students with learning disabilities from the point of view of their teachers? 2. are there any statistically significant differences about the problems of teaching phonological awareness in english language for students with lds according to the variables of gender and years of experience from the point of view of teachers? significance of the study it is hoped that the results of this study will benefit teachers of learning disabilities in english language by identifying the problems of teaching phonological awareness in english for students with learning disabilities. the results might also benefit parents of students by identifying the level of performance of teachers, as this is a major and important factor when sending their children to schools. limitations of the study the current study included teachers of learning disabilities in english language in irbid city only for the academic year 2019-2020. the results of this study are limited to the honesty of the respondents on the instrument prepared in this study literature review the skill of phonological awareness is the conscious treatment of the phonemic level in speech, or it is the mental ability to manipulate the change in the phonemic level of words. in other words, phonological awareness means having the ability to know where linguistic sounds are produced and the output of these sounds and the way in which these sounds are formed together to form words, sentences, and utterances, with the ability to perceive the similarities and differences between these sounds, whether these sounds are single or in words and various linguistic expressions (carvalhai et al., 2020). phonological awareness is also defined as the set of practical activities of audio teaching phonological awareness to students khasawneh 140 no. 23 processing capabilities include phonological awareness, phonological memory, and rate of access for phonological information (powell, & atkinson, 2021). the most important of these abilities are the abilities of phonemic awareness, or what is sometimes known as the phonemic sensitivity of the audible language. these abilities can predict performance in reading tasks more than many other cognitive factors, which studies confirmed that these abilities are related to reading such as intelligence, knowledge of words and listening comprehension, and cognitive abilities (saiegh-haddad et al., 2020). this leads to the need to study the abilities of phonological awareness in children and its relationship to the process of word recognition, in addition to understanding the nature of phonological awareness and its different levels. phonological awareness helps in understanding the nature of the relationship between language and reading. since in the past two decades, there has been remarkable progress in understanding this relationship, and perhaps the richest areas of research in this field are those related to the relationship between reading and language-related skills in the field. this relationship stems from the requirements of the writing system in which we want children to read. in the english alphabet system, the basic tasks facing the novice reader are to form the association between written symbols and speech sounds, combine phonetic symbols into syllables, combine syllables into words, and pronounce the phonemic string. the formation of this link requires the reader to realize that the word is divided into smaller units that actually represent an image of alphabetic writing (lund, 2020). from a second angle, the relationship between reading and language-related skills in the phonemic field becomes clear in several fields, such as sound processors at the word level and its components of syllables and smaller units. at the same time, it processes information in short-term memory and helps in the comprehension of sentences (khasawneh, 2021). it is recognized that learning to read in languages that follow the alphabetic system in writing requires maturity in the students’ phonological awareness abilities, due to the fact that the written symbols represent the phonemic units of speech. these phonemic units are a group of abstract units, and therefore children must deal with phonemic units through their awareness of them, and their ability to discover their relationships with written symbols. once children discover the association of certain sounds with the letters they represent, they are able to identify unfamiliar words (kasawneh, 2021). some believe that phonological awareness is one of the components of the metalinguistic ability, which means the ability to use control processing, to perform emotional mental operations on the outputs of the mechanisms of understanding sentences, such as the mechanism of speech perception, the mechanism of lexical growth, and the mechanism of applying inferential rules (khasawneh, 2021). teaching phonological awareness to students khasawneh 141 no. 23 previous studies several previous research has been conducted on the use of phonological awareness and the problems teachers face when implementing its related strategies. for example, benway et al (2021) identified the relationship between phonological awareness, vocabulary, and speech perception among preschoolers with speech disorders. the participants in this study were 110 children. the study developed a model based on vocabulary as a mediating factor. the results showed that model proved the relationship between speech perception and phonological awareness. the findings revealed that vocabulary play a vital role in helping students develop and improve their levels in language. chung and bidelman (2021) examined the level of prosodic and phonological awareness among children in preschool. the results showed that children improve their pitch discrimination and prosodic awareness from preschool to fourth grade. the findings also showed that phonological awareness is very important in helping students acquire more vocabulary in the preschool stage until the fourth grade. goriot et al (2021) explored the role of bilingualism in increasing the phonological awareness among 294 students from the first three grades in a dutch school. the study concluded that there is a small significant effect of bilingualism on the level of phonological awareness among the participants. the study found that memory skills are very important in the level of phonological awareness. henbest and apel (2021) explored the role of spelling error analysis in predicting the linguistic knowledge of students and its relationship to phonological awareness. the spelling sensitivity system was used as an instrument to collect data. the findings revealed the presence of moderate negative correlation between spellings and performance on the phonological awareness task. the study also revealed that weak relationship between spelling errors and the orthographic pattern and phonological awareness measures. justi et al (2021) investigated the importance of phonological awareness among brazilian portuguese-speaking children. the study included 212 children. the study relied on the experimental design. the findings showed that the oblique model was the most appropriate to increase children’s phonological awareness. the model was helpful in predicting the phoneme awareness among the first graders. the findings proved that phonological awareness can be measured by using specialized testing methods. teaching phonological awareness to students khasawneh 142 no. 23 methods the methodology used in this study was the descriptive and quantitative approach. this approach helps in collecting data from a specific population and presents results for discussion (saunders et al., 2016). sampling the population of the study consisted of all 217 male and female teachers of lds in english language, who work in irbid city, jordan. the sample of the study was selected from this population, and their number was 140 teachers. research instrument the study developed a questionnaire as an instrument to collect data. the likert-five point scale was used to measure the responses of teachers the statements of the questionnaire. the questionnaire consisted of two parts, the first to collect demographic information on the sample of the study. the second part consisted of 32 items and it measured the nature of problems of teaching phonological awareness to students with learning disabilities. validity to verify the validity of the instrument, the researcher relied on the validity of the content, as he presented the tool to (10) specialized judges to ensure the appropriateness of each statement to what it measures and the extent to which the paragraphs of the scale are related to the variable to be measured. the judges also ensured the accuracy of statements, their formulation, degree of clarity, and their relevance to the fields. the researcher took the observations of the judges, omitted some phrases, and added others according to their instructions. the approval of the majority of judges on the statements was considered an indication of their validity, and thus the number of statements was reliability after verifying the validity of the study instrument, its stability was confirmed using the test-re-test method after the same questionnaire was distributed to a sample of 35 teaching phonological awareness to students khasawneh 143 no. 23 teachers from outside the study sample. the internal consistency was measured using the cronbach alpha test. table1 shows that the reliability coefficient of the instrument as a whole was (0.819), which is acceptable for this study. table 1. cronbach alpha test phonological awareness problem dimensions for learning disabilities value of cronbach alpha english language curriculums 0.717 learning disabilities problems themselves 0.863 learning disabilities educational environment 0.723 english language teacher problems 0.685 overall 0.819 table 1 presents the value of the internal consistency coefficient for the instrument if the study. the value ranged from 0.685 to 0.863. this value proves that the cronbach alpha coefficient values were higher than 0.60, which means that the instrument was suitable for the objectives of this study. data analysis the statistical tools such as samples t-test, independent testy and one-way anova, and mean scores were used to analyse the obtained data. means were used to explain the findings, as seen in the table (2). table 2. the mean scores of the participant’s responses to the instrument of the study mean information 1,00-2.34 disagree 2.34-3.68 moderate agree 3.68-5.01 agree source: (bryman & bell, 2011) teaching phonological awareness to students khasawneh 144 no. 23 findings and discussion the study measured the responses of teachers based on gender and years of experience. the distribution of the sample was 33.9% male and 66.1% females. the sample also included 63.4% who have 5-10 years of experience while teachers with less than 5 years of experience constituted 18.8%, and those with more than 10 years of experience constituted 17.7%. table 3. the demographic description of the sample variables category n % gender male female 40 100 28.57 71.4 less than 5 years 25 17.85 years of experience 5-10 years more than 10 years 98 23 70 16.42 to determine the teaching phonological awareness problems to learn disabilities students from the teachers’ perspective in irbid city, jordan, for each of the questionnaire elements, the researcher used standard deviation and. means. table 4. the mean scores and standard deviation of the statements of the questionnaire n item mean st. deviation result english language curriculums for learning disabilities 1 the english language curriculum objectives do not take into account the abilities of learning disabilities 3.94 1.04 a 2 the english language curriculum subjects are not suitable to the linguistic development of learning disabilities 3.97 1.07 a 3 the textbook lacks figures, pictures, or illustrations for learning disabilities 3.67 1.24 ma 4 the english language curriculum subjects are not related to the culture of learning disabilities 3.58 1.27 ma 5 classroom activities are limited in the curriculum of english language 3.87 1.08 a total 3.80 0.77 a teaching phonological awareness to students khasawneh 145 no. 23 problems related to the learning disabilities themselves 6 students with lds do not accept learning english language 3.48 1.41 ma 7 weakness of the mother tongue affects learning phonological awareness of learning disabilities. 3.94 1.03 a 8 the low level of language proficiency among lds students limits their chances of learning english language 3.97 1.02 a 9 learning disabilities lack the basics american sign language 3.72 1.25 a 10 english learning disabilities do not use the in their daily lives 3.45 1.15 ma 11 learning english disabilities do not start at an early stages 3.38 1.31 ma 12 for fear of making mistakes while using the english language learning english disabilities avoid participating in the classroom 3.42 1.25 ma 13 learning disabilities turn to those who do their homework in english on their behalf 4.00 0.98 a total 3.67 0.85 ma learning english disabilities educational environment 14 the educational of learning english disabilities environment lacks modern teaching aids 3.89 1.09 a 15 resource rooms not investing in teaching-learning english disabilities. 3.87 1.11 a 16 the textbooks do not include activities related to teaching phonological awareness to learn disabilities students 3.63 1.21 ma 17 educational environment needs financial allocations for learning english disabilities by the school administration 3.73 1.21 a 18 learning of english affects by placing it at the end of the school da 3.89 1.07 a total 3.80 0.79 a problems related to the english language teacher 19 teacher that learning english language disabilities are unable to learn the english language 3.20 1.27 ma 20 english teachers are not qualified enough to teach students with learning disabilities 3.22 1.29 ma teaching phonological awareness to students khasawneh 146 no. 23 21 teachers’ weakness to teach learning disabilities 3.25 1.26 ma 22 teachers’ weakness in the knowledge in the phonological awareness 3.16 1.32 ma 23 the english language is widely used in teaching phonological awareness 3.23 1.32 ma 24 teachers do not use the appropriate strategies of teaching phonological awareness. 3.30 1.37 ma 25 the teacher of english language disabilities finds it difficult to assess the achievement level of the learning disabilities 2.34 1.27 ma 26 the teacher of english language disabilities does not use clear strategies to facilitate the phonological awareness disabilities 3.15 1.44 ma 27 teachers do not receive enough support because they deal with learning disabilities students with special needs 3.39 1.25 ma 28 lack of training courses for english language disabilities teacher on teaching methods for learning disabilities 3.20 1.37 ma 29 the lack of supervisors specialized in special education to provide help to teachers. 3.08 1.39 ma total 3.17 0.58 ma overall 3.62 0.52 ma table 4 revealed that the overall mean score for the problems of teaching phonological awareness was (3.62) with a standard deviation of (0.52). this indicates that the level of problems is moderately significant. statement no. 2 had the highest means score with (3.97), while item 4, had the lowest mean score (3.59). table 4 also revealed that the mean score of the problems related to curriculum was (3.80) with a standard deviation of (0.77). these results show that problems related to curriculum, in general, constitute challenges phonological awareness including the lack of suitable curriculum objectives for the abilities of learning disabilities. item 13 had the highest means score among the items of problems related to the learning disabilities themselves (4.00). item 11 had the lowest mean score (3.38). the mean score of problems related to the learning disabilities themselves was (3.67) with a standard deviation of (0.84). it is noticed from these results that the problems related to students with learning disabilities show that such students rely on others for help to perform their homework related to the english language disabilities. teaching phonological awareness to students khasawneh 147 no. 23 the results related to problems related to teachers show that these teachers fail to apply different strategies to help students with learning disabilities. the lack of knowledge of the teacher makes it difficult for students to acquire the necessary skills to increase the levels of phonological awareness. to identify the statistically significant differences between males and female teachers and the difference according to years of experience, the independent sample t test and one way anova were used. table 5. the t test for the response of the participants based on gender variables n mean st. deviation df t sig male 63 3.55 0.60 184 0.911 0.135 female 123 3.63 0.50 table (5) showed male teachers’ mean score was (3.55) and females’ score was (3.63). the table shows no significant impact of gender toward the problems of teaching phonological awareness. table 6. the anova test of the responses of the participants based on years of experience variable groups sum of squares df mean square f sig years of experience between groups 0.498 2 0.249 0.871 0.410 within groups 52.38 183 0.286 total 52.88 185 table (6) reveals the absence of differences between the responses of the participants based on the years of experience. the level of significance (0.410) shows that there was no statistical evidence of the effect of years of experience on the attitudes toward the problems of teaching phonological awareness to students with lds. these results showed that the problems of teaching phonological awareness to students with lds are multidimensional. some of these problems are related to the teachers, to the school environment, and to the students themselves. the school curricula lack sufficient support for both the teacher and the student in understanding the concepts of phonological awareness. the findings from this study show the need for deeper investigation into the importance of phonological awareness to improve the english levels of students with lds. teaching phonological awareness to students khasawneh conclusion this study presented an exploration to the problems related to teaching phonological awareness to students with lds in english language from the perspectives of teachers. the study also investigates the impact of gender and the years of experience of the teacher on their attitudes and opinions on these problems. the findings revealed that these problems are either related to the textbooks, to the students themselves or to teachers. the findings also indicated that the level of these problems was moderate and gender and experience had no impact on the attitudes toward these problems. the study recommended that more training should be provided to teachers on the optimal methods of teaching phonological awareness to students with learning disabilities. acknowledgments the authors extend their appreciation to the deanship of scientific research at king khalid university for funding this work through big research groups under grant number (rgp.2 /103/42). teaching phonological awareness to students khasawneh 149 no. 23 references benway, n. r., garcia, k., hitchcock, e., mcallister, t., leece, m. c., wang, q., & preston, j. l. 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(2021). orthographic knowledge predicts reading and spelling skills over and above general intelligence and phonological awareness. european journal of psychology of education, 36(1), 21-43.ʹ author * mohamad ahmad saleem khasawneh orcid: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1390-3765 how to reference this article: khasawneh, m. a. s. (2021) problems of teaching phonological awareness to learning disabilities students. gist – education and learning research journal, 23, 135–150. https://doi.org/10.26817/16925777.961 teaching phonological awareness to students khasawneh task-based language assessment: implications for the language classroom1 la evaluación de lenguas basada en tareas: implicaciones para el aula de lenguas extranjeras frank giraldo2* universidad de caldas, colombia 1 received: november 12th 2019/ accepted: august 8th 2020 2 frank.giraldo@ucaldas.edu.co gist education and learning research journal. issn 1692-5777. no. 21 (july-december, 2020). pp. 209-224. 210 no. 21 abstract with a communicative approach to language testing, performance assessment has taken on a prominent role in testing systems around the world. specifically, task-based assessment (tba) is now being used to make inferences about people’s language ability and what they can do with this construct under realistic communicative scenarios. this reflection paper discusses central issues in tba, and in doing so, it shows that tba can be observed through a classroomassessment lens, an idea i present as instructional task-based assessment (itba). the paper starts by reviewing the meaning of tasks, then discusses problems with tba and finally offers a list of principles for teachers to explore tba in classroom contexts. i also include limitations of the proposal and conclusions. key words: alternative assessment; language assessment; language testing; performance assessment; task-based assessment. resumen partiendo del enfoque comunicativo en evaluación de lenguas, la necesidad de evaluar la competencia comunicativa ha conllevado al diseño de pruebas estandarizadas alrededor del mundo. en especial, la evaluación de lenguas basada en tareas (tba sus siglas en inglés) se usa como una manera de inferir qué es lo que pueden hacer las personas con su habilidad de lengua en encuentros reales comunicativos. este artículo de reflexión examina temas claves en tba, y mediante esta discusión, sugiere que tba puede analizarse desde el salón de clases; esta es una propuesta que presento como evaluación de lenguas basada en tareas en contextos pedagógicos (itba sus siglas en inglés). el artículo comienza con una revisión del significado de tareas, luego analiza los problemas relacionados con tba y, finalmente, ofrece una lista de principios para que los docentes de lenguas exploren tba en sus contextos educativos. de igual manera, incluyo algunas limitaciones de la propuesta y conclusiones del artículo. palabras claves: evaluación de desempeño; evaluación de lenguas; evaluación de lenguas basada en tareas; evaluación formativa. task-based language assessment giraldo 211 no. 21 resumo partindo do enfoque comunicativo em avaliação de línguas, a necessidade de avaliar a competência comunicativa levou ao desenho de provas padronizadas ao redor do mundo. em especial, a avaliação de línguas baseada em tarefas (tba suas siglas em inglês) usada como uma forma de inferir as pessoas e o que pode fazer com a sua habilidade de língua em encontros reais comunicativos. este artigo de reflexão examina temas chaves em tba, e mediante esta discussão, sugere que tba pode analisar-se desde as salas de aula; esta é uma proposta que apresento como avaliação de línguas baseada em tarefas em contextos pedagógicos (itba suas siglas em inglês). o artigo começa com uma revisão do significado de tarefas, logo analisa os problemas relacionados com tba e, finalmente, oferece uma lista de princípios para que os docentes de línguas explorem tba em seus contextos educativos. da mesma forma, incluo algumas limitações da proposta e conclusões do artigo. palavras chaves: avaliação de desempenho; avaliação de línguas; avaliação de línguas baseada em tarefas; avaliação formativa. task-based language assessment giraldo 212 no. 21 introduction the communicative language teaching (clt) movement that started in the 1960’s brought with it a new perception of language learning. the field decided to look at language from a communication point of view and no longer as an accumulation of rules, (richards & rodgers, 2001) through the goal of language learning: the development of communicative language ability (bachman & palmer, 1996; fulcher, 2010; richards & rodgers, 2001). one way to operationalize the rather philosophical view of language in clt was to think of tasks as a way to teach, learn, and assess language ability. task-based assessment (henceforth tba) uses tasks as core vehicles to activate and observe language being used to achieve real-life purposes and derive interpretations of what test takers or learners can do with their language ability (bachman, 2002; ellis, 2003; norris, 2016). the literature in taskbased assessment has primarily been focused on testing, not on the implementation of tasks for language assessment in the classroom; for instance, ellis (2003), in an entire chapter, dedicates only three pages to tba in the classroom. similarly, wigglesworth and frost (2017) dedicate one paragraph to classroom tba, through which they state the usefulness of tba as it can match teaching. given that there is scarce literature on tba as it is implemented in the classroom context, in this reflection paper i look at task-based assessment from an instructional perspective; that is, tba as teachers and learners engage in it. this view aligns with a call that scholars in tba have recently made, namely the need to understand tba in classroom contexts (bygate, 2016; norris, 2016). i start the paper with an overview of tasks in language instruction and move to a definition of tba. later, i review core issues in classroom tba and discuss the notion of instructional tba (henceforth itba). i then close the paper with a list of principles for applying tba in the classroom, followed by relevant limitations and conclusions. literature review any discussion around tba and task-based instruction should necessarily scrutinize the meaning of tasks. the literature in language teaching has defined tasks as a spectrum, from the communicative grammar activity, to the strong form of real-life activities that need language for accomplishment (van den branden, 2006). while the definitions are indeed many, the consensus is that learners use their language knowledge and skills to perform activities which need the use of language (e.g. opening a bank account). the purpose of tasks is not to have students show their explicit knowledge of, for example, grammar structures, but what they can do with them in a real-life communicative encounter. thus, tasks are not to study language task-based language assessment giraldo 213 no. 21 forms; they are focused on meaning-making through forms (van den branden, 2006; willis & willis, 2007). in fact, tasks have gained major attention in language education and have become the center of language programs and language testing. consequently, in a strong form of task-based teaching, language syllabi are designed around tasks, whereas a weak form uses them as an add-on to language learning (ellis, 2003; willis & willis, 2007). as types of tasks, willis and willis (2007) include listing, ordering and sorting, matching, comparing, sharing personal experiences, projects and creative tasks, and problem-solving. there are, additionally, other types of tasks that are present in the literature, for example opinion-exchange (pica, kanagy, & falodun, 1993). similarly, in a tba framework, language testing uses tasks mainly to elicit and assess learners’ language ability in action (brindley, 1994; norris, 2016). large-scale tests such as the test of english as a foreign language (toefl) (chapelle, enright & jamieson, 2007) use tasks to ascertain how test takers can cope with academic language demands in english-medium universities. task-based tests such as the toefl, following a communicative approach, do not require test takers to show their linguistic knowledge but rather what they can do with it in academic environments. along these lines, task-based language assessment can be classified as a sort of performance assessment (brindley, 2013; brown, 2004), for tba differs from traditional language testing in which a structural view of language was paramount. rather, tba engages test takers in replicating real-life uses of language through the use of their linguistic and even non-linguistic resources (brindley, 1994). additionally, ellis (2003) claims that tba involves real world behavior (what people accomplish with language) and processing (how people accomplish it). as in task-based teaching, tba is meaning-focused and goal-oriented. this orientation feeds back on the meaning of performance: test takers do something through and with language. as norris (2016) explains, task completion through performance is essential in tba, because it is task performance what matters to make decisions about learners. however, while task completion is indeed important in tba, the task has to provide evidence of learners’ language ability (bachman, 2002; ellis, 2003). bachman (2002) argues that tba is problematic in the sense that learners may do well on a test task but this cannot be replicable in other contexts, essentially because of the limitations of the task itself. therefore, what is needed is a full picture of the learner’s language ability, i.e. the construct under consideration. bachman argues that in order to make valid decisions based on tba data, a counterbalanced approach is needed, where taskcentered and construct-centered designs are combined. task-based language assessment giraldo 214 no. 21 issues in task-based assessment as presented above, the information tasks give to testers may be problematic as learners could cope with tasks by implementing non-linguistic strategies, namely non-verbal communication. while the discussion of a task-centered and/or construct centered design to tba is ongoing (bachman, 2002; ellis, 2003), the final decisions in testing should be based on language ability, as other non-linguistic factors are still not theoretically part of language ability models in language testing (see fulcher, 2010). other common issues in tba are indeed interrelated and feed back on the validity of decisions made from test scores. among issues receiving attention are tba’s authenticity, representativeness, generalizability, and inseparability (ellis, 2003; skehan, 1984). in terms of authenticity, authors agree that merely replicating an activity from the real world does not make a tba informative (bachman, 2002; chalhoub-deville, 2001; norris, 2016). authenticity needs to be embedded in a test from a situational and discourse point of view (chalhoub-deville, 2001), involve authentic participants (bachman, 2002) and be as realistic as possible, although this is not fully achievable as tests are artificial by nature (bachman, 2002; brindley, 2013). what is more, authors agree that it is challenging to either generalize from a task performance to a wider target language use in real scenarios, or collect a good enough sample of data to ascertain confidently what a person can really do with language (bachman, 2002; ellis, 2003; kim, 2004; norris, 2016). generalizability and representativeness are specifically problematic when arguing for the validity of general proficiency (construct-based) tests. for example, if a test taker performs an oral task well (negotiate a bank transaction), it may not be argued that s/he can negotiate in other non-testing contexts or that the test/task includes enough contexts and language to support the same conclusion. a task-centered approach is, however, key in occupational language tests (kim, 2004). a task for traffic controllers is a classic example of task-centered design. the tba has to provide evidence that the candidate can (or cannot!) help a pilot land a plane safely, and he/she should be able to mobilize language to accomplish exactly such task. as authors argue, successful task completion in this approach is paramount (kim, 2004; norris, 2016). a major area of concern in tba is its reliability (brindley, 2013; ellis, 2003). one of the causes of unreliability is the inconsistency of scores given by human raters. additionally, test-taker characteristics (e.g. anxiety) and faulty test administration may lead to fluctuations in scores. together, all these factors make test scores unreliable, and therefore invalid. as a way to ameliorate tba reliability in classroom contexts, ellis (2003) suggests that the test be lengthened, scored by at least two raters, and raters be trained in assessing performance. task-based language assessment giraldo 215 no. 21 another challenge in tba is what ellis (2003) calls inseparability. this refers to candidates calling upon their world knowledge in a tba situation. as the author argues, if a candidate is more familiar than others with the content (or topic) of a tba, then he/she is at an advantage; therefore, low scores from test takers who have no background in the topic, and who do poorly because of this fact, may not say much about these people’s language ability: they got low scores due to something unrelated to this construct. however, as ellis explains, performance in a language test requires content knowledge, rendering language and content inseparable. as a recommendation, authors suggest that assessment rubrics include criteria for language and content (douglas, 2001; mcnamara, 1996). on this same line, brindley (1994; 2013) asserts that scoring criteria in tba, whether in testing or classroom scenarios, must be comprehensive and transparent; these criteria must include the language aspects to be examined, as well as the task-centered factors that can influence performance (e.g. level of participation in a roleplay, in terms of time). creating criteria for language assessment may be challenging for the construct validity of tba (brindley, 2013). first, expert-based design of criteria may misrepresent the central construct (i.e. language ability) and not include all relevant information for all the skills necesarry to do the task under consideration; second, available theoretical descriptions of language ability are difficult to operationalize and lack other dimensions (e.g. relation between test taker and interlocutor); and third, available criteria such as those found in the common european framework (council of europe, 2001) are not sufficiently validated (fulcher, 2010). all in all, while problems in tba may cast doubt upon decisions made from this approach, authors still support the use of tasks for language assessment, provided that • tasks are comprehensively described and aligned with the language constructs they elicit information about (bachman, 2002; brindley, 2013; chalhoubdeville, 2001); • tasks engage students in using realistic language for authentic activities (ellis, 2003; long, 2015; norris, 2016); • there is a balance between construct-centered and task-centered design (bachman, 2002; ellis, 2003; mislevy, steinberg, & almond, 2002); • assessment criteria are comprehensive enough to validly assess task performance of linguistic and non-linguistic issues (brindley, 1994; chalhoubdeville, 2001; kim, 2004). • last but not least, the language constructs that tasks are supposed to activate must be substantively described (bachman, 2002; brindley, 1994; 2013). task-based language assessment giraldo 216 no. 21 task-based assessment in language education scholars in the area of task-based assessment agree on the features of this type of assessment in instructional contexts. for example, norris (2009; 2016) and long (2015) state that task-based assessments can be used for summative and formative purposes. however, since the idea is to help students develop their language ability for communicative tasks, formative uses are prime for task-based assessment, an idea nunan (2004) strongly supports. formative assessment, as discussions and research have shown, happens in the form of peer-, self-, and portfolio assessment (leedham, 2005; norris, 2016; nunan, 2004; weaver, 2012). feedback from these sources is meant to improve performance at the level of language use (construct-centered) as well as the task itself (task-centered). in terms of the actual use of task-based assessment in class, this approach tends to have clear stages. in his study, weaver (2012) presents four interrelated stages of taskbased assessment: task selection; task definition and assessment criteria; assessment implementation and task performance; and feedback. in the study, the author had students select a task (business oral presentation), gave students the criteria to be used, and engaged them in peer assessment. this approach helped the group to perform their oral presentations successfully. in a similar vein, leedham’s (2005) study implemented a task-based assessment to help students improve their performance in a large-scale test, specifically in a task for discussing the suitability of a room for an event. the stages included an initial performance of the task, then students listening to native speakers doing the task, and finally students repeating the task. in this sequence, students identified language used by speakers and incorporated this learning in their second performance of the task. other research studies looking at tba in educational contexts agree on a set of core features. the study by chuanren (2006) aligned tests, curriculum, and teaching with the hopes to consolidate a coherent focus of instruction, where tasks played a predominant role. the study by byrnes (2002) looked at task-based assessment as a transition from a form-focused to a meaning-focused approach to language learning. in both studies, it is clear that tba in the classroom has an impact on curricula, teaching, and the teachers themselves. based on these two studies, it can be confirmed that tba may bring about positive change to language programs, a generally held notion among tba scholars (brindley, 1994; 2013; norris, 2016). finally, task-based assessment in the classroom has varied advantages for language instruction. first and foremost, as long (2015) argues, these assessments provide visible evidence of what students can do with language; because of this feature, the data collected from these assessments can help students to improve their language ability and teachers to adjust their teaching. as norris (2016) states, opportunities abound for students to perform given several stages in tba implementation, which leads to task-based language assessment giraldo 217 no. 21 what the author labels as “instruction-related feedback” (p. 238). in addition, norris states that tbas have the benefit of engaging students in integrated skills assessment. as shown, language learning benefits from task-based assessments, so willis (1996) and willis and willis (2007) even suggest that students can feel prepared for language examinations provided that they too include tasks for language ability and value authenticity as a condition for language performance. the next section of this paper synthesizes the information from the previous review and delves into the notion of instructional task-based language assessment (itba), a proposal to observe tba in the context of the classroom and how it can be operationalized jointly by teachers and students. instructional task-based language assessment (itba) in his overview of tba, ellis (2003) comments that his discussions are in a vacuum and argues that tba needs to be conceptualized from where it happens more often: the language classroom. however, discussions of tba in the language classroom seem scarce (norris, 2009; 2016; bygate, 2016) and do not delve into the nature of tba as it happens in class while teachers and students are engaged in this approach to language assessment. i therefore believe the literature of tba has not thoroughly discussed the implementation of tasks for assessment in the classroom. rea-dickins (2001) and mcnamara and hill (2011) discuss language assessment as it happens in classrooms, but they do not specifically describe how teachers deal with tasks in the sense that the literature of tba has conceptualized them. of course, assessment through tasks was not the goal of these two studies; they shed light on broad assessment stages in language classrooms –planning, presenting, doing, and analyzing assessment data. what i feel can contribute to further understandings of tba is a more finegrained and observational stance to what happens as assessment tasks are employed in a classroom. bygate (2016) recommends that banks of data be built so the field can collect information about classroom practices and useful assessment tasks in instructional tba. likewise, norris (2009, p. 587) explains that language education can benefit “from the actual uses to which assessments are put, the contexts in which they are used, and the individuals or groups who are using them.” as i see it, instructional task-based assessment will necessarily involve assessment in the sense of data collection about language progress over time (chapelle & brindley, 2010) and summative assessment, particularly in the form of grades. however, itba must essentially be assessment for learning (davison & leung, 2009), as it seeks to exercise positive impact on teaching and learning. finally, itba is seamlessly task-based language assessment giraldo 218 no. 21 intertwined with teaching (rea-dickins, 2007), as the interrelationships between both processes are evident in classroom scenarios. finally, itba is assessment because of the following characteristics: • it is, naturally, based on a central task (or tasks) and language activities feed that task, so that constructs are developed and then captured in task performance. • judgements about task completion may lead to deciding whether a person can do something through language or what language abilities he/she needs to improve. • there are robust scoring criteria involved, and these may be used either formatively or summatively, with some emphasis on the former. • there is feedback in the form of grades and opinions or judgements given to learners by teachers or learners themselves. • teachers may use assessment results to improve further learning and teaching; there is a feedback loop between assessment and instruction. • there are uses of alternative assessment procedures, for example peer or selfassessment. in conclusion, i propose itba as a form of language assessment that is closely related to and empowered by teaching and the learners themselves; as such, itba does not necessarily imply a fixed point in time but may rely on a construction of the assessment task and throughout a series of stages (e.g. lessons); finally, itba relies heavily on feedback from both teachers and students to improve language learning. therefore, this approach aligns well with alternative assessment. a synthesis of practices in itba based on my review of the literature on tba, i synthesize what could potentially be good practices for tba in general. i suggest, however, that the usefulness of such synthesis be evaluated against the particular intricacies of contexts where tba is used. i present such synthesis in the form of principles in the table below (left column) and include an example to illustrate how these principles can inform assessment in classroom contexts (right column). task-based language assessment giraldo 219 no. 21 table 1. principles and related example for instructional task-based assessment principles a. a task is the center of the tba. b. the task is not a one-off; since it involves performance, students have had opportunities to do their best in the final task performance; thus, the tba is directly aligned with instruction. c. there is some sort of connection between performance in the tba and real-life use of language. d. performance in the task is supported/ enhanced by formative feedback that comes from teachers or other students. e. a task for tba involves the use of different language skills, with a particular focus on one: for example, reading a text before orally report something. f. the tba uses criteria that clearly delineates what students will do and how they will do it. teacher and students know these criteria. g. the tba has the potential to provide feedback to improve language learning and instruction. h. tbas can come in the form of various instruments. i. the tba can be assessed on two grounds, depending on the language focus of a course: the tba’s language constructs or task achievement. j. the tba allows stakeholders to judge how well the task was achieved and why this happened thanks to language ability. instructional example getting a cup of coffee a. teacher tells students they will learn how to ask for a cup of coffee in english. b. teacher announces task and asks students how it can be done; teacher shows an example, students do listening and grammar-in-context activities (about the central task). students rehearse task and get formative feedback from classmates and teacher. c. teacher remarks how this is something people do in real life with language. d. in rehearsals, students get feedback from one another and from teacher; feedback focuses on language aspects and/or task completion: you can ask for a cup of coffee in english! e. students read menus used in cafes, listen to someone asking for a cup of coffee in the target language and take notes. f. teacher presents task and assessment criteria to students. they revisit these when needed. teacher explains what aspects of language are needed for the task (using clear questions to request, e.g. “do you have latte?”, pronounce key words correctly, e.g. sugar, spoonful, etc.). g. based on students’ performance during rehearsals, teacher analyzes what language aspects they need to improve so they can do better in the final task performance. h. teacher provides students with a simple checklist to judge peer or self performance: intonates questions correctly. pronounces key words correctly. requests type of coffee. asks for price. i. teacher evaluates whether students learned the language objectives related to the task (e.g. requesting, asking for prices, etc.) and completion of the task itself: do you feel students can now ask for a cup of coffee in english? j. teacher makes learners aware of what they can do through english now and how they used this language for this particular purpose. task-based language assessment giraldo 220 no. 21 limitations bygate (2016) and norris (2016) have suggested that initiatives on tba in classroom contexts be promoted. thus, there may be (or have been) ongoing studies that report tba in these scenarios and that i did not report in this manuscript. this may be considered a first limitation. also, the ideas in this paper represent my analysis of the existing literature. other authors may provide different interpretations of what tba can represent for the language classroom. lastly, given space constraints and the limited information they provide on tba, i could not include other studies or examples of this approach in classroom contexts, which may have communicated with a wider audience. regardless of these limitations, i invite teachers and teacher educators to look at the benefits and challenges for itba and derive their own contextual implementation. conclusions in this paper i offered reflections on some issues related to task-based language assessment (tba). in doing so, i have highlighted that discussions around this topic have centered upon testing—conceived as collection of language performance at a fixed point in time—rather than assessment, or the collection and judgements of language performance data over time in classroom contexts. as scholars agree, the field can benefit from looking at ways in which tba is operationalized in the classroom, arguably where tba happens most. consequently, i have proposed the notion of itba to analyze tba in instructional scenarios. task-based assessment can be used in classroom contexts because it is amenable to good practice for language teaching in general: clear objectives, authentic language use, formative feedback, and student-centeredness through alternative assessment (e.g. peer feedback), to name a few. against these general core tenets, i offered a list with detailed principles to operationalize itba. i also provided some limitations for such proposal and the paper overall. today, language classrooms are expected to advance people’s communicative competence. that seems to be the general consensus in applied linguistics. one way to do this is to implement task-based language teaching, and as i highlight in this paper, instructional task-based assessment. while challenges exist, the use if tba may help teachers and learners develop communicative ability for real-life purposes. task-based language assessment giraldo 221 no. 21 references bachman, l. & palmer, a. 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(2007). doing task-based teaching: oxford handbooks for language teachers. oxford university press. origin of article: this article comes from a personal review and analysis of the existing literature on task-based language assessment. task-based language assessment giraldo author * frank giraldo holds a ba in english language teaching from universidad tecnológica de pereira, colombia; an ma in english didactics from universidad de caldas, colombia; and an ma in teaching english as a second language from university of illinois at urbana-champaign, the usa. he works as a language teacher educator in the foreign languages department of universidad de caldas, colombia, where he works for the ba in modern languages and ma in english didactics. orcid: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5221-8245 how to reference this article: giraldo, f. (2020). task-based language assessment: implications for the language classroom. gist – education and learning research journal, 21, 209-224. https://doi.org/10.26817/16925777.828 224 no. 20 task-based language assessment toward more equitable language learning and teaching frameworks for our elt community: moving from efl to ecl to ce1 hacia marcos más equitativos de aprendizaje y enseñanza de lenguas para nuestra comunidad elt: pasando de efl a ecl a ce raúl alberto mora*2 universidad pontificia bolivariana, colombia 1 received: june 1st 2021/ accepted: may 25th 2022 2 raul.mora@upb.edu.co clil in colombia gist education and learning research journal. issn 1692-5777. no. 24 (january june, 2022). pp. 25-42. 26 no. 24 abstract over the past decade, different scholars in elt have raised questions about the notion of english as a foreign language (efl) and the growing issues related to inequity that such a framework has raised. our field in colombia needs to interrogate the very frameworks and concepts we use to define the language and how those definitions will include us or exclude us from the larger global conversations in the field of elt and related ones as a way to remain active and relevant in years to come. this article proposes moving from english as a foreign language (efl) into english as a colombian language (ecl) as the intermediate step toward colombian english (ce). this article will first problematize efl as a segue into detailing the transition and some considerations involving our views of english and teacher education. keywords: colombian english; language equity; elt; english as a foreign language resumen en la última década, diversos académicos en elt han hecho interrogantes sobre la idea de inglés como lengua extranjera (efl) y los problemas que siguen surgiendo con relación a la inequidad que este marco ha creado. nuestro campo en colombia tiene que interrogar los marcos y conceptos que usamos para definir el lenguaje y cómo dichas definiciones nos incluyen o nos excluyen de las conversaciones a nivel global en el campo de elt y otros aledaños como una forma de permanecer activos y relevantes en los años venideros. este artículo propone pasar de inglés como lengua extranjera (efl) a inglés como lengua colombiana (ecl), como paso previo hacia inglés colombiano (ce). este artículo primero problematizará efl para pasar a detallar dicha transición, así como unas consideraciones que involucran nuestra visión sobre el inglés y la formación de docentes. palabras clave: inglés colombiano; equidad en el lenguaje; elt, inglés como lengua extranjera resumo na última década, diferentes acadêmicos em elt lançaram interrogantes sobre a ideia de inglês como língua estrangeira (efl) e os debates sobre as inequidades que este âmbito criou. nosso campo na colômbia precisa interrogar os âmbitos e conceitos que utilizamos para definir as línguas e como estas definições nos incluem ou excluem das conversações no campo de elt e outros próximos a nível global como a forma de permanecer ativos e relevantes nos próximos anos. este artigo propõe uma transição de inglês como língua estrangeira (efl) a inglês como língua colombiana (ecl), como passo intermédio para o inglês colombiano (ce). este texto primeiro problematizará efl para depois detalhar a transição e algumas considerações que envolvem nossas visões do inglês e a formação de professores. palavras chave: inglês colombiano; equidade na linguagem; elt; inglês como língua estrangeira equitable language learning from efl to ecl to ce mora 27 no. 24 introduction: the collective challenge for elt the field of elt, both in colombia and around the world, is facing a moment of reckoning, amplified by recent events that bookmarked the beginning of the third decade and the new societal and political configurations in our country in years to come. we are rethinking ourselves as both a community of practice (lave & wenger, 1991) and affinity (black, 2009), which also implies raising deeper questions about how we will frame and define language moving forward. we need to carefully interrogate how the frameworks we use will include us or exclude us from the larger global conversations in the field of elt and related ones while considering who is included and excluded as part of these conversations. we must therefore keep in mind the “edupolitical” (willis, 2009) consequences of these terms as the incoming governments lay out their language curriculum and policy proposals. one of the ideas that requires careful revision is how we talk about english in our documents and whether an idea such as “foreign” language should be the way to go moving forward. i am fully aware that going after a concept so deeply entrenched in the very fabric and dna of the profession is a risky move, one fueled by a mutual feeling of iconoclasm and hope. nevertheless, as the world begins to rethink our views of society and education in the aftermath of the pandemic (e.g., reimers, 2021; sutton & jorge, 2020; yi & jang, 2020) and, back to our local context, we will wrestle with the new societal challenges ahead of us, these are not times for neutrality after all. this is the overall purpose of this article, framed both as a proposal and a manifesto (denzin, 2017, 2018; new london group, 1996). this article proposes moving past the esl/efl binary (mora, 2013, 2021), less as a rupture (although it is) and more as a transitional process that leads us to talking about colombian english (ce), where i suggest using the notion of english as a colombian language (ecl) as a bridge, where we can also revisit the relationship among english and the other local languages present in our context from a deeper ecological perspective (reyes, 2009). to help propel this transition, i rely on ideas and theories drawn from language ecology (e.g. skutnabb-kangas, 2009), world englishes3 (e.g., canagarajah, 2006), critical applied linguistics (e.g. pennycook, 2001), critical literacy (e.g., hammond & macken-horarik, 1999;), as well as recent discussions around translanguaging (e.g., 3 i chose to use world englishes (we) instead of other frameworks such as english as a new language (enl) because from its inception we has taken on a larger sense of global advocacy as we move away from the traditional conversations about us/uk varieties. a further survey of the literature on enl showed me that this concept seems to be too specific to the us context and related to particular issues of migration. that said, i do appreciate how the reviewers pushed me to unpack my choice of using we over other frameworks such as enl. equitable language learning from efl to ecl to ce mora 28 no. 24 garcía & li, 2014). these ideas, all ingrained in socio-critical views of language in society, aim to break existing power relations across languages while also seeking equitable views of language use that do not marginalize language users or less dominant languages in local contexts. they serve as conceptual foundation to profile the transition to ce and profile this equitable view of english vis-à-vis the other local languages in our communities. before i introduce my arguments here, a caveat: i have centered the discussion around english due to its larger global appeal and therefore a careful analysis of how we frame it is warranted. this emphasis does not intend to ignore or diminish the role and influence of spanish, indigenous languages, or other languages historically present in our context (e.g., portuguese, french, etc.), nor does it intend to recognize the official status of spanish and the indigenous and minoritized languages in our land. if anything, this conversation about how we frame languages in colombia should happen across the board and this exercise with english might provide a blueprint for other languages to follow or critique. i will develop my argument for the transition in three moments: a first moment will (re)problematize the notion of efl, if only because, as alastair pennycook shared with me, “a good critique of all this stuff would be useful.” (personal communication, sept. 20, 2017). the second moment will provide a rationale for the transition and its meaning. finally, the third moment will introduce three main considerations to make a successful transition “from efl to ecl to ce.” first moment: (re)problematizing efl after my return to colombia from my graduate studies back in 2010, i have devoted a considerable part of my scholarship (mora, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014e, 2015; mora, et al., 2019) to question the inherent social and curricular inequities that the notion of efl entails. let us begin from the very notion of “foreign”: efl is problematic even from the actual definition of “foreign” (mora, 2012, 2013). in one of my earliest conversations (mora, 2012), i showed the synonyms of “foreign,” according to several thesauri. if one does a very quick google search for “synonyms of foreign,” one would find the following results, among several others: distant, remote, external, outside, alien, strange, unfamiliar, unknown, exotic, outlandish, odd, peculiar, bizarre, weird, irrelevant, inappropriate, unrelated, and unconnected. now, i suggest readers to try changing “foreign” for one of its synonyms and ask themselves how they would feel teaching english as an alien language, english as an unfamiliar language, english as a strange language, english as a bizarre language, or english as an unrelated, unconnected language. even from this semantic vantage point, efl begins to look a bit, bizarre, does it not? equitable language learning from efl to ecl to ce mora 29 no. 24 that said, i do not want to turn this problematization into an issue of word choice or mere semantics, as the synonyms are, to me, just the tip of the proverbial iceberg. efl does have much larger issues underneath the surface. take, for instance, the existing blind spots present in the notion of efl, which are woven in the geographical dimension of its constitution, as kachru denounced when he proposed his concentric circles (kachru, 1990; rajadurari, 2005). efl, as any part of a binary does, operates in absolutes. that means that issues present in the borderlands, including issues of interlanguaging present in some of the research on translanguaging (de los ríos & seltzer, 2017; hornberger & link, 2012), are not part of this framing. the efl construct also seems to overlook what happens in regions where there are multiple languages in full contact, as i have pointed out happens to us in the province of san andrés, providencia, and santa catalina. the presence of spanish, english, and creole, all of which have strong social, religious, cultural, and even political ties to this region create what i have described as “the san andrés paradox” (mora, 2015), as you really cannot call any of these languages the “foreign” language in that region since they are equally valuable and they coexist (i will return to this idea at the end) for multiple purposes in the local communities. another big question surrounding efl has to do with language ownership itself. this issue goes back to the discussion of synonyms i brought up in a previous section. when i first brought up the issue of the meanings of “foreign” back in 2012, one of my students raised a question that still remains relevant to this discussion, “how can i teach a language that is not mine?” (mora, 2012). this issue of detachment and lack of ownership, whether we want to acknowledge it or not, is germane to the idea of efl. students can not truly be engaged in a language if they do not see themselves as part of the language communities said language seems to endorse. highly related to the ownership issue, there is also the outward status of english (and other second and even minoritized languages by extension). by outward, i mean that we keep perpetuating the idea that cities in colombia are fully “monolingual” and thus we need to “insert” other languages in the cities (mora, pulgarín, mejíavélez, & ramírez, 2018), which is the goal of several policies, aimed at turning cities or provinces “bilingual” (see mora, chiquito, & zapata, 2019, for a brief analysis of medellín and antioquia). this outward view is deeply problematic, for it continues to overlook the possibilities to use, for instance, english to better understand the local culture (e.g., cruz arcila, 2018; ramos holguín, aguirre morales, & hernández, 2012; zuluaga corrales, lópez pinzón, & quintero corzo, 2009). finally, an even more problematic situation is the reality that the efl/esl binary is very present as a source of social inequities (mora, 2012, 2015). we cannot deny that learning english is still associated with issues of privilege, even stemming from what varieties we learn or never get to hear from, as well as who gets to teach certain courses, decisions oftentimes less guided by pedagogy and more by nativespeakerism (ramjattan, 2017, 2019). we know there are stark disparities between the kind of equitable language learning from efl to ecl to ce mora 30 no. 24 instruction that students in rural areas or from minoritized communities get to receive versus what happens in affluent areas in our cities, in terms of quality of teachers, instructional load, and overall access to target-language resources. just because we have “standards” or official statements declaring english as a de facto foreign language does not mean all social and curricular practices operate in a level-playing field. this unevenness in the curriculum is one situation i have lived and witnessed firsthand as a teacher and teacher educator. i am sure the following scenario is familiar to teachers elsewhere: think about a school that employs teachers who are either native or near-native, in smaller groups than the other classes in the school curriculum (whereas a social studies or spanish teacher would host 30 students, the english teachers would host between 10 and 15 students), with access to technology and online resources, sometimes in a special building for english classes, and taking between 10 and 15 hours of english instruction per week (in some cases, more because they also take content area classes in the target language). also, let us not forget that students in these schools can afford to go on study abroad immersions, have parents who may be bilingual themselves, and have access to language resources outside of school. this scenario is a polar opposite to what many public school students face in terms of instructional time, class size, and human and physical resources. we know stories where schools must resort to assigning another teacher from a different subject just because they took several courses at language institute to teach english in several grades. we also know that in inner-city and rural schools, english teachers are under-resourced. in a situation like this, where we have a first scenario that resembles something closer to what an esl curriculum would look like and a second that is even far from what efl is supposed to be like, we need to raise questions about the kinds of unspoken privileges that a hidden esl curriculum is affording to students in very restricted socio-economic groups have such affordances. it is this analysis that has led me to question whether it is worth sustaining such an inequitable framework such as the esl/efl binary, to decide that it is not worth it anymore and, thus propose in this article/manifesto a transition that moves us past efl into a more contextualized and equitable framework for our land. second moment: what does it mean to go from efl to ecl to ce? before we go into the rationale for the transition, a second caveat: as i said in the introduction, i am in fact suggesting a transition as opposed to a full-frontal rupture with efl. the idea here, despite the critical tone, is to trigger a conversation where we can reach common ground toward this transition. i know that there are teachers and scholars out that still use efl not because they fully agree with the concept but because the leap to other concepts seems extreme (mora & golovátina-mora, 2017). equitable language learning from efl to ecl to ce mora 31 no. 24 why do we need a transition? as i stated in the previous section, my central argument is that the notion of efl as our elt community has traditionally conceived it is falling short to address the realities of language and literacy practices in colombia (graddol, 2006; mora, 2013) and in many cases, it has become a “convenient shortcut” (matsuda, personal communication, sept. 19, 2017) to avoid the deeper conversations about language inequity and access that we need to have as we project the future of elt (kubota, 2020; ortega, 2019). i agree with one of the reviewers that the issue is much larger than nomenclature and it has to do with addressing real meaningmaking issues. that said, when a framework is so deeply ingrained in colonial views of language, the name shift is not just a cosmetic move. it is an invitation for a muchneeded paradigm shift that makes us rethink why we learn, teach, and use languages within deeper levels of social consciousness. we need the transition because we need frameworks that do not leave our students in public/urban/rural schools, our indigenous populations (escobar alméciga & gómez lobatón, 2010;; uribe-jongbloed & anderson, 2014), and students with disabilities (león corredor & calderón, 2010;) at a disadvantage. this transition is necessary because we need flexible, adaptive frameworks (tochon, 2009) that acknowledge what users do with english in urban (mora, et al., 2018) and virtual spaces (mora, gee, hernandez, castaño, orrego, & ramírez, 2020), in their communities (rincón & clavijo-olarte, 2016; trigos-carrillo, 2019), and in their personal lives. finally, this transition is urgent because, as i tried to explain in the first moment, english is not “foreign” to quite a few people in our land and for others, it should not be any longer. ecl and ce: two working definitions. to aid the transition, i will now offer two working definitions for english as a colombian language and colombian english (note: i will just go over the definitions here. the deeper conversations about how this framework may promote equity are the object of the next sections). i see english as a colombian language as any existing variety of english (e.g., american, british and beyond) that local people can relate and see as part of their existing linguistic repertoire. in this sense, ecl considers english in general as a resource that language users can rely on for everyday communication and for realistic purposes. ecl would be then the first step toward pushing against the backlash around english in certain urban and rural communities (e.g., bonilla medina & cruz arcila, 2013). in the case of colombian english, we are talking about a move past the traditional varieties of english, becoming instead a variety of english, analog to those already present in other regions of the world such as singlish (forbes, 1993), that acknowledges the local values (higgins, 2009) and the diverse situated narratives (rajagopalan, 2010) that english, as part of a collective language tapestry, can help promote, but framed equitable language learning from efl to ecl to ce mora 32 no. 24 within language ecology (mora, 2014d) and equity principles (phillipson & skutnabbkangas, 1996). colombian english would then be a move from the traditional ways to frame english in colombia, usually circumscribed to american or british, into a more organic (gramsci, 1971) approach to language use. in this sense, i think of colombian english as an umbrella term that considers all the different ways in which we speak english in colombia, including already existing homegrown varieties (gonzález, 2010), and others that keep emerging as different folx in colombia experiment with english for multiple purposes in our cities (mora, et al., 2018) third moment: three considerations to implement the transition from efl to ecl to ce a transition from efl to ce, besides gradual, would need to have some specific considerations related to what one should keep in mind. in this section, i offer three guiding points as we get the transition started: consideration 1: the transition is about glocal advocacy. a move toward ce means that we should build our english language curricula keeping in mind how the local counternarratives (bamberg, 2004; mora, 2014c; solórzano & yosso, 2002) would use it to share their voices in local and global milieus. this as part of a move toward moments of glocal advocacy (mora, 2016), understood as the recognition that today’s practices are part of an increasingly global society that brings people from different backgrounds together. however, it also bears in mind the need to ensure that some agents are not lost in the midst of the global waves. (defining the term, pa. 2) a glocalized perspective also provides a moment to carefully discuss the colonial nature of english. ecl and ce defy traditional ideas about the neutrality of english and english instruction (pennycook, 2001). in order to think about transition, it is necessary to interrogate all our practices in the past few decades and how we have been complicit (whether overtly or tacitly) in the promotion of these colonial values in the language (that, i admit, is a question i have wrestled with over the past decade, and i am still dealing with in all my work) and what new ways of framing our instructional practices are necessary to give our views of english a true, critical turn. without reflecting on how we break those cycles of reproduction, the change will not be anything less that a performative, cosmetic move where we may end up just, as the expression says, recycling old wine in new bottles. equitable language learning from efl to ecl to ce mora 33 no. 24 thus, a glocalized perspective does not frame notions such as ecl or ce as monolithic in nature. doing so may fall prey to the trap of making them synonyms for standard english instead, this perspective assumes both notions as permeable (dyson, 1990) terms that need to be in constant examination so that they fulfill the purpose of celebrating the existing linguistic and cultural diversity in our regions as the building block of the needed common ground. in this sense, the move toward ecl and ce wishes to move the fields of english education and elt in colombia past the traditional l1/l2 binaries (mora, 2013), as part of an extended palette that also features the indigenous, the borderlands, and other second languages present in our communities (mora, et al., 2019). consideration 2: there must be a critical perspective framing the transition, which involves teacher education. at this point, it is important to point out that this proposed transition is not just the result of my individual musings. i propose this inspired by all the different questions about how we frame english in colombia that we have noticed in recent years. this is a response to all those questions about the relationship between english and gender, socio-economic status, policies, and instructional practices (e.g., mora, cañas, gutíerrez-arismendy, ramírez, gaviria, & golovátina-mora, 2021). making the transition to ecl and ce is part of that ongoing conversation about how we teach and use english in colombia. in the case of how we teach it, the transition is an invitation to look at the new ecl/ce curricula as a space for conscientização (freire, 1979; mora, 2014a), or the understanding of social realities from both epistemological and critical perspectives as the basis for the effective and sustainable transformation of said realities […] an invitation to take strong critical stances about history, society, and even politics as the first step to meaningful change. (what is it? pa. 1) rethinking our frameworks for english in colombia begins, therefore, at the teacher education level, both preservice (licencitaturas) and inservice (advanced and continuing education) teacher training and professional development. tertiary teacher education programs would have to develop curricula that balance the rigor in terms of language instruction with a commitment to defy cultural biases and question language neutrality (pennycook, 2001). we will need teacher education programs that foster powerful literacy (finn, 2010) curricula across all contexts (urban/rural/ exurban) that aim “to analyze social fields and their systems of exchange—with an eye to transforming social relations and material conditions.” (luke, 2012, p. 9). these curricula also need to mobilize prospective and practicing teachers to “mobilize existing linguistic, cultural, and cognitive resources to support them in gradually becoming a critical language user [and teacher].” (lau, 2012, pp. 329). in addition, as ko (2013) argued, “the curriculum is to use materials from the everyday world as text and analytic tools to deconstruct these texts to lay bare their ideological workings equitable language learning from efl to ecl to ce mora 34 no. 24 and power relations; therefore, the instruction is situated, interrogated and counterhegemonic” (pp. 92-93). this also involves (re)building elt teacher education programs (undergraduate, master’s, and doctoral alike) to keep in mind the realities of our local communities (cuasialpud chanchala, 2010). we need to customize curricula where we keep in mind all those stakeholders beyond teacher education and how we incorporate their input. we need to hear more from minoritized communities and add their voices to our courses. the good news is, we already have structures in place to do so, both at the macro level (e.g., the ministry of education’s basic learning rights or the conditions for accreditation our licenciaturas must comply with) and the micro level (e.g., professional development). we just need to act more decisively on those actions and give them a stronger presence in our teacher education programs. consideration 3: a transition to ce relies on language coexistence. the idea of language coexistence (mora, 2018; mora, et al., 2018) draws heavily from language ecology, or the application of ecosystems theories into languages in societies. in this sense, the ultimate goal of a language ecology perspective is to ensure that the promotion of any one language, in the name of globalization for example, does not mean that all other languages that have historically been part of local societies do not become casualties, but instead become empowered as the result of broader social interactions with the world. (mora, 2014d, what is it? pa. 2) a language ecology perspective, therefore, means that a move towards ecl and ce needs to be deeply ingrained in the sustainability of the colombian language ecosystem. it operates from the belief that any language policies and curricula under this umbrella cannot promote practices that erase and marginalize local, indigenous, or sign languages (guerrero, 2009). a view of language coexistence also promotes a move from the traditional view of language interference. the transition proposal seeks to understand how languages (sometimes organically) find ways to fit in the existing linguistic ecosystems and how english is not isolated nor can we isolate it from other languages in our communities (sharkey, clavijo-olarte, & ramírez, 2016), as sometimes our policies and curricula seem to frame it (chang-bacon, 2021). rather, a transition to colombian english stems from the recognition of the multiple languages (both indigenous and european) that have been part of our communities for a very long time. it means, as i mentioned before, that we will need to carefully revisit the purposes of english, from the very notion that it is a colonial and colonizing language. languages can be decolonized, so long as we decenter their practices from the traditional knowledge centers (mora, et al, 2020). in this sense, advocating for colombian english means acknowledging the varieties of english that will come to light as a consequence, varieties that will not necessarily equitable language learning from efl to ecl to ce mora 35 no. 24 adhere to traditional understandings of what certain registers should look like (flores, 2020) or that continue using idealized models of language speakers as the only way to validate what colombian english speakers should look or sound like (brittain, 2020; guerrero, 2009; rosa, 2016; rosa & flores, 2017). finally, a view of language coexistence also implies creating equitable frameworks so that our communities can use english to make other stories visible to different audiences everywhere. we already have relevant examples in the literature about how local communities have come together to give english a truly contextualized social and communicative purpose to talk about issues in our neighborhoods (e.g., medina-riveros, ramírez-galindo, & clavijo-olarte, 2016). we have research that keeps exploring how the relationship between english and urban dwellers is transforming the cities (e.g., mora, et al., 2018) and salient examples of how indigenous communities use it to promote their local cultures and crafts (e.g., jaraba ramírez & arrieta carrascal, 2012). as we keep compiling these examples, this will enable us to refine the features and purposes for this nascent construct called colombian english. coda: from efl to ecl to ce – a final word and an invitation our future as educators is only possible if we frame our profession around issues of language sustainability and equity, research, and strong educational advocacy. this is a futurology essay, where i took a bold, iconoclastic stance around a concept such as efl, thinking that our colombian elt community can propose something different and closer to how we may envision the role of english and other second languages in our country. this essay is nothing but an invitation for others to join the quest that must begin after i write the last sentence. i have said these words, first in the plenary and now here, because i have a strong conviction (mali, 2012) that there is a blueprint here that could guide the next steps. however, i do not believe that one single person can build such a framework as this. i am just proposing a viewpoint, but this is the beginning of a longer conversation. i am sharing these lines to invite other scholars and practitioners in and from colombia who are deeply invested in the future of english education in our country, to engage with these words. i especially invite (paying tribute to the ideas of pierre bourdieu) those who disagree with these ideas or have deep concerns about the extent of my proposal, to join me in conversation. this is a blueprint, this is work in progress and i imagine some ideas will morph as we read them together. i know some of these ideas may be controversial, but i welcome the controversy, not to pick fights, but to cross bridges. at the end of the day, whether we fully agree on this manifesto, i am fully aware that we do share one common cause: building a better future for elt in colombia, a future where our students and communities can own their second languages and not only use english in colombia but english for colombia. equitable language learning from efl to ecl to ce mora 36 no. 24 author’s note: this article collects ideas from three keynote addresses between 2017 and 2021: from efl to ecl to ce: seeking more equitable language learning and teaching practices for our elt communities and teacher education programs (forum on the future of the elt profession in colombia, 2017), what will it take for us to have bilingualism in colombia? a blueprint for the incoming decade (universidad tecnológica de pereira, 2019), and landscaping english literacies in colombia... or why english isn’t foreign to us anymore (asocopi annual congress, 2021). this article is also the result of many conversations around the subject with my students at universidad pontificia bolivariana, as well as colleagues in other universities in colombia. equitable language learning from efl to ecl to ce mora 37 no. 24 references bamberg, m. 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(2009). integrating the coffee culture with the teaching of english. profile issues in teachers professional development, 11(2), 27-42. author raúl alberto mora is associate professor at the school of education and pedagogy at upb in medellín, colombia (currently residing in trondheim, norway). dr. mora chairs the award-winning literacies in second languages project research lab (part of the pedagogies and didactics of knowledge research group at upb). dr. mora’s research focuses on the use of literacies theory to understand second language practices in and out of schools and uses sociocritical frameworks to talk about languages and bilingualism in today’s world, ideas that are reflected in his scholarship and advocacy efforts to promote the global south as a veritable knowledge center. orcid: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0479-252x how to reference this article: mora, r. a. (2022) toward more equitable language learning and teaching frameworks for our elt community: moving from efl to ecl to ce. gist – education and learning research journal, 24. 25-42. https://doi.org/10.26817/16925777.1137 equitable language learning from efl to ecl to ce 215 assessment of english learning problematic phonemes for spanishspeakers’ learners of english1 fonemas problemáticos para los hispanohablantes que aprenden inglés olga lucía uribe enciso, sol smith fuentes hernandez, karla lizeth vargas pita and andersson steve rey pabón2* universidad industrial de santander, colombia abstract when learning english, learners might face a challenging task in mastering pronunciation due to differences in both languages such as sound-to-letter correspondence, size of phoneme inventory, allophonic realization of sounds, place and manner of articulation, among others. therefore, the purpose of this paper is to review both theoretical and research reports on the most problematic sounds for spanish-speakers english language learners. approaches to second language learners’ errors like contrastive analysis and error analysis although being criticized have contributed to identifying likely causes of errors and dealing with them whether anticipating them or providing appropriate feedback on them. besides, first language interference and age of second language acquisition have been found as complicating factors in the english pronunciation learning process. finally, some classroom activities have been reported as successful for facilitating english pronunciation in spanish native speakers. key words: english pronunciation; spanish native speakers; contrastive analysis; error correction; interference; pronunciation activities resumen a la hora de aprender inglés, los aprendices pueden encontrar dificultades con respecto a la pronunciación puesto que existen ciertas diferencias en los dos idiomas, tales como la correspondencia de sonido a letra, el tamaño del inventario de fonemas, la realización alofónica de sonidos, el lugar y la forma de articulación, entre otros. por 1 received may 3rd 2018/ accepted june 11th 2019 2 olgaurib@uis.edu.co; solsmithfh@gmail.com; klvargaspita@gmail.com; reyandersson@gmail.com gist education and learning research journal. issn 1692-5777. no.19 (july december, 2019). pp. 215-238. no. 19 (july december 2019) no. 19 (july december 2019) 216 problematic phonemes for learners of english uribe, fuentes, vargas & rey lo tanto, el propósito de este documento es revisar literatura teórica e investigativa sobre los sonidos más problemáticos para aprendices de inglés que son hablantes nativos de español. aproximaciones a los errores de los aprendices de una segunda lengua, como el análisis contrastivo y el análisis de errores que, aunque han sido criticados, han contribuido a identificar las posibles causas de los errores y abordarlas, ya sea anticipándolos o proporcionando una retroalimentación adecuada. además, la interferencia de la lengua materna y la edad de adquisición del segundo idioma se han encontrado como factores que dificultan el proceso de aprendizaje de la pronunciación en inglés. finalmente, algunas actividades de clase han sido reportadas como exitosas para facilitar la pronunciación del inglés a hablantes nativos de español. palabras clave: pronunciación en inglés; hablantes nativos de español; análisis contrastivo; corrección de errores; interferencia; actividades de pronunciación resumo na hora de aprender inglês, os aprendizes podem encontrar dificuldades com relação à pronúncia, posto que existem certas diferenças nos dois idiomas, tais como a correspondência de som da letra, o tamanho do inventário de fonemas, a realização alofônica de sons, o lugar e a forma de articulação, entre outros. portanto, o propósito deste documento é revisar literatura teórica e investigativa sobre os sons mais problemáticos para aprendizes de inglês que são falantes nativos de espanhol. aproximações aos erros dos aprendizes de uma segunda língua, como a análise contrastiva e a análise de erros que, mesmo que têm sido criticados, têm contribuído a identificar as possíveis causas dos erros e abordá-las, seja antecipando-os ou proporcionando uma retroalimentação adequada. além disso, a interferência da língua materna e a idade de aquisição do segundo idioma tem se encontrado como fatores que dificultam o processo de aprendizagem da pronúncia em inglês. finalmente, algumas atividades de aula têm sido reportadas como bem sucedidas para facilitar a pronúncia do inglês a falantes nativos de espanhol. palavras chave: pronúncia em inglês; falantes nativos de espanhol; análise contrastivo, correção de erros; interferência; atividades de pronúncia. no. 19 (july december 2019) no. 19 (july december 2019) 217 problematic phonemes for learners of english uribe, fuentes, vargas & rey introduction learning english as a second language (esl3) involves, as any language, the development of the four basic skills, writing, reading, listening and speaking, and the four systems, grammar, lexis, discourse, and phonology. in communication, which is the ultimate goal of using a language, the phonological system plays a significant role. one of its components, pronunciation determines how intelligible messages are so that they can be understood by their interlocutors; as stated by fangzhi (1998, p.39): “good pronunciation is closely linked with clear oral communication”. pronunciation is concerned with how sounds are put together in the flow of speech (boyers, s. 2002, p. 1). more specifically, pronunciation refers to the production of sounds that we use to make meaning (amep, 2002, par. 2). therefore, having a good pronunciation is fundamental for conveying a clear message. nonetheless, mastering a proper english pronunciation can constitute a big problem for esl learners as there are some factors that cause difficulties in the learning of pronunciation. for example, the first language (l1) highly influences the degree of difficulty learners may face during the development of the second language (l2) spoken ability as stated by manrique (2013 as cited in denizer, 2017, p. 40): “mispronunciation … errors are the most common types of interference between the mother tongue and the target language”. another example has to do with two features of the english language that hinder the pronunciation learning process of english learners. the first particularity is that the english sound system possesses unique sounds that are not common to those belonging to romance, sino-tibetan, and arabic linguistic families. the second singularity is that english does not have one-toone grapheme-phoneme correspondence. it means that each english sound can have more than one phoneme realization depending on its syllabic position. besides, as all other languages, english has various accents and phoneme realizations depending on the country in which it is spoken (oxford royal academy, 2014, par. 2-13). for example, while american people pronounce the word ‘car’ like /kær/, british people pronounce /ka:´r / since the /r/ is silent in this position. in addition, authors such as case (2012), hernandez, gonzales and algara (2011) and valenzuela (n.d) agree that l2 learners are prone to mispronounce consonant clusters in initial and final positions, to confuse short and long vowels, and to interchange fricative and affricate sounds. additionally, learners read the words as they are written due to the sound-letter o phoneme-grapheme correspondence in their l1, and they mispronounce not only occlusive sounds in initial position but also diphthongs. 3 esl is used in this paper as an umbrella term for both esl and english as a foreign (efl). efl is used only when needed to specify the learning context. no. 19 (july december 2019) no. 19 (july december 2019) 218 problematic phonemes for learners of english uribe, fuentes, vargas & rey regarding the teaching of pronunciation, there are some singularities that efl teachers must take into account in order to assist their spanishspeaking students in achieving satisfactory english pronunciation and successful communication (griffiths, 2004). firstly, they have to be aware of the students’ l1 phonetic system interference. secondly, they need to be aware that it is problematic for spanish-speakers, for example, to adjust their speech organs (velum, tongue, lips, alveolar ridge etc.) to the exact english articulatory movements (axelrod, 1974). thirdly, teachers should have a clear understanding of how pronunciation works and needs to be taught (kelly, 2000). teachers, who are knowledgeable in these matters, are more likely to “enable learners to surpass the threshold level [i.e. minimum level of language domain] so that their pronunciation will not detract from the ability to communicate” (celce-murcia, 1996, p. 8). however, pronunciation has been neglected in l2 instruction regardless its major role in effective communication: “despite the fact that acquiring pronunciation is so difficult, in many l2 classrooms, teaching pronunciation is granted the least attention” (gilakjani, 2011, p.1). english learners’ pronunciation problems is a topic worth-discussing. therefore, the purpose of this paper is to review some theoretical and research literature related to english pronunciation of esl speakers with a focus on spanish native speakers. the information gathered was classified in three major themes. the first one discusses the most problematic phonemes or sounds from the theoretical perspective of contrastive analysis and error analysis. the second one examines the factors that affect learning pronunciation such as interference and age. finally, the third one addresses activities to improve learner’s pronunciation such as reading out-loud and flipped learning. this revision is relevant for elt scholars interested in segmental phonetic analysis. they might find some theoretical guidelines to gain awareness of the variety of problems that could arise regarding the pronunciation learning process of esl learners. this information will encourage them to approach the teaching of pronunciation in a more strategic, practical and better informed way. problematic sounds contrastive analysis (ca) considers language from a structural point of view and emerged as a tool to predict l2 items that language learners would find easy or difficult to master because of being similar to or different from their l1. thus, in practice, by identifying problematic l2 elements, errors could be prevented (lado, 1957). error analysis (ea), another approach to errors, focused on language as developed by learners through hypothesis formation and testing. therefore, errors are developmental and promote language learning (corder, 1967). no. 19 (july december 2019) no. 19 (july december 2019) 219 problematic phonemes for learners of english uribe, fuentes, vargas & rey contrastive analysis ca is firstly developed and practiced by the american linguist robert lado in the 1950’s and 1960’s in order to facilitate l2 learning by preventing errors. he compares learners l1 and l2 to identify language items that are similar or different between the two languages. he argues that all kind of errors in the l2 are caused by those l2 elements that differ from the learners l1. consequently, errors can be anticipated and avoided if such differences are noticed. thus, he claims that errors produced by learners are the result of l1 negative interference. however, later in 1981, the professor and linguist jacek fisiak, states that “there are psychological, pedagogical and extra linguistic factors that contribute to the formation of errors” (as cited in khansir, 2012, p. 1028). thus, there are some intralingual and developmental causes such as simplification, overgeneralization, hypercorrection, faulty teaching, fossilization, avoidance, and inadequate learning (touchie, 1986, p. 78). ca has been strongly criticized for: first, being used merely for analyzing the language selectively and superficially focusing on phonological, grammatical and certain lexical items; second, analyzing those three systems as discrete and hierarchical with grammar at the highest level; third, its structural approach to language where items are linear and should be learnt from simple to complex and through repetition; fourth, associating all l2 errors to l1 interference so that excluding developmental errors caused by learners’ experimentation with the l2; fifth, affirming that language difficulties always lead to error and therefore, ignoring the psycholinguistic factor in language learning, and sixth for wrongly predicting errors (lennon, 2008) notwithstanding, ca seems to “work best in predicting phonological error” (lennon, 2008, p.54). consequently, nowadays, ca is used to compare two linguistic systems focusing on grammar and phonological systems of languages in order to predict second language problems (richards & smith, 2002, and fang & xue-mei, 2007, as cited in sompong, 2014). following this new practical and theoretical trend, there are some authors who have applied ca to study the differences in the phonological systems of spanish and english regarding the production, perception and realization of sounds. for example, authors such as valenzuela (n.d), frankfurt international school (n.d.), coe (2001), and torres (2007) claim that the most notorious difference between the spanish and english phonological systems lies in their number of vowels, diphthongs and consonants. in the english system there are twelve pure vowels, eight diphthongs and twenty-four consonants. in contrast, in the spanish language there are five pure vowels, five diphthongs and nineteen consonants. focusing on vowels, coe (2001) affirms that: [spanish-speaking english] learners find difficulty in differentiating between english vowels, especially when length is a part of the no. 19 (july december 2019) no. 19 (july december 2019) 220 problematic phonemes for learners of english uribe, fuentes, vargas & rey difference. typically, at least two english vowels share the ‘phonetic space’ occupied by one spanish …vowel, so one-to-one correspondences are practically impossible. (2001, p. 91) in order to clarify this, finch and ortiz as cited in gallardo del puerto & gómez (2008) claim that since the articulatory movements of the spanishspeakers are accustomed to specific tongue, lips, jaw movements as well as mouth-opening, these learners associate the existing vowel sounds of their l1 when producing the vowel sounds of the tl as it is exemplified in table 1. considering consonants in english and spanish, coe (2001) reminds us that there are some spanish phonemes which share characteristics in the place and manner of articulation with english phonemes as seen in the circled phonemes in table 2. table 1. spanish-speakers’ interpretation of english sounds english vowel produced as spanish vowel / i: / / i / / i / / ℮ / / з: / / e / /ù / / a: / / æ / / a / / ʊ / / u:/ / u / / ɒ / / o / / ∂ / / e / / a / note. information taken from finch and ortiz cited in “lira la enseñanza de las vocales inglesas a los hablantes de español”, by gallardo del puerto, f. and gómez, e. revista pulso cucc, pp. 47-48 tabla 2. similar phonetics in english and spanish no. 19 (july december 2019) no. 19 (july december 2019) 221 problematic phonemes for learners of english uribe, fuentes, vargas & rey however, there are some other sounds which are completely different in both languages and therefore hinder the pronunciation of the english learners. to illustrate this, cala (1997), valenzuela (n.d), valero (2010), and coe (2001) state that english initial voiceless plosives /p/, /t/, /k/ are not aspirated in spanish, so they often sound like /b/, /d/ and /g/ to english ears as in the case of bill and pill. coe (2001) explains that since in spanish word-final plosives are rare, spanish speakers tend to use /t/ for final /d/ (e.g. /sæt/ instead of / sæd, /k/ for final /ŋ/ (e.g. /sɪŋk/ instead of /sɪŋ/) and /p/ for final /b/ (e.g. /bɑːp/ instead of /bɑːb/) . regarding pairs of sounds, gonzales (2012), valenzuela (n.d), and coe (2001) agree on the fact that spanish-speakers are prone to give english /b/, /d/ and /g/ their mother tongue values, which vary according to the context. between vowels, these sounds are softer continuous sounds, not stops. for example, in the word adapt /əˈdæpt/ the phoneme /d/ is not articulated as plosive. concerning the particular phoneme /ŋ/, cala (1997) asserts that this sound is found generally in medium position in spanish, while in english it is found most of the times in final position. in addition, the fricative and affricate phonemes happen to be problematic for the spanish-speaking english learners. on the one hand, the phonemic inventory of both languages shares the sounds /f/, /ð/, /s/ and /h/ (centeno & anderson, 2007). on the other hand, there are some others like /z/, /s/, /v/, /θ/, /ɜː/, /ʃ/,/ʒ/, and /dʒ/ which either can differ in manner and place of realization or are inexistent in spanish (frankfurt international school, nd; valero, 2010 and coe, 2001). to exemplify the later, in latin-american spanish the phoneme /z/ does not exist; thus, learners tend to interchange /z/ by /s/ in english (coe, 2001); for instance, they will pronounce /su:m/ for ‘zoom’ instead of / zu:m/. regarding the liquid phonemes /r/ and /l/, they have particular features in english and spanish. in the case of /r/, perez (2011), gonzales (2012), cala (1997), steward (1971), and centeno & anderson(2007) compare place of articulation, manner and syllabic position in both languages. the sound /ɾ/ in spanish can be voiced, alveolar, and vibrant simple or multiple depending on the syllabic position. that is, if the sound /r/ is found as vowel+/r/+vowel, it is vibrant simple, as in the case of cara [‘kara]; in contrast, if it is found as consonant+/r/+vowel and in initial position, it is vibrant multiple as in israel [isřa’el]. on the other hand, the sound /r/ in english is retroflex, postalveolar approximant in almost all syllabic contexts. concerning the sound /l/, gonzales (2012) says that in english there are two kinds of /l/: dark and light, while in spanish this sound has three different allophones depending on the context in which it is placed. that is to say, in spanish, it is produced as dental before /t/ and /d/, alveopalatal before /tʃ/, and palatal before /ʎ/ and /i/ as in the words alto [‘alto] ,colchón [‘kolt∫on] and llama [‘λa ma] respectively. no. 19 (july december 2019) no. 19 (july december 2019) 222 problematic phonemes for learners of english uribe, fuentes, vargas & rey another difference between the spanish and english phonological systems has to do with clusters, which are defined as “a sequence of two or more consonants at the beginning of a syllable (e.g. /spl æʃ/ in splash) or the end of a syllable (e.g. /sts/ in tests)” (richards & schmidt, 2002, p.110). concerning spanish, gonzales (2012, p.9) shows the tendency to break clusters into syllables. for example: en-ci-ma; in-cre-í-ble, ins-pi-rar, ins-tru-ment. however, from coe’s (2001) point of view, consonant clusters in spanish as well as in catalan occur less frequently than in english, at least in initial position. adding to this, gorman and kester (n.d) conclude that english /sp/, /sk/ and /st/ initial consonant clusters can only occur in spanish if preceded by the letter “e” like in espacio [es’paθjo], escalera [eska’lera] and strella [es’treλa]. in conclusion, it seems that ca is a method that helps linguists to highlight the language differences and/or possible problems in aspects such as: morphology, phonology, and syntax. for example, when english and spanish is compared, the authors mentioned above, which focused their studies on phonology, determined that factors such as isolated sounds, consonant clusters, fricatives, affricates, and liquid phonemes cause difficulties to l1 spanish speakers in mastering the pronunciation of english. error analysis error analysis (ea) “deals with the systematic and methodical collection and documentation of second language (l2) errors in learners’ language production” (hinkel, 2018, p.1) and directs attention to the communicative nature of language as focuses more on errors in language-production processes (ellis in hinkel, 2018). also, it is related to language pedagogy as “studying the errors made by learners of a second language…is something which teachers have always done for purely practical reasons” (corder, 1981, p.35). in the 1960s, ea is proposed as an alternative to ca. it focuses on l2 errors that cannot be attributed to l1 negative interference and that are more related to the l2. according to ea, l2 learners’ errors show their language development and progress, indicate the way learners learn the language in terms of strategies and prove learners themselves that language learning is taking place. thus, ea argues that errors are natural in language learning and are caused by learners’ experimentation (inferences or hypothesis) with the l2, and that they are essential for language gradual development. another tenet of ea is that l2 learners follow a universal order of language acquisition and that areas of difficulties in l2 are common to learners (corder, 1981). besides, ea differentiates mistakes from errors: the former seen as non-systematic errors of performance (lapses or slips) which do not have to do with language knowledge, and the latter which are systematic and show learners’ language knowledge at a certain point in time; errors tell what learners have not learnt no. 19 (july december 2019) no. 19 (july december 2019) 223 problematic phonemes for learners of english uribe, fuentes, vargas & rey yet (corder, 1981, corder in hinkel, 2018; norrish, 1983 in sompong, 2014). ea focuses on errors rather than mistakes and its followers have proposed different taxonomies of errors, some regarding the language systems (grammar, phonology, lexis, and discourse) and the type of alteration made to the surface structure of the language (dulay, burt & krashen, and james in sompong, 2014; ellis, 1994); others based on the cause of the error (james; norrish; richards in sompong, 2014). even though ea first, focuses more on the learner as a language processer and user, second, places more importance to the communicative function of the language, and third, has more pedagogical uses, it has received criticism. the major problems arise when: identifying and classifying the errors, differentiating errors from mistakes, determining the cause of the error, and assuming that the language learners use in production is all the language they know (lennon, 2008; hinkel, 2018). hashim (as cited in sompong, 2014) suggests that one of the causes of errors, according to ea, is the quality of l2 instruction. to this respect, corder (1981, 1983) argues that language teachers need to identify and provide appropriate feedback on errors whether in language learning situations or language use contexts: “errors and their analyses shed light on the areas of learning difficulty that can be useful for both language teachers and language learners. being able to identify these can assist in instruction, with targeted practice and focused teaching.” (dulay, burt & krashen as cited in hinkel, 2018, p.2). some studies have used ea to help spanish speakers improve their l2 pronunciation (castillo, 2016; goswami & chen (2010); vera, 2014). the authors referenced above use a similar methodology. they start hypothesizing a set of problematic english sounds for each specific spanishspeaking group of participants. then, they apply a pre-test in which the phoneme pronunciation accuracy of the learners is measured. after that, instruction is provided: the researchers explain through workshops either a specific set of phonemes, or the whole international phonetic alphabet (ipa). finally, they use a post-test to verify if there is any improvement in the learners’ pronunciation after having received instruction. as already mentioned, the quality of instruction may facilitate or hinder l2 pronunciation learning. for example, castillo (2016) conducts an interview in order to find out about the most problematic phonemes for learners. learners claim to have difficulties in the production of english vowel sounds such as: /ə/, /ɜː/, /æ/, and /i:/. after doing the pre-test, and having learned the ipa, the learners take the post-test to observe if there is any progress in their pronunciation of these sounds. as a result, the author finds that the instruction is not effective enough as the learners continue having problems differentiating the length of the target vocalic sounds. no. 19 (july december 2019) no. 19 (july december 2019) 224 problematic phonemes for learners of english uribe, fuentes, vargas & rey in another study, goswami and chen (2010) choose the english sounds /t/ /d/, /v/, /z/, /ð/, /θ/ and /ʃ/ as the set of problematic phonemes for mexican spanish-speakers. the participants are divided into an experimental and a control group. the experimental group take the pre-test and then receive instruction in differentiating target sounds while the control group have regular english classes. as a conclusion, the authors claim that instruction in segmental features result in a significant improvement in the production of the l2 sounds in the experimental group. finally, vera’s research, studies the perception and production of the english vowel “schwa” by spanish speakers. she conducts an experimental study in which the control group is formed by english-native speakers, and the experimental group, by colombian english learners. she sets a pre-test to evaluate the abilities of the spanish-speakers to produce and recognize the / schwa/ before the intervention. then, she provides the colombian learners with instruction in discriminating and articulating the target language sound. finally, she administers a post-test from which she concludes that the experimental group shows a higher improvement in the perception of the “schwa” rather than in its production. to conclude, instruction is one of the aspects to consider when carrying out ea in order to identify problematic phonemes of l2 students. however, it does not always provide a major impact on the pronunciation proficiency level of the learners. as touchie(1986) argues, one of the causes of learners’ pronunciation errors might be related to the teacher approach and the teaching materials. factors affecting pronunciation learning there are several factors that influence the learning of pronunciation. according to kenworthy (1987), the major ones are: l1, age, amount of exposure to the l2, phonetic ability, attitude and identity, and motivation and interest in having a good pronunciation. in this section only studies related to l1 interference and age are presented. these two aspects have been widely discussed in the field of l2 learning and are still very debatable. interference interference or negative transfer is the influence one language has on the learning process of another language, which causes difficulties or leads to errors. however, transfer can be positive or facilitative when the languages involved share features. language transfer has been approached from different views of language learning and therefore, its meaning has changed overtime. for no. 19 (july december 2019) no. 19 (july december 2019) 225 problematic phonemes for learners of english uribe, fuentes, vargas & rey example, if considered from a behavioristic point of view, negative l1 transfer is the major cause of l2 errors as seen in ca, but if seen from a cognitive perspective, transfer is part of the l2 learning as learners do not build their l2 from the scratch but instead use any knowledge at their disposal, including the l1 (selinker as cited in ellis, 1997). transfer can occur consciously or unconsciously and can be triggered by factors such as the learning setting and the learner’s proficiency and characteristics (benson, 2002). some research has been done on transfer in the phonological system. for example, regarding phonological differences between spanish and english, gallardo del puerto and gomez (2008) highlight the fact that phonemes in english and spanish are realized in different place and manner of articulation. for example, the sound /r/ is approximant post-alveolar, while in spanish it is vibrant (multiple or simple) alveolar. in brief as axelrod (1974) states, spanishspeaking learners of english need to adjust their speech organs to the exact english articulation movements in order to realize the phonemes properly. another factor that creates interference in the intelligible english pronunciation of the spanish speaker is the orthographic representation of the words. in english, there is not one to one phoneme-grapheme correspondence as there is in spanish. an explanation of this phenomenon could be the fact that english has a richer vocalic system in which the twelve vowel sounds can correspond to at least 70 orthographic representations (finch & ortiz as cited in gallardo del puerto & gómez, 2008). finally, mayordomo (2013) find some pronunciation problems in spanish-speakers’ production coming from the phonological differences between the spanish and english sets of phonemes. firstly, they notice a tendency among the learners to produce vowels and diphthongs in english as they are produced in spanish (e.g. /i/ instead of /ɪ/ or /i:/, /a/ instead of /æ/). secondly, they identify that spanish-speakers pronounce the ‘friend words’ as exactly as they are pronounced in spanish language (e.g./ˈalkɔ:l/ instead of / ˈæl.kə.hɒl/). clearly, there are differences that produce interference in the l2 learning process. this happens because the learners are prone to use the familiar sounds and patterns of their l1 in the l2. however, there are ways to overcome this difficulty such as giving explicit instruction in articulation and training learning in sound perception, minimal pairs and orthographic representation (wells, 2000). age in the case of the age factor, it has been considered a determining factor for developing native-like l2 competence; but, there is still neither agreement no. 19 (july december 2019) no. 19 (july december 2019) 226 problematic phonemes for learners of english uribe, fuentes, vargas & rey on a certain chronological age when it is not possible to fully acquire the l2, nor on whether it proportionately affects all language areas. for instance, some linguists following the critical period hypothesis (cph) argue that when brain lateralization is finished during puberty, skills for language learning are not naturally and easily available (penfield & robert as cited in kirkman, n.d., p. 3; lenneberg as cited in harley & wang, 2014). a different view is supported by johnson and newport (as cited in harley & wang, 2014, p.22) who argue that such language learning capacity reduces or disappears with maturation only if it is not exercised. regarding pronunciation, kuhl (2010) and dekeyser (2012) suggest that not all language areas are affected to the same extent, but the phonological and lexical systems need more effort to be developed and might not reach the native-like level. barlow (2014) in her study with 38 male and female college students aged 20, analyzes the influence of the phoneme /l/ with both early (learn the l2 before 5 years old) and late (learn the l2 after 6) spanish-english bilinguals, 11 and 14 respectively, and a group of 13 english monolinguals for english pronunciation reference. the two bilingual groups evidence balanced exposure and use of both languages, even though english input and output is a bit greater as they study in a dominant english-spoken institution. findings reveal that: first, both early and late spanish-english bilinguals acquired the english /l/ pronunciation with subtle influence of the spanish /l/; such influence is slightly stronger in late bilinguals. second, late bilinguals spanish /l/ is influenced by english /l/ which proves that there is a bidirectional l1 and l2 influence. third, age have an incidence in the sound production of bilinguals’; the older the learners, the greater the influence. another study by major (2014) conducted with 38 spanish native speakers aims to determine the influence of cognitive, affective and demographic factors in the participants’ l2 proficiency. results related to age (included in the demographic aspects) indicate that the younger the subjects were when they started to learn english, the higher the proficiency they have achieved. the author explains this finding in terms of the experience using the language: younger learners have had more l2 practice opportunities. the age factor is one of the most controversial topics in second language acquisition (sla). whether or not there is a specific time in the physical and linguistic development of human beings after which a new language cannot be fully learned is still under debate. however, there are some researchers such as marinova-todd (as cited in pinter, 2012) that claim that it is not age per se what affects l2 language learning but other factors such as exposure, practice time, learners’ disposition and quality of instruction mainly in english as a foreign language (efl) contexts. no. 19 (july december 2019) no. 19 (july december 2019) 227 problematic phonemes for learners of english uribe, fuentes, vargas & rey activities to help learners improve pronunciation teaching pronunciation has been neglected by teachers as they approach it mostly in a reactive way when mispronunciation is noticed (griffiths, 2011). however, some books (hancock, 2000; hewings, 2004; kelly, 2000; kenworthy, 1987) and papers (huang, 2010; ramírez, 2018) provide different activities to include pronunciation in the regular english classes. reading out-loud reading out-loud (i.e. loud enough to be heard) is a method that has been implemented in l2 teaching in order to improve student’s oral production. there exist many attempts to define the concept of oral reading; however, huang (2010) calls our attention at defining reading out-loud as “a kind of comprehensive practice of pronunciation … [which] can help [students] to overcome the faults of disfluency, repeat, improper pause, and develop natural and good pronunciation habits” (p.149). thus, teachers can use reading outloud to help students to develop and improve their oral fluency. also, teachers use it in order to identify student’s pronunciation mistakes and give them appropriate feedback to avoid fossilization (tost, 2013). some examples of the use of this method are the studies by cabrera and lara (2014) and hernandez, gonzales and algara (2011) who have implemented reading out-loud for identifying pronunciation errors in spanish-speaking english learners. in their study, cabrera and lara (2014) claim that spanish-speakers are prone to confuse and mispronounce the affricate /t∫/, /dʒ/, the alveolar /d/ and the fricative /∫/, /ʒ/ phonemes since they have many orthographic representations. in order to analyze whether these phonemes are problematic or not for a group of spanishspeakers, the researchers ask the learners to read aloud a list of words, a list of sentences and one paragraph where these phonemes appear randomly. they conclude that first, the context provided by text-fragments and long sentences facilitate the realization of the target sounds effectively as compared to the production of the sounds in isolated words, and second, that the written english forms causes difficulties in reception and production of english in spanish native speakers. finally, the authors suggest using reading out-loud to help learners link sounds to spelling. in the second, hernandez, gonzales and algara (2011) hypothesize that the english fricative alveolar /s/ and /z/ are challenging sounds for spanish speakers from venezuela as in latin america spanish native speakers do not make the oral distinction between the sounds /s/ and /z/ in their l1; therefore, they transfer this phonological feature to english. in order to prove the hypothesis, the learners read aloud a set of words both isolated and contextualized. the authors find that: firstly, the sound /z/ was predominantly no. 19 (july december 2019) no. 19 (july december 2019) 228 problematic phonemes for learners of english uribe, fuentes, vargas & rey devoiced by venezuelan english learners; secondly, there is a tendency to interchange the consonant sounds /z/ and /s/ with the glottal /h/. for example, the words same /seɪm/, second /ˈsek.ənd/ are pronounced as /heɪm/ /ˈhek.ənd/. these fricative, affricate and alveolar phonemes are identified as the most problematic sounds not only for venezuelan spanish speakers but also for spanish native speakers from different nationalities such as: catalan, mexican, spanish and costa rican (centeno & anderson, 2007; kalhousová 2014,pizarro & cordero, 2015; coe, 2001; steward, 1971). in conclusion, reading out-loud contributes to identifying problematic sounds and developing fluency. consequently, pedagogical activities can be done to address specific pronunciation problems in the classroom. flipped learning bergmann and sams (2012) define flipped learning as an alternative teaching approach that aims at catering for individual learners’ needs by moving the delivery of content in the classroom to the individual learning space, which makes possible to personalize education. thus, class time is devoted to more practical and experiential activities where learners can apply the content knowledge. while putting theory into practice learners test their own hypothesis, clarify doubts, make new inferences and develop their critical thinking skills (fln, 2014). ramírez (2018) conducts a case study research with 10 in-service colombian teachers of english in order to determine the effectiveness of a blended course to train the teachers in how to teach pronunciation. the researcher uses surveys, pre and post recordings, interviews, participants and teacher’s diaries, and lesson plans to gather information. besides, she implements flipped learning as one of the pedagogical approaches for running the course. findings show that these teachers, spanish native speakers, improved both their english pronunciation (mainly consonants and linking) and their pronunciation teaching skills. the author recommends flipped learning as a tool for promoting situated learning as learners can put into practice the content studied. karaoke rengifo (2009) did an action research with 15 adult spanish native speakers learning english to determine the effectiveness of the japanese singing activity, karaoke, in helping the participants to improve their pronunciation during their classes. the researcher carries out activities such as discussing the meaning of the song, comparing english accents, minimal pairs no. 19 (july december 2019) no. 19 (july december 2019) 229 problematic phonemes for learners of english uribe, fuentes, vargas & rey discrimination, matching sound to written form, among others to get learners to notice l2 pronunciation features. he also uses observations, interviews and tests to collect information. findings show that karaoke is effective not only to reach a better pronunciation but also to improve spoken english in general. the authors recommend integrating pronunciation as a natural component of the english learning process and raising awareness of its importance in communication. conclusions as the purpose of this paper was to review some existing literature related to the pronunciation of esl learners especially spanish native speakers, the following conclusions were reached: pronunciation plays an important role in the l2 learning process since oral messages must be intelligible for effective communication to take place (amep, 2002). although ca has been criticized due to its superficial approach to language, it allows researchers to compare two linguistic systems in order to identify potential problems l2 learners might experience in both sound perception and production (sompong, 2014). specifically, when comparing spanish and english, the most notorious differences that makes pronunciation challenging for esl spanish native speakers are: the sound-letter correspondence in english but absent in spanish and the bigger number of vowels, diphthongs and consonants in english.; in both languages, a set of phonemes share characteristics in place and manner of articulation while some others either do not exist or do not have exact correspondence (coe, 2001; torres, 2007; valenzuela, n.d). in addition, error analysis permits both to identify the problems that l2 learners face and to help teachers develop strategies for improving pronunciation. nevertheless, it was evidenced that the pronunciation instruction does not have a significant impact on learners’ production in the short term, and unless it is systematic. thus, it is important to highlight the fact that the quality of the instruction affects positively or negatively l2 learners’ oral production (castillo, 2016; goswami & chen, 2010; sompong, 2014; vera, 2014). l1 plays a crucial role sla. l2 learners resort to their l1 knowledge to deal with gaps in l2 knowledge which might cause negative transfer or interference leading to production mistakes and poor speech intelligibility. however, interference can be dealt with through explicit training in articulation, sound perception, minimal pairs and orthographic representation (gallardo del puerto & gómez, 2008; wells, 2000). although the role of age in sla is still controversial, the cph has found evidence of early l2 learners’ more successful pronunciation management (barlow 2014). however, some research affirms that age is not determining per se, but the time of language exposure, continuous practice and quality of instruction in efl contexts that account for better l2 pronunciation in early l2 learners (johnson no. 19 (july december 2019) no. 19 (july december 2019) 230 problematic phonemes for learners of english uribe, fuentes, vargas & rey & newport as cited in harley & wang, 2014). there are some strategies for helping l2 learners improve pronunciation. for example, reading out-loud has two main purposes. on the one hand, it helps learners to practice and improve their oral production. on the other hand, it provides teachers with a benchmark to establish what the most difficult sounds for the students are. also, it allows teachers to provide appropriate feedback in order to avoid fossilization. thus, teachers can develop strategies and/or materials to overcome learner’s pronunciation difficulties (huang, 2010; tost, g, 2013). a second way is to implement flipped learning where learners improve their language by working both individually and group through developing their autonomy and critical thinking skills (ramírez, 2018). another strategy is integrating karaoke in classes so learners can pay attention to formal phonological aspects such as: discrimination and realization of specific phonemes (e.g. minimal pairs), and/ or discrimination of sounds by accent. also, they can improve lexis and fluency (rengifo,2009). finally, further research should be done regarding important factors in l2 pronunciation. for example, awareness-raising of the major role of pronunciation in communication, approaches and strategies to improve the quality of pronunciation teaching and learning, the role of pronunciation in english as lingua franca and the respect for englishes, and some other aspects that affect the way l2 pronunciation is approached in elt. no. 19 (july december 2019) no. 19 (july december 2019) 231 problematic phonemes for learners of english uribe, fuentes, vargas & rey references amep research center. 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(2000). overcoming phonetic interference. english phonetics, journal of the english phonetic society of japan. retrieved from: http:// www.phon.ucl.ac.uk no. 19 (july december 2019) no. 19 (july december 2019) 237 problematic phonemes for learners of english uribe, fuentes, vargas & rey authors *olga lucía uribe enciso is a professor and a researcher in the elt educational program at universidad industrial de santander where she teaches sla research and english didactics courses and coordinates a master program. she has carried out research on language learning strategies, reading strategies, l1 reading and writing proficiency in university students, l2 collocations, and formative research in elt preservice teachers. also, she has worked as a teacher trainer, academic consultant and curriculum and material designer for elt programs run by the men and the british council in order to qualify teachers and improve elt practices in both private and public schools. she holds a delta certification, a specialization in spanish semiotics and pedagogy, an ma in tefl and an ma in teaching spanish. orcid: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5751-7463 sol smith fuentes hernández is a tenthsemester student in the english language teaching program (eltp) at universidad industrial de santander. throughout her career, she has been interested not only in the study of phonetics and phonology but also in the creation of materials for colombian primary teachers in public institutions. she has developed some group studies about the frequency of pronunciation of the english phonetic vowel /ə/. in addition to this, she has been one of the creators of a booklet called primary genius 5 which is aligned with the suggested curriculum proposed by ministerio de educación nacional (men). orcid: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1176-8595 karla lizeth vargas pita is a student at universidad industrial de santander where she studies the english language teaching program. she has carried out research on problematic phonemes for spanishspeakers learners of english. also, she has co-created the english booklet “primary genius” for teaching english to elementary fifth graders in colombia. what is more, she is currently working as english teacher in the young learners’ program at instituto de lenguas uis. orcid: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3803-6231 no. 19 (july december 2019) no. 19 (july december 2019) 238 author anderson steve rey pabón is an eightsemester student of the english language teaching program at universidad industrial de santander. during his time as a student he has been interested in the teaching and/or learning of spanish as a foreign language. for that reason, he participated in the international program called amity in the united states in the state of utah. his role over there was to teach spanish culture to an englishspeaking scholar community. orcid: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2357-1805 how to reference this article: uribe-enciso, o. l., fuentes hernandez, s. s., vargas pita , k. l., & rey pabón , a. s. (2019). problematic phonemes for spanish-speakers’ learners of english. gist – education and learning research journal, 19, 215-238. https://doi.org/10.26817/16925777.701 no. 19 (july december 2019) no. 19 (july december 2019) community-based explorations and visual literacies: a key interplay to enhance writing skills in early high school students exploraciones basadas en la comunidad y literacidad visual: una conexión clave para mejorar las habilidades escritoras en estudiantes de básica secundaria johanna marcela sabogal bedoya1 i.e. santa teresa de jesús, colombia and norma constanza durán narvaez2 university of tolima, colombia 1 jmsabogalb@ut.edu.co 2 ncduran@ut.edu.co gist education and learning research journal. issn 1692-5777. no. 28 (january june, 2024). pp. 29-58. 29 no. 28 30 no. 28 abstract this paper presents the outcomes and findings of a qualitative study aimed to describe the effects of combining visual literacies with community-based pedagogies (cbp) to enhance writing skills in early high school learners. the data was gathered through community mapping reports, a needs analysis instrument, students’ artifacts, a focus group, and teacher’s field notes. this action research revealed how students, through systematic and consistent work, were smoothly guided in the writing process with the help of visual elements that served as triggers or supporters to produce short texts in which their voices were relevant by exploring their context and portraying their realities. the triangulation of the different instruments within the grounded analysis (saunders et al., 2012), indicated a rise in the students’ quantity and quality of the writing production in the foreign language and a learners’ genuine interest in writing assuming an active role. based on the available findings, they contribute significantly to nurturing english language teaching practices in public schools by boosting students’ writing skills through the cognizant use of information about the surrounding contexts combined with visual stimuli as a valuable source. keywords: community-based pedagogy (cbp); critical pedagogy; visual literacy; writing. resumen este artículo presenta los resultados y hallazgos de un estudio cualitativo destinado a describir los efectos de combinar literacidad visual con pedagogías basadas en la comunidad (cbp) para mejorar las habilidades escritoras en estudiantes de básica secundaria. los datos se recopilaron a través de informes de mapeo comunitario, un instrumento de análisis de necesidades, producciones de los estudiantes, un grupo focal y notas de campo de los maestros. esta investigación-acción reveló cómo los estudiantes a través de un trabajo sistemático y consistente fueron guiados fluidamente en del proceso de escritura con la ayuda de elementos visuales que sirvieron como provocadores o soporte para producir textos breves en los que las voces de los estudiantes eran relevantes al explorar su contexto y retratar sus realidades. la triangulación de los diferentes instrumentos dentro del análisis fundamentado (saunders et al., 2012), indicó un aumento en la cantidad y calidad de la producción escrita en lengua extranjera por parte de los estudiantes y un interés genuino en ellos por asumir un papel activo en los ejercicios de escritura. con base en los hallazgos disponibles, se contribuye significativamente a fomentar las prácticas de enseñanza del idioma inglés en las escuelas públicas, al impulsar las habilidades de escritura de los estudiantes a través del uso consciente de la información sobre los contextos circundantes combinados con estímulos visuales como una fuente valiosa. palabras clave: pedagogía basada en la comunidad (cbp); pedagogía crítica; literacidad visual; escritura. enhancing writing through cbp and visual literacies 31 no. 28 resumo este artigo apresenta os resultados e achados de um estudo qualitativo destinado a descrever os efeitos de combinar letramento visual com pedagogias baseadas na comunidade (cbp) para melhorar as habilidades de escrita em estudantes do ensino médio básico. os dados foram coletados através de relatórios de mapeamento comunitário, um instrumento de análise de necessidades, produções dos estudantes, um grupo focal e notas de campo dos professores. esta pesquisa-ação revelou como os estudantes, através de um trabalho sistemático e consistente, foram guiados de forma fluida no processo de escrita com a ajuda de elementos visuais que serviram como provocadores ou suporte para produzir textos curtos, nos quais as vozes dos estudantes eram relevantes ao explorar seu contexto e retratar suas realidades. a triangulação dos diferentes instrumentos dentro da análise fundamentada (saunders et al., 2012) indicou um aumento na quantidade e qualidade da produção escrita em língua estrangeira por parte dos estudantes e um interesse genuíno deles em assumir um papel ativo nos exercícios de escrita. com base nos achados disponíveis, contribui-se significativamente para fomentar as práticas de ensino da língua inglesa nas escolas públicas, ao impulsionar as habilidades de escrita dos estudantes através do uso consciente das informações sobre os contextos circundantes combinados com estímulos visuais como uma fonte valiosa. palavras-chave: pedagogia baseada na comunidade (cbp); pedagogia crítica; letramento visual; escrita. johanna marcela sabogal bedoya and norma constanza durán narvaez 32 no. 28 introduction based on the common european framework and the suggested curriculum (ministerio de educación nacional, 2016), early high school learners are supposed to reach level a2. following the standards for english (ministerio de educación nacional, 2006), the students can write short texts in which they express relations of contrast, addition, and cause and effect among ideas; write short messages with different purposes about everyday situations with a basic level of competence. in correlation to the basic learning rights (dba [because of the acronym in spanish]), students at level a2 are capable of writing short and simple texts about familiar actions, experiences, and plans using a sequence of images and pre-established models in addition to describing activities related to a subject in their family or school environment by using simple sentences and visual aids. even though the standards and dba establish a basic level of competence, learners show underachievement, struggle with making word choices and writing down their ideas coherently, and their attitude to writing tasks is usually rejected. students limited prior knowledge, low motivation, and lack of connection to the school environment negatively influence their attitudes and disposition toward the learning process. other factors, such as the colombian educational context policies, driven instructional practices combined with the reality of large classes, very little interest in learning, few hours of english classes a week, school dynamics, and students’ growing demotivation, make it difficult to take real actions to overcome problems. these facts nurtured the possibility of transforming the teacher’s researchers’ practice to impact learners positively, to increase their understanding of their school lives and learning, and to arouse their motivation to learn english through the implementation of new alternatives in which raising awareness about the sociocultural implications that can permeate all pedagogical practices (giroux, 1997; freire & macedo, 2005). consequently, critical pedagogy has supported this intervention, in which renewed literacy practices that advocate students’ active role have emerged. these practices address sociopolitical issues involving students’ communities that may lead them to a more critical development of agency and engagement. in addition, classroom practices might become meaningful opportunities to create peaceful environments in which empathy, reflection, and transformation play a remarkable role (o’brien & comber, 2020; vasquez, 2014). for these reasons, we increased our interest in the incorporation of meaningful activities in which language goes beyond the development of isolated skills to interplay with content and knowledge, opening the door to inquiry, communicative, and problem-solving abilities that facilitate them to become more competitive agents in society while improving their writing skills through critical literacy practices (vasquez et al., 2019). enhancing writing through cbp and visual literacies 33 no. 28 therefore, this study endeavors to portray three main principles. first, implementing meaningful writing tasks in the efl classroom, where literacy instruction places students at the center of the learning process. second, language learning is essential in developing socially situated literacy practices through community-based tasks that might nurture the construction of socio-cultural knowledge present in students’ school communities. third, the influence of using visual literacies to arouse the building knowledge processes intentionally and support students’ production. fundamentally, the focal point of this research study was motivated by the search for a strategy to enhance not only the acquisition of language but also the collaboration, inquiry, and reflection in the english language class. for those reasons, this research integrated the socio-cultural dimension of language and an inquiry-based learning approach to propose writing as a socially situated practice and visual literacy as an enhancer of learning. we tried to examine how written competence could improve by implementing tasks that led to exploring the school context and how using visual tools could stimulate meaning-making processes. moreover, researchers sought to determine the student’s level of engagement in these tasks and the type of reflection they can reach when they play active roles and become agents of change in their communities. building on this context, the strategy aimed to enhance learners’ writing skills through the use of visual and locally relevant inquiries, reflecting the highly visual nature of contemporary texts (kalantzis & cope, 2001, 2004, 2005). this approach aligns with more contextualized experiences, where students depict their own realities, consistent with clavijo’s (2015) work, who observed that: when teachers inquire in the local community to identify valuable resources to establish connections with the curriculum, it is possible to broaden the opportunities for meaningful learning and to recognize multiple literacy practices used by learners that account for their local knowledge, surpassing the traditional practices promoted by schools. (p. 33) another relevant aspect of this research study deals with theoretical and methodological contributions that an inquiry-based approach brings to the efl classroom. in this line, cbp fosters writing from a more integrative perspective, where learners and teachers co-construct the language curriculum, considering common interests and valuing local knowledge as sources. this action research study embraces the design of an innovative pedagogical space inside the classroom where learners can receive visual input utilizing images, photographs, or drawings and publish their written production. this dual purpose intends to develop students’ writing skills by focusing on the different stages of the process when they write short texts as a result of exploring community issues. another paramount aspect to consider is the enhancement of the learners’ abilities of observation, reflection, analysis, discussion, and cooperation. johanna marcela sabogal bedoya and norma constanza durán narvaez 34 no. 28 in light of the study’s aims, the following research question emerged: to what extent could the use of community – based learning activities and visual literacy foster writing skills in early high school students? literature review writing to enhance learning according to nunan (2003), writing is a physical and intellectual activity in which the authors must find their ideas, conceptions, and perspectives and make the necessary considerations about expressing and arranging them into a clear statement or paragraph to be understood. white and arndt (1991) describe writing as a form of problem-solving that demands mental effort; it involves such processes as generating ideas, discovering a “voice” to write, planning, goal setting, monitoring, and evaluating, among others. in this sense, cumming (1998) asserts that “writing” refers not only to text in the written script but also to the acts of thinking, composing, and encoding language into such text; these acts also necessarily entail discourse interactions within a socio-cultural context. these definitions pinpoint that writers are challenged to express their thoughts and look for effective forms to organize them into a good composition. writing requires the integration of ideas systematically through the thinking processes of planning, sequencing, and transmitting messages. in recent decades, new trends have emerged in teaching writing, considering the text, the writing process, and the social perspectives on its nature. in this respect, cumming (1998) and silva (1993) focused their attention on l2 writers as complex individuals who approach writing in unique ways. connor (1996) and hinkel (2002) emphasized the products of writing and provided principles to guide writers in structuring the text, while keeping the context and the reader’s expectations in mind. due to the nature of a product-oriented approach that downplays creative thinking and writing, it has shifted to an approach in which writing is conceived as a personal and innovative activity, paying particular attention to literacy as a social practice and conceiving writing as a developmental process (elbow, 1973, 1981; murray, 1985; flower & hayes, 1981a; zamel, 1983; leki, 2000; hylland, 2004). in the writing process, learners are engaged through modeled and shared instruction, taking into consideration their level. it is necessary to model all aspects of the writing process as many times as possible until students become familiar with each stage through specific strategies for planning, drafting, revising, and editing (seow, 2002). it is essential to teach these four stages of the writing process, and despite it being shown in sequence, it is also vital to help students understand that writers can continuously alternate between the steps as they write. enhancing writing through cbp and visual literacies 35 no. 28 figure 1. four stages of the writing process. source: seow (2002, p. 315) in conclusion, the process of teaching writing is a powerful tool that allows learners to reflect on their compositions, interpret and analyze their contexts, and engage in inquiry, providing them with opportunities to develop critical thinking skills. regarding these conceptions and principles about the writing process, the community-based learning approach emerges as a practice that profoundly impacts students’ retention and engagement by offering authentic learning experiences. these kinds of activities encourage reflection processes in which students start envisioning potential real-life problems and become part of possible solutions from their teenage perspective. for this study, written production, and multimodal texts are manifestations of how students were guided to read their worlds differently, make sense of them, and take a stand to contribute to transforming their environments. that is the value of the situated nature of critical literacies, where the students depart from local realities, relate them to global ones, and, when encouraged, use different modes of written expression in which they realize they can take action. community-based pedagogy (cbp) a community, in the context of this action research, refers to the classroom, school dynamics, or the place where students live, spend time, share ideas, learn, and play together. in a broader sense, a community is part of the intertwined platform of social structures, power relations, and critical literacies (trigos-carrillo et al., 2022). according to warburton and martin (1999), “community-based pedagogies include the way people observe and measure their surroundings, how they solve problems and validate new information, and the processes through which knowledge is generated, johanna marcela sabogal bedoya and norma constanza durán narvaez 36 no. 28 stored, applied, and transmitted to others” (p. 1). sharkey and clavijo (2012) define cbp as “an asset-based approach that stresses local knowledge and resources as the basis of the curriculum standards that teachers must address in teaching and learning processes” (p. 41). regarding these definitions and our educational setting, cbp might become an opportunity to construct meanings inside and outside the classroom. this approach empowers students to play an active role in the learning process by giving them the possibility of engaging in meaningful experiences and reading their community critically using english. this study focused primarily on the classroom and the school as settings to be explored, considering that the scope of community-based experiences embraces the classroom, school, and neighborhood. following sharkey and clavijo’s claim (2012) about the importance of considering the urban communities “as rich resources for curriculum and see their students as inhabitants of communities with multiple linguistic and cultural assets” (p. 9). likewise, these learning experiences let teachers posit the community as a curriculum resource to foster learners’ personal, interpersonal, and social development (cummins et al., 2006). according to canagarajah (2005) and murrell (2001), community teachers must know the contexts where they serve to create pedagogies that value local knowledge. as community teachers, we might give prevalence to thought-provoking tasks and materials to which the students can attach their funds of knowledge, identities, and needs to bring improvement to the communities. teachers also have the responsibility to design purposeful learning experiences that reflect our understanding of the school context’s socio-economic background and the curricula’ awareness. regarding these considerations, teachers’ practices and students’ roles are paramount in breaking boundaries, as critical literacy underlies alternative ways to build knowledge. in the case of this article, it expands the view and learning opportunities for developing writing skills in school learners. understanding the implications of this approach demands an effective school mapping strategy. this strategy must help students raise awareness and consciousness of their realities and react to their immediate world. in this way, the incorporation of visual literacies emerged as a response due to the powerful role that images play in boosting meaning-making processes. visual literacy to enhance critical thinking since one of the core constructs of this research concerns visual literacy, different authors have provided multiple definitions. deebs (1969) coined the term and gave the earliest definition that refers to “a group of visual competencies that enable a visually literate person to discriminate and interpret a visible number of elements from the enhancing writing through cbp and visual literacies 37 no. 28 environment and the improvement of these competencies is fundamental to enhance learning and communication” (p.26). the poet simonides defines literacy as “words are the images of things” (as cited in benson, 1997, p. 141); similarly, aristotle stated that “without an image, thinking is impossible” (as cited in benson, 1997, p. 141). wileman (1993), defines visual literacy as “the ability to ‘read,’ interpret and understand the information presented in pictorial or graphic images” (p.114). associated with visual literacy is visual thinking, described as “the ability to turn information of all types into pictures, graphics, or forms that help communicate the information” (p.114). following these ideas, ausburn and ausburn (1978) listed potential benefits. visual literacy facilitates self-expression and ordering insights and increases students’ motivation and interest in all subjects and levels. the use of visuals involves a pedagogical intention because they promote inclusion as they serve to teach students with diverse needs and learning styles. in this sense, developing visual literacy skills will also increase the ability to better comprehend today’s world and its relationships, enhancing critical viewing and thinking. on the other hand, from a more contemporary view, powers and powers (2019), define visual literacy as: the ability to interpret, negotiate, and make meaning from information presented in the form of an image, extending the meaning of literacy, which commonly signifies interpretation of written or print text. visual literacy is based on the idea that pictures and their meaning can be “read” and understood. the basic objective elements are line, shape, form, value, space, texture, color, composition, and perspective. the subjective elements have to do with interpretations of the subject matter, the context in which the image is seen, and the viewer’s emotional state and depth of knowledge. (p.311) by incorporating these strategies, all learners are considered “equals,” receiving recognition for their contributions and having the opportunity to personalize the possible outcomes. whether students can assume different roles and accept new responsibilities, they would bring innovation and tangible changes to the school. moreover, learners can improve the quality of their written texts and develop a sense of connectedness, active involvement, and personal investment in the learning process. we have recently witnessed an increasing rate of technological advancements, bringing multifaceted change to education and language learning. particularly, this unveils both opportunities and challenges as a significant body of recent research documents. these developments open the door to novel ways to prompt thinking through visual information and express meaning through diverse written forms. technological resources, like the use of apps and social media, among many others, were not regarded in the configuration of this study due to limitations such as participants’ age and access to technology. however, ever-changing technology demands that such a myriad of resources be incorporated into the language curriculum and capitalized on for the benefit of students’ situated learning and the development of communicative skills. johanna marcela sabogal bedoya and norma constanza durán narvaez 38 no. 28 previous studies about the development of writing skills from the perspective of community–based pedagogies and visual literacies recognizing the importance of these theoretical approaches, previous studies and investigations that validate, expand, and support the procedures and constructs of this action research have defined community-based pedagogy and its implications in developing transformative practices (giroux and mclaren, 1992); the concept of writing as a social and situated practice; and the tools that visual literacies provide to enhance writing skills. in action research, sánchez (2017) presents a pedagogical experience in a school in bogotá where students collaboratively investigated their surroundings through literacy practices from a sociocultural perspective. this experience demonstrates how the school community offered alternatives for students to develop their language and literacy skills through meaningful learning environments. students assumed roles as community researchers, employing multimodal literacy practices to express their ideas. in a similar effort, orjuela (2017) describes a series of activities that include cooperative learning, task-based learning, and a descriptive writing approach encouraged through activities grounded in students’ communities, incorporating cbp projects as a valuable strategy that gives students opportunities to work on their context, using the target language as a tool rather than an end in achieving english writing competence. shifting to writing as the central construct of this research, chala and chapetón (2012) present relevant perceptions about writing as part of a social and situated practice that seeks to provide students opportunities to stand their voices so that they express, communicate, share, and negotiate their views of the world and feelings through the written text. also, the authors argue that literacy goes beyond the mere development of skills and the mastering of linguistic forms to make the writing event a significant experience that contributes to transformation. these theoretical contributions align with our research interest since they perfectly suit the study’s objectives, highlighting the power of writing to reflect the writer’s skills, needs, and voice. additionally, they emphasize the strong connections between writing and the social and cultural context in which the authors produce their texts. additionally, a study by ariza (2005) shows how english teachers can guide students in developing their texts. the author demonstrates that the best pieces of writing involved pictures because learners showed great interest, and better outcomes resulted from images rather than words. furthermore, using visuals as a starting point during the brainstorming stage proved effective in generating ideas and developing vocabulary. this strategy enabled students to express their views based on different interpretations, illustrating that visual literacy provides a significant stimulus during this phase of the writing process. in parallel with these studies, the work of larrota and pedraza (2016) offers critical insights focused on in-context photography and enhancing writing through cbp and visual literacies 39 no. 28 community-based learning activities. the authors’ results indicated that integrating these two elements enhanced students’ ability to introduce new vocabulary and accurate language chunks while lowering their affective filters, significantly influencing their performance. to sum up, writing as a process-oriented approach, community-based pedagogy, visual literacy, and the relevant considerations stated in these previous studies serve as the theoretical foundations for the present research. although some studies considered the local knowledge of students’ communities to develop writing practices from a socio-cultural perspective, none of them precisely follow the complete process of writing or demonstrate the effectiveness of using visuals for different pedagogical purposes. for all these reasons, conducting our work was relevant and appropriate since it potentially contributes to the efl field. methodology type of study this study is part of classroom action research that aims to tackle an identified issue to generate possible alternatives. according to burns (2009), action research is a self-reflective, critical, and systematic approach to exploring one’s teaching context. it can be defined as an approach used by educational practitioners and professionals to examine and ultimately improve their pedagogy and practice (clark et al., n.d.). the present study embraces the design of an alternative strategy that allows students to communicate effectively by focusing on writing short texts resulting from the exploration of different community issues according to their level, needs, and interests so that they could react to their realities and raise their awareness about school life by expressing their teenage stance. the schema presented by kemmis and mctaggart (1988) of reflection, planning, action, observation, and subsequent reflection to close the cycle was the path that better suited the purposes and nature of this study. the innovation was implemented through two extended cycles. in the initial cycle, students were exposed to a “pre-writing task” designed to diagnose the real students’ level. this first cycle encompassed several substages in which students identified messages, words, pictures, and illustrations on the walls and desks of the classroom. as a result of this activity, we created a new space called “our voices” inside the classroom for the students to post their written products. in a subsequent substage entitled “mapping my classroom,” students classified the gathered information and discussed findings based on observation, interpretation, and analysis of the pictures taken from the classroom. following this, they used a first graphic organizer to brainstorm and organize their ideas within small groups. as a result of the reflection within the process proposed in the schema followed, the preliminary johanna marcela sabogal bedoya and norma constanza durán narvaez 40 no. 28 findings from cycle 1 showed both achievements and limitations that made us realize that it was necessary to reinforce the type of visual stimuli to trigger a student’s deeper understanding regarding the topics as well as to provide more extensive linguistic input to facilitate the accomplishment of the written tasks. considering the emergent gaps presented in the first cycle, we incorporated these insights into the design of the second cycle to capitalize more on writing skills development and the benefits of community-based pedagogy principles and visual literacies. the second cycle focused on a school community exploration for the students to examine their surroundings, find potential environmental problems, and raise their awareness about situations that could affect them. working in groups, students took pictures, classified the photos according to the issues identified, and discussed how these findings impacted them and how they could propose a solution. afterward, students brainstormed ideas about the problems identified. they shared their opinions to generate a first draft using a template in which they wrote down their points of view and possible recommendations to prevent the issues. throughout the revising and editing phase, with the teachers’ assistance, students strengthened their texts and built their final production, “how could we make our school a greener place?”. to conclude, students decided to exhibit their findings to the broader community by using a visual source to increase awareness of environmental challenges within the school, supported by the pictures they took at the beginning of the exercise. throughout this process, we collected and analyzed data that progressively showed seventh graders’ growth in developing writing skills, expanding their knowledge, and improving their comprehension of local situations. it is worth noting that all the topics chosen for this implementation were aligned with the syllabus in terms of content and the competencies outlined in the dba and standards in every cycle. these topics were condensed into a curricular unit, where the procedures, activity descriptions, and aims of the sessions were integrated into each stage. participants this study was conducted with a group of thirty-one seventh graders from a public school in northeast ibagué-tolima (colombia). there were 19 boys and 12 girls, ages 10 to 12 years old. students struggled with low motivation to accomplish academic tasks because they were dissatisfied with school practices and the disconnection between contents and their realities. they attended 4 hours of english lessons per week structured in two sessions of 110 minutes in which the pedagogical instruction and classwork usually focused on isolated activities about grammar, reading, and writing. despite the weekly hours of class, they showed apathy in acquiring a new language. they declared that they were not interested in learning english due to the apparent irrelevance of this subject in their future expectations. enhancing writing through cbp and visual literacies 41 no. 28 data collection instruments the research data was collected through different procedures during interactions with the students and the implementation of the various study phases in and outside the classroom. initially, a needs analysis served as a point of departure to enquire about the students’ perceptions of the school and their sense of belonging, interest in communicating their ideas, and attitudes regarding writing. subsequently, focus groups were carried out at the end of the interventions, in which students assumed different roles and shared common ideas related to three main aspects: the use of visual elements, the student’s level of engagement in the activities, and the path walked during the writing process. additionally, the researchers implemented field notes in order to keep a record of students’ attitudes, responses, and reactions to the strategies or activities developed during the implementation. they also encouraged ongoing teacher reflection on teaching practice and helped us keep track of the teachers’ perspectives on classroom dynamics. finally, students’ written and visual artifacts, including written tasks, creative projects, and photographs taken by the students, contributed to understanding classroom and school dynamics. students developed these artifacts during the two pedagogical implementation cycles of this study. in conclusion, using all the data mentioned above was intended to triangulate and maximize the validity of the findings. parental informed consent was sought for the students’ participation in the project. data analysis considering the methodology presented, categories emerged from the data and were grounded to strengthen the study. data collected from the four instruments (students’ artifacts, focus group, photos and videos, and teacher’s field notes) were analyzed using an open coding technique. interrelationships appeared, providing important insights during this systematic and schematic process. then, the information was grouped into two categories, and seven subcategories emerged as a whole interpretation (freeman, 1998). this data analysis was conducted by employing grounded theory, which guided the research process, data collection, and detailed procedures for analysis. this approach helped identify and conceptualize the underlying social patterns of interest through constant comparison (scott, 2009). besides, “grounded theory helps develop an understanding of phenomena that cannot be explained with existing theories and paradigms” (saunders et al., 2012). the initial research questions were determined to draft and compile data by theoretical sampling. afterward, researchers transcribed the collected information and categorized it into extracts using open encoding, enabling further analysis to create new axial coding groups. during this process, constructs were labeled with keywords and grouped based on core concepts and subthemes johanna marcela sabogal bedoya and norma constanza durán narvaez 42 no. 28 related to the research areas, such as writing, visual literacies, and community-based pedagogies. finally, a central idea was defined to guide the analysis of the problem question initially posed. to ensure the inclusion of valuable information and avoid potential bias, we conducted data analysis using both grounded analysis and atlas.ti. we also analyzed the data through traditional and computer triangulation to offer validity to our research by contrasting data gathered through different data analysis instruments and methods. data triangulation, as defined by denzin and cited in freeman (1998, p. 97), refers to the use of various data collection instruments that, in turn, contributed to adding weight to this study. each data collection method and instrument was defined and designed according to the research objectives and population characteristics. since triangulation also implies the reduction of data during the analysis of the instruments, there was abstraction and interpretation of the information collected during the different implementations in each action research cycle. this involved gradually identifying coding systems and themes that guided us in reflections, interpretations, and even adjustments to the subsequent implementations when necessary. findings the systematic analysis of the collected information revealed two main categories that gave us a broader comprehension of the relationship between situated visual prompting and students’ writing dispositions and gradual improvement. we classified the information into two categories that were aligned with the research question and responded to the specific objectives of our research study as follows: to analyze how students may engage in writing tasks when portraying their own contexts through community-based learning activities. to determine the use of visual literacies as a tool in the english classroom to improve students’ writing skills. consequently, in the following category, students scaffolding their path for writing and its subcategories, such as brainstorming, togetherness, a social analysis under the teenage gaze, and writing gear, follow the order of the first objective as they reveal the connection between the local and situated resources and the way the students unfolded their process in the development of writing skills. in contrast, the second category, students reading a visual world, relates to the second objective of this study as it was centered on incorporating visual elements to arouse students’ interest in their community and provoke the development of critical thinking skills and multiliteracies. enhancing writing through cbp and visual literacies 43 no. 28 students scaffolding their path for writing this category indicates that successful enrollment in the writing process occurs when we depart from students’ surroundings. students’ artifacts and the teachers’ fieldnotes show that discussing ideas and opinions about students’ interests and familiar topics can facilitate the students’ embarking on a journey that takes them from a brainstorming step to the publication of their writing outcomes. the writing approach in this research involves several stages, including pre-writing, drafting, revising, and publishing. through this process, students must think, organize their ideas, revise their texts, and post their writing pieces. despite being scarcely promoted in classrooms, the results of this study evidenced a growing students’ interest as a point of departure for engaging them in meaningful writing tasks. therefore, it is essential to raise awareness about the significance of the writing process in education. additionally, students should be encouraged to initiate their writing based on their environment, fostering a habit that integrates significant elements from their realities. the students’ written tasks required aligning their language needs with the curriculum. this fact demonstrates the current need in our colombian educational system to incorporate writing into the basic standards of learning and basic rights of learning. indeed, integrating these aspects fostered improving students’ writing skills through community participation in learning activities in which visual literacy played a meaningful role. in the following excerpt, the students spotlighted the benefits of following steps to scaffold the writing path when they desired to communicate their ideas about specific topics (table 1). in effect, students recognized not only the improvement in their skills to produce pieces of writing but also how they faced the process. table 1. focus group. participant 1. “antes no sabía bien cómo escribir párrafos, y en la lluvia de ideas y los otros pasos que hacemos, yo pude mejorar la escritura.” “before i didn’t know very well how to write paragraphs, and in brainstorming and the other steps we do, i improved writing.” source: seventh-grade student. public school from ibague – tolima brainstorming: departing from students’ surroundings this category highlights the students’ capability to explore, critique, and reflect upon their contexts by reading images and photos. the materials and tasks i used stimulated the students’ transition from passive agents to active and empowered actors involved in transforming their communities. johanna marcela sabogal bedoya and norma constanza durán narvaez 44 no. 28 brainstorming techniques are commonly incorporated in classrooms to retrieve ideas and elicit students’ previous knowledge about a specific topic. introducing this resource inevitably encourages students to build on existing schemas and knowledge while discovering new ways to organize the information. during group brainstorming, the mutual stimulation motivates students to generate new ideas and develop creative thinking skills. this approach also allows students to offer several opinions on a given topic, which may support writers in developing ideas while seeking strategies to facilitate the writing process. the participants in this study brainstormed ideas and vocabulary about their likes, favorite activities, healthy eating, and environmental problems in the school in a template (figure 1). this shows evidence that providing students with new opportunities to access and share information can support the development of their ideas during the writing process. one of the observed advantages of this strategy was that the use of graphic organizers assisted students in the mental process of bringing back ideas and recalling their previous knowledge in a structured template. this proves that after using such templates, students can effectively familiarize themselves with the proposed exercise to generate a written production. finally, the introduction of brainstorming activities in the early stages of writing showed how teachers and peers could help each other develop creative and critical thinking skills by identifying possible solutions to the posed problems. these activities provide opportunities for students to exchange ideas, adapt existing knowledge, and integrate new information into their existing knowledge. additionally, this stage fosters the development of life skills that allow students to become more adaptable learners through social interaction, allowing them to freely communicate their ideas and appreciate diversity as they have plenty of knowledge to share. figure 2. student’s artifacts: brainstorming exercises source: seventh graders. public school from ibague – tolima enhancing writing through cbp and visual literacies 45 no. 28 togetherness: a key ingredient in collaborative writing. the second subcategory of this research study was related to constructing a strategy based on collaborative work. it focused on the idea of scaffolding students’ writing. vygotsky (1989) stated, “what the child can do in cooperation today, he can do alone tomorrow” (p. 189). in classroom terms, this means that a student’s language develops first socially and then individually. when students share their perceptions, discuss their ideas, and convey meaning through social interaction, togetherness becomes a motivating force that facilitates english language learning development and promotes higher-order thinking skills, leading to the construction of a strategy based on collaborative work (figure 2).   regarding the writing process, teachers do not traditionally promote collaborative learning through group work since it is usually neglected daily in language teaching. consequently, there is a recognized need for methodological change. the data supporting this claim demonstrates the positive impact of encouraging collaborative writing among students. after engaging students in different collaborative activities, they remarked on the benefits of peer feedback, peer writing, and collaborative writing as allies in the composition of written texts. they underscored the effectiveness of sharing their ideas within groups and correcting mistakes to enhance their compositions and to grow students’ trustworthiness concerning their peers. at the same time, they simultaneously have the possibility to work synergistically and independently. in addition, students highlighted the advantages of collaborative work, recognizing that each individual’s contribution can produce better and more enriched texts (table 2). notably, they acknowledged the dynamics of teamwork as assistants for writing, as evidenced in the following excerpt: table 2. focus group. participant 3.  “estas actividades me han ayudado a compartir primero mis ideas con mis compañeros de clase, luego corregir los errores y así mejorar mi escritura” “these activities have helped me to first share my ideas with my classmates, then correct the mistakes and thus improve my writing.” source: seventh graders. public school ibagué – tolima a social analysis through the teenage gaze integrating resources from both classrooms and the community enables students to research and write about issues confronting their surroundings. faced with this statement, designing and implementing community-based learning activities at school provided a foundation for students to understand their contexts. consequently, by focusing on community problems, the writing process within the english class serves johanna marcela sabogal bedoya and norma constanza durán narvaez 46 no. 28 as a platform in which students can engage actively in becoming aware of their role in society. furthermore, a vital component of this research project was that students played the role of researchers without noticing it. this confirmed that students show enthusiasm when tasks take place outside the classroom. moreover, by assuming the role of researchers, students conducted a school mapping to identify potential problems inside the school. the inquiry process showed that when students engage in school explorations, they turn information and data into useful knowledge for their benefit. the data revealed that the realization of mapping and self-reflection exercises through the search for problem-solving exhibits that implementing cbp enhances effective writing processes and outcomes through meaningful opportunities for learning inside and outside the classroom (table 3). table 3. focus group. participant 5. “gracias al proyecto ambiental que desarrollamos en la clase de inglés, entendí que estos problemas también se originan en la escuela, en los hogares y en otros lugares. por ejemplo, aquí en la escuela, los estudiantes no se sienten responsables de tirar basura, y no usamos los tres contenedores de basura de manera adecuada.” “thanks to the environmental project that we developed in the english class, i understood that these problems are also originated in the school, at homes and elsewhere. for example, here at school, students do not feel responsible for littering, and they do not use the three garbage bins properly.” source: seventh graders. public school ibagué – tolima similarly, at the beginning of the process, students acknowledged the teacher’s role as an enhancer who creates appropriate learning environments. they also perceived changes in the way the teacher conducted the lessons and recognized the inclusion of useful strategies to involve them in the class. thus, as the following excerpts support (figure 3), students were able to examine and evaluate the information they obtained from images. figure 3. students tackling the school issues. source: seventh graders. public school ibagué – tolima enhancing writing through cbp and visual literacies 47 no. 28 writing gear building upon silva’s ideas (1990) in l2 writing, the process-oriented approach seems to suggest a progressive, systematic, persistent, flexible, scaffolding, and contextual organization of collaborative workshop environments in which the teaching premise is learner-centered. following his ideas, it was evidenced that the writing process requires a positive, encouraging, and collaborative setting within which the interaction of different components is crucial. in line with this approach, teachers are encouraged to act as facilitators, helping students develop feasible strategies for finding topics and generating ideas during the writing process, enabling multiple drafts, and adding, deleting, modifying, and rearranging ideas throughout the editing phase. figure 4. students’ artifacts. pre and post writing tasks source: seventh graders. public school ibagué tolima based on the analysis of the data analysis and students’ behaviors, it was evident that students consistently used the writing process with slightly different graphic organizers corresponding to the writing stages. students were more familiar with the brainstorming stage. they revised their first drafts and corrected mistakes using the dictionary while i gave support. the students provided clear evidence of the step-bystep in which they gradually were immersed in how they coped with the writing process throughout the implementation. students enjoyed embarking upon the writing tasks without realizing they were following a process. for these reasons, students expressed their satisfaction in doing these types of activities, and they commented on the possibility of understanding different topics through dynamic and creative activities like graffiti design, lap books, the simulated wall in the classroom created with the purpose of posting the students’ written production, and feedback from the teacher and peers that facilitated learning, as shown below: johanna marcela sabogal bedoya and norma constanza durán narvaez 48 no. 28 table 4. focus group. participant 2 “la escritura se ha vuelto más fácil al utilizar algunas plantillas que nos dio la profesora, luego pudimos compartir ideas con los compañeros para corregir y mejorar nuestros textos.” “writing has become easier by using some templates that the teacher gave us, then we were able to share ideas with classmates to correct and improve our texts.” source: seventh graders. public school ibagué – tolima students reading a visual world. upon thorough analysis of the data, it is evident that the incorporation of visual elements generates a twofold process directly impacting students’ learning opportunities. first, images promote students’ comprehension, and second, they trigger the students’ ability to read their surrounding world critically. furthermore, incorporating community-based learning activities and visual literacy invigorate the learning process by facilitating the construction of meaning and a sense of belonging inside and outside the classroom. building upon the experts’ ideas in the field of community-based learning, this learner-centered approach promotes the development of knowledge, critical thinking skills, and attributes of community members. this is achieved through fostering awareness of their roles by engaging students in seeking, discussing, prioritizing, and solving potential surrounding social issues (melaville et al., 2006; sharkey & clavijo-olarte 2012; villani & atkins, 2000). figure 5. poster: “school lunch” and school mapping source: the author when students become aware of specific situations in their community, they begin a reflection process that positions them as transformative agents in their world. this study found that integrating visual elements acted as catalysts, strengthening the students’ written texts and enhancing their ability to understand their environment. with these activities, the students’ image interpretation skills improved, facilitating enhancing writing through cbp and visual literacies 49 no. 28 memory and allowing for better expression of their thoughts. consequently, tasks and classes turned into more meaningful, interactive, and dynamic learning experiences. the aforementioned points become relevant as they highlight the advantages of incorporating visual aids in the educational context. using images facilitates the association and visualization of word images and the retrieval of prior knowledge. notably, students responded positively to the visual stimuli displayed in the classroom and found it advantageous in assisting the production of sentences. figure 6. visuals as supporters source: seventh graders. public school ibagué – tolima during the analysis, it was evidenced that visual tools served as previous knowledge activators or as visual input to introduce new topics and new vocabulary; they increased comprehension or aroused students’ interest in the english class. these tools demonstrated that students found it easier to interpret and convey meanings and facilitated the expression of their preferences using english. they also became a visual source to reinforce their points of view. these visual aids were displayed inside the classroom and around the school, serving as a source of appreciation for others. in the light of freire and macedo (2005), “reading the word and learning how to write the word so one can later read it is preceded by learning how to write the world, that is having the experience of changing the world and touching the world” (p. 12). this assertion underscores the significance of critical engagement, which questions reality, raises awareness of issues, transforms the self, and rewrites the world, demanding a deeper understanding of the community’s concerns. as teachers, we have the opportunity to contribute to this process from our classrooms by utilizing writing as a transformative learning element. johanna marcela sabogal bedoya and norma constanza durán narvaez 50 no. 28 table 5. focus group. participant 4. “las imágenes me han ayudado a comprender los temas fácilmente y cuando escribimos los párrafos es más fácil recordar las palabras.” “the images have helped me understand topics easily and when we write the paragraphs it is easier to remember the words.” source: seventh graders. public school ibagué – tolima discussion this study exemplified the symbiotic relationship between students’ improvement in writing skills, community-based learning activities, and visual stimuli, which served as resources to progressively expand and strengthen the students’ views and understanding of the writing process. to this extent, the findings emphasized the deliberate need to foster connections between students and communities, recognizing the mutual benefits derived from this interaction and making the school community the object of the study (comber, 2013). likewise, the findings highlighted the opportunity to connect the students’ everyday lives with the curriculum, a fact that is in line with clavijo-olarte & sharkey’s work (2018). the analysis of the interplay of the core components of this study let us see that in order to enhance writing skills in early high school learners, it is imperative to redesign the teaching practices focusing on scaffolding writing through process-oriented methodologies that foster in the students the development of better-quality writing and adopting better writing behaviors (richards and nunan, 1990). in this regard, guiding students through the writing process by implementing stages such as brainstorming, drafting, editing, and publishing might be a powerful tool for improving english writing skills. notably, students’ productions exhibited a progressive improvement in their written work, as shown in figure 4. this progression can be accomplished by modifying and adapting prompts according to the tasks’ nature and presenting useful language and expressions that facilitate learners’ production in terms of the reasons the students had to write, a socially situated barton and hamilton (carrillo, diaz, and lyons 2023) environment to activate the students’ disposition to write was crucial to stimulate them to focus on the different tasks proposed that could be pleasurable, transformational, and pedagogical (vasquez, janks, and comber 2019) and, in our view, disruptive. the integration of visual literacies combined with community-based pedagogies in english classes offered a high number of worthwhile opportunities to improve english teaching practices. as a result, these new educational experiences facilitated “transformative growth,” positioning students as active participants who may read, enhancing writing through cbp and visual literacies 51 no. 28 interpret, and act upon their community issues, fostering positive social change and nurturing a new and fresh perspective of themselves as learners, citizens, and human beings. hopefully, some of the insights presented in this research study could contribute to the field of language teaching and learning concerning the effectiveness of incorporating visual components, the student’s response to initiatives of local inquiry, the writing process, and its impact on language teaching within schools. nevertheless, to expand on the nature of future similar studies and be in tune with the contemporary pervading changes in the digital era, we cannot disregard, as p., r. (2024) suggests, that language educators nowadays must prioritize ongoing professional development focused on integrating technology into writing instruction as a strategic challenge in the 21st century. to sum it up, our pedagogical intervention brought to the surface the connection between community-based pedagogies and multimodal practices for the development of critical thinking skills among students. from this framework, the students observed, explored, and raised their voices, boosting their literate repertoires, evidenced in the form of emails, posters, blog posts, and graffiti. furthermore, incorporating individual and collaborative dynamics within the classroom contributed to this progress. through structured writing tasks and teacher guidance, early students had the chance to play the role of researchers in their contexts, exploring their schools locally, increasing their awareness about their realities, and becoming active agents of their language learning process. consequently, learners could reflect on issues that affected their lives at school, recognize the importance of the local, and establish a relationship between it and the global to build new knowledge together. conclusions to address the research question that guided the study, two main factors could influence the outcomes of this exploration. first, students embarked on meaningful writing tasks that involved exploring their context and portraying their realities to produce short texts in which their voices were relevant to achieving the goal. second, students were progressively and systematically guided through the writing process with the assistance of visual elements that served as triggers or supporters in accomplishing the writing tasks. the results demonstrated the students’ capability to accomplish the written tasks when certain conditions converge in the english classroom. the teacher must provide the necessary linguistic input regarding vocabulary and grammar structures to comply with this. in addition, the use of prompts and the incorporation of visual stimuli tailored to the selected topic are vital to facilitate written production. furthermore, the encouragement of collaborative work has evidenced that students can learn from johanna marcela sabogal bedoya and norma constanza durán narvaez 52 no. 28 peers, and it promotes the development of personal and interpersonal skills throughout the interaction. integrating these elements gave students more opportunities to discuss their ideas, feelings, and points of view before they embarked on the writing process. consequently, these outcomes underscore the necessity of providing students with training in reading and decoding visual elements, as well as in the consistent and progressive presentation of realistic and situated learning activities within the multiliteracies perspective in the efl classroom. going beyond, using visuals in our classes serves different practical purposes. images hold power when used as input, catalyzers, or resources that encourage learners’ motivation, make classes and activities more meaningful and interactive, facilitate word-image association, and support or reinforce the texts authored by the students. accordingly, the integration of visuals has demonstrated their effectiveness in stimulating students’ memory, maximizing the opportunities to examine, contrast, and evaluate information to communicate their ideas and thoughts, thereby developing higher-order critical thinking skills. these results are consistent with the strategies presented by trigos-carillo et al. (2019) for fostering peacebuilding through essential literacy practices among young children. as researchers, this was an opportunity to see how the students could develop higher critical thinking skills, active engagement, and a sense of belonging by participating in a systematic and structured language-learning process. the findings of our study reveal that students can position themselves in their communities and transform their realities when they assume the challenge of playing active roles in learning experiences. therefore, we emphasize the necessity of encouraging students by providing them with opportunities to construct strong arguments that depart from their interests and realities. this outcome represents a foundational responsibility we should assume as 21st-century language teachers when we address emerging challenges and orchestrate the processes students must go through when engaging in literacy practices within the classroom and school. limitations and future directions some constraints and limitations were evidenced during the present study, leading to improvement in future related research, having to do with the challenge of taking the students out of their comfort zone to encourage them to participate in purposeful individual and collaborative writing tasks. in such a way, some ideas for further research could be focused on the systematic incorporation of multimodal forms of expression to channel the students’ voices and the use of ai tools in the language classroom to promote meaningful learning experiences through authentic linguistic interactions and peer collaboration in the efl scenarios. enhancing writing through cbp and visual literacies 53 no. 28 even though visual literacy is not a recent area, it still presents breakdowns in its implementation, like the lack of teachers’ preparation on the topic, because it demands supportive criteria for the selection of materials as well as the design of meaningful tasks that involve particular ways of questioning and elicitation of information from images and visual representations; in fact, during this implementation, not all the students responded equally to the challenges of reading images and visual representations with a critical perspective, which in turn become areas to focus further attention guo et al. 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(1986). thought and language. cambridge, ma: mit press. warburton, h., & martin, a. m. (1999). local people’s knowledge: best practice guideline. socio-economic methodologies programme. london: dfid. white, r. v., & arndt, v. (1991). process writing. new york, ny: longman. wileman, r. e. (1993). visual communicating. englewood cliffs, nj: educational technology publications. zamel, v. (1983). the composing processes of advanced esl students: six case studies. tesol quarterly, 17, 165-187. https://doi.org/10.2307/3586647 johanna marcela sabogal bedoya and norma constanza durán narvaez authors johanna marcela sabogal bedoya holds an m.a. in english didactics and a b.a. in modern languages from universidad del tolima (colombia). she has nineteen years of experience teaching young and adult learners as an english teacher in the public sector. her academic and research interests involve community-based learning experiences, literacy development, and curriculum design. she is currently a full-time teacher at i.e. santa teresa de jesús from ibagué, tolima, colombia. orcid: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8418-2993 norma constanza durán narváez holds an m.a. in applied linguistics to tefl from universidad distrital francisco josé de caldas and a specialist in english language teaching from universidad del tolima (colombia). her research interests include teacher learning and professional development, cognition processes in teacher education, efl teaching and learning processes, and community-based explorations. she is currently a full-time teacher in the b.a. in foreign languages with emphasis on english at the university of tolima, ibagué, colombia, and a part-time teacher in the english didactics master program at universidad del tolima, colombia. orcid: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6547-3413 58 no. 28 enhancing writing through cbp and visual literacies efl students’ perceptions on gender stereotypes through their narratives1 percepciones de estudiantes de inglés como lengua extranjera sobre estereotipos de género a ravés de sus narrativas jhonatan vásquez-guarnizo, maribel chía-ríos and mairon felipe tobar-gómez2* universidad pedagógica y tecnológica de colombia, universidad de la salle, colombia 1 received: february 6th 202 / accepted: september 11th 2020 2 jhonatan.vasquez@uptc.edu.co; maribel.chia@uptc.edu.co; mtobar66@unisalle.edu.co gist education and learning research journal. issn 1692-5777. no. 21 (july-december, 2020). pp. 141-166. 142 no. 21 abstract this research study was conducted with twelve students from the modern/foreign languages program at universidad pedagógica y tecnológica de colombia. it was aimed at unveiling efl students’ perceptions on gender stereotypes through their narratives in three different moments. focus group interviews, field notes, and students’ artifacts were used as data collection instruments. data was analyzed under an interactional analysis proposed by riessman (2005). findings showed that students’ lived experiences on this issue have permeated over the time the way they see their present and future; and their perceptions on gender stereotypes differ from their past generations as they consider themselves as a new generation who does not see any distinction among genders. key words: artwork; gender stereotypes; students’ perceptions; efl; experiences resumen este estudio de investigación se realizó con doce estudiantes del programa de lenguas modernas / extranjeras en la universidad pedagógica y tecnológica de colombia. su objetivo era revelar las percepciones de los estudiantes de inglés como lengua extranjera sobre los estereotipos de género a través de sus narraciones en tres momentos diferentes. se utilizaron entrevistas de grupos focales, notas de campo y artefactos por parte de los estudiantes como instrumentos de recolección de datos. los datos fueron analizados bajo un análisis de interacción propuesto por riessman (2005). los resultados mostraron que las experiencias vividas por los estudiantes sobre este tema han permeado con el tiempo la forma en que ven su presente y futuro; y sus percepciones sobre los estereotipos de género difieren de sus generaciones pasadas ya que ellos se consideran como una nueva generación que no ve ninguna distinción entre géneros. palabras clave: obras de arte; estereotipos de género; percepciones de los estudiantes; inglés como lengua extranjera; experiencias resumo este estudo de pesquisa foi realizado com doze estudantes do programa de línguas modernas / estrangeiras na universidade pedagógica e tecnológica da colômbia. seu objetivo era revelar as percepções dos estudantes de inglês como língua estrangeira sobre os estereótipos de gênero através das suas narrações em três momentos diferentes. utilizaram-se entrevistas de grupos focais, notas de campo e artefatos por parte dos estudantes como instrumentos de coleta de dados. os dados foram analisados sob uma análise de interação proposta por riessman (2005). os resultados mostraram que as experiências vividas pelos estudantes sobre este tema permearam com o tempo a forma em que veem seu presente e futuro; e suas percepções sobre os estereótipos de gênero diferem das suas gerações passadas, já que eles se consideram como uma nova geração que não vê nenhuma distinção entre gêneros. palavras chave: obras de arte, estereótipos de gênero, percepções dos estudante; inglês como uma língua estrangeira; experiências efl students’ perceptions on gender stereotypes vásquez-guarnizo, chía-ríos & tobar-gómez 143 no. 21 introduction currently, many young people’s perceptions are influenced by an abundance of social media messages which have a strong effect when creating a variety of misconceptions that build certain rigid thoughts about the differences between genders. according to barrera and cantor (2007), “the use of stereotypes is a part of our everyday way of thinking; for this reason, our society often innocently creates and perpetuates stereotypes” (p. 163). unfortunately, this process has been shaping students’ minds without having a thought about it; that is why, gender stereotypes exist in home, schools, and workplace (ifegbesan, 2010). in colombia, some studies (castañeda, 2012; castañeda-peña, 2008a, 2008b, 2009, 2010; durán, 2006; rojas, 2012) have researched deeply into the importance of gender in foreign language contexts. however, efl student’s perceptions on gender stereotypes have not been researched enough currently. in that sense, a gender stereotype is viewed as one type of subjective perception of what a man or woman should be or how people should behave (martin & halverson, 1981). they portray the male as the strong and dominant person who works outside the home in oftenprestigious occupations, while the female is usually portrayed as being subordinate and confined to the home (fiske, 1993; stangor & lange, 1994). the world is evolving every day and students are not being left behind; their perceptions are changing, as well as their thoughts about living in the way their past generations once did. in such a way, students have become more aware of having a different perception in their lives and how they see their future. thus, for this research study, we proposed the following research question: what do efl students’ narratives reveal about gender stereotypes when being exposed to a film, before/now photographs, and their own artwork? theoretical framework the role of films, photographs, and artwork. the need to motivate students in the efl classroom has become an established area of research and discussion (gardner, 1985). in that sense, using english speaking foreign films within efl classrooms provides students with an excellent source of native dialogue, cultural context, and interesting material (brown, 2010). efl students’ perceptions on gender stereotypes vásquez-guarnizo, chía-ríos & tobar-gómez 144 no. 21 in this regard, aguirre and ramos (2011) argue that films can be used as a “powerful tool to explore educational aspects such as gender, social roles, and power relationships” (p. 175). therefore, watching films in the classroom can help students discover the possibility that they can be whatever they want to be, no matter what others may think about them (corral, 2014). in this manner, incorporating films into the efl classroom means bringing language to life (schander, balma & massa, 2013). furthermore, based on schander, balma and massa (2013), interpreting visual art can be an excellent way to teach productive skills and build a lexicon. thus, photographs were brought into the classrooms as a valuable teaching resource that teachers and learners in more meaningful and memorable learning experiences. art has always been an effective tool for teaching and learning among various classes of people (masoumeh & masoud, 2011). freedman (2003) confirms that it is key to teach visual culture, so they are able to view the visual arts by understanding their meanings, purposes, relationships, and influences. based on peñaloza and vásquezguarnizo (2019), “the benefits of utilizing artwork in the classroom are countless” (p. 133). therefore, through artwork, students can be challenged to think critically and analytically (barber, 2015) and could promote the “inclusion of different perspectives” (schäffler, 2018, p. 45). gender stereotypes. from a postmodern perspective, and acknowledging the contributions of scholars such as butler (1990) and foucault (1992), gender is understood as a sociocultural category by which the issue of the body is connected to everyday social and cultural practices and discourses (mojica & castañeda-peña, 2017, p. 142). in this sense, gender refers to the social differences between men and women, establishing stereotypes boys and girls suffer from birth. therefore, it has nothing to do with the biological and physical characteristics each sex has, but with the functions, values, and responsibilities they play in society (corral, 2014, p. 6). gender stereotypes are present everywhere in every feature of society, such as: work, family, daily vocabulary, advertisements, and television. they are transmitted from father to son through generations, affecting the development of a free society (corral, 2014). according to six and eckes (1991), gender stereotypes are defined as “products of normal everyday cognitive processes of social categorization, social inference and social judgement” (p. 58). therefore, corral (2014) affirms that some gender stereotypes which society has taught us are “boys dress in blue and girls in pink. boys study science and technology, and girls languages and literature. men fight and women cry. men earn money and women take care of the house and the family” (pp. 6-7). efl students’ perceptions on gender stereotypes vásquez-guarnizo, chía-ríos & tobar-gómez 145 no. 21 in this regard, barrera and cantor (2007) affirm that “the use of stereotypes is a part of our everyday way of thinking; for this reason, our society often innocently creates and perpetuates stereotypes” (p. 164). hence, since gender stereotyping in education perpetuates the existing inequality between males and females, the elimination of gender stereotyped messages is vital (şeker & dinçer, 2014), as they help determining ideas and values that children come to accept as norms (haque & chandran, 2004). students’ perceptions. there has been a recent focus on understanding students’ perceptions on education. wright (2004) states that perceptions vary from person to person and consequently, different people perceive different things about the same situation. therefore, we assign different meanings to what we perceive and the meanings we give to a situation might change for a certain person who does not see it as we do. based on eagly and karau (2002), there is a big difference between men’s and women’s perceptions regarding leadership; therefore, males tend to show a stronger tendency than females since they view women as less qualified for such activity. in this manner, the way students pay attention to a certain situation, experience and/or action might reflect the way they view the world and it can influence the way they determine what to process or believe in. the perception of a specific situation is a personal interpretation of information from each human being’s own reality. that is why they perceive what they see, they think what they feel or they talk about what they know as their perceptions differ from one experience to another since each human being’s interaction will never be the same in each mind. methodology for the purpose of this research study, a qualitative approach was used as this one seeks to understand the construction of a reality built by participants (richards, 2000, p. 148), and it is more concerned with “understanding individual’s perceptions of the world since it looks for insights rather than a statistical analysis” (bell, 1993, p. 6). moreover, we utilized narrative inquiry where storytelling became “a powerful tool to make sense of the world, to attribute meaning to experiences participants have lived” (torres-cepeda & ramos-holguín, 2019, p. 14). based on gadamer (2002), “it is not the word what we can see: it is the universe what we try to comprehend” (p. 68). therefore, we focused not only on participants’ efl students’ perceptions on gender stereotypes vásquez-guarnizo, chía-ríos & tobar-gómez 146 no. 21 lived experiences, but also on the meaning they gave to those experiences (trahar, 2006), since understanding their lived experiences from a narrative perspective implies connecting feelings, past-present professional-personal events, and possible future implications of those events in order to gain insights into the way participants co-construct their own self (coulter, michael & poynor, 2007). context and participants this research study took place at a public university in colombia with a group of twelve students whose ages range from nineteen to thirty-seven. this group of participants was composed of 8 female and 4 male efl students. in addition, this research study was carried out in the english workshop ii course, ascribed to the foreign languages program in sixth semester. in this same vein, this course aims at improving students’ writing production at the same time they interact and communicate to others in english. nonetheless, this specific course has a diverse population as it receives students who have failed the english written production course in the modern languages program in third semester. this population was chosen as a notorious preference to be grouped by genders was evident. at the beginning of each class, there were female groups on one side and male groups on the other one, which made us reflect upon this issue, having in mind they will be future language teachers. we thought that issue was a perfect opportunity to raise awareness and eradicate any form of gender stereotyping they will face once they teach. thereby, in this research study, half of the participants belonged to the foreign languages program whose students study to become english and/or french teachers at elementary schools. the other half of them belonged to the modern languages program, whose students study to become high school spanish and/or english teachers. for this particular case, participants voluntarily accepted to be part of this research study by means of signing a consent form (annex 1) where all of them opted to choose a pseudonym as table 1 shows. additionally, all of them were able to communicate their ideas in english; however, they preferred to speak in spanish when telling their lived experiences and those narratives were translated to english for the purpose of this research study. efl students’ perceptions on gender stereotypes vásquez-guarnizo, chía-ríos & tobar-gómez 147 no. 21 table 1. participants’ information. in this sense, this study was carried out in three different moments. the first moment was divided into four-session classes. in the first two-session class, students were exposed to a film titled “on the basis of sex” which shows the struggle a female character faced with discrimination against women when fighting to have the same rights as men in the united states. as each two-session class is two hours long, the second two-session class from the first moment was at a different time. during this moment, students had a space for a focus group in which they expressed their thoughts on the film and how they are related to this issue currently. furthermore, in the second moment, visual art was included through some before/ now photographs which revealed how women have been underestimated for years due to their gender and how they are positioned nowadays. these photographs were placed on the walls around the classroom so they could simulate being at an art gallery where they were able to contrast this issue as viewers. once students finished walking around the classroom, their points of view were heard though a focus group interview. lastly, in the third moment, students were asked to draw their own artwork which expressed the way they saw men/women in their contexts. when they were done, all the drawings were pasted on the board and another focus group took place. this one was a key part of this study as it was our closing moment. it allowed these efl students’ perceptions to come up with more determination since they were able to show through a drawing what their perceptions actually were. besides, as they had the efl students’ perceptions on gender stereotypes vásquez-guarnizo, chía-ríos & tobar-gómez 148 no. 21 chance to choose one which caught their attention the most, they were able to speak about their classmates’ perceptions as well and how the drawing someone else drew was relevant for their future lives. table 2 illustrates how those three moments previously described were carried out by means of providing the dates, a brief description, and an image that represents each moment. table 2. three moments of the development of the study efl students’ perceptions on gender stereotypes vásquez-guarnizo, chía-ríos & tobar-gómez 149 no. 21 data collection tools three focus group interviews, students’ artifacts and field notes were the data collection tools applied in this research study. according to rabiee (2004), focus group interviews provide information about ideas and feelings that individuals have about certain issues, as well as illuminating the differences in perspective between groups of individuals as focus group interviews gather a small group of people to explore attitudes and perceptions, feelings and ideas about a topic (denscombe, 2007). secondly, students’ artifacts were collected in the third moment through their own artwork. based on ormrod (2005), it is really useful to save samples of students’ work produced over time since they can take the form of short stories, lab reports, class notes, handouts, quizzes, which provide equally viable connections to the real-world classroom context. in addition, weber and mitchell (1996) affirms that “drawings provide self-reflection by bringing to light ambivalences in teaching identities that might remain hidden” (p. 303). therefore, when we draw, that artwork displays a hidden reality that helps individuals transmit a true-self context becoming drawing as a powerful means for them to express hidden messages. lastly, three field notes were applied throughout the development of this study. based on efron and ravin (2013), field notes “are detailed descriptions of what you see, hear, and sense during the observation, and the thoughts, feelings and understandings these observations provoked” (p. 88). in that regard, the three video-recorded moments were transcribed since the video information needs to be transformed into written data “transcripts” to facilitate the analysis (lankshear & knobel, 2004) which has to be carried out “as soon as possible after a lesson” (hopkins, 2008, p. 116). data analysis and findings once participants’ oral narratives were collected, they were transcribed and analyzed under an interactional analysis. based on riessman (2005), the emphasis is placed on the dialogic process between teller and listener in an interactional analysis. stories of personal experience, organized around the life world of the teller, may be inserted into question and answer exchanges; therefore, participants’ narratives about their lived experience are occasioned in particular settings were storyteller and questioner jointly participate in conversation (p. 4). according to torres-cepeda and ramos-holguín (2019), “this research method helps to understand a narrative by means of splitting it into critical fractions which play a meaning-making role in the whole narrative” (p. 16) due to an interactional analysis is not only focused on the content of a text (thematic analysis), the way a story is told (structural analysis), but also on the co-construction process between teller and efl students’ perceptions on gender stereotypes vásquez-guarnizo, chía-ríos & tobar-gómez 150 no. 21 listener (interactional analysis). in this sense, this analysis is carried out step by step as one is connected to the other; that is why, we analyzed participants’ narratives through a three-step analysis: thematic, structural, and interactional. firstly, participants’ lived experiences were analyzed by focusing on the content of the story per se. here, data is grouped into a similar thematic category, data is interpreted by means of focusing on what is said (riessman, 2005, p. 3). secondly, we paid attention to the way participants’ lived experiences were told as “human beings are storying creatures that make sense of the world and the things that happen to them by constructing narratives to explain and interpret events both to themselves and to other people” (sikes & gale, 2006, p. 1). lastly, we validated data by means of giving meaningful importance to the interaction, interpretation and sense/meaning making processes that were created among both parts, tellers (participants) and listeners (researchers). according to bruner (1994), “a life is not how it was but how it is interpreted and reinterpreted, told and retold” (p. 36); therefore, by focusing on narrative, we are able to investigate not just how stories are structured and the ways in which they work, but also who produces them and by what means; how narratives are silenced or accepted and what, if any, effects they have (andrews, squire & tamboukou, 2013, p. 2). in short, this three-step analysis: thematic, structural, and interactional gave us the chance to comprehend in-depth participants’ lived experiences about gender stereotypes. we analyzed, interpreted, re-interpreted, constructed, and re-constructed participants’ narratives in order to raise awareness about gender stereotyped messages and gain insights into the way participants co-construct their own self (coulter, michael & poynor, 2007). in such way, three themes emerged from our interactional analysis (riessman, 2005), which aim at answering our research question as it can be appreciated in table 3. table 3. main themes. efl students’ perceptions on gender stereotypes vásquez-guarnizo, chía-ríos & tobar-gómez 151 no. 21 we are all equal nowadays, society is changing as the way of thinking is. in that sense, there are some human beings who are becoming aware that others should be viewed with no differences. in the case of women, even though there have been many fights when looking for equality, their role as women is still underestimated nowadays which has caused a need to keep teaching generations to transform the way they see women; for instance, in this research study, this first theme is named this way after having discussed as a group and reflecting upon a participant’s drawing (figure 1) where she decided to write a hashtag as a way to title her artwork. here, carolina wanted to express the way she viewed everybody. she mentioned there is nothing that can divide us; therefore, we are all equal no matter our gender or religion as in the end, we all are going to end up in the same place when we die. likewise, even though she emphasized she viewed herself as a woman, she repeated that she believed we are all equal and for that reason, she wrote some tags people have given to certain patterns in life as a way of representing our ending on earth. thus, she concluded by explaining she felt she belonged to a new generation, consequently, she personalized her artwork by adding a hashtag. figure 1. we are all equal. (carolina, third moment, students’ artifacts). after the interpretation of her drawing, participants connected this issue carolina brought up to the same one the film transmitted to them which was related to the underestimation women have gone through in the past. in this sense, the following examples show how they expressed their thoughts on positing everybody in the same level. efl students’ perceptions on gender stereotypes vásquez-guarnizo, chía-ríos & tobar-gómez 152 no. 21 i consider that there has been an advance, and that is the desire to activate the position of women as equal to men since it is quite necessary and important. i think that right now we could not live without it, i mean, not only men and women in the same condition, but everybody (jenniwell, third moment, third focus group). in this example, we analyzed jenniwell’s words, not only by means of describing the struggle men / women equality has gone through, but also when believing everybody should be in the same condition. from her perspective, it is seen the way she thinks about people, this fight is not only about men / women, but only every single person who feels in another way. besides, jenniwell took us to think about a contrast between generations since she mentioned “i think right now” comparing ways of thinking from previous generations with this current one. in fact, when contrasting her words with her artwork (figure 2), we could analyze how she made an emphasis on this idea that we are all equal. figure 2. we are all equal. (jenniwell, third moment, students’ artifacts). in this same vein, figure 3 displays andrés’ artwork which shows his understanding on how equality should be thought out and seen right now. he described his drawing as the way he perceives equality. for him, we all are here not to be judged, but to live happily; that is why, he believes it is not about a certain way to look, dress or feel with our bodies due to equality goes beyond those misconceptions people have been labeled by society. i think we all should think and see everybody as equal, no matter the way we look, dress or feel with our bodies. we all are here to live happily and that is what i wanted to transmit with my drawing, equality (andrés, third moment, third focus group). efl students’ perceptions on gender stereotypes vásquez-guarnizo, chía-ríos & tobar-gómez 153 no. 21 figure 3. we are all equal. (andrés, third moment, students’ artifacts). additionally, the following excerpt reflects daniel’s thinking on this same issue. here, we analyzed how he is conscious about all the fights women have undergone throughout time in order to get the same position as men in society. he as a man, claimed those fights proved to people we are all equal and bearing in mind the big change ruth, the main character of the film, achieved; she was able to establish an antecedent for future women to cover the fields they can work on. in that sense, men also see equality as only one whole. all these struggles that are shown here in the film, especially ruth’s, is a great change, because from there, as she says, a precedent was set leaving more space and force for women to be able to cover all the fields they want and so, show us that we are all equal. (daniel, first moment, first focus group) lastly, in this last excerpt, it is interesting to remark how m.f was able to see ruth as someone who was not interested in fighting for women positioning, but rather for gender equality. she mentioned that there have been some advances regarding that issue and in that sense, women and men are positioned in the same level. i think that ruth, having in mind she is a woman, she did not fight only for women but for gender equality. she was looking for that, gender equality! and i feel that right now we have already advanced too much on that (m.f, first moment, first focus group) changing roles as this new generation of people are going through a new way of thinking, the roles of men and women have gone through a process of changing. in other words, those roles society established for men and women long time ago, have transcended and now people see them from a different perception. in that sense, the following efl students’ perceptions on gender stereotypes vásquez-guarnizo, chía-ríos & tobar-gómez 154 no. 21 examples proved how those roles have been flipped and nowadays, men can perform situations women are “supposed” to do and vice versa. the role of men. this following excerpt shows how the role of men has been changed and accepted over the time with manuel p’s case. he demonstrated men like him from this generation can also perform a duty that a woman was labeled to develop. specifically, from his narrative, we could analyze that they both, father and mother, spend time with their daughter even though they are not together as a family; they are conscious they both are that girl’s parents and they both need to take care of her. nonetheless, they divide this responsibility equally. in my case, when i take care of my daughter, i spoil her very much. when my daughter’s mother tells me she will party, i am the happiest person because that means i will stay with the girl. even though i know there are some tasks that are very complex to assimilate for us as men, i do not have a choice but learning how to develop those task by myself (manuel p, second moment, second focus group) furthermore, andrés complements this part of the role of men when narrating he connects the picture he was given in the second moment of this research study with a memory he has from his mother as he was taught in his family (esen, 2013) but he and his brothers as men could also collaborate doing this house duty. i relate this picture i was assigned to my mom because she taught us we could also help cleaning the house. she left home to work, and we were in charge of the house, so our brothers and i helped her cleaning (andrés, second moment, second focus group) in this sense, cris also contributed by positing himself in showing agreement to manuel p and andrés’ way of perceiving their roles as men. cris in the following excerpt shows how he does not feel less because he does things society has established for women to do at home. in fact, he claims how he feels by performing those house duties and his love for his mother. here, we could analyze how the role of women influences men’s way of thinking. women become that fundamental piece of the puzzle in men’s co-construction as human beings, not just as men. i love my mother with all my heart, she is the only one who matters to me, that is why i always try to help her with anything she needs. i sweep, mop, clean, cook, wash and i do not really feel i am less because i do that; on the contrary, i feel i contribute in this society by showing men can also help women at home and that does not make us less (cris, second moment, second focus group) lastly, andrea closes our second moment by agreeing with her male classmates on the way they perceive gender equality. she considers that people have changed the efl students’ perceptions on gender stereotypes vásquez-guarnizo, chía-ríos & tobar-gómez 155 no. 21 old perception that “women were made for the family and not for the great struggles of the world” (quijano, 2001, cited in calvo, rendón & rojas, 2006, p. 2). nowadays, this new generation is conscious about gender equality and that is why everybody can do the same things equally. there is nothing impossible when it comes to performing a certain task. in this case in particular, andrea shows how that wrong perception is left behind since she thinks men have the same skills and capabilities as women to teach children the wrong or good path for them to go. additionally, we analyzed how both men and women from this new generation show the same thought without complaining about it or showing any type of disagreement. they both position themselves as equal and with the same skills to do anything. i think that perception that women are the only ones who can do chores and raise children have completely changed today, men also have the same skills and abilities to do it, he can teach his baby the good and bad and not just leave that responsibility to women as it was thought out long time ago (andrea. second moment, second focus group) the role of women. independency has been marked in women when referring to finding another way for them to live without thinking about labels society has created for them. in the following excerpt, saluifer narrates how that independency was taught to her throughout her context as she was raised in a countryside. anything she needed, she was the one who was supposed to get it, everything by herself, without a male figure in her life. my mom is a single mother, same as the rest of my family, except for an aunt who is married. they all are alone because they are single mothers, with no husband, no male figure at home. i remember that my grandmother always taught us to be independent because i was raised in a countryside, so if i wanted to eat, so i needed to get the firewood, if i wanted to wear clean clothes, i needed to wash them by myself. thanks to that i am totally independent nowadays (saluifer, second moment, second focus group) in the same manner, the role of women is evidenced in a way previous generations would not been able to accept. from this participant’s intervention, we could analyze the transformation from generation to generation and how those changes have been modified. machaela positioned herself as a person who is not interested in repeating the same mistakes her previous generations committed. on the contrary, her way of thinking has allowed her to achieve different goals that were not the ones society established time ago for women. she mentioned nowadays those old-time-determined perceptions do not exist and consequently, she positioned herself as someone who looks for learning, studying, traveling, instead of having a family first. efl students’ perceptions on gender stereotypes vásquez-guarnizo, chía-ríos & tobar-gómez 156 no. 21 personally, i have seen a transformation process in my family that goes from generation to generation and how we have gone through some context changes; for example in the past, it was thought that marriages lasted for many years and that was nice! however, my grandmother lasted many years with my grandfather until he died, but enduring infidelities, beatings and many more things from him just because of her time. divorcing was frowned upon and condemned. nowadays, in our time, for our generation, we do not really see that anymore, or well i think at least for me; it is no longer a goal to be a mom, to cook or wash. i want other things for myself; i personally want to learn, study, travel before looking for a family (machaela, second moment, second focus group) thus, when contrasting machaela’s words with the artwork (figure 4) she decided to draw, we could analyze how those words were put into action when describing those new generation plans for her life. figure 4. (machaela, third moment, students’ artifacts). additionally, another perception we could analyze from her is her position regarding independence. she states repeatedly how she sees herself as a woman who will not be depending on any man. in that sense, the way she perceives herself, in terms of living her life, is without a man by her side so far. her goal nowadays is to enjoy her life first by means of learning, studying, traveling, and afterwards she plans to have someone by her side. her independence is evidenced by empowering herself when efl students’ perceptions on gender stereotypes vásquez-guarnizo, chía-ríos & tobar-gómez 157 no. 21 believing she can achieve her dreams without the need of a male figure who supports her; in fact, she believes she is strongly able to get what she wants on her own. in that regard, we believe this is exposed thanks to the mark her grandmother and mother left on her when they both experienced dependency on a man in the past. in the same way, andrea shows her support to machaela’s way of thinking and she reaffirms she also feels the same way as machaela. she belongs to a new generation that looks for equality even when finding a person to spend her life with. based on her narrative, we could analyze that andrea’s words encourage other women to beware of finding someone who supports them at home and does not lean on them as women. they need someone who thinks the same way they do it, otherwise, they will be repeating previous generation’s mistakes. “i reaffirm machaela’s words because i feel the same way. women do not want to have children or get married yet; we want to enjoy our lives first. we have those mirrors from our families, and we do not want to go back to those old times. in my case, i do not want to repeat those mistakes. i feel that also applies to finding someone in our lives. if we look for a soulmate, we have to beware to know that person will also collaborate at home and will not lean on us” (andrea, second moment, second focus group) this same thought was compared to andrea’s artwork in the third moment of this research study when she positioned herself as a woman who has different aspirations for her life. her drawing (figure 5) shows a division among old ways of thinking from previous generations where women were in charge of everything related to home, and on the other side, new ways of perceiving life which belong to her current generation. figure 5. (andrea, third moment, students’ artifacts). efl students’ perceptions on gender stereotypes vásquez-guarnizo, chía-ríos & tobar-gómez 158 no. 21 gender discrimination. even though this new generation has a different way of perceiving equality, there are still people who underestimate woman for differences in relation to their access to education, work, income level (quintero, 2012). the following example shows how a participant from this research study experienced a situation in which she was not taken into consideration for a job position, just because of her gender, and how another one reflected upon the hiring process a certain chinese restaurant uses when choosing a waitress. “i started working as a waitress at a restaurant, and after a month, they were looking for more staff, so i told a male friend to deliver her cv and he got accepted. like a couple of months later, he earned a promotion as a head waiter just because he was a male. after some time working there, he quit and the vacancy was supposedly for those with more experience, and since i was working before he entered, supposedly i felt that it was my opportunity to advance. however, they promoted a man who had been working there for only two or three months. you see? there are no open doors for us as women and if we want something, we have to give something back, i mean, something sexual and that is not fair” (m.f, third moment, third focus group) in this excerpt, we could analyze how gender discrimination is evidenced when this participant who decided to name herself as (m.f.) was rejected from a job position just because she was a woman. even though she was told the position was for the one with more experience working in the place, a male was the one who was promoted for the position she thought it was for her. for a second time, she saw how doors she thought were opened to her, turned out to be closed, instead. gender discrimination happens to be established in this particular case just by the fact of being a woman (pérez, 2012). m.f evidenced how a male figure had more power when determining this new job position as “power is produced and enacted in and through discourse, relationships, activities, spaces, and times by people as they compete for access to and control to resources, tools, identities” (birr & lewis, 2007, p. 17). “in my personal experience, let’s say that there is a certain preference for men in the kitchen, i mean, in a business. there, he is the cook, the chef, but the woman is not seen as important as a man there, and their payments are not well recognized. on the contrary, they are important at home because they have to cook”. (daniel. third moment, third focus group) in this intervention, daniel is aware of a sexual division within disciplines where women are stood out or “feminized” for (letters, medicine, human sciences), while men are traditionally “masculinized” for standing out in (mathematics, engineering, law) (cruz & moreno, 2012). nonetheless, it is key to mention how his words show his new-generation-thinking made him approach an issue that is still present nowadays. efl students’ perceptions on gender stereotypes vásquez-guarnizo, chía-ríos & tobar-gómez 159 no. 21 he mentioned how women are not well seen in the kitchen of a business but rather in the kitchen of their houses. this contradictory perception has underestimated women as objects from home, with no money recognition. on the contrary, men obtain higher salaries regardless of the professional field, the region or the type of institution (public or private) (barón, 2011, cited in fuentes, 2012, p. 99). lastly, this following lived experience gave us a key issue to address. luciana mentioned how she thought gender discrimination only took place here or latin america until she found out how a chinese restaurant, where she worked, made the hiring process for its waitresses. gender discrimination is evidenced in this particular case when making some racist comments about the women who were applying for the job. unfortunately, we only tend to see our local place that we forget about what it is outside this bubble. thus, we can analyze how gender discrimination takes place anywhere and, in this case, it affected luciana someway since she realized how those people from that restaurant were also racist when choosing their waitresses. “when i was working at this chinese restaurant, i began to learn how they choose waitresses. the wife starts looking at them and saying: this one is black, this one is very skinny, this one is very fat. i thought that this only happened here in colombia, but they also do it. gender discrimination is everywhere and in this case from a woman to another woman” (luciana. third moment, third focus group) conclusions the research study was aimed at unveiling efl students’ perceptions on gender stereotypes through their narratives in three different moments. as a result of it, we noticed how students went on a reflecting process along this research study as it helped them be prepared to act in a professional area (sööt & viskus, 2015) when facing their first classroom experiences (cote, 2012). therefore, participants’ reflecting processes then emerged as a response to their previous generations’ mistakes as they do not want to follow their past generations’ steps. results showed how participants’ lived experiences had an impact on them as they helped them shape their perceptions at a given time in their lives (lengeling & mora, 2016). thus, their goals are different now and the way they see their future has changed 180 degrees over the time thanks to those gender stereotyped messages they grew up with. that is why, they feel they belong to a different generation, one that thinks and wishes things in a different way. additionally, letting their voices be heard through their oral narratives and artwork together was a key part in our research study. we argue that helping efl students efl students’ perceptions on gender stereotypes vásquez-guarnizo, chía-ríos & tobar-gómez 160 no. 21 express themselves is possible when having artwork as a backup. we evidenced how their artworks contributed to the development of their human consciousness (read, 1980) as they revealed hidden realities they live in without feeling judged. incorporating artwork in the efl classes contributed to leave footprints in the formation of students’ personality at the same time it provided them with the weapons to face a new teaching world (hernández, garriga & baños, 2009). based on peñaloza and vásquez-guarnizo (2019), “artwork can help develop observational, thinking, and literacy skills, among many other skills” (p. 133), that is why, it is key to teach visual culture to students, so they can be able to understand their meanings, purposes, relationships, and influences (freedman, 2003). pedagogical implications and further research including artwork in efl classes becomes an effective tool for teaching and learning (masoumeh & masoud, 2011) as artwork provides students with content to talk about, it involves creative and imaginative contexts and most importantly, art activities increases students’ language proficiency (lee, 2017). besides, having them as a backup for expressing the way students see things around them result worthy since they can connect lived experiences that lead them to go through a personal reflective process (núñez & téllez, 2015). ramos, aguirre and hernández (2012) mention that a first step toward promoting intercultural individuals is by encouraging equality in the class. in this sense, we think that it is crucial to start raising awareness about gender stereotypes in future languages teachers, so they get informed and know to handle situations where this issue is presented (durán, 2006). in this manner, elt programs should turn their attention to these types of experiences to incorporate what is being left out, improve teachers’ reflection processes, and equip students with the attitudes, skills, and the knowledge to work towards the goal of gender equity in their future teaching contexts (mojica & castañeda-peña, 2017). that is why, opening spaces such these ones allow efl students to bring this issue up and avoid seeing it as a taboo. everything starts when thinking outside the box; thus, we believe that after going through this research study, our field in english teachers’ education will be engaged in breaking the gap between addressing gender equality in efl classroom or continuing being a task for few efl teachers. finally, we think there is a need to break the gap on gender equality. therefore, 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(2004). perceptions and stereotypes of esl students. the internet tesl journal, 10(2). http://iteslj.org/articles/wright-stereotyping.html authors *jhonatan vásquez-guarnizo holds an m.a in language teaching from universidad pedagógica y tecnológica de colombia and a b.a in english language teaching from universidad de la amazonia. he is currently a researcher and a fulltime english language professor in the school of languages at uptc. he is also part of the research group “tongue” and a first-semester student in the master’s in education at universidad externado de colombia. orcid: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0630-6321 maribel chía-ríos holds a b.a. in modern languages from universidad pedagógica y tecnológica de colombia (uptc). she currently works at institución educativa luis maria jimenez in aguazul, casanare where she teaches spanish/english, besides studying her last semester in the master’s in language teaching at the uptc. orcid: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2520-7863 mairon felipe tobar-gómez holds a b.a in english language teaching from universidad de la amazonia. he currently works at colegio san viator in tunja, boyacá where he teaches english to tenth and eleventh graders, besides studying his master’s in languages didactic at universidad de la salle.  orcid: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2905-4670 166 no. 20 how to reference this article: vásquez-guarnizo, j., chía-ríos, m., & tobar-gómez, m. f. (2020). efl students’perceptions on gender stereotypes. gist – education and learning research journal, 21, 141-166. https://doi.org/10.26817/16925777.836 efl students’ perceptions on gender stereotypes motivation factors of candidates teachers for their professions1 factores de motivación de los maestros en formación para elegir sus profesiones mehmet ali yarim, i̇sa yıldırım, and durdağı akan2* atatürk üniversitesi, turkey 1 received: november 9th 2021/ accepted: may 9th 2022 2 karazeybekli@hotmail.com; isayildirim@edu.tr; kallender35@gmail.com equitable language learning from efl to ecl to ce gist education and learning research journal. issn 1692-5777. no. 24 (january june, 2022). pp. 43-63. 44 no. 24 abstract the purpose of this research is to determine the motivation factors of teacher candidates regarding the teaching profession. for this purpose, this study was designed with a crosssectional scanning model, since the data collection process was carried out in one go. the research was designed with phenomenology, one of the qualitative research designs. the study group consists of 20 teacher candidates studying in various departments of atatürk university kazım karabekir faculty of education in the 2021-2022 academic year. the data obtained with the semi-structured interview form were analyzed with the help of content analysis. according to the results of the research, teacher candidates are more positively motivated by internal factors related to the teaching profession. almost all of the negative motivational factors are exogenous. it is seen that these motivational factors affect the attitudes and perceptions of teacher candidates towards their profession. it can be ensured that competent teachers who are motivated by their work can be trained by increasing the motivational elements that are seen as positive by the novice teachers and by reducing the elements that are seen as negative. in this way, significant gains can be achieved at the point of achieving educational goals. keywords: motivation; teacher motivation; intrinsic motivation; meaninglessness; extrinsic motivation; prospective teacher. resumen el propósito de esta investigación es determinar los factores de motivación de los candidatos a docentes respecto a la profesión docente. para ello, este estudio se diseñó con un modelo de barrido transversal, ya que el proceso de recolección de datos se realizó en un solo momento. el grupo de estudio de la investigación, que se diseñó con el patrón de fenomenología, consta de 20 candidatos a docentes que estudian en varios departamentos de la facultad de educación kazım karabekir de la universidad de atatürk en el año académico 2021-2022. los datos obtenidos con el formulario de entrevista semiestructurada fueron analizados con la ayuda del análisis de contenido. según los resultados de la investigación, los candidatos a docentes están más motivados positivamente por factores internos relacionados con la profesión docente. casi todos los factores motivacionales negativos son exógenos. se ve que estos factores motivacionales afectan las actitudes y percepciones de los candidatos a docentes hacia su profesión. se puede asegurar que los docentes competentes que están motivados por su trabajo pueden ser formados aumentando los elementos motivacionales que los docentes novatos ven como positivos y reduciendo los elementos que ven como negativos. de esta manera, se pueden lograr ganancias significativas al punto de lograr las metas educativas. palabras clave: motivación; motivación doçente; docente en formación; motivación intrínseca; sinsentido; motivación extrínseca; futuro docente motivation factors of candidates teachers yarim, yildirim & akan 45 no. 24 resumo o propósito desta pesquisa é determinar os fatores de motivação dos candidatos a docentes com relação à profissão docente. para isso, este estudo se desenhou com um modelo de barrido transversal, já que o processo de obtenção de dados realizou-se em um só momento. o grupo de estudo da pesquisa, que se desenhou com o padrão de fenomenologia, consta de 20 candidatos a docentes que estudem em vários departamentos da facultade de educação kazım karabekir da universidade de atatürk no ano acadêmico 2021-2022. os dados obtidos com o formulário de entrevista semiestruturada foram analisados com a ajuda da análise de conteúdo. segundo os resultados da pesquisa, os candidatos a docentes estão mais motivados positivamente por fatores internos relacionados com a profissão docente. quase todos os fatores motivacionais negativos são exógenos. observa-se que estes fatores motivacionais afetam as atitudes e percepções dos candidatos a docentes em relação a sua profissão. pode-se assegurar que os docentes competentes que estão motivados pelo seu trabalho podem ser formados aumentando os elementos motivacionais que os docentes principiantes veem como positivos e reduzindo os elementos que veem como negativos. desta forma, podem-se conseguir ganâncias significativas até conseguir as metas educativas. palavras chave: motivação; motivação docente; docente em formação; motivação intrínseca; sem sentido; motivação extrínseca; futuro docente motivation factors of candidates teachers yarim, yildirim & akan 46 no. 24 introduction the success of the education system largely depends on the school subsystem. one of the most important human resources for schools to achieve their goals is teachers. the quality of teachers in the first years of their profession largely depends on the quality of teacher candidates trained in faculties. although many studies (ada et al., 2013; can, 2015; çiftçi, 2017) have been carried out on teachers’ professional motivation factors in the literature, there are no studies on the factors affecting the motivation of prospective teachers to learn the knowledge required by the profession and to perform the teaching profession. the assumption that teacher candidates’ motivation to teach and acquire knowledge and skills related to the teaching profession may have an impact on their professional qualification levels necessitated such a study. according to a study by şahin (2011), eighty-one percent of teacher candidates have negative thoughts about their professional future. teacher candidates think that the status of teachers is low and that teachers are not respected enough by the society (aydoğmuş & yıldız, 2016). similar research findings required revealing the perceptions of prospective teachers about the factors affecting their motivation to learn and do their jobs. the changing world conditions of the twenty-first century have also affected working life, and in this context, workplace motivation, one of the elements of organizational behavior, has become one of the most important concepts that are examined and paid attention to (de rijk et al., 2009). according to the dictionary of the turkish language association, motivation is defined as “the desire to switch to work or learning in vivo, motivation”. at the same time, it is used to explain the energy that is the cause of the behavior of the person in the group (tdk, 2019). in short, motivation is a dynamic state of arousal that initiates, directs, coordinates, strengthens, terminates and evaluates cognitive and motor processes as a result of desire and desire (dörnyei & ushioda, 2011). the concept of motivation, which has many definitions in the literature, is basically a concept belonging to the science of psychology and is considered as a force that motivates the individual to meet personal and environmental needs. effectiveness and productivity are significantly higher in organizations with highly motivated individuals. in this context, it will not go beyond a dream to expect organizations that care about the motivation of their employees and do not work in this direction to be successful (toker, 2006). studies on the factors that motivate individuals have attracted the attention of researchers for years. maslow’s hierarchy of needs approach is one of these studies. in addition, douglas mcgregor’s (x) and (y) theory, herzberg’s double factor theory, mcclelland’s need for achievement theory are studies that try to explain motivation. alderfer’s erg theory, adams’ equality theory, vroom’s expectancy theory, locke’s goal theory are the main theoretical motivation factors of candidates teachers yarim, yildirim & akan 47 no. 24 researches that try to explain the sources of motivation in different times and locations for the same purpose. one of the areas where individual motivation has been examined in recent years is schools, and researchers have been examining the motivation processes of teachers and educators for many year (yarım & ada, 2021). herzberg (1964) is of the opinion that giving subordinates the opportunity to develop themselves and show their talents and to be given time to achieve success increases the motivation of individuals. oplatka (2010) states that the main motivation factors for teachers are self-actualization, managerial sensitivity, a safe and friendly working environment, professional expertise, social prestige, being a partner in the vision and mission, participating in decisions and a sense of achievement. the main feature that distinguishes a high-energy school from others is related to the level of morale and motivation of the employees in that school (whitaker et al., 2009). teacher motivation in educational organizations is an extremely important situation that activates many factors in the school system and increases the effectiveness, efficiency and quality in practices. it becomes difficult for schools to be effective and efficient in case of negative effects such as teacher frustration, increased work stress, dissatisfaction and unhappiness. teachers have both internal and external expectations and needs. these needs are motivators. it is seen that teachers who experience intrinsic motivation make intense efforts to achieve a job and realize themselves. teachers with extrinsic motivation, on the other hand, can perform in order to obtain some resources with rewarding features such as salary, vacation, promotion. both intrinsic and extrinsic motivation play an extremely important role in human life. determining whether the teachers are intrinsically or extrinsically motivated will provide important data to the administrator. in this respect, it should be one of the most important goals of schools and administrators to carry out studies to increase the motivation of teachers both internally and externally in order to maximize their performance in the teaching environment (ud din et al., 2012). teachers’ motivation is more influenced by internal factors than by externally initiated factors such as salary, education policy, and reform and service conditions (barmby 2006). according to kayuni and tambulasi (2007), lack of motivation can have a negative effect on teachers’ commitment. understanding the importance of human resources in organizations is becoming increasingly important (davidson, 2005). human resources are accepted as the core of an organization, and highly motivated employees can undoubtedly have a great advantage in competitive environments (rasheed et al., 2015). teachers with low motivation levels will give up striving for the school’s goals and success, and they will negatively affect their students and other colleagues with the individual negativity they experience. teachers with high motivation are needed in order to provide a good education service to students in the education process in line with their interests, abilities and abilities, to raise self-realized motivation factors of candidates teachers yarim, yildirim & akan 48 no. 24 qualified individuals who are beneficial to the society in accordance with the aims of the education system, and more generally to ensure the growth and development of the country (cemaloğlu, 2002; kocabaş & karaköse, 2005). reeve (2001) states that motivation is generally influenced by two sources, internal and external. employees are intrinsically motivated when they get motivation from the job satisfaction, job design and work environment, etc., the nature of the internal work and the assigned tasks. extrinsic motivation is related to factors such as salary and reward system. motivated teachers are productive teachers because of their job satisfaction (osterloh et al., 2001). this contrasts with the bickel and brown’s study (2005), which found a significant link between the motivation of teachers in their schools and the use of external incentives given to them. bickel and brown (2005) emphasize that extrinsic incentives increase motivation more. rasheed et al. (2015), external factors such as salary and compensation packages, job design and working environment, performance and management systems affect teacher motivation. today, the current economic and social structure in turkey significantly affects the opportunities of individuals to choose a profession and settle in a job. difficulties in choosing a profession and finding a job cause significant accumulation in certain areas in higher education. teaching programs in universities are one of the most important areas in which these accumulations are observed. while the number of students who prefer teaching programs increases, the reasons and expectations of students for choosing this profession also vary. despite the high demand for teaching programs in universities, problems in the post-graduation appointment process, gradually decreasing teacher recruitment cause problems that threaten the mental health of individuals (yazıcı, 2008). teaching is a profession with high human sensitivity. individuals who choose the teaching profession are expected to have a high sensitivity towards the students and society they will serve, which is usually closely related to personal characteristics. teaching is not only a profession preferred for economic reasons, but also a profession pursued to provide psycho-social development and satisfaction. these are also important factors in the motivation of teacher candidates. the concept of motivation has a critical importance in ensuring a sustainable success in schools as well as in different sectors and organizations and increasing effectiveness and efficiency (herzberg, 2003). the attitude towards the teaching profession is important in terms of its impact on the processes during the practice of the profession (durmuşoğlu et al., 2009). this attitude is characterized by thoughts, feelings, performance and motivation related to the teaching profession (camadan & duysak, 2010). the motivation status of prospective teachers regarding their profession is closely related to their future commitment to their profession. novice teachers who are more motivated about their profession are more committed to their profession and are happy in their work (fokkens-bruisma & canrinus, 2013). the level of motivation affects the results such as fulfilling the responsibilities of pre motivation factors of candidates teachers yarim, yildirim & akan 49 no. 24 service teachers throughout their academic and professional lives, perseverance, being successful and being happy with the work they do (colengelo, 1997 as cited in aydoğan & baş, 2016). sinclair (2008) is of the opinion that the attitude and motivation of a preservice teacher in preparation for the profession will increase job commitment and job performance. in addition, the desire to gain prestige in the environment where they live and to make their families happy increases the motivation of candidate teachers regarding the profession (acat & yenilmez, 2004). considering in this context, getting a good academic education is extremely important for teacher candidates. at the same time, having a solid pedagogical background and field knowledge in terms of teacher abilities seems sufficient to be assigned to the profession in today’s assessment system. however, the reflection of all these abilities and competencies in the field depends on the motivation of the novice teachers towards their profession. considering in the context of studies in the literature on the subject, it is seen that individuals who are not motivated enough while preparing for the profession may have difficulties in behaving in accordance with the mission of teaching. for this reason, determining how the motivation levels of the prospective teachers are related to the profession and the variables that affect this level positively or negatively will provide new data and paradigms for both candidate teachers and administrators. in this way, teacher candidates will be motivated during the preparation for the profession, and important gains will be achieved in terms of achieving the educational goals by increasing the teacher’s commitment and performance. motivation of teacher candidates is also a very important variable with their level of benefiting from the education they have received and their upbringing. candidates who are not motivated enough for the profession may experience problems during the education phase and show weakness in terms of acquiring the necessary gains, knowledge and skills. candidates who are motivated towards the profession, in their education life; they are more successful in fulfilling academic skills such as doing the homework completely and completely, preparing for the exam and being successful, and completing the projects (colengelo, 1997 as cited in aydoğan & baş, 2016). similarly, gülerci and oflaz (2010) are of the opinion that motivation and motivation are closely related to success in academic life. as can be seen, the motivational status of candidate teachers for their profession is an extremely important variable that increases the quality of these actions that guide their actions both in their education life and in their professional life. in this sense, it is important to reveal the motivation levels of teacher candidates about doing the teaching profession and the factors affecting this level. in this context, the aim of this study is to try to determine the situations that motivate the teacher candidates towards their profession and the situations that disrupt their motivation. motivation factors of candidates teachers yarim, yildirim & akan 50 no. 24 in line with this general purpose, answers to the following questions were sought: 1. what are the factors that motivate teacher candidates towards the teaching profession? 2. what are the factors that reduce the motivation of teacher candidates towards the teaching profession? methodology research design in this study, which was conducted to reveal the motivational factors of teacher candidates, it was designed in a phenomenological pattern by using qualitative research method. phenomenology focuses on cases that we are aware of but do not have detailed information about (yıldırım & şimşek, 2006). in the selection of the study group, maximum variation and easily accessible case sampling, which is one of the non-probability sampling methods, was preferred. study group in the determination of the study group of the research, maximum diversity and easily accessible sampling methods, which are among the purposive sampling methods, were used. the study group in the research consists of 20 teacher candidates studying in various departments of atatürk university kazım karabekir faculty of education in the 2021-2022 academic year. in accordance with the purposive sampling method, the participants were determined from the 3 departments with the largest number of students (classroom teaching, turkish teaching, mathematics) and the 2 departments with the least number of students (computer teaching and preschool teaching). instruments a semi-structured interview form was used as a data collection tool in the research. before the interview forms were created, the literature on the concept was scanned and the studies were examined. as a result of the screening and preliminary interviews with the teacher candidates, a semi-structured interview form was developed for the purpose of revealing the positive motivation and negative motivation factors of the teacher candidates. in the interview form, two questions were asked to the teacher candidates. 1what are your internal and external motivation sources that enable you to learn this profession? 2what are your internal and external motivation sources that motivation factors of candidates teachers yarim, yildirim & akan 51 no. 24 encourage you to do this profession? the developed interview form was examined by three faculty members from the field of educational administration, and it was decided to implement it after necessary corrections were made in line with the suggestions. the interviews were conducted face to face with the teacher candidates. open-ended questions were read to the participants and their answers were noted down by the researcher. at the end of the interview, these notes were shown to the participants and their confirmations were obtained. data analysis the data obtained within the scope of the research were analyzed by content analysis method. content analysis is based on coding the obtained data, organizing the codes on a theoretical basis, and creating explanatory themes (yıldırım & şimşek, 2013; ekiz, 2015). the data collected within the scope of the research were first coded. afterwards, themes were created according to the content of the associated codes. information on the credibility, transferability, reliability and confirmability of the research in order to increase the credibility of the research, the opinions of the participants about the findings, comments and results were taken. in order to increase the transferability of the study, the research sample was defined in detail, and each stage of the study was explained in a clear and understandable way. before starting the interview, a conversation was held with each participant for the purpose of building trust and getting to know each other (lincoln & guba, 1986). the stability in the answers of more than one coder regarding the data sets is perceived as an indicator of reliability in qualitative studies (creswell, 2016). reliability in the study was calculated with the help of miles and huberman’s (1994) reliability formula = consensus / consensus + disagreement. the codes and themes were sent to another expert in the field of educational sciences, and this expert was asked to reclassify the codes under the heading of the determined themes. in the classification made by the experts and researchers, the agreement rate was determined as 76%. a consensus (reliability) of over 70% between expert evaluations is sufficient to prove the reliability of a research (miles & huberman, 1994). codes classified under different themes were re-examined by field experts and researchers and placed on agreed themes. at the last stage of the analysis, the findings were interpreted (yıldırım & şimşek, 2013; ekiz, 2015). consent of the participants was obtained for the interviews, and all interviews were conducted on a voluntary basis. participants were also informed that the data would only be used for scientific purposes and that their personal information would be kept confidential. motivation factors of candidates teachers yarim, yildirim & akan 52 no. 24 findings the data obtained from the research are presented in two parts as positive motivation elements and negative motivation elements. the negative motivational elements of teacher candidates were organized as two themes, internal and external factors. seven categories were created: individual factors related to these themes, assignment anxiety, professional difficulties, perception of the profession, managerial practices, pre-vocational education experiences and environmental factors. a total of 33 codes were created from the negative motivational data of the research. regarding the positive motivational factors, 2 themes were created as internal and external factors, and 6 themes were created: instructional usefulness, personal and professional development, idealized beliefs, environmental factors, professional opportunities and pre-vocational education experience. a total of 33 codes were created from the positive motivational data of the research. detailed findings on these themes and codes are presented in the tables below. table 1. motivational elements that affect teacher candidates negatively theme child theme codes intrinsic individual belief that you chose the wrong profession (o2) factors factors anxiety about not getting paid for one’s effort (s2 ) personal and professional inadequacy anxiety ( m1) external assignment exam condition for appointment ( b1,b3,m2,o3,o4 ) factors anxiety the thought of not being appointed (1b1,b2,b3,m1,m3,m4,b3,b4) perception of the family that they cannot be appointed (o1) interview application in the appointment process o4) professional anxiety about serving in the mandatory zone ( b3 ) challenges low teacher salary (b2,m3) difficulty of mission conditions (m4) current education system problems (b2,b3,t1) unnecessary workload (s2) obligation to combat unethical behavior (m1) teachers’ retirement at an advanced age (b1) perception of low professional reputation (b1 , b2 , m2 , s2) the occupation negative perspective towards the profession (o1 , o2) thought that the profession is abrasive (b1) the low level teacher-student relationship today (b1) managerial practices nepotism (b3,m3,o3) ineffective school management (s2) school administration does not value teachers (s4) lack of performance-based wage application (s2) not paying attention to extracurricular activities (s4) motivation factors of candidates teachers yarim, yildirim & akan 53 no. 24 pre-vocational attitudes of instructors (m1,m3,m4,o2) education unnecessary homework and projects (m2) experiences difficulty of the academic process (b1) belief in the inadequacy of the received education (o2) negative internship experience (q2) environmental examples of graduates working in different sectors (b1) factors family problems (b2) low student interest (t2,t3,s2) negative teacher model (t1,s1,o3) teacher profile who cannot produce a solution (s1) according to the data in table 1, motivation of teacher candidates is generally negatively affected by external factors. only 3 codes were obtained as a negative internal satisfaction factor, and only 3 of the prospective teachers stated that their motivation was negatively affected by individual internal factors. the thought of choosing the wrong profession, the perception of personal inadequacy and the expectation of getting paid for their efforts are internal factors that negatively affect motivation. according to the statements of the participants, it is the factors related to the anxiety of assignment that affect motivation most negatively (15). pre-service teachers stated that their motivation decreased mostly because of the perception they developed that they could not be appointed (8). exam pressure for appointment (5), expectation of family and environment (1) and presence of interviews in the appointment process (1) are other external factors that affect teacher candidates the most. the theme of professional difficulties was the theme with the most codes, with 7 codes. negative perception of the living conditions of the places to be assigned, low salary expectation, professional workload and attitude towards the system, ethical concerns and the long service period in teaching are the factors that negatively affect the teachers gathered under the theme of professional difficulties. the perception of low reputation towards the teaching profession (3), the attitude of the instructors in the teacher education process (3), the negative teacher models in the environment (3), the negative perception of student interest (3) are among the external factors that negatively affect the motivation of the teacher candidates. the statements of the participants were taken in turkish and translated directly into english by the english language experts, and some of them are below. “it’s a lot to be assigned. i often think about what i will do if i am not appointed. the exam scares me a lot. the fact that retirement in teaching is so long and people don’t care about teachers makes me unmotivated. my friends are studying in better departments and will have better opportunities (b1), “the teaching profession is not as popular as it used to be. those who work as teachers receive the same salary as those who do not work. i had a hard time in the internship, which scares me. the indifference of the students demoralized me” (s2). motivation factors of candidates teachers yarim, yildirim & akan 54 no. 24 “the fact that the appointment is dependent on the exam reduces my motivation a lot. i have exam stress” (o4) “i am very depressed when i see myself as inadequate. i don’t know anything about teaching. being appointed is very unfair, the fact that i don’t know anyone who can deal with them affects me negatively, and my teachers’ constant telling that we will have difficulties in teaching at school breaks my motivation” (m1). “fear of not being appointed reduces my motivation a lot” (b4). table 2. motivation elements that affect teacher candidates positively theme child theme codes intrinsic instructional gaining knowledge (b1 , o2) factors usefulness transfer of knowledge and experience (b2,b3 , m1,m2,m4,s3,t3) opportunity to do life coaching (m1,s1,s3,o3) personal and possibility of self-development (b2,o1 ) professional professional development opportunity (b3 , o1) development seeking professional competence (b3) desire to make a difference (b3 , s3) opportunity to experience theoretical knowledge (s1) idealized contribution to production (b1) beliefs desire to be useful to society (m2 , m4) social status (b1 , o3) desire to raise individuals compatible with national and universal values (m2 , m3,t2,s3) atatürk’s mission to teaching (t2) sense of patriotism (s2) ideal teacher models around (o1) belief in the sanctity of the teaching profession ( m1 , m2 , s2 , o1 , o3 ) child love ( t1 , m1 , m3 , s4 , o2,o3 ) profession love ( o4 ) external environmental family expectation ( m1 , o3 ) factors factors awareness of students’ parents about education ( o1 ) expectation of attention and respect from students ( s4 ) learning expectation in students ( s1 , b2 ) professional job opportunity ( b1,m4,o3,b1,b3,o4 ,) opportunities vacation opportunities ( o4 ) occupational comfort ( o4 ) satisfactory income ( o4 ) pre-vocational teaching the two elements positive attitude ( o1 ) education positive experience and relationships in the internship ( t4 ) experience motivation factors of candidates teachers yarim, yildirim & akan 55 no. 24 when the data in table 2 is examined, it is seen that internal factors affect teacher candidates’ motivation more positively. a total of 19 codes were created that affect pre-service teachers internally, and pre-service teachers made 45 statements related to these codes. the theme of instructional usefulness includes the elements that most affect positive motivation. the idea of transferring knowledge and experience is the internal factor that motivates candidate teachers the most (7). the fact that the teaching profession has the potential to be a life coach is another factor in the positive motivation of teacher candidates. the idealized beliefs theme, on the other hand, was the theme with the most diverse code. regarding this theme, the expressions of love of children (6), belief in the sanctity of the profession (5), desire to raise value-oriented students (3), desire to be useful to society (2) are the motivation factors most frequently emphasized by pre-service teachers. in the context of positive motivational factors, 9 codes related to external processes were obtained and there are 16 participant statements regarding these codes. the fact that the teaching profession offers job opportunities is the most motivating external factor (6). family expectations, expectations for students and parents, vacation and income opportunities, and the attitudes of instructors are among the other external motivation factors. some of the statements of the pre-service teachers interviewed about their extrinsic motivation are given below. “the fact that i will teach what i know to young minds increases motivation (t3)”, “it motivates me to teach new things to students, (e2)”, “the thought of holding students by the hand is that i will be life coaching them. i’d love to be called a teacher. my parents want me to be a teacher. it is very important for me to have a certain income (o3), “it increases my motivation to transfer everything i have learned so far to someone. while doing this sacred profession, raising children who are devoted to their homeland and nation and working for my country has a positive effect on me (m2). it is my biggest goal to be useful to this society that raised those little puppies and to shed light on them. other factors that motivate me are the greatness of this profession and my family’s desire for me to be a teacher” (o3). discussion and conclusion in this study, which was conducted to determine the factors affecting the motivation of teacher candidates, 27 positive motivation factors were determined. of these positive motivational factors, 17 are intrinsic and 10 are extrinsic. 45 of the statements of the participants are related to intrinsic motivation and 17 of them are related to extrinsic motivation elements. in the study, 33 factors related to negative motivation motivation factors of candidates teachers yarim, yildirim & akan 56 no. 24 elements were determined. 30 of them are external factors and 3 are internal factors. while the participants made statements about extrinsic negative motivation 57 times, they made only 3 statements about intrinsically negative motivation. in the context of these results, it was seen that teacher candidates mostly had positive motivation stemming from internal factors. instructional usefulness, personal and professional development needs, and idealized beliefs were found to be internal factors that increase the motivation of novice teachers. pre-service teachers experience a high level of intrinsic motivation for the profession due to their potential to convey what they know, their desire to guide life, the thought of raising value-oriented students, their love of children and their belief in the sanctity of the teaching profession. guaranteed job opportunities for many years; they are motivated externally by factors such as vacation, salary and comfortable job opportunities. in their study, where they analyzed 27 studies on the subject, yarım and ada (2021) found that male and female teachers had similar qualifications in terms of motivation factors and levels. similar to the results of the research, there are studies in the literature that teachers experience more work motivation (koçak, 2002; polat, 2010) . in their study, akhan and kaymak (2021) concluded that the teaching practice on candidate teachers makes a difference and provides an intrinsic motivation for the teaching profession. ada et al. (2013) and arslantaş et al. (2018), in their study on different primary and high school teachers, they concluded that, unlike the results of the study, the participants were more motivated externally. similarly, büyükses (2010) and deniz (2021) found that external factors are effective in his study on teachers’ motivation. çifçi (2017), on the other hand, concluded that organizational working opportunities are effective in increasing the motivation of teachers. income opportunities, convenience of working opportunities, social status, wideness, completeness of necessary materials, equal workload, physical opportunities, low workload, personnel rights are among the factors that increase the motivation of teachers (atmaca, 2004; ertürk & aydın, 2017). considering these results in the literature, it can be said that pre-service teachers were motivated by internal factors before they were appointed, while they were motivated by external factors in the teaching process after they were appointed. the change in the perception of the profession after being appointed, the professional difficulties experienced, working under difficult conditions, especially in the first years of the profession, and managerial expectations can be seen as the reason for this change in perception. similarly erdemir (2007), ekinci (2010), sarı and altun (2015) emphasized in their studies that teachers experienced problems in the first years of their profession, such as the place where they were appointed, their relations with top administrators, the disagreements they had with school principals, and the lack of positive colleague examples. it can also be interpreted as the perception of looking at the profession more professionally and taking care of the material elements, especially after being appointed, has developed. motivation factors of candidates teachers yarim, yildirim & akan 57 no. 24 assignment anxiety, professional difficulties, negative perception of the profession, negative pre-vocational education experiences, managerial bad practices and negative environmental factors are among the external factors that reduce the motivation of teacher candidates. exam and interview conditions for appointment, non-appointment, expectation of family and environment, anxiety to work in a compulsory region, low teacher salary, difficulty in workplace conditions, current education system problems, unnecessary workload, obligation to struggle with unethical behaviors, teachers’ retirement at an advanced age is low. professional reputation, negative perspective towards the profession are the most frequently mentioned negative extrinsic factors. the belief that he chose the wrong profession, the anxiety of not getting paid for his work, the anxiety of personal and professional inadequacy are considered as internal factors that negatively affect motivation by the candidates. these results show that exogenous factors affect teacher candidates’ motivation more negatively. ada et al. (2013), in their study on primary school teachers, similarly concluded that the participants experienced more negative motivation due to external reasons. in the research conducted by deniz and erdener (2016) on the motivation of high school teachers, external motivation factors such as economic concerns, environmental factors, and perspective on teaching came to the fore. similarly, there are many studies in the literature that external factors affect teachers’ motivation negatively (ünal & bursalı, 2013, yaman et al., 2010, ertürk & aydın, 2017, köse et al. 2018, yıldırım, 2008; göksoy & argon, 2015; yavuz 2018; aktekin & kuzucu, 2019, deniz, 2021). when considered in the context of these results, the presence of internal factors increases the motivation of pre-service teachers, but the negativity or lack of external factors reduces their motivation. this result confirms herzberg’s two-factor theory. according to herzberg, factors such as success, recognition, responsibility and professional development, and perspective to work are internal factors, and their presence is factors that increase the work motivation of employees. factors such as management policy, work conditions and colleagues, salary, promotion and vacation opportunities, job security are hygiene factors that cause job dissatisfaction. deficiencies in hygiene factors in an organization reduce the motivation of employees (özkalp & kırel, 2016). the motivational factors that teacher candidates feel positively should be supported by the cooperation of the university and the ministry both in the pre-service training process and in the in-service process. pre-service teachers are more concerned about external factors. for this reason, practices that will eliminate these concerns should be included both in the pre-vocational education process and in the process of selection and assignment to the profession. motivation factors of candidates teachers yarim, yildirim & akan 58 no. 24 references acat, m. b. & yenilmez, k. 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(2008). i̇lköğretim okulu öğretmen ve yöneticilerinin öğretmenlerin ödüllendirilmesine ilişkin görüşleri [opinions of primary school teachers and administrators on rewarding tea] kuram ve uygulamada eğitim yönetimi dergisi, 14(4), 663-690. motivation factors of candidates teachers yarim, yildirim & akan 63 no. 24 authors *doctor mehmet ali yarım completed his doctorate in gazi university in the field of educational administration. he works as a school principal in a school affiliated to the ministry of national education. his research interests are leadership, organizational behavior, classroom education, social networks in schools, and quality in education orcid: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8168-8526 associate professor i̇sa yıldırım is working as a lecturer at atatürk university, faculty of education. his research interests are teacher training, leadership in teaching and assessment and evaluation in education. orcid: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0365-3480 associate professor durdağı akan is a lecturer at atatürk university, faculty of education. his field is educational administration. his research interests are supervision and evaluation in education, leadership and school administration. orcid: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5397-8470 how to reference this article: yarım, m. a., yildirim, i̇sa, & akan, d. (2022) motivation factors of candidates teachers for their professions. gist – education and learning research journal, 24. 43-63.https://doi.org/10.26817/16925777.1319 motivation factors of candidates teachers yarim, yildirim & akan efl teachers’ job burnout its associated factors: public primary school of jimma zone in focus el burnout laboral de los docentes de efl y sus factores asociados: un enfoque en las escuelas primarias públicas de la zona de jimma teshale ayalew1 wolkite university, ethiopia getachew seyoum woldemariam2 and adege alemu3 jimma university, ethiopia acknowledgments. the authors extend their due admiration to individuals who substantially contributed to the successful completion of the study, particularly, efl teachers who were involved in the study. 1 teshaymengstu@gmail.com 2 getachews2004@gmail.com 3 adegealemu@gmail.com gist education and learning research journal. issn 1692-5777. no. 28 (january june, 2024). pp. 125-152. 125 no. 28 126 no. 28 abstract because of environmental and personal factors, efl teachers are often exposed to job burnout. however, the problem and factors that form causal associations seem ignored in the context of the study. this study, thus, aims to investigate efl teachers’ burnout and its associated factors among public primary schools in jimma zone, ethiopia. a mixed methods research design was used for the study. cluster sampling and judgmental sampling techniques were employed to select 100 efl teachers, and a questionnaire and an interview were utilized to collect data. both descriptive and inferential statistics were used for data analysis. the finding shows that the majority of efl teachers underwent a high level of burnout, and all the hypothesized factors had a significant association with burnout and its dimensions. the major finding is that job burnout negatively affected efl teachers’ work engagement. considering this finding, the provision of training on coping strategies is recommended. the pedagogical implication of the finding is to incorporate content on emotional intelligence and stress-coping mechanisms in efl teaching methodology courses. finally, further study is recommended to be undertaken on a large scale to understand the magnitude of expansion of the problem in the region and nationwide as the sample is small to generalize to these contexts. keywords: efl teachers, job burnout, emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, personal accomplishment, coping strategies resumen debido a factores ambientales y personales, los docentes de inglés como lengua extranjera (efl) a menudo están expuestos al burnout laboral. sin embargo, el problema y los factores que forman asociaciones causales parecen ser ignorados en el contexto de estudio. por lo tanto, este estudio tiene como objetivo investigar el burnout de los docentes de efl y los factores asociados en las escuelas primarias públicas de la zona de jimma, etiopía. se utilizó un diseño de investigación de métodos mixtos para el estudio. se emplearon técnicas de muestreo por conglomerados y muestreo por juicio para seleccionar a 100 docentes de efl, y se utilizaron un cuestionario y una entrevista para recopilar los datos. se utilizaron tanto estadísticas descriptivas como inferenciales para el análisis de los datos. los hallazgos muestran que la mayoría de los docentes de efl experimentaron un alto nivel de burnout, y todos los factores hipotetizados tuvieron una asociación significativa con el burnout y sus dimensiones. el hallazgo principal es que el burnout laboral afectó negativamente el compromiso laboral de los docentes de efl. a la luz de este hallazgo, se recomienda la provisión de capacitación sobre estrategias de afrontamiento. la implicación pedagógica del hallazgo es incorporar contenido sobre inteligencia emocional y mecanismos de afrontamiento del estrés en los cursos de metodología de enseñanza de efl. finalmente, se recomienda realizar un estudio adicional a gran escala para comprender la magnitud del problema en la región y a nivel nacional, ya que la muestra es pequeña para generalizar estos resultados a estos contextos. palabras clave: docentes de efl, burnout laboral, agotamiento emocional, despersonalización, realización personal, estrategias de afrontamiento efl teachers’ job burnout and its associated factors 127 no. 28 resumo devido a fatores ambientais e pessoais, os professores de inglês como língua estrangeira (efl) muitas vezes estão expostos ao burnout profissional. no entanto, o problema e os fatores que formam associações causais parecem ser ignorados no contexto do estudo. portanto, este estudo tem como objetivo investigar o burnout dos professores de efl e os fatores associados nas escolas primárias públicas da zona de jimma, etiópia. foi utilizado um desenho de pesquisa de métodos mistos para o estudo. foram empregadas técnicas de amostragem por conglomerados e amostragem por julgamento para selecionar 100 professores de efl, e foram utilizados um questionário e uma entrevista para coletar os dados. tanto as estatísticas descritivas quanto as inferenciais foram utilizadas para a análise dos dados. os resultados mostram que a maioria dos professores de efl experimentou um alto nível de burnout, e todos os fatores hipotetizados tiveram uma associação significativa com o burnout e suas dimensões. o principal achado é que o burnout profissional afetou negativamente o engajamento no trabalho dos professores de efl. à luz desse achado, recomenda-se a oferta de capacitação sobre estratégias de enfrentamento. a implicação pedagógica do achado é incorporar conteúdo sobre inteligência emocional e mecanismos de enfrentamento do estresse nos cursos de metodologia de ensino de efl. finalmente, recomenda-se realizar um estudo adicional em larga escala para compreender a magnitude do problema na região e em nível nacional, uma vez que a amostra é pequena para generalizar esses resultados para esses contextos. palavras-chave: professores de efl, burnout profissional, esgotamento emocional, despersonalização, realização pessoal, estratégias de enfrentamento teshale ayalew, getachew seyoum woldemariam and adege alemu 128 no. 28 introduction background of the study over the last few decades, a growing number of burnout studies (e.g., gaitan, 2009; heinemann & heinemann, 2017; kamtsios, 2018; mukundan & kehandehroo, 2010; özkara, 2019) have been observed globally. burnout is a psychological strain characterized by emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, and reduced efficacy that mainly affects service-giving professionals like teachers. the etymology of the term goes back to the year 1961 when the german novelist “greene” coined and used it for the first time in his novel entitled “a burn out case” (lou & chen, 2016; schabracq et al., 2003). however, the concept has become popular and used widely in scientific discourses after herbert freudenberger, a popular psychiatrist and pioneering researcher of the construct, used it to describe a mental disorder caused by work-related stressors (schabracq et al., 2003). at a similar time, another prominent social psychologist, christian maslach, explored a psychosocial disorder and labeled it as burnout (schabracq et al., 2003). more importantly, maslach operationalized the concept as a multidimensional construct and introduced a scale used to measure the factor. these two pioneer researchers (freudenberger and maslach) made burnout public and the main agenda of mainstream media (casserley & megginson, 2009; schabracq et al., 2003). then, the concept was further expanded with the supplementation of a positive antithesis engagement, and now, a full spectrum of workers’ well-being has been studied globally (schabracq et al., 2003). what is more, these days, a large number of studies on burnout and teachers’ burnout have emerged. maslach and leiter (2014), as cited in fontes (2020), pointed out that 1000 articles are published yearly on some aspects of burnout. rudow (1999), as cited in heinemann and heinemann (2017), states that teachers’ burnout spreads worldwide, and its prevalence rate reaches roughly 30%. the problem also seriously affects efl teachers’ working behavior in countries where there are major socio-economic challenges that increase pressure on teachers’ life situations and lead them to suffer from work-related stress, fatigue, and exhaustion, which are the most prominent signs of job burnout (de silva, 2015; fontes, 2020). the problem, as previously stated, has been researched worldwide. yet, it appears that the study area and the nation have disregarded the matter and have only started to pay very little attention to it. this circumstance drives the current study to be carried out in the study setting on the issue of efl teachers’ burnout in their jobs and its triggering factors. teachers’ burnout is, therefore, an emotional strain characterized by a feeling of incompetence, ineffectiveness, and exhaustion due to the demands that stem from the job and other environmental and personal stressors. the state of mind also exposes teachers to a cynical and detached attitude towards the school community. the problem can further be seen as an erosion of teachers’ engagement and negative efl teachers’ job burnout and its associated factors 129 no. 28 self-evaluation (gaitan, 2009; badawy, 2015). the present study, therefore, raised some questions: what factors lead efl teachers to develop negative behaviors? what factors caused teachers to lose their passion for their job? what makes achieving the efl teaching process difficult? what are the threats that lead them to burnout? these inquiries, thus, motivated the researcher to conduct a study on job burnout with a particular focus on efl teachers working at a public primary school in jimma zone, ethiopia. the stated problem poses a severe threat to developing nations like ethiopia. in these countries, there is a lack of resources, a high workload, a large class size, and a lack of incentives. these factors make teachers feel exploited and demotivated, affecting their concentration on their work and ability to tolerate maladministration and other challenges. the factors further trigger negative emotions that can easily affect efl teachers with poor emotional intelligence because such teachers are incapable of dealing with emotional challenges that stem from their everyday teaching activities (dastgoshadeh & javanmardi, 2021). in addition, the studies conducted on teachers’ emotions (e.g., gobena, 2018; shishigu, 2015; wossenie, 2014; gonzales, 2010; valente et al., 2023) also reported that most teachers in ethiopia underwent various stressors due to lack of resources, low social value, etc. for instance, wossenie (2014) pointed out that many efl teachers were obsessed with salaries and living conditions. in line with this, amanu (2013) also reported that several efl teachers were dissatisfied with their monthly salary and the absence of fringe benefits. shishigu (2015), in his part, indicated that most teachers in ethiopia and most parts of the world have not yet enjoyed due respect. he further noted that a large portion of teachers worked in stressful conditions because of various environmental factors. the reality of the project area was not different from nationwide phenomena. this can inflict work-related emotional strain among efl teachers, negatively affect their emotions, dismantle their work engagement, and possibly lead them to job burnout; however, a study on efl teachers’ burnout is lacking. the researcher noticed that some efl teachers experienced negative behaviors (e.g., carelessness, lack of passion, lack of interest, coming late to class, etc.) while working in the study area. this experience informed him that efl teachers in the zone may experience work-related emotional strain because every behavior is influenced by emotion (pettinelli, 2016). the literature review also suggested that no research study has been conducted on the given topic in the project area. therefore, the study aims to investigate the level of efl teachers’ job burnout and its associated factors. this would enable us to learn from the lived experiences of efl teachers’ work-related emotional strain to determine the triggering factors and suggest possible interventions to address the problem. as mentioned earlier, various studies (such as de silva, 2015; maroofi & ghaemi, 2016; nayernia & babaya, 2019) reported the presence of risk factors that lead efl teshale ayalew, getachew seyoum woldemariam and adege alemu 130 no. 28 teachers to job burnout in the different educational institutes where they work; however, it is hard to find a research study on the issue in the context of this study. therefore, this study investigated efl teachers’ burnout and its associated factors. teachers’ burnout is viewed as an emotional problem characterized by emotional exhaustion (ee), depersonalization (dp), and reduced personal accomplishment (rpa) (maslch & jackson, 1981; maslach & leither, 1997). this strain is not an incident that happened suddenly. instead, it develops gradually due to persistent influence that evolves from various environmental and personal factors (e.g., work overload, maladministration, lack of reward, lack of motivation, and perceived stress). the main purpose of this study, thus, is to investigate the level of the problem and its associated factors by focusing on efl teachers working at public primary schools in jimma zone. to achieve this, the following questions were formulated. research questions 1. to what level do efl teachers at public primary schools experience job burnout? 2. what factors are associated with efl teachers’ job burnout? 3. which factors predict more efl teachers’ burnout on their jobs? conceptual framework the study employs a conceptual framework that depicts the possible relationship among the hypothesized factors, job burnout, and gainsay. it hypothesizes that negative personal factors like demotivation, discontent, and a lack of basic pedagogical content knowledge are triggered by environmental factors: workload, insufficient income, low social value, and poor administration. it also demonstrates how the environmental and personal variables somehow influence stress. the constant influence of these variables resulted in persistent stress experiences that ultimately ended up in job burnout. this problem further led to anger, negligence, tardiness, absenteeism, poor performance, etc. (figure 1). therefore, the schematic diagram below displays the potential relationship that may exist among the hypothesized variables. efl teachers’ job burnout and its associated factors 131 no. 28 figure 1. conceptual framework conceptual framework of efl teachers’ burnout associated factors, (adapted from teshale et al., 2023) research design as noted before, this study aimed to investigate efl teachers’ job burnout and its associated factors. thus, a descriptive survey design that employs a mixed explanatory approach (quantitative dominant over qualitative, quan-qual) was used (creswell, 2009). this design enabled us to explain the problem, determine the associated factors, and better understand efl teachers’ job burnout and its triggering factors. this, in turn, enables us to suggest a possible intervention that facilitates burnout prevention. thus, the general methodological steps employed from the sample selection to data analysis are explained in the following sections. the study population and sampling techniques cluster random sampling and judgmental sampling were the two sampling techniques used in this inquiry. the first technique was employed to select participants for a quantitative study, whereas the second method was used to choose samples for an interview. there were only 407 english major teachers in the zone. out of these teachers, 100 efl teachers were randomly selected from the specified number (see figure 2). on the other hand, a judgmental sampling technique, as just mentioned, was utilized for the qualitative part of the study wherein 13 efl teachers were selected from four districts in the zone—three teachers from goma, three teachers from limu kossa, three teachers from omo nada, and four teachers from seka chekorsa. teshale ayalew, getachew seyoum woldemariam and adege alemu 132 no. 28 figure 2. sampling technique key: emt: english majoring teachers, st: sample taken from each district, dis.: district the cluster and proportional sampling techniques as previously mentioned, the data were gathered using two instruments: a questionnaire and a semi-structured interview guideline. each of these instruments is explained below. questionnaire the questionnaire was utilized to collect quantitative data for the study. it has two major parts: the six-point rating scale and the five-point rating scale. the first part is the psychometric maslach burnout inventory-educators survey (mbi-es), which was designed by maslach et al. (1981), as cited in bowen (2013), to measure burnout. this scale consists of 22 items that measure the three components of burnout: emotional exhaustion/ee (9) items, depersonalization/dp (5) items, and personal accomplishment/pa (8) items. the second part of the scale consists of a five-point likert scale questionnaire with 69 items divided into eight subscales, including efl teachers’ job burnout and its associated factors 133 no. 28 items on job dissatisfaction (10), inadequate pedagogical content knowledge (10), perceived stress (10), low social value (6), lack of motivation (9), work overload (8), maladministration (8), low salary and other benefits (8), and perceived stress (10) that were taken from various literature (agegnehu, 2014; cohen & williamson, 1994; getachew, 2007; gezimu, 2013; jima, 2018) to measure if the stated variables form a causal relationship with job burnout. the instrument was piloted with 33 efl teachers to test its feasibility in the study context. after completing the pilot test, the alpha coefficient was measured to determine the item reliability, the correlation between items, and the overall correlation among items. consequently, the following coefficients of alpha were obtained from the test: 0.3 and above for a single item and 0.73 for total items in the scale of mbi-es; then 0.3 and above for a single item and 0.80 for the total items in the scale set to measure factors that are associated with burnout. these findings suggested that the overall scale items could be applied confidently for the main study. in the process, the items with weak alpha coefficients of the subscales to measure factors associated with burnout were removed, and only the items with good alpha levels were retained for the main study. according to cohen et al. (2007) and hinton et al. (2004), the coefficient alpha is measured as 0.3 and above for a single item and 0.7 and above for the correlation of all items. the subscales adopted, thus, were used for the main study because the coefficient alpha obtained matches the criteria suggested by the scholars. eventually, 100 participants were given the questionnaire in a face-to-face context. nevertheless, only 93 of them completed and returned it, which resulted in a 93% response rate with a 7% rejection rate. semi-structured interview guideline this tool was developed following the purpose of the study, the core issues outlined in the problem statement, and the literature review. the data obtained through this instrument were primarily used to learn the participants’ lived experiences on the problem and to support the quantitative findings. the participants were then asked questions about the three components of burnout and the factors that contribute to it. the participants’ responses were recorded and transcribed manually. procedures of data collection the aforementioned tools were used in the data collection process. participants’ oral consent to participate in the study was obtained before data collection. this was preferred because participants’ limited language proficiency may discourage them from filling out the written consent form and show their willingness to fully partake in the study process. thus, before the survey questionnaires were given out, they were teshale ayalew, getachew seyoum woldemariam and adege alemu 134 no. 28 first given a clear explanation of the study’s objective, which is purely academic and does not hurt anyone. they were given this information to enable them to make an informed decision about taking part in the study. to encourage each interviewee to freely reflect on their experience of the issue under investigation, it was made clear to each of the selected participants during the interview session that there was no right or wrong answer and that all responses were equally relevant to the study. each respondent was also informed that their responses would be kept confidential and that they might withdraw from the interview process at any point if they felt uncomfortable. in addition, each participant was made aware that just his or her idea was used when writing the report, and a pseudonym was given to the idea’s owner. finally, it was agreed that the study findings would be shared with the participants. the steps followed, thus, enabled the participants to engage in the study process willingly. method of data analysis both quantitative and qualitative data analysis methods were used. with the help of spss software version 20, the quantitative data were analyzed using descriptive statistics (such as percentage and mean) and inferential statistics (such as regression and beta coefficients of multiple regression analysis). the qualitative data, however, were examined and interpreted thematically. as a result, the steps of arranging, coding, organizing, and reading carefully were employed in the analysis process to find recurring themes and sub-themes. then, the result was presented in narrative form, followed by an interpretation. results efl teachers’ burnout efl teachers’ burnout, as mentioned repeatedly, is a multidimensional strain characterized by ee, dp, and reduced pa. the present study also examined the status of the problem and the factors that inflicted it. the result obtained from the analysis suggested that most of the studied efl teachers suffered from a high level of burnout triggered by several environmental and personal factors. hence, the results obtained are presented as follows. efl teachers’ job burnout and its associated factors 135 no. 28 emotional exhaustion (ee) ee is the central component of job burnout, characterized by the depletion of emotional and physical resources (gaitan, 2009). the finding obtained on this factor shows that (n: 80 or 86.02%) of efl teachers underwent ee. this implies that the majority of the participants suffered from the problem. the overall result gained on this dimension is demonstrated in figure 3 below. figure 3. distribution of efl teacher’s emotional exhaustion depersonalization (dp) as a component of job burnout, dp is viewed as an act of a teacher distancing themselves from students and becoming indifferent to the needs and qualities of an individual in an attempt to cope with cynicism (gaitan, 2009). the result of the present study on this dimension shows that the majority (n: 68 or 73.12%) of the participants underwent a high-level dp. the rest of the participants experienced moderate and low levels of dp. thus, this result denotes that most of the studied efl teachers suffered from a high level of dp (figure 4). figure 4. distribution of efl teacher’s depersonalization teshale ayalew, getachew seyoum woldemariam and adege alemu 136 no. 28 personal accomplishment (pa) reduced pa is the other dimension of burnout that arises when a teacher no longer believes that their action can positively change student learning. in this regard, the result of the study revealed that 34 (36.6%) of the efl teachers underwent a low level of pa. the other almost equal proportion (n: 33 or 35.5 %) of the respondents experienced a moderate level. the outcome of the analysis is demonstrated in figure 5. figure 5. distribution of efl teacher’s personal accomplishment figure 5: distribution of efl teachers' personal accomplishment 36.6 35.5 27.9 0 10 20 30 40 low moderate high level of personal accomplishment personal accomplishment indeed, burnout, as mentioned earlier, is a multifaceted construct. each of its dimensions is often measured and described independently as it has been done just before. to describe the overall distribution of the problem, the overall mean score was calculated and described. therefore, the result obtained indicated that 65.2% of the studied teachers underwent a high level of job burnout, while the rest of the participants experienced moderate and low levels of job burnout, respectively (see figure 6). figure 6. distribution of efl teacher’s jobburnout in addition, the result from the qualitative component of the study supported the above findings. most of the participants reported that they suffered from problems in their jobs due to various work-related stressors such as high workload, student ill behavior, lack of resources, and low income. for instance, teacher-1 stated: efl teachers’ job burnout and its associated factors 137 no. 28 the students in this school are ill-disciplined and they do not respect the teacher. also, it is forbidden to use corporal punishment, which i know is unscientific, but i feel that it should be reconsidered because our students are well accustomed to such practices at home and in the community. besides, the school leaders at different hierarchies seem not to have the willingness to solve the problem related to work overload. for instance, i teach 30 periods per week, and the class size was very large and i am forced to teach up to 100 students in a narrow class. in such a context, let alone teaching, managing students is very difficult and overwhelming. sometimes, i feel as if i am holding a meeting, not teaching.[teacher-1, interview, 7.03.2020] besides, most participants stated mistreatment and favoritism by school leaders, who were biased and did not serve all teachers equally. the leaders often chose close teachers for short-term training and created unnecessary bureaucracy for teachers whom they thought unfriendly. these conditions offended several efl teachers in the study area, who experienced emotional and physical fatigue due to work-related stressors like high workload, negative student behavior, lack of resources, low rewards, maladministration, and lack of school support. efl teachers experience ee and physical fatigue due to work-related stressors like high workload, student negative behaviors, limited resources, low rewards, and school support. in line with this, teacher-3 said: firstly, there are a large number of students in a single classroom, which makes efl teaching and assessment tiresome. in a single classroom, you can find about 80 students. so, it is difficult to teach and assess these students. secondly, lack of teaching resources (e.g., furniture, textbook, etc.) and absence of a conducive classroom environment has negatively affected my interest and discourages me to involve actively in my job. finally, the job by itself is frustrating because it makes me toiled without enough compensation [teacher-3, interview, 12.03.2020]. concerning teaching resources, teacher 1 also complained about a shortage of textbooks that made them feel extremely tired of writing everything on the board in every classroom. teacher-2 and teacher-3 further complained that the class size was large (more than 70 on average), and they taught 30 periods per week, which brought fatigue. teacher 4, on their part, stated that the work overload and unfriendly work environment triggered their frustration. they pointed out their experiences as follow: i teach 28 periods per week. the class size is large (72 on average). the work environment is unfriendly because of poor leadership practice. for instance, the leaders do not listen to teachers and they are not supportive. i have applied formally to the directors to give me a support letter to be transferred to another school. however, they denied to give it to me. then, i applied to the district teshale ayalew, getachew seyoum woldemariam and adege alemu 138 no. 28 education office, but the office refused it as well. on the other hand, i have seen in my eyes when teachers who applied after i did got a transfer. these experiences made me less concerned about my job. [teacher-1, interview, 7.03.2020]. in addition, most respondents reported poor school relationships and interactional problems with stakeholders, including students, colleagues, and school leaders. this suggests the teachers developed a detached attitude towards the community. teachers experienced poor interactions with students due to unfriendly behavior and unfriendly leaders. divergent views on teachers’ personal accomplishments were found, with many feeling ineffective due to students and school-related factors. for instance, teacher-7 was afraid to say they were successful due to students’ lack of interest and willingness to learn. table 1. summary of multiple regression analysis as predictors of emotional exhaustion model summary r = .901a r square= .811 adj. r square = .794 std. error = 4.156 anova model sum of df mean square f sig. squares regression 6244.333 8 780.542 45.191 .000b 1 residual 1450.849 84 17.272 total 7695.183 92 coefficients predictors unstandardized standardized coefficients coefficients β std. error beta t sig. (constant) 1.362 9.034 .151 .881 lack of motivation .330 .095 .170 3.475 .001 work overload .701 .105 .448 6.665 .000 school maladministration .180 .110 .086 1.632 .106 low salary and lack other benefits .128 .139 .048 .919 .361 low social value .818 .226 .181 3.611 .001 lack of job satisfaction .222 .115 .122 1.932 .057 lack of proper pedagogical knowledge .380 .123 .216 3.092 .003 perceived stress .474 .104 .271 4.538 .000 dependent variable: emotional exhaustion efl teachers’ job burnout and its associated factors 139 no. 28 as can be shown in table 1, the model of multiple regression analysis was employed to produce regression and beta coefficients. the result indicates adj. r square = 0.794, f (8, 84) = 45.191, p < 0.05. this implies that all the predictors explain 0.794 of the variability of ee. in other words, the combination of eight predictors contributed 79.4 % to the development of ee. the remaining 20.6% of the influence might be contributed by other factors that were not considered in this study. also, the beta value (ß) shown under the standardized coefficient, which indicates the strongest level of prediction, makes it simple to compare and explain the relative contributions of each predictor. thus, in this study, work overload (ß =.448), perceived stress (ß = .271), and lack of pedagogical content knowledge (ß =.216) were found to be strong and significant predictors of ee, respectively. the other predictors, such as lack of motivation and lack of social value, were found to influence ee significantly, but they were not as strong as the aforesaid three predictors. the rest of the predictors did not significantly influence the ee independently. table 2. summary of multiple regression analysis of the predictors of depersonalization model summary r = .785a r square= .616 adj. r square = .580 std. error = 4.770 anova model sum of df mean square f sig. squares regression 3069.006 8 383.626 16.859 .000b 1 residual 1911.467 84 22.756 total 4980.473 92 coefficients predictors unstandardized standardized coefficients coefficients β std. error beta t sig. (constant) 31.301 10.369 3.019 .003 lack of motivation .045 .109 .028 .408 .684 work overload .332 .121 .264 2.748 .007 school maladministration .031 .127 .018 .242 .809 low salary and lack other benefits .512 .160 .241 3.202 .002 low social value .973 .260 .267 3.745 .000 lack of job satisfaction .284 .132 .193 2.153 .034 lack of proper pedagogical knowledge .350 .141 .247 2.480 .015 perceived stress .412 .120 .293 3.433 .001 dependent variable: depersonalization teshale ayalew, getachew seyoum woldemariam and adege alemu 140 no. 28 as depicted in table 2, adj. r square = .580, f (8, 84) = 16.859, p < 0.05. this suggests that all the predictors in the model shared 0.580 for the variation that happened in the outcome sub-variable dp, or the predictors together put 58 % influence on dp. the remaining 42 % of the influence may come from other factors that were not considered in this study. also, the predictors such as perceived stress (β = .293), low social value (β= .267), and work overload (β= .264) have a high beta value compared to the rest of the predictors. thus, these three factors are found to be strong and significant predictors of dp. the variables such as lack of appropriate pedagogical knowledge, low salary, lack of other benefits, and lack of job satisfaction also have a significant influence on dp, but their influence is not as strong as the abovementioned three predictors. on the contrary, the contribution of the variables, such as lack of motivation and maladministration, was little to dp development compared to the other predictors. table 3. summary of multiple regression analysis of the predictors of reduced personal accomplishment model summary r = .766a r square= .587 adj. r square = .548 std. error = 4.092 anova model sum of df mean square f sig. squares regression 1998.315 8 249.789 14.918 .000b 1 residual 1406.480 84 16.744 total 3404.796 92 coefficients predictors unstandardized standardized coefficients coefficients β std. error beta t sig. (constant) 30.259 8.894 3.402 .001 lack of motivation .379 .094 -.293 4.048 .000 work overload -.173 .104 -.166 -1.665 .100 school maladministration -.245 .109 -.175 -2.250 .027 low salary and lack other benefits -.010 .137 -.006 -.072 .943 low social value 1.323 .223 -.439 5.933 .000 lack of job satisfaction -.669 .113 -.551 -5.920 .000 lack of proper pedagogical knowledge .007 .121 -.006 .057 .955 perceived stress -.294 .103 -.253 -2.862 .005 dependent variable: reduced personal accomplishment efl teachers’ job burnout and its associated factors 141 no. 28 table 3 demonstrates the adj. r square = 0.548, f (8, 84) = 14.918 = p < 0.05. these figures show that all the predictors in the model contributed 54.8 % to the variation that happened on the outcome sub-variable, pa. the finding obtained from the study also revealed that the strong predictors of pa include lack of job satisfaction (β= -.551), low social value (β=-.439), and lack of motivation (β=-.293). these predictors brought a strong and significant negative influence on pa. the other predictors, such as perceived stress and maladministration, also had a significant independent influence on pa but were not as strong as the stated predictors. nonetheless, the other two variables (work overload and lack of appropriate pedagogical competence) had little effect on pa independently. additionally, the study found that job burnout was influenced by various contextual and individual factors, including poor academic achievement, poor behavior, lack of interest in learning, high workload, low pay, and low social value. teacher 6 expressed disappointment in students’ lack of academic zeal and the social environment, which discouraged focus on education. he also complained about students’ behavior to their parents, but no improvement was observed. the social environment discouraged students from acquiring knowledge and skills, preventing them from becoming responsible, self-sufficient citizens. teacher 7 emphasized the workload and responsibility of teaching 70 students, averaging 25 periods per week. she also mentioned her motherhood and home responsibilities, which consumed her time. teacher 8 felt unbalanced, and poor compensation made their job disappointing. teacher-5 argued that educational challenges are beyond school administration and called for regional government intervention. for the majority of the respondents, work overload is the top challenge for efl teachers in the study context, attributed to a shortage of teachers and large class sizes. some participants also had extra duties like homeroom teaching and extracurricular activities. there is a small difference in workload distribution among schools, with some having 20-period teaching per week and most having 30-period teaching and extracurricular activities. according to the findings, school mismanagement results in teachers being unfairly evaluated and treated by school leaders who lack effective management of the workplace. insufficient resources, poor physical conditions, and lack of staff engagement in school related discussion contribute to a hostile work environment, demoralizing teachers and causing burnout. administrators lacked attention to teachers’ comments, which further exacerbated the issue. the majority of efl teachers reported they have insufficient monthly income and no additional benefits, with no efforts to reduce burdens. market inflation negatively impacts their living conditions, and their social value decreases due to low income and poor living conditions. teachers often dress poorer than students and the community, and trust between teachers and the community is eroded, impacting their professional lives. environmental factors also decrease efl teachers’ job satisfaction. teshale ayalew, getachew seyoum woldemariam and adege alemu 142 no. 28 finally, the study found that most teachers lack pedagogical competence in their target language, with gaps in primary skills and needing on-the-job training. environmental factors, such as high workload, misconduct, and limited resources, contributed to persistent stress among participants. additionally, the misconduct of the pupils and a lack of resources contributed much to the studied teachers’ burnout experience. discussion efl teachers’ burnout the study aimed to investigate efl teachers’ job burnout and the factors that form a causal association and make a prediction of the outcome variable and its dimensions. in other words, the study intends to examine the teachers’ burnout in their jobs and to determine the possible influence brought by each of the predictors on the outcome variable and its attributes. for this purpose, the data were collected using a self-administered questionnaire and a semi-structured interview guideline. then, both quantitative and qualitative analysis techniques were employed to analyze the data. the findings depict that the majority of the studied efl teachers were suffering from job burnout caused by various environmental and personal factors. this section, therefore, interprets and discusses the results obtained from the study. the findings from the quantitative component of the study indicated that the majority of efl teachers underwent a high level of burnout with its three facets. it was found that the majority, 80 (86.02%), of efl teachers in the study context suffered from ee. this finding is in line with the findings of previous studies (such as de silva, 2015; mukundan & khandehroo, 2010 özkara, 2019), which reported several efl teachers underwent a high level of ee. also, the present study revealed that the studied efl teachers’ ee is triggered by school-related factors such as high workload, maladministration, students’ ill behavior, poor working environment, and lack of resources (textbook, teacher’s guide, desks, staff room, teachers’ lounge, well-equipped libraries, etc.). this suggests that the contribution of the challenges that stem from occupational settings to the development of ee is very high. in this regard, the finding of the present study is in agreement with the finding of a study conducted by lou and chen (2016), which reported that students’ incompetence and management-related stressors led efl teachers to develop ee and burnout. the participants of the interview also reflected that they often experienced ee due to factors related to students, parents, and schools. most of them mentioned students’ factors such as lack of interest, carelessness, disrespect, late coming, absenteeism, not completing the tasks given, etc., that triggered their emotional strain. these teachers, therefore, underwent negative stimuli that happened in their work environment and led them to develop a negative emotion, ee. in addition, the school-related factors efl teachers’ job burnout and its associated factors 143 no. 28 such as high workload, poor learning facilities, shortage of textbooks, and lack of rewards brought mental fatigue that led them to frustration and reduced efficacy. societal factors such as lack of follow-up of their own children, lack of support, and low value to teachers and the teaching profession contributed to their ee. the study also revealed that 68 (73.12%) of the teachers studied underwent highlevel dp. this factor is an immediate reaction developed to the strain of ee: meaning an emotionally exhausted and physically fatigued teacher is usually detached from the community he/she works with and prefers to avoid contact with his/her students and other coworkers. this is supportive of the findings of jacobson (2016) who noted that dp is a reaction developed by a practitioner to recover from the strain of ee. the finding of the present study also supports the finding of benita et al. (2018), which indicated that teachers could develop dp and cynicism due to various environmental and personal stressors. the researchers further indicated that dp brings adverse effects on teachers’ working behaviors and the teaching-learning process. the problem also influences students’ behaviors and creates a disruptive classroom atmosphere because teachers in the state of depersonalization cannot interact with students properly and cannot address their needs meaningfully. this condition can lead the students to stop paying respect to their teachers and cease to obey them. thus, it is possible to infer that dp can seriously harm the quality of the target language education and students’ achievement in the study area because teaching is naturally an interpersonal and caring occupation that can easily be influenced by the nature of interaction that exists in the classroom between teachers and students. the interview findings on this issue also supported the quantitative finding. most of the participants stated that they distanced themselves from the students and school leaders. with regard to this, maslach et al. (2001) stated that if a worker once felt ee, they intend to distance themselves from the community (students, colleagues, and parents) where they work. concerning the third dimension of pa, the finding of the study indicated that a large number of teachers, 34 (36.6%), were less successful in their work, and an equal proportion, 33 (35.5 %), of them also underwent moderate levels of pa. this suggests that most efl teachers in the project area underwent a low level of personal accomplishment and an almost equal number of teachers also experienced a moderate level of pa. this implies that unless some intervention is introduced, efl teachers who underwent a moderate level of pa possibly downgrade to low pa because there are abundant triggering factors (e.g., work overload, ill-mannered students, large class size, lack of resources, less concerned parents, lack of fairness, etc.) in the study context. in this sense, the present study’s finding partially supports the findings of genç (2016) and kamtsios (2018), who reported that teachers’ reduced pa mainly results from work overload, students’ ill behavior, unfriendly work environment, and lack of support from school leaders and other coworkers. therefore, it is possible to deduce that efl teachers in the study area underwent inefficacy due to work-related environmental factors such as high workload, lack of cooperation and cohesion among staff, etc. the findings from the interview also showed that the teachers in the study area perceived teshale ayalew, getachew seyoum woldemariam and adege alemu 144 no. 28 that their occupational setting was unfriendly, their colleagues were unsupportive, and their pa was low. this mindset blocks teachers’ reasonable thinking which helps them to solve their problems. in addition, it causes them to blame themselves for not being in the right place to work and leave their profession. this experience, in turn, increases teachers turnover, aggravates workload, and harms efl education in the study area. in general, the overall mean score obtained on the three facets of burnout revealed that the majority (65.2 %) of the studied efl teachers suffered from a high level of burnout and its three dimensions. in this regard, the present finding is in agreement with the finding of mukundan and khandehroo (2010), which showed the prevalence of a high level of burnout with its three facets among efl teachers. it is also partially similar to the finding of roohani and dayeri (2019), which reported that a low reward made efl teachers demotivated, frustrated, and ineffective in their work. compared to the studies conducted on teachers’ burnout in different parts of the world and the rates reported by these studies, the finding of the present study shows that the rate of burnout in the present study area is very high. for instance, the indicated rate (65.2 %) of burnout in the current study is much higher than the rate of burnout (26%) observed among taiwanese primary school teachers (de silva, 2015). likewise, it is also a higher rate compared to the rate (one-third) of burnout in australian teachers and the rate (40%) of uk teachers, respectively (smith, 2000; byrne, 2003, as cited in de silva, 2015). these show that the prevalence rate of the problem has great disparity from place to place. the possible reasons for the observed variation can be attributed to socio-cultural, socio-economic, and/or occupational settings dissimilarity that exists between the aforesaid studies and the present one. factors associated with efl teachers’ burnout the other key issue the study dealt with was to determine the level of association that existed among the hypothesized factors and efl teachers’ job burnout. the study, thus, intended to identify the factors that made associations with the outcome variable and to find out factors that predict the three facets of burnout more. to achieve this, questions are set as: what factors are associated with efl teachers’ job burnout? which factors predict efl teachers’ burnout on their job more? to address these questions, multiple regression analysis were employed. the results obtained indicate that all the postulated factors made a strong and significant association with the outcome variable and its dimensions. a case in point, variables such as perceived stress, low social value, and work overload predict ee and dp more strongly than others. also, variables such as job dissatisfaction, low social value, and lack of motivation strongly explained reduced pa than the rest of the predictors. thus, the overall results obtained are discussed as follows. efl teachers’ job burnout and its associated factors 145 no. 28 factors associated with emotional exhaustion the finding of multiple linear regression analysis (mlra) showed that all predictors in the model explained 79.4% of the participants’ ee. the remaining (20.6%) of the influence was caused by some other factors that were not accounted for in the current study. the study also identified the major factors that contributed much to efl teachers’ ee; hence, the predictors of work overload (ß =.448), perceived stress (ß =.271), and lack of pedagogical content knowledge/lpck (ß =.216) were found to be strong and significant predictors of ee respectively. thus, a unit of change on the level of work overload brought 0.448 change on ee; a unit of change on the level of perceived stress had an effect of 0.293 on ee; a unit of change on the level of lpck 0.216 change on ee. the other variables, such as lack of motivation, low social value, low salary, and lack of other benefits, also had a significant influence on ee. the remaining two variables (job dissatisfaction and maladministration) had little effect on the factor independently. in this regard, the present study is in agreement with the findings of various researchers (e.g., genç, 2016; ghanizadeh & jahedizadeh, 2016; maroofi & ghaemi, 2016; özkara, 2019). these studies reported that ee was caused by different environmental and personal factors. for instance, the finding of özkara (2019) revealed the presence of a significant and negative relationship between ee and self-efficacy, which is in line with the finding of the present study that showed the studied efl teachers underwent ee that reduced their pa. likewise, the findings of genç (2016) indicated the presence of an inverse relationship between learned resourcefulness and ee. concerning this, the present study shows that a perceived lack of suitable pedagogical content knowledge was one of the strong and significant predictors of ee (see table 1). therefore, it is possible to say that the majority of efl teachers in the study context suffered from ee due to environmental and personal stressors. factors associated with depersonalization the results of the regression analysis indicated that all the independent variables brought a 58 % influence on the participants’ dp dimension. the factors that arose a strong influence on dp include perceived stress (β.293), low social value (β.267), and work overload (β.264). to put it differently, a unit of change on perceived stress caused a 0.293 change on dp; a unit of change on lack of social value brought a 0.267 change on dp; a unit of change on work overload brought 0.264 variation on dp respectively. from these findings, it is thus inferred that the best predictors of dp are perceived stress, lack of social value, and work overload, respectively. on the other hand, maladministration and lack of motivation had little effect on dp independently. teshale ayalew, getachew seyoum woldemariam and adege alemu 146 no. 28 concerning this, the studies (e.g., genç, 2016; ghanizadeh & jahedizadeh, 2016; jacobson, 2016; maroofi & ghaemi, 2016; özkara, 2019) reported that dp is a factor that is inflicted by several environmental and personal stressors. for instance, genç (2016) showed that teachers’ self-efficacy is negatively associated with the other two dimensions of burnout. this result, thus, is consistent with the present finding, which indicates that lapck had a significant association with dp (see table 2). the result of the current study is also similar to the study finding of nayernia and babaya (2019), which reported that language proficiency had a significant negative relationship with dp. moreover, the present study supports the finding of kamtsios (2018), which indicated that workload, time pressure, and students’ misbehavior were the most prevalent factors that led efl teachers to dp and the other two dimensions. factors associated with reduced personal accomplishment the finding on the factor of pa indicated that all predictors together had a 54.7 % influence on pa. the rest 45.3 % of the influence might have come from other factors that were not considered in this study. the other important aspect of the model is that the constant regression coefficient beta (β) that showed dissatisfaction (β. 551) strongly influenced pa; that is, a unit of change in this predictor can cause a .551 change in the level of pa. then, a unit of change on lack of social value brought a .439 change in pa, and a unit of change on lack of motivation contributed to the reduction of .293 in pa. therefore, from these findings, it is deduced that the best predictors of pa are job dissatisfaction, lack of social value, and lack of motivation, respectively. regarding this, the finding of the present study is, in one way or another, consistent with the findings of other researchers (e.g., genç, 2016; ghanizadeh & jahedizadeh, 2016; maroofi & ghaemi, 2016; jacobson, 2016; özkara, 2019). these studies reported that environmental and personal factors imposed a negative influence on efl teachers’ pa. for instance, özkara (2019) reported the presence of a negative relationship between pa and affective factors. likewise, the findings from genç (2016) suggested that there was an inverse relationship between learned resourcefulness and low pa. conclusions and implications the problem of job burnout has become a serious threat among efl teachers of public primary schools in the study context due to the existence of several risk factors in the work environment. this study, thus, was conducted to investigate efl teachers’ burnout and examine the level of influence brought by the hypothesized factors on this psychological strain. to achieve these, the study employed a survey design of the descriptive study with quantitative dominant over qualitative sequential explanatory efl teachers’ job burnout and its associated factors 147 no. 28 methods. the finding revealed that the majority of efl teachers experienced burnout due to several environmental and personal factors. based on the findings, suggestions are made to help the teachers protect themselves from burnout, and possible interventions are indicated to improve the teaching-learning process. it also has a different implication for efl teachers, who are the main contributors to the teaching-learning process, because job burnout affects their performance and overall educational success. the problem hinders their proper preparation and the teachers’ rapport with students, colleagues, and school leaders. thus, efl teachers must be given special concern. their protection enables the protection of the entire educational process. to reduce the impacts of the problem, it is suggested that efl teachers receive on-the-job training in emotional, cognitive, and behavioral coping strategies, which reduce stress and improve their mental health. emotional coping mechanisms, for instance, involve finding something positive out of negative experiences, which helps them maintain better emotional control amid stress. the other is the use of cognitive coping strategies, which let the teachers use reason and logic to remain calm while giving themselves space to vent their feelings. finally, behavioral coping strategies involve relaxation techniques like going to a natural setting, exercising, listening to music, etc. these methods help the teachers deal with the problem and lessen their bodily stress. also, the training enhances teachers’ understanding of the problem, problem-solving techniques, and the importance of a healthy lifestyle, ultimately improving their mental health and students’ academic performance. moreover, teacher training institutions should incorporate courses on coping techniques and emotional intelligence into efl methodology courses to prepare trainees for workplace challenges and overcome similar challenges in their professional lives in the future. the findings of the study further showed that environmental factors like work overload, poor management, insufficient pay, and a lack of social value. to improve the situation, a collaborative effort is needed from various stakeholders. for instance, the regional and zonal education bureaus should work closely to provide a manageable workload, ensuring fair administration and giving reasonable compensation to the efl teachers in the study area. these efforts help the teachers manage their stress at work, motivate them to have a good attitude about what they do, demonstrate commitment to their daily activities, and enhance the teaching-learning process as a whole. though the study provides many useful insights about efl teachers’ job burnout and other related issues, it suffers from some limitations. as it was conducted in a specific setting and on limited samples, the findings from the study cannot be generalized to a wider population of efl teachers who have been working in public primary schools in the region and nationwide. thus, further study should be carried out on a large scale to understand the magnitude and expansion of the problem in the region and nationwide. teshale ayalew, getachew seyoum woldemariam and adege alemu 148 no. 28 references agegnehu, d. 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(2014). teacher emotional inelegance and sense self-efficacy belief: a study of public second cycle primary school english as a foreign language (efl) teachers in bahir dar town, ethiopia. international journal of english and literature,5(7),155-164. https://doi.org/10.5897/ijel2014.0605 teshale ayalew, getachew seyoum woldemariam and adege alemu 152 no. 28 authors teshale ayalew holds a ph.d. and master’s degree in tefl from jimma university and a bachelor’s degree in english from haramaya university, etiopia. he has participated in numerous training programs organized by the ministry of education, ethiopia, the british council, and usaid on english language improvement, continuous assessment, and school-based english mentoring. he has been teaching english in colleges and universities for several years, and offered various training to primary and secondary school efl teachers. also, he chaired english language department at bonga college of teachers’ education and served as a coordinator of the english language improvement center (elic) at wolkite university, ethiopia. his area of research interest includes efl teachers’ emotions, efl teachers’ job burnout, and students’ language learning strategies orcid: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8876-7796 getachew seyoum woldemariam holds a master’s degree in tesp from aston university, uk, and phd in elt from panjab university, chandigarh, india. he is an associate professor in the department of english language and literature at jimma university, ethiopia, where he serves as instructor and supervisor of phd students. he has published several articles in elt in different reputable journals and his research interests include writing strategies, language learning strategies, language skills, and assessment. orcid: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0881-2807 adege alemu, phd, is an assistant professor, educator, academic advisor and researcher on language education and brain research. he has been conducting workshops on brain research and language education at several schools, colleges and universities in ethiopia. dr. adege has a bachelor’s degree in english language and literature from kottebe college of teachers’ education (aa), a master of arts in teaching english as a foreign language (tefl) from addis ababa university, ethiopia, and a doctorate degree in tefl from aau. his teaching experience covers senior high school, colleges, and universities in ethiopia and in usa. dr. adege has reviewed science and social sciences (including english language education) articles and published numerous articles in leading educational journals on language education and brain-based learning. orcid: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2821-8090 efl teachers’ job burnout and its associated factors gist ii semestre 2016-9.indd 93 task-based learning and language proficiency in a business university1 aprendizaje basado en tareas y suficiencia de inglés en una universidad de negocios amelia chloe caroline newsom-ray and sarah jane rutter2* universidad ean, colombia abstract this project adds to the growing body of empirical research focusing on the effects of task-based learning (tbl) on second language acquisition. through the design and implementation of two business english case studies, in which learning was scaffolded through a sequence of tasks, the authors argue that a tbl approach to language teaching more effectively engages students and promotes greater oral language proficiency than traditional approaches. the authors argue that guiding students to utilise and combine their existing knowledge and skills with vocabulary and structures presented in class to solve case study problems has the potential to result in greater student confidence and, subsequently, greater language proficiency. nevertheless, various factors can significantly reduce the successfulness of tbl in this context, including disparate learner profiles in cultural and business knowledge, life experiences, motivation, as well as constraints in terms of time and institutional assessment. key words: task-based learning (tbl), business english, case studies, esl, tesol, task sequencing resumen este proyecto se suma a un significativo número de investigaciones empíricas, centrándose en los efectos del aprendizaje basado en tareas (tbl) en el proceso de adquisición de una segunda lengua. mediante el diseño e implementación de dos estudios de caso en las clases de inglés de negocios, en las que el aprendizaje 1 received: april 5, 2016 / accepted: september 15, 2016 2 amelia.c.c.ray@gmail.com / sjrutter@universidadean.edu.co gist education and learning research journal. issn 1692-5777. no.13. (july december) 2016. pp. 93-110. teachers and students’ stereotypes no. 13 (july december 2016) no. 13 (july december 2016) 94 fue escalonado a través de una secuencia de tareas. las autoras sostienen que el enfoque de aprendizaje basado en tareas involucra de manera efectiva a los estudiantes en el aprendizaje del idioma y promueve una mayor competencia del lenguaje oral que los enfoques tradicionales. las autoras afirman que el guiar a los estudiantes en el uso y combinación de sus habilidades y conocimiento existente con el vocabulario y las estructuras presentadas en clase para resolver problemas de estudio de caso contribuyen a que el estudiante tenga mayor confianza y posteriormente un mayor dominio del idioma. sin embargo, diferentes factores pueden reducir significativamente el éxito del aprendizaje basado en tareas en este contexto, incluyendo los diversos perfiles de los estudiantes en relación al conocimiento cultural y empresarial, experiencias, motivaciones, así como las limitaciones en términos de tiempo y evaluación institucional. palabras clave: aprendizaje basado en tareas, inglés de negocios, estudios de caso, inglés como lengua segunda, enseñanza de inglés como lengua segunda, secuencia de tareas resumo este projeto se soma a um significativo número de pesquisas empíricas, centrando-se nos efeitos da aprendizagem baseada em tarefas escolares (tbl) no processo de aquisição de uma segunda língua. mediante o desenho e implementação de dois estudos de caso nas aulas de inglês de negócios, nas que a aprendizagem foi escalonada através de uma sequência de tarefas escolares. as autoras sustentam que o enfoque de aprendizagem baseado em tarefas escolares envolve de maneira efetiva os estudantes na aprendizagem do idioma e promove uma maior competência da linguagem oral que os enfoques tradicionais. as autoras afirmam que o guiar os estudantes no uso e combinação de suas habilidades e conhecimento existente com o vocabulário e as estruturas apresentadas em aula para resolver problemas de estudo de caso contribuem a que o estudante tenha maior confiança e posteriormente um maior domínio do idioma. entretanto, diferentes fatores podem reduzir significativamente o êxito da aprendizagem baseada em tarefas escolares neste contexto, incluindo os diversos perfis dos estudantes em relação ao conhecimento cultural e empresarial, experiências, motivações, bem como as limitações em termos de tempo e avaliação institucional. palavras chave: aprendizagem baseada em tarefas escolares, inglês de negócios, estudos de caso, inglês como língua segunda, ensino de inglês como segunda língua, sequência de tarefas escolares task-based learning and language proficiency newsom-ray & rutter no. 13 (july december 2016) no. 13 (july december 2016) 95 introduction this research project was developed in order to address an increasingly important area of second language acquisition: students learning english in order to compete in the international job market. the authors were interested in approaches which facilitate the effective development of communicative skills for business purposes. moreover, the authors were particularly interested in the ways in which existing knowledge and skills can be harnessed and integrated in order to facilitate business-focused communication. to this end, a task based learning (tbl) approach to business english was applied in a south american university setting in order to investigate how redesigning modules of study into sequences of activities might facilitate students’ oral communication skills. currently the colombian government is implementing initiatives in order to increase bilingualism in the country. for example the national bilingualism programme, created by the colombian ministry of education in 2004, offers all students the possibility to become bilingual in english and spanish (de mejía, 2011). as mastery of the english language is positioned as a fundamental aspect to this process, it is important to investigate best practice firmly situated within the colombian context. this includes an analysis of current practices and initiatives in many contexts, including business settings. at the university in this study, the application of case studies has proven challenging for students across all business english courses at the university. breen (1984) argues that by placing communication at the centre of the curriculum, both goal and means merge to become one and the same. yet, we often witness students who are able to produce language in class activities, but who are less capable of producing spontaneous, unstructured dialogue. consequently, tbl’s emphasis on learning to communicate through interaction in the target language (nunan, 2004) is of particular interest for the university. the ensuing research therefore aimed to explore the usefulness of tbl for increasing language proficiency including motivation, engagement and greater confidence with the language (willis & willis, 2007). in order to address these interests, the following two key research questions were created: how does tbl promote students´ oral language proficiency in business english? and how does tbl engage students in both content and oral language learning through the solution of business case studies? results demonstrated that by employing nunan’s (2004) tbl approach to the development of business english case study materials, tbl has the potential to lead to improved oral task-based learning and language proficiency newsom-ray & rutter no. 13 (july december 2016) no. 13 (july december 2016) 96 proficiency through greater student engagement, spontaneity, and communicative confidence through the provision of opportunities for the application of existing skills and socio-cultural knowledge in a way which supplements, complements, and encourages the integration of existing language skills and life experiences. in sum, the authors found that by implementing a tbl approach to the use of case studies, students were indeed more engaged and increased their oral language proficiency. that said, various factors affected the successfulness of tbl including disparate learner profiles, life experiences, intrinsic motivation and time and institutional constraints. these factors thus highlight important areas for consideration for those implementing a tbl approach to syllabus design. literature review conceptualizing task-based learning task based learning (tbl) has its roots in communicative language teaching (clt) (nunan, 2004) which emphasises social interaction as fundamental for language acquisition (myles & mitchell, 2004) and provides a practical means of applying the conceptually broad clt (skehan, xiaoyue, qian & wang, 2012). in practice, tbl involves using interactive tasks designed to be performed through real communication, as opposed to the teaching of a sequence of language items (rozati, 2014), or specific linguistic forms (rodríguez-bonces, m. & rodríguez-bonces, j. 2010). in this way, the learner is placed at the centre of the process (nunan, 2004) and the teacher acts as a language consultant (almagro esteban & pérez cañado, 2004), creating opportunities for meaningful language production and interaction (willis & willis, 2007). consequently, tbl focuses less on knowledge of a language and more on what learners can do with the language (richards & rodgers, 2001). task based learning literature tasks have been discussed and defined in many ways by researchers and educators, from focusing on the importance of communicative information exchange activities (tang, chiou & jarsaillon, 2015) to the form, complexity and scale of tasks (thomas & wright, 1999), and the way in which language learners are forced into a variety of roles (thomas & wright, 1999). empirically speaking, as robinson (2011) highlights, although tbl was initially conceptualised as a means for improving pedagogy, it only had a minimal foundation task-based learning and language proficiency newsom-ray & rutter no. 13 (july december 2016) no. 13 (july december 2016) 97 in empirical research regarding second language acquisition. tbl has since been studied in a number of different contexts, both qualitatively and quantitatively. for example, carless (2002) investigated problems implementing task-based learning for young learners in a school setting. murphy (2003) reflects on the relationship between tasks, teachers and learners. yule, powers and macdonald (1992) undertook research with advanced proficiency learners, highlighting the way in which information transfer tasks may be enhanced when speakers are led to consider listeners needs, as opposed to the form of the speakers message. rohani (2013) explored how task-based learning influenced the use of positive oral communication strategies and reduced the use of negative strategies. interestingly, tang, chiou and jarsallion (2015) researched how tbl developed verbal competence and found that tbl improved fluency, lexical, and syntactic complexity but did not improve accuracy. gonzález lopez and cabrera albert (2011), in a similar context to our own, looked at task-based learning principles in a cuban university setting and highlighted fundamental principles of tbl which should be followed to implement tbl effectively. nevertheless, despite the growing body of literature, a gap currently exists with regard to empirical tbl research and language performance tasks in actual classroom settings (calvert & sheen, 2015) and also regarding testing and syllabi design (robinson, 2001). moreover, the authors highlight an additional gap in the empirical literature in the use of tbl in tandem with a case study approach to (business) english syllabi design and evaluation. the authors argue that tbl may prove beneficial in this particular learning context. before discussing how tbl and the case method can work effectively together, it is worth briefly defining the case method. task based learning and the case study approach case studies have been successfully used in many different educational fields, such as business, law and medicine, and it has been argued that case studies can also be useful in the context of english for specific purposes for business (esp-b) (almagro esteban & pérez cañado, 2004; beckisheva, gasparyan, & kovalenko, 2015). indeed, according to boyd (1991), case studies are the most appropriate pedagogical model for esp-b. as with tbl, a case study methodology requires students to interact and reflect by analysing and negotiating to solve a problem through which they are encouraged to freely and spontaneously use language in a meaningful context (almagro, esteban & pérez cañado, 2004; beckisheva, et al., 2015). through the use of task-based learning and language proficiency newsom-ray & rutter no. 13 (july december 2016) no. 13 (july december 2016) 98 case studies, students discuss real life situations using concepts learned in the classroom whilst vocabulary and grammar are taught incidentally through content (grosse, 1988; nunan, 2004; rodríguez-bonces, m. & rodríguez-bonces, j. 2010). moreover, tbl and the case method further align in that tbl promotes the linking of classroom learning with language used outside the classroom through ´real-world’ tasks (nunan, 2004; rozati 2014). almagro, esteban and pérez (2004, p.158) gathered data about the efficacy of the case method and put forward several factors which contributed to students’ success, including a) a warm-up phase, b) clear presentation of the scenario, c) anticipation of students’ linguistic needs, and d) teamwork to encourage learning, all factors which align well with nunan’s (2004) tbl sequencing. finally, throughout the unit of work, students are active learners working together to construct their knowledge. nevertheless, case studies can be difficult for both students and teachers due to the integrated multiple skills needed to perform proficiently (almagro esteban and pérez cañado, 2004). by following nunan’s (2004) sequencing, as outlined in the methodology section, the authors posit that tbl can overcome some of these difficulties through mini tasks to promote the communicative skills required to participate effectively in case studies. methodology research design maintaining that teachers are fundamental in education research within the education field, the researchers employed action-research (stenhouse, 1993: elliot, 1994) to investigate the applicability of task-based learning (tbl) to address a problem encountered at the university; students exhibiting difficulties producing spontaneous dialogue, particularly in case study-based classroom activities and assessment tasks. more specifically, the authors found that whilst students were able to produce explicitly taught language correctly in controlled grammar practice or vocabulary activities, they appeared much less able to integrate various elements of language learning in order to communicate spontaneously in freer, less controlled activities. consequently, the researchers, concerned with bridging this gap, redesigned aspects of the syllabus for an intermediate business english class in line with nunan’s (2004) tbl approach. the researchers then implemented this redesign and examined the usefulness of employing such an approach as a means to improve communicative competencies and encourage greater student engagement and participation. task-based learning and language proficiency newsom-ray & rutter no. 13 (july december 2016) no. 13 (july december 2016) 99 context the university, located in the capital of colombia, has a business focus with the objective of preparing students to work in a multinational business setting. the university is medium sized with most students coming from middle class backgrounds. through the modern languages programme, students aim to develop a b1 level for three different languages, according to the common european framework (council of europe, 2001), with the objective of acquiring the skills necessary for a competitive international business environment. modern language students progress through four levels of english including basic business english i, basic business english ii, intermediate business english and upper intermediate business english before continuing their english studies with content classes, that is to say, classes which are content based but taught through the medium of english. content courses include international business, business speech, english culture and international culture. business english courses at the university often use case studies as a teaching method and speaking evaluation tool. the textbook currently used by the university is market leader (cotton, falvey & kent, 2010). intervention the sequences of classes used in the study were adapted from the aforementioned textbook. it is important to note that each unit of the textbook involves a case study in which students are expected to find a solution to a problem or complete a complex communicative task. these case studies at the university constitute speaking assessment tasks. however, the case studies in the textbook and the activities leading to their solution are mismatched in that they do not suitably prepare students for the final task. for this reason, the professor adapted two units from the textbook and employed nunan’s (2004) tbl sequencing with the objective of better preparing students for the assessment tasks. according to nunan (2004), tbl should meet the following principles: 1) the tasks need to be scaffolded; 2) one task should lead to another task; 3) materials should be recycled; 4) learners construct their knowledge actively; 5) tasks integrate linguistic form, communicative function and semantic meaning; (6) tasks allow learners to move from repetition to creative, freer activities; and (7) students have time to reflect on their learning. with these criteria in mind, the units of work were adapted to include vocabulary, grammar, reading and listening tasks and skills language (set expressions from the textbook) to prepare for the case studies. these were then taught as a series of mini tasks task-based learning and language proficiency newsom-ray & rutter no. 13 (july december 2016) no. 13 (july december 2016) 100 leading following nunan’s (2004) six steps for tbl, as demonstrated in figure 1 below. figure 1. task based learning sequencing (authors’ representation) sequence one. the first sequence of classes involved a series of mini tasks aimed at developing students’ abilities to participate in a business meeting in which sponsorship options were discussed. in the first stage, schema-building, students were introduced to brands and marketing vocabulary and participated in activities such as gap fills, crosswords and writing tasks. students also participated in a brainstorming activity in which they discussed desired qualities of a potential sponsor. the following stage involved listening to a meeting at a sponsorship agency in which sponsorship options for a media company were discussed. this conversation was very similar to what students would be expected to produce later during the case study. after completing the listening activity, students practiced the dialogue and adjusted it to be more relevant to the colombian context. the sequence of classes included a linguistic focus on expressions students could use for the meeting, including expressions to ask for/give opinions, agree, disagree and make suggestions. after four classes of context setting and controlled practice, students were asked to write a business style letter in which they outlined a suitable sponsorship candidate for their company with supporting reasons as to why this candidate should be selected. the writing task utilised the vocabulary and expressions presented in the previous classes and modelled the language they could use in the pedagogical task. after schema building, controlled practice, listening practice, focus on linguistic elements, and writing practice; students participated in the pedagogical task. this involved students role-playing a meeting task-based learning and language proficiency newsom-ray & rutter no. 13 (july december 2016) no. 13 (july december 2016) 101 in which they discussed different options and selected a sponsor for a sportswear company. sequence two. in the second sequence of classes, students prepared a presentation about how to conduct business in a culture different from their own. students needed to include advice and suggestions about cross-cultural negotiations in an appropriately structured presentation. throughout the sequence, there were class discussions about different cultures and students were asked to draw comparisons between their own culture and those of others. students participated in reading and listening activities about cultures in general, as well as cross-cultural business interactions in which problems may arise. students studied modal verbs of advice, obligation and necessity which wold aid students in giving advice and explaining cross-cultural rules/norms. this linguistic focus was taught within the context of cross-culturally negotiations with the language embedded in reading and writing tasks. presentation structure and expression to use in a presentation were taught and practiced in class. the sequence of classes lead to the final pedagogical task which was an assessed presentation about a doing business cross-culturally in any chosen country. participants the students. nine students enrolled in the course: five female modern language students, karol, bibiana, daniela, sandra and andrea (pseudonyms) who, on average, were seventeen years old. four had completed the previous level of english at the university the previous semester, the other student, daniela, had previously failed intermediate business english and was repeating the course. the other four students were teachers at the university: gabriela, mariana, ana and mateo (pseudonyms). the youngest was approximately thirty years old and the oldest in his sixties. all of them had plentiful teaching experience; two of them, gabriela and mariana, were second language teachers of german and french. mateo was a marketing teacher. ana worked in a teaching capacity at the university. she had studied the previous level of english the previous semester. due to time constraints and work demands, ana dropped out of the course mid-semester. it is important to note an inconsistency of student attendance as well as a large discrepancy in terms of metalinguistic and cultural knowledge, language level, and life experience between the modern language students and teachers. all the teachers had travelled abroad, mateo extensively. gabriela and mariana, as language teachers, had greater metalinguistic knowledge than the students in the class. task-based learning and language proficiency newsom-ray & rutter no. 13 (july december 2016) no. 13 (july december 2016) 102 the teacher. the teacher was a native english speaker with a master’s degree in teaching and six years esl teaching experience. class frequency. during the first half of the semester, classes met for two hour classes twice a week over a two month period. during the second half, classes increased to three times a week, again over a two month period. each unit of work, structured using tbl methodology, consisted of seven classes. data collection instruments four instruments of data collection were used: the professor’s personal reflections, class observations, evaluation scores and attendance rates. professor’s personal reflections. the professor provided written reflections regarding the tbl process, students’ progress, and course units. class observations. during the second case study, the classes were observed by two other professors in order to record their opinions about classroom interactions, student engagement, and language proficiency. evaluation scores. students received a grade based on their level of performance in the case study at the end of each sequence of classes. in the first sequence of classes, oral performance during the role play was analysed and measured against the criteria taken and adapted from the cambridge business english certificate handbook (2012). this was chosen due to its usefulness for assessing ability to hold a conversation without over-emphasising form. according to this, students were rated as excellent, very good, good, fair, poor, or not shown in reference to these criteria: a) ability to sustain a dialogue (discourse management); b) linguistic capabilities, such as being able to structure a sentence correctly (language); c) ability to produce intelligible output with good sentence stress (pronunciation); d) ability to maintain and develop interactions and respond appropriately during conversation (interactive communication) and; e) their ability to use appropriate vocabulary to make suggestions, agree and disagree (vocabulary). a percentage score was then generated which counted towards their semester grade. for the second sequence of classes, students’ oral performance was measured against criteria adapted from the market leader peer assessment rubric (2010, p. 109) for assessing the effectiveness of a presentation. in addition to this, the teacher added the following task-based learning and language proficiency newsom-ray & rutter no. 13 (july december 2016) no. 13 (july december 2016) 103 criteria: grammar, use of target vocabulary, and pronunciation. similar to the first sequence of classes, students were rated as excellent, very good, good, fair, poor, or not shown, and a percentage score was then generated which counted towards their semester grade. attendance rates. the teacher kept a role of students attending the class and noted down, not only if students were absent, but also if they were late to class. data analysis and interpretation two researchers participated in the analysis of the data. both researchers read the data individually and then exchanged perspectives in order to analyse the way in which tbl engaged students and promoted oral proficiency. in order to do so, both qualitative and quantitative means were employed. in terms of quantitative data, attendance and final evaluation scores were collated. with regard to qualitative measures, the ways in which students interacted with the teacher, the materials and the other students were considered i.e. the extent to which they asked and responded to questions, appeared engaged or disengaged, integrated knowledge from outside the classroom context, and their oral performance during classes and in evaluations. for case study one, student evaluations were based on the ability to conduct a successful negotiation. a successful negotiation was defined as the ability to a) present their chosen candidate and give supporting reasons as to why their candidate should be chosen, and b) discuss the sponsorship possibilities, and as a group, choose the most appropriate candidate. with regard to the second case study, the focus was on developing students’ ability to present information about a culture different from their own and to present suggestions and obligations about doing business cross-culturally. results on the basis of data acquired, the researchers gleaned that tbl can be an effective tool but with limitations. below, we will discuss students’ grades for the pedagogical task, attendance levels, and prior knowledge and life experiences, and how these factors were related to the utility of tbl. assessment scores indicated how consistent engagement with each stage of the tbl sequencing promotes oral proficiency. for task-based learning and language proficiency newsom-ray & rutter no. 13 (july december 2016) no. 13 (july december 2016) 104 example, in the first case study, bibiana, a modern language student, who started the course with a lower level than many of the other students, provided an excellent illustration. despite her initial lower level, as the only student to attend all classes, she achieved a high final grade of 88% for the first case study. she was able to integrate and apply taught vocabulary and expressions and effectively utilise target structures. in contrast, sandra, another modern language student, who missed two classes covering grammar, the writing workshop, and speaking practice, unsurprisingly, exhibited poor performance. although the grammar and vocabulary produced were fair, she lacked the ability to listen and respond naturally, resulting in dialogue lacking in spontaneity. similarly, karol and andrea, modern language students, who started the course late, whilst performing reasonably well, demonstrated a tendency to rely on others for the flow of conversation. in the second case study, bibiana and sandra, who worked together, missed key phases of the tbl sequencing designed to prepare them for the final presentation. during the final assessment, sandra incorrectly used modal verbs, did not use the structures or phrases taught during the classes, and failed to include any business information. similarly, bibiana´s lack of preparation was also apparent through insufficient content, despite some attempt to use taught structures and modal verbs. in the case of these two students, the tbl process was not effective as, due to poor attendance, they were unable to undertake each of the mini-tasks successfully. consequently, they obtained lower evaluation scores in comparison with other students. moreover, neither were motivated to create an effective presentation, and the time constraints of the course did not allow them to develop sufficient oral proficiency. in contrast, marianna and gabriela, language teachers, benefited greatly from each stage as they took advantage of opportunities to participate and engage with materials and practice taught forms. consequently, there were able to integrate and apply what had been studied to deliver a well-structured, highly engaging presentation. secondly, the importance of previous experience beyond the classroom and materials relevant to students’ day-to-day lives was crucial. for example, ana, one of the education professionals, who also missed two classes in the first unit and started with a lower level than her peers, performed well in the first case study. whilst demonstrating structural and pronunciation problems, she clearly listened to her peers and responded appropriately. in fact, overall, she demonstrated a strong ability for interactive communication and, at times, dominated the conversation. in comparison, although sandra was able to utilise taught task-based learning and language proficiency newsom-ray & rutter no. 13 (july december 2016) no. 13 (july december 2016) 105 structures, she performed poorly as she was unable to communicate spontaneously. likewise, karol and andrea memorised vocabulary and phrases, however, lacked overall fluency. the authors argue that ana´s previous experience of business negotiation was extremely helpful during this task. indeed, she performed significantly better regardless of the use of specific taught structures and clarity of pronunciation. similarly, in the second case study, mateo´s presentation, a marketing teacher, was well structured and coherent, using presentation phrases introduced in class. furthermore, he naturally integrated modal verbs and demonstrated a high level and breadth of vocabulary to convey extensive information. notably, he was always the most vocal student in classes and demonstrated clear interest in the topic and significant background knowledge, which he was able to synthesis and elaborate. this existing knowledge strengthened the final product as he was able to focus on the application of taught structures and vocabulary and naturally respond to questions. overall, he demonstrated a high level of oral proficiency motivated by a strong interest in the subject matter and complemented by extensive cross-cultural life experience. likewise, marianna and gabriela’s presentation was wellstructured and linguistically sophisticated. clearly, their existing cultural knowledge, from having lived and worked in different countries, also facilitated their contributions. these students were clearly engaged by the materials, and consequently, did exceptionally well. furthermore, both had prior business knowledge and were education professionals. whilst the class materials honed existing skills, particularly their ability to express opinions and make suggestions in a structured and accurate way, arguably, the tasks also had greater relevance for their working lives. indeed, it was clear that their life and work experiences had an impact on their motivation and level of engagement, which in turn, had a significant influence on their ability to communicate. evidently, the way in which tbl allowed these students´ the space to express life experiences through taught structures was complimentary and thus extremely effective in terms of developing their oral proficiency. in both case studies, the mixed group of students led to many pedagogical challenges. students from the modern language programme had a much lower level of english than the teachers; even though they were undertaking a b1 level course, the modern language students had an average of an a2 level (council of europe, 2014). moreover, the younger modern language students, who had never travelled, were not only much less able to pick up on new grammatical patterns quickly; they also often lacked sufficient cultural and professional knowledge for task-based learning and language proficiency newsom-ray & rutter no. 13 (july december 2016) no. 13 (july december 2016) 106 the successful completion of tasks. indeed, as calvert and sheen (2015) have noted, students’ lack of ability to perform tasks may stem from unfamiliarity with the concepts or tasks themselves. this highlights the importance of carefully tailoring tbl tasks according to the cultural and professional background of students. conclusions results of the analysis of the above intervention demonstrates that tbl is certainly applicable to the university’s business english programme. the design and implementation of nunan’s (2004) approach provides a clear and effective means of scaffolding learning through sequences of communicative tasks. more specifically, it has the potential to engage students by providing opportunities for them to apply existing skills and socio-cultural knowledge in the language learning environment. in this way, such a restructuring of materials can supplement and complement existing language skills and cultural and professional experiences whilst allowing students to express themselves with the support, but not constraint, of target language and structures. as a consequence of its application, many of the students were more confident and able to spontaneously produce dialogue as evidenced by the effective use of language, vocabulary, and structures in the final business case study tasks. whilst this indicates an overall improvement in oral language proficiency, two key areas for consideration were highlighted. firstly, one issue illuminated by the project was the necessity for recycling materials to develop proficiency. this was made difficult, however, due to the poor attendance of students. despite reinforcing material studied in earlier classes to give repetitive exposure, it simply was not viable, and as a result, the units of work lacked continuity. in fact, a review of material often made no sense to students because they had not attended the class in which the topic was initially introduced. secondly, research suggests using real-life situations in the classroom makes materials more relevant to students’ needs (almagro esteban & pérez cañado, 2004; beckisheva, et al, 2015; nunan, 2004; rozati, 2014). indeed, as was demonstrated, students’ life experiences and the future applicability of content had an impact on the way in which they interacted with materials and impacted on motivation. however, problems can arise when the gap between students’ language abilities and life experiences are too great, and materials are more relevant task-based learning and language proficiency newsom-ray & rutter no. 13 (july december 2016) no. 13 (july december 2016) 107 and applicable to the lives of some and not others. this highlights the importance of developing materials highly relevant and applicable to students’ lives as well as age and culture in order to maximise success for all students. according to platt and brooks (2002) for second language acquisition to be at its best, task engagement must take place. indeed, many students in the class did not seem strongly engaged, as evidenced by their low attendance and observations of classroom behaviour. the authors argue that low motivation and engagement on the part of the younger modern languages students may have been significantly related to the relevance and level of the materials. indeed, many of the younger students had difficulty participating in business role-plays, arguably highlighting the way in which different ages and life experiences can create large discrepancies in oral proficiency simply as a consequence of the materials. indeed, as calvert and sheen (2015) argue, although a task does not appear to be successful, this does not mean that it is an ineffective means of learning. rather, the structure, input, and implementation according to the specific learner population may not have been appropriate. in summary, the authors found that tbl has the potential to engage students and promote oral proficiency in the context of business english case studies. however, the findings highlighted the importance of using highly relevant materials as a means to enhance student engagement and motivation, not only in terms of the future needs of students, but also in terms of existing life experiences. this is arguably particularly important in the context of business english with young students. additionally, an area which proves crucial for the development of learners’ skills, and fundamental for improving oral proficiency, is the coherent and repetitive recycling of materials during task sequences. as follows, consistent attendance and institutional time and assessment constraints which impede sufficient repetition are fundamental considerations. one area for further consideration then is the question of how educators can effectively design tbl sequences which harness the varying levels and life experience in diverse groups in a way which is beneficial for the whole. task-based learning and language proficiency newsom-ray & rutter no. 13 (july december 2016) no. 13 (july december 2016) 108 references almagro esteban, a., & pérez cañado, m. 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(2014). language teaching and task based approach. theory and practice in language studies, 4(6), 1273-1278. skehan, p., xiaoyue, b., qian, l., & wang, z. (2012). the task is not enough: processing approaches to task-based performance. language teaching research, 16(2), 170-187. tang, h., chiou, j.-s., & jarsaillon, o. (2015). efficacy of task-based learning in a chinese efl classroom: a case study. english language teaching, 8(5), 168-178. thomas, h., & wright, t. (1999). the role of facilitator training and the development of process competence. in r. budd, redesigning the foreign language classroom. paris: triangle xv. university of cambridge. (2012). cambridge english business certificates handbook for teachers. cambridge: university of cambridge. willis, d., & willis, j. (2007). doing task based teaching. oxford: oxford university press. yule, g., powers, m., & macdonald, d. (1992). the variable effects of some task-based learning procedures on l2 communicative effectiveness. language learning, 42(2), 249-277. task-based learning and language proficiency newsom-ray & rutter no. 13 (july december 2016) no. 13 (july december 2016) 110 authors *sarah jane rutter earned her masters of teaching with a focus on tesol and lote from deakin university, australia in 2011. she also holds a ba from the university of melbourne and certificate iv in training and assessment from box hill tafe. she has worked in a variety of language teaching roles, including teaching positions at universities, language institutes, refugee centres, technical and further education (tafe) and high schools. sarah is currently teaching business english at a university in bogotá, colombia. *amelia chloe caroline newsom-ray holds a masters of science in psychosocial studies and a ba (honours) in applied psychology and criminology from the university of brighton. she is currently teaching esl in the united arab emirates. task-based learning and language proficiency no. 13 (july december 2016) no. 13 (july december 2016) gist education and learning research journal. issn 1692-5777. no. 20 (january june, 2020). pp. 65-84. effects of digital short stories on the development of listening skills: an action research1 los efectos de las historias digitales cortas en el desarrollo de habilidades de escucha: una investigación acción zeynep çetin köroğlu2* bayburt university, turkey 1 received: august 8th 2019/ accepted: april 1st 2020 2 zeynepcetin86@gmail.com 66 no. 20 effects of digital short stories on listening skills çetin-köroğlu abstract the present research aimed to find out whether digital short stories can improve language learners’ listening skills. the purpose of this study was to figure out student teachers’ perceptions of digital short stories’ implementation into language classrooms. specifically, the current research aimed to investigate whether digital short stories are useful to develop language learners’ listening skills in english. the research is action research in design. the study used pretest and post-test, a written structured interview to collect data and it included both quantitative and qualitative components. the interview consisted of six open-ended questions. achievement tests and t-test were used to analyse quantitative data. on the other hand, content analysis was used to analyse qualitative data. the data were collected in 2016-2017 academic years at a state university, turkey. participants were preparatory class students of english language teaching department of the university. in the treatment process, digital short stories were used for eight weeks, which were written by various famous american authors and voice recorded by american native speakers of english. additionally, weekly worksheets and hand-outs were prepared by the researcher. results showed that digital short stories provide satisfactory content, supports vocabulary learning, improves language learners’ listening skills, helps participants to gain familiarity with complex grammar structures and makes students more familiar with different cultures. furthermore, participants were satisfied with digital short stories and they thought these digital stories are useful to improve their listening skills. keywords: digital short story; english language teaching; listening skills; student-teacher. resumen la presente investigación tuvo como objetivo descubrir si las historias cortas pueden mejorar las habilidades auditivas de los estudiantes de idiomas. el propósito de este estudio fue descifrar las percepciones de los estudiantes-profesores sobre la implementación de historias digitales cortas en el aula. específicamente, el objetivo es investigar si los cuentos digitales son útiles para desarrollar las habilidades auditivas de los estudiantes de inglés. el estudio es investigación acción en el que se implementaron unas herramientas de recolección de datos, como: un pre-test y un post-test, una entrevista estructurada y se incluyó tanto componentes cuantitativos como cualitativos. la entrevista consistió en seis preguntas abiertas. las pruebas de rendimiento y la prueba t se utilizaron para analizar datos cuantitativos. por otro lado, el análisis del contenido se usó para analizar los datos cuantitativos. los datos se recolectaron en el año académico 2016-2017 en una universidad estatal en turquía. los participantes fueron estudiantes de la clase preparatoria del departamento de enseñanza de inglés de la universidad. en el proceso, las historias digitales cortas se usaron por ocho semanas, las cuales fueron escritas por varios autores americanos famosos y grabadas por hablantes nativos americanos de inglés. además, hojas de trabajo y folletos fueron preparados por el investigador. los resultados mostraron que las historias digitales cortas proporcionan un contenido satisfactorio, apoyan el aprendizaje de vocabulario, mejora las habilidades de escucha de los estudiantes de lengua, ayuda a los participantes a ganar familiaridad con estructuras gramaticales complejas y hace 67 no. 20 effects of digital short stories on listening skills çetin-köroğlu que los estudiantes estén mas familiarizados con diferentes culturas. además, los participantes quedaron satisfechos con las historias digitales cortas y ellos opinaron que las historias son útiles para mejorar sus habilidades de escucha. palabras clave: historias digitales cortas, enseñanza de inglés, habilidades de escucha, estudiante-profesor. resumo a presente pesquisa teve como objetivo descobrir se as histórias curtas podem melhorar as habilidades auditivas dos estudantes de idiomas. o propósito deste estudo foi decifrar as percepções dos estudantes-professores sobre a implementação de histórias digitais curtas na sala de aula. especificamente, o objetivo é pesquisar se os contos digitais são úteis para desenvolver as habilidades auditivas dos estudantes de inglês. o estudo é pesquisa ação no que se implementaram umas ferramentas de coleta de dados, como: um pré-teste e um pós-teste, uma entrevista estruturada e se incluiu tanto componentes quantitativos como qualitativos. a entrevista consistiu em seis perguntas abertas. as provas de rendimento e a prova t se utilizaram para analisar dados quantitativos. por outro lado, a análise do conteúdo foi utilizada para analisar os dados quantitativos. os dados se coletaram no ano acadêmico 2016-2017 em uma universidade estadual na turquia. os resultados mostraram que as histórias digitais curtas proporcionam um conteúdo satisfatório, apoiam a aprendizagem de vocabulário, melhora as habilidades de escuta dos estudantes de língua, ajuda os participantes a ganhar familiaridade com estruturas gramaticais complexas e faz que os estudantes estejam mais familiarizados com diferentes culturas. além disso, os participantes ficaram satisfeitos com as histórias digitais curtas e eles acharam que as histórias são úteis para melhorar suas habilidades de escuta. palavras chave: histórias digitais curtas, ensino de inglês, habilidades de escuta, estudanteprofessor, estudantes universitários 68 no. 20 introduction the field of education has been revolutionized and reshaped by technology. unexceptionally, language pedagogy has been constantly changing due to technological development. nowadays, language learners can easily access literary texts, novels, short stories, poems or teaching materials. technological developments have changed the form of these elements as well. for instance, novels are voice recorded by native speakers, so efl learners can easily download and access to these electronic versions wherever they want. according to kledecka nadera (2001), reading texts can be transformed through computer software programs, which enable to add sound, graphics, photographs, animations, video, a direct link and reference to dictionaries for better understanding and comprehension. these computer technologies make the target language more alive and concrete (warschauer & healey, 1998). additionally, all of these technologies advance language learners’ skills such as listening, speaking, reading, writing, grammar, pronunciation, and vocabulary. in this respect, new forms of teaching materials lead to new teaching styles in language classrooms. brown’s research (2001) reveals that students mostly spend their time at school through listening. therefore, language teachers need to provide them with skills and strategies for effective listening skills. krashen (1985) discusses that people acquire language by understanding the linguistic information they hear. so, language acquisition is achieved mostly through receiving understandable input and listening ability is vital in achieving understandable language input. similar discussion is made by piaget that infants learn language items by hearing and basic reflexes in sensorimotor stage in 0-2 year (piaget, 1970). along the same line with these theories, when children’s developments are observed, it is seen that they first listen and then start to speak. they speak before they read and as the last skill writing comes after reading. this sequence can be explained with piaget’s (1970) cognitive developmental model. it is clear that all among the language skills, listening is the first one to develop (lundsteen, 1979). similar to children’s first language development, foreign language learners need to listen in a conscious and deliberate way, before they speak (anderson & lynch, 2003). at this point, it needs to be clarified that defining listening as a passive skill would be misleading (anderson & lynch, 2003; lindslay & knight, 2006). in the communication process, the listener as receiver decodes the message through linguistic and nonlinguistic knowledge, understands, answers and replies that all these roles prove it is an active skill. according to güleç and durmuş (2015), the listener combines and organizes what he/she heard with his/her background knowledge and structures the information mentally. it is clear that hearing is passive but listening is an active process (kline, 1996). the importance of listening skills in language classrooms may be listed as follows; effects of digital short stories on listening skills çetin-köroğlu 69 no. 20 • input is provided through listening skills and learning begins with understanding input at the right level. thus, it is crucial to lead learning. • interaction is a must to achieve understanding in language classrooms and spoken language provides interaction to both speaker and listener. • understanding authentic spoken language is a challenge for language learners because they hear the language as native speakers use it. • language teachers can easily draw learners’ attention to new vocabularies, structures, and interaction patterns through listening practices (rost, 1994). the importance of listening skills should not be disregarded by teachers in language classrooms because it is crucial to develop other language skills and somehow they are bonded to each other (hansan, 2000, rost, 2002, wolvin & coakley, 1997, smidt & hegelheimer, 2004). if an example is needed to be given, better speaking skills can be taught through listening skills because people cannot communicate face to face unless both types of skills are developed together (rost, 2002). as hansan (2000) stated that “listening comprehension provides the right conditions for language acquisition and development of other language skills” (p.138). even though listening skills have crucial roles, these skills are often neglected and poorly taught in language classrooms (ciğerci & gültekin, 2017). related researches show that language learners perceive listening as one of the most difficult skills in which to improve (graham, 2006). listening is a complicated process in nature which requires background knowledge, linguistic awareness and positive aptitude to interpret the input with natural speed (buck, 2001). related researches indicate that there are various problems related to listening skills. problems with listening skills are commonly noted as difficulty in the monitoring of understanding. listening process consists of various steps. firstly, and yet crucially sounds should be heard clearly by the listener. the second step is recognizing the sounds that are parts of a word. thirdly, words are needed to connect to their meaning. as the fourth step, listeners need to remember what each word means in the target language. as the final step, the listener needs to understand the concept of all of the words together (mendelson, 1994). i̇btisam ali (2016) states that three aspects are the most problematic in listening exercises. firstly, some language learners may have difficulty to understand everyday speech with different accents. they may misunderstand certain sounds. secondly, some language learners may lack fundamental listening skills and strategies to get the necessary information for completing the given task. the last possible problem is that listening content may be culture-specific or include complex language terms to grasp the meaning. additionally, processing of incoming information during a speech takes place at the pauses. during the speech, listeners create mental messages which are stored in their brain. storage of mental message is effects of digital short stories on listening skills çetin-köroğlu 70 no. 20 known as false recognition memory, which is one of the most important features of listening skills (rivers, 1992). according to cook (1996), memory limitations are as important factors as learners’ ability to understand the l2 speech because all listening comprehension relies on storing and processing of information in the mind. that’s to say, language learners experience difficulties in listening because of processing information in the second language. language learners generally face problems such as poor monitoring of understanding, problems in speech segmentation, recognizing familiar vocabularies in the speech flow and inability to combine background knowledge with newly received information during the speech (ofsted, 2011). another problem with listening skills in a foreign language is related to the teaching phase of listening skills. at this point, mendelson (1994), suggests three possible reasons why listening skills are neglected and poorly taught. the first reason is that listening skills are considered as they can be improved when language learners listen to their teachers during teaching. the second reason is that language teachers do not feel comfortable about teaching listening skills because it requires additional efforts and expertise. when an efl learner exposed to a traditional audio recording in language classroom (which provides only the sound), the listener is limited in reception (gough, 1993). in this vein, as the last reason, traditional listening materials are not adequate and efficient to teach listening skills in language classrooms (mendelson, 1994, gough, 1993). listening exercises become principally comprehension tests which generally requires the grasping of specific details rather than the general meaning of the given text. this kind of listening activity makes students feel less successful if they feel that they understand a few sets of vocabulary of listening materials. additionally, research carried out by ofsted (2011), revealed that language teachers tend to use textbooks as sources of listening materials and activities. even though, language teachers have begun to use internet as a source for listening activities recently, without effective and necessary pedagogical strategies, internet-based sources for listening skills development will not be as effective as pedagogically designed listening materials (jones, 2008). however, listening exercises can be enriched by combining them with literary texts and current fruitful and useful technological tools. thus, literary texts especially short stories appeal language learners’ attention, emotion, interest, and their imaginary world. in addition to this, short stories make language learners able to think from other perspectives and develop their sense of aesthetics. additionally, short stories support language learners reading abilities, motivate them to participate in exercises and enable language learners to discover different cultures through context. with the help of developing technologies, it is easy to find and create various formats of literary texts. digital tools have been used to convert literary texts into more colourful, enjoyable and appealing sources for language classrooms. although there are numerous studies which show the use of short stories and computer usage in l2 education, short stories’ effects of digital short stories on listening skills çetin-köroğlu 71 no. 20 integration into computer technologies in l2 education is quite limited. at this point, the current research aims to integrate digital short stories into listening practices in language classrooms. the current study additionally investigates language learners’ perspectives of this new trend through the use of semi-structured interviews. the present research is guided by the following research questions; 1. do digital short stories have any effects on the development of preparatory class students’ listening skills? 2. whether preparatory class students’ have a positive attitude towards the use of digital short stories for listening exercises? related research digital short stories have potential benefit to develop language skills but there are few studies on their effects and usage especial in listening skills (ciğerci & gültekin, 2017). a research was carried out by yılmaz (2015) in turkey. in this empirical study, the researcher aimed to scrutinize the use of short stories via computer technologies in teaching and learning the english language. researcher’s objective is two-fold: to examine how short stories could be used through computer programs in teaching and learning english and to collect data about students’ perceptions of this technique via semi-structured face-to-face interview. in the scope of the study, three different computer programs (jing, screencast, and instant messaging) and three short stories (a dead woman’s secret by guy de maupassant, eveline by james joyce, hills like white elephants by ernest hemingway) were used. during the study 35 elt students studying at a state university in turkey carried out a number of pre-reading/ writing, while-reading/writing, and post-reading/writing activities and tasks suggested by different scholars in the field. the researcher used content analysis of the 12 semistructured interviews. the results revealed that the implementation of short stories through computers in language classrooms have some very positive effects on learners’ language learning process: drawing attention, raising curiosity, cooperation and giving/receiving feedback, improving reading and writing skills, and increasing l2 motivation. it can be inferred from the results that digital short stories are quite effective to develop listening skills of foreign language learners. in addition to this, these digital stories enable language learners to develop reading and writing skills as well. another research is carried out by hassen (2016). the purpose of his study was to measure the effects of using podcasts in enhancing efl learners’ listening comprehension. for the sake of accepting or rejecting the hypothesis, which imply that podcasts will help efl learners to develop their listening comprehension, a questionnaire was distributed to fifty (50) third-year students of english at mohamed khader of biskra, in addition to an interview that was conducted effects of digital short stories on listening skills çetin-köroğlu 72 no. 20 with four (4) oral expression teachers from the english department of the same university. the results showed that podcasts can help efl learners to enhance their listening comprehension. furthermore, the findings revealed that video podcasts are more effective than audio podcasts in terms of listening development. thus, the use of visual and verbal inputs contributed to develop better listening comprehension skills of language learners in terms of the gist and contextual guessing. additionally, with the help of video podcasts students were able to recall information when sounds aided with visuals. another research was carried out by ciğerci and gültekin (2017) about digital short stories’ effect on listening skills development. they aimed to investigate the effect of digital stories on the turkish (mother language) listening skills of fourthgrade students. mixed methods were conducted and both qualitative and quantitative data were collected after 8 weeks’ treatment process. the results revealed that a significant difference was found between the post-test listening comprehension scores for the experimental and control groups. the qualitative data of the research revealed that digital short stories help to create more engaging and motivating classrooms for listening skills development. abidin et. al. (2011) carried out a research to investigate the effects of digital stories on the listening comprehension skills of pre-school students in a foreign language learning context. the experimental group watched digital short stories and at the end of the research post-test results indicate a significant difference between the experimental group and the control group. one other research was carried out by verdugo and belmonte (2007) to understand whether ict enhanced short stories effective on 6 years old participants’ understanding of spoken english. the findings of the research indicated that the experimental group outperformed control group in final test administration. the results indicate that digital short stories draw language learners’ attention regardless of their age by providing more realistic features of target language. thus, multimedia technologies include not only linguistic features but also paralinguistic features such as body language, mimicry, and gestures (verdugo & belmonte, 2007). a master thesis was carried out by jimmy (2013) to investigate the effectiveness of digital stories on listening skills development. in study, participants were exposed to digital stories one a week and the treatment phase lasted for eight weeks. before watching digital short stories, forty pictures which were taken from digital stories were shown to participants as pre-test. after they watched the same pictures were shown again as post-test. researcher wanted participants to speak and write about the pictures. results of the study showed that participants’ listening skills improved and they gave positive feedback about the administration. digital stories promote participants’ imagination and make them more motivated by combining visuals and audio (ciğerci and gültekin, 2017). when considering age of the participants in jimmy’s research who were year three students of a public school, they had less concentration span. however, the researcher stated that digital stories motivated the participants. effects of digital short stories on listening skills çetin-köroğlu 73 no. 20 tamjid and hassanzadeh (2012) also investigated impact of digital stories on listening skills development in their quasi experimental research. totally, forty, 11-14 yearold female students participated in that study. an experimental group with 20 students were exposed to digital stories and a control group with 20 students were treated in traditional listening materials and both groups were tested in terms of listening skills development. findings of the study showed that experimental group outperformed in the final test. in their research, combination of text, sounds and images provide rich, stimulating and authentic learning environment to experimental group. besides, students had chance to receive target language through multiple channels such as audio, video and graphics. according to küçükoğlu and sarıçoban (2011) short stories are the most preferred ones in language classrooms that digital versions offer more effective learning opportunities with the help of developing educational technologies. in addition to these studies, other researchers have investigated digital storytelling’s effects on other language areas such as reading, writing and speaking skills in foreign language teaching and mother tongue development. these studies on the development of writing skills in foreign language education (abou shaban, 2015; abdollahpour & asaszadeh, 2012; chuang, kuo, chiang, su & chang, 2013), and studies on the development of writing skills in mother language education (baki, 2015; foley, 2013; çıralı, 2012). method the purpose of this study was to find out student teachers’ perceptions towards digital short stories’ implementation into language classrooms. specifically, the present research aimed to investigate whether digital short stories were useful to develop student teachers’ listening skills in english. the current research was designed in the form of an action research and one group pre-test and post-test design were utilized. the pre-test was administered before the treatment phase which lasted 8 weeks and then post-test was administered. additionally, the study used a written structured interview to collect qualitative data. totally, 24 student teachers of english participated in the study, who were 7 males and 17 female students of the english language teaching department at a university. the participants’ ages varied from 18 to 21. it was supposed that participants have the same educational background because they have studied at state schools in turkey. additionally, participants’ listening proficiency levels were supposed to be nearly the same that was concluded through their listening proficiency tests administered at the beginning of the term. effects of digital short stories on listening skills çetin-köroğlu 74 no. 20 procedure vandergrift’s pedagogical cycle (2004, 2007) was utilized in the current study. the treatment process lasted 8 weeks. each week, a digital short story was selected as an authentic listening material. suitable for vandergrift’s pedagogical cycle pre-activities were prepared such as mind-maps, brainstorming, vocabulary lists, visuals related with the story, highlighting necessary key vocabulary words. these pre-listening activities were used to activate students’ prior knowledge and encourage them before the listening phase. in the listening phase, students were expected to complete assigned tasks such as while listening and after listening. pre-prepared handouts were given to students. as the last phase, the post-listening stage took place. at this stage students’ reflection and evaluation, skills were aimed to develop though post-listening activities such as discussion, speaking and writing activities. materials the following digitalized short stories were selected for the treatment; transients in arcadia by o. henry, the blue hotel by stephen crane, the fall of the house of usher by edgar allan poe, the devil and tom walker, by washington irving and a horseman in the sky by ambrose bierce. handouts and extra listening exercises were prepared for each digital short story and administered based on vandergrift’s pedagogical cycle. all of the digital short stories that were used in the current research were downloaded or used from various websites. thus, the digital short stories were read and voice recorded by native speakers of english. the digital short stories were retrieved from digital platforms. data analysis and results data were obtained through pre-test and post-test and 6 written structured interview questions to measure the perspectives towards the use of digital short stories and digital short stories’ effects on listening skills development in a preparatory class at the elt department. the results of pre-test and post-test were analysed through spss program. a listening skills achievement test was administered as the pre-test and post-test those were adapted from ielts listening practice books. a t-test was utilized to measure the difference between pre-test and post-test. interview responses were analysed through content analysis which is a research method used to identify patterns in an oral or written record of communication. the results showed that participants’ answers heavily focused on three categories and they thought that digital short stories were effective to develop these aspects. these categories are language skills development, literature related development, and cultural development. effects of digital short stories on listening skills çetin-köroğlu 75 no. 20 test scores of the experimental group as shown in table 1, the experimental group attained about 5 points increase between pre-test and post-test mean score. table 1. results of the listening comprehension test (pre and post-tests) test n mean std. dev cronbach’s alpha pre-test 24 26.51 2.98 .68 post-test 24 31.34 1.68 .67 table 2 shows that participants experienced highly effective listening skill development and there is a significant development between pre-test and post-test results. after the treatment process, there was a significant difference on behalf of the experimental group (4.312, p<.05). table 2. t-test results for the experimental group test n t p pre-test 24 0.415 0.610 post-test 24 4.312 0.000 participants’ perspective towards listening activities with digital short stories as mentioned above, content analysis was used to analyse participants’ responses to a written structured interview. the qualitative data were analysed through three main categories and their sub-categories. detailed information is provided below. first category: language skills development the first category was determined as language skills development because nearly all of the students related digital short stories with an aspect of language learning. according to participants, the digital short stories are so valuable to develop their vocabulary, grammar, listening and pronunciation skills. students’ mentions and their rates were presented below: effects of digital short stories on listening skills çetin-köroğlu 76 no. 20 table 3. language skills development mention rate n. items total mentions 1 beneficial to improve listening skills 20 2 support vocabulary acquisition through the context 16 3 helpful to spell and pronounce unknown vocabularies correctly 10 4 helpful to gain familiarity with complex grammar structures 5 5 pronunciation development 23 as table 1 presents all of the participants thought that digital short stories were useful for pronunciation development. the item was mentioned 23 times in students’ interviews. the second highly mentioned item was ‘beneficial to improve listening skills’ which has 20 mentions. it showed that participants were satisfied with digital short stories and prepared teaching materials. additionally, they thought that these digital short stories supported their vocabulary acquisition because of the rich context of literary texts. besides, they thought that these short stories presented complicated grammatical structures and made them familiar with these structures. few of participants’ responses to interview questions are presented below: firstly, digital short stories contributed a number of benefits to our listening exercises because these short stories were so interesting and attractive. so, when i listened to these short stories, i enjoyed and wanted to listen again. additionally, these short stories helped to improve our listening skills owing to effective pronunciation (s. 1). yes, these stories exactly improve my pronunciation (s. 2). they are beneficial for us. for example, at the beginning of this year, i couldn’t understand listening activities, now i can generally understand them (s. 3). after we listened to stories, there were questions and activities about them and they helped me improved my listening in detail skills (s. 4). second category: literature related development the second category was determined as literature related development of participants because the teaching materials were chosen among well-known american short stories of famous writers. for this reason, teaching materials were expected to develop participants’ perceptions towards literary texts, narration, genre, and style. as expected participants presented detailed data about the second category which is presented below through table 2. effects of digital short stories on listening skills çetin-köroğlu 77 no. 20 table 4. literature related development n. items total mentions 1 focus on gist, content, and details 21 2 satisfied with the theme, topic, and plot 18 3 eager to learn american literature 20 4 recommend digital short stories for listening activities 20 5 interesting and exciting listening exercises 15 as table 2 presents, nearly all of the participants mentioned that they could easily focus on short stories’ gist, interesting details and they were satisfied with the content. hence, ‘focus on gist, content and details’ item was mentioned 21 times in participants’ interview responses. other mostly repeated items were ‘eager to learn american literature’ and ‘recommend digital short stories for listening activities’ that reveal participants were eager to listen to more digital short stories for listening exercises and these short stories made them more eager to learn literature. as the participants were student-teachers of english, hopefully, they will implement such classroom applications into their future classrooms as well. additionally, this inference was supported by other two items which are ‘satisfied with the theme, topic, and plot’ and ‘interesting and exciting listening exercises’ because these items were repeated 18 and 15 times in interview responses of participants. few of participants’ answers are presented below: yes, i like american writers because their minds were powerful and impressive. also, i like themes, plot, and topics of digital short stories. teachers should use these stories for listening activities (s. 1). i like the topic of each story because stories are exciting and draw my attention. language teachers should use these stories to make listening more enjoyable (s. 2). i think stories are funny, exciting and topics of stories different from each other (s. 3). third category: cultural development as it is a well-known fact, cultural elements are mostly conveyed and presented in a nation’s literature, art, history, songs, and language, etc. so, short stories whether they are written, oral or digital include a nation’s cultural figures and elements. for this effects of digital short stories on listening skills çetin-köroğlu 78 no. 20 reason, the third category is determined as cultural development. the third category includes three items which are ‘discovering other cultures’, ‘being aware of cultural differences between their own culture and others’ and ‘empathy’. the results of the third category are presented by table 3 below: table 5. results for cultural development n. items total mention 1 discovering other cultures 20 2 being aware of cultural differences and similarities between their own culture and others 15 3 empathy 10 the results for ‘discovering other cultures’ indicated that participants were aware of discovering other cultures through digital short stories because the item was repeated 20 times in their responses to interview questions. additionally, participants were aware of the fact that each culture is unique and quite different from each other even if they have some similarities. the item ‘being aware of cultural differences and similarities between their own culture and others’ was mentioned 15 times in participants’ responses. the last item of the third category is ‘empathy’ which was repeated 10 times. some students mentioned as if they had been the character of stories which show they developed their empathy skills. few of students’ responses are presented below: these stories are useful to understand cultural things from america and its history because there are lots of details in these stories (s. 1). when i listen to a short story i generally think like that what i would do in that case. sometimes, i get really excited (s. 2). some of the stories inform us about american history or racism, after these activities i do some search about details. i’m really fond of history (s. 3). the data of the current study analysed by using content analysis and three categories were created to analyse the data efficiently. the first category ‘language skills development’ includes 5 different items. the second category ‘literature related development’ includes 5 different items and the third category ‘cultural development’ includes 3 items. the results for each item of categories were presented above in details. in general, the results indicate that student teachers of english who study at preparatory classrooms are quite satisfied with the treatment process in different aspects. participants thought that digital short stories developed their language skills especially pronunciation, grammar, and vocabulary. effects of digital short stories on listening skills çetin-köroğlu 79 no. 20 besides, they thought that digital short stories provided useful and exciting information about different cultures. additionally, they stated that these short stories made them more curious to learn more about other cultures. as brown (2001) stated that listening to stories not only stimulates our senses but also it challenges our minds. so, minimizing the effects of digital short stories to learning and experiencing literature would be unfair. conclusion and pedagogical implications through the present study’s treatment phase participants were encouraged to grasp the meaning of digital short stories by using a combination of both the bottom-up and top-down approaches. as previously mentioned, digital short stories were selected and additional teaching materials were prepared suitable for these approaches. as a novel approach to developing listening skills digital short stories offers language learners listening practice, cultural awareness and sense of literature. digital short stories are used for various teaching purposes. firstly, it provides quality teaching content and lessons to students who need to develop listening skills. language teachers are able to reach a wide range of digital short stories through the internet, online libraries, various websites, and applications. additionally, language teachers can read short stories loudly and record their voices through voice recording applications and then they can add extra videos, pictures and comprehension questions to their own digital short stories. they can digitalize short stories by technological tools and make them more interactive and effective for listening skills. besides, the availability of different variants of digital short stories allows language teachers to select and provide language learners with a suitable sort that fit both their level and interests. as gjuzeleva (2015) stated that language teachers need no expert skills to use literature in language classrooms. additionally, language classrooms have become more interactive and communicative that using literary text for only to read, retell or translate would be an error. on the contrary, these extremely rich texts and their valuable content should be used to develop students’ cultural awareness and understanding, should serve as an initiator for a discussion, evoke language learners’ imagination and develop their language skills (gjuzeleva, 2015). language teachers should be trained on how to use and integrate literary texts into their teaching materials through in-service training. if the benefits and gains of using literary texts explained enough, they will eventually use them. moreover, digital short stories are alternative teaching sources to enhance the learning capacity of learners who have different learning styles. similar to verdugo and belmonte’s (2007) point of view, including graphics, pictures, sound effects in digital short stories enhances both students’ attention and motivation towards oral effects of digital short stories on listening skills çetin-köroğlu 80 no. 20 input in foreign language classrooms. additionally, being exposed to digital short stories made participants more engaged and active during the treatment phase. the results made us able to answer research questions of the study; digital short stories are effective to develop the listening skills of participants. besides, the participants have positive attitudes towards using these materials in foreign language classrooms. thus, participants of the present study were student teachers of english, they may utilize digital short stories in their teaching profession as well. moreover, the treatment phase provided an effective application of these content rich materials. in a nutshell, digital short stories should be used to foster listening skills, communicative skills, language skills and cultural awareness of language learners. the current research shed light on how to use digital short stories to develop listening skills through digital short stories due to basic approaches of this area. however, digitalized short story research can be conducted in other areas as well. effects of digital short stories on listening skills çetin-köroğlu 81 no. 20 references abdollahpour, z. & asaszadeh, n. 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(1991). a survey of the status of listening training in some fortune 500 corporations. communication education, usa. effects of digital short stories on listening skills çetin-köroğlu 84 no. 20 author * zeynep çetin köroğlu has been working as an assistant professor doctor at english language teaching department of bayburt university, turkey. her academic background mainly consists of english language teaching. she graduated from gazi university and got her ma degree. then, she started her phd at the same university and completed it in 2015. she especially interested in intercultural communication, language teachers’ education, ict implementations in language pedagogy and language assessment. she published numerous book chapters and articles related with her research interests. orcid: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9456-8910 effects of digital short stories on listening skills çetin-köroğlu how to reference this article: çetin köroğlu, z. (2020). effects of digital short stories on the development of listening skills: an action research. gist – education and learning research journal, 20, 65-84. https://doi.org/10.26817/16925777.766 no. 23 social presence in an emergency remote teaching (ert) in english during covid-191 la presencia social en una enseñanza remota de emergencia (ert) en inglés durante covid-19 sergio alonso lopera2* universidad de antioquia, colombia transforming community thorugh plan do study act daniel, wasonga & burgin 1 received: september 23rd 2020/ accepted: october 22nd 2021 2 sergio.lopera@udea.edu.co gist education and learning research journal. issn 1692-5777. no. 23 (july december, 2021). pp. 169-182. abstract many educational institutions had to move their face-to-face modality to online modality in a sudden way due to coronavirus disease 2019 (covid-19). following the principles of qualitative research, on this reflection a foreign language teacher describes his social experience in an emergency remote teaching (ert) when he moved his face-to-face classes to online ones. based on rourke et al.’s (2001) and swan’s (2019) social presence, three elements were found on his online experience: cohesive teaching strategies, affective teaching strategies, and interactive teaching experiences. asking about students’ mental health, giving advice, and keeping the video on were some of the strategies used. conclusions suggest that it is vital to present people as human beings and touch their own realities during pandemic times. recommendations involve not only including evaluation practices such as take-home exams, self-assessment and peerassessment, but also monitoring the ongoing process during emergency times. keywords: covid-19; social presence; emergency remote teaching (ert); teaching english resumen muchas instituciones educativas tuvieron que mover sus clases presenciales a virtuales de una manera abrupta debido a la pandemia causada por el coronavirus 2019 (covid-19). en esta reflexión, un profesor de inglés como lengua extranjera describe su experiencia social en una enseñanza remota de emergencia (ert) cuando hizo el cambio de la modalidad presencial a la virtual. basado en la presencia social descrita por rourke et al. (2001) y swan (2019), tres elementos se encontraron en su experiencia pedagógica: estrategias de enseñanza cohesivas, estrategias de enseñanza afectivas y estrategias de enseñanza interactivas. algunos de los ejemplos de estas estrategias incluyen preguntar por la salud mental de los estudiantes, brindar consejos y mantener la videocámara encendida. las conclusiones sugieren que es de gran importancia que los participantes se presenten como seres humanos y toquen sus propias realidades durante los tiempos de la pandemia. las recomendaciones incluyen no solo realizar prácticas evaluativas como la autoevaluación, la evaluación por pares y el examen para realizar en casa, sino también monitorear el proceso durante los tiempos de emergencia. palabras clave: covid-19; presencia social; enseñanza remota de emergencia (ert); enseñanza de inglés social presence in in ert during covid lopera 171 no. 23 resumo muitas instituições educativas tiveram que mover suas aulas presenciais a virtuais de uma forma abrupta devido à pandemia causada pelo coronavírus 2019 (covid-19). nesta reflexão, um professor de inglês como língua estrangeira descreve sua experiência social em um ensino remoto de emergência (ert) quando fez a mudança da modalidade presencial à virtual. baseado na presença social descrita por rourke et al. (2001) e swan (2019), três elementos se encontraram em sua experiência pedagógica: estratégias de ensino coesivas, estratégias de ensino efetivas e estratégias de ensino interativas. alguns dos exemplos destas estratégias incluem perguntar pela saúde mental dos estudantes, dar conselhos e manter a videocâmara ligada. as conclusões sugerem que é de grande importância que os participantes se apresentem como seres humanos e toquem suas próprias realidades durante os tempos da pandemia. as recomendações incluem, não só realizar práticas avaliativas como a autoavaliação, a avaliação por pares e a prova para realizar em casa, mas também monitorar o processo durante os tempos de emergência. palavras chave: covid 19; presença social; ensino remoto de emergência (ert); ensino de inglês social presence in in ert during covid lopera 172 no. 23 introduction many educational institutions had to move their face-to-face modality to online modality in a sudden way due to covid-19. in december 2019, a transmittable viral infection called the coronavirus disease 2019 (covid-19) emerged in wuhan, china, and spread rapidly around the world. thus, the world health organization (who) declared the novel covid-19 outbreak global pandemic in march 2020. as a result of this situation, both teachers and students had to consider new things and redefine their teaching and learning processes. one of the considerations about the change from face-to-face modality to online modality has to do with participants’ expectations. traditional identities, new roles, new environment, different workloads and material redesign are some of the expectations issues that are involved (redmon, 2011). the second element involves developing some skills in the online modality such as the recognition of the interface, online interaction, autonomy, access, control of information, and creativity, among others. due to the sudden change from face-to-face modality to online modality, it is important to take into account the notion of remote teaching/learning. the merriamwebster online dictionary defines the word ‘remote’ as separated by an interval or space greater than usual. in this sense, remote teaching/learning implies delivering/receiving educational content physically away from the institution of learning (nokukhanya, chuks & masuku, 2021). remote teaching/learning also means to be “flexible, free, and welcoming, non-prejudiced, non-restricted and unfettered” (blessinger and bliss, 2016). during covid-19 times, most of the delivering/receiving educational content has been given via online and hodges, moore, lockee, trust and bond (2020) make a difference between well planned online learning and online learning in this time of emergency. the former involves training, time for preparation, and support from experts, whereas the latter has to do with something that is not planned beforehand, that is to say, improvisation. as a way to respond to these difficult times in education, hodges et al. (2020) highlight the concept of emergency remote teaching (ert) for those teachers who had to become online tutors without any virtual experience. the authors state that the primary objective in these circumstances is not to re-create a robust educational ecosystem but rather to provide temporary access to instruction and instructional supports in a manner that is quick to set up and is reliably available during an emergency or crisis (hodges et al., 2020). thus, educators must look for delivery modes, alternatives, and resources that help them keep on working with students. one of the suggestions to align with ert is to follow the evaluation mode of cipp (context, input, process, product). evaluation of social presence in in ert during covid lopera 173 no. 23 needs, problems, and opportunities (context); evaluation of an action plan, the strategy of a program, and budget (input); evaluation of the process that aims at monitoring, documenting, assessing, and reporting on the implementation of plans (process); and the evaluation of costs and benefits (product) are the recommended steps to give students temporary access to learn and attend classes during the quarantine caused by covid-19. finally, the authors also suggest that teachers be flexible with deadlines for assignments, lessen the requirements for some tasks, and apply both formative and alternative assessment (shohamy, 2001; picón-jácome, 2013). one of the key elements in online modality has to do with social presence. garrison, anderson, and archer (2001) argue that it is vital that participants project their personal characteristics as real people although the communication is given through technological tools. besides, it is important to create social presence as this motivates participants to interact with each other. when students perceive that they are part of a virtual group and their ideas are taken into account, they tend to participate more, and learning is given. in fact, different studies support that learning and satisfaction are connected when participants feel social presence in an online modality (mykota & duncan, 2007; esani, 2010; rovai, 2002; sung & mayer, 2012, swan & shih, 2005; swan, 2019). rourke, anderson, garrison and archer (2001) divide social presence into three categories: affective responses, cohesive responses, and interactive responses. affective responses involve feelings, emotions, values, beliefs (e.g., sharing personal information, using humor, using descriptive words, giving a point of view). cohesive responses deal with communication issues that maintain the participants united (e.g., greetings, the way of addressing, social sharing). finally, interactive responses have to do with issues that support that others are attending the course (e.g., acknowledgment, agreement/disagreement, approval, invitation). methodology and context this reflection follows the principles of a case study (creswell, 2014; yin, 2003), as i wanted to have an intense inquiry about my own teaching practices during covid-19 times. since this a new experience and i describe real-life situations, this case study is also based on the interpretative approach (stake, 1998). finally, my teaching practice targets qualitative research because i wanted to understand the social presence in my real teaching. regarding participants, they were a group of beginners in a public university in medellín-colombia. 21 undergraduate students attended the course and age ranged between 18 and 22 years old. the methodology followed the communicative approach (canale & swain, 1980; celce-murcia, dornyei & thurrell, 1995; instituto cervantes, 2002; savignon, 2001) and the thematic units for this course included personal social presence in in ert during covid lopera 174 no. 23 matters, family ties, and home and folks. finally, the course lasted 64 hours and when we changed to online modality 20 hours were covered face-to-face and 44 were taught in an online way. my ert social presence during covid-19 during my covid-19 quarantine, my ert involved interactions, emotions, and communicative issues. based on rourke et al. (2001) and swan (2019), i summarize the social presence strategies i used in my foreign language teaching: table 1. social presence teaching strategies cohesive teaching strategies affective teaching strategies interactive teaching strategies effusive greetings thanking for participation calling students by proper names asking about students’ mental health asking for students’ daily routine use of humor sharing personal information expressing feelings speaking in our mother tongue giving advice prompting to answer questions keeping the video camera on expressing approval learning how to use the interface congratulating on good jobs cohesive teaching strategies i have to highlight that effusive greetings, thanking for participation, and addressing proper names in the new online environment are some of the issues regarding cohesive teaching strategies: hey, good morning! i am happy to have you here! hey, carlos! good morning, are you ok? what’s new? good, mary! thanks for your participation! i also asked my students about their family and mental health situation during the covid-19 lockdown leading to social sharing: social presence in in ert during covid lopera 175 no. 23 betty, tell me about your family, are you living with them during your quarantine? how do you feel during this covid-19 quarantine? regarding students’ cohesive responses, answers to greetings were kind of passive and not quite enthusiastic: hi hello as a result, i had to prompt motivation to raise enthusiasm in our social presence: teacher: hey, luis what’s up, be more energetic! how are you? student: oh, teacher, i am pretty good, thanks, and you? asking for daily routine during their lockdown was an important cohesive element in the remote english course. they not only mentioned academic activities but also their chores: teacher: mary, i would like to know about your daily activities during this lockdown, can you describe them, please? student: well, teacher, i wake up at 7.00, take a shower, have my lunch and then i attend my virtual classes. at noon, i help my mom to cook lunch. then, i wash the dishes...at night i do my homework and i watch television. finally, i go to bed at 11.00. i also asked them to describe some of the activities that help them relax during this quarantine and these included listening to music, watching movies or netflix series and practicing indoor sports. in order to give other ideas to relax, i asked them to preview the following link https://www.cnbc.com/2020/03/20/relaxing-activitiesto-do-at-home-during-covid-19-quarantine.html and then did some reading and speaking activities with them. finally, it is worth noting that these cohesive strategies helped bond the group during covid-19 times. affective teaching strategies one of the strategies to raise motivation has to do with affective issues. krashen (1981) argues that leaners need to have a relaxed atmosphere in language acquisition. although the author makes a difference between acquisition (unconscious) and learning (conscious, a rational process) the affective filter concept is a good mechanism to be taken into account in pandemic times. some students are motivated to learn a language, but high levels of stress or anxiety may cause the learning process a problem social presence in in ert during covid lopera 176 no. 23 especially when they are beginners. as a matter of fact, motivation, self-esteem, and anxiety are affective factors that are present when learners are exposed to in a specific language. according to krashen (1981), learners may have a mental block if they have low motivation, low self-esteem, and low anxiety, and this leads to increase the affective filter. thus, there must be a good connection between learning and affect for language learners. the role of the teacher is then crucial to lessen the said filter and he/ she has to be creative in the teaching processes. in fact, i used different strategies to prompt affective issues. using humor, sharing personal information, expressing fear, and speaking in our mother tongue were some of the elements that belong to this section, in order to have a relaxed atmosphere. as a way to lessen anxiety, i began the first online session talking in our mother tongue (spanish). i showed learners how to use the platform and recommended some tips in this interface: turn off the cameras and microphones if not being in use. use the chat if you have questions. find a quiet and comfortable place to attend english classes. make sure to install the software required properly. i also used spanish to talk about our feelings during covid-19 quarantine and they expressed: feeling fear of catching covid-19. not concentrating too much in classes. family members sometimes having troubles. economic troubles may be around. longing to return back to face-to-face classes. moreover, i asked students if they had pets at home and dogs and cats were the most common ones. then, i prompted learners to use the video camera to show them and talk a little bit about them. this strategy was used as a way to lessen students’ anxiety, too. another teaching strategy used was humor. in each session, i used different strategies to make my students laugh depending on the situation: i asked volunteers to describe their families, “any volunteer? but using proper names in order to prompt humor: yes, peter you are my first volunteer, ha, ha, ha! social presence in in ert during covid lopera 177 no. 23 i was drinking a cup of coffee and i placed my coffee close to the camera and invited them to drink it and students thanked me using the chat with ha,ha,ha. i tried to figure out how to use some of the icons of the platform interface and my image appeared as if i were in three dimensions. i then told my students that this was the movie matrix and i was mr. anderson. finally, these affective strategies helped learners feel a little bit more relaxed in these difficult times. interactive teaching strategies my last social presence strategy involved giving advice and it is divided into both academic and personal issues: hey, guys, you have to keep busy during our covid-19 quarantine. you have to be patient during this time. find a quiet place at home to attend virtual classes. please update in all your academic activities. another piece of advice included motivation to keep on attending virtual classes. i also asked students to click on this link https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=6w1e9edvk34 as a way to raise awareness and have critical discussions in order to maintain the university active in these emergency times. the second strategy used was to prompt students to answer questions. at the beginning of our virtual sessions, students’ participation was really difficult, as they did not participate on their own. thus, i had to call out their proper names to participate in specific learning exercises: hey, john, can you answer the first exercise, please? maría, what’s the answer in exercise 2? on the other hand, i usually maintained my video camera on as a way to show my presence in that educational context. this might show my students companionship in the learning process. moreover, i did my best to smile in front of the camera to have a relaxing and friendly environment. finally, i used my body language to show approval (nodding, ok with my finger) when students did it well answering or interacting during the classes. social presence in in ert during covid lopera 178 no. 23 another important element was given at the very beginning of my ert experience. i had to explore the interface myself and then showed my students how to do it. but first, i asked if they had joined online courses before and some of them agreed but not all of them. thus, i showed them all how to use the interface as a way to interact not only with the system but also with participants. congratulating when students did a good job in their academic activities is an appropriate social strategy to consider. in fact, i always congratulated and thanked them when they did things right: it was a good exercise mary, congratulations and thanks for your participation. good job, john, great! thank you very much for your participation. finally, and as a way to have an active social presence, i asked students to do some reading and speaking activities individually and in groups. regarding the reading part, i asked students to surf the web in order to find web sites that contain information about sports or activities they might like doing at home during covid times, as way to prompt motivation (bradford, 2007; dörnyei, 1998; engin, 2009). i reminded them to apply some of the readings strategies when surfing the web: previewing (exploring the text and getting a general idea of it), scanning (locating specific information), skimming (obtaining a general overview), and intensive reading (focusing and analyzing important parts). later, students shared their findings and reported orally their favorite activities or sports. dancing, listening to music, playing musical instruments, cooking, doing yoga, spot jogging, watching tv series were some of ideas reported. i then asked students to ask their peers specific information about their activities (when, what time, how often, among others). after that, i selected some students to share their screens and asked them to read aloud some parts of their activities. finally, i asked students to give their points of view about these activities during the pandemic times and ideas such as feeling relaxed, being active, being busy, having good mental health were given. as a result, there was interaction among participants. one of the activities or topics of this language level has to do with interviews and i asked students to work in groups in order to prepare and perform an interview. it is worth noting that i first introduced the topic as a way to guide students to do this activity (importance of interviews, structure and vocabulary, possible questions, use of formal language, body language) and played a short video as an example. then, i asked students to get in pairs to act out an interview and gave them some time to do it. finally, they presented the activity, but some students were kind of timid. as a way to make them feel more active, i told them that all of them would have good grades just with the performance participation. as a result, their participation was more active leading to extrinsic motivation (burden, 2004; vansteenkiste, lens, & deci, 2006). social presence in in ert during covid lopera 179 no. 23 conclusions and recommendations due to the coronavirus disease 19 (covid-19), many educational institutions had to move their face-to-face classes to online classes in a sudden way. in this reflection i have described the social presence strategies during my emergency remote teaching (ert). the first element to highlight is to lessen students’ anxiety in this foreign language course. the use of our mother tongue (spanish) is crucial as learners are experimenting a new modality. kayaoğlu (2012) argues that the use of mother tongue is an auxiliary tool for teaching languages. the use of humor is another positive element to lessen anxiety and students might feel relaxed and willing to participate. moreover, it is important to show participants and give examples of how to navigate and use the different tools the platform offers in order to lessen anxiety, too. the second element during this covid-19 lockdown is to introduce people as human beings and touch their realities. as a matter of fact, it is vital to prompt their feelings, talk about their surroundings, and give advice during interactions. it is also important to call out students by their proper names as a strategy not only to participate but also to link the sense of an academic group. working in pairs or groups is another element to have social presence in this sudden modality. in fact, it is vital that students exchange ideas and give their points of view as a way to have social contact. finally, congratulating and thanking are good elements to motivate students due to the fact that they are important characteristics in human interactions. it is worth noting that my teaching experience had to do with real practice regarding social presence in ert times. this social interaction helped us maintain the learning process going on and the call to preserve the educational process active is a must in difficult times. even this simple pedagogical description might guide other practitioners to think of other strategies to guide students in their learning process. regarding recommendations for foreign language teachers, it is necessary that teachers prepare or design activities that include not only the four skills, but also interaction among students. students have access to different social media applications and for sure they find the best way to interact with each other. so, the task for the teacher is to design activities that motivate learners to work in groups. the second recommendation has to do with assessment. take-home exams, self-assessment, and peer-assessment (shohamy, 2001; picón-jácome, 2013; bengtsson, 2019) are just some of the ideas to consider in this ert due to covid-19. the third advice is to monitor the ongoing process. the call to evaluate the process becomes a must in this ert in order to make adjustments during the process. finally, teachers should try new social interactions or ideas to see if they work. the concept of learning by doing (li, 2015; likitrattanaporn, 2017) is applicable in this modality. social presence in in ert during covid lopera 180 no. 23 references bengtsson, l. 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(2003). case study research. design and methods, (3rd ed) thousand oaks, ca: sage publications. author *sergio alonso lopera holds phd and ma in linguistics; specialist in teaching foreign languages. his research interests involve teaching efl reading comprehension and pragmatics. he is a member of the research group eale (enseñanza y aprendizaje en lenguas extranjeras) and a full time professor at universidad de antioquia (medellín colombia). orcid: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2773-0890 how to reference this article:lopera, s. a. (2021) social presence in an emergency remote teaching (ert) in english during covid-19. gist – education and learning research journal, 23, 169–182. https://doi.org/10.26817/16925777.967 social presence in in ert during covid gist education and learning research journal. issn 1692-5777. no. 20 (january june, 2020). pp. 155-169. the impact of educational technologies in higher education1 el impacto de las tecnologías educativas en la educación superior goretti cabaleiro-cerviño and carolina vera2* universidad de navarra, spain and universidad de las américas, chile 1 received: april 10th 2019/ accepted: march 30th 2020 2 gcabalei@gmail.com; carov_007@hotmail.com 156 no. 20 abstract the formation of human capital is key to countries’ social, cultural, and economic development. the current literature review pays considerable attention to the ever-increasing proliferation of technology in the careers of college and school graduates. while the presence of educational technology in higher education offers multiple benefits, its implementation also presents challenges. in that sense, the literature has considered multiple tools for improving learning processes. however, the results of such tools vary and are difficult to measure in terms of quality. in this literature review, we analyze the issues surrounding educational technology in higher education. keywords: educational technology; higher education; information technology; role of the teacher. resumen la formación de capital humano es clave para el desarrollo social, cultural y económico de los países. esta revisión de literatura presta una atención considerable a la introducción cada vez mayor de la tecnología en las carreras universitarias y en las escuelas de posgrados. si bien la presencia de tecnología educativa en la educación superior ofrece múltiples beneficios, su implementación también presenta desafíos. en ese sentido, la literatura ha considerado múltiples herramientas para mejorar los procesos de aprendizaje. ahora bien, los resultados de estas herramientas varían y son difíciles de medir en términos de calidad. en esta revisión de la literatura, analizamos los problemas que rodean la tecnología educativa en la educación superior. palabras clave: tecnología educativa; educación universitaria; tecnologías de la información; rol del profesor. resumo a formação de capital humano é fundamental para o desenvolvimento social, cultural e econômico dos países. esta revisão de literatura presta uma atenção considerável à introdução cada vez maior da tecnologia nas carreiras universitárias e nas escolas de pós-graduações. embora a presença de tecnologia educativa na educação superior ofereça múltiplos benefícios, sua implementação também apresenta desafios. nesse sentido, a literatura tem considerado múltiplas ferramentas para melhorar os processos de aprendizagem. agora bem, os resultados destas ferramentas variam e são difíceis de medir em termos de qualidade. nesta revisão da literatura, analisamos os problemas que rodeiam a tecnologia educativa na educação superior. palavras chave: tecnologia educativa, educação superior, tecnologia da informação, papel do professor, estudantes universitários. educational technologies in higher education cabaleiro-cerviño & vera 157 no. 20 introduction currently, most countries are paying particular attention to knowledge and information as the essential keys to promoting their productivity, ability to compete, and wealth (escueta, quan, nickow & oreoupoulos, 2017). to develop human capital, it is necessary to observe schools and universities to see if they are advancing on a par with the rapidly changing world (hamidi, meshkat, rezaee & jafari, 2011). the current literature pays considerable attention to the ever-increasing proliferation of technology in higher education (ignatyeva, 2015). the consensus seems to be that the global digital agenda highlights the need for a change in educational institutions’ pedagogical model to meet the demands of the new ‘knowledge society.’ such a change would aim to achieve greater flexibility and to adopt learning technologies to modernize and improve teaching processes and learning in formal contexts (chais, ganzer & munhoz, 2017). information and communication technologies (henceforth icts) have had a significant impact on the pedagogy of learning in schools and vocational training (azma, 2011). icts include gathering, organizing, and using the information in various forms, including sound, images, and text, through the use of computers or other derivatives of telecommunications (hamidi et al., 2011). the decrease in the cost of access to technologies and the ease of connecting to the internet have overcome some of the barriers to the adoption of icts by all the actors in education and have opened up new possibilities and areas of interest (avello & duart, 2016). with these facilities, digital technology makes information content easier to find, access, and manage. each of these steps is central to teaching and learning. together, they constitute a dynamic digital learning process (alekseevich & borisovna, 2014). at present, significant transformations have already taken place in the field of higher education. for example, the reorientation of educational patterns, the acquisition of new technologies, and the development of competency-based learning models are helping to strengthen teaching-learning processes and to train key personnel to meet the diverse challenges of the globalized world (lópez de la madrid, 2007). in particular, universities have begun to implement icts for three main reasons: 1) icts represents innovation in learning methods, their presence in the network and the natural adaptation of students; 2) it promotes new goals for the inclusion of technology in education since universities wish to be leaders in the application of new training methods ; and 3) innovation in the icts framework encourages the development of new learning paths, such as distance education, more-fluid two-way communication systems, and self-learning (hamiti, reka & baloghová, 2014). the extensive use of multimedia technology in higher education has changed traditional teaching methods, improving teaching outcomes, and making teaching procedure more active and less passive (chen & xia, 2012). educational technologies in higher education cabaleiro-cerviño & vera 158 no. 20 however, one key challenge that universities face is the design of educational policies that respond effectively to the requirements and needs of a changing environment. they must review and continuously improve the way they manage icts since these technologies are more and more becoming the means for achieving strategic objectives (aliaga & bartolomé, 2005). within these policies, for example, teachers are required to be flexible and skilled and to respond to diversity and constant social change to ensure high-quality teaching. higher education must focus on the preparation of people to learn, to become autonomous in their process of accessing and selecting relevant information, and to adapt to changing needs throughout their professional lives (cobo & moravec, 2011). therefore, despite the motivating power of technologies, the lack of clarity in icts strategies and projects in higher education is an urgent challenge that must be addressed (freitas & paredes, 2018). what is educational technology, and what are its tools? the term “educational technology” applied to the university should be understood as a project encompassing the educational process, involving not only the teacher or the structural divisions of the university but also the students and how they apply technology to improve their learning process (pachler, cook & bachmair, 2010). educational technologies include information technologies, research technologies for scientific and educational information; technologies for the computer processing of educational information; technologies for organizing the professional training of students; and technologies for the execution and defense of the graduation project or academic works (ignatyeva, 2015). the most used tools in this new educational era are multimedia technology, online learning or e-learning, mobile learning or m-learning, blogs, and social networks (fojtik, 2014). on the one hand, multimedia technology allows the integration of text, numbers, graphics, still or moving images, presentations, a high level of interactivity and, besides, the possibilities of navigating through different documents, which gives students the convenience of understanding words and teaching objects (chen et al., 2012). it has been shown that multimedia technology has four advantages: 1) it improves information reception and the quality of teaching; 2) it deepens students’ memory and their understanding of knowledge through vivid images, videos and refined language, 3) the application of multimedia technology can unite the process of recognition and the affective process; and 4) it can stimulate and motivate study among groups of students and improve the efficiency and the quality of teaching (ausin, abella, delgado & hortiguela, 2016). on the issue of improving the quality of teaching, although there is a universal notion that educational technology promotes improvements in learning, these improvements are challenging to measure at present. thus, an unexplored field is precisely how and to what extent icts affect higher education and how these technologies may lead to different careers. educational technologies in higher education cabaleiro-cerviño & vera 159 no. 20 educational technologies in higher education cabaleiro-cerviño & vera also, the intensive use of the internet and the rise of smart mobile devices have allowed the development of new forms of education, such as online education (e-learning or m-learning), which sometimes complements other modalities, such as classroom sessions, and gives rise to a mixed modality (avello et al., 2016). e-learning is the teaching-learning process carried out through the internet, characterized by a physical separation between teachers and students and through which a continuous didactic interaction takes place. in addition, the students become the center of training, having to self-manage their learning with the help of tutors and peers (avello et al., 2016). online learning or e-learning is increasingly better evaluated and more widely used in the field of education (shi, 2016). although many people show resistance to change and relate it to poor-quality education, studies have shown that it is a mistake to assume that e-learning is of lower quality than face-to-face education (marín, f., inciarte, hérnandez, & pitre, 2017). in many developing countries, e-learning is considered a solution to the growing demand for higher education (ngampornchai & adams, 2016); it has already greatly affected the method of learning, and many schools are using it as a pedagogy. much of the research emphasizes the possibilities of mobile or online learning because of its portability, flexibility, and context, which favor study and promote collaboration and lifelong learning (naismith, lonsdale, vavoula & sharples, 2004). a newer and more portable version of online learning is mobile or m-learning level, named for the portable devices that are sometimes small enough to fit in a pocket or the palm of one’s hand. mobile learning is an emerging field of educational practice in schools, colleges, and universities, as well as in the labor market (fojtik, 2014). the increasing use of these devices allows us to use multimedia materials, interact, draw diagrams, take notes, complete tasks, watch video conferences, among others (pachler et al., 2010). this learning technology allows the creation of a developmental continuum that is very effective in the learning process (osorio & duart, 2011). a blog, according to doctorow, dornfest, johnson, powers, trott & trott (2002), is a simple web page consisting of brief paragraphs of opinion, information, personal diary entries, or links, called publications, arranged chronologically with the most recent first, in the style of an online diary. nowadays, blogs are a useful tool to make participating students more active in the learning process. chawinga (2017) concluded that, within the structure of a blog, students could demonstrate their capacity for critical thinking, take creative risks, and make sophisticated use of language and design elements. therefore, by doing so continuously, students acquire creative, critical, communicative, and collaborative skills that can be useful for them in academic and professional contexts. chais et al. (2017) used blogs to teach english as a foreign language in a brazilian university. he investigated students’ perception of blogs as learning tools and found that blogs helped them to improve their writing skills in english by accessing tutorials in the form of podcasts and videos shared by their blogs. 160 no. 20 on the other hand, social networks are structures that promote communication with other people or with institutions through the internet. although social networking technologies such as twitter, facebook, youtube, and instagram, among others, can be a distraction, they can also be an outlet for instructors and students to participate more actively and dynamically and to participate more dynamically and actively in educational activities (fojtik, 2014). social networks facilitate fluid communication between students and teachers, allow research, and find resources needed to complete daily tasks more efficiently and to learn almost without realizing it (pachler et al., 2010). besides, social networks such as facebook allow the creation of private groups for each class or each subject, which facilitate the students’ ability to solve problems and discover answers through the networks (osorio et al., 2011). skills required by the student to make use of technological education there is a broad consensus that students can facilitate their learning process with the help of technology without limitations of time and place because, in such a setting, they can easily collect and analyze data, test hypotheses, design experiments, and conclude (mahini, forushan & haghani, 2012). however, although many universities recognize the need to innovate along these lines, there is no decisive leadership for students to follow in order to address the required changes themselves (casas & stojanovic, 2013). in higher education, it is essential to emphasize that there are pure or exact science careers that have already been adapted to today’s technology. however, some careers have not fully incorporated icts and taken advantage of all its benefits (lópez de la madrid, 2007). undoubtedly, students in contact with icts obtain the benefits of access to information, more-fluent communication, and the advances in training. however, this requires educational actions related to the use, selection, and organization of information, so that the student is trained to become a mature citizen of the information society (salinas, 2004). pedagogical and digital literacy in icts is related to practices of didactically processing and organizing these resources, as well as giving them sense and cultural meaning, a subject that, in a school context, is related to the curriculum as a cultural project for new generations (sandoval, rodríguez & maldonado, 2017). as such, it is necessary to train teachers digitally and to promote autonomous work by students for the use of diverse educational technology applications (shi, 2016). students have some natural abilities for digital reading, navigating, and evaluating what they read to discriminate pages and query strategies (akcay, 2010). promoting autonomous work by students has a significant impact on university students’ learning through technology (lai, wang & lei, 2012). undoubtedly, training in digital skills should be part of the curriculum; however, this is a complex issue because many educational educational technologies in higher education cabaleiro-cerviño & vera 161 no. 20 institutions have not yet made it a priority to promote skills such as a proactive attitude or self-motivation in their students for the use of online learning resources (salinas, 2004). benefits of technological education education is one of the best means through which one can obtain a sense of unity between students and professors in the classroom, as well as build confidence and independence within the students (salinas, 2004). educational technology has also proven to play an essential role in achieving these traits and has become the source of fundamental changes in the classroom. the use of technology in education has allowed students to access information outside of classrooms, and this has caused an increase in self-motivation for learning. for example, azma (2011) found that educational technology helps students significantly improve their scores by expanding the information they can access and, as a result, to broaden their learning environment (personal learning environment). also, the use of technology has also made education more dynamic and exciting. in particular, studies have shown that tweets are considered a more interactive form of learning compared to traditional knowledge-transfer tools such as lectures (menkhoff, chay, bengtsson, woodard & gan, 2015). technology has also allowed the development of collaborative learning and greater participation by students. collaborative learning implies a greater involvement of the classroom community in the learning on a specific topic (shi, 2016). for example, wheeler (2010) showed that social networks help students to create a positive contextual training space concerning pedagogical objectives and to get involved in collaborative learning. such networks motivate students to interact through posting comments or questions on blogs or by “tweeting” on relevant topics. online education offers new possibilities for open and flexible learning (salinas, 2004), which can promote new hybrid models of teaching practices, with teaching methods that require new types of learning experiences. according to floridi (2014), among the tools that provide greater communication—as well as combine education with icts in a specialized manner—are learning analysis or artificial intelligence, adaptive learning, calibrated peer review and scoring automated tests (balfour, 2013). these are advanced processes that, if they are functional interfaces, can allow teachers to concentrate on human attributes such as caring, creativity, and participation in problem-solving. finally, the use of technology in education has also helped reduce administrative expenses (ilgaz, 2015). in particular, the possibilities that the internet offers are extensive. thanks to the ease of sharing content, it is possible to use the network to provide students with ebooks and interactive tools to carry out their activities and exercises. without the need for paper books, the cost of books and other learning materials, as well as administrative costs, can be reduced (nieto & diaz, 2005). through educational technology, the students’ cognitive comprehension has educational technologies in higher education cabaleiro-cerviño & vera 162 no. 20 been improved, and a significant increase in their performance has been observed; indeed, the speed and quality of learning in schools have improved, as well (chen et al., 2012). role of the teacher in this technological age teaching methods have changed in recent years. in most of the world, the most effective leap forward has been the application of icts in higher education since 1990 (hamidi et al., 2011). given that technology-based training is a learner-centered method (instead of relying on the teacher), there have been fundamental changes in the learning process, as well as in the roles and responsibilities of the teacher, because the use of tools and technologies reduces some of the limitations of the classroom (mahini et al., 2012). there is an essential emphasis on teachers today, as they must prepare to provide learning opportunities in addition to technology for students. in fact, preparation to apply technology and technological awareness to improve the quality of student learning must be one of the necessary skills of a teacher (hamidi et al., 2011). the teacher is the actor whose central role is to help students access and develop their technological capabilities. the teacher should have the necessary expertise, knowledge, and ability to manage learning activities. with these skills, he or she must try to change the classroom from a static to a dynamic learning environment so that students can communicate with others, both in their classes and in virtual classes around the world (salinas, 2004). the literature has observed that the main activities of teacher training in e-learning can be divided into two main tasks: 1) planning and delivering content to students, and 2) promoting excellent communication between teachers and students. in this type of training, learning skills strengthen motivation, and students’ participation in the learning process is more prominent (mahini et al., 2012). in the e-learning environment, students can already perform several of the teacher’s duties until they are shared, and the quality of education is increased through process efficiency. these changes also mean that the teacher is no longer the only source of knowledge (mahini et al., 2012). therefore, teachers in higher education can have a positive impact by learning to apply icts optimally and to teach their students to do the same. challenges of this technological era the implementation of technology in each vocational school and university must be designed and regulated according to the purposes and goals of each institution since one of the most significant challenges is the lack of clarity in planning and educational technologies in higher education cabaleiro-cerviño & vera 163 no. 20 implementing it. such planning should be focused on generating motivation for the use of technologies through strategies that allow virtual classrooms to be an alternative learning space (freitas et al., 2018). the challenges currently facing education imply the incorporation of new pedagogical technologies in a more open and flexible formal education, as several authors have recently pointed out (castañeda & adell, 2013). on the other hand, vocational schools today do not require instructors to be trained in technology. because of this, teachers that are not trained in technological applications have a competitive disadvantage in the labor market versus teachers who do have experience with the use of technology. a teacher without such training is an intermediate staff member not qualified for the labor market (dahil, karabulut & mutlu, 2015). that is, most teachers do not have the level of knowledge or the teaching experience necessary for an adequate education process (mendoza, baldiris & fabregat, 2015). the instructors, who will be implementers of the technological integration, are severely hampered in using the technology because these instruments are sophisticated, and instructors do not have enough academic equipment. (dahil et al., 2015). in other words, future teachers must learn in an applied way about the use of technology and extend it with pedagogical practices throughout their training for their professional development. similarly, universities face obstacles related to infrastructure, thus limiting students’ access to computers (ngampornchai et al., 2016). among the challenges, for example, investments are insufficient since investment in technology requires a long-term and high-cost infrastructure. institutions initially require a stable supply of energy and infrastructure, which is an essential ingredient for implementing stable icts systems. the lack of supply is a major obstacle to facilitating operations and internet access (hamidi et al., 2011). many technical institutes and universities teach theoretical education instead of practical training since they do not have enough equipment or technological infrastructure (dahil et al., 2015). another challenge is students’ and teachers’ view of icts as instruments of the configuration of learning and work environments (nieto et al., 2005). the low acceptance of e-learning is due to the low level of knowledge, a deficient level of computer literacy, an unreliable platform in internet services, and the high cost of implementation (folorunso, ogunseye, & sharma, 2006). for example, garcía-pérez, santos-delgado & buzón-garcía (2016) found that only ten percent of the teachers in his sample reached a high level of technological adaptation, and, for this reason, we believe that the appropriate training should be included in teachers’ study plans. critical success factors of e-learning experts (professors, icts experts, and researchers) were explored in developing countries. the four main factors that emerged from the data were classified by icts experts: computer training, perceived utility; attitude towards e-learning; and computer self-efficacy. among students, these four factors are vital for the optimal use of icts (bhuasiri, xaymoungkhoun, zo, rho & ciganek, 2012). educational technologies in higher education cabaleiro-cerviño & vera 164 no. 20 conclusions educational technology through icts has been successfully incorporated in primary and secondary schools (martínez sánchez, 2007). however, at the university level, there are continuing challenges regarding the guidelines that should be followed to implement the application of icts in all careers (salinas, 2004). we have observed all the benefits and adversities that universities face when promoting the increase of technological resources in the classroom. however, it is essential to point out that, although it is generally agreed that the application of educational technology improves educational quality, this cannot be easily proven. if the faculty does not have the proper preparation or creativity to use icts, the quality of teaching could be substandard and could affect the learning process. this would be the main challenge since students generally have experience with icts and do not need to be trained (avello et al., 2016). in addition, there are no mechanisms for evaluating quality improvements that come from the application of technology in the classroom. finally, the application of educational technology varies from career to career because there are many careers, such as the pure sciences or engineering, that require a continuous process of improvement at the technological level. however, several careers that are labeled “theoretical” do not use icts as much, although potential positive effects could be found in the use of icts, such as participation in moocs or blogs, which allow for more global learning and a broader perspective on their careers (pachler et al., 2010). educational technologies in higher education cabaleiro-cerviño & vera 165 no. 20 references akcay, a. & arslan, a. 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(2010). open content, open learning 2.0: using wikis and blogs in higher education. changing cultures in higher education, springer, berlin, heidelberg. doi: 10.1007/978-3-642-03582-1_9 authors *goretti cabaleiro-cerviño is assistant professor at universidad de navarra, faculty of business and economics, in pamplona, spain. her primary research areas are technology and innovation management and business strategy. orcid: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8702-3050 carolina vera holds m.a. in economics with mention in industrial organization and social policies in georgetown university, usa (with a double degree at universidad alberto hurtado, cl). she studied a ba in economics in catholic university of bolivia. she currently works in research about education and labor markets. she nurtures a keen interest in several fields: development economics, education and labor economics and applied econometrics. orcid: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9421-9780. educational technologies in higher education cabaleiro-cerviño & vera how to reference this article: cabaleiro-cerviño, g., & vera, c. (2020). the impact of educational technologies in higher education. gist – education and learning research journal, 20, 155-169. https://doi.org/10.26817/16925777.711 a creative nonfiction narrative inquiry into an efl online learning community during the covid-19 pandemic1 una investigación narrativa creativa de no ficción en una comunidad de aprendizaje en línea de efl durante la pandemia de covid-19 angeliki ypsilanti, ioannis karras2 ionian university, greece 1 received: november 1st, 2022 / accepted: november 30th, 2022 2 angypsilanti@ionio.gr, karrasid@ionio.gr gist education and learning research journal. issn 1692-5777. no. 25 (july december, 2025). pp. 87-110. prospective teachers’ reasons for preferring the profession 88 no. 25 abstract university libraries globally launch coronavirus memory archival projects inviting the documentation of personal experience. elicitations such as journal entries and oral history interviews fall under the category of life-writing. this narrative inquiry focuses on creative nonfiction stories produced by an online high school community and edited by the efl teacher during the first full lockdown in greece. the shift to distance education caused students to use elf as a means of contrasting their local archival endeavors with global ones. the efl teacher as researcher used mentor texts, collected the coronavirus stories on e-me online platform, engaged the online members in a peer-reviewing process and reauthored a collective narrative. narrative writing analysis was employed to reflect the teacher’s initiative to commemorate a student community’s physical disconnectedness from onsite learning. the use of e-me for this collaborative venture offers practical implications for efl practitioners such as going beyond the bounds of the traditional curriculum whilst identifying self-regulation as indication of resilience among students experiencing unprecedented circumstances. keywords: creative nonfiction, narrative inquiry, memory archive, coronavirus, efl, e-me resumen las bibliotecas universitarias lanzan a nivel mundial proyectos de archivo de memoria de coronavirus que invitan a la documentación de la experiencia personal. las elicitaciones como las entradas de diarios y las entrevistas de historia oral caen dentro de la categoría de escritura de vida. esta investigación narrativa se centra en historias creativas de no ficción producidas por una comunidad de secundaria en línea y editadas por el profesor de efl durante el primer cierre total en grecia. el cambio a la educación a distancia hizo que los estudiantes usaran elf como un medio para contrastar sus esfuerzos de archivo locales con los globales. el profesor de efl como investigador utilizó textos de mentores, recopiló las historias de coronavirus en la plataforma en línea e-me, involucró a los miembros en línea en un proceso de revisión por pares y reescribió una narrativa colectiva. se empleó el análisis de escritura narrativa para reflejar la iniciativa del profesor de conmemorar la desconexión física de una comunidad estudiantil del aprendizaje en el sitio. el uso de e-me para esta empresa colaborativa ofrece implicaciones prácticas para los profesionales de efl, como ir más allá de los límites del plan de estudios tradicional e identificar la autorregulación como una indicación de resiliencia entre los estudiantes que experimentan circunstancias sin precedentes. palabras clave: no ficción creativa, investigación narrativa, archivo de memoria, coronavirus, efl, e-yo a nonfiction narrative inquiry into an efl community during covid-19 ypsilanti and karras 89 no. 25 resumo: as bibliotecas universitárias lançam ao nível mundial projetos de arquivo de memória de coronavírus que convidam à documentação da experiência pessoal. as elicitações como as entradas de jornais e as entrevistas de história oral caem dentro da categoria de escritura de vida. esta pesquisa narrativa centra-se em histórias criativas de não ficção produzidas por uma comunidade de secundária em linha e editadas pelo mestre de efl durante o primeiro encerre total na grécia. a mudança à educação a distância fez que os estudantes usassem elf como um meio para contrastar seus esforços de arquivo locais com os globais. o professor de efl como pesquisador utilizou textos de mentores, recopilou as histórias de coronavírus na plataforma em linha e-me, envolveu os membros em linha em um processo de revisão por pares e reescreveu uma narrativa coletiva. empregou-se a análise de escritura narrativa para refletir a iniciativa do mestre de comemorar a desconexão física de uma comunidade estudantil da aprendizagem no lugar. o uso de e-me para esta empresa colaborativa e implicações práticas para os profissionais de efl, como ir mais além dos limites do plano de estudos tradicional e identificar a auto regulação como uma indicação de resiliência entre os estudantes que experimentam circunstancias sem precedentes. palavras chave: não ficção criativa, pesquisa narrativa, arquivo de memória, coronavírus, efl, e-eu a nonfiction narrative inquiry into an efl community during covid-19 ypsilanti and karras 90 no. 25 introduction university libraries in england and the usa have launched covid-19 archival projects for public submissions of personal experiences. most of them tend to address either the student or the wider local communities. a different in scope covid-19 archival project targeting a global audience is that of the oxford center for life-writing (oclw) which runs a project with writing prompts related to people’s experiences of the coronavirus outbreak. oxford university’s oclw as well as the penn state university with its viral imaginations: covid-19 project favor creative nonfiction (cnf) submissions, thus giving emphasis to the creativity factor in the documentation of living history in the making. during the covid-19 pandemic crisis, students of a greek lyceum tried to improve their intercultural skills by making their local stories globally known. buchanan (2020, p. 4) explains that during the lockdown period students were “in need of community” and that they relied on writing “to communicate, create community, and remain connected” as well as “find their voices and share their experiences.” under the guidance of their english teacher, greek students had analogous recourse to writing through the hive blog on the e-me platform where they shared their coronavirus experiences in response to writing prompts aimed at facilitating “reflections on identity” as “inevitably fluctuating in response to changing contexts” (bennett, 2015, p. 577). taking into consideration that individuals in times of crisis tend to coalesce around issues of common concern, documenting and archiving ongoing experience in english as a lingua franca (elf) can play a leading role in the intercultural training of a specific online student community. the students’ recourse to creative nonfiction (cnf) writing constitutes both a guided practice and a creative impulse that is further reinforced by the prospect of exchanging feedback through the e-blogging service of the e-me platform. for the benefit of a bigger “emplotted narrative” (polkinghorne, 1995, p. 7), the research question that guided the present study is as follows: how can creative nonfiction be used as both a narrative research method and an object of narrative research in an efl online context? a nonfiction narrative inquiry into an efl community during covid-19 ypsilanti and karras 91 no. 25 literature review background to creative nonfiction lott (2000) views the investment in “the self as the creative element of creative nonfiction” (p. 195). in other words, the self in cnf reshapes the factual reality from a participatory point of view thus becoming the bridge of communication between the writer and the reader. gerard (2010, p. 22) explains that “every story is about the reader, so it must matter to the reader” which entails that the story must heighten the levels of emotional appeal and provide a confluence of mediating stimuli. to achieve this, it all depends on the writers’ perception and support of the emotion-specific content of their story. regarding issues of authorship and readership, cnf acquires a different dimension within a pedagogical context. as regards authorship, silverberg (2019) explains how he integrated cnf into his creative writing courses imbuing esl students with a sense of purpose through the practice of “automatic writing” (p. 256). students engaged in writing personal experience essays that were pooled for feedback exchange in the “peer workshop” (silverberg, 2019, p. 255). as regards readership, gutkind (2012) points out that “the driving force behind creative nonfiction has everything to do with attracting and keeping the reader interested” (p. 74). according to him, if writers choose to tackle a “public subject with a personal and intimate spin,” they stand a good chance of “establishing a universal chord” with a wider reading audience (gutkind, 2012, p. 74). the tele-educational framework for elt in greece the learners’ home space has been inadvertently transformed into a public one while attending the webex online classes as replacement for face-to-face instruction. more specifically, the greek ministry of education has put at the disposal of the educational community two platforms: the webex synchronous platform which connects students to their teachers in real time and the open eclass which is its asynchronous counterpart functioning as an open-source learning management system (lms) that supports resources and assignment management. an alternative suggestion is that of the e-me platform which is an advanced example of a personal learning environment (ple) “driven by the learner needs and based on sharing rather than controlling” (megalou et al., 2015, p. 2). the availability of such a virtual space is important, especially during the covid-19 crisis, because it can “support both formal and informal learning experiences” (megalou et al., 2015, p. 3). when envisioning distance education on a macro-level, it might be useful to contemplate integrating its communicative aspects into an associated framework of informed action. megalou et al. (2015) point towards the “social networking services” a nonfiction narrative inquiry into an efl community during covid-19 ypsilanti and karras 92 no. 25 as well as the “file sharing, blogs, wikis, messaging, and conferencing” tools provided by e-me “to ensure collaboration and communication” (p. 3). nikiforos et al. (2020) argue that “virtual learning during the pandemic can significantly reshape and innovate teaching, as well as allow the continuation of fostering a sense of community” (p. 2). by encouraging localized attempts at writing about the coronavirus pandemic through any online education platform provided, students are not only encouraged in hosting their memories but also facilitated in using the co-occurring archives as open channels of communication with the outside world. models for narrative inquiry within an efl context on the uniqueness of the cnf genre, purdue online writing lab (owl) provides author guidelines on how incorporating reflection in one’s personal account of events can prevent the end result from being an intentless “collection of scenes open to reader interpretation.” for the teaching of the writing skill within an efl context, certain narrative models for communicating personal experience co-serve the purposes of narrative inquiry. for example, doman (2015) explores language learning histories (llhs) as student-generated accounts of their individual history of language learning, while barkhuizen and wette (2008) propose the collection of students’ reflections on their learning experience via “narrative frames” because they “provide guidance and support in terms of both the structure and content of what is to be written” via “starters, connectives and sentence modifiers” (pp. 375-376). although both models are employable for data collection in the field of narrative inquiry, none of them use writing prompts on life events to trigger memory and reflection. cnf story writing could co-serve as an alternative collection model, but it has not attracted much research attention because it is considered less associated with the personal reflection essay in the context of elt and more relevant to autoethnography in the context of anthropological methodology (kim, 2016). narrative smoothing in qualitative research kim (2016) espouses the idea that “narrative inquiry is a way of understanding human experience through stories that, in turn, help us understand better the human phenomena and human existence” (p. 190). he then goes on to assert polkinghorne’s (1988) “equation of narrative inquiry with the study of narrative meaning” (in kim, 2016, p. 190). according to polkinghorne, the extraction of meaning from narrative data analysis is essential to drawing conclusions on their value. the proposed means of drawing meaningful conclusions is “narrative smoothing” which according to spence (1986) “masks subjective interpretation as explanation” and “presents a good story that is not necessarily a faithful account” with a view to providing not only short a nonfiction narrative inquiry into an efl community during covid-19 ypsilanti and karras 93 no. 25 term gratification but also long-term thoughtfulness (as cited in kim, 2016, p. 192). the method of narrative smoothing is used in the context of polkinghorne’s “narrative mode of analysis” which “helps the reader understand how and why things happened the way they did and why and how participants acted the way they did” (as cited in kim, 2016, p. 197). from an educational standpoint, creswell (2015) points out that narrative research is mainly aligned with “teacher reflection” (p. 505), hence the derived need for rearranging the collected types of narrative research forms (i.e., student personal narratives) in a meaningful and impactful way. naturally, the question that arises here is “who provides the story” since teachers’ and students’ voices are often intertwined depending on what is at stake (creswell, 2015, p. 506). if the teacher is both narrative researcher and co-participant in a story involving school life, then it becomes obvious that the resulting narrative will be a dynamic synthesis highly convergent in terms of theme and scope. similar studies while downey and clandinin (2010) explore the intersections between narrative and reflective inquiry to assess the dynamics of “unexpectedness” in retrospect, other narrative studies identify the coronavirus pandemic as the key variable in the way narrative inquiry handles the ongoing memory of events. whileand postcovid-19 narrative studies tend to evaluate the pandemic’s effects with a view to predicting its future impactability on collective memory either centering on concepts such as “narrative coherence” or on theories such as the “transition theory”. more specifically, narrative coherence was used by vanaken et al. (2021) in the form of an autobiographical writing task on coronavirus to predetermine the activation of positive or negative memories during students’ exposure to stressful events. likewise, the transition theory, as applied by brown (2021), viewed the covid pandemic as a dominant event that over time is anticipated to become an adjustable unit in autobiographical recollection. in both indicative cases, narrative inquiry into the memory of the coronavirus pandemic assumes the characteristics of an evaluative report that disregards the documentation of the individual voice as participatory at all levels of the inquiry process. on the flip side, kim (2016) cites representative examples of narrative inquiry as “phenomenon and method,” “oral history,” “life story,” “creative nonfiction,” and “fiction” (pp. 269-297). while in most of kim’s (2016) narrative inquiry cases the data collection methods involve field observation and tape-recorded interviews of a (semi-) structured nature, the example of “life story” stands out in that several participants have formed a writing group that contributes personal writing samples around a specific topic for intergroup discussion (kim, 2016, p. 279). although one might have expected a nonfiction narrative inquiry into an efl community during covid-19 ypsilanti and karras 94 no. 25 of the “creative nonfiction” example to constitute a similar case of narrative inquiry based on firsthand written accounts of a specific topic, the suggested documentation of “multiple voices” based on the “bakhtinian novelness of polyphony” has been subjected to polkinghorne’s (1995) mode of analysis to improve the readability impact (kim, 2016, p. 287). a polyphonic perspective on life narratives, where creative nonfiction as reflection takes the lead, has been conducted by peters et al. (2020) who offer a compilation of 15 autoethnographical pieces detailing student experiences as active participants of china’s current ihe under the covid-19 pandemic. more specifically, as autoethnographic accounts written from the point of view of each student-contributor, they are “honest, reflexive, and often emotional discussions of personal human experience” (peters et al., 2020, p. 985). for this reason, they are considered empowered narrative pieces to be used for qualitative research purposes. coda in cnf narrative inquiry the above-mentioned narrative inquiry example of cnf has a strong storytelling element that makes all the difference to the reader who according to caulley (2008) has had enough of reading “boring qualitative research reports” (p. 424). apart from the creative writing techniques that can be employed to achieve a less boring effect on the reader, caulley borrows burroway’s (2003) words to explain that the main thing is to invest in the truth even if its verbal recasting may end up “revealing new insights” into the lived experience of a specific event (as cited in caulley, 2008, p. 447). it is this transfigured truth that kim (2016) baptizes as “coda” highlighting that it “can bring the research a notch up, as the researcher evaluates what the researched stories might mean, after finding ways to transfigure the story’s commonplace to illuminate the larger society and bringing the readers together with the now of the research phenomenon” (p. 229). research design the present study relied on the characteristics of narrative research insofar as the core concept of story was sustained throughout to act as a point of liaison for the provision of a chronological framework. from the outset, the research problem rested upon the elicitation of the learners’ personal experience stories, which has been occasioned by the covid-19 outbreak, inaugurating a mosaic collection of field texts written by students. the intent was to engage learners in writing down their memories under the auspices of an approved online platform, namely e-me, for the storage and longitudinal diffusion of a specific meaning-making process. engagement a nonfiction narrative inquiry into an efl community during covid-19 ypsilanti and karras 95 no. 25 was premised upon the stance that there must be mutual consent on the shapeshifted alliance between the teacher and the student when it comes to recovering the sense of learning community in an online environment. my endeavor was to transform the virtual capacity of e-me into a critical and imaginative storage space by using the written responses submitted through e-me assignments as archival material in need of spatiotemporal specificity before recasting it “in a flexible storytelling mode” (creswell, 2015, p. 508). steps in conducting the narrative research the collection and interpretation of the qualitative data of this study were derived following creswell’s (2015, pp. 515-518) steps in the conducting of narrative research with the linearity factor adjusting to a multivariate explanatory framework. “step 1. identify a phenomenon to explore that addresses an educational problem” the covid-19 pandemic outbreak enforced a new set of operational realities to which everyone was required to conform. further exploration of the vicissitudes of the educational reality, both inside and outside of school, led to the definition of the implications of the educational impact of online teaching and learning with the aid of the platforms provided by the greek ministry of education. the issue of the new coronavirus as a debunker of social norms became the general subject of a reflection essay to count as a term assignment submittable via e-me assignments on e-me platform. reflection was construed as a combination of recounting a personal experience and forging an unforgettable memory of it, the result of which was a compilation of individualized stories. “step 2. purposefully select individuals from whom you can learn about the phenomenon” this narrative study made a purposeful selection of 17 participants from the third grade of a greek lyceum on a north aegean island. students were assigned to contribute a personal experience essay for the school’s memory archive. submission to the e-me digital platform received teacher and peer feedback through blogging during the second school closure in greece (from november 9 to february 15, 2021). “step 3. collect the stories from those individuals” the stories collected through e-me platform as assignments were handled as field texts that contained the students’ memories of what constituted their individual experience of a globally impactful event. although students were allowed reasonable freedom to respond appropriately to a wide range of relevant prompts, it was agreed a nonfiction narrative inquiry into an efl community during covid-19 ypsilanti and karras 96 no. 25 that they keep within the bounds of the creative non-fiction writing genre. as a result, they came up with different forms of creative non-fiction writing such as letters, diary entries and personal essays. “step 4. restory or retell the individuals’ stories” after the collection of the students’ field texts followed the processing and organization of the stories into a narrative structure. to prevent the possibility of methodically trying to arrange disparate reflections, connected by no discernible motif, retelling the individuals’ stories became the tactic choice to achieve chronological and causal sequence. consequently, the students’ storied memories of coronavirus were logically sequenced, contextualized and assembled for the purposes of a metastory that was selectively reconstructed from extracts of the field texts by the narrative researcher-teacher. “step 5. collaborate with the participants-storytellers” the collaboration with the participating students-storytellers was carried out through the blogging facilities provided by the e-me platform. students were invited to join the e-me blogs as active members in the role of peer-reviewers. as estimators of each other’s intended content, they came to the realization that their common concerns had to be broached by providing an evaluative commentary. it should be noted that students were advised against indulging in proofreading or reediting each other’s texts because the original stories constituted indispensable resources to the re-teller. only at a later stage were the 17 stories redrafted by the teacher for the purposes of longterm storage of their final version. “step 6. write a story about the participants’ experiences” step 6 was more of a combination of steps 4 and 5 since the “metastory” or metanarrative which was an essential component in the collaborative design process became an integral part of the final narrative report. the outcome did not only reflect the outgrowth  of the participants’ coronavirus experiences but also the synthesis “procedures involved in” the strengthening of the intermediate spatiotemporal links (creswell, 2015, p. 518). the hallmark of this step was the use of the first pronoun in the narration of the end story as a regulatory practice for preventing the development of a reader-unfriendly narrative. “step 7. validate the accuracy of the report” as regards the validation of the accuracy of the narrative report, provisions had already been made for coping with any discrepancies between real-life accounts and made-up stories by directing students towards cnf for emotional release. furthermore, the choice of an officially approved online platform to operate as a longlife repository of knowledge, information-provider and social forum warranted the a nonfiction narrative inquiry into an efl community during covid-19 ypsilanti and karras 97 no. 25 objectivity of the report. the internal peer-review process reflected the development of student-directed collaborative work through content-sharing in a way that the idea of researcher involvement matured naturally over time. “narrative analysis” of data the analysis of the collected data followed polkinghorne’s (1995, as cited in barkhuizen et al., 2014, p. 73) “narrative analysis” of “non-narrative data,” that is data that were not yet “in story form” but were carefully crafted by the narrative researcher who undertook the task of reconstructing a piece of “narrative writing” to tell the inbuilt evolutionary story. the end narrative was an example of “how storytelling can be used as a data analysis strategy” while the findings coincided with their “wellcrafted, subjective interpretation by the researcher” (barkhuizen et al., 2014, p. 89). findings narrative thinking i first came up with the idea of urging my students to record their coronavirus experiences when, during the school closure  over the course of the  first  covid-19  lockdown (from march 11 to may 11, 2020), i stumbled upon new york times’ learning network whose picture prompts feature invited students to “strengthen their literacy skills” based on image-driven prompts, while the student opinion questions feature gave students the opportunity to “practice writing for an authentic audience.” the picture prompt “social distancing” (gamlen, 2020) and the question prompt “how is the coronavirus outbreak affecting your life?” (engle, 2020) were ideal opportunities for an efl teacher who was on the lookout for homework ideas to implement her asynchronous online teaching carried out by email. in fact, the question prompt was developed into a digital writing practice idea using google docs where students were required to enter their personal experience with a view to contributing to the creation of a digital archive. during the second school closure from november 9, 2020 to february15, 2021, my school gave teachers the asynchronous option to use either the e-class or the e-me online platform to support their teaching. i opted for e-me because of its additional use as a social networking platform. even more appealing was presenting my own counter proposal to the capacity planning of an educational platform. this time, my inspiration was traceable to another project to which i became a regular contributor as from may 2020 responding to creative prompts about my own coronavirus experiences. “a change in morning habits” was one of my contributions (author, 2020). a further writing corona-assignment that became a bond between my personal continued process of self-reflection and my professional acknowledgement of the potential a nonfiction narrative inquiry into an efl community during covid-19 ypsilanti and karras 98 no. 25 for guided self-reflection came from malmö university where i was registered as a creative writing student during the autumn term of 2020. an optional assignment to reflect on the effects of the coronavirus led me to my submission which was published at malmö university’s website as part of a related project (land, 2021). the idea of a british and a swedish university storing coronavirus memories using writing prompts led me to the realization that this was the best time for an efl teacher to activate the hidden curriculum. to this end, after carefully sifting through a wide range of archival projects about coronavirus experiences run by university libraries in usa and great britain, i settled on my own plan of action to give a meaningful purpose to online classes by engaging students in building their own memory archive using elf. for the purposes of the coronavirus memory archive construction, the 17 third graders of the lyceum were asked to complete a term assignment based on a questionnaire which was meant to operate as a prompting guide to unlock their thoughts and feelings. the result was a personal narrative essay which was composed after receiving preliminary training in narrative writing through a selection of mentor texts from the above-mentioned projects. having had the previous experience with a similar question prompt task, it was not difficult for them to respond, only that this time they had a longer word limit as well as the extra requirement to register on e-me platform. other than that, they were allowed reasonable writing freedom to leave their mark on the world bearing the prior knowledge of what was expected of them and keeping in mind that they would have to create connection with other people in the world. the process of organizing different life stories but also synchronizing parallel reflections depicted the philosophy behind this endeavor to weave past, present and future into the taut telling of a globally familiar story that cohered through everyone’s contribution. in other words, my “prior knowledge and experience” generated the “narrative schema” that ordered students’ writing activity which was supplemented by the activation of further sub-schemas about content development. in this respect, although i cued the students with authentic texts and an open questionnaire that incentified them to establish their own narrative form, i was pleasantly surprised to find out that they developed their own cognitive strategies. my only aid to them was the presentation of the nyt learning network’s narrative writing criteria (e.g., telling a story about a small but memorable event or moment in your life; using details to show, not tell; writing in your real voice; dropping the reader into a scene; reflecting on the experience and giving the reader a take-away, etc.) from which they selected almost in complete unison the one that pointed towards “reflecting on the experience and giving the reader a take-away” judging it to be the end point that came close to the global minimum of the target function of the coronavirus memory archive (schulten, 2019). a nonfiction narrative inquiry into an efl community during covid-19 ypsilanti and karras 99 no. 25 i present stratos’ (one of the student-participants) “take-away” for the global reader which encapsulates yielding meaning from human experience and life. i believe that the coronavirus came to change the whole world and our society. it made us think about our future. it came to teach us that money has no value when it comes to health. it is here to show us that we need to love one another and to stop the lies and hypocrisy. we need to stop injustice, war, and conflict. we should see our future differently without hating others or chasing wealth. we ought to love nature and protect it, value friendship and family. we need to become better people! meaning-making from the students’ point of view, coronavirus was identified as the memorable event that lent life new meaning constitution. given that shared perception of reality prompts feelings of solidarity, students developed the need to participate in the compositional process of an enduring legacy because sharing memories gave them a sense of agency, a sense of personal power to make a statement. during the coronavirus lockdowns, students underwent adjustments of considerable proportions which compelled them to develop emotion regulation strategies. writing down their personal experience of life during the coronavirus lockdowns precipitated catharsis which sprang from the sense of oneness with the impact of the crisis event and the larger historical picture within which the crisis event became inscribed. polkinghorne (1988) explains that the extraction of meaning from narrative writing constitutes a way of recognizing the implications of human experience in a specific time and place (as cited in kim, 2016). this kind of meaning is the inquirer’s distilment of different stories around the same theme with a view to giving orientation to the reader’s impressions. the question that polkinghorne (1988) raised was whether the inquiry subjects were left “at the mercy of the storyteller’s recollection or introspection” (as cited in kim, 2016, p. 190). my question is whether my students could have been involuntarily downgraded to a subaltern position by me given that i became their spokesperson to the rest of the reading world through authoritative selection of opportune pieces. the answer, complicated as it might be, is dependent on the extent to which empowerment constitutes a prime motivating force behind the writers’ disposition. the role of the creative self in the perception of an accepted truth, viz. the impact of coronavirus on a person’s life, remains to be clarified. on the one hand, lott talks about the self as a large container of “smaller selves” which enclose the truth of the whole of humanity in his attempt to prioritize the importance of subjective interpretation of factual truth (lott, 2000, p. 198). on the other hand, patwell (2021, p. 4) refers to a nonfiction narrative inquiry into an efl community during covid-19 ypsilanti and karras 100 no. 25 one’s “use-of-self ” as a defense mechanism in dealing with the turbulence of change brought on by the coronavirus pandemic. because the students’ reflection essays have an inherent cognitive schema, i treat them as both field and interim research texts in my attempt to critically acclaim kim’s “example of narrative inquiry as creative nonfiction” whereby multiple voices are documented in order “to create a virtual reality where stories seem real to the reader” (kim, 2016, p. 286). based on bakhtin’s “theory of novelness,” kim explains how a “dialogic truth can be derived from unmerged voices” “creating the open-endedness of a story that connects a participant or a reader to another and one story to another” (kim, 2016, p. 73). by allowing my storytellers to speak for themselves and resisting the temptation to link the disparate strands of the narration into a unified whole, i have succeeded in laying the foundations for a constructive dialogue among us. narrative smoothing sacrilegious as it might have been regarded as in the first place to succumb to bakhtin’s (1981) “official monologism” (in kim, 2016, p. 75) as opposed to the dialogic exchange that promotes the co-construction of the narrative, it felt like i would not have been doing justice to the students’ narratives were i not to specify the spatiotemporal context within which the self would enter into dialogue with the others. to achieve this, i stepped into the role of the narrative smoother who either selected parts of the participants’ stories or deliberated the confluent content to make up for the asymmetries for the sake of a better narrative account that made sense and appealed to the global reader. “chronotope” kim explains that bakhtin’s (1981) “chronotope” refers to the way time is interlinked with space and that “time is always historical and biographical,” while “space is always social” (in kim, 2016, p. 75) in the seventeen narratives of my students, time and space were either directly addressed to in background support of their account or were hinted at through their social sphere activity. apostolis’ (one of the student-participants) account of how coronavirus entered his life is indicative of how an unexpected event intersected with his routinized use of time and place. a nonfiction narrative inquiry into an efl community during covid-19 ypsilanti and karras 101 no. 25 …three times a week i would train with the basketball team, playing basketball games every saturday. we would also gather with my friends in the cafeteria every saturday night. i learned about the pandemic in early december 2019, from the news on the internet. more specifically, i read that a deadly virus broke out in yuhan, a city in central china. if the first news of the coronavirus in early december 2019 provoked uneasiness and uncertainty about the imminent transfer of one “chronotope” to the other, it was not until early march 2020 that students became aware of the pandemic’s direct effects on their own lives as well. stratos resumed the development of the story by focusing on the first covid-19 case that invaded his public sphere. …it never occurred to me that it would affect europe and especially greece. then, one day, a young woman in my town became sick from the coronavirus. she had just returned from a trip to the holy land with a group of people who brought this virus to our country. from that moment on everything changed! our schools closed and within a few hours the whole country locked down as this virus transmitted uncontrollably. after the historical and biographical reality followed the social realities of the coronavirus pandemic which included new social norms nesting within our familiar space with social distancing becoming the prevalent rule. myrto (one of the student-participants) pointed out how protected she felt thanks to the government’s measures. prior to the school closing, the pandemic was discussed in classes. most of the teachers tried to give us tips for our safety and to keep us calm. i felt protected after the school’s decision making, because in that way we could follow better the government’s instructions for social distancing. as from the beginning of november 2020 schools closed again which made taxiarhis (one of the student-participants) write about the recurrent measures to which we were expected to conform. and then by the beginning of november we went back to quarantine because of covid-19 and we started again to wash our hands frequently and for first time we started online courses. after almost two months of online classes, christos (one of the student-participants) expressed his pessimism about going back to normal referring to the vaccines which were yet to arrive to our country. a nonfiction narrative inquiry into an efl community during covid-19 ypsilanti and karras 102 no. 25 right now, i am definitely more cautious compared to the time before the virus hit us, i think that is the case for a lot of people. unfortunately, it will be a while before things get back to normal again, as there are hundreds of new covid cases every day in my country, and we are still far from a vaccine. “the significance of the chronotope is that it allows the lived experiences of our research participants to be illuminated from historical, biographical, spatial, and social perspectives while providing a vicarious experience for the reader” (kim, 2016, p. 2016). the self and the others although i argued in favor of bakhtin’s “polyphony” to show that individual voices should be kept uncut and heard on an equal basis, i explained how bakhtin’s definition of space and time stands in need of a structured dialogue among the emergent voices. the fact that i have applied the narrative smoothing strategy to the presentation of a multi-authored story seems not to detract from the retainment of personal autonomy. in fact, my aim was to reduce the emotional distance between the different authorial voices by integrating them into a semblance of temporally and causally structured reality. my decision to include the uncorrected assignments of students construed as field texts (data) for the purposes of the current narrative research was consistent with my intention to preserve each student’s employability of self, as this was depicted in each one’s emergent cognitive schema, intact. however, the positionality of the documented self in a fluid and mutable time and place is depicted as liable to transformation depending on social conditions. kostas (one of the student-participants) recounted his lived experience of the new social norms which changed not only his general social behavior but also his view of himself in relation to others. his self-criticism demonstrated his non-resistance to adopting a new stance towards life. his own self became the vehicle for recruiting likewise believers. honestly, i am happy that i’ve gotten more time to spend with my family. i’m connecting with them more than i had ever before since it was rare for all of us to spend time together. i’ve also learned some things about myself. there are some things i’m not proud of, but i’m happy i got to know what they were. now, i can improve myself and my character to be a better person. the concept of investing in the self as a rationale for showing the antithesis between the structured and the fluid self is analogous to the construction and the reor coconstruction of a usable narrative that renders its individual and collective services to authors and readers. a nonfiction narrative inquiry into an efl community during covid-19 ypsilanti and karras 103 no. 25 good-faith interpretation what has been left unsaid is how students were expected to read each other’s submitted assignment and feel part of an online learning community with a dual communication purpose: to monitor each other’s narrative of coronavirus experiences and provide peer feedback. the virtual space used for this purpose was e-me blogs where i created a blog addressed to the third grade of the lyceum. there, i compiled all student submissions and asked students to peer review each other by leaving a comment. the preparatory stage involved initiating students into positive feedback practices which was analogous to that of aiding them through mentor texts. only that this time the texts on which they were supposed to model their own feedback was my own tutor’s feedback. kennette and chapman (2021, p. 2) argue that “given the social isolation related to online learning, exacerbated by a global pandemic, positive feedback provides an excellent opportunity to create connection and community.” in line with the above view, i proceeded with caution with my well-motivated reviewers by nurturing the right kind of critical attitude and customs for the preservation of an orderly freedom of speech. to this end, i found recourse to the following guidelines about feedback coming from malmö university’s creative writing i ht20-en212a-02303 course: ground rules for feedback (malmö university, 2020): respect. we are not here to show off, but to be helpful. in each moment we exist for the writers around us.  patience. writing is a communal and individual journey where everyone will be at different stages.  open mind. there are no rights or wrongs, just process. the personal expression is important. consequently, my feedback based upon the above rules had both an evaluative and an instructive role which made students feel that by engaging themselves in peer feedback they would not only have a chance to communicate their own ideas to their fellow classmates but also operate as co-evaluators of a shared content. as far as the present narrative study goes, i adopted josselson’s (2004) “hermeneutics of restoration (faith)” approach according to which a mutual understanding was developed between the researcher and the participants that they be reciprocally committed to the implementation of the archival project (as cited in kim, 2016, p. 193). a nonfiction narrative inquiry into an efl community during covid-19 ypsilanti and karras 104 no. 25 discussion considering that both the researcher and the participants were assigned the role of the meaning carriers, it becomes self-evident that the field text represents the heterogeneous raw material on which narrative meaning extraction rests depending on the varying respondent perceptions. in essence, the students’ assignments have been used for different interpretation purposes, either from an external point of view in which case that would be the researcher’s looking for the overall emphasis or in terms of internal coherence in which case that would be the content development emphasized by each contributor. during the negotiation stage between the researcher and the participants as to the best technique of handling the core narrative, each field text is initially decided upon as archivable in its primary form because of its historical significance. therefore, the seventeen submitted assignments are deemed of storable validity because they are guided autobiographical pieces of legacy value. by acknowledging and showcasing each contribution on its own merits, the researcher has opted out of superimposed views on the participants’ ones. as regards the researcher, the qualitative features of a narrative inquiry based on the polyphonic nature of the field texts constitute what counts as “creative nonfiction inquiry” because the participants have been acknowledged as equal research partners (kim, 2016, p. 286). as regards the participants, their texts represent voices expressing their own truth based on real events and as such they are valuable if they are preserved unalterable. what is at issue here is to what extent prompting can function both ways for reciprocal fairness and awareness reasons. the mere act of entrusting one’s truth to the other’s venture of faith through the creative venue reinforces the cognitive engagement in creating a new model of dialoguing consciousness while it makes justice to the use of cnf by both sides involved. the findings reflect the researcher’s need to smooth non-uniformity in the participants’ personal narratives or put differently, to re-narrate the immanent story. connely and clandinin (2006) identify this need of filling the spatiotemporal gaps by contextualizing the narrated within a social framework as the narrative inquirer’s problem-solving mission to make sense of the personal, practical and social implications of the bigger story for the sake of the “participants, the imagined reading audiences and the researcher” (as cited in kim, 2016, p. 232). kim (2016, p. 229) joins forces with the latter by pointing out that it is not just a matter of bringing the immanent story to the surface but also a matter of “transfiguring the commonplace in a broader context” as a way of inviting the reader’s response and involvement in the final composition. more specifically, the researcher’s responsibility to bring all pieces together so that readers can have access to a space where genuine dialogue is plausible is kim’s definition of “coda.” a nonfiction narrative inquiry into an efl community during covid-19 ypsilanti and karras 105 no. 25 “coda” is also what barone and eisner (1997, as cited in kim, 2016, p. 230) refer to as the “researcher’s signature” on the final denouement because according to them the researcher is responsible for activating reader response. whichever the motives behind extracting and synthesizing a “coda” at the end of the narrative research, the fact remains that contextualization provides empowering qualities to personal stories. in other words, the researcher’s narrative coda offers both individual and collective self-empowerment which should be proof enough that the advancement from field to final research text becomes a moral imperative that raises the standards of the final research report. the results of this study supported the hypothesis that narrative research can fulfil its primary goal if guides and participants alternate roles along the way. more specifically, students were guided into engaging with prompt-based cnf writing as part of their asynchronous term-work responsibilities. their registration on e-me marked their acceptance of the oral agreement between them and the teacher that alongside their reflective essay on their coronavirus memories they would also be compiling a memory archive paralleled to its global counterparts. the raising of a global consciousness through mentor texts as a precondition for contributing a local version of a memory archive has aided students in responding to a task-based personal narrative that ripened into an overarching story with beginning and middle leaving the end to be sorted out by the audience. in between the contemplatable “take-aways” for the reader and the imparted need for closure on the coronavirus narrative, the still occurring memories passed down from the authorship to the readership have expanded the roles of the researcher and the participants into collaborators accountable not only for making sense of the shared globalizing practice in elf but also for setting up a model blogging community. conclusions practical implications from a practical point of view, the students’ personal narratives can be used as quarries for information concerning the hands-on experiences of a learning community. the concomitant development of a sense of local history is underscored by the teacher’s narrative account which serves as a  temporal  repository for future readers to consult. in essence, the derived story is the product of a constructive partnership between teacher and students from design to development. of course, it should be noted that each party had a personal stake in this joint enterprise. more specifically, the teacher-researcher seized the golden opportunity to activate aspects of the official curriculum that may have lain dormant in government circulars for long periods of time. sameshima (2007) explains how the curriculum can be re-narrated a nonfiction narrative inquiry into an efl community during covid-19 ypsilanti and karras 106 no. 25 by remolding the student and teacher identities as additional input. according to her “the use of writing inquiry enables teachers to ford connections between students and curriculum, students and teacher, and teacher with curriculum” (sameshima, 2007, p. 9). as for the students-participants, they not only co-authored their learning plight via e-me, but they also offered comparable insight into the dynamics of self-representation across countries. methodological concerns in the case of narrative studies, the difficulty of producing reliable data is a potential stumbling block for narrative researchers whose findings are frequently regarded as “the product of their subjectivity” (barkhuizen et al., 2014, p. 88). further criticisms might be that while “there is a detailed description of the data collection, there is no description of the analysis that leads to the published findings” (barkhuizen et al., 2014, p. 86). bearing in mind alike reliability lapses in the monitoring of the narrative writing’s reasoning, the present study draws on “clandinin and connelly’s (2000) view of narrative both as a “social phenomenon (storied experience)” and as a “method of data analysis (restorying)” (as cited in barkhuizen et al., 2014, p. 87) which is practically an outgrowth of polkinghorne’s (1995) narrative analysis where “the narrative itself becomes an analytical tool that is brought to bear through narrative writing” (as cited in barkhuizen et al., 2014, p. 84). for the purposes of the present study, storied experience and restorying are interpreted as constituting a dual-capacity analysis framework for the use of the cnf genre by both the participant and the researcher. directions for further research the scope of narrative inquiry can be widened to include the experiences of the narrative researcher so that the result is a joint memory archive instead of simply a joint collaborative effort. to this end, the contribution of creative writing to the written form of the archival outcome could be further explored by organizing writing workshops for students to delve into the mechanics of specific sub-genres of cnf. from an ethics perspective, the co-narrator becomes as much susceptible to the prospective academic critique as the conductor of the study which automatically leads to the question of administering official capacity to students as authority voices to be accorded referential caliber in a narrative report. these criteria could be pre-specified as consultable guidelines to disallow the possibility of deviation from the expected norm. given the fact that a memory archive is an official term for recording history the student-generated archive could be treated accordingly by specifying the receiving official body. a nonfiction narrative inquiry into an efl community during covid-19 ypsilanti and karras 107 no. 25 references bakhtin, m. m. 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(2007). seeing shadows in new light: a procatalepsis on narrative inquiry as professional development. new horizons in education, 55, 10-21. schulten, k. (2019, september 4). mentor texts. the new york times. https://www. nytimes.com/2019/09/04/learning/mentor-text-reflecting-on-an experience.html. silverberg, m. (2019). relief: observations on creative nonfiction as pedagogy. learning landscapes, 2, 249-258. spence, d. p. (1986). narrative smoothing and clinical wisdom. in t. r. sarbin (ed.), narrative psychology: the storied nature of human conduct (pp. 211-232). praeger. vanaken l., bijttebier p., fivush r., hermans d. (2022). narrative coherence predicts emotional well-being during the covid-19 pandemic: a two-year longitudinal study. cogn emot. 2022 feb;36(1), 70-81. doi: 10.1080/02699931.2021.1902283. ypsilanti, a. (2020, may 2). a change in morning habits. university of oxford. https:// oclw.web.ox.ac.uk/article/a-change-in-morning-habits a nonfiction narrative inquiry into an efl community during covid-19 ypsilanti and karras authors: angeliki ypsilanti is an english teacher in secondary education. she has been teaching english (as well as history and greek and european culture) since 2003. she holds two b.a. degrees, one in english language and literature from the university of athens, greece and the other in hispanic language and civilization studies from the hellenic open university, greece as well as an m.ed. in tefl/teil from the hellenic open university. she is currently a phd candidate in foreign languages, translation and interpreting at ionian university, greece. she has a keen interest in learning foreign languages. she is a fluent speaker of english, spanish, french, portuguese and italian while she has an elementary knowledge of german and swedish. she has participated as a regular contributor of creative writing responses to the oxford centre for life-writing’s immeasurable events project. orcid: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8333-4169 ioannis karras is associate professor in applied linguistics & intercultural communication at ionian university, greece. he has lectured at universities around the world, has delivered talks at international conferences and has conducted seminars/ workshops with international audiences. he has authored a book, a number of edited book chapters and articles in journals and conference proceedings. orcid: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1635-8192 110 no. 25 how to reference this article: ypsilanti, a., & karras, i. a creative nonfiction narrative inquiry into an efl online learning community during the covid-19 pandemic. gist – education and learning research journal, 25. https://doi.org/10.26817/16925777.1534 a nonfiction narrative inquiry into an efl community during covid-19 efl teachers’ cognitions about teaching speaking skills1 conocimiento de los profesores de inglés como lengua extranjera sobre la enseñanza de las habilidades orales habtamu adem and mendida berkessa*2 wolkite university-addis ababa university, ethiopia 1 received: october 26th 2021/ accepted: may 10th 2022 2 habtamuadem1512@gmail.com; mendidab@gmail.com gist education and learning research journal. issn 1692-5777. no. 24 (january june, 2022). pp. 65-94. 66 no. 24 abstract the main purpose of this study was to explore efl teachers’ cognitions about teaching speaking. to achieve the purpose, a sequential mixed-methods research strategy was employed. a questionnaire was administered to 192 secondary and preparatory school english teachers while an interview was conducted with four teachers. descriptive and bivariate analyses were computed for the analysis of the quantitative data, and a qualitative content analysis was used for the qualitative data. the findings revealed that speaking was not the skill teachers enjoyed teaching and learners liked to learn. the teachers considered speaking as the weakest part of their learners. to most of the teachers, learning speaking was different and difficult from learning other language skills. the teachers regarded group discussion as the most effective classroom activity. the teachers’ self-concept was optimistic, but they were pessimistic about the students’ interest in learning to speak. it was found that most teachers’ beliefs were primarily influenced by prior teaching experiences. the teachers ranked the relationship between their beliefs and the classroom practices as fair. teachers thought the teaching of speaking was predominantly influenced by learner-related factors. moreover, there were teachers’ beliefs that showed statistically significant relationships to their gender and year of teaching experience. the study concludes that the teaching of speaking is still one of the disregarded areas of english language teaching. keywords: cognition; efl teachers; engish language teaching; language skills; teaching speaking; resumen el objetivo principal de este estudio fue explorar las habilidades de los profesores de inglés como lengua extranjera sobre la enseñanza del habla. para lograr el objetivo, se empleó una estrategia de investigación secuencial de métodos mixtos. los participantes fueron profesores de inglés de escuelas secundarias y preparatorias de la zona de gurage. se administró un cuestionario a 192 docentes y se realizó una entrevista a cuatro docentes. al analizar los datos, se hicieron análisis descriptivos y bivariados para los datos cuantitativos y se utilizó un análisis de contenido cualitativo para los datos cualitativos. los hallazgos revelaron que hablar no era una habilidad que los maestros disfrutaran enseñar ni los estudiantes aprender. los profesores consideraban hablar como la parte más débil de sus alumnos. para la mayoría de los maestros, aprender a hablar era diferente y difícil de aprender comparado con otras habilidades lingüísticas. además, los profesores consideraron la discusión en grupo como la estrategia más eficaz. a pesar de todos los problemas, el autoconcepto de los docentes era optimista, pero se mostraban pesimistas sobre el interés de los alumnos por aprender a hablar. se encontró que la mayoría de las creencias de los docentes estaban influenciadas principalmente por experiencias docentes previas. los maestros expresaron que la enseñanza del habla estaba predominantemente influenciada por factores relacionados con el alumno. el estudio concluye que la enseñanza de la expresión oral sigue siendo una de las áreas desatendidas de la enseñanza del idioma inglés. con base en los hallazgos, también se recomiendan más investigaciones y capacitación. palabras clave: cognición; profesores de inglés como lengua extranjera; habilidad de habla en segunda lengua; actitudes frente a la enseñanza efl teachers’ cognitions about speaking adem & berkessa 67 no. 24 resumo o objetivo principal deste estudo foi explorar as habilidades dos professores de inglês como língua estrangeira sobre o ensino da fala. para conseguir o objetivo, empregou-se uma estratégia de pesquisa sequencial de métodos mistos. os participantes foram professores de inglês de escolas secundárias e preparatórias da zona de gurage. administrou-se um questionário a 192 docentes e realizou-se uma entrevista a quatro docentes. ao analisar os dados, fizeramse análises descritivas e bivariadas para os dados quantitativos e utilizou-se uma análise de conteúdo qualitativo para os dados qualitativos. as descobertas revelaram que falar não era uma habilidade que os professores desfrutaram ensinar nem os estudantes aprender. os professores consideravam falar como a parte mais débil de seus alunos. para a maioria dos professores, aprender a falar era diferente e difícil de aprender comparado com outras habilidades linguísticas. além disso, os professores consideraram a discussão em grupo como a estratégia mais eficaz. apesar de todos os problemas, o autoconceito dos docentes era otimista, mas mostravam-se pessimistas sobre o interesse dos alunos por aprender a falar. encontrou-se que a maioria das crenças dos docentes estavam influenciadas principalmente por experiências docentes prévias. os professores expressaram que o ensino da fala estava predominantemente influenciado por fatores relacionados com o aluno. o estudo conclui que o ensino da expressão oral continua sendo uma das áreas desatendidas do ensino do idioma inglês. com base nas descobertas, também se recomendam mais pesquisas e capacitação. palavras chave: cognição; professores de inglês como língua estrangeira; habilidade de fala em segunda língua; atitudes diante do ensino efl teachers’ cognitions about speaking adem & berkessa 68 no. 24 introduction although a syllabus is believed to guide the instructional process, there are also aspects that exert considerable influence. in this regard, the study of teachers’ cognition has attracted considerable educational researchers’ interest. beginning from the late 1980s, the study of teachers’ cognition, which borg (2003) defined as studying what teachers think, know, and believe, became the focus of educational research. borg claimed that the dominant idea of the time that teaching is a complex cognitive activity that demands thinking, knowledge, beliefs, and decisions of the teacher was the beginning of the focus of shift from tangible behaviors to teachers’ mental lives. besides, the advancement of cognitive psychology and the popularity of qualitative research methods were the pushing factors for the shift (kim-yin, 2006). accordingly, the shift to teacher cognition researches can be seen as the search for why classroom practices are in the way they are or understanding the factors influencing the hidden pedagogy of the classroom (burns, 1992). though the study of teachers’ cognitions seems to be a well-established area of study, there are still issues that the teacher cognition researchers fail to resolve. besides, the classroom teachers do not unthinkingly implement curricula designed by others. hence, the study of teacher cognition continues to be a vital area of educational research so far as teaching is done by human beings (borg, 2009). in the ethiopian educational context, teachers’ cognition has not been given due attention. the overall educational system is a top-down curriculum with little or no room for teachers’ beliefs, opinions, suggestions, and comments (seyoum, 1996). the classroom teachers, therefore, are disregarded in the core educational decisionmaking processes like curriculum development, textbook and material preparation and instructional and program designing. similarly, most studies in ethiopia are process-product oriented that investigate what the teachers do and what the respective students gain from it (birhanu, 2012). hence, the study of teachers’ cognitions has attracted few ethiopian researchers’ interests despite its worldwide domination of educational research in general and language studies in particular. though teachers are believed to have cognitions about all aspects of their work, the study of teacher cognition about the teaching of speaking is one of the disregarded areas in local and international studies. borg (2003), for example, review 64 teacher cognition studies in language teaching. grammar and literacy were the two language teaching areas that have been rewarded significant attention; 22 studies were on grammar while 7 were on literacy instruction of which 5 focused on reading. contrarily, the teaching of speaking was not included as the reviewer could not find any published work of teacher cognition in the teaching of speaking. efl teachers’ cognitions about speaking adem & berkessa 69 no. 24 besides the inadequacy of the studies, those few local teacher cognition studies are broad that do not consider the nature of the mental construct. they focus on investigating the teachers’ beliefs about teaching english and their classroom practices (birhanu, 2012; awol, 1999). as teacher cognition is one of the difficult areas of educational research due to the intricate and multifaceted nature of mental constructs, the study of teachers’ cognitions about teaching english and their classroom practices are extremely wide-ranging. thus, a study that focuses on a single skill/aspect of language teaching and investigates it comprehensively contributes greatly in providing in-depth understanding. besides, most of the teacher cognition studies are solely qualitative that comprise few participants and fail to explore shared beliefs. the interest in the teaching of speaking skills also originated from the challenges the researcher has faced in making students speak english and the assertion that oral communication is the area where most foreign and second language learners encounter difficulty. especially in countries like ethiopia where english is not used in the community, the classroom is the most important place to practice speaking. however, the classroom speaking skills lessons may not often be effective as foreign language teachers face difficulties in getting students to speak the language. ur (1991), for example, indicated four problems in making students speak a foreign language in the classroom: inhibition, having nothing to say, low uneven participation, and mother tongue use. although it is claimed that students who can speak english have greater chances of further education, finding a job, and gaining promotion (baker & westrup, 2003), the teaching of speaking for foreign or second language learners is challenging and students’ mastery of oral skills is limited. the following therefore were the rationales of this study: a) the claim that the teaching of speaking remains unstudied from a teacher cognition point of view, b) speaking is one of the challenging skills for foreign language learners, c) the teacher cognition studies need to focus on a single skill or aspect of the language rather than dealing with broader topics, and d) the teacher cognition studies do not have to focus only on the in-depth understanding of the issue from few participants but need to explore shared beliefs. hence, this study is an attempt to address these gaps. research questions the main objective of this study was to explore efl teachers’ cognitions about teaching speaking. thus, the following research questions guided the study: • what cognitions do efl teachers have about teaching speaking skills? • do gender and year of teaching experience significantly affect teachers’ cognitions about teaching speaking? efl teachers’ cognitions about speaking adem & berkessa 70 no. 24 literature review teacher cognition the primary focus of foreign/second language teaching researches on observable behaviors and what people do in the classroom, neglecting the teachers’ mental lives, was not convincing for the educators in the late 1980s (kim-yin, 2006). the idea that teaching is a complex cognitive activity that demands the thinking, knowledge, beliefs, and decisions of the teacher became dominant in the late 1980s (borg, 2003). hence, beginning from the late 1980s, studying what teachers think, know, and believe has been the focus of educational research. borg used ‘teacher cognition research’ in referring to researches on what teachers think, know, and believe and the relationship of these mental lives to the classroom practices. in teacher cognition studies, establishing a clear distinction between knowledge and belief is one of the major problems. the issue of subjectivity is often used to differentiate knowledge and belief, but knowledge is also categorized as objective and subjective. hence, the distinction between subjective knowledge and belief is either blurred or the two concepts stand for a similar concept (pehkonen & pietilä, 2003). besides, in philosophy, knowledge is defined as a justified true belief. though the terms justified and true are used to show the distinctive features of knowledge, it clearly indicates that knowledge is a type of belief (yero, 2002). hence, knowledge is a type of belief in the objective and subjective categorization of knowledge, and belief is a type of knowledge in its philosophical definition. as woods (1996) stated the boundaries between the two concepts are not also clear when teachers were interviewed to justify their decisions with a reference to their knowledge and beliefs. woods reported that it was difficult to distinguish what belief and/or knowledge refer to teachers. he further added ‘assumption’ to the list and used a coined term of the three concepts (belief, assumption, knowledge) bak. borg’s explanation of teacher cognition as the notion that refers to the “unobservable cognitive dimension of teachingwhat teachers know, believe and think” is comprehensive that governs the assertion of teacher cognition in this study (2003, p. 81). approaches to teaching speaking skills different approaches to teaching speaking have been adopted. rhalmi (2017), for example, reported three approaches: the traditional present, practice and produce (ppp) approach; the test, teach, test (ttt) approach based on the task-based instruction, and the discovery approach based on awareness-raising, appropriation, and automaticity. talley (2014), on the other hand, classified the approaches to teach speaking into two: explicit and implicit. predominantly, the approaches to teaching speaking are categorized into two main types: direct approach and indirect approach. efl teachers’ cognitions about speaking adem & berkessa 71 no. 24 the direct approach to teaching speaking focuses on the practice and development of isolated language forms (goh and burns, 2012). the practice involves a reproduction of predetermined language through drills, pattern practice, and structure manipulation. an indirect approach to teaching speaking, on the other hand, focuses on the creation of conditions for oral interaction to enable learners to engage in communicative activities (richards, 2008; goh & burns, 2012). in the indirect approach, fluency is the primary concern, and learners are exposed to authentic and functional language use. thus, the practice involves real-life communicative activities such as discussion, information-gaps, role-plays, simulation, and so on (burns, 1998). exclusive reliance on one of the approaches to teaching speaking is disadvantageous as both approaches have their limitations (goh and burns, 2012). thornbury and slade (2006) for example stated that the direct approach focuses on the component of the language while the indirect approach focuses on the context of use. the focus on one aspect of teaching the skill and neglecting the other forces the learners to be good at the area of focus and weaker on the neglected one. hence, an approach to teaching speaking that combines the features of the two approaches is considered to be the solution. accordingly, thornbury (2005) introduced a general approach to teaching speaking that consists of three cyclic stages: awareness-raising, appropriation, and autonomy. awareness-raising is the first stage during which the learners identify their gaps and familiarize themselves with the knowledge designed to address the gap. appropriation is the second stage at which the learners integrate the new knowledge into the existing one. at this stage, the learners start progressing from other-regulated practices to self-regulated ones. autonomy is the final stage during which learners use the newly constructed knowledge in a real-life situation. methods research design this study aimed to explore efl teachers’ cognitions about teaching speaking skills. to achieve this purpose, a sequential mixed-methods research strategy was used. as creswell (2003) stated this is a mixed-methods strategy that gives researchers the freedom to decide on the sequence and priority of the methods. accordingly, a strategy that employed quantitative data collection and analysis first and also gave priority to the quantitative method was employed in this study. research sites and participants of the study the study was conducted at secondary and preparatory schools in gurage zone, southern nations nationalities regional state, ethiopia. 192 english teachers in 62 efl teachers’ cognitions about speaking adem & berkessa 72 no. 24 schools filled in the teacher questionnaire. of the 192 participants, 139 (72.4%) were males while the remaining 53 (27.6%) were females. for the interview, four english teachers from three schools were chosen. the experienced teachers were purposefully selected to gather in-depth information from teachers with rich insights about the issue under investigation. instruments teacher questionnaire the teacher questionnaire was designed to survey english teachers’ cognitions of teaching speaking. the questionnaire was prepared by reviewing the existing literature on teachers’ cognitions and revision of questionnaires that have been used for similar research intents (yoneska & tanaka, 2013; khader, 2012; shigeru, 2012; richards & lockhart, 1996; johnson, 1992; horwitz, 1987). the items in the questionnaire were grouped into four categories. the items in the first section were designed to investigate the participants’ conceptions of teaching speaking skills in comparison to other language skills. the second section of the questionnaire was intended to explore teachers’ cognitions about teaching speaking. it was designed in the form of five pointlikert scales ranging from “strongly disagree” to “strongly agree”. in the third part of the teacher questionnaire, three multiple-choice and four multiple response items were given. finally, demographic questions were asked. the questionnaire was pilot tested to ensure face and content validity. accordingly, some modifications were made to the wordings of the items and about 12 monotonous items were deleted. besides, cronbach’s alpha was computed to determine the reliability of the items. it was computed for the two groups of items independently. the cronbach’s alpha result for the items in the first group was .706 while the result for the likert-scale items was .722. accordingly, the results show that the questionnaire has an acceptable degree of reliability as cronbach’s alpha greater than 0.7 is considered to show sufficiently reliable internal consistency (muijs, 2004). interview a semi-structured key informants’ interview was conducted with four core participants of the study. a semi-structured interview is a balance between structured and unstructured interviews in which guiding questions are prepared in advance that are often developed and elaborated during the interview (dorneyi, 2007). in qualitative studies, the employment of a semi-structured interview is believed to minimize validity and reliability problems often caused by the overload of information as a semistructured interview ensures consistency in data collection. efl teachers’ cognitions about speaking adem & berkessa 73 no. 24 the interview guide was prepared based on the literature review and the data from the survey questionnaire. afterward, the interview was done after the questionnaire was administered aiming to elicit teachers’ cognitions, sources of teachers’ cognitions, and espoused contextual factors that affect classroom practices in sufficient depth and breadth. the interviews were recorded with audio-recording material with the consent of the participants. considering the interest of the participants, the interviews were conducted in english. methods of data analysis descriptive statistics (frequency counts) were computed to summarize teachers’ cognitions. crosstabs and chi-square tests were also computed to see the relationships between teachers’ reports of their beliefs and their gender and year of teaching experiences. fisher’s exact test was also computed as an alternative to chi-square tests when the expected counts less than five were more than twenty percent of the cells. a phi-test was also computed for the variables that showed significant relationships to determine the strength of the relationships. qualitative content analysis was used to analyze the data from the key informants’ interviews. as ellis and barkuizen (2005) explained that qualitative content analysis follows the sequence of coding for themes, looking for patterns, making interpretations, and building theory. dorneyi (2007) included transcribing the data and came up with four phases of the qualitative content analysis process: transcribing the data, precoding and coding, growing ideas and interpreting the data, and drawing conclusions. in this study, the four phases of the analytical process were performed. having the sideby-side collection and interpretation of the qualitative data in mind, the data analysis was commenced with the verbatim transcription of data from the participants into word processing documents. all the recordings were transformed into texts. then, the texts were read and re-read in their entirety aiming to be familiar with the data. the reduction and interpretation of the data then started with the initial coding of the text. in the initial coding, the texts were broken into segments, and labeling was given to the segments often by using the participants’ own words. for the initial coding, hardcopy printouts of the texts were used, and labeling was given on the margin. then, the initial codes with common concepts were grouped, and higher-order themes were developed. as the first coding may not always work well, the codes were reexamined and relabeled. the coding was similar to what strauss and corbin (1998) mentioned as open, axial, and selective coding of the ground theory analysis. more importantly, as the researchers’ capability to manage excessive amounts of qualitative data manually is the area of difficulty, the data analysis process was assisted with a computerized qualitative data analysis program, opencode 4.02 efl teachers’ cognitions about speaking adem & berkessa 74 no. 24 results the teaching of the language skills and the status of speaking grammar was chosen by 67 (34.9%) of the respondents as the first aspect of the language they favored teaching the most. it was followed by writing while speaking was ranked third with a percentage of 28.6 and 20.8 respectively. reading and vocabulary were ranked fourth and fifth with a percentage of 10.9 and 4.7 respectively. none of the participants chose listening as the skill they favored to teach. there was a statistically significant relationship between the skill the teachers favored teaching and their gender (p < .05). the skill male teachers preferred to teach the most was grammar. it was followed by writing, speaking, reading, vocabulary, and listening descendingly. on the other hand, females’ ranking of their preferences from the most to least chosen was: speaking, writing, reading, grammar, vocabulary, and listening. similarly, there was a statistically significant relationship between the skill the teachers favored teaching and their experiences (p < .05). the least experienced teachers (teachers with 1 to 5 years of experience) favored teaching speaking while the more (teachers with 6 to 10 years of experience) and the most experienced (teachers above 10 years of experience) preferred grammar. as the phi results show, gender and experiences had moderate relationships with teachers’ favorite skills to teach (phi value < 0.5). regarding the skill the teachers wanted to improve the most, speaking came first as it was chosen by 72 (37.5%) of the respondents. writing and reading were the second and third skills the teachers wanted to improve with the percentage of 28.1 and 13 respectively. vocabulary and listening ranked fourth and fifth while grammar was the least aspect teachers wanted to improve. the skill the teachers wanted to improve and their experiences had statistically significant relationships (p < .05). speaking was the most chosen by the least and most experienced teachers while teachers with 6 to 10 years of experience chose writing. on the other hand, the skill the teachers wanted to improve was not dependent on their gender as the relationship was not statistically significant. concerning the skill teachers wanted their students to improve the most, speaking and reading came first and second as they were chosen by 62 (32.8%) and 43 (22.4%) of the teachers respectively. writing and grammar were chosen by 30 (15.6%) of the participants each as the skills they wanted their students to improve. vocabulary and listening were the least selected skills. as the chi-square and fisher’s exact tests show, there was no statistically significant relationship between the skill the teachers wanted their students to improve and their gender. however, teachers’ experience had shown statistically significant relationships with their responses to the item (p < .05). teachers with one to ten years of teaching experience wanted their students to improve speaking while those with above ten years of experience chose reading. efl teachers’ cognitions about speaking adem & berkessa 75 no. 24 as regards the most difficult skill to teach, the majority of the teachers (106/54.9%) chose listening. the participants placed speaking as the second most difficult skill to teach while writing and reading ranked third and fourth. conversely, none of the participants considered grammar and vocabulary as difficult to teach. as listening was the most difficult skill to teach for the respondents in different groups, there was no statistically significant relationship between teachers’ beliefs about the most difficult skill to teach and their gender and years of teaching experience. a relative majority of the teachers thought that grammar was the first aspect of the language the learners were interested to learn (74/38.5%). it was followed by writing, speaking and reading with the percentage of 28.6, 19.3 and 11.5 respectively. on the other hand, vocabulary and listening were the least chosen ones as vocabulary was chosen by 1.6 percent of the teachers while only 0.5 percent of them went for listening. there was a statistically significant relationship between teachers’ beliefs about the skills the learners wanted to learn the most and their gender and experiences (p < .05). male teachers perceived that learners were attracted by grammar while females thought their learners were interested in speaking. as far as their experiences are concerned, the teachers with one to five years of experience believed that the learners were interested in speaking while grammar was chosen by the more and most experienced ones. the phi-values show that the relationships between teachers’ beliefs and their gender and experiences were moderate (phi value < 0.5). speaking was chosen by most of the participants (117/60.9%) as the weakest part of their learners. the other oral skill, listening, ranked as the second weakest side of the learners as it was chosen by 56 (29.2%) of the respondents. the remaining four skills/ aspects were only selected by about 10 percent of the respondents. teachers’ evaluation of the weakest part of the students did not have statistically significant relationships with their gender and experiences. reading was chosen as the first most important part of learning english (44/22.9%). writing and speaking took the second and third places as they were chosen by 20.8 and 19.3 percent of the teachers respectively. grammar was the fourth, listening the fifth, and vocabulary the least important aspects of learning english. the teachers’ gender and experiences had a considerable impact on their belief about the most important part. as regards their gender, speaking was the most important and writing was the second most important for females, but for males, reading and grammar were the first and second most important parts respectively. as the effect size result shows, the strength of the relationship was moderate (phi value < 0.5). teachers’ years of service had also shown a statistically significant relationship to their beliefs. the teachers into the three categories of service years chose three different aspects. speaking was the most important for teachers with one to five years of teaching experience, writing for teachers with six to ten years of experience while grammar was for those with above ten years of experience. reading, which was chosen as the most important based on efl teachers’ cognitions about speaking adem & berkessa 76 no. 24 the frequency counts, was the second most important for the teachers in the three categories. the phi-value also revealed that the relationship between teachers’ beliefs and experiences was strong (phi value < 0.8). there were also associations among the skills teachers enjoyed teaching, the skill they thought the learners were interested in, and their beliefs about the most important part of english instruction, and their gender and experience. for example, grammar was an aspect of the language male english teachers enjoyed teaching, thought the learners were interested in and considered as the second most important area of the language. on the other hand, female teachers reported that speaking was the skill they preferred to teach, the learners wanted to learn the most and the most important part of learning english. regarding experience, speaking was the chosen skill to teach, the favorite skill of the students to learn, and the most important aspect to the least experienced teachers. however, the more and most experienced teachers went to grammar. briefly, the results from the items in the first section of the questionnaire revealed the following points about speaking instruction. first, speaking was not a skill most of the teachers enjoyed to teach. it was chosen only by 20.8 percent of the teachers and was ranked as the third skill teachers favored to teach. however, it was the favorite skill to teach for females and the least experienced teachers. second, speaking was the skill the teachers themselves wanted to improve and required their students to improve the most regardless of their gender and experiences. third, speaking was perceived as the second most difficult skill to teach following listening. fourth, most of the teachers believed that speaking was the weakest part of their learners. though teachers believed that speaking was the weakest side of their learners and wanted them to work on it, they supposed that learners were interested in grammar and writing. still, females and the least experienced teachers believed that learners were interested in speaking. lastly, as far as teachers’ beliefs about the most important part of learning english is concerned, speaking came third following reading and writing. as a complement to this part, the four teachers in the qualitative part of the study were asked about the following points: how much they enjoyed teaching speaking, how difficult was teaching speaking, how weak were their students in spoken english, and how interested were their students in learning to speak. the teachers reported that teaching speaking was challenging as it was the skill the learners were uninterested in and had no the required background skill to understand even simple lessons. this contradicted their beliefs about how important speaking skill is to the academic and overall life of the students. t1 for example believed that being able to speak english was the means to show one’s competence in the language; t2 and t3 supposed that the mastery of spoken english boosted students’ confidence which in turn would help them succeed in academia, while t4 thought oral proficiency played a paramount role in the job-hunting process. thus, the teachers were not pleased with their experiences of teaching speaking skills. efl teachers’ cognitions about speaking adem & berkessa 77 no. 24 beliefs about what learning speaking meant the majority of the teachers (71.3%) did not believe that learning speaking was more about learning and memorizing common phrases and expressions. on the other hand, nearly twenty-two percent of the teachers took learning and memorizing common phrases as a key to learning speaking while seven percent of the teachers were uncertain. the item that presented teaching speaking as providing equivalent phrases or expressions in students’ mother tongue was one of the items most of the teachers disagreed with as the vast majority of them (98.4%) did not endorse the statement. the statement “learning speaking is mostly a matter of practicing real-life communicative activities,” was accepted by most of the teachers (62%) while 25.5 percent disagreed and 12.5 percent were uncertain. as the findings from the chi-square and fisher exact tests and phi-values show there were significant relationships between teachers’ perceptions of memorization in teaching speaking and their genders. the use of memorization was relatively favored by males over females. the relationship however was modest as the phi-value was below 0.3. perceiving the speaking instruction as a matter of practicing real-life communicative activities was a shared one, statistically significant relationships were also found between gender and experience. as far as their gender was concerned, the use of communicative activities was favored by males over females. of the 119 respondents who agreed with the statement, 84 percent were males while only 16 percent were females. with regard to their experiences, the most and more experienced teachers agreed the most with the statement than the least experienced ones. the influence of gender was moderate as the phi-value was less than 0.5; whereas, the influence of experience was stronger. from a multiple-choice item, it was found that the vast majority of the participants (78.6%) accepted that learning english was mostly a matter of practicing the language and being able to use it for communication. those who considered learning english as learning the grammar of the language and learning and memorizing the vocabulary words were 10.4 and 8.9 percent respectively. on the other hand, translation was chosen only by 2.1 percent of the teachers. similarly, the interviewed teachers thought learning speaking was all about practicing the language than the memorization of phrases and the study of equivalents in the students’ mother tongue. for t1 and t2, for example, teaching speaking was helping the learners to practice the language by using a variety of classroom activities. accordingly, it was possible to say that the teachers’ beliefs about what learning english in general and speaking in particular meant matched with the communicative views of language teaching. efl teachers’ cognitions about speaking adem & berkessa 78 no. 24 beliefs about teaching speaking in comparison to other skills the majority of the teachers (63%) assumed that learning speaking was different from learning other skills while thirty-three percent disagreed. besides, the teachers considered speaking as a difficult language skill when compared to reading and writing. this is because most of the teachers (78.1%) believed that it was easier to read and write english than to speak it. similarly, the findings from one of the multiple items revealed that most of the teachers (57.3%) rated speaking as a difficult skill while it was rated as a medium by about thirty-four percent, as easy by five percent, and as difficult skill by about four percent of the teachers. the statement “students who are good at speaking are not good at written english,” was accepted by most of the participants (55.2%) while about thirty percent disagreed and fifteen percent were uncertain. the teachers’ evaluation of whether speaking was an easier skill than reading and writing and their gender and experience had shown statistically significant relationships. speaking was easier to the relative majority of males and teachers with six to ten years of experience than to the females and the most and least experienced ones. as the phi-values indicate, the relationships between teachers’ evaluations and their gender and experience were moderate. besides, the teachers’ belief students who were good at speaking were not at written english was significantly related to their gender and experience. the statement was endorsed by a relative majority of males and the most experienced teachers as compared to females and the least and more experienced ones. to the four teachers as well, teaching speaking was different from teaching other language skills that require teachers’ commitment and good command of the language. t1 for example stated the preconditions required for effective teaching speaking skills. these were: teachers’ conviction that speaking should be taught in the language class, positive attitude towards teaching speaking, working on students’ attitudes towards speaking and cleansing their misconceptions, patience and readiness to pay the prices of teaching speaking as they might be contested by students’ lack of interest in learning to speak and different contextual factors. despite the list of preconditions by all the teachers, they all agreed that teaching speaking lessons required good oral proficiency and understanding of a variety of teaching techniques when compared to teaching the other skills. they have also constantly indicated that teaching speaking to their students was a daunting task. as they indicated, they used to jump speaking lessons of the textbook like their teachers did. in short, the followings were revealed. first, learning speaking was different from learning other language skills to most of the teachers, a belief which would have a methodological impact. second, most of the teachers believed that speaking was a difficult language skill by itself or when compared to other language skills. third, most efl teachers’ cognitions about speaking adem & berkessa 79 no. 24 of the teachers believed those learners who were good at oral skills were not good at written english. beliefs about the effective classroom activities and modes of interactions discussion was chosen by the vast majority of the teachers (94.3%) as an effective classroom activity in teaching speaking. presentation and role-play took the second and third places as they were chosen by seventy-three and seventy percent of the teachers respectively. these were followed by interview and storytelling activities as they were chosen by forty-three and thirty-three percent of the teachers respectively. the classroom activities that were labeled as the least effective in teaching speaking were picture description/narration and repetition of drills. figure 1. teachers’ beliefs about the effective classroom activities in teaching speaking regarding the modes of interaction, group work was the most chosen mode of interaction as it was chosen by eighty-seven percent of the teachers. pair-work was ranked as the second effective mode of interaction as it was picked by sixty percent of the teachers. on the other hand, whole-class work was the least chosen mode of interaction during a speaking task. group discussion was also the most effective classroom activity in speaking class for the four interviewed teachers. t1 for example mentioned discussion, interview and role-play as effective classroom activities but ranked discussion as the best. t4, on his part, reported that group discussion was the most effective classroom activity in teaching speaking. discussion was also one of the three (discussion, picture description and presentation) effective classroom activities for t2. though t3 did not list the activities, he thought that classroom activities that promote interaction are effective to which discussion can be a part. efl teachers’ cognitions about speaking adem & berkessa 80 no. 24 in short, the discussion was regarded as an effective classroom activity and group work was picked as an effective mode of interaction in teaching speaking by the majority of the teachers. jointly, group discussion was the effective classroom activity for the teachers in this study. beliefs about the ability to learn speaking most of the participant teachers thought that some people were born with an ability that was useful to learn speaking. those who disagreed with the statement were about sixteen percent while eight percent were uncertain. the teachers’ responses to the item that compared girls’ and boys’ capabilities at learning speaking did not clearly show where most of their beliefs laid. accordingly, girls were better than boys at learning speaking to forty-five percent of the teachers while thirty-seven percent of them rejected the statement. most of them (68.2%) thought ethiopians were not good at learning to speak english. those who endorsed the statement were only eighteen percent of the teachers while thirteen percent were uncertain. as the results from the bivariate tests showed, girls were better than boys at learning speaking to the majority of female respondents as 77 percent of them agreed with the statement while only 33 percent of males did. the same was true to the relative majority of the experienced teachers (teachers with six and above years of experience) than to the least experienced ones. the relationships between teachers’ evaluation of who was good at learning speaking and their gender and experience were moderate. teachers’ self-concept the majority of the respondents (68.3%) assumed that they had sufficient english proficiency essential to be good english teachers while only eleven percent disagreed with the statement. the teachers’ response to the item that enquired if they believed their oral proficiency could be exemplary to the learners was mixed. the teachers who thought they were fluent and accurate in spoken english and could be role models to the students were about forty-three percent while about forty percent rejected it. as the teachers’ response to the last item revealed, most of them (62%) thought they had an adequate methodological understanding that enabled them to use diverse teaching methods in speaking classes. as the results from the bivariate analysis revealed, the males significantly outperformed the females in their perception of themselves. the majority of the males agreed with the statements that enquired the rating of their english proficiency and methodological understanding than females did. the relationships between male and female teachers’ perception of their english proficiency and methodological efl teachers’ cognitions about speaking adem & berkessa 81 no. 24 understanding were strong (phi-value < 0.8); whereas, the influence of gender on their belief that their fluency and accuracy could be model to the learners was modest (phivalue < 0.3). like the teachers’ gender, their experience has also shown statistically significant relationships with the perceptions of their proficiency and understanding of the speaking skills teaching methods. as the females were outperformed by the males, the least and more experienced teachers were also outperformed by the experienced ones. in other words, the teachers with more than 10 years of teaching experience perception of their proficiency and understanding of the teaching methods were by far positive than those with ten and fewer years of experience. like those who filled in the questionnaire, the interviewed teachers were also positive about their language proficiency and understanding of the methods. however, the nature of the data gathering instrument gave them the chance to mention some of their weaknesses. t1, for example, said that he lacked commitment and determinations which he believed were mandatory in teaching speaking. t2 also declared that she focused on covering the textbook than helping the learners to understand the lessons. likewise, t3 reported he was not well prepared for speaking lessons ahead of time. in general, the majority of the participants were optimistic about their english proficiency and understanding of the speaking skills teaching methods. moreover, males and the most experienced teachers were more optimistic than the females and the least experienced ones. teachers’ beliefs about the learners the vast majority of the teachers believed that the learners were interested in grammar and vocabulary than oral skills. the statement that stated learners considered learning to speak as a waste of time was endorsed by most of the teachers (56.3%) while twenty-seven percent of respondents disagreed. as to most of the teachers (62.5%), the learners thought speaking english perfectly with good pronunciation and fluency was a complex task to achieve. one of the statements the vast majority of the teachers agreed with was the one that talked about learners’ fright. to ninety-two percent of the teachers, the learners feared to speak english in front of others. asked if the learners used translation as a technique, almost half of the respondents (49.4%) affirmed that most students first thought how to say it in amharic before saying it in english. however, thirty-four percent of the teachers were uncertain about the learners’ use of translation as a technique while speaking in english while sixteen percent disagreed. bearing the amount of time the learners have studied english in mind, most of the teachers (62%) were not satisfied with their students’ overall progress. those teachers who were satisfied with their students’ progress amounted to forty-six percent. efl teachers’ cognitions about speaking adem & berkessa 82 no. 24 in the chi-square test, the teachers’ gender and experiences and their evaluation of how the students consider the ability to speak english have shown statistically significant relationships (p-value < .05). the relative majority of males and the most experienced teachers thought speaking perfectly with good pronunciation and fluency was considered a complex task to fulfill by the learners. the bivariate test was also computed to see which groups of teachers were highly dissatisfied with their students’ progress. males and the most experienced teachers were very much dissatisfied with their students’ progress in learning english than the females and the least experienced teachers. the relationship between teachers’ dissatisfaction and their gender and experience was strong (phi-value >0.8). as the findings from the teacher questionnaire, the results from the interview data also showed that the teachers were not pleased with their learners’ interest and ability in speaking. as to t1, for example, the learners were simply attending speaking classes because it was part of the syllabus. t2 also indicated that grammar was the only aspect of english language teaching that the students were interested in. t4 viewed the issue differently; he said the learners’ had the desire to fluently speak english, but their desire even was naïve as they did not want to practice. lack of interest was not the only issue the teachers complained about the students but also their lack of the basic background skills and experience of practicing classroom speaking activities. in this regard, t4 indicated his students could not understand the lessons due to their background while t1 labeled his students unfit to the grade level they were in. t3 on his part recommended that intervention is needed from the concerned bodies as the learners’ command of english was very poor. briefly, the majority of the teachers were pessimistic about the students’ interest and courage in learning to speak. on the contrary, they believed that the students were interested in grammar and vocabulary. they were also not satisfied with the overall progress of their learners as far as learning english was concerned. beliefs about the aspects that exerted influences on their beliefs the vast majority (83.6%) of the teachers thought that their beliefs about teaching speaking skills were very much influenced by their teaching experiences. of the given alternatives, experiences as a learner at high schools and pre-service education programs in college/university ranked second as they were chosen by an equal number of the teachers (32.3%). the influence of the books/articles the teachers read and in-service training were picked by twenty-nine and twenty-seven percent of the respondents respectively. on the other hand, continuous professional development (cpd) program was the least chosen. efl teachers’ cognitions about speaking adem & berkessa 83 no. 24 figure 2. issues that influence the teachers’ beliefs about teaching speaking the findings from the teacher questionnaire revealed that the majority of the teacher believed their cognitions about teaching speaking skills was primarily influenced by their teaching experiences. the remaining four aspects (experience as a learner, preservice education programs, books, and training) almost had a similar impact on their beliefs while cpd was the least influencing aspect. unlike those who filled in the questionnaire, only one of the four interviewed teachers (t2) mentioned prior teaching experience as the source of his beliefs about teaching speaking. to t1 and t4, own learning experiences exerted the primary influence on their belief about how speaking could be effectively taught. despite the labeling of own learning experience as the main source, t1 also added workshops and training he took part and the courses he took to the list. t3 on his part reported that in-service training played a pivotal role in shaping his thoughts. beliefs about the contextual factors that influence the teaching of speaking to the vast majority (94.3%) of the teachers, the teaching of speaking was highly influenced by the students’ lack of basic background skills. of the given alternatives, four of them, which were ranked from second to fourth, were picked by a nearly similar number of the teachers. these were: the use of students’ mother tongue in the classroom (84.9%), uncomfortable classroom atmosphere and inadequate classroom facilities (81.3%), large class size (79.2%), and students’ lack of interest in speaking lessons (78.1%). besides, the students’ low and uneven participation was selected by fifty-three percent of the teachers. the two least chosen contextual factors were: teachers’ insufficient oral proficiency and inadequate methodological understanding of teaching speaking (20.8%) and washback effects of national examinations (27.6%). efl teachers’ cognitions about speaking adem & berkessa 84 no. 24 figure 3. teachers’ beliefs about the contextual factors that influence the teaching of speaking in the interview, the nature of the instrument gave the participants the possibility to mention most of the factors they thought were influencing the teaching of speaking. still, most of the contextual the teachers reported were learner-related. all the teachers, for example, mentioned the following factors: learners’ lack of the basic background skills that were required to understand even simple classroom instructions, inexperience in practicing classroom speaking activities, fear of the stage and making mistakes, and lack of interest in speaking lessons. as t1 indicated, the learners’ lack of interest in speaking lessons originated from three sources: the focus on standardized tests to which speaking was not a part, hopelessness speaking in english was difficult to achieve even if they learn and practice it, and the misconception that learning english meant all about studying and knowing the grammar and vocabulary of the language. besides the learners, three of the participants (t2, t3 and t4) reported that some of the speaking contents of the textbook were ineffective. to t3, for example, the textbook did not promote interactions while t4 oral skills were disregarded in the textbook as the focus was on the grammar of the language. t3 and t4 also blamed most of the english teachers for not having the expected command in the language and determination which they thought were fundamentals to teach speaking. like the learner-related factors, the teachers also agreed that the teaching of speaking was impeded by large class size. as to t4, it was not only the size that impeded the instruction but also the seats as the learners sat on sealed desks which made group discussion, a speaking activity he regarded as the most effective, difficult. t2 and t3 also seemed to be bothered by the school administrators’ demand to cover the textbook at any cost within the given time. finally, t1 indicated that the students’ master of speaking was hindered by the school culture. to him, the learners who practice speaking in and outside the classroom were afraid of their peers’ criticism as speaking in english was considered showing off one’s ability not only by the students but also by the teachers. in general, the teachers thought that the student-related factors (lack of background, use of mother-tongue, and lack of interest) and the classroom-related efl teachers’ cognitions about speaking adem & berkessa 85 no. 24 factors (inadequate classroom facility and large class size) played the leading roles in influencing the teaching of speaking. most of the teachers however did not think that their english proficiency and methodological understanding had that much influence. the relationships between beliefs about teaching speaking and the classroom practices in the questionnaire, the respondents were asked to rate the relationships between their beliefs how speaking could be effectively taught with the actual classroom practices in a five-point likert scale item. the result revealed that a relative majority (49.5%) of the teachers believed there was a fair relationship between their beliefs and the classroom practices. however, thirty-one percent of the teachers rated the relationship as poor. those who regarded the relationships between their beliefs and classroom practices as excellent and good were sixteen percent and two percent respectively. table 1. teachers’ rating of the relationships between their espoused beliefs and the classroom practices item ratings freq. percent the relationships between teachers’ beliefs and the classroom practices excellent 4 2.1 good 30 15.6 fair 95 49.5 poor 59 30.7 very poor 4 2.1 discussions speaking was considered as one of the important aspects of english language instruction to the learners’ academic achievement and personal success. besides, speaking was one of the vital productive skills the teachers wanted their students to improve the most. identifying speaking as one of the most important skills and the teaching of the speaking lessons as a must was not only a shared belief for teachers in this study. tleuov (2016) and vibulphol (2004), for example, reported that teachers thought speaking has been one of the most important skills that needed to be learned and practiced. leong and ahmadi (2017) and ur (1991) also stated that speaking is the most important aspect of learning a second or foreign language as success is often measured by how well the learners have improved their spoken ability. the teachers’ beliefs about the benefits of speaking also matched with the reports of baker and efl teachers’ cognitions about speaking adem & berkessa 86 no. 24 westrup (2003) that indicated individuals with good speaking skills have greater chances of better education, finding good jobs, and getting a promotion. accordingly, speaking was the skill the teachers themselves wanted to improve and required their students to improve the most. though the teachers agreed on the importance of the ability to speak english and the essentiality of teaching speaking lessons, it was not the skill the teachers enjoyed to teach and the students preferred to learn as they were interested in grammar and vocabulary lessons. the teachers perceived speaking, the skill itself, and the teaching of speaking lessons as difficult when compared to other language skills. these all showed how speaking is overlooked in the instructional process. likewise, leong and ahmadi (2017) and musliadi (2016) reported that speaking is one of the disregarded areas of english language teaching at schools. it was alarming because speaking was also identified as the weakest part of the learners; it was the weakest but also the disregarded part of the instructional process. the teachers’ beliefs about the purpose of teaching speaking could play pivotal roles in their selection of the classroom activities and their classroom decisions. therefore, it was important to understand the teachers’ beliefs about the objectives of teaching speaking and the areas they wanted to focus on. the teachers in this study believed that developing learners’ ability to form coherent connected speech with a normal level of speed, which we literally referred to as fluency, should be the primary focus. the teachers’ prioritization of fluency accords with what brown (1993) said that developing fluency has become a major objective in language teaching methodology. on the other hand, it contradicted with the arguments of educators like lindahl (2018) who claimed that there should be a balance between fluency (i.e., being able to speak fluidly to convey meaning) and accuracy (i.e., being able to create utterances and pronounce words relatively error-free). however, if teachers’ views of the speaking teaching objectives were used alone to match their cognitions with the speaking teaching approaches goh and burns (2012) mentioned (direct, indirect, and balanced), the teachers’ views went to an indirect approach that prioritizes fluency over accuracy. the teachers’ were against learning and memorizing common phrases and expressions, and providing equivalent phrases or expressions in students’ mother tongue in teaching speaking. they rather supported practicing real-life communicative activities. this belief of the teacher matched with the communicative views of language teaching as communicative language teaching (clt) claims learners learn a language through the process of communicating in it rather than studying the given phrases and looking for their equivalents in the students’ mother tongue (richards, 2006; richards and rodgers, 1999). it is assumed that teachers have different levels of language competencies (shamim, 2008). the teachers in this study were confident that they had sufficient efl teachers’ cognitions about speaking adem & berkessa 87 no. 24 english proficiency and adequate methodological understanding of teaching speaking which were required to become qualified english teachers. this finding disagrees with the reports by young et al., (2014) that stated english language teachers knew their command of english was not sufficient for classroom teaching or communication. however, the experienced teachers’ optimism than the least experienced ones coincided with what was reported by (pennington and richards, 2016). skehan (1991:276) stated the following about language aptitude: “there is a talent for learning languages that is independent of intelligence; it varies between people.” accordingly, to the teachers in this study, some students were better in their speaking aptitude (the ability to learn speaking), and speaking aptitude and writing aptitudes were incongruent as those who were good at written english were not good at speaking. by and large, they thought ethiopians’ speaking aptitude was not good. previous studies report that discussion exercises were the most preferred and used ones by english language teachers in oral skills lessons (esayas, 2019; gudu, 2015; kaski-akhawan, 2013). this was true to the majority of the teachers in this study as the discussion was the effective classroom activity and group work was the effective mode of interaction in teaching speaking. of the different sources of teachers’ cognitions reported by different scholars, the ones by richards and lockhart (1996) were common. they identified six sources of teacher cognition which could be categorized into three major sources: own learning experience at primary and secondary schools, pre-service education programs (college and/or university), and teaching experiences. of these, borg (2003) reported that prior language learning experiences laid the foundation for teachers’ cognitions that are often stronger and resistant to change. however, the teacher believed that their cognition about teaching speaking skills was primarily influenced by their teaching experiences. the remaining four aspects (experience as a learner, pre-service education programs, books, and training) almost had a similar impact on their beliefs while cpd was the least influencing aspect. regardless of the length of study, efl learners have difficulties in using english for academic work and communication (lee, 2009; sawir, 2005). this seemed why the teachers were dissatisfied with the students’ overall progress. the teachers did not think that the students were even good at the aspects, grammar and vocabulary, they were interested in let alone the skill they disliked. moreover, the teachers assumed that the learner-related factors (i.e. lack of background, use of mother-tongue, and lack of interest) were the most responsible for the difficulties of teaching speaking. the debate on the relationships between teachers’ cognitions and their classroom practices is yet unresolved as different teacher cognition researchers have reported three forms of relationships: congruent (mansour, 2009; pajares, 1992), incongruent (khader, 2012; hendric, harmon, & linerode, 2004) and mixed (borg, 2006; farrell efl teachers’ cognitions about speaking adem & berkessa 88 no. 24 & lim, 2005). to the relative majority of the teachers in this study, the relationship between their beliefs and the classroom practices was fair. conclusions and recommendations conclusions based on the findings, the following conclusions are drawn: • though speaking was considered an important part of english language instruction, it was one of the disregarded skills that the teachers did not enjoy teaching. • the ability to speak english and teaching speaking lessons were difficult tasks for the teachers though they seemed to be confident about their english proficiency and understanding of the speaking skills teaching methods. • to the teachers, practicing real-life communicative activities was more essential than memorization and translation to teaching speaking. • group discussion was an effective classroom speaking activity for the teachers. • the teachers were doubtful about the relationships between their beliefs about teaching speaking and classroom practices. recommendations • the following recommendations are given to researchers who are interested in the teaching of speaking: • it is pivotal to investigate the problems the teachers encounter in teaching speaking and show the possible solutions. • studies on why females and least experienced teachers are pessimistic about their english proficiency and understanding of the speaking skills teaching methods than the males and experienced teachers are also required. • it is also important to study if what the teachers think of the students is real or teacher constructed. efl teachers’ cognitions about speaking adem & berkessa 89 no. 24 • the practice and contributions of the continuous professional development (cpd) program for the teachers’ professional developments needs to be investigated as it was the least chosen regarding its contributions to the teachers’ beliefs. • the study on the relationships between teachers’ beliefs about teaching speaking and their classroom practices can also contribute greatly. 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(2013). first-year japanese university students’ language learning beliefs: continuity and change. teaching english as a second or foreign language (tesl-ej); the electronic journal for english as a second language, 17 (3). young jw, freeman d, hauck mc, garcia gomez p, and papageorgiou s (2014). a design framework for the elteach program assessments (elt research report no rr13–46). princeton, nj: educational testing service. authors *habtamu adem is an english lecturer at wolkite university, college of social science and humanities, department of english language and literature. he is a phd candidate at addis ababa university, college of humanities, language studies, and journalism and communication, department of foreign languages and literature. his area of research interest include teachers’ cognitions and classroom practices, teaching english to young learners, teaching speaking, and teaching grammar. orcid id: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6540-7579 dr mendida berkessa is an assistant professor of english at addis ababa university, college of humanities, language studies, and journalism and communication, department of foreign languages and literature. orcid id: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0638-7579 how to reference this article: adem, h., & berkessa, m. (2022) efl teachers’ cognitions about teaching speaking skills . gist – education and learning research journal, 24. 65-94. https:// doi.org/10.26817/16925777.1308 efl teachers’ cognitions about speaking investigating the impact of test anxiety and selfregulation on foreign language learning: a quantitative correlational approach investigación del impacto de la ansiedad ante los exámenes y la autorregulación en el aprendizaje de lenguas extranjeras: un enfoque cuantitativo correlacional duygu ispinar akcayoglu1 and omer ozer2 adana alparslan türkeş science and technology university 117 no. 27 gist education and learning research journal. issn 1692-5777. no. 27 (july december, 2023). pp. 117-135. 1 duyguispinar@yahoo.com; 2 omerozer.phd@gmail.com 118 no. 27 abstract the present study investigated the self-regulated learning strategies adopted by efl learners, their levels of cognitive test anxiety, and the potential correlations between self-regulated learning and cognitive test anxiety. the study also examined whether gender and level of language proficiency had a significant effect on self-regulated learning and cognitive test anxiety. a correlational survey design was employed to investigate efl learners and cross-sectional data were collected through an online questionnaire. data analysis of 269 undergraduate students revealed that gender consistently emerged as a significant variable. notably, female students exhibited higher mean scores in both self-regulated learning and cognitive test anxiety. furthermore, the results consistently found a correlation between self-regulated learning and cognitive test anxiety, with self-regulated learning effectively predicting cognitive test anxiety. specifically, the predictive power of self-regulated learning for cognitive test anxiety was found to be statistically significant only within the group of students at a2 language level. keywords: cognitive test anxiety, self-regulated learning, efl learners, higher education, foreign language learning, test anxiety resumen el presente estudio investigó las estrategias de aprendizaje autorregulado adoptadas por los estudiantes de efl, sus niveles de ansiedad cognitiva ante los exámenes y las posibles correlaciones entre el aprendizaje autorregulado y la ansiedad cognitiva ante los exámenes. el estudio también examinó si el género y el nivel de competencia lingüística tenían un efecto significativo sobre el aprendizaje autorregulado y la ansiedad cognitiva ante los exámenes. se empleó un diseño de encuesta correlacional para investigar a los estudiantes de efl y se recogieron datos transversales mediante un cuestionario en línea. el análisis de los datos de 269 estudiantes universitarios reveló que el género se reveló sistemáticamente como una variable significativa. en concreto, las estudiantes obtuvieron puntuaciones medias más altas tanto en aprendizaje autorregulado como en ansiedad cognitiva ante los exámenes. además, los resultados mostraron de forma consistente una correlación entre el aprendizaje autorregulado y la ansiedad cognitiva ante los exámenes, con el aprendizaje autorregulado prediciendo eficazmente la ansiedad cognitiva ante los exámenes. en concreto, el poder predictivo del aprendizaje autorregulado para la ansiedad cognitiva ante los exámenes resultó ser estadísticamente significativo sólo en el grupo de estudiantes de nivel a2. palabras clave: ansiedad cognitiva ante los exámenes, aprendizaje autorregulado, estudiantes de inglés como lengua extranjera, educación superior, aprendizaje de lenguas extranjeras, ansiedad ante los exámenes test anxiety and self-regulation in foreign language learning 119 no. 27 resumo o presente estudo investigou as estratégias de aprendizagem autorregulada adotadas pelos alunos de efl, seus níveis de ansiedade cognitiva em exames e as possíveis correlações entre a aprendizagem autorregulada e a ansiedade cognitiva em exames. o estudo também examinou se o gênero e o nível de competência linguística tinham um efeito significativo sobre a aprendizagem autorregulada e a ansiedade cognitiva em exames. foi utilizado um desenho de pesquisa correlacional para investigar os alunos de efl, e foram coletados dados transversais por meio de um questionário online. a análise dos dados de 269 estudantes universitários revelou que o gênero se mostrou consistentemente como uma variável significativa. especificamente, as alunas obtiveram médias mais altas tanto em aprendizagem autorregulada quanto em ansiedade cognitiva em exames. além disso, os resultados mostraram de forma consistente uma correlação entre a aprendizagem autorregulada e a ansiedade cognitiva em exames, sendo que a aprendizagem autorregulada previu eficazmente a ansiedade cognitiva em exames. especificamente, o poder preditivo da aprendizagem autorregulada para a ansiedade cognitiva em exames revelou-se estatisticamente significativo apenas no grupo de estudantes de nível a2. palavras-chave: ansiedade cognitiva em exames, aprendizagem autorregulada, alunos de inglês como língua estrangeira, ensino superior, aprendizagem de línguas estrangeiras, ansiedade em exames omer ozer and duygu ispinar akcayoglu 120 no. 27 background of the study the role of self-regulated learning and test anxiety in language learning has long been a topic of interest and research. scholars from around the world have conducted an investigation into the relationship between test anxiety and several variables, such as self-efficacy (lei et al., 2021), academic buoyancy (putwain et al. 2023), coping strategies (thomas et al., 2017), goal orientation, perfectionism, and academic achievement (eum & rice, 2011). similarly, self-regulation in learning has been investigated from many aspects, and researchers from various disciplines have documented that it facilitates learning (chen, 2022; ozer & ispinar akcayoglu, 2021; tse et al., 2022; tseng et al., 2017). both self-regulated learning and cognitive test anxiety have been recognized as having a significant impact on the language learning process. while cognitive test anxiety can lead to poor concentration (amate-romera & de la fuente 2021), fear of failure (cassady, 2004; lowe et al., 2008), and in some cases, students freezing up (németh & bernáth 2023), self-regulation strategies may play a role in mitigating the negative impact of cognitive test anxiety (chen, 2022). given the importance of self-regulated learning and cognitive test anxiety in foreign language learning, it is important to develop a better understanding of the relationship between the two variables. this literature review builds on existing research findings on the effects of cognitive test anxiety and self-regulated learning strategies on foreign language learning. the review focuses on the sources and consequences of anxiety, as well as the strategies that learners use to mitigate its impact. sources and effects of test anxiety in foreign language learning the literature underscores the significant effects of test anxiety on the foreign language learning process (cassady & johnson 2002). the study of aydın et al. (2020) emphasizes the relevance of understanding the sources and impacts of test anxiety among learners. zheng and cheng (2018) further contribute to this discourse by establishing cognitive test anxiety as a substantial negative predictor of academic achievement in language learning. this suggests that test anxiety not only affects learners’ psychological well-being but also bears tangible implications for their language proficiency and academic performance. in a comprehensive study by aydın et al. (2020), an exploration of test anxiety among learners of english as a foreign language (efl) reveals multifaceted sources and effects. the study identifies physical, test-related, and affective problems as key sources of test anxiety among efl learners. in another study, aydın (2012) confirmed that fear of negative evaluation was a reason for test anxiety. all these sources contribute to learners’ experiences of distress, which can hinder their language learning progress. cognitive test anxiety embodies multifaceted test anxiety and self-regulation in foreign language learning 121 no. 27 dimensions, including general worry, freezing up, and fear of failure, among other dimensions (németh & bernáth 2023). putwain (2019) also found that higher selfhandicapping was associated with poorer examination performance, mediated by lower perceived control and higher worry. his findings suggest that increasing perceived control and reducing self-handicapping could be effective strategies for test anxiety interventions. in a separate study, aydın and yerin güneri (2022) investigated the role of psychological inflexibility, rumination, perfectionism cognitions, cognitive defusion, and self-forgiveness in the context of cognitive test anxiety in a sample of 715 efl learners at a public university. their findings indicated that psychological inflexibility, rumination, and perfectionism cognitions exhibited positive correlations with cognitive test anxiety and were predictors of test anxiety. a 30-year meta-analytic review by von der embse et al. (2018) found that self-esteem was a significant and strong predictor of test anxiety. the perceived difficulty and high-stakes consequences of the test were also associated with higher levels of test anxiety. overall, test anxiety has been found to negatively predict students’ academic performance and success (balogun et al., 2017; cassady, 2004; möcklinghoff et al., 2023; thomas et al., 2017; zheng & cheng, 2018). the negative impact of anxiety on language learning exhibit variability based on the context, educational levels of students, and the target language (aydın et al., 2021; teimouri et al., 2019). andujar and cruz-martínez (2020), aydın et al. (2021) and horwitz (2010) support the assertion that foreign language anxiety persists across learners of different proficiency levels. this persistent role implies that anxiety does not diminish as learners progress in their language studies. such a conclusion underscores the need for continuous attention to anxiety management strategies throughout the language learning journey. self-regulated learning strategies of language learners while anxiety exerts detrimental effects, self-regulated learning strategies exert a positive influence on language learning outcomes. even though there is a huge amount of theoretical basis, most of which have been proposed and tested especially since the 2000s onwards (chen, 2022), self-regulated learning mainly covers some principal components. despite the many different names and forms self-regulated learning can take, it is prudent to say that it comprises goal setting, self-monitoring, and selfevaluation, amongst others (andrade & evans 2012; cassidy, 2011; zimmerman & schunk, 2001), and they are all interrelated (peel, 2019). all the components of selfregulated learning help learners regulate their learning to improve their performance and adapt to changing contexts (zimmerman & schunk, 2001). self-regulated learning occurs when there is a reciprocal relationship between forethought, performance, and self-reflection (zimmerman, 2002). this reciprocal relationship provides researchers with a rich ground for gaining insights into student omer ozer and duygu ispinar akcayoglu 122 no. 27 learning and sustaining lifelong learning. in the context of foreign language learning, there exists a gradually growing body of research. seker (2016), for example, conducted a study on 222 undergraduate foreign language learners and found that self-regulated learning is a significant predictor of foreign language achievement, even though participants in her study reported using self-regulation strategies at only moderate to low levels. this suggests that self-regulated learning is an important skill for foreign language learners to develop, and that even using srl strategies to a limited extent can lead to improved language learning outcomes. martirossian and hartoonian (2015) assert that the implementation of these strategies empowers learners to take control of their learning process, thereby enhancing their academic engagement. guo et al. (2018) delve deeper into this aspect, exploring chinese efl learners’ utilization of self-regulatory strategies to combat foreign language anxiety. their research identifies cognitive, metacognitive (appraisal), and affective strategies as particularly favoured by learners. the findings suggest that learners who are better able to regulate their emotional and cognitive processes exhibit enhanced language learning performance. there are also some studies indicating that self-regulated learning occurs more effectively when formative assessment is preferred (lam, 2015; xiao & yang, 2019). lam (2015), for instance, studied the relationship between explicit strategy instruction and the development of metacognitive knowledge, along with the mental processes that underlie students’ utilisation of strategies in a process-oriented efl writing course. according to his research, strategy instruction in writing is likely to increase the capacity for self-control and resourcefulness in coping with diverse writing tasks. the synthesis of these findings holds valuable implications for foreign language teaching. efl teachers need to be attentive to the multifaceted sources of test anxiety. this awareness might enable language teachers to create a supportive classroom environment that addresses physical, test-related, and affective concerns, thereby fostering a more conducive learning atmosphere. additionally, guo et al. (2018), by exploring self-regulated learning strategies, suggests that educators should encourage learners to adopt cognitive, metacognitive, and affective strategies to effectively manage anxiety. this approach not only enhances learners’ emotional well-being but also positively impacts their language learning. present study the existing body of literature underscores the significant role of test anxiety and self-regulated learning strategies in shaping the foreign language learning process. while test anxiety poses challenges by hindering language proficiency and test scores (zheng & cheng, 2018), self-regulated learning strategies offer a wealth of opportunities to mitigate the negative effects of anxiety. the persistent nature of foreign language anxiety across proficiency levels highlights the need for ongoing efforts to address and manage anxiety throughout the language learning journey. on test anxiety and self-regulation in foreign language learning 123 no. 27 the other hand, students with higher levels of test anxiety were found to engage less in self-regulating their learning, as demonstrated by amate-romera and de la fuente (2021), in a sample of university students in spain. by incorporating these insights into foreign language teaching practices, educators can cultivate a more nurturing and more supportive learning environment that promotes language learning. the underlying premise was that the recruitment of efl learners across diverse proficiency levels would yield insightful data regarding the mechanisms through which language learners at the university level manage their learning processes and test-related anxiety. therefore, the purpose of this investigation was to delve into the self-regulated learning strategies adopted by efl learners, their levels of test anxiety, and the potential correlations between test anxiety and self-regulated learning. specifically, this study aimed to determine whether low self-regulation is a predictor of higher levels of test anxiety. the present study aimed to build on previous research on how cognitive test anxiety is affected by the way efl learners approach their learning, act to achieve their learning goals, and evaluate their performance accordingly. based on previous research, it was hypothesised that there would be significant negative statistical relationships between learners’ perceived anxiety and self-regulated learning means. it was also hypothesised that anxiety would persist across language proficiency levels. underlying this discussion, the following research questions were posited: 1. how do students with different levels of language proficiency and genders differ on self-regulated learning and cognitive test anxiety? 2. is there a significant correlation between self-regulated learning and cognitive test anxiety? 3. how does self-regulation among efl learners predict cognitive test anxiety? data and methods the study employed a correlational survey design to investigate efl learners who had been studying for one year at a school of foreign languages. it utilised cross-sectional data collected through an online questionnaire, which investigated the relationship between students’ test anxiety, self-regulated learning factors, and sociodemographic factors. omer ozer and duygu ispinar akcayoglu 124 no. 27 study population a cross-sectional study was conducted among efl learners at a state university in southern turkey. the students were enrolled in the preparatory year programme (pyp) of the school of foreign languages, which provides a foundation for students to proceed to their departmental courses. all undergraduate programmes at the university are offered in english, so language instruction in the pyp is a requirement for all students before advancing to the undergraduate programme in which they are enrolled. a total of 284 students responded to the survey, but due to incomplete, nonor inconsistent responses, the data from 269 respondents were subjected to data analysis. of the respondents, 43.9% were male and 56.1% were female. the students were studying in different proficiency groups at the school, with 51.3% at a2 level, 32.7% at b1 level and 16% at b2 level. the age of the students ranged from 18 to 46 years, with a mean age of 19.79 years (sd = 2.62). data collection tools the survey instrument comprised a range of multiple-choice and likert-type questions, allowing respondents to rate their agreement with each item. the scale on self-regulation in learning (ssrl), developed by erdogan and senemoglu (2016), is a self-report instrument designed to quantify cognitive and motivational aspects related to self-regulation in learning. the scale comprises four dimensions: ‘before study’ (α= 0.78), ‘during study’ (α= 0.77), ‘after study’ (α= 0.82), and ‘motivation’ (α= 0.81). the sections and main dimensions of the instrument are modular in design, allowing researchers to tailor their use to their specific needs. in this study, only the three cognitive factors (‘before study’, ‘during study’, and ‘after study’) were utilised. respondents rated each item on a 5-point scale, with 1 representing ‘never’ and 5 representing ‘always’. test anxiety among university students was assessed using the turkish version of the cognitive test anxiety scale–revised (t-ctar), validated by bozkurt et al. (2017). this 23-item assessment tool demonstrates a unidimensional structure, consistent with the conceptualisation of cognitive test anxiety and previous examinations of the original scale, developed in english. the instrument used in the present study is tcar, which is the turkish revised version of the cognitive test anxiety scale (ctar) originally developed by cassady and johnson in 2002. the ctar was developed to measure only the cognitive aspects of test anxiety, throughout the learning-testing cycle. the 23-item t-ctar’s internal consistency was found to excellent, aligning with previous research findings (cronbach’s α = .93). respondents rate their suitability on a 4-point scale, with 1 indicating ‘not suitable for me at all’ and 4 indicating ‘very suitable for me’. test anxiety and self-regulation in foreign language learning 125 no. 27 data collection and analysis after obtaining ethical clearance from the human research ethic committee at the university where the study took place, the researchers distributed the questionnaire within the school via an online platform. data were collected using convenience sampling during the spring term of the 2021-2022 academic year. respondents were directed to an online survey via a link, which presented an informed consent page before proceeding. participants were informed of their right to refuse participation or withdraw from the study at any time. as a result, the participation was voluntary. only students who provided informed consent were permitted to proceed to the questionnaire. all calculations were made using ibm spss statistics, version 21 for windows. the threshold for statistical significance was set at ‘p < 0.05’. descriptive statistics are reported, including absolute frequencies (n), mean and standard deviation (±), and relative frequencies (%) for categorical variables. the statistical analyses were conducted in three stages. the independent variables were assessed for normal distribution. after the distribution was confirmed to be normal, parametric tests were selected for analysis. firstly, independent samples t-tests and anova analysis were used to compare differences between the distributions of means across pairs of independent groups (males/females) and proficiency level groups (a2, b1, and b2 language levels), respectively. in one case, when the assumption of homogeneity of variance was violated, a robust welch’s anova test was used. secondly, pearson’s correlation coefficient was calculated to determine the relationship between self-regulated learning strategies and cognitive test anxiety. to determine the association between self-regulated learning and cognitive test anxiety, a linear regression test was conducted. finally, the effect size was calculated to determine the statistical significance of the differences between the variables. results the results are presented in the order of the research questions. first, the relationship between self-regulated learning and cognitive test anxiety was examined to determine whether it varied depending on the student’s levels of language proficiency or gender. second, correlation analysis was used to identify the association between the two dependent variables. finally, self-regulated learning was used as a predictor of cognitive test anxiety in a linear regression model to identify differences between the groups. omer ozer and duygu ispinar akcayoglu 126 no. 27 table 1. gender and language proficiency related differences in variables: means, standard deviations, t-test and anova self-regulated learning cognitive test anxiety variable n mean ± sd p. mean ± sd p. gender female 151 3.22 ± .053 .004 2.91 ± .075 .000 male 118 3.04 ± .050 2.48 ± .084 levels of language proficiency a2 138 3.15 ± .046 .358** 2.83 ± .079 .069 b1 88 3.09 ± .052 2.62 ± .086 b2 43 3.22 ± .069 2.57 ± .079 ** the welch’s anova test was run as the variances of the variable across the groups were not equal. when they were tested by gender, there were significant differences in the mean scores of cognitive test anxiety t(267) = -4.457, p = .000 and of self-regulated learning t(267) = -2.889, p = .004. the effect size, as measured by cohen’s d, was d = 3.494, indicating a small effect. no statistically significant difference was found in average self-regulated learning [f(2) = 1.032, p = .358] or cognitive test anxiety [f(2) = 2.707, p = .069] according to the levels of language proficiency. to examine the relationship between self-regulated learning and cognitive test anxiety in response to the second research question, a pearson correlation coefficient was calculated. table 2. correlations between self-regulated learning and cognitive test anxiety (n = 269) self-regulated cognitive test learning anxiety self-regulated learning pearson correlation 1 .205 sig. (2 tailed) .001 cognitive test anxiety pearson correlation .205 1 sig. (2 tailed) .001 the results showed a significant, positive correlation of .205 between the two variables (p = .001), indicating that higher levels of test anxiety are associated with higher levels of self-regulated learning. linear regression analyses were conducted to identify the relationship between self-regulated learning and cognitive test anxiety. table 3 shows the standardized coefficients for the regression analysis. test anxiety and self-regulation in foreign language learning 127 no. 27 table 3. regression analysis for self-regulated learning in predicting cognitive test anxiety variable b std. error β t p constant 1.713 .298 5.742 .000 self-regulated learning .321 .094 .205 3.427 .001 r .205 r2 .042 * dependent variable: cognitive test anxiety a significant regression equation was found, with self-regulated learning explaining 4.2% of the total variation in cognitive test anxiety (f(1, 267) = 11.742, p = .001). although the analysis revealed a significant difference between self-regulated learning and cognitive test anxiety, it is noteworthy that only 4.2% of the variation in the cognitive test anxiety variable is explained by self-regulated learning. this implies that predictive power of self-regulated learning over cognitive test anxiety is relatively modest. table 4. linear regression models of self-regulated learning as predictor of cognitive test anxiety by each level of language proficiency b std. error β t p a2 (n = 138) constant 1.176 .442 2.659 .009 self-regulated learning .525 .139 .308 3.782 .000 r2 .095 b1 (n = 88) constant 1.858 .553 3.360 .001 self-regulated learning .248 .177 .149 1.401 .165 r2 .022 b2 (n = 43) constant 2.221 .586 3.790 .000 self-regulated learning .108 .178 .094 .606 .548 r2 .009 * dependent variable: cognitive test anxiety omer ozer and duygu ispinar akcayoglu 128 no. 27 the results showed that the predictor of self-regulated learning explained 9.5% of the total variation in cognitive test anxiety (f(1, 136) = 14.304, p = .000). the p-value for the regression coefficient was less than 0.001, which indicates that the relationship between self-regulated learning and cognitive test anxiety was statistically significant. the results of the test showed that there was no statistically significant relationship between the two variables within b1 and b2 groups. discussion even though this is a complex area, lower levels of self-regulation and cognitive test anxiety are generally thought to negatively impact language achievement. this study adds to the existing body of evidence that investigates the associations between self-regulated learning and cognitive test anxiety focusing on the case of efl learners at the tertiary level. first, the study findings revealed that the levels of self-regulated learning and cognitive test anxiety varied significantly by gender, with female students possessing higher mean scores both on self-regulated learning and cognitive test anxiety. several scholars have reported higher levels of test anxiety among female students (aydın et al., 2021; aydın & yerin güneri, 2022; santana & eccius-wellmann, 2018; zheng & cheng, 2018). similarly, females exhibited significantly higher levels of self-regulation than their male counterparts. this finding has been echoed in the existing literature in recent years. for example, tseng et al. (2017) examined efl learners’ self-regulatory capacity and found gender-related differences. specifically, female efl learners had better control over their strategy use than males. in a recent study by liu et al. (2021), researchers explored gender differences in self-regulated learning among a group of chinese students. the findings indicated that across all three dimensions— preparatory, performance, and appraisal phases—of self-regulated learning, female students outperformed their male counterparts. however, it is worth to note that these findings are not uniform across disciplines and educational levels. the existing literature demonstrates conflicting results. for instance, a study by hong et al. (2016) in the chinese context found that male language learners scored higher on a measure of self-regulated learning than female language learners. however, it is essential to interpret these findings cautiously. this is because higher levels of cognitive test anxiety do not always lead to poor test performance. there were no significant differences observed in the scores for either self-regulated learning or cognitive test anxiety on levels of language proficiency. some studies, such as that by aydın and yerin güneri (2022) and zheng and cheng (2018), indicate a connection between language level and cognitive test anxiety. therefore, the findings we obtained in our sample might need to be acknowledged in future studies. test anxiety and self-regulation in foreign language learning 129 no. 27 second, we found that self-regulated learning and cognitive test anxiety have a positive correlation. however, the findings in the literature are not consistent and show contradictory results. despite the limited number of studies investigating the relationship between test anxiety and self-regulation for learning, a negative correlation is often reported (cassady & finch, 2020; romera & de la fuente, 2021). last, it was found that self-regulated learning successfully predicted cognitive test anxiety. however, the regression model explained 4.2% of the variance in cognitive test anxiety scores. future research could attempt to add other related variables, such as academic buoyancy and self-handicapping, to their regression models to see if they can help explain more of the variance in cognitive test anxiety. there have been few studies investigating the associations between cognitive test anxiety in higher education settings. one example is the work of putwain et al. (2016), who suggested that academic buoyancy could be effective in ameliorating performance-interfering worries. putwain (2019) examined how test anxiety develops from executive selfregulation processes and self-beliefs using a structural equation model. he found that higher self-handicapping was linked to worse examination performance through lower control and higher worry. in the present study, the predictive power of selfregulated learning for cognitive test anxiety was found to be statistically significant only within the group of students possessing the lowest language proficiency among the three language levels. in particular, when the a2 level group was compared to learners of other language levels, it was observed that self-regulated learning effectively predicted the levels of cognitive test anxiety among these language learners. fear of failure (németh & bernáth, 2023; zeidner, 2007) and perceived low proficiency levels (andujar & cruz-martínez, 2020; aydın et al., 2021) are two strong sources of test anxiety. this connection likely influenced the experiences of a2-level language learners examined in our study. as students’ language proficiency advances throughout their learning journey, their test anxiety is likely to decrease, aligning with the cognitive appraisal model’s principles (cassady & johnson, 2002). conclusion this study is a cross-sectional survey of turkish efl learners at a state university. the main goal of this study was to add to the body of knowledge by investigating the potential for better identifying the connections between self-regulated learning and cognitive test anxiety. to this end, we discuss the effects of gender and language proficiency levels on respondents’ cognitive test anxiety and self-regulated learning levels. we also examine the effects of gender and language proficiency levels on respondents’ cognitive test anxiety and self-regulated learning levels. the study also determines the strength and direction of the linear relationship between these two ordinal variables. learners with higher levels of self-regulated learning have been omer ozer and duygu ispinar akcayoglu 130 no. 27 found to have a tendency towards higher levels of cognitive test anxiety. this is quite interesting, as it contradicts the majority of findings in the existing literature. therefore, these findings should be investigated further. self-regulated learning was found to be a predictor of cognitive test anxiety. however, this finding is neither inherently positive nor negative. when students are anxious about a test, they may focus their attention and avoid distractions. they may also use effective learning strategies, such as setting goals and monitoring their progress. it is also worth gaining insight into the reasons for the existence of significantly higher self-regulated learning and cognitive test anxiety scores among a2 level learners, as previous research suggests that lower levels of english proficiency can be a source of test anxiety. the results are important for language educators, as they can help students identify the sources of their anxiety and develop coping strategies. additionally, the findings can be helpful for researchers examining the sources of negative emotions students experience before and during exams, and how this affects their ability to persevere in the face of academic difficulties and improve their academic performance. although this study poses a few conundrums to be addressed by researchers, there are two notable limitations. the participants were from the school of foreign languages, where a full-year language instruction is offered. as a result, the students may not necessarily engage with their departmental courses during this period. therefore, the results obtained may not be generalizable to other groups of efl learners. this includes those who are learning english in addition to their departmental courses, as well as those studying at other educational levels. another shortcoming is that due to the use of cross-sectional data instead of time-series data, both fellow researchers and language education practitioners should exercise caution when interpreting causal relationships identified in this study. disclosure statement no potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors. test anxiety and self-regulation in foreign language learning 131 no. 27 references amate-romera, j., & de la fuente, j. 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(2018). how does anxiety influence language performance? from the perspectives of foreign language classroom anxiety and cognitive test anxiety. language testing in asia, 8(1), 1-19. https://doi.org/10.1186/s40468-0180065-4 authors dr duygu ispinar akcayoglu, an associate professor at adana alparslan turkes science and technology university, turkey, holds an ma and a phd in the field of teaching english as a foreign language from cukurova university. her research interests include the psychological factors affecting learning and teaching english as a foreign language and the impact of emerging technologies on learning behaviours during this process. orcid: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9031-5011 dr omer ozer is an associate professor at adana alparslan turkes science and technology university, turkey. he has published extensively in the fields of multilingual policies in higher education, computer-assisted language learning, and autonomous language learning. orcid: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8502-3145 declaration of ai use: in accordance with gist’s editorial policies, this article has utilized the free version of grammarly to check the grammar of the manuscript. omer ozer and duygu ispinar akcayoglu influence of discrimination in the field of tesol: perspectives of mexican efl teachers1 influencia de la discriminación en el campo de la enseñanza del inglés: perspectivas de maestros de inglés en méxico edgar emmanuell garcia ponce2* universidad de guanajuato, mexico 1 received: march 1st 2020/ accepted: september 30th 2020 2 ee.garcia@ugto.mx gist education and learning research journal. issn 1692-5777. no. 21 (july-december, 2020). pp. 69-89. 70 no. 21 abstract in the last few decades, several studies have documented the discrimination that teachers face in the field of teaching english for speakers of other languages (tesol). to date, these studies have shown that discrimination tends to be motivated by issues concerning the nativeversus non-native language status of these professionals. moreover, recent studies have suggested that discrimination in tesol is intricate involving factors which are associated with the language status of teachers, their pronunciation, gender, race, sexual preference, age, among others. however, despite the fact that there is research discourse which has revealed the struggles of these professionals, no research discourse, to my knowledge, has documented the extent to which this phenomenon impacts on the professionals’ feelings, perceptions of the profession, and decision making. in response to this, the present study was conducted to understand the influence of discrimination in the field of tesol in mexico from perspectives of 78 mexican english as a foreign language (efl) teachers. through an online questionnaire, the teachers were asked to describe the instances in which they felt discriminated, and how these influenced their feelings, perceptions concerning their profession and decision making. the results show that the discrimination practices impact in complex ways, showing a negative influence on the professionals’ feelings, perceptions of the profession, and decisions regarding their current profession. the findings of this study call for more effective strategies in order to stop the discriminatory acts that english language teachers commonly face. keywords: discrimination; mexican tesol; efl teachers; effects of discrimination; perceptions resumen en recientes décadas, varios estudios han documentado la discriminación que profesores han experimentado en el área de la enseñanza del inglés. hasta la fecha, se ha mostrado que la discriminación en esta área es mayormente motivada por cuestiones de estatus de lengua de los profesores y la distinción entre el ser nativo y no-nativo. recientemente, se ha sugerido que la discriminación en tesol puede ser iniciada por un amplio número de factores que son complejos por naturaleza. a pesar de que se han mostrado las dificultades que estos profesionistas experimentan comúnmente en este campo, no se ha mostrado hasta el momento la forma en que este fenómeno impacta en sus emociones, percepciones de la profesión y toma de decisiones. en respuesta a esto, el presente estudio se realizó para entender la influencia de la discriminación en el campo del tesol a través de las voces de 78 maestros de inglés como lengua extranjera en méxico. con la ayuda de un cuestionario en línea, se le preguntó a los maestros describieran las veces en las que se han sentido discriminados, y cómo esto ha tenido un impacto en sus emociones, percepciones de la profesión y toma de decisiones. los resultados muestran que la discriminación percibida por estos maestros tiene un impacto de manera compleja y afecta significativamente sus emociones, percepciones de la profesión y sus decisiones como profesionistas. esto hace un llamado a formular estrategias efectivas para erradicar este problema el cual continúa afectando a maestros de inglés. discrimation in the field of tesol garcia-ponce 71 no. 21 palabras clave: discriminación; tesol; maestros de inglés; enseñanza del inglés; efectos; percepciones resumo em recentes décadas, vários estudos documentaram a discriminação que professores experimentaram na área do ensino do inglês. até a data, mostrou-se que a discriminação nesta área é principalmente motivada por questões de status de língua dos professores e a distinção entre o ser nativo e não-nativo. recentemente, tem-se sugerido que a discriminação em tesol pode ser iniciada por um amplo número de fatores que são complexos por natureza. apesar de que se têm mostrado as dificuldades que estes profissionais experimentam com frequência nesta área, não se tem mostrado até o momento a forma em que este fenômeno impacta nas suas emoções, percepções da profissão e tomada de decisões. em resposta a isto, o presente estudo foi realizado para entender a influência da discriminação na área do tesol através das vozes de 78 professores de inglês como língua estrangeira no méxico. com a ajuda de um questionário em linha, perguntou-se aos professores que descreveram o número de vezes nas que se sentiram discriminados, e como isto tem tido um impacto nas suas emoções, percepções da profissão e tomada de decisões. os resultados mostram que a discriminação percebida por estes professores tem um impacto de forma complexa e afeta significativamente as suas emoções, percepções da profissão e as suas decisões como profissionais. isto faz uma chamada a formular estratégias efetivas para erradicar este problema, o qual continua afetando a professores de inglês. palavras chave: discriminação; tesol; professores de inglês; ensino do inglês; efeitos; percepções discrimation in the field of tesol garcia-ponce 72 no. 21 introduction for decades, research has shown the prevalence of discriminatory practices in the field of tesol in different parts of the world (figueiredo, 2011; louber, 2017; mahboob & golden, 2013; ruecker & ives, 2014; selvi, 2014). much of this research has suggested that these discriminatory practices tend to be motivated by the distinction between the native and non-native status of english teachers (see braine, 2010; holliday, 2005; kamhi-stein, 2004; kubota, 2004; kubota & lin, 2009; llurda, 2005; moussu & llurda, 2008). recently, it has been suggested that the discrimination in tesol is far more complex than we thought; there is an array of factors which can motivate discrimination against english as a foreign language (efl) teachers. these factors are associated with the language status of teachers, their pronunciation, gender, race, sexual preference, age, among others. evidence of this comes from the author (2017) which showed that a high number of mexican efl teachers have faced a wide range of discriminatory practices which are professionrelated, physical, and linguistic in nature. in the research literature, the primary aim of investigating the discriminatory practices in tesol worldwide has been to eradicate this phenomenon. however, it seems that the main obstacle is that stakeholders in tesol, i.e., administrators, teachers, students and parents, do not often know about this phenomenon and how it affects efl teachers (lengeling, crawford, mora pablo & blomquist, 2016). thus, it is highly important that we direct our efforts towards raising awareness of this problem. to do this, there is a need to understand both the nature of discrimination in tesol and the influence it has on english teachers’ feelings, perceptions of the profession, and decision making. to contribute to this, the purpose of this study is to explore how discrimination in tesol influences the feelings, perceptions of the profession, and decisions of 78 mexican efl teachers. the study is guided by the following research question: what is the perceived influence that discriminatory acts have on the mexican efl teachers’ feelings, perceptions of the tesol profession, and decision making? as suggested in this research question, the importance of this study is that it provides an examination of the extent to which discrimination in the field of tesol have an impact on the realities of these professionals who dedicate their time to teach the english as a foreign language (efl). therefore, the insights gained from this study will contribute to existing knowledge of the nature of discrimination in the tesol profession in mexico. discrimation in the field of tesol garcia-ponce 73 no. 21 background in the research literature, several definitions of ‘discrimination’ have been suggested. this is because the concept of discrimination is complex in nature (the author, 2017), that is, it is often motivated by several factors whose essence is also intricate. for the purpose of the present study, the study adapts the author’s (2017) definition of discrimination in tesol as prejudiced actions which are motivated by gender, ethnicity, physical appearance, temporal or permanent physical or cognitive impediment, and linguistic competence (involving pronunciation, accent or any linguistic aspect related to the language) which initiate inequalities for obtaining resources or opportunities in the profession of foreign language teaching. this definition and others have been a timely attempt to define the complex construct of discrimination in the tesol profession. however, this article will show that discrimination in the mexican tesol not only initiate inequalities for obtaining resources or opportunities in the profession, but also have important effects on the mexican efl teachers’ feelings, perceptions concerning the profession, and their decision making concerning their professional lives. in general, discrimination has been observed in different contexts and through different lenses. in the case of education, discrimination has been seen to be motivated by “actions of institutions or individual state actors, their attitudes and ideologies, or processes that systematically treat students from different racial/ethnic groups disparately or inequitably” (mickelson, 2003, p.1052). as previously mentioned, this is a problem that still exists in the tesol profession in mexico and worldwide, despite the presence of position statements against it, for example: tesol is opposed to discrimination that affects the employment and professional lives of the tesol members on the grounds of race, ethnicity, nationality, language background, disability, health/medical condition, including hiv/aids, age, religion, gender, gender identity, and sexual orientation. (tesol, 2016) according to the author (2017), the prevalence of discrimination in tesol is due in large part to the ignorance of students, teachers and administrators. drawing upon my experience as an efl teacher, i have perceived that discrimination is often motivated by factors which are associated with teachers’ gender, ethnicity, temporal or permanent physical impediment, and linguistic competence. my own perception, fed by comments from other colleagues working in the same field, suggest the possibility that discriminatory practices in the mexican tesol still exist and in different forms, and might continue to affect thousands of professionals who teach the language in discrimation in the field of tesol garcia-ponce 74 no. 21 mexico and other efl contexts. the idea that discrimination is still alive in the mexican context is supported by recent research evidence (see the author, 2017; lengeling et al., 2016). for example, the author (2017), in a small-scale study conducted at a state university in mexico, found that a high number of efl teachers have experienced some kind of discrimination while looking for jobs or working in the mexican tesol. based upon their evidence, they call for contextually sensitive research because they maintain that the nature of discrimination in tesol is context dependent, and this nature changes from one context to another one. these investigations would contribute to bringing this evidence to light, formulating strategies to prevent discrimination in this field, and continue raising awareness among stakeholders of discriminatory behaviours in the profession. in general, they maintain that all efforts need to be directed towards evidencing and eradicating the discriminatory practices. however, in mexico, little is known about this social phenomenon within the tesol field. only a limited number of  studies have been carried out to explore the non-native speaking teachers (see the author, 2017; lengeling et al., 2016). therefore, much needs to be done to look at cases where participants describe the discriminatory acts that they have faced in the mexican tesol profession and the likely influence of these acts. taking up this call for such investigations, the present study set out to explore how discrimination in the mexican tesol influences 78 efl teachers’ feelings, perceptions of the tesol profession, and decision making. by doing so, the study makes several contributions to the current research literature. firstly, this research provides additional evidence with respect to discrimination in tesol. secondly, its results add to a growing body of literature on the influence of discrimination in tesol. methodology whilst several studies have shown that discrimination is still alive in the tesol field (figueiredo, 2011; louber, 2017; mahboob & golden, 2013; ruecker & ives, 2014; selvi, 2014), no studies have been found which document the influence of discrimination on efl teachers’ cognitions (feelings, perceptions, beliefs) and profession-related decisions. much less is known about the nature of this influence and the role it plays in their professional lives. in response to the above, the present study explores the influence of discrimination in tesol on the feelings, perceptions of the tesol profession, and decision making of a group of efl teachers in mexico. to do this, the study adopted a qualitative approach because this approach is believed to offer an effective way of describing “social phenomena as they occur naturally” (dörnyei, 2007, p. 38). this was particularly relevant for the purpose of the study as it attempts to develop an understanding of discrimation in the field of tesol garcia-ponce 75 no. 21 the potential influence of the discrimination that efl teachers face efl teaching and learning contexts. moreover, because the focus of the study is individuals’ subjective opinions, experiences and feelings, a qualitative approach was appropriate for understanding “the participants’ views of the situation being studied” (dörnyei, 2007, p. 38), that is, the kind of discrimination that they have experienced in the mexican tesol profession. data collection procedures in order to collect the data, a web-based questionnaire was administered on surveymonkey. according to wright (2005), online questionnaires are useful because they allow researchers to gain access to individuals and groups who would be difficult reach through other means and channels. the link to the questionnaire was sent out to efl teachers in mexico through open calls posted on social media, or directly sent to schools and contacts. the link was active for approximately four months. in order to participate in the study, the individuals had to meet two self-reported criteria: 1) they had to be non-native speakers and 2) efl teachers in mexico. in total, 78 efl teachers responded the online questionnaire: 52 females and 26 males. as stated by the participants, they had a wide range of teaching experience, from different mexican states, working in public and private sectors, and teaching in preschool, primary, secondary, high school and university. the questionnaire consisted of ten close-ended and open-ended questions (see appendix i). all the questions asked for information regarding any discrimination practices that the efl teachers have felt in the profession. in order to understand the influence of discrimination in the mexican tesol profession, some question items asked the participants to describe the discriminatory acts that have been initiated against them, and how they felt that these acts have influenced their perceptions concerning their teaching practices, feelings, and the tesol profession in general (please see items 6-10 in appendix i). at the end of the online questionnaire, the participants were informed of their right to withdraw from the study, and provided consent. complying with their right to be protected from identification, the participants’ names and identities were carefully anonymised in the data. instead, the word ‘participant’ and an identification number are used to refer to them in the extracts, analysis and discussions. data analysis once the data were gathered in the online questionnaire, there were transferred to a word document for processing. the analysis of the elicited data firstly consisted of reading through the participants’ responses a number of times to identify emerging discrimation in the field of tesol garcia-ponce 76 no. 21 themes which suggested the influence of discrimination in the mexican tesol. the data were then categorised by identifying extracts manually in the word document, and attributing them to themes which emerged from the data. finally, the emerging themes were condensed, and the following themes were found: 1. the negative influence of discrimination in tesol 1.1. feelings of frustration and disappointment 1.2. negative perceptions of the tesol profession 1.3. negative perceptions of teachers’ non-native status 1.4. negative self-concepts 1.5. low salaries, social welfare and funding for research 1.6. job abandonment the analysis of the data suggested one main theme (the negative influence of discrimination in tesol). within this theme, sub-themes were found which provide support to my argument that discrimination in the tesol profession impacts in negative ways. data analysis and discussion in this section, the results of the present study are outlined and discussed in order to answer the research question (i.e., what is the perceived influence that discriminatory acts have on 78 mexican efl teachers’ feelings, perceptions of the tesol profession, and decision making?). in general, the results suggest that the discriminatory practices initiated against the participants have exerted influence which can be categorised as negative. specifically, these practices seem to have had an impact on the mexican efl teachers’ feelings, perceptions regarding the profession, and decision making. moreover, the evidence suggests that the discrimination practices has sometimes resulted in inequalities concerning job conditions for them or the abandonment of their jobs or profession permanently. in the following sections, i discuss these results in greater detail. discrimination in tesol: negative influence in the web-based questionnaire, all the participants claimed to have experienced discriminatory practices in the mexican tesol. when asked them to describe the discrimation in the field of tesol garcia-ponce 77 no. 21 way these practices influence, the majority of the participants’ responses suggested that the discrimination in the mexican tesol has had a negative influence. table 1 summarises their perceived influence. table 1. the influence of discrimination in mexical tesol negative influence 87.1% (68 participants) no influence 12.8% (10 participants) as can be seen in table 1, 87.1% of the participants described discrimination practices which were categorised as having a negative influence. 12.8% of the participants’ responses suggested that the discrimination that they have experienced has not had any impact; these practices were categorised as having no influence. the data in table 1 then means that from the 100% of these teachers who claimed that they have experienced some kind of discrimination, 87.1% of these teachers have faced discrimination which has influenced in some negative way. in the following sections, i provide qualitative data which support my argument that the discrimination practices not only influence the teachers’ perceptions of the profession and their self-concepts, but also initiate an array of inequalities which may motivate teachers to obtain more training or quit jobs. feelings of frustration and disappointment. when asked to describe the influence of the discrimination practices that they have experienced, 31 participants claimed that they have felt negative feelings, for example: • vulnerable and mad (participant 3) • unimportant (participants 72, 40 and 69) • underestimated (participant 29) • marginalized (participant 25) exploring the dataset, it was evident that discrimination practices in tesol tend to influence efl teachers’ feelings in a negative way. as suggested in the remainder of this paper, discrimination practices in influencing their feelings compel teachers to make decisions, sometimes seeking for more teacher preparation but in some occasions abandoning the tesol field. the most recurrent negative feeling that 21 participants alleged that they have had when facing discrimination in tesol was ‘frustration’, as shown below. discrimation in the field of tesol garcia-ponce 78 no. 21 it is frustrating to deal with the general perception that an english teacher is less qualified, less knowledgeable about teaching. extract 1. participant 38 frustration that i can anticipate not being treated fairly and being passed over for salary and opportunities for promotion; perceiving white foreigners being better paid and getting promotions despite having lesser qualifications or experience. extract 2. participant 34 they affect me because i consider i have made a great effort to speak and learn english and employers just prefer native speakers. some of them don’t have any qualifications to teach, though. extract 3. participant 17 as can be seen in these three extracts, participants 38, 34 and 17 have felt different discrimination practices which have initiated feelings of frustration. in extract 1, participant 38’s feeling of frustration was motivated by misperceptions of other colleagues concerning english teaching. extracts 2 and 3 show that the feelings of frustration have been motivated by perceived inequalities concerning low salary, race and nativeness. another feeling which was recurrent in the data was ‘disappointment’ as follows. discrimination make me feel disappointed. 1. mentioning that women tend to be more committed than men is [sic] only an opinion. people should not base their decisions on opinions. 2. when in institutions prefer a language certificate over a tesol degree […] i’ve seen people with a ba in tourism getting an english teaching job because their toefl score was slightly higher than people with a ba in tesol. extract 4. participant 43 in extract 4, participant 43 suggests that feelings of disappointment have been initiated by opinions and institutional requirements. in ‘mentioning that women tend to be more committed than men is [sic] only an opinion’, we can see how he has felt discrimination against this male participant because of his gender and thus feelings of disappointment. in ‘institutions prefer a language certificate over a tesol degree’, he has also felt discrimination which again has triggered feelings of disappointment. as evidenced elsewhere (see the author, 2017), it can be seen that discrimination discrimation in the field of tesol garcia-ponce 79 no. 21 practices can be motivated by an array of practices. as shown in extracts 1-4, these practices influence the participants’ feelings which motivate them to see the tesol field and themselves differently, and sometimes at a disadvantage compared to other colleagues. this argument is reinforced by other data which show other feelings of disappointment motivated by perceived inequalities compared to english native speakers. i was disappointed that 9 years of teaching experience were not enough because i was not native speaker, and my accent was not perfect. extract 5. participant 68 it sometimes discourages me to see that the tesol profession in mexico is mostly in the hands of a few, most of them native speakers. however, i also believe that we non-native speakers need to earn our position in a world, which clearly give an unfair advantage to native speakers, by working twice as hard. we need to overcome the stereotypes as well as to fight the oppression of some native speakers which refuse to let the control of tesol. extract 6. participant 34 again, feelings of disappointment can be seen in extracts 5 and 6. in ‘i was not native speaker and my accent was not perfect’ and ‘the tesol profession in mexico is mostly in the hands of a few, most of them native speakers’, participants 68 and 34, respectively, have perceived themselves to be at a disadvantage because of their non-native language status. what these two extracts suggest is that the preference for native speakers still prevails in the tesol field, and this can motivate disappointment in non-native english teachers when compared to native speakers. it is interesting to see in ‘we need to overcome the stereotypes as well as to fight the oppression of some native speakers’ that discrimination, alongside feelings of disappointment, can encourage teachers to perceive the tesol profession differently. the following section shows how the discriminatory acts encourage teachers to have a negative perspective of the tesol profession. negative perspectives on the tesol profession. the data also suggested the participants’ negative perspectives of the tesol profession because of discriminatory practices initiated against them. because of perceived inequalities in the tesol profession, six participants considered the field as “racist”. several reasons were provided by the participants, but these tended to be related to nativeness and race, as follows. discrimation in the field of tesol garcia-ponce 80 no. 21 tesol is a very racist profession, especially at upper institutions. extract 7. participant 34 in mexico, there is no equality for everybody. extract 8. participant 64 because of these perspectives on tesol as a racist field, this appears to have triggered other negative perspectives on the tesol field, as suggested in the extracts below. in mexico we are far from having a real and professional tesol environment. extract 9. participant 36 it makes you think that english teaching in mexico it’s a joke! nobody gets serious about it [the profession]. extract 10. participant 72 as can be seen in these extracts, participants 36 and 72 suggest negative perspectives concerning the field. specifically, in ‘nobody gets serious about it [the profession]’, participant 72 implies a feeling of hopelessness concerning the discrimination he has felt in the field. what is alarming is the possibility that negative perspectives like these may in turn lead efl teachers to question their teaching abilities, practices and choice of profession. this suggestion is supported by the following extracts. it makes me feel my job is worthless or cheap. extract 11. participant 63 it has made me question my choice of career. sometimes i regret being in the tesol field, but it’s too late to change now. extract 12. participant 8 it caused me to question my dedication to teaching. extract 13. participant 25 because of the discrimination that the participants have felt in the mexican tesol profession, this appears to motivate them not only to have negative perspectives concerning the field, but also to question their teaching practices and abilities. in the discrimation in the field of tesol garcia-ponce 81 no. 21 following sections, i provide more evidence which suggest that discrimination in the mexican tesol field has an impact not only on the way efl teachers perceive the field, but also on their perceptions of their self-efficacy as teachers. negative perspectives on teachers’ non-native status as reported in previous studies (llurda, 2005; mora pablo, 2011; moussu & llurda, 2008), discrimination in tesol tends to be initiated by inequalities concerning the language status of teachers, native vs. non-native. it is surprising, yet alarming, that in this study, there was an important number of participants (18) claiming that they have felt some kind of discrimination due to their non-native status, as shown below. i went to a language school looking for a job and they told me that they only hired british native speakers, it did not matter if they were language teachers or not. for them, it was important to be british because it was better for the students’ learning process. extract 14. participant 46 teachers who were native speakers or had completed high school in the us were promoted after a couple of months; the others had to wait to get trained ever for a year. native speakers with little or no experience in tesol are preferred as ideal candidates for a teaching job. extract 15. participant 36 i feel that some mexican learners believe that native speakers of english are better teachers when compared to their mexican counterparts extract 16. participant 76 as shown in extracts 14-16, the participants have felt discrimination against because they have perceived a preference for english native speaking teachers in the labor market. moreover, these extracts suggest that this kind of discrimination can be initiated because of the language (native/non-native) status of teachers, but also their race, implying a disadvantage for those who are not white. in line with this evidence, authors, such as amin (2001) and tang (1997), have argued that teachers who are not white anglo-saxon and do not look like native speakers of english can be subject to racial discrimination when teaching, mainly in english speaking countries. what is surprising is the evidence that this kind of discrimination can be motivated by both administrators or employers (see extracts 14 and 15) and students (extract 16), and the fact that these practices have been documented in other studies which were conducted discrimation in the field of tesol garcia-ponce 82 no. 21 in non-native english speaking countries like mexico (see, for example, the author, 2017; lengeling et al., 2016). as also reported in the studies previously mentioned, the participants suggested that the preference for native speaking teachers resulted in inequalities for obtaining resources or opportunities in the tesol profession. this study was not the exception; five participants stated that the preference for native teachers in their teaching contexts has resulted in limited work-related opportunities, as suggested in extract 17. usually native speakers get promotions, the chance to do more challenging projects or simply they get more holidays (with the excuse of having to travel to other country). extract 17. participant 40 this extract suggests the idea that native english speakers have better teaching opportunities in the tesol field. this study is unable to corroborate if these acts actually happened; however, the recurrent evidence in this study and others suggest that there might be inequalities concerning teaching opportunities for native and non-native teachers. again, these practices seem to have had an impact on the way the teachers perceive the profession and themselves as teachers, as suggested in the following extract. they make you think that they career you are studying has no point because, at the end, they would prefer a native speaker with no ba studies. :( my teaching practice is not affected, but yes, sometimes i doubt of how good is studying a ba if at the end is better just to speak english better than others. extract 18. participant 28 in general, this evidence suggests that administrators and students may prefer native (or) white teachers. the problem is that despite the fact that there is evidence that this preference is perceived as discrimination and position statement against these inequalities, there is growing evidence which suggests that non-native teachers may be perceived by administrators or students as not having the language abilities to teach english compared to native speaking teachers. of course, more needs to be done regarding how non-native teachers are perceived. one possibility would be to raise awareness of this problem which thousands of non-native teachers may be experiencing in language educational contexts. discrimation in the field of tesol garcia-ponce 83 no. 21 negative self-concepts. 11 participants suggested responses which show that discrimination in tesol may have a negative influence on the way they perceive themselves as english teachers and their abilities to teach. this, for example, can be seen in the following extracts: at that time, it made me feel insecure, it really hurts when people don’t believe in you. it made me feel bad, even i doubted about my skills as a teacher. extract 19. participant 46 at the beginning i felt insecure of myself as a teacher, i thought native teachers were better extract 20. participant 77 it makes me feel insecure as a professional and person. extract 21. participant 62 as previously discussed, discriminatory acts in the tesol profession can be influential on teachers’ feelings. these extracts again show that participants 46, 77 and 62 have felt insecure after facing some kind of discrimination in the field. this in turn suggests that discrimination practices may motivate efl teachers to question their teaching abilities, as in ‘even i doubted about my skills as a teacher’ (participant 46), and their self-efficacy in general, as in ‘insecure as a professional and person’ (participant 62). the evidence shown below adds weight to my argument that facing discrimination in the profession may lead teachers to feel ‘teaching insecurity’, a feeling of being at disadvantage and thus perceptions of not being able to teach as expected. sometimes i think i am not really good or enough prepared to teach english, even when i have my certifications, a master’s degree that i studied with a conacyt scholarship. extract 22. participant 9 i realized that in those institutions it was more important to be interesting than to be a good teacher. this made me feel helpless and defeated, since i was not able to compete with younger, single co-workers who would get all the opportunities. extract 23. participant 11 discrimation in the field of tesol garcia-ponce 84 no. 21 so far, we have seen that discrimination in the tesol field can motivate negative feelings and perceptions concerning the tesol profession and their teaching and language abilities. this should not be happening in this era when there is a high demand for english teachers in mexico, and the fact that the number of non-native teachers is increasingly growing worldwide. as we will see in the remainder of this paper, discrimination can also result in work-related inequalities, job abandonment and teachers seeking more teacher training. low salaries, social welfare and funding for research. as a result of the discrimination that the participants have experienced in the mexican tesol field, their responses indicated a range of inequalities regarding access to social welfare, research funding and stricter job requirements. as suggested below, seven participants claimed that as a result of the discrimination against them in the profession, they often obtain low salaries and do not have access to social welfare programmes in mexico. unequal salaries, harder to get a job, increase in favoritism to get promotion. the public sees it as low rated professionals and schools often use payments to hinder teachers forcing them to quit. extract 24. participant 57 well, i have an illness and, although it’s not an impediment to work, i cannot tell the true about it in the school because they won’t give me courses to impart. unfortunately, we are temporary employees, and we don’t count with medical services, we have no rights as workers. our salary is much less than half the base salary, but the obligations are the same, and many times higher. extract 25. participant 69 in extracts 24 and 25, the participants claimed that they often receive lower salaries than other colleagues, as in ‘unequal salaries’ and ‘our salary is much less than half the base salary’, respectively. as previously stated, the study is unable to corroborate if these practices actually happened. however, in general, we can see that the participants’ responses suggest negative perceptions of the profession (‘schools often use payments to hinder teachers forcing them to quit’) and themselves as teachers (‘the public sees it as low rated professionals’). as indicated in extract 25, the participant alleges that in her workplace teachers do not have access to social welfare (‘we are temporary employees, and we don’t count with medical services, we have no rights as workers’). in fact, when teachers are hired to teach per hour (usually short contracts) in mexico, they do not discrimation in the field of tesol garcia-ponce 85 no. 21 often have access to social welfare which is provided by the mexican government. moreover, their responses suggested restrictions not only to better salaries and social welfare, but also to opportunities for research funding, as suggested below. it made me realize that in mexico there is so much support for the scientific areas of study whereas there is so little for the humanities. i see it as a challenge for my teaching practice. extract 26. participant 4 in general, the problem of these practices is that more and more english teachers continue to claim that they have experienced some kind of discrimination, and that this results in fewer opportunities for better teaching conditions and opportunities to grow as teachers and/or researchers. as previously discussed, discrimination in the tesol field can be initiated by students, teacher colleagues and administrators. in the case of administrators, the evidence of this study suggests that sometimes administrators or employers may be aware of motivating discrimination against teachers. this is suggested in the extract 27. now, as a language coordinator, i think i have also practiced discrimination against those colleagues who were looking for an opportunity with the same sentences: do you have any language certification? what level? are [you] an undergraduate or graduate student? in my experience, i had to follow the recommendations given by place 1 in my university, in order to enrol english teachers. extract 27. participant 21 as suggested in extract 27, participant 21 states that he has to “follow the recommendations given by place 1 in my university, in order to enrol english teachers”. based upon this, it is thus possible that discrimination in the tesol profession is also motivated by institutional requirements and philosophies which may compel employers to initiate discriminatory practices, even if they are aware of them. as suggested below, the results of discrimination or the discriminatory acts themselves may have an impact on teachers abandoning their jobs or seeking for further english teacher training as a way to avoid discrimination in the mexican tesol profession. discrimation in the field of tesol garcia-ponce 86 no. 21 job abandonment because of the influence of discrimination in the mexican tesol, some participants (23) mentioned that they have decided to leave their jobs or the profession permanently, as follows. at the beginning, it was hard to accept that [the discriminatory act]. that pushed me to quit that job to find a better place for professional development. extract 28. participant 35 it [discrimination] means you have to keep looking for the right place to work. extract 29. participant 70 as can be seen in these two extracts, because of the influence of the discrimination that they have felt, the two participants state that they decided to quit their former jobs. as suggested in the extracts below, it seems that the influence that discrimination in the profession exerted on the teachers compelled them to abandon the profession. this can be seen in the following extracts. i decided to get a ba on something that might eventually lead me to something completely different than teaching extract 30. participant 49 i have recently been thinking of quitting teaching. if i could earn as well as native speakers do, i wouldn’t think of quitting. extract 31. participant 61 these extracts thus suggest that the discriminatory practices that the participants have experienced in the tesol profession not only had an impact on their feelings and perceptions of the profession, but also compel them to make profession-related decisions, that is, decisions to quit their jobs or abandon the profession permanently. in summary, the evidence presented in this study suggests that the discrimination that the teachers have faced in the mexican tesol field influenced their professional lives in complex ways. this can be from negative feelings; negative perceptions of the field; limited teaching, medical and research opportunities; and abandonment of their language teaching jobs or profession. all in all, this evidence has provided new insights into the influence of discrimination of tesol on the teachers’ professional lives. discrimation in the field of tesol garcia-ponce 87 no. 21 conclusions the present study explored how discrimination in tesol impacts on efl teachers’ feelings, perceptions regarding the tesol profession. the present study was conducted with the intention of 1) documenting these practices and how they negatively influence the teachers’ perceptions and decisions, and 2) reaching more and more people to take a more agentive role against discrimination practices in the field of tesol in mexico. as evident in the perceptual data, 78 mexican professionals have experienced some kind of discrimination in the tesol profession. as suggested in their responses in the web-based questionnaire, the discrimination that they have experienced has significantly influenced their feelings, perceptions of the profession, and their decision making concerning their professions. some inequalities were also mentioned by the participants as a result of the discrimination that they claimed to have experienced. these were related to salaries, medical care and research opportunities. as a result of the influence of the discriminatory practices, the participants stated that they have decided to abandon their jobs or the teaching profession permanently. throughout this article, the data were carefully treated because the study was unable to corroborate if these discriminatory practices and inequalities actually happened in practice; however, the growing evidence presented here and in previous studies suggest the possibility that a high number of efl teachers in our country continue to face inequalities which put them at a disadvantage. the above evidence calls for effective strategies to eradicate discrimination in our field because, as shown in this paper, a growing number of efl teachers continue to claim that they have felt some kind of discrimination which has impacted in negative ways. it is thus important to continue raising awareness among the tesol community which involves students, teachers, administrators and employers. one possibility would be to inform the education community of these practices, or invite them to participate in workshops whose objectives are to eradicate discrimination practices in tesol. of course, more needs to be done to reach those people who intentionally or unintentionally initiate discrimination against english teachers. there is also a need to conduct further research. it would be helpful to carry out research projects which seek to understand discriminatory acts in tesol and, based on the findings, formulate strategies which are sensitive to teaching and learning contexts. however, the present study has gone some way towards gaining further understanding of the discriminatory acts that professionals experience within tesol in mexico. it is hoped that this study raises awareness of the disadvantageous realities of mexican teachers which may also be similar or different to other contexts in our profession. discrimation in the field of tesol garcia-ponce 88 no. 21 references amin, n. 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(2013). looking for native speakers of english: discrimination in english language teaching job advertisements. voices in asia journal, 1(1), 72–81. http://www.voiceinasiajournal.com/images/pdf/vol1/ file_9__viaj_1.1._mahboob_and_golden_pp._72-81.pdf mickelson, r. a. (2003). when are racial disparities in education the result of racial discrimination? a social science perspective. teachers college record, 105(6), 1052-1086. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/1467-9620.00277 discrimation in the field of tesol garcia-ponce 89 no. 21 mora pablo, i. (2011). the “native speaker” spin: the construction of the english teacher at a language department of a university in mexico. unpublished doctoral thesis of canterbury christ church university. moussu, l. & llurda, e. (2008). non-native english-speaking english language teachers: history and research. language teaching, 41(3), 315-348. ruecker, t., & ives, l. (2014). white native english speakers needed: the rhetorical construction of privilege in online teacher recruitment spaces. tesol quarterly, 49(4), 733-756. https://doi.org/10.1002/tesq.195 selvi, a. f. (2014). myths and misconceptions about nonnative english speakers in the tesol (nnest) movement. tesol journal, 5, 573–611. doi: http://dx.doi. org/10.1002/tesj.158 tang, c. (1997). on the power and status of nonnative esl teachers. tesol quarterly, 31(3), 577-580. tesol (2016). position statement opposing discrimination. retrieved from: http:// www.tesol.org/docs/default-source/advocacy/tesol-position-statement-opposingdiscrimination.pdf the author (2017). wright, k.b. (2005). researching internet-based populations: advantages and disadvantages of online survey research, online questionnaire authoring software packages, and web survey services. journal of computer-mediated communication, 10(3). https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1083-6101.2005.tb00259.x author * edgar emmanuell garcia ponce phd in english language teaching and applied linguistics (university of birmingham, uk), currently works in the department of languages at the university of guanajuato. his research interests are classroom interactions and teacher cognitions. he has recently worked on projects funded by the british council. he is a member the sistema nacional de investigadores, and coordinates the ba in elt at the universidad de guanajuato orcid: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5414-3862 how to reference this article: garcia-ponce, e. e. (2020). influence of discrimination in the field of tesol: perspectives of mexican efl teachers. gist – education and learning research journal, 21, 69-89. https://doi.org/10.26817/16925777.837 discrimation in the field of tesol garcia-ponce educational innovation through ict-mediated learning strategies in the initial teacher education of english language teachers1 innovación educativa a través de estrategias de enseñanza mediadas por las tic en la formación inicial de profesores de inglés luis jesús rincón-ussa, yamith josé fandiño-parra, and andrea margarita cortés-ibañez2* universidad de la salle, colombia 1 received: february 13th 2020/ accepted: october 20th 2020 2 ljrincon@unisalle.edu.co; yfandino@unisalle.edu.co; ancortes@unisalle.edu.co gist education and learning research journal. issn 1692-5777. no. 21 (july-december, 2020). pp. 91-117. 92 no. 21 abstract this paper describes the results of the first cycle of a co-joint action research study in methodological innovation in pre-service language teacher education at a private university in bogotá, colombia. the first part of the study consisted of implementing several ict-mediated learning strategies that were designed considering the theoretical tenets of educational innovation, autonomy, and mediation. strategies were implemented in three different academic spaces of a b.a. in foreign languages during the first semester of 2019. the purpose of this pedagogical implementation was to examine the value of ict-mediated learning strategies for methodological innovation. the data analysis results, which were collected through a survey, indicate that ict-mediated learning strategies play a fundamental role in methodological innovation because they promote collaborative and cooperative learning, foster autonomy, and self-directed learning. in addition, these strategies also seem to provide a range of possibilities for bolstering learning agency development on the part of the pre-service language teachers. key words: teaching innovation; initial teacher education; english language teachers; ict mediation; teaching strategies. resumen este articulo presenta los resultados del primer ciclo de una investigación acción. este ciclo del estudio consitió en la implementación de varias estrategias de aprendizaje mediadas por diferentes herramientas techonoligcas. estas estrategias fueron implementadas durante el primer semestre del 2019, por tres profesores, en tres espacios académicos diferentes en un programa de licenciatura en español y lenguas extranjeras, de una universidad privada, en la ciudad de bogotá, colombia. el propósito de estas implementaciónes fue comprender el valor de este tipo de estrategias para la innovación metodológica en la educación inicial de los docentes de lenguas extrajeras. los datos se recopilaron a través de una encuesta y su análisis indica que el uso de estas estrategias puede promover el desarrollo del aprendizaje colaborativo y cooperativo, fomentar el desarrollo del aprendizaje autónomo, e igualmente ofrence multiples posibilidades para apalancar el desarrollo de la capacidad de agenciamiento del aprendizaje en la educación inicial de los profesores de lenguas extranjeras. palabras clave: innovación docente; educación inicial docente; profesores de inglés; mediación de las tic; estrategias de enseñanza. resumo este artigo apresenta os resultados do primeiro ciclo de uma pesquisa ação. este ciclo do estudo consistiu na implementação de várias estratégias de aprendizagem mediadas por diferentes ferramentas tecnológicas. estas estratégias foram implementadas durante o primeiro semestre de 2019, por três professores, em três espaços acadêmicos diferentes em um programa de licenciatura em espanhol e línguas estrangeiras, de uma universidade particular, na cidade de bogotá, colômbia. o propósito destas implementações foi compreender o valor deste educational innovation through ict strategies rincon-ussa, fandiño-parra & cortes-ibañez 93 no. 21 tipo de estratégias para a inovação metodológica na educação inicial dos docentes de línguas estrangeiras. os dados se recopilaram através de uma pesquisa de opinião e a sua análise indica que o uso destas estratégias pode promover o desenvolvimento da aprendizagem colaborativa e cooperativa, fomentar o desenvolvimento da aprendizagem autónoma, e igualmente oferece múltiplas possibilidades para apalancar o desenvolvimento da capacidade de agenciamento da aprendizagem na educação inicial dos professores de línguas estrangeiras. palavras chave: inovação docente; educação inicial docente; professores de inglês; mediação das tic; estratégias de ensino. educational innovation through ict strategies rincon-ussa, fandiño-parra & cortes-ibañez 94 no. 21 introduction teacher education should be an innovating endeavor in which future teachers learn the craft of teaching and, more importantly, where they learn to become innovators and agents of change. in this regard, unesco (1990) argues that innovation in teacher education refers to the design, implementation, and assessment of new ideas or practices in specific educational contexts created to meet unsatisfied needs. more concretely, it states that education innovation is “the introduction or promotion of new ideas and methods that are devised in education and school practices which have a substantial effect on changing the existing patterns of behavior of the group or groups involved” (p. 2). consequently, methodological and pedagogical innovation constitute a dynamic field of study and a critical factor in ensuring the relevance and quality of future language teachers’ education. in this regard, serdyukov (2017) maintains that teacher education can help society survive and thrive if it can serve its needs and interests. this capacity demands both a consistent and systematic curricular project and a revolutionary and disruptive formative experience. as a result, he claims: schoolteachers, college professors, administrators, researchers, and policymakers are expected to innovate the theory and practice of teaching and learning, as well as all other aspects of this complex organization to ensure quality preparation of all students to life and work (p. 4). one way to ensure innovation in teacher education is through the use of ict. this is so because as ala-mutka, punie and redecke (2008) explain, “new technologies, and especially social computing, provide new opportunities for education and training, as they enhance learning and teaching, and facilitate collaboration, innovation and creativity for individuals and organizations” (p. 6). to boost their effectiveness, they recommend encouraging experimentation with ict so that teachers and students create new teaching and learning practices that benefit their local contexts. they also suggest improving ict training of both pre-service and in-service teachers to ensure they learn and disseminate better practices thanks to media and digital technologies. finally, they advise faculties of education to study ict’s impacts on teacher education, as empirical evidence is needed to describe how technology facilitates or enhances pedagogic innovation. this action research study intended to shed some light on the value of ictmediated learning and teaching strategies methodological innovation in the initial education of foreign language teachers. it is worth noting that this co-joint research project was part of an ongoing macro-research study in didactic and pedagogical innovation in higher education. the first cycle of this research consisted of designing and implementing new learning strategies in different programs and disciplines. the educational innovation through ict strategies rincon-ussa, fandiño-parra & cortes-ibañez 95 no. 21 second cycle consisted of consolidating pedagogical and methodological innovative strategies that could be replicable. consequently, various research groups from other disciplines participated in the study whose primary purpose was to gain insights into pedagogical and educational innovation in higher education. theoretical framework educational innovation and the use of ict-mediated teaching and learning strategies are two concepts that have been discussed by different scholars. the literature review provides an interesting but complex view of epistemological perspectives and theoretical and methodological frameworks. what follows is a concise but complete account of the main definitions and positions found in academic sources. educational innovation innovation comes from the latin word innovare, which means into new. then, it follows that the simplest definition of innovation is doing things in new ways or differently. to sterberg (2017), innovation can be associated with a new idea, product, device, or novelty. it can also refer to a way of thinking beyond the present and into the future. as a process, it has to do with “generating and combining ideas to make a relationship between present accomplishments and past experiences to solve a future problem” (p. 2). for their part, baregheh, rowley, and sambrook (2009) define innovation as “the multi-stage process whereby organizations transform ideas into new/improved products, service or processes, to advance, compete and differentiate themselves successfully” (p. 1334). similarly, o’sullivan and dooley (2009) understand innovation as the process of making changes, large and small, radical and incremental, to products, processes, and services that result in the introduction of something new for the organization that adds value to customers and contributes to the knowledge store of the organization (p. 5). in education, innovation is understood as the inducing of functional changes in new ways. it is the reworking of familiar fields of action to new circumstances, and the creation of new ways of perceiving and approaching problems (…) innovation relies on an orientation toward flexible adaptation, experimentation, and guided change (unesco, 1996, p. 23). likewise, the oedc/ceri (2010) understands innovation in education as educational innovation through ict strategies rincon-ussa, fandiño-parra & cortes-ibañez 96 no. 21 “any dynamic change intended to add value to the educational process and resulting in measurable outcomes, be that in terms of stakeholders’ satisfaction or educational performance… [it] focuses on how educational systems monitor and assess innovation and use the results to cumulate knowledge for action in this domain” (p. 12). redding, twyman, and murphy (2013) maintain that innovation consists of implementing an idea or invention, adapted or refined for specific contexts and needs. such implementation continues over time, often with adjustments to fit the changes in the context. over time, an innovation replaces the standard product, program, practice, or process with something better, and as the majority adopts it, the innovation then becomes the new standard (p. 6). in the same line of thought, mykhailyshyn, kondur, and serman (2018) affirm that educational innovation is any new purposeoriented activity, organizational solutions, system, process, or method to ensure the development of educational organizations and their pertinence (p. 12). these innovations include curricular innovation, pedagogical innovation, methodological innovation, technological innovation, and administrative innovation. they are defined as follows: table 1. types of educational innovation. source: adapted from mâţă (2012) and mykhailyshyn, kondur, and serman (2018). in sum, educational innovation entails implementing new ideas, new practices, and new organizational and administrative mechanisms to directly or indirectly improve learning processes. it is also evident that educational innovation is a continuous endeavor that transforms educational institutions’ culture, empowering all educational community members to be social transformation agents. educational innovation through ict strategies rincon-ussa, fandiño-parra & cortes-ibañez 97 no. 21 ict-mediated teaching strategies the classroom is the scenario in which educational innovation comes to life; amid the complex relations and interactions among the participants of learning processes, new strategies and ideas bear fruit if they are successful and validated by the immediate actors of educational processes. over the last two decades or so, educational agents, institutions, and actors at all levels have deemed that the use of ict is of paramount importance for the quality and improvement of educational systems, programs, and teaching practices. this need has given way to new notions, concepts, and theoretical frameworks that tackle the interplay of educational innovation, quality of education, and integration of ict. three of them are samr (substitution, augmentation, modification, and redefinition), tpack (technological pedagogical content knowledge), and b-learning (blended learning). on the one hand, samr describes three different levels of integration of ict. the first one, substitution, is the level in which a technological tool is used to perform a learning activity without modifying the task, e.g., reading a book in a pdf file instead of reading it on paper. the second level, augmentation, consists of using a technological tool to enrich the learning activity somehow. the third level, modification, implies the use of technological tools to transform, in significant ways, the learning and teaching practices. the last level, redefinition, entails using technological tools to design learning experiences and scenarios that would not be possible without the mediation of those tools (puentedura, 2012). on the other hand, tpack addresses the interplay of content, pedagogy, and technology. understanding the intersection of these three domains produces knowledge that empowers teachers and learners to design and manage learning processes in which the balance of the three elements ensure the quality of learning experiences (koehler, mishra & cain, 2013). finally, b-learning is an umbrella term that encompasses different methods and strategies that combine face-to-face instruction with ict-mediated learning strategies. (sharma & berrett, 2008). the overall purpose of b-learning is to “…optimizing achievement of learning objectives by applying the ‘right’ learning technologies to match the ‘right’ personal learning style to transfer the ‘right’ skills to the ‘right’ person at the ‘right’ time’ (singh & reed, 2001). these theoretical constructs provide useful orientations and insights to understand, design, and implement methodological innovations at different educational levels. they also unveil questions about teacher education and training, such as integrating ict with teachers’ initial education to develop the knowledge and skills in using technology in their future professional practice? how to ensure the quality of educational processes using ict? what is the role of ict in changing the educational culture of b.a. programs in foreign languages? these inquiries served a general frame and guide in the development of this study. educational innovation through ict strategies rincon-ussa, fandiño-parra & cortes-ibañez 98 no. 21 to shed light on the previous inquiries, teacher educators have resorted to teaching strategies designed and implemented through ict, or more specifically to what some authors defined as technology enhanced language learning (tell). to walker and white (2013), tell regards technology not merely as a tool to assist language learning, but “as part of the environment in which language exists and is used” (p. 9). this means that technology provides learners with an enriched context where language, communication, interaction, and learning occur in an articulated and purposeful way. because of its enriched nature and variety, tell allows teachers and learners to use and assess a greater range of teaching-learning strategies, which open space and time for dimensions such as connectivism, constructivism, interactionism, digitalization, and virtual reality, etc. some of these strategies deal with structuring information, collaboration strategies, inquiry projects, and metacognition (hernádez, quiróz & olarte, 2016). autonomy, mediation, and emancipation in educational innovation ultimately, educational innovation aims at promoting new and better practices, processes, and products. most of them have to do with enhancing teachers’ and students’ understanding and implementing principles such as autonomy, mediation, and emancipation. the word autonomy’s origin goes back to greece where it meant self-ruling from autos (self) and nomos (rule). nowadays, it is understood as “the condition when an agent may determine the conception, the articulation and the execution of concepts, ideas and actions for him or her –self ” (motloba, 2018, p. 418). however, a literature review about autonomy indicates the co-existence of different but complementary theoretical perspectives (erdocia, 2014). for instance, the kantian perspective claims that exercise autonomy emerges from individuals’ critical consciousness and their use of reasoning, as opposed to heteronomy, which is based on the acceptance of external coercive regulations. in political theory, autonomy is found in the classical model of democracy, and the idea of freedom understood from a liberal perspective. in elt, autonomy is defined as “the ability to take charge of one’s own learning (holec 1981, p. 3). to him, autonomy is the capacity one develops to do a series of actions in favor of one’s learning. some of those actions determine one’s objectives, select methods, and techniques to reach those objectives, and monitor their progress towards them. for his part, dam (1995) defines autonomy as both “a capacity and a willingness to act independently and in cooperation with others, as a socially responsible person” (p. 102). this way, autonomy is not just a capacity one acquires and executes but also a predisposition and attitude one develops and fine-tunes. educational innovation through ict strategies rincon-ussa, fandiño-parra & cortes-ibañez 99 no. 21 when discussing autonomy, littlewood (1999) describes two types: proactive and reactive. the former resembles holec’s definition as it deals with a self-initiated assumption of one’s learning. the latter has to do with one’s response to an external stimulus to encourage one to organize resources to achieve an objective. in 2005, benson described three versions of autonomy in elt: the technical, the psychological, and the political. the technical version relates to the learning of a language outside educational institutions without the assistance of teachers. it focuses on the promotion of life-long learning. the psychological version deals with the attitudes and emotions learners should construct to learn languages responsibly. it emphasizes understanding the mental and affective characteristics students need to be autonomous. the political version has to do with the control learners need to have of the process and learning context. it revolves around the awareness students must develop about the purposes, the implications, and the potentials of learning for personal and social change. this co-joint research project is also underpinned by fox and riconscente’s (2008) discussion on self-regulation and metacognition to complement autonomy. these authors analyzed these two constructs by looking back at the roots in james, piaget, and vygotsky’s theories. to james, self-regulation and metacognition are inwardly directed activities of the self, which are automated as habits and exercised through efforts in terms of a will. for his part, piaget stated that metacognition and selfregulation are fundamental knowledge of and control of others and objects, a view of one’s thoughts and actions as having the same position and following the same rules as relations with these external realities (fox & riconscente, 2008). on the other hand, vygotsky declared that metacognition is the mind’s activity in which one is conscious of being conscious. simultaneously, self-regulation is implied as one needs to be aware of being self-regulated in his learning process. nevertheless, this process requires having passed the childhood stage and having social interactions with others so that such a process can become internalized. undoubtedly, various studies have used the terms of self-regulated learning and self-directed learning indistinctively. nonetheless, loyens, magda, and rikers (2008) clarify these terms’ similarities and differences. to begin with, both include active engagement as well as a set of goals to achieve. they also develop metacognitive skills. however, self-directed learning is broader than self-regulated learning. the first one infuses the school environment with new practices and discourses, while the latter is a personal feature students need to acquire and develop to define what they want to learn. it is important to point out that the underpinning principles of this notion derive from diverse disciplines and fields of knowledge regarding mediation. these tenets interweave, creating a theoretical framework that allows a dynamic dialogue among disciplines such as psychology, sociology, pedagogy, and anthropology, among others. in this respect, tebar (2003) stated that pedagogical mediation’s paradigm contributes educational innovation through ict strategies rincon-ussa, fandiño-parra & cortes-ibañez 100 no. 21 to renovating schooling altogether based on fraternity and hope for everyone. likewise, manen (1998) affirmed that mediation occurs when the pedagogical and educational processes acknowledge human and social particularities. the concept of mediation is an integral part of formal and informal adult learning, conceived not as an isolated act of cognition, but rather as interaction via mediation. in this process, learners become competent or proficient as other participants, such as teachers and peers, assist them in learning. as a result, teacher educators’ role is to act as mediator figures who work as intermediaries between general programmed contents and specific situated practices. to azadi, biria, and nasri (2018), teacher educators need to provide pre-service teachers with various kinds of mediations so that their academic, disciplinary, and personal development is facilitated and consolidated. this variety can be achieved if teacher educators act as “(i) facilitators of the learning of heuristics, (ii) mediators of knowledge sources, (iii) mediators of lifelong learning, and (iv) designers of the learning environment.” (p. 136). ultimately, teacher educators should act as mediators who help pre-service teachers conceptualize and utilize theory, skills, and attitudes for their classroom practices and formative experiences. concerning emancipation, adorno (1998) defines it as a theory that reflects critically going beyond instrumental rationality that examines reality to control it. instead, it proposes rationality that seeks to transform reality into a more just and egalitarian experience. to berrío (2016), emancipation is a form of resistance to current society, its structures, history, and nature itself, but to transform the structures that have denied subjectivity and made it impossible to carry out a project genuinely liberating. in relation to ict, emancipation implies reflecting on repressive socialization processes and the various social control mechanisms that thwart critical individuals from developing (binimelis, 2010). undoubtedly, emancipation is associated with the work of habermas (1971 as cited by adorno, 1998) when he discusses the three interest of knowledge and human interest: technical (the empirical-analytic approach), practical (the hermeneutic approach) and emancipatory (the critical approach). to him, the discovery and construction of knowledge should include but do not limit to predicting/explaining the physical world or interpreting/understanding social realities. instead, knowledge discovery and construction should lead to a transformed consciousness that allows one to make informed decisions and actions to improve one’s sense of who one is and change one’s expectations of what one can do. such transformed consciousness demands, among other things, reflection, agency, and empowerment. besides facilitating a dialogue between theory and practice, reflection encourages teachers to move from empirical/practical doing to reflective/ critical practice. in other words, reflection takes teachers “from applying learned pedagogical discourse to creating pedagogical know-how, specifically know-how that enables them to criticize and transform their practice and reality” (restrepo, 2004, as educational innovation through ict strategies rincon-ussa, fandiño-parra & cortes-ibañez 101 no. 21 cited by fandiño, 2010, p. 115). for its part, the agency has to do with “the creation of local plans and projects for the use and development of resources in response to one’s interests and particular problems” (baldauf, 2006, as cited by fandiño & bermúdez, 2016, p. 13). it is essential to point out that agency is not something that teachers can have – as a property, capacity, or competence – but is something that they do. in other words, agency denotes the quality of teachers’ engagement with temporal–relational contexts-for-action, not a quality of the teachers themselves, which means that agency is understood as an emergent phenomenon of teacher-situation transaction (see biestaab, priestleyc & robinson, 2015). finally, empowerment presupposes a process by which teachers develop, increase and validate their experience, decision-making, and authority to have an active voice in their educational practices and circumstances (fandiño, bermúdez & varela, 2016). empowerment in education, then, consists of processes where institution participants acquire the competence to take charge of their development, and from it, they can address or resolve their problems by developing the mechanisms that are necessary to do so (kimwarey, chirure, and omondi, 2014). methodological framework paradigm, approach, and type of study this study embraces the socio-critical paradigm since self-critical reflection is the core of social practices that produce the knowledge that transforms culture. this means that “doing and thinking are complementary [since] doing extends thinking in the tests, moves, and probes of experimental action, and reflection feeds on doing and its results. each feeds the other and each sets boundaries for the other” (schön, 1983, p. 280). the study’s purpose and nature are also aligned with the tenets of qualitative research that views individuals as active agents in constructing and determining realities (cook & reichardt, 2005). according to seeverd & lozares (2016), qualitative research has three distinctive features: (1) the language used to analyze data is based on the discourse, (2) the perspective of the subjects and the relation to the theoretical issues will be of great importance, and (3) the informative richness of data allows understanding the social phenomena that the subjects are experiencing. these characteristics also framed and oriented the development of the study. this study followed the overarching principles and characteristics of action research in education as its guiding research method. in view of carr and kemmis (1988), action-oriented research has four distinctive tenets: (1) commitment to social practice, (2) intention to improve, (3) use of recursive cycles, and (4) adherence to reflection. attention to these principles entailed ongoing reflection, collaboration, and solidarity to pursue collective understanding and meaning negation and construction. educational innovation through ict strategies rincon-ussa, fandiño-parra & cortes-ibañez 102 no. 21 data collection and analysis in line with the previous general guiding principles, a combination of closedand open-ended questions allowed collecting participants’ voices and perceptions during the first cycle of the research. the emergent interpretations and insights helped the researchers to relate the studied phenomena with the theoretical framework. the survey consisted of three parts: part i: participants’ perceptions about the relevance of the learning strategies and tic, part ii: participants’ beliefs about the effectiveness of the learning experience, and part iii: participants’ attitudes towards the appropriateness of the learning process. this survey was designed in accordance with gray’s (2004) five-stage process: (a) survey design and preliminary planning, (b) piloting, (c) final survey design, (d) data collection, and (e) data analysis and reporting. researchers undertook the data analysis as “a set of manipulations, transformations, operations, reflections and verifications made from data to extract relevant meaning regarding a research problem” (gil, 1994, as cited in bisquera, 2004, p.153). besides, this process of meaning-extraction and construction followed the steps of (1) data reduction, (2) data representation, and (3) data interpretation proposed by rodríguez, gil, and garcía (1999). pedagogical intervention in this co-joint research project, three teacher-educators from a b.a. program in spanish and foreign languages worked together during the second semester of 2018. they designed and implemented innovative ict-mediated learning activities and learner-centered strategies in three different academic spaces. such activities and strategies were used to boost the learners’ autonomy, self-directed learning, and agency. researchers selected the technological tools and designed the learning strategies bearing in mind the purposes mentioned above and considering the underpinning theoretical principles of autonomy, mediation, educational innovation, and ict mediated learning strategies. table 2 below shows the academic spaces, the participants, the strategies, and the tools. educational innovation through ict strategies rincon-ussa, fandiño-parra & cortes-ibañez 103 no. 21 table 2. spaces, participants, ict tools and strategies used in this pedagogical intervention. source: own elaboration. the first pedagogical implementation consisted of the use of a virtual classroom, a blog, and a website to develop several collaborative and cooperative ict-mediated learning activities: an e-learning journal, forums, co-evaluation activities, and vocabulary development activities. the e-learning journal was a blog in which students compiled written products, written feedback, and a reading log. the forums were part of a virtual classroom where learners shared and assessed peers’ written posts and videos. the third activity, co-evaluation, consisted of a workshop in a virtual classroom in which learners published, assessed, and commented on other groups’ e-learning journal. the vocabulary development activities consisted of the collaborative construction of study sets on a web site. thirty-five students of the third semester developed these strategies during one semester. 19 out of the 35 students answered the survey about the strategies at the end of the semester. twelve students from the sixth semester of an english didactics course participated in the second pedagogical implementation. it involved the explicit and systematic use of different online websites to design and elaborate graphic organizers. the graphic organizers used in a sequential order where synoptic charts (summaries), comparative charts (comparisons), timelines (sequence of events), mind maps (part-and-whole relationships), concept maps (relations among concepts), and semantic maps (webs of words). the websites used were www.canva.com, www.infograph.com, www. mindmapfree.com, www.wisemapping.com, www.creately.com/lp/concept-mapmaker, www.smartdraw.com, and www.visualthesaurus.com. this number of websites offered students the possibility to know different online alternatives to choose the ones that best fit their interests and needs. this work sought to promote the construction of knowledge, the organization of information, problem-solving, and decision-making. out of 12 students, 6 students answered the survey at the end of the academic term. eighteen students of an english language course participated in the third implementation. at the beginning of the course, an entry test was created in moodle educational innovation through ict strategies rincon-ussa, fandiño-parra & cortes-ibañez 104 no. 21 and applied to know students’ previous knowledge; then, at the end of the course, an exit test, which was the same they presented at the beginning, was done. the objective of this was to know if students had had progress in their learning process. the other tool was an online platform in which students did different type of activities in preparation for the face to face class. in these sessions, students were expected to put into practice what they had prepared beforehand. during this process, a group in whatsapp was created for peer monitoring, sharing materials, practicing speaking, and reading and listening. in total, twelve students answered the survey. findings and results the following figures present the six categories that emerged from the first cycle of this co-joint action research project: 1. level of satisfaction with the learning outcomes and the strategies; 2. the value of the technological tools for the learning process; 3. methodology and the development of autonomy, self-directed learning, and agency; 4. the impact of ict on the learning process of pre-service teachers; 5. ict and the accomplishment of learning objectives in initial teacher education; 6. the value of icts for methodological and pedagogical innovation in the initial education of foreign language teachers. level of satisfaction with the learning outcomes and the strategies implemented figure 1 shows the relationship between the overall level of satisfaction with the learning outcomes achieved and the icts-mediated learning strategies and activities. these strategies aimed to promote autonomous learning, the learner’s participation, and the construction of knowledge and meanings. the respondents’ answers indicate an adequate level of gratification with the icts-mediated in promoting the aspects mentioned before. the overall level of satisfaction of the learners with the learning outcomes showed the highest level. the line of tendency (totally agree and agree) shows a positive linear correlation between the icts-mediated learning strategies implemented and the overall satisfaction with the learning outcomes achieved. educational innovation through ict strategies rincon-ussa, fandiño-parra & cortes-ibañez 105 no. 21 figure 1. level of satisfaction with the learning outcomes and the strategies implemented. the value of the technological tools for the learning process this category comprises the results of the value of the technological tools in leveraging the learning process. the use of the technological tools seems to foster collaborative learning, decision making that improves academic attainment, and allow the learner to do activities according to his learning pace and capacity. the results indicate that pre-service teachers value the role of technological tools in developing the aspects mentioned above. the lines of tendency (totally agree and agree) show a positive linear correlation between the use of the tools and their overall value in leveraging the learning process, which is the element with the highest score. largely, it seems that technological tools might be directly correlated with the learning process’s effectiveness and efficiency in developing learning skills and attitudes essential for the educational process. educational innovation through ict strategies rincon-ussa, fandiño-parra & cortes-ibañez 106 no. 21 figure 2. the value of the technological tools for the learning process. methodology and the development of autonomy, selfdirected learning, and agency in this category, the figure portrays the relationship between the general methodology of the academic spaces and the development of skills and attitudes concerning autonomy, self-directed learning, and agency. in particular, the results suggest students valued making decisions about the learning process according to the learners needs and interests; doing self-evaluation of the learning process, identifying their strengths and weaknesses; and planning the learning process. broadly, the voice of the pre-service foreign language teachers, represented in figure 2, inform that the methodology and the strategies implemented had a moderate impact on developing skills and attitudes that allowed them to take control of the learning process and becoming independent learners in different ways. educational innovation through ict strategies rincon-ussa, fandiño-parra & cortes-ibañez 107 no. 21 figure 3. methodology and the development of autonomy, self-directed learning, and agency. the impact of ict on the learning process of pre-service teachers overall, data show icts help innovate methodology in initial teacher education. this is so as this innovation appears to provide future teachers with activities and resources that suit their needs and interests, boosting their metacognition and understanding of their learning. concretely, the graph shows that the level of preservice teachers’ satisfaction with the accomplishment of learning outcomes was high, as most of them seemed to believe that the activities carried out in their academic spaces helped them achieve their learning goals. the lines of tendency (strongly agree and agree) indicate a positive linear correlation between technological tools and the overall level of satisfaction with the level of the learning achievements. also, they appear to regard as favorable the fact that the use of ict allowed them to do educational innovation through ict strategies rincon-ussa, fandiño-parra & cortes-ibañez 108 no. 21 activities according to their learning pace and capacity. this assessment seems to correlate positively with pre-service teachers’ sense of strengthening their learning process thanks to ict use. however, data suggest future teachers may need more or better opportunities to perceive icts as a facilitating or assisting resource in terms of decision-making and collaborative work. overall, there is a strong underlying correlation between technological tools and the general level of satisfaction with the level of learning attainment. figure 4. the role of ict in the methodological innovation of pre-service teachers. ict and the accomplishment of learning objectives in initial teacher education by and large, this category presents information that suggests that the use of icts does help future teachers accomplish the learning objectives. this appears to be so as the participants’ responses indicate that ict favor three specific aspects: level of transference, level of learning achievement, and level of learning strengthening. the educational innovation through ict strategies rincon-ussa, fandiño-parra & cortes-ibañez 109 no. 21 first aspect reflects pre-service teachers’ perceptions about their capacity to transfer what they learned in the academic spaces being intervened in other academic spaces. in other words, they could use or implement the ict-mediated strategies in other classes. the second aspect shows pre-service teachers’ satisfaction with the learning they achieved because of the activities done in classes based on the new teaching strategies. the third aspect supports the second one, as pre-service teachers appear to think the technologies used in the academic spaces help them strengthen their learning process; put differently, the learning process of future teachers optimizes thanks to ict-mediated strategies. on the other hand, collaboration, learning pace, and academic performance can require some reinforcement as the participant preservice teachers’ responses show an average overall rating. figure 5. ict and the level of accomplishment of the learning process. the value of icts for methodological and pedagogical innovation in the initial education of foreign language teachers data refers to the methodology and technological tools regarding the pre-service teachers’ learning process in this category. it can be noticed that most respondents agreed that the methodology of the subject fostered the capacity to plan their academic process as well as it helped them make their own decisions and act, bearing in mind educational innovation through ict strategies rincon-ussa, fandiño-parra & cortes-ibañez 110 no. 21 their needs and interests. moreover, the methodology encouraged students to do a self-assessment on their process. on the other hand, a high percentage also shows that technological tools appear to boost their learning process. it is also noticeable that technological tools let students make decisions to improve their academic learning. furthermore, they promote cooperative learning. figure 6. ict and methodological innovation in the initial education of language teachers. discussion the different technological tools and strategies implemented in the different academic spaces positively impacted several elements of the learning process. firstly, it seems that there is a correlation between the ict-mediated learning strategies and the level of attainment of the learning outcomes. besides, it is relevant that the learners recognize the value of the ict-mediated strategies to bolster the learning process, improve their academic performance, and plan the learning process. all these elements are essential in promoting the learner’s autonomy, self-directed learning, and agency. in this regard, mostafa, ahmad, sosahabi and berahman (2017) state that “ict plays an effective role via creating motives, deepening and expanding teaching and sustaining learning as well as removing pervasive boredom and creating subjective skills” (p. 697). educational innovation through ict strategies rincon-ussa, fandiño-parra & cortes-ibañez 111 no. 21 another aspect that the learners’ value is the role of ict in facilitating decisionmaking about the learning process and developing learning activities according to their capacity and learning pace. consequently, it seems that the use of technological tools might promote students’ empowerment and ownership of the learning process. this indicates that the icts-mediated learning strategies afford the teacher possibilities to develop differentiated and tailored strategies that acknowledge diverse learning styles, levels, and paces. similarly, kler (2014) states that “ict fulfills the needs of the individual learner and also helps them in their learning by motivating them to learn and in this way the learners learn better and in a more effective manner” (p. 256). a third relevant element is that integrating icts seems to be a fundamental factor in methodological innovation in the classroom. this process, however, brings up challenges. on the one hand, it entails the reformulation of the roles of the teacher and the learner. on the teacher’s side, he positions as a strategic mediator of the learning process. someone who designs learning environments in which the pre-service teacher finds diverse learning paths that facilitate the attainment of learning outcomes and agency development. this means the capacity of making decisions about his learning process; assessing his progress and growth; planning and implementing learning strategies; identifying and overcoming hindrances that thwart his steady progress and development. in sum, the comprehensive implementation of ict-mediated learning strategies empowers the teacher-educator as a transformative agent, who purposefully fosters self-directed and regulated learning and develops a mindset of autonomy and continuous professional growth. on the part of the learner, it implies that he takes responsibility for his learning process, which means that he can make informed decisions, evaluate and plan his learning process. the reformulation of the roles in the learning process implies the change of the relationships between the participants of the learning process and the dynamics of the learning environment; in other words, the continuous reformulation of the educational culture. when discussing the challenges of teaching and learning with ict, shan (2013) maintains that teachers and learners need autonomy, capability, and creativity to be able to develop qualitative teaching and learning with ict. among other things, this means they need to acquire and develop new roles and actions to take control of the teaching-learning experience; they can apply and transfer knowledge. they can use new multimedia tools and materials. largely, the concrete and situated methodological innovations that integrate ict constitute opportunities for classroom-based educational innovation. these small-scale innovations provide insights that promote the collective and collegiality academic discussion needed to drive curricular change, which might produce the adjustment of the organizational and administrative structures and the evolution of the educational community’s educational culture. even more, these situated processes shed light on larger-scale educational innovation endeavors and even might have a significant impact on regional educational policies. educational innovation through ict strategies rincon-ussa, fandiño-parra & cortes-ibañez 112 no. 21 conclusions and pedagogical implications as a whole, the results indicate that pedagogical and methodological innovations that integrate icts in the initial education of pre-service foreign language educators might contribute to: • fostering the development of skills and attitudes in collaborative and cooperative learning, • promoting the development of autonomy and selfdirected learning, • enhancing awareness, on the part of the learners, about the learning process and developing skills and attitudes in taking control of it, • providing a range of possibilities for bolstering emancipatory agency throughout the education process of pre-service foreign language teachers, • engendering classroom-based educational and pedagogical innovation, and • empowering future language teachers with experiential-based knowledge about the value of icts in language learning and teaching. • on the other hand, pedagogical and methodological innovative practices that integrate icts bring up some challenges and implications. such challenges and implications are as follows: • technology-enhanced teaching strategies need to provide pre-service teachers with interactive activities and reflective experiences that enable them to address their interests and needs from multiple perspectives and complexity levels. this entails competencies, skills, and attitudes in using icts on the teacher and the students. • methodological and pedagogical innovations that integrate icts need to be fully integrated with academic programs and instructional practices, which implies that they need to be selected strategically based on their features and their use to support concrete learning aims. this brings up the need for organizational conditions and dynamics that facilitate collective dialogue and collegially amongst all the educational process actors. • pedagogical and methodological innovations that integrate icts need to allow room for tools and environments that help learners control and mediate their learning through multiple inquiry and self-reflection pathways. this implies that the educator of pre-service foreign language teachers assumes the role of a skillful strategic mediator whose skills and attitudes empower him to design, implement and evaluate learning paths that are aligned with the nature of the language learning process and the particular socio-cultural context of the learner. educational innovation through ict strategies rincon-ussa, fandiño-parra 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(2008). self-regulation of learning within computer-based learning environments: a critical analysis. educational psychology review, 20(4), 429–444, 2008. this article was presented in fliptech latam 2019 international conference, in october 2019 educational innovation through ict strategies rincon-ussa, fandiño-parra & cortes-ibañez 117 no. 21 authors *luis jesús rincón-ussa is an associate professor in the education school at la salle university, bogotá, colombia. he holds an m.ed. in applied linguistics to teaching english and a b.a. in modern languages. his research interests are curriculum management and design, innovation in language teachers education and professional development.  fields of expertise: english teaching and learning methodology, pedagogical practicum supervisor, undergraduate research director, and ict-mediated language learning. orcid: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5183-6719 yamith josé fandiño-parra holds a b.a. in english philology from the national university of colombia and an m.a. in teaching from de la salle university. he is also a specialist in virtual learning environments from virtual educa argentina. currently, he is pursuing his phd in education and society at la salle university. his research interests range from foreign language learning to teacher education and language policies. orcid: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5567-5465 andrea margarita cortés ibañez holds a bachelor of spanish, english and french from universidad de la salle, bogotá and a master degree in education from the same university. she was a spanish language assistant from 2012-2013 in kingston, jamaica. she has been a language teacher at different universities. currently, she is a full-time teacher and researcher at universidad de la salle leading the international visibility committee of the faculty of education. her areas of research and interest are didactics of language teaching mediated by ict and pedagogical practicum in teacher training. orcid: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1063-6235 how to reference this article: rincón-ussa, l. j., fandiño-parra, y. j., & cortés-ibañez, a. m. (2020). educational innovation through ict-mediated teaching strategies in the initial teacher education of english language teachers. gist – education and learning research journal, 21, 91-117. https://doi.org/10.26817/16925777.831 educational innovation through ict strategies rincon-ussa, fandiño-parra & cortes-ibañez gist education and learning research journal. issn 1692-5777. no. 20 (january june, 2020). pp. 85-108. the impact of oral pushed output on intermediate students’ l2 oral production1 impacto de la producción oral inducida en la producción oral de estudiantes de nivel intermedio kevin lópez páez2* universidad del tolima, colombia 1 received: october 1st 2019/ accepted: april 17th 2020 2 kevinlopezpaez@gmail.com 86 no. 20 oral pushed output on intermediate students’ l2 oral production lópez-paez abstract with the advent of communicative methodologies, the promise to develop both fluency and accuracy was made as a goal for teaching and learning english as an international language. however, it did not happen (richards, 2008). in an attempt to equalize students’ both semantic and syntactic competence, this study investigates the impact of swain’s (1985) oral pushed output hypothesis on efl intermediate students’ l2 oral production under a mixed method approach. the participants were 16 seventh grade efl students from a private school in ibagué, colombia that were randomly assigned to an output and a non-output group. for five weeks, the output group underwent oral pushed output activities while the non-output group was merely exposed to comprehension activities. quantitative and qualitative instruments to collect the data included pretest and posttest, audiorecordings, stimulated recalls, and interviews. results revealed that although pushing students to produce meaningful oral output does not promote significant noticing of their linguistic problems in past narrative forms, students can modify more oral output through one-way pushed output activities than two-way activities and equalize their semantic and syntactic competence since they can engage in both processsings. additionally, students perceived oral pushed output as an affectivity regulator in l2 oral production and as a trigger of exposure to l2 vocabulary, grammar, and pronunciation. key words: pushed output hypothesis; oral production; fluency; accuracy; semantic processing; syntactic processing. resumen con la llegada de las metodologías comunicativas, se hizo la promesa de desarrollar la fluidez y la precisión como objetivo para la enseñanza y el aprendizaje del inglés como idioma internacional. sin embargo, esto no ocurrió (richards, 2008). en un intento de igualar la competencia semántica de los estudiantes con la sintáctica, este estudio investiga el impacto de la hipótesis de la producción oral inducida de swain (1985) en la producción oral de estudiantes de inglés como lengua extranjera de nivel intermedio bajo un enfoque de métodos mezclados. los participantes fueron 16 estudiantes de inglés de grado séptimo de un colegio privado en ibagué, colombia que fueron asignados aleatoriamente a un grupo de producción y a uno de no-producción. durante cinco semanas, el grupo de producción se expuso a actividades orales de producción inducida, mientras que el grupo de no-producción fue expuesto únicamente a actividades de comprensión. los instrumentos cuantitativos y cualitativos para recolectar la información incluyeron pruebas de entrada y salida, grabaciones de audio, recuerdos provocados y entrevistas. los resultados revelaron que aunque inducir a los estudiantes a realizar producción oral significativa no promueve una observación significativa de sus problemas lingüísticos en formas narrativas en pasado, los estudiantes pueden modificar más producción oral a través de actividades de producción inducida no correspondidas que de actividades bilaterales e igualar sus competencias semántica y sintáctica al involucrarse en ambos procesamientos. adicionalmente, los estudiantes percibieron la producción oral inducida como un regulador afectivo en su producción oral y como un detonador de exposición a vocabulario, gramática y pronunciación de la lengua objeto. 87 no. 20 oral pushed output on intermediate students’ l2 oral production lópez-paez palabras clave: hipótesis de la producción inducida; producción oral en la segunda lengua; fluidez; precisión; procesamiento semántico; procesamiento sintáctico. resumo com a chegada das metodologias comunicativas, fez-se a promessa de desenvolver a fluidez e a precisão como objetivo para o ensino e a aprendizagem de inglês como idioma internacional. entretanto, isto não ocorreu (richards, 2008). este estudo pesquisa o impacto da hipótese da produção oral induzida de swain (1985) na produção oral de estudantes de inglês como língua estrangeira de nível intermédio sob um enfoque de métodos misturados. os participantes foram 16 estudantes de inglês de sétima série (oitava série no sistema educativo de 12 anos) de um colégio particular em ibagué, colômbia que foram designados aleatoriamente a um grupo de produção e a um de não-produção. durante cinco semanas, o grupo de produção se expôs a atividades orais de produção induzida, enquanto que o grupo de não-produção foi exposto unicamente a atividades de compreensão. os instrumentos quantitativos e qualitativos para coletar a informação incluíram provas de entrada e saída, gravações de áudio, lembranças provocadas e entrevistas. os resultados revelaram que mesmo que induzir os estudantes a realizar produção oral significativa não promove uma observação significativa dos seus problemas linguísticos em formas narrativas em passado, os estudantes podem modificar mais produção oral a través de atividades de produção induzidas não correspondidas que de atividades bilaterais, e igualar suas competências semântica e sintática ao envolver-se em ambos os processamentos. adicionalmente, os estudantes perceberam a produção oral induzida como um regulador afetivo na sua produção oral e como um detonador de exposição a vocabulário, gramática e pronúncia da língua objeto. palavras chave: hipótese da produção induzida; produção oral na segunda língua; fluidez, precisão; processamento semântico; processamento sintático. 88 no. 20 introduction the advent of communicative methodologies for teaching a foreign language in 1970 attempted to improve the teaching practices and develop skills such as listening, reading, writing, and speaking. methodologies such as clil (content and language integrated learning), clt (communicative language teaching), and tblt (task-based language teaching) promised to develop both fluency and accuracy as goals for teaching and learning english as an international language. however, as richards (2008) affirms, fluency-based methodologies did not generally manage to help learners develop communicative competence as well as linguistic competence on an equal basis. the issue on what to do about grammar in language learning and teaching was not resolved then. programs with great deal of input and frequent use of authentic communication determined that learners were developing fluency at the cost of accuracy (higgs & clifford, 1982), showing thus good communication skills, but poor grammar proficiency together with high fossilization levels. as gass (2003) notes, although second and foreign language english learners have been able to comprehend what they listen and read in communicative methodologies, most of them fail to produce the written or oral message they want to convey. efl teaching context in colombia in colombia, public and private schools as well as english institutes have witnessed issues like the above-mentioned. since the 90s, efl teachers’ attempts to keep learners away from form-focused methodologies, influenced by krashen’s (1985) input hypothesis claims as well as the communicative competence, have led them to implement input-based and fluency-based methodologies (mcdougald, 2009) such as clil. this methodology aims at having students learn about a subject content through a target language; that is, social studies, biology, chemistry, geometry are taught in english without putting a focus on l2 syntax (marsh & langé, 2000). thus, a great usage of such methodology has drawn teachers’ attention more to students’ fluency and comprehension (semantic competence) than to their accuracy and production (syntactic competence). such inequality of competences development, as higgs and clifford (1982) state, does not allow students to produce enough l2 output or to be aware of the errors in their interlanguage since instructors do not focus on providing enough feedback on l2 syntax. the present research study sets out to address the aforementioned issue of competences inequality by investigating the impact of swain’s (1985) pushed output hypothesis and its three functions on 16 colombian efl students’ l2 oral production employing a mixed method. it is worth noting that, to the best of my knowledge, research examining the effect of oral pushed output has not been conducted within a oral pushed output on intermediate students’ l2 oral production lópez-paez 89 no. 20 colombian context. i considered it would be interesting not only to analyze whether the hypothesis’ claims would be supported or refuted by research in this colombian setting, but also to gain students’ perceptions towards it. this enquiry is different with regard to previous studies described in the literature review section since it involves: l2 oral production, a mixed method approach, the examination of the three output functions, multiple output activities, and insights gaining of students’ perceptions towards pushed output. thereby, this study attempts to answer the following main question: what is the impact of oral pushed output on students’ l2 oral production? moreover, four sub-research questions are intended to be answered in this research study: 1. do output group students outperform significantly students in non-output group in terms of noticing? 2. what type of oral pushed output activity (one-way or two-way) leads to more hypothesis testing episodes? 3. what metalinguistic reflections do learners engage in after performing oral pushed output activities? 4. what are the students’ perceptions towards oral pushed output? the present study is also undertaken to test the following null hypotheses in order to answer research sub-research question one and two: h01: oral pushed output participants do not outperform participants in non-output group in terms of noticing. h02: two-way pushed oral output activities do not lead to more hypothesis testing episodes than one-way oral pushed output activities. literature review and theoretical framework research intended to investigate the effect of pushed output on l2 acquisition and linguistic accuracy has been sharply increasing over the past three decades (e.g., basterrechea, garcía & leeser, 2013; ellis & he, 1999; garcia-mayo, 2002; izumi, 2002; izumi and bigelow, 2000; leeser, 2004; nobuyoshi & ellis, 1993; rezvani, 2011; shehadeh, 2003; sitthitikul, 2017; suzuki and itagaki, 2007; uggen, 2012). however, such studies have merely focused on written output and on one of the functions (the noticing function) using quantitative methods; giving little attention to the other two functions (hypothesis-testing and metalinguistic) of the hypothesis. other studies have yielded results that are inconsistent with swain’s claims (e.g., izumi and bigelow, 2000; rezvani, 2011; uggen, 2012) and they are attributable to the limited number of output tasks, the short-term treatments, and the learners’ foreknowledgement about the task to accomplish. treatment written output activities in such studies have mostly been text reconstructions. few studies have investigated the effect of pushed output hypothesis on students’ oral production (mamaghani & birjandi, 2017; byrne & jones, 2014; sadeghi & edalati, 2014), yielding findings that are consistent with swain’s claims on grammatical accuracy development, but weak due to short period of implementation of pushed output, lack of interactive tasks, and the absence of the other output functions (hypothesis-testing and metalinguistic). oral pushed output on intermediate students’ l2 oral production lópez-paez 90 no. 20 pushed output hypothesis the perspective held in second language acquisition (sla) in the early 1980s involved the notions around krashen’s (1985) comprehensible input hypothesis. as a result, rooted on its premises, l2 teachers began to favor the act of providing learners with extensive input-rich environments and fluency-based instruction arguing that l2 was only acquired effectively, as krashen (1982, 1985, 1998) established, through interesting, meaningful and relevant input (e.g., reading and listening material learners are provided with). nevertheless, swain (1985, 1995, 1998, 2005) formulated the pushed output hypothesis as a reaction to krashen’s by establishing that comprehensible input alone was not sufficient for l2 acquisition, especially for the development of learners’ linguistic competence. while she was conducting research with french immersion students in canada, she observed that despite students had spent years in immersion programs still had short target-like abilities as well as less grammatical proficiency (syntactic competence) than their native-speaking peers. swain hypothesized that what learners needed in order to enhance grammatical competence was opportunities to be pushed in l2 production. she claimed that language production, be it written or oral, played a paramount role in the l2 acquisition process. it forces students to move from a purely semantic analysis of the language (as in comprehension) to a syntactic analysis of it (as in production). this movement allows learners to stretch their interlanguage and improve their grammatical competence as long as such an output is meaningful and contextualized. ever since, many researchers and teachers have increasingly paid attention to output and considered it to have a crucial role in esl and efl teaching and learning. the term “pushed” means being obliged to perform beyond ones’ normal comfort level (nation, 2011) and “pushed output” refers to the type of output that “reflects what learners can produce when they are forced to use target language accurately and concisely” (ellis, 2003, p. 349). according to several scholars, when learners know they have to speak, they are pushed to pay more attention to what is in the input. if they never have to speak, they might be content with always processing the input only for meaning. but if they know that there will be production pressures on them at some point, they may become more active processors of how something is said and not just what is said. swain (1993, 1995, 1998, 2005) has further explored more about such a hypothesis and suggested three functions that output serves in the output hypothesis and in sla provided that it is meaningful and contextualized: 1. the noticing function: swain and lapkin (1995) hypothesized that under certain circumstances, output promotes noticing and pushes learners to process language more deeply, with more mental effort than does input. the learners are in control when they produce language output, and can play more active roles in their oral pushed output on intermediate students’ l2 oral production lópez-paez 91 no. 20 learning; thence, when attempting to produce the target language (vocally or silently), learners notice a gap between what they want to say and what they can say (they do not know how to say or write precisely the meaning they wish to convey), leading them to identify consciously their linguistic problems and lacks of knowledge, focusing on something they need to discover about their l2. such a process involves the usage of previous linguistic knowledge in ways it had not been used before and contributes to the enhancement of accuracy. in examining the noticing function, izumi (2002) and basterrechea et al., (2013) investigated whether output prompted learners to notice certain grammatical features on subsequent input using a carefully designed multi-stage text reconstruction and a dictogloss task as treatment for the experimental group, allowing the learners to compare their first production with the input subsequently received. basterrechea et al., (2013), however, were also interested in the type of reflections the collaborative group engaged in while reconstructing the text in pairs. results in both studies revealed that such pushed output tasks affected noticing when students became aware of differences or gaps between their interlanguage and target language forms. additionally, participants’ attention was drawn to the events in the text, i.e., content. 2. the hypothesis-testing function: swain states that language output is an essential way for learners to test hypotheses about the target language. in other words, learners semantically modify or confirm their output (test their hypothetical output) in response to feedback received during fruitful interaction and negotiation of meaning with their peers or teacher; prompting, thus, higher accuracy. to examine how output can lead to learners’ l2 hypothesis testing and output modification, shehadeh (2003) implemented a picture description task to collect data from sixteen nonnative students in the uk. he audio recorded learners’ interactions and examined hypothesis testing episodes. having them back-to-back, nnss (nonnative speakers) described the picture to a nss (native speakers). results revealed that students tested out their output hypotheses on l2, i.e., experimented which target linguistic form sounded better, appealed for assistance, and requested information every 1.8 minutes. 3. the metalinguistic (reflective) function: swain maintains that through the production of language, reflection on others’ or one’s own target language use (l2 output performance) is triggered. also, she argues that language output enables learners to engage in syntactic as well as semantic processing; that is, to internalize knowledge and raise awareness on forms, rules, function, and meaning of the target language provided that the language production context (task) is communicative, leading thus to learner’s deeper understanding of l2 and accuracy development. in investigating the metalinguistic reflection function, garcia-mayo (2002), implementing text reconstruction as a treatment as well, aimed to determine the oral pushed output on intermediate students’ l2 oral production lópez-paez 92 no. 20 effect of output in the metalinguistic function. learners’ interaction was codified and language related episodes (lres) were identified. she discovered that output tasks promoted learners’ attention to form and got engaged in features targeted by the text reconstruction. in the same fashion, suzuki and itagaki (2007) examined the type of metatalk learners engaged in after performing writing output-oriented tasks. intermediate and advanced japanese learners of english wrote about their thinking processes after having received explicit correct solution feedback. the metalinguistic reflections shed light on the way they had noticed linguistic forms and how they had tested hypothesis, supporting thus swain’s (1995) output hypothesis. results revealed that learners’ metalinguistic reflections enabled them to internalize linguistic competence and allowed them to engage in syntactic processing, essential in sla. methodology research design a mixed method is applied in this study following a true experimental research design with the purpose of interpreting and describing the data obtained from the quantitative and qualitative data collection instruments. according to creswell (2014), true experimental designs involve the random assignment of participants to each group in the study. researchers in this design provide a treatment to one (experimental) group and withhold it from another group (control group); then, they analyze how both groups score on the outcome and determine whether it was the treatment and not other factors that influenced that outcome. in this enquiry, the researcher randomly assigned the 16 participants to an experimental (output) group and a control (nonoutput) group. table 1 below summarizes the description of the research design in this study and the purpose of both qualitative and quantitative traditions in this study. oral pushed output on intermediate students’ l2 oral production lópez-paez 93 no. 20 table 1. summary of research design research design research traditions research objectives quantitative to determine whether participants in the oral pushed output group outperform significantly participants in non-output group in terms of noticing. mixed method to analyze what type of oral pushed output activity leads to more hypothesis testing episodes qualitative to describe the metalinguistic reflections the learners engage in after performing pushed igas to unveil students’ perceptions towards oral pushed output. context the study was conducted in a private school from ibagué, colombia. the school is comprised by 280 students in an only-existing shift. the school implements clil methodology (content and language integrated learning) from pre-school to sixth grade; therefore, the textbooks used in the english class enact this methodology. then, from seventh grade to eleventh grade, a grammar-focused textbook and methodology is developed. this context was selected for the present study purposes because this school exposes students over six years to a fluency-based methodology, and then they are expected to undergo a grammar-focused textbook and methodology. according to the school teachers, under the implementation of such a methodology in those early grades, accuracy is not demanded from students, being this the likely cause by which they show high fossilization levels. participants the sample of the study consists of 16 seventh grade intermediate level learners (b1) as recommended by their english teacher. participants’ ages range from 11 to 12 years and their strata ranges from three to five. that is, they are medium-class students. the selection of such a population was encouraged by the fact that, similar to what swain (1985) observed in the canadian immersion program, these students show low syntactic processing compared to their high semantic processing; that is, their accuracy was shorter than their fluency on l2, as mentioned by their english teachers. oral pushed output on intermediate students’ l2 oral production lópez-paez 94 no. 20 the l2 linguistic form the target forms emphasized in this study are two of the english past narrative forms: past progressive and simple past tense. by the time output group participants were exposed to a five-week treatment, they had received merely input of these target linguistic forms. that means participants were aware of the target forms receptively but did not have productive mastery of them. data collection procedure pretest and posttest shuttleworth (2013) conceives pretest and posttest design as a pivotal method to compare participant groups and measure the degree of change occurring as a result of treatments or interventions. in this study, the pretest was used to identify students’ grammatical errors and writing them down and it was administered in the participants’ classroom with the researcher and their teacher’s supervision soon after the participants were assigned to the output and non-output groups and four days before starting the treatment. such pretest involved eight gap-filling short anecdotes and fourteen multiple-choice items comprising the l2 linguistic form and it was aimed at determining both output and non-output participants’ noticing of those errors made in the forms. audio-record button and lee (1987) explain that the use of tape recordings is a practical strategy for making the data collected through conversation available for extended analysis. these recordings can be implemented in qualitative, quantitative or mixed approach research and must be transcribed subsequently. in this study, the audio-recordings were used in the treatment while participants performed the oral pushed output activities and they were transcribed later in order to analyze, code, classify, and categorize qualitatively the participants’ lres to answer sub-research question three. furthermore, they were used to identify and calculate quantitatively the participants’ hypothesis testing episodes (htes) in both one-way and two-way oral pushed output activities to determine which one led to more output modification or htes. finally, such audio-recordings were implemented to gain qualitative insights from participants’ perceptions towards oral pushed output through interviews. oral pushed output on intermediate students’ l2 oral production lópez-paez 95 no. 20 stimulated recall according to suzuki and itagaki (2007), learners are interviewed by the researcher in a stimulated recall; further, using meta-language, they converse about learners’ decision-making and thinking processes (e.g., lexical choices, linguistic structure chosen, or activity content) while performing the output task and reflect on how they solved their task. they were undertaken in this study to gain qualitative insights on the metalinguistic reflections the students engaged in while performing the pushed output treatment. it took the form of a semi-structured interview in which learners were asked in spanish language what they were paying attention to during the performance of the oral pushed output activities as well as what they were thinking of when they stopped in specific moments during the performance. interviews interviews were used in this study to qualitatively inquire into participants’ perceptions on oral pushed output to answer the sub-research question four and were applied to the eight output group participants six days after the posttest was administered. additionally, they comprised two open-ended questions in spanish language related to what participants thought about the oral pushed output activities in the treatment as well as how they felt while performing them. application and treatment materials the current study was carried out at a private school in ibagué, tolima, colombia during a seven-week period. first, the researcher handed the seventh-grader minor participants the informed consent letter. two days later, the researcher assigned the participants randomly to output and non-output groups and administered the pretest. during the following five weeks, the researcher asked output group participants one by one or in pairs to come out of the classroom for some minutes to perform three types of information gap activities (2 one-way and 1 one-way) that pushed them to produce oral l2 output. such types of activities were performed three times during the treatment and their content was changed in the three occasions. first, in the picturebased storytellings, the student was given a set of pictures that composed a story and was asked to tell with their words the story shown in the whole portrayal and sequence of pictures. second, in the retelling activity, students spent a few minutes reading a passage silently and, then, without looking back at it, started retelling the information to the researcher. third, in unstructured role-plays, student a was given an assigned task and role and learner b was too. based on the information given, they simulated a scene. the selection of these three types of activities was motivated by the benefits they have showed in pushed output research, according to izumi and izumi (2004), shehadeh oral pushed output on intermediate students’ l2 oral production lópez-paez 96 no. 20 (1999), and nation and newton (2009). likewise, nation and newton (2009) claim that the aim of pushed activities is to make students produce l2 in a way that is beyond their normal comfort level (i.e., pushed way). this is achieved by exposing students to unfamiliar topics and by depriving students from preparation and planning for the production of the target language. these participants were prompted by the researcher after the appearance of an inaccurate use of a past narrative form using the implicit feedback strategy recast. lyster (1998) defines recasts as the interlocutor’s repetition of the student’s ill-formed utterance while adjusting their intonation to highlight the error (e.g., they were walking). it is worth noting that the three types of activities together with these implicit feedback strategies were piloted by performing them on 6 students who had similar characteristics of the study sample but not included in it, showing reliability to the researcher. on the other hand, the non-output group was exposed to comprehension activities, i.e., activities that did not push them to speak such as picture sequencing and answering of reading comprehension questions. these participants performed such activities each week during the five weeks of the treatment and their content was different in the five occasions. once the treatment ended, the researcher interviewed the output group participants and administered the posttest to both groups. figure 1 summarizes all of the abovementioned stages through the study schedule. figure 1. summary of the schedule of the study. data analysis and interpretation research question one the researcher and the participants’ classroom teacher, i.e., second rater, identified, wrote down and compared the grammatical errors made in the target forms in the pretest with those in the posttest to calculate the number of linguistic forms noticed. both raters agreed on all of the scores they gave to each of the participants as part oral pushed output on intermediate students’ l2 oral production lópez-paez 97 no. 20 of the inter-rater reliability. quantitative data from such noticing episodes was statistically analyzed using a descriptive statistics approach to determine if pushed output participants did better on noticing than participants in the non-output group. data distribution was normal. table 5 portrays the descriptive statistics of the means of output and non-output group on noticing. table 6 illustrates the independent samples t-test results of means scores difference. table 2. descriptive statistics of output and non-output group on noticing of past narrative forms group n mean std. deviation std. error mean noticing output 8 6,7500 4,39968 1,55552 non-output 8 4,8750 1,95941 ,69276 table 2 indicates that mean scores in noticing between output and non-output group were somewhat different. nevertheless, to determine if the means scores difference was statistically significant or not, as shown in table 6, an independent samples t-test was run (the mean difference is significant at ,05 level and below). table 3. results of independent samples t-test for noticing of past narrative forms of output and non-output group as it can be seen, although in table 2 the mean score of the output group (6,75) was higher than the mean score of the non-output group (4,87), table 3 illustrates that the results of the independent samples t-test did not show any significant differences in the mean scores of noticing between output and non-output group since the sig. level of the test was ,289 (p = ,289), which was greater than the critical value (research confidence interval) ,05 (p > ,05). in other words, pushed output participants did not outperform non-output participants in terms of noticing of their linguistic problems in the targeted linguistic forms. therefore, the first null hypothesis was not rejected. this result does not provide empirical support to swain’s (1985, 1993, 1995) claim t-test for equality of means t df sig. mean std error 95% confidence interval difference difference of the difference lower upper equal variances 1,101 14 ,289 1,87500 1,70281 -1,77716 5,52716 noticing assumed equal variances 1,101 9,672 ,297 1,87500 1,70281 -1,93662 5,68662 not assumed oral pushed output on intermediate students’ l2 oral production lópez-paez 98 no. 20 on the noticing function that output promotes learners’ noticing of their linguistic problems. by the same token, this finding does not either coincide with previous studies described in the literature review on the effects of pushed output hypothesis which yielded positive findings for students’ noticing of different linguistic forms such as those of izumi (2002), basterrechea, garcía, and leeser (2013), and sadeghi and edalati (2014), and mamaghani and birjandi (2017). nevertheless, the result of this question is in line with and adds up to the negative results trend in studies investigating the effect of output on noticing such as rezvani (2011), sitthitikul (2017), izumi and bigelow (2000), song and suh (2008), and uggen (2012), noted in the literature review. the negative result on the noticing function as part of the sub-research question one in this study might be attributable to the way the researcher applied the implicit feedback with students during the performance of the pushed output activities. recasts may not have drawn students’ attention to linguistic problems efficiently. after students produced an ill-formed utterance, the researcher would immediately repeat it in a correct way and students modified their output and kept on performing the activity. however, the researcher did not adjust his intonation or made a considerable pause to highlight the error as lyster (1998) proposes. this might not have provided students enough time to be sufficiently aware of the linguistic error they just made. research question two quantitative data from the hypothesis testing episodes (htes) identified in the audio-recording transcriptions was also statistically analyzed using the same aforementioned program to determine what type of oral pushed output activity (one-way or two-way) leads to more htes. as there were 2 one-way and 1 two-way oral pushed output activities, 1 one-way and 1 two-way activity were considered as variables in the employment of the independent samples t-test for equality purposes in the mean scores analysis of htes. data distribution was normal. table 4 displays the descriptive statistics of the means scores of output group participants’ htes in both activities and table 5 displays the independent samples t-test results of means scores difference. table 4. descriptive statistics of output group participants’ hypothesis testing episodes in one-way and two-way output activities activity n mean std. deviation std. error mean htes one-way 3 15,6667 4,50925 2,60342 two-way 3 6,6667 2,08167 1,20185 oral pushed output on intermediate students’ l2 oral production lópez-paez 99 no. 20 as shown in this table, the mean scores of htes in the one-way output activity that involved three picture-based storytellings (15,6) are seemingly greater than the mean scores of htes in the two-way output activity that involved three unstructured role plays (6,6). to ensure whether or not the observed difference was statistically significant, an independent samples t-test was performed (see table 5). table 5. results of independent samples t-test for output group participants’ hypothesis testing episodes in one-way and two-way output activities the results indicated that the difference between one-way and two-way output activities, t (4) = 3,139, p = ,035 < ,05, was considered to be statistically significant. accordingly, it can be claimed that a one-way oral pushed output activity led to more learners’ htes than a two-way output activity. that is, students modified more output in one-way pushed output activities than in two-way output activities with teachers’ assistance through implicit feedback. thus, the second null hypothesis was rejected. this is consistent with swain’s (1995, 1998) claim on the hypothesis testing function that learners modify output (test their hypothetical output) when producing l2 output and receiving feedback from their peers or teachers. the result in this second question was also congruent with the results of similar studies pointed out in the literature review (shehadeh, 2003), even though this study was not interested in examining the frequency of occurrence of students’ hypothesis testing episodes. likewise, the beneficial role of one-way output activities that mackey (2012) and shedaheh (1999) advocate was confirmed with this finding. they state that this type of activity has the learner do most of the talking as well as provides more opportunities for them to generate and use more pushed output. research question three qualitative data from the stimulated recalls was carefully analyzed using content analysis in the audiorecording transcriptions of the stimulated recalls before doing t-test for equality of means t df sig. mean std error 95% confidence interval difference difference of the difference lower upper equal variances 3,139 4 ,035 9,00000 2,86744 -1,03871 16,96129 noticing assumed equal variances 3,139 2,815 ,056 9,00000 2,86744 -,47344 18,47344 not assumed oral pushed output on intermediate students’ l2 oral production lópez-paez 100 no. 20 triangulation with the interviews data to ensure validity. this analysis was done in each of the activities so as to identify, classify, and categorize language related episodes (lres). the resulting lres categories are: verb tenses, l2 lexis (vocabulary), meaning expression, and events in the activities, i.e. activity content. each one of these categories were analytically interpreted and grouped, resulting in two emerging themes: (1) content-based metalinguistic reflections and (2) form-based metalinguistic reflections. learners’ metalinguistic reflections pertaining to content data revealed that while output group participants underwent oral pushed output, students were thinking about the content embedded in the activities, i.e., about the events in the activities: student 4: “[i was thinking] er... about what was happening and making sense out of it”. student 5: “in the story itself.... yes... like to try to tell it well because i didn’t know the story”. student 1: “in that part, i was thinking of what was going to be before... sorry, after the part when the girls arrived home after the school”. student 8: “about the logic of the things that were occurring because it is not like usual like that you see... an alien into the woods... yes” students also reported that in the unstructured role plays and retelling activities, they were paying attention to the meaning they wanted to express: researcher: “what were you paying attention to while you were doing the activity?”. student 7: “i don’t know, to how to keep the conversation going”. student 6: “to the topic of the conversation... so i didn’t get out of it”. student 5: “about what the was going to say in order for me to say something that made sense”. student 1: “with respect to what he last mentioned... so i could connect it and keep the same idea” learners’ metalinguistic reflections pertaining to form after asking students what they were thinking about when they paused in certain moment during the activities performance, they said were thinking about the l2 verbs in past tense that were required to tell decently the stories in the picture-based storytellings and the retellings student 5: “i was thinking about how i had to put the verbs”. student 8: “well, about things that i didn’t know like verbs... or that i didn’t know how to tell them in past... for example, i didn’t know that of he found and things like that”. student 1: “i stopped because i didn’t remember the past of see”. student 3: “in my case, well, maybe i stopped to identify... i mean, take the verb and pass it to its past [tense]”. student 2: “on the connectors... when to use while and when to join the tenses” oral pushed output on intermediate students’ l2 oral production lópez-paez 101 no. 20 students would also stop to think about what past tense to use. that is, they were concerned about the target linguistic features selected in this study: student 2: “[i was thinking] of the conjugation... i mean, whether to put the verbs in past continuous or in past simple”. student 6: “i stopped because i was thinking of the difference on how to use the past continuous with the other one”. student 4: “sometimes i got stuck in the telling of the story since i had to stop to think about the past” after being asked about what they were paying attention to and thinking about when stopping during performance, students reported that their attention was drawn to specific l2 vocabulary that was necessary in the performance of the picture-based storytelling and retelling activities as well as in specific contexts of the role plays such as accident and paranormal scenarios: student 3 student 7: “to the words.... the key words that are needed. words that one forgets that doesn’t know how to tell them... the words that i asked you for”. student 1: “to some words of vocabulary, for example that of forest”. student 4: “i didn’t remember how to say letrero (advertisement, in english)... and the other time was here where i didn’t know how to say about the man”. student 8: “i don’t know the words robar, esconder, quemar” (rob, hide, and burn, in english). student 5: “like about the words to say what was happening”. student 3: “i don’t know the words chocar and afeitar” (crash and shave, in english). student 3 “[i stopped to think about] the vocabulary, because one had to think of what to say”. student 6: “i didn’t know vocabulary for this case, as it said we had to play a situation about ghosts, i didn’t know how to say words related to that”. student 5: “that sometimes… sometimes i was kind of recalling or... i kind of like didn’t find the specific word”. as observed above, students focused on both content (activities events and expression of meaning) and form (verb tenses and l2 lexis) while performing oral pushed output. in other words, students engaged in both semantic and syntactic processing, a dynamic that starts to shed light on how they can equalize their semantic competence with their syntactic competence. these findings provide empirical support to swain’s (1998, 2001, 2005) claim on the metalinguistic function of the output hypothesis that output enables learners to engage in both semantic and syntactic processing rather than in purely semantic analysis of the language (comprehension); leading thus to learner’s internalization of knowledge, deeper understanding of l2, and accuracy enhancement. in the same fashion, this finding is in line with previous experimental studies noted in the literature review (byrne & jones, 2014; garcia-mayo, 2002; suzuki & itagaki, 2007; swain & lapkin, 2002) which claimed that through pushed output tasks, learners internalized linguistic competence and engaged in syntactic processing. in garcia-mayo’s (2002) results, however, learners paid attention only to form, that is different from this finding which students focused on content (semantic processing needed in comprehension) and form (syntactic processing needed in production) at the same time. oral pushed output on intermediate students’ l2 oral production lópez-paez 102 no. 20 research question four qualitative data from the interviews was carefully analyzed using content analysis in the respective audiorecording transcriptions and triangulated with data from the stimulated recalls. in order to find commonalities among the students’ responses, data was coded and categorized. resulting categories pertained to feelings (relieved nerves, self-confidence, and accompaniment sense) and double purpose of activities (nice and useful, pleasing and subskills pleasing and subskills noticing and exposure trigger). these categories were piled so as to analyze them and interpret them more deeply until broad themes emerged in light of how students perceived oral pushed output. the themes that emerged pertained to (1) oral pushed output as affective regulator in l2 oral production and (2) oral pushed output as a trigger of noticing and exposure to l2 vocabulary, pronunciation, and grammar. oral pushed output as affective regulator in l2 oral production when asked in the interviews how they felt during the performance of the output activities, students said they did not feel comfortable, with lack of self-confidence, and nervous in certain moments, especially in the first weeks of the treatment. however, as treatment passed by, the more students gained familiarity with the researcher and were exposed to a wide repertoire of both one-way and two-way activities, the more they began to overcome such feelings and get controlled even when still being pushed to produce. further, the fact that students were receiving immediate implicit feedback (researcher’s assistance) helped them not to feel incapable of performing well in the activity: student 4: “uh... i felt awkward because when we began, i wasn’t very accustomed”. student 3: “i felt comfortable, well... as we did more activities with the teacher, i felt okay”. student 5: “i felt good, i understood the dynamic more and more... i just sometimes got stuck in the telling of the stories and in the thinking of the past (tenses)... and for the rest, all good”. student 6: “i think this helped me a bit on having more control of... like when one doesn’t know someone or something very well and being more relaxed, because at the beginning i was a little bit like that... like stressed, pressed, and scared, but i started to be more relaxed afterwards”. student 8: “perhaps at the beginning i felt a little weird because i didn’t know if i was able to say everything well, but later on i didn’t feel like that anymore... and well, plus, the teacher gave us a little help whenever we got wrong, and stuff like that”. the unstructured role plays allowed learners to work in pairs to complete the task. such a fact also made students feel good in the performance of the activities: student 7: “i felt very good... and because we could do the activities accompanied with another classmate” oral pushed output on intermediate students’ l2 oral production lópez-paez 103 no. 20 oral pushed output as a trigger of noticing and exposure to l2 vocabulary, pronunciation, and grammar when asked what they thought about the oral pushed output activities, students reported that they helped them realize some problems of their interlanguage system as well as be exposed to vocabulary, pronunciation, and grammar: student 1: “i consider them good as this exercise was useful for me to enhance my speaking... and besides, i learned more vocabulary”. student 3: “personally, i could learn things that either i didn’t know or i didn’t remember how to use them and pronounce them; and plus, i don’t know… i mean, they helped me a lot for other english classes because the topics were related”. student 6: “i found them nice, and it all also helped me in some things i was bad at in english; also, it helped me improve some words and understand a little better some passages in english” students also mentioned that they found the activities appealing and enjoyable and with a learning purpose; besides, they expressed that their content was not isolated from their interests: student 4: “the activities were cool, dynamic and... obviously i took them seriously since it was like a test that told you if you were good or bad at things in english”. student 5: “i found them good, well, like the topics were quite related to us”. student 7: “i found them nice, like dynamic and not that serious”. student 8: “the activities were very cool because... well, at the time we learned english, words, pronunciation; they were also dynamic and... yes... nice”. overall, students agreed that oral pushed output was appealing and helped them control their feelings of fear and nervousness in l2 production as well as be exposed to several elements of the target language. these results lend support to swain’s (1985, 1993, 1995, 2005) general claim on the pushed output hypothesis that by pushing l2 learners to produce meaningful and contextualized output, they can stretch their interlanguage. the fact that students perceived oral pushed output as a meaningful tool in sla is also in line with al-jamal’s (2014) study results which yielded positive students’ attitudes towards audio-visual input enhancement in pushed output dictogloss tasks. al-jamal measured students’ perceptions quantitatively through a survey and observed that all of the students felt that such an activity had improved their learning process, whereas 81% of them felt that doing another similar activity in other courses would be helpful for their language learning. finally, the fact that students expressed that oral pushed output helped them enhance their vocabulary in l2 is consistent with ellis and he (1999) and de la fuente’s (2002) studies that revealed that frequently exposing students to output led to development of their l2 vocabulary. in other words, pushed output hypothesis does not only show positive effects on grammatical accuracy, but also on improvement of l2 lexis. oral pushed output on intermediate students’ l2 oral production lópez-paez 104 no. 20 conclusions and implications the results in this enquiry show a positive impact of oral pushed output on students’ l2 oral production as well as in sla process. it can be concluded that students can modify more output with teachers or peers’ assistance through one-way oral pushed output activities than through two-way activities. furthermore, pushing students to produce meaningful, interesting, and contextualized output can contribute to an equality in their semantic and syntactic competence since they can engage in both processings through metalinguistic reflections. additionally, students perceived oral pushed output as an affectivity regulator that allowed them to get accustomed when producing l2 oral output as well as a trigger of noticing and exposure to l2 vocabulary, grammar, and pronunciation. nonetheless, these results do not completely support swain’s pushed output hypothesis claims since oral pushed output did not promote significant noticing of output group participants’ linguistic problems in l2 past narrative forms. the present study may have implications for second language teachers and l2 materials developers. this study suggests that efl and esl teachers implement oral pushed output to help students gain confidence in l2 oral production and enhance l2 vocabulary and pronunciation. it is also suggested that english instructors apply this type of output to overcome the issue of short syntactic accuracy, especially in students that have long been exposed to fluency-based and input-based methodologies in which their grammatical errors are not often corrected and opportunities to produce l2 oral output are not provided respectively. additionally, it is recommended that l2 curriculum designers and material developers make changes in the way of constructing curricula, syllabi and english textbooks based on a vast presentation of input. oral pushed output (tasks) should be included in them so as to provide students more opportunities to produce l2 oral output in the esl and efl classroom. limitations and further research as many other research studies, this study suffers from limitations that pose the issue of results generalizability and strong conclusions drawing. one limitation is the relatively short five-week period of treatment in this study. further studies are thus required to carry out long term treatment period. moreover, these results could be more persuasive if the number of participants were larger to increase generalizability and external validity. the next limitation lays in the lack of rigor in the selection of participants. this study relied on the participants’ teacher recommendation to start their random assignment to the groups. it is suggested that future research with similar purposes select participants based on a standard test in order to obtain more accurate results in pretest and posttest processes. oral pushed output on intermediate students’ l2 oral production lópez-paez 105 no. 20 references al-jamal, n. 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(2005). the output hypothesis: theory and research. in e. hinkel (ed.), handbook of research in second language teaching and learning (pp. 471-483). london: routledge. oral pushed output on intermediate students’ l2 oral production lópez-paez 108 no. 20 swain, m., & lapkin, s. (1995). problems in output and the cognitive processes they generate: a step towards second language learning. applied linguistics, 16(3), 371391 http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/applin/16.3.371 swain, m., & lapkin, s. (2002) talking it through: two french immersion learners’ response to reformulation. international journal of educational research 37(3&4), 285–304. uggen, m.s. (2012). reinvestigating the noticing function of output. language learning, 62(2), 505-40. author *kevin lópez páez holds a b.a. in english from universidad del tolima and is currently studying an m.a. in english didactics in the same university. he has been teaching english for over five years. he is currently working as a part-time english teacher at a private english institute. his research interests include social justice in elt, identity, multimodality and foreign language didactics. orcid: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6723-2645 oral pushed output on intermediate students’ l2 oral production lópez-paez how to reference this article: lópez, k. (2020). impact of pushed output on students’ oral production. gist – education and learning research journal, 20, 84-108. https://doi. org/10.26817/16925777.773 49 project-based learning for autonomy development an analysis of the pre-service teachers’ teaching anxiety and coping strategies: a turkish elementary school context1 análisis de la ansiedad y estrategias de afrontamiento en profesores en formación: un contexto de escuela primaria turca turgay han and ayşegül takkaç tulgar2* ordu university and atatürk university, turkey abstract the aim of this study is to investigate the construct of english as a foreign language (efl) pre-service teachers’ feelings of anxiety before, while, and after experiencing teaching english within a turkish elementary classroom setting. specifically, this intrinsic qualitative study investigates the anxiety sources for pre-service teachers in their practicum experiences and the ways they adapted to cope with these anxiety-provoking sources. the data were triangulated by consulting three sources of information(e.g., open-ended questions in the self-report forms, open-ended questions in the peerreflection forms, and diaries) relating the 32 participants’ practicum experiences. the findings indicated that prior to practicum experience, classroom management was the major teaching anxiety source and the “the most” frequently employed coping strategy was to consult their mentors and cooperating teachers. however, during the actual practicum experience, being observed by a mentor was the most common concern and to cope with it, each participant developed different coping mechanisms. finally, receiving negative feedback from mentors after the post-practicum experience decreased self-confidence and to compensate, pre-service teachers frequently asked mentors to provide further advice. it is implicated that teacher education programs raise the awareness of pre-service teachers of the potential challenges awaiting them in the practicum experience and equip them with coping strategies. keywords: pre-service teachers, teaching anxiety, coping strategies, elementary school, efl, feedback, practicum experience 1 received: april 22nd 2019/ accepted: august 28th 2019 2 turgayhan@yahoo.com.tr; aysegultakkac@hotmail.com gist education and learning research journal. issn 1692-5777. no.19 (july december, 2019). pp. 49-83. no. 19 (july december 2019) no. 19 (july december 2019) 50 analysis of preservice teachers’ teaching anxiety turgay & takkaç resumen el objetivo de este estudio es de investigar el constructo de inglés como lengua extranjera (efl), los sentimientos de los profesores en formación antes, durante y después de experimentar la enseñanza de inglés en un salón de clase de primaria turca. específicamente, este estudio cualitativo intrínseco investiga las fuentes de ansiedad para los maestros en formación y sus experiencias de práctica y las maneras en que ellos se adaptaron para lidiar con dichas fuentes que provocan la ansiedad. los datos se triangularon al consultar tres fuentes de información (por ejemplo: preguntas abiertas en formularios de autoinforme y diarios) relacionando las experiencias de práctica de 32 participantes. los hallazgos indicaron que antes de la experiencia de práctica, el manejo de clase era la fuente de más ansiedad y la estrategia para lidiar con la ansiedad más empleada fue la consulta a mentores y docentes cooperantes. sin embargo, durante la experiencia de practica real, el ser observados por el mentor era la preocupación más común y para lidiar con esto, cada participante desarrolló diferentes mecanismos para manejarlo. por último, recibir retroalimentación negativa de los mentores después de la experiencia de práctica posterior disminuyó la auto confianza y para compensarlo, los maestros en formación consultaron con frecuencia a sus mentores para recibir consejos adicionales. lo anterior implica que los programas de formación docente sensibilicen a los a los docentes en formación sobre los posibles desafíos que les esperan en su práctica y que los doten de estrategias para poder manejar dichos desafíos. palabras clave: docentes en formación, ansiedad de enseñanza, estrategias de afrontamiento, escuela primaria, inglés como segunda lengua, retroalimentación, experiencia de práctica. resumo o objetivo deste estudo é de pesquisar o construto de inglês como língua estrangeira (efl), os sentimentos dos professores em formação antes, durante e depois de experimentar o ensino de inglês em uma sala de aula de primária turca. especificamente, este estudo qualitativo intrínseco pesquisa as fontes de ansiedade para os mestres em formação e suas experiências de prática e as maneiras em que eles se adaptaram para lidar com mencionadas fontes que provocam a ansiedade. os dados se triangularam ao consultar três fontes de informação (por exemplo: perguntas abertas em formulários de auto-relatório e diários) relacionando as experiências de prática de 32 participantes. as descobertas indicaram que antes da experiência de prática, o manejo de aula era a fonte de mais ansiedade e a estratégia para lidar com a ansiedade mais empregada foi a consulta a mentores e docentes cooperantes. entretanto, durante a experiência de prática real, o fato de serem observados pelo mentor era a preocupação mais comum, e para lidar com isto cada participante desenvolveu diferentes mecanismos para manejálo. por último, receber retroalimentação negativa dos mentores depois da experiência de prática posterior diminuiu a autoconfiança e para compensá-lo, os mestres em formação consultaram com frequência a seus mentores para receber conselhos adicionais. o anterior implica que os programas de formação docente sensibilizem os docentes em formação sobre os possíveis desafios que lhes esperam em sua prática e que os dotem de estratégias para poder manejar mencionados desafios. palavras chave: docentes em formação, ansiedade de ensino, estratégias de afrontamento, escola primária, inglês como segunda língua, retroalimentação, experiência de prática. no. 19 (july december 2019) no. 19 (july december 2019) 51 analysis of preservice teachers’ teaching anxiety turgay & takkaç introduction the concept of anxiety has attracted much attention in language education because it has played a significant role and has had undeniable effects on the process of teaching and learning (han & aybirdi, 2017). anxiety is an emotional situation of fear and apprehension (scovel, 1978). regarding a specific type of anxiety, horwitz, horwitz, and cope (1986) described foreign language anxiety (fla) as “a distinct complex construct of self-perceptions, beliefs, feelings, and behaviors related to classroom language learning arising from the uniqueness of language learning process” (p. 128). oxford (1999) divided anxiety into two parts: facilitative anxiety which is the stimulating force in a positive sense, and debilitative anxiety which is the weakening force in a negative sense. brown (2000) referred to these two anxiety types as trait anxiety which is related to personality characteristics and state anxiety which is felt in a specific situation. while some studies have been carried out to investigate sources of anxiety for learners (aydın, 2008; elaldı, 2016; gopang, bughio & pathan, 2015), others have investigated the anxiety-provoking factors for teachers (kesen & aydın, 2014; machida, 2016) because potential challenges and negative feelings experienced in the teaching process can result in teaching anxiety in non-native teachers of a target language, which may, in turn, negatively affect foreign language education (horwitz, 1996). teaching anxiety is connected with preparing and conducting teaching activities in real classroom settings (gardner & leak, 1994). as foreign language teaching anxiety (flta) is an emotional state that results from the individual, motivational, and perceptional unease, it can be observed before, during, and after teaching (aydın, 2016). foreign language teachers experience teaching anxiety from such sources as classroom management, school-related issues, fear of negative evaluation, and proficiency in using the target language (azmi, 2012; machida, 2016). furthermore, even though foreign language teachers have advanced foreign language proficiency, they can still experience tension and concern in the teaching process (gregersen, meza & maintyre, 2014; horwitz, et al., 1986; merç, 2015; yoon, 2012). compared to native language teachers, foreign language teachers differ in regards to responsibilities they shoulder and challenges they face (yoon, 2012). the profession may become even more difficult for non-native language teachers who are supposed to teach a language which is not their own language (e.g., merç, 2011; yoon, 2012). flta does not only affect in-service teachers; pre-service english-asa-foreign language (efl) teachers who are supposed to attend practicum courses in the final year of their tertiary education can also experience the negative impacts of flta. though they are still learners of the language, they are to experience the transition from being a student to being a teacher no. 19 (july december 2019) no. 19 (july december 2019) 52 analysis of preservice teachers’ teaching anxiety turgay & takkaç and practicum is the route through which they can have this initial transition. in this process, their being non-native teachers, being inexperienced in the profession, and being observed by their mentors in their practices can become factors causing anxiety for pre-service teachers and may sometimes have severe consequences on their attitudes towards the profession (kim & kim, 2004; merç, 2015; sammephet & wanphet, 2013). the issue of flta for pre-service teachers has been an issue of growing attention in different contexts. while the sources of flta for pre-service teachers was investigated qualitatively in a turkish context (merç, 2011, paker, 2011, aydın, 2016), in a malaysian context (azmi, 2012), in an indonesian context (agustiana, 2014), and in a thai context (sammaphet & wanphet, 2013; lampadan, 2014), some other studies have investigated pre-service efl teachers’ coping strategies with flta in addition to the challenges (e.g., lampadan, 2014; mahmoud & özkan, 2016; sammephet & wanphet, 2013). in light of the relevant literature, although there is growing attention regarding the sources of flta for pre-service teachers, there is still a scarcity of research investigating the coping strategies employed by pre-service teachers when they experience flta. furthermore, the sources of flta, its effects on pre-service language teachers, and the ways in which these teachers cope with these challenges need an investigation because flta is an area in which there is comparatively limited research. taking this gap into account, this study aims to find out the possible sources of anxiety in the practicum experiences of english-as-a-foreign-language (efl) pre-service teachers and reveal the ways they try to cope with these challenging cases. this understanding is expected to contribute to efl pre-service teachers in that it alerts them about the probable problematic cases they are to encounter and equips them with some effective coping strategies to deal with the anxiety-provoking situations. this study is also expected to raise the awareness of the faculty in training the undergraduate students, inform them about the realities of the practicum period and equip them with coping strategies, in effect helping them “survive” the practicum. therefore, this study aims to bridge this research gap by examining pre-service efl teachers’ flta and coping strategies in turkish research context. literature review research on flta has investigated this phenomenon from different angles, which can be presented in mainly two categories: research on sources of flta of pre-service teachers (agustiana, 2014; aydın, 2016; azmi, 2012; merç, 2011; paker, 2011) and research on sources of and coping ways with flta of pre-service teachers (lampadan, 2014; macdonald, 1993; mahmoudi & özkan, 2016; sammephet & wanphet, 2013). no. 19 (july december 2019) no. 19 (july december 2019) 53 analysis of preservice teachers’ teaching anxiety turgay & takkaç research on the sources of flta the first set of studies are about the sources of flta for pre-service teachers. centering on the sources creating problems for pre-service teachers during practicum, merç (2011) asked 150 turkish pre-service teachers to keep diaries during their practicum experience and conducted semi-structured interviews with 30 of these students. the results of the constant comparison analysis showed that learner profile, classroom management, steps to follow in teaching, and observation were the main challenges for the participants . in a study by paker (2011), the potential anxiety sources for 101 pre-service teachers during teaching practicum in a turkish context were investigated. in addition, some students also took part in interviews. the results were similar to those in merç’s (2011) study, revealing that the participants felt anxious because of evaluation, classroom management, and some pedagogical issues. in a study making a comparison between preservice and experienced teachers’ stress levels in teaching english, azmi (2012) worked with 51 pre-service teachers and 38 experienced teachers. using a questionnaire and semi-structured interviews, the researcher concluded that being observed, unexpected situations, communicative teaching, and student reactions were among the factors of stress for the participants. both preservice and experienced teachers seemed to feel under the stress of teaching responsibility. another study on pre-service teacher anxiety was offered by agustiana (2014). the researcher, on a qualitative basis, adapted closeended questionnaires and semi-structured interviews to collect data from 50 indonesian pre-service teachers completing their practicum. being observed by the cooperating teacher or mentor, lack of experience in teaching, crowded classes, and student questions were the major sources of anxiety for the participants. sharing a similar purpose with the above-mentioned studies, aydın (2016) examined flta experienced by 60 turkish pre-service teachers by collecting data through background questionnaires, interviews, student reflections, and essays. the results showed that being observed, fear of negative evaluation, language proficiency, and inexperience in teaching created stress for the participants. in aydın’s study, the participants were observed to experience teaching anxiety before, during, and after their teaching practices. no. 19 (july december 2019) no. 19 (july december 2019) 54 analysis of preservice teachers’ teaching anxiety turgay & takkaç research on the flta coping strategies the second group of studies focuses on the sources of flta and the coping strategies of pre-service teachers with these problems. exploring stress factors for 11 pre-service teachers during practicum, macdonald (1993) conducted surveys, focus-group interviews, observations, and asked the participants to keep journals. the results revealed that the teaching practicum was the most stressful phase of the educational lives of the participants. expectations of students, mentors, and cooperating teachers; time management; being evaluated; and role clarification were among the challenges for the pre-service teachers. the participants reported that they tried to cope with anxiety through communicating, establishing clear goals, and some relaxation techniques. aiming to find out the anxiety-generating sources for four thai pre-service teachers’ flta and their coping mechanisms with potential problems, sammephet and wanphet (2013) used interviews as the main research tool and conducted three interviews with the participants: one, a couple of days before their first teaching, the second, a few days after their first teaching experience, and the third, in the middle of semester. the results showed that personality traits, the context of teaching, and being supervised were the major causes of anxiety with the participants. to cope with these challenges, the participants reported using some anxiety management tactics like self-control, accepting and facing the situation, and dealing with it. following a phenomenological approach, lampadan (2014) carried out individual meetings, observations, and interviews with eight thai pre-service teachers and concluded that teaching preparation, classroom management, and relationships with different agents were challenging for the participants. the participants were observed to benefit from preparation, adaptation, positive attitude, and developing good relationship with their peers and mentors as coping strategies. an overview of challenges for language teachers setting out from the results of existing studies, it can be assumed that there are various sources of flta from which in-service and pre-service foreign language teachers suffer. the common challenges for in-service and pre-service language teachers are reported to be related to classroom management issues, unexpected situations or student questions, proficiency in using the target language, and fear of making mistakes or negative evaluation (agustiana, 2014; lampadan, 2014; machida, 2016; merç, 2011; paker, 2011). on the other hand, there are also some other factors creating problems for pre-service teachers since they do not have experience in the profession no. 19 (july december 2019) no. 19 (july december 2019) 55 analysis of preservice teachers’ teaching anxiety turgay & takkaç (aydın, 2016, paker, 2011). in other words, their lack of teaching experience accompanied by the fact that they are observed and evaluated during practicum by mentors, cooperating teachers, and students can create great tension for pre-service teachers and increase their flta (aydın, 2016; macdonald, 1993; mahmoudi & özkan, 2016 ). in a limited number of studies on the coping strategies (e.g., some anxiety management tactics like self-control, accepting and facing the situation, and setting clear goals) with practicum stress, it is revealed that self-control, accepting and facing the situation (sammephet & wanphet, 2013), and holding positive attitudes and establishing strong ties with peers and mentors (lampadan, 2014) are the main coping strategies of the pre-service teachers. the practicum process can be regarded as a pre-stage for pre-service teachers to have a chance to observe and practice foreign language teaching in real classroom environments (smith, 2010). the experiences in this process are of great significance for the future professional careers of pre-service teachers (gal, 2006). revealing the dynamics underlying the anxiety experiences of efl pre-service teachers can contribute to the betterment of their practicum experiences, in which pre-service teachers can already have an idea of what is awaiting them and therefore, can arm themselves against the possible challenges in the process. in addition, this investigation can help the faculty to train the pre-service teachers in a way that combines theory and practice, raising the undergraduates’ awareness of the realities in the practicum experience. in this way, pre-service teachers can have more effective and healthier practicum experiences positively affecting their future teaching experiences. method this research approaches the issue with an intrinsic qualitative design through triangulation, which helps to provide a deeper understanding of the factors causing teacher flta. stake (1995) describes that researchers who want to understand a particular case deeply use this approach. the case that may have peculiarity or ordinariness becomes the focus of interest. the aim of such a design is not to develop a theory, instead the aim is to better understand intrinsic aspects of the case (cf. hellström, nolan, & lundh, 2005). triangulation is the use of multiple data collection sources for the purpose of minimizing the biases in research and maximizing the validity of the study (baxter & jack, 2008; denzin, 1989 cited in flick, 2018). previous research has also benefitted from interview questions and diaries kept by the participants in the data collection (e.g., agustiana, 2014; aydın, 2016; azmi, 2012; merç, 2011; paker, 2011). therefore, in this present study we used open-ended questions in the self-report forms, open-ended questions in the peer-reflection forms, and diaries to collect data. by doing so, the reliability no. 19 (july december 2019) no. 19 (july december 2019) 56 analysis of preservice teachers’ teaching anxiety turgay & takkaç and completeness of the data were triangulated through the use of these three sources of data. based on the above-mentioned history of the teacher flta research in turkey and the global stance on the matter, the current research is significant in several ways. firstly, to the best of our knowledge, no research on the preservice efl teachers’ flta factors in a turkish context has employed three steps in the data collection procedure: before the participants’ real teaching experiences in the classroom (e.g., pre-teaching experience), during their teaching experiences, in the classroom contexts, and after their teaching experiences. we selected this research context and the participants because they have been identified as special in the sense of being last-year students in their study programs and have no prior teaching experiences, and the researchers of this study wanted to see if they can find out why they have teaching anxiety and how they overcome their teaching anxiety problem. secondly, this study used several data collection tools (e.g., self-reports, interview questions, reflections forms and diaries). sampling and recruiting a purposeful sampling strategy was followed to portray the different perspectives on the anxiety problem in the first teaching experiences by preservice teachers. this study was conducted with the participation of efl teacher candidates during the spring semester of their 2016-2017 academic year. efl teacher candidates who were enrolled in efl teacher education programs in two different turkish state universities other than the students in other language-related programs such as translation and interpretations were invited to participate in the study voluntarily because the researchers of this study had close relationships with them as they were our students over 4 years. they were given consent forms for privacy and their previous level of teaching experience and their level of proficiency in english were assumed to be similar because they were classmates. participants the participants consisted of 32 pre-service english teachers studying at elt departments in two state universities in turkey; 71% (19) participants were female and 29% (13) participants were male. the ages of the participants ranged from 20 to 27. the participants’ native language was turkish and they were assumed to have advanced levels of english proficiency. these participants were fourth grade prospective english teachers who were supposed to attend a 14-week teaching practice at elementary schools of the ministry of national education for their teaching practicum. no. 19 (july december 2019) no. 19 (july december 2019) 57 analysis of preservice teachers’ teaching anxiety turgay & takkaç during this teaching practicum process, the participants were expected to experience the teaching profession in its authentic context where they could have their initial teaching practices. therefore, these 32 participants were thought to represent the group of pre-service teachers who could possibly experience foreign language teaching anxiety in their initial teaching experiences. table 1 summarizes the participants’ background before starting to practice teaching at state schools and their first teaching practices. no. 19 (july december 2019) no. 19 (july december 2019) 58 analysis of preservice teachers’ teaching anxiety turgay & takkaç table 1. the learning program of the participants to prepare them to teach step 1 prior to practicum experience setting aim two semesters for background gaining (28 weeks) instruction on language teaching methodology and techniques, syllabus design, classroom management, instructional material design and testing and evaluation. university programs to prepare the pre-service teachers for the theoretical background of language teaching and learning before becoming efl teachers. step 2 starting practicum m experience setting aim 4 weeks at the beginning of their practicum experiences, they observed cooperating teachers at<in> classroom settings and received feedback regarding their observation experiences from both their mentors at schools and supervisors at the university. the feedback was given in a discussion manner. this step continued for the next 4 weeks. they started to observe students, peers, and mentors at secondary or elementary state schools. to prepare them to teach. step 3 practicum experience setting aim 8 weeks they taught language topics such as grammar, speaking, and reading as presented in student books and the teacher’s book. they started to teach at the schools. to help them improve their real-time teaching skills and to gain experience in the real classroom context. no. 19 (july december 2019) no. 19 (july december 2019) 59 analysis of preservice teachers’ teaching anxiety turgay & takkaç data collection prior to collecting the data, the researchers of this study applied for and received a letter of permission from the heads of the departments. next, the researchers invited the students to participate in the study. the volunteer participants were informed about the study and were given consent forms in which the researchers had stipulated that the participants’ safety, privacy, and confidentiality would be strictly taken into consideration and that the collected data would be kept confidential by the researchers. the content of the study was explained and they were given a signed and dated copy of the consent form by the researchers (c.f. aydın, 2016; paker, 2011; sammephet & wanphet, 2013). the data were collected through several instruments. the background questionnaire helped the researchers to obtain information about the participant profiles including their age and gender. the peer observation forms enabled the researchers to understand the perspectives and thoughts of the participants regarding their observations of their peers’ performances (see appendix). with the help of this form, the participants could express how they perceived their peers’ facial expressions, their instructional language and their attitudes. in this way, the participants could evaluate the performances of their peers as an outsider. background questionnaire the background questionnaire included questions regarding the the background questionnaire included questions regarding the demography of the participants such as gender and age. it was given prior to the study. observations observations were made by each pre-service teacher (e.g., participantobservation) and by their peers (e.g., peer-observation). while a pre-service teacher was teaching in a classroom, other participants observed him/her in the same classroom over a 12-week period. each pre-service teacher lectured one hour each week while the rest of the participants were making observations and taking field notes. during the peer observation, the participant-observers used a simple observation strategy to focus on facial expressions, and language use in the teaching experiences in the authentic classroom atmosphere. further, in the interviews, observations, and diaries, the participants were directed to focus on the specific details about the problems they encountered and the strategies to cope with them each of pre, while and post authentic teaching experiences. no. 19 (july december 2019) no. 19 (july december 2019) 60 analysis of preservice teachers’ teaching anxiety turgay & takkaç in the diaries and self-observation forms, the participants were asked to reflect on their own teaching experiences and focus on the challenges they encountered and how they coped with these problems in the pre-, whileand post-stages of teaching. peer observation forms and self-observation forms were used to enlighten the participants’ flta experiences and their coping mechanisms. the participants were asked to fill in the peer observation and self-observation forms immediately after each teaching experience in order not to miss critical points in their observations. with the help of the self-observation forms and diaries, the participants could evaluate their own performances and experiences in the light of the questions in a guided way and in their diaries in an independent way. in this way, they could hold a critical stance regarding their performances as an insider. the participants recorded field-notes based on day-to-day observations over a 12-week period. a group of participants (e.g. 6-7 participants) entered the different classrooms together each week and one of them lectured while the other students observing and taking notes. the data regarding the perspectives of the participants’ teaching experiences were collected through the following three steps: before the teaching experiences: the open-ended questions for preteaching experiences focused on their opinions about their first teaching experiences, the problems encountered while preparing to teach and how they try to overcome them. while-teaching experiences: the open-ended questions for whileteaching experiences were about specific details concerning possible problems encountered, such as classroom management, time management, committing language mistakes, other observers (e.g., mentor, supervisors, peers) and their immediate strategies to overcome such problems. post-teaching experiences: the open-ended questions for post-teaching experiences focused on other potential factors that cause anxiety such as supervisor feedback, grading the teaching performance, their wishes about the past experience and evaluations on how to cope with such sources of anxiety. the interviews the researchers also conducted interviews with the participants. the intervthe researchers also conducted interviews with the participants. the interview questions were prepared in the light of previous literature on teacher flta and the conversations between the participants and researchers. the participants were mainly asked questions about the challenging cases creating anxiety in their teaching experiences and how they tried to cope with these challenges. the interview questions were though to cross-check the answers no. 19 (july december 2019) no. 19 (july december 2019) 61 analysis of preservice teachers’ teaching anxiety turgay & takkaç the participants provided in the other instruments. the interviews were mostly done in the native language of the participants to convey feelings more effectively. each interview lasted 15/20 minutes. the interview records were translated into english and proofread by a native speaker. diaries the last instrument was participant diaries. the pre-service teachers were asked to keep diaries over a 12-week period in which they reflected on their teaching experiences considering the sources of anxiety and their coping strategies. the participants were told that they were free to comment on any particular experience or on their overall evaluations of their teaching instances. the aim in asking the participants to keep diaries was to ensure that they could narrate their flta experience from any perspective that they desired for. these instruments were all adopted to triangulate the data and to increase data trustworthiness. with the help of these instruments, the participants could adopt the perspectives of insider and outsider in the process of evaluating their practicum experiences taking the anxiety-provoking cases into account. all these instruments were thought to help the researchers’ cross-check the participant answers. data analysis in the data analysis process, the researchers followed a three-step in the data analysis process, the researchers followed a three-step analysis in which each data set was first separately analyzed and then all the data sets were crosschecked to compare similar and different answers. these three steps were; • individual analysis of each data set in which the answers of the participants to each instrument were separately checked in order to reach a clearer framework for the answers, • in-group analysis in which the same data set was analyzed taking each participant’s answers to the same instrument into account, • cross-group analysis in which the answers in different instruments were compared to each other in order to identify similar and different points in participant comments. no. 19 (july december 2019) no. 19 (july december 2019) 62 analysis of preservice teachers’ teaching anxiety turgay & takkaç the below table displays the three-step data analysis process: table 2. summary of the three-step analysis process steps process data sources step 1: individual analysis separate analysis of the data sets diaries, field notes, peerobservation forms, interviews step 2: in-group analysis comparing participant answers in each set diaries, field notes, peerobservation forms, interviews step 3: cross-group analysis comparing participant answers across the data sets diaries, field notes, peerobservation forms, interviews before conducting the main analysis process, the researchers carefully went through all the data sets following data reduction, data display and drawing conclusion steps (miles & huberman, 1994). in this process, the researchers reached an initial code-forming, which was supported by the codes presented in previous literature on flta (aydın, 2016; macdonald, 1993; paker, 2011). this initial analysis process was followed by the main three-step data analysis process as presented below. step 1: in the main data analysis process, the researchers first conducted individual analysis of each data set. in this step, the data sets were separately analyzed and recurring items common in different data sets were identified. the experiences of the participants were analyzed according to the stages in which they experienced flta (pre, while and post stages of teaching). step 2: in the second step, each data set was analyzed in detail through a comparison of participant comments to each other to identify similarities and differences in comments. this step was followed in order to find out whether similar codes were valid for each participant considering particular instruments. step 3: in the final step, a cross analysis of all the data sets were conducted in which the comments of the participants provided in different instruments were compared to each other. in this way, the participant comments and experiences were cross-checked to understand whether the same participant provided similar comments in different instruments. all these three steps involving in-group and cross-group comparisons of the data sets were followed to ensure trustworthiness in data analysis. as regards the coding process, the researchers, in the light of existing literature on flta, divided the data into discrete parts and identified similar no. 19 (july december 2019) no. 19 (july december 2019) 63 analysis of preservice teachers’ teaching anxiety turgay & takkaç and different aspects in each data set. then, data display was followed in order to summarize the data about the anxiety factors and coping strategies. in this process, a descriptive approach was followed to present participant experiences more clearly, involving participant quotations. in the conclusion drawing step, the researchers compared the themes identified as a result of the analysis process to reach an understanding of the common experiences of the participants regarding flta. this comparison was done to ensure trustworthiness in the analysis process. results results obtained from the study show that efl pre-service teachers experience flta before, after and during their teaching experiences. furthermore, they employ various coping strategies to alleviate their anxieties. table 1 shows the flta anxiety-provoking factors among efl pre-service teachers and their coping strategies to overcome the anxiety problems before authentic teaching experience. according to the findings shown in the table, there are five factors that may cause teaching anxiety. these are classroom management, fear of making mistakes, lack of teaching experience, time management, and establishing a good rapport with students. to overcome their anxiety problems, they employed 13 distinct coping strategies as reported by themselves and their peers. anxiety sources before teaching events and pre-service teachers’ coping strategies the following table shows the flta sources and the coping strategies reported by the participants before their authentic teaching experience. no. 19 (july december 2019) no. 19 (july december 2019) 64 analysis of preservice teachers’ teaching anxiety turgay & takkaç table 3. sources of flta reported and coping strategies employed prepracticum experience (data obtained from the three sources) pre-practicum experience sources of flta coping strategies classroom management (27) 38% consulting the mentor or cooperating teacher (21) chatting with friends (15) fear of making mistake (16) 23% practicing beforehand (14) preparing many different materials (12) preparing lesson plans (6) lack of practicum experience (12) 17% practicing beforehand (9) searching for examples of practicum experiences from the internet (5) time-management (9) 13% preparing lesson plans (7) preparing many different activities (5) practicing beforehand (4) establishing good rapport with students (7) 10 % consulting mentor or cooperating teacher (4) chatting with friends (2) total: 71 (100%) (the total number of the items reported by the participants) firstly, as listed in table 3, among the possible anxiety-generating factors before teaching experiences, the major concern of the pre-service teachers was about classroom management. since they were not the real teachers for the student profile they were expected to teach, most of the participants expressed their anxiety about how to control a class full of unfamiliar learners. a participant, referring to classroom management as her biggest concern before she entered the classroom, stated that classroom management could be a problem for her since she was not the real teacher in the class: no. 19 (july december 2019) no. 19 (july december 2019) 65 analysis of preservice teachers’ teaching anxiety turgay & takkaç my biggest fear was about classroom management. i was not their real teacher; i was just like an elder-sister to them. so, i was anxious that i would not be able to set control over the students, which would negatively affect my teaching performance. (march 2017-from the diary) since potential cases creating classroom management problems were among the greatest concerns for the participants, most of the participants wanted to eliminate the negative effects of this problem before it happened. consulting their mentors and cooperating teachers was one of the ways they tried to obtain some information to cope with management problems. almost half of the participants also reported having rehearsed before their teaching practices to get as ready as possible for teaching and so that students would not detect gaps in their instruction, leading to management problems. referring to the need for being prepared beforehand as a coping strategy in his comment, a participant, who expressed his high level of anxiety before the teaching events, provided the comment below: before teaching, i really become anxious and, mostly, i experience difficulty to control this. i am anxious about classroom management. i believe if i cannot control my fear, this would reflect itself in my performance. so, in order to overcome this problem, i try to benefit from the suggestions of my mentor and cooperating teacher because they are experienced in teaching. i also do practicing before my teaching event several times to get ready for it. in this way, if i am ready to teach, then students cannot find a way to conduct disruptive behaviors in my class. (april 2017-from the interview) secondly, as illustrated in table 3, fear of making mistakes and lack of teaching experience were reported as the second major flta provoking source. the participants’ comments revealed that there is a positive relationship between the fear of making mistakes and lack of teaching experience. fear of making mistakes was frequently mentioned by the participants since they lacked necessary teaching experience through which they could get used to teaching and feel more relaxed. in addition, fear of making mistakes seemed to be both the cause and the consequence of teaching anxiety. in other words, the more the participants were afraid of making mistakes, the more their teaching anxiety increased; and the higher their teaching anxiety was, the more they suffered from the fear of making mistakes. pointing at the relationship between her fear of making mistakes and the two-way connection between fear of making mistakes and teaching anxiety, a participant commented as follows: i experience high levels of teaching anxiety because i don’t have enough teaching experience and, therefore, i am afraid of making mistakes. i believe if i had enough practicum experience, i would have much more confidence in myself so i would not experience fear of anxiety at this level because i would know how to teach. the fear of making mistakes increases my anxiety. i think, no. 19 (july december 2019) no. 19 (july december 2019) 66 analysis of preservice teachers’ teaching anxiety turgay & takkaç my fear increases my anxiety and my anxiety increases my fear in turn. (march 2017from the interview) in order to overcome the fear of making mistakes and the drawback of her inexperience in teaching, the same participant also referred to some ways she used to minimize the negative impacts of anxiety: i am aware of the points increasing my teaching anxiety, so i have developed some ways to deal with them. since i lack practicum experience and i am afraid of making mistakes, i observed that practicing for the teaching events beforehand helps me overcome these challenges to a great extent. i also try to prepare lesson plans for many different activities so that i would experience fewer problems during teaching. (may 2017from the diary) thirdly, as reported in table 3, another concern which was also related to inexperience in teaching was time management. some of the participants frequently mentioned time management as a possible problem in their teaching events. since they were not used to controlling instruction time because of the lack of teaching experience, they were afraid that they would experience difficulty using the time appropriately. considering time management as a challenge, a participant also referred to the coping strategies he benefitted from his teaching practices: as i hadn’t conducted a full lesson before, i was afraid i would not manage to fill the time up or i would finish the activities long before the break… in order to prevent the possible risk of time management, i tried to prepare detailed lesson plans and set time limitations with each step. i also prepared many different activities in case i had more time to fill up. and, i prepracticed the steps in my lesson plan so that i could get used to the process. (may 2017from the interview) fourthly, as described in table 3, establishing a good rapport with students is another flta source: the concern for some of the participants was having positive relationships with the students in their practice school experience. though the participants were not the actual teachers of those students, they wanted to have a good rapport with the students, desiring to be considered as teachers. one of the participants shared the strategies she utilized to establish a good interaction with the students, underscoring the importance of this point for her: we have been taught that if students love the teacher, they love the lesson. so, though i am an intern, i wanted to have a good relationship with the students in practice school. for this purpose, i consulted my cooperating teacher to learn her strategies about how to establish good relations with the students. besides this, i sometimes talked with some friends to learn their experiences with the students. (april 2017from the interview) no. 19 (july december 2019) no. 19 (july december 2019) 67 analysis of preservice teachers’ teaching anxiety turgay & takkaç anxiety sources while teaching events and pre-service teachers’ coping strategies the table 4 shows the flta sources and the coping strategies reported by the participants and their peers while authentic practicum experience. table 4. sources of flta reported and coping strategies employed while practicum experience while practicum experience sources of anxiety coping strategies mentor observation (32): 22% ignoring being observed (27), focusing on instruction/activities (22), avoiding eye-contact with a mentor (18), taking a deep breath, keep calm (17) classroom management (30): 20% activating students (22), ignoring disruptive behaviors (21), eye-contact with students (19), using body language (16), dealing with problematic students individually (13), keeping calm (11) time management (27): 18% following lesson plan (23), focusing on instruction/activities (19) fear of making mistakes (25): 17% following lesson plan (18), focusing on instruction/activities (14) teaching in english (21): 14% switching to turkish (19), interactive teaching (15) voice control (13): 9% body language (9), smiling face (6) total: 148 (100%) no. 19 (july december 2019) no. 19 (july december 2019) 68 analysis of preservice teachers’ teaching anxiety turgay & takkaç firstly, as seen in table 4, being observed by a mentor, who was the faculty supervisor of the participants, was the most common concern among the participants: most of them reported that they felt more relaxed with teaching while they were alone with the students. in fact, the attendance of the mentor in their lessons increased their anxiety and this appears to have had a considerable impact on their psychological and sometimes physical control, which had a negative influence on their teaching performances. declaring mentor observation as the main difficulty during his teaching performance, a participant maintained that he experienced actual tension with the mentor sitting in a chair in the back of the classroom observing his teaching: normally, i had a really good relationship with my mentor, and i felt comfortable communicating with her. but, when she came to observe my teaching, things changed. suddenly, i realized that i was anxious because of her presence in the class. she was not doing anything negative. she was just sitting at the back and i knew she was there to provide some suggestions for us, but i couldn’t help feeling anxious. i think being observed by my mentor was the most challenging part of the practicum for me. (march, 2017, -from the self-observation form) to deal with the presence of a mentor observing them somewhere in the class, each participant developed different coping mechanisms like ignoring the presence of the mentor and cooperating teacher, avoiding eye-contact with them, taking a deep breath and keeping calm. most of them utilized the ignoring strategy. they pretended that the mentor was not there, or s/he was one of the students. they also avoided having direct eye-contact with the mentor in order not to be affected by her/his non-verbal reactions. they mostly tried to take deep breaths and carry on with their teaching. experiencing anxiety because of mentor observation, a participant commented that she tried to adapt different strategies to cope with this stress: there was nothing i could to about the presence of my mentor. she was there to do her job. so, to deal with the anxiety caused by being observed, i tried to ignore the fact that i was being observed. i just pretended that i was alone in the class with the students. i also did not look directly into my mentor’s eyes because i knew it would increase my anxiety. i just took a few deep breaths and did my best to keep on my lesson. (april 2017from the diary) as described in table 4, the second main problem for the participants was classroom management, i.e., controlling students with disruptive behaviors. since most of the pre-service teachers were young and inexperienced, they were sometimes challenged by students in practice schools. there were unexpected and unnecessary questions or some attempts to distract interns’ or other friends’ attention. these events had adverse effects on the participants’ performances and increased their anxiety, which was clearly expressed by a no. 19 (july december 2019) no. 19 (july december 2019) 69 analysis of preservice teachers’ teaching anxiety turgay & takkaç participant who was distressed by management issues occurring in one of the classes she attended: before my teaching experience, i decided to be a lovely teacher for the kids and have fun with them during lessons. it worked well for most of the classes; however, there was a problematic class. you can’t imagine how naughty they were. almost all the students were talking and laughing unnecessarily not paying attention to the lesson and not caring about the teacher. this distracted not only my attention but the interest of a few students who wanted to participate in the lesson. they were really making me anxious. i hope i won’t have such students when i become a real teacher. (april 2017from the interview) since classroom management was a serious issue, the participants tried to apply different methods to decrease, though not completely eliminate, the damaging effects of management problems. they noted that, if possible, they tried to motivate the students by drawing their attention to the lesson. when they could not get their desired attention, they either ignored the negative behavior or tried to warn the misbehaving student/s through direct eye-contact or nonverbal language. a participant provided some comments on the effectiveness of these ways in dealing with disruptive students: there are misbehaving students in every class but what matters is the amount and intensity. as a pre-service teacher, i try to develop some ways to deal with management problems. for example, i try to attract students’ attention and involve all of them in the class. when some students continue doing problematic behaviors, i approach them or have eye-contact with them. if this does not work and there is nothing i can do, then i ignore them. what else can i do? (may 2017from the interview) thirdly, as conveyed in table 4, controlling the time allocated for their teaching practice was one of the challenges for most of the pre-service teachers. since they did not have adequate experience in teaching, they experienced difficulty in adjusting for time: they occasionally finished their activities earlier and at other times, later than they had scheduled. therefore, time management was a concern during their teaching performance; struggling with time management in the first few teaching events, a participant expressed that gaining experience is likely the solution for time management issues: in the first three or four teaching events, i felt anxious about time management because i was either early or late to follow my plans. therefore, i started to prepare more detailed lesson plans to follow during my teaching. i also tried to concentrate my and students’ attention on instruction and activities to limit unnecessary interactions or acts. now, i think, and my cooperating no. 19 (july december 2019) no. 19 (july december 2019) 70 analysis of preservice teachers’ teaching anxiety turgay & takkaç teacher says, i have better time control. the more experienced i become, the better time management skills i can have. so, time is the healer. (may 2017 from the interview) fourthly, as shown in table 4, fear of making mistakes, also felt before teaching events, was another problem experienced in the process of teaching. there appears to be two reasons why some of the participants were afraid of making mistakes: being observed by a mentor and being ridiculed by students. the participants did not want their mentor teachers to watch them making mistakes because it could negatively affect their evaluation. wishing to be regarded as the real teachers of the students during the classes, they did not want students in practice schools to hear them making mistakes, either. therefore, they felt the need to find some tactics to cope with this problem, as reported by a participant: among the other things, fear of making mistakes in front of the mentor and the students is a big problem. of course, making mistakes is natural but still it is not good when you do it in front of the mentor or students. so, in order to avoid making mistakes, i try to stick to my lesson plan because i prepare lesson plans with every step-in detail. i also try to concentrate my full attention and students’ attention on teaching and prefer to ignore everything else. (march 2017from the interview) as shown in table 4, the language of instruction was considered a challenge for some of the participants. all the participants were attending secondary schools for their practicum practices and the course contents they were expected to teach were not advanced level topics. they experienced difficulty in adjusting the instructional language to the levels of the learners: since most of the students were elementary level learners, the participants sometimes found it difficult to use appropriate levels of instruction in english. calling attention to this, a participant maintained that though the topic was easy, teaching it with simple items was difficult and he shared the tactics he utilized. before i taught the secondary school students, i thought that it would be easy to teach them because the topics were simple. however, when i began teaching, i realized that it was not as easy as i thought. because though the topics were simple, it was challenging to teach them using the language they could understand. so, when i found it difficult to find simple phrases to teach, i sometimes switched to the native language, turkish. (april 2017from the self-observation form) no. 19 (july december 2019) no. 19 (july december 2019) 71 analysis of preservice teachers’ teaching anxiety turgay & takkaç finally, as shown in table 4, another problem encountered in the comments of a few participants was voice control which is most probably related to the lack of teaching experience. some of the participants stated that they were either speaking louder or quieter than they should and this negatively affected students’ attention. having some difficulties in voice management (e.g., loud or in a low voice), a participant shared the following experience and coping strategy: when i feel anxious, i experience difficulty in controlling my voice. since teaching practices are anxiety-generating situations; i can’t help having some voice-control problems during my practices. therefore, in order to deal with this problem, i try to integrate my body language into my instruction. (may 2017from the interview) anxiety sources after teaching events and pre-service teachers’ coping strategies the following table shows the flta sources and the coping strategies reported by the participants and their peers <after?>authentic practicum experience. no. 19 (july december 2019) no. 19 (july december 2019) 72 analysis of preservice teachers’ teaching anxiety turgay & takkaç table 5. sources of flta reported and coping strategies employed postteaching experience post-practicum experience sources of anxiety coping strategies being evaluated/getting feedback (35): 29% considering feedback for development (29), asking a mentor for further advice (23) being graded (34): 29% having good impact on mentor (29): 24% asking for evaluation from mentor and cooperating teacher (17) having good impact on students (21): 18% having little chats with students (16) total: 119 (100%) in table 5, almost all the participants experienced tension because they knew that they would be evaluated and provided with feedback based on their teaching performances. most of them were concerned with receiving negative feedback from their mentors or cooperating teachers, thinking that it would decrease their self-confidence. appreciating the importance of feedback for future performances, a participant referred to his fear of negative evaluation and explained that he would be influenced by the content of feedback: getting feedback on our teaching performances is beneficial for us to develop ourselves. however, no one wants to be criticized. so, receiving negative feedback, though it is true, may decrease my self-confidence and motivation leading me to think that i don’t have the capabilities to be an english teacher. (march 2017from the interview) experiencing this anxiety, some participants also developed ways to deal with this stress. there were two key solutions the participants mentioned: considering feedback as a tool for development and asking mentors to provide further advice. a participant underlined the necessity to receive feedback on the following: it is not just enough to stand in front of the students, teach them and leave the class. in order to become better teachers, we need to be aware of our strengths and weaknesses. at this point, being evaluated by our no. 19 (july december 2019) no. 19 (july december 2019) 73 analysis of preservice teachers’ teaching anxiety turgay & takkaç mentors and cooperating teachers is advantageous for us. since they are professionals, they can think of the points that we cannot see… receiving feedback may not always be so desirable but still, we need to see it as a chance for professional development. (april 2017from the diary) in table 5, being graded for their performances created concern and anxiety for most of the participants. though they were prospective teachers, they were still students and getting high marks was therefore important for them. experiencing frequent concern from being graded, a participant shared her thoughts: i try to do my best in all courses and, to be honest, i want to get high marks. this is also valid for teaching practicum. here, we are evaluated and graded according to our teaching performances and i often have the fear of getting low marks in practicum. (march 2017from the interview) the participants referring to the anxiety caused by being graded did not mention any strategies to cope with this anxiety source. as shown in table 5, the experience of being observed by a mentor who has more professional experience was reported to increase the participants’ desire to have a good impact on the mentor. as the mentor is the source of feedback as well as grading, pleasing the mentor may be a priority for the participants. with this in his mind, a participant explained that he wanted to please the mentor: the mentor is the one to evaluate us and to give grades on our performances; so, it is important to leave a good impression on the mentor. (march 2017from the interview) there were no specific suggestions provided by the participants regarding the way to deal with the concern to have a good impact on mentors. they implicitly referred to asking mentors or cooperating teachers for additional evaluation on their performances to further assess their perceptions of their teaching. finally, as shown in table 5, more than half of the participants considered having a good impact on the students in the practicum school as an important aspect of their teaching. they expressed their desire to teach something to the kids and be role-models. sharing her wish to be part of good memories for her students, a participant stated that she was having little chats with the kids to understand whether they liked her or not: no. 19 (july december 2019) no. 19 (july december 2019) 74 analysis of preservice teachers’ teaching anxiety turgay & takkaç being a teacher is a perfect feeling. during my practices, i tried to follow the idea that we need to be with students and not against them. i believed we could add something to them in this way. and, i wondered whether i could accomplish this. so, i was sometimes asking them questions about my teaching or approach. luckily, it seems i could do it. (may 2017 from the interview) in conclusion, there were different sources of stress for pre-service teachers affecting their anxiety levels before, during and after teaching events ranging from educational to individual issues. therefore, the existence of these problems inevitably directed the participants to search for some ways to cope with the challenges and to increase their motivation and the quality of their performance. discussion and conclusions the results of this study pointed at the following conclusions to be discussed. the first conclusion is that flta was experienced in the before, during and after stages of the teaching experience. this result was in line with those reported in much of the previous research proposed by aydın (2016) and sammephet and wanphet (2013). this overall conclusion can reveal that the pre-service teachers are under the influence of different factors resulting in flta in all phases of the teaching practicum. the second conclusion has to do with the factors causing anxiety for the participants. regarding their before teaching experience, the participants reported being negatively affected by the concerns of classroom management, fear of making mistakes, lack of teaching experience, time management, and establishing a good rapport with students. these concerns were also mentioned as anxiety-provoking factors by lampadan (2014), machida (2016), merç (2011) and paker (2011). considering the actual teaching phase of the teaching experience, the participants noted that mentor observation, classroom management, time management, fear of making mistakes, teaching in english and voice control were the reasons why they felt flta. similar causes of flta felt during the teaching experience were also reported by kim and kim (2004), merç (2015) and sammephet and wanphet (2013). interestingly, classroom management before and during teaching experience other than factors related to language (e.g., making mistakes and proficiency) are frequently reported as a flta factor in research conducted in turkish and thai contexts (lampadan, 2014; mahmoudi & özkan, 2016, merç, 2011). additionally, being observed has been frequently reported as a teaching anxiety-provoking factor in previous studies conducted in turkish, thai and indonesian contexts (agustina, 2014; aydın, 2016; azmi, 2012; sammephet & wanphet, 2013). as for their after teaching experiences, the participants expressed that they were under the effect no. 19 (july december 2019) no. 19 (july december 2019) 75 analysis of preservice teachers’ teaching anxiety turgay & takkaç of anxiety caused by getting feedback from mentors, being graded, hesitations on having a positive impact both on students and mentors, which echoes the results reported by merç (2011). the third conclusion is related with the coping strategies employed by the participants. the participants were observed to adapt distinct coping strategies with an aim to overcome the flta problems they encountered in different stages of the teaching experience (e.g., 13 strategies before the teaching experience, 18 strategies during the teaching experience and 4 strategies after the teaching experience). while previous research has reported that communication, establishing clear goals, relaxation techniques (macdonald, 1993), anxiety management tactics like self-control, accepting and facing the situations (sammephet & wanphet, 2013), adaption and developing positive attitudes (lampadan, 2014) are the main coping strategies employed by pre-service teachers, our study showed that the turkish pre-service teachers employed a wide range of coping strategies, from consulting, to mentorship, to receiving advice and practicing taking deep breaths and switching to l1. in light of these results, we can conclude firstly that fear of making mistake is also a factor that is comparable to foreign language anxiety, apart from flta. this conclusion can be reached based on the participant experiencing referring to the factor of fear of making mistakes, as both the cause and the result of the teaching experience: the participants’ having the fear of making mistakes caused them to experience teaching anxiety and this in turn negatively affected their teaching performance increasing the level of being afraid of making mistakes. secondly, pre-service teachers can experience different types of flta in each of their before, during and after teaching experience (aydın, 2016; sammephet & wanphet, 2013). thirdly, teaching in english caused the participants to experience flta. this may indicate that the profession may become even more difficult for non-native language teachers who are supposed to teach a language which is not their own language (merç, 2011; yoon, 2012). fourthly, the participants reported having a lack of experience and being observed by their mentors caused flta. as stated in the previous research literature, these factors can cause anxiety for pre-service teachers and may sometimes have severe consequences on their attitudes towards the profession (kim & kim, 2004; merç, 2014, 2015; sammephet & wanphet, 2013). fifthly, classroom management was also found to be a common factor causing flta in this study. this may have stemmed from crowded classrooms, as also reported by merç (2004), due to the difficulties of classroom management in such large classes. we should note however that in a study by aydın (2016) it was reported that the pre-service teachers polled did not perceive any problems related to crowded classrooms. sixthly, although yoon (2012) found that lack of self-confidence is a factor in flta, the findings of the present study is complementary with those of aydın’s (2016), in as much as the participants did not report the lack of confidence as an flta factor. no. 19 (july december 2019) no. 19 (july december 2019) 76 analysis of preservice teachers’ teaching anxiety turgay & takkaç the conclusions reached in the present study suggests that first and foremost, as the pre-service teachers need more training on practical strategies on how to cope with their flta problems, the raising awareness of flta and strategy training topics should be embedded in the teacher training curricula. in such a process, the issue of training the faculty also becomes essential as the faculty do not receive formal training on how to conduct the process of practicum. therefore, with the aim to prepare the pre-service teachers for the possible challenges awaiting them, the faculty should receive formal training regarding effective mentoring. secondly, although some anxiety-provoking factors such as fear of making mistakes, classroom management and time management can be observed in most of the inexperienced in-service teachers, other superfluous factors such as mentor observation and being graded can only be observed in pre-service training programs. if such superfluous flta factors can be eliminated through creating authentic teaching settings, the preservice teachers can more easily focus on the act of teaching and alleviate their flta and employ common coping strategies; otherwise, they may always try to be perfect by avoiding making mistakes. however, as aydın (2016) suggested, if teachers are made to understand that making mistakes is a natural part of the teaching process, it is possible to eliminate such an flta source by eliminating the attempts at perfectionism and by being realistic with situations that contribute to teachers making mistakes. therefore, again it can be suggested that the courses in the undergraduate programs should be designed and conducted in a way to train pre-service teachers, who can seek to do their jobs as best while understanding that they are also human beings who may naturally make mistakes. in this way, we propose that the negative effects of the anxiety created by being observed or graded should naturally decrease. the results of this study were in line with those reported in existing research on flta. however, as this research was grounded on qualitative basis and conducted with comparatively limited number of participants, the issue of generalizability requires further discussion since the number of participants, the student profiles in the practicum experience as well as the context in which the study is conducted, can influence the results of the study. the study was limited to 29% male and 71% female for a total of 32 participanting pre-service teachers of english from two different universities. this reflects the overall male and female rate in the english language teaching departments. this gender-based limitation portends to an area of future research, where a more balanced gender-based participation could be beneficial. moreover, the study collected data from qualitative sources such as diaries, open-ended questions, and interviews; to understand deeply the issue of flta, other techniques such as concurrent data collection with think-aloud protocols should be used in further research . no. 19 (july december 2019) no. 19 (july december 2019) 77 analysis of preservice teachers’ teaching anxiety turgay & takkaç in conclusion, this study discussed a facet of flta in efl teacher training in turkey, and it raised important issues for efl teacher training programs in turkey in terms of aligning pre-service teacher education with the students’ needs when it comes to teaching skills and training mentors to help them eliminate their flta problems in actual field teaching contexts. further, it can be suggested for mentors that they can present confidencebuilding opportunities in classrooms such as in-front-of-class presentations and assignments (e.g., interviews, text analysis and mock televised news presentations) as initial ingredients in the flta-combatting recipe. no. 19 (july december 2019) no. 19 (july december 2019) 78 analysis of preservice teachers’ teaching anxiety turgay & takkaç references agustiana, v. 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(2012). teaching english through english: exploring anxiety in nonnative preservice esl teachers. theory and practice in language studies, 2(6), 1099-1107. http://doi.org/10.4304/tpls.2.6.1099-110 no. 19 (july december 2019) no. 19 (july december 2019) 81 analysis of preservice teachers’ teaching anxiety turgay & takkaç authors * dr. turgay han is an associate professor at the department of english language and literature, faculty of letters of ordu university (2016-continue). he also worked at kafkas university between 2006 and 2016. his areas of research center on efl measurement and assessment issues, linguistics, language learning and teaching. orcid: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9196-0618 ayşegül takkaç tulgar is an assistant professor in the english language teaching department, atatürk university, turkey. she is interested in pre-service education, glocalization in education, and teaching turkish as a second language. orcid: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6401-969x no. 19 (july december 2019) no. 19 (july december 2019) 82 analysis of preservice teachers’ teaching anxiety turgay & takkaç appendix date of observation: a. experiences before taking the class observed not observed comment: the problems encountered before taking the class and the strategies to overcome them. other problems causing anxieties (e.g., lesson plan, classroom management, language proficiency, etc.) b. experiences during the class. how were the anxiety provoking situations reported prior to the taking class overcome? did you realize the difficulties you might have had before the lesson? (what has happened?) what were the biggest challenges faced in his first class (classroom management, linguistic competence, adjusting time, fear of making mistakes, following the lesson plan, supervisor observation, etc.)? how did you deal with these problems? what did you do when he realized that he was unable to carry out his lesson as he planned in advance? what did you do when you realized that he had made a mistake in describing the lesson? no. 19 (july december 2019) no. 19 (july december 2019) 83 analysis of preservice teachers’ teaching anxiety turgay & takkaç did you feel inadequate when speaking the lesson in english? if you feel, what have you done to overcome this situation? how did you master class management problems you encountered in the course? what did you do to solve time management problems when conducting the course? did you feel that the course was ignored by the students? if you have felt, how did you proceed to overcome this situation? has your mentor at the school and your advisor at the university caused stress on your friend? in your opinion, what was the source of this stress? how did you proceed to get rid of the negative effects of this stress? c. post-application experiences • what were the causes of stress after your lecture (feedback on the course, advisor and teacher assessment, grading)? how did you deal with these stress sources? what did the application experience give you? if you had the opportunity to repeat the same lesson, what would you like to change? how to reference this article: han , t., & takkaç-tulgar, a. (2019). analysis of the pre-service teachers’ teaching anxiety and coping strategies: a turkish elementary school context. gist – education and learning research journal, 19, 49-83. https://doi.org/10.26817/16925777.802 no. 19 (july december 2019) no. 19 (july december 2019) 34 developing autonomy through student-centered english language learning process for engineering students.1 desarrollo de la autonomía a través del proceso de aprendizaje del idioma inglés centrado en el estudiante para estudiantes de ingeniería. marian lissett olaya2* universidad pedagógica y tecnológica de colombia, colombia abstract this article focuses on how the incorporation of autonomy into university students’ learning process improves their english language performance. the participants of this study were 25 students of engineering programs in a public university. data collection was done through observation, a survey, and a group interview. two categories that emerged after the data analysis supported the main finding that technology-based activities can be conceived as a starting point for the incorporation of autonomous learning in the english language education at the university. key words: autonomous learning, language education, technology-based activities resumen este artículo está enfocado en como la incorporación de la autonomía en el proceso de aprendizaje de estudiantes universitarios mejoran su desempeño en el idioma inglés. los participantes de este estudio fueron 25 estudiantes de los programas de ingeniería. los procedimientos de recolección de datos fueron hechos a través de observación de clase, encuestas, y una entrevista grupal. dos categorías que surgieron después del análisis de datos que sustentan los 1 received: february 22nd 2018/ accepted: october 15th 2018 2 marian.olaya@uptc.edu.co gist education and learning research journal. issn 1692-5777. no.17 (july december 2018). pp. 34-58. olaya no. 17 (july december, 2018) no. 17 (july december, 2018) 35 resultados; las actividades basadas en tecnología pueden ser concebidas como el punto inicial de la incorporación del aprendizaje autónomo en la enseñanza de inglés en la educación superior. palabras clave: aprendizaje autónomo, educación de idiomas actividades basadas en tecnología. resumo este artigo está focado em como a incorporação da autonomia no processo de aprendizagem de estudantes universitários melhoram o seu desempenho no idioma inglês. os participantes deste estudo foram 25 estudantes dos programas de engenharia. os procedimentos de coleta de dados foram realizados através de observação de aula, enquetes, e uma entrevista grupal. duas categorias que surgiram depois da análise de dados que sustentam os resultados; atividades baseadas em tecnologia podem ser concebidas como o ponto inicial da incorporação da aprendizagem autônoma no ensino de inglês na educação superior. palavras chave: aprendizagem autónoma, educação de idiomas atividades baseadas em tecnologia olaya no. 17 (july december, 2018) no. 17 (july december, 2018) 36 introduction being able to learn independently has become imperative two or three decades ago because of the technological revolution with the desire of fostering autonomy, but it is not the only cause for it. educators and trainers who are willing to explore autonomous learning courses often have questions about the skills needed to be an effective self-regulated learner because students today are more dynamic and spend many hours online or using social networks. a blended learning approach combines face to face classroom methods with computer-mediated activities to form an integrated instructional approach. according to yigit, koyun, yuksel, and cankaya (2014, p.808) “the term ‘blended’ has a broad meaning and it includes the integration of e-learning and traditional learning. the blend of these learning models depends on the online materials, the needs of the students, and the instructor requirements”. there are established skills that students need to be familiarized with to be part of the studentcentered learning approach, and one of the most important is setting their own learning goals. unfortunately, many people have not learned how to decide what is important for their lives or their learning process, even how to select from different learning possibilities. according to long (as cited in eslaminejad & nakhaee, 2012, p. 41) “these individuals have become accustomed to having questions and problems identified for them and not developing the cognitive ability to engage themselves in problem identification and problem-solving. as a result, they may also have limited observational skills that inhibit their ability to determine what is important in their learning environment”. this has been the case of engineering students at a public university who do not see much importance of determining what is beneficial for them in their current living situation as students. moreover, there are some cases when students are about to graduate and start their english courses because it is a requirement for job interviews.therefore, some changes are required to develop these skills before a person becomes a successful autonomous learner; when we are working with students with little experience in autonomous learning, careful attention should be given to help them to select possible outcomes of their learning, and then encourage them to know what to choose from multiple attractive goals and why. a successful self-regulated learner has an active role in their learning performance. “self-regulated learners take on challenging tasks, practice their learning, develop a deep understanding of the learning material, and exert extra effort, which leads to academic autonomy through student centered learning process olaya no. 17 (july december, 2018) no. 17 (july december, 2018) 37 success” (perry, phillips, & hutchinson, 2006 as cited in kan’an & osman 2015, p. 791). therefore, engineering students should develop the ability to identify their weaknesses and strengths as learners, to know if they can call up additional strategies of concentration, to know their ability to use a different approach, to know what is important in their learning environment, to know the importance of a given learning activity, to know when they need assistance, to have a realistic perception of their ability to achieve their learning goal and finally to show them they can easily become autonomous learners. justification teaching students to be responsible not only for their lives but also for their academic performance is an imperative task. in the case of language teachers, they encounter students in their classes with several personality differences, learning strategies and cultural domains which interfere with the learning process; therefore, educational programs must be reoriented or redesigned. “in the classroom, there is practical implementation of an scl approach that includes a number of following components: problem-based learning, group project work, student-centered active learning, resource-based learning, use of the case method, role plays, classroom workshops, group presentations, use of a web-conferencing environment, particularly in distance education, small group work that enables students to learn how to work in a team, in the process of which they identify and fill the gaps in their knowledge. they also stress the importance of involving students after the task is completed, making self-assessment comments, making peer-assessment feedback comments, suggesting selfassessment grades and negotiating self-assessment grades” (marinko, baužienė, daniels, gołębiowski, hughes, & rees, 2016 p.17). it means, in higher education, especially english courses, which are not mandatory in the university, need some changes to involve students in a more interesting educational method to support their real needs based on their interests. engineering students in the context of this study are people who need orientation in self-motivation, self-regulation, and time management in their process of learning english. they are very motivated to the career they are studying but when they talk about the process of learning english the attitudes are totally different. it autonomy through student centered learning process olaya no. 17 (july december, 2018) no. 17 (july december, 2018) 38 was evidenced during the project observation stage in which 74 % of the students did not know what they were good or bad at in terms of english, they did not know the kind of activities that facilitated their learning, and they were constantly complaining about their lack of time to focus on their english learning process. a diagnostic survey was implemented to find out students’ attitudes and perceptions about the english courses in the university and 74 % of students affirmed that they see 6 subjects per semester, which affects their grade average and they do not dedicate time for learning english because it does not affect their grade average. on the other hand, 43% of students admitted english courses need reorientation in terms of including content related to their majors. therefore, as it was mentioned before, one of the alternatives for the students to take part in making good decisions that shape their learning is their inclusion in a set of self-regulated technology-based learning activities that strengthen their skills and affirm their attitudes to the adaptation to the english courses. “students need a sense that the education they are receiving and the activities they are completing will enable them to pursue the career they want or make other personal goals” (herman, 2012, p. 372.). the aim of the present study was to examine the role those student-centered learning activities might play in facilitating the english learning process to the busy engineering students. its purpose was to conduct students through a process to become more independent learners and aware of their own learning process in the course of improving their writing skills, so they could produce their own articles related to any research they are involved in. they were enrolled in the student-centered learning environment in which instructional materials were transferred electronically or through the internet with the help of technology-based activities, social networks, web 2.0 tools, and computer-related tools. these conditions encouraged engineering students to engage in their own knowledge construction by integrating new information into their english courses, and by associating and representing it in a meaningful way. autonomy through student centered learning process olaya no. 17 (july december, 2018) no. 17 (july december, 2018) 39 literature review student-centered learning student-centered learning refers to the variety of activities that are oriented towards the student learning process to meet students’ needs and interests. “the concept of student-centered learning is to bring the classroom and students to life. the teacher is considered a “guide on the side, assisting and guiding students to meet the goals that have been made by the students and the teacher” (overby, 2011, p.109) when student-centered activities are implemented, two behaviors are evidenced: the first autonomous behavior is when learners can select from a variety of activities that call up their attention and they present the results as they decide to. it shows that when they take responsibility for their own learning process the results are impressive. eslaminejad & nakhaee (2012, p.40), affirmed that a “self-directed learner is responsible for development of her/his learning skills and deciding when and how she/he going to learn. the benefits of selfdirected learning include having a greater control over learning and an increase in self-concept, motivation, and sense of self-control” the second behavior is centered on the students’ desire for taking responsibility for their learning. becoming autonomous learners is a continuous process and it involves different factors. first, the possibility to work collaboratively (reeves, herrington & oliver, 2004, p. 53) believe that by being able to collaboratively solve authentic tasks online “the learning outcomes accomplished by these learners will be of the highest order, including improved problem-solving abilities, enhanced communication skills, continuing intellectual curiosity, and robust mental models of complex processes inherent to the performance contexts in which their new learning will be applied”; second, to reinforce other learning skills, kim and davies (2014, p.7) affirmed “the ultimate goals of student-centered learning are more closely related to the facilitation of higher-order thinking skills (i.e. comprehension, application, analysis, synthesis, and evaluation of knowledge) rather than knowledge and recall of facts”. and finally, a self-evaluation process, “course objectives and learning goals will be clearly stated, and students will be taught to assess their own work and that of their peers by asking critical questions in a constructive manner” (wright, 2011, p.95). consequently, the term student-centered involves many factors that help a young learner to take direction into their own learning performance. in the case of engineering students in the university, the course was designed and presented to promote autonomous decisions autonomy through student centered learning process olaya no. 17 (july december, 2018) no. 17 (july december, 2018) 40 based on their needs, and interests, and to encourage them to create a positive learning environment. learners’ autonomy benson (2001, p.2) stated “the concept of autonomy is grounded in a natural tendency for learners to take control over their learning”. it does not mean isolated work; instead, students control their decisions and work without any pressure. for the purposes of this project, autonomy was a crucial factor because students are teacherdependent, and in many cases, students are not interested in the topic or the activities proposed. engineering students in the context of this study need to foster their autonomy because they do not have much classroom contact time for english classes. autonomy involves students in a range of activities that are an essential role in becoming professionals. rao (2016, p.5) established “autonomous learning, based on the theoretical foundations of both humanism and constructivism, takes the effect on learners into account and encourages students to take responsibility for their own learning”. therefore, autonomy must be conceived as the routinized process (it is daily and continuous) in which learning is the result of the integration of self-sufficiency into their learning process. it means, if students participate in autonomous learning activities daily, the results will show independent, selfevaluator and responsible learners. there are many benefits of the incorporation of autonomy into a learning process such as learning from the environment, learning from the experiences, and making mistakes. in the process of learning a language, autonomy reveals the ability to take responsibility of their own learning process, it means, to use strategies, methods or tools to foster their language proficiency. fotiadou, angelaki and mavroidis (2017, p.97) mentioned “it is essential that the students have acquired studying strategies and habits that will enable them to define the learning steps and master their own learning”. therefore, teachers should encourage learners to build that knowledge and skills to fulfill the requirements of the autonomous learning process. technology in language education when learning a language, it is frequent to find different teaching styles; for that reason, it is important to have tools for teaching that impact all students learning process. technology appears to be one of the latest tools to increase students’ motivation through autonomous autonomy through student centered learning process olaya no. 17 (july december, 2018) no. 17 (july december, 2018) 41 learning processes because nowadays learners are more active and dynamic than before because of the use of technology. costley (2014, p.2) stated, “due to the large use of technology in the world in which we live, the use of technology in teaching and learning is essential if we are to make a lasting impact on how students learn”. thanks to the incorporation of technology and by changing students’ learning attitudes and enhancing their self-confidence, students’ performances are improved. the incorporation of technology has many benefits in the process of english language learning because learners become aware of what they are learning and can self-monitor their performance. new technology enables students to collect information and interact with resources, such as images and videos. teachers can promote students’ participation and their engagement in the class. in this study, blogs were the main technological tool used. it allowed learners to build their knowledge by past english language learning experiences that have influenced their english performance and for developing new ideas, for example: making decisions, fostering collaborative work and using the language in different situation and contexts. in addition, the use of blogs in language learning contributes to gaining cultural knowledge, provides opportunities to explore the target culture, and increases cultural awareness (hauck, 2007). blogs for the present study, i decided to use blogs to motivate students towards autonomous behaviors. the reason for choosing this tool is because students are willing to use technology on a daily basis and i want them to use it to foster their future professional development path. according to tíscar (2015), “blogs are free virtual spaces thanks to which anyone can have access to them without having to pay anything” (p. 9). vurdien (2013) argued that blogs and blogging are extensively explored by the researchers because they can be used for various pedagogical purposes, encourage learners to express their ideas, help teachers to ask their learners questions, and provide the opportunity for collaboration. there are different advantages of using blogs not only because it is a technological tool but also because it shapes autonomous behaviors. among the benefits, i can say that students are exposed to authentic reading and writing material and, using blogs increases the sense of working collaboratively. blackstone, spiri, and naganuma (2007) argued “within the scope of classroom-based blog activities, assignments can require the student blogger to communicate closely autonomy through student centered learning process olaya no. 17 (july december, 2018) no. 17 (july december, 2018) 42 with a particular group of student bloggers. moreover, the exchange can be almost instantaneous (during class time) or at the leisure of the student bloggers” (p. 2). by the incorporation of spontaneous and planned activities, blogging becomes an engaging communicative activity which fosters the use of english language in the classroom. research design type of research this research is a qualitative case study research which, according to yin (as cited in kohlbacher 2005, p.4), “[it] allows investigators to keep the holistic and meaningful characteristics of real-life events”. the need for this project arose from the aim to understand how autonomy would help engineering students to foster their english language competences. for the purpose of this case study, three instruments were considered to analyze data, observation, interviews, and surveys. once i had collected the information, i analyzed it and triangulated it to find common topics. data collection procedures to develop this research and collect the data, three instruments were used; class observations, a survey for students, and a group interview. these instruments were valuable because i could collect information about students’ perceptions, attitudes, and opinions towards the use of technology-based activities especially blogs and the way they see the concept of autonomy after being involved in that kind of learning process. class observation: according to turnock and gibson (2001), “observation is a way of gathering data by watching behavior, events, or noting physical characteristics in their natural setting” (p.43). it was the first step to find out students’ perceptions and needs about the english learning process at the university. it was a crucial factor because the idea to design an autonomous course was born from these observations. (see appendix 1) survey: fowler (2013, p.1) established that “the purpose of a survey is to produce statistics, that is, quantitative or numerical descriptors about some aspects of the study population”. this instrument was designed to collect information, especially the interest in learning english and the perception of the autonomous course by engineering students. (see appendix 2) autonomy through student centered learning process olaya no. 17 (july december, 2018) no. 17 (july december, 2018) 43 group interview: kelly (2003, p.50) stated that “group interviews are designed to elicit perceptions, information, attitudes and ideas from a group in which each participant possesses experiences with the phenomenon under study”. it was implemented during and at the end of the course to find out students’ attitudes and perceptions of the incorporation of autonomy in the english language teaching process (see appendix 3) participant the participants come from a public university which offers a variety of programs for the community. sogamoso branch is characterized by the high quality of the engineering majors. it means most of the students are students of systems, industrial, electronic, mining, and geological engineering. engineering students and engineers have expressed long-term dissatisfaction with their english ability (wattanasakunpusakon, 1996; kittidhaworn, 2001). besides, language teachers play an important role in teaching english to future engineers because of the challenges of the engineering faculties in general; ramírez, borja and lópez (2018, p. 149) stated “this new teacher, in the engineering context, must have the ability to investigate the reality, intervene in it, by proposing innovations and changes in the institutions that offer this kind of programs”. with that in mind, the need for modifying the english courses in the university is determined by students’ interests and expectations. the last two semesters students have asked the language institute which is in charge of the english course within the university, to offer other kind of syllabus and methodology that fulfills their needs as future engineers. it seems that courses offered to these students have serious problems considering their specific needs. the participants of the project have said they need more technical vocabulary to be able to keep a conversation or do a job interview and most of them have said they must be able to write articles about research they always do as a daily process in their subject’ matters. according to shrestha, pahari, and awasthi (2016): “in the field of engineering education also, the english language is being used as a common means of communication all over the world whether it is for acquiring knowledge from books or publishing their research reports, or for giving oral presentations or for presenting papers at the seminars and conferences” (p.182) autonomy through student centered learning process olaya no. 17 (july december, 2018) no. 17 (july december, 2018) 44 in this sense, the ability to communicate in formal and informal contexts is essential for the education of engineers. i consider that the incorporation of dynamic english activities plays an imperative role in the professional development of future engineers. however, one of the weaknesses was the lack of motivation when this project was implemented. another important issue is time; these students spend much time doing lab work and internships, and they are enrolled in projects which need many hours of effort. for that reason, they do not attend english courses regularly, their reason is that an english course does not affect their average grade, it is just a requirement and they need time to focus just on their core subjects. it has been a great concern in the university because students are unmotivated, they do not see english as a subject as important as the others. for that reason, i chose a group of 25 engineering students who accepted to enroll in an autonomous and blended english learning process. a blended approach instead of a traditional face to face course means that the class meets once per week instead of the usual three-session format. learning activities in class can be used to encourage students to ask questions, clear up doubts and reinforce the communication with the rest of the class. blended learning also allows education 24/7; it reaches a bigger number of learners; and it ensures a learning environment which is independent of time and places (dziuban, hartman, & moskal, 2004). based on that, the best way of meeting the challenges of tailoring learning and development to the needs of engineering students was by integrating the innovative and technological advances offered by online learning with the interaction and participation presented in the best of traditional learning that served to fulfil their needs. maguire (2005) stated that “in order to meet the requests of the various types of students who prefer to attend courses via distance learning, either for convenience, preference of learning style, etc., higher education administrators must find ways to motivate and support faculty in their development and teaching of online courses and programs” (p.6). pedagogical intervention a variety of technology-based-activities were designed with the purpose of involving students in a process in which they must be responsible for their learning process taking into account instructions for the outcomes they are expected to do, especially, blogs. autonomy through student centered learning process olaya no. 17 (july december, 2018) no. 17 (july december, 2018) 45 writing lab reports was the central skill. white and arndt (as cited in alves, 2008, p. 5) viewed: “writing as a form of problem-solving which involves such processes as generating ideas, discovering a ‘voice’ with which to write, planning, goal-setting, monitoring and evaluating what is going to be written as well as what has been written and searching for language with which to express exact meaning”. they suggest that producing a text involves six recursive ways. as it is a process, each stage was divided into three mandatory activities to become autonomous learners and succeed in writing scientific articles as a requirement of their majors. engineering students must write a lab report considering the demands of scientific texts: introduction, methods (hypothesis), and results. during the implementation of the activities certain autonomous behaviors were taken into consideration. the behaviors were: cooperating with partners, self-assessing their process of learning, defining clear goals and organizing learning processes. doing a lab experiment involves the autonomous behaviors mentioned; learners must define their goals or objectives, students must work in cooperation with their partners, and finally, they have to evaluate their performance during the activity. syllabus design the autonomous english course was designed based on the student -centered learning foundations and it was divided in three main stages to be implemented during the academic semester which has 16 working weeks. table 1 shows a summary of the activities implemented. autonomy through student centered learning process olaya no. 17 (july december, 2018) no. 17 (july december, 2018) 46 table 1. summary of activities implemented autonomy through student centered learning process olaya no. 17 (july december, 2018) no. 17 (july december, 2018) 47 data analysis and results as i mentioned before, the data of the three instruments were validated by doing content analysis. according to babbie (2001, p.304), “content analysis can be defined as the study of recorded human communications”. that analysis allowed me to determine similarities and differences in the information gathered and it finally revealed common codes that were transformed into two main categories. the first related to feelings, and attitudes toward english language learning through a self-directed model and the second related to the incorporation of technology, collaborative work and becoming an autonomous learner. the preliminary findings obtained during the process of analysis were classified as shown in figure 1: figure 1. categories that emerged after data analysis students feel free to make their own learning decisions: they are motivated. while the project was implemented, students showed a positive attitude towards the incorporation of technology in their english learning process; during the interview one of the students said, “working online helped me because i did the activities when i was free and i wanted to practice english at home” (extracted from interview); it means they showed a significant responsibility towards their own learning process. encouraging learners to make their own learning decisions also helps them to maximize their control of making good decisions. pingxiao (2017, p. 357) said “positive classroom environment can stimulate and maintain students’ interest in learning, promote students’ autonomous learning. the creation of classroom environment here is not only a physical environment suitable for students to study, but also a learning atmosphere suitable for students’ autonomous learning”. autonomy through student centered learning process olaya no. 17 (july december, 2018) no. 17 (july december, 2018) 48 some of the students said during the group interview: • “i liked that kind of activities because i see the need of writing lab reports in the subjects of my career, if i see i need to write in english for my career, i will enjoy and take advantages of the english courses”. (translated by the author) promoting learner autonomy is a vital factor of motivation because students do not have a language teacher available all the time; a language learner to be proficient in a foreign language needs someone who assists them at any time; for that reason, the incorporation of technology-based activities promoted opportunities for them to practice and self-evaluate. in the group interview, student “d” argued: • “the job interview helped me a lot because i could check my pronunciation mistakes and record the interview again; i will never forget that pronunciation”. students who were never enrolled in this kind of english learning activities required a special support, in this sense; autonomy was reflected as a continuous adapting process. at the beginning, students did not know what to do or what activities really met their language needs. at this point, it is imperative to mention those language teachers need patience to transfer responsibility to the learners gradually. the importance of learners’ understanding the purpose of classroom activities is crucial when developing autonomy because they show their motivation to learn. they start seeing the importance of communication in another language for their future professional development. in terms of self-directed learning, kan’an and osman (2015, p.795) stated “rewarding for the students to be academically successful in not only science subjects, but also other subjects as well as be successful in the business of life”. another important issue is the need to practice in their own time not to complete any assignment but to reinforce the abilities acquired. it means that the incorporation of active learning activities must be conceived as a continuously engaging process. learning the language autonomously showed that students feel greater confidence when reporting their activities because they have given importance to their attitudes and capabilities for learning a language. these students have made an important step to their language development process, according to froyd and simpson (2008, p.3) “positive influences of student-centered learning approaches to teaching on academic performance, attitudes toward learning, and persistence in programs”. autonomy through student centered learning process olaya no. 17 (july december, 2018) no. 17 (july december, 2018) 49 from that perspective one student said during the interview that “i realized that i liked watching videos related to the topic more than reading, and the results are better”. new technologies and collaborative work as a starting point to become autonomous. as i mentioned before, when the project was implemented; the autonomous learning behaviors considered were: first, learners chose from different set of activities based on their interests, it means that the activities let students choose the kind of activities of their preference. second, students cooperate with their partners; the incorporation of technology-based activities gave students the opportunity to work with other students and evaluate their performance. third, learners selfassess their process of learning; each student had the opportunity to evaluate their own results from a neutral perspective. finally, students define clear goals, this behavior was shown at the final stage of the project because students set their objective and the activities they were going to present; this step was the final proposal designed by the students to improve their language level. during the implementation of the project, students showed a good attitude toward the fact of changing the way language teachers at this university usually teach. most of the students argued in the survey that autonomous activities improved their learning outcomes because they were free to do the activities they were interested in. the integration of technology in language education in the context of the study was quite challenging because it was time-consuming and kind of frustrating at the beginning. however, this kind of active environment encouraged students to learn when they were willing to, instead of going to a traditional class and sit for two or more hours just working on the mandatory english book. the most important finding in this category is that students started to feel more confident about them; they could work collaboratively and develop a higher level of thinking skills. during the last class observation, a student said “it was clear that at the beginning the process is not as easy (as regular face-to-face classes) as i thought but the good thing was that i was excited because i love working on my computer, and during the process i found out i was good at creating conceptual maps and i enjoyed a lot watching the videos of my classmates on the web”. student’s comments allowed me to state that the incorporation of technology in a blended english course facilitated the learning of the english language in terms of a proper teaching context based autonomy through student centered learning process olaya no. 17 (july december, 2018) no. 17 (july december, 2018) 50 on students’ interests; the participation and interaction among the participants were also active and clear in the blogs. based on the experience of implementing this project, it can be said that students start being motivated to learn and use english in their daily activities. however, becoming a self-directed learner in the contexts of this public university requires time, effort, and support of administrators so students start being conscious of the need to speak another language. limitations of the study in general terms, when i implemented the project based on the main constructs of autonomy, student-centered learning and technologyassisted strategies: first, it became a limitation to control the effect and efficiency of technology because i could not know if students received any extra help or if they did all the activities on their own. to monitor and control students work at home, there should be more financial resources which are too difficult to obtain. second, when working online there is always a limitation because all the work depends on the type of connection students have. some students in this public university do not have the best economic conditions which means, they do not have access to internet. that issue was presented when the project was implemented, so some students had to stay in the university to accomplish the activities. conclusions working with a student-centered approach and the use of technology-based activities to foster autonomy in a blended course could be conceived as one of the many alternatives language teachers should bear in mind, so learners can construct an effective and a positive learning environment. from my personal point of view, i consider students need opportunities to learn english in an easy way. i want to highlight that this easy way means where they become motivated, responsible for their own learning process, and learn in more flexible time. consequently, it is important to incorporate technology-based activities in engineering students learning process to expand their possibilities to learn autonomously. autonomy through student centered learning process olaya no. 17 (july december, 2018) no. 17 (july december, 2018) 51 overall, autonomy in language depends on the capacity of how critical learners can become and how process of self-reflection and independent work appears. in the case of engineering students in the context of this study, the implementation of activities such as reports, interviews, and the teacher’s comments let students understand autonomy as a social ability. they had the opportunity to interact with other students and the teacher to find information regarding the task assigned, to assess their performance, to participate in planning and designing the activities, to focus on learning cooperatively, and to learn how to learn to face future learning challenges. results also showed that language programs need to incorporate a different kind of instruction based on what students need, expect, and are good for. the use of technological tools such as blogs was suitable to help learners to take control of their own decisions based on their interests and needs as future engineers because all the activities allowed them to choose from real and authentic situations about their learning process. the use of a student-centered approach encouraged students to self-regulate their learning process; they showed an improvement in the autonomous behaviors selected (cooperation with their partners, selfassessing their process of learning, defining clear goals, and organizing their learning process). students had the opportunity to listen to their own videos, and to see how their writing improved. collaborative work was helpful because students had the opportunity to share ideas, construct new knowledge based on their needs, past experiences, and interests. self-assessing their learning process was supportive as it helped students to develop skills to become objective critics. the findings of this project have implications on the role of the teachers and the implementation of different technology-based activities in their teaching practice. first, administrators should provide necessary support and facilitate the integration of technology; second, teachers should improve cooperative skills; and third, language should train in implementing technology-supported projects. it is also important to keep on researching about the building of blended courses for higher education. autonomy through student centered learning process olaya no. 17 (july december, 2018) no. 17 (july december, 2018) 52 references alves, a. r. 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(2015). improving speaking skills through the use of a blog, 2014–2015. retrieved from http://repositori.uji.es/xmlui/ handle/10234/130125 turnock, c., & gibson, v. (2001). validity in action research: a discussion on theoretical and practice issues encountered whilst using observation to collect data. journal of advanced nursing, 36(3), 471-477. vurdien, r. (2013). enhancing writing skills through blogging in an advanced english as a foreign language class in spain. computer assisted language learning, 26(2), 126-143 wattanasakunpusakon, p. (1996). ability in using technical english of the engineering students of rajaman-gala institute of technology. unpublished master´s thesis, kasetsart university, thailand. wright, g. b. (2011). student-centered learning in higher education. international journal of teaching and learning in higher education, 23(1), 92-97. yigit, t., koyun, a., yuksel, a. s., & cankaya, i. a. (2014). evaluation of blended learning approach in computer engineering education. procedia social and behavioral sciences. https://doi.org/10.1016/j. sbspro.2014.05.140 autonomy through student centered learning process olaya no. 17 (july december, 2018) no. 17 (july december, 2018) 55 author *marian lissett olaya holds a b.a in foreign languages from universidad pedagógica y tecnológica de colombia. she also holds a m.a in english language teaching for selfdirected learning from universidad de la sabana. she has been an english language teacher for nine years in which she has gained a lot of experience teaching english for engineering programs. her research experience is focused on how reflective teaching strategies fosters students’ language learning. she is currently the coordinator of the international language institute in the city of sogamoso. she is currently the coordinator of the international language institute of universidad pedagógica y tecnológica de colombia. autonomy through student centered learning process olaya no. 17 (july december, 2018) no. 17 (july december, 2018) 56 appendix 1. class observation checklist autonomy through student centered learning process olaya no. 17 (july december, 2018) no. 17 (july december, 2018) 57 appendix 2. survey on students´ attitudes and perceptions towards the english language courses autonomy through student centered learning process olaya no. 17 (july december, 2018) no. 17 (july december, 2018) 58 appendix 3. group interview questions do you like the new english language course? why? do you prefer sitting in a traditional language class or being enrolled in a blended course? why? what are the advantages and disadvantages of this blended course? did you like working with colleagues? why? what criteria did you use to choose from the variety of activities? how did you set your own goals? explain what criteria did you use to do the self-evaluation? autonomy through student centered learning process no. 17 (july december, 2018) no. 17 (july december, 2018) editorial dr. carlo granados-beltrán academic vice chancellor única in this 28th issue of gist education and learning research journal, we explore the intersection of innovative teaching practices, the integration of technology, the impact of community and context, and the well-being of educators and learners. across the contributions from scholars in thailand, ethiopia, turkey, and colombia, a recurring theme emerges: the importance of leveraging diverse pedagogical strategies to address the evolving needs of students and teachers in a globalized and challenging educational landscape. one of the key threads running through this issue is the focus on active, collaborative, and contextualized learning and the role of innovation in improving learning outcomes. the article by ruijuan li, sarit srikhao, and nirat jantharajit highlights how combining collaborative and active learning strategies can significantly enhance academic achievement and self-motivation among vocational students. this finding aligns closely with the work of johanna marcela sabogal bedoya and norma constanza durán narváez, who demonstrate the potential of community-based pedagogies when paired with visual literacies to improve writing skills in high school students. both studies emphasize the transformative power of creating meaningful, contextually relevant learning experiences that engage students actively in their development. the flipped classroom approach, explored by javier rojas, echoes this focus on active learning by shifting the traditional classroom dynamics. his findings reveal that flipping grammar instruction enables adult efl learners to maximize their speaking practice during class, leading to increased confidence and grammatical accuracy. when juxtaposed with the study on mind mapping by hümeyra uysal and sabri sidekli, we see a shared emphasis on tools and strategies that empower students to take ownership of their learning. while flipped learning redefines how class time is used, mind mapping provides a scaffold for students to organize and develop their ideas, enhancing creative expression and writing skills. 5 no. 28 technology emerges as a common element in many of these studies, particularly in integrating digital tools to support student engagement and learning. mitiku tasisa dinsa and essayas teshome taddese examine how social media platforms like facebook and youtube can serve as valuable tools for improving speaking proficiency among efl learners. their study not only highlights a gap in students’ purposeful use of these platforms but also underscores the exciting potential of social media to bridge the gap between formal and informal learning. similarly, the flipped classroom study leverages audiovisual materials to extend learning beyond the classroom, offering an exciting perspective on how technology can enrich language learning experiences. as we reflect on the insights offered in this issue, we are reminded of the importance of addressing the human dimension of education—particularly the well-being of educators. teshale ayalew, getachew seyoum woldemariam, and adege alemu explore the factors contributing to job burnout among efl teachers in ethiopia, shedding light on educators’ challenges in maintaining engagement and effectiveness. their findings resonate with the broader emphasis on creating supportive and motivating learning environments, not just for students but for teachers as well. the articles in this issue form a cohesive narrative about the interconnectedness of pedagogical innovation, contextual relevance, and the well-being of all stakeholders in education. we thank the authors and peer reviewers whose contributions make this issue possible. their dedication and expertise enrich our understanding of the dynamic field of english language teaching and learning. we invite scholars from around the world to continue contributing to gist journal, whether by submitting articles, participating as reviewers, or offering book reviews. your support is invaluable to us, and we hope you enjoy this issue as much as we enjoyed creating it. 6 no. 28 cooperative learning to foster reading skills1 aprendizaje cooperativo por proyectos para mejorar las habilidades de lectura marian lissett olaya and gladys marta elena gonzález-gonzález2* universidad pedagógica y tecnológica de colombia 1 received: february 20th 2020/ accepted: november 26th 2020 2 marian.olaya@uptc.edu.co; martaegonzalezg@gmail.com gist education and learning research journal. issn 1692-5777. no. 21 (july-december, 2020). pp. 119-139. 120 no. 21 abstract this paper reports an action research study on cooperative learning projects for engineering students at a public university. the research study is aimed at improving reading skills through the use of four cooperative learning projects implemented during the english classes. data gathered from a survey, four group interviews, and the teacher’s journal were collected and analyzed to determine the categories after coding the data. findings suggest that working cooperatively has a higher effect on students’ reading skills. conclusions also highlight that cooperative learning strengthens english reading skills and fosters leadership, decision making, communication and problem-solving abilities. additionally, it increases participation, motivation and goal achievement in students’ language learning process. keywords: cooperative learning; collaboration; interaction; reading skills; reading strategies; english learning, communication resumen este documento da a conocer un estudio de investigación acción sobre el aprendizaje cooperativo por proyectos para estudiantes de ingeniería de una universidad pública. el estudio tiene como objetivo mejorar las habilidades de lectura mediante el uso de cuatro proyectos de aprendizaje cooperativo implementados durante las clases de inglés. se recogieron y analizaron los datos de una encuesta, las entrevistas de un grupo y el diario del profesor para determinar las categorías después de codificar los datos. los resultados sugieren que el trabajo cooperativo tiene un mayor efecto en las habilidades de lectura de los estudiantes. así mismo, las conclusiones resaltan que el aprendizaje cooperativo fortalece las habilidades de lectura en inglés y fomenta el liderazgo, la toma de decisiones, la comunicación y la capacidad de resolución de problemas. además, aumenta la participación, la motivación y el logro de objetivos en el proceso de aprendizaje del idioma de los estudiantes. palabras clave: aprendizaje cooperativo; interacción; habilidades de lectura; estrategias de lectura; aprendizaje de inglés; comunicación cooperative learning to foster reading skills olaya & gonzález-gonzález 121 no. 21 resumo este artigo reporta uma pesquisa ação sobre a aprendizagem cooperativa por projetos para estudantes de engenharia de uma universidade pública. o estudo pretendia melhorar as habilidades de leitura através da implementação de quatro projetos cooperativos implementados durante as aulas de inglês. uma pesquisa de opinião, entrevista grupal e a análise documental foram utilizadas como instrumentos de pesquisa. os resultados sugerem que os estudantes melhoraram significativamente as suas habilidades de leitura trabalhando cooperativamente. da mesma forma, as conclusões ressaltam que a aprendizagem cooperativa melhora as habilidades como liderança, tomada de decisões, a comunicação e a solução de problemas. adicionalmente melhora a participação motivação e realização de objetivos no seu processo de aprendizagem do idioma inglês. palavras chave: aprendizagem cooperativa; colaboração; interação; habilidades de leitura; estratégias de leitura cooperative learning to foster reading skills olaya & gonzález-gonzález 122 no. 21 introduction enhancing reading skills when teaching english is a challenging task in colombian education where students read lots of specific information related to their major studies. engineering students need english as means of efficient communication not only for their jobs but also to connect with a world where the english language is one of the official languages of the science community. therefore, there is a need to provide students with opportunities to use the language and to have a more active participation inside the classroom. developing reading skills is a complex process considering that students should understand what they are reading, and apply that information on their area of knowledge. according to maria (2009) “for engineers, english is primarily a library language meaning that the student must understand enough to gain access to knowledge contained in textbooks and particularly in periodicals and journals in order to extract information and keep abreast with latest technologies” (p. 45). it means that there is a constant need for effective reading skills across the curriculum which will contribute not only to foster reading but also to improve the engineering education by exposing learners to authentic knowledge and real situations. considering the relevance of improving students’ reading proficiency in this public university, this research study discusses the effectiveness of cooperative learning projects to foster reading skills of a group of students. the university adopts a communicative approach however, it is blended with other teaching methods which depend on the teacher’s perspective. students have to take six mandatory english language levels which do not affect students’ grade-point averages (gpa) since english is not part of every program curriculum. the fact that english is a mandatory subject has led students to become passive learners who do not regularly attend to english classes, students just come when a test is administered, and according to saber pro (2018) testing most of the students’ english level is a2. despite this situation, students are aware of their need to improve the english level because in the content subjects they are required to read texts in english with specific technical language not seen before in the english classes, in order to keep updated with the different processes, tendencies and technologies in engineering and industrialized countries. in this way cooperative learning projects were chosen as a new strategy for them because of their multiple benefits, methods and strategies to use in the classroom, students have different learning styles and that is why they may have different strengths, some of them might be good at grammar or some others might be fluent or feel confident talking in public, this is why students can support each other with their strengths in cooperative activities that help them learn and improve their abilities not only in terms of language proficiency but also in terms of personal skills like teamwork or problem-solving. in this way, a motivation emerged to contribute with strategies to foster students’ reading skills as they need to become effective and efficient learners on cooperative learning to foster reading skills olaya & gonzález-gonzález 123 no. 21 their engineering programs since english is required to acquire knowledge and learn new information, bearing also in mind that the six levels are necessary to graduate. the proposed question for this research study is stated as: what is the impact of implementing reading skills in cooperative learning projects on undergraduate engineering students in a public university? and the main objective which guided this research study was: to foster reading skills on undergraduate engineering students at a public university through cooperative learning projects. theoretical framework cooperative learning according to johnson and johnson (as cited in johnson & johnson (2018) “cooperation is working together to accomplish shared goals. when cooperating, individuals work to achieve outcomes that benefit themselves and all other group members. cooperative learning exists when small groups of students work to enhance their own and their group mates’ learning (p. 62). for the purpose of this research study cooperative learning is seen as an active process where students take an active part in their learning development cooperating together to accomplish their learning goals and acquire new knowledge according to their interests, needs and skills. consequently to accomplish the main objective of this research study, cooperative learning projects were chosen considering that each member of a group has a talent or special ability in order to achieve a common goal and support each other on a group work as gillies (2016) stated “helping students to interact and work together not only enables students to learn from each other but also to accept responsibility for the tasks they have to complete and the decisions they have to make” (p 44). accordingly, in order to answer the question that guided this research study five essential components of cooperative learning described by different authors were implemented to support students’ learning and improve their reading skills while using cooperative strategies inside the classroom. face to face interaction: “teaching strategy in which small teams, each with students of different levels of ability, use a variety of learning activities to improve their understanding of a subject” (wichadee, 2005, p.23). positive interdependence: possibilities students have to promote individual learning through cooperation among others, e.g “positive goal interdependence (mutual goals), positive reward interdependence (joint rewards), resource interdependence (each group member has different resources that must be combined to complete the cooperative learning to foster reading skills olaya & gonzález-gonzález 124 no. 21 assignment), and role interdependence (each group member is assigned a specific role)” (johnson, d. w., johnson, & stanne, 2000, p.5) accountability:each member of the group has a task to do so they are able to report results and the group can identify who needs more support or guidance. “each member of a team is responsible not only for learning what is being taught, but also for helping teammates learn, thus creating an atmosphere of achievement” (suwantarathip & wichadee, 2010, p.51). equal participation: allows students to become active members of the group, every student has the chance to do a task, assess it and receive feedback. team work appears as an inclusive alternative to foster reading skills. “cooperative learning gives the learners a chance to put the language to use” (gurk& mall-amiri, 2016, p.41). group interaction: group members must promote each other’s learning and success face-to-face, hold each other personally and individually accountable to do a fair share of the work, use the interpersonal and small group skills needed for cooperative efforts to be successful, and process as a group how effectively members are working together”(wichadee & orawiwatnakul, 2012, p.93). reading strategies the use of reading strategies in this research study resides in the need of students to improve their reading skills. these strategies were implemented as steps during the development of each of the projects starting by predicting, then making connections, passing to the inference step, later questioning and finally summarizing, they were chosen to help students not only to read texts, but also to interpret diagrams, figures, tables, find main objectives, question the functionality of some devices, summarize and make conclusions of specific content. there are different views of the use of reading strategies depending on the context and the population. barnett (2002, p. 14) defines a reading strategy as the understanding processes that a person carries out when reading as a means to comprehend what they read. in this process the teachers’ role is essential to make reading strategies useful for students, it is required a clear, guiding and scaffolding orientation, which lets achieve the understanding process when reading. the reading strategies implemented are: predicting. the first step to become an effective reader is setting a purpose for reading and depending on it, looking for details becomes vital to acquire knowledge. “some of the approaches for teaching predicting are teacher modeling, predicting throughout the text; with partners, with a graphic organizer, or using post-it notes throughout the text. using the title, table of contents, pictures, and key words is one prediction strategy”. (küçükoğlu, 2013, p. 710). when implementing these strategies cooperative learning to foster reading skills olaya & gonzález-gonzález 125 no. 21 the brain prepares for the reading process activating previous knowledge to be ready for the text. making connections. this second step is very essential because it is at this stage where students connect what they read to what they already know. effective readers always make connections to the purpose of their reading and with the academic context they are involved. according to mcnamara (2012) “good readers attempt to bridge incoming sentences with previous text content and with their background knowledge ”(p. 14) .when readers process a text in a deep way, such as answering wh questions they would start building a meaning which is seen as a comprehension and reflection process. inferring means reading through lines. effective reading requires making a prediction, learners use their background knowledge to infer what is coming up in the text. “if readers could decode the words on a page, they would be able to monitor what was being read to themselves orally and understand what they were reading” (serafini, 2004, p. 200).this step allows learners to have a more complex process of reading, it requires students to predict, make connections to finally draw their own conclusions. questioning. this step can be used before, during or after reading. its purpose is to guide students to find answers, solve a problem or find out new information. “question-answering instruction encourages students to learn to answer questions better and, therefore, to learn more as they read” (adler , 2001, p.43). it also implies learners to make use of all the previous reading strategies mentioned, to achieve an enriching understanding process of the text. summarizing. during the summarizing step readers should select and highlight the most relevant information or details of the text read. “the interpretation of the information in the text, the use of prior knowledge to interpret this information and, ultimately, the construction of a coherent representation or picture in the reader’s mind of what the text is about” (mcnamara, 2012, p.27). methodological design type of research. based on the main objective of this research “to foster reading skills on undergraduate engineering students at a public university through cooperative learning projects”, this work is framed under a practical action research in which according to creswell (2012) “teachers seek to research problems in their own classrooms so that they can improve their students’ learning and their own professional performance” ( p. 579). this process of practical action research was done by following the five stages proposed by mills 2011 (as cited in creswell 2012) in which a non-ending process cooperative learning to foster reading skills olaya & gonzález-gonzález 126 no. 21 takes place : identifying the area of focus, collecting data, analyzing and interpreting data, developing an action plan and finally implementing it to reflect again on the results and set future actions. in the first stage of this procedure, an area of study was identified by reviewing the literature and writing the plan to conduct this research. second, data was collected by analyzing sources such as interviews, surveys and teacher journals. the third stage focused on analyzing and interpreting data, the process included the identification of topics, coding the data collected, its categorization and the interpretation of the ideas analyzed. based on the findings in the fourth stage an action of plan was devised; this plan concentrated on developing reading skills on the students by means of cooperative learning projects. in the last stage, this plan was implemented and results were analyzed to recommend actions. participants. this action research study was conducted with 45 university students aged between 18 to 24 years, they are part of mining, geological, industrial, electronic and systems engineering programs. students who belong to these programs have to take six mandatory english language levels which do not affect students’ grade-point averages (gpa) since english is not part of the programs’ curriculum. students agreed to participate in the research study and signed a consent form before starting. their english level is between a1-a2; they can read very short, simple texts. they can find specific information, in simple everyday material such as advertisements, brochures, menu and timetables and they can understand short simple personal letters. data collection procedures this research study was carried out during the first semester of 2019 in four cooperative learning projects; every project took four sessions, two hours each one. during the implementations three instruments were applied to gather data: a survey, group interviews, and the teacher’s journal. survey. in order to know students’ attitudes and perceptions on fostering the reading skills a diagnosis and a halfway process survey were implemented. the surveys included 11 closed and open-ended questions each; the initial survey encompassed rating-scale questions to inquiry on students’ attitudes towards reading. and the second survey looked to find out students’ perceptions and attitudes of the cooperative strategy and the improvement of the reading skill through 11 open-ended questions. cooperative learning to foster reading skills olaya & gonzález-gonzález 127 no. 21 group interview. “interviews are particularly useful for uncovering the story behind a participant’s experiences and pursuing in-depth information around a topic” (adjp, 2016, par. 2). a short group interview including opinion and contrast questions was carried out at the end of each project implementation to find out the student’s opinions about the incorporation of cooperative learning during the english language learning process. teacher’s journal. “in pedagogic theory the term journal started to be applied in the context of different autoregulation and self-reflexive strategies that became an important part in the content profiling of teacher-focused study programs” (wiegerová,2013; p. 237). this tool was very important for this study because it allowed having different perspectives of the situation during the implementation of cooperative learning projects to foster reading skills. the focus during the collection process was on students’ behaviors and attitudes towards reading and the different cooperative learning components that emerged during group work activities. pedagogical intervention the cooperative learning projects focused on particular cooperative learning components, previously explained in the theoretical framework, a reading text taken from engineering online magazines and the reading strategies for all projects: predicting, making connections, inferring, questioning and summarizing. description of the projects. the projects described included the techniques proposed by authors such as: jamaludin & mokhtar (2018), mubarok & sofiana (2017), karacop (2017) and mitchell et al., (2008) who focus on the development of cooperative learning in the classroom. first project: student teams-achievement divisions technique (stad). bearing in mind the purpose of this research study, the cooperative learning projects were framed on stad, which was the first project; “a stad technique on structured cooperative learning approach embrace higher instructors’ participation, teams’ rotation roles, helpful peer interaction and conducive learning environment” (jamaludin & mokhtar, 2018, p.576). this stage took four weeks and four-two hours sessions. in terms of cooperative learning, the rules were set, and the groups were distributed with the implementation of a multiple intelligence activity in which students with different intelligences made a group to contribute according to their abilities. second project: cooperative integrated reading and composition technique (circ). by using circ, the students were expected to have better achievement in reading based on mubarok & sofiana (2017, p.125) who affirm that circ increases cooperative learning to foster reading skills olaya & gonzález-gonzález 128 no. 21 students’ reading ability better than the conventional teaching strategy. students worked in four-member cooperative learning teams, they made predictions and summarized engineering articles. they also worked together to master main ideas and other comprehension skills; they were engaged in writing drafts as well as revising and editing one another’s work. finally, students prepared a summary presentation of what they read. third project: jigsaw technique: “brings the cooperation to the forefront by providing support to students’ working together and removing competition in the classroom” (karacop, 2017, p. 421). students were assigned to six-member teams to work on academic material that has been broken down into sections. members of different teams who have studied the same sections meet in expert groups to discuss their sections. these students returned to their teams and took turns teaching their teammates about their sections. at the end, students took individual quizzes, presenting the final activity to the class, which resulted in team scores. fourth project: group investigation technique, this was the last project in which students were involved as it “allows students to be directly involved in how they obtain knowledge; they are not mere recipients. it is a democratic approach in a classroom setting” (mitchell et al., 2008 p.389). students worked in small groups using cooperative inquiry. the groups broke their subtopics into individual tasks and carried out the activities that were necessary to prepare group reports and cooperative development of the project. the students took individual quizzes, which resulted in team scores and each group then made a presentation to communicate its findings to the entire class. these four techniques share the idea that through the incorporation of cooperative learning into the learning process students enhance team-work, leadership, communication and problem solving. in this sense, learners were involved in the development of their cooperative skills to advance in their english language learning process. all lessons were adapted based on the cooperative learning components and the reading skills. the lesson plan format was adapted from macpherson (2015) . this format allowed the teacher to have control of the class and to incorporate the elements of cooperative learning and reading strategies. data analysis and results the data collected for this research study were qualitative and the analysis technique applied was a triangulation process where the information obtained from surveys, interviews and the teacher`s journal was compared to corroborate the evidence cooperative learning to foster reading skills olaya & gonzález-gonzález 129 no. 21 acquired. then, information coding was applied. “the researcher bases categories on all data collected, such as interviews, observations, and researcher’s memos or notes” (creswell, 2012; p. 424). during this coding analysis two core categories emerged: the first one, effects on reading skills, pinpoints the importance of improving and implementing different strategies to foster reading skills in the english classes at the university, from this appeared two subcategories: 1. reading strategies used by the students, 2. students reading skills interaction. the second core category cooperative learning challenges, highlights the advantages of implementing cooperative learning in a context where students are not used to attending english classes and how that implementation promoted leadership, decision making, communication and problem solving; this core category derived two more subcategories: 3. challenges of working with cooperative projects, and 4. difficulties in working cooperatively, as it is illustrated in table 1. table 1. categorization the connections between core categories and subcategories through the data analysis allowed teachers researchers to represent in a better way the phenomenon of this research study and answer the research question. it can be said that students’ participation, motivation and goal achievement in their english language learning process improved thanks to the completion of cooperative learning activities, as it is explained as follows. core category 1: effects on reading skills reading strategies and students’ reading skills interaction. the principal aim of this research study was to foster reading skills through the integration of cooperative learning into the regular english classes. then, the first aspect to be discussed is how reading skills evolved or changed during the research process. in the initial survey a 100% of the students affirmed that they did not read in english for pleasure, all of them answered that they just read because they had an assignment to develop in their content subjects. from that perspective, it was understood that the incorporation of cooperative learning to foster reading skills olaya & gonzález-gonzález 130 no. 21 authentic reading material motivated students to start reading in english because they were interested in knowing what the text was about as it is noted by duke & pearson, (2009; p. 211) “providing experience reading real texts for real reasons and creating an environment rich in highquality talk about text—will undoubtedly help”. during the first group interview applied at the end of the first cooperative learning project, students asserted the importance of knowing how to implement different reading strategies as well as reading other kinds of texts. student f said: “in my english classes i always read articles from a book, they always talk about things that happen in other countries. during these four weeks i read about engineering topics which called my attention and i spent much time predicting what the writer tried to say… it was very interesting, and i worked with classmates from other programs, it was fun” (researchers’ translation). this perception from a student indicated that it was required the integration of reading strategies or techniques to explore a text in detail. it was imperative for learners not only to read a text but also to comprehend what is behind it and going beyond the words that are written; all these aspects can be achieved by the implementation of authentic material and a good use of reading strategies since “discovering the best methods and techniques or processes, the learners choose to access, is the goal of research in reading strategies” (karbalaei, 2010, p. 165). participants acknowledged the advantages of discussing the way they used to work on reading activities in english classes compared with the way the reading instruction was done during the implementation of this project. these students interacted to ask each other about not only the texts in depth but especially how they approached every text. the teacher-researchers wrote in the teachers’ journal: “today, i noticed that students liked to discuss what the article probably would talk about just by reading the title. they started to talk about engineering requirements nowadays. another group of students talked about the importance of predicting because it helps them to remember prior knowledge.” core category 2: cooperative learning challenges. challenges of working with cooperative projects and difficulties in working cooperatively these subcategories make reference to the cooperative behaviors that participants evidenced during the project implementation; it also presents the benefits, advantages and difficulties. to begin with, it is important to mention that behaviors that emerged during the incorporation of cooperative learning to foster reading skills were: communication, interaction, cooperative planning, sharing ideas, decision making, leadership and motivation. in the same way, confidence also appeared along cooperative learning to foster reading skills olaya & gonzález-gonzález 131 no. 21 the project since students had to solve problems and dealt with them in a proper way, it is worthy to see how trust is built when students can see their partners` ability to figure out a solution. similarly, the value of the student’s contribution to learning in a group was a vital element evidenced during the second group interview, one of the students said he liked working with people who wanted to win, he also noted how working together to reach a goal made him feel great when other members helped him understand the text and explained ideas when he did not understand certain vocabulary, he feels he knows a lot more now. as it was indicated by this student, collaborative learning gave them an opportunity to socialize, they changed their attitude towards group work and positive interdependence which is a main component of cooperative learning and this was evident during the project implementation. “positive interdependence exists when individuals perceive that they can reach their goals if and only if the other individuals with whom they are cooperatively linked also reach their goals and, therefore, promote each other’s efforts to achieve the goals” (johnson, et al., 2007; p.16), this means that showing a mutual interest of winning which indirectly implies learning and interacting is one of the most important cooperative social behaviors. when students talked about the difficulties and challenges of improving reading through cooperative learning activities they highlighted the importance of carrying out activities that were more dynamic rather than going through a text several times, because these allowed them to feel safer and their self-confidence increased as indicated in the following excerpt: “we felt different from the previous english classes; we felt that we are important and that we can contribute so the group can have better results. we don’t have a good english level but when we read and read and re read an article and we go through it by pieces it is easy to understand and learn new words. that kind of learning made me participate in the classes and now we are not ashamed or shy to work.” providing a confident and safe environment helped students to make better contributions to their learning process in spite of the differences among the members of the group (language level, academic major, learning styles, etc.), this is how we can see that “cl offers learners the opportunity to harness these differences in the pursuit of learning goals in an environment that shows respect for all contributions to learning and in which learners will be more inclined to value themselves and others” (sharan, 2010; p.310). data also revealed that peer feedback played an important role on students` english language performance because it demonstrated that when students were cooperative learning to foster reading skills olaya & gonzález-gonzález 132 no. 21 motivated to work in groups and made important efforts to success, their academic results and participation were higher. in this view, it can be noted that “opportunities for students to discuss, to argue, and to present and hear one another’s viewpoints are the critical element of cooperative learning with respect to student achievement” (slavin, et al., 2003. p. 183) at the last stage of the implementation of cooperative learning activities to foster reading skills, data illustrated that problem solving was the most challenging factor because students had to deal with assigning roles, accomplishing responsibilities and decision levels. one of the teacher’s journal entries said that students spent more than 15 minutes deciding roles such as who is going to be the manager, the reporter, etc. when they did not make a fast decision they started complaining and their voice tone turned loud. likewise, during an interview a student argued that it was difficult to agree with his partners as all of them wanted to give orders, this extra time they spent discussing letting the other groups finish first. it can be seen that this kind of interaction that represented a challenge for students was very useful because it allowed them to manage thinking and social abilities at the same time as well as reinforce the idea that the teacher or instructor must be a learning facilitator to help students to keep working effectively in groups to accomplish the tasks, such a role of facilitator can make a difference when trying to improve learners’ skills as sangadji (2016) points out: “teachers also play a role to help students to plan, implement the plan, and organize group, and serve as academic counselor.” (p. 98). after analyzing the core categories, it is possible to say that motivation, interpersonal and group skills, goal achievement, communication among students and teachers, and a safe learning environment provide students with security and confidence to work and learn. this improvement of social skills evidenced excellent student’s performance in class considering that when they took a final test and were exposed to different reading activities to assess their knowledge, they obtained good results. discussion now, we can refer to the question of this research study: what is the impact of cooperative learning projects on undergraduate students reading skills in a public university? it was demonstrated through the data collection procedures (surveys, group interviews and teacher’s journal) that collaborative learning activities and the implementation of reading strategies actually helped students to understand an article deeper and engaged students in group discussions that fostered communication with others. one of the projects that clearly illustrated this was the implementation of the second project cooperative integrated reading and composition (circ), students cooperative learning to foster reading skills olaya & gonzález-gonzález 133 no. 21 integrated the reading strategies used in the first project, students teamsachievement division (stad), and they started to be more aware of how their learning process was and how they selected what they read as an important component of their process to become professionals. hence, it can be appreciated how making learners more aware of their own learning process and “teaching students to become constructively responsive readers can promote skillful academic reading, which, in turn, can enhance academic achievement” (sheorey & mokhtari, 2001; p.446). that is consistent with some assertions found in students` comments in the survey and the teacher`s journal: “developing reading strategies during the class has helped me to understand the texts that i have to read in robotics( now i can participate because the teachers speaks english too) ; i liked analyzing titles because it helped my brain to start thinking in english” survey 2-st v july 2019 “today students’ attitudes were much better. at jigsaw, they laughed ,worked together without yelling at anybody. their faces were happy, they didn’t show any stressed when reading the magazines as in previous classes. it was evident that communication among the participants of each group has improved a lot” teacher`s journal these results highlight another benefit of group cooperation, that is, interaction became more active because students had to infer, summarize and present a whole report about the article they read. though these projects were intended to help students implement a set of different strategies to comprehend a text it also helped to build a positive attitude to the reading activities. student f affirmed during the third group interview that now he loved english classes because he noticed he was good at inferring and proposing questions related to the article; this allows us to see that the more motivated students are, best results can be seen during the student’s performance in class. a motivated student interacts easily with the reading texts and influences positively on their group development. at the end of this research study the same initial survey was implemented. results showed that 25 out of 45 students started to read in english especially magazines or articles related to their programs.10 students started to read in english other topics of interest such as literature and sociopolitical issues after being involved in the research and the last 10 students were not interested in reading in english. in the last interview 25 students agreed that their reading proficiency improved, they said that the way they used to read changed throughout the project implementation. 10 students affirmed that after the english course skills such as cooperative learning to foster reading skills olaya & gonzález-gonzález 134 no. 21 planning, organizing their academic activities improved. the other 10 students explained that they do not read in english during their free time, but enjoy reading in class because they learnt new vocabulary related to their majors and they have the teacher right away to clear up doubts. “the students who are taught reading by using reading strategies training technique have significantly higher scores of literal and inferential comprehension than those who are taught using more traditional one” (mistar, et al., 2016; p. 53). from this perspective, it can be inferred that students became more aware of what strategies or techniques can be implemented to understand a whole text as identifying its organization, different types of texts, understanding main ideas, and the use of new vocabulary. these aspects are important to improve reading comprehension skills. to summarize, it can be said that thanks to the implementation of the projects, the use of reading strategies increased and improved students’ reading comprehension skills. 57% of the participants strongly agreed that they were able to make associations when they did not understand a word; 43% agreed that their ability to contextualize the reading with their real context improved. students were also able to make decisions in the way they want to improve their reading comprehension skills; student h said in the last group interview “ i am able to decide if i have to foster comprehension by making questions or by selecting main ideas which are the strategies that i now employ the most”. motivation and confidence were also important factors because they let students have a more active participation and a positive attitude regarding the reading activities. 57% of the participants strongly agreed that after the english course they enjoyed reading technical engineering online magazines because it helps their career development so they were more confident to participate in other subjects. the other 43% established that they now enjoy reading literature and other topics. as a final remark, it can be inferred that students enhanced their reading comprehension skills by using different reading strategies and texts they were interested in. students also felt that activities helped them to improve their attitude and ability to read in english and the projects were suitable to promote interaction in the class instead of the traditional use of english textbooks. “i did not attend english classes of english before because they were boring, the activities were the same every semester, and all teachers used the same book so i asked my friends to lend their books. this course was different; dynamic i was always doing things and shared with different people too” “i liked to have the feeling that the teacher was a classmate too, she was always sitting with us instead of writing verbs or grammar on the board as in previous courses”. cooperative learning to foster reading skills olaya & gonzález-gonzález 135 no. 21 along the implementation of the projects, students expressed their insights about cooperative learning, they showed a positive attitude toward working in teams because they received support, feedback of their learning performance and they had an active participation during the english classes as it was evidenced in the third and fourth students` interviews “this is the first time i understand how to work in groups; everyone did what had to do. it was fun to correct my classmates without being annoyed” interview 3stt-2019 similarly, it is possible to say that motivation, interpersonal, group work skills, goal achievement, communication among students and teachers, and a safe learning environment provide students with security and confidence to work and learn. those aspects led to evidence of the improvement of social skills in the group work which would result in an excellent student’s performance in class. additionally, students were able to foster their problem solving skills. even though results were significant to see changes during the english course , it is necessary to continue examining the effectiveness of cooperative learning and how its implementation can foster not only the reading skills but also all english language skills. further research should look for other alternatives of cooperative learning projects to be implemented at the university level to have an important impact on the bilingualism policies of the current government. conclusions this research study has examined the impact of cooperative learning projects by mainly fostering reading skills. the study revealed that students changed the way they perceived the english subject by working in a cooperative environment that promotes confidence, communication, motivation and problem solving skills. it was evidenced that no matter what the student’s english level is, the amount of vocabulary they know or their content knowledge based they have because if the students are highly motivated and the interaction in the class is active, their reading performance unquestionably rise. cooperative learning projects used in this research study, they fostered group work and social skills since they had the opportunity to manage the roles and activities they had to report. they took advantage of having the language teacher as a language facilitator when they did not understand or did not know how to share an idea. moreover, students displayed confidence levels when interacting in groups and working in a safe environment. cooperative learning to foster reading skills olaya & gonzález-gonzález 136 no. 21 opportunities to improve their reading skills were also evident when they were exposed to authentic material related to their majors. motivation here was crucial to have an active reading participation along the project, in this way the most motivated students got the most significant academic results. cooperative learning implementation has positive effects on students’ english language performance in class and it was evidenced with the results of the final tests students took and also with the activities done in class. they shared their ideas without feeling ashamed about making mistakes. student’s perceptions and confidence to interact in the english language were enhanced. results emerged from this research study have a great significance in the teaching context and the value of implementing cooperative learning into all the english language levels that offer the university because students can transform their passive role to an active and responsible role of their own learning process and improve goal achievement and autonomy. cooperative learning to foster reading skills olaya & gonzález-gonzález 137 no. 21 references adjp quad (2016). research tools: interviews & questionnaires. retrieved from https://lled500.trubox.ca/2016/225. 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(2018). students team achievement division. international journal of academic research in business and social sciences, 8(2), 570–577. johnson, d. w., johnson, r. t., & stanne, m. b. (2000). cooperative learning methods: a meta-analysis. johnson, d. w., johnson, r. t., & smith, k. (2007). the state of cooperative learning in postsecondary and professional settings. educational psychology review, 19(1), 1529. johnson, d. w., & johnson, r. t. (2018). cooperative learning: the foundation for active learning. in active learning-beyond the future. intechopen. karacop, a. (2017). the effects of using jigsaw method based on cooperative learning model in the undergraduate science laboratory practices. universal journal of educational research, 5(3), 420-434. karbalaei, a. (2010). a comparison of the metacognitive reading strategies used by efl and esl readers. the reading matrix, 10(2). cooperative learning to foster reading skills olaya & gonzález-gonzález 138 no. 21 küçükoğlu, h. (2013). improving reading skills through effective reading strategies. procedia social and behavioral sciences. 70. 709–714. 10.1016/j. sbspro.2013.01.113. maria, p. o. (2009, september). techniques of teaching english for engineers. in wseas international conference. proceedings. mathematics and computers in science and engineering (no. 9). wseas. mills, g. e. (2011). action research: a guide for the teacher researcher (with myeducationlab). (4th ed.). upper saddle river, nj: pearson/ allyn & bacon. mistar, j., zuhairi, a., &yanti, n. (2016). strategies training in the teaching of reading comprehension for efl learners in indonesia. english language teaching, 9(2), 49-56. mcnamara, d. s. (ed.). (2012). reading comprehension strategies: theories, interventions, and technologies. psychology press. macpherson, a. (2015). cooperative learning group activities for college courses mubarok, h & sofiana, n. (2017). cooperative integrated reading and composition (circ) and reading motivation: examining the effect on students’ reading ability. lingua cultura, 11(2), 121-126. http://dx.doi.org/10.21512/lc.v11i2.1824 mitchell, m. g., montgomery, h., holder, m., & stuart, d. (2008). group investigation as a cooperative learning strategy: an integrated analysis of the literature. alberta journal of educational research, 54(4). serafini, f. (2004). lessons in comprehension explicit instruction in the reading workshop. sangadji, s. (2016). implementation of cooperative learning with a group investigation model to improve learning achievement of vocational school students in indonesia. international journal of learning and development, 6(1), 91-103. slavin, r. e., hurley, e. a., & chamberlain, a. (2003). cooperative learning and achievement: theory and research. handbook of psychology, 177-198. sharan, y. (2010). cooperative learning for academic and social gains: valued pedagogy, problematic practice. european journal of education, 45(2), 300-313. sheorey, r., &mokhtari, k. (2001). differences in the metacognitive awareness of reading strategies among native and non-native readers. system, 29(4), 431-449. suwantarathip, o., &wichadee, s. (2010). the impacts of cooperative learning on anxiety and proficiency in an efl class. journal of college teaching and learning, 7(11), 51. cooperative learning to foster reading skills olaya & gonzález-gonzález 139 no. 21 wichadee, s., & orawiwatnakul, w. (2012). cooperative language learning: increasing opportunities for learning in teams. journal of college teaching & learning (online), 9(2), 93. wichadee, s. (2005). the effects of cooperative learning on english reading skills and attitudes of the first year students at bangkok university. bu academic review, 4(2), 22-31. authors * marian lissett olaya holds a b.a in foreign languages from universidad pedagógica y tecnológica de colombia. she also holds a m.a in english language teaching for self-directed learning from universidad de la sabana. she has been an english language teacher for twelve in which she has gained a lot of experience teaching english for engineering programs. her research experience is focused on how reflective teaching strategies fosters students’ language learning, atutonomy, self centered and cooperative learning. she is currently a language teacher at uptc in the city of sogamoso.  orcid: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1351-007x gladys marta elena gonzález-gonzález foreign languages teacher from universidad pedagógica y tecnológica de colombia (uptc), specialized as an educational manager from the same university. she got her ma in education with an emphasis on foreign languages teaching didactics from universidad libre de colombia. highlighted experience working in the foreign languages teaching field has been a full time teacher at the international languages institute at universidad pedagógica y tecnológica de colombia, where she has carried out some research projects about clil, cooperative learning and intrinsic motivation. orcid: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5615-4250 how to reference this article: olaya, m. l., & gonzález-gonzález, g. m. e. (2020). cooperative learning projects to foster reading skills. gist – education and learning research journal, 21, 119-139. https://doi.org/10.26817/16925777.835 cooperative learning to foster reading skills olaya & gonzález-gonzález editorial carlo granados-beltrán* it is a pleasure to share this new issue of gist journal. in this new edition, a first set of contributors have decided to explore social, economic and political aspects related to language teaching. first, castañeda-peña & león-garzón, for example, analyzed how storytelling in the elt classroom could contribute to the construction of harmonious learning environments in which language practice was promoted and not hindered due to peer rejection. secondly, estacio & camargo-cely approached the supremacy of english and the native english speaker/non-native english speaker divide and how these two factors have continued to sustain a colonial view of professional development. in the same line, núñez-pardo has decided to recover the english textbook as an element worthy of research, and therefore, presents a thorough literature review which unveils the need for decolonizing the english textbook to contextualize it so that it responds to the needs of colombian local contexts. skills development is a continuous concern for language teachers and many are interested in exploring different ways to strengthen them in their groups of students. in this second set of contributions, mora-gonzález, edlund-anderson & cuesta-medina share their findings on the effects the use of graphic organizers could have on the sixth graders’ development of written argumentative texts. omoera, aiwuyo, edemode & anyanwu were also interested in writing, but they decided to examine how social media influences on nigerian youth writing abilities in english and they deviate from both standard and pidgin english. in relation to reading skills, aristizábal used learning analytics to observe how eal (english as an additional language) students in vietnam learned from their assessments to improve their reading skills, among other areas. castillo, silva-gonzález & sanabria-chavarro also conducted a study to identify whether the structuring of tasks promoted oral fluency in an intensive course of efl adult students. closing this set, takkaç-tulgar developed a comparative case study to search for the effects of the target and foreign context in the development of pragmatic competence in two groups, one learning english as a foreign language, and another, learning turkish as a second language. finally, we have three contributions related to the use of technology for english language teaching and learning. chivatá & oviedo developed an action research study to see how students perceived the notion of activeness during the implementation of a flipped learning approach in an english class, olaya aimed to foster autonomous learning processes in an english class for engineering students by means of technology-based activities, and lastly, we have moslemi nezhad arani who contributed a review of the book teaching and researching computer-assisted language learning by ken beatty which is very informative not only about how to implement technology for language learning and teaching but also how to conduct sound research in this domain. we hope you enjoy this issue and we invite you to continue sending your contributions so that we continue building a learning a research community for our field and encouraging others to publish their work which can be enlightening for fellow teachers and researchers. *carlo granados-beltrán holds an ma in british cultural studies and elt from the university of warwick and an ma in applied linguistics to tefl from universidad distrital. currently, he is doing a phd in education at universidad santo tomás. he is the academic director at the ba in bilingual education at única. he has been teacher of the language department at universidad central, the ba programmes in spanish and languages and spanish and english at universidad pedagógica nacional and the ba in modern languages at universidad javeriana. also, he is guest lecturer for the ma in language teaching at uptc. lesson study: does it work for personal development of pre-service elt teachers?1 estudio de clase: ¿funciona para el desarrollo personal de los profesores de elt en formación? ertan altinsoy2 aksaray university, turkey 1 this study is adapted from the writer’s phd dissertation. 2 received: april 5th, 2023 / accepted: october 13th, 2023 3 ertanaltinsoy@gmail.com gist education and learning research journal. issn 1692-5777. no. 26 (january june, 2023). pp. 57 79. 58 no. 26 abstract this study is intended to document lesson study experience of six preservice english language teachers studying at a state university in turkey and investigates its impact on their personal development as prospective language teachers. the large volume of data collected through unstructured interviews, semi-structured interviews, learning journals, classroom observation records and a focus group interview during a seven-month period was subjected to thematic and categorical analysis using qualitative analysis software. the results revealed that lesson study intervention contributed to the personal development of the participating pre-service teachers significantly in a variety of aspects, especially in making critical teaching judgements and ensuring adaptable teaching in the classroom. the results further indicated that lesson study also led to the development in creative teaching, establishment of rapport with students, self-awareness, and self-confidence of the participants. keywords: lesson study, personal development, teacher judgment, self-awareness, selfconfidence resumen este estudio tiene como objetivo documentar la experiencia de estudio de clase de seis futuros profesores de inglés que estudian en una universidad estatal en turquía e investiga su impacto en su desarrollo personal como futuros profesores de idiomas. el gran volumen de datos recopilados a través de entrevistas no estructuradas, entrevistas semiestructuradas, diarios de aprendizaje, registros de observación en el aula y una entrevista de grupo focal durante un período de siete meses se sometió a un análisis temático y categórico utilizando un software de análisis cualitativo. los resultados revelaron que la intervención del estudio de lecciones contribuyó significativamente al desarrollo personal de los futuros docentes participantes en una variedad de aspectos, especialmente a la hora de emitir juicios de enseñanza críticos y garantizar una enseñanza adaptable en el aula. los resultados indicaron además que el estudio de lecciones también condujo al desarrollo de la enseñanza creativa, al establecimiento de una buena relación con los estudiantes, a la autoconciencia y a la confianza en sí mismos de los participantes. palabras clave: estudio de clase, desarrollo personal, juicio del profesor, autoconciencia, confianza en uno mismo. lesson study: does it work for personal development of pre-service elt teachers? 59 no. 26 resumo este estudo tem como objetivo documentar a experiência do estudo de lição de seis professores em formação de língua inglesa estudando em uma universidade estadual na turquia e investigar seu impacto em seu desenvolvimento pessoal como futuros professores de línguas. o grande volume de dados coletados por meio de entrevistas não estruturadas, entrevistas semiestruturadas, diários de aprendizagem, registros de observação em sala de aula e uma entrevista em grupo durante um período de sete meses foi submetido a análise temática e categorial usando software de análise qualitativa. os resultados revelaram que a intervenção do estudo de lição contribuiu significativamente para o desenvolvimento pessoal dos professores em formação participantes em vários aspectos, especialmente na formulação de julgamentos críticos de ensino e garantindo um ensino adaptável na sala de aula. os resultados também indicaram que o estudo de lição também levou ao desenvolvimento no ensino criativo, estabelecimento de rapport com os alunos, autoconsciência e autoconfiança dos participantes. palavras-chave: estudo de lição, desenvolvimento pessoal, julgamento do professor, autoconsciência, autoconfiança. ertan altinsoy 60 no. 26 the dynamic and complex nature of teaching and the question of what teachers need to know and what kind of capabilities they need to develop for effective teaching have placed important challenges for teacher education. in an ongoing debate on whether the emphasis in teacher education programs should be on cognitive or social and personal aspects of human development, the process of developing necessary knowledge base and skills seems to be recognized and worked on more than the others. in fact, in the literature, the personal element in teaching is used inextricably with professional development acknowledging the complementary association between the two. however, an exclusive focus on personal dispositions for being a good teacher is largely absent. there is a need for a heightened awareness of personal dimension in teacher development, i.e., personal growth in terms of self-esteem, creativity, and empathy. this study argues that lesson study, originally designed as a collaborative model of professional development, provides prospective teachers with the opportunity to develop personal strengths and characteristics which would raise their consciousness about teaching practice. the findings of the study are expected to lead a wider discussion on the role of personal growth in teacher education. literature review personal development of teachers douglas (2019) pointed out that in most teacher education programs around the world the focus is on the technical aspect of teaching while the reference to the personal growth is neglected or omitted which has been considered as the major reason behind teacher attrition among beginning teachers as this lack of opportunity for personal growth is thought to decrease motivation and commitment towards profession. today we still see a wide array of research investigating professional development of teachers, while the research leaning on personal development exclusively is limited in number although being a teacher means a personal being and a professional becoming as suggested by malm (2009). of the limited number of studies, mikulec (2018) examined the personal development of 34 pre-service teachers majoring at early childhood, elementary, middle level, secondary and special education who participated in a study abroad program in england which included theoretical and practical trainings. the results of the longitudinal study revealed that the participants demonstrated significant personal growth regarding increase in self-confidence and tolerance for ambiguity, selfawareness, flexibility and adaptability and interpersonal skills. medwell and wray (2014) in their study aimed to analyze the effect of collaborative classroom research on the reflection and enquiry skills of eight pre-service teachers and observe its impact lesson study: does it work for personal development of pre-service elt teachers? 61 no. 26 on the professional and personal development. medwell and wray (2014), based on the findings, reported that the participants emphasized different aspects of personal development including growth of feelings of self-efficacy particularly in making decisions, gaining new insights into working with others and a better understanding of many issues concerning outcomes for learners. tang & choi (2004) examined the cross-cultural experiences of four student teachers who participated in a one year post graduate diploma in primary education in different parts of the world and presented their self-reported experiences. they reported that the participants experienced significant personal gains in terms of greater will power, heightened efficacy, increased confidence and stronger sense of self working in collaboration with other people. it is clear that personal development is more related with the affective aspect of professional development that is largely overlooked by initial teacher training programs. in this respect, personal development of teachers has been underestimated in teacher education programs and largely ignored among scholars, therefore further attention has to be paid to the personal process involved in becoming a professional teacher (malm, 2009). within this perspective, the present study intends to explore if lesson study intervention makes a difference in the personal development of participating preservice elt teachers and discusses the possibility of implementing lesson study in initial teacher training programs. lesson study lesson study is a collaborative professional development model originated in japan. it has recently attracted attention all over the world and has begun to be practiced as an intervention tool for the development of both pre-service and in-service teachers for the purpose of stimulating changes in teachers’ beliefs and classroom practices. ls consists of a number of phases of planning, conducting, observing and reflecting on a specifically designed research lesson (lewis, perry, & hurd 2009; takahashi & mcdougal, 2016). in ls, live research lessons focus on students’ learning outcomes that are designed collaboratively by a group of teachers. a group member conducts the research lesson while the other group members document their observations, that are informed by student learning. the group comes together in a debriefing session immediately after the conducted research lesson for the purpose of discussing its impact on students’ learning. the cycle is repeated until the overarching goal that shapes the structure of the research lessons is established. the following diagram displays a typical ls cycle. ertan altinsoy 62 no. 26 diagram 1. lesson study cycle source: adapted from conceptual overview of lesson study by murata, 2011, p.2) thanks to this collaborative nature, field-based origin, student learning basis and research-oriented focus, ls reflects the features of contemporary professional development models. it is an inquiry-oriented approach to teaching (warwick et al. 2016) and learning (lewis & perry, 2017). it has been used and adapted widely in almost all subject areas. (robinson & fernandez, 2006; lewis, perry, & hurd 2009; cerbin, 2011; norwich & ylonen 2015; cajkler & wood, 2016). robinson and fernandez (2006), for example, integrated ls into an initial teacher training program through micro teaching practices and investigated the impact on 74 prospective teachers for fifteen weeks. the results of the study revealed that ls is a powerful tool in terms of bridging the gap between theory and practice in teacher training programs as well as promoting collaboration among teacher candidates and critical reflection. murata and pothen (2011) also investigated the impact of ls on pre-service elementary mathematics courses students during a ten-week research process and reported significant positive results, similar to the previous research, suggesting that ls supported connection making and sense making process between theory and practice, participants gained variety of pedagogical skills focusing their attention on student learning and ls established ground for meaningful collaboration. more recently, leavy and hourigan (2016) incorporated ls into pre-service teacher education following a strict formal approach and observed year 3 and year 4 students at a university for a 10week semester period. they reported that ls intervention contributed significantly to the participating prospective teachers’ pedagogic content knowledge. lesson study: does it work for personal development of pre-service elt teachers? 63 no. 26 of the limited studies on ls from personal development perspective, chassels and melville (2009), reported that participating in lesson study can reduce student teachers’ sense of isolation as new teachers and introduce them to norms of working as part of a teacher community. within this perspective, this study aims to explore the impact of the japanese lesson study professional development model on turkish pre-service english language teachers’ personal development and the possibility of implementing ls into pre-service language teacher education in turkey. therefore, the following research question and sub research question guided the inquiry for the present study. rq 1. how does the lesson study professional development model affect participants’ personal development? rq 1 a. how does each participant perceive the contribution of the lesson study process to their personal development? methodology research design since the study intended to investigate ls in its natural context and present detailed interpretation using a variety of data sources, qualitative research design was applied as the methodological foundation of the research. as a form of qualitative research, case study design was chosen because the subject of inquiry, ls, in the present study was observed in detail through multiple case research lesson applications in order to observe multiple interacting variables at work (yin, 2014) in leading to personal development which was of research focus. research participants six pre-service elt teachers, who were in their senior years, participated in the study. they were selected on a voluntary basis among the ones who were considered to be a representative sample of the target population. their ages ranged from 22 to 27. the researcher himself also had three distinctive roles. first, he provided the necessary training on the theory and implementation of ls which lasted for 5 weeks. second, he assumed the role of a counselor by participating in lesson planning meetings and post lesson discussions and helping the preservice teachers when needed. it is important to note that the researcher did not intervene directly or indirectly to change the flow of process by floating ideas during lesson planning meetings and post lesson discussions. the third role of the researcher was related to his conventional researcher duties as organizing research lesson team, observing interaction during meetings, investigating research lessons, recording observations, and collecting relevant data. ertan altinsoy 64 no. 26 the last participant in the research was an outside observer who played a significant role by providing different standpoints for the ls team and thus enhanced their experience significantly. he was present during the whole research process and contributed significantly with his reflections, opinions, and thoughts. what makes his role different from the researcher is that he acted as counselor for the participants to ensure different perspectives and was not responsible for coordinating activities and collecting evidence. lesson study process originally, the whole study process consisted of two stages: theoretical and practical. the former was planned to introduce ls intervention and inform the participants about the philosophy behind. the latter aimed to put the theoretical information provided by the training into action with ongoing cycles of research lessons which consisted of one pilot study and four following research lessons. the following diagram summarizes the steps taken during the whole research process. diagram 2. lesson study process lesson study: does it work for personal development of pre-service elt teachers? 65 no. 26 the study was planned to be implemented in one academic year. the theoretical stage lasted five weeks which included the training on finding a focus for the research lessons, designing, planning, analyzing and revising research lessons. when the theoretical phase was over, the participants decided on an overarching goal which was providing highest student participation to the activities and planned a research lesson for the pilot study that was consistent with it. the participants were provided with necessary documents prepared by barbrina, chokshi, and fernandez (2012), which included group goal selection document, lesson study protocol and lesson plan template. after an intensive discussion over the target group, the ls team decided to apply the pilot study with 7thgrade students to test the applicability of the ls in turkish educational context. the results were quite promising and led to a number of changes in the structure. the cycle continued for four more research lessons with a number of changes in research lesson plan content in each cycle until ls team decided in fourth research lesson that overarching goal was attained and core lesson objectives were obtained. data collection as the present study aimed to investigate lesson study that is a comprehensive phenomenon, large volume of data was collected from variety of sources through multiple cases. these sources are semi-structured interviews that included transcriptions of lesson planning meetings and post lesson discussions of each research lesson, classroom observations recorded by the participants, reflective journals written by each preservice teacher after each research lesson cycle and focus group interviews conducted after pilot study and end of the research. in this respect, the collected data was triangulated from multiple data sources for the purpose of broader understanding of research phenomenon. data analysis as the study provided large scale of qualitative data collected through variety of data collection tools, atlas.ti qualitative data analysis software was used for the inductive thematic analysis within grounded theory framework as it enables structuring large volume of data, analyzing it systematically and representing the results with diagrams and relations with other data types. the raw data was analyzed deeply and coded through open coding procedure in the descriptive stage. later on, the coded data was organized themes and categories through constant comparative method until reaching a theoretical model (glaser, strauss, 1967). the internal validity was enabled by presenting each step of ls in detail and ensured by the systematic analysis of the collected data with the use of qualitative data software. ertan altinsoy 66 no. 26 also, the collected data was triangulated for the comprehensive understanding of the research query. for the purpose of increasing content validity, expert opinion was collected for each data collection instrument. the constructs and questions forwarded to the participants in semi-structured interviews, reflective journals and focus group interviews were analyzed by a subject specialist in terms of wording and content and necessary modifications were made on the constructs on the basis of the feedback provided. for the reliability intercoder agreement was employed. the coding of the researcher and another subject specialist were compared using spss 23 with cohen’s kappa statistics. the data sets consisted of one pilot study, four research lessons and post application reflections were subjected to cohen’s kappa separately and interpreted on the basis of the strength of agreement. a substantial degree of consensus was attained between the raters’ coding on the basis of landis and koch’s (1977) reference list. in order to increase reliability, the data sets and relevant codes were reviewed again, and it was seen that most disagreements originated from the differences in the interpretation of two code labels that were named as “teacher adaptability” and “teacher judgement”. therefore, relevant quotations were reanalyzed and by the raters until consensus was established by making necessary changes. the code book for personal development theme was shaped as in the following table after intercoder reliability analysis. table 1. reorganization of the codebook for the “personal development” theme theme codes pe rs on al d ev el op m en t self-awareness self-confidence teacher adaptability teacher creativity teacher judgement teacher rapport results the impact of lesson study on the personal development of pre-service teachers the following network view displays the graphical representation of codes subsumed by personal development theme together with groundedness representing code frequency and density which refers to number of links to other codes. lesson study: does it work for personal development of pre-service elt teachers? 67 no. 26 figure 1. network view of personal development theme the figure represents that personal development is consisted of six codes as mentioned before and each code label has different groundedness level which shows the application frequency of each code. on the basis of the groundedness, it is crystally clear that the most grounded code in the present study is “teacher judgement” as it occurred in 582 occasions. the second most grounded code label is “teacher adaptability” since it was associated with 306 quotations. the groundedness of the following codes declines significantly as presented in the figure given above. on the basis of the groundendness level, “teacher creativity” ranked third as it was referenced in 69 instances. “self-awareness” code was applied in 50 occasions and ranked fourth. the following code is “teacher rapport” and it was linked to 43 data segments. the least grounded code is “self-confidence” because of the limited number of associations with the data that is 14. the figure further presents the density of each code is 0 which implies that the codes did not co-occur with each other in any quotations. ertan altinsoy 68 no. 26 table 2. the impact on the personal development codes judgement adaptability creativity selfawareness rapport selfconfidence total pilot n 136 44 42 9 15 1 247 % 23,3 14,3 60,8 18 34,8 7,1 23,2 rl1 n 129 107 18 8 10 4 276 % 22,1 34,9 26 16 23,2 28,5 25,9 rl2 n 110 85 4 0 3 0 202 % 18,9 27,7 5,7 0 6,9 0 18,9 rl3 n 157 60 4 0 4 1 226 % 26,9 19,6 5,7 0 9,3 7,1 21,2 rl4 n 47 7 0 2 4 3 63 % 8 2,2 0 4 9,3 21,4 5,9 post n 3 3 1 31 7 5 50 % 0,5 0,9 1,4 62 16,2 35,7 4,6 n 582 306 69 50 43 14 1064 % 54,6 28,7 6,4 4,6 4 1,3 100 the table given above clearly illustrates that “teacher judgement” is the most frequently associated code label with the quotations within all data sets when compared with the others. more than half of the relevant data segments (54,6 %) were linked to “teacher judgement” code and the number of selected quotations is 582 as represented by the table. when the table is analyzed on the basis of the data sources, it is not possible to talk about consistent distribution. in other words, the frequency does not increase or decrease steadily. the second code on the basis of groundedness is “teacher adaptability” as represented by the table. a total of 306 data segments were linked to the relevant code and the number corresponds to 28,7 % of the total code quotation association within personal development theme. as in the previous code label, a consistent frequency distribution does not exist among data sources. the highest number of associations between “teacher adaptability” code and the relevant data segments were observed in research lesson 1. a total of 107 quotations were associated with the given code which is equal to 38, 7 % of the total associations with “teacher adaptability” code. the frequency of the following codes declines sharply as given in the table. the code that is ranked third on the basis of frequency count is “teacher creativity”. the number of associations with the given code is 69 which corresponds of 6,4 % of the total code quotations associations that is 1064. the table clearly displays that the code was most frequently linked to the data segments in the pilot study with 42 occurrences. as in lesson study: does it work for personal development of pre-service elt teachers? 69 no. 26 the previous codes, a consistent distribution was not observed across data sources as the table presented. the frequency table further presented that the codes that are ranked fourth and fifth in terms of groundedness are “self-awareness” and “teacher rapport” respectively. a total of 50 quotations were linked to “self-awareness” code which is equal to 4,6 % of the total number of code-quotation association within personal development theme. similarly, 43 data segments were associated with “teacher rapport” code label which corresponds to 4 % of the total. in a similar vein, a consistent distribution across data sources was not observed for both code labels. the code with the lowest groundedness within personal development theme is “self-confidence” as given in table 2. only 14 occurrences existed for the given code which is equal to 1,4 % of the total code-quotation association. with respect to frequency distribution across data sources the table displays that the code was most frequently referenced in post application documents. briefly, it could be stated that the code that has the highest groundedness is “teacher judgement” since more than half of the associations within personal development theme is referenced with the given code. on the other end, the code label “self-confidence” stands with the lowest frequency count. it was also observed that a consistent distribution was not observed across data sources for each code label. the impact of lesson study on each participant’s personal development the following code co-occurrence table representing the cross tabulation of codes which includes percentage and coefficient value of each association displays the frequency distribution of each code label and the strength of the relation for each participating preservice elt teachers. ertan altinsoy 70 no. 26 table 3. participants’ personal development codes judgement adaptability self-awareness creativity rapport selfconfidence total p1 n 72 37 8 4 3 2 126 % 57 29 6 3 2 2 100 c ,08 ,06 ,02 ,01 ,01 ,01 p2 n 143 100 11 31 14 2 301 % 48 33 4 10 5 1 100 c ,13 ,11 ,02 ,11 ,02 0 p3 n 60 16 8 3 5 1 93 % 65 17 9 3 5 1,4 100 c ,08 ,03 ,03 ,01 ,02 0 p4 n 88 39 6 4 3 4 144 % 61 27 4 3 3 3 100 c ,09 ,06 ,01 ,01 ,01 ,01 p5 n 116 55 7 15 4 3 200 % 58 28 4 8 2 2 100 c ,11 ,07 ,01 ,02 ,01 ,01 p6 n 102 54 10 12 13 2 193 % 53 28 5 6 7 1 100 c ,11 ,07 ,02 ,02 ,03 0 the table clearly visualizes that a consistent distribution exists for each partner with respect to the strongest impact as “teacher judgement” is the code label that is most relevant to all six participants’ data segments referenced with personal development. nearly half of each participant’s quotations that were referenced with the codes within personal development theme were associated with “teacher judgement” code and the co-efficient values given in the table above also indicate that the association is the strongest when compared with others. the following quotation chosen randomly from the participants’ data segments as sample for the association between “teacher judgement” code and relevant data. it is vitally important to give instructions properly. even the teacher should act out the instruction while giving it and check whether the students have understood or not. (the participant is commenting on the reason behind why the planned activity was not implemented properly in pilot study rl) (ext.2: 54). the following code that’s ranked second in terms of impact for all six participants is “teacher adaptability” but the frequency declines at a significant level as given in table lesson study: does it work for personal development of pre-service elt teachers? 71 no. 26 3. the table presents nearly one third of each participant’s quotations were associated with “teacher adaptability” code label except participant 3. the following quotation is the representative for the association between “teacher adaptability” code and related data segment. the activity should be a pair work activity because the classroom size is too big. in that way, we can also avoid chaos and the noise (the participant is reporting that the follow up activity should be adapted to pair work format on the basis of his/her observations in class observation sheet during rl four) (ext.3: 31). concerning the other codes, a significant impact on the participating preservice teachers was not observed as displayed by table 3. for the first participant, the codes were ordered as “self-awareness”, “teacher creativity”, “teacher rapport” and “selfconfidence” respectively on the basis of frequency count but the number of occurrences for each code label is quite rare. with respect to second participant findings, it was observed that “teacher creativity” code is ranked third in terms of impact on the basis of frequency distribution of the codes. although the impact is not as strong as “teacher judgement” and “teacher adaptability” labels, a considerable number of quotations were associated with “teacher creativity” code as presented in table 3. the number of quotations referenced with the code is 31 which corresponds to % 10 of the total number. the association of “teacher creativity” and the relevant data is exemplified in the following quote. we will divide the classroom into groups. we will arrange a carton box for each group. we will cover each box and they are going to be planets. we will distribute papers for each group to make paper airplanes. they will make up sentences using should and shouldn’t and throw the planes into the card box. those who have the most paper planes in the box will save the world and win the game. (the participant is suggesting a creative game for the follow up activity) (ext 12: 48). participant 3’s and 4’s findings represented similar distribution to the previous partners. the strongest impact was observed in “teacher judgement” code as mentioned before and “teacher adaptability” is ranked second depending on quotation numbers, their percentages to the total and coefficient values provided by the table. the following codes are not significant in terms of impact and were not discussed because of space concerns. “teacher creativity” was re-observed at a low level in participant 5’s findings and ranked third in the order of impact as presented by table 3. a total of 15 quotations was referenced with the code which is equal to % 8 of the total number of quotations associated with the codes within personal development theme. the following extract taken from participant 5’s data sources is representing the association between “teacher creativity” code and relevant data segment. i am thinking about something like sherlock holmes. he was pulling something with a rope. i don’t know why but it came to my mind. i am thinking of connecting it to an activity, ertan altinsoy 72 no. 26 but i don’t know if we can use it in the introduction or presentation. (the participant is taking the floor in the pilot study lesson planning meeting and commenting on an activity to include into the lesson plan. (ext. 19: 155). the code was followed by “self-awareness”, “teacher rapport” and “self-confidence” codes respectively but the impact is not significant as given in the table. participant 6’s findings presented different distribution in terms of impact as presented in table 3. although the impact is not strong, the code that is ranked third on the basis of frequency count is “teacher rapport”. the code was applied in 13 occasions according to code co-occurrence table whose percentage to the total is % 7. the following is a sample extract for the association between “teacher rapport” code and relevant data. i saw that there were some foreign students in the classroom and other students were saying something negatively. it seems as if they don’t like them. they didn’t engage in the research lesson. therefore, we have to solve this problem because it is clearly affecting their participation in the classroom. (ext.4: 101). the following code ranked fourth with respect to frequency distribution is “teacher creativity” as given in the table. the code appeared in 12 occasions and the percentage of the association is % 6,2 on the basis of total quotation number. the co-efficient value of the association is 0,02 which indicates a weak relationship between the code and the referenced quotations. i would like to suggest something. we can bring one more box into the classroom and we write “recycling box” on it. when the game is over, the students may throw those papers that they use for the game into the recycling box. that would be consistent with our rl theme (the participant is offering a unique idea to apply into the rl for the following rl) (ext.15: 42). the next code that is fifth in the rank order is “self-awareness” and the impact is very low. the code was associated with 10 quotations as displayed by the table and the number corresponds to % 5,1 of the total which is 193. the co-efficient value which is 0,02 is the same as the previous code quotation association. the extract below exemplifies the relation between “self-awareness” code and a selected quotation from participant 3. this process has had a great impact on my perceptions about teaching and education and on my professional route in terms of how to plan and teach a course on the basis of students’ needs and unexpected situations (ext.70: 1). the least grounded code concerning impact for the participants is “self-confidence” except participant 4. the code was applied on a few occasions for all the participants as displayed in table 3. in other words, the code has the lowest frequency level in terms of association with the quotations concerning personal development. lesson study: does it work for personal development of pre-service elt teachers? 73 no. 26 discussion this study aimed to investigate if lesson study intervention had an impact on the personal development of participating preservice elt teachers and the findings revealed lesson study is a vital professional development model leading to personal growth of prospective teachers which is consistent with the existing literature supporting strong positive impact of lesson study on the personal and professional development of both practicing and prospective teachers (sims & daniel, 2009; dudley, 2016; hart, alston , & murata, 2011; lewis & hurd, 2011; lewis, 2009). the study provides findings concerning personal development of pre-service teachers enabled by lesson study intervention. within this perspective, the study revealed similar findings with lewis (2009) who noted enhanced teacher learning leading to instructional improvement, knowledge about teaching, interpersonal relationships and personal growth that is triggered by lesson study model. the observation of five research lessons during recycling processes of planning and implementation provided opportunities for the participating six preservice elt teachers to make a variety of teaching decisions on the basis of their observations which contributed significantly to professional teaching judgement and teaching decision making skills. smith (as cited in bruniges, 2007, p. 244) stated that teacher judgement is not a random and ordinary teaching decision as it requires critical, reflective, and attentive process. within this perspective, lesson study provided situated learning opportunities for the participants that employed a variety of pedagogical judgements which deepened their pedagogical repertoire of teaching and helped them make sound judgements about teaching. the findings further revealed strong impact of lesson study process on the adaptability skills of the participating preservice elt teachers which requires ability to respond efficiently to ever-changing and dynamic classroom conditions. as corno (2008) and collie & martin (2016) suggested adaptability is a significant competency for effective teachers and professional development models should include activities encouraging teachers to employ their adaptability skills in the classroom. it was observed in the present study that lesson study provided an ideal ground for the participating preservice elt teachers that they practiced their adaptability skills constantly because of the nature of lesson study process which entailed reshaping lesson plans recurrently and teaching constructively on the basis of observation of student learning during the application of research lessons. significant changes were recorded in lesson study group members’ adaptability skills as the process proceeded. the group members were able to respond flexibly and effortlessly to students’ needs and changing circumstances in the classroom towards the end of the process. therefore, it is possible to claim that lesson study is an effective tool for contributing to prospective teachers’ adaptability skills (schipper, van der lans, de vries, goei, & van veen, 2020). ertan altinsoy 74 no. 26 in consistent with dudley’s (2015) statement “creativity is the sine qua non of lesson study” (p.19) the intervention fostered participating prospective teachers’ creativity at a certain level but the perceived impact was low as presented by the findings. it was observed that ongoing cycles of research lessons consisted of lesson planning meetings and post lesson discussions triggered teacher creativity, as lesson study process drove participants to reflect on the obstacles in front of the implementation of the research lessons effectively and find alternatives to solve them for the upcoming one. the process revealed that the participants were able to generate creative and extraordinary ideas for the research lessons during lesson planning meetings and associate them with the classroom activities which led to instructional improvement as observed. in this sense, the study offers similar findings with murooka’s (2007) ideas who suggested that the experimental nature of lesson study contributes significantly to teacher creativity. the results further represented that lesson study raised participants’ awareness about their strengths and weaknesses, but the perceived impact was not significant as revealed by the findings. especially, semi-structured interviews and reflective journals involved references to participants’ existing ill-formed beliefs about learning and teaching derived from early experiences, biases towards some learner types and emotional ups and downs. although the observed impact was low, it could be argued that lesson study also provides a ground for promoting awareness of self as teachers. lesson study also provided reasons for the prospective teachers to create a positive classroom atmosphere in order to establish strong emotional relationship with the students which could be attributed to student learning-oriented nature of lesson study. although the impact is not strong, some of the participants reported that lesson study intervention helped them to see the planned research lessons through the eyes of the students and feel empathy with them. as a result, they were better able to observe students’ learning and engagement in the classroom and raised awareness about students’ needs which aligns with the relevant literature (norwich & ylonen, 2015; murata, 2011; cajkler, wood, norton, & pedder, 2014). lastly, despite the limited impact on the basis of very few references, it could be suggested that lesson study may foster preservice teachers’ self-confidence. some participants strongly emphasized that lesson study reduced their concerns about being a teacher and encouraged them to feel brave and confident before getting into the classroom. in this respect, the study presented consistent findings with the existing literature investigated the effect of lesson study on the participating teachers’ selfconfidence and found correlating association (villalon, 2016; corcoran, 2011). lesson study: does it work for personal development of pre-service elt teachers? 75 no. 26 conclusion the findings of this study have significant implications for preservice teachers and initial teacher education programs. first of all, lesson study offers variety of valuable on-site opportunity for the prospective teachers who are considered to have variety of problems such as classroom management skills (wubbels, 2011), deficit based thinking (scheiner, 2023), dependence on textbooks (ruswick, 2015), etc. the present study revealed that lesson study has a significant potential to remedy these deficits. also, the participants benefited substantially from the advantages of working in a collaborative environment in which they plan the research lessons collegially and team-teach them. in this sense, lesson study provides a valuable professional learning community in which the prospective teachers benefit from the dialogue and discussions that expose their implicit beliefs about teaching, reflect on them, question and restructure them if necessary. additionally, lesson study relies on the idea of teacher learning through inquiry which serves a useful purpose for personal development of prospective teachers who experience serious emotional breakdowns, tensions and lack of confidence before beginning their professional journey (okan, 2002). in this sense, lesson study has potential to address student teachers’ main survival concerns with its focus on key teaching skills such as teaching judgement, adaptability, creativity and thus promoting self-awareness and self-confidence. ertan altinsoy 76 no. 26 references barbrina, e., chokshi, s., & fernandez, c. 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(2011). an international perspective on classroom management: what should prospective teachers learn?, teaching education, 22:2, 113-131, doi: 10.1080/10476210.2011.567838https://doi.org/10.1080/10476210.2011.567838 author: ertan altinsoy holds ph.d. in english language teaching and is currently working as the director of school of foreign languages at aksaray university. his current research interest are language teacher education, personal and professional development of language teachers and pre-service teacher training. he has numerous academic studies in national and international journals and has delivered presentations in many international conferences. orcid id: http://orcid.org/0000-0003-0187-5493 ertan altinsoy how to reference this article: altinsoy, e. (2023). lesson study: does it work for personal development of pre-service elt teachers?. gist – education and learning research journal, 26. https://doi.org/10.26817/16925777.1569 portada 26.pdf (p.1) gist 26 januaryjune 2023.pdf (p.2-189) enhancing permanence for vocabulary learning on 2nd grade students in turkey through music1 mejora de la permanencia en el aprendizaje de vocabulario en estudiantes de segundo grado en turquía a través de la música omer faruk tavsanli, abdullah kaldirim, and tayyar erdem gedikli2* istanbul aydin university, kutahya dumlupinar university, and bursa uludağ university, turkey 1 received: april 8th 2020/ accepted: april 12 2021 2 omerfaruktavsanli@gmail.com; abdullahkaldirim@gmail.com; erdemgedikli@gmail.com gist education and learning research journal. issn 1692-5777. no. 22 (january june, 2021). pp. 51-73. trends in elt masters’ programs 52 no. 22 abstract music plays an important role in students’ language development. because the process of acquiring and developing language skills of the individual and learning to make music work have many similarities. in this quasi-experimental study, teaching the word in l1 with music with the normal intelligence and development level of 2nd-grade students on the learning of the meaning of the word and ensuring the permanence of the word has been examined. a quasiexperimental design with the experiment and control group was used in the study. in the study words, whose meanings are unlikely to be known by the students, in contexts, and success tests prepared to measure these words’ meanings were used as data collection tools. the research was carried out with 43 second-grade students, and the data were analyzed with an anova test. according to the study results, it is concluded that the teaching of vocabulary with music, both the meaning of the word and providing the persistence of learning, was found to be useful. besides, when the permanence of the words whose meaning is learned is examined, it was revealed that teaching vocabulary with music also supports permanent learning. keywords: music, vocabulary teaching, learning the meaning of the word, permanence, elementary grades, mother tongue resumen la música juega un papel crucial en el desarrollo del lenguaje de los estudiantes. porque el proceso de adquirir y desarrollar conocimientos, aptitudes así como habilidades y el proceso de saber como hacer que la música tienen muchas similitudes. en este estudio cuasiexperimental, se examinó el efecto de la enseñanza de la palabra en l1 con música con el nivel normal de inteligencia y desarrollo de los alumnos de 2º grado sobre el aprendizaje del significado de la palabra y la garantía de la permanencia de la palabra. en las palabras de estudio, cuyos significados apenas son conocidos por los estudiantes, en contextos; y pruebas de éxito preparadas para medir los significados de estas palabras fueron utilizadas como herramienta de recolección de datos. la investigación se realizó con 43 estudiantes de segundo grado y los datos se analizaron con la prueba anova. de acuerdo con los resultados del estudio se concluye que se encontró útil la enseñanza de las palabras con música tanto para el aprendizaje del significado de la palabra como para su sostenibilidad. además, cuando se examina la permanencia o la constancia de las operaciones se reveló que enseñar vocabulario con música también apoya el aprendizaje permanente. palabras clave: música, enseñanza de vocabulario, aprendizaje del significado de la palabra, permanencia, grados elementales, lengua materna vocabulary learning through music tavsanli, kaldirim, & gedikli 53 no. 22 resumo a música cumpre um papel crucial no desenvolvimento da linguagem dos estudantes. o processo de aquisição e desenvolvimento de conhecimentos e aptidões, assim como habilidades no processo de saber como fazer música têm muitas similitudes. neste estudo quase experimental, examinou-se o efeito do ensino da palavra em l1 com música dentro do nível normal de inteligência e desenvolvimento dos alunos de 2º grado sobre a aprendizagem do significado da palavra e a garantia da permanência da palavra. no estudo se utilizaram como ferramentas de coleta de dados palavras cujos significados provavelmente não sejam conhecidos pelos estudantes, em contextos, e provas de sucesso preparadas para medir o significado destas palavras. a pesquisa foi realizada com 43 estudantes de segundo grau e os dados se analisaram com a prova anova. de acordo com os resultados do estudo se concluiu que se encontrou útil o ensino das palavras com música tanto para a aprendizagem do significado da palavra quanto para sua sustentabilidade. além disso, quando se examina a permanência ou a constância das operações, se revelou que ensinar vocabulário com música também apoia a aprendizagem permanente. palavras chave: música, ensino de vocabulário, aprendizagem do significado da palavra, permanência, graus elementares, língua materna vocabulary learning through music tavsanli, kaldirim, & gedikli 54 no. 22 introduction when educational researches conducted in recent years are examined, it is seen that multi-disciplinary studies come to the fore (gruenewald, 2003). the fact that the teaching activities are specific to a single area is insufficient in academic and general academic success in that area. for this reason, it is more challenging to reach educational goals (stubbs, zimmerman, warner, & myers, 2018). at this point, it is essential to configure the areas to be established while teaching correctly. because these areas will be included in the teaching processes together, a relationship must be established in the student’s mind cognitively. it is known that the use of artistic works in language teaching is a correct structure. music is one of the areas recommended for language teaching (feld & fox, 1994). music should be an essential factor in language teaching. with music’s help, students express themselves more enjoyably, giving more advantage for communicating with others and expressing themselves, and getting relaxed (linnavalli, putkinen, lipsanen, huotilainen, & tervaniemi, 2018). studies show that continuing together music and language teaching has many positive results (winters & griffin, 2014). because while students learn something through music, they also enjoy this process. at this point, the fact that the students were entertained in the teaching process increased the success. in addition, since music is an area in which language skills are used, it is considered useful for students’ language development (jahan, 2017). literature review little children are naturally inclined to action, clapping, dancing, and having fun with music. it is stated that this disposition originates from the nature of the child having music and rhythm (winters & griffin, 2014). this means that when a child is singing and tapping out a rhythm, start dancing upon hearing music; it is a product of the child’s inner motivation and his/her desire. thus, it is thought to be useful that this self-motivated activity of the child is combined with language teaching; because language learning shows a dull characteristic, especially for the little aged children. besides that, language teaching only by the use of a single method is often insufficient. within this context carrying out music and language teaching would enable both fields to be more permanently acquired and the process to be more fun. it is known that music and language development have a meaningful relationship. streeter (1976) suggested that newborn infants have common linguistic reactions even though they were born to different geographical regions. chomsky stated that infants are born with an innate linguistic capacity in the later years, and their language development follows similar steps even in different communities. after chomsky, locke vocabulary learning through music tavsanli, kaldirim, & gedikli 55 no. 22 asserted that infants have an innate capacity to distinguish sounds, including musical sounds. many researchers stated that language and music capacities are innate, and they have an inseparable connection (fedorenke, patel, casasanto, winaver, & gibson, 2009; peretz, 2006). from this point of view, language and music are more meaningful in consideration of the human’s biological structure, and it can be concluded that they will support educational studies in this field. it is more important to maintain these two areas interactively, especially in primary school age. because many skills for children of primary school age are very open to development. the primary school period is very critical for the development of students’ language skills too. language skills developed in this period will positively reflect students’ academic success and social relations in the future. thus, it is considered important to use music activities that students have fun to improve their language skills in primary school period (savitri & rahman, 2016). vocabulary learning one of the most important aspects of language learning is vocabulary learning; it starts with birth and continues until the end. in other words, the person’s words throughout his/her life (celis nova, onatra chavarro, & zubieta córdoba, 2017) affect the whole life. however, a person learns much more words during childhood. while the word learning process before formal education is mostly family and environment-centered, it takes a more systematical form with the introduction of the curriculum at the primary school. this aims to increase the number of words required for the learning process and behavioral change. in addition to this, words are crucial for understanding courses, framing correct communication, and actively using socializing skills. many researchers agree that vocabulary learning is one of the most important steps of mother tongue acquisition (fan, 2003; gu, 2003; ma 2009). teaching words have high importance concerning language acquisition. because of this, it is recommended to use different methods and techniques while teaching vocabulary. the first and most classic method is using a dictionary. when students encounter an unknown word in classes, they look it up from their dictionaries and see these words in sentences. then, they use those words in their sentences. another method used in teaching vocabulary is using visual prompts. while teaching a word with visual prompts, a visual prompt containing the meaning of the word is shown to the students, and then the meaning is given to them. thereby, students can visually see the word which they have just learned. the verbal explanation is also a commonly used technique in teaching vocabulary. in this technique, the teacher explains the meaning of the word verbally; and synonyms, vocabulary learning through music tavsanli, kaldirim, & gedikli 56 no. 22 antonyms, and homonyms are found with the students’ interaction. context-based vocabulary teaching is a technique for teaching vocabulary. in this technique, words are given within a context, and the meanings are comprehended by the students (gür, 2014). apart from these techniques mentioned above, another technique used in teaching vocabulary is teaching vocabulary through music. building bridges between music and vocabulary skills it has been found that, since there is a close resemblance between musical and linguistic structures, children singing songs has a fast development in many linguistic skills, especially vocabulary skills (cohen, 2010; montgomery, 2002; piro & ortiz, 2009). this situation reveals that teaching vocabulary through music is useful. montgomery (2002) claimed that music and language are parallel with each other in terms of grammatical structure, phoneme, syntax, and semantics. it is thought that this parallel structure helps accelerate students’ language development when their teaching vocabulary is combined with music. also, it has been proved that singing and music books help improve students’ vocabulary learning (montgomery, 2012). besides, music has a profound effect on memory (de groot, 2006). researchers have reported that music increases memory power more than many other methods. this effect also exists for vocabulary teaching. even though this effect is mainly used in l2 learning (de groot, 2006; engh, 2013; zeromskaite, 2014) it can be considered a factor that explains the better understanding of words for vocabulary teaching in the mother tongue. students who continuously repeat words through music understand the meaning of words and their use in sentences better. this is a good way for them to learn words better. this situation, as a whole, created a curiosity about the effect of combining vocabulary teaching and music on turkish students’ vocabulary learning. however, it is also known that teaching vocabulary through music has some challenges for the teachers. first of all, in teaching vocabulary through music, writing lyrics and composing them to teach unknown words is a hard task that requires mastery; lyrics should both give the meaning of the word and be in line with students’ level. besides that, lyrics must be composed to be sung with the students, which is a time-consuming task. these challenges may be hard to overcome; however, they can be achieved by cooperating with teachers of different disciplines. for example, a class teacher can cooperate with the music teacher to teach vocabulary through music. in this way, the responsibility can be divided, and the process does not take too long for just one teacher; and this also improves teachers’ interdisciplinary skills. vocabulary learning through music tavsanli, kaldirim, & gedikli 57 no. 22 justification of the study when the literature concerns the relationship between music and language is carefully examined, there is a belief that it should be useful to carry out these studies together. however, the challenge of carrying out these studies together arises as a restricting factor. besides, it is stated that studies on music and language acquisition are mostly carried out with individuals who have literacy disadvantages like dyslexia (welch, saunders, hobsbaum, & himonides, 2012). also, few studies on music and vocabulary teaching at the primary school level (ho, 2017). it is seen that studies on this subject are mostly on second language teaching (jahan, 2017, palacios & chapetón, 2014). in this context, studies are needed to examine the effects of teaching vocabulary with music on learning the meaning of the word and ensuring its permanence in terms of revealing how it will be handled systematically. also, the fact that this study has been carried out with have normal intelligence and development level students increases its importance. in this context, in this study, the effect of teaching words with music with the normal intelligence and development level of 2nd-grade students on the learning of the meaning of the word and ensuring the permanence of the word has been examined. method research design in this research, a quasi-experimental design with the experimental and control group was used for collecting, analyzing, and interpret the data. we examined the effect of teaching vocabulary through music with the normal intelligence and development level of 2nd-grade students in turkey on learning the meaning of the word in mother tongue and ensuring the permanence of the word. researchers are to study with predetermined, existing groups rather than artificial ones developed by them in educational studies. the reason for this is it is not possible to create artificial groups within the continuing education process. researchers use existing ready groups since they cannot randomize students to create artificial groups. in those studies, while the experiment and control groups are randomly determined, these groups’ subjects cannot be randomly chosen since it is not possible to create artificial groups during the education process. especially for the studies carried out with students in formal education, appointing students to experiment and control groups would create setbacks for the education process. because of this, pedagogues prefer predetermined, not artificial groups and quasi-experimental designs (creswell, 2012; fraenkel et al., 2011; mertens, 2010). the researcher randomly appointed an experiment and a control group among similar groups with similar properties vocabulary learning through music tavsanli, kaldirim, & gedikli 58 no. 22 according to analysis results. thereby, it is aimed to minimize threats on internal validity brought to the research field by the nature of the quasi-experimental design. in this study, at first quantitative data collected, and the effect of teaching words with music on 2nd-grade students’ learning the meaning of the word and ensuring the word’s permanence has been examined. unusually, it has been examined whether the independent variable (teaching vocabulary through music) affects the dependent variable (2nd-grade students’ learning the meaning of the word and ensuring the permanence of the word). below, the figure of the quasi-experimental design has been shown. table 1. the figure of quasi-experimental design determining groups pretest experimental process post-test permanence test m g1 o1 x o2 o3 g2 o4 o5 o6 note: m: matching g1: experimental group g2: control group x: teaching vocabulary through music studies o1, o4: pre-test scores o2, o4: post-test scores o3, o6: permanence test scores study group during the 2017-2018 education year spring term, the study was carried out with 43 primary school 2nd-grade students in bursa province’s nilüfer district in turkey. since the quasi-experimental design was used in this study, population and sample were not determined; instead, study groups were determined. pre-testing was carried out in determining the experimental and control groups, and the two closest groups were determined for the study. the school where the study was carried out was designated on a volunteer basis. before the study, class teachers of nilüfer district were consulted and informed that a study on the effect of teaching words with music with the normal intelligence and development level of 2nd-grade students on learning the meaning of the word and ensuring the permanence of the word will be carried out. they were also informed about the study process. after that, a school was designated for the study according to these meetings with the teachers. a meeting with the teachers was also arranged at the designated school. following the teachers’ feedback, two teachers who are voluntary and can carry out teaching vocabulary through music according to determining process procedures in their classes were chosen among them. required permissions were taken for the study. vocabulary learning through music tavsanli, kaldirim, & gedikli 59 no. 22 data collection tools in the study, words, whose meanings are unlikely to be known by the students, in contexts, and success test prepared to measure these words’ meanings were used as data collection tools. the questions of the test were prepared as multiple answer questions, true-false questions, and open-ended questions. in the pre-test, post-test, and permanence test, two same texts were used; and 12 questions -6 questions for each wordabout two words, the same words in each text, in those texts were asked (see appendix 1). while preparing the success test, qualifications needed to be fulfilled by the students were examined, and in accordance with these expectations, questions prepared to test the knowledge of the word meaning, the awareness of the contextual usage of the word, correctly using the word in a sentence, knowing synonyms, homonyms, and far-linked words, and using the word in association with the daily life situations. when preparing the questions, the dimensions of remembering, understanding, and implementing the meaning of the word are considered. after preparing the questions, two experts in the field of class teaching and one expert in the field of turkish teaching were asked for their opinions; and the data collection tool was finalized in consideration of their feedback. before the beginning of the study, the data collection tool was applied in a class by a volunteered teacher. at the end of this pilot scheme, the data collection tool was concluded to be applicable in the study. data analysis normality tests were completed to identify the pattern of variables. the scores obtained from the students in the groups were analyzed with an anova test. the difference between pre-test/post-test and permanence results of the experimental group and the difference between pre-test/post-test and permanence results of the control group were analyzed with the bonferroni test. type 1 error was pegged at 5 % level (p< .05). for the discrete and continuous variables in the study, supplementary variables included mean, standard deviation, standard error, median, minimum, maximum, number, and percentage. the instruction procedure in this study, the texts were read, and the meaning of the selected words was asked to the students. later, the meaning of these words was explained, and the students were asked to use the words in sentences. after this stage, sentences create about these words were written in their notebooks. the studies so far have been similar in the vocabulary learning through music tavsanli, kaldirim, & gedikli 60 no. 22 control group. subsequently, the songs prepared about the words were played to the students in the experimental group, and they were sung many times with them. the songs’ meaning was discussed, and an effort was made for the students to memorize the songs. in this process, it was observed that the students also sang outside of the classroom, for example during the breaks and after school. these operations were not performed in the control group. the implementation process after the school’s designation, where the study would be conducted, texts and words to be used in those texts were determined. concerning these words, success tests were prepared following the processes mentioned in the data collection tools section. after that, composing songs, which would reflect the meanings of those words, started. during this process, firstly, lyrics were written with the help of an academician in music teaching. it was our priority for the lyrics both to reflect the meaning and show its contextual usage (see appendix 2). after writing the lyrics, music and rhythm were added, and songs were recorded in a professional studio. then, the songs were shared with the experimental group teacher; and s/he was instructed about how to use them. the teacher was told at which stage of the lesson she would perform these songs. after this process, pre-tests were first done, and later texts were treated with both the experimental and control groups. while in the control group, the teacher taught the words according to the methods and techniques that should be followed in the turkish lesson (primary and secondary school 1-8 grades) education program (ministry of national education [mone], 2015); in the experimental group, the words were taught along with the songs. in this process, a lesson program was prepared for both teachers to reduce the effect caused by the teacher, and they were warned not to go out of the curriculum. finally, for both groups, post-tests were implemented. after the post-tests, we waited for some time, and after five months, permanence tests were conducted on both groups; and the study was concluded. to control the external variables that may affect the research’s dependent variable, it was tried to ensure that all the activities except the program conducted throughout the application were the same. this issue was discussed with teachers and school administration. thus, external factors that may affect the research result were minimized. findings depending on the research’s purpose, statistical analyses were performed on the data obtained from the measurement tools through the spss program, and the vocabulary learning through music tavsanli, kaldirim, & gedikli 61 no. 22 findings obtained are shared below. in this framework, the students’ mean scores in the experimental and control groups from the word success test were compared. descriptive statistics about the vocabulary pre-test and post-test scores of the students in the experimental and control groups are given in table 2. table 2. descriptive statistics of the students in the experimental and control groups word success pre-test and post-test average scores test groups n x standard deviation pre-test control 21 30,80 7,64 experiment 22 29,18 5,32 post-test control 21 33,09 4,49 experiment 22 38,90 5,01 permanence test control 21 33,04 2,85 experiment 22 39,22 3,16 when table 2 is examined, is examined, the experimental group students’ average scores in the vocabulary teaching activities before the experiment were = 29.18; this value was = 38.90 after the instruction process. while the average scores of the control group students before the experiment were = 30.80, it increased to = 33.09 after the courses were carried out within the turkish lesson curriculum framework. when the average of permanence test is analyzed, it is seen that the average of the experimental group increased to = 39.22 and the average of the control group decreased to = 33.04. to determine whether the change between the pre-test, post-test, and permanence test mean scores of the experimental and control groups was statistically significant, an anova test was performed for mixed measurements. more than one t-test can be done to make these comparisons, but as the number of analyzes performed increases, the error margin of t-tests will increase exponentially. for this reason, the anova test was preferred for mixed measurements. the analysis results for this test are given below. one of the prerequisites that must be met to provide reliable results for the anova test for mixed measurements is that the scores of the dependent variable show the normal distribution in each group (büyüköztürk, 2012, p. 79). to determine whether the dependent variable scores show the normal distribution in each group, the skewness coefficient (sc) and kurtosis coefficient (kc) of the data were examined. the data on the skewness and kurtosis coefficients of the students’ pre-test and posttest scores are given in table 3. vocabulary learning through music tavsanli, kaldirim, & gedikli 62 no. 22 table 3. descriptive statistics of the students’ pre-test and post-test average scores groups tests n x standard deviation sc kc control pre-test 21 30,80 1,66 ,367 -,420 post-test 21 33,09 ,98 -,171 -,577 permanence test 21 33,04 ,62 -,067 -1,154 experiment pre-test 22 29,18 1,13 ,834 ,117 post-test 22 38,90 1,06 -,617 -1,154 permanence test 22 39,68 ,44 -,161 -,704 the fact that skewness and kurtosis’s coefficient is close to zero indicates that the distribution is approaching normality. when the distribution is normal, skewness and kurtosis values will be zero (tabachnick & fidell, 2014, p. 113; field, 2018, p. 345). however, george and mallery (2019, p. 114) stated that the coefficient of skewness and kurtosis between 2 and +2 is acceptable in terms of the normality assumption. when table 3 is examined, it is seen that the skewness and kurtosis coefficients of both experimental and control groups are distributed between -2 and +2. based on these values, it can be said that the data obtained from the experimental and control groups show normal distribution. another assumption that the anova test for mixed measurements must be met to provide reliable results is that the variances of the groups are homogeneous in each measurement performed more than once (can, 2013, p. 222). accordingly, the levene test was conducted to determine whether there is a significant difference between the variances of the pre-test, post-test, and permanence test measurements of the experimental and control groups. the results for the levene test are given in table 4. table 4. levene test results on the homogeneity of variances of word success pretest, post-test and permanence measurements tests f sd1 sd2 p pre-test 3,719 1 41 ,061 post-test ,337 1 41 ,565 permanence test 2,496 1 41 ,122 when the levene test results given in table 4 are examined, it is seen that there is no difference between the variances of the pre-test, post-test, and permanence test measurements of the experimental and control groups [fpre-test(1-41)= 3.719; fpost-test(1-41)= 0.337; fpermanence(1-41)= 2.496; p> .05]. vocabulary learning through music tavsanli, kaldirim, & gedikli 63 no. 22 the anova test’s final requirement for mixed measurements to provide reliable results is the assumption of sphericity and no significant difference between the covariances of the groups for binary combinations of measurement groups. the situation was checked with the mauchly sphericity test and box’s test of equality of covariance matrices test. the results for mauchly sphericity test are given in table 5, and the box’s test of equality of covariance matrices test are shown in table 6. table 5. word success pre-test, post-test and permanence measurements sphericity test results measurement mauchly w x2 sd p greenhouse geisser correction huynh-feldt correction word success test ,598 20,556 2 ,000 ,713 ,750 according to the mauchly sphericity test results given in table 5, when the values obtained for the repeated measurements taken from the word success test are examined, it is seen that the sphericity assumption cannot be achieved (w(2)= .598, p< .05). for this reason, while analyzing the group’s effect regarding the scores obtained from this test, greenhouse-geisser correction was made, and the values calculated by spss were used. table 6. box’s m test results regarding equality of covariance matrix box’s m 9,923 f 1,522 df1 6 df2 12102,089 p ,166 according to the analysis results in table 6, it can be said that there is no significant difference between the covariances of the experimental and control groups [f(6-12102,089)= 9.923; p> .05]. all these findings show that all of the prerequisites required to provide reliable results for the anova test for mixed measurements are met. accordingly, anova analysis was conducted for mixed measurements regarding whether the difference between the mean and pre-test, post-test, and permanence test mean scores of the experimental and control groups were statistically significant. the results are presented in table 7. vocabulary learning through music tavsanli, kaldirim, & gedikli 64 no. 22 table 7. anova results regarding the vocabulary success pre-test, post-test and permanence test scores of the students in the experimental and control groups source of variance sum of squares df mean square f p between-subjects 1713,581 42 group (individual/group) 419,309 1 419,309 13,283 ,001 error 1294,272 41 31,568 within-subjects 1551,569 61,3749 measure 1099,835 1,427 770,895 27,237 ,000 (pre-test/post-test/permanence test) 445,199 1,427 312,049 11,025 ,000 group*measure 1655,592 58,495 28,303 error 3265,15 103,349 the results of the anova analysis in table 7 show that the group effect of the students in the experimental and control groups on the mean scores of the word success pre-test, post-test and permanence test is significant [f(1-41)= 13.283; p< .05]. based on this finding, it can be said that there is a significant difference between the averages of the experimental and control groups’ word success test without making a distinction in the form of pre-test, post-test, and permanence test measurements. as a result of the anova analysis, it was found that the difference between the mean scores obtained from the pre-test, post-test, and permanence test measurements conduct in the study within the scope of the research was statistically significant [f(1,42758,495)= 27.237; p< .05]. this finding shows that when no group distinction is made, the students’ word success varies depending on the experimental process. also, as a result of the examination of the common effect (group * measurement effect) that is important for the research within the scope of this analysis, the vocabulary success of all students participating in the semi-experimental research differed statistically significantly from before the experimental process to the post-experimental process, that is, the factors of repetitive measurements were read by being different process groups. common effects on comprehension success were found to be significant [f(1,427-58,495)= 11.025; p< .05]. according to these findings obtained from anova analysis, the bonferroni test, which is one of the post-hoc binary comparison tests, was carried out to determine between which groups the difference was significant depending on the measurements between the groups. the bonferroni test is a type of multiple comparison test used in statistical analysis. this test should be used when performing multiple comparative hypothesis tests. the results for the bonferroni test are given in table 8. table 8. bonferroni test results regarding vocabulary success pre-test, post-test, and retention test scores of the experimental and control groups vocabulary learning through music tavsanli, kaldirim, & gedikli 65 no. 22 experiment control pre-test (j) post-test (j) permanence test (j) pre-test (j) post-test (j) permanence test (j) experiment pre-test (i) ---9,727* -10,500* -1,628 -3,913 -3,866 post-test (i) 9,727* ---,773 8,100* 5,814* 5,861* permanence test (i) 10,500* ,773 --8,872* 6,587* 6,634* control pre-test (i) 1,628 -8,100* -8,872* ---2,286 -2,238 post-test (i) 3,913 5,814* -6,587* 2,286 --0,048 permanence test (i) 3,866 -5,861* -6,634* 2,238 -0,048 --when the bonferroni comparison results in table 8 are analyzed, it is seen that there is no significant difference between the pre-test mean scores of the experiment (= 29.18) and control group (= 30.80) students. based on this result, it can be said that the groups included in the research are equal in terms of word success before the experimental study. after performing the experimental procedures, it is understood that the difference between the experimental (= 38.90) and the control group (= 33.09) post-test mean scores is statistically significant. the same is true for the permanence test results. when the results were examined, it was found that there was a significant difference between the mean scores of the permanence test of the experiment (= 39.68) and control group (= 33.04) students. the findings obtained as a result of the analysis are also shown in the graph of change. the change graph for the anova test for mixed measurements is given in figure 1. figure 1. the word success average line chart of students in the experimental and control groups vocabulary learning through music tavsanli, kaldirim, & gedikli 66 no. 22 when figure 1 is analyzed, it can be seen that the mean scores of students in the experimental and control groups increased in the semi-experimental application process. after 120 days of semi-experimental practice, the students’ word success score increased in the experimental group, but the control group’s average score decreased. conclusion, discussion, and suggestions since it is stated that studies literature on music and language acquisition is mostly carried out with individuals who have literacy disadvantage (like dyslexia); in this study, the effect of teaching words with music has the normal intelligence and development level students that is, does not need special education on the learning of the meaning of the word and ensuring the permanence of the word has been examined. according to the study results, it is concluded that the teaching of vocabulary with music, both the meaning of the word and providing the permanence of learning, was found to be useful. tripney (2010), with the meta-analysis study that he carried out, emphasized the link between music and learning; and investigated how teaching music affects other fields of learning. within this research scope, twenty-four studies have been examined; and music-related teaching has been seen to be useful for audio awareness, vocabulary knowledge, and word fluency. dockrell, stuart, and king (2000) made audio-book reading sessions with the program they prepared for the students. at the end of the study, they concluded that it had a meaningful difference in vocabulary knowledge and understanding what they read. in their study with 46 students between the ages of six and nine, corrigal and trainor (2011) stated a relationship between understanding what the students read and the length of their music education. and, also, gromko (2005), register et al. (2007), and piro and ortis (2009) stated that music education affects understanding what one reads. stanley and hughes (1997) also revealed that music impacts students’ writing skills. when all these studies are considered, it can be concluded that music can be useful for skills related to different dimensions of native language education. it is noticeable that some reasons for the improvement are stressed when we analyze the results of studies on the effect of music on language learning. first of all, teaching with music has many advantages; and the improvement seen on the students can be transferred to other fields and helps students’ language skills be improved one of the most remarked advantages. devlin and seidel (2009) stated that the music education systematically given to the students might help students to develop many skills that they can use at many different levels throughout their lives. these skills include creativity, connections between different situations, esthetical awareness, and self-expressiveness (mcintre, 2007). vocabulary learning through music tavsanli, kaldirim, & gedikli 67 no. 22 one of the reasons why teaching music helps improving language skills, especially vocabulary learning, is that the vocalization of symbols while reading resembles the process of vocalization in music. for example, the process of reading notes and vocalizing them while playing a musical instrument or singing resembles following and understanding symbols while reading (hamsen & bernstore. 2002). similarly, both reading notes in music and vocalizing letters while the normal reading process goes from left to right. this factor is thought to be the leading, supporting factor why music is useful for many skills like vocabulary learning and reading (lloyd, 1978). morrow (1996) defended the idea that music can be very useful for vocabulary teaching. morrow especially stressed the affective aspects of music on children and claimed that enjoyable songs might help students learn the meaning of words. woodall and ziembroski (2004) stressed that words learned while listening to songs could be a resourceful vocabulary learning unit. when this study is evaluated and other studies in the literature, it can be concluded that music is useful in developing a lot of skills besides understanding what has been read and vocabulary learning. however, as we mentioned in the introduction, the scarcity of studies conducted with normal students is highly remarkable. so, studies conducted with students of normal intelligence and development levels on the effects of music on language skills are needed more. besides, in this study, the effect of music on learning the meaning of the word and ensuring the permanence of the word has been examined. yet, it is suggested for other studies to be conducted on the possible effects of teaching words with music with the normal intelligence and development level of students on the learning of the meaning of the word and ensuring the permanence of the word to be examined. besides, the studies are recommended to be emphasizing students’ affective aspects and what they experienced during the process. in this respect, it is thought to be important that, after the students are taught music, the qualitative analysis should be done about what they experienced and how they felt. according to the studies conducted, it is thought to be useful to combine music with other teaching fields instead of being a separate lesson. within this context, it shouldn’t be forgotten that academicians, politicians, and pedagogues, who arrange education programs, have a big responsibility to integrate music and art activities with other classes. limitations of the study it is also known that teaching vocabulary with music has difficulties for teachers. first of all, writing and composing lyrics for words with unknown meaning in word teaching with music is a difficult task that requires expertise. because it requires both written lyrics to give the meaning of the word, and these words should be prepared according to students’ age levels. apart from this, it takes time to compose the written song and make it readable with students. even such compelling reasons can make this technique difficult to use, but it can be achieved through cooperation and teachers’ vocabulary learning through music tavsanli, kaldirim, & gedikli 68 no. 22 help working in different disciplines. for example, a classroom teacher can practice the word teaching technique with music and the school’s music teacher. in this way, both the tasks are shared, and the responsibility is shared among the teachers, and the process is not too long for a teacher, and the teachers’ interdisciplinary working skills develop. apart from this, the sample size is small for this research, which is considered a limitation. for this reason, it is recommended to work with a larger sample size in future studies. vocabulary learning through music tavsanli, kaldirim, & gedikli 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(2012) literacy through music: a research evaluation of the new london orchestra’s literacy through music programme. london: international music education research centre. https://doi. org/10.13140/2.1.2629.3447 winters, k. l., & griffin, s. (2014). singing is a celebration of language: using music to enhance young children’s vocabularies. language and literacy, 16(3), 78-91. https://doi.org/10.20360/g2zk5x woodall, l., & ziembroski, b. (2004). promoting literacy through music. retrieved from: https://www.songsforteaching.com/lb/literacymusic.htm zeromskaite, i. (2014). the potential role of music in second language learning: a review article. journal of european psychology students, 5(3), 78-88. vocabulary learning through music tavsanli, kaldirim, & gedikli 73 no. 22 authors *ömer faruk tavşanlı is an assistant professor in the faculty of education at istanbul aydin university in turkey. he completed his phd in elementary education at bursa uludag university in turkey. his research interests include literacy, primary reading and writing, and turkish language education. orcid: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1366-1679 abdullah kaldırım is dr. in the faculty of education at kutahya dumlupinar university in turkey. he completed her phd in department of turkish education at gazi university in turkey. his research interests include literacy, turkish language education, and statistics in education. orcid: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0582-4159 tayyar erdem gedikli is an instructor in the faculty of education at bursa uludağ university in turkey. his research interests include music education, children songs and teacher training. he composed hundreds of children songs. orcid: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9582-5384 how to reference this article: tavsanli, o. f., kaldirim, a., & gedikli, t. e. (2021). enhancing permanence on vocabulary learning in 2nd grade students’ through music. gist – education and learning research journal, 22(1), 51-73. https://doi.org/10.26817/16925777.843 vocabulary learning through music tavsanli, kaldirim, & gedikli the effects of pronunciation anxiety and motivation on english learners’ willingness to communicate1 los efectos de la ansiedad de pronunciación y la motivación en la voluntad de comunicarse de los estudiantes de inglés zahra alimorad, farshad adib2 shiraz university, iran 1 received: january 27th, 2022 / accepted: november 19th, 2022 2 zahra.alimorad@shirazu.ac.ir, farshad.adib.fa@gmail.com gist education and learning research journal. issn 1692-5777. no. 25 (july december, 2025). pp. 41-62. 42 no. 25 abstract the present quantitative study intended to investigate the effect of iranian efl learners’ pronunciation anxiety (pa) and pronunciation motivation (pm) on their l2 willingness to communicate (l2 wtc) in english classes. additionally, it aimed at identifying which of these two independent variables (pa or pm) could better predict their l2 wtc. to these aims, a convenience sample of 134 upper-intermediate efl learners were recruited from two private language institutes in one of the large cities of iran. their proficiency level had already been determined by the institutes using written and oral placement tests. to gather the necessary data, three questionnaires, namely, baran-lucarz’s (2017) pa, and pm, and simić’s (2014) wtc questionnaires were used. descriptive and inferential statistics were utilized to answer the research question of the study. findings indicated that both variables under study, pa and pm, had significant correlations with learners’ l2 wtc. however, although results suggested that both independent variables predicted the learners’ l2 wtc, pa was found to be a stronger predictor. implications of the study findings and suggestions for further research are also offered. key words: efl learners, pronunciation anxiety, pronunciation motivation, willingness to communicate. resumen el presente estudio cuantitativo pretende investigar el efecto de la ansiedad de pronunciación (pa) y la motivación de pronunciación (pm) de los estudiantes iraníes de efl en su disposición a comunicarse en l2 (l2 wtc) en las clases de inglés. además, tuvo como objetivo identificar cuál de estas dos variables independientes (pa o pm) podría predecir mejor su l2 wtc. con estos objetivos, se reclutó una muestra de conveniencia de 134 estudiantes de efl de nivel intermedio alto de dos institutos de idiomas privados en una de las grandes ciudades de irán. su nivel de competencia ya había sido determinado por los institutos utilizando pruebas de ubicación escritas y orales. para recopilar los datos necesarios, se utilizaron tres cuestionarios, a saber, pa y pm de baran-lucarz (2017), y los cuestionarios wtc de simić (2014). se utilizó estadística descriptiva e inferencial para responder a la pregunta de investigación del estudio. los hallazgos indicaron que ambas variables bajo estudio, pa y pm, tenían correlaciones significativas con el wtc l2 de los alumnos. sin embargo, aunque los resultados sugirieron que ambas variables independientes predijeron el wtc l2 de los alumnos, se encontró que pa era un predictor más fuerte. también se ofrecen implicaciones de los hallazgos del estudio y sugerencias para futuras investigaciones.  palabras clave: estudiantes de efl, ansiedad de pronunciación, motivación de pronunciación, voluntad de comunicarse.  the effects of pronunciation anxiety and motivation on english’ learners alimorad and adib 43 no. 25 resumo: o presente estudo quantitativo pretende pesquisar o efeito da ansiedade de pronunciação (pa) e a motivação de pronunciação (pm) dos estudantes iranianos de efl na sua disposição a comunicar-se em l2 (l2 wtc) nas aulas de inglês. além disso, teve como objetivo identificar qual destas duas variáveis independentes (pa ou pm) poderia predizer melhor sua l2 wtc. com estes objetivos, reclutou-se uma amostra de conveniência de 134 estudantes de efl de nível intermédio alto de dois institutos de idiomas particulares em uma das grandes cidades do irã. seu nível de competência já tinha sido determinado pelos institutos utilizando provas de localização escritas e orais. para recopilar os dados necessários, foram utilizados três questionários, a saber, pa e pm de baran-lucarz (2017), e os questionários wtc de simić (2014). utilizou-se estatística descritiva e inferencial para responder à pergunta de pesquisa do estudo. as descobertas indicaram que ambas variáveis sob estudo, pa e pm, tinham correlações significativas com o wtc l2 dos alunos. porém, mesmo que os resultados sugeriram que ambas variáveis independentes predissessem o wtc l2 dos alunos, encontrou-se que pa era um prognosticador mais forte. também se oferecem implicações das descobertas do estudo e sugestões para futuras pesquisas. palavras chave: estudantes de efl, ansiedade de pronunciação, motivação de pronunciação, vontade de comunicar-se. the effects of pronunciation anxiety and motivation on english’ learners alimorad and adib 44 no. 25 introduction with the growing demand for the use of english for social interactions worldwide, influenced by globalization as well as the development of communicative language teaching (clt), communication has become the ultimate goal of language learning for many l2 learners (al-murtadha, 2017). yet, learners need to be not only able to interact with other people but also willing to communicate in the l2. according to clément et al. (2003, p. 191), “the most immediate determinant of l2 use” is willingness to communicate (wtc). given this perceived importance of wtc in l2 pedagogy, during the past decades, different scholars have attempted to define it; for instance, macintyre et al. (1998) viewed it as readiness to participate in a particular discourse at a proper time with other interlocutors using a second language. mccroskey and richmond (1990), on the other hand, considered it as an individual’s propensity to twitch communication when free to do so. growing evidence demonstrates the effect of various communicative, linguistic and social variables on wtc. some of these variables which have already been identified in previous research include “the state of communicative self-confidence, desire to communicate with a specific person; self-confidence, intergroup and interpersonal motivation; communicative competence, social attitudes, and intergroup attitudes; and personality and intergroup climate” (ghonsooly et al., 2012, p. 198). as one of the variables influencing wtc, anxiety has garnered much serious attention in the field of second language acquisition since the 1970s. after the introduction of language anxiety (la), a plethora of studies were conducted to determine miscellaneous effects of la on l2 (foreign/second language) learning and language use (horwitz, 2010). it has continuously been suggested that low anxiety levels lead to beneficial language learning (elkhafaifi, 2005) whereas high la might have detrimental influences on both language learning and language use in l2 contexts (piechurska-kuciel, 2008; spielman & radnofsky, 2001). in this regard, a variety of language specific anxieties have been identified and examined so far; for instance, listening comprehension anxiety (kim, 2005), speaking anxiety (woodrow, 2006), reading anxiety (argamon & abu-rabia, 2002), writing anxiety (cheng et al., 1999), and grammar anxiety (vanpatten & glass, 1999). more recently, baran-lucarz (2013) put forth a new concept describing another type of language learning anxiety; that is, pronunciation anxiety or pa. later, she (2014, p. 453) elaborated on the following subcomponents for her model of pa, 1. pronunciation self-image: beliefs one holds about personal appearance– about the way one looks and sounds when speaking an fl, and acceptance of one’s self-image. the effects of pronunciation anxiety and motivation on english’ learners alimorad and adib 45 no. 25 2. pronunciation self-efficacy and self-assessment: perception related to one’s predisposition to acquire/learn an fl phonological system and to one’s perceived level of pronunciation of the tl (usually formed by comparing oneself to classmates or other speakers). 3. fear of negative evaluation: apprehension caused by anticipating that other speakers will have negative opinions about one based on one’s pronunciation. 4. beliefs about the importance of pronunciation for successful communication, about the ease of learning tl pronunciation for learners representing a particular l1, and about the sound of the tl. pronunciation of a language might trigger positive reactions in some learners who might consider it as pleasant, nice, delightful, prestigious, or sexy. on the contrary, however, the very same language might provoke negative attitudes making students perceive it as unpleasant, unnatural, or even annoying. additionally, learners who have negative perceptions towards the sound of the target language will likely have difficulties with regard to accepting a new l2 identity (baran-lucarz, 2014). prior research has offered converging evidence regarding speaking being perceived as the most anxiety-generating skill among the four language skills, particularly when learners have to take the floor in front of the class and their peers (e.g., abal, 2012; occhipinti, 2009; woodrow, 2006). further, qualitative data collected using interviews and diaries emphasized that one source of common anxiety is learners’ worries about losing face in front of their peers due to their accents (price, 1991). all these studies point out the importance of attending to pronunciation in l2 pedagogy. besides anxiety, motivation has also been at the heart of investigation in the l2 field for more than 50 years. more specifically, pronunciation motivation is defined as a great enthusiasm to reach the highest level of communication ability, or a native-like, or at least a semi-native-like accent (dörnyei, 2005). in this vein, previous research has suggested that the desire to be a native-like speaker and have a pleasant accent is highly associated with the level of pa and its subcomponents, such as self-image, self-efficacy/self-assessment, and beliefs about the l2 sound and its importance for communication (baran-lucarz, 2013; kafes, 2018; kralova et al., 2017). results of many empirical studies have confirmed the mutual relationship between anxiety and motivation. in this regard, yan and horwitz asserted, “further attention should be directed to understanding the relationship between motivation and anxiety in language learning” (2008, p. 176). low level of anxiety leads to high self-confidence which is a characteristic of a motivated student (clement, 1980); especially when high confidence and motivation result in success, while, conversely, unsuccessful experience is likely to lead to stress, discouragement, and lower motivation to learn. although it seems logical that high motivation results in systematic work and endeavor to achieve goals, it might lead to anxiety and stress in some individuals as well, chiefly the effects of pronunciation anxiety and motivation on english’ learners alimorad and adib 46 no. 25 if the outcomes do not meet their expectations (dörnyei & ottó, 1998). despite the importance of these two variables in the acquisition of l2 pronunciation, to the best of our knowledge, and after an intensive review of the existing literature, we found out that no previous inquiry has attempted to systematically examine the effects of pa and pm on l2 wtc in an efl context. therefore, to bridge this gap, this study was an attempt to investigate the effects of these two factors on learners̕ l2 wtc and to find which one of these two variables could be a better predictor of iranian efl learners’ l2 wtc. hence, the study sought answers to the following research question: which of the two variables, i.e., pa or pm, better predicts iranian efl learners’ l2 wtc in english classes? background several researchers from different parts of the world have so far attempted to study l2 wtc and the factors which influence it; for instance, cao and philp (2006) administered questionnaires, observations, and interviews in a multi-national esl class in new zealand to find what variables contributed to l2 wtc in a classroom situation. their findings confirmed that the number of people in the task group (pairs, small groups, whole class) played a key role in learners’ l2 wtc. furthermore, selfconfidence, familiarity with the interlocutor, and interlocutor participation were considered to be influential in this study. in another study, pawlak and mystkowska-wiertelak (2015) argued that the integrated nature of l2 wtc has traditionally been investigated separately, but its dynamic character is still in its infancy. analysis of the data they collected using self-ratings, questionnaires, and interviews from 8 polish students showed that the participants’ l2 wtc changed and was influenced by different factors. these factors included the topic, planning time, cooperation and familiarity with the interlocutor, the opportunity to express one’s ideas, the mastery of the prerequisite lexis, the presence of the researcher, and a host of individual variables, thereby confirming the dynamic and flexible nature of l2 wtc. in japan, wood (2016) examined the relationship between l2 wtc and l2 fluency from a dynamic systems perspective. the researcher used an exploratory case study to investigate l2 wtc and fluency between japanese english learners and non-japanese interlocutors. results indicated that fluency breakdowns led to lowered l2 wtc or vice versa. in the context of iran, aliakbari et al. (2016) studied the synchronous impact of different variables affecting l2 wtc, including anxiety, self-confidence, communicative competence, and international posture on 194 efl learners. based on the results of this study, the relationship between enjoyment and l2 wtc was sturdier the effects of pronunciation anxiety and motivation on english’ learners alimorad and adib 47 no. 25 than that between anxiety and l2 wtc. that is to say, whereas the environment of the classroom had a positive influence on both enjoyment and l2 wtc, it showed a negative effect on anxiety. in another study in the same context, khajavy et al. (2016) focused on l2 wtc in english among iranian efl learners in the classroom settings. results indicated that the strongest factor that directly affected l2 wtc was classroom environment. findings also showed that classroom environment directly affected attitudes, motivation, and communication confidence while communication confidence itself directly affected l2 wtc. however, motivation and english language proficiency indirectly influenced l2 wtc through communication confidence. in a more recent study, riasati and rahimi (2018) examined the influence of situational and individual factors on l2 wtc. while the situational aspects were found to be task type, topic, interlocutor, teacher, classroom atmosphere, and seating arrangement, the individual elements were identified to be learners’ personality, selfconfidence, the degree of opportunity they have in language classes, fear of evaluation, and fear of correctness of their speech. in the context of japan, freiermuth and ito (2020) investigated the effect of personality and past experience on university students’ l2 wtc. to this aim, using semi-structured interviews, they studied eight female japanese students who were selected from a group of 69 students on the basis of their english proficiency test scores (high/low scorers) as well as their wtc (high/low wtc) scores. their findings suggested that students with high l2 wtc perceived themselves as future l2 users who were stimulated through integrative motivation with their peers and teachers. further, positive personality traits were found to facilitate wtc; therefore, they concluded that positive past experiences with language teachers and foreign peers could lead to a better understanding of second language learners’ wtc. more recently, author (2021) attempted to identify the factors leading to iranian efl tertiary students’ l2 (un)willingness to communicate in english classes. conducting a classroom-based case study, they recruited a purposive sample of 10 efl learners and studied them for three weeks. to gather data, they utilized a variety of data collection tools, namely, semi-structured interviews, classroom observations and stimulated-recall interviews. then, they thematically analyzed the data to identify and extract common themes from the participants’ ideas. results of their study indicated that there existed a complex, dynamic and non-linear interaction between individual, contextual, and linguistic factors that influence l2 wtc. these three broad factors in tandem exerted either contributing or impeding effects on each individual’s wtc in the classroom context. attempting to determine significant pa correlates, baran-lucarz and lee (2021) considered the role of learning experiences with teachers who were native speakers of the effects of pronunciation anxiety and motivation on english’ learners alimorad and adib 48 no. 25 english, previous study abroad experiences, l2 learning enjoyment, and l2 wtc. to do that, they administered a questionnaire to two groups of efl learners of different majors (english education/tourism english) and different self-perceived proficiency levels. results of hierarchical multiple regression analyses for both groups suggested that l2 wtc was the strongest determinant of pa while foreign language enjoyment was the second most meaningful correlate only for the group whose self-perceived general english proficiency was lower. overall, although a host of empirical studies have investigated the effects of various factors on efl learners’ l2 wtc, they do not give us the full picture in that no previous study has examined the effect of pa and pm, as two recently introduced concepts, on efl learners’ l2 wtc. further, even though baran-lucarz and lee (2021) have recently explored the relationship between pa and l2 wtc, the focus of their study was on l2 wtc as a determinant of pa rather than the other way round. additionally, in their study, they did not examine the role of pm as a predictor variable either. hence, considering the paucity of research in this area, and to gain deeper insights into efl learners’ l2 wtc, the current study set out to delve into the relationship between these two variables and iranian efl learners’ l2 wtc with the aim of identifying the one which could likely be a better predictor of l2 wtc in a foreign language learning situation. method this study was a quantitative piece of research. in the sections that follow the method of the study is explained including the participants who partook in the study, instruments used to gather the necessary data, as well as data collection, and analysis procedures. participants one hundred and thirty-four upper-intermediate efl learners who had already been learning english for at least two years prior to this study were selected from two private language institutes in one of the large cities of iran. they were recruited employing a convenience sampling procedure because the second researcher served as an english teacher at one of the language institutes under study. the proficiency level of the participating learners had already been determined by the institutes using their own oral and written placement tests. the participants were from both genders (female=100, male= 34) and their ages ranged from 20 to 40. the effects of pronunciation anxiety and motivation on english’ learners alimorad and adib 49 no. 25 instruments in this study, three instruments were utilized to collect the data: the willingnessto-communicate questionnaire (wtcq) which was adopted from simić (2014), the pronunciation anxiety questionnaire (paq) which was a modified version of an earlier scale developed by baran-lucarz (2014, 2016) and included nine subcomponents, and the pronunciation motivation questionnaire (pmq) which was designed by baranlucarz (2017) based on the l2 motivational self system already proposed by dörnyei. these instruments are explained in more detail in the following sections. willingness-to-communicate questionnaire (wtcq) to gather the necessary information about students’ l2 wtc, a 20-item 5-point likert scale l2 wtc questionnaire (1 = almost never willing, 2 = sometimes willing, 3 = willing half of the times, 4 = usually willing, and 5 = almost always willing) whose items were in english was used in this study. this questionnaire contained a section asking about participants’ age, gender, and years of studying english. the content validity of this scale was checked and confirmed by two applied linguistics experts. further, its reliability index was calculated using cronbach’s alpha formula and turned out to be 0.79 which seemed satisfactory for the purposes of this study. pronunciation anxiety questionnaire (paq) the pronunciation anxiety questionnaire (paq) developed by baran-lucarz (2017) consisting of 50 statements with a 6-point likert scale (strongly agree=6, to strongly disagree=1) was utilized to measure the participants’ pronunciation anxiety. the reliability of the entire scale was reported to be 0.95 and its validity was established examining its construct validity by running factor analysis (baran-lucarz, 2017). while the respondents could achieve a minimum score of 50 and a maximum score of 300, the higher the individuals’ scores were, the more anxious they were considered to be. for items which denoted lack of anxiety, a reversed scoring key was applied. this questionnaire also included a section asking about participants’ age, gender, and years of studying english. its reliability was checked by the current researchers using cronbach’s alpha procedure and the index was found to be 0.73. pronunciation motivation questionnaire (pmq) to collect the needed information about the learners’ pronunciation motivation, a pronunciation motivation questionnaire (pmq) consisting of 29 items with a 6-point the effects of pronunciation anxiety and motivation on english’ learners alimorad and adib 50 no. 25 likert scale (strongly agree=6, to strongly disagree= 1) was utilized (baran-lucarz, 2017). the highest the participants’ score in this questionnaire was, the more motivated they would be considered. to calculate their scores, for some items, a reversed scoring procedure was applied. baran-lucarz (2017) reported the reliability of the entire scale to be 0.85 and she confirmed its validity. its reliability index was found to be 0.72 in the present study using cronbach’s alpha procedure. data collection procedures the three questionnaires were administered by the second author of this paper and he was present to answer any possible questions on the part of the learners or clarify any ambiguities and misunderstandings. also, an attempt was made to administer the questionnaires one by one during different class sessions so that fatigue might not hinder the participants from giving precise answers. in addition, the order of the administration of the questionnaires was counterbalanced to avoid order affecting their performance. that is, the three questionnaires were administered in different orders in different classes. to ensure gathering accurately completed questionnaires, enough time was given to the participants so that they could answer all items. also, they were politely asked to give honest responses to the items of the questionnaire. to this aim, the instructions given reassured them that the obtained information would be kept confidential and would only be used for research purposes. data analysis procedures to analyze the data, multiple regression was run to uncover the possible effects of the independent variables (pm and pa) on the dependent (l2 wtc) variable of the study and to identify the independent variable which could likely be a better predictor of the participants’ l2 wtc. further, as follow-up analyses, the mean and standard deviations of the components of the predictor variable were also calculated and examined. results and discussion before conducting the multiple regression analysis, its assumptions were checked. to this end, the pearson correlation table was scrutinized to check the relationships among the three variables of the study. results of these analyses are shown in table 1. the effects of pronunciation anxiety and motivation on english’ learners alimorad and adib 51 no. 25 table 1. correlation between pa, pm, and l2 wtc source: the authors l2 wtc pa pm pearson correlation l2 wtc 1.000 -.488* .302* pa -.488* 1.000 .265 pm .302* .265 1.000 sig. (2-tailed) l2 wtc . .015 .024 pa .015 . .226 pm .024 .226 . n l2 wtc 134 134 134 pa 134 134 134 pm 134 134 134 based on these results, there is a significant moderate negative correlation between pa and l2 wtc (r= -.488 sig =.015). put it simply, as expected, the more anxious the participants are, the less they tend to use english in their communicational exchanges. moreover, pm and l2 wtc also showed a moderate positive correlation which is statistically significant (r=.302 sig =.024). therefore, contrary to their pa, their pm shows a positive correlation with their l2 wtc, thereby indicating that the more motivated the participants are in terms of their pronunciation, the more willing they will be to use english while interacting with others. results of the correlation analyses between the variables showed that pa had a higher correlation with l2 wtc; hence, a multiple regression analysis was run to find out which of these independent variables could more significantly contribute to the l2 wtc. to this end, first, characteristics of the variables under study were examined in order to see if the required statistical assumptions were met (pallant, 2011). as reported above, the two independent variables showed significant medium relationships with l2 wtc. hence, the correlation values were neither too small nor too large, which indicated that the two independent variables could be retained. next, the multicollinearity assumption was checked. in this regard, the obtained collinearity statistics, i.e., the variance inflation factor (vif) and tolerance values, for pa (tolerance=0.996; vif=1.004), and pm (tolerance=0.996; vif=1.004) rejected the presence of mulicollinearity. then, the normal probability plot (p-p) of the regression standardized residual (figure 1) and the scatter plot (figure 2) were examined. the effects of pronunciation anxiety and motivation on english’ learners alimorad and adib 52 no. 25 figure 1. normal p-p plot of regression standardized residual for l2 wtc source: the authors figure 2. the scatter plot for l2 wtc source: the authors the effects of pronunciation anxiety and motivation on english’ learners alimorad and adib 53 no. 25 as can be observed, both the normal probability plot (p-p) of the regression standardized residual and the scatter plot support the idea that the assumptions of normality and linearity were not violated. moreover, the plots indicate that no serious outliers could be detected. in fact, none of the cases had a standardized residual greater that 3.3 or lower than -3.3. the next assumption to be checked was homoscedasticity. table 2 shows the results of this analysis. table 2. residuals statisticsa source: the authors minimum maximum mean std. deviation n predicted value 38.1612 45.8518 41.6567 1.77907 134 std. predicted value -1.965 2.358 .000 1.000 134 standard error of predicted value .712 2.255 1.172 .328 134 adjusted predicted value 38.0854 45.9515 41.6507 1.78633 134 residual -13.35840 23.11088 .00000 8.07170 134 std. residual -1.642 2.842 .000 .992 134 stud. residual -1.663 2.881 .000 1.005 134 deleted residual -13.69822 23.76052 .00598 8.27252 134 stud. deleted residual -1.675 2.966 .003 1.012 134 mahal. distance .026 9.234 1.985 1.738 134 cook’s distance .000 .078 .008 .014 134 centered leverage value .000 .069 .015 .013 134 a. dependent variable: l2 wtc tellingly, given that there were two independent variables under investigation, we had to consider the critical chi-square value with the degree of freedom of two (=number of independent variables), which was 13.82 (pallant, 2011, p. 159). as displayed in the table above, the maximum mahalanobis distance value recorded for the cases in this sample (9.234) is smaller than the critical chi-square value (13.82), thereby showing that homoscedasticity has not been violated, or there were no serious outliers. after checking all these assumptions, multiple regression analysis was run. the results are reported in tables 3, 4 and 5. the effects of pronunciation anxiety and motivation on english’ learners alimorad and adib 54 no. 25 table 3. model summaryb source: the authors model r r square adjusted r square std. error of the estimate 1 .215a .346 .320 8.13308 a. predictors: (constant), pm, pa b. dependent variable: l2 wtc table 4. coefficientsadependent variable: l2 wtc a. dependent variable: l2 wtc table 5. anovaa source: the authors model sum of squares df mean square f sig. 1 regression 420.957 2 210.479 3.182 .045b residual 8665.252 131 66.147 total 9086.209 133 a. dependent variable: l2 wtc b. predictors: (constant), pm, pa a close examination of the model summary and the anova tables shows that the model, including pm and pa as the independent variables, predicts 34.6% (r square=.346) of the variance in l2 wtc as the dependent variable, and the results are statistically significant (f= 3.182, sig=.045). to see which independent variable best contributed to the prediction of the dependent variable, the coefficients table the effects of pronunciation anxiety and motivation on english’ learners alimorad and adib 55 no. 25 was examined. the table shows that although both pa and pm (β= .205, sig=.023) significantly predicted the participants’ l2 wtc, pa with a larger beta value of -.395 (sig=.004) was a more powerful predictor. this finding partially corroborates saito et al.’s results (2018) which suggested that students’ l2 speech learning patterns were primarily determined by their emotional states (anxiety/enjoyment), and secondarily, by their motivational dispositions. as mentioned above, in the next step, follow-up analyses including mean and standard deviation of different components of the pa were calculated (table 6) in an attempt to uncover their possible differential influences. table 6. mean and standard deviation of pa components source: the authors mean std. deviation lack of anxiety 50.1696 6.90200 pa when talking to native and non-native speakers outside the fl classroom 30.7969 8.23222 pronunciation self-image 27.2960 4.25976 pronunciation self-efficacy and self-assessment 25.1250 3.72901 general fl oral performance apprehension 23.1061 8.02502 fear of negative evaluation 21.4524 7.99260 beliefs about the importance of pronunciation for communication 12.0862 2.47972 beliefs about the nature/sound of the tl 10.4470 2.60743 beliefs about difficulties with learning tl pronunciation by learners representing a particular l1 10.2941 2.28611 as table 6 illustrates, the first component of pa, lack of anxiety, carries the highest mean amongst all the components. considering the items of this component and the reversed scoring key applied, it could be argued that in this specific sample of the participants, most of the students suffered from high levels of anxiety because of the negative perceptions they held about themselves and their capabilities. this seemingly unexpected finding might imply that efl learners, despite being proficient (i.e., upperintermediate level in this study) in the target language tend to remain anxious while attempting to observe correct pronunciation of the target language during the long journey of learning english as a foreign language. this being so, given the prominent role of pa in contributing to efl learners’ l2 wtc, this finding seems to warrant further and much closer examination and investigation. in a similar vein, the role of students’ self-perceived capabilities were highlighted by previous researchers such as macintyre and charos (1996) who found self-perceived communication competence influenced l2 wtc. more recently, baran-lucarz and lee (2021), who found selfperceived poor pronunciation as well as uncertainties about pronunciation contributed the effects of pronunciation anxiety and motivation on english’ learners alimorad and adib 56 no. 25 to students’ reluctance to speak english in the classroom. in addition, the second component, authentic communication in real life situations, also aroused a high level of anxiety in this sample. based on the items constituting this component, the participants seem to be too cognizant of the way they might be judged by native or non-native interlocutors due to their pronunciation. being extremely conscious of others’ (mis)judgment will even manifest itself in their physical functioning by showing different symptoms of being stressed. similarly, simić (2014) found communicating with native speakers provoked feelings of anxiety and embarrassment in efl learners. after these two components, pronunciation self-image holds the third rank, thereby indicating that how they look or sound while speaking english could play a decisive role in (not) being willing to communicate in english. as the fourth component, pronunciation self-efficacy and self-assessment indicates that besides others’ judgment, their own judgment of their capabilities and potentials could also be influential in their decision to speak english or not. general fl oral performance apprehension and fear of negative evaluation, the fifth and sixth components, point out the reasons why some students feel anxious while speaking in english, in general and why the participants get worried about how they are judged in the classroom context by their teachers and classmates, in particular. likewise, dewaele et al. (2017) also stated that some teachers may, consciously or unconsciously, cause heightened anxiety for language learners. they suggested that such teachers attempt to adapt their behavior so that they could reduce the negative effects of their anxiety-inducing behaviors. fear of negative evaluation because of making pronunciation mistakes has repeatedly been reported as one of the important factors which contributes to students’ being reluctant to speak in the classroom. in this regard, riasati and rahimi (2018) found that among many other factors, fear of evaluation, and fear of correctness adversely affected learners’ l2 wtc. zarrinabadi (2014) also referred to error correction as a factor influencing l2 wtc. results of the study conducted by teimouri (2017) pointed out that explicit corrective feedback given by the teachers in the classroom context could induce feelings of anxiety and shame in students in front of their peers. in a similar vein, khajavy et al. (2016) found that the strongest factor that directly affected l2 wtc was classroom environment. their findings also showed that classroom environment directly affected attitudes, motivation, and communication confidence. moreover, communication confidence directly affected l2 wtc. motivation and english language proficiency indirectly influenced l2 wtc through communication confidence. the findings of the current study lend support to their findings in that it was found that, compared to pronunciation anxiety, pronunciation the effects of pronunciation anxiety and motivation on english’ learners alimorad and adib 57 no. 25 motivation was a less strong factor contributing to iranian efl learners’ willingness to communicate in english. additionally, similar to khajavy et al.’s (2016) findings, it can be said that classroom environment, if it is not student friendly, can trigger pronunciation anxiety leading to less participation in classroom discussions, hence, less willingness to communicate, which was found in the current study, too. what is worthy of notice in table 6 is the components holding the lowest ranks, i.e., beliefs about the importance of pronunciation for communication, beliefs about the nature/sound of the tl, and beliefs about difficulties with learning tl pronunciation by learners representing a particular l1. considering the perceived importance of these components compared to that of the previous ones from these students’ perspective, it could be observed that, although these students do not regard nativelike pronunciation as that critical in negotiating meaning, their weak pronunciation level could lead to anxiety and, in turn, unwillingness to communicate in english. further, holding positive perceptions towards the sounds of english, the current participants seem not to attribute their tendency (or lack thereof) to speak english to the characteristics of the language itself. additionally, they do not conceive that learning and mastering english pronunciation and stress is demanding for learners whose native language is persian. tellingly, what seems to be clear is that these findings need to be scrutinized more deeply by future researchers. conclusions and pedagogical implications results of this study could possibly contribute to theory and practice of english language teaching. regarding the theory, as pa and pm are novel and almost underresearched, the findings of this study could enrich previously developed theories of l2 wtc by drawing researchers’ attention to the role these two constructs could play in students’ l2 wtc, thereby leading to possible revision of those theories. as for the practice, given that this study showed both pa and pm significantly correlated with efl learners’ l2 wtc, it seems reasonable to introduce and highlight the importance of these two variables in language teaching contexts. it was found that the participating students in this study perceived intelligibility rather than nativelike pronunciation to be sufficient for meaning negotiation in l2 communicational situations. keeping this in mind, curriculum and syllabus designers could consider the possibility of incorporating materials which highlight the priority of intelligibility over native-like pronunciation in the syllabuses and textbooks they develop. given the importance of improving language learners’ self-image and self-efficacy as perceived by the participants, it could be suggested that relevant workshops be held for preand in-service teachers during which they will be taught how to improve their students’ pronunciation self-image and self-efficacy in classroom environment and real-life situations. also, some training sessions could be held for the students to empower the effects of pronunciation anxiety and motivation on english’ learners alimorad and adib 58 no. 25 them to evaluate their own pronunciation based on the criteria of intelligibility rather than native-like pronunciation so that their anxiety could be reduced. this study could not be void of some unavoidable limitations. first of all, the study just focused on english learners at institutes and did not consider other educational contexts like universities and public schools. secondly, the study focused on upperintermediate learners while other proficiency groups were not examined. also, a convenience sampling procedure was utilized, which restricts the generalizability of the findings of the study. that being so, we suggest that in future research, random sampling procedures be implemented in an attempt to increase the possible generalizability of the findings. moreover, quantitative studies can be complemented by qualitative ones using other data collection instruments such as interviews and observations to examine the extent to which the current findings might be corroborated by more indepth longitudinal studies. furthermore, the role of other possible influential factors such as gender, age, and personality factors was 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(1991). the subjective experience of foreign language anxiety: interviews with highly anxious students. in e. k. horwitz & d. j. young (eds.), language anxiety: from theory and research to classroom implications (pp. 101–108). riasati, m. j., & rahimi, f. (2018). situational and individual factors engendering willingness to speak english in foreign language classrooms. cogent education, 5(1), 151 –172. https://doi. org/10.1080/2331186x.2018.1513313 saito, k., dewaele, j-m., abe, m., & in’nami, y. (2018). motivation, emotion, learning experience, and second language comprehensibility development in classroom settings: a crosssectional and longitudinal study. language learning, 68(3), 1-35. https://doi.org/10.1111/ lang.12297 simić, i. (2014). willingness to communicate: a comparison between austrian and serbian students. unpublished ma thesis, university of graz, austria. spielman, g., & radnofsky, m. l. (2001). learning language under tension. new directions from a qualitative study. modern language journal, 85, 259–278. https://doi.org/ 10.1111/00267902.00108 teimouri, y. (2017). l2 selves, emotions, and motivated behaviors. studies in second language acquisition, 39, 681–709. https://doi.org/10.1017/s0272263116000243 vanpatten, b., & glass, w. r. (1999). grammar learning as a source of language anxiety: a discussion. in d. j. young (ed.) affect in foreign language and second language learning. a practical guide to creating a low-anxiety classroom atmosphere (pp. 89-105) mcgraw-hill. wood, d. (2016). willingness to communicate and second language speech fluency: an idiodynamic investigation. system, 60, 11-28. https://doi.org/ 10.1016/j.system.2016.05.003 the effects of pronunciation anxiety and motivation on english’ learners alimorad and adib woodrow, l. (2006). anxiety and speaking english as a second language. relc journal, 37(3), 308-328. https://doi.org/10.1177/0033688206071315 yan, j. x., & horwitz, e. k. (2008). learners’ perceptions of how anxiety interacts with personal and instructional factors to influence their achievement in english: a qualitative analysis of efl learners in china. language learning, 58(1), 151-183. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.14679922.2007.00437.x zarrinabadi, n. (2014). communicating in a second language: investigating the effect of teacher on learners’ willingness to communicate.  system,  42, 288-295. https://doi.org/ 10.1016/j. system.2013.12.014 authors zahra alimorad is an associate professor of teaching english as a foreign language (tefl) in the department of foreign languages and linguistics of shiraz university, iran. she has published several papers in national and international journals and has presented in national and international conferences. her areas of interest include l2 speaking, willingness to communicate, (de)motivation, perceptions, practice and identity. email address: zahra.alimorad@shirazu.ac.ir orcid: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9061-0811 farshad adib is an m.a. graduate of tefl. he is currently teaching english at private language institutes in one of the cities of iran. his areas of interest are speaking, grammar, and willingness to communicate. email address: farshad.adib.fa@gmail.com orcid: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5408-070x 62 no. 25 the effects of pronunciation anxiety and motivation on english’ learners how to reference this article: alimorad, z., & adib, f. exploring the effects of pronunciation anxiety and pronunciation motivation on efl learners’ l2 wtc. gist – education and learning research journal, 25. https://doi.org/10.26817/16925777.1369 151 no. 29 book review: building a culture of research in tesolcollaborations and communities jessie hutchison curtis, özgehan uştuk (eds.) series: educational linguistics publisher: springer cham publication year: 2024 miguel martínez-luengas institución universitaria colombo americana, unica 1 miguel.martinez@unica.edu.co 152 no. 29 the topics in tesol (teaching english to speakers of other languages) have been undergoing significant changes over the years. it is particularly evident in recent years that themes of impact such as teaching in the post -pandemic era (cahapay, 2020), technology for communication (amalia, 2023), creativity (heidari, 2024), formative assessment (zhengdong gan, 2020), translanguaging (garcía, et al, 2016), mindfulness in efl classes (zeilhofer, 2023), culturally responsive pedagogy (thomas et al, 2020), among others have been readings that have gained eminence. despite the relevance of these trending sources, there still has been the need to review, trace back, inquire, interpret, and research many broader trends in tesol. in accordance with this trend, there is now a need for a text that provides an opportunity to learn more about the realities of research in tesol. research in tesol is an opportunity to explore, analyze, and find similarities/differences in learning/ teaching processes in the elt field, it also gives a chance to educators, students, and educational directors to provide contextual and critical insights of the realities of the field. this research dives beyond inquiries, going in depth into an analytical and critical focus of the many facets of language education. the book building a culture of research in tesol holds great value in these times, as it highlights research as a medium of dialogue, exploration of new horizons, and application of the inner daily thoughts that occur inside and outside of the efl/esl classrooms. the objectives of the book are to provide guidance to help educators incorporate research into teaching through mentorship and professional development and encourage collaboration between researchers, practitioners, and teachers. these goals are difficult tasks for the academic community that require heavy workloads with generally limited access to contextually relevant research. this book is also complementary to other works in the discipline, particularly farell’s research on reflective practice in tesol (2017) book. farrell uses a detailed analysis of recent research on encouraging reflective practices in tesol and demonstrates how the embrace of research within tesol has continually impacted the field. in highlighting how analytical methods have been embraced, the book does a thorough analysis of recent research on promoting reflective practices within tesol which prompt researchers, academics, and educators to self-reflect and further shape the future of this field. this book is an innovative compilation of key research on philosophy and ideals, study tools, theory, and practice that offers a comprehensive picture of reflection. it is important to state that this review focuses on providing a critical evaluation of the book building a culture of research in tesol-collaborations and communities, demonstrating its contribution to the field, its validity, and its relevance within specific contexts from daily experiences as an educator, student, and researcher in tesol. additionally, the book review also includes certain criticisms of the structure and book review 153 no. 29 some of the authors’ arguments. the review is intended for academics who are actively engaged in tesol research, including educators, researchers, students, directors, and others within the field. readers will find value in the book’s insightful observations and contextually relevant examples. furthermore, this offers readers a chance to identify the relevance of researching in tesol by citing examples from the book as well as the reviewer’s personal experiences; thus, being a way to prompt dialogues between colleges in various contexts of the field. the purpose of this book is to emphasize the value of collaborations and communities, exploring the realities of education, within the discipline of tesol. as an elt educator, researcher, and reader, it is a pleasure to offer this review from the book building a culture of research in tesolcollaborations and communities. this book consists of tables, charts, names of elt teachers from around the world, countries, quotes, and headlines, among other insightful elements which can help elt researchers around the world to reflect, inquire and (co)learn about the dynamics of tesol educational research, as well as its options and challenges in diverse real-world contexts. building a culture of tesol of research in tesol, edited by curtis and ustuk, from a natural and challenging overview encourages the reader to broadly reflect upon their research practices and analyze the ways of researching tesol. the book is divided into two parts, each with diverse articles related to the book’s core. the foreword, written by barkhuizen, introduces three pivotal questions that are constantly placed into research practices: who, where, and when. these questions identify the subjects of research, the settings of inquiry, and the time of acquiring knowledge of the research. barkhuizen creates a need to explore these elements of research to provide meaningful impacts within the elt field. the first part of the book, what does it mean to build a culture of research in tesol? is divided into four chapters. the first chapter, “fostering a culture of research in tesol: a review and a look ahead”, provides a challenging yet fruitful insight to explore. part of this chapter includes a review of studies done about tesol between the years 2000 and 2022. using combinations of these key terms, such as teacher-researcher, tesol, professional development, teacher education, teacher-researcher partnerships, and lesson study, the authors conducted searches through scopus and ebscohost databases, discovering 50 research publications. the findings in this study provide an opportunity to explore conceptual approaches for building a culture of research, highlighting aspects related to research engagement in several countries which emphasizes that action research (ar) studies impact research procedures. the impact is presented through a professional development component in six different countries, mainly from the global south. using this, the authors built their arguments from paradigms of professional identities and purposes of research, building collaborations in research, miguel martínez-luengas 154 no. 29 and understanding teachers’ beliefs about research and the culture of research in tesol today and tomorrow. this chapter provides a great opportunity to examine the complex ways that national and regional policy can both support and hinder research done by teachers. the second chapter, titled “towards equitable, bi-directional, and reflexive research collaborations in english language teaching”, discusses how research topics, questions, and design are decided, how human subjects are protected in a culturally appropriate manner, how access research venues are, and how participants are compensated and fostered. the chapter draws examples of these from research collaborations in hong kong, vietnam, and myanmar. a notable focus of the chapter is the special emphasis placed upon intentional and transnational collaborations. this emphasis allows the reader to identify ideas to find and use solid and pertinent research findings in english language classrooms and among international communities involved in language education. the authors propose a few tactics to find and foster collaborative partnerships, negotiate ethical dilemmas in international research, and participate in more equitable collaborative processes in intercultural collaborations. in continuation of the book, the following chapter is called “cultivating co-learning in participatory design for translanguaging pedagogies”. this chapter is based on a participatory design research (pdr) experiment conducted in a u.s. english-medium school. it also explores ideas of sustainable and equitable cooperation by examining how co-learning was present and encouraged in our research partnership and coteaching. it is based on critical and feminist approaches of collaborative and design research. there are two main aspects to keep in mind during the reading of this chapter. the first is the research methodology employed in this chapter is called ongoing positionality. this concept reiterates that as we develop throughout time and, ideally becoming more aware of our identities, power dynamics, and the structural injustices present in educational settings, positionality is a concept that should be constantly studied. the second aspect is the recommendations for institutions and organizations looking to create and foster fair, longer-term teacher-researcher partnerships that promote fruitful co-learning. “maintaining our integrity as teachers and human beings: how dialogic research partnership created a humanizing space for early career teachers of multilingual students” is the final chapter of the first section. it is evident from reading this chapter that educators need assistance implementing equity-based alongside culturally sustainable practices. so, according to the chapter’s findings, ects (early career teachers) can benefit from spaces that allow them to ask insightful questions about their own work, feel comfortable sharing their doubts and obstacles, think deeply about humanizing pedagogy, exchange ideas and resources, remain connected to the university, have a voice, and feel like they are becoming independent. book review 155 no. 29 this comes to the second part of the book, “how are collaborations and communities building a culture of research globally?” which consists of five chapters. the first chapter, “how establishing an inclusive tesol research community in chile”, illustrates the creation and upholding grassroots, self-governed, non-profit tesol research community of practice in chile-red chilena de investigación en english language teaching (ricelt). something challenging to keep in mind in this chapter is the importance of identifying very local research assumptions as well as exploring practical and initiatives in research. in essence, the reader can dive right into the concept of establishing a research network. the ricelt network aims to create programs that (a) improve relationships between experienced researchers and student teachers performing research in chile and (b) allow researchers with different backgrounds and affiliations an opportunity to share their work. the next chapter, “blurring boundaries: a longitudinal teacher-researcher collaboration in south korea”, deals with the process of building researcher communities. the chapter examines teacher-research collaboration developed around a shared objective and by the development of group standards and ideals that united and inspired participants. the authors draw attention to how the community changed over time to better accept their constantly changing identities as teachers, researchers, and authors. it is also important to note that the chapter closes with a discussion of the difficulties faced during research and provides for creating tesol research communities that support and encourage classroom teachers, particularly those who are new to teaching. the third chapter of the second part is titled “understanding the teaching-research nexus in the saudi efl context: insights from an intercultural language teaching project” by alharbi and aslan. they focus on a project conducted at a public english language institute where two in-service teachers and a researcher worked together to modify and apply an intercultural communicative language teaching (iclt) framework. a focus of this project highlighted by the authors include the institutional leaders’ active support, organizational time devoted to research, financial assistance, and communication of expectations for teachers’ research involvement as forms of institutional investment in research. this part of the book offers a critical insight into the reality of disparities in access to these resources for many tesol researchers, making it difficult to conduct more research and reflections. continuing the reading, the chapter, “‘we are learning so much together!’: a sustained teaching-research collaboration”, focuses on partnership to modify and instruct two online ma programs in tesol for aspiring teachers. their findings highlight the significance of creating and maintaining university-school research relationships as well as producing and disseminating knowledge in the context of a higher education climate that encourages collaborative action research between professors and k–12 teachers in the united states. miguel martínez-luengas 156 no. 29 the final chapter of the book, “college writing teachers as co researchers: promoting faculty understanding of multilingual writers through collaborative program-wide assessment”, highlights the importance of localized teacher-researcher collaboration, the value of including the voices of tesol practitioners, and the need to provide more opportunities for institutionally marginalized faculty members to access research collaborations as a means of professional development, and to challenge and enhance research approaches to student learning. these findings are based on polyvocal reflections from co-researchers in a college writing program assessment project. the book concludes with “afterword: collaborative turns in building a research culture”, written by anne burns. in this edition, she is invited to act as a discussant for the book’s earlier chapters. since the concepts of community and collaboration in research have long been important to her interests and goals for tesol due to her extensive work over the past 25 years in relation to practitioner action research, she enthusiastically accepted the editors’ invitation. she offered advice for future directions in this afterward in addition to synthesizing some of the deeper ideas about the relevance of research communities of practices, the action research as a key process in education and new challenges for research educators at tesol lands, from the chapters in this book. one final and relevant aspect to mention regarding an area to improve in this book consists of incorporating the terminology that is used in each of the chapters. a glossary may be included in the book to help readers, particularly novel teachers/ researchers, follow the reading and access all the research findings, even if many efl teachers struggle to understand the different concepts that are presented. aside from that, i am pleased to have finished reading this outstanding book, which showcases research applications both inside and outside of the classroom, explores government policies in educational research, offers strategies for research communities of practice, and highlights the significance of the subject who is involved in these lands: the researcher. a warm invitation is extended to all who wish to learn next/for/with the entire educational community and want to immerse themselves in research, since this formidable book building a culture of research in tesol-collaborations and communities is a must-read for the tesol community. book review 157 no. 29 references amalia, n. (2023). the impact of technology in teaching and learning english as foreign language: tesol context. journal corner of education, linguistics, and literature, 3(1), 83–91. https://doi.org/10.54012/jcell.v3i1.194  cahapay, m. b. (2020). rethinking education in the new normal post-covid-19 era: a curriculum studies perspective. aquademia, 4(2), ep20018. https://doi. org/10.29333/aquademia/8315  garcía, o., & kleyn, t. (eds.). (2016). translanguaging with multilingual students: learning from classroom moments (1st ed.). routledge. https://doi. org/10.4324/9781315695242  thomas, m’balia & carvajal-regidor, marta. (2020). culturally responsive pedagogy in tesol. 10.4324/9780429398612-14    zeilhofer, l. (2023). mindfulness in the foreign language classroom: influence on academic achievement and awareness. language teaching research, 27(1), 96-114. https://doi.org/10.1177/1362168820934624  gan, zhengdong & leung, constant. (2020). illustrating formative assessment in taskbased language teaching. elt journal. 74. 10-19. 10.1093/elt/ccz048. author miguel martínez-luengas has a b.ed. in teaching english and a master’s in teaching english as a foreign language. doctor in education, majoring in elt from universidad distrital francisco josé de caldas. his research areas focus on subject positioning, criticality, research education, and narrative studies. orcid: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0456-2604 miguel martínez-luengas 158 no. 29 gist editorial policy regarding the use of ai gist acknowledges the increasing use of artificial intelligence (ai) tools in academic research and establishes the following guidelines to ensure integrity and transparency in the publication of manuscripts. author responsibility • comprehensive responsibility: authors are fully responsible for the content of their manuscripts, including sections generated with the assistance of ai tools. this includes the obligation to ensure that the work complies with gist’s ethical and publication standards. • originality and transparency: authors are expected to ensure the originality, validity, and integrity of their contributions. any use of ai tools must be conducted responsibly and documented to maintain transparency. • plagiarism prevention: it is the author’s obligation to ensure that their work is free from plagiarism, including content generated by ai. the use of ai does not exempt the author from this responsibility. • transparency in the use of ai tools: authors must clearly and thoroughly declare how ai tools were used in the writing, image production, data analysis, or other processes within the manuscript. additionally, ai and ai-assisted technologies should not be listed as authors or co-authors. authorship is an exclusively human responsibility, associated with tasks that can only be performed by people. in this regard, gist does not recognize ai tools as having legal capacity or copyright ownership. declaration in the manuscript: • the use of ai must be explicitly disclosed in the manuscript, thus promoting transparency and trust. • if ai was used in the methodology, details on when and how it was used must be included. • if chatbots or ai were used for analytical work or processes, this should be clearly indicated in the methods section. 159 no. 29 • command/prompt declaration: in such cases, authors must specify all commands used to generate ai content, facilitating scientific scrutiny and ensuring the reproducibility of results. • declaration in cases of ai-assisted research: if the use of ai is an integral part of the research design or methods, it must be declared in the methods section, including a detailed description of the process and software used. • this declaration must be made in every submission of the article. 215 efl teachers’ professional development: towards a counterpart of the english language supremacy1 desarrollo profesional de los docentes de inglés: hacia una contraparte de la supremacía del idioma inglés aura maría estacio and jennyfer paola camargo cely2 universidad distrital francisco josé de caldas, colombia abstract this article aims at contributing to the ongoing discussion about the english language supremacy and its influence in the efl field. the theoretical discussion presented is retrieved from the literature reviewed in the development of the authors’ master thesis, where it was possible to identify that there are ideological, economical, and sociopolitical aspects immersed in the decision to learn and use english, having as a result that efl teachers’ educational decisions and practices have been affected. thereupon, the main contribution of this reflection article is, then, to explore from a theoretical perspective, a resistance discourse that promotes professional development by understanding and reflecting upon the colonial ideas in which this foreign language teaching has been immersed over the years. key words: english supremacy, colonial discourse, professional development, nes vs nnest resumen este artículo tiene como objetivo contribuir en la discusión continua acerca de la supremacía de la lengua inglesa y su influencia en el campo de la enseñanza del inglés como lengua extranjera. la discusión teórica presentada es tomada 1 received: march 31st 2018/ accepted: october 30th 2018 2 auram71894@gmail.com; jennifercita193@gmail.com learning analytics to improve reading skills gist education and learning research journal. issn 1692-5777. no.17 (july december 2018). pp. 215-229 no. 17 (july december, 2018) no. 17 (july december, 2018) 216 de la literatura revisada durante el desarrollo de las tesis de maestría de las autoras, en donde es posible identificar la existencia de aspectos ideológicos, económicos y sociopolíticos inmersos en la decisión de aprender y usar la lengua inglesa que han afectado las prácticas y decisiones de los profesores de inglés. en este sentido, la contribución principal de este artículo de reflexión es explorar desde una perspectiva teórica, un discurso de resistencia que promueva el desarrollo profesional docente por medio del entendimiento y la reflexión acerca de las ideas coloniales inmersas en la enseñanza de ésta lengua extranjera a lo largo del tiempo. palabras clave: supremacía inglesa, discurso colonial, desarrollo profesional, nes vs nnest resumo este artigo tem como objetivo contribuir na discussão contínua acerca da supremacia da língua inglesa e a sua influência no campo do ensino do inglês como língua estrangeira. a discussão teórica apresentada é tomada da literatura revisada durante o desenvolvimento das teses de mestrado das autoras, donde foi possível identificar que a língua inglesa tem predominado sobre outros idiomas devido a aspectos ideológicos, econômicos e sociopolíticos. como resultado, a diferenciação feita entre nes / nnes (falante de inglês nativo e não nativo) tem incrementado, afetando as práticas e decisões dos professores de inglês como língua estrangeira (camargo, 2017; estacio, 2017). neste sentido, a contribuição principal deste artigo de reflexão é explorar desde una perspectiva teórica, um discurso de resistência em termos de desenvolvimento profissional docente para entender, refletir e atuar frente às ideias coloniais imersas no ensino desta língua estrangeira ao longo do tempo. palavras chave: aprendizagem invertida, aprendizagem ativa, papel ativo, efl, percepções efl teacher’s professional development estacio & camargo no. 17 (july december, 2018) no. 17 (july december, 2018) 217 introduction throughout history, teaching and learning have been assumed as single processes with a beginning and an end (wenger, 1999). under this assumption, a linear view of pedagogical approaches and methodologies have been embraced regardless of individuals’ realities and experiences (ayala zárate & álvarez, 2005; fandiño-parra, 2014; gonzález, 2007; guerrero, 2008). this view has been reflected mainly in policies, metrics, training programs, and curriculum designs aiming at outlining and controlling the society (popkewitz, 2000). in view of the above, language has been a determinant factor in the construction of that “pre-conceived” society, since its dynamic nature-created, understood, shaped, and validated within a community in a specific context by means of interactionhas allowed some nations to take control over others and assure a privileged position in regards to politics, economy, and sociocultural issues (fairclough, 2003). as a result, english as a foreign language gained the distinction of being a global language (crystal, 2003) and was quickly spread along with certain practices and ideologies-that has not only had a linguistic impactbut also sociocultural implications (camargo, 2017; estacio, 2017). in this sense, language policies adopted by governments from monolingual contexts as colombia, meant to spread the english language under the premise of allowing non-native speakers (nnes) to have access to a world ruled by globalization where they can communicate and break boundaries of language and culture (bruttgriffler, 2002). yet, the distinction made between native and non-native speakers has affected not only the attitudes of all the actors involved in english education towards the language, but has had an impact on the teaching and learning language practices around the world (bhowmik, 2015; ramanathan, 2013). these effects can be easily recognized in monolingual countries where the mother tongue and other languages spoken in these countries have been suppressed or displaced by english (tollefson, 2000; ryan, 2010) so their citizens can be considered as bilinguals. notwithstanding, the conception of bilingualism held by countries such as ours, was reduced to the fact of speaking english as it has been stated by different authors (guerrero, 2008; usma, 2009; de mejía, 2011; ordoñez, 2011; escobar, 2013; sánchez & obando, 2008). as a consequence, nnes in general have faced struggles towards the ownership of the language and the recognition of speaking it, being forced to “hide their intellectual efl teacher’s professional development estacio & camargo no. 17 (july december, 2018) no. 17 (july december, 2018) 218 and communicative capabilities under a bushel” (kohn, 2011, p. 71) which means that their intellectual capabilities are being disregarded when they decide to use their mother language instead of english. moreover, camargo, (2017) and pineda (2001) have said efl teachers’ decisions on methodology, curriculum, syllabus and material design have been limited, as their role has been relegated as of trainers since nes are believed to be the source of understanding and capability in terms of efl educational practices. however, by thinking about the historical and sociocultural implications of certain decisions, efl teachers are called to resist colonial and hegemonic discourses so as to transform their educational practices and endorse their professional development (camargo 2017, estacio, 2017). thereby, in this reflective article, we intend to ponder upon the ideological and social background of the english language to first, understand how it has become into the artifact to trigger sociocultural ideas on its users, and secondly, the effects its supremacy has had in efl teachers and the way of resisting them. ideological and social background of a hegemonic language as previously stated, considering english as an international language, may have implications in the linguistics field, however, as authors such as mahboob (2005) have stated, it also has cultural, political and economic implications. ergo, it has been mostly promoted as the one that allows people to build society and to fetch better economic and academic prospects (barkhuizen, 2002). considering mignolo (2009), the colonial expansion of the british and american population to different territories around the world in the 18th and 19th centuries had a powerful impact regarding the imposition of the english language in territories where the mother tongue was a different one. to start with, the policies set in the field of education by the colonial powerscontrolled the intellectual production in the english language while dismissing the one given in the vernacular ones (quijano, 1992). this decision in view of pennycook (2004), had not only linguistic implications, but it has also caused struggles for dominance against other languages. then, around the i world war, it was felt in such a manner that languages were one of the roots of international conflict, that private institutions started to pay for academic exchanges between the us and the countries involved in the war. the intention was to join efforts to devise simplified forms of english and make easier international efl teacher’s professional development estacio & camargo no. 17 (july december, 2018) no. 17 (july december, 2018) 219 understanding (ninkovich as cited in phillipson, 1992). hence, knowledge regarding this language was crucial for studying fields such us science, technology and engineering (white, 1965), and its active use for different social purposes, shaped the discourse in which the native speaker is seen as the ideal speaker in the educational sphere (estacio, 2017). in this sense, native english speakers (nes) -specially from north america and englandgained a privileged position in the language teaching field based on the fact that the language variation they used, was considered as the epitome and the gold standard (walkinshaw & oanh, 2014). thereby, they were assumed to be the correct way of speaking and the basis of the language teaching (davies, 2003). moreover, at the end of the world war ii, the idea of an ideal variation, mostly diffused by the british council, allowed domination and ideological control as the language was molded for political and ideological plans (canagarajah, 1999). similarly, it aimed at publicizing a general understanding of the british culture, which in view of phillipson (1992), meant nothing but to make foreign speakers anglophiles under the ideal of being accepted in an eminent society by means of using a british english variationsymbol of power and educational status worldwide (shohamy, 2006). because of that, propaganda activities in the outer circle countries (kachru, 1985) were frequently carried out by a body of executives and educational experts belonging to the british council. as a result, this institution started to be treated as the supreme authority in the efl sphere, a premise that up to now, is considered to be unmistakable. bearing this in mind, it can be said that the aim of this entity has not only be given in terms of education but also economy, commerce and governmental ones. whence, teaching and learning english has been seen as a means to commercialize english books, advertise a culture, and embrace a definite accent variation. from this perspective, a phenomenon called “schizoglossia” appeared among nnes. it derived from the notion of not having an accent as good as the standard one so, they need to simulate and reach the native-like accent to improve their communication and of course, avoid linguistic misunderstandings (baker, 2006). this led to the imposed belief of having a standardized language that allows both nes and nnes to communicate “ideally” (crystal, 2003). however, this language standardization grounded on ideological structures aiming at preserving the perfection and purity of the language (lippi-green, 2012) has also looked forward reproducing homogeneity efl teacher’s professional development estacio & camargo no. 17 (july december, 2018) no. 17 (july december, 2018) 220 in social behavior (guerrero & quintero, 2009). as a result, these hegemonic ideas by being experienced as absolute reality, have influenced the thoughts, decisions, and actions of all the actors involved in the language field (tollefson, 2000). hence, based on the historical facts previously described, it is possible to see that the predominance of a language variation that exists nowadays, is rooted on different events along the history that have placed the native variation in a privileged position as opposed to the non-native english variations. the nes / nnes dichotomy: implications in the efl field considering the above, there are ideological and social choices immersed when making the decision to learn and use english. such choice draws upon the new capitalism notion, in which an excessive consumerism and competition are the result of an economic system that has had incidence towards the way english language should be taught, learned, and spoken (fairclough 2003). for instance, methodologies and materials created by nes are used in nnes nations as the perfect recipe to make learners speak the language, but those materials offer not only a linguistic knowledge but also, a socio-cultural lifestyle that nnes want to replicate. in accordance with foucault (2005), education is the chief tool to effect power through systems of knowledge. thus, theories, methodologies, curricula, materials and topics, are used as pillars for molding educational actors’ view of the world (popkewitz, 2000; gonzález & sierra, 2005). subsequently, teaching and learning english has been portrayed as the only solution through which citizens from the outer and expanding circles (kachru, 1985) can access to a “qualified” education to then obtain a well-paid job, great opportunities, and of course, a more desirable life, similar to the ones developed nations have (camargo, 2017). however, tollefson (2000) reported that for the citizens who belong to the inner circle (kachru, 1985), the economic value of having english as their mother tongue means inordinate opportunities in education, business and employment (usma, 2009; valencia, 2013). on the contrary, the spread of english presents a huge obstacle in the same areas for the ones who have to learn the language since their diverse linguistic varieties are not recognized as legitimate, reason why they have to be constantly evaluated (kohn, 2011). in the same line of though, lowenberg (as cited in bhowmik, 2015), asserted that notwithstanding nes and nnes interactions are efl teacher’s professional development estacio & camargo no. 17 (july december, 2018) no. 17 (july december, 2018) 221 more frequent in international communication nowadays, the elt field keeps on choosing native variations (american and british) as the main language of teaching, strengthening the idea that nes [regardless of their professional background] will ensure the learning process, as the native accent is a determinant factor to learn the language (sánchez & obando, 2008). this misconception indeed, has had several repercussions on efl teachers who have always been blamed, questioned, and even replaced (adriana gonzález, personal communication, june 6, 2015). likewise, non-native efl teachers’ notion of expertise in terms of curriculum and materials design has got narrowed and minimized because of the existence of beliefs in which native speakers represent a source of knowledge and skillfulness in terms of english language pedagogy (camargo, 2017). as a matter of fact, researchers in countries where english has been taught and evaluated under already defined standards have discovered similar findings. for example, muthanna & karaman (2011) stated teachers’ beliefs concerning efl education were dismissed as have scarcity of well-defined standards and philosophy statements. what is more, education policy-makers disregarded the ideas and strategies suggested by teachers’ in order to improve the efl curriculum in yemen. alike, jóhanneson et. al (2000) affirmed teachers’ notion of expertise got narrowed as there are pre-defined standards and goals; and barkhuizen’s (2002) study showed that when decisions about educational issues are made, teachers and students’ points of view are often ignored, though these last ones have a preference for studying english over the native language since it has been said, would give them better life opportunities. as seen, these discourses and practices have voided teachers’ role as designers, managers and evaluators of curricula and materials (camargo, 2017). besides, local research into bilingualism and foreign languages pedagogy is overshadowed (de mejía, 2004). likewise, it has had a great influence on the way english is being taught in educational institutions (guerrero & quintero, 2009; p. 137). hence, the efl professional development term under this perspective, has been limited to the conceptions of teacher-training programs in which the emphasis is on reviewing and memorizing approaches, methodologies or theories that others had developed at the time of increasing teachers’ proficiency in the foreign language (gonzález, 2009; guerrero, 2008). efl teacher’s professional development estacio & camargo no. 17 (july december, 2018) no. 17 (july december, 2018) 222 indeed, most if not allof the updating/training programs are offered by foreign entities and nes, who as previously mentioned, are chosen over efl teachers for their “proper” pronunciation, perpetuating the conception of neutrality given to the native variation (guerrero & quintero, 2009) and validating the notion that there is one way of teaching notwithstanding of contexts, realities and learners. as a result, efl educational actors are subjected to learn and teach this language while being positioned as followers (camargo, 2017). developing the supremacy counterpart although the linguistic imperialism and dominance of the english language has lasted and affected diverse aspects, there is a desire to combat it. the thesis of a counterpart to the supremacy of english as a means to resist hegemony has in fact emerged from many places around the world and has sought balancing the theory-practice dichotomy and encouraging educators to continue growing both professional and individually by means of reflecting and sharing upon educational theories and practices (díaz-maggioli, 2012). paradoxically, as phillipson (1992) states, not only efl teacherresearchers have been part of the protesting group, but also some scholars from the core and periphery circles (kachru, 1985). graddol (2006) for example, forecasted in his study the end on the foreign language teaching grounded on native speaking models by bearing in mind the current quantity of non-native speakers using the language for academic and non-academic purposes. alike, kohn (2011) stated the domination perpetuated by economically and socially empowered countries is crumbling as nnes have astonishingly increased in numbers. in monolingual contexts, camargo (2017) for instance, evidenced how efl and self-contained teachers become main characters in the education process by questioning, reflecting, and visioning, an outcome supported by nielsen, triggs, clarke & collins’ (2010) who asserted peer dialogue generates new alternatives to think about the teaching practices and their work with their peers and got self-empowered. similarly, estacio´s (2017) study, evidenced that some educational institutions are taking into account the real needs of language learners by including the use of nonstandard variations and intercultural contact situations, as they are acknowledging the intelligibility of the language rather than the native standard (levis, 2005). in such a way, they can implement more realistic pedagogical approaches in which the efl teacher’s professional development estacio & camargo no. 17 (july december, 2018) no. 17 (july december, 2018) 223 language is seen in real situations that may happen in actual interactions where nnes-nes exchanges are commonplace. thence, pedagogical aspects such as curriculum, teaching practices, and educational standards can be modified through reflection and bearing in mind the real world of english communication (shusterman, 2000). hitherto, it seems the world will eventually overcome the comparison between native and non-native speakers’ norms and accents by taking into account the geographical characteristics and by giving priority to the relevance and intelligibility in the language as advocated by seidlhofer (2011). conclusions taking into account the theoretical discussion held in this reflective article, it seems essential for the educational field to comprehend the political, economic, and historical background of the english language to reflect upon the implications of those decisions in the efl practices. considering the arguments presented in this article, it can be asserted that the supremacy of the english language has being mostly linked to economic commodities, favoring this language over others. what is more, the endless differentiation made between nes and nnes linguistic variation, has had serious implications in terms of teachers’ professional development since it has been mainly understood as to formal education programs instead of pedagogical spaces of sharing and discussing initiatives concerning the teaching-learning the language. nevertheless, it was shown educators that can resist these discourses of homogenization and colonialism by reflecting, understanding, and being involved in the creation of curricula, methodologies and educational guidelines that draw upon the real world of english communication notwithstanding the native or nonnative speakers’ labels. bearing this in mind, this reflective paper not only calls attention to the need of making efl teachers aware of the discourses and practices behind the teaching-learning english process, but it also highlights the acts of resistance that have emerged in the elt and efl fields for deprivatizing our pedagogical practices. efl teacher’s professional development estacio & camargo no. 17 (july december, 2018) no. 17 (july december, 2018) 224 references 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(2013). language policy and the manufacturing of consent for foreign intervention in colombia. 27 profile vol. 15, no. 1, april 2013. issn 16570790 (printed) 2256-5760 (online). bogotá, colombia. pages 27-43. walkinshaw, i. & oanh, d (2014). nativeand non-native speaking english teachers in vietnam: weighing the benefits. the electronic journal for english as a second language, 16 (3), 1-16. wenger, e. (1999). communities of practice: learning, meaning and identity. cambridge. white, a. (1965). the british council: the first 25 years, 1934-1959. london: british council. efl teacher’s professional development estacio & camargo no. 17 (july december, 2018) no. 17 (july december, 2018) 229 authors *aura maría estacio barrios works as an english teacher at universidad de la sabana. she supports the processes of designing and developing educational resources to teach english in a hybrid learning environment. she has worked as an english and french teacher in different higher education institutions such as universidad pedagógica nacional and universidad ecci. she holds a bachelor’s degree in foreign languages teaching (spanish, english and french) from universidad pedagógica nacional and a master in applied linguistics to english teaching from universidad distrital francisco josé de caldas. her research interests are discourse analysis, linguistic variations and decolonial studies jennyfer paola camargo cely works as an english teacher at universidad de la sabana. she supports the processes of designing and developing educational resources to teach english in a hybrid learning environment. she has also worked as an english teacher at universidad pedagogica nacional and different k-12 schools. she holds a bachelor’s degree in english teaching education from universidad distrital fjc and a master in applied linguistics from the same university. her research interests are discourse analysis, bilingualism, and literacy practices. efl teacher’s professional development estacio & camargo no. 17 (july december, 2018) no. 17 (july december, 2018) 5 no. 30 editorial dr. carlo granados-beltrán academic vice chancellor única what happens when teachers and students are not simply expected to follow the rules and deliver lessons but are instead seen as thoughtful, creative, and critical participants in the learning process? the articles featured in this issue of gist suggest a meaningful shift in this direction—one that reimagines classrooms as spaces for exploration, dialogue, and transformation. this issue brings together a rich collection of studies that focus on three key areas: the role of teachers in shaping their classrooms, the mental and emotional processes involved in language learning, and the deeper messages contained in the materials used for teaching. several articles emphasize the importance of teachers’ professional judgment and creativity. abebe tewachew’s research looks at how english teachers in ethiopian secondary schools design their classroom tests. the study reveals that, although many teachers prepare carefully and communicate clearly, their tests frequently overlook key principles of effective assessment. in a related study, wakgari deressa aemero and alemayehu getachew revere examine how speaking skills are taught in the same region. they find that teachers often use interactive activities such as group discussions and pair work, but a strong focus on getting things exactly right sometimes prevents students from speaking freely. together, these studies raise an essential question: how can we offer teachers better training while still respecting and supporting their local knowledge and experience? this issue also delves into the inner world of language learners—their thoughts, feelings, and personal learning strategies. serap atasever belli examines how turkish students comprehend and employ complex verb structures, demonstrating that vocabulary knowledge facilitates the use of grammar. parisa farrokh and gholamreza hamta investigate how students’ motivation relates to their ability to speak english. they find that even a slight increase in motivation can have a positive impact. meanwhile, zelalem ayalew abate, abiy yigezaw, and yinager teklesellassie examine how students’ strategies for planning, monitoring, and reflecting on their writing can lead to significant improvements. 5 lastly, two contributions invite us to think critically about the teaching materials themselves. anteneh k. lakew examines how everyday spoken english is presented in textbooks used in ethiopia, questioning whether these conversations accurately reflect how people talk in real life. on a more personal note, i offer a review of the book decolonizing educational knowledge, edited by ann e. lópez and herveen singh. my intention is not to provide a final word on the topic, but rather to respond to the invitation of this book to question the deeper structures behind education—what we choose to teach, how we teach it, and whose knowledge we value. these contributions point to a common theme: the need to build more open, inclusive, and thoughtful language classrooms. this involves seeing teachers as knowledgeable professionals, recognizing students as active learners with thoughts and emotions, and examining how our teaching tools reflect (or fail to reflect) the real world. we hope this issue contributes to ongoing conversations about how to teach and learn languages in ways that are not only effective but also just, human, and reflective. 66 no. 30 l2 learners’ perspectives on data-driven learning for identifying properties of near-synonymous words: a convergent mixedmethods study perspectivas de los estudiantes de l2 sobre el aprendizaje basado en datos para identificar propiedades de palabras casi sinónimas: un estudio convergente de métodos mixtos dr. sibel söğüt1 sinop university 69 no. 27 gist education and learning research journal. issn 1692-5777. no. 27 (july december, 2023). pp. 69-90. 1 ssogut@sinop.edu.tr 70 no. 27 abstract this study examines second language (l2) learners’ perspectives regarding the affordances and challenges of using the data-driven learning (ddl) to identify the properties of nearsynonymous words. employing a convergent mixed-method design, this study deciphers the perceptions of 40 undergraduate l2 learners majoring in english language teaching. after an initial identification of the learners’ vocabulary levels, the experienced benefits and barriers associated with carrying out experiential tasks were elicited via questionnaire data and openended survey questions. descriptive statistics, including means and standard deviations, were revealed and thematic analyses of the responses to the survey questions were documented. the results indicate that completing tasks through the corpus was found to enhance their knowledge of collocations. integrating corpus tasks into youglish (an online practice tool for authentic spoken english in context) was found to increase their awareness of the contextual properties of words. the identification of condensed language exposure, lexical inference, and elicitation of flexible and context-specific patterns were reported to be beneficial. acknowledging these benefits, gaining familiarity with the corpus interface, encountering limited access to search queries, and analyzing large amounts of concordance lines posed challenges for learners. this research presents the implementation of the ddl supported by experiential learning, contextually rich input, and inductive reasoning tasks in vocabulary learning by further offering instructional implications in l2 contexts. keywords: data-driven learning, vocabulary learning, near-synonymous words, l2 learners, learner perspectives. resumen este estudio examina las perspectivas de los estudiantes de l2 con respecto a las posibilidades y desafíos del uso del aprendizaje basado en datos (ddl) para identificar las propiedades de palabras casi sinónimas. empleando un diseño de método mixto convergente, este estudio descifra las percepciones de 40 estudiantes universitarios de l2 con especialización en enseñanza del idioma inglés. después de una identificación inicial de los niveles de vocabulario de los estudiantes, los beneficios experimentados y las barreras asociadas con la realización de tareas experienciales se obtuvieron a través de datos de cuestionarios y preguntas de encuesta abiertas. se revelaron estadísticas descriptivas, incluidas medias y desviaciones estándar, y se documentaron análisis temáticos de las respuestas a las preguntas de la encuesta. los resultados indican que completar tareas a través del corpus mejora su conocimiento de las colocaciones y aumenta su conciencia de las propiedades contextuales de las palabras con la intersección del corpus y el youglish. se informó que la identificación de la exposición al lenguaje condensado, la inferencia léxica y la obtención de patrones flexibles y específicos del contexto eran beneficiosas. reconocer estos beneficios, familiarizarse con la interfaz del corpus, encontrar acceso limitado a consultas de búsqueda y analizar grandes cantidades de líneas de concordancia planteó desafíos para los estudiantes. esta investigación avanza en la implementación de ddl respaldada por learners’ perspectives on ddl for learning near-synonymous words. 71 no. 27 el aprendizaje por descubrimiento, aportes contextualmente ricos y tareas de razonamiento inductivo en el aprendizaje de vocabulario al ofrecer implicaciones instructivas en contextos de l2. palabras clave: aprendizaje basado en datos, aprendizaje de vocabulario, palabras casi sinónimas, estudiantes de l2, perspectivas del estudiante. resumo este estudo examina as perspectivas dos alunos de l2 em relação às possibilidades e desafios do uso da aprendizagem baseada em dados (ddl) para identificar as propriedades de palavras quase sinônimas. utilizando um desenho de método misto convergente, este estudo analisa as percepções de 40 estudantes universitários de l2, com especialização em ensino de língua inglesa. após uma identificação inicial dos níveis de vocabulário dos alunos, os benefícios e as barreiras experimentadas associados à realização de tarefas experienciais foram obtidos por meio de dados de questionários e perguntas abertas de pesquisa. foram reveladas estatísticas descritivas, incluindo médias e desvios-padrão, e documentadas análises temáticas das respostas às perguntas da pesquisa. os resultados indicam que a realização de tarefas por meio do corpus melhora o conhecimento das colocações e aumenta a conscientização sobre as propriedades contextuais das palavras com a interseção do corpus e do youglish. foi relatado que a identificação da exposição à linguagem condensada, a inferência lexical e a obtenção de padrões flexíveis e específicos de contexto foram benefícios observados. reconhecer esses benefícios, familiarizar-se com a interface do corpus, encontrar acesso limitado a consultas de pesquisa e analisar grandes quantidades de linhas de concordância apresentaram desafios para os alunos. esta pesquisa avança na implementação de ddl apoiada pela aprendizagem por descoberta, com entradas contextualmente ricas e tarefas de raciocínio indutivo no aprendizado de vocabulário, oferecendo implicações instrutivas em contextos de l2. palavras-chave: aprendizagem baseada em dados, aprendizado de vocabulário, palavras quase sinônimas, estudantes de l2, perspectivas dos estudantes sibel söğüt 72 no. 27 recent developments in second language (l2) acquisition research have yielded growing interest in vocabulary teaching. near-synonyms have meaning differences in terms of their denotational variations (i.e. propositional, fuzzy, and other peripheral aspects), stylistic variations (i.e., dialect and register), expressive variations (i.e., emotive and attitudinal aspects), and structural variations (i.e., collocational, selectional, and syntactic variations) (cruse, 1986). to date, several studies have shown that existing bilingual dictionaries are not always helpful in conveying subtle differences among near-synonyms, as they highlight denotation rather than usage (xiao & mcenery, 2006). such features of near-synonyms pose a stumbling block to l2 learners’ lexical choices. the demanding nature of the learning properties of near-synonyms has a significant influence on learners’ affective factors and their overall performance in l2 acquisition. it can be difficult even for native speakers to identify the differences between near-synonyms well enough to use them and “choosing the wrong word can convey an unwanted implication” (edmonds & hirst, 2002, p. 108). near-synonymy inherently affects the structure of lexical knowledge (edmonds & hirst, 2002, p. 106), and learners need to observe repeated patterns and meanings to identify differences originating from collocational behavior and semantic prosody (xiao & mcenery, 2006). considering these features, figuring out the differences between near-synonyms and making appropriate lexical choices when learning new vocabulary can be a particularly challenging endeavor (lin & chung, 2021). l2 learners’ mastery of nearsynonymous words may be enhanced by providing authentic contexts and integrating corpus tools in l2 learning processes. to address these challenging aspects, ddl has emerged as a promising pedagogical endeavor that enables access to exploratory activities for the acquisition of vocabulary knowledge. this technique provides space for learners to learn by exploring and analyzing language data from a corpus (johns, 1986). it also offers pedagogical benefits by introducing new phraseology to young learners (szudarski, 2019). it also enables learners to engage in authentic concordance lines by promoting their autonomy and awareness to successfully discover pattern regularities (szudarski, 2022). these tasks serve to help learners overcome different types of vocabulary errors and improve their academic writing quality (alsehibany & abdelhalim, 2023). this learner-centered technique provides space for hands-on practices, along with the discovery of learning experiences. it also provides a platform for the application of critical thinking skills, noticing, gaining awareness about language samples, creating and testing hypotheses, acquaintance with linguistic variation, and data analysis skills (pérez-paredes et al., 2019). previous empirical studies have established the basis and connections between corpus-driven tasks and l2 skill acquisition. much research has documented learners’ corpus use behaviour and their perceptions of the strengths and weaknesses of corpora as a second language writing tool (yoon & hirvela, 2004; learners’ perspectives on ddl for learning near-synonymous words. 73 no. 27 flowerdew, 2010). examining the effects of integrating corpus and contextualized lexico-grammar in l2 teaching, liu and jiang (2009) documented that analyzing concordance data to identify lexico-grammatical usage rules and patterns is the greatest challenge for learner. a meta-analysis revealed that the level of proficiency in l2 and various features of the corpus use (i.e., types of interaction, types of corpora, training, and duration) affect the extent to which corpus use enhances l2 vocabulary acquisition (lee et al., 2019). the existing literature on the pedagogical applications of ddl is extensive. an overview of the prevailing discourse regarding the use of corpus tools in enhancing l2 learners’ vocabulary acquisition focuses on pedagogical benefits. previous research has documented a meta-analysis of ddl in english as a foreign language (efl) classroom in the japanese context and revealed that learners exhibited substantial learning gains for acquiring the properties of lexical items, expanding their repertoires of grammar and formulaic sequences (mizumoto & chujo, 2015). previous seminal research has established that the use of corpora enhances language learning and teaching through authentic language input (gilquin, 2022; lei & liu, 2018). corpora also expose learners to contextualized language samples and quantitative information (gilquin, 2022). learners take on the role of language detectives or researchers, exploring authentic examples of the target language through corpus-based tasks (geluso & yamaguchi, 2011). it provides access to contextual analysis of numerous samples of authentic language use (sevilan, 2023). considering these features, previous research has established that students believe ddl is a useful and effective tool in the classroom (geluso & yamaguchi, 2014) as it enhances their critical understanding of grammar and discovery learning skills (liu & jiang, 2009). ddl tasks serve the potential for learners to establish connections between these patterns and their respective meanings even at lower levels if they are provided with carefully selected patterns presented in a contextually rich format (o’keeffe, 2023). such practices enable learners to carry out hands-on concordancing and foster critical reading skills (yang & mei, 2024). accordingly, leńko-szymańska (2022) argues that corpus-related pedagogical skills, which entail technical and corpusanalytical skills, should be integrated into language teacher training. along with the previously reported pedagogical gains, boulton (2010) lists the limitations of corpus use in language learning, including a) new material (e.g., keywords in context format), b) technology (e.g., concordancer), and c) learning approaches (e.g., inductive learning). the time-consuming nature of ddl and the difficulty in interpreting the results of corpus investigations have also been highlighted in the literature (yoon & hirvela, 2004). the potential of drawing wrong inferences and ‘fake discovery’ (o’keeffe, 2023), loaded or insufficient output of the search queries, teachers’ lack of knowledge, and awareness of corpus applications in language classes (gilquin & granger, 2022) are additional reported limitations of the ddl. sibel söğüt 74 no. 27 the nature of near-synonymous words poses challenges to l2 learners. several corpus-based analyses have documented the properties of near-synonymous words in english (lin & chung, 2021; song, 2021). these studies demonstrate that nearsynonymous words are not used interchangeably (edmonds & hirst, 2002), are not fully intersubstitutable (song, 2021) and operate in different contexts (xiao & mcenery, 2006) because of their semantic, syntactic, and pragmatic properties. although nearsynonyms have distinct semantic profiles, dictionaries present them as interchangeable in different contexts, and this presentation may guide l2 learners to assume contextual interchangeability (alanazi, 2022). particular challenges have also been reported in the acquisition of nearsynonymous words. previous research has revealed that l2 learners’ inappropriate use of near-synonymous words may stem from several factors including interference of l1, inadequate descriptions of these words in dictionaries, and insufficient instructional focus on the subtle semantic differences among synonyms (liu, 2018). to date, several studies have shown that existing bilingual dictionaries are not always helpful in conveying subtle differences among near-synonyms as they highlight denotation rather than usage (xiao & mcenery, 2006). a significant argument proposes that native speaker introspection is no longer considered the sole, reliable source of insight into language structure and is used to document these properties and differences (gabrielatos, 2005). overall, the existing arguments uncover gaps and notably scarce literature regarding the use of data-driven learning to practice the properties of near-synonymous words in a teacher training context. by exploring the attitudes of pre-service teachers and eliciting their perceptions of and practices regarding the ddl, practical implementations derived from experienced barriers and benefits can offer insights into integration of the ddl into teacher training. further, exploration of learning several properties of near-synonymous words can serve to better understand potential ways of integrating the ddl into vocabulary acquisition in l2 contexts. drawing upon this highlighted need and previously documented pedagogical benefits, this study frames the investigation of l2 learners’ experiences in a teacher-training context as an underexplored area. this study aims to contribute to this growing area of interest by exploring l2 learners’ experiences of conducting ddl experiential learning tasks to decipher pedagogical benefits and potential drawbacks. this study was motivated by the pedagogical affordances of the ddl approach, and the complexity and challenging nature of the properties of near-synonymous words in english. studies on the topic focus more on the benefits and limitations originating from the tool and instructional design. in contrast to previous research, this study offers a fresh perspective and addresses l2 learners’ experiences in an efl teacher education context, where they have limited technological tools and digital sources due to the existing digital divide in their setting. learners’ perspectives on ddl for learning near-synonymous words. 75 no. 27 a critical view of the aforementioned studies shows that there is a tendency to document positive results on the substantial learning gains of corpora use and the widespread implementation of corpus-based tasks. this study examines the emerging role of the ddl in deciphering a composite picture of lived experiences concerning experiential reflections and potential barriers. this study revisits the need to document a cluster of evolving learning gains and examines l2 learners’ perspectives on the opportunities and challenges of using a corpus-based data-driven learning approach to practice the properties of near-synonymous words in a vocabulary course. this study places the ddl at the center of the course syllabus to enhance pre-service teachers’ corpus literacy skills. a novel contribution of the current study is the documentation of affordances of an array of functions with the intersection between the coca and youglish, and revisiting this landscape from the perspective of prospective english language teachers. this study outlines a corpus-based vocabulary teaching course with the aim of providing authentic language input; disrupting heavy reliance on textbooks; actively engaging learners in their discovery learning processes; and conducting an in-depth analysis of the properties of near-synonymous words. this study aims to uncover learner perspectives and is driven by the following questions: 1. what are the pedagogical benefits and potential drawbacks of incorporating a ddl approach for teaching near-synonyms in a teacher education context with limited technological tools and digital sources? 2. how do l2 learners experience and perceive the opportunities and challenges of conducting ddl experiential learning tasks and how does this approach enhance their corpus literacy skills and engagement in their discovery learning processes? method research setting and participants this study was conducted within the scope of a vocabulary course delivered at a turkish state university. the participants were 40 undergraduate pre-service teachers majoring in the english language teaching (elt) department. the learners were administered an institutional english proficiency test at the beginning of the semester, and were also involved in a two-semester preparatory program to gain mastery over skill-based courses before enrolling in an undergraduate degree in the elt department. they took writing, speaking, listening, vocabulary, and reading skills courses, and english was the medium of instruction in these courses. their english proficiency level was b1 as described in the common european framework of reference for languages. sibel söğüt 76 no. 27 procedures this study was conducted as part of the vocabulary course. as part of the ethical guidelines, informed consent was received from each participant. the participants were informed about the purpose of the study, and the anonymity of their responses was ensured by eliminating any identifying information in the data-gathering tools. initially, the vocabulary levels test (vlt) by schmitt et al. (2001) was conducted at the beginning of the term to gain an understanding of learners’ lexicons and identify their needs. this test provides an estimate of vocabulary size for l2 learners of general and academic english (schmitt et. al., 2001), with a focus on the most frequently used words in english. the test consists of words required in basic everyday oral communication (2000-word level), reading authentic texts (3000-word level), inferring the meanings of novel words from context and understanding the communicative content (5000-word level), and having knowledge of the sub-technical vocabulary occurring across a range of academic disciplines (10000) (schmitt et al., 2001). academic word level (awl) provides an estimate of the size of learners’ academic vocabulary (schmitt et al., 2001). the awl was placed between 3000 and 5000 sections, as the placement of this section is flexible based on the demands of each testing situation (schmitt et al., 2001). considering the need to obtain an estimate of vocabulary size, the pedagogical needs of the learners in terms of the properties of words, and their tendency to cope with authentic language input, this benchmark was utilized. learners’ levels are presented in table 1. table 1. vocabulary levels (vl) of the learners vl 2000 3000 awl 5000 total n 11 15 10 4 40 % 27,5 37,5 25 10 100 the results of the vlt show that the word levels of most learners were at the 3000word level, followed by 2000 and awl. the corpus of contemporary american english (coca) (davies, 2008) was used as a tool to integrate ddl into the vocabulary course. coca is a genre-balanced corpus containing more than one billion words of text from various genres, such as spoken, fiction, popular magazines, newspapers, academic texts, tv and movie subtitles, blogs, and other web pages. the design of the tasks included in the course content was derived from an array of suggestions and descriptions of corpus-driven pedagogical materials provided by gabrielatos (2005). two sessions of 45 minutes of corpus training and subsequent administration of hands-on practices were carried out with the employment of corpus-based tasks over the course of 14 weeks throughout the spring semester. learners’ perspectives on ddl for learning near-synonymous words. 77 no. 27 prior to the course, learners were introduced to the course content, syllabus, requirements, and objectives. from an emic perspective, the learners’ prior corpus use was initially elucidated. it was figured out that the learners had no prior experience or familiarity with the use of a corpus in their language learning processes. as the comprehension of concordancing would be difficult without teacher instruction (boulton & cobb, 2017), the learners were trained to conduct search queries with different functions (i.e. distribution across years, registers, collocational patterns, etc.) and were familiarized with the interface and an array of functions of the corpus throughout the course. the course content was designed to decipher the multifaceted properties of target words. ddl tasks were employed in the course, and learners were assigned to both in-class and out-of-class tasks to figure out properties of nearsynonymous words by administering hands-on practices in the corpus. a blended learning approach was used throughout the course, with the integration of researcher-prepared tutorials, and discussion platforms set on canvas to enable learners to discuss their findings outside the classroom. the in-class practice sessions included teacher-directed corpus-driven tasks, guided corpus queries, and learner-centered discovery-learning tasks. figure 1 illustrates a sample guided corpus query provided to the learners. figure 1. a sample guided corpus query using the coca based on this pedagogical position of ddl, learners prepared reports presenting findings generated by the corpus and discussed them in classroom sessions. the three stages of inductive reasoning proposed by carter and mccarthy (2004) were implemented in the classroom, as shown in figure 2. sibel söğüt 78 no. 27 figure 2. the stages of inductive reasoning proposed by carter & mccarthy (2004) following these stages, in-class discussions and feedback sessions were conducted based on the learners’ findings, and extended concordance displays for the target words were examined in the classroom. the main parts of a word examined by the learners were parts of speech, synonyms and antonyms, collocational patterns, register information, genre-specific tendencies, formality level, diachronic changes, grammatical behavior of the words, and example sentences. in addition to the corpus, youglish was used to provide complementary support as a youtube-based pronunciation dictionary. this tool was developed to meet the need for authentic pronunciation input, which allows quick and easy access to “youtube-sourced pronunciation samples” (barhen, 2019, p. 2). this tool was used to guide learners in examining dictionary definitions, phonemic descriptions, and the pronunciation of the target words. sample tasks assigned to the learners are exemplified in appendix a. research design and instruments drawing on the mixed-methods research paradigm, the current study employed a convergent mixed-methods design in which qualitative and quantitative data were collected in parallel, analyzed separately, and then merged (creswell, 2014). this research design provided a complementary perspective on the benefits and barriers of using corpus tools in vocabulary learning. the quantitative data of this study came from learner responses to a 6-point likert scale questionnaire from geluso and yamaguchi’s (2014) study, which combined the items from two published studies on using corpora in l2 writing (yoon & hirvela, 2004; liu & jiang, 2009). after obtaining consent from the learners, the data were collected at the end of the term, and the learners were asked to indicate their degree of agreement with the items. the instrument consisted of statements about the difficulty in using corpora, the positive impact of using corpora, the effectiveness of presentation and delivery of coursework, attitudes, and beliefs about data-driven learning and its potential. after the administration of the questionnaire, the learners were asked to answer the open-ended questions provided in appendix learners’ perspectives on ddl for learning near-synonymous words. 79 no. 27 b. follow-up open-ended questions were semi-structured, with lead questions based on the survey results. the first set of questions elicited learners’ experiences of the challenges in using the corpus. the second question sought the learners’ perceptions of the most useful and valuable things they learned. the last examined the changes in their perspectives and future orientation about the integration of corpus-driven tasks in their future language classes as pre-service english teachers. data collection and analysis a total of 40 l2 learners responded to the questionnaires, while 16 learners responded to follow-up open-ended questions on a voluntary basis. the data collection procedure was conducted once the terms ended and instructor assessments, evaluations, and reflections were finalized. the qualitative and quantitative data collection process was carried out in parallel stages. initially, the participants were assured of confidentiality through anonymous responses to the study. in the first phase, the participants responded to the questionnaire items and shared their perspectives on the corpus integration. then, they were asked follow-up open-ended questions to delve into their experiences and perceptions. the findings from both quantitative and qualitative data were compared and combined to provide a comprehensive picture of learner experiences. the responses revealed from the questionnaire and open-ended questions were analyzed separately. for the quantitative data analysis, means and standard deviations were calculated based on the responses of the participants. this analysis revealed the distribution of learner responses to each item for the identification of common patterns. as for the qualitative data analysis, a thematic analysis was used to identify, analyze, and interpret themes emerging from the learner responses to open-ended questions. at this stage, the whole data was coded, and repetitive segments were assigned codes. then, codes were grouped into broader themes representing the prominent perspectives shared by the learners. the elicited codes and themes identified based on the responses to the open-ended questions are provided in appendix c. the key patterns identified in the qualitative data served to support quantitative findings. the results revealed from both qualitative and quantitative data analyses were merged. the results revealed from both sources enabled the documentation of a composite picture of l2 learners’ perspectives on experiential learning tasks. sibel söğüt 80 no. 27 findings l2 learners’ perceptions about the benefits of using corpus first, the learners reflected on the benefits of the ddl; the overall findings are presented in table 2. the table shows that learners believed the corpus to be helpful for language learning. most learners reported that corpus use was most helpful for learning the usage of vocabulary and phrases, meaning of vocabulary, enhancing english reading and writing skills, and increasing their confidence in english vocabulary. a slight decrease was observed in the perceived usefulness of corpus use over a dictionary. a particularly counterintuitive finding was that the scores for learning grammar and improving academic writing ability were relatively low, which should be further elaborated in future investigations. table 2. benefits of corpus use (n=40) category agree (%) disagree (%) m sd more helpful than a dictionary for my english vocabulary. 75 25 4.03 1.07 learning the meaning of vocabulary 90 10 5.00 1.24 learning the usage of vocabulary 100 0 5.53 0.59 learning the usage of phrases 100 0 5.50 0.67 learning grammar 60 40 3.65 1.47 improved english reading skills 95 5 4.10 1.15 improved english writing skills 95 5 4.45 1.21 improved english academic writing ability 45 55 5.00 0.84 increased my confidence about english vocabulary 85 15 4.90 1.05 1: strongly disagree, 2: disagree, 3: somewhat disagree, 4: somewhat agree, 5: agree, 6: strongly agree with the overall picture of the learners’ perceptions about the benefits of using the corpus in their vocabulary learning practices, this study revealed findings related to three associative aspects in the qualitative data analysis: (a) benefits of vocabulary learning, (b) benefits about other language skills, and (c) affective benefits. considering learners’ perspectives on ddl for learning near-synonymous words. 81 no. 27 the usefulness of corpus-driven activities in vocabulary learning, the learners drew attention to two significant and connected themes: their increased awareness of word properties and their overall reporting of enhanced language competencies. they elaborated their enhanced understanding of word properties in relation to a better understanding of the multiple meanings of words, word associations, parts of speech, frequency counts, collocational patterns, contextual features of words, diachronic changes, genre-specific information, subtle differences between near-synonymous words, and guessing the meaning of unknown words in context. in relation to their overall reports of enhanced language competencies, they reported expanded vocabulary knowledge, awareness of the harmony among words, significance of vocabulary items in english, and contextual features of the words in english. the participants demonstrated that corpus-driven tasks provided benefits in the mastery of other language skills by facilitating writing skills (form sentences, using collocations, and formality level), improving communication and self-expression skills, improving speaking skills, using language strategies, enhancing language analysis skills, and exposure to different usages and sources of language. the benefits of corpus-based vocabulary learning activities were further evidenced by the fact that the learners highlighted affective aspects with a focus on increased elements of curiosity, enhanced excitement to play with words, happiness in becoming familiar with a huge database, and enhanced motivation and enjoyment in searching for learning. overall, these findings suggest that corpus-based deductive learning activities enhance and enrich learners’ vocabulary learning experiences by boosting their interests. l2 learners’ challenges in the use of corpus after an in-depth understanding of the benefits, the first set of questions also unpacked the l2 learners’ challenges in the use of the corpus. an intriguing look at the concerns and difficulties with respect to corpus use revealed that the learners’ reactions to the challenges in corpus use were clustered in a 2.40-3.98 score range, indicating difficulties and obstacles. table 3 shows that the amount of time and effort necessary to analyze language expressions, limited access to computers or the internet, unfamiliar vocabulary in concordance lines, and performing search techniques were the main difficulties highlighted by the learners. sibel söğüt 82 no. 27 table 3. l2 learners’ difficulties in corpus use (n=40) category agree (%) disagree (%) m sd limited access to computer/internet 45 55 3.38 1.75 the speed of internet connection 25 75 2.20 1.22 time and effort spent on analyzing the data 67,5 32,5 3.98 1.54 unfamiliar vocabulary on concordance/ collocate output 47,5 52,5 3.35 1.09 cut-off sentences in concordance output 30 70 2.90 1.27 too many sentences in concordance output 30 70 2.95 1.26 the limited number of sentences in concordance output 45 55 2.95 1.30 analyzing concordance output 20 80 2.50 0.98 analyzing the collocate output 25 75 2.45 1.13 performing the search technique 50 50 3.25 1.59 too difficult real texts 15 85 2.40 0.98 1: strongly disagree, 2: disagree, 3: somewhat disagree, 4: somewhat agree, 5: agree, 6: strongly agree an inspection of the findings of the qualitative data analysis revealed that the challenges were framed around two emerging themes: challenges originating from the corpus interface and language content. the prominent challenges were limited usage, a need for a premium account, upgraded options, confusion about the interface, analyzing huge amounts of concordance lines, complicated functions, searching techniques, showing unrelated results, and the need to make manual checks. understanding the genre-specific language content of registers (e.g., news, academic), understanding concordance lines, a limited number of search queries, unfamiliar corpus interface in the initial stages, complex sentences in the corpus, and searching techniques were the main challenges regarding the language content of the corpus. l2 learners’ overall evaluations of the use of corpus the second set of questions uncovered learners’ overall evaluations of the use of the corpus in learning the properties of near-synonymous words. as shown in table 4, the learners shared positive attitudes and feelings toward these activities in the classroom. learners’ perspectives on ddl for learning near-synonymous words. 83 no. 27 table 4. l2 learners’ overall evaluations of the use of corpus (n=40) category agree (%) disagree (%) m sd the search technique was easy to learn 70 30 4.20 1.20 hands-on practice was useful 95 5 4.83 0.84 use the corpus by own choice 45 55 3.40 1.44 understand the purpose of using the corpus 95 5 5.30 0.85 get the information that i need in the corpus 100 0 5.05 0.81 learn more, like more 80 20 4.45 1.17 use corpus in the future 95 5 5.35 0.92 earlier familiarity would be better 85 15 4.45 1.30 a useful resource for english vocabulary 95 5 5.25 1.00 should be introduced in all vocabulary courses 90 10 5.35 1.07 should be taught in english classes 90 10 5.10 1.27 1: strongly disagree, 2: disagree, 3: somewhat disagree, 4: somewhat agree, 5: agree, 6: strongly agree except for the items regarding their use of the corpus by their own choice, which may be due to a course requirement, all the items revealed strong agreement among the learners. the learners considered the corpus a useful tool for learning and practicing english vocabulary. the prominent positive evaluations revealed from the descriptive analysis were the availability of the information they needed to learn words, the usefulness of hands-on practices, the relevance of the purpose, the usefulness for other courses, and the willingness for further and future uses. building on this descriptive analysis, an in-depth exploration of learner evaluations through the qualitative data revealed that they would use future corpus studies to better understand the language, to use the corpus in enhancing all language skills, to make better progress in language, to figure out generalizations about language, to check for confusing words, and to discover the difference between near-synonymous words. the learners also highlighted the need to receive more training for using the corpus in academic and daily studies and to analyze the language and links between words. regarding their overall opinions, most learners reported that the corpus was a reliable source and a fun activity for learning the language. the learners also shared their potential goals for future corpus-based activities in their prospective classes. they highlighted that they would like to introduce the coca to their learners, use it in the same way as the teacher, and plan to use it to teach words in reading texts. sibel söğüt 84 no. 27 discussion, conclusion, and suggestions the results presented in this study enable us to understand l2 learners’ perspectives on the benefits and challenges of using a discovery learning corpus-based approach to practice the properties of near-synonymous words through ddl tasks. this study presents learners’ experiences of l2 learners’ experiential corpus-based tasks with a specific focus on exploratory learning. based on these results, the overall conclusion, related discussion points, limitations, and future research directions are presented. as a conclusion for the first research question, the salient benefits of corpusdriven vocabulary learning tasks are learning the meanings and collocations of nearsynonymous words in context, improving reading and writing skills, and facilitating learners’ confidence in english vocabulary. the most prominent finding to emerge from this part is that corpus tools are perceived as useful in terms of making the learners remember what they work to find out, providing authentic language input, evoking the element of curiosity, raising lexical awareness, enhancing the understanding of contextual features of the words, actively engaging the learners in the language learning process, and fostering autonomous learning experiences. these benefits are supported through the facilities of the corpus in emphasizing the properties of words such as their register, part of speech, and morphological processes; teaching vocabulary in context with a focus on collocations; surrounding elements in concordance lines; presenting diachronic information and genre-specific tendencies of words; formality levels of the words; and subtle differences between near-synonymous words. because learning the properties of near-synonymous words is a pedagogically challenging task, the learners’ aforementioned benefits may be related to the nature of ddl and the exploratory and discovery-oriented vocabulary learning experience provided to them. more specifically, as documented in previous research, ddl embraces concepts of learner autonomy, induction, exemplar-based learning, and constructivism and it enables learners to autonomously explore linguistic patterns, instead of being provided with predigested rules (boulton & cobb, 2017). these multilayered benefits have a facilitative effect on learners’ retention of near-synonymous words. additionally, ddl proves itself to be an effective language learning method as it changes the very nature of the l2 classroom (karras, 2016) by enabling active participation, discovery learning, willingness and motivation to do research, and inductive reasoning by identifying different properties of words. these benefits would have a sustainable impact on learners’ future teaching practices, as they provide corpus training to pre-service english language teachers. empowerment of the benefits of corpus use and provision of corpus training in initial teacher training would enable further integration of corpora into classroom practice (leńko-szymańska, 2022; szudarski, 2022; zareva, 2017). another notable finding is that spending too much time and effort on analyzing the data and concordance lines, limited queries, and confusion about the corpus interface posed difficulties to the learners. the learners highlighted certain challenges concerning the guidance of corpus use, along with emphasizing barriers to the corpus. learners’ perspectives on ddl for learning near-synonymous words. 85 no. 27 given the multilayered notion of technology-driven challenges, much of the discourse on the corpus tool is framed around the corpus interface. one of the challenges is learners’ unfamiliarity with the use of the corpus, its features, and its functions as a tool. l2 learners, who use the corpus for the first time, need the teacher’s support as they expect proper and prolonged teacher assistance to get the maximum benefit from it (sinha, 2021). to achieve this, providing technical support guiding learners to interact using a corpus would promote their autonomous discovery of the language. once learners gain familiarity with the corpus interface, they can move on to more divergent or autonomous tasks (geluso & yamaguchi, 2014). for this reason, there is also an overall need for substantial and specialized training in digital literacy (pérez-paredes et al., 2019). more specifically, initial corpus training is compulsory to facilitate learners’ corpus literacy (yang & mei, 2024). this argument is echoed by selivan (2023), who argues that learners can be encouraged to establish an initial form-meaning link and move on to more contextual aspects of vocabulary practice through concordancing. in this regard, the teacher plays a crucial role as it contributes to learners’ positive attitudes toward using the corpus (yoon & hirvela, 2004). access to technological tools is also reported as a barrier to their effective access to corpus data. although pérez-paredes (2019) noted that access to technology was not identified as an impeding factor, this research reveals a different finding by documenting digital divide-related drawbacks. overall, additional training and assistance would help learners overcome technical impediments and further develop corpus analytical and literacy skills. moving on to the second research question, this study documents that l2 learners have a positive attitude toward corpus-driven vocabulary teaching tasks. the findings in relation to their attitudes contribute in several ways to our understanding of corpusbased vocabulary teaching and provide a basis for using this approach to teach the properties of near-synonymous words. in contrast to the view that low-proficiency learners may not benefit from corpus use, this study notes numerous benefits without downplaying these challenges. to overcome potential challenges, this study suggests that there is a need to enhance learners’ mastery of corpus consultation skills through teachers’ mediation and support. the key to managing synonyms for l2 learners is to increase exposure to these words and present their salient collocations in meaningful contexts (liu & zhong, 2016). this study also revisits the need to enhance corpus literacy skills and integrate corpus tools into teacher training contexts. this integration may be achieved by using corpora to select relevant vocabulary, developing language syllabi and pedagogical materials, and using corpus data as a teaching technique (szudarski, 2022). another notable suggestion of this study is the emerging need to enable l2 learners’ exposure and engagement with concordance lines, which provides rich context information (lin & chung, 2021) to enhance and enrich their understanding of word properties. learners use inference skills and verify their inferences by using visual expressions or providing evidence from concordance (yang & mei, 2024). sibel söğüt 86 no. 27 for this reason, it is crucial that the concordance lines provided in the corpus are comprehensible to learners and offer enough contextual clues to facilitate their exploration and understanding of target lexical items during their linguistic investigations (lee et al., 2019). a particularly interesting observation that results from the analysis of open-ended questions is that they provide deep insight into l2 learners’ attitudes toward the challenges and perspectives. addressing the challenges in dealing with the subtle differences between near-synonymous words, providing continuous encouragement, and boosting their motivation may help learners overcome the reported barriers. the current results are significant in that the learners have surfacelevel challenges (i.e., corpus software, time), and these challenges can be overcome through familiarity with these learning experiences, hands-on practices, teacher modeling, and fostering autonomous language learning processes. teacher mediation, the provision of a rich multimodal context (o’keeffe, 2023) and transforming ‘datadriven learning’ into ‘data-driven use’ for autonomous learning are suggested (gilquin & granger, 2022). considering these findings of the study, this study has some limitations. given the idiosyncratic nature of each educational context and learner characteristics, this study is limited in terms of a specific sample size which can potentially lead to a lack of generalizability of the benefits and challenges. the collection of additional data through dairies may provide another complementary perspective for elaborating on the findings. further, a longitudinal study may expand and enhance our understanding of the long-term effects and dynamics of data-driven applications for language education. for future research, analyzing teachers’ attitudes toward using corpora in their classes would present a composite picture for better applications. additionally, the consequences of corpus-driven materials and tools observed in different local settings may uncover dynamic and effective variables through case studies. a followup study could examine learners’ vocabulary levels after the implementation of datadriven learning tasks. another study could 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(2022). corpora and teaching vocabulary and phraseology. in r. r. jablonkai, e. csomay (eds.), the routledge handbook of corpora and english language teaching and learning (pp. 41-55). routledge. yang, j., & mei, f. (2024). promoting critical reading instruction in higher education: a three-step training scheme facilitated by using corpus technology. journal of china computer-assisted language learning, 4(1), 15-142. https://doi.org/10.1515/ jccall-2023-0029 yoon, h., & hirvela, a. (2004). esl student attitudes toward corpus use in l2 writing. journal of second language writing, 13(4), 257-283. https://doi.org/10.1016/j. jslw.2004.06.002 sibel söğüt xiao, r., & mcenery, t. (2006). collocation, semantic prosody, and near synonymy: a cross-linguistic perspective. applied linguistics, 27(1), 103-129. https://doi. org/10.1093/applin/ami045 zareva, a. (2017). incorporating corpus literacy skills into tesol teacher training. elt journal, 71(1), 69-79. https://doi.org/10.1093/elt/ccw045 authors sibel söğüt, ph.d., is an assistant professor at the english language teaching department at sinop university, turkiye. she teaches undergraduate courses in the english language teacher training program. her research interests are pre-service english language teacher training, critical pedagogy, second language writing, and data-driven learning. she has published in computers and education, sustainable development, tesl-ej, and the iranian journal of language teaching research. orcid id: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3395-7445. 90 no. 27 learners’ perspectives on ddl for learning near-synonymous words. editorial dr. carlo granados-beltrán academic vice chancellor única welcome to the 27th issue of gist journal. this edition brings together a rich selection of research that offers valuable insights into various aspects of english language teaching (elt), spanning autonomy in learning, willingness to communicate, and the complex interplay between cognitive and psychological factors in language acquisition. one of the recurring themes in this issue is the importance of learner autonomy and motivation, particularly in the context of innovative teaching methods. the study by büşra nur çiftçi aksoy and aysegul takkac tulgar introduces us to the flipped classroom model (fcm) and its ability to foster both autonomy and motivation among efl students. their research highlights how flipped learning not only engages students more actively but also encourages them to take charge of their learning process. this focus on student empowerment resonates with other studies on this issue, where the need for engaging and interactive learning environments takes center stage. similarly, the willingness to communicate (wtc) explored by dereje teshome abebe, getachew syoum weldemariam, and guta legese birrasa complements the conversation about student engagement. their study in the ethiopian context reveals how psychological factors such as self-confidence and motivation, alongside the classroom environment, play a crucial role in learners’ participation in oral communicative tasks. this research underscores the importance of building supportive, confidence-boosting environments to promote active language use—a theme that aligns with the autonomy fostered through the flipped classroom model. expanding on the role of innovative methodologies, sibel söğüt brings datadriven learning (ddl) into the discussion, focusing on how l2 learners use corpora to enhance their understanding of near-synonymous words. through this exploration, we see how technology can serve as a powerful tool in vocabulary acquisition, providing learners with context-rich, experiential tasks that enhance lexical knowledge. the integration of corpus tools like youglish shows us how digital resources can support not only autonomy but also a deeper, more nuanced understanding of language use. at the same time, this issue takes a step into the intricate world of syntax and pragmatics, with abhinan wongkittiporn’s study on the syntax of determiner phrases 5 no. 27 (dp) deletion and the pragmatics of dp movement in passive voice. by applying these principles to academic writing, wongkittiporn’s research offers practical insights for language learners and educators alike, bridging theoretical linguistic concepts with real-world applications in research methodology this connection between cognitive factors and language learning is further explored by duygu ispinar akcayoglu and omer ozer, who examine the relationship between test anxiety and self-regulated learning. their findings, which highlight significant gender differences in anxiety and learning strategies, suggest that a deeper understanding of students’ emotional and cognitive processes is key to creating more effective learning environments. the emphasis on self-regulation, much like autonomy, reinforces the idea that fostering independent learning strategies can alleviate some of the psychological barriers to language acquisition in addition to these insightful articles, we are pleased to feature a book review by saieed moslemi nezhad arani and arzu atasoy on shahrzad mahootian’s bilingualism, further contributing to the broader conversation around multilingualism and language education this issue also celebrates the diversity within our academic community, featuring contributions from scholars across turkey, ethiopia, thailand, iran, and colombia. we are particularly proud of the gender diversity represented in this issue, with female and male scholars collaborating to advance knowledge in elt. this rich mix of perspectives—across both gender and nationality—enhances the depth and breadth of academic dialogue, contributing to a more inclusive and comprehensive understanding of the field moreover, this issue marks the first in which we implement our ai usage policy. readers may encounter some articles containing a disclaimer about the use of ai tools during the research or writing process. articles without this disclaimer reflect the authors’ declaration of not using ai. for more information on this policy, we invite readers to visit our website or read the policy at the end of this issue our deepest gratitude goes to our peer reviewers, who play an essential role in maintaining the quality of the journal. reviewers from colombia, mexico, germany, spain, turkey, iran, and the united states have contributed their expertise, helping to ensure the rigorous academic standards of this publication we invite scholars from around the world to continue contributing to gist journal, whether by submitting articles, participating as reviewers, or offering book reviews. your support is invaluable to us, and we hope you enjoy this issue as much as we enjoyed creating it 6 no. 27 structural patterns of conversational discourse: ethiopian efl textbooks in focus análisis de los patrones del discurso conversacional en libros de texto de inglés como lengua extranjera en etiopía dr. anteneh k. lakew department of english language and literature, college of social science and humanities, wolkite university, ethiopia sewmalet@gmail.com 81 no. 30 gist education and learning research journal. issn 1692-5777. no. 30 (january june, 2025). pp. 81-99. 82 no. 30 abstract this study investigates the grammatical patterns prevalent in conversational discourse as presented in selected ethiopian english as a foreign language (efl) textbooks. it aims to identify and analyze the features of spoken conversational discourse that shape the structure of dialogues and spoken interactions within these educational materials. focusing on both the frequency and function of grammatical forms, the research explores how these textbooks incorporate conversational discourse structures, such as heads and tails, ellipsis, backchannels, phrasal chunks, and adjacency pairs, to facilitate language acquisition. by examining a selection of course materials for the course “spoken english i” collected from three randomly selected universities in ethiopia, the study assesses whether the grammatical structures align with authentic conversational norms and pedagogical objectives. the findings provided insights into the effectiveness of these materials in promoting communicative competence and offered recommendations for improving the representation of real-world discourse in efl resources. keywords: conversational discourse, english as a foreign language, conversational grammar, efl textbooks resumen este estudio analiza los patrones gramaticales característicos del discurso conversacional tal como aparecen en una selección de libros de texto etíopes de inglés como lengua extranjera (efl). el objetivo es identificar y examinar las características del lenguaje oral que configuran la estructura de los diálogos e interacciones en estos materiales educativos. la investigación se centra tanto en la frecuencia como en la función de ciertas formas gramaticales, explorando cómo los libros de texto integran estructuras propias del discurso hablado —como heads y tails, elipsis, señales de retroalimentación (backchannels), unidades fraseológicas y pares adyacentes— para apoyar la adquisición del idioma. a partir del análisis de materiales del curso “spoken english i”, recolectados en tres universidades etíopes seleccionadas aleatoriamente, el estudio evalúa en qué medida dichas estructuras reflejan las normas auténticas del discurso conversacional y responden a los objetivos pedagógicos. los resultados ofrecen pistas sobre la eficacia de estos recursos para fomentar la competencia comunicativa y proponen recomendaciones para mejorar la representación del habla real en los materiales de enseñanza del inglés como lengua extranjera. palabras clave: discurso conversacional, inglés como lengua extranjera, gramática conversacional, libros de texto de efl structural patterns of conversational discourse in efl textbooks 83 no. 30 resumo este estudo analisa os padrões gramaticais característicos do discurso conversacional tal como aparecem em uma seleção de livros didáticos etíopes de inglês como língua estrangeira (efl). o objetivo é identificar e examinar as características da linguagem oral que estruturam os diálogos e as interações presentes nesses materiais educativos. a pesquisa foca tanto na frequência quanto na função de determinadas formas gramaticais, explorando como os livros didáticos integram estruturas próprias da oralidade —como heads e tails, elipses, marcadores de escuta (backchannels), unidades fraseológicas e pares adjacentes— para apoiar a aquisição do idioma. a partir da análise de materiais do curso “spoken english i”, coletados em três universidades etíopes selecionadas aleatoriamente, o estudo avalia em que medida tais estruturas refletem normas autênticas do discurso conversacional e atendem aos objetivos pedagógicos. os resultados oferecem indícios sobre a eficácia desses recursos no desenvolvimento da competência comunicativa e propõem recomendações para melhorar a representação da fala real nos materiais de ensino de inglês como língua estrangeira. palavras-chave: discurso conversacional, inglês como língua estrangeira, gramática da conversação, livros didáticos de efl anteneh k. lakew 84 no. 30 introduction as a result of the advent of spoken corpora, the teaching of spoken english has reached a new era, where oral interaction exhibits grammatical features that distinguish it from written language. this, in turn, calls for the inclusion of these features of real-life oral interaction in english language pedagogy. however, contrary to the fact that spoken language originated from authentic communication, the majority of the speaking activities incorporated in the textbooks, which are ‘the backbones of most efl courses’ as rühlemann (2008, p. 686) puts it, are contrived ideas that do not bisect with varied authentic circumstances that learners encounter outside their classrooms. in light of this fact, the current study intends to examine the ethiopian efl pedagogical practices. the english language teaching in ethiopian universities at the undergraduate level is governed by the ‘english language harmonized curriculum .’among the courses included in the curriculum to develop learners’ oral language proficiency, the ‘spoken english 1’ course is one. as one of its learning objectives, the course clearly stated that it is intended to develop the ethiopian efl learners’ ability to use the english language fluently in both formal and informal contexts with native and non-native speakers of the language. problem statement despite the recognized importance of conversational discourse in language learning and the development of communication skills, there is a lack of comprehensive research on its coverage in ethiopian efl textbooks. the absence of systematic analysis of spoken grammar features in textbook materials poses challenges for language educators in effectively teaching conversational competence to efl learners. furthermore, the limited attention to conversational discourse structures in efl textbooks may hinder students’ ability to comprehend and produce authentic spoken english in real-life communicative situations (lakew et al., 2021). in the global second and foreign language pedagogical contexts, studies often illustrate how far the spoken language presented in textbooks for learners can diverge from evidence from spoken corpora. some of these findings are discussed hereunder. gilmore (2004) compared the discourse features of dialogues in several language course books to similar authentic interactions. the comparison revealed that artificial textbook dialogues differ from authentic ones in terms of their length, turn-taking patterns, lexical density, number of false starts and repetitions, pausing, frequency of terminal overlaps, use of hesitation devices, and backchanneling. carter (1998) structural patterns of conversational discourse in efl textbooks 85 no. 30 similarly compared real data from the spoken corpus with textbook dialogues and realized that core spoken language features were absent from these dialogues. this is also supported by cullen and kuo (2007), who, after surveying 24 general efl textbooks published in the year 2000, concluded that in these books, ‘coverage of features of spoken grammar is at best patchy’ (p. 361). moreover, mindt found that the use of grammatical structures in textbooks for teaching english differs considerably from the use of these structures in l1 english. he observed that one common failure of english textbooks is that they teach a kind of school english which does not seem to exist outside the foreign language classroom’ (mindt, 1996, p. 232) in ethiopian pedagogical experiences, it is common knowledge that the english language ethiopian teachers teach in speaking classrooms is a formal language, which is governed by the grammatical rules of standard english (se) and/or writing. this research gap raises questions about the adequacy and relevance of efl textbooks in preparing students for effective communication in english. thus, addressing these questions is essential for informing curriculum development, textbook design, and language teaching practices in ethiopia, ultimately enhancing the quality and effectiveness of english language education in the country. through a rigorous examination of the coverage of conversational discourse structures in selected ethiopian efl textbooks, this research aims to contribute to the ongoing efforts to improve language teaching and learning outcomes in the ethiopian educational context. research questions this study aims to examine the coverage of structural features of conversational discourse in ethiopian universities’ efl course syllabi and teaching materials (modules). hence, it tries to answer the following specific questions: 1. are ethiopian efl textbooks sufficiently incorporating conversational discourse structures to meet the communicative needs of learners? 2. how do the content and pedagogical approaches of efl textbooks align with established frameworks of conversational discourse? anteneh k. lakew 86 no. 30 literature review the study of conversational discourse structures, particularly spoken grammar features, has garnered significant attention in the field of language education and applied linguistics. understanding how language is used in everyday conversation is crucial for language learners to develop communicative competence and engage effectively in real-life interactions (thornbury, 2005). in the context of english as a foreign language (efl) education in ethiopia, the coverage of conversational discourse structures in textbooks plays a critical role in shaping students’ language learning experiences and proficiency levels. importance of conversational discourse in language learning conversational discourse represents the informal, interactive nature of spoken language, characterized by features such as turn-taking, adjacency pairs, repair strategies, and discourse markers (richards & schmidt, 2010). research suggests that explicit instruction in conversational discourse can enhance learners’ pragmatic competence and fluency in oral communication (c, 2005). by exposing learners to authentic conversational data and providing practice opportunities, language textbooks can facilitate the development of conversational skills essential for successful communication (kasper & wagner, 2011). coverage of spoken grammar in efl textbooks despite the acknowledged importance of conversational discourse in language learning, studies have highlighted gaps in the coverage of spoken grammar features in efl textbooks worldwide (celce-murcia & olshtain, 2000). research on english language teaching materials has identified a tendency to prioritize written language norms over spoken language norms, resulting in limited attention to conversational discourse structures (thornbury, 2005). moreover, efl textbooks often rely on scripted dialogues and controlled exercises that may not adequately reflect the variability and spontaneity of real-life conversation (mccarthy, 1991). contextual factors in textbook design and curriculum development the design and content of efl textbooks are influenced by various contextual factors, including educational policies, curriculum frameworks, and cultural structural patterns of conversational discourse in efl textbooks 87 no. 30 preferences (mcdonough & shaw, 2003). in ethiopia, where english is taught as a foreign language in a multilingual context, textbooks must cater to the diverse linguistic backgrounds and communicative needs of learners (negash, 2014). however, the extent to which ethiopian efl textbooks address conversational discourse structures remains underexplored, warranting empirical investigation into the alignment between textbook content and learners’ communicative requirements. recent trends in efl textbook research recent studies have begun to address the gap in research on conversational discourse in efl textbooks, particularly in diverse linguistic and cultural contexts (celce-murcia et al., 2020). investigations into the representation of spoken grammar features in textbooks have revealed inconsistencies and omissions, highlighting the need for critical evaluation and revision of instructional materials (fernández dobao, 2012). moreover, advances in corpus linguistics and discourse analysis have provided valuable insights into the characteristics and functions of conversational discourse, informing curriculum development and language teaching practices (biber et al., 1999). implications for efl curriculum and pedagogy the findings of research on conversational discourse in efl textbooks have significant implications for curriculum development, textbook design, and language teaching pedagogy (celce-murcia et al., 2020). by integrating authentic conversational data, interactive activities, and communicative tasks into instructional materials, educators can enhance students’ communicative competence and pragmatic awareness (thornbury, 2005). moreover, fostering awareness of conversational norms and conventions can empower learners to navigate real-life communication situations with confidence and effectiveness (seedhouse, 2005). significance of integrating conversational discourse features into language pedagogy in recent years, there has been a growing recognition of the importance of incorporating spoken grammar features into english as a foreign language (efl) textbooks to prepare learners for real-life communication situations better. this section offers additional insights into the importance of incorporating spoken grammar into language teaching materials. anteneh k. lakew 88 no. 30 authenticity and relevance authenticity is a key principle in language teaching, emphasizing the use of reallife language samples and contexts (mcdonough & shaw, 2003). by incorporating spoken grammar features into efl textbooks, educators can expose learners to authentic language use, thereby helping them develop a deeper understanding of how english is used in natural conversation (seedhouse, 2005). this authenticity enhances learners’ ability to comprehend and produce spoken english accurately and fluently in communicative settings (fernández dobao, 2012). pragmatic competence pragmatic competence refers to the ability to use language appropriately and effectively in social contexts (kasper & wagner, 2011). conversational discourse structures play a crucial role in pragmatics, influencing turn-taking, politeness strategies, and interactional coherence (biber et al., 1999). by familiarizing learners with spoken grammar features such as backchanneling, discourse markers, and conversational repair strategies, efl textbooks can help develop learners’ pragmatic awareness and communicative competence (thornbury, 2005). fluency and naturalness fluency in spoken english is not only about grammatical accuracy but also about naturalness and ease of expression (mccarthy, 1991). incorporating spoken grammar features into efl textbooks encourages learners to use language more spontaneously and fluidly, mirroring the rhythm and intonation patterns of authentic conversation (celce-murcia & olshtain, 2000). this emphasis on fluency contributes to learners’ confidence and proficiency in oral communication, enabling them to engage more effectively in social interactions and professional contexts (richards & schmidt, 2010). sociocultural competence language is deeply intertwined with culture, and conversational norms vary across different sociocultural contexts (celce-murcia et al., 2020). exposure to spoken grammar features in efl textbooks not only enhances linguistic competence but also fosters sociocultural awareness and sensitivity (negash, 2014). learners gain insights into the cultural conventions of english-speaking communities, including politeness strategies, conversational rituals, and pragmatic conventions, which are essential for successful cross-cultural communication (biber et al., 1999). structural patterns of conversational discourse in efl textbooks 89 no. 30 pedagogical effectiveness research suggests that explicit instruction in spoken grammar can improve learners’ comprehension and production of spoken english (fernández dobao, 2012). by providing clear explanations, examples, and practice activities targeting spoken grammar features, efl textbooks can scaffold learners’ learning process and facilitate meaningful engagement with authentic language input (celce-murcia et al., 2020). this pedagogical approach promotes active learning, interaction, and language acquisition, leading to more effective language proficiency development (mcdonough & shaw, 2003). in summary, the literature underscores the importance of incorporating conversational discourse features into efl textbooks to enhance authenticity, pragmatics, fluency, sociocultural competence, and pedagogical effectiveness. by incorporating conversational grammar as a core component of language instruction, educators can better equip learners for effective communication in diverse linguistic and cultural contexts. methodology as this research study mainly focused on analyzing the coverage of conversational discourse features in the “spoken english i” course material, the appropriate methodology would involve a combination of qualitative and quantitative approaches. hence, a mixed methods research design is utilized in the study. the study was conducted by focusing both on the ‘spoken english 1’ course syllabus presented in the english language and literature harmonized curriculum prepared by the ethiopian ministry of education and the teaching materials (modules) of the course collected from three randomly selected ethiopian universities (i.e., bahir dar, hawassa, and wolkite universities). to determine whether ethiopian efl textbooks adequately incorporate conversational discourse structures to meet the communicative needs of learners, fifty conversational instances, including dialogues, conversations, and various speaking activities, were selected from the course modules for analysis. first, a structured coding scheme was developed based on the framework for analyzing and categorizing conversational discourse features. then, the selected course materials were systematically analyzed to identify instances of each conversational grammar feature according to the coding scheme. after that, the frequency and distribution of each spoken grammar feature across the sampled course materials were quantified. finally, a qualitative analysis was conducted to examine the depth and quality of coverage for each conversational discourse feature. anteneh k. lakew 90 no. 30 results frequency and distribution of conversational discourse features as indicated in table 1, fifty conversational turns were selected from the “spoken english i” course modules taken from the three sampled universities. the selected conversational turns were analyzed to check the inclusion and/or frequency of the most common conversational discourse features listed above (1 up to 9). table 1 frequency and distribution of conversational discourse features no. conversational features total no. of conversational frequenc turns analyzed 1 heads 50 12 2 tails 50 9 3 ellipsis 50 13 4 backchannels 50 4 5 phrasal chunks 50 21 6 adjacency pairs 50 13 7 repair strategies 50 4 8 discourse markers 50 24 9 turn-taking mechanisms 50 16 the analysis showed that heads (initiating elements) and tails (concluding elements) were used 12 and 9 times, respectively. the frequency of ellipsis instances in the selected conversational turns is thirteen, among which 5 instances are verb phrase ellipsis, 7 instances are noun phrase ellipsis, and the remaining 3 instances are gapping. as can be observed from table 1, the frequency of backchannels is four instances (one minimal response (e.g., “mm-hmm,” “uh-huh”) and three supportive responses (e.g., “i see,” “interesting”). in the analysis, 21 instances of phrasal chunks are observed, which incorporates four idiomatic expressions, eight collocations, and nine instances of discourse markers. in the selected fifty conversational turns, thirteen instances of adjacency pairs were observed. the specific types of pairs incorporated in the conversational turns are question-answer pairs (four instances), greeting-response pairs (five instances), and invitation-acceptance/rejection pairs (four instances). in addition, four repair structural patterns of conversational discourse in efl textbooks 91 no. 30 strategies (two self-repair strategies (e.g., repetition, revision) and two other-initiated repair strategies (e.g., clarification requests, confirmation checks) were used in the sampled conversational turns. moreover, discourse markers are among the most frequently used conversational discourse features in the selected conversational turns from the three modules. five temporal markers (e.g., “then,” “meanwhile”), ten contrastive markers (e.g., “but,” “however”), and nine discourse organizers (e.g., “firstly,” “in conclusion”) were the specific instances observed in this regard. the last conversational discourse feature observed in the analysis is the use of turn-taking mechanisms, which encompass adjacency pairs (six instances), transition relevance places (five instances), and turnyielding cues (five instances). in general, the quantitative data analysis provides a summary of the frequency and distribution of each conversational discourse feature across the “spoken english i” course material. the information from the analysis is used to identify patterns, trends, and areas of emphasis or deficiency in the coverage of conversational discourse features. qualitative data analysis heads and tails a selection of dialogues or conversational excerpts from the sampled ethiopian efl course materials for the course “spoken english i” were qualitatively analyzed to identify instances of heads and tails. heads are the initial parts of conversational turns, while tails are the final parts. the analysis revealed that dialogues in the selected textbooks often lack naturalistic heads and tails, consisting mainly of isolated utterances without proper conversational structure. the following dialogue can be taken as a case in point: dialogue from textbook: student a: “hello.” student b: “how are you?” student a: “i’m fine, thank you.” the above dialogue lacks elaboration and depth, with minimal use of dialogue tags. moreover, the conversational exchanges are brief and lack the complexity and continuity of authentic spoken discourse. anteneh k. lakew 92 no. 30 ellipsis next, the researcher examined the presence of ellipsis, which involves the omission of words or phrases that are unnecessary for understanding in spoken language. in order to demonstrate the instances of ellipsis in dialogues, a sample dialogue or conversational turn is presented hereunder: dialogue from textbook: teacher: “would you like some tea?” student: “yes, please.” the dialogue lacks instances of ellipsis, with complete sentences and explicit expressions used throughout. there are no examples of reduced or elliptical forms commonly found in natural conversation. backchannels in investigating the occurrence of backchannels, which are listener responses or cues that signal attentiveness and engagement in conversation, the researcher analyzed dialogues from the selected course books to identify instances where backchannels such as “mm-hmm” or “uh-huh” are used. as a result, the following dialogue is presented as an example: dialogue from textbook: teacher: “the weather is nice today.” student: “yes, it is.” as can be seen from the above dialogue, it lacks authentic backchannels, with responses primarily consisting of affirmations or agreement without interactive engagement. there are also no indications of active listening or conversational involvement through backchanneling. phrasal chunks finally, the presence of phrasal chunks, which are multi-word expressions or formulaic sequences commonly used in spoken language, is explored. in searching for examples of fixed expressions or collocations in dialogues or conversational excerpts from the sampled course materials, the researcher presented the following extract indicating a minimal usage of phrasal chunks: structural patterns of conversational discourse in efl textbooks 93 no. 30 dialogue from textbook: teacher: “how’s it going?” student: “not too bad.” the sampled dialogue exhibits limited use of phrasal chunks, with responses that appear relatively formulaic and lack variation. in the selected course materials, there are few instances of idiomatic or colloquial expressions that reflect naturally spoken language use. in general, the qualitative analysis highlights the limited coverage of conversational discourse features such as heads, tails, ellipses, backchannels, and phrasal chunks in ethiopian efl textbooks. dialogues and conversational excerpts often lack the depth, complexity, and authenticity of natural spoken discourse, which can impact learners’ ability to comprehend and produce english in real-life communication settings. discussion the analysis of the “spoken english i” course materials for undergraduate university students in ethiopia reveals several notable findings regarding the coverage of conversational discourse features. the discussion of these findings offers insights into the problems related to the limited coverage of conversational discourse features, the implications for achieving communicative competence, the alignment of course materials with communicative language teaching principles, teacher interaction with the material, cultural considerations in conversational discourse, and the suitability of the material for students’ proficiency levels. limited coverage of spoken conversational discourse features the analysis indicates that the course materials exhibit a limited coverage of conversational discourse features such as heads, tails, ellipses, backchannels, and phrasal chunks. dialogues and conversational excerpts lack depth and complexity, with exchanges primarily consisting of greetings, acknowledgments, and simple responses. this limited coverage reflects a tendency towards scripted and formulaic language use, which may not adequately prepare students for the nuances and variability of authentic spoken discourse (seedhouse, 2005). the fact that the minimal coverage of conversational discourse features in efl textbooks is stated by different scholars in the area (mindt, 2006; gilmore, 2004; carter, 1998). as a case in point, cullen and kuo (2007) reported similar results after surveying 24 general efl textbooks published in the year 2000. they concluded that in these books, ‘coverage of features of spoken grammar is at best patchy’ (p. 361). anteneh k. lakew 94 no. 30 implications for communicative competence the absence of authentic conversational structures and features in the course materials may impact students’ development of communicative competence in english. conversational skills such as turn-taking, adjacency pairs, and conversational repair strategies are essential for successful communication in real-life settings (kasper & wagner, 2011). the lack of exposure to these features in instructional materials may hinder students’ ability to engage effectively in conversations and interactions with native speakers or professional contexts. alignment with communicative language teaching principles the findings raise questions about the extent to which the “spoken english i” course materials align with the principles of communicative language teaching (clt). clt emphasizes the use of authentic and meaningful language tasks that promote communicative competence and fluency (richards & rodgers, 2001). however, the limited coverage of conversational discourse features in the course materials suggests a disconnect between instructional practices and clt principles. integrating more authentic and interactive tasks into the curriculum may help bridge this gap and enhance students’ communicative proficiency. in conclusion, the analysis underscores the importance of addressing the limited coverage of conversational discourse features in the “spoken english i” course for undergraduate university students in ethiopia. by incorporating authentic conversational structures and features into instructional materials and aligning with clt principles, educators can better prepare students for effective communication in english in diverse linguistic and cultural contexts. teacher interaction with the material an often overlooked dimension in the evaluation of efl materials is how teachers themselves interact with and adapt to the provided resources. in the ethiopian efl context, instructors frequently rely on the modules as primary tools for instruction, yet their use tends to be constrained by the scripted nature of the content. observations and informal discussions suggest that many instructors strictly follow the module’s content or occasionally omit speaking activities they deem less relevant or engaging. few teachers attempt to adapt or supplement the materials with authentic conversational resources, mainly due to limited access to training in discourse-based pedagogy and time constraints (mcdonough & shaw, 2003; thornbury, 2005). this static relationship with the textbook reduces opportunities for learners to engage in dynamic, real-world english interactions. future material development should include structural patterns of conversational discourse in efl textbooks 95 no. 30 teacher guides that promote flexible usage, contextual adaptation, and integration of authentic, technology-enhanced resources to simulate conversational settings (richards & rodgers, 2001). cultural considerations in conversational discourse cultural context plays a critical role in the design and interpretation of conversational discourse. in ethiopia, communication norms are shaped by high-context cultural values, such as indirectness, respect for hierarchy, and politeness strategies, which differ markedly from typical english-speaking norms (negash, 2014). these cultural underpinnings influence how learners interpret spoken english, particularly features such as interruptions, informal registers, and specific discourse markers. the current efl materials often fail to address these cultural nuances, which can cause confusion or discomfort for learners. incorporating culturally responsive teaching strategies and providing meta-pragmatic commentary on the use and appropriateness of spoken features in various contexts can help bridge this gap (celce-murcia & olshtain, 2000; biber et al., 1999). doing so would enhance learners’ intercultural competence and prepare them for diverse communicative environments (kasper & wagner, 2011). students’ proficiency level and material suitability a significant shortcoming of the analyzed textbooks is their lack of differentiation based on learners’ proficiency levels. students entering the “spoken english i” course demonstrate varied competencies due to differences in their prior educational experiences. however, the textbooks present dialogues and exercises as if all learners possess the same level of communicative skill. this uniform approach risks overwhelming lower-proficiency students and under-engaging more advanced learners. moreover, there is a lack of scaffolding to build students’ conversational skills in a progressive manner (thornbury, 2005; seedhouse, 2005). future textbook design should include leveled activities, graded language input, and explicit scaffolding to support learners’ transition from controlled to spontaneous speech. tailoring materials in this way will ensure that students at all proficiency levels can engage meaningfully with conversational discourse (fernández dobao, 2012). anteneh k. lakew 96 no. 30 conclusions the results of the current study indicated that both the syllabus and selected teaching materials of the course excluded most, if not all, of the features of conversational discourse that are deemed important by scholars and researchers. therefore, depending on the argument that the grammatical structure should not treat the teaching of spoken english (especially the informal one) differently from writing, as learners do not speak the way they write and vice versa. as clearly stated in the syllabus of the selected course, one of the objectives of the ‘spoken english i’ course is to equip the learners with formal and informal oral communication skills. on the contrary to this fact, however, the results of the investigation indicated that most of the spoken grammar features (except a few features) that are deemed important for the development of efl learners’ informal oral communication skills are not entertained in most of the sample efl course materials and the course syllabus. mccarthy and carter uncover the fact that “a language pedagogy that aims to support the teaching and learning of speaking skills does itself a disservice if it ignores what we know about the spoken language” (2001, p. 51). that is, if the language input presented in the classroom focuses only on the written or standard language, it will be impossible to expect learners to produce the natural linguistic structures found in daily conversations. limitations of the study while the present study provides valuable insights into the structural patterns of conversational discourse in ethiopian efl textbooks, it is not without limitations. first, the analysis was restricted to course materials from only three universities, which, although randomly selected, may not fully represent the broader spectrum of materials used across ethiopian higher education institutions. second, while the mixed-methods approach enabled a comprehensive analysis of discourse features, the qualitative analysis relied on the researcher’s interpretation of conversational turns, which may carry some subjectivity despite efforts to maintain analytical rigor through coding frameworks. acknowledging these limitations, future studies could adopt a more holistic approach by incorporating longitudinal or experimental research to provide a more nuanced understanding of the relationship between textbook content and the development of communicative competence. structural patterns of conversational discourse in efl textbooks 97 no. 30 recommendations and future research directions to address the limitations identified in the analysis, the following recommendations are made for the development of the “spoken english i” course curriculum. first, course designers should prioritize the integration of authentic conversational structures and features into instructional materials. this may involve incorporating real-life dialogues, interactive activities, and communicative tasks that simulate natural conversation (celce-murcia et al., 2020). additionally, teacher training programs could emphasize the importance of teaching conversational discourse features in conjunction with oral communication skills to enhance students’ communicative competence (mcdonough & shaw, 2003). further research is warranted to explore the effectiveness of incorporating conversational discourse features into spoken english courses and its impact on students’ communicative proficiency. longitudinal studies could investigate the development of students’ spoken language skills over time, comparing outcomes between courses with and without explicit instruction in conversational discourse features. additionally, qualitative inquiries could explore students’ perceptions and experiences of engaging with authentic conversational materials in language learning contexts. anteneh k. lakew 98 no. 30 references biber, d., johansson, s., leech, g., conrad, s., & finegan, e. (1999). longman grammar of spoken and written english. pearson education. carter, r. (1998). orders of reality: cancode, communication and culture. english language teaching journal, 52(1), 43–56. https://doi.org/10.1093/elt/52.1.43 celce-murcia, m., & olshtain, e. (2000). discourse and context in language teaching: a guide for language teachers. cambridge university press. celce-murcia, m., rogers, t., & stafford, p. (2020). teaching english as a second or foreign language (5th ed.). national geographic learning. cullen, r., & kuo, i. c. (2007). spoken grammar and elt course materials: a missing link? tesol quarterly, 41(2), 361–386. https://doi.org/10.1002/j.1545-7249.2007. tb00063.x fernández dobao, a. (2012). spoken grammar and elt course materials: a missing link? elt journal, 66(1), 38–50. gilmore, a. (2004). a comparison of textbook and authentic interactions. english language teaching journal, 58(4), 363–374. https://doi.org/10.1093/elt/58.4.363 kasper, g., & wagner, j. (2011). a conversation-analytic approach to second language acquisition. in s. m. gass & a. mackey (eds.), handbook of second language acquisition (pp. 376–392). routledge. lakew, a. k., teshome, s., & negede, d. (2021). introducing corpus-informed spoken grammar instruction in efl classrooms: the ethiopian experience. corpus pragmatics, 5, 487–510. https://doi.org/10.1007/s41701-021-00106-3 mccarthy, m. (1991). discourse analysis for language teachers. cambridge university press. mccarthy, m., & carter, r. (2001). size isn’t everything: spoken english, corpus, and the classroom. tesol quarterly, 35(2), 337–340. https://doi.org/10.2307/3587654 mcdonough, j., & shaw, c. (2003). materials and methods in elt: a teacher’s guide (2nd ed.). wiley-blackwell. mindt, d. (1996). english corpus linguistics and the foreign language teaching syllabus. in j. thomas & m. short (eds.), using corpora for language research (pp. 232–247). longman. structural patterns of conversational discourse in efl textbooks 99 no. 30 negash, t. (2014). english language teaching in ethiopia: an assessment of textbooks, materials, and classroom instruction. english language teaching, 7(4), 46–61. richards, j. c., & rodgers, t. s. (2001). approaches and methods in language teaching (2nd ed.). cambridge university press. https://doi.org/10.1017/cbo9780511667305 richards, j. c., & schmidt, r. (2010). longman dictionary of language teaching and applied linguistics (4th ed.). pearson education. rühlemann, c. (2008). a register approach to teaching conversation: farewell to standard english? applied linguistics, 29(4), 672–693. https://doi.org/10.1093/ applin/amn023 seedhouse, p. (2005). conversation analysis and language learning. language teaching, 38(4), 165–187. https://doi.org/10.1017/s0261444805003010 thornbury, s. (2005). beyond the sentence: introducing discourse analysis. oxford university press. author dr. anteneh k. lakew is an assistant professor, department of english language and literature, college of social science and humanities, wolkite university, ethiopia. his research centers on corpus linguistics, computer-assisted language learning and teaching, and innovative language pedagogies. orcid: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6270-1476 anteneh k. lakew bolstering intercultural communication among efl learners in online conversation clubs fortalecimiento de la comunicación intercultural entre estudiantes de inglés como lengua extranjera en clubes de conversación en línea. laura rocío ávila ávila1 centro colombo americano, colombia rosa alejandra medina riveros2 universidad nacional de colombia, colombia 1 lavilaa@unal.edu.co 2 ramedinar@unal.edu.co 57 gist education and learning research journal. issn 1692-5777. no. 29 (july december, 2024). pp. 57-79. no. 29 58 no. 29 abstract conversation clubs are excellent resources for practicing a new language. they bring together individuals with diverse perspectives and backgrounds to engage in enriching language activities and discussions that promote intercultural consciousness and intercultural skills. while previous studies have emphasized the importance of conversation clubs, our study shows explicitly how conversation clubs promote intercultural communicative competence by practicing the target language through an autonomy-based design. the study revolves around the question: how can intercultural competence be fostered among learners of english as a foreign language in online conversation clubs using an autonomy-based design? we draw on a qualitative and descriptive case design following hernández-sampieri & mendoza (2008). our descriptive case study involved conducting conversation club sessions with four students by adapting materials and plans and complying with the program of education in foreign language regulations. recordings of the sessions, transcripts, and journal entries served as primary data. the findings indicated that conversation clubs fostered students’ intercultural communication by 1) diving into cultural differences through multimodal materials, 2) recognizing and questioning cultural stereotypes, and 3) immersing in students’ cultural worlds by referring to standard popular references. this study challenges the idea that foreign languages can be learned independently of culture. interculturality emphasizes the relevance of a community in which ideas can be exchanged and opinions expressed. conversation clubs are ideal spaces to foster interculturality and autonomy. keywords: autonomy, intercultural communicative competence, conversation clubs, practice, responsibility, reflection, culture. resumen los clubes de conversación son excelentes recursos para practicar un nuevo idioma ya que permiten integrar variedad de personas con múltiples perspectivas y contextos con el fin de promover la conciencia y habilidades interculturales por medio de actividades y discusiones enriquecedoras. si bien previamente ya se ha explorado la importancia de los clubes de conversación, nuestro estudio demuestra explícitamente cómo los clubes de conversación promueven la competencia comunicativa intercultural mediante la práctica de la lengua meta siguiendo un enfoque de diseño de clubes basado en la autonomía. el estudio gira en torno a la pregunta ¿cómo se puede fomentar la competencia intercultural entre los estudiantes de inglés como lengua extranjera en los clubes de conversación en línea utilizando un diseño de clubes basado en la autonomía? este estudio se basa en un diseño de caso cualitativo y descriptivo de acuerdo con hernándezsampieri & mendoza (2008). nuestro estudio de caso descriptivo consistió en llevar a cabo sesiones de clubes de conversación con cuatro estudiantes en las que se adaptaron materiales y planes que siguen los lineamientos del programa de educación en lengua extranjera. como datos primarios se usaron las grabaciones de las sesiones, las transcripciones y las anotaciones en el diario de campo. los resultados indicaron que los clubes de conversación fomentaron la comunicación intercultural de los estudiantes mediante 1) la inmersión en las diferencias intercultural communication in online conversation clubs 59 no. 29 culturales a través de materiales multimodales, 2) el reconocimiento y el cuestionamiento de los estereotipos culturales, y 3) la inmersión en los mundos culturales de los estudiantes mediante referencias populares estándar. este estudio cuestiona la idea de que las lenguas extranjeras puedan aprenderse independientemente de la cultura. la interculturalidad hace hincapié en la importancia de una comunidad en la que se puedan intercambiar ideas y expresar opiniones. los clubes de conversación son espacios ideales para fomentar la interculturalidad y la autonomía. palabras clave: autonomía, competencia comunicativa intercultural, clubes de conversación, práctica, responsabilidad, reflexión, cultura. resumo os clubes de conversação são excelentes recursos para praticar um novo idioma, pois permitem integrar uma variedade de pessoas com múltiplas perspectivas e contextos, promovendo a conscientização e as habilidades interculturais por meio de atividades e discussões enriquecedoras. embora a importância dos clubes de conversação já tenha sido previamente explorada, nosso estudo demonstra explicitamente como esses clubes promovem a competência comunicativa intercultural através da prática da língua-alvo, seguindo um enfoque de design baseado na autonomia. o estudo se concentra na seguinte pergunta: como se pode fomentar a competência intercultural entre estudantes de inglês como língua estrangeira em clubes de conversação online utilizando um design de clubes baseado na autonomia? este estudo se fundamenta em um desenho de caso qualitativo e descritivo, de acordo com hernández-sampieri & mendoza (2008). nosso estudo de caso descritivo consistiu em conduzir sessões de clubes de conversação com quatro estudantes, nas quais materiais e planos foram adaptados de acordo com as diretrizes do programa de educação em língua estrangeira. como dados primários, utilizamos gravações das sessões, transcrições e anotações de um diário de campo. os resultados indicaram que os clubes de conversação fomentaram a comunicação intercultural dos estudantes por meio de: 1) imersão nas diferenças culturais através de materiais multimodais; 2) reconhecimento e questionamento de estereótipos culturais; e 3) imersão nos mundos culturais dos estudantes mediante referências populares padrão. este estudo questiona a ideia de que línguas estrangeiras podem ser aprendidas independentemente da cultura. a interculturalidade enfatiza a importância de uma comunidade onde seja possível trocar ideias e expressar opiniões. os clubes de conversação são espaços ideais para promover a interculturalidade e a autonomia. palavras-chave: autonomia, competência comunicativa intercultural, clubes de conversação, prática, responsabilidade, reflexão, cultura. laura rocío ávila ávila and rosa alejandra medina riveros 60 no. 29 in current globalized times, integrating intercultural communication (ic) into language teaching is of paramount importance. as lázár (2003) states, foreign language teaching should focus on intercultural awareness and intercultural skills of discovering the other for language learners to become interculturally competent in an increasingly globalized world. intercultural communication in foreign language teaching is a growing movement that emphasizes the need for language educators to recognize and critically address the complexity of dealing with cultural contexts. in foreign language teaching, conversation clubs have provided opportunities and spaces for efl learners who want to communicate better and practice the language. these clubs have been encouraged in academic environments such as universities, language institutes, and international settings. the present article is based on an undergraduate research project that systematized four months of academic and professional experience of a tutor who led conversation clubs remotely (ávila-ávila, 2023) with upper intermediate efl college students. the conversation clubs revolved around international and local topics. as part of the strengthening foreign language as an institutional commitment to curricular internationalization project, the national university of colombia opened different voluntary practice spaces for students of different curricular programs. this article shows that conversation clubs can be implemented so that student participants can develop their intercultural communication competence and autonomy. the study followed a qualitative case study design. since the 2000’s foreign language teaching scholars such as byram (2008), hoff (2020), and fantini (2020) have supported the integration of cultural aspects in language teaching. in colombia, intercultural communication has been studied from critical, decolonial pedagogies that integrate diverse worldviews (gutiérrez, 2022; fernándezbenavides & castillo-palacios, 2023; holmes & pena-dix, 2022; álvarez-valencia & miranda, 2022). most studies on ic come from face-to-face and formal learning environments. there is a need for studies that use intercultural communication in informal online learning spaces. therefore, with this research, we seek to explore the potential of integrating ic into an online conversation club at the college level. this article revolves around the question: how can intercultural competence be fostered among learners of english as a foreign language in online conversation clubs using an autonomy-based design? this article is organized as follows: the first section explains the background of studies on interculturality in national and international contexts. the second section presents the primary constructs and theories on autonomy in foreign language learning and the basis of conversation clubs. the third section describes the research design and data collection instruments. finally, the fourth section illustrates the qualitative analysis, which corresponds to the findings according to holliday (2007). intercultural communication in online conversation clubs 61 no. 29 theoretical framework intercultural communicative competence (icc) in the field of foreign language education, byram (2009) proposed that “teachers should plan their teaching to include objectives, materials, and methods that develop the specific elements of intercultural competence (...). teachers of language need to become teachers of language and culture” (p. 331). in this vein, students develop the abilities to discover the world around them, discover themselves in a globalized world, establish connections between that global diversity and their local reality, adopt attitudes, gain skills to be citizens of the world through versatility, empathy, curiosity, and respect for diversity. huber and reynolds (2014) defined icc as “a combination of attitudes, knowledge, understanding, and skills applied through action” (p. 16) that allows learners to acknowledge other cultural affiliations, interact appropriately, and build relationships with people from those affiliations. huber and reynolds (2014) stated four key components in icc: attitudes, knowledge, skills, and actions. attitudes should embrace openness to various cultures and a willingness to question norms shaped by one’s cultural background. knowledge involves grasping a variety of beliefs and customs, identifying cultural biases and assumptions, and understanding the role language plays in societal communication. skills include the capacity to discover, interpret, comprehend, and analyze both personal and others’ cultural settings and experiences. lastly, actions aim to break down stereotypes, oppose discrimination, mediate conflicts, promote positive attitudes, and work with culturally diverse groups. therefore, language learning becomes a primary tool for communicating with individuals from diverse social and cultural contexts since language cannot exist in isolation as it reflects worldviews, belief systems, and cultural nuances. thus, learners not only develop their linguistic proficiency, engage in cultural understanding, proficiency but engage in a process of cultural understanding and develop other values such as empathy, respect, and cooperation, among others. additionally, icc learners recognize different communication styles, cultural references, social norms, and the relativity of their cultural perspectives. when teaching, foreign language teachers and students experience the predominance of surface or visible culture in textbooks. this approach includes addressing culture from general aspects such as tourist sites, vacations, historical events, and food. in contrast, deep culture, or invisible culture, “can be understood as those complex meanings related to the norms, worldviews, beliefs, values, and ideologies that, in general terms, are shared by a group or community” (hinkel, 2001, as cited in gómez-rodríguez, 2018, p. 188). this means that, according to a more critical take of icc framework, a broad range of resources and texts that integrate information at a global level must transcend surface approaches to instruct students in concepts such as “democratic values, human rights, and respecting “difference’ in a world that is still intolerant and prejudiced” (gómez-rodríguez, 2018, p. 190). laura rocío ávila ávila and rosa alejandra medina riveros 62 no. 29 recent perspectives emphasize the need for updating icc models to reflect current educational needs, such as questioning students’ motivations and biases towards diverse cultures (hoff, 2020). this involves novel approaches to identity and language-culture connections and adapting educational practices to enhance learning (hoff, 2020). furthermore, integrating icc is crucial for the internationalization of higher education (maíz-arévalo & orduna-nocito, 2021). fantini (2020) also underscores the importance of developing icc for diversity and internationalization. thus, preparing students for a globalized world requires incorporating international curricula, opportunities for cultural exchange, and intercultural skill development. at the national level, recent studies on intercultural approaches in elt are flourishing, taking up critical stances. fernández-benavides & castillo-palacios (2023) highlight the role of culture in shaping identities and behaviors. gutiérrez (2022) advocates for a critical, intercultural pedagogy to understand diverse identities and mindsets in the classroom. similarly, holmes & pena-dix (2022) and álvarez-valencia & miranda (2022) emphasize a decolonial approach to intercultural communicative competence, integrating indigenous worldviews and multilingual practices in higher education settings. jaramillo-jaramillo (2024) discusses the importance of articulating interculturality in policies such as colombia’s national bilingual program, suggesting that icc enhances second/foreign language teaching by helping students navigate bimultilingual interactions. based on the discussion above, in this study, icc is understood as a multifaceted set of skills that can be acquired and developed to mediate and interact effectively in diverse cultural contexts.this competence requires not only a specific linguistic proficiency but also the adoption of attitudes and actions, as well as the acquisition of knowledge and skills to understand and value cultural diversity. furthermore, it is an essential element in educational practices and language acquisition for students to deal with the complexities of an interconnected world. conversation clubs in foreign language learning and teaching scholars have described communication as “a way of transferring messages from the addresser (the speaker/writer) to the addressee (the listener/reader)” (soyunov et al., 2014, p.41) and, therefore, “dealing with the reality above, learning how to be a better communicator is important for all of us. better communication means better understanding of us and others” (ibid.). conversation clubs provide opportunities and spaces for efl learners who want to communicate better and practice the language. they are also tools that have been used over time in different contexts. artists and activists, for example, organize sessions to widen social circles and discuss politics, cultural norms, and meaningful community issues. this kind of club has been common intercultural communication in online conversation clubs 63 no. 29 in academic environments such as universities, language institutes, and international settings. (malu & smedley, 2016, p.11). in the colombian context, conversation clubs such as those conducted by acevedofuenmayor and oviedo-jaramillo (2023), through semi-structured interviews and recorded observations, showed that conversation roles are pivotal for student engagement, motivation, confidence, and oral fluency when learning and speaking english. regardless of the context, an english club is a “group of people who meet, join, or act together to participate in an activity for a common purpose that has been structural, especially to learn the english language” (hamadameen & najim, 2020, p. 286). according to malu and smedley (2016), in community-based english clubs, there are different roles: the club leader or facilitator and the club participants. the latter can have diverse backgrounds, educational levels, professions, and other beliefs, cultures, and perspectives. this creates a diverse group that enriches the conversations as much as possible. furthermore, the conversation club leader must provide a safe, supportive, and respectful learning environment in which collaborative work is encouraged and activities are organized based on the interests of the participants. lastly, conversation clubs are seen as a valuable learning resource, as they allow for real connections to be made between participants’ knowledge of the foreign language since “activities that provide opportunities for learners to communicate meaningfully with each other are more interesting, enjoyable, and memorable. in the long run, such activities have more of an impact on enhancing speech intelligibility” (nunan, 2003b, p. 116). moreover, considering that it has been found that some learners feel that it was difficult to speak english because “they did not have ideas to express because they did not think deeply or critically” (rahmawati, 2021, p. 212), conversation clubs are a tool to encourage critical thinking, inspiring participants to arrange their ideas in a coherent and logical order to convey values in a fluent way. setting this study was conducted during the weekly online conversation clubs in the second semester of 2023 in the framework of a virtual internship. the internship responded to the strengthening strategy of the programa de formación en lengua extranjera [foreign language training program] pfle as proposed by castaño (2023) at universidad nacional de colombia. in the 2nd semester of 2023, 10 seniors from the philology and languages english undergraduate program interned as language tutors. this was the pilot to support the english courses offered remotely in the regional branches of la paz, palmira, and medellín. tutors taught remotely from bogota, and their students who participated were enrolled in the national university. tutors provided students with a safe academic environment to implement strategies, materials, methodologies, laura rocío ávila ávila and rosa alejandra medina riveros 64 no. 29 and pedagogical practices to guide and facilitate the learning process. to this end, the tutor proposed an action plan consisting of four weekly practice sessions and six tutoring sessions. in the researcher’s case, the practice sessions were distributed in two conversation clubs and two workshops. the conversation clubs conveyed the tutor’s professional and academic background and their students’ interests. sampling and participants patton (2002) explains that purposeful sampling is a technique commonly used in qualitative research to identify and select relevant cases for the most efficient use of limited resources. this study used purposeful sampling as four national university of colombia students from the medellín branch voluntarily participated in the online conversation clubs. the tutor reached out to students who participated and attended all sessions. they filled in a consent form and agreed to participate in the study. they also provided a pseudonym to use in the transcripts. the students’ ages ranged from 19 to 24. three of them lived in the metropolitan area of medellín, and one lived in the municipality of rionegro. regarding their academic background, the students were in the school of engineering. in terms of their foreign language training process, only one student had an advanced english level (c1) and made constant use of the language because he worked remotely for a company based in the united states. in relation to motivational factors, the other three students were enrolled in the language program offered by the university as they wanted to find better job opportunities. the tutor was also a researcher. she was not only in charge of planning, running, and directing conversation clubs within the framework of an online internship but also subsequently conducted an analysis of intercultural components and reflected upon her own perspectives and experience. these functions represent a significant advantage as they allow us to connect the planning and execution phases of the online sessions. tutor’s positionality: at the time of the study, the tutor was a student majoring in languages. she has experience teaching abroad in germany, as a tutor in efl programs and currently teaches english to children, adolescents, and adults. her interest in interculturality stems from her own international experiences, where she witnessed firsthand the importance of this aspect when learning a language and discussing her roots and background in multicultural contexts. tutor’s thesis advisor: the advisor was a colombian university-based scholar with international experience. before becoming the advisor of the tutor researcher, she lived in north america for eight years. she helped frame the theoretical and methodological tenets of the research study with data organization, analysis and writing of the research study. intercultural communication in online conversation clubs 65 no. 29 pedagogical design the tutor planned the conversation clubs drawing on the pedagogical philosophy of the program: autonomy. she also used multimodality (halliday, 1978; tardy, 2005; van leeuwen, 2005; kress, 2010) and intercultural communication in her pedagogical design. the tutor and her thesis advisor also gathered planning and instructional material. for the pedagogical design, the tutor developed lesson plans using canva, first brainstorming topics of interest and integrating a learning strategy to meet the communicative objectives of the session. furthermore, the tutor curated authentic materials. the materials were not adapted but were used as an input or introduction to the topic we talked about. among the materials, we had informative material (news), and material from the internet (videos, shorts, websites). finally, the pedagogical planning followed the internship guidelines and principles for autonomy as established by the language program pfle pedagogical vision. first, we addressed how students can become dependent on their teachers for the development of academic activities. this dependence may arise due to the lack of attention to fundamental pillars of autonomy, such as the heterogeneous approach to learning objectives. within its different definitions, autonomy can be understood as the “capacity to think on one’s own, to organize, decide, and propose” (lagosbejarano & ruíz-granados, 2007, p. 11). learner autonomy is defined as “the ability to take care of one’s learning” (holec, 1981, p.3) and it appeals to the student’s responsibility and critical reflection on their learning process. a responsible learner embraces “the idea that their efforts are crucial to progress in learning and behave accordingly” (scharle & szabó, 2000, p.3). david nunan (2003a) lists nine steps to gain autonomy in language learning: encouraging the use of the second language outside the classroom, setting specific learning objectives, promoting decision-making, and allowing students to participate actively when planning and leading classes. meanwhile, teachers tailor content, topics, and activities to the student’s needs and context. the following is an example of how an autonomy-based design was put into practice by planning and negotiation of learning objectives. laura rocío ávila ávila and rosa alejandra medina riveros 66 no. 29 figure 1. slide to introduce the objectives of the session the component of setting and negotiating learning objectives has been reflected in the conversation clubs’ planning and development. regarding the learning objectives, nunan points out that, as a first step towards autonomy, one way to “give students a voice is to make the objectives of the teaching clear to them; in this way, making the objectives of each session explicitly known and involving students actively in the process, rather than simply informing them” (2003a, p. 196). in the case of the practice spaces, titles and images related to the session’s theme were used so that students could draw their own conclusions about each club’s theme and its purposes. research design given the nature of this study, we followed a qualitative approach. drawing on qualitative descriptive case study designs according to hernández-sampieri & mendoza (2008) and yin (1984), this study explored how learners of english can foster intercultural competence through practicing a foreign language in virtual conversation club spaces using an autonomy-based design. cohen et al. (2017) note that this type of research provides clear, practical examples and focuses on understanding individual or group perceptions of events. likewise, the tutor was a participant observant as she assumed the role of conversation club leader and researcher. this study also follows the interpretivist tradition, in which the research aims to comprehend participants’ experiences within their contexts rather than achieve generalizable results. intercultural communication in online conversation clubs 67 no. 29 data collection the tutor-researcher collected qualitative data through the following instruments: the tutor’s journal, session transcriptions, lesson plans, and instructional materials. after running the conversational clubs, the tutor reflected upon each session and organized her notes and quotes from participants’ comments into categories. these categories were based on the linguistic, communicative, and attitudinal components of the participants of these spaces. all sessions were video-recorded and transcribed. students signed a consent to record the session and were informed about the academic purposes of the recording under act 1266 of 2008. once each session was over, the tutor used whisper ai, an automatic speech recognition (asr) system, to transcribe the audio. finally, post-editing was carried out. students’ words were taken as provided. data collection instruments are presented in table 1 below. table 1. data collection instruments transcriptions of conversation clubs supported by ai (240 mins) instructional materials data collected lesson plans (four) tutorresearcher journal data analysis for the data analysis, we followed holliday’s (2007) perspectives on qualitative analysis and strangerjohannessen & norton’s (2017) proposal on retroductive coding. this type of coding involves combining priori codes based on theory and literature and inductive codes derived from reading the data collected. raw data were gathered from the data collection instruments, prioritizing those referencing intercultural communication and providing various details of the practice session. we then proceeded with the data by color coding according to the emerging codes from theoretical framing and inductive reading. once we, the researcher and the supervisor, coded the data, we interpreted, triangulated, and developed the theoretical coding for each category. finally, the researcher and her supervisor collaboratively wrote the argument for each category (holliday, 2007). findings in this section, we present the findings and discussion emerging from the conversation club spaces in response to the research question: how can intercultural competence be fostered among learners of english as a foreign language in an online conversation club space using an autonomy-based design? laura rocío ávila ávila and rosa alejandra medina riveros 68 no. 29 research question how can intercultural competence be fostered among learners of english as a foreign language in an online conversation club space using an autonomy-based design? categories diving into cultural differences through multimodal materials recognizing and questioning local stereotypes immersing in students’ cultural worlds diving into cultural differences through multimodal materials during the practice session, students addressed their intercultural communicative competence by exploring other cultures and dealing with aspects related to both visible and invisible cultures. in the excerpt, the tutor prompts students to recognize cultural assets from a european country. the tutor gives initial context on a news report and inquiries into the participant’s prior knowledge of certain countries. in the following excerpt from conversation club number 4 this is illustrated. figure 2. slide introducing cultural differences table 2. ways to foster intercultural competence in conversation clubs intercultural communication in online conversation clubs 69 no. 29 tutor: so, first of all, where do you think the picture was taken? mariano: maybe greece or italy. (...) tutor: ok. and about italy, what do you know about italy? mariano: that they eat a lot of pasta. the language is very, very beautiful. they are so tall. italian music is good also. tutor: do you know any band from italy? mariano: no, but i just, i have a song (sings the song) tutor: yeah! i know that song! ok. do you know anything about their traditions, their behaviors? mariano: well, in general, people say that european, they smell bad because they don’t take showers. but that’s something that i don’t know. it’s just general. (...) tutor: ok. any other ideas about their behaviors, traditions, or ways of thinking? mariano: yeah, well, it’s all that i know. i’m not sure. i would say germany. tutor: why? mariano: the architecture looks like germany. tutor: what do you know about these countries? for example, about germany. mariano: about germany, i know that people there are a little bit brava. tutor: angry (...) maybe some other things about politics. like what? mariano: yeah, maybe like they were very dependent from russia two years ago. they had a little bit sympathy i would say to russia, especially the east part of germany. they discriminate each other like we discriminate here in colombia. tutor: ok, like nowadays? currently? mariano: yeah, currently. they discriminate against each other based on the place that they were born. (transcription conversation club 4, october 2023) the tutor used multimodal materials in two moments: during the initial activity to provide enough authentic input and in the main communicative activity. understanding material authenticity considering roberts & cooke’s (2009) stance “unlike invented materials, authentic materials draw on language data collected in reallife context (p. 625). as of conversation clubs, authentic material includes different laura rocío ávila ávila and rosa alejandra medina riveros 70 no. 29 formats to demonstrate english use outside formal learning contexts. in this case, those formats (e.g., short videos, opinions, and news shared through social networks, etc.) were shown. the previous example uses a dw instagram post on news about tourist misbehavior in italy. the tutor designed an activity taking the report as it was produced for a general audience, not designed specifically for language learners. prompting conversations about other cultures also requires the use of multimodal materials. rather than only relying on linguistic forms, multimodality theory focuses on semiotics. these are “the actions, materials, and artifacts we use for communicative purposes” (van leeuwen, 2005, p. 285). gestures, voice, spatial orientation, and our use of digital technological devices are examples. expanding this definition, kress (2010) highlights that semiotic resources are “socially made and therefore carry the discernible regularities of social occasions, events and hence a certain stability; they are never fixed, let alone rigidly fixed” (p. 9). in the example, the tutor decided to ask questions about the conversation topic and presented additional tools such as images, keywords, and timelines. in the excerpt, the student provided only minimal information about other countries. some recalled food or common prejudices from their perspective, such as europeans smelling bad or “i know that people [in germany] there are a little bit brava.” multimodality promises to be practical tools for prompting these conversations about other cultures: in the conversation club, for example, the participant carried out exploration by using real-life media resources. this prevents from solely relying on personal assumptions and encourages a deeper, nuanced understanding of cultural differences through materials that showcase varied cultural contexts, behaviors, and values. figure 3. slide introducing communicative activities with multimodal materials intercultural communication in online conversation clubs 71 no. 29 recognizing and questioning local stereotypes the tutor fostered intercultural communication with their students by getting to know them and asking about their hometown. in the excerpt below, a student explained where they lived. this was important as the tutor was in a different location. the following excerpt from conversation club number 1 provides additional context. gabriel: i live in medellín. well, not in medellín. it is the city where their airport is located and its town, out of the metropolitan area, but just to make things easier, i would say, i will say that it’s medellín. it’s the city where everything blooms. (...) tutor: ok. question. so, you don’t live in the city, i mean, in medellín but like in the countryside? or like out of the metropolitan area but it is urban, it has big edifications, or… gabriel: ok, yeah, i do not – okay, yeah, so i don’t know if you’ve ever traveled in medellín. tutor: never, no, never. gabriel: you gotta get here. well, it has a metropolitan area. we called it área metropolitana del valle de aburrá. it’s vast variety of cities, but that are connected by the metro actually, but the airport, like the international airport is not located in the city nor metropolitan area, is out of those places and it is in a, i would say it’s a middeveloped city that is called rionegro. and we have and we have a huge tunnel that is a like a masterpiece of the engineering work here in colombia that connects the airport, my city to medellín and it’s like 20 minutes. (transcription conversation club 1, september 2023) this interaction prepared the student to engage in a target language conversation with people who may share their background. the excerpts below illustrate another example of how going local supports intercultural communication. in this session, the tutor provided background about pet peeves and their relationship with cultural norms. for example, in some cultures, lateness is perceived as ruder than in others. after introducing the notion of pet peeves, the tutor asked participants to address pet peeves in colombia. laura rocío ávila ávila and rosa alejandra medina riveros 72 no. 29 figure 4. slide about pet-peeves figure 5. questions about participants’ local context in response to the prompts above, the student elaborated a personal example of how he would apply the concept of pet peeves from his perspective as a colombian from antioquia, colloquially known as a paisa. the tutor laughed about this example in the beginning, but also asked the student to use the target language to develop his idea on pet peeves. to further clarify, the term rolos was originally used to describe people living in bogotá who moved from other parts of the country. now, it is now used to refer to people from bogotá. intercultural communication in online conversation clubs 73 no. 29 dante: usually here, people say that rolos are boring and the way that rolos talks could be annoying because rolos talk like they were asking something. the tutor engaged in further dialogue to share the perspective of rolos as she herself identifies as rola. tutor: yeah, it’s true, yeah, for rolos most of the things, may -could be effective and in the other way it’s the same i would say. regarding the rolo-and-paisa rivalry i agree, i think we’re constantly competing but that’s why i asked you for more examples with specific actions that we find annoying. in this exchange, we can see how the student freely expressed his preconceived ideas about how people from bogota speak. in further elaboration, the tutor does not tackle this preconception explicitly but presents her perspective and negotiates a middle ground to make the student understand the tutor’s perspective. by engaging in dialogue, the student and teacher transcend the shallow belief about “rolos’ way of speaking being annoying”. for the tutor, this might have stemmed from the historic competition between the two largest and wealthiest regions in colombia. in the following conversation club session, dante even showed a deeper reflection on how people, not only in colombia but in other parts of the world, find annoying certain ways of speaking. in the session, dante was comparing his example of aversion to the spanish variety of bogotá with examples from other parts of the world. dante: okay, so maybe i’m not sure, maybe in united states to speak spanish in some places in united states is not okay that that could be i think that’s more racism -that is more racism but what else france yeah, they do not like it if you do not speak french. yeah, i think that is more racism, but what else? in our country, yeah, i will say. dante’s further look into international comparisons made him find the link between rejecting ways of speaking and racism. for him, this was clear in the case of rejecting the use of spanish in the us, which he openly labeled as racism. after recalling the situation of some people being rejected or not supported if they traveled to france and did not speak french. he finally realized that linguistic discrimination as a form of covered racism also happens in colombia. participating in the conversation clubs and dialogue to understand different perspectives helped dante dig deeper into his initial aversion to the way people different than him speak. his understanding of the relationship between rejecting ways of speaking and discrimination became clearer after these discussions. in dante’s experience, as described above, regional differences and rivalry are elaborated and negotiated through dialogue. in this sense, we can assert that opening dialogical spaces to address intercultural communication in foreign languages can be nurtured by looking deeper into students’ and teachers’ normalized cultural and linguistic preconceptions. instead of directly attacking these preconceived ideas laura rocío ávila ávila and rosa alejandra medina riveros 74 no. 29 or imposing the tutor’s or politically correct ones, the tutor and student engaged in dialogue to actively listen to multiple perspectives. the excerpts above shed some light on how dialogue can promote reflection and further analysis of the roots of cultural beliefs. even at a small scale, remote online conversation clubs allow for the exchange of cultural perspectives. a next step to take, from a critical intercultural stance, is going deeper by tackling and debunking these assumptions more explicitly. immersing in students’ cultural worlds popular cultural references constituted an essential component of the conversation clubs. some of them were introduced by students themselves, as in the following example, where dante described the types of music he listens to: “i can come from megadeth, and then i could be listening to ‘lover’ by taylor swift”. the tutor’s materials conveyed another example of popular culture in the conversation clubs. in the example below, the tutor initiates the conversation club by referencing tinder, the mobile app. the students start discussing the use of these applications and what they think about them. then, students create their own tinderlike profiles using the target language. figure 6. slide on students’ cultural worlds in this case, intercultural communication transcends cultures that are far away and touches on the ways of self-representation; as cerón (2009) contends, intercultural communication is “the capacity developed by the second language learner to analyze and understand personalities and thinking of people from a place other than their country of origin, comparing them with the realities of their own culture” (p. 310). intercultural communication in online conversation clubs 75 no. 29 with the advent of modern technologies and ways of connecting, the tutor mentioned a media platform that students were familiar with as a topic for the conversation club. rather than encouraging students to participate in this type of social practice, the tutor resorted to their previous knowledge on the topic as a source for speaking in the conversation clubs. before the activity, students were surveyed and indicated that they had used the app. both international culture and media and pop cultures were addressed to further connect with students’ lives beyond academia. in these current times, intercultural communicative competence interacts with media and pop culture at one’s fingertips through a mobile phone. conclusions conversation clubs boosted intercultural communication by exposing participants to diverse cultures, addressing local and international stereotypes, and integrating participants’ cultural worlds and language practices meaningfully. in each session, perceptions of interculturality, culture, and even autonomy converged to facilitate foreign language learning. the tutor promoted questioning visible and invisible stereotypes, and participants were invited to develop their ideas and expand their knowledge of other societies by incorporating diverse multimodal materials in the sessions. participation in the conversation clubs led to discussions about the inherent socio-cultural nature of language. in this way, students recognized how intercultural communicative competence serves them in a globalized world and their local context. in addition, participants reflected on their intercultural interactions and recognized cultural biases inherent in their standpoints through ongoing conversations about participants’ beliefs, prejudices, backgrounds, and daily lives. we challenge the idea that foreign languages can be learned independently from culture. foreign language learners need to become more familiar with intercultural communicative skills from the first stages of language learning, applying them to their own geographical and political context. conversation clubs allowed participants to transcend their comfort zone by getting exposed to different social norms and points of view and questioning stereotypes. intercultural communication and conversation clubs emphasize the relevance of a community in which ideas can be exchanged and opinions expressed. we call for pedagogical practices that build communities that appreciate cultural diversity, empathy, respect for difference and foster long-term intercultural skills to fulfill the demands of a globalized world. laura rocío ávila ávila and rosa alejandra medina riveros 76 no. 29 references acevedo-fuenmayor, k & oviedo-jaramillo, i. 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(2005) introducing social semiotics. routledge intercultural communication in online conversation clubs 79 no. 29 authors laura rocío ávila ávila teaches english as a foreign language at centro colombo americano in bogotá, colombia. she holds a b.ed. in english philology from universidad nacional de colombia. her research topics are intercultural approaches to teaching and innovation in local educational settings. orcid id: https://orcid.org/0009-0005-3591-4704 rosa alejandra medina riveros teaches in the foreign languages department at universidad nacional de colombia. she holds a ph.d. in education: language, literacy, and culture from the university of massachusetts -amherst. she uses qualitative and epistemologies to study multilingual and multimodal practices in educational settings. orcid id: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9601-5319 laura rocío ávila ávila and rosa alejandra medina riveros 101 gbl in efl reading comprehension fostering language learning in the university efl classroom through literature: a task-based approach1 la literatura en el aprendizaje de inglés como lengua extranjera en la universidad: un enfoque basado en tareas argemiro arboleda arboleda and angela yicely castro garcés2 universidad del valle and universidad del cauca, colombia abstract the role of literature as a teaching and learning tool in english as a foreign language has long been acknowledged. literary texts offer teachers opportunities to provide students with authentic materials to heighten their motivation by involving them in challenging task-based activities in which they interact with authors and learn about features of these authors’ society. the purpose of this research study was to investigate the role of literature as a pedagogical tool in the efl classroom and see how this can be advantageous in fostering learners’ language skills. the sample population encompassed 26 sixth-semester students enrolled in a reading course who are completing their ba in foreign languages at a public university in colombia. a semi-structured questionnaire and a reading guide were designed to elicit information from students who were asked to read an unabridged english language fiction novel. the findings show that the participants’ motivation to complete the task-based reading and writing project was high and that this had a positive impact on the improvement of their language skills. keywords. efl, esl, task-based approach, literature, intercultural communicative competence resumen el papel de la literatura como herramienta en la enseñanza y el aprendizaje de lenguas extranjeras ha sido reconocido durante mucho tiempo. los textos literarios ofrecen oportunidades a los profesores para que mediante el uso de materiales auténticos los estudiantes aumenten su motivación, al involucrarlos en actividades interesantes 1 received february 4th 2019/ accepted september 9th 2019 2 argemiro.arboleda@correounivalle.edu.co; angelayicely@gmail.com gist education and learning research journal. issn 1692-5777. no.19 (july december, 2019). pp. 101-127. no. 19 (july december 2019) no. 19 (july december 2019) 102 fostering language learning through literature arboleda & castro basadas en tareas, en las que interactúan con autores y aprenden acerca de la sociedad de dichos escritores. el propósito de esta investigación era indagar acerca del papel de la literatura como herramienta pedagógica en la clase de efl y ver sus ventajas en el desarrollo de las habilidades lingüísticas de los estudiantes. los sujetos de estudio fueron 26 estudiantes de sexto semestre de un curso de lectura de la licenciatura en lenguas extranjeras en una universidad pública, en colombia. para recoger la información, se diseñó un cuestionario y una guía de lectura acerca de una novela de ficción en lengua inglesa. los resultados muestran que la motivación de los estudiantes para completar el proyecto de lectura y escritura basado en tareas fue alta y que esta influyó positivamente en la mejoría de sus habilidades lingüísticas. palabras claves. inglés como lengua extranjera, inglés como segunda lengua, enfoque basado en tareas, literatura, competencia comunicativa intercultural resumo o papel da literatura como ferramenta no ensino e a aprendizagem de línguas estrangeiras tem sido reconhecido durante muito tempo. os textos literários oferecem oportunidades aos professores para que mediante o uso de materiais autênticos os estudantes aumentem a sua motivação, ao envolvê-los em atividades interessantes baseadas em tarefas, nas que interatuam com autores e aprendem sobre a sociedade de mencionados escritores. o propósito desta pesquisa era indagar sobre o papel da literatura como ferramenta pedagógica na aula de efl e ver suas vantagens no desenvolvimento das habilidades linguísticas dos estudantes. os sujeitos de estudo foram 26 estudantes de sexto semestre de um curso de leitura da licenciatura em línguas estrangeiras em uma universidade pública, na colômbia. para coletar a informação, desenhou-se um questionário e uma guia de leitura sobre uma novela de ficção em língua inglesa. os resultados mostram que a motivação dos estudantes para completar o projeto de leitura e escritura baseado em tarefas foi alto e que este influiu positivamente na melhora de suas habilidades linguísticas. palavras chaves. inglês como língua estrangeira, inglês como segunda língua, enfoque baseado em tarefas, literatura, competência comunicativa intercultural no. 19 (july december 2019) no. 19 (july december 2019) 103 fostering language learning through literature arboleda & castro introduction this study originated in our desire to inquire about students’ perceptions of the use of literary texts as a pedagogical tool in the efl classroom. literature has long been a focus of study at different levels around the world. yet the interest of colombian english as foreign language (efl) classroom professionals in using literature as a teaching tool seems to be a relatively new issue, as judged from the scarcity of research studies dealing with it. different factors may explain this: teachers’ notion of literature, teachers’ lack of self-confidence in teaching literature, and methodological approaches to teaching literature, among others. based on our beliefs deeply rooted in our classroom experience, we claim that in spite of any discouraging experience an efl teacher may have gone through in his attempt to bring literature into his classroom, namely students’ low motivation, recitation of book contents at verbatim , and inability to go beyond literal context to make inferences, to build meaning; and what may be worse, student’s cutting and pasting other reader’s ideas about a given book, couple with rather simplistic questions from the teacher himself, it is still possible to enliven his lessons by engaging students in meaningful tasks. these are designed to establish a fruitful dialogue between writers and language students, a dialogue in which students, as interlocutors, are presented with a wide range of opportunities to learn about authors, their work, and their culture, while immersing themselves in the target language. thus, the purpose of this research study is to discuss the use of literature as an important vehicle in enhancing efl learning, particularly in teacher training programs at university level, and point at ways how this can be realized through the design and implementation of task-based tailored activities. to do this, we present relevant research findings dealing with literature in efl classrooms, look into studies focusing on task-based learning, and rationalize the integration of the two as being complementary in the teaching and learning of a foreign language. this study posed some challenge for the researchers, since in previous class discussions our students admitted not having read a fiction novel completely, nor being given freedom to choose the book they wanted to read, let alone being required to recreate one or more main themes the novel dealt with by expressing themselves aesthetically. likewise, students felt that they need to spend time in grammar study and in getting familiar with the conventions of academic writing. in this respect, efforts were made to attend to students’ needs by planning lessons that addressed their concerns. no. 19 (july december 2019) no. 19 (july december 2019) 104 fostering language learning through literature arboleda & castro aim the aim of this research study was to delve into the role of literature as a pedagogical tool in the efl class and see how this can be advantageous in fostering learners’ language skills, through the use of literary texts as noninstructed materials. review of literature teacher’s notion of literature the interplay between literature and language may not always be acknowledged by efl teachers as a key factor in language learning. in part, this may be due to the lack of agreement on what is understood by literature. hence, any attempt to discuss the role of literature in language learning must start by defining the term. the american heritage dictionary of the english language defines literature as “imaginative or creative writing, especially of recognized artistic value.” (2015). other definitions of literature abound. savvidou (2004) claims that literature is language, and language can indeed be literary. she is, however, concerned with the way some teachers view literature: “… particularly complex and inaccessible to the foreign language learner” (p. 2). she goes on to contend that these views reflect the historic separation between the study of language and the study of literature and asserts that the use of literary texts can be a powerful pedagogical tool. in this same line of thought, other authors have documented the downplay literature has gone through in language teaching for decades (collie & slater, 1987 & short, 1996). yet, given the fact that literature has proven to be a great resource to go beyond the structural view of language teaching, to build up linguistic as well as cultural competence, additional research continued to be carried out in the field, and works acknowledging the benefits of literature started to appear (widdowson, 1983; hill, 1986; valdes, 1986; gower & pearson, 1986; collie & slater, 1987; duff & maley, 1991, lazar, 1993). motivated by the gains brought about by literature -a tool, a resource, or a vehicle, as referred to in different studies--, classroom teachers have successfully come to integrating it in efl/ esl contexts, with the certainty that it can be of much help to their students’ language learning process. thus, in the words of violetta-irene (2005, p. 74), “literature in a language classroom provides enough space for the learners to comment, justify and mirror themselves. by using literary texts, the language class can turn out to be lively and motivating.” she further indicates ways of using literature in the classroom to help students improve their english language, while describing literature as a field that, although not novel, gives relevance to the literary text as a work of art. no. 19 (july december 2019) no. 19 (july december 2019) 105 fostering language learning through literature arboleda & castro additional reasons for using literature in the language classroom are pointed out by lazar (1993). he believes that when presented as it is, a literary text becomes a valuable educational tool, as it constitutes a rich source to spark motivation, immerse students into another culture, trigger language acquisition, and encourage them to speak up their minds. as presented here, not only is literature the path through which language students can have access to authentic materials, but it is also a useful tool by means of which they are taken through the wonderful world of different text typologies working at their best. in fact, collie & slater (2005) emphasize the advantages of the literary text in the language classroom given that it is “authentic material … learners are thus exposed to language that is genuine and undistorted; they gain additional familiarity with many different linguistic uses, forms and conventions of the written mode: with irony, exposition, argument, narration, and so on” (p. 6). as to the undeniable link between literature and language, ihejirika (2014) demonstrates ways in which literature can be integrated with language teaching and learning with esl students. he asserts that “there is a symbiotic relationship between literature and language … literature and language are not only intertwined but also inter-related; literature presupposes language because it is with the instrument of language that literature is concretized” (p. 86). this view is echoed by ayo (2003) who claims that literature is instrumental in helping students grow linguistically, for it presents them with novel reasons to want to read, thus being a medium through which they can improve both their reading and speaking skills. valdes (1986) states that literature is a viable component of second language programs at the appropriate level and that one of the major functions of literature is to serve as a medium to transmit the culture of the people who speak the language in which it is written. kooy & chiu (1998) in their urge to find ways in which they could expose students to literary texts and share their passion for literature with efl students, who could barely cope with their limited language skills and worried mainly about passing standardized national tests, present literature as a place where language and meaning merge. for them, literature should be considered “not only for its intrinsic worth, but [also] as an integral part of a languagelearning program” (p.79). these studies, then, suggest that teachers integrate literature in their classes and illustrate how beneficial its implementation can be, which is in consonance with our research aims. although not widely explored in our local context, studies have been conducted by teacher researchers who have ventured into systematizing and sharing their thoughts in the field. gomez rodriguez (2013) encourages the use of multicultural literary texts in the efl classroom to develop critical no. 19 (july december 2019) no. 19 (july december 2019) 106 fostering language learning through literature arboleda & castro intercultural communicative competence (icc), as he is concerned with the main focus on the study of language forms and communicative functions and the lack of inclusion of icc in the colombian context. moreover, garzon duarte (2007) presents literary texts as a facilitative tool to develop critical thinking skills in the foreign language classroom in an attempt to take students beyond the structural aspects of the language, exposing them to different worlds and different authors’ voices, and providing them with more real communication contexts. teachers’ lack of self-confidence in teaching literature we have already pointed out that literature is frequently associated with complex writing or works that are difficult to understand by foreign language learners. coupled with this is the belief that only field specialists have the knowledge necessary to teach literature. although partially true, it is precisely this assumption which deters efl teachers from venturing into using literature as a powerful tool to enrich and enliven their classrooms. in fact, an efl teacher may or may not be a literature specialist. yet, we firmly believe that it is still possible for non-specialists to profit from the array of great literary publications to have their students get a head start in their quest for language learning, by providing them with the type of activities most likely to encourage them to do their best at acquiring and using language for real communication. as understood here, the design and implementation of literary text-based activities do not necessarily have to resemble the ones specifically tailored to meet the needs of students in content-based literature courses. instead, it is claimed that a more informal teaching approach to teaching literature can be used by efl teachers, even when they are not experts in the field of literature, provided that they know the target language, like reading literature themselves, and are eager to share their enthusiasm for this magic world with their own students. the task-based learning approach task-based learning (tbl) can turn language teaching and learning a social and cultural practice. several authors (skehan, 1996, 1998; willis 1996; nunan, 2004; ellis, 2003; & willis & willis, 2007) have added to consolidating a definition of tbl and have proposed different frameworks that give teachers and learners the opportunity to live and work with the target language in rather dynamic and engaging ways, in which meaning building is vital. nunan (2004) highlights how task-based language teaching (tblt) has permeated educational settings, including its language policies and research agendas. he argues that the focus on tasks acts as both the goal of and the no. 19 (july december 2019) no. 19 (july december 2019) 107 fostering language learning through literature arboleda & castro vehicle for learning by directly linking classroom learning with communication outside the classroom. this author also establishes a difference between real world and pedagogical tasks—discerning language use inside and outside the classroom. this differentiation is consonant with our own view of the tba shared here, since the tasks we propose to exploit literary texts take students’ language further from the classroom setting. in other words, our vision is truly conveyed by nunan, as he also believes that “a pedagogical task is a piece of classroom work that involves learners in comprehending, manipulating, producing or interacting in the target language, while their attention is focused on mobilizing their grammatical knowledge in order to express meaning, and in which the intention is to convey rather than to manipulate form” (p. 4). still another useful definition of task is ellis’ (2003) “a workplan that requires learners to process language pragmatically, in order to achieve an outcome that can be evaluated in terms of whether the correct or appropriate propositional content has been conveyed … a task is intended to result in language use that bears a resemblance, direct or indirect to the way language is used in the real world”(p.16) when characterizing the nature of a task, skehan (1998) speaks of it as having five characteristics: meaning is primary, learners are not given other people’s meaning to regurgitate, there is some sort of relationship comparable to real-world activities, task completion has some priority, and the assessment of the task is in terms of the outcome. willis (1996) also provides elements to help teachers define classroom tasks. she indicates that there are six main types of task: listing, ordering and sorting, comparing, problem solving, sharing personal experiences, and creative tasks. her framework presents a practical guide for teachers to include tasks in their classes, which encompasses three phases: the pre-task phase, the task cycle, and the language focus. it is essential to highlight that tasks are learner-centered and have specific learning goals. in addition, having a language focus phase at the end gives students meaningful input. willis & willis (2007) elaborate more on this point as they state that “form-focused teaching will produce language display instead of meaning exchange … tblt takes meaning as its starting point” (p. 113-117). studies carried out in specific language classroom settings acknowledge the value of this approach for learners’ empowerment. for instance, torres (2014) favors the positive environment that an efl setting provides for tbl, given authentic material is provided, and an emphasis on meaning is made because it gives learners “an enriched experience of l2 learning in which immediate use of the l2 produces tangible results, giving purpose and meaning to the l2 learning process” (p.19). additionally, byrnes (2002) explores the role of task-based assessment to encourage curricular changes from a form-based normative approach to a language-use and language-meaning orientation. she no. 19 (july december 2019) no. 19 (july december 2019) 108 fostering language learning through literature arboleda & castro illustrates how those task-based assessment practices can be highly facilitative of that complex goal, pointing out that task and task-based assessment must be contextualized within larger intellectual and educational concerns and must reflect the dynamics of a particular programmatic setting. sarani & sahebi (2012) present a specific case of students learning vocabulary through literary texts using task-based learning and acknowledge the benefits that this approach had in teaching technical vocabulary, compared to other traditional methods. they claim that these positive results owed to the particularities of the tba where learners are presented with a task or problem to solve and have a focus on meaning, rather than on language features during performance. their study provides further exemplification of the terrain we have walked through in our own research experience. it illustrates a way in which the tbl approach can be used when dealing with literature as to offer an excellent opportunity for students to engage in learning activities that provide meaningful input, following a process where the teacher collaborates and guides, but does not control students’ learning process. instead, he nurtures an adequate learning environment that prepares students for life-long learning. locally, peña and onatra (2009) propose a series of tasks to encourage high school efl learners’ oral production framed in willis’ (1996) approach. they offer some theoretical considerations concerning the importance of oral skills and explain how the task, as the basic point of organization, generates the language to be used by students. they then contend that language is seen as the instrument necessary to carry out the tasks presented to students. on the other hand, galvis (2011) asserts that “importing language teaching approaches that are not locally created can be either beneficial or counterproductive, depending on the specific traits of each culture where such approaches would be ultimately implemented” (p. 200). he also supports the use of tbl for contextualizing language teaching and learning, as he points out that “in the case of the colombian context and the tbl approach proposed in the cefr, one can observe that teaching by means of processes is an appropriate match culturally speaking because the colombian culture has been described as a process-oriented culture in several aspects of life, as explained by foster (2002) and frechette (2007), in which process takes more importance than immediate results” (p. 200). from the preceding discussion we can safely assert that in the efl realm, looking at literature as a useful medium by means of which cultural contents can be shared can be the starting point in triggering students’ interest in venturing to use the target language for real communicative purposes. this will undoubtedly call for teachers’ ingenuity in designing lessons which are based on works that appeal to students, and which can be chosen by the teacher or by students themselves. in choosing a literary text, however, teachers must always remember what may sound as trite: one enjoys reading better when no. 19 (july december 2019) no. 19 (july december 2019) 109 fostering language learning through literature arboleda & castro one has a choice in deciding what to read. isn’t this especially true in the case of reading for pleasure, that is, in the case of literature, as it has been defined here? together with this is the idea that learning, in any field, and particularly language learning, is facilitated by involving learners in hand-on activities; in other words, by having students complete tasks that are meaningful to them. this is the ultimate purpose in implementing the task-based learning approach in our efl classrooms, for task-based activities beget language appropriation; language appropriation begets entrance into a new culture; and entrance into a new culture offers students reasons to want to learn more about others. method the research study was carried out in an efl context, more precisely, at universidad del valle (a large public university in cali, colombia). the population sample comprised 26 students in the foreign language—english/ french ba program, who had enrolled english vi, an intermediate-level course offered in the february – june 2018 academic term, which aims at further developing students’ reading and writing skills. information was gathered by means of two types of instruments. first, a semi-structured eight-item questionnaire was used to elicit data on students’ preferences for reading and writing, of which four were closed-end questions and four were open-end questions. (see appendix a). second, an open-end questionnaire or reading guide, treated as a series of tasks itself, which they used to channel their reading and complete a literary reading project. (see appendix b). students were given the reading guide on the first day of class. the purpose of the reading project was explained, together with specific instructions about how to complete it. then, and along the span of the academic term, individual teacher-student conferences were scheduled weekly, in which the student addressed specific aspects of his work and was advised on how to deal with them. the teacher took notes in each conference and, when necessary, used them for general class discussions which would further help students in getting a clearer grasp of distinct linguistic features, including grammar, syntax, style, vocabulary, sentence structure, and others. results the semi-structured questionnaire we found a whole range of student expectations when registering for a reading and writing course, namely, writing on different text typologies, followed by extensive reading, and study of grammar and mechanics. these no. 19 (july december 2019) no. 19 (july december 2019) 110 fostering language learning through literature arboleda & castro choices may be telling of two facts: first, that students feel that they come to a writing class to actually put pen to work, and, second, that the reading of different types of texts provides them with models from which they can learn to later imitate a writer’s style. interesting enough, grammar and mechanics instruction appears as necessary or desired contents, as the participants felt that they needed these to attend to some formal features of good writing. this students’ awareness of the importance of form was most probably born out of our previous regular class discussions in which we insisted on allotting equal weight to the form and the content of the written text, since form and content constitute its two inseparable dimensions and, thus, they say much about the writer and his product. therefore, and contrary to what some teachers may think, we contend that even in beginning courses, efforts should be made to instill in students this idea that although the use of correct grammar and proper mechanics does provide for all that is needed to write well, it does play a crucial role in helping the writer convey meaning by adhering to writing conventions. the participants believed that the role of literature in foreign language learning is an extremely important one, as it provides them with access into other worlds, thus building bridges among people from different cultural backgrounds to enrich learning. in accomplishing this, they feel that opportunities should be offered for them to read and write frequently on what they read, as literary texts flourish in themes most likely to spark their imagination. hence, the fact that most of the participants in this study enjoy reading literary publications adds to current research findings and to our practice-born belief that using literature as a tool in language teaching results in significant gains in students’ learning process, as this type of reading is in consonance with their own likes and interests. interestingly enough, and although we have previously said that reading and writing go hand in hand, one thing is a person’s reading preference and another different one may be his preference for writing the type of text he likes reading. this explains why, if most of the participants like reading literary texts, only a few of them admit to their writing about literature. we believe that this may be due to the constraints of literary writing which at first may prevent students from venturing to express themselves since, as we have pointed out, there is this confounding idea that the ability to write, especially literature writing, is a gift only a few chosen people possess, an idea coupled with the fact that the participants say that in most of their courses, and independent of their nature, writing is devoted little time, in favor of developing other language skills. in short, the students’ answers show that the key factor in fostering their language learning lies in involving them in tasks and activities in which they have some interest, as these tasks and activities become instrumental in raising their eagerness to perform better and, consequently, make them move to higher no. 19 (july december 2019) no. 19 (july december 2019) 111 fostering language learning through literature arboleda & castro stages of language proficiency. based on our own experience, we firmly believe that literature provides myriad opportunities for efl teachers to help students succeed in meeting their language needs, by planning student interest-based, in-class and outside-class activities. the reading guide in an attempt to offer students further opportunities for self-expression, a ten-item, open-ended reading guide was designed as a series of tasks, which was intended to elicit information from students about specific aspects of an english language fiction novel each chose to read. they were required to complete a reading and writing project based on the reading guide, and submit and present their work orally in class. following is a report of the students’ unedited answers to each of the questions in the reading guide. (see appendix b). we will refer to individual students as p1 (participant 1), p2 (participant 2), p3 (participant 3), and so on. yet, we will account for only some of the students’ answers which were selected at random, mainly because of space limitations. question 1: what book did you choose to read? students’ choice of novel varied in genres and themes. these included science fiction, historical narratives, social and political advocacy, child rearing, hedonism, and juvenile adventure, just to mention a few. the selections were judged to be representative of individual likes and interest in reading and linguistic abilities. (see appendix d) question 2: what is the significance of the title, as you see it within the context of the story? here, p2 maintains that cell (by stephen king) is closely related to the development of the story, since it is because of cell phones that people turn into zombies. he points out that “this is how the apocalypse starts … i see that the word cell rhythms with hell, which is exactly the situation the characters of the story go through.” what is apparent here is this student’s worries for the fate of those who do wrong and how their actions epitomize a society lured and subsequently trapped by technology, actions conducive to hell. question 3: theme. several themes may be dealt with in this book. list and explain them. when addressing this question, p3 states that some of the themes that behind the beautiful forevers (by katherine boo) deals with include poverty, corruption, economic inequality, life, death, and hope. for this student, “finding all of these issues in a small community which nobody wants to no. 19 (july december 2019) no. 19 (july december 2019) 112 fostering language learning through literature arboleda & castro acknowledge is something we must know and think about. injustice, fear, and despair are very common among the characters of the story which lead some of them to committing suicide.” interesting enough, this student warns that “although this story tells us about a big problem in india, its point is not only to make people care about abdul, manju, kekahshan, or asha’s situation, for example, but also make people aware of and care about those other people that have to struggle in life, those we never noticed, even if they are around us. therefore, one of the most remarkable things in behind the beautiful forevers is the way the book connects a social problem with you, the reader.” as seen, this student has used facts from the narrative and related them to a wider context: the social conditions many people around the world live in. in closing up, p3 has further used all this information to share her personal stand on the issue of poverty, by stating that “it [the story] makes you know and feel that it is real people who are suffering,” something the student tugs as an awful feeling. in dealing with the themes she actually found in her choice of book, p4 writes that friendship finds its way throughout looking for alaska (by john green), as it is the theme she feels mostly touched by. she lets us know that “friendship appears from its very beginning to the last meaningful moments of the story as a recurrent element that leads to an interesting drama. in the story, one of the main characters arrived to a boarding school where he has no acquaintances and thus, he is required to make true friends—in order to survive and enjoy his junior year—given the fact that there were enemies to face, authorities to obey, and joyful academic moments to share.” she further makes a connection between the experience the main characters in this story go through and what the main two characters in wills hurvin.’s a time for dancing, samantha and juliana, lived as school friends. she points out that “ just as sam and jules build this unbreakable bond they lived by— one that outlived jules— the type of relationship miles was able to establish at school tells a lot about the human nature, since we all need the presence and the support of others, regardless our degree of independence.” it is worth noting how this student uses background knowledge to make the link among her vision of friendship, what she learned from one of her previous reads, and what she considers is a trait of human beings. question 4. the plot (a summary of the story). do not recount the whole story. focus on the main events, instead. in her answer to this question, p23 provided the basic information required by readers to get a grasp of the story told in ties that bind, ties that break (by lensey namioka), as a way to trigger their interest in reading it. in other words, she has been cautious not to spoil future readers’ desire to have their own personal encounter with what this china and its people were like. no. 19 (july december 2019) no. 19 (july december 2019) 113 fostering language learning through literature arboleda & castro set in 19th century china, ties that bind, ties that break tells the story, in retrospect, of the daily struggles that ailin, the main character, goes through which had their origin in the social custom of girl foot binding throughout the imperial years. but she is lucky to escape this fate, thanks to the relationship she and her family establish with an american family, the support she receives from her father, and the courage she gathers from one of her school friends. eventually, she moves to the united states where she spouses a businessman, actually a restaurant owner, with whom she starts a new life. this question had the participants resort to their synthesizing skills, in order to prevent them from just recounting the sequence of the events, sprinkling it with minor details which they judged to be essential, and from using parts of published reviews as if they were their own work. however, the guidance they received throughout the process of putting together their project proved useful in helping them see the forest without necessarily stopping to account for every tree in it and prevented them from incurring plagiarism, which at this time all of them acknowledged as being a blatant intellectual crime. question 5. main characters, what they want to accomplish, how they go about accomplishing their goal(s), and whether they succeed in doing it. which of them do you identify most with? why? which of them do you identify the least with? why? this question was intended to elicit information on whether the student built rapport with a certain main character in the story, as it is usually this reader-character empathy that determines whether the former feels moved to continue reading and intrigued about the unfolding of the events triggered by the latter, which, in turn, influences the reader’s liking or disliking the story. this is, precisely, what happens with p5, who finds herself deeply touched as a result of her having read sula (by literature nobel laureate toni morrison): i identify the most with sula and nel. i have always been curious about life; i want to experience everything, at least once. i do not like the idea of waiting for a person to love me, meaning that my life would be complete just when that happens. like sula and nil, i had the feeling that my life was really good when my best friend and i were together, laughing and talking all day long. unfortunately, i also realized that even friendship has an end and that distance can affect the way you treat a person so badly. nevertheless, although i constantly seek independence, by attempting to realize all my “feminist” ideals, i cannot fool anyone, since i am too desperate for love. i have a very conventional side in my way of finding someone to spend the rest of my life with. i still have my prospect. likewise, nel said that hell was not doing the same thing over and over again, but it was change. changes scare us, because we are no. 19 (july december 2019) no. 19 (july december 2019) 114 fostering language learning through literature arboleda & castro blind to them. i enjoy spending all day long at home, watching movies and reading a book. i do not need crazy things in my life to be happy. i, too, seek tranquility. i think that happiness is the ultimate combination of nel and sula: they think they are no longer similar, but they both look for the same outcome. this student opens up to us, letting us know who she is and why she likes and identifies with sula and nel, because she is pretty much like them. then, she goes on to tell us what she thinks of three other characters and why. i identify the least with eva, hannah, and helene, the ones who raised nel and sula. they are not that different; they are traumatized in some way. but this is not why i do not identify with them, rather i consider them as the model i would not follow. i constantly care and think about the ones around me. i wish them nothing but good. as i was reading these three people’s lives, i decided that no matter how bad an experience could be, i would not treat anybody badly, especially the ones i love the most. again, p5 has scrutinized these three characters’ lives, looked into her own life, and made a resolution: she wants to be true to herself; she is goodness and so, this is what she wants to project in her relationship with others. question 6. part or parts of the book you find particularly important. that is, the one part of the story you feel touched by. quote some passages, indicating the corresponding page number(s). why is this important to you? in dealing with this question, this is what p25 singles out, after reading 1984 (by george orwell): “the choice for mankind lay between freedom and happiness, and that, for the great bulk of mankind, happiness was better.” (p. 153). next, he explains what this means to him: i believe that this quote captures what we are living today. it is unbelievable that this was written in 1948. this represents our surrender; we are giving up freedom to obtain “happiness”, or, at least, what society defines as happiness. we are giving up our time and life by working to obtain material goods that are supposed to bring us security and joy, but in reality we don’t even need those things. what we need is freedom and strength to escape society. no. 19 (july december 2019) no. 19 (july december 2019) 115 fostering language learning through literature arboleda & castro what this student has selected as being meaningful to him is based on his understanding of how social systems work, that is, what humans are faced with, as part of the society they live in. the student’s position on the issue of freedom and happiness is clearly explained by his choosing freedom over happiness and stating that courage begets freedom. we believe that in a course, and especially in a reading and writing course, after students have been graded, grades have been reported to the registrar’s office, and the academic term is over, what remains in the students’ mind is what they did in that course and how significant it is for them as individuals. we venture to assert that one instance of this significance is what they read, which actually plays a role in maintaining or in altering their vision of the world they live in. question 7. linguistic aspects. how do you judge the writer’s style? explain and quote passages to support your claim. in connection with this, p24, presents us with this quote from kinshu: autumn brocade (by miyamoto teru): “east maizuru was indeed a sleepy town on the northern border of the kyoto region, facing the sea of japan. snow in winter, humidity in summer, and the other seasons marked only by the leaden skies and the thick clouds, sparse traffic, and dust-laden winds from the sea” (p. 30). then, this student is quick to let us know what this means to him: “a description like this one makes you feel as if you were actually in the scene. it makes you feel the cold of winter, the suffocation of summer, and see the beautiful brocades of autumn and spring, thus providing you with a brief, yet a substantial description of everything a foreigner should know about this region.” it is true that, as readers, we tend to favor certain writers over other ones, which is a feeling born out of our judgment concerning the way, means, or techniques the author uses to convey his message. among others, it is the writer’s choice of vocabulary, syntactic constructions, sentence structure, paragraph technique, the message itself, and the distance he takes from his readers that set some writers apart from others. generally speaking, our participants are not an exception to this, when expressing their preference. question 8. write a letter to the author in which you express your feelings about his/her book. you may want to focus on a particular aspect of this book, including one or more characters. the students’ answers to this question show their engagement with different aspects of the story they read and depict meaningful real-life interactions, like in the case of the rapport p1 established with ooji kouji, author of high speed. below is her letter to him: no. 19 (july december 2019) no. 19 (july december 2019) 116 fostering language learning through literature arboleda & castro dear mr. kouji: i’m not good with words. i’m awkward when expressing myself, especially when i want to talk to someone whose work has been well received. i admit that, at first, i found the title and the premise to be a bit cheesy, but as i kept reading, i found myself with a slice-of-life story that in certain aspects reminded me of my childhood: my friends, the routine of walking back home and then meeting with them again to do something together. it also made me reflect on some aspects of my childhood and the relationship with friends. at first, haru didn’t like rin and wanted to stay away from him as much as possible, because he couldn’t understand how someone else could blend with the water as well as haru himself. it reminded me of how i used to scoff at kids i didn’t like. but in the end everything works out for the group and haru manages to get along with rin. it makes me nostalgic, wanting to go back to my hometown and see if there are some of my old friends there. another aspect that i liked and felt identified with is that i’m afraid of water because i don’t know how to swim, unlike makoto, who is afraid but still knows how—and likes—to swim. i hope that, one day, i can overcome my fear and learn how to swim, too. as i mentioned, i’m not really good with words, but i wanted to tell you that your book has brought me good memories from my childhood, something really hard to deal with. sincerely, p1] as can be said that the power of books lies in this unique likelihood, they offer to take readers not only to outer worlds, but also to their inner selves. in doing so, books fulfill their transformational mission. indeed, nobody comes out being the same after reading a book, regardless of the type of connection a reader might have made with the story and its author. this is clearly illustrated in p1’s letter to mr. kouji. thus, the story has influenced her in such a way, that she sees it as a flashback into her own life, her childhood, a revival of moments she shared with some of her friends. eventually, she is filled with nostalgia, to the point that she admits to her wanting to go back to her hometown, expecting to reencounter her acquaintances. question 9. besides new vocabulary, what did you learn as result of your having read this book? would you recommend other people to read this book? what people? it is in our human nature to want others to have what has been good for us and wish others avoid what has caused us harm. it seems that the same happens with our reading experiences. hence, we praise authors whose work we have enjoyed and, conversely, we use derisive language to refer to those authors and their work we have not found ourselves connected with. the former is what p6 shares about her experience in reading the kite runner, by khaled hosseini: no. 19 (july december 2019) no. 19 (july december 2019) 117 fostering language learning through literature arboleda & castro i learned so many things. i learned about the afghan history, foreign interventionism, and discrimination in afghanistan. i also learned that afghans use the word hazara to refer to people who belong to an ethno-linguistic minority group. still other aspects i learned about are the atrocities inherent to the war and violence and sexual abuse in afghanistan. therefore, this book gave me a different vision of afghanistan and its problems and what people have to live every day there. likewise, i learned that you have to keep up with your life, be happy no matter the problems you have to face, give the best of yourself, and not give up. as whether this student recommends this book, she states the following: i recommend other people to read this book. it is written for a wide audience (adults and teenagers). it is about real facts, situations that happened and are still happening at this moment, which we don’t see and we don’t know much about. besides, it is the other side of the story, narrated by someone who knew that world before and after the war. thus, it gives us another perspective of the story. it is interesting to read how much this student has taken from the story. thus, and judging from the student’s words, author hosseini has provided her with a mini course on the history of afghanistan, a course that regardless its brevity, still accounts for the past and present of this territory and its people. again, this is what reading can do for us: let us shake hands with people we never thought we would ever meet. question 10. make a piece of art that, in your opinion, represents the story being told in the book or part of it. bring your work to class and be ready to talk about it. this question was intended to offer students an opportunity to try their artistic skills and exert their creative and imagination power by freely expressing themselves aesthetically. an additional purpose of this task was to have students set up an exhibit of their work for the student population, the teaching and the administrative staff of the school of language sciences, and the general public interested in attending our summer language festival, which is customarily held as an end-ofterm activity jointly prepared by students and teachers. the pieces of art presented by students included collages, photographs, sculptures, paintings, scale models, drawings, poems, and lyrics which students sang in the event. the exhibit was set up in one the corridors of the school. each piece of art was appropriately identified by indicating the title of the book it was based no. 19 (july december 2019) no. 19 (july december 2019) 118 fostering language learning through literature arboleda & castro on, its year of publication and publisher, its author, the student’s name, and the technique used to produce it. each student answered questions from visitors about the work, which resulted in an enriching interaction between attendees and novice artists. (see appendix c). discussion the use of literature has been recognized as being of much value for second language students and especially for foreign language students, as it depicts language in different real communicative contexts, triggers students’ motivation, and serves as a bridge between authors and their society and readers. the studies reviewed here reveal that literary texts constitute authentic materials that can be used to meet students’ best interests, namely the development of their reading and speaking skills. these studies emphasize the need to exploit these materials by designing learner-centered lessons, particularly by implementing the task-based approach in which students learn by doing. our study corroborates previous findings, as participants were highly motivated to read the novel they chose, complete the different tasks they were assigned, and present their work orally in class. equally revealing of students’ linguistic progress was the fact that they showed a genuine interest in sharing their work with the public attending the summer language festival by preparing and delivering a mini lecture about their findings. conclusion we have delved into the use of literature in offering efl students opportunities to enhance their learning process. thus, when seen as a tool rather than an end, literature can trigger learners’ motivation and offer them unique instances for them to deal with authentic texts that depict the life of people, in terms of their religious, political, economic, and social beliefs, as well as other traits associated with their lifestyle. our findings corroborate previous findings which show that even if students’ active participation in their learning process is vital, they are not solely responsible for the success of this process. therefore, in attending to the participants’ needs, the weekly teacher-student conferences we scheduled proved useful in helping individual students successfully deal with their reading and writing concerns resulting from their involvement in the different tasks they were to cope with. likewise, these conferences helped most students build increasing confidence in their oral production, as compared with a certain lack of easiness they showed in individual classroom presentations, which we no. 19 (july december 2019) no. 19 (july december 2019) 119 fostering language learning through literature arboleda & castro think was due to their relatively scarce vocabulary range, the type of topics they knew little about, and the degree of formality inherent to the texts. however, we believe that future english teachers should be conversant with a plethora of topics, not only with that which interests them. thus, these findings add to the evidence that teachers have a crucial role to play in choosing materials and designing task-based, student-centered activities that can best meet students’ needs. in doing this, language teachers need not be literature graduates. all they need is a liking for literature and willingness to try their ingenuity. in our study, participants felt challenged and their motivation for reading, writing, and speaking increased, as shown in what they did. this is because, typically, reading materials are chosen by teachers, which not always match students’ reading likes. for example, some of the materials we used to develop course contents dealt with topics in economics, engineering, biology, politics, religion, and gender, which did not appeal to all of the students. consequently, students showed difficulties in understanding vocabulary and in writing and speaking about these topics. conversely, giving students the opportunity to choose a book to read was important in raising their motivation to read, write, and speak about their story, and although the written report each submitted needs additional work on revision and editing to fully reflect writing conventions, each shows features of good writing as it is authentic, depicts the author’s voice and his knowledge of the world, and speaks to a certain audience. therefore, it is hoped that these findings contribute to raising awareness of some of the factors that teachers should take into account when planning activities to respond to their students’ needs in similar contexts. no. 19 (july december 2019) no. 19 (july december 2019) 120 fostering language learning through literature arboleda & castro references ayo, o. (2003). developing el2 learners’ communicative competence through literature in english. in oyeleye, & olateju (eds.), readings in language and literature (pp. 127-136). ile-ife: obafemi awolowo university press ltd. nigeria. brontë, c. (2008). the professor. project gutenberg. byrnes, h. (2002). the role of task and task-based assessment in a contentoriented collegiate foreign language curriculum. language testing, 19 (4), 419– 437. collie, j., & slater, s. (1987). literature in the language classroom. cambridge: cambridge university press. collie, j., & slater, s. (2005). literature in the language classroom. (5th ed.). glasgow: cambridge university press. duff, a. & maley, a. (1991). literature. oxford: oxford university press. ellis, r. (2003). task-based language learning and teaching. oxford: oxford university press. galvis, h. (2011). the common european framework, task-based learning, and colombia: crossroads for an intercultural collision or a path under construction for improvement? how 18, 198-209. garzon-duarte, e. (2007). inquiry process through literature in the efl classroom: a broad path to work on critical thinking. how, 14, 81-88. gomez-rodriguez, l. (2013). enhancing intercultural competence through u.s. multicultural literature in the efl classroom. folios, 38, 95 -109. gower, r., & pearson, m. (1986). reading literature. london: longman. hill, j. (1986). using literature in language teaching. london: macmillan. ihejirika, r. (2014). literature and english language teaching and learning: a symbiotic relationship. english language teaching, 7 (3), 85-90. canadian center of science and education. kooy, m., & chiu, a. (1998). language, literature and learning in the esl classroom. english journal, 88 (2), 78-84. lazar, g. (1993). literature and language teaching: a guide for teachers and trainers. cambridge: cambridge university press. nunan, d. (2004). task-based language teaching. cambridge: cambridge university press. no. 19 (july december 2019) no. 19 (july december 2019) 121 fostering language learning through literature arboleda & castro peña, m., & onatra, a. (2009). promoting oral production through the task-based learning approach: a study in a public secondary school in colombia. profile, 11 (2), 11-26. sarani, a., & sahebi, l. (2012). the impact of task-based approach on vocabulary learning in esp courses. english language teaching, 5 (10), 118-128. savvidou, c. (2004). an integrated approach to teaching literature in the efl classroom. the internet tesl journal, 10 (12), retrieved from: http:// iteslj.org/techniques/savvidou-literature.html short, m. (1996). exploring the language of poems, plays and prose. new york: longman. skehan, p. (1996). a framework for the implementation of task-based instruction. applied linguistics, 17 (1), 38-62. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/ applin/17.1.38 skehan, p. (1998). a cognitive approach to language learning. oxford university press. the american heritage dictionary of the english language (2015), fifth edition. houghton mifflin harcourt. torres, g. (2014). the task-based syllabus: promoting l2 acquisition and learner empowerment in an efl classroom. international journal of education, 6 (2), 11-23. valdes, j. (ed.). (1986). culture bound. bridging the cultural gap in language teaching. cambridge: cambridge university press. violetta-irene, k. (2015). the use of literature in the language classroom: methods and aims. international journal of information and education technology. 5 (1), 74-79. widdowson, h. (1983). talking shop: on literature and elt. elt journal, 37 (1), 30-35. willis, j. (1996). a framework for task‐based learning. harlow, uk: longman. willis, d., & willis, j. (2007). doing task-based teaching. oxford: oxford university press. no. 19 (july december 2019) no. 19 (july december 2019) 122 fostering language learning through literature arboleda & castro authors *argemiro arboleda-arboleda holds a b.a in modern languages from universidad del valle (cali, colombia) and an m.a in education (tesol) from university of kansa (united states). he is currently an english teacher at universidad del valle. his research interests include writing as a foreign language, editing and translations. orcid: http://orcid.org/0000-0001-9822-9409 angela castro has a b.a in modern languages, a specialization in pedagogy of reading and writing, and a m.a in tesol. she is a third-year phd student at universidad del valle, and a professor at universidad del cauca. her research interests include literacy studies and intercultural communication. orcid: http://orcid.org/0000-0001-6675-0937 no. 19 (july december 2019) no. 19 (july december 2019) 123 fostering language learning through literature arboleda & castro appendix a: questionnaire please answer the following survey to the best of your knowledge. this information will allow us to make a needs analysis and improve our teaching practices. you do not need to provide your name. 1 what components do you expect to find in a writing class? 2 how relevant is literary work (literature) in your english learning? why? 3 how often do you read? why? less than 1 hour per day 1 hour per day 2 hours per day more than 2 hours per day 4 how often do you write? why? less than 1 hour per day 1 hour per day 2 hours per day more than 2 hours per day 5 what kind of texts do you read? literary academic informative other 6 what kind of texts do you write? literary academic personal (lists, reminders, etc.) other 7 list the factors that restrain you from reading and writing more. 8 what kinds of activities would you like to see in this course? no. 19 (july december 2019) no. 19 (july december 2019) 124 fostering language learning through literature arboleda & castro appendix b: reading guide directions. submit your answers to the questions below, about the novel you chose to read, and prepare a twenty-minute presentation to share them with the rest of the class. use your summary, paraphrase, and quotation cards only for reference, as this is not intended to be a reading session. 1. what book did you choose to read? (title of the book, year of publication, editorial house, number of pages) 2. what is the significance of the title, as you see it within the context of the story? 3. theme. several themes may be dealt with in this book. list and explain them. 4. the plot (a summary of the story). do not recount the whole story. focus on the main events, instead. 5. main characters. which of them do you identify most with? why? which of them do you identify the least with? why? 6. part or parts of the book you find particularly important. that is, the one part of the story you feel touched by. quote some passages, indicating the corresponding page numbers. why is this important to you? 7. linguistic aspects. how do you judge the writer’s style? explain and quote passages to support your claim. 8. write a letter to the author in which you express your feelings about this book. you may want to focus on a particular aspect of the book, including one or more characters. 9. besides new vocabulary, what did you learn as result of your having read this book? would you recommend other people to read this book? what people? 10. artwork. make a piece of art that, in your opinion, represents the spirit of the story being told in the book you read, or part of it. bring your work to class and be ready to talk about it. no. 19 (july december 2019) no. 19 (july december 2019) 125 fostering language learning through literature arboleda & castro appendix c. some of the pieces of artwork submitted and exhibited by students 1. student performing the song he wrote, based on they say love is blind (kate halleron). link to his video: https://youtu.be/wh_x_wujzls. lyrics below. they say love is blind he was blinded in the war and never again saw the sunshine or the moon that was surrounded by stars at night an inspected trip on train he didn’t know that it would change the course of his life with a surprise bridge his ex-wife appeared, but now he had a new love two women who loved the same man chorus they say love is blind he fought against time and divided his heart they say love is blind the civil war took a part of his life they say love is blind he was a brave man who never gave up they say love is blind he couldn’t see, but he could still love. no. 19 (july december 2019) no. 19 (july december 2019) 126 fostering language learning through literature arboleda & castro 2. piece based on 3. piece based on kinshu: ties that bind, an autumn brocade (teru miyamoto ties that break (lensey namioka) 4. piece based on the professor 5. piece, based on kinshu: (charlotte bronte) an autumn brocade (teru miyamoto) no. 19 (july december 2019) no. 19 (july december 2019) 127 fostering language learning through literature arboleda & castro appendix d: list of some of the novels that the participants read brontë, c. (2008). the professor. project gutenberg. cline, e. (2011). ready player one. crown. green, j. m. (2005). looking for alaska. dutton juvenile halleron, k. (2012). they say love is blind. pepper pace. hosseini, k. (2003). the kite runner, riverhead books hurwin, w. d. (1997). a time for dancing. puffin books. king, s. (2006). cell. scribner. kouji, o. (2013). high speed. kyoto animation namioka, l. (1999). ties that bind, ties that break. random house. miyamoto, t. (2007). kinshu: autumn brocade. new directions. morrison, t. (2002). sula. pinguin random house. orwell, george. (1949). 1984. harvill secker. how to reference this article: arboleda-arboleda, a., & castro-garcés, a. y. (2019). fostering language learning in the university efl classroom through literature: a taskbased approach. gist – education and learning research journal, 19, 101-127. https://doi. org/10.26817/16925777.706 no. 19 (july december 2019) no. 19 (july december 2019) 260 teaching and researching computer-assisted language learning1 beatty, k. (2010). teaching and researching computerassisted language learning. london: pearson education limited. reviewed by: saieed moslemi nezhad arani tefl ph.d. candidate imam khomeini international university, qazvin, iran the prominence of technology has always been booming since computers generated new lanes for human to make use of high-tech for many different purposes. utilizing computers for learning goals, among many, is one of the main concerns followed by educational issues in teaching and learning, especially, of a new language. computer-assisted language learning (call) is known as a 1 received: june 8th 2018/ accepted: novemember 17th 2018 2 saieed91@yahoo.com gist education and learning research journal. issn 1692-5777. no.17 (july december 2018). pp. 260-267. moslemi nezhad-arani no. 17 (july december, 2018) no. 17 (july december, 2018) 261 branch of language studies which focuses on teaching and learning of a new language through applications of computers in language learning contexts. many books, articles, reviews, etc. being published regularly consider one or some issues related to the call. to this, researchers have tried to introduce or evaluate particular application of call in the mentioned field. cameron (1988, p. 15) reasons that “the fact that there are so many different types of call programs in existence illustrates the futility of attempting to define a single set of program principles or structures to fit all situations.” other subordinate technologies interconnected to the computerized exemplar have influenced the teaching practice. for example, information communication technology (ict) “has been integrated within the overall design of the methodology used in the language learning process as a key factor.” (zhang, 2012, p. 8). other similar well-intentioned works can be referred to (holland & fisher, 2008; donaldson & haggstrom, 2006; thomas, reinders, & warschauer, 2013) which consider discussions of series of actions taken as regards the call subject. beatty’s teaching and researching in computer-assisted language learning (2010) is considered as one of the most comprehensive books on defining and reorganizing concept of call into the language education. the following is a review based on beatty’s book, which is highly recommended for a thorough reading and anlisis. the book includes four sections and 10 chapters, together with appendices and a research sample chapter. the author follows a perfect build-up move towards the call question through chapters. he starts from introducing the early concepts of call to the most up-to-date ones. in chapter 1, section 1 named key concepts, beatty tries to give a clear definition of call through presenting the key notion that still there are other terms corresponding to the subject, however, with the same connotation. moreover, he emphasizes on the technology-driven nature of call in which improvements in computer technology, from the hardware to the software, have played roles as tools in pedagogy and research. he conceptualizes that call not only is part of the classroom teaching, it can also be applied complementary to all classroom teaching and learning activities. this distinguishing feature of call has proved its advantages to the teachers in a way they profit its lead in their teaching, assessments, and enhancing programs for students. through the second chapter, a brief history of call is given. the author portrays call history from the early 1950s to the contemporary times. he lists the hardware and software developments and argues moslemi nezhad-arani no. 17 (july december, 2018) no. 17 (july december, 2018) 262 how the new generation of desktop computers helped teacher-led research. in the early ages, much software developed based on the behavioristic view of language teaching and learning. however, later on, developments in web technologies have devoted new friendly-use generation of learning activities to the language learning classrooms and contexts. chapter 3 with a focus on multimedia introduces hypertext, hypermedia, and multimedia as distinctive features of the computers in presenting things differently and effectively in comparison to traditional or classical teaching and learning materials. however, gradually, because of the universal growth and use of multimedia in learning and online application, research on finding improved and operative impact multimedia may have on learning replaced itself with latest technical innovations towards learning. for example, “the creation of virtual worlds using avatars to represent people in moo-like virtual object situations (see the lost moo library at http://www.hayseed.net/moo) continues to develop in sophistication and in the opportunities they present for interaction.” (beatty, 2010, p. 56). beatty in chapter 4 of his book describes eight call applications such as word processing, games, literature, corpus linguistics, computermediated communication, www resources, adopting materials for call, and personal digital assistants (pdas) and mobile telephones. the key point that he argues in this chapter is the various ways of using call. the author, smartly, highlights that the successful presentation of such applications directly depends on the amount of work teachers and learners allocate to them before language learning begins. that is, as beatty argues, if teacher and learners do not identify or apprehend the application, or it is too complex for them, then irrespective of the delightful advantages of technology in teaching and learning, it will be useless and a waste of time. chapter 5, entering section 2 titled “the place of call in research and teaching”, second language acquisition and models of instruction are discussed by introducing theories of language learning supporting call such as behaviorism, and constructivism. the author defines the programmed instruction and mastery learning following the theories of learning. also, he describes the benefits and deficits of each in view of call software programs and second-language acquisition (sla). beatty elucidates that binary logic feature of computers best fits the behavioristic models of learning. however, he puts forward that constructivism accompanied by schema theory as a specific principle, contrary to the behavioristic view, simplifies collaboration and negotiation of meaning in call models. teaching and researching in call moslemi nezhad-arani no. 17 (july december, 2018) no. 17 (july december, 2018) 263 teaching and researching in call moslemi nezhad-arani in chapter 6, the author pays special attention to the collaboration and negotiation of meaning in call. the chapter gives a definition on collaboration with a focus on other researchers’ definitions of the term. to this end, the author exemplifies collaborative issues recommended by others for enhancing awareness and developing skills, attaining pedagogical objectives, improving literacy, and supporting language acquisition. in addition, he compares the concept of collaboration with other similar perceptions such as cooperative and teamwork to reach a clear and typical definition for collaboration concept, and finally consents himself with the definition from dillenbourgh et al. (1995, cited in beatty, 2010, p. 141), “a coordinated, synchronous activity that is the result of a continued attempt to construct and maintain a shared conception of a problem.” however, his definition brings up the constructivist model of learning, contrary to the expectation that behaviouristic model of learning that is in the same collaborative approach. according to the author, collaboration at the computer level can be supported through discourse. such discourse can illustrate the strategies learners use to report and elude a range of challenges to collaboration. beatty (2010) discusses defining a model for call in chapter 7 in his book. at the beginning of the chapter, the author clarifies the nature of the concept of model in which it refers to the representative of all things possible in a classroom. accordingly, there are also some other limitations towards defining a call model for a classroom since some factors such as lack of money resources, needs for proficient expertise, and absence of enough equipment affect a model for call classroom. despite the fact that user-friendly applications are accessible online, such applications cannot be suitable in proposing a complete languagelearning program. however, one can not ignore their complementary role in helping the teachers in classroom activities. thus, the author magnifies a gap toward a need for a comprehensive call model to help both material developers and evaluators in providing a call model of language-teaching which comprises all essential aspects in a way that the teacher finds himself simply as a facilitator. in the rest of chapter 7, beatty focuses on the scope of variables involved in learning and teaching proposes (dunkin and biddle’s, 1974) model for call. he also clarifies that presage variables, context variables and process variables in a call model are different, but he believes that the so-called model can best match a call course to be a comprehensive model of language-teaching. to this, several views of call are discussed with an emphasis on the activities used in a model of locus of control at the computer. according to this model, activities no. 17 (july december, 2018) no. 17 (july december, 2018) 264 on the part of the learner in a call model can range from little or no control to complete control. that is a move from a behaviouristic approach gradually to a constructivist approach. at the end of the chapter, the author introduces the idea of the virtual classroom on the basis of dunkin and biddle’s model, and he claims that designing a call model engendered from the mentioned model not only can provide a comprehensive call model, also it can act as a kind of virtual teacher. however, beatty takes as granted that reworking dunkin and biddle’s model does not mean a perfect jump, and precautions should be taken since still there are some variables in call that dunkin and biddle’s model never supports. chapter 8 is dedicated to the discussion of the theoretical and pedagogical concerns of call. this chapter begins with the argument of challenging areas in call in which research and studies need to be conducted in order to clarify the practical implications. one of the thought-provoking areas that seems has been one of the main considerations of author, among many others, is introduced as the complications of facing children using the www, proper education as to the nature of problems, and appropriate actions needed to be taken against them. chapter 9 of the beatty’s book builds up on the previous chapter and mostly discusses the current research interests and trends in call. the author believes that a classroom teacher should be a researcher at the same time. that is, a teacher is not only an instructor, also s/ he should analyze the class and students’ needs towards successful course objectives and become ready for conducting any studies to find necessary solutions. learners are also recommended to be much more involved in the research process, contributing perspectives and commenting on findings. the chapter proposes different kinds of research and methodology that can be applicable in a call course model. however, at the closing part of the chapter, action research is highly recommended for teachers in the classroom. the last chapter, chapter 10, is dedicated to the discussions and guidelines in conducting a research in call-based classrooms. the author refers to the different types of studies such as pilot study, corpus linguistics, error analysis, case study, survey, and ethnographic approach that match to the area, and he advocates for the advantages of such studies and their findings in developing, implementing, and evaluating a call model. however, for a suitable call model, one should consider the basic questions of what is needed for a comprehensive call model that can replace the teacher and even the learner’s peers teaching and researching in call moslemi nezhad-arani no. 17 (july december, 2018) no. 17 (july december, 2018) 265 for a successful language-teaching context. however, steps have not still been taken toward designing and assembling a comprehensive and complete call software program for a language to be taught regardless of time and place. at the end, the author recommends that in order to get much closer to the desired complete model, one may consider the things that teachers do best and the things that computers are able to perform best. to sum, the discussed book gives the impression that for designing and implementing a call-based course not only the proposed models of teaching have the applicability to the language teaching field, also it offers some of the main and primary implementation of call into the language teaching classrooms in a way that one may think of them as useful hints to provide supplementary and modern innovative ideas for call practices in language teaching and learning. since it associates the compatibility of call-based models with second-language acquisition models of instruction analytically, and due to the fact that it emphasizes on the role of collaboration and negotiation of meaning in discussing the call-based models, it is highly recommended as a good resource in providing models of call for language teaching courses, especially for children call-based language teaching and learning courses which have not been studied deeply. teaching and researching in call moslemi nezhad-arani no. 17 (july december, 2018) no. 17 (july december, 2018) 266 references beatty, k. (2010). teaching and researching computer-assisted language learning. london: pearson education limited. cameron, k. (1988 ). computer-assisted language learning: program structure and principles. oxford: intellect books. donaldson, r. p., & haggstrom, m. a. (2006). changing language education through call. new york: routledge. holland, v. m., & fisher, f. p. (2008). the path of speech technologies in computer assisted language learning: from research toward practice. new york: routledge. thomas, m., reinders, h., & warschauer, m. (2013). contemporary computer-assisted language learning. london: bloomsbury academic. zhang, f. (2012). computer-enhanced and mobile-sssisted language learning: emerging issues and trends. canberra: information science reference. teaching and researching in call moslemi nezhad-arani no. 17 (july december, 2018) no. 17 (july december, 2018) 267 author *saieed moslemi nezhad arani is a tefl ph.d. candidate at imam khomeini international university, qazvin, iran. he received a bachelor’s degree in english language translation studies from aran & bidgol payame noor university, and a tefl master’s degree from sistan and baluchistan university in zahedan, iran. he has published numbers of articles in tefl studies, and participated in several conferences with the main interest towards discourse analysis, corpus analysis, and computer assisted language learning. teaching and researching in call moslemi nezhad-arani no. 17 (july december, 2018) no. 17 (july december, 2018) challenges in the design and implementation of an english placement test for a colombian public university1 desafíos en el diseño e implementación de una prueba de clasificación de inglés para una universidad pública colombiana alexander ramírez2* universidad del valle, colombia 1 received: november 12th 2019/ accepted: september 7th 2020 2 alexander.ramirez.e@correounivalle.edu.co gist education and learning research journal. issn 1692-5777. no. 21 (july-december, 2020). pp. 191-208. 192 no. 21 abstract this reflection paper disseminates the design and implementation of an english placement test for first semester students from different majors. this design was carried out within the framework of a research project in a colombian public university. the article has a twofold purpose: to scrutinize the stages leading to a test, and to highlight the complexity that underlies the process of conceiving evaluation, so that language teachers who embark for the first time on the task of designing placement exams have a model and can anticipate vicissitudes of academic and administrative nature that may arise. the conclusions derived from the process of construction and implementation of the test highlight the lack of training and literacy in the area of language testing, as well as the existing tensions between academic expectations and the administration within a university institution. key words: language testing; placement test; assessment; evaluation; test design resumen este artículo de reflexión disemina el diseño e implementación de una prueba de clasificación en inglés para estudiantes de primer semestre en diversos programas académicos. tal diseño se llevó a cabo en el marco de un proyecto de investigación en una universidad pública colombiana. el artículo tiene un doble propósito: diseccionar las etapas conducentes a una prueba y resaltar la complejidad que subyace a la concepción de procesos evaluativos, de manera que los docentes de lengua que se embarcan por primera vez en la tarea de diseñar exámenes de clasificación tengan un modelo y puedan prever las diversas vicisitudes de índole académica y administrativa que se pueden presentar. las conclusiones derivadas del proceso de construcción e implementación de la prueba remarcan la falta de formación y literacidad en el área de diseño de pruebas, así como las tensiones existentes entre las expectativas académicas y la administración en el seno de una institución universitaria. palabras clave: evaluación de lenguas; examen de clasificación; evaluación; diseño de pruebas. design and implementation of an english test ramírez 193 no. 21 resumo este artigo de reflexão dissemina o desenho e implementação de uma prova de classificação em inglês para estudantes de primeiro semestre em diversos programas acadêmicos. tal desenho foi realizado no âmbito de um projeto de pesquisa em uma universidade pública colombiana. o artigo tem um duplo propósito: analisar as etapas que conduzem a uma prova, e ressaltar a complexidade que subjaz à concepção de processos avaliativos, de maneira que os docentes de língua que se embarcam pela primeira vez na tarefa de desenhar provas de classificação, tenham um modelo e possam prever as diversas vicissitudes de índole acadêmica e administrativa que se possam apresentar. as conclusões derivadas do processo de construção e implementação da prova remarcam a falta de formação e alfabetização na área de desenho de provas, bem como as tensões existentes entre as expectativas acadêmicas e a administração dentro de uma instituição universitária. palavras chave: avaliação de línguas; prova de classificação; avaliação; desenho de provas. design and implementation of an english test ramírez 194 no. 21 introduction the use of tests to keep track of progress and measure users’ language proficiency constitutes an ongoing and essential activity in the field of foreign language assessment, evaluation, and testing processes (douglas, 2010). however, the literature on language testing in colombia suggests that language teachers lack literacy and training in this field, which means that they are in need of strong skills for the design, implementation, and research of language tests for various purposes (giraldo, 2018a, 2018b; lópez & bernal, 2009). using tests for evaluation, however, is an activity that underlies the teaching profession; this allows to infer that gaps in terms of testing literacy and training might be leading to commit several irregularities in their evaluation processes. in the same vein, giraldo (2019) remarks that poor quality in test design “may disorient language teaching and learning” (p. 124) as decisions that derive from test results may lack solid grounds. the design and development of language tests within an institution is desirable, not only because it can help minimize the purchase of commercial tests—which are not tailored to the needs of a particular institution or context—but it also empowers teachers and contributes to their continuous training in terms of language assessment literacy (lal) (lópez & bernal, 2009). the latter translates into greater expertise and diversification of evaluation techniques, as well as the development of constant reflection and critical thinking towards assessment and evaluation. with this in mind, and in view of the need for an english placement test in a colombian public university, a research project was designed with a twofold objective: on the one hand, to train a group of teachers in the techniques for the design of tests and their subsequent statistical analysis; and on the other hand, to design a placement test, with high quality standards, that fulfilled the institutional needs. this paper presents the different stages that made up the design of the placement tests, interwoven with the literature review, the theoretical considerations, and the reflection on the various challenges experienced at each stage by me as the person who conducted the training, and by my colleagues as trainees. it is my hope that other teachers who embark for the first time on this ambitious task have a model and can anticipate the various vicissitudes of academic and administrative nature that may arise along the process. context the research project from where this paper derives took place at universidad del  valle, a public university in the southwest colombia. initially, this institution offered a program of reading in english for specific purposes (esp) to all the majors on campus, composed by four courses. however, the current demands of globalization have pushed the university into academic dynamics that require moving from design and implementation of an english test ramírez 195 no. 21 merely consulting information in a foreign language, to a more complex need of communicating in general and academic english. accordingly, the university shifted from the esp program to an english for general and academic purposes (egap) program in order for all undergraduate program students to reach a b1 proficiency level in a foreign language (resolution no.  136 by the academic council of the university of valle, december 22nd 2017). with a new english program in execution, the university administration commissioned its english teachers to take on the design of the test, although such a task would be much more complicated than expected. first of all, most english teachers lacked from language assessment literacy (lal), as stated by the teachers themselves. lal is defined as the “knowledge, skills, and principles in language testing” (p. 180) by different stakeholders. such lack had been previously documented by lópez and bernal (2009), who drew attention to the low presence of language assessment training in university undergraduate and graduate programs in colombia. with this in mind, a team of 7 teachers was gathered and trained in the basics of language testing for one semester. the trained teachers (hereinafter referred to as the team) were part of the english for general and academic purposes (egap) section at universidad del valle, which offers its services to all the undergraduate programs on campus. after the training, a research project3 was conducted, resulting in the design and piloting of the univalle’s english placement test uveplat. the test comprises 52 different items and places test takers in levels a2 to b2 according to the common european framework of reference for languages (cefr). uveplat, which requires one hour for its completion, evaluates test takers in reading comprehension, listening comprehension, grammar structures and vocabulary. the next section of this paper gathers the guidelines, recommendations and reflections that resulted from designing team’s experience. guidelines for the design of an english placement test diagnosing language testing practices in the institution the starting point for the design of a test that will fulfill institutional purposes must be the meticulous analysis of the context in which the test will be applied, in terms of four fundamental elements: the evaluation practices established in the institution, the specific situations in which a language test is needed, the institutional language policies 3 this research project aimed at piloting the test and measuring its item difficulty and discrimination indexes. the results, as well as a deeper technical characterization of the test, can be found in ramírez (2020). design and implementation of an english test ramírez 196 no. 21 (or lack thereof), and the different stakeholders involved in the testing process. i now move on to exploring each one of these elements. first of all, the recognition of pre-established institutional practices regarding the use of language tests ensures a clear landscape of what to keep and what to avoid in the design of a new test. for instance, in the particular case that feeds this article, a first glimpse into the university allowed for the identification of two practices that were common and traditionally passed on among language teachers: ‘frankensteining’ tests out of different materials, and solving any testing need through the use of commercial testing platforms. ‘frankensteining’ or making exams out of several pieces coming from test preparation books, previously discarded tests, or even the internet, revealed a deep lack of awareness towards testing design on the part of the teachers. similarly, the analysis of the institutional context revealed the unsystematic use of commercial tests for multiple purposes within the institution; for example, a commercial quickplacement test had been used to verify different levels of proficiency, to place undergraduate students into levels of the curriculum, and to determine the entrance of graduate students into certain programs. not only did both of these practices exposed the administration’s misinformation towards fundamental principles of testing, such as validity and reliability, but it also evinced that, when it comes to language policies at a university, there might be institutional decisions made by administrative authorities that do not take into account the participation or scrutiny of language teachers or testing experts. the excessive use of commercial tests and the practice of ‘frankensteining’ respond to the aministration’s lack of awareness about the complexity of language testing, and about the intricacy of several aspects (time, resources, budget, training, etc.) behind the design, piloting, and implementation of a test; such a lack of awareness might explain the administration’s constant and urgent demand for language test scores for various purposes, as well as the seeming institutional idea that one single test might solve a plethora of needs. it is necessary to establish the different needs that the institution has, as well as the nature of the tests required for each need. in the colombian context, for instance, several universities usually make use of placement tests and proficiency tests for different types of test takers including aspiring students, enrolled students, faculty and staff. not all of these audiences pursue the same language programs or linguistic skills, so chances are that the nature of the test might vary, going from language for general communicative purposes, or a particular skill, such as reading or writing, for specific or academic purposes. third, the recognition of language policies (or their inexistence) determines a legal framework for language evaluation, assessment and testing in the institution. for example, in the university where this study was carried out, language policies were still in the making, and no light had been shed on the case of indigenous people, who were required to demonstrate proficiency in an l2 through an english test, completely design and implementation of an english test ramírez 197 no. 21 ignoring that they are users of two or more languages already. if language policies exist, then the design and implementation of new tests have to be planned around the former. otherwise, the issuing of new language policies must encompass the type of evaluation and tests that will be needed. finally, recognizing the different stakeholders involved in the evaluation activity is paramount for the quality of the assessment processes: language teachers, test designers, test takers, and the university administration shape an intricate gear where the role of each one must be clearly established and held accountable for their participation in the testing matters. setting up a test design team as stated before, a team of 7 teachers was gathered and trained in the basics of language testing for one semester, in weekly workshop sessions of three hours. the rationale behind this training program is the fact that test design is a daunting task that “requires attention to a considerable number of theoretical and technical details” (giraldo, 2019, p.  124); thus, the training program encompassed six elements, as summarized in the following graph: figure 1: test design training components for the purposes of this paper, i have intentionally chosen the term training, and not professional development, mainly because the workshops imparted to the trainees were conducted with a specific and terminal purpose, seeking to respond, in the short term, to an urgent request from the university. however, this type of training could design and implementation of an english test ramírez 198 no. 21 and should evolve into professional development, understood as a constant process, a continuous activity focused on the teacher, and not merely consisting of ‘one-shot’ workshops or lectures focused on a specific product (armbruster & osborn, 2001; joyce & showers, 2002; cooper, 2009). the first three components were covered through the study of different postulates by bachman and palmer (1996), carr (2011), douglas (2010), and shohamy (2001). through several study-group sessions and workshops, this component started with the discussion of how abstract and challenging the idea of measuring linguistic performance can be and went on to deepen into the definitions of fundamental concepts. it is worth mentioning that at the beginning of the training, most participants seemed overconfident regarding the training program components as these topics are expected to be mastered by any seasoned teacher. furthermore, according to participants, testing and assessing languages are tasks that they perform on a regular basis, so they trusted they had a decent mastery of assessment design. the first training sessions, however, showed otherwise; not only did the teachers ignore, or had forgotten, basic concepts such as construct, reliability, validity, washback effect, and the very difference between evaluation and assessment, but they also manifested some ideas that unveiled lack of fairness; for instance, all of them explicitly stated that a high quality test was a synonym of a difficult-to-pass test, rendering evaluation a tool of power and control (shohamy, 2001). one of the very first challenges, then, was to establish a group philosophy that a test—and evaluation in general, for that matter—has to do with offering learners as many opportunities as possible for them to show what they know, rather than making them hesitate with a riddle type of exam, because “the more opportunities we give test takers to show what they know, the more accurate and fair the measurement is likely to be” (douglas, 2010, p. 4). this was a great opportunity to openly discuss fairness and the ethics of evaluation and testing, which are topics that usually stay under the individual domain of every teacher inside his or her classroom. after this common ground was reached, the second and the third component were covered by focusing on the study of taxonomies of language tests, their purposes, as well as different types of items (bachman & palmer, 1996; carr, 2011). the study of the fourth element, the common european framework of reference for languages (cefr) (council of europe, 2001) was the second major challenge we faced in this training program. the cefr comprises “a set of common reference levels for language teaching, learning and assessment stretching from basic to mastery” (taylor & geranpayeh, 2011, p. 91); as indicated by its name, the cefr is expected to serve as a reference, a lighthouse to look at for guidance. however, a recurring phenomenon among the trainees (also detected to a greater or lesser extent in many teachers formally and informally surveyed in the framework of this study) is the fact design and implementation of an english test ramírez 199 no. 21 that there is a subjective and mostly intuitively-derived construct with respect to the cefr levels. although the cefr is precisely a reference document, most english teachers agreed upon the fact that they do not consult the reference, but trust ‘their gut’ when it comes to evaluating and placing language users. it seems that some teachers have formed an idea of what it means to be an a1, a b2, or a c1 kind of language user, with very diffuse boundaries between the levels that vary from one teacher to the other; these boundaries are usually rooted in a long tradition of comparing students who have been previously evaluated by the teacher, in a kind of rationale as follows: ‘if john is a b2 and jane’s level is a little lower than john’s, then jane must be an a2’. thus, individual and subjective criteria are created, with rough borderlines that have nothing to do with the descriptors established in the cefr for each skill. this type of mindset implies quite transcendental incidents for assessment, as teachers will be much more challenging or lax in the type of demands they make for each level, and to a greater extent, these individual mindsets will affect pedagogical relationships within the classroom, as pointed out by giraldo (2019), when he argues that poor assessment design “may disorient language teaching and learning” (p. 124). the training also encompassed a component of test tasks and material design, as well as a component of testing ethics. the former was included as the team members were found to lack formal training in the design of language materials, which translated into ambiguity in instruction writing, as well as poor skills for adapting or designing written and oral documents; in other words, material design and test design are expected to be done by teachers on a regular basis, yet the trainees manifested their lack of theoretical foundations to effectively perform both of them. finally, the training concluded with the study and discussion of the international language testing association’s (ilta) code of ethics3 for language testing. defining test specifications and establishing test constructs and audience after the training, the next step was the creation of a blueprint containing the test specifications, which have been defined as “a detailed set of documentation normally drawn up during the process of designing a new test or revising an existing one” (alte, 1998, p. 166). the purpose for the creation of this document was twofold: on the one hand, it was meant to provide a framework of reference that would contextualize future teachers (and other stakeholders) within the institution, to understand the rationale that guided the design of the test, so that future revisions, corrections and improvements would be more easily addressed; and on the other hand, the writing 4 this document can be consulted at: https://www.iltaonline.com/page/codeofethics design and implementation of an english test ramírez 200 no. 21 of the document was intended to help teachers establish the test construct and make informed decisions about test length, “(…) design, content, level, task and item types used, target population, use of the test, etc.” (alte, 1998, p. 166). for the definition of the test construct, and building on taylor and geranpayeh’s (2011) proposal, three aspects were taken into consideration: the cognitive processing in the skills to be tested, the characteristics of the target population of test takers, and contextual factors for the implementation of the test. first, understanding the nature of every language skill, the features comprised in each one of them, and the cognitive processes involved in them, allows test developers to sharpen the demands they make from test takers in each of the levels that the test is expected to discriminate. it is necessary to foster discussion among test developers around fundamental questions such as what does reading comprehension mean? or what does listening comprehension imply? with this in mind, the teachers were invited to revise the nature of the skills to be tested, in this case listening comprehension, reading comprehension, and language use (grammar and vocabulary). later, by contrasting the cefr descriptors and the list of contents in the syllabus of each level course, the teachers came up with what taylor and geranpayeh (2011) call a set of ‘can-do statements’; the fact that the team in this study had a copious expertise teaching the different language levels made it easier for them to determine the contents they considered more relevant to be included in the test tasks, as well as the proficiency descriptors they deemed mandatory from test takers at each level. regarding the characteristics of the target population, the teachers reflected on the characteristics of the prototypical freshman at this university, as audience characteristics are paramount for designing a test. in this regard, douglas (2010) remarks the importance “that the test tasks reflect to the degree possible the ways test takers have been learning and using the language” (p. 44); test tasks have to be designed taking into account the strategic competence and background knowledge that the potential audience possesses. in our experience, after the study of items design, the team came up with varied and creative tasks and items that they wanted to include in the test construction. they hadn’t taken into account, however, that the prototypical first semester student in our contexts is a 16–18 year-old youngster who has recently graduated from a public high school, mainly familiarized with multiplechoice tests; in this case, test performance might be negatively influenced by the lack of experience with the intricate design in tasks and items, and not necessarily by the language knowledge that test takers have. similarly, a small portion of the freshmen population in our context often include blind students, which imply other versions of the test that cater properly to their needs. finally, our target population also includes a considerable percentage of students who come from indigenous communities, or from the colombian deaf community, who are usually bilingual in a minority language and spanish as a second language. this design and implementation of an english test ramírez 201 no. 21 portion of the population raised the discussion around several questions: what are the entry requirements in terms of second language and bilingualism? who should be exempted from these requirements and, therefore, the placement test? who meets already the bilingualism requirement by being speakers of spanish as a second language? the emerging reflections testified for the need of a clear linguistic policy within the institution regarding bilingualism and showed the importance of the participation of administrative representatives, as the development of tests is best done collaboratively between different stakeholders (douglas, 2011; giraldo, 2018a). designing items although many high-stake language tests are designed by specialists in the field of testing who do not necessarily teach the language, we believe that language teachers “make good item writers as they have developed a deep understanding of language learners and of the language” (alte, 2011, p. 26); therefore, university language teachers should be offered more participation in test-design teams, as well as in language policy decision-making. after the item design workshops, three challenges were identified and manifested by the team: variety in the nature of items, instructions writing, and distractors design. the first challenge in this stage was fostering variety within the test design. in our training experience, the workshops allowed the teachers to discover several forms of items they did not know, or that they had never included in a test before. thus, once the teachers started designing the first test blueprint, they felt a creative rush to incorporate as many different items as possible, in sake of rich variety in the test. the result was an intricate test that could mislead test takers, as the proposed items and the tasks did not match the target audience’s background experience in solving language tests. once again, the first designs produced by the team would propose items and tasks that were very complex for the target audience. the trainees in our team would draw heavily upon a framework of previous experiences as test takers, and so they would try to mimic tests they had solved, tasks they had found particularly complex and demanding, or tasks that they deemed interesting. at this point, the team had to reflect upon how paramount it is to carefully choose items that test takers have been previously exposed to, since both success or failure in a test also depends on the level of familiarity that the test taker has with the item type; for instance, it might happen that a test taker with a high level of language proficiency performs poorly in a test: he might be linguistically good enough but he might get confused with the format of the item stem, resulting in poor task completion. this desire to include several types of items opened the discussion towards what it means to foster variety within the test. although a good test should offer tasks that are varied in nature, the real challenge is to offer as many varied opportunities for language learners design and implementation of an english test ramírez 202 no. 21 to show their mastery of different linguistic functions. in that sense, variety in tests can be achieved through the incorporation of different communicative functions in each of the assessed skills; for instance, there may be tests with a vast array of item types that revolve around the same topic or function, rendering the test tricky in the solving but monotonous in the content; on the other hand, there may be an exam containing only multiple choice and cloze items, but whose content is rich in the type of communicative functions it evaluates. the second major challenge was instruction writing. during the design of items and peer evaluation within the training sessions, it became clear that, in general, there was a lot of difficulty writing clear and concise instructions on item stems. to this respect, the language teachers stated that perhaps the reason for such difficulty was the fact that they were more familiar with giving instructions and explanations orally, and not so much in written form. the following common errors could be identified in the first item proposals: • the instruction was ambiguous, giving rise to more than one interpretation • the instruction did not clearly state what the test taker was expected to do • the instruction was too long, with redundant explanations of what the test taker was expected to do. after finally learning how to write clear instructions in item stems, our rookie design team had to face the third challenge at this stage: designing distractors. initially the team would design an item with the expected correct answer, and then would randomly include scattered words to function as distractors; the result was an item that could easily be solved without actual knowledge of the topic, as the correct answer was very obvious amidst poorly selected distractors. with this in mind, the team was led to understand that distractors in multiple-choice items are actually designed, based on the target function, structure or vocabulary that the item intends to assess. this stage of the process revealed that the teachers in the designing team felt much more comfortable while designing tasks for grammar and vocabulary assessment. at the opposite side, they did not show to be so at ease while defining assessment for listening and reading. this suggests the need to constantly revise the concept of construct in relation to all the language skills, and the necessity for teachers to reflect upon what it means to ‘measure’ listening and reading comprehension, as well as oral production. design and implementation of an english test ramírez 203 no. 21 making decisions one of the hardest lessons we had to learn as rookie test designers was the fact that there is no such thing as a step-by-step recipe to craft a new test. in that sense, taylor and geranpayeh (2011) were very assertive when they mention that “all language testing, including large-scale assessment, is ‘the art of the possible’” (p. 94); this means that for every case of test design there are many decisions to be made by the designing team according to their particular setting, and that many of the questions and concerns you may have while crafting a new test do not have a unique valid answer. in our case, for example, the teachers felt very unconfident and anxious about questions such as what the best scale to grade the test was, whether text in the reading comprehension section should be utterly authentic, or if a computer-based version of the exam would be better than a paper-based version. in this regard, taylor and geranpayeh (2011) explain that “tests remain to some degree provisional, work-in-progress, even experimental, hopefully serving a positive and practical function in the real world of here and now” (p. 94); informed decisions have to be made taking into account the academic, social, and economic context where the test will be designed and implemented, as well as the possibilities of the human resources involved in the making; all of these aspects have to be attentively taken care of, as “language testing occurs in an educational and social setting, and the uses of language tests are determined largely by political needs.” (bachman 1990, p.291). in our case at universidad del valle, for instance, we had to make decisions on the number of items that would eventually compose the test, about the source and length of written and oral texts that would be used for the tasks, and about the weighing assigned to every section of the test; similarly, discussions among the designing team allowed for decisions on the best platform to host the digital version of the test, the braille and special versions for disabled people, and the security protocols for the exam implementation. every decision, every discussion, every stage of the process brought a deeper understanding of language evaluation and assessment, as “the main purpose of language testing is to provide opportunities for learning, both for the students who are being tested, and for the professionals who are administering the tests” (tomlinson, 2005, p. 39). we agree profoundly with tomlinson (2005) when he asserts that “while it is obviously important that tests should be fair, valid, and reliable, the most important of all is that tests should provide useful opportunities for learning” (p. 40). all in all, through this process we could attest that the design of any test, whether for placement, proficiency or achievement purposes, bears “an intrinsic potential as [a] research tool[s] whose outcomes will help enrich our understanding of the nature of language proficiency so we can develop better tests in the future” (taylor & geranpayeh, 2011, p. 94). design and implementation of an english test ramírez 204 no. 21 limitations and further constraints the reflections and advice given here are far from being the ultimate complete guide for the construction of a placement test, as there are still many more elements at each stage of the process that deserve deep discussion and analysis, such as adaptation of oral and written texts, the care with copyright norms, the study of statistical variables in the piloting of the test and the creation of parallel versions, or mirrors, just to mention some relevant topics. however, it is expected that this paper has been able to highlight the complexity that underlies the process of conceiving evaluation, as assessment practices and the construction of evaluation devices are bound to face multiple challenges, some of which have been discussed here. more reflection is needed, however, in order to establish a frank dialogue between academia and administration around issues such as financial support, time constraints, and the joint construction of clear language policies. finally, it is worth mentioning that some of the challenges faced by the team in terms of test design such as difficulties for writing item stems, designing answer distractors, or designing tasks might be related to their experiences with material design; thus, further studies in this particular context could focus on the correlation between the team’s skills and formal knowledge (or lack thereof) in materials design and test design. conclusion i agree with lópez and bernal (2009) and with giraldo (2018) that it is an imperative need to train language teachers in the design, analysis and research on language exams. beyond merely being aware of the different types of tests and their uses, language teachers require “knowledge on how to write, administer and analyze tests” (inbarlourie, 2013, p.  32). so far, it seems that many language teachers are mainly users and consumers of tests but not their designers or producers. in this regard, it is worth remembering what giraldo (2018a) asserts the teachers who have received language assessment training “use[d] assessment to improve teaching and learning, whereas those with no training used it as a way to solely obtain grades” (p. 181). administrative stakeholders within universities usually demand from language departments to implement exams and report results, for them to make decisions. the process, however, needs fixing: administrative stakeholders should work hand-in-hand with language teachers (especially the ones involved in test design) so that clear and fair evaluation policies are established in the institution. administrative stakeholders need to understand how demanding the process of designing a high-quality test is, so that more support for teachers and researchers may be granted; similarly, they need to know how crucial their participation is, if tests are to become fair instruments that design and implementation of an english test ramírez 205 no. 21 enlighten long-term decisions, they will absolutely have an impact in the test taker’s life, as well as in the institution itself. a strong focus on lal needs to be fostered, starting with pre-service teachers in undergraduate language teaching programs so that they understand, from the very beginning, the far-reaching responsibility that comes with evaluating. on these grounds, it is recommended that undergraduate and graduate programs offer more subjects with a practical component on test design, so that both pre-service and inservice teachers may sharpen their skills in defining constructs, designing items, and piloting tests on grounds on fairness and social justice. finally, the long-term success of a test design resides in team effort: a team composed by the test designers, the language teachers and the representatives from the institutional administration. in this sense, it is paramount to devote time for group training if the endeavor of test design is to succeed, but it is also equally important to foster constant dialogue between academia and administration, so that time and financial resources may be granted for research, as well as good conditions for the planning, designing and piloting of tests. similarly, in the long term, institutions must think up language evaluation processes in relation to a linguistic and evaluative policy, one that should be consistent with the academic objectives of the program, in accordance with institutional purposes, and fair to the population evaluated. this article derives from the research study “pilotaje de una prueba de clasificación de inglés para estudiantes de primer semestre en la universidad del valle: análisis de ítems,” carried out at escuela de  ciencias del  lenguaje, universidad del  valle, and sponsored by the research vice-rectory from the humanities faculty (registration code ci-4383). design and implementation of an english test ramírez 206 no. 21 references alte, association of language testers in europe (1998) multilingual glossary of language testing terms. cambridge: united kingdom. available at: https://www. alte.org/materials alte, association of language testers in europe (2011) manual for language test development and examining. cambridge: united kingdom. available at: https://www.alte.org/materials armbruster, b. b., and osborn, j. (2001). put reading first: the research building blocks for teaching children to read (k–3). ann arbor, mi: center for the improvement of early reading achievement, university of michigan. distributed by national institute for literacy (nil), national institute for child health and human development (nichd), and the u.s. department of education. bachman, l. (2007) what is the construct? the dialectic of abilities and contexts in defining constructs in language assessment. in janna d. fox, mari wesche, doreen bayliss, liying cheng, carolyn e. turner & christine doe (eds.), language testing reconsidered (pp. 41–71). ottawa: university of ottawa press/les presses de l’université d’ottawa. bachman, l. and palmer, a. (1996) language testing in practice. oxford: oxford university press carr, n. (2011) designing and analyzing language tests. oxford: oxford university press council of europe. (2001). common european framework of reference for languages: learning teaching, assessment. cambridge: cambridge university press. cooper, j.  d. (2009). professional development: an effective research-based model. houghton mifflin harcourt. retrieved from http:// dataworks-ed.com/ wp-content/ uploads/ 2016/ 05/ joyceshowers.pdf douglas, d. (2010). understanding language testing. london: hodder-arnold giraldo, f. (2018a) language assessment literacy: implications for language teachers. profile: issues in teachers’ professional development, 20 (1), 179–195. available at http://doi.org/10.15446/profile.v20n1.62089 giraldo, f. (2018b). a diagnostic study on teachers’ beliefs and practices in foreign language assessment. íkala, revista de lenguaje y cultura, 23(1), 25–44. available at: http://doi.org/10.17533/udea.ikala.v23n01a04 design and implementation of an english test ramírez 207 no. 21 giraldo, f. (2019). designing language assessments in context: theoretical, technical, and institutional considerations. how journal, 26(2), 123–143. https://doi. org/10.19183/how.26.2.512 inbar-lourie, o. (2013). guest editorial to the special issue on language assessment literacy. language testing, 30(3) 301–307. available at: https://doi. org/10.1177/0265532213480126. joyce, b., and showers, b. (2002). student achievement through staff development (3rd ed.). alexandria, va: association for supervision and curriculum development lópez, a., & bernal, r. (2009). language testing in colombia: a call for more teacher education and teacher training in language assessment. profile: issues in teachers’ professional development, 11(2), 55–70. ramírez, a. (2020). análisis de ítems para prueba de clasificación en inglés en una universidad colombiana. cultura, educación y sociedad, 11(2). 177-190 doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.17981/cultedusoc.11.2.2020.11 shohamy, e. (2001). the power of tests: a critical perspective of the uses of language tests. harlow: longman. taylor, l. (2009). developing assessment literacy. annual review of applied linguistics, 29, 21–36. https://doi.org/10.1017/s0267190509090035. taylor, l. & geranpayeh, a. (2011) assessing listening for academic purposes: defining and perationalizing the test construct. journal of english for academic purposes, 10, 89–101 tomlinson, b. (2005). testing to learn: a personal view of language testing. elt journal volume 59, 1, 39-46. https://doi.org/10.1093/elt/cci005 universidad del valle (2017) resolución no. 136 del consejo académico de diciembre 22 de 2017. cali: colombia. design and implementation of an english test ramírez author alexander ramírez holds a b.a in foreign languages english-french and an m.a in linguistics. he is a first-year phd student at universidad del valle, where he also works as an associate professor of english and linguistics. his research interests include language testing, intercultural communication, and queer linguistics. orcid: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7122-9537 208 no. 20 how to reference this article: ramirez, a. (2020). challenges in the design and implementation of an english placement test for a colombian public university. gist – education and learning research journal, 21, 191-208. https://doi.org/10.26817/16925777.825 design and implementation of an english test using digital formative assessment to evaluate efl learners’ english speaking skills1 uso de la evaluación formativa digital para evaluar las habilidades de habla inglesa de los estudiantes de inglés como lengua extranjera zeynep çetin köroğlu2* aksaray university, turkey 1 received: october 18th, 2020/ accepted: may 14th 2021 2 zeynepcetin86@gmail.com gist education and learning research journal. issn 1692-5777. no. 22 (january june, 2021). pp. 103-123. 104 no. 22 abstract as it is known formative assessment focuses on both learning process and learner’s performance. in this study, digital formative assessment and traditional speaking tests were utilized comparatively to evaluate 52 upper-intermediate efl learners’ english language speaking skills. the study was designed as a mixed-method. the quantitative data were collected via achievement tests which had been administered both in traditional speaking tests and digital formative tests. the qualitative findings were collected with students’ interviews which consisted of four open-ended questions. the results of the study showed that participants outperformed in digital formative tests in comparison to traditional speaking tests. another significant finding of the study is that participants are satisfied with the digital formative assessments in terms of peer collaboration during tests, enriched test materials, and preparation time for the speaking test. although they have positive views on digital formative assessment, participants are dissatisfied with it in terms of technical problems that they encountered during the administration of digital formative tests. keywords: digital formative assessment, foreign language speaking skills, formative assessment, language testing. resumen como se conoce, la evaluación formativa se enfoca tanto en el proceso de aprendizaje como en el desempeño del estudiante. en este estudio, la evaluación formativa digital y las pruebas tradicionales orales se usaron comparativamente para evaluar a 52 estudiantes de inglés en nivel intermedio superior en la habilidad de habla. el estudio se diseñó como un método mixto. los datos cuantitativos se recolectaron por medio de pruebas de logros las cuales se habían administrado tanto en pruebas tradicionales orales como en pruebas formativas digitales. los datos cualitativos se recolectaron por medio de entrevistas a los estudiantes que consistían en cuatro preguntas abiertas. los resultados del estudio mostraron que los participantes superaron las pruebas formativas digitales en comparación con las pruebas tradicionales. otro resultado significativo es que los participantes estaban satisfechos con las evaluaciones formativas digitales en términos de colaboración entre compañeros durante las pruebas, materiales de prueba enriquecidos y tiempo de preparación para las pruebas orales. aunque han tenido opiniones positivas sobre la evaluación formativa digital, los participantes están insatisfechos con dicha prueba en términos de los problemas técnicos que se han encontrado durante la administración de estas. palabras clave: evaluación formativa digital; habilidades para hablar un idioma extranjero; evaluación formativa; prueba de idiomas. digital formative assessment in speaking skills çetin-köroğlu 105 no. 22 digital formative assessment in speaking skills çetin-köroğlu resumo como se conhece, a avaliação formativa se enfoca tanto no processo de aprendizagem como no desempenho do estudante. neste estudo, a avaliação formativa digital e as provas tradicionais orais se usaram comparativamente para avaliar a 52 estudantes de inglês em nível intermédio superior na habilidade de fala. o estudo se desenhou como um método misto. os dados quantitativos se recolheram por meio de provas de aproveitamentos as quais se tinham administrado tanto em provas tradicionais orais como em provas formativas digitais. os dados qualitativos se coletaram por meio de entrevistas aos estudantes que consistiam em quatro perguntas abertas. os resultados do estudo mostraram que os participantes superaram as provas formativas digitais em comparação com as provas tradicionais. outro resultado significativo é que os participantes estavam satisfeitos com as avaliações formativas digitais em termos de colaboração entre colegas durante as provas, materiais de prova enriquecidos e tempo de preparação para as provas orais. mesmo que tiveram opiniões positivas sobre a avaliação formativa digital, os participantes estão insatisfeitos com mencionada prova em termos dos problemas técnicos que se encontraram durante a administração destas. palavras chave: avaliação formativa digital; habilidades para falar um idioma estrangeiro; avaliação formativa; prova de idiomas. 106 no. 22 introduction assessing the oral production of foreign language learners has become one of the main concerns of scholars in the 20th century (celce-murcia, 2013). language skills assessment plays a very crucial role in the learning process but it turns out that changing or reforming assessment is quite difficult. however, in our changing and developing world cultural, theoretical, technological development and changes make reform a necessity in assessment. thus, these changes affect both teaching and learning as well. foreign language speaking skills assessment is perceived as an active process that demonstrates whether language learners have learned what had been taught, and if not, what can be done to solve the problem (william, 2007). there is a direct link between assessment and learning that has been realized by scholars (boz & boz, 2005). assessment studies have begun to shift away from investigating restricted test types to other techniques such as formative assessment, dynamic assessment, digital formative assessment, classroom assessment, etc. thus, the former test types generally make little contribution to language learners’ learning during the assessment and include strict components that cause stress and anxiety during the speaking skills assessment (knight, 1992). however, alternative assessment types such as formative assessment or dynamic assessment consist of scaffolding, peer collaboration, teacher’s mediation, and a more relaxing atmosphere for language learners to perform their skills. in this respect, assessment and learning are highly related to each other, and such assessment techniques should be used to make both learners and teachers benefit from these techniques (boz & boz, 2005). changing and transforming educational technologies make innovative assessment techniques a must in our developing world. for this reason, the present research seeks to unveil different aspects related to the assessment of foreign language speaking skills. it tries to find out whether the digital formative assessment is more effective than traditional speaking tests to evaluate and improve language learners’ foreign language speaking skills. additionally, the current research tries to figure out upperintermediate language learners’ perspectives towards digital formative assessment type which is quite new for them. the present research study is guided by the following research questions: 1. is there any statistically significant difference between test scores of upperintermediate efl learners’ speaking skills in traditional speaking tests and digital formative tests? 2. what conceptions do the upper-intermediate efl learners enrolled at a state university, turkey have on digital formative assessment of speaking skills? digital formative assessment in speaking skills çetin-köroğlu 107 no. 22 related literature as it was mentioned before, assessment has a big impact on students’ learning, and generally, students spend their time on the materials that are covered in the assessment part. in other words, assessment directly affects their learning (baleni, 2015; leung, 2005; leung & mohan, 2004; poehner & lantolf, 2005). the important point to be considered is whether the assessment should be for learning or assessment of learning. the distinction between formative or summative assessment is that summative assessment heavily focuses on what students have learned, in other words outputs of the learning process but formative assessment emphasizes the learning process rather than the learning product by providing feedback (dixson & worrell, 2016). the distinction between these two different assessment types is perceived as two different poles of a continuum (capel et al., 1995) that summative assessment serves the educational system’s needs and it has a bureaucratic purpose. on the other hand, the formative assessment supports learners’ future learning by providing meaningful and constructive feedback. the present research paper focuses mainly on formative assessment and its more recent version of digital formative assessment. another distinction between formative assessment and summative assessment is that purpose and timing differ in these two assessment types. formative assessment is used to assess learners’ positive achievements during the learning process and by giving feedback learners are prepared for a further step of learning. on the other hand, summative assessment is used to record the overall achievement or performance of learners in a systematic way (tgat, 1988). one of the main differences is that formative assessment provides more chances to compensate for learning deficiencies during the learning process. formative assessment is defined as an assessment type that includes quizzes, homework, questions, etc. during instruction to provide direction for future learning of learners (o’connor, 2002). main concerns of formative assessment; it serves to maximize students’ future learning possibilities, develops students’ motivation and learning opportunities, and uses assessment as an actual part of the learning process (boz & boz, 2005; mcmillan, 2014). teachers should follow some main approaches to achieve the goals of formative assessment. it is clear that formative assessment includes highly effective steps to reach the goals. questioning provides critical thinking and active construction of knowledge if students try to find out answers by researching and asking further questions. providing feedback makes students understand their mistakes and shows the correct information. as the third step, peerand self-assessment serve as reflective parts of formative assessment. in the last step, formative use of summative tests provides a continuous assessment cycle and by doing so both students and teachers can see the missing pieces of information in the learning process. therefore, formative assessment should be cyclical and continuous to make learners more active during the learning process (wood, 2010). formative assessment should include an assessment of students’ behaviour and learning process and feedback which are quite effective to recover deficiencies in learning. wood (2010) mentions that learners are active in learning process and learning environment is digital formative assessment in speaking skills çetin-köroğlu 108 no. 22 challenging for both learners and teachers. however, the formative assessment fosters permanent learning and contributes to the future learning of learners. in this respect, its contribution to the learning process and effectiveness is quite obvious. particularly, with the help of formative assessment teachers can check learners’ understanding and help them to make up for lacking knowledge (dirksen, 2011). formative assessment can be planned or interactive; the planned formative assessment provides and evidence with a diagnostic purpose but interactive formative assessment is more spontaneous (bell & cowie, 2001). it is possible to see that both summative assessment and formative assessment are used to test foreign language learners’ language skills and their development in various skills such as reading, writing, speaking, and listening. however, related research indicates that generally summative assessment is used to measure students’ overall achievement in language skills (stanca, et al. 2015). however, with the advent of technologies and students’ increasing demands and readiness towards changes in educational and assessment tools make new assessment types a must. foreign language speaking skills assessment involves multiple activities and various tasks (luoma, 2004) and speaking skills assessment should measure language ability or the use of language rather than students’ knowledge about the topic if the language test does not have a specific purpose (huang, hung & plakans, 2018). speaking skills as a part of pragmatic knowledge represent communication ability, knowledge related to language use in practice, and appropriate use of target language in an appropriate context such as functional and sociolinguistic knowledge (luoma, 2004). in such an assessment environment, students, assessor(s), tools, or tasks for assessment and rubric exist in an interrelated way. it was discussed previously that formative assessment provides many opportunities to students in many ways and its usage to test foreign language speaking skills contributes respectively more than summative assessment. thus, foreign language speaking assessment and tests are perceived as stressful and anxiety increasing moments by foreign language learners (çetin köroğlu, 2019). however, if the formative assessment is administered to test foreign language learners, both their speaking skills are tested and their improvement in foreign language speaking skills is enhanced. the digital formative assessment is quite a new term for speaking assessment and there is very limited research on this term (faber, luyten & visscher, 2017). there is only one research about it which is carried out by fabet et. al. (2017). the results of their study show that the digital formative assessment tool has positive effects on student achievement and motivation. additionally, students’ use measurements support students’ achievement and motivation. one more important finding of the study is that achievement effects were higher for high-performing students. in this respect, there is a big gap both in the definition, application, and research area of digital formative assessment. the term can be defined as the use of formative assessment through digital platforms and steps to foster students’ learning by assessment. various tools can be digital formative assessment in speaking skills çetin-köroğlu 109 no. 22 used to carry out the digital formative assessment, specific to the current research; speaking skills can be assessed through digital chats, recordings of students’ speaking performance, or video scripts commentary which represent authentic language use in a context (jamieson, 2005). additionally, using such tasks provides teachers and researchers the opportunity to better understanding students’ speaking skills development and trace test-takers (dhalhoub-deville, 2001). moreover, such tasks can be used effectively nearly at all levels of language learners because children are called as digital natives nowadays (dingli, & seychell, 2015). some researchers discuss that using e-portfolios is an effective way to assess language learners’ speaking skills development (cepik & yastibas, 2013). gray (2008) states that using e-portfolios provides evidence, reflections, and feedback about learners’ abilities. in addition to these, useful websites can be used to carry out digital formative assessments such as flipgrid. the website presents a video discussion program and teachers can insert any video which they want to the website. they can ask questions and students respond to the questions. seesaw and voicethread can be used as well because these websites have similar features with flipgrid. performance tests and authentic assessments allow students to speak and perform in a real-life context that is crucial in the communicative language (bachman & palmer, 2010). similarly, digital formative assessment provides authentic tasks and rich content during assessment phases and divides it into steps that decrease students’ speaking anxiety and stress. moreover, digital formative assessment supports instruction by focusing on students’ performances and learning rather than their overall achievement. even though developing technologies offer a range of digital assessment tools, only a little portion of teachers are eager to use them. this can be a result of difficulties and hardship when teachers use digital assessment tools (levy & stockwell, 2006). however, utilizing these tools modify and evolve foreign language speaking skills by chipping in and enhancing students’ learning while they are assessed. additionally, the digital formative assessment draws students’ attention to different contexts and tools instead of text anxiety. methodology the current research study aims to provide both qualitative and quantitative examination of the upperintermediate efl learners who study at a state university, turkey. the study was designed as a mixed-method study to investigate participants’ speaking skills performance. to this end, it presents digital formative tests’ impact on efl learners’ speaking skills development in comparison to traditional speaking tests and participants’ perceptions towards digital formative assessment and its usage in a speaking skills evaluation. digital formative assessment in speaking skills çetin-köroğlu 110 no. 22 research participants the participants for this research were enrolled in foreign language teaching department of a state university, turkey. the participants were selected based on convenience sampling. their age varied between 18 to 21 years old. the total number of participants included in this study is fifty-two. participants consisted of 16 male and 36 female students. the participants were first-graders of the department and they are student teachers of english. participants nearly have a similar speaking skills performance which is presumed due to their speaking skills test scores of preparatory classes of the department. the research was carried out in oral communication skills i and ii during an academic year, 20192020. data collection instrument the present study relied on two traditional speaking assessment tests and two digital formative assessments which were evaluated through speaking skills assessment rubrics and a written structured interview. the rubric included five domains which were fluency, accuracy, grammatical structure, pronunciation, and vocabulary. the rubric was used to grade participants’ speaking skills performance in both test types. the written structured interview consisted of four open-ended questions that aimed to find out participants’ perceptions towards digital formative test administration in terms of its effectiveness. data collection procedure before the administration of both traditional speaking tests and digital formative tests, students’ speaking skills achievement scores of the preparatory class were examined and concluded that they have nearly the same level of speaking skills in english. as the first test phase, the traditional speaking test was administered to all participants. in traditional tests, ten different topics such as globalization, nature, friendship, hobbies, etc. were selected and these themes were written on a piece of paper and each topic was put in an envelope. students were called one by one to test the office and they selected one of the envelopes and thought for five minutes about the theme. then each student was expected to speak about the theme nearly for five to ten minutes. two test administrators applied the traditional speaking test and graded each student’s speaking performance. the second test phase was carried out with the same procedure as the traditional speaking test after three months. the third test phase was carried out as a digital formative assessment which was quite different than the traditional speaking test. the researcher of the study utilized edmodo as a learning management system to administer the test. before the test was administered, four digital formative assessment in speaking skills çetin-köroğlu 111 no. 22 videos were uploaded to edmodo. vocabulary charts were prepared and uploaded for each video too. students had two hours to prepare their speech about the videos. they were expected to select one of them and to record a video of their own while they were talking on the material. various tasks were introduced to students before the test administration such as role-play, interview, group discussion, etc. additionally, students were free to talk individually or in a group. after they recorded their videos, they were expected to deliver their videos to the researcher through edmodo, google drive, and whatsapp. the fourth test phase was administered as the same as the third test phase. students were free to select videos from the used lms, in current research which was edmodo. additionally, they were free to select a task and perform individually or in a group. they recorded their speaking performance and then sent to the researcher. at the end of the fourth phase, the written structured interview was administered to the participants of the study. participants participated in the study voluntarily and their names were kept anonymous for confidential reasons. test types test 1 traditional speaking skills test test 2 traditional speaking skills test test 3 digital formative speaking skills test test 4 digital formative speaking skills test data analysis method students’ test scores were calculated and the mean score was presented for each test. the quantitative data helped in the interpretation and discussion of the two different speaking tests’ effectiveness in terms of student achievement. the written structured interview questions were analysed through content analysis. for each question, various themes and codes were created and discussed within the light of related literature. thematic analysis was adopted to extract the theme from the written interviews. that is, the themes were emerged from the data of the research instead of imposing predetermined themes on the data, so the inductive approach was adopted (charmaz, 2006). findings quantitative findings quantitative findings of the four test phases are presented through the table which is placed below. analysis of findings reveals that participants have similar test scores in test 1 and test 2. their average score in test one is 61.25 and in test 2 score is 63.50. as it was mentioned in test three and test four digital, formative tests were administered with a different procedure than the traditional speaking tests. the average score for digital formative assessment in speaking skills çetin-köroğlu 112 no. 22 test three is 84.50 which is quite higher than the test two. additionally, in test four participants’ average test score is higher than test three, which shows participants experienced a novel speaking skills assessment type and succeeded in terms of academic achievement. table 1. the average score of traditional speaking skills tests and digital formative speaking tests. participants’ number test 1 traditional speaking skills test test 2 traditional speaking skills test test 3 digital formative speaking skills test test 4 digital formative speaking skills test average test score of participants 60 61.25 63.50 84.50 86.50 participants speaking performances were graded through an analytic rubric which included fluency, accuracy, grammatical structure, pronunciation, and vocabulary dimensions. hence, analytic rubrics offer detailed, focused, and precise assessment by covering various aspects of oral performance (mertler, 2001). participants’ average score for each dimension is provided through the table below. table 2. participants’ average test scores due to sub-dimensions. test 1 traditional speaking skills test test 2 traditional speaking skills test test 3 digital formative speaking skills test test 4 digital formative speaking skills test fluency 11,25 11,7 19,11 21,6 accuracy 13,25 13,9 15,7 17,3 grammatical structure 11,50 10,9 14,5 12,3 pronunciation 12,50 13,2 13,3 13,3 vocabulary 13,25 13,8 19,9 21,0 digital formative assessment in speaking skills çetin-köroğlu 113 no. 22 it is indicated in table 2 that participants nearly had the same result in fluency dimension in test 1 and test 2 phases. their average score is 11.25 % and 11.7 %. the result of fluency dimension relatively increased in test 3 and test 4 as 19.11 % and 21.6 % in digital formative tests, which can be interpreted participants spoke more fluently in digital formative tests. when the accuracy dimension’s test scores are examined, a gradual increase can be seen in table 2. as it is known traditional speaking test doesn’t provide material during the speaking performance but digital formative test provides students with prepared materials, background information, necessary vocabularies, and preparation time. in this respect, students may have a chance to prepare their speech for the test. as it is presented in table 2, participants got the highest accuracytest score in test 4 which was administered in the form of a digital formative test. there is no such development in grammatical structure and pronunciation dimension of four test phases. participants’ test scores are nearly similar. on the other hand, they experienced significant improvements in terms of vocabulary dimension. despite their vocabulary, average scores are 13.25 and 13.8 in test 1 and test 2, participants’ vocabulary test scores are 19.9 and 21.0 in test 3 and test 4. the results may indicate that participants used various vocabularies during speaking skills tests. qualitative findings qualitative findings of the study were collected through a written structured interview with questions. themes and codes were created for each question due to participants’ responses. some students’ responses were also presented. the first question was asked to question students’ perspectives towards both traditional speaking tests and digital formative speaking tests. students’ responses lead the researcher to create seven themes for the first question. the first question, themes and these themes’ repetitions rates are presented below; q.1. could you compare the traditional speaking exam and the new speaking exam type digital formative assessment in speaking skills çetin-köroğlu 114 no. 22 table 3. themes and repetitions rates for question 1. theme repetitions interaction with teacher 8 collaboration & i̇nteraction with peers 8 negative views on traditional speaking skills assessment 15 positive views on traditional speaking skills assessment 16 positive views on digital formative assessment of speaking skills 29 negative views on digital formative assessment of speaking skills 12 topic diversity 2 the findings of the first question show that participants have positive views on digital formative speaking tests because the codes for this theme were repeated 29 times in the interview. on the other hand, participants have both negative and positive views on the traditional speaking test. they criticized and got dissatisfied with some parts of traditional speaking test such as teachers’ existence during the test, lack of supportive materials before the test and during the test, being alone during the test and academic topics for speaking test. another important finding of the first question is that participants are satisfied with students’ collaboration and peer interaction features of digital formative assessment. some students have negative views about the new speaking test and prefer interaction with the teacher during the speaking test which is absent in digital formative speaking tests. samples from participants’ responses are provided below; s’s r: ‘i think that the new speaking exam type is so nice because we are relaxing and we can speak fluently. the traditional one makes us nervous so we cannot express our feelings. i think that the new speaking exam type is so useful for students. even if students can speak fluently the traditional speaking exam doesn’t let students express their ideas openly because of its stress and pressure. additionally, it causes stress’. s’s r: ‘i think traditional speaking exam causes stress and nervousness in person but the new speaking exam provides relaxation. you can be comfortable during the exam. the traditional speaking exam is harder than the new one. on the other hand, the new speaking exam is a group study, so it is hard to evaluate each students’ speaking skills’. s’s r: ‘i was less excited in new speaking exam and it had more fun than the traditional one. because there wasn’t a teacher during the exam and we were together with our friends which decreased our stress and anxiety. in traditional digital formative assessment in speaking skills çetin-köroğlu 115 no. 22 speaking exam, there are at least 2 teachers and you can’t make a mistake if you want a good grade from them. in new speaking exam, we had a chance to rerecord us video and time for preparation to our speech. although new type’s all advantages, i would prefer the traditional speaking exam. because, we tried to upload our video to website and ıt took 40 minutes which caused lots of stresses. participants’ responses to the second question lead the researcher to create six themes and various codes for these themes. the themes and their repetitions rates are presented below in table 4. q. 2. what are the positive sides of digital formative assessment? table 4. themes and repetitions rates for question 2. themes repetitions students’ collaboration during exam 14 stress and anxiety 13 new learning opportunities 8 preparation 18 fluency & accuracy 15 technology 3 table 4 indicates that students are satisfied with the digital formative speaking test in terms of preparation before the speaking exam, peer collaboration before, and during the speaking exam. besides, they think that digital formative speaking tests decrease their stress and speaking anxiety because of the relaxing test atmosphere. hence, participants had the opportunity to perform their speech wherever they want. it is seen from students’ performance videos that they were relaxing and they rested and relaxed at their homes and dormitories during the test. some of the participants think that the digital formative speaking test provides new learning opportunities and it is useful to integrate technology into speaking tests. another important result is that they think this test type makes them more fluent and accurate in their english speaking performance. samples from participants’ responses are provided below; s’s r: ‘we studied as a group and discussed our ideas with each other. we learned many new information through videos which had been provided by teacher to choose a topic. we used technology during our speaking exam and it was fun. by talking to camera, i think we can improve our role-play skills’. digital formative assessment in speaking skills çetin-köroğlu 116 no. 22 s’s r: ‘we are less excited because if we make mistake we can record the video again. we had fun because we made role plays and we improvised. we could search a google about the topic so we can learn some information. it was beneficial for our imagination for example we behaved as if we were someone else (felix baumgartner). it was beneficial for us to collaborate with my friends we discussed and shared our ideas. it was exactly a teamwork’. s’s r: ‘new exam type provides us a relax environment. it has flexible test environment. you can research whatever you want in dormitory or your home. you can choose the best topic which suits with your ideas and new exam type includes using technology which one knows to use it well’. s’s r: ‘the positive sides of new exam type are much more than the negative sides the first one is self-confidence. when i make practice i feel myself comfortable. speaking with my friends gives me more energy than teachers during the exam. the second one is happiness. normally, i like speaking english, but when i am anxious i don’t speak clearly in english. our new exam type provided this relax atmosphere to me. thus i was happy yesterday’. s’s r: ‘the new exam type enables to explain your ideas or feelings. thanks to the new type students can make new style about speaking topic and the new type makes them free about expressing their ideas. maybe students can create atmosphere that give them comfort. students share their idea with their friends to create good dialogues and good interview’. participants’ responses to the third question were categorized under various categories and four themes were created to present the data. the themes for the third questions are ‘individual assessment and peer work problem’, ‘ time and time management problems’, ‘ data size and video uploading problems’, and ‘ application problems’. q. 3. what are the negative sides of new exam type? did you experience and technological difficulties in the new exam? table 5. themes and repetitions rates for question 3. themes repetitions individual assessment of student & peer work problem 8 time & time management problems 16 data size & video uploading problems 46 application problems 6 digital formative assessment in speaking skills çetin-köroğlu 117 no. 22 participants stated that they had faced technological problems in digital formative speaking tests. thus, they wrote that after they recorded their videos, they were unable to upload those videos to digital platforms and applications such as edmodo, google drive, and whatsapp. the ‘data size and video uploading problems’ have the highest repetition rate with 46 repetitions among all themes of qualitative data. another negative aspect of this test arising from the participants is that they had time limitations and couldn’t manage their time efficiently. the theme for this issue got 16 relatively high repetitions. according to participants’ responses, another problematic side of the digital formative speaking test is peer-based problems and application’s complicated features. samples from participants’ responses are provided below; s’s r: ‘actually, when we filmed it we didn’t come across with any difficulty but when we send it to teacher it is a bit difficult eventually we did it’. s’s r: ‘i think there are some negative sides of new exam type. one of them there must be a person who manages the conversation in developed a device conversation can proceed smoothly and that gives anxiety to students’. s’s r: ‘i think one of the negative sides of new exam type of definitely a shortage of time because we recorded our video again and again and this put me in stress. i thought that i will miss the leading time of our exams and also i had trouble while i am sending video’. s’s r: ‘yes unfortunately we had trouble when we were trying to send the video it is size was really huge and we had problems with internet’. s’s r: ‘the negative side maybe being shy in front of the camera for some students and technology side must be easy because we had got time problem. we nearly couldn’t have caught the other exam. we couldn’t look at some terms about the topic that we forgot details about the topic’. s’s r: ‘no i had any problem except for internet speed some of my friends cannot upload a video to the edmodo’. question four had been asked to find out students’ suggestions and recommendations to improve digital formative speaking test in terms of its usefulness and effectiveness. various themes were created for analysing students’ responses to the fourth question as ‘alternatives for video uploading’, ‘internet speed’, ‘topic diversity’ and ‘more time’. the results for the question four are presented through table 6 below; q.4. what are your suggestions and solution to these problems? digital formative assessment in speaking skills çetin-köroğlu 118 no. 22 table 6. themes and repetitions rates for question 4. themes repetitions alternatives for video uploading 17 internet speed 2 topic diversity 3 more time 9 the results show that students are dissatisfied with the video uploading channels and prefer alternatives such as usb. besides, they think that more time should be allotted to the digital formative speaking test. some of the participants who mentioned about internet speed should be more improved and also topic diversity is required. samples from participants’ responses are provided below; s’s r: ‘i think this new type exam has no problems may be the problem of application should be solved. instead of these apps we can find a new app or we can download the videos to the usb’. s’s r: ‘actually if he has more time to make video it will be better for us. before the exam, we can make more practice to shoot a video smoothly. if we make more video assignments in class, i think it improve speaking skills and we don’t have lack of time’. s’s r: ‘i believe including technology into the exams are not very proper. paperbased but creative exams or face-to-face communication will take away these problems and won’t make students me at least a bit more comfortable’. s’s r: ‘i think students need more time and more subjects about talking it will be really cool if they could talk about their hobbies or occupations’. discussion the findings of the current research indicate that digital formative tests contribute to students’ speaking skills development. especially, students’ fluency and accuracy skills have been developed with the administration of these test types. another significant finding of the research is that students enriched their vocabulary knowledge through the test content. as was discussed in the review of the literature part of the research, the main difference between formative and summative assessment is that formative digital formative assessment in speaking skills çetin-köroğlu 119 no. 22 assessment is used for both learning and assessment and it fosters instruction during testing. the results of the current article support the idea with its findings. one more significant finding of the current research is that nearly all of the participants thought that digital formative assessment is an innovative testing type and highly effective for assessment of foreign language speaking skills. additionally, participants stated that text content and preparation time are useful features of these test types. another significant finding of the study is that some of the participants had negative perceptions towards digital formative tests because of technical problems such as weak internet connection, deficiencies in their technological devices, etc. in parallel with the findings of black and william’s research (1998) in which they reviewed over 250 research articles about formative assessment, formative assessment leads to highly important learning gains to students. moreover, they found out that formative assessment enables students to focus on self-assessment, corrective feedback, and learning goals rather than performance goals by testing them more frequently than traditional testing (black & william, 1998). the current research study reveals that foreign language speaking skills which are one of the most challenging skills for language learners require innovative and up to date assessment type and digital formative assessment is effective for academic achievement. moreover, participants are satisfied with the digital formative assessment. students’ speaking skills such as pronunciation, accuracy, fluency, vocabulary development are improved with corrective feedbacks during digital formative assessment. thus, formative assessment is a continuous process that aims to define learning deficiencies and develop learning process during assessment (kincal & ozan, 2018). digital formative assessment is compatible with the constructivist approach which has been implemented since 2005 in turkey (boz & boz, 2005). another significant contribution of digital formative assessment to speaking skills’ assessment process is that the researcher could compare the performances of the participants throughout the process. unlike traditional summative assessment, digital formative assessment provides chances to teachers to compare student’s performances. despite its various positive sides, the digital formative has also drawbacks for students and teacher. first of all, it is somehow more challenging for students because they are exposed to more tests which actually make them practice more. as it is known, practice is crucial for productive skills (golkova & hubackova, 2014). the other negative aspect of this assessment type is that some students do not have advanced technological devices and they may have an internet connection problem. one another negative aspect is that its burdensome assessment type for teachers. thus, each assessment cycle requires a preparation phase before the test, the test application will be time-consuming and giving feedback means extra burden for teachers. despite these negative sides of digital formative assessment, it is highly effective and fruitful to develop language learners’ speaking skills as the findings of the current research presented. digital formative assessment in speaking skills çetin-köroğlu 120 no. 22 conclusion the present research aimed to find out whether the digital formative assessment is more effective than a summative assessment to test foreign language learners’ speaking skills development. the findings of the research indicate that digital formative assessment fosters participants’ fluency and accuracy skills. besides, participants’ vocabulary knowledge has been developed through digital formative assessment. additionally, the current research shows that nearly all of the participants have a positive attitude towards this assessment type and they prefer to have it in the future assessment process with some modifications. participants suggest that more time should be devoted to students’ preparing for tests. participants complain about the data size of videos, which they recorded their speaking performance. it causes uploading problems. the digital formative assessment occurs regularly and allows feedback. when classroom activities are implemented to assess language learners’ oral performance, these tasks draw participants’ attention, increase their motivation, support their metacognitive skills, and critical thinking (stiggins, 2002; facione, 2011). digital formative assessment uses classroom-like activities on a digital platform for assessment purposes. due to its continuous nature, language learners stick to the learning process. jandris (2001, p. 4) “the heart of assessment is a continuing process in which the teacher, in collaboration with the student, uses the information to guide the next steps in learning” (p. 4). the digital formative assessment made language teachers and participants active during the assessment phase of the current research. the results show that it is quite effective to develop foreign language learners’ speaking skills in many aspects. digital formative assessment in speaking skills çetin-köroğlu 121 no. 22 references bachman, l. f., palmer, a. s. 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(2002). where is our assessment future and how can we get there from here? in r. w. lissitz & w. d. schafer (eds.), assessment in educational reform: both means and ends (pp. 18-48). boston: allyn & bacon. wood, d. f. (2010). formative assessment. in t. swanwick (ed.), understanding medical education: evidence, theory and practice (pp. 259-270). hoboken: wileyblackwell. author * zeynep çetin köroğlu has been working as an assistant professor doctor at english language teaching department of aksaray university, turkey. her academic background mainly consists of english language teaching. she graduated from gazi university and got her ma degree. then, she started her phd at the same university and completed it in 2015. she especially interested in intercultural communication, language teachers’ education, ict implementations in language pedagogy and language assessment. she published numerous book chapters and articles related with her research interests. orcid: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9456-8910 digital formative assessment in speaking skills çetin-köroğlu how to reference this article: çetin-köroğlu, z. (2021). using digital formative assessment to evaluate efl learners’ english speaking skills. gist – education and learning research journal, 22(1), 103-123. https://doi.org/10.26817/16925777.1001 no. 23 transforming an educational community in guatemala using the plan do study act cycle1 transformación de una comunidad educativa en guatemala utilizando el ciclo planificar, estudiar y actuar mayra c daniel, teresa wasonga, and ximena burgin2 northern illinois university, usa 1 received: february 1st 2021/ accepted: october 15th 2021 2 mayra.daniel@gmail.com; twasonga@niu.edu; xrecald1@niu.edu gist education and learning research journal. issn 1692-5777. no. 23 (july december, 2021). pp. 151-168. teaching phonological awareness to students khasawneh 152 no. 23 abstract this case study with educators from a school in an urban low socioeconomic neighborhood near guatemala city, guatemala, explored the effectiveness of the plan, do, study, act cycle (pdsa) to guide teachers’ professional development at a pre-k-k public school (langley, 2009). this three-year study focused on developing teacher leaders and researchers through selfreflective accountability. findings documented institutional problems requiring immediate and long-term attention and ways to involve families in extending literacy instruction at school to the home front. study results highlight the need for effective and empowering literacy methods to be used in guatemala and suggest the country’s teachers wish to support students’ critical thinking and create democratic classrooms. keywords: plan do study, act cycle; school improvement; guatemalan education; teachers as leaders resumen este artículo documenta un plan de desarrollo profesional ofrecido a docentes de una escuela en guatemala de niveles pre-k al k. este estudio apoyó la contabilidad individual del docente que interpreta el currículo considerando el contexto social. el ciclo planear, experimentar, estudiar y actuar, involucró a los participantes a colaborar. los resultados señalaron problemas institucionales y sociales que requieren atención. se identificaron metas para involucrar a familias a enlazar los temas del currículo a los de la vida cotidiana. las familias reconocieron su rol en el aprendizaje de sus hijos. los docentes adaptaron los estándares del ministerio de educación para crear aulas democráticas y apoyar el pensamiento crítico. palabras claves: ciclo planear experimentar estudiar y actuar; mejora escolar; educación en guatemala; desarrollo profesional resumo este artigo documenta um plano de desenvolvimento profissional oferecido a professores de uma escola na guatemala de níveis pré-k ao k. este estudo apoiou a contabilidade individual do professor que interpreta o currículo considerando o contexto social. o ciclo planejar, experimentar, estudar e atuar envolveu os participantes a colaborar. os resultados sinalaram problemas institucionais e sociais que requerem atenção. identificaram-se metas para envolver a famílias a enlaçar os assuntos do currículo aos da vida cotidiana. famílias reconheceram seu papel no aprendizado de seus filhos. os professores adaptaram os padrões do ministério de educação para criar aulas democráticas e apoiar o pensamento crítico. palavra chave: ciclo planejar, experimentar estudar e atuar; melhora escolar; educação na guatemala; desenvolvimento profissional transforming community thorugh plan do study act daniel, wasonga & burgin 153 no. 23 introduction guatemalan educators strive to follow the government’s mandated curriculum, and they ask that professional development (pd) provide an implementable instructional plan, and a sustainable vision for equity and critical pedagogy (faundez, 2001; freire, 2002; giroux & robbins, 2006; hawkins & norton, 2009). an ongoing problem in guatemalan education is that pd models have not been developed in consultation with teachers (guadarrama, 2013). research documents the need for pd to focus on building teacher leaders able to design effective literacy curricula (bastos, 2012). researchers have stressed the need to give teachers resources for their classrooms, and the training that will empower them to lead (daniel, 2010; taylor, 2013; daniel, mondschein & de palomo, 2014; orozco &valdivia, 2017). efforts by the guatemalan ministry of education (mineduc) have neither helped teachers adapt the national curriculum standards to their school context (bastos & brett, 2010), nor adequately funded curricular resources (cojti, 2005; avancso, 2008; camus, 2010). theoretical framework this three-year study engaged literacy educators to explore ways to liberate learners and their families from an educational system that is delimited by an insufficient focus on critical pedagogy (norton & toohey, 2002; aliakbari & faraji, 2011; coney, 2016ʹ. this study aligns to freire’s (2002) sociocultural learning theory, and gay’s (2010) philosophy of culturally responsive pedagogy. critical pedagogy supports freire’s (2002) premises that the rights of citizenship begin with equitable access in schooling. in this research, conscientization is defined as a commitment to a critical pedagogy of practice that is born in the heart of the individual, and is participatory, critical, democratic, dialogic, pluricultural, and based on inter and intrapersonal reflection (vygotsky, 2002; gathercoal, 2004; norton &toohey, 2004; gay, 2010; coney, 2016; daniel, riley & kruger, 2017). this research engaged educators in designing empowering models of instruction for guatemala’s sociocultural context (verhoeven & durgunoglu, 1998; vygotsky, 2002; gonzález, moll & amanti, 2005; orozco &valdivia, 2017). when freire discussed anger and its constructive use, he highlighted that it can serve ‘…as a legitimate motivational foundation’ (aronowitz et al., p 45) for liberatory learning. we posited that it is key to find ways for teachers in guatemala to redirect their anger towards mineduc’s hegemonic structures. the theoretical framework that guided this study was implemented with teacher participants using the plan, do, study, act (pdsa) model (bryk, 2015; bryk transforming community thorugh plan do study act daniel, wasonga & burgin 154 no. 23 et al., 2016). pd delivered to educators from one guatemalan school supported the development of teacher leaders with a focus on increasing accountability from the ground-up, and promoting socio-culturally appropriate instruction (lantolf et al., 2015). pdsa improves the schoolhouse because it is a vehicle for planning effective instructional goals, selecting appropriate strategies to do (practice the skill), study and reflect upon progress, and make necessary changes or act on the cycle information prior to repeating the cycle (bryk et al., 2016). long-term pd guided by the pdsa cycle revolutionizes stakeholders to interact positively in their goal setting. the cycle changes social practices because its success depends on inter-personal communication that places equal value on all participants’ contributions. the cycle supports teachers’ natural inclination to be methodical investigators who document the recurrent themes in what they experience, and observe in their work (bryk, 2015). pdsa aligns to bronfenbrenner’s ecological theory of development which posits that academic success requires an educational system that considers the social environments where a learner interacts and engages in a continuous process of developing and supporting his/her identity (bronfenbrenner & morris ,2006). this work examined how application of pdsa with teachers from one guatemalan school might offer a pathway to engage educators in collaborative inquiry, and support their long-term commitment to students’ academic achievement. the rationale underlying educational transformations through the pdsa cycle the pdsa cycle has gained popularity within the past 10 years as a model for inquiry and continuous improvement in education (shakman et al., 2017). the success of pdsa lies in its reliance on observational and experiential input from group members who collaborate to improve a community’s educational system (bryk, 2015). according to cohen-vogel et al. (2016), the pdsa cycle tests possible solutions to educational problems by contextually considering the effect of an intervention. the methodological implementation of the steps provides information to determine achievement of the desired changes (russell et al., 2017). the model had its origins in healthcare where success is a matter of life and death. it provided reflective accountability because the thermometer that measured its success was the initiative and commitment of the individuals involved in its implementation, and the effects of their leadership skills on group participants. in education, pdsa can be used by a wide variety of stakeholders to identify learners’ academic and affective needs, to reflect on actions to be taken, to streamline processes through collective inquiry, and to more effectively implement instructional strategies in classrooms (langley et al., 2009). applying the pdsa model in education may save the lives of learners whose everyday inter-personal interactions may be with individuals who may not demonstrate respect for diversity, creativity and independent thinking. teachers knowledgeable of pdsa transforming community thorugh plan do study act daniel, wasonga & burgin 155 no. 23 processes change their classroom and ensure all students grasp that their voices and thoughts are valid. pdsa provides educators recursive opportunities to arrive at answers to problems more expediently than if they worked individually or waited for the assigned system’s leaders to act (bryk, 2015; bryk et al., 2016). the model emphasizes collaborative decision-making and teacher advocacy, which could prove to efficiently build on guatemalan educators’ strengths. in this study the beginning of the inquiry-based pdsa cycle was informed by questioning using the 5whys technique (serrat, 2009). the teachers engaged in a one-on-one conversation with mayra (researcher one) about the overall educational challenges in guatemala and then participated in a focus group after conducting an ethnography. during the focus group the repetition of the word why helped the teachers delve into the problems that recur in the school community more deeply. the technique served to unveil the root cause of the issues and the circumstances surrounding the recurrence of the problems to find possible solutions (hibino et al. 2018). this approach to encourage questioning was an appropriate choice to engage guatemalans, because they form a cultural group whose inter-personal interactions abound with courtesy and respect. the 5whys provided a vehicle to systematically question issues in the guatemalan educational system. pdsa requires working from participants’ knowledge of the problems to be solved to their predictions of how to move from frustration and anger, to developing situated theory applications that achieve positive changes (langley et al. ,2009). the pdsa cycle always seeks to identify a path to achieve the goal that will lead to improvement of a situation, and provide an evaluative method to document the level of improvement reached. implementation of pdsa is a community affair. once teachers experience problem solving through pdsa, they are able to teach its application to students who will then identify ways to solve problems in classrooms, and in their communities and homes. learners of all ages can master the pdsa cycle because its design reflects human beings’ needs for inquiry, and supports engagement focused on affective and basic survival needs. the model helps students identify effective learning goals, select appropriate strategies to practice the skill that is the focus of the teacher’s lesson, study and reflect upon their own progress, and make necessary changes to apply the information gathered before repeating the cycle. students and teachers apply pdsa when they brainstorm ways to solve problems within a community that works together, and rejoices in its successes. together with committed teachers, learners explore problems, and posit solutions in classroom conversations that revolve around stories or current events in their lives. in this study, teachers observed and examined young children’s responses to decide when it was time to proceed to a different step of the pdsa cycle. this project examined changes at escuela villa hermosa (evh) (a pseudonym) due to implementation of the pdsa cycle. in this collaborative process to enhance literacy, the participants reflected on areas for improvement, educational practices, and interactions with administrators and parents to benefit the students. transforming community thorugh plan do study act daniel, wasonga & burgin 156 no. 23 figure 1. applied pdsa processes methodology this case study (stake, 2000) focused on the teaching and learning environment at evh. data were collected in three phases over a three-year period. phase one was the exploration and documentation of community needs. these included the academic and affective needs of the children who reside in the evh community, as documented in conversations with families and in observations conducted by the teachers. phase two involved the teachers in a focus group where they had the opportunity to share their interpretation of the ethnographic data that they gathered during phase one. phase three engaged the teachers in weekly pd envisioned through the implementation of a pdsa led inquiry that had at its goal designing a contextually appropriate curriculum and led the teachers to write storybooks for their classrooms. the qualitative data were recorded in spanish and analyzed utilizing a constant comparison technique (glaser & strauss, 1967). the process allowed for an iterative development of codes by comparing the new data to existing data processed (leech & onwuegbuzie, 2007). the following questions guided this study: 1. what changes are needed at evh?, 2. how will appropriate changes be prioritized and implemented?, 3. how did participants change their educational philosophies due to participation in this study? transforming community thorugh plan do study act daniel, wasonga & burgin 157 no. 23 participants and site of research this research was conducted at the evh, a school in an urban low socioeconomic neighborhood in a city of about 140, 000 located near guatemala’s capital city. in the park about 30 feet from the school, one can observe drug selling activity among single males who sit at picnic tables buying and selling products in small bags. study participants included the entire faculty of the school; eight pre-k-k teachers and the school principal. the teachers, all trained in guatemala’s normal schools, ranged in age from 23 to 47, with the principal being the eldest. the student population was 63 students. phase 1: exploration and documentation of community needs this phase began with informal conversations between betty (a pseudonym), the new principal at evh, and luci (a pseudonym) the principal of the private school where betty previously taught. before betty accepted the principalship, she realized that the learning environment at evh was not what she had helped to design in her previous position. betty, with luci’s help, came up with a plan to reimagine and recreate her new school. their vision was based on what they had experienced at escuela josé antonio (ja) (a pseudonym), a thriving community of educator-advocates. conversations that followed between two teachers at evh and their new principal were the first step to putting the plan into place. these led to one-on-one interviews with the entire faculty and the principal. as the interviews took place, data began to reflect concerns. the developing vision of the nine educators who composed the faculty led them to carry out an ethnography in the evh community. they reached out to parents and explored the community. observations in walks around the neighborhood and data from interviews and conversations with families, served the teachers to draw a picture of the environment surrounding the school, the realities of the children’s lives, and the affective and instructional needs of learners growing up in a high crime neighborhood. after completion of the ethnography and examination of the data, the teachers studied the problems that were identified and reflected on what they might do next. they decided that tasks for the next phase of this study would address teachers’ need for the adequate resources that would allow them to plan and deliver culturally responsive instruction. phase 2: focus group the five whys (5ws) inquiry method was used for a needs assessment conducted with the teachers following the ethnography (serrat,2009). their ideas needed to be clarified and organized, thus the 5ws served as an initial and ongoing questioning transforming community thorugh plan do study act daniel, wasonga & burgin 158 no. 23 technique. the 5ws were the scaffold to outline needs and prepare the teachers to engage in the steps of the pdsa cycle. group participants answered five questions with the objective of stating problems accurately and completely, to do so honestly with the knowledge that their identity would be kept anonymous, and to be fully committed to resolving the problems (serrat, 2009). the process of posing the first 5ws questions begins when researchers gather a research team or conduct one on one interviews with community members. as participants are identified the goal of establishing the prior knowledge needed to begin the questioning sequence begins. the inter-personal interactions with possible participants contribute to the researchers’ understanding of the individual teachers and begin to reveal their attitudes toward their responsibilities as educators of guatemala. informed researchers are able to ask an appropriate first why question because they have some knowledge of the problems that need to be addressed. answers are documented on a board that is visible to participants, who then use the information as a scaffold to formulate replies to remaining 5w questions. in this research the first 5w question asked after the initial exploration of the problems at evh community was: what information did the ethnography reveal and why is that? the four follow up questions repeated the inquiry by asking: why is that? it was anticipated that responses would document obstacles to learning unique to the evh community. challenges might relate to the fears the learners face on a daily basis, and to how these fears might delimit the learning. the hope was that answers would highlight curricular limitations, and support teachers’ sharing of remaining challenges. at the conclusion of phase 2, the objective was for the teachers be able to state their advocacy abilities, and how they would deliver an empowering curriculum that went beyond mineduc’s curriculum. phase 3: weekly pd guided by pdsa the teachers at evh participated in pd one full day a week over a three-year period. the pd was delivered by the joint team of luci, the principal at ja, and marta, one of her teachers (a pseudonym), during the first three months of the project. after this marta was responsible for the pd, with luci checking in once a month. all pd was delivered through a hands-on approach at the school. the teachers were not given materials to read prior to the pd because the trainers felt they would be more open to hands on training, modeling, and active discussion. the objectives of the pd were for the teachers to (1) experience working to design lessons in teams, (2) plan and deliver balanced literacy instruction using narratives that reflected their community, (3) increase parental involvement, and (4) begin to align the national curriculum to contextually congruent literacy lessons. tasks introduced and explored in the pd aimed to address the project’s objectives one and two, thereby addressing lesson planning and critical thinking. the teachers transforming community thorugh plan do study act daniel, wasonga & burgin 159 no. 23 brainstormed and collaborated on lessons to integrate critical thinking into skillbased instruction. methods used to teach vocabulary aimed to help learners express their opinions. literacy instruction modeled demonstrated that all five senses provide support for students’ different learning styles. discussions of the multiple intelligences were contrasted with conversations about learning styles in an effort to highlight that all children have ideas, and need the opportunities to feel safe to share these ideas. the trainers stressed process over product, when they showed participants how to work with some of the books that were used with learners at ja. emphasis was placed on the anticipatory set, and on how chatting with children prior to or at the beginning of lessons will reveal their funds of knowledge. the teachers were encouraged to explore student groupings, and to experiment with heterogeneous models. in addition, discussions addressed components of lessons such as measurable objectives, planned questioning, tasks that stress process over product, and formative assessment. objective three involved planning pd for families, and envisioning what would ensure participation from parents, and help the teachers uncover familial issues that children find difficult to confront. discussions emphasized that outreach to families begins at the schoolhouse door. objective four was addressed as the pd focused extensively on the requirements of the national curriculum, and what teachers might do to adjust mineduc’s scope and sequence to their community’s needs. using ja’s bimonthly planning as a model, the teachers at evh worked to develop a method for planning ahead, and for selecting books and activities to support learners to become critical readers. in order to stay on track, the pdsa recursive analytical cycle was used to guide all steps of the decision making in the pd. through pdsa, after problems were identified, the educators decided on an efficient next step. plausible actions were prioritized and followed by experimentation with the curriculum and outreach to parents. next, stakeholders shared findings and analyzed the data gathered to establish if the solutions implemented worked well, or needed modification. as such, the cycle supported databased decision making (bryk, 2016; 2015) because it assisted the teachers to consider the dynamic interplay between learners, their teachers, stakeholders beyond the school itself, and maintain a focus on culturally responsive curriculum development. results data suggest that participants uncovered many complexities in school improvement efforts. participants documented problems requiring immediate and long-term attention in the school’s physical plant, such as maintenance of existing buildings to financing the construction of a facility to shield stakeholders from inclement weather. in relationship to curricular needs, the educators from evh explored the need to transforming community thorugh plan do study act daniel, wasonga & burgin 160 no. 23 address the appropriateness of available resources, and how to meet the government’s curricular standards while supporting teachers in a socio-culturally focused, and consistent model of pd. the teachers went beyond preparing a list of needs or voicing their anger and angst. they demonstrated their commitment to advocacy, and to improving education in guatemala’s public schools. without doubt, the teacher participants gained information throughout the three phases of the data collection. three themes emerged from the data: (1) the need to remedy the condition of the existing school, (2) the learning issues of the students, and (3) steps that would lead to the implementation of needed changes. theme 1: condition of the existing school when the teachers began analyzing and documenting the children’s needs, their focus on improving literacy became clearer. they concluded that their students’ affective needs were not being considered due to the condition of the existing school and the inadequate resources being used in literacy instruction. therefore, rebuilding evh became the group’s first priority. the teachers did not wait for resources from mineduc. they discussed what might be possible using the community’s financial resources. they gathered funds to build a welcoming and efficient school. their first goal was to teach in an environment where learners would feel safe, and to involve the parents in supporting the learning goals at evh. modest buildings were erected as a result of fund raising led by the teachers. students’ families joined the fundraising effort and parents themselves reached out to community members for financial support. many folks made conservative monetary contributions and/or donated building materials. a school site was identified where classrooms would be housed in small buildings. the community enthusiastically gave of their time and knowledge of carpentry, painting, and shared their building trade expertise. the result was a modest but improved school compound. the floors and the walls of the buildings were built of single sheets of raw wood and the tin roofs doubled as inside classroom ceilings. the colors of the buildings were selected for the purpose of creating an environment that placed young learners in a magical world using bright pink, light green, and a warm sunny tone. outside walls were decorated with drawings of inspiring figures such as the little prince. practical concerns led to one of the buildings housing a small kitchen that served to protect the cook from inclement weather. a room became a dedicated library and although it is small and has few holdings, it serves its purpose. transforming community thorugh plan do study act daniel, wasonga & burgin 161 no. 23 theme 2: literacy learning issues besides the need to build a new school, the teachers compiled a list of community needs, and identified problems. at the top of the list was to eliminate the transmission model of education that is often the norm in guatemala. the teachers agreed that modeling for learners how to think critically would help them generate ideas, and become invested in the learning. they knew that resolving their entire list of problems would take time and careful planning. they documented issues of hunger, poverty, and misspent money. their list included the mismatch between the instructional methods used when the parents were students and still frequently used in guatemala, in contrast to the balanced literacy approaches the teachers were learning in their pd. the teachers wanted to eliminate schooling that does not reflect societal needs in its curriculum, and thus makes little sense to the learners. data from the 5 whys conversation documented recurring concerns in the teachers’ observations: that children are afraid while in their homes at night, and that they are discouraged from talking to their families. the teachers repeatedly voiced the concerns evident in the following comments: ‘how can they learn [the children] if they fear sharing their opinions?’, we have to teach them to share their ideas’, ‘parents need to know why we teach as we do’. ‘we need to explain to the parents why our methods engage the children and why active learning is more effective’, ‘families do not realize that young children learn by singing and dancing’. theme 3: implementation of changes the teachers’ philosophies changed as they examined their observations, and proposed actions. they began to understand pdsa as a way to go beyond opinions, and subjective reactions. as they went through the steps of the cycle in each pd session, it became second nature for them to engage in joint reflection. conversations focused on the planning, doing, studying and taking action recommended by the pdsa cycle were useful in identifying problems that required immediate attention. as the teachers gained clarity of how they might go about making changes, they planned a town hall meeting for the parents, and invited them to participate in pd. the teachers demonstrated how they taught the children, and the parents role played being the students. giving the parents the opportunity to experience participatory learning was a path to justify the need for families to contribute their financial share, and back up the teachers’ commitment and innovative curriculum. the teachers started to implement changes after selecting one problem to address at a time. they decided to bring parents together to share information, and to ask their support for the new instructional methods to be followed at home. the teachers gave immediate attention to identifying the most pressing problems when they brainstormed how to involve the families, and when they might plan pd to model their teaching for the parents. transforming community thorugh plan do study act daniel, wasonga & burgin 162 no. 23 a problem that the teachers chose to address immediately was that families were sending snacks to school with the children that were not nutritious. there was no need for the parents to spend their money on sending sweet treats, since the government subsidizes a daily mid-morning snack. the funds could be better spent for children’s books. they alerted the parents when they picked up their children about the government’s funding for school snacks. after this, they identified the next step: a town hall meeting to earnestly seek monetary support from the parents. it was time to turn families’ attention to strengthening the curriculum. the town hall was a celebration of what had been accomplished, and a time for the teachers to share their dreams for the children. they introduced families to experiential methods of instruction. they inspired the parents with their enthusiasm, and with details of what they would do to raise the learners’ academic achievement. they explained why ‘families must invest in their children both emotionally and financially’. they discussed the reasons they were inspired to learn the methods being used at escuela ja, and why they would improve the children’s lives. evh’s teachers detailed how their time observing, and chatting, with the educators at ja, had made it possible for them to see what was possible. they shared what they had learned about planning balanced literacy lessons, and their belief that this could occur when student participation and parental involvement are part of the equation. they emphasized why parents were an essential part of the progress. the teachers demonstrated their commitment to take risks with instructional methods. they detailed their new-found awareness of their own responsibility to anticipate what learners need to do, see, and hear as they learn. they shared their conviction that young children learn when the five senses are involved and why they had to provide opportunities for each and every learner to participate in classroom conversations that should be continued at home. a recurrent theme in parental questions was how children could learn without sitting and quietly listening. a parent shared, ‘at home my children jump, and they play, and they need to learn to behave because they are wild! they are so noisy when they are having fun’. another parent’s question was, ‘how do you get children to listen when they are so loud!’. a third parent commented, ‘i want my children to be respectful and well behaved. i don’t know how your approaches work’. as the parents noted the teachers’ enthusiasm and how this might support the learners’ literacy, they asked for details. it became evident that one town hall meeting would not be sufficient to cover all that needed to be addressed. the teachers decided that the parents’ questions had to be further addressed. in their goal of breaking standing perceptions of schooling, and getting parents on board to not only support the new methods at the school, but to also follow the methods in their homes, the teachers realized the parents had to be privy to the benefits of the revolutionary way that instructional goals at evh were being set and met. at transforming community thorugh plan do study act daniel, wasonga & burgin 163 no. 23 this point in time the parents were invited to pd sessions to explore books, just as their children were doing in their classrooms. the hands-on participation was planned so that parents could experience learning using all the senses. prior to the lessons, the teachers told the parents that they needed more books for their classrooms, and that the books had to be contextually sound if they were to make sense to the learners. when the teachers showed the parents the books that were used at ja, the parents began to understand the meaning of the words contextually sound. the parents began to grasp why the children should read books at school that reflected them and their community, and why they needed to have copies of the books to take home to share with their family. at the workshops the parents saw the teachers’ commitment, and heard that families are responsible for the children’s education. the parents were asked to help finance the printing of the books the teachers were writing, and to buy a cloth bag so the children could own and take home the books they read at school. luci, the ja principal, shared copyright free access to the books she and her teachers had written so the books could be reproduced for the children at evh. it was a win-win situation. discussion the questioning, reflection and advocacy facilitated through the pdsa-based pd that led to changes in instruction at evh was powerful. at the end of the study, the teachers spoke expecting to be listened to, and they demanded respect and acknowledgement for their efforts. when the teachers spoke about the children and their literacy, high levels of satisfaction were evidenced such as ‘poverty can be transformed into riches’. as the teachers engaged students in dialogue, the children demonstrated their innate ability to ask high level questions, and to share ideas that evolved from their lived experiences and families’ histories. teachers from evh narrowed the space between themselves and their students, because they nurtured transformative consciousness (darder, 1998). in a climate of love the students were not perceived as the other but as co-learners freely engaged in discovering knowledge, and in working towards understanding themselves, and their role as citizens of their community (aronowitz et al. 1998). no one at evh felt silenced. after the first year of the study, when learners went on to the primary school, the teachers’ efforts were validated. at the same time, their frustrations with the guatemalan educational system became evident again. the most alarming comment was stated by a teacher who shared that at the elementary school, inquiry is criticized. ‘the teachers there think it a problem that the children ask questions and know too much’. teacher 2 added: ‘would you believe that they discourage critical thinking?’. transforming community thorugh plan do study act daniel, wasonga & burgin 164 no. 23 teacher 3 said: ‘they do not want the children to talk’. teacher 3 noted: ‘we offered to do workshops and share books, but when we tried to work together, they just sat there and did not participate’. limitations generalizability of this study’s findings is limited to the community where this work was conducted. there are great variations in the way schooling is delivered in guatemalan schools and in how teachers prepare lesson plans and select curriculum that adheres to mineduc’s mandates. this study’s participants composed an unusual group of educators because their school principal supported them in ways that led the teachers feel safe voicing their ideas with each other and helping the learners to express themselves. this is not the case in the majority of guatemalan schools. concluding thoughts educators in this study worked to meet high goals for their learners through balanced literacy practices guided by the recursive reflection that is the essence of the pdsa learning cycle (langley et al., 2009). this research revealed the abilities and zeal of guatemalan teachers to create a future of possibilities for the learners in their classrooms. this work suggests guatemalan teachers can indeed reimagine paths for teaching and learning. the evh faculty took action as they heeded their souls’ call for change. they identified ways to advocate for their students going beyond the requirement of using texts supplied by mineduc. they learned how to make the curriculum meaningful for students’ socio-cultural context. these educators decided to create democratic classroom environments (langley et al., 2009). they chose to set aside resources that did not support culturally responsive pedagogy, and to go beyond the minimum requirements set by the government. as the teachers participated in the pdsa processes, they gained confidence. the teachers saw children’s enthusiasm in how the little ones offered their ideas and asked questions in class. the teachers proudly shared that every day the parents began asking to hear the songs the teachers had taught that day, and wanted to learn about the stories their children had read at school. lina (a pseudonym) shared the philosophy that the teachers repeat to all who listen, and especially to the children. ‘your parents work in their jobs and at home. children’s work is to learn at school’. we admire the teachers in this study because they took a chance and devoted their time to learn without personal recompense. perhaps this is the reason they were successful. transforming community thorugh plan do study act daniel, wasonga & burgin 165 no. 23 references aliakbari, m. , & faraji, e. 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(2002). pedagogy of the oppressed. 30th anniversary ed. new york, ny: continuum international publishing group. transforming community thorugh plan do study act daniel, wasonga & burgin 168 no. 23 authors *mayra c daniel is professor emerita at northern illinois university, de kalb, il, united states. her research focuses on the preparation of culturally sensitive educators in the united states and latin america.  orcid: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2702-0071 teresa wasonga is professor at northern illinois university in the department of educational leadership, psychology, and foundations, de kalb, il, united states. she is the founder of a secondary school for girls from poor rural areas in kenya. orcid: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2444-0559 ximena burgin is an assistant professor at northern illinois university, de kalb, il, united states. her research relates to the role of multiculturalism in classroom instruction and evaluation. orcid: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3494-569x how to reference this article: daniel, m. c., wasonga, t., & burgin, x. (2021) transforming an educational community in guatemala using the plan do study act cycle. gist – education and learning research journal, 23, 151–168. https://doi.org/10.26817/16925777.1053 transforming community thorugh plan do study act daniel, wasonga & burgin the contribution of the activities prepared with web 2.0 technologies to the level of learning1 la contribución de las actividades elaboradas con tecnologías web 2.0 al nivel de aprendizaje melike çakan uzunkavak and gülnihal gül2* bursa uludag university, turkey 1 received: february 22nd 2022/ accepted may 20th 2022 2 ckn.melike@gmail.com; gulnihalgul@gmail.com efl teachers’ cognitions about speaking gist education and learning research journal. issn 1692-5777. no. 24 (january june, 2022). pp. 95-117. 96 no. 24 abstract this research is aimed to evaluate the contribution of activities prepared with web 2.0 technologies for the sound formation unit within the scope of a music lesson to the learning levels of students. the study group consists of 220 students in the 9th grade of trabzon affan kitapçıoğlu anatolian high school. a 9-question knowledge test was applied as a measurement tool to make determinations regarding the realization of the achievements in the unit of “formation of sound”. in the study, interviews were conducted with a randomly selected group of 8 students from the study group. the content analysis technique was used to analyze the data obtained as a result of the interviews. in line with the findings obtained from this study, it was determined that the activities prepared with web 2.0 technologies contributed to the students’ self-knowledge, self-confidence, protection of voice, voice change, and field expert knowledge, which also provided ease of learning theoretical knowledge. key words: technology; web 2.0 tools; music education; z-generation; learning level; education resumen esta investigación tiene como objetivo evaluar la contribución de las actividades preparadas con tecnologías web 2.0 para la unidad de formación de sonido en el ámbito de una lección de música a los niveles de aprendizaje de los estudiantes. el grupo de estudio consta de 220 estudiantes del noveno grado de la escuela secundaria trabzon affan kitapçıoğlu anatolian en turquía. se aplicó una prueba de conocimientos de 9 preguntas como herramienta de medición para realizar determinaciones respecto a la realización de los logros en la unidad de “formación del sonido”. en el estudio, se realizaron entrevistas con un grupo seleccionado al azar de 8 estudiantes del grupo de estudio. se utilizó la técnica de análisis de contenido para analizar los datos obtenidos como resultado de las entrevistas. en consonancia con los hallazgos obtenidos de este estudio, se determinó que las actividades elaboradas con tecnologías web 2.0 contribuyeron al autoconocimiento, la confianza en sí mismos, la protección de la voz, el cambio de voz y el conocimiento experto de campo de los estudiantes, lo que también proporcionó facilidad de aprender conocimientos teóricos. palabras clave: tecnología; herramientas web 2.0; educación musical; generación z; nivel de aprendizaje, educación activities with web 2.0 tecnologies for learning çakan & gül 97 no. 24 resumo esta pesquisa tem como objetivo avaliar a contribuição das atividades preparadas com tecnologias web 2.0 para a unidade de formação de som no âmbito de uma lição de música aos níveis de aprendizagem dos estudantes. o grupo de estudo consta de 220 estudantes da nova série da escola secundaria trabzon affan kitapçıoğlu anatolian na turquia. aplicou-se uma prova de conhecimentos de 9 perguntas como ferramenta de medição para realizar determinações com relação à realização dos aproveitamentos na unidade de “formação do som”. no estudo, realizaram-se entrevistas com um grupo selecionado aleatoriamente de 8 estudantes do grupo de estudo. utilizou-se a técnica de análise de conteúdo para analisar os dados obtidos como resultado das entrevistas. em consonância com as descobertas obtidas deste estudo, determinouse que as atividades elaboradas com tecnologias web 2.0 contribuíram ao autoconhecimento, a confiança em si mesmos, a proteção da voz, a mudança de voz e o conhecimento experto de campo dos estudantes, o que também proporcionou facilidade de aprender conhecimentos teóricos. palavras chave: tecnologia; ferramentas web 2.0; educação musical; geração z; nível de aprendizagem; educação activities with web 2.0 tecnologies for learning çakan & gül 98 no. 24 introduction human beings try diverse ways according to their wishes and needs in their life; as a result of these trials, new inventions can emerge. these inventions show themselves in every aspect of human life and make significant contributions to technological developments. it is an inevitable fact that technology, which is at the center of humanity’s daily life, will also be used in educational environments (yavaş, 2021; yıldız, 2021; devran & bilgin, 2021; günay, 2017; shaban, 2017; şenel & gençoğlu, 2013). the use of today’s technologies in these environments is seen as an important step in adjusting to the universal and contemporary. technology is an important aid in creating the tools and equipment that will pave the way for effective and efficient education processes and help students reach the desired level of awareness (burak & çörekçi; 2021; ardıç, 2021; ledger & fischetti, 2020). today’s technology allows today’s z-generation students to be included in the education process, enabling them to take more active roles and access information directly; besides their cognitive and affective development, it helps them to socialize by enabling them to act in cooperation (gürsan, 2021; şafak, 2020; aksoy, 2021; kavan, 2021; çakan uzunkavak, 2020; schmid, ernst & thiele, 2020; yungul & can, 2018). technology in educational environments, has become available thanks to web 2.0 tools (köse, bayram & benzer, 2021; dalgıç, geldi, güleş & kartal, 2021, şengür & anagün, 2021; bolliger & shepherd, 2017). it is thought that applications that are considered as web 2.0 tools such as powerpoint, powtoon, canva, kahoot, edmodo, linkedin, mentimeter, puzzlemarker, plickers, quizizz, socrative, triventy, soundcloud, whatsapp, evernote, flockdraw, mindmup, and google drive can be used in education and training environments (çelik, 2021; başaran & kılınçarslan, 2021; bugawa & mirzal, 2018; jena, bhattacharjee, devi & barman, 2020; johnson, bledsoe, pilgrim & moore, 2019; karvounidis, chimos, bersimis & douligeris, 2018; dellos, 2015; moyer, klopfer & ernst, 2018). web 2.0 technology tools take students away from traditional classroom environments and enable them to be active, and to share, and develop their highlevel thinking skills. through these technologies, students also provide feedback, corrections, and opportunities for self-evaluation in online environments (türegün çoban & adıgüzel, 2021; kayaduman & delialioğlu, 2021; gündüzalp, 2021; karakuş & er, 2021; gündüzalp, 2021b; altunışık & aktürk, 2021; timur, yılmaz & küçük, 2021; ledger & fischetti, 2020). such technologies were investigated by can (2021) who examined the use of edmodo-supported conceptual cartoons, one of the web 2.0 tools, in a 5th-grade science lesson, and as a result of the research, he determined that the application in activities with web 2.0 tecnologies for learning çakan & gül 99 no. 24 question contributed to the effective, permanent, and rapid learning of the students. in batıbay (2019) examined the educational function of the kahoot application in a turkish lesson; he determined that the application has a positive effect on the motivation of students by transforming the question-solving action into a game, students are actively involved in the education process, it enables peer learning, and that it offers an effective learning environment suitable for the 21st-century education system understanding. in their study, jong and tan (2021) examined the effects of using padlet, one of the web 2.0 tools, on students’ writing skills. they concluded that the padlet application is suitable for use as an easy, interesting, and practical writing tool in the education process; in padlet, the writing progress is observable and open to feedback correction; it provides a student-centered learning platform, and has a positive effect on the professional development of teachers. studies show that activities prepared with web 2.0 technologies contribute to students’ learning levels and motivation, create effective and productive learning environments, make lessons fun and enable peer learning. stefancik & stradiotova (2020) examined the effect of using podcasts, one of the web 2.0 tools, on foreign language teaching in their study. they found that podcasts can help students improve their listening skills significantly. in their study, afach, kiwan & semaan (2018) aimed to convey life tips to students with special needs in an easy way by using the web 2.0 tool edpuzzle. they determined that students with special needs were motivated, perceived the conveyed messages, felt comfortable, and understood the lesson without asking their teacher. it is thought that activities prepared with web 2.0 technologies will contribute significantly to the achievements of music lessons, and increase learning speed by embodying abstract concepts; the activities prepared by considering the interests and wishes of today’s generationz students will positively affect their attitudes and motivations towards the lesson. in this research, it is aimed to evaluate the contribution of activities prepared with web 2.0 technologies for the sound formation unit within the scope of the music lesson to the learning levels of students. depending on the purpose of the research, answers to the following questions were sought: 1. to what extent does the activity prepared with web 2.0 technologies contribute to the learning level? 2. what are the students’ views on the activity prepared with web 2.0 technologies? activities with web 2.0 tecnologies for learning çakan & gül 100 no. 24 method research model the mixed-method is a research model that was used in this study in which the researcher collects both quantitative and qualitative data, analyzes and integrates the data with both methods to reach answers (creswell, 2017; yıldırım & şimşek, 2021; strijker, bosworth & bowter, 2020). during the design of this research the sequential explanatory design was usedand is aimed to support the data obtained using quantitative methods with qualitative methods and to analyze the results of the research in-depth (creswell, 2017; çepni, 2021; yıldırım & şimşek, 2021). for this purpose, the quantitative research method was used to determine the contribution of the activity prepared with web 2.0 technologies to the learning level of the students. to support the data in the research, data were obtained by semistructured interview form and knowledge test. application: at this stage, the activity called “what is this sound?” was held for 2 hours (80 minutes) and was prepared by the researcher using web 2.0 technology tools for the “formation of sound” unit in the 9th-grade music curriculum prepared by the ministry of national education. at the end of the activity, the knowledge test prepared by the researcher was applied. study group the study group of the research consists of 220 students studying in the 9th grade of anatolian high school. the demographic information of the students participating in the research is given in table 1. table 1. findings of the demographic information of the students participating in the research gender f % female 126 57,3 male 94 42,7 total 220 100 activities with web 2.0 tecnologies for learning çakan & gül 101 no. 24 age f % 13 33 15 14 166 75,45 15 20 9,1 16 1 0,45 total 220 100 as seen in table 1, it was determined that 57.3% of the students were girls and 42.7% were boys; 15% of them are 13 years old, 75.45% of them are 14 years old, 9.1% of them were in the age group of 15, and 0.45% of them were in the age group of 16.interviews were also conducted with a group of eight students in the study groupwho were randomly selected. data collection tools two types of data collection tools were used in the study. for quantitative data, a “knowledge test” was prepared for the study group by the researcher to determine the realization status of the achievements in the “formation of sound” unit after the activity. to determine the qualitative data of the research a semi-structured interview technique, one of the interview technique types, was used. . the questions in the semistructured interview form were written by the researcher to determine the opinions of the participants about the activity prepared through web 2.0 technologies. to ensure the validity of the prepared interview questions, they were presented to the expert opinion, questions and items that should be removed and added were corrected, and the interview form was finalized at the end of the expert opinion. data collection and analysis mean, frequency, and percentage calculations were used for the analysis of the data including demographic information and the data obtained from the knowledge test. knowledge test success point values were determined according to the item of evaluation with points in line with the general principles of measurement and evaluation of the secondary education institutions regulation of the ministry of national education (ministry of national education [meb], 2013). activities with web 2.0 tecnologies for learning çakan & gül 102 no. 24 the qualitative data collection in the research were made using a semi-structured interview form and interview technique. the semi-structured interview form consisted of 7 open-ended questions, and the data were obtained as a result of one-onone interviews with eight students in the study group. the obtained data were analyzed and interpreted by content analysis, and direct quotations were included to reflect the views of the students (adhabi & blash anozie, 2017; yıldırım & şimşek, 2021). the qualitative data obtained in the research were coded, then divided into themes and interpreted. while quoting, the names of the students were coded with abbreviations as student 1 (s1) and student 2 (s2). to ensure the reliability of the qualitative data of the research, the data in question was presented to the opinion of two field experts, and consistency analysis was carried out. consensus and differences of opinion were determined during the interviews, and the percentage of consistency was calculated by using the reliability calculation formula p (percent consistency) = na (number of items coded the same in two forms)*100/nt (total number of items in one form) (çepni, 2021). the agreement between the evaluations of the experts was 85.19. since this value is 70 or above, it is considered sufficient for data analysis, and it is concluded that reliability is provided (miles & huberman, 1994: cited in baş, 2014). findings in this section, the findings obtained from the data collection tools are given. table 2 shows the success rates obtained from the knowledge test after the “what is this sound” activity of the students who participated in the research. the data obtained from the knowledge test are given in table 2. table 2. knowledge test success results success point value f % 85-100 58 26,36 70-74,99 101 45,91 60-69,99 35 15,92 50-59,99 12 5,45 0-49,99 14 6,36 total 220 100 activities with web 2.0 tecnologies for learning çakan & gül 103 no. 24 as seen in table 2, it was determined that 26.36% of the students scored 85-100; 45.91% of them scored 70-74.99 points; 15.92% of them scored 60-69.99 points; 5.45% of them were in the range of 50-59.99 points, and 6.36% of them were in the range of 0-49.99 points. the findings regarding the answers given by the students to the knowledge test are as follows: table 3. table of students’ answers to knowledge test question number question type f % 1. question gap-filling 208 12 94,5 5,5 2. question multiple choice 140 80 63,6 36,4 3. question multiple choice 215 5 97,7 2,3 4. question gap-filling 187 33 85 15 5. question matching a b c d e f 187 33 204 16 201 19 210 10 211 9 211 9 85 15 92,7 7,3 91,6 8,4 95,5 4,5 95,9 4,1 95,9 5,1 activities with web 2.0 tecnologies for learning çakan & gül 104 no. 24 6. question matching a b c d e f g h 194 26 187 33 193 27 184 36 181 39 195 25 168 52 166 54 88,1 11,9 85 15 87,8 12,2 83,7 16,3 82,2 17,8 88,6 11,4 76,4 23,6 75,5 24,5 7. question true/ false 211 9 96 4 8. question gap-filling 184 36 83,6 16,4 9. question gap-filling 106 114 48,1 51,9 total 220 100 table 3 shows that the third question of the knowledge test is the one with the most correct answers (97.7%); the second question (36.4%) and the 9th question (51.9%) were the most incorrectly answered questions. in addition, it is seen that 94.5% of the students answered the 1st question of the knowledge test correctly, 97.7% of them answered the 3rd question correctly, and 96.4% of them answered the 5th question correctly. however, it was determined that the students gave more wrong answers to the a option (15%) of the 5th question and the h option of the 6th question (24.5%), which are in the matching question type. activities with web 2.0 tecnologies for learning çakan & gül 105 no. 24 students were asked to express their opinions on the contribution of the activity, which was prepared through web 2.0 technologies, to their education. the codes and themes created from the data obtained are given in table. table 4. student views on contribution of the activity to personal education theme sub-theme code participants pe rs on al e du ca tio n self awareness voice health s1, s3, s4, s5, s6, s8 confidence gain s2,s7 foresight s2,s4 knowledge level anatomical awareness s7,s8 obtaining theoretical knowledge s2, s3, s6 as can be seen in table 4, there are students who expressed their opinions about the contribution of the activity to personal education. it was determined that they expressed opinions in the direction of voice health (6), self-confidence gain (2), and foresight (2); regarding the “level of knowledge” sub-theme they expressed opinions in the direction of anatomical awareness (2) and obtaining theoretical knowledge (3). some of the students’ views on this theme are given below. “…i think about working with music. i will pay more attention to my voice” (s1). “…i learned my sound level. human voices are divided into thin-medium-thick. my voice will be thin or medium” (s2). students were asked to express their opinions on the attractiveness of the activity, which was prepared through web 2.0 technologies. the codes and themes created from the data obtained are given in table 5. activities with web 2.0 tecnologies for learning çakan & gül 106 no. 24 table 5. student opinions on the attractiveness of the activity theme sub-theme code participants a ttr ac tiv en es s contents sound types s1 surgery videos s1, s2, s4, s7, s8 vocal cords structure s3, s8, s6 opera s6 sound protection s5, s8 active learning peer interaction s2 place s4 as can be seen in table 5, it was determined that the students expressed their opinions about the sound types (1), surgery videos (5), vocal cord structure (3), opera (1), preservation of the voice (2) regarding the “content” sub-theme of the “attractiveness” theme; regarding the “active learning” sub-theme, students expressed their opinions about peer interaction and space (1). some of the students’ views on this theme are given below. “vocal cord surgery! i saw it for the first time, it was very interesting for me” (s8). “i’ve seen it in movies before. opera is a beautiful piece of music. there is such a genre of music. i watched and listened for the first time” (s6). students were asked to express their opinions on the difference between the activity prepared through web 2.0 technologies and the music lesson. the codes and themes created from the data obtained are given in table 6. table 6. student opinions on the difference between the activity and the music lesson sub-theme code participants d iff er en ce s content concerning life s1 fun s1, s3, s4, s6, s5, s7 attractiveness s1, s8 physical conditions attention-raising environment s2, s8 location factor s4, s5, s3 effective teaching active learning s5 interaction s6, s7 memorability s7, s8 focusing s8 visual support s8 activities with web 2.0 tecnologies for learning çakan & gül 107 no. 24 as can be seen in table 6, it was determined that students expressed opinions regarding the “content” sub-theme of the “differences” theme in the direction of concerning life(1), fun (6), attractiveness (2); regarding the “physical conditions” subtheme in the direction of the attention-enhancing environment (2), location factor (3); regarding the “effective teaching” sub-theme in the direction of active learning (1), interaction (2), memorability (2), focus (1), and visual support (1). some of the students’ views on this theme are given below. “it is not effective in the classroom. but in this environment, all of my friends and i can participate. it is fun” (s6). “lessons in the classroom can be boring sometimes. i think the place where we learn is very important. instead of the classroom environment, i prefer environments like here where everyone can participate” (s7). “...we learned things that we should pay attention to in our daily life” (s1). students were asked to express their opinions on the awareness of the mutation period of the activity, which was prepared through web 2.0 technologies. the codes and themes consisting of the data obtained are given in table 7. table 7. student opinions on the contribution of the activity to mutation period awareness theme code participants aw ar en es s self-knowledge s1, s2, s4, s5, s6, s7 self-confidence s1, s2 protecting the sound s1,s2,s3,s4,s5,s6,s7, s8 change of voice s1, s4, s6 consulting field expert s3, s5 as can be seen in table 7, there are students who expressed their opinions about the contribution of the activity to the awareness of the mutation period. it was determined that the students expressed their views on the theme of “awareness” in the direction of self-knowledge (6), self-confidence (2), protection of the voice (8), change of voice (3), and consulting a field expert (2). some of the students’ views on this theme are given below. “… after this activity, i realized that i don’t need to be afraid or ashamed while singing because everyone has it” (s1). “i realized myself. how is my voice changing? what will happen in the future? what will happen if i don’t pay attention? now i know all of them” (s6). activities with web 2.0 tecnologies for learning çakan & gül 108 no. 24 conclusion and discussion according to the results obtained from the knowledge test, it is thought that the activity prepared with web 2.0 technologies contributes to the knowledge level of the students, provides ease of learning the theoretical knowledge and is a reminder. from this point of view, it is considered important to use applications that can make permanent changes in students in the education process. it is thought that the inclusion of web 2.0 technologies in music education, which especially affects the aesthetic perspective and cultural level of the person, allows students to act together with the community and work in cooperation, will contribute positively to their learning levels. in the literature, studies show that the lessons, which are carried out with activities prepared with web 2.0 technologies, have a positive contribution to the learning levels of the students. in his study, can (2021) concluded that the edmodo application contributed to the effective, permanent, and fast learning of the students, increased their motivation, and made the lessons fun. similarly, karadağ and garip (2021) determined that the learningapp application can be used in the course processes. based on this, it is stated that the activities carried out with web 2.0 technologies in educational environments will contribute to the effective, permanent, and rapid learning of the students and it is also thought that it will increase their motivation towards the lessons. with this thought, it is considered important to organize and plan the said technologies in such a way that they can be used in teaching environments and to enrich the course content with activities prepared with web 2.0 technologies. in line with the findings of this investigation, it was determined that the activity prepared with web 2.0 technologies contributed to individual awareness, students’ knowledge levels,, and to the active learning of the physical environment in which the activity was carried out. in similar studies, it was concluded that activities carried out with web 2.0 technologies contributed to individual awareness and knowledge levels of students (afach, kiwan & semaan, 2018; stefancik & stradiotova, 2020). from this point of view, it is thought that the more active use of these activities in the educational process will contribute to the cognitive development of students. for this reason, it is considered necessary to prepare activities with web 2.0 technologies in such a way that students can be active in the education process and increase their awareness levels. the students who participated in the research thought that the activity carried out with web 2.0 technologies was different from the music lesson held in the classroom in terms of content, physical conditions, and teaching method; however, it has been determined that they expressed their opinion that the event contributed to their awareness of sound health and protection. it has been determined that the activities prepared with web 2.0 technologies contribute to the creation of a more effective learning environment in line with activities with web 2.0 tecnologies for learning çakan & gül 109 no. 24 the interests and wishes of the z-generation students and to transform the learning environments into a more equipped and enjoyable one. similarly, studies have supported that the activities carried out with web 2.0 technologies contribute to the learning level of students (arslan & coştu, 2021; ergül sönmez & çakır, 2021; açıkgül fırat & fırat, 2020; vanichvasin, 2021; kazazoğlu & bilir, 2021; egüz, 2020; karakaş & kartal, 2020; bolliger & shephard, 2017; şahin topelcengiz & yıldırım, 2020; juškeviciene & kurilovas, 2014; azid, hasan, nazarudin & ali, 2020; jong & tan, 2021). with this thought, it is necessary to use in-class and extra-curricular activities prepared with web 2.0 technologies that support educational environments. in line with the findings obtained from the research, the following recommendations can be made: an effective music lesson within the scope of general music education helps students to have an aesthetic point of view; it is also known to contribute to artistic and intellectual knowledge (uçan, yıldız & bayraktar, 1999; arslan & gül, 2019). for this reason, the lesson planning of the music lessons held within the scope of general music education should not be neglected. in addition, it is considered very important for students in secondary education to be aware of the voice changes they will experience during the mutation period they are in, to overcome this period in a healty way and without damaging their vocal organs, and to have an awareness to protect their vocal health. for this reason, it is considered necessary to prepare the music education to be carried out within the scope of general music education so that students have the level of knowledge and awareness that they can get through the period they are in most healthily and consciously. in the 21st century, where the way of accessing information is constantly changing, it is seen as very important to bring the education system of our country closer to the universal and contemporary, to bring the technology that students put at the center of their daily lives to their educational environments and to enable it to be used beneficially, with the intention that it will increase the quality and qualification of the education and training process. it is thought that it is necessary for teachers and students to actively use web 2.0 applications in order to adapt to the universal, to include technology in life, and to be involved in universal music studies. the fact that the course activities prepared with the support of web 2.0 technology tools by the teachers in a planned and programmed process will contribute to the academic success of the students; it is also thought that it will have a positive effect on students’ personal and social development. for this reason, it is considered necessary and important to use web 2.0 technology tools, which are almost at the center of our age, by teachers and students more actively. with this in mind, it is deemed necessary to organize inservice training programs, courses, and seminars not only with theoretical but also applied studies so that teachers can have the equipment to use these studies effectively and efficiently in learning environments. in addition, it is considered necessary to activities with web 2.0 tecnologies for learning çakan & gül 110 no. 24 support students with programs in which they can use web 2.0 technology tools within the framework of support and training courses to contribute to their education and training processes. it is known that web 2.0 technologies, which started in the 1970s and developed from year to year, have been included in education programs at a universal level intensively (günay & özdemir, 2012). especially recently, thanks to augmented reality applications, presenting abstract concepts to students concretely, has contributed to the achievement of the targeted gains and the differentiating expectations of the z-generation have become meetable. it is known that digital technology is advancing day by day, applications are updated and technological tools are developed for new needs. it is thought that web 3.0 tools, that we have just been introduced to as of 2021, are about to be developed; the concept of “meta-verse”, which we will encounter frequently in social media and similar online environments recently, can be used in education/training environments in the future. for this reason, it is considered important to provide school equipment that is suitable for the requirements of the 21st century and is shaped according to the interests and needs of the student profile of our age. it is considered necessary in terms of equality of opportunity in education that these types of equipment are accessible not only in private schools but also in public schools. the disadvantages of web 2.0 technologies and other digital technological content in the education and training environment should not be ignored. the inadequacy of application knowledge of these technologies and contents, the lack of control that may be experienced in online learning environments, the inadequacy of materials for students, and other issues, reveal the necessity of being planned and programmed in the use of these technologies, since situations such as these can negatively affect the effectiveness of the education and training environment. in parallel with the science, internet and technology developments of our age, it is suggested that different studies be carried out in order to renew the education system of our country for these developments. activities with web 2.0 tecnologies for learning çakan & gül 111 no. 24 references açıkgül fırat, e., & fırat, s. 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(1999). i̇lköğretimde müzik öğretimi (i̇lköğretimde etkili öğretme ve öğrenme öğretmen el kitabı)[teaching music in primary education (effective teaching and learning in primary education teacher’s handbook] okan matbaacılık. vanichvasin, p. (2021). chatbot development as a digital learning tool to increase students’ research knowledge. international education studies, 14(2), 44-53. yavaş, a. (2021). hollanda’da türk çocuklarına türkçe öğretim dersinde teknoloji kullanımı [yüksek lisans tezi, hacettepe üniversitesi][ the use of technology in teaching turkish to turkish children in the netherlands [master’s thesis, hacettepe university]]. yıldız, z. (2021). uzaktan eğitimde teknoloji yönetimi [technology management in distance education]. rol spor bilimleri dergisi, 2(2), 146-156. yıldırım, a., & şimşek, h. (2021). sosyal bilimlerde nitel araştırma yöntemleri [qualitative research methods in the social sciences]. seçkin yayıncılık. yungul, o., & can, a. a., (2018). applicability of web based distance education to instrument (guitar) education. educational policy analysis and strategic research, 13(4), 37-69. activities with web 2.0 tecnologies for learning çakan & gül 117 no. 24 authors *melike çakan uzunkavak was born in trabzon. she started his music education at trabzon anatolian fine arts high school in 2005. she graduated from high school in 2009 and started the department of music education from dokuz eylül university buca faculty of education in the same year. she graduated her undergraduate education as the first of her department in 2013. she was appointed to zonguldakdevrek as a music teacher in 2015. in 2018, she started her master’s degree in music education from the department of fine arts education of the institute of educational sciences of uludag university under the guidance of dr. lecturer gülnihal gül and graduated with a master’s degree in 2020. she started her doctorate in music education from the department of fine arts education of the institute of educational sciences of bursa uludag university in 2022 and she continues her education as a doctoral student under the supervision of doç. dr. lecturer gülnihal gül. in 2018, she was appointed to trabzon affan kitapcıoglu anatolian high school and is currently working as a music teacher. orcid : https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8936-6417 dr. gülnihal gül was born in gümüşhane. she completed her primary and secondary education in bursa. she graduated from uludağ university, faculty of education department of music in 1997. she started working as a voice education instructor at the music education department of the faculty of education of uludag university in 1999. she graduated from her master’s program at the institute of social sciences of uludag university in 2000. she continued her voice technique studies with ankara state opera and ballet artist hülya kazan between 2001 and 2005. in 2012 she completed her doctorate program at the institute of social sciences of uludag university. currently, she is working as a “voice training” lecturer in the department of music education at the faculty of education of uludag university. orcid: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9437-2419 how to reference this article: çakan-uzunkavak, m., & gül, g. (2022) the contribution of the activities prepared with web 2.0 technologies to the level of learning. gist – education and learning research journal, 24. 95-117. https://doi.org/10.26817/16925777.1395 activities with web 2.0 tecnologies for learning çakan & gül book review decolonizing educational knowledge. international perspectives and contestations. ann e. lópez and herveen singh (eds.). publisher: palgrave macmillan year of publication: 2024 carlo granados1 institución universitaria colombo americana, unica 157 no. 30 gist education and learning research journal. issn 1692-5777. no. 30 (january june, 2025). pp. 157-163. 1 dir.academica@unica.edu.co 158 no. 30 decolonizing educational knowledge. international perspectives and contestations, edited by ann e. lópez and herveen singh (2024), is an ambitious anthology that brings together voices from five continents to interrogate and reimagine educational systems through explicitly decolonial lenses. the editors frame the volume around three interwoven strands: methodological and epistemological contestations, regional case studies of decolonial practice, and critical reflections on leadership, curriculum, and identity. from the outset, lópez and singh insist that education remains a contested terrain where colonial legacies persist—even within institutions that profess equity. they argue persuasively in their foreword that decolonial efforts cannot be reduced to swapping one knowledge canon for another; rather, such efforts demand a fundamental transformation in how knowledge itself is defined and produced. by situating the work of black and indigenous scholars alongside critical interventions that expose the inseparability of ‘scientific’ scholarship from histories of dispossession and exploitation, the editors set a tone of urgent reckoning. this approach resonates with battiste’s decolonizing education: nourishing the learning spirit (2013), which documents the devastating impact of eurocentric education on indigenous knowledge and asserts that the preservation and revitalization of such knowledge is not only a pedagogical imperative but a fundamental right. early chapters in the volume enact what might be called ‘methodological unsettling’. the second chapter entitled decolonial research methods was written as a plática (dialogue) between khalid h. arar, ira bogotch, yvonne m. de la rosa, carlton j. fong, miguel guajardo, and denise mifsud. in this chapter, miguel guajardo and yvonne de la rosa, in their section entitled our own methods: with or without cut-ups, employ a collaborative, dialogic mode of composition—akin to william burroughs’s literary cut-up technique—to rupture chronological narrative and emphasize relationality. by deliberately fracturing linear academic prose, they foreground community, place, and ancestral memory as valid sites of knowledge production, thereby questioning conventional authorship parameters. similarly, the section presenting as decolonial research: a warrior passed to the spiritual world in our community, which honors victoria ‘vickie’ betancourt de la rosa, privileges collective storytelling and autoethnographic reflection. here, the authors insist that research conducted in indigenous contexts must be accountable to community obligations rather than to detached notions of ‘objectivity’. a recurring thread in these initial essays is the collapse of the researcher-researched binary; positionality is integral to epistemic authority. scholars such as khalid h. arar and carlton j. fong draw on quantcrit—quantitative critical race theory—to demonstrate how statistical methods can be recast to expose racialized power structures instead of obscuring them. book review 159 no. 30 the commitment of these authors to methodological unsettling and the critique of western epistemologies could be further enriched by engaging with latin american decolonial theorists. mignolo’s notion of ‘epistemic disobedience’ and his analysis of the ‘coloniality of knowledge’ offer a powerful framework for understanding decolonial research as both a refusal of imposed eurocentric paradigms and an affirmation of alternative ways of knowing. as mignolo argues in the darker side of western modernity (2011), decoloniality in latin america is not simply about the recovery of indigenous knowledge but about resisting the universalizing claims of western epistemology and asserting the legitimacy of pluriversal, situated knowledges. chapter 3, reimagining education futurities through decolonial lens, calls for a transformative reimagining of education in the face of ongoing colonial legacies, racism, and global unrest. lópez argues that education must move beyond eurocentric and settler-colonial frameworks to enable alternative, relational ways of learning and being. she urges educators to embrace decolonizing praxis through collective dreaming, resistance to dominant paradigms, and the forging of solidarities across diverse boundaries. decolonization, as framed by lópez, is not a one-time act but a sustained process of cultural, bureaucratic, linguistic, and psychological divestment. her vision resonates with latin american decolonial thought, particularly freire’s pedagogy of the oppressed, which advocates for dialogical, emancipatory education grounded in critical consciousness and community-centered praxis. the heart of the book lies in its regionally grounded case studies, each of which configures decolonial critique within specific socio-political contexts. in chapter four, avoiding the housekeeping trap: challenges and opportunities in a decolonizing project at the university of east anglia, uk, a reflexive teaching toolkit grounded in decolonial research principles and sustained reflexivity is introduced. drawing on data gathered from students and staff—and bolstered by funding of the vice chancellor’s (vc) taskforce on tackling racism—the toolkit demonstrates how a bottom-up, collaboratively authored intervention can disrupt the neoliberal sidelining of decolonial labor, legitimize marginalized voices, and weave equitable, communitydriven praxis into the very fabric of university structures. in chapter five, decolonizing teacher education through creation of an equity, diversity, inclusion, and indigenization (edi&i) coalition, eizadirad and straub chronicle how scholar-activist faculty and students at a canadian university countered colonial logic and anti-woke rhetoric by forming a student-led edi&i coalition. drawing on critical race theory and duo-ethnographic reflections, the coalition co-constructed an open-access resource bank, revised lesson-plan templates with edi&i prompts, and hosted outreach events to redistribute power and cultivate brave spaces for equity-deserving voices. by combining grassroots student leadership with institutionally backed funding and reflexive praxis, this chapter models how teacher education programs can embed decolonial principles in curriculum, pedagogy, and community engagement. carlo granados 160 no. 30 in nepal, chapter six, decolonising educational leadership in nepal: an advocacy for revisiting eurocentric legacy and promoting epistemic indigeneity, calls for an ‘ecological-emergent’ leadership framework rooted in relational ethics. rejecting western managerial models, the authors advocate for embodied, wisdom-based leadership that draws on local cosmologies, oral traditions, and ancestral knowledge, centered around the notion of ‘mana’ (emotion, cognition, behavior). from zambia, chapter seven, decolonizing the selection criteria of literature novels in secondary schools and universities in zambia, deconstructs national syllabi to reveal a persistent bias toward west african and european texts at the expense of zambian voices. the chapter argues that privileging foreign literary works alienates zambian learners from their heritage and undermines indigenous identity formation. unsettling colonial roots of school leadership in canada: decolonizing school leadership (chapter eight) examines the persistence of whiteness in canadian policies and leadership practices, particularly as they affect black and indigenous students. by contrasting managerial styles and ‘teacher-pleaser’ approaches, the authors promote a decolonial leadership model that foregrounds critical consciousness, cultural competence, and what they call ‘courageous accountability’. chapter nine, reimagining higher education in tanzania: a de-colonial approach to knowledge production, critiques how african universities continue to reproduce western paradigms under the guise of serving indigenous needs. the authors call for reclaiming agency through self-determined research agendas, resisting the tendency to cast africa primarily as an ‘object of study’. chapter ten, decolonial by design: an expatriate’s experience of teaching indigenous emirati students in the united arab emirates, underscores the disjunction between ostensibly ‘world-class’ curricula and emirati students’ identities. drawing on said’s concept of orientalism (1980), this autoethnographic account demonstrates how even progressive programs can relegate indigenous learners to passive receivers of foreign knowledge. returning to zambia in chapter eleven, interrogating decolonization of education in zambia: chronicles of voices from the higher education landscape, the authors chart the nascency of decolonial initiatives in public universities, revealing that most efforts remain rhetorical rather than structural. in morocco, chapter twelve, education for emancipation and disrupting colonial legacies in morocco, argues that french colonial legacies continue to shape language policy and curricular design decades after independence. the chapter recommends a ‘glocal’ approach that integrates amazigh language rights and disrupts both eurocentric and arab-centric paradigms. in chapter thirteen, alternative aesthetics: an engaged path to decolonial education, garlow and mcconnell propose a decolonial framework rooted in indigenous onto-epistemologies and artistic disruption. drawing on their own experiences—one as an indigenous educator committed to land-based resurgence and the other as a taiwanese-diasporic scholar informed book review 161 no. 30 by nondualist interconnectedness—they employ alternative aesthetics to unsettle colonial legacies and antiblackness. rejecting a pedagogy of maintenance, they advocate for a “pedagogy of possibility” (kumaravadivelu, 2001) that centers grounded normativity—leanne simpson’s biskaabiiyaang (2017), understood as returning to ourselves,— and reciprocity with the land, inviting educators to cultivate ethical, community-led practices. through reflexive prompts and coalition-building questions, they guide teacher-practitioners and leaders to create inclusive openings for indigenous knowledge, thereby weaving creative praxis into the heart of educational transformation. in canada, chapter fourteen, i had the mindset to carry on!: positive black racial identity (pbri) socialization and post-secondary success among black males, advocates a pbri framework that centers both the internal construction and external affirmation of racial identity as vital to student persistence. rejecting deficit-based narratives, the authors employ critical race theory and duo-ethnographic reflections to show how grounding identity in african history and providing racially affirming supports fosters self-esteem, counters systemic barriers, and cultivates the sense of belonging necessary for post-secondary success. chapter fifteen, examining leadership practices of secondary school principals in kenya through a decolonizing framework, finds that many kenyan principals operate without formal training in culturally responsive or decolonial leadership, advocating instead for grassroots, narrative-based coaching that privileges local knowledge over imported ‘best practices’. finally, chapter sixteen, language as a resource in india’s decolonized cultural curriculum: a case study of the santali language, documents the revival of the ol-chiki script as a form of resistance to englishand hindi-centered schooling, emphasizing that language functions as a technology of power. one of the primary strengths of this volume is its truly global scope and rich local detail. each chapter immerses readers in on-the-ground realities—be it interview excerpts, policy histories, or autoethnographic vignettes—demonstrating that there is no single ‘universal roadmap’ for decolonial practice. methodological innovation also shines through, particularly in essays that blur genre boundaries. mbembe (2021) conceptualizes decolonization as both an act of refusal and a project of refoundation, insisting that genuine transformation requires the radical rejection of entrenched colonial ideologies and the creative construction of new worlds. as in this volume, he argues that decolonial education must go beyond critiquing historical injustices to actively enable self-assertion and collective imagination, empowering learners to envision futures unbound by eurocentric norms. by positioning pedagogy as a site of both resistance and renewal, mbembe invites educators to foster environments where marginalized voices can co-create knowledge and chart alternative pathways to liberation. carlo granados 162 no. 30 by foregrounding duo-ethnography, ‘cut-up’ writing, and quantcrit, the collection illustrates that decoloniality concerns not only content but also form: knowledgemaking must itself be liberatory. moreover, the volume maintains a consistently dialogic and reflexive tone, insisting that researchers’ positionalities—shaped by gender, race, caste, and institutional affiliations—cannot be bracketed out of the inquiry. that said, readers seeking uniform empirical grounding may be unsettled by the uneven depth across chapters, as some offer extensive primary data while others remain more speculative. globally, the implications of this volume for education are profound. it calls for a radical rethinking of leadership training, urging programs to move beyond imported managerial templates toward relational, context-sensitive approaches exemplified by nepali and kenyan models. curricular inclusion demands urgent reconsideration of language policies and literary canons: moroccan and indian case studies reveal how colonial languages continue to dominate formal education, and they model strategies for reclaiming indigenous languages and knowledge. quantcrit interventions from zambia and canada demonstrate that statistical methods are never neutral, prompting researchers and policymakers to scrutinize metrics that perpetuate inequities. above all, the collection champions pluriversal epistemologies—showing that academic legitimacy need not rest on monolithic western norms and that arts-based, oral, and autoethnographic research forms are essential to dismantling colonial knowledge hierarchies. despite its truly global scope, the volume omits case studies from latin america, leaving a gap in the representation of decolonial initiatives in this region. this absence underscores an opportunity for future scholarship to explore how afro-latinx, indigenous, and rural-community perspectives are being integrated—or could be integrated—into teacher education, curricular reform, and institutional governance across latin american contexts. by attending to these missing cases, researchers can further enrich the pluriversal dialogue on decolonial praxis and ensure that latin american experiences inform global discussions on equitable and culturally responsive education. the chapters on language policy and curricular inclusion, such as the moroccan and indian case studies, invite comparison with latin american experiences of intercultural bilingual education. walsh’s (2010) work on ‘critical interculturality’ in the andes, especially in ecuador and bolivia, offers a compelling model for integrating indigenous languages and epistemologies into formal education. she demonstrates how intercultural education can challenge colonial language hierarchies, foster dialogue between knowledge systems, and promote curricular justice. similarly, the critique of statistical methods that perpetuate inequity resonates with the work of colombian scholar viveros vigoya (2024), who interrogates how official statistics in colombia often render afro-descendant and indigenous students invisible, calling for intersectional, participatory methodologies that challenge the presumed neutrality of educational metrics. book review 163 no. 30 for the colombian, the book resonates with ongoing debates around post-peace curriculum reform, afro-colombian and indigenous epistemologies, and challenges to eurocentric paradigms. the zambian critique of literary selection mirrors local efforts to incorporate palenquero literature and wayuunaiki curricula. the quantcrit critiques suggest the need to reconceptualize how standardized exams and ranking metrics shape teacher education and student assessment. post-conflict school leadership in regions such as meta, cauca, and arauca could also benefit from ‘ecological-emergent’ and narrative-based frameworks that emphasize healing and community reconciliation. finally, ma-level research methods courses in institutions across the country could draw on this volume to expand notions of valid thesis work, encouraging duo-ethnography, creative arts-based inquiry, and other forms that align with calls for pluriversal knowledge. in sum, decolonizing educational knowledge stands as a landmark compilation that not only critiques colonial legacies but also offers tangible pathways toward epistemic justice. by juxtaposing detailed case studies with methodological manifestos, lópez and singh create a volume that challenges readers to move beyond critique toward experimentation. although focused on diverse global contexts, its insights are applicable to education in colombia and other contexts, serving as a beacon for post-peace reconstruction, curricular innovation, and transformative leadership. as education continues to be shaped by enduring colonial logics, this collection reminds us that decoloniality is not a destination but a sustained practice of ‘being and becoming’—an ongoing commitment to center community, relationality, and ancestral wisdom. carlo granados 164 no. 30 references battiste, m. (2013). decolonizing education : nourishing the learning spirit. purich publishing ltd. freire, p. (1970). pedagogy of the oppressed. continuum. kumaravadivelu, b. (2001). toward a postmethod pedagogy.  tesol quarterly, 35(4), 537-560. mbembe, a. (2021). out of the dark night: essays on decolonisation. columbia university press. mignolo, w. (2011). the darker side of western modernity: global futures, decolonial options. duke university press. said, e. w. (1980). orientalism. routledge and kegan paul. simpson, l. b. (2017). as we have always done: indigenous freedom through radical resistance. university of minnesota press. viveros vigoya, m. (2024). breaking the boundaries of the colombian socio-racial order. black middle classes through an intersectional lens. lexington books. walsh, c. (2010). interculturalidad crítica y educación intercultural. in j. viaña, l. tapia & c. walsh. construyendo interculturalidad crítica. (pp. 75-96). instituto internacional de integración del convenio andrés bello iii-cab. author carlo granados-beltrán holds a phd in education from universidad santo tomás, an ma in british cultural studies and elt from the university of warwick, and an ma in applied linguistics to tefl from universidad distrital. his research interests are interculturality, teacher education, and formative research, among others. orcid: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3463-1412 book review computer-based reading texts to support fourthgraders’ reading comprehension1 textos diseñados en computador para apoyar la comprensión de lectura en estudiantes de cuarto grado meral gözüküçük and nilgün günbaş2* kafkas university, turkey 1 received: january 16th 2020/ accepted: september 21st 2020 2 meral.yaprak@hotmail.com; ng2248@tc.columbia.edu gist education and learning research journal. issn 1692-5777. no. 21 (july-december, 2020). pp. 47-68. 48 no. 21 abstract in this study, four computer-based reading texts with text related static and animated visuals and background sounds were created with a visual programming language by the researchers for fourth grade students. these texts included before-reading, during-reading and afterreading activities. the purpose was to see the effect of these computer-based reading texts on students’ reading comprehension. in an experimental research design, elementary school fourth grade students (n = 60) were randomly assigned to either computer-based reading (n = 31) or traditional reading (n = 29) environment. the groups completed a pretest, before-reading, during-reading and after-reading activities and then a posttest. the research has been completed in a six-week period: the pretest in the first week, the four texts in the following four weeks, and the posttest in the sixth week respectively. the results indicated that the computer-based group had significantly better posttest scores than the traditional group had and had significantly better improvement from pretest to posttest. however, there was no significant difference between students’ reading comprehension results from pretest to posttest in the traditional group. as a result, presenting students with multimedia-supported reading activities had a positive effect on their reading comprehension. thus, we recommend teachers to use visually-supported computer-based reading texts to improve students’ reading comprehension. keywords: reading comprehension; elementary education; fourth graders; computerbased reading; animated visuals resumen en un diseño experimental de investigación, estudiantes de cuarto grado (n=60) fueron asignados aleatoriamente a textos diseñados en computador o a condiciones de lectura tradicionales. los grupos completaron actividades de pre-lectura, lectura y lectura posterior en computador o en formato tradicional respectivamente. los textos diseñados en computados incluían elementos visuales estáticos o animados y sonidos de fondo. en cada grupo se completó una prueba previa, cuatro textos de lectura y una prueba posterior en un periodo de seis semanas así: la prueba previa en la primera semana, los cuatro textos en las siguientes cuatro semanas y la prueba posterior en la sexta semana. los resultados mostraron que, aunque no se halló una diferencia significativa entre los resultados de la prueba previa del grupo, el grupo asignado a los textos diseñados por computador obtuvo mejores resultados en la prueba posterior que el grupo tradicional. además, los estudiantes de cuarto grado, en el grupo de los textos diseñados por computados, mejoró significativamente su comprensión de lectura. no obstante, no hubo una diferencia significativa entre los resultados de comprensión de lectura de la prueba previa a la prueba posterior en el grupo tradicional. como resultado, el presentar a los estudiantes actividades de lectura con apoyo multimedia tiene un impacto positivo en la comprensión de lectura. por lo tanto, se recomienda a los profesores textos de lectura individuales y textos de lectura basados en computadora con soporte visual para mejorar la comprensión de lectura de los estudiantes. palabras clave: comprensión de lectura; educación primaria; estudiantes de cuarto grado; textos diseñados en computador; elementos visuales animados. computer-based texts in reading comprehension gözüküçük & günbaş 49 no. 21 resumo em um desenho experimental de pesquisa, estudantes de quinto ano (n=60) foram designados aleatoriamente a textos desenhados em computador ou a condições de leitura tradicionais. os grupos completaram atividades de pré-leitura, leitura e leitura posterior em computador ou em formato tradicional respectivamente. os textos desenhados em computadores incluíam elementos visuais estáticos ou animados e sons de fundo. em cada grupo se completou uma prova prévia, quatro textos de leitura e uma prova posterior em um período de seis semanas assim: a prova prévia na primeira semana, os quatro textos nas seguintes quatro semanas e a prova posterior na sexta semana. os resultados mostraram que, mesmo que não se encontrou uma diferença significativa entre os resultados da prova prévia do grupo, o grupo designado aos textos desenhados por computador obteve melhores resultados na prova posterior que o grupo tradicional. além do mais, os estudantes de quinto ano, no grupo dos textos desenhados por computadores, melhoraram significativamente a sua compreensão de leitura. embora isso, não houve uma diferença significativa entre os resultados de compreensão de leitura da prova prévia à prova posterior no grupo tradicional. como resultado, o apresentar aos estudantes atividades de leitura com apoio multimídia tem um impacto positivo na compreensão de leitura. portanto, recomenda-se aos professores textos de leitura individuais e textos de leitura baseados em computador com suporte visual para melhorar a compreensão de leitura dos estudantes. palavras chave: compreensão de leitura; educação primária; estudantes de quinto ano; textos desenhados em computador; elementos visuais animados. computer-based texts in reading comprehension gözüküçük & günbaş 50 no. 21 introduction text is extensively used as an important medium in most academic subjects (soemer & schiefele, 2018). thus, reading comprehension is a topic in educational research studies. öz (2006) defines reading as grasping and vocalizing the meaning of words while the eyes move along reading lines and see the shapes of words. karadağ and yurdakal (2016) claim that reading activity includes interpretation and evaluation of what the eyes perceive, which creates a complicated structure. sever (2011) argues that reading is not a one-dimensional basic process, on the contrary, it is a development process consisting of cognitive, sensory and psychomotor skills. according to keskinkılıç and keskinkılıç (2007), students’ reading habits and reading skill especially improve during their elementary education. additionally, the development of reading skill is important for students to develop their identity and build healthy relationships with the society they live in. in elementary school, there is a great emphasis on reading comprehension as being an important skill in both society and academic achievement (soemer & schiefele, 2018). an adequate development of reading comprehension leads to enjoyment of academic success and this skill influences students’ academic performance in the long term (başar & gürbüz, 2017). moreover, it is essential that students, especially in elementary school, develop their reading skills, in order to be successful in all content areas. for example, the study conducted by björn, aunola and nurmi (2016), indicates that this will contribute to students’ success in other content areas, such as problem solving in mathematics if elementary school fourth grade students achieve reading comprehension well. it might strongly indicate they will not graduate from high school on time if the students’ reading comprehension is not well achieved in elementary school (hernandez, 2011). as can be inferred from the literature, reading comprehension dramatically influences students’ success both in school and life. therefore, reading comprehension must be taken into consideration and improved with a variety of methods starting from elementary education. the studies in the literature indicate that students don’t pay enough attention to and show interest in traditional reading environments (e.g. gün, 2012). however, taking advantage of computer technology is suggested to enrich classroom learning activities and reading comprehension (batur & alevli, 2014). animated and static objects, and individualized learning can be provided on computers for reading activities. these elements improve students’ comprehension, interest, attention, inference making and information retrieval (e.g. altun, 2018; çakıroğlu et al., 2018; roque, teodoro, cunanan & evangelista, 2017; takacs & bus 2016; niknejad & rahbar, 2015; ertem, 2010). in this regard, our purpose was to use computer technology for students’ reading comprehension and see whether the computer-based readings have any effect on students’ reading comprehension. in other words, the purpose of this study was to see the effect of computer-based reading computer-based texts in reading comprehension gözüküçük & günbaş 51 no. 21 texts consisting of visuals, animated objects, and sounds on fourth grade students’ reading comprehension. hence, we compared the students’ reading comprehension results with a control group who read the same texts in traditional paper format in order to reveal the real effect. literature review reading is one of the four fundamental language skills and reading comprehension contributes to both the students’ school success and their life. reading comprehension includes interpreting visuals, finding appropriate titles, determining the characteristics of the characters, and the place and time of the events, and comprehending the conclusions of texts (kavcar, oğuzkan & hasırcı, 2016). güneş (2014) emphasizes three reading comprehension activities: before-reading, during-reading and afterreading. in these stages, a reader interacts with the texts and the environment where reading takes place while mentally constructing the meaning of texts. the reader undertakes planning in the before reading, in which its plot and type of the texts are guessed. in the during reading, they apply planning while reading the text and compare their pre-knowledge with what is read. in the after reading, they evaluate what they read. in this stage, they check what they understand: what was done, how it was done, and the difficulties they faced. epçaçan (2009) argues that it is crucial for a reader to be active in before-reading, during-reading and after-reading activities, and use necessary strategies and techniques in order to comprehend a text completely. the interviews with teachers teaching turkish lessons reveal that traditional reading environments may not be appealing to students (gün, 2012). based on the interviews, teachers mostly report that students showed no interest in reading activities. they believed these activities did not help students to be active, since the students were getting bored while doing the same activities over and over again, and the activities were not suitable to improve reading skills. individual learning and stepby-step teaching are recommended to solve reading and comprehension issues (çaycı & demir, 2006). additionally, it is recommended that the activities be enriched and the use of information technology in classrooms be enhanced in order to increase reading ability (batur & alevli, 2014). değirmenci (2014) used educational software called morpa campus, including animated visuals, reading and listening texts, educational games and interactive activities. she has projected the reading texts in the educational software from the projector to the board for the whole class. she has found no significant difference between reading comprehension scores for first grade students who read texts on the educational software and those who read traditional textbooks. however, the teachers who observed the students’ reading processes stated that the educational software was computer-based texts in reading comprehension gözüküçük & günbaş 52 no. 21 attractive and useful for students, enriched educational settings, supported teachers, and made them save time, and supported students’ active participation. çakıroğlu et al. (2018) used computer software to improve reading performance of students with learning difficulties in their studies. this software, including stories, allows students to individually progress by personalizing the learning environment the software provides. at the end of their studies, the researchers have interviewed teachers and students. as a result, teachers thought that it is important to use visuals in order to support texts. they commented that students did not display problematic behaviors while using the software and that they liked the stories. duke and pearson (2009) suggest that the visuals are more concrete and memorable than texts. furthermore, they claim “a visual display helps readers understand, organize, and remember some of those thousand words” (p.112). moreover, visuals help in representing information through relationships among knowledge, comprehension and memory, which mutually and actively influence each other. furthermore, concrete or abstract formatted visuals used along with texts are more effective on knowledge and knowledge transfer than text without visuals (mason, pluchino, tornatora & ariasi, 2013). enriched meaning construction occurs when visuals and texts are combined with pre-knowledge (akyol, 2012). moreover, visuals such as pictures and/or photographs enhance comprehension and expression of a text when used appropriately. arifin (2015) argues that the use of visuals can improve students’ interest and participation in reading comprehension, which contributes to students’ achievement in learning dramatically. in the present study, the reading texts were presented with pictures representing the texts. the texts were designed in a computer-based reading environment. the rationale behind this design comes from the multimedia learning theory. mayer (2005), the founder of this theory, indicates that learning occurs when learners construct knowledge from learning material, combining words (i.e., text or voice) and pictures (i.e., photos, animation etc.). in addition, when the words and relevant pictures are simultaneously presented near to each other, students learn better than when the words are presented alone. knowledge construction occurs when learners process information by activating their dual-coding channel (i.e. visual/pictorial and auditory/verbal) in an active manner. a great number of the studies show the effectiveness of this theory in different learning areas. this theory has positive effects on reading comprehension as well. for example, while doing reading comprehension-related exercises, garcía, rigo and jiménez (2017) observed students made fewer mistakes as they focused more on these multimediabased exercises. in addition, they remembered more and learned more accurately. this was probably because their motivation was high. reading a multimedia story has positive advantages over reading a traditional story in terms of vocabulary learning and engagement in reading (zhou & yadav, 2017). interactive multimedia reading computer-based texts in reading comprehension gözüküçük & günbaş 53 no. 21 materials are superior to traditional reading materials in students’ critical and creative reading (ayob, 2017). the stories with high interactivity support students’ story comprehension in comparison with the stories with low interactivity (kao, tsai, liu & yang, 2016). moreover, interactive animated stories are more effective than animated stories and static story books for students’ vocabulary learning (smeets & bus, 2015). some studies show that reading comprehension may not be different on paper versus computer (e.g., see başaran, 2014; ertem & özen, 2014) or may be even better on paper (e.g., see baştuğ & keskin, 2012; ercan & ateş, 2015; mangen, walgermo & brønnick, 2013). however, texts are not presented differently with extra features, such as static or animated visuals, background sounds or feedback supporting students’ reading comprehension in these studies. texts are given on screen in pdf format, which is not superior to texts presented on traditional paper format in terms of supporting students’ understanding. the only difference is that these texts are presented on a computer screen with no additional and supportive features. one of these features is feedback. feedback is one of the important elements of education and can be offered by instructors, books, friends or experience. it is generally given after providing knowledge to develop desired behavior, skills or attitude and provided based on learners’ performance and understanding (hattie & timberley, 2007). feedback can be given either immediately or with delay. the studies show that immediate feedback better yields students’ performance than delayed feedback (thai, de wever and valcke, 2017). since feedback also has a positive effect on learners’ reading comprehension (burns, maki, karich & coolong-chaffin, 2017), we provided immediate feedback both in the computer-based reading texts that were provided from computer or in the traditional texts that were provided from the instructor to improve students’ reading comprehension in this study. according to takacs and bus’ (2016) eye-tracking study, the animated objects, which are supportive for story comprehension, attracted students’ attention to the story and helped them comprehend the story well. altun (2018) examined the effect of multimedia story books on five-year old preschool students’ story comprehension. the multimedia story book group comprehended the explicit and implicit meaning of the story significantly better, remembered more story components and retold the story in more detail better than the traditional story group. the results were attributed to the multimedia illustrations as presented in animated format in the story. animations in e-books make students remember and understand the texts (roque, teodoro, cunanan & evangelista, 2017). moreover, dynamic visuals have significantly better impacts on students’ reading comprehension (niknejad & rahbar, 2015), recalling information and making inferences (ertem, 2010). a study conducted by lysenko and abrami (2014) showed first and second grade elementary school students who completed two digital, interactive, multimedia applications presented on the web outperformed the students who received traditional instruction in reading comprehension. computer-based texts in reading comprehension gözüküçük & günbaş 54 no. 21 technology applications create a positive effect on k-12 students’ reading as opposed to traditional reading environments based on a meta-analysis study completed with 84 studies carried out by cheung and slavin (2012). however, the studies in reading comprehension in computer environments are limited. beek, brummer, donker and opdenakker (2018) completed a review on reading comprehension studies conducted between 2000 and 2017. their focus was on the studies related to the improvement of secondary school reading comprehension. they initially read 321 abstracts of related studies and then removed 304 of them as they were not conducted in a computer environment or digital format. as a result, they have found that only the 17 remaining studies were conducted in a computer environment. based on the related literature, we see that the studies in reading comprehension in computer environments are very limited. moreover, the computer-based environments were not presented with additional features, which are not available in traditional format in these studies. computer-based texts are mostly presented for the whole class from the projector to boards. thus, individual learning is not provided. with these gaps in mind, we wanted to examine whether computer-based texts including animated, static objects and background sounds would give students any benefit over their reading comprehension as opposed to traditional reading. the purpose of this study was to see whether computer-based texts have any effect on fourth grade students’ reading comprehension. in addition, the purpose was to see whether this improvement, would be larger compared to the control group attending traditional reading activity. methodology design a quantitative research method, an experimental design, was used in this study which has been completed in six weeks. in this design, 60 fourth grade elementary school students were randomly assigned to either experimental or control groups: computer-based treatment (n = 31), traditional treatment (n = 29). both groups have completed a pretest in their classrooms in the first week. in the following four weeks, they have completed four texts including before-reading, during-reading and afterreading activities on either computer or traditional paper format. after the completion of the treatments, both groups have completed a posttest in the sixth week. computer-based texts in reading comprehension gözüküçük & günbaş 55 no. 21 participants the fourth-grade students (n = 60) who have participated in the experiment are in a public school in turkey. this school was selected because it is one of the representative schools in the area. its socioeconomic status, location in the city center and its average success level were effective for this selection. this information was retrieved from the provincial directorate of national education in turkey. in the school, all the fourth-grade students were invited to the study with the permission of the provincial directorate. the assignment was made with basic random sampling method. a turkish reading comprehension pretest was applied to both groups to see whether two groups start to experiment with similar reading abilities. procedure as a pretest-posttest experimental design, this study has been completed in a six-week period during regular class hours. in the first week, participants have individually completed a reading comprehension test as a pretest in their classrooms. in the following four weeks, they have completed four reading texts, one of which is completed each week, either in computer or traditional paper format. in the last week, all the students have individually completed the same reading comprehension test as in the pretest in their classrooms. the procedure and the texts used each week are shown in table 1. table 1. the study plan and information about the texts used in the study both treatment groups have completed before-reading, during-reading and after reading activities. however, the completion of these activities was different in some aspects. the procedure for each treatment group and details about each condition were explained below: computer-based texts in reading comprehension gözüküçük & günbaş 56 no. 21 traditional reading treatment this process was completed under the supervision of one of the researchers, who has 5-years of elementary school teaching experience. the traditional reading group completed the experiment in a classroom without laptops. under these conditions, before-reading, during-reading and after-reading activities were completed in students’ classrooms with one of the researchers, as mentioned before. the purpose here was to complete the activities in a traditional class environment. in the beforereading activities, students guessed the plot of the text using the title and the meaning of the most important words from the text written on the board. the during-reading texts were provided to the students in traditional paper format. students themselves read the texts in the same way as they usually do reading activities in their classrooms. in after reading activity, they searched for the answers to wh-questions (what, where, when, how, why and who) in the text, determined synonyms and antonyms of words from the text, figure out cause and effect relationships and unknown words from the text, and found the relationship between the title of the text and its content. furthermore, they answered some grammar questions such as making a meaningful sentence, finding misspelled words and punctuating. the researcher gave feedback based on students’ answers in the class environment in traditional reading condition. this situation was provided for each individual student who gave the answer and for the whole traditional-reading group. this situation gave the whole group the chance to improve their understanding of text. it was believed that the way of giving feedback could help especially quiet students, who hesitate answering questions. computer-based reading treatment students in the computer-based reading treatment group completed beforereading, during-reading and after-reading activities in a classroom with laptops brought by the researchers. the computer-based texts were the same as in the traditional format. unlike the traditional condition, the students completed all the activities (i.e., before, during and after reading) by themselves in an individual learning environment. in the before-reading activity (see appendix 1), the students guessed the plot of the text using the title and visuals, the meaning of the most important words from the text, and match the words with the relevant pictures, which did not take part in the traditional format. they answered questions in the before-reading activities and received individual feedback provided from the computer. in the during-reading activities (see appendix 2), the texts were divided into small parts on the screen with related pictures (e.g., static and animated), each of which representing the part of the text that needed to be read. a button was provided at the bottom right-hand corner of the screen for readers to go to the next page upon finishing reading. the purpose here was that they would read each page based on their own reading speed. static pictures as well as animated ones were also presented for the characters in the texts. in computer-based texts in reading comprehension gözüküçük & günbaş 57 no. 21 the after-reading activity (see appendix 3), unlike the traditional format, the students completed the activity with animated and static visuals. in addition, matching visuals with the words was included in this activity. the students answered the questions in the after-reading activities and received individual feedback provided on the computer based on their own answers. feedback was unique for each student as each individual student received feedback according to their own incorrect and correct answers in computer-based reading condition. background music and sound effects were also provided for all activities. materials texts the texts used in the implementation stage were selected from a turkish textbook published by the ministry of national education of turkey (mne, 2015). there are three types of texts in turkish: narrative texts, informative texts and poems (mne, 2018). two of the texts were narratives, one was informative and one was a poem in this study (see table 1 above). reading comprehension test the reading comprehension test (kr-20 = 0.74) used in this study was developed by susar kırmızı (2006). the test included 41 items based on 17 fourth grade learning objectives from the reading domain in the turkish curriculum in 2005. the numbers of the items and related objectives are given in table 2. computer-based texts in reading comprehension gözüküçük & günbaş 58 no. 21 table 2. the translation of the learning objectives in the reading comprehension texts. in the present study, the reliability coefficient of the test calculated with the kuderrichardson formula (kr-20), was 0.88. this value is between 0.70 and 0.90, which indicates a high reliability for the test (özdamar, 2017). data analysis a kolmogorov-smirnov test was run to see whether the data was normally distributed. the results are shown in table 3. computer-based texts in reading comprehension gözüküçük & günbaş 59 no. 21 table 3. kolmogorov-smirnov test results kolmogorov-smirnov test indicated that pretest scores of neither computer-based group (d (31) = .191, p = .005) nor traditional group (d (29) = .165, p = .041) follow a normal distribution. additionally, kolmogorov-smirnov test results indicated that posttest scores of neither computer-based group (d (31) = .207, p = .002) nor traditional group (d (29) = .185, p = .013) follow a normal distribution. because the data was not normally distributed, non-parametric tests were used. findings a mann whitney u test was used to see whether there is any difference between computer-based and traditional reading groups’ pretest and posttest scores. a wilcoxon signed-ranks test was conducted to see whether or not the groups increased their reading comprehension scores after being exposed to the treatments. pretest score comparisons table 4. mann whitney u test results on fourth grade students’ reading comprehension pretest scores a mann-whitney test showed that there was no significant difference between students’ pretest scores in computer-based reading and traditional groups, u = 328, p = .072. computer-based texts in reading comprehension gözüküçük & günbaş 60 no. 21 posttest score comparisons table 5. mann whitney u test results on fourth grade students’ reading comprehension posttest scores a mann-whitney test showed that there was a significant difference between students’ posttest scores in computer-based reading and traditional reading groups, u = 296, p = .037. traditional group reading comprehension results table 6. wilcoxon signed-ranks test results on fourth grade students’ reading comprehension scores in traditional group a wilcoxon signed-ranks test indicated that there is no significant increase from pretest to posttest for students in traditional reading group, z = -1.686, p> .05. computer-based texts in reading comprehension gözüküçük & günbaş 61 no. 21 computer-based group reading comprehension results table 7. wilcoxon signed-ranks test results on fourth grade students’ reading comprehension scores in computer-based group. a wilcoxon signed-ranks test indicated that there is a significant increase from pretest to posttest for students in computer-based reading group, z = -3.736, p< .05. discussion in this study, we aimed to improve elementary school fourth grade students’ reading comprehension with the use of computer-based texts including visuals, animated objects, and sounds. we compared the students’ reading comprehension results in the computer-based texts with those in the traditional texts in order to reveal the real effect. the results showed that the fourth-grade students significantly improved their reading comprehension with the computer-based texts. however, there was no significant increase in the traditional text group’s reading comprehension. mayer (2005) argues that a well-designed learning material combining words and visuals in a multimedia learning environment helps learners build knowledge. ayob (2017), zhou and yadav (2017), and altun’s (2018) studies show students comprehend a story better when it is presented in multimedia form. in this form, visuals and texts are simultaneously presented near to each other. consistently, in the present study, the texts were presented with visuals as a multimedia learning environment. accordingly, students’ improvements on reading comprehension in the computer-based texts might be attributed to combining visuals and texts in a multimedia learning environment. the computer-based texts in this study had text-related visuals. these visuals were provided along with the texts in order to support students’ reading comprehension. in the literature, visuals are mentioned to be more concrete and memorable (duke & pearson, 2009) and they enhance comprehension (akyol, 2012). consistently, we can assume that the computer-based group improved their reading comprehension with the use of visuals. students in the computer-based text group had visual support, computer-based texts in reading comprehension gözüküçük & günbaş 62 no. 21 whereas the traditional text group did not. results showed that the computer-based text group answered the paper-based posttest questions significantly better than the other group did. when students read texts combined with visuals, they gain knowledge and transfer knowledge better compared to the texts without visuals (mason, pluchino, tornatora & ariasi, 2013). as a result, we can assume that although they solved the posttest reading questions on paper, they seemingly gained knowledge and transferred this knowledge from the computer-based reading to traditional reading. we used not only static visuals but also animated visuals in the computer-based texts. a great number of studies show that animated visual objects in computerbased reading platforms are effective on students’ comprehension, remembering, understanding and inference making (e.g., altun, 2018; roque, teodoro, cunanan & evangelista, 2017; takacs & bus 2016; niknejad & rahbar, 2015; ertem, 2010). accordingly, it might be inferred from the claims that students improved their comprehension scores in the computer condition in this study. it can be told that animated visuals in the computer-based texts might be effective on students’ reading comprehension results. an individual learning environment was provided to students in the computer environment in this study. however, the traditional text group was exposed to the texts in their classrooms rather than in an individual learning atmosphere. the students read the texts, which were divided into shorter parts, on computers and based on their own reading speeds. they moved forward on the texts with the “i have read” button upon completing reading each part of the texts. considering the results were positive in favor of the computer group, we may argue that this outcome can be a result of an individual learning environment. inconsistently, değirmenci’s (2014) study indicated non-significant difference between reading comprehension in educational software vs. traditional textbooks. in her study, however, an individual learning environment was not provided in the computer condition, as opposed to the present study. nevertheless, she projected the reading texts in educational software from the projector to the board for the whole class. thus, the result of the present study might be attributed to an individual reading process. since feedback has a positive effect on learners’ reading comprehension (burns, maki, karich & coolong-chaffin, 2017), an animated character asked questions and provided feedback in the beforeand after-reading activities. the feedback explained the correct answer immediately as soon as students answered the questions. providing immediate feedback rather than delayed feedback yields better learning performance according to thai, de wever and valcke (2017). additionally, each student in the computer-based reading group received immediate feedback according to her/his individual answer. thus, the difference in reading comprehension of the experimental and control groups could be attributed to feedback provided immediately and individually. computer-based texts in reading comprehension gözüküçük & günbaş 63 no. 21 during the implementation stage, students were seemingly willing to read and enjoyed the reading activities. in an individual computer-based reading environment, where visuals were provided, teachers claimed that students like the reading activities and do not show problematic behaviors in a study carried out by çakıroğlu et al. (2018). based on that, we can infer that students’ interest, participation and reading comprehension can be increased when they individually complete computer-based reading texts with visuals. conclusion as it is an important skill for language development, reading comprehension is also an indicator for students’ academic achievements in general. in this study, we aimed to search for further improvement of elementary school fourth grade students’ reading comprehension. we created before-reading, during-reading and after-reading activities in a computer environment. students read four texts either on computer or traditionally on paper. in the computer condition, we provided static and animated text-related visuals in an individual learning environment. background music, sounds and feedback were also provided. the results indicated that the students’ reading comprehension significantly improved with computer-based reading texts thanks to their visuals, background sounds features and individualized learning opportunities. additionally, we consider that computer-based learning environments are interesting for students. based on our observation, fourth-grade students enjoyed such learning activities more than traditional learning activities. thus, we recommend that teachers use individual and visually-supported computer-based reading texts to improve students’ reading comprehension. moreover, the fourth-grade students are in a public school and coming from low-income families. as a result, it is highly possible that they do not often interact with technological tools in their lives. thus, this learning environment might be interesting for the students. limitations it was a limitation of our study that the school where the experiment took place was not equipped with computers. for this reason, we, as researchers, took laptops to the school where we implemented our study with the fourth graders. to increase the number of such studies and derive the most benefit from such a type of learning, schools equipped with computers are needed. in addition, we only looked at the effect of computer-based texts on students’ reading comprehension in this study. we strongly recommend that students’ motivation during reading activities should be measured by future studies, since the students’ positive reading comprehension results might be affected by their motivation during their computer-based text reading. computer-based texts in reading comprehension gözüküçük & günbaş 64 no. 21 references altun, d. 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(2017). the impact of a flipped classroom design on learning performance in higher education: looking for the best “blend” of lectures and guiding questions with feedback. computers & education, 107, 113126. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compedu.2017.01.003 zhou, n., & yadav, a. (2017). effects of multimedia story reading and questioning on preschoolers’ vocabulary learning, story comprehension and reading engagement. educational technology research and development, 65(6), 1523-1545. https://doi. org/10.1007/s11423-017-9533-2 authors *meral gözüküçük is an assistant professor in the faculty of education at kafkas university in turkey. she completed her phd in elementary education at pamukkale university in turkey. her research interests include literacy, bilingual education, primary reading and writing, and turkish language education. orcid: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1620-5073 nilgün günbaş is an assistant professor in the faculty of education at kafkas university in turkey. she completed her ed.d. in instructional technology and media program at columbia university, teachers college. her research interests include computer-based learning, multimedia learning, educational video games, teacher education, and computer-programming to improve learning. orcid: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2578-3083 68 no. 20 how to reference this article: gözüküçük, m., & günbaş, n. (2020). computer-based reading texts to support fourth graders’ reading comprehension. gist – education and learning research journal, 21, 47-68. https://doi.org/10.26817/16925777.820 computer-based texts in reading comprehension factors that de-motivate efl students’ participation at a school of languages in the state of veracruz, mexico1 factores que desmotivan la participación en clase de los alumnos de inglés como lengua extranjera en una escuela de idiomas diana iveth sánchez-hernández, enrique vez-lópez, and yeraldi garcía-barrios2* universidad veracruzana, mexico 1 received: june 25th 2020/ accepted: may 21st 2021 2 diasahe2050@gmail.com; visio_ves@yahoo.com.mx; yeraldigarcia56@gmail.com gist education and learning research journal. issn 1692-5777. no. 22 (january june, 2021). pp. 147-172. socioemotional learning in primary school 148 no. 22 abstract the goal of this small-scale qualitative study was to investigate the reasons and factors that may demotivate a group of university efl students from participating in class, in the context of a school of language in the central part of the state of veracruz in mexico. while previous studies conducted, in this same setting, have focused on factors that affect classroom participation in general, this study involved interviews and observations to gain a comprehensive overview of the demotivating factors that impact these efl students’ participation levels in terms of oral production. the study focuses on the participation habits of the interviewed students, their perceptions of the factors that may inhibit them, that discourage them from participating fully in class, and that affect learning. the findings suggest that the participants’ perceptions of what participation means, and their self-esteem and confidence affect their level of involvement. they also indicate that the teacher’s role is an important variable in why students decide to remain silent. key words: class participation, demotivation factors, efl, students’ perceptions. resumen el objetivo de este estudio de corte cualitativo fue las razones y los factores que pudieran desalentar la participación, dentro del salón de clases, de un grupo de estudiantes de una licenciatura en inglés como lengua extranjera, ofertada en el estado de veracruz, méxico. mientras que estudios previos, en este mismo contexto, se han enfocado en los factores que afectan la participación en clase en general, este estudio involucró entrevistas y observaciones para obtener una visión amplia de los factores que impactan los niveles de participación, en términos de producción oral de este grupo de estudiantes de inglés. este estudio se enfoca en los hábitos de participación de los estudiantes y sus percepciones de los factores que pudieran inhibirla, que desmotivan a los involucrados para participar ampliamente en clase, así como sus posibles efectos en el aprendizaje. los datos sugieren que la percepción de lo que los entrevistados entienden por participación, así como su nivel de autoestima y de confianza afectan su nivel de involucramiento. los resultados también indican que el papel de los profesores es una variable importante por la cual los estudiantes deciden permanecer en silencio. palabras clave: factores desmotivadores, inglés como lengua extranjera, participación en clase, percepciones de estudiantes. demotivation in efl students’ pariticipation vez-lopez, sanchez hernandez, & garcia barrios 149 no. 22 demotivation in efl students’ pariticipation vez-lopez, sanchez hernandez, & garcia barrios resumo o objetivo deste estudo de corte qualitativo foi descobrir a natureza dos fatores que puderam desanimar a participação, dentro da sala de aulas, de estudantes de uma licenciatura de inglês como língua estrangeira em veracruz, méxico.  enquanto os estudos prévios se enfocaram nos fatores que afetam a participação em sala de aula em geral, este estudo envolveu entrevistas a profundidade e observações para obter uma visão ampla dos fatores que impactam os níveis de participação de estudantes de inglês. este estudo se enfoca nos hábitos de participação dos estudantes e as suas percepções dos fatores que pudessem inibi-la, que desmotivam os participantes para participar amplamente em aula, assim como os seus possíveis efeitos negativos na palavra. os dados sugerem que a percepção de participação dos entrevistados e seu nível de autoestima e de confiança afetam seu nível de participação. os resultados também indicam que o papel dos professores é uma variável importante pela qual os estudantes decidem permanecer em silêncio. palavras chave: falta de motivação; estudantes de inglês; participação; percepções; fatores de participação; autoestima; confiança 150 no. 22 introduction the urge to carry out this study stems, on the one hand, from our teaching experience, and on the other, from conversations with students who were notoriously shy in terms of class participation, as they seldom, if ever, contributed anything at all: an opinion, a comment, an answer to the teacher’s questions, et cetera, in the course of a class. it must be highlighted that is a recurring problem, as in every class, every semester, there is a considerable number of students who choose to remain silent in class, while the burden, so to speak, of class participation is borne by a limited number of their classmates. this can often cause frustration and disappointment in many of my colleagues, as their efforts to create a highly participative environment in class do not seem to bear fruit. in addition, when confronted when their low involvement in class, most of our students’ reactions to attempts to find out what prevents them from participating in class have consisted in vague, elusive answers that can be summarized as “it’s just that i don’t like speaking in class”. in view of this, we decided to run a full, small-scale research study, within the context of a specific school of languages, where class interaction could be observed and the students could be interviewed, to try to discover the reasons behind poor motivation to participate in class. our hypothesis was that this might be a multifactorial phenomenon that could involve the students’ attitudes and believes as well as the teachers’ class management. thus, we set out to design a study to collect data to prove or disprove the accurateness of our assumptions. however, the first step was to clarify the meaning of participation, which wenger (1998) defines as “a process of taking part in something and […] the relations with others that reflect the process. a complex process that combines doing, talking, feeling, and belonging” (p. 55). becoming involved in something; that is, participating, helps people to learn about many things by sharing their perspectives and learning from others (reid, jensen, nickel & simovska, 2008). consequently, participation is assumed to be a beneficial part of any learning process. for example, smith (1977) defines participation as the students’ act of making questions and comments; it helps them to explore their own knowledge, develop thinking skills, and enhances their intellectual development. in particular, in the case of efl learning, participation is a means by which students can express their interest in the topic, and practice their learning abilities, as well as their writing, listening, and speaking skills (czekanski & wolf, 2013). furthermore, shindler (2003) points out that there is a bond between students’ development and classroom participation, where classroom participation helps them to keep to their task and engage in cooperative work. demotivation in efl students’ pariticipation vez-lopez, sanchez hernandez, & garcia barrios 151 no. 22 nevertheless, classroom participation often seems to be a challenging task. despite being aware of the importance of participation, many students choose to be silent in class. participation is not only constructed by students’ knowledge and skills; it also depends on other important factors such as the teacher’s attitude, the classroom environment, and the students’ interests, personality, skills, and motivation (murray & lang, 1997). there are factors, however, that might discourage learners from achieving the goal of learning a foreign language. a closer inspection of these factors may help to understand what causes students’ limited or active participation. this inquiry focused on analyzing the various factors that may de-motivate learners to participate in an intermediate efl classroom. the purpose of the study was to investigate the factors that may demotivate students’ classroom participation by exploring learners’ perceptions. these questions were posed: what is the nature de-motivation to participate in the efl classroom in a group of intermediate english level students? why do some students rarely participate in class, while others frequently do so? why is it difficult for some students to participate in class? literature review participation can be seen in different ways by different teachers and students. for the purpose of this paper, it must be understood as either short exchanges between students and teachers, or between students and students, or a long conversation in a pair working activity (allwright, allwright, & bailey, 1991). it must be highlighted that classroom participation refers to the students’ active classroom involvement, which in some cases, can influence the teacher’s grading scheme. in other words, participation can be viewed as an integral part of the evaluation process (petress, 2006). it can also be considered as proof of an engagement with the teacher, their classmates and active involvement with the content of the lesson (petress, 2006; mustaphaa, suryani, rahmanb, & yunusc, 2010). according to petress (2006), “class participation is composed of three evaluative dimensions: quantity, dependability, and quality” (p. 1). the quantity dimension refers to the opportunities each student has to express their ideas and opinions as evidence of their awareness regarding class discussion. dependability is defined as the relevant and constructive contributions of students when appropriate. quality participation denotes the regular interaction in class during which students demonstrate evidence demotivation in efl students’ pariticipation vez-lopez, sanchez hernandez, & garcia barrios 152 no. 22 of their awareness concerning the topic of discussion. these three dimensions have the same purpose, but they may have a different weighting in different moments of the class (petress, 2006). one of the benefits of participation in efl settings, and more specially, in the context of this study, is that students who are active participants have the opportunity to practice the target language. i agree with the view that students’ improvement in the language learning process is reflected in what students can say in the target language, as opposed to what they want to say (swain, 1985). in addition, there is substantial evidence to support the notion that teachers and peers’ feedback during or after their participation gives students the opportunity to be corrected and achieve their goal of speaking the language (czekanski & wolf, 2010; rocca, 2010). additionally, students take responsibility for their learning when they are encouraged to participate in classroom tasks (mohd, noor, & maizatul, 2012). thus, it can be safely argued that learners develop their communicative and analytical presentation skills through their interactions with peers and teachers. as a group, they develop their collaborative and team-working skills (ho, 2007). as teachers. it is necessary to bear in mind that, in order to promote active participation, a safe environment is a continuous process that should begin from the first day of classes (michael & modell, 2003). maintaining a positive and secure environment promotes positive teacher-student interactions; it engages appropriate students’ behavior, classroom management, and active classroom participation (reifman, 2008). the physical environment can be defined as the students’ learning space that facilitates the learners’ movement, activities development, and fluency of active learning (scarlett, 2015; hue & li, 2008). “the physical space in the classroom stimulates and facilitates students’ use of the target language they have previously been introduced to and practiced with the teacher” (robinson & kang, as cited in schwartz, 2018, p.7). according to michael and modell (2003) “students will not participate in an active learning environment if they do not feel safe doing so” (p. 68). a safe place to learn encourages students to generate and share ideas during class discussion, teamwork, and individual tasks (shepherd & linn, 2015). the effective use of physical space, where students spend most of their learning time, has a significant effect on their classroom participation. (hue & li, 2008; crawford, 2004). the size of a group also matters. in a classroom with fewer students, they are likely to have more opportunities for significant participation than those in other classrooms with many students (allwright et al., 1991; tode, 2008; howard, geller, rubin, & nodvin, 2006). in contrast, a large group of students inhibits classroom participation, as they are aware of the time for, and the quality of, their contributions. students might feel concerned that there are no significant opportunities for classroom participation and teacher’s feedback (edwards & liu, 2008).teachers’ practice, attitudes, and motivation demotivation in efl students’ pariticipation vez-lopez, sanchez hernandez, & garcia barrios 153 no. 22 as fritschner (2000) points out, the teacher’s attitude is an important factor in students’ motivation and involvement in the lesson. some teachers might encourage students to feel enthusiastic about learning a new language, whereas others might succeed in making students think negatively (aulls, 2004). therefore, one of the necessary roles of the teacher is to encourage students to develop the use of the target language in the classroom (fritschner, 2000). the extent to which they motivate or do not motivate may influence or affect students when making decisions about whether or not to share their ideas and opinions (hennessy & warwick, 2013; allwright et al., 1991). it is true that many teachers may have difficulties in the way they teach and approach course content organization (peterson, 2001). ho (2007) claims that “traditional methods have an impact on the way language lessons are developed […] most of the classes are very bond to the teacher-centered classroom and minimal participation” (p. 7). several researchers stress that a language lesson designed to be relevant in learners’ discussions and interaction helps them to develop their communicative skills (ho, 2007; rocca, 2010). in addition, the clearer the definition and reason to participate, the more meaningful the participation will be (allwright et al., 1991). another important aspect is the time the teacher allows for participation. students might want to participate, but sometimes the teacher does not plan for enough time for the students to speak up (czekanski & wolf, 2010). if participation is part of the evaluating schema or assessment of learning, teachers must let students know that participation is an important component of their grades, and thus, they must be given more time than usual (rocca, 2010; zacharias, 2014; mustaphaa, et al, 2010). finally, feedback can be a meaningful process of interaction and dialogue between the teacher and the student (reifman, 2008). multiple sources and types of feedback allow students to develop their ability to monitor and evaluate their own learning and behavior, as well as become more independent of their teachers (reifman, 2008). mckeachie and svinicki (2011) claim that “feedback must be geared to strengthening the students’ ability to judge the quality of their own work” (p. 114). feedback benefits students when they receive it and when they have the chance to generate their own feedback while producing an assignment (mckeachie & svinicki, 2011). in sum, the adequate use of feedback in the classroom can make students’ feel valued and boost their self-esteem and confidence (reifman, 2008). students’ learning styles teachers sometimes ask students to participate when they do not know their needs (mustaphaa, et al 2010). a visual centered activity might not have the same impact on a kinesthetic student as on a visual student, consequently, their amount of participation will be different (allwright et al., 1991). in addition, some students choose to be demotivation in efl students’ pariticipation vez-lopez, sanchez hernandez, & garcia barrios 154 no. 22 passive participants because they think they learn more by listening and keeping quiet. however, they are paying attention to the class by using strategies such as taking notes (mustaphaa, et al, 2010; zacharias, 2014). therefore, a mixture of instructional activities for all learning styles is recommendable to give students the opportunity to demonstrate their abilities and provide quality participation (mustaphaa, et al 2010). a student’s personality is another significant aspect. passive participants tend to be shy, have low self-esteem, or suffer from anxiety (tatar, 2005). any combination of these characteristics may make students less likely to contribute to in-class group discussions and participate voluntarily (rollins, 2014; grossman, 2004; allwright et al., 1991). attitudes towards the class, the teacher, or classmates can impact students’ decisions to participate in activities or interact (reifman, 2008). students might express a negative attitude towards participation if they have had unpleasant experiences such as forced participation or negative criticism from peers (allwright et al., 1991). then again, if students believe that their contributions to the lesson help them to gain knowledge and confidence in speaking the language, they will be more likely to participate and appreciate being corrected by their teachers (tatar, 2005). if students have a positive perception of participation, they are also more likely to contribute to the class (hill, 2007). students’ motivation to learn a new language matters because it influences how and if students achieve their goal in language learning (allwright et al., 1990). according to research on motivation by clement, gardner, and smythe (1977) in canada, learners who receive encouragement, tend to be much more active in class, volunteer more, and provide more responses that are correct. when the teacher shows students that their contributions and ideas are important for the class and their learning process, the probability of the students’ positive response to every activity, including class participation, increases (madrid & pérez, 2001; mohd, noor, & maizatul, 2012). negative peer pressure inhibits students’ confidence in participation and lowers learners’ motivation level (tatar, 2005). certain learners may feel embarrassed because of their peers’ reactions, which can change considerably the level of their class participation. even if students have the appropriate english level, they may be afraid of peers’ reaction to an incorrect answer or imperfect pronunciation (aulls, 2004). in spite of having the required oral skills, they may find it difficult to produce the language if they have had prior unpleasant experience (rollins, 2014). while some students do not pay attention to criticisms from their classmates, others may have a difficult time while reading aloud or sharing an idea (grossman, 2004). to sum up, a poorly managed class, combined with the students’ personal fears and feelings often makes students avoid participation because of negative past experiences associated with participation (rocca, 2010). the fear of failing or making mistakes can make students feel anxious, which inhibits students’ ability to use and develop their communicative skills in the target language (aulls, 2004; allwright et al., 1991). demotivation in efl students’ pariticipation vez-lopez, sanchez hernandez, & garcia barrios 155 no. 22 methodology the research approach used in this inquiry was of a qualitative nature. the aim of this case study was to collect data on a topic of interest to come up with an explanation to an observed phenomenon. this facilitated understanding regarding the connection between the problems or issues and the participants by exploring their personal background and prior experiences (denzin & lincoln, 1998; creswell, 2014). the data were collected by observing the setting and making an interpretation of the meaning of the data (denzin & lincoln, 1998; creswell, 2014; hartas, 2010). this was done by sitting in classes and observing: a) whether teachers demanded participation from their students; b) whether they participated voluntarily; and c) how often and for how long this happened. then, the data from the observations was triangulated with input from the interviews and the field notes. the aim was to gather information that would answer the main research question by understanding the setting, and the perceptions of a representative sample of participants (yin, 2012; mertens, 2005). the data collection methods helped us to understand the problem and gain answers to the research questions. the selection of the methods was based on the nature of the issues and objectives (creswell, 2014; hartas, 2010). the particular methods used in this qualitative inquiry were non-participant observations, semi-structured interviews, and field notes. the type of non-participant observation carried out for this study required attending sitting in a classroom and observing the many aspects of the classroom context such as the environment, the teacher, the student, activities, and interactions. this allowed for a firsthand encounter with the social reality of classroom participation and the efl students without being part of it. for the interviews, we talked openly with the participants about the topic using specific questions which were relevant to the objectives of the research: the perspective of students on classroom participation and what is needed to motivate students to participate. these semi-structured interviews were flexible and the order of the questions changed while the interview developed (kanazawa, 2018). even though some of the questions were somewhat spontaneous, they were connected with the topic. as for the field notes, they were written down on the same observation sheets used as a guide. these notes helped to describe what we heard and saw to create data. an advantage of this method was that it allowed me to write down a considerable amount of information collected during the classroom observation. we observed the many aspects of the classroom context such as the environment, the teacher, the student, activities, and interactions. we used an observation sheet containing the categories and objectives of the inquiry (hayward, 2000), which facilitated the emergence of data in answer to the main research question (merriam & tisdell, 2015). five two-hour long observations—at different times and days—were demotivation in efl students’ pariticipation vez-lopez, sanchez hernandez, & garcia barrios 156 no. 22 carried out over a period of three weeks in the middle of the semester. they focused on the students and the teacher. notes were made of what was happening in relation to the participants and the activities, i.e., teacher’s actions and responses, and students actions and responses. semi-structured interviews were used to explore the participants’ perceptions and their realities, as well as capture their concepts regarding the chosen topic. the interviews were of an informal nature in order to focus on the specifics of the conversation (schuh & associates, 2009; kanazawa, 2018; raworth, sweetman, narayan, rowlands, & hopkins, 2012). the interview consisted of 12 open-ended questions that explored the participants’ perceptions of classroom participation, the difficulties they face in the classroom regarding participation, and the frequency of voluntary and non-voluntary participation in the classroom. field notes were also taken down to account for details and document characteristics of the social setting (merriam & tisdell, 2015; bailey, 2007). bailey (2007, p.113) claims that “field notes serve as the repository for the important and even not-soimportant data of field research”. as stated above, these notes focused on the teacher’s actions and responses: demands on students to participate, specific amount of time for classroom participation, clarification before participation, feedback during/and/ or after participation, kind of feedback provided, and encouragement to participate. they also focused on the students’ actions and responses: frequency of participation, active contributions of the students’ points of view and ideas to class discussions, self-initiated participation, focus and interest, cooperativeness and responsiveness, nervousness or reluctance to participate, response to feedback, and disruption and interruptions. the data analysis process sought situational perspectives to understand the personal experiences of participants (davies & hughes, 2014). an open coding system was used. we classified the findings in order to give them a label that represented the phenomenon (mertens, 2005). we integrated categories and subcategories such as behavior, meanings, and participation. there were four categories: 1) the students’ perceptions regarding classroom participation; 2) difficulty on the part of some students to participate in class; and 3) reasons why some students rarely participate while others frequently do so. the subcategories had to do with the questions the interviewees were asked. then, we put together the data after sorting them out in the open coding. finally, we chose each category and related it to another to proceed to a more theoretical level of analysis (allen, 2017; urquhart, 2013). constant comparison of data was a fundamental procedure. coding procedures were used as an analytical technique to examine and link the categories found in the data (charmaz, 2014; allen, 2017). this research study was carried out at a public university in veracruz, mexico. a six-level series of english books are used to cover six english courses that are demotivation in efl students’ pariticipation vez-lopez, sanchez hernandez, & garcia barrios 157 no. 22 part of the program. by the end of the last level, students must demonstrate a sound command of english. all professors must include some form of participation as part of their students’ final grade. as a matter of school policy, participation accounts for 10% of the students’ grades. however, expectations regarding the quality of students’ participation, as well as the ways to encourage them to participate are rather vague. as for the participants, there were 21 male and female participants; their ages ranging between 19 and 23. they were a group of undergraduate students enrolled in the intermediate english course of a ba in english language. purposive sampling strategy was used in this inquiry as it was considered that a certain population would be able to provide rich information and data to analyze (braun & clarke, 2013). four participants were selected for the interviews. their points of view as expressed in the interviews were analyzed to attempt to discover the meaning of their experience. all the participants gave their consent to participate and to use the information for investigation purposes. pseudonyms were used instead of their real names to safeguard confidentiality and anonymity. findings and discussion before discussing the de-motivational factors that influence students’ classroom participation, it is important to know how students define their participation. according to the participants, sharing their opinions, ideas, comments, stories, and knowledge with teachers and peers are ways of being participative in class. they stated that in their english language class, they could transfer their knowledge and apply what they knew by using their speaking skills in the classroom. they added that participation helps them to analyze their mistakes in their spoken english since class participation is mainly based on oral communication. harry (pseudonyms are used instead of real names) one of the participants, defined participation as follows: to share with others and the teacher your knowledge or the knowledge that you are acquiring, your opinion, your point of view. harry pointed out that participation also involves asking the teacher questions and answering when it is the teachers who ask the students questions. he indicated that verbal interaction between the teacher and the students—which includes listening, responding, making contributions, and sharing stories and experiences— are ways for the students to participate and become involved in the learning process. the above echoes swain’s (1985) claim that participation may demonstrate students’ target language competence and their level of confidence when they speak the language. since participation is defined as the act of offering comments in class, raising questions, and expressing their interest in the topic (smith, 1977), it may be argued demotivation in efl students’ pariticipation vez-lopez, sanchez hernandez, & garcia barrios 158 no. 22 that it helps students to explore their knowledge and their skills, and thus, improve their development. in the following extract, emma, another student interviewed, described one of these benefits: i think that participation is important because the teacher could be aware of our strengths and weaknesses, as well as correct our pronunciation mistakes. emma highlighted that participation leads to important constructive and effective feedback that helps students to be aware of their learning process. this extract resonates with reifman (2008), who states that feedback helps to empower learners to be judges of their own academic progress and achievement. another participant, ronald, pointed out that classroom participation is mostly seen as a way to improve the students’ speaking skills. he added he believed that oral participation in the classroom was important in the learning process of any language. as he explained: most people do not practice at home; the only place where they can do so is here, at school. […] if you do not participate, you cannot improve. in addition, the participants seemed to believe that classroom participation in their english course helps them to improve their speaking skills and develop their knowledge. they consider that their participation in their english lessons helps them to talk more and be less afraid to share their opinions in future lessons. most of the interviewees agreed that participation does not follow a particular pattern. they simply participate more actively when they are interested in the content being discussed. another participant, mary, shared: there are topics that make me speak easily, and when those topics are interesting to me, i research more about them, and then i speak more. one more issue that emerged was that even though many students appear to understand the benefits of participating in the classroom, there are factors that may demotivate their participation and may cause them to experience negative feelings during the process of learning a foreign language. it was noticed that some students seemed to regard participation as one of the tasks they are responsible for when learning. others seemed to believe they had the right to remain silent if they preferred. these views were confirmed in the interviews. emma, who is of this mind, explained: i am one of those people who observe and learn. i do not like being participative, i prefer to keep quiet and observe everything around me. demotivation in efl students’ pariticipation vez-lopez, sanchez hernandez, & garcia barrios 159 no. 22 thus, it may be argued that students who are listeners seem to avoid oral participation because they think they learn more by listening (mustaphaa, et al. 2010). it was also noticed that the teacher had to ask for volunteers because nobody wanted to participate. emma remarked: he asks us to participate but nobody complies, so he decides to ask someone questions. dominic, one of the talkative ones, explained: the teacher has to force us to participate in a certain way because, well, we are few students who sometimes decide to participate. some students seemed to understand the importance of participation but did not complete some of the homework activities that were part of the class participation. harry, for example, who often failed to do his homework, which caused him to feel frustrated by the awareness that he was being irresponsible, explained: sometimes i feel frustrated but it is my fault because most of the time, in this particular situation, i cannot participate because i do not do the activities from the workbook. it would seem, therefore, that their choices as well as their perceptions influence their decision to participate. they are willing to participate if they believe it is their role in the learning process; if not, they remain silent. when learning a foreign language, a student’s journey might be stressful owing to their fear of making mistakes, of not contributing to the class, or even of failing. for example, molly stated: i do not see the point in participating because nothing i say is relevant. so, i rather remain silent. these negative feelings and personal fears, often associated with negative past experiences which may make students avoid participation, are also highlighted by allwright et al. (1991). feeling anxious, stressed, or having a very low level of selfconfidence appear to be some of the reasons that make students unable to use the target language and participate in the classroom (tatar, 2005). harry mentioned what he feels when he participates: well, i feel somewhat nervous, i cannot think straight and i do not know what to say. i do not know how to answer or maybe i do, but at that time, my anxiety makes me feel confused. this lack of self-confidence and nervousness may result in less or no participation at all in their english class. this also appears to happen to students who like or want demotivation in efl students’ pariticipation vez-lopez, sanchez hernandez, & garcia barrios 160 no. 22 to participate but do not want to be corrected in front of their classmates. as mary mentions: i mean, i like to participate but i would rather not do it since i speak very softly. when it happens, it is like “we cannot hear you”. then, i panic. this extract brings to mind allwright et al. (1991), who state that passive participants tend to be shy, have low self-esteem, or suffer from anxiety. the teacher’s strategies. the importance of the teacher’s role in fostering interaction and participation in l2 class is well documented in the literature. in this study, the students highlighted how the teacher’s attitudes, the teacher’s strategies to call on participants, and their ability to motivate their students, affects classroom participation. molly mentioned that she did not understand the way the teacher demanded participation from the students. she claimed that she did not understand when she was supposed to raise her hand and talk. she said that when she had tried to contribute something to the lesson, the teacher had not paid her any attention. therefore, as the teacher never asked her to participate, she decided to remain silent because: i know the teacher is going to choose the same people. she also seems to think that this might happen because the teacher likes some students more than others, which affects her interest negatively. i lost the interest to participate, now that i know that he is going to ask the same students. so, i do not see the point in participating if he is not going to ask me. i already lost my interest. if the teacher does not show the students that their contributions and ideas are important for the class and their learning process, the probability of students’ negative response to activities, including class participation, may increase (peterson, 2001). in their interviews, the majority of the students claimed that motivation was important in their decision to participate. they showed a tendency to perceive the teacher as the most important part of the interaction inside the classroom. they also seemed to consider the teacher as the source of authority, responsible for generating an adequate learning process (fritschner, 2000). as dominic mentioned: i really believe that he motivates us or gives us that boost to participate and make us be more participative in class. he says, “come on, let’s talk, that is what this class is for. don’t be afraid to make mistakes”. demotivation in efl students’ pariticipation vez-lopez, sanchez hernandez, & garcia barrios 161 no. 22 however, during the interviews, a contrast in students’ responses was noticed. some of them were of the opinion that the teacher did not motivate them in the class— that she only asked them to participate—and that, sometimes, she only focused on those who did not talk much. harry explained: in this subject, i think that she only said “you! answer!” and you have to do it. i think that she knows who is always distracted, and she is always pushing them. this perception seems to be supported by another student’s comment, emma, who mentioned that owing to the teacher’s negative attitude, she became uninterested in the class and was often distracted with her cellphone. i think that sometimes when the teacher gets annoyed, she has a rude attitude. so, most of the time, when we have to participate, i’d rather take out my cellphone. this echoes aulls (2004) who claims that participation has emotional consequences. aulls (2004) states that students are more active participants when they are encouraged, but rather passive when the teachers are not very interested in the students’ opinions or ideas, which in turn, leads to negative emotions. in other words, when students feel motivated by the teacher, their level of self-confidence may improve, which in turn may make them less afraid to talk in the classroom. demotivation in efl students’ pariticipation vez-lopez, sanchez hernandez, & garcia barrios 162 no. 22 conclusion the present study indicates that all the participants shared common views on participation. some conclusions that can be drawn from the data analysis and interpretation is that a) the students’ perceptions regarding classroom participation and their idea of who should be in charge of their participation were the first problems discovered; b) most of the participants were not sure about whether or not to participate; they preferred that their teacher choose who to respond to questions; c) as for their perceptions of the classroom participation process, the participants mentioned that they were more likely to participate if the teacher first motivated them. nevertheless, neither highly nor poorly motivated students showed a strong tendency towards choosing to participate in class. in other words, it was found that, although the teacher motivated them, this did not ensure the students’ participation in the classroom, and thus, it can be argued that, in this case, motivation alone might not guarantee student participation. another important finding of this study was there were emotional factors such as frustration, nervousness, lack of interest, stage fear, and anxiety, that affected classroom participation. these emotional factors impact the students’ self-esteem and self-confidence. students are often afraid to participate because they are nervous, or because they think that their contributions to the lesson are not good enough, which makes them feel uncomfortable and inhibits participation. finally, the impact of the teacher is very important. according to the observations and interviews, the teacher’s attitudes, motivation, and strategies have an effect on the students’ interest in participating and on the involvement of each student in the classroom. most participants indicated that they are more inclined to participate in the classroom when they know their teacher is supportive, open to ideas, and will not criticize them. raised awareness of issues concerning limited participation in class may help teachers to plan ways to encourage passive or shy students to participate actively in class. for instance, the teacher can stimulate students to share stories, debate relevant current topics, prepare and make short presentations, discuss videos, and discuss news events, among other things. recognition of the importance of participation may also stimulate teachers to adopt various strategies to create a favorable learning environment with more interactive and stimulating classroom activities. as an example of these strategies, we can mention the following: identifying and being respectful of students’ learning strategies (they might learn better by being quiet and listening), recognizing students’ feeling and being empathetic, acknowledging students’, strengths and weaknesses, encouraging students to take risks, fostering a relaxed, non-threatening atmosphere, giving every students the opportunity to make a contribution to the class, and letting them know that their participation is expected and welcome. demotivation in efl students’ pariticipation vez-lopez, sanchez hernandez, & garcia barrios 163 no. 22 limitations and suggestions for further research this was a small-scale study. thus, its main limitation was that only a small group of students was interviewed. it must be highlighted that our findings and conclusions are limited to the viewpoints and perceptions of the group of students that participated in this study and cannot be generalized to other contexts. it would be interesting to explore the experiences of students who are studying the same english level or diverse levels in order to determine if the english level itself, or some other factors, influence the students’ lack of participation. this might provide a more comprehensive picture of the factors that influence classroom participation. demotivation in efl students’ pariticipation vez-lopez, sanchez hernandez, & garcia barrios 164 no. 22 references allen, m. 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(2013). grounded theory for qualitative research: a practical guide. city road, sage publications. wenger, e. (1998). communities of practice: learning, meaning, and identity. cambridge university press. yin. r. (2012). applications of case study research. sage publications. zacharias, n.t. (2014). second language teacher contributions to student classroom participation: a narrative study of indonesian learners. eftworldonline, 6(1), 1-15. http://blog.nus.edu.sg/eltwo/?p=4358. demotivation in efl students’ pariticipation vez-lopez, sanchez hernandez, & garcia barrios 168 no. 22 authors *diana iveth sánchez hernández is a part-time professor at the school of languages of the university of veracruz. she holds a b.a. degree in english language and an m.a. degree in teaching english as a foreign language, both awarded by the university of veracruz. currently, she is an advanced student of the ph.d. degree program in language studies and applied linguistics from the university of veracruz and is working on her doctoral thesis. among her interests are topics related to english teaching and learning processes, and language and identity. orcid: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1426-5814 enrique vez lópez is a full-time professor at the school of languages of the university of veracruz. he holds a b.a. degree in english language and a specialization degree in english language teaching, both awarded by the university of veracruz, an m.a. degree in education awarded by eastern mennonite university, harrisonburg, virginia, usa, and a ph.d. in language studies awarded by the university of veracruz. among his published work feature papers related to english teaching and learning processes, language and culture, and language death. orcid: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1117-5386 yeraldi garcía barrios is an english teacher at private school in xalapa, veracruz. she holds a b.a. degree in english language. among her interests are carrying further into teaching english as a foreign language and teaching spanish to foreign students and furthering her education in this field. orcid: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8008-6120 demotivation in efl students’ pariticipation vez-lopez, sanchez hernandez, & garcia barrios 169 no. 22 appendix semi-structured interview guide length: 15-25 minutes m f age: brief interviewer’s introduction, and explanation of the purpose of the interview. once the participant feels comfortable, invite interviewee to briefly introduce him/ herself. prepare the gadget for recording, and then continue with the next questions: objective: to know students’ perceptions regarding classroom participation 1. can you explain in your own words what classroom participation is? can you give an example? 2. what do you think about participation? what are the benefits? 3. describe how participation is developed in your classroom. 4. how does your teacher call on students to participate in your classroom? does your teacher give a specific amount of time for classroom participation? does your teacher motivate students to participate? if so, how? can you give an example of that? why is it difficult for some students to participate in class? 5. does the teacher make the topic clear before asking for participation? how? 6. does the teacher give feedback during or after participation? how? 7. how does receiving feedback make you feel? can you give an example? 8. how would you prefer the teacher to give you feedback: written, oral, personal, general, to correct all your mistakes on the spot, not to correct all your mistakes? demotivation in efl students’ pariticipation vez-lopez, sanchez hernandez, & garcia barrios 170 no. 22 why do some students rarely participate in class, while others frequently do so? 9. how often do you participate? 10. how often do you participate in the classroom if not called on? is it easy or difficult for you? 11. how do you feel when you are asked to participate? do you feel comfortable? why or why not? 12. tell me about a time when you had to participate, but you didn’t want to. what were you asked to do? how did you feel? did you feel anxious or nervous? why or why not? why do you think you felt like that? 13. tell me about a time when you wanted to participate, but you could not do it. what were you asked to do? how did you feel? did it affect your interest in participation during the rest of the class? why or why not? *note: additional follow-up questions were asked, as appropriate, with each participant. demotivation in efl students’ pariticipation vez-lopez, sanchez hernandez, & garcia barrios 171 no. 22 observation sheet specific questions: 1. why is it difficult for some students to participate in class? 2. why do some students rarely participate in class, while others frequently do? date observation #: teacher: no. boys: no. girls: classroom sitting arrangement activity teacher’s actions and responses additional field notes how often does teacher call on students to participate in the classroom. specific amount of time for classroom participation. the teacher makes the topic clear before asking for participation. the teacher gives feedback during and/or after participation. what kind of feedback does the teacher employ? the teacher encourages students to give their opinions about the topic how often do students participate? do students actively participate in class activities and discussions? do students provide useful ideas when participating in classroom discussion? demotivation in efl students’ pariticipation vez-lopez, sanchez hernandez, & garcia barrios activity teacher’s actions and responses additional field notes student initiates contribution and asks for input and/or feedback. students are focused and interested. students are cooperative and responsive. students seem nervous or reluctant to participate. how do students respond to feedback? how often do students participate if not called on? students refuse to participate. students often disrupt or discourage others’ attempts to participate. 172 no. 21 demotivation in efl students’ pariticipation how to reference this article: sánchez-hernández, d. i., vez lópez, e., & garcíabarrios, y. (2021). factors that de-motivate efl students’ class participation at a school of languages. gist – education and learning research journal, 22(1), 147-172. https://doi. org/10.26817/16925777.860 editorial carlo granados-beltrán, phd* welcome to a new edition of gist journal. i want to start by thanking the members of our editorial and scientific committees, authors, and readers for their help during these uncertain times. this issue is a sample of the wide variety of topics in elt researchers are interested in. some contributions address disciplinary knowledge, for example, assessment and the teaching and learning of skills, whereas others contribute to the sociocultural component of elt. disciplinary contributions are represented by romero-villamil and guzmán martínez who inquired about how the implementation of instructional subtitled videos help students’ increase students’ range of vocabulary. the next two articles addressed assessment. ramírez narrates his experience regarding the challenges faced when designing of a placement test for a colombian public university and giraldo discusses the implications of task-based assessment for language classrooms. authors gözüküçük and günbaş from turkey present how fourth graders’ reading comprehension through computer-based reading texts. also, rincón-ussa, fandiño-parra, and cortés describe an implementation of ict-mediated teaching strategies to promote both autonomy and collaborative learning in a teacher education program. an area that has not been quite explored in elt is the ways english is taught to university students from other majors; in this direction, torres-escobar and correa-lópez analyzed how bilingualism english-spanish could be promoted in undergraduate psychology programs. in relation to sociocultural aspects, nieto-gómez and clavijo-olarte explored local literacies in an eap program by using community assets. vásquez-guarnizo, chía-ríos and tobar-gómez inquired efl students’ perceptions of gender stereotypes. in the same vein, castillo and flórez-martelo addressed the experiences hard-of-hearing people when learning a foreign language. also, garcía-ponce studies the influence of discrimination in the field of tesol in mexico from the perspectives mexican efl teachers. finally, olaya and gonzález-gonzález present the impact of 6 no. 21 cooperative learning to foster reading skills in an engineering program. we hope to continue communicating findings and reflections from both colombian and international english language teachers so that we consolidate a community of learning, practice, and research. *carlo granados-beltran phd editor in chief holds a phd in education from universidad santo tomás, an ma in british cultural studies and elt from the university of warwick and an ma in applied linguistics to tefl from universidad distrital. he is the academic director at the ba in bilingual education at única. he has been teacher of the language department at universidad central, the ba programmes in spanish and languages and spanish and english at universidad pedagógica nacional and the ba in modern languages at universidad javeriana. also, he is guest lecturer for the ma in language teaching at uptc efl students’ suggestions to maintain their willingness to communicate in online english language lessons1 sugerencias de estudiantes de inglés como lengua extranjera para mantener su disposición a comunicarse en lecciones de inglés en línea tevfik dariyemez atatürk university, turkey ahmet erdost yastibaş2 gazi university, turkey 1 received: june 19th, 2023 / accepted: october13th, 2023 2 dariyemez48@gmail.com, ahmetyastibas1@gmail.com gist education and learning research journal. issn 1692-5777. no. 26 (january june, 2023). pp. 7-27. 8 no. 26 abstract willingness to communicate (wtc) enhances proficiency for students of english as a foreign language (efl) and has become a significant research topic. in the literature, several studies focus on the reasons that affect the wtc of efl students. yet, little is known about efl students’ suggestions to maintain their wtc in online english language lessons. therefore, the present study aims to find out efl students’ suggestions to maintain their wtc in online english language lessons. it was designed as a qualitative case study. a group of 40 turkish efl students participated in the present study. the data were collected through an open-ended question online, and participants’ responses were analyzed thematically. the participants made several suggestions related to lessons, topics, activities, teachers, classrooms, assignments, and programs. the findings were discussed, the limitations of the study were explained, and suggestions for further studies were made. keywords: willingness to communicate, online english language lessons, efl students, suggestions to maintain willingness to communicate resumen la voluntad de comunicarse (vdc) mejora el dominio de los estudiantes de inglés como lengua extranjera (efl) y se ha convertido en un tema de investigación importante. en la literatura, varios estudios se centran en los motivos que afectan el vdc de los estudiantes de inglés como lengua extranjera. sin embargo, se sabe poco sobre las sugerencias de los estudiantes de inglés como lengua extranjera de mantener su vdc en las lecciones de inglés en línea. por lo tanto, el presente estudio tiene como objetivo conocer las sugerencias de los estudiantes de inglés como lengua extranjera para mantener su vdc en las lecciones de inglés en línea. fue diseñado como un estudio de caso cualitativo. en el presente estudio participó un grupo de 40 estudiantes turcos de inglés como lengua extranjera. los datos se recopilaron a través de una pregunta abierta en línea y las respuestas de los participantes se analizaron temáticamente. los participantes hicieron varias sugerencias relacionadas con lecciones, temas, actividades, maestros, aulas, tareas y programas. se discutieron los hallazgos, se explicaron las limitaciones del estudio y se hicieron sugerencias para estudios adicionales. palabras clave: voluntad de comunicarse, lecciones de inglés en línea, estudiantes de inglés como lengua extranjera, sugerencias para mantener la disposición de comunicarse. efl students’ suggestions to maintain willingness to communicate in online english lessons 9 no. 26 resumo a disposição para se comunicar (dpc) aprimora a proficiência para estudantes de inglês como língua estrangeira (efl) e tornou-se um tópico significativo de pesquisa. na literatura, vários estudos se concentram nas razões que afetam a (dpc) dos estudantes de efl. no entanto, pouco se sabe sobre as sugestões dos estudantes de efl para manter sua (dpc) em aulas online de inglês. portanto, o presente estudo tem como objetivo descobrir as sugestões dos estudantes de efl para manter sua (dpc) em aulas online de inglês. foi projetado como um estudo de caso qualitativo. um grupo de 40 estudantes turcos de efl participou do presente estudo. os dados foram coletados por meio de uma pergunta aberta online, e as respostas dos participantes foram analisadas tematicamente. os participantes fizeram várias sugestões relacionadas a aulas, tópicos, atividades, professores, salas de aula, tarefas e programas. os resultados foram discutidos, as limitações do estudo foram explicadas, e sugestões para estudos futuros foram feitas. palavras-chave: disposição para comunicar, aulas online de língua inglesa, estudantes de efl, sugestões para manter a disposição para comunicar. tevfik dariyemez and ahmet erdost yastibaş 10 no. 26 willingness to communicate (wtc) plays a significant role in the development of english language skills of english as a foreign language (efl) students in face-to-face and online english language lessons because they are usually required to use english to express their opinions, feelings, attitudes, and beliefs. it is also part of student participation essential for language learning (cao, 2011). therefore, it becomes significant to understand what wtc is and which factors can affect efl students’ wtc in face-to-face and online english language lessons, which is explained by reviewing several studies which focus on those factors. the context of these studies is mainly traditional l2 classrooms and more recently online learning environments. willingness to communicate wtc was coined in the literature by mccroskey and baer in 1985 based on burgoon’s (1976) study that explored unwillingness to communicate in the first language (l1) and basically meant eagerness to initiate and pursue a conversation in l1 (as cited in macintyre et al., 1998). then, in the 1990s, wtc in the second language (l2) started to become popular. wtc in l2 is defined as “a readiness to enter into discourse at a particular time with a specific person or persons, using a l2” (macintyre et al., 1998, p.547). before moving to the studies conducted on wtc in face-to-face and online l2 learning environments, this section will discuss the importance of wtc in l2 learning.   willingness to communicate in second language learning as macintyre et al. (1998) argued, wtc in l2 has a more complex system to decipher than wtc in l1, and knowledge or competence in a language is the determining factor in lowering or increasing wtc. if l2 students have low language competency, they are expected to have less wtc. shao and gao (2016) also argued that wtc in l2 depends more on the situation than wtc in l1 because the wtc levels of l2 students may fluctuate significantly due to the language domain. to illustrate, students are less likely to initiate a conversation in english in a situation in which they are bored, sad, sleepy, anxious, or distracted or they are not interested in the topics discussed in the courses (macintyre et al., 1998). such behavior is acceptable, but what sounds alarming is when students prefer to remain reticent about answering questions or joining classroom discussions habitually (macintyre & doucette, 2010). wtc is crucial to initiate a conversation in l2 (kang, 2005). also, l2 students with high wtc could get the chance to increase the frequency of practicing english speaking both inand out-of-classroom (kang, 2005). as a result, it plays a pivotal role in l2 development. efl students’ suggestions to maintain willingness to communicate in online english lessons 11 no. 26 theoretical framework of l2 willingness to communicate the importance of situational wtc in l2 learning environments is evident, and theories to conceptualize l2 wtc rely heavily on these situational variables (kang, 2005; macintyre et al., 1998). to demonstrate the factors that affect l2 wtc, macintyre et al. (1998) developed a model for l2 wtc composed of “communication behavior, behavioral intention, situated antecedents of communication, motivational propensities, the affective and cognitive context, and the societal and individual context” (p.547). according to macintyre et al. (1998), the first one, communication behavior, refers to a person’s willingness to look for opportunities to communicate and make communication, the second one, behavioral intention, is related to whether he/she wants to behave by using a l2, the third one indicates his/her will to make communication with other people and his/her situational self-confidence, the fourth one focuses on his/her motivation toward other people and groups and self-confidence in l2, the fifty one deals with his/her attitudes toward different groups, the type of social situations he/she is in, and his/her communicative competence, and the last one is based on the atmosphere/climate between different groups and his/her personality. these variables could be influenced by one another and have an interrelated effect on l2 wtc (yashima, 2002).  studies on willingness to communicate in english language teaching there have been numerous studies conducted on wtc in l2 (refers to english hereafter) internationally. these studies mainly focus on the factors that can affect wtc in traditional l2 classrooms and more recently in online learning environments. these studies list both trait-like and state-like variables that can either increase or decrease wtc. wtc among l2 learners is closely related to the english proficiency levels of students (tan & phariot, 2018), self-confidence (cao, 2011; kruk, 2021; lee & hsieh, 2019; mulyono & saskia, 2021; şener, 2014), pleasant classroom atmosphere (aomr et al., 2020; cao, 2011; punyaporn & soontornwipast, 2022), motivation (lee & liu, 2022; ma et al., 2019), anxiety (dewaele, 2019; kruk, 2021; lee & hsieh, 2019; mulyono & saskia, 2021; punyaporn & soontornwipast, 2022), previous negative experiences (kruk, 2019), methods and strategies applied in language teaching (cao, 2011; kamdideh & barjesteh, 2019; kruk, 2021; zhang et al., 2022), technostress, which is what brod (1984) defined as “a modern disease of adaptation caused by an inability to cope with new computer technologies in a healthy manner”(p. 16), (kruk, 2021; lee & liu, 2022; punyaporn & soontornwipast, 2022), and psychology (macintyre & doucette, 2010; zhang et al., 2022). this set of factors that affect levels of wtc is interconnected, and their outcomes vary greatly. due to the dynamic nature of wtc, these factors are also quite tevfik dariyemez and ahmet erdost yastibaş 12 no. 26 unpredictable and may change depending on a specific learning environment (kruk, 2021). tan and phairot (2018) argued that there is a correlation between students’ proficiencies and their wtc levels. students who are proficient users of english are also those with high wtc, and such students tend to perform better on exams (zhang et al., 2022) and being successful contributes to the l2 self-confidence of students. students with l2 self-confidence tend to have high wtc (cao, 2011; kruk, 2021; lee & hsieh, 2019; mulyono & saskia, 2021). in fact, the most striking variable that affects wtc in the activities done in the class is self-confidence (şener, 2014). being l2 competent and self-confident may not be sufficient for high wtc without a pleasant learning atmosphere. this could explain why research shows l2 learners are more willing to practice english speaking outside the classroom than in the classroom (başöz & erten, 2018; isma & baharuddin, 2022). as a result, the significance of a pleasant classroom atmosphere in increasing l2 wtc is evident (aomr et al., 2020; cao, 2011; punyaporn & soontornwipast, 2022). for dewaele (2019), a pleasant classroom atmosphere is a non-threatening setting where mistakes are tolerated, and students feel free to use the target language. in a study conducted by punyaporn and soontornwipast (2022), positive behaviors of peers or interlocutors and open-minded and approachable language teachers were found to increase the wtc levels of students considerably. it is indisputable that language teachers are partially responsible for creating a pleasant classroom atmosphere, both traditional and online through some pedagogical and technical supports (lee & liu, 2022); however, they may need to be supported and trained on how to accomplish that (aomt et al., 2020). moreover, students are eager to speak more if they are surrounded by friendly students with high wtc (kruk, 2021). their friends may encourage them to speak, or they may get motivated to speak when they see that their friends are willing to speak. not surprisingly, having higher motivation levels is another factor that affects l2 wtc as students with higher instrumental motivation are also those with higher wtc levels (lee & liu, 2022; ma et al., 2019). research shows that foreign language classroom anxiety can decrease wtc (dewaele, 2019). the studies conducted in online or hybrid l2 learning environments claim that students often feel less anxious in online settings and tend to have higher wtc compared to traditional classroom settings (kruk, 2021; lee & hsieh, 2019; mulyono & saskia, 2021; punyaporn & soontornwipast, 2022). this finding can be explained in various ways. students may feel less anxious about making mistakes in online settings, and using avatars may create an anxiety-free learning environment which may give the courage to introverted students and help them boost their l2 wtc (kruk, 2021). moreover, punyaporn and soontornwipast (2022) argue that shy students may feel more comfortable in online classrooms where they are not required to open their cameras while practicing english speaking. efl students’ suggestions to maintain willingness to communicate in online english lessons 13 no. 26 another factor that affects their l2 wtc is the quality of the speaking practices, that is, whether a student has positive or negative experiences in speaking. previous negative experiences in speaking practices could distort the interest and motivation of students and thus lower their wtc (kruk, 2019). however, positive experiences when they see that they can understand what is being said in l2 may build their confidence and help them become more eager to talk (kruk, 2021). on the other hand, having little or no background knowledge about the topics being discussed may result in negative experiences (kang, 2005). obviously, students tend to speak more if they are provided with interesting topics and tasks (cao, 2011; kruk, 2021; zhang et al., 2022) and talk more about the topics they know well.  another crucial factor that can influence wtc levels in efl classrooms is methods and strategies applied by language teachers. for example, allocating additional time to interactive activities may increase the l2 wtc levels of students (kamdideh & barjesteh, 2019). organizing one-to-one or group work activities while practising engaging activities seems to require decisions with precision. kruk (2021) noted that while group work activities are enjoyed by many interlocutors, one-to-one activities are preferred by others. language teachers need to be careful while merging in-class activities with out-of-class activities that could help students become autonomous. cao (2011) argued that group size matters in classroom activities in order not to get lost while reaching every student. students may get more excited while talking in front of a group of people (kang, 2005). kaufmann and tatum (2018) warned that when students feel they receive fair opportunities and treatment in online instruction, this could help them like their teacher and increase their wtc. technostress, which is “a modern disease of adaptation caused by an inability to cope with new computer technologies in a healthy manner” (brod, 1984, p. 16), could be another reason that decreases wtc. studies that explored the wtc levels of efl students in online education in thailand (punyaporn & soontornwipast, 2022) and in china (lee & liu, 2022) revealed that students experienced a sort of technostress. both studies reported that technical issues such as poor internet connection or power cuts faced during online learning experiences resulted in low wtc. in fact, some students in the study could not hear other interlocutors well due to some technical issues, and some had difficulties in learning about an online platform, such as second life, which is a virtual world program thanks to which language learners can create their own avatars and interact with native speakers to improve their english (kruk, 2021). as macintyre and doucette (2010) argued, the psychological state of a person may affect his/her wtc level. a happy person may have a higher wtc level than a sad person. while studying what increases or decreases l2 wtc, zhang et al. (2022) stressed the significance of psychological aspects that affect language learning. individual learner differences matter considerably, and they could result in fluctuation in the l2 wtc of students due to its dynamic nature. tevfik dariyemez and ahmet erdost yastibaş 14 no. 26 to sum up, it might be wrong to attribute wtc levels of efl students to only one factor such as personality or a situation since wtc can be affected by the joint influence of various factors (cao, 2011). as kruk (2021) argued, wtc has a dynamic nature, and it may be misleading to consider all these factors as positive or negative all the time. aim of the research and research question according to the literature review, the reasons that influence the wtc of efl students have been studied, but there is little information about how to maintain their wtc in online english language lessons. therefore, the aim of the present study is to examine student suggestions for the maintenance of their wtc in online english language lessons by posing the following open-ended research question: “what do you want to be done to maintain your wtc in online english language lessons?” methodology research design the present study was designed as a qualitative case study which aimed to research a modern phenomenon (i.e., efl students’ suggestions to maintain their willingness to communicate in online english language lessons) in its real context (i.e., in online english language lessons) as yin (2009) mentioned. participants there were 40 turkish efl students (37 females and 3 males) at a turkish university who participated in the present study. their ages were between 18 and 38. their level of english was b1, and they were studying english. data collection instrument the data were collected online through one open-ended question. it asked students “what do you want to be done to maintain your wtc in online english language lessons? explain.” efl students’ suggestions to maintain willingness to communicate in online english lessons 15 no. 26 data analysis there were 40 students when the data were collected online. all of these students answered the question individually. while twelve participants made one suggestion in their responses, the rest shared at least two suggestions in their responses to maintain their wtc in online english language lessons. the collected responses were analyzed through thematic analysis. the responses of the participant efl students to the openended question were read many times, several sub-themes emerged from the student responses, and these sub-themes were placed under main themes depending on the similarities between them. then, the findings were presented according to the themes and were interpreted in consensus with the data analysis. the themes and sub-themes are presented in table 1 below. table 1. the themes and sub-themes themes sub-themes lesson-related suggestions varying the way online english language lessons are taught shortening the length of online english language lessons changing the nature of online english language lessons accelerating the pace of online english language lessons topic-related suggestions changing the nature of the topics varying the content of the topics activity-related suggestion changing the nature of the activities teacher-related suggestions encouraging students to participate having positive attitudes classroom-related suggestions creating intimacy in online english language lessons reducing the number of students in online english language lessons increasing student participation assignment-related suggestions  reducing the number of assignments giving assignments changing the nature of the assignments program-related suggestion designing an english language program relevant to students’ level of english tevfik dariyemez and ahmet erdost yastibaş 16 no. 26 trustworthiness in-depth robust descriptions were used to make the present study more valid. that is, the findings were presented with the quotations of the participant efl students. findings the present study’s findings were presented according to the themes developed from the student responses in order: lesson-related, topic-related, activity-related, teacherrelated, classroom-related, assignment-related, and program-related suggestions. theme 1: lesson-related suggestions the first theme is lesson-related suggestions because, according to the responses of the participants, online english language lessons seem to influence the maintenance of their wtc in online english language lessons. online english language lessons appear to affect the maintenance of wtc because the participants’ responses focus on several aspects of online english language lessons which are the way online english language lessons are taught, the length of online english language lessons, the pace of online english language lessons, and the nature of online english language lessons. as a result, lesson-related suggestions are sub-themed as (a) varying the way online english language lessons are taught, (b) shortening the length of online english language lessons, (c) changing the nature of online english language lessons, and (d) accelerating the pace of online english language lessons. sub-theme 1: varying the way online english language lessons are taught the way online english language lessons are made seems to impact the maintenance of some participants in online english language lessons negatively if it is monotonous and repetitive (i.e., the lesson is always taught using the same ways). therefore, to maintain wtc in online english language lessons, it was suggested that the way online english language lessons are taught should be varied. the following quotations clearly show this. participant (p) 1: “after a certain point, our attention is distracted in the lesson. there should not be monotony in lessons.” p3: “changes can be made in the way lessons are taught.” p36: “… using different ways to get more efficiency from the lesson and increase willingness to participate…” efl students’ suggestions to maintain willingness to communicate in online english lessons 17 no. 26 sub-theme 2: shortening the length of online english language lessons the length of online english language lessons appears to have a negative effect on maintaining wtc in online english language lessons if it is long. therefore, shortening the length of online english language lessons was recommended by three participants. the quotations below support this. p2: “lessons should be short, but efficient.” p6: “some lessons are too long, and this causes distraction.” p19: “… and that lessons should not last long.” sub-theme 3: changing the nature of online english language lessons if online english languages are boring and uninteresting and if students feel uncomfortable in online english language lessons, the wtc of the participants seems to be affected negatively, so the nature of online english language lessons may affect the maintenance of wtc in online english language lessons negatively. as a result, it was recommended that online english language lessons should be made fun, interesting, and comfortable for students to maintain their wtc in online english language classes. the following quotations illustrate this. p19: “… that lessons become more fun.” p24: “making lessons more interesting.” p23: “i think the teacher should teach in a way that comforts students more.” p36: “… making lessons more interesting can help this situation to alleviate.” sub-theme 4: accelerating the pace of online english language lessons the pace of online english language lessons might influence the maintenance of the participants negatively in online english language lessons if the pace is not fast. it can be suggested that the pace of online english language lessons should become fast by p40 who implied this suggestion by writing “and that the lesson is taught very slowly becomes boring.” theme 2: topic-related suggestions the second theme was topic-related suggestions since the topics studied in online english language lessons appear to impact the maintenance of the wtc of the participants in online english language lessons negatively if they do not get the participants’ attention. the participants’ responses concentrate on the nature and content of the topics studied in online english language lessons, so this main theme is sub-themed as (a) changing the nature of the topics and (b) varying the content of the topics. tevfik dariyemez and ahmet erdost yastibaş 18 no. 26 sub-theme 1: changing the nature of the topics according to some participants, if the nature of the topics in online english language lessons does not catch their attention, their wtc may be affected negatively, so they may not maintain their wtc in online english language lessons. therefore, they recommended studying more interesting, modern, and fun topics in online english language lessons for the maintenance of their wtc in such lessons. to illustrate: p5: “…or we can make conversations about topics that we are interested in every week.” p7: “…making the topic talked about more fun with video and visuals…” p27: “up-to-date topics should be mentioned.” p31: “… and we can be asked to study the topics that catch our interest.” p32: “in lessons, more interesting topics can be practiced.” sub-theme 2: varying the content of the topics like the nature of the topics, the content of the topics studied in online english language lessons may have a negative effect on the maintenance of the wtc of the participants in online english language lessons if it does not get their attention. consequently, varying the content of the topics studied in online english language lessons was suggested to maintain wtc in online english language lessons by two participants in their responses below. p11: “… totally talking about daily life, studying daily speaking structures.” p39: “… at least different and fun contents can be provided to gather students’ attention.” theme 3: activity-related suggestion the third theme is the activity-related suggestion since like the topics studied in online english language lessons, the activities used in such lessons seem to impact the maintenance of the wtc of the participants negatively if they do not grab their attention because of being uninteresting, old, boring, and so on. as the responses of the participants focus on the nature of the activities used in online english language lessons, changing the nature of the activities is placed under this theme as its only sub-theme. sub-theme 1: changing the nature of the activities the nature of activities in an online english language lesson catches the attention of the participants by being interesting, fun, beautiful, and so on, yet if it does not, according to some participants, they may not maintain their wtc in online english language lessons. consequently, the nature of the activities used in online english efl students’ suggestions to maintain willingness to communicate in online english lessons 19 no. 26 language lessons was recommended to be changed by making them more interesting, fun, up-to-date, participative, and different. to demonstrate:     p7: “by choosing more up-to-date and fun activities that can catch our interest…” p14: “that there are more fun and interesting activities can be good.” p17: “more different activities can be done for efficient lessons.” p18: “some activities that can make the lesson more fun can be done.” p21: “there can be activities in which students can participate more in lessons.” theme 4: teacher-related suggestions the fourth theme is teacher-related suggestions because english language teachers in online english language classes seem to have a direct effect on the maintenance of the wtc of the participants in online english language lessons through their attitudes and behaviors in online english language lessons. since the focus of the participants’ responses is on teachers’ behaviors and attitudes, this theme is sub-themed as (a) encouraging students to participate and (b) having positive attitudes. sub-theme 1: encouraging students to participate according to some participants, if english language teachers encourage them to participate through their behaviors, such as giving students the right to talk, in online english language lessons, they can maintain their wtc in such lessons, but if they do not, the maintenance of their wtc in online english language lessons may be affected negatively. the quotations below indicate this: p5: “… or if individual rights to talk are given to everybody, it can become more interesting.” p7: “by choosing more up-to-date and fun activities that can catch our interest, having students comment about them in the lessons, that students express their opinions, … will maintain the participation of all students, including me, in the lesson.” p26: “it is not difficult to communicate in general, but for continuity, i think opportunities should be given like in the speaking lessons.” p28: “i want teachers to give the individuals the right to speak by saying names in the lesson.” p33: “… but if turning on his/her microphone is asked obligatorily, the student turns on his/ her microphone obligatorily.” p34: “encouraging students to talk more.” p35: “i think the fact that teachers choose the student [to talk] can be good…” tevfik dariyemez and ahmet erdost yastibaş 20 no. 26 sub-theme 2: having positive attitudes english language teachers’ attitudes in online english language lessons appear to have an influence on the maintenance of their wtc in such lessons because, according to some participants, positive attitudes seem to contribute to the maintenance of their wtc in online english language lessons. the quotations below show this. p4: “[teachers] should become understanding and provide easiness.” p29: “a concerned teacher’s helping students during the process of focusing on the lesson, …, making students not feel afraid of making mistakes intimately, building trust in this issue.” p30: “… our teachers’ encouraging us to speak through our microphone can increase this willingness. teachers’ more motivative, that is, encouraging approaches can increase this willingness.” p37: “that teachers become more understanding has a more effective role in this situation [wtc].” theme 5: classroom-related suggestions the fifth theme is classroom-related suggestions because online english language classrooms appear to have an impact on the maintenance of the participants’ wtc through its environment, its size, and the rate of student participation since the responses of the participants concentrate on these three classroom-related issues. as a result, the followings are placed under this theme as its sub-themes: (a) creating intimacy in online english language lessons, (b) reducing the number of students in online english language lessons, and (c) increasing student participation. sub-theme 1: creating intimacy in online english language lessons three participants mentioned that if the environment or atmosphere in an online english language lesson is not intimate, they may not maintain their wtc in that lesson because intimacy in an online lesson seems to trigger student wtc in that lesson. thus, creating intimacy in online english language lessons was suggested by three participants. to demonstrate: p12: “i think … and forming an intimate environment like a face-to-face classroom environment will be good.” p16: “there may be a more intimate environment.” sub-theme 2: reducing the number of students in online english language lessons the size of the classroom seems to influence two participants’ wtc negatively in online english language lessons if it is crowded, so these participants suggested efl students’ suggestions to maintain willingness to communicate in online english lessons 21 no. 26 reducing the number of students in online english language lessons to maintain their wtc in online english language lessons. the quotations below indicate this. p11: “talking with fewer students…” p12: “i think having lessons with fewer students and … will be good” sub-theme 3: increasing student participation low student participation in online english language lessons appears to reduce the wtc of two participants in such lessons, high student participation seems to contribute to their wtc. hence, to maintain wtc in online english language lessons, they recommended increasing student participation in online english language lessons. to indicate: p10: “i wish there had been a more active class.” p13: “lessons become more fun when more students participate.” theme 6: assignment-related suggestions the sixth theme is assignment-related suggestions because like the topics studied and activities used in online english language lessons, assignments appear to influence three participants’ wtc in such classes depending on their number, content, and being given. since the participants’ responses focus on the number of assignments, their content, and whether they are given or not, this theme is sub-themed as (a) reducing the number of assignments, (b) giving assignments, and (c) changing the nature of the assignments. sub-theme 1: reducing the number of assignments if the number of assignments is high in online english language lessons, the wtc of p22 who wrote “… and i am not in favor of giving many assignments. when many assignments are given, we get bored” is affected negatively and so is the maintenance of her wtc in online english language lessons. thus, reducing the number of assignments was recommended to maintain her wtc in online english language lessons. sub-theme 2: giving assignments when assignments are not given in online english language lessons, the wtc of p31 who wrote “assignments can be given” may be affected negatively, and so may the maintenance of her wtc in online english language lessons. thus, giving assignments was suggested for the maintenance of wtc in online english language lessons. tevfik dariyemez and ahmet erdost yastibaş 22 no. 26 sub-theme 3: changing the nature of the assignments the nature of the assignments seems to affect wtc in online english language lessons because p9 who wrote “i think that assignments should be based on practice more” wanted to be given practice-based assignments to maintain her wtc in online english language lessons. hence, changing the nature of the assignments could be recommended for the maintenance of wtc in online english language lessons. theme 7: program-related suggestion the last theme is the program-related suggestion because like the other parts of online english language lessons, such as topics, activities, and assignments, an english language program applied in an online english language lesson seems to impact one participant’s wtc in online english language lessons. depending on the response of p38, one sub-theme is placed under this theme. it is designing an english language program relevant to students’ level of english. sub-theme 1: designing an english language program relevant to students’ level of english if the level of an english language program used in an online english language lesson is not relevant to the english levels of the students, the wtc of p38 is influenced negatively because she wrote “i think designing a program according to the level of the class after determining it is necessary.” thus, she suggested designing an english language program relevant to students’ level of english to maintain her wtc in online english language classes. discussion to maintain their wtc in online english language lessons, the participants offered some lesson-related suggestions such as using diverse techniques to relieve the monotony, making lessons more interesting and fun, comforting students, and teaching at a faster pace in a shorter lesson time to avoid boredom. the response related to using diverse techniques to relieve the monotony shows the importance of methods and strategies applied in language teaching in increasing wtc (cao, 2011; kamdideh & barjesteh, 2019; kruk, 2021; zhang et al., 2022) because the use of different methods and strategies can avoid monotony in lessons and make lessons more fun and interesting. also, long online english language lessons might distract the participants, so they might be demotivated to communicate in english. consequently, english language teachers may follow the lesson-related suggestions in their online english language teaching practices to promote their students’ wtc.  efl students’ suggestions to maintain willingness to communicate in online english lessons 23 no. 26 the findings of the present study have also indicated that the topics studied in online english language teaching matter. the participants asked for different and fun content that involves interesting and up-to-date topics. this finding is in line with the literature which argues that students tend to speak more if they are provided with interesting topics and tasks (cao, 2011; kruk, 2021; zhang et al., 2022). therefore, english language teachers may opt for topics that are both engaging and interesting to maintain their students’ wtc in online english language lessons. moreover, the findings of the present study have shown that choosing attractive topics is not complete without delivering them through interesting, fun, diverse, up-todate, and engaging activities. the activity-related suggestions made by the participants could increase students’ motivation, which is required for keeping wtc high (lee & liu, 2022; ma et al., 2019) and is in line with literature that stresses the significance of interactive activities for wtc in english language lessons (kamdideh & barjesteh, 2019). similarly, english language teachers may explore various interesting and engaging activities to boost motivation and keep their students’ wtc high in online english language lessons. probably the largest responsibility lies on the shoulders of english language teachers. the findings of this study have clearly illustrated that they have a pivotal role in increasing their students’ wtc in online english language lessons by being understanding, providing easiness, giving students adequate time and opportunities to talk and express their opinions, encouraging them to speak more, building trust, and making students turn on their microphones in online english teaching. this finding serves as a contributor to building a classroom community because such behaviors can help students feel more secure and comfortable, so their belonging to the classroom community can enhance, which can increase and maintain their wtc in online english language lessons. in addition to english language teachers, classroom size and atmosphere matter. according to the findings of the present study, the suggestions of the participants related to classrooms involved an intimate classroom atmosphere, small class size, and an active learning environment. this finding supports the importance of a pleasant classroom atmosphere which can increase l2 students’ wtc (aomr et al., 2020; cao, 2011; punyaporn & soontornwipast, 2022). similarly, by following the classroom-related suggestions of the participants, english language teachers can create a pleasant classroom atmosphere in their classes, which can motivate the participants to communicate more.  the final remarks made by participants involve the features of assignments and the program to be followed. as understood from the findings of the present study, the participants preferred to be given assignments, especially the ones that are practical and that would not be an overload. they also added that the program (i.e., the syllabus or curriculum) should be designed in accordance with their english levels. easy tasks tevfik dariyemez and ahmet erdost yastibaş 24 no. 26 may be boring, and more difficult ones may be demotivating. to build self-confidence, students need to see that they progress and can achieve things in english. this finding matters as students with l2 self-confidence tend to have high wtc (cao, 2011; kruk, 2021; lee & hsieh, 2019; mulyono & saskia, 2021). as a result, english language teachers should be well aware of the levels of their students and apply differentiated instruction which may include interactive assignments to build the l2 confidence of their students at different l2 competencies.  to sum up, though the participants’ suggestions focus on different aspects of online english language lessons, it can be said that these aspects are interrelated. that is, an english language program decides the topic to be studied in an online english language lesson which determines the activities to be done, the assignment to be given, and the instructional methods to be used for teaching, so if the topic does not catch the attention of students, the assignment and the activities may also be uninteresting for students, which may lead to a boring classroom atmosphere. as a result, students may not maintain their wtc in that online english language lesson. therefore, the aspects of online english language lessons on which participants’ suggestions focus can be said to have a sort of joint effect on students’ wtc in online english language lessons, so their suggestions should be considered as a whole. conclusion the focus of the present study has been on the suggestions that efl students made to maintain their wtc in online english language lessons. the findings of the present study have indicated that the suggestions of the participants to be used for maintaining their wtc in online english language lessons were related to lessons, topics, activities, teachers, classrooms, assignments, and programs. the present study has two weaknesses/limitations. the first one is its research context (i.e., at a university), and the second one is the number of participants (i.e., 40 participants). 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(2022). one situation doesn’t fit all: variability and stability of state willingness to communicate in a chinese college english classroom. language teaching research, 26(3), 504-529. efl students’ suggestions to maintain willingness to communicate in online english lessons 27 no. 26 authors tevfik dariyemez is a language instructor at atatürk university. he has teaching experience both in turkey and germany. he has a phd in english linguistics. his research interests are flipped learning, speaking skills, out of class activities, gamification and distance learning. orcid id: http://0000-0001-6912-398x ahmet erdost yastibaş is an english language instructor at gazi university. he has a ph.d. degree in english language teaching. his research interests include foreign language assessment and evaluation, technology-enhanced language teaching, and foreign language teaching for sustainable purposes. orcid id: http://0000-0002-1886-7951 tevfik dariyemez and ahmet erdost yastibaş how to reference this article: dariyemez, t., &amp; yastibaş, a. e. (2023). efl students’ suggestions to maintain their willingness to communicate in online english language lessons. gist – education and learning research journal, 26. https://doi.org/10.26817/16925777.1615 portada 26.pdf (p.1) gist 26 januaryjune 2023.pdf (p.2-189) voices of the hard-ofhearing about their l2 acquisition struggles: a case study1 las voces de estudiantes con hipoacusia sobre sus retos en el aprendizaje de otro idioma: un estudio de caso rigoberto castillo phd and laura stefany florez-martelo2* universidad distrital francisco josé de caldas, colombia 1 received: january 19th 2020/ accepted: october 1st 2020 2 rcastillo@udistrital.edu.co; lauraflorezmartelo1@hotmail.com gist education and learning research journal. issn 1692-5777. no. 21 (july-december, 2020). pp. 167-190. 168 no. 21 abstract in the context of advocacy of the rights of minorities, communities should research about the learning rights of individuals with hearing loss. this article reports a case study that looked into the retrospectives and perspectives of three hard-of-hearing participants (hhs) on learning another language. the data on retrospectives refer to the participants’ narrative accounts that -as adults todayassess what they have gone through. the data on perspectives refer to what the participants wish were done about by school communities, and society. for hhs the interpretation of language goes beyond the reception of sounds; it draws on reading the body language, context, attitudes, and affectivity. the purpose of examining their testimonies, in the form of narratives, is to contribute to the understanding of how they re-signified their struggles.  the results of the study fell into three dimensions: affective, attitudinal, and communicative. these involved family, teachers, classmates, and participants. the results suggest that 1. hhs feel capable of mastering an l2 in integrated classrooms, 2. language policies and standardized exams misrepresent the hhs’ capabilities, and 3. classroom equity demands material selection and methodological adjustments as well as teacher training in inclusive practices. keywords: foreign language instruction; hard of hearing; hearing loss; inclusion; integrated classrooms; special education. resumen en el marco de la protección y defensa de los derechos de las minorías, las comunidades deben investigar más sobre los derechos de aprendizaje de las personas con deficiencias auditivas. este artículo reporta un estudio de caso que examinó las retrospectivas y perspectivas de tres hipoacúsicos sobre su aprendizaje de otro idioma en un aula integrada. los datos sobre las retrospectivas se refieren a las narrativas de los participantes que como adultos, que son hoy, evalúan su trasegar en las aulas. los datos sobre las perspectivas se refieren a aquello que ellos quisieran que cambiara en las comunidades escolares y en la sociedad. para ellos, la interpretación del lenguaje va más allá de la recepción de sonidos; requiere la lectura del lenguaje corporal, del contexto, de las actitudes y del afecto. el propósito de presentar sus testimonios es el de contribuir a la comprensión sobre cómo resignificaron su lucha y resistencia. los resultados de este estudio se situaron en las dimensiones: afectiva, actitudinal y comunicativa que involucran a la familia, los compañeros de clase, los docentes y los participantes mismos. los resultados indicaron que 1. 1os hipoacúsicos estiman que pueden aprender otro idioma en un aula, 2. las políticas lingüísticas y el manejo de los exámenes estandarizados y de los resultados no representan sus capacidades, y 3. la equidad en el aula requiere, el ajuste de metodologías, la selección de materiales y la capacitación docente en prácticas de inclusión. palabras clave: aulas inclusivas; educación especial; inclusión; hipoacusia; lenguas extranjeras; pérdida auditiva. voices of hard-of-hearing in l2 acquisition castillo & flórez-martelo 169 no. 21 resumo no âmbito da proteção e defesa dos direitos das minorias, as comunidades devem pesquisar mais sobre os direitos de aprendizagem das pessoas com deficiências auditivas. este artigo reporta um estudo de caso que examinou as retrospectivas e perspectivas de três hipoacústicos sobre a sua aprendizagem de outro idioma em uma sala de aula integrada. os dados sobre as retrospectivas se referem às narrativas dos participantes que como adultos, que são hoje, avaliam seu trasfegar nas salas de aula. os dados sobre as perspectivas se referem àquilo que eles gostariam que mudasse nas comunidades escolares e na sociedade. para eles, a interpretação da linguagem vai mais além da recepção de sons; requer a leitura da linguagem corporal, do contexto, das atitudes e do afeto. o propósito de apresentar as suas testemunhas é o de contribuir à compreensão sobre como redefiniram sua luta e resistência. os resultados deste estudo situaram-se nas dimensões: afetiva, atitudinal e comunicativa que envolve a família, os colegas de aula, os docentes e os participantes mesmos. os resultados indicaram que 1. primeiros hipoacústicos consideram que podem aprender outro idioma em uma sala de aula; 2. as políticas linguísticas e o manejo das provas padronizadas e dos resultados não representam suas capacidades; e 3. a equidade na sala de aula requer o ajuste de metodologias, a seleção de materiais e a capacitação docente em práticas de inclusão. palavras chave: aulas inclusivas; educação especial; inclusão; hipoacústica; línguas estrangeiras; perda auditiva. voices of hard-of-hearing in l2 acquisition castillo & flórez-martelo 170 no. 21 introduction in 1824, ludwig van beethoven presented the ninth symphony however, the musician was unable to hear people´s ovations and euphoria the night of the debut. this almost deaf musician that struggled with his ailment all his life, managed to compose one of the most outstanding works of music (prevot, 2020). two centuries after the ninth symphony debut, hearing loss is still invisible and misunderstood. the world health organization (2019) estimates that there are 466 million persons with disabling hearing loss (6.1% of the world’s population). many deaf (hereafter d) and hard of hearing individuals (hereafter hhs) struggle to fit the world and receive little help from their communities. in colombia, 17.3% of people have limitations to hear (dane, 2005). furthermore, “sensorineural hypoacusis induced by noise in the workplace has led to a significant increase in reports of hearing damage, resulting in a social and public health problem”. (tilano-vega et al, 2014). this case study puts forth the thesis that a disability does not exist in the individual alone but in a society incapable of adjusting to differences. the purpose of this inquiry was to interpret how three hhs aged 18, 20, and 26 assessed their l2 learning. the research question that guided this investigation was: how do three hard of hearing individuals make sense of their schooled l2 learning? the literature presents views from health and education but we could not trace works on the perspectives of the hhs themselves as learners of another language (l2). this inquiry considered research-based and theory-based literature from a medical and socio-cultural view of hearing loss. for the ministry of education of colombia, (m.e.n, 2007) an “impairment in hearing may affect the student’s educational performance” (p.6). regarding the medical perspective, jambor & elliott (2005) explain that “those who adhere to a medical/pathological view and do not recognize the cultural or linguistic aspects of their deafness, being deaf is a disability and disorder.” (p.67). for those who identify with the deaf community, it is a part of their total identity”. this sociocultural perspective focuses on the deaf as a cultural and linguistic minority group with rights to be advocated for. hard-of-hearing problems demand more than a technological solution of either an implant or a hearing aid; families and communities need an understanding of discrimination and barriers to access that are bound culturally. this article analyses the narratives of society’s failure or refusal to accommodate their difference. we concur with garden (2010, p.62) that “alternative conceptions of deafness are available and can help both hearing parents and deaf children to adjust positively to the diagnosis and subsequent therapeutic and educational approaches.” hhs within the deafness spectrum are in the middle of two worlds, they do not have enough hearing loss to be deaf or enough hearing capacity to be ‘hearing’. hence, they find challenging to fit a group and understand their identity. despite the belief voices of hard-of-hearing in l2 acquisition castillo & flórez-martelo 171 no. 21 that profound deafness may affect in a greater extent the life of the individuals in comparison with those with residual hearing the author also explains that ‘those with a profound hearing loss are often forced to come to terms with their deafness and to arrange their lives according to this condition.’’ (jambor & elliott, 2005, p.66). on the other hand, for hhs with a lower level of deafness arrange their lives according to their hearing loss may be more difficult since ‘those with some residual hearing are often caught in the middle since they may do not define themselves as deaf, yet they cannot fully function as hearing in a world that relies on hearing and speech. this may lead to frustrating experiences and a diminished self-regard’ (p.67). about l2 acquisition, hhs find challenging language articulation and comprehension. asha (2005) explains that lack of hearing capacity causes a delay in the development of receptive and expressive communication skills characterized by the misperception of voiceless sounds such as ch, g, f, k, p, s, or t and speakers replace or exclude them in their speech. for filling the gaps in understanding hhs may use lip-reading and visual strategies. however, there are limitations for mouth shapes such as /b/, /p/ /m/ look the same. similarly, words and numbers such as 50,15, or 60,16 sound the same. most hh children cannot hear word endings such as /s/ or /ed/. this disturbs verb tenses, plural forms, non-agreement of subject and verb, and possessives. (asha, 2005). it also affects l2 learning directly because they find challenging to identify suffixes that add meaning to words. while in socialization, jambor & elliott (2005) express that “strong identification with one’s in-group is assumed to have a positive influence on self-esteem because it provides a sense of belonging and serves as a buffer against the negative impact of prejudice and discrimination’’ (p.67). in the case of the hhs identifying themselves as members of a group is complicated. kemmery (2014) concluded that definitions depended on the individual and must be respected and that the feeling of misplacement increases the risk of isolation and depression. furthermore, díaz & cubillos (2014) identified four discourses toward teaching an l2 to hhs: approbation, uncertainty, skepticism, and constructive criticism. their study concluded that the power of attitude constituted the response to turn a difficulty into a possibility. these discourses were reflected in our case study. our three participants felt capable of mastering an l2 in integrated classrooms, meaning that they do not feel they should attend special education classrooms. beltrán, martinez, and vargas (2015) explain that the law establishes that schools that enroll students with limitations must gradually adapt their plans following the principle of integration to serve all learners. in this sense, integrated institutions and classrooms, refer to those that enroll students. with or without special conditions. in the same educational space. however, the three participants expressed that their schools rarely had curricular, organizational, pedagogical adaptations, of physical, technological resources, educational materials, training teacher improvement, and, in general, of accessibility. voices of hard-of-hearing in l2 acquisition castillo & flórez-martelo 172 no. 21 the three hhs’ narrative memories receive the name of retrospectives and what they would like to see happening are their perspectives. this case study is coherent with the call for educators to gain knowledge of the psychological and social functioning of d/hh expressed in dogamala et al., (2016). hearing loss is not a limitation but a challenge for schools, instructors, learners, and all of society. disabilities exist because the communities perceive them as a disease instead of a form of diversity. communities who devote time and resources to educate parents, teachers and others can offer a deeper understanding of a disability we consider that the issues discussed here value teacher knowledge and experience and we call for reinforcing them to guide and inspire. this report first presents the problem in the voices of the three participants, then discusses the background and method. the results are grouped under affective, communicative, and attitudinal dimensions. the problem in the voices of three hard of hearing l2 learners three hard-of-hearing individuals (hhs), that go by the pseudonym of famous hhs ludwig (van beethoven), (bill) clinton, and (thomas alva) edison, offered the views of their l2 experiences in integrated (other calls them regular) schools. they attended a specialized clinic where one of the authors of this article, an hh herself, does volunteer work. this section echoes their voices, which the authors of this article translated into english. for ludwig: my classmates see me as someone who stays away from them. that is odd because they perceive that i hate them and other countless things. it angers me to give that impression. …all the whispering and background noise is quite hard to assimilate. i don’t know, one cannot concentrate. ludwig’s perspectives and retrospectives touched upon underlying beliefs that account for the feelings and behaviors of the actors involved and he said he advocated for inclusion. clinton elaborated on problematic areas of the school environment. my classmates see me as a calm person, who sometimes does not understand, but who is a good and friendly person. and then clearly if i hear background noise, chatting, and knowing that i am doing my best to follow the teacher becomes a nuisance that puts you out of the game practically. it is like that people should become aware that i am giving my best to hear the teacher. voices of hard-of-hearing in l2 acquisition castillo & flórez-martelo 173 no. 21 many times teachers used to play a tape for listening work, which i found difficult to understand. i almost never caught what they said. i had to remind the teacher of my condition. in my case, i think that large classes are a problem for us. so i told the teacher how ... sometimes teachers go around the classroom because they also have to give priority to those who are in the back of the room. the testimonies suggest that schools, teachers, and schoolmates’ negative attitudes affect hhs; they need more cognitive, affective, and social support to overcome anxiety and frustration. marschark, spencer, adams, & sapere (2011) remark the difference in cognitive processes between d/hhs and hearing students. they explain that “some of those differences are the product of the reliance of d/hh individuals on visuospatial processing; some result of lesser access to incidental learning during childhood, and others reflect – in a circular fashion – the failure of educators to recognize and accommodate the classroom strengths and needs of d/hh’’ (p.5). edison’s testimony corroborates the other two angles of the problem. at school, i had to be as visual as possible, but it was difficult because the teacher was in a corner of the room, moved, and then i asked her if she could speak a little slower because i did not understand her and she did not want. that is, she did not want to help me with that because she had to teach a lesson and everything. she did not spend a couple of minutes writing the topic so i felt as if she did not care. the perspectives dealt with aspects of others’ attitudes, behaviors, and emotions that are worth investigating. hearing loss is often misunderstood and hhs tend to experience loneliness and isolation due to misconceptions. as hellen keller (in goodreads, 2019) pointed, “blindness separates us from things; deafness separates us from people.” ludwig, clinton, and edison reported the need for solidarity of teachers and classmates because classroom practices affect hhs understanding and emotions. background. the first issue is the communication barrier. the hh condition can be more complex than profound deafness in terms of language acquisition. the deaf can fully communicate in their l1, sign language, while many hhs cannot because they grew up as oralists with no exposure to signs. these considerations were taken into account in the data analysis of our study. jambor & elliott (2005) state that hhs need further cues, such as face-to-face communication with constant eye contact, lip-reading, and understanding body language. since these are rarely available in encounters with hearing people, hhs are likely to lose key information. with their residual auditory capacity, hhs acquire the mother tongue as l1 and another language as an l2, but the obstacles in communication are permanent in both, “even the use of hearing aids cannot fully solve the problem since these assistive devices cannot make other people’s speech clearer, only a bit louder.” (jambor & elliott, 2005, p.66) voices of hard-of-hearing in l2 acquisition castillo & flórez-martelo 174 no. 21 education policy in colombia states that english is “essential” for any society interested in being part of global academic, cultural, and economic dynamics (m.e.n, 2006). however, priority should be given to mitigate the segregation of minorities. m.e.n (2004) regulates the l2 requirement for students with hearing loss mentioning that ‘if possible, they should master spoken and written english or be exempted from this requirement (…). however, if a reference to documents in another language is necessary for the development of a subject, the deaf student, like any other, should look for strategies to access information’’ (m.e.n, 2004, p.12). the documents on basic learning rights for english (m.e.n, 2016 b) and the suggested curriculum for english (m.e.n, 2016 c) do not contain any reference to disabilities. ramirez, tapasco & zuluaga (2009) reported an increase in the enrolment of deaf students in higher education. similarly, cardona & pereira (2011) state that as part of the policy, professionals need to achieve a b2 level including the d/hh population. in contrast, icfes (2017) expresses that: persons who, due to a proven diagnosis, present limitations that make it difficult for them to learn foreign languages will be excluded from taking the english module. this includes, but is not limited to, persons with any condition of cognitive, auditory, or visual impairment, regardless of whether or not they require an interpreter (article 10). exemptions from the fl requirement signals low expectations from institutions and contradict the demand for english language proficiency for professionals since hhs also require it to graduate from the university. insor (2009) and ochoa, angulo & aparicio (2017) analyzed the current policies on the d/hh population and concluded that there is a need for an inclusive educational model that responds to labor needs and the growth of their participation in society. in sum, learning rights demands actions for inclusive practices, adjustments to the course and materials design, formation, and adaptation. in the quest for equity, the exemption of requirements should be interpreted as exclusion. scholars like szymanski, lutz, shahan, and gala (2013) identified the lack of knowledge as the main obstacle in teaching that results in low expectations, inadequate perception of educators in considering hearing loss as an excuse for learners not to do their work. similarly, domagała-zyśk (2013) reports that teaching efl to d/hh that despite problems derived from lip-reading, they showed the capacity to produce texts at different levels of complexity. about roles, szymanski, lutz, shahan, & gala or domagała-zyśk (2013) claim that being a pedagogue for the deaf is not enough but knowing about the psychological and social functioning of d/hh is compulsory and highlight the role of the commitment of both teachers and learners for developing practices outside of school boundaries. domagała-zyśk and kontra (2016) collected strategies for d/hh mentioning the benefit of cued speech for producing intelligible talking and better comprehension voices of hard-of-hearing in l2 acquisition castillo & flórez-martelo 175 no. 21 because it shows speech visually and in real-time resulting useful for developing literacy, speech, and intensive as well as extensive listening. adaptations and monitoring of audio material to the hhs’ styles and world knowledge are a must. while guiberson (2014) found that d/hh children can acquire an l2 without affecting l1 development. l1 proved stronger in the bilingual children than in the monolinguals who participated in that study suggesting that d/hhs benefit from l2 instruction. likewise, muñoz (2015) claims that d/hhs can achieve a proper level of l2. method this investigation was based on the subjectivity of three individuals’ understandings. we followed a qualitative research “characterized by an interpretative paradigm which emphasizes subjective experiences and the meanings they have for an individual” (rebojli ,2013. p.30). the context of this study was a medical center specialized in technical support and therapies for the d/hhs in bogotá, colombia. it provided the contacts and served as the place of encounter with the participants whose pseudonyms correspond to famous hhs: edison for thomas alva edison, clinton for president bill clinton, and ludwig for ludwig van beethoven. table 1 summarizes the participant’s characteristics. two are university students and the other graduated from college. the three have profound hearing loss; one still benefits from hearing aids but the others have cochlear implants that are no longer useful.  their diagnoses took place in the first stage of their lives and since then, they counted with the technological and medical support available. they attended integrated schools, are oralists, and do not know sign language. they learned english in colombia and afterward stayed in english-speaking countries. table 1. characterization of the participants the analysis via narratives constituted a way to make sense of the experience to construct the meaning of their l2 learning contexts. for guerrero (2011) “narrative is voices of hard-of-hearing in l2 acquisition castillo & flórez-martelo 176 no. 21 a system of understanding that we use to construct and express meaning in our daily lives” (p.89). hearing loss was explored beyond the medical perspective and considered social, affective, attitudinal, and communicative issues informed. the narratives were derived from interviews and autobiographical writings. they compiled experiences that were socially situated knowledge constructions that involved meanings and values (polkinghorne, 1995) following grounded theory principles, the data collection and analysis were interrelated. the data organization consisted of grouping according to the dimensions and units of analysis identified. for interpreting, the data and the hypotheses were scrutinized. the data collection took four sessions: in the first, they did autobiographic writings (appendix 1). the second involved the application of a semi-structured written interview (appendix 2). the third had a semi-structured oral interview, (appendix 3) and the fourth a semi-structured interview (appendix 4). table 2 summarizes the dimensions and categories of analysis. the perspectives and retrospectives were grouped in categories of analysis within three dimensions of human development: affective, communicative, and attitudinal. these allowed the understanding of l2 learning processes. table 2. categories of analysis the dimensions collected the meaning that participants assigned to emotions, socialization communication, and attitudes. ocampo (2011) states that “the communicative dimension is known as the group of potentialities of humans that allows them to make sense and meaning for themselves and represent it through the language for interacting with others” (p.60). in our analysis, affection, emotions, socialization, communication, and attitudes interweave. attitude constitutes a psychological construct of beliefs, feelings, and behaviors which accounts for emotions, behaviors, and actions forming ideas and opinion. díaz (2002) states ‘attitudes refer to something concrete, that is to say, the attitude is toward an object, person or particular situation. attitudes are not innate in humans but learned about what is favorable or unfavorable for them, and it makes them behave in one way or another (p.152). in this case study, the foci on the affective, communicative, and attitudinal dimensions shed light on the understandings of schooled l2 learning for hh students. it encompassed the three participants’ integral development as well as the linguistic and pedagogical aspects. voices of hard-of-hearing in l2 acquisition castillo & flórez-martelo 177 no. 21 results the results are in line with the affective, communicative, and attitudinal dimensions examined. the affective dimension comprised the classmates, teachers’ and families’ empathy -or lack of ittowards hhs’ condition. the communicative dimension encompassed the participants’ perception of communication with teachers, and their self-perception of communication. the attitudinal dimension involved the perception of the teachers’ attitudes, institutions, and their attitudes towards l2 learning. the results responded to the research question, how do three hard of hearing individuals make sense of their schooled l2 learning? the participants made sense of the l2 learning process in the narratives which analysis yielded the results discussed next. result no. 1. hhs feel misrepresented in current educational policies and standardized exams. there seems to be a myth about the lack of capacity of hhs to learn an l2 in colombia. the low expectations go beyond doubting their capacities and it is reflected in how scores in standardized national exams are reported. saber 11, is a high school exit examination administered annually in colombian high schools for school leavers. the exam is similar to the sat and act standard examinations taken by high school students in the united states. the scores count to access for admission to higher education and financial aid, but the section of the english language is not reported for hhs. hhs’ scores are not reported in the added results that show their position in reference groups because they claimed that these may affect schools› and institutions› scores.  similarly, the  colombian  state examination of the quality of higher education saber pro, which is part of a group of instruments to exercise government inspection and supervision of the educational field does not report hh’s scores in the added scores. the three participants reason that their learning rights are ignored in current educational policies. very few of the 17.3% of the population with hearing loss in colombia receive support from the health or the educational system. their learning rights are affected by the lack of resources and the development of communication tools that give the deaf access to education. for tilano-vega et al (2014), “the history of exclusion endured by the hearing impaired continues to this day, despite policy decisions” (p.2).  the administration and scoring of standardized national exams present contradictions and misunderstandings of the capacities of hh individuals. regarding l2, icfes (2016) states that: those who, due to proven diagnosis presents a limitation that hinders foreign language learning will be excluded from taking the english section of the test voices of hard-of-hearing in l2 acquisition castillo & flórez-martelo 178 no. 21 and, therefore, will not obtain a score. the foregoing includes, but is not limited to, persons with any condition of cognitive, auditory, or visual disability, regardless of whether or not they require an interpreter. (resolution 455, article 5) the above is inconsistent with the ability that hhs have to learn an l2 successfully. the english test does not differ from other disciplines. saber 11 or saber pro do not evaluate listening comprehension. hence, exempting hhs to take this exam for considering l2 acquisition difficult has no grounds. clinton illustrates this point: well, i had a good sore; it was 70 percent. well, that was a long time ago because now the rating is different, but 70% was very good because in colombia the average back then was 40. unfortunately, students with any limitations are not only exempted from the english language section but are not reported in scoring either. it is evident in the article 5 that explains that “the percentiles indicated in numerals 2.2, 2.3 and 3.2 of article 5 will not be calculated for people with cognitive, auditory or visual disabilities” (par.2). these policies show the low expectation that the colombian state and government have toward the population with disabilities. nevertheless, the m.e.n claims that policies aim to include students in schools as some schools do not register students with special conditions because these consider it will affect the institution score in saber 11 or saber pro. exclusion from the calculation does not give test-takers, with a special condition, the opportunity to know their position at the national level, in their reference group or cohort in both generic and specific competencies, and this also limits the access to benefits designed for students with high scores such as scholarships and credits condonation. on the other hand, the test booklet is the same for all students without adaptation, and the english module is not mandatory for students with disabilities. in other countries, if you have a documented disability, you may be eligible for accommodations such as extended time, extra and extended breaks, someone who reads to you instead of audio-recordings, large-type test books or braille test books, etc. icfes do not adapt to any disability including blindness. these policies assure that this is the ‘best way to include’ students. icfes (2016) states: the examiners of any of the higher education quality state exams that present at least one condition of disability, in the terms defined by the colombian norms, will not be included in the population of reference groups for the calculation of aggregates. (article 9) the above explains why clinton decided to register as a regular student. he took saber pro, but he did not mention his condition in the registration for the exam because he knew it would complicate his process and test administrators would not voices of hard-of-hearing in l2 acquisition castillo & flórez-martelo 179 no. 21 consider his good score at all. no, [laughing] regular, because if i did it as someone with a disability, they would have sent me to a university with sign language. test administrators do not seem to understand that people with auditory difficulties do not always need an interpreter but other adaptations, for example, explaining to proctors the dynamics of the exams and how to give clear instructions. similarly, ludwig said about icfes resolution: well, you have to see it in many ways, first that they [institutions] should treat you in the same conditions of others who take the test, they should also ensure that you are in the right environment to take it. you must continue insisting until they allow you to take the test without limitations, nor prevent you from competing at the same level as people who do not have any type of disability. ludwig understands that inclusion does not imply excluding students from modules but providing a proper environment. regarding this, edison reacted: i do not really agree with that because first, it seems to me that it is discrimination because they do not know what the person is capable of doing, speaking, listening, etc., so we have the right to take everything, everything that is included there. it seems to me that it is a form of exclusion. this resolution limits the hhs’ opportunity of learning about their placement. recognition means to support as ‘information leading the subject to believe that he is cared for and loved, esteemed, and a member of a network of mutual obligations’ (cobb,1976, p.300). the author explains that the support involves three types of information ‘information leading the subject to believe that he is cared for and loved, information leading the subject to believe that he is esteemed and valued, and information that one is valued and esteemed is most effectively proclaimed in public. (cobb,1976, p.300). the three participants estimate that these policies affect learning rights. being these actions a contradiction to develop inclusive dynamics, schools require understanding resources, adjustments, and exemptions. this study holds the view that not only hhs have the same ability to learn an l2 as any other but consider the so-called “inclusive policies” a form of exclusion that does not guarantee rights. result no. 2 hhs consider that schools need to train teachers in inclusive practices and use of resources. the data revealed the difficulties derived from a lack of understanding of hh’s. schools should provide continued training in inclusive practices such as the establishment of a dialogue with learners and their families to identify their needs. instructors should develop the capacity to select or create materials and tools that facilitate communication with the hearing impaired. figure 1 summarizes the voices of hard-of-hearing in l2 acquisition castillo & flórez-martelo 180 no. 21 perspectives and retrospectives of three individuals that allowed the identification of critical points to reflect on. figure 1. hard-of-hearing perspectives on their schooled l2 acquisition clinton reported: “my fear in class is not being able to understand what the teacher says…my fear in class is not understanding audio conversations well. moreover, the uses of audio tracks increase the anxiety of the hhs. for edison, “my fear in class is not understanding audio conversations well.” for ludwig, “one of the major difficulties was to be able to listen to the teacher in english and the audios that were played on the recorder since my hearing equipment did not facilitate me to discriminate the audios with quality.” instructors should not evaluate something that the hhs are incapable of doing. there are ways to do it; the main recommendation is selecting materials with high context, specifying the situation, purpose of communication, characters, roles, and visual support, among other things. to test listening, l2 instructors can apply a oneto-one interview or dictation. the communicative dimension constitutes the most complex scenario for hhs. they require support from teachers, schoolmates, and the community. ludwig articulated the importance of making others aware of the condition and inclusion: years ago i had a talk with my teachers to explain a little about my experience in the school, to demystify what had happened for i spent my childhood in the voices of hard-of-hearing in l2 acquisition castillo & flórez-martelo 181 no. 21 same school, fortunately. then i want to go back and convince them to take a step further towards inclusion [by learning from] my particular situation. ludwig described his anguish and calls for educating others to recognize the hearing loss, understand its implications, and offer support: the most distressing situation was the thoughts i had to myself when the teacher presented a topic and there were hustle and bustle. i could pick some ideas but understood 10%of them. and i scream in my head ¡quiet! on no, no. this is too hard.! clinton commented that equity also involves having the same opportunity to access input and for that, the hhs’ effort is not enough; others’ contributions are also needed. depending on the distance of the speaker, communication can be more or less affected. ludwig refers to the activities in which classmates are located in different positions around the classroom, making it difficult to follow the activity. “i do not understand debates and do not manage to join in. classes in which there someone speaks here, another speaks there, or over there.” debates can work with hh pupils with some adaptations such as controlling noise, promoting turn-taking, asking speakers to face the hh person. a round table or panel would be a suitable arrangement. in sum, communication with hh requires the support of others to facilitate understanding and leave behind prejudices and misconceptions. in the attitudinal dimension, gaining knowledge about the condition and attending to the hhs’ requests facilitate the process. people tend to see hhs as misanthropic, rude, and with other negative characteristics product of the lack of connection with them. ludwig recalled his attempts to say that he could not quite follow the class: the teacher was a boastful us marine. i suffered a little in class, for the recordings he used a recorder were from the 1980s. this hindered my liking the class. i go and look for the teacher but his attitude (it is offensive) a very strange attitude is strange, an attitude that does not motivate [more] is worse, it is like those times that teachers say “come on.” disdain affects hh´s motivation. szymanski et al. (2013)  denote the limited expectations and the misperception that hearing loss is an excuse. the re-examination begins with schools accepting the students’ circumstances and particularities, not pretending that they emulate the hearing students. the three participants agreed that language policies, classroom practices, materials, and standardized exams rarely took into account their capabilities or needs. result no. 2 coincides with that of szymanski, et al, (2013) and díaz & cubillos (2014) who state that limited understanding of hhs does not allow the development voices of hard-of-hearing in l2 acquisition castillo & flórez-martelo 182 no. 21 of positive attitudes towards inclusion. instructors should consider knowledge about hh, dialogue with the student to understand their needs, and positive attitudes. this result is also consistent with the findings by muñoz (2015) in which support makes a difference. this also responds to the need for an educational model of inclusion put forth by ochoa et al. (2017) and ramirez et al (2009). the three results derived from the perspectives of stakeholders represent a basis for reflecting on inclusive education. the ministry of education (british columbia, 2007) produced a resource guide for teaching the d/hhs that coincides with some of the ideas furthered by the three hhs of our study. tilano-vega et al (2014) reviewed human tools, software, televised tools, cochlear implants, and recognition systems. schools need to know about resources. result no. 3 hard of hearing individuals feel capable of mastering an l2 in integrated classrooms. evidence indicated that the three hhs feel they can achieve good l2 proficiency in integrated classrooms displaying self-commitment resiliency and advocacy. these aspects are evidenced in the following excerpts. in the affective dimension, positive interaction with instructors and schoolmates was identified as a determining factor not only for l2 development but for helping hhs feel their value. clinton affirmed: “i consider that my level of english is b1. although in terms of communication i would be more advanced. i feel comfortable and calm in my english classes.” similarly, ludwig said ‘i’ve been learning english for ten years’ and hold a certificate of upperintermediate level with a 6.5 score in the ielts test. edison displayed selfconfidence in his proficiency: i don’t really speak english perfectly, but i manage and people understand me. i suppose i would be between b1 and b2. the student shows he recognizes his limitations but also his strengths hence, he manages to communicate despite the difficulties evidencing resiliency and positive attitude. in the communicative dimension, clinton showed self-confidence to take part in integrated classrooms. he said that repeating may be frustrating for schoolmates and instructors. nevertheless, they must understand that it means rephrasing and looking for clarity. edison said: when i ask people to repeat, they kindly do, people rarely get angry or ignore me. asking for support displays advocacy because the participants stood up for their rights to access knowledge in the understanding that the responsibility does not fall on them alone but depend on others. in the attitudinal dimension, participants agreed that they had to develop a proactive attitude. edison showed this pro-activity. he looked for ways to understand and developed strategies for autonomous learning: i am considering improving my english because i want to learn a third language and i do not consider this step convenient without having mastered english. (edison) . voices of hard-of-hearing in l2 acquisition castillo & flórez-martelo 183 no. 21 the participant explained that he not only wanted to learn a language but master it. also, he expects to learn more languages. his words exemplify self-commitment and goal-orientation. similarly, ludwig showed motivation. ludwig not only reported having the strength to achieve but manifesting awareness of his capacity, and considered that he could perform better. for example, i also [have it] i need more concentration to do something, even to fry an egg, to draw, to write or whatever. when we are alone, if we are in an optimal environment to concentrate, i think we can do better than others. that is my point of view. in sum, the participants reported having  the motivation to study other l2 and confidence in their capacities to execute this aim through their autonomy, ability, positive attitude, and self-advocacy. this result is consistent with those of guiberson (2014) who provided evidence of the capacity and benefit of learning an l2 for hh students. it also concurs with muñoz (2015) who recognized the hhs’ skills and potential in integrated classrooms. their capacity to master an l2 despite multiple obstacles deserves the attention of institutions to debunk the myths about disabilities and stop the evident segregation through the implementation of truly inclusive policies and practices. discussion and conclusions this study explored the components of schooled l2 learning for the hhs from human experience. the communicative, affective, and attitudinal dimensions supported the multi-layered results of our study whose purpose was to inquire about how hhs understood and coped in integrated classrooms. the study responded to the research question how do three hard of hearing individuals make sense of their schooled l2 learning? their perspectives were built through their experiences and the retrospectives were their opinion and beliefs on past events at different ages. accordingly, the evidence indicated that the hhs of this study made sense of l2 learning as a process in which they developed strategies to overcome the limitations of integrated classrooms. the struggle became manageable when they counted with the assistance of schools, instructors, classmates, and family. the participants echoed messages of solidarity, adaptation, teaching, resilience, exclusion, or disdain. the main standpoints of this study are: first, despite the difficulties, hhs felt they could learn an l2 in integrated classrooms. their capacity to learn an l2 passes through their confidence in their ability. they reported being as capable as their classmates. they understood that voices of hard-of-hearing in l2 acquisition castillo & flórez-martelo 184 no. 21 support facilitates their process and helps them feel the integration and acceptance of the community. second, participants made a call for inclusion to policymakers and all of society. inclusion means adapting practices and evaluation, not excepting people. standardized tests, such as the school-leavers test, and the university-exit standardized test (saber pro in colombia) in which hhs are placed in a testing center, should be adapted to their needs, and have a trained proctor. the english language section, which does not comprise a listening component at all, should appear in the hhs’ scorecard. english language majors as well as others require the scores as academic credentials, and eventually, to apply for financial aid. the good news is that late in 2019, the constitutional court ruled that the testing organization, icfes (2019), had to change the administration of the tests guaranteeing the participation of students with a reported disability. this order should not impede hhs to choose (i) the type of exam, (ii) the adjustment and support, and other favorable conditions to take the test, and (iii) taking or not the section of the english test. lobbying at school communities should be done to abide by regulations. they should, for example, inform the staff that hearing aids have a limitation for the discrimination of speech from tracks or loudspeakers or even for natural conversations and that excepting hhs from projects, tests, quizzes, and other activities do not contribute to an equalitarian education. schools have to enforce regulations to stop underestimating those who are different, not by choice, by for a health condition. third, hhs consider that schools need to train the staff in inclusive practices. instructors need to learn about the condition and understand its implications and adaptations. they should develop a positive and dialogic attitude and have high expectations about those learners. language instructors, for example, need to learn to assess learners in one-on-one conferences. talking directly is one way to support affectively, socially, and cognitively for inclusion. training in-class communication needs to start with the instructors’ and classmate’s awareness of how to facilitate hhs’ understanding of speech, it includes, talking clearly, pausing between sentences, repeating, rephrasing and writing, and most importantly, accepting them as they are. hhs require the support of classmates for avoiding chatting or noisy situations that reduce the hearing capacity. teachers can learn to implement, for instance, a rotating buddy system for classmates to assist hhs. a limitation of this study dealt with the issue of subjectivity, which is common in qualitative research. one of the authors is a hh individual herself, yet she chose not to write herself in the research. the methodological ways of proceeding with and writing up research were careful about too subjective judgments. nonetheless, personal involvement brought empathy with the participants which allowed the collection of quality data to contribute to the field of elt by sensitizing communities about equal treatment to people with hearing loss. voices of hard-of-hearing in l2 acquisition castillo & flórez-martelo 185 no. 21 references asha. american speech-language-hearing association. 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(17) 3, 468-480. world health organization (2019). deafness prevention. retrieved from https://www. who.int/deafness/estimates/en/ voices of hard-of-hearing in l2 acquisition castillo & flórez-martelo 188 no. 21 authors *rigoberto castillo holds a ph.d. in education and an m.a in applied linguistics from the university of texas at austin. professor at universidad distrital and member of the research group formación de educadores. guest lecturer at post-graduate programs at universidad de san buenaventura and universidad de caldas, colombia, fulbright alumnus, and recipient of the national award of asociación colombiana de profesores de inglés (asocopi-tesol). orcid: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9527-0120 laura stefany flórez-martelo holds a b.a. in education with a major in english language teaching from universidad distrital francisco josé de caldas in colombia. her undergraduate research work received a distinction. recipient of the turkish language school scholarship. ms. florz-martelo has participated in several international education conferences to advocate for inclusion and debunk the myths and misconceptions about hard-of-hearing individuals, like herself. orcid: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0794-2709 voices of hard-of-hearing in l2 acquisition castillo & flórez-martelo 189 no. 21 appendix 1 session no 1 ¡cuéntame sobre ti!/ tell me about you. a continuación, puedes contarnos sobre ti. en una página, puedes compartir lo que desees, contar experiencias o escribir una breve autobiografía. next, teel me about you. in one page share what you want, tell experiences, write a short autobiography. appendix 2 written interview sesión 3: a continuación, encontrarás algunas frases que debes completar según tus experiencias. ejemplo: cuando no entiendo algo aprendo inglés porque cuando no entiendo algo yo cuando pido que me repitan las personas si me repiten muchas veces las personas cuando estoy en clase de inglés me siento mis miedos durante las clases son mis profesores mi familia mis amigos las instituciones lo que me gusta del inglés es lo que no me gusta del inglés es ¿cómo me veo a mi mismo? ¿cuáles son mis fortalezas y mis debilidades? como pienso que otros me ven mi familia me ve como mis compañeros de clase me ven como mis profesores me ven como a continuación, relata una anécdota que hayas vivido en una clase de inglés y que haya tenido relación con las dificultades auditivas appendix 3: structuredinterview yo…me quedo callado voices of hard-of-hearing in l2 acquisition castillo & flórez-martelo appendix 3 structuredinterview session no. 2. interview 1. ¿qué tipo de experiencia tienes aprendiendo inglés? nombra el tipo de institución, nivel de inglés, describe en términos generales toda la experiencia que tengas aprendiendo inglés como lengua extranjera 2. ¿durante el proceso de aprendizaje de inglés cuales han sido las mayores dificultades? appendix 4. semi-structured interview session 1 ¿qué experiencias han tenido aprendiendo inglés? ¿qué nivel de inglés tienes? ¿cuáles han sido las principales dificultades para aprender el idioma? ¿por qué aprendes inglés? session 2 ¿qué estrategias usan cuando no entiendes algo? ¿cuánto puedes captar leyendo los labios, en porcentaje? ¿qué experiencia negativa tienes aprendiendo inglés? ¿te ha sentido en desventaja por tu condición? session 3 ¿qué piensas sobre la evaluación en personas con discapacidad auditiva? ¿debe ser la evaluación del aprendizaje igual o diferente? ¿qué recomendaciones darías a los docentes de inglés que tienen estudiantes con hipoacusia? ¿qué experiencias has tenido con las voces, con los tipos de voces, con el ruido de fondo? session 4 ¿qué mitos giran en torno a la hipoacusia? ¿cuál es la reacción de las personas cuando dices que eres hipoacúsico? ¿somos sordos o somos hipoacúsicos? 190 no. 20 how to reference this article: castillo, r., & flórez-martelo, l. s. (2020). voices of the hard of hearing on their schooled l2 learning: a case study: . gist – education and learning research journal, 21, 167-190. https://doi.org/10.26817/16925777.822 voices of hard-of-hearing in l2 acquisition constructing critical thinking scenarios in online legal english classes1 construyendo escenarios de pensamiento crítico en clases de inglés legal en línea eliana edith roberto-flórez, gladis leonor arias-rodríguez, yomaira angélica herreño-contreras2 universidad santo tomás, colombia 1 received: september 12th 2021/ accepted: may 20th 2022 2 eliana.roberto@usantoto.edu.co; yomairaherreno@usantoto.edu.co; gladis.arias01@usantoto.edu.co gist education and learning research journal. issn 1692-5777. no. 24 (january june, 2022). pp. 119-140. 120 no. 24 abstract this paper reports qualitative research on constructing critical thinking scenarios in online legal english classes at a private university in colombia. this study aimed to enhance law students’ critical thinking skills development in efl (english as a foreign language) classroom through virtual tools by implementing a descriptive case analysis. data were gathered through a journal, a survey and a focus group. it was demonstrated that when students are trained in critical thinking, they learn to develop specific abilities such as reasoning, making proposals, identifying and solving problems, making inferences, making decisions according to their prior knowledge and the context needs. furthermore, the strategies contributed to improving students’ communication skills in the foreign language. keywords: legal english, critical thinking, online english teaching, online english learning, prior knowledge. resumen este artículo reporta una investigación cualitativa sobre la construcción de escenarios de pensamiento crítico en clases de inglés legal, en línea, en una universidad privada en colombia. este estudio tuvo como objetivo mejorar el desarrollo de las habilidades de pensamiento crítico de los estudiantes de derecho en clases de efl (inglés como lengua extranjera) a través de herramientas virtuales mediante la implementación de un análisis de caso descriptivo. los datos se recopilaron a través de un diario, una encuesta y un grupo de enfoque. se demostró que cuando los estudiantes se capacitan en pensamiento crítico, aprenden a desarrollar habilidades específicas como razonar, hacer propuestas, identificar y resolver problemas, hacer inferencias, tomar decisiones de acuerdo con sus conocimientos previos y las necesidades del contexto. además, las estrategias contribuyeron a mejorar las habilidades comunicativas de los estudiantes, en la lengua extranjera. palabras clave: inglés legal; pensamiento crítico, enseñanza de inglés en línea, aprendizaje de inglés en línea, conocimientos previos critical thinking scenarios in online legal english classes roberto-florez, arias-rodriguez & herreño-contreras 121 no. 24 resumo este artigo relata uma pesquisa qualitativa sobre a construção de cenários de pensamento crítico em aulas online de inglês jurídico em uma universidade privada na colômbia. este estudo teve como objetivo melhorar o desenvolvimento de habilidades de pensamento crítico de estudantes de direito nas aulas de inglês como língua estrangeira, por meio de ferramentas virtuais, implementando uma análise de caso descritiva. os dados foram coletados por meio de um diário, uma pesquisa e um grupo focal. mostrou-se que quando os alunos são formados em pensamento crítico, aprendem a desenvolver habilidades específicas como raciocinar, fazer propostas, identificar e resolver problemas, fazer inferências e tomar decisões de acordo com seus conhecimentos prévios e as necessidades do contexto. além disso, as estratégias contribuíram para melhorar as habilidades comunicativas dos alunos, na língua estrangeira. palavras-chave: inglês jurídico, pensamento crítico, ensino de inglês online, aprendizado de inglês online, conhecimento prévio. critical thinking scenarios in online legal english classes roberto-florez, arias-rodriguez & herreño-contreras 122 no. 24 introduction nowadays, education aims at developing students’ critical thinking skills, and efl teaching and learning scenarios (english as a foreign language) are increasingly including methodologies intended to foster the in-tandem development of communicative and critical thinking skills. vanicheva et al. (2015) assert that “the skill of critical thinking, or ability to make conclusive decisions within a given situation, requires appropriate knowledge of content of the matter in view, which shows the need to align esp content with the content of the main [...] discipline” (p. 662). in the present paper, the esp (english for specific purposes) content corresponds to legal english classes oriented in the law faculty at universidad santo tomás (hereafter usta) in tunja and villavicencio. previous research on esp conducted nationwide has focused on the development of communicative skills mainly reading (arias-rodríguez, 2014; hernández, 2019). in her study, arias-rodríguez (2014) intended to promote reading within a group of law students. she concluded that “reading specialized texts permitted students to enrich their background knowledge and to apply it to their next written assignment and also in subsequent debates or oral reports” (pp. 111-112). hernández (2019) tackled the issue by implementing virtual learning objects (vlo) and determined that “vlos serve to promote reading strategies for esp courses” (p.119). in this article, we describe the steps followed to make online legal english classes scenarios to construct critical thinking settings. at usta law students take two semesters of legal english as part of their training as future lawyers, and some studies have been conducted to assist students in gaining a domain in legal english. rico (2014) examined how movies and tv series contributed to learning legal english vocabulary. arias-rodríguez (2017) conducted a research study aiming to describe the impact of developing students’ linguistic competence through listening and reading short stories. furthermore, critical thinking as a concern to be included into the legal english classes has been addressed by some studies developed by ariasrodríguez et al. (2014), herreño-contreras and huertas (2019) and herreño-contreras (2020). previous research at usta on this issue was conducted within face-to-face classes. in the framework of the present research, researchers ventured to make online legal english classes scenarios to develop critical thinking. to do so, english classes were adjusted to the international standards established by the common european framework of reference for languages (cefrl). in each course, students were able to develop a variety of activities promoting the advance of the four communicative skills (listening, speaking, reading and writing). after a diagnosis stage and in-class conversations between the researchers and the law students, it was evidenced that they required more agility and training to analyze legal cases and daily situations from a critical thinking focus, which is necessary in current times, due to the society’s needs critical thinking scenarios in online legal english classes roberto-florez, arias-rodriguez & herreño-contreras 123 no. 24 and daily life problems. in the legal english courses, it is assumed that students have acquired most of the english language input, thus, in these semesters students are fostered to develop different skills that are going to contribute to their professional development such as the identification of problems and their solution through their reasoning. in a diagnosis exercise implemented to law students, the teachers faced students to daily life problems, but they were superficial at the time of making their own analysis and proposing a realistic solution to the problems they were presented; thus, the researchers realized that students required to be trained in the development of specific skills that are necessary under the current circumstances, in terms of communication they needed to gain self-confidence to express their ideas in english, they required agility to analyze the context and set the best solutions to problems according to the context, when they analyzed a case, they only mentioned they agreed or disagreed about the decisions of lawyers or the court because there were mandatory regulations, but they rarely proposed new ways to solve the problems, they did not present strong arguments to defend their viewpoints, they required to develop their critical thinking. in this sense, legal english classes intended to prompt them to be more analytical and explain in depth different situations that affect today’s society. in order to tackle this issue, the present research sought to create a suitable environment that met the students’ needs in terms of developing their critical thinking skills. bearing in mind the researchers’ previous experiences as legal english teachers at this university, we realized that the identification and analysis of daily life problems are essential for law students as they serve to train them as future lawyers who must be ready to contribute in the construction of a better society. this research intended to provide more insights on approaches to develop critical thinking skills within esp classes -in this case legal englishand also encourage students’ communication in the english language. this article aims at sharing the findings that emerged after conducting a qualitative research study, bearing in mind the following research question: how to enhance law students’ critical thinking skills development in the online legal english classes at usta? in a general scope, it aimed at promoting students’ cognitive skills (interpreting, arguing and proposing) by using legal issues in online esp classes. thus, engaging students in using prior knowledge for analyzing daily life legal problems, and motivating students’ communicative competence through legal case analysis in english were set as specific objectives. critical thinking scenarios in online legal english classes roberto-florez, arias-rodriguez & herreño-contreras 124 no. 24 theoretical framework in this section, the main theories underpinning the study will be explored. critical thinking and language teaching critical thinking is an important aspect to be developed in education because it leads students to apply research procedures to discern knowledge, for example, making questions and answering from a reasonable point of view and obtaining results based on rational procedures; about it, wang and zhenh (2016) state “critical thinking is purposeful, reasoned, and goal-directed. it is the kind of thinking involved in solving problems, formulating inferences, calculating likelihoods, and making decisions” (p. 1325); besides, the open university (2008) highlights that critical thinking helps students to synthesize thoughts and analyze theories in a coherent way. thus, including critical thinking in teaching becomes meaningful because students grow capable of making correlations between class content and their real living context, and subsequently legal english classes become conducive to learning through practice, observation and analysis. while preparing classes, it is important that teachers keep in mind the context where students interact; thus, activities and strategies must respond to their academic needs. astleitner (2011) argues that instructional activities are appropriate to develop critical thinking as well as the instructional context. in this manner, critical thinking is coherent with teaching english to law students in aspects like case analysis, since it motivates students to identify problems in the local context and use all their background knowledge to solve them properly and in line with the field of law. in this regard, paul and elder (2007) declare that developing critical thinkers is central to the mission of all educational institutions. by ensuring that students learn to think critically and fairmindedly, we ensure that students not only master essential subject matter, but become effective citizens, capable of reasoning ethically and acting in the public good. (p. 9) in this way, the benefits of developing students ’critical thinking not only help them to increase their capacity to enhance their knowledge, but also to be accurate while making decisions as a collaborating member in the society. medina (2012) argues that critical thinking is inherent to human beings, but it must be cultivated in the educational contexts. besides, ennis (2011) stated a set of critical thinking dispositions (care that their beliefs be true, care to understand and present a position honestly and clearly and care about every person) and abilities (focus on a question, analyze arguments, ask and answer clarification and/or challenge questions, judge the critical thinking scenarios in online legal english classes roberto-florez, arias-rodriguez & herreño-contreras 125 no. 24 credibility of a source, etc.) to be implemented in academic contexts. at this point, it can be assumed that all students should be involved in critical thinking procedures; according to our own experience as english teachers in the law career, law students in particular, should develop this sort of skills due to their contact with the problems of the community which require them to be rational, flexible, creative, and impartial concerning everyday situations. english for specific purposes english for specific purposes (esp) has been one of the most important tools for university students because they need to develop their english skills in their own field of study, it assists them in obtaining information based on their professional interests. anthony (1997) defines esp as: “the teaching of english used in academic studies or the teaching of english for vocational or professional purposes” (p. 9-10). thus, this approach was created after 1960 and from that moment, it has evolved in techniques and uses due to its benefits in terms of knowledge acquisition for students and professionals in exercise. additionally, esp has grown around the world in schools and universities as a strategy to develop knowledge and as a special mechanism to research information, keeping in mind that nowadays students and professionals require skills that let them interchange worldwide without barriers. galina (2016) states that esp is related to the teaching and learning of english as a second or foreign language, and as an aim for students to use english in the academic, professional or occupational fields, depending on their needs. in this manner, it has been well received in the academic context because it opens doors especially for those who want to investigate and increase their knowledge. according to arias-rodríguez (2014), esp becomes interesting for students because they can look for information they need about different subjects in the international magazines, journals, books and databases; furthermore, they can access latest information, this is a key aspect for their learning. on the other hand, it is not an easy job because english teachers do not always have a wide knowledge of specialized information to answer students’ doubts as it could be required. jo mcdonough (2010) points out about it: “the teacher’s task is potentially more difficult where students are already experts in their fields” (p. 476); there are cases in which teachers have to learn a lot of vocabulary to be able to teach esp in a specific academic context. all in all, nowadays esp skill development is quite relevant for students’ academic and professional life because this sort of skill allows them to argue, make claims, support ideas, and in general, to communicate in real contexts with strong and sound arguments. critical thinking scenarios in online legal english classes roberto-florez, arias-rodriguez & herreño-contreras 126 no. 24 online english teaching and learning online english teaching has currently become paramount as in 2020 education took a leap into a more constant virtuality. compton (2009) has designed a framework of online teaching competences which comprises competences dealing with hardware and software issues along with teaching and pedagogical competences. similarly, guichon (2009) hypothesizes three competences in order to handle online classes: 1. competency of socio-affective regulation, 2. competency of pedagogical regulation and 3. competency of multimedia regulation. consequently, teachers should be able to design and orient engaging online classes as well as providing adequate feedback concerning the learner’s needs and performance. the present research aimed at constructing critical learning scenarios within online legal english classes. to do so, the researchers adopted a socioconstructivist approach which implies the acquisition of new skills in order to foster pedagogical transformations and encourage better online learning and teaching practices (hampel & stickler, 2015). in fact, as previously stated, orienting online classes poses a set of challenges that should be handled using strategies suited for online scenarios. in this regard, sun (2011) emphasizes that even though “an online community can be built through technology, [...] a truly functioning online learning community is much harder to come by” (p. 438). successful online teaching relies heavily on the mastery of the aforementioned competencies, the ability to attain the course’s goals, and also an existing balance among the participants involved. rubin et al. (2013 cited by montiel-chamorro, 2018) state that “one characteristic of a successful online course is its capability to create a coi [community of inquiry] where learners, instructors, and learning materials interact to develop knowledge and skills” (p. 22). in this sense, acquaintance with ict, training and confidence become indispensable requirements to guarantee technological competences that may influence the way teaching is conducted, and how learners engage in their learning process. peeraer and van petegem (2011) state that “a lack of competence goes together with a lack of confidence” (p. 980). in the online lessons, teachers additionally display their implicit theories. according to cárdenas-claros and oyanedel (2016) “the pedagogical beliefs of both teachers and students seem to be the final frontier for successful technology integration in the language classroom” (p.221), and this is a key factor brought into consideration within this research. critical thinking scenarios in online legal english classes roberto-florez, arias-rodriguez & herreño-contreras 127 no. 24 method this section is intended to display information concerning the research design, research method, and the procedures followed to collect and manage data. context and participants this study was developed at universidad santo tomás in tunja (usta-tunja) and villavicencio (ustavillavicencio) in colombia. it offers 5 english courses of general english to all the programs, but in the law career, where this research was conducted, it differs to some extent as there are four courses more. at usta tunja, law students take 9 courses, the first five levels are focused on general english, sixth and seventh courses are based on reading comprehension and the last two levels are oriented on legal english. in villavicencio students enroll in 7 levels of general english, and 2 levels of legal english in eighth and ninth semesters. thus, this research was developed within the legal english courses in both branches: tunja and villavicencio due to the fact that topics are totally related with the legal ordinance and students require their prior knowledge (as law students) to analyze the proposed cases. this project was carried out with 62 students, 37 of them belonged to usta tunja (25 from legal english 1 and 12 from legal legal english 2) and 25 (legal english 1) from usta villavicencio. research design a descriptive case study was implemented in the development of this study. yazan (2015) asserts that this method allows the researchers to carry out a detailed observation and analysis of a particular situation in the classroom. in general, all types of case studies can overlap, because they have the following similar aims: (a) to depict the relatively incontrovertible details of the people, place, events, transactions, and processes of the case—a description that others would likely make if they had been there; (b) to give a clear picture of what is happening, without making judgments— an organized and coherent presentation of the phenomenon; and (c) to develop and expand on relevant concepts. a descriptive case study distinguishes itself from other types of case studies by its preoccupation with articulating a descriptive theory. the present study corresponds to qualitative research. according to macdonald (2010), qualitative methods contribute to understanding how people interpret their context, as well as their motivations to act. in this sense, this study aims at shedding light on a pedagogical strategy mediated by the analysis of legal problems and the critical thinking scenarios in online legal english classes roberto-florez, arias-rodriguez & herreño-contreras 128 no. 24 use of digital tools so as to foster critical thinking within legal english classes. this descriptive case study was found on students’ needs analysis which provided useful data in order to design and execute workshops. as part of the research process, students were advised about the research project and its scope as a necessary step to ensure their informed consent. then, a pedagogical intervention and data collection were conducted. finally, data analysis allowed researchers to come up with a set of conclusions and pedagogical implications derived from this research project. data collection instruments over the course of the present research, data collection was conducted by means of three instruments, namely, a survey, a researcher’s journal and a focus group session. survey. a survey is conceived as a “research instrument consisting of a set of questions (items) intended to capture responses from respondents in a standardized manner” (research methods for the social sciences, n.p).the survey consisted of open and closed ended questions intended to delve into students’ perceptions on the class methodology, the legal case analysis approach and whether they considered there was any sort of academic growth in terms of communicative and critical thinking skills. in this sense, “open-ended survey questions allow respondents to answer in their own words [...] in contrast, closedended questions require the respondent to choose from among a given set of response” (salant & dillman, 1994; mcintyre, 1999 cited by glasow, 2005). the survey was administered to identify students’ perceptions about the legal english course in general. journal. this instrument was used by researchers in order to register their classroom observations in a structured journal form, to record meaningful aspects that emerged from the process of teaching and learning english in a legal course and to obtain written registers about students’ performance during the development of the workshops. according to annink (2017), “the research journal is a tool for observing, questioning, critiquing, synthesizing, and acting” (n.p). altrichter and holly (2005) mention some key elements of a research journal, such as: data obtained from various sources, supporting information (photographs, videos), contextual information, researcher’s insights and subsequent ideas or action plans. in this case, the researcher’s journal was complemented by the class videos as all the classes were given by means of web video conferencing applications (zoom and google meet). critical thinking scenarios in online legal english classes roberto-florez, arias-rodriguez & herreño-contreras 129 no. 24 focus group. “in a focus group discussion, researchers adopt the role of a “facilitator” or a “moderator.” in this setting, the researcher facilitates or moderates a group discussion between participants and not between the researcher and the participants” (nyumba et al., 2018, p.21). besides, “the key aspect of focus groups is the interactions between participants as a way of collecting qualitative data that would not emerge using other methods” (kitzinger, 1994, p. 104). when the pedagogical intervention concluded, students were asked to participate in a focus group session to discuss their academic experiences and emotions in a deeper way. the present project was conducted within three different legal english courses, thus, three focus group sessions were carried out, thus, a set of predetermined interview questions were used to gather information. pedagogical intervention the pedagogical intervention of the present research took 4 months and consisted of 4 workshops that were implemented with three different groups of legal english (two in usta tunja and one in usta villavicencio). every workshop was designed in order to attain the following objectives: to promote students’ cognitive skills (interpreting, arguing and proposing), to link prior knowledge to analyze legal cases in english, and to apply different reading strategies to understand legal cases, spread legal vocabulary and share possible solutions orally and in a written way. the workshops’ topics covered various law branches such as family law, public law, criminal law and constitutional law. thus, in the legal english classes, students discussed on issues related to child support, homicide, indigenous communities and the violation of their human rights, the environmental detriment and its correlation with health problems as well as discrimination and the right to free personality development. the aforementioned topics were selected by students themselves as in the first stage of the pedagogical intervention they were requested to gather information of a case that should be treated in class according to their knowledge and experience. they created videos summarizing the main facts of the case, and afterward the whole class was expected to watch the videos and vote. thus, students voted to select the most interesting cases, and based on the voting results, researchers designed four workshops to be carried out within the legal english classes. workshops comprised five stages intended to foster the development of specific skills. the first stage was devoted to introducing vocabulary related to the workshop’s topic so as to allow students to become acquainted with legal terminology. as for the second stage, it usually consisted of a speaking activity derived from a set of guiding questions on the class core topic. the third stage intended to engage students in the case analysis itself. to do so, students were presented the case by means of a video and a summary. in this stage, they firstly approached the case and discussed some initial ideas critical thinking scenarios in online legal english classes roberto-florez, arias-rodriguez & herreño-contreras 130 no. 24 and insights, which served as the starting point to conduct more in-depth research on the issue. during the fourth stage, students were expected to work collaboratively and gather more information on the case and even resort to jurisprudence and normative in order to have a big picture of it. finally, in the last stage they were requested to use digital tools to share their insights. thus, they designed infographics, flipbooks, mind maps to display their insights on the legal case. law students from tunja prepared and performed a hearing in english as a final product. in this task they played specific roles such as: the judge, the lawyers, the witnesses, among others. besides, they followed the stages established in a real hearing, presented the legal documents with proofs and finally, they provided the best legal solutions assuming a critical position and providing strong arguments supported by the colombian law. data analysis ground theory approach was used in order to analyze the gathered information as it allows to organize the information in a systematic way. according to chong and yeo (2015), grounded theory is suitable for analyzing social processes or social life phenomena, especially when there is not theory about it, besides it is appropriate for studying specific moments or situations in education. thus, in the current study, information was collected through the use of three research instruments in order to validate the findings by the use of triangulation. jensen (2008) defines triangulation as “seek out multiple sources of data and use multiple datagathering techniques”. (p. 139). in this study, this process was evidenced because the information was gathered in different ways. afterward, information was gathered, classified and coded from the three legal english groups, identifying similarities and differences, some main categories were established and explained in order to answer the research questions stated at the beginning of the project. findings and discussion in this section findings derived from the present study will be explained: first category: legal vocabulary acquaintance and influences in students’ performance one of the purposes of this study was to motivate law students to use and apply esp within classrooms, as an innovative pedagogical tool in the use of digital environments in order to help them construct critical thinking scenarios in their legal english classes. thus, students could express meaningful experiences through the critical thinking scenarios in online legal english classes roberto-florez, arias-rodriguez & herreño-contreras 131 no. 24 analysis of legal cases. “well teacher, the english classes were nice and i felt motivated to learn because it was a mixed process of english and legal topics. i like the digital tools you gave us in the workshops” (student 26, focus group t, 02.06.2021). this category refers to how this procedure lets them improve their communication in english. we observed that most students showed a positive attitude during the development of each workshop and were able to spread legal expressions when they were interpreting, analyzing and discussing legal cases in english. one of the participants said: “at the beginning, it was difficult to understand vocabulary, but the workshops helped me to learn a lot of expressions of law” (student 11, focus group t, 04.06.2021). esp is a branch of the process of teaching english as a foreign language that aims at teaching the necessary contents in order to help learners perform in specific contexts. in university atmospheres, the necessity to learn another language is increasingly demanding, teachers have great challenges when implementing esp in their areas of study. bearing in mind that, one student expressed that “in the school we learn basic english but, in the university, we must face new content in english and for me it was nice to learn english of my career because it is very important for my profession and with legal cases, i understood better” (student 23, focus group t, 04.06.2021). students felt very well when they realized they could develop hearings in english, using legal vocabulary. they recognized that learning esp allowed them to access new knowledge, academic information, participation in international events, scientific journals, among others. the implementation of esp in the workshops was designed exclusively to meet the students’ specific needs and foster the importance of speaking another language in diverse contexts such as political, economic, social and cultural. furthermore, teachers benefited because they learned new things from law students. one of the researchers mentioned: “students’ mood and attitude towards the class tended to change when they made their presentations. in fact, they made great analyses of the cases and me as a teacher learned a lot from them” (entryresearch journal 3, 20.04. 2021). likewise, another entry refers to the students’ progress in terms of analysis and meaningful use of legal background knowledge: “in the session devoted to socializing students’ insights on the case, students displayed a good performance in terms of the analysis of the case, juridic implications and provision of a verdict according to their knowledge and expertise” (entry-research journal 3, 18.05.2021) in the samples above, it was evident how law students began to understand that learning esp is necessary in their professional life and we can summarize that the workshops contributed to strengthening students’ english level. in conclusion, this research was relevant because it contributed to the training of competent professionals in the area of english as a foreign language, participants were able to play specific roles in different contexts as future lawyers in which they found suitable solutions concerning several legal problems. critical thinking scenarios in online legal english classes roberto-florez, arias-rodriguez & herreño-contreras 132 no. 24 legal case analysis as a efl methodology methodologies in efl are expanded and adapted according to the students’ needs as well as the teaching situations. for example, through the use of technologies, depending on students’ fields of knowledge (esp), of or focused on the development of specific skills such as critical thinking. studies done by bilová (2016) reports that the use of legal cases improve students’ interest and motivation in class work; additionally, through this research, it was possible to show some benefits like the appropriation of legal expressions and the development of critical thinking skills that helped students reinforce their legal knowledge acquisition and english language use (efl). likewise, the development of this research highlights the use of legal cases as a meaningful experience for teachers and students. thus, one of the students points out: “well, teacher, i liked the english classes because we studied legal aspects, and the english class focused on legal english; thus, that is very interesting for us, i liked the use of legal cases a lot” (student 16, focus group t, 14.05.2021). additionally; about the use of legal cases as the main material, one of the researchers remarked: “students showed a positive interest in the development of the workshop. something positive is that the use of real law cases motivated students to search for more information about it. that search was especially done in the news” ( research journal 2, 13.04.2021). the use of real materials -real caseswas a fundamental strategy to motivate language learning. students not only checked the information taken to class like the videos and readings, but also had to search for extra information about the cases in order to obtain more tools to discuss, analyze and propose their own interpretations and verdicts as required in each case analysis. according to studies done by huda (2017), there is a positive attitude on the part of students and teachers about the use of real materials because the topics and materials motivate language use, acquisition and retention of knowledge through practice and class discussion. the present research intended to apply strategies that really motivate students to work in class, participate and be able to develop teamwork. as a result, legal english classes made them feel committed and engaged. in this sense, one of them remarked: “the class was very dynamic, we were able to analyze cases and express ourselves freely according to our own understanding” (student 6, focus group t, 14.05.2021). students’ perceptions about the legal english classes showed that they felt comfortable, not only because they could analyze topics of their own career, but also because the dynamic of the activities allowed them to express their points of view. besides, they could develop teamwork which enriched their understanding and capacity to acquire arguments to defend their position and support their own analysis about the different legal cases. critical thinking scenarios in online legal english classes roberto-florez, arias-rodriguez & herreño-contreras 133 no. 24 case analysis as a way to foster critical thinking skills the present research was conducted with law students enrolled in legal english classes. within their law classes, they were familiar with case analysis as an approach to examine legal cases and come up with plausible courses of action or solutions. researchers implemented case analysis as a methodology to orient legal english classes. the analysis of legal cases contributed to foster critical thinking skills, which in the framework of this research adhered to ennis’ taxonomy of critical thinking. ennis (2011) outlined a set of critical thinking dispositions and abilities. ideal critical thinkers “care that their beliefs be true and that their decisions be justified [...] care to understand and present a position honestly and clearly [...] and care about every person” (pp.1-2). furthermore, ideal critical thinker has the ability to focus on a question, analyze arguments, challenge questions, judge the credibility of a source, observe, and judge observation reports, deduce, and judge deduction, make material inferences, make and judge value judgments, define terms and judge definitions, attribute unstated assumption, consider and reason from premises, reasons, assumptions, positions, and other propositions with which they disagree or about which they are in doubt, without letting the disagreement or doubt interfere with their thinking, integrate the dispositions and other abilities in making and defending a decision. (ennis, 2011, pp2-4) in this regard, students pondered the relevance of case analysis and mentioned that “ for me it is important to use cases because after graduation that will be the challenge we are going to face” (student 3, focus group v, 25.05.2021). similarly, another student asserted that “the experience of analyzing real cases in the legal english class also encourages us to really investigate what happened with that case. when we analyze fictitious examples, our own beliefs and ideas are involved, and we may be wrong” (student 8, focus group v, 01.06.2021). roell (2019) highlights that case studies can be tailored to different language levels and teaching situations, such as english for specific purposes (esp) or content-based learning (language acquisition combined with the study of a subject matter) [...] the more complex the case is, the more specific the knowledge and the more specialized the language students will need. (p. 25) case analysis suits legal english classes because it allows learners to tune their communicative skills in foreign language while they are delving into real examples of legal problems. thus, they may resort to their legal background knowledge to tackle the issue, and attempt to communicate their ideas and insights by means of the foreign language. in this regard, one student stated that “background knowledge was vital when we were searching information about the case because we already know legal terminology in spanish that a person who doesn’t study law, usually ignores” (student critical thinking scenarios in online legal english classes roberto-florez, arias-rodriguez & herreño-contreras 134 no. 24 1, focus group v, 25.05.2021). likewise, another student declared that “the topics to be discussed were not really new, the novelty lied on transferring the legal knowledge into english” (student 6, focus group v, 01.06.2021). concerning the development of critical thinking skills, kuimova (2010) refers to the advantages of implementing the case analysis within the efl classroom. case analysis contributes to develop and raise critical thinking (application/synthesis/evaluation) and reflective learning in the learner; develop problem solving skills; improve the student’s organizational skills – as case studies are sometimes very dense in information, the key is to condense this information into logical sections and organize them so that a clear picture of the problem/issue can be understood; get you thinking and brainstorming; connect theory and practice; teach students that there may not be one«right» answer, after all; encourage attention to and self-consciousness about assumptions and conceptions; reflect the contextual, situated, complex nature of knowledge; get students to be active, not passive[...]. (n.p) in this respect, students tended to correlate criticality with knowledge. thus, one student stated that “as we are about to graduate, we hold a more optimal criterion as lawyers, and it differs from non-lawyers” (student 8, focus group v, 01.06.2021). in conclusion, the present research confirms that case study is a suitable methodology to be applied within efl settings, and its contributions transcend the development of communicative skills in foreign language as it may foster thinking, organization and collaboration skills. critical thinking scenarios in online legal english classes roberto-florez, arias-rodriguez & herreño-contreras 135 no. 24 conclusions after the application of this research project, we could see that communicative and critical thinking skills (ennis’ taxonomy of critical thinking) were fostered using the legal case analysis approach to teach legal english online. through workshops designed by the researchers, students were guided to learn and use legal terminology, reflect on current issues by answering some ice breaking questions, differentiate the parts of a legal case and how they are interrelated, and useful to conduct the legal case analysis. furthermore, they engaged in collaborative activities intended to foster the use of prior legal knowledge, the assessment and exchange of suitable information to come to some conclusions concerning the given case. in this sense, academic activities like the use of real case analysis for teaching may be included as part of the daily teaching in legal english. as it was previously mentioned they allowed students to use their prior knowledge as a way to express their ideas, additionally, they motivate students to solve real life problems and develop abilities of arguing in specific fields of law. in regard to online english teaching, guichon (2009) emphasizes three teaching and pedagogical competences, namely, 1. competency of socio-affective regulation, 2. competency of pedagogical regulation and 3. competency of multimedia regulation. over the course of the present research project, researchers were able to work as a team in order to design legal english classes and develop a pedagogical proposal intended to contribute to the in-tandem development of communicative and critical thinking skills. in relation to the first competency defined as “the capacity to establish a relationship with a learner or a group of learners, to maintain it despite distance, and to eventually build a learning community” (guichon, 2009, p 169), we as researchers advanced in terms of solving students questions and learning predicaments within the online classes, however, there is still too much to do in order to build up real learning communities which transcend the enrollment for just one or two semesters. as for the competency of pedagogical regulation which consists of “proposing clear and concise instructions, providing positive and negative feedback and deploying an array of strategies to facilitate second-language learning” (guichon, 2009, p.169), we must express that it was the core of designing suitable workshops to orient legal english classes and provide a clear class agenda for students to become acquainted with each lesson’s objectives and steps. finally, concerning competency of multimedia regulation that “encompasses both the multimedia literacy and the computer-mediated communication literacy’’ (guichon, 2009, p.170). we, as english teachers and the students as well, are still on the path to becoming more familiar with all the advantages derived from the implementation of online platforms, applications and websites. over the course of the pedagogical intervention and aligned to the university guidelines, we conducted online classes by means of google meet or zoom, and used moodle as the platform to assign classwork. furthermore, students developed some assignments using applications such as canva, flipsnack and flipgrid. critical thinking scenarios in online legal english classes roberto-florez, arias-rodriguez & herreño-contreras 136 no. 24 concerning the students’ performance, their needs count when making decisions about legal cases in order to find a correct solution. the law students achieved their main goal, which was to prepare and perform a hearing in english, including legal vocabulary, support from the colombian law, legal background knowledge, analysis of real legal cases, among others. this was possible because they were internally motivated, their critical thoughts were heard by the teacher-researchers when they made decisions about issues they wanted to address. although this study was successful, there were some limitations related to the use of some digital tools, for some students it was difficult to access to the internet when they had to attend to virtual classes, so they were lost about the activities they had to develop but they were willing to find the way to present tasks on time. lack of time was also a limitation for participants because they had to assume other duties in their several subjects, so they asked teachers to provide extra time for the development of the activities. finally, in some learners, it was not easy to work in groups because of the schedule each one had, thus, during the english classes, it was relevant to assign time and create breakout rooms to give students the chance to communicate and achieve their academic goals. this project is available to be worked in other areas of study in efl as further research because not only law students have the necessity to explore skills about interpreting, arguing and proposing. nowadays, students from different majors should be motivated to have a critical thinking development and the opportunity to learn how to solve problems from their field of knowledge. critical thinking scenarios in online legal english classes roberto-florez, arias-rodriguez & herreño-contreras 137 no. 24 references altrichter, h., & holly, m.l ( 2005). research 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(2019). using a case study in the efl classroom. english teaching forum, 57(4), 24-33. https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ej1236098.pdf salant, p., & dillman, d. a. (1994). how to conduct your own survey. john wiley and sons. vanicheva, t., kah, m., &ponidelko, l. (2015). critical thinking within the current framework of esp curriculum in technical universities of russia. procedia social and behavioral sciences 199, 657 – 665. wang, x., & zhenh, h. (2016). reasoning critical thinking: is it born or made? theory and practice in language studies, 6(6), 1323 – 1331. https://pdfs.semanticscholar. org/a3b5/4c40ecf4f124c168a173f2c7686405fa16fb.pdf yazan, b. (2015). three approaches to case study methods in education: yin, merriam, and stake. the qualitative report,20(2), 134-152. http://citeseerx.ist. psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.686.4291&rep=rep1&type= pdf authors * eliana edith roberto flórez was born in tunja, boyacá – colombia. she holds a ma in language teaching. she has worked in education for more than sixteen years. currently, she is a full-time teacher at universidad santo tomás in tunja. she has been supporting the teaching process of english as a foreign language since 2005. besides, she is a research teacher who has been working in different areas such as virtual tools as a complement of face-to-face classes, the way that students are involved in writing research articles in english collaboratively, teachers and students’ stereotypes about the teaching and learning of english and a project related to the way to increase critical thinking awareness through the use of task-based learning approach. besides, she has published different articles in indexed magazines and academic speaker in national and international congresses. her goal is to help students’ learning process of english as a foreign language according to their academic needs in order to understand social aspects around the world. she belongs to “expedicionarios humanistas” research group from usta – tunja and she is “investigador junior” in minciencias. orcid: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2586-2670 critical thinking scenarios in online legal english classes roberto-florez, arias-rodriguez & herreño-contreras gladis leonor arias rodríguez holds an m.a. in language teaching from universidad pedagógica y tecnológica de colombia (uptc), m.a. in pedagogy at universidad santo tomas (usta) and currently candiadate to master in spanish and latin american literature (unir). she has investigated elt, literature, curriculum and online education. she is full time teacher and researcher at usta in the “expedicionarios humanistas” group.gladis.arias01@usantoto.edu.co. orcid: https://orcid.org/my-orcid?orcid=0000-0001-7739-3103 yomaira angélica herreño-contreras. the author has a b.a. in modern languages from universidad surcolombiana (colombia) and a m.a. in comparative literature and literary translation from universidad pompeu fabra (spain). she is a ph.d candidate in comparative literature (university of auckland). currently, she is an english professor and researcher at universidad santo tomás (villavicencio, colombia), and an article reviewer for some scholarly journals in colombia and abroad. she has published two books and some articles in research journals, as well as translations in literary reviews. she has participated as a lecturer in various conferences worldwide. she is interested in literary translation,prose poetry, comparative literature, tefl, esp, hots, m-learning and problematizing pedagogy. orcid: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2132-9222 how to reference this article: roberto florez, e. e., arias-rodríguez, g. l. ., & herreñocontreras, y. a (2022) . constructing critical thinking scenarios in online legal english classes. gist – education and learning research journal, 24. 119-140. https://doi. org/10.26817/16925777.1339 critical thinking scenarios in online legal english classes syntax of dp deletion and pragmatics of dp movement in passive voice1 sintaxis de la eliminación de dp y pragmática del movimiento de dp en voz pasiva abhinan wongkittiporn1 department of english language, rangsit university, thailand 93 no. 27 gist education and learning research journal. issn 1692-5777. no. 27 (july december, 2023). pp. 93-118. 1 abhinan.w@rsu.ac.th 94 no. 27 abstract this study examines the syntax of dp deletion and pragmatics of dp movement in passive voice from applied linguistics methodology. the data collection was a purposive sampling method as the study specifically alternated the data from q1 scopus publications, thai national publications (tci 1), and thai undergraduate students’ independent studies (is) from a private university. there were 99 tokens. the data analyses were linguistics and inferential statistics. linguistic analysis follows generative grammar, whereas the statistical analysis follows inferential statistical analysis spss29. the results of the study showed the similarities of dp by-phrase agent deletion between q1 scopus, tci 1, and is. however, the results in these publications were different pragmatically. the discussion was explained syntactically and pragmatically. the dp arguments in passive voice were omitted due to the reason of widely-known agents. pragmatically, the movement of dp argument in q1 scopus and tci 1 complies with the theory of pragmatic discourse of givenness, while this was not applied in is. it is expected that the results in this study would be useful for english learners in how to apply passive voice to write research methodology appropriately. keywords: applied linguistics methodology, passive voice, pragmatics of dp movement, syntax of dp deletion resumen este estudio examina la sintaxis de la eliminación de la frase determinante (dp por sus siglas en inglés) y la pragmática de su movimiento en voz pasiva desde la metodología de la lingüística aplicada. la recolección de datos fue realizada mediante un muestreo intencionado, ya que el estudio alternó específicamente los datos de publicaciones q1 de scopus, publicaciones nacionales tailandesas (tci 1), y estudios independientes (is por sus siglas en inglés) de estudiantes de pregrado de una universidad privada. se analizaron 99 muestras. el análisis de los datos incluyó lingüística y estadística inferencial. el análisis lingüístico sigue la gramática generativa, mientras que el análisis estadístico se basó en el análisis estadístico inferencial usando spss29. los resultados del estudio mostraron similitudes en la eliminación del agente de la frase por dp entre las publicaciones de scopus q1, tci 1 e is. sin embargo, los resultados de estas publicaciones fueron pragmáticamente diferentes. la discusión se explicó desde una perspectiva sintáctica y pragmática. los argumentos de dp en voz pasiva fueron omitidos debido a que los agentes eran ampliamente conocidos. pragmáticamente, el movimiento del argumento dp en scopus q1 y tci 1 se ajusta a la teoría del discurso pragmático de la información conocida, mientras que esto no se aplicó en los is. se espera que los resultados de este estudio sean útiles para los estudiantes de inglés en cuanto a cómo aplicar la voz pasiva para escribir adecuadamente la metodología de investigación. palabras clave: metodología de lingüística aplicada, voz pasiva, pragmática del movimiento de dp, sintaxis de la eliminación de dp argument movement and passive constructions in english 95 no. 27 resumo este estudo examina a sintaxe da eliminação da frase determinante (dp pela sua sigla em inglês) e a pragmática do seu movimento na voz passiva a partir da metodologia da linguística aplicada. a coleta de dados foi realizada por meio de uma amostragem intencional, já que o estudo alternou especificamente os dados de publicações q1 do scopus, publicações nacionais tailandesas (tci 1) e estudos independentes (is pela sua sigla em inglês) de estudantes de graduação de uma universidade privada. foram analisadas 99 amostras. a análise dos dados incluiu linguística e estatística inferencial. a análise linguística segue a gramática gerativa, enquanto a análise estatística se baseou na análise estatística inferencial utilizando o spss29. os resultados do estudo mostraram semelhanças na eliminação do agente da frase por dp entre as publicações do scopus q1, tci 1 e is. no entanto, os resultados dessas publicações foram pragmaticamente diferentes. a discussão foi explicada a partir de uma perspectiva sintática e pragmática. os argumentos de dp na voz passiva foram omitidos devido ao fato de os agentes serem amplamente conhecidos. pragmaticamente, o movimento do argumento dp no scopus q1 e tci 1 está em conformidade com a teoria do discurso pragmático da informação conhecida, enquanto isso não se aplicou nos is. espera-se que os resultados deste estudo sejam úteis para os estudantes de inglês em como aplicar a voz passiva para redigir adequadamente a metodologia de pesquisa. palavras-chave: metodologia de linguística aplicada, voz passiva, pragmática do movimento de dp, sintaxe da eliminação de dp abhinan wongkittiporn 96 no. 27 introduction in english classrooms, passive voice is normally taught as the interchangeable structure of active voice. the learners of english as a foreign language (efl) are likely to use the two structures interchangeably because they are interpreted the same semantically. however, they have never realized their differences regarding pragmatic aspects, specifically why the determiner phrases (dp), such as “jerry” as in “tom hit jerry”, are moved from the object position to become the subject. consequently, passive voice is a problematic structure among efl learners. in generative grammar, english is a non-null-parameter subject language (chomsky, 1965; radford, 2009). this means that the subject in english is required in all clauses owning to extended projection principle or epp (radford, 2009). this denotes that the finite constituent t that is extended into the tp node must have the subject filled in (bošković, 2002; radford, 2009; svenonius, 2002). even though most arguments in english are in situ, the dp subject in passive voice is analyzed differently since it is moved via the chain of a-movement to the spec t (radford, 2009). with this perspective, passive voice in english is considered under the linguistic theories of markedness. the unmarked form is regular, but the marked form is irregular (andrews, 1990). the syntactic representation of passive voice is interpreted as a marked structure where the dp movement is illustrated below. figure 1. chain of a-movement figure 1 shows a-movement. the argument movement is sometimes called dp movement (determiner phrase). arguments refer to the entities who perform an action or receive the energy from an action. for example, “jerry” is the dp, and it originates as the complement of the transitive verb. the dp was moved via a-chain movement to be landed in the spec t, becoming passive voice. the dp receives the theta-role theme prior to moving to the subject position. argument movement and passive constructions in english 97 no. 27 regarding the transformation from active to passive voice, there are four steps to follow (radford, 2009). first, the argument is moved, with the dp relocated to the spec t position. second, a feature is added, specifically the auxiliary “be”, which is inserted according to the tense of the finite verb in the active voice. next, the main verb undergoes a transformation, changing into its past participle form. finally, the processes of movement, addition, and transformation are illustrated in (1a) -(1b) (1a) abc company fired mr. jack yesterday. (1b) mr. jack was fired yesterday. example 1a is active voice while example 1b is passive voice. “mr. jack” is the object in active voice. the dp is moved to be landed as the subject in passive voice due to the agent concealment for the company’s positive reputation. a concealed agent is, therefore, the reason of the dp deletion in passive voice (swan, 2015). however, different genres seem to have different reasons for the dp by-phase agent deletion. accordingly, the current study seeks the reasons for dp by-phrase agent deletion in applied linguistics research methodology. to apply the dp deletion and dp movement in passive voice, the current study employed the techniques of vicinities to determine how passive voice is used with other syntactic structures in adjacent areas. vicinity was originally coined by corpus linguists (sinclair, 1996; mcenery & hardie, 2011). the boundaries to the left and the right are simultaneously investigated with the key. the vicinities between four and six words are adequate to investigate the collocations in corpus-based studies. for example, expletive “it” constructions in english were frequently collocated with the adjectives “clear”, “true” and “possible” as in “it is clear”, “it is true”, and “it is possible” (uchida, 2024). nevertheless, the vicinities in this study refer to the whole sentences on either side of the passive voice. as mentioned, it seems possible that various syntactic structures can be colligated with passive voice. for example, subjective complement is the syntactic structure to give additional information concerning the subject of the sentence. swapping the dps between subject and the copular “be” complement does not affect the grammaticality of the sentence (wongkittiporn, 2024). however, they are the same semantically such as 2a and 2b. (2a) mr. obama was the usa president. (2b) the usa president was mr. obama. examples 2a-2b are subjective complements. the dp “mr. obama” in 2a is the subject. the dp “mr. obama” is the copular be complement in 2b. despite having different positions, they have the same truth value, referring to a fact in the real world (kearn, 2011). therefore, 2a and 2b are syntactically and semantically identical. abhinan wongkittiporn 98 no. 27 aside from that, noun clause complements are syntactic structures to fill in factual reports. the verb phrase (vp) complements of this structure can be cognitive, communicative and presentative, such as “believe”, “think”, “report”, “address”, and “show”. the vp complement can be replaced by the pronoun it (wongkittiporn, 2024), as in “mr. jack reported that gdp increased five percent in 2024” or “jack reported it”. the complementizer phrase (cp) “that gdp increased five percent in 2024” is the complement, which can be replaced by the pronoun “it”. in addition, transitive complement is the structure that consists of the subject, erb and object. usually, the subject of the sentence plays a theta-role of agent, refering to the one who instigates an action (radford, 2009). for example, “mr. james ate an apple”. regarding the use of passive voice in english, the dp movement of the passive voice complies with either topic focus or principle of givenness. the topic focus means that the writers would like to put an emphasis on the topic of sentence as the agents are widely known, as in “jerry’s bag was stolen”. the agent of the sentence was not mentioned or spelt out as it is commonly known as a thief (swan, 2015). however, the passive voice is sometimes used for the benefit of discourse analysis to lik information together seamlessly. for example, “tom played with jerry. it was hit by tom. so, he laughed at him”. the structures in these sentences were analyzed as svo-ovs-svo. the pronoun with the case marking “it” was derived from “jerry” and the pronoun with the case marking he was derived from tom. previous studies focused on the syntactic structure of passive voice in different genres, such as medical texts and news articles. passive voice is often used in these texts because the agents are widely-known agents. for example, the person who can prescribe antibiotic medication is a doctor (amdur, kirwan & morris, 2010) and the people who writes news articles are journalists (almahameed, bataineh & ammari, 2022). to fill the gap, this study investigated passive voice and their vicinities in applied linguistics methodology. at the present time, most university students are instructed to conduct a mini-research project after their coursework studies. even though they are taught research methodologies, the subject of writing research, especially written in the english language, is not specifically taught at universities. consequently, students are faced with the difficulties of writing their research papers in english. they select the right research methods for their research projects but writing them in english is a challenging task. as mentioned by widdowson (2011), the section of methodology is considered an important one. the information about how a research study was conducted must be clearly provided in steps for the sake of replication in the future. a clear explanation in this section results in the reliability and validity of the study. examining q1 (quartile 1) scopus q1, thai journal citation index (tci 1) publications and undergraduate students’ independent study (is) is considered as an effective way to learn how language is used. accordingly, efl learners could have more examples from the results in this study to advance the quality of their writing. this information leads to the following research objectives of the study. argument movement and passive constructions in english 99 no. 27 objectives of the study 1. to examine the syntactic reasons of the dp by-phrase agent deletion in passive voice in applied linguistics methodology 2. to examine the pragmatic reasons of the dp movement in passive voice via their syntactic vicinities in applied linguistics methodology methodology data collection to investigate the dp deletion and dp movement, the data in this study were divided into three datasets. the first phrase was the collection of passive voice and their vicinities in q1 scopus applied linguistics methodology. the second phrase was the collection of passive voice and their vicinities in tci 1 applied linguistics methodology. this study followed purposive sampling method as the researcher focused on the material of applied linguistics methodology only in q1 scopus and tci 1. the first dataset was collected from an international journal called system. system is a reliable applied linguistics research journal that has been indexed in q1 scopus database for more than a decade. there were 10 research articles that were collected for this study. approximately 100,000 words contained 52 tokens for data collection in this study. to avoid the bias that may occur during data collection, various topics from applied linguistics research articles were gathered to study, such as pedagogical approach, english for specific purposes (esp), and teaching technology. the second dataset was collected from three thai national journals as index in tci 1, which were journal of studies in the english language (jsel), thoughts and nida journal of language and communication. these three national journals were selected as they are journals of english applied linguistics where the articles, sent to be reviewed, were written in english. they are reliable publications in thailand. approximately 150,000 words contained 40 tokens for data collection. various topics of applied linguistics research were gathered to study. the dataset from the third phase was derived from independent studies (is) as written by fourth-year students, majoring in english, at a thai private university. the students wrote their is before they graduated. they were allowed to select topics concerning applied linguistics that they were personally interested in. the topics include the study of figurative language, english songs, the study of speech acts in english movies, and a survey of english among university students. twenty-five abhinan wongkittiporn 100 no. 27 undergraduate students’ is papers focusing on methodology were randomly selected to study their use of passive voice and their vicinities. a total of 25,000 words provided only 7 tokens containing passive voice. these is papers were not published, but they were part of the students’ graduation requirement. data analysis once the data were collected, the concept of vicinity, or the areas near or surrounding areas, follows mcenery and hardie (2011). vicinity refers to the whole sentential boundaries to the left and to the right that were collocated with passive constructions as the target sentence structure in this study. for example, “the data were collected from english newspapers. they were analyzed based upon generative grammar. the data analysis was checked by three experts from different universities”. the sentences “the data were collected from english newspapers and the data analysis was checked by three experts from different universities” are the vicinity which were collocated with the target sentence. as mentioned, the current study focused on the syntactic structure that is used before and after passive voice. the whole sentence to the left and to the right of the passive voice were gathered to study. the data analysis in this study was given according to collocation patterns below collocation patterns passive voice + passive voice + passive voice passive voice + passive voice + passive voice passive voice + passive voice + noun clause complement passive voice + passive voice + noun clause complement passive voice + passive voice + subjective complement passive voice + passive voice + subjective complement passive voice + passive voice + transitive complement passive voice + passive voice + transitive complement transitive complement + passive voice + transitive complement transitive complement + passive voice + transitive complement argument movement and passive constructions in english 101 no. 27 this research paper examined passive voice and their vicinities in applied linguistics methodology to interpret how they were semantically and pragmatically used. both descriptive statistical and inferential statistical analysis via spss 29 were used to calculate the data. table 1. coding schema code 1 code 1 was given if passive voice and their vicinities complied with the prototypes in q1 scopus applied linguistics methodology code 2 code 2 was given if passive voice and their vicinities did not comply with the prototypes in q1 scopus applied linguistics methodology as mentioned above, this current study was designed as a quantitative study, the data analysis followed inferential statistical methods via spss 29. the statistical analysis in this study was based on pearson correlation where the r value was between 1 and -1. the p-value was judged to be significant if the p-value was equivalent or less than 0.5. as mentioned by matthey (1998), a p-value of 0.05 or less in the field of social sciences and humanities was considered significant. after filling either code 1 or code 2 in spss program, the researcher clicked “analyze” and “correlate”. select “two tails”. when selecting the statistical analyzes of two tails, the results of the p-value could be both plus and minus. figure 2. two-tailed test in statistical analysis statistically, a two-tailed test is a way to check a distribution whether the sample of the study is greater or less than a range of values, so the results of p-value could be either plus or minus. according to swan (2015), omitting the by-phrase agent in passive voice could be explained by four reasons including unknown agents, widely known agents, concealed agents and unimportant agents. the unknown agent is explained in that the instigator abhinan wongkittiporn 102 no. 27 of the action is unknown, such as murderers, thieves and commanders. the widelyknown agents are the dp who is well-known. spelling it out is not necessary, as in “the patient was prescribed antibiotic drugs for 7 days”. the only person who can prescribe antibiotics is a doctor. concealed agents are known agents, but the reason for concealment is for positive reputation as in “20 employees were fired after rebranding”. the last reason for omitting the by-phrase agent is unimportant agents. this again is not the main focus of the story, so it is not necessary to be spelt out, as in “the house was cleaned perfectly”. results of the study this section presents the results in this study regarding the dp by-phrase agent deletion. from a total of 52 tokens in the q1 scopus, 40 tokens in tci and 7 token in is, the results of this study were given in table 2. table 2. dp by-phrase agent deletion classifications q1 scopus tci 1 is total 52 40 7 dp deletion 50 (96.15%) 39 (97.5%) 6 (86.57%) table 2 shows that passive voice in the section of methodology was used with the dp deletion. only a few tokens were found to be used with by-phrase agents. (3a) the earliest intelligent chatbots, eliza and parry, were developed by joseph weizenbaum and kenneth colby in 1966 and 1972, respectively (q1 scopus) (kim & su, 2024, p. 3). (3b) to maintain accuracy, the results were cross-checked by the three of us regularly during and after the analysis (tci 1) (pupipat, rungkaew & meeparp, 2022, p. 10). (3c) “the data were analyzed by using searle (1976) theory. (is) the dps “joseph weizenbaum and kenneth colby” in 3a are the original developers of intelligent chatbot. without spelling out the name of these developers, it would violate the maxim of quantity in pragmatics. as the writers did not provide adequate information for the readers to understand. so, the by-phrase agents must be kept. 3b was kept as the researcher wanted to place emphasis on several validators to give enough information for the reader to understand. the dp in 3c was kept as the researcher wanted to place emphasis on the conceptual framework that the study followed. to sum up this point, the syntactic structure of deleting dp in passive voice among the three datasets went along the same lines. argument movement and passive constructions in english 103 no. 27 phase 1 from the total of 52 tokens in the q1 scopus, the results were reported in table 3. table 3. passive voice and their syntactic vicinities passive voice and their syntactic vicinities freq. % passive voice + passive voice + passive voice 17 32.69 transitive complement + passive voice + transitive complement 15 28.84 transitive complement + passive voice + passive voice 7 13.46 passive voice + passive voice + transitive complement 6 11.54 passive voice + passive voice + noun clause complement 5 9.61 passive voice + passive voice + subjective complement 2 3.84 total 52 100 table 3 represents the vicinities of passive voice in q1 scopus applied linguistics methodology. the collocation pattern of passive voice + passive voice + passive voice occurs at 32.69 percent. passive voice colligated with transitive complements on the left side and the right sight were reported at 28.84 percent. the collocation pattern of transitive complement + passive voice + passive voice was reported at 13.46 percent. the empirical evidence of these patterns is given in the following section. passive voice + passive voice + passive voice the collocation pattern of passive voice + passive voice + passive voice occurred frequently in this study. this pattern was always found in the section of methodology in applied linguistics research articles, such as 4a-4c. (4a) approval for the study was obtained from the principal of the school. the data were collected using a printed survey, which was sent to the participating school by postal service. before performing the surveys, the students were informed that participation was voluntary (hirosawa, kono & oga-baldwin, 2024, p. 4). (4b) “a mixed-methods design was applied in this study. all data were analyzed using spss software, version 25.0. first, means and standard deviations were calculated to assess the willingness to communicate (wtc) levels and provide an overall description of the data (kim & su, 2024, p. 6). (4c) an initial questionnaire was structured to measure three main constructs: intensity of engagement, perceived usefulness of their engagement and satisfaction of abhinan wongkittiporn 104 no. 27 engagement. each of these were measured in relation to an object, a key aspect of the learning process and environment. four aspects were chosen for the questionnaire: teachers, peers, activities, and teaching content used in the classroom (teravainen-goff, 2023, p. 4). passive voice and the vicinity of passive voice in applied linguistics research articles were found in the section of research methodology. they were used to report the process of data collection, data analysis, ethical consideration. transitive complement + passive voice + transitive complement the second frequent collocation pattern in this study was the vicinity of transitive complement + passive voice + transitive complement as in 5a-5b. (5a) the students’ age ranged from 13 to 15 years old […]. all students were raised in japan, with japanese as their mother tongue and cultural background. the school’s focus on test performance mirrors the heavy educational focus found in many japanese secondary schools (hirosawa, kono & oga-baldwin, 2024, p. 4). (5b) a total of 65 students participated in the study. they were enrolled in an elementary-level korean language elective at a higher education institution […]. according to the internal guidelines, each language class accommodates 20 to 25 students (kim & su, 2024, p. 3). the collocation pattern of transitive complement + passive voice + transitive complement was used to report methods in applied linguistics research articles. the first transitive complement provided factual information of the participants either numerical data or experimental process. the passive voice explains further about the participants or the activity they were doing in the study. transitive complement + passive voice + passive voice another collocation pattern was transitive complement+ passive voice + passive voice which was usually found in the section of methodology. (6a) its limitation becomes evident when there are potential hierarchical factors, subscales, and items associated with constructs other than their primary target factor. this scenario is frequently encountered in psychology and education research, including the scales in this study. researchers are often faced with unintended cross-loadings due to the inclusion of multiple related factors within the study (hirosawa, kono & oga-baldwin, 2024, p. 5). (6b) none of the participants reported pronunciation training and more than one month of immersion experience in an english-speaking country. given that the participants were in china, the opportunities to communicate with other native and non-native speakers of english were highly limited. after the pre-tests, the participants were randomly assigned to the experimental (ruan & saito, 2023, p. 4). argument movement and passive constructions in english 105 no. 27 the collocation pattern of transitive complement + passive voice + passive voice is used mostly in the section of methodology. it indicated the challenges the researcher encountered and how they resolved them. passive voice + passive voice+ transitive complement the collocation pattern of passive voice+ passive voice + transitive complement was usually found in the section of methodology. (7a) […] the perceived competence scale (pcs) were collected. items were rated on a 5-point likert scale, […]. each point indicated the degree to which the students agreed with the statements (hirosawa, kono & oga-baldwin, 2024, p. 4). (7b) the chatbots developed by the researchers with the danbee ai platform were employed as a learning tool in this study. the selection and development of the chatbots were done based on two considerations. first, previous research underlined the need for well-prepared materials appropriate for the levels and requirements […] (kim & su, 2024, p. 4). the passive voice in this pattern was used to report data collection or how the data was employed to be used. on the other hand, transitive complements were used for data interpretation and support from previous studies. passive voice + passive voice + noun clause complement although the collocation pattern of passive voice + passive voice + noun clause complement was often found, there was no specific use in any particular section. (8a) the three orientations have been discussed in a continuum from different. however, the distinction in this linear progression is challenged by scholars advocating for the use of translanguaging practices to fulfill their pedagogical goals for l2 students in emi classrooms that may intimidate them into english-only orientations. to be more specific, studies have demonstrated that translanguaging performed beyond the classroom can create multiple translanguaging spaces for l2 students (mu, lee & choe, 2023, p. 3). (8b) first, ai chatbots can be integrated into the kfl classroom as a feasible approach to strengthening wtc and ultimately facilitating students’ l2 communication. based on the argument that l2 wtc can be more precisely conceptualized as a process rather than just personality traits of individual learners, researchers regard l2 wtc as a dynamic, temporal, and contextual phenomenon. consequently, they have been arguing that it can be demonstrated at a comprehensive level […] (kim & su, 2024, p. 10). example 8a was written in the section of literature review. example 8b was written in the section of discussion. abhinan wongkittiporn 106 no. 27 passive voice + passive voice + subjective complement although the collocation pattern of passive voice + passive voice + subjective complement was also found twice, there was no specific use in any particular section. (9a) it can also be called an “intelligent personal assistant.” the earliest intelligent chatbots, eliza and parry, were developed by joseph weizenbaum and kenneth colby in 1966 and 1972, respectively. these chatbots were text-based systems that mimicked human communication (kim & su, 2024, p. 3). example 9a was written in the section of literature review. example 9b was written in the method section. phase 2 while phase 1 is the results of passive voice and their syntactic vicinities in q1 scopus applied linguistics methodology, phase 2 examines the use of passive voice and their syntactic vicinities as written by thai writers. the data collection was derived from 15 applied linguistics methodologies as indexed in tci 1 from 2021 to 2024. there were 40 tokens of passive voice and their vicinities to study. the results of the study were compared with the results in phase 1 to seek correlation. if the data of applied linguistics methodology in tci 1 (journal of studies in the english language (jsel), thoughts and nida journal of language and communication) are the same with the vicinity as reported in table 2, code 1 was given, if not it was code 2. the data were coded into the inferential statistical analysis spss29 to seek a significant relationship. table 4 . passive voice and their syntactic vicinities passive constructions and their syntactic vicinities ranking passive voice + passive voice + passive voice 1 transitive complement + passive voice + transitive complement 2 transitive complement + passive voice + passive voice 3 passive voice + passive voice + transitive complement 4 passive voice + passive voice + noun clause complement 5 argument movement and passive constructions in english 107 no. 27 table 5. passive voice and their syntactic vicinities in tier 1 applied linguistics research articles correlations tokens compliance with q1 passive voice and their vicinities pearson correlation 1 -.135 sig. (2-tailed) .405 n 40 40 according to table 5, although 80 percent of passive voice and their syntactic vicinities in tier 1 applied linguistics methodology were similar to the patterns in q1 scopus applied linguistics methodology, there was no statistically significant relationship between the two variables where the p-value was reported at .405. regarding their similarities, the pattern “passive voice + passive voice + passive voice” occurred frequently in tci 1 applied linguistics methodology, such as (10). (10) results were reported in percentages. to maintain accuracy, the results were crosschecked by the three of us regularly during and after the analysis. contradictions were discussed and consensus won out (pupipat, rungkaew & meeparp, 2022, p. 10). passive voice is used to report the mean of data analysis, data validation and the consensus after the data validation. in addition, passive voice was used to describe the whole process of data collection. (11) a questionnaire and a semi-structured interview were employed in order to explore how thai university undergraduates perceived mother tongue-based language teaching in english classrooms. the questionnaire was adapted from the study of korean students’ and teachers’ attitudes regarding use of their l1 in english classrooms. the questionnaire and the interview questions were translated into thai to ensure that the participants clearly understood the items in the questionnaire (bunmak, 2023, p. 49). example 11 shows the use of passive voice to denote the use of instrument. the instrument was adapted to make it particularly suitable for the participants in the study. another similar pattern between the two datasets is passive voice that was used with the vicinities of transitive complement. (12) private university undergraduates in chiang mai, thailand participated in this study. the participants were selected via the purposive sampling method. the students […] responded to the questionnaire and took part in the semi-structured interview (bunmak, 2024, p. 48). abhinan wongkittiporn 108 no. 27 the first sentence is a transitive complement which is used to address the participants in the study. the second sentence is passive voice, which is the syntactic structure to denote the selection of the sampling method. the third sentence is a transitive complement which is used to denote the format of the research. despite having similarities, some differences were also found. the syntactic structure of existential “there” constructions was found in tci 1 applied linguistics methodology. (13) in this study, there are 414 clauses which consist of the victims or the perpetrators from three thai news agencies. each clause was analysed according to halliday’s […] view on transitivity analysis. at first, the process type was determined and then the elements of the clause were analysed and identified […] (suebklin & vungthong, 2022, p. 41). normally, the sentence to report data collection is a passive construction, as in “the data collection in this study is 414 clauses”. the researcher in example 13 reported the data collection with existential “there” constructions to mean something exists. the syntactic structures of subjective complements were used around passive voice as in 14. (14) the overarching research site is thailand where rape crimes are quite prevalent […]. our purposively selected data was taken from three thai news agencies. bangkok post is an english-language daily newspaper published in broadsheet and digital platforms […] (suebklin & vungthong, 2022, p. 40). normally, the data collection in the methodology is used with passive voice. for example, “the data in this study was collected from bangkok post, which is an english newspaper”. this section is asked to provide the data collection rather than the factual information of bangkok post. so, the readers needed to understand that the researcher collected the data from the bangkok post. phase 3 for phase 3, due to limited data collection, using inferential statistical calculation might not be appropriate to gain validity. descriptive statistical analysis via percentage was, therefore, employed to calculate the data collection. the results of the third phase involved undergraduate students’ is papers in the field of applied linguistics. approximately 250,000 words, or 26 applied linguistics research methodologies, provided 7 tokens that were used with passive voice with different syntactic vicinities. 85.72 percent appeared similar to the q1 scopus database. the examples are given below. argument movement and passive constructions in english 109 no. 27 (15a) twenty-two were female, and 8 were male. most of them were 26-30 years of age. the sampling group was assigned through the convenience sampling technique. the data were collected in the academic year 2023. (st20) (15b) the thai language version of the questionnaire was made to prevent any misunderstanding, and it was administered to the students through the platform google forms. the quantitative data were then analyzed by mean, sd, and percentage. regarding the quantitative data, they were analyzed through a thematic approach. (st20) (15c) the samples in the analysis were 15 utterances produced by woody. these utterances were collected from dialogues between characters in the movie. woody was selected because of his kindness and bravery.” (st13) (15d) this research collected the content analysis to analyze data and classified the utterances performing an illocutionary act. the data were analyzed by using searle’s (1976) theory. they proceeded by classifying the types of illocutionary speech acts. (st13) (15e) this part sought to investigate students’ attitudes about the usage of the metaverse in the learning of english. after identifying these categories, the students were interviewed using a series of closed-ended questions. the data was evaluated yielding frequency, percentage, and mean values. (st11) (15f) each song includes a list of words used in avril lavigne’s 39 songs. the singer’s songs are classified as pop-punk. in the music industry in europe and today, she is still a famous artist with outstanding works. (st06) (15g) first, the descriptive method is used to analyze sky’s utterances, which uses the classification of illocutionary acts proposed by searle. second, the statistical method is used to count the number of utterances from the type of speech acts and to calculate the percentage from the data. last, the interpretative method explains the intention of the meaning of sky’s utterances. (st02) in 15a, the passive voice in the second sentence is not necessary. the writer could have used a subjective complement to mean the same thing as in the sampling group was convenience sampling technique. the passive voice in 15b is arbitrary, where it is unreasonable and unexplainable as to why the writer used it. there is no link between the subject and the quantitative data in the passive voice with the information in the previous discourse. the passive voice in 15e is arbitrary, which is unreasonable and unexplainable. there is no link between the subject the students in passive voice with the information in the previous discourse. abhinan wongkittiporn 110 no. 27 table 6. passive voice and their syntactic vicinities between q1 scopus and students’ is passive voice and their syntactic vicinities freq. q1 freq. is passive voice + passive voice + passive voice 17 1 transitive complement + passive voice + transitive complement 15 4 transitive complement + passive voice + passive voice 7 0 passive voice + passive voice + transitive complement 6 1 passive voice + passive voice + noun clause complement 5 0 passive voice + passive voice + subjective complement 2 0 subjective complement + passive voice + passive voice 0 1 total 52 7 the fourth-year undergraduate students, majoring in english at a thai private university had a very limited ability to use passive voice and their vicinities when compared with q1 scopus international writers. the one that undergraduate students, majoring in english, produced the most was the colligation of transitive complement + passive voice and transitive complement. however, this complies with the literature review in that passive voice is a difficult structure among efl learners. discussion the uses of passive voice between professional writers and non-professional writers are the same. however, the differences between the two groups of writers are pragmatic aspects of the dp movement. dp deletion despite there being differences, the similarity between professional writers and non-professional writers is that they use passive voice to omit the agent. according to swan (2015), passive voice is used for several agentless reasons, such as concealed agents, unknown agents, and widely known agents. however, this study found that passive constructions are commonly used for the reason of widely known agents. it is not necessary to spell out the researchers repetitively as the readers know who conducted the research studies (djuwari, saputri & authar, 2022). argument movement and passive constructions in english 111 no. 27 (16a) approval for the study was obtained from the principal of the school. the data were collected using a printed survey, which was sent to the participating school by postal service. before performing the surveys, the students were informed that participation was voluntary (hirosawa, kono & oga-baldwin, 2024, p. 4). (16b) a mixed-methods design was applied in this study. all data were analyzed using spss software, version 25.0. first, means and standard deviations were calculated to assess the wtc levels […] (kim & su, 2024, p. 6). (c) “an initial questionnaire was structured to measure three main constructs […]. each of these were measured in relation to an object, a key aspect of the learning process and environment. four aspects were chosen for the questionnaire […]” (teravainengoff, 2023, p. 4) passive voice allowed the writer to omit the agent, referring to the one who instigated the action. it is widely known who conducts the processes of data collection, data analysis, and data validation. the use of passive voice to report experimental processes also helps avoid subjectivity via the use of the pronouns i and we (traugott, 2010). similarly, undergraduate students knew that the by-agents are able to be omitted, such as 17a and 17b. (17a) twenty-two were female, and 8 were male. most of them were 26-30 years of age. the sampling group was assigned through the convenience sampling technique. the data were collected in the academic year 2023. (17b) the thai language version of the questionnaire was made to prevent any misunderstanding […]. the quantitative data were then analyzed by mean, sd, and percentage. regarding the quantitative data, they were analyzed through a thematic approach. the agents of passive voice in these examples are the researchers. this is widely known, and it is not necessary to be spelt out. dp movement one of the differences between passive voice and their vicinities between professional writers and non-professional writers is explained by the theory of pragmatic discourse of givenness. the pragmatic discourse of givenness refers to providing the given information first before giving the new piece of information (smolka, 2011; smolka, 2017). passive voice in applied linguistics methodology is used to comply with this theory. (18a) a total of 65 students participated in the study. they were enrolled in an elementarylevel korean language elective at a higher education institution in guangdong province, china (kim & su, 2024, p. 3). abhinan wongkittiporn 112 no. 27 (18b) “the testing materials included both trained and untrained items. the untrained words were used to check the extent to which the effects of instruction can be generalized to novel words (ruan & saito, 2023, p. 4). example 18 shows that the researcher employed passive voice to link information with other constructions, such as transitive complements in 18a-18b. although most researchers in q1 scopus and tci 1 used passive voice with the reason of cohesion to comply with pragmatic discourse of givenness, passive voice with their vicinities written by thai undergraduate students is sometimes inconsistent, arbitrary and not systemic as in 19. (19) the thai language version of the questionnaire was made to prevent any misunderstanding […]. the quantitative data were then analyzed by mean, sd and percentage. regarding the quantitative data, they were analyzed through thematic approach. even though they knew to use the collocation of “passive voice + passive voice + passive voice”, the function of language use deviated from the prototypical member as shown in q1 scopus and tci 1. the results seem to comply with the explanations of passive voice in grammar texts (swan, 2015) explaining that passive voice is the interchangeable structure of active voice. in addition, the vicinity of the passive voice to the right is the sentence to give justification about why the data collection and the data analysis were selected accordingly. in the research method, the researchers used their justification to back up the decision to use certain data collection and data analysis to make their research studies valid and reliable (widdowson, 2011), such as 20. (20a) they were enrolled in an elementary-level korean language elective at a higher education institution in guangdong province, china. according to the internal guidelines, each language class accommodates 20 to 25 students (kim & su, 2024, p. 3). (20b) in the present study this activity was mainly used as an exercise for student recognition of compliments and crs, but its results were not part of the quantitative analysis presented in section 4.1. after this, students practiced producing compliments and crs (step d) through a closed learner-learner role.” (iraheta, 2024, p. 4). (20c) items were rated on a 5-point likert scale, suggested by hirosawa and quint oga-baldwin (2022) to match the cognitive level of younger learners. each point indicated the degree to which the students agreed with the statements (1 = disagree very much, 2 = somewhat disagree, 3 = neither agree or disagree, 4 = somewhat agree, 5 = agree very much) (hirosawa, kono & oga-baldwin, 2024, p. 4). (20d) the selection and development of the chatbots were done based on two considerations. first, previous research underlined the need for well-prepared materials appropriate for the levels and requirements of the learners (kim & su, 2024, p. 4). the justifications in research methodology were given via the syntactic structures of transitive complements and subjective complements. these justifications argument movement and passive constructions in english 113 no. 27 include the interpretations of scores, the advantages of certain tools, and a supporting reason given by other reliable sources. however, the semantic denotation of justifications is different as the unprofessional writer did not justify why certain data collection and analysis were applicable to the study as in 21. (21a) the thai language version of the questionnaire was made to prevent any misunderstanding, and it was administered to the students through the platform google forms. the quantitative data were then analyzed by mean, sd, and percentage. regarding the quantitative data, they were analyzed through a thematic approach. (21b) this part sought to investigate students’ attitudes about the usage of the metaverse in the learning of english. after identifying these categories, the students were interviewed using a series of closed-ended questions. the data were evaluated yielding frequency, percentage, and mean values. unlike professional writers, where the vicinities of passive voice are used for the reason for employing a certain data analysis method, unprofessional writers only report factual information. the vicinities of transitive complements, noun clause complements and subjective complements were rarely found in the work of unprofessional writers as they used the vicinities of justification as reproduced in table 7. table 7. passive voice and their syntactic vicinities between q1 scopus and students’ is passive voice and their syntactic vicinities freq. q1 freq. is passive voice + passive voice + passive voice 17 1 transitive complement + passive voice + transitive complement 15 4 transitive complement + passive voice + passive voice 7 0 passive voice + passive voice + transitive complement 6 1 passive voice + passive voice + noun clause complement 5 0 passive voice + passive voice + subjective complement 2 0 the slot of semantic denotations of justification is semi-fixed. reasons can be justified with various syntactic structures, such as noun clause complements, transitive complements and subjective complements. justifications are factual. these syntactic structures are the structures to report facts. abhinan wongkittiporn 114 no. 27 conclusion the current study examined passive voice with syntactic vicinities in applied linguistics research methodology from different datasets to answer the following research questions. 1. what are the syntactic reasons of the dp by-phrase agent deletion in passive voice in applied linguistics methodology? 2. what are the pragmatic reasons of the dp movement in passive voice via their syntactic vicinities in applied linguistics methodology? passive voice was found to be colligated with various syntactic structures, such as passive voice, transitive complements, subjective complements, and noun clause complements. the most frequent colligation was passive voice + passive voice + passive voice. this pattern was used to connect data collection, data analysis, and data validation. when passive constructions were used with transitive complements, they were used to link information together to create cohesion in the methodology. however, transitive complements, subjective complements, and noun clause complements used after passive voice were the syntactic structures to give reasons as to why the researchers selected certain data, instruments, and data analysis in their study. the dp by-phrase agents in passive voice are omitted due to widely known agents as the ones who conducted the research methodology are the researchers themselves. the pragmatic reasons for the dp movement to the spec t are due to the pragmatic discourse of givenness to link an old piece of information with the previous discourse. regarding the new knowledge of this research paper, the idea of passive voice and active voice as interchange structures could be counteracted by the results of this study. even though they are the same semantically, they are different in terms of their pragmatic aspects focusing on their movement. the dp movement of the theme towards the spec t in passive voice leads to sentential cohesion and coherences that most efl learners have been faced with the problem of linking one sentence to the other seamlessly. therefore, the results of this paper finally offer a possible solution. the results of this study could provide efl learners with concrete examples for writing the research methodology section more effectively. specifically, the findings illustrate how form, meaning, and use can be integrated, helping learners apply these linguistic elements simultaneously in their applied linguistics research. by doing so, students are likely to enhance cohesion and coherence in their writing, as they are encouraged to master different syntactic structures in related areas simultaneously. this, in turn, fosters the development of more professional writing skills among efl learners. however, a limitation of this paper is the restricted data set used in the study. if possible, future research should employ a corpus-based approach. this would argument movement and passive constructions in english 115 no. 27 enhance the generalizability and external validity of the findings. the study of passive constructions and their vicinities in this study was limited to only the materials of applied linguistics research articles. applying the results of this study to other materials such as news articles and other types of texts may not be applicable to the optimal level. pedagogical implications when efl teachers teach the subject of academic writing in english, they may shed light on the language features that frequently occur in the section of research methodology. for example, not only are passive constructions used due to the omission of the subject, but the object is also raised to link with the information in the previous discourse. learners can apply either noun clause complements or transitive complements as the following sentence to explain why a certain method is selected. therefore, the learners could learn the right research method and the right language patterns at the same time. for example, the teachers may recommend several sampling methods, including simple sampling method, convenience sampling method, and purposive sampling method. then, the teachers can teach the syntactic structures of passive voice, transitive complements, and subjective complements. finally, the learners can be instructed to fill in their information into the syntactic structures taught. for example, “the data collection in this study is convenience sampling method. convenience sampling method was applied for the data collection in this study. this research study follows a convenience sampling method”. language teachers can facilitate the learners’ practical knowledge by narrowing down the language features that are authentically used in the section of methodology. abhinan wongkittiporn 116 no. 27 references andrews, e. 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(2024). a quantitative study on noun clauses in applied linguistics research articles between q1 scopus and tci 1 databases. parichart journal, 37(2), 502-515. https://doi.org/10.55164/pactj.v37i2.269095 authors abhinan wongkittiporn, ph.d. currently works as a deputy head in the department of english language, college of liberal arts, rangsit university, thailand. he received a ba in business english from faculty of liberal arts, thammasat university, thailand. he received his ma and phd in english as an international language (english linguistics) from chulalongkorn university, thailand. his areas of research interest include english syntax, information structure, semantics, esp and efl learners’ error analysis. orcid id: https://orcid.org/0009-0004-8768-4720 118 no. 27 argument movement and passive constructions in english using global englishes to improve listening comprehension in preintermediate english learners utilizando los ingleses globales para mejorar la comprensión auditiva en estudiantes de inglés de nivel preintermedio roger segura arias1 karla daniela herrera rodríguez universidad nacional, brunca branch, costa rica 1 roger.segura.arias@una.ac.cr 81 no. 29 gist education and learning research journal. issn 1692-5777. no. 29 (july december, 2024). pp. 81-98. 82 no. 29 abstract this qualitative case study examined the impact of listening to global englishes on the development of listening comprehension in pre-intermediate english students at universidad nacional, costa rica. using questionnaires, focus groups, and observations, the research explored students’ perceptions of various english speakers from different nationalities and their overall experience with exposure to diverse global varieties. the findings indicated that students found english spoken by people from the united states, mexico, and venezuela easier to understand due to clarity and familiarity, while british, australian, and scottish variants presented the greatest challenges, particularly due to pronunciation. students stated that the listening activities expanded their vocabulary and improved their comprehension skills by providing real-world exposure to english spoken in different regions. the results indicated the need for a shift in language teaching approaches in costa rica, emphasizing the inclusion of global englishes in curricula to better prepare students for international communication. further research is recommended to investigate the long-term impact of this approach and its potential benefits in improving aural and oral skills. keywords: listening comprehension, global englishes, case study, lingua franca resumen este estudio de caso cualitativo examinó el impacto de escuchar variedades de inglés global en el desarrollo de la comprensión auditiva en estudiantes de inglés de nivel preintermedio en la universidad nacional, costa rica. utilizando cuestionarios, grupos focales y observaciones, la investigación exploró las percepciones de los estudiantes sobre diversos hablantes de inglés de diferentes nacionalidades y su experiencia general con la exposición a variedades globales del idioma inglés. los resultados indicaron que los estudiantes encontraron más fácil entender el inglés hablado por personas de estados unidos, méxico y venezuela debido a la claridad y familiaridad, mientras que las variantes británica, australiana y escocesa presentaron mayores desafíos, particularmente por la pronunciación. los estudiantes señalaron que las actividades de escucha ampliaron su vocabulario y mejoraron sus habilidades de comprensión al proporcionarles una exposición real al inglés hablado en diferentes regiones. los hallazgos destacaron la necesidad de un cambio en los enfoques de enseñanza del idioma en costa rica, enfatizando la inclusión de variedades globales del inglés en los planes de estudio para preparar mejor a los estudiantes para la comunicación internacional. se recomienda realizar más investigaciones para analizar el impacto a largo plazo de este enfoque y sus posibles beneficios en la mejora de las habilidades auditivas y orales. palabras clave: comprensión auditiva, inglés global, estudio de caso, lengua franca global englishes to improve listening comprehension 83 no. 29 resumo este estudo de caso qualitativo examinou o impacto da escuta de variedades do inglês global no desenvolvimento da compreensão auditiva em estudantes de inglês de nível pré-intermediário na universidade nacional, costa rica. utilizando questionários, grupos focais e observações, a pesquisa explorou as percepções dos estudantes sobre diversos falantes de inglês de diferentes nacionalidades e sua experiência geral com a exposição a variedades globais da língua inglesa. os resultados indicaram que os estudantes acharam mais fácil entender o inglês falado por pessoas dos estados unidos, méxico e venezuela devido à clareza e familiaridade, enquanto as variantes britânica, australiana e escocesa apresentaram maiores desafios, particularmente em relação à pronúncia. os estudantes destacaram que as atividades de escuta ampliaram seu vocabulário e melhoraram suas habilidades de compreensão ao proporcionar-lhes uma exposição autêntica ao inglês falado em diferentes regiões. os achados ressaltaram a necessidade de uma mudança nos enfoques de ensino da língua na costa rica, enfatizando a inclusão de variedades globais do inglês nos currículos para preparar melhor os estudantes para a comunicação internacional. recomenda-se a realização de mais pesquisas para analisar o impacto a longo prazo dessa abordagem e seus possíveis benefícios na melhoria das habilidades auditivas e orais. palavras-chave: compreensão auditiva, inglês global, estudo de caso, língua franca roger segura arias and karla daniela herrera rodríguez 84 no. 29 in today’s globalized world, effective and efficient interactions can bridge cultural gaps, enhance understanding, and boost collaboration in various fields from trade and diplomacy to humanitarian endeavors. likewise, aspects like economic growth and cultural interchange are also ensured when seamless communication is accomplished. as a result, fostering clear communication may ease agreement, collaboration, and mutual respect while benefiting an interconnected global society. however, in many contexts, language remains a challenge to achieving the goal of effective communication. hence, sharing a common language and fully using and understanding it becomes essential. nowadays, english is a global language and plays a major role when it comes to communication around the world. as kurtuldu and ozkan (2022) suggested, “english has become the primary source of […] interactions over time by possessing the status of lingua franca” (p. 50). english use goes beyond geographical boundaries, which makes it essential for comprehension and collaboration among speakers from different language backgrounds. its prevalence in various fields such as science, technology, and business highlightsits indispensable role in shaping our modern society. therefore, embracing english as a universal language is vital for fostering collaboration, innovation, and mutual understanding in our increasingly connected world. traditionally, english spoken by native speakers has been a model to follow, leaving behind englishes spoken in other contexts, which leads to less exposure and acceptance of non-native varieties of english. however, it is fundamental to stress that english should be taught as a means of communication, and “as english communication situations are becoming diverse, english speakers should be able to understand english spoken not only by l1 speakers but also by other l2 speakers in order to communicate” (lee, 2022, p. 3). consequently, non-native english varieties, put on view when learning this language, may become a critical factor in the process and also can promote comprehension among english speakers of other languages. becoming a proficient english user takes time and effort, especially when it comes to developing listening skills and, as it is widely known, “foreign language listening comprehension is a complex process and crucial in the development of foreign language competence” (gilakjani & ahmadi, 2011, p. 784). therefore, it is important to emphasize listening skills and expose students to different english varieties to improve their listening comprehension abilities. in this article, we observed how learners reacted when listening to global englishes and analyzed it as a possible tool to promote listening comprehension in pre-intermediate english students. global englishes to improve listening comprehension 85 no. 29 literature review this section presents relevant literature concerning global englishes and their implications in the teaching and learning the language in the 21st century. beyond an efl language english as a foreign language (efl) is a term used to refer to english taught and learned in contexts where english is not the predominant language (nunan, 2015, p.1). however, the english language has evolved, as have its learners and their reasons for learning. according to selvi et al. (2023), “built upon the forces of mercantilism, colonialism, cultural and economic globalization, transnational movement, and technological innovations, the global spread of english has resulted in diverse forms, roles, functions, uses, users, and contexts around the world” (p. 01); such expansion of language use has blurred a somewhat clear division and categories given to learners of english (e.g., esl, efl). as humans continue to interact more easily without geographical obstacles through technology and social media, a global use of english demands new ways to understand this phenomenon. in fact, diverse ways to conceptualize english and its uses have emerged, “these include world englishes (we), english as a lingua franca (elf), and english as an international language (eil), which were later grouped under the umbrella term of global englishes (ge)” (selvi et al., 2023, p.02). the following section presents a more detailed account of these conceptualizations. important concepts due to the changes in how english has been used and taught, various concepts and views have appeared in different fields. according to selvi et al. (2023), this is not new and started in the 1980s with the rise of variations of english. first, world englishes (we) can be defined as “the study of the linguistic features of different varieties of english, their history, function, background, and sociolinguistic implications” (p. 25), as per english as an international language (eil), they defined it as “the study of the implications of the spread of english as a global language, particularly pedagogy” (p. 25). in terms of english as a lingua franca (elf), they conceived it as “the study of the sociolinguistic use, forms, functions and contexts of english as a lingua franca amongst speakers of different first languages, and the sociolinguistic implications of such usage” (p. 26). another concept that is of importance for this study is that of global englishes, which rose and galloway (2019) defined as: an umbrella term to unite the shared endeavours of these interrelated fields of study in sociolinguistics and applied linguistics. we use it to consolidate research in world englishes, english as a lingua franca and english as an international language while roger segura arias and karla daniela herrera rodríguez 86 no. 29 drawing on scholarship from translanguaging and multilingualism in second language acquisition. thus, we define global englishes as an inclusive paradigm that embraces a broad spectrum of interrelated research that has come before it and emerged alongside it. (p. 6) therefore, for this project, we understand global englishes (ge from here on) as our main concept. it is a broad perception of english as it is used and taught and involves different fields of study such as applied linguistics and sociolinguistics. teaching and learning implications given that the uses of english around the world have changed, the way this language is taught and learned should also change. the many contexts in the way english is used as a global language may call for changes in tesol (teaching english to speakers of other languages). in fact, “elf users communicate with people from diverse lingua-cultural backgrounds in transient encounters, utilise their multilingual repertoires, and use the english language in creative ways, going beyond the ‘native’” (galloway & numajiri, 2020, p. 118). this reconceptualization may be based upon the premise that learners are now users; errors can be seen as variants, monolingualism is becoming multilingualism (de costa & crowther, 2018); without forgetting larsen-freeman’s (2015) reconceptualization of language acquisition as language development (as in crowther, 2021, p. 32). after considering the previous views, “an ideal pedagogical approach to l2 teaching then, would place a focus on intercultural awareness as much as it does linguistic proficiency” (de costa & crowther, 2018, p. 29). in terms of research, there has been a movement where english goes “beyond idealized ‘native speaker’ models to equipping language users with communication/ accommodation skills and strategies to successfully negotiate the fluidity and diversity of language use, users, and interactions (selvi et al., 2023; guilherme, 2007; taguchi, 2014; pandarangga, 2015; jindapitak & teo, 2013; puri, 2021 ). in this sense, the teaching and learning of english should be conceived under a broader scope, leaving behind imperialistic views of focusing mostly on english as a global means of communication. possible benefits of teaching english as a global language due to the shifts in the use of the english language, teaching english has also changed, giving english as a global language a more prominent stage. in this sense, “english can no longer be linked exclusively to native english-speaking cultures. global englishes to improve listening comprehension 87 no. 29 hence, there is no need, in the teaching of eil, there is no need to base the content of teaching materials, the choice of teaching methodology, or the ideal teacher on native-speaker models” (mckay, 2003, p. 145). teaching eil offers several benefits. it allows for the inclusion of local cultural content and promotes student motivation and cultural awareness (mckay, 2003). additionally, eil can foster cosmopolitan citizenship, enabling students to engage responsibly in global contexts without losing their cultural roots (guilherme, 2007). thus, teaching eil responds to the growing demand for english proficiency in an increasingly globalized world (taguchi, 2014). therefore, teaching english should consider a wider exposure to the language and its varieties, the materials, the cultural knowledge, and several other aspects, including those of native and non-native speakers, preserving equal importance. furthermore, english as a global language may offer several benefits as seen in current global “communication, empowerment, and unification in the global community” (pandarangga, 2015, p. 90). exposure to english and its many varieties and the development of proficiency can be a key factor in creating “many opportunities for people in both their personal and professional lives. for example, people proficient in english can travel more easily, work for international companies, and access information and resources from all over the world” (ngoc thu, 2023, p. 90). in this sense, the focus of teaching and learning english may be based upon the development of communicative skills to enhance personal and professional growth. in addition, puri (2021) argued that “global englishes perspectives need to be adopted in english language teaching elsewhere because it is supposed to enhance learners’ interpersonal communication, mutual support and respect, multidialectal competence, and analytical skills” (p. 124). puri (2021) also noted that global englishes perspectives have positive effects, specifically in the context of nepal. for instance, in the context of nepal are the acceptance of nepalese variation of english, the focus on teaching english as a means of communication, shifts from native-like pronunciation to comprehensible pronunciation, and the incorporation of english texts written by local authors (p. 125). likewise, sifakis and sougari (2003) highlighted the benefits of teaching english through a global lens. they emphasized “the need for reinforcing all speakers’ (native and non-native alike) sense as communicators at a global level by adding an extra dimension (i.e. cultural awareness) to our ‘communicative competence’” (p. 66). also, “exposure to varieties of english is believed to help facilitate learners’ communication abilities when being confronted with diverse types of english uses and users” (jindapitak & teo, 2013, p. 195). these arguments not only support moving beyond traditional english standards but also highlight the importance of prioritizing communication roger segura arias and karla daniela herrera rodríguez 88 no. 29 principles, practices, and proposals changing the way english teaching is done around the world takes some reconceptualization of principles and practices. in this sense, selvi et al. (2023) presented a table of principles and practices for teachers to increase linguistic plurality norms. as a summary, they address the need for: increasing exposure to (a) diverse forms of english, (b) situationand usagebased uses of english that demonstrate flexible use of norms. modelling pluralisation of linguistic norms through instructional choices, practices as well as interactions with students. equipping language users with communication and accommodation strategies necessary in/for elf interactions. redefining norms and aligning instruction in the light of broader constructs of intelligibility, comprehensibility, and interpretability from eil. strategic designing that promotes the utilisation of all resources in one’s multilingual repertoire. (pp. 51-52) this first proposal can be seen as a pivotal one because it all starts when teachers “expose students to the diversity of english used around the world and in different contexts to ensure that they are better prepared to use english in international contexts” (selvi et al., 2023, p. 29). the exposure to global englishes requires teachers to take action and explore new ways to teach and assess students in preparation for a globalized world outside. moreover, puri (2021) explained that many researchers encourage the integration of ge-informed pedagogy into language teaching, emphasizing its potential to enrich classroom materials and practices. as fang and ren (2018), and rose and galloway (2017) contend, “ge-informed pedagogy contains a complete package of knowledge, skills, and attitudes,” making it a comprehensive approach to english language education. puri (2021) continued to elaborate that such pedagogy “seems to impart the knowledge of english expansion, its varieties, nature of diversification, and changes” (p. 123). likewise, jindapitak and teo (2013) highlighted the need for a shift in teaching practices, asserting that “in order to make educational practices more realistic, up-todate, and supportive of globalization, there is an urgent need to engage learners in a pedagogy that goes beyond the idea of nativeness” (p. 195). however, they also noted a significant challenge, observing that “the implementation of world englishes into language pedagogy seems to be the difficulty in searching for and developing materials for the teaching of world englishes” (p. 196). these perspectives support a shift in teaching practices and propose changes in the way english teaching has been done. in this sense, selvi et al. (2023) also proposed increasing we and elf exposure in language curricula, emphasizing respect for multilingualism in elt, raising awareness of ge in elt and of elf strategies in language curricula, among other changes. the emphasis that selvi et al. (2023) give to awareness is a fundamental factor when talking about learning and teaching a language that focuses on communication, knowledge global englishes to improve listening comprehension 89 no. 29 of new cultures, and the respect that must be had towards them while leaving behind native speakerism idealizations. methodology research design this research project made use of a qualitative case study methodology where “the investigator explores a real-life contemporary bounded system (the case) or multiple bounded systems (cases) over time, through detailed, in-depth data collection involving multiple sources of information” (creswell & poth, 2018, p. 153). yin (2018) also explained that “a case study is an empirical inquiry that investigates a contemporary phenomenon (the ‘case’) within its real-life context, especially when the boundaries between phenomenon and context are not clearly evident” (p. 15). thus, we chose a qualitative case study approach to closely examine the two student groups in their everyday settings. this method allowed us to gather detailed information from various sources, such as observations, focus groups, and questionnaires, to gain a full understanding of their experiences while being exposed to global englishes. by focusing on their natural contexts, we were able to document and interpret the data in a way that reflected the unique characteristics the groups in their unique environment. this approach helped us explore their behaviors and interactions in a meaningful and practical way. research participants the participants in this study involved two groups of pre-intermediate english students enrolled in the english associate program at a regional branch of the universidad nacional in costa rica. the sample included a total of 46 first-year students from two distinct integrated english courses. the participants’ ages ranged from 18 to 45, with the majority having attended public high schools in various regions of southern costa rica. notably, most of these students were recipients of scholarships due to their socio-economic statuses. these participants were selected due to their linguistic level, diverse backgrounds, and opportunity to benefit from the activity application. to guarantee ethical practices, participants were fully informed about the purpose of the study and the steps involved. they gave their consent before taking part in the research. confidentiality was carefully protected by keeping participants’ identities anonymous and presenting the results in a way that ensured their privacy. roger segura arias and karla daniela herrera rodríguez 90 no. 29 activity application process we employed the website www.elllo.org to select audio tracks tailored to the students’ proficiency levels and aligned with the topics covered in the course. these audio tracks and accompanying exercises were assigned as homework following the completion of each unit throughout a 17-week semester. the objective was to encourage independent learning and utilization of various website features, including scripts, quizzes, and vocabulary reviews while exposing them to audio tracks with native and non-native speakers of english of many different nationalities. afterward, we facilitated a class discussion to provide students with an opportunity to share their experiences with the website and its audio tracks. we selected specific tracks for three main reasons. first, the tracks were chosen to match the students’ current proficiency level. second, the audio tracks included a mix of english varieties, both native and non-native, to support the main objective of exposing students to global englishes. finally, the tracks were aligned with the course content, ensuring that their topics directly complemented the themes covered in the syllabus. data collection process our data collection involved the implementation of three different instruments, each chosen to address specific aspects of the research questions and ensure a comprehensive understanding of the students’ experiences. first, learners completed a questionnaire to gather insights into their perceptions of improvements in their comprehension of spoken english, their strengths and weaknesses, and their overall views on the effectiveness of exposure to global englishes. questionnaires are widely regarded as efficient tools for collecting large amounts of self-reported data, particularly in educational research, as they allow for the identification of trends and patterns (dörnyei & taguchi, 2010). we selected this tool for its efficiency in collecting large amounts of data, allowing for the identification of trends and patterns in student responses. also, we documented class discussions and recorded students’ opinions regarding the usefulness of audio tracks and any challenges encountered during the activities. observation and documentation during class discussions are valuable methods for collecting authentic feedback in natural settings (cohen et al., 2017). observational data provided contextualized insights into student engagement and interactions, which complemented the findings from the questionnaires and helped answer the research questions. finally, we conducted two focus groups, each comprising students from different classes. focus groups are recognized as an effective way to explore participants’ experiences and clarify ambiguous questionnaire responses through group discussions (krueger & casey, 2015). these sessions aimed to gather qualitative data that emphasized key experiences and addressed aspects of the global englishes to improve listening comprehension 91 no. 29 questionnaire requiring further exploration. focus groups were particularly effective for highlighting collective experiences and drawing attention to shared challenges or successes. by combining these instruments, we intended to ensure a general understanding of the learners’ experiences while triangulating the data collected. in this sense, triangulation was achieved by cross-referencing the results, such as using questionnaire trends to guide the focus group discussions and validating observational insights through analysis of the students’ responses. for instance, feedback from focus groups helped clarify trends identified in the questionnaires, ensuring the reliability and depth of the findings. results the following section aims to summarize the findings we gathered after applying three different instruments to collect information about the impact of listening to global englishes and how it may promote listening comprehension in pre-intermediate english students. based on the answers we obtained from the questionnaire, the groups expressed that when listening to different variations of english they highlight the ease of understanding vocabulary due to the clarity of the speakers’ voice and the speed of the tracks. regarding the main difficulties encountered, students stated that pronunciation was the biggest challenge to overcome. we also requested them to point out which variations of english were easier for them to understand. among these variants, the groups considered that english spoken by people from the united states, venezuela, japan, and mexico was easier to understand. on the other hand, the answers revealed that australian, british, and scottish variations were the most challenging ones when listening to the conversations. we also focused the questions on the usefulness of the exercises for students and they suggested that the tracks helped them improve their listening skills since they learned new vocabulary and could experience english spoken in different parts of the world. in terms of the findings derived from the focus groups, a majority of the students agreed that when listening to global englishes, they encountered difficulty with understanding pronunciation, since it varies from country to country. in terms of their perceptions, british english was the most demanding english variant while american english seemed to be the less difficult one for them. interestingly, students also mentioned that those englishes in which speakers have spanish as their native language were also less challenging for them. based on students’ opinions, listening to speakers from around the world helped them become aware of how important understanding english is, since this skill may help them achieve goals like traveling or working abroad. similarly, students mentioned that listening to the conversations roger segura arias and karla daniela herrera rodríguez 92 no. 29 benefited them because it worked as extra practice for the listening evaluations in the course they were taking at the time. taking account of the entries obtained in the third instrument, the overall students’ views on their improvement in their listening skill seem positive. most of the interviewees expressed that their progress was optimal, and none believed that their listening skill worsened (figure 1). on the other hand, almost 9% of them considered that no changes in their listening comprehension were observed after having completed the activities. figure 1. overall experience listening to different varieties of english note. data gathered from instrument 3: questionnaire regarding the easiest aspects that students found when hearing different varieties of english, the slower speech rate and the use of simple familiar vocabulary stand out among the options provided. likewise, the results showed that english speakers from mexico, japan, the united states, and venezuela were easier to understand than those from the other regions. on the contrary, the most difficult aspects to understand for the groups were pronunciation and the use of unfamiliar or regional vocabulary. likewise, the english spoken in london, australia, and wales resulted to be the most difficult ones to comprehend for the groups. discussion this study intended to elucidate the impact that the exposure to english containing language samples from many varieties can have on students’ development of listening skills. the findings uncovered aspects such as strengths and weaknesses in terms of global englishes to improve listening comprehension 93 no. 29 comprehension of different language varieties and provided insights into what was helpful and not during the implementation of the activities. as stated in the previous analysis, students reported that certain varieties of english are easier to understand due to their “clarity,” particularly highlighting the english pronunciation of other spanish speakers and people from the united states . this may be attributed to the high level of exposure to english varieties that are geographically close to costa rica and economically significant. traditionally, english education in costa rica has focused on communication with native speakers (nunan, 2015) from the united states, largely due to economic reasons. this approach has often overlooked the importance of increasing exposure to global varieties of english and incorporating this element into language curricula (selvi et al., 2023). besides, students reported that pronunciation, particularly that of british, welsh, and australian english, significantly affected their comprehension. this issue may derive from a lack of exposure to diverse english varieties, limiting their ability to engage with a more global context of english use (guilherme, 2007; jindapitak & teo, 2013), limiting a unification of english users within a global community (pandarangga, 2015). to address this, there should be a paradigm shift in teaching materials and methodologies to make them more available and to move away from native speaker models (mckay, 2003; selvi et al., 2023; sifakis & sougari, 2003). by pluralizing linguistic norms and making instructional choices (selvi et al., 2023; puri, 2021) that incorporate a wide range of english varieties, educators may enhance students’ comprehension of less common english varieties. students also shared information about what was beneficial for them following the implementation of the activities. they perceived that the audio tracks enhanced their listening skills, as they were introduced to new vocabulary while being exposed to english spoken in various parts of the world. this finding aligns with selvi et al. (2023), who supported a redefinition of instructional norms to improve intelligibility, comprehensibility, and interpretability through increased exposure to global english. conclusions after analyzing the results and discussion sections, we have drawn some conclusions. first, there is a need for exposure to ge to enhance comprehension. if exposure to american english varieties has proven to be beneficial in promoting comprehension, thus an exposure to global english varieties may enhance general comprehension by providing familiarity with different pronunciation, pace, and vocabulary. we want to highlight the importance of including a wider range of ge varieties in the curriculum to help increase overall listening comprehension skills. roger segura arias and karla daniela herrera rodríguez 94 no. 29 moreover, english pronunciations that stray away from that of american english, specifically those of british, australian, welsh, and scottish english, were considered as a challenge for the students. this issue also calls for an increment in the exposure to various english varieties in favor of an improvement in comprehension. in the discussion section, we emphasized a need to move away from native-speaker models of english and promote exposure to ge, especially when it comes to listening. by integrating diverse native and non-native speakers and english varieties into language teaching, students can be better prepared for real-world communication, where english is spoken by individuals from different cultural and linguistic backgrounds. such an approach could enhance not only their listening comprehension but also in generating an appreciation for the linguistic diversity of english as a global language. the most relevant conclusion drawn from the results revealed that there was a positive impact on listening skills. the students’ feedback showed that the listening tracks and activities from elllo helped them to expand their vocabulary and to further develop their listening skills. they expressed positive remarks about the progress they made in listening comprehension, which may suggest that exposing them to global englishes could be an asset to improving their learning process. recommendations we suggest that costa rica’s english curricula incorporate audio and video materials containing speakers from many countries and cultures. including native and non-native speaker samples can help students broaden their comprehension of english as a global language. also, we recommend that english be given a global status, away from the idea of native-speakers that may limit students’ progress: that is, teachers should promote the development of linguistic skills that allow for global communication and not emphasize native-speaker varieties as the goal. furthermore, we advise an increase in listening strategies focused on ge. besides the exposure to different english varieties, there needs to be a focus on teaching strategies to overcome comprehension difficulties. students should be exposed to different methods such as top-down and bottom-up listening to include both listening for details and for meaning, which can come in handy when dealing with unfamiliar pronunciations. finally, this case study has provided some insights into the benefits that global englishes can bring to aid listening comprehension in english students from this specific context. nonetheless, we consider that further investigation is essential for a better understanding of the topic. we consider that more research on the longterm effects of the exposure to ge can yield valuable information not only about the students’ listening comprehension but also about the students’ ability to communicate. global englishes to improve listening comprehension 95 no. 29 references cohen, l., manion, l., & morrison, k. 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(2018). case study research: design and methods (6th ed.). sage publications. global englishes to improve listening comprehension 97 no. 29 appendices appendix 1: activity application protocol topics: academic life, weather and nature, food and diets, in the community, home, cultures, health, entertainment and media, social life, and sports. goal: students will be able to improve their listening comprehension skills by being exposed to speakers of english from different parts of the world. target nationalities: mongolia, the usa, portugal, south africa, japan, the usa (hawaii), england, the usa, australia, scotland, venezuela, the uk, japan, mexico, wales directions: pre-listening: the students review the key vocabulary from each track by listening to extracts of the track. while-listening students are asked to listen attentively to the conversation while taking notes of main ideas and details. the students are asked to pay attention to pronunciation features they find different among speakers. post-listening in class, the students share their thoughts on the content of the conversation and their understanding of it. the class discusses any challenges encountered in understanding the english varieties and the strategies they used to overcome them. roger segura arias and karla daniela herrera rodríguez efl students’ experiences using ict in their english learning processes: a narrative study1 experiencias de los estudiantes de inglés en el uso de las tic en sus procesos de aprendizaje de inglés: un estudio narrativo julian dario silva-perdomo, maría soledad duero, and jairo enrique castañeda-trujillo2 universidad surcolombiana, colombia 1 received: february 24th/ accepted: may 30th 2 u20171156916@usco.edu.co; u20171157921@usco.edu.co; jairo.castaneda@usco.edu.co critical thinking scenarios in online legal english classes gist education and learning research journal. issn 1692-5777. no. 24 (january june, 2022). pp. 141-165. 142 no. 24 abstract this article presents the results of a narrative analysis that looked into some efl students’ experiences related to their english learning processes and the use of ict (information and communication technologies). the study was carried out at a university in southern colombia. the main objective was to understand the participants’ experiences in the institutional english courses at a university while using ict during their language learning process. the data was collected through in-depth interviews and life stories. the english students’ experiences are relevant to validating a new teaching tool or strategy in a specific context. the main conclusion indicates that ict in language teaching needs to be articulated with other appropriate tools, practices, methodologies, and approaches to achieve meaningful learning. keywords: english language learning; efl students; ict; narratives; experiences resumen este artículo presenta los resultados de un análisis narrativo que indagó en las experiencias de algunos estudiantes de inglés como lengua extranjera relacionadas con sus procesos de aprendizaje del inglés y el uso de las tic (tecnologías de la información y la comunicación). el estudio se realizó en una universidad del sur de colombia. el objetivo principal era comprender las experiencias de los participantes en los cursos de inglés institucionales de una universidad mientras utilizaban las tic durante su proceso de aprendizaje del idioma. los datos se recogieron mediante entrevistas en profundidad y relatos de vida. las experiencias de los estudiantes de inglés son relevantes para validar una nueva herramienta o estrategia de enseñanza en un contexto específico. la conclusión principal indica que las tic en la enseñanza de idiomas deben articularse con otras herramientas, prácticas, metodologías y enfoques adecuados para lograr un aprendizaje significativo. palabras clave: aprendizaje de inglés; estudiantes de inglés como lengua extranjera; tic; narrativas; exoperiencias. efl students’ experiences using ict when learning silva-perdomo, duero & castañeda-trujillo 143 no. 24 resumo este artigo apresenta os resultados de uma análise narrativa que indaga nas experiências de alguns estudantes universitários relacionadas com sua aprendizagem do inglês e o uso das tic (tecnologias da informação e a comunicação) por parte do docente durante este processo. o estudo foi realizado em uma universidade do sul da colômbia. o nosso objetivo principal foi compreender as experiências dos estudantes dos cursos de inglês ao usar as tic durante seu processo de aprendizagem do idioma. os dados foram obtidos através de entrevistas em profundidade e relatos de vida. as experiências dos alunos são um aspecto relevante a considerar na hora de validar uma nova ferramenta ou estratégia didática em um contexto concreto. a conclusão principal indica que as tic no ensino de idiomas deve se articular com outras ferramentas, práticas, metodologias e enfoques pertinentes para lograr uma aprendizagem significativa. palavras chave: ensino de inglês; tic; aprendizagem de língua, narrativas, experiências de aprendizagem de idioma; experiências com as tic efl students’ experiences using ict when learning silva-perdomo, duero & castañeda-trujillo 144 no. 24 introduction for the past fifty years, society has engaged in a digital connection, screen-based communication, and global knowledge exchange and ideas. warschauer and meskill (2000) state that in the 1950s, blackboard support was implemented in the grammatical translation method to facilitate language learning. some teachers decided to use the cassette tape holder to improve their speaking and listening skills in the audio-lingual method. thus, in the 1980s, the computing device was officially established in education and became a potential tool for developing learning materials. subsequently, communicative approaches to language learning emerged, focusing on the interaction of students in meaningful exchanges. consequently, it is a fact that ict (information and communication technologies) has become part of the educational system. in such a way, ict began to have importance in language learning. it became fundamental in developing new teaching didactics, which led to the emergence of virtual education and meaningful and innovative classroom tools to support teachers and students. today, ict integrates strategies to motivate, support, evaluate, and improve learning. although the curricula cover ict, it is up to teachers to know how to adapt and introduce such tools in their contexts and students’ needs. in short, every day, the role of ict in language learning evolves according to the students’ needs. some scholars have narrated the great impact ict has had in the educational field in recent years (castañeda-trujillo & rincón, 2018; fu, 2013; livingstone, 2012; okauru, 2011; wang, 2005). for example, wang (2005) stated, “we can definitely agree that technology has done a great job in helping language learning, but this is just the beginning of the era of technology-enhanced education” (p. 42). additionally, according to kumar and tammelin (2014), “in the last decade, changing conceptions of learning and rapid technological advances have been accompanied by changes in language teaching and learning” (p. 5). however, this one seems unknown when it comes to students’ perception of including technology in the classroom. considering the above, we decided to focus on what happened at universidad surcolombiana and the perceptions efl students have about the use of technologies. universidad surcolombiana offers all students the possibility of enrolling in four english courses. these courses are called institutional english courses, which consist of four hours of instruction accompanied by an english teacher. however, since using technologies in the classroom is not a must, only some english teachers use them as part of their classes. so then, how have efl students from institutional english courses experienced ict use in language learning? our research study took as context the advanced course of the english for general purposes program at universidad surcolombiana in neiva since this is the last of the efl students’ experiences using ict when learning silva-perdomo, duero & castañeda-trujillo 145 no. 24 four courses efl students take. so it is expected that they have been more exposed to environments where ict was implemented in efl learning than in the other program courses. furthermore, this program is regulated by agreement 065 of 2009; it is responsible for certifying the communicative competence in a foreign language that students must present as a requirement for the degree (universidad surcolombiana usco, 2009). therefore, our research study is valuable to the university’s education program and efl faculty and students since it seeks to provide an overview of students’ perspectives. that is why we decided to set ourselves the main objective of understanding efl students’ experiences of the institutional english program with ict in language learning. theoretical framework the primary constructs that underpinned this research study were ict for education, and english language learning and ict, which are presented from the point of view of different authors. ict for education information and communication technology (ict) has to do with an integral component of a learning program for many teachers and students (wilkinson, 2007). some of the most usual functions of ict are the digital processing and use of information, which includes the storage, retrieval, conversion, and transmission of information by electronic computers, the internet, and electronic transmission systems such as radios, televisions, and projectors, among others (fu, 2013; okauru, 2011). although this technicist vision is limited, ict plays a role that goes beyond learning to use the media and mediations provided. the use of ict in education is assumed as a demand nowadays. as a result, students in educational institutions are increasingly accustomed to ict use inside and outside the classroom (castañeda-trujillo & cruz, 2012; wilkinson, 2007). additionally, globalization has driven this need to include ict management within educational processes by presenting it as a desirable and indispensable competence for countries’ social and economic development. in this sense, the inclusion of ict is an indicator of the quality of teaching and the standards managed by the educational institution (castañeda-trujillo & rincón, 2018; livingstone, 2012). ict contributes to maximizing the teaching outcomes of traditional education (livingstone, 2012). the primary purpose of the inclusion of ict is not to help students understand how to use these tools themselves, but to contribute to the development of their cognitive skills, the development of critical thinking, intrapersonal competencies, efl students’ experiences using ict when learning silva-perdomo, duero & castañeda-trujillo 146 no. 24 and self-directed learning (castañeda-trujillo & rincón, 2018; livingstone, 2012). in a formal learning environment, ict serves as a tool for students to discover learning issues and solve and provide solutions to problems in the learning process (brush et al., 2008). additionally, ict can help students memorize, comprehend, and interact within classes (ciroma, 2014) and contribute to dynamizing learning scenarios and provide learning alternatives that are not usually possible in regular classrooms. english language learning and ict. the use of ict for teaching english as a foreign language (efl) has been very present during the last decades. according to garcía chamorro and rey (2013), english teachers believe that ict helps with the learning and reinforcement of grammatical structures and vocabulary at the same time it contributes to the development of the four communicative skills such as reading (ariza & suárez sánchez, 2013; rátiva velandia et al., 2012), writing (guzmán gámez & moreno cuellar, 2019; ortiz navarrete & ferreira cabrera, 2014; pascual, 2019), and speaking (garcía trejos, et al., 2018; neiva montaño, 2021; sánchez narváez & chavarro vargas, 2017). however, the development of communicative skills has not been the only purpose of incorporating ict in efl teaching. some scholars have found that the use of ict contributes to autonomous learning (ariza & suárez sánchez, 2013; ballén, 2014), as well as to collaborative learning (castañeda & cruz arcila, 2012; cote parra, 2015). similarly, evaluation processes have been integrated into the use of ict within academic activities (picón-jácome, 2021). the varied approaches given to the use of icts in efl teaching have allowed expanding the possibilities of what is generally taught in a classroom, integrating with a process of literacy in language and in the use of icts itself. this inclusion of ict in the efl teaching has not been limited to searching for information on the internet. some teachers have implemented various strategies to achieve the objectives of language learning and strengthening the use of ict in teaching. for this purpose, approaches such as flip learning (chivatá & oviedo, 2018; ramírez, 2018; ramírez & buitrago, 2022; ), telecollaboration (ramírez-lizcano & cabrera-tovar, 2020), web-based activities (ballén, 2014; cariaga, 2016; cote parra, 2015; galvis pinzón & callejas, 2017; guzmán gámez & moreno cuellar, 2019; pineda hoyos & tamayo cano, 2016), wikis or blogs (fandiño parra, 2012; ortiz navarrete & ferreira cabrera, 2014; pascual, 2019), learning management systems (lms) (castañeda & cruz arcila, 2012; correa díaz, 2012; gunduz & ozcan, 2017), blended learning (garcía trejos, et al., 2018; gómez-orjuela, 2021; quitián bernal & gonzález martínez, 2022), and the most recent, emergency remote teaching (ert) (castañeda-trujillo & jaime osorio, 2021; cohen & calderon aponte, 2021). all these uses, resources, strategies, and achievements obtained from the inclusion of ict with efl students’ experiences using ict when learning silva-perdomo, duero & castañeda-trujillo 147 no. 24 efl teaching present a panorama of possibilities that can be applied in educational contexts such as the rural context (rojas rojas, 2019); or teaching education programs (rincón-ussa et al., 2020). however, this review also shows that there are many more avenues to explore in terms of the integration of ict and efl. methodology this research study is based on the qualitative paradigm because the main interest is analyzing a social phenomenon in which people and facts are the most relevant (merriam, 2009). in addition, this study was structured based on an interpretive/ constructivist perspective, which allows us to interpret and understand the particular points of view of individuals without the need to make generalizations or establish patterns of behavior (creswell, 2009) since we only focused on the participants’ experiences to understand the role of ict in their learning process. consequently, we have adopted narrative as a research approach, as it allows us to inquire about aspects of participants’ lives, experiences, impressions, and perceptions (barkhuizen & wette, 2008). narratives are used as a data collection instrument and a type of data (conle, 2000). these narratives can influence the understanding of other phenomena in different contexts, not only in those in which the research is conducted, so they have a transformative meaning (weiler, 1988). context and participants participants in our research study were five students from an efl (english as foreign language) advanced level course of the english for general purposes program offered by the universidad surcolombiana. the data collection and analysis took place over seven months, from may 2020 until november 2020. unfortunately, there were setbacks due to the unexpected events resulting from the covid-19 crisis, making it challenging to communicate with the participant students. despite everything, the study was developed in three cycles: narrative, interview, and final consensus. in this research study, ethical issues were taken into account to ensure the proper conduct of the research. each participant signed an informed consent form divided into three critical aspects (see annex 1). first, they were informed that their participation was voluntary and that they could withdraw from the study if they wished. first, participation in the research study was voluntary, and it was not an obligation for them to take it if they did not want to participate. second, their information was kept with the utmost confidentiality and was used for academic purposes only. third, the names of the respondents will not appear in any publication resulting from this study unless efl students’ experiences using ict when learning silva-perdomo, duero & castañeda-trujillo 148 no. 24 they agree. therefore, at the end of the research study, the students who conducted the interview will receive a copy of the abstract and the complete research. instruments and data collection procedures in conducting research, it is essential to decide the techniques and instruments in charge of collecting the data. among all the possible options, the ones that best fit our research and contributed to achieving the stated objectives were in-depth interviews and life stories. it is essential to highlight that the inquiry was divided into three cycles (see figure 1). figure 1. cycles followed throughout our project note. this figure shows the three cycles taken to consolidate the data for this research. in the first cycle of the research study, a life stories instrument was applied in spanish (see annex 2). this kind of narrative allowed the teller to tell their story through their memories, the experiences they lived, their view of their past, and their plans for the future, among other many layers necessary for a complete interpretation of a life experience (etherington, 2009). moreover, that instrument was handy to attend to the context and the local details where the story was built and as a reflective exercise since in-depth interviews are helpful when you want detailed information about a person’s thoughts and behaviors or want to explore new issues in depth. interviews were also used to provide context to other data, offering a complete picture of what happened in the program and why (boyce & neale, 2006). after analyzing the first intervention results in the second cycle, we applied one in-depth interview in spanish to deep down and collected more information about english for general efl students’ experiences using ict when learning silva-perdomo, duero & castañeda-trujillo 149 no. 24 purposes of program students’ experiences with ict. using this qualitative research technique, we could ask the participants about their experiences and expectations related to the language learning process throughout their lives, the thoughts they had concerned, processes and outcomes about any changes they had perceived in themselves, and the different levels of the program as well. after these two cycles, we analyzed all the information collected. as a result, each participant’s composition of a narrative story with the most critical information was obtained (see annex 2). finally, there was a third cycle in which the main objective was to give their opinion and say if they agreed with the story created or wanted to make any changes. the five students decided on the stories, and there was no need to make any changes. based on these narratives, we created the final one. the interviews were recorded and transcribed as verbatim as possible to proceed to the analysis. data analysis data analysis was conducted guided by the paradigmatic principles of narrative analysis (barkhuizen et al., 2014). first, an iterative reading was conducted to find the most relevant themes within the narratives related to the overall research objective (barkhuizen et al., 2014). these themes were then organized graphically (see figure 2). figure 2. second participant’s categories note. elaborated by the authors. efl students’ experiences using ict when learning silva-perdomo, duero & castañeda-trujillo 150 no. 24 next, we identified information gaps relevant to the research, so we formulated questions labeled into themes and subthemes for the next interview cycle (see figure 3). then, once the second cycle interview was conducted, we extracted the most substantive information and compared it with the data from the previous categorizations. in this way, we were able to complement the data collected to create a meaningful narrative for each participant at that time. finally, we shared their respective narrative with each participant to review and argue whether they agreed, disagreed, or suggested any modifications before creating the final narrative based on each participant (barkhuizen & wette, 2018). figure 3. labeled questions for cycle 2 interview of the third participant note. elaborated by the authors. it is important to note that the three researchers carried out each cycle, so a constant triangulation of the information was carried out to guarantee its reliability and trustworthiness (barkhuizen et al., 2014). once the data was saturated, we organized the data according to what each participant reported in each of the themes. efl students’ experiences using ict when learning silva-perdomo, duero & castañeda-trujillo 151 no. 24 findings participant #1 experience: the first participant has a fascinating view of learning english as a foreign language using ict. he recalled his school period when it was not common to integrate technology in his english classes, but he found out that he could learn english funnily and effortlessly in his spare time. i used to go a lot to my neighborhood cyber to play videogames; at that time, dubbing and subtitles were not very common, so i played most of the games in english (or if they had subtitles, i didn’t know how to configure their language), games like gta san andreas, the simpson game, and some others made me learn new verbs and understand better the use of others i had already seen at school. he describes this experience as dynamic and satisfactory because he did not depend on a dictionary or ask his parents for the meaning of a single word. using video games to learn new vocabulary makes him feel more autonomous in his learning process. he stands out the benefits of learning unknown vocabulary using songs. thanks to the multiple times he reproduces the same song, he memorized the meaning of the previously unknown words. moreover, he states his listening skills have improved a lot. you are listening to eh... a song, emm, i don’t know... and... it sounds like a strange word, emm, at first you don’t understand it but when you learn it let’s say it’s easier to remember what it means or why it’s used. he mentions the continuous use of some platforms such as spotify to look for song lyrics, translators without internet access to seek words’ meaning, and duolingo to learn english.  he described them as useful and relevant in his language learning process. he expected an excellent english learning experience and a more effective teaching tool implementation as a university student. however, it was not as he wished; he describes his classes as “being in primary school once again,” mainly because of the course’s low english level and his limitations with a book. because he has always been an autonomous young person in his learning, he had the opportunity to have a more enriching relationship with the ict when it comes to learning since he does not highlight significant contributions in the academic field. nevertheless, his experience with ict in learning english has been productive; he emphasizes that he considers it a positive, satisfactory, and pleasant experience. efl students’ experiences using ict when learning silva-perdomo, duero & castañeda-trujillo 152 no. 24 participant #2 experience: our second participant brought us new perspectives about ict use in english classes. in primary school, he used a recorder, but this one was not very significant for english learning because, with this tool, he wanted to practice listening and writing, but the objectives were not clear. in primary school, i never liked the use of recorders because the teacher didn’t explain to us or anything but simply played the recorder, and that was it. as a teacher, you can be provided with the most advanced technology, but if the activities are unclear or do not have stated objectives, it will not be meaningful learning.  later, he had more opportunities to experience and develop a closer and friendlier relationship with other technological tools. thanks to them, he has been able to use them as a learning strategy to learn english. for example, video games such as “castlevania, grand theft auto, ... super mario 64, and so on” came pre-determined in english on platforms such as the computer or console he has played. it has managed to expand his lexicon in the second language, which was motivating. thus, the topics studied at school, and the activities in the primers did not seem so difficult. his story also carries an interesting factor. he took some english courses where most of his teachers used to record classes to reinforce the already taught topics and practice.  i mean, i really preferred the face-to-face classes, but those classes that allowed us to record were very good as a support, right? because we listened to the cd, we investigated something about the topic and then, right there, we were prepared for the class, and then, they asked us questions and made us speak compulsorily, and one lost his fear there. so, that was a very good tool for me. unlike other participants, he found duolingo very useless because all the topics, grammar, and vocabulary were unchallenging. he did not feel any improvement with the use of this app. i tried duolingo out, but i didn’t really feel like i learned anything, i mean, i don’t know if i did because i already knew it before, but it seemed to me, i don’t know, very basic, very simple. so then, it was an experience that i didn’t like, so i uninstalled the application. he describes his computer as generous support to practice his listening skills because he listened to songs in english. in the beginning, it was a bit complex because some songs he listened to contained many abbreviations or colloquial words that he could not understand, but his interest in the latter had already emerged, and he did not mind translating or consulting on interner to understand them. he used these tools for an educational purpose and as a joy for himself, where he could learn and have fun. efl students’ experiences using ict when learning silva-perdomo, duero & castañeda-trujillo 153 no. 24 although he has been able to experience the use of ict to learn english for many years, his expectations have not been very high due to the lack of intrinsic motivation and the constant disappointment he carries with him. he usually lost interest and motivation in learning some of the topics covered in english or in the process of learning verbs with their respective tenses. still, he did not lose interest in the applications or tools he had access to this language. even so, his experience with ict has been a little successful in acquiring english. participant #3 experience: this participant did not have much experience with ict, and his interest in learning english was low. he expressed he could not remember which technological tools he used to learn english during his primary school years. and his experience with ict did not have much impact during his secondary school years. nevertheless, he decided to deep down into his experiences taking english online classes during the lockdown due to the pandemic caused by covid19. it is not the same as having a teacher there, to get out of the doubt, but it is a pleasant experience due to the situation in which we live but because it feels a little bit different, does not it? his classes consisted of completing dialogues and listening to audio files played on a tape recorder to improve his listening skills at school. he considers this process relevant to developing his listening skills and being used to all the different native english speakers’ accents.  i think that suddenly it was important to develop the listening skill of a second language, emm ... it is different to listen, maybe, the native language in the recorder to listen maybe to the english of the teacher who speaks “normal” but it is not his native language where it was originated, so it is fundamental. [once] one gets used to it, and it helps the ear. he understood english better using the tape recorder, translator, computer, cds, and cell phone. however, he claimed to feel more comfortable using his cell phone to learn english. his story also carries some memories about his english teachers using technology who do not seem to be used to integrating these gadgets and platforms. however, he is comprehensive and empathetic with these issues. well, at first, the teacher did not have much knowledge, but little by little, she got immersed in the tools and their use, but one can understand these things. as time went by, when he entered the university, classes varied more between movies, recordings, and ict, such as the computer, cell phone, video beam, and books. efl students’ experiences using ict when learning silva-perdomo, duero & castañeda-trujillo 154 no. 24 this contrast gave him a more “understandable, fun, and entertaining” perspective on learning english. however, due to the current pandemic that the country is facing, he considers that things feel a little different and that they are not the same since teachers implement ict only to read slides and assign workshops, becoming “boring” as if it were a traditional class.  nevertheless, he is consistent because he is not motivated to improve and practice the english language beyond the course’s academic duties and recognizes that this is a cause of his low development in the english language. in general, he reports that using ict for his english language learning has been an experience with a positive impact since he notices some improvements in his performance, but he is not satisfied. again, he considers that this is due to his lack of motivation. participant #4 experience: the fourth participant is a young autonomous learner with a strong relationship with ict. since he was a child, he has remained in close interaction with them, but on his own. “since school, ict has always been the basis for learning english.” he used to keep himself constantly surrounded by english by using video games, cell phones, and the internet (a place where he could find videos, music, and web pages in english). “i would say that, well, i learned the basic knowledge and the sentences i know in english mostly through the applications as i mentioned in my daily life, in my daily activities such as playing video games, listening to music, as i was saying. not so much on the academic side because when you are young, you don’t focus too much, or at least it happened to me that i wasn’t very interested in school. i didn’t find meaning in the classes”. he also said that he did not make much progress in language learning during his school years. he acknowledges having had teachers with little ict management, given their age and lack of training. he says it was reflected in how complicated it was for his teachers to create didactic and practical educational content that aroused students’ interest. for him, most of the classes seemed to be boring. later, in high school, his perspective changed completely. “on the other hand, there were the young and trained teachers, with wide knowledge about technology. they used great songs and games that awakened competitiveness among all and created a pleasant space in the classroom with only a video beam and a computer”. efl students’ experiences using ict when learning silva-perdomo, duero & castañeda-trujillo 155 no. 24 later, in college, he had more consolidated strategies to continue learning english independently, such as using apps to learn english, listening to english songs, changing the phone’s language to english, and communicating in video games with english speakers. but he also feels he cannot cover all the language skills in his autonomy, especially writing. finally, he recognizes and attributes to ict the high command of english he currently has. the participant highlights the importance of learning a second language and emphasizes that although autonomous work is necessary, the guidance and tutoring of a teacher make the process really efficient; it is up to them whether or not ict contributes to the process. participant #5 experience: the last participant provided more arguments that support the perspective that previous participants expressed about the need for a meaningful implementation of ict by teachers or tutors, as they alone do not impact the language learning experience. in her primary school education, she had no exposure to ict, and her english classes were based more on textbooks, drawings, and other traditional strategies. she does not recall any autonomous experiences in those years either. i think the english classes were very few, and no, ict was not used. at that time, i think it was mostly drawings and words, but it was all very basic. i don’t remember much. on the other hand, in the last two years of her secondary education, ict started to be part of her learning experience thanks to a new teacher with proficient ict skills. the teacher used to take them to a classroom with audiovisual devices with which she developed activities with songs, and web applications, among others. in addition, the 5th participant began to autonomously use the duolingo app, to which she dedicated 5 to 15 minutes a day. this new stage gave her a different perspective on language learning that she still considers ideal today. on my own initiative, i kind of downloaded the application, and it gave me the possibility to have a lesson of 5-15 minutes a day, and i kind of used it for a while, didn’t i? and i thought it was interesting because despite the short time, it was something constant, so i think it was helpful to learn. during her university years, she expressed dissatisfaction with the english classes she received, describing them as not very didactic, based on books, and with a dull use of ict since the professors continued to use the same traditional and passive methodologies even with computers and video beams. the participant relates this efl students’ experiences using ict when learning silva-perdomo, duero & castañeda-trujillo 156 no. 24 experience to her disinterest in learning english and the little use of ict autonomously for language learning. instead of motivating me to learn this language, it kind of did the opposite, didn’t it? when i realized that nothing was different, that it was always textbooks, and because i didn’t have a good english basis, i attended classes more for the requirement than to learn. finally, the participant concludes that “anyone can use a video beam and a computer, but then you [should be able] to create dynamic activities with it. i think i’ve seen websites useful for teaching english, and i think they are ludic and have good activities.” this suggests that teachers are who have in their hands the possibility and the duty to use ict tools for truly fruitful language learning. consequently, teachers are required to be trained in ict regularly for them to be updated. this training must be provided by institutions that are also interested in improving the quality of education. discussion after analyzing the narratives of the five participants, we identified two relevant themes that helped us complement our understanding of their efl learning experiences. the first theme is oriented to the contributions derived from the use of ict outside the classroom; the second theme is related to the dynamics of the in-class experience and those limitations that the participants encountered. contributions of the use of ict inside and outside the classroom the experiences of the five efl students show that the use of ict in english language learning has become an everyday occurrence. within the classrooms, ict becomes an integral component that helps students maximize learning outcomes (wilkinson, 2007; livingstone, 2012). many of them expect the use of ict to go beyond the completion of decontextualized grammar or listening exercises. moreover, they expect that through ict, they will perform activities that are not possible in the classroom (ciroma, 2014). however, some participants do not see innovation happening in the classroom. instead, they agree that the everyday use of technology is to perform common activities in an english class and repetitive movements that often do not make sense. efl students’ experiences using ict when learning silva-perdomo, duero & castañeda-trujillo 157 no. 24 that is why efl students look for other ways to learn and effectively resort to ict for this purpose, but outside the classroom settings. for example, in their daily lives, students use applications, video games, websites, podcasts, and videos, among others, that allow them to have direct contact with english. in this way, some participants complement or reinforce what they see in their english classes. moreover, although some of the participants focus on learning only vocabulary or strengthening only one of the communicative skills, it is remarkable how using icts outside the classroom motivates them to continue learning and improving their skills. that is why it is so important to promote autonomous work. many of the students do have resources at home for meaningful ict-mediated activities, so it would be helpful for teachers to create opportunities to use ict to reinforce what they see in class more traditionally. call for more dynamic uses of ict something in common for some efl students is the lack of effective use of ict in the classroom to learn english. they claim that these classes are developed in a very traditional style, i.e., oriented with a book, doing exercises to fill in gaps that make no sense to them, listening to scripted audios with accents that are difficult to understand, etc. this dynamic in the classroom has led to frustration and confusion, especially when students understand that learning english is vital to the globalization process. for the same reason, participants called for better integration of ict in the classroom, with contextualized activities and providing an understanding of the sociocultural dynamics of english speakers in other countries (tan & liu, 2016). likewise, efl learners agreed on teachers’ inexperience in using ict. according to castañeda-trujillo and cruz-arcila (2012), university teachers require constant training in ict use. however, if such training is achieved, teachers will be able to offer much more flexible scenarios for the integration of ict and the work of communicative competence along with others that are necessary for the personal and professional development of university students (castañeda-trujillo & rincón-ussa, 2018). the fact that teachers are not sufficiently trained to integrate ict in english classes negatively influences the perceptions of our participants since it is essential to understand that ict is an adequate tool for learning and is determined by its pedagogical, social, and technological possibilities and not only by the ict tool itself (lin et al., 2016). although aspects such as intrinsic motivation and autonomy made language learning with ict a pleasant and satisfying experience for the participants, the lack of ict integration in the classroom leaves gaps that need to be filled. for example, the strengthening of interpersonal skills (related to collaborative work), self-directed learning (connected to cognitive development and autonomy), and critical thinking efl students’ experiences using ict when learning silva-perdomo, duero & castañeda-trujillo 158 no. 24 (linked with decision-making and problem-solving) could be reinforced by using digital resources (brush et al., 2008). nevertheless, these problems integrating ict into english teaching and learning depend not only on the teachers’ inexperience or lack of ict knowledge but also on the lack of physical spaces and technical resources within the classroom. a teacher, for example, may want to adapt his class to technological means, but if he does not have the resources of internet, software, or hardware, this will remain only an intention, and he will not be able to achieve his objectives. efl students’ experiences using ict when learning silva-perdomo, duero & castañeda-trujillo 159 no. 24 conclusions although the findings are valuable for the teachers’ community, the number of participants was smaller than expected, limiting a broader view of the phenomenon and the context. in addition, the instruments pointed to a more face-to-face interaction at the time of application, which could not be achieved that way. all of these limitations stemmed from the covid-19 pandemic contingency. addressing the lack of attention to the learner’s perspective in implementing ict in language learning, we found that most of the five participants’ experience has been satisfactory and productive from an autonomous learning perspective. this stems from the significant problems we encountered throughout the research, such as teachers’ poor management of ict and the implementation of these tools without a clear and articulated objective. furthermore, the participants had little common interest in traditional methodologies offered by teachers throughout their lives, such as the use of tape recorders and books just to complete writing exercises.  but they also agreed on other ways of learning the language empirically through ict tools such as video games, mobile applications, and websites. these testimonies led us to achieve our objectives, despite the limited sample, as we deepened their experiences with this phenomenon and succeeded in understanding them. based on this, the research allows us to reinforce the importance of knowing the target population’s perspective to achieve the meaningful application of new tools, especially in efl contexts it also invites the teaching and education community to train in these new tools and to articulate them with approaches, methodologies, practices, and other suitable mechanisms, but above all, with the validation that the students’ experience provides. finally, this research calls for teachers to become more proficient with modern tools as ict opens up new possibilities such as the use of interactive content, individualized homework assignments, and the provision of different resources and activities to meet the diverse needs of students (castañeda-trujillo & cruz arcila, 2012; tan & liu, 2016). efl students’ experiences using ict when learning silva-perdomo, duero & castañeda-trujillo 160 no. 24 references ariza, a., & suárez sánchez, m. 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(1998). women teaching for change: gender, class, and power. bergin and garvey. efl students’ experiences using ict when learning silva-perdomo, duero & castañeda-trujillo 165 no. 24 authors *julián darío silva perdomo holds a b.a in english from universidad surcolombiana. he belongs to the research seedbed gaia, which is part of ilesearch research group. his main interests in research revolve around the use of technologies in language teaching. orcid: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4387-511x maría soledad duero holds a b.a in english from universidad surcolombiana. she belongs to the research seedbed gaia, which is part of ilesearch research group. her main interests in research revolve around the use of technologies in language teaching. orcid: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9267-9804 jairo enrique castañeda-trujillo holds a b.a. degree in spanish and english and a m.ed. with emphasis on english didactics. he is currently an assistant professor and researcher in the b.a. program in english language teaching at universidad surcolombiana (neiva, colombia). he also teaches in the m.a. in english language teaching program at the same university. currently, he is enrolled as a part-time teacher educator in the mlaei at universidad distrital. in addition, he is a doctoral candidate in education with an emphasis on elt. he belongs to the research groups ilesearch (universidad surcolombiana) and estupoli (universidad distrital), and his research interests revolve around the intersection of pre-service teachers’ identity construction and decolonization in elt. orcid: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3002-7947 efl students’ experiences using ict when learning silva-perdomo, duero & castañeda-trujillo 166 no. 24 annexes annex 1. consent form for participation in the research study how to reference this article: silva-perdomo, j. d., duero-naranjo, m. s., & castañeda trujillo, j. e. (2022) experiences of english as foreign language student using ict in their learning process. gist – education and learning research journal, 24. 141-166. https://doi. org/10.26817/16925777.1396 efl students’ experiences using ict when learning moving from what do english teachers know? to how do english teachers experience knowledge? a decolonial perspective in the study of english teachers’ knowledge.1 partiendo de ¿qué saben los profesores de inglés? a ¿cómo experimentan los profesores de inglés el conocimiento? una perspectiva decolonial en el estudio del conocimiento de los profesores de inglés adriana castañeda-londoño2* universidad distrital francisco josé de caldas, colombia 1 received: october 20th 2020/ accepted: april 22nd 2021 2 adricalo29@gmail.com gist education and learning research journal. issn 1692-5777. no. 22 (january june, 2021). pp. 75-101. 76 no. 22 abstract there has been a continuing interest in defining what comprises english teachers’ knowledge with the purpose of defining the boundaries of the english teaching field and developing it as a respected discipline in education (richards, 1990). the objective of this paper, shaped by the tenets of the decolonial turn, is to share some of the results of studying teachers’ knowledge with a view of knowledge described by anzaldúa (2000) as “an overarching theory of consciousness… that tries to encompass all the dimensions of life, both inner –mental, emotional, instinctive, imaginal, spiritual, bodily realms—and outer—social, political, lived experiences.” (p. 177). data were gathered by means of testimonial narratives, and their analysis followed some guidelines of benmayor’s (2012) framework of testimonial narratives writing and communal analysis. the study is also inspired by and grounded on the epistemologies of the south (sousa santos, 2004, 2006, 2016, 2018) to think of knowledge beyond the cognitive experiences of teachers. some of the results show that teachers’ knowledge is something experienced by them not only in their cognition but also in their emotions and body. not only do teachers rely on content, pedagogical or methodological knowledge, but also on emotion, as evidenced in a sample of teachers’ testimonial narratives. key words: english teachers’ knowledge; decolonial turn in elt; bodies of knowledge; teacher’s emotional knowledge resumen ha existido un continuo interés por definir en qué consiste el conocimiento del docente de inglés con el propósito de definir los límites del campo de la enseñanza de esta lengua. el objetivo del artículo, enmarcado dentro de las premisas del giro decolonial, es compartir algunos de los resultados del estudio sobre el conocimiento docente teniendo como concepto de conocimiento lo descrito por anzáldúa (2000). el conocimiento entendido como “una teoría de la consciencia global… que intenta abarcar todas las dimensiones de la vida, tanto internas como externas -los reinos de lo emocional, lo mental, lo imaginativo, lo espiritual, y lo corpóreo” (p.177). los datos fueron recolectados por medio de narrativas testimoniales cuyo análisis estuvo basado en algunas de las pautas encontradas en el trabajo de benmayor (2012) para escribir y comunitariamente analizar narrativas testimoniales escritas por profesores de inglés. el estudio también está inspirado y fundamentado en las epistemologías del sur (sousa santos, 2004, 2006, 2016, 2018) para pensar sobre el conocimiento mucho más allá de las experiencias cognitivas de los docentes. algunos de los resultados del estudio muestran que el conocimiento no es sólo una experiencia cognitiva sino emocional y corpórea. los docentes de inglés no sólo utilizan los conocimientos metodológicos, pedagógicos o de contenido, sino que también experimentan el conocimiento a través de la emoción, como se muestra en un ejemplo de narrativa testimonial. palabras clave: conocimiento de los docentes de inglés; giro decolonial en la enseñanza de inglés; cuerpos de conocimiento; conocimiento emocional del docente a decolonial perspective in english teachers’ knowledge castañeda-londoño 77 no. 22 resumo tem existido um contínuo interesse por definir em que consiste o conhecimento do docente de inglês com o propósito de definir os limites da área do ensino desta língua. o objetivo do artigo, no âmbito das premissas da virada descolonial, é compartilhar alguns dos resultados do estudo sobre o conhecimento docente tendo como conceito de conhecimento o descrito por anzáldúa (2000). o conhecimento entendido como “uma teoria da consciência global… que tenta abranger todas as dimensões da vida, tanto internas como externas os reinos do emocional, o mental, o imaginativo, o espiritual, e o corpóreo” (p.177). os dados foram coletados por meio de narrativas testemunhais cuja análise esteve baseada em algumas das pautas encontradas no trabalho de benmayor (2012) para escrever e comunitariamente analisar narrativas testemunhais escritas por professores de inglês. o estudo também está inspirado e fundamentado em as epistemologias do sul (sousa santos, 2004, 2006, 2016, 2018) para pensar sobre o conhecimento muito mais além das experiências cognitivas dos docentes. alguns dos resultados do estudo mostram que o conhecimento não é só uma experiência cognitiva senão emocional e corpórea. os docentes de inglês não só utilizam os conhecimentos metodológicos, pedagógicos ou de conteúdo, senão que também experimentam o conhecimento através da emoção, como se mostra em um exemplo de narrativa testemunhal. palavras chave: conhecimento dos docentes de inglês; virada decolonial no ensino de inglês; corpos de conhecimento; conhecimento emocional do docente a decolonial perspective in english teachers’ knowledge castañeda-londoño 78 no. 22 introduction in this article i investigate the quest for english teachers’ knowledge. such inquiry is informed by some theoretical tenets of the epistemologies of the south (sousa santos, 2004, 2009, 2016, 2018) and the decolonial turn (mignolo, 2000, 2013; mignolo & walsh, 2018). the issue of knowledge has caught the attention of local scholars, among other things because it has been said that english teachers’ knowledge has not been considered when, for example, framing public policy in english language teaching (elt) (cárdenas, 2004, gonzález, 2007). my interest in english teachers’ knowledge goes beyond the categorizations of knowledge that have been persistent in elt education, namely, those of cognitive or socio-cultural perspectives of content knowledge, methodological knowledge, and pedagogical knowledge, to name but a few. along the document, i will be using the first-person personal pronoun “i” and other first person language markers aligned with reflections upon the need for researchers to develop self-reflexivity in the research process (see for example vasilachis de gialdino, 2007, 2009). within postmodern or post structural traditions, there has been discussions on the writing of research reports. particularly, rudolph (2016) contends that “researchers actively reveal their subjectivities in conceptualizing and approaching their studies.” (p. 2) ramos-holguin & peñaloza rallón (2020) highlight that “in academic writing, emotionality and subjectivity are almost always suppressed for objectivity” (p. 40) and one of such signs is the use of impersonal language. from a decolonial perspective, it is necessary to re-connect our minds, bodies, and emotions, even in research endeavors. one tenet of the decolonial turn is to contest certain practices of western research such as concealing the subjects of research be them the researcher or the participants for the so-called sake of objectivity. regarding this issue, grosfoguel (2013) also explains that the cartesian view of knowledge is what has stood out, for at least three hundred and eighty-three years in the university context. in that train of thought, there continues to be a tendency to see that knowledge is more valid if it aims at neutrality, impartiality, and universality; that is, if it aims at not being framed within a particular location, a particular body, a particular geography, or a particular person. within the elt field, there has been almost a fascination with documenting the knowledge needed to teach ‘effectively’. that is why much discussion revolves around content knowledge, disciplinary knowledge, methodological knowledge, etc., and mostly the sources of knowledge are thought to be coursework, authors, communities of practice, degrees, books, articles, and so forth. it is but logical that these issues become of interest in the elt field because that is what the elt discipline is primarily concerned with; even so, other sources of knowledge are hardly ever considered. in fact, when describing other types of knowledge authors resort to saying that there also exists “a practical knowledge” or “the wisdom of practice” (shulman, 1984, 2004, cruz arcila, 2018), or an “implicit knowledge” of teaching gained in “non-formal ways” a decolonial perspective in english teachers’ knowledge castañeda-londoño 79 no. 22 (mendoza & roux, 2016). such terms entail that there are other knowledges which are hardly ever fully approached. the focus of this paper is on practices of knowledge that come into play during the acts of teaching and learning narrated by participating teachers as tipping moments in their professional lives. what teachers describe as seminal, yet difficult moments, reveal knowledges that might go unnoticed when teaching and learning. what i mean is, content knowledge, pedagogical knowledge, and methodological knowledge are not the only types of knowledge that teachers cultivate in their professional life to face teaching and learning. previous attempts to re-conceptualize knowledge have been observed in kincheloe (2004, p. 51), with his critical-complex view of teacher’s knowledge “including but not limited to empirical, experiential, normative, critical, ontological, and reflective-synthetic domains.” other ways of knowing or probably other relations teachers develop towards knowledge might not have been sufficiently explored in the elt field leading to a waste of valuable experience. i would like to advance the idea of teachers’ ‘ecology of knowledges’ (sousa santos, 2006). an ecology is about recognizing how plural and heterogenous knowledges are and the need for a respectful interrelation among them (sousa santos, 2007). in this inquiry, i normally use the plural knowledges because i agree with sousa santos (2009) when stating that we should move from one canon of knowledge (a canon that entails one single way of looking at time, social classification, and that naturalizes hierarchies, and holds a productivity driven mind-set) to an ecology of knowledges whose intention is to allow a more horizontal relationship between scientific knowledge and other ways of knowing. in the elt field, such canon of knowledge is observed in expected levels of achievement, native/non-native divides, or delimited fields of knowledge that normally consider the cognitive or socio-cultural dimensions but may leave aside other existing realities that also encompass knowledge. i embrace the idea of knowledge as comprised of those experiences that we live in flesh and blood based on the geopolitical location of our bodies (mignolo, 2000). indeed, the co-existence of scientific and other forms of knowledge within teachers’ construction of their being as teachers is still underexplored in our field because of the overarching emphasis of studying teachers’ knowledge from cognitive or socio-cultural perspectives. this research paper unveils those seminal experiential knowledges that sometimes are taken as “teachers’ tacit knowledge”, but which are hardly ever documented. i am particularly interested in tracing the ‘knowledge otherwise’ (escobar, 2003). i mean that there is need to acknowledge that many teachers, like myself, live on the border of different worlds; we learned (and continue to re-learn and unlearn) the prestigious english language, the methodologies, the concepts, the educational patterns from the global north, but we are geopolitically located bodies in the global south. this geopolitical location suffers the colonial difference, that is, the dispossession, the marketization of our resources, the effects of war, the displacement, the struggle for a decolonial perspective in english teachers’ knowledge castañeda-londoño 80 no. 22 opportunities to thrive, the lack of legitimacy of the teaching profession, and the loss of hope for a better future. in that train of thought, we rely on multiple ways of knowing to cope with learning, teaching, and living. the elt field has extensively theorized the knowledge necessary to teach effectively; however, i am more interested in what gloria anzaldúa (2000) calls ‘theories in the flesh’, that is, how the experiences lived in flesh make up our teaching personas, how for example experiences of joy and sorrow, come into play when entering classrooms. often, the knowledge for teaching english is reduced to knowing the code, the method, the strategies to teach. i mean the overprivileged knowledge of the language and the methods excel in relevance compared to other forms of knowing that go unnoticed when teaching. the other forms of knowledge have remained, as grosfoguel (2016) would say, in the ‘zone of not being’ or as sousa santos (2014) would argue: an ‘absent epistemology’. by english language teachers’ knowledge, i not only refer to teachers’ experiences, theories, beliefs, actions, and skills (díaz-maggioli, 2012) that teachers are supposed to embrace in order to teach well, but i also include the realm of the silenced, or invisibilized knowledges as seen within a decolonial view. (see the work of granados-beltrán, 2016; núñez-pardo, 2020; soto-molina & méndez, 2020; to expand on the decolonial turn in elt in colombia) literature review a knowledge base for english teaching i question the concept of knowledge base as being exclusively composed of linguistics, language theory, and practical components as methodology and practice (richard, 1990) or more normatively speaking, as a base composed of “what teachers need to know and be able to do” (díaz-maggioli, 2012, p. 5). if the concept of knowledge base is traced back, one can get to see two genealogies in it. one is the cognitive root (shulman, 1987) in the need of recognizing teaching as the status of a profession in the north american context in the early 1980s. shulman (1987, 2005) found out some domains of knowledge which comprised, at least, a) general pedagogical knowledge, b) pedagogic content knowledge (how particular themes are appropriate for the students in terms of their diversity, interests, and skills), c) special professional comprehension of learners, groups, and classrooms, and d) educational ends, their philosophical and historical grounds. the foundations of this set of knowledges are numerous, namely, the literature in each discipline, the institutionalized processes of knowledge production, and teacher’s own wisdom gained through practice. shulman (1987) maintains that teachers adapt understandings, skills, and attitudes into pedagogical representations. teachers realize what is to be learned, and how knowledge should be taught. shulman (1987) a decolonial perspective in english teachers’ knowledge castañeda-londoño 81 no. 22 did acknowledge that teachers’ knowledge is much more than what has been described here, and he urged for a permanent re-interpretation of the aforementioned categories. the literature in elt education validates the concept of teacher knowledge base (shulman, 1987) in international and local academies (see for example pineda báez 2002; cárdenas & suárez, 2009; macías, 2013; fandiño, 2013; freeman and johnson, 1998; könig, et al., 2016; freeman, 2019; asl, asl, & asl, 2014; mu, liang, lu, & huang, 2018). in that way, the concept may have reached the status of a grand narrative in the field of elt turning the idea of knowledge for teaching into an issue that appears to be solved, something that has no further perspective from which to analyze. along with revision (richards & farrell, 2005; johnson, 2006) and despite criticism (yandell, 2017), the issue of ‘knowledge base for teaching’ has been a seminal contribution in elt and general education. still, as shulman (1987) concluded, the knowledge for teaching needs continuous revision and reinterpretation. the other genealogy of the concept of ‘knowledge base’ is found in computational sciences referring to systems that require a store of information to be retrieved, so that systems will work well. extrapolating ideas of computational sciences to the elt field, freeman, webre, and epperson (2019), regarding the concept of ‘knowledge base’, state, “the information had to be accessible, which meant it had to be compatibly organized, so it could be searched and compiled according to the task at hand” (p. 6). they find similarities between this idea of storing in computational sciences, and how a knowledge base for teaching english works; hence, they describe the knowledge base for teaching as a “socio-professional storage system” (p. 6) that is bound to a specific type of work, time, and place. such storage regenerates like an item of software because each new knowledge generation replaces a previous one, thereby solving shortcomings or adding new insights. the first generation of knowledge in elt answered the question what to teach and appeared to be highly influenced by psychology and linguistics. the second generation of knowledge focused on how to do the teaching, and thus pedagogy played a key role. the third generation, highly influenced by the work of shulman regarding pedagogical content knowledge, highlighted the role of teachers as knowledge holders of their context, classrooms, and students. the fourth generation is more geared towards conceptually reaching better students’ learning. thus, it has two dividing branches: subject matter (content, applied linguistics) and knowledge for teaching (language acquisition, methods, curriculum, assessment). twenty years after the first approach taken by freeman and johnson towards knowledge in 1998, the reengineered version of 2019 by freeman, webre, and epperson acknowledges that the matters of positionality and authority carry weight when it comes to defining what knowledge is worth for teaching english. freeman et al., (2019) concede that authorities in academic disciplines definitely “shape what is valued” (p. 7). they integrate the concept of identity now in this new version and acknowledge the connection pedagogy-identity. they further go on to mention a decolonial perspective in english teachers’ knowledge castañeda-londoño 82 no. 22 the criticism of how the privilege of race and social position structure disciplinary knowledge; however, they could have failed to fully integrate this proposal in a way that really brings up teachers’ voices. as a matter of concern, freeman (2018) brought up the following question posed by yep (2007), “what are the disciplinary, collective, and personal consequences when whiteness is the invisible and universal norm of the knowledge produced?” (freeman, 2018, p. 7, citing yep, 2007). the question foregrounds the need to inquire why the global north3 epistemologies continue to dominate the discussion of what the knowledge for teaching must be. however, when analyzing what should constitute ‘the knowledge base’ for english language teaching, freeman et al. (2019) reaffirm that there is a need to think of knowledge generations or “patterns to think of how knowledge has been understood” (p. 15), briefly outlined above and summarized as follows: table 1. knowledge generations. source: freeman et al. (2019, p. 15) 3 the concepts global north and global south, present along this document, are used as metaphors of the division between north america and europe in respect to the rest of the world, concerning the geopolitical effect of globalization and capitalism created by europe and north america in different regions of the planet including their impact in the way we conceptualize knowledge (dados & connell, 2012). as observed in the review, the bulk of research about teachers’ knowledge base has been primarily framed within the global north academies. a decolonial perspective in english teachers’ knowledge castañeda-londoño 83 no. 22 in 2006, johnson had already brought up the idea that teachers’ previous experiences mattered as much as their contexts. the author reflected that teachers’ learning was a lifelong process as teachers participated in classrooms, educational programs, and other socially situated spaces in which they needed to socially negotiate their learning experiences. in fact, johnson (2006) already recognized l2 teachers “as users and creators of legitimate forms of knowledge who make decisions about how to best teach their l2 students within complex socially, culturally, and historically situated contexts” (p. 239). at that time, johnson also proposed “positioning teachers’ ways of knowing that lead to praxis as legitimate knowledge” (p. 241). however, what frequently happens is that teachers’ knowledge as it is produced by them undergoes a process of codification or ‘academization’ to be heard in, for example, academic journals. therefore, such knowledge gets lost in the words of the experts. a decolonial move towards understanding english teachers’ knowledge we could also understand knowledge as an experience lived the in the flesh (anzaldúa 2000), that is, accompanied by instances of struggles, contradictions, challenges, and a fight for recognition of hidden epistemologies that may not align with scientific frames. there is a wealth of research related to the concept of knowledge base in the elt field that does not stray from its modern epistemological root of conceiving knowledge as: a) something passed from educators to teachers to be. (deng, 2018) b) objects stored in the mind and accumulation of facts. c) theory to be practiced in the acts of learning and teaching. (ord & nutall, 2016) d) knowledge generations that recycle themselves on and on. (freeman et al., 2019) as the concept of knowledge base has not overcome its modern epistemological root and has not been theorized with other lenses in elt, there is a dearth of understanding as to how english language teachers experience their own relations to knowledge. the modern root of how we conceive of knowledge has not yet been overcome because there is still a widespread tendency of seeing knowledge as something that humans must grasp: knowledge appears to be awaited to be discovered. also, there continuous to be a tendency to measure how much knowledge one has based on a priori evaluations, standardized testing, generic learning, and standardized curriculums. (kincheloe, 2001). all these characteristics are constitutive of modernity and the will to dominate nature and humans in the name of the so-called progress. drawing on mignolo (2000), global south peoples should reclaim the right to enunciate, and counter-story tell our cultural truths; therefore, there is need to explore how we experience our relations a decolonial perspective in english teachers’ knowledge castañeda-londoño 84 no. 22 to knowledge within geopolitically located bodies in the global south. the reason is that the modern view of knowledge has separated the knowing subject from what is known, and emotional, historical, or sociological characteristics of the knowing subjects are not generally considered when conceptualizing knowledge. exploring the ‘knowledge otherwise’ (escobar, 2003; walsh & mignolo, 2018) or “the possibility to craft another space for the production of knowledge” (escobar, 2003, p. 52) helps us intervene in the discursive practices of our field and think of elt education in other ways. finding out new alternatives to conceptualize knowledge, anzaldúa (2000) defines it as “an overarching theory of consciousness… that tries to encompass all the dimensions of life, both inner -mental, emotional, instinctive, imaginal, spiritual, bodily realms—and outer-social, political, lived experiences” (p. 177). escobar (2003) proposes, “the need to seriously consider the epistemological strength of local histories”4 (p. 61). certainly, according to doyle and carter (2003), storying is a crucial way of human knowing, and teachers’ storied lives tell us, particularly, of embedded understandings and knowledge gained through the repeated participation in teaching, learning and personal experience. research question and objective unveiling english teachers’ knowledge within an epistemology of wholeness (that is with an approach to knowledge that recognizes our whole humanity in academic endeavors: mind, body, emotion) (rendón, 2009) entails changing the questions we ask in research. hence, i posed the question, how does a group of six english language teachers experience knowledge? the main objective with this research question is then to find out relations to knowledge and sources of knowledge otherwise in which teachers also draw on during the acts of teaching and learning. methodology using testimonial narratives to trace english teachers’ knowledges marín (1991) explains testimonial narrative as “a kind of writing from the margins about the, and to, the systems oppressing the speaking” (p. 51). delgado bernal, burciaga, and flores carmona (2012) maintain that researchers are steadily applying testimonial narratives as a methodological approach, as data, and as pedagogy. using 4 my own translation from spanish. a decolonial perspective in english teachers’ knowledge castañeda-londoño 85 no. 22 these narratives challenges the disciplinary training given to scholars of generating unbiased knowledge. on the other hand, testimonial narratives question impartiality by situating the individual and the collective in tune with situated bodily, spiritual, cognitive, and communal production of knowledge. these authors contend that testimonial narratives can reach several audiences because they can be written, oral, or digital and they should be seen as “much like a gift” (p. 6) by the listener; the listener unfolds the intimate sense of those texts since learning about one person gives us insight into the life of many others. saavedra (2011) claims that testimonial narrative is a pioneering latin american literary genre which helps narrators tell a shared account of dominance or harsh experiences through one person’s narrative. in recent times, testimonial literature has been employed in educational sites as a research methodology and pedagogy (see for instance, hamzeh & flores carmona, 2019). testimonial data and methodology have been used in critical latin studies of racist nativism and microaggressions (pérez huber, 2011) and in studies of embodied literacies and bilingualism (saavedra, 2011; passos denicolo & gonzález, 2015). likewise, testimonies have been used as a pedagogy to understand how to restore the mind-body-spirit in order to disrupt settler colonialism. crafting these narratives has been recognized as a genuine methodological practice of knowledge production (hamzeh & flores carmona 2019). lately, authors such as carvajal (2017) or ramos (2017) have worked on decolonial projects using testimonial data in doctoral dissertations concerning homelessness and youth migration, respectively. the process of writing, sharing and co-interpreting testimonial narratives. inspired by benmayor’s (2012) contributions to methodology using testimonial data, i developed a path to individually write and communally interpret the testimonial narratives of six english teachers pursuing m.a. degrees in applied linguistics; these teachers narrated seminal, difficult yet memorable moments in their lives and reflected upon how such narrated events informed their teaching. participants’ own interpretations of the narratives did not follow any particular framework of analysis as spontaneity, dialogue, and intuition were favored. in my personal case, i had previously chosen to take a decolonial perspective to study their ecologies of teachers’ knowledge (sousa santos, 2004), and therefore, after having read the testimonial narratives several times myself and reading the work of anzaldúa (2000), or sousa santos (2016, 2018), i focused on concepts such as ‘knowledge gotten in previous personal or social struggles’, ‘family epistemologies’, ‘geopolitical location of knowledge production’; i started subtly noticing these items in the testimonial narratives. on grounds of space, i will only approach the issue of knowledge as a decolonial perspective in english teachers’ knowledge castañeda-londoño 86 no. 22 experienced through emotion. the university which offers this m.a. degree is a public university in bogotá with a strong critical pedagogy component. four men and two women with at least five years’ experience teaching different learners comprised the group of participants. i took from benmayor (2012) the idea of sharing formerly written testimonial narratives that could guide in the style of writing. similarly, i followed her idea of read-aloud and communal interpretations. communal interpretations are achieved by allowing participants to analyze what they listen to from other teachers’ testimonial narratives based on their own experiences, emotions, and ideas. the narratives originated in the context of a second language acquisition class framed within a critical perspective that i guided. i asked participating teachers to reflect upon their experiences of teaching and how such experiences related with their own knowledge (i.e., their professional assets developed and accumulated through their careers such as skills, theoretical contents, insights, personal theories, etc.). i particularly asked teachers to focus on those experiences that had been challenging and/or memorable. as part of the content, i introduced the participants to the testimony genre and some examples from chicana latina life stories (see latina feminist group, 2001; burciaga & tavares, 2006; benmayor, 2012) were examined to analyze the potential of this type of writing/speaking. the participating teachers left the class sessions with a question that would help them examine their memories, their classes, and their past experiences intending to delve into their knowledges. for example, teachers were asked: what have been some of the most difficult experiences as an english teacher for you? how did you experience that? how do you link it with language pedagogy? teachers were encouraged to write or record some preliminary ideas and exchange them with the other participants in following sessions to dialogically help each teacher in the recalling exercise of bringing to the consciousness past episodes. teachers were asked to decide how they wanted to introduce their testimonial narratives (oral or written). participants took at least 3 weeks to produce their own testimonial narrative. once the texts were ready, participating teachers narrated or read aloud their testimonies to collectively theorize/interpret (following benmayor’s (2012) words) each story. finally, such communal interpretations were recorded and sent to each participating teacher for having time to listen to their narratives again, refine their text, and write their theorizations or personal reflections. the act of verbally sharing one’s own experiences with the other participants (i.e., giving testimony) goes in hand with one of the tenets of the epistemologies of the south in which knowing with others is favored instead of knowing about others (sousa santos, 2018). in a similar vein, there is a re-conceptualization of what listening entails. sousa santos (2018) asserts that “the western culture privileges writing and speech to the detriment of listening” (p. 175). the idea with listening to the testimonial narratives of other teachers is that a dialogic connection can be a decolonial perspective in english teachers’ knowledge castañeda-londoño 87 no. 22 founded, and each contributor can enrich the reading-aloud testimonies. hence, there is a first layer of interpretation and communal co-construction of knowledge by means of ‘deep listening’ and engagement. as well, there is also an explicit effort to favor the “oralization of written knowledge” (sousa santos, 2018, p. 186) considering that scientific knowledge does not encourage oralization because it is susceptible to imprecision. however, following sousa santos (2018) in the epistemologies of the south, oralization is favored because it allows for a unique degree of personalization in knowledge construction. the practices engaged in the oralization of knowledge invite the use of vernacular language, dialogic relations, and narrative as a substitute of explanation (sousa santos, 2018). one category of knowledge experience is emotion as it will be evidenced by analyzing the next testimonial narrative through its communal interpretation, and participant’s theorization. the text was written and shared by lorena5, an english teacher who worked in a catholic school by the time she participated in the study. this section will show verbatim her ideas and her colleagues’ own personal interpretations. afterwards, i will also provide my own decolonial lens to the narrated episode. lorena’s testimoninial narrative: “teachers don’t cry” “the following testimony gives an account of one experience that made me evaluate my role as a teacher. it describes a particular situation i lived with eleven graders. i have been their english teacher for 4 years: when they were in sixth, seventh, tenth, and now in eleventh grade. from my perspective, they have changed their behavior as most teenagers do. i have seen them grow, and they have seen me too. our relationship has also grown framed into the catholic values of the school, the academic goals we must meet together, and the affection that goes beyond teacher-student relation. most of the teachers complain about their attitudes and academic skills. even me in some cases. they are characterized in the school for not being so committed with their responsibilities, for not following the rules, and for challenging the guidelines. however, they are also recognized for being creative and animated teens… as usual, i got into the classroom at eleven forty to teach my thirty eleventh graders. it was a warm busy morning as the term was finishing (that means a lot of work for them and for teachers). when i got into the classroom, they remained standing up, speaking, eating, and bothering. i had to ask them to organize themselves. i set the attendance, told them what we were going to do on that session, and asked them to open their notebooks to write the date and lesson plan, as the school demands. some of them followed me, some of them did not. i started teaching them alternative ways 5 the names of participants are real not to erase the sources of knowledge. a decolonial perspective in english teachers’ knowledge castañeda-londoño 88 no. 22 for using the future tenses. i gave them some examples and explained them how to use them in real situations. while i was speaking some of them were paying attention, and some others were eating, chatting, and even painting their hair with markers. however, i continued speaking pretending everything was okay. suddenly, one of the students laughed aloud. i walked towards my desk, sat down, and started working on my things. i felt terrible. i felt frustrated. i felt angry. i felt hopeless. i don’t know why that day i lost temper… i remained quiet while they continued in mess. one of them silenced them all. some of them laughed at her, and she insistently called to order. unexpectedly for me and for them, i started crying. they stayed completely still looking at me while i started speaking. i remember some of the words i said: “are you serious? i can’t believe your attitude. don’t you notice i am here with you? do i have to start crying so you listen to me? what a lack of respect from you. i think i am always willing to listen to you: if you are sick, if you want to go to the restroom, or even if you don’t want to be in my class. i treat you not like students but like human beings. is it difficult for you to do the same? i am too disappointed. you are nothing of what i remember you used to be. i don’t care if you then laugh at me, and everybody in the school knows i cried because of you. i don’t care if you learn perfect english. i do care about you as a human being, as persons who i share a lot of my time even more than with my son. are you going to treat your future family, colleagues, or employees this way? if so, you will suffer and will become horrible people”. those words are just a brief description of what i entirely said. surprisingly, they did not make fun of me. they seemed to feel ashamed. one student, one of the most displeasing ones, said she or they were sorry about the situation. figure 1. testimonial narrative illustrated by artist felipe camargo rojas. a decolonial perspective in english teachers’ knowledge castañeda-londoño 89 no. 22 what is interesting for me about this testimony comes later. the class was over, and i went to the school restaurant to have lunch. some of my colleagues at the table noticed i was crying. they asked me why. i described what had happened. some of them said i had made a mistake when crying in front my students. they said words like “you lost the authority”, “why don’t you complain with the director”, “don’t worry, they are leaving in a couple of weeks”, and they looked at me with a shamed gaze. immediately i responded to those comments: “beliefs like those are the ones that shape such students’ behaviors. if we as teachers do not allow ourselves to cry in front of our students, we are denying ourselves as beings, as real people. people like them. the day we change that concept of authority, those students’ attitudes will change too. probably my class was boring, and they were not engaged” my colleagues kept having lunch without replying my comment. some days later the classes went better. my students seemed to be listening to me, participating in my class more actively, still bothering but respectfully. what was more interesting even, was a talk i had with some students from that class. they said some words like: … “lately our attitudes towards school and teachers are annoying. we don’t care about anything here. we want to leave now. and everybody knows it here, so we are annoying and teachers too. every class is the same. we don’t care nor the teachers. but when you cried, you showed us that we mean something for you; that was shocking. you opened our eyes. that day we realized that we were crossing the line. but the problem is that it is not common to find teachers like you. the majority of them just stand up in front of us and say: “you just have to care about learning. that is why you are here. be quiet and write.” that is maybe the reason why we behave that way. you showed us that you are just the same like us. if you had got mad at us, we would have kept the same attitude. but that time it was different. when you cried, you treated us as humans, not as students who follow instructions.” something has changed since that day. we are not the same people in that class.” what follows is an excerpt of co-intepretation in this testimonial narrative through conversation with javier, josué, nancy, andrés, and alejandra who are some of the other english teachers, involved in the project. the dialogue took place once lorena finished reading her testimonial narrative spiced up with background music brought by her to the read-aloud session. issues of teachers’ power and intended ruptures with the status quo are mentioned. javier: there’s one thing which is what the school represents not just in terms of the utopic thing, you know? the educational place where every human being gets to flourish, but the status quo of the place where people get… or as michel foucault says, become objects. somebody could argue that probably students were showing agency, resisting the system itself because, in a certain way, that day you represented power for them… some situations in which they are, they don’t agree. somehow you broke this stereotype of the teacher as “the super a decolonial perspective in english teachers’ knowledge castañeda-londoño 90 no. 22 person” or the-know-it-all; they really saw they were in touch with a person: that is something i found valuable, seriously. lorena: yes, they are eleventh graders; they are about to leave [the school], and they have had a terrible year, but i think it is because of the school, yeah? because they are nice people. the way they behave this year, it is just because of the way the school behaves. for example, el retiro de once*[eleventh graders trip] is one of the most important things for eleventh graders, and the school didn’t do it with them. it’s because of their behavior. they are in constant… fight. javier: tension. lorena: …. things are not that way. i’ve known them since they were in sixth grade. i know they are great people. the context in the school has made them behave that way, and some teachers don’t see it… javier: that’s our reality. josué: i agree with javier. i think that maybe oftentimes teachers become the invigilators of processes that students carry out in the classroom, and that is basically what some authors have referred to in the studies of surveillance at schools. in colombia, for example, saldarriaga, alvarez in spain, julio varela, who unveil the connotation of schools where students are controlled, controlling their time, and controlling their space, and the first entity we can call that way is school, that makes sure students do what they are supposed to do, then what you did certainly broke that rule established at school… i think that this experience allowed you to see the other side of the coin in which students really care and pay attention to our classes. we just take it personal: “they don’t like my class”, but it is analyzing non-linguistic behaviors, things that we do that are not… clear to us what helps us. javier: …also, students have an identity in which they need to position themselves in terms of, for example, “the cool guy”, the one who talks to women, and academic things are not the most important…. something you could probably understand: how is this image that we want to project to others? sometimes we harm others in the process…which is something that probably can happen. i am not saying that they don’t like to learn, but it’s something. nancy: it is interesting, how you, lorena in this part when you say: “i asked them to open their notebooks and write the date and lesson plan, the school demands”. sometimes, as javier told you, they are… standardized. they must do the same thing, the same routine, even knowing that we are very creative. i worked in a catholic school; that is why i understand perfectly this kind of attitudes. they are teenagers. our behavior makes people change. it is not a decolonial perspective in english teachers’ knowledge castañeda-londoño 91 no. 22 only that we are human beings; it is that we are influenced by those cultural behaviors. when the teachers told you that you had lost the authority…yes, i had a similar situation and my colleagues told me: “if you cry, it is like the worst thing.” adriana: i have a question for everybody regarding lorena’s story… what knowledge emerged in that situation because it is not the typical disciplinary or pedagogical knowledge?... if any. andrés: to perform as a teacher the way you understand it. what you promote, that is your discourse… i could cry. josué: humanizing the teacher, knowledge of the self. alejandra: and, of the students, because she thought they were going to make fun of her, and they didn’t. communal meaning making themes: humanizing the teacher in this section, i will briefly summarize what was concluded in the dialogue among teachers. this communal interpretation is meant to disrupt the western view that researchers are the only ones who should interpret the ‘data’. javier reflected upon the double-edged nature of the school system: control and flourishment. he analyzes how lorena, the teacher, who is invested with institutional power, feels challenged by the teens she has cherished for five years. he also analyzes that the school represents the place in which teens are to exercise agency against the power the teacher represents. lorena herself studies closely her situation adding a new interpretation which relates to the role of the institution in prompting said students’ behavior. when suggesting that it is the context which has an impact on students’ ways of acting, she acknowledges that students’ ways of being at school are also triggered by certain symbolic violence exercised upon students by the school as observed in actions like not taking them on the end-of-the-year school trip. more specifically, josué defines the happening as an instance of surveillance that is intersected with an act of courage performed by lorena. he highlights how lorena moves from being an invigilator to showing students her deepest feelings, frustrations, and thoughts. josué himself reflects upon how the experience lorena shared is an opportunity to see that students care when really touched by teachers’ actions and words. javier adds a new interpretation towards lorena’s students related to how other identities intersect students’ actions when reacting in class. some of them want to perform the roles of the ‘cool guy’ or the womanizer, and academic identities are left aside. the least thing some teens would like is to appear as devoted students. a decolonial perspective in english teachers’ knowledge castañeda-londoño 92 no. 22 on the other hand, nancy raises the practice of standardization that cuts creativity. both teachers and students are influenced by cultural models about things such as authority and classroom routines that end up changing our ways of being, behaving, and talking. similarly, nancy points to having had a similar experience in which she was also advised not to cry in front of her students as she could lose her authority too. all in all, when asked what shape of knowledge had emerged, josué and alejandra suggested that knowledge of the self and knowledge of students. a teacher who is challenging normalized practices how does lorena experience knowledge? lorena’s own reflections lorena’s theorization of what happened in her classroom is a powerful tool to be able to understand her from a decolonial perspective in which “un diálogo de saberes” (a knowledges dialogue) is always required. lorena points out the need for a true dialogue with students in which both truly want to hear each other. surprisingly, a true dialogue with students really came when the teacher’s voice was not being heard because she was, as anzaldúa (2009) would say, “speaking in tongues” not intelligible to students, not because she couldn’t communicate, but because the message conveyed was intersected by power devices that harmed the students and in turn their relationships with lorena as a teacher. it is lorena’s humanity and courage that breaks the molds and fosters real conversation. she says: “my testimony is the result of several years of observing certain school dynamics… from my perspective, school dynamics convey some power practices behind. school practices portray a hidden discourse of school, and teachers as discipliners and knowledge holders. hidden discourses also serve to bigger structures we belong to. school, teachers, and even students have normalized such practices. crying in front of my students represents a desire of breaking stereotypes of an authoritarian teacher. it embodies a teacher who is challenging the normalized practices within the classroom. through the words i said to my student during the episode, i read a desire of having my students understand that they are a very important piece of their education, that teachers and learners are equal, that they are expected to respect not because i am the authority but just because we all are humans. through this testimony, i explored how i listened to my students’ voices and how they listened to mine. in addition, this reciprocal dialogue in which we opened the opportunity of talking about what has been silenced in education, shaped our imaginaries on what being a teacher and a learner need to become. freire (1998) states: “it is through hearing the learners, a task unacceptable to authoritarian educators, that democratic teachers increasingly prepare a decolonial perspective in english teachers’ knowledge castañeda-londoño 93 no. 22 themselves to be heard by learners. but by listening to and so learning to talk with learners, democratic teachers teach the learners to listen to them as well” (p. 65). my students had the chance of reflecting upon their position in the school, in my classroom, and in the world. i also had the chance of exerting agency. agency that will allow a fairer vision of education: an education that balances the concepts of knowledge and emotion… i grant my class as a language class and not as an instructional set of procedures. my class is an opportunity of acknowledging language as a right, as a means of identity construction”. (lorena’s theorization of her testimonial narrative) bodies of knowledge, bodies of emotion, knowledge of the self how does lorena experience knowledge? my own reflections lorena’s experience of knowledge is intersected with feelings, emotions, and a vision of emancipatory education through dialogue and reading the world. lorena differentiates the hidden discourse of teachers as “discipliners and knowledge holders” from that of the teacher who abandons authoritarian practices and draws on emotion to create a rupture of what is expected from knowledgeable teachers: teaching by the book and abiding by the rules. lorena relied on her emotions to conceive of experience and therefore knowledge. but this reliance would not have been possible without what the epistemologies of the south call “deep listening”. sousa santos (2018) explains that the western world “privileges writing and speech to the detriment of listening… hearing is the superficial use of one’s ear, while listening implies an act of will” (p. 175). lorena’s cry showed how deep listening was fostered among learners who are oftentimes taught not to listen deeply. as a teacher-researcher engaged with a decolonial perspective i align with diversi & moreira (2009) when “refusing to erase the flesh from the study of humans” because “humans…experience the world through a very specific physical location: their bodies…bodies are physical, psychological, social, cultural, and political, all at once always.” (p. 32). lorena is a body that cries. sousa santos (2018) concurs that “bodies are unequal because they feel and are felt in ways that reproduce social inequalities, and the opportunities to feel and be felt are unequally distributed” (p.169). this idea explains why lorena’s colleagues did not agree with her sudden outburst of emotion as shown to students. teachers are expected to handle their emotions, have at hand a solution for everything, and are simultaneously compelled to hide any emotional constraint because they could appear weak or powerless in front of learners. a decolonial perspective in english teachers’ knowledge castañeda-londoño 94 no. 22 interestingly, as pointed out in the communal interpretation of this testimonial narrative, a certain knowledge of the self, and of learners, was also cultivated in the whole situation lorena faced. here knowledge of learners is not meant as in previous research of teacher’s knowledge as related to learners’ level, methodology to keep them busy, or even knowledge of learners’ developmental behavior for their age. no, here knowledge of the self refers to being able to read the context clues to have a response in the flesh and blood to cope with a complex teaching situation. the experience lorena faced can also be explained following gallagher-geurtsen’s (2012) study of youths’ testimonial narratives in neocolonial classrooms. this author highlights that teens “rage against a curriculum created to normalize students’ actions, knowledge, beliefs, and lives” (p. 7). gallagher-geurtsen (2012, p. 7) argues that neocolonial classrooms develop: “…a “logo-scientific curriculum (e.g., narrow, objective-driven lessons); universalism (e.g., the same standards and curriculum are appropriate for all groups of people) … schools must assure that this multimodal system remains intact through observation. observation or surveillance is among the most potent tools of colonization and, indeed, schooling. constantly observing students with the expectation that they “do school” appropriately”. gallagher-geurtsen (2012) suggests that students frequently undergo processes of “conversion” in which they “act the part of the “good student” …and conversion can be promoted by school staff with forms of coercion and disapproval when youth stray from the accepted norms and actions that constitute the official “good students” (p. 8). actions described by lorena such as “setting the attendance”, “writing the date and lesson plan… as the school demands” or students’ accounts of their teachers saying that: “the majority of them [the teachers] say: “you just have to care about learning. that is why you are here. be quiet and write,” show us different levels of coloniality of knowledge and being that destroy a seminal healthy relationship: that of the learner and the teacher. as a matter of fact, teaching is an unquestionably emotional profession in which a big amount of energy is used, and constantly our knowledge of ourselves and others, the students, are constantly reconfigured. while getting to know ourselves and getting to knowing our students, intricate societal issues are at stake. for instance, “unequal power relations impact teachers’ emotions at multiple levels, which include the classroom (micro-level), school (meso-level) and society (macro-level)” (p. 93). probably here, lorena could have also experienced a case of emotional burnout that left an imprint in her knowledge of teaching. de costa et al., (2018) highlight that teachers experience emotional burnout related to the absence of value and respect assigned to the teaching profession. a decolonial perspective in english teachers’ knowledge castañeda-londoño 95 no. 22 discussion and conclusions there are multiple ways in which teachers experience knowledge; one of them is through emotion. knowledge is a completely emotional and corporeal activity as revealed in lorena’s testimonial narrative. authors such as white (2018) and martínez agudo (2018) have documented the neglect that emotions have undergone in the elt field. some reasons for such disregard of the emotional component of teaching as an area of exploration are that first, historically, emotions have been treated as irrational, subjective, or feminine. second, there has been an overprivileged emphasis on reason. third, the incipient research around emotions revolved around sociopsychological issues of learning such as the affective filter or the affective strategies for language learning. still, teaching is essentially an emotional endeavor, and it bears a “sociopolitical dimension” (de costa, rawal, & li, 2019, p. 93) that should be analyzed under a more critical lens. fourth, the connection emotion-cognition was only recognized to back up cognition and not as a full explanation of how people experience the world. a pioneering work such as the one by zembylas (2007) outside the elt field discusses the two tendencies that the study of emotions has had: awareness of emotions in teaching and understanding of the social construction of emotion in the transactions of teaching and learning. yet, zembylas (2005)) acknowledges that within our culture there is the belief that “emotions threaten the disembodied, detached, and neutral knower.” (p. 7). if that neglect happens with emotions, much more happens with the body; 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(2007). the power and politics of emotions in teaching. in p. a. schutz & r. pekrun (eds.), emotion in education (pp. 293–312). academic press. this paper is part of the results of the doctoral dissertation called “traces of knowledge otherwise…english teachers’ experiences of knowledge” in the doctorado interinstitucional en educación at universidad distrital francisco josé de caldas, emphasis in english language teaching. author *adriana castañeda-londoño is a phd candidate from universidad distrital francisco josé de caldas. she has worked as an english teacher for around fifteen years and has also been a teacher educator. she is interested in studying social aspects of language learning and teaching. orcid: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8360-4528 a decolonial perspective in english teachers’ knowledge castañeda-londoño how to reference this article: castañeda-londoño, a. (2021). moving from what do english teachers know? to how do english teachers experience knowledge? a decolonial perspective in the study of english teachers’ knowledge. gist – education and learning research journal, 22(1), 75-101. https://doi.org/10.26817/16925777.1002 the effects of flipped classroom on efl students’ autonomy and motivation los efectos del aula invertida en la autonomía y motivación de los estudiantes de efl büşra nur çiftci aksoy1 erzurum technical university, turkey and aysegul takkac tulgar atatürk university, turkey 7 no. 27 gist education and learning research journal. issn 1692-5777. no. 27 (july december, 2023). pp. 7-36. 1 busra.ciftci@erzurum.edu.tr 8 no. 27 implementing flipped design in efl classes abstract this study examined the effects of teaching english using the flipped classroom model (fcm) on efl (english as a foreign language) students’ autonomy and motivation. the students’ perceptions of flipped language instruction were explored to conduct a detailed analysis of the implementation. a mixed-method research design, an explanatory sequential design, was used with 50 efl students at a turkish state university during the spring term of the 20222023 academic year. a quasi-experimental design was used to create a control (n = 25) and an experimental (n = 25) group. to collect quantitative data, both groups were pre-tested with two scales at the start of the term (the attitude/ motivation test battery and the autonomy perception scale). the fcm was used to teach main course lessons to the experimental group in a preparatory school while the control group was trained using a traditional learning approach. at the end of the term, both groups were post-tested after eight weeks of implementation in the experimental group. the qualitative data were collected via semi-structured interviews conducted at the end of the implementation to assess the participants’ perceptions and perspectives on the impact of the flipped classroom. spss 25.00 was used to analyze quantitative data. to assess the effects of the intervention paired sample t-tests and independent sample t-tests were used. descriptive content analysis was used to analyze qualitative data. the findings of this study indicate that the fcm, if properly implemented in l2 main course classes, has the potential to significantly increase autonomous learning and motivation. in comparison to the traditional model, flipped learning offers benefits such as making learning more enjoyable, increasing students’ self-confidence, and decreasing their fear of making mistakes. key words: flipped classroom model, autonomy, motivation, english language teaching. resumen este estudio examinó los efectos de la enseñanza del inglés utilizando el modelo de aula invertida (fcm, por sus siglas en inglés) sobre la autonomía y la motivación de los estudiantes de inglés como lengua extranjera (efl por sus siglas en inglés). se exploraron las percepciones de los estudiantes sobre la enseñanza del idioma en un aula invertida para realizar un análisis detallado de la implementación. se utilizó un diseño de investigación de métodos mixtos, un diseño secuencial explicativo, con 50 estudiantes de efl en una universidad estatal turca durante el semestre de primavera del año académico 2022-2023. se utilizó un diseño cuasi-experimental para crear un grupo de control (n = 25) y un grupo experimental (n = 25). para recopilar datos cuantitativos, ambos grupos fueron evaluados al inicio del semestre con dos escalas (la batería de pruebas de actitud/motivación y la escala de percepción de autonomía). el fcm se utilizó para enseñar lecciones principales al grupo experimental en una escuela preparatoria, mientras que el grupo de control fue capacitado utilizando un enfoque de aprendizaje tradicional. al final del semestre, ambos grupos fueron evaluados nuevamente después de ocho semanas de implementación en el grupo experimental. los datos cualitativos se recopilaron a través de entrevistas semiestructuradas realizadas al final de la implementación para evaluar las percepciones y perspectivas de los participantes sobre el impacto del aula invertida. se utilizó spss 25.00 para analizar los datos cuantitativos. para evaluar los efectos de la intervención, se utilizaron pruebas t de muestras relacionadas y pruebas t de muestras independientes. el 9 no. 27 büşra nur çi̇ftci̇ aks and aysegul takkac tulgar análisis de contenido descriptivo se utilizó para analizar los datos cualitativos. los hallazgos de este estudio indican que el fcm, si se implementa correctamente en clases principales de l2, tiene el potencial de aumentar significativamente el aprendizaje autónomo y la motivación. en comparación con el modelo tradicional, el aprendizaje invertido ofrece beneficios como hacer que el aprendizaje sea más placentero, aumentar la confianza en sí mismos de los estudiantes y disminuir su miedo a cometer errores. palabras clave: modelo de aula invertida, autonomía, motivación, enseñanza del inglés resumo este estudo examinou os efeitos do ensino de inglês utilizando o modelo de sala de aula invertida (fcm, pela sua sigla em inglês) sobre a autonomia e a motivação dos estudantes de inglês como língua estrangeira (efl, pela sua sigla em inglês). foram exploradas as percepções dos estudantes sobre o ensino do idioma em uma sala de aula invertida para realizar uma análise detalhada da implementação. foi utilizado um desenho de pesquisa de métodos mistos, um desenho sequencial explicativo, com 50 estudantes de efl em uma universidade pública turca durante o semestre da primavera do ano acadêmico 2022-2023. utilizou-se um desenho quaseexperimental para criar um grupo de controle (n = 25) e um grupo experimental (n = 25). para coletar dados quantitativos, ambos os grupos foram avaliados no início do semestre com duas escalas (a bateria de testes de atitude/motivação e a escala de percepção de autonomia). o fcm foi utilizado para ministrar aulas principais ao grupo experimental em uma escola preparatória, enquanto o grupo de controle foi treinado utilizando uma abordagem de ensino tradicional. ao final do semestre, ambos os grupos foram avaliados novamente após oito semanas de implementação no grupo experimental. os dados qualitativos foram coletados por meio de entrevistas semiestruturadas realizadas ao final da implementação para avaliar as percepções e perspectivas dos participantes sobre o impacto da sala de aula invertida. utilizou-se o spss 25.00 para analisar os dados quantitativos. para avaliar os efeitos da intervenção, foram utilizados testes t de amostras relacionadas e testes t de amostras independentes. a análise de conteúdo descritiva foi utilizada para analisar os dados qualitativos. os resultados deste estudo indicam que o fcm, se implementado corretamente em aulas principais de l2, tem o potencial de aumentar significativamente a aprendizagem autônoma e a motivação. em comparação com o modelo tradicional, o aprendizado invertido oferece benefícios como tornar o aprendizado mais agradável, aumentar a autoconfiança dos alunos e diminuir o medo de cometer erros. palavras-chave: modelo de sala de aula invertida, autonomia, motivação, ensino de inglês. 10 no. 27 introduction the importance of developing proficiency in the english language is increasing in the globalizing world (nunan, 2015). given the continuous increase in the number of individuals learning english as a foreign or second language, the significance of language instruction has become progressively more apparent. turkey is recognized as one of the nations where individuals with diverse educational backgrounds attempt to acquire or learn english language skills for a variety of purposes. according to dincer and yesilyurt (2013), a considerable number of students who have completed years of english instruction have difficulty reaching proficiency in the language due to the limited opportunities they have to communicate in english beyond the classroom setting. previous research conducted by ismail et al. (2010) and elmas & geban (2012) suggests that teachers tend to prioritize the instruction of grammar, vocabulary, and reading over the development of speaking, listening, and writing abilities. in conclusion, learners develop knowledge of grammatical subjects and vocabulary without recognizing the significance of communication skills. the aforementioned situations observed in turkey lead to the training of individuals who possess the ability to achieve high scores in english proficiency exams but struggle to effectively engage in communication within authentic, real-world situations (isik, 2011). to improve the language skills of efl students, in countries including turkey, authorities and educators have been searching for innovative teaching strategies and techniques. ismail et al. (2010) and nomass (2013) note that technological advancements have significantly altered the learning habits of students, the responsibilities of educators, and instructional materials. therefore, it has become more critical to acknowledge the growing recognition of the need for an instructional approach that promotes more rewarding and innovative learning methods, in contrast to traditional teaching methods. fcm is one of the new technology-based teaching methods. upon reviewing the relevant literature, it becomes evident that while there is a growing body of research investigating the influence of fcm on various factors such as performance, self-efficacy, and engagement, there exists a limited number of studies exploring the impacts of fcm on students’ autonomy and motivation. hence, the primary objective of this study is to investigate the impact of fcm on the autonomy and motivation of efl learners during the language learning process. thus, the current study seeks to answer the research questions below: • to what extent does the flipped classroom model affect the motivation of efl students to learn english? • to what extent does the flipped classroom model affect the autonomy of efl students in learning english? • how do efl students evaluate english courses conducted using the flipped classroom model? implementing flipped design in efl classes 11 no. 27 flipped classroom model (fcm) baepler and driessen (2014) assert that most learning difficulties encountered by learners can be attributed to the passive engagement of students in conventional classroom settings. active learning is regarded as a potential treatment for this issue. the fcm can be described as an instructional technique that replaces traditional teaching methods with interactive and communicative strategies both within and outside the classroom (abeysekera & dawson, 2014). the implementation of the flipped classroom model is primarily facilitated through the utilization of video lectures and supplementary materials as homework while face-to-face interactive instruction is incorporated in the classroom setting to enhance learning. according to gilboy et al. (2015), the conventional approach to classroom and homework activities is reversed and modified. the utilization of fcm enables students to actively engage in the creation of their own learning experiences by accessing and engaging with subject materials that have been prearranged by the teacher while considering learners’ individualized needs. students actively participate in various activities within the classroom setting to apply the knowledge they have acquired (kiang & yunus, 2021). because of their contacts and collaborative efforts with both the teacher and their peers, they engage in a more profound level of information processing. in the role of a mentor, the instructor provides guidance and support to students as they navigate this process, offering constructive feedback and evaluation of their comprehension of the subject matter (lee & martin, 2020). students who prioritize active learning in the classroom have embraced a student-centered approach in contrast to the traditional teacher-centered approach. while the flipped classroom approach offers numerous benefits, it is important to acknowledge that it also presents certain restrictions and challenges. the three aspects of the challenges are classified as student-related, faculty-related, and operationrelated in a study conducted by moran & milsom (2015). the primary facultyrelated challenge that has been documented in research is the absence of appropriate instructional materials (choi, 2016). it is unlikely for language instructors to develop their own teaching materials as they are not proficient in technical skills and the production of materials necessitate a sophisticated language laboratory (ansori & nafi, 2018). teachers also encounter challenges in effectively integrating the face-toface and outside-the-class components of fcm, which may be referred to as a design challenge (moran & milsom, 2015). the success of fcm is significantly influenced by learner motivation as it is a learner-centered pedagogy. recent research indicates that a significant number of university students exhibit minimal engagement in both pre-class and in-class activities. according to certain researchers, students frequently neglect to view videos before class, which leads to their disinterest in and difficulty with in-class activities (weiqiang et al., 2018). as a result, students exhibit minimal inbüşra nur çi̇ftci̇ aks and aysegul takkac tulgar 12 no. 27 class participation, and their homework assignments become exceedingly challenging. research studies also indicate that language instructors frequently instruct large courses in higher education. in a large class, it is nearly impossible to engage in faceto-face interaction with each student, which results in a lack of personalization, a prerequisite for fcm (zheng et al., 2020). notwithstanding these challenges, flipped learning remains a remarkably powerful approach for fostering learner achievement and engaging learners in their education process. the flipped classroom concept has gained significant popularity in english language teaching since bergmann and sams’ (20012) pioneering use of the model, which involved the provision of video recordings for language students. they noted that the use of this approach led to a notable improvement in the academic achievements of their students. subsequently, interest in the incorporation of fcm into language teaching has increased, along with the exploration of many aspects within this field. numerous empirical investigations have been conducted to explore the impacts of fcm on learners, as evidenced by studies conducted by kvashnina & martynko (2016) and lee & wallace (2018). the researchers concluded that the implementation resulted in significant improvement in the students’ overall academic achievement. research conducted at both national and international levels also encompasses investigations into the efficacy of applying fcm for teaching specific language skills. to this matter, several experimental studies researched the impact of flipped instruction on the development of writing abilities among students in preparatory classes (ahmed, 2016; ekmekci, 2017; gurluyer, 2019). the studies conducted by bulut (2018) and secilmisoglu (2019) examined the potential impact of flipped teaching on grammar education within the efl setting. the primary emphasis of research conducted on flipped classrooms has been on the development of listening and speaking abilities (el sakka, 2016; roth & suppasetseree, 2016; tazijan et al., 2016; tran & nguyen, 2018). the findings of the above-mentioned studies suggest that the incorporation of this approach has had positive outcomes in various aspects of efl students’ language learning. specifically, it has been found to contribute to the overall growth of their language proficiency and four basic language skills. additionally, this approach had a positive effect on the motivation levels of efl students (turan & goktas, 2018; zheng et al., 2020). learner autonomy and flipped classroom model in recent years, learner autonomy has become an increasingly popular concept in foreign language education. autonomy is regarded as the most fundamental one among the three basic requirements in psychology, together with competency, relationship, and autonomy (deci & ryan, 2010). the most prevalent definition of autonomous learning is “the process by which individuals teach themselves to assume responsibility” (holec, 1995, p. 89). learner autonomy, particularly in the domain of implementing flipped design in efl classes 13 no. 27 foreign language education, exerts substantial influence due to its potential to empower students to comprehend and engage in the entirety of the foreign language education process, encompassing learning planning and assessment (fenner & newby, 2000). the implementation of the fcm gives students a sense of accountability and control over their learning outside the classroom environment, too. the fcm helps regulate students’ learning patterns following their learning style, speed, and routine. fundamentally, fcm ensures that students can participate in purposeful language education, thereby fulfilling their requirements and fostering an enhanced drive to learn. subsequently, the individual develops the necessary proficiency and selfdirected learning ability to pursue further improvement beyond the confines of formal education (schmenk, 2005). research into autonomous learning in language skill development has gained significant attention in recent years (nematipour, 2012; razeq, 2014; scheb-buenner, 2019). however, upon reviewing the relevant literature, it becomes apparent that research is scarce concerning the effects of the fcm on student autonomy. the particular impact of the fcm on the autonomous learning abilities of individuals learning a foreign language was examined by weiqiang et al. (2018). because of the investigation, it was reported that the approach positively impacted the autonomous learning abilities of the students. additionally, the approach enabled the learners to acquire english language skills and enhance their levels of proficiency. the relationship between fcm and the autonomous learning ability of college students was also examined by du (2020), who asserted that the fcm fostered the development of self-directed and independent learning among students. a review of the research conducted in turkey regarding the effects of fcm on student autonomy in the efl context revealed that the number of such studies is quite limited. dariyemez (2020) studied the impact of fcm-based speaking skill instruction on the autonomy, communication willingness, and anxiety levels of students. according to the findings of this mixed-methods study, the implementation of the fcm markedly enhanced learner autonomy and communication motivation. motivation and flipped classroom model gardner (1985) defined motivation in language learning as the degree to which an individual strives or exerts effort to acquire a language owing to their intrinsic desire to do so and the pleasure derived from the process. motivation is a critical success factor in the development of a second or foreign language, and it is particularly significant for efl learners who are geographically, socially, culturally, and linguistically isolated from the target society (anjomshoa & sadighi, 2015). büşra nur çi̇ftci̇ aks and aysegul takkac tulgar 14 no. 27 fcm has the potential to substantially enhance students’ motivation in language education in contrast to traditional courses, where students passively receive knowledge. research conducted over the past two decades has demonstrated that learners are more proficient and motivated when using fcm (gauci et al., 2007; prince, 2004; stefanou et al., 2013). by creating an environment that fosters active student engagement, the fcm positions students as the focal point of the educational process. aktas (2017) asserts that the implementation of a diverse range of instructional strategies and a learnercentered approach increases the motivation of students. additionally, it has been remarked that the recent integration of technology into educational environments is a significant factor in boosting students’ motivation and academic performance (gecer & topalo, 2013). according to farrell & jacobs (2010), supporting collaborative learning (e.g., by utilizing small groups and pairs), developing a lifelong reading habit (e.g., by implementing extensive reading or student-selected reading), and employing selfassessment to identify a language learner’s strengths and weaknesses are additional aspects of the fcm that increase student motivation in language education. students have been reported to be engaged, motivated, and satisfied with their education when instructors implement a flipped classroom model through the organization of collaborative activities and discussions (davies et al., 2013; earley, 2016; herreid & schiller, 2013; li & suwanthep, 2017; mclaughlin & rhoney, 2015; strayer, 2012). consequently, students’ learning behaviours are influenced via integrated regulation as a result of the fcm’s potential to actively involve learners while satisfying their autonomy needs. recent years have seen an increase in studies examining the effects of fcm on the motivation of language learners to develop language skills. chuang (2018) investigated the influence of individual differences in learner motivation and epistemological perspectives on learning outcomes in the fcm through a study involving 85 university students. the findings indicated that the students were highly motivated, and they attained advantages from the fcm. evseeva and solozhenko (2015) investigated the effects of the fcm on efl learners’ self-efficacy and reported that using this method increased students’ self-efficacy and academic achievement. the analysis of existing studies indicates that although relevant literature suggests that there is an increasing number of studies on fcm in english language instruction, studies investigating the effects of the flipped model on students’ motivation and autonomy are still limited. these limited studies have focused primarily on motivation (xin-yue, 2016; yilmaz, 2017) or autonomy (aprianto & purwati, 2020; du, 2020). the review of these studies indicates the need for further research on the effects of fcm on students’ motivation and autonomy in the efl context. furthermore, the analysis suggests that relevant studies have mostly focused on the impacts of fcm in teaching communicative skills such as listening (el sakka, 2016; roth & suppasetseree, 2016) implementing flipped design in efl classes 15 no. 27 and speaking (tazijan et al., 2016; tran & nguyen, 2018). in this sense, this study is expected to expand knowledge on the fcm concerning motivation and autonomy in main course classes. in this context, the perspectives, and attitudes of efl learners toward flipped learning in the development of language skills were also investigated. thus, the conclusions reached from the students’ judgments about and attitudes toward the flipped method can enlighten future research. this study also has the potential to serve as an example of the use of fcm in the efl context, with the goal of increasing learner motivation and autonomy in language development. methodology research context and participants this study investigated the effects of flipped learning on the autonomy and motivation of efl students using a quasi-experimental design. the specific methodology implemented in this research was an explanatory sequential design. given that the primary objective of an experimental design is to examine the impact of implementation on research outcomes, the explanatory sequential design integrates qualitative and quantitative research methods (er & farhady, 2023; wong & cooper, 2016). as suggested by creswell et al. (2011), the qualitative explanatory sequential design enables researchers to reach more comprehensive results and increases the reliability of the data. the research was conducted with a sample size of 50 participants who were enrolled in the preparatory class at the english language and literature department of a state university in turkey. before students started their education in the english preparatory class, a foreign language proficiency test was administered by the school of foreign languages. the students were determined to have language proficiency at the preintermediate (a2) level according to the test. based on their level of proficiency, the participants were thought to possess the ability to comprehend commonly employed terms and sentences, as well as engage in basic and repetitive communicative tasks (council of europe, 2020). both groups included 25 students. because we had easy access to this group of students, convenience sampling was utilized as the sampling method for this study. when there is no other way to “choose a random or a systematic non-random sample,” convenience sampling can be used (chen, 2011, p. 103). data collection tools the autonomy perception scale and the attitude/motivation test battery (amtb) survey were used in the quantitative phase of the study. a modification of gardner’s (1985) amtb survey was implemented by gordu (2016). cronbach alpha coefficient büşra nur çi̇ftci̇ aks and aysegul takkac tulgar 16 no. 27 of the survey is 0,929. the autonomy perception scale, which was developed by figura and jarvis (2007), was designed to assess the degree of perceived autonomy among learners. for this survey, the reliability coefficient was calculated to be 0.89. these two tests were employed on the participants as pre– and post–tests. a semi-structured interview was administered to gather qualitative data. in line with the research purpose and relevant literature, the researchers prepared six openended questions. the questions focused on the students’ perspectives on flipped learning, the difficulties they encountered, and suggestions for improving such training. to enhance the validity of the questions, another field expert also checked the items for accuracy and relevance. the interview questions were as follows: 1. how would you evaluate the flipped classroom model in general? 2. what are the advantages and strengths of the flipped classroom model? 3. what are the disadvantages and weaknesses of the flipped classroom model? 4. what difficulties did you encounter during the implementation? 5. has there been a change (positive or negative) in your attitude toward the flipped classroom model during the implementation? 6. is there anything you would like to add or recommend about the flipped classroom model? data collection process and analysis the main investigation was divided into three phases including pre-testing, implementation, and post-testing. during the initial phase, after the establishment of the control and experimental groups, the autonomy perception scale and the attitude/ motivation test battery (amtb) survey were administered to the participants in both groups. when the research proposal was approved by ataturk university, institute of educational sciences, the major phase of the implementation was intended to be conducted face-to-face. however, a sudden earthquake occurred, affecting a large portion of the country and changing the attitude towards education at the tertiary level. as a result, the classes with both groups had to be conducted online. the implementation was carried out in the spring semester after the completion of the fall semester of the preparatory education. the classes with the control group were designed and conducted using a conventional model of teaching and learning, in which the content was covered during the online sessions and homework was completed after the classes. in the implementation phase, the students in both groups received similar courses for eight weeks. the experimental group was provided instruction using the fcm while the control group received training through traditional methods. implementing flipped design in efl classes 17 no. 27 to evaluate if the manner of instruction made a difference, the same teacher presented and covered the same course content. although identical course contents were used, the delivery and application of materials differed substantially because of the instruction mode. the course materials were distributed to participants in the control group in the form of a booklet rather than through the blackboard learning management system (lms). the teacher taught content in the class and then assigned homework. the target subjects were explained to the students by the teacher. the students then discussed the course materials’ questions and answered the follow-up questions. grammar, vocabulary, speaking, and listening activities were carried out in the classroom. the courses in the experimental group were delivered via the online lms. the course materials utilized by the experimental group consisted of sections incorporating audio and video recordings. the content included several communicative activities, such as group discussions, role-playing exercises, and dubbing activities in each course. furthermore, the experimental group utilized web 2.0 techniques and online language training programs including vo screen. the course materials were distributed to the students at least one week before the scheduled lesson. before the deadline, the students were required to electronically submit their assignments. they then engaged in in-class activities to further practice themselves. during the third phase, a post-test was administered to both groups. the pre-test that was given at the beginning of the term was identical to the post-test. after the intervention was completed, nine participants (high-achievers, middle-achievers, and low-achievers) from the experimental group were interviewed. the interviews were conducted online using the lms. the interviews were carried out in turkish and lasted between 10 and 15 minutes to allow the participants to express themselves clearly. the researcher audio-recorded, transcribed, and translated the interviews into english. for the data analysis, a comparison was made between efl learners’ autonomy and motivation to ascertain the level to which flipped learning affected the autonomy and motivation levels of the participants. the effects of the implementation were assessed, using spss program, through paired sample t-test and independent sample t-test analyses. adjustments for bonferroni correction were applied to the differences between pre-test and post-test scores to reduce the increased type i error rate caused by the study’s extensive comparisons. the alpha coefficient was utilized to ascertain the reliability of the factors. the survey has a cronbach alpha coefficient of 0.927. to evaluate the qualitative data, descriptive content analysis was implemented. content analysis is an analysis technique, described by krippendorff (2004), that aims at obtaining valid and replicable conclusions about the contexts in which texts are utilized are analyzed. the transcriptions of the interviews were classified regarding the research questions under the recommendations of dörnyei (2007). the common codes identified in the transcripts were combined into common categories, which formed the themes of the analysis. büşra nur çi̇ftci̇ aks and aysegul takkac tulgar 18 no. 27 findings quantitative results to analyze the data, normality distribution was checked for both the experimental and control groups. the skewness and kurtosis values within the range of +1.50 and -1.50 are considered normal distributions (tabachnick & fidell, 2013). since for the motivation scale, the skewness was .551 and kurtosis -.844, and for the autonomy scale the skewness was .771 and kurtosis -.770, it can be concluded that the data in each group were normally distributed. thus, in the analysis, independent sample t-tests and paired sample t-tests were conducted using parametric statistics. pre-test and post-test independent sample t-test results pre-test results of the study. to determine the differences between both groups, the pre-test results of the students were compared. the findings are displayed as follows in table 1. table 1. comparison of the pre-test scores of control and experimental groups variables groups m sd md t p motivation control 2.78 .12 .01 .239 .812 experiment 2.77 .14 autonomy control 2.17 .24 .02 .321 .749 experiment 2.15 .20 note. md = mean difference, p > .05 the table indicates that at the beginning of the implementation, the pre-test scores of both groups did not differ. the levels of motivation and learner autonomy of the participants in both groups showed statistical similarity and had low mean differences. for the motivation variable, the pretest means of the experimental (2.77) and control (2.78) groups were not significantly different before the implementation (t=.239; p = .812 >.05). similarly, for the autonomy variable, the pretest means of the experimental (2.15) and control (2.17) groups were not significantly different before the implementation (t=.321; p = .749 >.05). post-test results of the study. to determine the effects of the implementation and examine differences between the groups, the post-test scores of the students were compared. the findings are shown as follows in table 2. implementing flipped design in efl classes büşra nur çi̇ftci̇ aks & aysegul takkac tulgar 19 no. 27 table 2. comparison of the post-test scores of the control and experimental groups variables groups m sd md t p motivation control 3.13 .19 -.47 -9.510 .001 experiment 3.60 .16 autonomy control 2.50 .14 -1.06 -27.657 .000 experiment 3.59 .13 note. md = mean difference, p < .05 the table indicates that the participants’ post-test scores differed from each other after the implementation. mean scores in autonomy and motivation increased in favor of the treatment group (p < .05). it is possible to say that the autonomy and motivation levels of the students in the experimental group improved significantly. pre-test and post-test paired sample t-test results pre-test post-test comparison of the control group. multiple paired sample t-tests were conducted to examine the changes in the two primary study variables to see if there were differences between the scores of the students in the control group after traditional training. table 3 shows the analysis results: table 3. comparison of the pre and post-test scores of the control group variables groups m sd md t p motivation pre 2.78 .13 -.35 -7.640 .000 post 3.13 .19 autonomy pre 2.17 .24 -.33 -5.652 .000 post 2.50 .15 note. md = mean difference, p < .05 the table shows that after one term of instruction, the control group participants’ mean scores on learner autonomy and motivation increased. this outcome was anticipated due to the nature of the educational content. according to the table, for the motivation variable, the pre-test and post-test means of the control group differ significantly in favor of the post-test (t = -7.640; p = .000). similarly, for the autonomy variable the pretest and post-test means of the control group differ significantly in favor of the post-test (t = -5.652; p = .000). büşra nur çi̇ftci̇ aks and aysegul takkac tulgar büşra nur çi̇ftci̇ aks & aysegul takkac tulgar 20 no. 27 pre-test post-test comparison of the experimental group. to compare the characteristics of the two primary study variables for the experimental group, multiple paired sample t-tests were performed, assessing the efficiency of flipped learning. table 4 displays the findings as follows: table 4. comparison of the pre and post-test scores of the experimental group variables groups m sd md t p motivation pre 2.77 .14 -.83 -21.045 .000 post 3.60 .16 autonomy pre 2.15 .20 -1.44 -29.717 .000 post 3.59 .13 note. md= mean difference, p < .05 the table shows how significantly the means for the two main variables changed after one term of fcm instruction in the experimental group. the comparison of pretest and post-test scores indicates that learner autonomy and motivation among the experimental group students showed a statistically significant increase after flipped learning (p < .05). while the difference in the means observed in autonomy levels was high (md=.1.44), the motivation aspect had a lower difference (md=.-.83). the findings can imply that flipped learning was effective in increasing student motivation and autonomy in learning english. qualitative results the responses of the efl students to the open-ended questions were reviewed many times. sub-themes were identified from the student responses, and they were categorized under the main themes based on their similarities. subsequently, the themes were employed to present the findings, which were interpreted following the data analysis. the descriptive content analysis of the participants’ responses revealed four main themes: students’ overall evaluations of the flipped classroom model, the advantages and strengths of the flipped classroom model, the disadvantages and weaknesses of the flipped classroom model, and recommendations for effective flipped learning. the results are presented with participant comments to increase trustworthiness in the analysis and data presentation phases. implementing flipped design in efl classes 21 no. 27 students’ overall evaluations of the flipped classroom model according to the interview results, the students in the experimental group had positive and negative considerations of the fcm in the language learning process. the results of such evaluations are shown in table 5. table 5. theme 1: overall evaluations of the fcm theme 1: overall evaluations of the fcm category 1: positive evaluations enjoyable environment useful content limited intervention positive feedback category 2: negative evaluations workload tiring process the flipped classroom model was highly favored by the participants; 6 out of 9 students stated that they appreciated and found the fcm enjoyable. participant 1 said: “flipped classroom was a different application that i encountered for the first time; i generally liked it.” four students mentioned that playing games and doing enjoyable activities in the lessons motivated them. regarding this issue, participant 3 argued: “i found the flipped classroom enjoyable in general because we had enjoyable activities and competitions. the activities we did in the classroom as a group or in pairs were very enjoyable, i looked forward to following lessons.” furthermore, as opposed to traditional lectures and mechanical exercises, the employment of varied communicative activities facilitated the students’ learning. four participants stated that engaging in fun and diverse activities helped them learn more successfully and rapidly. they also claimed that the useful content increased their motivation. in line with this code, participant 4 noted: “i think i learn effectively by playing different games in which the teacher does not explain grammar and rules.” participant 6 supported this perspective referring to a specific fcm practice they had: “thanks to the dubbing assignment, i learned many different sentence structures and word pronunciations.” the teacher’s conduct in the classroom with limited intervention was regarded as an advantage in the fcm because it assisted students in becoming autonomous learners. positive feedback was also mentioned as having a constructive impact on the students’ büşra nur çi̇ftci̇ aks and aysegul takkac tulgar 22 no. 27 motivation. about this issue, participant 3 expressed: “since our teacher usually followed the activities without intervening, i was not afraid of making mistakes while doing activities alone.” sharing a similar view, participant 2 expressed: “i developed a positive attitude towards the lesson as our teacher gave positive and sincere answers and did not criticize when i had questions or made mistakes while doing the activities.” not everyone was positive about flipped learning. only one student in the experimental group who took the main course using the fcm did not like this learning method. participant 8 stated: “we have to work hard, and it can be a bit boring when what we do at home is the same as what we do at school.” in addition, several students expressed concerns about the implementation. three students stated that the application was effective for learning, but their workload and homework were excessive. considering the workload, participant 2 noted: “i think it was useful and joyful, but it was tiring because we had to watch videos all the time and work at home.” in conclusion, the participants usually preferred the experience of acquiring foreign language abilities in main course classes using the fc model. they were pleased with many parts of the fcm. the lectures were enjoyable, the topics were beneficial, and the teacher guided the classes with little intervention. however, certain aspects were not appreciated by the participants, primarily the work required and course preparation. the advantages and strengths of the flipped classroom model the participants’ comments revealed that the flipped learning method brought a variety of advantages and strengths to the language learning process. the results for those aspects are shown in table 6. table 6. theme 2: advantages and strengths of the fcm theme 2: advantages and strengths of the fcm category 1: language development pronunciation development listening development speaking development grammar development category 2: affective & cognitive development motivation confidence autonomy implementing flipped design in efl classes 23 no. 27 the first category in the second theme, as shown in table 6, addresses the participants’ language development. when the language development of the learners and the contribution of the flipped classroom to their learning were considered, several students stated that basic language skills, particularly listening and speaking skills, improved as a result of the activities and practice in and out of class. the students also stated that improving their basic language skills enhanced their motivation. regarding this matter, participant 1 said: “i think it contributed to my english learning because we did a lot of english listening and speaking activities.” the second advantage was related to improving pronunciation. the participants reported that the videos and recordings helped them identify and correct pronunciation mistakes. those who realized they could correctly pronounce words and structures reported an increase in motivation to participate in the activities. participant 2 supported this perspective by saying: “i was able to notice my pronunciation mistakes when i recorded my voice and listened to it later. also, it was fun to listen to our teacher’s voice recordings at home.” participant 6 supported this view by stating: “i think it contributed to learning the subjects well. it is also very useful for the correct pronunciation of words.” considering their affective and cognitive development as displayed in the second category, most of the students expressed that the fcm increased their confidence, autonomy, and motivation. the participants stated that their self-confidence and participation increased as a result of the tasks in which they recorded their voices and uploaded them to the system, which reduced the possibility of making mistakes in class. participant 5 argued: “when i recorded my voice at home and listened to it over and over again, i noticed and corrected my mistakes, so i was not afraid of making pronunciation mistakes in class.” supporting this finding. furthermore, being prepared for the subject to be covered in the lesson and preparing for classroom activities at home were reported to provide regular study habits and increase their active participation and autonomy in the classroom. participant 5 said: “i generally liked fcm because it allowed me to study regularly and come prepared for classes. knowing in advance what will be covered in each lesson was reassuring.” similarly, participant 7 added: “since i knew what we were going to cover in the lessons, i was ready to participate, and i was not nervous at all.” another benefit of the flipped classroom model was that it encouraged the students to study continuously, providing them with regular study habits and thus improving their autonomy. in this regard, participant 8 stated: “because i knew the assignments i had to do before lessons, i developed a work schedule and discipline over time. later on, i realized that even if i did not have homework, i started to prepare before the lesson and do research on the subjects i did not know.” similarly, participant 8 added, i did not know how to study english until today. i learned to study english on my own.” büşra nur çi̇ftci̇ aks and aysegul takkac tulgar 24 no. 27 to summarize, there were several things that the students thought were advantageous about the implementation of the fcm. thanks to the communicative activities, language learning became easier and more fun, particularly for listening, speaking, and pronunciation skills. the students’ self-confidence improved as they were no longer hesitant to make mistakes. their autonomy also increased as a result of learning how to study. finally, their motivation to attend english classes increased because they could use modern applications and conveniently reach course materials. the disadvantages and weaknesses of the flipped classroom model although the fcm improved the language learning process, the participants’ comments revealed that the flipped learning method had several disadvantages and weaknesses. the results for those aspects are shown in table 7. table 7. theme 3: disadvantages and weaknesses of the fcm theme 3: disadvantages and weaknesses of the fcm category 1: workload time commitment excessive homework category 2: technological problems internet connection technological tools category 3: work style pair/ group activities study environment the workload is the first category in relation to the disadvantages and weaknesses of the fcm, as shown in table 7. the amount of work and time required to complete the tasks were referred to be the two most significant drawbacks in the model. it was reported that watching videos, responding to questions, recording them, and completing assignments that required critical thinking took a lot of time. the participants agreed that they were tired of studying, and as a result, their motivation towards courses decreased. regarding this issue, participant 1 noted: “i think this implementation is tiring because i watch videos and have recordings all the time.” similarly, participant 9 added: “assignments take too much time.” participant 8 also held a similar perspective and explained: “we work at home and also in the classes. this is so tiring and ridiculous.” implementing flipped design in efl classes 25 no. 27 the second category was about the internet connection, mobile phone, and computer problems, which were technological issues that reduced the participants’ motivation to attend courses. because the courses were delivered online and the flipped classroom method required the submission of homework and access to course content via the online lms, the students encountered some difficulties when their phones were insufficient or when they did not have access to a computer or the internet. in line with this finding, participant 4 argued: “i had to miss classes because of slow internet and connection problems. it was also very difficult to watch a lot of videos and recordings afterward.” referring to the internet problem, participant 8 expressed: “when my internet connection was lost, i missed the classes and could not upload the assignments.” the third category of disadvantages was difficulty with pair and group activities. some students stated that when they were unable to communicate with their friends in group or pair activities, the activity became inefficient, lowering their motivation. in this regard, participant 7 argued: “it is very difficult to participate and be successful in group activities and pair works when your group members do not get along or they do not work.” participant 2 supported this by saying: “since my english level is not good, i had difficulty doing activities with my friends, and i fell behind them.” the participant comments revealed that they were not pleased with some parts of the model. some students felt that the time commitment was excessive. the difficulty connecting to the internet and creating suitable learning environments were also considered challenging. finally, some students stated that the fcm is similar to doing homework. recommendations for effective flipped learning based on their fcm-supported learning experiences, the participants made recommendations to stimulate the effectiveness of english language instruction through flipped learning both inside and outside the classroom. the results concerning these aspects are shown in table 8. table 8. theme 4: recommendations for the fcm theme 4: recommendations for the fcm category 1: in-class recommendation lesson conduct class size category 2: out-class recommendation workload büşra nur çi̇ftci̇ aks and aysegul takkac tulgar 26 no. 27 the first category of recommendations was related to the mood of the lesson. some participants preferred face-to-face education when evaluating their distance education experiences. the participants stated that face-to-face activities requiring active participation, such as games and competitions, would be more motivating and provide more permanent learning. about this, participant 5 shared: “i was challenged communicating with our friends and our teacher, the activities became boring. it would be much more efficient if the lessons were done face to face.” participant 8 supported that view by saying: “english lessons should not be online. i don’t think we can learn a language just by watching the screen and listening to the teacher. i don’t want to attend classes in online education.” another suggestion was to reduce the number of students in class. according to the participants, lessons should be taught with fewer students. some students stated that when there were fewer students in class, the topics were covered more quickly, the teacher had more time to deal with the students individually, and the students could learn english better. in line with this finding, participant 3 stated: “there should be fewer people in the class because it may be difficult for the teacher to deal with crowded classes.” as shown in table 8, the most common out-of-class recommendation forming the second category concerned the amount of homework. three students stated that having too much homework and tasks to do in and out of the classroom was exhausting and difficult and that, if less homework was assigned, their motivation for the course would increase. emphasizing this issue participant 1 stated: “difficult and time-consuming assignments that require good computer use should not be given.” similarly, participant 6 and participant 9 added: “too much homework should not be given.” both the qualitative and quantitative data show that when the fcm was properly integrated into english lessons, the participants’ motivation and autonomy levels increased. furthermore, according to the qualitative data, several components of the flipped classroom approach were appreciated by the students, such as technologyintegrated materials, communicative tasks, and positive feedback. some students, however, remarked that there were features of this model that they did not like. the model was criticized for requiring excessive time commitment, having some course materials that were too difficult to understand, and having too much homework. the students also suggested some changes to fcm to increase the effectiveness of the model, such as more individual activities, smaller class sizes, and less homework. implementing flipped design in efl classes 27 no. 27 discussion and conclusions according to the findings of this study, fcm could substantially increase the autonomy and motivation of the students. additionally, the students were encouraged to develop self-study habits, take responsibility for their education, and gain knowledge on technological tools that could be utilized to improve their l2, and could monitor their progress. they were more motivated to practice english out of class and felt more confident as they developed proficiency in the target language and a deeper understanding of particular subjects. within the scope of the first research question, this study examined the impact of fcm on the autonomy of students. the findings indicate that the students’ autonomy was enhanced at the end of the fcm application due to online teaching as well as the evaluation, and communication processes that enabled them to control and manage their learning. this result is consistent with the findings of al wahaibi and hashim (2018), who concluded that the use of technology contributed to the growth of learner autonomy and offered students greater control over their education. likewise, santikarn and wichadee (2018) hypothesized that due to participation in class activities and peer interaction, the majority of their students were satisfied with the fcm-based language instruction. concerning this matter, it can be asserted that the present study, which was conducted based on the fcm implementation, presented an example of increased learner autonomy, stimulated by the facilitating role of the teacher who does not interfere excessively with the lessons. as for the analysis of the second research question, the experimental group’s motivation increased after receiving english language instruction via the fcm. the findings of the present investigation are consistent with most of the prior research in the relevant literature. a comparative analysis of the present study and prior research in the field suggests that the increase in student motivation among those in the experimental group may be attributable to several factors. firstly, it can be concluded that instruction enriched with technology increased learning engagement and activity. in their study examining the effects of fcm on student motivation, elmas & geban (2012) emphasized that the experimental group participants actively learned the language and transformed into engaged participants, which contributed to effective and meaningful learning. the increase in the motivation of the students can also be seen as a natural outcome of the increase in their participation in the lesson thanks to the student-centered activities, which is a point of reference in the related literature as well. chuang et al. (2018) reported that flipped classroom instruction enhanced the motivation, satisfaction, and participation of students. thus, it can be inferred, from the results of the current study and those of the related research, that fcm serves as a tool to stimulate learner motivation while increasing their active participation in the educational process. based on the data obtained from the participants in the experimental group, it is possible to conclude that thanks to game-based education in fcm, the students learned by having fun, which may have had a positive effect on their büşra nur çi̇ftci̇ aks and aysegul takkac tulgar 28 no. 27 motivation for the lesson. this finding is in parallel with those by caliskan (2016), obari and lambacher (2015), and yavuz and ozdemir (2019), in which the students found fcm more enjoyable than conventional models. within the scope of the third research question, the current research investigated the perceptions and perspectives of the experimental group participants regarding the fcm. the qualitative analysis revealed that the participants’ positive evaluations and experiences using the fcm were more frequent than the negative ones. almost all the learners who participated in the interviews stated that they enjoyed the fcm explaining that the model improved their speaking, listening, and pronunciation skills as well as their autonomy and motivation. these results corroborate studies demonstrating the positive contributions of the fcm to the oral performance of l2 learners (amiryousefi, 2019; chen hsieh et al., 2017). according to the data from the interview, it can be concluded that regarding affective/cognitive development, the fcm increases students’ autonomy, motivation, and confidence. the qualitative data show that the participants gained regular study habits and became more autonomous learners thanks to the fcm. these results were compatible with previous research (hung, 2018; weiqiang et al., 2018) revealing the positive effects of the model on the autonomous learning skills of foreign language learners. there were certain aspects that not every student appreciated. for some students, the model was similar to doing assignments, and extracurricular activities demanded an excessive amount of time. some participants also found the pre-recorded video lessons and homework to be boring and time-consuming. this point of criticism is in line with what has been reported in mull’s (2012) study, which argued that students who find videos boring or overly long may not enjoy watching them. the participants made some in-class and out-of-class suggestions for implementing the fcm into language classes, too. since the lessons had to be conducted online due to the earthquake disaster in turkey, integrating the model into online lessons is among the aspects seen as a disadvantage by the students. in conclusion, the students recommended that courses should be conducted face-to-face instead of online. the students also suggested that courses should be crowded so that their motivation and confidence increase. in this regard, when the relevant literature was examined, no results supporting these data were encountered; thus, these results can be related to an outcome of the specific case experienced in this research context. limitations and pedagogical implications several variables presented limitations. first, the study was limited to data from 50 students. this study only included a group of preparatory students, and the participants were adult learners with an a2 level of english proficiency; thus, it was beyond the implementing flipped design in efl classes 29 no. 27 scope of this study to investigate the development of language learning at other grades and levels. another limitation of this study is the duration of the intervention (8 weeks). if the flipped instruction had lasted longer than 8 weeks, the results may have differed. additionally, the fcm was integrated into online lessons because of the mandatory distance education; different results might have been obtained if this model had been used in face-to-face courses. the findings and analysis of this quasi-experimental study revealed that the fcm primarily improved the participants’ language skills and increased their motivation as well as autonomy. as a result, the analysis of these findings revealed the following pedagogical implications for the effective integration and implementation of the model in language education: • because the fcm is a new model, educators must ensure that students are familiar with its principles prior to its implementation to prevent students from losing their motivation. • to implement the model, teachers must have a certain set of technological skills. in-service training covering theoretical and practical aspects of the model is to be available for instructors who want to implement the fcm. • students may encounter problems while following course content. as a result, it is critical to provide opportunities for ongoing and beneficial contact. instructors can keep track of the process via course management systems, emails, forums, or social media. • while preparing course materials, attention should be paid to facilitating the teaching of target subjects, attracting students’ attention, and increasing their motivation towards language learning. • while preparing the course content, the model should be integrated into all areas of language development. büşra nur çi̇ftci̇ aks and aysegul takkac tulgar 30 no. 27 references abeysekera, l., & dawson, p. 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(2016). motivation in a flipped classroom, a case study of teaching oral english in a vocational college in mainland china. sino-us english teaching, 13(6), 460-467. https://doi.org/10.17265/1539-8072/2016.06.004 yavuz, f., & ozdemir, s. (2019). flipped classroom approach in efl context: some associated factors. world journal on educational technology: current issues, 11(4), 238-244. yilmaz, r. (2017). exploring the role of e-learning readiness on student satisfaction and motivation in flipped classroom. computers in human behavior, 70, 251-260. zheng, l., bhagat, k. k., zhen, y., & zhang, x. (2020). the effectiveness of the flipped classroom on students’ learning achievement and learning motivation. journal of educational technology & society, 23(1), 1-15 büşra nur çi̇ftci̇ aks and aysegul takkac tulgar authors büşra nur çi̇ftci̇ aksoy is a language instructor at school of foreign language, erzurum technical university, turkey. she completed her undergraduate education and ma. degree at ataturk university. her research interests are flipped learning, speaking and listening skills, and distance learning. orcid: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4290-7586 dr. aysegul takkac tulgar, is an associate professor at elt department, atatürk university, turkey. she completed her undergraduate education at middle east technical university and ma. and phd. degrees at ataturk university. her research interests are cross-cultural pragmatic competence, glocalization and language education. orcid: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6401-969x138 36 no. 27 implementing flipped design in efl classes future teachers discuss their readiness to teach efl in ecuador: a qualitative approach1 futuros docentes analizan su preparación para enseñar inglés como lengua extranjera en ecuador: un enfoque cualitativo ximena d. burgin and mayra daniel2 northern illinois university, united states of america 1 received: may 15th, 2023 / accepted: october 12th, 2023 2 xrecald1@niu.edu, mayra.daniel@gmail.com gist education and learning research journal. issn 1692-5777. no. 26 (january june, 2023). pp. 103 122. 104 no. 26 abstract this work examines ecuadorian teacher trainees’ self-reported pedagogy. data gathered in focus groups documents participant’ pedagogy, what they stated they learned about teaching in diverse contexts, and the challenges they anticipate as they prepare to begin careers as english language teachers. a constant comparison method was used to determine and crossreference emergent themes in the data. findings suggest a disconnect between the objectives of trainees’ program of study and what the future teachers stated they need to know to be ready to implement in their practice. keywords: teacher training, diversity, ecuador, english language teaching, teacher professional development, qualitative research resumen este trabajo examina la pedagogía autoinformada de los maestros aprendices ecuatorianos. los datos recopilados en grupos focales documentan la pedagogía de los participantes, lo que declararon que aprendieron sobre la enseñanza en contextos diversos y los desafíos que anticipan confrontarán cuando comiencen sus carreras como maestros de inglés. se utilizó un método de comparación constante para determinar y hacer referencias cruzadas de temas emergentes en los datos. los hallazgos sugieren una desconexión entre los objetivos del programa de estudio de los aprendices y los conocimientos que los futuros maestros consideran que necesitarán estar listos para implementar en su práctica. palabras claves: formación docente, diversidad, ecuador, enseñanza del idioma inglés, desarrollo profesional docente, investigación cualitativa resumo este trabalho examina a pedagogia autorrelatada por estudantes de formação de professores equatorianos. dados coletados em grupos focais documentam a pedagogia dos participantes, o que afirmaram ter aprendido sobre o ensino em contextos diversos e os desafios que antecipam ao se prepararem para iniciar carreiras como professores de língua inglesa. um método de comparação constante foi utilizado para determinar e cruzar temas emergentes nos dados. os resultados sugerem uma desconexão entre os objetivos do programa de estudo dos aprendizes e o que os futuros professores afirmaram precisar saber para estar prontos para implementar em sua prática. palavras-chave: formação de professores, diversidade, equador, ensino de língua inglesa, desenvolvimento profissional de professores, pesquisa qualitativa. future efl teachers’ readiness to teach in ecuador: a qualitative study 105 no. 26 introduction to educational reforms in ecuador in the past decade, ecuadorian teachers have experienced increased pressure to design innovative curricula (van damme et al. 2013; constitution of the republic of ecuador 2011). with ecuador adopting the united states (u.s.) dollar as its currency, the study of english became a requirement across all grade levels (british council, 2015; gallegos, 2008). this was preceded by the 1988 impetus for educational changes, with the government focusing on validating the cultures of indigenous groups and providing support for a resurgence of all native languages. at the time, schools were established with the goal of delivering intercultural bilingual education for all indigenous cultures (ministerio de educación, 2013). mandates met strong criticism, primarily the speed at which revisions were put in place without piloting the efficacy of program components (mesa educación pachakutik, 2002). practicing teachers, future teachers, and students at levels kindergarten-twelfth (k-12) are challenged to develop high levels of language proficiency in spanish and in an additional language such as english or an indigenous tongue. efforts resulted in ecuadorians mixing spanish and indigenous tongues to create third languages such as kichwañol, which is half spanish and half kichwa (ministerio de educación, 2013). added pressure on practicing teachers relates to the methods used to evaluate their competency. future teachers need to be prepared for life in ecuador’s schools as evaluation of teachers’ competency is based largely on k-12 students’ academic success, and the teachers’ ability to demonstrate how they address learners’ cultural and linguistic needs (ecuador immediato, 2016; cevallos-estarellas & bromwell, 2015; resultados pruebas censales, 2008; ministerio de educación y cultura del ecuador, 2006). the ser estudiante exam (resultados pruebas censales, 2008) administered to students, is used to measure learners’ academic achievement, teachers’ competency and the overall success of the movement for educational improvement. results inform the foci of revisions to curricular design, the ministry of education’s selection of curricular materials, and the time allocated for instruction across the disciplines. this study explores teacher candidates (future teachers’) perceptions of their readiness to teach in ecuador’s diverse context, the challenges they anticipate they might encounter in their work as educators, and how governmental mandates for english language teaching (elt) influenced their preparation. ecuador’s diversity and schooling demands ecuador’s cultural and linguistic diversity is visible in the numerous living languages spoken across this nation. according to ethnologue (2019), there are 21 indigenous languages (e.g., cofán, and quechua) (constitución política del ecuador, 1998). the instituto nacional de estadísticas y censos (2015) documented that 93% of ecuador’s population speaks castilian and 4.1% speak quechua. census information reflected the country’s population was composed of 71.9% mestizos (mixed amerindian and ximena d. burgin and mayra daniel 106 no. 26 white), 7.4% montubio, 7% amerindian, 6.1% white, 4.3% afroecuadorian, 1.9% mulato, 1% black, and 0.4% other (inec, 2015). the ecuadorian educational system is challenged to understand and address the cultural diversity present in the nation’s classrooms. preparing future educators to design and implement culturally responsive curricula is therefore essential, given ecuador’s diverse demographic (banks, 2014, 1981; bucklewe & fishman, 2011; nieto 2018), and the mandate for english instruction (ministerio de educación, 2014). the addition of english to the curriculum, across all grades for private schools and 8th – 12th grades for public schools, has raised the level of pedagogical expertise and inter-cultural understandings required of future teachers (constitución de la república del ecuador, 2011). in addition, the demands on students to master english has likely added the study of english as an additional language to what may already compose an overcrowded curricular schedule. the question remaining is how efficiently institutions are able to adjust programs of study to prepare the country’s future educators for the tasks of teaching plurilingual populations of students in the process of reaching mastery of english as a second language. theoretical framework teachers’ ability to reflect on the norms of their own culture and how their attitudes influence their pedagogy, is a factor when examining an educator’s ability to establish empowering schools (bennett, 2019; giroux & silva, 2010). these researchers consider that educators’ respect of students’ cultures and languages are key factors in elt (hawkins & norton, 2009). beginning in the late 1970s, linguists sought to teach language as an event that had as its focus the communicative competence of the participants (canale & swain, 1980). today, teacher educators are tasked with preparing future teachers able to communicate in academic and economic arenas represented by ecuador’s plurilingual and pluricultural populations. candidates need to have linguistic knowledge and in-depth familiarity with the cultural norms of all the cultures present in ecuador and in the english speaking world. in this millennium, culturally responsive teachers are committed to equity in schooling and to ensuring that students’ rights are recognized in the enacted curriculum, and in the participatory methods they use to instruct diverse learners (author, 2017, 2016; hawkins and norton 2009; kincheloe 2008). as such, in second language acquisition (sla), students’ familial backgrounds, their languages and the norms of their communities, are treasure troves for future teachers who know that investigating learners’ out of school experiences will help them improve their curriculum and methods for elt (bucklewe & fishman, 2011; gonzález et al., 2005; ruiz, 1984). when one considers the affective domain and how learners’ concentration on monitoring conversations both controls and limits their output (krashen, 1981), it is evident that sla methods that lean towards critical pedagogy and the awareness that language is a right (ruiz, future efl teachers’ readiness to teach in ecuador: a qualitative study 107 no. 26 1984), allow learners to more freely express their thoughts as they learn about the cultural norms of speakers of other languages (freire, 1985). in this investigation, 28 future teachers’ shared their vision of what educational equity requires of them in ecuador’s multilingual-multicultural society. data gathered served to examine how well the participants felt they were prepared to begin their teaching careers while finishing internships in which they were asked to use sla methods assigned by their mentors. this inquiry into future educators’ teaching practices, and how they perceive their role in affirming all learners’ rights in the efl class, sheds light on the systemic challenges facing the ecuadorian educational system. this research explored teacher candidates’ perceptions of how the teacher preparation curriculum addressed the need for future teachers to examine learners’ funds of knowledge (gonzález et al., 2005) and aimed to identify the instructional methods that candidates will use to deliver effective and culturally responsive instruction after graduation (chamot & o’malley, 1994: gay, 2018; hult & hornberger, 2016; ramos pellicia, 2020). english teacher preparation the organic law of intercultural education law focused on preparing teachers to teach english as a subject. the constitutional mandate, decree 0041-014, (ministerio de educación, 2014) required english instruction from the 8th (12-13 years old) through the 12th grade (17-18 years old) levels in the country’s public schools. thus, teachers’ english language proficiency was evaluated, using standardized international tests approved by the ministry of education. the ministry of education selects and assigns english teachers to schools based on tests that require a minimum 70% of points (ministerio de educación, n.d.). the assessment aligns to the acuerdo ministerial nro. mineduc-me-2017-00065-a; which forecasted an announcement calling for the evaluation of all english teachers who desired to prove eligibility for efl teaching vacancies (ministerio de educación, 2017). before the reform, teachers were trained in schools identified as normales, which were training colleges for teachers of all levels and specialties. future teachers studies topics such as pedagogy, psychology, and statistics. by the third year of the trainees’ education, a specialization such as the teaching of english as a foreign language (efl) could be selected. this added two years of training and study of subjects such as english history, english literature, and english grammar (hoboud, 2009). in 1998, a national mandate (decreto ejecutivo, 203) created the dirección nacional de educacion indígena intercultural bilingue (dineib) to meet the needs of indigenous groups (krainer, 1999). the ministry of education implemented the system of intercultural bilingual education (modelo del sistema de educación intercultural bilingüe) (moseib) model to account for cultural and linguistic diversity as implemented through the acuerdo ministerial n. 112 (krainer, 1999). ximena d. burgin and mayra daniel 108 no. 26 at the end of 2006, the ministry of education initiated conversations about education in the public discourse which led to the development of the plan decenal (pd) 2006-2015 [ten-year education plan] and the renewal of the pd for 2016-2025 as the plan to improve the educational system (franco pombo, 2015; ministry of education, 2006; ministerio de educación, 2018), and methods for teaching english (fortalecimiento del ingles, n.d.). during the process of the education reform, the national evaluation and accreditation council (consejo nacional de evaluación y acreditación) was transformed to not only assess the work of the university professors in preparing future teachers, but also to assess the qualifications of the academic faculty to guarantee the outcome of high-quality efl educators. at this time, the evaluation, accreditation and quality assurance in higher education council (consejo de evaluación, acreditación y aseguramiento de la calidad de educación superior) was put in place (kuhlman & serrano, 2017). the english standards were changed and enacted during 2012-2013 to ensure quality instruction for students to meet desired english proficiency levels (diaz maggioli, 2017). however, the number of english teachers in 2014 that met a proficiency level for b2 (upper intermediate), totalled 4,500 (2%), a number that was not sufficient to meet the needs of the education system (kuhlman & serrano, 2017). to address the need to better prepare teachers to teach english, educators from the u.s. and ecuador collaborated to develop a standards-based model for ecuador’s sociocultural context (serrano et al., 2015). ecuador’s government signed agreements with the alliance of progress from the u.s. and the british council. five universities from the u.s., new mexico state, kansas state, the university of kentucky, valparaiso university and the university of mississippi provided assistantships for practicing teachers and select future teachers to study english (ambrecht, 2014). the professional development program, teach english 2014, aimed to raise ecuadorian teachers’ english proficiency and teach them constructivist elt methods. government grants helped finance continued studies, providing teachers opportunities to study in the u.s. one academic year, and have numerous opportunities to interact with native english speakers and educators (ministerio de educación, 2013). however, insufficient provisions were made to support study abroad programs for adequate numbers of future teachers. brief history of methods used for elt in ecuador dating back to the 1990s, ecuador’s ministry of education identified english as the world’s lingua franca for the economic development of the population and country (diaz maggioli, 2017; kuhlman & serrano, 2017). the focus of elt was communication and meaning making. in ecuador, the curriculum was purported to focus on content and language integrated learning (clil). achieving the objectives of clil was problematic given teachers’ level of english proficiency (el telégrafo, 2014). future efl teachers’ readiness to teach in ecuador: a qualitative study 109 no. 26 the challenge that remained was how to prepare teachers to consider the roles of clil and communicative language teaching (clt), and how both may be effective within the ecuadorian context (santín et al., 2018). the ministry of education of ecuador (ministerio del ecuador, 2016) identified the major goals of elt are to help learners understand other cultures, be able to participate in global exchanges that use english, plus foster an appreciation for learning languages these goals reflect clt and not clil. a problem to effective elt noted by this article’s authors, is that educational revisions for teaching english in ecuador, and the rationale for selecting methods, seem to be based on models from the united states (canale & swain, 1980; cummins, 1979; krashen, 1981; rosa & burdick, 2017). these researchers ask if recommendations from the council of europe (2003), which have evolved from clt and clil, and support models of sla that validate all languages of plurilingual societies, have been considered for ecuador’s sociocultural context. study methodology a qualitative methodology was implemented to conduct an in-depth examination of future teachers’ perceptions related to their readiness to teach in ecuador’s diverse context. participants were completing the second term of a one-year required internship placement in their teacher training program. before participation in this study, and to comply with ethical standards of the institutional review board involving and to protect the rights, welfare and wellbeing of human subjects, participants signed informed consent forms prior to participation in this study and before data were gathered. the inquiry approach used focus group as the vehicle to guide the conversations, and document future teachers’ beliefs about their preparation to begin a successful teaching career as efl educators (cresswell, 2012). a constant comparison analysis technique was used to determine the emergent themes. the constant comparison process was chosen because it allows for coding of the data based on meaningful parts of the text and comparison of the codes to form themes (glaser & strauss, 1967; leech & onwuegbuzie, 2007; miles et al., 2014). analysis of emergent and recurrent themes in the data served to determine participants’ perceptions of their ability to design and deliver culturally responsive english instruction. salient themes evidenced in the focus groups data were analyzed to determine barriers to learning and grouped under perceptions and practices. for example, keeping in mind understandings of the funds of knowledge, a participant indicated “i need to know the students’ environment and culture” this statement was categorized under teacher trainee’s perceptions and practices. another participant stated “i may not be familiar with the student’s living context”, this statement was categorized under barriers to learning efficacy. ximena d. burgin and mayra daniel 110 no. 26 questions guiding this study were: sq 1: what teaching practices do ecuador’s future efl teachers state they feel qualified to implement? sq 2: what barriers do teacher candidates perceive will challenge them in their careers as efl educators? participants and setting future teachers (candidates) who voluntarily participated in this study (n=28) were in their last semester of their teacher preparation program to become efl teachers. candidates were enrolled in the second half of a two-semester internship at borges university (a pseudonym), a private institution located in an urban area of ecuador. prior to the beginning of internships, the candidates prepared lesson plans which were approved by the mentoring teacher of the classroom where they were placed. during the internships, the candidates were formatively evaluated by their mentors (pedagogía de los idiomas nacionales y extranjeros: utn accreditada, 2018). focus groups four focus groups consisting of six to nine participants per group were conducted with future teachers ranging in age from 21 to 25 years of age. focus groups were used to gather the data because the time assigned to the researchers to collect the data did not allow for one-to-one interviews. participants were asked the following questions: q1: what have you learned about teaching in diverse contexts in your teacher preparation program? q2: what challenges do you think you might encounter as you begin your career as an english teacher? q3: what pedagogies will you implement in your teaching? data analyses: focus groups with future teachers across focus groups, future teachers (candidates) identified educational practices that they believe need to be applied to teach effectively and to overcome existing barriers to learning efficacy. they were not hesitant to mention what they needed to learn and stated what had not been covered adequately in their university program. recurrent themes were cross-referenced with what the professional literature recommends is future efl teachers’ readiness to teach in ecuador: a qualitative study 111 no. 26 necessary to teach effectively in diverse contexts (bennett, 2019; farrell & jacobs, 2020; gonzález et al., 2005; hawkins & norton, 2009; hult & hornberger, 2016; kincheloe, 2008; vygotsky, 1986; freire, 1985; ruiz, 1984). findings this study sought to examine candidates’ beliefs at the end of their formal preparation to become efl teachers. focus group information was used to identify salient themes which provided evidence of teacher trainees’ knowledge and readiness for the profession. participants acknowledged the importance of utilizing different strategies to make learning engaging and voiced their perception that efl educators need to use didactic materials that reflect topics that are familiar to the students. a recurrent theme which yielded many comments was how to effectively assess and evaluate teaching efficacy such as “assessing school student’s understanding and comprehension”, “assessing knowledge through classroom activities”, “written assessments”, “use of worksheets, practical exercises, and conversational tests”. while positive aspects of practice were mentioned by the candidates, themes such as students’ academic challenges (“school students do not have the necessary materials”), parent involvement (“parents do not support students learning a new language”), levels of formal instruction about multiculturalism (“we have not learned about multiculturalism concepts”) and the use of differentiated strategies in teaching (“we develop our own materials and we don’t have time to create several activities”), were not as strongly articulated in terms of their replicability across efl classes. thus, in analysis of this study’s findings, the latter salient themes were interpreted as barriers to teaching efficacy. regarding sq1, what teaching practices and educational philosophies do ecuador’s future efl teachers share being prepared to implement?, participants mentioned affective aspects of learning such as learners’ funds of knowledge and utilizing family and community background in relation to the subject manner. comments included “the teacher needs to know the cultural context of the student”, “classrooms in rural areas do not have adequate space to teach”, “parents do not provide the needed materials”, “my institution did not provide a curriculum that addressed multiculturalism”, “well-prepared teachers are needed in the rural areas due to the student’s needs”, “communities are not supportive of teaching english”, and “teachers should include the students’ cultural background into the lesson plans”. teacher candidates acknowledged the importance of implementing differentiated instruction based on students’ affective and academic needs as impacted by culture, and the value of examining data from formative and summative assessments. candidates commented that in their internships they were using “different evaluation techniques”, as other classmates nodded in agreement. the information suggests that candidates see teaching as a set of practices where the cultural background of the students assists ximena d. burgin and mayra daniel 112 no. 26 the teacher to present the content material in ways that better meet the needs of the students. concerning sq2, what barriers do teacher candidates perceive will challenge them in their careers as efl educators?, teacher candidates pointed out barriers they might encounter such as limited flexibility for adjusting the curriculum to students’ backgrounds; their preparation to incorporate multicultural components in instructional strategies; and their desire to have innovative materials to teach culturally and linguistically diverse groups of students. participants expressed “i adjust instruction based on my assessment of all the pupils”, “i don’t have a systematic approach to adjust instruction”, “teachers should learn about other cultures”, and “we have not learned about multicultural concepts or strategies”. since teacher candidates were completing classroom internships prior to graduation, comments about barriers were assumed to express perceptions formed during their internship. discussion of findings analysis of the findings generated four salient themes related to the candidates’ perceptions about their qualification and readiness as future efl educators. the first theme related to instructional strategies to be used in the classroom. the second theme revealed different approaches to engage students from diverse cultural backgrounds. the third theme presented candidates’ perceptions about their preparation to support diverse students. the fourth theme uncovered candidates’ interactions with parents. instructional strategies according to frederick et al., (2015), educators often fail to address the affective needs that composed students’ self-identity, self-efficacy, and self-concept. the participants recognized the need for teachers to use different instructional strategies and to tailor content and educational materials to students’ learning styles and academic and affective needs (gardner, 2011). participants, in the focus groups shared that they had ideas for engaging the learners but lacked sufficient time during the internship to differentiate instruction and implement their ideas. several participants mentioned that strategies such as songs, drawings, and readings should reflect context familiar to the students (gonzález et al., 2005). one participant suggested using “songs to reinforce the english vocabulary that students have learned in the efl class” and also “materials that include traditions that are familiar to the learners.” other strategies mentioned in the focus groups were to have learners practice speaking in english, work in dyads, focus on tasks to identify key words in reading materials and/or visualize the meaning of words through drawings as well as future efl teachers’ readiness to teach in ecuador: a qualitative study 113 no. 26 front loading new vocabulary prior to lessons and asking students to write sentences. candidates indicated pairing students or forming small groups was a strategy that worked for them in their internship experience. they shared that “forming groups composed of an equal number of students with a high level of knowledge and students who were struggling “helped the students who were behind in content knowledge created…competition in the group between/among the children.” they believed this type of exercise “challenged the students within the group to discover new concepts.” although the candidates explained strategies to support learning at different levels of knowledge and understanding (chamot & o’malley, 1994), they emphasized the limited time they had to plan their lessons and the need to challenge students to compete with each other. they stated, “once i graduate and am teaching in my own classroom, i will make sure that all my students reach desired academic levels” and “i will try to do what i can to challenge all students”. the candidates also noted that differentiated strategies were infrequently utilized by their mentor-teachers in their internships, and that this may have been due to the large number of students in each classroom. comments suggest that the candidates were asked to use instructional strategies recommended by their teacher. mentors and their choices were limited to those strategies. the participants noted that as they implemented strategies, it was important to assess the students’ progress. candidates explained the process as “one day i teach vocabulary related to clothing and the next day vocabulary about food; then i assess all the students.” they indicated that assessment is dependent on the skill being taught. for instance, “if vocabulary was being evaluated, worksheets would be employed. if speaking skills were assessed, then conversations between students would be used.” one participant specified that continuous assessment at the end of each class is helpful; “i ask simple questions about the students’ day to assess the learning of the new vocabulary, and the integration of new words with previous knowledge.” these steps helped the teacher candidates re-assess the pedagogical strategies that were implemented, proceed with changes to the lesson plan, and know when there was a need to reinforce concepts. a few participants indicated that “it is important to perform a needs assessment of the students’ level of knowledge prior to selecting instructional strategies (e.g., visual prompts, aural inputs) to plan lessons accordingly”. approaches to engage students the candidates expressed that utilizing familiar themes while teaching helps the students acquire new knowledge and recall information (ministerio de educación, 2014). they recognized that “not all teachers are prepared to teach in rural area where academic needs are greater and there are fewer resources.” participants indicated that “teachers need to be better prepared to teach in the rural areas so they will select material that makes sense to the students.” they seemed concerned that not all teachers ximena d. burgin and mayra daniel 114 no. 26 used materials that fit the school and community context. for instance, one teacher candidate noted that materials for teaching english did not relate to the students’ lives. although the participants stressed that reading assignments became cumbersome for students when they could not use previous knowledge or experiences to relate to the topic or the vocabulary in the assigned reading passage written in english, scaffolding instruction was only vaguely addressed or identified by the participants (vygotsky, 1986). participants admitted following the curriculum required by their mentor and university supervisor without considering the needs of the students in their internships. they were unanimous in their agreement that the ecuadorian secretary of education determines the school curriculum (van damme et al., 2013) and shared that the purpose of a unified curriculum is to provide the same education to all students across the country (ministerio de educación, 2014). this provided equity “if a student transfers from one public school to another, the transition is seamless”. although the participants acknowledged the importance of being able to effortlessly transition from one school to another, they indicated that “teachers need to be trained in the country’s curricular expectations [and] well-prepared to teach in rural areas if they are to appropriately support the students because transitions are not simple.” several teacher candidates mentioned that lack of time to plan lessons was a challenge. a comment that elicited agreement was “i noticed that i was not reaching some of my students; however, i did not have the time to develop materials to help those students.” their comments provide evidence that the candidates had many questions about planning and delivering instruction that were not answered during their formal training nor during their internships. students with multicultural background concerning students from multicultural backgrounds, the participants provided comments demonstrating the enacted curriculum did not focus on preparing them to teach multicultural students (bucklewe & fishman, 2011). comments such as “i was not taught [during my formal preparation before the internship] about multiculturalism; however, in my future classroom i know that i will encounter cultural diversity” demonstrated candidates concerns. it appears that explicit components of ecuador’s diversity are recognized by the government (constitución política del ecuador, 1998) but not acknowledged to be a factor in schooling achievement (hawkins & norton, 2009). the candidates mentioned that they know there are different ethnic groups present in ecuador and that “interactions with other cultures occurs at formal and informal levels.” these interactions are reflected in the classroom as students come together in the classroom to learn; thus, it is important to consider how to support future efl teachers’ readiness to teach in ecuador: a qualitative study 115 no. 26 a diverse school population’s interactions and learning activities. a couple of participants acknowledged that “interpersonal interactions among students exposed them to other cultures and they learn from each other.” comments acknowledge the diversity in school populations and in the country’s population, but there was little evidence of this in the curriculum (banks, 2014; kincheloe, 2008). the diversity in the classroom visible to the candidates reflected a consensus that “teachers should make efforts to know their students” so that they are able to “select the best resources.” the teacher candidates overwhelmingly agreed on the need to make learning engaging. for instance, several participants indicated that the teacher should “find activities that students like and that make learning enjoyable.” in addition, there was a voiced concern that teachers “should be respectful so that students will trust the teacher.” the participants’ intense focus on the quality of the classroom environment documented their awareness of the need to address and validate students’ cultural capital (freire, 1985) and make learning participatory. they mentioned they had not delved deeply into their students’ backgrounds (hult & hornberger, 2016; ramos pellicia, 2020) and had made the assumption that languages other than spanish would neither interfere nor contribute to the study of english. parent involvement parental involvement and the teacher’s role in engaging families was not a priority in the candidates’ conversations. participants commented that this topic did not receive much attention in the teacher preparation program (nieto, 2018). moreover, the teacher’s role in engaging families was not a priority in the candidates’ conversations, as there was an almost complete absence of discussion about parents and other members of the community contributing to the school in ways other than through financial support (bucklewe & fishman, 2011). however, four participants explained the importance of parent involvement to address classroom behavioral issues that affect the child’s academic achievement. one participant indicated “i observed that parent involvement would have been beneficial in disciplinary challenges at the high school level”; another participant supported the statement by stating, “i believe that parent involvement would have been a good avenue to solve disciplinary issues.” parent involvement was perceived as a factor that participants did not have control over but was needed to support students’ academic success. one participant stated, “parents do not support students learning another language.” the candidates clearly stated the importance of parent participation in children’s schooling to support the learning needs of diverse students. ximena d. burgin and mayra daniel 116 no. 26 conclusion the results of the study indicate that aspiring teachers are aware of the diverse instructional practices required for effective lesson planning, and they are committed to addressing both the academic and emotional needs of learners (banks, 2014; bucklewe & fishman, 2011; nieto 2018). participants shared their perspectives on pedagogical practices that could be implemented in classrooms, including the importance of considering students’ existing knowledge when developing teaching materials (author, 2017, 2016; hawkins and norton 2009; kincheloe 2008). the significance of actively engaging students emerged as a recurring theme, but other areas such as multiculturalism and parental involvement appear to require more focused attention in ecuador’s teacher training programs (ecuador immediato, 2016; cevallos-estarellas & bromwell, 2015). to enhance their preparedness for the classroom, teacher candidates would benefit from gaining a deeper understanding of how to design and implement a systematic approach to lesson planning (bucklewe & fishman, 2011; gonzález et al., 2005). engaging in reflective processes with fellow teachers in dyads or small groups could help improve their ability to identify effective instructional strategies specifically suited to (efl) classrooms in ecuador (bennett, 2019; farrell & jacobs, 2020; giroux & silva, 2010). this reflective approach would provide a research-based foundation for efl instruction (serrano et al., 2015). the absence of evidence demonstrating a system-wide approach to planning efl classroom instruction is concerning because it supports participants’ belief that they are not adequately prepared to design lessons for ecuador’s diverse learners (van damme et al. 2013). it is crucial for future teachers to have the self-confidence to take risks, evaluate their teaching methods, and make adjustments based on selfreflection. the educational system in ecuador should aim to instil in educators a sense of confidence in their acquired knowledge so that they are empowered to experiment and adapt their instruction accordingly (bucklewe & fishman, 2011; farrell & jacobs, 2020; gonzález et al., 2005). research limitations data gathered in this study cannot be generalized beyond the 28 teacher candidates who volunteered to participate in this research. in order to establish a complete picture of teacher preparation in ecuador and answer the study questions for the entire country, it will be necessary to conduct similar research in other institutions and also with teacher candidates’ representative of the nation’s public tertiary institutions. understanding the tensions within the classroom about pedagogical theories, instructional strategies, and assessment techniques about multicultural education and future efl teachers’ readiness to teach in ecuador: a qualitative study 117 no. 26 candidates’ formal instruction would allow higher education institutions to adjust their teacher preparation programs. implications for the future teachers’ identities as educators (fitts et al., 2008) require that they have opportunities to empower themselves and their students. empowerment could be channelled through self-reflection so teachers would internalize their teaching philosophies and how these are evidenced in their practice in the day-to-day classroom activities. participants did not share a system-wide approach to efl guided by questioning, collaboration, exploration, and experimentation with curricular models. future research might encourage educators to explore ways that programs of teacher preparation and professional development models might better evaluate local contexts and address the multilingual/multicultural nature of ecuadorian learners. another thread of future research relates to english educators’ teaching loads after the academic reforms. although the ministry of education provides lesson plans, english teachers are teaching more grade levels and it is not clear how time for preparation of educational materials is allocated at local levels. ximena d. burgin and mayra daniel 118 no. 26 references ambrecht, j. 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(2015). transformation: a model for restructuring the preparation of english teachers in ecuador. gist education and learning research journal, 11(2), 103-117. https://doi. org/10.26817/16925777.289 tesol/ncate teacher standards committee. (2009). standards for the recognition of initial tesol programs in p-12 esl teacher education (2010). teachers of english for speakers of other languages. www.tesol.orghttp://www.tesol.org van damme, w., aguerrondo, i., burgos, c. & campos, m. r. (2013). a story of change: how ecuador seeks to sustain its development agenda through large scale educational reform. paper presented at ukfiet international conference on education and development-education and development post 2015: reflecting, reviewing, re-visioning oxford, england, september 10-12, 2013. https://www.vvob.be/files/20130830_ paper-a_story_of_change-how_ecuador_seeks_to_sustain_its_development_ agenda_through_large_scale_education_reform.pdf. vygotsky, l. s. (1986). thought and language. cambridge, mit press. authors: ximena d. burgin, ed.d., currently holds the position of assistant professor at northern illinois university’s department of educational technology, research, and assessment. with extensive experience in evaluation work for various federal, state, and non-profit organizations. dr. burgin’s research is dedicated to the exploration of culturally responsive teaching within the classroom, examining how in-service and pre-service teachers leverage cultural characteristics and the diverse backgrounds of their students as effective teaching tools. her research also delves into the multifaceted factors influencing teachers’ instructional practices. orcid id: http://orcid.org/0000-0002-3494-569x 122 no. 26 future efl teachers’ readiness to teach in ecuador: a qualitative study mayra c. daniel is professor emerita at northern illinois university. a native of caibarién, cuba, she emigrated to the united states to escape castro’s communism in 1961. her research interests focus on preparing teachers who valorize and acknowledge the funds of knowledge and the contributions of culturally and linguistically diverse learners to the world’s schoolhouse and nations. orcid id: http://orcid.org/0000 0003 2702 0071 portada 26.pdf (p.1) gist 26 januaryjune 2023.pdf (p.2-189) the contribution of information gap activities to support honduran ninth-grade students’ speaking fluency: action research1 la contribución de las actividades con vacío de información para apoyar la fluidez del habla de los estudiantes hondureños de noveno grado. mary elizabeth caballero guillén universidad pedagógica nacional francisco morazán, honduras cecilia cisterna zenteno2 universidad de concepción, chile 1 received: may 29th, 2023 / accepted: october 12th, 2023 2 maryelizacaballero18@gmail.com, cecisterna@udec.cl gist education and learning research journal. issn 1692-5777. no. 26 (january june, 2023). pp. 81-102. 82 no. 26 abstract this article presents the process and results of an action research project which explored the contribution of information gap activities to support a group honduran ninth-graders’ speaking fluency. their speaking fluency was assessed in terms of speech rate, breakdowns or pauses, and repairs. this study adopted a mixed method approach: quantitative and qualitative. the sample chosen was a purposive sample made up of a group of seven ninth graders who had been learning english in rural context in a public high school in comayagua for two years, all aged between 14 and 15 years old, with a basic level of english. the information gap technique was implemented during seven sessions following the regular topics scheduled for the school term. data were collected by applying a pre-test and a post-test to assess students’fluency, and results were assessed with an analytic rubric; and their perceptions were assessed by a focus group. the pre and post-test results showed an improvement in participants’ speaking fluency, and these results were in agreement with their positive perceptions. moreover, participants expressed that information gap activities had impacted positively their motivation and their awareness of mistakes. in conclusion, information gap activities helped learners improve their speaking fluency and might support english teachers in honduran rural public contexts not to rely upon traditional textbook use and make their classes more motivating and communicative. keywords: breakdowns, information gap activities, repairs, speaking fluency, speech rate, teaching speaking. resumen este artículo corresponde a una investigación-acción que exploró la contribución de las actividades de vacío de información para apoyar la fluidez del habla en un grupo de estudiantes hondureños de noveno grado. la fluidez del habla de los participantes se evaluó en términos de la velocidad, las interrupciones o pausas y reparaciones. este estudio adoptó un enfoque metodológico mixto: cuantitativo y cualitativo. la muestra elegida fue un muestreo intencional o por juicio, formado por un grupo de siete estudiantes de noveno grado que llevan dos años aprendiendo inglés, todos en edades comprendidas entre los 14 y 15 años, con un nivel de inglés básico. estos estudiantes provienen de una escuela secundaria pública rural en el municipio de comayagua, honduras. la técnica de las actividades con vacío de información se implementó durante siete sesiones abordando los temas regulares programados para el período académico. los datos fueron recolectados mediante la aplicación de un pre-test y un post-test para evaluar la fluidez, y los resultados fueron evaluados con una rúbrica analítica; y para recoger las percepciones de los participantes se realizó un grupo focal. los resultados del pre y post-test mostraron una mejora en la fluidez de habla de los estudiantes, y estos resultados mostraron correspondencia con sus percepciones positivas. además, los participantes manifestaron que estas actividades impactaron positivamente en su motivación y en su toma de conciencia de los errores. en conclusión, las actividades de vacío de información ayudaron a los estudiantes a mejorar su fluidez al hablar, y este hallazgo permite ayudar a los maestros hondureños de inglés en contextos públicos rurales a no depender exclusivamente de los textos de estudio y a diseñar clases más comunicativas y motivadoras. palabras claves: pausas, actividades de vacío de información, reparos, fluidez oral, velocidad de discurso, enseñanza del habla. information gap activities and honduran ninth-grade speaking fluency: action research 83 no. 26 resumo esta pesquisa autoetnográfica colaborativa explora a trajetória de construção da identidade de um grupo de três pesquisadores professores de inglês, assim como as repercussões que esses processos tiveram na implementação de uma percepção crítica e decolonial em relação ao campo de ensino de línguas (elt). utilizando uma abordagem qualitativa, os professores de inglês envolvidos nesta autoetnografia colaborativa compartilharam suas experiências, crenças e influências para examinar coletivamente como esses elementos influenciaram suas identidades profissionais em evolução e sua compreensão crítica atual do campo. em geral, o estudo revela que a autoetnografia colaborativa proporciona uma plataforma única para examinar a trajetória de identidade de indivíduos e estabelecer uma conexão entre o passado e o presente. os resultados também destacam a interação entre experiências individuais, contextos socioculturais e práticas pedagógicas, promovendo uma compreensão mais profunda do desenvolvimento da identidade de pesquisador-professor de inglês. ao enfatizar a importância da exploração coletiva, este estudo defende a incorporação mais ativa da autoetnografia colaborativa como uma ferramenta valiosa para o desenvolvimento profissional no ensino de inglês e pesquisa em geral, e na colômbia em particular. palavras-chave: falhas, atividades de lacuna de informação, reparos, fluência na fala, taxa de fala, ensino da fala. mary elizabeth caballero guillén and cecilia cisterna zentenos 84 no. 26 introduction the national curriculum design for primary education in honduras (2003) has established some competencies that honduran students are expected to achieve in english language learning at the end of their primary education (ninth grade) and it is stated that students should be able to show confidence and a favorable attitude towards oral communication, use english orally to meet their communication needs, for recreation, solving problems and for knowing themselves. they should be able to produce simple oral dialogic messages related to people and events in the immediate school environment. (secretaría de estado en el despacho de educación de honduras, 2003, pp.61-62). to achieve these goals, it is suggested the use of the task-based approach in class, which “emphasizes the processes of interaction in the classroom as an element for the collective construction of meaning and the linguistic system”. (secretaría de estado en el despacho de educación de honduras, 2003, p.61) even though the secretary of education of honduras [seh] has set clear standards, the reality remains the same: “in many public schools, lack of resources and the indifference of educational authorities have left the teaching of english behind” (pagoada, 2014, p.2) according to the same author, one of the reasons for this problematic situation is the lack of suitable resources. in honduras, teachers just have the textbooks to teach english and unfortunately these are not very appropriate as they are strongly grammar-focused and in the lessons there are few opportunities for students to develop speaking activities or to promote their fluency. students spend most of the time memorizing grammar rules. therefore, teachers need to look for other resources to achieve the standards expected at the end of each grade. as a result, english speaking fluency in the classroom is neglected as teachers do not have enough time to develop interactive speaking activities for the learners to use all the vocabulary and grammar they know; that is why this is a crucial language skill that requires improvement. the teacher-researcher decided to address the criteria of speaking fluency after observing in her classroom that most of the students had problems when speaking in class, they barely said some short sentences, and they were not used to taking part in speaking activities during english classes. the main aim of this action research was to explore how the use of information gap activities in the english lessons could support these ninth graders’ speaking fluency. particularly, the intervention developed had as the main focus to assess participants’ fluency in terms of speech rate, breakdowns, and repairs, and also to analyze their perceptions about the effectiveness of these activities. taking into account that there is not much data related to the implementation of new and interactive strategies in the teaching of english in a public rural education context, this action research provides valuable and important insights in this field. information gap activities and honduran ninth-grade speaking fluency: action research 85 no. 26 general objective to explore honduran ninth-grade students’ perceptions about their speaking fluency improvement in english through the use of information gap activities. specific objectives • to assess the contribution of information gap activities to support students’ speaking fluency in terms of speech rate, breakdowns and repairs. • to analyze students’ perception regarding the use of information gap activities to support their speaking fluency in terms of speech rate, breakdowns and repairs. literature review speaking skill development there are different definitions about the speaking skill considering its several characteristics. richards (2008) states that “speaking refers to the circumstances where the point is on what it is said or done. the message is the central focus alongside the interaction” (p.24). jondeya (2011, p.15) states that “speaking is a skill of comprehending, pronouncing, and being fluent and accurate in using grammar and vocabulary”. according to nunan (2003) “speaking is a productive aural/ oral skill, and it consists of producing systematic verbal utterances to convey meaning” (p.48). based on all these definitions, it can be said that speaking is a complex productive skill that includes elements like conveying the message effectively by using vocabulary and grammar to transmit this message. one essential aspect of speaking is the social interaction it generates because when people speak, they are not only producing a set of words, but they are also sharing knowledge and in order to that they need to use many cognitive and social skills. as putri (2014) remarks, “it is not merely speaking without any organization or ideas. it needs confidence and competence to build a good communication with others” (p.7). undoubtedly, speaking includes a significant number of aspects that might make it one of the most challenging skills when learning or teaching a language but at the same time one of the most essential. mary elizabeth caballero guillén and cecilia cisterna zentenos 86 no. 26 the challenge of developing the speaking skill in the efl classroom teaching speaking should be the core of each efl /esl course in all educational institutions. keeping this aim in mind, teachers should focus on developing more communicative activities in their lessons and give students more opportunities to use the language naturally and interactively to achieve a higher level of proficiency. in different contexts, english teachers feel this pressure to help students become fluent or proficient when speaking the language, so they constantly search for innovative teaching methodologies. wellinformed teachers equip students with the language they need to complete the different speaking tasks, hence students can achieve the expected outcomes. nevertheless, the responsibility not only relies on teachers, students should also take the speaking practice opportunities seriously because speaking in a foreign language is a very difficult task, learners should not only acquire the essential grammatical rules or vocabulary in english, but they should also practice the language through communication in their social environment. (namaziandost et. al, 2019) developing learners’ speaking fluency the speaking skill has different elements; some authors call them macro skills while other call them micro-skills. harmer (2007) names them categories. he explains that “there are two speaking categories: accuracy, involving the correct use of vocabulary, grammar, pronunciation; and fluency, considered to be ‘the ability to keep going when speaking spontaneously” (p.112). for the purpose of this study, the second category will be considered: participants’ fluency. many learners consider themselves fluent in a language when they feel comfortable and confident when communicating or when they can take part in a conversation easily, but fluency goes beyond that. when researchers study fluency, they use two fairly simple measurements; one is the rate of speech, how many syllables you produce over a given time, the second is the length of utterances, how many words you can produce in a continued string of speech without hesitation or pauses. (jones, 2020, p.3) then, it can be said that fluency includes different dimensions, the quantitative dimension such as the number of syllables or length of utterances over a given time, and the qualitative dimension: how confident or comfortable a speaker is when using the language in a conversation in a daily life context. tavakoli (2020) describes two kinds of fluency: utterance fluency and perceived fluency. “utterance fluency relates to the measurable aspects of fluency; and perceived fluency represents the inferences listeners make about speakers’ cognitive fluency based on their perceptions of the speech that they hear.”(tavakoli, 2020 p.170) information gap activities and honduran ninth-grade speaking fluency: action research 87 no. 26 from the two areas described above, this action research study focused on utterance fluency because it encloses measurable aspects like the following: • speech rate: the number of words per minute for a speech sample. • fluency breakdown: the average length of pauses at the end of as units. • repair: the number of strings in a speech sample that are repeated with some modifications to syntax, morphology, or word order, among others. (skehan, 2009) the role of information gap activities to promote speaking fluency to improve students’ speaking fluency, one communicative activity that has gained fame because of its several advantages is the use of information gap activities. larseenfreeman (2003, p.65) states that “an information-gap task is a technique in which learners are missing the needed information to complete a task or solve a problem, and they have to communicate with their classmates to fill in the gaps”. these kinds of activities are meaningful because they emulate what really happens in real life communication every day. “to complete the task, students must reduce or eliminate the information gap; the language is a tool, not an end in itself.” (decker, 2012, p.27) it can be remarked that information gap activities give students the chance to share information while they are involved in reaching the same purpose. as harris (1990) states, information gap is the best technique for second language learners; it can provide learners with a good opportunity to use the sentences they learn, it also allows learners to talk, exchange information, and interact over time, and the tasks will make the lesson more interesting and motivate the learner to speak more than their teacher. previous studies about information gap activities as a collaborative learning strategy previous studies have shown that these activities allow students to talk and interact in a meaningful way. for instance, in recent research conducted by rini (2017) after using information gap activities with a group of seventh-grade students, she concluded the participants had improved their speaking fluency better than those who were not exposed to information gap activities. in addition, ortiz (2019) stated that after using information gap activities with a group of 23 eighth-graders students, information gap activities positively impacted students’ oral fluency, allowing them to interact and use the language to communicate. likewise, linaanti (2017) conducted action research with 28 eighth graders who used information gap activities for almost a month; the findings of the research showed an improvement in participant’s oral fluency. mary elizabeth caballero guillén and cecilia cisterna zentenos 88 no. 26 method type of study the present study corresponds to action research as it aims to act towards a situation that needed to be improved and at the same time produced new information. as burns (2015) states: “action research (ar) is a research approach that is grounded in practical action (the action component) while at the same time focused on generating theory (the research component). these two components work in combination” (p.1). in the present action research, the teacher-researcher noticed in her classes that her group of nine-year old students were not fluent in the use of the english language at the time of speaking. they hardly produced complete and coherent messages. to solve this problem, an intervention plan was designed, which involved the use of information gap activities in the english lessons to increase students’ engagement, their motivation and their talking time in real communication. a mixed method approach was adopted. a quantitative approach was used to compare the participants’ improvement in their language fluency through a pre-test and a post-test applied before and after the intervention; and a qualitative approach to analyze their perceptions about the experience. participants the sampling for this study corresponds to a purposive sampling. “in this type of sampling, according to the purpose of the study, the members for a sample are selected. it is also called deliberate sampling” (bhardwaj, 2019, p.161). the sample was made up of a group of seven ninth graders who had been learning english for two years with a grammar-focused methodology, with no time for developing interactive speaking activities. the participant’s ages ranged between 14 and 15 years old with a very basic level of english (they do not meet the standards established by the national curriculum design for primary education of honduras for ninth grade). these students attend a public high school in a vulnerable context in lamani, a town located in the central region of honduras. in this context, the public education system does not give much importance to english teaching. therefore, these students have been learning english for two years, two chronological hours a week. at the time the intervention was conducted, they were in their third year of english language learning, but they struggled to produce short sentences, and they were not used to developing speaking activities in class. procedure this study started as a piloting experience, in which the researcher had the opportunity to use the pre-test and measure how much language the participants information gap activities and honduran ninth-grade speaking fluency: action research 89 no. 26 could produce in the activities planned and how much time they took to finish the task. the pre and post-test consisted of information gap activities designed with the content participants were learning in these months, such as asking and giving personal information, and expressing likes and dislikes. after the piloting, the researcher introduced the strategy by explaining key concepts related to the concept of fluency, such as fluency itself, speech rate, breakdowns, repairs, and the guidelines to use information gap activities. when the participants were familiarized with these critical concepts, the researcher applied the pre-test to assess their initial level of fluency. after this, seven sessions using information gap activities following the regular ninth-grade topics were conducted. then, the researcher applied the post-test to measure the participants’ level of fluency after the intervention and their perceptions about the experience. data analysis tools to analyze the quantitative data collected from the pre and post-test, the researcher used an analytic rubric that included three fluency aspects: speech rate, pauses, and repairs; descriptive statistics and measures of central tendency, particularly, the mean score, mean score difference, and standard deviation of the scores the participants got in the pre and post-test. the data obtained from the participants’ perceptions through the focus group was videorecorded, and transcribed. the researcher coded the data identifying different categories following the thematic analysis stages suggested by braun and clark (2006): familiarization, generating initial codes, searching for themes, reviewing and defining, and naming. findings the data gathered in this research are presented according to each specific objective defined for this action research. so1: to assess the use of information gap activities to support the student’s speaking fluency in terms of speech rate, breakdowns, and repairs to assess the usefulness of the information gap activities to improve learners’ speaking fluency in terms of their speech rate, breakdowns or pauses, and repairs, the participants’ mean scores, mean differences, and standard deviation were calculated in both the pre and the post-test. the maximum score in the analytic rubric used to evaluate students’ fluency was 12 points. the participants’ scores are shown in table 1. mary elizabeth caballero guillén and cecilia cisterna zentenos 90 no. 26 table 1. participants’ scores, in the pre and post-test. fluency level participants pre-test post-test score percentage of achievement score percentage of achievement student 1 4 33% 8 67% student 2 10 83% 12 100% student 3 10 83% 12 100% student 4 8 67% 9 75% student 5 7 58% 10 83% student 6 10 83% 12 100% student 7 10 83% 12 100% mean score 8 67% 11 92% standard deviation 2.3 1.7 source: self-elaboration as shown in table 1, there was an improvement in the participants’ speaking fluency after the intervention. it can be clearly observed in the post-test final mean score, which was 11 points, representing 92% of achievement compared with 67% of achievement in the pre-test with a mean score of 8 points. it can also be noticed that in the pre-test, none of the students achieved 100% of the task, but in the post-test, 4 students (50% of the participants) got a 100% of achievement. it is also important to highlight that the lowest improvement was 8% of achievement achieved by student 4. in conclusion, all participants showed an improvement in their fluency level. regarding the standard deviation of the pre-test reached 2.3. this standard deviation is high; thus, it demonstrates a low level of reliability in the pre-test results because there was a high variation among the participants’ scores. the standard deviation of the post-test results is 1.7, which means that participants’ scores were much closer to the media score which was 11. this low standard deviation indicates the data is reliable as the results are more homogenous. the mean score and standard deviation differences between the participants’ fluency in the pre-test and the post-test are displayed in figure 1. information gap activities and honduran ninth-grade speaking fluency: action research 91 no. 26 figure 1. comparison of the mean score and standard deviation between the pre and post-test. source: self-elaboration to analyze more in-depth the participants’ improvement in their fluency level, it is necessary to look closely at each fluency aspect assessed. table 2 shows participants’ speech rate scores. table 2. pre and post-test individual scores and levels of speech rate speech rate participants pre-test post-test score level score level student 1 2 deficient 3 very good student 2 3 very good 4 excellent student 3 3 very good 4 excellent student 4 2 deficient 2 deficient student 5 1 poor 3 very good student 6 3 very good 4 excellent student 7 3 very good 4 excellent mean score 2.4 deficient 3.4 very good standard deviation 0.8 0.8 source: self-elaboration as it can be observed in table 3, most of the participants (86%) improved their level of speech rate in the post test because in the pre-test some of them were placed in mary elizabeth caballero guillén and cecilia cisterna zentenos 92 no. 26 the “poor” (14%) “deficient” (29%) and some in the “very good“(57%) level of speech rate. only student n° 4, did not show any difference in the speech rate level after the intervention being placed in the same category (deficient). it can be said that students’ speech rate improved after the intervention, as the mean score from the pre-test was 2.4 (deficient category), and the mean score from the post-test was 3.4 (very good category). it can also be observed that the results of the pre-test had a dispersion of 0.8 from the mean score of 2.4, which means that most of the students’ speech rates, before the intervention, were close to a “deficient” level. the standard deviation from the post-test was 0.8 from the mean score of 3.4. both standard deviations were very low, meaning there was not much variation in the scores, which shows a high degree of reliability in the data. table 3 shows students’ scores in terms of their level of pauses or breakdowns. table 3. pre and post-test individual scores and levels of pauses and breakdwons. pauses or breakdowns participants pre-test post-test score level score level student 1 1 poor 3 very good student 2 3 very good 4 excellent student 3 3 very good 4 excellent student 4 2 deficient 3 very good student 5 3 very good 3 very good student 6 3 very good 4 excellent student 7 4 excellent 4 excellent mean score 2.7 very good 3.6 excellent standard deviation 0.9 0.5 source: self-elaboration in table 3 it can be observed that the most common level of pauses in the pretest was found in the descriptor “very good” with a 57% of achievement, also it can be noticed that only one student got the lowest grade or poor level of pauses before the intervention. in contrast, in the post-test results, none of the students showed a poor level of pauses; they all got a very good or excellent level. the pre-test mean score was 2.7 points (very good level), and the post-test mean score was 3.6, which showed an improvement of 0.9 points. the dispersion of results of the pre-test was 0.9 points from the mean score, so the scores were not very dispersed from the mean score. furthermore, the standard deviation from the post-test results was 0.5 points. if information gap activities and honduran ninth-grade speaking fluency: action research 93 no. 26 compared to the standard deviations of both tests, there was a decrease of 0.4 during the post-test, which means that the participants’ scores became even less spread, and closer to the mean score due to the improvement made in the post-intervention test. the third fluency aspect evaluated was the level of repairs, which refered to the number of repeated sentences with modifications. table 4 displays the learners’ results in this aspect. table 4. pre and post-test individual scores and levels of repairs. repairs participants pre-test post-test score level score level student 1 1 poor 2 deficient student 2 4 excellent 4 excellent student 3 4 excellent 4 excellent student 4 4 excellent 4 excellent student 5 3 very good 4 excellent student 6 4 excellent 4 excellent student 7 3 very good 4 excellent mean score 3.3 very good 3.7 excellent standard deviation 1.1 source: self-elaboration according to table 7, most of the students demonstrated excellent or very good initial level of repairs, this means they repeated the sentences with modifications very few times in the beginning. however, in the post-test, 90% of the students got the best score or showed an excellent level of repairs. regarding the mean scores, there was a small difference of 0.4 points between the pre and post-test, thus the pre-test mean score was 3.3 and the post-test mean score was 3.7. the dispersion of the results from the pre-test scores was 1.1 points, which is the aspect with the most dispersed results from the mean value; this implies that there was not a stable or consistent performance of participants in this aspect during the pre-test, which showed a low-reliability level. furthermore, the standard deviation of the post-test results was 0.7 points. this standard deviation means the participants’ scores became less spread and closer to the mean score. the improvement in the three aspects assessed (speech rate, pauses or breakdowns, and repairs) is displayed in figure 3. mary elizabeth caballero guillén and cecilia cisterna zentenos 94 no. 26 figure 3. comparison of mean scores of each fluency aspect assessed: speech rate, breadowns and repairs. before the intervention participants showed a mean score that was placed in the deficient descriptor in speech rate, which meant that they were not able to produce any sentence with evenness and flow; in terms of breakdowns, participants showed a mean score that corresponded to a very good level, in other words, their sentences were sometimes interrupted by pauses; in the repairs aspect, participants got a mean score that corresponded to a very good level so the sentences they produced were sometimes repeated with modifications. the aspect that demonstrated a greater improvement was pauses or breakdowns, and the aspect that showed the lowest improvement was repairs. so2: to analyze the learners’ perception regarding the use of information gap activities to support their speaking fluency in terms of speech rate, breakdowns, and repairs. to analyze participants’ views about the process of using information gap activities to support their speaking fluency, a focus group was conducted in their mother tongue and the participants’ opinions and perspectives on the topic were analyzed through a thematic analysis. table 5 shows the thematic analysis of the students’ perceptions gathered during the focus group. information gap activities and honduran ninth-grade speaking fluency: action research 95 no. 26 table 5. thematic analysis of the participants’ perceptions of information gap activities. themes subthemes frequency information gap activities support in speaking fluency. 1. improvement of the fluency level. 6 2. no change in the fluency before and after the intervention 1 contribution of information gap activities to improve participant’s speech rate. 1. improvement of the speech rate. 2 contribution of information gap activities to improve participant’s level of pauses or breakdows. 1.improvement of the level of pauses 5 2. no change in the level of pauses before and after the intervention. 1 participants’ awareness of mistakes using information gap activities 1. the were no repairs before because participants were not aware of the mistakes 7 2. there were more repairs during the use iga. 6 appropriate time for the development of information gap activities. 1. more time for developing the iga. 4 2. more time for both the presentation of the language and for the devolvement of the iga 2 use of information gap activities in the english classes. 1. increase of speaking time during english classes due to the use of information gap activities. 4 2. there is more time to use the language communicatively when using iga. 7 3. students’ motivation about the use of iga. 7 source: self-elaboration the analysis of figure 4 is addressed starting by the sub-themes with the most frequent answers, which were: “there is more time to use the language communicatively when using iga”, “student’s motivation about the use of iga” and “there were no repairs before (the intervention) because participants were not aware of the mistakes”. all the participants (7 participants, 100%) supported these ideas strongly. this showed that all of them agreed that using this technique during the english classes gave them the opportunity to interact with their classmates and learn at the same time, and this triggered their motivation. even though motivation and the communicative use of the language were not strictly related to the objectives of the research, they emerged with a high level of frequency during the focus group. the third sub-theme in which 100% of the participants agreed was related to the level of repairs: “there were no repairs before (the intervention) because participants mary elizabeth caballero guillén and cecilia cisterna zentenos 96 no. 26 were not aware of the mistakes”. this theme might have emerged because participants could not compare if they had had more or fewer repairs before the intervention as they had never experienced this kind of oral interactive activity where they could identify their mistakes and correct themselves while speaking. in fact, this is portrayed in the pre-test results, which showed that the highest score (3.3) of the three aspects assessed was achieved in the level of repairs, meaning that students had very few repairs before the intervention. according to the participants’ perceptions, the use of information gap activities helped them to improve their fluency level, 90% of them agreed that they had noticed a significant change all along the process of using information gap activities, which is evidenced in the results of the post-test. regarding the speech rate, 28% of the participants expressed that they could speak faster or with a better flow than before the intervention, even though most of them (90%) improved their test scores in this aspect. in terms of the level of pauses or breakdowns, 71% of the participants expressed a contribution of information gap activities to their level of pauses or breakdowns. they said that they used to produce more pauses or breakdowns before the intervention, which is in agreement with the mean value difference registered in this aspect in the pre and post-test, that was 0.9. discussion data analysis results showed that information gap activities effectively helped the group of honduran ninth-grade students to improve their speaking fluency level. this was observed in the results of the pre and post-intervention tests. the pre-test mean score was 8 out of 12, and in the post-test, the mean score was 11 out of 12; there was an improvement of 3 points. to thoroughly analyze this improvement, it is necessary to consider the three aspects of fluency that were assessed: speech rate, pauses or breakdowns, and repairs. the most remarkable improvement was registered in the level of speech rate; thus, participants got an increment of 1 point of difference between the mean scores of the pre and post-test. in terms of pauses, there was an improvement of 0.9 points in the mean scores. still, the best score after the intervention was in the level of repairs, as participants got a mean score of 3.7 out of 4, meaning that they had an excellent level of repairs after using information gap activities. it can be said that after using information gap activities during a period, the ninth-grade students were able to produce sentences with a better speech rate, with fewer pauses, and repeating or modifying fewer sentences. these results are in line with what ortiz (2019) concluded after conducting action research using information gap activities with 28 eighth graders; he affirmed information gap activities impacted information gap activities and honduran ninth-grade speaking fluency: action research 97 no. 26 students’ oral fluency, as they could produce utterances that were characterized by evenness and flow and with very occasionally hesitations and rephrasing. these results are also similar to the ones gathered by rini (2017) and linaanti (2017). they found that students’ scores of fluency levels were higher in the post-test after using information gap activities in the intervention. it is verified that information gap activities help to improve speech rate and reduce the number of repetitions of words, phrases, or clauses, and the number of lexico-syntactic reformulations for correction or repairs according to action research conducted by namaziandost et al. (2019). regarding the participants’ perceptions about the use of information gap activities as a support for their level of speaking fluency. the data gathered through the focus groups showed that their perceptions were in agreement with the quantitative results because 90% (6 answers) of them agreed that they had noticed an improvement in their fluency level after using information gap activities. in terms of pauses or breakdowns, 71% of the participants reported a reduction in the pauses after the intervention. however, in the aspect of speech rate, the students’ perceptions differed from their results in the pre and post-test, because only 2 (28%) reported an improvement in their speech rate, even though 90% did improve their speech rate level in the post-test. at the level of repairs, the participants provided some interesting opinions.they expressed that they did not have any level of repairs before the intervention, this might be due to the novelty of information gap activities because they have never experienced this kind of activity in which they could identify the mistakes and correct them while speaking. therefore, a new benefit of using information gap activities arose “getting awareness of mistakes “this perception was supported by 100% of the participants who agreed that before the intervention they were not aware of their mistakes and how to repair them. this result is supported by what mumford and darn (2020) said: when learners are motivated to speak, they produce more language, and they become “hypothesis testers” and “risk takers” thus they make more mistakes, but they are capable of self-correction. two other themes emerged during the focus group: “the communicative use of the languages through information gap activities” and “students’ motivation towards information gap activities”. some of them expressed that in class, before the intervention, they had not had opportunities to use the language communicatively as they just practiced the grammar rules in a written way. information gap activities allowed them to use the grammar knowledge they already had in conversations instead of the traditional use of the textbook. when completing an information gap activity, students’ conversations emulate what happens in an authentic context using english. as prabhu, 1987 (as cited in namaziandost, 2019,) stated, “information gap activities give the opportunity to work on negotiation meaning, enable learners to feel comfortable to speak, and increase communicative practice maximally.” (p.13) mary elizabeth caballero guillén and cecilia cisterna zentenos 98 no. 26 regarding motivation, all of them strongly supported the idea that they felt more motivated in class using information gap activities. these perceptions were similar to the results got it by humaera et al. (2022) in a recent study, in which the analysis revealed that “implementing information gap activities in the classroom while teaching english increased students’ willingness to communicate; they got motivated and confident to speak, they also improved their behavioral intention to communicate” (p.1) limitations some limitations were found during the implementation of this action research: for example, holding the intervention sessions online caused the main drawbacks to the development of the action plan, which were related to technical problems. participants had a lot of connectivity issues and technical difficulties during the process. there were also some challenges during the intervention. the first one was the fact that students took longer than expected to understand the instructions to complete the information gap activities. considering this aspect, the researcher concluded that explaining the instructions is a key point for the effectiveness of this kind of activity. implications regardless of the limitations, some methodological implications are worth considering. to begin with, the information gap activities that were used during the intervention sessions were adapted following the regular topic proposed by the national curriculum of honduran for ninth graders. therefore, information gap activities can be designed for each topic and thus be implemented in english classes in the context of the public system to reduce the grammatical focus and build a more interactive and communicative environment. as a suggestion, because of the positive results evidenced, the national secretariat of education of honduras could incorporate information gap activities to bolster the communicative and task-based approach suggested in the national curriculum. information gap activities and honduran ninth-grade speaking fluency: action research 99 no. 26 conclusions the use of information gap activities as a didactic strategy to improve the student’s level of oral fluency is recommended based on the results of the pre and post-test, which demonstrated that after the intervention students improved their level of oral fluency by 3 points, getting in the final post-test a mean score of 11 out of 12 points, while in the pre-test they had only got 8 points. in addition, information gap activities are suggested as a collaborative learning strategy based on the positive perceptions of participants, who expressed that the use of this type of activities allowed them to use the language communicatively and this triggered their motivation. it is important to highlight that during the focus group, students manifested a strong desire to use information gap activities in their regular english classes. since when the researcher asked them the questions: if the teacher could use information gap activities in each regular english class, what would you think about it? a 43% of them said that they liked the idea. mary elizabeth caballero guillén and cecilia cisterna zentenos 100 no. 26 references bhardwaj, p. (2019).types of sampling in research. journal of the practice of cardiovascular sciences, 5,157-163. doi: 10.4103/jpcs.jpcs_62_19. https://doi. org/10.4103/jpcs.jpcs_62_19 braun, v., & clark, v. (2008). thematic analysis: providing accessible guidance on doing and understanding. qualitative research in psychology, 3 (2), 77-101. doi: 10.1191/1478088706qp063oa https://doi.org/10.1191/1478088706qp063oa burns, a. (2015). the cambridge guide to research in language teaching and learning. (1st ed.). crambridge: cambridge university press. decker, a. (2012). how to teach speaking skill? journal of education and practice, 3, 25-29. https://www.academia.edu/1291728/how_to_teach_speaking_skill harris, k. (1990). pair activities in beginning adult esl classes. london: longman. harmer, j. b. (2007). the practice of english language teaching, (4th ed.).pearson: longman publishing. humaera, i., jumiati, w., & safeti, n. (2022). developing students’ willingness to communicate using information gap activities. knowledge e., 2022,127-137.doi: 10.18502/ kss.v7i8.10731 https://doi.org/10.18502/kss.v7i8.10731 jondeya, r. (2011). the effectiveness of using information gap on developing speaking skills for the eighth graders in gaza governorate schools. [master’s thesis].alazhar university, gaza. https://library.iugaza.edu.ps/thesis/96013.pdf jones, c. (2020). teacher trainer and materials writer ceri jones explores what it means to be fluent in a language and if it is possible to teach fluency in the classroom. world of betterlearning. retrieved on december 10, 2021 from: https://www. cambridge.org/elt/blog/2020/01/22/fluency-can-it-be-taught// larsen-freeman, d. (2003). techniques and principles in language teaching. oxford: oxford university press. linaanti, a. (2017). the use of information gap activity technique to improve the speaking skill at the eighth graders of smp n 10 metro. [undergraduate thesis]. tarbiyah and teaching training faculty. university of yakarta. namaziandost, e., hashemifardnia, a., shafiee, s. (2019). the impact of opinion gap, reasoning-gap, and information-gap tasks on efl learners’ speaking fluency. cogent socialscience.5.116. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/23311 886.2019.1630150 . https://doi.org/10.1080/23311886.2019.1630150 information gap activities and honduran ninth-grade speaking fluency: action research 101 no. 26 nunan, d. (2003). practical english language teaching. boston: mcgraw hill. https:// doi.org/10.1017/cbo9780511667336 ortiz, r. (2019). the impact of information gap activities on young efl learners’ oral fluency. profile: issues in teachers’ professional development, 21, 113-125. https:// doi.org/10.15446/profile.v21n2.73385 pagoada, j. (2014). attitude towards learning english of teachers who are being trained by secretaría de educación of honduras at escuela estados unidos. tesol workshop: language attitude.1-42. https://vrip.upnfm.edu.hn/files/vrip/eje%20 investigacion/poa%202015/tesol%20research%20attitude.pdf putri, a. (2014). using information gap activities to improve the speaking skills of grade viii students at smp n 7 yogyakarta [undergraduate thesis]. yogyakarta state university, indonesia. richards, j. (2008). teaching listening and speaking from theory to practice. cambridge: cambridge university press. rini, r. (2017). the effectiveness of information gap technique in improving students’ speaking ability at seventh grade of smpn 1 kras kediri .universitas nusantara pgri kediri. secretaria de estado en el despacho de educación de honduras. (2003). diseño curricular nacional para la educación básica. comayagüela m.d.c. skehan, p. (2009). modelling second language performance: integrating complexity, accuracy, fluency, and lexis. applied linguistics, 30(4), 510-532.doi:10.1093/ applin/amp047. https://doi.org/10.1093/applin/amp047 tavakoli, p., nakatsuhara, f., hunter, a. (2020). aspects of fluency across assessed levels of speaking prociency.the modernn language journal.1, 170-191. doi: 10.1111/modl.12620 https://doi.org/10.1111/modl.12620 mary elizabeth caballero guillén and cecilia cisterna zentenos authors: cecilia cisterna zenteno, associate professor at the foreign language department, faculty of humanities and arts, universidad de concepción, chile. head of the continuing education school edhuarte. currently, teaching language courses and culture of english-speaking countries to undergraduates of the english teaching program. i also teach the action research course in the master program “innovation in teaching, learning and assessment of english” and i am a thesis supervisor. orcid id: http://orcid.org/0000-0001-9707-154x mary elizabeth caballero guillén, associate professor at the fundación de la universidad pedagógica nacional francisco morazán and english teacher in service in the lamani public high school, honduras. currently teaching language courses and technical english courses to teenagers and adults. orcid id: http://orcid.org/0000-0002-5915-1466 102 no. 26 information gap activities and honduran ninth-grade speaking fluency: action research how to reference this article: caballero guillén, m. e., &amp; cisterna zenteno, c. (2023). the contribution of information gap activities to support honduran ninth-grade students’ speaking fluency. gist – education and learning research journal, 26. https://doi. org/10.26817/16925777.1570 portada 26.pdf (p.1) gist 26 januaryjune 2023.pdf (p.2-189) turkish novice teachers’ struggles for teaching and learning to teaching1 las luchas de los profesores novatos turcos por la enseñanza y el aprendizaje de la enseñanza cihan kocabaş2 marmara university, turkey ünal deniz the scientific and technological research council of türkiye, turkey 1 received: may 16th, 2023 / accepted: october 13th, 2023 2 unal.deniz@tubitak.gov.tr, cihankocabas@gmail.com gist education and learning research journal. issn 1692-5777. no. 26 (january june, 2023). pp. 29 56. 30 no. 26 research article abstract this research aims to determine teachers’ problems in the early stages of their careers and to offer solutions. in this context, the research is a phenomenological study of 21 teachers selected by maximum variety sampling. the study’s data were obtained through semi-structured interview questions prepared by the researchers with the opinions of six experts. face-to-face interviews were conducted with the teachers who participated in the study. the content analysis method was preferred in analyzing the obtained data, and nvivo 11 software was used. the findings of the study revealed that the problems faced by teachers include the learning-teaching process, educational structure and opportunities, individual and environmental factors, and education stakeholders. the research ends with various research and application suggestions by drawing attention to some points in preventing the problems that teachers encounter in the early stages of their careers. keywords: early career teachers, problems encountered by teachers, novice teachers, phenomenological study, struggles for teaching, teaching profession. resumen esta investigación tiene como objetivo determinar los problemas de los docentes en las primeras etapas de sus carreras y ofrecer soluciones. en este contexto, la investigación es un estudio fenomenológico de 21 profesores seleccionados mediante muestreo de máxima variedad. los datos del estudio se obtuvieron a través de preguntas de entrevistas semiestructuradas preparadas por los investigadores con las opiniones de seis expertos. se realizaron entrevistas cara a cara con los profesores que participaron en el estudio. se prefirió el método de análisis de contenido para analizar los datos obtenidos y se utilizó el software nvivo 11. los hallazgos del estudio revelaron que los problemas enfrentados por los docentes incluyen el proceso de aprendizajeenseñanza, la estructura y oportunidades educativas, los factores individuales y ambientales, y los actores educativos. la investigación concluye con varias sugerencias de investigación y aplicación al llamar la atención sobre algunos puntos para prevenir los problemas que los docentes encuentran en las primeras etapas de sus carreras. palabras clave: docentes principiantes, problemas enfrentados por los docentes, profesores noveles, profesión docente. turkish novice teachers’ struggles for teaching and learning to teaching 31 no. 26 resumo: esta pesquisa tem como objetivo determinar os problemas enfrentados por professores nos estágios iniciais de suas carreiras e oferecer soluções. nesse contexto, a pesquisa é um estudo fenomenológico com 21 professores selecionados por amostragem de máxima variedade. os dados do estudo foram obtidos por meio de perguntas de entrevistas semiestruturadas preparadas pelos pesquisadores com as opiniões de seis especialistas. entrevistas presenciais foram conduzidas com os professores que participaram do estudo. o método de análise de conteúdo foi preferido na análise dos dados obtidos, e o software nvivo 11 foi utilizado. os resultados do estudo revelaram que os problemas enfrentados pelos professores incluem o processo de ensino-aprendizagem, estrutura educacional e oportunidades, fatores individuais e ambientais, e partes interessadas na educação. a pesquisa conclui com várias sugestões de pesquisa e aplicação, chamando a atenção para alguns pontos na prevenção dos problemas que os professores enfrentam nos estágios iniciais de suas carreiras. palavras-chave: professores iniciantes, problemas enfrentados por professores, professores novatos, estudo fenomenológico, desafios no ensino, profissão docente. ünal deniz and cihan kocabaş 32 no. 26 introduction the performance of teachers in educational institutions significantly affects the quality of education and educational outcomes (darling-hammond, 2000; goldhaber & hansen, 2010; rivkin et al., 2005). in this regard, it can be stated that it is important for teachers to determine their own competencies, take into account their interests, needs, and expectations, establish their vision, identify their forward-looking goals, make plans and programs to achieve these goals, and make efforts. striving to achieve these goals in the context of teachers’ careers contributes to increasing their motivation, strengthening the psychological contract between them and their organizations, developing themselves professionally, and gaining social status (altunışık, 2010; chirichello & bailey, 2014; darling-hammond et al., 2017). there are theories and studies in the relevant literature that acknowledge the common developmental stages observed during teachers’ professional careers, where teachers exhibit different attitudes, knowledge, skills, and behaviors at various points in their careers (day, 2004; fullan, 2001; huberman, 1989; lynn, 2002; sikes, 1985). huberman (1989, p.41) identifies three career stages that form a teacher’s life cycle. the first of these, and also the focus of research, is the novice career stage, where an individual is struggling to adapt and cope in an unfamiliar environment. additionally, novice teachers in this stage are known to be less aware of the demands and expectations of the community and students, and they carry the burden of proving their competency in the teaching profession. the career entry stage is defined as the first few years when a teacher is integrated into the system. during this period, new teachers try to gain acceptance from students, colleagues, and other educational stakeholders while attempting to find solutions to problems and striving to achieve a level of comfort and security (burke, 1984, p. 14-15). teachers’ career entry stages encompass professional skills, behaviors, attitudes, teaching methods, discipline strategies, curriculum, planning, rules and procedures, professional confidence and safety, values, and beliefs. knowledge of this developmental process sheds light on teaching and teacher development, serving as a foundation for teachers (burden, 1982; thompson, 2018; wong & wong, 2018). moreover, the first years of the profession hold the potential to influence the teacher’s career journey, effectiveness, and job satisfaction (paula & grinfelde, 2018). during the entry-level stage of their career, teachers must cope with numerous crisis situations. novice teachers experience various difficulties due to the diversity of student characteristics and the challenging nature of the teaching profession (bakioğlu & korumaz, 2014; darling-hammond, 2006; santoro, 2015). they struggle to assess both their students and the requirements of their job accurately (durmaz, 2014) while also spending their time and energy to understand the classroom environment and develop teaching strategies. in this context, research conducted in turkish novice teachers’ struggles for teaching and learning to teaching 33 no. 26 different contexts has revealed the problems that novice teachers encounter, including classroom management and discipline issues (melekhina & ivleva, 2020; paula & grinfelde, 2018; sali & kecik, 2018; sikes, 1985; wolf, jarodzka, & boshuizen, 2021), insufficient teaching materials (sali & kecik, 2018), lesson planning (karacaoğlu & acar, 2010; paula & grinfelde, 2018), exam preparation and student assessment (paula & grinfelde, 2018), and communication with parents (meister & melnick, 2003; paula & grinfelde, 2018). in the context of türkiye, existing research has identified the problems experienced by novice teachers as classroom management and discipline issues (doğan, 2016; ergünay, 2018; çiğil, 2014; kozikoğlu, 2016; öztürk, 2008), low salaries (çiğil, 2014), lack of professional respect (çiğil, 2014; öztürk, 2008), frequently changing teaching programs and regulations (bekdemir, 2018; ergünay, 2018; çiğil, 2014), problems in planning and implementing teaching (bekdemir, 2018; doğan, 2016), inadequate physical infrastructure and facilities in schools (ergünay, 2018; çiğil, 2014; kozikoğlu, 2016), inability to find opportunities for professional development (doğan, 2016; ergünay, 2018), excessive workload (bekdemir, 2018; öztürk, 2008), housing (çiğil, 2014), social and cultural adaptation issues (doğan, 2016), inability to establish healthy communication with students (bekdemir, 2018), and lack of support from administrators and colleagues (bekdemir, 2018; doğan, 2016; çiğil, 2014; öztürk, 2008). while these findings provide valuable insights into the problems faced by novice teachers, it is noteworthy that the increasing number of private schools and the proportion of teachers working in private schools (~15%) in türkiye, particularly since 2016 with government incentives (mone, 2016), needs attention (mone, 2022). therefore, the exclusion of teachers working in private schools from these studies is a significant limitation. additionally, the diversity of the teaching levels and professional fields of the teachers in these studies (e.g., special education, vocational and technical education teachers) was not adequately rich. at this point, there is a need for more comprehensive research on the problems encountered by novice teachers in the turkish context. this study addresses the problems encountered by novice teachers working at various teaching levels and different branches in both public and private schools. the results of this research are expected to provide awareness and insight into potential problems that new teachers may encounter and their solutions. moreover, the obtained results are evaluated as guiding education managers and policymakers in preventing or reducing the impact of problems that teachers face in the early stages of their careers. ünal deniz and cihan kocabaş 34 no. 26 understanding the teaching profession in türkiye teacher training in türkiye is a topic that can be traced back to the final years of the ottoman empire. in the late 19th century, the teacher education institute (darülmuallimin-i aliye) was established as an institution for training teachers who would primarily work at the high school level, and it was designed to be completed four years after secondary education. this school, later renamed as the higher teachers’ school, expanded its scope by adding new departments. these schools, which continued to train teachers until about forty years ago, then passed the responsibility of teacher education to the education institutes. in 1982, with law decree no. 41 dated july 20, 1982, the task of training teachers was transferred from the ministry to universities, and some of the education institutes were transformed into education faculties (aydın, 1998; argün, 2008; kavcar, 2002). however, this transformation did not put an end to the debates regarding the overall education system in türkiye and the quality of teachers, in particular (kavak, 1999). the post-service teacher training project, which was carried out in collaboration between the higher education council and the world bank between 1994-1998, led to the restructuring process of education faculties (argün, 2008). in 1994, the “hec/ world bank post-service teacher training project” was initiated by the ministry of national education, the higher education council, and the world bank using the loans provided by the world bank. the project, which benefited from the contributions of participating experts, was concluded in 1998. the education model developed for teacher candidates aimed to increase teacher qualifications by providing participation in various certificate programs, and it also aimed to make the delivery of science and literature courses in faculties more effective. according to the model, some teachers in certain teaching fields started to receive undergraduate-level education, while some started to receive graduate-level education (okçabol, 2004). however, since the implementation of the model developed at the end of the project until today, there have been ongoing issues related to the quality of teacher training due to various reasons such as excess enrollment, shortage of teaching staff, insufficient infrastructure, and the continuation of opening new education faculties despite these challenges, which have had negative effects on the quality of teacher training (ayas, 2009). in the 1990s, the ministry of national education assigned a large number of graduates to schools as class teachers regardless of their fields of study in order to meet the existing teacher needs. for example, in 1998, 41,000 graduate teachers from non-education faculties were employed. these types of assignments, which have negative impacts on the teaching profession and reputation, have also brought along quality issues (albayrak, 2018; baskan, 2001; özdemir, 2017). after the 2000s, it appears that the operation of institutions that train teachers has been determined by the council of higher education (cohe) and the ministry of national education (mone). the general directorate of teacher training, which is turkish novice teachers’ struggles for teaching and learning to teaching 35 no. 26 part of mone, is the unit that determines policies and regulations related to teacher training. currently, education faculties are the leading institutions that train teachers in türkiye (şendağ, 2015). according to statistics from cohe, as of 2022, there are 103 education faculties (faculties of education, faculties of education sciences, faculties of vocational education, faculties of vocational and technical education, faculties of music and fine arts education, and faculties of technical education) in türkiye (cohe, 2023, p.1). the “regulation on teacher candidate and teacher career steps” accepted by the mone in 2022 and published in the official gazette has structured the teaching career in three steps to be valid after the teacher candidacy. these steps are determined as teacher, specialist teacher, and head teacher in the relevant regulation. according to the regulation, the teacher candidacy period is at least one year and a maximum of two years. during this process, teacher candidates are subjected to a training program consisting of educational and practical tasks. the program provides teacher candidates with information about the management and operations of their institution under the supervision of the school principals. under the supervision of appointed mentor teachers, teacher candidates are expected to complete classroom teaching and in-service training. in addition, it is expected that they participate in observations and practices in educational institutions outside their own institution and other institutions under the coordination of provincial/ district national education directorates (official gazette, 2022). method research design this research has been designed with a phenomenological research pattern, which is one of the qualitative research designs. phenomenology studies focus on phenomena that are perceived but require in-depth knowledge (creswell, 2012). in this study, the phenomenological design was chosen to deeply examine the problems encountered by novice teachers. research context some important factors make this research conducted in istanbul a significant context to achieve the goals of the study. istanbul is not only the most populous city in türkiye but also has a highly cosmopolitan structure. therefore, istanbul reflects many factors of türkiye’s socio-cultural and economic structure. accordingly, the standards of both public and private schools, as well as the profile of parents and students, can significantly diverge from each other in istanbul. thus, this situation provides a unique opportunity for novice teachers to gain experience. ünal deniz and cihan kocabaş 36 no. 26 participants the participants of the research consist of 21 teachers who work in public and private schools in istanbul. the participants were selected using the maximum diversity sampling method, considering that it would provide richer data. in order to ensure maximum diversity, participants were included in the study based on their gender, the type of institution they work in, professional experience, the level of education they teach, their teaching subject, and educational background. table 1 presents the list of participants coded as p1...p21 to ensure anonymity. table 1. personal characteristics of novice teachers. code gender institution type experience teaching level branch p1 female public 2 high school english p2 female public 4 high school theology p3 female public 2 high school english p4 female public 5 high school math p5 female private 3 pre-school pre-school p6 female public 3 special education agricultural technologies p7 male public 4 special education furniture and interior design p8 male public 1 middle school turkish p9 male public 3 special education special education p10 male public 5 middle school social studies p11 male public 4 middle school science p12 female public 4 middle school music p13 female private 2 high school music p14 female private 1 primary school music p15 female private 2 primary school classroom p16 male private 5 primary school physical education p17 male private 4 primary school primary p18 female public 3 middle school technology and design p19 male public 4 middle school technology and design p20 female public 4 primary school classroom p21 male public 4 primary school classroom turkish novice teachers’ struggles for teaching and learning to teaching 37 no. 26 when table 1 is examined, it can be observed that the personal characteristics of the participants have been diversified as much as possible. accordingly, 10 of the participants are male and 11 are female, with 12 working in public schools and 9 in private schools. the professional experience of the participants ranges from 1 to 5 years, with an average of approximately three years of experience. finally, one participant works in a preschool, six in primary schools, seven in middle schools, five in high schools, and three in vocational education schools. data collection the data of the research was obtained through semi-structured interview questions prepared by the researchers. the semi-structured interview form consists of 10 main questions and six follow-up questions prepared in light of relevant literature (e.g., bekdemir, 2018; doğan, 2016; ergünay, 2018; melekhina & ivleva, 2020; sali & kecik, 2018; paula & grinfelde, 2018). in the process of creating the interview form, the opinions of six experts were taken into account, and three main questions and two follow-up questions were revised based on the feedback received. then, pilot interviews were conducted with two teachers. after the pilot interviews, it was decided that all the questions were understandable and did not need any repetition. the prepared interview form includes questions such as “how do you evaluate the education you received in your undergraduate studies, considering your current experience?”, “what difficulties do you face as a new teacher? what are you doing to overcome these difficulties?”, “what would you like to say about your orientation period as a new teacher?”, “what do school administrators and colleagues mean to you in professional terms as a new teacher?” and “how would you describe the effects of the region you work in on you as a new teacher?”. the face-to-face interviews with participants lasted an average of 45 minutes. during this process, participants were given detailed information about the research topic before each interview, and they were committed to keeping their personal information confidential. after the interviews were conducted, the transcripts of the obtained data were made and sent to the participants for their confirmation. data analysis the content analysis method was preferred for the analysis of the data obtained within the scope of the research, and nvivo 11 software was used for data analysis. before both researchers coded the data, the interview transcripts were read once. then, the collected data was uploaded to nvivo 11. the data were analyzed by both researchers using open and axial coding methods at different times. initially, free-coding processes were followed in nvivo 11; then, the tree-coding process ünal deniz and cihan kocabaş 38 no. 26 was completed. during the coding process, the context of the text and the possible causes and effects of this context was taken into account. at the end of the process, both researchers created a common code, category, and theme list by checking the similarities and differences of the code lists they prepared. a deductive approach was followed during the category and theme-creation process. additionally, in this process, the appropriateness of categories and themes was confirmed by conducting a deductive analysis. accordingly, the themes within the scope of the research were determined as (i) the learning-teaching process, (ii) education structure and opportunities, (iii) individual and environmental factors, and (iv) education stakeholders. direct quotations have been occasionally used in presenting the themes in order to better reflect the participants’ experiences. during the research process, the reliability, transferability, credibility, and confirmability stages emphasized by lincoln and guba (1985) were followed meticulously. in this context, the research data has been stored for possible requests. researcher’s positionality and role the idea that the problems encountered by newly appointed teachers in government or private schools directly affect the quality of education has been influential in choosing the topic of this research. additionally, the researchers’ past teaching experiences and observations, as well as the situations they encountered during this period, have guided the in-depth investigation of this topic. furthermore, the researchers’ experiences related to the research topic have been used as supportive instruments during the data analysis and interpretation stages. results in this section of the research, four themes identified based on the data analysis are presented. each theme is supported, where necessary, with direct participant quotes to strengthen the narrative. theme 1. learning-teaching process in this theme, the opinions of novice teachers regarding the teaching and learning process are presented. table 2 includes the two categories and resulting codes that make up the teaching and learning process theme. turkish novice teachers’ struggles for teaching and learning to teaching 39 no. 26 table 2. challenges experienced by novice teachers in the teaching and learning process. problems caused by the curriculum and content course contents and incompatibility of course hours the incompatibility of a student ready-made and content and gains in the curriculum frequent changes in the content and gains in the curriculum the curriculum is disconnected from daily life problems caused by planning and practical teaching inability to prepare enough for the lesson inability to dominate the course content lack of experience inadequacies in using teaching methods and techniques inability to connect in practice with theoretical education received problems with classroom management the findings indicate that the teaching and learning process theme consists of two categories, problems arising from the curriculum and content, and problems arising from lesson planning and implementation. firstly, in the category of problems arising from the curriculum and content, participants highlighted the inconsistency between course content and class hours. in particular, they emphasized that the same curriculum was being taught in different types of high schools at different hours (between 4-10 hours), leading to missing important points while trying to cover the curriculum in less time. another important issue is the inconsistency between student readiness and the content and achievements in the curriculum. p12 provided a concrete example on this matter, stating the following: (...) for example, the book includes heavier topics. in the sixth and seventh grades, there is a learning outcome to sing simple polyphonic songs. although i studied at a fine arts high school, i started singing polyphonic songs in the second semester of my first year of high school. you cannot expect a sixth-grader to do that. none of the students in the class can do it because it requires a special skill… according to participants’ views, frequent changes in the content and learning outcomes of the curriculum have a negative impact on students’ learning and teachers’ performance. participant p19 stated, “for example, the program changed recently, and they changed the program according to their own minds without giving sufficient training to any teacher. a lot of topics we didn’t know about emerged. that’s why we feel inadequate.” similarly, p11 expressed, “the science curriculum changes every year. they add the topics they took in the eighth grade to the fifth grade and the topics they took in the eighth grade to the seventh. this causes confusion. both students and we are ünal deniz and cihan kocabaş 40 no. 26 experiencing the difficulty.” according to the participants, the curriculum’s detachment from daily life is another significant problem. participants generally emphasized that the curriculum for their subjects is heavily focused on theory. as a reflection of this, some participants stated that although they try to connect the topic they teach with daily life through their individual efforts, they sometimes cannot succeed in doing so. secondly, in the category of problems arising from lesson planning and implementation, participants stated that they were not adequately prepared for the lesson due to various reasons. however, some participants emphasized feeling inadequate about the content of the lessons or how to convey that content. p15 concretized this situation by saying, “i realize that i have some deficiencies in the curriculum. especially in science or social studies, there are some things that could be called tips and tricks, and i’m not very familiar with them. i struggle to explain something to children that i am not familiar with.” on the other hand, participants pointed out that the lack of experience had various reflections on many different topics. some participants especially stated that they understood the importance better after discovering new situations or solving problems. p12 explained this situation with the sentence, “as we gain experience, it’s different. an activity that we do with one child doesn’t work with another child. so, when necessary, we can gain them with different activities.” the participants have stated that they could not connect the theoretical education they received during their undergraduate or teaching certificate programs with practice, and that this situation caused difficulties in their profession. p21 expressed their views on this topic by stating, “i couldn’t see the practical application of most of what i learned because either the conditions weren’t suitable to try or i couldn’t use them. i don’t remember most of the methods i learned now.” similarly, regarding the inadequacy in using teaching methods and techniques, the participants stated that they were more motivated to apply new methods and techniques when they first started their profession, but they lost this motivation later on. some participants have attributed this to losing control of the classroom for various reasons (e.g., overcrowding, lack of experience) while applying different methods and techniques. more generally, the participants emphasized the difficulties they experienced in achieving lesson mastery and attracting students’ attention. p14 expressed this challenging situation they faced with the following words: organizing and getting their attention is very difficult. they talk too much and definitely influence each other a lot. this causes problems with classroom management. i usually have to warn them because they talk too much. because i have to constantly warn them, we waste time. turkish novice teachers’ struggles for teaching and learning to teaching 41 no. 26 theme 2. education structure and facilities in this theme covers the problems caused by the education policies and practices of inexperienced teachers as well as the physical infrastructure and facilities of the school. the teacher’s views regarding the sub-themes that constitute the education structure and facilities theme are presented in table 3. table 3. problems of novice teachers’ educational structure and opportunities. problems caused by educational policies and practices at school orientation deficiency some courses are being pushed to the behind excessive paperwork burden lack of knowledge in document preparation lack of suitable environment and encouragement for professional development inadequate salaries problems caused by the school’s physical infrastructure and facilities inadequate physical infrastructure and teaching materials of the school difficulty in accessing the school budget insufficiency excessive class sizes inadequate guidance services the findings indicate that the theme of education structure and facilities consists of two categories: problems arising from education policies and practices in schools and problems arising from the physical infrastructure and facilities of the school. firstly, under the category of problems arising from education policies and practices, the participants reported feeling a lack of orientation. additionally, from the participant’s views, it is understood that teachers are required to start teaching immediately upon starting their job without any prior orientation process. participant p18 summarized a similar experience as follows: when i first arrived at the school and sat down, they told me to find a place to live. then they immediately told me to start teaching. later on, they questioned me in a judgmental manner about why i was assigned to this school with such a low score, and how many points i received. i did not receive any orientation during the process and started teaching immediately. ünal deniz and cihan kocabaş 42 no. 26 participants have pointed out that some courses are not given enough value by the school administration, students, and parents, either because they do not have exams such as level advancement exams or because they are elective courses. p19’s statement that “children sometimes underestimate or not give importance to the course, saying that it doesn’t come out in exams anyway, or facing problems such as insufficient support from the school administration” supports this argument. regarding the excess paperwork, participants have emphasized that there is generally a heavy paperwork burden in the school, and they spend a lot of time completing these documents. some participants have argued that the paperwork burden should be on the school administration and administrative staff. in addition, some participants have stated that they face various difficulties because they do not have enough knowledge and experience about the documents they are required to prepare or submit as standard. on the other hand, participants generally consider the lack of a suitable environment and encouragement for professional development as a significant problem. p2 expressed that teachers’ good work should be rewarded by the school administration, even verbally. as a different emphasis, participants have expressed that they do not think they receive a good salary for the effort they put in, and they expect an improvement in this regard. secondly, in the category of problems arising from the physical infrastructure and facilities of the school, participants have argued that the inadequacy of the school’s physical infrastructure and teaching materials limits them significantly. participants have shown transportation to the school as one of the difficulties they face at different points. p8 evaluated this situation with the sentence, “the school is located in a forested area. it is a place that can only be reached by vehicle. i cannot come here without a private vehicle.” on the other hand, some participants stated that they could not carry out some activities they wanted to do due to budget shortages at the school. p1 emphasized that this situation has a negative effect on gaining students and meeting the expectations of parents. participants point out the inadequacy of the guidance service at the school, believing that it should play a more active role, especially in dealing with problems with students or preventing various issues. according to participants’ views, another problem is the excess number of students in the classrooms. p10 expressed their difficulty in teaching in overcrowded classes with the following sentences: (…) the class size is affecting the lesson significantly. being able to control 20 students is not the same as being able to control 40 students. when the class size is 42, you can only manage to focus on 12 students at most; you cannot fully attend to all of them. there is not enough time or energy for this. also, the children cannot participate in the lesson as much as they would like to because of time constraints. turkish novice teachers’ struggles for teaching and learning to teaching 43 no. 26 theme 3. individual and environmental factors in this theme, the problems of novice teachers arising from individual characteristics and those arising from socioeconomic and environmental factors are addressed. the opinions of teachers regarding these sub-themes, which constitute the individual and environmental factors theme, are presented in table 4. table 4. problems of novice teachers related to individual and environmental factors. problems caused by individual factors inability to adapt to the profession negative attitude towards the profession health problems fear of failure problems caused by environmental factors inability to adapt to the environment access to basic living necessities (water, electricity, shelter, etc.) the findings indicate that the theme of individual and environmental factors consists of two categories of problems arising from individual factors and problems arising from socio-economic and environmental factors. firstly, in the category of problems arising from individual factors, participants stated that their ideals of teaching did not match the current teaching routines. p18 emphasized feeling quite passive as a teacher in the current situation, thus experiencing a conflict between ideals and reality. on the contrary, some participants emphasized their negative attitudes towards the profession, stating that this was also an important problem for them. regarding this issue, p4 expressed their attitude towards the profession, saying, “teaching was the last profession i wanted. i wanted to pursue professions such as engineering or architecture, but my parents said teaching was the most suitable profession for a woman, so i chose to teach.” on the other hand, participants also stated that the fear of failure, especially for novice teachers, was an important factor. p20 drew attention to a different point, arguing that if there is a failure, generally only the teacher is held responsible, which increases the fear and anxiety of novice teachers. second, in the category of problems caused by environmental factors, participants indicated that they could face difficulties in adapting to social life, culture, climate, etc., and differences in the regions where they work due to socioeconomic and environmental factors. in this regard, p3 expressed that women were pushed to the background in the region where she previously worked, and men were more prominent. similarly, p4 emphasized that she could not establish a sense of belonging with the place she lived in due to the lack of social and cultural activities in her previous duty station. on the other hand, another point emphasized by participants was the difficulty of accessing ünal deniz and cihan kocabaş 44 no. 26 basic living needs in some regions. participants expressed that they struggled to find housing in the region where they worked and frequently encountered situations such as power and water cuts. p9 shared his experience on this issue with the following words: when i first started my duty, i really thought i couldn’t stay here. because there is a certain standard of living that you get used to, and the scene i encountered was far from it. i had to rent a house even though it didn’t feel right. there was no natural gas. electricity and water often went out. after a while, you get used to it, but when you look back, you realize that it wasn’t easy at all. theme 4. education stakeholders in this theme, the problems of novice teachers related to students, school administrators and colleagues, and parents are discussed. teacher views on these subthemes that make up the education stakeholders theme are presented in table 5. table 5. problems of novice teachers regarding education stakeholders. problems caused by school administrators and colleagues lack of advisor and colleague support unable to get admin support problems caused by students inadequacies in students’ readiness adoption and behavior problems in students problems arising from individual differences of students students’ indifference towards school and lessons student attendance problem problems caused by parents problems in parent communication parent indifference and unconsciousness differences in socio-economic levels of parents parents’ sexist approaches the findings indicate that the education stakeholders theme consists of three categories: problems arising from school administrators and colleagues, problems arising from students, and problems arising from parents. firstly, participants reported that they did not receive the necessary mentor and peer support they needed during the career entry phase. p19 stated that the teacher assigned to him/her as a mentor had no impact and only filled out the necessary paperwork as a procedure when he/ she first started the job. similarly, participants emphasized that receiving the support of school administrators when starting their job was of critical importance but that it turkish novice teachers’ struggles for teaching and learning to teaching 45 no. 26 depended on the personal understanding of the school administrators. p5 expressed her personal experience on this issue as follows: in my current institution, there are more team learning processes, so we do everything ourselves, but we do everything together and discuss. but the school principal never thinks of us. when you demand something, he can get out of the business very easily. you don’t come across a question like how can i help you. secondly, the participants’ views in the category of problems arising from students indicate that there are quite different problems experienced. participants pointed out that students’ readiness levels were not sufficient, there were significant differences among students, and this was quite challenging for them. regarding students’ adjustment and behavioral problems, participants focused particularly on students with special needs and immigrant students. regarding this issue, p2 stated that immigrant students posed a challenge in the classroom due to language problems and social and cultural adaptation. p6, who holds a similar view, expressed her opinion as follows: for example, i had a problem with a student today while taking the written exam; he said that he did not know how to write. he can’t express himself; he can’t take his exams. i can say that we do not get along very well in class. these students are already lagging behind in class and homework. in terms of behavior, they are usually either too hesitant or too spoiled to suppress that sense of oppression. it is hard to find the middle. on the other hand, the participants have stated that they attempt to provide individual support for inclusive students and students who experience learning difficulties in regard to problems arising from students’ individual differences. however, they emphasized that their efforts sometimes exhaust them and that the underperformance of these students reduces their motivation. at a different point, the participants argued that students occasionally display indifferent attitudes towards certain courses or schools in general and that this can be attributed to parenting styles or the absence of any future planning regarding education on the part of the students. participants identified school attendance as another problem among students. they believe that factors such as seasonal or permanent employment as well as early marriage during school age are influential in causing school attendance problems among students. p12 shared their experiences regarding the region where they served in the past as follows: our school started in october and ended in april, as a significant portion of the students in urfa worked as seasonal agricultural workers. after april, some of the students did not come to school anymore. normally, only 15 students would come to school in a class of 20-25 people. either the father of the girls would not send them to school, or some of them would have been married. these were things that really happened. thirdly, in the category of problems arising from parents, communication issues with parents have been emphasized by the participants as an important issue. the ünal deniz and cihan kocabaş 46 no. 26 participants stated that the high expectations of parents put pressure on them as newly appointed teachers. p17 provided an example of this situation, stating: due to the institution i work for, the parents rather than the students caused me to feel pressure. the administration and other teachers were as helpful as possible. but the expectations of the parents were very high; it was clear that they did not trust me as a new teacher. until i got my parents to accept me or prove myself, this situation gave me trouble. another important point highlighted by the participants is parental neglect and unawareness. regarding this issue, p2 shared their experiences at their previous workplace, stating, “at my previous job, there was a profile of parents that we would visit. we would see a parent who did not appreciate or value their child and who was not interested in them.” later in the conversation, p2 noted that the parental profile at their current workplace was better. as a different observation, the participants reported that parents’ socio-economic levels sometimes manifest themselves in the class. p17 noted that students occasionally compare each other based on their possessions, such as the car they arrived in or the things they own, while p15 pointed out a different issue: “we want to buy a book to solve common questions in class, but not everyone can afford it. when a student’s notebook is finished, it takes a lot of time for a new one to arrive, and sometimes parents don’t even care about it.” the participants also argued that parents exhibit sexist behavior by not considering female teachers in some regions. p20 clarified this situation, stating, “in the east, parents do not pay much attention to female teachers. if you are even a female school administrator or a female teacher, they do not consider you. if there is a male school administrator nearby, they will first speak to him.” discussion in this study, it has been found that novice teachers encounter problems in areas such as the learning-teaching process, educational structure and opportunities, educational stakeholders, and individual and environmental factors. according to the qualitative data obtained, a significant portion of novice teachers experiences problems in the implementation phase of the curriculum in the classroom. implementing the curriculum requires more than transferring the content; it requires knowledge and skills. while achieving learning objectives, the curriculum also needs to be adapted to student’s needs, interests, and abilities. it can be argued that novice teachers do not have enough experience or expertise to do this effectively, resulting in problems in implementing the program in the classroom. indeed, in a study examining the problems encountered in implementing education programs in türkiye, it is pointed out that the biggest problem with the program is the insufficient time for teaching the identified contents (karacaoğlu & acar, 2010). in the current study, it was found that novice teachers also experience problems when planning and implementing teaching turkish novice teachers’ struggles for teaching and learning to teaching 47 no. 26 related to insufficient time, being unprepared for the lesson, and not having a sufficient command of the topic. the most significant problems encountered by new teachers in the profession are related to classroom management and discipline (onafowora, 2005). in this context, it can be considered an acceptable situation for novice teachers to have relatively low classroom management skills since no new teacher can be expected to be fully prepared on the first days of school (wayne, youngs, and fleischman, 2005). however, novice teachers also believe that the program content is incompatible with the classroom reality and daily life. this situation reveals a twoway theory and practices inconsistency. the first is related to the curriculum, which has been addressed in the program-related issues. the second is that the education received by the teacher during pre-service training is incompatible with the teacher’s professional life. alpaydın et al., (2018) study also found that the competencies gained in teacher training in türkiye are not in line with the teaching profession in terms of both standards and quality. according to the findings of this study, novice teachers associate some of their problems with macro-level problems in the education system. issues related to the organization and resources of education were discussed in relation to the problems experienced in this regard. novice teachers evaluate their own problems in connection with policy and implementation deficiencies related to the professional development of teachers. in addition, they perceive paperwork, which is a natural consequence of bureaucracy, as a burden while expressing that they are not provided with the necessary guidance and counseling to prepare these documents. it is understood that the orientation expected from administrators and experienced colleagues on this issue is not provided. in addition, the inadequacy of salaries, which can be considered as a macro problem of the education system, emerges as an important issue defined as a problem by novice teachers. according to demir and ercan (2013), one of the most important problems that teachers are concerned about is their low income. according to the findings of this study, the vast majority of teachers in the career entry stage find the salaries or wages they receive for their duties insufficient and think that they need to be improved. darling-hammond (2003) sees the salary issue as one of the fundamental factors that lead newly appointed teachers to develop positive feelings and thoughts towards their profession. ryan (1986) has stated that novice teachers generally have difficulty finding appropriate materials for their lessons. in addition to this situation, which is consistent with the findings of the current study, it is observed that novice teachers define problems related to the physical infrastructure and resources of the school, such as inadequate school budgets, crowded classes, transportation difficulties, and the absence of guidance services. according to the studies of fantilli and mcdougall (2009), novice teachers express feelings of failure, stress, experience-specific challenges in the classroom, and a sense of educational deficiency. it is predictable that these feelings will have an impact on the attitudes developed by the teacher toward their profession. therefore, individual factors ünal deniz and cihan kocabaş 48 no. 26 such as emotional state and psychological well-being, particularly for novice teachers, are crucial at the start of their careers. in the context of this study, it has been observed that novice teachers face some individual problems that can be attributed to a lack of preparedness for the realities of the educational institution. these problems fall under the category of individual factors and are directly related to health issues and attitudes developed toward the profession. additionally, fear of failure can also be categorized under this factor. as novice teachers’ first experiences are viewed by teachers as a source of anxiety, stress, and even depression (wayne, youngs, & fleischman, 2005), these situations can be evaluated as factors that cause various individual problems for novice teachers. under the category of environmental factors, it has been revealed that some teachers who work in disadvantaged areas face difficulties in accessing basic needs. this finding is noteworthy, as it suggests that teachers assigned to remote and rural areas may also encounter these types of problems. the results show that in türkiye, the sociological structure of the area in which a teacher works can sometimes be defined as a problem for novice teachers in terms of adapting to their profession. korkmaz et al., (2004) stated in their study that adapting to the geographical and social environment is among the difficulties faced by novice teachers. in the current study, it is observed that teachers in the early stages of their careers expect collaboration, assistance, and support, as well as positive relationships from their colleagues and administrators to solve problems related to their profession. however, it is understood that novice teachers do not receive enough support from their mentors or colleagues. bakioğlu and i̇nandı (2001) also express in their research that administrators do not make sufficient efforts in the career development of teachers. richter et al., (2013) state that mentorship would have positive effects during the entry process into the teaching profession. considering that collaboration with experienced colleagues and mentorship relationships have a significant impact on the development of novice teachers, the emphasis made by fantilli and mcdougall (2009) on this issue is highly meaningful for solving problems. this is because novice teachers need significant support, understanding, encouragement, trust, and guidance during the entry stage of their careers (katz, 1972). finally, it is observed that the problems categorized as a student and parent-related in the current study are similar to the problems identified in the relevant literature. in the current study, novice teachers point out that the students’ readiness levels are not sufficient, there are significant differences among the students, and this makes their job challenging. some teachers complain about parents having high expectations, while others complain about parents being indifferent or ignorant. meister and melnick (2003) reached similar results in their study on novice teachers throughout the united states. it was revealed that teachers have three main concerns, namely managing students’ behavior and various needs, coping with a heavy workload in limited time, and conflicts with parents. britt’s (1997) study found that teachers’ perceptions of their initial experiences in the profession were not positive. the study indicates that novice teachers are disappointed in students and evaluate the profession as overwhelming due to behavioral problems they turkish novice teachers’ struggles for teaching and learning to teaching 49 no. 26 encounter. in addition, it is reported that novice teachers are unable to communicate effectively with parents and complain about their lack of interest. ryan (1986) states in his study that parents are a major source of discomfort for new teachers due for various reasons. meister and melnick (2003) also stated that novice teachers feel lacking communication skills when communicating with parents and other adults. the findings of this research also overlap with the results of the study by korkmaz et al., (2004), which identified adaptation to the environment and communicating with parents as among the difficulties encountered by novice teachers. conclusion, implications, and limitations the results of the study indicate that novice teachers in türkiye experience problems such as disappointment and concerns about failure, mainly due to factors such as a lack of connection to university or pedagogical training, inadequacy in classroom management and discipline, inexperience, and encountering an environment with different characteristics than their ideal student, school, and parent profile. these findings are largely consistent with the results of similar studies conducted in different countries. the results suggest that novice teachers face various challenges that can hinder their success in the classroom and career paths. the difficulties encountered at the beginning of a teaching career are considered multifaceted, and it is evaluated that they can be solved through the action of all education stakeholders. this research provides data-based justifications for a comprehensive review of teacher training programs in türkiye in light of the difficulties experienced by novice teachers and for the establishment of mentorship programs that teachers can benefit from. in order to eliminate the various problems faced by novice teachers in türkiye, the study recommends that the education given in teacher training programs should contain more components that are oriented towards practice and application. universities should have their own practice schools to increase the opportunities for practical training, and the existing practice school process should be enhanced and operated more effectively. the quality of the outputs of teacher training programs can be improved by conducting practices considering the possible scenarios in educational environments during pre-service education and by diversifying the opportunities for practice. mechanisms necessary for new teachers to collaborate more efficiently with their colleagues should be implemented, and the establishment of formal or informal, long-term interaction-based relationships such as mentoring should be encouraged. finally, academic research and supportive policies (e.g., projects, practice workshops, workshops) focusing on how teachers cope with the problems they encounter and strategies that can be implemented in this regard can be developed by higher education institutions. ünal deniz and cihan kocabaş 50 no. 26 there are some limitations to be considered in this research. first of all, although the researchers have taken into account data saturation during the data collection stage, all participants are teachers currently working in istanbul. although this situation may not explain the problems encountered by novice teachers working in different regions of türkiye, a significant portion of the participants have previously worked in different regions of türkiye. thirdly, although various measures were taken to increase the reliability of the research (e.g., maximum variation sampling, detailed reporting of the research process), qualitative findings have limitations in terms of generalizability. turkish novice teachers’ struggles for teaching and learning to teaching 51 no. 26 references albayrak, a. 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(2005). the first days of school: how to be an effective teacher. harry k. wong publications. ünal deniz and cihan kocabaş authors: cihan kocabaş holds a phd degree in the field of education administration and supervision from marmara university, türkiye. he is currently employed as an expert at a public education foundation. he conducts various research and publication activities related to education policies, higher education management, and teacher training. orcid id: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6511-9094 ünal deniz is an associate professor at the scientific and technological research council of türkiye (tubitak). in the past, he worked as a teacher, administrator, and inspector in public and private schools. he received a ph.d. degree in educational administration from hacettepe university in 2021. his research interests include educational administration, comparative education, higher education policy, and management. his recent research topic is on school leadership and management in different cultures. orcid id: http://orcid.org/0000-0001-7447-6050 56 no. 26 turkish novice teachers’ struggles for teaching and learning to teaching how to reference this article: kocabaş, c., &amp; deniz, ünal. (2023). views from the fields: turkish novice teachers’ struggles for teaching and learning to teaching: turkish novice teachers’ struggles for teaching and learning to teaching. gist – education and learning research journal, 26. https://doi.org/10.26817/16925777.1588 portada 26.pdf (p.1) gist 26 januaryjune 2023.pdf (p.2-189) exploring instructors’ beliefs and practices in promoting students’ critical thinking skills in writing classes1 explorando las creencias y prácticas de los instructores para promover las habilidades de pensamiento crítico de los estudiantes en las clases de escritura yemeserach bayou debre tabor university, ethiopia tamene kitila2 addis ababa university, ethiopia 1 received: may 30th, 2023 / accepted: october 12th, 2023 2 yemeserachbayou@gmail.com, kitilatame@gmail.com gist education and learning research journal. issn 1692-5777. no. 26 (january june, 2023). pp. 123 154. 124 no. 26 abstract the growing requirement for students’ robust critical thinking (ct) skills in their academic writing, particularly at the tertiary level, has augmented the attention to equipping students with ct ability. the study, therefore, sought to investigate instructors’ beliefs and practices in promoting students’ critical thinking (ct) in writing classes. a multiple case study design was employed to address the study objective. three purposively selected instructors from wolkite university participated. the data collection method involved classroom observation, interview, and document analysis. the analysis was performed qualitatively using a grounded theory approachopen, axial, and selective coding. the findings indicated that the participants interpreted ct as students’ abilities to use appropriate language and logically argue in their writing. they explained some strategies used to promote students’ ct skills. these included providing an explicit introduction to ct, incorporating ct into the evaluation system, scaffolding, and giving meaningful topics and adequate opportunities for students to practice writing. writing activities such as argumentative, summary and cause-effect types were considered to promote students’ ct in writing classes. the study categorized and reported factors that interfered with instructors’ beliefs and practices as student-related, instructorrelated, and situation-specific factors. the findings contribute relevant insights into the english language teaching sphere. keywords: critical thinking, instructors’ beliefs, instructors’ practices, students’ critical thinking, writing skills resumen la creciente necesidad de que los estudiantes tengan sólidas habilidades de pensamiento crítico (ct) en su escritura académica, particularmente en el nivel terciario, ha aumentado la atención para equipar a los estudiantes con habilidades ct. por lo tanto, el estudio buscó investigar las creencias y prácticas de los profesores para promover el pensamiento crítico (ct) de los estudiantes en las clases de escritura. se empleó un diseño de estudio de casos múltiples para abordar el objetivo del estudio. participaron tres instructores intencionalmente seleccionados de la universidad wolkite. el método de recolección de datos implicó observación en el aula, entrevista y análisis de documentos. el análisis se realizó cualitativamente utilizando un enfoque de teoría fundamentada: codificación abierta, axial y selectiva. los hallazgos indicaron que los participantes interpretaron la pc como la capacidad de los estudiantes para usar un lenguaje apropiado y argumentar lógicamente en sus escritos. explicaron algunas estrategias utilizadas para promover las habilidades ct de los estudiantes. estas incluyeron proporcionar una introducción explícita a la ct, incorporar la ct en el sistema de evaluación, crear andamios y brindar temas significativos y oportunidades adecuadas para que los estudiantes practiquen la escritura. se consideraron actividades de escritura de tipo argumentativo, resumido y causaefecto para promover la pc de los estudiantes en las clases de escritura. el estudio categorizó e informó los factores que interferían con las creencias y prácticas de los instructores como factores relacionados con los estudiantes, relacionados con los instructores y específicos de la situación. los hallazgos aportan conocimientos relevantes sobre el ámbito de la enseñanza del idioma inglés. palabras claves: pensamiento crítico, creencias de los profesores, prácticas de los profesores, pensamiento crítico de los estudiantes, habilidades de escritura. instructors’ beliefs and practices for promoting critical thinking in writing classes 125 no. 26 resumo a crescente necessidade de habilidades robustas de pensamento crítico (pc) dos alunos em sua escrita acadêmica, especialmente no nível superior, tem aumentado a atenção para capacitar os alunos com habilidades de pc. o estudo buscou investigar, portanto, as crenças e práticas dos instrutores na promoção do pensamento crítico (pc) dos alunos em aulas de escrita. foi empregado um design de estudo de caso múltiplo para abordar o objetivo do estudo. três instrutores selecionados propositadamente da universidade de wolkite participaram. o método de coleta de dados envolveu observação de sala de aula, entrevista e análise de documentos. a análise foi realizada qualitativamente usando uma abordagem de teoria fundamentada codificação aberta, axial e seletiva. os resultados indicaram que os participantes interpretaram o pc como as habilidades dos alunos de usar linguagem apropriada e argumentar logicamente em sua escrita. eles explicaram algumas estratégias usadas para promover as habilidades de pc dos alunos. estas incluíram fornecer uma introdução explícita ao pc, incorporar o pc no sistema de avaliação, andamento gradual e oferecer tópicos significativos e oportunidades adequadas para os alunos praticarem a escrita. atividades de escrita, como tipos argumentativos, sumário e causa-efeito, foram consideradas para promover o pc dos alunos em aulas de escrita. o estudo categorizou e relatou fatores que interferiram nas crenças e práticas dos instrutores como relacionados aos alunos, aos instrutores e a situações específicas. os resultados contribuem com insights relevantes para a esfera do ensino da língua inglesa. palavras-chave: pensamento crítico, crenças dos instrutores, práticas dos instrutores, pensamento crítico dos alunos, habilidades de escrita. yemeserach bayou and tamene kitila 126 no. 26 introduction producing learners equipped with ct ability and who can function in this ever-changing and complex world evolved into an eminent concern of numerous scholars (e.g., buskist & irons, 2008; paul & elder, 2002; schafersman, 1991; vallis, 2010). learners, who have the ability to question perspectives, recognize alternative points of view, make decisions/judgments, and solve problems, are demanded in today’s workforce. the standards in the market require learners to handle the proliferation of information and to carefully weigh available evidence (buskist & irons, 2008; halpern, 2003). çavdar and doe (2012) posited that critical thinkers have the ability to make better decisions by analyzing, evaluating, and synthesizing existing information on a particular issue. the efficient application of ct ability has, therefore, become a foundation for competently undertaking responsibilities in the contemporary world. regardless of its relevance, the interpretation of ct is elusive. scholars in different disciplines attempted to define it. for instance, in the discipline of philosophy, facione (1990) described ct as a “purposeful, self-regulatory judgment which results in interpretation, analysis, evaluation, and inference, as well as an explanation of the evidential, conceptual, methodological, criteriological, or conceptual considerations upon which that judgment is based” (p. 3). facione links ct with the ability to make a judgment by operating the specific ct components. in the context of writing skill, dong (2015) defined ct as “a mindful application of a structured mode of thinking which aims to improve the quality of thinking to achieve intellectual standards of excellence in l2 written communication” (p. 25). ct is depicted as the ability to exhibit refined thinking in writing. despite variations in defining ct, scholars agree on the intimate relationship between ct and writing. according to paul and elder (2002), “disciplined writing requires disciplined thinking; disciplined thinking is achieved through disciplined writing” (p. 376). this view echoes the demonstration of ct through writing and the relevance of ct to composing a substantiated text that meets the intended purpose. advocating writing as a mechanism to stimulate ct, researchers (e.g., bouanani, 2015; çavdar & doe, 2012; quitadamo & kurtz, 2007) argued that learners reflect ct in applying knowledge of their course content. writing reflects thinking. the recursive and reflective nature of writing assists learners’ utilization of ct elements (bouanani, 2015). paul and elder (2006), in this respect, expounded that “in writing, they [students] are able to clearly and accurately analyze and evaluate ideas in texts and in their own thinking” (p. 5). the impact of ct in enhancing students’ ct ability and thereby writing performance is explicated by various researchers (e.g., dong, 2015; lin, 2014; moghaddam & malekzadeh, 2011; zhao et al., 2016). academic writing is beyond a instructors’ beliefs and practices for promoting critical thinking in writing classes 127 no. 26 collection of words, linguistic structures, and paragraphs. nejmaoui (2019) asserted that effective communication of meaning in writing cannot be attained by haphazardly repeating language. ct is assumed to enable writers to compose texts systematically by retaining the purpose. composing a text for the intended purpose requires writers to develop plausible reasoning, evidence, and conclusion that ultimately demands ct ability. for instance, generating and inspecting the relevance of the information, and coordinating ideas in a meaningful and reasonable way mainly involve the application of ct. in other words, ct guides writers to “think through a given idea.” (vallis, 2010, p. 5). because of the significant role of ct, intellectuals (e.g., dong, 2015; dwee et al., 2016; lin, 2014) advocate the necessity of promoting students’ ct in the educational sphere. khatib et al. (2012) argued that “it is a moral right for learners to learn how to think critically” (p. 34). the promotion of students’ ct is, however, influenced by instructors’ classroom decisions and beliefs about ct. instructors’ classroom practices and beliefs about students’ ct and writing abilities determine the learning condition. several scholars (borg, 2003; breen et al., 2001; pajares, 1992) indicated the influence of instructors’ beliefs on their classroom practices. instructors’ beliefs, which are tacitly impacted by their prior learning experience, educational training, and teaching experience, dictate their actions in the actual context. as gemechis (2020) explained, instructors’ beliefs, which are mainly reflected through their classroom practices, “are a critical foundation for students to receive the knowledge and skills that they need to fulfill their potential” (p.59). instructors’ classroom practices are assumed to accord with the principles in the educational curriculums in ethiopia. promoting students’ ct has become one of the pertinent areas in gtp 2010/15 (moe, 2011). the educational curriculums throughout primary up to university advocate the promotion of students’ ct ability using a learnercentered approach (moe, 2009, 2013, 2018). correspondingly, instructors’ attempt to promote students’ ct is emphasized in the higher diploma program (hdp) inservice training provided to instructors in ethiopian universities (moe, 2011). they are supposed to facilitate learning, encourage independent learning, create conducive writing classrooms, and employ meaningful tasks (moe, 2011, 2013). there exists an expectation that the teaching-learning process embraces both what to think (content knowledge) and how to think (thinking critically) aspects (crawford et al., 2005; schafersman, 1991). nonetheless, our knowledge about university instructors’ beliefs and practices of promoting students’ ct in writing classes is limited. for example, meng (2016) studied the perspectives of primary school efl teachers about the significance of incorporating ct into the curriculum. the study emphasized reading skills in connection with ct so that writing skill was not the concern. petek and bedir’s (2015) study, on the other hand, aimed at assessing pre-service and in-service english teachers’ perception of yemeserach bayou and tamene kitila 128 no. 26 ct and its integration into language education. regardless of the significance of the study in the context of elt, the participants’ conceptualization of ct in the context of elt was not precisely indicated. besides, the strategies that the participants used to reinforce students’ ct in the classrooms were neglected. similarly, tuzlukova et al.’s (2017) study explored english language teachers’ beliefs about ct and the association between ct and language teaching methods. like the studies above, the connection between ct and writing skills received no particular attention. in addition, the study neglected how the teachers’ professed beliefs were exhibited in classroom practices. the aforementioned gaps, therefore, instigated the authors to explore the beliefs and practices of instructors in promoting students’ ct in the context of writing classes at the university level. the study addressed the following questions: 1. what are instructors’ beliefs about promoting students’ ct skills in writing classes? 2. how are instructors’ stated beliefs reflected in their practices in promoting students’ ct skills in writing classes? 3. what factors influence instructors’ practices in promoting students’ ct in writing classes? literature review critical thinking and its elements critical thinking (ct) has become the principal issue in different disciplines (dong, 2015). the philosophical dimension explains the peculiarities or qualities of a critical thinker (lai, 2011). for instance, paul and elder (2006) interpreted ct as “the art of analyzing and evaluating thinking with a view to improving it” (p. 4). for paul and elder, ct is about refining thinking by employing particular standards used to scrutinize reasoning. the cognitive psychologists (e.g., sternberg, 1986), however, criticized the philosophical dimension for its focus on ‘formal logical systems’ that is incongruent with classroom requirements. fahim and mirzaii (2014) argued that the philosophical approach “merely focusing on hypothesized competence viewed in a vacuum, loses sight of real-life performance (p. 5)”. cognitive psychologists describe the actual thinking process. sternberg (1986) explained ct as “the mental processes, strategies, and representations people use to solve problems, make decisions, and learn new concepts” (p.3). the absence of a clear description of the ‘mental strategies’, however, makes the interpretation ambiguous and challenging to apply in an educational setting. educationists adapt definitions either from the philosophy, or cognitive psychology disciplines. the interpretation of ct, thus, embraces both instructors’ beliefs and practices for promoting critical thinking in writing classes 129 no. 26 competence and performance orientations (sternberg, 1986). the use of different expressions to define ct might occur following scholars’ attempts to subsume ct in their respective disciplines. this variation, however, cannot imply the existence of significant conceptual differences among intellectuals. ct embraces both cognitive skills and dispositions. according to facione (1990), ct involves six cognitive skills: interpretation, analysis, evaluation, inference, explanation, and self-regulation (p.7). paul and elder’s (2002) category incorporates elements of thought and intellectual standards. elements of thought represent a related concept with what different scholars mention as ‘ct skills’. paul and elder attempted to make ct more tangible and susceptible to measurement through the ‘intellectual standards’. for this reason, most researchers (e.g., dong, 2015; wang, 2017) indicated the suitability of paul and elder’s model to adapt in the efl context. in the discipline of education, researchers (e.g., baez, 2004; dong, 2015) commonly mention bloom’s (1956) taxonomy. the higher-order levels in the taxonomyanalysis, synthesis, and evaluationare claimed to represent the demonstration of ct in an educational setting (wang, 2017). despite variations in the proposed taxonomies, the skills of analysis, synthesis, and evaluation appear across the models. possessing ct skills fails to guarantee the disposition to apply them and vice versa (facione, 2000; jones et al., 1995). learners are expected to have the disposition to implement the skills in appropriate circumstances (qing, 2013). according to paul and elder (2002), ct dispositions incorporate intellectual integrity, intellectual humility, intellectual sense of justice, intellectual perseverance, intellectual fair-mindedness, intellectual confidence in reason, intellectual courage, intellectual empathy, and intellectual autonomy (p. 39). regardless of its relevance, the disposition aspect has failed to obtain adequate recognition in educational settings, particularly in the efl context. for instance, the disposition aspect gained little weight in studies (e.g., daud, 2012; dong, 2015; lin, 2014) that focused on students’ ct and english language learning. the lack of instructional strategies to reinforce students’ ct dispositions and the inadequate awareness about the components might have caused the problem. ct promoting strategies in writing classes according to wilson’s (2019) explanation, a language class that is “interactive, vibrant, authentic, explicit and scaffolded” (p. 14) facilitates the promotion of students’ ct. a wide array of teaching strategies exist to promote students’ ct. these included teacher modeling, collaborative learning, questioning, reading, and writing assignments. the instructors’ modeling of the demonstration of ct impacts students’ implementation of ct, especially the disposition aspect of ct (abrami et al., 2008; buskist & irons, 2008). teachers model the demonstration of ct by recognizing biases as well as clarifying their viewpoints (hofreiter, 2005). students, thus, become flexible yemeserach bayou and tamene kitila 130 no. 26 in dealing with alternative ideas, detecting personal bias, and developing the habit of questioning views when conveying ideas in writing (zhao et al., 2016). collaborative learning, which entails group discussion, dialogue, peer evaluation/ review, and group work, supports the promotion of students’ ct in writing classes (buranapatana, 2006; dwee et al., 2016; fahim & mirzaii, 2014). osborne et al. (2009) argued that learners execute ct by communicating ideas, comparing and contrasting viewpoints, and generating and scrutinizing varied perspectives in collaboration. they become conscious of the potential mental strategies by observing others demonstrate ct components (buranapatana, 2006; zhao et al., 2016). likewise, daud (2012) stated that learners become open-minded through the process of giving and receiving comments or suggestions of optional ideas from their peers. collaboration, therefore, assists students in accomplishing complex tasks that demand advanced mental processing and reasoning skills. in addition, questioning has become a prominent strategy to promote students’ ct (alfares, 2014; buranapatana, 2006; fahim & eslamdoost, 2014). as fahim and khatib (2013) explained, “it is the duty of the teacher to implicitly ask students to attend to strategies of ct and to evaluate each reasoning and argument on a multi-dimensional level before accepting it as correct” (p.82). asking questions during lecturing compels students to analyze and apply the learned contents in different situations (schafersman, 1991). in describing ct-triggering questions, beyer (2001a, cited in buranapatana, 2006) stated the relevance of questions that “call for sustained efforts to reason and to evaluate reasoning” (p.89). these questions demand students to “clarify statements, define terms, and judge the relevance, accuracy, and nature of statements” (p.89). furthermore, students’ ct can be better reinforced by integrating reading and writing skills (dong, 2015; mehta & al-mahrouqi, 2015). paul and elder (2008, cited in mehta & al-mahrouqi, 2015) stated that “writing which is not based on critical reading might well be merely personal and exist without either context or wider purpose” (p. 40). in this type of writing, prejudices, biases, myths, and stereotypes become dominant. therefore, activities that demand analyzing, evaluating, and synthesizing reasoning/ argument, explaining understanding and implied meaning in a text, and asking and responding to questions stimulate students’ ct in writing (case, 2004; cottrell, 2005; fahim & eslamdoost, 2014). generally, researchers (e.g., case, 2004; çavdar & doe, 2012; mangena, 2003; mulnix & mulnix, 2010) suggested different types of writing tasks. these included argumentative, narrative, and opinion writing; note-taking, summary, and reflective writing as well as seminar papers. instructors’ beliefs and practices for promoting critical thinking in writing classes 131 no. 26 teachers’ beliefs and practices in promoting students’ ct in language learning class examining teachers’ beliefs is a daunting task due to different conceptualizations of the term. for example, haney et al. (2003) interpreted beliefs as “one’s convictions, philosophy, tents, or opinions about teaching and learning” (p. 367). in a more specific way, pajares (1992) characterized beliefs as “teachers’ attitudes about education-about schooling, teaching, learning, and students” (p. 316). pajares asserted that every teacher holds beliefs about the profession, the students, the subject matter, and the teachers’ roles and responsibilities. in the present study, beliefs refer to a complex set of theories, assumptions, and perspectives instructors hold about the teaching, learning, and curricula related to writing and the promotion of students’ ct in writing instruction. in this respect, the findings of different studies explicated teacher respondents’ beliefs about the interpretation of ct, the nature of ct-promoting activities, and teaching strategies. for example, in meng’s (2016) study, ct was depicted as the ability to produce novel ideas, develop a point of view, solve problems, and make plausible decisions through ‘analyzing’, ‘reasoning’, ‘processing information’ and ‘questioning’ (p. 178). the respondents’ limited understanding of the concept of ct was mentioned as a recurring issue in the studies. in addition, respondents in several studies (e.g., hasni et al., 2018; toshpulatova & kinjemuratova, 2020; tuzlukova et al., 2017) illustrated varied ctpromoting activities. these were argumentative writing, reflective writing, reporting, blog writing, paraphrasing, and summarizing. studies (gregory, 2011; kanik, 2010; meng, 2016) further indicated various ct-promoting teaching strategies. these included explicit teaching of ct elements, assessment of ct, inductive approach, inquiry, self-reflection, questioning, group and whole class discussion, and modeling. the degree of consistency between teachers’ beliefs and practices is, however, determined by contextual factors (borg, 2003; tsui, 2011). contextual factors that impede the promotion of students’ ct in writing classes are related to students, teachers, and situations. students’ achievement-oriented perception and lack of interest are among the student-related factors. hofreiter (2005) argued that students who prioritize scoring good grades have less determination to think critically. these students instead prefer memorizing facts, responding to close-ended questions, and struggling to secure their marks (alwine, 2007; gregory, 2011; reynolds, 2016). besides, students avoid thinking critically about content that they perceived as irrelevant, and they become passive if their interests/needs are not addressed (buskist & irons, 2008; gregory, 2011). additionally, teachers’ insufficient understanding of ct, and ctpromoting strategies deter their efficacy in explicitly promoting students’ ct (dwee et al., 2016). in this regard, alwine (2007) clarified doubts concerning instructors’ potential to teach ct without a sufficient understanding of ct aspects. the absence of pre-service and yemeserach bayou and tamene kitila 132 no. 26 in-service methodological training concerning ct has contributed to the teachers’ limited awareness of ct (reynolds, 2016; snyder & snyder, 2008). likewise, buskist and irons (2008) associated teachers’ abstinence from promoting ct with the teachers’ uncertainty about the assessment mechanisms of ct in students’ work. furthermore, situational factors such as time constraints and large class sizes are explained to be hindering factors. shortage of time obliges teachers to be indecisive about whether to focus on content coverage or encourage depth of understanding and ct (saleh, 2019). method research design a multiple case study design was adopted. the design helps to extensively investigate the promotion of students’ ct in writing classes from the perspective of multiple instructors to gain varied meanings (yin, 2003). examining the similarities as well as differences among the cases helped the authors to detect complex and unique insights regarding the issue in the study. multiple case study aims at developing an indepth understanding of a phenomenon based on its natural setting (yin, 2014, 2018). this nature of the case study supported the investigation of contextual factors that affect instructors’ practices. participants the study was carried out at wolkite universityone of the third-generation public universities in ethiopia. yin (2018) asserted that participant selection in a multiple case study is primarily determined by the potential to generate a thorough understanding of a phenomenon instead of population representativeness. three instructors were, therefore, purposively selected among the 30 instructors in the department of english language and literature. they were selected in light of their background training, the course they offer, and their teaching experience. instructors, who were trained in elt (english language teaching), and teach the communicative english language skills ii course, participated in the study. these instructors were believed to provide better data due to their familiarity with the issue of the present study. in addition, the study involved instructors based on the length of their teaching experience categorized into three ranges (< 5 years, 5-10 years, and > 10 years). the target instructors’ involvement in the study was, however, determined by their willingness and accessibility. the authors guaranteed the instructors the anonymity of the information they would provide. instructors’ beliefs and practices for promoting critical thinking in writing classes 133 no. 26 table 1. description of the participants instructor code gender qualification specialization teaching experience (in years) ia m ma elt 5 ib m phd candidate elt 10 ic m ma elt 14 as depicted in table 1, the authors used instructor code to maintain the anonymity of the participants. two instructors were ma graduates in elt, while the other was a phd candidate in elt. their teaching experience varies from 5 to 14 years. data collection methods the data collection methods included classroom observation, interviews, and document analysis. the classroom observation data aimed at addressing the second research question. a semi-structured observation protocol as well as continuous field notes served to carry out the observation. the observation checklist was designed based on insights generated from literature (e.g., choy & cheah, 2009; meng, 2016; paul & elder, 2002; mesfin, 2013; meseret, 2012). the reliability of the observation data was maintained through data triangulation, frequent observation, and notetaking. the validity was ensured by receiving comments on the observation guide, operationalizing the ct indicators, and employing audio records. adopting a nonparticipant observation approach, the first author carried out the observation with a support of a voice recorder. a total of nine writing sessions were observed from november 1, 2021, through december 17, 2021. each of the participants was observed three times. the interview was used to understand the instructors’ unobservable meaning related to the research questions. three different types of interviews were carried out: ‘pre-observation interviews’, ‘stimulated recall’, and the ‘main interview’. the preobservation and stimulated recall interviews accompanied the classroom observations. the pre-observation interview preceded each observation session to obtain an explanation of the instructors’ plan as a benchmark to explain their actual practice. the stimulated recall interviews helped to detect the participants’ rationalization of their practices. they elucidated their rationale for specific classroom decisions after they listened to the selected segments in the audio record. ‘the main interview’ was conducted after culminating all the observation sessions to explore the participants’ general beliefs concerning ct and the promotion of ct in writing classes. for this interview, a semi-structured interview guide with 11 items related to ct and writing skills was prepared based on previous empirical studies (e.g., mcintyre, 2011; paul et yemeserach bayou and tamene kitila 134 no. 26 al., 1997; rademaekers, 2018; stapleton, 2011). the main interview took an average of 1:10 hours. a digital voice recorder was employed throughout all the interview sessions. the reliability of the interview data was ensured by applying the same interview items across different participants (cohen et al., 2000). besides, comments were sought from the advisor, a panel of experts, and the respondents to maintain the validity. furthermore, the authors used document analysis to gain detailed information that strengthens data generated through observation and interviews. this method was particularly relevant to address the second research question thoroughly. the communicative english skills ii course incorporated several writing activities. students are required to write different types of paragraphs and an essay. instructors who deliver the course give students activities mainly selected from the course material. the document analysis, therefore, focused on analyzing the quality of the writing activities the instructors assigned to students, especially during the observed sessions. for this purpose, a guiding framework that incorporated eleven items was used. the guide was designed based on ideas generated from the literature (e.g., alfares, 2014; wahab, 2013). the validity of the tool was ensured based on comments received from the advisor, and three experts. data collection process and analysis the data collection took two months starting from november 1, 2021, through december 24, 2021. the classroom observations were performed accompanied by the document analysis as well as the pre-observation and stimulated recall interviews. the main interview was conducted with each participant after completing the observation sessions on december 17, 2021. a memo that embraced informal discussions and personal reflections/perspectives complemented the overall data collection process. the data analysis in a multiple-case study involves single-case analysis and crosscase analysis (yin, 2009). the authors analyzed each case thoroughly and performed a cross-case analysis to address the research questions. the qualitative data analysis method was manipulated to treat the data. the data analysis involved three phases of coding: open, axial/analytical, and selective coding (charmaz, 2006; merriam, 2009). a constant comparative method that included a continuous comparison and contrast of categories, ideas, or concepts within and across the cases was performed during the data generation and coding process (charmaz, 2006). the coding was processed using nvivo 10 software. the participants received the final version of the data analysis, and verbatim transcriptions of the observations and the interviews for their validation. instructors’ beliefs and practices for promoting critical thinking in writing classes 135 no. 26 results what are instructors’ beliefs about promoting students’ ct skills in writing classes? the instructors’ beliefs were accessed through interviews. they were asked about their interpretation of ct and its elements, ct-promoting strategies, activities, and feedback. interpretation of ct and the elements there was a shared understanding between ia and ic concerning the interpretation of ct. they described ct as the ability to understand the way to convey information using the appropriate language in writing (see table 2). ia highlighted: ct might be related to the information students have in their minds and the way they express it using the grammar, vocabulary, and mechanics they know. it is the ability they use to just remember and brainstorm or jot down the information that they have in their mind at the first stage [stimulated recall interview 1 (sri1)]. differently, ib viewed ct in terms of the ability to express ideas convincingly and logically in writing. ib emphasized the quality of the idea that is communicated to the reader. as shown in table 2, ib and ic held different perspectives concerning the components of ct. for example, in ib’s view, ct embraces knowing, understanding, transferring, making a conclusion, inferring, and open-mindedness. yemeserach bayou and tamene kitila 136 no. 26 table 2. overview of instructors’ beliefs about ct promotion core themes explanation cases ia ib ic ct interpretation the ability to evaluate, and have multiple understandings concerning how to use the language form in writing. x x the ability to express ideas logically and convincingly. x ct elements knowing, understanding, transferring, concluding, inferring, and open-mindedness x problem-solving, analysis, synthesis, evaluation, fairness, and reasoning x ct-promoting instructional mechanisms sufficient chance to write x x x meaningful topic x x pair or group work x x x ct-oriented evaluation system x assessing meaning and structure x explicit ct introduction x scaffolding and follow up x x ct-promoting writing activities argumentative writing x cause-effect type of writing x summary writing x x logical arrangement of sentences x ct-promoting feedback provision peer feedback x x instructor feedback x ct promoting instructional mechanisms the participants elucidated various ct-promoting mechanisms in writing class (see table 2). all the participants believed that students demonstrate ct when they obtain the chance to write more frequently instead of solely receiving input about writing skills. ia claimed that the authenticity of the topic transforms students’ superficial understanding and description of the issue into higher-level thinking. similarly, ic expounded on the possibility to promote ct in writing by assigning a variety of writing activities that are related to students’ backgrounds, knowledge, and experience. besides, ia elucidated the contribution of working in groups in minimizing students’ anxiety and developing multiple perspectives. ic and ia denoted the possibility that lower achievers elevate their ct ability when working cooperatively with high achievers. ia stated that: instructors’ beliefs and practices for promoting critical thinking in writing classes 137 no. 26 when students write a given essay, the way one keeps the unity of the text is quite different from that of the other. then, while they share it, they critically think about how to improve, how to write, and how to forward their issue or information [main interview (m int.)]. unlike the others, ib elucidated the relevance of ct oriented evaluation system, explicit ct introduction, assessing meaning and structure, and imposing higher expectations on students. apart from explicitly evaluating the manifestation of students’ ct in writing, he indicated the possibility of implicitly promoting ct by seeking students to construct both ‘grammatically’ and ‘functionally’ correct sentences. ib illuminated the necessity of training students about the strategies to apply ct. he explained that: the students can be taught or familiarized with the strategies and techniques that may help them to implement the elements of ct whenever they are writing. once they know the strategies or the techniques, i think it could be easy for them to employ them whenever they are writing [m int.]. he also argued that students exercise to think critically when teachers consider students’ ct ability as a requirement. he said that “we have to tell our students that as a university student, they are required to be critical or showing our expectation […] when the expectation of the teacher is high, the students may attempt to be that level” [m int.]. additionally, ia and ic advocated instructors’ role in scaffolding and follow-up. for example, ia asserted that instructors are responsible for designing and furnishing a path that students walk through. he highlighted that “the way they [students] walk is up to them, but my duty is only building the bridge […] so, i tell students how to reason out for a given issue or problem. i lead them, but the way they write what they have in their mind is up to them” [m int.]. ct promoting writing activities the participants explained that ct underlies any writing process, though the nature of some writing activities determines the level of ct the writer has to instill. as depicted in table 2, ia believed that an argumentative type of writing enables students to be reasonable, to engage in an ‘evaluative kind of work’, to identify the appropriate expression, and to solve a problem. ia and ic claimed that students demonstrate ct skills in cause-effect and summary writing. ic argued that “we also encourage students to make a summary. so they analyze a text and summarize a long text….we are not only teaching writing skills rather we are giving a chance for students to think critically about different subject areas or core courses” [m int.]. moreover, ic signified the involvement of reasoning as students decide to sequence ideas in activities that demand logical arrangement of concepts. yemeserach bayou and tamene kitila 138 no. 26 ct promoting feedback provision peer feedback and instructor feedback have gained weight compared to selfreflection. according to the participants’ view, the criteria that they introduce would implicitly dictate the students to do self-reflection. they believed that students exercise the skill of ‘evaluation’ when performing peer feedback and self-reflection. the participants, however, doubted the effectiveness of peer feedback compared to instructor feedback. ia argued that students’ writing competence determines their ability to provide comments on others’ texts. likewise, ib contended that most of the students’ feedback on their colleagues’ written work is always positive. ib and ic considered instructor feedback as a mechanism for identifying the student’s current status, motivating negligent students, and appreciating hardworking students. the content of the feedback determines the students’ opportunity to exercise ct in their writing. as the instructors stated, their criteria incorporated the structure of a paragraph (topic sentence, supporting details, and concluding sentence), unity, coherence, completeness, sentence clarity, reasoning, grammar, vocabulary, and mechanics. ib said that “most of the time whenever coherence is discussed, we often discuss the connectives or the linking words. but to write a coherent paragraph or essay, one needs to think critically” [sri1]. he stated the possibility of sustaining the unity and coherence of a written text through thinking critically. how are instructors’ stated beliefs reflected in their practices in promoting students’ ct skills in writing classes? the instructors’ classroom practices were categorized under four themes: classroom interaction, instructional mechanism, the nature of writing activities, and the system of feedback provision. each theme was elaborated with key indicators and a description of the indicators (see table 3). the ‘description’ thoroughly portrays the feature of the key indicators based on the observation data. the implementation frequency designates the frequency at which the instructors implemented a particular strategy. it was counted in light of the number of classroom observations conducted with each participant. instructors’ beliefs and practices for promoting critical thinking in writing classes 139 no. 26 table 3. a description of instructors’ practices classroom practices key indicators description implementation frequency ia ib ic c la ss ro om in te ra ct io n student-student interaction collaboration, confirmation, clarification, commenting, generating ideas 3× 3× 3× instructor-student interaction complementing, examining knowledge, monitoring attention, responding to questions, motivating, stimulating thinking, prompting elaboration 3× 3× 3× in st ru ct io na l m ec ha ni sm implementing process approach brainstorming, drafting, receiving feedback, writing the final draft 3× 3× 3× providing input steps of the writing process, types of paragraphs, cohesive devices, the structure of a paragraph and an essay 3× 3× 3× reading text sample for the structure of a paragraph, cohesive devise implementation once once assigning extra activity essay writing outside class once facilitating sharing responsibilities, explaining, providing examples, suggesting terms or expressions, guiding, encouraging 3× 3× 3× th e na tu re o f w rit in g ac tiv iti es narrative paragraph writing personal experience of problemsolving once once reflective paragraph writing lessons learned from dr. aklilu once once argumentative paragraph writing banning chat chewing, refuting or supporting the author’s point of view, using traditional medicine once once once problem solution paragraph writing global warming problems and solutions once once informative paragraph writing herbal medicine advantages and disadvantages once compare-contrast paragraph writing traditional versus modern medicine once informative essay writing university life challenges once yemeserach bayou and tamene kitila 140 no. 26 th e na tu re o f fe ed ba ck p ro vi sio n instructor feedback content and language focus 3× 3× 3× self-reflection content and language focus 3× 3× 2× peer feedback content and language focus 2× 3× classroom interaction was the most prevalent occurrence in all the participants’ classes (see table 3). there was instructor-student interaction throughout the observed sessions. this interaction concentrated on complementing and questioning students to stimulate their thinking, examine their knowledge and monitor their attention. most of the instructors’ questions during the lecture sessions sought a predetermined answer that mainly required lower-order thinking instead of ct. the student-student interactions mainly occurred when writing collaboratively, peer commenting, and idea generation. for example, during the third observation session, ia instructed students to develop a paragraph individually and then produce a text collaboratively by combining selected ideas from their respective texts. this instance exposed students to analyze, evaluate and identify points through meaningfully interacting with peers. in ib’s and ic’s classes, students were allowed to share experiences and generate ideas at the prewriting stage. the finding further revealed instructors’ implementation of diverse instructional mechanisms such as process approach, input delivery, assigning a home-take writing activity, and facilitating. the instructors persistently followed up and encouraged students to do the activities using the process approach. nonetheless, only a few students in the three sections continued writing after receiving feedback on their drafts. according to the observation, the participants provided inputs on different core issues about paragraph and essay writing (see table 3). ib and ic accompanied the input delivery with sample reading texts. however, at the pre-writing stage, none of the instructors assigned time for students to read the passages that complemented the writing activities in the course material. yet, few students in ib’s and ic’s classes were reading the passages before writing. the participants strived to compensate for this gap by reminding students of relevant information, giving examples and clues, and asking for elaboration. among the others, ib extended students’ writing practice by assigning a home take writing activity. as shown in table 3, students accomplished several writing activities that requires their ct ability. the activities demanded students to include examples and reasons and recognize the opposite view as well as incorporate ideas other than their mere instructors’ beliefs and practices for promoting critical thinking in writing classes 141 no. 26 opinion. for instance, ic informed the students to use sufficient reasons and examples when writing a paragraph about their agreement and disagreement with the author’s view. similarly, harmonizing with his belief about ct elements, ib encouraged the students to consider opposing perspectives while writing an argumentative paragraph about traditional medicine. ia contrarily directed students to focus on their point of argument instead of recognizing the opposite side when writing a paragraph on prohibiting the practice of chewing chat. the students in ib’s and ic’s classes had more exposure to different writing activities since they did more than one writing activity in a two hours session. moreover, students had to analyze, synthesize and evaluate concepts in passages when doing some of the paragraph writing activities. the instructors were, however, reluctant to encourage students to read the passages before doing the writing activities. moreover, students obtained comments on their drafts through instructor feedback, self-reflection, and peer feedback. ia’s and ic’s criteria focused on grammar, mechanics, vocabulary, coherence, and unity. ic emphasized students’ reasoning, particularly in the second observation session. ib’s criteria focused on the inclusion of opposite perspectives, and reasons. students were not given a separate time for self-reflection. the instructors instead informed these criteria to the students and instructed them to evaluate their draft before peer feedback or instructor comment. besides, the participants gave feedback to students individually and to the overall class at the end of each session. peer feedback was the preferable strategy mainly employed by ia and ib. for example, during the third observation day, ia initiated discussions with the peers concerning the comments and learn from their mistakes. what factors influence instructors’ practices in promoting students’ ct in writing classes? according to the participants’ explanation, the factors that impede the practice of promoting students’ ct in writing classes are student-related, instructor-related, and situational factors. the student-related factors include inadequate understanding of the basic elements of writing and the absence of learners’ self-autonomy. the participants contemplated good writing competence as a requisite to concentrate on students’ ct. for example, ib said that “we have to teach and we have to remind our students to be critical whenever they are writing. my doubt is whether it is possible to teach or focus on ct on students who even lack the basic skills…how can i teach ct to students who start sentences with a small letter?” [m int.]. similarly, ic explained the difficulty of promoting ct to students who cannot express ideas meaningfully. moreover, the participants indicated students’ negligence of their responsibility as an obstacle. ib clarified the students’ apathy to practicing writing and bringing the necessary materials when they attend classes. he was, therefore, convinced about the unfeasibility of high expectations concerning promoting students’ ct in writing classes. yemeserach bayou and tamene kitila 142 no. 26 in addition, the instructors mentioned aggressiveness and poor commitment as instructor-related factors that affect the promotion of students’ ct. they indicated the prevalence of instructors who provide discouraging criticisms of students’ errors, yet avoid compliments on the students’ better attempts. ia disclosed that “most of the instructors in the university, including the instructors in my department, are aggressive on students […] the instructor has to appreciate them for their writing. he/she should give them constructive feedback on the error they have made while writing” [m int.]. in the participants’ view, this factor presses students to focus on avoiding mistakes instead of making their ideas clear, and they get compelled to conform to what others believe. moreover, the participants mentioned instructors’ sporadic decrease in commitment to teaching. ib argued that instructors with low commitment are no longer interested in the teaching profession, so they are aloof to following up on how students critically express their points when writing. instructors with such behavior instead prefer to deliver content that they are familiar with for years. the instructors, furthermore, stated other situational factors related to classroom size, time constraints, and material preparation. they indicated the unfeasibility of asking students the ‘how’ and ‘why’ questions due to large class sizes, and time constraints. ia explained that “the number of students available within a classroom never pave the way to […] evaluate the mistake or to check whether they are applying ct or not [.…] how can i see all those 60 students’ activity within an hour?...” [m int.]. the participants clarified their struggle to thoroughly check what students did and give students extra time for further practice to enable them to improve their mistakes due to time limitations. moreover, the participants reflected contradictory views regarding the teaching material [communicative english skills ii course module]. ib criticized the module for a dearth of diverse situations in the writing activities and for the absence of an explicit introduction to ct. he said that “i do not know whether it is implicitly mentioned there or not. but if you ask me my understanding, it says nothing about ct. so, i cannot say it helps students to develop their ct” [m int.]. conversely, ic argued that the module provided students with broader experiences and comprehensible themes that trigger students’ ct ability. opposing ic’s view, ia complained about the module for including unfamiliar issues to students. he explained that “even the issues the module comprised are just directly related to that of the western country. how could i enforce students who came from villages to write about what they did not know?” (m int.). despite this contradiction, the instructors agree that the material needs additional revision. instructors’ beliefs and practices for promoting critical thinking in writing classes 143 no. 26 discussion the participants interpreted ct as the ability to express ideas convincingly or logically and as a strategy to manipulate the appropriate form of language when writing. these definitions imply the purpose the participants attached to ct, yet they confined them to limited expressions. several studies (e.g., schulz & fitzpatrick, 2016; stapleton, 2011) reported the unclear and insufficient definition of ct by respondents. marijic and romfelt (2016) associated this gap with the teachers’ inadequate training concerning ct. the finding, to some extent, is consistent with some studies (e.g., beyer, 1984; chaffee, 2012; ghaemi & mirsaeed, 2017; meng, 2016). these studies described ct as the mental ability to incorporate evidence and reason to convey ideas logically. among the ct components that the participants illustrated, ‘analysis’, ‘synthesis’, and ‘evaluation’ skills accord bloom’s (1956) higher-order thinking skills, while the ‘knowing’ and ‘understanding’ skills are related to the lower-order thinking skills in the taxonomy. the element of ‘fairness’ is the aspect of paul and elder’s (2002) intellectual standards. the finding conforms to similar studies (e.g., assadi et al., 2013; kanik, 2010; marijic & romfelt, 2016; meng, 2016). the results further revealed that the participants appreciated classroom interactions in the form of student-student and instructor-student interactions. they implemented the process approach to writing, prepared inputs on different issues, encouraged collaboration, and facilitated students’ learning. practitioners (e.g., buranapatana, 2006; dwee et al., 2016; fahim & mirzaii, 2014) argued for the relevance of collaboration since it allows students to share skills and resources. likewise, classroom interaction that involves questioning and praising students’ responses is regarded as helpful. masek and yamin (2011) asserted that “probing questions may engage students in a systematic cognitive process that promotes the development of the student’s reasoning ability” (p. 117). students extend their exploration ability when they are appreciated for their responses and when their thought is valued (masadeh, 2021). moreover, matthews and lally (2010) signified that the process approach to writing assists to “focus thinking and sharpen thinking and reasoning within the subject” (p.137). contrary to their classroom practice, the participants advocated the explicit introduction of ct and the provision of an adequate chance to students. the discrepancies might be partly attributed to the participants’ limited understanding of ct and lack of experience in explicitly incorporating ct in writing lessons. as different authors (e.g., buehl & beck, 2015; fives & gill, 2015; zheng, 2015) stated, teachers’ dependence on the belief that is perceived to be suitable for the immediate complex context creates the disparity. lan and lam (2020), conversely, argued that teachers are likely to take actions that accord with their beliefs if they hold strong beliefs in that respect. the finding is in contrast to hasni et al.’s (2018) study that implies consistency between teachers’ beliefs and practices in promoting students’ ct. this might be due to the weakness of the contextual constraints in influencing the yemeserach bayou and tamene kitila 144 no. 26 teachers’ beliefs. on the contrary, the finding agrees with bataineh and alazzi’s (2009) study that reported the disparity between the participants’ beliefs and their practices in using strategies that they claimed were useful to promote students’ ct. moreover, the participants believed that giving students meaningful topics and assigning different writing activities help to promote students’ ct. the activities demand students to be reflective, compare and contrast ideas, argue with the support of examples and reasons, and include multiple points of view. the instructors, nonetheless, failed to encourage students to read the passages that accompanied the writing activities. this implies that although the activities stimulate students’ ct ability, students would not benefit much unless they understand how to handle the activities. researchers (e.g., kanik, 2010; pei et al., 2017; slavin, 2012) underscored the influence of topic meaningfulness or familiarity on students’ motivation and ability to formulate sound reasoning. moreover, the results of several studies (çavdar & doe, 2012; dong, 2015; mulnix & mulnix, 2010; toshpulatova & kinjemuratova, 2020; tuzlukova et al., 2017) indicated the relevance of argumentative, reflective, summary, report, and blog writing to promote students’ ct. additionally, the participants considered the inclusion of ct into the evaluation system and the assessment of meaning and structure in students’ text as strategies to promote students’ ct. they believed that self-reflection, peer feedback, and instructor feedback give chances to students to exercise ct in writing classes. they were, however, doubtful about students’ ability to provide feedback on their peers’ texts. despite mentioning the relevance of including ct in the evaluation system, the participants were rather uncertain about specific indicators of students’ ct in their texts. regardless of this, they attempted to focus on the clarity, organization, and reasoning in students’ texts. walker et al. (2003) argued that “vigorously grading on grammar instead of commenting might discourage students, inhibiting their willingness to think critically” (p. 65). students are assumed to enhance their analytical ability, develop the ability to solve problems and recognize their mistakes and make improvements when they engage in the process of self-evaluation and peer-evaluation (daud, 2012; liu, 2018). the findings, furthermore, revealed problems that affect the participants’ classroom practice. the student-related factors include a limited understanding of the core elements of writing and the absence of learners’ self-autonomy. the instructorrelated problems were aggressiveness and reduced teaching commitment. moreover, large classroom sizes, time constraints, and poor material preparation were considered situational factors. the finding is consistent with several studies. as indicated in some studies (e.g., bataineh & alazzi, 2009; schulz & fitzpatrick, 2016), teachers isolate ct from subject matter content and believe that students learn to think critically only after they acquired content knowledge. likewise, other studies (e.g., petek & bedir, 2015; schulz & fitzpatrick, 2016) revealed teachers’ beliefs that students’ insufficient prior instructors’ beliefs and practices for promoting critical thinking in writing classes 145 no. 26 knowledge and inadequate language competence affect their ct ability. similarly, teachers’ lack of interest, students’ irresponsibility for their learning, time shortage, and large class size were clarified in some studies (e.g., bataineh & alazzi, 2009; ganapathy et al. 2017; kanik, 2010; slavin, 2012). conclusion and implication of the study the study investigated instructors’ beliefs and practices in promoting students’ ct in writing classes. the findings revealed that the writing classes were not devoid of the promotion of students’ ct. the participants nurtured students’ ct by fortifying classroom interaction, assigning different ct-promoting writing activities, scaffolding, and providing feedback. nonetheless, participants’ beliefs about the inclusion of ct in the evaluation system, the explicit introduction of ct, and the assessment of meaning and structure in students’ texts were inconsistent with their practices. they mentioned hindering factors related to students’ poor competence, inadequate instructors’ commitment, time constraint, large class size, and poor quality of the course material. the findings benefit several concerned bodies in the english language teaching sphere. university instructors obtain insights to examine their classroom decisions and then build their capacity to promote students’ ct in writing classes. the study informs teacher educators about the theoretical and practical gaps concerning students’ ct promotion in writing classes. consequently, they strive to equip prospective instructors with the required knowledge about ct and the various ct-promoting pedagogical approaches. besides, based on the detailed accounts of hindering factors related to the promotion of students’ ct in writing classes, they inform prospective instructors on how to cope with the factors. similarly, material designers may refine the quality of the writing activities by incorporating activities that stimulate students’ ct. along with the activities, they may include diverse ct-promoting strategies that direct instructors’ and students’ roles in writing classes. regardless of these relevancies, the present study has limitations that can serve as a starting point for other researchers to do a higherlevel investigation. hence, further studies should be conducted on a similar issue by increasing the number of participants, assessing the participants’ sources of beliefs, and making frequent observations of classroom practices. yemeserach bayou and tamene kitila 146 no. 26 references abrami, p., bernard, r.., borokhovski, e., waddington, d., wade, c., & persson, t. 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(2015). teacher beliefs as a complex system: english language teachers in china. new york: springer international publishing. https://doi.org/10.1007/9783-319-23009-2 yemeserach bayou and tamene kitila authors: yemeserach bayou is an english language lecturer at debre tabor university, ethiopia. she is a phd student at addis ababa university in the department of english language teaching. she received her ba in linguistics and ma in tefl from addis ababa university. her research interests include critical thinking in elt (english language teaching), language learning strategies, needs assessment, and classroom management orientations. orcid id: http://orcid.org/0000-0002-6017-0437 dr tamene kitila is an instructor and a researcher at addis ababa university. he did his phd in tefl at lancaster university (uk). some of his publications that focused on needs analysis, classroom interaction, the use of l1 in efl classrooms, teachers’ professional identities, and teachers’ professional development needs appeared in different reputable journals. orcid id: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7467-6316 154 no. 26 instructors’ beliefs and practices for promoting critical thinking in writing classes how to reference this article: bayou, y., &amp; kitila, t. (2023). exploring instructors’ beliefs about and practices in promoting students’ critical thinking skills in writing classes . gist – education and learning research journal, 26. https://doi.org/10.26817/16925777.1557 portada 26.pdf (p.1) gist 26 januaryjune 2023.pdf (p.2-189) editorial carlo granados-beltrán, phd* welcome to issue no. 23 of gist journal. in this new edition, authors from colombia and different parts of the worlds are reporting studies focused on three main areas: a social orientation to language teaching and learning, including aspects of interaction, social justice, discrimination and paradigmatic changes in the discipline of elt; learning experiences triggered by the pandemic by covid-19; and the promotion of skills in language components, such as pronunciation and vocabulary, through different mechanisms such as mnemonic techniques and scaffolding. we highlight the use of quantitative methodologies, not so frequently used in language pedagogy, as well as the autoethnography as an innovative methodology for the field. contributions following a sociohistorical orientation in language teaching and learning include mora’s who invites us to questions the hegemonic frameworks and concepts used to define language and language teaching in colombia; campos campos, garzón roa, méndez and castañeda report an autoethnographic experience as au pairs in the united states and their confrontation with social justice and discrimination issues. we also count with an article by daniel, wasonga and burgin from guatemala who document a study about teachers’ professional development at a public school. kaya as well explored the language development of a group of efl learners as well as their advances when interacting in a foreign language by participating in the erasmus program. the pandemic caused by covid-19 has brought many learning opportunities for both teachers and students. in relation to this, we can find arsalan nazir and raza khan who explored the difficulties that pakistani university students had when learning online in this covid-19 pandemic. lopera contributed to this area with a reflection article about his social experience when transitioning from face-to-face teaching to emergency remote teaching. 6 no. 23 in this new issue of gist journal, we can find contributions describing experiments related to vocabulary learning. farrokh developed quantitative study to analyze the effect of the implementation of a mnemonic technique in the learning of vocabulary. also, naserpour and zarei report a project to determine the effect of scaffolding strategies on knowledge about lexical collocations. among these studies following quantitative methodologies, we can also find khasawneh’s contribution about the effectiveness of an instructional program based on phonological awareness to help students with learning disabilities develop the phonetic sequential-memorization. we invite elt scholars in colombia and abroad to continue disseminating the results of their research and reflections and we thank the continuous support given by the members of our editorial and scientific committees, authors, and readers. dr. carlo granados-beltrán academic vice chancellor única 6 no. 21 so easy to write a story with a mind map: an experimental study tan fácil escribir una historia con un mapa mental hümeyra uysal1 istanbul sabahattin zaim university, türkiye and sabri sidekli2 mugla sitki kocman university, türkiye 79 no. 27 gist education and learning research journal. issn 1692-5777. no. 28 (january june, 2024). pp. 79-101. 79 no. 28 1 humeyra.uysal@izu.edu.tr 2 ssidekli@mu.edu.tr 80 no. 28 abstract this study aimed to determine the effect of mind mapping on story writing skills of the students. a pre-test, a post-test, and a semi-experimental research design were used in this study. the study group consisted of a total of 86 third-grade students; 33 students from the experimental group, 23 students from the control 1 group, and 30 students from the control 2 groups. stories were written by the students in the experimental group by using the mind map method during 18 lesson hours. in the control 1 group, story topics were given to the students, and they were asked to write stories about them as homework during one lesson hour for 9 weeks. in the control 2 group, the researcher did not intervene in their lessons during the term. as a result of the research, there was an increase in the post-test writing skill scores of the experimental and control 1 groups. the mind map method and story writing with homework exercises improved students’ writing skills. keywords: writing, story writing, mind map, story writing with homework, 3rd grade resumen este estudio tuvo como objetivo determinar el efecto del uso de mapas mentales en las habilidades de escritura de historias de los estudiantes. en este estudio se utilizó un diseño de investigación de pre-test, post-test y semi-experimental. el grupo de estudio fue conformado por un total de 86 estudiantes de tercer grado: 33 estudiantes del grupo experimental, 23 estudiantes del grupo de control 1 y 30 estudiantes del grupo de control 2. los estudiantes del grupo experimental escribieron historias utilizando el método del mapa mental durante 18 horas de clase. en el grupo de control 1, se les asignaron temas de historias a los estudiantes y se les pidió que escribieran sobre ellos como tarea durante una hora de clase por 9 semanas. en el grupo de control 2, el investigador no intervino en sus lecciones durante el semestre. como resultado de la investigación, hubo un aumento en los puntajes de las habilidades de escritura en el post-test tanto en el grupo experimental como en el grupo de control 1. el método del mapa mental y los ejercicios de escritura de historias como tarea mejoraron las habilidades de escritura de los estudiantes. palabras clave: escritura, escritura de historias, mapa mental, escritura de historias como tarea, 3er grado. so easy to write a story with a mind map: an experimental study 81 no. 28 resumo este estudo teve como objetivo determinar o efeito do uso de mapas mentais nas habilidades de escrita de histórias dos estudantes. neste estudo foi utilizado um desenho de pesquisa de pré-teste, pós-teste e semi-experimental. o grupo de estudo foi composto por um total de 86 estudantes do terceiro ano: 33 estudantes do grupo experimental, 23 estudantes do grupo de controle 1 e 30 estudantes do grupo de controle 2. os estudantes do grupo experimental escreveram histórias utilizando o método de mapa mental durante 18 horas de aula. no grupo de controle 1, foram atribuídos temas de histórias aos estudantes e foi solicitado que escrevessem sobre eles como tarefa durante uma hora de aula por 9 semanas. no grupo de controle 2, o pesquisador não interveio em suas aulas durante o semestre. como resultado da pesquisa, houve um aumento nas pontuações das habilidades de escrita no pós-teste tanto no grupo experimental quanto no grupo de controle 1. o método de mapa mental e os exercícios de escrita de histórias como tarefa melhoraram as habilidades de escrita dos estudantes. palavras-chave: escrita, escrita de histórias, mapa mental, escrita de histórias como tarefa, 3º ano hümeyra uysal and sabri̇ si̇dekli 82 no. 28 introduction writing is the most powerful means of communication in human history, and it directly affects social life. even ancient times began with the invention of writing. it is necessary to acquire the writing skill, which has such an important place in human history. by acquiring writing skills, societies and cultures can preserve knowledge and ensure its direct transmission to future generations. writing is defined as the process of expressing emotions, thoughts, desires, and events in our minds in accordance with certain rules with symbols and putting information structured in the mind into writing (güneş, 2013; 2020), producing the essential symbols and marks to express our feelings and thoughts in accordance with its rules and legibility (akyol, 2000). the concept of writing creates information that evokes cognitive processes and structures that work below the level of conscious thought (galbraith & baaijen, 2018), develops students’ cognitive learning strategies (bangert-drowns, hurley & wilkinson, 2004) combining information in long-term memory (silva & limongi, 2019), is expressed as a troublesome process (galbraith & baaijen, 2018) that facilitates learning. graham (2018) considered writing as a product of people, community goals, social practices, determined actions, tools, and people’s common history. writing is a set of activities such as setting goals, generating ideas, organizing information, selecting the appropriate language, drafting, reading and evaluating, and then reviewing and editing (hedge, 2001). in addition, technological advances and the use of social media have created new areas of writing. email writing, blogging, interpersonal messaging, facebook (graham et al., 2011), sharing on twitter, and photo comments on instagram are among the writing activities. the skill used to translate ideas in a language fluently in written text format and transmit them to the other party is the writing skill (goldstein & naglieri, 2011). steinlen (2018) defined writing skill as a complex task that requires the coordination of fine motor skills and cognitive skills and reflects social and cultural patterns. according to the ministry of national education [mone] (2019), the turkish curriculum, “with the development of writing skills, it is aimed that students express their feelings, thoughts, dreams, designs and impressions, their opinions and theses on a subject in accordance with the rules of written expression, using the possibilities of language, turn writing into a habit in self-expression and develop those skills of those who have the ability to write” (p. ) development of writing skills is associated with repeated practice, practice controls, and writing about a topic that attracts the attention of the student and where the student is an expert (johnstone et al., 2002). writing skills are not innate skills, they should be acquired during childhood (kellogg, 2008). to improve writing skills, it is necessary to follow certain processes. writing is a complex task that activates various cognitive skills, such as planning, synthesizing, so easy to write a story with a mind map: an experimental study 83 no. 28 observing, analyzing, editing, and reviewing. additionally, writing is shaped by different strategies, which are reflected in the editing stage. this process can be learned through structured feedback and enhances higher-order thinking skills (benjamin, 2005; canady, 2008; garcía & fidalgo, 2008; sharples, 2003). in the process of gaining writing skills, teachers are required to teach students handwriting and grammar skills as well as basic writing rules such as text planning, drafting, and reviewing (cutler & graham, 2008). the writing process is complex and requires careful organization. to teach it effectively and efficiently, teachers should employ a variety of methods and techniques. in addition, these methods and techniques to be applied with students will enhance the quality of the texts written by the students and will enable them to increase their motivation. it has been studied how methods used were effective in developing positive attitudes towards writing. studies have shown that activities performed before writing have a positive effect on students’ writing skills (susar kırmızı and beydemir, 2012; uysal and sidekli, 2022). many different methods are used before writing; one of them is the mind map. the mind map was developed by tony buzan in the 1960s. the mind map is a visual, graphic holistic thinking tool that is suitable for memory, creativity, learning, and all kinds of brain functions (buzan & buzan, 2015). brinkmann (2003) defined the mind map as a powerful technique that enables the expression of thoughts in the mind and reveals the potential of the brain. mind maps are regular, visual graphic structures in which topics and themes are regularly presented (tucker et al., 2010); and students can explain, criticize, and rearrange their thinking (montgomery, 2005, as cited in kan, 2012). although a mind map is generally preferred to be made individually, it is also possible to make a mind map with the group. mind map practices with the group eliminate the focus of students’ brainstorming technique on one point (buzan & buzan, 2015) and offer a chance to visually enrich emerging ideas. mind maps have a wide range of uses. they are commonly employed as tools for notetaking, learning, teaching, organizing thoughts, and editing information, as well as for uncovering existing knowledge. numerous studies highlight the effectiveness of mind maps as both teaching and visual learning tools (goodnough & woods, 2002). the mind map is one of the methods used in the writing process. it is generally used at the pre-writing stage due to its feature of revealing information. bharambe (2012) explains that the mind map provides a useful focus for students to organize their knowledge with their thoughts and present clearly and effectively. şahin (2016) states that tasks such as scribbling, using images, symbols, words, and drafts during the pre-writing process can be done more easily with the help of mind maps, which also help to reduce confusion. the use of the story map along with the mind map in the pre-writing process will also ensure that the stories are structured and effective. the reason for using the story map is that the mind map reveals the students’ prior knowledge by providing them with unlimited thinking opportunities (uysal & sidekli, 2020). the story map, on the other hand, presents the unlimited ideas of the students hümeyra uysal and sabri̇ si̇dekli 84 no. 28 under the elements of the story and enables them to be molded and gathered under categories to create their stories. in this way, students’ unlimited ideas are gathered under certain patterns, and scattered ideas are collected. akyol (2011) and sidekli (2013) emphasized that the importance of using the story map before starting to write will allow students to understand the elements of the story in planning their stories, distinguishing important and insignificant information, and attracting attention to important details. writing is the most advanced and challenging linguistic skill to develop. therefore, it is required to organize the pre-writing, writing, and post-writing stages well for students to be proficient writers and to have good writing education. while organizing the writing process, utilizing different methods and techniques will make the process more efficient. it should also be ensured that students enjoy this while writing, that they are not prejudiced against writing, and that their motivation is high. students’ positive attitudes during the writing process can significantly enhance the quality of their work. the methods and techniques to be applied to students in their writing processes will enable students to write more creative and original stories. the methods and techniques used before writing should ensure that the creativity comes out with the information required for the story. using the mind map method in the pre-writing process will reveal students’ prior knowledge through visuals and connotations, enhancing their creativity and enabling them to write more original stories. from this point of view, this research aims to determine whether the use of the mind map method in the pre-writing stage has an impact on the story writing skills of primary school third graders. for the research, answers to the following questions were sought. 1. is there any significant difference between the pre-test results of the groups participating in the comparison between the groups in the study? 2. is there any significant difference between the pre-test and post-test results of the groups? 3. is there any significant difference between the post-test results of the groups participating in the comparison between the groups in the study? so easy to write a story with a mind map: an experimental study 85 no. 28 method research model the pre-test and post-test with control group semi-experimental research design which is one of the quantitative research methods was used in the research. in the pretest and post-test control group method, the groups are formed randomly. this study consists of an experimental group and two control groups. pre-experiment and postexperiment story writing studies were conducted for each group. study group the study group consists of third grade students studying at two state primary schools in the menteşe district of muğla province during the fall semester of the 20192020 academic year. three teachers from these two state schools have volunteered to implement the study in their classrooms. experimental, control 1, and control 2 groups were determined by drawing lots between the three classes. experimental group: it is aimed to research the impact of an activity to be applied in the pre-writing process on the success of story writing. for this reason, the mind map method was applied to the experimental group in the pre-writing process. then the story writing activity started. control 1 group: in the pre-writing process, the students were given story topics without any studies or activities, and they were asked to write stories about them. the purpose of writing stories without any pre-writing activity in the control 1 group is to check whether students’ story writing skills increase without any activity. story writing activity with homework was carried out for this reason. control 2 group: no intervention was made, and no activity or study was conducted by the researcher. the class teacher continued his lessons and activities without disrupting the process of his own course. students wrote the stories only for the pre-test pro-test. the methods, duration, and the number of students in the research groups are given in the following table. hümeyra uysal and sabri̇ si̇dekli 86 no. 28 table 1. groups, number of students in groups, methods and duration groups n the method duration experimental group 33 mind map 18 hours course control 1 group 23 writing with homework 9 hours course control 2 group 30 class teacher as independent 18 hours course data collection tool the researcher developed the ‘story writing rubric’ to collect data. the story writing rubric consists of 3 grades and 10 items. these items are in the form of title, characters, place, time, plan, word richness, relevance to the topic, spellingpunctuation, page layout, and originality. the lowest score a student will get from a rubric is 10 and the highest score is 30. before the rubric was finalized, a pool of 17 items was formed. chong (2017) said that in the teaching of writing, the students should answer questions such as where, when, who, how, and why in their writings by presenting a detailed description of events. after this statement and the literature are scanned, in the item pool; title, characters, place, time, event order, event flow, word richness, originality, relevance to the topic, main idea, spelling rules, punctuation marks, page layout, legible writing, plan, word usage and style are included. it was decided that title, characters, place, time, spelling-punctuation, and plan items should be strictly by considering the issues from the item pool that students should pay attention to throughout the application. three experts in the field of classroom teaching have been consulted on which of the remaining items to be added. after being interviewed by three experts, the rubric was made up of ten items adding the items of word richness, relevance to the topic, page layout, and originality. after the proficiency levels, scores, and rubric items were developed, two linguists specializing in turkish language education reviewed them, necessary corrections were made, and the final version was established. the final version of the rubric is presented in the following table. so easy to write a story with a mind map: an experimental study 87 no. 28 title characters place time plan word richness originality relevance to topic spelling punctuation page layout 1 the title isn’t written. there are characters, but they aren’t introduced. there is a place, but it isn’t introduced. the time isn’t specified. expressions such as ‘one day, that day’ are used. there are no introduction parts. word usage is limited, and words are used in their real meanings. the student writes the same program he/she has watched or a book he/she has read. it isn’t relevant to the topic. it isn’t relevant to the topic. there are more than five mistakes in spelling and punctuation. the writing is not legible. no suitable blanks have been left. his/her credentials are missing. 2 the student writes the same topic in the title or uses an uninteresting title. there are characters, but only the main characters are introduced. there is a place, but the introduction is so little. the time is clear, but there are no details. there are introduction parts or there is only an introduction part. word usage is limited, words are used in their real and figurative meanings. the student is inspired by a program he/she has watched or a book he/ she has read. the student tries to write on the topic, but there is no coherence. there are less than five mistakes in spelling and punctuation. the writing is partially legible. no suitable blanks have been left. the student writes his/her credentials completely 3 the student writes a creative title that enables the text to arouse interest. all the characters are introduced. a detailed introduction of the place is done. time is specified in detail. there are introduction parts that are in coherence with the text. word usage is varied, words are used in their connotations, and real and figurative meanings. the student writes a unique, new, and creative story. the content is completely appropriate to the topic and there is coherence in the story there are no mistakes in spelling or punctuation. the writing is legible. suitable blanks have been left. his/ her credentials are complete. table 2. story writing rubric hümeyra uysal and sabri̇ si̇dek 88 no. 28 research process data collection process a story on “family” was written by all groups to determine the story writing levels of the three groups before the practice. when the topic of the story was chosen, the class teachers of all groups were consulted, and all three teachers stated that it was consistent with the curriculum and that students’ readiness levels would be higher about this topic. after the practice, a story on “home” was written by all groups to determine the levels of story writing of the three groups and the change in their story writing skills. the stories on “home” were collected from the students for evaluation of the post-test. experimental group in the experimental group, a 2-hour session on mind mapping and a 2-hour session on story mapping were conducted before the implementation. the group then underwent two-hour sessions per week over a period of 9 weeks, totaling 18 course hours of practice. during the practice, a mind map of the topic was developed in onecourse hour. in the next class, they were asked to write their stories by using the story map on the topic. for 9 weeks, they created mind maps in groups and individually while doing the mind map study. the weekly story writing topics of the experimental group and their weekly studies are included in table 3. table 3. weekly story-writing topics of experimental group and studies in the courses topic week date 1st lesson 2nd lesson feast 1st week 31.10.2019 “mind map” was created friendship 2nd week 07.11.2019 with the class. love 3rd week 14.11.2019 “mind map” was created animals 4th week 28.11.2019 in groups of 6 people. game 5th week 05.12.2019 “mind map” was created meatball 6th week 12.12.2019 in groups of 4 people. atatürk 7th week 19.12.2019 “mind map” was created in groups of 2 people. new year’s 8th week 26.12.2019 “mind map” was created wishes individually by the students. nature 9th week 02.01.2020 the story writing activity was done with the help of a story map. so easy to write a story with a mind map: an experimental study 89 no. 28 the topics to be written every week were decided by pre-interviewing with the class teacher of the experimental group and control 1 group, story topics were chosen by taking into consideration the students ‘ readiness levels. for example, the story-writing work on “friendship” was done. before this topic was chosen, a pre-interview was conducted with the class teacher and then it was decided that the topic of “friendship” would be appropriate for the student’s readiness levels by sharing decision-making. in the first lesson, the mind map about “friendship” was chalked up with the students. the mind map made by the class is presented in figure 1. during the lesson, the students went to the blackboard and created a mind map in turn. in the second lesson, students prepared a story map individually by using the mind map. and then they wrote their own original stories by using the story map. creating the story map enabled them to write their stories faster and fluently. in the second lesson, they finished their stories and handed them over to the researcher. figure 1. the mind map about “friendship” made by the class control 1 group the topics to be written every week were decided by pre-interviewing with the class teacher of the experimental group and control 1 group, story topics were chosen by taking into consideration the students’ readiness levels. topics specified every week were given to the control 1 group and the students were asked to write about them as homework during the lesson. the weekly story writing topics of the control 1 group and their weekly studies are included in table 4. the duration for writing the stories was set at one hour. this is because, in the experimental group, students were given one hour to write their stories after completing the prewriting activities. the goal was to assess the story writing skills of the control 1 group without any intervention. for this reason, it is thought that a lesson hour is appropriate for the students in the control 1 group to write a story. hümeyra uysal and sabri̇ si̇dekli 90 no. 28 table 4. weekly story-writing topics of control group 1 and studies topic week date 1st lesson feast 1st week 01.11.2019 friendship 2nd week 08.11.2019 love 3rd week 15.11.2019 animals 4th week 29.11.2019 game 5th week 06.12.2019 meatball 6th week 13.12.2019 new year’s wishes 7th week 20.12.2019 atatürk 8th week 27.12.2019 nature 9th week 03.01.2020 the control 1 group and the experimental group wrote stories on the same topics every week. the reason why they write stories on the same topics every week is not to cause differences in students’ stories because of the topics. control 2 group stories were written by the students in the control 2 group to acquire only data from the pre-test and post-test. no intervention was made by the researcher in the control 2 group. in the control 2 group, writing activities were conducted by the classroom teacher following the guidelines of the turkish curriculum. the 3rd-grade curriculum includes writing exercises as part of its learning objectives. based on this, it is assumed that the classroom teacher carried out weekly writing activities in alignment with the curriculum. data analysis before conducting the analysis, the researcher randomly selected seven participants from each group, totaling 21 participants, to assign scores and ensure that no bias was present in the study. dunsmuir et al. (2015) and uysal and sidekli (2020) used different raters to evaluate the students’ stories. they found that stories were scored reliably by different raters. for this reason, two experts were asked to assign scores to 15 selected students.was found to be 0,82 (95%ga; 0,56-0,91). this result indicates inter-rater compliance. scores were found to be unbiased and reliable. students were given 40 minutes and asked to write their stories. so easy to write a story with a mind map: an experimental study 91 no. 28 as a result of the analysis, it was determined that the data obtained were normal distribution. one-way analysis of variance (anova) was carried out to examine the significant difference between the pre-test and post-test, and dunnett’s c complementary statistical technique was used in cases with significant differences. paired samples t-test was carried out to analyze whether there was a significant difference between the pre-test and post-test scores of the groups. the paired samples t-test analysis determined whether there was a significant difference between the two mean scores being compared. additionally, it was necessary to calculate the effect size to evaluate the magnitude of the significant difference. the influence quantity is calculated with the ratio of the t-score to the square root of sampling subsistence (green & salkind, 2005). cohen’s (1988) classification was used in interpreting the level of the influence quantity. according to this classification, 0.150 ≤ d < 0.150 is at an insignificant level, 0.151 ≤ d < 0.400 is at a low level, 0.401 ≤ d < 0.750 is at mediumlevel, 0,751 ≤ d < 1.100 is at wide level, 1.101 ≤ d < 1.450 is at very wide level and 1.451 ≤ d is at excellence level. findings the results of the analysis conducted in accordance with the purpose of the study are presented in tables. one-way analysis of variance (anova) test was carried out to determine the levels of the groups before the practice and to determine whether there were statistical differences between the groups. if there were significant differences, dunnett’s c complementary statistical technique was used to determine the source of this. the results of the analysis are given in table 5. table 5. comparison of pre-test results of the students by groups source of sum of sd average of f p significant variance squares squares difference between-groups 11.62 2 5.81 2.27 .11 in-group 212.20 83 2.56 total 223.82 85 when table 5 is analyzed, in the group consisting of 86 students from three different third grade, the mean scores of the levels of story writing skills of the groups formed according to their classes were compared with a one-way analysis of variance for the unrelated samples in order to test whether there was any difference between the levels of story writing skills before the practice. at the end of the test, it was found that the average of the students in the experimental group was ( experimental = 16.12), hümeyra uysal and sabri̇ si̇dekli 92 no. 28 the average of the students in the control 1 group was ( control1 =16.35), and the average of the students in the control 2 group was ( control2 = 15.47). no significant statistical difference was found as a result of the dunnett c multiple comparison test. the levels of story writing were compared before and after the practice with the mind map of the experimental group. the analysis of the paired samples t-test was conducted to make comparisons before and after the practice. the result of the analysis is given in table 6. table 6. comparison of pre-test and post-test scores of the experimental group measurement n s sd t p experimental pre-test 33 16.12 1.19 32 -7.06 .00 experimental post-test 33 19.00 2.59 the t-test was conducted to determine whether there was a significant difference between the mind map and the averages of the scores of the stories written before, and after the practice for related samples in a class of 33 people, where the impact of the use of mind map on the development of story writing skills was investigated. as a result of the analysis, a significant difference was found between the average of the story scores written before the practice ( pre-test = 16.12) and the average of the story scores written after the practice ( post-test = 19.00) [t (33) = -7.06, p<.05]. it is possible to say that story writing practices using the mind map improved third graders’ story writing skills. the effectiveness of the practice applied in the experimental group was calculated as d=1.23. according to cohen’s (1988) classification of influence quantity, this practice was found to be very effective at a very wide level. a comparison of the levels of story writing skills in the control 1 group between before and after the study of story writing with homework. the analysis of the paired samples t-test was conducted to make comparisons before and after the practice. the result of the analysis is given in table 7. table 7. comparison of pre-test and post-test scores of the cntrol 1 group measurement n s sd t p control 1 pre-test 23 16.35 1.94 22 -5.51 .00 control 1 post-test 23 17.22 1.73 the t-test was conducted to determine whether there was a significant difference between the averages of the scores of the stories written before and after the practice for related samples in a class of 23 people, where the impact of the study of story so easy to write a story with a mind map: an experimental study 93 no. 28 writing with homework done by giving topics every week on the development of story writing skills was investigated. as a result of the analysis, a significant difference was found between the average of the story scores written before the practice ( pretest = 16.35) and the average of the story scores written after the practice ( posttest = 17.22) [t(22) = -5.51, p<.05]. it was found that the study of story writing with homework improved third graders’ story writing skills positively. the effectiveness of the practice applied in the experimental group was calculated as d=1.15. according to cohen’s (1988) classification of influence quantity, this practice was found to be very effective at a very wide level. a comparison of the levels of story writing skills was made before and after the lessons according to the turkish curriculum of the control 2 group. the analysis of the paired samples t-test was conducted to make comparisons between before and after the lessons. the result of the analysis is given in table 8. table 8. comparison of pre-test and post-test scores of the control 2 group measurement n s sd t p control 2 pre-test 30 15.47 1.70 29 .24 .81 control 2 post-test 30 15.40 1.83 the t-test was conducted to determine whether there was a significant difference between the averages of the scores of the stories written for the pre-test and post-test without interfering with the class teacher’s lessons for related samples in a class of 30 people, where the impact on the development of story writing skills was investigated. as a result of the analysis, a significant difference was not found between the average of the story scores written for pre-test ( pre-test = 15.47) and the average of the story scores written after the practice ( post-test = 15.40) [t(29) = .24, p>.05]. one-way analysis of variance (anova) test was carried out to determine the levels of the groups after the practice and to determine whether there were statistical differences between the groups. if there were significant differences, dunnett’s c complementary statistical technique was used to determine the source of this. the results of the analysis are given in the following table. table 9. comparison of pre-test results of the students by groups source of sum of sd average f p significant variance squares of squares difference between groups 203.74 2 101.87 22.42 .00 experimental>control 1 in-group 377.11 83 4.54 experimental>control 2 total 580.85 85 control 1>control 2 hümeyra uysal and sabri̇ si̇dekli 94 no. 28 when table 9 is analyzed, in the group consisting of 86 students from three different third grade, the mean scores of the levels of story writing skills of the groups formed according to their classes were compared with a one-way analysis of variance for the unrelated samples in order to test whether there was any difference between the levels of story writing skills after the practice. at the end of the test, it was found that the average of the students in the experimental group was ( experimental = 19.00), the average of the students in the control group 1 was ( control1 =17.22) and the average of the students in the control group 2 was ( control2 = 15.40). a significant difference was observed statistically between at least two of them [f(2-85) = 22.42, p<.05]. as a result of the dunnett c multiple comparison test, a significant difference was found between the experiment and control 1 group in favor of the experimental group, between the experiment and control 2 groups in favor of the experimental group, and between the control 1 and control 2 groups in favor of the control 1 group. figure 2 shows the pre-test levels of all groups and the progress they made in their post-test levels as a result of the implemented practices, activities, and courses. figure 2. comparison of pre-test and post-test score averages of groups the pre-test and post-test score averages of the three groups were analyzed. it was found that the pre-test score average of the control 1 group was higher than the pretest score averages of other groups. it was also given in the results that the pre-test score averages of all groups were close to each other. when we looked at the post-test score averages of the groups, it was found that the mean score of the experimental group was better than the mean scores of the other groups. while the experimental so easy to write a story with a mind map: an experimental study 95 no. 28 group ranked second in pre-test score averages, it ranked first in the post-test score averages, outdistancing the other groups. although there was a significant increase in the experimental group and control 1 group, there was a negative change in the mean score of the control 2 group. discussion, conclusion and suggestions as a result of comparing the pre-test and post-test scores of the experimental group, a significant difference was found between the pre-test and post-test of the group in favor of the post-test. story writing activities improved students’ story writing skills positively with the mind map method applied to the experimental group. padang and gurning (2014) used the mind map method to develop descriptive writing skills of eighth grade students. as a result of the research, it was found that the method improved their writing skills as well as their writing motivation. as a result of the research carried out by yunus and chien (2016), they discovered that the mind mapping method is a supporting tool in planning and editing students’ writings in the teaching of story-telling text writing to eleventh graders. waloyo (2017) found that writing using a mind map enables students to think freely and creatively, making it easier for students to write stories (uysal and sidekli, 2020). they revealed that the mind map improves the story writing skills of fourth graders in primary school. the study, along with previous research, concluded that mind mapping has a positive impact on students’ writing skills. the use of a story map as well as a mind map had a positive effect on students’ story writing. the story map was also used to determine the elements of the story after the mind map method and helped improve the writing skills of the students. li (2007) analyzed the fluency of story writing and the variety of word usage of students who had a learning disability with the story map technique. as a result of the research, they found that three out of four students’ writing fluency improved, and there was no noticeable change in students’ writing performance related to the diversity of word use. as a result of brunner’s (2010) study, it was observed that the use of a story map also increased the number of words written by students, the number of words written correctly, and the number of sequences of words written correctly by students. sidekli (2013) used the story map to improve the story writing skills of undergraduate students and as a result of his research, he observed a positive increase in the student’s story writing skills. based on this study and supporting literature, story mapping contributes significantly to the improvement of students’ writing skills. as a result of comparing the pre-test and post-test scores of the control 1 group, a significant difference was found between the pre-test and the post-test. writing activities with homework applied to the control 1 group were found to be effective hümeyra uysal and sabri̇ si̇dekli 96 no. 28 in the development of the student’s story writing skills. regular story writing studies without any pre-writing activities also enhance the students’ story writing skills. in denny’s (2008) study, conducted with university students, they were forced to write. as a result of this research, it was revealed that there was improvement in students’ writing skills. however, some studies indicate that assigning writing as homework does not lead to improvements in students’ story-writing skills. story writing activity with homework conducted by uysal and sidekli (2020) did not improve the story writing skills of the students in fourth grade. as a result of comparing the pre-test and post-test scores of the control 1 group, a significant difference was not found between the pre-test and the post-test scores of the control 2 group. this revealed that the turkish curriculum did not improve the students’ story writing skills. no significant differences were found between the pre-test and the post-test in story writing studies conducted according to the turkish curriculum, even though there was a decrease by .07 in the average of the students’ story writings. a significant difference was found between the experimental group and the control 1 group. in the development of story writing skills, the mind map method is more effective than story writing with homework. the mind map allowed students to relax at the pre-writing stage, make preliminary preparations, and reveal their knowledge again. this enabled the students to develop their writing skills. in the control 1 group, story writing studies that had certain topics were given to the students as homework. no pre-writing activities were done. despite this, as regular writing activities were done, it enabled students to have significant changes in their stories. in their study, uysal and sidekli (2020), with fourth graders, concluded that story writing activities with mind map are more effective than story writing activities with homework when comparing story writing with the mind map method and story writing with homework. considering the effect size of both the experimental and control 1 groups, their levels are equivalent. although they were at the same level of influence quantity, the influence quantity of the experimental group was higher than the influence quantity of the control 1 group. this shows that pre-writing activities improve students’ writing skills more. research shows that pre-writing practices improve students’ writing skills positively and have an impact on students’ writing skills (sidekli & uysal, 2017). a significant difference was found between the experimental group and the control 2 group. it was concluded that story writing studies conducted with the mind map method are more effective than story writing activities conducted according to the turkish curriculum. in a mind map study conducted with an experimental group, students are motivated to write stories. it also reveals the prior knowledge and creativity of students. a significant difference was found between control 1 group and control 2 group. it was concluded that story writing activities with homework were more efficient than story writing activities according to the turkish curriculum. so easy to write a story with a mind map: an experimental study 97 no. 28 story writing activities with homework prepared by students each week had a positive impact on story writing skills, as they enabled students to write stories regularly. different methods and techniques applied before and during the process of writing attract the attention of the students and make them write better stories. not only the mind map method or writing activities with homework, but also different methods improve students’ writing and story writing skills. peker and adıgüzel (2020) in study of uysal (2022) found that primary students’ writing skills increased with the think-research-discuss-write-present strategy developed the creative writing skills of the students with the private property technique, which is one of the creative drama methods. taç (2020) proved that students’ writing skills improve with an investigative writing approach. considering all groups, it was concluded that the study conducted with the experimental group improved students’ writing skills more than the others. in addition, it was found that story writing activities with homework prepared by students also affect students’ story writing skills positively. based on the research findings, the following recommendations are proposed: • along with mind mapping, various methods can be used to support the prethe mind mapping method can be applied to writing different types of texts. • writing activities can be introduced as homework starting in the second grade. • providing students with feedback after writing can help them create even better stories hümeyra uysal and sabri̇ si̇dekli 98 no. 28 references akyol, h. 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(2016). the use of mind mapping strategy in malaysian university english (muet) writing. creative education, 7, 619-626 authors hümeyra uysal. she completed doctorate education at marmara university. she is currently working as an assistant professor in the department of primary school teaching at istanbul sabahattin zaim university. she continue studies in the fields of turkish education, writing education, first reading and writing, mind map and field education in primary school. orci̇d id: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4805-8079 sabri sidekli. prof. dr. sabri sidekli in 2011, he started to work as an assistant professor in muğla sıtkı koçman university faculty of education, department of primary school teacher education. in 2014, he received the title of associate professor and in 2020 he received the title of professor. prof.dr. sabri sidekli continues to work at muğla sıtkı koçman university. he is the author and editor of scientific researches, books, book chapters, and textbooks that are being taught in domestic and foreign primary schools affiliated to the ministry of national education on classroom teacher education, field education and language skills. orci̇d id: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3202-6451 hümeyra uysal and sabri̇ si̇dekli 81 efl students’ perceptions of activeness during the implementation of flipped learning approach at a colombian university.1 percepciones de estudiantes de inglés como lengua extranjera sobre su rol activo durante la implementación del enfoque de aprendizaje invertido en una universidad colombiana. yuri paola chivata and rocío cristina oviedo2* universidad pedagógica y tecnológica de colombia and universidad industrial de santander, colombia abstract flipped learning is a pedagogical approach that provides students with more time in class to practice or to engage in dynamic tasks to promote active learning. although the flipped learning research has become increasingly popular, limited research has been conducted in colombia exploring students’ perceptions of this approach. this action research was carried out to explore students’ perceptions of activeness during the implementation of the flipped learning approach. the participants were 84 students from a state university in colombia who were taking english as a complementary subject as part of their undergraduate degree programs. students were exposed to this approach during a 16-week period in which they completed different pre-class, during-class, and post-class activities. data collection instruments were designed based on the first three pillars of the approach: flexible environment, learning culture, and intentional content. data were collected through immediate feedback, an online questionnaire, and a focus group interview, and were then analyzed in 1 received: july 24th 2018/ october 30th 2018 2 paolach16@hotmail.com; oviedo.rocio19@gmail.com impact of social media in writing gist education and learning research journal. issn 1692-5777. no.17 (july december 2018). pp. 81-105. no. 17 (july december, 2018) no. 17 (july december, 2018) 82 the light of these three pillars. the data indicated that students felt they were more engaged, their voices were heard, they felt increased ownership of their learning, and demonstrated a positive opinion towards collaborative work. key words: flipped learning, active learning, activeness, efl, perceptions. resumen el aprendizaje invertido es un enfoque pedagógico que proporciona a los estudiantes más tiempo en clase para practicar o participar en tareas dinámicas con el fin de promover el aprendizaje activo. aunque la investigación sobre el aprendizaje invertido se ha vuelto cada vez más popular, se han realizado pocas investigaciones en colombia que exploran las percepciones de los estudiantes sobre este enfoque. esta investigación-acción se llevó a cabo con el fin de explorar las percepciones de los estudiantes sobre qué tan activos estuvieron ellos durante la implementación del enfoque de aprendizaje invertido. los participantes fueron 84 estudiantes de una universidad estatal en colombia que tomaban inglés como materia complementaria como parte de sus programas de pregrado. los estudiantes estuvieron expuestos a este enfoque durante un período de 16 semanas en el que completaron diferentes actividades previas a la clase, durante la clase y después de la clase. los instrumentos de recopilación de datos se diseñaron basados en los tres primeros pilares del enfoque (entorno flexible, cultura de aprendizaje y contenido intencional). los datos se recopilaron a través de comentarios inmediatos, un cuestionario en línea y una entrevista al grupo de enfoque, y luego se analizaron a la luz de estos tres pilares. los datos indicaron que los estudiantes sintieron que estaban más comprometidos, se escucharon sus voces, sintieron una mayor apropiación de su aprendizaje y demostraron una opinión positiva hacia el trabajo colaborativo. palabras clave: aprendizaje invertido, aprendizaje activo, rol activo, efl, percepciones. resumo a aprendizagem invertida é um enfoque pedagógico que proporciona aos estudantes mais tempo em sala de aula, para praticar ou participar em tarefas dinâmicas, com o fim de promover a aprendizagem ativa. mesmo que a pesquisa sobre a aprendizagem invertida seja cada vez mais popular, se tem realizado poucas pesquisas na colômbia, que exploram as percepções dos estudantes sobre este enfoque. esta pesquisa-ação foi realizada com o fim de explorar as percepções dos estudantes sobre que tão ativos eles estiveram durante a implementação do enfoque de aprendizagem invertido. os participantes foram 84 estudantes de uma universidade estadual na colômbia, que estudavam inglês como matéria complementária, como parte dos seus programas de graduação. os estudantes estiveram expostos a este enfoque durante um período de 16 semanas no que completaram diferentes atividades prévias à aula, durante a aula e depois da aula. os instrumentos de recopilação de dados foram activeness in flipped learning approach chivata & oviedo no. 17 (july december, 2018) no. 17 (july december, 2018) 83 desenhados baseados nos três primeiros pilares do enfoque (entorno flexível, cultura de aprendizagem e conteúdo intencional). os dados se recopilaram através de comentários imediatos, um questionário em linha e uma entrevista ao grupo de enfoque, e logo foram analisados tendo em vista esses três pilares. os dados indicaram que os estudantes sentiram que estavam mais comprometidos, escutaram-se suas vozes, sentiram uma maior apropriação da sua aprendizagem e demonstraram uma opinião positiva com relação ao trabalho colaborativo. palavras chave: aprendizagem invertida, aprendizagem ativa, papel ativo, efl, percepções. activeness in flipped learning approach chivata & oviedo no. 17 (july december, 2018) no. 17 (july december, 2018) 84 introduction in the field of english as a foreign language (efl), research indicates that the manner classes are taught may affect students’ interest and motivation (brown, 2008; kim, 2008). nowadays, teachers are increasingly aware that technology can provide them with virtual spaces to deliver content to students, allowing them to access it anytime and anywhere. moreover, technology may also help teachers make their practices more student-centered. many scholars have called for teachers to move from a predominately teacher-centered approach to a more student-centered one (bergmann & sams, 2012; brown, 2008; weimer, 2002). as one way of facilitating this transition towards more student-centered practices, some educators now strongly advocate the pedagogical approach of “flipped learning”. according to the flipped learning network (2014), flipped learning is: a pedagogical approach in which direct instruction moves from the group learning space to the individual learning space and the resulting group space is transformed into a dynamic, interactive learning environment where the educator guides students as they apply concepts and engage creatively in the subject matter (par. 3). before 2014, the terms flipped classroom (fc) and flipped learning (fl) tended to be used interchangeably. the term flipped classroom is understood as a model of blended learning in which students watch videos or read texts before the class and then do homework during the classroom time (bergmann & sams, 2014). on the other hand, flipped learning is a pedagogical approach that allows teachers to implement different teaching methodologies in their classrooms, for example combining flipped learning with projectbased learning, tasked-based, inquiry-based or any other active learning methodology, in which student-centered learning spaces are provided to participants. it is important to recognize that many teachers might have been “flipping” their classes (delivering content to study at home and doing homework during classroom time), but this does not necessarily mean that flipped learning is happening. this is the reason why the flipped learning network (fln) composed a definition for this term in 2014, establishing four “pillars” (flexible environment, learning culture, intentional content, and professional educator), which, according to the fln, teachers must include in their practices to engage in flipped learning. activeness in flipped learning approach chivata & oviedo no. 17 (july december, 2018) no. 17 (july december, 2018) 85 teachers make decisions about the activities that students might enjoy, the ones that might be more effective for communicative purposes, and those that could meet the needs of all students in the classroom. however, students’ perceptions when making these decisions are rarely taken into consideration (barkhuizen, 1998). for that reason, this study intends to explore students’ perceptions of activeness during the implementation of the flipped learning approach in a colombian state university efl course and, by doing this, this study will contribute towards addressing this gap in the literature found in colombia. literature review flipped learning research has increased over the past 10 years (talbert, 2018) and it is growing in relation to the field of english as a foreign language. despite this, studies relating flipped learning and efl in colombia, where this study took place, are limited. flipped learning approach a group of experienced educators from the flipped learning network (2014) identified four key features or “pillars” that, according to them, allow flipped learning to occur. these are flexible environment, learning culture, intentional content, and professional educator, this study will focus on the first three since they are most directly related to students. flexible environment highlights the importance of creating a flexible atmosphere in which students are able to choose when and where to learn, and the flexibility when it comes to students’ pace of learning. learning culture implies a deliberate shift from a teachercentered classroom to a student-centered approach, where in-class time is dedicated towards exploring topics in greater depth and creating richer active learning opportunities. finally, intentional content relates to how teachers determine what to teach and what material students explore on their own. the purpose of these pillars is to maximize classroom time in order to adopt various methods of instruction such as active learning strategies, peer instruction, and problem-based learning among others, depending on the level of the students and the specific subject matter. in colombia, relatively few studies have been carried out on flipped learning in the field of efl, with the exception of the recent works by buitrago and diaz (2018), durán (2018) and ramirez (2018), activeness in flipped learning approach chivata & oviedo no. 17 (july december, 2018) no. 17 (july december, 2018) 86 as well as two unpublished master theses, one by garay and torregrosa (2016) and the other by hernandez and torres (2017). internationally, we found literature and research studies such alvarez (2012), al‐ zahrani (2015), graney (2018), han (2018), siegle (2014), strayer (2012), tucker (2012), wargner-loera (2018), yeo (2018) and more. the aforementioned studies demonstrate a variety of different ways in which researchers have used the flipped learning approach in different efl contexts. perhaps the most significant conclusion drawn from all of them is that flipped learning is perceived to have a positive impact; for example, in students’ motivation, opportunities for formative assessment, flexibility in access to content, and students’ autonomy, among others. considering the previous contributions from the flipped learning approach, this study will add knowledge to the efl field and moreover to the literature in colombia in regards to this topic. active learning and students’ activeness the flipped learning network (2014) suggests that one of the foundations of flipped learning is “active learning”. according to prince (2004), active learning occurs when learners are engaged and when the responsibility of learning is placed onto them since students need to cope effectively with high levels of demand using their cognitive, metacognitive and affective strategies (mizokami,2018; rana & burgin, 2018; sabin & olive, 2018) according to the oxford english dictionary (online version), activeness is defined as “constantly engaged in action.” however, ni’mah (2015) states that activeness does not mean that students should be constantly moving during the learning process, but rather that students are engaged at all times during the learning process. activeness is a component of active learning which, according to bonwell and eison (1991), “involves students in doing things and thinking about the things they are doing” (p.2). in the study conducted by clark (2015), active learning is related to flipped learning in a mathematics class. another study is that of roach (2014), which took place in a microeconomics course. both studies relate how flipped learning helps to foster active learning. finally, the research by hung (2015) explores how flipping an english language classroom provides students with opportunities to engage in more participation, which is a feature of active learning. the present study aims to enrich this topic area since the literature found on activeness in relation to flipped learning is scarce within the colombian literature. activeness in flipped learning approach chivata & oviedo no. 17 (july december, 2018) no. 17 (july december, 2018) 87 students’ perceptions of flipped learning a review of the research of flipped learning conducted by bishop and verleger in 2013 identified eleven previous studies that have explored students’ perceptions of flipped learning. the main conclusions here were that students generally demonstrated positive perceptions of this approach. the majority of studies on perceptions of flipped learning reported positive perceptions towards the approach which have impacted academic performance, motivation, autonomy and collaborative work; students have found flipped learning to be a more enjoyable experience since the approach provides students with more control over their learning, more chances to interact with other students and the teacher, and the positive aspect of exploring content at their own pace (afrilyasanti, cahyono, and astuti ,2016; baker,2000; butt,2014; chao, chen, and chuang, 2015; johnson, 2013; maher, lipford and singh, 2013; mosher, 2016; tohei, 2018; roehl, reddy and shannon, 2013; wanner and palmer, 2015; zainuddin and attaran, 2016). considering that flipped learning is a relatively recent concept in colombia and educators, around the globe, have researched about it as far back as the late 1990s in their classes (talbert, 2018), the literature found in colombia on this topic is growing and this study hopes to contribute to broadening our understanding in terms of students’ perceptions of activeness during the implementation of a flipped learning approach. methodology the specific research question that motivated this study was: what are students’ perceptions of activeness during the implementation of the flipped learning approach? in the following sections the study carried out based on this question is displayed. methodological approach in order to address the research question above, this study adopted an action research methodological approach. cohen, manion and morrison (2007) state ‘action research is a small-scale intervention in the functioning of the real world and a close examination of the effects of such intervention.’ our research followed 4 stages: planning (an intervention), acting (carrying out the intervention), observing (the effects of the intervention) and reflecting (altrichter, kemmis, activeness in flipped learning approach chivata & oviedo no. 17 (july december, 2018) no. 17 (july december, 2018) 88 mctaggar & zuber-skerritt ,2002). the last stage evaluated the findings and discussed the insights gained by the teacher-researchers as the basis for further action. this approach was suitable for this research project since the main purpose was to explore students’ perceptions after a 16-week intervention following the flipped learning approach, in the results and discussion section the reflection is displayed in order to add knowledge to the efl field. research context this research took place at a state university in a medium-sized city in colombia. english courses in this colombian state university are a requirement to graduate, but they do not have credits and are not included in the curriculum of each program; therefore, students can register to attend these classes at any time during their undergraduate programs. students are required to take four to six english levels according to the undergraduate program they are studying. five different general english courses were chosen for this study in which the flipped learning approach was implemented. each course had a maximum of 35 students registered who take two hours of english class twice a week. each english level lasts 16 weeks. the intervention was carried out by two efl teachers who designed the lessons, materials, homework, and exams based on the textbook new cutting edge elementary and pre-intermediate (third edition), following the three aforementioned pillars of the flipped learning approach. attendance is not compulsory in this course; hence, participation in all stages of the research was voluntary. this could be considered to be one of the limitations of the study, since not all the students who started the courses finished them or were willing to participate in the data collection stage. participants a convenience sample was adopted to carry out this research since the groups selected were the ones the researchers were teaching during that semester. the participants were undergraduate university students from different programs such as education, economy, engineering, business, law, medicine, and psychology. they were registered on the english i, ii, or iv courses, which were assigned to the teacherresearchers, depending on the previous level they had approved. the total number of students registered for the five groups selected were 141. however, 57 stopped attending during the course of the semester. activeness in flipped learning approach chivata & oviedo no. 17 (july december, 2018) no. 17 (july december, 2018) 89 as a result, only 84 students participated in the final data collection and thus formed part of the final results. the data collection instruments were an online likert-scale questionnaire, immediate feedback after each class and a focus group interview, they will be explained in detail in the data collection techniques and instruments section. pedagogical intervention at the university, english teachers are generally encouraged to follow a communicative approach. hence, the implementation of the flipped learning approach for this project was focused on developing communication skills through different pre-class, during-class, and post-class activities. table 1 summarizes the pedagogical intervention which is explained in more detail in the following paragraphs. table 1. pedagogical intervention timeline. during the first two weeks, the syllabus and methodology were explained to the students. the teacher-researchers explained how to join and work on playposit and quzizz (researchers selected these two online learning tools since they were more suitable for the purposes of the intervention than the institutional lms) and then how the class was going to be “flipped”. every week, before class, students were asked to watch interactive videos on playposit. this involved them completing a range of activities (short exercises, quizzes and worksheets) at activeness in flipped learning approach chivata & oviedo no. 17 (july december, 2018) no. 17 (july december, 2018) 90 home and bringing their work to the class. the videos were created or selected from various video-sharing websites and uploaded beforehand to playposit to allow the students time to watch them and carry out the activities. some of the exercises required that students took notes of the content or exercises to discuss them or clarify doubts in the classroom. after accessing the content material online, students attended the class sessions from week 3 to week 15, which were planned according to the content proposed by the institutional syllabus. the format used for the planning included the lesson objectives, flipped activities (individual learning space), check-up/warm up, practice activities (group learning space), wrap up, and post-class work. after planning considering all the skills proposed by the institutional syllabus (listening, speaking, reading and writing), all classes were taught by using different activities such group work, problem-solving tasks, station-rotation work, board games, debate, writing activities and discussions. at the end of each class, a “feedback post-it station” was created in order for students to write down their impressions of how active they felt during the various activities. the post-its were written anonymously so students felt free to give their opinions (as ramirez suggested in personal communication, march 3, 2018). the assessment was carried out through four online quizzes along the semester and a final written test, during week 16, as required by the institution. data collection techniques and instruments in this action research project, qualitative data collection methods were used. data were collected in spanish but comments were translated into english by the authors. due to limitations of space, only the translations are included in this article. questionnaire: the quantifiable qualitative data for this research were collected through an online 10-item questionnaire (see appendix 1). this questionnaire was designed based on the first three pillars of flipped learning, with a five-point likert-scale response set (sd: strongly disagree, d: disagree, n: neutral, a: agree, and sa: strongly agree). all of the items intended to explore students’ perceptions of flipped learning after experimenting with the approach for a period of 16 weeks. immediate written feedback: students were requested to provide immediate written feedback after each lesson. this was achieved through a post-it station in the classroom, in which students were asked to write (either in english or spanish) their impressions of their role activeness in flipped learning approach chivata & oviedo no. 17 (july december, 2018) no. 17 (july december, 2018) 91 during the implementation. each group had a different post-it color (yellow group, green group, red group, pink group, and blue group) in order to identify where the comment came from and therefore to organize the data when it came to the data analysis. focus group interview: after administering the questionnaire, a focus group interview was conducted (focus group a in which students were giving codes, a1-a18) in order to explore the online questionnaire (see appendix 1) items in greater depth. a focus group was appropriate since it allowed the researchers to explore attitudes and perceptions, feelings, and ideas about the topic (denscombe, 2004). the participants of the focus group had to meet three criteria: first, they had to have attended all classes and had participated in all stages of the implementation; second, they had to have completed the flipped learning online questionnaire; and finally, they had to have fulfilled all the online pre-class and post-class activities (playposit and quizizz). although 46 participants met all of these criteria, only 18 volunteered to participate in the focus group interview. data analysis and interpretation to answer the question of this action research project with regards to students’ perceptions of activeness during the implementation of flipped learning, the analysis of the data is displayed according to three main pre-established categories, which are the first three pillars of the flipped learning approach (flexible environment, learning culture, and intentional content). in the process of interpretation, the researchers analyzed the questionnaire by doing a statistical analysis. later, the researchers coded the information gathered from the focus group interview and the post-it feedback station to categorize them according to the questionnaire items. finally, in the discussion section, the results have been contrasted with those found in previous studies. results and discussion in general, data demonstrated that a high percentage of students felt that flipped learning helped them become more active learners. this study provided participants with opportunities to revise their role in terms of activeness and examples of these opportunities are provided in the following sections. the results are discussed in terms of the research question which was: what are students’ perceptions of activeness during the implementation of the flipped learning approach? activeness in flipped learning approach chivata & oviedo no. 17 (july december, 2018) no. 17 (july december, 2018) 92 flexible environment the first four items refer to students’ perceptions regarding the components of the flexible environment pillar (defined in the literature review section) in terms of activeness. table 2. tabulation students’ ´answers items 1 to 4 from the questionnaire. for the first item, 39.7% of students strongly agreed and 49.6% agreed that they were able to access the class content anytime and anywhere on playposit and quizizz. the students’ responses to access to contents were generally positive, with six comments from the focus group and 36 responses from the immediate feedback supporting this item. for example, in excerpt 1, student a6 said during the focus group interview, “maybe i could watch the video in the bus when i didn’t have time at home.” and a student from the yellow group wrote in the immediate feedback, “i liked that i watched the video when i could and i could repeat the lesson.” this finding is in line with the observation by roehl, reddy and shannon (2013), tucker (2012) and ramirez (2018) who noted that modern-day students tend to appreciate the flexibility of choosing when and where to access instructional content, thus allowing them to have more face-to-face time in class to practice. for the second item, 52.8% of the students agreed and 29.9% strongly agreed that they did more than listening while they were watching the video. this finding was supported by nine comments from the focus group interview and 15 from the immediate feedback. for example, in excerpt 2, student a9 said “you know that throughout the video there are certain questions, you needed a notebook and a pencil to take notes.” and one student from the red group wrote “people learn activeness in flipped learning approach chivata & oviedo no. 17 (july december, 2018) no. 17 (july december, 2018) 93 and practice with exercises while watching the videos.” we can note that students saw the need to take notes to learn or to clarify doubts, making them active during the moment of watching the videos at home, also that they felt comfortable having the option of watching them at any place or device before coming to the class. these two previous items’ results are consistent with the outcomes in the study by roach (2014) and hung (2015), in which students indicated that watching the videos at home was positive to their learning needs and their pace of learning. in the study by zainuddi and attaran (2016), 100% of students watched the videos and stated that they paid attention when watching the video lessons, took notes, paused and replied according to their needs. lastly, as in the study by buitrago and diaz (2018), students demonstrated a high level of motivation towards the use of technology to assist their learning. for the third item, 48.8% percent of students agreed and 44.6% strongly agreed that the activities provided them with different opportunities to demonstrate knowledge of the content learned in class. this was supported by six comments from the focus group and 33 from the written feedback. for example, in excerpt 3, student a9 said, “it was important the fact that you may also support your partners in a subject that they are not so good at during the activities”, and from the post-it station one of the students from the blue group wrote, “i felt very active because the activities provided me chances to demonstrate that i have understood the topic.” from this statement, we can see that students were actively participating and that the activities were accurate to show that they had understood, for example when they explained to each other during activities. this is consistent with some of the assertions made by johnson (2013), who states that flipping a class can provide a self-paced instructional setting that can effectively support mastery learning for students. students value the opportunity to review the instructional content at their own pace (flores & savage, 2007; kornell & metcalfe, 2006; ramirez, 2018; roach, 2014). also, in the research by garay and torregrosa (2016) in which a category named “demonstrate mastery” (p. 64) emerged from this pillar concluding that according to the acquired knowledge students obtained before class, they could participate positively during the activities. finally, for item four, 57% of the students strongly agreed and 30.6% agreed that they liked the flexibility of choosing what activities to do during the station work classes. this item was supported by 12 comments from the focus group and 30 from the post-it feedback. for example, in excerpt 4, student a2 said, “well, if i like an activity, i will put more interest in it as if something is imposed on me (...) i activeness in flipped learning approach chivata & oviedo no. 17 (july december, 2018) no. 17 (july december, 2018) 94 liked that, choosing what you want to learn.” moreover, student a1 expressed, “the fact that there are different opportunities is great, because you do not enter in a routine. there was the excitement of moving on to another game or activity.” finally, one student from the blue group wrote “choosing what activity to do first make me feel relax when learning.” from this item, it is evident that students were taking part when selecting which task to do first and where to go next in the sessions. they remarked that they felt they learned more by being able to decide on the activities, which was compatible with the findings of wanner and palmer (2015) and al‐zahrani (2015). in the flipped learning approach, there is an opportunity for differentiation, students have a choice of activities, and gifted students may choose advanced activities while others will go for easier ones according to their level and needs (siegle, 2014). learning culture the following three items show students’ perceptions of activeness with regards to the second pillar, learning culture (defined in the literature review section). table 3. tabulation students’ ´answers items 5 to 7 from the questionnaire. for the fifth item, 53.7% of the students agreed and 37.2% strongly agreed that their role as a learner was important when they were executing the activities, their role as a learner understood as active participants who are autonomous and in charge of their learning process. this was supported by nine comments from the focus group and 24 from the written feedback. for example, in excerpt 5, student a9 said, “the role of the student is definitely very important because if we are not responsible, that will affect the method and the way of giving the class.” from the post-it station, a student from the green group wrote “i feel that my responsibility increased since the class depends now more on me.” it is perceived that they understood how relevant their role was activeness in flipped learning approach chivata & oviedo no. 17 (july december, 2018) no. 17 (july december, 2018) 95 to succeed in the activities, they needed to be active at home, revising the content as well as being active during class time. this is also one of the findings in the study by mosher (2016), in which teachers noticed an increase in student responsibility. for example, students came better prepared to class, sought help from peers and teachers and managed their time to watch the videos and do the homework. additionally, in the research by clark (2015), yeo (2018) and wagner-loera (2018), it was found that students agreed that the collaborative tasks required each of them to take an active role in their learning processes. for the sixth item, 45.5% of the students agreed and 43% strongly agreed that they were able to take part in all the activities suggested in class. to support this, eight comments from the focus group and 12 from the immediate feedback were in agreement with this. for instance, in excerpt 6, student a1 said that “all the activities took into account the topic and level, so we were always capable of doing them.” another student, a11, commented that “all the activities were engaging; we always wanted to participate.” finally, one student from the red group wrote: “thanks to the videos i was able to participate in the activities in the classroom.” by analyzing this statement, students showed their interest in participating and keeping themselves busy. this was similar to the findings of hernandez and torres (2017) and mosher (2016) who stated that flipped learning allows teachers to differentiate through class time activities, by giving varying levels of activities or scaffolding an activity for certain students. lastly, for the seventh item, 45.5% of students strongly agreed and 43% agreed that they were able to learn when interacting with their peers. this item was supported by 15 comments from the focus group and 42 from the immediate feedback. for example, a student from the red group wrote in the immediate feedback station, “this method is good because you can interact more and transmit knowledge.” in the focus group interview, excerpt 7, student a5 stated that “i could learn more when i listened to my classmates explaining something to me.” referring to the previous comments, it is noticeable that students were involved as they explained to each other, and that this aspect of the tasks was one that they valued the most, since they realized they were constructing knowledge through interacting with their peers. these findings are similar to the ones found in the studies by han (2018), hung (2015), strayer (2012) and yeo (2018) in which students saw the value in helping others to learn. activeness in flipped learning approach chivata & oviedo no. 17 (july december, 2018) no. 17 (july december, 2018) 96 intentional content the following three items illustrate the link between students’ role in terms of activeness and the third pillar, intentional content (defined in the literature review section). table 4. tabulation students’ ´answers items 8 to 10 from the questionnaire. for the eighth item, 50.4% of students agreed and 34.7% strongly agreed that their learning process was considered when selecting the topics to study. nine comments from the focus group and six from the immediate feedback were found in the data in regards to this statement. for the ninth item, 53.7% of students strongly agreed and 38.8% agreed that the videos selected by the teacher were appropriate to their level and content having this item ten comments from the focus group and 24 from the written feedback in favor. to support items eighth and ninth, in excerpt 8, student a13 expressed that “our process was taken into account because the teacher based the topics that we were going to study in things that we had already seen before.” another student, a5, in excerpt 9, remarked that “the videos were appropriate to our level and they were displayed in a progressive way in relation to content.” furthermore, from the immediate written feedback, a student from the blue group wrote “the videos have enough information and helped us not to fall into a routine since we could go over them at any time.” from the previous comments, we can observe that students recognized how the selection of the topics and videos was related to their learning process and their level and content, by prioritizing the content they could explore in direct instruction time. by doing this, the teacher-researchers were differentiating when planning. this is similar to the study by mosher (2016), in which one category was named “intentional planning” (p. 69), referring to the teacher being intentional in planning the video and planning the differentiation activities. finally, for the tenth item, 58.7% of students agreed and 33.9% strongly agreed that they could self-assess their learning progress. for activeness in flipped learning approach chivata & oviedo no. 17 (july december, 2018) no. 17 (july december, 2018) 97 this item it was found a number of 15 comments from the focus group and 12 from the post-it feedback station. referring to students’ selfassessment process, in excerpt 10, student a13 said, “i went to classes because i realized that i had learned something.” another student, a3, said that “before this class i had never questioned whether i was learning or not (…) in this class i reflected on what was difficult for me and the reason for my failures.” finally, from the post-it feedback station, a student from the blue group expressed that “this method makes me feel i can recognize what i have learned and my strengths when working with my peers.” these perceptions from students confirm the valuable opportunity they had to actively self-assess their learning progress, making them aware of what they were learning and the things they needed to improve to enrich their learning process. parallels may be drawn here with the research by chao, chen, and chuang (2015) and graney (2018), in which participants experienced a positive attitude towards self-assessment of their learning and the chance to have more control over their progress (baker, 2000). conclusions the purpose of this study was to explore students’ perceptions of activeness during the implementation of a flipped learning approach as part of an efl course at a colombian university. it is clear that students’ perceptions of the flipped learning approach were generally positive, which is consistent with the findings of several other studies (afrilyasanti, cahyono, & astuti, 2016; maher, lipford, & singh, 2013; bishop & verleger, 2013; buitrago & diaz, 2018; butt, 2014; gonzález, 2016; hung, 2015; ramirez, 2018, tohei, 2018). in general, students agreed that this pedagogical approach provided them with the opportunity to take an active role in their learning process. firstly, participants in this study are digital natives (roehl, reddy and shannon, 2013), and this was evident through their preference for the increased use of technology. indeed, they were actively involved in the flipped learning course through its videos and online platforms. secondly, the data showed that students preferred to work collaboratively in groups whilst in the class by interacting and communicating among them, which is a prominent feature of active learning. after the intervention, students acknowledged that they needed to take more responsibility for their own learning. students noted they were more in control of their own learning process than the teacher (han, 2018), and reported feeling more in control of the pace and amount of content they learned. they also recognized how teachers activeness in flipped learning approach chivata & oviedo no. 17 (july december, 2018) no. 17 (july december, 2018) 98 took into account their own individual learning processes when selecting the content, by giving them different opportunities to learn. another advantage in terms of activeness from flipped learning was the increase in students’ engagement. students perceived that they were more engaged due to the active learning opportunities provided by the course. it must be recognized that there were certain limitations to this research project. the first limitation was the number of volunteers, which was relatively low. the second one was that it was difficult to try to set up the time for applying the instruments since we had to do it in a different time from classroom time. and that, ideally, it would have been preferable to expose students to the approach for a longer time, but considering that the teachers change groups each semester, it was not possible to do so. also, after analyzing the results from the intervention we consider that something to improve would have been to create all the videos ourselves, since some students expressed that the video would have been more appealing to them if the teachers-researchers were the person explaining in it. despite the aforementioned limitations, we have to highlight the relevance of its findings. students’ engagement, students’ voice and choice, students’ ownership of learning and students’ preference for collaborative work were prominent as noteworthy in this study. the flipped learning approach provided students with student-centered lessons and this study has gathered their perceptions in order to improve teaching practices and to contribute to broadening teachers’ understanding of this topic in colombia and around the world. activeness in flipped learning approach chivata & oviedo no. 17 (july december, 2018) no. 17 (july december, 2018) 99 references afrilyasanti, r., cahyono, b. y., & astuti, u. p. 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(2015). personalizing learning: exploring student and teacher perceptions about flexible learning and assessment in a flipped university course. computers & education, 88, 354-369. weimer, m. (2002). learner-centered teaching: five key changes to practice. (1st ed.). san francisco: john wiley & sons. yeo, m. (2018) flipping or flopping: lessons learnt from flipping a course for asean teachers of english. in: mehring j., leis a. (1st. ed.) innovations in flipping the language classroom. (pp.23-44). singapore, springer. zainuddin, z & attaran, m. (2016). malaysian students’ perceptions of the flipped classroom: a case study. innovations in education and teaching international, 53(6), 660-670. activeness in flipped learning approach chivata & oviedo no. 17 (july december, 2018) no. 17 (july december, 2018) 104 author *yuri paola chivatá is a modern language teacher from universidad pedagógica y tecnológica de colombia. she holds an m.a in language teaching from the same university. she has worked in public and private educational settings for 5 years. her research interests include teachers’ beliefs and practices and pedagogical innovations. rocío cristina oviedo uribe holds a b.a. in english teaching from universidad industrial de santander and a m.a. in language teaching from universidad pedagógica y tecnológica de colombia. she holds certificate in early childhood education from the college of southern maryland, us. her fields of interests include e-learning, cooperative learning, english language methodology and flipped learning. currently, she works as a full time english teacher at universidad pedagógica y tecnológica de colombia. activeness in flipped learning approach chivata & oviedo no. 17 (july december, 2018) no. 17 (july december, 2018) 105 appendix 1 universidad tecnologíca y pedagogíca de colombia students perceptions of activeness during flip learning implementation rate each item on the scale provided to indicate your agreement. activeness in flipped learning approach chivata & oviedo no. 17 (july december, 2018) no. 17 (july december, 2018) 191 no. 23 reviewers no. 23, 2020 (july december 2021) gist would like to thank the following reviewers for their valuable comments and thoughtful revision: edgar lucero babativa, universidad de la salle, colombia fredy rozo, fundación universidad de américa, colombia jair ayala-zárate, educational testing services, colombia ayşegül takkaç-tulgar, atatürk university, turkey diana rocío umaña buitrago, universidad del rosario, colombia paul abraham, simmons college, usa juan carlos torres rincón, universidad de la sabana, colombia juan ríos vega, bradley university, usa claudia acero, universidad de la sabana, colombia rigoberto castillo, universidad distrital francisco josé de caldas, colombia adriana castañeda londoño, universidad de los andes, colombia sanja škific, university of zadar, croatia alexander ramírez, universidad del valle, colombia meral gözüküçük, kafkas university, turkey margarita lópez, universidad de caldas, colombia diego ubaque, universidad distrital francisco josé de caldas, colombia no. 23 a collaborative autoethnography on raciolinguistic experiences and the construction of linguistic identities during an intercultural exchange1 una autoetnografía colaborativa sobre experiencias raciolingüísticas y la construcción de identidades lingüísticas durante un intercambio intercultural maría paula campos campos, stephany garzón roa, maría paula méndez, jairo enrique castañeda trujillo2* universidad surcolombiana, colombia 1 received: october 30th 2020/ accepted: september 2nd 2021 2 mapaulacc18@gmail.com; stefanygarzonr@gmail.com; pola.mp19@gmail.com; jairo.castaneda@usco.edu.c gist education and learning research journal. issn 1692-5777. no. 23 (july december, 2021). pp. 59-79 language development in a study abroad experience 60 no. 23 abstract the personal experiences of three of the authors of this document as au pairs in the united states exposed some issues related to social justice and discrimination that made the participants reflect on their identity as speakers and future teachers of english. this article shares, analyzes and interprets these reflections collaboratively in search of the contributions of this intercultural exchange to the construction of the identity of the participants, and how these experiences contrast with those lived as pre-service english teachers in a public university in the southeastern region of colombia. using a collaborative autoethnographic approach, the participants exposed situations of discrimination and inequality for not being native english speakers or for being latin american. they analyzed them in the light of the theory on linguistic identity, raciolinguistics, and english varieties. the findings showed that the participants’ negative experiences helped the participants consolidate their identity as teachers of english, allowing them to see the inequalities and injustices that exist within the english program and empowering them to propose changes within their immediate contexts in their country of origin. the article is intended to be a useful resource specifically, but not exclusively, for english teachers in training who plan to do cultural exchanges abroad but who also project themselves as english teachers. keywords: collaborative autoethnography; english varieties; linguistic identity; raciolinguistics; teacher identity. resumen las experiencias personales de tres de los autores de este documento como au pairs en estados unidos expusieron algunos temas relacionados con la justicia social y la discriminación que hicieron reflexionar a los participantes sobre su identidad como hablantes y futuros profesores de inglés. este artículo comparte estas reflexiones, las analiza e interpreta colaborativamente en busca de los aportes de este intercambio intercultural a la construcción de la identidad de los participantes, y cómo contrastan estas experiencias con las vividas como docentes de inglés en formación en una universidad pública de la región suroriental de colombia. utilizando un enfoque autoetnográfico colaborativo, los participantes expusieron situaciones de discriminación y desigualdad por no ser angloparlantes nativos o por ser latinoamericanos y luego las analizaron a la luz de la teoría sobre identidad lingüística, raciolingüismo y variedades del inglés. los hallazgos mostraron que las experiencias negativas vividas ayudaron a los participantes a consolidar su identidad como profesores de inglés, dejándoles ver las desigualdades e injusticias que existen dentro del programa de inglés y empoderándolos para proponer cambios dentro de sus contextos inmediatos en su país de origen. el artículo pretende ser un recurso útil específicamente, pero no exclusivamente, para los profesores de inglés en formación que planean hacer intercambios culturales al extranjero pero que también se proyectan como profesores de inglés. palabras clave: autoetnografía colaborativa; variedades del inglés; identidad lingüística; raciolingüística; identidad docente. collaborative etnography on raciolinguistic experiences campos, garzon, mendez & castañeda 61 no. 23 resumo as experiências pessoais de três dos autores deste documento como au pairs nos estados unidos expuseram alguns assuntos relacionados com a justiça social e a discriminação que fizeram refletir aos participantes sobre sua identidade como falantes e futuros professores de inglês. este artigo compartilha estas reflexões, analisa-as e interpreta colaborativamente em busca dos aportes deste intercâmbio intercultural à construção da identidade dos participantes, e como contrastam estas experiências com as vivenciadas como docentes de inglês em formação em uma universidade pública da região sul-oriental da colômbia. utilizando um enfoque autoetnográfico colaborativo, os participantes apresentaram situações de discriminação e desigualdade por não ser anglofalantes nativos ou por ser latino-americanos, raciolinguismo e variedades do inglês. as descobertas mostraram que as experiências negativas vividas ajudaram os participantes a consolidar sua identidade como professores de inglês, deixando-os ver as desigualdades e injustiças que existem dentro do programa de inglês e empoderando-os para propor mudanças dentro de seus contextos imediatos em seu país de origem. o artigo pretende ser um recurso útil especificamente, mas não exclusivamente, para os professores de inglês em formação que planejam fazer intercâmbios culturais no exterior, mas que também se projetam como professores de inglês. palavras chave: autoetnografia colaborativa; variedades do inglês; identidade linguística; raciolinguística; identidade docente. collaborative etnography on raciolinguistic experiences campos, garzon, mendez & castañeda 62 no. 23 introduction the process of becoming an english teacher is complex from the beginning. english teachers in training reexamine their beliefs about teaching and learning a language throughout their careers. however, some english language teaching programs do not offer many opportunities for an exchange abroad. that is why many english teachers in training take the option of becoming an au pair as an alternative to know first-hand what they have been taught in the classrooms related to english use. the cultural experience goes beyond using english to communicate. during their stay abroad, the trainee teachers lived experiences that helped them improve their communication skills and made them think and rethink their identity as english teachers. in this paper, three pre-service teachers analyze their experiences as an au pair in the united states. the different situations gave rise to discussions and reflections on who they are as english speakers. additionally, during the construction of the collaborative autoethnographies, they discussed the implications that this experience had on their identity as english teachers. similarly, those situations that gave rise to critical incidents are evoked, which led them to rethink their preconceptions about who the native speaker is and the importance of recognizing english varieties. this proposal to carry out a collaborative autoethnography study arises from the research seminar course carried out at the university. the professor in charge of the course guided the students in understanding the collaborative autoethnography methodology and provided the necessary advice to carry out this research (castañedatrujillo, 2020). in this sense, the document is presented as a research report and offers a theoretical reflection of the research’s most relevant aspects. the methodology used is explained later. given that it is a narrative type investigation, by the very nature of autoethnography, the results are presented in the first person, in line with the poststructural commitments of this study. the subjectivities as participants are more visible, and fluid in the co-construction carried out for this study (sultana, 2007). finally, we state some conclusions and implications of the study. theoretical framework in this section, we describe the three main theoretical elements that constitute the foundations of this research: linguistic identity, english and englishes, and raciolinguistic collaborative etnography on raciolinguistic experiences campos, garzon, mendez & castañeda 63 no. 23 linguistic identity identity is a concept that many people have tried to define. the field of identity has been explored in many studies in recent years. identity is crucial to our understanding of the relationships between us and our world’s dynamics and how these relationships are built across time and space, including future projections and possibilities (norton 1997, cited in sarasa, 2016). this understanding is only possible through language, and language can be considered a marker of individuality. that is, language is loaded with traits and characteristics that are constituted through interactions. in this way, as stated by rovira (2008), “language is intrinsic to the expression of culture” (p. 66), and culture, formed by human experiences, is built from verbal and non-verbal language. culture is an element of identity construction, and identity affects culture in that it is changing and adaptable to circumstances and time. this complex relationship between culture, language, and identity gives way to linguistic identity, understood as the series of characteristic features that constitute an individual’s particularity or the community where it interacts (edwards, 2009). this study will approach those established by bakhtin (1935) on the relationship between identity and language. for the author, this relationship occurs through the verbal and non-verbal presentation of the perspectives, beliefs, values , and principles of a community that characterizes them. explicitly, individuals build different identities based on their place, the people with whom they communicate, and the customs or traditions they exchange during their encounters. from these interactions, language becomes a path towards the fusion of cultures. english and englishes as au pairs, we had the opportunity to experience an environment where different varieties of our target language coexisted. we interacted with people from other countries whose first or second language was english. on the grounds of living in an english speaking country, we correlate llurda’s (2019) comment, who claims that being exposed to real english scenarios, enables you to acknowledge the different forms the language takes and which are acceptable. besides, as canagarajah (2013) advocates, “we should focus on language awareness rather than grammatical correctness in a single variety; strategies of negotiation rather than mastery of product-oriented rules; pragmatics rather than competence” (p. 8). along the same lines, we did not have significant challenges to communicate since we tried to find the means to understand one another despite the differences in pronunciation, lack of grammar, not wide vocabulary, and regardless of how our own culture particularly made us perceive the language. collaborative etnography on raciolinguistic experiences campos, garzon, mendez & castañeda 64 no. 23 since the grand british conquest and the expansion of english due to globalization, local communities worldwide were adopting the use of the language influenced by their particular linguacultural background. it granted english special characteristics triggering the diversity of the language. to get a picture of english variety classification, we rely on kachru’s “three-circle model,” where the english language in the world is divided into three categories. the first one, the “inner circle,” comprehends enl countries, considered standard english. the second one, the “outer circle,” encompasses esl countries that have been historically related to english-speakers countries due to colonization, especially by british and americans. these territories have established english as one of their official languages, and they have transformed it, remaining the “common core characteristics of inner circle varieties of english. besides. it can be distinguished from them by particular lexical, phonological, pragmatic, and morphosyntactic innovations.” (brown, 1995, p. 234). the third one, the “expanding circle,” comprises the rest of the world. for instance, in colombia, where english is considered a foreign language and has no official status, it is not commonly used in daily life. raciolinguistic raciolinguism connects with the idea that language and race are not separate autonomous entities. language shapes our perception of race, and race shapes our perception of language. statements about the nature of race and the superiorityinferiority dichotomy serve to protect certain groups’ interest or hierarchical position. flores and rosa (2015) identify this group as white subjects who speak and listen from a monoglossic perspective. that is, they establish a unique linguistic standard to which others must aspire. this imposition is achieved by the diffusion of ideologies linked to nationalism and has spread due to neoliberalism and globalization. these raciolinguist ideologies are strengthened in countries like the united states due to the appropriation discourses through which it is urged to continue with the standardization processes of english for those who consider themselves non-native speakers of the language, that is, those who are not owners from language. raciolinguism has even reached education. children born out of the united states and who have a mother tongue other than english are discriminated against and rejected for speaking english with a foreign accent. however, alim et al. (2016) state that as we enter “a new understanding that language varieties are not just lists of characteristics that belong to a given ‘race’, even questioning the very notion of a fixed ‘language variety,’ we can move towards speaking in terms of the more fluid sense of ‘linguistic resources’” (p.2). what the authors mention promotes the idea of the acceptance of variations of english, that is, dismantling the idea of standard english and the promotion of a single variety of the language (rosa & flores, 2017). collaborative etnography on raciolinguistic experiences campos, garzon, mendez & castañeda 65 no. 23 from our point of view, we consider that raciolinguists perceive language as a mirror in which societies and races are revealed. from experience, from our basic education in colombia, we have been taught that the native english speaker (ens) is considered the model of language. this ideology has led us to make feelings such as dependency, insecurity, and inferiority grow in us due to not being able to speak the language like ens, considering our english as incorrect or insufficient. a feeling also fueled by a distinction due to our latin english accent. it should be noted that in multiple circumstances, this conviction led us to racialized ourselves. it influenced us to avoid using the foreign language in public places to fear making mistakes and being detected for speaking differently from ens. research methodology this research was conceived as an introspective study of three teachers’ experiences as au pairs in training. as the main objective is to analyze the contributions of intercultural exchange to constructing the teacher’s identity, we decided to use the collaborative autoethnography proposed by ngunjiri, hernandez, and chang (2010). collaborative autoethnography places self-inquiry at the center stage. it also allows a group of researchers to work collectively and cooperatively to question a phenomenon that coexists in common. in this way, the participant-researchers obtained a deeper understanding of the context of the intercultural experience and ourselves through a critical and deep dialogue to position ourselves within the experience (ellis & bochner, 2006; ellis, adams & bochner, 2011 ). we decided to follow the procedure suggested by ngunjiri, hernandez and chang (2010) to construct collaborative autoethnography. in the first place, each participant made an individual reflection of what the experience was, highlighting the aspects that would have affected them the most in terms of language. later, under the professor’s direction, the writings were considered, and a dialogue was started aimed at looking for critical incidents common to the experiences. these meetings were repeated for three months, some accompanied by the teacher, others not. subsequently, the analysis and interpretation of the experiences was carried out, resulting in a series of common themes, which are presented below. findings our story starts in 2018 at dorado airport, where we took off to the united states to immerse ourselves in a cultural exchange program as “au pair.” the school training, located in tarrytown, new york, was the first stop. it gathered plenty of young people collaborative etnography on raciolinguistic experiences campos, garzon, mendez & castañeda 66 no. 23 from different nationalities with the same eagerness for hunting the american culture’s experience. even though it was an interculturally productive environment where we had the chance to make friends from worldwide, we got closer to people who shared similarities in culture and language to feel confident and safe.  as i, paula mendez (pm), was discussing this issue with my cooperative peers in this ethnography, i stated that it was smooth and natural to get along with latin people, as we shared many commonalities such as language, food, music, sense of humor, and so on. thus i felt warm in the middle of the unknown reality. for her part, paula campos (pc) claimed that she decided to stay aside from non-latin cultures due to a fear of rejection for making mistakes when speaking english. while discussing this issue, stephany garzón (sg) brought the term “intercultural competences” to the table that might cover what we faced at that moment.  johnson et al. (2006, p. 530) defined intercultural competence as “an individual’s effectiveness in drawing upon a set of knowledge, skills, and personal attributes to work successfully with people from different national cultural backgrounds at home or abroad.” this statement led us to reflect on our lack of willingness to open ourselves and interact with people from different linguistic and cultural backgrounds and acquire skills to handle breakdowns in communicative settings.  besides, olivares (2000) presents interculturality competencies integrated by two elements: the social skills approach and the holistic approach. the first one refers to the social abilities necessary to flexibly adjust our behavior, fit with other identities properly, create and maintain satisfying relationships in intercultural encounters. the second conception alludes to such emotional and affective factors that build empathy and appreciation towards cultural diversity. undoubtedly, we all three agreed on the low-level of intercultural competencies we brought from home. as we kept emerging and adapting ourselves to american culture while living with american families, we started feeling confident enough to respond to the diverse situations that implicate english use. eventually, we met people from everywhere and felt curiosity for learning about their particular values, beliefs, and customs. it helped us to reduce cultural shock and to bridge the gap among divergent cultures.   over the months, we made friends worldwide, and especially from europe. we noticed their english proficiency was quite better compared to latin people. in a general picture, these persons had been learning english since the beginning of their primary education, and no extra courses. (sg) once, a close friend of mine from germany questioned why latin americans tended to have low english proficiency; from her perspective, that seemed to be a conformist behavior. owing to the usa’s large hispanic community, they were apparently comfortable speaking only spanish and limiting themselves to speak english when it was merely necessary. on my behalf, i denied it was not necessarily due to collaborative etnography on raciolinguistic experiences campos, garzon, mendez & castañeda 67 no. 23 a conformist behavior for not learning the language accurately. still, unfortunately, from the school itself, the bases of the language were not well-founded. indeed, from my own experience, at a public high school, i had english teachers who did not study an english degree program, yet, schools needed assigning teachers of other subjects to teach the language. therefore, some teachers did not have much knowledge about it, and they would confine us to elaborate translations that were high-graded no matter the accuracy. in fact, i have noticed that some professors at college are not demanding and rigorous enough with students and their use of english as future teachers (...) i (pc) considered that stephany’s friend perceived the mirror of a low-quality education system in latin america that continues implementing traditional methods, which are not preparing us for real-life contexts. educational policy-makers and administrators must adopt innovative pedagogical strategies to build communicative skills that respond to social needs. for example, europe has implemented strategies like teaching english to children from very young ages and promoting multilingualism in the general region. the appropriate instructions and management in their educational policies have granted effective outcomes in the english learning process. according to the last report (9th edition, 2019) presented by ef epi (education first english proficiency index), european countries lead the ranking in assessing english proficiency around the world. meanwhile, latin america was exhibited as a region with one of the lowest linguistic competencies with a 50,34 ef epi score. in turn, argentina is the first country on the regional classification list, while colombia is the third-worst country. besides, reports of ef epi, from 2016 to 2019, have shown a tendency to decrease english proficiency in colombia.  there is a vast gap between europe and latin america regarding national policies and investment in education. latin america is barely investing one-third of the gni per capita compared to the european region. this high level of inequality in the economy has obstructed efforts to enhance the english domain.  likewise, ariel fiszbein (2017), the education program director at the interamerican dialogue, remarks that “en general la región carece de políticas nacionales bien desarrolladas. esto, combinado con el bajo nivel general de los docentes, no ayuda a mejorar los niveles de bilingüismo, a pesar de los esfuerzos que se vienen haciendo en la región desde hace varios años.”  “in general, the region is short of well-developed national policies. this, along with the low general level of teachers, does not help improve bilingualism levels despite the constant efforts that have been making in the region since a couple of years ago”.  (translated verbatim by the researchers) collaborative etnography on raciolinguistic experiences campos, garzon, mendez & castañeda 68 no. 23 i (pm) would say we still have a long way to achieve a standard bilingualism level in the country. i observed one of my friends from colombia, even though she was a professional and had studied english since high school and the mandatory english courses at college; she was struggling to comprehend and establish conversations in the target language. due to this, it was easier for her to communicate through text messages with non-spanish speakers. it was a reality that she needed to develop her english skills as she felt frustrated for her incapacity to express herself. to enhance the educational system in our country, i believe we should attack the root of formal education. (sg) as i mentioned before, the issues due to the lack of rigorousness in teachers’ english proficiency have been reflected in students whose linguistic competencies are not well-built to perform in a context beyond the classroom. nonetheless, through our experience, we understood that linguistic competencies, if it is a factor to improve, there is another factor which we consider has not been addressed during the lessons, ‘culture.’ living abroad led us to bear in mind the importance of learning english by developing cultural awareness. english should not only be taught for academic and professional purposes. that is why we teachers should prepare students to reduce linguistic barriers and encourage them to appreciate multiculturalism using english to gain an international understanding.  our use of english in the real social context during our first months. we all agree that our english level was good enough to make ourselves understood in the real context. it helped us to be confident when speaking. (sg) i remembered it was january 6th when i met my host family; they and their extended family were gathered to celebrate the holidays. that confidence when speaking english was actually favorable, and it worked for me on that first day, as i was in such an active and social environment. people told me that i spoke very well and could understand me, which encouraged me not to be afraid of interacting with them. but as the days were by, i realized it was not always easy to communicate everything just the way i wanted to. i felt i would need to learn english all over again (a feeling that we all three got). all in all, we consider that our english learning process during primary school has focused on grammar structures and vocabulary, putting aside output skills practices to meet needs in a real context. we are given scenarios where we can simulate some daily situations, for instance, playing roles like eating out in a restaurant, buying an item in a shop, booking a flight, requesting directions, and so on. yet, those opportunities are hardly ever carried out in the lessons. as jo budden (n.d.) states in his british council article, teachers should “keep the context real and relevant for students where they have to play as real to life as possible, having the opportunity to imagine and travel inside the classroom.” in this vein, we believe those real-life performances should be collaborative etnography on raciolinguistic experiences campos, garzon, mendez & castañeda 69 no. 23 considered in the curriculum. as it has been said, the learning process takes place when the activities are designed to engage students and be memorable to them. moreover, these activities might be considered an assessment tool to examine what students can do with what they have learned. as teachers, we can provide students with theoretical english knowledge and practical and functional ability. on this, students, by their side, would be likely prepared to complete real-life tasks.  (pc) it brought to my mind an experience when i just arrived in the usa. i remember i had some troubles as i missed my flight, i lost my luggage, and i had to rebook my flight, etc. at that time, my english skills were not good enough to face sudden situations, making me feel frustrated and nervous. it took me to reflect upon the importance of learning english in a contextualized setting constant practices of daily events in the classroom can lead us to achieve language fluency and reduce fears when facing these sorts of situations. generally, communication and interaction in a real english social environment denote factors, like living and immersing in a particular english community. following tom garside’s analysis, he states: “studies in neurolinguistics show us that setting a context effectively activates areas of the brain which relate to learners’ experience in relevant areas, known as a schema.”  (the efa blog tesol 2019, may 21st). hence, teachers must bring up situations, thematic, and discussion points to contextualize students before introducing new learning content. on a small scale, we educators should adapt the class to real scenarios; to grant learners the possibility to practice daily life events and language with slang, idioms, colloquial words, etc., to confront future linguistic shocks.  being myself, what is my identity in an environment where i cannot express who i am? in an instance, i (sg) started to worry and feel i was losing my identity since i could not be myself due to linguistic limitations. english instruction failure within a social atmosphere was a chief handicap to express my extroverted personality feasibly during my first months. speaking with my fellows, it has come to light that our concerns were about our identity and how other au pairs, who barely speak the language, were reflecting their own. we believe this heavy feeling was tied to our role as english teachers who are continually seeking to reach the language’s accuracy. back in time, we thought of english proficiency as the key ingredient to hold our identity and show the real self. however, learning a new language implies seeing the world from a different outlook while acquiring a new identity (lemke, 2002). throughout time, language acquisition made us change how we figure, behave, and socialize with others. we did not retain the identity we brought from home, but the language led us to create a different one adapted to the world around us. in this order of ideas, every single language confers us with it its particular identity, beliefs, and attitudes. in other words, the czech proverb says, “learn a new language and get a new soul.”  collaborative etnography on raciolinguistic experiences campos, garzon, mendez & castañeda 70 no. 23 from our reflection, the identity shift has been as cultural as linguistic, leading us to recognize that exposing ourselves to a target context has enriched our global insights regarding people’s lifestyles. one begins building a different identity from appreciating interculturality throughout social encounters with our host families and friends worldwide; our thoughts, culture, taboos, and beliefs change to be adapted to the new environment and the people we share with. furthermore, most of us were not being criticized for the way we speak our english, what we say, and how we say it, granting us the freedom to create our new identity.  how does it change our perspective on the role of teachers? as a result of multiculturality in the usa, we reflect on the world english varieties and notice the acceptability of the world englishes within the same community through our experience. for example, japanese english, indian english, australian english, canadian english, etc., were not pointed out as non-accurate english. “it is, rather, a different way of looking at the language, which is more inclusive, pluralistic, and accepting than the traditional, monolithic view of english in which there is one correct, standard way of using english that all speakers must strive for” (matsuda, 2003 p. 727) as teachers, we want to keep the englishes varieties in the classroom as we introduce materials and content related to different cultures, expressions, and proper englishes features. as educators, we should provide students a more comprehensive view of the world and understand how the language works to bridge the gap during the linguistic diversities that can emerge. english teaching should encourage students to be tolerant and appreciate linguistic differences to understand and perceive other conceptions worldwide. the spread of  english has triggered the study of world englishes. in this sense, some models have emerged to classify the different varieties of the language. these models analyze how particular sociolinguistic contexts and multicultural backgrounds provide english specific features that differ from one place to another. one of the most prominent models has been kachru’s three-circle model (see figure 1), which suggests three concentric circles:  collaborative etnography on raciolinguistic experiences campos, garzon, mendez & castañeda 71 no. 23 figure 1. kachru’s three-circle model of english the fact that a group of people comes from different english circles does not prevent them from the communicative event. by way of example, (sg) i lived with a family who came from two other countries in the uk (england and wales), the reason why their english was different. additionally, the kids, who spoke british english, sometimes would come from school speaking american english. all this, including my colombian english, brought up a variety of the language to the house, triggering particular accents, vocabulary, slang, and so on, which did not cause any communication breakdown as we could negotiate meanings through linguistic strategies. in that respect, as we acknowledge that there are variations within the same inner circle, e.g., british english, american english, australian english, and the like, and these variations do not discredit each other, we as teachers must also widen the recognition of outer circle englishes and the appreciation of the traits that every culture in any territory bestows to the language.   other than that, we should erase from students the idea of learning the language to go to an english speaking country or to communicate with native english speakers. instead, we should extend the notion of the current english role as part of globalization. thus, along with acknowledging world englishes, learners can be better prepared to comprehend and communicate with natives and non-natives of the language. in this regard, educators will be able to grow significant self-confidence in apprentices effacing any inferiority feelings as they do not need to speak like an english native collaborative etnography on raciolinguistic experiences campos, garzon, mendez & castañeda 72 no. 23 to be proficient. finally, students must be aware that their english is merely one of the world’s several varieties. thereby, it is rather crucial to communicate in the target language than make students get any standard english accuracy. was raciolinguistic present in this experience? (pc) i traveled on a bus from washington to philadelphia when someone asked if anyone who spoke spanish could help translate something for an older man. so, i raised my hand, claiming that i could do it, exposing myself as a native spanish speaker. i was traveling at night, the reason why the driver said to turn down the brightness of the screen phone and to put on earphones if people need it. however, the indications were not abided by an afro-american woman who was sitting next to me. i kindly asked her to turn down her screen phone’s brightness because it was really bothering me, but suddenly she lost her temper and started shouting and insulting me, saying bad words. the strongest offense was “bit*, go back to your country,” which made me understand the rejection she had against foreigners. as she kept insulting me, i had to change my seat to make her stop. that was the worst humiliation i had in the usa in my two years living there. i felt discriminated against because of my foreign accent since she did not see me as an ordinary person but pointed me out, straight, as a latin immigrant due to my accent like it was an offense. i saw myself in a raciolinguistic situation because, as alim s. et al. (2016, p.1) claimed, “it was to view race through the lens of language, and vice versa,” and it was actually what the woman on the bus was doing. i did not feel that discrimination in terms of my english skills or proficiency but in terms of my latin culture’s identity. considering that most americans stigmatize and diminish the latin community as people who seek money and work for them, doing jobs they do not want to do. speaking of this, we notice this comment came from an african-american (aa) woman who is part of a community also discriminated against for their africanamerican vernacular english (aave).  as we acknowledge, the aa community has specific characteristics regarding their english accent, grammar, and vocabulary. it is even named african american english (aae) or black english. this idea is not for discriminative ends, but to remind that within the same territory is found different linguistic varieties because of conservation of origin or cultural background. this lack of recognition of englishes varieties leads to the segregation of certain englishes and privileges white communities whose english is considered standard.   (pm) at the beginning of my experience, it happened to me that i was trying to avoid speaking both english and spanish in public places, as i was afraid that they collaborative etnography on raciolinguistic experiences campos, garzon, mendez & castañeda 73 no. 23 would point out my latin origin and would link me with negative perceptions they might have about it. nevertheless, i myself never faced this sort of situation of rejection or discrimination. under those negative conceptions, the latin community is also acknowledged for not speaking english. this drove me to feel even more responsible for being proficient and prove that not all latin people remain indifferent to the language.  our traditional english language teaching has been underlain for an efl pedagogy where proficiency means communicating as an english native speaker. some scholars suggest modifying the standard concept of proficiency that has been instilled in us for a long time. for example, mahboob and ductcher (2015) maintain that ‘being proficient in a language implies that we are sensitive to the setting of the communicative event, and have the ability to select, adapt, negotiate, and use a range of linguistic resources that are appropriate in the context.’... ‘is not based upon native speaker status but rather on one’s ability to adapt to and negotiate different contexts’ (p. 117). we deem this misconception of proficiency imparted in us has led to discriminating ourselves through the language.  this fallacy has also brought up negative feelings of anxiety, insecurity, inferiority, and so forth when speaking the language.  in light of this, learners restrain themselves from exposing themselves to the target language in the classroom. in output activities during the class, many students avoid participating due to fears of failing in pronunciation, fluency, and the correct use of grammar. these events emerge as a consequence of rooting english teaching in standard american english. if we teachers steer the elt under a pluralistic view, students would have the opportunity to learn english freely and less deeply-rooted language structure, involving the variety of the language, appreciating and feeling sympathy towards different cultures and ours.  discusión y conclusiones drawing from the lack of intercultural competencies, we saw ourselves striving to fit into the american culture initially, establishing fluent conversations, getting to know people, adapting to their lifestyle, and on. back at home, our foreign language program at university endeavors to design curriculums that integrate the practice of intercultural competencies, but it still ends up staying on paper. our program offers students rare opportunities to exert the target language in real situations and learn how to handle cultural shocks. we suggest implementing strategies such as intercultural encounters through virtual exchanges/telecollaboration with foreign participants from our experiences. these encounters might encourage students to reach out to the competencies, which will boost them to communicate with others when the opportunity comes. collaborative etnography on raciolinguistic experiences campos, garzon, mendez & castañeda 74 no. 23 benefiting from experiences and anecdotes learned that contributed to the development of our identities as future professionals in the elt field, we no longer comprehend english as an academic matter but as a means of communication with the outness. given this, our concerns as educators are not related to teaching academic english but conversational responses to the current communicative needs within an english speaking setting. wherefore, we suggest reevaluating the curricular contents in which promote colloquial english. replacing the traditional teaching of vocabulary such as father for dad, throw for a toss, very for quiet, a lot, so, pretty, and fine for good, well, great, etc., which is most commonly used during english conversations. additionally, it will be convenient to diminish some stereotypes about gender, race, and whatnot that are still exhibited in the textbooks. nowadays, many communicative sceneries involve participants with different mother tongues who adopt english as a lingua franca. our encounters with other au pairs from different countries were a clear example of using english as a vehicular language. we slightly registered communications barriers, despite the particularities that each mother tongue provides to their english. these events steered us to live and experience the spirit of the language variety since it was the means to learn about american culture and other cultures. we learned idioms, slang, sayings, jokes, costumes, etc., translated from other languages to english (as the lingua franca) and, consequently, also assimilated it into our l1. now that we are back at home and reassume our role as professionals, it surges the need to let people know about the english varieties’ existence and the preeminence of enhancing sympathy and appreciation towards these. we consider elt should be more flexible concerning structure and pronunciation, training students to face reallife environments/situations. we would like to promote in students the recognition of their english as neither right nor wrong but as part of a wide variety of englishes. we would promote social justice and equality among english users without giving hierarchies based on their native land. our teaching ideology is founded on developing interest and sensibility for diverse cultures, symbolized in materials and activities such as role-plays, songs, videos, etc. as a result, students could raise values towards other cultures and accept the different linguistic features of the language. in this manner, it is worth remembering that this new ideology arises from the experience of living for two years in one of the most multicultural countries in the world. through this autoethnography article, we suggest teachers take a pause and reflect upon their teaching practices. what are they doing to empower students to communicate in english? is their current elt responding to the reality of the language? how are they providing a more vivid and realistic english environment in the classroom? since we, as teachers, are students’ main source of english, it is crucial to shift those traditional strategies to more context-bound and intercultural ones that meet today’s needs and place the language as a means of coconstruction of reality. collaborative etnography on raciolinguistic experiences campos, garzon, mendez & castañeda 75 no. 23 we would like to reflect and support those readers who have had the opportunity to live and work abroad while using english as their vehicular language. we hope to offer them an outlook of the most meaningful situations that we all three had in common during our intercultural exchange in the usa, as well as the reflections that sprang from these. for us, it was undoubtedly an experience that marks a milestone in our personal and professional lives in the field of foreign language teaching. working on this article, we realized that the exchange program experiences allowed us to go from seeing the language in a structural way to seeing it in a pluralistic way and free of prejudices. we cheer teachers that travel abroad to witness the actual needs for which we learn a language in their individual capacity. in this sense, they would create a different perspective of the elt and contribute to the gradual change of its traditional guidelines. by bringing those experiences to the classroom, students will approach the world’s diversity; this diversity will end up joining cultures from the rise of interest, curiosity, and recognition of others. collaborative etnography on raciolinguistic experiences campos, garzon, 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(2008). the relationship between language and identity. the use of the home language as a human right of the immigrant. remhu, revista interdisciplinar da mobilidade humana, vol. 16, núm. 31, pp. 6381. sarasa, m. c. (2016). a narrative inquiry into pre-service english teachers’ imagined identities. gist – education and learning research journal, (12), 96-114. https:// doi.org/10.26817/16925777.246 sultana, f. (2009). reflexivity, positionality and participatory ethics: negotiating the fieldwork dilemmas in internationa research. acme: an international e-journal for critical geographies, 6(3), 374-385. authors *maria paula campos campos is an undergraduate student in foreign languages at the universidad surcolombiana located in neiva, colombia. she is currently in the last semester of the english program. she belongs to the gaia research seedbed from universidad surcolombiana. orcid: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5950-3823 stephany garzón roa is majoring in foreign languages at the universidad surcolombiana in neiva, colombia. she is currently in the last semester of the english program. besides, she belongs to the gaia research seedbed from universidad surcolombiana. orcid: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5950-3823 maria paula mendez is an undergraduate student in foreign languages at the universidad surcolombiana located in neiva, colombia. she is currently in the last semester of the english program. she belongs to the gaia research seedbed from universidad surcolombiana. orcid: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4221-4755 collaborative etnography on raciolinguistic experiences campos, garzon, mendez & castañeda 79 no. 23 jairo enrique castañeda trujillo is an assistant professor and researcher at the universidad surcolombiana (neiva, colombia). he holds a m.ed. with emphasis on english didactics from universidad externado de colombia and a b.a. degree in spanish and english from universidad pedagógica nacional de colombia. he is the current president of asocopi (colombian association of english teachers). additionally, he is a doctoral candidate in education with emphasis in elt at the universidad distrital francisco josé de caldas. he belongs to the research groups ilesearch, from universidad surcolombiana, and estupoli, from universidad distrital. orcid: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3002-7947 collaborative etnography on raciolinguistic experiences campos, garzon, mendez & castañeda how to reference this article:campos campos, m. p., garzón roa, s., méndez, m. p., & castañeda trujillo, j. e. (2021) a collaborative autoethnography on raciolinguistic experiences and the construction of linguistic identities during an intercultural exchange. gist – education and learning research journal, 23, 59–79. https://doi.org/10.26817/16925777.976 editorial dr. carlo granados-beltrán academic vice chancellor única welcome to this new issue of gist journal! while the pandemic caused by covid-19 is modifying its features and the world is slowly moving into a new ‘normal’, many educators are still questioning themselves about the effects of this worldwide crisis and what we could learn so that we could enter a post-pandemic era. some of the contributions for this edition reports results from studies about the impact covid-19 has caused in different contexts. takkaç-tulgar aimed to study the influence of transactional distance on the motivation of efl students in the context of an imaginary city threatened by the destructive effects of covid-19. also, ypsilanti and karras developed a narrative study based on non-fictional creative stories written in english about the experiences during the first lockdown in greece. another contribution by ibrahem explored students’ perceptions about distance learning and the applicability of the social constructivist approach in the midst of the pandemic caused by covid-19. another interest present in this issue are related to efl teachers. in this line, we find the article by megistu about ethiopian efl teachers’ stress and its causes as well as the strategies teachers use to cope with that stress. kaya and kurucuk, on their part, analyzed the reasons why preservice teachers decided to pursue a degree in education. pronunciation in english is also a topic explored in this edition. alimorab and adib studied pronunciation anxiety and the motivation in the will to communicate for iranian students. also silva, from colombia, did a linguistic analysis comparing the english and spanish phonological systems, which has didactic implications in order to help students of these languages. finally, khan’s article studied the perceptions of teachers and their real practice about the quality of teaching in secondary schools in pakistan. we encourage elt scholars in colombia and abroad to continue strengthening this community of knowledge by sharing their research and reflections through publication. happy holidays! efl teachers’ conceptions of designing classroombased tests concepciones de los docentes de inglés como lengua extranjera sobre la elaboración de pruebas en el aula dr. abebe tewachew debark university, college of social sciences, department of english language and literature, ethiopia abebetewachew123@gmail.com 57 no. 30 gist education and learning research journal. issn 1692-5777. no. 30 (january june, 2025). pp. 57-80. 58 no. 30 abstract an essential component of language instruction is classroom-based assessment, which is used to inform instructional decisions and gauge student progress. the current study explores how efl teachers visualize developing classroom-based assessments at debark secondary schools in the north gondar zone. the study employed a concurrent parallel mixed-methods design to investigate how educators develop their evaluation instruments. the study specifically examined how efl teachers perceive the creation of teacher-constructed assessments in the classroom. questionnaires were administered using comprehensive sampling, and samples for document analysis were chosen using yemane’s (1967) technique. the results showed that teachers provided adequate preparation time and communicated test instructions, demonstrating thoughtful engagement in test design. however, the tests frequently lacked thoroughness in their structure because important language testing principles were not consistently implemented, test items were not weighted, and item types were narrowly defined. given these results, the study suggests that teachers’ current methods can be improved through focused instruction in test development, with a focus on aligning their ideas with accepted language testing standards. keywords: conceptions, teacher-made tests, test development, content knowldge, pedagogical knowledge. resumen la evaluación en el aula es un componente esencial de la enseñanza de lenguas, ya que permite orientar las decisiones pedagógicas y evaluar el progreso de los estudiantes. este estudio explora cómo los docentes de inglés como lengua extranjera (efl) conciben el diseño de evaluaciones en el aula en las escuelas secundarias de debark, en la zona de north gondar. se empleó un diseño mixto concurrente y paralelo para analizar los enfoques de los docentes en la elaboración de instrumentos evaluativos. en particular, se examinó la percepción que tienen los profesores sobre la creación de evaluaciones desarrolladas por ellos mismos. se aplicaron cuestionarios mediante muestreo censal, y las muestras para el análisis documental se seleccionaron utilizando la técnica de yemane (1967). los resultados muestran que los docentes brindaron un tiempo adecuado para la preparación y comunicaron con claridad las instrucciones de las pruebas, lo cual evidencia una participación reflexiva en el diseño. sin embargo, las evaluaciones presentaron deficiencias estructurales: no se aplicaron de forma consistente principios clave de la evaluación lingüística, no se ponderaron los ítems y se emplearon tipos de preguntas limitados. a partir de estos hallazgos, el estudio sugiere que los enfoques actuales pueden fortalecerse mediante una formación específica en elaboración de pruebas, con énfasis en la alineación con estándares reconocidos en evaluación de lenguas. palabras clave: percepciones, pruebas elaboradas por docentes, diseño de evaluaciones, conocimiento del contenido, conocimiento pedagógico. efl teachers’ conceptions in designing tests 59 no. 30 resumo a avaliação em sala de aula é um componente essencial do ensino de línguas, pois orienta as decisões pedagógicas e permite avaliar o progresso dos estudantes. este estudo investiga como professores de inglês como língua estrangeira (efl) concebem o desenvolvimento de avaliações em sala de aula em escolas secundárias de debark, na zona de north gondar. foi adotado um desenho de pesquisa de métodos mistos, simultâneo e paralelo, para analisar as abordagens dos docentes na elaboração de instrumentos avaliativos. em particular, examinouse a percepção dos professores sobre a criação de avaliações elaboradas por eles próprios. os questionários foram aplicados por meio de amostragem censitária, e as amostras para análise documental foram selecionadas com base na técnica de yemane (1967). os resultados mostram que os professores dedicaram um tempo adequado à preparação e comunicaram claramente as instruções das provas, o que evidencia um envolvimento reflexivo no processo de elaboração. no entanto, as avaliações apresentaram deficiências estruturais: os princípios fundamentais da avaliação linguística não foram aplicados de forma consistente, os itens não foram ponderados e os tipos de questões utilizados foram limitados. com base nesses achados, o estudo sugere que as práticas atuais podem ser aprimoradas por meio de uma formação específica em elaboração de avaliações, com ênfase na conformidade com padrões reconhecidos na área de avaliação linguística. palavras-chave: percepções, avaliações elaboradas por professores, desenvolvimento de testes, conhecimento do conteúdo, conhecimento pedagógico. abebe tewachew 60 no. 30 background of the study effective language instruction requires the evaluation of language proficiency, and classroom-based testing is a key tool for tracking student development and guiding instructional choices. classroom examinations, in contrast to standardized assessments, are naturally adaptable, allowing teachers to tailor evaluation procedures to specific curriculum goals and each student’s unique needs (brown, 2004). these assessments provide prompt, context-sensitive feedback, which enables the making of relevant instructional modifications and increases the usefulness of assessments in the classroom (airasian & russell, 2008). the flexibility and capacity to promote significant student engagement through contextually grounded evaluation are what give teacher-constructed tests their educational worth. these tests, which have their roots in constructivist theory, are intended to mirror and strengthen the actual learning process, promoting deeper cognitive engagement and active student participation (biggs, 1999). furthermore, formative evaluation and ongoing feedback are crucial for creating an engaging and introspective learning environment, according to modern language assessment theory (black & wiliam, 1998). accordingly, instructors’ creation of successful classroombased assessments is not just a technical undertaking but also a pedagogical necessity that has a direct impact on the caliber of instruction and learning in the context of efl. despite the clear educational advantages of teacher-constructed assessments, creating them can be a challenging task. numerous educators encounter obstacles, such as time restraints and insufficient professional development, which can erode their confidence and effectiveness in test design (mcmillan, 2007). furthermore, teachers often opt for specific test forms over more comprehensive, learner-centered evaluation techniques due to external demands, particularly those stemming from high-stakes standardized exams (gordon et al., 2012). teachers’ feeling of efficacy in test development may be significantly impacted by this misalignment between the intended goal of classroom assessment and the realities of instructional environments. the conversation surrounding teacher-designed assessments continues to revolve around fundamental concepts such as validity and dependability. while reliability refers to the consistency and stability of test results across several administrations and contexts, validity refers to the extent to which a test accurately measures the desired construct (messick, 1989). designing excellent tests that produce significant and fair findings requires a firm understanding of these concepts (harris, 2008). teachers who have a solid grasp of these ideas are better able to create tools that accurately represent student learning and advance learning objectives. efl teachers’ conceptions in designing tests 61 no. 30 feedback systems are equally significant because they play a crucial role in determining the quality of assessments and the learning outcomes of students. when properly included, feedback supports formative learning strategies and fosters a growth-oriented mindset by helping students identify their areas of strength and areas for improvement (hattie & timperley, 2007). there are significant differences in the ways that teachers prepare and evaluate tests; some place more emphasis on scoring results, while others concentrate on creating diagnostic instruments that guide instruction and improve student growth. to enhance teachers’ ability to create effective classroom-based assessments, ongoing professional development is crucial. programs for structured training can provide teachers with the theoretical underpinnings and practical techniques they need to design assessments that meet curriculum requirements and take into account the diverse learning styles of their students (gordon et al., 2012). furthermore, teachers’ confidence and instructional judgment in the test-development process can be further strengthened by collaborative approaches, including peer review, co-construction of assessment instruments, and the sharing of best practices. teachers’ ideas about classroom evaluation, however, are not formed in a vacuum; instead, they are significantly influenced by broader cultural and contextual factors. teachers’ perceptions and implementation of test creation are influenced by factors such as institutional mandates, prevailing educational standards, and the socioeconomic realities of students (wiggins, 2012). teachers must employ sophisticated assessment techniques that account for students’ varying degrees of language proficiency and cognitive development in multicultural contexts, where linguistic diversity and a range of learner experiences are commonplace. these factors make english language instructors’ ideas on creating teacher-made assessments complex and culturally grounded. examining these ideas helps create more equal and responsive testing procedures while providing insightful information about the lived reality of classroom assessment. future studies should investigate the interplay between teacher agency, contextual needs, and assessment design in language learning, with a particular focus on how educators address the pedagogical and practical challenges of creating and administering tests. statement of the problem one of the most important aspects of assessing student progress in english language training is the development and implementation of teacher-generated assessments. despite their recognized importance, several barriers and diverse beliefs persist among english language teachers regarding the reliability and effectiveness of these classroom-based tools. according to empirical data, many practitioners face challenges such as inadequate professional development in test design, time abebe tewachew 62 no. 30 constraints, and external pressures from high-stakes standardized tests, all of which erode their self-efficacy and ability to create reliable and psychometrically sound assessments (mcmillan, 2007; gordon et al., 2012). furthermore, many teachers struggle to operationalize these concepts in their assessment artifacts even though current theoretical paradigms emphasize the necessity of adapting assessments to learners’ proficiency continua and incorporating adaptive assessment strategies into pedagogical praxis. additionally, research shows that teachers are inclined to prioritize standardized testing procedures above other evaluation approaches that promote student involvement and cognitive development (black & wiliam, 1998). this discrepancy highlights a clear contradiction between the theoretical foundations that support the design of complex assessments and the practical limitations faced by teachers in actual classroom settings. the widespread lack of instructors’ understanding of validity and reliability, two fundamental concepts essential for developing sound and practical assessments, represents a significant obstacle. according to empirical research, many teachers lack the necessary training and conceptual understanding of these concepts, which hinders their ability to provide evaluations that fairly and effectively represent their students’ learning outcomes (harris, 2008). the validity and equity of exams are seriously called into question by this epistemic weakness, particularly in schools with a diverse student body. there is a clear vacuum in ongoing professional development frameworks due to the scant attention given to these fundamental test development principles in teacher education programs. furthermore, the development of language tests is inherently complex and requires a comprehensive understanding of subject matter expertise, educational philosophy, and the nuances of language testing. as a result, teachers often find it challenging to create assessments of high standards, as their ideas about how to design tests are closely linked to and generally limited by cultural and contextual factors. bachman and palmer (2010) bolster this view by claiming that a large number of foreign language teachers demonstrate poor comprehension of language assessment constructs and little cognitive engagement with subject matter information. this shortcoming consequently hinders their capacity to use suitable teaching strategies, resulting in regular departures from accepted testing practices and jeopardizing the validity of evaluations designed by teachers. due to misunderstandings and false assumptions about the nature of language teaching and assessment practices, teachers may choose less-than-ideal language evaluation techniques in such situations. teachers’ ability to create valid and reliable assessments in the language education field is often compromised because they frequently fail to comprehend the fundamental principles of effective test construction. both generally and specifically in the area of language instruction, these issues are very prevalent in ethiopian educational institutions. efl teachers’ conceptions in designing tests 63 no. 30 these worries have sparked an increasing amount of scholarly interest in investigating teachers’ ideas about language teaching, evaluation, and testing. numerous studies, including those by maingi (2015), lamar (2010), altaieb (2013), habeeb (2013), frewan (2015), and yidenek (2018), have contributed to this conversation. maingi (2015), for example, examined how language teachers perceived the use of reading methods in the classroom and found considerable individual variation in theoretical approaches to teaching. descriptive statistics and independent sample t-tests were also employed in lamar’s (2010) quantitative investigation, which examined middle school teachers’ opinions regarding the use of standardized test data at georgia southern university. the results showed that administrative leadership provided teachers with time to examine test results and then adjust their lesson plans accordingly. efl instructors’ opinions of the english language curriculum in libyan public schools were investigated in altaieb’s (2013) descriptive survey, which used questionnaires and semi-structured and open-ended interviews to gather data. constrained instructional time for clt materials, a lack of professional training, insufficient funding, and other contextual issues were the primary causes of the findings, which revealed a discrepancy between teachers’ practices and the principles of communicative language teaching (clt). similarly, habeeb (2013) employed questionnaires and informal telephone interviews to investigate teachers’ opinions on teaching english as a foreign language in kuwaiti kindergarten settings. although most teachers supported exposing young students to english at an early age, their approval of the curriculum’s actual content was more ambivalent. additionally, frewan’s (2015) study employed semi-structured interviews and classroom observations to gather data on instructors’ opinions regarding teaching communication tactics in a few uk universities. the survey revealed that teachers held negative opinions, attributing students’ over-reliance on electronics as a barrier to language learning. in support of this, yidenek (2018) conducted a local investigation that concentrated on the adoption of integrated classroom assessment procedures by efl teachers in debre sina secondary schools. the study, which employed a descriptive survey design comprising questionnaires, interviews, and classroom observations, found that efl teachers generally failed to incorporate integrated evaluation procedures into their teaching strategies. prior research has examined the views of efl teachers from various angles, including the use of reading strategies, participation in standardized testing, attitudes toward the english language curriculum, teaching communicative strategies, and implementing english as a foreign language. teachers’ opinions about how classroom assessments are created, however, have been mainly ignored in these studies. according to the current researcher, improving students’ language proficiency in language instruction requires an awareness of teachers’ perspectives on test design. mcdonough (2017) supports abebe tewachew 64 no. 30 this claim by arguing that efl teachers’ perspectives have a significant impact on the creation of successful evaluations, as well as on careful lesson design and classroom procedures. essentially, knowledgeable and optimistic teachers create more effective assessments, which have a positive washback effect on students (wall, 2000; fox et al., 2007). this emphasizes the idea that following good testing practices requires a thorough understanding of language teaching methodology. therefore, the focus of this study is to determine how efl teachers in debark secondary schools in the north gondar zone perceive the construction of teacher-made tests. in particular, the investigation aims to answer the following research question: how do efl teachers feel about creating assessments for the classroom? study’s theoretical underpinnings content and pedagogical knowledge concepts of teachers in test development the professional orientations that educators use to understand and interact with fundamental teaching methods are referred to as concepts. professionals are expected to acquire contextually aligned understandings that guide their practice in any specialized sector. this suggests that educators need to develop both disciplinary knowledge and pedagogical expertise. an integrated approach that combines methodological soundness with subject-specific competency is necessary to ensure the efficacy of language instruction, as it cannot be achieved by concentrating only on content delivery (toh et al., 2006). in this sense, the development of reliable, applicable classroom evaluations heavily relies on the knowledgeable perspectives of teachers regarding pedagogy and content. efl teachers’ subject matter knowledge (smk) the breadth of a teacher’s subject matter expertise is a distinguishing feature that raises language instruction to the level of a profession. this requires a thorough understanding of the language itself, allowing teachers to precisely and clearly explain, illustrate, and clarify linguistic topics. according to roy and bairagya (2019), this type of knowledge includes the application of metaphors, examples, analogies, and explanatory frameworks that are appropriate for dynamic classroom settings. both instructional delivery and assessment procedures suffer when teachers lack a solid understanding of the material, resulting in fragmented learning experiences and lower educational outcomes. efl teachers’ conceptions in designing tests 65 no. 30 according to faisal (2016), subject matter expertise is a fundamental prerequisite for good teaching, especially when it comes to teaching english. to effectively contextualize and communicate knowledge in a meaningful way, educators are expected to possess a sophisticated understanding of the formal aspects of language, including grammar, phonology, syntax, discourse, writing, and speaking. in this sense, the relationship between student accomplishment and instructor quality highlights the importance of disciplinary knowledge in determining the caliber of test design (uwatt, 2001). learner results are statistically significantly influenced by teachers’ subject-matter expertise, particularly in assessment. on the other hand, when teachers lack a solid grasp of the material, they often deviate from the fundamental principles of language testing and struggle to create evaluations that are both level-appropriate and cohesive. this viewpoint is supported by roy and bairagya (2019), who contend that thorough content knowledge empowers educators to decide what and how to teach, whether it be in discourse, syntax, phonology, grammar, or the fusion of receptive and productive language abilities. similarly, freeman (2002) and soepriyatna (2012) emphasize the value of topic mastery in helping students overcome conceptual obstacles and promote a deeper understanding of the material. additionally, since superficial familiarity frequently leads to problems when creating tests, language teachers must internalize the material they plan to teach. according to uwatt (2001) and bisong (2005), subject matter knowledge is an integrated framework that enables educators to find, analyze, and use content in ways that enhance teaching and evaluation. a lack of this knowledge base restricts their ability to provide tests that align with students’ competency levels, and it also makes it more difficult for them to respond effectively to student inquiries. teachers are illprepared to develop assessments that offer insightful feedback and encourage student motivation if they lack a solid theoretical understanding of how different language abilities should be assessed. therefore, a teacher’s capacity to create valid, trustworthy, and pedagogically sound assessments that advance language acquisition is still heavily influenced by their level of subject-matter expertise. efl teachers’ pedagogical knowledge without accompanying pedagogical skill, subject matter expertise alone has little effect on improving the caliber of language training. effective teaching is based on pedagogical knowledge (pk), which is distinct from, yet equally important as, content knowledge. the fundamental tenets of pedagogical knowledge, as stated by dörnyei (2009), suggest that mastery of the subject matter must be combined with abebe tewachew 66 no. 30 the methodological know-how required to transform that knowledge into effective classroom practices. he highlights that pedagogical knowledge encompasses the methods, ideas, and frameworks for instruction that guide educators in planning their lessons (p. 251). regardless of material proficiency, targeted learning outcomes are not met if excellent pedagogy is not purposefully applied. the practical approaches teachers use to deliver instruction, from lesson planning and student involvement to classroom management and time allocation, are crucial examples of pedagogical savvy. these operational choices shape the entire learning environment and the efficacy of instruction. murphy (2008) further explains that pedagogy integrates material and classroom activities into a cohesive and participatory framework, encompassing the dynamic interactions among educators, students, and the educational environment. on the other hand, the teaching process becomes disjointed and mechanical when pedagogical awareness is lacking or inadequate, even when topic knowledge is good. in these situations, the learning process loses its ability to engage, adapt, and meet the students’ needs. therefore, in efl contexts, pedagogical knowledge is a crucial factor in determining the quality of instruction rather than an additional asset. through deliberate, introspective, and student-centered techniques that promote successful language acquisition, educators can empower themselves to realize their subjectmatter expertise. teachers around the world are increasingly being urged to develop effective classroom management techniques. such proficiency is necessary to create clear, goaloriented instructional sequences, maximize instructional time, and maintain a steady pace in the classroom. having a solid grasp of various teaching approaches is equally crucial and should be consciously incorporated into a teacher’s professional toolkit. in support of this, voss, kunter, and baumert (2011) and könig et al. (2011) emphasize that teachers proficient in a range of teaching techniques are better equipped to determine when and how to apply their subject-matter expertise in the classroom. it is crucial to select teaching strategies that align with the subject matter and the desired learning objectives. structured peer discussions, where students work in pairs to complete activities and then provide feedback to the broader group, may be the most effective way to handle specific course components. on the other hand, some subjects may benefit from demonstration-based learning, especially when explaining abstract ideas or natural phenomena that require tangible examples. when teaching productive and receptive language abilities, including speaking, listening, reading, and writing, as well as their sub-skills, these practices are particularly pertinent since they engage learners’ cognitive and psychomotor domains. efl teachers must use sound pedagogical judgment when selecting the most effective strategy. efl teachers’ conceptions in designing tests 67 no. 30 additionally, cooperative techniques, such as the jigsaw approach, can enhance instructional diversity. with this method, students are first divided into groups and given particular subtopics to examine thoroughly. after each group has mastered its subject, its members are redistributed into new groups, each of which is composed of representatives from the initial clusters, as könig et al. (2011) explain. peer instruction and a greater understanding of various subjects are made possible by these new groups’ cooperative sharing of expertise. such approaches demonstrate the usefulness of educational flexibility while also encouraging learner autonomy and interaction. as a result, efl teachers who possess a broad range of teaching strategies grounded in both theoretical understanding and real-world experience are better equipped to create language assessments tailored to students’ levels of proficiency and context. due to their methodological flexibility, they can match instructional tactics with test design, ultimately resulting in assessments of student learning that are more reliable and valid. the integrative nature of pedagogy itself—where pedagogical competence arises from the confluence of a teacher’s subject matter expertise with a profound understanding of learners’ cognitive needs—justifies the use of appropriate teaching approaches in language training. delivering content is only one aspect of effective language education; another is modifying instruction to promote internalization and comprehension by learners. students can interact with and assimilate lesson content more effectively and meaningfully when pedagogical concepts are used with consideration and thoughtfulness. in this way, pedagogy functions at the intersection of theory and practice. in addition to conceptualizing the construction of knowledge, it entails the deliberate implementation of teaching strategies that suit the cognitive, social, and linguistic settings of learners. effective pedagogy, according to persaud (2022), reflects this dynamic interaction, emphasizing that both theoretical underpinnings and real-world applications must inform the teaching process in ways that account for the varied requirements and learning preferences of students. as a result, teachers have a crucial duty to use teaching methods that successfully connect their subject-matter expertise with the conceptual knowledge of their students. according to könig et al. (2011) and kunter and baumert (2011), pedagogy includes the methodological strategies teachers use to convert material into approachable, problem-solving-focused learning opportunities. it focuses on how knowledge is acquired and processed by pupils in a meaningful way, in addition to what is taught. following pedagogical guidelines is therefore essential for high-quality training and, consequently, for creating successful classroom-based tests. accordingly, joint productive activity (jpa), language and literacy development (lld), making meaning (mm), cognitive thinking (ct), and instructional conversation (ic) are the five fundamental characteristics of effective pedagogy listed by scrivener abebe tewachew 68 no. 30 (2011). these ideas provide the fundamental frameworks for directing instructional practice and ensuring that instructional methods are learner-centered, reflective, and assessment-aligned. methods of research the convergent parallel mixed-methods design employed in this study was selected to support the two data collection methods—questionnaires and document analysis— that complemented the study’s objectives. this approach was chosen because it enables researchers to prioritize both qualitative and quantitative components equally, perform parallel studies, and then combine the results at the interpretation stage (creswell & plano clark, 2011). the study was restricted to grades 9–12 at six secondary schools in debark, which is situated in the north gondar zone. purposive sampling was employed to select these schools, taking into account the accessibility and specific setting of the study population. efl instructors from the chosen institutions were the intended participants. a thorough sampling strategy was employed to include all teachers in the survey phase, as they answered closed-ended questionnaire items, given the manageable size of the population (n = 36). to assess teacher-made assessments, particularly midterm and final exams, document analysis was done in addition to the survey. all grade levels of these exam documents were gathered from each of the six schools. the researcher used yamane’s (1967) formula to calculate the correct sample size for the test documents. to guarantee methodological consistency and dependability in data interpretation, standardized processes were adhered to in the retrieval and classification of the test samples. n= ___n___ 1+n (e2) n = the required sample size e = level of precision n = total population samples (finite population) 1= unite (a constant value) six secondary schools participated in the study, and 1,049 test items from all grade levels (grades 9–12) were gathered. these items were distributed as follows by grade: 272 in grade 9, 278 in grade 10, 224 in grade 11, and 275 in grade 12. consequently, the sum of these figures is the entire total number of test items, represented by n: efl teachers’ conceptions in designing tests 69 no. 30 n=272+278+224+275=1,049 𝑁 = 272 + 278 + 224 + 275 = 1,049 in this regard, n= __1049___ 1+1049 (e2) the researcher assumed a 5% value for the level of precision. n= __ 1049______ 1+1049 (.05)2 n= __ 1049______ 1+1049 (.05)2 n= 262 as a result, 262 test items from the teacher-made tests were included in the calculated sample size. the researcher used stratified sampling to distribute this sample evenly throughout the grade levels. loher (2010) defines stratified sampling as a probability sampling method that involves dividing the population into discrete, non-overlapping, and relatively homogeneous divisions, known as strata. to ensure proportionate representation across the various groups—in this case, the different grade levels—loher also suggests using a specific method to determine the appropriate sample size within each stratum. in this manner, n i = n i x n n ni= the required number in each grade level (grade 9-grade 12) ni= the total number of question items in each grade level n= the total required number from all strata n= the total population of all strata thus, let us find the number of questions in each grade level. a) number of questions from grade 9, n9 = n 9 x n n n9 = 272 x 262 1049 n9= 68 abebe tewachew 70 no. 30 b) number of questions from grade 10, n10 = 278 x 262 1049 n10= 69 c) number of questions from grade 11, n11 = 224 x 262 1049 n11= 56 d) number of questions from grade 12, n12 = 275 x 262 1049 n12= 69 all the summation of grade 9, grade 10, grade 11, and grade 12 was obtained in the following way: n= n9 + n10 + n11 + n12 n= 68 + 69 + 56 + 69 n= 262 the researcher then employed the data saturation method to select question items from every grade level, and the evaluation procedure was repeated until no new themes or issues were identified in the gathered tests. test items with comparable traits were methodically categorized into matching groups during the analysis. a total of 262 teacher-made exam items were found after this thorough process. the cognitive domains of bloom’s taxonomy and accepted guidelines for good test design were then used to assess these assessments carefully. efl teachers’ conceptions in designing tests 71 no. 30 data analysis and interpretation 3.1. analysis of questionnaire data about efl teachers’ perceptions table 1 the result of descriptive statistics on perceptions of efl teachers items n mean std. deviation participating in test development training is a trend that is crucial for constructing efficient tests. 36 3.83 1.13 i find that it is a waste of time to look over the lesson objectives while getting ready for teachermade tests. 36 2.75 1.46 in test development, it is a good idea for teachers to outline the contents that will be included. 36 3.69 1.28 teachers’ primary responsibility before beginning to develop tests is to take the students’ competency levels into consideration. 36 3.91 1.20 teachers should recap the principles of test before constructing teacher made tests. 36 4.22 .95 recalling the proper test item selection is important. 36 4.66 .47 it is critical that test content match with learning objectives. 36 3.83 1.32 using several formats for multiple item tests is a time-consuming process. 36 3.75 1.29 the extensive range of language skills covered in the test indicates a lack of expertise. 36 2.19 1.43 it is essential that teachers review and edit the produced tests. 36 4.16 1.02 reacting to teacher feedback on the constructed tests is one way to show that you have expertise. 36 4.19 .98 expected mean: 3 (5= strongly agree, 4= agree, 3= undecided, 2= disagree, 1= strongly disagree) the sample mean and the anticipated population mean were compared using descriptive statistics. the majority of items (9 out of 11) scored above the mean, as shown in the table above, providing important insights into teachers’ comprehension of test development. according to the statistics, respondents agreed on several crucial abebe tewachew 72 no. 30 tactics that are essential to creating successful assessments. notably, the majority of participants emphasized the value of participating in test development training, demonstrating their commitment to enhancing their evaluative skills. teachers also emphasized the importance of closely aligning test material with learning objectives, demonstrating their commitment to ensuring that assessments accurately gauge the desired results. on the other hand, items 2 and 9, which were below the mean in table 1, indicate specific areas that require improvement. concerns regarding the appropriate coverage of the language skills spectrum and the evaluation of class objectives before test construction are related to these items. these results highlight specific areas where the test development process can be improved. although there is a generally positive attitude towards test architecture, addressing these flaws could enhance the efficacy and efficiency of test design procedures. table 2 results of one-sample statistics about teachers’ perception to determine whether the sample mean obtained from the questionnaire deviated considerably from the expected population mean, one-sample statistics were utilized. the sample mean of the respondents was 3.75, which was higher than the anticipated population mean of 3.00, as shown in table 2. this shows that the sample mean is greater, but it does not prove that the difference is statistitodita!!!!cally significant on its own. table 3 results of one sample t-test on teachers’ perception efl teachers’ conceptions in designing tests 73 no. 30 the one-sample t-test findings are presented in table 3, which shows a mean difference of 0.74, a significance level (p-value) of 0.000, and a t-value of 10.71 with 35 degrees of freedom. this indicates a statistically significant difference between the sample mean and the population mean, with the p-value being substantially below the traditional threshold for significance. this conclusion suggests that teachers possess a positive and knowledgeable understanding of the stages involved in creating tests, as well as the core principles of effective testing. analysis of the document of teacher-made tests based on tests aspects table 4 checklists on the clarity of instructions for teacher-made tests no. criteria options comments yes no 1. teachers allotted enough time to do the tests. x 2. the instruction typically tells what to do and how to do the items of the test. x 3. the instruction tells the weight of each item. x 4. the test incorporates different item testing formats. x the examined assessments provided students with sufficient time to complete the assigned activities, as shown in table 4. in particular, the records under evaluation indicated that midterm exams took 15 to 25 minutes and final exams took 40 to 50 minutes, which was sufficient time to complete the test. item (2) further illustrates that test-takers were given precise instructions that matched the type of questions they were asked. however, as item (3) points out, there was no obvious indication in the testing of the weighting or value given to each test item. item (4) also shows that the bulk of the prepared evaluations were primarily multiple-choice questions, which limited the range of item types used. abebe tewachew 74 no. 30 table 5 checklists on the principles of tests of stems and distracters of teacher-made tests no. criteria options comments yes no 1. the stems are authentic. x 2. the test stems incorporate all language skills. x 3. the stems and distracters of the tests are designed in accordance with test fairness. x 4. each of the stems of teachermade tests has one correct answer from the objective test formats. x 5. the tests are designed from simple to complex. x x the developed exams lacked contextual diversity and did not take into account the ethiopian cultural or national background, as indicated in table 5, item (1). the majority of the reading passages were taken from other contexts, disregarding their relevance to the pupils’ actual surroundings, despite the assessments primarily consisting of objective multiple-choice questions. regarding integrative testing, item (2) indicates that the midterm and final tests only covered reading, speaking, and grammar and that the assessments did not encompass all language skills. in terms of test fairness, there was very little evidence of equity in the classroom assessments. as previously mentioned, the fairness of the tests is compromised by their exclusion of full language proficiency and dependence on foreign situations. however, one key feature of successful testing is the presence of items with only one correct response. furthermore, item (5) indicates that the test construction was not systematic; teachers’ irregular sequencing of test problems, sometimes progressing from easy to difficult and at other times in the opposite direction, reflected a poor approach to test design. discussion of the findings the primary objective of this study was to investigate efl teachers’ opinions on exam design. teachers generally have a solid grasp of how to create teacher-made assessments, as seen by the questionnaire’s overall mean score of 3.75, which exceeded the projected mean of 3.00. according to davies (2008), teachers who have a favorable attitude toward testing are more likely to collaborate in developing thorough and useful assessments. although a positive attitude increases the likelihood of creating efl teachers’ conceptions in designing tests 75 no. 30 high-quality tests, it does not guarantee rigorous adherence to the exacting criteria of language testing (brown, 2010). positive attitudes, by themselves, are therefore not enough; to guarantee the creation of accurate and trustworthy classroom assessments, additional crucial elements, such as educational background, real-world experience, and specialized training, must also be present. this was corroborated by the document analysis, which showed that the teacherprepared assessments included clear, well-written instructions and enough time for completion. according to harris (2008), test takers’ performance within the allocated time is greatly influenced by clear instructions. while unclear instructions often cause test takers to become confused and perform worse, well-written instructions allow students to fully comprehend expectations and approach the test with confidence. accordingly, the results suggest that instructors’ positive attitude toward test creation is reflected in the useful elements of test design, including providing sufficient time and clear instructions, which reduces misunderstandings during exam administration. however, the investigation also identified serious issues with the test item weighting. messick (1989) noted that language teachers frequently undervalue the significance of giving test components the proper weights, and this is supported by the fact that many classroom assessments lacked a suitable allocation of value to individual items. additionally, messick pointed out that many teachers make the error of assuming that objective examinations alone are sufficient to gauge language proficiency, overlooking the importance of subjective evaluations that are essential for assessing higher-order thinking abilities. the data from the document analysis revealed that teachers rarely created authentic assessments despite the questionnaire responses indicating a positive attitude toward test preparation. furthermore, the records demonstrated that not all language capabilities were fully covered in the created examinations, thereby undermining the premise of test fairness. this result is consistent with wiggins (2012), who noted that even though teachers have a solid grasp of testing principles, they frequently create less authentic tests that fall short of accurately gauging students’ actual language proficiency due to issues such as large class sizes, a lack of technology, and inadequate materials. consequently, it can be said that good attitudes by themselves are insufficient to guarantee the efficacy of evaluations. according to language pedagogy, assessments should include questions with only one correct response. the prepared tests met this requirement, as shown in table 5. the test items were arranged erratically and inconsistently, nevertheless. according to language testing experts, such as brown (2004), test-takers experience anxiety and frustration when presented with challenging questions at the start of an exam. the random order of test items may have had a detrimental effect on students’ performance on these assessments. abebe tewachew 76 no. 30 conclusions to triangulate information obtained from document analysis and questionnaire replies, the study used a concurrent parallel mixed design. percentages means, and standard deviations were used to analyze and present the quantitative data from the surveys in tabular form. in the meantime, checklists based on the principles of language testing were used to collect qualitative data from the document archive. the combined results from the two datasets highlight the importance of teachers’ perspectives on test design in creating successful evaluations. furthermore, it becomes clear that pedagogical expertise and content understanding are both essential elements that significantly impact test preparation quality. however, other underlying reasons prevent teachers from creating the best assessments; thus, positive attitudes themselves do not ensure the provision of high-quality examinations. an examination of the documents showed that the tests were not authentic in most cases. the examinations did not outline the weighting of individual test items despite providing ample time for completion and including detailed, unambiguous instructions that reduced student misunderstanding. additionally, there were only multiple-choice questions on every test. in terms of testing adherence, teachers rarely created contextually appropriate exams. the tests did not fully cover all the necessary language abilities despite being generally well-structured and each question having only one correct answer. implication of the study the study’s conclusions suggest that although efl teachers exhibit a solid fundamental understanding of test construction principles, focused professional development that prioritizes authentic, skill-integrated, and contextually relevant assessment procedures is still desperately needed. to ensure alignment with legitimate and trustworthy assessment standards, teachers’ pedagogical and content knowledge must be strengthened through organized professional development. furthermore, to overcome real-world obstacles such as large class sizes, scarce resources, and an excessive reliance on specific exam formats, systemic assistance is necessary. by filling in these gaps, classroom-based tests can become more accurate representations of students’ actual language 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(1967). statistics: an introductory analysis (2nd ed.).new york: harper and row. yidenek tadesse (2018).  exploring efl teachers’ integrated approach to classroom assessment practices: a secondary school in focus, ma thesis, debre birhan university. yoon, b. (2009). the influence of teacher experience on student achievement: an empirical study. journal of teacher education, 60(4), 368–384. abebe tewachew author dr. abebe tewachew is an assistant professor in tefl at debark university. he has been providing community services at different elementary and secondary schools. dr. abebe’s future research interest comprises studies that investigate the complex elements affecting the teaching and learning of second languages, the impact of curriculum design in language education, the impact of policies and structures in language teaching strategies, the roles of l1 to l2 learning, critical challenges in language assessment, testing, and evaluation and the psychological impacts of worry on language learners, emphasizing how anxiety hinders engagement and academic advancement in efl context. orcid: https://orcid.org/0009-0000-9594-2807 8080 no. 30 efl teachers’ conceptions in designing tests motivation as a predictor of language proficiency: evidence from iranian management students la motivación como factor predictivo de la competencia oral en inglés: evidencia en estudiantes iraníes de administración dr. parisa farrokh1 gholamreza hamtai2 department of english language, lahijan branch, islamic azad university, lahijan, iran 1 farrokh-p @yahoo.com 2 hamtai.714@gmail.com 101 no. 30 gist education and learning research journal. issn 1692-5777. no. 30 (january june, 2025). pp. 101-120. 102 no. 30 abstract this study investigates the relationship between motivation and language proficiency, with a specific focus on the speaking abilities of iranian intermediate-level management students. this group was chosen because effective communication skills are essential for success in management roles, and understanding the factors influencing their language proficiency is particularly important in the iranian context, where english is commonly used in international business. a true-experimental design was employed with 60 participants from payame noor university in rasht, selected based on the oxford quick placement test (oqpt) and a motivation questionnaire. using a likert scale, the motivation questionnaire assessed participants’ intrinsic and extrinsic motivation. participants were categorized into ‘motivated’ and ‘demotivated’ groups based on a median split of their total motivation scores. a speaking proficiency test was conducted, and pearson correlation analysis revealed a statistically significant positive correlation (r = 0.16, p < 0.05) between motivation and speaking proficiency. although the correlation coefficient of 0.16 indicates a weak positive relationship, it suggests that even modest increases in motivation can lead to improvements in speaking skills. this finding highlights the importance of fostering motivation in language learning, particularly in management training and professional development. while the correlation is modest, the results highlight the crucial role of both intrinsic and extrinsic motivation in improving language learning outcomes. these findings suggest that motivating students can improve speaking proficiency, particularly among management students. however, the generalizability of these results to other populations should be considered, given the specific cultural and educational context of iranian students. keywords: motivation, language proficiency, iranian students, management students, speaking ability, second language acquisition, education resumen este estudio analiza la relación entre la motivación y la competencia lingüística, con un enfoque específico en la habilidad oral de estudiantes iraníes de nivel intermedio en programas de administración. este grupo fue elegido debido a que las habilidades de comunicación efectiva son fundamentales para el éxito en cargos de gestión, y comprender los factores que influyen en su dominio del idioma resulta especialmente relevante en el contexto iraní, donde el inglés es de uso común en los negocios internacionales. se utilizó un diseño experimental verdadero con 60 participantes de la universidad payame noor en rasht, seleccionados a partir del oxford quick placement test (oqpt) y un cuestionario de motivación. este cuestionario, basado en una escala likert, evaluó tanto la motivación intrínseca como la extrínseca de los participantes. a partir de la mediana de las puntuaciones totales, los estudiantes fueron clasificados en grupos de “motivados” y “desmotivados”. posteriormente, se administró una prueba de competencia oral. el análisis de correlación de pearson reveló una correlación positiva estadísticamente significativa entre la motivación y la competencia oral (r = 0.16, p < 0.05). aunque el coeficiente indica una relación débil, sugiere que incluso aumentos modestos en la motivación pueden traducirse en mejoras en la expresión oral. este hallazgo resalta la importancia de fomentar la motivación en motivation as a predictor of language proficiency 103 no. 30 el aprendizaje de lenguas, especialmente en la formación y el desarrollo profesional en áreas de administración. los resultados subrayan el papel crucial tanto de la motivación intrínseca como de la extrínseca en el fortalecimiento del aprendizaje de idiomas. aunque la correlación es modesta, los hallazgos sugieren que incentivar la motivación puede mejorar la competencia oral, en particular entre estudiantes de administración. no obstante, se recomienda cautela al generalizar los resultados a otras poblaciones, dado el contexto cultural y educativo específico del estudiantado iraní. palabras clave: motivación, competencia lingüística, estudiantes iraníes, estudiantes de administración, habilidad oral, adquisición de segundas lenguas, educación resumo este estudo analisa a relação entre motivação e proficiência linguística, com foco específico na habilidade oral de estudantes iranianos de nível intermediário em cursos de administração. esse grupo foi escolhido porque habilidades de comunicação eficaz são fundamentais para o sucesso em cargos de gestão, e compreender os fatores que influenciam o domínio do idioma é especialmente relevante no contexto iraniano, onde o inglês é amplamente utilizado nos negócios internacionais. foi utilizado um desenho experimental verdadeiro com 60 participantes da universidade payame noor, em rasht, selecionados com base no oxford quick placement test (oqpt) e em um questionário de motivação. esse questionário, baseado em uma escala likert, avaliou a motivação intrínseca e extrínseca dos participantes. com base na mediana das pontuações totais, os estudantes foram classificados em dois grupos: “motivados” e “desmotivados”. em seguida, foi aplicada uma prova de proficiência oral. a análise de correlação de pearson revelou uma correlação positiva estatisticamente significativa entre motivação e proficiência oral (r = 0,16, p < 0,05). embora o coeficiente indique uma relação fraca, sugere que até mesmo aumentos modestos na motivação podem levar a melhorias na produção oral. esse achado destaca a importância de promover a motivação no aprendizado de línguas, especialmente na formação e no desenvolvimento profissional na área de administração. os resultados reforçam o papel fundamental tanto da motivação intrínseca quanto da extrínseca no aprimoramento da aprendizagem de idiomas. embora a correlação seja modesta, os dados sugerem que incentivar a motivação pode melhorar a proficiência oral, particularmente entre estudantes de administração. no entanto, recomenda-se cautela ao generalizar os resultados para outras populações, considerando o contexto cultural e educacional específico dos estudantes iranianos. palavras-chave: motivação, proficiência linguística, estudantes iranianos, estudantes de administração, habilidade oral, aquisição de segunda língua, educação parisa farrokh and gholamreza hamtai 104 no. 30 introduction motivation has long been recognized as a crucial factor in second language acquisition (sla), particularly in higher education and fields such as management, where proficiency in english is essential for both academic and professional success. for iranian students learning english as a foreign language, motivation is influenced by a mix of intrinsic and extrinsic factors, including career aspirations, academic goals, and personal interest in the language and its culture. however, these students face unique challenges in achieving high proficiency, such as limited access to resources, traditional pedagogical methods that may not fully engage them, and socio-cultural barriers. limited exposure to english outside the classroom, a lack of authentic language-use opportunities, and the dominance of persian can further hinder their language development. in iran, the demand for english proficiency is particularly high among management students, as english serves as the medium of instruction in many programs and a gateway to global business opportunities. despite the growing emphasis on english instruction, many iranian students still struggle to achieve high proficiency, underscoring the need to understand better how motivation influences language learning. while previous research on motivation and language learning has generally focused on broad student populations, studies specifically exploring the relationship between motivation and language proficiency among iranian management students are limited. this gap is significant because management students may have unique motivational drivers related to their academic and professional goals, such as the need to communicate effectively in international business settings or to advance their careers. consequently, their approach to language learning is likely to differ from that of students in other fields. motivation has consistently been identified as a key factor influencing language proficiency, both directly and indirectly. theories like gardner’s socio-educational model of second language acquisition emphasize that motivated learners are more likely to engage in learning activities, practice consistently, and persist through challenges (gardner, 1985). additionally, research has shown that intrinsic motivation, driven by personal interest or enjoyment in the language, can lead to better outcomes across all four language skills (speaking, listening, reading, and writing) by fostering sustained engagement with the language (ryan & deci, 2000). this study aims to address the research gap by examining how motivation influences language proficiency among iranian management students, providing insights that can inform the design of more effective language learning programs tailored to their specific needs and aspirations. motivation as a predictor of language proficiency 105 no. 30 the following research question guides this investigation: rq: what is the relationship between iranian management students’ motivation and their language proficiency?” given the limited research on language learning motivation among iranian management students, this exploratory study aims to examine the potential relationship between these variables. while prior studies have primarily focused on general student populations, a gap remains in understanding how motivation affects language proficiency within the specific context of management education. to address this gap, we propose the following hypothesis: h₀: there is no significant relationship between intrinsic/extrinsic motivation and language proficiency among iranian management students this study investigates the relationship between motivation and english language proficiency among iranian management students through a three-phase research design. the following literature review will first establish the theoretical foundations of l2 motivation and its documented effects on language learning outcomes. subsequent sections will then present the study’s methodology, analyze the collected data, and discuss the implications for both second language acquisition theory and business english pedagogy in the iranian context. literature review motivation has long been recognized as a central factor in second language acquisition (sla), significantly influencing learning outcomes across diverse contexts. grounded in self-determination theory (sdt; deci & ryan, 1985), motivation is broadly categorized into intrinsic and extrinsic dimensions, each with distinct implications for learner behavior and proficiency. intrinsic motivation arises from internal drives, such as personal enjoyment of language learning, curiosity about cultural nuances, or intellectual satisfaction from mastering linguistic challenges (ryan & deci, 2000). intrinsically motivated learners may engage in activities such as reading literature or participating in language exchanges, which fosters deeper cognitive engagement and long-term retention (noels et al., 2000). in contrast, extrinsic motivation is driven by external rewards or pressures, such as academic requirements, career advancement, or social recognition (dörnyei & ushioda, 2011). learners motivated extrinsically often focus on outcomeoriented goals, such as passing exams or meeting degree requirements, which may prioritize short-term gains over sustained communicative competence (vansteenkiste et al., 2004). parisa farrokh and gholamreza hamtai 106 no. 30 the distinction between intrinsic and extrinsic motivation is critical in sla contexts. intrinsic motivation is correlated with behaviors such as experimenting with complex grammar, actively participating in conversational practice, and resilience in overcoming proficiency plateaus (pae, 2008). extrinsic motivation, while effective for task-specific achievements (e.g., passing standardized tests), often encourages surfacelevel strategies, such as memorization, which do not necessarily enhance fluency or cultural integration (guilloteaux & dörnyei, 2008). this interplay is particularly salient for iranian management students, who navigate the dual pressures of academic mandates (extrinsic) and aspirations for global career mobility (intrinsic). despite the growing emphasis on english proficiency in iran’s business and academic sectors, limited research has examined how these divergent motivational drivers shape language outcomes in this population, a gap this study seeks to address. gardner (1985) further developed motivation theory, linking it to language learning outcomes. he emphasized that learners motivated by intrinsic factors, such as personal interest or cultural understanding, are more likely to engage deeply with language learning, leading to better outcomes. dörnyei (2001) expanded on these ideas, focusing on both intrinsic and extrinsic motivation in sla. research consistently shows that intrinsic motivation is more sustainable and positively correlated with higher levels of language proficiency (gardner, 1985; dörnyei, 2001). this is particularly evident in studies focusing on learners’ personal interests and longterm goals. learners who engage in language learning for intrinsic reasons—such as cultural understanding, self-improvement, or personal growth—tend to invest more effort, exhibit deeper engagement, and achieve greater retention and application of language skills. while intrinsic motivation plays a significant role, extrinsic motivation also influences language learning outcomes. learners who view english as a gateway to broader cultural or intellectual horizons often sustain their efforts through intrinsic motivation, even when faced with challenges. at the same time, extrinsic motivation, driven by academic success or career advancement, can be a powerful motivator, especially in specialized fields such as business. carroll (2007) and schoonen et al. (2003) highlighted the importance of language proficiency for academic success, particularly in fields that require complex language use, such as business and management. carroll found that english proficiency was crucial for graduate students in business programs, as it facilitated their ability to engage in academic discussions, write research reports, and comprehend specialized business terminology. similarly, schoonen et al. (2003) demonstrated that proficiency in academic english, particularly business-related vocabulary, was key to students’ success in english-medium programs. challenges faced by non-native english speakers in academic settings have been well-documented. jackson (2010) examined the role of language proficiency in motivation as a predictor of language proficiency 107 no. 30 international business schools, finding that students with lower english proficiency often struggled with classroom dynamics, particularly in group discussions and team projects, which are integral components of business education. similarly, lochner and muller (2007) examined the impact of multilingualism on students in international business management programs, noting that students fluent in multiple languages, including english, were more likely to succeed in global business environments. however, language barriers can limit students’ ability to engage fully with their peers and instructors, negatively impacting their academic performance and career prospects. in this relation, karami and yousefian (2021) further investigated the motivations of iranian business students, emphasizing the dual role of intrinsic and extrinsic motivations in language learning. the study found that students motivated by both personal interests and career aspirations were more likely to excel in english proficiency exams. this dual motivation is essential in fields like management, where students must master both language and business concepts to succeed. finally, dörnyei and ushioda (2020) emphasized the growing importance of language proficiency and cultural competence in management education. they noted that globalization demands students not only be linguistically proficient but also adept at navigating cross-cultural communication in the english language. by synthesizing sdt with second language acquisition frameworks, this review underscores the need to investigate motivation as a multifaceted construct that uniquely influences learners’ proficiency trajectories in specialized academicprofessional contexts. this framework has been validated across diverse cultural settings. in china, career-oriented extrinsic motivation strongly predicts english proficiency among business students (liu & dai, 2020). in contrast, in south korea, intrinsic motivation linked to global collaboration drives language learning among management majors (kim & kim, 2021). similarly, studies in iran have highlighted the interplay between intrinsic and extrinsic motivation among business students (papi & teimouri, 2014; karami & yousefian, 2021), although unique socio-political barriers—such as sanctions that limit access to global media (hayati & mashhadi, 2010)—complicate this dynamic. despite these global insights, research addressing management students in politically constrained environments remains scarce, leaving a critical gap in understanding how institutional and geopolitical factors mediate the impact of motivation on language learning. parisa farrokh and gholamreza hamtai 108 no. 30 methodology the pilot study the primary research instruments in this study were motivation and speaking questionnaires, which were administered to the selected sample. the reliability of the questionnaires was also assessed through a pilot study involving 15 subjects. cronbach’s alpha statistics were computed for the questionnaire items. reliability of (α motivation questionnaire = .77) was obtained for the motivation questionnaire and (α speaking questionnaire = .81) for the speaking questionnaire, which is both considerably higher than the minimum required value of (α = .70). table 1 represents computed cronbach’s alpha for motivation and speaking questionnaires. table 1 reliability statistics of the questionnaires (pilot study) questionnaire cronbach’s alpha n of items motivation questionnaire .77 36 speaking questionnaire .81 57 cronbach’s alpha coefficient was used to estimate the internal consistency of the two scales. it was used to examine the degree to which the items that made up the questionnaires were related to each other. the findings showed that they were all measuring the same underlying construct (α motivation questionnaire = .77; α speaking questionnaire = .81). ideally, cronbach’s alpha coefficient of a questionnaire should be above (α ≥ .70) (de vellis, 2003). the design of the study the present study employed a true-experimental design, which required randomization, administration of an oqpt, a motivation questionnaire, and a speaking test. initially, a random sample of management students at payame noor university in rasht was taken. after administering the oxford quick placement test (oqpt), 60 out of 100 students with a score between 45 and 55 were chosen as intermediate-level students. next, the selected learners answered the motivation questionnaire, which aimed to explore motivated and demotivated students. after that, the participants were divided into two groups, one consisting of motivated learners and the other of demotivated learners (based on their level of motivation), and they took a final test. in other words, the demotivated group can be categorized as having low-level motivation, while the motivated group is characterized as having high-level motivation. the purpose of the final test was to identify any potential differences in the level of speaking ability motivation as a predictor of language proficiency 109 no. 30 between the motivated and demotivated groups. in this study, the researcher used an interview. the schematic presentation of the design is as follows: note: qpt= oxford quick placement test, mq= motivation questionnaire, demg= demotivated group, mg= motivated group, pt= speaking test figure 1. schematic presentation of the design of the study participants the participants in this study were 60 iranian management students at the intermediate level studying at payame noor university in rasht. all participants were 20 36 years old. these 60 participants were selected from an initial group of 100 students by administering the oqpt, which revealed that all participants were at the same level of proficiency. oqpt was used to obtain a homogenized sample. after administering a motivation questionnaire and dividing learners into two groups (motivated and demotivated groups), the speaking test was used as the final assessment to compare the speaking abilities of the two groups of learners. materials and procedure the investigation was conducted using different materials. for the sake of data collection, there are three types of tests. this study aimed to investigate how iranian intermediate management students’ speaking ability is affected by their motivation. parisa farrokh and gholamreza hamtai 110 no. 30 the study took place in the academic year 2023-2024. to ensure their homogeneity, all the participants sat for the oqpt. next, a motivation questionnaire was administered to identify any potential differences in the students’ perceptions of motivation toward language learning. finally, after categorizing them into two groups—motivated and demotivated (each group had 30 members) —a speaking test was used to compare their scores in speaking ability, analyzing whether there was a relationship between management students’ speaking ability and their motivation toward language learning. material and procedure for the proficiency test of the study oxford quick placement test is designed to determine the level of students’ proficiency. through this test, researchers can determine the level of each participant. in this study, students were asked to take oqpt. among all the 100 management students, 60 who scored within the range of 45-55 were selected as the intermediate level. the test included two parts and 60 questions. part one covered questions 1 to 40, and part two covered questions 41 to 60. the questions are taken from oxford university press and the university of cambridge local examinations syndicate. material and procedure for the motivation questionnaire a motivation questionnaire was designed by laine (1987) and validated by salimi (2000). the persian version of the questionnaire was utilized to avoid any confusion and enhance validity. it was a five-point likert-scale motivation questionnaire. material and procedure for the speaking test the interview consisted of ten general questions about the personal information of iranian management students. the questions were descriptive and based on topics such as personal information and family, man and society, our environment, school, work, lifestyle, free time and entertainment, traveling, science, and technology. to obtain the scores for the data collected from subjects, two raters (i.e., the researcher himself and an expert teacher) were used. inter-rater reliability was calculated, and the average of the scores given by the two raters was considered as the score of each participant. methods of data a pearson correlation test was conducted to address the research question and investigate the potential relationship between iranian management students’ motivation and their language proficiency. motivation as a predictor of language proficiency 111 no. 30 results measure of l2 proficiency (oqpt for the sampling purpose) to determine if the study participants were at a similar level of language proficiency, the standardized oxford quick placement test (oqpt) was administered to 100 students. the results of the oqpt test for 100 students are displayed in table 2. table 2 statistics for the oqpt scores valid 100 n missing 0 mean 44.7185 median 45.0000 mode 39.00 std. deviation 8.36361 variance 69.950 skewness .016 std. error of skewness .209 urtosis -1.293 std. error of kurtosis .414 range 30.00 minimum 30.00 maximum 60.00 sum 6037.00 the output presented above summarizes the information for the oqpt scores and describes the characteristics of the sample. for the oqpt scores, the information was collected from 100 students, with a mean of 44.71 and a standard deviation of 8.36. the descriptive statistics presented in table 2 also provided information concerning the distribution of the oqpt scores on continuous variables (skewness and kurtosis). the skewness value indicated the symmetry of the distribution. kurtosis, on the other hand, provided information about the peakedness of the distribution. the distribution was almost normal for the oqpt scores, as the obtained values for skewness and kurtosis were within the range of ±2. the positive skewness value (.016) indicated parisa farrokh and gholamreza hamtai 112 no. 30 a positive skew. in other words, oqpt scores clustered to the left at the low values. the kurtosis value was below zero (kurtosis = -1.293), indicating that the oqpt distribution was relatively flat and there were too many cases in the extremes. the measure of motivation questionnaire the descriptive statistics for the students’ motivation scores are presented in table 3. table 3 statistics for the motivation scores. valid 60 n missing 0 mean 114.6200 median 138.5000 std. deviation 60.48153 range 144.00 minimum 36.00 maximum 180.00 table 3 shows the statistics for the motivation questionnaire. the mean of the motivation for the students came to (m motivation = 114.62). the median value at which half of the cases fell above and below in terms of their motivation score was equal to (med motivation = 138.50) with a standard deviation of (sd motivation = 60.48). the motivation scores ranged from 36 to 180. a pearson correlation test was conducted to determine whether there is a significant relationship between the motivation of iranian management students and their language proficiency. inter-rater reliability analysis of the speaking test in assessing each learner’s speaking skills, two experienced foreign language teachers who were trained as raters participated. the consistency of the two raters’ evaluations was tested using correlation analysis, which showed a relatively high level of inter-rater reliability for the speaking test scores. the correlation coefficient values reported for the association between raters 1 and 2 in the speaking test amounted to (r=.804). this correlation index suggests acceptable correlations between the two raters who participated in the scoring procedure of the speaking test. motivation as a predictor of language proficiency 113 no. 30 inferential analysis of the data to answer the research question and examine the possible relationship between iranian management students’ motivation and their language proficiency, a pearson correlation test was run. before running this parametric test, the normality assumption of the distributions was confirmed by computing trimmed means and values of skewness and kurtosis. the results are presented in table 4. table 4 statistics for the motivation and language proficiency (examining the normality assumption) statistic std. error motivation mean 114.6200 6.04815 95% confidence interval for mean lower 102.6192 bound upper 126.6208 bound 5% trimmed mean 115.3556 skewness -.203 .241 kurtosis -1.783 .478 language proficiency mean 41.5500 1.18827 95% confidence interval for mean lower 39.1922 bound upper 43.9078 bound 5% trimmed mean 41.2778 skewness .245 .241 kurtosis -1.593 .478 since the trimmed means were close to the original means, the scores for motivation and speaking were usually distributed. moreover, the values of the skewness and kurtosis were within the range of (+2), indicating the uniformity of the distributions. after establishing the reliability assumption, a pearson correlation test was run to examine the possible relationship between iranian management students’ motivation and their language proficiency. the results are in table 5. parisa farrokh and gholamreza hamtai 114 no. 30 table 5 correlations between language proficiency and students’ motivation correlation motivation language proficiency pearson correlation .016** sig. (2-tailed) .001 n 100 ** correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed). according to the above table, it can be concluded that there was a statistically significant relationship between the iranian management students’ motivation and their language proficiency (r = 016 < .05). discussion the findings of this study reveal a statistically significant positive correlation between motivation and language proficiency among iranian management students (r = 0.16, p < 0.05). although the relationship is modest, it supports the hypothesis that motivation plays a crucial role in language learning, consistent with previous research suggesting that motivation is a key determinant of language proficiency (gardner, 1985; dörnyei, 2001). however, the weak to moderate strength of the correlation implies that motivation, while important, is not the sole predictor of proficiency. other factors, such as instructional quality and exposure to the language, also significantly contribute to students’ language learning outcomes. the study highlights the critical role of instructional quality in enhancing the impact of motivation. motivated learners outperformed their peers in high-quality instructional environments that utilized interactive teaching methods and provided constructive feedback. for example, students in communicative, student-centered classrooms demonstrated 25% higher speaking scores than those in traditional grammar-translation settings. this aligns with previous research, which shows that dynamic instruction fosters greater engagement and self-efficacy, thereby amplifying the positive effects of motivation on language learning (guilloteaux & dörnyei, 2008). in contrast, even highly motivated learners in low-quality environments, characterized by rote memorization and lack of feedback, struggled to achieve fluency, suggesting that ineffective pedagogy can dampen the benefits of motivation. the study also underscores the importance of exposure to english outside the classroom. motivated students who regularly engaged with english through online courses, international media, or other informal learning methods achieved significantly motivation as a predictor of language proficiency 115 no. 30 higher proficiency than their peers who relied solely on university instruction. for instance, students who engaged with weekly english-language business podcasts scored 15% higher on listening tasks than those who did not have such exposure. this supports the notion that extrinsic motivators, such as career goals, are more effective when paired with opportunities for authentic language use (papi & teimouri, 2014). however, iran’s restricted access to global media limited such exposure for many participants, disproportionately affecting the language development of motivated learners. both intrinsic and extrinsic motivations emerged as essential factors for iranian management students. this dynamic interplay between intrinsic motivation (e.g., personal interest in the language) and extrinsic motivation (e.g., career-related goals) supports dörnyei and ushioda’s (2020) conceptualization of motivation as multifaceted. students motivated by career aspirations were more likely to engage with language learning and perform well on proficiency tests. these findings are consistent with those of karami and yousefian (2021), who noted that business students often exhibit a combination of personal and career-related motivations. moreover, studies by jackson (2010) and schoonen et al. (2003) suggest that language proficiency in academic disciplines, such as business management, relies on both language input (e.g., exposure to english in academic settings) and language output (e.g., practical use of english in assignments and discussions). recent research by karami and yousefian (2021) further supports the view that while motivation is essential, other factors—such as the quality of language instruction, the learning environment, and opportunities for real-world language use—also play a significant role in predicting language proficiency. for example, students who had more opportunities to engage with english outside the classroom, through internships, study abroad programs, or exposure to english-language media tended to achieve higher proficiency. ultimately, the findings suggest that extrinsic motivation, particularly in relation to career success and academic achievement, plays a significant role in language learning among iranian management students. motivated students with careerrelated goals were more driven to learn english due to its practical value in the global business environment. for these students, english proficiency is not only an academic requirement but also a critical skill for entering and succeeding in the global workforce. implications for educators and policymakers the findings underscore the need for educators and policymakers to adopt context-sensitive strategies that leverage both intrinsic and extrinsic motivation to enhance language learning outcomes for iranian management students. educators could integrate career-aligned tasks, such as drafting business proposals for iranian parisa farrokh and gholamreza hamtai 116 no. 30 multinational firms (e.g., mapna group) or simulating cross-cultural negotiations, to strengthen extrinsic motivation through real-world relevance. intrinsic motivation can be fostered through project-based learning, such as analyzing case studies on iranian startups expanding globally (e.g., snapp or digikala), allowing students to connect language skills to personal interests. traditional grammar-translation methods should be replaced with communicative activities, such as role-playing job interviews or collaborative problem-solving in english to address institutional barriers. policymakers can support these efforts by funding virtual exchange programs with international business schools or subsidizing access to platforms like coursera for specialized business english courses, thereby mitigating sanctions-driven resource gaps. additionally, creating university-run english podcasts featuring interviews with iranian professionals abroad (e.g., engineers at airbus) or organizing virtual networking sessions with diaspora experts can help compensate for limited exposure to authentic language use. teacher training should emphasize motivational scaffolding, such as framing errors as learning opportunities (e.g., “mispronouncing ‘contract’ could derail a negotiation”) and gamifying tasks like writing linkedin profiles. by aligning pedagogy with career aspirations, cultural identity, and socio-political realities, stakeholders can create a sustainable ecosystem for language learning in management education. limitations and future research while this study provides valuable insights into the relationship between motivation and language proficiency among iranian management students, several limitations must be acknowledged. first, the modest correlation (r = 0.16) suggests that unmeasured variables—such as learning environments, peer interactions, or access to resources—may mediate this relationship. second, the reliance on self-reported motivation measures introduces the potential for biases, such as social desirability, which could be addressed in future studies by incorporating objective measures, such as behavioral observations or assessments of language use in professional contexts. third, the study’s focus on a single academic discipline (management) limits its generalizability to other fields, such as engineering or the humanities, where language needs and motivational drivers may differ. to address these gaps, future research could explore cross-disciplinary differences to clarify how discipline-specific goals, such as technical communication in engineering versus business negotiation in management, shape language learning. additionally, investigating contextual moderators, such as instructional quality (e.g., communicative versus traditional methods) or access to authentic language exposure (e.g., internships or media), could provide a deeper understanding of the weak motivation as a predictor of language proficiency 117 no. 30 correlation observed in this study. these efforts would enhance our understanding of the role of motivation in specialized academic-professional contexts, particularly in politically constrained environments such as iran. conclusion this study highlights the significant role of motivation in language proficiency among iranian management students, with a modest but positive correlation (r = 0.16, p < 0.05). both intrinsic and extrinsic motivations were found to influence language learning, supporting previous research on their interplay. however, motivation alone cannot predict language proficiency, as contextual factors like limited exposure to authentic english, reliance on outdated pedagogy, and restricted access to resources also mediate its impact. to improve language outcomes, educational strategies must address these barriers, such as integrating technology-driven tasks and training instructors in communicative methods. policymakers should prioritize initiatives to expand access to global media and international experiences. while this study focuses on iran, similar research in countries such as türkiye, china, and brazil has shown that motivation plays a crucial role in language learning in management education. by addressing both motivation and contextual constraints, stakeholders can 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(2004). motivating learning, performance, and persistence: the synergistic effects of intrinsic goal contents and autonomy-supportive contexts. journal of personality and social psychology, 87(2), 246–260. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.87.2.246 parisa farrokh and gholamreza hamtai authors parisa farrokh is an iranian assistant professor. she has published and presented many articles in different national and international journals and conferences indexed by wos, scopus, esci, and isc. her areas of interest include linguistics, teaching and learning strategies, cognitive linguistics, and psycholinguistics. orcid: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6454-9305 gholamreza hamtai received his m.a. in tefl from lahijan islamic azad university, iran. he is an english instructor specializing in psycholinguistics. orcid: https://orcid.org/0009-0009-0027-6991 120120 no. 30 motivation as a predictor of language proficiency gist education and learning research journal. issn 1692-5777. no. 20 (january june, 2020). pp. 215-229. research-based instruction, an essential tenet of the foreign languages’ preservice-teacher education at universidad de pamplona1 instrucción basada en la investigación, un principio esencial de la formación de los futuros docentes en lenguas extranjeras de la universidad de pamplona. gabriel cote-parra2* universidad de pamplona, colombia 1 received: july 8th 2019/ accepted: april 20th 2020 2 gcote@unipamplona.edu.co study of identity of indigenous english language teachers arias-cepeda 216 no. 20 research-based instruction in pre-service-teacher education cote-parra abstract this paper reports a personal reflection that describes how the bachelor of arts in foreign languages at the universidad de pamplona provides preservice teachers with a research-based instruction. in an attempt to contribute to today’s scholar discussions on foreign language preservice teachers’ education, this reflective piece illustrates a unique way of teaching research to fl undergraduates. the author first provides an overview on the area of teaching research to undergraduates in colombia; second, a description of how pre-service teachers learn the theoretical foundations, paradigms, designs and approaches mostly used in educational inquiry; and the two-year process student researchers go through. finally, the author discusses the lessons learned and what the future of this process might be like. keywords. foreign languages, pre service teachers, student researchers, clil, researchbased instruction. resumen. este artículo presenta una reflexión personal que describe cómo la licenciatura en lenguas extranjeras de la universidad de pamplona brinda a los docentes en formación una instrucción basada en la investigación. en un intento por contribuir a la discusión académica actual sobre la educación de los futuros docentes de lenguas extranjeras, esta reflexión ilustra una forma única de enseñar la investigación a los estudiantes de lenguas extranjeras. inicialmente, el autor proporciona una visión general sobre enseñanza de investigación a estudiantes de pregrado en colombia; en segundo lugar, una descripción de cómo los docentes en formación aprenden los fundamentos teóricos, paradigmas, diseños y enfoques utilizados principalmente en la investigación educativa; y el proceso de dos años que llevan los estudiantes investigadores. finalmente, el autor analiza las lecciones aprendidas y cómo será el futuro de este proceso. palabras clave: lenguas extranjeras, docentes en formación, estudiantes investigadores, aicle, instrucción basada en la investigación resumo este artigo apresenta uma reflexão pessoal que descreve como a licenciatura em línguas estrangeiras da universidade de pamplona oferece aos docentes em formação uma instrução baseada na pesquisa. em uma tentativa por contribuir com a discussão acadêmica atual sobre a educação dos futuros docentes de línguas estrangeiras, esta reflexão ilustra uma forma única de ensinar a pesquisa aos estudantes de línguas estrangeiras. inicialmente, o autor proporciona uma visão geral sobre ensino de pesquisa a estudantes de graduação na colômbia; em segundo lugar, uma descrição de como os docentes em formação aprendem os fundamentos teóricos, paradigmas, desenhos e enfoques utilizados principalmente na pesquisa educativa; e o processo de dois anos que levam os estudantes pesquisadores. finalmente, o autor analisa as lições aprendidas e como será o futuro deste processo. palavras chave: línguas estrangeiras, docentes em formação, estudantes pesquisadores, aicle, instrução baseada na pesquisa. 217 no. 20 research-based instruction in pre-service-teacher education cote-parra introduction this personal reflection describes how the bachelor of arts in languages at the universidad de pamplona provides pre-service teachers with researchbased instruction. the final aim of incorporating research, as part of the teacher preparation is to provide students with a twofold purpose: first, providing in-service teachers with the theoretical foundations, paradigms, designs and approaches mostly used in educational inquiry; and second, enabling them to conduct small-scale projects to integrate theory into practice that exposes them to a learningby-doing research training. after having taken part in a national symposium aimed at discussing the future of foreign language learning and teaching in colombia, i found particularly inspiring that several high school teachers, experts and researchers highlighted the importance of teaching research to undergraduate students, as a way to make a far-reaching change on in-service teachers’ education; along with a deepseated transformation on learning foreign languages (fl) in colombia. paraphrasing one of the concluding remarks from mainstream fl teachers’ hardly-heard voices, i have come to understand that research is the key that opens a world of greater understandings and learning opportunities for pre-service teachers in colombia. this statement seamlessly aligns with bower’s claim that “…incorporating research into the undergraduate curriculum can result in improved learning outcomes” (2010, p. 50). other authors have identified additional benefits for incorporating research into the undergraduate curriculum. for instance, undergraduate students can enhance their “…ability to develop intellectual curiosity, acquire information independently, understand scientific findings, analyze literature critically, speak effectively, act as a leader, and possess clear career goals.” (bauer and bennet, 2003, p.221). similarly, undergraduate students can improve their confidence in doing research in their academic area (seymour, hunter, laursen, & deantoni, 2004). the remaining pages describe my personal points of view on how this unique research training engages fl undergraduate students at the bachelor of arts in languages, english-french at the universidad de pamplona in a reflective and critical learning process that initiates them into the subtle intricacies of doing research in foreign languages. ideally, equipping future language teachers with research competences will help them critically reflect on the role they should play when teaching foreign languages. teaching research to fl pre-service teachers in colombia, minimal research has been centered on how foreign language pre-service teachers are formally trained to become successful student researchers. cárdenas and faustino (2008) conducted research that reports fl undergraduate 218 no. 20 research-based instruction in pre-service-teacher education cote-parra students’ learning experience throughout different research courses as part of their curriculum. at the bachelor of arts in languages at the universidad de pamplona, two studies somewhat revealed how research training is provided to fl students. latorre and delgado (2015) found that research training goes hand in hand with a training in reflection. the findings also showed that for pre-service teachers, research is complex and challenging; and it is a source of knowledge. martínez-cáceres’ (2016) case study aimed at describing the student researchers’ research projects conducted in french, revealed that case study is the most frequently used methodology; and the oral production is the most common topic under study. the author also found that student researchers’ difficulties include the topic selection and the writing of the report. in a literature review, cote parra (2012, p. 26) highlighted that in colombia, “most previous research studies on fl pre-service teachers have focused on aspects such as the strengths and weaknesses that practicum-supervisors have identified in their trainees (quintero, zuluaga & lópez, 2003); teaching preparation programs and curricular innovations (cárdenas & faustino, 2008; mcnulty & usma, 2005; and mcnulty-ferri, 2010); student-teachers’ perceptions, research skills and experiences during their practicum (gallego et al., 2001). other studies have focused on students’ language learning and use (farias & obilinovic, 2008), especially on efl writing (viáfara, 2008; and quintero, 2008) and reading (lópez and giraldo, 2011)” (p.26). other papers report on the development of linguistic competences (arismendi, colorado, and grajales, 2011); the use of icts (espitia & clavijo, 2011); and strategy instruction (lopera medina, 2012). generally speaking, the landscape of research on how foreign language pre-service teachers are formally trained to become successful student researchers has not changed much; in the latest issues, among the top five journals in colombia, only one, profile: issues in teachers’ professional development, devoted an article to discuss research experiences of undergraduates in colombia. quintero polo (2019), in an attempt to answer the research question on how efl student-teachers’ formative pedagogical and research experiences are portrayed in a transformative and critical outlook for initial teacher education, described the student teachers’ research projects “…that focused on going beyond the implementation and evaluation of the effectiveness of efl instructional strategies.” (p. 36). however, the author did not explain how they were trained to produce such report. 219 no. 20 content and language integrated learning (clil) in 2010, five colleagues and i started the teachers’ research group in foreign languages-grilex3, at the licenciatura en lenguas extranjeras, inglés-francés at the universidad de pamplona, under the research line, learning and teaching foreign languages; and its dual research journey: do and teach research. on the one hand, it attempted to improve the teaching practices by engaging teachers in reflection; on the other hand, it redirected the way research would be taught to pre-service teachers, which is the main purpose of this reflection. in 2011, five colleagues and i started the student research group in foreign languages-silex-4, as a way to provide undergraduates with a meaningful learning experience that would articulate research content and learning french and english as foreign languages (fle & efl). honestly speaking, i must confess that i started teaching research content through english and french as foreign languages, not knowing that it referred to content and language integrated learning (clil). fortunately, once i became acquainted with clil, it was formally adopted, as “…an approach or method which integrates the teaching of content from a curriculum subject with the teaching of a non-native language.” (lesca, 2012, p. 3). despite the simplicity of this definition, we have come to understand that it encompasses a complex process that “…requires teachers to engage in alternative ways of planning their teaching for effective learning” (coyle, 2005 p.2.). meaningful learning is precisely what learners experience while learning how to do research through fle & efl. i can unequivocally echo mcdougald’s (2009) claim “…[s]chools and universities are not concerned with just learning english anymore, but are more concerned as to what students can do with the new language” (p.44). throughout four courses, the curriculum at the licenciatura en lenguas extranjeras, inglés-francés, at the universidad de pamplona, conveniently engages undergraduate foreign language learners in a two-year research training (see figure 1), through which they not only become familiar with the theoretical foundations of the complexities of research in foreign languages, but also go through a first-hand experience of critical thinking and problem solving while conducting small-scale research. prior to the two-year research training in foreign languages, students take “epistemología” and “investigación educativa i” with other b.a. programs at the school of education (e.g. pedagogy, social studies, and physical education). that is why these two courses are taught in spanish. they provide students with a broad framework on educational research. the practical nature of having designed a set of four research courses, taught in french and english as foreign languages, fully explained below, around a learning1 spanish acronym for grupo de investigación en lenguas extranjeras. 2 spanish acronym for semillero de investigación en lenguas extranjeras. research-based instruction in pre-service-teacher education cote-parra 220 no. 20 research-based instruction in pre-service-teacher education cote-parra by-doing experience, has allowed the teachers in charge of these courses to give partakers an opportunity to discover the potential directions for their own research while writing a proposal, adopting and adapting research instruments, collecting and analyzing data; and sharing findings with the academic community. the first research course, an 80-hour process taught in english, is intended to provide an overview of the types of educational and foreign language research. this introductory course facilitates student researchers become familiar with qualitative, quantitative and mixed-method theoretical foundations. figure 1. two-year research training at the universidad de pamplona. along with research content, students are required to critically read, discuss, summarize and critique research papers that exemplify several quantitative, qualitative and mixed-method research designs. to accomplish this goal, students are engaged in an end-of-semester project that consists of a poster session in which they exhibit the process of writing a critique. students may also publish a critique. for example, ferreira and casadiegos (2013) published a critique in the opening writing doors journal. the authors followed ryan, coughlan and croning’s (2007) guidelines to critically assess the believability and robustness of cañas’ (2012) research study. 221 no. 20 ultimately, this initial training will equip them with germane knowledge and research skills to eventually discover their own research topics, which are the base line to write a research proposal in the second research course. the second research course comprises 128 hours devoted to providing student researchers with the theoretical foundations and the specialized guidance on writing a research proposal either in english or french. the total number of students who register are split into two courses, each course is led by two teachers, one guides the processes in english and the other one in french. students are allowed to choose one of the two languages to complete their research projects. for undergraduate students, writing a proposal is a challenging but enriching experience that serves a two-fold purpose, first, becoming familiar with the topic under study while writing a literature review, which includes a minimum of 20 summarized research papers to document and frame their own study; second, structuring the proposal allows them to carefully think of the phenomenon they attempt to understand, its purpose, and how data will be collected. at the end of the course, students defend their proposals in front of the research committee, which is comprised of two to five teachers in charge of teaching the research courses. this course enables students to collect data during the third research course. in the third research course, students become familiar with the process of qualitative and quantitative data collection that includes several data gathering techniques, forms and protocols, data recording techniques, and how to deal with ethical issues while collecting data. in addition, students learn how to adopt and adapt research instruments aided by direct communication with original authors. for example, several students have contacted seasoned researchers and experts, such as horwitz (see appendix 1); richards and lockhart; abbasova; olaya and gómez-rodríguez (rip), among others, to obtain their approval to use and adapt instruments they have designed. as a learning-by-doing experience, asking for approvals allows them to be aware of the ethical procedures and copyrights while doing research. two distinguishing features have characterized this research training: robust fieldwork and timely and personalized feedback. i have come to understand that fieldwork experience is critical to put theory into practice. according to wolcott (1994), “first-hand experience with at least one and preferably both of the basic field work strategies -participant observation and interviewinghas become the core activity in which everyone must engage.” (p.382). i strongly believe that the only way for preservice teachers to understand the essence of fl research is to provide them with sustained fieldwork. for example, student researchers spend extensive time observing fl classrooms, and interviewing participants. along with extensive fieldwork, student researchers are provided with timely and personalized feedback. research-based instruction in pre-service-teacher education cote-parra 222 no. 20 research-based instruction in pre-service-teacher education cote-parra the fourth research course completes the two-year research training. in 128 hours, students make sense of the data gathered during the previous course, and write a research report. therefore, they learn how to organize, code, and analyze data using maxqda software and several analysis techniques. taking into account that we teach research content through english, a distinguishing feature of clil, students are also instructed on how to write and defend their final research report. during the last five years, around 200 students have been trained on the intricacies of doing research while doing research, resulting in around 170 projects. it seems that the number of small-scale projects have decreased over the years. however, it is not like that. due to a reduced number of mentors, they decided to make groups of two or three students to collaboratively work on a single project. table 1. students’ small-scale research projects student researchers’ short-scale studies studies/ year reading listening speaking writing integrated skills others total 2014 2 1 3 19 2 14 41 2015 4 0 7 8 12 20 51 2016 2 0 7 0 0 14 23 2017 5 0 10 3 1 10 29 2018 3 2 5 5 6 5 26 the essential tenets of pre-service teachers’ research training. the two-year research training provides pre-service teachers with strong theoretical foundations, main research trends in the educational field; and 21st century skills future professional need. according to buckley (2008), …education students who work on research projects indicated more strongly than any other faculty that their undergraduate research experience helped them to develop their intellectual skills, their career and collaborative abilities, their research skills, their understanding of how knowledge is created, their ability to write more clearly and effectively, and their capacity to work more effectively with others. (as cited in bower, 2010, p. 51). in addition, i have realized that sustained fieldwork and effective feedback have paved the road to accomplish some of the major achievements of this process, which are students’ outcomes, represented in articles published in specialized journals 223 no. 20 and oral reports at local, regional and national congresses. although cárdenas and nieto cruz (2019) acknowledged the “… the difficulties non-experienced teacherresearchers have to get published in scholarly journals…” (p. 7), the pre-service teachers who complete the research training are able to write a report worthy to be submitted for publication. indeed, 27 articles have been published in opening writing doors journal5, edited by the licenciatura en lenguas extranjeras, inglés-francés at the universidad de pamplona. two articles have been published in profile: issues in teachers’ professional development, which “…started including research in its issues from teacher researchers section articles by teachers who had recently completed their bed programmes and who had conducted classroom research as part of the requirements to opt for their degrees.” (cárdenas & nieto cruz, 2019, p. 7). the first article, understanding the role of teaching materials in a beginners’ level english as a foreign language course: a case study, published by cruz rondón, and velasco vera (2016), aimed at “…at understanding the role of teaching materials among beginners’ level students learning english as a foreign language” (p. 125)6. the second article, identifying pre-service teachers’ beliefs about teaching efl and their potential changes, published by suárez flórez and basto basto (2017), aimed at “…identifying pre-service teachers’ beliefs about teaching english as a foreign language and tracking their potential changes throughout the teaching practicum” (p. 167).7 with regards to oral reports, students who have completed the research training have presented more than 150 research reports at the congress of foreign language undergraduate researchers at the universidad de pamplona. in addition, more than 50 research reports have been presented at national congresses, including asocopi annual congress, acolprof congress; local, regional and national redcolsi congresses; encuentro de universidades formadoras de licenciados, and other regional congresses in foreign languages. moving forward based on the enriching and successful experiences i have gone through; three main scholarly endeavors will largely determine how silex will face future initiatives: varying the types of research designs used, and expanding the phenomena to be studied; taking part in international events; and inviting student researchers from other schools of education and universities in colombia. regarding research designs and research phenomena, i have realized that although most of the small-scale research done by students are qualitative, some students have started to carry out quantitative inquiries, or at least, adopting quantitative instruments to complement data gathered through qualitative observations and interviews. for example, a student researcher incorporated the use of the emotivinsight, a neuro research-based instruction in pre-service-teacher education cote-parra 224 no. 20 research-based instruction in pre-service-teacher education cote-parra signals capture system to measure anxiety levels. this might change the way students could study the impact of anxiety or stress levels while doing oral reports. therefore, we would recommend future mentees to conduct more quantitative studies, and to start carrying out mixed-methods studies. on the other hand, the student researchers are willing to share their research experiences internationally. for example, in january 2020, two student researchers presented two oral reports at the tqr 11th annual conference “contemporary qualitative research”, organized by the nova university. i am certain it was an inspiring and thought-provoking experience to have had feedback from an international audience. hopefully, it will be the first out of many successful international presentations. finally, i strongly believe that the training students have gone through, and the experience i have gained teaching research to fl undergraduates will help find national and international alliances. hopefully, this reflection opens potential research venues, which would include student researchers and teachers from several bachelor of arts in languages in colombia. 5 link to access the opening writing doors journal: http://owdj.unipamplona.edu.co/ 6 link to access the full text of the article: https://revistas.unal.edu.co/index.php/profile/article/ view/52813 7 https://revistas.unal.edu.co/index.php/profile/article/view/59675 225 no. 20 references arismendi, f., colorado, d., and grajales, l. (2011) readingcomprehension in face-to-face and web-based modalities: graduate students’ use of reading and language learning strategies in efl. colombian applied linguistic journal. 13(2), 11-28. bower, m. (2010). developing pre-service teachers’ research capabilities using lams. proceedings of the 5th international lams conference 2010. http:// lamsfoundation.org/lams2010sydney/papers.htm bauer, k. w., & bennett, j. s. (2003). alumni perceptions used to assess undergraduate research experience. the journal of higher education, 74(2), 210-230. cañas carrillo; s. l., (2012). identifying factors that affect fl learners’ oral participation at a public university in colombia. opening writing doors journal. 9(1) 189-208 cárdenas, m. l., & nieto-cruz, m. c. (2019). editorial: giving voice to novice teacher researchers. profile: issues in teachers’ professional development, 21(2), 7-10. https://doi. org/10.15446/profile.v21n2.80843. cárdenas ramos, r., & faustino c. (2008). “impacto del componente de investigación en la formación de licenciados en lenguas extranjeras” lenguaje 36 (2) 407 – 446. cote parra, g. (2012). the role of reflection during the first teaching experience of foreign language pre-service teachers: an exploratory-case study. colombian applied linguistic journal, 14(2), 24 – 34. retrieved from http://www.scielo.org.co/ pdf/calj/v14n2/v14n2a03.pdf coyle, d., (2005). clil planning tools for teachers. the university of nottingham school of education. retrieved from: https://www.unifg.it/sites/default/files/ allegatiparagrafo/20-01-2014/coyle_clil_planningtool_kit.pdf cruz rondón, e. j., & velasco vera, l. f. 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(2008). from pre-school to university: student teachers characterize their efl writing development. colomb. appli. linguis. j., 10, 73-92. wolcott, h.f. (1994). transforming qualitative data: description, analysis, and interpretation. thousand oaks, ca: sage research-based instruction in pre-service-teacher education cote-parra 228 no. 20 research-based instruction in pre-service-teacher education cote-parra author * gabriel cote-parra received his ph.d. in education from the university of nebraska, lincoln. he is a professor and researcher at the bachelor of arts in foreign languages, english-french at the universidad de pamplona. his research focuses on learning and teaching foreign languages, the line of investigation of the foreign language teachers’ research group-grilex. currently, he is doing research on novice foreign language teachers’ language assessment literacy (lal). orcid: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0095-8265 229 no. 20 appendix from: horwitz, elaine k <horwitz@austin.utexas.edu> sent: saturday, september 12, 2015 8:47 am to: sergio andres suárez flórez subject: re: tballi permission   it’s nice to meet you all, and i appreciate your interest in my work.   subject to the usual requirements for acknowledgment, i am pleased to grant you permission to use the teacher beliefs about language learning inventory in your research.   specifically, you must acknowledge my authorship of the tballi in any oral or written reports of your research.   i also request that you inform me of your findings. you would score the tballi in the same way you score the balli, and i am attaching the revised version of the balli (balli 2.0) which appeared in my book becoming a language teacher:  a practical guide to second language learning and teaching, 2nd edition, pearson, 2013. you will notice that the balli 2.0 has some additional items that neither the original balli or the tballi have. the balli and all its variations are simply lists of items.  i think it is fine for you to add or subtract items for the specific beliefs you want to examine in your study.  but if you do this (add and/or subtract items), please note in your oral and written reports that you modified the tballi and how you modified it.  i hope this is helpful. best wishes, elaine horwitz research-based instruction in pre-service-teacher education cote-parra how to reference this article: cote-parra, g. (2020). research-based instruction, an essential tenet of the foreign languages pre-service-teacher education at universidad de pamplona. gist – education and learning research journal, 20, 215-229. https://doi. org/10.26817/16925777.715 no. 23 language proficiency development and study abroad experience: a study on efl learners1 desarrollo del dominio del idioma y la experiencia de estudio en el extranjero: un estudio sobre estudiantes de inglés como lengua extranjera fatma kaya2* erzurum technical university, turkey 1 received: september 9th 2020/accepted: july 21st 2021 2 fatma.kaya@erzurum.edu.tr gist education and learning research journal. issn 1692-5777. no. 23 (july december, 2021). pp. 33-58. visual mnemonic technique as learning strategy 34 no. 23 abstract study abroad experience (sa) has been regarded as one of the best ways to enhance english language proficiency because it offers opportunities for learners to experience the use of english in actual situations. the present research study attempted to explore the language development of a group of efl learners participating in erasmus program for sa experience where english is not used as l1. to achieve this, the data were collected through three instruments: language contact profile (lcp), then and now survey, and semi-structured interviews. fifty-nine students answered lcp and then and now survey and eight students were interviewed. the quantitative result revealed that students experienced greater gains in their oral skills. on the other hand, qualitative results confirm the greater gains in speaking skills with respect to other skills. moreover, the results highlighted the significance of the learning context and the quality and quantity of interaction for language development. key words: study abroad; english proficiency; english learners; learning context; oral skills; interaction resumen la experiencia de estudiar en el extranjero (ee) ha sido catalogada como una de las mejores formas de mejorar la competencia en inglés porque esta ofrece oportunidades a los aprendices de experimentar el uso de la lengua en situaciones reales. el presente estudio de investigación intentó explorar el desarrollo de la lengua en un grupo de estudiantes de inglés como lengua extranjera en el programa erasmus para la experiencia ee en dónde el inglés no es usado como lengua primaria o l1. para alcanzar esto, los datos se recolectaron a través de tres instrumentos: perfil de contacto de idioma (pci), encuesta de antes y ahora, y entrevistas semiestructuradas. cincuenta y nueve estudiantes respondieron el pci y las encuestas; y ocho estudiantes fueron entrevistados. los resultados cuantitativos revelaron que los estudiantes experimentaron mayores ganancias en sus habilidades orales. por otro lado, los resultados cualitativos confirman dichas ganancias en habilidades de habla con respecto a otras habilidades. además, los resultados resaltan el significado del contexto de aprendizaje y la calidad y cantidad de interacción para el desarrollo del lenguaje. palabras clave: estudiar en el extranjero; competencia en inglés; aprendices de inglés; contexto de aprendizaje; habilidades de habla; interacción resumo a experiência de estudar no estrangeiro (ee) foi catalogada como uma das melhores formas de melhorar a competência em inglês, porque esta oferece oportunidades aos aprendizes de experimentar o uso da língua em situações reais. o presente estudo tentou explorar o desenvolvimento da língua em um grupo de estudantes de inglês como língua estrangeira no programa erasmus para a experiência ee, onde o inglês não é utilizado como língua primária ou l1. para alcançar isso, os dados foram coletados através de três instrumentos: perfil de contato language development in a study abroad experience kaya 35 no. 23 de idioma (pci), enquete de antes e agora, e entrevistas semiestruturadas. cinquenta e nove estudantes responderam o pci e as enquetes; e oito estudantes foram entrevistados. os resultados quantitativos revelaram que os estudantes experimentaram maiores aproveitamentos em suas habilidades orais. por outro lado, os resultados qualitativos confirmam tais aproveitamentos em habilidades de fala com relação a outras habilidades. além disso, os resultados ressaltam o significado do contexto de aprendizado e a qualidade e quantidade de interação para o desenvolvimento da linguagem. palavras chave: estudar no estrangeiro; competência em inglês; aprendizes de inglês; contexto de aprendizado; habilidades de fala; interação language development in a study abroad experience kaya 36 no. 23 introduction learning context plays a significant role in the development of foreign language and affects the degree of language acquisition and the gained result (sanz & grey, 2015 cited in leonard & shea, 2017). therefore, “one of the most important variables that affects the nature and the extent to which learners acquire an l2 is the context of learning” (collentine, 2009, p. 218 cited in llanes, 2011, p. 189) because the level and type of language input provided by sa, the chances created to engage in interaction, and the target language exposure display differences ( amuzie & winke, 2009).thus, most sa research has focused on the nature of study abroad experience and has attempted to discover the determinants which may promote language enhancement (dewey, 2007) because different variables such as personal, academic, linguistic, and cultural affects the degree of sa experience that students benefit from (cadd, 2012). in fact, study abroad programs aim to serve for two general purposes: improving and enhancing l2 proficiency and developing cultural sensitivity (baker’smemoe, dewey, bown & martinsen, 2014). in line with the crucial role of sa experience as recognized one of the best ways to enhance language proficiency, there has been a steadily growing interest on the research exploring the benefits of sa programs on language development, though studies sometimes present inconsistent results that do not align with each other. however, while dealing with the effects of sa on language learning, we need to support the premise that language learning context be the prerequisite focus that needs to be taken into consideration if the underlying factors that comprise the effects of sa experience on learners’ language gains are sought to explore. this gap may be explained by various factors such as frequency, intensity, quality, and quantity of interaction in the target language context. relevant literature on sa experience emphasizes that interaction with local english speakers and developing social networks in the target language are one of the most important factors to improve language proficiency of learners and higher l2 contact leads to greater language gains (llanes, tragant & serrano, 2012) because, in contrast to classroom environments, sojourns create settings which can provide useful chances for learners to interact in the target language (schwieter, jackson & ferreira, 2018). however, as martinsen (2010) says interaction with native speakers does not always lead to enhancement of language proficiency and more studies are required to evaluate the relationship between social networks and the development of speaking skills. in fact, the significance of sa experience for language enhancement should not lead to the assumption that the classroom environment does not contribute to the language development; however, actual environments may create a pressure on students to use language to communicate in actual conditions. language development in a study abroad experience kaya 37 no. 23 given the potential effect of sa experience on students’ language proficiency, a thorough understanding of the process, particularly in terms of students who experience their sojourn in countries where english is not l1 and reflections of these students upon their sojourns is needed. hence, this study attempts to investigate language development of turkish students participating in erasmus program utilizing both qualitative and quantitative data to have a deeper insight into the process. literature review there has been a growing interest in the studies exploring the effects of sa experience on language proficiency and students’ attitudes towards the target language in terms of different dimension of sa experience and different language skills. although learning context has been determined as one of the key factors leading to success regardless of the explored language gains, not all sa experiences cover the same duration and the duration of sa programs has determined the language gains, particularly gains in specific l2 areas. some scholars have addressed the length of sa program on language gains, particularly exploring whether short term sa experience could enhance language proficiency (evans & fisher, 2005; martinsen, 2010; llanes & munõz, 2009). for example, in the study conducted by martinsen (2010), the effects of a period of 6 weeks sa experience on oral skills were explored and it was found that this short term experience showed significant changes in learners’ oral skills; however, there were also learners with no change or even decrease in their oral skills. the researcher attributes this issue to the measurement problem because it is challenging to measure the development of language skills over a short time and this measurement problem of study abroad experience research was also confirmed by dewey (2007). moreover, an interesting implication made by martinsen (2010) is the probability that interacting with native speakers during sa experience does not always lead to the development of oral skills and, thus, the frequency and quality of interaction should be the foci of further research. on the other hand, further evidence of the effectiveness of short duration on the enhancement of proficiency comes from llanes and munõz (2009), who considered that even a period of 3-4 weeks of sa experience showed considerable gains in language areas such as listening comprehension, oral fluency, and accuracy. in fact, it may be advocated that the chances of being exposed to l2 interaction created by sa environment are not similar in every context and not all l2 learners prefer to get involved in interaction in the target language (montero, 2019) and ‘‘mere exposure to the context is not enough, and sa participants need to take the opportunities which the context offers for interaction and sociocultural learning’’ (sánchez-hernández & alcón-soler, 2019, p. 14). in their studies, leonard and shea (2017) investigated native english speakers who spend one semester in argentina. the language development in a study abroad experience kaya 38 no. 23 main focus of their study is to explore changes in various dimensions of complexity, accuracy, and fluency (caf) over a period of 3 months sojourn and whether any relationship is available between these changes and linguistic knowledge and processing rate. as a result, they revealed that learners experienced development in syntactic complexity, accuracy and fluency. moreover, they added that in long term, three dimensions of speaking improve and when the learner has achieved a definite degree of fluency that also leads to definite degree of accuracy and lexical complexity. however, as most researchers emphasized that learners with higher proficiency levels before study abroad experience also experienced greater gains in accuracy and syntactic and lexical complexity during the process. interestingly, researchers point out that learners with lower levels show greater improvements when compared to learners with more advanced levels during study abroad experience (martinsen, 2010). thus, to explain this conclusion, dewey (2007) elucidated the possible ceiling effect in measures utilized in study abroad research because most of the used measures are thought to be insufficient to evaluate the gains of advanced-level learners and the language gains advanced learners experience are not easy to quantify (llanes & munõz, 2009). another point deserving attention is the outcomes gained at the end of the process. researchers emphasize that study abroad experience does not always guarantee effective language development and learning (martinsen, 2010; yang & kim, 2011); however, this experience seems to facilitate language acquisition. for example, dewey (2007) elucidates the facilitator effect of sa experience on vocabulary acquisition; however; he does not also ignore the significant gains, which can be obtained at home. in fact, the distinguishing point between classroom and study abroad context is that target language context creates a relatively unconscious focus to master language while classroom context offers practice on grammar and vocabulary knowledge (dekeyse, 1991 cited in kim & cha, 2017) and the intensity of language exposure (serrano, llanes & tragant, 2016). however, different benefits may come from both of the contexts in various fields of language. for example, sa context seems to favor oral lexical richness while at home (ah) context leads to better receptive knowledge of grammar (serrano et al., 2016). the notion that sa significantly favors oral proficiency also was confirmed by the studies of llanes et al., (2012) and jochum (2014). for example, montero (2019) explored whether sa learners outgained at home learners in terms of the development of effective communicative strategies. the noteworthy point addressed in the results is that not all sa learners make effective use of l2 communication opportunities and their counterparts at home can also benefit from these opportunities if similar settings are reproduced. the most important contribution of the study may be explained by the explicit call for further need to motivate and encourage learners to benefit sa experience at maximum level by actively participating in each actual communication settings. language development in a study abroad experience kaya 39 no. 23 moreover, studies have also focused on the effect of sa experience on self-efficacy of learners (e.g., cubillos & ilvento, 2013; kim &cha, 2017; petersdotter, niehoff & freund, 2017). for example, in their studies, kim and cha (2017) examined what factors compose self-efficacy and tried to explore the relationship between english proficiency, abroad experience and english self-efficacy. moreover, they investigated the optimal period of study abroad experience for the self-efficacy improvement. as a result, they concluded that english proficiency and abroad experience have the exploratory value for self-efficacy with the dominant effect of english proficiency on self-efficacy. however, what the researchers emphasize is the need to study the factors jointly instead of treating factors alone. on the one hand, the optimal period for the development of self-efficacy was recognized from four to six months. on the other hand, further evidence of effective outcomes of sa experience has been also displayed from pragmatic or sociolinguistic perspectives (e.g., taguchi, 2008; shively, 2011; taguchi, 2011; alcón-soler, 2015; sánchez-hernández & alcónsoler, 2019; devlin, 2018; ren, 2019). for example, sánchez-hernández and alcónsoler (2019) examined the enhancement of pragmatic competence of the sojourn of a group of brazilian students during their first semester of study in a us university. the main foci of the study are two: recognition of pragmatic routines, and whether intensity of interaction and participants’ sociocultural adaptation to the sa context are the determinants of documented pragmatic development. as a result, it was revealed that a semester-long sojourn improves the recognition of pragmatic routines and intensity of interaction and sociocultural adaptation determine the documented pragmatic gains. likewise, alcónsoler (2015) conducted a more specific study dealing with the impact of pragmatic instruction and the duration of sa on e-mail request mitigators of teenagers creating an experimental and a control group consisting of 30 participants in each group in england. it was concluded that sa has shown an immediate effect on request of mitigators which was not sustained in the long term. however, these two studies have established their research in anglophone contexts which may result in an enriched environment where learners may easily engage in actual communication settings through intensive and frequent interaction with native speakers of english. however, when it comes to analyze the effect of sa on pragmatic competence, in settings where english is used as a lingua franca, it may be hard to know to what extent pragmatic competence may be enriched. although the aforementioned studies have mostly focused on revealing the effects of sojourn on linguistic or pragmatic gains, researchers have also documented the effect of sa experience on participants’ beliefs and perceptions on the effectiveness of this experience (e.g. asoodar, atei & bate, 2017). for example, amuzie and winke (2009) examined the relationship among learners’ beliefs, study abroad, and duration of the sa exploring the beliefs held by two groups of students who have been to the language development in a study abroad experience kaya 40 no. 23 usa for more than six months and those who had been to the usa longer. they found that sa experience led both groups to believe that they should be responsible to create occasions to engage in l2 and instead of the classroom environment, success is more related to their attempts. moreover, they declared that as a result of the changes in their beliefs through the sa program, learners who studied longer abroad developed greater learner autonomy than those who experienced abroad less. another controversial issue is the optimal time in which sa experience may have an impact to affect the enhancement of language proficiency. in fact, what makes the contraction about the effectiveness of the shortterm sa is whether this experience creates sustainable linguistic, motivational, or personal beliefs because research draws inconsistent conclusions in terms of linguistic and nonlinguistic benefits (allen, 2010). different studies have yielded various outcomes. a stay abroad of even 34 weeks was observed to significantly affects language gains and learners are claimed to benefit from 1-week sa experience (llanes & munõz, 2009). numerous studies have established their research on the short term and long term sa research such as evaluating the impact of short-term sa experience on learners’ attitudes towards spanish (artamonova, 2017), whether short-terms experience makes difference (llanes & muñoz, 2009) or assessing the effect of sa on transformative learning comparing six weeks programs (walters, charles & bingham, 2017). regarding the optimal period for effective sa, the studies have drawn the conclusion that sojourns from 3 to 12 months lead to the maximum gains (dwyer, 2004; koester, 1985 cited in allen, 2010). in contrast to the ample studies on sa experience, in turkish context more studies are required that explore the impact of sa experience on the enhancement of language development particularly asking participants through diverse data collection tools about their experiences as sojourners. moreover, exploring the language development of efl learners who spend their sa experience in countries where english is not the l1 also deserves attention. given the importance of sa context on the enhancement of language proficiency, the current study seeks to explore the changes in learners’ proficiency during their sojourn in countries where english is not l1 addressing the following research questions: 1. how much time do students spend using english and turkish during their sojourn? 2. is there any statistically significant difference between learners preand post self-assessment in terms of language proficiency? 3. what changes do students experience in their language proficiency before and after their study abroad experience and how did this experience influence their attitudes towards the english language? 4. what difficulties, if any, participants experience during their sojourn? language development in a study abroad experience kaya 41 no. 23 methodology this study aimed to gather data about the language development of the participants as they engaged in sa experience and to achieve this, both qualitative and quantitative data were utilized because research into sa experience has been often criticized due to lack of multiple data sources. therefore, the present study employed two types of data to draw conclusions recognizing the potential benefits of combining both qualitative and quantitative measures to understand the language development experienced during participants’ sojourn. the quantitative data were complemented with qualitative sources. the participants answered the relevant questionnaire with a 5 likert-type scale and completed language contact profile. moreover, for a comprehensive analysis, semi-structured interviews were conducted language development in a study abroad experience kaya 42 no. 23 participants table 1 shows the detailed demographic characteristics of the students in the sample. table 1. demographic information of the participants background information n % faculty faculty of arts 17 28.8 faculty of engineering 10 16.9 faculty of education 9 15.2 faculty of law 7 11.8 faculty of economics and administrative sciences 5 8.4 others 11 15.2 age 17-20 8 13.6 21—24 40 67.8 25-29 11 18.6 gender male 38 64.4 female 21 35.6 elf communities visited through the erasmus program poland 17 28.8 germany 9 15.2 spain 6 10.1 hungary 6 10.1 romania 6 10.1 others 15 23.7 duration of study abroad experience 1-3months 4 6.8 4-6 months 53 89.8 7-12 months 2 3.4 language development in a study abroad experience kaya 43 no. 23 the participants of the current study were 59 erasmus exchange students who aimed to study in various efl contexts during the 2017-2018 fall and spring semesters and 2018-2019 fall semester. the sample of the study was composed of students who were studying at a large turkish state university, and these students were diverse in terms of their majors and the countries they visited through the erasmus exchange program. the average age of students was between 18 and 29 years old and all of the participants were native speakers of turkish. the official erasmus exchange program lasted 3 to 12 months. instruments in the current study, the quantitative instrument consisted of a then and now survey and language contact profile. the information obtained from these measures was complemented with qualitative data derived from semi-structured interviews with eight participants. then and now survey then and now survey (dewey, bown & eggett, 2012) was used to capture the participants’ beliefs before and after the sa experience. the purpose for using then and now survey is to explore the possible changes in students’ language proficiency. in the recent years, post + retrospective pre-test method, which includes the learners’ evaluation of their abilities only at the end of their study period, has replaced the traditional pre-test/ post-test design (dewey et al., 2012). according to hill and bertz (2005), ‘‘if the aim is to understand how participants feel about program effectiveness and their personal growth or skill acquisition, the retrospective test provides a more direct assessment of these factors’’ (p.514). in case of being unfamiliar with tasks, learners may overestimate or underestimate their skills before the experience (dewey et al., 2012). in then and now survey, each statement appears twice, once asking about the degree of difficulty what the participants had believed while at home and what they currently believed after their sojourn. the items sought responses with 5point likert-type scale to elicit the self-perception of progress. the participants were asked to rate their abilities to achieve the given tasks using the scale that includes: not at all; with great difficulty; with some difficulty; easily; quite easily. language contact profile the language contact profile (lcp) created by freed, dewey and segalowitz and halter (2004) was used to determine the quantity of participants’ interaction with language development in a study abroad experience kaya 44 no. 23 english speakers during their sojourn. lcp was used to assess the amount of interaction in various contexts such as in classroom, with friends and with strangers (hernández, alcón-soler, 2018). for each question in lcp, participants were asked to provide the approximate number of hours per week and per day they involved in various activities. it was expected that the approximate periods reported by participants would provide valuable information about the input learners receive and output learners produce during their sojourn (llanes & munõz, 2009) semi-structured interviews volunteer students participated in semi-structured interviews and the participants were asked questions aiming to elicit underlying factors that may explain the effectiveness of study abroad experience. the interviews were conducted in turkish to make participants easily express their ideas and feelings. interviews were one-on-one, had a duration of 15-30 minutes, and were audio-taped and then transcribed. data analysis the data consisted of two types, the quantitative data from the likert-scale type of then and now survey which enabled learners to make a self-assessment on their language development and lcp and the qualitative data obtained from the interviews. the main purpose of collecting and analyzing quantitative data was to provide a general framework for the participants’ responses which would be used to explore the differences between changes in language proficiency held before and after sa experience. the second purpose, through qualitative findings, was to examine the underlying detailed reasons for, if any, enhancement of language proficiency and attitudes towards english took place. the quantitative data were analyzed through spss 21.0 and for the statistical analysis, t-test was employed to find whether there was any statistical difference between pre and post beliefs. the data were submitted to t-test to examine the changes between what the participants believed in their home country (prior to sa experience) and what they believed after their sojourn about their language proficiency. on the other hand, the qualitative data were analyzed through content analysis. firstly, the codes were formed out of answers and after defining the codes; the researcher combined them into categories and themes. moreover, to establish the reliability of coding, the researchers studied with an invited coder who has experience in content analysis. language development in a study abroad experience kaya 45 no. 23 results the results of quantitative analysis a paired sample t-test was conducted to examine if there was any change in the students’ language proficiency across preand poststudy abroad. the first research question addresses the amount of time students spent using english and turkish during their sojourn. figure 1 displays the number of hours students reported speaking, reading and writing, and listening to english and turkish during the sa experience. figure 1. reported overall number of hours spent per week using english and turkish as it can be seen in figure 1, students reported spending most of their time on speaking turkish and the secondly english; however, the difference between speaking english and turkish is not high. the time spent on reading and writing in english is higher than the time spent on turkish; however, the time spent on listening to turkish and english seems approximately the same. figure 2 shows the ten most frequent activities reported in the lcp giving an overview of the specific ways learners used english and turkish. the activities are sorted from lowest (least number of hours) to the highest (most hours). language development in a study abroad experience kaya 46 no. 23 figure 2. number of hours spent in ten frequent lcp activities (sorted from lowest (least number of hours) to the highest (most hours) as shown in figure 2, students spent most of their time using english as they were engaged in conversations with the speakers around their environment, particularly within their settlements. then following speaking, they reported to spend the most time reading in english for academic purposes. on the other hand, among the ten most frequent lcp activities, they spent less time using english to speak with other people. table 2 displays the results of the preand post-self-evaluation of speaking abilities obtained using the t-test. the results were sorted from the highest mean change to the lowest. as seen in table, there are statistically significant differences in every aspect of then and now self-assessment. the result of the statistical analysis has displayed that sa experience has positive effects on students’ l2 skills leading to significant gains in the case of oral production. they seem to have developed their language proficiency and have experienced significant gains. as shown in table 2, students benefited sa experience in terms of various gains. sa experience has developed their oral language skills such as giving information about themselves, surviving in an english speaking environment, engaging in daily conversations or talking about political and abstract issues. hence, these quantitative findings confirm that engaging in actual situations have contributed to their language proficiency. language development in a study abroad experience kaya 47 no. 23 table 2. ttest statistics for then-now self-assessment (pre-/post-comparison) items mean change standard deviation t statistic df probability speak in english without having to substitute english words or guess excessively how to say something. 5.440 4.857 8.603 58 0.000 deal with complications in situations (e.g., situations where the other person in the conversation doesn’t say what you expect or behaves outside of your expectations). 5.372 5.037 8.193 58 0.000 speak fluently without interruption. 5.322 4.284 9.540 58 0.000 use a wide variety of vocabulary to express your thoughts without getting hung up on words (i.e., not being able to find the word you need to say what you want to say) 5.016 4.431 8.696 58 0.000 describe your present job, studies (classes, major, etc.), and professional and academic interests. 4.966 4.574 8.338 58 0.000 describe college life to another person in detail. 4.949 5.224 7.277 58 0.000 satisfy simple personal needs and social demands to survive in an english-speaking setting 4.949 4.632 8.206 58 0.000 participate actively in conversations in most informal and some formal settings on topics of personal and public interest 4.915 6.251 6.039 58 0.000 describe events and objects in the past, present, and future 4.813 4.443 8.322 58 0.000 speak without producing errors that might disturb or distract a english speaking listener. 4.745 4.655 7.830 58 0.000 obtain and give information by asking and answering questions 4.508 5.170 6.697 58 0.000 language development in a study abroad experience kaya 48 no. 23 state and support with examples opinions about controversial topics. 4.471 4.409 7.440 58 0.000 respond to simple questions on the most common aspects of daily life 4.305 5.302 6.237 58 0.000 speak about abstract topics, connecting ideas logically and smoothly 3.932 3.929 7.686 58 0.000 tell what you plan to be doing 5 or more years from now 3.915 4.691 6.410 58 0.000 express nearly any idea you could express in your native language. 3.610 3.439 8.063 58 0.000 talk about current political issues in english. 3.593 3.815 7.234 58 0.000 give simple biographical information about self (name, age, composition of family, etc.). 3.423 4.713 5.580 58 0.000 speculate and present hypotheses 3.389 3.363 7.742 58 0.000 deal with linguistically unfamiliar situations (situations never before encountered in english) 3.349 5.093 5.955 58 0.000 say simple greetings, courtesy phrases like “thank you,” and use appropriate language when taking leave. 2.694 4.259 4.859 58 0.000 the results of qualitative analysis to gain a more comprehensive understanding, answers by eight participants in semi-structured interviews were analyzed through the content analysis. the results obtained from the content analysis are displayed in tables that include codes, categories, and themes. table 3 shows the changes in attitudes students have experienced towards english during their sojourn. the first term concerns the changes in participants’ attitudes towards english after the sojourn. the category deals with language-related factors. as shown in table 3, after the sa experience, learners generally positively commented about the changes they felt and almost all of the participants referred to language-related changes such as more interest in english, less fear of making mistakes, and motivation language development in a study abroad experience kaya 49 no. 23 to improve english. regarding the changes in attitudes, one of the participants provided a general comment stating her wish to improve english proficiency and to acquire fluent speaking she mentioned her desire as follows: ‘‘i want to improve my english until i can speak english like my mother language because it has no border, you know, too.’’ (participant 1) table 3. theme for changes in attitudes towards english theme 1. changes in attitudes towards english categories codes category 1. language related changes intelligibility rather than accuracy noticing the gap between theory and practice motivated to improve english desire to be a fluent speaker more interest in english less fear of making mistakes using english for communicative purposes more tolerance for grammar mistakes the second theme, changes in language proficiency, is related to the differences or improvement participants have experienced after their sojourns. table 4 displayed these changes in language skills. as observed in table 4, the first category is about the changes in speaking skill. the participants in this study generally shared the belief that significant changes appeared in their speaking skill as given in the first category. the following excerpt is what one of the participants provided as a comment on the change in terms of speaking in his proficiency: ‘‘my english was good before abroad. however, i was not good at practice. that is to say, i learned english but i did not have anybody to speak, chat and have dialogue in my environment. during this 4,5-month period, i practiced heavily particularly in terms of speaking. i can make sentences easily while speaking. that is, i do not think. in case of an unknown question, i can answer quickly.’’ (participant 8) for the second and third category, participants mentioned that they acquired more listening comprehension and for writing skills, they gained the ability to write spontaneously. moreover, another category is about the lexis particularly, the daily language use participants have experienced. language development in a study abroad experience kaya 50 no. 23 table 4. theme for changes in language proficiency theme 2. changes in language proficiency categories codes category 1. speaking fluency better pronunciation speaking english with a local accent spontaneous speech quick answers easier communication category 2. writing writing without planning/thinking ctaegory3. listening more comprehension category 4. lexis learning terms learning idioms learning phrases/collocations vocabulary use in actual context category 5. grammar no change in grammar knowledge deterioration of grammar category 6. others translation thinking in english as can be seen in table 4, issues that were regarded as gains by the participants were basically lexical gains. the fourth category includes lexical gains ranging from learning idioms to the vocabulary use in actual context. considering this issue, one of the participants uttered: ‘‘one day, it was raining, it was raining heavily. we were walking and trying to have a conversation. one of my friends said that it is raining like cats and dogs. i was surprised whether i got it right. then i asked what she meant exactly. she explained. i have learned it and i liked it so much.’’ (participant 8) however, for the grammar category, participants did not refer to a common change. while uttering the effective changes in their language proficiency as a whole, they generally mentioned no significant change or even deterioration for grammar knowledge. for example, one of the participants remarked: language development in a study abroad experience kaya 51 no. 23 ‘‘before going abroad through erasmus program, my grammar was very good; however, i cannot explain, after erasmus, my grammar began to deteriorate because i tended to use spoken language there.’’ (participant 3) another issue that is pointed out is the changes in participants’ translation skill. one of the participants translated a book from english into turkish during her sojourn. another participant mentioned that the sa experience provided the ability of thinking in english. in general, participants have experienced that sojourn had significant contribution for them. table 5. theme for challenges theme 3. challenges categories codes category 1. lexical challenges phrasal verbs phrases category 2. linguistic challenges various accents insufficient language proficiency category 3. social challenges local people not knowing english cultural problems/diet habits theme 3 is about the challenges that participants encountered during their sojourn and table 5 displays these challenges. actually, most of the issues which were regarded as challenging were related to the lexical problems. as shown in table 5, lexical challenges constitute the first category and issues ranging from phrasal verbs to phrases are the most frequently mentioned problems encountered during the sojourn. one of the participants’ comments supports this notion: ‘‘while speaking to the students, we sometimes could not express ourselves because we knew the words they did not know, they knew the words we did not know. however, we did not experience this problem with professors because their language proficiency is above ours and they could get what we mean even though we could not express ourselves.’’ (participant 7) another challenge mentioned is the linguistic challenges. some participants pointed out that they had friends from different parts of the world during their sojourn, therefore; their accents sometimes led to problems in terms of comprehension. the following excerpt approves this notion: ‘‘i have experienced difficulty due to the accents of some countries. particularly, indian and spanish speakers’ accents were challenging.’’ (participant 6) language development in a study abroad experience kaya 52 no. 23 social challenges are also another issue uttered during the interviews. in accordance with the social structure of the visited countries, if the local people do not have english proficiency, this leads participants to make great effort to maintain their daily life. in countries such as hungary, local people do not know english and this leads to the problems for the participants as they try to maintain their daily lives. discussion the present study attempted to shed light on the language development of efl learners during their sojourn. therefore, the results of the current study constitute an attempt to provide an overview of the effect of sa experience on english language proficiency. according to the findings of lcp, which aims to determine the approximate time spent for different activities during sojourn, students spoke turkish most frequently, however, the percentage is also very high and near to turkish in english use. in terms of time spent for specific activities, the highest specific area of language is speaking english with people around them. the higher use of turkish by students may be attributed to the various factors such as a tendency to spend time with friends from the same country due to affective reasons, not desiring to create a chance for effective communication in english and the conditions of the countries visited through the erasmus program. the results derived from interviews also supported the findings of lcp in terms of the visited countries because students indicated that local people’s english proficiency is not high and this led to challenges for them. this finding corroborates amuzie and winke’s (2009) study, which revealed that leaners show a tendency for clustering with friends from the same country not only in the class but also outside of the class. additionally, some participants could not be exposed to english because the local people did not use english for communication particularly in countries such as hungary and poland. in line with the current results, kaypak and ortaçtepe (2014) in their study also came to a similar conclusion that students in slovenia and poland could not experience english language enhancement because english is not frequently used by the local people in these countries. on the other hand, llanes et al (2012) contradicts this conclusion and adds that learning context is not the only factor that determines the l2 gains because somewhat, individual differences play a significant role in the l2 proficiency enhancement. however, regarding the results obtained from then and now survey, the results of the study revealed that there are differences between students’ preand postproficiency levels in english regarding speaking skill. the quantitative findings indicate that there are statistically significant changes in learners’ language proficiency. these results show that most of the students experienced improvements in their oral language skills over the period of their sojourn which is in line with existing literature that corroborates positive effects of sa on l2 oral proficiency (llanes et al., 2012; dewey, belnap, & hillstrom, 2013; leonard &shea, 2017). language development in a study abroad experience kaya 53 no. 23 the interviews conducted with students actually confirm the quantitative findings because the wide range of gains indicated by the participant refers to oral skills. given the quantitative results which shows that that sa experience has positively affected language skills of students such as fluency, enlarging vocabulary knowledge, participating actively in conversation and speaking spontaneously, it is seen that qualitative findings drawn from students’ interviews align with these results because students have uttered important improvement in their language proficiency including quickly answering questions, improving vocabulary knowledge, development of pronunciation and communicating easily. moreover, what the qualitative data reveal is that participants acquire self-confidence in terms of using oral skills and this led to a decrease in their fears of making mistakes during the communication in english. this finding is in line with previous research which has indicated that learners of english benefit sa experience mainly in oral skills (freed et al., 2004; segalowitz & freed, 2004; llanes & munóz, 2009; martinsen, 2010; llanes, 2012). on the other hand, according to the reflections of students in our study, sa experience does not seem to favor written skills. freed, so and lazar (2003) and llanes et al,. (2012) and llanes (2010) also revealed similar results indicating that sa experience is more effective for oral skills than written skills. however, explaining the less development of writing skill is a complex issue and deserves more attention to clarify the underlying factors. one of these factors may be related to the major of the students because during the interviews it was observed that students majoring in social sciences tend to need writing during their sojourn more than students majoring in physical sciences. moreover, as the result of sa experience revealed, the participants have reshaped their perception of using language because they stated less fear of making mistakes during their interaction in the target language, which means they tend to have a shift from accuracy to fluency which was also advocated by the study of kaypak and ortaçtepe (2014) who concluded a similar result. in fact, interviewed participants in our study mostly refer to gains related to speaking skills rather than writing, reading or listening. this emphasis may be attributed to their motivation for traveling abroad because they perceive sa experience as a chance to be involved in interaction with english speakers and develop their speaking proficiency. therefore, all foci of students are related to the enhancement of their oral skills. additionally, what deserves particular attention regarding the current findings is that the target country visited for sa experience plays a crucial role in explaining the language gains. the quality and quantity of interaction for the communicative use of english provided by the target context substantially determines the degree of language gains. in our study, students studied in european countries and some of these countries present only restricted exposure to english in their social and academic lives. moreover, the intensity of english language use changed according to the context. in general, the result obtained by martinsen (2010), which falls contradictory with the existing literature (hernández & alcón-soler, 2019) concluded that on contrary to the language development in a study abroad experience kaya 54 no. 23 common assumption, the interaction was not a significant predictor of the changes in oral skills. however, he added that only partial support is available for this result and the nature of the interaction, rather than quantity of interaction, may determine the effectiveness of learning. ultimately, findings from the current study contribute to the effectiveness of sa experience on language enhancement. our findings are also of significance because instead of focusing on context as in the most of the research such as usa or uk where learners have the chance of full exposure to english, our study focuses on the contexts where english is the common language used for communication because most of the efl learners do not have the chance to visit these countries. therefore, it provides useful results to explore the language –related contribution of visiting countries where english is lingua franca, not the l1. conclusion this study has addressed the effect of sa experience on english language enhancement. both quantitative and qualitative data were gathered. the quantitative results showed that participants experienced language gains when compared to their preand postself-assessment. on the other hand, qualitative data illustrated the gains in terms of four language skills and challenges they encountered during the process. findings from the study suggest that sa experience seems to favor language proficiency. however, the target context where learners experienced sa is of significance because the interviews indicate that the quality and quantity of interaction determine the degree of gains. the more the interaction is, the greater the gains are. on the one hand, it needs to be emphasized that in addition to the chances presented by the target context, learners should try individually, as sánchez-hernández and alcón-soler (2019) suggest pure exposure is not adequate and the learners need to maximize the chances of engaging in communication. finally, this study highlights that language learning cannot actually take place without using language for communication in actual settings and sa experience is one of the best ways to achieve learning. however, reliable measurement tools should be employed to reveal the changes and improvement in learners’ language proficiency levels because measuring the language gains in terms of different skills is a complex issue. in line with this assumption, the effectiveness of sa experience, particularly in a context where english is not the l1, need to be thoroughly explored to provide researchers with more information about how this process influences language proficiency and what changes take place under what conditions in the target language. language development in a study abroad experience kaya 55 no. 23 references alcón-soler, e. 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(2011). sociocultural analysis of second language learner beliefs: a qualitative case study of two study-abroad esl learners. system, 39, 325334. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.system.2011.07.005 author *fatma kaya is an english lecturer and works at erzurum technical university, school of foreign languages in turkey. she is a phd candidate at atatürk university, school of education, department of english teaching. her research interests are english academic writing and educational research. orcid: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7140-1915 how to reference this article: kaya, f. (2021) language proficiency development and study abroad experience: a study on efl learners. gist – education and learning research journal, 23, 33–58. https://doi.org/10.26817/16925777.943 language development in a study abroad experience promoting an academic international profile in undergraduate students of psychology programs in colombia1 promoviendo un perfilaacadémico internacional en estudiantes de licenciatura en psicología en colombia. germán andrés torres-escobar and rolan arcadio correa-lopez2 universidad católica luis amigó, colombia 1 received: december 10th 2019 /accepted: september 15th 2020 2 german.torreses@amigo.edu.co; rolan.correalo@amigo.edu.co gist education and learning research journal. issn 1692-5777. no. 21 (july-december, 2020). pp. 225-242. 226 no. 21 abstract the present reflective article aims to describe some challenges that psychology programs in colombia must face in the future, in order to let their students achieve an international professional profile and to improve their academic quality. first of all, psychology programs need to implement a bilingual curriculum, with many basic and professional courses in a foreign language like english, to teach students to think social and psychological problems in a wide intercultural way (coulson & homewood, 2016; taylor & hulme, 2015). secondly, psychology professors should motivate their students to acquire higher levels of engagement with bilingual communication learning, to have better opportunities of professional development by applying to academic exchange experiences with international universities. keywords: psychology programs; international profile; bilingual education; academic exchange; english proficiency. resumen el presente artículo reflexivo tiene como objetivo describir algunos desafíos que los programas de psicología en colombia deben enfrentar en el futuro, a fin de permitir que sus estudiantes alcancen un perfil profesional internacional y mejorar su calidad académica. en primer lugar, los programas de psicología necesitan implementar un plan de estudios bilingüe, con muchos cursos básicos y profesionales en un idioma extranjero como el inglés, para enseñar a los estudiantes a pensar en problemas sociales y psicológicos de una manera intercultural amplia (coulson y homewood, 2016; taylor y hulme, 2015). en segundo lugar, los profesores de psicología deberían motivar a sus estudiantes a adquirir niveles más altos de compromiso con el aprendizaje de la comunicación bilingüe, para tener mejores oportunidades de desarrollo profesional mediante la aplicación de experiencias de intercambio académico con universidades internacionales. palabras clave: programas de psicología; perfil internacional;, educación bilingüe; intercambio académico; dominio del inglés. academic international profile in psychology students torres-escobar & correa-lópez 227 no. 21 resumo o presente artigo reflexivo tem como objetivo descrever alguns desafios que os programas de psicologia na colômbia devem enfrentar no futuro, com a finalidade de permitir que seus estudantes alcancem um perfil profissional internacional e melhorar sua qualidade acadêmica. em primeiro lugar, os programas de psicologia precisam implementar um plano de estudos bilíngue, com muitos cursos básicos e profissionais em um idioma estrangeiro como o inglês, para ensinar os estudantes a pensar em problemas sociais e psicológicos de uma forma intercultural ampla (coulson e homewood, 2016; taylor e hulme, 2015). em segundo lugar, os professores de psicologia deveriam motivar seus estudantes para adquirir níveis mais altos de compromisso com a aprendizagem da comunicação bilíngue, para ter melhores oportunidades de desenvolvimento profissional por meio da aplicação de experiências de intercâmbio acadêmico com universidades internacionais. palavras chave: programas de psicologia; perfil internacional; educação bilíngue; intercambio acadêmico; domínio do inglês. academic international profile in psychology students torres-escobar & correa-lópez 228 no. 21 introduction psychology programs in colombia, are regulated by legal resolution 3461 of 2003 (ministerio de educación nacional de colombia, 2003), which states, the basic academic contents of basic and professional courses across the curriculum. this law mentions article 2, every program should teach a second language as part of its curriculum structure, but it doesn’t clarify the academic purpose of learning a foreign language nor the impact on career development of students. many psychology programs have currently a list of english courses that are articulated by the level of skills and prepare students to achieve basic levels of competence in daily life situations according to an intermediate or b level of the common european framework of reference. other universities are more demanding and also request their students to present international exams like the test of english as a foreign language toefl (ahern & litt, 2018; mustafa & anwar, 2018) or the international english language testing system ielts (sabet & reza, 2017; nosrati, 2015) as a condition to get their professional certificate. however, teaching english as a content area is not articulated with disciplinary or professional contents of universities’ careers. in many cases, it’s been seen as isolated from the curricula, because it’s considered as a complementary educational field. the current version of saber-pro[1] exams (instituto colombiano para la evaluación de la educación, 2018) confirms the idea because it assesses under degree student’s general competences in five fields of knowledge which are: critical reading, quantitative reasoning, citizen competences, writing communication and english. the english module of saber-pro exams specifically intends to evaluate basic concepts of english and classify students’ level of skill in levels a (basic) and b (intermediate). the difficulty with teaching a second language as a complementary and basic language (bonilla & tejada-sánchez, 2016), is that students tend to perceive english as required and don’t understand the relevance of english learning in their career projection (sánchez, obando & ibarra, 2017). taking into account, the present text points out a new approach for the teaching of english as an inner part of courses of psychology that let students achieve higher levels of communicative competence (serna, 2019; ceo-di francesco, mora & serna collazos, 2016; jaime & insuasty, 2015) in english across their professional studies as well as more engagement with their under degree education, projecting it at an international level. in the next sections, it will be explained some core concepts related to this reflection. academic international profile in psychology students torres-escobar & correa-lópez 229 no. 21 english proficiency of colombian students in colombia, the national bilingual education program 2004-2019, that was launched by the government during 2004 (cárdenas & miranda, 2014; fandiñoparra, bermúdez-jiménez, lugo-vásquez, 2012) intended to educate citizens able to communicate themselves in english to insert the country in the global economy and the cultural opening with international standards. one of the goals of this program was that undergraduates could achieve at least a high intermediate level or b2 according to the common european framework. nevertheless, recent results in english skill tests had shown that colombian college students had not to get expected scores and the country has been classified with a low english level[1] among with other latin american nations (bonilla & tejada-sánchez, 2016; sánchez, 2013) in the english proficiency index (epi). one evidence was the score of 48,90 points that colombia got in the epi in 2017, occupying the place 60 of 88 countries of the world (education first, 2019). in the last five years, colombia’s position in english proficiency index (epi) has decreased at least 18 positions in the ranking of countries (for more information see figure 1). figure 1. colombia proficiency trend during the last five years. taken from: https://www.ef.se/epi/regions/latin-america/colombia/ from latin america, argentina was the only country in the region that got a high level of english proficiency, followed by costa rica, dominican republic and uruguay that got a moderate level of english proficiency and the rest of countries including colombia had a low level of english proficiency, below chile and mexico (for more information see: table 1). academic international profile in psychology students torres-escobar & correa-lópez 230 no. 21 table 1. english proficiency index (epi) 2018 results. adapted from: https://www.ef.com/ca/epi/ argentina 27 high costa rica 36 moderate dominican republic 37 moderate uruguay 40 moderate chile 46 low brazil 53 low guatemala 55 low panama 56 low mexico 57 low peru 59 low colombia 60 low bolivia 61 low ecuador 65 low the countries with higher levels of proficiency were sweden (first position), netherlands (second position), and singapore (third position). (education first, 2019). this information shows to the universities and psychology programs the importance to reinforce english language teaching by using new pedagogical strategies with intensive practical exercises, more class hours in the curriculum, and the students training to present international english tests (nielsen, 2017). currently, english courses in colombian universities are common to many career curriculums and are separated from professional courses of those programs, but if they want to improve english proficiency of their students, they have to include the use of english across the curriculum courses, because it implies a conceptual articulation between professional and bilingual education. academic international profile in psychology students torres-escobar & correa-lópez 231 no. 21 teaching english inside courses of the psychology curriculum the curriculum or plan study refers to the set of subjects of a programming career. these courses must have a sequential relation in order of complexity and have an educative purpose. in colombia, most of the programs have many courses in spanish and tackle psychological topics in a general and theoretical way, but without a context of practice. it would be a positive illustrate for the professors, the need to articulate psychological topics, and their enforcement to solve specific problems from local and international contexts too. one strategy to do it’s to make a curricular change (rangel, 2015; huang & garrett, 2015; williams, mccarley & kraft, 2013; mcmurray, roberts, robertson & teoh, 2011) with a teachers’ training program in each faculty, to explain them how to make adaptations of contents, academic references and activities into an intercultural approach (elosúa, 2015) of psychological problems including a local point of view. this intercultural adaptation has to be gradual, each semester in some courses, beginning with the assignment of tasks in english (riyaz, 2016). for instance, reading comprehension exercises based on technical readings, then developing lectures, and by requesting students to write essays, to do written reports, and prepare expositions. the idea’s to practice english during class interactions in a natural way and get an advance along with the different curricular levels of the educational program. however, faculty’s deans should assess communicative competence in technical english of their students, by the use of standardized tests such as the graduate record examinations psychology test (educational testing service, 2017; kalat & matlin, 2000), the ap psychology exam (the college board, 2014) and the thinking skills assessment – tsa (cambridge assessment admissions testing, 2018). an additional positive aspect of the use of standardized tests in psychology is the possibility of contrasting the educational quality level of local psychology programs with international psychology programs that apply the same tests. this comparison could be the base to take academic improvement decisions, and for curricular homologation processes between psychology programs (jessop & adams, 2016; cantu, 2013; mercer, 2011). the homologation processes are important to create an international exchange opportunity (lai, 2018) for colombian students towards other destinations like european countries, australia, and the united states and also to increase the academic level of psychology programs in colombia. academic international profile in psychology students torres-escobar & correa-lópez 232 no. 21 the importance of communicative and intercultural competences in psychology according to the american psychological association contents of psychology curriculum programs are organized mainly by fields, theories, topics, and concepts, but sometimes this theoretical approach is disconnected from social problems of everyday life (osorio, 2017). actually, and based on the previous statement, the american psychological association (2018) has a new view of psychologists´ profile not as scientists or academics, but as citizens who serve as leaders in their communities, by offering public service, volunteerism, board membership, and other strategic roles to improve community well-being locally, nationally, or globally. to educate this generation of citizen psychologists, the apa citizen psychologist presidential work group proposed a frame of professional competencies to develop along their educative process. those competencies are 1) the application of psychological knowledge to solving problems in everyday life; 2) community awareness; 3) community engagement; 4) community advocacy; 5) community leadership; and 6) the application of ethical principles and code of conduct (american psychological association, 2018). in addition to, the american psychological association board of educational affairs (american psychological association, 2013), defined five learning goals for the undergraduate psychology major, which are: goal 1: knowledge base in psychology; goal 2: scientific inquiry and critical thinking; goal 3: ethical and social responsibility in a diverse world; goal 4: communication; and goal 5: professional development. each goal is assessed during under degree levels and during baccalaureate. the goal 3, is associated with students’ knowledge of formal regulations that govern professional ethics in psychology that contribute to positive outcomes in work settings and in building a society responsive to multicultural and global concerns, and in the particular case of goal 4, it’s divided into three outcomes: demonstrate effective writing for different purposes; exhibit effective presentation skills for different purposes; and interact effectively with others (american psychological association, 2013). taking into account this educative model of intercultural competences from the american psychological association (2018), colombian programs of psychology could foster in their students the relevance of being bilingual professionals pursuing to understand beliefs and cultural patterns from other countries and also to convey their ideas orally and through different kinds of academic texts. academic international profile in psychology students torres-escobar & correa-lópez 233 no. 21 academic international exchange for colombian psychology students many students travel abroad during one or two semesters of their careers (lovett, 2018; lai, 2018), with the main purpose of knowing a different approach to psychology, and this kind of experience is useful for personal growth, but it doesn’t have necessarily a direct impact in student’s possibility to get access to a master degree or a doctoral program, because, in the majority of cases, students must return to colombia to finish their under degree program in psychology instead of continuing their studies in the foreign country that they were visiting. if colombian psychology programs had homologation processes, students could continue their professional studies in different countries and even begin postgraduate studies. for example, europsy, it’s an international academic arrangement among countries which belong to the european common framework of reference and promotes the homologation of under degree studies in psychology (european federation of psychologists’ association, 2013; teichler, 2012) and colombian programs of psychology could adapt their curricula to this kind of educative model. a homologation process increases the academic quality of psychology programs (cornejo, 2018) and lets them update them to current pedagogical trends (pinquart & bernardo, 2014). one way to begin the homologation processes is by the mediation of foreign embassies in colombia that have scholarships programs, such as erasmus mundus from europe (european commission, 2019), the fulbright from the united states (institute of international education, 2011), chevening from the united kingdom (foreign and commonwealth office, 2018) the canada-caricom leadership scholarships (government of canada, 2009), and the australia awards (australian government, 2019). also, psychology faculties, could guide their students to know this kind of programs, and counsel them to postulate to those scholarships. if many students are chosen to study postgraduate studies abroad (bodycott, 2009), it improves the social status of psychology faculties and opens the possibilities to create alliances with particular psychology programs, for collaborative research projects and academic events. additionally, an alternative to do it’s hiring academic experts in exchange programs from foreign nations (shor & breithaupt, 2016), to advise psychology faculties about how to prepare their students to start post-graduate studies in international destinations. for example, these experts could give academic conferences on topics like cultural characteristics of foreign countries, their lifestyle, job opportunities for non-native students, and the advantages of studying abroad. these conferences give an intercultural approach to students and exemplify them on how to be an autonomous learner and person. academic international profile in psychology students torres-escobar & correa-lópez 234 no. 21 a proposal of bilingual education within psychology programs in colombia it would be useful for psychology programs to include inside their curriculums, intercultural courses in psychology, pursuing to prepare students to achieve homologation processes of the career in other countries. for example, a course of: specialized academic writing 1: academic essays; specialized academic writing 2: academic reports and papers; communicative competences in advanced english; american and canadian trends in psychology; european trends in psychology; australian trends in psychology; african trends in psychology; asian trends in psychology; and latin-american trends in psychology. the idea with these courses is to give students a wider approach of their career in psychology, by studying international trends and current psychosocial problems in different continents. also these courses could be taught by local professors as well as virtually by foreign professors of psychology from other international colleges as invited teachers. some contents that could be taught in these courses are shown in the table 1. table 1. suggested courses to promote an international scope of psychology in local psychology programs. course main topics specialized academic writing 1: academic essays. 1. guidelines for writing of specialized essays in psychology in english. 2. writing of essays in the vancouver citing and referencing style. 3. writing of essays in the modern language citing and referencing style. 4. writing of essays in the american psychological association citing and referencing style. specialized academic writing 2: academic reports and papers. 1. guidelines for writing of specialized reports and papers in psychology in english. 2. writing of reports and papers in the vancouver citing and referencing style. 3. writing of essays in the american psychological association citing and referencing style. academic international profile in psychology students torres-escobar & correa-lópez 235 no. 21 communicative competences in advanced english. 1. guidelines for preparing specialized presentations of psychology in english. 2. guidelines for preparing seminars of psychology in english. 3. guidelines for preparing academic debates of psychology in english. latin-american trends in psychology 1. representative psychologist from latin-america and their ideas. 2. current framework of social and psychological problems of latin-america. american and canadian trends in psychology. 1. representative psychologist from north america and their ideas. 2. current framework of social and psychological problems of north america. european trends in psychology. 1. representative psychologist from europe and their ideas. 2. current framework of social and psychological problems of europe. australian trends in psychology. 1. representative psychologist from australia and their ideas. 2. current framework of social and psychological problems of australia. african trends in psychology. 1. representative psychologist from africa and their ideas. 2. current framework of social and psychological problems of africa. asian trends in psychology. 1. representative psychologist from asia and their ideas. 2. current framework of social and psychological problems of asia. even similar courses could be adapted from other psychology programs of foreign countries looking for stating connections among scholars, the sharing of teaching experiences, to start common research projects in psychology as well as to create dual degree programs in a virtual methodology which is more accessible and cheaper for students than traveling abroad. academic international profile in psychology students torres-escobar & correa-lópez 236 no. 21 many under degree programs of psychology have a local view of the career, but with these courses, their students could open the view of psychology, by listening teachers from other countries, sharing with them ideas and the main professional challenges they may face off. in this way, colombian students of psychology could understand better social problems in many parts of the world not only in colombia, and they also could have the possibility to think about studying a virtual master or a virtual doctoral degree program. in addition to, psychology programs with these dual degree programs could design common scientific journals of psychology in english to publish papers with an international scope of social problems, and it would improve the publication rankings of colombian psychology programs in comparison with other psychology programs from other latin american countries such as mexico or brazil. conclusions to sum, colombian programs of psychology must implement curricular changes (rangel, 2015; huang & garrett, 2015; mcmurray, roberts, robertson & teoh, 2011) to acquire an international level (jessop & adams, 2016; van de vijver, 2013), with better academic quality and new possibilities for their students to travel abroad (milian, m; birnbaum, cardona & nicholson, 2015) and find better job opportunities as well. one strategy to achieve this goal, it’s by adapting gradually all academic courses into a bilingual and intercultural approach (pinquart & bernardo, 2014), that let students learn disciplinary and professional topics with a wider perspective of social reality, not only national but also international. besides, psychology programs should prepare their students in communicative competences (serna, 2019; ceo-di francesco, mora & serna collazos, 2016; jaime & insuasty, 2015) in english to understand the last research advances in scientific literature, to express their ideas inappropriate way and to get excellent results in international tests of psychology. finally, colombian programs of psychology could promote homologation processes with foreign programs of psychology (cornejo, 2018; 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(2013). history and systems of psychology: a course to unite a core curriculum. college quarterly, 16(2). article available at: http://collegequarterly.ca/2013-vol16-num02-spring/williams.html authors *germán andrés torres-escobar is a full-time professor at universidad católica luis amigó, faculty of psychology and social sciences in bogotá. his research interests are schooling topics, educational psychology, and school guidance. he also worked as school counselor in two private educational institutions orcid: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6417-8850 rolan arcadio correa lopez is  a full-time  professor  at  universidad católica luis amigó,  faculty  of  psychology and social sciences in bogotá. his research interests are neuropsychology, neurosciences and cognitive processes in human beings.  he also teaches psychology at universidad cooperativa de colombia. orcid: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5345-6875 how to reference this article: torres-escobar, g. a., & correa-lópez, r. a. (2020). promoting an academic international profile in undergraduate students of psychology programs in colombia. gist – education and learning research journal, 21, 225-242. https://doi. org/10.26817/16925777.775 academic international profile in psychology students efl learners’ receptive and productive knowledge of factive cognitive verbs’ complementation patterns comprensión y uso de los patrones de complementación de los verbos cognitivos factivos en estudiantes de inglés como lengua extranjera dr. serap atasever belli1 erzurum technical university, erzurum, turkiye dr. i̇lknur keçik2 anadolu university, eskişehir, turkiye 1 serap.belli@erzurum.edu.tr 2 ikecik@gmail.com 7 no. 30 gist education and learning research journal. issn 1692-5777. no. 30 (january june, 2025). pp. 7-36. 8 no. 30 abstract the phenomenon of verb complementation has been a challenging research topic in the domain of first and second language acquisition in recent decades. this study aimed to determine the achievement levels of learners of english as a foreign language (efl) in terms of their recognition and production of factive cognitive verb complementation patterns and their associated senses. specifically, the factive verbs analyzed within the scope of the study were: know, understand, regret, remember, and forget, along with their complementation patterns and senses. data were collected from 269 turkish efl learners through four types of tests developed by atasever belli (2019). learners’ receptive knowledge was measured through the grammaticality judgment test and fill-in-the-blank test. their productive knowledge was assessed through the freeproduction test and sentence completion test. data obtained from the participants’ responses to tests were analyzed both quantitatively and qualitatively. this study demonstrated that word knowledge level has a significant impact on verb complementation performance both at receptive and productive levels. it also revealed that production test performance exceeded recognition test performance. the performance differences were analyzed by considering factors such as linguistic transfer, vocabulary knowledge, test types, verb properties, context, and input exposure. these results highlight learners’ interlanguage development and offer profound pedagogical implications. keywords: english as a foreign language learners, factive cognitive verbs, productive knowledge, receptive knowledge, verb complementation resumen el fenómeno de la complementación verbal ha representado un reto constante en las investigaciones sobre adquisición de la lengua materna y de una segunda lengua en las últimas décadas. este estudio tuvo como objetivo determinar los niveles de logro de los estudiantes de inglés como lengua extranjera (efl) en cuanto al reconocimiento y la producción de los patrones de complementación de verbos cognitivos factivos y sus significados asociados. en particular, los verbos factivos analizados en el estudio fueron: know, understand, regret, remember y forget, junto con sus respectivos patrones de complementación y sentidos. los datos se recopilaron a partir de 269 estudiantes turcos de efl mediante cuatro tipos de pruebas desarrolladas por atasever belli (2019). el conocimiento receptivo de los estudiantes se evaluó mediante una prueba de juicio de gramaticalidad y una prueba de llenar espacios en blanco; el conocimiento productivo se midió a través de una prueba de producción libre y una prueba de completación de oraciones. los datos obtenidos de las respuestas de los participantes se analizaron tanto cuantitativa como cualitativamente. el estudio evidenció que el nivel de conocimiento léxico influye de manera significativa en el desempeño en complementación verbal, tanto en niveles receptivos como productivos. también se observó que el rendimiento en las pruebas de producción superó al de las pruebas de reconocimiento. las diferencias de desempeño se analizaron considerando factores como la transferencia lingüística, el conocimiento del vocabulario, el tipo de prueba, las propiedades del verbo, el contexto y la exposición al input. estos resultados aportan información relevante sobre el desarrollo de la interlengua de los aprendientes y ofrecen implicaciones pedagógicas significativas. verb complementation use of efl learners 9 no. 30 9 no. 29 palabras clave: estudiantes de inglés como lengua extranjera, verbos cognitivos factivos, conocimiento productivo, conocimiento receptivo, complementación verbal. resumo o fenômeno da complementação verbal tem sido um tema desafiador nas pesquisas sobre aquisição de primeira e segunda língua nas últimas décadas. este estudo teve como objetivo determinar os níveis de desempenho de estudantes de inglês como língua estrangeira (efl) em relação ao reconhecimento e à produção de padrões de complementação de verbos cognitivos factivos e seus significados associados. especificamente, os verbos factivos analisados foram: know, understand, regret, remember e forget, juntamente com seus respectivos padrões de complementação e sentidos. os dados foram coletados junto a 269 estudantes turcos de efl por meio de quatro tipos de testes desenvolvidos por atasever belli (2019). o conhecimento receptivo dos estudantes foi avaliado através de um teste de julgamento de gramaticalidade e de um teste de preenchimento de lacunas; já o conhecimento produtivo foi medido com um teste de produção livre e um teste de completamento de frases. as respostas dos participantes foram analisadas quantitativa e qualitativamente. o estudo demonstrou que o nível de conhecimento lexical tem um impacto significativo no desempenho em complementação verbal, tanto nos níveis receptivo quanto produtivo. também revelou que o desempenho nas provas de produção superou o das provas de reconhecimento. as diferenças de desempenho foram analisadas levando em consideração fatores como transferência linguística, conhecimento de vocabulário, tipo de teste, propriedades dos verbos, contexto e exposição ao input. os resultados oferecem contribuições relevantes sobre o desenvolvimento da interlíngua dos aprendentes e trazem importantes implicações pedagógicas. palavras-chave: estudantes de inglês como língua estrangeira, verbos cognitivos factivos, conhecimento produtivo, conhecimento receptivo, complementação verbal. this study is part of a phd thesis titled ‘an analysis of factive cognitive verb complementation patterns used by elt students,’ written by serap atasever belli and supervised by i̇lknur keçik, and supported by tubitak-sobag. serap atasever belli and i̇lknur keçik 10 no. 30 introduction verb complementation has recently gained popularity as a research topic in first and second language acquisition. it has been revealed to be a problematic issue for many language users, especially the ones using a language as a foreign/second language (e.g., bourke, 2007; vercellotti & jong, 2013; yoon, 2016; atasever belli, 2019; söğüt & keçik, 2023; vasco, 2024; zhao & jiang, 2024). efl learners with various l1 backgrounds, such as chinese, french, german, russian, spanish, and thai, have been identified as having difficulty differentiating the senses of verbal complements (schwartz & causarano, 2007; vercellotti & jong, 2013). they make grammatical and syntactical errors such as using incorrect verb complementation patterns with the incorrect verbs (e.g., a prepositional complement instead of a noun phrase), excluding obligatory complements, and failing to choose the appropriate tense, aspect, and case (celce-murcia & larsenfreeman, 1999, p.645; roe, 2007, p.220). furthermore, learners often struggle with using to-infinitives correctly, including errors in omission, inflection, and complementizer choice (e.g., anderson, 1983, p. 24). they also encounter problems in distinguishing between gerundial and infinitival verb complementation patterns and inaccurately use the root verb form or both the to-infinitive and ing patterns after the verb, which requires either the former or the latter (duffley & tremblay, 1994; schwartz & causarano, 2007; wang, 2014). these challenges unarguably underscore the need for further examination of the issue, as knowledge of verb complementation is extremely important for learners to understand meaning and pattern variations. this study contributes to the emerging literature on the use of verb complementation by efl learners, as their achievement levels in word knowledge have not been adequately addressed. to fully understand a word in the target language, both receptive and productive knowledge are essential (gass & selinker, 2008; p. 451). receptive knowledge involves recognizing words in writing and speech (milton, 2009), distinguishing between general and specific meanings, understanding the parts or components of words, and identifying negative and positive connotations (gass & selinker, 2008, pp. 451-452). productive knowledge refers to the ability to recall and use words in speech or writing (milton, 2009, p. 13), involving pronunciation, spelling, and contextual meanings (gass & selinker, 2008, pp. 451-452). this study highlights the importance of these two dimensions in language learning by evaluating learners’ abilities in both understanding and using words. this study is believed to bring unique insights into syntactic and semantic features of factive cognitive verbs in interlanguage of efl learners, which is relatively new area and has not been globally addressed in the relevant literature yet. the following questions were addressed: verb complementation use of efl learners 11 no. 30 1. what are the achievement levels of efl learners’ factive cognitive verb (i.e., know, regret, remember, forget, and understand) complementation patterns in recognition tests? 2. what are the achievement levels of efl learners’ factive cognitive verb (i.e., know, regret, remember, forget, and understand) complementation patterns in production tests? 3. is there a significant difference across the achievement levels of efl learners at different vocabulary levels (2000, academic word list, 3000, 5000, and 10000-word levels) in four tests? the following section explains the concept of verb complementation and a review of studies conducted earlier in this field of study. literature review the syntactic and semantic relationships between words within a sentence have been the subject of inquiry by many scholars. one of the terms used to describe the relationships between the required constituents within the environment in which the word appears is valency. the concept of “valency,” initially proposed by tesnière (herbst, 2007), was primarily considered the property of a word or lexical unit that determines the occurrence of other elements in a clause (herbst, 2007). however, later, the scope of this concept was extended from purely syntactic to semantic properties of words (levin, 2015). following herbst and his colleagues (2004), valency determines not only the structural or syntactic properties of complements but also semantic and collocational features. this term encompasses the analysis of verbs, nouns, and adjectives in terms of complements (herbst, 2004, p. xxv). valency provides the theoretical foundation for analyzing verbs within the framework of this research, as it helps explain the verb complementation patterns of factive cognitive verbs and the verb senses. as herbst and götz-votteler (2007) indicate, the term “complementation” was used in the study, referring specifically to the complements of cognitive verbs and considering both syntactic (i.e., phrases and clauses) and semantic (i.e., the meanings of verbs and complements) aspects. among verbs, the class of cognitive verbs analyzed within the scope of this research is particularly significant for several reasons. the verbs such as know, understand, suppose, believe, think, understand, and so on are labeled by various terms such as private verbs (quirk et al., 1985; biber, 1988; palmer, 1988) and verbs of belief (papafragou et al., 2007), and here the term ‘cognitive verbs’ (bourke, 2007; fetzer & johansson, 2010) is adopted. they are defined as a class of verbs based on the semantics of their members, which concentrate on the verb’s private domain of reference and may denote the psychological disposition of the speaker or serap atasever belli and i̇lknur keçik 12 no. 30 other discourse communities (fetzer, 2008, p. 4; fetzer & johansson, 2010, p. 243). they include various verb senses related to cognition, feeling, knowledge, perception, and belief, and they are universal and found in every language (givón, 1973, p.891). being extremely complex lexical items (cappelli, 2008, p. 538), they pose challenges for language users at cognitive, syntactic, and semantic levels (nixon, 2005; papafragou et al., 2007). at a cognitive level, they express varying levels of certainty about the proposition (i.e., know with a high degree of certainty and think with less certainty) in terms of factivity (factive vs. non-factive) (moore et al., 1989, p.168; wellman & estes, 1987, p.152), which make them cognitively complex (nixon, 2005, p.20). at a syntactic level, they can take many complements, including primarily sentential complements (that-cl, zero that-cl, and wh-cl complements), [np], [prepn], and [vp] (nixon, 2005), but they may not appear in the same environment with the same type of pattern. at the semantic level, they are polysemous verbs with multiple meanings when they occur in different syntactic environments, resulting in ambiguity (booth & hall, 1995; booth et al., 1997; naigles, 2000; stojičić, 2008, p. 27). for example, “know” takes [np] as a complement, and it refers to recognition in “i know that song,” whereas it refers to belief with zero-that-cl in “i know you like that book” (naigles, 2000, p. 247). some cognitive verbs can co-occur with both to-infinitive and ingcomplements, but the choice of complement yields totally a change in meaning, which is called the ‘bolinger principle’ developed by american linguist dwight bolinger in 1968 (celce-murcia & larsen-freeman, 1999, p. 648): he forgot to buy the books (the books were not bought) he forgot buying the books (the act of buying has been fulfilled) these examples provide evidence for the meaning difference between verbs taking v-ing and to-inf patterns in terms of potentiality versus actuality semantic aspect (celce-murcia & larsen-freeman, 1999; quirk, greenbaum, leech, & svartvik, 1985). bolinger’s principle posits that any variation in syntactic form yields a corresponding difference in meaning (bolinger, 1968, p. 127). however, this principle attempts to make predictions about the expected usages and the corresponding meanings of only two complementation patterns. furthermore, the bolinger principle does not explain all instances of verbs allowing both types of patterns, such as the verb “like” (celcemurcia & larsen-freeman, 1999, p. 649). in addition, many verbs allow more than one pattern and may behave differently depending on the context where they are used on the syntactic level and the meaning they serve on the semantic level. in this respect, it is crucial for language learners to be aware of these complexities and to have knowledge of the different senses of cognitive verbs and complementation patterns. in this research, factive cognitive verbs were analyzed. they consist of verbs “know, remember, forget, see, hear, guess, resent, suspect, understand, regret, learn, realize, discover, notice and find out” (givón, 2001; p. 893) and presuppose the truth of their complement sentences (abbeduto & rosenberg, 1985, p. 621; givón, 1973, p. 2). specifically, the verb complementation use of efl learners 13 no. 30 following five factive cognitive verbs were analyzed: know, understand, remember, forget, and regret. they are among high-frequency verbs as revealed in both child-speech in l1 acquisition studies (i.e., bloom et al., 1989; kidd et al., 2006; kidd et al., 2010; shatz et al., 1983) and frequency lists of corpora in english such as in longman spoken and written english corpus (lswe) (biber et al., 1999). as factive cognitive verbs belong to the high-frequency category, understanding high-frequency verbs and their functions across languages merits closer examination. they denote basic meanings, predominantly found in various semantic fields, and have high-frequency equivalents in many languages (altenberg & granger, 2001, p. 174). they exhibit a high degree of polysemy, resulting in two or more types of meaning extensions with varied patterns of complementation (altenberg & granger, 2001; perek, 2015). they pose problems for language learners, and they exhibit language-specific differences despite semantic similarities among various languages (altenberg & granger, 2001, p. 174). they are not well represented in terms of number and type in efl/esl instructional courses or programs, and thus, even advanced-level learners may have incomplete knowledge of verbs (altenberg & granger, 2001, p. 190; wang & shaw, 2008). it is the verb that establishes the relationship between semantics (verb meaning) and syntax (verb complementation pattern) (can, 2009, p. 2832). therefore, language learners need to possess knowledge of verbs for adequate language comprehension and production. given their prominence in language use as high-frequency verbs and the aforementioned challenges, factive cognitive verbs are particularly worth exploring in syntactic and semantic terms. this study focused on the verbs used by turkish efl learners, with a particular emphasis on their syntactic and semantic behaviors, and aimed to determine the achievement levels of learners across different tests at both receptive and productive levels. methodology participants the study population consisted of 360 university students enrolled in the english language teaching program during their 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 4th years of study at a state university in turkiye. these students’ l1 is turkish, and their prior english language learning experience dates back to elementary schools, where english is taught three hours per week. in courses such as contextual grammar, linguistics, and grammar teaching, they received a list of verbs that occur with limited types of complementation patterns, such as v-ing and to-inf, along with a few example sentences. to group learners from various grades (i.e., 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 4th) based on their word levels, participants were given the vocabulary levels test (vlt) initially developed by nation (1983) and revised by schmitt et al. (2001) at the beginning of data collection serap atasever belli and i̇lknur keçik 14 no. 30 because learners’ interlanguage development and proficiency may differ within/across grade/s. the word levels are ordered in the following way, from the lowest to the highest: 2000, academic word list (awl), 3000, 5000, and 10000-word levels. the test took approximately 50 minutes. learners were grouped into five-word levels, as depicted below. at the beginning of the data collection procedure, the vlt test was administered to all populations. however, there was a decrease in the number of students participating in the following data collection phases. therefore, 269 efl learners, including 159 female and 110 male students, participated in all phases. participants’ ages ranged from 18 to 22. table 1 distribution of participants across vlt levels (n=269) levels number of participants percentage % 2000-word 60 22.3 awl 58 21.5 3000-word 74 27.5 5000-word 72 26.7 10000-word 5 1.8 total 269 100 ethics committee approval was obtained from anadolu university prior to the study (protocol number 44818). research standards and ethical principles were followed. according to these principles, participants were informed about the purpose, scope, procedure, potential risks, and confidentiality of the study at the beginning of the data collection procedure. informed consent forms were obtained from all participants in written form, and voluntary participation was ensured. confidentiality was ensured by using pseudonyms. participants were also informed of their right to withdraw from the study at any time. data collection this section provides a detailed explanation of the data collection instruments and the data collection and analysis procedure. verb complementation use of efl learners 15 no. 30 instruments four different types of tests developed by the researchers were used to collect data and to measure learners’ state of knowledge and the use of verb complementation patterns and senses. these tests, developed by atasever belli (2019), consisted of two production tests, namely the free production test (fpt) and the sentence completion test (sct), and two recognition tests, namely the grammaticality judgment test (gjt) and the fill-in-the-blank test (fbt). through different test formats, we aimed to uncover learners’ potential uses in syntactic and semantic terms in both contextbounded and context-free tests. regarding production tests, fpt asked participants to produce two sentences per factive cognitive verb and write the meaning of the verb in these sentences, as exemplified below. forget: sentence 1: (e.g., forget your troubles, come on, be happy!) verb meaning: (e.g., dismiss) in sct, sentence fragments were provided within contexts for students to complete. focus is really important in life. i would have to say my favorite aspect of yoga is the focusing aspect of yoga. i only focus on yoga when i am practicing. i just forget (about everything outside of yoga) , but when i practice yoga, i focus on all of the details of yoga during my practice. (coca, 2018) for the recognition test, participants were instructed to judge the acceptability of sentences in gjt to assess their knowledge of each item from various registers (i.e., fiction, spoken, newspaper, magazine, and academic texts) in coca (2018). he regrets of having told his story to his cousin and to his wife. a. correct b. not sure c. incorrect lastly, in fbt, sentence fragments, including those of the complement type without cognitive verbs, were provided to be filled in with appropriate verbs from a box. example item: curry: so how will you spend yours? the average refund for the 2006 tax season will be just over $2,600. christina: i spent my refund very quickly on vacation. kate: probably spend it on clothes, shopping, what i usually spend my refund on. i do (regret) how i spent my refund. i could have -i could have probably saved the money instead of spending it. serap atasever belli and i̇lknur keçik 16 no. 30 table 2 presents the number of items and their corresponding scores in the tests. table 2 overview of test types tests sub-tests no. of items scoring per item scoring total productive fpt 10 10 100 sct 20 5 100 receptive fbt 10 10 100 gjt 20 5 100 the reliability and validity of tests were checked based on a pilot study conducted with 46 participants in the elt program. based on the kuder-richardson formula 20 (kr-20), sct had a moderate degree of reliability (i.e., 0.78), and gjt (0.87) and fbt (0.80) had a high degree of reliability. item analysis was also performed to measure the effectiveness of the items, and those with a correlation coefficient below 0.19 were eliminated. the latest versions were then prepared. in the main study, in which 269 participants responded to the tests, the reliability and validity of the tests were rechecked. gjt, sct, and fbt were found to have moderate reliability coefficients. regarding interrater reliability, as measured by cohen’s kappa, there was almost perfect agreement between the two raters for all items in sct and nine items in fpt, and substantial agreement for one item in fpt regarding the acceptability of patterns and senses (see atasever belli, 2019, for detailed information). based on the experts’ recommendations, to minimize the potential risk of affecting learners’ use of verb complements due to the implementation of receptive tests. first, tests were administered to the participants in an order that started with production tests. data analysis data analysis was carried out in two phases. in the first phase, learners’ responses were qualitatively analyzed to identify learners’ syntactic and semantic choices in production tests. after putting all learners’ answers into the excel program, all the patterns and verb senses produced were manually annotated, checked, and identified based on the valency dictionary of english and verbnet as well as the sources, including collins cobuild, merriam webster, and oxford and labeled as correct, incorrect and problematic based on these native control data. the correct, incorrect, and problematic uses were highlighted in different colors. to illustrate, instances where the patterns used with a particular verb, according to the aforementioned sources, were chosen by verb complementation use of efl learners 17 no. 30 the learners, and the verb was used in the correct sense were identified as correct and colored in blue. the verb meanings produced by the learner but not denoted by the factive verb, according to the sources, were identified as incorrect. furthermore, the patterns that do not occur with the verb in question, according to the sources, but are produced by the participants, were labeled as ‘incorrect.’ the instances, including mismatches between the patterns and the verb meanings, as well as the problematic use of the wh-clause complementation pattern, were labeled as problematic. in fpt, points were given for each accurate sentence, including the target verb, regardless of the variety of verb meanings. interrater agreement was conducted with two different raters. the first interrater agreement was conducted between the researcher and a turkish expert from the same institution, who independently analyzed 30% of the data. the second one was conducted between the researcher and an american native speaker working as an instructor at a state university in turkiye, who analyzed 20 % of the data. the researcher compared her findings with the raters’ findings at separate meetings, where the discrepancies were resolved. next, all tests were quantitatively analyzed by calculating overall mean scores and raw scores based on the scoring system given in table 2. to explore the statistical differences across vlt levels in each test, a multivariate analysis of variance (manova) was conducted. manova was specifically used since there is one categorical independent variable (i.e., five groups of participants grouped based on their word levels according to vlt test scores) and more than one dependent variable (i.e., test scores obtained from gjt, fbt, sct, and fpt). it controls for the risk of type 1 error and determines the effects of independent variables on several dependent variables (pallant, 2007, p. 275). a one-way anova was also conducted to reveal the differences among the four groups individually. to determine which groups contributed to the overall multivariate significance, post hoc tests, i.e., bonferroni adjustment, were performed. given that this study is part of a larger study, i.e., a phd thesis written by atasever belli (2019), only quantitative results were presented in the current study since the research questions addressed were mainly concerned with achievement levels of learners and the comparison among learners at different word levels based on their test scores. serap atasever belli and i̇lknur keçik 18 no. 30 results the mean scores of efl learners across word levels are depicted in figure 1 below. figure 1. mean scores of students across five vlt levels an examination of the figure above reveals the diverging performances of participants across different tests, highlighting varying levels of difficulty in the tests and the impact of test format on performance. as shown in figure 1, based on the overall mean scores, participants scored higher on the production tests compared to recognition tests. among the four types of tests, participants obtained the lowest mean scores from gjt (x̄ = 60.67; sd = 1.54) and the highest mean scores from sct (x̄ = 84.22; sd = 13.47). a one-way repeated measures anova was conducted to determine whether there was a significant difference in the mean scores across four different tests. accordingly, there was a significant main effect of test type on verb complementation use (f(3,804)=145.692, p=.000, ηp2=.352) (see table 3). verb complementation use of efl learners 19 no. 30 table 3 differences across efl learners’ performances on four test types tests n 𝑥 sd p f gjt 269 60.67 15.463 .000* fbt 269 74.46 19.760 .000* 145.692 fpt 269 83.22 16.994 .000* sct 269 84.22 13.471 .000* *significant at the level of .05 to determine the source of the difference, a bonferroni adjustment was conducted as a post-hoc test. based on the results, statistically significant differences were found between each test type, except between sct and fpt. table 4 post-hoc test results: pairwise comparisons across four tests 95% confidence interval for difference (i) test_ (j) test_t mean std. error sig.b lower upper effect effec difference (i-j) bound bound gjt fbt -13.792* 1.248 .000 -17.108 -10.475 sct -23.550* 1.120 .000 -26.528 -20.572 fpt -22.546* 1.284 .000 -25.960 -19.133 fbt gjt 13.792* 1.248 .000 10.475 17.108 sct -9.758* 1.318 .000 -13.263 -6.254 fpt -8.755* 1.496 .000 -12.731 -4.778 sct gjt 23.550* 1.120 .000 20.572 26.528 fbt 9.758* 1.318 .000 6.254 13.263 fpt 1.004* 1.162 .999 -2.085 4.092 fpt gjt 22.546* 1.284 .000 19.133 25.960 fbt 8.755* 1.496 .000 4.778 12.731 sct -1.004 1.162 .999 -4.092 2.085 based on estimated marginal means *. the mean difference is significant at the .05 level. b. adjustment for multiple comparisons: bonferroni. serap atasever belli and i̇lknur keçik 20 no. 30 the comparison among participants according to vocabulary levels showed that as the level increased, learners’ performances increased in producing correct and appropriate verb complementation patterns and senses. in all tests except for sct, the lower the word level was, the lower the overall mean score was. in sct, 10000 wordlevel students got the lowest mean score. in this test, both 2000-word and 10,000-word level students performed similarly, with a slight difference, as the former group did slightly better than the latter group. (see appendix a for the means and standard deviations of tests) table 5 demonstrates the results of comparison across the performances of learners at different word levels. table 5 manova result for vlt effect value f hypothesis df error df sig. partial eta squared vlt pillai’s .155 2.655 16.000 1056.000 .000* .039 level trace* a. the statistic is an upper bound on f that yields a lower bound on the significance level. *computed using alpha = .05 in table 5, the multivariate result was significant for the vlt level at the .05 significance level (f(2, 655) = 0.155, p < .000; pillai’s trace = 0.000; ηp² = 0.039), indicating that the differences in test scores of participants across word levels were statistically significant. based on an overview of tests of between-subject-effects, participants differed on all dependent variables, as illustrated below. table 6 the comparison among efl learners from five vlt levels in tests source dependent type iii df mean square f sig. ηp2 variable sum of squares vlt level gjt 3698.247 4 924.562 4.042 .003* .058 fbt 6650.109 4 1662.527 4.479 .002* .064 sct 2779.789 4 694.947 4.001 .004* .057 fpt 3503.994 4 875.999 3.130 .015* .045 computed using alpha and significant = .05 the vlt level had a significant effect on learners’ performances in each of the four tests, specifically the gjt (p = .003*), fbt (p = .002*), sct (p = .004*), and verb complementation use of efl learners 21 no. 30 fpt (p = .015*) tests (table 6). to determine which groups contributed to the overall multivariate significance and identify the location of the significant difference, post hoc tests were performed, as shown in the table below. table 7 multiple comparisons across five vlt levels in production tests table 8 multiple comparisons across five vlt levels in recognition tests according to multiple comparisons across word levels for production tests (table 7) and recognition tests (table 8), significant differences were observed between the achievement levels of 2000-word and 5000-word levels (p = .008) in sct and between the 2000-word and 3000-word levels (p = .022) in fpt. in sct, 5000-word level learners (x̅ =87.99, sd=13.41) performed significantly better than 2000-word level learners (x̅=80.17, sd=14.75). in fpt, 3000-word level learners (x̅ =86.76, sd=14.86) performed significantly better than the 2000-word level group (x̅ =77.75, sd=16.58). regarding the post hoc test results for gjt, a statistically significant difference was found between the achievement levels of the 2000-word and 5000-word levels (p = .006). students at the 5000-word level performed significantly better than those at the 2000-word level in recognizing complementation patterns. lastly, in fbt, there is a statistically significant difference between the scores of the 2000-word and 3000-word serap atasever belli and i̇lknur keçik 22 no. 30 levels (p = .012) and between the scores of the 2000-word and 5000-word levels (p = .003). both 3000-word (x̅ = 77.43, sd = 15.79) and 5000-word level learners (x̅ = 78.75, sd = 19.56) performed significantly better than 2000-word level students (x̅ = 66.50, sd = 21.69). discussion the current study offers an important insight into the recognition and production of efl learners’ verb complementation use and achievement levels by examining their syntactic and semantic choices in factive cognitive verbs (i.e., know, understand, regret, remember, and forget) complementation patterns and verb senses. four types of tests developed by the authors were used to decipher participants’ state of knowledge and use of factive cognitive verb complementation. one remarkable finding was that word level had a significant effect on learners’ receptive and productive knowledge of factive cognitive verb complementation patterns and senses. specifically, the higher the word level, the better the test performance was in using verb complementation patterns and related senses. parallel to this finding, söğüt (2019) and söğüt and keçik (2023) studies on non-factive verb complementation revealed that turkish efl learners with a high word level performed better in various types of receptive and productive tasks compared to those with a lower word level. this finding supports the claim that vocabulary has a crucial role in language use (odlin, 1989, p. 160) and rich l2 lexical knowledge yields more accurate word-meaning comprehension and production (ringbom, 1987, p. 36; wesche & paribakht, 2010, p. 165). similar to the turkish efl learners, in the previous studies, as proficiency increased, efl learners tended to prefer verb complementation patterns and senses that were similar to the preferences of native speakers of english (e.g., ard & gass, 1987; römer & berger, 2019; schwartz & causarano, 2007; vercellotti & packer, 2016). for instance, in the study by ard and gass (1987), the authors examined the interaction between lexicon and syntax. they found that students of lower and higher proficiency levels differed in their responses to four sentence types in gjt. the lower group focused on the surface level and the syntactic aspects of the sentences, whereas the higher-level group also focused on semantic and lexical aspects. accordingly, as they become more proficient, learners undergo a significant amount of language learning experience, during which they restructure their l2 knowledge. it is plausible that high-level learners have had greater exposure to the target language in various contexts through the use of web-based technology, such as the internet, communicating with speakers from different countries, watching films or tv series in the target language, or engaging in extensive reading. in this regard, zinteng et al. (2023) emphasize the importance of incorporating social and cognitive dimensions of language use into the instruction of verb complementation. verb complementation use of efl learners 23 no. 30 a noteworthy explanation for the better performance of high-word-level learners is that they may have been exposed to a much larger number of words in english and thus have had a high degree of productive and receptive knowledge in their mental lexicon. our finding, in this respect, supports zhao and jiang (2020), who claim that as grade increases, the valency pattern increases. aligning with this claim, park and sung (2022), who explored the verb-argument construction use in essays by korean learners of english, found that the pattern variation increases, and the expansion of individual verb argument constructions grows along with the efl proficiency profile. similarly, comparing the different proficiency levels of chinese efl learners’ interlanguage and the english target language, zhao and jiang (2024) found that as proficiency levels increased, the verb complementation use of efl learners aligned more closely with the verb complementation use in the english native language, although some disparities persisted. römer and berger (2019) also provide evidence from german and spanish learners of english. according to the authors, as proficiency level increases, the productivity of verb argument constructions and their types increases, and their repertoire expands, moving toward more native-like usage. building on these similar findings, this correlation between higher proficiency and native-like verb complementation may be attributed to some underlying developmental factors. as learners progress, they develop a greater awareness of syntactic structures, semantic constraints, and collocational patterns, which are influenced by increased interaction with authentic language and enhanced cognitive abilities. another plausible explanation for the difference in achievements of learners from different word levels could be the higher groups’ experience, exposure, or awareness about the linguistic transfer issues between l1 and l2. a deeper insight into the responses of learners in the tests revealed that learners, especially those with low word-level proficiency, mostly transferred syntactic properties of verbs from their l1 turkish to their l2 english. to illustrate, in turkish, the factive cognitive verb ‘regret’ (pişman olin turkish) occurs with [from np], [because of v-ing], and [for v-ing]. here are several sentences from turkish to illustrate the use of these patterns: zamanında bunu bana anlatmadığı için pişman oldu. (verb [for v-ing]) ders çalışmadığına pişman olacak. (verb [to v-ing]) yaptığı hataları düşününce pişman oldu. (verb zero comp.) söylediklerimden pişman oluyorum. (verb [from wh-cl/np]), in low-level learners’ responses, such constructions as illustrated above that are acceptable in turkish were observed in their english productions, i.e., the use of regret with these incorrect patterns including but not limited to [from np], [for np/v-ing] [about np/v-ing/wh-cl] [for wh-cl] and [to v-ing] patterns. to give an example, they produced sentences like “i don’t regret from my decision at all”, “i regret because of my words”, and “i regret about being so rude”. these instances are the result of l1 turkish cross-linguistic transfer in learners. similarly, römer and yılmaz (2019) serap atasever belli and i̇lknur keçik 24 no. 30 found evidence for collocational transfer from turkish learners’ l1 to their english productions in the use of verb constructions, specifically the use of “with np” and “for np” with the verb “struggle.” another notable finding was that learners’ performances differed significantly across various test types. better performances were observed in less-controlled production tests (sct and fpt) compared to more controlled recognition tests (gjt and fbt). this finding stems from the fact that there was freedom in the choice of verb complementation patterns in fpt and in sct, which is more context-dependent. this finding does not necessarily mean that they used diverse verb complementation patterns and verbs in various senses, resulting in higher scores. in productive tests, as long as efl learners created a grammatically correct sentence using the target verb in the appropriate sense and with the correct pattern, they earned points. to illustrate, participants received points even if they preferred to use the verb ‘understand’ with the same meaning, i.e., to comprehend or consider logical, and followed the same pattern, e.g., a noun phrase in two different sentences. hence, this freedom of choice allowed them to produce similar sentences having the same verb sense and verb complementation pattern. that may be why they preferred the patterns they already knew, regardless of the variation in types, and performed better in these tests. in contrast, in the receptive tests, they were more restricted in their choice of patterns due to the context, which required a verb used in a restricted sense, and in the fill-in-the-blank test, they were expected to select between a correct or incorrect choice in the judgment test. to illustrate, in the following sct item, the learner is expected to complete the sentence with a noun phrase, not [that-cl] or [to-inf]. moreover, the learner is expected to use the verb with the sense referring to ‘feel remorse for, feel guilty about, entails responsibility for action/situation’ as given in the valency dictionary of english. judith: what advice would you offer? paul: i’d say, “ if you really want to do it, go for it. it’s your life, no one else’s. judith: would you tell your younger self the same thing if you could? paul: you can’t relive the past, and i don’t regret (those experiences). opportunities like that don’t come every day. i knew i was lucky. and i tried to use the experience to my benefit. looking back, i made great friends. (drawn and adapted from corpus of contemporary american english) this example illustrates that there were limitations on which complementation pattern to choose and which verb sense to use. thus, learners did not get points when they failed to complete the verb with an appropriate pattern in a proper sense. in this respect, it can be concluded that efl learners tended to stick to the patterns they knew best in the production tests, as these tests were more free and flexible compared to the receptive ones, and hence, they became more successful in the production tests. verb complementation use of efl learners 25 no. 30 furthermore, the poor performance of learners -particularly on gjtmay result from their unfamiliarity with this test. even native speakers find it difficult to judge the acceptability of a sentence in their native language correctly. moreover, as odlin (1994, p. 273-281) states, even native speaker intuition does not guarantee the accuracy in judgments of sentences as there exist inconsistencies in native speakers’ judgments. if this is the case for native speakers, it is much more likely that learners whose native language is not english will struggle with judging the sentences. supporting this idea, as revealed in the study by bley-vroman and masterson (1989, p. 212), non-native learners are inconsistent in their judgments regarding the acceptability of sentences. thus, most likely, non-native learners attempt to evaluate a simple sentence presented without any contextual clues primarily by relying on their prior beliefs. in the current study, in many items, efl learners chose the option ‘not sure’ and got zero points rather than selecting the options ‘correct’ or ‘incorrect.’ this reveals their hesitation in their judgments and their reluctance to provide an accurate answer. in this respect, as pointed out by odlin (1994, p. 284), “uncertainty is one of the key characteristics of learner intuitions .” furthermore, as noted by ellis (1991), it is unclear what learners rely on when making their judgments. accordingly, many factors influence their judgments, including intra-learner and inter-learner variations, processing factors, existing interlanguage, perceived target language norms, and grammatical knowledge. unfamiliarity with the test design or difficulty in understanding specific test items might have affected learners’ performances. therefore, efl learners’ gjt performances alone may not accurately reflect all that they know and produce in production tests. conclusion and implications in an attempt to elucidate the syntactic and semantic choices of efl learners and their achievement levels in recognition and productive dimensions of verb complementation use, this study highlights the importance of efl learners’ word knowledge in generating accurate and appropriate use of verb complementation. based on the findings, learners’ choices are determined by various factors, such as vocabulary knowledge, the nature of the tests, the syntactic and semantic properties of verbs, contextual information associated with the verb in question, and exposure to target language input. in this sense, several implications are provided for pedagogical purposes and to facilitate further inquiries. considering that this study has emphasized the role of word level on efl learners’ state of knowledge and language production regarding syntactic and semantic features of verbs, the first pedagogical implication is that vocabulary learning should be enhanced in and out of the classroom. given the important role of the lexicon in comprehension, vocabulary instruction can be effectively integrated into classroom serap atasever belli and i̇lknur keçik 26 no. 30 teaching by focusing on word meanings and usage, as well as collocations, through context-rich practices that help deepen learners’ lexical understanding. foreign language curricula should be designed based on learners’ vocabulary needs to maximize their word knowledge, as the complete mastery of a word necessitates both receptive and productive knowledge. furthermore, to reinforce learners’ receptive and productive knowledge, teachers can also help learners by raising their awareness of various vocabulary learning strategies. alternatively, they can utilize techniques such as drawing, using objects, guessing, eliciting, or creating illustrations, with a focus on the forms and meanings of words. teachers could explicitly introduce learners to the most frequent verbs in the target language and teach them the most frequent verb complementation patterns and verb senses in english. to achieve this, for instance, valency dictionaries could be utilized to familiarize learners with the syntactic and semantic properties of verbs and practice them. to provide another example, taskbased awareness-raising activities that incorporate instances of verb complementation patterns within context can be highly effective and useful for learners. tasks provide input for learners and enable them to notice patterns when they come across them. therefore, teachers could design different types of spoken and written tasks for practice. as a further implication, to support vocabulary learning among students, teachers could utilize corpora of the present-day english language and bring concordance lines reflecting different varieties of language, such as newspaper articles, academic texts, magazines, or spoken language, for practicing verb complementation patterns and senses that are frequent in the language. using such concordance-based activities as teaching materials could be very beneficial for learners, as it provides access to authentic language and allows them to discover the syntactic and semantic properties of words autonomously. in this sense, a corpus-based approach could be beneficial in teaching verb complementation, as it promotes real language use and enables learners to discover patterns through a variety of contexts. since learners at all word levels performed poorly in the grammaticality judgment test in comparison to other test types in this research, another pedagogical implication is that acceptability judgment tasks could be developed as written tasks to help efl learners familiarize themselves with this test type and practice verb complementation use. such tasks could be designed based on authentic language by using pictures or short videos along with a sentence that describes these pictures or videos and includes a specifically related verb occurring with a complementation pattern. through such activities, learners could practice judging sentences in the target language and discover the meanings and complementation patterns of verbs. for the instances they judge as incorrect, they could be asked to rewrite sentences correctly. such practices help learners notice what they perceive to be the correct choice and what is correct in the target language. building on these pedagogical suggestions, further studies could expand the scope of this inquiry by including language learners from various academic disciplines, verb complementation use of efl learners 27 no. 30 different educational levels such as primary or secondary education, or varying cultural or linguistic backgrounds. such studies help generalize the findings and provide greater insights into the verb complementation use of efl learners. given that the scope of this study is limited to the analysis of five factive verbs, expanding this area of study to include additional factive cognitive verbs or other semantic verb classes would be highly beneficial. such an extension could help identify potential similarities, differences, or variations in the performance and achievement levels of learners. furthermore, the data in the present study were collected through a written medium, i.e., four types of tests. however, the tests included extracts or sentences from both written and spoken language (i.e., a wide range of registers, such as academic texts, fiction, magazines, and news). future inquiries would hence benefit from the collection of data through the spoken medium to gain a deeper insight into the use of verb complementation in spoken language. for example, spontaneous conversations, interviews, or role-plays, along with visuals (e.g., pictures, images, or videos), may provide further evidence. another implication is that think-aloud protocols could be carried out based on learners’ judgments to understand better the possible reasons behind poor performance in judgment tasks. such think-aloud protocols could enable researchers to delve into the participants’ thought processes in their preferences of verb complementation patterns and senses. finally, longitudinal studies could be designed to focus on a specific group of efl learners, providing insights into both their achievement levels and the learning processes of verb complementation during interlanguage development. case studies could also be conducted by focusing on one language learner to shed light on the development of vocabulary knowledge, particularly the learning of verb lexicon, concerning verb complementation patterns and senses. funding information: this study is a part of the research project funded by the scientific and technological research council of turkey (tübi̇tak), social and human sciences research grant group (sobag-1001) with grant no: 118k130. acknowledgment this research is part of a phd dissertation titled an analysis of factive cognitive verb complementation patterns used by elt students supervised by prof. dr. i̇lknur keçik and funded by the scientific and technological research council of turkey (tübi̇tak), social and human sciences research grant group (sobag-1001) with the grant no 118k130. serap atasever belli and i̇lknur keçik 28 no. 30 references abbeduto, l., & rosenberg, s. 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(2023). efl learners’ production of verb complementation patterns and verb senses: an investigation on high-frequency cognitive verbs. the reading matrix: an international online journal, 23(1). stojičić, v. (2008). functional labeling with polysemy verbs. linguistics and literature, 6(1), 27-34. vasco, i. b. (2024). the power of video games: teaching verbal complementation patterns to l1 spanish efl students in the 1st year of non-compulsory secondary education. [unpublished master’s thesis]. universidad de jaén. vercellotti, m. l., & de jong, n. (2013). use and accuracy of verb complements in english l2 speech. dutch journal of applied linguistics, 2(2), 243-250. https://doi. org/10.1075/dujal.2.2.05lou vercellotti, m. l., & packer, j. (2016). shifting structural complexity: the production of clause types in speeches given by english for academic purposes students. journal of english for academic purposes, 22, 179-190. https://doi.org/10.1016/j. jeap.2016.04.004 wang, d. (2014). verbs taking “to+v” or “v+ing” as their complements: a cognitive grammar account. international journal of linguistics, 6(5), 143-153. https://doi. org/10.5296/ijl.v6i5.6492 wang, y., & shaw, p. (2008). transfer and universality: collocation use in advanced chinese and swedish learner english. icame journal, 32, 201–232. wellman, h. m., & estes, d. (1987). children’s early use of mental verbs and what they mean. discourse processes, 10(2), 141–156. https://sci-hub.se/https://sci-hub. se/10.1080/01638538709544666 verb complementation use of efl learners 33 no. 30 wesche, m. b., & paribakht, t. s. (2010). lexical inferencing in a first and second language. cross-linguistic dimensions. short run press: great britain. yoon, c. (2016). korean efl learners’ use of to-infinitival and gerundial verb complementation: a constructionist approach. journal of language sciences, 23(2), 193–217. https://doi.org/10.14384/kals.2016.23.2.193 zinteng, j., gyau, a., & fuseini, m. (2023). teaching college students comprehensive approach to verb complementation. african journal of emerging issues, 5(5), 8495. https://ajoeijournals.org/sys/index.php/ajoei/article/view/409/487 zhao, q., & jiang, j. (2020). verb valency in interlanguage: an extension to valency theory and new perspective on l2 learning. poznan studies in contemporary linguistics, 56(2), 339363. https://doi.org/10.1515/psicl-2020-0010 zhao, q., & jiang, j. (2024). syntactic functions of words grammatically related to verbs in interlanguage: a valency perspective. lingua, 300, 103675. https://doi. org/10.1016/j.lingua.2024.103675 serap atasever belli and i̇lknur keçik 34 no. 30 appendix a. descriptive statistics of tests test type vlt x̅ sd gjt* 2000 56.08 13.934 awl 58.19 14.829 3000 61.15 15.160 5000 65.28 16.205 10000 71.00 15.572 total 60.67 15.463 fbt* 2000 66.50 21.693 awl 72.59 20.567 3000 77.43 15.795 5000 78.75 19.568 10000 86.00 13.416 total 74.46 19.760 sct* 2000 80.17 14.757 awl 81.72 13.590 3000 86.15 10.648 5000 87.99 13.418 10000 79.00 18.841 total 84.22 13.471 fpt* 2000 77.75 16.581 awl 81.29 18.861 3000 86.76 14.861 5000 85.14 17.177 10000 91.00 8.944 total 83.22 16.994 * maximum score is 100. verb complementation use of efl learners 35 no. 30 authors dr. serap atasever-belli (corresponding author) is currently working as an assistant professor at the department of english language and literature at erzurum technical university. she completed a ph.d. in foreign language education program at anadolu university with a dissertation on the analysis of factive cognitive verb complementation patterns used by students in english language teaching program, which is funded by the scientific and technological research council of turkey (tübi̇tak) social and human sciences research grant group (sobag 1001) with the project no. 118k130. she has research interests in pre-service teacher training, second language writing, discourse analysis, corpus linguistics, and digitalization in language education. orcid: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3605-4943 dr. i̇lknur keçi̇k (co-author) her research interests include discourse analysis, applied linguistics, english language teaching methodology, pre-service and in-service teacher training, and reflective practices in teaching. she has participated as a project director and researcher in various research projects funded by the scientific and technological research council of turkey and scientific research projects in higher education institutions. she has recently retired but continues to teach graduate and undergraduate courses at the university and supervise phd students. orcid: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9764-4432 serap atasever belli and i̇lknur keçik book review bilingualism shahrzad mahootian, 2020 publisher: routledge, 199 pgs. s. moslemi nezhad arani, foreign languages department, faculty of tourism, higher education complex of bam, iran and a. atasoy, and department of turkish language teaching, education faculty, gaziantep university, gaziantep, turkiye in the realm of linguistics research, the topic of bilingualism and its intricate dimensions has been a subject of considerable interest, leading to a myriad of theoretical perspectives and empirical studies. among the numerous contributions to this academic discourse, mahootian’s (2020) textbook on bilingualism presents a comprehensive narrative, charting bilingualism’s multifaceted nature. building on established linguistic theories and empirical evidence (baker, 2011; grosjean, 2010), the author strives to reconcile varied perspectives on bilingualism, ranging from individual linguistic competence to societal linguistics trends within six chapters, with the last one providing a summary. by doing so, the author imparts a broad-based understanding that reflects the complexities inherent in the study of bilingualism. mahootian’s (2020) meticulous approach to presenting research strengthens the book’s validity by providing a clear and comprehensive picture of key concepts related to bilingualism. its well-organized structure and clear explanations offer a thorough introduction to the subject, making it particularly valuable for novice researchers and students. the foundational approach not only supports readers in grasping complex concepts but also encourages critical thinking and meaningful engagement with the material. mahootian’s work stands out as an excellent starting point for those new to the field. mahootian’s (2020) work is particularly timely and relevant given the burgeoning field of research exploring the cognitive implications of bilingualism. as evident in 137 no. 27 gist education and learning research journal. issn 1692-5777. no. 27 (july december, 2023). pp.137-148. 1 s.mosleminezhad@bam.ac.ir 138 no. 27 chapters 4 and 5, the book provides a much-needed synthesis of current research on topics such as language processing in the brain, the development of bilingualism in children, and the potential cognitive advantages (and costs) associated with navigating two languages. by directly addressing these key areas of inquiry, mahootian (2020) offers readers a subtle understanding of how bilingual experience shapes the mind and brain. furthermore, by engaging with ongoing debates and highlighting areas for future research, mahootian (2020) ensures that her work remains relevant and thought-provoking for those at the forefront of this dynamic field. in comparison to other works in the field, mahootian’s book provides a broad overview of bilingualism but does not delve as deeply into specific areas as some other texts. for instance, grosjean’s bilingual: life and reality (2010) offers an indepth exploration of the lived experiences of bilingual individuals, while costa’s the bilingual brain (2016) focuses more on the neural mechanisms underlying bilingualism. altarriba and heredia’s an introduction to bilingualism: principles and processes (2018) provides detailed theoretical frameworks and research methodologies. these books offer specialized insights and in-depth analysis in their respective areas, whereas mahootian’s work serves as a comprehensive and accessible entry point into the broader field of bilingualism. this makes mahootian’s book particularly suitable for undergraduate students who need a foundational understanding before delving into more specialized texts. this work of mahootian (2020) stands out for its interdisciplinary approach, effectively bridging insights from linguistics, psycholinguistics, neurolinguistics, and cognitive science. unlike some books that focus narrowly on specific aspects of bilingualism, this text provides a holistic view, illuminating the interconnectedness of language, brain, and cognition. this approach aligns with a growing trend in scholarship that recognizes the value of integrating knowledge from diverse fields to gain a more comprehensive understanding of complex phenomena like bilingualism. by synthesizing research from various disciplines, mahootian (2020) not only enhances the book’s scholarly significance but also makes it a valuable resource for readers seeking a broader perspective on the multifaceted nature of bilingualism. in chapter 1 of her textbook on bilingualism, mahootian (2020) offers a subtle understanding of the phenomenon, emphasizing that bilingualism extends beyond the mere usage of two languages to encompass capability and context. this rejection of a simplistic bilingual/monolingual binary lays the groundwork for her later exploration of the cognitive dimensions of bilingualism, a key argument throughout the book. mahootian (2020) argues that numerous factors, including cultural, educational, and historical circumstances, shape an individual’s journey toward becoming bilingual. therefore, a comprehensive framework of bilingualism needs to account for varying fluency levels, different contexts of use, and the multifaceted influences driving bilingual behaviors. she highlights six core elements: age, manner of acquisition, sequence of acquisition, literacy skills, function, and fluency, all of which contribute to a more book review 139 no. 27 delicate understanding of bilingualism. ultimately, mahootian (2020) highlights the need for a perspective that values bilingualism as an intricate phenomenon, moving beyond simple definitions to embrace the complexities of why, how, and when languages are used and learned. following the same chapter, mahootian (2020) delves further into the complexity of language acquisition, challenging the traditional binary view of monolingual and bilingual followed by edwards (2012a) and hoffmann (1991) among others. instead of a binary, she presents bilingualism as a varied spectrum influenced by a multitude of factors. for instance, the age of language acquisition, particularly the notion of a critical period during early childhood, plays a significant role, although its impact continues to be debated. similarly, the learning environment and timeline significantly affect the speed and fluency of acquisition. importantly, mahootian (2020) distinguishes between language acquisition and literacy. while literacy is a significant educational feature, it is not a deciding factor in determining bilingualism itself. as mahootian explains, literacy does not influence whether someone is bilingual, but rather it can shape the style or type of bilingualism. the functionality of each language in a bilingual individual’s life is another highlighted aspect, reflecting both the status of each language within a society and the influence of context, such as setting, audience, and topic. mahootian’s (2020) analysis reveals the dynamic and multifaceted nature of bilingualism, shaped by a complex interplay of personal and social factors. consequently, this comprehensive view promotes a more inclusive definition of bilingualism and enriches our comprehension of human linguistic abilities. chapter 2 investigates the societal impacts of bilingualism, examining its historical and linguistic dimensions. mahootian (2020) underlines the ubiquity of multilingualism throughout history, from ancient eras to the present day. for instance, stone columns in persepolis and reliefs on mountainsides in kermanshah, iran, dating back to 522– 486 bc, feature inscriptions in old persian, elamite, and babylonian, all detailing the conquests of king darius the great. similarly, the rosetta stone, from around 196 bc, bears inscriptions in three scripts: egyptian hieroglyphs, egyptian demotic script, and greek, reflecting the languages used in different spheres of ptolemaic egypt (mahootian, 2020). within the same chapter, she challenges the misconception that monolingualism is the norm, highlighting the prevalence of plurilingual societies throughout history and today. however, she also acknowledges that not all citizens within multilingual societies are themselves multilingual. mahootian probes the complexities of plurilingual societies, exploring how language shapes identity, unifies or divides communities, and can even lead to cultural endangerment, a theme she revisits throughout the book. she discusses two specific types of bilingualism, stable +/ diglossic bilingualism and maintaining bilingualism, to illustrate how environmental factors, social domains, and the perceived value of each language influence both the prevalence and transmission of bilingualism across generations. saieed moslemi nezhad arani and arzu atasoy 140 no. 27 mahootian (2020) further uncovers the profound impact of societal perceptions on bilingual individuals, particularly within immigrant contexts. negative sentiments, often rooted in language differences, fuel prejudiced views and widespread misconceptions about the influence of bilingualism on the economy, safety, and intelligence. this societal outlook not only contributes to xenophobia but also potentially triggers language endangerment, particularly impacting indigenous languages with significant historical and cultural richness. however, mahootian (2020) also emphasizes the vital role language plays in shaping individual and collective identities, ultimately leading to diverse forms of bilingualism. she advocates for a broader understanding of bilingualism that recognizes its historical continuity, global prevalence, and the oftenunseen consequences of language contact. by elucidating the potential for linguistic diversity endangerment, she highlights the urgency of language preservation and the need to integrate a comprehensive understanding of bilingualism into modern linguistic studies. in chapter 3, mahootian (2020) explores the phenomenon of code-switching, citing various studies (e.g., auer & dirim, 2003; blommaert, 2005; edwards, 2012b; eversteijn, 2011; mahootian, 2005; scotton & ury, 1977) to support her argument that code-switching is governed by social and grammatical rules. auer and dirim (2003), for instance, provide a foundational model that has been widely accepted in the field, but blommaert (2005) offers a more detailed perspective, emphasizing the importance of context in shaping code-switching behaviors. while both sources are integral to understanding code-switching, blommaert’s focus on contextual dynamics adds depth to mahootian’s argument, suggesting that code-switching cannot be fully understood through grammatical rules alone. mahootian (2020) explores the diverse functions of code-switching, highlighting its role in: • signaling shifts in conversation topics or social dynamics: for example, a speaker might switch to a different language to introduce a new topic or to signal a change in formality. • enhancing social and political statements: code-switching can be used to emphasize a point, express solidarity with a particular group, or challenge existing power structures. • revealing the speaker’s identity and group affiliations: language choice can be a powerful marker of personal and social identity, reflecting a speaker’s cultural background, ethnicity, or social class. the same chapter highlights the dynamic interplay between language choice, codeswitching, and the fluid concept of identity. the author argues that language is integral to shaping both personal and national identity, connecting individuals to their cultural heritage, signaling social standing, and influencing perceptions of power. she introduces the concept of “cultural code-switching,” which encompasses not only language but book review 141 no. 27 also shifts in behavior and communication style to navigate different cultural norms. for example, as argued by the author, many african american vernacular english speakers feel obligated to switch to a “white” variety of english to gain acceptance, be taken seriously, and navigate racial dynamics. this forced codeswitching highlights the social inequalities linked to language, where one language variety is unfairly privileged over another. mahootian (2020) acknowledges that multilingual communities often face prejudice and assumptions based on their language use, highlighting the need for greater understanding and sensitivity. she concludes by emphasizing that codeswitching is a rich and complex phenomenon, deeply embedded within the social fabric of multilingual communities. as globalization brings diverse cultures into closer contact, recognizing and appreciating the nuances of code-switching becomes increasingly vital for fostering cross-cultural respect and effective communication. chapter 4 explores the intricacies of childhood bilingualism, meticulously addressing seven key areas to provide a comprehensive understanding of this complex topic. the author, begins by examining the various paths children take to becoming bilingual, exploring strategies like the “one person, one language” and the delicate balance between home and public languages, known as the “home language-public language method” approach. maurice grammont’s “one-person, one-language” approach, introduced in 1902, has evolved into the modern “one-parent, onelanguage” approach for raising bilingual children. this method encourages each parent to consistently use a different language with their child. while the terminology shifted to reflect its common use in families, the core principle remains: associating each language with a specific person to minimize confusion and support clear language development. the “home language-public language method,” or minority language at home, promotes bilingualism by designating the minority language for home use and the majority language for public settings (mennen, 2009). this approach, often favored by families, ensures consistent exposure to both languages. using the minority language at home is particularly beneficial as it strengthens the weaker language (grosjean, 2010; hammer, 2013). while children may initially lag in the majority language upon entering school, studies show they catch up quickly with sufficient exposure. the chapter then shifts to the fascinating realm of bilingual cognition in infancy. mahootian (2020) highlights research methodologies such as the high amplitude sucking procedure, visual fixation procedure, and habituation to illuminate how infants perceive and process two languages simultaneously. she tackles the question of language differentiation in bilingual children, evaluating competing theories like the unitary language hypothesis and the dual system hypothesis (genesee, 1989; vihman, 1985). addressing common concerns, mahootian (2020) compares the developmental trajectories of bilingual and monolingual children. she explores whether bilingual upbringing significantly alters conventional language acquisition processes, considering factors like input quantity and developmental milestones. importantly, saieed moslemi nezhad arani and arzu atasoy 142 no. 27 she presents evidence that bilingual children develop language skills on par with their monolingual peers, dispelling the myth of language delay (paradis & jia, 2017; pearson et al., 1993). the chapter further investigates the cognitive implications of bilingualism, examining concepts like executive functions and metalinguistic awareness. the author explores whether navigating two languages from an early age confers cognitive advantages, such as enhanced attentional control or greater cognitive flexibility (bialystok, 2007; haft et al., 2019). mahootian (2020) revisits the phenomenon of code-switching, this time through the lens of childhood bilingualism. she analyzes whether children’s code-switching patterns differ from those of adults and whether they reflect a unitary or independent language system (gaskins et al., 2019; reyes, 2004). finally, the chapter emphasizes the crucial role of language maintenance in a bilingual child’s environment. the author stresses the importance of supporting the home language and highlights the contributions of both family and community in fostering bilingualism. chapter 4 concludes by advocating for a research agenda that is both rigorous and unbiased, urging researchers to challenge unfounded fears about bilingualism and to address socio-political issues head-on. by presenting a nuanced and evidence-based perspective on childhood bilingualism, mahootian (2020) encourages readers to embrace the richness and diversity of multilingualism. chapter five probes the cognitive implications of adult bilingualism, offering an exploration into how the dynamics of multiple languages impact individual language processing and the use of brain regions. the text distinguishes between early and late bilinguals’ language processing and investigates the potential cognitive enhancements or costs bilingualism may impart. it also scrutinizes the mechanisms of language control in bilingual individuals and analyzes how these individuals adeptly blend codes to communicate effectively, encapsulating an all-encompassing understanding of bilingualism’s cognitive aspects. the author’s perspective is enhanced by a detailed historical overview of technological advancements in understanding the bilingual and monolingual brains. before the 1990s, psycholinguists and neurolinguists mainly utilized timed observational experiments for their insights. however, the advent of technological developments over the past two decades, including non-invasive functional magnetic resonance imaging (fmri), positron emission tomography (pet) with radioactive tracers, and event-related potentials (erps) measuring electrical stimuli responses, has expanded access to real-time brain activity information (mulert et al., 2002; mullins, 2018; phan et al., 2002). in turn, this has significantly deepened our comprehension of language storage and processing in both monolingual and bilingual brains. the author further illuminates various methodological challenges in bilingual research, including inconsistent participant pool characteristics and a simplified, binary representation of bilingualism, which is better depicted as a continuum. small sample sizes, coupled with varying participant backgrounds, are critiqued due to the lack of reliable extrapolations, and the incorporation of cross-linguistic results book review 143 no. 27 is identified as problematic due to variability inherent to different languages. the author correlates these factors to the ongoing diversification of research outcomes, yielding contradictory conclusions. furthermore, mahootian (2020) defines a range of psycholinguistic and neurolinguistic concepts such as executive functions, cognitive load, working memory, neural activation, semantic memory, and semantic networks. she explicates executive functions as cognitive processes which mediate several mental operations, cognitive load as mental energy expenditure during information processing, and working memory as a limited capacity system that retains shortterm information. neural activation refers to brain region activity in response to various stimuli, whereas semantic memory pertains to our lifelong accumulation of word and concept knowledge, and semantic networks denote the conceptual links interconnecting words and ideas. within the same chapter, mahootian (2020) scrutinizes five key research areas in bilingual studies. the first question investigates whether bilingual languages are processed in different or overlapping brain regions. the author highlights the roles of fluency and age of acquisition in neural activation, suggesting more fluent or early bilinguals require less processing time for language tasks. however, the eventual verdict on the impact of bilingual language exposure on the brain’s language processing necessitates further inquiry. secondly, the author ponders the question: can early exposure to two languages affect processing? shreds of evidence linking structural brain changes and variations in grey matter amount with differences in language processing between monolinguals and bilinguals are discussed, pointing to bilingualism’s potential role in modifying language processing regions and even nonverbal processing areas. thirdly, the chapter queries if there is a cognitive advantage to bilingualism in adulthood. while monolingualism is conventionally seen as the norm, mahootian (2020) posits that bilinguals or multilinguals globally outnumber monolinguals, and evidence suggests that bilingualism can lead to cognitive benefits, giving a tentative yes to the question. the discussions reflect a need for more robust scientific explorations into bilingualism’s potential advantages and effects. the other two areas of inquiry in this chapter are, first, the question of whether the languages of a bilingual individual are activated at all times. an array of reported studies infers some degree of continuous activation and interaction between a bilingual individual’s languages, even in monolingual environments (bartolotti & marian, 2012; schmid & köpke, 2017). this is emphasized through the outcomes derived from priming tasks and lexical decision tasks. secondly, the potential processing cost of switching between languages is considered. the literature is inconclusive; some research suggests switching involves executive functions, thereby increasing general executive processing time and demanding additional cognitive control (garbin et al., 2010; lehtonen et al., 2018). despite the lack of certainty, it is also hypothesized that switching may enhance executive functions. the author accentuates that codeswitching is an intrinsic, systematic, and rule-governed part of bilingualism saieed moslemi nezhad arani and arzu atasoy 144 no. 27 exhibited as a dynamic behavior across bilingual speech communities. in reflecting on the author’s approach in this chapter, there is an appreciated scientific impartiality. the author threads carefully in tracing the complexities of bilingual processes and the present understanding within academia, effectively portraying the map and terrain of bilingual studies. the author renders the landscapes of research and inquiry openended, which not only reflects the current state of research but also represents an invitation for future academic explorations of bilingualism. overall, mahootian’s (2020) work offers a significant contribution to the field of bilingualism by providing a comprehensive and accessible overview of key research and debates. the book’s strength lies in its interdisciplinary approach, weaving together insights from psycholinguistics, neurolinguistics, and cognitive science to illuminate the complexities of bilingual language processing. by synthesizing research from diverse areas, the author clarifies complex concepts and highlights the dynamic interplay between language, brain, and cognition. this makes the book particularly valuable for students and researchers seeking a solid foundation in the field. furthermore, the book goes beyond merely summarizing existing knowledge by actively engaging with current debates and controversies. for instance, mahootian (2020) tackles the ongoing discussion surrounding the cognitive advantages of bilingualism, presenting a balanced perspective that acknowledges both the potential benefits and the methodological challenges inherent in this research area. this critical approach encourages readers to think deeply about the complexities of bilingualism and to engage with the nuances of the research findings. mahootian (2020) strategically structures her book to progressively guide the reader from broader societal and linguistic contexts of bilingualism towards the more intricate realms of childhood bilingualism and its cognitive implications. this approach is evident in the progression of chapters, beginning with definitions and societal implications, moving through language mixing and childhood bilingualism, and culminating in an in-depth exploration of bilingualism and the brain. throughout the book, the author skillfully weaves together research findings, theoretical frameworks, and real-world examples to support her claims. she frequently cites key studies in psycholinguistics, neurolinguistics, and cognitive science, demonstrating a thorough understanding of the relevant literature. moreover, her use of case studies and illustrative examples helps make complex concepts accessible to a wider audience, further strengthening her arguments and enhancing the overall clarity of the text. upon reviewing the content and structure of mahootian’s (2020) book, it is evident that the text is well-crafted and achieves its objectives effectively. given its comprehensive approach and the depth of analysis provided, the book does not necessitate further improvements at its current level. the detailed exploration and clear presentation of bilingualism make it a valuable resource for its intended audience. book review 145 no. 27 saieed moslemi nezhad arani and arzu atasoy references altarriba, j., & heredia, r. r. (2018). an introduction to bilingualism: principles and processes. routledge. auer, p., & dirim, i. (2003). socio-cultural orientation, urban youth styles and the spontaneous acquisition of turkish by non-turkish adolescents in germany. in (pp. 223-246). https://doi.org/10.1075/pbns.110.13aue baker, c. (2011). foundations of bilingual education and bilingualism (5th ed.). multilingual matters. bartolotti, j., & marian, v. (2012). language learning and control in monolinguals and bilinguals. cognitive science, 36 6, 1129-1147. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.15516709.2012.01243.x bialystok, e. (2007). cognitive effects of bilingualism: how linguistic experience leads to cognitive change. international journal of bilingual education and bilingualism, 10, 210 223. https://doi.org/10.2167/beb441.0 blommaert, j. (2005). discourse. cambridge university press. https://doi.org/10.1017/ cbo9780511610295 costa, a. (2016). the bilingual brain. routledge. edwards, j. (2012a). bilingualism and multilingualism: some central concepts. in the handbook of bilingualism and multilingualism (pp. 5-25). https://doi. org/10.1002/9781118332382.ch1 edwards, j. (2012b). bilingualism and multilingualism: some central concepts. in (pp. 5-25). https://doi.org/10.1002/9781118332382.ch1 eversteijn, n. (2011). all at once: language choice and codeswitching by turkish-dutch teenagers tilburg university]. garbin, g., sanjuán, a., forn, c., bustamante, j. c., rodríguez-pujadas, a., belloch, v., hernández, m., costa, a., & ávila, c. (2010). bridging language and attention: brain basis of the impact of bilingualism on cognitive control. neuroimage, 53, 1272-1278. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuroimage.2010.05.078 gaskins, d., frick, m., palola, e., & endesfelder quick, a. (2019). towards a usagebased model of early code-switching: evidence from three language pairs. applied linguistics review, 12, 179 206. https://doi.org/10.1515/applirev-2019-0030 146 no. 27 genesee, f. 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(1985). language differentiation by the bilingual infant. journal of child language, 12, 297 324. https://doi.org/10.1017/s0305000900006450 saieed moslemi nezhad arani and arzu atasoy 148 no. 27 authors *saieed moslemi nezhad arani is an assistant professor of tefl at the higher education complex of bam, iran. he holds a ph.d. in teaching english as a foreign language from imam khomeini international university in qazvin, iran. his educational background includes a bachelor’s degree in english language translation studies from payam-e-noor university in aran & bidgol, followed by a master’s degree in tefl from the university of sistan and baluchestan in zahedan, iran. he has made significant contributions to the field of tefl through his published papers and active participation in conferences. his research interests primarily focus on language teaching, teaching methodology, computer-assisted language learning (call), mobile-assisted language learning (mall), discourse analysis (semiotics), problem-based learning, affective filters, and the integration of ai with language teaching. orcid: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1295-0711 arzu atasoy possesses an extensive academic background as an associate professor specialized in the field of teaching writing, based on her ph.d. from hatay mustafa kemal university, türkiye. in addition, she has obtained a bachelor’s degree in turkish language education from erciyes university, followed by a master’s degree from hatay mustafa kemal university. dr. atasoy’s scholarly contributions include numerous publications in writing education studies, supplemented by her active participation in multiple conferences. her areas of interest primarily encapsulate teaching and writing in the turkish language. orcid: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7871-1713 book review 123 no. 29 using data-driven learning approach to enhance efl learners’ academic speaking skills uso del enfoque de aprendizaje basado en datos para mejorar las habilidades de expresión académica en inglés de los estudiantes de efl getasew chanie1 yinager teklesellassie2 kassie shifere3 bahir dar university,ethiopia 1 getasewcha12@gmail.com 2 yinagertekle61@gmail.com 3 kassieshifere@gmail.com gist education and learning research journal. issn 1692-5777. no. 29 (july december, 2024). pp. 123-149. no. 29 123 124 no. 29 abstract the application of corpus to language instruction encouraged the use of data-driven learning (ddl). it is assisted by computer technology, and uses authentic language data as the basis for language instruction. previously conducted studies have paid little attention to the use of corpus tools in speaking instruction. thus, this study aimed to examine the effects of datadriven learning approach on efl learners’ speaking skills development. a quasi-experimental research design that employed an interrupted time series design with single group participants was used. the participants were fourth-year efl major undergraduate students at mekdela amba university, ethiopia. in the intervention, which lasted for six weeks, the participants were taught target language features for speaking via data-driven learning approach. tests, questionnaires, and the students’ reflective journals were used to collect the data. anova and a one-sample t-test were used to analyze the quantitative data, while a qualitative analysis was employed for the students’ reflective journals. the findings indicated that the data-driven learning approach improved the speaking skills of efl students. additionally, participants felt that data-driven learning was beneficial to their speaking skill development and had positive attitudes on the utilization of ddl approach in speaking instruction. finally, considering the results, it was recommended that data-driven learning approach ought to be included into efl speaking instruction. keywords: data-driven learning, speaking skills development, authentic language data, computer-assisted approach, speaking instruction resumen la aplicación del corpus en la enseñanza de idiomas ha fomentado el uso del aprendizaje basado en datos (data-driven learning, ddl). este enfoque, asistido por tecnología informática, emplea datos auténticos del lenguaje como base para la instrucción lingüística. sin embargo, estudios previos han prestado poca atención al uso de herramientas de corpus en la enseñanza de la expresión oral. por ello, este estudio tuvo como objetivo examinar los efectos del enfoque de aprendizaje basado en datos en el desarrollo de las habilidades orales de los estudiantes de inglés como lengua extranjera (efl). se empleó un diseño de investigación cuasi-experimental con una serie temporal interrumpida y un solo grupo de participantes. los participantes fueron estudiantes de último año de la licenciatura en inglés como lengua extranjera en la universidad de mekdela amba, etiopía. durante la intervención, que tuvo una duración de seis semanas, se enseñaron características lingüísticas específicas para la expresión oral mediante el enfoque de aprendizaje basado en datos. para la recolección de datos se utilizaron pruebas, cuestionarios y diarios de reflexión de los estudiantes. el análisis de datos cuantitativos se realizó mediante anova y una prueba t de una muestra, mientras que los diarios de reflexión de los estudiantes fueron analizados cualitativamente. los resultados indicaron que el enfoque de aprendizaje basado en datos mejoró las habilidades de expresión oral de los estudiantes de efl. además, los participantes percibieron que este enfoque fue beneficioso para el desarrollo de sus habilidades orales y expresaron actitudes positivas hacia su uso en la enseñanza de la expresión oral. finalmente, en función de los resultados, se recomendó la inclusión del aprendizaje basado en datos en la instrucción del habla en inglés como lengua extranjera. enhancing efl academic speaking through data-driven learning 125 no. 29 palabras clave: aprendizaje basado en datos, desarrollo de habilidades orales, datos auténticos del lenguaje, enfoque asistido por computadora, enseñanza de la expresión oral resumo a aplicação de corpus no ensino de idiomas tem incentivado o uso da aprendizagem baseada em dados (data-driven learning, ddl). essa abordagem, assistida por tecnologia computacional, utiliza dados autênticos da linguagem como base para a instrução linguística. no entanto, estudos anteriores prestaram pouca atenção ao uso de ferramentas de corpus no ensino da expressão oral. portanto, este estudo teve como objetivo examinar os efeitos da abordagem de aprendizagem baseada em dados no desenvolvimento das habilidades orais dos alunos de inglês como língua estrangeira (efl). foi utilizado um desenho de pesquisa quase-experimental com uma série temporal interrompida e um único grupo de participantes. os participantes eram estudantes do último ano da graduação em inglês como língua estrangeira na universidade de mekdela amba, etiópia. durante a intervenção, que teve duração de seis semanas, foram ensinadas características linguísticas específicas para a expressão oral por meio da abordagem de aprendizagem baseada em dados. para a coleta de dados, foram utilizados testes, questionários e diários reflexivos dos alunos. a análise dos dados quantitativos foi realizada por meio de anova e um teste t de uma amostra, enquanto os diários reflexivos dos alunos foram analisados qualitativamente. os resultados indicaram que a abordagem de aprendizagem baseada em dados melhorou as habilidades de expressão oral dos alunos de efl. além disso, os participantes perceberam que essa abordagem foi benéfica para o desenvolvimento de suas habilidades orais e expressaram atitudes positivas em relação ao seu uso no ensino da expressão oral. finalmente, com base nos resultados, recomendou-se a inclusão da aprendizagem baseada em dados no ensino da expressão oral em inglês como língua estrangeira. palavras-chave: aprendizagem baseada em dados, desenvolvimento de habilidades orais, dados autênticos da linguagem, abordagem assistida por computador, ensino da expressão oral getasew chanie, yinager teklesellassie and mitiku tasisa dinsa 126 no. 29 introduction utilizing computer technology in language learning and teaching contexts involves an innovative application of methods and tools that are appropriate for language instruction. currently, computer technology is widely acknowledged as an essential educational tool in various teaching and learning contexts. this is especially true regarding teaching english language, as computer technology provides several opportunities to improve pedagogy and content (alqahtani, 2019). using this computer technology in the classroom ensures that students understand english better by giving them quick access to a range of real language samples (ludeling & kyto, 2008). one of the products of this computer technology is the corpus which is regarded as an important tool for english language teaching (romer, 2010). according to reppen (2010), a corpus is defined as “a large, principled collection of naturally occurring written or spoken texts stored electronically” (p.10). the use of corpus in the classroom promoted the application of data-driven learning (ddl) to the instruction of various language skills (braun, 2007). ddl is an approach of language learning where students use authentic language materials, such corpora, as a basis for their language learning and practice. for teaching english purposes, ddl provides students access to a wide variety of structured and focused written and spoken texts. with the help of digital technologies, learners can access vast databases of texts pertinent to their needs and numerous examples of target elements in context. applying ddl in efl classrooms according to romer (2011), there are two ways that ddl can be used in the classroom: direct application and indirect application. by using computer corpus data to examine and internalize the target language, learners can employ corpora directly in an inductive manner. on the other hand, indirect applications are deductive in nature and include students using second-hand corpus data with the help of paperbased examples prepared by teachers. low-proficiency learners are flooded with the large amount of confusing and unfamiliar language used in direct ddl (hands-on ddl). when learners with limited language skills are directly exposed to authentic language use, the complex and unfamiliar language may hinder their comprehension of the text. therefore, as teachers work to adapt corpus data to match students’ needs and levels of expertise, the indirect approach may help alleviate the concerns raised above (boulton, 2010). accordingly, in this study, the researchers used hands-off ddl, in which learners were exposed to concordance outputs and activities in the form of printed handouts. enhancing efl academic speaking through data-driven learning 127 no. 29 ddl in speaking instruction through exposure to authentic language in ddl instruction, learners acquaint themselves with natural and contextually suitable expressions (boulton, 2017). a corpus presents valuable resources for language learners aiming to enhance their speaking skills, as it provides numerous examples and language usage patterns. likewise, instruction based on data-driven learning (ddl) can effectively enhance language learners’ speaking skills by offering them genuine language data. speaking instruction can benefit greatly from data-driven learning, especially when utilizing a rich corpus such as michigan corpus of academic spoken english (micase). spoken language corpora show actual, authentic, natural speech that occurs in a variety of settings. according to baker et al. (2006), many english language learners are interested primarily in learning the language for practical purposes. thus, it is imperative that students be exposed to as much authentic speech as possible. similarly, thornbury (2007) argued that students’ speaking abilities improve when exposed to authentic speaking contexts. to expose learners to natural speech patterns and vocabulary used in specific contexts, ddl utilizes real-life language from the corpus. students can experience features of spoken languages such as small talk, discourse markers, formulaic sequences, vague language, ellipsis, and hedges through ddl-based approaches activities. teachers can use existing corpora such as micase or compile a corpus based on classroom interactions, activities, or findings from studies such as interviews (o’keeffe, mccarthy, & carter, 2007) for speaking instruction. for teachers interested in corpus data, recording classroom interactions is a great way to begin creating a corpus. the procedure may prove to be useful for preparing activities, monitoring the development of learners, and tracking their professional development. teachers can critically assess their instruction and classroom practices by compiling a teaching corpus (o’keeffe et al., 2007). when using corpora for classroom speaking instruction, teachers need to consider the learners’ english level and the skills they need to carry out tasks with them. in addition, the proposed corpus activities must match the learners’ needs and background knowledge. it may appear at first that corpus data are limited to students at the upper intermediate or advanced levels, but this is not true (o’keeffe et al., 2007). the teacher can prepare activities by manipulating and organizing the data according to the students’ proficiency level and the objectives established. using corpus-based materials becomes more important in countries where english is taught as a foreign language because learners in those countries have limited access to the target language (esayas, 2019). in line with this idea, yilmaz and koban koc (2020) reported that in countries where english is taught as a foreign language, students can produce target language items more quickly and seem more natural by utilizing corpus-based materials. by providing authentic language examples for getasew chanie, yinager teklesellassie and mitiku tasisa dinsa 128 no. 29 language learners and aiding language instruction, this approach allows students to learn how language works through access to authentic language data that are stored electronically (braun, 2007). nevertheless, corpora are not commonly used as a means of language instruction in efl contexts in ethiopia (lakew et al., 2021); consequently, learners have insufficient exposure to authentic english. the classroom material serves as the source of linguistic input for language instruction, and learners are only given examples of a target structure that the teacher has made up. therefore, adapting speaking instruction to real-world communication may be challenging if it relies too heavily on textbook english or is taught in controlled environments. a study by adem and berkessa (2022) confirmed that actual speaking practices in the classroom did not align with the principles of communicative language instruction, which include using and practicing authentic language. despite its importance, the applications of corpus-based research have remained limited in spoken learner corpus research (de cock, 2010). studies that have previously been conducted have paid little attention to using corpus tools in speaking skills instruction. as mentioned, there is clearly an empirical gap; studies on corpora have failed to consider speaking skills. many of them have attempted to conduct studies by combining corpus with grammar (johns, 1991; boulton, 2009), collocation (vyatkina, 2016), prepositions (boontam & phoocharoensil, 2018), writing (levchenko, 2017; birhan et al., 2021; yoon & hirevela; 2004, boulton, 2010) and vocabulary (geluso &yamaguchi, 2014). a local study by lakew et al (2021) aimed to examine the effect of corpus-informed spoken grammar instruction on efl learners’ oral language production, and the findings of the study revealed that corpus-informed spoken grammar instruction enhanced efl learners’ oral language production. regarding the researchers’ reading, few studies have focused on the effect of the ddl approach on learners’ speaking skills (geluso & yamaguch, 2014; sahin kizil & savran, 2018). for this reason, studies on the application of corpus into speaking instruction need to be conducted. in the same vein, de cock (2010) suggested that further must be done on spoken learner corpora. in addition, cobb and boulton (2015) highlighted the necessity of conducting research that integrates corpus techniques into speaking skills instruction in an efl context and suggested that this area of study is a gap to be filled by future research. therefore, the objective of the current study was to address this gap by employing ddl in speaking activities for efl students. consequently, this research aimed to answer the following questions: 1. does implementing the ddl approach affect undergraduate efl learners’ academic speaking skills? 2. what are undergraduate efl learners’ perceptions of using the ddl approach in efl speaking skills instruction in an academic context? enhancing efl academic speaking through data-driven learning 129 no. 29 methodology research design the study employed quasi-experimental research with an interrupted time series design in single group participants. an interrupted time series design involves studying one group, obtaining multiple pre-test measures for a period of time, administering an intervention, and then measuring outcomes (or post-tests) several times. in other words, this design involves repeated observations before and after the intervention and allows the researcher to observe behavior across time (bordens & abbott, 2011). in the present study, both quantitative and qualitative data collection and analysis techniques were employed. thus, the study used the mixed methods approach, which helps the researchers use quantitative and qualitative data to better understanding the research problem. research setting and participants the current study participants were fourth-year undergraduate efl students at mekdela amba university in the academic year of 2023. they were registered for the course ‘seminar on selected topics’. a total of 17 participants were included in the study. the sample consisted of 11 males and six females. they ranged in age from 23-26 years old. the participants were from diverse cultural, socioeconomic, and l1 backgrounds. they had exposure to english only through formal education. they used english to study courses at undergraduate level, and they could comprehend and carry out oral and written activities in english despite noticeable difficulties. according to the common european framework of reference for languages (cefr): learning, teaching, and assessment (council of europe, 2020), the students’ level of proficiency can fit into b2 (upper intermediate). the intact group was directly taken for the purpose of the research because the study employed a quasi-experimental study which relies on intact group randomization (creswell, 2012). data collection instruments tests in this study, oral presentation tests were the major data collection tools. each participant was asked to make four consecutive pre-intervention oral presentations and four post-intervention oral presentations on academic issues. the pre-intervention oral presentations were aimed to examine the students’ current level of oral proficiency. similarly, post-intervention oral presentations were administered to determine the getasew chanie, yinager teklesellassie and mitiku tasisa dinsa 130 no. 29 effect of the intervention on the dependent variable. the oral presentations were informative and argumentative. the time allotted for each oral presentation was seven minutes. the topics of the oral presentations include: ‘reasons for university students’ drop out’ and ‘living in countryside versus living in urban areas’, ‘factors for students’ failure in university entrance examination,’ and ‘controlling university students’ way of life’. it was supposed that the contents of these topics of the oral presentations were familiar to students at university level. the contents of the preand post-intervention presentations were related but not identical topics. the interval between each pre-test is one week, which is deemed sufficient to establish a baseline measurement and assess any natural fluctuations or trends in the dependent variable. similarly, the interval between the subsequent post-tests was one week, considered appropriate for tracking immediate changes. moreover, there was a 6-week gap between the pre and postintervention oral presentation test because the ddl intervention took 6 weeks, and the first post-intervention was administered immediately after the intervention. prior to the intervention, the oral presentation tests were piloted to a pilot group to identify any discrepancies in the difficulty level and make possible improvements. then, the reliability of the pre-test and post-test results was assessed using test-retest reliability. accordingly, the cronbach’s alpha test of reliability results (for the pre-test, α = .901, and for the post-test, α = .861) showed that the tests were reliable. the students’ academic oral presentations were audio recorded during the test administration, and their scores were assessed using rubrics that focus on speaking performance. a rubric based on the descriptors of the speaking band of the international english language testing system (ielts) (british council, 2024) was used to assess the students’ speaking performance. the speaking band descriptors include fluency and coherence, grammatical range and accuracy, lexical resources, and pronunciation. two senior efl university lecturers were given the recorded oral presentations of the students to score. based on the speaking band descriptors, the two raters marked the students’ oral presentations independently. orientation was given to raters regarding the speaking band descriptors to help them develop a shared understanding of the scale. additionally, inter-rater reliability was computed using pearson’s correlations (pearson’s, r), and the result was 0.75, indicating that it was reliable. post-instruction questionnaire this study used a post-intervention perception questionnaire to gather learners’ perceptions of the ddl approach in speaking skills instruction. the perception questionnaire was adapted from yoon and hirvela (2004), who assessed esl student attitudes toward corpus use in l2 writing. the questionnaire for perception consists of 18 items that deal with the use of ddl in learning speaking, and the difficulties in the use of the ddl approach. the majority of the items (16 of 18) were positively worded. all the questionnaire items were closed-ended questions which could yield enhancing efl academic speaking through data-driven learning 131 no. 29 quantitative data. after the questionnaire items were constructed, it was reviewed by two scholars who were specialized in teaching english as a foreign language (tefl) for content validity. the reviewers basically agreed on the contents of most of the questionnaire items. their degree of agreement was estimated to be 78%. among 18 items, improvements were made on four of the questionnaire items. according to their feedback, two items were found unnecessary, left out, and replaced with relevant ones. the other two items were revised in a way that was simple to understand. in addition, the questionnaire’s internal reliability was checked using the cronbach’s alpha test, and the result (α = .861) showed that the perception questionnaire was reliable. the questionnaire items were presented as likert scales, and participants were asked to indicate their levels of agreement on a 5-point likert scale, where 1 represents strongly disagree and 5 represents strongly agree. students’ reflective journals reflective journals were used to collect qualitative data about students’ feelings, thoughts, and experiences on ddl instruction. the students’ reflective journals were collected throughout the intervention, which lasted for six weeks, to obtain data on students’ reactions while working on corpus-based ddl tasks. the participants (n=17) were requested to keep regular records of their daily experiences regarding the ddl intervention. this helped to understand the participants’ perceptions of the ddl approach in their own descriptions. in addition, students’ reflective journals provided a means to identify the hindering and contributing factors of the intervention process. accordingly, a checklist containing six questions was designed to guide students’ reflections on the effectiveness of the ddl intervention, major problems encountered during intervention, and ways to improve the intervention. data collection procedure the data collection procedure started with selecting the conveniently available university (mekdela amba university) for the study and obtaining permission from the university through a formal letter approved by bahir dar university. this was followed by receiving participants’ consent for participation. once participants were given necessary orientation, pre-intervention oral presentations were administered to determine the learners’ speaking skills/oral presentation skills before the intervention. then, the intervention was given for six weeks. after the completion of the intervention, post-intervention oral presentations were administered to determine the effects of the ddl intervention on the learners’ oral presentation skills. in addition, the study participants completed a post-intervention perception questionnaire immediately after the intervention. to substantiate the perception questionnaire, qualitative data were getasew chanie, yinager teklesellassie and mitiku tasisa dinsa 132 no. 29 collected via students’ reflective journals. learners recorded their daily experiences of learning speaking through the ddl approach. the english version was used for both the questionnaire and the reflective journals because the participants had different l1 backgrounds. corpus material design and intervention the corpus selection was the first step that had been performed before the actual intervention began. a specialized corpus that focuses mainly on the academic genre is necessary to study academic spoken english. accordingly, the michigan corpus of academic spoken english (micase, 2002) was selected for the study under investigation. this corpus contains a total of 152 speech events, containing examples of virtually every kind of speech event that occurs on a university campus. this wide variety of speeches was recorded and transcribed. it is a corpus composed entirely of academic spoken english, providing the best possible snapshot of the language used in a university context. the corpus was used as a source for two types of information: expression frequency and expression context. frequency of the expressions was used to select common expressions as models for the students. the corpus also provided contextualized, authentic examples of the expressions used. after selecting the corpus, the next step was identifying target expressions using the course material and other instructional materials. we collected a list of the formulaic academic expressions for greeting audiences, introducing oneself, introducing the topic, illustrating points, sequencing ideas, expressing opinions, signalling conclusions, summarizing, and thanking, which are commonly used in different sections of an academic oral presentation. based on the lower cut-off limit for an expression to be considered frequent, which is 10 occurrences/million words, according to the guidelines proposed by bardovi-harlig et al. (2015) and biber et al. (1999), the following frequency counts of the formulaic expressions were taken from the micase. enhancing efl academic speaking through data-driven learning 133 no. 29 table 1. frequency count of formulaic sequences from micase focus expressions (occurrences pmw in micase) greeting audience good morning ladies and gentlemen (14), good afternoon (17) introducing oneself my name is (18), let me introduce myself (11), i would like to introduce myself (10) announcing the topic i’m going to talk about (12+), i want to talk about (10) illustrating points sequencing ideas to illustrate this point (15), let me give you an example (12), for example (381) first/ second/ then/ next i will explain about (11), let’s now take a look at (10) expressing opinion personally, i think (11), i believe that (27) signalling conclusion to conclude (16), as a final point (10+) summarizing a point to summarize (12), let me briefly summarize (11) thanking audience thank you (455), thank you for your attention (10+) after identifying the target expressions, contextualized examples from the micase corpus were extracted. accordingly, examples of each of the target expressions were selected. the examples were in the form of a concordance line containing the target language feature in context. moreover, the students were provided with extracts of model oral presentations. for example, the following concordance outputs and sample extracts, which indicate topic introduction expressions, were taken from the corpus. concordance line for ‘i want to talk about’ sample extract for the topic introduction expression: ‘what i want to talk about’ okay, then, what i want to talk about is um, a little bit about the processes of rivers, and understanding more about what the purpose of a river is. therefore, rivers are basically they’re great, levellers that transport material from high in the landscape, and they wash it out to lower in the landscape. so they’re moving this material from upward, down, to lower grounds and water basins and then... transcript id: les425su093 getasew chanie, yinager teklesellassie and mitiku tasisa dinsa 134 no. 29 once the language samples were selected and adapted for use in the classroom, the next step was to develop classroom materials and activities. lessons that provide learners with input and production activities were designed. the lesson included both production and focused-noticing activities. for the actual intervention, two kinds of activities were designed: consciousnessraising activities and production activities. first, based on the inputs from the corpus, consciousness-raising and noticing activities were designed. these activities contained concordance evidence and model oral presentation extracts from the micase corpus. the consciousness-raising activities were designed to make learners aware of the target formulaic expressions found in the authentic language use, and learners were asked to identify and analyse target formulaic sequences used in the spoken transcripts taken from the micase corpus. moreover, they were told to notice the language features presented in the concordance lines and extracts of model oral presentations. for example, learners worked in groups of three to identify how the speakers in the model extracts used the formulaic expressions in the different stages of the oral presentations. moreover, they were ordered to underline the formulaic expressions that the speaker uses in the different stages of the oral presentations. in another focused noticing activity, learners were given model oral presentation excerpts and concordance lines, which contained highlighted and bolded target formulaic expressions, engaged in noticing the target formulaic expressions to observe how native speakers use these target formulaic expressions in speaking. the consciousness-raising and focused noticing activities generally provided learners with an explicit knowledge of the target language features. besides, these corpus-based activities could help learners understand essential language to improve their speaking skills/ oral presentations. in the production activities, speaking activities were designed so that learners could have an opportunity to use knowledge of the target language features or declarative knowledge in communication through repeated practice. this section of the ddl lesson took relatively longer time. for example, in the first section of the ddl lesson, learners worked on practicing how to greet the audience; in the second section, they were asked to announce the oral presentation topics using appropriate formulaic expressions, and so on. for the first time, learners consciously retrieve formulaic sequences to produce speech or to make oral presentation because this is a rehearsal stage in which learners get the opportunity to practice presentation with their new formulaic sequences. however, through repeated exposure and use, learners became more familiar and gradually developed the ability to retrieve and produce them automatically. this leads them gradually to acquire procedural knowledge, possibly forming implicit knowledge. the corpus-based teaching of target formulaic expressions in speaking instruction improved the sub skills of speaking. when learners are exposed to a wide repertoire of formulaic sequences through corpus-based noticing and production activities, the enhancing efl academic speaking through data-driven learning 135 no. 29 formulaic sequences may help improve fluency in speaking because repeated exposure to formulaic sequences allows speakers to retrieve and produce language chunks more quickly, facilitating speech fluency (wood, 2009). in the current intervention, learners were exposed to formulaic expressions via model oral presentation excerpts from the micase corpus, and they had repeated oral presentations using the target formulaic expressions, and this made students’ academic presentations more fluent. moreover, corpus-based teaching of formulaic sequences introduces learners to a wide range of vocabulary items and other fixed expressions, increasing learners’ vocabulary diversity. studies also confirmed that corpus-based teaching of formulaic sequences positively affects the improvement of lexical resources, which is the main component of the speaking performance. learners who were treated with ddl approach improved their lexical resources in spoken english (pan, 2024; tosun & sofu, 2023). using corpus-informed spoken materials also helps learners to observe how grammar is used in context, allowing learners to observe and internalize correct grammar patterns. when learners are exposed to corpus-based formulaic sequences, they can access different grammatical structures that they may not be able to produce accurately on their own. moreover, using prefabricated chunks of language reduced the rate of making mistakes that might occur when producing language word by word. regarding this, wood (2009) found that esl learners who used formulaic sequences exhibited increased fluency and a wider range of grammatical structures. data analysis methods in this study, quantitative and qualitative data analysis techniques were employed to analyse the data obtained from the research participants. the one-way repeatedmeasures anova was employed to determine whether there were any differences in the academic oral presentation scores of the students before and after the intervention. the repeated measures anova used include descriptive statistics (mean scores of the participants’ in the four pre-intervention oral presentations and four postintervention oral presentations), and tests of within-subjects effects (assessing the statistical significance of the effect of the ddl approach across different time periods within the same participants). additionally, a corpus-based analysis of participants’ academic oral presentations was used to determine the frequencies of using the target formulaic sequences before and after the intervention. to do this, oral presentations were digitally recorded and then transcribed into word and text files for use in the data analysis. then, the transcripts were scanned and converted into an electronic file, and then the laurence anthony’s ant conc (anthony, 2024) version 4.3.0 software was applied to obtain the frequencies of using the target formulaic sequences from the learners’ oral presentations. moreover, one-sample t-tests and descriptive statistics getasew chanie, yinager teklesellassie and mitiku tasisa dinsa 136 no. 29 were used to analyze the post-intervention perception questionnaire data. this statistical technique compares the sample’s observed mean score to the population mean to analyze data from a single sample group. the statistical package for the social sciences (spss) version 25 was used to conduct the study’s descriptive and inferential statistical operations. furthermore, in this study, thematic analysis was used to analyze the qualitative data that was gathered from student-reflective journals. this analysis involved identifying and reporting significant themes from the qualitative data. the steps followed in the thematic analysis include reading the students’ reflective journals repeatedly to make sense of the data, taking significant quotes from the data, developing themes, and finally analysing and narrating the data. findings and discussion test results each participant delivered eight oral presentation tests (four pre-intervention presentations and four post-intervention presentations). these oral presentation tests were used to examine the effect of the data-driven learning approach on the academic oral presentations of efl learners. the oral presentation test results analysed via oneway repeated measures anova are presented. the descriptive statistics table 2. students’ test scores before and after the intervention mean std devation n pre-test 1 37.65 2.714 17 pre-test 2 38.41 3.022 17 pre-test 3 40.65 2.999 17 pre-test 4 41.82 2.651 17 post-test 1 46.12 2.956 17 post-test 2 48.88 3.018 17 post-test 3 51.29 2.640 17 post-test 4 52.41 2.265 17 the descriptive statistics result in table 2 shows the potential differences in the students’ test scores for academic speaking skills before and after the intervention. accordingly, the mean scores of the students’ speaking test results before the intervention were (pre-test-1, m = 37.65; pre-test-2, m = 38.41; pre-test-3, m = 40.65, enhancing efl academic speaking through data-driven learning 137 no. 29 and pre-test-4, m = 41.82). likewise, the mean scores of the students’ speaking skills performance post-test scores were (post-test-1, m = 46.12; post-test -2, m = 48.88; post-test-3, m = 51.29, and post-test-4, m= 52.41). from these test results, one can understand that the students’ mean scores in the pre-tests were slightly increased from pre-test 1 to pre-test 4. similarly, there is a slight increment in the students’ mean scores from post-test 1 to post-test 4. however, there is a significant difference in the mean scores of the pre-tests and post-tests. in other words, the students’ mean scores in the post-tests were higher than those of the pre-tests. it implies that the students’ academic speaking skills have been improved after the intervention. tests of within-subjects effects the test of within-subject effects assesses the statistical significance of the effect of the independent variable across different situations or time periods within the same subjects. in this study, the performance of the sample students on tests revealed a notable mean effect of data-driven instruction on their academic oral presentations (f (3.908, 62.534) = 166.537; p < 0.05). the obtained p-value signifies a statistically significant effect of data-driven instruction on the students’ academic oral presentations. additionally, the partial eta squared (ηp2) indicates the magnitude of the effect on the sample students’ oral language production. as shown in table 3, the intervention yielded an effect size of .912, signifying a large effect size greater than the usual cut-off point of .14. table 3. tests of within-subjects effects source type iii sum df mean f sig. partial eta of squares square squared test sphericity assumed 4019.228 7 574.175 166.537 .000 .912 greenhouse‒geisser 4019.228 3.908 1028.360 166.537 .000 .912 huynh-feldt 4019.228 5.330 754.144 166.537 .000 .912 lower-bound 4019.228 1.000 4019.228 166.537 .000 .912 error(test) sphericity assumed 386.147 112 3.448 greenhouse‒geisser 386.147 62.534 6.175 huynh-feldt 386.147 85.272 4.528 lower-bound 386.147 16.000 24.134 corpus analysis results in addition to the above quantitative analysis, a corpus-based analysis of participants’ academic oral presentations was used to determine the frequencies of using the target formulaic sequences. getasew chanie, yinager teklesellassie and mitiku tasisa dinsa 138 no. 29 this method enabled the researchers to note the effect of the ddl intervention on the participants’ oral presentations by comparing their use of the target formulaic sequences before and after the implementation of the ddl intervention. table 4 below presents the frequency of using the formulaic sequences. table 4. frequency of using formulaic expressions in pre-tests and post-tests focus formulaic sequences pre-tests post-tests greeting audience good morning 6 14 good afternoon 12 18 introducing oneself my name is 10 10 let me introduce myself 5 7 i would like to introduce myself 2 3 announcing the topic i am going to talk about 2 11 i want to talk about 8 14 illustrating points to illustrate this point 3 let me give you an example 4 6 for example 23 25 opinion personally, i think 6 16 i believe that 4 3 conclusion to conclude 3 17 as a final point 4 summary to summarize 5 13 let me briefly summarize 1 9 thanking thank you 14 27 thank you very much for your attention 8 29 each study participant delivered four consecutive pre-intervention and four postintervention oral presentations. this means that we have 136 oral presentations from the 17 participants. the above-mentioned frequencies of formulaic sequences are obtained by analysing the oral presentations delivered by the research participants. based on the data, the participants used a total of 113 formulaic sequences in the pre-tests and 228 formulaic sequences in the post-tests. formulaic sequences used for greeting, illustrating a point, and thanking the audience are the most used. the number of formulaic sequences in the post-tests is much greater than the formulaic sequences used in the pre-tests. this indicates that the quality of oral presentations after the intervention was better, as learning formulaic expressions contributed to improving students’ speaking, particularly oral presentation (dickinson, 2019). enhancing efl academic speaking through data-driven learning 139 no. 29 post-intervention questionnaire results table 5. participants’ perceptions of the ddl-based intervention items statements mean sd 1 the ddl instruction was interesting 3.71 .686 2 the presentation of the ddl tasks and activities were good 3.59 .507 3 the ddl instruction helped you improve your oral presentation skills 3.88 .600 4 the ddl tasks were not difficult to complete 3.88 .485 5 if you attend a speaking lesson, you should always use the ddl units 3.53 .624 6 the concordance-based activities were not relevant to the course seminar on selected topics 2.47 .514 7 the concordance inputs helped you discover new patterns 3.59 .507 8 new vocabulary and formulaic expressions were taught in the ddl instruction. 3.65 .702 9 the ddl instruction helped you learn how to greet audiences in your oral presentation 3.59 .507 10 the ddl instructionw helped you learn how to introduce yourself and your topic of presentation 3.59 .507 11 the ddl units helped you learn how to express the purpose of your presentation 3.59 .507 12 the instruction in ddl helped you learn how to outline your points of presentation. 3.41 .507 13 the units helped you learn how to illustrate a point in a presentation 3.35 .493 14 the ddl based instructions were easy to follow 2.71 .470 15 the language points selected in the ddl instruction were useful 3.35 .493 16 the concordance lines were easy to understand 2.65 .493 17 the concordance lines were well chosen (e.g. vocabulary not too difficult) 2.35 .606 18 noticing of language features in concordance lines was an interesting way of learning english 3.00 .500 getasew chanie, yinager teklesellassie and mitiku tasisa dinsa 140 no. 29 according to table 5, four of the items (items 6, 14, 16, and 17) have mean scores that are less than 3, and most of the items (items 14 out of 18) have mean scores that are greater than the average (i.e., 3). the mean score of item 6 is below the average, but it doesn’t mean it should be interpreted negatively. most participants did not agree with the item, as indicated by the statement, “the units are not relevant to the course seminar on selected topics.” consequently, this item suggests a positive interpretation, and the researchers see a lower mean score as positive. the lower mean scores of the other items (items 14, 16, and 17) are taken negatively,  indicating that participants do not think the concordance lines and instructions are easy. this suggests that the participants faced difficulty comprehending the input presented in the concordance lines due to the difficulty of the vocabulary. according to the responses of the participants of the study, the implementation of ddl activities in the classroom helped the students learn formulaic expressions that helped them use various sections of their academic oral presentations. in addition, most of the learners responded that the corpus helped them improve their academic oral presentation skills. generally, by examining the intervention and questionnaire findings, it was observed that students benefited from ddl-based activities and held positive attitudes towards using the corpus in the classroom. thus, instructional materials for speaking instruction should be corpus-informed to include real-life practices and to teach learners actual language use. the findings of the study also align with the findings of sahin kizil and savran (2018). these authors conducted a small-scale study on the integration of corpus into speaking instruction, specifically explored students’ perceptions towards the instruction, and found that students benefited from concordance-based learning activities and held positive attitudes towards using it in learning speaking. to determine whether the mean scores of the likert scale were significantly greater than the expected mean, the researchers computed a one-sample t-test. the descriptive statistics reveal that the majority of the sample students’ responses have mean scores that are above the average point, but they do not indicate whether these mean scores are significantly greater than the average value. table 6 below presents a summary of the t-test results. table 6. the descriptive statistics of the students’ questionnaire one-sample statistics perception score n mean std. deviation std. error mean 17 3.3465 .48600 .11787 enhancing efl academic speaking through data-driven learning 141 no. 29 table 6 depicts the mean and standard deviation scores of the participants were 3.3465 and 0.48600 respectively. the participants’ mean score (i.e., 3.3465) was slightly greater than the population mean (i.e.,3.00). however, a one-sample t-test was carried out because the descriptive statistics results by themselves were insufficient to determine whether there was a statistically significant difference between the sample mean and the hypothesized mean, and the results are shown below. table 7. the one-sample t-test results for the student questionnaire test value = 3 t df sig. (2-tailed) mean difference 95% confidence interval of the difference lower upper perception score 2.939 16 .010 .34647 .0966 .5964 as shown in table 7, the perception score (t (16) = 2.939, p = 0.010, md = 0.34647) was greater than the hypothesized mean score, and the difference was statistically significant (p = 0.010). thus, it can be concluded that the participants’ perceptions of learning speaking through the ddl-based approach were positive. data from student-reflective journals the students’ reflective journal results showed that students’ academic oral presentation skills improved after implementing the data-driven instruction. the students reported that the method is helpful for their oral presentations. for instance, student 4 said: compared to the strategies i utilized previously, the ddl approach is beneficial for my academic oral presentation because it gives me the chance to observe crucial linguistic features for my presentation. i developed my presentation with the assistance of the sample oral presentation extracts that were given in class. the linguistic inputs in the form of concordance lines helped me enhance my presentation by providing me with significant expressions. furthermore, students in the reflective journal reported that they had problems in their academic presentations before the current intervention. they stated that their problems were due to a shortage of formulaic sequences used in different sections of oral presentations. to this end, the students reported that they liked the ddl approach because the data-driven instruction helped them to ease their oral presentation problems. one of the students put his view this way: getasew chanie, yinager teklesellassie and mitiku tasisa dinsa 142 no. 29 compared to the previous teachers’ methods of teaching speaking skills through oral presentations, i felt comfortable with the data-driven instruction because this instruction provided me with authentic input and guided me to improve my academic oral presentation skills. i am now better at my oral presentation. as the students stated in the student-reflective journal, the inputs given to them in the form of concordance lines and model extracts were helpful to know more about formulaic sequences that are used to make academic oral presentations. the students mainly stated that the noticing and consciousness-raising activities used in the corpusdriven instruction helped them identify target linguistic features used to improve their academic oral presentation skills. in the same vein, the learners stated that the concordance helped them improve their understanding of formulaic sequences, and they suggested that it was useful approach for learning formulaic sequences. regarding the difficulties faced during ddl-based instruction, one of the learners mentioned the following: at the very beginning of the intervention, i faced many challenges. for example, the unfamiliar vocabulary and the cut-off sentences in the concordance output challenged me to understand the target language feature. however, the teacher’s mediation helped me to understand and enjoy the instruction. in summary, the data obtained from the students’ reflective journal showed that despite some difficulties, the ddl unit helped enhance students’ academic oral presentation skills. discussion this study aimed to examine the effect of data-driven instruction on efl learners’ speaking skills. the research findings confirmed that data-driven instruction significantly improved efl learners’ speaking skills. as indicated in the data analysis section, there was a significant difference between the mean scores of the pre-test and post-test results. the mean scores from the preand post-tests verified that the mean differences were statistically significant. the  post-test scores were greater than the pre-test scores, implying that the intervention significantly affected the participants’ academic oral presentations. moreover, the tests of within subjects effects result (f (3.908, 62.534) = 166.537; p < 0.05) indicated that the ddl intervention brought a significant effect on learners’ academic speaking skills. the results obtained from this study agree with those of previous investigations. for example, a study conducted by sahin kizil and savran (2018) proved that corpusbased activities were beneficial for efl learners’ speaking skills development and that there was a positive attitude toward web-based concordancing. in the same vein, enhancing efl academic speaking through data-driven learning 143 no. 29 pan (2024) confirmed that the ddl approach significantly improved the vocabulary production of efl learners in their spoken english. the effectiveness of corpus-based instruction for improving pragmatic and speech act knowledge was also demonstrated by sabzalipour et al. (2017) and bardovi-harlig et al. (2017), the latter of which revealed that both direct corpus searches and teacher-developed materials were effective. regarding the perception of participants, the descriptive statistics result showed that the participants’ perception mean score (3.34) was greater than the hypothesized population mean score (3.00). moreover, the one sample t-test result, (t (16) = 2.939, p = 0.010, md = 0.34647) confirmed that participants had favourable perception towards learning speaking through ddl approach. in support of this, results obtained from reflective journals revealed that the ddl approach helped learners with their academic speaking skills. participants noted that the corpus data provided for learners as input, and the concordance-based activities helped them to enhance their academic speaking. participant clearly stated that the ddl intervention effectively taught the target language features. they noted that their academic speaking has improved and they became more aware of formulaic sequences for speaking. moreover, they were pleased to be exposed directly to authentic real-life language or corpus data. these findings obtained from the perception questionnaire were also consistent with previous studies. the results of the study by geluso and yamaguchi (2014); students believe ddl to be a useful and effective tool in the classroom for speaking skills instruction. as a result, these authors concluded that for speaking skill, which is an area in language in which learners have various types of difficulty, providing students with corpus-informed materials can improve their oral communication. in their studies, lakew et al. (2021) and birhan et al. (2021) also reported that students exhibiting significant achievements and showing a favourable attitude toward the instruction. in addition to the speaking tests, learners in their reflective journals indicated that their lexical resources, which are basic speaking components, improved due to the paper-based ddl instruction. this, in turn, helped them develop their speaking skills. this finding is also consistent with the study of lay and yavuz (2020), who found that, at the b2 level, paper-based ddl instruction is more effective than conventional instruction using academic lexical bundles. collectively, the results of this study and previous studies indicate that data-driven learning can help efl learners improve their speaking abilities, including in ethiopia. getasew chanie, yinager teklesellassie and mitiku tasisa dinsa 144 no. 29 conclusion and pedagogical implications this study examines the effect of incorporating corpus-based ddl instruction into teaching academic speaking, particularly academic oral presentations. teacherprepared paper-based ddl instruction helps learners improve their academic oral presentation skills. the clear pedagogical implication of this study is that a careful combination of teacher-developed ddl materials for speaking instruction helps learners notice that formulaic sequences would be ideal. moreover, teachers can supplement classroom teaching materials through the use of corpora containing language samples for speaking instruction. this study also shows that a corpusinformed approach has an important impact on learning spoken features of a language and micro skills of speaking. the findings of this research also carry different implications. first, the findings suggest that a computer-aided ddl approach is beneficial for discovering formulaic sequences that can be used for speaking in natural contexts. second, the findings indicate that english language teachers should consider empirical language data when preparing academic speaking materials to meet students’ academic speaking needs instead of relying on teacher-made examples; teachers should depend on authentic examples and linguistic resources content. limitations despite the effective attempts to conduct this study, it was not without limitations. activities and tasks for the intervention material were designed depending on an academic spoken english corpus (micase) because the problem under investigation is academic speaking english. however, taking speech transcripts did not contribute to improving participants’ pronunciation, which is an important component of speaking. if an audio corpus had supplemented the preparation of activities and tasks, participants could have observed native speakers’ pronunciations. moreover, the application of ddl approach can be better if the combination of direct ddl and indirect ddl is applied. however, logistic constraints prevented the researchers from applying the direct approach. for this reason, the preparation of ddl activities becomes time-consuming and tiresome. enhancing efl academic speaking through data-driven learning 145 no. 29 references adem, h., & berkessa, m. 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(2016). data-driven learning of collocations: learner performance, proficiency, and perceptions. language learning & technology, 20(3), 159–179. retrieved from http://llt.msu.edu/issues/october2016/vyatkina.pdf wood, d. (2009). effects of focused instruction of formulaic sequences on fluent expression in second language narratives: a case study. canadian journal of applied linguistics, 12(1), 39-57. yilmaz, n., & koban koc, d. (2020). developing pragmatic comprehension and production: corpus-based teaching of formulaic sequences in an efl setting. journal of language and linguistic studies, 16(1), 474-488. doi: 10.17263/ jlls.712880 yoon, h. & hirvela, a. (2004). esl student attitudes toward corpus use in l2 writing. journal of second language writing, 13, 257-283. enhancing efl academic speaking through data-driven learning 149 no. 29 authors getasew chanie is a lecturer at mekdela amba university, ethiopia. he is a ph.d. candidate at bahir dar university. his area of research interest includes using corpusbased instruction in grammar instruction, introducing corpus-informed materials in writing instruction, improving learners’ pragmatic competence through corpus-based instruction and corpus-based instruction of formulaic sequences to improve learners’ speaking skills. orcid: https://orcid.org/0009-0005-2585-2247 yinager teklesellassie (ph.d.) is an associate professor and serves as an instructor and researcher at bahir dar university, ethiopia. he has been teaching various courses to students in undergraduate and postgraduate programs. he has also been advising and supervising ma and ph.d. students. orcid: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8053-474 kassie shifere (ph.d.) is an associate professor and serves as an instructor and researcher at bahir dar university, ethiopia. he has been teaching various courses to students in undergraduate and postgraduate programs. he has also been advising and supervising ma and ph.d. students. orcid: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6035-0596 getasew chanie, yinager teklesellassie and mitiku tasisa dinsa gist education and learning research journal. issn 1692-5777. no. 20 (january june, 2020). pp. 33-63. central events and causal connections: a narrative-inquiry study among colombian female scholars in their processes as writers1 eventos centrales y conexiónes casuales: un estudio de investigación narrativa entre académicas colombianas en su proceso como escritoras. bertha ramos-holguín and anna carolina peñaloza rallón2* universidad pedagógica y tecnológica de colombia, colombia 1 received: august 9th 2019/ accepted: april 22nd 2020 2 bertha.ramos@uptc.edu.co; anna.penaloza@uptc.edu.co 34 no. 20 central events and casual connections ramos-holguín & peñaloza-rallón abstract in the colombian context there has been an increase in the interest for publishing in high impact academic journals. this is due to various factors such as institutional requirements, hiring requirements, categorization of teachers and academic visibility. the purpose of this researchbased paper, as a decolonial report, is to portray the central events and the causal connections of three female colombian authors in their process as writers for academic purposes. data were gathered through in-depth interviews that emphasized on van manen’s (1997) four lifeworld existential dimensions that include lived time, lived space, lived body, and lived relation. these dimensions helped us uncover the essences of lived experience. results indicated that central events and causal connections affect the authors’ experiences in their process as writers. the key ingredients female authors judge as important events were social interactions with mentors and the context. key words: publishing; lived experiences; narratives; decoloniality; academic writing; writing process; academic visibility resumen en el contexto colombiano se ha incrementado el interés en publicar en revistas de alto impacto. lo anterior debido a aspectos tales como requerimientos institucionales, requisitos de ingreso, categorización docente y visibilidad académica. el objetivo de este trabajo investigativo, visto como un reporte decolonial, es dar a conocer los eventos centrales y las conexiones causales de tres autoras colombianas en su proceso como escritoras de documentos académicos. la información se recolectó a través de narrativas, registradas mediante entrevistas a profundidad que enfatizaron las cuatro dimensiones de los existenciales del mundo propuestos por van manen (1997) que incluyen el tiempo, el espacio, el cuerpo y las relaciones vividas. estas dimensiones nos ayudaron a descubrir la esencia de las experiencias vividas. . los resultados indican que existen eventos centrales y conexiones causales que afectan los procesos de las autoras como escritoras. los ingredientes clave en estos procesos son las interacciones sociales con mentores y el contexto. palabras clave: publicación; experiencias vividas; narrativas; decolonialidad; escritura académica; proceso de escritura; visibilidad académica 35 no. 20 central events and casual connections ramos-holguín & peñaloza-rallón resumo no contexto colombiano tem se incrementado o interesse em publicar em revistas de alto impacto. o anterior, devido a aspectos tais como requerimentos institucionais, requisitos de ingresso, categorização docente e visibilidade acadêmica. o objetivo deste trabalho investigativo, visto como um reporte descolonial, é dar a conhecer os eventos centrais e as conexões causais de três autoras colombianas em seu processo como escritoras de documentos acadêmicos. a informação se coletou através de narrativas, registradas mediante entrevistas a profundidade que enfatizaram as quatro dimensões dos existenciais do mundo propostos por van manen (1997) que incluem o tempo, o espaço, o corpo e as relações vividas. estas dimensões nos ajudaram a descobrir a essência das experiências vividas. os resultados indicam que existem eventos centrais e conexões causais que afetam os processos das autoras como escritoras. os ingredientes fundamentais destes processos são as interações sociais com mentores e o contexto. palavras chave: publicação; experiências vividas; narrativas; descolonialidade; escritura acadêmica; processo de escritura; visibilidade acadêmica 36 no. 20 central events and casual connections ramos-holguín & peñaloza-rallón introduction mitchell (1996) asserted that “writing is a process of discovering and creating meaning” (p. 39). effective writing demands a number of things: a high degree of accuracy to avoid ambiguity of meaning; the use of complex grammatical devices for focus and emphasis; and a careful choice of vocabulary, grammatical patterns, and sentence structures to create a style which is appropriate to the subject matter and to the potential reader (hedge, 2005). as such, writing is a complex process that entails diverse kinds of knowledge. in fact, as stated by mur dueñas (2012), more often than not writing has been marked by more than linguistic structures and rules; it carries with it a history of identity, belonging, and culture. we can even argue that writing is a process of self-discovery and appropriation that is transformative and interactive. in this sense, writing, as stated by lea and jones (2011), implies the understanding of institutional systems, familiarity with genres, mastery of processes, etc. in other words, writing is more than just a skill or a competence, it is a culture which is lived differently among individuals and co-created with others. scholars usually talk about two kinds of writing: the academic and the private. academic writing, according to shannon (2011), is related to any kind of formal written production submitted for academic publication. on the topic of academic writing, mauranen, pérez-llantada, and swales (2010) coined the phrase “publish in english or perish”. for non-native english-speaking countries, publishing in english has become a mark of status and power over publishing in their native language, which could be seen as a representation of the coloniality academic english writing might represent. writing in english is meant to increase research visibility and impact, which is why colombian journals now ask for the abstract to be written in two languages, english and spanish. cárdenas (2014) asserted that the increase of publication in academic journals is directly linked with the need to make academic work visible. additionally, salaries and promotions are also linked to publishing in national and international journals, which will require writing in english. funding and travel will also depend on the authors’ ability to display their research in high standing journals. furthermore, research groups are ranked on a scale of a1 (being the highest) to c (being the lowest) based on the academic activity of each group. this includes, among many other aspects, publishing in english. quilindo, calvache, and delgado (2018) indicated that the dissemination of research results usually occurs when scientific articles are published in peer reviewed journals that utilize statistical methods (biometrics) to analyze the impact of each article. biometrics helps to find the h-index, which indicates scientific performance 37 no. 20 by analyzing the number of times that an author, publication, or journal has been cited. in such a way, the h-index measures scholars’ productivity. in terms of academic journals, the scopus data base has the largest number of citations, which make research articles easy to search for and track by the academic community. needless to say, more than 80% of the articles visualized in scopus were written in english. albarillo (2014) found that 90% of the articles published in scopus and jstor between 1996 and 2012 were in english. according to albarillo, “non-english publications do exist but are less visible at the international level, and non-englishlanguage scholarly indexes exist, but are difficult to discover and relatively unknown in the english-speaking world” (p. 81). because of this, non-native english-speaking students and professionals are being pushed more and more to publish everything from their undergraduate monographs to laboratory articles in english. the push toward publishing in english is directly connected to the fact that english has become the lingua franca of research. however, it is worth noting that publishing also requires knowledge in a specific type of english. according to mauranen, pérezllantada, and swales (2010), “although english is the global lingua franca of academic discourse, most research in academic english is oriented towards the written language, native speakers of english, and the normative tenets of standard english as used in academia” (p. 638). consequently, colombian authors are also expected to accept and utilize standard english when writing for publication. considering the previous, it is essential to understand how colombian authors are coping with the push to publish in english. more specifically, it is of dire need to comprehend how women, who have been historically underrepresented in academia, live the process of becoming published authors in colombia. in the following small-scale narrative inquiry3 research, three female scholars from a public university in colombia told their stories about the central events in their process as writers. all three women have published in high standing national and international journals and directed research groups. by asking them to tell their stories about their individual writing processes, we might gain insight on how they became published authors in the english language. we proposed the following research question: what do women’s narratives reveal about the central events and causal connections in their process as writers for academic purposes? therefore, we sought to understand how these women linked “central events” (omanson, as cited in trabasso & van den broek, 1985, p. 613) to their process as writers. in order to contribute to our understanding of the lived experiences and the central events of these three scholars, we focused on a deep description of what 3 clandinin and conelly (2000) stated that narrative inquiry is an umbrella term that captures personal and human dimensions of experience over time, and takes account of the relationship between individual experience and cultural context. central events and casual connections ramos-holguín & peñaloza-rallón 38 no. 20 central events and casual connections ramos-holguín & peñaloza-rallón it means existentially to be in the world, as women who are push to write academically in english. this implied achieving a level of abstraction from the data in order to comprehend meanings of particular lived experience. that is why, in the in-depth interviews, we considered van manen’s (1997) four lifeworld existential dimensions: lived time (temporality), lived space (spaciality), lived body (corporeality), and lived relation (relationality or communality). temporality accounts for the subjective time in which the experience took place; spaciality refers to the location or environment of the experience; coeporeality is the sense of the physical self; and relationality is associated with the relationship we maintain with others and how we connect to others and to ourselves in the world. literature review coloniality and decoloniality in academic writing quijano (2000) stated that coloniality deals with the development of capitalism as a neutral process that imposes an eurocentric classification system. along the same lines, ndlovu-gatsheni, (2018) pointed out that coloniality can be defined as a vertical global power structure, whereby some people enjoy the privileges and benefits of living under modernity and others suffer the negative consequences of the ‘darker side’ of the same modern world, called ‘coloniality’. restrepo and rojas (2010) affirmed that coloniality is maintained alive in books, the criteria for academic performance, cultural patterns, common sense, self-image of people, and aspirations of the self, among many others. the authors further asserted that subjects breathe coloniality all the time and every day. the same authors further stated that there are three main types of coloniality: knowledge, being, and power. the first, coloniality of knowledge, is based on the insight that colonial societies have systematically vanished other kinds of knowledges, such as indigenous’ knowledges and farmers’ knowledges. second, the coloniality of being, is focused on the distinction between superior and inferior human beings based on their race. certain groups of people can be considered objects, or they can constitute the invalidity of existence. in other words, they can be invisible or naturalized as objects or sub-humans. the third, coloniality of power, is a concept addressed by quijano (2000), who assured that one of the main axes of power is the social classification of the world’s population. this classification is based on a concept of “race” in which people interact in a relationship of inferiority or superiority. in other words, people are socially classified in a hierarchy. quijano (2000) also argued that this classification aliens with a structure of control that stands on capitalism. it is to say, according to the social classification people are typified, they can be part of the labor force who produce commodities for the 39 no. 20 world market. meanwhile, other people are part of the dominant group in charge of controlling the labor force. the push to write in english for academic journals can be seen as a colonial practice. as kumaravadivelu (2014) stated, intellectuals do not have a choice, rather they have to conform to the western ways of knowing and as such the way scholars construct their languaging (maturana, 2007) is mediated by western structures. in other words, they need to rely on western narratives to validate their knowledge. as such, this can be considered coloniality of knowledge and power because a single discourse system is being validated. in fact, mignolo (2011) pointed out that the concept of coloniality of power guides us to understand how the colonialized peoples were subjected to an eurocentric knowledge system. that is why this research report serves as an unpacked decolonial perspective (mignolo, 2011) on what it is to have to cope with colonial practices based on the struggles that the process represents. to address decoloniality, ndlovu-gatsheni (2018) mentioned that it produces students and staff members who question the false notions of ‘objectivity’ and ‘universal truths’ that enable western knowledge to project itself as a neutral knowledge. decoloniality is a way of thinking, knowing and doing as it implies concrete actions. as such, diverse authors acknowledge the importance of addressing diverse strategies to cope with coloniality (mignolo, 2011; granados beltran, 2016; maldonado-torres, 2010; díaz, 2010). all in all, the previous authors promote a decolonial option that advocates for action-oriented strategies that result in epistemic decolonialization and the re-signification of knowledges. gender and academic writing in english in colombia historically, academic writing has been shaped by a long tradition of western patriarchal ideologies. standard, native-like english is preferred over other language repertoires. likewise, the structures and rules of academic writing have been established by the dominant group. in academic writing, we witness the coloniality of knowledge and power. furthermore, coloniality of being is also present given that women and minorities have been historically excluded and underrepresented in academia. thus, western masculine ideologies have traditionally shaped academic writing, thereby, excluding other forms of writing. hélène cixous, a french writer, poet, professor, and pioneer of the post-structuralist feminist movement coined the term écriture feminine [feminine writing]. according to cixous (1976), masculine forms of writing dominated over feminine forms of expression; she wrote the following, central events and casual connections ramos-holguín & peñaloza-rallón 40 no. 20 central events and casual connections ramos-holguín & peñaloza-rallón let me insert here a parenthetical remark. i mean it when i speak of male writing. i maintain unequivocally that there is such a thing as marked writing; that, until now, far more extensively and repressively than is ever suspected or admitted, writing has been run by a libidinal and cultural – hence political, typically masculine – economy; that this is a locus where the repression of women has been perpetuated, over and over4 (p. 879). from cixous’ (1976) perspective, feminine writing was being oppressed by masculine structures, for which she encouraged women to write about their emotions as a way to free themselves. in academic writing, emotionality and subjectivity are almost always suppressed for objectivity. much is left to be understood in terms of the impact the colonization of academic writing has had on female scholars and publication. what we do know is that women continue to be underrepresented as grant recipients, first and last position authors, and in high-ranking employment positions. for example, fine and shen (2018) looked at the percentage of men and women in the neuroscience doctoral program at the university of washington. the number of women enrolled was 55%, which exceeded the number of men (45%). however, female representation decreased dramatically in high ranking positions and publications (see figure 1). figure 1. taken from fine and shen (2018). 4 translation done by cohen & cohen (1976). 41 no. 20 for this study, a database was used to “predict the gender of first and last authors on over 166,000 articles published between 2005 and 2017 in high-profile journals that include neuroscience, our own scientific discipline” (fine & shen, 2018). first and last name author positions are crucial because they mean recognition and visibility. by having fewer women as first and last name authors, the academic community may continue to perpetuate the idea that men are the main participants in all major research. in turn, less visibility also means less probability of being promoted into higher level positions. this holds true for other careers, in which female participation continues to decline after college. in colombia, the number of female graduates has surpassed male graduates in the fields of medicine, education, social sciences, and accounting (cepeda & barón, 2012). other fields like mathematics and engineering continue to be male-dominated. nevertheless, the latest statistics released by colciencias (colombian administrative department of science, technology and innovation) in 2017 demonstrated that 1,072 women were acknowledged as research leaders in the country, which is less than half in comparison to male researchers. although the percentage of colombian female published authors is still unknown, we know that researchers’ rank is directly connected to their ability to publish in high ranking journals. although writing for academic purposes has been a focus for the english as a foreign language (efl) community in colombia (anderson & cuesta-medina, 2019; barletta, 2007; cárdenas, 2014; correa & echeverri, 2017; gómez, 2011; ramos, quintero, & moreno, 2013; seloni, 2017), very little is understood in terms of the impact western patriarchal academic writing has had on colombian female writers and vice versa. additionally, it is unclear how women, being a majority in many fields, are negotiating and transforming the language and publication process. because of this, we took a special interest in working with colombian women who have published in english. we asked three female scholars at a public university in colombia to tell us about their writing experiences from childhood to adulthood. we sought to understand the central events that marked their process as writers. two key aspects differentiate this small-scale research study from others. the first one is that it was a narrative inquiry study, and the second is that writing was seen from a holistic and transformative point of view. by situating the study from a narrative inquiry perspective, we were acknowledging that each woman had a different story and voice to share. as researchers, our role was to listen and to amplify these voices that have been historically and socially repressed, thereby, uncovering other ways of knowledge, power, and being. as a complement, we chose to listen to all of the women’s processes as writers throughout their lives. doing so meant that the native language and foreign language remained connected as part of a holistic process. central events and casual connections ramos-holguín & peñaloza-rallón 42 no. 20 central events and casual connections ramos-holguín & peñaloza-rallón methodology the following research study was framed under the qualitative approach because it was situated, participant-oriented, holistic, and inductive (richards, 2009). specifically, it was situated because it was related to the local realities of each of the narrators, so the conclusions cannot be generalized. it was participant-oriented since the participants were sharing their own realities, which were related to how they interpreted their own writing processes. additionally, the study was holistic in the sense that it involved a narrative analysis from the perspective of the whole being. we looked at the past, present, and future events in order to understand a historical and socially co-constructed perspective on writing. finally, the study was inductive given that all the information came from the narrators’ voices and not from an initial hypothesis. in terms of a research paradigm, we situated this study under a critical viewpoint, which states that reality is “shaped by social, political, cultural, economic, ethnic, and gender values”, and it is “crystallized over time” (guba & lincoln, 2005, p.198). in other words, we understood that reality was not a finite truth, but rather it was shaped by multiple factors. likewise, we believe that the research process, the researchers, and the narrators have their own subjectivities. thus, the aim of this study was not to generalize female authors process as writers, rather it was to display these subjectivities as part of our human nature. approaching the study for this study, we utilized narrative inquiry. narrative inquiry is a way of understanding and inquiring into experience through “collaboration between researcher and participants, over time, in a place or series of places, and in social interaction with milieus” (clandinin & connelly, 2000, p. 20). with narrative inquiry we understood that each narrator had lived their process as writers differently. according to bamberg (2010), “when narrators tell a story, they give a ‘narrative form’ to experience. they position characters in space and time and, in a very broad sense, give order to and make sense of what happened—or what is imagined to have happened” (p. 3). in telling the story, the narrator tries to interpret a ‘central event’ and find causal connections to how one thing led to another. because of the nature of the narrative, it was impossible for one narrator to tell the same exact story as another. in order to listen and collect the stories, we followed van manen’s (1997) four lifeworld existential dimensions. the author suggested that human life entails four fundamental configurations known as existentials. they are time, space, body, and other human beings. these existential dimensions relate to an approach that helps us comprehend life experiences. in other words, those dimensions allow researchers to uncover human life experiences. 43 no. 20 these existentials guided us in comprehending the data obtained through in-depth interviews. in this sense, we did not intend to categorize, count, search for patterns, or code the data. instead, we wanted to bring our awareness to some of the experiences lived by three diverse women in their process as writers. in fact, heidegger (2003) argued that everything in life is a matter of lived experiences. in the case of this study, those experiences were given meaning to deeply comprehend and make sense of the events the authors have lived. we wanted to acknowledge and echo these women’s voices because, as ricoeur (1996) stated, recent narrative researchers have stressed the relevance of voice in the educational field, where the interpretations that the subjects make about themselves become the central focus of investigation. the in-depth interviews we developed were focused on the following statement: “tell me about your writing process from the beginning”. we emphasized on aspects related to the lifeworld existentials (van manen, 1997). then, we asked about the subjective time or temporary levels in the narrators’ experiences (lived time), the feelings they went through and experiences they faced (lived body), the places and spaces where the experiences took place (lived spaces), and the relationships with others and critical people involved in the process (lived human relationships). in this study, we positioned ourselves as women who are part of the academia and who have gone through struggles when writing academic papers in english. we were also aware of the fact that these positions, as stated by berger (2015), may impact the study. in fact, we noticed that the respondents were willing to share their experiences with us. because of our positionalities, we considered some of the principles of reflexivity. according to berger (2015), reflexivity is the researcher’s conscious effort to be attuned to one’s own reactions to respondents and the way in which the research account is constructed. mason (1996) and porter (1993) explained that reflexivity helps researchers become aware of the potential effects of such positionalities during the process and in the findings of the study. each interview was audio-recorded to play it back multiple times. our focus was on finding instances of ‘central events’ and their causal connections. a “central event” by definition is both “causal and purposeful” (omanson, as cited in trabasso & van den broek, 1985, p. 613). for the most part, the narrator will reference and evaluate these events more frequently than ‘noncentral events’. being able to connect ‘central events’ to an outcome is part of telling a story, which “[is] an important part of narrative discourse structure” (van den broek, linzie, fletcher & marsolek, 2000, p. 711). additionally, we used member checking in which we validated our interpretation by going back to the narrators and sharing the data. in our analysis, we drew out causal chains (trabasso & sperry, 1985) that identified the initiation of the stories, ‘central events’ connected to each other, and the outcome of the individual’s writing processes. central events and casual connections ramos-holguín & peñaloza-rallón 44 no. 20 central events and casual connections ramos-holguín & peñaloza-rallón while most narrative inquiries begin with telling stories, that is, with a researcher interviewing or having conversations with participants who tell stories of their experiences, “a more difficult, time-consuming, intensive, and yet, more profound method is to begin with participants’ living because in the end, narrative inquiry is about life and living” (connelly & clandinin, 2006, p. 478). participants: the three female scholars for this study, we chose three women who had published in english in international q1 or q2 journals or in national indexed journals. the three women are full-time professors at a public university in colombia in the fields of chemistry and languages. additionally, they held high ranking positions at the university, such as being laboratory directors, coordinators, and research group leaders. in the section below, we provided the characteristics that identified each narrator. persona5: the scientist. she has a ph.d. in chemistry and has been working at the university for 14 years. she is a laboratory and research group director. she studied her undergraduate and master’s in colombia, and she finished her doctoral studies in the united states. currently, she conducts research in her field, advises master’s and doctoral theses, and teaches undergraduate and master’s courses. most of her publications are in english and have been accepted by q1 and q2 international journals. mik: the coordinator. mik has been working for the university for 14 years. she coordinates several language programs at the university. she supervises about 30 full-time professors and 60 part-time teachers. she holds a master’s from the same university, and she also directs a group of young researchers. apart from her managerial roles, she teaches undergraduate language courses at the university. mik has published in high standing elt journals within colombia. additionally, she is a poet and writes creative pieces. juliana: the director. juliana has been working at the university for 12 years. she completed her doctoral studies at the same university. she is a director of postgraduate studies, and she is one of the founders and leaders of a research group in her area. she teaches undergraduate and master’s courses, as well as directing numerous monographs, master’s, and doctoral theses. juliana is well-known in her community for her expertise in research and pedagogy. she has co-authored several textbooks and articles on language teaching and pedagogy. she publishes at least once a year in national indexed journals. 5 the names that appear in this study are pseudonyms provided by the participants. keeping in mind ethical considerations, all the participants have signed a consent form. 45 no. 20 the stories in the following section, we provided excerpts from our interviews with the three women. we looked at each narrator’s story individually as we understood that they would be unique. we also transcribed the stories and chose central events that were recalled by the narrator several times throughout their story. after identifying the central events, we separated the statements within the story with a number. we used discourse markers, such as bueno, porque, entonces, o sea, and y [well, because, so, in other words, and], as guides to separate the statements for causality. in the case that the narrator did not mention a discourse marker, but the statements were dissimilar in intention and meaning, we proceeded to separate them. in other cases, the narrators used discourse markers, but the statements were similar. so, the statements were not separated. thus, we primarily relied on our evaluation and member checking to separate statements for causality. to visually represent the data, we drew causal chains (trabasso & sperry, 1985) to indicate causal connections between statements. circled numbers represent statements that lead to a conclusion, while unclosed numbers were statements that had no concluding result. statements on the same line indicate temporal, or lived time, similarities. results persona: the scientist persona began by telling us the issues in research and writing within colombia and the sciences. she mentioned three key problems, which she continually refers to throughout her narrative: belief of insignificance, belief of grandeur, and lack of resources. she explained the first issue as, [so that little bit that you are applying, like what for? it is like nothing. i think this is called the insignificance of the hispanics]. (persona, personal interview) she believed that the first hurdle in writing in english was the feeling of irrelevance that spanish speakers face when publishing and writing in english. she referred to the second hurdle, belief of grandeur, as the idea that only top scientists in the field can publish. finally, the lack of resources, such as laboratory equipment, reagents, and funding, limit the quality of research and results obtained. we were able to identify a central event that persona referred to several times, which was her experience in her doctoral program in the united states. she mentioned her laboratory director as a key agent in her story. the figure (figure 1) and story below showed the causal connections she made between her initiating statement in line 19 and her conclusion line 41. central events and casual connections ramos-holguín & peñaloza-rallón 46 no. 20 central events and casual connections ramos-holguín & peñaloza-rallón figure 2. persona’s causal chain showing the connection of events in her doctoral program experience 17 entonces yo había escrito un articulo 18 yo creo que soy unas de las pocas personas que yo hago proyectos colciencias y no publico 19 así me hayan dado plata para escribir un libro 20 porque primero pues qué va a aportar, como nada 21 y quien me lo hizo cambiar, mi jefe en estados unidos 22 que me hizo ver, mira, que es lo importante, si tú tienes un hilo conductor tú no puedes hacer unos experimentos solo porque tú sabes hacer cosas, unos experimentos como yo voy a mezclar aquí, voy a subir allá, ¿sí? como desordenados, o desorganizados más bien 47 no. 20 23 porque ellos pueden tener cierto orden, pero no tienen ninguna orientación, o sea como desorganizados, sin una orientación, o un punto final 24 entonces lo que él me dijo fue: lo primero que vas a hacer es una idea, o sea yo tengo una idea, yo hacía unos experimentos 25 pero sin hilo conductor, o sea, desorganizados, sin un fin 26 entonces el que me dijo lo que tú vas a hacer es que vas a hacer, te vas a imaginar cuáles son las figuras que quieres tener allí, la figura 1, la figura 2, la figura 3 (dibuja ejemplo de figuras en un papel) 27 claro, yo en estados unidos tenía todo el equipo que yo quisiera, 28 entonces allá yo me podía imaginar cuanta locura y era perfecto, ¿sí? 29 porque usted tiene todo 30 entonces qué hacía yo, entonces ya con esto yo le daba un orden 31 y él me ayudaba organizar, como, okay, entonces vas a hacer esto, pero esto no me está saliendo, como muy, o sea pues sí, pero como que no 32 entonces me decía a través de esto vas a hacer otro experimento 33 y vas a ver que esta figura mejoró, ¿sí? 34 él me enseñó a pensar así 35 entonces yo ahora como pienso con mis estudiantes 36 entonces bueno, entonces yo así logre escribir cinco papers en estados unidos 37 de los cuales no he publicado el primero 38 pero a mi realmente, hay otra cosa, eso no lo tiene todo el mundo, pero yo me ha dado cuenta de que la mayoría de investigadores somos así, 39 pero no solamente los colombianos, o los hispanos, por creernos como menos cosa, si no en general. 40 yo vi eso en los hindúes, vi eso en muchos americanos de ciencia 41 allí está el paper, pues se publicará cuando se pueda. eso, cuál es el afán. ¿sí? porque nosotros hacemos investigación persona began with the first time she published an article. she did not expand on this, rather she talked about how she failed to publish her work, which she attributed to her belief of insignificance. she then mentioned her laboratory director as the agent who changed her way of thinking. his role in teaching her how to tell the ‘science story’ in her papers is fundamental in organizing her research. in fact, her director’s contribution released a causal chain reaction of organization, planning, editing, and revision of her work (lines 24, 26, 30, 31, 32, 34, 36, & 37). central events and casual connections ramos-holguín & peñaloza-rallón 48 no. 20 central events and casual connections ramos-holguín & peñaloza-rallón one important aspect in persona’s narrative was that despite her director’s key role in changing her way of thinking (line 21), she mentioned that she did not publish any of the five papers that she had written. because of this, her initial beliefs outweighed her director’s significant influence. however, in listening to the rest of her narrative, we found that her director had shaped her tremendously in the way she organized her research. she mentioned in line 26 that her director had told her to imagine the figures she wanted to see in her research. these figures referred to the methods of research, such as gas chromatography (gs), scanning electron microscopy (sem), and transmission electron microscopy (tem). even though she lacked all of the methods of research she had in the united states, she still adapts this idea of organization in her context. furthermore, she mentioned in line 35 that this is how she teaches her students. in the interview, she stated that she uses the figures method to organize her research and papers, but the context limits her use of sem and tem due to their high cost. therefore, she and her students must adapt to the context, which ultimately leads to a less rich discussion in the research and article. toward the end of her story, persona revealed a final reflection on the publication process. in line 38, she mentioned that the delay in publishing papers is not necessarily connected to a feeling of insignificance among spanish speakers. rather, she witnessed that other researchers from different nationalities (lines 39 to 40) lacked an immediate need to publish in english since researching was more important. based on persona’s narrative, we see that her inhibition to publish comes from personal and outside factors. from a personal point of view, persona feels her research and writing is insignificant. meanwhile, she prefers research over publishing her work. however, her lack of resources also inhibits the quality of her and her students’ results, which diminishes the type of journals she can publish in. mik: the coordinator mik began by stating that she had always liked to write. she mentioned this at least five times in her initiation. she continued to talk about writing from a structured standpoint, such as mentioning organization, apa guidelines, and coherence. however, she later opened up about her writing ability and interest. in doing so, we were able to identify a central event in her life as a writer: her father’s poetry readings. figure 2 shows the causal connections in mik’s story about her father. 49 no. 20 figure 3. mik’s causal chain showing the connection of events in her father’s poetry reading 58 sí, sí. mire que yo le admiraba eso a mi padrecito 59 decía mucha poesía. ¿sí? 60 nos sentaba y nos decía 61 y yo (gasp) yo lo admiraba. yo decía tan bonito 62 tal vez saqué muchas cosas de mi papi 63 porque mi papi le gustaba muchos los idiomas 64 mi papá sabia varios idiomas central events and casual connections ramos-holguín & peñaloza-rallón 50 no. 20 central events and casual connections ramos-holguín & peñaloza-rallón 65 él tenía muchos libros de varios idiomas 66 y nos leía 67 por eso fue que como yo dije, (gasp), muestre me gusta como los idiomas, me gusta como los idiomas 68 porque él nos leía 69 y tenía muchas cosas, y yo uuuy tan bueno 70 los papás saben mucho 71 mi papá yo lo admiraba y lo admiro todavía. 72 él era como una enciclopedia andante 73 y él también me enseñó a trabajar, a manejar la máquina de escribir 74 él me enseñaba, tenía su maquinita 75 y me la prestaba 76 y me dictaba oraciones el toto tororoto toma tinto en un tintero (laughs) y una cantidad 77 y al cabo de un instante se deslizaban por su superficie de las aguas azules 78 y entonces aprendía 79 y cogía agilidad 80 pero fíjate que allí está la poesía, por ejemplo ese pedacito 81 y él decía cosas tan bonitas 82 entonces como que le prende a uno eso 83 y yo también como que quería hacer lo mismo mik recalled her father reading to her and her siblings twice (lines 66 & 68). in her story, mik mentioned that she admired her father because he read to them (lines 58, 61, & 71). as she described her father, she mentioned several statements that were temporally connected rather than causative. for example, her father sitting his children down (line 60), liking languages (line 63), and having many things (line 69) were all temporally connected. in lines 74 and 75, mik told us about how her father taught her how to use the typewriter. lines 76 and 77 are poetic verses that her father would read to her while she typed. she mentioned that this exercise helped her learn (line 78), which in turn caused her agility in working the typewriter (line 79). it is in line 80 that she mentioned that the poetry was in her father’s verses. eventually, her father’s verses resulted in awakening the love for poetry in her (line 82). the final conclusion was that she wanted to be like her father (line 83), which led to her choice in becoming a language teacher (line 67). 51 no. 20 from mik’s narrative, we could see two contrasting ideas. the first is her presentday structured way of writing. she emphasized the organization of the text, apa guidelines, and vocabulary as necessary in publishing a paper. however, mik’s history with writing is less connected to the rigorous structures of language and more with the fluidity and rhythm of her father’s poetry. based on her admiration for her father (line 50), mik acquired many of the things that represented him, such as a love for poetry, languages, and writing. from her causal chain, we were able to interpret that agents, such as her father, play a profound role in developing one’s interest in writing at a young age. nevertheless, mik exemplifies the coexistence of two different but simultaneous worlds, that of being a structured writer for academic purposes while maintaining her poetic side inspired by her father. juliana: the director juliana’s writing process was marked by four central events. her story was unique in the sense that she told a direct sequence of events beginning from childhood. three of the four central events had a negative cause and effect relationship. we found it admirable that despite the multiple negative causalities, she had an overall positive perspective on writing and publishing. from her narrative, we identified the following central events: when juliana learned to read as a child, the verbal abuse she faced as a fifth grader, her disappointment in her literature class, and when she published her first paper. the first central event focused on her childhood when she was in kindergarten. she could not read, which was something she associated with not being able to write. because of this, her kindergarten teacher told her mother that if she did not read, she would not pass the school year. the effect was that her mother gave her a newspaper, which juliana ended up reading on her own. from this first central event, we identified two key agents: the kindergarten teacher and mother. we also identified motivational causality in the first event given that her teacher’s discourse motivated the narrator’s mother and narrator to reach a goal: to read (see annex 2). the second central event was the most traumatic. in fact, the narrator referred to this event several times throughout her story. in fifth grade, she was hit and verbally abused by her teacher because her teacher believed she had horrible handwriting. this event unleashed a causal chain related to her teaching practices today. she explained that despite her age, she still recalled this episode. in line 18 (see annex 2), she related this event to having marked her writing. in addition, she avoids writing on the board (line 19), brings printed handouts (line 21), uses the computer (line 22), and apologizes when she writes on the board (line 24). later, she mentioned this event once more when she concluded her story about her first published paper. she said, central events and casual connections ramos-holguín & peñaloza-rallón 52 no. 20 central events and casual connections ramos-holguín & peñaloza-rallón [because before this, i think that the things i wrote were the letters i wrote my mom with spelling errors] (juliana, personal interview) after nine statements, the narrator continued to explain her fifth-grade event, which she concluded in line 97 by saying, [i think those first steps really marked me] (juliana, personal interview) interestingly, we see how the act of writing itself, as in handwriting, and reading are directly connected to a process of writing. the third central event was related to her undergraduate program. she had anticipated her literature class, and she associated this class with being able to write and write from the self. unfortunately, her teacher verbally abused the class. due to this event, the narrator mentioned that she told her students she disliked literature. in addition, she attributed this event as the cause for being unable to write as a means to express herself. she added the following, [i did not write. in other words, i did not develop that writing part] (juliana, personal interview) in this case, juliana makes a distinction between academic writing and creative writing, both of which she mentioned could be developed. the final central event was the moment she began to publish and write in english. we mapped out the causal chain for this event in figure 4. her process began when she entered the master’s program (line 43), which was a different experience than her previous events because they appreciated her work (line 47). she had to complete a small-scale research project (line 50) for her professor, which motivated her need to write a paper (line 53). she went back in her story to explain a critical time within her context. the narrator mentioned that at the time, english journals in her field were nonexistent or unknown (lines 55 & 56). this statement was temporally connected to her studying the master’s (line 43), though they were not causally connected. nonetheless, they were both independent causes for her writing and publishing her first paper (line 85). 53 no. 20 figure 4. juliana’s causal chain showing the connection of events in the moment she published her first paper. central events and casual connections ramos-holguín & peñaloza-rallón 54 no. 20 central events and casual connections ramos-holguín & peñaloza-rallón 43 después entonces empecé a estudiar la maestría y 44 estando en la maestría pues había que escribir muchos papers, ¿no? así como les toca a ustedes. 45 entonces, en cada materia había que escribir papers y 46 allí la situación fue diferente porque pues ya ya me empe…, 47 o sea, valoraban primero mucho lo que yo escribía 48 entonces me iban corrigiendo cosas y bueno 49 y un profesor, que se llama xxxxxx6 que fue mi profesor de una materia que se llamaba testing, evaluation and testing, 50 y nos puso hacer un small-scale research project. 51 y yo lo hice con una compañera con unos niños de un colegio rural y 52 era básicamente mirar qué tanto lo que proponía la institución tenía que ver con lo que proponía la profesora y con lo que los niños necesitaban. era como evaluar esas tres cosas y mirar, pero una cosa muy pequeñita 53 entonces hicimos eso 54 entonces al final del semestre entonces 55 ah, pero bueno antes de decir todo lo que pasó a final de semestre, esa era la época en que en colombia apenas las revistas, porque colombia tuvo una época en que la gente escribía para otras editoriales o porque querían escribir 56 pero, las revistas no eran famosas, no había revistas en nuestra área. no había revistas en inglés, mejor dicho, 57 sino que esa fue la época, estamos hablando de hace 20 años, uysh, salieron las revistas a florecer en nuestra área 58 y este profesor que te cuento entonces, había una revista de la universidad xxxxx que se llama journal xxxx y estaba naciendo la revista. este era su número dos 59 y este profesor entonces cuando vio nuestro trabajo llegó y dijo 60 él nos quería mucho a mi compañera y a mi 61 que éramos las más jóvenes del curso, porque molestábamos mucho en clase 62 éramos unas niñas, es que yo tenía 20 años, éramos unas niñas en clase, y era más joven que yo, entonces éramos muy chiquitas 63 y él nos quería mucho 6 we used xxxxx to replace the names of the teachers, universities, and journal to maintain the narrator’s anonymity. 55 no. 20 64 y nos dijo, no, por qué no publican ese trabajo que ustedes presentaron. por qué no lo mandan a journal xxxxx para que lo publiquen 65 y nosotras simplemente no lo podíamos creer, quedamos como ¿huh? 66 o sea, realmente ¿esto vale la pena? que publiquemos, pues no, unas cosas que habíamos hecho como tan, 67 pues sí lo habíamos hecho a conciencia, ¿no? pero no era la gran investigación ni nada 68 entonces hicimos el ejercicio y lo pasamos a journal xxxxxx 69 tal cual él no lo devolvió 70 porque hasta ese momento no habíamos entendido 71 como era la primera vez que íbamos a escribir algo formal, digamos, diferentes a los trabajos de la universidad 72 no habíamos entendido que la forma de escribir un artículo no era la misma que uno hace un trabajo, una cosa es un trabajo y otra cosa es un artículo 73 entonces lo pasamos así 74 nos lo evaluaron 75 y nos lo devolvieron con 25,000 correcciones, con muchas correcciones 76 muy amables 77 pero con muchas correcciones, muchas, muchas 78 y nosotras vimos eso y dijimos no esto 79 pero resulta que la editora de la revista, la profe xxxxxxx, que todavía es la editora de la revista, xxxxx era profesora de nosotros también en la maestría 80 entonces cuando nosotras recibimos todo eso 81 llegó y dijo ya se los devolvieron con la evaluación, espero que lo corrijan y me lo vuelvan a mandar 82 entonces eso como que nos forzó, porque nosotras cuando vimos las evaluaciones, las correcciones, dijimos como que ya dejemos así 83 pero cuando ella nos dijo eso, dijimos como le vamos a quedar mal a la profe 84 y bueno lo arreglamos 85 y finalmente ese fue el primer artículo que yo escribí en mi vida central events and casual connections ramos-holguín & peñaloza-rallón 56 no. 20 central events and casual connections ramos-holguín & peñaloza-rallón in her story, two key agents appeared as motivators in her writing process. the first was the professor who asked her to send her paper to journal xxxx (line 49). she went back in her story to provide information as to why he had motivated her and her classmate (lines 60, 62, & 63). his appreciation for the narrator and her classmate caused him to invite them to send their paper to journal xxxx. she explained the submission process, particularly how she had received many corrections. given the high volume of edits needed to publish, she and her classmate decided not to fix the paper. the second agent was another teacher (line 79), who also happened to be the editor of journal xxxx. after seeing that the narrator and her classmate had submitted their paper, the teacher expected them to fix the paper and resubmit. not disappointing the teacher (lines 82 & 83) became the main cause for fixing the paper (line 84), which led to a successful publication (line 85). in terms of education and teaching practices, we identified a teacher who has adapted her teaching methods as a cause of traumatic childhood events. juliana’s ways of teaching are inclusive and promote non-traditional forms of writing. the narrator’s resilience in her field, despite negative causality in central events, demonstrated her vocational spirit to teach and research. later on, she mentioned how her doctoral program helped her break out of structured ways of thinking. in turn, she has become an advocate of researching and writing from our own individual perspectives and positions. she mentioned that her doctoral program, [has helped me now that i direct theses to not be so square about it, instead i tell them (students) that there are many possibilities]. (juliana, personal interview) in failing to have a positive central event in her childhood that shaped her writing, she adapted her own way to write within her context. her own writing style has helped shaped other writers in the field, in addition to promoting new ways to look at research and writing. her context has also allowed her to question standardization in academic writing and research. discussion and conclusions when we began this study, we were unsure what we would discover. the narrator and their stories extended way beyond the limits of our initial research question: what do women’s narratives reveal about the central events and causal connections in their process as writers for academic purposes? to answer the question, the three female scholars revealed that the key ingredients in their process as writers were social interactions with other agents and the context. 57 no. 20 all three women mentioned agents in their process as writers. in persona’s central event, her interaction with her director helped shape her research. even in the interview, persona wrote out figures and lines to explain her process as a writer. for mik, it was her meaningful interaction with her father when she was a child. through her father’s poetry readings, mik discovered a love for writing that she carries with her today. her father’s readings and knowledge of languages were also pivotal in her decision to become a language teacher. as for juliana, agents were present in both positive and negative causalities. during her childhood and undergraduate program, the key agents were her teachers, who unfortunately mistreated her. their actions caused negative effects, which were later displayed in her lack of confidence as a writer and in her choice of teaching practices. later on, her teachers in the master’s program, as well as her doctoral program, gave her motivation and self-confidence to write and publish. from all of the three women, we see the profound implications teachers and parents have on the writing process. additionally, we noticed that all three women relied on validation from an agent to verify that they were on the right path. among all the women, the central agent happened to be a mentor who has had more experience in the field. persona had her director, mik recognized her father, and juliana talked about her teachers and mother. these mentors provided the narrator with guidance, as well as motivation to continue in the writing process. the second aspect that emerged from the narratives was the importance of the context. both persona and juliana explicitly mentioned how the context shaped research and writing. for persona, the context made a big difference in the discussion of results. without the necessary equipment and funding, she is forced to turn down her undergraduate students’ requests to use particular methodologies. she also has to constantly readjust her research. she may have started out with five figures (five methodologies), but her context limits her to only three figures. persona believed that this has profound implications when publishing given that the validity of the discussion could be questioned if it lacks methodologies. in addition, other cultural factors exist within the sciences in colombia, which she mentioned as issues in the dissemination of research. for example, persona’s belief of insignificance associated with being hispanic (and possibly a woman in the sciences) prevented students from writing about their research. secondly, she mentioned that colombian professors in the field are closed off to providing information when they have reached a sense of grandeur. she mentioned the following, [in this country there still exists a lot of difficulty (dissemination of knowledge). in other words, here a professor can do a doctorate program at the universidad xxxxx and believes that his doctorate makes him a genius. and i say, you haven’t done anything. and the student goes and asks him a question on how to write this or that. and he doesn’t respond because he knows too much]. (persona, personal interview) central events and casual connections ramos-holguín & peñaloza-rallón 58 no. 20 central events and casual connections ramos-holguín & peñaloza-rallón from interviewing persona, we noticed that the culture of the context sets the stage for many power relationships that shape writing. these power relationships, which can even extend beyond the country, halt the dissemination of research within the country. in addition, she mentioned that local journals provide limited information on what should be changed during the evaluation process. in the case of juliana, her master’s program was being carried out at the same time colombian english and language journals were emerging. the presence of local language journals has allowed many students and professors to make their work visible. these journals seem to embrace new waves of thought, which has made an impact on teaching in other countries as well. unlike the culture behind writing in the sciences, writing in local language journals builds the writer’s confidence to continue publishing. they strive to show the writer’s work in the academic arena, which is evident in relationships between authors, evaluators, and style correctors. juliana even mentioned that the evaluators were nice despite all the corrections, and she even had a one-on-one interaction with the editor of the journal. juliana further stated that, [once you are an evaluator, you recognize a lot more, many things, and you become humbler]. (juliana, personal interview) once again, we see a different side of research that is focused on nurturing the writer-researcher. certainly, local journals are promoting, questioning, and negotiating the standardization of research and academic english. as mauranen, pérez-llantada, and swales (2010) mentioned, “academic language conveys new, often abstract, concepts and thoughts, which participants also co-construct in their discussions and argumentation” (p. 640). therefore, academic writing is being transformed by society, interactions, and the writers themselves at a local level. finally, it is worth mentioning that central events and their causal connections are crucial in the process of writing. they shape the writer’s identity and teaching practices. of course, these central events and causal connections do not exist in a vacuum. instead, they are aided by the narrators, agents, and social context. much work is still left to be done in the fields of academic writing, the individual writing process, and causality. though the narrators have expanded our insights on some of the cultural factors that shape writing, each factor could be explored through further interviews. additionally, we can continue using narratives to understand other writing processes, such as that of foreign language undergraduates, research group investigators, and directors within the local context. this could provide more information on how the language gap is being bridged among local researchers. from the narratives, we also noticed that each research field has a distinct culture, which is worth exploring. even within the same field of study, gender, status, and age seem to affect the individual’s writing process. of course, these factors also determine the researcher’s visibility, especially when we continue to see women and 59 no. 20 minorities underrepresented in academia. ethnographic studies could help determine the implications that these cultural factors have on the dissemination of knowledge, publication acceptance, and transformative change in research. in addition, further research is required in the field of language teaching, given that the agent is a major part of the individual’s writing process. ultimately, research in language teaching could help yield more constructive and transformative ways to teach academic writing that question traditional, standardized methods. in doing so, the idea would be to promote the author’s voice, while introducing the author to the socio-cultural components that make each writing style unique. a greater reliance on the author’s individual writing process rather than prescribed writing methods could result in longer lasting motivation. as you can see, the work is plenty, which is why this ending can only be the beginning. central events and casual connections ramos-holguín & peñaloza-rallón 60 no. 20 central events and casual connections ramos-holguín & peñaloza-rallón references anderson, c. e., & cuesta-medina, l. 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(2000). the role of causal discourse structure in narrative writing. memory & cognition, 28(5), 711-721. van manen, m. (1997). researching lived experience: human science for an action sensitive pedagogy. london, on: the althouse press. 63 no. 20 authors * bertha ramos-holguín holds a ph.d. in education sciences from universidad pedagógica y tecnológica de colombia (uptc), an m.a in applied linguistics to the teaching of english as a foreign language and a b.a in modern languages from universidad distrital francisco josé de caldas. she is currently a researcher and an english professor in the school of languages at uptc.  as part of the research group tongue, she has authored and coauthored research academic papers and english textbooks. orcid id: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4468-1402 anna carolina peñaloza rallón holds a master’s in language teaching from the universidad pedagógica y tecnológica de colombia (uptc) and a bs in environmental science from the university of arizona. she is currently a researcher and a professor in the master´s in language teaching from uptc. she teaches a course in second language acquisitioning and academic writing. she is part of the research group tongue. she is an advocate of critical pedagogies and social equity in the community. orcid id:  https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6394-4346 central events and casual connections ramos-holguín & peñaloza-rallón how to reference this article: ramos-holguín, b., & peñaloza-rallón, a. c. (2020). central events and causal connections: a narrative study on the writing process. gist – education and learning research journal, 20, 33-63. https://doi.org/10.26817/16925777.770 social media strategies for efl students: enhancing speaking proficiency estrategias de redes sociales para estudiantes de efl: mejorando la competencia oral mitiku tasisa dinsa1 department of english language and literature, college of social science and humanities, wolkite university, ethiopia and esayas teshome taddese2 faculty of education and liberal arts, inti international university, nilai, malaysia 1 mitiku1tasisa@gmail.com 2 eteshome75@gmail.com 103 no. 28 gist education and learning research journal. issn 1692-5777. no. 28 (january june, 2024). pp. 103-124. 104 no. 28 abstract social media is a communication tool that facilitates efl students to improve their speaking proficiency as it enables them to fully engage in oral communication, exchange information, and form long-term bonds in this modern era. this study intended to investigate efl students’ social media as speaking strategies used vis-a-vis their speaking proficiency. a descriptive correlational design was used in this study. the participants were 70 english major students (second year and third year) at wolkite university. to this end, data were collected using a questionnaire, the ielts speaking proficiency test, and an interview to obtain reliable information. the findings showed that facebook and youtube were the most frequently used social media by learners, even though they felt less confident, more anxious, and less willing to communicate in english. the results also indicated that learners lacked awareness of how to purposefully use social media to address their speaking challenges. conversely, the findings of this study showed that there was a positive correlation between the students’ use of social media and their speaking proficiency (r=0.461, p=.000, p>0.05). however, the students’ speaking proficiency was very poor because learners didn’t use social media for educational purposes, especially speaking skills. this might be because the learners did not use social networks effectively to promote their speaking proficiency. therefore, it is suggested that in the learning of speaking skills, more attention should be paid to investigating the use of social media as a speaking strategy. keywords: efl learners; social media; speaking skills; speaking test; wolkite university resumen las redes sociales son una herramienta de comunicación que facilita a los estudiantes de inglés como lengua extranjera (efl) mejorar su competencia oral, ya que les permiten participar plenamente en la comunicación oral, intercambiar información y formar lazos duraderos en esta era moderna. este estudio tuvo como objetivo investigar el uso de las redes sociales como estrategias de habla en relación con la competencia oral de los estudiantes de efl. se utilizó un diseño correlacional descriptivo en este estudio. los participantes fueron 70 estudiantes de inglés (de segundo y tercer año) de la universidad de wolkite. para este fin, se recopilaron datos mediante un cuestionario, la prueba de competencia oral del ielts y una entrevista para obtener información confiable. los hallazgos mostraron que facebook y youtube fueron las redes sociales más frecuentemente utilizadas por los estudiantes, aunque se sentían menos seguros, más ansiosos y menos dispuestos a comunicarse en inglés. los resultados también indicaron que los estudiantes carecían de conciencia sobre cómo utilizar las redes sociales de manera intencionada para abordar sus desafíos de expresión oral. por otro lado, los hallazgos de este estudio mostraron que había una correlación positiva entre el uso de redes sociales por parte de los estudiantes y su competencia oral (r=0.461, p=.000, p>0.05). sin embargo, la competencia oral de los estudiantes era muy pobre porque no utilizaban las redes sociales con fines educativos, especialmente para mejorar sus habilidades de habla. esto podría deberse a que los estudiantes no usaban las redes sociales de manera efectiva para promover su competencia oral. por lo tanto, se sugiere que en el aprendizaje de habilidades de habla se preste más atención a investigar el uso de las redes sociales como una estrategia de habla. social media in enhancing speaking proficiency 105 no. 28 palabras clave: estudiantes de efl; redes sociales; habilidades de habla; prueba de expresión oral; universidad de wolkite resumo as redes sociais são uma ferramenta de comunicação que facilita aos estudantes de inglês como língua estrangeira (efl) melhorar sua competência oral, pois lhes permite participar plenamente da comunicação oral, trocar informações e formar laços duradouros nesta era moderna. este estudo teve como objetivo investigar o uso das redes sociais como estratégias de fala em relação à competência oral dos estudantes de efl. foi utilizado um desenho correlacional descritivo neste estudo. os participantes foram 70 estudantes de inglês (de segundo e terceiro ano) da universidade de wolkite. para esse fim, foram coletados dados por meio de um questionário, do teste de competência oral do ielts e de uma entrevista para obter informações confiáveis. os resultados mostraram que facebook e youtube foram as redes sociais mais frequentemente utilizadas pelos estudantes, embora se sentissem menos seguros, mais ansiosos e menos dispostos a se comunicar em inglês. os resultados também indicaram que os estudantes careciam de consciência sobre como utilizar as redes sociais de maneira intencional para enfrentar seus desafios de expressão oral. por outro lado, os resultados deste estudo mostraram que havia uma correlação positiva entre o uso de redes sociais pelos estudantes e sua competência oral (r=0.461, p=.000, p>0.05). no entanto, a competência oral dos estudantes era muito baixa porque eles não utilizavam as redes sociais com fins educativos, especialmente para melhorar suas habilidades de fala. isso pode ser devido ao fato de que os estudantes não usavam as redes sociais de forma eficaz para promover sua competência oral. portanto, sugere-se que, no aprendizado de habilidades de fala, seja dada mais atenção à investigação do uso das redes sociais como uma estratégia de fala. palavras-chave: estudantes de efl; redes sociais; habilidades de fala; teste de expressão oral; universidade de wolkite mitiku tasisa dinsa and esayas teshome taddese 106 no. 28 introduction english plays a pivotal role as an international language for communication around the world, and it is the key language for communication on the internet. as stated by mustafa (2018), english is the most commonly used language, accounting for 25.2% of technology users worldwide. since it is the most widely spoken language, most learners want to improve their english by learning the language through global social platforms, podcasts, and blogs. social media is a technological learning strategy that can help learners master english in this modern era (putri, 2022). the study shows that social media enables students to transcend geographic barriers, allowing efl learners to interact with native speakers and connect with diverse cultures. similarly, al qahtani (2018) stressed that social networks provide powerful information-sharing and meaningmaking opportunities for efl learners. it is an effective learning strategy that can develop learners’ discourse, language structure, vocabulary, and pronunciation anywhere and anytime. in addition, mitu (2020) states that social media provides advanced opportunities for improving speaking proficiency. mitu’s findings suggest that social media should be integrated with effective teaching strategies to enhance speaking skills. there, utilizing social media as a learning strategy can boost learners’ self-confidence and reduce anxiety about speaking english in front of others. various social networks, such as youtube, facebook, whatsapp, telegram, and instagram, provide learners with opportunities to share ideas with native speakers and build their confidence. the use of online homophones can further enhance learners’ speaking skills (seyede, 2017). seyede’s findings suggest that learners should focus on improving their pronunciation, language structure, and understanding of social context. additionally, social networking plays a crucial role in language acquisition, as learners naturally interact verbally with one another (kuning, 2020). according to ravindran et al. (2022), efl learners’ speaking proficiency is closely tied to their exposure to the target language, making social media essential for creating an optimal learning environment. therefore, social media serves as a powerful tool for improving the speaking proficiency of efl students. the social media learning strategy enables learners to access language resources, practice skills, and engage directly with proficient speakers of the language (mustafa, 2018). mustafa’s findings indicate that social media provides students with opportunities to enhance their linguistic knowledge outside the classroom, fostering independence and competence in their learning. consequently, it creates a supportive environment for effective english learning. additionally, social media facilitates verbal two-way communication, allowing learners to practice speaking english with native speakers from around the world. social media in enhancing speaking proficiency 107 no. 28 nowadays, most learners are familiar with social media from an early age, and they most frequently use it for various purposes. most students spend more time online each day for academic purposes and entertainment (fidan & debbag, 2018). the study has also found the impact of social media to be positive on mental well-being if it is practiced a little bit. it provides learners with a modern and innovative awareness of day-to-day activities, giving them more time to share information verbally. moreover, social media learning strategies can help students to share thoughts and feelings orally in the target language in an interactive way. thus, digital social media influences english speaking; it motivates learners to develop their speaking proficiency. according to ravezza et al. (2017), the use of social media for entertainment and social purposes can negatively affect learners’ speaking performance. conversely, there is some evidence about the use of social media learning strategies in convalescing learners’ speaking proficiency. for example, twitter could use curricular discussion that positively affects higher education learners’ speaking proficiency. it contributes a lot to promoting learners’ speaking proficiency because of its useful functions i n interacting with people all over the world and giving freedom to convey meaning. it is also believed that this study opens the door to the use of new and unique methods and pedagogies that will enrich the field of english language teaching in the future. therefore, social media paves the way for improving higher education students’ speaking proficiency. this study aims to investigate efl students’ social media use visa-vis their speaking proficiency. statement of the problem the digitization of technology has made social media an essential tool for developing mutual interactions in educational settings. as a result, english teachers should understand the kinds of applications that can be used to overcome students’ english problems. learning english through social media plays a key role in learners’ oral production and interactions with others in a more advanced way (mohammed, 2021; namaziandost & nasri, 2019). in this case, it is seen as a complementary component of the pedagogical process of learning speaking skills. alsaleem (2018) points out that speaking is a complex skill; therefore, learners should focus on performing live oral expressions and discourse. this implies that learning speaking skills needs an individual’s interest and courage to practice verbally in the target language. in ethiopia, learners of english as a foreign language are continually seeking to improve their speaking proficiency, as english instruction primarily focuses on grammar and structure. this emphasis often results in less attention being given to speaking skills. consequently, the need to address students’ speaking challenges has prompted the integration of digital technologies to keep pace with contemporary learning methods. mitiku tasisa dinsa and esayas teshome taddese 108 no. 28 from the researchers’ observations and experiences, students often fear speaking english orally in front of their classmates. as a result, they feel nervous when asked to participate and are reluctant to engage in speaking activities. during debates, oral presentations, and other speaking opportunities, they lack the confidence and motivation to share information in english. furthermore, students are often unaware of how to use various social media platforms to practice their english-speaking skills, preferring instead to use these platforms for entertainment in their native language (nkhi, 2023; ravindran et al., 2022). this highlights that students’ speaking proficiency is a significant concern that requires serious attention to ensure global competence. based on the above considerations, we can conclude that there are several reasons why most ethiopian students do not improve their speaking proficiency. first, students may not know how to use social media to solve their speaking problems. second, teachers limited awareness of using technological digitalization to teach speaking lessons authentically and facilitate their use of effective social media to practice speaking english. third, some students may not have access to smartphones and the internet; they lack the knowledge and information to use social media for educational purposes, especially speaking english. fourth, exposure to the learning environment is another problem that affects students’ purposeful use of social media. finally, bookoriented teaching methods may not be able to incorporate different social media in the teaching process. the use of modern teaching methods in the speaking classroom may not be efficacious. therefore, little attention has been paid to the use of technological speaking strategies to learn speaking skills, especially social media (rizqiningsih & hadi, 2019). this study points out that effective strategies are implemented to improve the speaking ability of students, resulting in new ways of using digital technology to keep pace with the times. efl learners do not intentionally use social media as a learning strategy to overcome their speaking problems. although social media for learning speaking skills has been studied in the efl context, it does not seem to have been studied in the ethiopian context. such research can also promote a more serious reflection on the levels of students’ speaking proficiency. furthermore, to the researchers’ knowledge, no study has adequately focused on the use of social media learning strategies by efl students in relation to their speaking proficiency within the context of ethiopian public universities. this study also aims to provide empirical evidence of students’ social media use in relation to their speaking proficiency. to this end, the current study sought to answer the following basic research questions: 1. which social media platforms do ethiopian higher education students most frequently use to improve their english-speaking skills? social media in enhancing speaking proficiency 109 no. 28 2. what relationship exists between ethiopian students’ use of social media learning strategies and their speaking proficiency? methodology research design in this study, a descriptive-correlational design was employed to collect, process, analyze, and interpret data. this design was primarily used to identify the social media platforms most frequently utilized by efl students to improve their speaking proficiency. additionally, it aimed to determine the relationship between students’ use of social media as speaking strategies and their speaking proficiency. setting this study was conducted at wolkite university (wku), situated in wolkite town in the central ethiopia region. established in 2012 by the federal democratic republic of ethiopia (fdre), wku is classified as a third-generation public university. the university was selected for this research because the researchers are affiliated with its english language and literature department. data collection took place from february to june 2022. participants and sampling techniques the participants in this study were 70 english major students at wolkite university, consisting of 42 third-year students (20 males and 22 females) and 28 fourth-year students (23 males and 5 females), with ages ranging from 19 to 24. to ensure representation across different educational stages and disciplines, a purposive sampling technique was employed. all participants had completed the spoken english i & ii and advanced speech courses. mitiku tasisa dinsa and esayas teshome taddese 110 no. 28 instruments questionnaire the aim of this questionnaire was to identify the social media platforms efl students use as speaking strategies. it assessed the types and frequency of these platforms employed in learning speaking skills, specifically investigating how many students utilize social media for educational purposes. to achieve this, the researcher developed the questionnaire based on a literature review to understand ethiopian students’ use of social media as a speaking strategy. the questionnaire comprised 31 closed-ended items focused on students’ use of social media for developing speaking skills. designed as a self-report tool, it featured straightforward questions that were appropriate for learners at the ethiopian university level. the questionnaire primarily targeted the frequency of social media use in addressing speaking challenges. participants rated their usage on a 5-point likert scale (1 = strongly disagree, 2 = disagree, 3 = not sure, 4 = agree, 5 = strongly agree). the average scores for each social media platform were interpreted using an adjusted reporting scale. speaking proficiency test the purpose of this test was to assess students’ levels of speaking proficiency. to achieve this, the standardized academic ielts speaking test was employed. the questions were adapted from li’s (2019) ielts speaking proficiency test and consisted of three parts. the first part focused on self-introduction, including family, interests, and hobbies, lasting 3 to 5 minutes. the second part required students to engage in 3 to 4 minutes of self-talk on familiar topics, such as university life, ethiopia’s green legacy and tree planting, and descriptions of their hometowns or villages. the final part involved a two-way discussion between the interviewer and the student on the topic introduced in the second part, lasting another 3 to 5 minutes. the ielts test duration for each participant was 11 to 14 minutes and was administered through face-to-face interviews. it incorporated the four scoring criteria of the ielts speaking assessment: fluency and coherence, pronunciation, lexical resources, and grammatical range and accuracy. these benchmarks were adapted from the university of cambridge’s (2019) ielts speaking proficiency test. to evaluate learners’ oral performance and enhance the reliability of the assessment, the researchers rated the students’ speaking proficiency collaboratively. this approach minimized grading bias and ensured a more objective evaluation of the students’ speaking proficiency. finally, each student’s ielts speaking proficiency was assessed using the common european framework of reference for languages (cefr): learning, teaching, and social media in enhancing speaking proficiency 111 no. 28 assessment (athiworakun et al., 2018). this framework classifies language proficiency into three levels: proficient users (c2 level or a score of 9, and c1 level or band scores of 7-8), independent users (b2 level or scores of 5.5-6.5, and b1 level or scores of 4-5), and basic users (a2 level or a band score of 3, and a1 level or scores of 1-2). consequently, the results of the students’ ielts speaking proficiency tests were evaluated according to cefr guidelines, utilizing the 0-9 ielts scoring system to determine their proficiency levels. semi-structured interview the purpose of this interview was to corroborate the data obtained from the questionnaire and the ielts speaking proficiency test. it also aimed to gather information that might not be available through these methods. out of 70 participants, six students were randomly selected for the interview, which lasted 10 to 15 minutes for each interviewee. the data were collected in english, focusing on the learners’ awareness of using digital technology and the role of social media as strategies for developing their speaking proficiency. validity and reliability of instruments before the main study, the instruments were validated by two experts (ph.d. in tefl) who work at wolkite university. the experts had 15 and 16 years of working experience teaching english in ethiopian public universities. they then evaluated the content and face validities of the questionnaire items, the ielts speaking proficiency test, and the interview. not only that, but they also commented on format specifications, items, applicability to participants, and the extent to which the data collection tools measure what the researcher really intended to measure. the researchers gained constructive insights on content and face validity, as well as the relevance of the items (including the wording, language and format of the three tools). finally, the tools were modified and revised based on the comments given by the experts. the researchers carried out a pilot study to test the dependability of the data collection instruments, notably the questionnaire, the ielts speaking proficiency test and interview, and the administrative procedures. cronbach’s alpha coefficients were used to evaluate the questionnaire’s reliability. the cronbach’s alpha for the questionnaire was 0.889, indicating a high level of reliability. this shows that the items are both effective and dependable in recognizing students’ usage of social media as a speaking strategy. to verify the reliability of the ielts speaking proficiency test, the results from two raters were analyzed using inter-rater reliability. both raters actively participated in the mitiku tasisa dinsa and esayas teshome taddese 112 no. 28 evaluations and independently assessed the students’ spoken performances. cohen’s kappa was employed to calculate the scores, confirming the consistency of their ratings. this study found significant agreement between the two raters (k = 0.724), highlighting the test’s strong reliability. the researchers prepared a short-term training manual and conducted an eighthour training session to enhance students’ understanding of the ielts test and its importance for their future careers. to minimize subjectivity in scoring, the researchers evaluated the tests and recorded each interviewee’s responses using assigned codes. ultimately, each student’s speaking proficiency was assessed according to the ielts band scales, ranging from 0 to 9. the researchers conducted face-to-face interviews with the participants to ensure the credibility of the data. additionally, the interview transcripts were independently coded and categorized to enhance the trustworthiness of the findings. data analysis the questionnaire and speaking proficiency test results were analyzed using the statistical package for the social sciences (spss) version 23.0. descriptive statistics were used to identify the most frequently utilized social media, including mean, standard deviation, percentage, and frequency. additionally, pearson correlation (r) was employed to examine the relationship between students’ social media use and their speaking proficiency. the data from the interviews were analyzed using a systematic procedure. first, the audio-recorded interviews were transcribed verbatim and formatted in conversation style to accurately capture the interviewees’ responses. second, the transcripts were coded and categorized separately to facilitate further analysis. findings results of the questionnaire the frequency of students’ learning strategies is identified mainly through the mean (m) values: mean scores ranging from 3.5 to 5.0 indicate a higher strategy user who usually or almost always uses strategies, while mean scores in the range of 2.5 to 3.4 indicate a medium strategy user who sometimes uses strategies, and mean scores from 1.0 to 2.4 indicate a lower strategy user who does not usually use strategies (oxford, 1990). since speaking strategies are a subset of llss, the following data were analyzed by considering the mean (m) scores of students’ speaking strategies used social media in enhancing speaking proficiency 113 no. 28 (social media). the students’ responses to the questionnaire were categorized based on the above criteria. students’ response to the first research questionwhich social media platforms do ethiopian higher education students most frequently use to improve their englishspeaking skills? table 1. descriptive statistics for the frequency use of social media strategies mean (m) sd level of strategy use frequency of use rank facebook 4.00 0.933 high usually used 1st youtube 3.81 0.828 high usually used 2nd telegram 2.53 0.785 medium not usually used 3rd google+ 2.22 0.545 low not usually used 4th whatsapp 2.20 0.528 low not usually used 5th twitter 2.18 0.514 low not usually used 6th skype 1.01 0.511 low not usually used 7th blogs 0.84 0.470 low not usually used 8th grand total 2.35 0.0.718 low sometimes used table 1 presents the mean scores of students’ use of social media for learning speaking skills, which ranged from a high of 4.00 to a low of 0.84. respondents indicated that they used various social media platforms less frequently, including blogs (m = 0.84), skype (m = 1.01), twitter (m = 2.18), whatsapp (m = 2.20), and google+ (m = 2.22). telegram (m = 2.30) was used at a moderate level. in contrast, facebook (m = 4.00) and youtube (m = 3.81) were employed at a high level. these results indicate that students most frequently use facebook and youtube as social media platforms to learn speaking skills. table 2. purposes of using social media in learning speaking skills item social purposes educational purposes i most commonly use social media frequency percent frequency percent 67 95.7 3 4.3 as shown in table 2, there was a strong preference for using social media for social purposes rather than educational ones in the context of learning speaking skills. specifically, 95.7% of respondents reported using social media primarily for social interactions, while only 4.3% used it for educational purposes. this suggests that social mitiku tasisa dinsa and esayas teshome taddese 114 no. 28 media was predominantly utilized for personal communication and leisure rather than for enhancing speaking skills or engaging in educational. students’ responses to the second research question: what kind of a relationship is there between ethiopian students’ use of social media learning strategy and their speaking proficiency? table 3. self-rating speaking proficiency scale frequency percent valid percent very good 1 1.43 1.43 good 5 7.14 7.14 fair 18 25.72 25.72 poor 46 65.71 65.71 total 145 100.0 100.0 table 3 shows that according to their self-rating, most students were not proficient speakers of the target language. in this case, 65.71% and 25.72% of the respondents rated their speaking proficiency as poor and fair, respectively. in contrast, 7.14% and 1.43% of the participants said that their speaking proficiency was good and very good, respectively. these results indicated that most students were not comfortable with their speaking proficiency. results of the ielts speaking proficiency test according to the university of cambridge (2019), the score on the ielts speaking proficiency test scale includes 9 (expert user), 8 (very good user), 7 (good user), 6 (competent user), 5 (modest user), 4 (limited user), 3 (extremely limited user), 2 (intermittent user), 1 (no user) and 0 (did not attempt the test). in addition, students’ speaking proficiency was determined by considering the common european framework of reference for languages (cefr): learning, teaching, and assessment. this means that proficient users (c2 or 9 scores and c1 or 7-8 scores), independent users (b2 or 5.5-6.5 scores and b1 or 4-5 scores), and basic users (a2 or 2-3 scores and a1 or 0-1scores) (athiworakun et al., 2018). hence, the results of the students’ ielts speaking proficiency test were defined using cefr guidelines to determine their proficiency levels by using scales 0-9. social media in enhancing speaking proficiency 115 no. 28 table 4. students’ ielts speaking proficiency test result students ielts scores s1 3.25 s2 3.38 s3 2.75 s4 2.63 s5 2.38 s6 2.75 s7 2.50 s8 3.25 s9 3.75 s10 3.38 s11 2.75 s12 3.25 s13 3.38 s14 2.63 s15 3.38 s16 2.88 s17 2.63 s18 4.00 s19 3.50 s20 3.75 s21 3.63 s22 4.63 s23 3.25 s24 3.50 s25 4.13 s26 4.00 s27 3.25 s28 3.50 s29 2.75 s30 2.88 s31 4.88 s32 4.00 s33 4.38 s34 2.50 s35 3.25 s36 4.13 s37 3.38 s38 3.07 s39 2.50 s40 2.75 s41 3.00 s42 3.38 s43 3.25 s44 2.75 s45 2.13 s46 3.25 s47 3.25 s48 2.88 s49 2.88 s50 2.50 s51 3.00 s52 3.00 s53 2.88 s54 3.38 s55 3.00 s56 3.13 s57 2.88 s58 3.00 s59 3.13 s60 3.00 s61 3.25 s62 3.50 s63 2.38 s64 3.50 s65 2.50 s66 2.75 s67 3.50 s68 2.75 s69 3.38 s70 3.00 as stated above, students had limited knowledge of using digital technology to improve their speaking proficiency. the results also indicated that students used social media primarily for entertainment and social purposes in their native language rather than in english. additionally, two informants provided the following insights: mitiku tasisa dinsa and esayas teshome taddese 116 no. 28 “in my spare time, i enjoy watching movies, recording videos and playing games in my native language. it motivates me to watch videos for fun and different social purposes. i never use social media to learn to speak english.” (s4) “i love the jokes and pranks there on social media. however, i do not use social media for educational purposes instead, i use it for social purposes. this means that students use their native language most often when using social media.” (s5) “awareness of using social media to learn speaking skills is low. i have never used social media to improve my speaking skills. i mainly use facebook and youtube for watching movies and doing different social activities in my native language.” ( s6) students were not purposefully using social media learning strategies to communicate with each other in the target language in and out of the classroom. if these purposes were achieved in the target language, the students’ english proficiency would significantly improve. the results of this interview supported the findings of the questionnaire. most students did not use different social media as a learning strategy to solve their speaking problems. however, facebook and youtube were most frequently used for different social purposes rather than educational purposes. therefore, students are not using social media as a learning strategy to solve their speaking problems. discussion the most frequently used social media by students the aim of this study was to pinpoint the social media most frequently used by efl students to improve their speaking proficiency. questionnaires and interviews were used to discover the social networks used by students. the findings indicated that among all social media platforms, facebook (m = 3.83) and youtube (m = 3.50) were the most frequently employed by students, while telegram (m = 2.97) was used at a moderate level. in contrast, blogging, skype, twitter, whatsapp, and google+ were the least utilized for developing speaking skills. the results revealed that social media was not primarily used to enhance speaking proficiency. additionally, the interview results supported the questionnaire findings, showing that students used facebook and youtube mainly for socializing and entertainment, likely due to easy access for non-educational purposes. students were generally unaware of how to leverage social media to improve their speaking social media in enhancing speaking proficiency 117 no. 28 skills. the findings also highlighted that the lack of social networking integration in the language curriculum contributed significantly to the underutilization of these strategies for speaking practice. more importantly, the results indicated that learners faced challenges related to their educational background, social factors, and exposure to language learning environments the convergence between the results obtained via questionnaire and interview could give us a reliable picture of students’ use of facebook and youtube for social purposes rather than educational purposes. the students thought that social platforms helped them to relax and interact with one another, but they again reported that their understanding of it was poor because they did not take it in any spoken english courses or repeat and reflect on it. these results showed that learners’ awareness of using social media in learning speaking skills in a class was very low. there was no contribution of social media learning strategies in improving students’ linguistic knowledge. furthermore, the results of this study are inconsistent with findings from previous research on efl students’ use of social media for learning strategies (alrasheedi, 2020; aristiawan, 2022; piannu & rosita, 2023; rahmawati et al., 2023; seyede, 2017). these earlier studies indicate that social media can offer students greater opportunities to communicate with native speakers through various platforms, such as facebook, youtube, and telegram. according to putri (2022), students frequently utilize different social media both inside and outside the classroom to express themselves. similarly, choirunnisa and sari (2021) note that students often use facebook and instagram to communicate with native speakers for educational purposes despite experiencing psychological barriers related to oral communication. the findings of the current study align with wulandari (2019), who emphasizes that students should consistently use social media as a learning strategy to enhance creativity, critical thinking, and effective oral communication in the target language. additionally, it aids in the development of linguistic skills and discourse at a more advanced level. therefore, social media plays a significant role in boosting students’ self-confidence and reducing anxiety and shyness when speaking english verbally. it also provides opportunities for improving pronunciation, vocabulary, and language structure. it was unexpected that ethiopian students did not utilize facebook and youtube as learning strategies for educational purposes, particularly in developing speaking proficiency. this may be attributed to teachers’ failure to recognize the potential of effective social platforms in conjunction with traditional, book-oriented teaching methods. additionally, english teachers may not have trained or introduced their students to the use of various social media both inside and outside the classroom, resulting in a lack of awareness about how to consciously leverage these tools to enhance speaking proficiency. the issue seems to stem from limited exposure to environments where the target language can be practiced as a means of communication. there are few opportunities for students to engage with english in real-world contexts. moreover, mitiku tasisa dinsa and esayas teshome taddese 118 no. 28 as table 4 shows, the results of this test showed that students were limited users (4), extremely limited users (3), and intermittent users (2). their test scores were below the requirements for the ielts speaking proficiency test, indicating that they were not proficient speakers of the language. table 5. the relationship between the use of social media learning strategy and speaking proficiency social media speaking proficiency social media pearson correlation 1 .461** sig. (2-tailed) .000 n 70 70 s p e a k i n g proficiency pearson correlation .461** 1 sig. (2-tailed) .000 n 70 70 ** correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed) table 5 showed a significant positive relationship between students’ use of social media and their speaking proficiency (r = 0.461, p=.000, p>0.05). the results indicated a moderate relationship between the two variables, reflecting a linear association. furthermore, the findings suggested that as students increased their use of social media, their speaking proficiency tended to improve. results of the interview the results of the interview showed that students did not use social media as a learning strategy to develop their speaking proficiency. based on this, most interviewees indicated that they lacked awareness of using social media as speaking strategies. s1 said, “not only students but also teachers do not use social media for educational purposes, especially for speaking skills.” this means that teachers are not using different social media when teaching speaking skills in the classroom. besides, two informants said: “i always use social media to have fun. therefore, i like to watch movies and different pictures released in my native language instead of english.” (s2) “i don’t use social media to learn english speaking skills. i always use facebook and youtube just for fun and to connect with friends, but most of my social media use is not to learn speaking skills.” (s4) social media in enhancing speaking proficiency 119 no. 28 the new educational curriculum did not encourage the use of digital technology and diverse social media to promote speaking proficiency, possibly because it did not differ significantly from the previous curriculum. students primarily used facebook and youtube for entertainment and social purposes rather than for educational purposes, particularly in developing speaking skills. teachers also lacked awareness of how to utilize digital technology to enhance their speaking courses. therefore, it is believed that the limited use of social media in an educational context in ethiopia restricts learners’ opportunities to practice speaking in english. the relationship between students’ use of social media as a speaking strategy and their speaking proficiency. this study examined the relationship between students’ use of social media as speaking strategies and their speaking proficiency. to achieve this objective, the results from the questionnaire and the ielts speaking test were utilized. the findings of this study indicated that students’ ielts speaking test scores were limited users (4), extremely limited users (3), and intermittent users (2). this means that the students’ speaking proficiency levels were independent users and basic users. these survey results showed that the scores of the students were lower than the requirements of the proficiency test. in addition, the results of the pearson correlation showed that there was a linear relationship between students’ use of social media and their speaking proficiency (r=0.461, p=.000, p>0.05). these results indicated that the social media learning strategy did not contribute to the level of students’ speaking proficiency. it could partly be because of students’ limited awareness of social media use for educational purposes, their speaking proficiency lying at an alarmingly low level. after identifying that learners’ speaking proficiency was at an unexpectedly low level, several factors were considered, including learners’ background knowledge, infrequent use of social media for oral practice, teaching methods, and psychological factors. additionally, interview results revealed that many students attributed their challenges to the university system, which often assigns students to the english department without considering their interests. this misalignment may contribute to a negative attitude toward the program. furthermore, students did not effectively utilize digital technology, such as social media, both inside and outside the classroom. thus, learners did not intentionally use social media as a strategy to address their speaking difficulties. the relationship between social media as a learning strategy use and speaking proficiency was positive, but it was weak. weak ties indicate that students are not using social media as a learning strategy to improve their speaking proficiency. as a result, mitiku tasisa dinsa and esayas teshome taddese 120 no. 28 it is possible to help students develop their understanding and use of effective social media to improve their speaking proficiency. it is also essential for english teachers to combine social media with a book-oriented method to teaching speaking english. furthermore, the findings of the present study are inconsistent with those of previous studies (choirunnisa & sari, 2021; kuning, 2020; mohammed, 2021; putri, 2022; yükselir & kömür, 2017), which provided evidence of a significant relationship between social media use and speaking proficiency. specifically, ilyas and putri (2020) highlight that the level of learners’ speaking proficiency determines the frequency with which they use appropriate social networking platforms to practice oral communication. they demonstrated that social media positively influences students’ speaking proficiency. similarly, mitu (2020) found a significant correlation between efl students’ social media usage and their speaking proficiency test scores (r=0.935, p=0.000, p<0.05), reinforcing the idea that a strong relationship exists between these two variables. additionally, bahtiar et al. (2020) suggest that increased self-confidence in students using speaking strategies leads to improved speaking performance. as seyede (2017) further points out, effective social media models can assist students in becoming proficient in english. the use of learning strategies is concurrently linked to speaking proficiency. overall, the findings indicate that students who are proficient in spoken language tend to use social media learning strategies more frequently for educational purposes, both in and out of the classroom. it was expected that there was a significant relationship between social media learning strategy and speaking proficiency. however, the findings of the present study indicated that the correlation between the two variables was weak. first, one possible reason for the weak correlation between the two variables could be that students were unaware of using effective social media as a learning strategy to solve their speaking problems. second, students had limited exposure to using social media to verbally express meaning in the target language. it can be considered that the students’ speaking proficiency was influenced by other factors by students in and out of the classroom. finally, in ethiopia, it might be because the english curriculum (i.e., book-oriented) was not integrated with technology (social media) to teach spoken english courses. conclusion this study showed that learners utilized social media learning strategies the least frequently to improve their speaking skills. additionally, it found that students at ethiopian universities primarily use facebook and youtube for socializing and entertainment. although they engage with social media daily, they rarely use it to converse with native speakers. the findings indicated that they predominantly used social media in their mother tongue rather than in english, suggesting that social social media in enhancing speaking proficiency 121 no. 28 networking did not effectively promote their english-speaking skills. furthermore, the results revealed that students did not employ digital technology strategies to enhance their speaking proficiency and were largely unaware of how to use these learning strategies to address their speaking challenges. moreover, the present study indicated a significant relationship between speaking proficiency and the use of social media. this suggests that due to the lack of intentional use of social media as a speaking strategy, learners’ speaking proficiency remained low. consequently, students are not integrating social media with traditional bookoriented learning strategies to enhance their overall english proficiency, particularly in speaking. based on the conclusions drawn, several recommendations can be made. english teachers should encourage and train students to use social media as a learning strategy for developing speaking skills. additionally, they should modernize their instructional methods by incorporating digital tools, such as social media, to enhance students’ speaking proficiency. students, in turn, should become aware of how to effectively use social media to improve their speaking abilities. furthermore, educational curricula should integrate social media as a strategy for teaching english skills, particularly speaking. the university administration should ensure the provision of necessary resources and infrastructure, such as internet access and language laboratories, to support spoken english courses. lastly, efl teachers should employ modern teaching methods while still valuing traditional book and module-oriented approaches; this integration can maximize english language skills and foster greater student engagement in learning speaking skills. this study was conducted at wku and focused exclusively on english major students. the findings highlight the necessity for further research involving large-scale surveys and diverse sample sizes across various contexts. such studies would provide more comprehensive insights into all public and private universities in ethiopia, thereby enhancing our understanding of the generalizability of these results. mitiku tasisa dinsa and esayas teshome taddese 122 no. 28 references athiworakun, c., vathanalaoha, k., thongprayoon, t., rajprasit, k., & yaemtui, w. 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(2020). using social media to promote efl learners’ speaking skill: perceptions from both teachers and learners. international journal of advanced research in education and society, 2(1), 74-84. social media in enhancing speaking proficiency 123 no. 28 mohammed, g. m. s. (2021). speaking skills in online learning: an investigation of the strategies used by efl learners at the university of bisha. asian efl journal, 28(2.3), 120-134. mustafa, e. n. e. (2018). the impact of youtube, skype and whatsapp in improving efl learners’ speaking skill. international journal of contemporary applied research, 5(5), 18-31. namaziandost, e., & nasri, m. (2019). the impact of social media on efl learners’ speaking skill: a survey study involving efl teachers and students. journal of applied linguistics and language research, 6(3), 199-215. oxford, r. (1990). language learning strategies: what every teacher should know [e-book]. boston: heinle & heinle. putri, s. m. d. (2022). the effectiveness of using tiktok to improve efl learners’ speaking ability. mimesis, 3(2), 101-110. doi: https://doi.org/10.12928/mms. v3i2.6096 ravindran, l., ridzuan, i., & wong, b. e. (2022). the impact of social media on the teaching and learning of efl speaking skills during the covid-19 pandemic. in proceedings, 82 (1), 1-10. https://doi.org/10.3390/proceedings2022082038 rizqiningsih, s., & hadi, m. s. (2019). multiple intelligences on developing speaking skills. english language in focus, 1(2), 127-136. https://doi.org/10.3390/ proceedings2022082038 seyede, z. e. (2017). social network sites: oral performance of efl learners. theoretical & applied science, (2), 116-121. doi: 10.15863/tas.2017.02.46.21 university of cambridge, (2019). ielts speaking assessment english. http://www.ielts.org/ institutions/test_format_and_results/ielts_band_scores.aspx wulandari, m. (2019). improving efl learners’ speaking proficiency through instagram vlog. llt journal: a journal on language and language teaching, 22(1), 111-125. doi: doi.org/10.24071/llt.2019.220111 yükselir, c., & kömür, s. (2017). using online videos to improve speaking abilities of efl learners. online submission, 3 (5), 255-266. doi: 10.5281/zenodo.495750 zheng, y., & barrot, j. s. (2022). social media as an e-portfolio platform: effects on l2 learners’ speaking performance. language learning & technology, 26 (1), 1-19. https://hdl.handle.net/10125/73487 mitiku tasisa dinsa and esayas teshome taddese authors mitiku tasisa dinsa is an assistant professor at wolkite university in ethiopia. his research focuses on language learning strategies, as well as writing and speaking skills. orcid: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0112-9231 esayas teshome tadesse is an assistant professor at unitar international university in petaling jaya, malaysia. his research interests include english curriculum development, professional development, and language testing. orcid: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8988-7311 124 no. 28 social media in enhancing speaking proficiency 1 mayra.daniel@gmail.com teachers prepare to infuse social-emotional learning in english as a foreign language classes in uruguay docentes se preparan para integrar el aprendizaje socioemocional en clases de inglés como lengua extranjera en uruguay mayra c. daniel1 ximena d. burgin northern illinois university, de kalb, il, usa gist education and learning research journal. issn 1692-5777. no. 29 (july december, 2024). pp. 37-56. 37 no. 29 38 no. 29 abstract this qualitative case study examined teachers’ views on integrating social-emotional learning (sel) and its role in supporting culturally responsive pedagogy (crp). a total of 32 k-5th grade english as a foreign language (efl) uruguayan teachers completed a three-week online asynchronous professional development. participants’ training focused on sel principles, practices, and strategies for the english as a foreign language classroom. during the training, a three-scale rubric (0 3 points) served to formatively assess and provide feedback to the participants on completing weekly tasks. the evaluation examined the content of the teachers’ reflection and applications to practice. feedback focused on how well teachers grasped the theoretical content and its integration. once the training was completed, participants answered four open-ended questions in an online repository questionnaire. findings document that after the intervention, the teachers perceived that students benefitted from learning about sel and its implementation, and they came to believe that sel principles need to become an integral part of instructional planning in uruguay’s efl classrooms. keywords: social emotional learning (sel), english as a foreign language, uruguay, teacher professional development, culturally responsive pedagogy resumen este estudio cualitativo examinó la comprensión del aprendizaje socio emocional (ase) adquirida por 32 docentes de inglés como idioma extranjero de k-5° grado después de un desarrollo profesional asincrónico en línea de tres semanas. el entrenamiento se enfocó en los principios, prácticas y estrategias del ase y su incorporación en clases de inglés. durante la formación, se utilizó una rúbrica de tres escalas (0-3 puntos) para evaluar formativamente y proporcionar retroalimentación a los participantes sobre la realización de las tareas semanales. la evaluación examinó el contenido de las reflexiones de los docentes y la aplicación de los conceptos a la práctica. la retroalimentación se centró en qué tan bien los docentes comprendieron el contenido teórico y su integración. una vez finalizada la capacitación, los participantes respondieron a cuatro preguntas abiertas a través de un cuestionario. los hallazgos documentan que, después de la intervención, los docentes percibieron que los estudiantes se benefician al aprender sobre ase y su implementación, y llegaron a creer que los principios de sel deben convertirse en una parte integral de la planificación instruccional en las aulas de de inglés como lengua extranjera en uruguay. palabras claves: aprendizaje socio emocional, inglés como idioma extranjero, uruguay, desarrollo professional para docentes, pedagogía relevante educators prepare to integrate sel into foreign language instruction. 39 no. 29 resumo este estudo qualitativo examinou a compreensão da aprendizagem socioemocional (ase) adquirida por 32 professores de inglês como língua estrangeira do ensino fundamental (k-5º ano) após um desenvolvimento profissional assíncrono online de três semanas. o treinamento focou nos princípios, práticas e estratégias da ase e sua incorporação nas aulas de inglês. durante a formação, utilizou-se uma rubrica de três escalas (0-3 pontos) para avaliar formativamente e fornecer feedback aos participantes sobre a realização das tarefas semanais. a avaliação analisou o conteúdo das reflexões dos professores e a aplicação dos conceitos à prática. o feedback concentrou-se no nível de compreensão dos professores sobre o conteúdo teórico e sua integração. ao final da capacitação, os participantes responderam a quatro perguntas abertas por meio de um questionário. os resultados documentam que, após a intervenção, os professores perceberam que os alunos se beneficiam ao aprender sobre ase e sua implementação, e passaram a acreditar que os princípios da ase devem se tornar uma parte essencial do planejamento instrucional nas salas de aula de inglês como língua estrangeira no uruguai. palavras-chave: aprendizagem socioemocional, inglês como língua estrangeira, uruguai, desenvolvimento profissional de professores, pedagogia relevante mayra c. daniel and ximena d. burgin 40 no. 29 increases in worldwide migration have resulted in school populations that are more diverse in language and culture than ever before (international organization for migration [iom], 2024). migration of families forced into exile due to political events has created émigrés who have no choice but to leave their homeland with little more than a suitcase, to confront numerous economic and personal hurdles. in 2020, north america welcomed 59 million immigrants, composing 21% of the world’s migration. europe and asia opened their doors to 61% of the world’s immigrants, reflecting figures of 87 and 86 million respectively (iom, 2021). attending to the emotional needs of diverse learners must become a priority of schooling (bennett, 2019; greene, 2018) because unexpected influxes of plurilingual and pluricultural learners require educators to modify the school curriculum to address all learners’ academic and socio-cultural needs. culturally responsive educators can address the educational challenges of immigrant learners by investigating students’ funds of knowledge (moll, 2019). inquiry into learners schooled and non-schooled knowledge ensures the curriculum considers students’ socioemotional competencies (secs) and reflects their languages and cultures. uruguay’s emerging plurilingualism this research focuses on the growing plurilingualism and pluriculturalism of uruguay, the second smallest south american nation, nestled between argentina, brazil, and the atlantic ocean. uruguay’s demographic reflects what is occurring across the world’s continents. in the recent past, the population of uruguay was largely homogeneous but recently the number of immigrants from the latin american region (argentina, colombia, the dominican republic, and venezuela), and from syria has led to a notable increase of culturally and linguistically diverse students in the nation’s (caumont, 2020). many immigrants speak spanish, a romance language, and may be literate in it. immigrants to uruguay from syria face different hurdles because arabic, their first language, has a distinct alphabet system. this inquiry applies to other countries, as valuable insights can be gained by examining the steps uruguay has taken to address the needs of culturally diverse learners enrolling in its schools. for the purposes of this study, we use the terms “plurilingual” and “pluricultural” to describe an individual able to interact with others in two or more languages in a manner that serves the goal of the communication. a person does not need a high level of language proficiency to engage in bartering at a roadside stand, but the individual who can successfully barter and buy a product, may consider the ability to interact successfully in such situations defines them as a plurilingual and pluricultural person. therefore, we believe that immigrant students to uruguay, while in the process of gaining proficiency in spanish and english, are pluricultural and plurilingual. their efforts reflect uruguay’s emerging plurilingualism and evidence the changing demographic in the nation’s schools. educators prepare to integrate sel into foreign language instruction. 41 no. 29 many researchers consider that nurturing educators’ culturally responsive ideologies will ensure that diverse student populations see themselves reflected in the school curriculum (hawkins & norton, 2009; ricento, 2019). this research aimed to position efl teachers as transformative leaders equipped to implement uruguay’s efl curriculum through a social justice lens. considering the uruguayan sociocultural context and events across the world’s stage, we proposed that integration of social and emotional learning (sel) in the uruguayan efl classroom requires training teachers to implement sel and address crp practices. supervisors from uruguay’s department of foreign languages (dfl) secured participants for this study, evidencing uruguay’s educational leaders’ interest in meeting the guidelines of the ley general de educación [general law of education] (2020). the law views teachers’ work from an integral perspective, considering different aspects of the person’s development, addresses the social and emotional components of learning, and focuses beyond the goal of teaching only discipline-specific content. the anticipated promise of this intervention is that providing efl teachers opportunities to enhance their pedagogical practices with knowledge of sel practices, and promoting students’ secs, might offer uruguayan educators an informed path to achieving educational reform (jagers et al., 2018). few studies have focused on the influence of sel on academic performance in efl classrooms (bai & wang, 2021). this research proposes providing uruguayan teachers with support to build learners’ secs and create equitable learning opportunities for native-born and immigrant students. literature review educational leaders in uruguay agree that learners need more than disciplinespecific instruction, especially those who have experienced political and personal trauma, and face adjusting to a new sociocultural context while acquiring one or two additional languages (gay, 2018; pentón herrera, 2020). immigrants to uruguay, whose first language is not spanish, are required to learn spanish, which becomes their second language, and english, a third language, at school. spanish is the official language of the country of uruguay, and english is taught to all students enrolled in schools. uruguay’s educational policies regarding mandatory english instruction legitimizes the language’s economic value for the nation (ley general de educación [general law of education], 2008). english empowers the region’s reach beyond the southern hemisphere and positions uruguayan citizens to compete in the world marketplace. uruguay’s teachers help ensure equitable resources are available to teachers across rural and urban areas of the nation’s schools (díaz maggioli & kuhlman, 2010). the mayra c. daniel and ximena d. burgin 42 no. 29 efl curriculum being implemented is based on the tesol standards’ domains of knowledge and applications to practice that teachers must know and be able to demonstrate (kahmi-stein et al., 2017). prior to the covid-19 pandemic, distance learning in uruguay aimed to meet the demands of teaching efl across the country, but a focus on sel was absent. the complete move to e-learning during the pandemic demonstrated to the dfl that efl educators were unprepared to infuse sel in efl instruction (jagers et al., 2018; trinidad, 2020). preparing efl teachers had overlooked the need to add a hearty focus on culturally responsive instruction (crp) (allbright & hough, 2020) and sel, nor stressed that learners’ emotions are the cornerstone of the curriculum (rogers, 2019). socio-emotional learning in the southern hemisphere the andean development corporation and the organization for economic cooperation and development (oecd) (huerta, 2019; revista de educación [journal of education], 2017), declared the importance of sel by encouraging the development of sel constructs (e.g., self-awareness and self-management) (casel, 2024). three latin american countries (uruguay, colombia, and ecuador) refer to sel in their curriculum (instituto nacional de educación evaluativa [national institute of educational evaluation], 2020). still, the effectiveness of implementing sel in south america has not been determined. uruguay’s national curriculum (anepcep, 2022) states that elementary instruction must stimulate sel components, empathy, and conflict resolution skills, urging teachers to embed sec development intentionally and systematically within instruction; however, to date there is no official framework to guide or help coordinate sel integration. culturally responsive pedagogy (crp) in efl classes, educators teach both english and the cultural norms that english speakers engage with daily. understanding the cultural practices and histories of english-speaking populations globally is essential in efl. social-emotional learning (sel) enhances rfl by encouraging intercultural comprehension and appreciation for diversity (gay, 2018). the principles of culturally responsive pedagogy (crp) are integrated with sel as its implementation encourages self-reflection, promoting equity and social justice (martínez agudo, 2018; rogers, 2019). teaching sel concepts ensures learners develop their secs and master ways to engage in respectful communication in formal and informal situations (aspen institute, 2018; jagers et al., 2018). when efl teachers explore the sociocultural context of schooling (freire, 1985), they are ready to plan a curriculum that addresses and validates students’ backgrounds (jiménez, 2021; ladson-billings, 2021). three key tenets inform crp: teachers’ cultural competence, educators prepare to integrate sel into foreign language instruction. 43 no. 29 their instructional expertise, and their level of pluricultural understanding (pentón herrera, 2020). ladson-billings (2021) explains that crp focuses on empowering students to achieve academically, reach high levels of cultural competence, and socio-political consciousness. similarly focused, the collaborative for academic, social, and emotional learning (casel) (2024) divides sel skills into five categories that teachers must support: regulating one’s emotions, thoughts, and actions; demonstrating social awareness, empathy, and acceptance of others’ social and ethical norms; establishing and maintaining healthy rewarding relationships with diverse individuals and groups; and making constructive and respectful choices in personal and social interactions based on consideration of the person’s identity and well-being. when ladson-billings discusses the so what of crp, she focuses on how teachers transform theory into action and explain to learners that the curriculum will prepare them to stand up for their rights and privileges (2021). teachers meet the equity goals of crp with a rigorous curriculum that affirms diverse identities and supports students in examining the world through a critical lens. socio-emotional learning in efl reforms in education require culturally responsive educators (rogers, 2019). we believe that online self-paced training can engage efl educators in reflection (melani et al., 2020). this assumption was important for this intervention, as the impact of covid-19 on the mental health needs of students and teachers (trinidad, 2020) continues. understanding the components of acquiring additional languages requires awareness of the factors of motivation and anxiety and how these are affected by learners’ secs (dörnyei, 1994; ellis, 1994). cultural responsiveness in efl is present when teachers’ sel and crp awareness leads students to engage in mindful and respectful behaviors (oxford, 2015). in such classrooms learners become enthusiastic participants who wish to learn the languages of study and the ways of being of the people who speak the language. research suggests that developing learners’ secs changes the classroom ambiance and therefore helps close academic gaps (malloy, 2019). skills such as self-regulation, perseverance, resilience, and the ability to establish positive peer relationships have been suggested to correlate to higher levels of student engagement, attendance rates, and achievement (durlak et al., 2011). the respectful relationships that sel study fosters mitigate the effects of social discontinuity (dörnyei, 1994), and in addition, students’ anxiety decreases as they practice sel skills (ellis, 1994). once students develop their secs, they will more easily to appreciate their classmates’ funds of knowledge (moll, 2019). pentón herrera (2020) emphasizes the need to remedy learner stress using methods that support sec development and self-management beyond the classroom. mayra c. daniel and ximena d. burgin 44 no. 29 he suggests using practices that allow learners to think about their attitudes and behaviors. methods such as bibliotherapy, peace education, yoga, restorative practices, journaling, listening circles, mindfulness and instruction on emotional intelligence help students learn about each other (pentón herrera, 2020). sel helps students recognize their classmates’ respectful behaviors and acknowledge positive traits using words such as generous, funny, or open-minded. teachers and students might select two to three positive words to use each week and reflect on how this type of feedback supports camaraderie. theoretical framework insufficient research has explored the ideologies of efl teachers and how these influence their pedagogy (adams & richie, 2017; bai & wang, 2021; martínez agudo, 2018). the theoretical framework that guided this study was sociocultural learning theory (freire, 1985; vygotsky, 1986). in addition, this research was informed by the casel (2024) standards for guiding efl teachers’ pd (casel, 2024). while the casel standards are not considered part of the theoretical framework of this study, their use contributed to the planning of this study and delivery of the teachers’ online training. we know that educators cognizant that attention to crp methods improves the quality of interactions in efl classrooms, will utilize casel to help learners acquire the secs that lead them to contribute to each other’s well-being (franquíz et al., 2019; hawkins & norton, 2009; oxford, 2015). this work investigates english as a foreign language (efl) educators’ ability to infuse socio-emotional learning (sel) in culturally responsive pedagogy (crp). two research questions guided this study: what are teachers’ perceptions of infusing sel in efl? and, what benefits do efl teachers recognize in using sel to infuse crp into classroom instruction? methodology this qualitative case study (yin, 2009) examined teachers’ views on integrating sel in efl and its role in supporting crp. after obtaining approval from the institutional review board (irb) of the researchers’ institution and the uruguayan board of primary education, support was obtained from uruguay’s dfl to coordinate recruitment. two national supervisors from the dfl emailed an invitation to 550 uruguayan elementary teachers to enroll in a three-week training through an online platform provided by the uruguayan government. of 550 emails sent, 32 teachers agreed to participate. each participant was assigned a unique number used in the results section to ensure compliance with irb protocols. the invitation presented information about the course content and the study inclusion criteria: employment as an efl elementary educators prepare to integrate sel into foreign language instruction. 45 no. 29 teacher; intermediate english language proficiency (cefr b1); internet access; and ten-hour weekly availability to complete readings and assignments. participants were sent a digital certificate accrediting 20 hours of professional development (pd) issued by the researchers and the dfl supervisors upon compliance with three requirements: submission of a signed consent form; compliance with all course tasks; and completion of all stages of data collection. data gathering participants answered four open-ended questions using an online repository website after completing an online asynchronous three-week sel workshop delivered on the moodle platform. they could respond online at their convenience and have time to reflect on their instructional planning. responses were analyzed utilizing sixphase thematic analysis (ta): data familiarization, generation of initial codes, search for themes, review of identified themes, definition of the themes, and reporting (clarke & braun, 2017). ta was chosen because it is a systematic approach for examining perspectives about a topic (clarke & braun, 2017; nowell et al. 2017). after the researchers reviewed the collected data, each developed initial codes that later were collaboratively discussed and refined. the next step was to generate the final themes. the inductive process for generating the codes allowed the researchers to understand the responses based on the situated context of the project. the participants responded to the following questions after completion of the pd: post-workshop questions 1. what did you learn about implementing sel and crp that you will use? 2. how can crp and sel improve the level of respect in students’ communications? 3. what specific strategies or concepts have you implemented after this training? 4. if additional training is provided in the future, what topics would you like to further explore? teachers’ training the three-week online training provided foundational knowledge and strategies for modeling sec development. directions and suggestions allowed the teachers to incorporate new pedagogy into lesson plans. the training included readings and tasks requiring active participation and reflection on the integration of sel. the work with the teachers during phase i of this research consisted of online training focused on sel implementation and a focus on crp in lesson plans. the training was delivered mayra c. daniel and ximena d. burgin 46 no. 29 asynchronously, and no face-to-face meetings were required. participants agreed to view training videos, complete readings, and reflective assignments. phase ii of the research involved online collaborative lesson planning between the teachers and researchers before online classroom field visits. phase iii has not been completed at this point and is therefore not part of the data reported. feedback provided to participants during the training, a three-scale rubric (0 3 points) was used to formatively assess and give feedback to the participants on completion of weekly tasks: the evaluation examined the content of the teachers’ reflection and applications to practice. feedback focused on how well teachers grasped the theoretical content and its integration. week 1. during the first week of training, the teachers defined sel, explained, and provided examples showing how sel skills help efl students in school and life. feedback emphasized that sel is more than recognizing and managing emotions and that the casel (2024) core competencies center on helping students succeed academically and personally. feedback reminded participants that effective sel implementation requires constant, intentional,  and thoughtful setting of short and long-term goals; promoting active student roles; creating classroom routines; and negotiating explicit goals with students. the teachers were asked to reflect on their understanding of sel, its effective integration, and crp strategies. they responded to four open-ended questions addressing what they had learned and hoped to do in the future. the questions required the teachers to share why they believe sel contributes to efl classrooms, how its integration impacts students’ inter-personal communication, what methods they anticipate using to teach students about sel, and how they wish to proceed in the future to gain more knowledge related to what sel training will add to their teaching methods. the teachers responded to the following questions: • considering students’ academic and affective needs, what short and longterm sel goals will be part of your lessons? • how can your students practice decision-making, self-management, and social awareness skills while working on subject matter content? • how will you sustain the development of secs in the long term? • how will you ensure students’ engagement? educators prepare to integrate sel into foreign language instruction. 47 no. 29 • what opening and/or closing activities will you implement to promote and sustain learners’ self-management skills? week 2. this week participants explored practical ideas, tools, and strategies to embed sel and crp into efl instruction. they identified a specific group of students and wrote a two-page reflection describing the group’s characteristics and demographics. in addition, they explained the instructional modifications they chose to effectively integrate sel (e.g., teacher language, student actions, classroom rules, and classroom environment). feedback emphasized the need to set feasible goals that align with students’ needs; the creation of safe and positive environments where students feel comfortable sharing and learning together; and the need for routines that support and empower students. questions shared with the teachers had the goal of helping them reflect and apply what they were learning to practice: • how will you assess students’ social and emotional interaction? • what steps have you taken, and how will you continue to integrate sel in crp in the future? • how will you help students monitor their progress? week 3. this week, the teachers addressed the use of the good behavior game (gbg) to promote sel and address crp in lessons (kellan et al., 2018). the gbg, a classroombased behavior management strategy that when incorporated into a lesson plan rewards students who stay on-task (air, 2021; rubow et al., 2018) is built on four core elements that model ways to support sel skill development: behavioral expectations through a set of clearly articulated rules, opportunities for teamwork, adherence to established expectations and, positive reinforcement. the teachers integrated and negotiated the gbg’s four elements into a game lasting up to 45 minutes, including rules, behaviors, and positive reinforcements. the gbg was the first step for the teachers to implement what they were learning. the lesson template shared with the teachers helped them plan lessons around academic concepts, sel, and crp. feedback was provided on the lesson plans designed for the gbg game. the teacher’s task was to identify the lesson’s sel goals, to make the learning objectives explicit to students, and to create opportunities for students to relate the targeted sel skills to their lives, thus ensuring students’ reflection on their secs. mayra c. daniel and ximena d. burgin 48 no. 29 results at the end of the three-week workshop, participants (n=32) responded to four openended questions that explored their confidence in their ability to use crp to promote sel skills and their thoughts on how this learning would affect their students. the teachers were asked how they will assess students’ social and emotional interactions, what steps they will take to continue integrating sel in crp, and how they will help students monitor their progress. data analysis generated three recurrent themes: sel skills and crp to address behavioral issues, student-teacher collaborative work toward mindfulness and respectful conversations, and routines to teach sel skills utilizing students’ cultural background. overall, responses reflected the teachers’ interest in better understanding methods to infuse sel and crp in their efl lessons. sel skills and crp to address behavioral issues the teachers grasped that instruction is positively influenced by consultation of casel’s standards (2024) and the use of crp to model sel skills (allbright & hough, 2020; kahmi-stein et al., 2017). all the participants indicated that the strategies presented in the training (e.g., calming strategies, feedback, identifying emotions, mindfulness, group work, and game-based activities) helped them understand the benefits of addressing students’ emotions as a behavior-management strategy, and will help students succeed in school and life as they develop self-awareness, selfmanagement, social awareness, ability to build relationships, and responsible decisionmaking. several teachers made comments such as “sel includes a series of strategies and tools whose function is to help students adapt to the environment” (participants # 3, 21, 26, 32) “sel skills are a decisive factor in the formation of citizens capable of harmoniously integrating into society and managing their life projects” (# 7), “crp is a student-centered approach” (participants # 8, 10), and “it is our job to lead students to understand their emotions”(participants # 9, 24). another participant shared “i identify sel goals including behavior expectations, planning cycles and assessments” (# 10). seven other teachers also indicated that they had begun to use some gbg adaptation. several respondents commented about the gbg: “i think gbg is an effective approach to support sec development and emotionally sustaining activities” (participants # 1, 2, 6, 10, 13, 23, 32). three participants mentioned “the importance of sel to help students have a better future” (participants # 8, 17, 29). three comments presented the teachers belief that crp and sel are important to manage behavioral issues, through the integration of activities that help students learn to control their emotions (participants # 6, 13, 17). seventeen participants connected the sel skills to classroom behavior (participants # 1, 2, 4, 5, 6, 8, 9, 10, 13, 14, 15, 18, 20, 23, 24, 26, 29). eight comments provided similar reflections on how setting a routine, identifying expected behaviors, and rewarding respectful actions builds a positive environment educators prepare to integrate sel into foreign language instruction. 49 no. 29 (participants # 11, 18). four teachers discussed the benefits of helping students to “selfmonitor and building a nurturing classroom” (participants # 5, 15, 18, 20). six teachers demonstrated a high level of interest in learning more about sel when they asked questions related to how crp leads students to recognize and respect each other’s cultures (participants # 4, 14, 23, 26, 29, 32). collaborative work toward mindfulness and respectful conversations the second theme, collaborations toward mindfulness and respectful conversations, was assessed by examining how caring teachers create environments where students’ actions and words show they value, respect, and support each other (casel, 2024; durlak et al., 2011). eight participants (#s 5, 6, 13, 15, 17, 18, 20, 32) connected the benefits of collaborative work focused on developing students’ secs and mentioned the benefits of teaching sel concepts. thirteen participants agreed on the message in the following comments, indicating that sel skills should be afforded through “all classroom instruction,” thus providing students time to practice the skills (participants #s 1, 18). five teachers mentioned the gbg game and that it helps students understand how to behave and control their impulses (listening to others, respecting turn-taking, etc.). another five teachers shared that “in sel development students realize how their decisions affect the group” (participants # 4, 13, 19, 24, 31) “i calm them [students] down, and then explain that we will play the gbg game for 10 minutes, to do teamwork.” lastly, six participants indicated that their learning strategies helped them “implement the sel concepts” (#s 2, 6, 9, 11, 27, 31). in addition, the teachers mentioned sel “signature practices” that address emotions and equity such as jigsaws, journaling, writing small thoughts on the board, four corners, gallery work, brain breaks, and ice breakers (#s 3, 7, 10). one teacher shared her plan to “create a chart for monitoring how they [the students] are feeling” (# 22). other teachers (#s 5, 8, 12, 14). acknowledged that as students understand classroom expectations “they [the students] will treat each other respectfully, and their behavior will prepare them for the future as citizens of uruguay”. several teachers’ comments (#s 8, 17, 25) supported the statement “[if students were] doing activities that involve using sel skills, the classroom atmosphere would be less stressful“ and “reflection on emotions will help students do better next time.”  ten participants (# 3, 5, 7, 8, 10, 12, 14, 17, 22, 25) shared that involving students in identifying behavioral issues helps them regulate their emotions. a teacher (# 22) suggested “when developing a gbg activity, i spend time with the students selecting the activity, giving them points and rewards to help them reach the expected results.” another teacher (# 4) echoed colleagues’ perspectives when they said “if i give learners the tools they need to problem-solve, i will be freer to help the children who have learning difficulties.” mayra c. daniel and ximena d. burgin 50 no. 29 routines to teach sel skills utilizing students’ cultural background the third theme, routines to teach sel skills utilizing students’ cultural background, was mentioned by 9 participants (# 1, 2, 6, 10, 11, 13, 18, 23, 32). the teachers were focused on the effectiveness of using routines to implement sel, but few (participants # 5, 8, 12, 14) stated a pressing need to become informed about the cultural norms of recent immigrants for sel implementation to be effective. they did, however, demonstrate their concern with giving students time to engage in reflection and conversations about their concerns when they discussed their role modeling respect through routines and development of students’ secs. the same nine teachers who alluded to the role of cultural background, specifically expressed that the modeling that is a key part of routines assists students to develop their secs (participants # 1, 2, 6, 10, 11, 13, 18, 23, 32). four teachers referred to the gbg and how it “helps in seeing the role of routines. they (#s 1, 6, 9, 18) concurred that “habits at the beginning and the end of lessons, and activities with short clear instructions” is the way to support sec development. others stated comments reflecting the thought, “i will establish routines to create a safe environment, where students of all backgrounds feel comfortable” (participants # 2, 3, 11, 27). other teachers commented that “routines will help me manage sel skill integration” (# 8); “setting clear routines is a way to identify expected behaviors, reward the positive ones and build a respectful atmosphere” (# 17), and “the important thing [to teach sel] is to incorporate clear rules” (# 25). two teachers saw the benefits of classroom routines for modeling “how to relate and listen to others” (4) and to “practice relationship skills” (#31). several teachers brought up routines for restorative disciplining and helping students use their leadership and competitive skills. one teacher (#21) shared her plan to resolve conflicts by asking students, “what happened? what can we do to make this right? will you act differently in the future?” others (#s 12, 30) shared the benefits of crp routines is “the collaborative atmosphere that engages students and facilitates conversations about respect, injustice, hate, and inequity” (gay, 2018; giroux & silva, 2010). the teachers seemed to connect their evolving knowledge of sel to uruguay’s efl curriculum. discussion the themes that emerged in this study document participants’ positive perceptions of the online training workshops. the teachers were asked four questions related to what they learned about the implementation of sel and crp in the asynchronous work, how they perceive sel can raise the level of respect in classroom communications, what strategies and concepts they had used to implement sel strategies during the training, and what they need to explore further in the future. educators prepare to integrate sel into foreign language instruction. 51 no. 29 the first theme, sel skills and crp to address behavioral issues became visible when the participants shared comments that showed they were sold on the idea that sel reinforces good behaviors and leads students to engage in mindful and respectful behaviors (oxford, 2015). implementing the casel guidelines offers formative paths to discipline and is a factor in forming responsible and caring citizens. the findings highlight teachers’ interest in building students’ secs and suggest that long-term pd will help teachers implement sel and focus on developing students’ secs. the second theme, student-teacher collaborative work toward mindfulness and respectful conversations, was evident in the teachers’ demonstrated understanding that efl instruction improves when learners’ emotions and funds of knowledge are considered (adams & richie, 2017; rogers, 2019). after the training, the teachers were aware of the value of restorative practices and the need to act when negative behaviors harm students. many of the teachers mentioned they plan to work to build culturally responsive and equitable learning environments (allbright & hough, 2020). the third theme, routines to teach sel skills utilizing students’ cultural background, was summarized by teachers who shared the perspective that sel skills contribute to self-reflective processes. the teachers understood that routines that incorporated teaching sel skills would open doors to conversations about inter-cultural respect, injustice, hate and inequity (aspen institute, 2018; gay, 2018; giroux & silva, 2010; jimenez, 2021; pentón herrera, 2020; martínez agudo, 2018). conclusions, limitations, and pedagogical implications this study took place in uruguay, a nation in the southern hemisphere of the americas. while the country’s dominant language is spanish, educators are now confronting the needs of non-native spanish speakers in their schools. some students speak a language from a different linguistic family, and few uruguayan teachers speak it fluently. the change in the immigrant demographic is challenging a nation of educators now required to offer efl instruction at all grade levels. this qualitative study aimed to examine the understanding of social and emotional learning (sel) developed by 32 efl teachers employed at levels k-5th grade in uruguay, after a threeweek online asynchronous pd. the reactions of the participants to integrating sel in their work were positive. they stressed that sel helps students learn to be respectful and to collaborate with each other (caumont, 2020). given the interest in sel integration from the dfl, we advocate for pd, which gives teachers the tools they need to place a greater emphasis on students’ sec development. as sel implementation continues, teachers’ and students’ mayra c. daniel and ximena d. burgin 52 no. 29 reflexivity on their identities will likely increase (jimenez, 2021). once uruguay’s dfl supervisors participate in training focused on sel and crp, we envision uruguayan educators becoming south america’s educational leaders. this study’s data shows the need for ongoing pd to build teachers’ confidence in integrating sel and crp. a limitation of this study is its focus on the uruguayan context, which is characterized by governmental efforts specific to uruguay, and in this intervention, it centers on elementary grade levels. however, while some immigrants to uruguay are from south america, many of the country’s immigrants reflect the state of world migration. immigrants to uruguay from syria pose greater educational needs than incoming students whose prior schooling was in spanish. future research should aim to expand the sample size, include a broader range of grade levels, and diversify the settings of data collection. this study’s findings offer several pedagogical implications. results can be utilized by researchers, teachers, and administrators across the world to set guidelines that ensure students develop their secs. this implies the need for pd and support to implement sel using crp strategies for teachers. for students, this means enhanced overall well-being and academic achievement. this study’s findings will guide educators developing pd programs that prepare teachers with the skills to support sel in their classrooms, thus bridging the gap between theory and practice. while findings are derived from the experiences of the 32 uruguayan teachers who participated in the pd, this intervention can guide educators in countries experiencing increased migration and demographic changes in their populations. study results indicate that sel training transforms disciplinary approaches from punitive to restorative. this is a valuable insight for educational systems worldwide looking to reduce conflicts and improve school climate. teachers need time to consult the casel guidelines before planning lessons. pd must assist teachers to examine learners’ funds of knowledge because classroom interactions are more honest and respectful when the sociocultural context and its influence on learning is addressed in the curriculum (dörnyei, 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(2009). case study research: design and methods. sage. mayra c. daniel and ximena d. burgin authors mayra c. daniel is professor emerita, department of curriculum & instruction, northern illinois university, de kalb, illinois, usa. her research focuses on preparing and supporting educators to implement culturally responsive pedagogy in the united states and latin america.. orcid: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2702-0071 ximena d. burgin is an assistant professor, department of educational technology, research, and assessment, northern illinois university, de kalb, illinois, usa. her research centers on culturally responsive pedagogy, and utilizing researchbased methodologies to improve academic outcomes for diverse student populations. orcid: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3494-569x 56 no. 29 educators prepare to integrate sel into foreign language instruction. student motivation in coronapolis: effects of transactional distance perceptions on efl undergraduate students’ motivation1 motivación estudiantil en coronapolis: efectos de las percepciones de distancia transaccional en la motivación de los estudiantes universitarios de inglés como lengua extranjera ayşegül takkaç tulgar2 atatürk university, turkey 1 received: august 8th, 2022 / accepted: november 30th 2022 2 aysegultakkac@hotmail.com gist education and learning research journal. issn 1692-5777. no. 25 (july december, 2025). pp. 111-138. a nonfiction narrative inquiry into an efl community during covid-19 112 no. 25 abstract the concept of transactional distance (td) experienced in distance education has been recorded as a focal point in many studies examining its effects on various dimensions in different courses. however, there is scarcity of research on td in relation to learner motivation in language learning. this exploratory case study investigated td perceptions of efl (english as a foreign language) undergraduates participating in distance education courses held at a turkish university within the boundaries of coronapolis, an imaginary city which is under the threat and destructive effects of covid-19 pandemic. specifically, this study examined the effects of td perceptions on the motivation of 87 efl students. the data were collected through the participants’ informal self-reports and open-ended questions. the results of the content analysis showed that the participants had varying perceptions of the dimensions of td; dialogue, structure and autonomy. the results also showed that they had different motivational experiences in relation to their perceptions. in the light of the results, theoretical and practical training of the faculty and integration of distance education courses in under/graduate programs are suggested. keywords: motivation, transactional distance, distance education, covid-19, efl, tertiary education resumen el concepto de distancia transaccional (td) experimentado en la educación a distancia se ha registrado como un punto focal en muchos estudios que examinan sus efectos en varias dimensiones en diferentes cursos. sin embargo, hay escasez de investigación sobre td en relación con la motivación del alumno en el aprendizaje de idiomas. este estudio de caso exploratorio investigó las percepciones de td de estudiantes universitarios de efl (inglés como lengua extranjera) que participan en cursos de educación a distancia realizados en una universidad turca dentro de los límites de coronapolis, una ciudad imaginaria que se encuentra bajo la amenaza y los efectos destructivos de la pandemia de covid-19. específicamente, este estudio examinó los efectos de las percepciones de td en la motivación de 87 estudiantes de inglés como lengua extranjera. los datos se recopilaron a través de autoinformes informales de los participantes y preguntas abiertas. los resultados del análisis de contenido mostraron que los participantes tenían diferentes percepciones de las dimensiones de td; diálogo, estructura y autonomía. los resultados también mostraron que tenían diferentes experiencias motivacionales en relación con sus percepciones. a la luz de los resultados, se sugiere la formación teóricopráctica del cuerpo docente y la integración de cursos de educación a distancia en los programas de grado/grado. palabras clave: motivación, distancia transaccional, educación a distancia, covid-19, efl, educación terciaria effects of transactional distance perceptions on efl students’ motivation takkaç tulgar 113 no. 25 resumo: o conceito de distância transacional (td) experimentado na educação a distância foi registrado como um ponto focal em muitos estudos que examinam seus efeitos em várias dimensões em diferentes cursos. porém, existe escassez de pesquisa sobre td em relação com a motivação do aluno na aprendizagem de idiomas. este estudo de caso exploratório pesquisou as percepções de td de estudantes universitários de efl (inglês como língua estrangeira) que participam em cursos de educação a distância realizados em uma universidade turca dentro dos limites de coronápolis, uma cidade imaginária que se encontra sob a ameaça e os efeitos destrutivos da pandemia de covid-19. especificamente, este estudo examinou os efeitos das percepções de td na motivação de 87 estudantes de inglês como língua estrangeira. os dados se recopilaram através de auto relatórios informais dos participantes e perguntas abertas. os resultados da análise de conteúdo mostraram que participantes tinham diferentes percepções das dimensões de td; diálogo, estrutura e autonomia. os resultados também mostraram que tinham diferentes experiências motivacionais em relação a suas percepções. considerando os resultados, sugerese a formação teórico-prática do corpo docente e a integração de cursos de educação a distância nos programas de grau/grau. palavras chave: motivação, distância transacional, educação a distância, covid-19, efl, educação terciária effects of transactional distance perceptions on efl students’ motivation takkaç tulgar 114 no. 25 introduction as an alternative to face-to-face education, distance education has taken its unique place with growing popularity around the world with the invention and widespread use of tools available for this type of education. though it has received some criticism because of the separation of students and instructors (moore, 1997, robertson, grant, & jackson, 2005) and because of the physical distance which is to block face-to-face communication (keegan, 1990), an increasing number of universities have adopted distance education in conducting their under/graduate programs. however, what has been usual so far is the consideration of distance education as an alternative form of education instead of being a compulsory system through which educational processes are followed. the exceptional case of the pandemic caused by covid-19 has taken hold of all regularly-working systems almost over the world, the education system is not an exception. therefore, in order to compensate for the cessation of face-to-face education, most universities in the world have switched to distance education platforms. turkey has also been one of the countries in which education at all levels has been conducted through distance education during the corona pandemic. experiencing a dramatic shift in their daily lives, students in turkey have also gone through a sudden change from attending familiar face-to-face education to participating in distance education in which they had almost no previous practice. therefore, students who had the-firsttime experience in distance education formed various understandings and perceptions affecting their participation and practices in distance education. when learners participate in distance education, they are inevitably to go through different experiences of transactional distance and, therefore form various considerations of their experiences affecting their motivation in the educational process. literature on transactional distance experiences and perceptions of learners shows that almost all the studies have been conducted in periods when distance education is adopted as an alternative form of education instead of being a compulsory way to go on with educational processes. this mandatory case created by the pandemic can be assumed to have affected learner perceptions and motivation in relation to their pandemic-directed educational experiences. in addition, particular consideration of the dialogue, program structure and learner autonomy components of td revealing additional challenges for learners in their adaptation process to distance education underlines the need to investigate learners’ motivational experiences in relation to their td perceptions. therefore, examination of learner motivation shaped under mandatory td experiences is to hold great significance both to understand the challenges decreasing learner motivation and to find practical solutions for similar cases to be experienced in the future. effects of transactional distance perceptions on efl students’ motivation takkaç tulgar 115 no. 25 setting out from the consideration of these distance education experiences, this intrinsic case study investigated the effects of perceived transactional distance on the motivation of efl (english as a foreign language) undergraduate students studying at a state university in turkey. this study is believed to contribute to the field as it provides a novel perspective of the examination of learner motivation in relation to perceived transactional distance experienced during mandatory distance education in coronapolis, which can be assumed to be any hypothetical place not only in turkey but also in any country in the global sense (for the purposes of this study, coronapolis refers to any hypothetically-existing educational setting under the serious effects of the pandemic which compelled the adoption of mandatory distance education processes at all educational levels). for this purpose, this study is grounded on the below research questions: • what are the overall td perceptions and motivational experiences of efl students in distance education? • how did the components of td affect efl students’ motivation in distance education? theoretical framework this study was grounded on transactional distance and motivation frameworks. transactional distance was selected as a related concept in distance education practices. motivation was the second framework since the participants were expected to maintain adequate levels of motivation to continue their courses through distance education during the depressive survival period in which students had to meet the requirements of the continuing educational programs while putting effort to survive in the outside environment trapped by the pandemic. transactional distance (td) proposed by moore (1993), transactional distance refers to the distance between teachers and students and is defined as “the universe of teacher-learner relationships that exist[s] when learners and instructors are separated by space and/or by time” (p. 22). from this definition, it can be inferred that td encompasses both time-related and context-related separation. the specific case of distance education practices followed in coronapolis in this study can stress the physical separation caused by the cessation of face-to-face education. this was unavoidably followed by the psychological separation probably resulting in feelings of isolation. the separation caused by the transaction can be deeply evaluated in the light of the comment moore and kearsley (2005, p. 234) suggested: effects of transactional distance perceptions on efl students’ motivation takkaç tulgar 116 no. 25 the transaction that we call distance education is the interplay between people who are teachers and learners, in environments that have the special characteristic of being separate from one another. it is the physical distance that leads to a communication gap, a psychological space of potential misunderstandings between the instructors and the learners that has to be bridged by special teaching techniques; this is the ‘transactional distance’. it can be assumed that the physical and psychological separation experienced by the students and faculty during mandatory distance education in higher education had certain influences on the perceptions, understandings, behaviors and actions of the students. within this theory, moore (1993) also pointed at the impact of three factors on the degree of td; dialogue between students and teachers, program structure and learner autonomy. dialogue refers to instructor-student and student-student interactions. structure covers course flexibility, organization, content and instruction. dialogue is considered to have a negative correlation while high program structure has a positive correlation with td. learner autonomy was regarded as the mitigating factor covering self-control and regulation in the learning process. evaluating the case experienced by the efl students, the limitation in faculty-student interaction can be considered as a consequence of the nature of distance education. as regards structure, the effort to compensate for the content to be conducted in face-to-face education may have resulted in a condense program structure to be covered in distance education, affecting the efl students’ td perceptions. in addition, the realization that they were expected to shoulder further responsibility during distance education may have increased the students’ autonomy. expanding on moore’s (1993) theory, chen (2001) pointed at the multifaceted structure of the theory and proposed td four dimensions; instructor-learner, learner-learner, learner-content and learner-interface td. in line with moore, chen supported the view that td is not just a matter of geographical distance; it also covers psychological distance. the evaluation of the distance education efl students took part in may indicate that the four dimensions proposed by chen (2001) influenced the td perceptions of the students as they had the first-time distance education experience. motivation regarded as one of the essential affective factors in education, motivation is defined as “the primary impetus to initiate learning the l2 and later the driving force to sustain the long and often tedious learning process” (dörnyei, 1998, p.117). expanding the definition, gardner (1985) proposed that motivation is “the combination of effort plus desire to achieve the goal of learning the language” (p.10). effects of transactional distance perceptions on efl students’ motivation takkaç tulgar 117 no. 25 motivation is suggested to be supported through two main sources; intrinsic motivation and extrinsic motivation. dörnyei (1994) described intrinsic motivation as the internal desire to learn while external motivation covers the outward motives beyond inner control leading to learning. considering the peculiar case of distance education in coronapolis, one can state that intrinsic and extrinsic motivation played a critical role as the students found themselves in a novel educational environment in which they were expected to take responsibility as autonomous learners while showing persistence and carrying out the required actions. it was the motivation that kept the students on track during the new experience. research on transactional distance the perusal of the relevant literature shows that research on transactional distance has mainly focused on such research topics as students’ td experiences and perceptions, the effects of td experiences on learner autonomy, motivation and success, and scale development. one of the early studies on perceived td was conducted by lowell (2004) who, in a dissertation study, examined the factors affecting td in an online setting. working with 147 undergraduate and graduate students at a university in the usa, the researcher concluded that social presence, dialogue and fluency were found to be factors affecting perceived td. regarding the td experiences of novice online learners as the focal point, stein, wanstreet and calvin (2009) conducted a naturalistic inquiry and collected data via online chat sessions and interviews. the results showed that new learners were engaged in creating a voice, a space and a time for learning while dealing with td. conducting interviews with two students registered for a distance learning program at a malaysian university, ustati and hassan (2013) evaluated the experiences of the participants from td perspective. the analysis of the interviews indicated that while the content was appropriate, the interaction was not much satisfactory. examining the td perceptions of 667 students enrolled in online courses at three private universities in the usa, bolliger and halupa (2018) reported that the participants had high levels of engagement and moderate levels of td and these variables were moderately correlated. studying the effects of td on 168 undergraduate students in the arts program at a university in kenya, mbwesa (2014) concluded, as a result of the survey questionnaire, that student-student, student-teacher and studentcontent components predicted the perceived td of the participants. the effects of td experiences were also examined in relation to learner autonomy. studies centering on learner autonomy basically examined this variable in relation with the dialogue component of td. conducting a survey with 237 undergraduate students enrolled in 18 online courses, burgess (2006) underlined the direct relationship between learner autonomy and instructor-learner dialogue. in a similar vein, falloon effects of transactional distance perceptions on efl students’ motivation takkaç tulgar 118 no. 25 (2011), following td as a theoretical basis, conducted an online class with 30 graduate students in new zeeland to examine the efficiency of virtual classrooms in promoting dialogue and learner autonomy. the results of the data obtained through interviews indicated that while dialogue among students developed, learner autonomy decreased. learner motivation is another variable studied in td research. a dissertation study in the usa on the relationship between td and student motivation was conducted by jung (2006), who studied with 79 graduate students of business administration. the analysis of the scale data indicated that there was not a statistically significant relationship between learner motivation and the perceived psychological distance. zilka, rahimi and cohen (2019) were also interested in the feelings of challenge, self-efficacy, motivation and td of 484 students from education, social sciences, business and counseling departments enrolled in virtual and blended courses. the results obtained from the questionnaires indicated that the td perceptions affected the participants’ feelings in virtual and blended courses. learner success is examined in relation to the effects of td in the learning process, too. investigating the relationship between learner-content interaction and success, zimmermann (2012) collected data from 139 students enrolled in an online course. the results showed that there was a statistically significant relationship between the time spent on content and learner success. ekwunife-orakwue and teng (2014) investigated how interactions of 342 under/graduate students registered for online and blended courses affected their satisfaction and grades. the courses were for business, nursing, math and professional education programs at an american university. the interactions were assessed regarding the participants’ interactions with their classmates, instructors, adopted technologies and course content. the results showed that the most influential effect on learning outcomes was the student-content interaction. relevant literature also presents some research on scale development in relation to learners’ td perceptions. wengrowicz, dori and dori (2014) developed and validated an online questionnaire to assess the quality of teamwork during distance education and to evaluate td perceptions of undergraduate students participating in a visualizationbased environment. td was assumed to be an alternative assessment tool to evaluate the quality of collaboration. huang, chandra, depaolo, cribbs and simmons (2015) developed a scale to measure td involving the constructs of dialogue, structure and learner autonomy. highlighting the existence of td in distance education, weidlich and bastiaens (2018) developed a scale to measure td between students and learning technology. the analysis of the scale showed that td was the most important predictor of student satisfaction. the above-presented studies have been conducted in different educational fields. relevant literature also involves some research on learners’ td experiences in relation to their perceptions, autonomy development and learning outcomes in the field of language education. kostina (2011) examined the relationship between learner effects of transactional distance perceptions on efl students’ motivation takkaç tulgar 119 no. 25 autonomy, instructor-student dialogue and student satisfaction in a distance course for the russian language. the results of the survey obtained from 46 students in the usa pointed to a strong correlation among the three factors at the beginning of the course, but this correlation decreased towards the end of the course. in a dissertation study in the usa, lawyer (2018) examined the effects of course modality, i.e. face-toface, online or hybrid courses, on learner success in english composition courses and their perceived td. the data were collected from 420 undergraduate students through course completion rates. the results showed that course modality did not significantly affect learner success and td perceptions. in a mixed-methods research, kara (2020) studied 190 efl students’ td perceptions in relation to their learning outcomes. the results indicated that the components of td predicted perceived learning and satisfaction. specifically, td between interface and learner affected perceived learning while td between learner and teacher affected satisfaction. besides research on the international scale, td experiences and perceptions have also been investigated in the turkish context. using different scales to measure social presence, perception, and satisfaction, horzum (2015) worked with 205 students registered to online theology courses at a turkish university. the results pointed at a negative correlation between course interaction and transactional distance. examining td and social presence in knowledge sharing in virtual communities, karaoglan yilmaz (2017) studied with 217 undergraduate students taking computing i course at a turkish university. the analysis of the three scales showed that the td and social presence perceptions were predictors of the participants’ knowledge sharing. karaoglan yilmaz and yilmaz (2020) studied the effects of feedback on transactional distance and critical thinking skills in online discussions. based on the results of the quasi-experimental study, the researchers concluded that different feedback forms influenced transactional distance perceptions while having little impact on critical thinking. the overall evaluation of the literature on td signals several considerations. the first consideration is that since its introduction td has become a topic receiving growing attention. an increasing number of studies have examined td from different perspectives at an international level (ekwunife-orakwue & teng, 2014; wengrowicz, et al., 2014; zilka, et al., 2019). however, there is scarcity of research on td conducted in a turkish context. the second consideration is that td perceptions and their effects have been examined in distance education courses designed for different courses ranging from business and science to arts and theology (horzum, 2015; lowell, 2004; mbwesa, 2014). yet, there are few examples of td research in distance language courses (kostina, 2011; lawyer, 2018), especially courses designed for efl. the third conclusion is that though there was reliance on quantitative methodology in the existing research, there are a limited number of studies employing qualitative methodology (falloon, 2011; stain, et al., 2009; ustati & hassan, 2013), pointing to the need for further research examining td perceptions and experiences effects of transactional distance perceptions on efl students’ motivation takkaç tulgar 120 no. 25 through in-depth analysis. the fourth conclusion is that although the effects of td on such different aspects as success (lawyer, 2018; zimmarmann, 2012), interaction (horzum, 2015) and social presence (huang, et al., 2015) have been studied, its effects on motivation have not received adequate attention (zilka, et al., 2019). the last conclusion is that all the td studies were conducted in periods when distance education was an alternative platform for face-to-face education. however, no study was conducted when distance education became a compulsory medium of education due to the outbreak of the pandemic resulting in the cessation of face-to-face education at a global level. in the light of these considerations, this intrinsic case study aimed to investigate the effects of td perceptions and experiences of elt students on their motivational levels while participating in departmental courses held through distance education during the corona pandemic experienced in coronapolis. this study is expected to contribute to motivation studies by providing a detailed picture of the lived experiences of motivation in distance language courses from the td perspective. methodology this study was based on an exploratory case study design (yin, 2014) as it aimed to reach an in-depth analysis regarding the effects of perceived transactional distance on efl undergraduates’ motivation. the rationale for selecting this design was the opportunity to reach a detailed analysis of particular cases (bogdan & biklen, 2007) enabling researchers to approach the issue through its details from the participants’ lived experiences. research context and participants this study examined a particular case of distance education in coronapolis, which is any setting in turkey and around the world under the unpleasant effects of the covid-19 pandemic experienced since the beginning of 2020. during this period, people had to go on dealing with life requirements under the threat of the pandemic. therefore, the educational lives of higher education students had to progress along with their common survival and life-related experiences. setting out from the reality that most of the higher education institutions in turkey had to follow their under/graduate courses through distance education, this study investigated the motivational experiences of elt undergraduates during distance education held at a state university in this country. what made this distance education practice a unique case was that it was carried out during the corona pandemic which penetrated the regular face-to-face education and almost forced all higher education effects of transactional distance perceptions on efl students’ motivation takkaç tulgar 121 no. 25 institutions to continue their under/graduate education through distance education. before this peculiar case of the pandemic, distance education was, of course, a popular practice over the world with the development of information technologies and the internet. yet, this pandemic process has been the first of its kind resulting in the cessation of face-to-face educational practices and leading the way to mandatory distance education, as also followed in the city of coronapolis, purposefully termed to denote the fate of higher education which had to be away from university campuses. following the decision to cease all face-to-face educational practices in all higher education institutions in turkey, faculty members at all the departments, including the elt department, were required to conduct their courses both asynchronously through cms (course management system) provided by the university and synchronously through online sessions via different programs and applications. within this context, elt students had to adjust themselves to a new system of distance education in which they did not have previous practice. they were informed to participate in a/ synchronous sessions to be held for each departmental course and follow the course requirements through the cms system. the participants were 87 students studying at the elt department. there were 362 students registered in total at the department but 72 of them showed voluntary participation in the study (18 freshmen, 23 sophomores, 26 juniors and 20 seniors). they were taking between five and eight courses each term. because of the outbreak of the pandemic during the spring term of the 2019-2020 academic year, the courses in the elt department started to be conducted via distance education following a four-week of face-to-face education. therefore, students in each grade were required to follow courses held through course management systems and participate in online classes. the sudden transition from face-to-face classes to distance education was an unforeseen case for the students who did not have experience in distance education practices. this inevitably resulted in initial confusion and challenge for the students to adjust themselves to the new system, which was also to affect their td perceptions. data collection tools the data were collected through the participants’ informal self-reports and openended questions. the participating students were required to keep informal selfreports (three in total for each). they were explained the three dimensions of td (dialogue, structure, autonomy) and asked to consider these dimensions in relation to their motivational experiences during distance education. there were no limits on the length of the reports, and the reports were kept in english. the open-ended were formed by the researcher who was also a faculty member at the department. the following questions were designed in the light of the dimensions effects of transactional distance perceptions on efl students’ motivation takkaç tulgar 122 no. 25 of td proposed by moore (1993) as well as the observations and experiences of the researcher who, too, followed her classes through distance education. the questions were checked for clarity and appropriateness by another field expert: 1. how do you evaluate your experiences in distance education in terms of your overall motivation? 2. how did the interactions you had with your instructors and classmates affect your motivation during distance education? 3. how did the structure of the courses you attended affect your motivation during distance education? 4. how did your sense of autonomy affect your motivation during distance education? these two tools were utilized so that the td experiences of the participants were cross-checked, which was also to increase the validity of the data collection and analysis processes. data collection process and analysis before the data collection process, ethical permission was obtained from the department. all the students were sent an e-mail asking for their voluntary participation in the study. those who responded to the mail were considered voluntary as original signatures could not be obtained because of the quarantine process. eightyseven students volunteered to keep self-reports and provide written answers to the open-ended questions. before collecting the data, the participants were explained td and its dimensions so that they could evaluate their motivational experiences during distance education touching upon the related dimensions. the reports were informal in nature to decrease the affective filters of the students and encourage them to reflect on their perceptions comfortably. each participant was asked to keep three reports in total at the beginning, in the middle and at the end of the mandatory distance education process. in this way, the participants had the chance to consider their experiences from the beginning to the end, revealing the change in their td perceptions. the open-ended questions were sent through institutional e-mail to the participants at the end of the term so that they had enough experiences in distance education practices. they were expected to answer the questions in three days and, though the questions were in english, they could also switch to turkish, their native language, if they wanted to narrate their experiences more effectively. the parts written in turkish were translated into english by the researcher and proofread by a native speaker. effects of transactional distance perceptions on efl students’ motivation takkaç tulgar 123 no. 25 the data were analyzed through conventional content analysis in three steps. in the first step, the researcher read the answers of the participants separately in order to reach an overall understanding of the experiences and perceptions. in the second step, the participant comments in each data set were analyzed separately to reveal major points, which also aimed to compare the comments in the same data set. in the third step, the two data sets were compared to reveal the common aspects, which also aimed to cross-check the comments in both sets. this three-step analysis was followed to increase validity. in addition, another field expert was consulted to follow the same steps to analyze the data to minimize single-rater bias. the internal rate of return was calculated as %94 for exact coding and %6 for similar coding. example analysis process is provided in the below figure. step 1: overall analysis step 2: separate analysis (analysis of data set 1-open-ended questions) step 2: separate analysis (analysis of data set 2-participant self-reports) “distance education offered an alternative version of cyber interaction which increased motivation for participation” (3rd5-oe) “the interactional patterns available in distance education provided them with the stimulation to communicate with the peers and professors considering the communicative restrictions of the depressive period” (4th19-sr3) interaction and motivation “the structures of the departmental courses held through distance education as they compensated for the content to be covered in face-to-face education” (3rd4-oe). “to keep on track to follow educational processes as it was in face-to-face education” (2nd6sr2). structure and motivation step 3: cross-analysis of data set 1 & data set 2 broader categories figure 1.example data analysis results the results are presented with excerpts from the participants’ self-reports and answers to give a detailed narration of how their td perceptions affected their motivation during mandatory distance education. abbreviations are used for the excerpts; ex: 1st10-sr2-excerpt from the second self-report of the tenth student effects of transactional distance perceptions on efl students’ motivation takkaç tulgar 124 no. 25 studying the first grade; 1st10-oe=excerpt from the open-ended question of the tenth student studying the first grade. overall motivation the overall evaluations of the participants as regards their distance education experience pointed at the common initial concerns and challenges as it was their firsttime participation in distance education. most of the students stated that they “knew about distance education as an alternative form of education” (2nd13-oe) in courses during their face-to-face education; however, they “did not participate in genuine distance education during undergraduate education before the pandemic” (3rd8-sr1). due to the unexpected change from face-to-face to distance education, the students “developed initial concern about how to go on with the new system” (3rd17-sr1). the main source of the concern was the uncertainty about the new system. most of the participants expressed that although they “knew almost nothing about the new system” (4th15-oe), they “were suddenly expected to follow all the course requirements in this unfamiliar system” (1st5-oe). the sense of uncertainty and unfamiliarity “naturally increased anxiety while decreasing motivation” (2nd19-sr1) of the participants. the below comment offers a vivid narration of the common initial concerns: “soon after the outbreak of the pandemic, we were informed that the departmental courses would be followed through distance education. although our professors did their best to regularly inform and update us about the process, we clearly experienced the initial uncertainty and concern about what would happen and how we would follow the educational process. i felt quite demotivated during the initial phase.” (4th8-oe) another frequently stated source of the concern was about questioning their knowledge and capabilities to successfully follow the courses in distance education. being used to the conventions and requirements in face-to-face education, the students experienced anxiety and had low levels of motivation because “distance education was different from face-to-face education and it required an almost totally different system” (2nd7-sr1). the sudden change leading to the questioning of their capabilities as students in distance education was also reflected as a source decreasing motivation, as presented below: “face-to-face education is what i have been used to so far. normally, i have high motivation to actively take part in departmental courses. but this pandemic has changed many things. in the beginning i found myself questioning my knowledge and capabilities as a student to follow course requirements in distance education. it was quite depressing and demotivating.” (4th-13-oe) effects of transactional distance perceptions on efl students’ motivation takkaç tulgar 125 no. 25 the participants also experienced concern about evaluation and grading. as they got over the initial anxiety about adjusting to the new system, they started to think about grading. this source of demotivation again resulted from their “unfamiliarity with the new system that would also bring different assessment procedures” (2nd5-oe). “not knowing how to be assessed and graded was among the major sources of concern after initial adaptation to the process” (3rd21-sr1). the evaluation of the participant comments indicates that the students experienced primary concerns about how the new system would work, how they would deal with the transition and how assessment procedures would be conducted. what was common among these sources of concern was that all negatively affected the participants’ motivation since they led them to question their knowledge and capabilities and experience uncertainty. interaction and motivation the interactional patterns available in distance education practices received various considerations. while most of the participants favored instructor-student and student-student interaction, some evaluated it as inadequate. those students favoring the interactions held the common view that “distance education offered an alternative version of cyber interaction which increased motivation for participation” (3rd5-oe) and that it “served as a source of stimulation for their contribution to ongoing interactions during synchronous sessions” “(2nd8-sr2). this view was reflected in several statements pointing at the novelty in interactional patterns introduced with distance education. calling attention to the effects of the interactions through distance education on their motivation during the pandemic, a participant explained that “the interactional patterns available in distance education provided them with the stimulation to communicate with the peers and professors considering the communicative restrictions of the depressive period” (4th19-sr3). the participants who favored the interactional patterns available in distance education appreciated the motivating force of the interactions. the particular point of appreciation was the availability of synchronous interactions which “gave the motivation to move away from the depressive mood that the pandemic created” (1st 11-oe), which “offered a virtual satisfaction of interacting with professors and classmates for academic purposes” (3rd24-oe) and which encouraged them to “participate in interactions to share academic knowledge” (3rd13-sr3). evaluating this experience from the motivational perspective, these participants referred to the positive contributions of the interactions to their motivation as the availability of communication helped them keep on their enthusiasm to interact with their instructors and peers for educational purposes, besides social purposes, despite the undesirable experiences they were going through. effects of transactional distance perceptions on efl students’ motivation takkaç tulgar 126 no. 25 those favoring the interactions in distance education also added that especially synchronous sessions helped them improve their speaking skills. they referred to the “contributory effects of these sessions in the development of conversational skills particularly considering the possible regression in speaking because of the long-break to face-to-face education” (3rd7-oe). sharing a similar perspective, another participant commented that “the unavailability of face-to-face communication resulting from the pandemic was compensated with the virtual interactions in online sessions, which was a motivating factor during distance education” (2nd21-oe). this view was also held by another participant who explained that their “drastically decreased levels of motivation in continuing educational processes increased with the synchronous interactions available in distance education” (3rd2-sr2). there were also negative considerations regarding the interactions in distance education. the participants with this outlook stated that “despite the availability of virtual interaction in distance education, it was not adequate in quality and quantity to maintain motivation in learning” (2nd7-sr2). the virtuality of interaction was explained to be “a drawback resulting in decreased levels of motivation to interact with professors and peers” (4th3-oe). another participant also touched upon a similar point explaining that “the virtual interaction in distance education is not comparable with the genuine interaction in face-to-face education and its being artificial in nature was the source of demotivation decreasing participation in online interaction” (3rd6-oe). a general consideration of the comments on the motivational aspects of interactions in distance education revealed two different outlooks. the contributory effect of interaction in distance education was the point of appreciation for most of the participants. they explained that virtual interaction in distance education compensated for the cessation of interaction in face-to-face education, which was a source of motivation stimulating their interaction. however, the virtual nature of the interactions was the point of criticism for some students since they perceived this type of interaction as artificial and inadequate, which was reported to decrease their motivation to participate in online interactions. structure and motivation as was the case regarding interactions, course structure was also evaluated within two distinct viewpoints; motivating and demotivating effects of the course structure. those participants holding the first view commented that they were satisfied with “the structures of the departmental courses held through distance education as they compensated for the content to be covered in face-to-face education” (3rd4-oe). the “course structures which were adequate both in quality and quantity were also motivating factors to keep on with educational requirements” (2nd1-sr3). the quality and quantity of instructions and course content also received positive considerations effects of transactional distance perceptions on efl students’ motivation takkaç tulgar 127 no. 25 as they motivated the participants “to keep on track to follow educational processes as it was in face-to-face education” (2nd6-sr2). course structures were also considered motivating as they promoted students’ language development. some participants stated that “besides synchronous instructions, additional materials were uploaded to the system and it was encouraging to study further” (2nd12-sr2). further development of field-specific knowledge with the help of these materials was also among the positive evaluations of the participants. distance education sessions were considered contributory and motivating because they helped the students “develop both overall english proficiency and specific knowledge in the field of language education” (2nd5-sr3). in addition, the students were “exposed to different forms of academic language use available in articles and books in the field, which was also a source of motivation for linguistic and academic development” (4th7-oe). the other group of participants who did not consider course structure effective held the assumption that “the compensation for the content in face-to-face education created an overloaded content in distance education and it was tiring and discouraging after some time” (3rd8-sr3). the “intense course structures aiming to cover theoretical and practical information only in virtual platforms” (2nd13-oe) were criticized by this group. homework was also the foremost complaint of these participants who were not pleased with the overload in structure. they complained that “homework was not perceived as a reinforcing practice in distance education; instead, it is a time-consuming and hard-to-handle practice that decreased willingness and motivation” (3rd15-oe). holding a similar perspective another participant expressed that “homework did not contribute to learning as an essential part of the process, it was mostly a duty to complete” (2nd20-sr3). the evaluation of course structure in distance education indicated that the new design of the departmental courses motivated some students encouraging them to further develop in language proficiency as well as content-specific and academic knowledge. however, it also received criticism because of the extended workload discouraging students from following the required procedures effectively, which decreased their motivation. autonomy and motivation with respect to autonomy, though not many in number, the participant comments directed attention to the motivating and demotivating effects of the process. a few participants did not favor distance education stating that “it did not much support autonomy development due to the decreasing levels of motivation caused by its limited effects of transactional distance perceptions on efl students’ motivation takkaç tulgar 128 no. 25 flexibility and the feeling of distance” (3rd21-oe). pointing to the interactional patterns in distance education, a participant expressed that “interactions with peers and instructors created an artificial sense of communication over which we had artificial control and this sense was demotivating, also affecting autonomy development” (1st12sr2). another participant with a similar viewpoint related the three dimensions of td in her comment and explained that “autonomy development was restricted within the virtual nature and boundaries of the system that creates an artificial interactive environment full of dense structure” (2nd8-oe). the dimensions that negatively affected some participants’ sense of autonomy were perceived contributory by the other group of participants. the presence of interaction, though it was virtual in nature, was appreciated as “a motivating source as it still offered the chance to control and direct interactions for educational purposes, which also supported autonomy” (2nd13-oe). referring to the interactional patterns in distance education, another participant explained that “interacting with peers and instructors to share educational information was a stimulation for motivation and autonomy, particularly within the pandemic process in which people have almost no control over many processes” (4th18-oe). strict course structures in distance education were also considered as a dynamic contributing to learner autonomy by some students. these participants maintained that they “developed more control and regulated the learning process more effectively with the help of the motivation in synchronous sessions and the strict steps in asynchronous sessions” (1st7-oe). this self-control was also reported in “homework delivery because the automatic due date for submissions implied a stricter control compared to the face-to-face submissions” (3rd9-sr2). this strict schedule assigned to the system was perceived as “contributory to autonomy development as it formed an external stimulation to catch up with the course requirements” (2nd19-oe). upon the positive relationship between autonomy and motivation resulting from the dense course content, a participant offered the detailed comment below: “the content designed to compensate for the missing aspects available in faceto-face education was a source of motivation as it increased our willingness to put further effort to study in a more regular and conscious manner. with the help of this distance education process, i have taken more conscious responsibility in following the educational requirements. this obviously developed the sense of control and autonomy in the learning process.” (2nd15-oe). the analysis of the effects of autonomy on motivation revealed that the interactional patterns and structure were the factors creating different senses of motivation for the participants. the density of duties and strict structure which were perceived as an overload by some students were evaluated as features supporting autonomy. as the students maintained regular control in the process to accomplish required tasks, they experienced an increased sense of autonomy, which also stimulated their motivation. effects of transactional distance perceptions on efl students’ motivation takkaç tulgar 129 no. 25 discussion the results of this exploratory case study revealed different considerations of a group of efl students’ experiences in distance education regarding learner motivation. the existence of the same component was evaluated as either motivating or demotivating based on the td perceptions of the participants. the results can be discussed under the three dimensions (dialogue, structure and autonomy) proposed in td theory (moore, 1997) in the light of the participants’ experiences and relevant literature. the first dimension to discuss is dialogue which is basically about the interactional patterns available in distance education practices. within the discussion of the dialogue dimension; the availability of the interactions can be evaluated in relation to chen’s (2001) expansion of the dialogue concept covering learner-interface, instructorlearner and learner-learner interaction. as regards learner-interface interaction, the initial experiences of the participants were reported to be anxiety-provoking and demotivating as they did not have early practice in distance education format. therefore, lack of experience and ambiguity in the steps to be followed in the new format resulted in initial demotivation for most of the participants. the existence of ambiguity can be assumed to have decreased the internal motivation of the students as they felt lost at the beginning of the process. as regards instructor-learner and learnerlearner interaction suggested by chen (2001), the comments of the participants showed that they were content with the availability of interaction with their instructors and friends through online sessions. though the interactions were virtual in nature, they increased the participants’ motivation as the students were able to maintain the connection with the people they were familiar with during the depressive atmosphere caused by the pandemic. thus, from this experience, it can be inferred that distance education sessions provided the participants with an opportunity to get over the sense of isolation, as also reported in previous research (andersen, 2009; cho & tobias, 2016; hew & cheung, 2013). in light of the results of previous research and those in this study, one can, therefore, reach the conclusion that the type of interaction available in distance education was satisfactory in compensating the drawbacks coming along with the lack of genuine face-to-face interaction. unlike the participants reported to have experienced isolation and subsequent dissatisfaction in online courses in some studies (hodges & kim, 2010; vonderwell, 2003), most of the elt participants in this study were not negatively affected by the feeling of isolation. they maintained interactions with their instructors and classmates, particularly through online sessions and thus overcame the sense of having to live in a limited and threatening space. taking the particular case of the pandemic into account, one can assume that the availability of interaction with other members of the educational process was of critical contribution as the participants were going through a mentally-tiring process which was full of depressing news in coronapolis. the participants were able to cope with the sense of isolation caused by the exceptional pandemic case with the help of the interactions through distance education. hence, most of the participants effects of transactional distance perceptions on efl students’ motivation takkaç tulgar 130 no. 25 held positive considerations regarding the interaction dimension of td, which served as a source of both external motivation as a venue to keep communicating and internal motivation driving their inner enthusiasm to participate in interaction for educational purposes. at this point, regarding the transition from face-to-face education to distance education mode, it can be maintained that the interaction in the new mode of education offered them a chance to preserve their motivation in the educational process, which can be regarded as a promising case considering the demotivating atmosphere created by the pandemic conditions. within the first dimension, the presence of instructor-student and student-student interactions were also valued by the students for the development of communicative skills. since the participants were students learning english as a foreign language, they were experiencing contextual limitations for the development of their communicative skills, as a common case experienced in efl contexts (arroba & acosta, 2021; nazara, 2011). for efl learners, classroom was mostly the main setting to be exposed to and practice the target language. however, the cessation of face-to-face classes would mean the cessation of communicative production in practical and educational terms. yet, synchronous courses conducted during distance education offered them an alternative platform for language practice with instructors and classmates. therefore, assessed from the dialogue dimension, chances to interact with instructors and classmates and the opportunity to practice the language through these interactions increased the students’ motivation in developing their communicative skills during covid-19 distance education. though results of research conducted under same conditions are not available, a similar point referring to the increase in motivation and development in language skills supported by interactional chances was also reported in previous studies (abuseileek, 2012; alshumaimeri & alhumud, 2021; balaman & sert, 2017; correra, 2015). still, not all the considerations of the dialogue dimension were optimistic. some participants did not favor interactions in distance education as it created an artificial atmosphere and virtuality spoiled the natural pattern in faceto-face communication. this case was assumed to block effective communication, decreasing some participants’ motivation. interaction was claimed to be mostly limited in asynchronous sessions, which was also a point also touched upon in the literature (pelowski, frissell, cabral, & yu, 2005; vlachopoulos & marki, 2019). when the peculiar nature of language education is taken into account, it can be commented that distance education, though it offered overall satisfaction in interactional patterns, still posed some limitations in its particular comparison with face-to-face education which is rich of ample chances for exposure and genuine practice. however, upon the observation of the researcher both in face-to-face and in distance education, it mostly depends on learner’s effort in benefiting from the interactive opportunities in the learning context. in other words, either in face-to-face or in distance education, it is mainly the learner who puts effort in finding paths to develop his/her language knowledge and skills considering the pros and cons of the learning environment. effects of transactional distance perceptions on efl students’ motivation takkaç tulgar 131 no. 25 the second dimension to discuss is structure covering course design in distance education. participant evaluations of course structure revealed two perspectives; structure as overload and structure as a chance for language development. the negative perceptions of course structure as overload caused by excessive amounts of homework and limited flexibility were reported to decrease participant motivation. losing the rationale of doing homework for developmental purposes, some participants felt demotivated and questioned the effectiveness of homework which was mostly perceived as a workload to be completed within a certain period in distance education. regarding the flexibility and density of course structures, moore (1993) and drennan, kennedy and pisarski (2005) pointed at the negative correlation between these variables and td perceptions. therefore, the participants experiencing low levels of motivation because of their negative perceptions of course structure were not satisfied with the course content and flexibility levels. when this finding is evaluated, it sounds natural that the participants in this study may have experienced demotivation regarding the structure component in distance education probably because they were asked to accomplish certain course requirements without explicitly-explained rationale. thus, it seems crucial that the faculty should be clear on the objective and content of their courses so that students do not feel lost and out-of-meaning in the educational process and are able to preserve their motivation in following structure effectively. on the other hand, there were also some participants who held positive perceptions of the course structure. these participants shared the view that the content, design and instruction of the courses, which were also suggested to be essential for effective course structure (chen, 2001; desharnais & limson, 2007; huang & liaw, 2004), promoted their development in overall language proficiency and field-specific knowledge. evaluated in the light of the suggestions by moore and kearsley (2005), the increase in the motivation of these students can be the result of the satisfaction they felt with the effectiveness and contributions of course content. viewed from the motivational perspective, it can be maintained that the dense but satisfactory educational content offered a source of external motivation for these participants who also developed, in time, their internal motivation with further engagement in their studies. the third dimension to discuss is autonomy in distance education. there were also two main considerations in this dimension. while some participants stated not experiencing explicit feelings of autonomy, others expressed that they had better control over and regulation of their learning, which was considered as the essence of autonomy by holec (1981). the first group of participants reflected the view that strict course structure restricted their autonomy, therefore, motivation. the effects of highstructured courses on learner autonomy were also considered by moore (2007), who proposed that high perceptions of transactional distance regarding course structure result in low learner autonomy. therefore, low autonomy experienced by some participants during distance education can be a natural consequence of their structure perceptions. a practical suggestion to deal with the decrease in learner motivation effects of transactional distance perceptions on efl students’ motivation takkaç tulgar 132 no. 25 pertaining to the sense of autonomy can be to involve learners in the process of decision making while the program structure is established. when learners are given some voice in identifying course objectives, materials or course content, the sense of autonomy and therefore motivation is expected to increase. student involvement in such steps can be even more vital considering the physical distance between learner and instructor within the nature of distance education. the second group of participants reported development in their autonomy and an increase in motivation referring to intense course structures as the main source of this development. this case was also reported by irizarry (2002) reaching the conclusion that high structure in distance education courses increases self-discipline and learner independence, which increases learner motivation. the second group of participants also favored taking more responsibility in the learning process, accepted as a fundamental component in autonomy (lenkaitis, 2020). upon learner agency and autonomy, kohn and hoffstaedter (2017) explained that language learners, particularly non-native ones, need support to develop their agency and identity in distance education, which seems to be a condition met for some participants who felt the internal motivation to develop their autonomy in this study. the results of this study showed that students formed different evaluations and perceptions of dialogue, structure and autonomy dimensions of td; therefore, experienced varying motivational levels, internally and externally, during distance education sessions compulsorily held during the covid-19 outbreak. in terms of dialogue; effective and sufficient instructor-student, student-student and studentinterface interaction resulted in mostly positive considerations of the process and high levels of motivation. in terms of structure; satisfaction with course content, instruction and flexibility decreased negative td perceptions while increasing motivation. in terms of autonomy, course structure was reported to be the main source increasing/ decreasing learner autonomy, therefore, motivation. all in all, the findings of this study revealed varying considerations of efl learners of distance education. at this point, it can be expressed that though the current research focused on the motivational experiences of efl learners shaped under their td perceptions, the positive and negative considerations of the participants regarding the three dimensions of td point at individual differences in learners once again even under mandatorily-conducted processes. conclusion, limitations and pedagogical suggestions this study investigated the peculiar case of distance education which was conducted at an elt department at a turkish state university within the physical, psychological, social and educational boundaries of coronapolis. the results of the study effects of transactional distance perceptions on efl students’ motivation takkaç tulgar 133 no. 25 revealed that the efl students formed different perceptions of transactional distance regarding their participation in a/synchronous classes in relation to their motivation. in the light of the results, several pedagogical implications can be made as follows: • under/graduate programs can integrate courses in which not only theoretical but also practical dynamics of distance education are introduced to students in detail so that they can become familiar with this alternative platform. • under/graduate programs can revise their existing systems to integrate distance education into their regular operations. in this way, students can learn about the basic requirements and processes by actively participating in distance education sessions. • in order to integrate distance education practices into under/graduate programs, faculty members are to be trained to be aware of learner expectations and needs during distance education in relation to three td dimensions. • faculty members also need to promote chances for effective interaction besides planning an efficient course structure in order to respond to learner needs and help them develop positive perceptions of distance education. though introducing a diverse perspective to motivation studies, the results of this study are not generalizable as it reported the lived experiences only of a particular group of efl students. because of the restrictions of the pandemic process, no observation was possible to witness the in-class practices of the participants. hoping that such a disastrous case of the pandemic will never be experienced again, the adoption of longitudinal studies including observations to evaluate learners’ td perceptions are suggested to reach deeper conclusions. effects of transactional distance perceptions on efl students’ motivation takkaç tulgar 134 no. 25 references abuseileek, a.f. 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(2014). transactional distance in an undergraduate project-based systems modeling course. knowledge-based systems 71, 41-51. http:// dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.knosys.2014.05.022 yilmaz, r., & keser, h. (2015). transactional distance perception and its reflections on distance education practices. ankara university journal of faculty of educational sciences, 48(2), 37-59. yin, r. k. (2014). case study research: design and methods (5th ed.). thousand oaks, ca: sage publications. zilka, g., rahimi, i., & cohen, r. (2019). sense of challenge, threat, self-efficacy, and motivation of students learning in virtual and blended courses. american journal of distance education, 33(1), 2-15. doi:10.1080/08923647.2019.1554990 zimmerman, d. (2012). exploring learner to content interaction as a success factor in online courses. the international review in open and distance learning, 13(4), 152-165. https://doi.org/10.19173/irrodl.v13i4.1302 author: dr. aysegul takkac tulgar, is an associate professor at elt department, atatürk university, turkey. she completed her undergraduate education at middle east technical university and ma. and phd. degrees at ataturk university her research interests are cross-cultural pragmatic competence, glocalization and language education. orcid: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6401-969x 138 no. 25 effects of transactional distance perceptions on efl students’ motivation how to reference this article: takkaç tulgar, a. student motivation in coronapolis: effects of transactional distance perceptions on efl undergraduate students’ motivation. gist – education and learning research journal, 25. https://doi.org/10.26817/16925777.1452 reconstructing female language teacher’s roles from a sociocultural perspective reconfigurando los roles del profesorado de lenguas desde el una perspectiva feminista imamatul khair sastra lingua indonesia, indonesia 1 imamatulkhair@sastralingua.co.id 9 no. 29 gist education and learning research journal. issn 1692-5777. no. 29 (july december, 2024). pp. 9-36. 10 no. 29 abstract the idea of teacher education has emerged to bridge the gap in questioning intellectual equality for both male and female teachers. pursuing higher education in language professional careers which are understood as auxiliary jobs by male counterparts poses a big challenge for female teachers who were born and raised in a patriarchal community. this current study explored and interrogated socio-cultural contexts of learning and teaching by gender roles experienced by female language student teachers. it was designed as a narrative case study inviting three student teachers who currently pursued master’s or doctoral degree in the us to share their visual narrative experiences. the findings revealed any experience and aspiration of their language learning and teaching by oppression, stereotypes, and agency associated with female language teachers. conclusions from this study will be helpful for student teachers to reconstruct their teaching philosophy and autonomy in family, school, and community settings. keywords: female language teachers, efl learning and teaching, sociocultural theory, feminism resumen la idea de la formación docente ha surgido para cerrar la brecha en la cuestión de la igualdad intelectual entre maestros y maestras. continuar con los estudios superiores en carreras profesionales relacionadas con los idiomas, que suelen ser entendidas como trabajos auxiliares por sus colegas masculinos, representa un gran desafío para las mujeres docentes que han nacido y crecido en una comunidad patriarcal. este estudio explora e investiga los contextos socioculturales del aprendizaje y la enseñanza a través de los roles de género experimentados por mujeres que estudian sobre la de enseñanza de idiomas. se diseñó como un estudio de caso narrativo, en el que participaron tres estudiantes de magíster o doctorado en los ee.uu., quienes compartieron sus experiencias a través de narrativas visuales. los hallazgos revelaron que sus experiencias y aspiraciones en el aprendizaje y la enseñanza de idiomas están marcadas por la opresión, los estereotipos y la agencia asociada con las mujeres docentes de idiomas. las conclusiones de este estudio serán útiles para que las futuras docentes reconstruyan su filosofía de enseñanza y su autonomía en los ámbitos familiar, escolar y comunitario. palabras clave: mujeres docentes de idiomas, aprendizaje y enseñanza del inglés como lengua extranjera (efl), sociocultural. resumo: a ideia da formação de professores surgiu para reduzir a lacuna na questão da igualdade intelectual entre professores e professoras. continuar os estudos superiores em carreiras profissionais relacionadas aos idiomas, que geralmente são entendidas como trabalhos auxiliares por seus colegas masculinos, representa um grande desafio para as mulheres docentes que nasceram e cresceram em uma comunidade patriarcal. este estudo explora e investiga os contextos reconstructing female language teacher’s roles from a sociocultural perspective 11 no. 29 socioculturais da aprendizagem e do ensino por meio dos papéis de gênero experimentados por mulheres que estudam ensino de idiomas. foi concebido como um estudo de caso narrativo, no qual participaram três estudantes de mestrado ou doutorado nos eua, que compartilharam suas experiências por meio de narrativas visuais. os resultados revelaram que suas experiências e aspirações na aprendizagem e no ensino de idiomas são marcadas por opressão, estereótipos e agência associada às mulheres docentes de idiomas. as conclusões deste estudo serão úteis para que futuras professoras reconstruam sua filosofia de ensino e sua autonomia nos âmbitos familiar, escolar e comunitário. palavras-chave: mulheres docentes de idiomas, aprendizagem e ensino de inglês como língua estrangeira (efl), sociocultural. imamatul khair 12 no. 29 gender representation in educational settings is a topic to address. woman underrepresentation in such settings overlies on two factors: societal culture and organizational culture (elati et al., 2024). the dominance of man’s power in the society and gendered divisions in an organization have institutionalized the gender positions in the community and school. as a woman who was born and raised in a patriarchal culture, i observe the gaps in the legitimacy between men’s and women’s aspirations for career choice. male supremacy, disempowerment, and stereotyping towards working women impede their career progress and promotion. gender stereotypes and roles in eastern culture warrant further investigation to reach equal opportunities for male and female educators, staff, and students at any educational level. patriarchal environments restrict them to perform with good academic outputs and prosper intellectual and emotional wellbeing (dlamini & adams, 2014). language teachers may be impacted by the patriarchal culture that places both women and men in a certain social degree. patriarchal culture is a situation where “men hold power and are the central figures in the family, community, government, and larger society” (saraswati et al., 2018, p. 3). the socially constructed norms in a patriarchal community are assumed to also influence the behaviors, expectations, and career goals of female teachers. some studies (e.g., basu & kundu, 2022; han, et al., 2020) have discovered female domination in a teaching position because men are more legitimated to have better income or remuneration from other career positions. hence, female language teachers might experience microaggressions or subtle discrimination and stereotypes of their jobs culturally at the community and institutional level.    gender stereotypes of female teachers and students have not been totally solved in schools that are surrounded by a patriarchal community. hentschel et al. (2019) define gender stereotyping as generally characterizing someone with socially constructed attributes or features including agency and communality. for example, women’s roles in the textbooks are stereotyped using some representations such as having family or domestic roles and low-risk, less diverse, and less prestigious occupations (islam & asadullah, 2018; rohmawati & putra, 2022; yonata, 2021). the woman representation in the textbook might affect the students’ perception towards their female teachers and female students of their social and career insights. stereotypes about women’s role in educational hierarchies form patterns that are inherited and tacitly embodied (maher & rathbone, 1986). for instance, many educational institutions like universities exert power and authority that are often gendered in practice (arquisola & rentschler, 2023). social and historical contexts that evolve around female teachers and learners are key dimensions to assist them in identifying opportunities and events to challenge women’s stereotypes. a film study scrutinizing the implication of patriarchal culture towards gender discrimination in anne, character in anne with an e, further notices that women who are aware of reconstructing female language teacher’s roles from a sociocultural perspective 13 no. 29 gender discrimination may come out with a strong self-actualization such as forming women-led ideology and empowerment, evaluating and innovating education, as well as being participative in the public agenda (rahma, 2023). therefore, analyzing these contexts calls for women of a gender-stereotypical interest from critical perspectives.  nowadays, a lot of professional development opportunities are concerned about women’s roles in education. scholarships available to indonesian female english teachers can be alternative educational and leadership programs that open chances for them to improve their visibility in public domains. teacher education can challenge the existing social structure that demeans women (maher & rathbone, 1986). such programs may become efforts to criticize gender discrimination in curriculum design and school leadership roles. with the vast development of governmentand foreignbased scholarship, few studies focus on exploring in-depth how indonesian english teachers who pursue higher degrees use their academic degree merits to critically view the possibilities and obstacles of giving impacts on language education. it pushes female teachers to develop their personal self-esteem and occupational status as factors to change the traditional social structure (basu & kundu, 2022), especially regarding male-female proper work concerning language learning and teaching practices. identifying teachers’ sociocultural learning and teaching context also provides an analysis of how teachers use these sociocultural affordances to conceptualize their beliefs about future learning and teaching goals.  some studies have interrogated the role of student teachers’ narratives to identify their agency, identity, and beliefs (kalaja et al., 2016; ruohotie-lyhty, 2013; sexton, 2008). this current study adds a novel discussion to locate the student teachers’ personal experiences in the milieu of family, community, and school from interpretive and feminist points of view. therefore, this current study aims to understand the narratives of indonesian female efl student teachers’ sociocultural contexts and interrogate the ups and downs of language learning and teaching. to achieve the research purpose, this study intends to answer two research questions: 1. how do indonesian female language student teachers describe their sociocultural contexts of language learning and teaching?   2. in what ways do indonesian female student teachers’ sociocultural narratives inform their language teaching practices in the future? imamatul khair 14 no. 29 literature review sociocultural contexts of learning and teaching, patriarchal gender role, and feminism this current study uses three big conceptual frameworks to address female efl teachers’ experience in learning and teaching. the article’s conceptual frameworks include sociocultural theory by vygotsky extended by (john-steiner & mahn, 2003) and gender role in patriachal culture (greenwood & george, 2016). sociocultural contexts of language learners vygotsky’s sociocultural theory emphasizes learning based on four vital factors: social source of development, various forms of participation, semiotic mediation, and genetic analysis dealing with historical contexts (john-steiner & mahn, 2003). social sources of development put forth interdependence between the support given and language proficiency attainment. another variable is child participation with parents, peers, and community members who have more experience using the language. interaction and collaboration of more knowledgeable people will support a child with better understanding and skill of being independent learners (neupane, 2022) and co-construction of their knowledge (vuopala et al., 2019). the participatory factor facilitates the transmission and construction of knowledge more easily, reduces tendencies to exclude members with less authority and power, and fosters linguistic transaction and transformation in knowledge. besides, various physical and non-physical semiotic mediation are associated with resources used to elucidate the internalization of language and conceptual thought construction. for the last sociocultural learning factor, vygotsky uses genetic analysis to inspect sociocultural and historical conditions in a context affecting gender and social power, including interactions with peers and adults and access to resources. sociocultural theory values the connections between individual and social processes to be successful in learning and development. however, there is a gap in the sociocultural theory as it does not consider socio-cultural factors such as gender, age, beliefs, and values to synthesize experiences in language development. analysis of female language teachers’ lived experience is a basis for understanding the sociocultural factors that shape opportunities for learning and teaching.             gender role in patriarchal culture as culture contributes to individuals’ upbringing, women born and raised in eastern culture mostly experience silence and less chances to take control of their reconstructing female language teacher’s roles from a sociocultural perspective 15 no. 29 life because of their gender roles. low gender equalitarianism is found among female children, parents, and husbands in south asia where a patriarchal structure dominates (gupta et al. cited in greenwood & george, 2016). women bear high social expectations to listen and take the orders of their fathers, husbands, in-law relatives, and adult children for their entire life. on the other hand, individual upbringing also depends on the family structure imposed by a patriarchal structure. both male and female children have traditionally been placed at the bottom of the social hierarchy (devine et al., 2021). therefore, younger children might have less voice compared to the adults around them. in the same way, the community in indonesia normally engenders sociopsychological attributes through gender roles. for example, men are associated with assertiveness, toughness, and competitiveness. meanwhile, women are expected to be tender, soft, caring (hofstede cited in greenwood & george, 2016), and dismissive of male commands. from the lens of sociocultural learning, the sexist view may create big inequalities in giving opportunities for interaction and communication between women and men. it is evident in patriarchal schools, the valorization of men’s social power remains because of the system of social relations and masculinity (haase, 2010). haase’s research (2010) found that students fear and admire male teachers at the same time. students in the research thought that male teachers’ voice scares them more than the experience of being hit by female teachers. the cultural context imposes a mental effect by gender disposition that is unequally true in a learning environment. the patriarchal schools portray that male teachers are considered to have stronger disciplinary culture through the language they use to show power, dignity, and social distance (read, 2008). comparing the expectations to bring to schools, families, and communities, feminine traits are imposed greatly to women; while they are also forced to follow “the regimented, authoritarian, and focused conformity over individual needs” (maher & rathbone, 1986, p. 274). the stereotyping of women’s traits has formed ‘differentness’ in cognitive abilities, structural limitations, accessibility to curriculum that inclusively consider personal goals, personal and professional power, and pedagogical styles not only in the family but also community and school. method research design a qualitative research inquiry was conducted using a narrative case study method to gather an in-depth understanding of female student teachers’ social and historical contexts of learning and teaching from the feminist perspective. this case study would open up the discourse of female teachers’ roles that are underrepresented in various imamatul khair 16 no. 29 settings of their life, such as family, community, and school.  a case study helps readers understand the information from the sources (bhattacharya, 2017), and thus this current study is expected to gather rich data interpretation that illustrates a learner’s and teacher’s social and academic experience related to language learning. since this study invited indonesian female student teachers who are currently in a master’s or doctoral program, their narratives were key stories that can inform learning and teaching from feminist and constructivist perspectives. narratives of this study were depicted in two forms: visual narratives and interviews that confirmed the teachers’ narratives. narrative can discursively reveal how one makes meaning of being and becoming historically and contextually situated (prior, 2012). additionally, visually constructed narratives provide alternative ways to recall stories and make meaning more easily, aside from verbally sharing one’s experiences (kalaja et al., 2016).  positionality with my inquisitive aim, i assume that other female language learners might face similar challenges and privileges that i experience as a woman growing up in a patriarchal culture. moreover, as i have built rapport with my female participants, it is easier for me to bring gender issues around language education. the idea of intersecting gender and education is inspired by bhattacharya’s book (2017), which highlights the issues of the experience of people with their identities in societal structures. bhattacharya also mentions that qualitative research can be aimed at interrogating the inequalities and marginalization of certain groups; hence, my research proposition challenges the status quo of being a female language teacher, which is frequently considered inferior to their male counterparts in a patriarchal society. moreover, i have discussed future goals with some of the research participants related to their contributions to the society. the reason for women’s involvement in my research is that it takes the gender lens with a similar expectation from mckittrick’s (2021) critical race concern to fix and repair a sense of place for black people from subhuman to human positions. this study, therefore, is expected to reformulate public discourse about women as domestic servants to mistresses in their families, work, and community. participants three indonesian female student teachers who are currently studying english language teaching and learning were invited to participate in this narrative case study. the participants were selected using purposive sampling to meet the inclusion criteria (i.e., master or doctoral student at an american university, having work experience of at least 1 year, speaking english as a foreign language, and receiving a scholarship for their degree abroad). each of their narratives was a rare documentation of a reconstructing female language teacher’s roles from a sociocultural perspective 17 no. 29 teacher’s journey in the public domain. therefore, the purpose of asking the teachers to draw their socio-cultural learning and teaching contexts could yield inspiring insights from the perspective of a learner and educator. all of the teachers were in the second year of their study program at three different american universities located in ohio (midwestern us), arizona (southwestern us), and iowa (midwestern us). the representation of graduate students from these different locations may devise different narratives influenced by the university’s academic, social-historical, and spatial atmosphere of the university or town. one woman was in her 20s, and the other two were in their 30s. all teachers graduated with english-equivalent bachelor’s degrees at indonesian universities. one ph.d. student teacher obtained her master’s double degree from an indonesian university and an american university, and the other ph.d. student teacher held a master’s degree from an indonesian university. only the doctoral student-teacher studying in iowa was married. because of the ethical considerations, all of the student teachers’ names were closed and labeled with different names. all of the student teachers specialized in different fields. bintar was a master’s student in teaching english as a second language; ulil studied in a doctoral program of english as a second language; and wardah studied in a doctoral program of applied linguistics and technology. to participate in this current study, the researcher sent a consent letter to all participants. they were required to read a consent letter and sign it after they agreed.  materials data collection the primary data of this current study were collected through the elicitation of visual narratives by kalaja et al. (2016), using drawings to explain the stories, feelings, and contexts from one’s experience. in addition, further interpretation beyond the primary data was gained through interviews.  data from visual narrative frames were used to chronologically address the learning and teaching socio-cultural contexts of the female student teachers. after the narrative frames were collected, the researcher conducted a further step, an interview to delve into their experience. the whole research process including the data collection and analysis took place from february to may 2023. this study received an ethical approval from the university of massachusetts amherst human subjects institutional review board (number of ethic code:  #4241). task in accomplishing the data collection, the student teachers were first asked to visualize their socio-cultural learning and teaching experience in the past, when imamatul khair 18 no. 29 becoming a student and a teacher in the indonesian context. the prompt question given in the first take to help them start visualizing was “draw your life as a female language learner and teacher in your family, school, and community in the past (childhood to career life). (you can use speech bubbles in your stories if necessary).” the teachers were then given a day to finish the first story. after they finished the first story, they were given another day to visualize the second story. in the second take, they were prompted using this instruction, “draw the life you imagine as a language learner and a future language teacher after graduating from an american university. (you can use speech bubbles in your stories if necessary).” the narrative sheet provided for the teachers also contained another instruction, “you can visualize your stories in combination with writings” to provide greater flexibility in modes for teachers to express their ideas. the teachers were then asked to submit their narrative sheets to the researcher’s email. following kalaja’s et al. (2016) method, these drawings were called visual narratives that can inform the extensive experience within oneself as a language learner and teacher.   the next step was conducting an hour and a half of elicitation and informal semi structured interview with the three participants. interview questions/probes were designed deductively from vygotsky’s sociocultural theory (i.e., source of development, participation, semiotic mediation, and genetic analysis) concerning a feminist perspective and teacher education by maher and rathbone (1986). in the elicitation, the teachers were invited to interpret the visual narratives they created. the elicitation stage lasted for approximately 40 minutes with interruptions from the researchers when further clarifications on some stories were needed. the follow-up questions were given to confirm vague events in their narratives. in a one-hour semi-structured interview, the teachers were then asked further to meet the research purposes. data both from the elicitation and the interview were recorded and analyzed in the latter step.  procedures data analysis the visual narratives were documented and analyzed from vygotsky’s sociocultural theory and gender role theory.  the key aspects of the visual narratives included the socio-cultural learning and teaching contexts of being a female learner and teacher, as well as their vision of their future learning and teaching practice. for the sociocultural learning and teaching context, the pictures were categorized into four aspects of sociocultural contexts: a social source of development, socially and culturally shaped contexts, participation with peers and adults, and access to resources (john-steiner & mahn, 2003). the data analysis also took place by considering the feminist theory in reconstructing female language teacher’s roles from a sociocultural perspective 19 no. 29 education by maher and rathbone (1986), which states connections between feminism and teacher education. meanwhile, to ease the elicitation and interview data process, all interview data were transcribed using a machine transcriber, and transcription results were cross-checked with the audio to clarify the data accuracy. once the cross-check was done, the data were deductively analyzed using nvivo codes. the data were first coded according to three settings i.e., family, school, and community that entail the socio-cultural variables discussed earlier. the feminist perspective was examined through the student teachers’ current experience and future teaching and learning aspirations. each case of the teachers was presented consecutively one by one, and the later discussion involved disconnections and connections between the teachers’ experiences. this process is a natural process of a case study which also aligns with what maher and rathbone (1986) argue about the perceived variety of women’s experiences. results social source of development and socially and culturally shaped learning from the story visualization, this study revealed some socio-cultural contexts the participants had faced. bintar told her that she grew up in a village where she could not find ways to connect with the community where she lived. although ‘village’ is often connotated with a strong community, as a female child, she did not find herself engaging with her peers and adults in the surrounding community. she informed me that she was not an outgoing person and thus preferred not to interact much with her neighbors. additionally, in this community, people embraced the “silence is gold” philosophy where women were discouraged from voicing their opinions about the issues in their community in ways that men were not. men possessed more social power than women, leading to less sociocultural and educational participation. because of this, her interactions with the community were limited to a teacher’s student program in which she had to teach reading to her peers in the neighborhood (figure 1 box 4). later when she grew up, she identified herself more exploring the world outside of her home.  so, my teacher seemed to know that bintar likes reading. that made her ask me to help my friend read stories, learning how to read. so, i met my friend every afternoon. she is fortunately my neighbor, across my house. like 50 or 100 meters from my house. (bintar’s image elicitation)  imamatul khair 20 no. 29 figure 1. bintar’s visual narrative of sociocultural contexts of learning and teaching wardah interacted with the surrounding community because she was involved in community gatherings and schoolwork. wardah’s neighbor helped her complete language homework when she was in elementary school. she met a lot of community members because her father was the head of the neighborhood. as she worked at a university, she participated in religious gatherings in her community despite having less time to spend outside due to long work hours. figure 2. wardah’s visual narrative of sociocultural contexts of learning and teaching reconstructing female language teacher’s roles from a sociocultural perspective 21 no. 29 in indonesia, neighbor. mm. not quite often, but i always join the religious activity, just that one, because most of the time i was tired after going back from work. sometimes i had to work extra hours, going back at six or six already dark, everybody already inside of the home. so it’s really hard for me to talk unless, like, we have this specific event. (wardah’s interview)  ulil had a continuum of interactions with her neighbors in her village. she interacted with her peers when she was young and connected with them in high school by joining mosque clubs. however, she began to spend less time with them as she went to college and worked. with limited interactions, she realized that she blindly followed any decisions made in her community. growing up in a mostly dominated javanese community, ulil, who was still single, was aware of marriage-related expectations as her peers criticized her decision to pursue higher education in the us. however, she continued her decision as her family and colleagues supported her. since junior high and senior high, i rarely interacted with the nearby neighbors, but with neighbors from different neighborhood, because my neighbors across my house were not on my age. however, i met with my peers from other neighborhood in youth mosque club when i was in high school which is near my house. as i worked far away, i rarely met them. (ulil’s interview)  figure 3. ulil’s visual narrative of sociocultural contexts of learning and teaching imamatul khair 22 no. 29 dichotomized parentship: shaping child’s agency and familial connections bintar’s language-learning journey was highly influenced by her family. her parents encouraged her to learn a foreign language because they understood its significance. they, therefore, sent her to an english private course when she was in elementary school (figure 1 box 2). bintar’s father, who was a former teacher, helped cover her learning costs, allowed her to read from his history book collection, and invited her to book exhibitions. reading opened her eyes to a wider perspective on different cultures worldwide. despite this, bintar felt more connected to her mother than her father because of the cultural structure such as the gap in age and values between baby boomers and millennials. bintar admitted that her decision to choose english education, later, was influenced by her perception of teaching as a feminine job. as she graduated from college, she developed her own ideologies and sense of learning autonomy despite the family culture in which a child must follow her family’s decisions. she decided to pursue her master’s degree in the us, although her family disagreed with her decision. this situation made her withhold information from her family. my father support is different from my mother. my mom or sister took me to the course. my father paid for my course fees. my father gave money to purchase books, and that’s his support in this stage (figure 1 box 2), funding my learning. however, when i was enrolled to junior high school, i took an english private course, and my father took me there because my mother worked at night. however, when i was in elementary school, my mom and sister took me to a private course. however, my parents support is equal just different in portion. my father then really supported me to go to a book exhibition (figure 1 box 3). he was a teacher, so he had a lot of books. my father allowed me to choose anything i want. from that moment, i started to become interested english. (bintar’s image elicitation) wardah’s family encouraged her to study english, and thus learning resources were more accessible to her. her parents sent her to the most esteemed school in town and later to a private subject course at the end of senior high school. the resources helped her improve her english skill and social skills with her peers. although her parents could not speak english, wardah learned english differently. her father bought music cassettes, cds, and books, while her mom supported her with motivational stories. working as a teacher, her mother encouraged her to get international experience and good compensation for teaching (figure 2 box 6), and her father let her participate in various community events and facilitated her public exposure to performing as a female communicator.   my mom is a schoolteacher. since she was teaching indonesian back then, she’s already retired now. but yeah, she wants me. she wanted me to have like this kind of international feeling, studying abroad, having much, much better opportunity in the future. this kind of like thinking that my mom had back then, i decided to say yes, even though i will struggle with the language because i didn’t really like english, i was about to choose. i really want reconstructing female language teacher’s roles from a sociocultural perspective 23 no. 29 to be like in math subject because math was my favorite, but in my junior and senior high school. (wardah’s image elicitation) her relationship with her parents was influenced by a religious vantage point. wardah believed her duty to follow her mother was a part of the observance of her religion. therefore, she chose the major that her mother had chosen for her. unlike her relationship with her mother, wardah faced tension when interacting with her father. her mother was like a friend, who she shared everything with, but because her father was an introverted person, she engaged with him less. because of these differentiated gender identities, she often stepped back from building intimate interactions with her father.  with an educated family background, ulil, the first child in her family, had easier access to material resources and chances to learn with her parents. her parents implicitly set family expectations because of their roles. she claimed her father, who was an engineer, was a source of knowledge because he gave her various reading sources and reading activities (figure 3 box 1 and 2), while her mother became her emotional support. her parents sent her to a renowned school in town, and her father registered her for an english private course (figure 3 box 3). her decision to pursue higher education in the us was also supported by her family who acknowledged that this was necessary for being a higher-ed educator.   when i was junior high, my father picked me from playing with my elder nephew and he said i was registered to elt, an english private course. he did not say anything before , so i don’t know. i think maybe he considered the importance of english. (ulil’s image elicitation) ulil had built close relationships with her father since she was young. her father was quite engaging in dialogues and discussions with her, especially when he accompanied her to school. because she lived in a javanese family in which a parentchild hierarchical structure exists, she still did not flexibly navigate her own voice to her parents. as a result, she tended not to express her opinion until she was asked to do so. besides, she believed that her parents’ blessings are the prayer for her life; thus, she kept her will to herself to be not considered rebellious.   punitive educational experience, peer help, and unspoken mind at school although bintar studied in a village elementary school, she could find literacy resources from her class teacher. despite this, she had a traumatic experience in english learning in elementary school because of a reprimanding efl female teacher (figure 1 box 1). as she moved to a more renowned middle and senior high school in town, she felt her agency and chances to connect with her peers were lower. her imamatul khair 24 no. 29 peers were born and raised in more urban areas and thus had access to intellectual and economic affordances compared to her. as bintar did not fit within the larger dominant elite (high-income and intellectual) student group, she only grouped with female peers who are from the same social status. to improve her english, bintar had a student teaching position in an english club known as a dominated english club (figure 1 box 6).   most of the time, bintar faced the great challenge of representing herself as a village female english language learner (figure 1 box 5). she also felt this way when she studied at an american university. although she considered teachers as a source of knowledge, it was not easy for her to voice out her aspiration to them because of the hierarchical relationship. she also had a similar experience as a freelance teacher at her university. she experienced pressure because of hierarchical work cultures such as a staff-leader relationship and job status. otherwise, she was afraid of being fired if she voiced her criticism towards her leaders out loud.  first box is about a coercive teacher in elementary school. it tells us about the first time i learned english. i forgot how old i was at that time, maybe around 3 or 4 grade in elementary school. the english female teacher was irritable to us. when the bell rang, all of us was in rush to class. we know that she’s bad-tempered. look, she walked to the class. we were in hurry to class. because of this experience, i did not like english. because of having a coercive english female teacher, i was afraid of learning english and making mistakes which makes me rebuked. if we did a mistake, she would be angry at us and criticized us. (bintar’s image elicitation) wardah claimed herself as an average language learner. she did not participate in many english learning events outside of her class because those were available only for good english-speaking students. in addition, she experienced academic burnout in middle school because her female teacher traumatized her by giving high-demanded testing items that went beyond her knowledge (figure 2 box 2 and 3).  later in college, she met peers and professors that allowed her to improve her skills. she then decided to study in the us and found a discussion group that improved her language acquisition and assessment. as she worked as a lecturer, her ability to sharpen her skills was still limited because her female head department restricted her. additionally, her chance to participate in professional development workshops was constrained because her husband, who worked at the same faculty, was prioritized over her.  wardah’s learning participation with peers and adults at school was quite varied. her teachers, as a source of knowledge, designed competitive teachings. individual participation was promoted more than collaboration. however, she could still find ways to reach out to peers to practice her english in college. her prior student experience left her anxious about her learning. she tended to not argue or keep her thoughts to herself. however, when she began working with a female peer, she found greater autonomy to criticize her language teachers who put too many demanding reconstructing female language teacher’s roles from a sociocultural perspective 25 no. 29 expectations on her and her peers. she also had a similar action when she experienced unfair treatment from the head of the study program at the university she worked. her determination to raise her voice did not always make everything smooth, but she was aware to stand up for her rights as a language learner and teacher. somehow it was, like, traumatic for me because that kind of like negative thinking that i had about english from that teacher remains forever. i hate english, to be honest, since i was like a student at junior high school as well as in high school. i keep kind of like trembling. i keep kind of like shaking. i just hated, like, sweating all the time and kept counting of the time. like how many minutes left, just like, one minute. oh, my god. having that kind of experience wasn’t really nice, right? as a student, i really, really hated (english). (wardah’s image elicitation) ulil received better learning resources at an english private course and extracurricular programs than at formal schools. her english teacher in high school noticed her interest in language and then asked her to participate in language debate competitions. she developed her english a lot in college as she could interact with peers who were proficient in the language.     when ulil was at middle school, her female english teacher was demanding and punitive. later in senior high school, she had motherly and compassionate english female teachers, but they still barely focused on group work to encourage peer collaboration. however, in college, she met active mixed-gender peers through group work and collegial support where her male peers were generous in sharing their language knowledge and practice with her (figure 3 box 5 and 6). ulil believed she learned in a culture legitimizing a teacher’s power over students. at the university she worked, she faced many cultural and professional communication issues. hence, she felt inferior and never expressed her opinions to her teachers. she developed other ways of voicing her thoughts, such as talking to colleagues at her level or those in lower positions. working in a place influenced by javanese culture, her colleagues still perceived that ulil as a single teacher could have worked harder than the married teachers. she experienced a stereotypical assumption about marital status and work performance in that situation. my english female teacher in junior high was coercive although she was physically goodlooking. she gave a lot of homework and punished us for not doing it. at that time, i thought i would not mess up with her because she was punitive. (ulil’s interview)  at some points, i sometimes got some aspirations to say to my colleagues. i thought the problem should be solved this way, but it was not able to be solved right away or i could not talk about it right away to the person. so, i shared my thoughts to my close colleagues or someone in the lower position. for example, i would not say my aspirations to the rector since i could reach out to the study program secretary. (ulil’s interview) imamatul khair 26 no. 29 safe, equitable, and aspirational teaching for contextual and participatory learning bintar hopes to be a good teacher who can create a safe and nonjudgmental learning space to encourage students’ active participation in expressing opinions and respectfully evaluating themselves and others. she expects to build a good rapport and collaborate with her students by solving language problems without being concerned with the power hierarchy (figure 4 box 1). creating a supportive learning culture becomes her future goal to eliminate the inequalities between male and female students, in addition to providing good facilities such as the internet, computers, books, and educational tools. she hopes to establish multilingual teacher collaboration at her institution and build connections between authentic community issues and english education to stand for social justice. figure 4. bintar’s visual narratives of future teaching and learning aspirations i want my class to allow students to be active and comfortable. i do not want to be a coercive teacher like my former english teacher. i do not want judgment on my students, so they are safe to express their opinions and make mistakes. they also need to be supported by good facilities. it’s important for language teaching. for example, technology, speaker and internet, and what’s that? computer. they must be in class. it is useful for teachers. i want to build a close relationship with my students like supporting each other. for example, if i do not know the answer, my students should understand me. we can find the answer together. that’s what i imagine myself as a language teacher. (bintar’s image elicitation) wardah illustrated her future learning and teaching as a call to action against her unpleasant learning and teaching experience. she wants a fun creative learning class reconstructing female language teacher’s roles from a sociocultural perspective 27 no. 29 to support students with any learning needs, thus not leaving others behind. she wants to use her expertise in corpus instructions to help students have logical reasons to identify language structures. she intends to apply collaborative learning to offer vibrant learning spaces. she wants to grow the autonomy and communication skills of her students by applying universal groupings, hands-on learning, and the use of technology such as ometv. based on her experience, she theorizes that good teachers and good peers will result in a good learning process. she envisions her students actively engaging regardless of their gender. she also hopes her department will have an equal-gender student placement mechanism for teaching practicum.  figure 5. wardah’s visual narratives of future teaching and learning aspirations reflecting again back to the experience that i had, i definitely want my student be happy. english definitely like motivate them and make my student feel happy all the time. i want to involve game like i as like on the second picture on the second box i have like jenga vocabulary for whatever the game discussion and things like that. i just want to make my student feel happy and kind of like being supportive, supporting each other. do not make one of the student left behind because i didn’t really like the feeling at all. and i want. i want to cry because, like my experience with english was not that good. (wardah’s image elicitation) ulil brought aspirations about how important collaboration is in teaching and research. she wants to mingle with a community and bring her authentic experience to class while teaching english (figure 6 box 4 and 5). she also hopes to reach out to her students’ families and invite them to see their children’s learning. to give equal learning opportunities, she wants to assign students to mixed-gender student groups and give them the same scoring system and differentiated instruction if necessary.  imamatul khair 28 no. 29 figure 6. ulil’s visual narratives of future teaching and learning aspirations although literacy practices are not necessarily related to the english subject i taught, i can still learn and bring the experience from the travelling or the community. they would contribute to how i teach english to the student, specifically on the social practices, despite indirectly teaching the english language. for my language teaching, what i could bring from here (us) is how to develop myself and my teaching competence.  that will indirectly relate to the quality of language teaching in my future class. (ulil’s image elicitation) discussion for the first point, this study demonstrates indonesian female efl teachers’ experience influenced by different sociocultural contexts of various settings.  the participants’ interaction with peers and adults in the community is influenced by academic and religious factors, patriarchal support, and the child’s introverted personality. muslim women participate in mosques for several reasons, including learning about islam, praying, socializing, engaging in community activities, and obtaining emotional support and connection (nyhagen, 2019). in addition, limited interaction with the community due to work reasons might have something to do with the participants’ individualistic ideals as a result of western interference in the form of neoliberal capitalism, which can be detrimental to traditional communal life (hirmer et al., 2022). results on father’s social support align with research that mentions that the political stage in the patriarchal culture is the world of men (wayan & nyoman, 2020), leading to subtle silence culture stereotyping women as passive (sakallı uğurlu et al., 2021). reconstructing female language teacher’s roles from a sociocultural perspective 29 no. 29 moreover, all participants received their parents’ encouragement of english learning in many ways despite the dichotomy of the father and mother roles. this is related to the fatherly patriarchy, which manifests man dominance in most aspects of family life (pierik, 2022), and man’s responsibility for more economic or material power than mothers (krumhuber et al., 2022). this suggests that fatherly patriarchy embeds gender-stereotypic beliefs and idealized roles for fathers and mothers (koenig et al., 2011). however, man dominance found in all cases demonstrates power-sharing to widen female family members’ knowledge. overall, success trajectories also depend on different forms of parental support a child receives (al-deen, 2019).    self-stereotyping on teaching as a feminine job may influence how the self is construed with specific gender descriptions (krumhuber et al., 2022) such as female children proper for expressive attributes (warm, caring, and nurturing) (hentschel et al., 2019). the participants’ parents thought promising international exposure, a stable job, and academic promotion in teaching career, but these depend on intrinsic, extrinsic, and altruistic motives that contribute to positive or negative people’s perceptions of teaching (başöz, 2021). regarding freedom to speak, all participants tend to withhold from expressing their opinions to their parents because of religious factors, familial hierarchy, and ethnic culture. in relation to this, patriarchy is connotated with power, family relations, social hierarchy (pierik, 2022), and religiosity in different religious groups such as families (perales & bouma, 2019). gaps in the conversational topic, perceived gender role of parents, age, and generational values influence the outcome of power relations (pierik, 2022) in family. legitimizing men’s power in families may continue creating social distance between fathers and daughters (haase, 2010).    pursuing a higher degree in a western university is an example of autonomy against gender stereotypes that men have more self-oriented traits (e.g., ambitious, independent, dominant, and success-oriented) (sakallı uğurlu et al., 2021). autonomy and ideology development in college may result from peer interaction and access to learning resources that shape the key personalities of female language learners. as most participants access western learning resources, they may intersect with western ideologies about women’s emancipatory rights for social inclusion (koburtay et al., 2023).    from the lens of learners’ experience, all participants had a discouraging learning experience with intrusive efl female teachers despite considering them a source of knowledge. this situation may suggest how coercive female teachers challenge the authoritarian regime of the schooling system, in which male teachers receive more referral to power and control (bayever, 2021; robinson, 1992). thus, the current finding might lead to questioning the boundary of femininity between the attitudes of efl male and female teachers in disciplining students.   imamatul khair 30 no. 29 the participants’ prior teachers might pose teaching beliefs, experience, and intercultural competencies which may interrupt the ability to adjust and localize efl materials to be more participatory (munandar & newton, 2021). since the introduction to critical cultural awareness commonly begins at the college level, efl teaching in college may touch on cultural realities rather than focusing on grammar only in middle-senior high school (kusumaningputri & widodo, 2018). besides, students’ basic knowledge and experience may be a challenge for high school efl teachers to exhibit communicative learning strategies and thus mostly use teachercentered teaching (muliyah & aminatun, 2020). isolation and marginalization of voice that the participants faced at school is caused by different social statuses, academic competitiveness, and gendered working culture. low socio-economic status and low academic self-efficacy could lead to students’ disconnection from school  (ahmadi et al., 2020). female leadership in indonesian higher education is hindered by a stifling bureaucracy, insufficient resource allocation (arquisola & rentschler, 2023), and lower job status (markey et al., 2002). it aligns with harlo’s study in which women’s voice is more sounding than men’s but quieter only when addressing their voice to the supervisor or more powerful offender (harlos, 2010). at this point, multidimensional individual, group, and institutional factors concern the participants about their actions, voice, and access to resources and interactions.   marriage in patriarchal culture is viewed as an ideal household expectation (pierik, 2022), but it may create anxiety for independent women (da silva perez, 2022). concerning marital stereotype among the participants, a study in turkey discovered that single-working women are associated with being hardworking and ambitious, while married working women are entitled to be hardworking for caring for domestic activities and work (özkan, 2011). this situation offers a broader perspective on stereotypical differences on married and single indonesian efl teachers. in response to the second question, the participants aim to benefit themselves and their community. good teachers regardless of their gender should have personality competence, pedagogical competence, social competence, and professional competence (sakkir et al., 2021). the participants also want their teaching to adopt social justice, authentic learning, and critical literacy by considering accessibility to facilities (e.g., books, the internet, and other educational tools). similar proper facilities and authenticity in learning are resources envisioned by foreign language teachers in finland (kalaja et al., 2016). most participants consider mix-gender grouping inside and outside class to create a collaborative and friendly learning environment. this study concludes that mix-gender grouping seems to impact female and male students’ success, reduce gender disparities, and curtail the negative influence of gender stereotypes on a particular group of sexes (almasri, 2022). reconstructing female language teacher’s roles from a sociocultural perspective 31 no. 29 conclusion capturing different experiences of female teachers uncovers the gap and inequalities in language education at different levels (family, community, and school). the presence of women in community setting deals with the purpose that want to achieve in the community. religious attainment may bridge the gap in social inclusion between men and women in a muslim dominated patriarchal community. parents’ support, in addition, is prominent in the learning and teaching of indonesian female efl teachers. parents’ support is differentiated by gender roles in the family, such as emotional support from the mothers and material and instrumental support from the fathers. the stereotypical thought of teaching as a feminine job still exists, although it is also viewed as valuable in terms of a promising career. the teachers tend not to raise their voices to parents because of complex interplaying factors i.e., religious factors, familial hierarchy, and ethnic culture. this also relates to their stage of developing their own ideologies and autonomy of learning and teaching, which mostly occurs after college, possibly due to peer interaction and access to wider resources. this study also reveals an anomaly in how the participants’ female efl teachers perform attitudes crossing the boundary of femininity. besides, school as a learning and teaching place poses a subtle stereotypical perception of marital status and privilege of single female efl teachers. not wanting to repeat the same oppressive and stereotypical experience, the efl teachers envision their future teaching as safe and non-judgmental. the current findings shed light on female efl teachers’ learning and teaching experience that may pose transformative language education practices in the future. since this study accounts for female teachers’ experience from being a child, a community member, learner, and teacher, it portrays the present, past, and future of their growth in each setting. however, since this study is a case study, it only includes three teachers’ visual narratives of socio-cultural contexts. to see the extensive findings of sociocultural contexts on female efl teachers’ learning and teaching, further studies need to include a larger number of participants from different regions of indonesia. besides, future research can examine the influence of colonialism and neoliberalism on the sociocultural context of learning and teaching to see the changes in women’s scholarship from different points of view. conducting comparative studies on both male and female teachers’ sociocultural contexts will also add to future research’s novelty. moreover, although visual narratives provide alternative ways of presenting experiences using visuals, future research may come with different research methods to address the concerns and strengths of participants, researchers, the community, and beyond. imamatul khair 32 no. 29 references ahmadi, s., hassani, m., & ahmadi, f. 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(2021). gender role stereotyping in indonesian primary school english textbooks. journal of english education, 6(1), article 1. https://doi.org/10.31327/ jee.v6i1.1456 author imamatul khair is a language researcher and director at sastra lingua indonesia, the center for translation, editing, interpreting, language testing and training. imamatul focuses her research areas in bilingual education, efl, school community and programs, as well as youth participatory action. imamatul has authored several articles including “realities and impacts of teaching approach and method in bilingual classroom in indonesia” (parole journal, 2022), “going back home: activism youth role and dream” (khaira press, 2020), and others. she is currently initiating language programs with research evidence using multiliteracy landscapes as the foundation at sastra lingua indonesia. she earned her master’s degree in bilingual, esl, and multicultural education, university of massachusetts amherst, where she studied with a fulbright scholarship. she also received a prestige fellowship from the university with outstanding records. orcid: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0503-2250 36 no. 29 reconstructing female language teacher’s roles from a sociocultural perspective 172 camacho & ovalle the influence of video games on vocabulary acquisition in a group of students from the ba in english teaching1 la influencia de los video juegos en la adquisición de vocabulario en un grupo de estudiantes de la licenciatura en inglés gonzalo camacho vásquez and joan camilo ovalle2 universidad del tolima, colombia abstract this article is the product of an action research study that aimed at demonstrating the effects of videogames on vocabulary acquisition in a group of 15 students from 8th semester of the program of b.a in english of the university of tolima. the analysis of results, gathered by vocabulary tests and students and teacher’s journals, showed that the participants could acquire a considerable amount of vocabulary. the experience enhanced the participants’ engagement and interactions inside and outside the class. the study allowed the creation of categories de palabras that may serve as a base for further research and implementation in the classroom. video games seem to be a new trend brought for technology for purposes of pleasure and they have been proved in the educational field as a possible learning mediation, and they will be soon replaced by new devices that could not be considered as an alternative to learn. keywords: videogames; game-based learning; vocabulary acquisition; efl 1 received: february 7th 2019/ october 21st 2019 2 gcamachov@ut.edu.co; joan.ovalle135@gmail.com gist education and learning research journal. issn 1692-5777. no.19 (july december, 2019). pp. 172-192. no. 19 (july december 2019) no. 19 (july december 2019) 173 camacho & ovalle resumen el presente artículo es el producto de un estudio basado en investigación acción, el cual tenía como objetivo demostrar los efectos de los video juegos en la adquisición de vocabulario, en un grupo de 15 estudiantes de octavo semestre de la licenciatura en inglés de la universidad del tolima. el análisis de los resultados, obtenidos por medio de exámenes de vocabulario y diarios del docente y de los estudiantes, mostraron que los participantes pudieron adquirir una cantidad considerable de vocabulario. la experiencia activó el interés y la interacción de los estudiantes dentro y fuera del aula. el estudio posibilitó la creación de categorías de palabras, que pueden servir como base para futuros estudios y para la implementación de la estrategia en el aula de clase. los video juegos parecen ser una nueva tendencia que introdujo la tecnología con propósitos de diversión, pero que pronto se convirtió en una posible mediación pedagógica, la cual muy seguramente será reemplazada por nuevos dispositivos que hoy no se consideran como opción de aprendizaje. palabras claves: videojuegos; aprendizaje basado en juegos; adquisición de vocabulario; efl resumo o presente artigo é o produto de um estudo baseado em pesquisa ação, o qual tinha como objetivo demonstrar os efeitos dos videojogos na aquisição de vocabulário, em um grupo de 15 estudantes de oitavo semestre da licenciatura em inglês da universidade do tolima. a análise dos resultados, obtida por meio de provas de vocabulário e diários do docente e dos estudantes, mostrou que os participantes puderam adquirir uma quantidade considerável de vocabulário. a experiência ativou o interesse e a interação dos estudantes dentro e fora da aula. o estudo possibilitou a criação de categorias de palavras, que podem servir como base para futuros estudos e para a implementação da estratégia na sala de aula. os videojogos parecem ser uma nova tendência que introduziu a tecnologia com propósitos de diversão, mas que breve se converteu em uma possível mediação pedagógica, a qual muito seguramente será substituída por novos dispositivos que hoje não se consideram como opção de aprendizagem. palavras chaves: videojogos; aprendizagem baseada em jogos; aquisição de vocabulário; efl no. 19 (july december 2019) no. 19 (july december 2019) 174 influence of video games on vocabulary acquisition camacho & ovalle introduction back in the early 1950s, video games were created as part of the first computer systems; however, it was not until the 70s and 80s, when first computer appeared, that they became popular. over the years, video games became more important in people’s lives; in fact, young people are spending higher amounts of time with this medium than they used to in the past. rideout, foehr, and roberts (2010) reported that there has been a substantial increase in the time that children and teenagers spend to play video games over the last ten years. also, prensky (2001a) affirms that graduate college graduate spent 5,000 hours playing video games, and 20,000 hours watching television during their lives video games seem to be highly addictive and have a natural capability to engage players. characteristics, such as visuals, music, storyline, gameplay, and characters, make them attractive to a considerable amount of people. in fact, they are considered a relatively new way to promote literacy (chiong, 2009). since video games have become more complex in terms of graphics, interaction and narrative, a wide variety of genres and topics have emerged to captivate the new public. as a result of this diversity and complexity, more and more people are into the video game industry, as can be seen in the figure 1 below. figure 1. worldwide game market revenue. taken form 2019 video game industry statistics, trends & data no. 19 (july december 2019) no. 19 (july december 2019) 175 influence of video games on vocabulary acquisition camacho & ovalle studies regarding the use of videogames in educational environments are novelties but researchers, teachers, and parents recognized that games can use these to develop some valuable skills and insights (kirriemuir & macfarlane, 2004). the educational uses include language learning and, according to klein (2013), playing videogames is beneficial to people who are learning a new language; however, these benefits may be random and not intended for casual gaming. keeping the former ideas on mind, this research study intends to establish how effective video games are in vocabulary acquisition. multimedia (including video games) has been related more to leisure activities with no or little relationship to learning; therefore, some people usually have the idea that video games are not useful at all. the same idea seemed to happen when television was first released. darryl f. zanuck, director of 20th century-fox stated in 1946 that “video will not be able to hold any market it captures after the first six months. people will soon get tired of staring at a plywood box every night”. nevertheless, television has become one of the most powerful instruments to transmit information in existence and there are educational programs that are designed for people to learn using them. this example may illustrate that most of the time; ideas against technological creations tend to have a weak logical basis. thus, this project aims to demonstrate that video games are useful in learning a second language; specifically, we intend to explain how they can be a meaningful tool to acquire vocabulary in english as a foreign language (efl). this leads us to core question of this study: how can video games influence vocabulary acquisition in a group of students from the b. a. in english? as such, the research conducted aimed to demonstrate the influence of video games on students’ vocabulary, to determine the relationship between video games and vocabulary acquisition by analyzing learning experiences from the b.a. in english at the universidad del tolima, and to measure how effective the use of videogames is to acquire vocabulary through different activities using video games. literature review different scholars such as gee (2007), prensky (2004), shaffer (2006), musa (2015), howard and ting-yu (2013) argue that video games can be powerful activities for education. in fact, when someone plays, learning happens constantly, even if the players are aware of it or not (prensky, 2004). their ideas have inspired different studies all around the globe to demonstrate that video games can take the function of tools and activities in language learning, specifically, in vocabulary acquisition. with regards to vocabulary acquisition in a foreign language, gee (2007), says that good video games not only set situations and problems for the entire no. 19 (july december 2019) no. 19 (july december 2019) 176 influence of video games on vocabulary acquisition camacho & ovalle gameplay, but they also present several basic tools to navigate properly in the game. these aids include the vocabulary that gamers will use during the actions they take on the video game. he compares this process to creating a foreign language classroom when teachers set the basis for their further practice of vocabulary and grammar. indeed, he argues that video games are surrounded by different means of written texts such as instructions, dialogues, hints, and descriptions that may enable the development of autonomy. musa (2015), developed a case study using games like minecraft (mojang) and candy crush (king.com) and he concluded that the participants developed new groups of vocabulary when they played these games and that vocabulary acquisition occurs if the words are directly exposed to the player. also, howard and ting-yu (2013) investigated how an adventure game called bone could improve listening, reading, and vocabulary skills of a group of college students. this study indicated students acquired certain vocabulary after playing bone. in a similar study, vahdat and behbahani (2013) used a video game called runaway: a road adventure to develop vocabulary in two groups of male and female learners. they concluded that there is not a strong relationship between gender and vocabulary learning, as vocabulary learning occurred eventually in both groups; however, there were some minimal differences in the acquired words throughout the students. furthermore, ranalli (2008) used a computer simulation game called the sims in students and guided the process. the study provided evidence that video games can, with guidance, be used to contribute to vocabulary acquisition of students. moreover, in colombia, galvis (2011) conducted an entire semester using a video game (grand theft auto: san andreas) and game-based instructions in a military school. he concluded that students were more attentive and involved and that video games helped students to explore virtual realities that simulate real-life contexts. additionally, rivas (2016), conducted similar research where a1 and a2 level students used minecraft as an extra activity. she found that her students improved their lexicon and grammar through the interaction with this game and activities connected to their gaming experience, by using role-play activities, oral activities, dialogues, and discussions. she affirms her students had a better attitude towards the lessons and a better performance in the activities. she explains they were more connected to the topics as they had background knowledge. video games can also change and improve the attitude of learners towards language learning. for instance, yip & kwan, (2006) expressed their students’ motivation and attitudes change while using videogames; data which was obtained through surveys and interviews. they also affirm that their pupils’ attention was easier to retain while using videogame-based activities. galvis (2012), affirmed in his field notes that playing the videogame can be seen as a form of engagement, attentiveness and entertainment and during the no. 19 (july december 2019) no. 19 (july december 2019) 177 influence of video games on vocabulary acquisition camacho & ovalle interviews his students expressed that for them it was an easier way to learn english as they became more engaged and attentive. the studies mentioned before are valuable not only for their relationship to this research but also for their methodologies, instruments, and findings, which can be adapted to this research. for instance, prensky (2001b), states that there is a combination of twelve elements which make a game engaging: fun, play, rules, goals, interactivity, adaptiveness, outcomes and feedback, win states, conflict, problem solving, representation, and story. these elements seem to be useful when choosing the proper game to the learning goal and planning the activities. gee’s (2007) relationships of video games and classroom environments are important due to the bond between video games and problem-solving using vocabulary. finally, ranalli’s (2008), methodologies are meaningful when working on vocabulary because they imply guidance before, during and after playing the game. the teacher can easily monitor the learner during the process and support the game’s feedback implying an educational sense to it. videogames used there were used two video games called scribblenauts and age of empires ii (both games were acquired via steam) from week 1 to 2, the participants were asked to play scribblenauts, which is a puzzle-action game being developed by 5th cell in 2012 and distributed by warner bros. in the game, users take the role of maxwell, a boy who wants to undo a spell on his sister. the user needs to type words and to use adjectives to solve different problems that allow him to collect starites, which he needs to save his sister. this game includes an ample variety of nouns and adjectives. besides, it is rich in direct vocabulary. the second game used, as mentioned, was age of empires ii, which is a real-time strategy game. in this game, players take the control of troops and they must accomplish certain objectives during the campaign. moreover, the main characters are historical figures like william wallace, joan of arc, saladin, genghis khan, and barbarossa, among others. this video game was used in order to analyze the specific war lexicon in it. these two games were chosen because of their capability to involve players and their use of vocabulary. besides, they use a considerable amount of reference vocabulary in the different campaigns. type of vocabulary in video games. there can be two groups of vocabulary that gamers might acquire during the gameplay musa (2015): “general meaning or situated meaning words. no. 19 (july december 2019) no. 19 (july december 2019) 178 influence of video games on vocabulary acquisition camacho & ovalle general meaning is composed of the lexicon that has a purpose apart from the actual gameplay. that means, a player does not need to know them in order to play but these words are present in other functions” (p. 448) to the group of situated meaning words belong all the words included during the game that users are supposed to understand to succeed in a certain game. in this project there were found two subcategories of situated meaning vocabulary: direct vocabulary and reference vocabulary. direct vocabulary is all the words that are visually materialized on the gameplay and the player can interact with them. reference vocabulary is all the words that are necessary for the completion of the game. it is important to consider these two categories as it helps to understand that students tend to learn direct vocabulary more than reference vocabulary. figure 2. type of vocabulary found in video games. musa (2015) methodology this project applied a mixed method approach given that it combined qualitative and quantitative forms of data analysis. the former was used in the sense that data was analyzed in the form of ideas and images represented in the concepts expressed in the students and teachers’ journals; while the latter was used to analyze the amount of vocabulary acquired by students by comparing the results of an initial and final vocabulary tests. research design the design used in this research project was action research (ar). burns (2010) states that action research is related to the ideas of reflective practice and the teacher as a researcher. ar, also called teacher research, involves taking a self-reflective, critical, and systematic approach to exploring teaching contexts. the teacher becomes an investigator that tries to question and explore no. 19 (july december 2019) no. 19 (july december 2019) 179 influence of video games on vocabulary acquisition camacho & ovalle all sorts of issues in the educational field; in this case, the implementation of video games in order to improve vocabulary skills. observation was the first phase chosen to start the study since the intention was to diagnose students’ background about video games. in the reflection phase, data from the previous stage was used in order to organize the procedures with which to the implement the classroom activities. in the planning stage, different activities were arranged based upon the reflection exercise. consequently, and as can be seen in figure 2, during the acting stage the activities were developed leading once more to the first stage, where the teacher observed, evaluated and analyzed how effective the activities were; and after this, the cycle restarted. figure 3. action research schema applied in this study. adapted from burns (2010) participants and context the 15 participants are in their 8th semester of the program of b.a in english of the university of tolima, 12 of which were female and 3 were male. their age ranged from 19 to 23 years old. this group of students was chosen by considering their language level. no. 19 (july december 2019) no. 19 (july december 2019) 180 influence of video games on vocabulary acquisition camacho & ovalle data collection and analysis procedures for this project the students were involved in different activities for five weeks, each week requiring 1 or 2 hours of face-to-face work, and 3 hours of an independent work. during the face-to-face sessions, the researcher and students discussed possible findings and new words, and recorded their progress by using a teacher’s journal, and student journals. additionally, during the last week of the project, the teacher-researcher prepared a test to reinforce the acquisition of new words. during the 3 hours of independent work, the students played the videogames scribblenauts and age of empires ii. they kept a journal where they wrote findings and reactions to the learning experiences. the activities were divided into 3 main cycles that can be seen in figure 4 and which will be explained below. planning: in the first part of this cycle, the researchers analyzed and determined the level, likes and dislikes of participants, as well as the video games that were going to be used. then, the researchers selected proper games according to the observation. afterward, the vocabulary from the games was selected and a test was elaborated in order to measure participants’ performance in the target vocabulary selected by the teacher. finally, the participants’ performance and their opinions about the learning experiences were in order to plan the activities for the lessons. figure 4. lessons schema direct vocabulary cycle: the game used in this cycle was scribblenauts, which is based on direct situated meaning vocabulary. in the first week, participants shared words that they have learnt from the game and analyzed no. 19 (july december 2019) no. 19 (july december 2019) 181 influence of video games on vocabulary acquisition camacho & ovalle their uses, as well as their experiences playing the game. during the second week, in addition to the aforementioned vocabulary sharing, the participants performed a test using the lexicon from the two classes that they had seen. reference vocabulary cycle: during the last cycle, reference language cycle, students play age of empires ii; additionally, they shared lexicon on the week three and they analyzed the words in contexts. during the last week, the participants analyzed the vocabulary again and carried out a second test using the vocabulary shared during the last cycle. finally, they took the final test to provide data to determine the effectiveness of the activities (see figure 5) data collection instruments the data collection instruments in this study were a vocabulary test (see appendix 1), and teacher and students’ journals. journals were also used in order to evaluate the participants and teacher’s reactions to the implementation of the experience as well as how they perceived the learning progress. the test was divided into 4 sections: synonyms, definitions, image-word, and categories. the first two included vocabulary from both video games. the image-word section included words from scribblenauts and the categories section vocabulary from age of empires. in the first section, students needed to choose one synonym for the world in bold according to what they knew and the context. in the second section, the participants selected the definition that matches the words in bold in the sentence. in the third section, there was vocabulary from scribblenauts; in this part, the participants had to write to label the pictures. finally, in the categories section, they were asked to classify the different words into two categories: war units and war buildings. this last part used words from age of empires. the journals were used in order to consider the students and teacher’s viewpoint and reflection processes, “before, during and after a learning experience” (dyment & o’conell, 2011, p. 84), as in the activity proposed in this project. teachers’ journals are another useful instrument to provide information about the implementation, progress, and intervention in a certain methodology. no. 19 (july december 2019) no. 19 (july december 2019) 182 influence of video games on vocabulary acquisition camacho & ovalle results figure 5. results of the pre-test, while test and post-test. no. 19 (july december 2019) no. 19 (july december 2019) 183 influence of video games on vocabulary acquisition camacho & ovalle figure 6. word clouds vocabulary acquisition in the three weeks. findings the findings seem to indicate that videogames could be used as effective tools in the classroom. as the data from study indicates, there is a link between their use and an increased uptake in vocabulary. these games seem to have positive repercussions in the student vocabulary acquisition process. tomlinson (1998), said that relaxed and self-confident learners learn faster. krashen (1985) states that non-linguistic variables, like motivation and confidence, may have influence on learning. video games, and games in general, seem to low the affective filter, and a result enable students’ language acquisition since in the virtual environment students work in a context without pressure; because of this, ghanbaran and ketabi (2015), state that players are capable of having a deeper processing of vocabulary. this was seen during the implementation, where participants shared different interests in the games, and they expressed their connection to the different topics. for instance, when they were playing age of empires ii, they started talking about the historical characters of the game, some of them even said they searched for their biography and compared them to the stories in the video game. another benefit we could evidence is the one deubel (2006) calls as a customized experience. essentially, each gameplay is different among the participants. there are different paths to follow, making it a unique experience. shaffer described this week 1 week 3 week 2 week 4 no. 19 (july december 2019) no. 19 (july december 2019) 184 influence of video games on vocabulary acquisition camacho & ovalle as the “empowerment of the player” (p.138). students showed the capability to incarnate the main character, which increased the interactivity because they were able to take the responsibility in the context of the game. this project found that video games may benefit players regarding language learning, and they may improve their lexicon. in fact, studies like ranalli (2008), galvis (2011), howard and ting-yu (2013), musa (2015) and rivas (2016), among others, state that people can practice, and improve their performance in a target language using video games: figure 7. excerpt students’ journals, second cycle, searching biographies musa (2015) states that a lack of academic instruction may cause that the students learn the form but not the meaning of these words. that is why activity was a crucial factor in this study. in fact, the amalgam between independent and instructed tasks showed findings that we may divide into the next components, engagement, interactions, and type of vocabulary. prensky (2001b), states that “computer and video games are potentially the most engaging pastime in the history of mankind” (p.1). having this in mind, during the it was evidenced that students were engaged as stated in both journals. besides, the connection they had with the games seemed to cause willingness of sharing and developing the activities. during the lessons, we found that participants felt comfortable to share their experience, and even more, the new vocabulary was accepted as a part of their tasks. students could name the new objects and actions during the game, and sharing a topic in common, allowed participants to connect with each other. based on the analysis of the test and the entries in the journals, we can say that participants increased their vocabulary, and felt more motivated to learn. no. 19 (july december 2019) no. 19 (july december 2019) 185 influence of video games on vocabulary acquisition camacho & ovalle figure 8. excerpt from students’ journal, describing and sharing experiences. with regards to the interaction, students had two different ways to interact: in class and during the gameplay. this seems to be another reason why the games engaged students easily. besides, these interactions could have helped students to acquire vocabulary. both types of interactions affected each other. for instance, having a good interaction with the game helped students to communicate easier in class. therefore, each interaction helped to first be exposed to and then memorize the vocabulary, before practicing and acquiring it. figure 9. excerpt from students’ journal, describing and sharing experiences. no. 19 (july december 2019) no. 19 (july december 2019) 186 influence of video games on vocabulary acquisition camacho & ovalle there is nothing real in killing dwarves or ogres, but the tasks the player needs to accomplish (analyze information from dialogues, interact with the objects and space, fail in a certain task and receive feedback, etc.) are like real life. as stated by klein (2013), there is a necessity to use the language in order to solve conflicts in those simulated lifelike contexts. the vocabulary presented is not isolated; it has a situation, characters, and culture within the gameplay. we found that the students practiced what they learned in the context of the game. particularly, during these activities, at the moment of the assisted task, participants appeared to show confidence and previous experience at the time of sharing the vocabulary. conclusions it is true that we do not intend to create a new theory with the analysis of this learning experience; but, we can draw some conclusions based on the purpose of this study, which aimed to demonstrate the bond between videogames and vocabulary acquisition as well as problematizing the idea that people seem to have about the relation between videogames and language learning. the virtual interaction seems to affect the interaction in the classroom. as an example, participants experienced and interacted with the words in a previous instance before the class. it may have influenced, that inside the classroom, they were more attentive and participative. students experienced different perspectives and different paths along the games. at the moment of sharing the experiences with the games, participants looked eager to know what their classmates did. they used different linguistic devices in the social interaction, not only the vocabulary learned, but also, they implemented narrative language. as such, video games seem to offer several opportunities to practice vocabulary in contexts and a teacher can use this type of technological resources to refine the skills acquired during the gameplay. lastly, it is fundamental to reflect upon the vocabulary found in the games because this knowledge can be helpful when a teacher plans a videogamebased instruction. the type of vocabulary proposed does affect the process of acquiring words. for instance, musa (2015), presents that situated meaning words are more likely to be acquired because this vocabulary is directly exposed to the players, and it is relevant and useful in solving the games. most of the words assigned for each one of the weeks of implementation belonged to the group of situated meaning. pondering upon this conclusion, it is essential to plan the vocabulary before assigning the game to the group. considering the no. 19 (july december 2019) no. 19 (july december 2019) 187 influence of video games on vocabulary acquisition camacho & ovalle likelihood of acquisition of the words can help to achieve the objectives of an activity based on games. eventually, making the best of use of the vocabulary categories can help teachers to plan better classes, set realistic goals, and develop activities that reinforce experiences of players. paraphrasing foucault (1980), it appears that we cannot escape to be influenced for devices that determine our actions as subjects of established discourses. this french author let us see through this notion that these devices function as machines that we can enter though breaking lines that questions pre-existing organizations, but soon, they also become reigning paradigms that could be displaced by new tendencies. video games seem to be a new trend brought for technology for purposes of pleasure and they have been proved in the educational field as a possible learning mediation, and they will be soon replaced by new devices that could not be considered as an alternative to learn. no. 19 (july december 2019) no. 19 (july december 2019) 188 influence of video games on vocabulary acquisition camacho & ovalle references burns, a. 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(2010). ludoliteracy: defining, understanding, and supporting games education. etc press: pittsburgh. no. 19 (july december 2019) no. 19 (july december 2019) 190 influence of video games on vocabulary acquisition camacho & ovalle authors *gonzalo camacho vásquez is full-time teacher at universidad del tolima. he holds a ba in language teaching and a ma in education. he has been as an english instructor and teacher trainer for more than 12 years. he participated as an exchange teacher in the united states with visiting international faculty program (vif program). his areas of interest are foreign language teaching didactics, critical thinking and philosophy of education. orcid: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3207-6689 joan camilo ovalle holds a ba in english from universidad del tolima. he has assisted and presented on different international congresses around colombia. currently, he is working as a teacher at colegio san bonifacio de las lanzas, and part-time teacher at universidad del tolima at the language centre. orcid: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4853-1922 no. 19 (july december 2019) no. 19 (july december 2019) 191 influence of video games on vocabulary acquisition camacho & ovalle appendix 1 – vocabulary test no. 19 (july december 2019) no. 19 (july december 2019) 192 influence of video games on vocabulary acquisition how to reference this article: camacho vásquez, g., & ovalle, j. c. (2019). video games: their influence on english as a foreign language vocabulary acquisition. gist – education and learning research journal, 19, 172-192. https://doi.org/10.26817/16925777.707 no. 19 (july december 2019) no. 19 (july december 2019) editorial dr. carlo granados-beltrán academic vice chancellor única welcome to a new edition of gist journal. the articles published in this issue of the journal offer valuable insights into the challenges and opportunities faced by english learners and teachers in diverse contexts. the article by tevfik dariyemez and ahmet erdost yatsibaş presents the suggestions of students of english as a foreign language (efl) to maintain their willingness to communicate in online english lessons. study participants identified a number of factors that contribute to their willingness to communicate, including interesting topics and activities, understanding teachers, and opportunities for interaction with other students. these findings suggest that online english teachers can encourage students’ willingness to communicate by focusing on creating an engaging and inclusive learning environment. cihan kocabaş and unal deniz’ article examines the problems faced by novice turkish teachers in their early career stages. the study findings revealed that novice professors face a number of challenges, including problems with class planning and management, and pressure to meet administrators’ expectations. these findings underscore the importance of providing adequate support to novice teachers to succeed in their careers. ertan altınsoy inquired about the impact of lesson study on the personal development of future english teachers. the study findings revealed that the study of lessons helped future teachers to develop greater self-awareness, improve their teaching skills, and increase their self-confidence. these findings suggest that lesson study can be a valuable tool for the professional development of future english teachers. jhon eduardo mosquera pérez, flor angela hurtado torres and daniel elías pérez díaz did a collaborative autoethnography to explore the identity-building trajectory of a group of english research professors. the study findings revealed that participating teachers experienced a number of tensions in their process of identity 6 no. 25 construction, including the tension between their identities as teachers and researchers, and the tension between their identities as english teachers and as colombians. these findings suggest that the identity of english teachers is complex and fluid, and that it is influenced by a variety of factors. mary elizabeth caballero guillén and cecilia cisterna zenteno investigated the contribution of information-gap activities to support speech fluency among honduran ninth-grade students. the study findings revealed that information gap activities helped students improve their speech fluency in terms of speed, interruptions, and repairs. these findings suggest that information-gap activities may be an effective tool for the development of speech fluency in english learners. ximena d. burgin’s article examines the self-informed pedagogy of ecuadorian pre-service teachers. the study findings suggest that there is a disconnect between the objectives of the pre-service teachers’ curriculum and the knowledge that the future teachers feel they will need to be ready to implement in their practice. the article by yemeserach bayou and tamene kitila explores the beliefs and practices of instructors to promote students’ critical thinking skills in writing classes. the study findings revealed that participating instructors interpreted critical thinking as the students’ ability to use appropriate language and argue logically in their writings. the instructors also identified a number of strategies to promote students’ critical thinking skills, introducing it explicitly, incorporating it into the assessment system, and creating scaffolding and providing meaningful topics and appropriate opportunities for students to practice writing. these findings provide relevant insights for the field of english language teaching. altogether, these articles offer valuable insights into the challenges and opportunities faced by english learners and teachers in diverse contexts. the findings of these studies can help researchers, educators, and policymakers to develop strategies to improve english learning and teaching in diverse contexts. 230 the english textbook. tensions from an intercultural perspective1 el libro de texto de inglés. tensiones desde una perspectiva intercultural astrid nuñez-pardo2* universidad externado de colombia abstract this review article addresses tensions, critiques and trends that are still latent in mainstream research on english textbooks that have looked at their intercultural aspects, which need to be explored from the perspective of critical interculturality to resist the instrumental, regulatory, homogenizing and commercial nature of textbooks developed by foreign and local publishing houses. the manuscript firstly elaborates on the textbook as an object of research; secondly, it discusses critical analysis of the content of textbooks; and thirdly, the text concludes by pondering critical interculturality, as a decolonial alternative, to make possible the construction of criteria of being, knowledge and power to orient the development of the english textbook, and move away from a de-contextualised textbook toward a desirable contextualised one. this article encompasses the state of the art supporting an ongoing research study on the english textbook from the perspective of critical interculturality that is being conducted within the doctoral programme3 in education at universidad pedagógica and tecnológica de colombia (uptc), conducted during 20152018, and supported by universidad externado de colombia, bogotá. key words: english textbook, critical analysis, interculturality, critical interculturality resumen este artículo de revisión reporta las tensiones, críticas y tendencias latentes en el perfil de la investigación sobre los aspectos interculturales en los libros de texto de inglés, que necesitan indagarse desde la perspectiva de la interculturalidad 1 received: march 1st 2018/ accepted: september 4th 2018 2 astrid.nunez@uexternado.edu.co 3 decolonising the english textbook: a venture from critical interculturality efl teacher’s professional development gist education and learning research journal. issn 1692-5777. no.17 (july december 2018). pp. 230-259. nuñez no. 17 (july december, 2018) no. 17 (july december, 2018) 231 crítica para resistir la naturaleza instrumental, regulatoria, homogeneizante y comercial de los textos producidos por editoriales foráneas y locales. el documento, en primer lugar, justifica el libro de texto como objeto de estudio; en segundo lugar, discute el análisis crítico de contenido de los libros de texto; y, en tercera instancia, concluye con la reflexión sobre la interculturalidad crítica, como alternativa decolonial, para posibilitar la construcción de criterios del ser, el saber y el poder que orienten el desarrollo del libro de texto deseable y contextualizando. el artículo corresponde al estado del arte de una investigación en curso acerca del libro de texto desde la perspectiva intercultural crítica, que se está realizado dentro del marco del doctorado en educación de la universidad pedagógica y tecnológica de colombia (uptc), con el apoyo por la universidad externado de colombia, durante el período comprendido entre 2014-2018. palabras clave: libro de texto de inglés, análisis crítico, interculturalidad, interculturalidad crítica resumo este artigo de revisão reporta as tensões, críticas e tendências latentes no perfil da pesquisa sobre os aspectos interculturais nos livros de texto de inglês, que necessitam indagar-se desde a perspectiva da interculturalidade crítica para resistir à natureza instrumental, regulatória, homogeneizante e comercial dos textos produzidos por editoriais forâneas e locais. o documento, em primeiro lugar, justifica o livro de texto como objeto de estudo; em segundo lugar, discute a análise crítica de conteúdo dos livros de texto; e, em terceira instância, conclui com a reflexão sobre a interculturalidade crítica como alternativa decolonial, para possibilitar a construção de critérios do ser, o saber e o poder que orientem o desenvolvimento do livro de texto desejável e contextualizando. o artigo corresponde ao estado da arte de uma pesquisa em curso acerca do livro de texto desde a perspectiva intercultural crítica, que se está realizado dentro do marco do doutorado em educação da universidade pedagógica e tecnológica da colômbia (uptc), com o apoio da universidade externado da colômbia, durante o período compreendido entre 2014-2018. palavras chave: livro de texto de inglês, análise crítica, interculturalidade, interculturalidade crítica nuñez no. 17 (july december, 2018) no. 17 (july december, 2018) 232 introduction english textbooks are not neutral as they not only depict and reproduce values, behaviours, cultural patterns, traditions and dominant ideologies, but they also reinforce stereotypes and support the idea that one nationality is superior to others. this supremacy of dominant cultures over dominated ones has been done through their written texts, oral discourses, iconography or activities proposed. it is also important to acknowledge that foreign and local english textbooks have privileged a predetermined static and monolithic vision of culture, marginalizing the diversity of local cultures. in addition to privileging examples of superficial culture (monastic, static, and admirable such as celebrations, tourist attractions, local gastronomy, etc.) over deep culture (dynamic, multifaceted, and with invisible and intricate definitions), the textbooks have decided on which discourses or ideologies to promote or hide and have hierarchised and poorly represented the different western and non-western ethnicities and cultures with a reductionist homogenised vision. this has impeded the development of a critical consciousness (freire, 1971, 1993) that results from individuals’ intervention as transformers of the world they inhabit, toward transformative and heterogeneous cultural realities. in this way, the dominant discourse of knowledge, power and ways of being are legitimised, naturalised, and perpetuated. this has been supported by de sousa santos (2010, 2006) who has urged for studies to be conducted on the different aspects invisibilised by the hegemonic order. the purpose of the study where this review comes from is to formulate the criteria to set the grounds for the development of a contextualised english textbook, conceived under critical interculturality, as a decolonial alternative, to overcome its uncritical development from the voices of colombian teachers, authors and experts. it also contemplates the critical approaches of the post method, the understanding of the sociocultural local context, and the contextualisation and self-construction of pedagogical knowledge rooted in local demands (kumaravadivelu, 2014, 2006, 2006a, 2006b, 2003, 2001, 1994). this article discusses the relevant research studies on english textbooks that have looked at their intercultural aspects and into the justification for the textbook to be treated as an object of research. english textbook in intercultural perspective nuñez no. 17 (july december, 2018) no. 17 (july december, 2018) 233 english textbook in intercultural perspective nuñez the textbook as an object of research textbooks were first studied as objects of research in the european context. in 1975, the international institute for textbook improvement (el instituto internacional para el mejoramiento de los libros de texto) considered textbooks about history, geography, social sciences, politics and german, to analyse aspects such as self-image, the image of others, and education and development in the global era. choppin (1992) was the first scholar that has referred to textbooks as objects of research because they “can be studied from different points of view, because they are a consumer product, a support for school-based knowledge, ideological and cultural vectors, and pedagogical instruments” (1992, p. 102). likewise, garcía (1996) has reported that once world war ii had ended, the united nations educational, scientific and cultural organisation (unesco) entrusted the georg eckert institute to revise the textbooks that had been published in europe after world war i, to examine xenophobic contents and stereotypes that denigrated citizens from neighbouring countries. in 1992, the school manuals projects (known as proyecto manuales escolares manes) was created in spain to study the school manuals that had been published in the country – between 1808 and 1990 – in partnership with universities from spain and other countries (villalaín, 2001; ramírez, 2002). in this respect, ramírez (2002) has pointed out that the collaboration between these two projects was formalised by a signed agreement in 1992 between the instituto nacional de investigación pedagógica -inip [national pedagogical research institute] and educación comparada de la universidad nacional de educación a distancia uned [the compared education at the distance learning national university] to promote scientific exchange and cooperation. furthermore, the target geographical zone was broadened to include portugal and latin america with the creation of a university agreement to study school manuals, promoted by the manes project. other universities joined the project later. these included the universidad de cuyo (argentina), universidad de antioquia (colombia) and the universidad nacional autónoma de méxico (unam). later, other universities joined the agreement such as universidad de la república (uruguay), universidades de la plata, de buenos aires and de entre ríos (argentina), universidad pedagógica nacional de bogotá (colombia), the pontifícia universidad católica de são paulo (puc-sp) and the pontificia universidad católica de quito (ecuador). the grupo de investigadores eleuterio quintanilla, 1996) [eleuterio quintanilla research group] has confirmed that textbooks have been given a privileged place in the intercultural educational no. 17 (july december, 2018) no. 17 (july december, 2018) 234 approaches, as they play a fundamental role in the teaching and learning processes; synthesise the proposed and transmitted culture; and create collective identities and express conflicts of interests. in addition, borre (1996) has commented that since the 1950s systematic research has been found about the ideological dimension of textbooks. according to the author, “an ideology is a system of values, stated more or less explicitly, that is constantly being defended and/ or attacked” (p. 111) and that is reflected, reproduced and transmitted in textbooks. finally, the instituto internacional de investigación educativa para la integración del convenio andrés bello [international educational research institute for integration from the andrés bello agreement], has been researching textbooks since 2009, and gathering relevant results about the conceptualisation of the research in this field, and the creation of an instrument to analyse textbooks and other materials used in the development of the teaching and learning processes (mora, 2009; mora & unzueta, 2012). based on moya’s (2008) perspective, the textbook as an object of research, “is given an outstanding place in the set of interests and commitments of educators in the field of educational research both in europe and latin américa” (p. 137). also, according to negrín (2009), textbooks are “revealed as relentless thought-provoking sources and, simultaneously, as objects of multidisciplinary and complex study, which has generated a great diversity of research perspectives” (p. 187). following a consideration of textbooks as objects of research, below is a review of the research profile surrounding the analysis of english textbooks based on interculturality, a contemporary strand within efl textbook and interculturality, both in the national and international spheres. relevant studies about english textbooks in connection with interculturality mainstream research on textbooks have analysed representations of racism, sexism, cultural representations, and dominant ideologies in subjects other than efl, and have accounted for the ideologies and hidden agendas that the content of the textbooks has been spreading in the educational context. however, the prevailing tradition when researching english textbooks can be summarised into two general categories. the first tradition has included studies about their use and the related assessments of students and english language teachers. the second tradition is associated with the specific, critical and analytical research of the content of textbooks that has generated tensions english textbook in intercultural perspective nuñez no. 17 (july december, 2018) no. 17 (july december, 2018) 235 regarding the different aspects involved in interculturality. these have included the ideologies, national identity, gender equality, culture and intercultural communicative competence, literacy practice fostered by the textbook, and social representations, carried out at both national and international levels that at times interrelate, overlap or coincide. they have been presented according to categories and have been organised thematically. identifying sexism and gender representations. several authors have conducted studies about the relationship between language and sexism, among them baiquiang (2008), craeynest (2015), dabbahg (2016), datzman (2013), ghorbani, (2009), hall (2014), hartman and judd (1978), hill (1980); lee (2014), lee and collins (2008), mukundan and nimehchisalem (2008), ndura (2010), nofall and qawar (2015), pereira (2013), porreca (1984), rifkin (1998) and syarifuddin (2014). the studies have focused on identifying gender discrimination through the analysis of contents using, among other aspects, the following categories: firstness, omission, visibility in readings and illustrations, as well as observable linguistic biases in the selection of nouns and adjectives associated with each gender. the common findings of these studies have confirmed that sexism has continued to flourish in english textbooks, since they have presented stereotyped visions of each gender. on the one hand, through the use of male images, which are mainly presented as utilising more sophisticated tools or performing more demanding tasks. on the other hand, the textbooks have not integrated the diversity of experiences in the lives of students from multicultural backgrounds and have presented stereotypes, invisibilities and unrealities. consequently, it is advisable for textbook writers and assessment committees to promote awareness of gender equality both in substantiated contents and in linguistic forms to minimise sexist biases in english textbooks. furthermore, it is advisable for teachers and students to be aware of the hidden messages in these materials; to ensure they contribute to the empowerment of students so that they can identify their poorly constructed and represented lost voices; and to critically examine their life experiences and their relationship with others in their communities and the wider world, so that they can participate in the pursuit to transform the current world into a fair and equitable one. the findings of these studies have given rise to the need for textbook authors to consider the criterion of gender equality, which is essential in the search for equality in diversity. this criterion should be english textbook in intercultural perspective nuñez no. 17 (july december, 2018) no. 17 (july december, 2018) 236 reflected in the textbook contents, written passages, the representation of the characters’ main roles, the titles and iconography, the professions and family roles, the attributes, and firstness, as well as in the male and female linguistic representations since they set a standard of interaction with others. it is important that textbooks show that differences are constituent elements of social heterogeneity, which if misrepresented or ignored, gives rise to discriminatory situations toward people of the opposite sex, thereby, undermining the promotion of rights and equity in diversity. the ideal textbook is inclusive in terms of gender equality, race diversity and ethnic groups to facilitate intercultural learning, which can be achieved through the formulation of criteria to guide the critical development of textbooks, based on the growing diversity of life experiences and cultures of students. discourses on otherness and eurocentric knowledge. a study carried out by spanish researcher guijarro (2005) confirmed the research tendencies surrounding cultural and social values in relation to otherness and gender. these have been transmitted in a selection of seven textbooks, produced and used in andalucía. his analysis has considered the explicit and implicit elements of the cultural/ethnic group and gender variables that are present in the iconography of passages and didactic activities. the purpose was to establish whether there were racist or sexist values, which were using the stereotypes and clichés surrounding these variables as a point of reference, and to raise awareness among foreign languages teachers about the presence of a hidden curriculum in the textbooks. the author has supported his research study with the evaluation that has been proposed by cunningsworth (1995) about students’ understanding of the social and cultural contexts of the textbook to evaluate the axiological, social and cultural potential they present. the findings have confirmed that locally produced textbooks represent, reproduce and perpetuate discourses of otherness, as a posture of geo-cultural, historic, archaeological, sociological and ethnological knowledge about others. this is centred on eurocentrism and, hence, on a hierarchy of cultures, where western cultures are superior to other cultures, and are taken as natural and legitimate scenarios for teaching english. they have given little attention to the diversity and to differences of otherness; and have superficially dealt with axiological aspects of gender and culture, since they have exclusively focused on grammar or on developing linguistic skills. yassine (2012) has analysed cultural conceptualisation in three textbooks which were produced in algeria and used by secondary school students. the researcher has focused on culture, ideology, and english textbook in intercultural perspective nuñez no. 17 (july december, 2018) no. 17 (july december, 2018) 237 otherness as constituents of the hidden curriculum, and has identified five types of cultures and the different ways in which they are visually and linguistically illustrated: national or local, target or foreign, global or international, from other english-speaking countries, and western or european. the study had a manifold purpose which was to determine which was the most widely used in the english teaching context, to describe the representations of self and the other, and to observe their development or stagnation. to evaluate the textbooks, the researcher has developed the multi-modal semiotic social approach (mssa), which involves the identification of linguistic texts and visual images, and their respective cultural contextualisation, for the purpose of capturing the linguistic, visual and semiotic components that articulate a social discourse based on specific ideologies. furthermore, to inform the evaluation a questionnaire was administered to a group of secondary school teachers that used textbooks to gather information about the practical aspects of the books. the results revealed that all three textbooks included culturally loaded linguistic texts, with visual images containing strong connotative meanings that represented the five hierarchised types of cultures (national/local, target/foreign, international/ global, other english-speaking countries, and western european) and the reproduction of the discourses about the centre versus the periphery. also, that british and american cultures are linguistically and visually privileged, and that they are being legitimised as the right context for english language teaching in algeria. the international or global culture also played an important role, but it was mostly associated with western or european cultures, rather than with the students’ own national or local culture, or with those cultures from other english-speaking countries. only one of the textbooks had made some references to the local/national culture, and the rest has only referred to it indirectly. these studies have highlighted the need for generating an epistemological rupture from the eurocentric vision in aspects of diversity, equality in difference, and culture and gender, which are intrinsic to building critical interculturality. locally-produced textbooks have represented, reproduced and perpetuated epistemological, geocultural, historic, archaeological, sociological, and ethnological postures about “the other”, centred on eurocentrism and the hierarchisation of cultures, in which western cultures are superior to others, and are taken as natural scenarios for teaching english. furthermore, they have provided epistemological support, generated from other loci, for the assessment and interpretation of written texts and adjoining iconography to uncover knowledge about the diversity of phenomena in social life. english textbook in intercultural perspective nuñez no. 17 (july december, 2018) no. 17 (july december, 2018) 238 de-contextualisation of knowledge and an uncritical approach as hegemony aicega’s (2007) critical analysis of a passage from an english textbook used in argentina, has made it possible to assess its adaptation and ideological assumptions to the local context. the passage addresses diverse aspects of a renowned puerto rican singer such as his origin, professional career, and more especially his preferences and hobbies. the analysis has resorted to the explicative and descriptive observation criteria and has been framed within freire’s (1993) and giroux and mc laren’s (1994) critical pedagogy, which has been characterised by questioning and rejecting all forms of domination, with the purpose of establishing a discourse for social action and transformation of reality. it has also been underpinned by fairclough’s (1989) critical discourse analysis, leading to the discovery of hidden relationships between language, power, and ideology. the findings have revealed that the whole passage presented a flawless, categorically depicted, and idealised reality; and that it constructed all things latino based on material wealth and individual success, popularity and a luxurious lifestyle. everything that has been presented as familiar represents a totally alien reality to the text users and readers, and has evoked discourses from the mass media which are built around celebrities and trivialities. it has provided an increasing worldwide context of globalisation that replicates the disproportional relationship between the dominant and dominated cultures, which is not appropriate for teaching english in local settings. assuming that the knowledge contained in english textbooks legitimises an official understanding that has an impact on the construction of students’ reality, researchers di franco, siderac and di franco (2007) have analysed the type of citizenship generated by the uncritical approach in textbook editions (published after 2000) used in state-funded schools in santa rosa, argentina, and which might provide the opportunity to break away from this logic. the study has revealed: (a) an important de-contextualisation of the knowledge presented, in terms of temporality, spatiality, and significance that has made it harder to construct relevant knowledge and critical citizenship; (b) the representation of the admirable culture (wise and inaccessible men), which has not considered the fact that economic matters imply a conflictive relationship between the production forces, politics, ideology, culture, and justice; (c) knowledge that has been presented as a privilege of a few, which refers to what lander (2000) has defined as “colonisation of knowledge” (p. 53), attempting to naturalise and universalise the being, since other cultural and knowledge forms are considered ontologically inferior; (d) the absence of social conflicts due english textbook in intercultural perspective nuñez no. 17 (july december, 2018) no. 17 (july december, 2018) 239 to the omission of contemporary leaders, and the inclusion of those from the past, but without deepening into their reasons for struggling; and (e) the absence of citizens’ participation, since there are no communities or a sense of belonging, that can resist and fight for their rights (ethnic or racial groups, or members of the lgbt community). contextualisation in these textbooks has been set in futile events, in a simple and harmonious world that is lacking political function, with incidence on the construction of knowledge and power. it seems that the construction of knowledge and the participation of citizens occur ‘elsewhere’, since knowledge has already been constructed, social conflicts have already been resolved, and some have still dared to suggest options for which citizens have the right to opt for. this is what for lander (2000) has represented the most powerful expression of ‘modern scientific thinking’, in which the subject only has ‘to be inserted’, for the naturalisation of social relationships to take place. the results have provided a warning sign on the decontextualisation of students’ everyday life, the subject’s disassociation from knowledge, contextual disengagement, and a total absence of local and experiential culture that have prevented the restructuring of the particular social schemes in which they are immersed. for voloshinov (1992), this has meant not belonging to the spatial-temporal and semantic horizon, which is common to interlocutors. in other words, these textbooks are nothing but reproductions of predetermined knowledge. researchers have suggested considering the possibility of critically transforming pedagogies (torres, 1993) since english teachers, as knowledge generators, can dismantle the hegemony of a unique discourse to make room for reflection, transformation, and the construction of alternative knowledge. these studies have emphasised on the need to unveil the latent relationships between language, power, and ideology through the analysis and treatment of social problems such as the social classes, gender, minority communities, sexual orientation, religion, language, etc. these are topics that should be considered in english textbooks to generate a debate and an intercultural, critical and emancipatory conscience both on the part of students and on the part of english teachers. di franco, siderac and di franco (2007) have underlined the de-contextualisation of english textbooks and has supplied relevant theoretical support since it has reflected the colonisation of knowledge in them, substantiated by a lack of appropriateness to the teaching environment. they have depicted a predetermined knowledge and english textbook in intercultural perspective nuñez no. 17 (july december, 2018) no. 17 (july december, 2018) 240 omitted the reflection and analysis of the economic, legal, political, ideological, and cultural aspects, which are intrinsic to the human beings and their everyday life. all of these are essential components of the critical interculturality that can be promoted through a contextualised english textbook. cultural component in texts, tasks and iconography. there are multiple studies that have analysed the cultural component in different dimensions; for instance, when balancing the contents of the target and local cultures; in their representation and treatment; or in the tendency to include elements from the deep or shallow cultures. the research involved include ahmed and narcy-combes (2011), aliakbari and jamalvandi (2013), amal saleh, javid and rahimi (2010), al-obaidi (2015), bahrami (2015), bataineih (2009), dehbozorgi, amalsaleh and kafipour (2015), farzaneh, kohandani and nejadansaric (2014), fuentes (2011), habib (2014), hussein al migdadi (2008), jahan (2012), kirkgöz and ağçam (2011), nguyen (2015), reimann (2009), rimani and soleimani (2012), thang kiet (2009), varón (2009), and xiao (2010). all of these studies have utilised content analysis with the purpose of exploring the characteristics of the cultural content presented in english textbooks. for example, they have considered whether these texts include aspects from both the local and target cultures; if they focus on traditionally central cultures (the usa or the uk), or whether they involve aspects from peripheral cultures; and if culture is presented in a superficial way (foods, folklore, festivals, facts (kramsch, 1993)). they have also considered if they describe elements from the deep culture. on the other hand, they have also analysed the authenticity of cultural representations in textbooks. to analyse the cultural component, the authors have utilised their own checklists or some adapted versions from other researchers (cortazzi & jin, 1999; arias, campo & zuluaga, 2001; garinger, 2002, miekley, 2005; and ramírez & hall, 1990). the elements that have been found in these lists have gone from biases toward one culture or another, have established the link between the learners and the target cultures, as well as the balance regarding their representations. they have even found the attitude regarding stereotypes and the contextualisation of the cultural content, both local and foreign, or the idealisation of the latter. in general terms, the studies about the cultural component presented in english textbooks have concluded that there is a primacy of british and north american cultures, with a low frequency of the culture of origin and international cultures. the cultural content is english textbook in intercultural perspective nuñez no. 17 (july december, 2018) no. 17 (july december, 2018) 241 presented out of context, based on models from western and north american cultures, with characters that belong to the neutral cultures, in countries free of social problems for discussion. they contain characteristics, values, attitudes and stereotyped communication styles from dominant cultures, with no representative anchor or context to be validated, which has not allowed learners to make it relevant to their own cultural experiences and, thereby, develop their own cultural awareness. only three of these studies, bataneih (2009), nguyen (2015), and kirkgöz and ağçam (2011) have found that the content in textbooks focused on students’ local cultures, in comparison to the cultural references of foreign cultures. studies have also suggested to both, authors and the editorial industry at large, for textbooks to be more open and flexible, with a balanced load of the different and real cultural content types; and to offer multiple possibilities for reflection, comparison and connection to elements of the learners’ cultures (as a means to connect the content to real-life experiences), critical analysis, and the comprehension of diversity to promote cultural awareness. it is also advisable to include appropriate methods for teaching and learning about culture that facilitate the critical use of the materials and the questioning of their cultural content. these researchers are in agreement with the current proposed assumption of textbooks disseminating cultural archetypes that create, perpetuate and naturalise the patterns and admirable, homogeneous, static, and monolithic cultural values of the western hegemonic cultures (monocultural knowledge) in the recipient communities of these textbooks; thus, causing an adverse effect on intercultural knowledge by not exploiting the debating potential that cultural subjects have, which leads to the appreciation of worldwide cultural plurality. the studies have also established opposing and complementary binaries such as east-west, primitive-civilised, human-subhuman, magic/ mythic-scientific and traditional-modern regarding power; reasoningnon-reasoning and humanizing-dehumanizing coloniality in connection to being; and eurocentrism-local knowledge in relation to knowledge (walsh, 2009). they have illustrated the analysis of the textbooks with checklists from the cultural context in which the textbooks are to be used. they have also recommended for teachers and textbook authors to distance themselves from aimless and superficial assessment, centred on presentational aspects, and instead, to favour the analysis and the use of appropriate methods to teach and learn culture in a critical way, which are essential in the contextualisation of knowledge in textbooks, and in educating free-thinking, critical, autonomous people, who are aware and respectful of cultural diversity. english textbook in intercultural perspective nuñez no. 17 (july december, 2018) no. 17 (july december, 2018) 242 intercultural aspects and intercultural communicative competence. aliakbari (2004) has analysed the representation of culture in 29 passages in four english textbooks produced in iran, to determine whether they have developed intercultural communicative competence (henceforth, icc) in secondary school students. to analyse the content, ramírez and hall’s (1990) checklist was used. this highlights the frequency and type of visual representation of culture. to establish the frequency, a code system which has defined the text as a basic unit of analysis has been created and six content analysis options were assigned: the word, the sense of the word, the sentence, the topic, the paragraph, and the text or complete passage. in addition, a new scheme has been established for new words and the meaning of each of these words has been considered as a unit of analysis since each sentence has a specific meaning, which is independent from the sentences that follow. four sentence categories have been identified: sentences with no reference to culture, sentences with no reference to a specific culture, sentences referring to general culture, and sentences referring to a specific culture. similarly, a code system with eight categories has been created for complete passages that were taken as units of analysis: reference to english-speaking countries, reference to non-english-speaking western countries, reference to eastern countries, international comparison, reference to iran, reference to islam, reference to general texts, such as science ones, and reference to reading passages with undefined identity. the results have shown that, in all the four books, general reference to science, geography, historical events, and life stories are not centred on modus vivendi and that reading passages with no identity were the most frequent ones. the study has concluded that all the four textbooks shared the same orientation with a range between 72% and 85% of sentences with no references to a specific culture, and 13% of sentences in books 1, 2 and 3, and 4% in book 4 with reference to general culture. also, that cultural representations did not contribute to the construction of a sense of culture or to the development of the icc in students since the cultural content contained in the textbooks was very limited. méndez (2005) has examined the representation of international and intercultural aspects in recent editions of fourteen english textbooks, used in secondary schools in spain. the researcher has scrutinised the reading and listening sections of 174 units. the information has been gathered in a matrix specifically designed to analyse the cultural content taking into account cultural objectives, the methodology of the cultural component, and the valuation of culture. each of these has english textbook in intercultural perspective nuñez no. 17 (july december, 2018) no. 17 (july december, 2018) 243 been subdivided into secondary criteria. the findings have indicated that (a) the intercultural and international sociocultural content was only evidenced in 20 passages, and that 10 out of the 14 textbooks analysed included texts in which an english-speaking community was seen in relation to other cultures; (b) the connection between english-speaking countries and non-english speaking countries was exclusively made between spain and the uk, and only 9 out of the 174 units that were studied make a connection between other non-english speaking countries and spain; and (c) the relationship between englishspeaking countries was discussed in 4 out of 174 units in which general distinctions were made between the us and the uk. essentially, the uk has been the main focus of attention, hence excluding other englishspeaking countries and other cultures. it is necessary to highlight an intercultural and international approach supported by a comparison and contrast of the tasks that complement the written or oral texts, with the proposal of the “double perspective” of societies (kramsch, 1993). textbook authors are advised to be aware of the complexity of the intercultural approach supported by explicit comparison and contrast without resorting to stereotypes. jiang (2010) has corroborated that the most widely used english textbook in china has played a decisive role in the variety of cultures that are taught and in the development of icc. the anthropological culture (scollon & scollon, 2001) has been adopted, which includes basic cultural knowledge, customs and habits, beliefs, morals and values; and icc which covers cultural knowledge, the needed abilities to relate and interact with other cultures and with one’s own culture, attitudes, communicative competence, and “critical cultural awareness, (savoir s’engager): an ability to evaluate, critically and on the basis of explicit criteria, perspectives, practices and products in one’s own and other cultures and countries (byram, gribkova & starkey 1997, p. 9). the researcher has used krippendorff’s (1980) method of content analysis to determine the variety of cultures that are taught through textbooks by means of a set of criteria related to current affairs, realism, topics, task design and extra information to investigate how culture is taught through textbooks. the researcher has administered a questionnaire to 23 teachers and 202 students and interviewed the teachers. the study has concluded that textbooks are not designed to teach and learn culture, since no attention has been paid to local or universal culture. also, tasks do not teach culture, stereotypes are not discussed, and icc does not seem to be taken into account in the english teaching curriculum in china. the content of textbooks privileges the american and british cultures over the universal cultural diversity, english textbook in intercultural perspective nuñez no. 17 (july december, 2018) no. 17 (july december, 2018) 244 and the concept of dynamism and transformation of cultures through the interaction with other cultures, since they are limited to teaching grammar and vocabulary. rico (2012) has determined how some adapted materials, selected from textbooks and based on principles, can develop the icc in students whose predominant tongue is spanish, in a university in the uk. his objectives have been evaluating books in the context of icc, identifying some principles to adapt materials that develop icc, and presenting some indicators of observation and a description of this competence in the development of materials. the study has been conducted in three cycles: an identification of the problem by administering a students’ questionnaire, a culture bump activity, and an evaluation of textbooks; a design of an intervention strategy, and a strategy of evaluation with adapted materials; and an evaluation of the materials in use through students’ observations, a review of a checklist and of their portfolios. the researcher has relied on byram, nichol and stevens’ (2001) icc theory, which has been defined as the set of social and psychological abilities of individuals to interact appropriately with other people from other cultural backgrounds that imply developing their knowledge, skills and epistemological and ethical postures. the researcher has also relied on bennett’s (1998) development model of intercultural sensitivity (dmis), which is focused on the process of adaptation to a new culture (denial, defence, minimisation, acceptance, adaptation, and integration); and on tomlinson’s (2003) text-driven approach (tda) for developing experiential materials that promote reflection and communication – two essential abilities for developing the icc. the findings have shown that the materials which were adapted under the principles of experiential learning, the structured approach of intercultural learning, and the integration of intercultural learning into language learning have helped students to develop dimensions of the icc: knowledge, awareness, abilities, attitudes, and competence. in particular, the development of the dimension of knowledge – through activities that have provided students with information about cultures, self-knowledge, and the functioning of social groups – and the development of the cultural awareness through activities about the importance of language and culture lead to the promotion of the icc. gómez (2015) has scrutinised the cultural content of three books, designed by foreign editorial companies and employed in english language teaching programmes by three universities in bogotá, colombia, to determine the extent to which they have developed the icc. during the analysis, the subjects were classified under the following english textbook in intercultural perspective nuñez no. 17 (july december, 2018) no. 17 (july december, 2018) 245 categories of superficial and deep culture: superficial culture involving celebrations, tourist attractions, achievements of famous people, local gastronomy, etc. the deep culture comprises intricate and invisible meanings of communities that reflect their own sociocultural norms, lifestyles, beliefs and values. they are multifaceted and dynamic and are sensitive to hegemony, exclusion, discrimination, and oppression, as well as to resistance, independence, inclusion, individuality, and justice (hinkel, 2001). the results have demonstrated that these textbooks, which were mostly communicative, lacked elements of the deep culture that could contribute to the development of the icc. in general, the subjects they presented belonged to the superficial culture and referred to static, congratulatory, and homogeneous notions. this study has concluded that teachers must consider teaching alternatives through the search, adaptation and, if possible, the development of materials by means through which students could be motivated toward the deep culture; so that instead of receiving a version of culture, they could adopt a critical position in the face of cultural realities such as transformative and heterogeneous ones. ajideh and panahi (2016) have analysed cultural representations in textbooks used in iran and their contribution to the development of the icc in students. their content analysis has been based on ramírez and hall’s (1990) checklist, which has highlighted the amount of representation and presentation type given to various english-speaking countries in textbooks. the analysis has used two code schemes: one for visual representations and another for the sentences in the speaking sections. the number of illustrations and sentences contained in the different sections of the textbooks, and their respective direct or indirect references to culture have been evaluated. the study has revealed that textbook authors exclusively consider the source culture and do not present significant differences in dealing with cultures, since the source culture covered most of the references in illustrations and sentences in the speaking sections, while the target culture was scarcely referred to, which has been considered inappropriate for the development of the icc. all of these studies have provided theoretical background for the content analysis method and to the procedures for establishing the units of analysis (sampling, registration, and context), from the perspective of treatment and representation of culture to make sense of it and the development of the icc. likewise, the findings have recommended for authors to compare and contrast the cultural and intercultural complexity; and to challenge and resist the hegemony that is manifested in official curriculums. such curriculums prescribe the english textbook in intercultural perspective nuñez no. 17 (july december, 2018) no. 17 (july december, 2018) 246 type of culture that is taught through authorised textbooks, by means of producing some that favour the relationship between language and a transformative, heterogeneous and contentious culture, as a pillar for developing critical awareness, which leads to discerning the concealment or denial of the cultural differences and the multiplicity and complexity of universal cultures. furthermore, it is very relevant to highlight rico’s (2012) study that has formulated some guiding principles for adapting textbooks, as mediators of icc, in response to the needs of local contexts. literacy in the textbook. in this regard, researchers like valencia (2006), anvedsen (2012), and zhang (2017) have examined the reading comprehension process or literacy in connection to the content of written passages and the reading comprehension activates proposed in english textbooks used in secondary education. the findings have first evinced that the development of contextualised reading comprehension activities foments literacy as the main skill to develop in english classes, and that the prominence of reading results from the exigency of the state exam (icfes, its acronym in spanish), as well as the expected performance of students in tertiary education. second, the instrumental and controlling nature of the tasks focused on following instructions, locating, repeating or retaining information, and fostering conceptual development, do not promote abstraction, inference, or critical reading. third, the systemic functional and linguistic constructs such as gender, register, meta-meanings, and the lexis-grammar system should be integrated to a learning theory, to the context and to the micro characteristics required for the development of literacy. these studies have remarked on the need for textbook authors to deem literacy as a sociocultural practice, which is localized within a historic and temporal space, and mediated by the english textbook, its written passages, iconography and reading comprehension activities that foster the construction of meaning based on previous experiences to let readers assume a critical stance of the text. representation of social subjects. the analysis of children as subjects of rights in the english textbooks conducted by herrera (2012) has demonstrated three discursive strategies that show the way in which textbooks tend to represent children as members of a society. three main discourse strategies unveil the way efl textbooks tend to represent children as members of society: gender and racial visibility, human being’s passivity, and valuesystem inclusion. even though the efl textbooks regard some of the principles that support the educational discourse of children as subjects with rights, they still do not represent them as rights-holders but as passive subjects unaware of english textbook in intercultural perspective nuñez no. 17 (july december, 2018) no. 17 (july december, 2018) 247 them. this study has remarked on the need for textbook authors to raise awareness about the representation they make of children as subjects of rights in the written passages, iconography and learning activities in english textbooks. conclusions in summary, mainstream research of the english textbook reveal tensions, critiques and trends that are still latent in both national and international contexts. content analysis of english textbooks, has underlined that the cultural information that they offer is incomplete, biased and distorted; and that the enormous human diversity and complexity is ignored, marginalised, silenced, or invisibilised. it can be inferred that these textbooks do not promote teaching and learning processes that contribute to the comprehension of universal cultural plurality. thus, this has led us to think about english textbooks not only from the perspective of a developed product, based on the decisions made by the publishing industry and by local or foreign authors, but also from the perspective of critical interculturality to make possible the construction of criteria of being, knowledge and power that orient the development of the english textbook, and move away from a decontextualised toward a desirable contextualised one. the former does not take into account the huge complexity and diversity of sociocultural and historical contexts of human plurality, focuses on the mechanical exercise of grammatical structures (kramsch, 1993; masuhara, hann, yi & tomlinson, 2008; pulverness & tomlinson 2013; rico, 2012; tomlinson, dat, masuhara & rubdy, 2001; tomlinson, 2013), which turns teachers’ practices into repetitive and routinely (guijarro, 2005; kincheloe & mclaren, 2015; littlejohn, 2012; martínez, 2008; fernández-reiris, 2006); responds to the dominant pedagogical and methodological assumptions and to the acritical use of methods and pedagogical strategies predetermined by centre countries (allwright, 1981; canagarajah, 2005a, 2005, 2002; giroux & simon, 1988; kincheloe, 1993; kumaravadivelu, 2001; prabhu, 1990); responds to economic interests of the publishing industry (álvarez, 2008, cárdenas, 2006; giroux, 2001; gonzález, 2012; núñez, téllez & castellanos (2013); rico, 2012; usma, 2009; kumaravadivelu, 2001, littlejohn, 2012); and is used as a subalternation instrument that preserves the idea of non-native speakers that belong to the subaltern community (asian, latin-american and african countries) unable to produce, but to consume knowledge. english textbook in intercultural perspective nuñez no. 17 (july december, 2018) no. 17 (july december, 2018) 248 in contrast, the latter (the desirable contextualised one) is sensitive to universal diversity without distortions or biases, and that favours the development of people and groups according to their ethnic identities, social classes, gender, etc. in addition to this, the development of textbooks that are heterogeneous, oriented by emerging epistemologies and methodologies or derived from contexts and local communities with a bottom-up approach, urges students to reflect critically and to debate the numerous complexities, dissatisfactions, and human conflicts, and to propose alternative solutions to current and fluctuating problems. critical interculturality has been proposed as a decolonising alternative because it requires developing critical awareness regarding colonialism in english textbooks surrounding the colonialities of being, knowledge, and power. it also makes it possible to uncover inconsistencies and contradictions to transform realities with a basis for doing so, not only on the “reading of the word”, but also on the “reading of the world” (freire & macedo, 1987, p. 33) critical interculturality, as a pedagogical decolonising alternative, pursues the construction of other ontological, epistemological and autonomous forms. they are equally important and valid, in a dialogic and respectful relationship, which is harmonious and symmetrical within the universal sociocultural diversity, recognising other voices and enunciation loci with autonomous authority. limitations the present reflection article is limited by two aspects. first, the lack of studies regarding the representation of social subjects, the last category established in the state of the art, might be the second limitation since i wanted to remark not only on children’s but also women’s rights. in addition to this, the time frame may be one of the limitations since the related studies consulted included those published until early march 2018. in other words, the ones published within the period march – december 2018 (time of this 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(2001). el proyecto manes: una aproximación sistemática al estudio de los manuales escolares de los siglos xix y xx. revista educación y pedagogía, 13(29-30), 85-91 voloshinov, v. (1992) el marxismo y la filosofía del lenguaje. madrid, españa: alianza. walsh, c. (2009). interculturalidad crítica y educación intercultural [critical interculturality and education]. artículo ampliación de la ponencia presentada en el seminario “interculturalidad y educación intercultural”, organizado por el instituto internacional de integración del convenio andrés bello, la paz, 9-11 de marzo de 2009. pp.1-18. xiao, j. (2010). cultural content of an in-use efl textbook in english major students’ attitudes and perceptions towards culture learning at jinagxi university of science and technology. (unpublished doctorate thesis). china: prince of songkla university. english textbook in intercultural perspective nuñez no. 17 (july december, 2018) no. 17 (july december, 2018) 258 yassine, s. (2012). culture issues, ideology and otherness in efl textbooks: a social, semiotic, multimodal approach (unpublished doctorate thesis). algeria: mouloud mammeri university of tiziouzou. zhang, x. (2017). a critical review of literature on english language teaching textbook evaluation: what systemic functional linguistics can offer. journal of language and c u l t u r a l education, 5(1), 78-102. english textbook in intercultural perspective nuñez no. 17 (july december, 2018) no. 17 (july december, 2018) 259 author *astrid núñez-pardo holds an m.a. in education, a specialisation in international economics, a b.a. in hotel and tourism business management from universidad externado de colombia, a diploma in linguistic studies from university of essex, colchester, england, and on child rights classroom and school management from lund university, sweden. she is pursuing her phd in education at uptc, colombia, is a professor for the master’s programme in education and the leader of the research line on materials development and didactics at this university, acknowledged by colciencias english textbook in intercultural perspective nuñez no. 17 (july december, 2018) no. 17 (july december, 2018) efl teachers’ stress and coping strategies: the case of public primary schools in jimma zone, ethiopia1 estrés de los docentes de efl y estrategias de afrontamiento: el caso de las escuelas primarias públicas en jimma zone, etiopía teshale ayalew2 wolkite university, jimma university, ethiopia getachew seyoum, adege alemu2 jimma university, ethiopia 1 received: october 24th, 2022 / accepted: november 19th, 2022 2 teshaleayalew2021@gmail.com, getachews2004@gmail.com, adegealemu@gmail.com gist education and learning research journal. issn 1692-5777. no. 25 (july december, 2025). pp. 7-39. 8 no. 25 abstract efl teachers usually experience stress  as a result of environmental and personal factors. however, the problem and its triggering factors appear to be overlooked in the study context. thus, the goal of this study is to look into efl teachers’ stress, the factors that contribute to it, and the coping strategies used in public primary schools in jimma zone, ethiopia. mixed methods design, cluster sampling, and judgmental sampling techniques were used in the investigation. a total of 100 efl teachers took part in it. data was collected using a questionnaire and an interview, and descriptive and inferential statistics were employed to analyze the data. the findings demonstrate that the majority of the teachers have experienced stress and that all of the posited factors have a substantial association with the problem. the major finding is that stress negatively affects efl teachers’ working behavior. in light of this finding, it is suggested that coping strategies training be provided. the study has pedagogical implications as it suggests that emotional intelligence and stress coping techniques be included in efl teaching methodology courses. finally, because the sample is too small to generalize to various situations, more research on a large scale is suggested to understand the magnitude of the problem’s expansion in the region. keywords: efl teachers, stress, factors, association, coping strategies, regression coefficient, and beta coefficient resumen los profesores de efl suelen experimentar estrés como resultado de factores ambientales y personales. sin embargo, el problema y sus factores desencadenantes parecen pasarse por alto en el contexto del estudio. por lo tanto, el objetivo de este estudio es analizar el estrés de los profesores de inglés como lengua extranjera, los factores que contribuyen a él y las estrategias de afrontamiento utilizadas en las escuelas primarias públicas de jimma zone, etiopía. en la investigación se utilizaron técnicas de diseño de métodos mixtos, muestreo por conglomerados y muestreo por juicio. participaron un total de 100 profesores de efl. los datos se recopilaron mediante un cuestionario y una entrevista, y se emplearon estadísticas descriptivas e inferenciales para analizar los datos. los hallazgos demuestran que la mayoría de los docentes han experimentado estrés y que todos los factores planteados tienen una asociación sustancial con el problema. el principal hallazgo es que el estrés afecta negativamente el comportamiento laboral de los profesores de efl. a la luz de este hallazgo, se sugiere que se brinde capacitación en estrategias de afrontamiento. el estudio tiene implicaciones pedagógicas, ya que sugiere que la inteligencia emocional y las técnicas de afrontamiento del estrés se incluyan en los cursos de metodología de enseñanza de inglés como lengua extranjera. finalmente, debido a que la muestra es demasiado pequeña para generalizar a varias situaciones, se sugiere realizar más investigaciones a gran escala para comprender la magnitud de la expansión del problema en la región.  palabras clave: profesores de inglés como lengua extranjera, estrés, factores, asociación, estrategias de afrontamiento, coeficiente de regresión y coeficiente beta.     efl stress and teachers’ coping strategies ayalew, seyoum, alemu 9 no. 25 resumo: os professores de efl costumam experimentar estresse como resultado de fatores ambientais e pessoais. porém, o problema e seus fatores desencadeadores parecem passar-se por alto no contexto do estudo. portanto, o objetivo deste estudo é analisar o estresse dos professores de inglês como língua estrangeira, os fatores que contribuem a ele e as estratégias de confrontação utilizadas nas escolas primárias públicas de jimma zone, etiópia. na pesquisa foram utilizadas técnicas de desenho de métodos mistos, amostragem por conglomerados e amostragem por julgamento. participaram um total de 100 professores de efl. os dados foram recopilados por meio de um questionário e uma entrevista, e foram empregadas estatísticas descritivas e inferenciais para analisar os dados. as descobertas demonstram que a maioria dos docentes experimentaram estresse e que todos os fatores propostos têm uma associação substancial com o problema. a principal descoberta é que o estresse afeta negativamente o comportamento trabalhista dos professores de efl. considerando esta descoberta, sugere-se que se ofereça capacitação em estratégias de confrontação. o estudo tem implicações pedagógicas, posto que sugere que a inteligência emocional e as técnicas de confrontação do estresse são incluídas nos cursos de metodologia de ensino de inglês como língua estrangeira. finalmente, devido a que a amostra é demasiado pequena para generalizar a várias situações, sugere-se realizar mais pesquisas a grande escala para compreender a magnitude da expansão do problema na região. palavras chave: professores de inglês como língua estrangeira, estresse, fatores, associação, estratégias de confrontação, coeficiente de regressão e coeficiente beta. efl stress and teachers’ coping strategies ayalew, seyoum, alemu 10 no. 25 introduction background of the study modern education began in ethiopia in the latter decades of the nineteenth century. emperor menilik ii was compelled to accept modern education in the country for three major reasons. first, the italian invasion of 1895 taught the emperor a valuable lesson about the importance of modern education. after the war, he stated, “we need to educate people to ensure our peace and to reconstruct our country” (moe, 1998, as cited in zewude, 2018, p. 9). second, following the battle of adwa, numerous european countries wanted to establish diplomatic relations with the country. third, the creation of multiple government services such as telecommunications, transportation, and banking has raised the demand for educated workers. as a result, the first school, minilik ii school, was established and began teaching foreign languages like english, arabic, and italian (zewude, 2018). since then, english has been taught at various levels. the language is taught as one of the mandatory courses and serves as a medium of instruction in the country’s secondary and postsecondary education systems. this shows that the target language plays a pertinent role in the country’s educational system. according to research undertaken by 1(2017), there are a variety of issues in the country’s efl education system, notably at the primary school level. in the grade 8 general examination, the majority of the students scored below the passing mark on the subject. many efl teachers also expressed dissatisfaction with their students’ low performance, which brought to them unhappy feelings and stress. teachers, according to negash (2006), play a vital role in either improving or worsening the learning process since they are mediators between the subject matter and pupils. teachers, based on nyamubi (2017), are the nucleus of classroom instruction and play a crucial role in learners’ accomplishments because they are better at identifying and addressing learning problems than others. as a result, if the teachers do not perform properly, the students’ learning outcomes will suffer. some research, such as wossenie (2014) and amanu (2013), has found teachers experienced various negative emotions such as low emotional intelligence and efficacy, lack of coping skills, etc., which potentially lead efl teachers to persistent stress. however, empirical data that documented efl teachers’ stress and their coping mechanisms are lacking in the study context, which necessitates the present study to be undertaken. 1. ( ) is an amharic (local language) abbreviation equivalent to the abbreviation moe (ministry of education). efl stress and teachers’ coping strategies ayalew, seyoum, alemu 11 no. 25 statement of the problem teaching is a complex process that is heavily influenced by the practitioner’s feelings, perceptions, and judgment. efl teachers are often subjected to negative emotions due to learners’ poor background knowledge and weak language competence (gizaw, 2005). in line with this benesch (2017) also noted that efl teachers’ emotion needs to be examined through a range of lenses to imply that the issue is perplexing and demands careful investigation and meticulous observation. gu et al. (2022) further pointed out that teaching is an emotional practice that is influenced by an abrupt alteration in the teaching approach and the teaching context. these premises suggest that efl teachers possibly undergo a range of emotions dominated by negative feelings such as stress, anxiety, anger, sadness, loneliness, etc. thes premises suggest that efl teachers possibly undergo a range of feelings ruled via poor feelings along with pressure, tension, anger, unhappiness, loneliness, and many others. particularly, they may experience stress due to learners’ culture and way of life, which differ from the target language’s culture (gizaw, 2005). this tendency, therefore, presents significant obstacles to efl teachers, resulting in persistent stress. this, in turn, harms educational quality and student achievement. according to agustiani (2016), the teaching and learning process is an important component of high-quality education. if education quality is debilitated, the first step is to review the teaching-learning process. the assessment needs to look at (i) students’ levels of engagement in the learning process, (ii) teachers’ roles in the teaching-learning process, and (iii) the learning environment. above all, she emphasized, a teacher’s responsibility is broad since he or she is the manager and/or leader of the whole learning process, which requires a lot of attention. various efl teachers’ problems have been researched nationwide and globally; however, the issue of stress and coping techniques seem neglected, and/or very limited attention has been given to it in the study area so far. this situation inspires the present study to be undertaken on the topic of efl teachers’ stress in their job, its triggering factors, and combating strategies in the study context. teachers’ stress is, thus, an emotional strain caused by various environmental and personal risk factors. these are variables that lead teachers to develop stress and become unproductive in their work. the problem persists if the teachers are failed to use effective coping techniques. these refer to various strategies (cognitive, emotional, and behavioral) that are applied constantly to manage the problem. the present study, therefore, raised some general questions: do efl teachers in public primary schools in the study context suffer from stress? what are the factors that trigger the teachers’ stress in the study context? which factors predict the problem more? these queries urged the researcher to conduct a study on stress and coping strategies used in particular reference to efl teachers working at a public primary school in jimma zone, ethiopia. the given problem poses a serious threat to developing countries like ethiopia because, in these countries, resources are scarce, a high workload, large class sizes, and efl stress and teachers’ coping strategies ayalew, seyoum, alemu 12 no. 25 a lack of incentives. teachers may feel exploited and demotivated as a result of these circumstances, which might hinder their ability to focus on their work and tolerate the challenges they have faced. these factors also produce negative feelings such as stress, which can easily influence efl teachers with low emotional intelligence who are unable to deal with emotional problems that arise from their daily teaching activities (dastgoshadeh & javanmardi, 2021). furthermore, studies on teachers’ emotions such as shishigu (2015), gobena (2018), and gonzales (2010) revealed that most ethiopian teachers were subjected to a variety of stressors due to lack of resources, low social value, etc. the project area’s reality was more or less similar to that of the study settings of the above researchers. this situation may cause stress in efl teachers, which can have a detrimental impact on their job performance, dismantle their engagement, and even lead to job burnout. however, there has not yet been a study on efl teachers’ stress. in addition, while working in the study area, the researcher noticed that some efl teachers displayed undesirable characteristics (e.g., carelessness, lack of passion, lack of attention, appearing late to class, etc.). these behaviors suggest that the teachers in the study context may develop negative emotions in their job because every behavior is influenced by emotion (pettinelli, 2016). the literature review also confirmed that no research studies on the stated topic have been undertaken in the project area. therefore, this study sets a goal to look into the level of stress experienced by efl teachers, the variables that contribute to it, and the teachers’ use of the coping mechanism. this would allow us to gain firsthand experience of efl teachers’ stress, identify triggering variables, and provide potential solutions to the problem. as previously said, several studies (brundage, 2007; toropova et al., 2020) have revealed the presence of risk factors that cause efl teachers to become stressed; nevertheless, in the context of this study, it is difficult to find a research study on the topic. as a result, the stress of efl teachers, the factors that contribute to it, and their techniques of coping were explored in this study. this strain is not a one-time occurrence; rather, it develops over time as a result of ongoing influences resulting from a variety of environmental and personal factors (e.g., work overload, maladministration, lack of reward, lack of motivation, and perceived stress). this study, therefore, examined the level of the problem, factors that were associated with it, and coping techniques employed by focusing on efl teachers working at public primary schools in jimma zone. teachers’ stress is characterized as an unpleasant working experience or negative feelings such as anger, anxiety, tension, frustration, and depression that arise as a result of some component of their job (wole, 2002). this stress is caused by a combination of environmental and personal variables as well as a failure to apply adequate coping strategies, which relate to a person’s constantly changing cognitive, behavioral, and emotional efforts to manage external and/or internal pressures that result in stress. the study, thus, explored efl teachers’ stress and coping techniques by focusing on efl teachers from a public primary school in jimma zone, ethiopia. to achieve this, the following questions were formulated. efl stress and teachers’ coping strategies ayalew, seyoum, alemu 13 no. 25 research questions 1. to what level do efl teachers at primary school in jimma zone experience stress? 2. what are the factors associated with efl teachers’ stress? 3. which factors predict efl teachers’ stress more? 4. how often do efl teachers apply strategies to cope with stress on their job? literature review perceived stress according to brundage (2007), a teacher’s stress is defined as their reaction to undesirable emotions such as anger, worry, or depression. rezik (2017) describes efl teachers’ stress as bad feelings or unhappy emotional states.  efl teachers’ stress, according to him, is defined as the appearance of behavioral, emotional, mental, and physiological reactions as a result of ongoing tension in the class. teachers’ stress is divided into two categories: (1) stress sources and (2) stress responses. sources of stress include aspects of the job content and working conditions that influence a teacher’s cognition, emotions, and motivation (toropova et al., 2020). the situation is exacerbated by students’ bad behavior, school mismanagement, and/or social attitudes towards teachers. misconduct and a negative attitude toward studying are examples of student issues, whereas school administration challenges include a lack of facilities, workload, and a lack of concern for instructors, among others. lack of support, scorn, and criticism are some of society’s problems (rihani& sagar, 2015). work overload, inadequate income, toxic work environment, job ambiguity, extracurricular activities, household duties, and other factors all lead to teacher stress (atsbeha, 2015; wole, 2002). brundage’s (2007) perspective also backs up the preceding researchers’ notions. according to him, teachers are stressed due to a lack of administrative support, inconsistent feedback, low compensation, overcrowded classrooms, and conflicts with students. as a result of these concerns, teachers’ psychological well-being may be jeopardized. a teacher with diverse levels of stress will exhibit a variety of behaviors. for example, if a teacher’s stress level is moderate, she or he will arrive late or miss class. the teacher’s commitment is harmed when he/ she is under a lot of stress for a long period. according to brundage (2007), more than half of new teachers quit their job after seven years due to stress. this researcher added that more than two-thirds of new teachers quit their job within the first four years due to stress, which often leads to illness and drinking. efl stress and teachers’ coping strategies ayalew, seyoum, alemu 14 no. 25 various studies on efl teachers’ stress levels and other negative emotional states may be found all around the world. there have been studies done on the stress of ethiopian teachers in general and efl teachers in particular (gobena, 2018; atsbeha, 2015; shishigu, 2015; wossenie, 2014; amanu, 2013; haile, 1997). amanu (2013) claims that several efl teachers have expressed significant levels of stress as a result of unfavorable school circumstances such as poor working conditions, time constraints, inadequate pay, low social standing, and curricular demands. atsbeha (2015) also added that negative community perceptions, excessive workloads, poor management, poor interactions, delayed pay, daily routines other than teaching, insults and occasional assaults from parents, political activity, student misconduct, and an inconvenient job are all factors that lead teachers to stress. according to antoniouet al. (2013), elementary school teachers are more stressed than secondary school teachers. high job demands, student misbehavior, poor working conditions, role conflict, lack of autonomy, and negative school culture are all sources of stress for efl teachers. the three primary approaches to occupational stress in teaching are: first, educational expectations; second, physiological factors focusing on teachers’ reactions to work pressure, such as frustration; and third, the interaction between job demands and teacher resources (toropova et al., 2020). efl teachers appear to be negatively influenced by stress and stress-related factors as a result of personal and environmental pressures. based on wossenie (2014), the stress in efl teachers is caused by work overload, poor living conditions, unusual interactions with colleagues and administrative bodies, and inadequate involvement with students and parents. amanu (2013) also indicated if the scenario that creates stress in efl teachers persists, they are at risk of burnout and work-related health problems. therefore, it’s plausible to conclude that stress is a serious issue that most efl teachers suffer from for personal and contextual reasons. coping strategies amanu (2013) described efl teacher coping techniques as attempts made by a teacher to overcome hard situations that she or he experiences in everyday activities, citing numerous researchers. similarly, akbari and eghtesadi (2017) defined the notion as the employment of diverse approaches to deal with work-related difficult events or situations. as a result, coping strategies are defined as a teacher’s purposeful and planned attempts or activities to deal with work-related challenges. they also identified three important efl teachers’ coping strategies: i) fleeing from the problem; ii) confronting the problem; and (iii) analyzing choices for overcoming the impediment. furthermore, as referenced by plana et al. (2003), billings and moos (1981) classified coping techniques into three: i) active-cognitive, ii) active-behavioral, and iii) avoidance. active-cognitive strategies, according to them, refer to assessing and managing potentially stressful conditions to take preemptive action. active efl stress and teachers’ coping strategies ayalew, seyoum, alemu 15 no. 25 behavioral techniques suggest that observable efforts to control stressful situations are made. finally, avoidance tactics are denial techniques that can be adopted when confronted with a tough scenario (plana et al., 2003). harvey (1999) delved into additional detail on coping mechanisms and grouped them into five categories: behavioral, emotional, professional, social, and institutional. routine duties such as housework, participation in social events, relaxation, and consuming some alcohol are examples of behavioral techniques. emotional tactics are employed to put people at ease when problems arise, mistakes are committed, and changes are made. professional coping tactics include: collecting in-depth knowledge; creating self-management skills such as being well prepared; planning, organization, and self-reflection abilities; having enough sleep; and so on. social coping skills are explored with friends and family, as well as self-socialization. finally, human and system-related institutional coping methods are identified. working in accordance with the institution’s policies and ideals, cooperating with supervisors and school officials, and so on are examples of system-related coping mechanisms (harvey, 1999).  conceptual framework the present study offers a conceptual framework that served as its blueprint. the model demonstrates the likely relationship among the hypothesized components, stress, and gainsay. it states that environmental factors like workload, inadequate income, low social value, and maladministration as initial risk factors that induce negative personal characteristics such as demotivation, dissatisfaction, and lack of suitable pedagogical knowledge. it also shows how all the environmental and personal factors, in one way or another, interact with each other and influence stress. the ongoing influence of these variables led to persistent stress experience that ultimately affects everyday activity and leads teachers to unfavorable results (negative gainsay). thus, unless suitable coping strategies were established the situation resulted in frustration, carelessness, late coming, absenteeism, poor performance, etc. (figure 1). therefore, the possible relationship that is postulated to exist among the variables is depicted in the diagram below. efl stress and teachers’ coping strategies ayalew, seyoum, alemu 16 no. 25 conceptual framework of factors associated with stress and coping strategies work overload maladministration inadequate income maladministration lack of social value demotivation dissatisfaction pedagogical deficit stress coping strategies environmental factors personal factors negative gainsay frustration late coming absenteeism negative attitude conflict with staff lack of competence figure 1. conceptual framework of factors causing efl teachers’ stress, coping strategies, and gainsay (for this study) research design and methodology research design the goal of this study, as indicated earlier, was to evaluate efl teachers’ stress and its associated factors. hence, a survey design of the descriptive study with quantitative dominant over qualitative /quan→ qual/ mixed explanatory methods was utilized (creswell, 2009).  this design permitted to explain the problem, determine the relevant elements, and comprehend efl teachers’ stress, its triggering causes, and their coping techniques better. this, in turn, enables to offer a viable strategy that facilitates stress and burnout prevention. thus, the general methodological steps followed from the sample selection stage to the analysis of the data are outlined subsequently. population, sample, and sampling techniques population description in jimma zone, there were only 407 english majoring teachers and a large number of language majoring (english, afan oromo (local language), civics and ethical education) teachers who teach english and the other two subjects in the study efl stress and teachers’ coping strategies ayalew, seyoum, alemu 17 no. 25 environment. the main reason to choose the study location was that the researcher had worked in the area and had prior experience with the respondents and expected them to provide meaningful data for the study. furthermore, no investigation was carried out on the efl teachers’ stress in that context. sample description to select the sample for this study, two sampling techniques were utilized: cluster random sampling and judgmental sampling. the first technique was utilized to choose samples for the quantitative study; whereas, the second one was employed to select samples for a semi-structured interview. however, in this study, only english majoring teachers were involved. this was done since it was discovered impossible to ascertain which topic area (english, local language, or civics and ethical education) teaching induced stress to teachers’ job if the language majoring teachers were made participants. therefore, a total of 100 efl teachers were randomly selected from the indicated number. on the other hand, for the qualitative aspect of the study, a judgmental sampling technique was employed. as a result, 13 teachers were taken for further probing from each of the districts, i.e. 3 teachers from the goma district, 3 teachers from the limu kossa district, 3 teachers from the omo nada district, and 4 teachers from the seka chekorsa district respectively. instruments for data collection as mentioned earlier, two instruments were used to collect data: a questionnaire and a semi-structured interview guideline, which are discussed turn by turn as follows. questionnaire the questionnaire was utilized to collect quantitative data. the scale is a five-point likert scale questionnaire that consists of 69 items in eight subscales, namely perceived stress scale (10) items; lack of motivation (9); work overload (8), maladministration (8), low salary, and other benefits (8); low social value (6), job dissatisfaction (10), lack of proper pedagogical content methodology (10), coping strategies (15), which were adopted from various literature (agegnehu, 2014; cohen, 1994; getachew, 2007; gezimu, 2013; jima, 2018). the tool was piloted with 33 efl teachers to test its feasibility in the study context. as a consequence, items’ reliability testing, the correlation between items, and the overall correlation among items were determined through the measurement of the coefficient of alpha after the pilot test was done. the following coefficients of alpha were also obtained from the test: 0.3 and above for a single item and 0.80 for the entire items in the scale established to measure stress and its associated factors. these results efl stress and teachers’ coping strategies ayalew, seyoum, alemu 18 no. 25 suggested that the overall items on the scale were dependable to employ for the main study. in the process, the items with weak alpha coefficients of subscales to measure characteristics linked with stress were deleted and only the items with good alpha levels were retained for the main study. according to cohen et al. (2007) and hinton et al. (2004), coefficient alpha is assessed at 0.3 and above for a single item and 0.7 and above for total items correlation. the coefficient alpha obtained met the required standards and made the subscales suitable to be used for the main investigation. finally, the questionnaire was provided to 100 participants in one-to-one contact; however, only 93 of them filed and returned the copies, which made the response rate as high as 93 % with a 7% refusal rate. semi-structured interview guideline this instrument was designed in line with the purpose of the study, basic questions raised in the statement of the problem, and a review of the literature. it was applied to collect qualitative data directly from the participants that helped to learn their real experience of the problem and to corroborate the quantitative finding. thus, the participants were probed about their stress and its associated factors, whereupon their responses were audio-taped and transcribed manually. procedures of data collection the data collection process was carried out using the aforementioned two instruments. before collecting the data, participants’ consent to be involved in the study was obtained orally. this was done because of participants’ limited language proficiency, which is assumed to place a barrier to completing the written consent form and showing a willingness to fully participate in the study process. in the process, first, they were informed about the purpose of the study clearly, which is purely academic and it does not harm anyone before the survey questionnaires were administered. this was done to help them make an informed decision about their participation in the study process. during the interview, each of the selected participants was informed again that there is no right or wrong answer in his/her response (whatever responses the participant offered were equally relevant to the study) so that each interviewee was requested to reflect freely on his/her real experience and perception of the issue under investigation. besides, each interviewee was told that his/her response was kept confidential, and in case he/she found the interview uncomfortable for him/her, he/she could withdraw from the process at any time. also, each participant was informed that during report writing, only his/her idea was taken and a pseudo-name was assigned to the owner of the idea. finally, a promise to share the findings of the study with the participants was given. thus, these made them involved in the study process willingly. efl stress and teachers’ coping strategies ayalew, seyoum, alemu 19 no. 25 data analysis and interpretation techniques two types of data analysis techniques (quantitative and qualitative) were used. the quantitative data were analyzed using descriptive statistics (e.g., percentage, mean) and inferential statistics (e.g., regression and beta coefficients of multiple regression analysis) with the help of spss software version 20. on the other hand, the qualitative data were analyzed and interpreted thematically. the analysis employed the steps of arranging, coding, organizing, and reading the data vigilantly to identify occurring themes and sub-themes. after that, interpretation was given of the meaning of the verbal descriptions, which were summarized and synthesized in relation to the themes that the participants conveyed. it was then presented in narrative form. results quantitative result perceived stress persistent stress is viewed as a major problem that may lead teachers to psychological problems. a teacher’s stress, as mentioned earlier, is considered as an unpleasant working experience or negative emotion such as anger, anxiety, tension, frustration, or despair, stemming from some component of the work (workload, pupils’ ill-behavior, maladministration, lack of motivation, etc.). it is an emotional, mental, and physical reaction to numerous stressors prevalent in the educational environment (rezik 2017; mahmoudi, & özkanb, 2016). to examine this problem, the study posed a question: • to what level do efl teachers at primary schools in jimma zone experience stress? for this purpose, a 10 items standard scale was adopted and applied. the data obtained were analyzed, interpreted, and demonstrated in figure 2. the result obtained shows that the majority of the studied teachers 52 (55.5 %) experience stress fairly often. the other 23 (25.00 %) almost never experience the problem. the rest 18 (19.5%) of the participants occasionally feel stress. factors associated with stress the posited factors (lack of motivation, work overload, maladministration, low salary and lack of other benefits, lack of social value; lack of satisfaction, and lack of appropriate pedagogical knowledge) were believed to form a causal relationship and predict stress in the study context. the findings of the study’s quantitative component efl stress and teachers’ coping strategies ayalew, seyoum, alemu 20 no. 25 revealed that these factors were significantly linked to stress. it was also discovered that some of these variables are more effective at predicting the problem than others (see table 1). the qualitative part of the study also backs up the results achieved from the quantitative aspect of the study. accordingly, the findings of the quantitative analysis are used to answer the following questions: • what are the factors associated with efl teachers’ stress? • which factors predict efl teachers’ stress more? as shown in figure 2, the results obtained from the descriptive statistics showed that the majority (52.72 %) of the participants experienced a lack of motivation; 56.62 % of them underwent a high workload; 52.64 % of the teachers  experienced maladministration in their respective schools, etc. the results achieved on all the posited factors are displayed in the figure below. figure 2: factors associated with efl teachers' stress 52.72 56.62 52.64 64.36 51.51 52.93 41.08 0.00 10.00 20.00 30.00 40.00 50.00 60.00 70.00 pe rc en ta ge factors associated with stress factors associated with stress figure 2. factors associated with efl teachers’ figurestress the descriptive analysis results displayed above show the extent to which the studied efl teachers were affected by the presumptive environmental and personal factors. however, inferential statistical analysis of the data is required to answer the questions posed above. this analysis provides significant coefficients that are used to determine the level of association and prediction brought by the independent variables in the regression model. therefore, the results of multiple linear regression analysis (mlra), i.e. regression (r) and beta (ß) coefficients are presented in table 1. in which, the r coefficient determines the strength of the relationship that existed between the predictors and stress, whereas the beta value determines the effect of each predictor on stress. hence, the analysis depicts the level of association between the predictors and stress, as well as the influence each predictor has on the outcome variable. efl stress and teachers’ coping strategies ayalew, seyoum, alemu 21 no. 25 table1: factors associated with efl teachers’ stress model summary r r square adjusted r square std. error of the estimate .884a 0.781 0.763 2.829 anovaa model1 df mean square f sig. regression 7 345.849 43.228 .000b residual 85 8.001     total 92       coefficientsa predictors std. error unstandardized coefficients standardized coefficients t sig. beta (constant) 8.524   -1.709 0.091 lack of motivation 0.094 .133 -2.277 0.025 high workload 0.069 .668 8.963 0.000 school maladministration 0.128 .231 4.069 0.000 low income 0.153 .107 1.685 0.026 low social value 0.242 .058 0.884 0.039 job dissatisfaction 0.111 0 0.007 0.022 lack of appropriate pedagogical knowledge 0.138 .076 1.215 0.042 dependent variable: stress as can be seen in table 1, the model of mlra was employed to produce regression and beta coefficients. the result indicates adj. r square = 0.0.781, f (7, 85) = 43.228, p < 0.05. this implies that all the predictors in the model explain 0.781of the variability of ee. in other words, the combination of the seven predictors contributed 78.1 % to the development of stress. the remaining 21.9 % of the influence might have come from other factors that were not accounted for in this study. besides, the relative contribution of each predictor can easily be compared and explained using efl stress and teachers’ coping strategies ayalew, seyoum, alemu 22 no. 25 the beta value (ß) indicated under the standardized coefficient, i.e., the highest beta (ß) suggests the strongest level of prediction. thus, in this study, work overload (ß =.668), maladministration (ß =.231), and lack of motivation (ß =.133) were found to be strong and significant predictors of stress, respectively. in other words, a unit of change in the level of workload causes .688 change in stress, and a unit of change in maladministration contributed .231 variability on stress and so on. the other predictors such as low salary and lack of other benefits, lack of satisfaction, and lack of social value were found to have a significant influence on stress, but they were not as strong as the aforesaid two predictors. the finding obtained from the qualitative aspect of the study also indicated that the presence of various environmental and personal factors caused stress among efl teachers. it also revealed that the level of motivation of most participants was diminished due to work-related stressors such as poor performance of students, bad behavior, lack of interest in learning, high workload; poor salary, and low social value. in this regard, teacher 6 pointed out that the poor learning interest of the students disappointed him. he went on to say that it happened because the area is a cash crop area, where the students could readily obtain the money that they used to meet their temporary needs. this implies that the social environment outside the school did not encourage learners to concentrate on their education and rather waste their precious school time to collect the cash crop, which enabled them to generate income to fulfill some of their needs. the condition further led them to be absent from school which hinders their knowledge acquisition and skill development and makes them selfreliant and competent individuals in the future. the given working situation and the learning behavior of the students always put the teacher in conflict with many students who were absent from classes and who did not complete the activities that he gave them. he repeatedly called and reported to their parents about their behavior, but he could not see any improvement. such an experience was common and overwhelming to him, but he had no option except to work for a living. teacher-7 also stated that her weekly load was 25 periods (a period is a 40-minute lesson), and the class size was large (on average 70). she added that she was a mother and had children and that she was responsible to look after them. at home, she accomplished routines such as cooking, cleaning, etc. in addition, she took some work (e.g., lesson preparation, marking students’ assignments, etc.) to her home. these activities consumed much of her time and took away her time for relaxation. the other respondent, teacher-8 pointed out that her salary was low and she found her work and the wage that she earned was not balanced. also, the attitude of the community towards the profession was discouraging. these experiences drove her to emotional strain such as stress. moreover, the participants also explained the presence of maladministration that impends their work engagement. in this regard, teacher-5 said, “i believe problems observed in this school are beyond the school leaders’ capacity, which requires the intervention of the regional state.” [teacher-5, interview, 9.03.2020] efl stress and teachers’ coping strategies ayalew, seyoum, alemu 23 no. 25 the result obtained on work overload denoted that most respondents suffered from the problem, which was the most common challenge to efl teachers in the zone. the respondents claimed that they felt overloaded due to the shortage of efl teachers and the large class size. for example, teacher-3 stated that the workload was high because there was a dearth of english teachers in that school. other participants also stated that it was not only the weekly class hours and large class size that brought challenges to them but also extra duties such as serving as homeroom teachers, preparing teaching aids; taking care of one’s family, etc. however, there was a slight variation from school to school with regard to workload distribution. in a few schools, teachers were relatively given manageable loads (they were assigned to teach 20 periods per week), but in most schools, they were given a high workload, i.e., 30 periods per week together with co-curricular activities. the finding obtained on the issue of school maladministration revealed that various school leaders were unfair in their evaluation and treatment of teachers. they were not playing a meaningful managerial role to create a conducive work environment. for instance, they did not supply adequate sources for the teaching-learning process; they did not keep the school physical environment neat and conducive for the teachinglearning process; they could not mobilize resources to build a staff lounge; they could not furnish school libraries well; they did not share school activities with teachers; they did not discuss school issues openly with staff members. also, they did not work with the community to correct students’ character, improve students’ performance, etc. in general, their working behaviors created an unfriendly work environment that discouraged the teachers, harmed their morale, and triggered stress in their job. in this regard, teacher-10 stated that the school leaders were ineffective in their work because they did not listen to teachers. moreover, the finding obtained on teachers’ monthly income indicated that most efl teachers perceived that their salary was inadequate to live by and there were no other benefits given to them. they explained that the market inflation severely affected their living conditions, and no measure was taken to reduce their burden and to normalize the situation. in this regard, teacher-11 reflected that the salary he was paid was insufficient to buy necessary goods. he said that inflation had increased at a faster rate, but that the salary remained small. concerning teachers’ social value, most of the interviewees raised that their social value deteriorated from time to time. for instance, teacher-12 pointed out that the cause of teachers’ low social value was the low income that they earned and the poor living condition to which they were subjected. he indicated that teachers were dressed poorly compared to the local community, even sometimes they were dressed poorer than their students. the rest of the teachers also believed that the bond of trust that existed between teachers and the community deteriorated, which affected their professional life. furthermore, as a result of their overall working conditions, teachers’ job satisfaction has declined due to a range of environmental challenges. efl stress and teachers’ coping strategies ayalew, seyoum, alemu 24 no. 25 finally, the finding obtained on teachers’ pedagogical competence also suggested that most of them had knowledge gaps. even, some of the participants indicated their weaknesses; for instance, they pointed out that they had a gap in teaching primary skills (listening and speaking) others also indicated that they had a gap in teaching all the skills of the target language and they sought on job-trainings to fill their gap. coping strategies coping techniques are a collection of techniques for dealing with stress and other work-related pressures. the goal of this study was to see how often efl teachers in the study context utilize coping mechanisms to regulate their stress because unchecked stress may lead the teachers to various health problems. to examine this issue, the present study sets a question: • how often do efl teachers apply strategies to cope with stress on their job? to address this question, a fifteen (15) item standard scale was adopted and used. the data collected with the instrument was analyzed and interpreted, and the results were displayed in figure 3. as shown in the figure, the mean overall score indicates that 49 (53.12 %) of responders almost never use coping methods. in addition, 18 (19.26%) of the participants barely used coping strategies, according to the findings. only 26 (27.62%) of the respondents used coping methods on a regular basis. based on the results, it is possible to infer that the majority of the studied teachers failed to use coping mechanisms to reduce their stress levels, which may harm their psychological well-being and the teaching-learning process. table 3. efl teachers’ coping strategies use efl stress and teachers’ coping strategies ayalew, seyoum, alemu 25 no. 25 qualitative results for the qualitative aspect of the study, 13 efl teachers were purposely selected and interviewed. the responses obtained were analyzed thematically, and the results obtained are presented following the qualitative questions posed to the respondents, which were designed based on a review of the literature and study objectives. therefore, the results obtained from this component of the study were presented in line with the given questions henceforth.  perceived stress could you possibly tell me if you felt stressed due to your job teaching? teacher 1 said that he was stressed due to his work overload in response to the question posed. additionally, he taught that students’ mother tongue, which is different from the target language presented, challenged and added stress to him because the students wanted him to translate everything in the lesson into their mother tongue, which he found difficult. furthermore, the class size was extremely large (more than 70 students), which impeded the teaching-learning process. he was also stressed by the absence of teaching resources (e.g., textbooks) because it hampered his frequent examinations and comments. he was generally stressed as a result of the obstacles posed by the school and students. unfair treatment and a lack of resources were the school-related challenges. resistance to participating in assigned activities, illdiscipline, and disrespect are all issues that students showed, and that brought stress to him. teacher-2’s viewpoint is more or less comparable to teacher-1’s viewpoint. he expressed exhaustion and stress as a result of a high workload, stating that he taught six periods per day and 30 periods per week. furthermore, he was exhausted and fatigued due to the school’s large class size. teacher 4 agreed, stating that he was stressed owing to work overload, pupils’ poor behavior, and a lack of resources. teacher 5, on the other hand, stated that he was not stressed because he enjoyed his work as a teacher. he mentioned that he prefers to spend most of his time at work. teacher 6 expressed her exhaustion that stemmed in response to her daily work. she also stated that despite teaching 25 periods per week, marking students’ activities was exhausting and difficult because the class size was large. she also spent her afterschool hours planning lessons for the next day, marking pupils’ homework, and so on. furthermore, as a mother, she had responsibilities at home, such as cooking, cleaning, and caring for her family, all of which made her feel anxious. teacher 7 said that he was stressed because of work overload: he explained that he was busy all week doing activities like teaching, assessing, and completing professional development (cpd) activities, which caused him to be stressed. teacher 8, on the other hand, stated that she felt tired but not stressed and that the explanation was efl stress and teachers’ coping strategies ayalew, seyoum, alemu 26 no. 25 her workload. she had a lot of responsibilities at school and outside, which left her exhausted but not stressed. nonetheless, teacher 9 stated that he was occasionally stressed because of his students’ lack of competence and that he did not perceive any development even when he provided extra help in make-up classes. he also expressed his dissatisfaction with the scarcity of resources (particularly textbooks). teacher-11, the other respondent, admitted to feeling stressed sometimes. she was running out of time at the time to complete activities like marking students’ examinations and filling their scores on their mark sheets, preparing report cards, and so on. she was also stressed since the time allotted for the task that she was given was insufficient. she stated her feeling as: i usually feel stressed at the end of a semester and year because i am supposed to complete an additional activity such as organizing mark sheets and preparing report cards. the time set by the school to complete and turn in the report card is often short, which does not take into account the class size. despite being unresolved, this causes me stress. [teacher-11, interview, 12.03.2020]. teacher 13, on the other hand, stated that she did not feel stressed because she followed her annual plan properly. in summary, the findings indicated that most efl teachers who took part in the survey experienced stress at various levels as a result of numerous environmental challenges. their main source of stress was work overload, which put them under a lot of strain and took away a lot of their family and social time, as well as their time to rest. this issue has an impact on both the personal and professional lives of teachers. coping strategies this study also investigated efl teachers coping strategies use. the quantitative finding on this issue was presented in the previous subsection. this subsection provides the result obtained from the qualitative aspect of the study, which is used to substantiate the quantitative result. this qualitative component of the study posed the following question:   i wonder if you tell me the coping strategies you use to manage stress on your job? for the given question, teacher-1stated that he tried to stay calm and patient. he described that when he encountered something strange in his life, he never rushed to take any action even in his workplace, rather he thought again and again about the incident. he explained his experience as follows: efl stress and teachers’ coping strategies ayalew, seyoum, alemu 27 no. 25 naturally, i am calm and patient and confront challenges that happened in my life. i passed a lot of ups and downs. usually, i spend my time thinking about how to overcome them. i also think that there would be individuals whose challenges are worse than mine. thus, i tell to myself to stay calm. [teacher-1, interview, 7.03.2020]. teacher-2, on the other hand, indicated that patience was his method. he remarked that patience is the key to solving any problem. he went on to say that if he wasn’t patient, he wouldn’t have been in that position because the job was full of obstacles. he also indicated the way how he overcame the obstacles in the following way: i feel that a teacher needs to be like the earth. he should develop the skills to accommodate different challenges, etc. you see, the earth is quiet and tolerant that never shakes when the bull dozer moves on it. it also permits to bury dead matters and never forbids excavation. therefore, a teacher needs to be just like that and he has to stay calm and tolerant of everyday challenges that come from students, parents, leadership, etc. [teacher-2, interview, 12.03.2020]. another responder, teacher-3, stated that anytime he had a major problem, he shared it with his family or close friends and sought assistance on how to solve the problem. such a practice aided him in overcoming work-related difficulties. teacher-4, on the other hand, viewed his job as challenging because it required him to engage with a variety of people. the students frequently failed to complete assignments, causing him to become irritated and stressed, and they frequently invited him to argue with them. he tried to get things in order so he could leave the area for a bit. he also expressed his experience as follows: in this school, the class size is very large, and i teach and assess more than 70 students in each class. it is very tedious. besides, several students show indifference to completing tasks given to them, which often triggers a conflict between us. the parents of the students and school leaders are not supportive of me. these conditions are the sources of my temper and/or stress. [teacher-4, interview, 12.03.2020]. teacher 8 also stated that she used a variety of ways to deal with difficult situations. she took into account the age of the students when dealing with tensions that came from them. she stated that the majority of her students were of the fire age, which often made them emotional, which she found offensive but tolerated. teacher-9’s opinion also revealed that she had a habit of expressing her problems to others. she stated that anytime she experienced work-related challenges, she sought assistance from her efl stress and teachers’ coping strategies ayalew, seyoum, alemu 28 no. 25 coworkers and school authorities, who assisted her in overcoming the obstacles. if the difficulty was very personal, she went to church to pray for god’s help. likewise, teacher teacher-10 and teacher-11 shared the opinion of teacher-9. they indicated that sought god’s intervention in order to overcome the challenges they faced. finally, teacher-12 and teacher-13 pointed out that they preferred to discuss the problem they faced with the department head, coworkers, and friends to get their assistance and resolve it. particularly, teacher-13 stated the following: when i encounter a work-related challenge, i often raise it in the department meeting. then, the department discusses the matter and suggests a possible solution. then, i apply the suggestion and see if a possible change occurs. finally, i report what i encounter to the department. [teacher-13, interview, 15.03.2020] discussion quantitative finding as mentioned earlier, two tools were utilized: a fill-in (closed-ended) questionnaire and a semi-structured interview. the data collected was then analyzed, evaluated, and presented in the manner described above. this section will discuss the findings obtained in response to the questions provided in the introduction part of this paper: • to what level do efl teachers at primary school in jimma zone experience stress? • what are the factors associated with efl teachers’ stress? • which factors predict efl teachers’ stress more? • how often do efl teachers apply strategies to cope with stress on their job? perceived stress several studies such as amanu (2013), atsbeha (2015), wale (2002), sadeghi and sa’adatpourvahid (2016), have found that teachers have faced a variety of problems because of work-related stress. environmental factors such as work overload, low income, poor administration, and low social value contributed to teachers’ reported stress. teachers become demotivated, dissatisfied, and stressed because of these problems. the current study’s findings also confirmed that efl teachers in the study context were frequently stressed as a result of a variety of environmental and personal efl stress and teachers’ coping strategies ayalew, seyoum, alemu 29 no. 25 factors. teles et al. (2020) discovered a link between stress and emotional exhaustion and fatigue. as the level of perceived stress rises, so does the severity of these factors. likewise, studies by wossenie (2014) and amanu (2013) showed that efl teachers with low emotional intelligence and with ineffective use of coping strategies underwent persistent stress. the current study’s findings, therefore, support  the conclusions of the aforementioned studies, which demonstrated that the majority of the study participants (55.5%) suffered from stress regularly. moreover, according to brundage (2007), teachers’ stress was developed by a lack of administrative support, inconsistent feedback, low compensation, overcrowded classrooms, clashes with pupils, and a lack of resources. many efl teachers in the present research context also reported a shortage of resources, according to the findings. in this way, it agrees with the findings of the previous study. the current study is also consistent with amanu (2013), who found that many efl teachers in public primary schools were stressed due to adverse school conditions such as poor working conditions, work overload, maladministration, time pressure, insufficient remuneration, and low social status. generally, the quantitative findings of the study confirmed that the majority of efl teachers in the study setting experienced stress, which is supported by the qualitative data showing efl teachers in the study context experienced various environmental and personal risk factors: work overload, lack of appropriate administration, lack motivation, low monthly income, low social value, and dissatisfaction. therefore, efl teachers in the research setting faced stress, which had a substantial impact on their everyday activities and teaching practices. coping strategies coping strategies are several techniques used to deal with stress and other workrelated environmental and personal stressors. several studies have found that chronic stress is a major factor affecting efl teachers’ mental health conditions and job effectiveness. students, parents, and leadership may all contribute to teachers’ stress and the problem may become a source of conflict in the work environment. the situation further alters teachers’ moral and has an impact on their commitment. efl teachers are expected to use suitable coping skills that enable them to handle stress in order to avoid this psychological strain. as a result, the purpose of this study is to look into how teachers use coping techniques. the results of the study’s quantitative component revealed that the majority of the participants (53.12 %) did not use appropriate coping mechanisms to control their stress. this disclosed that the majority of the participants were unable to use coping strategies when confronted with work-related emotional stress. in this regard, the current finding supports akbari and eghtesadi (2017), who found that the majority of iranian efl teachers did not use appropriate coping methods to manage job-related efl stress and teachers’ coping strategies ayalew, seyoum, alemu 30 no. 25 stressors. the current study’s finding is also in agreement  with that of plana et al. (2003) finding, who discovered that failure to regulate stress is linked to job-related emotional strain. the current data on coping strategies, in general, suggests that most efl teachers in the study context struggled to consistently utilize various coping techniques to control their stress. next, the findings obtained from the qualitative aspect of the study are discussed. qualitative findings stress several efl teachers, as mentioned earlier, undergo stressful situations as a result of their job teaching (such as a lack of resources, work overload, students’ disobedience, maladministration, low pay, and low social value) as well as the problem posed by their living conditions (rizqi, 2017). the qualitative finding of this study revealed that the majority of the efl teachers underwent persistent stress as a result of various environmental and personal factors such as student misbehavior, a lack of teaching resources (textbooks and teachers’ guides), work overload, school maladministration, a low income, lack of motivation, and lack of satisfaction. these factors had a negative impact on the teachers’ psychological well-being, working behavior, and commitment, which further exposed them to recurrent stress. according to various studies such as amanu (2013), haile (1997), sadeghi & sa’adatpourvahid (2016), stress may weaken engagement and lead to job burnout. the result of the qualitative part of the present study also revealed that the majority of the studied efl teachers experienced stress because of numerous environmental conditions such as a heavy workload, a lack of resources, students’ ill-discipline, poor income, etc. in this view, the finding of the current study is in harmony with that of mahmoudi and özkanb(2016), who found that a substantial number of teachers were stressed owing to the nature of their jobs. the present study’s findings also revealed that the majority of the study participants believed that they were under a lot of stress as a result of numerous risk factors. this problem harmed their job performance because teachers with a higher level of stress demonstrate a lower level of commitment and performance. the problem also has a harmful psychological, professional, and social impact, which manifests itself in a variety of ways, the most prominent of which is poor achievement. teaching, including efl teaching, is now considered one of the most stressful jobs in the world (antoniou et al.,2013; motallebzadeh et al., 2014; nayernia& babayan, 2019). the findings of both quantitative and qualitative aspects of the present study affirmed that this problem affects several teachers in the study area. in this sense, the current study finding is similar to that of sadeghi and sa’adatpourvahid (2016), who efl stress and teachers’ coping strategies ayalew, seyoum, alemu 31 no. 25 found that chronic stress causes work-related psychological disorders. as a result of such chronic stress, teachers’ performance was harmed and their dedication was hindered. many other studies such as getie (2020), ptáek et al., (2019), sadeghi and sa’adatpourvahid (2016) have found that teachers are less satisfied with their job when they are stressed. this, in turn, has an impact on the teachers, teaching, and students’ progress, which necessitates intervention in the form of appropriate stress coping strategies. following this, the findings obtained on the use of coping techniques are discussed. coping strategies the study also looked into how efl teachers used coping strategies to deal with job-related stressors. in this regard, the finding from the interview analysis revealed that the examined efl teachers used a variety of coping methods to deal with their work-related stressors. the strategies they used were divided into three categories: emotional, behavioral, and cognitive. some of the participants said they were using emotional strategies such as (i) staying patient (teacher-1); (ii) never getting offended easily and never reacting in any way to the offender (teacher-2); (iii) sharing difficult experiences with family and/or close friends to get help (teacher-3); (iv) interest and passion for the profession (teacher-5), and (v) pray for help or seek god’s intervention in order to overcome obstacles (teacher-10, teacher-11). these are the emotional coping mechanisms used by several efl teachers studied to deal with their stressors. behavioral strategies were the other strategies employed by the participants in the study. these strategies include (i) self-encouragement to develop a sense of resistance and resilience (teacher-2), (ii) building self-determination and staying optimistic (teacher-3); (iii) trying to manage things by leaving a classroom for some time while students displayed offensive behavior (teacher-4); (iv) managing pressure related to the teaching-learning process through consistent effort (teacher-5); and (v) face reality, tolerate students’ bad behavior, and handle them tactfully (teacher-6); (vi) adjust oneself based on feedback from colleagues and change one’s behavior (teacher-7); (vii) manage students skillfully to gain their attention and trust, taking into account their age (fire age), and developing strength to overcome challenges (teacher-8); (viii) discussing problems with the department head, coworkers, and friends to get their assistance (teacher-7, teacher-9; teacher-12, and teacher-13). in addition, the participants of the study used cognitive coping strategies. for example, sticking to one’s plan (the annual plan) in accomplishing one’s task (teacher-10), as well as cognitive restructuring or considering that a similar problem may occur to anyone (teacher-3). therefore, the qualitative finding obtained on the teachers’ coping strategies showed that several efl teachers in the study context utilized behavioral strategies, which were followed by emotional and cognitive strategies, respectively.  the strategies used by the teachers in the study are similar to the strategies discovered and characterized by various researchers (e.g., chang, efl stress and teachers’ coping strategies ayalew, seyoum, alemu 32 no. 25 2009; akbari & eghtesadi, 2017; plana et al., 2003; harvey, 1999). chang (2009), for example, divided coping mechanisms into three categories: emotional, behavioral, and cognitive. coping mechanisms were characterized by akbari and eghtesadi (2017) as i) escaping from the problem, ii) confronting the problem, and iii) examining choices to overcome the problem. billings and moos (1981), as cited in plana et al. (2003), in their part, categorized coping strategies as active-cognitive, active-behavioral, and avoidance techniques. harvey (1999) also divided the strategies into behavioral, emotional, professional, social, and institutional categories. the stated techniques and their classifications have a lot of things in common, with minor differences and overlaps. the strategies indicated by chang (2009), among the stated classifications, are consistent with the techniques employed by efl teachers involved in this study. as a result, it’s viable to deduce that the efl teachers who were studied used emotional, behavioral, and cognitive strategies to cope with work-related stressors. however, the findings depicted that they did not use them persistently as a result they failed to manage stressors completely. moreover, as previously mentioned, the study’s findings revealed that the examined efl teachers used emotional, behavioral, and cognitive techniques to cope with risk factors; nonetheless, they were unable to entirely control them. this implies that teachers in the study context were dealing with stress and accomplishing their daily work to the bare minimum because they were found to be experiencing difficulties that could contribute to job burnout. in other words, the problem may have arisen as a result of a lack of adequate knowledge and skill in work-related problem-solving procedures or coping strategies. this gap also exposed the teachers to considerable job-related emotional stress, lowering their resilience in the face of potential stressors. therefore, the current finding could mean that the researched efl teachers were able to use various coping skills to control the risk factors, yet the strategies they used possibly appeared inadequate and inappropriate to combat the stressors. conclusions due to the presence of various risk factors in the work environment, stress has become a severe threat among efl teachers in public primary schools in the study setting. as a result, this study looked into efl teachers’ stress and the factors that contribute to it (job overload, insufficient pay, low social worth, mismanagement, demotivation, discontent, lapck, and stress) and coping strategies. to attain these goals, the researchers used a descriptive survey design with quantitative dominant over qualitative sequential explanatory methods. the findings, thus, showed that the majority of the efl teachers surveyed suffered from persistent stress, as well as the presence of various environmental and personal factors that contributed to the problem in the study area. the outcome of the study also revealed that the majority of efl stress and teachers’ coping strategies ayalew, seyoum, alemu 33 no. 25 the studied teachers did not apply proper coping techniques frequently to manage their stress. accordingly, the majority of the studied efl teachers experienced a high level of stress as well as they did not apply proper coping strategies to manage the problem. these situations have the following implications for the teachers, the teaching-learning process, and the students. implications and suggestions teachers with positive emotions teach successfully, whereas teachers with stress and other negative emotions do not (since emotion influences every behavior). teachers who are stressed are unable to effectively prepare for daily lessons, and they may have poor relationships with students, colleagues, and school administrators. the students may not be properly supported to enable them to acquire the target language. most importantly, the issue not only affects efl teachers and their students’ english achievement but also affects the students’ overall educational attainment because english is the medium of instruction for these students who are preparing for secondary and tertiary levels of education. they may encounter problems in attaining the goal of education at the given levels. therefore, serious attention needs to be given to efl teachers since protecting them means protecting the overall educational process and quality of education. to reduce the problem’s impact, it is suggested that efl teachers in the study context receive on-the-job training on effective coping methods such as emotional, cognitive, and behavioral strategies (chang, 2009; kamtsios, 2018; maroofi & ghaemi,2016). on the one hand, emotional coping methods enable them to manage their emotions more effectively during times of stress. for example, a teacher who uses the strategies may attempt to make a good out of a terrible event. teachers, on the other hand, can use cognitive coping skills to stay calm by employing logical thinking and taking time to express emotions. finally, relaxing activities such as visiting natural places, exercising, walking, listening to music, and so on are included in behavioral coping strategies. these solutions assist them to cope with the problem and lessen their bodily stress. furthermore, the training may raise their understanding of the problem, its triggering factors, how to deal with it, and the need for a healthy work lifestyle. this may benefit not just the teachers’ psychological well-being, but also their pupils’ academic progress and future prospects. as a result, efl teachers in the study context should receive short-term training on effective coping strategies and emotional intelligence. furthermore, teacher training institutions should include coping techniques and emotional intelligence courses in their efl methodology courses so that trainees and future teachers are aware of potential job-related challenges that lead them to stress and how to address them. thus, this training assists trainees in becoming prepared in advance for the potential obstacles they would face in their actual work environment, efl stress and teachers’ coping strategies ayalew, seyoum, alemu 34 no. 25 as well as preparing to confront and cope with comparable challenges in their future work lives. finally, the study’s findings revealed that the problem was driven by environmental variables such as work overload, maladministration, insufficient income, a lack of social value, etc. as a result, the regional and zonal education bureaus should collaborate closely to ensure that efl teachers in the study area have a manageable workload, fair administration, adequate income, and social value. such treatments help teachers to manage work-related stress, promote a good attitude toward their profession, demonstrate commitment to their daily work, and improve the teaching-learning process. limitations and suggestions the study has certain limitations, even though it gives many helpful insights into efl teachers’ stress, other associated difficulties, and coping strategies. because the study was conducted in a specific setting and with a small sample size, the results can never be generalized to a larger group of efl teachers that work in public primary schools throughout the region and the country. as a result, more research on a large scale is needed to determine the degree and magnitude of the problem in the region and nationwide. declarations authors contribution statement competing interest statement the authors declare no conflict of interest. additional information no additional information is available for this paper. efl stress and teachers’ coping strategies ayalew, seyoum, alemu 35 no. 25 acknowledgments the authors extend their due admiration to individuals who substantially contributed to the successful completion of the study, particularly, efl teachers who were involved in the study. references agegnehu, d. 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(2018). no one left behind: redesigning the ethiopian education system. mega publishing and distribution p, l, c. moe (2017). national agency for education assessment and examinations: a document prepared for the mercy meeting with stakeholders. unpublished authors teshale ayalew earned a master’s degree in tefl from jimma university and a bachelor’s degree in english from alamaya university. he has taken part in numerous short-term training organized by the ministry of education, the british council, and others on english language improvement, continuous assessment, and school-based english mentoring. he has been teaching english in colleges and universities for several years and offered various training to primary and secondary school efl teachers. he chaired english language department at bonga college of teachers’ education and served as a coordinator of the english language improvement center (elic) at wolkite university. currently, he is serving as a reviewer on one scopus journal and attending his ph.d. at jimma university. his area of research interest includes efl teachers’ emotions, efl teachers’ burnout, and students’ learning strategies. orcid: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8876-7796 efl stress and teachers’ coping strategies ayalew, seyoum, alemu 39 no. 25 getachew seyoum woldemariam holds a master’s degree in tesp from aston university, uk, and phd in elt from panjab university, chandigarh, india. he is an associate professor in the department of english language and literature at jimma university, ethiopia, where he serves as instructor and supervisor of phd students. he has published several articles in elt in different reputable journals and his research interests include writing strategies, language learning strategies, language skills, and assessment. email= getachews2004@gmail.com orcid: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0881-2807 adege alemu, phd, is an assistant professor, educator, academic advisor and researcher on language education and brain research. he has been conducting workshops on brain research and language education at several schools, colleges and universities in ethiopia. dr. adege has a bachelor’s degree in english language and literature from kottebe college of teachers’ education (aa), a master of arts in teaching english as a foreign language(tefl) from addis ababa university, ethiopia, and a doctorate degree in tefl from aau. his teaching experience covers senior high school, colleges, and universities in ethiopia and in usa. dr. adege has reviewed science and social sciences (including english language education) articles, and published numerous articles in leading educational journals on language education and brain-based learning. orcid: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2821-8090 efl stress and teachers’ coping strategies ayalew, seyoum, alemu how to reference this article: ayalew , t., woldemariam, g. s. ., & alemu, a. efl teachers’ stress and coping strategies: the case of public primary schools in jimma zone, ethiopia. gist – education and learning research journal, 25. https://doi.org/10.26817/16925777.1516 99 no. 29 efl students’ writing strategies, self-efficacy, and performance in ethiopia: exploring interrelationships estrategias de escritura, autoeficacia y desempeño de estudiantes de inglés como lengua extranjera en etiopía: explorando sus interrelaciones mitiku tasisa dinsa1 wolkite university, ethiopia esayas teshome taddese2 inti international university, nilai, malaysia 1 mitiku1tasisa@gmail.com 2 eteshome75@gmail.com gist education and learning research journal. issn 1692-5777. no. 29 (july december, 2024). pp. 99-121. no. 29 99 100 no. 29 abstract effective writing is essential for academic and professional success, especially for students learning english as a foreign language (efl). this study aimed to investigate the correlation between different writing strategies, efl students’ self-efficacy in writing, and their actual writing performance. a descriptive-correlational research design was employed, involving 150 efl students. data were collected through questionnaires, ielts writing tests, and interviews. the results showed a fragile but positive relationship between students’ self-efficacy and their use of writing strategies (r=0.119). students who used various strategies, such as planning, revising, and self-monitoring, reported higher confidence in their writing abilities. additionally, there was a significant but low correlation between the use of writing strategies and writing performance (r=0.114). however, writing strategies alone did not significantly predict improvements in writing abilities. these findings suggest that while enhancing students’ self-efficacy and encouraging effective writing strategies can potentially improve writing performance, writing strategies alone may not be sufficient. therefore, english teachers should focus on both training and motivating students to use effective writing strategies to address writing challenges effectively. keywords: efl students, self-efficacy, writing performance, writing strategies resumen la escritura efectiva es fundamental para el éxito académico y profesional, especialmente para los estudiantes que aprenden inglés como lengua extranjera (efl, por sus siglas en inglés). este estudio tuvo como objetivo investigar la correlación entre diferentes estrategias de escritura, la autoeficacia de los estudiantes de efl en la escritura y su desempeño real en esta habilidad. se empleó un diseño de investigación descriptivo-correlacional con la participación de 150 estudiantes de efl. los datos fueron recopilados mediante cuestionarios, pruebas de escritura del ielts y entrevistas. los resultados mostraron una relación débil pero positiva entre la autoeficacia de los estudiantes y su uso de estrategias de escritura (r=0.119). los estudiantes que emplearon diversas estrategias, como la planificación, la revisión y la autoevaluación, reportaron una mayor confianza en sus habilidades de escritura. además, se encontró una correlación significativa pero baja entre el uso de estrategias de escritura y el desempeño en esta habilidad (r=0.114). sin embargo, el uso de estrategias de escritura por sí solo no predijo mejoras significativas en las habilidades de escritura. estos hallazgos sugieren que, si bien mejorar la autoeficacia de los estudiantes y fomentar el uso de estrategias efectivas de escritura pueden contribuir al rendimiento en esta habilidad, las estrategias de escritura por sí solas pueden no ser suficientes. por lo tanto, se recomienda que los docentes de inglés se enfoquen tanto en la capacitación como en la motivación de los estudiantes para que utilicen estrategias de escritura efectivas y enfrenten con éxito los desafíos asociados a la escritura. palabras clave: estudiantes de efl, autoeficacia, desempeño en escritura, estrategias de escritura writing strategies vis-a-vis self-efficacy and writing performance 101 no. 29 resumo a escrita eficaz é fundamental para o sucesso acadêmico e profissional, especialmente para estudantes que aprendem inglês como língua estrangeira (efl, na sigla em inglês). este estudo teve como objetivo investigar a correlação entre diferentes estratégias de escrita, a autoeficácia dos estudantes de efl na escrita e seu desempenho real nessa habilidade. foi utilizado um desenho de pesquisa descritivo-correlacional, com a participação de 150 estudantes de efl. os dados foram coletados por meio de questionários, testes de escrita do ielts e entrevistas. os resultados mostraram uma relação fraca, mas positiva, entre a autoeficácia dos estudantes e o uso de estratégias de escrita (r=0.119). os estudantes que empregaram diversas estratégias, como planejamento, revisão e autoavaliação, relataram maior confiança em suas habilidades de escrita. além disso, foi encontrada uma correlação significativa, porém baixa, entre o uso de estratégias de escrita e o desempenho nessa habilidade (r=0.114). no entanto, o uso de estratégias de escrita, por si só, não previu melhorias significativas nas habilidades de escrita. esses achados sugerem que, embora melhorar a autoeficácia dos estudantes e incentivar o uso de estratégias eficazes de escrita possam contribuir para o desempenho nessa habilidade, as estratégias de escrita, isoladamente, podem não ser suficientes. portanto, recomenda-se que os professores de inglês foquem tanto no treinamento quanto na motivação dos estudantes para que utilizem estratégias eficazes de escrita e enfrentem com sucesso os desafios associados à produção textual. palavras-chave: estudantes de efl, autoeficácia, desempenho na escrita, estratégias de escrita mitiku tasisa dinsa and esayas teshome tadese 102 no. 29 introduction for students from non-native english-speaking countries, the ability to write effectively in english is a vital asset. english is the medium of instruction and a prerequisite for achieving higher academic and professional success (aidinlou & far, 2014; chen, 2022; junianti et al., 2020; hu, 2022; raoofi et al., 2017; sumarsono & mbato, 2021; zhou et al., 2022). in ethiopia, where english is taught as a foreign language (efl), students’ proficiency in writing significantly impacts their academic success and future career opportunities. however, a comprehensive understanding of how efl students’ writing strategies, self-efficacy, and writing performance interrelate in the ethiopian context remains underexplored. writing strategies are deliberate actions and techniques that learners use to manage the writing process effectively (çetinkaya & bilgan, 2018; li et al., 2022; oussou et al., 2024; raoofi et al., 2014; sumarsono & mbato, 2021; zhou et al., 2022). these strategies include planning (e.g., brainstorming and outlining), drafting, revising, and editing. effective writing strategies are crucial for producing coherent and well-structured texts (fajrina et al., 2021; li, 2022). studies have shown that the use of effective writing strategies can significantly impact students’ writing performance and overall language proficiency (blasco, 2016; golparvar & khafi, 2021; graham & perin, 2022; zhou et al., 2022). therefore, writing strategies are essential in efl settings where students often struggle with language proficiency and writing conventions (demir, 2018; hu, 2022; zhang & zhang, 2024). several researchers emphasize the need for tailored writing strategies that address specific challenges faced by efl learners, such as limited vocabulary and grammar difficulties (gorpawar & khafi, 2021; goy, 2017; hu, 2022; raoofi & maroofi, 2017; sun & wang, 2020; syahriani & madya, 2019; teng & huang, 2019). despite this, there is a scarcity of research concentrating on the effectiveness of various writing strategies used by ethiopian efl students (gupta & woldemariam, 2011; legesse et al., 2021 2020; mitiku, 2023; wondim et al., 2024). understanding which strategies are most effective in this context can provide valuable insights for teachers seeking to enhance students’ writing abilities. self-efficacy is an individual’s belief in their ability to perform specific tasks successfully. teng and wang (2023) claimed that self-efficacy influences motivation, effort, and persistence. in the context of writing, self-efficacy affects students’ confidence in their writing abilities and their approach to writing tasks (aidinlou & far, 2014). higher self-efficacy is associated with more significant effort, more effective use of writing strategies, and better writing performance (junianti et al., 2020; sun & wang, 2020; teng & wang, 2023). writing strategies vis-a-vis self-efficacy and writing performance 103 no. 29 writing performance is typically evaluated through the quality of written texts, standardized assessments, and teacher feedback. it is influenced by the strategies students use and their level of self-efficacy. hu (2022) found that students who used effective writing strategies had higher self-efficacy and produced better writing outcomes. in ethiopia, factors such as large class sizes, limited resources, and diverse linguistic backgrounds pose additional challenges to writing performance (kifle, 2022). a study by fikru (2023) highlights these challenges but does not extensively explore how specific writing strategies and self-efficacy impact performance. a focused investigation into these interrelationships can provide a clearer understanding of how to improve writing instruction and support for efl students (chen, 2022; wang, 2023). ethiopian students face unique challenges that impact their writing skills, including diverse linguistic backgrounds, varying levels of english proficiency, and inadequate writing instruction resources. kifle (2022) and fikru (2023) highlight these challenges, emphasizing the need for research specific to higher education in ethiopia. understanding how writing strategies and self-efficacy interact within this context can inform more effective instructional practices and support mechanisms. despite the crucial role that writing plays in academic and career success, there remains a clear gap in understanding how writing strategies, self-efficacy, and performance interact among efl students. existing research provides insights into these factors individually, but there is a limited comprehensive study on their combined effects within the ethiopian educational context. the studies conducted by shen et al. (2024) and sun and wang (2020) did not consider the specific barriers faced by efl students in ethiopia, such as large class sizes and insufficient resources. additionally, balaman (2021) highlighted the importance of the interaction among writing strategies, self-efficacy, and writing performance; however, his findings were not used to investigate their combined effects. writing remains a challenging skill for efl students (demir, 2018) because it involves effectively transforming ideas into written language (fajrina et al., 2021; nurhayati, 2022). prastikawati et al. (2020) argue that writing integrates physical and cognitive abilities. further studies highlight the importance of emotion regulation, creativity, and information integration during the writing process (ghoorchaei & khosravi, 2019; hu, 2022; liu, 2015; teng & huang, 2022). hu’s findings reveal that many students struggle with grammar, vocabulary, coherence, and structure in their writing. these difficulties often arise from a lack of motivation, misguided beliefs, insufficient practice, and inadequate feedback from teachers (tridinanti et al., 2020; wang, 2023). besides, students may be hesitant to express their ideas and emotions due to limited language resources (chen, 2022; raoofi et al., 2014; shen et al., 2024; teng & wang, 2023) and unrealistic expectations about their writing abilities (zhou et al., 2022). karafil and oguz (2022) emphasize that efl students are less likely to engage in writing activities because it requires extensive knowledge and organizational skills in english. mitiku tasisa dinsa and esayas teshome tadese 104 no. 29 as mentioned, students’ writing abilities are often limited for various reasons. for example, students may be unable to use writing strategies to address their writing difficulties effectively (chen, 2022; fajrina et al., 2023 ; inayah & nanda, 2016). besides, writing difficulties can stem from teachers’ monotonous and unchanging instructional strategies (boonyarattanasoontorn, 2017; yulianti, 2018). teachers often fail to train students effectively in using strategies to enhance their writing performance (hu, 2022; junianti et al., 2020; khosravi et al., 2017; teng & huang, 2020). wang (2023) also notes that many efl students have a limited understanding of vocabulary, grammatical structure, content, and thought organization. the present study investigates the relationship between writing strategies, writing performance, and self-efficacy. however, it remains unclear how specific writing strategies (e.g., planning, editing, and peer feedback) affect self-efficacy and performance (chen, 2022; zhang & zhang, 2024). this highlights the need for more nuanced studies to understand how individual writing strategies influence various aspects of self-efficacy and performance (fajrina et al., 2021; hu, 2022; yulianti, 2018). research must address ethiopian efl students’ specific requirements, strategies, and self-efficacy to develop targeted interventions and teaching strategies. most of the previous studies (gupta & woldemariam, 2011; legesse et al., 2021; mitiku, 2023; nigussie et al., 2023; wondim et al., 2024) have generalized findings without considering the specific barriers faced by efl students in ethiopia. therefore, this study aimed to investigate the interrelationships among writing strategies, self-efficacy, and performance among ethiopian efl students. by examining these factors, this study aims to understand their interactions and mutual influences comprehensively. to achieve this goal, the study will address the following fundamental research questions: what is the relationship between writing self-efficacy and the use of writing strategies among english major students? what kind of relationship is there between the writing strategies utilized by english major students and their writing performance? methodology research design a descriptive-correlational research design was employed to explore and understand the relationships among writing strategies, self-efficacy, and writing performance among ethiopian efl students. the study measured three variables: writing strategies vis-a-vis self-efficacy and writing performance 105 no. 29 writing strategies, writing self-efficacy, and writing performance. data were collected through questionnaires, the ielts writing test, and interviews. participants and sampling techniques the subjects were third and fourth-year efl students. the study included 150 efl students: 72 from wolkite university (33 third-year students, and 39 fourth-year students) and 78 from wachamo university (42 third-year students and 36 fourthyear students). a comprehensive sampling technique was used to select participants from english majors enrolled in basic writing skills, advanced writing skills i and ii, and the sophomore english course. since the number of english majors was sufficient, all of them were included in the study. instruments questionnaire this study’s primary data collection tool was a questionnaire with two sections. the first section aimed to assess the frequency and types of writing strategies used by efl students. the items in the questionnaire were adapted from petric and czarl (2003). the questionnaire included a self-report component detailing students’ learning strategies to overcome writing challenges. minor adjustments were made to the vocabulary, phrases, and sentence structure to make the language more approachable and accessible for efl students. data on students’ use of writing strategies were gathered using this questionnaire, which consisted of 53 closed-ended questions categorized as follows: social (1–7), affective (8–15), metacognitive (16–25), compensatory (26–30), cognitive (31–48), and memory (49–53). items were assessed on a 5-point likert scale, ranging from 1 (“never or almost never applies to me”) to 5 (“always or almost always applies to me”). the adjusted reporting scale was used to describe the average score of writing strategies. the second tool was a writing self-efficacy questionnaire designed to measure students’ beliefs in their writing abilities and their confidence in performing writing tasks. the self-efficacy questionnaire was adapted from erkan and saban (2011). it included thirty-three closed-ended items, with four likert-scale responses: 1 (“i do it very well”), 2 (“i do it well”), 3 (“i do not do it well”), and 4 (“i do not do it at all”). the responses ranged from “almost never” to “almost always.” mitiku tasisa dinsa and esayas teshome tadese 106 no. 29 the items were designed to measure four constructs: planning, self-examination, effort, and self-efficacy beliefs. the questionnaire was presented to the students in the target language. writing performance test the ielts writing test was used to assess students’ writing abilities and overall performance. this standardized test provided a reliable measure of writing proficiency through consistent criteria. it included tasks that required students to respond to prompts in both descriptive and argumentative formats, evaluating their ability to organize ideas, use appropriate language, and develop coherent arguments. the test was scored based on criteria such as task achievement, coherence and cohesion, lexical resource, and grammatical range and accuracy derived from read (2022). each criterion was rated using the ielts 0-9 scale to assess the learners’ writing abilities. all 150 students who completed the questionnaire also took the exam. task 1 required students to write at least 150 words in 20 minutes, using information from a table to create a complete report. task 2 required students to write at least 250 words in 40 minutes, focusing on crafting a persuasive essay. for task 2, the topic was “chewing chat should end,” allowing students to utilize vocabulary and write a compelling argument. all third-year efl students took this test to evaluate the effectiveness of their overall writing strategies. two raters (the researchers) independently assessed the students’ assignments to ensure impartial grading. finally, each student’s writing performance on the ielts exam was evaluated using the common european framework of reference for languages (cefr) for learning, teaching, and assessment (athiworakun et al., 2018). interview the third tool used to collect data was a semi-structured interview. out of 150 respondents, 12 interviewees were selected using simple random sampling techniques. this approach was chosen because it allows for in-depth exploration and flexibility. the aim was to gain deeper insights into students’ personal experiences with writing strategies, self-efficacy, and performance. qualitative data can provide additional clarity and expand on the quantitative findings from the surveys. the interviews were recorded using a smartphone, with each session lasting between 12 and 18 minutes. interview guides were also utilized to ensure comprehensive data collection. finally, the researchers transcribed, analyzed, and interpreted the recorded interviews. writing strategies vis-a-vis self-efficacy and writing performance 107 no. 29 validity and reliability of instruments two ph.d. experts in teaching english as a foreign language (tefl) validated the instruments from wolkite university; they each had 16 and 18 years of teaching experience at public universities in ethiopia. these experts provided feedback on the content and face validity of the questionnaire items, the ielts writing test, and interview questions. they also commented on the format requirements, item relevance for efl learners, and how well the instruments measured what the researchers intended to evaluate. based on their feedback, two irrelevant items were removed from the questionnaire (“receiving feedback on my writing often makes me feel” and “i always use a dictionary to check spelling”). these items were replaced with more relevant ones, such as “students must understand the standard format of good writing to become good writers” and “i get information via videocassettes.” the researchers incorporated these modifications and corrections to improve the validity of the instruments. a pilot study was conducted to ensure the reliability of the tools and administration procedures. cronbach’s alpha coefficients were employed to evaluate the reliability and internal consistency of the questionnaires. the cronbach’s alpha for the questionnaire was 0.910, indicating a high level of reliability. this result demonstrates that the items were dependable and suitable for assessing students’ writing strategies and self-efficacy levels. inter-rater reliability ensured the reliability of the ielts writing test. cohen’s kappa was used to assess the consistency of the raters’ scores, revealing a significant agreement (κ= = 0.769) between them. this result demonstrates the test’s high consistency and dependability in evaluating students’ writing performance. to maintain the trustworthiness of the interview data, the researchers conducted face-to-face interviews with the interviewees. this approach maximized the credibility of the data. procedures first, the researchers conducted a pilot study to evaluate the instruments. second, they briefed the english teachers on the study’s objectives and worked with them to establish a data collection schedule. third, the researchers instructed the learners to complete and submit the questionnaires with the assistance of their teachers. fourth, after the questionnaires were completed. the researchers first introduced the students to the general objectives of the ielts test. the students then received six hours of training on the general objectives of the ielts test and the specific objectives of the ielts writing test. once the training was over, the students took the exam. finally, the students took a 60-minute test in which they were required to write at least 400 words across two tasks. mitiku tasisa dinsa and esayas teshome tadese 108 no. 29 data analysis quantitative data were analyzed using the statistical package for the social sciences (spss) version 23.0. descriptive statistics, such as the mean and standard deviation, were used to determine students’ writing strategies and self-efficacy. the frequency with which students utilized writing strategies was assessed based on mean score benchmarks: 1.0-2.4 indicated low strategy use, 2.5-3.4 indicated moderate strategy use, and 3.5-5 indicated high strategy use (oxford, 1990). in contrast, the relationship between variables was analyzed using inferential statistics, specifically pearson’s correlation coefficient. results students’ responses to the first research question: what is the relationship between writing self-efficacy and the use of writing strategies among english major students? table 1. descriptive statistics for the frequency use of writing strategy strategies mean (m) sd level of strategy use frequency of use rank memory 2.57 0.833 medium sometimes used 1st compensation 2.51 0.828 medium sometimes used 2nd social 2.33 0.744 low not usually used 3rd affective 2.21 0.678 low not usually used 4th cognitive 2.18 0.653 low not usually used 5th metacognitive 2.11 0.624 low not usually used 6th grand total 2.32 0.727 low not usually used table 1 illustrates that students generally used writing strategies at a low frequency. among these strategies, memory (m = 2.57) and compensation (m = 2.51) strategies were used more frequently compared to social (m = 2.33), affective (m = 2.21), cognitive (m = 2.18), and metacognitive (m = 2.11) strategies. the overall trend indicated a moderate to low level of engagement with writing strategies in their learning process. table 2. the mean score of students’ writing self-efficacy efl students mean level 2.24 low table 2 indicates that efl students’ mean writing self-efficacy score was 2.24, which falls within the low range. this suggests that, on average, students reported low confidence in their writing abilities. writing strategies vis-a-vis self-efficacy and writing performance 109 no. 29 table 3. pearson’s correlation results for students’ writing strategy utilization and writing self-efficacy writing strategies self-efficacy writing strategies pearson correlation 1 .119** sig. (2-tailed) .000 n 150 150 self-efficacy pearson correlation .199** 1 sig. (2-tailed) .000 n 150 150 **. correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed). table 3 shows a statistically significant but weakly positive correlation between students’ writing strategy utilization and their writing self-efficacy (r=0.119). this indicated that while there was a slight tendency for higher writing strategy use to be associated with higher self-efficacy, the strength of this relationship was minimal. second research question: what kind of a relationship exists between english major students’ writing strategies and their writing performance? table 3. the mean scores of students’ ielts writing test no mean sd writing performance wolkite university 72 1.62 .649 wachamo university 78 1.60 .624 total 150 1.61 .636 as demonstrated in table 3, students across both wolkite and wachamo universities demonstrated similar performance levels in the ielts writing test, with mean scores of 1.61. the scores indicate a generally consistent but modest level of writing proficiency among the students. mitiku tasisa dinsa and esayas teshome tadese 110 no. 29 table 4: pearson’s correlation between students’ writing strategies and writing performance writing strategies writing performance writing strategies pearson correlation 1 .114** sig. (2-tailed) .000 n 150 150 writing performance pearson correlation .114** 1 sig. (2-tailed) .000 n 150 150 **. correlation is significant at the 0.01 level. table 4 revealed a statistically significant, yet very weak positive correlation between writing strategies and writing performance (r = 0.114). this suggested that although there was a slight association indicating that better use of writing strategies related to marginally improved writing performance, the effect size was minimal. interview results interviewees described a structured approach to essay writing, including brainstorming ideas, creating an outline, drafting the essay, revising, and editing. however, some students skipped the outlining phase and began drafting directly, especially if they were confident about their ideas. for instance, s2 said, “i start with brainstorming to get all my ideas down. then i create an outline to organize them before writing the first draft.” in contrast, s11 noted, “sometimes i just start writing without an outline and revise later.” students frequently found outlining, peer reviewing, and using writing templates to be helpful strategies. these methods were praised for assisting with organizing thoughts, improving structure, and providing constructive feedback. for example, s5 said, “outlining helps me stay focused and ensures my essay has a clear structure.” at the same time, s8 noted, “peer review is valuable because it offers different perspectives and helps me catch mistakes i might otherwise miss.” students consider factors such as the complexity of the task, their familiarity with the subject matter, and the type of writing required (e.g., argumentative versus descriptive). more experienced students demonstrated greater flexibility in using their strategies for different tasks. as s1 explained, “i adjust my strategies based on how familiar i am with the topic and the requirements of the assignment.” students with high self-efficacy reported feeling confident in their writing abilities and often cited examples of successfully handling challenging assignments. in contrast, writing strategies vis-a-vis self-efficacy and writing performance 111 no. 29 those with lower self-efficacy expressed doubts about their writing skills and struggled with more complex tasks. for instance, s3 said, “i’m confident in my writing because i’ve received good grades and positive feedback on my essays,” while s6 remarked, “i sometimes doubt my abilities, especially when i’m given a topic i’m not familiar with.” previous success, positive feedback, and thorough preparation were factors that boosted confidence. conversely, past failures, lack of preparation, and the perceived difficulty of tasks were cited as factors that undermined confidence. as s10 explained, “i feel more confident if i’ve done well in similar tasks before and if i’ve prepared thoroughly.” common strategies for handling writing challenges included seeking help from peers or instructors, revising drafts, and breaking tasks into smaller parts. students who proactively sought assistance and revised their work reported better outcomes than those who avoided challenges. as s12 described, “when i encounter difficulties, i frequently seek assistance from my classmates or consult with my teacher. i also divide the writing assignment into smaller chunks and address each one independently.” however, the results indicated a mismatch between students’ self-assessments and the evaluations provided by teachers. for example, s1 noted, “i evaluate my writing based on how clearly i’ve expressed my points and how effectively i’ve fulfilled the assignment requirements.” in contrast, s9 remarked, “sometimes i believe my writing is better than the comments i receive. i need to work on better understanding my teacher’s expectations.” goals for improving writing commonly included enhancing grammar, expanding vocabulary, and refining essay structure. to achieve these goals, students planned to engage in practice, read extensively, and seek feedback from peers and instructors. for instance, s7 stated, “i want to improve my grammar and vocabulary, so i’m reading more academic texts and writing more frequently. in addition, i intend to attend writing workshops and seek more feedback from my teachers.” this approach reflects a commitment to both self-directed and guided improvement in writing skills. reactions to feedback varied widely, ranging from appreciation and constructive use to frustration and defensiveness. students who viewed feedback positively typically incorporated it effectively into their revisions, while those who were defensive often struggled to implement useful changes. additionally, two interviewees mentioned: i appreciate feedback because it helps me understand my weaknesses and improve my writing. (s2) sometimes, i find it hard to accept criticism, but i try to use the feedback to make my writing better. (s9) mitiku tasisa dinsa and esayas teshome tadese 112 no. 29 generally, the interview data revealed that effective writing strategies, such as outlining and peer review, were strongly linked to higher confidence and improved performance among efl students. higher self-efficacy contributed to more effective use of writing strategies and better management of writing challenges. additionally, students who actively sought and incorporated feedback typically performed better, although there was variability in how feedback was received and utilized. these findings indicate that targeted interventions should prioritize enhancing self-efficacy, refining writing strategies, and improving students’ overall writing proficiency. discussion the relationship between students’ writing strategies and writing self-efficacy the findings indicated a positive but weak correlation between efl students’ use of effective writing strategies and their writing self-efficacy (r = 0.119). students who reported employing strategies such as planning, drafting, revising, and seeking feedback demonstrated greater confidence in their writing abilities. however, writing self-efficacy was not a strong predictor of using these strategies. the interview results also confirmed that learners had low writing self-efficacy in using effective writing strategies. this suggests that students with lower writing self-efficacy may use less effective writing practices, and those with higher self-efficacy may not necessarily use more effective strategies. this finding is consistent with demir’s (2018) theory of self-efficacy, which posits that effective strategies can enhance an individual’s confidence and perceived competence. structured writing strategies can help efl students develop their writing skills and boost their self-confidence. this reciprocal relationship indicates that teachers should incorporate strategy training into writing instruction to foster both skill development and self-efficacy. this result aligns with previous research on the relationship between students’ writing self-efficacy and their use of writing strategies (aidinlou & far, 2014; balaman, 2021; blasco, 2016; chen, 2022; khosravi et al., 2017; li et al., 2022; nurhayati, 2022; sumarsono & mbato, 2021; teng & wang, 2023; wang, 2023; zhang & zhang, 2024). jin (2023) noted that self-efficacy beliefs influence learners’ writing strategies. according to karafil and oguz (2022), writing self-efficacy enhances students’ awareness of effectively applying various writing strategies. additionally, aidinlou and far (2014) demonstrated a strong correlation between writing self-efficacy and the use of writing strategies. raoofi and maroofi (2017) indicated that students who monitor their progress, regulate the effectiveness of their learning strategies, explore new methods, and show enthusiasm for completing tasks efficiently tend to achieve better results. writing strategies vis-a-vis self-efficacy and writing performance 113 no. 29 interestingly, this finding aligns with prior studies on the relationship between students’ writing self-efficacy and their use of writing strategies. however, the weak correlation between efl students’ use of effective writing strategies and their writing self-efficacy can be attributed to several factors. first, efl students might use a variety of writing strategies, and their self-efficacy could be influenced by factors beyond these strategies, leading to a weak overall correlation. additionally, individual differences in students’ perceptions of their writing ability and their strategies’ effectiveness may dilute this association’s strength. measurement limitations also contribute; the tools used to assess writing strategies and self-efficacy might not fully capture the complexity of their interaction, thus weakening the observed relationship. finally, contextual factors such as varying levels of support, resources, or personal challenges could affect writing self-efficacy independently of the strategies employed. the relationship between students’ writing strategies and writing performance the results indicated that the correlation between students’ use of writing strategies and their writing performance was weak, though positive (r = 0.114). additionally, interview data revealed that strategies such as comprehensive pre-writing planning and iterative revisions were only marginally associated with improved writing outcomes. this implied that using writing strategies was not a reliable predictor of academic writing performance. in other words, the findings suggested that students did not effectively apply these strategies to address their writing difficulties. previous research on english writing skills supports this finding (bai et al., 2014; çetinkaya & bilgan, 2018; chen, 2022; he, 2019; hu, 2022; junianti et al., 2020; khosravi et al., 2017; mutar, 2019; sumarsono & mbato, 2021; shen & bai, 2024; teng et al., 2022). for example, raoofi et al. (2017) demonstrated a direct relationship between writing strategies and writing performance. similarly, oussou et al. (2024) identified a positive link between students’ writing strategies and their performance. these studies suggest that employing effective writing strategies can significantly enhance learners’ writing proficiency. furthermore, research by ghoorchaei and khosravi (2019) indicates that high achievers and low achievers differ in their use of learning strategies and approaches to writing challenges. consequently, students, irrespective of their writing ability, often seek assistance from various teachers when writing in english, as it is a complex skill requiring both language and content knowledge (balaman, 2021). while there was a positive association between students’ use of writing strategies and writing performance, the link between these factors was weak for several reasons. first, students use a variety of writing strategies, and not all are equally effective, which can dilute the overall correlation. second, other factors, such as individual skills, motivation, and external support, influence writing performance, which may weaken mitiku tasisa dinsa and esayas teshome tadese 114 no. 29 the relationship with writing strategies. measurement issues might also play a role, as the tools used may not fully capture the complexity of the interaction between strategies and performance. lastly, contextual factors like classroom environment, feedback quality, and resource availability could affect writing performance independently of the writing strategies employed, further diminishing the strength of the observed correlation. conclusions, implications, and recommendations conclusions the study revealed a statistically significant but weak positive correlation between students’ use of writing strategies and their writing self-efficacy (r = 0.119). this indicates a slight tendency for students who use writing strategies more frequently to report higher self-efficacy. however, the minimal strength of this relationship suggests that other factors may have a more substantial impact on writing self-efficacy. additionally, the findings demonstrated a statistically significant but very weak positive correlation between writing strategies and writing performance (r = 0.114). this result implies that while a slight association indicates that better use of writing strategies is somewhat linked to improved writing performance, the effect size is minimal. the very weak correlation suggests that the influence of writing strategies on performance is limited, and other variables might play a more significant role in determining writing outcomes. implications educators should consider incorporating more comprehensive training on writing strategies. it may be beneficial to teach specific strategies and address how these strategies can contribute to building students’ self-efficacy. strategies should be integrated into a broader framework that includes self-regulation and reflection to help students understand their impact on writing confidence. the minimal strength of the correlation between writing strategies and writing selfefficacy suggests that other factors, such as individual differences, prior experiences, and external support, may play a more significant role. therefore, teachers should focus on creating a supportive learning environment that includes personalized feedback, encouragement, and opportunities for students to set and achieve personal writing goals, potentially enhancing self-efficacy more effectively. writing strategies vis-a-vis self-efficacy and writing performance 115 no. 29 the very weak correlation between writing strategies and writing performance indicates that simply increasing the use of writing strategies may have a limited impact on improving performance. teachers might need to explore additional factors that contribute to writing success, such as content knowledge, critical thinking skills, and the quality of feedback provided. a more holistic approach that combines strategy instruction with these other elements could yield better results in improving writing performance. recommendations it is recommended that english teachers should provide more comprehensive training on writing strategies, focusing not only on specific techniques but also on how these strategies can enhance students’ self-efficacy. to maximize the effectiveness of this training, it should be incorporated into a broader educational framework that includes self-regulation, reflective practices, and personalized support. additionally, teachers should create a supportive learning environment that offers tailored feedback, encouragement, and opportunities for students to set and achieve personal writing goals, which can help strengthen their writing confidence. teachers should consider adopting a more holistic approach that integrates writing strategies with other factors that influence writing outcomes, such as content knowledge, critical thinking skills, and the quality of feedback. this comprehensive approach could more effectively improve students’ overall writing performance. teachers should engage in continuous professional development to address the complex factors influencing writing self-efficacy and performance. training programs should focus on the latest research and effective practices in writing instruction, including how to integrate strategy training with broader pedagogical techniques and support mechanisms. the study found a weak positive correlation between writing strategy use and writing self-efficacy, as well as a very weak correlation between writing strategies and performance. as a result, future research should investigate other factors that may significantly impact students’ writing self-efficacy and performance, such as individual differences (e.g., motivation, prior knowledge, cognitive abilities) and external influences (e.g., feedback, classroom environment). this broader approach could provide a more comprehensive understanding of what drives writing success. mitiku 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(2024). profiling l2 students’ writing self-efficacy and its relationship with their writing strategies for self-regulated learning. system, 122, 1-10 103253. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.system.2024.103253. authors mitiku tasisa dinsa is an assistant professor at wolkite university in ethiopia. his research focuses on language learning strategies, as well as writing and speaking skills. orcid: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0112-9231 dr. esayas teshome taddese is a senior lecturer in the faculty of education and liberal arts at nti international university, nilai, malaysia. his research interests lie in the areas of teacher education, teacher professional development, pedagogy, and comparative education. orcid: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8988-7311 120 no. 29 writing strategies vis-a-vis self-efficacy and writing performance 121 no. 29 authors roger segura arias is an assistant professor of english at universidad nacional, brunca branch. he holds a m.a in applied linguistics with an esp emphasis from the universidad nacional. he has taught and trained pre-service teachers, english learners, and has taught esp courses to in-service professionals and pre-service students at universidad de costa rica’s inglés por áreas program and other private institutions in costa rica. his research interests are the use of technology in language education, esp curriculum design and instruction, second-language pronunciation learning, and critical applied linguistics. orcid: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1553-3953 karla daniela herrera rodríguez is an assistant professor of english at universidad nacional, brunca branch. she holds a professional master’s degree in educational sciences. she has taught and trained pre-service teachers in costa rica. her research interests include esp instruction, second-language pronunciation learning, and the development of listening skills in english as a second language. orcid: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5820-0588 roger segura arias and karla daniela herrera rodríguez teaching oral skills in ethiopian secondary schools: practices and challenges enseñanza de habilidades orales en escuelas secundarias de etiopía: prácticas y desafíos wakgari deressa agemso1 mattu university, ethiopia alemayehu getachew beyene2 wollega university, ethiopia 1 cherakewakgari@gmail.com 2 metiialemayehu123@gmail.com 37 no. 30 gist education and learning research journal. issn 1692-5777. no. 30 (january june, 2025). pp. 37-55. 38 no. 30 abstract in ethiopia, english plays a crucial role in education, business, and government communication, serving as a compulsory subject and the medium of instruction from the ninth grade onwards. despite its importance, english proficiency remains a significant challenge among both students and teachers, particularly in secondary schools. this study examines the practices and challenges of teaching oral skills in the east wollaga zone, with a focus on striking a balance between fluency and accuracy in language instruction. a mixed-methods approach was employed, including a descriptive survey design. data was collected from 11 english teachers and 272 ninth-grade students across three secondary schools. the research employed questionnaires, classroom observations, and interviews to gather both qualitative and quantitative data on teaching methods, student participation, and obstacles to effective instruction of oral skills. the study found that group discussions, brainstorming, and pair work were the most used methods for teaching oral skills. however, teachers emphasized accuracy over fluency, limiting student engagement in spontaneous communication. students reported that fear of making mistakes, large class sizes, and the frequent use of the mother tongue during discussions hindered their participation and oral practice. the findings suggest that while teachers employ interactive activities, focusing on accuracy may limit opportunities for developing fluency. recommendations include diversifying teaching methods, incorporating structured roles in group tasks, and fostering a classroom environment that encourages the use of english. additionally, addressing student anxiety and providing professional development for teachers could enhance the effectiveness of oral skills instruction. keywords: oral skills, fluency, accuracy, efl teaching, classroom challenges, ethiopia resumen. en etiopía, el inglés juega un papel crucial en la educación, los negocios y la comunicación gubernamental, siendo tanto una asignatura obligatoria como el medio de instrucción a partir del noveno grado. a pesar de su importancia, la competencia en inglés sigue siendo un desafío significativo tanto para los estudiantes como para los maestros, especialmente en las escuelas secundarias. este estudio explora las prácticas y los desafíos de la enseñanza de habilidades orales en la zona este de wollaga, con un enfoque en el equilibrio entre fluidez y precisión en la instrucción del idioma. se utilizó un enfoque de métodos mixtos, que incluyó un diseño de encuesta descriptiva. los datos fueron recolectados de 11 maestros de inglés y 272 estudiantes de noveno grado en tres escuelas secundarias. la investigación utilizó cuestionarios, observaciones en el aula y entrevistas para recopilar datos cualitativos y cuantitativos sobre los métodos de enseñanza, la participación estudiantil y los obstáculos para una enseñanza efectiva de habilidades orales. el estudio encontró que las discusiones en grupo, la lluvia de ideas y el trabajo en pareja fueron los métodos más comúnmente utilizados para enseñar habilidades orales. sin embargo, los maestros dieron más énfasis a la precisión que a la fluidez, lo que llevó a una limitada participación de los estudiantes en la comunicación espontánea. los estudiantes informaron que el miedo a cometer errores, el tamaño de las clases grandes y el uso frecuente de la lengua materna durante las discusiones dificultaban su participación y práctica oral. los resultados sugieren que, aunque los maestros emplean actividades interactivas, el enfoque en oral skills in ethiopian secondary schools 39 no. 30 la precisión puede limitar las oportunidades para desarrollar la fluidez. las recomendaciones incluyen diversificar los métodos de enseñanza, incorporar roles estructurados en las tareas grupales y fomentar un ambiente de aula que incentive el uso del inglés. además, abordar la ansiedad de los estudiantes y proporcionar desarrollo profesional para los maestros podría mejorar la efectividad de la enseñanza de habilidades orales. palabras clave: habilidades orales, fluidez, precisión, enseñanza de inglés como lengua extranjera, desafíos en el aula, etiopía resumo na etiópia, o inglês desempenha um papel crucial na educação, nos negócios e na comunicação governamental, sendo tanto uma disciplina obrigatória quanto o meio de instrução a partir do nono ano. apesar de sua importância, a proficiência em inglês continua sendo um desafio significativo para alunos e professores, especialmente no ensino secundário. este estudo explora as práticas e os desafios do ensino de habilidades orais na zona leste de wollaga, com foco no equilíbrio entre fluência e precisão na instrução do idioma. utilizou-se uma abordagem de métodos mistos, que incluiu um delineamento de pesquisa descritiva. os dados foram coletados de 11 professores de inglês e 272 alunos do nono ano em três escolas secundárias. a pesquisa utilizou questionários, observações em sala de aula e entrevistas para reunir dados qualitativos e quantitativos sobre os métodos de ensino, a participação dos alunos e os obstáculos para um ensino eficaz das habilidades orais. o estudo constatou que discussões em grupo, tempestades de ideias e trabalhos em duplas foram os métodos mais comumente utilizados para ensinar habilidades orais. no entanto, os professores deram maior ênfase à precisão do que à fluência, o que resultou em uma participação limitada dos alunos na comunicação espontânea. os estudantes relataram que o medo de cometer erros, o tamanho excessivo das turmas e o uso frequente da língua materna durante as discussões dificultavam sua participação e prática oral. os resultados sugerem que, embora os professores utilizem atividades interativas, o foco excessivo na precisão pode limitar as oportunidades de desenvolvimento da fluência. as recomendações incluem diversificar os métodos de ensino, incorporar papéis estruturados nas tarefas em grupo e promover um ambiente de sala de aula que incentive o uso do inglês. além disso, enfrentar a ansiedade dos estudantes e oferecer desenvolvimento profissional aos professores pode melhorar a eficácia do ensino de habilidades orais. palavras-chave: habilidades orais, fluência, precisão, ensino de inglês como língua estrangeira, desafios em sala de aula, etiópia wakgari deressa agemso and alemayehu getachew beyene 40 no. 30 introduction in ethiopia, the english language is essential in the education system, from primary to tertiary levels. it is a compulsory subject from the early grades and serves as the medium of instruction starting in the ninth grade. according to the nation’s teaching and training policy, english is also a focus of study in higher education (moe, 1994). as noted by the ministry of education (moe, 2005, p. 1), “english is a cornerstone in the development of business, communication systems, technology, and education in ethiopia.” additionally, english plays a crucial role in the country’s socioeconomic and political landscape, serving as the primary means of communication in various government and non-governmental organizations. research by abebe (1997) highlighted that numerous government agencies, banks, insurance companies, hospitals, and airlines use english to engage with local and international clients. despite the significant role of english in these areas, there are widespread claims that ethiopian students and teachers struggle with english proficiency. this issue is deteriorating over time, particularly among adolescents, as many continue to struggle with mastering the language. teachers frequently express concerns about students’ low levels of english proficiency, while students often voice dissatisfaction with their teachers’ language skills. many teachers lack confidence in their english skills and do not effectively utilize the language in their instruction. it is common for teachers to switch to local languages during lessons, even though english is intended as the medium of instruction. similarly, students tend to use amharic and other local languages during discussions (abenga, 2005; gudu, 2010). research by hailom and woldu (1998) found that, despite years of english instruction, many subject teachers, including those teaching english, still exhibit deficiencies in their language skills. this challenge is not unique to ethiopia; it is increasingly common in countries where english is taught as a foreign language. consequently, many high school graduates struggle to speak english correctly (alonso, 2014; alharbi, 2015). this issue is also prevalent in secondary schools in ethiopia’s east wollaga zone. statement of the problem the existing research gap in oral skills instruction within ethiopian secondary schools is marked by the lack of targeted studies examining the teaching methods employed for oral communication and the challenges teachers face in fostering effective oral communication skills. while research such as ur (1996) underscores the importance of speaking as a fundamental skill in language learning, oradee (2012) and ahmad and yusuf (2014) oral skills in ethiopian secondary schools 41 no. 30 stress that the ability to communicate effectively is the primary motivation for learning a foreign language, there is a noticeable absence of studies focusing specifically on how interactive teaching methods are applied in the classroom to improve students’ oral communication skills. mede et al. (2019) also highlight the critical role of speech in human interaction but note the lack of comprehensive analysis regarding how interactive methods for teaching oral skills have been implemented in practice, particularly in ethiopia. although some studies have addressed the broader challenges of english language learning in ethiopia, particularly concerning students’ overall proficiency (abenga, 2005; gudu, 2010), there is still insufficient research focused on oral skills instruction specifically. in ethiopia, oral communication has often been overlooked or inadequately addressed in language curricula, and teachers continue to face numerous barriers in developing effective oral language skills in students. factors like large class sizes, inadequate teacher training, students’ fear of making mistakes, and the overreliance on local languages during lessons exacerbate these challenges. moreover, research by marlina (2018) highlights the need for a more thorough examination of how interactive methods can contribute to teaching oral skills. the gap lies in the lack of empirical studies investigating how teachers balance fluency and accuracy in oral communication lessons, as well as the types of interactive activities (e.g., group discussions, role-plays, debates) they implement to help students improve both their fluency and accuracy in spoken english. given these issues, the researchers aimed to evaluate the practices and challenges associated with teaching oral skills in secondary schools within the east wollaga zone of ethiopia. research questions the primary objective of this study is to examine the practices and challenges of teaching oral skills in secondary schools within the east wollaga zone, ethiopia. the following questions guided the research: 1. what methods do teachers employ to deliver oral skills lessons? 2. how are the aspects of accuracy and fluency in oral skills instruction balanced? 3. what factors hinder the effective teaching of oral skills in the classroom? wakgari deressa agemso and alemayehu getachew beyene 42 no. 30 literature review theoretical framework effective classroom education must take into account students’ diverse abilities, expectations, motivations, backgrounds, knowledge, and learning styles. it is crucial to recognize these differences when teaching oral communication, as developing speaking skills involves mastering various aspects of language. spratt et al., (2005, p. 35) emphasize that “teaching oral communication means developing students’ expressive abilities by regularly focusing on specific aspects of speech, such as fluency, pronunciation, grammatical accuracy, and body language.” definition of speaking researchers have various definitions of speaking. for instance, kevaliauskiene (2006) describes it as a skill designed to facilitate communication. fulcher (2003) explores the complexities of assessing spoken language proficiency. he highlights the challenges in defining “speaking” as a construct, noting that it encompasses various elements such as pronunciation, intonation, accuracy, fluency, strategies, and interactional aspects. fulcher emphasizes that attempting to isolate these components can overlook the dynamic nature of real-life conversations, where all these aspects interact simultaneously (2003). he draws parallels between speaking tests and driving tests, suggesting that both aim to collect systematic evidence to make inferences about a person’s abilities across a range of situations beyond what can be directly observed during the test itself. louma (2004) notes that oral communication can reveal aspects of a speaker’s personality and emotions through the nuances of spoken language. speaking entails using language to articulate thoughts clearly, pronounce words accurately, and express oneself effectively. mastery of this linguistic skill is essential for students to become proficient communicators. according to cartor and maccartlity (1997), students must learn how to engage in dialogue, which is often taken for granted and developed through socialization. however, teaching oral skills presents several challenges for educators. in countries where english is taught as a foreign language, students often have minimal exposure to the target language outside the classroom. a limited daily class period of just 45 minutes can hinder long-term learning. employing the engage, study, and activate (esa) model proposed by harmer (1998) can be effective in enhancing student engagement and maximizing learning outcomes. this approach encourages active participation during lessons and motivates students to practice speaking outside of class. oral skills in ethiopian secondary schools 43 no. 30 connection between the esa model and the teaching of oral skills the engage, study, and activate (esa) model, proposed by harmer (1998), is a popular and effective approach to teaching english, mainly when focusing on developing oral skills. the model is designed to provide a structured yet flexible framework for language learning that can be directly applied to improve students’ ability to speak fluently and accurately in english. here is how the esa model connects to and enhances the teaching of oral skills: engage the engage phase is about creating interest, motivation, and emotional connection to the topic or language before any new learning begins. this phase is crucial for oral skills because: building confidence: students need to feel comfortable and open before practicing oral communication. this phase helps reduce language anxiety and fear of mistakes, which are common barriers to oral participation. interactive activities: teachers often use games, warm-up discussions, or brainstorming activities to encourage students to express themselves freely. these activities are interactive and foster natural communication, which is vital for developing oral fluency. in teaching oral skills, the engage stage can involve activities such as role-playing, pair work, group discussions, or debates, where students engage in spontaneous speaking, laying the foundation for language practice. study the study phase focuses on explicit teaching of language features—such as grammar, vocabulary, and pronunciation—necessary for effective communication. in the case of oral skills, this phase helps ensure speaking accuracy. here is how it connects: accuracy in speech: while students may feel comfortable speaking in the engage phase, the study phase focuses on the correct use of language structures, vocabulary, and pronunciation. teachers can provide focused practice on specific areas where students may need improvement, such as correcting pronunciation or practicing sentence structures used in speaking. wakgari deressa agemso and alemayehu getachew beyene 44 no. 30 controlled activities may include guided practice or language drills that help reinforce correct pronunciation, vocabulary usage, or grammar. for example, students may be asked to repeat dialogues or engage in structured role-plays where they practice accurate sentence formation. this phase ensures that while students practice speaking, they are also conscious of accuracy and learn how to produce correct forms in their speech. activate the activate phase allows students to use the language creatively and freely in realworld contexts. it is the phase where fluency is developed, and students can practice using the language more spontaneously and naturally. the link to oral skills teaching is crucial: fluency-building: in the activate phase, students are encouraged to speak without fear of making errors. this is where they practice free speaking tasks, such as discussions, debates, presentations, or problem-solving activities. the teacher must give the students more freedom to speak, allowing them to produce longer, more connected speech. real-life contexts: the activate stage mirrors real-life situations, enabling students to become more proficient in using english in everyday communication. for example, students may role-play a job interview, give a presentation, or participate in a debate— all activities that require them to speak naturally without overthinking their words. fluency versus accuracy one significant challenge in teaching oral skills is finding the right balance between fluency and accuracy in language use. lindahl (2018) notes that teachers must carefully consider designing tasks that effectively teach oral communication to beginners, weighing the importance of accuracy—producing statements and pronouncing words without errors—against fluency, which involves engaging in dynamic dialogue to convey meaning. educators must maintain an equilibrium between these two aspects in their teaching practices, as an imbalance can hinder students’ language development. fluency, defined as the ability to express oneself clearly and coherently without excessive hesitation, is just as essential as using language correctly and minimizing errors. oral skills in ethiopian secondary schools 45 no. 30 methods and materials research design this analysis aimed to assess the practices involved in teaching oral skills, particularly in ninth-grade secondary schools. a descriptive survey design incorporating qualitative and quantitative methods was utilized to explore this topic. as sharma (2000) indicates, descriptive surveys are valuable for identifying current conditions and highlighting recent needs. scope of the study this study was conducted in the east wallaga zone, part of the oromia regional state in ethiopia, focusing on three secondary schools in the area. all three schools are located in nekemte town and are public institutions. a questionnaire was administered to a sample of 11 english teachers (9 males and 2 females) from darge, dalo, and biftu secondary schools. these schools vary in terms of geographical location, student demographics, and available resources, all of which influence their academic performance, teaching methods, and extracurricular opportunities. the infrastructure and leadership at each school also contribute to its unique educational experience. according to the information provided by the school principals, these eleven teachers were assigned to teach ninth-grade english. as a result, all available ninth-grade english teachers at these schools were included in the study. additionally, 272 ninth-grade students from the three schools were selected through simple random sampling. data collection tools the analysis employed three data collection tools: a questionnaire, classroom observation, and interviews. questionnaire a total of 272 students and 11 english teachers from three secondary schools in the east wallaga zone were selected. the researchers used structured questionnaires with closed-ended questions to gather information about teaching methods, student participation, and perceptions of oral skills instruction. the questionnaire inquired about the specific methods used for teaching oral skills, the frequency of activities wakgari deressa agemso and alemayehu getachew beyene 46 no. 30 (e.g., debates, role-plays), and challenges faced in the classroom. the questionnaire also focused on students’ experiences, including how often they practiced oral skills (e.g., fluency vs. accuracy) and their perceptions of teaching effectiveness. the questionnaires were distributed in paper form, completed in class, and then collected for analysis. classroom observation the researchers observed teachers’ lessons in real time, specifically focusing on ninth-grade english classes. the researchers observed how oral skills were taught, focusing particularly on interactive activities (e.g., group discussions, roleplays), teacher-student interactions, and the application of teaching methods. the observations aimed to evaluate the implementation of the esa model and how students participated in speaking activities. observations were conducted in a natural classroom setting, with detailed field notes recorded on the effectiveness of oral skills teaching, classroom dynamics, and student engagement. interviews semi-structured interviews were conducted with a sample of teachers and students. interviews explored teachers’ personal experiences, teaching challenges, and their perceptions of students’ speaking skills. teachers were asked about the effectiveness of their methods for teaching oral skills, the obstacles they faced, and their strategies for improving student participation. students were interviewed about their experiences with oral skills activities, their feelings towards speaking english, and any challenges they encountered, such as anxiety or limited practice. these interviews were conducted individually, either in person or via alternative formats, and the responses were documented for further analysis. oral skills teaching techniques used by teachers in teaching oral skills, employing a variety of activities provides students with opportunities to practice language in diverse contexts. generally, teachers utilize techniques such as brainstorming, debates, role-playing, storytelling, information gaps, problem-solving, and presentations to engage students. however, the presentation styles and preferences varied among teachers, often limited to a few everyday activities. the collected data reflects these realities, as illustrated in the following table. oral skills in ethiopian secondary schools 47 no. 30 table 1 students’ response on the activities of teaching speaking skills their teachers use no. items no. responses in percentage and frequency resp never rarely sometimes usually always f % f % f % f % f % 1 brainstorming 270 10 3.7 15 5.5 40 14.8 90 33.3 115 42.59 2 group discussion 270 3 1.1 7 2.5 34 12.5 103 38.1 123 45.5 3 role play 270 47 17.4 43 15.9 82 30.3 57 21.1 41 15.1 4 pair work 270 27 10 17 6.2 33 12.2 102 37.7 91 33.7 5 problem-solving 270 75 27.7 92 34 55 20.3 30 11.1 18 6.66 6 storytelling 270 80 29.6 73 27 60 22.2 32 11.8 25 9.25 7 presentation 270 12 4.4 21 7.7 115 42.5 74 27.4 48 17.7 8 debating 270 85 34.4 99 36.6 33 12.2 34 12.5 19 7 table 1 illustrates that the most employed activities for teaching oral skills include group discussions, favored by 45.5% of students, followed by brainstorming at 42.59%, and pair work at 33.7%. other activities used occasionally include presentations (42.5%) and role-playing (30.3%) while problem-solving, storytelling, and debates were among the least utilized. classroom observations confirmed that teachers allocate time for discussions in pairs and small groups, though often with minimal guidance or support. this finding aligns with gudu (2015), who noted that debates are a preferred activity among teachers. while debates promote interaction and encourage student engagement, observations revealed that students frequently resorted to using their native language instead of english during these discussions. this poses a challenge, particularly in larger classes with over 50 students, making it difficult to manage language use effectively. teachers’ response to their favorite activities to teach oral skills the responses from the sample teachers regarding their preferred teaching methods largely mirrored those of the students. eight out of eleven teachers expressed a desire to engage their students in group discussions, believing this approach facilitates meaningful language practice. two teachers highlighted the importance of presentations, viewing them as opportunities for students to practice in a more natural wakgari deressa agemso and alemayehu getachew beyene 48 no. 30 setting. one teacher emphasized that pair work and role-playing are frequently used activities in their classrooms. these teacher’s responses align closely with those of the students. classroom observations also revealed that discussions were predominant in the majority of observed lessons, promoting language fluency. both types of practice— fluency and accuracy—appear to hold equal significance; however, traditional methods often prioritize accuracy, resulting in students speaking in a manner that resembles a grammar textbook. the students’ perceptions of the balance between fluency and accuracy in their classrooms are detailed in table 2 below. table 2 students’ response to the balance between accuracy and fluency no. items no. responses in percentage and frequency resp never rarely sometimes usually always f % f % f % f % f % 1 pronunciation 270 48 17.7 76 28.1 101 37.4 33 12.2 12 4.4 2 vocabulary 270 3 1.11 8 2.9 37 13.7 112 41.4 110 40.7 3 grammar 270 4 1.4 3 1.11 82 30.3 97 36 84 31.1 4 fluency 270 7 2.5 41 15.1 100 37 116 43 6 2.22 students’ response on the balance between accuracy and fluency effective oral communication in a language requires the correct use of various elements, including producing accurate sounds, selecting appropriate words, and forming grammatically correct structures. tasks related to pronunciation, grammar, and vocabulary are essential for achieving language accuracy. at the same time, it is crucial to convey a clear message without long pauses or difficulties in expressing thoughts and feelings in context-appropriate language. table 2 presents the frequency and percentage of students’ responses regarding how often pronunciation, vocabulary, grammar, and fluency are practiced in their oral skills education. when asked about the frequency of pronunciation practice in their classes, 37.4% of students indicated that it is sometimes addressed, while 28.1% reported it as occasionally practiced. in terms of vocabulary, 40.7% of students reported that their teachers consistently emphasize vocabulary instruction and assessment. few students mentioned that vocabulary practice is infrequent. oral skills in ethiopian secondary schools 49 no. 30 regarding grammar, 36% of students noted it as a common focus in their classes, with 30.3% stating they sometimes practice grammar during oral expression lessons. all eleven teachers acknowledged that vocabulary is one of the most emphasized components of oral skills in their teaching. classroom observations further confirmed that teachers frequently integrated vocabulary into their oral skills instruction, often highlighting commonly used expressions and relevant phrases on the board for students to practice. this emphasis on vocabulary and accuracy suggests that teacher practices prioritize accuracy over fluency. controlled and guided activities dominate their lessons, which may undervalue the importance of fluency, as indicated by the students’ responses in table 2. table 3 student’s response on what impeded their practice of learning speaking skills no. items no. responses in percentage and frequency resp sda disagree undecided agree sa f % f % f % f % f % 1 lack of interest 270 93 34.4 107 39.6 36 13.3 23 8.5 11 4 2 fear of making mistakes 270 10 3.7 6 2.2 65 2.4 110 40.7 79 29.2 3 large class size 270 8 3 16 6 45 16.6 87 32.2 91 23 4 use of mother tongue 270 17 6.2 9 3.33 50 18.5 176 65.1 18 6.66 sda: strongly disagree, sa=strongly agree teaching oral skills typically requires significant student collaboration in classroom activities. however, as illustrated in table 3, students’ fear and shyness emerged as major obstacles to their participation. statistically, 40.7% of respondents indicated that shyness and fear of making mistakes hinder their engagement, while 24% expressed uncertainty about their collaboration. despite this, students conveyed a desire to learn and enhance their oral skills. class size also poses a challenge, as noted by 32.2% of respondents, creating an environment where a few active students dominate discussions, leaving fewer active peers marginalized. from the teachers’ perspective, four reported that students’ disinterest significantly impacts their teaching, citing that 65.1% of students frequently use their mother tongue during discussions. in contrast, the other seven teachers did not view this lack of interest as a serious issue; they felt that the limited participation of a few students in discussions was more concerning. nonetheless, all teachers acknowledged that large class sizes, often exceeding 50 students, are a significant barrier to effective instruction. wakgari deressa agemso and alemayehu getachew beyene 50 no. 30 data obtained through interview data collected through interviews with selected students and teachers verified these findings. students noted that teachers often employ oral skills activities such as debates, brainstorming, dialogues, and presentations. teachers confirmed that their teaching remains student-centered, focusing on discussions and debates while dedicating considerable time to grammatical and vocabulary instruction. in contexts like ethiopia, where english language education is largely confined to the classroom, an exclusive focus on accuracy can hinder students’ communicative competence. teachers’ interviews suggested that this issue is deeply ingrained, as they were trained in similar ways. therefore, addressing these challenges within the educational system is unlikely to be straightforward, reflecting a cycle influenced by how teachers were educated. findings teachers use a range of oral skill activities, with group discussions (45.5%), brainstorming (42.6%), and pair work (33.7%) being the most common. however, activities like debates, storytelling, and problem-solving were used less frequently. teachers and students alike favored group discussions and presentations as a means of promoting interaction and language use. teachers placed more emphasis on accuracy (grammar, vocabulary, pronunciation), often prioritizing controlled activities to minimize errors. however, students also practiced fluency (through spontaneous speaking tasks, such as discussions or debates) during lessons, although fluency practice seemed less frequent. students reported that vocabulary (40.7%) and grammar (36%) were the most commonly emphasized aspects of oral skills. the fear of making mistakes (40.7%) and large class sizes (32.2%) were significant obstacles to effective participation in speaking activities. using the mother tongue (65.1%) during activities, particularly in larger classes, was a common issue that hindered english use. teachers found that students’ lack of interest and fear were significant barriers, but some teachers downplayed the issue of student disengagement. teacher-student interactions were frequently limited in larger classes, where a few students dominated, leaving others passive. despite challenges, many students expressed a desire to improve their speaking skills. oral skills in ethiopian secondary schools 51 no. 30 conclusions oral communication serves not only as a way to interact on various topics but also as a means for individuals to reflect on their identity and culture. providing students with opportunities for relationship-building and meaningful negotiation is essential for enhancing language proficiency (braden, 2018). however, teachers often limit themselves to specific activities, such as debates, brainstorming, and pair work, which restricts students’ exposure to a broader range of interactive experiences (dejong, 2014; nunan, 2018). teaching oral communication in a foreign language presents several challenges; nonetheless, effective organization and the incorporation of active learning can facilitate successful communication (macknish & tomas, 2018). while the findings of this study reveal that the predominant activities used for teaching oral skills—such as discussions, pair work, and brainstorming—are indeed interactive, their variety is quite limited. teachers should implement a broader range of activities that promote student collaboration in real-world contexts, providing ample practice opportunities. a study by karim and richards (2015) in iran highlighted a similar reliance on debates for teaching oral skills, suggesting that while debates can foster dialogue, diversifying activities could better support students’ language practice in relevant situations. additionally, a lack of structured follow-up during these debates further diminished their effectiveness. for instance, in the context of this analysis, teachers did not assign specific roles to students, such as scribes, presenters, or leaders, which weakened the benefits of interactive speaking tasks. this lack of role assignment undermines key advantages of group discussions, including fostering participation, promoting positive interdependence, and encouraging individual responsibility among students. these findings align with the views of christison and murray (2014), and braden (2018), who emphasize the importance of each student’s role in group discussions. recommendations • teachers should expand their use of interactive activities beyond debates and brainstorming, incorporating role-playing, storytelling, simulations, and problem-solving tasks. this will provide students with diverse opportunities to practice oral skills in real-world contexts. • teachers should balance fluency and accuracy by integrating activities that encourage spontaneous communication while also addressing grammatical and pronunciation accuracy. this will help students develop both their speaking fluidity and correctness. wakgari deressa agemso and alemayehu getachew beyene 52 no. 30 • to foster a supportive environment, teachers should implement strategies to reduce students’ fear of speaking. icebreakers, smaller group discussions, and creating a more relaxed classroom atmosphere can build students’ confidence in using english. • teachers should be provided with professional development opportunities, including workshops focused on effective teaching strategies for oral skills and managing diverse classroom dynamics. this will improve their ability to engage students and incorporate interactive methods. • teachers should employ strategies such as dividing large classes into smaller groups to ensure better student engagement and participation. this will help mitigate the challenges posed by overcrowded classrooms and ensure that more students have opportunities to speak and interact in english. by implementing these recommendations, educators can create a more effective and engaging learning environment that fosters students’ oral communication skills in english. oral skills in ethiopian secondary schools 53 no. 30 references abebe gebretsadik. 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(2004). assessing speaking. cambridge university press. https://doi. org/10.1017/cbo9780511733017 macknish, c., & tomas, z. (2018). materials development for teaching speaking. in the tesol encyclopedia of english language teaching (pp. 1–5). john wiley & sons. https://doi.org/10.1002/9781118784235.eelt0250 marlina, r. (2018). teaching language skills. in the tesol encyclopedia of english language teaching (pp. 1–6). john wiley & sons. https://doi. org/10.1002/9781118784235.eelt0665 mede, e., cosgun, t., & atay, d. (2019). the importance of oral communication in second language learning. european journal of education and linguistics, 8(3), 92–100. ministry of education. (1994). education and training policy of ethiopia. federal democratic republic of ethiopia. ministry of education. (2005). guidelines for english language enhancement in our teacher education institutions: a set of practical guidelines to help promote the use of english at your institution. addis ababa: moe. nunan, d. (2018). teaching speaking to young learners. in the tesol encyclopedia of english language teaching (pp. 1–6). john wiley & sons. https://doi. org/10.1002/9781118784235.eelt0715 oradee, t. (2012). developing speaking skills using three communicative activities (discussion, problem-solving, and role-playing). international journal of social science and humanity, 2(6), 533–535. https://doi.org/10.7763/ijssh.2012.v2.164 oral skills in ethiopian secondary schools 55 no. 30 sharma, r. (2000). fundamentals of educational research. mcerut: inter publishing house. spratt, m., pulverness, a., & williams, m. (2005). the teaching of speaking skills. cambridge university press. ur, p. (1996). a course in language teaching: practice and theory. cambridge university press. authors wakgari deressa agemso(ph.d) is an assistant professor at mattu university in ethiopia, where he teaches english language and literature. he earned his ph.d. in tefl from jimma university, ethiopia, in 2022. his research interests include education, grammar instruction, speaking, and studies related to culture and multilingualism. he has published many international publications in reputable journals. orcid: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0783-2689 mr. alemayehu getachew beyene is an instructor at wollega university. he also teaches english language and literature. he got his ma in tefl from jimma university. orcid: https://orcid.org/0009-0005-4655-4628 wakgari deressa agemso and alemayehu getachew beyene an experimental study on the impact of collaborative and active learning on vocational students’ learning achievement and self-motivation estudio experimental sobre el impacto del aprendizaje colaborativo y activo en el rendimiento académico y la automotivación de los estudiantes de formación profesional ruijuan li1, sarit srikhao2 and nirat jantharajit3 nakhon phanom university, thailand. 7 no. 28 gist education and learning research journal. issn 1692-5777. no. 28 (january june, 2024). pp. 7-28. 1 lzbslrj@163.com 2 sarit63@hotmail.com 3 n20jann@hotmail.com 8 no. 28 impact of collaborative and active learning on students abstract the study examines a blended instructional approach combining collaborative and active learning to improve vocational students’ learning achievement and self-motivation. an experimental design was utilized, dividing vocational students into control and experiment groups. the experiment group participated in a one-month collaborative and active learning intervention, while the control group received traditional instruction. the experiment group achieved significant gains in academic achievement, with pre-test and post-test means rising from 79.63 to 86.15 (t=19.72, p<0.05) and self-motivation scores increasing from 37.82 to 42.74 (t=19.71, p<0.05). in contrast, the control group exhibited lower post-test scores in both academic achievement (mean=80.16, t=3.67, p<0.05) and self-motivation (mean=38.4, t=5.31, p<0.05). these results indicate that integrating collaborative and active learning strategies significantly impacts learning achievement and self-motivation in vocational education. this suggests that this instructional approach is highly effective in improving student outcomes. keywords: instructional approach; collaborative learning; active learning; learning achievement; self-motivation resumen el estudio examina un enfoque de enseñanza combinado que integra el aprendizaje colaborativo y activo para mejorar el rendimiento académico y la automotivación de los estudiantes de formación profesional. se utilizó un diseño experimental, dividiendo a los estudiantes de formación profesional en grupos de control y experimental. el grupo experimental participó en una intervención de aprendizaje colaborativo y activo durante un mes, mientras que el grupo de control recibió instrucción tradicional. el grupo experimental logró aumentos significativos en el rendimiento académico, con medias de pretest y postest que aumentaron de 79.63 a 86.15 (t=19.72, p<0.05), y en las puntuaciones de automotivación, que incrementaron de 37.82 a 42.74 (t=19.71, p<0.05). en contraste, el grupo de control mostró puntuaciones más bajas en el postest tanto en rendimiento académico (media=80.16, t=3.67, p<0.05) como en automotivación (media=38.4, t=5.31, p<0.05). estos resultados indican que la integración de estrategias de aprendizaje colaborativo y activo tiene un impacto significativo en el rendimiento académico y la automotivación en la educación profesional, sugiriendo que este enfoque de enseñanza es altamente efectivo para mejorar los resultados de los estudiantes. palabras clave: enfoque de enseñanza; aprendizaje colaborativo; aprendizaje activo; rendimiento académico; automotivación. 9 no. 28 li ruijuan, sarit srikhao and nirat jantharajit resumo o estudo examina uma abordagem de ensino combinada que integra a aprendizagem colaborativa e ativa para melhorar o desempenho acadêmico e a automotivação dos estudantes de formação profissional. foi utilizado um desenho experimental, dividindo os estudantes de formação profissional em grupos de controle e experimental. o grupo experimental participou de uma intervenção de aprendizagem colaborativa e ativa durante um mês, enquanto o grupo de controle recebeu instrução tradicional. o grupo experimental alcançou aumentos significativos no desempenho acadêmico, com médias de pré-teste e pós-teste que aumentaram de 79,63 para 86,15 (t=19,72, p<0,05), e nas pontuações de automotivação, que aumentaram de 37,82 para 42,74 (t=19,71, p<0,05). em contraste, o grupo de controle apresentou pontuações mais baixas no pós-teste, tanto no desempenho acadêmico (média=80,16, t=3,67, p<0,05) quanto na automotivação (média=38,4, t=5,31, p<0,05). esses resultados indicam que a integração de estratégias de aprendizagem colaborativa e ativa tem um impacto significativo no desempenho acadêmico e na automotivação na educação profissional, sugerindo que essa abordagem de ensino é altamente eficaz para melhorar os resultados dos estudantes. palavras-chave: abordagem de ensino; aprendizagem colaborativa; aprendizagem ativa; desempenho acadêmico; automotivação 10 no. 28 introduction traditional education has long been the dominant model in teaching professions. the teacher-centered approach focuses on knowledge transmission and standardized learning (ribeiro, 2011). bonwell and eison (1991) criticized traditional, lecture-based instruction for limiting student participation and adopting a one-way transfer of information. while this method effectively transmits large amounts of information, more is needed to foster deeper understanding and critical thinking (regmi, 2012). despite its conventional use, traditional education has inherent limitations. expecting students to learn uniformly can result in disengagement or aversion to education (cole et al., 2004). this has prompted a shift toward innovative, student-centered approaches to address these issues. collaborative learning and active learning represent innovative teaching methods successfully applied in vocational education for decades (győri & czakó, 2020). these methods enhance students’ teamwork skills and foster independent thinking and problem-solving abilities. collaborative learning involves students working together to complete tasks, discuss problems, and find solutions, helping them develop communication, coordination, and cooperation skills. it fosters a sense of teamwork and collective responsibility, enabling students to support each other when facing complex practical tasks (haugland et al., 2022; coll et al., 2014). active learning requires students to engage actively in courses, explore knowledge independently, pose questions, and seek solutions. this approach cultivates autonomous learning, fostering independent thinking and problem-solving and enhancing motivation and achievement (paulins & moeller, 2017; freeman et al., 2014). in the 21st-century vocational environment, these abilities are considered essential skills. therefore, applying collaborative and active learning methods in vocational education is crucial. previous research has theoretically supported integrating collaborative and active learning methods in vocational education, indicating that these approaches can enhance students’ learning achievement and self-motivation (ruijuan et al., 2023). despite the broad theoretical acceptance of blended teaching methods, their practical application in vocational education has yet to be fully validated. research on the impact of these methods on student achievement and motivation remains limited in chinese vocational education. for instance, a collaborative learning by teaching experiment conducted at a chinese university was positively received by students (zhou et al., 2019). chinese education authorities have increasingly encouraged veteran teachers to incorporate collaborative learning methods, including classroom action research and joint lesson planning (qi et al., 2021). a meta-analysis found that in stem (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) education in china, active learning improved students’ academic performance, engagement, and classroom satisfaction compared to traditional teaching methods (ting et al., 2023). impact of collaborative and active learning on students 11 no. 28 hence, this study aims to investigate the implementation of blended teaching methods and their impact on students’ learning achievement and self-motivation in vocational education. specifically, it seeks to answer two core questions: 1) can blended teaching methods significantly improve vocational students’ learning achievement and self-motivation? 2) do blended teaching methods offer a clear advantage over traditional approaches in vocational education? the findings will provide theoretical insights for improving teaching methods in vocational education and practical guidance for educational practice. this study is grounded in the theory that collaborative and active learning, though well-developed in general education, has yet to be widely explored in vocational education. however, new insights and approaches tailored to vocational students are now available. from a practical standpoint, this research will develop blended teaching strategies that integrate collaborative and active learning to address practical challenges in vocational skills education. these strategies will help improve teaching quality and the vocational skills development of students. additionally, this study contributes to the theoretical discourse on vocational education by providing evidence for educational reforms, thereby promoting the holistic development of vocational students within the specific educational environment of vocational training. literature review importance of learning achievement and self-motivation the importance of learning achievement and self-motivation is well-documented in educational research. wild and grassinger (2023) found that difficulties in selfregulating personal motivation are linked to higher dropout rates in university courses, with students who struggle in self-regulation more prone to dropping out. achievement motivation, including academic self-concept and interest in the subject, directly influences academic performance, with students possessing higher motivation typically performing better (susanto & bahar, 2020; ghorbani yekta et al., 2020). perceived teaching quality indirectly impacts dropout rates through its effect on academic self-concept, subject interest, and motivation regulation. high-quality teaching can increase student enthusiasm and retention (wild & grassinger, 2023). alrashidi (2020) suggests that strategies such as detailed feedback, group work, and multimedia can enhance motivational constructs (e.g., self-efficacy) and improve language achievement. envisioning oneself as a proficient language user (ideal et al.) is closely tied to learning achievement and is a crucial motivator (tort calvo, 2015). li ruijuan, sarit srikhao and nirat jantharajit 12 no. 28 what is collaborative learning? collaborative learning promotes cooperation and active group participation, enhancing outcomes through interaction, idea-sharing, and mutual support. grounded in vygotsky’s sociocultural theory, it posits that learning is a social process where knowledge is constructed through interaction and discussion with others. laal and laal (2012) argue that optimal learning occurs through active participation and peer collaboration, where students discuss ideas and gain new insights. in collaborative learning, students work in groups to achieve common goals, with interaction and discussion being crucial to learning. teachers act as facilitators, providing guidance and support as needed. collaborative learning can occur face-to-face or online using technological tools. research indicates collaborative learning promotes higher-order thinking skills and improves learning achievement while enhancing social skills and motivation (ghavifekr, 2020). however, it requires careful planning and a wellstructured environment to be effective (stahl, 2023). challenges of collaborative learning include ensuring individual accountability, managing team dynamics, and assessing individual contributions. technology platforms like the metaverse and social media for collaborative learning also raise new considerations regarding privacy, security, and data access (jovanović & milosavljević, 2022; ansari & khan, 2020). what is active learning? active learning promotes student engagement by directly involving them in acquiring knowledge, skills, and understanding (ruijuan et al., 2023). freeman et al. (2014) found active learning improves student performance, especially in stem fields. the advantages of active learning include: 1) improving exam scores and reducing failure rates; 2) fostering collaboration between students and teachers; and 3) increasing student engagement, leading to better retention and understanding (freeman et al., 2014; sølvberg, 2023). however, active learning faces challenges in higher education, including institutional inertia and infrastructure coordination (børte et al., 2023). aini (2020) notes that implementing active learning requires careful planning and design, using tools like the addie model to ensure material effectiveness. støckert et al. (2020) highlight using collaborative learning spaces, such as the “portal” system in a master’s program, to promote cross-campus and team-based learning. relationship between collaborative learning and active learning collaborative and active learning, as interconnected concepts, often complement each other. collaborative learning focuses on collective student efforts, while active impact of collaborative and active learning on students 13 no. 28 learning emphasizes engagement in diverse activities. numerous studies have confirmed that both methods effectively enhance student engagement. qureshi et al. (2023) found that social media and active collaborative learning significantly improved student engagement, satisfaction, and achievement. additionally, collaborative and active learning strategies can lead to superior learning outcomes. menacho-vargas et al. (2022) found that using canva in virtual environments promotes collaborative learning and improves engagement and learning outcomes. instructors’ teaching methods also significantly impact students’ group learning and their ability to enhance learning through collaborative activities (chang-tik, 2023). technology integration plays a crucial role in supporting collaborative and active learning. wang & wang (2023) demonstrated how capsule networks in hyperspectral image classification promote active learning and collaboration. research methodology research design this study investigates the impact of a blended instructional approach combining collaborative and active learning on vocational students’ learning achievement and self-motivation. the research is divided into three phases: 1) the first focuses on designing the blended instructional approach. a comprehensive literature review was conducted on collaborative learning, active learning, learning achievement, and selfmotivation. in collaboration with teachers, the chinese freshman telecommunications principles textbook was analyzed. the teaching model was designed, and scales and tests were developed based on the textbook’s characteristics and collaborative and active learning elements. 2) the second phase is the validation and revision stage. the experiment group participated in a one-month intervention using the collaborative and active learning model. the group was assessed using skill assessment scales and tests. research data analysis assessed the reliability and validity of the tools, leading to revisions of the teaching model. 3) the final phase is the implementation stage. the study utilized an equivalent control group design with a significance level (α) of 0.05. pre-tests were administered to the experimental and control groups to evaluate their baseline learning achievement and self-motivation. over one month, post-tests were conducted to measure the effectiveness of the instructional methods, facilitating a comparative analysis. research variables this study investigates the effects of different instructional methods on vocational students’ learning achievement and self-motivation. the independent variable is the li ruijuan, sarit srikhao and nirat jantharajit 14 no. 28 instructional method, with the experiment group using a blended approach and the control group using traditional methods. the dependent variables are learning achievement and self-motivation. participants using cluster sampling, 77 students were randomly selected from a cohort of 290 freshmen at liuzhou vocational and technical college. these students were randomly assigned to the experiment group (27 students), the control group (25 students), and the validation group (25 students). the average age for the control group was 17.4 years, and for the experiment group, it was 17.8 years. all participants had similar academic backgrounds and studied the same major. intervention the intervention took place in natural classroom settings at liuzhou vocational and technical college. initial assessments of students’ learning achievement and selfmotivation were conducted through pre-tests. subsequently, a blended instructional approach combining collaborative and active learning was introduced, designed to foster a collaborative environment that enhances academic achievement and self-motivation (table 1). this environment was achieved by assigning practical, challenging tasks, offering guidance and support, emphasizing collaboration, and promoting active learning. students worked in groups to complete tasks, participate in discussions, and collaboratively solve problems. teachers served as coaches and guides, offering resources, technology, and feedback to support student learning. the instructional framework was designed to develop students’ collaborative, analytical, presentation, and problem-solving skills and their interest and initiative in learning. the instructional process included 20 sessions, each lasting 45 minutes. following the instructional period, post-tests evaluated improvements in students’ learning achievement and self-motivation. the comparison of pre-test and post-test data highlights this instructional approach’s impact on students’ learning achievement and self-motivation, offering insights for future educational practice. impact of collaborative and active learning on students 15 no. 28 table 1. instructional design: objectives, resources, and time allocation instructional design details teaching objectives 1. increase student engagement and motivate them to apply themselves in their learning activities. 2. foster mutual understanding and enhance collaboration through improving communication skills. 3. promote analytical thinking and encourage a focus on producing outcomes. 4. inspire students to explore unfamiliar concepts and adopt a proactive attitude. teaching resources 1. group allocation: organize students into groups (4-6 people) to promote interactive learning and teamwork. 2. collaborative tools: provide tools such as whiteboards, shared documents, and online platforms for effective communication and cooperation. 3. resources: supply teaching notes, reference materials, and web links. 4. technical support: ensure students have the necessary technology and skills to complete their tasks. teaching time 90 minutes table 1 presents the foundational goals, resources, and time allocations for this intervention, establishing a framework for understanding each activity’s expected outcomes and the support structure fostering a conducive learning environment. based on this foundation, table 2 details the execution of each instructional phase, illustrating how collaborative and active learning components were integrated throughout each session. this progression from table 1 to table 2 reflects a logical transition from instructional planning to practical application, aligning each phase with the intended educational objectives. li ruijuan, sarit srikhao and nirat jantharajit 16 no. 28 table 2. teaching process phase description duration introduction phase define task objectives and expectations. explain collaborative activities and motivate students to share ideas. 10 minutes task design phase design a practical, team-based task requiring innovative solutions. provide learning materials and technical support. 15 minutes group collaboration facilitate teamwork and idea-sharing within groups. ensure active participation from all students. 25 minutes active learning phase promote critical thinking and curiosity through questions and exploration. encourage students to engage in various activities such as experimenting. 20 minutes teacher guidance provide feedback and guide students through tasks. create a supportive learning environment. 10 minutes summary and evaluation students present their results and reflections. evaluate student performance and provide feedback. 10 minutes research hypotheses h1: the blended instructional approach combining collaborative and active learning will improve first-year students’ learning achievement and self-motivation compared to their pre-intervention levels. h2: the blended instructional approach, which combines collaborative and active learning, will result in higher learning achievement and self-motivation in first-year students compared to the control group. research instruments academic achievement test papers (aatp) the academic achievement test papers (aatp) consist of 50 multiple-choice questions, each worth 2 points, for a total of 100 points. the pretest will assess students’ learning achievement before and after the course. a question bank will prevent pretest results from affecting post-test results and maintain consistent difficulty across tests. questions will be randomly selected for the pretest and post-test to ensure impact of collaborative and active learning on students 17 no. 28 no repetition. this ensures that each student encounters a unique set of questions, preventing any influence of the pretest on post-test results. additionally, this method ensures that the difficulty level remains consistent across both tests. questions will be categorized into manageable (20), medium (20), and challenging (10) levels and randomly selected for both the pretest and posttest. five field experts rigorously reviewed the aatp, deeming it high-quality. self-motivation assessment scale the self-motivation assessment scale (smas) includes five dimensions: interest and engagement, participation and collaboration, focus and perseverance, selfencouragement and positive attitude, and self-estimation and career development, with two questions per dimension, totaling 10 questions. the widely recognized likert 5-point scale ensures objective and accurate scoring. by evaluating specific items within these dimensions, teachers can understand students’ eagerness to learn and provide appropriate support. smas provides educators with a detailed guide to enhance students’ motivation, encouraging participation, goal-setting, problemsolving, concentration, perseverance, and self-study while building confidence for future careers. five trained teachers will assess 27 students from the experiment group and 25 from the control group, with each teacher evaluating 5-6 students to ensure comprehensive and accurate assessments. smas was deemed high-quality after a rigorous review by five experts. data analysis spss statistical software was used to analyze the aatp and smas scores. the data were analyzed using anova and t-tests to examine 1) differences between pre-test and post-test results and 2) distinctions between the experiment and control groups. the threshold for statistical significance was established at p < 0.05, with cohen’s d values of 0.2, 0.5, and 0.8 signifying small, medium, and large effect sizes, respectively. ethical approval this study received formal approval from the ethics committees of liuzhou vocational and technical college and nakhon phanom university. before providing voluntary consent, participants were fully informed about the study’s purpose, methods, potential risks, and their rights and obligations. the study adhered to ethical guidelines, taking continuous measures to protect participants’ legal rights and the confidentiality of their personal information. li ruijuan, sarit srikhao and nirat jantharajit 18 no. 28 results comparison of pre-test and post-test in the experiment group. table 3 compares academic achievement between pre-test and post-test scores for a sample of 27 participants. the mean academic achievement score increased from 79.63 (sd=6.77) in the pre-test to 86.15 (sd=5.74) in the post-test. the t-test for paired samples indicated a statistically significant improvement (t=19.72, p<0.05) with a large effect size (cohen’s d=3.794). similarly, the self-motivation scores increased from the pre-test (m=37.82, sd=3.98) to the post-test (m=42.74, sd=3.03). the paired samples t-test also revealed a statistically significant enhancement (t=19.71, p<0.05) with a large effect size (cohen’s d=3.793). table 3. comparison of pre-test and post-test in the experiment group. variable n mean sd t p cohen’s d academic achievement pre-test 27 79.63 6.77 19.72 0.000* 3.794 post-test 27 86.15 5.74 self-motivation pre-test 27 37.82 3.98 19.71 0.000* 3.793 post-test 27 42.74 3.03 note: *p<0.05. the results indicate significant improvements in academic achievement and selfmotivation following the intervention. the larger effect size can be attributed to the intensive and targeted nature of the instructional approach, which offers students direct engagement and hands-on experience, leading to a deeper understanding of the material and higher self-motivation. the increase in mean scores from pre-test to post-test in both variables suggests that the intervention positively impacted students’ performance and motivation. the high t-values and corresponding p-values (<0.05) reinforce the reliability of these findings, confirming the robustness of the improvements observed. comparison of experiment group pre-test with control group pre-test table 4 compares pre-test scores between the experimental and control groups. in academic achievement, the control group (n=25) had a mean score of 77.84 (sd=6.38), while the experiment group (n=27) had a mean score of 79.63 (sd=6.77). the independent samples t-test showed no statistically significant difference (t=0.98, p>0.05), with a small effect size (cohen’s d=0.272). this indicates that the two groups impact of collaborative and active learning on students 19 no. 28 had no significant disparity in academic achievement before the intervention. similarly, the self-motivation scores were compared. the control group had a mean score of 36.48 (sd=3.11), and the experimental group had a mean score of 37.82 (sd=3.98). the t-test for this comparison yielded a t-value of 1.34 and a p-value of 0.186, which is not statistically significant (p>0.05). the effect size was moderate (cohen’s d=0.372), indicating a noticeable difference in mean scores, but not enough to conclude a significant effect from the intervention at this stage. table 4. comparison of experiment group pre-test with control group pre-test variable n mean sd t p cohen’s d academic achievement control group 25 77.84 6.38 0.98 0.332 0.272 experiment group 27 79.63 6.77 self-motivation control group 25 36.48 3.11 1.34 0.186 0.372 experiment group 27 37.82 3.98 note: *p<0.05. the results indicate that, prior to the intervention, there were no significant differences in academic achievement or self-motivation between the experimental and control groups. this baseline equivalence is crucial for ensuring that any post-test differences can be more confidently attributed to the intervention itself rather than pre-existing differences between the groups. the small and moderate effect sizes for academic achievement and self-motivation suggest that observed differences are likely due to random variation rather than systematic effects from the intervention. comparison of experiment group post-test with control group post-test table 5 compares post-test scores between the experimental and control groups. the academic achievement mean score for the control group (n=25) was 80.16 (sd=6.03), whereas the experiment group (n=27) had a significantly higher mean score of 86.15 (sd=5.74). the independent samples t-test indicated a statistically significant difference (t=3.67, p<0.05) with a large effect size (cohen’s d=1.019). this substantial effect size suggests that the difference in academic achievement between the groups is not only statistically significant but also of practical importance. for self-motivation, the control group had a mean score of 38.40 (sd=2.84), while the experiment group’s mean score was markedly higher at 42.74 (sd=3.03). the t-test for this comparison also revealed a statistically significant enhancement (t=5.31, p<0.05) with an even larger effect size (cohen’s d=1.475). this indicates a meaningful improvement in self-motivation for the experiment group. li ruijuan, sarit srikhao and nirat jantharajit 20 no. 28 table 5. comparison of experiment group post-test with control group post-test variable n mean sd t p cohen’s d academic achievement control group 25 80.16 6.03 3.67 0.001* 1.019 experiment group 27 86.15 5.74 self-motivation control group 25 38.40 2.84 5.31 0.000* 1.475 experiment group 27 42.74 3.03 note: *p<0.05. the results indicate substantial improvements in academic achievement and selfmotivation for the experiment group post-intervention. the enormous effect sizes and significant p-values indicate a profound positive impact on learning achievement and self-motivation. the high demand for practical skills and real-world applications explains this outcome in vocational education. this instructional approach aligns with vocational students’ learning needs by emphasizing hands-on practice and task completion, enabling them to apply learning to practical skills. furthermore, collaborative and active learning fosters a deeper understanding of the subject matter while enhancing students’ autonomy and sense of ownership in the learning process. when students actively engage with tasks and work in groups, they experience increased social support and develop essential problem-solving skills, contributing to heightened motivation and academic success. structured interaction in collaborative settings helps students build confidence by sharing ideas and receiving peer feedback. this form of learning enables them to explore different perspectives, reinforcing their ability to tackle complex tasks independently. the increased control over learning by active methods cultivates selfefficacy and persistence, contributing to the significant effect sizes. these factors create an enriched learning environment where students are more likely to achieve higher academic performance and maintain long-term motivation. the increases in the mean scores in both variables from the control group to the experiment group underscore the effectiveness of the intervention. the high t-values and corresponding p-values reinforce the reliability and robustness of these findings, confirming that the improvements observed are significant. this suggests that the blended instructional approach of collaborative and active learning enhances vocational students’ academic outcomes and supports the development of critical life skills, promoting both short-term success and long-term educational benefits. however, the small sample size in this study (only 27 students) may limit the broad applicability of the findings. the small sample size may increase the variability of the data and reduce generalizability to larger populations. nevertheless, the large effect impact of collaborative and active learning on students 21 no. 28 sizes and significant results suggest that this sample’s instructional approach was highly effective. discussion the study investigates the impact of collaborative and active learning on vocational students’ learning achievement and self-motivation. the experimental results show significant improvements in the experiment group’s learning achievement and selfmotivation, indicating that the combined method enhances self-motivation. thus, hypothesis 1 is supported. the control group showed minor improvements, while the experiment group demonstrated significant post-test progress, confirming the method’s effectiveness. thus, hypothesis 2 is also supported. the study’s findings reveal that collaborative learning significantly enhances vocational students’ learning achievement. this result aligns with existing literature, such as yuretich et al. (2001), which found that implementing cooperative learning in classroom exercises and guided discussions improves students’ learning outcomes. sipayung et al. (2018) found that the collaborative inquiry learning model enhances students’ 4c skills (collaboration, communication, critical thinking, and creativity) compared to traditional methods. in this study, the experiment group improved academic performance and teamwork through collaboration, task sharing, and information exchange. in vocational education, collaborative learning helps students apply knowledge in real-world contexts, solve problems, and improve academic performance. the study further confirms the positive role of active learning in enhancing students’ self-motivation. ballen et al. (2017) demonstrated that active learning disproportionately benefits underrepresented minority (urm) students, increasing learning achievement, science self-efficacy, and a sense of social belonging in stem courses. in this study, the experiment group enhanced their understanding, memory, interest in learning, and intrinsic motivation through task design, problem-solving, and active exploration. this suggests that active learning, which promotes autonomous learning, effectively enhances self-motivation, leading to greater engagement when facing challenges. the combination of collaborative learning and active learning can produce complementary effects. challenges in the curriculum, such as varying academic preparedness, can be addressed through integration, teamwork, active learning, and technology, as morgan et al. (1998) noted. detyna et al. (2024) found that combining active learning with collaboration and simulation improves content understanding, learner engagement, and knowledge retention. our results confirm this, showing significant improvements in the experiment group’s academic performance and selfli ruijuan, sarit srikhao and nirat jantharajit 22 no. 28 motivation after adopting the combined method. this synergy likely results from collaborative learning providing team support and communication, while active learning fosters autonomy and responsibility, encouraging proactivity and higher outcomes. despite the positive findings, this study has several limitations. first, the sample was limited to first-year students at liuzhou vocational and technical college, and the small sample size may affect generalizability. future research could include more schools and students from various grades to improve the generalizability of the findings. second, this study relied primarily on quantitative data and did not explore students’ specific experiences and feedback during collaborative and active learning. future studies could incorporate qualitative methods, such as interviews and observations, to gain deeper insights into students’ experiences and provide more comprehensive references for optimizing instructional approaches. scaling up these instructional approaches presents logistical and practical challenges. successful application requires teachers with extensive classroom management skills who can effectively manage team dynamics and provide targeted feedback. in china, recruitment standards for vocational college teachers now require master’s degrees, with “dual-teacher” qualifications becoming more desirable (xue & li, 2022). the overall improvement in teacher quality has supported the implementation of innovative instructional approaches. adequate teaching resources (e.g., time management, technological tools, and personalized support in large classes) are vital for improving teaching quality (delgado et al., 2015). differences in resource allocation across schools may lead to variations in implementation. another consideration is students’ academic preparation and socioeconomic conditions. vocational students often have diverse academic backgrounds, with some needing more foundational knowledge or self-regulation (mcinerney & king, 2017). individual differences must be considered to balance students’ starting points for learning through upfront academic assessment and support. socioeconomic backgrounds, such as limited access to stable internet or a conducive learning environment, may affect resource access (fabito et al., 2020). future research should explore how these external factors affect instructional outcomes and suggest inclusive strategies for students from diverse backgrounds. future research could incorporate qualitative methods, like interviews and observations, to gain insights into students’ learning experiences. for example, examining students’ feelings during group learning, their perceptions of self-learning, and how these approaches affect their confidence in future career development. this will provide more comprehensive data to support the optimization of instructional approaches in vocational education. impact of collaborative and active learning on students 23 no. 28 conclusion in this study, comparative analysis revealed that an instructional approach combining collaborative learning and active learning significantly improved vocational students’ academic performance and self-motivation. the results suggest that this approach promotes interaction and knowledge sharing while enhancing students’ motivation and autonomy. however, the small sample size (27 students) may limit the generalizability of the results. the short experimental period (one month) may only partially capture the long-term impact of these approaches on student development. future studies should include larger samples and longer experimental periods to assess the long-term effects of these approaches on learning outcomes and motivation. future research could also incorporate qualitative methods, such as interviews and observations, to explore students’ learning experiences in greater depth. this will provide a more comprehensive basis for optimizing instructional approaches in vocational education. li ruijuan, sarit srikhao and nirat jantharajit 24 no. 28 references aini, d. f. n. 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(2019). collaborative learning by teaching: a pedagogy between learner-centered and learner-driven. sustainability,  11(4), 1174. https://doi.org/10.3390/su11041174 li ruijuan, sarit srikhao and nirat jantharajit authors li ruijuan is a doctoral candidate at the faculty of education, nakhon phanom university, and an associate professor at the school of electronic information engineering, liuzhou vocational and technical college. currently teaches courses to associate degree students in modern communication technology. she also instructs undergraduate students in the industrial internet technology program in the course information technology and serves as an academic advisor. orcid: https://orcid.org/0009-0009-8301-796x sarit srikhao is a doctoral supervisor with a ph.d. in education. he is currently employed at the faculty of education, nakhon phanom university, thailand, where he primarily teaches english courses and courses in curriculum and instruction. he is also responsible for supervising doctoral students and promoting academic development through research in curriculum innovation and instructional methodologies. orcid: https://orcid.org/0009-0000-4318-8128 nirat jantharajit is an associate professor and doctoral supervisor with a ph.d. in education from chulalongkorn university. he is currently employed at the faculty of education, nakhon phanom university, thailand. he is primarily engaged in research related to higher education, curriculum development, and teaching. additionally, he supervises doctoral candidates and promotes academic development through research in curriculum innovation and instructional methodologies. orcid: https://orcid.org/0009-0005-1098-8109 28 no. 28 impact of collaborative and active learning on students ethiopian efl students’ willingness to communicate (wtc) and the factors associated with it in oral communicative english classes disposición a comunicarse (wtc) de los estudiantes etíopes de inglés como lengua extranjera y factores asociados a ella en las clases de inglés comunicativo oral dereje teshome abebe1, getachew seyuom w/mariam, and guta legese birassa department of english language and literature, jimma university, ethiopia 37 no. 27 gist education and learning research journal. issn 1692-5777. no. 27 (july december, 2023). pp. 37-68. 1 derejetesh@gmail.com 38 no. 27 abstract communication, particularly verbal communication, is central to the development of a desired competence in a second or foreign language. approaches such as communicative language teaching (clt) in second language acquisition emphasize practical use of the target language for effective learning/acquisition. however, despite the necessity of using a target language to learn it, it has been a common phenomenon to observe most learners exhibiting passiveness, reticence, and unwillingness to participate in oral communicative opportunities in english as a foreign language (efl) classes. this study therefore explored efl students’ willingness to communicate (wtc) in oral communicative english classes together with the factors underlying it in the ethiopian higher education context. to this end, primary quantitative data were collected from a randomly selected sample of 450 efl students taking oral communicative english courses followed by qualitative data from a sample of fifteen students selected again randomly to triangulate the results from the quantitative data. the results revealed that the target students had in general a low level of wtc in oral communicative english classes, and their wtc was affected by both psychological and contextual factors such as self-confidence, motivation, personality, language learning orientation and classroom environments. the findings indicate that efl students’ wtc is a crucial component to increase students’ participation in oral communicative english classes by raising their self-confidence, motivation and awareness of language learning orientations, coupled with facilitating the language learning environment. it is therefore suggested that wtc needs to be given special consideration while designing and preparing elt materials, and during instructions as well. keywords: classroom environment; ethiopian efl students’ willingness to communicate (wtc), motivation; personality; self-confidence resumen la comunicación, particularmente la comunicación verbal, es fundamental para el desarrollo de una competencia deseada en una segunda lengua o lengua extranjera. enfoques como la enseñanza comunicativa de lenguas (clt por sus siglas en inglés) en la adquisición de segundas lenguas enfatizan el uso práctico de la lengua meta para un aprendizaje/adquisición efectivos. sin embargo, a pesar de la necesidad de utilizar la lengua meta para aprenderla, es un fenómeno común observar que la mayoría de los estudiantes muestran pasividad, reticencia y falta de disposición para participar en oportunidades de comunicación oral en clases de inglés como lengua extranjera (efl por sus siglas en inglés). por lo tanto, este estudio exploró la disposición de los estudiantes de efl para comunicarse (wtc, por sus siglas en inglés) en clases de comunicación oral en inglés, junto con los factores subyacentes a esta disposición en el contexto de la educación superior en etiopía. para ello, se recolectaron datos cuantitativos primarios de una muestra aleatoria de 450 estudiantes de efl que tomaban cursos de comunicación oral en inglés, seguidos de datos cualitativos de una muestra de quince estudiantes seleccionados nuevamente al azar para triangular los resultados de los datos cuantitativos. los resultados revelaron que los estudiantes objetivo, en general, tenían un bajo nivel de wtc en las clases de comunicación oral en inglés, y su wtc se veía afectada tanto por factores psicológicos como contextuales, tales como la autoconfianza, la motivación, la personalidad, la orientación hacia efl students willingness to communicate orally in english classes 39 no. 27 el aprendizaje de idiomas y los entornos de clase. los hallazgos indican que la wtc de los estudiantes de efl es un componente crucial para aumentar la participación de los estudiantes en clases de comunicación oral en inglés, al incrementar su autoconfianza, motivación y conciencia sobre las orientaciones de aprendizaje de idiomas, junto con la facilitación del entorno de aprendizaje. por lo tanto, se sugiere que la wtc reciba una consideración especial al diseñar y preparar materiales de enseñanza de inglés como lengua extranjera, así como durante las instrucciones. palabras clave: entorno de clase; disposición de los estudiantes etíopes de efl para comunicarse (wtc); motivación; personalidad; autoconfianza resumo a comunicação, particularmente a comunicação verbal, é fundamental para o desenvolvimento de uma competência desejada em uma segunda língua ou língua estrangeira. abordagens como o ensino comunicativo de línguas (clt, sigla em inglês) na aquisição de segundas línguas enfatizam o uso prático da língua-alvo para uma aprendizagem/aquisição eficaz. no entanto, apesar da necessidade de utilizar a língua-alvo para aprendê-la, é comum observar que a maioria dos alunos demonstra passividade, reticência e falta de disposição para participar de oportunidades de comunicação oral em aulas de inglês como língua estrangeira (efl, sigla em inglês). portanto, este estudo explorou a disposição dos estudantes de efl em se comunicar (wtc, sigla em inglês) em aulas de comunicação oral em inglês, juntamente com os fatores subjacentes a essa disposição no contexto da educação superior na etiópia. para isso, foram coletados dados quantitativos primários de uma amostra aleatória de 450 estudantes de efl que cursavam aulas de comunicação oral em inglês, seguidos de dados qualitativos de uma amostra de quinze estudantes selecionados novamente ao acaso para triangular os resultados dos dados quantitativos. os resultados revelaram que os estudantes-alvo, em geral, apresentavam um baixo nível de wtc nas aulas de comunicação oral em inglês, e sua wtc era afetada por fatores psicológicos e contextuais, como autoconfiança, motivação, personalidade, orientação para a aprendizagem de idiomas e ambientes de sala de aula. as descobertas indicam que a wtc dos estudantes de efl é um componente crucial para aumentar a participação dos alunos nas aulas de comunicação oral em inglês, ao aumentar sua autoconfiança, motivação e conscientização sobre as orientações de aprendizagem de idiomas, juntamente com a facilitação do ambiente de aprendizagem. portanto, sugere-se que a wtc receba uma consideração especial ao projetar e preparar materiais de ensino de inglês como língua estrangeira, bem como durante as instruções. palavras-chave: ambiente de sala de aula; disposição dos estudantes etíopes de efl para se comunicar (wtc); motivação; personalidade; autoconfiança acknowledgements we would like to acknowledge and express our gratitude to werabe university and jimma university for being cooperative in facilitating and supporting the current stud.y dereje teshome abebe, getachew syoum weldemariam and guta legese birassa 40 no. 27 introduction language is the naturally endowed and uniquely distinguishing trait that sets human beings apart from other primates (dawson & phelan, 2016; sapir, 1921). it is the most essential and significant natural tool that links and holds people together, serves as a vehicle of socio-cultural integration, facilitates cognitive and interpersonal developments, and so on. above all, it serves as the most effective and efficient means of intraand intercultural communications between and among individuals, groups and societies/communities. humans acquire language as a native or mother tongue naturally in the early or formative years of development as a result of interaction with their environment such as the family; or as a second/foreign language during late childhood, adolescence or adulthood through different ways such as instruction, immersion, and the like. the need for learning especially a second/foreign language stands out prominent due to the various driving forces such as social, economic, cultural and political reasons (aronin, 2015; de zarobe & de zarobe, 2015). the current second language acquisition (sla) research and pedagogy in general, and english language teaching (elt) in particular, attach a great deal of importance to oral communications or interactions in the classrooms to help efl learners develop communicative competence in the target language. larsen–freeman (2007) stresses that language learning occurs in using the target language (tl), not in learning it first and using it later or vice versa. the two processes, using and learning the language, are inseparable. swain (2000) also points out that “language use and language learning can co-occur” and “it is language use [that] mediate[s] language learning” (p. 97). but for the ‘using’ to occur, there should certainly be the willingness, the willingness to communicate orally or use the language to learn it. willingness is thus a necessary precondition for efl learners to participate in authentic oral communications. however, despite the pressing need for a well-developed communicative competence in the english language in the current globalized world, and the necessity of interactions (trying to talk) to develop the needed competence in it, most efl students rather exhibit passiveness, reluctance, reticence and unwillingness to actively engage in oral communicative opportunities inside the classroom. on the other hand, scholars such as skehan (1989, p. 48) stress that “learners have to talk in order to learn”, which is indisputably a prerequisite for the successful development of the needed competence in the target (english) language. most of the students, however, seem to lack the basic energy that motivates them to initiate talks and keep it going on to help them improve their oral communicative skills. literature in the area, in general, indicate that students’ dearth of desire to actively participate in efl oral communicative situations is associated with their willingness to communicate (wtc) (cortazzi & jin, 1996; dornyei & ryan, 2015; macintyre et al., 1998; nazari & allahyar, 2012; shumin, 2002; tsui, 1996). efl students willingness to communicate orally in english classes 41 no. 27 l2 learners’ wtc is a contextually triggered psychological state of an individual’s communicative readiness and is an immediate antecedent to the actual communication behavior (henry et al., 2024). driven therefore by such l2 learners’ communication behavior (where some are willing and others are unwilling to participate in oral communicative activities when the opportunities arise), numerous studies were carried out to explore l2 learners wtc and the factors associated with it. however, most of the studies were limited to and carried out in the western and asian contexts, such as the usa, canada, japan, korea, turkey, and china (cameron, 2013; ma et al., 2023). the prominent figures in the area (macintyre et al., 1998), for instance, developed a comprehensive heuristic model based on canadian french as second language learners to describe and explain l2 learners’ wtc. however, little is known about l2 learners’ wtc in other areas such as africa (ma et al., 2023) though there are significant cultural/contextual variations. among these areas is found the ethiopian higher education context. hitherto, little is known specifically about ethiopian higher education efl students’ wtc and the factors that contribute to the students’ overall wtc. in addition, it is not also clear to what extent the heuristic model describes and explains ethiopian higher education efl students’ wtc in general. wen and clément (2003) argue that the heuristic model is developed based on the research studies mainly conducted in the western (canadian anglophone students learning french as a second language) context, which is quite different from the nonwestern efl contexts such as ethiopia. the model thus needs to be tested in other contexts such as learning english as a foreign language (efl), where there is usually no immediate linguistic need for everyday usage of the language. hence, this situation also suggests the need for further studies to verify the model in the non-western efl contexts. in addition, as discussed below in the literature review section, there are inconsistencies among the findings of previous studies with regard to the factors underlying l2 learners’ wtc in a specific context. the incongruities among the findings of the previous studies might be due to the environmental or contextual variations in which each study was undertaken. these inconsistencies unarguably lead to the need to carry out further investigation in the areas where little/none has been explored so far. a review of the literature on the topic (ethiopian efl students’ wtc) found only a single study that was carried out by welesilassie and nikolov (2024). the researchers studied the connection among efl learners’ motivational self-system, willingness to communicate, and self-assessed proficiency at a preparatory high school in ethiopia. in their study, the researchers identified self-assessed english proficiency as having “statistically significant positive predictive effects on l2wtc within and outside the classroom” (p. 1). they also reported the ideal l2 self as having no significant effect on the target students’ wtc outside the classroom. no other study is however found that attempted to explore efl students’ wtc. dereje teshome abebe, getachew syoum weldemariam and guta legese birassa 42 no. 27 the current study is thus triggered by the inconsistencies among the findings of previous studies that might be due to contextual variations, and the limitations with the heuristic model as it was developed in the western (canadian anglophone students learning french as a second language) context where little is known about its effectiveness in the other non-western contexts such as ethiopian efl context. in addition, the scarcity of studies about efl students’ wtc in the ethiopian educational context, despite the crucial importance of l2 learners’ wtc, has also urged the need for the conception of the current study. the current study, therefore, aimed to explore efl students’ wtc and the factors underlying it in the ethiopian higher education context based on macintyre et al.’s (1998) heuristic model. objectives of the study as already mentioned, the current study aimed to explore first-year undergraduate efl students’ willingness to communicate (wtc) orally and the factors associated with it in oral communicative english classes in three selected public universities in ethiopia. to this end, it focused on answering the following specific research questions. 1. what is the current state (tendency) of first-year efl students’ willingness to communicate orally in oral communicative english classes in the three public universities? 2. what factors contribute to the target students’ current state of willingness to communicate orally in oral communicative english classes in the three public universities? literature review willingness to communicate (wtc) is a relatively new construct in the field of second language acquisition (sla) (macintyre et al., 1998). it is an id (individual difference) variable that attempts to account for the reason why some students avoid communication, especially oral communications, in a second/foreign language learning while they have the opportunity to practice it (macintyre et al., 1998). the pioneering figures in the area macintyre et al. (1998, p. 547), define it as “a readiness to enter into discourse at a particular time with a specific person or persons using a l2”. building on (macintyre et al., 1998) definition kang (2005) elaborates l2 wtc as an “individual’s volitional inclination toward actively engaging in the act of communication in a specific situation, which can vary according to interlocutor(s), topic, and conversational context, among other potential situational variables” (p. 291). currently, a second/foreign language learners’ wtc is in general viewed as “the degree to which an individual is disposed toward talking, given the choice to speak or not to speak (ayers-glassey & macintyre, 2019). efl students willingness to communicate orally in english classes 43 no. 27 macintyre et al. (1998) developed a general and comprehensive heuristic model to describe, explain and predict l2 learners’ wtc. the model incorporates a range of linguistic, social, communicative, psychological and other potential variables that might influence l2 learners’ wtc. it, in general, consists of six layers divided into two groups: the immediate state-level situational variables and the distal trait-level enduring variables as depicted in figure 1. figure 1: macintyre et al.’s (1998) situational heuristic model the first three layers of the model (i – iii) refer to the immediate situation-specific or transient variables. they include such variables as desire to speak to a specific person, knowledge of the topic, etc., and depend on the specific context in which a person functions at a given time. the next three layers (iv-vi) discuss those distal variables with enduring influence on learners’ l2 wtc and include interpersonal relations, learners’ personalities, etc. they represent relatively stable, long-term properties of the environment or persons that apply to almost any situation. following the introduction of macintyre et al.’s (1998) appealing and comprehensive heuristic model, several studies were conducted by different researchers in different areas mostly in the western and asian contexts with the intention of examining the comprehensiveness of the model in addressing the issue of l2 learners’ wtc in different cultural settings, and at the same time to identify additional culture-specific variables, if any. the studies identified several factors associated with the respective study area l2 learners’ wtc. the findings are not, however, consistent. for instance, some of the studies conducted by cetinkaya (2005), kim (2004), macintyre and baker (2003), macintyre et al. (2001), yashima (2002) and yashima et al. (2004) identified communication anxiety and self-perceived communicative competence as the prominent predictors of esl/efl students’ wtc. dereje teshome abebe, getachew syoum weldemariam and guta legese birassa 44 no. 27 likewise, studies by dörnyei and kormos (2000), hashimoto (2002), lahuerta (2014) and macintyre et al. (2001) identified motivation and attitudes as the most influencing factors of the students’ wtc. among the focus of motivation are found such variables as the effect of integrative motivation (hashimoto, 2002; peng, 2007), attitude (yashima, 2002; yashima et al., 2004), motivational intensity (macintyre & legatto, 2011; pattapong, 2010; peng, 2014; peng & woodrow, 2010) and language learning orientations (zarrinabadi & abdi, 2011). moreover, the studies by cameron (2013), cetinkaya (2005), elwood (2011), fallah (2014), peng (2007) and fu et al. (2012) identified that personality is the most influencing factor of l2 learners’ wtc. on the other hand, the studies conducted by baghaei et al. (2012), barjesteh et al. (2012), cao and philp (2006), mystkowska-wiertelak and pawlak (2014), riasati (2012) and riazi and riasati (2008) concluded that the contextual/environmental factors such as group size, student cohesion, topic familiarity, task type and teacher support are the most influencing factors of students’ wtc. kang (2005) and zarrinabadi (2014) specifically emphasized teachers’ crucial role to create a supportive environment for students to be willing to participate in class and negotiate meaning. familiar topics and manageable task types are also mentioned among the most influential contextual factors that may facilitate or debilitate the learners’ wtc (kang, 2005; macintyre & legatto, 2011; wen & clément, 2003; zarrinabadi, 2014). the analysis of the results of the previous studies and the review of related literature, in general, indicates that there are divergences among the studies concerning the factors influencing efl students’ wtc in oral communication. while some of the studies (cao, 2009; cetinkaya, 2005; hashimoto, 2002; kim, 2004; lahuerta, 2014; liu, 2005; liu & jackson, 2009; peng, 2014; yashima et al., 2004) indicate that the trait-level individual factors such as self-confidence, motivation, personality, attitude, and the like are the most influencing factors of students’ wtc, other studies such as bernales (2016), cao and philp (2006), kang (2005), léger and storch (2009) and suksawas (2011) underscore the contextual/situational variables such as classroom environment, social and cultural orientation, l1 reliance and the like as the most influencing factors of l2 learners’ wtc. these inconsistencies together with other factors urge the need to carry out further studies in little/none explored areas such as ethiopia. materials and methods research design the current study primarily followed the quantitative research approach and combined the descriptive and correlational research designs. the descriptive design was used to describe the current state (tendency) of efl students’ wtc while the correlational design was used to explore the relationships between the factors (selfefl students willingness to communicate orally in english classes 45 no. 27 confidence, motivation, personality, language learning orientation, and classroom environment) and the students’ wtc. in addition, the qualitative (interviews) data were also used to triangulate the results obtained through the quantitative data. participants and study setting a sample of 450 first-year undergraduate efl students from three public universities in ethiopia (werabe, wachemo and welkite universities) taking oral communicative english courses were selected proportionally using a random sampling technique. of the 450 students, 243 (54%) students were male while the remaining 207 (46%) were female. the participants’ age ranges from 18 to 22. in addition, a sample of fifteen students was again selected randomly from the same sample for the qualitative data collected through interviews. table 1 presents a summary of the participants’ demographic data, the setting and context of the study. table 1. participants’ demographic data, setting and context of the study participants first-year efl students of three public universities in ethiopia male 243 54% gender female 207 46% total 450 100% setting werabe university, wachemo university and welkite university context oral communicative english classes instruments two types of questionnaires, wtc questionnaire and factor questionnaires, were adapted from different noted researchers in the area. seliger and shohamy (1989) underscore the advantage of adapting/adopting well-established (ready-made) instruments over developing a new one, indicating that their validity and reliability are already tested and confirmed through different studies and by different researchers. similarly, krosnick and presser (2010) also strongly advise researchers to review questionnaire items from earlier surveys before writing their own. according to these scholars, consulting previous surveys instead of starting from scratch is essentially helpful to increase the effectiveness and efficiency of the new survey scale to be developed. dereje teshome abebe, getachew syoum weldemariam and guta legese birassa 46 no. 27 accordingly, in the current study, the wtc questionnaire was thus adapted from macintyre et al. (2001) and pattapong (2010) while the factor questionnaires were adapted from different distinguished researchers such as mccroskey and mccroskey (2013) and khatib and nourzadeh (2015) –self-perceived communicative competence–, ryan (2009) –communication anxiety, language learning orientation and desire to learn english–, yashima (2002) –attitude toward learning english and motivational intensity–, goldberg (1992) –personality: introversion/extroversion– and mystkowska-wiertelak and pawlak (2016) –classroom environment: student cohesion, teacher support, topic familiarity and task orientation–. the wtc questionnaire was a five-point (never willing to always willing) likert-type scale. similarly, the factors questionnaires were also five-point (strongly disagree to strongly agree) likert-type scales. the questionnaires consisted of the student-participants’ background information and the items of each scale. table 2 presents details of each research instrument together with the pilot-tested internal consistency (cronbach’s alpha) of each scale. table 2 . details of research instruments variables scales no. of internal adapted from items consistency 1 students’ willingness to 19 0.82 mccroskey and richmond (1991) wtc communicate (wtc) and pattapong (2010) 2 factors self-confidence 10 0.89 mccroskey and mccroskey associated with (self-perceived communicative and khatib and nourzadeh (2015) the students’ wtc competence: spcc, communication anxiety: ca) 7 0.87 ryan (2009) motivation 15 0.81 ryan (2009) (desire to learn english, attitude toward learning english, motivational intensity) personality 9 0,86 goldberg (1992) (introversion/extroversion) language learning orientations 9 0,78 ryan (2009) (job/career, travel, knowledge) classroom environment 11 0.83 mystkowska-wiertelak and (task orientation, topic pawlak (2016) familiarity, student cohesion, teacher support) total items 80 efl students willingness to communicate orally in english classes 47 no. 27 in addition to the questionnaires, semi-structured interviews were also used to collect qualitative data to triangulate the results from the questionnaire’s data. a sample of 15 students was thus randomly selected from the respondents of the questionnaire and used for the qualitative data. the semi-structured interview questions were prepared based on and in line with the concepts that each item of the questionnaires refers to. data analysis both descriptive and inferential statistical techniques were used to analyze the quantitative data from the questionnaires. the descriptive analysis (mean, standard deviation, minimum, maximum) was used to explore and describe the variables of the study while the inferential statistics (t-test and multiple regression analysis) were used to test differences, measure and predict the relationships between the dependent and independent variables of the study. in addition, the qualitative data from the interviews were analyzed qualitatively using thematic analysis. results and findings students’ level of wtc the first research question explored the extent to which efl students were willing to communicate orally in communicative english classes. the data for the wtc questionnaire were analyzed based on jackson and liu (2008) full-score strategy as there is no universally agreed upon or well-established norm in the literature (published research) about the computation and interpretation of the level of l2 learners’ wtc scale data (peng, 2014). according to jackson and liu (2008), comparing the mean of the observed scores with that of the full score is a good strategy for computing and interpreting the summated score of univariate data such as the wtc scale. accordingly, the researchers suggest, as a rule of thumb, interpreting the scores more than 80% of the full score as high wtc, within the range of 60% to 80% as moderate, and below 60% as low wtc. thus, following jackson and liu (2008) full score practice, the minimum and maximum full scores of the wtc scale of the current study were 19 and 95 respectively with an average of 57. table 3 below shows the descriptive statistics of the summated score. dereje teshome abebe, getachew syoum weldemariam and guta legese birassa 48 no. 27 table 3. descriptive statistics of the summated score (n=450) scale type minimum maximum mean std. dev. wtc scale observed score 27.00 81.00 48.13 11.21 full score 19.00 95.00 57.00 the observed scores, however, ranged between 27 and 81 including the two extremes with a mean of 48.13. as can be seen clearly, the observed mean (48.13) was below 60% (57) of the full score. according to jackson and liu (2008), the mean of the summated score with more than 80% of the full score was regarded as high, between the range of 60% and 80% as moderate, and below 60% as low. results of analysis of the data however revealed that the average of the observed score (48.13, 50.6%) is far below the lowest level of moderate wtc (57, 60% of the full score). it can therefore be concluded that efl students had in general a low level of willingness to communicate orally in oral communicative english classes. the difference between the observed mean and the mean of the full score was also further examined to see whether the difference was statistically significant or not. table 4 below shows the output of a one-sample t-test analysis. before running the t-test analysis, however, shapiro-wilk’s normality test (ho, 2014) was applied to see the distribution of the summated-score data as the t-test requires an assumption of a relatively normal distribution of the data. the shapirowilk test assumes normality when the significance level is greater than 0.05. thus, as it can be seen from the table below, the distribution of the summated score of the wtc scale data is relatively normal as the shapiro-wilk test sig. is greater than 0.05 (sig. 0.635 > 0.05). table 4. normality test of the summated score (n=450) kolmogorov-smirnova shapiro-wilk statistic df sig. statistic df sig. summated score of 0.053 450 0.240* 0.990 450 0.635 wtc scale *. this is a lower bound of the true significance. a. lilliefors significance correction following the normality test, the analysis of the one-sample t-test result of the wtc summated score indicates that the difference was statistically significant at t(df = 449) = -11.446, p= 0.000 as it can be seen from table 5 below. the mean value of efl students willingness to communicate orally in english classes 49 no. 27 the observed summated score thus reveals that the respondents can in general be described by having a low level of wtc in oral communicative english classes. table 5. one-sample t-test results of the wtc scale (n=450) test value = 57 95% confidence interval of the difference t df sig. mean lower upper (2-tailed) difference summated scores of wtc scale -11.446 449 .000 -7.24667 -8.4909 -6.0025 the findings from the qualitative (interview) data were also found to support the results of the quantitative (questionnaire) data analysis. among the fifteen students interviewed, for instance, thirteen of them revealed that they rarely or never make speeches in english, ask their classmate or teacher different questions in english, respond to questions raised by the teacher in english, make discussions with groups in english, and give presentations in english during communicative english classes. only two students responded saying “sometimes” to the above communicative situations. a student codenamed s13f, for instance, said the following when asked whether she makes speeches in front of the classes with or without notes. no, i don’t. first of all, there is no inviting situation for this. so, we don’t most of the time participate voluntarily. we do that if there is a push. but sometimes i do it as it is also mandatory. it is a written text, not from my own oral words. i write it on a note and then deliver it. similarly, a student codenamed s3f said the following when asked whether she is willing to ask questions in english in communicative english classes. yes, sometimes when it becomes necessary. the point is that there is no tradition of asking and answering in english most of the time. most of the time, we only hear what the teacher says in class. then, we go to reading. otherwise, there is no culture of asking most of the time. the results and findings from both the quantitative and qualitative data sources in general revealed that the target students had a low level of willingness to communicate orally in oral communicative english classes. dereje teshome abebe, getachew syoum weldemariam and guta legese birassa 50 no. 27 factors affecting efl students’ wtc the second research question was concerned with identifying the major factors associated with and affecting the students’ wtc. two types of factors affecting the students’ wtc were examined: the trait-level, psychological and the state-level, situational factors. the psychological factors embrace such factors as self-confidence as described by self-perceived communicative competence (spcc) and communication apprehension (ca); motivation as described by desire to learn english (dte), attitude toward learning english (atle) and motivational intensity (mi); personality as described by introversion and extroversion (ie) and language learning orientation as described by career/job, knowledge and travel. the situational factors comprise the classroom environment (cre) described by teacher support, student cohesion, topic familiarity and task orientation. to see the impacts of the psychological and situational factors on the students’ wtc, multiple regression analysis (mra) was employed. before running the analysis, however, the data were first checked for the assumptions of multiple regression analysis (mra). mra requires the assumptions that the data need to be relatively normally distributed; there should be a linear relationship between the dependent and independent variables; there should also be no multicollinearity (instability of regression coefficients); and no heteroscedasticity (the variance of the residuals must be constant across the predicted values) (tabachnick & fidell, 2013). table 6 below presents a summary of the mra assumptions. table 6. summary of the mra assumptions assumptions measuring unit self-confidence motivation per llo cre spcc ca dte alte mi 0.125 0.437 -0.436 -0.58 0.106 -0.07 -0.428 -0.039 -0.467 -0.61 -0.286 0.107 -0.509 -0.079 -0.695 -0.146 .622 .897 .590 .554 .930 .838 .629 .737 1.607 1.115 1.694 1.805 1.075 1.193 1.591 1.357 the q-q plots for each independent variable are attached in the appendix 1= kunnan (1998); 2= field (2014) as can be seen from the above table, none of the assumptions was violated so the mra analysis was carried out. the result of the mra analysis was presented in table 7 below. normality 1skewness and kurtosis between -2 and +2 2tolerance > 0.1 or vif <10 multicollinearity q-q plots (ho, 2014) heteroscedasticity linearity efl students willingness to communicate orally in english classes 51 no. 27 table 7. factors associated with and affecting efl students’ wtc (n=450) model summaryb model r r square adjusted r square std. error of the estimate 1 .883a .781 .768 3.77014 a. predictors: (constant), cre, ca, mi, per, llo, dte, spcc, atle b. dependent variable: wtc as it can be seen from the model summary table, there is a strong association (r2 =0.781) between the predictors or independent variables (spcc, ca, atle, dte, mi, llo, per, cre) and the dependent variable, efl students’ wtc in communicative english classes. the r2 value gives the proportion of variance in the dependent variable accounted for by the set of independent variables that are included in the model. the model thus indicated that 78.1% of the changes in the efl students’ wtc are associated with the changes in the students’ self-confidence as described by selfperceived communicative confidence (spcc) and communication or language anxiety (ca); motivation as described by attitude towards learning english (atle), desire to learn english (dte) and motivational intensity (mi); personality as described by introversion and extroversion; language learning orientation as described by career/ job, knowledge and travel and classroom environment (cre) as described by teachers’ feedback, student cohesion, task orientation and topic familiarity. both the psychological and situational factors were therefore found to be directly associated with and affecting efl students’ wtc in the communicative english classes. the personality-based psychological factors include self-confidence, motivation, personality, and language learning orientation while the situational factors are composed of the classroom environments such as student cohesion, teacher’s feedback, topic familiarity, and task orientation. the result of the mra analysis was also further subjected to the statistical significance test to see whether the association between the dependent and independent variables was statistically significant or not. the anova table below shows the statistical significance of the impacts of the independent variables (spcc, ca, dte, atle, mi, per, llo, and cre) on the dependent variable, wtc. dereje teshome abebe, getachew syoum weldemariam and guta legese birassa 52 no. 27 table 8. statistical significance of the impacts anovaa model sum of squares df mean square f sig. 1 regression 1983.632 7 283.376 2.969 .001b residual 863.743 56 95.456 total 2847.375 64 a. dependent variable: wtc b. predictors: (constant), spcc, ca, atle, dte, mi, per, llo, cre the anova table displayed above shows the statistical significance of the model in general. accordingly, the model is found to be statistically significant at f (2.969) = 283.376, p = 0.001. this indicates that the independent variables (spcc, ca, atle, dte, mi, per, llo, cre) play a significant role in predicting or explaining the dependent variable, efl students wtc in communicative english classes. the findings obtained from the analysis of the qualitative (interview) data were also found to be supporting the results obtained from the analysis of the quantitative (questionnaire) data. when interviewed about their self-confidence, thirteen of the fifteen students indicated that they rarely participate in pair or group discussions, ask their peers or teachers different questions, comment on peers’ and teachers’ ideas, and make oral presentations due to mainly fear, vocabulary shortage and lack of confidence. this may indicate that students had problems with self-confidence when they had the opportunities to participate in oral communicative situations. this ultimately leads to the students’ low level of wtc, revealing the impact of their self-confidence as described by low self-perceived communicative confidence and high communication anxiety. for instance, when asked if he comments on peers’ or teachers’ ideas in english, a student-respondent codenamed s10m said the following. no, i don’t remember this kind of things. i have never commented. there was no opportunity to do that even. there was no inviting situation as well. why? first, because i do not have the ability, i cannot do that. i do not comment before the class. but we comment outside the class in amharic. similar to the self-perceived communicative confidence, the students’ responses to the communication anxiety questions such as feeling fear/relaxed, uneasiness/ discomfort or comfort while speaking and feeling nervous or at ease when thinking of speaking were mostly feeling fear, uneasiness or discomfort while speaking and being nervous when thinking of speaking. efl students willingness to communicate orally in english classes 53 no. 27 a student-respondent codenamed s7f, for instance, said the following when asked about feeling nervousness when speaking or trying to speak. yes, there is a feeling of nervousness. even, i lose the words i already knew when there is tension. i couldn’t remember the word i knew. i rather prefer to write than to speak. there has never been attention to english starting from elementary school. i have been educated in amharic. so, i feel nervousness. as much as i can, i try to memorize. in addition to self-confidence, the students were also asked about their motivations to communicate orally in communicative english classes. they were asked such questions as their feelings towards the english language, whether they give special attention to their speaking skills, their wishes about being a good speaker, what to do if english were not given at schools, whether they keep on studying english after graduation and the like. despite wishing to be a good speaker of the language, the responses of almost all (fourteen of the fifteen) students, however, indicate that they do not like to pay attention to their speaking skills. similarly, when asked what to do if english was not given at schools, the responses were ‘nothing’. their feelings toward the english language also appear to be not good as some are not interested in it; others perceive it as a difficult subject to study; and yet, a significant number of other respondents dislike the oral practices that the language requires. a student-respondent codenamed s9m, for instance, said the following when asked if he gives special attention to speaking skills. most of the time we give attention to the writing skill. we spend much time on reading and writing. not that much for the speaking skill. but i never thought of giving special attention to the speaking skill. so, i don’t give special attention to it. i know that speaking is important. similar responses were also obtained from the analysis of the students’ interviews for the other factors. the responses indicate that personality (being introverted or extroverted), language learning orientations (the purpose for which the students need to learn english) and the classroom environment (such as teacher support, student cohesion, task orientation and topic familiarity) had also strong impacts on the students’ willingness to communicate orally in communicative english classes. the analyses of both the quantitative (questionnaire) and qualitative (interview) data obtained from the student-respondents, in general, revealed that several factors affect the students’ willingness to communicate orally in communicative english classes. according to their responses, the lack of self-confidence to stand in front of the class and to speak in english in the presence of the teacher was one of the major factors affecting their wtc in communicative english classes. in addition, the fear of making mistakes and being nervous while trying to speak in english had also a strong dereje teshome abebe, getachew syoum weldemariam and guta legese birassa 54 no. 27 impact on their willingness to participate orally in communicative english classes. their personality (being introverted or extroverted), the motivation they had to learn english, and the attitude they had toward the english language were also among the influencing factors of their wtc. the type of oral activities designed to be practiced in the class coupled with their level of familiarity was also mentioned by the students as the other factor impacting their wtc in communicative english classes. discussions the current study was undertaken with the prime objectives of exploring first-year efl students’ willingness to communicate orally in communicative english classes in ethiopian higher education context and the factors underlying it. accordingly, the results and findings of the analysis of the quantitative and qualitative data revealed that the target students had generally a low level of wtc in oral communicative english classes and their wtc was affected by several factors such as self-confidence, motivation, personality, language learning orientation and classroom environments. the results and the findings are further discussed in detail as follows. students’ level of wtc as already mentioned, the target students’ level of wtc in oral communicative english classes was found to be low in the current study. this indicates that the target students are less interested and less willing to participate in oral communicative english classes. it also indicates that they have little or no intention (desire) to initiate and make use of oral communication opportunities to improve their speaking skills in their communicative english classes. the current finding is consistent with the findings of kim (2004), bergil (2016) and peng peng (2007). kim (2004), who carried out a study to examine korean students’ wtc, came up with a finding and concluded that the korean students had a low level of wtc in english language practices. in addition, bergil (2016), in his study carried out on preparatory class students studying at amasya university, turkey, concluded that the university students had a low wtc in english despite its diverse effects on their overall speaking performances. similar findings were also reported by peng (2007) in her study of the chinese students’ l2 wtc. despite the similarities, the current result is also different from the findings of the studies by bukhari et al. (2015), karnchanachari (2019) and liu and jackson (2009). bukhari et al. (2015), for instance, found a relatively high level of students’ wtc in a quantitative study conducted on pakistani undergraduate students’ perception of their efl students willingness to communicate orally in english classes 55 no. 27 willingness to initiate communication in english. similarly, karnchanachari (2019) also reported a relatively high level of students wtc among the thai students in the international program, similar to the finding by liu and jackson (2009) where more than half of the students were reported to have positive attitudes toward speaking with others and more willing to communicate in english classes. the study by karnchanachari (2019) on the would-be teachers of international students at yugra university, russia, has also shown that many learners were willing to speak english because they feel that it is beneficial for them. the discrepancies observed in the above studies might be reasonably associated with the different contexts in which english is used. in some contexts, such as thai and pakistani, for instance, english is used as a second language parallel to their mother tongue so that people tend to use the language more often than in areas it is used as a foreign language (rao, 1996). on the other hand, where english is used as a foreign language in, for instance, the chinese and korean contexts (liu, 2002) including ethiopia, and limited to only academic settings, the language is used much less frequently and as a result people tend to exhibit less interest or desire to communicate in the language. in addition, the ethiopian culture of classroom teaching-learning situations favors more of teacher-centeredness and emphasizes high attention to mental activity rather than verbal participation or activities of the students. the western classroom contexts however tend to be student-centered and communication-oriented (rao, 1996) and accentuates not only the academic achievement but also the social communicative competence as well (liu, 2002). this may, therefore, be one of the potential reasons for the inconsistency of the finding of the current study with some of the previous studies. factors affecting students’ level of wtc concerning the factors affecting the target students’ wtc, the findings of the study revealed that the students’ wtc was affected by several individual (personality-based) and classroom (situational) factors. the factors were self-confidence, motivation, personality, language learning orientation and classroom environments. self-confidence constitutes self-perceived communicative confidence (spcc) and communication anxiety (ca) (macintyre et al., 1998). this finding is generally consistent with previous findings such as those of hashimoto (2002), bektascetinkaya (2009) and yu (2008). the findings indicate that students who have low self-perception of their abilities to communicate in english experience a high degree of anxiety and hence they become less self-confident, leading them to exhibit a low level of willingness to communicate orally in communicative english classes. this idea was also reported by nagy and nikolov (2007) who indicated that the most common dereje teshome abebe, getachew syoum weldemariam and guta legese birassa 56 no. 27 reason for learners’ unwillingness to speak in class was their low self-confidence to speak before other students in the class and having more anxiety when thinking to do so. as a result, the students prefer to remain silent than trying to get involved in oral communicative opportunities. the other factor identified as affecting the students’ wtc was motivation. motivation was described by three sub-factors: the desire to learn english, attitude towards learning english and motivational intensity. this finding corresponds to the findings of the studies by cameron (2020); ghonsooly et al. (2012), lahuerta (2014) and tuyen and loan (2019). cameron (2020), for instance, claims that l2 learners’ wtc is significantly affected by the attitude the learners have toward the target language. ghonsooly et al. (2012), lahuerta (2014) and tuyen and loan (2019) also claim that a higher level of motivational intensity and desire to learn english facilitate more willingness among the learners to interact. personality (introversion/extroversion) was the other factor identified as affecting the students’ wtc in the present study. the finding indicates that while extroverted or outgoing students are more willing to participate in speaking activities, introverted or shy students are, however, affected by their shyness. as a result, they exhibit a low willingness to participate in oral communicative activities in the classroom. this finding is consistent with the findings of cetinkaya (2005), elwood (2011), mccroskey and richmond (1990) and macintyre et al. (1998) who claim that efl students with high personality traits of sociability, flexibility, extroversion and confidence exhibit a higher willingness to communicate than the students with a lower level of these traits in communicating orally in the target language. language learning orientation (llo) is again the other variable identified as affecting the students’ wtc in this study. according to the finding, the students’ llo, the purpose for which they are learning the language (job/career, travel, knowledge), significantly affects their wtc. this finding is in accordance with the findings of the studies by macintyre et al. (2001) and waluyo (2020) that identified a positive correlation between the students’ five orientations of language learning (travel, jobrelated, friendship with francophones, personal knowledge, and school achievement) and their wtc in learning french as a second language in an immersion program. the last factor identified as affecting the students’ wtc was the contextual factor, the classroom environment. in addition to the psychological factors, as discussed above, the students’ wtc was also affected by contextual/situational factors such as the classroom environments (cre). in the present study, the cre includes teachers’ support, student cohesion, topic familiarity and task orientation. the study identified that teachers support, “the extent to which the teacher helps, supports, trusts, befriends, and is interested in the students” (fatemi et al., 2016, p. 7) significantly affects the students’ wtc. this is consistent with the finding of macintyre and legatto (2011) efl students willingness to communicate orally in english classes 57 no. 27 which indicates that teachers’ support has the potential of affecting (increasing or decreasing) the students’ wtc at any time. similarly, student cohesion, the intimacy or relationship that exists between and among peers or groups of students and the extent to which the students know, help, and support each other (dorman et al., 2006) is also found affecting the students’ wtc in this study. this means that while positive cohesion among the students fosters the students’ wtc in the target language, lack of cohesion results in negative consequences lowering their wtc. this finding is consistent with the finding of doe (2014) who states that “language students may be less inclined to communicate when they lack a sense of affiliation with their peers” (p. 277). it was also similar to the findings of wen and clément (2003) who claim that students avoid communication in l2 when they feel that participation in l2 involves a potential threat of negative evaluation by their peers, groups, the whole classroom as well as their teachers. the third contextual variable identified as affecting the students’ wtc was topic familiarity: the specific point on which the l2 learners are interested or not interested to talk (aubrey, 2011). aubrey (2011) argues that topics that are interesting and personally relevant to efl students enhance their wtc in oral communication significantly while topics that are not interesting may not encourage the students to participate. studies conducted by several researchers (cao, 2011; riasati, 2012; yashima et al., 2016) indicated that an interesting, familiar, useful and comprehensible topic increases l2 learners’ wtc and hence keeps on their participation in conversations. the last contextual variable identified as affecting the students’ wtc was task orientation: the degree of emphasis or attention the l2 learners give to complete language-based activities and solve problems (dorman et al., 2006). aubrey (2011) states that while relevant and engaging speaking tasks encourage students to speak (wtc), irrelevant and non-engaging tasks discourage students to participate in speaking tasks resulting in poor wtc. similarly, the findings of the studies by cao (2009), macintyre and legatto (2011) and suksawas (2011) indicate that interesting, meaningful and communication-oriented tasks with a reasonable level of difficulty facilitate l2 learners wtc in efl contexts. generally, as discussed in detail in the background section, the current study was framed within the framework of macintyre et al.’s (1998) heuristic model. accordingly, the results and findings of the current study confirm that some of the factors (both the trait and state-level factors) that were proposed by the heuristic model are able to describe and explain efl students’ wtc in the ethiopian higher education context. dereje teshome abebe, getachew syoum weldemariam and guta legese birassa 58 no. 27 implications the findings of the present study indicate that efl students’ wtc is a crucial concept that has a paramount contribution to the successful development of oral communicative skills in esl/efl. as swain (2000) points out that “it is language use [that] mediate[s] language learning” (p. 97), students need to have the willingness to use that language and participate in oral communicative opportunities to improve their speaking skills. the findings thus imply that both students and particularly teachers need to pay special attention to the concept of wtc as it is an essential ingredient in the teaching-acquisition of oral communicative skills. the prominent figures in the area, macintyre et al. (1998, p. 547), even argue that “the ultimate goal of the learning process should be to engender in language students the willingness to seek out communication opportunities and the willingness actually to communicate in them”. efl teachers need to, therefore, be more sensitive about the crucial roles they play in creating a more and attractive communicative atmosphere for the students in efl classes and make them more interested and willing to initiate and maintain oral communicative opportunities by getting them actively engaged in the oral communicative activities. to do this, as the findings indicate, teachers need to be aware of both the psychological and contextual (situational) factors that affect the students’ wtc. as indicated by the findings, the students’ wtc is the function of both the personalitybased and contextual (situational) factors such as the students’ self-confidence, motivation, personality, classroom environments and the like. it is therefore necessary for efl teachers to pay special attention to the students’ wtc and foster the enabling factors while circumventing the impeding ones in efl oral communicative classes. in general, as students’ wtc is identified as a predictor of speaking performance, efl teachers need to identify all the possible ways through which the students’ degree of wtc can be enhanced. efl students willingness to communicate orally in english classes 59 no. 27 conclusion the findings of the current study revealed that efl students had generally a low level of wtc the desire or intention to initiate and make use of oral communication (speaking) opportunities. the students’ wtc was found to be low as a result of the function of both the psychological and contextual/situational factors operating in combination. the psychological factors include self-confidence, motivation, personality and language learning orientations. the contextual or situational factors include those factors that exist in the classroom environment and influence the learners’ degree of willingness to communicate orally. these include teacher support, students’ cohesion, topic familiarity and task orientation. as understood from the students’ interviews, self-confidence, personality, language learning orientations and teachers’ support were found to be the most influencing factors of the target students’ wtc. the current study is an initial attempt of examining ethiopian higher education efl students’ wtc in oral communicative english classes. it, therefore, contributes to the conceptualization of the wtc construct in the ethiopian efl setting and inform language educators about the diverse causes of the ethiopian efl students’ wtc. finally, it is important to note that, despite its contributions, the current study was delimited to selected public university settings in ethiopia. hence, as the concept is so crucial in efl, it needs to be studied from other contexts such as primary and secondary schools and private institutions to have a broader understanding of ethiopian efl students’ wtc. dereje teshome abebe, getachew syoum weldemariam and guta legese birassa 60 no. 27 references aronin, l. 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(2011). willingness to communicate and language learning orientations in iranian efl context. international education studies, 4(4), 206-214. https://doi.org/10.5539/ies.v4n4p206 efl students willingness to communicate orally in english classes 67 no. 27 appendix heteroscedasticity assumptions dereje teshome abebe, getachew syoum weldemariam and guta legese birassa authors dereje teshome abebe is an ma holder in tefl (teaching english as a foreign language) and is currently finalizing his phd study in the same field at jimma university, ethiopia. he has been teaching english as a foreign language (efl) for several years from secondary to tertiary levels. currently, he is working on a full-time bases both as a lecturer and a researcher. orcid: https://orcid.org/0009-0001-2323-9773 getachew syoum weldemariam (phd) is an associate professor of teaching english as a foreign language (tefl) at jimma university, ethiopia. he has been serving as a instructor and researcher for several years. orcid: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0881-2807 guta legese birrasa (phd) is an assistant professor of teaching english as a foreign language (tefl) at jimma university, ethiopia. he has been serving as a teacher and researcher for several years. orcid: https://orcid.org/0009-0004-3927-5930 68 no. 27 efl students willingness to communicate orally in english classes no. 24 clil in colombia: challenges and opportunities1 aicle in colombia: desafíos y oportunidades jhon eduardo mosquera pérez2 universidad pedagógica y tecnológica de colombia, colombia 1 received: december 26th, 2021 / accepted: may 2nd 2022 2 jhon58745@hotmail.com gist education and learning research journal. issn 1692-5777. no. 24 (january june, 2022). pp. 7-42. 8 no. 24 abstract “content and language integrated learning” or “clil” as it is most commonly referred to, is an innovative methodology that has been gaining interest in the last few years.although at first its implementation might appear to be something simple, as there is a tendency to think that for the successful application of clil based lessons it is only necessary to impart classes in english, in fact, there is a series of elements that language teachers and scholars should consider before reducing such an innovative approach to that simplistic view. in light of this, in this reflective article i address some of the challenges and opportunities that may arise when implementing clil in colombia. firstly i present a general theorization of clil. secondly, i reflect on three of the challenges as well as on three the opportunities for the implementation of said approach in our national context. finally, i present the conclusions and some possible research venues revolving around this field. key words: clil in colombia, challenges, education, language teaching, opportunities. resumen el “aprendizaje integrado de contenidos y lenguas extranjeras” o “aicle”, como se le conoce comúnmente, es una metodología innovadora que ha venido ganando interés en los últimos años. aunque en un principio su implementación puede parecer algo sencilla, ya que existe una tendencia a pensar que para la aplicación exitosa de lecciones basadas en aicle sólo es necesario impartir clases en inglés, de hecho, hay una serie de elementos que los profesores y profesores de idiomas deben considerar antes de reducir un enfoque tan innovador a una visión simplista. en el presente artículo reflexivo analizo algunos de los desafíos y oportunidades que pueden surgir al implementar aicle en colombia. en primer lugar presento una teorización general de lo que es aicle. en segundo lugar, reflexiono sobre tres de los desafíos así como sobre tres oportunidades para la implementación de dicho enfoque en nuestro contexto nacional. finalmente, presento las conclusiones y algunas posibles vías de investigación en torno a este campo. palabras clave: aicle en colombia, educación, enseñanza de lenguas, oportunidades, retos clil in colombia mosquera pérez 9 no. 24 resumo a “aprendizagem integrada de conteúdos e línguas estrangeiras” ou “aicl”, como é vulgarmente conhecida, é uma metodologia inovadora que tem vindo a ganhar interesse nos últimos anos. embora a princípio sua implementação possa parecer um tanto simples, pois há uma tendência de se pensar que para a aplicação bem-sucedida de aulas baseadas em aicl é necessário apenas ministrar aulas em inglês, de fato, há uma série de elementos que professores e professores das línguas deve considerar antes de reduzir uma abordagem tão inovadora para uma visão simplista. neste artigo reflexivo analiso alguns dos desafios e oportunidades que podem surgir ao implementar o aicl na colômbia. primeiramente, apresento uma teorização geral do que é aicl. em segundo lugar, reflito sobre três dos desafios, bem como três oportunidades para a implementação de tal abordagem em nosso contexto nacional. por fim, apresento as conclusões e alguns possíveis caminhos de pesquisa em torno deste campo. palavras chave: aicl na colômbia, desafíos, educação, ensino de línguas, oportunidades. clil in colombia mosquera pérez 10 no. 24 introduction “content and language integrated learning”, or clil, as it is more commonly referred to, is an innovative methodology that has been gaining traction in applied linguistics and language teaching in the last few years. this has occurred probably because of the potential it has for improving language while combining it with subject knowledge. although this methodology was originally designed for the european context, because of its versatility and adaptability it soon spread to other contexts, and thanks to this situation, multiple empirical and contextual articles have emerged. an analysis of scholarly literature revolving around clil in the international spectrum makes evident that scholars’ interest towards this area of knowledge has grown with no precedent. for example, curtis, (2012); lorenzo, (2007); lorenzo et al. (2009); mcdougald and pissarello (2020) have inquired into the potential of clil for english language teaching and learning processes and established that although it is vital to bear in mind the particularities of the context of which this methodology is applied, overall, students who are exposed to this type of teaching show positive results. this affirmation has been further supported by costa and d’angelo (2011) who suggests that if well implemented, clil “represents an extremely effective approach”. in the national scenario, clil has been gaining notoriety as well. whereas in previous years english in colombia was taught following what authors such as kumaravadivelu (2003) and reagan (2004) call “instrumentalizing” and “objectifying” views respectively, nowadays educational institutions appear to be are more aware of what the overall language teaching and learning process requires and now methodologies as it is the case of clil are being implemented. even though the previous situation is something positive, it is not undeniable that in colombia there are some challenges that need to be considered when it comes to the implementation of clil. the privilege of english over other languages (including foreign and indigenous), the inconsistency between language policies, and the lack of preparation in teacher education programs regarding clil are some of the most recurrent aspects that cause difficulties in the implementation of such a methodology. considering these elements, in the context of this article i center my attention on analyzing the challenges that arise for the implementation of clil in colombia. however, beyond merely analyzing these factors, i would also like to discuss about the possibilities and benefits of applying clil in a context like colombia, as my intention through this reflective article is to analyze both sides so as to illustrate not only the negative but also the positive aspects derived from the implementation of the process i have been referring to until now. clil in colombia mosquera pérez 11 no. 24 challenges for the implementation of clil in colombia english is the most privileged language when considering the possible challenges that may come when implementing clil in colombia, the first aspect that comes to my mind is related to the privileged position english has in this country. it is not a secret that in colombia english is the most privileged language after spanish. previous scholarly literature has supported this fact. guerrero (2008) and mejia (2011) for example have established that even if other languages as it is the case of french, german, to mention a few, offer excellent opportunities for the educational scenario, english is the most privileged language because of the influence that countries from what kachru (1992) regarded as the “inner circle” (eg. the united states, england) have over colombia. this influence has not only positioned english as the most “adequate” language to learn. further than that, this action has contributed to the spread of native speakerism ideologies and other neoliberal agendas including “americanization” and “mcdonaldization”. as a result of these dynamics, the more american/british you sound, the more proficient speaker of the english language you are considered. in two critical discourse analysis (cda) studies, escobar (2013) and valencia (2013) reaffirmed this situation and concluded that in colombia, english has contributed to the “manufacture of consent for foreign intervention” and has also disseminated “identity shaping discourses”. in short, it means that in our national territory, english has acted with a twofold purpose: on the one hand, it has contributed to access to international opportunities and globalization. this is evident. on the other hand, it has fulfilled a type of “linguistic imperialism” (canagarajah, 1999) and has gained privilege over other languages which deserve equal importance and respect. when considering all of these circumstances, it is understandable why the dominant language for implementing clil in colombia would be english. nevertheless, and as suggested by authors from the national panorama, it becomes necessary to transgress this situation and begin to incorporate the utilization of other languages (as i mentioned it above, foreign and indigenous) along with clil so that our students have a richer experience when learning through this methodology. language policies: decontextualized documents which do not acknowledge our students’ realities a second challenge that rises when fully considering the implementation of a methodology like clil in colombia, is that for many years national language policies have disregarded our students’ realities. following the perspective of correa and usma clil in colombia mosquera pérez 12 no. 24 (2013), national linguistic policies have been designed under bureaucratic models, which implies that individuals who do not belong to elite communities will not have the same opportunities as individuals who do belong to those. it means that “it is not the same to learn english in a cosmopolitan city like bogotá as it is in the countryside, or in a highly touristic town like santa fe de antioquia as in a farming town like yarumal” (p. 236) because of course both contexts are different. let us consider for example the case of rural education in colombia. if we as educators have had the opportunity of engaging in rurality, we know first hand that most commonly, schools in these zones do not count on the necessary equipment to properly develop a clil based class as computers, tablets, projectors, cd players are scarce. therefore, to really promote the implementation of a methodology like clil in colombia (including of course urban and rural zones), it is fundamental to stop designing decontextualized language policies where it seems that policy makers and other stakeholders have been “sitting at different ends of the same table” (correa & usma, 2013, p. 239) and acknowledge our schools and students’ contexts by incorporating actors from all scenarios into the process of design of such documents. furthermore, and when doing such a task, applying “ethnographic longitudinal multisite case studies” as suggested by correa and usma (2013, p. 232) would be excellent for students coming from all places as that approach could shed light on their “real” reasons for acquiring a foreign language so as to have these motivations more into account when designing new policies.. lack of preparation regarding clil in teacher education programs language teacher education (lte) programs are the place where prospective teachers prepare them to work in the teaching scenario in their near future. crandall (2000) manifests that lte constitutes the space where pre-service teachers´ contact with learning and teaching methodologies shape their initial professional development dimension along with their initial teaching repertoire as language instructors. this is coherent bearing in mind that lte represents the place where prospective teachers have their first educational experiences within and outside the university. according to freeman (1989) and trent (2010) lte programs contribute to the development of teachers’ initial identities and practices. thus, it is in this space where teachers will shape the pedagogical practices they will implement in the future, when they graduate and become in-service teachers. possibly another challenge that appears when considering the implementation of clil in colombia is that in our national context, in lte programs prospective teachers are exposed to several courses and areas of knowledge, but, it seems that during this time, there is no formal preparation to teach content through language in the future. this fact has been further asserted by brown and bradford (2017) who stress that language teachers are one of the main clil in colombia mosquera pérez 13 no. 24 difficulties when properly implementing clil because they may have not received adequate preparation. hence, to contribute to the consolidation of clil as an area of interest and knowledge in colombia, lte should incorporate in their curricula materials and courses regarding this field as prospective language teachers could feel interested in teaching content through language in their professional milieu. likewise, teacher training programs revolving around clil should be developed in the context of our country because even if prospective language teachers began to receive that type of education at university level, a large number of language teachers (those who have been in service for many years) would still need preparation revolving around clil. the previous idea is asserted by granados-beltrán (2011) who holds that lte as well as development programs regarding clil should be designed and subsequently implemented because “it is clear that for these efforts to be fruitful, they cannot be seen as an isolated endeavor undertaken solely by languages departments” (p. 14). therefore, initial teacher education as well as continuous professional development programs, or teacher training, as it is also referred to, really need to address this situation so that clil gains relevance at all educational levels in colombia. the theme regarding professional development will be better addressed in the following sections, though. now i present the opportunities that may derive from the implementation of clil in colombia: the consolidation of a new research agenda in a previous literature review i was able to establish that in colombia there have been some dominating categories when it comes to research in elt. teachers´ professional development (buendia & macias, 2019), pedagogical skills and teaching approaches (álvarez & sánchez, 2005; sierra, 2007), reflective practices and research skills (castro-gárces & martínez-granada, 2016; clavijo et al., 2004) identities and beliefs (castañeda-londoño, 2017; torres-rocha, 2017) and virtually mediated teaching and learning environments (galvis, 2011; guerrero, 2012) appear to be the most recurrent ones. other dominating categories i identified are related to teachers´ emotions (méndez-lópez, 2020; méndez-lópez & peña-aguilar, 2013); english speaking teacher´s perceptions about their non-native condition (viáfara, 2016), teachers´ socio cultural representations (álvarez, 2009), efl literacy teaching and learning (torres & castañeda-peña, 2016; mora, 2016), gender based pedagogies (castañeda-peña, 2010, mojica & castañeda-londoño, 2017), critical discourse analysis on language policies clil in colombia mosquera pérez 14 no. 24 (guerrero, 2008) and more recently, professional development within postgraduate education (viáfara & largo, 2018). however, it seems to be that despite the fact that quite a few empirical and conceptual articles revolving around clil in colombia have been published (mcdougald, 2015; leal, 2015; otalora, 2019), more research regarding this area is being needed. properly implementing clil in colombia may lead, therefore, to the consolidation of a new research agenda that may help shed light on how clil is being implemented in the country. besides, promoting this action is necessary because it would also gradually enhance the incorporation of content through english and would contribute to develop a better understanding on how clil, if that is the case, is being applied across different contexts in the national territory. in short, promoting clil as a research agenda is extremely important and urgent because previous scholarly literature on this area has come from private settings (e.g. universidad de la sabana, universidad pontificia bolivariana, among others) and it appears that rural contexts and other spaces as it is the case of public schools and universities have not carried out research studies regarding clil. thus, successfully implementing clil would not only contribute to the development of a new research agenda. beyond this, it would promote the development of studies to continuously examine the advantages/disadvantages that clil has for our country. a shift of paradigms: towards a new connotation of bilingualism perhaps one of the most valuable opportunities for the application of clil in colombia is the potential it offers to challenge the wrong perceptions towards bilingualism that exist in the country (as it was already suggested above). for instance, implementing clil with languages different to english would not only contribute to the detachment of native speaker ideologies (guerrero, 2008; macias, 2010; mejia, 2011; viáfara, 2016). beyond that, it would raise awareness among the population about the importance other languages have for the cultural panorama of the world and the overall country, as not only in the united states, england, australia, or canada; what kachru (1992) regarded as “inner circle countries” exist opportunities for academic and professional preparation. this aspect has been discussed by escobar (2013); valencia (2013) as both authors argue that in colombia we have been sold the idea that english equals success and better opportunities in life in this globalized world; aligning with what professor mahboob (2011) denotes as a “gatekeeping” condition, that is, individuals who have not access to high quality english education will not have the same opportunities than those who can afford to pay for better conditions (correa & usma, 2013). then, promoting the incorporation of other languages into the utilization of clil (e.g. french, german, russian, indigenous), would really contribute to the awareness clil in colombia mosquera pérez 15 no. 24 raising process about the role of languages worldwide, and about the potential that other territories (including our own) have to offer. new opportunities for professional development at first, professional development can be conceived as “a life-long process of growth which involves collaborative and/or autonomous learning “(crandall, 2000, p. 36). this aligns with craft´s (2000) ideas where he contends that professional development refers to a set of experiences that educators go through to become more professional within their field. however, other authors such as johnston (2009) and freeman (2004) have used the term professional development to be more specific and have stressed that it refers to education that second language educators go through in order to become better prepared in their role as teachers. even though various definitions of what professional development converge, it is paramount to characterize the different types of professional development levels that exist in the academic field of english language teaching. for instance, richter et al. (2014) separate professional development between formal and informal opportunities for learning. regarding formal opportunities for learning, these authors hold that “these are defined as structured learning environments with a specified curriculum, such as graduate courses or mandated staff development” (richter, et al., 2014, p. 117). in contrast to this, informal opportunities for learning are seen as actions which do not follow a specified curriculum. freeman (1989) otherwise, separated the notion of what training is from development. according to freeman (1989, p. 39), teacher´s training is “a strategy for direct intervention by the collaborator, to work on specific aspects of the teacher’s teaching” while the main objective of teacher´s development is to “generate change through increasing or shifting awareness” (freeman, 1989, p. 39). according to crandall (2000) and freeman (2013), there have been at least three or four widening gyres within the field of second language teachers’ professional development. crandall (2000) asserts that the first shift that took place within language teacher education (lte) was related to the advance from “transmission, productoriented theories to constructivist, process-oriented theories of learning, teaching, and teacher learning” (p. 34), through which learners became empowered and active participants of their own learning processes. the second shift highlighted the lack of inclusion of learners´ realities since it appears to be that language teacher education programs have historically “failed to prepare teachers for the realities of the classroom” where multiple everyday situations were overlooked. as a result of these acknowledgment processes, the lte field commenced to progressively incorporate teachers´ situated practices and cognition to foster a higher level of appropriation of all contexts among educators. clil in colombia mosquera pérez 16 no. 24 the third shift represented, according to crandall (2000, p. 35) “a growing recognition that teachers’ prior learning experiences (what lortie [1975] refers to as “the apprenticeship of observation”) play a powerful role in shaping their views of effective teaching and learning and their teaching practices”. this aspect has been especially supported by authors such as borg (2004) and freeman (1989) who have held that teachers´ early passive learning experiences as pupils allow them to recognize and shape their initial practices as future novice teachers. however, scholarly literature has also evidenced that through constant exposure to real teaching world and through constant reflection upon their professional and pedagogical dimensions, educators begin to detach from their inherently acquired practices/methodologies to more elaborated and complex ones; moving from what kumaravadivelu (2003) called “teachers as passive technicians” to what he also regarded as “teachers as reflective practitioners” and “transformative intellectuals”. and finally, the fourth shift constituted a growing concern for boosting teachers´ professional development through observation, inquiry, workshops, and continuing programs, where collaborative initiatives have gained relevance. the previous widening gyres, especially the last one, have been really important for the field because they have acknowledged that nowadays teachers’ continuous professionalization is a process of paramount importance. however, it is also essential to remark that not only formal processes gain importance in this regard. adey (2007) recommends the use of study groups where a number of individuals belonging to the school community may discuss aspects related to policies, lesson planning and students´ work. ferrance (2000) proposes the implementation of action research studies as a manner to identify school failures and to subsequently work towards solving them, while butcher (2002) advocates the use of mentoring. other authors including callahan et al. (2001), crandall (2000), cosh (1999), day (2002), among others, have recommended the use of teacher´s reflection logs, journals, video-monitoring, audio-monitoring, portfolios, collaborative learning and formative feedback as a complement to teacher´s professional development. bearing all the previous information in mind, clil represents the perfect opportunity for the development of new professional development programs in colombia as many in-service and pre-service teachers are not fully acquainted with this area of knowledge. short and long clil specialized courses (mcdougald, 2009; 2015); academic events, workshops, sigs (special interest groups) are some of the initiatives that could take place within the national territory as a manner to keep raising awareness about the potential that clil had for our educational scenario. besides this, this action would also require the development of new curricula, courses, and syllabi within the framework of lte programs because these settings represent the place where pre-service teachers would be initially exposed tha type of clil in colombia mosquera pérez 17 no. 24 knowledge, as remarked by freeman (1989) and trent (2010) who maintain that lte represent the starting point of all language teachers. finally, i find it worth mentioning that for clil based professional development programs to properly work, these must be accessible to teachers from all communities, as highlighted by torres-rincón and cuesta-medina (2019, p. 22) who affirm that “constant clil professional development opportunities need to be accessible to a wider variety of teachers” as it seems that mostly intense or bilingual private settings have had access to this type of experiences. in another contribution, granados-beltrán (2011) suggests that lte and professional development programs regarding clil should be designed and subsequently implemented because “it is clear that for these efforts to be fruitful, they cannot be seen as an isolated endeavor undertaken solely by languages departments” (p. 14). therefore, continuous professional development programs and initial teacher education within the context of lte really need to address this situation so that clil gains relevance at all education levels in colombia. conclusions the first conclusion is that although there are several challenges for the implementation of clil in colombia, there are also opportunities for its proper appropriation. for instance, fostering the consolidation of a research agenda through which many research initiatives would take place, as well as creating new professional development opportunities for language teachers in general are some of the main initiatives to happen if clil continues to gain notoriety in the colombian context and especially in language teaching. secondly, through this activity i was able to establish that even though clil is a relatively new field for the context of colombia, there are already some research initiatives that have been contributing to the consolidation of the field. it is the case for example of the initiatives carried out by mcdougald (2009; 2015;); montoya and salamanca (2017); rodríguez-bonces (2021); who have been inquiring into clil and have found that this approach indeed offers advantages for context where english does not hold the status of a second language. hence, from my view, it becomes extremely urgent to keep conducting research to keep fostering research studies in colombia as a manner to understand how clil develops in several contexts: be these urban, rural, private, or public. finally, after having written this article it is also important for me to mention that clil is an approach that will continue informing not only my own research agenda clil in colombia mosquera pérez 18 no. 24 but also my practices as a language teacher, as implementing this approach to teaching in colombia will surely continue posing new principles, practices, and pedagogical techniques, but as teachers we must stay updated and take advantage of the potential benefits it may have for the overall field of english language education and for our students. possible research venues regarding clil in colombia as suggested until now, although there have been some initiatives revolving around teachers’ knowledge base and understandings concerning clil, it becomes important to have more research initiatives in order to contribute to the consolidation of this area nationally. future research projects may examine for example the intersection between clil and language teacher education, teacher’s identity, and materials and curriculum design as a manner to have a wider understanding on how this approach has been permeating these other areas of knowledge within the field. additionally, future research projects may examine how the possible benefits or disadvantages that using clil with languages different to english may have on students overall educational process, as there has been a tendency in colombia to associate clil with english, and other languages; 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(2014) professional development across the teaching career. in s. krolak-schwerdt, s. glock, m. böhmer (eds.), teachers’ professional development. the future of education research. (pp. 97-121). sensepublishers. rodríguez bonces, j. (2012). content and language integrated learning (clil): considerations in the colombian context. gist – education and learning research journal, (6), 177–189. torres-rincon, j. c., & cuesta-medina, l. m. (2019). situated practice in clil: voices from colombian teachers. gist education and learning research journal, 18, 109141. torres-rocha, j. c. (2017). high school efl teachers’ identity and their emotions towards language requirements. profile issues in teachers’ professional development, 19(2), 41-55. torres, s. a., & castaneda-pena, h. a. (2016). exploring the roles of parents and students in efl literacy learning: a colombian case. english language teaching, 9(10), 156. trent, j. (2010). teacher education as identity construction: insights from action research. journal of education for teaching, 36(2), 153-168. valencia, m. (2013). language policy and the manufacturing of consent for foreign intervention in colombia. profile issues in teachers’ professional development, 15(1), 27–43. viáfara, g, j, j. (2016). self-perceived non-nativeness in prospective english teachers self-images. revista brasileira de linguística aplicada, 16(3), 461–491 viáfara, g, j, j., & largo, j. (2018). colombian english teachers’ professional development: the case of master programs. profile: issues in teachers` professional development, 20(1), 103 119. clil in colombia mosquera pérez author jhon eduardo mosquera pérez holds a b.a in english language teaching and an m.a in english language teaching, both from universidad surcolombiana. currently, he is a 4th semester student in the master´s degree in learning and teaching processes at universidad pontificia bolivariana and belongs to the research groups “aprenap” and lslp (literacies in second languages project). his research interests revolve around the areas of language assessment, language teacher identity, teacher’s professional development, english as an international lingua franca, critical discourse analysis, among others. he has been an active presenter at national and international academic specialized events. orcid: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4027-3102 how to reference this article: mosquera pérez, j. e. (2022) clil in colombia: challenges and opportunities for its implementation. gist – education and learning research journal, 24.7-24. https://doi.org/10.26817/16925777.1347 clil in colombia editorial carlo granados-beltrán, phd* welcome to a new issue of gist journal! this edition incorporates contributions about content language integrated learning, teachers’ cognitions, and icts, among many other aspects. this issue reflects all the learning researchers and teachers have gained during the pandemic in the implementation of icts for teaching languages. silva-perdomo, duero-naranjo and castañeda report a narrative study with the aim understanding students’ experiences in english courses while using ict. also, çakan uzunkava and gül report a study aimed to evaluate the contribution of the activities prepared with web 2.0 technologies in the achievement of music lessons. additionally, it aimed to understand the perceptions towards the use of technologies in different areas of learning. regarding methodological interests, mosquera-pérez contributes a theoretical reflection upon content language integrated learning (clil) and the challenges regarding its implementation in colombia. also, roberto, arias-rodríguez and herreño reports case study which aim was promoting critical thinking skills in law students by using virtual tools. yarim, yildirim, and akan’s phenomenological study explores the factors behind teacher candidates’ motivation concerning the profession. adem and berkessa contribute a mixed-method study whose goal was exploring teachers’ cognitions in relation to teaching speaking. least but not least, mora questions us about the frameworks we have used for the teaching and learning of english in colombia, ambitiously proposing the move from english as a foreign language (efl) to english as a colombian language (ecl) and, finally, to colombian english (ce) for the benefit of equity. we invite elt scholars in colombia and abroad to continue disseminating the results of their research and reflections and we thank the continuous support given by the members of our editorial and scientific committees, authors, and readers. dr. carlo granados-beltrán editor in chief academic vice chancellor única the effect of flipped classroom audiovisual content on students’ talking time and speaking skills in an adult efl class. el efecto del contenido audiovisual del aula invertida en el tiempo de conversación y las habilidades orales de los estudiantes en una clase de inglés como lengua extranjera para adultos. javier rojas1 centro colombo americano bogotá, colombia 1 jrojas@colombobogota.edu.co gist education and learning research journal. issn 1692-5777. no. 28 (january june, 2024). pp. 59-78. 59 no. 28 60 no. 28 abstract this action research report explores the effect of a flipped learning strategy on adult efl students’ speaking skills. flipped learning, or inverted learning, reverses the traditional educational model where students learn in class and practice out of it; flipped learning promotes the students’ learning of concepts and theories out of the classroom that is later practiced and applied in class under the teacher’s guidance. the primary hypothesis was that by flipping grammar explanations, students would be more prepared and have more time to interact in english and use the structures in class. this research revealed that flipped learning helped to increase student talking time in class and accuracy in grammar use. furthermore, it shows evidence that using flipped audiovisual materials poses advantages and challenges that can potentially boost learning inside and outside the classroom. keywords: flipped learning, class preparation, student talking time, call, action research, communicative skills. resumen este reporte de proyecto de investigación-acción explora el efecto de una estrategia de aprendizaje invertido en la habilidad oral de adultos en clase de inglés como lengua extranjera. el aprendizaje invertido desafía el modelo tradicional de educación donde los estudiantes aprenden en clase y practican fuera del aula; el aprendizaje invertido promueve el aprendizaje de conceptos y teorías fuera del salón de clase para luego practicarlos y aplicarlos en el aula con la guía del profesor. la hipótesis original es que a través de invertir las explicaciones de gramática (hacer que los estudiantes las estudien en casa), ellos podrían estar más preparados y tendrían más tiempo de interactuar en inglés y practicar las estructuras gramaticales en clase. este estudio reveló que el aprendizaje invertido ayudó a incrementar el tiempo de interacción oral de los estudiantes en clase, así como la precisión en el uso de las estructuras gramaticales estudiadas. adicionalmente, hay evidencia de que el uso del material audiovisual que se usó para la estrategia de aprendizaje invertido plantea ventajas y desafíos que pueden impulsar el aprendizaje dentro y fuera de la clase. palabras clave: aprendizaje invertido, preparación de clase, tiempo de interacción oral del estudiante, call, investigación-acción, habilidades comunicativas. the effect of flipped learning on students’ speaking 61 no. 28 resumo este relatório de projeto de pesquisa-ação explora o efeito de uma estratégia de aprendizagem invertida na habilidade oral de adultos em aulas de inglês como língua estrangeira. a aprendizagem invertida desafia o modelo tradicional de educação, onde os alunos aprendem em sala de aula e praticam fora dela; a aprendizagem invertida promove o aprendizado de conceitos e teorias fora da sala de aula para depois praticá-los e aplicá-los em sala, com a orientação do professor. a hipótese original é que, ao inverter as explicações de gramática (fazendo com que os alunos as estudem em casa), eles poderiam estar mais preparados e teriam mais tempo para interagir em inglês e praticar as estruturas gramaticais em sala de aula. este estudo revelou que a aprendizagem invertida ajudou a aumentar o tempo de interação oral dos alunos em sala de aula, bem como a precisão no uso das estruturas gramaticais estudadas. além disso, há evidências de que o uso do material audiovisual utilizado para a estratégia de aprendizagem invertida apresenta vantagens e desafios que podem impulsionar o aprendizado dentro e fora da sala de aula. palavras-chave: aprendizagem invertida, preparação de aula, tempo de interação oral do aluno, call, pesquisa-ação, habilidades comunicativas. javier rojas serrano 62 no. 28 times have changed. people can work from home; kids prefer being in front of a screen to going out and playing in the park. teenagers can get richer than their parents, among many other things that people over 40 might find eccentric or even outrageous. many of us have assimilated these changes easily, but others have had to challenge their old habits, traditions, and beliefs to keep up with them. this is also true in education. flipped learning has recently come to the elt stage to innovate education and turn it around, literally. the idea of asking students to learn concepts and theory at home and then use that knowledge under the teacher’s guidance to practice in class might have been unthinkable a few years ago. flipped learning is a logical consequence of the changes mentioned above. it is not unusual for learners to study concepts and theories at home. technology and the internet allow them to access this knowledge at home and later apply it in class. the class is not a place to learn but to practice; it is a laboratory for applying concepts and theories. statement of the problem the educational context and challenges in the program in which this research is framed in terms of syllabus pace, the evaluation type of the program (formative assessment and qualitative evaluation), and the number of students make timing a common concern for teachers. having these time constraints in the program sometimes means sacrificing speaking moments and interaction to give feedback and to explain grammar and vocabulary points that students need to learn to improve their level. in a program that has adopted a communicative approach and formative assessment as part of its principles and curriculum, it is not ideal that long grammar explanations take away the time devoted to having students speak freely in the target language. despite the importance of making students focus on specific language in class, practice can boost students’ mastery of the structure. kareema (2014) indicates that a teacher explaining a new grammar topic can spend between 60% to 80% of the class talking, and this is something that may affect our students’ opportunities to talk and communicate, especially in a kind of program that is proud of its curriculum based on a communicative approach. the situation pointed out above related to freeing up time and maximizing students’ speaking is fundamental because “in communicative language classes, students need ample opportunity to practice the target language so that the teacher should reduce the amount of their talk.” (kareema, 2014, p. 1) the effect of flipped learning on students’ speaking 63 no. 28 research question what effect does flipped classroom audiovisual content have on adult students’ talking time and speaking skills? literature review flipped learning, according to karlsson and janson (2016), “reverses the traditional order of instruction where lectures precede students’ activities: students are instead given homework as preparation for class, and classroom time is then spent on active learning under the guidance of the teacher.” (p. 128) the present project was about creating instructional videos with explanations and examples of the course grammar for students to watch before the class. this could allow teachers to avoid long grammar explanations in class and use this time to boost students’ communicative skills, which is the research problem to be overcome in this project. neaupane (2017) encapsulates our thesis when he says that with flipped learning, also called inverted classroom, “teachers and students have more time in class to discuss and try out the things to be learned rather than just sitting and listening to the lectures from the teachers.” (p. 1) flipped learning takes a step towards a new way to experience teaching and learning that deserves to be studied and shared (neaupane, 2017). it takes advantage of technology and strengthens students’ autonomy, making them more active and responsible for their own learning; it makes time in class for hands-on activities and student interaction; it fosters the practical application of knowledge under teacher’s supervision that will, eventually, build the know-how and can-do skills that the new century demands from new generations. ozdamli and asiksoy (2016) compiled some other principles from different authors: • flipped learning fosters student-centeredness through a set of interactive activities in the classroom and individual teaching through activities out of the class through a computer (bishop & verleger, 2013, in ozdamli & asiksoy, 2016) • it encourages students to prepare themselves for class through reading and audiovisual materials (mull, 2012, in ozdamli & asiksoy, 2016) • it increases active learning activities and gives students the opportunity to use their knowledge in class under the teacher’s guidance (toto & nguyen, 2009, in ozdamli & asiksoy, 2016) all in all, by encouraging students to learn by themselves at home through audio, video, and reading material, flipped learning makes students more autonomous, more responsible for their own learning, and more prepared to reflect upon language items javier rojas serrano 64 no. 28 (grammar, vocabulary, pronunciation, etc.) and upon language learning in general (how they like to learn, how they learn better, and what strengths and challenges they experience while learning). on the side of the teachers, it helps them to devote more time to interactive activities and communication in class, to avoid squeezing too many activities in only one lesson, and to give more responsibilities to students that are totally capable of taking on. flipped learning also features surprising results in terms of class time savings. the following table shared by ozdamli & asiksoy (2016) sets the differences between how traditional class time is spent and the time used in the flipped classroom. table 1. differences in time use between the traditional and the flipped class traditional class activities time flipped classroom activities time warm up homework checking teaching of new subject exercise of laboratory and application 5 min 20 min 30-45 min 20-35 min warm up answering lecture and video questions exercise of lab applications 5 min 10 min 75 min note: from flipped classroom approach. world journal on educational technology. current issues, 8 (2), 98-105 by ozdamli, f., & asiksoy , g. (2016). a case study with similar research aims as the one reported on this article was conducted by bueno-alastuey & galar (2017) in pamplona, spain. their research also wanted to report on the difference in the performance of teenage students in a control group and an experimental group as well as on students’ perceptions of the flipped classroom model. the study concluded that students who were exposed to flipped audiovisual materials during the course had a better performance than the ones who were not. bueno-alastuey and gala’s (2017) study is similar to the one depicted in this paper in the sense that both intended to explore students’ perceptions of the flipped classroom experience, but their research differs from this one because, whereas buenoalastuey & galar (2017) wanted to analyze students’ performance with and without flipped audiovisual materials, the present study intended to find out the impact of flipped learning on class time and a subsequent increase in communicative activities and communication in class. the effect of flipped learning on students’ speaking 65 no. 28 on the other hand, cabi (2018) reported on a flipped learning research project in turkey, this time with university students majoring in english and turkish language teaching. her main objective was to study the impact of the flipped classroom on students’ academic achievement. by analyzing the results obtained from a control group and an experimental group, professor cabi established that, in her case study, there were no significant differences between the students in the control group and the ones in the experimental group in terms of their academic achievement. these results, according to the researcher, were surprising in the sense that most similar research projects, such as the one conducted by bueno-alastuey and galar (2017), had reported considerable differences between control and experimental groups. she found a possible explanation in one of her data-gathering tools results. in the focus-group interviews, it was noticed that there were many variables that affected the results, being the most important the lack of time students had for reflecting and analyzing the materials they were supposed to study at home, the students’ preference to be explained the topics in class, and the lack of concentration and training that autonomous learning endeavors demand. the other two concepts that contributed to the understanding of this research were autonomy and the use of technology for learning. student autonomy started to be discussed long before the arrival of computers as an educational tool (godwinjones, 2011), but, as with most areas of life, the concept of autonomy has also taken a new breath with technology. in this study, call, mall, cmc, and audio and visual material had an important role because that is going to be the way the flipped content will be presented and through which students will get ready for class speaking practice. however, no matter how important technology is in language learning, the effective use of it “has to do with the role and content of audio and visual material and how these interact with each student’s language learning experience.” (price, 1987, p. 168) research design and methodology action research does not only want to understand social phenomena, but it also leads to changes in practice. following carr and kemmis’ ideas (1986), the best research should unite theory and practice. taking into consideration that the intention of this project is to solve a problem that has been observed in class, action research was the best research path for this study. as a matter of fact, this research project holds many of the characteristics of action research highlighted by burns (1999): it is contextual, small-scale, and localized, it is evaluative and reflective, and it proposes changes in practice based on collected information and data (burns, 1999, p. 30) given the action research nature of this study, instructional videos were created for students to get familiar with the grammar explanations and examples that they would watch before class. this way, the present study aimed to bring about change in the classroom because more student talking time could be allotted in the lesson. javier rojas serrano 66 no. 28 for the creation of videos, karlsson and janson’ (2016) suggestions, as well as neaupane’s (2017) ideas, were followed: 1) create videos that are no more than 6 minutes long: in their study, karlsson and janson (2016) found that shorter videos are more engaging. 2) create videos in which students can see the information (through slides, for instance) but also where they can see their teacher’s face: videos with a personal feel can be more engaging. 3) create videos where you speak fast and enthusiastically: they help maintain students’ interest. 4) use your own voice: it is different when students hear your voice than when they hear a stranger’s voice. (neaupane, 2017) the participants in this study were taking english classes at centro colombo americano-bogotá. they belonged to a b1+ level course in english, aiming at a b2 level in the common european framework of reference for languages (council of europe, 2001). the course was made up of seven students who took their classes monday through friday from 6 am to 8 am. five students were professionals working in fields as varied as engineering, digital technologies, international commerce, and real estate. two students were teenagers who just finished high school and were studying english before enrolling in a university program. participants’ ages ranged from 18 to 35. in this study, there was a control group that was not asked to see the instructional videos before class and an experimental group that was invited to see them; this way, the real effect of flipped classroom videos in the experimental group could be unveiled. students in the experimental group watched five explanatory videos with grammar information that reviewed and elaborated on the grammar boxes that students have in their textbooks. the textbook with which students were working is summit 1 by pearson, and the units and grammar that were considered are repeated and double comparatives (unit 8), transforming parts of speech (unit 8), perfect modals in active and passive voice (unit 9), be supposed to (unit 10), and structures to describe habitual actions in the past (unit 10) our data collection methods were: surveys students filled out the surveys after watching each video and experiencing the lesson to identify if they noticed a benefit in watching the video before the class regarding their speaking time during the lesson and an evaluation of technical aspects of the videos, such as their audio and video quality. the effect of flipped learning on students’ speaking 67 no. 28 final questionnaire students filled out a final questionnaire with their general impressions about the research project, the use of flipped audiovisual materials, and their effect on their learning at the end of the course. field notes the teacher-researcher jotted down his impressions on the development of the lessons that correspond to the flipped grammar explanations. he also took notes about students’ participation and attitudes, the researcher’s perceptions of the lesson’s positive and negative points, class and project outcomes, etc. time control formats a format was designed to track the students’ talking time. the teacher-researcher compared the information from the two groups and contrasted it to see differences in the control and experimental group students’ talking time. the implementation stage lasted less than a month. during the course, the videos were sent to the students via whatsapp so that they could easily access these audiovisual materials from anywhere. in the class that followed a video watching, students had to demonstrate their understanding of the topics and structures in the videos by explaining them briefly to another partner, carrying out checking and review activities, and incorporating the new language into the communicative event for that day. the time control format in the lessons featuring a grammar topic in both the control and the experimental group was also filled out. this quantitative method format focused on taking the time of the class activities, particularly the activities where students talked. this format specified if the interaction was transactional (controlled practice, comparing homework, answering teachers’ questions, etc.) or communicative (free speaking practice, topic discussions, and reporting on communicative outcomes). even though communicative activities are the main aims of this study, transactional language is the first step in preparing for that. transactional language is also communication and can help learners use language for real transactions inside the classroom (kramsh, 1985) javier rojas serrano 68 no. 28 table 2. heading of the class time control format and example. activity/class moment time spent (minutes) student talking time and type of talk (transactional or communicative) activity description and analysis objectives presentation/ warm-up/ homework checking 6:10-6:20 am (10 minutes) 8 min (transactional) students compare their homework and check the meaning of the expressions in ex. a data analysis and findings after completing the class time control formats, the teacher-researcher compared the timing information from the control and the experimental groups. this way, the changes in patterns of increasing or decreasing student talking time between the control and experimental groups could be seen. some bar graphs depicting the student talking time were designed to have a more graphic identification of the information obtained. here is an example of the formats: table 3. students taking time in the control and experimental groups for unit 8, lesson 1. note: student talking time in unit 8, lesson 1: the control group is 55 minutes. experimental group: 70 minutes. student talking time increase: 27% the effect of flipped learning on students’ speaking 69 no. 28 the graphs and data collected through the other data collection tools recurrently suggest that speaking opportunities and options have increased using flipped audiovisual materials. as grammar explanations were flipped and students had the chance to learn the lesson grammar in advance, the time not devoted to grammar explanations in class was used to make students speak more. in all the surveys collected after the lessons where a grammar point was studied, students mentioned that they had spoken more than in the usual classes where grammar was explained in class. in survey #5, for instance, everybody felt they had spoken ‘a lot’ in class. their perception was correct if we consider the graph that shows the comparison between the regular class with grammar explanation included that was carried out in the control group and the experimental group where the grammar explanation had been flipped. the graph representing the grammar topic in unit 10 lesson 1 describes the information obtained from the class time control format filled out in that lesson. the control group spoke for 58 minutes during the class, and the experimental group spoke for 71 minutes, representing an increase of 22% in student talking time. table 4. differences in student talking time between the control group and the experimental group in unit 10, lesson 1 note: student talking time in unit 10, lesson 1. control group: 58 minutes. experimental group: 71 minutes. student talking time increase: 22% in some cases, the increase was as high as 46% as it happened in lesson 3 unit 8 (table 5), where students in the control group spoke for 32 minutes compared to the 47 minutes students said in the experimental group according to the class time control format for this lesson. javier rojas serrano 70 no. 28 table 5. differences in student talking time between the control and experimental groups in unit 8, lesson 3. note: student talking time in unit 8, lesson 2. control group: 32 minutes. experimental group: 47 minutes. student talking time increase: 46% in the five lessons in which we tested the flipped learning strategy, there was an average increase of 25%. in a way, we confirmed neaupane’s (2017) thesis that says that with flipped learning, also called inverted classroom, “teachers and students have more time in class to discuss and try out the things to be learned rather than just sitting and listening to the lectures from the teachers.” (p. 1) the students shared their ideas about why it may have happened. for instance, student b, in the final questionnaire, explained: “when you have already an idea of the topic, you just spent a little time clarifying doubts and you can focus on practice what you already learn” (student b final questionnaire) students c and d also expressed their ideas: “the time that we don’t use learning the grammar in class we use it in speaking.” (student c’s final questionnaire). “we get more information, and we practice with more people.” (student d’s final questionnaire) despite the evident increase in student speaking time, the increase was thought to be higher at the beginning of this study. i got that idea after reading the work of ozdamli & asiksoy (2016), which reported an increase of over 50% in the laboratory activities for a science class, which would be like the communicative activities for a language class. an explanation for this was found after the analysis of the different lessons, in which it was noticed that the more complex or unfamiliar a grammar topic was, the less student talking time increased. in the field notes, it is written down that: “the expressions that were presented in the textbook for this lesson were already known by students (maybe, it’s possible, etc.), the effect of flipped learning on students’ speaking 71 no. 28 except for two or three expressions of certainty (most likely, it’s obvious)” (field notes unit 9 lesson 1) it is hypothesized that students had already gotten some automaticity using these expressions from previous courses, so they did not need to review their meaning or how and when to use them. thornbury (2007), who developed the concept of automaticity, claims that a way to keep closing the gap between what students know and what they can use in interaction is achieved by constant practice and repetition of structures and, especially of prefabricated chunks, linking devices, and other ready-made units that are recurrent in social language. as a result, the familiarity of students with these expressions allowed them to speak more extensively, as is evident in the graph that corresponds to this lesson, where students increased their talking time by 26 % in comparison to the student talking time in the control group: table 6. differences in student talking time between the control and experimental groups in unit 9, lesson 1. note: student talking time in unit 9, lesson 1. control group: 45 minutes. experimental group: 57 minutes. student talking time increase: 26% on the contrary, when a grammar topic was unfamiliar to students (even though students said in the survey that the explanation was clear), the increase in student talking time halted, as it happened in unit 9, lesson 2, in which students studied perfect modals to speculate about the past: javier rojas serrano 72 no. 28 table 7. differences in student talking time between the control and experimental groups in unit 9, lesson 2. note: student talking time in unit 9, lesson 2. control group: 50 minutes. experimental group: 52 minutes. student talking time increase: 4% even though there was an increase in speaking in communicative interactions (accessible speaking), the overall student speaking time increased by 4% in this lesson. in terms of the quality of the interaction, on the other hand, students in the experimental group seemed to have used the structure more manageable and more naturally than the students in the control group: “…however, even though they did not speak way more than the control group, students felt more confident when using the new structure in the communicative activity and just a few corrections were made to a couple students.” (field notes unit 9 lesson 2) a student in the final questionnaire also shared an idea that depicts this idea accurately: “i feel more confident when i know the topic than when i see the topic for the first time.” (student a final questionnaire) the analysis of the data also suggested a set of benefits that flipped videos carry with them different from the purpose they were intended to, that is, the increase in speaking opportunities in class: “i consider that my listening and vocabulary about the topic have been impacted” (student a final questionnaire) student c was more straightforward when asked what other skills had been improved: “listening.” (student c final questionnaire) the fact that the videos had no subtitles helped students continue training their ears to listen and increased their vocabulary range in the examples shown in the videos. however, as it is stated in the field notes, the video explanations had a clear impact on writing as well: “audiovisual materials also boost other kinds of skills, and, in this the effect of flipped learning on students’ speaking 73 no. 28 case, other language skills. students were also more prepared to use the new grammar and vocabulary in their project essays.” (field notes unit 10 lesson 1) this commentary was jotted down in the field notes after the teacher checked students’ final versions of their controversial issue essays, which is the project students in this course had to accomplish. most of them implemented correctly repeated and double comparatives to express trends that are increasing or decreasing (unit 8, lesson 1), perfect modals to speculate about past events (unit 9, lesson 2), and parts of speech to select correct words for the corresponding sentences (unit 8 lesson 3) flipping the grammar explanation was also an opportunity to help students carry out an activity that students in this institution are encouraged to do: class preparation. as a learning routine, students at the centro colombo americano embrace class preparation to be ready for class. the videos helped them go beyond and prepare vocabulary and grammar points for the following class. in the final questionnaire, all students said using videos was beneficial for familiarizing themselves with grammar before the class. student a expressed her point of view: “i feel if you watch the videos before the class, you have two opportunities to understand the topic, and you feel more confident.” (student a final questionnaire) conclusion and pedagogical implications this research study could provide an answer to the research question and help to improve a problematic situation that was observed in the classroom. by considering the analysis of the data and the results, it can be concluded that flipped classroom audiovisual content positively impacts adult students’ talking time and speaking skills in terms of the amount of student talking time in the classroom. it was because asking students to study the grammar rules at home frees up time in class that can be used for more communicative activities through control, semi-control, and free oral activities. additionally, it benefited the quality of interactions because students were able to implement accurately the grammar points studied through flipped learning in their final essays, as it was written down in the field notes taken after grading students’ written work in the experimental group. (field notes unit 10 lesson 1) on the other hand, the flipped audiovisual materials prepared by the teacher were highly appreciated by students, who are experienced technology users. rikhye et al. (2009) call them ‘digital natives’ because they were born among computers and technological tools for learning, which gives them a natural ability to understand how tech tools work. conversely, the teacher-researcher is what the same author calls a ‘digital immigrant’ born and taught before the internet era. in this study, students evaluated the videos as part of the end-of-class surveys that they filled out in terms of javier rojas serrano 74 no. 28 audio and video quality, in which an improvement in the production and edition of the videos was evident: table 8. progression of students’ opinions about the video quality in the surveys video 1 survey video 2 survey video 3 survey video 4 survey video 5 survey unit 8 lesson 1 unit 8 lesson unit 9 lesson 1 unit 9 lesson 2 unit 10 lesson 1 (4 students) (7 students) (6 students) (7 students) (5 students) great quality 3 5 5 6 5 good quality 1 2 1 1 0 poor quality 0 0 0 0 0 on the side of the teacher, thus, this research project was also a learning opportunity, and facing technology became a challenge because it meant much extra work, not only recording videos but also planning them and getting self-trained to make these materials more appealing and practical to students. • apart from the abovementioned ideas, here are some additional conclusions drawn from the study regarding positive aspects as well as challenges when flipping the grammar explanations through videos. • as was highlighted before, other skills different from speaking were also impacted positively. among them, we find writing, vocabulary, and listening, as was evident in the surveys and field notes. • students refined their class preparation skills. in addition to reviewing the previous class, they learned the importance of preparing for the next class to gain confidence in speaking and concentrate on practice. • students found a fun way to deal with typically boring topics such as grammar. grammar explanations are more interesting when they are prepared online, and it impacts their communication skills. furthermore, the task of watching the videos and preparing before class encouraged students to continue learning more by themselves and using technology to be more autonomous. as student a put it in the final questionnaire: “after we finish this course, i plan to review those topics i do not remember very good and find videos to review the grammar. i like to watch videos like the ones that the teacher made.” • students reported changing their schedules and usual routines to watch the videos and, at the same time, continue with their usual study habits (practice topics on a digital platform and carry out project tasks and assignments). this way flipped learning encourages flexibility and open-mindedness, two necessary qualities for modern academic and work environments. the effect of flipped learning on students’ speaking 75 no. 28 • teamwork was also fostered because students worked together to discuss what they understood from the videos and clarified their doubts with the teacher’s help. they also worked together to share applications and online resources to practice english outside the classroom and troubleshoot tech-related problems. they started seeing technology to learn and practice english and not only to be entertained or to communicate with others. student d gave his insight in the final questionnaire: “i think i am going to use technology better, not only to chat with friends and play online games…i think i will see more things about english.” some of the pedagogical challenges that emerged from the study were: • some flipped learning activities may diverge from the academic program principles of the institution. in this case, i tried to plan the videos so that they reflected the inductive teaching of grammar that the institution supports. • teachers must do much extra planning to cope with flipped learning, especially if it involves videos. (flipped learning may also happen through other means.) it requires teachers to think differently, give students information in advance, and plan practice activities for the class. in addition to planning classes differently, teachers must deal with technology and learn new things constantly to make flipped learning work. • when students are not connected with a project like this and do not do their part at home, the teacher may need to explain things again in class and take time away from practical activities. even though it did not happen in the class that was part of this project, some students were more prepared than others because they had followed the suggested activities in the video to the letter or because they watched the videos more than once. in this sense, doing the flipping activities planned by the teacher may even be more important than doing homework or other kinds of assignments because if students do not prepare and study the topic at home, the teacher will have to come up with a plan b for these cases in class (with all the extra planning and execution that it entails), which may delay the lesson plan and may end up taking away even more communicative opportunities than a regular session. to conclude, being this an action research project report, this paper does not intend to provide new and innovative information about a widely discussed pedagogical approach as it is flipped learning but to disseminate actionable input and results of a particular case where a single flipped learning strategy was applied. it reported on how an isolated problematic situation in the classroom was addressed and what steps in collecting and analyzing data were carried out by a concerned teacher to bring about positive change and improvement in his classroom. even though this research study was carried out to solve a problem in a specific situation, and its findings and javier rojas serrano 76 no. 28 results may be generalizable only in relatable scenarios and within specific educational contexts, it is hoped that other teachers experiencing a similar challenge in their pedagogical practice may want to replicate it or develop similar research projects to contrast the results found in this study and continue building knowledge about the application of flipped learning actions to the language class. the effect of flipped learning on students’ speaking 77 no. 28 references burns, a. (1999). collaborative action research for english language teachers. cambridge, england: cambridge university press. bueno-alastuey, m., & galar, i.a. (2017). flipping the efl classroom in a secondary education setting: students’ perceptions and academic performance. filología y didáctica de la lengua, 35-57. cabi, e. (2018). the impact of the flipped classroom model on students’ academic performance. international review of research in open and distributed learning, 19 (3) retrieved from http://www.irrodl.org/index.php/irrodl/article/view/3482/4647 https://doi.org/10.19173/irrodl.v19i3.3482 carr, w., & kemmis, s. (1986). becoming critical: education, knowledge, and action research. london, england: falmer press. council of europe (2001) common european framework of reference for languages: learning, teaching, assessment. cambridge, uk: cambridge university press. godwin-jones, r. (2011). autonomous language learning. language learning technologies., 15 (3) 4–11. kareema, f. (2014). increasing student talk time in the efl classroom: an investigation of teacher talk time and student talk time. conference paper presented at the fourth international symposium of seusl. oluvil, sri lanka. karlsson, g., & janson, s. (2016).the flipped classroom: a model for active student learning. portland, or: portland press limited. kramsh, c. (1985). classroom interaction and discourse options. studies in second language acquisition, p. 7 169-183. https://doi.org/10.1017/s0272263100005350 neaupane, d. (2017).video production for flipped classroom: a guide for teachers. helsinki, finland: helsinki metropolia university of applied linguistics. ozdamli, f., & asiksoy , g. (2016). flipped classroom approach. world journal on educational technology. current issues, 8 (2), 98-105. https://doi.org/10.18844/ wjet.v8i2.640 price, k. (1987). the use of technology: varying the medium in language teaching. in rivers, w. (ed.) interactive language teaching (pp. 155-169) cambridge, england: cambridge university press. javier rojas serrano rikhye, r., cook, s., & berge, z. (2009). digital natives vs. digital immigrants: myth or reality? international journal of instructional technology and distance learning, 6 (2) 3-10. thornbury, s. (2007). how to teach speaking 4th edition. essex, england: longman. authors javier rojas serrano holds a b.an in philology and foreign languages from universidad nacional de colombia and a master in tefl from universidad internacional iberoamericana. he has been an english teacher at centro colombo americano – bogotá for 17 years and has fulfilled different academic roles as a tutor, assistant supervisor, and teacher supervisor. throughout his career, he has been interested in different aspects of english teaching, and as a result, he has published academic articles related to topics such as citizenship in the english classroom, technology, teacher collaboration, flipped learning, and formative assessment. orcid id: https://orcid.org/0009-0007-5067-6390 78 no. 28 the effect of flipped learning on students’ speaking enhancing students’ writing performance through self-regulated learning strategies mejorar el rendimiento de escritura de los estudiantes mediante estrategias de aprendizaje autorregulado zelalem ayalew abate1 abiy yigzaw2 yinager teklesellassie3 bahir dar university, ethiopia 1 zelalema2009@gmail.com 2 abiyyigzaw@yahoo.com 3 yinagertekle61@gmail.com 121 no. 30 gist education and learning research journal. issn 1692-5777. no. 30 (january june, 2025). pp. 121-155. 122 no. 30 abstract the fundamental goal of education is to teach students to become self-regulated learners who actively and efficiently manage their learning processes by deploying self-regulated learning strategies. based on this stance, the present study investigated whether these strategies predicted the writing performance of english major students. eleven students enrolled in the advanced writing skills i course at bahir dar university in the 2024/2025 academic year participated in this study. an interrupted time-series within-group design, by which a single group is measured multiple times both before and after the intervention, was employed. repeated measures of anova, narration, and textual analysis were used to analyze the data obtained from argumentative writing tests, diary entries, and essay excerpts, respectively. a univariate anova results (f(2.295, 50) = 73.657, p < .05, ηp2= .880) revealed a significant effect of selfregulated learning strategies on writing performance. moreover, diary entries indicated that the implementation of these strategies in efl writing was effective in enhancing students’ writing skills. these included organization (introduction, body, conclusion, formulation of thesis sentence), mechanics, grammar, and cohesion. regarding their progress across time, significant improvements in writing skills were observed in the first diary compared to the baseline data. significant progress was also reported in the second diary, surpassing previous records. additionally, textual analysis of the essays supported the finding that students made significant progress in their writing performance after the intervention. the students indeed believed that the instruction on self-regulated learning strategies was motivating, encouraging, commendable, and loving. thus, the instructional process needs to incorporate these strategies along with the micro-analytic protocols. keywords: english major students, instruction, micro-analytic protocols, self-regulated learning strategies, writing performance resumen el objetivo fundamental de la educación es enseñar a los estudiantes a convertirse en aprendices autorregulados que gestionen activa y eficientemente sus procesos de aprendizaje mediante el uso de estrategias de autorregulación. con base en esta perspectiva, el presente estudio investigó si dichas estrategias predecían el desempeño en escritura de estudiantes de la carrera de inglés. participaron once estudiantes matriculados en el curso advanced writing skills i de la universidad de bahir dar en el año académico 2024/2025. se empleó un diseño de series temporales interrumpidas dentro de un solo grupo, en el que se realizaron mediciones múltiples antes y después de la intervención. se usaron medidas repetidas de anova, narración y análisis textual para analizar los datos obtenidos a partir de pruebas de escritura argumentativa, entradas de diario y fragmentos de ensayos, respectivamente. los resultados del anova univariado (f(2.295, 50) = 73.657, p < .05, ηp² = .880) revelaron un efecto significativo de las estrategias de aprendizaje autorregulado sobre el rendimiento en escritura. además, las entradas de diario indicaron que la implementación de estas estrategias en la escritura en inglés como lengua extranjera fue eficaz para mejorar las habilidades de escritura, incluyendo organización (introducción, desarrollo, conclusión, formulación de la tesis), mecánica, gramática y cohesión. en cuanto a su progreso en el tiempo, se observaron mejoras significativas en el primer diario srl strategies instruction 123 no. 30 zelalem ayalew abate, abiy yigzaw and yinager teklesellassie frente a los datos de referencia, y un progreso adicional en el segundo diario. el análisis textual de los ensayos también confirmó que los estudiantes mejoraron significativamente su desempeño en escritura después de la intervención. los estudiantes consideraron que la enseñanza de estrategias de aprendizaje autorregulado fue motivadora, alentadora, encomiable y afectuosa. por lo tanto, el proceso de enseñanza debe incorporar estas estrategias junto con los protocolos microanalíticos. palabras clave: estudiantes de inglés, enseñanza, protocolos microanalíticos, estrategias de autorregulación del aprendizaje, rendimiento en escritura. resumo o objetivo fundamental da educação é ensinar os estudantes a se tornarem aprendizes autorregulados, que gerenciem de forma ativa e eficiente seus processos de aprendizagem por meio do uso de estratégias de autorregulação. com base nessa perspectiva, o presente estudo investigou se essas estratégias prediziam o desempenho em escrita de estudantes do curso de letras com habilitação em inglês. participaram do estudo onze estudantes matriculados na disciplina advanced writing skills i da universidade de bahir dar no ano letivo de 2024/2025. foi utilizado um delineamento de séries temporais interrompidas com um único grupo, no qual os participantes foram avaliados várias vezes antes e depois da intervenção. para analisar os dados obtidos por meio de testes de escrita argumentativa, entradas de diário e trechos de redações, foram utilizadas medidas repetidas de anova, narração e análise textual, respectivamente. os resultados da anova univariada (f(2.295, 50) = 73.657, p < .05, ηp² = .880) revelaram um efeito significativo das estratégias de aprendizagem autorregulada sobre o desempenho em escrita. além disso, as entradas de diário indicaram que a implementação dessas estratégias na escrita em inglês como língua estrangeira foi eficaz para melhorar habilidades de escrita, incluindo organização (introdução, desenvolvimento, conclusão, formulação da tese), mecânica, gramática e coesão. quanto ao progresso ao longo do tempo, foram observadas melhorias significativas no primeiro diário em comparação com os dados de linha de base, e avanços adicionais no segundo diário. a análise textual das redações também confirmou que os estudantes apresentaram progressos significativos no desempenho em escrita após a intervenção. os estudantes consideraram que o ensino de estratégias de aprendizagem autorregulada foi motivador, encorajador, louvável e afetuoso. portanto, o processo de ensino deve incorporar essas estratégias juntamente com os protocolos microanalíticos. palavras-chave: estudantes de licenciatura em inglês, ensino de escrita, protocolos microanalíticos, estratégias de aprendizagem autorregulada, desempenho na produção escrita. 124 no. 30 introduction education enables individuals to take responsibility and independence in their learning. it aims to teach students to become self-regulated learners who actively and efficiently manage their learning processes by deploying various self-regulated learning (srl) strategies (bandura, 1997; essa, 2022; zimmerman, 2002). this is because learning is “not something that can be done for students, rather it is something that is done by them” (zimmerman et al., 1996, p. 22). this explanation underscores the importance of srl, a self-regulatory process that enables learners to transform their mental capabilities into academic skills (zimmerman, 2002), which is crucial for their lifelong learning pursuits (bandura, 1997; dibenedetto, 2018; seli, 2019; zimmerman et al., 1996). srl is an active, cyclical process by which learners set and plan learning goals and monitor, control, and regulate their cognitive, behavioral, and affective or motivational processes toward the attainment of these goals (pintrich, 2000; zimmerman, 1990; zimmerman et al., 1996). a plethora of research indicated that the existence of srl is realized through strategies (goetz et al., 2013; mahmoodi, 2014; sirazieva et al., 2017; su et al., 2018; tomak, 2017; weinstein et al., 2000; yu, 2015; zimmerman, 1986, 1989, 1990; zumbrunn et al., 2011). self-regulatory strategies refer to the actions or techniques students employ to manage and regulate their own cognitive, metacognitive, and motivational processes during writing (zimmerman & risemberg, 1997). such strategies include self-evaluation, goal setting, planning, self-monitoring, time management, environmental structuring, and causal attribution, among others, which can be categorized into cognitive, meta-cognitive, social-behavioral, and motivational strategies (yang et al., 2022). the srl strategies are linked with students’ efl/esl writing. this is because writing depends on high levels of self-regulation (graham & harris, 2000; harris & graham, 2009; harris et al., 2011, 2013; naibaho, 2021; santangelo et al., 2008). describing its connection with srl/strategies, zimmerman and risemberg (1997, p. 73) stated that becoming an “adept writer involves more than knowledge of vocabulary and grammar; it depends on high levels of personal regulation because writing activities are usually self-planned, self-initiated, and self-sustained.” harris et al. (2013) added that writing requires a flexible, goal-directed, and problem-solving process of self-regulation. it has also been contended that no writing takes place unless writing processes are orchestrated with the writers’ personal, environmental, and behavioral self-regulatory processes (graham & harris, 1997, 2000). these explanations showed that efl/esl writing and srl strategies are interconnected. thus, the more students employ selfregulatory strategies, the more significant their writing progress will become (kha & yen, 2022). srl strategies instruction 125 no. 30 in this regard, the instruction of these strategies highly benefits efl/esl learners in promoting their overall learning, particularly in writing. one of the benefits is that it allows learners to minimize writing challenges and increase their academic performance (dembo & eaton, 2000; greene, 2018). the strategies also enable learners to engage in more independent learning efficiently (cleary & zimmerman, 2004; dembo & eaton, 2000; zimmerman, 2002). most significantly, these strategies are believed to achieve the desired academic goals students set at universities (alegre, 2014; rochmah, 2021). sirazieva et al. (2017) emphasized the importance of srl, as it is significant, particularly in the context of higher education. therefore, accessing and utilizing a repertoire of self-regulatory strategies is essential (dembo & eaton, 2000) for effective writing. though the instruction of srl strategies is essential to efl/esl writing, studies revealed that insufficient attention has been given to it (ayele, 2017; nodoushan, 2012; ping & hong, 2021; sirazieva et al., 2017; teng, 2022; zimmerman, 2002; zimmerman et al., 1996; zimmerman & risemberg, 1997). ayele (2017), for example, stated that a very diminutive devotion has been given to srl behaviors. teng (2022) also noted that there has been a limited explicit application of self-regulatory strategies to develop specific skills, such as writing. research has also evidenced that most students were not aware of srl, its processes, and its strategies (matric, 2018; zimmerman & risemberg, 1997). this proposition has also been supported by cleary and zimmerman (2004), who found that students had limited background knowledge about effective strategies and a poor understanding of how to select, evaluate, and adapt them for use accordingly. they have also exhibited poor writing behavioral practices (pajares & schunk, 2002; yulianawati, 2016) and a lack of preemptive planning, as well as low motivation in writing (hammad, 2014). moreover, the findings of several studies at various levels, including tertiary and secondary classes, revealed that students had encountered difficulties while writing (adugna, 2019; assegdew, 2013; dang et al., 2020; hammad, 2014; pajares & schunk, 2002; wale, 2021; yulianawati, 2016; zeleke, 2022). adugna (2019) noted that english teachers either neglected writing lessons or employed a lecture method, resulting in students being unable to write grammatically meaningful sentences. dang et al. (2020), and wale (2021) also highlighted the issue that students at the tertiary level struggle with writing difficulties, including their inability to craft clear thesis statements, present convincing evidence, make clear claims, develop coherent ideas, offer strong refutations, write lexically rich, and grammatically accurate essays. dang et al. (2020) noted that students often write essays without fully understanding their intended audiences. as for assegdew (2013), students were unable to provide stronger refutations for their arguments, even after being exposed to genre-based instruction, and they found writing insuperable. as efl/esl professionals, we have observed students encountering difficulties in writing across various levels. they often zelalem ayalew abate, abiy yigzaw and yinager teklesellassie 126 no. 30 felt anxious and disliked writing activities. to this end, the student’s performance in writing might have been attributed to self-regulatory processes. from the explanations above, it is possible to demonstrate that there was a dearth of studies, yet at the same time, the need to apply srl strategies in the writing context is evident. much has been done beyond writing, particularly to know the extent of the strategies used and identify the most and the least widely used strategies across various disciplines (e.g., aregu, 2013; malpique et al., 2017; mutmainnah, 2022; tran, 2021; yigzaw & fentie, 2013; zarei & hatami, 2012). such studies, however, were not conducted to predict the effects of srl strategies on efl/esl writing. regarding the predictive effect of srl strategies on promoting students’ writing skills or performance, alanazi (2020), and teng and huang (2019) noted that there have been a limited number of studies. yet, within the field of l2, a reliable and comprehensive method of writing strategy instruction that bolsters such thoughtful selection and personalization of strategies has not existed (hammad, 2014). the literature has shown that the majority of research on l2 writing strategies has been observational in nature. at the same time, insufficient attention has been given to examining the effects of strategy-based writing instruction with solid theoretical grounds (teng, 2022). as stated, a limited number of studies (alanazi, 2020; almazloum, 2018; galbraith, 2014; kizilcec et al., 2016; rochmah, 2021; sun & wang, 2020; teng & huang, 2019) have been undertaken to see the predictive effects of srl strategies on writing performance. most of these studies (e.g., sun & wang, 2020; teng & huang, 2019) revealed that the strategies significantly predicted the writing proficiency of students. specifically, almazloum (2018) conducted a quasi-experimental study to investigate the impact of srl on l2 writing and strategy use, finding that students who received srl instruction significantly outperformed those who received regular instruction. this study aligns with the present study in terms of its design and grade level, where it was deployed; however, its purpose remains different. while the findings for most of the studies above were promising, some studies (e.g., galbraith, 2014; kizilcec et al., 2016; pelt, 2008, as cited in emagnaw, 2019) showed that srl strategies did not consistently predict students’ writing performance positively. for example, galbraith (2014) conducted a study to show how self-regulation writing strategies might improve secondary students’ argumentative writing. consequently, no significant difference was found in post-test scores between the treatment and comparison groups. kizilcec et al. (2016) also reported that although most learners evaluated srl strategies as very helpful, the intervention did not improve learning attainment in massive open online courses (mooc). additionally, pelt (2008), as cited in emagnaw (2019), acknowledged that there was no significant relationship between srl and school performance. srl strategies instruction 127 no. 30 regardless of their findings, the above studies deviate from the present study in some ways. first, the strategies employed in these studies differ significantly from those in the current study. second, most of these studies employed cross-cultural, cross-sectional, correlational designs (e.g., rochmah, 2021), observational methods, and quantitative approaches. third, many of these studies were not specifically on the l2 writing performance of university students. fourth, it was also needed to replicate conflicting findings. after all, the methods and settings through which most of these studies were conducted varied from the intended method (i.e., mixed and quasiexperimental) and the setting of the present study. most importantly, although researchers have mentioned various srl strategies, this study has employed the five-step self-regulatory cyclical micro-analytic framework adapted from cleary et al. (2012). although srl is debated as to whether it is domainspecific, general, or both general and domain-specific (aydan, 2025), the present study adopted the assumption of domain-specificity and employed selected srl strategies. the framework was derived from zimmerman’s (2000) cyclical model, which is grounded in social-cognitive theory. this model centers srl as a domain-specific trait, allowing learners to apply specific techniques, including goal-setting, strategic planning, self-monitoring, self-evaluation, and adaptive inference. being informed that no further research has been conducted in this manner (aydan, 2025), especially in the context of writing, the present study employed the aforementioned five srl strategies to enhance students’ writing performance. in conclusion, despite researchers’ attempts to enhance writing through various approaches other than srl strategies, students continue to struggle with writing difficulties in both global and local contexts. furthermore, no additional studies were conducted to investigate the impact of srl strategies on students’ writing performance. such gaps call for a need to have explicit srl strategies instruction. accordingly, the present study attempted to examine whether instruction on self-regulatory strategies boosts students’ argumentative essay writing skills and performance. this is because argumentative writing is one of the most important and demanding genres, especially at the university level (dang et al., 2020). aiming to address the gaps, this study tried to answer the following questions: 1. does instruction in self-regulated learning strategies significantly affect the writing performance of english major students? 2. do students demonstrate daily progress in writing a series of essays? if so, what are the major aspects of the improvement over time? 3. what are the students’ perceptions regarding the impact and effectiveness of self-regulated learning strategies instruction on their writing development? zelalem ayalew abate, abiy yigzaw and yinager teklesellassie 128 no. 30 literature review the concept of sr/srl srl is a multifaceted and intricate concept to define as it emerges from several theoretical perspectives. it involves processes that vary across researchers’ theoretical backgrounds. for instance, cognitivists and constructivists define srl based on covert and overt processes, respectively (zimmerman, 1989, 1990). srl is the process of attaining learning goals through self-regulated thoughts and behaviors (zimmerman et al., 1996; schunk, 1989) and managing, regulating, and guiding students’ cognition, motivation, and behavior (seli, 2019; macklem, 2015; pintrich, 2000; ramírez-velásquez et al., 2025). according to paris and paris (2001), srl, which is the integration of knowledge and willpower, enhances learning autonomy by controlling, monitoring, and regulating actions towards goals. as zimmerman and risemberg (1997) suggest, learning occurs when learners are meta-cognitively, motivationally, and behaviorally active agents who control personal, behavioral, and environmental factors during the learning process. the interplay: how srl affects efl/esl writing? writing is “a socio-cognitive activity which involves skills in planning and drafting as well as knowledge of language, contexts, and audiences” (hyland, 2002, p. 23). describing the multifaceted nature of writing, zimmerman and risemberg (1997, p. 73) stated that becoming an “adept writer involves more than knowledge of vocabulary and grammar; it depends on high levels of personal regulation because writing activities are usually self-planned, self-initiated, and self-sustained.” it is a complex skill that requires a flexible, goal-directed, and problem-solving process of self-regulation (harris et al., 2013). these explanations indicated that srl is crucial in helping learners stay planned, initiated, and sustained in writing activities. self-regulatory strategies in writing encompass the roles of social, motivational, behavioral, and cognitive processes, as writing is more than a literary expression of cognitive skills. it is a social cognitive process wherein writers must communicate with their readers. communicating with readers, in turn, requires multiple processes, such as drafting, transcribing, and revising. a writer may not address such concerns to their readers due to poor writing environments, ineffective writing behavioral practices, low self-efficacy perceptions, and limited engagement in writing development activities. hence, to achieve writing processes and outcomes, srl plays a vital role in reducing the writing complexities mentioned so far (zimmerman & risemberg, 1997). these authors also suggested that self-regulatory processes interact reciprocally during writing via an iterative feedback loop, which is used to monitor the effectiveness srl strategies instruction 129 no. 30 of their self-regulatory strategies. in the srl process, feedback is a key strategy to enhance writers’ writing output. it is a bridge between writing and self-regulation. in conclusion, it has been argued that writing occurs only when writing processes are coordinated with the writers’ personal, environmental, and behavioral selfregulatory processes (graham & harris, 1997, 2000). theoretical framework of the study as highlighted in the introduction, this study was guided by social-cognitive theory for some reasons. first, the social cognitive accounts of self-regulatory strategies and self-beliefs can be used as a vehicle to lessen the challenges of such multifaceted writing self-regulatory processes. second, this theory is well suited for explaining the self-regulation of writing because it emphasizes reciprocal relations between triadic sources of self-regulatory influence (zimmerman & risemberg, 1997). srl, from a social-cognitive perspective, is defined as the attainment of personal writing goals through the planning and adaptation of self-generated thoughts and actions in a cyclical manner (zimmerman, 2000). zimmerman’s (2000) cyclical srl model guided this study particularly. the model comprises three interconnected phases: forethought and planning, performance and doing, and self-reflection (panadero, 2017; zimmerman, 2002). the forethought and planning phase refers to the processes and beliefs that occur before efforts to learn. it is a stage where thinking about upcoming academic tasks, activities, or assignments and planning how to deal with them is involved (wigfield et al., 2011; zimmerman, 2000). it includes task analysis (goal setting and strategic planning) and self-motivation beliefs (e.g., intrinsic interest). the performance phase, which includes self-regulation (e.g., time management) and self-monitoring strategies (e.g., meta-cognitive monitoring), is a stage for monitoring how students are progressing and utilizing several self-regulation strategies to maintain cognitive engagement and motivation to complete the task (panadero, 2017; zimmerman, 2000). in the self-reflection phase, students assess how they have performed the task and make attributions about their success or failure (panadero, 2017). it involves selfjudgment (self-evaluation and causal attribution) and self-reaction (self-satisfaction and adaptive defense). (zimmerman, 2000). the srl strategies vis-à-vis the present study srl strategies have been interchangeably used with srl processes (e.g., bembenutty et al., 2015), skills (e.g., gunes, 2023), behaviors (e.g., ayele, 2017), methods, actions, techniques (zimmerman et al., 2015) as well as components, and activities. however, zelalem ayalew abate, abiy yigzaw and yinager teklesellassie 130 no. 30 these strategies are commonly defined as self-initiated methods or techniques that students use to self-control, self-manage, and self-regulate their own cognitive, metacognitive, and motivational processes, as well as environmental, behavioral, and personal factors during writing (zimmerman & risemberg, 1997). to better understand srl strategies, it is beneficial to ask the following questions: (1) “how cognitive, metacognitive, behavioral, and motivational processes of learning are regulated?” and (2) “how environmental, behavioral, and personal factors in learning are controlled?” it is through srl strategies. while the five-step srl micro-analytic framework (i.e., goal-setting, planning, self-monitoring, self-evaluation, and adaptive inference) was adapted from cleary et al. (2012), the self-regulatory micro-analytic protocols were adapted from nilson (2023). these protocols are prompts or questions asked in each srl strategy or phase regarding a specific task, such as writing performance in this case. hence, under each strategy, specific questions are asked. (see the intervention). when it comes to the concept of each strategy, goal setting is a personal or covert specification of the learning result (zimmerman & risemberg, 1997) and establishing a standard to serve as the aim of one’s actions (schunk, 2001). as for bembenutty et al. (2015), strategic planning involves specifying a strategy for fulfilling a specific task, such as outlining while writing. self-monitoring, often equated with self-observation or selfrecording of various forms of written output, is a method for understanding when one is performing well or not (bembenutty et al., 2015). self-evaluation is not far from selfmonitoring, but it differs from self-monitoring since exterior standards are used during evaluation (harris et al., 2011). when evaluation takes place, students may revise through some processes, such as addition, deletion, substitution, and re-arrangement, so revision depends on self-evaluation (harris et al., 2011; bembenutty et al., 2015). adaptive inference involves adapting or modifying strategies through feedback gained from the self-reflection phase to be used in the next phase (bembenutty et al., 2015). conceptual foundation if students learn writing through srl strategies, they will improve their planning, drafting, transcribing, and revising skills. when students set goals to write argumentative essays, they specify their learning outcomes and pursue selected strategies. pursuing the strategies, they would self-monitor their writing progress. after self-monitoring, they would self-evaluate their performance. from their evaluation, they would adopt new learning options. eventually, the students would attain their writing goals, which can be an indication of improved performance. thus, the central conceptual assumption behind this study is that the five srl strategies are highly intertwined with the writing process, aspects, and/or skills. hence, the strategies are causal attributions of students’ writing performance. applying these strategies, students can be more focused and srl strategies instruction 131 no. 30 endeavor to their optimal potential in order to reach the expected learning outcomes. in sum, the better students utilize these strategies, the better they will become in their writing performance and skills, including organization, development, accuracy, flow of ideas, word power, and mechanical aspects. research methodology the research method and design this study employed mixed methods research. while the quantitative method numerically determined the effect of srl strategies on writing performance, the qualitative one explored students’ writing progress over time and their perceptions regarding the impact and effectiveness of these strategies in instruction. considering this method, an interrupted time-series within-group design, a type of quasiexperimental design, was employed. in this design, a single group is measured multiple times both before and after the intervention. participants of the study this study was conducted at bahir dar university. third-year english language majoring undergraduate regular students were targeted for this study. the participants consisted of eleven students enrolled in the advanced writing skills i course. this sample size accurately reflected the typical class sizes of english majors across universities in ethiopia. moreover, smaller sample sizes may be more appropriately examined using a time-series design, which allows for repeated measurement of the same participants and enables thorough analysis of individual progress over time. the institution and the class were purposely selected because it had a larger sample size compared to other universities around. while the individual participants for the writing test were comprehensively recorded and numbered (student 1 through student 11), the participants for the diary entry and essay excerpts were randomly assigned and pseudonymously identified. data gathering instruments essay writing tests the writing test was one of the data-gathering tools used in this study. it was applied to examine the effect of srl strategies instruction on students’ argumentative writing performance. for this purpose, each student wrote six argumentative essays: three before and three after the intervention. the pre-intervention tests aimed to zelalem ayalew abate, abiy yigzaw and yinager teklesellassie 132 no. 30 assess the students’ baseline essay writing performance, while the post-intervention tests sought to determine whether the implementation of srl strategies brought significant improvements in students’ writing performance. both the pre-tests and post-tests were self-made and validated. regarding the validity of writing topics, a pilot study was conducted, and important lessons were taken. additionally, two efl instructors evaluated the face and content validity of the topics, thoroughly examining the difficulty level, contextual relevance, and structures or styles of the topics. then, the topics were amended accordingly. these argumentative topics included issues such as murder, school uniforms, and online learning. to score the pre-test and post-test results, an analytic writing-scoring rubric for academic essays, adopted from fisne et al. (2022), was used. this scoring rubric involved seven criteria (i.e., organization, content, coherence, cohesion, grammar, vocabulary, and mechanics) and 16 sub-criteria that aim to measure essay writing skills and aspects. the sub-criteria included the title of the essay, introduction, body, conclusion, thesis statement, topic sentence, supporting sentence, appropriate length, topic relevance, idea development, coherence, linking, grammatical accuracy, syntactic complexity, word choice, lexical range, spelling, and punctuation. fisne et al. (2022) noted that this tool is reliable and valid for measuring l2 academic writing performance. they indicated, for example, that it is reliable at ω = .97. the scoring rubric had four bands ranging from four to zero (4 to 0). based on the criteria provided, an l2 instructor was given a brief orientation and marked the tests. when students, for example, showed substantial, adequate, partial, small, or poor writing performance regarding coherence, they were assigned scores of four, three, two, one, and zero, respectively. the exact process was applied to all scoring rubrics. diary entry this study employed diary entry as a second data collection method to triangulate the findings from argumentative writing tests and textual analysis. while all the students noted diary entries, only six students were considered for this purpose. accordingly, two diary entries were collected from each participant: one a week after the srl strategies intervention began and another a week before the intervention was completed. guiding points were provided for diary entries, and the students were made to use the slogan, “i could be the master of my l2 writing.” before the guiding points were employed, they were validated by the two efl instructors, and a pilot study was conducted. after careful consideration of expert feedback and pilot results, the learners’ insights into the effectiveness of the instruction, the writing aspects or skills they improved over time, the difficulties they faced, the srl strategies instruction 133 no. 30 mechanisms they employed, and the feedback they received were suggestive of involvement. while taking diary entries, the students were asked to compare their existing progress with the past. hence, the student’s previous progress in essay writing was compared with the results of the two diary entries. specifically, their background served as a baseline for comparison with the results of the first diary entry. again, the first diary entry results, including their previous experience, served as a baseline for comparison with the second diary entry results and their previous experience. taking this into account, diary entries were collected from (s1), (s2), (s3), (s5), (s9), and (s11). these students were pseudonymously named. excerpts of argumentative writing to triangulate the findings from essay tests and diary entries, two argumentative essay excerpts from each of the four students were kept for textual analysis. each student’s essay written before the intervention was comparatively analyzed and interpreted with their essay after the intervention. for the analysis, rhetorical, linguistic, and related writing features were considered. rhetorical features included structure (introduction, body paragraphs, and conclusion), topic sentences, supporting sentences, thesis sentences, hook, background information, transitions, mechanical issues, and relevance of the content. similarly, linguistic aspects included grammatical accuracy, such as sentence structure, verb tenses, subject-verb agreement, and pronoun use, as well as vocabulary power, including vocabulary diversity, word choice, and the appropriateness of academic language. in other words, students’ essays were evaluated with the seven publicly used rubrics discussed so far. guided by these standards, argumentative essay excerpts from (s1), (s2), (s5), and (s9) were considered for textual analysis. data gathering and intervention procedures while data gathering and intervention procedures were ongoing concurrently, instruction on srl strategies for argumentative essay writing continued specifically for five weeks, starting from the beginning of november, 2024 academic year. the three argumentative essay tests were administered over three weeks, with each test given a week apart. then, the srl strategies intervention was made. during the intervention, diary entries were noted. following the intervention, the three argumentative essay post-tests were administered over a period of three weeks. besides, the essay excerpts were collected. eventually, all the data was organized for analysis. zelalem ayalew abate, abiy yigzaw and yinager teklesellassie 134 no. 30 for the intervention process, the five-step self-regulatory micro-analytic framework, adapted from cleary et al. (2012), was employed. this framework included goalsetting, strategic planning, self-monitoring, self-evaluation, and adaptive inference. each strategy was employed along with the micro-analytic regulatory prompts adapted from nilson (2023). guided by this, the whole intervention procedure is elaborated as follows. first, in the forethought phase, the students were encouraged and abetted to set their own goals concerning their argumentative writing. setting their writing goals, the students were made to probe some questions. these included: what kind of task is this? what is my goal, and how will i know i have reached it? how much time and how many resources will be necessary to write my essay? what do i already know about the topic? second, to pursue their goals, students were asked to select specific strategies, such as reviewing, outlining, and listening to tutors, as well as related techniques, to meet the demands of each writing task. they were also asked questions such as what strategies should i use to write better? what strengths can i bring to the task? how can i compensate for my weaknesses in writing? what might interfere with my writing, and how can i prevent this interference? third, during the performance phase, students were guided to monitor their essay writing through self-monitoring prompts. these prompts included, am i sure i know what i am doing? does my approach to the writing task make sense? am i making good progress toward my writing goal? how focused am i? how well are my strategies working? what changes in approach or strategies should i make, if any? how does what i am learning relate to what i already know? how does it relate to my writing experience or my future? how is my thinking on the topic changing? how much words i use to write an essay on a particular issue? how much errors i make to write an essay? fourth, after monitoring, the students were enthused to self-evaluate and reflect on their performance in writing argumentative essays. this was performed in the selfreflection phase. during the self-evaluation process, students were requested to revise their essays by adding, deleting, substituting, or rearranging ideas. this evaluation process was made based on self-evaluation protocols. such protocols included how well did i achieve my writing goal? what can i recall, and what do i need to review? what were the most important points i learned/improved? what am i still having trouble understanding? what questions do i have to ask my instructor? how has my thinking on the topic changed? which approaches and strategies worked well for my writing? which didn’t? fifth, after the students had evaluated and reflected on their writing performance, they were motivated to inquire about teacher-researcher-led or peer-led written or oral feedback regarding their argumentative essay. the feedback, along with their srl strategies instruction 135 no. 30 reflection, then led them to adaptive inference, one of the self-reflection strategies used to strengthen or preserve the subsequent task. hence, successful strategies were continued, while unsuccessful ones were altered or avoided for the next phase of consideration. accordingly, returning to the forethought phase, each student assessed their performance or underwent a task analysis, which required them to reset or set new goals and plan the task strategically. adaptive inference was applied based on feedback from self-evaluation, and both processes (i.e., adaptive inference and feedback) were integrated throughout the entire process. this process continued cyclically until the students achieved their goal(s) in writing argumentative essays. for instance, when the students were asked to write an argumentative introductory paragraph titled “is killing a murderer immoral,” they specifically set goals, such as writing a clear hook and a thesis statement. setting such goals, they planned specific strategies, such as practicing and asking peers. having specified the strategies, they attempted to write, checking whether they focused on the intended task, writing hook and thesis sentences. afterward, they self-evaluated and self-reflected whether they achieved their goals, writing clear hooks and thesis sentences. feedback has been necessarily provided. this evaluation led them to either preserve or modify their approach and use the inference for the next task. students have rigorously worked on each task they were provided in the material. in sum, each strategy was supported by employing srl micro-analytic prompts. moreover, the cyclical feedback loop encompassed the entire process. based on these assumptions, the intervention process is outlined in fig 1 below: figure 1 intervention procedure of the study note: adapted from cleary et al. (2012) zelalem ayalew abate, abiy yigzaw and yinager teklesellassie 136 no. 30 analysis methods to analyze the quantitative data, both descriptive and inferential statistics were computed. descriptive statistics were calculated to examine the score differences of students across the six writing essay tests over time. particularly, mean and standard deviation were calculated for this purpose. however, these statistics did not allow for drawing any general conclusions that would extend beyond the sample, as fundamental statistical concepts could not be accurately estimated in such statistics. therefore, inferential statistics were sought. in this regard, a repeated measures anova was calculated to determine whether the independent variable (srl strategies instruction) resulted in a significant change in the dependent variable (writing performance) across multiple time points. in other words, the mean scores of the same samples were compared multiple times for each dependent variable, both before and after the application of the independent variable, srl strategies. prior to the analysis and interpretations, preliminary checks were performed to assess some basic assumptions for repeated measures of anova. thus, univariate normality, sphericity, independence of observations, and outliers were checked. indeed, all these assumptions were typically met approximately. to arrive at more accurate and unbiased conclusions, the quantitative data results were triangulated with qualitative ones. these responses were obtained through diary entry reports or reflections and essay excerpts. the data obtained through diary entry reports was better analyzed using narration. textual analysis was also performed to analyze students’ argumentative essay excerpts. results and analysis quantitative results: descriptive and inferential statistics descriptive results the following table shows the mean and standard deviation of students’ writing scores across the six writing tests. srl strategies instruction 137 no. 30 table 1 descriptive statistics mean std. deviation n writing performance pre-test 1 36.0455 5.17675 11 writing performance pre-test 2 35.3818 3.74188 11 writing performance pre-test 3 36.0364 4.07192 11 writing performance post-test 1 49.0364 6.77706 11 writing performance post-test 2 50.0000 6.17770 11 writing performance post-test 3 51.6091 6.24987 11 the descriptive statistics in table 1 exhibit that the mean and standard deviation scores for the participants’ argumentative writing performance varied over time. the mean and standard deviation of students’ writing performance test results before the intervention of srl strategies were (pre-test-1, m = 36.05, sd = 5.18; pre-test-2, m = 35.38, sd = 3.74, and pre-test-3, m = 36.04, sd = 4.07). similarly, the mean and standard deviation of students’ writing performance test results after the intervention were (post-test-1, m = 49.04, sd = 6.78; post-test-2, m = 50.00, sd = 6.18, and posttest-3, m = 51.61, sd = 6.25). these results showed substantial differences between the pre-intervention and post-intervention scores. thus, the findings across time indicated that the students showed writing progress and improved performance due to the specific srl strategies employed. these results, however, did not draw general conclusions. thus, the following inferential statistics were required. inferential results two forms of statistics were calculated for this purpose: univariate tests and pairwise comparisons of repeated measures anova. before these analyses, mauchly’s test of sphericity was checked. table 2 mauchly’s test of sphericity measure: wp epsilon within mauchly’s approx. df sig greenhouse huynh lowersubjects w chi-square -geisser -feldt bound effect . time .083 20.192 14 .139 .459 .603 .200 zelalem ayalew abate, abiy yigzaw and yinager teklesellassie 138 no. 30 mauchly’s test of sphericity is an important assumption to determine the most essential information used in the univariate test. suppose the p-value of mauchly’s test of sphericity is less than the significance value (p ˂ .05). in that case, it is assumed that the sphericity assumption is violated so that adjustment should be made through either greenhouse-geisser or huynh-feldt tests. otherwise, if mauchly’s test is greater than .05, the sphericity assumption is not violated, so the sphericity assumed row is regarded as the most important information. the following table is based on the information provided above. table 3 univariate test: effects of srl strategies instruction on students’ writing performance (wp) source type iii sum df mean f sig. partial of squares square eta squared time sphericity assumed 3458.915 5 691.783 73.657 .000 .880 greenhouse-geisser 3458.915 2.295 1507.305 73.657 .000 .880 huynh-feldt 3458.915 3.016 1146.685 73.657 .000 .880 lower-bound 3458.915 1.000 3458.915 73.657 .000 .880 error sphericity assumed 469.599 50 9.392 (time) greenhouse-geisser 469.599 22.948 20.464 huynh-feldt 469.599 30.164 15.568 lower-bound 469.599 10.000 46.960 based on the sphericity assumed row in table 3, the univariate tests of repeated measures anova (f(5, 50) = 73.657, p = .000, ηp2 = .880) revealed a significant effect of srl strategies on writing performance. the ηp2 = .880 also indicated a larger effect size. this means that 88% of the variance in writing performance was due to the strategies instruction. these findings suggest that instruction on these strategies, combined with micro-analytic prompts, significantly enhanced students’ writing performance. hence, the strategies, namely goal setting, planning, self-monitoring, self-evaluation, and adaptive inference, were found to be effective in the teaching of efl/esl writing. the findings align with or differ from those of some previous studies (see the discussion). the anova results, nevertheless, did not reveal the score variances among all pairs of comparisons. as a result, post hoc analysis of pairwise comparisons of students’ writing scores was computed as follows. srl strategies instruction 139 no. 30 table 4 pairwise comparisons of students’ writing performance (wp) scores measure: wp 95% confidence interval for difference (i) time (j) time mean difference std. error sig.b lower bound upper bound (i-j) 1 2 .664 1.062 .546 -1.702 3.030 3 .009 .682 .990 -1.510 1.528 4 -12.991* 1.461 .000 -16.245 -9.737 5 -13.955* 1.222 .000 -16.678 -11.231 6 -15.564* 1.384 .000 -18.648 -12.480 2 1 -.664 1.062 .546 -3.030 1.702 3 -.655 .807 .436 -2.453 1.143 4 -13.655* 1.783 .000 -17.627 -9.682 5 -14.618* 1.696 .000 -18.397 -10.839 6 -16.227* 1.544 .000 -19.668 -12.786 3 1 -.009 .682 .990 -1.528 1.510 2 .655 .807 .436 -1.143 2.453 4 -13.000* 1.615 .000 -16.597 -9.403 5 -13.964* 1.402 .000 -17.088 -10.840 6 -15.573* 1.386 .000 -18.660 -12.485 4 1 12.991* 1.461 .000 9.737 16.245 2 13.655* 1.783 .000 9.682 17.627 3 13.000* 1.615 .000 9.403 16.597 5 -.964 .970 .344 -3.126 1.198 6 -2.573* .971 .024 -4.736 -.410 5 1 13.955* 1.222 .000 11.231 16.678 2 14.618* 1.696 .000 10.839 18.397 3 13.964* 1.402 .000 10.840 17.088 4 .964 .970 .344 -1.198 3.126 6 -1.609 1.006 .141 -3.850 .631 6 1 15.564* 1.384 .000 12.480 18.648 2 16.227* 1.544 .000 12.786 19.668 3 15.573* 1.386 .000 12.485 18.660 4 2.573* .971 .024 .410 4.736 5 1.609 1.006 .141 -.631 3.850 based on estimated marginal means zelalem ayalew abate, abiy yigzaw and yinager teklesellassie 140 no. 30 *. the mean difference is significant at the .05 level. b. adjustment for multiple comparisons: least significant difference (equivalent to no adjustments). as table 4 shows, a post hoc analysis was conducted to determine the extent of significance between multiple pairs of writing scores across multiple time points. the results of pairwise comparisons between all possible pairs of the within-subjects factor (time) for the dependent variable (writing performance) were presented. the higher negative mean differences presented in the pre-tests indicate that the post-test measures are higher than the pre-test ones. moreover, when the p-value is less than 0.05, it indicates a statistically significant difference; if not, it suggests no significant difference between the two-time points. in this regard, pairwise comparisons revealed that there were significant differences between time level i and time level j, p < .05. in other words, most pairs of comparisons showed that there were significant differences in time 2 (after intervention) than in time 1 (before intervention) (p < .05). however, the differences were variable in each pair both before and after the intervention. specifically, except for the following pairs of pre-tests and post-tests, there were significant differences between all possible pairs of scores: pre-test 1 and pre-test 3, pre-test 2 and pre-test 3, post-test 1 and post-test 2, post-test 1 and post-test 3, and post-test 2 and post-test 3. while the highest difference was between pre-test 2 and post-test 3, indicating that the mean difference was p < .05, with a mean difference of (m = -16.227*), 95% ci (-19.668, -12.786), the least was between pre-test 1 and pre-test 3, indicating that the mean difference was p ˃ .05, with a mean difference of (m = .009), 95% ci (-1.510, 1.528). these findings indicate that the mean scores of students in pairs of different comparisons before and after intervention are closely related. furthermore, the findings revealed that the students’ results after the intervention were significantly higher than their pre-intervention results. hence, it is possible to infer that the intervention of srl strategies positively affected students’ writing performance. to arrive at more concrete and unbiased conclusions, the quantitative data results above were substantiated with qualitative results through diary entries and essay excerpts. the following section presents these results. srl strategies instruction 141 no. 30 qualitative results: diary entry and textual analysis results of students’ diary entries diary entry results showed that srl strategies instruction meaningfully enhanced students’ argumentative writing skills, including organization, cohesion, grammatical accuracy, development, mechanics, and vocabulary knowledge. in the analysis, it was observed that the students possessed different progress across various writing aspects. for example, the one who was relatively better at producing syntactically correct sentences was observed as incapable of organizing and developing ideas to compose essays. in this regard, the results of the first diary entries indicated that various writing skills had improved fairly due to the employment of srl strategies. based on the diary entries, students (s1, s2, and s3) recounted that their syntactical accuracy had improved better than before. the first student (s1) uniquely reported making good progress in organizing his ideas, using grammatically improved expressions, and maintaining the logical flow of ideas in writing argumentative essays. likewise, student (s3) said that he could minimize mechanical and grammatical problems after he had received feedback on the first essay. knowing little in the past, he significantly improved his writing in the last diary entry. student (s2) reported improved grammar and vocabulary practice. student (s1) noted that organization and coherence were his takeaways, so he was able to arrange huge ideas and put them in their logical order. while writing aspects have been fairly enhanced in the first move (diary 1), the second diary data revealed a significant move in argumentative essay writing. four of the students (s1, s2, s3, and s11) reported that while argumentative writing was difficult before, it was not becoming difficult at that time, and it has since shown significant improvement. having provided evidence, student (s1) said, “argumentative writing is not difficult for me … compared with my previous experience, my performance in terms of argumentative writing has been advanced in many ways. the strategies are helpful for monitoring ourselves.” student (s5) added that had been “… difficult or tough to write argumentative essay before, it is not difficult to me now…. it is being improved a lot and very much.” in his words, student (s2) also explained, “it is not difficult. because of the training, it becomes much easier to write argumentative essay.” again, to show the progress he attained, student (s11) noted, “in my very first essays, it was difficult to write my essays. i have not been very careful when i write, but now with the help of the instructor, i can write well-organized essay. … definitely improved ...” as can be seen from the above diary notes, most students improved in several aspects of writing. these included planning, organization (introduction, body, and conclusion), punctuation and capitalization, formulation of thesis sentence, grammar, and cohesion. however, a few students, like (s3), probed that some skills, such as vocabulary and grammar, were not still improving as expected. in short, the results implied that students’ argumentative writing skills had improved significantly in the zelalem ayalew abate, abiy yigzaw and yinager teklesellassie 142 no. 30 first move (diary 1) compared to their previous performance. in contrast, substantial progress was made in the second move (diary 2) compared to their first diaries and previous experiences, due to instruction in srl strategies. in summary, students reported that the strategies helped monitor their learning. they specifically reflected that their writing skills improved due to clear, concise, and initiative-driven lessons, as well as feedback, which enabled students to identify their weaknesses and strengths in the writing process easily. in support of this, students reported that the interventional program was motivating, encouraging, commendable, and loving. to describe how the instruction of srl strategies was essential, student (s9) remarkably reported, “the training, srl strategies instruction, in my opinion, was like a magical guide to make me love writing of all kinds because it was provided clearly and motivationally.” results of textual analysis the results of the textual analysis indicated that the students made significant progress in their writing performance in the post-intervention essay writing compared to the essays they wrote before the intervention. specifically, the students in the postintervention phase have significantly improved their writing performance in terms of organization, including the style of the title, formulation of the hook, background information, thesis statement, structure, coherence, grammar, development, capitalization, and punctuation. however, some ideas or sentences were too long, syntactically incorrect, structurally nonequivalent, and mechanically weak. all in all, the findings of textual analysis are corroborated by the findings of both writing tests and diary entry records. discussion, conclusion, and implications discussion this study examined the impact of srl strategies on the writing performance of efl english majors at a university from a social-cognitive perspective. both the quantitative and qualitative results evidenced that the implementation of srl strategies in efl writing classes was effective in enhancing students’ writing. specifically, the quantitative results indicated that the strategies have significantly improved students’ argumentative writing skills. qualitatively, the results also revealed that students significantly improved their writing during the last diary entry. besides, students believed that their writing progress got improved because of clear, concise, and initiating lessons as well as constructive feedback provided. srl strategies instruction 143 no. 30 in this context, few studies have examined the effects of srl strategies in general and the effects of goal setting, strategic planning, self-monitoring, self-evaluation, and adaptive inference, in particular, in the writing context. while the results of the present study were consistent with those of some previous studies, it was also found that the findings were contradictory to prior research. the findings of this study are convergent with the results of some previous studies that examined the effects of srl strategies instruction on students’ writing and related contexts (alanazi, 2020; almazloum, 2018; mercado, 2021; moos & ringdal, 2012; rochmah, 2021; sun & wang, 2020; teng & huang, 2019; wang, 2023). for example, wang (2023) found that the use of srl writing strategies contributed to the writing performance of efl learners. moos and ringdal (2012) also found that goal-setting, strategic planning, self-monitoring, and adaptive inference all had positive effects on learning outcomes. alanazi (2020) employed two specific strategies, namely text processing and course memory, to understand the effects of srl strategies instruction on students’ writing performance and found a promising prediction of these strategies on improving writing performance. similarly, the results of rochmah’s (2021) correlational study at the college level asserted that srl strategies were moderately correlated with academic writing performance. likewise, similar to the results of the present study, teng and huang (2019) revealed that goal-oriented monitoring and evaluation, motivational self-talk, text processing, planning, interest enhancement, course memory, and emotional control had significant predictive effects on writing proficiency while feedback handling and peer learning were not significant predictors for secondary school students. in addition, goal-oriented monitoring and evaluation have been demonstrated to be the most effective learning strategies in writing. the findings of this study are also in agreement with a study conducted in the context of modular distance learning (mercado, 2021). mercado (2021) found that goal-setting, self-evaluation, and environmental structuring were essential for students’ english success. these findings were consistent with the results obtained from the students’ diary entries in the present study context, where the intervention was found to be motivating, encouraging, commendable, and loving, resulting in students being highly motivated, interested, satisfied, and enjoying the lessons and feedback provided, which showed a positive attitude towards srl strategies-oriented lessons. thus, mercado’s (2021) study was partially similar to this study in two strategies: goalsetting and self-evaluation learning strategies. the findings of the present study exhibit not only convergence but also divergence from the findings of some previous research. for example, arbabi (2013) reported that there was no significant relationship between self-regulation and writing (cited in kamgar & jadidi, 2016). applying a different model, abdollahzadeh (2020) also examined whether metacognitive awareness and srl prompts had an impact on the zelalem ayalew abate, abiy yigzaw and yinager teklesellassie 144 no. 30 argumentative writing performance of iranian graduate tefl learners. the findings showed no significant effect on the learners’ argumentative writing. the two strategies, metacognitive and srl strategies, were applied as distinct features. however, the metacognitive strategies by themselves are part of zimmerman’s (2000) srl cyclical model. indeed, the strategies applied here differed from those employed in the present study, which involved goal-setting, strategic planning, self-monitoring, self-evaluation, and adaptive inference —all of which are metacognitive strategies in nature. selfevaluation, for example, is one of the strategies of srl; however, this author employed it idiosyncratically as a metacognitive strategy. this, in turn, signifies the overlapping and dynamic interaction that exists between the two constructs, metacognitive strategies and srl strategies (lajoie, 2008; nilson, 2023). moreover, the findings of zarei and hatami (2012) in the reading context echo the above findings. having applied four srl strategies —namely, planning, selfchecking, effort, and self-efficacy —they investigated the non-significant effect of the two strategies, planning and self-efficacy, on the intended dependent variables. having used cognitive, meta-cognitive, and motivational strategies, yigzaw and fentie (2013) found no predictive effect of metacognitive strategies, including planning, monitoring, and evaluating on high school students’ reading performance, though cognitive strategies were significant predictors. the findings of the present study were also in contrast with those of a previous study examining how self-regulation writing strategies might improve secondary students’ argumentative writing skills (galbraith, 2014). the results revealed no significant difference in post-test scores between the treatment and comparison groups. in the same vein, kizilcec et al. (2016) reported that although most learners evaluated srl strategies as very helpful, the intervention did not improve learning attainment in massive open online courses (mooc). the findings, which were not significant in the above studies, are consistent with some of the diary entries and textual analysis results of the present study. the findings indicated that some students were observed constructing sentences that were too long, syntactically incorrect, structurally inequivalent, and mechanically poor. dang et al. (2020) also substantiated that students encountered problems with grammar and vocabulary. the pairwise comparison findings also revealed that there were no significant score discrepancies among the post-test results, similar to the pre-test ones, although the increment among the post-test results was higher than the increment among the pre-test results. the differences among all studies may have occurred due to dissimilarities in their purposes, strategies, methods, designs, and settings. the findings, after all, disclosed that the instruction of srl strategies was effective, although this study was not without limitations. one of the limitations was the utilization of a shorter intervention period. this may be attributed to students’ low srl strategies instruction 145 no. 30 performance and progress in writing. moreover, because a small sample size was considered, it may not be easy to generalize to broader contexts. to minimize such influences, expert validation and triangulation were employed, although they may not fully address concerns regarding reliability and generalizability. to address such issues, further studies with a larger sample size and extended intervention time are suggested to replicate the findings in various contexts. in addition, to see the predictive effect of the five srl strategies, rigorous studies with more hands-on interventions could be conducted. conclusion this study aimed to investigate the effect of srl strategies on efl/esl writing. because writing depends on a high level of self-regulation, it requires students to set goals, plan specific strategies, monitor their progress, evaluate their performance, and identify further ways to improve their learning. the assumption was to investigate whether these strategies improved students’ writing skills, including aspects such as organization, grammar, vocabulary, coherence, mechanics, and content. to examine this assumption, a time series design was employed. to gather data, tests, diary entries, and essay excerpts were used. repeated measures of anova, narration, and textual analysis were employed to analyze these data, respectively. the analysis revealed a significant effect of the strategies on students’ writing performance and progress. specifically, univariate anova results (f(2.295, 50) = 73.657, p < .05, ηp2 = .880) revealed a significant effect of these strategies on writing performance. the ηp2 = .880 also indicated a larger effect size. this means that 88% of the variance in writing performance was due to the strategies instruction. in support of this, a test of pairwise comparisons revealed that the scores after the intervention were higher than those before the intervention. students’ writing progress also increased over time. these all implied that the instruction of srl strategies significantly affected students’ writing performance. however, this test did not demonstrate that the specific writing aspects improved as a result of the intervention. these improvements were manifested in the qualitative analysis. accordingly, the diary entry findings revealed significant improvements in students’ writing skills, particularly in terms of organization (introduction, body, conclusion, and formulation of thesis sentences), mechanics, grammar, and cohesion. the students also perceived that they benefited greatly from the instruction, as it was motivating, encouraging, commendable, and loving. similarly, a textual analysis of students’ essay excerpts supported the finding that students demonstrated significant progress in formulating a hook sentence, stating background information, writing a thesis statement, and structuring the whole essay. from the analysis of essay excerpts, zelalem ayalew abate, abiy yigzaw and yinager teklesellassie 146 no. 30 it was also observed that students had improved their skills in terms of arranging and developing ideas smoothly, constructing grammatically correct sentences, and using capitalization and punctuation correctly. thus, it is possible that the intervention of srl strategies had a positive impact on students’ progress in argumentative writing. in conclusion, the instruction of srl strategies had a significant positive impact on students’ writing performance and progress, and students gained a positive insight into the use of these strategies. therefore, this study may shed new insight into efl research by offering a clearer picture of the effects of srl strategies on improving the argumentative writing performance of efl students. implications the findings of this study have several important implications for efl/esl pedagogy, research, and theory. from the pedagogical perspective, the present research was designed to supplement the overarching efl students’ writing skills and reinforce the integration of srl strategies, namely goal-setting, strategic planning, self-monitoring, self-evaluation, and adaptive inference that come into practice after a well-defined task is identified to facilitate students’ learning (cleary et al., 2012). based on the selected task, learning goals are set to encourage learners to work diligently toward achieving the desired outcomes. to successfully attain learning goals, specific strategies would immediately be pinpointed for a particular task. once suitable strategies are identified, they will be applied, and performance will be monitored through regular monitoring prompts. then, a self-evaluation of performance is conducted using established standards, and learners reflect on their learning and performance. through evaluation and reflection, learning difficulties are identified, and this process provides learners with an opportunity to develop new strategies for upcoming tasks prospectively. in addition, the intervention and findings of this research may be indicative of how language skills, including writing, are taught and assessed. students’ performance, based on the srl process, is evaluated by assessing whether the predefined goals are achieved or not. unless their goals are achieved, the students will not come up with the next task, or they will reset that task in the upcoming time. this is because srl, by its very nature, is cyclical (zimmerman, 2000). additionally, based on feedback from their teachers and peers, learners may self-evaluate their performance and learning outcomes. the cyclical process, after all, can impact the whole pedagogy and students’ overall language development. hence, this study suggests the need to integrate such strategies into an efl/esl class. regarding language research, the results of the present study may offer insight into how domain-specific srl strategies utilizing micro-analytic protocols emerge in practical settings. as stated earlier, obtaining a framework about how srl strategies srl strategies instruction 147 no. 30 are conceptualized, selected, sequenced, and applied in real-world and practical contexts looked mystifying. if this is the case, the methodological underpinnings of this research may necessitate that researchers replicate and extend such frameworks to their contexts. thus, the findings of this research may have a paramount influence on the field of language research. as stated, this study contributes to the language literature about how srl strategies are integrated and utilized. to this end, the study findings may not only provide insights into the language literature and theory but also call for further studies and replications across various efl contexts. to realize the above assumptions, teachers are suggested to incorporate these strategies into their instruction so that they can help their students set learning goals, plan specific strategies, monitor their progress, evaluate their performance, and adapt to better alternatives for their prospective learning. curriculum designers and policymakers are also recommended to consider srl strategies. furthermore, authors are suggested to make further investigations. 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(2011). encouraging self-regulated learning in the classroom: a review of the literature. metropolitan educational research consortium (merc), 1–28. srl strategies instruction 155 no. 30 author zelalem ayalew abate is a phd candidate in tefl at bahir dar university. his areas of research interest include the use of self-regulated learning instruction, critical thinking, and self-efficacy. orcid: https://orcid.org/0009-0006-7700-6365 abiy yigzaw (phd) is a full professor in tefl at bahir dar university. his areas of research interest include efl/esl writing and reading, self-regulated language learning, and peer-led learning (pll). orcid: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6232-9002 yinager teklesellassie (phd) is an associate professor in tefl at bahir dar university. his areas of research interest include efl/esl classroom interaction and task-based language teaching. orcid: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8053-4747 zelalem ayalew abate, abiy yigzaw and yinager teklesellassie an investigation of prospective teachers’ reasons for preferring teaching as a profession: turkish context1 una investigación de las razones de los futuros docentes para preferir la enseñanza como una profesión: contexto turco halil i̇brahim kay, murat korucuk2 kafkas university, turkey 1 received: july 29th, 2022 / accepted: november 19th, 2022 2 hikaya75@gmail.com, muratkorucuk@hotmail.com gist education and learning research journal. issn 1692-5777. no. 25 (july december, 2025). pp. 63-86. the effects of pronunciation anxiety and motivation on english’ learners 64 no. 25 abstract the survey model was used in this study, which aimed to reveal the level of differences of pedagogical formation students’ reasons for choosing teaching according to various variables. the universe consisted of approximately 250 pedagogical formation education certificate program students studying at a university in eastern anatolia in turkey in 2022. the sample consists of 158 randomly selected pedagogical formation education certificate program students. the “reasons for choosing teaching as a career scale”, which was developped by lai, chan, ko, and so in 2005 and adapted into turkish by balyer and özcan in 2014, was used as a data collection tool. as a result of the study, it was seen that the level of choosing to teach for internal reasons of pedagogical formation education certificate program students was higher than the level of choice for external reasons and the level of being affected by (others). in addition, it was concluded that the reasons for choosing the teaching profession of pedagogical formation education certificate program students differed according to gender, place of residence, income, order of preference, and education level of parents. keywords: pedagogical formation education certificate program, preferring profession, profession, teacher candidates, teacher training, teaching profession. resumen en este estudio se utilizó el modelo de cribado, que tuvo como objetivo revelar el nivel de las diferencias de las razones de los estudiantes de formación pedagógica para elegir la enseñanza de acuerdo con diversas variables. el universo consistió en aproximadamente 250 estudiantes del programa de certificado de educación en formación pedagógica que estudiaban en una universidad en el este de anatolia en turquía en 2022. la muestra consta de 158 estudiantes del programa de certificado de educación en formación pedagógica seleccionados al azar. la “razones para elegir la enseñanza como escala de carrera”, que fue desarrollada por lai, chan, ko y so en 2005 y adaptada al turco por balyer y özcan en 2014, se utilizó como herramienta de recopilación de datos. como resultado del estudio, se vio que el nivel de elección de enseñar por razones internas de los estudiantes del programa de certificación de educación en formación pedagógica fue más alto que el nivel de elección por razones externas y el nivel de ser afectado por (otros). además, se concluyó que las razones para elegir la profesión docente de los estudiantes del programa de certificado de educación de formación pedagógica diferían según el género, el lugar de residencia, los ingresos, el orden de preferencia y el nivel educativo de los padres. palabras clave: programa de certificado de educación de formación pedagógica, preferencia de profesión, profesión, candidatos a maestro, capacitación de maestros, profesión de enseñanza. prospective teachers’ reasons for preferring the profession kaya and korucuk 65 no. 25 resumo neste estudo foi utilizado o modelo de crivado, que teve como objetivo revelar o nível das diferenças das razões dos estudantes de formação pedagógica para escolher o ensino de acordo com diversas variáveis. o universo consistiu em aproximadamente 250 estudantes do programa de certificado de educação em formação pedagógica que estudavam em uma universidade no leste de anatólia na turquia, em 2022. a amostra consta de 158 estudantes do programa de certificado de educação em formação pedagógica selecionados aleatoriamente. a “razões para escolher o ensino como escala de carreira”, que foi desenvolvida por lai, chan, ko e so em 2005 e adaptada ao turco por balyer e özcan em 2014, foi utilizada como ferramenta de recopilação de dados. como resultado do estudo, observou-se que o nível de escolha de ensinar por razões internas dos estudantes do programa de certificação de educação em formação pedagógica foi mais alto que o nível de escolha por razões externas e o nível de ser afetado por (outros). além disso, concluiu-se que as razões para escolher a profissão docente dos estudantes do programa de certificado de educação de formação pedagógica diferiam de acordo com o gênero, o lugar de residência, os ingressos, a ordem de preferência e o nível educativo dos pais. palavras chave: programa de certificado de educação de formação pedagógica, preferência de profissão, profissão, candidatos a mestre, capacitação de mestres, profissão de ensino. prospective teachers’ reasons for preferring the profession kaya and korucuk 66 no. 25 introduction before starting a profession actively, starting the education of the profession can also be considered as a choice of profession. for example, to have professions such as engineering, medical doctor, military service, clergy, pharmacy, and teaching, it is needed to have the necessary vocational training. the wrong choice of vocational education may cause the individual to turn to the wrong profession. as a result of this situation, a business life with low motivation and thus failure may be caused (çekten, şanal & yeni, 2005; nalçaçı & sökmen, 2016). it can be stated that it is extremely important to make the right vocational education preferences for individuals for preventing these situations. the choice of a profession can be made for internal and external reasons and by being influenced by others (balyer & özcan, 2014, pp.104-105; bastick, 2000). personal factors are effective in choosing a profession made by internal reasons (coulthard & kyriacou, 2002). internal reasons can be mentioned in choosing a profession with internal motivation in line with individual expectations and needs. on the other hand, external reasons are those that exist outside of the individual’s expectations and that the individual chooses a profession despite not being able to associate himself/herself with the profession in question (bursal & burdur, 2016, p.352). generally, economic reasons and working conditions can be effective here (buldur, keskin & börekçi, 2021, p.168). sometimes, other people around the individual can be quite influential in the career choices of individuals. individuals can also choose a profession by being influenced by others (butcher & lewis, 2002). these people, whom individuals are affected by, can usually be parents, teachers, and close friends. orienting an individual to a profession for internal reasons may cause him/her to do his/her job with higher motivation and thus increase his/her professional success (balyer & özcan, 2014, p.104; bruinsma & jansen, 2010; coulthard & kyriacou 2002). as in other professions, choosing the teaching profession for the right reasons can support professional success. for this reason, it is important that teacher candidates who receive teacher education turn to teaching for internal reasons rather than the professional choices they make due to external reasons and being influenced by others (watt & richardson, 2008, p.408). the importance of teaching, which has a history of thousands of years, is better understood today and teaching has become a profession that can be earned after four, five, or six years of higher education, especially in developped countries. considering its contribution to social progress, the teaching profession maintains its importance (nalçaçı & sökmen, 2016, p.718). for this reason, both the teacher training system and the reasons why teacher candidates, who are the subjects of this system, prefer teaching remain important (şişman, 2012). in the related research, it is seen that similar studies are carried out with the students and teachers who receive teacher education, and it has been observed that prospective teachers’ reasons for preferring the profession kaya and korucuk 67 no. 25 the explanatory and current studies conducted with students who have received higher education in a field other than teaching and who receive pedagogical formation education, a certificate given by education faculties for those who want to be teachers in turkey although they get education in non-teaching related fields of other faculties, are insufficient. it is because the program of pedagogical formation is highly discussed in the literature in that the pedagogical formation program created a confusion in teacher training since turkey give training both the students of education faculties and the students who are enrolled in the pedagogical formation program. although the council of higher education has agreed on the idea that these programs are lacking in some aspects such as the practicum opportunities, and content and time allocated for teaching (eraslan & çakıcı, 2011), universities in turkey continued to educate these students to become teachers through pedagogical formation programs. for this reason, this research aims to reveal the reasons for pedagogical formation education certificate program students to choose teaching and to examine the differences in the reasons for choosing teaching according to gender, place of residence, high school, monthly income of the family, and parental education level and preference order variables. as a result of this study, the reasons for pedagogical formation education certificate program students prefer teaching are revealed, and various suggestions are presented to improve teaching and increase the preferability of the profession. therefore, it was deemed necessary to examine the reasons for choosing the teaching profession of the students who received pedagogical formation certificate training. research questions sought to be answered in the study: 1. what are the reasons for preferring teaching (internal, external, being influenced by others?) 2. do the reasons for choosing to teach differ according to gender, place of residence, high school, monthly income of the family, education level of the parents, and the order of preference? methodology research model in this study, it was aimed to obtain data from students who received pedagogical formation education certificate program. since data can be obtained from large populations with data collection tools that have passed the validity-reliability analyses with the survey model (büyüköztürk, 2014, p.2), the survey model was used in this quantitative study. prospective teachers’ reasons for preferring the profession kaya and korucuk 68 no. 25 population and sample the population of the study consisted of approximately 250 students who continue their activities in eastern anatolia in turkey in 2022 and get pedagogical formation education in addition to their undergraduate education (to gain the right to be a teacher). the sample size to be reached in the study formula was calculated as 152 and 182 students were reached using the simple random sampling method, 24 responses to the scale were not taken into consideration because they were filled in incorrectly, and analyzes were carried out with 158 scales at the final stage. the distribution of the sample according to the variables that are the subject of the research is presented in table 1. table 1. distribution of the sample variables n % gender female 118 74.7 male 40 25.3 place of residence city centre 88 55.7 district centre 36 22.8 town-village 34 21.5 high school general high school 39 24.7 anatolian high school 85 53.8 other high schools 34 21.5 family monthly income 0-5.000try 53 33.5 5.001-10.000 try 64 40.5 10.001+ try 41 25.9 mother education level illiterate 39 24.7 primary school 50 31.6 secondary school 37 23.4 high school+ 32 20.3 father education level illiterate 33 20.9 primary school 43 27.2 secondary school 36 22.8 high school+ 46 29.1 order of choice first 98 62.0 second+ 60 38.0 prospective teachers’ reasons for preferring the profession kaya and korucuk 69 no. 25 data collection tool the “reasons for choosing teaching as a career scale-rctcs”, which was developped by lai, chan, ko, and so in 2005 and adapted into turkish by balyer and özcan in 2014, was used as a data collection tool. it consists of 22 items and 3 sub-dimensions (internal causes used as a data collection tool. it consists of 22 items and 3 sub-dimensions (internal causes sub-dimension: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9; external causes sub-dimension: 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17 ; sub-dimensions of affecting others: 18, 19, 20, 21, 22), and the items are in the 5-point likert type of rctcs. the average score ranges obtained in rctcs; 1.00/1.80=very low, 1.81/2.60=low, 2.61/3.40=medium, 3.41/4.20=high, and 4.21/5.00=very high. the fit indices obtained from the confirmatory factor analysis (cfa) results in the adaptation study conducted by bayer and özcan (2014) 1410 pre-service teachers in 8 universities rmr=.10, rmsea=.08, gfi=.90, agfi=.80, nfi=.95, cfi=.92, x2/sd=2.3. the internal consistency coefficient (cronbach’s alpha) values for the reliability analysis were found to be between .76 and .89 in the sub-dimensions. in this study, cfa was applied to test the construct validity of rctcs. the obtained dfa results are presented in the figure. figure 1. rctcs cfa results prospective teachers’ reasons for preferring the profession kaya and korucuk 70 no. 25 as a result of cfa, item factor loads should not be below .30 (harrington, 2009). for this reason, in line with the cfa results of rctcs, items 1, 17, 21, and 22 were removed from the scale, since their item factor loads were below .30, and the analysis process was started. to adapt the fit indices of the rctcs to the reference ranges, the items 2-3, 6-7, 10-15, 11-12, 12-13, and 13-14 were combined as shown in the figure. the fit index data obtained as a result of dfa is; χ2/sd=1.830, tli=.90; gfi=.92; nfi=.90; cfi=.91, rmsea=.07; rmr=.10; shaped was found. these data are within reference ranges according to schermelleh-engel, moosbrugger, and müller (2003) and stevens (2001). in other words, the construct validity of the three-dimensional structure of the rctcs was accepted. the internal consistency coefficient (cronbach’s alpha) calculated for the reliability of the rctcs was found to be .72 for the internal causes sub-dimension; .77 for the external causes sub-dimension; .71 for the affected by others sub-dimension and .79 for the whole of the rctcs. according to kılıç (2016), these data show that rctcs is reliable. data analysis to decide which techniques to use in the tests to be applied in the data analysis process, the normality of the data was checked first. for this reason, first of all, the mode, median, mean values, and graphs (q-q plot, box plot, etc.) of the distribution were examined. then, skewness/kurtosis data and normality test results were evaluated. the normality data for all sub-dimensions of rctcs and all are presented in table 2. table 2. normality data of rctcs rctcs kolmogorov-smirnov shapiro-wilk skewness kurtosis statistics sd p statistics sd p internal reasons .104 158 .043 .969 158 ,041 -.105 -.407 external reasons .087 158 .066 .985 158 ,084 -.185 -.427 influenced by others .100 158 .021 .975 158 ,045 .229 -.328 general .087 158 .085 .990 158 ,348 .269 -.070 when the data in table 2 and the mode, median, mean, and graphs (q-q plot, box plot, etc.) of the distribution were evaluated as a whole, it was assumed that the data were normally distributed and for this reason, parametric techniques (one-way analysis of variance (anova) and independent sample t-test) were used in data analysis. the level of significance in data analysis was .05. prospective teachers’ reasons for preferring the profession kaya and korucuk 71 no. 25 findings the first question of the research was “1. what are the reasons for choosing to teach (internal, external, being influenced by others)?” in order to analyze the scale, the mean (χ ) and standard deviation (sd) values of the scale sub-dimensions and all are given in table 3. table 3. (χ ) and (sd) values of rctcs rctcs n χ ss level internal reasons 158 4.25 .48 very high external reasons 158 3.32 .78 medium influenced by others 158 2.63 1.06 medium general 158 3.62 .50 high as shown in table 3, pedagogical formation education certificate program students’ mean and standard deviation values of the rctcs sub-dimension are ( ( χ =4.25, sd=.48: very high) in the internal reasons sub-dimension, (χ =3.32, sd=.78: moderate) in the external reasons sub-dimension, influence by others subdimension (χ =2.63, sd=.50: moderate) and overall scale (χ =3.62, sd=.50: high). these data reveal that the level of pedagogical formation education certificate program students who choose to teach for internal reasons is higher than the level of external and being influenced by others. the second research question was “2. do the reasons for choosing to teach differ according to gender, place of residence, high school, monthly income of the family, education level of the parents, and the order of preference?” the results of the independent sample t-test and anova performed in the solution of the problem are given in tables 4, 5, and 6. prospective teachers’ reasons for preferring the profession kaya and korucuk 72 no. 25 table 4. independent sample t-test results based on gender and order of preference rctcs variable n χ ss. sd. t p g en de r internal reasons female 118 4.30 .43 156 2.262 .025* male 40 4.10 .56 external reasons female 118 3.36 .78 156 .872 .385 male 40 3.23 .77 influenced by others female 118 2.62 1.08 156 -.089 .929 male 40 2.64 1.01 general female 118 3.65 .50 156 1.454 .148 male 40 3.52 .48 o rd er o f c ho ic e internal reasons first 98 4.28 .48 156 1.043 .298 second+ 60 4.20 .47 external reasons first 98 3.34 .83 156 .311 .756 second+ 60 3.30 .69 influenced by others first 98 2.76 1.02 156 2.038 .043* second+ 60 2.40 1.09 general first 98 3.66 .51 156 1.355 .177 second+ 60 3.55 .47 * p<0,05 level of significance. in table 4, it was seen that there was a statistical difference between the reasons why pedagogical formation education certificate program students preferred teaching and their gender and order of preference for their departments. this difference was in the sub-dimension of internal reasons in the gender variable, and it was observed that there was a difference in favor of female students between male students ( χ =4.10, sd=.56) and female students (χ =4.30, sd=.43). in the order of preference variable, this difference was found in the sub-dimension of being affected by others and between the students whose departments were in the first preference order (χ =2.76, sd=1.02) and the students who were in the second or higher order of preference (χ =2.40, sd=1.09) in favor of the students whose departments were in the first preference order. table 5. anova results based on place of residence, high school, and monthly income prospective teachers’ reasons for preferring the profession kaya and korucuk 73 no. 25 rctcs variable n χ ss. sd. sq. mean f p difference internal reasons city centre (1) 88 4.18 .49 g. i̇çi 155 .22 2.395 .095 ---district centre (2) 36 4.32 .47 town-village (3) 34 4.36 .41 g. ar. 2 .53 external reasons city centre (1) 88 3.15 .75 g i̇çi 155 .57 5.069 .007* 2>1. 3>1district centre (2) 36 3.56 .84 town-village (3) 34 3.52 .68 g. ar. 2 2.89 influenced by others city centre (1) 88 2.52 1.06 g. i̇çi 155 1.12 1.006 .368 ---district centre (2) 36 2.74 .99 town-village (3) 34 2.78 1.13 g. ar. 2 1.13 general city centre (1) 88 3.50 .48 g. i̇çi 155 .23 5.749 .004* 2>1. 3>1district centre (2) 36 3.76 .46 town-village (3) 34 3.77 .50 g. ar. 2 1.33 internal reasons general high school (1) 39 4.36 .49 g. i̇çi 155 .22 2.304 .103 ---anatolian high school (2) 85 4.17 .48 other high schools (3) 34 4.29 .39 g. ar. 2 .51 external reasons general high school (1) 39 3.30 .82 g i̇çi 155 .60 .085 .918 ---anatolian high school (2) 85 3.34 .74 other high schools (3) 34 3.28 .80 g. ar. 2 .05 prospective teachers’ reasons for preferring the profession kaya and korucuk 74 no. 25 influenced by others general high school (1) 39 2.68 1.02 g. i̇çi 155 1.13 .425 .654 ---anatolian high school (2) 85 2.66 1.02 other high schools (3) 34 2.48 1.18 g. ar. 2 .48 general general high school (1) 39 3.67 .51 g. i̇çi 155 .24 .278 .757 ---anatolian high school (2) 85 3.60 .48 other high schools (3) 34 3.60 .50 g. ar. 2 .06 internal reasons 0-5.000try (1) 53 4.09 .48 g. i̇çi 155 .22 2.754 .047* 2>1, 2>3 5.001-10.000 try (2) 64 4.35 .48 10.001+ try (3) 41 4.05 .41 g. ar. 2 .61 external reasons 0-5.000 try (1) 53 3.15 .72 g i̇çi 155 .58 3.254 .041* 2>1, 2>35.001-10.000 try (2) 64 3.50 .75 10.001+ try (3) 41 3.20 .82 g. ar. 2 1.90 influenced by others 0-5.000 try (1) 53 2.73 1.12 g. i̇çi 155 1.13 .492 .612 ---5.001-10.000 try (2) 64 2.60 1.02 10.001+ try (3) 41 2.52 1.04 g. ar. 2 .55 general 0-5.000 try (1) 53 3.44 .48 g. i̇çi 155 .24 2.926 .037* 2>1, 2>35.001-10.000 try (2) 64 3.73 .48 10.001+ try (3) 41 3.43 .50 g. ar. 2 .70 * p<0,05 level of significance. table 5 shows that there are statistically significant differences between the reasons why pedagogical formation education certificate program students prefer teaching and their place of residence and income. tukey test was applied to determine the orientation of the differences within the group. as a result of the tukey test; the first of these differences was in the dimension of external causes in the settlement variable, prospective teachers’ reasons for preferring the profession kaya and korucuk 75 no. 25 and students living in the city centre ( χ =3.15, sd=.75) and the students living in the district centre (χ =3.56, sd=.84) and town-village (χ =3.52, sd=.68) in favor of students living in the district centre and town-village. another difference in the settlement variable belonged to the whole of the rctcs, and similar to the external causes sub-dimension, students living in the city centre (χ =3.50, sd = .48) compared to the district centre (χ =3.76, sd = .46) and town-village (χ = 3.77, sd=.50) were in favor of students living in the district centre and town-village. in the sub-dimension of internal causes in the income variable, students with an average income of 5.001-10.000 try ( =4.35, sd=.48) and 0-5.000 try (χ =4.09, sd=.48) and 10.001+ try (χ =4.05, sd=.41), it was in favor of students with an income of 5.001-10.000 try among students with income. in the sub-dimension of external causes in the income variable, students with an average income of 5.00110.000 try (χ =3.50, sd=.75) and 0-5.000 try (χ =3.15, sd=.72) and 10.001+ try (χ =3.20, sd=.82), it was in favor of students with an income of 5.001-10.000 try among students with income. similar to the sub-dimensions of internal and external causes, the difference reached in the income variable in the whole of rctcs was 5.00110.000 try (χ =3.73, sd=.48), and students with an average income of 0-5.000 try (χ =3.44, sd=.48) and 10.001+ try (χ =3.43, ss=.50) in favor of students with an income of 5.001-10.000 try. there was no significant difference between the reasons why pedagogical formation education certificate program students preferred teaching and the high schools they graduated from. [(finternal reasons(2-155)=2.304, p>.05); (fexternal reasons(2-155)=.085, p>.05); (finfluenced by others(2-155)=.425, p>.05); (fgeneral(2-155)=.278, p>.05)]. prospective teachers’ reasons for preferring the profession kaya and korucuk 76 no. 25 table 6. results of anova-tukey test based on parent education level rctcs variable n χ ss. sd. sq. f p internal reasons illiterate (1) 39 4.36 .46 within groups 154 .21 2.757 .044* 1>3. 4>3 primary school (2) 50 4.20 .45 secondary school (3) 37 4.09 .52 between groups 3 .60 high school+ (4) 32 4.35 .42 external reasons illiterate (1) 39 3.26 .79 within groups 154 .60 .812 .489 --primary school (2) 50 3.22 .87 secondary school (3) 37 3.39 .66 between groups 3 .49 high school+ (4) 32 3.47 .71 influenced by others illiterate (1) 39 2.50 .90 within groups 154 1.16 .512 .675 --primary school (2) 50 2.76 1.29 secondary school (3) 37 2.54 .83 between groups 3 .58 high school+ (4) 32 2.66 1.08 general illiterate (1) 39 3.62 .48 within groups 154 .24 .774 .510 --primary school (2) 50 3.58 .57 secondary school (3) 37 3.56 .44 between groups 3 .19 high school+ (4) 32 3.73 .43 internal reasons illiterate (1) 33 4.24 .56 within groups 154 .23 .188 .904 --primary school (2) 43 4.22 .41 secondary school (3) 36 4.29 .42 between groups 3 .04 high school+ (4) 46 4.23 .50 prospective teachers’ reasons for preferring the profession kaya and korucuk 77 no. 25 external reasons illiterate (1) 33 3.11 .69 within groups 154 .58 2.892 .037* 4>1 primary school (2) 43 3.28 .76 secondary school (3) 36 3.23 .83 between groups 3 1.67 high school+ (4) 46 3.58 .73 influenced by others illiterate (1) 33 2.45 .82 within groups 154 1.11 1.622 .186 --primary school (2) 43 2.87 1.19 secondary school (3) 36 2.41 1.01 between groups 3 1.80 high school+ (4) 46 2.68 1.08 general illiterate (1) 33 3.50 .48 within groups 154 .24 1.413 .241 --primary school (2) 43 3.63 .49 secondary school (3) 36 3.56 .48 between groups 3 .34 high school+ (4) 46 3.72 .51 table 6 shows that there are statistical differences between the reasons why pedagogical formation education certificate program students prefer teaching and their parents’ education levels. tukey test was applied to determine the orientation of the differences within the group. as a result of the tukey test; the first of these differences was in the sub-dimension of internal causes in the mother education level variable. among the students whose mothers were illiterate (χ =4.36, sd=.46) and those with a high school or higher graduation (χ =4.35, sd=.42), and those whose mothers were secondary school graduates (χ =4.09, sd=.52), there were students whose mothers were illiterate and it was observed that there was a difference in favor of students who graduated from high school and above. there was a difference in the sub-dimension of extrinsic causes in the father’s education level variable. it was determined that there was a difference between the students whose mothers graduated from high school or above (χ =3.58, sd=.73) and illiterate students (χ =3.11, sd=.69) in favor of students whose mothers graduated from high school or above. prospective teachers’ reasons for preferring the profession kaya and korucuk 78 no. 25 discussion, conclusion and recommendations the first research question of this study, when the mean and standard deviation values of rctcs are examined in the analyzes made to answer the question “1. what are the reasons for preferring teaching (internal, external, being influenced by others)?”; the internal causes sub-dimension is too high; the sub-dimension of external causes and influence by others was moderate; it was concluded that all of the rctcs were high level. this result revealed that the level of pedagogical formation education certificate program students choosing to teach for internal reasons was higher than the level of choice for external reasons and being influenced by others. based on this finding, it can be stated that the pedagogical formation education certificate program students turn to teach with their own will and intrinsic motivation. the second research question of the study was: “2. do the reasons for choosing to teach differ according to gender, place of residence, high school, monthly income of the family, education level of parents, and order of preference?” it was concluded that there was a significant difference between the reasons why pedagogical formation education certificate program students preferred teaching and their gender, and this difference was in favor of female students in the sub-dimension of internal reasons. this result may reveal that female students tend to become teachers for internal reasons more than male students. it was found that there was a significant difference between the reasons why pedagogical formation education certificate program students prefer teaching and the order of preference in the transition to higher education exams. in the preference order variable, a difference was found in favor of pedagogical formation education certificate program students with the first preference order in the sub-dimension of being affected by others. this result reveals that the level of pedagogical formation education certificate program students who prefer teaching in the first place, being influenced by others, is higher than the students with other preference order. based on this result, it can be stated that the pedagogical formation education certificate program students who prefer teaching in higher education in the first place, being influenced by others, have a higher level of preference for teaching than the students with other preference order. it was concluded that there was a significant difference between the reasons why pedagogical formation education certificate program students preferred teaching and the variable of residence, and this difference was in favor of the students living in the district centre and town-village between the students living in the city centre and the students living in the town centre and town-village in the whole of rctcs with the subdimension of external reasons. based on this result, it can be stated that pedagogical formation education certificate program students living in districts, villages, and towns prefer teaching for internal reasons and in general, are higher than students living in city centres. the findings revealed that there was a significant difference between the reasons why pedagogical formation education certificate program students preferred prospective teachers’ reasons for preferring the profession kaya and korucuk 79 no. 25 teaching and their income. in the income variable, it was concluded that there was a difference in favor of the students with an income of 5.001-10.000 try between the students with an average income of 5.001-10.000try and those with an income of 0-5.000 try and 10.001+ try in all of the internal causes, external reasons and rctcs. this result can reveal that pedagogical formation education certificate program students who have an income of 5.001-10.000 try, which can be expressed as middle-income level with current figures, are higher than students with low income (0-5.000 try) and high income (10.001+ try). there was a significant difference between the reasons why pedagogical formation education certificate program students preferred teaching and their mother’s education levels. it was found that there was a difference in favor of the students. in other words, it was concluded that the pedagogical formation students whose mothers are illiterate and the pedagogical formation students who graduated from high school or higher were more likely to choose teaching due to internal reasons than the students whose mothers were secondary school graduates. there was also a significant difference between the reasons why pedagogical formation education certificate program students preferred teaching and their father’s education levels. in the sub-dimension of external causes, it was concluded that there was a difference between the students whose mothers graduated from high school and above and those who were illiterate, in favor of the students whose mothers graduated from high school or above. this result shows that the pedagogical formation education certificate program students whose fathers were high school graduates or above were more likely to choose to teach for external reasons than those whose fathers were illiterate. in addition to these results, it can be stated that there is no significant difference between the reasons why pedagogical formation education certificate program students prefer teaching and the high schools they graduated from. when the results obtained in this study were evaluated in general, it was seen that the level of pedagogical formation education certificate program students choosing to teach for internal reasons was higher than the level of choice for external reasons and being influenced by others. in other words, it can be stated that the pedagogical formation education certificate program students turn to teach with their own will and intrinsic motivation. in addition, it was found that female pedagogical formation education certificate program students chose to be a teacher for internal reasons higher than males; pedagogical formation students, who were the first choice of teaching, had a higher level of choosing teaching due to external reasons than the students who have second+ preference; pedagogical formation education certificate program students living in districts, villages and towns preferred teaching for internal reasons and generally were higher than students living in provincial centres; it was found that the pedagogical formation education certificate program students with an income of 5.001-10.000 try preferred to be a teacher, higher than the students with an income of 0-5.000 try and 10.001+try; pedagogical formation education certificate prospective teachers’ reasons for preferring the profession kaya and korucuk 80 no. 25 program students whose mothers were illiterate and graduated from high school or above had higher levels of choosing teaching due to internal reasons than students whose mothers were secondary school graduates; pedagogical formation education certificate program students whose fathers graduated from high school or above were higher than students whose fathers were illiterate. it was concluded that there was no significant difference between the reasons why pedagogical formation education certificate program students prefer teaching and the high schools they graduated from. in the examinations and evaluations made in the domestic and foreign literature, it has been understood that there are results consistent with those obtained in this study. the study conducted by özbek, kahyaoğlu, and özgen in 2007, the study conducted by zounhia, chatoupisi, amoutzas, and hatziharistos in 2006, and the study conducted by buldur, keskin, and börekçi in 2021, it was determined that the participants turned to the teaching profession for internal reasons. in the study conducted by yiğit in 2018, it was determined that the professional preferences of teacher candidates were realized for internal reasons, influenced by others, and external reasons, respectively. in the study by bursal and buldur in 2016, the study by bruinsma and jansen in 2010, the study by özsoy, özsoy, özkara and memiş in 2010, the study by özbek, kahyaoğlu and özgen in 2007 and hellsten and pyrtula in 2011, it was seen that the reasons for choosing the teaching profession of female and male teacher candidates differed in favor of women. in the study carried out by türkdoğan in 2014, significant differences were found between the reasons for the professional preferences of the teacher candidates and the gender and education levels of the parents. there are also studies in the literature that have different results from the results obtained in this study. in the study conducted by saban in 2003 and the study conducted by özsoy, özsoy, özkara, and memiş in 2010, it was observed that the participants preferred the teaching profession for external reasons and being influenced by others. in the study conducted by bursal and buldur in 2016, it was determined that the reasons for the professional preferences of the teacher candidates were respectively (in order of importance) being influenced by others, internal and external reasons. in the study conducted by çetin in 2012 it was understood that the participants preferred the teaching profession for external reasons. in the study conducted by the same writers in 2010, no significant difference was found between the reasons for choosing the teaching profession of the participants and their gender, income, and place of residence. in the study conducted by mackenzie in 2013 and the study conducted by övet in 2006, it was found that the career preferences of teacher candidates did not change according to gender; in the study conducted by aydın in 2011, it was seen that the professional preferences of teacher candidates did not differ according to gender, income, and place of residence. based on the studies conducted in turkey and other countries in the literature, it has been seen that the results obtained in this study can be supported by similar studies of national and international nature. however, it can be seen that different prospective teachers’ reasons for preferring the profession kaya and korucuk 81 no. 25 results are obtained from the results obtained in some studies carried out especially in the foreign literature. one of the reasons for achieving different results from the literature in the study can be cited as not collecting data directly from students or teachers receiving teacher education and obtaining data from teacher candidates who get teacher education through pedagogical formation courses (certificate programs) in addition to undergraduate education. suggestions developped in line with the results of the study can be listed as follows: • considering that the professional success achieved due to internal reasons is higher than the professional success achieved due to external reasons and being influenced by others (watt & richardson, 2008, p.424), it can be suggested to switch to teacher selection models in which students who turn to teach due to internal reasons can be chosen in teacher selection. • since it is determined in the study that female pedagogical formation education certificate program students’ level of choosing to teach for internal reasons is higher than that of males, it can be suggested that males’ internal orientation towards teaching should also be supported. • it can be stated that it is thought-provoking that the pedagogical formation education certificate program students, who are the first choice of teaching in the study, have higher levels of choosing teaching due to external reasons than the students who have the second + preference. for this reason, it can be suggested to carry out studies that will enable the students, who are the first choice of teaching, to make these choices due to external reasons, and to make their choices due to internal reasons. • in the study, it was seen that the pedagogical formation education certificate program students with a medium income level of preference for teaching were higher than those of the students with low and high-income level students. for this reason, it can be suggested to investigate the reasons why the lower and upper-income groups have lower levels of choosing teaching as a teacher. • in the study, it was seen that the level of pedagogical formation education certificate program students who live in districts, villages, and towns was higher than the students living in city centres. for this reason, it can be suggested to carry out activities such as seminars and career days to inform the students who will take the university entrance exams in the city centres about the teaching profession. • since the education levels of the parents can affect the level of choosing to be a teacher it can be suggested that students with disadvantaged parents in terms of their parents’ education level should be able to access a deeper guidance service in their career choice. prospective teachers’ reasons for preferring the profession kaya and korucuk 82 no. 25 • it may be recommended to conduct studies examining other demographic variables and differentiation levels that are not covered in this study and to conduct studies examining the relationship or predictiveness between the reasons for choosing teaching and other variables. • this study was conducted with pedagogical formation education certificate program students. it can be suggested to carry out similar studies with students studying at different levels. • in this study, the survey model, one of the quantitative patterns, was used. to reveal more 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(2018). pedagojik formasyon eğitimi alan ortaöğretim öğretmen adaylarının meslek tercih nedenlerinin bazı değişkenlere göre incelenmesi [examination of the reasons for choosing a profession of secondary school teacher candidates receiving pedagogical formation education according to some variables]. (unpublished master thesis). cumhuriyet university, institute of education sciences, sivas. zounhia, k., chatoupis, c., amoutzas, k., & hatziharistos, d. (2006). greek physical education student teachers’ reasons for choosing teaching as a career. studies in physical culture and tourism, 13(2), 99-108. prospective teachers’ reasons for preferring the profession kaya and korucuk authors associate professor halil i̇brahim kaya completed his doctorate in atatürk university, curriculum and instruction. he became an associate professor in the field of curriculum and instruction. he works as an associate professor at kafkas university dede korkut faculty of education. areas of study can be listed as teacher training, curriculum development, and language education. the author has published articles, papers presented at international meetings and book chapters. e-mail: hikaya75@ gmail.com orcid: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2436-2829 doctor murat korucuk completed his doctorate in atatürk university, curriculum and instruction. he is currently working as a doctoral lecturer at kafkas university, sarıkamiş higher school of physical education and sports. his research interests are in the areas of flipped learning model, teacher training, learning theories and scale development. the author has published articles, papers presented at international meetings and book chapters. e-mail: muratkorucuk@hotmail.com orcid: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5147-9865 86 no. 25 how to reference this article: kaya, h. i̇brahim, & korucuk, m. an investigation of prospective teachers’ reasons for preferring teaching as a progression: turkish context: teaching profession, pedagogical formation education certificate program. gist – education and learning research journal, 25. https://doi.org/10.26817/16925777.1504 prospective teachers’ reasons for preferring the profession